A Tricky Deal (1) - 23

"Ding!"

Looking up from my book in my spot behind the counter of my bookstore, I looked at the character that walked in with interest.

"I would like to borrow a book."

"Which one?"

"Lost in the Abyss."

Hearing the code word, I smiled, impressed at how he had found out about my place so quickly.

"How much money are you willing to pay?"

"500 kruge."

"What information do you want?"

"Information on the deal that's about to go down for pier 21."

"There will be two snipers, one of them is being paid 1,000 kruge whilst the other is being paid 800 kruge, you'll have to pay more to learn who is who and I can even tell you about one more, special piece of information." Saying this, I made sure to emphasize the word "special".

"There's no need, have a good day, Curator."

"A good day to you too, Kaz Brekker."

Swinging his signature crow head crane around, he tipped his hat and left my bookstore.

As I watched him go, all I could do was sigh, as I marveled at how cool the author had made Kaz to be.

Well, he was the main character after all, so it was obvious that he would be that cool.

But still, I had to admit I was a little jealous.

Anyways, turning back to my book, I continued to read, as time passed like a bird flying south for the winter.

...

The next day, during my lunch break, I closed down the shop and started walking the streets of Ketterdam, being sure to keep my hands in my coat pockets at all times.

During the walk to my destination, 5 people attempted to pickpocket me, but, of course, with my demonic senses, let's just say that one or two finger went missing after they took their hands out of my pockets.

Throwing the severed fingers into the water, I continued walking until I reached the entrance of a completely white building, the White Rose.

Walking in, I was greeted by the doorboy, who let me pass through without any problems, and so I started walking up the stairs.

Passing by window after window, I admired the singular white roses that had been placed on each windowsill, their appearance articulately manicured, as the white paint made them look ethereal.

After some time appreciating the namesake of the establishment, I headed to the room next to the room where Nina treated her guests, who had come to the brothel just for her services.

Looking through the peepholes in the wall, which were used by prostitutes to watch a situation just to make sure one of their sisters weren't being hurt, or by horny men, who didn't have enough money to hire their own whore, I watched as Nina used her Heartrender powers to treat the man in front of her.

If it was any other person, then they would have been disappointed in the scene that they would see through this peephole, but, I knew that Nina's room didn't even have a bed in it, discouraging all thoughts about that kind of stuff.

Instead, she was known as the foremost psychiatrist type person in the area, helping her customers with their daily problems, one of the rare Grisha that were working in the open, using their services to help others, for a price, of course, nothing was free in Ketterdam.

Anyways, I watched and waited until the man left, his face showing a faint smile as he left, content with his life now, having some worry about his wife resolved or something, but I just took this as my signal to leave the room I was currently in, before entering Nina's room.

"Oh, Akuma, it's nice to see you."

"I'm glad to see that you're doing well too." I replied, whilst taking off my hat and trench coat before hanging them on the coatrack provided.

"So, what brings you here?" She asked, her anticipation building up in her voice.

"I just thought that you'd be bored, so I had to help my only friend with her boredom, right?"

Hearing this, she smiled coquettishly, flapping a hand over her mouth, as if she was take aback by what I had said.

"I feel so special!"

"Whatever." I said, rolling my eyes, as we had engaged in conversations extremely similar to this one over the past year that we had been here.

I mean, I made it a point to visit her at least once a week, sometimes even more, as, again, she was really the only person I could consider a "friend" in this world right now, as I had yet to be able to find Yasu or Kanao.

"So, how you been doing?" I asked, genuinely curious.

"Good, and I made more friends too!"

"Of course, but, you have any "good" friends?" I asked, wanting to know if that connection had been made yet.

"Well, there's this one person that's almost as good of a friend to me as you..." She replied, her voice a little bit shaky, as this would be her first true friend from Ketterdam.

"That's good. You do have a kind heart, so just remember to watch out." I warned, even though I knew that that person was also a good person, well, relatively, if you didn't count all those people that she murdered on a daily basis.

"Yes, I'll keep that in mind. You seem to have forgotten that we were former spies."

"And what did the "former spy" accidentally do?" I retorted, causing her to look away and blush deeply.

"You know I didn't mean to..."

"I know, I was just making fun of you..."

Seeing that the conversation had taken a slightly awkward turn, I walked up to her and sat down next to her, letting her rest her head on my shoulder, something that she did naturally as soon as I was anywhere in her immediate vicinity.

We just sat like that for a little bit more, as I comforted the therapist, letting her ease her own past demons.

It was kind of poetic actually, a demon was helping others release their own demons.

Wrapping my arm around her waist, I puller her in closer, and then leaned my head on hers.

We stayed like that for a few moments, forgetting about the world around us as we pondered the meaning of our unimportant lives.