Chapter 26: Catching The Thief
'Beep!' Okabe's receiver rang.
He sluggishly pulled it out and placed it beside his ear. After a few seconds, he placed it back in his pocket.
'Who was it?' Subaru asked.
'Noire. She said that she formed an alliance with another group and that we should go to their base of operations.' Okabe replied.
Nepgear stood up shakily.
'Well...let's go.' She walked towards the door, but then noticed something peculiar.
Beside Kisame's corpse, Samehada seemed to be mourning. Samehada then turned towards Nepgear. Quickly, it lunged at her.
Nepgear summoned Gehaburn to be ready for an attack but on the contrary, Samehada snuggled itself into Nepgear's right hand.
'Uh…' She muttered. She didn't know what this meant.
'I guess it means Samehada wants you to be it's owner now huh?' Okabe smiled as his left eye and face reverted back to normal. His blood however, remained white.
'Cool...I guess.' Nepgear hiked Samehada on her back, using a bandage on the floor to secure it to her.
'And...Share Burst: HP Pool.' She muttered as she swung Gehaburn lightly. Rem, Subaru, and Okabe's injuries all healed. Though this process took a whole minute.
They left the Hideout soon after, with Okabe giving Blanc and the others information on the place Noire talked about.
Central Sky City
Rain and Blake entered through the security gates of the city.
Rain quickly ran over to a money changer and exchanged his money to the current city's currency.
Blake walked over to him when she saw a commotion. In the centre of the crowd, a small girl with black hair and black eyes was being beaten up.
Blake's eyes widened as she quickly pushed the people away from the girl before covering the girl.
'What the hell are you doing, beating up a child?!' Blake demanded.
'This bitch stole people's money!' A man with a scar across his face yelled.
Blake looked over at the girl and saw that the girl was only wearing a wear knee-length shirt and the shirt didn't have any pockets.
'Look at her! If she did steal your money, she wouldn't even have anywhere to keep it!' Blake retorted.
'She could've hid it in another location!' The man said.
Blake stared at him defiantly.
'And what's with the cat ears?! Are you a freak!' Blake's nose scrunched up as she clenched her fist.
Unwilling to back up, she stared even harder at the man. The man's eyes twitched.
Drawing a gun out of nowhere, he pointed it at Blake.
'Anyone who sides with that thief must be an accomplice!' The crowd around cheered for the man.
Without even a moment's hesitation, he clicked the trigger. Blake quickly threw her body over the girl, trying to take the shot for her.
However, the bullet never came. The gun suddenly exploded in blue sparks, pushing the man back. He fell onto the floor.
Just then, Rain squeezed through the crowd trying to get to the centre and ended up stepping on the man.
'Hey Blake! Are you alright?' Blake nodded. A groan was heard from under Rain.
Rain quickly looked around as the sound got louder, unsure who was trying to unsettle him by making weird noises.
'Below you!' A voice among the crowd said. Rain looked down and saw the man.
'Oops!' He muttered as he quickly walked off the man. Before Rain could apologise, Blake quickly grabbed his hand and dragged him away with the girl in tow.
Minutes later
Blake laid the girl on the ground.
'Are you alright?' She asked the girl.
'I'm...not the thief…' She meekly said. Blake smiled gently as she patted the girl head.
'I know.' The girl then relaxed her body.
'The thief...was that scary man with a gun…' Blake's eyes widened.
'An investigator of the Investigation Centre is a thief?' Rain muttered. Blake looked at him.
'Only investigators are allowed a gun.' He explained.
Blake bit her lips.
'We can't let him go free. Not when he tried to kill this innocent girl.'
'We have to tread carefully too.' Rain commented.
'Seeing as to how he tried to kill an eyewitness, he'll now probably try to off us as well since we are protecting the eyewitness. And now that we know the truth.' He continued.
Blake thought about it and nodded. The girl suddenly cried out in pain as she clutched her chest.
Rain quickly crouched down.
'Hello...uh…'
'Lily.' The girl said.
'Right. Lily. Do you mind if I touch your chest?' Blake scowled at Rain.
'I'm not a lolicon! What is she? Twelve?' Blake still eyed him suspiciously, but otherwise silently agreed.
'If you intend to grope her though, I will castrate you.' She muttered. Lily nodded with a small blush.
Rain touched her chest for a few seconds before moving his hand away.
'She has...3 broken ribs, give or take.' He said.
'...' Blake was surprised to see that he could tell without any tools.
'We should get her to a doctor.' Rain said.
Just when Blake was about to reply, she heard voices.
'Search around the area! They couldn't have gone far!' She recognised it as the voice of the man from earlier.
'Sir! Are you sure the little girl is the thief? She doesn't look like-'
'Are you trying to defy orders from your immediate superior?!' He roared.
'Sorry Sir! No Sir!'
'Good! Now search for them!'
'He's coming.' Blake told Rain. Upon hearing this, Lily began shivering.
Rain cursed under his breath.
'We need to run.' Rain said.
'I'll distract them.' He added. Blake tried arguing but before she even spoke a word, Rain ran off.
'Heya!' He called out to the group of investigators.
'Darwin. We found one of them.' A buff looking investigator spoke into his receiver.
'I'm coming!' Darwin, the scarred man, replied.
'So...the weather's great today huh?' Rain began speaking nonsense in order to buy time.
'Hands in the air!' The investigator yelled. They then all simultaneously raised their guns.
However, Rain simply ignored them.
'Makes you wonder how strange it would be if it were to...I don't know...start thundering?'
Upon saying that, Rain darted under the covers around him. All of a sudden, a huge blue seal appeared above the investigators, before lightning struck from above and landed right in front of them.
The impact knocked out all of them. Then, Darwin appeared, looking shocked at what had just happened.
He grabbed a gun from his belt and pointed it at the empty air.
'Come out! If not, I will shoot!'
There was no reply. Darwin cocked his gun as he walked towards the covers.
As he got to where Rain was, he shot at the cover. Once, twice, and thrice.
However, when he flipped the cover open, there was no one there.
Meanwhile, Blake was running while carrying Lily.
She drew Gambol Shroud and used it as an Kusarigama, swinging herself onto the roof of a building.
From there, she located a hospital.
She jumped off and quickly grappled from building to building. Soon, she landed in front of the hospital.
'Are you okay?' She asked. Lily nodded.
Blake then carried her into the hospital, requesting treatment.
Back to Rain, he was running as fast as he could, dodging bullets by a hair's breadth as Darwin chased him down.
'What was that you used?!' Darwin roared.
'I was just spouting nonsense! I didn't know it would really happen! It's just a coincidence!' Rain replied.
'Like fuck it was a coincidence!'
'Fine! I used fucking technology!'
'Really?! Cause if you're lying, I will fucking castrate you!'
'NO!'
The two bantered as they played the game of cat and mouse.
Rain quickly pulled a yellow toy ball he brought for the trip and threw it at a button. This resulted in the ladder up a building extending to the ground.
He caught the ball and kept it in his bag before climbing the ladder.
'Stop!' Darwin yelled as he shot more bullets at Rain. Or well, he tried. It turns out he had ran out of ammo and when he was done reloading, Rain had already gotten to the rooftop.
'Shit! Shit! Shit!' Rain cursed as he noticed what he had done. He had climbed up to his death. There was nowhere else to go.
Darwin reached the rooftop as well. Smirking, he pointed his gun at Rain.
'Die!' He pressed the trigger. However, his gun suddenly split into two. And the one who did it was Blake.
Or more precisely, Blake's clone made from her Semblance, Shadow.
She then quickly grabbed Darwin by his shirt collar and threw him off the building before using Gambol Shroud to hold onto him.
Using the recorder she snatched from his belt, she forced Darwin to admit the truth of who was the thief.
Rain, on the other hand, was just standing still.
'(She didn't see me use it...did she…)'
A day later
Darwin was jailed when they got to the Investigation Centre.
Rain and Blake was thanked by Lily and her caretaker. It turned out that Lily was an orphan and she had sneaked out behind her caretaker's back to play.
The Investigation Centre leader also personally thanked Rain and Blake.
He promised to help Blake find her friends to the best of his ability.
Soon, Rain and Blake was on their way to find an inn to stay in.
On their way there, Blake wanted to stop by at a park. They sat down on a bench with Rain sweating profusely. He knew what was coming based on the looks Blake has been giving him.
'So...yesterday, I have been watching you from when you said you would be a distraction to ensure that you would be safe…'
'So, when they pointed their guns at you, I wanted to help you...but apparently, you can control lightning…' Blake finished.
'...Uh...well...um...I…' Blake closed her eyes.
'The truth. I want the truth.' Rain sighed as he lowered his head.
'Right. I guess...I used to be a test subject for an experiment...those experiments...they kinda gave me control over electricity…' Rain explained.
Blake's expression softened.
'Oh…' Blake began fiddling with her fingers.
Rain scratched the back of his head sheepishly.
'But it wasn't all that bad y'know! At least now I can shock people, literally.' Rain excitedly said.
Blake let out a small smile.
'Plus I had a freaking cool title man!' Rain said as he flung his arms all around.
Blake narrowed her eyes.
'And what was it?' Blake questioned.
'Railgun!' Rain exclaimed.
'Railgun?'
'Yep!' Rain grabbed a coin out of his pocket and aimed it at the fountain at the centre of the park.
Blue electric sparks appeared around his hand. With a flick of his finger, a blue seal appeared in front of his hand and the coin was launched.
It glowed orange as it hit the water, immediately creating electricity that surged through the entire fountain.
'I'm a living railgun!' He announced.
Blake just stared at him.
'Anyway, don't tell anyone about my abilities, yeah? I want to continue living normally. This time, I kinda had no choice as it was kill or be killed.' Rain asked.
Blake nodded.
'But wouldn't Darwin say anything?'
'Nah. I kinda secretly shocked him enough to wipe his memories of my powers. The same goes for the other investigators.' Rain explained.
'You can do that?!' Blake shouted before looking around while blushing.
'I can erase any memories as long as it is done within five minutes.'
'...' Blake was speechless.
Rain shrugged as he stood up and offered a hand to Blake.
'Now! Let's go find your friends, yeah?' Blake smiled and grabbed his hand.
'Mm.'