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  Let's check in on the Machite Twins...

  -x-X-x-

  “… You ever going to stop pouting?”

  “S-Shut up! I’m not pouting!”

  The look Menie Machite receives from her twin in response to that is drier than the Vacuan Desert. It’s obvious Miltia doesn’t believe her even slightly. Despite the difference in their personalities, the two are normally on the same page about most things. They’re as close as can be, and they do everything together, usually.

  Except recently, Menie has been… well, agitated would probably be an understatement. Even she can accept that. Letting out a sigh, the white-dressed Machite Twin drops down onto a couch, tossing her head back.

  “Fine. Maybe I’m pouting. It’s just… there’s nothing. One dead end after another. It’s like they got rid of him entirely or something.”

  “Maybe they did.”

  Miltia’s quiet response draws a look of pure and utter ire from Menie. But the red-dressed Twin just shrugs her shoulders in response.

  “Like you said, it’s weird that we haven’t been able to track him down yet. Almost like the police never got their hands on him. Maybe they didn’t. Maybe he was… taken care of entirely.”

  “D-Don’t say that! There’s no way he’s d-dead! Unless…”

  Suddenly, Menie looks contemptive… and increasingly worried.

  “You don’t think that the crew he went with did something to him, do you? He was the only one of Junior’s men who didn’t have Aura. What if they fucked up in some way? What if they killed him and hid the body by running back and making up that story about being caught?”

  Miltia hums and tilts her head to the side.

  “… It’s possible, I suppose.”

  Leaping to her feet, Menie nods.

  “Then we need to find out for sure. This is a new lead. We’ve been sneaking around investigating the police all this time, when really, we should have been investigating Junior’s Men all along! Let’s go and-!”

  “Machite Twins! The boss wants to see you in his office.”

  Menie and Miltia share a gnce at that, Menie pouting slightly while Miltia just raises an eyebrow again. In the end, they head upstairs all the same, eventually arriving at Junior’s Office and stepping inside. The Valean Crime Boss is sat behind his desk waiting for them, though Menie doesn’t even give him a chance to speak before she races forward.

  “Have you heard anything new about Cole’s whereabouts?”

  Its Junior’s turn to raise an eyebrow, even as he leans back a little at her raised voice.

  “No, Menie. Nothing new about Cole. Our information there remains the same… its like he’s vanished off of the face of Remnant.”

  As Miltia comes up to stand next to her, Menie frowns and nods.

  “We were actually just discussing that. What if it was the men who went with Cole that night? What if they decided they didn’t want to split their cut quite so many ways and decided to prey upon the only Auraless member of the group?”

  Junior pauses at that… before slowly shaking his head.

  “I’m confident that’s not what happened. More likely, Cole took an offer from the Kingdom to relocate in favor of giving them information on us. He was still young and would not have held up good under the pressure that the Kingdom’s Finest can bring to bear on a suspect.”

  Menie squawks at that, while even Miltia frowns at hearing Junior disparage the young man.

  “What?! Don’t be ridiculous! Cole would never turn on us like that! And besides, if he had we would know. The police would be hitting your businesses already!”

  Junior shakes his head.

  “No, I made sure to move things around the moment I heard Cole hadn’t made it back. Anything he knew would no longer be applicable. Hopefully he got a good deal all the same. I really do wish him the best.”

  Growling, Menie smacks her hands down on Junior’s desk. Luckily it’s reinforced, because she’s having a hard time holding back her strength right now.

  “That’s not good enough. We deserve to at least know if he’s dead or alive!”

  Silence falls in the office as Junior stares Menie Machite down. Finally, after a long drawn out pause, Miltia steps forward and grabs her twin by the shoulder, pulling her back away from the desk. Menie huffs as she’s pulled back, but she’s obviously not happy about it. Not happy about any of this. Miltia, meanwhile, is the more reserved and stoic of the two identical woman, just like always.

  “What did you want from us, sir? We were told you needed us for something.”

  Junior stays quiet for a moment longer before sighing and leaning back.

  “It’s rather strange, admittedly. I want you both to know you’re welcome to say ‘no’. But… I received an offer from a certain eccentric. Something that doesn’t really apply to me, all things considered. But it could apply to the two of you.”

  Pulling free of her twin, Menie snarls.

  “Quit beating around the bush. What’s this about an offer?”

  Inclining his head, Junior steeples his hands together in front of him.

  “Essentially… we have someone who has come across a rather unique Sembnce. One that, according to preliminary reports, allows for the user to give permanent increases in Aura to other people.”

  The Machite Twins both freeze up at that, their eyes widening. That was… a game changer to say the least. Even Menie forgets all about Cole for a moment as she leans forward.

  “That sounds amazing. What’s the catch? How much are they trying to charge for that sort of thing?”

  Junior hesitates before naming a number that has both girls furrowing their brow in confusion.

  “… That’s not all that much.”

  Shaking his head, Junior grimaces.

  “That’d be because of the catch. See, in order to get the boost to your Aura, you have to engage in sexual intercourse. The first time provides the rgest boost, but to make it permanent, you need to engage in sexual intercourse with the bearer of this Sembnce a dozen times, minimum.”

  Menie and Miltia blink owlishly at that, exchanging a look between one another before staring back at Junior incredulously.

  “You can’t be serious.”

  Chuckling, Junior shrugs.

  “I’m afraid I am. There’s also one other caveat… if you get pregnant at any point in the process, you’re expected to carry the child to term. If you don’t want it once you’ve given birth, then they’ll take it off your hands. Otherwise… welcome to motherhood.”

  Again, the twins share a look with one another before finally, their noses wrinkle in mutual distaste.

  “Uh yeah, I think we’ll pass Junior.”

  “… Sounds like a scam.”

  Smiling apologetically, Junior just nods and waves them off.

  “Of course girls. I didn’t really think you’d go for it, but I’m expected to at least pass on the offer to people and I didn’t want you feeling left out if you found out ter from another source. The… seller in question isn’t looking to sell outside of Vale yet though, so please be sure to keep this to yourself for the time being?”

  Menie snorts derisively, even as she and Miltia turn and head for the door.

  “Sure Junior. We won’t tell our mother about the ‘amazing Sex Sembnce’. She wouldn’t care anyways, Miltia is right… it pretty much has to be a scam.”

  With that, the twins leave Junior’s Office behind, not being at all gentle about closing the door behind them.

  SLAM!

  Once outside, Menie turns to Miltia and crosses her arms over her chest, scowling furiously.

  “Seriously? Where does he get off trying to get us involved in something like that.”

  Miltia raises an eyebrow, tilting her head to the side.

  “… Once upon a time, you definitely would have jumped at the chance to get stronger, Menie. But I guess even you have standards, huh?”

  Menie squawks, not used to her twin turning that sharp tongue onto her. It made it all the more cutting whenever the woman in red actually did it.

  “H-Hey! I might want to get stronger, but that doesn’t mean I’m willing to do just anything. That was a weird pitch, even for Junior!”

  Pausing briefly, Menie frowns.

  “Uh… should we send word back to Mistral anyways, do you think?”

  Humming, Miltia eventually shakes her head.

  “… No. There’s no way that the offer was legit, so I don’t see why we should. She wants actionable information, not… scams. Plus, if we tell her about it and she actually believes it’s real because we told her about it, she might order us to go through with it anyways.”

  That gets a blink from the twin in white, who bnches a little bit.

  “Shit… you’re probably right. We definitely shouldn’t tell her then.”

  Miltia nods energetically, showing more emotion than she usually does. As they walk away, Menie just ughs.

  “Man, dodged a bullet there, didn’t we? Now… let’s see if we can’t find some of those guys who went with Cole that night and get some new information out of them.”

  “Junior said it wasn’t likely they did anything wrong…”

  “Yeah but he ALSO forgot to order us to drop it. Soooo…”

  “Heh.”

  And with that, the Machite Twins head back downstairs, putting such silly thoughts of fucking for more Aura firmly out of their minds.

  -x-X-x-

  Junior waits until he’s sure they’re gone before slumping in relief. He definitely could have phrased that better. Worded it nicer. And he probably could have sold it to at least one of them if not both of them. But he hadn’t. Why? Because he wasn’t a fucking idiot.

  Ugh. Glynda Goodwitch was proving to be a persistent thorn in Junior’s side ever since he sent that group to try and rob the old, abandoned residence of Beacon’s st Headmaster. But that Ozpin fel had been dead for years, and nobody had bothered protecting his pce for a long time, so Junior had figured it would be alright.

  He’d been wrong. Very, very wrong. And if it weren’t for that Yang chick trashing up his club the same exact night that he’d sent his men over to Ozpin’s pce, he’d probably be even more fucked than he was now. Fortunately, Yang Xiao-Long’s property damage combined with her status as a Beacon Hopeful had given Junior just enough bargaining power with Goodwitch to keep from winding up behind bars.

  The truth was, Junior really didn’t know where the fuck Cole Cobalt was. But that was only because he wasn’t stupid enough to so much as gnce in Beacon’s direction. He knows if he looks there, he’s almost certain to find some hint to the young man’s whereabouts, but part of getting Glynda Goodwitch to back off and leave him alone was agreeing to relinquish all cim to Cole.

  Why? Junior didn’t fucking know why. Cole wasn’t anything special. Or at least, he hadn’t been. Sure, he was a go-getter and probably would have had his Aura unlocked in a short while if he’d kept on his original trajectory through the ranks of Junior’s gang. But shit had gone tits up and Cole had been grabbed by a higher power. That was just the way things worked.

  Still, as already stated, Junior wasn’t stupid. Goodwitch had made a deal with him in which she lets him get away with the attempted burgry of Ozpin’s old residence. In exchange, she’d gotten Cole and he hadn’t raised a stink about Xiao Long’s rampage. Also she’d given him some lien for his troubles, though whether that was to pay for Cole or the damages, Junior didn’t know for sure.

  But then, after all of that was said and done… Goodwitch came back to him weeks ter to offer him this strange deal. She wanted him to find local women in good health that might be interested in getting their Aura increased through sex. Lots of sex, from the sound of things. And those weird-ass requirements regarding any pregnancies… did Goodwitch want the children? Or did she just have a moral objection to the idea of abortion?

  He honestly didn’t know, but he did know one thing… it was too much of a damn coincidence that she would want him to basically give up his weakest employee for some mysterious reason… and then suddenly ‘find’ someone with a… a Sex Sembnce just a little while ter. From the sound of things, Cole Cobalt was doing just fine in Glynda Goodwitch’s care… and maybe even better than fine.

  Still, the st thing Junior needed was for either of the Machite Twins to find out that Cole was not only alive, but still in Vale. That’s why he’d done his level best to not sell either of them on the idea, just in case Goodwitch’s mystery man really was his missing employee.

  It would blow up Junior’s spot if Menie or Miltia took him up on Goodwitch’s offer, only to find out it was Cole all along. No sir, that was not a good idea. He knew he had to let them both know about the option, just in case they heard about it elsewhere ter, but at the same time… the st thing Junior wanted was for them to agree.

  That said, he still needed to find someone else to give Goodwitch’s offer to, someone who might actually go for it. And he even thought he might know some people who would actually be interested in the strange pitch, especially if he worded things right. But first, Junior needed to decide exactly who he was going to reach out to…

  -x-X-x- The Vote (I made my voters choose blind this time, fufufu): [ ] 1 - 18%[ ] 2 - 40%[X] 3 - 41%

  -x-X-x- ?A/N: Please check out my newest daily updating project The Age of Chaos (Original Fantasy) if you have a moment! -x-X-x- If you'd like to read more of my work not seen on this website, check out Hentai-Foundry.com and QuestionableQuesting.com where I have over a thousand stories! If you'd like to contribute to funding my writing at all, check me out on Patreon.com/Cambrian

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