FINALLY UPDATED!
First reason why it took so long: Writer's block
Second reason: I got an amazing beta :D But she gets very busy sometimes.
Third reason: So many tests and so much homework...
But the wait is over, second chapter is up :D
Chapter 2: Let the detective work begin!
"Lire, I swear I think it's Arme."
"Elesis, I can almost guarantee you it's not." The elf looked at the knight with worry. "Besides what are you doing anyway?" The red-haired girl looked up from her drawing.
"Oh, this? It's a picture guide." Well, it's simple to say they could barely be called pictures at all. They looked more like scribbles on a page. "This will help me keep track of suspicious activity." Lire glanced over the page. Each scribble was labeled with a name, along with a large collection of other notes. The writing was barely separable from the pictures. Scribbled under each person's name was something like: stole their cookies, ate their dinner, ruined her bed, kicked him too hard, stole his stuff... The list went on and on.
Under the drawing of Arme, it was labeled Absolute Evil Psychotic Monster; probably the one pranking everyone. This caught the Elf as no surprise.
"Elesis, why do you make Arme your enemy?" The blonde girl politely asked.
"Because that bitch wants to kill me." This earned a punch to the face from Lire. "WHAT WAS THAT FOR?" Elesis turned red with anger.
"Don't use such foul language Elesis! And besides, Arme's not a bi-"She quickly stopped herself. "The Evil Psychotic Monster you make her to be. Just try to get along for once."
After the breakfast was remade by *cough* the Evil Psychotic Monster *cough* Arme, the two girls had moved to Lire's room on the upper floor of the mansion to gather a plan to catch the prankster who rigged their home.
"Well, it's her or Carrot-top." Elesis looked grimly at Lire. "Actually, now that I think about it-"
"RYAN WOULD NEVER DO SUCH A THING!" Lire cried in response. "Besides… he only hurts people who hurt nature… and… and… if you hurt him… I'l be sad..."
Elesis sighed. "ARME IT IS!" She yelled as she paraded off.
"ELESIS, WAIT!" Lire called after her. Seeing the knight paid her no attention, she quickly followed after. "ELESIS! STOP!"
O=O=O
The pink-haired dancer skipped happily through the garden. After all this time her true love finally confessed to her, and now he was taking her somewhere special in two days. That left her two days to anticipate and get ready to-.
Her thoughts were interrupted as her face met the ground, courtesy of the near-invisible tripwire. As she pushed herself up, she found a large mask-like object stuck to her head. Numerous attempts to remove the object had failed. She quickly ran off, and into a few plants along the way, looking help.
O=O=O
Elesis tumbled down the stairs. Her clumsy rush down the steps ended with a couple bruises and a headache. Lire followed quickly after, walking of course.
"Elesis haven't you thought, for one second, how we're going to get a confession. Even if it is Arme, we have no plan."
The swordswoman rapidly rose to her feet and put her hands on the elf's shoulder. "Lire, we don't need a plan. It's called re-rigging the traps, which I can do fine on my own." She turned away, crossing her arms. "I never needed your help in the first place."
"Eles-" A pumpkin-faced being had collided with the archer. This was followed by an almost instantaneous scream. "GO AWAY! *smack* GO AWAY! *smack* GO AWAY! *smack*" The elf had resorted to whacking the "monster" senseless with her bow. Wait, when did Lire get her bow?
"MURE, IPH MWW ANNY!" The creature was bawling out gibberish in an attempt to save its poor life. Ah, one does pity the poor thing.
"GO BACK TO THE WRITHING SHADOWS FOUL CREATURE OF NIGHT!" It shall be noted when Lire wants to kill a "foul creature", you run for the hills and never look back. The final divine blow shattered the literal pumpkin face to reveal…Amy.
"LIRE! SPARE ME!" The pop-star dropped to her knees, begging for mercy.
"Just this once…..you WRITHING CREATUERE OF NIGHT!" Lire's exorcist mode was canceled immediately by a (gentle) smack to the head from Elesis with her sword hilt. Amy ran away half-crying.
Elesis looked at Lire. "Are…you okay?"
"Maybe…"
"So…are we going to kill Arme?"
"Hm…I guess I shall…"
O=O=O
At the time, Arme happened to be in the library, reading out of a book on advanced magic. Also in the library was Mari, researching advanced robotics. Both were unaware of the planning that was going on between Lire and Elesis at the moment, and frankly that would be boring for us. So let's not tell her, 'kay?
O=O=O
The two of them quickly set out to work, getting bombs that they "borrowed" from Mari's laboratory, along with some fuses which they found. Finding a ladder and a net in the cellar, they quickly climbed up and began their setup.
A couple minutes later, the blonde elf asked. "Are you almost ready Elesis?"
"Just about…" Elesis finished placing the explosives on the ceiling. The goal was to destroy the ground under the library where Arme was, catch the falling mage in a net, and force out a confession.
Lire pulled out a match and lit all the fuses. Just as the sparks slowly rose, Jin walked down the hallway.
"What the heck are you doing?" The fighter asked curiously.
"We're gonna blow up the floor under the library to catch that evil monster Arme." Elesis replied instantly. Jin looked at them, confused.
"But Elesis, this isn't under the library." Both girls looked at him shocked.
"W-Wait, t-than where i-is it…?" The elf's worry showed.
"I think just under the vacant room we have on the upper floor."
"Well I guess that's no-"The red-head's words were cut off by a torrent of water crashing down from the ceiling.
O=O=O
The blue haired engineer had begun to study with the mage in hopes of providing more fruitful research. From the floor below, they heard a sudden rushing of water and a collection of loud screams. They shrugged off the event and continued their studies.
O=O=O
The loudness of the screams was rivaled only by the sound of rushing river. The currents pulled the trio through the mass collection of hallways that happened to lie within the building. Elesis, unable to swim, was flailing madly to grab onto something tied down. In her panic, she grabbed a fish which happened to be swimming in the temporary river. Before the shock could set in another fish hopped into her mouth. The elf seemed to be facing similar problems, with fish jumping out of the water and ramming into her face. The fighter seemed to be more focused on stopping himself than the mass of fish rapidly pelting him.
Out of the corner of their eyes, they saw the pink dancer descending the stairs. The moment she stepped on the lower floor, the current picked her up as well. For those who are unable to guess what happened next, I shall tell you: It's fair to say she screamed, quite loudly.
"WHY IS THERE A RIVER IN THE HALLWAY?" The dancer cried out. The foursome suddenly found themselves going face-first into the floor of the living room. The water remained, leaving about an inch of the flood on the floor. Despite this water, some fish appeared to be flopping hopelessly. A small bottle with a note inside it drifted around. Lire quickly picked it up.
To break the silence, the pink starlet wailed. "And I just changed, too." She would have broken into sobs had Jin not comforted her.
Elesis spat out the fish in her mouth. "WHY ARE THERE FUCKING FISH?" Lire ignored her as she opened the bottle. Extracting the note was more difficult than she expected. Elesis, noticing the elf's trouble, quickly threw the bottle against the wall. The note was retrieved by the fighter before it soaked.
"Jin, what's it say?" Amy finally calmed down and was now curious as to what had just happened.
Staring down at the note, the shisa's anger rose as he stared at its short message.
"Jin, are you alright?" Lire looked nervously at Jin. The fighter merely handed the note to Lire. It read: I hope you're having fun with the fish. I have better things to do, like setting up more traps. I can't waste time cleaning up my own mess. Good luck fixing all this up, suckers.
For all of you who like short summaries, it is fair to say that Lire was very, very ticked off.
O=O=O
After the long cleanup of the flood incident, the two girls began to plan another contraption to catch Arme. They quickly settled on an overhead setup, where a large "box of catching" could be dropped on the mischievous mage.
Using the ladder from earlier, they swiftly ascended the bookshelves to set up their plan. Making sure not to make too much noise, the girls hastily made their way across the shelf-tops, leaping from platform to platform. Finally spotting the purple mage, the two of them put their plan to action.
Before the effects of the plan activated, they felt the bookshelf sway beneath them slightly. Lire let out a slight yelp before having Elesis clamp her hand over the elf's mouth.
"Keep it down. We don't want to get caught... " The Elf nodded. Suddenly, a large amount of inaudible chattering came from above. Looking up, the pair saw a large swarm of Gons- a very angry swarm of Gons. To express their anger, a large amount of eggshells began to shower the two girls.
"Hey, stop that!" The knight hissed at them. These words did not quell their anger; it made it worse. The strength of eggshells thrown increased. As if to add to their worries, the bookshelf began to sway again as the pair tried to dodge the storm of shell fragments.
Pulling her sword from nowhere, Elesis started yelling maniacally and swinging at the Gons, which flew out of reach as she swung. Her rapid movement made the shelf sway more and more, and before it fell, the pair jumped off.
The two of them suddenly found themselves hopping from shelf-top to shelf-top to keep above the ground as the bookcases fell. All the while, the Gons were still hurling eggshells at the pair to drive them away from the room.
"CURSED FUCKING GONS!" Elesis yelled as they jumped yet again. Each shelf fell into the next, creating a chain reaction of falling bookcases.
"Elesis, we have a bigger problem than the Gons…" The blonde girl whimpered to her as she pointed down. The sword master followed her gaze, and found the bookshelf they were on was about to fall onto the mage and mechanic pair below.
Unable to stop the swaying shelf, all the knight could manage was, "Oh shit…"
O=O=O
"So if we just add some- OWW!" The mage rubbed her head, which was suddenly hit by a falling book. The pair looked up to see a suddenly falling bookshelf and a rain of cascading books. Both of them screamed. Loudly.
O=O=O
Lucky for all of them, the bookshelf happened to be near a wall, hence leaning against said wall to prevent further damage (Though a LOT of books fell off the shelf). Crawling out from the pile, hand first, was Elesis, enraged and on the verge of killing someone. Clearly the knight and the elf fell off the shelf with the large shower of books. Arme emerged shortly afterwards, completely disoriented and crying for her mother.
Elesis was mad. Elesis brought her sword with her into the library. With an unconscious Lire (from the fall), nobody ended up stopping Elesis from chasing Arme around, swinging her sword crazily and yelling colorful swear words.
O=O=O
"Elesis... what did you do to Arme?" Lire looked at the knight, then back down at the almost mummified mage. "You almost killed her!"
"That was the point." The savior replied, turning away. "Besides, after this, she'll probably stop rigging this place."
The engineer interrupted. "It wasn't her. We pulled an all-nighter last night, studying."
"Then… so it WAS carrot-top!" The sword master's eyes glared brightly. "AND LIRE, YOU CAN'T STOP ME!" The Elf glared at her, evilly.
O=O=O
Somewhere across the castle, Ryan's ear twitched. This meant only one thing: Someone was talking about him. He shrugged it off and continued to feed the fish that he found flopping around in the flooded living room.