Chapter nineteen - What do you have to offer?

"Ugggh, slow down! Don't swing too much! " Tia was still a little hung over, she put her little face out of the Locke's shirt pocket.

"You shouldn't have been drinking a whole bottle of wine!" Locke replied. 'The bottle was bigger than you!' He thought.

"What happened anyway?"

"You do not remember?" The image of Tia flying after him with a maniac smile, trying to rip his belt off as she shouted 'Where there's a will, there's a way!' crossed his mind and he shuddered. "It's better to forget, but let's avoid alcohol from now on, okay?"

"Okay?" Tia replied confused. "Where are we going?"

"Did you forgot? Hanna's parents asked me to have lunch with them today! "

"Wake me up at mealtime..." Tia went back into his pocket and cuddled up in a fetal position.

Locke was walking through the city center, he was a little nervous, it had been a long time since he had a 'family lunch', he even researched what he should bring to his hosts, due to Tia's newfound behavior when drunk he dismissed the suggestion to take a wine, the last thing he needed was to make the fairy even more sassy, finally he decided to follow all the other suggestions, now he had a bouquet of flowers, a cheesecake and a box of chocolates in hands, the car he called arrived and Locke got in.

"Hey boy! We meet again!" A chubby driver smiled at Locke in the rearview mirror as he started the car.

"What a small world! How are you?" Locke smiled back at the driver, he was the same short, fat man from the night he had met the Raijū.

"I am doing very well, very well! What about you boy? The last time I saw you, you looked a little... toasted... "

"It was a small accident at my... workplace... nothing serious, as you can see, there was not even a scar left" Locke tried to talk it out.

"Well... maybe it looked worse that night, after all, it was dark and everything ... I'm glad you're all right, boy, I was a little worried about not taking you to the hospital..."

Locke was a little worried about the subject, he also didn't like to lie, he noticed a photo stuck on the car's dashboard, it was the photo of the driver hugging a woman and a child.

"Your family?"

"Ah yes! My wife and my daughter! This has been a long time, you know? My little girl is almost a teenager!"

The man started to tell several stories about his daughter while driving, like a typical proud father, Locke listened to each one with a smile on his face, making small comments to show interest, twenty minutes later they were facing Hanna's condo.

"Thank you Omar! Give your family a hug for me!" Locke said goodbye to the driver.

"See you later, boy! Here ..." The driver handed Locke a card "When you need a car you can call me directly!" The driver said goodbye and left.

Locke waved to the car that was disappearing in the distance and entered the condominium, he greeted the security guard at the entrance and gave his name, the security guard let him in and soon he was facing Hanna's house, he rang the doorbell.

"Back here!" Aliyah's voice came from the backyard.

Locke came around and found Aliyah and Joseph, Aliyah was setting a table, "Ah, it's you Locke! I thought it was my boyfriend... Hanna is taking a shower, soon she will be here. " She left the table and took out her cell phone, she typed something and went over to Locke, "let me keep this, I also will put those in the water", she took the cheesecake and chocolates out of Locke's hand, as well as the flowers, she he entered the house leaving Locke and Joseph alone.

"Good morning Mr. Moongraves" Locke greeted him.

Joseph was standing next to the grill, roasting sausages and barbecue, he gave Locke a little nod, he had a black apron tied over his chest with a drawing of two spatulas and a chef's hat, the phrase BORN TO GRILL was written on the chef's hat.

"Do you need help?" Locke asked.

"No," Joseph replied shortly, as he turned a piece of meat over.

Locke was at a loss as to what to do, he looked around like a lost child. Joseph watched him out of the corner of his eye, he sighed and asked, "Do you want a beer?"

"Yes!" Locke smiled.

Joseph took two beers from a blue cooler filled with ice and gave one to Locke, he opened his and started drinking.

"This is my first beer" Locke took a sip, it didn't taste like he expected it, it wasn't bad, just different than he expected, it was quite refreshing anyways. "Thank you" Locke thanked him.

"You come early!" Hanna's voice came from behind Locke.

Locke turned to the girl, she was dressed in a white sundress, slightly out of touch with her ordinary style, her black hair was loose and her skin was still slightly wet from the bath.

"You look beautiful" Locke commented, without even thinking he went to her, they were almost kissing when Joseph cleared his throat, bringing both of them back to reality.

"Stop being boring, dad!" Aliyah's voice sneered "Let the youngs have some fun!", She was arm in arm with a man.

"Little Hanhan! I heard you got a boyfriend! It was time, girl!" the man greeted Hanna with a fraternal hug, he held out his hand to Locke. "I am David Nessman."

Locke accepted the length with a smile. "Locke Driscoll"

David let Locke's hand go and began to analyze his figure. "Say Locke, have you thought about pursuing a modeling career?"

Before Locke can answer, Aliyah cut the subject short. "David! What did I tell you! No work during family lunches! It is not enough you disturbing my sister all time to be one of your models?, now you are going to disturb her boyfriend too? "

"Sorry, sweetie!" David apologized, he covertly put a card in Locke's hands and said quietly, "Get in touch!"

Locke analyzed the card, Nessman's model agency, out of politeness he kept the card in his wallet.

"Come Locke" Hanna grabbed Locke by the arm and sat with him at the table.

"Where is your mom?" Locke asked.

"She's on her way" Hanna replied "Apparently something happened at her the police station and she had to be there in a hurry, but she said she was coming back soon..."

Joseph put a plate of roasted pork ribs on the table. David stepped forward towards the plate. "Hell Yeah! Thanks, Pap!"

Joseph ignored David and went back to the barbecue, Hanna took some for herself and Locke.

Locke sneaked his hand up to his shirt pocket and gave two light touches, waking Tia. The fairy put her face out of her pocket. "food time? WOW! Goth chick looks nice!" she floated around Hanna, invisible to everyone "Um, she smells nice too..."

Locke ignored the fairy, she flew towards the place where Joseph piled the roasted barbecue meat and started to help herself.

"So, where did you meet?" David brought up the subject.

"We went to the same college," Hanna replied.

"And what do you study, Locke?" He continued.

"Computer science" Locke replied.

"It was Locke who helped me with that problem," Aliyah added.

"Whoa man, so I owe youa big one!" David replied, "That case almost brought my agency down! You see, my sweetie here is my biggest star! We need someone like you, you know, it's always good to have someone who understands technology!"

"Too late David!" Azalea's voice sounded, "He's already decided to be our consultant in the police!" She kissed Joseph on the cheek and sat down with everyone at the table. "Besides, don't you think his gifts would be more useful in fighting crime than cleaning some models' bars?"

"You took a little while, dear, was it serious?" Joseph asked.

"Nonsense with some feds, they took a case from us, but they didn't get any new leads, and now they're putting pressure on us to see if they can get anything else." Azalea sighed "I spent half an hour trying to convince them that I had already given them all the clues we had."

"Hey! What happened to the rule of not discussing work at family lunch?!? " Aliyah shouted.

Azalea apologized and the conversations soon took a banal course, Joseph's barbecue was delicious, and everyone was having fun.

Joseph found strange that sometimes a tray he was sure he had filled was completely empty, but he didn't care and blamed his own memory.

"What do your parents work on, Locke?" David asked at one point, the cheerful tone of the table cooled.

"David!" Aliyah fought.

"What?" David did not understand everyone's reaction.

"It's all right!" Locke smiled to show that he didn't mind, "I'm an orphan David, my mother died when I was ten and my father... died sometime later, I stayed with my grandparents for a while, but they also passed away during the my adolescence, I was not put in the system because I was not so far from legal age."

"Ou... I'm sorry man ..."

"Don't worry, I have everything I need!" Locke put his hand over Hanna's hand, she linked her fingers with him.

It didn't take long for the conversation to get lively again. Tia ate until she was round and then crawled back into Locke's pocket.

After dessert Locke offered to help Hanna with the dishes, they took the opportunity to exchange kisses alone in the kitchen.

When it was late in the afternoon Locke left the Moongraves family with David, David offered him a ride home, but Locke used an excuse to be droped off at the center.

Locke returned to the poor suburb on foot.

"I think I should change my apartment" Locke blurted out.

"It would be a good idea, our current place is... rubbish!" Tia replied.

'Maybe a place near the college.' Locke thought, 'Now I can afford it, after all.'

"Shall we go out hunting tonight?" Tia asked.

Locke sat on his old sofa and opened the system screen, the battle against the gang had boosted his level absurdly, so much so that he almost reached level twenty, missing a very small amount for it.

He thought he would reach level twenty with Sean's death, but Sean gave him just a little more experience than a hunter estirge, nothing like the other humans had given him.

Locke spent a lot of time trying to understand the reason for this difference when he had an idea, he analyzed the data he had and created a hypothesis.

When he killed the serial killer, the amount of experience he received was high, when he killed the nasty men who was sent to kidnap Hanna, the amount was even greater, when he killed the criminals at the bar, the amount of experience varied, Sean gave the lowest amount and that was weird.

Sean couldn't be considered weak, well, not for a human. Locke was sure that if he put Sean to fight head-to-head with some of the guys at the bar, no weapons, Sean would win.

Locke's hypothesis is that the experience represented how much those people had already killed, so murderers gave a larger amount because they had killed a lot of people.

Of course, this was just a theory, when he questioned Tia she said that if he wanted to know, go increase his level of authority over the system.

The problem was that Locke had no idea how to increase the system's authority, but there was nothing he could do at the moment, so he went to rest until night.

The night was time to hunt.

***

"Damn, another dead end!" Agent Durand complained. "The few residues of magic are unlike anything we have cataloged in the system! What the hell is this thing?"

She and Agent Garrard were at the bar where Locke had killed the criminals, they used a pair of strange paraphernalia to probe the environment, two small sensors too advanced. "What do we do now, Garrard? We have no clues! No visual story beyond the video! None legend in the area that mentions this creature! And we cannot interrogate the soulless dead's! Madame Barthe refuses to help and Moongraves says she doesn't know anything else! What do we do?"

"Hellhound?" Agent Garrard replied.

Durand stopped. "Can work..." she continued "If we expose them to the remnants of mana they can track the creature... But I see no way for the Bureau to allow it..."

"Maybe I can help" a man's voice startled the two agents, who quickly pulled out their guns and pointed to the source of the voice.

"You? What are you doing here?" Durand shouted.

The origin of the voice was a strange figure, he was a middle-aged man, he had a gray mustache on his wrinkled face, dressed like a nobleman from the past, his clothes were exaggerated and full of details, he had a huge black top hat with a feather white at the top of his head covering his gray hair, jeweled rings on all fingers, a jeweled cane in his hands and had a gold monocle over his left eye, he looked like someone lost in the wrong century.

"Business of course! I can give you a Hellhoud, here and now, without you having to go through all the work and bureaucracy of your little group." The figure replied.

"And what do you want in return, Merchant?" Durand responded with a slant of contempt, almost spitting on the last word

The figure broke into a frightening smile full of sharp teeth.

"What do you have to offer?"