Chapter 4:
It was eerily silent in the Howling Winds guild hall. Raphael was sitting alone in the corner of the guild filling in his paperwork while keeping to himself. Faith and Kipper occupied their own table as the dragon slayer scolded her Exceed over some pranks he had attempted. Kori was at the bar counter as Katherine helped her fill in her guild papers.
"Just last night I got here and I'm already part of the guild." Kori marvelled.
"Have you decided about your guild mark?" Katherine asked.
"Hmmm, make it light brown and on the underside of my right arm." Kori replied holding out her arm.
The two were soon joined by Raphael.
"Make mine black and here." Raphael said pointing to his left cheek.
"Hmmm, you're 22… From Nordeneis Town… Everything seems to be in order Raphael." Katherine reviewed his papers before she set about giving the new members their guild mark.
"Faye-Faye, can you join us here." Katherine called out.
"Did you need something?" Faith asked joining everyone at the bar counter.
"We have another job today for all of you, this one is from the Mayor of Edelweiss so I don't need to explain how doing well here can lead to more jobs from the city." Katherine explained.
"I actually prefer to do jobs alone; I'm not really a team player." Raphael admitted.
"Me too, I like to be independent." Kori nodded.
"Well you don't have to work together. It would just be better if all three of you were working on it." Katherine sighed.
"Shouldn't we wait for Merric before you tell us about the job?" Faith asked.
"He has a cold." Katherine revealed.
"He spent like five minutes in the snow…" Raphael scoffed.
"Kori was there a lot longer but didn't get sick." Faith mumbled.
"I guess growing up in the mountains where it snows a lot really helped out when I was wandering through that town." Kori thought out loud.
"Can we get back to the job?" Raphael asked.
"As Faye-Faye already knows, Edelweiss has been experiencing a problem recently, a problem that has been going from city to city. A problem in the form of a thief with shadow magic. He's been mostly doing snatch and grab but now the mayor has put a price on capturing this thief." Katherine explained.
"Capturing a thief, no problem for my trap magic." Raphael smirked as he set off.
"It's payback time, let's go Kipper." Faith called as she ran out.
"Aren't you going to run out after them?" Katherine asked looking at Kori.
"I'm not sure my magic is going to be effective. There's not much earth around here." Kori explained.
"You don't have to go out if you don't feel up to it." Katherine replied.
"Thank you ma'am." Kori bowed.
"You don't have to call me ma'am." Katherine smiled.
"Sorry, I've just always called people over thirty ma'am or sir." Kori noted.
"Thirty…" Katherine mumbled completely dejected.
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"If I was a thief using shadow magic where would I be?" Raphael pondered as he walked through the streets of Edelweiss.
People gave him a wide berth, mainly due to his uninviting scowl and scarred face. Raphael had gone out on this job but regretted not finding out more information from Faith. He valued knowledge highly but he valued being a loner higher.
As he walked the powerful scent of fresh brewed coffee assaulted his senses. He was not a fan of the caffeinated drink so the fact that he was near a coffee shop made him want to turn around.
But before he did the sound of a chrome espresso machine falling and an employee shouting caught his attention. "He's stealing my tip jar!"
The thief dashed into the street and avoided the crowds of people by becoming a shadow and going through their feet.
"Got you." Raphael muttered as he gave chase.
In theory, chasing a shadow through a busy street was difficult; in reality it was much harder. Raphael struggled to follow the shadow while trying to avoid people. It was impossible for him to cast a trap while running so his best bet was to follow.
The busy streets proved to be his downfall as he was unable to keep up with the shadow.
"Damn it!" Raphael cursed spinning on his heels trying to search for the shadow thief.
Then he saw it, across the street, a person stepping out of a shadow. It was a young man, probably younger than him.
The guy who stepped out of the shadow was a tall young man with fairly light skin and spiky honey-blonde hair. He was dressed in a leather jacket that had a fur collar as well as a white V-neck underneath and dark blue, denim jeans with black shoes to top off the rest of his outfit.
"I got you now." Raphael yelled running across the street.
"What?" The suspect asked confused he saw Raphael charging across the street.
"Your luck is about to run out today thief." Raphael stated as he spread his arms preparing to cast his traps.
"I'm not a thief anymore." The suspect retorted angrily.
"I don't know how you can say that after stealing that tip jar just now." Raphael accused.
"That wasn't me. My name is Sou Tsubaki. I just got to town now." The suspect tried to explain.
"Do I look like I was born yesterday?" Raphael scoffed. "I might have believed you if I didn't see that whole shadow thing."
"That's how I travel long distances. I use Shadow Devil's Movement." Sou said.
"I'm sure you do use that spell to travel long distances when you're not using it to rob people and flee in your shadow form." Raphael began preparing a spell.
"I think I understand the confusion here. I came to this town because I heard there was a shadow causing problems for people. This thief must be that shadow." Sou theorized.
"That's a nice story, too bad I don't believe you." Raphael sneered.
"I'm not this shadow thief that you think I am! I'm here to help!" Sou shouted.
"That's exactly what a shadow thief would say." Raphael countered.
"I came to this city to deal with its shadow problem." Sou continued.
"Just say I believe you, what's your reason for helping." Raphael questioned.
"Call it redemption for past mistakes." Sou answered.
"That answer is really vague, maybe you just can't come up with a good enough lie." Raphael taunted.
"Whatever, I don't have to stand here and take this." Sou retorted.
"You're not going anywhere; this is my first job for my new guild. I'm going to bring you in." Raphael declared.
"It looks like a fight is inevitable." Sou muttered gathering shadows around his fists.
Before the two could start fighting, people began rushing past them and running towards something.
"Someone managed to catch the shadow thief in the park, they're fighting there now!" Someone in the crowd shouted.
"I told you I wasn't the thief." Sou smirked as he followed the crowd.
"I'm not done with you yet." Raphael yelled as he followed.
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Faith and Kipper patrolled the area just outside of the train station. They had encountered the shadow thief there once and were hoping he would return there. Since there was a train expected to arrive in a few minutes, they figured he would try and snatch something from someone who gets off the train.
"Kipper, I need you to be my eyes in the sky. Signal me if you see any suspicious shadows." Faith requested.
"You can count on me." Kipper saluted as he flew above the train station.
Faith paced around and kept a determined look as she scanned the area around her for any unusual shadows.
The train arrived on time and the passengers exited. Everything seemed to go off without a hitch. Kipper flew overhead just shrugging as he didn't see anything. Faith continued to patrol around keeping an eye on the leaving passengers and the ground.
Faith let out a sigh as the train station emptied and no one was left behind. She began to wonder if her plan had any merits to begin with. Looking up at the sky she saw Kipper waving frantically.
The Exceed was pointing to the train. A shadow had just exited the train and was now trying to leave the train station. With Kipper's directions Faith was able to track down the mobile shadow and cut it off.
"I got you now." Faith said igniting her hands in flames. "Do you really think you're going to get away with your crimes?"
Two hands emerged from the shadow followed by the rest of the body. To Faith's surprise it was a young girl that emerged from the shadow.
The pale skinned young girl had white hair pulled back into a pony tail and purple eyes. She wore a dark gray long-sleeved shirt and black shorts that that just past her knees with black sneakers.
"I'm sorry; I didn't think I was hurting anybody." The girl said apologetically.
"Didn't think you were hurting anybody? You caused a lot of problems to a lot of people." Faith scolded.
"I would have bought a ticket but I was running low on cash. I didn't think it would be a big deal if I just hitched a ride in the luggage compartment." The girl tried to reason.
"You lost me." Faith mumbled. "What's your name kid?"
"Jinx Akuma." The girl responded.
"Sorry about this. Looking at you closer, you're too short to be the person who tried to rob me." Faith apologized.
"Now I'm lost." Jinx replied.
"Listen kid, there's a thief running around this town using shadow magic. It would be best if you didn't use that shadow move around people. They might think it's you." Faith explained.
"The person who tried to rob you, did you see his face?" Jinx questioned pleadingly.
"No, he ran fast and turned into a shadow before I could get a good look." Faith replied.
"Please tell me everything you know about this shadow thief." Jinx requested.
"I can't do that kid. My guild was assigned this job; I can't give another guild inside information so they can beat us to it." Faith responded.
"Firstly, stop calling me kid, I'm fifteen." Jinx exclaimed. "Secondly, I'm not from another guild. I came here because I think that shadow may be my brother. I just have to know."
Before Faith could respond Kipper swooped down.
"Faith, something is happening in the park. People are rushing there right now." Kipper yelled.
"Do you think it's the shadow thief?" Jinx asked.
"It could be." Faith mumbled.
"Please show me the way there. I have to find out if it's my brother." Jinx requested.
"Kipper, lead the way to the park." Faith resigned to helping Jinx.
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Kori walked through Edelweiss Park with a dejected look on her face. She was carrying a bag of groceries and a small purse that Katherine had given her.
"Thirty… I can't believe I made Katherine upset by calling her old." Kori sighed as she sat on a bench next to a manicured flowerbed of daisies.
Kori had volunteered to buy some groceries as a way to apologize to Katherine. She was determined to get back on the current guild caretakers good graces.
The park was pretty much average with tall trees and well-tended bright green grass. There were park benches scattered all over the place, it was clear people had been moving them around. The only other people were an elderly couple who were feeding bread crumbs to pigeons.
Kori tucked her purse into the grocery bag and left it on the bench as she went to get a drink of water from a small fountain that was next to the bench. She fiddled with the lever but no water came out.
"Just my luc…" Kori muttered as she turned around and received a shock.
A man clad in all black was rummaging through her grocery bag. Going by the brief description she had received from Katherine this was the shadow thief that was currently plaguing Edelweiss City.
"Your face…" Kori muttered.
The thief's face beneath the hood was not visible, it was as if the hood was empty which terrified Kori but in reality shadow magic was being used to hide his face and make the hood seem empty.
"Leave those alone!" Kori screamed as it slowly dawned on her where she was.
There was no tar or paved roads to get in the way of her Earth Magic.
"Rock-it!" Kori shouted as she punched the ground causing a large rock pillar to erupt from under the bench, destroying it and sending her groceries flying through the air. "I missed."
The shadow thief had temporarily taken shadow form to avoid the attack but now he was back in solid form. Instead of the thief running away like Kori thought he would, he began approaching her.
As Kori backed away from the advancing shadow thief to give herself more time to think, people began to gather in the park. The elderly couple were surprisingly fast in running away and calling for help when they spotted the shadow thief.
To the shadow thief's surprise, several snake like shadows winded around his body constricting him and holding him in place. But true to his skill set he turned into a shadow and escaped.
"He got out of my Shadow bind…" Jinx muttered coming to Kori's side.
Faith cut through the crowd and extended her hand forward creating a golden magic circle. "Sun Dragons: Sun flare blitz." The golden magic circle unleashed dozens of golden-orange balls of fire.
The shadow thief dodged the attack by turning into a shadow but was forced further away from Kori and Jinx.
As the shadow thief backpedalled in his shadow form he activated a trap magic circle that had just been planted.
"Hidden Trap: Holy Light" Raphael called out as the circle grew and activated unleashing an immense explosion of light energy. The explosion of light energy caused the shadow thief to revert to physical form.
"Shadow Devil's Claw!" Sou shouted charging the shadow thief and surrounding his hand with shadow magic.
In one swift swiping motion Sou made contact and sent the shadow crashing into the tree tops.
"Damn it." Raphael cursed.
"He used my attack to help launch himself into those trees. He's going to disappear in all that shade." Sou berated himself.
XXXXX
"Then after Sou attacked the shadow thief, the thief got away but the crowd starting cheering for us." Kori finished explaining. "And that's why I don't have the groceries."
"Sounds like you all had quite a day that resulted in two potential members." Katherine replied.
"From what Faith has told me, this guild would be a good place to operate from as I search for my brother." Jinx nodded.
"I actually did want to join a guild and from I saw today, this guild could use my help." Sou shot a look at Raphael.
"At least I wasn't the one who helped the shadow thief get away." Raphael glared.
"Welcome Sou and Jinx, fill these in and I'll give you your guild marks afterwards." Katherine handed out the guild papers.
Authors Note:
If you have any comments, criticisms or thoughts, about the story or about how I'm portraying your OC, leave those in a review or you can PM me.
OC submission:
Core members' slots for the dark guild have been filled but slots for normal members are open.
Dark Guild OC Rules: No slayers, No Blood Magic users, No OP villains