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Derrick went silent and gave Amalia a long, doubtful look. The purple-haired man sighed and then changed to a lighter expression. "Hahah! I see, I see. My partner's got a penchant for getting mixed up with trouble people, I'll give you that..."
He paused and turned to reminesce, looking back towards the small building meant to supply this post.
"The tattoos and scar come from a part of his past he's left behind and buried. It took a lot of effort for him to cut those ties, and he hasn't had anything to do with them since. It would be best to keep it that way."
Back to Amalia, he crossed his arms and spoke almost apologetically.
"That's exactly why you need to give me a good reason not to send you away if you're trying to stir something up with him. Why do you think he's in danger?"

Larisa followed along behind the others quietly, shaken by how their investigation was going. The way Niklaus had spoken to them, dismissing their concerns and harshly misjudging their motivations, had thrown her so far off base she hadn't even known how to react. If she'd been there alone, that would have been the end of it and they wouldn't have achieved anything. She'd have left with tears in her eyes, not fired back the way Amalia had. She'd been appalled at the time, but now she just felt useless and more than a little betrayed by the fact that her chosen branch could be so uncaring about this terrible situation.

Sighing heavily, the blonde glanced up to tune back into their newest source of information. Would this Garrison soldier be more willing to help? Jeong had kept his questions basic, probably to avoid the level of backlash they'd gotten from Niklaus, but she wondered what he would say if they admitted they were trying to help with the missing children. What if it prompted him to share more instead, what if it would make him remember something else he'd seen on patrol, or maybe- Her eyes widened. Friedval had scars and tattoos like that?

The trainee gasped despite herself, realizing what that might mean. Amalia was pushing on with a cover story about the man being in danger and Larisa wasn't sure Derrick was believing it at all, but she needed to help somehow. Even if it had suddenly become so hard to trust in the soldiers of this district, she wanted to believe, just for a few minutes more, that Derrick really was concerned for a friend and not covering for an accomplice. And if he was, maybe he would respond more to a softer response.

"Please, Sir, the sorts of things they were saying..." Larisa was nervous, but maybe the shakiness of her voice would sell her worry. "We just want to check in with him to be sure he's alright. I couldn't bear it if something had happened that we might have been able to prevent."

Mythee

[ knocking on the door of the supply building with hwan ; backing hwan up ]

'Scars from a past left behind...' Jeong listened to Derrick with a pensive expression, shutting up and letting Amalia take over from here. She'd given them the most new information last time and seemed to have a good handle on how to lie, something he appreciated in an ally. A smooth talker himself, he tended to stay from her louder style for himself but appreciated it none the less. It was good to see a woman not intimidated by the superiors around here too.

"Yeah, we'll be right back." Following Hwan to the supply building, he wondered if Friedval was hiding inside. It sounded like someone was lying about the night time activities around here and if Friedval had really turned over a new leaf from his possible past involvement- he might just be the person finally willing to tell them some information. They were still going blindly around without any clues to connect and it was hard to try and think up anything they could do to help. This Friedval guy was their second to last lead and he really hoped it would pay off.

They still had no clue where Saga had ridden off to, after all.

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Mythee

KitsuneAura

Yamashii

Qixel

Noticing too late that the twins had walked off to the supply building, Derrick turned towards them in a hurry- but in vain, for he struggled to find the words for this situation. Finally, his shoulders slumped. "Aw, man..."

It wasn't hard to figure out that the two Garrison partners were close as brothers, from the way they would talk about each other- so indeed, it isn't difficult to envision that one of them might be covering for the other. When the knocks were met with nothing but silence, Derrick trod up to the supply building and turned the handle. In a deliberately silent motion, he held the door open for the trainees, annoyed. "Fine. You want to look? Go ahead and look all you want."

Inside, there were stacked wooden boxes, against the walls, and tin buckets full of tools gleaming in the dim sunbeams filtering through marred windows. Heavy dust hung in the air.

There was a paper note folded on one of the boxes. For anyone who picks it up, it read:

"Dear Derrick,
I had a big fight with my girlfriend last night...
I'm just not up for work today. You really wouldn't want to see me like this.
Help a friend out, alright? Don't let anyone know I'm skipping my shift.
Not like anybody ever comes to our post, it should be easy.
I'm gonna spend the day soul searching.
See you later. Don't miss me!"

Amalia's eye twitched as Derrick easily saw through her subterfuge. Just as well, she thought, this lying s**t isn't for me. Balling her fists, she glared at the garrison soldier. "You want the truth? Fine. Truth is, I think your partner is involved in a kidnapping ring and I want to kick his a** if he is. Truth is, there's a little girl whose friends are all going missing, and not a single ******** person in this town seems to give a s**t. Truth is, I think that the garrison might even be covering this s**t up, and I want some <********> answers!"

Her fists shook with fury at her sides as her voice rose with each sentence. At the end of it, she was nearly yelling, a rage completely overtaking her. In that moment, she didn't even care what would happen to her. All that mattered was Roxy and her friends. Everything else was secondary.

Derrick crossed his arms as the trainees read the note left on the table, expecting them to be satisfied and leave him be for the rest of today- but no, it seemed they still had a lot to ask about. Since they were so hell-bent on investigating his friend, however, the tall man's curiosity had been piqued and he listened with interest to what Jeong had to say.

"Hey, a lot can happen in the early hours of the morning. He lived at his girlfriend's, after all." He offered, tilting his head. It did occur to him that it was an odd hour for a big argument, though.

Amalia's outburst had him wincing. Ouch. But his eyes also widened at that admission about the kidnappings. So, these children really were investigating, and not just trying to mess with his friend... Still, it wasn't any reason for these two to take it out on him. Well, all right, maybe he deserved these pangs of pain in his heart. He felt guilty enough to decide to help them out, whether or not a scary girl with a scar was yelling at him and a pigtailed one was making threats. He was thankful, even. He finally had someone to talk to.

Derrick attempted a pacifying smile, holding up his hands in a casual motion. "There, there, that is no language for a lady. And hey, don't do that, I don't know what Friedval might do to me if he gets punished because I couldn't cover for him against a bunch of kids... but," he paced into the room, joining the others, and looked at all of them with a determined expression. "-I admire people like you. And something has been bothering me as well. You want the truth?"

There was a kind of thrill to setting out for a cause, and so the Garrison soldier's voice dripped with anticipation as he placed his hands on the table and leaned forward. "Friedval's been skipping more and more frequently of late, always with his girlfriend as an excuse... and with only one night guard on patrol, you can imagine..."

He stopped, struggling to meet the gazes of the trainees. As if being suffocated by what he was saying, he picked up again, less steadily. "Well, you... can imagine all of the blind spots that open up." He sighed, staring into the table. "Ever since I heard about the kidnappings, I couldn't help but feel at fault. Most of us think they're just lies made up by poor children, but imagine if they were real? Then wouldn't the kidnappings have escaped our notice by taking advantage of the gaps created by faulty surveillance?"

After remaining silent for a few seconds, he broke into a grin and chuckled with embarrassment at having unloaded all of that just now. "Honestly, what is this place, a confession booth? Well, kids, I agree that Fred needs to be spoken to. However, I can't leave this post and don't know where he is. His girlfriend is your best lead. I met her a couple times, but they always seemed to be getting along fine. Here," Producing a pencil from his coat, he scribbled a map on the piece of paper left by Friedval and marked it with an X. "It's a wood cabin north of the dingy little bakery a couple streets away. You're looking for Matia."

Amalia seethed quietly Derrick spoke. At Larisa's touch, the green haired girl nodded quietly and turned to leave, but not before flipping Derrick off. ******** him.

At the cabin, Amalia crossed her arms, still angry, but not as much as the walk over had given her time to cool off. For now, she simply waited, although a small part of her wanted to just kick the door down.