Strongest Nova: Path of Vengeance

Chapter 56: Tracking

Stanley arrived outside to check for any signs of footsteps, only to realize that most of the ground was actually covered in grass with only a few stepping stones to help them walk to the cow shed and to the water tap.

’There’s nothing to check here,’ he thought in disappointment and turned around to leave.

"Hey, what’s wrong with her?" Freddy asked.

Stanley turned to see what Freddy was talking about and saw the cow that was lying down in its shed. It was struggling to take breaths and barely had its eyes opened.

"What’s wrong with it?" Stanley asked. He wasn’t used to seeing cows, only chickens, and pigs. Cows were something that dulls never got to raise after all.

"She looks ill," Freddy explained. "She isn’t scared with two new people in the backyard, so she must be occupied by some other reason."

"We don’t know," the father said with a surprised look. "We gave the cow that bucket full of water to drink the first thing this morning, but she hasn’t even taken a single sip."

"You should take care of your cow while we find your child," Freddy said. "Stanley, let’s go sear— Stanley?"

Stanley had noticed something and was moving towards the shed. He went past the cow and into the shed. The stench of the shed didn’t deter him at all. The pigs smelled way worse than this anyway.

"You said you didn’t come here today, right?" Stanley asked.

"There? No, we haven’t gone there today," the father said again.

"There are footsteps here," Stanley said. "Can you tell whether these fit your daughter’s feet or not?"

"Footsteps?" the three of them were surprised and had to go check.

"Aah! Those are Bella’s footsteps!" the mother shouted. "How are they there?"

"So they are," Stanley thought and followed her footsteps.

At the back of the shed, after jumping over a small metal rail, he arrived at the edge of the land, beyond which was a steep drop that led to a road below.

There was another set of railings there, stopping people from falling as the drop was quite high.

’That’s a 4 meter drop,’ Stanley thought. That was not a height anyone could jump from without hurting their legs really badly.

’Unless...’ he thought.

"What was Bella’s power?" he asked.

"Nothing," the father said. "She hasn’t awakened yet."

’Then what was she doing at the edge?’ Stanley thought. He couldn’t see any footsteps on the road below, but then again, people were walking left and right, so it was possible that it was erased already.

"Have you asked the people down there if they saw her?" Stanley asked.

"No, we haven’t been there," the father said. "It takes nearly 5 minutes to go all the way around, and we hadn’t thought that she had been on this side of the house at all."

"Freddy, ask the people outside if they saw anything. I’m going to ask these people down here. It’s likely that she jumped down from here," Stanley said.

"What?" the father couldn’t believe it. "Our daughter can’t—"

Before he could finish his words, Stanley jumped down to the road. He landed on his two legs, which he had to bend a little to distribute the impact evenly.

He looked back up to see if there was someplace to hold himself while climbing down, but there was nothing.

’Did she really make this jump?’ Stanley thought. He looked around for any sort of clues, and after not finding anything, he went through the closeby houses to ask if they had seen Bella.

"I think I saw a young girl in that dress run down that way," one of the men he questioned told him.

"That way?" he looked at where she pointed to see that it was the main road of the 1st quadrant that led down the town.

He waited for Freddy to come to him, and once they shared their information, they began making their way down the town following the clues of the girl they got from asking many people along the way.

"I was surprised to see a girl as young as her out in the streets before the sun had even come out."

"Blue pajamas, right? I saw someone like that. She went that way."

"Girl huh? I did see someone wearing blue clothes, but I didn’t pay attention to tell you if they are who you are looking for."

"That poor girl, she looked so scared. I wanted to talk to her, but I was busy."

"I think she made her way down to the 3rd quadrant. I saw her while coming up and thought her clothes were quite pretty and colorful for someone that was there."

"That girl! She’s a thief. She stole something from my shop. What did she steal? I don’t know. It was some metal pots or knives or plates. I have yet to check what is missing from my shop properly."

"I think there was something wrong with that girl. She freaked out when I tapped her. It’s like she was seeing ghosts."

"She kept shouting don’t come near me, so I didn’t try to help her."

"Girl... you guys should go to the Firefly clothes store. I think there is someone of your description there."

Stanley and Freddy asked hundreds of dozens and dozens of people on the street along the way before getting any relevant information regarding the girl.

"Firefly clothes store? Where is that?" Stanley thought.

"I think I remember that name," Freddy said. "Come with me."

The two of them rushed through the winding, alley-like roads of the 3rd quadrant before arriving at the location of the shop.

To their surprise, the shop was closed with a few people on the outside trying to open it. Despite their attempts, however, they were failing to open the doors.

"Call the Defenders already. Where are they?" one of the women off to the side spoke in anger.

"What’s going on here?" Freddy spoke up and walked forward.

"Ah! Finally," the people were relieved. "Please help us. There’s a girl inside that came out of nowhere and used our cleaning time to lock herself in. Please open that door."

"You guys couldn’t open it?" Stanley asked.

"No, the girl inside is really strong. It’s impossible to budge the doors at all," the people complained.

’Strong?’ Stanley was surprised. ’Did we find the wrong girl?’

"Do you know what the girl inside looks like? or what she was wearing?" Stanley asked.

"She’s a young girl, around 16 years old at most," one of the women said. "She wore some blue clothes. I don’t think she belongs in this quadrant."

Stanley quickly turned around and knocked on the door loudly. "Bella? is that you?" he asked.

"W-who?" the scared girl’s voice came from inside.

Stanley looked at Freddy and they both nodded. It had taken them about 2 hours in total, but they had found her.

"Bella, your parents are worried. please come out," Stanley said.

"Go away! I don’t want to come out," the girl shouted. "Please, go away."

Stanley tried to pull the door open, but to his surprise, even he couldn’t budge the door open. ’She’s strong,’ he thought.

He took a step back and looked around the building. He needed another way to go in.