Rogue raised a doubtful eyebrow, joined by the other three members of Saber Tooth's top five. "Tail him? That's the best you can come up with?"
"Fro thinks so too!" Frosch said.
"Well, excuse me if it's too simple for you, Rogue!" Sting snarled. "Let me get you your disguise! I'm sure Dobenii's not gonna notice a clown stalking him anytime soon!"
Orga shook visibly and grimaced at the mental image Sting conjured. "I do believe that was the premise of a well-known horror novel," Rufus remarked.
"Yeah, and Rogue's gonna get his neck sliced," Orga warned.
"What Sting planned is for Rogue to follow Dobengal in his shadow," Lector explained. "Before today, Sting and I only managed to follow him so far before he caught on and lost us."
"But if Rogue hides in his shadow, Dobengal won't even know he's there," Minerva concluded, an arm folded under her chest while she tapped her cheek. "Certainly Rogue will be able to catch a glimpse of his face at some point."
"But shadow or not, I can't take a picture of his face if I follow him that closely," Rogue pointed out.
Frosch tilted his head in confusion. "Why can't Rogue?"
"We can do this one of two ways, Rogue." Sting drew a stick figure with a heavily shaded shadow and a crude drawing of camera in front of the stick figure. "If you can get as far away from Dobengal when he finally takes his mask off, he shouldn't be able to see you as you take the picture."
"You sound like you don't think it'll work, Sting," Orga noticed.
"I'm getting there!" Sting barked at the God Slayer. "If that plan somehow fails—" He stressed this with an annoyed glare at Orga. "—then that's where you come in, Rufus. Once Rogue sees Dobengal's real face, all you have to do is isolate that memory so that we'll finally know whether he's hot or ugly."
"Or if he has freckles!" Frosch chirped.
"Or if he's freckled," Sting conceded.
Rufus considered this plan with a finger curled against his lip. "I must say, I never imagined you would possess this level of hindsight, Sting."
"Don't you mean intelligence?" Minerva offered.
"At least I came up with something!" Sting countered, getting more ticked off by the second. The White Dragon Slayer concocted plans for nearly every scenario he imagined he could get the ninja alone, all ending with the possibility of unmasking the guy. And his own friends had the nerve to doubt his genius!
"To be honest, discussing our plans outside the dorms where anyone can hear us isn't a wise move," Minerva said. "Wouldn't our target have learned of what we have in mind for him?"
"Nah." Sting shook his head. "Dobengal went on a quick job this morning, so he won't be back until tomorrow or—"
The guild master of Saber Tooth stopped talking as he tilted an ear upwards. The other mages in the common area regarded Sting oddly as he headed towards one of the dorms, standing just a foot away from the door. "Rogue, you hear anything?" Orga questioned.
Much like Sting was doing, Rogue tilted an ear towards the White Dragon Slayer's direction. It was faint, but he could make out the sound of someone closing a set of doors. "He's home," Sting finally answered, rushing for the blackboard and clearing it frantically.
"The main doors to the guild are locked by this time," Rogue admitted, looking towards a set of doors that led to a stone balcony on the top floor. "Though I don't understand why he didn't use the balcony doors."
"Dobengal's room comes with a balcony," Sting said, smacking the chalkboard eraser against the board once he finished clearing everything that was on there. "Since he can't use magic to teleport directly in once the main doors lock, he made a key for his balcony in case he comes home late."
"I can't believe he got one of the best rooms on the floor," Orga grumbled.
"Fro thinks so too!"
"Well, I'm calling it a night!" Sting announced, dusting off his hands as he followed Lector back to their dorm. "Oh, Rogue!" The White Dragon Slayer stopped with a hand on his doorknob and turned to his shadow counterpart. "Dobengal gets up at three-thirty or so for some reason before he hits the sack again and wakes back up at dawn."
"What a peculiar sleeping schedule," Rufus noted, "and astounding observation skills, Sting."
"But what does he do at three-thirty in the morning?" Rogue asked.
"And since he just finished a job, he won't pick another one immediately. When that happens, he'll head towards the marketplace in the morning," Sting finished, completely ignoring Rogue. "So make use of that as you will, Rogue!" With that, Sting retreated into his room and shut the door with a loud bang. The rest of Saber Tooth's top five stared at the door that Sting and Lector disappeared behind, each with more questions than they began with.
The door opened as Sting stuck his head back out, this time dressed for bed. "Since you're getting up early, I'll watch Frosch tonight!"
"It'll be a sleepover, Frosch!" Lector cheered, holding a pillow as he floated beside Sting's head.
When Yukino entered the guild, she was startled to see Rogue seated at the bar with a cup. "Rogue-sama? Why are you up early today?"
"Because somebody has to pick up Sting's sla-sla-slack," Rogue yawned widely as he poured some black liquid for himself. He might have been the more responsible of the Twin Dragons, but that didn't mean he woke up with the sun everyday while Sting had the nerve to sleep in. At least Rogue wasn't alone at this hour. Though if Sting's words were anything to go by, the reason Rogue was up so early would be coming down soon.
The only thing that made this whole plan worthwhile was that Rogue would see Dobengal's real face before anybody else. What was under there? A scar—or multiple? Moles or freckles? The possibilities kept Rogue up until midnight and even in sleep he had imagined what he was going to see once the mask came off.
"Rogue-sama?" Rogue nodded before he jolted awake in his seat, greeted by Yukino's worried eyes. "Are you sure you don't want to catch up on sleep?"
Rogue shook his head in an attempt to brush off sleep. "No, I'm fine."
"Well, I asked Dobengal-sama to buy some stronger tea for you before he went to the marketplace—"
At this, Rogue immediately grabbed Yukino by her shoulders. "When? Is he still here?" he asked frantically.
"Rogue-sama, calm down! He just left five minutes—" Without listening to another word, Rogue sped out of the guild. "—ago," Yukino finished dumbstruck.
Travelling as a shadow brought him to the marketplace in no time, but all Rogue could do was curse himself for dozing off so easily and letting his target escape. Since it was morning, hardly anyone occupied the market streets except for a baker and a few restaurant owners. But the vendors took up two streets and Rogue couldn't find his guild mate on this one.
"Morning, Rogue! Need a new flavor for your morning?" The tea vendor called.
The tea vendor!
"Hey!" The Shadow Dragon Slayer ran up to the stall and slammed his hands on the counter. "Did you meet a ninja this morning?!" Rogue demanded.
The tea vendor recoiled from the counter. "Well look who decided to have coffee today! If by ninja, you mean Dobengal, he just bought some a few minutes before you came along!"
"Where did he go?"
The vendor looked to his left, squinting as he held a hand to his brow. "He would have gone—that way!" He pointed down the road. "Just go straight and you should catch him at the—" Wasting no time, Rogue melted into a shadow and sped off. "What was the point of all that?!" The vendor yelled.
Rogue emerged from his shadow as soon as he reached the end of the road, searching in every direction for the ninja he was supposed to have followed. He couldn't see him anywhere and it wasn't like Gajeel over at the metal smith's stall saw Dobengal—wait, Gajeel?
To Rogue's bewildered surprise, Gajeel was indeed inspecting the goods that the metal smith had laid out with a ravenous eye. It didn't come as a surprise that the merchant regarded the Iron Dragon Slayer warily.
"Gajeel!"
The Iron Dragon Slayer looked away from the metal goods only to be confronted by Rogue who shouted in his face,"Have you seen a ninja around here?"
"Oi!" A fist came down on Rogue's head and raised an impressive bump as soon as the last word left his mouth. "Harass a Magic Council officer, why don't ya? Do you want me to arrest your ass, Ryos?" Gajeel growled.
Rogue looked up in confusion. "Magic Council? What do you—?" It was then that Rogue noticed the coat draped over the Iron Dragon Slayer's shoulders, decorated by a familiar ankh of the Magic Council on the arms. "Who in their right mind made you an officer?"
"Now I'm getting lip, huh?" Gajeel grabbed Rogue by the collar and hoisted him off the ground, drawing frightened reactions from the people around them. "Give me one more reason to arrest you right here and now, Rogue," the Iron Dragon Slayer said with a wide grin.
"I don't have time for this!" Rogue removed Gajeel's hand from his collar and landed on his feet. "I need to go after him!" That was all Rogue said before he returned to shadow form and sped off.
"Get back here!" Gajeel booked it after Rogue's shadow and the metal merchant let out an audible sigh of relief. "If he's a criminal, I wanna arrest him!"
Seeing as he kept missing his target by a hair, Rogue had to rely on his nose to find him. All of his senses were enhanced while Rogue was a shadow, so tracking Dobengal would be a piece of—wait, what did he smell like?
Rogue emerged from his shadow, oblivious to the startled cries of the people around while he reconsidered his plan. It seemed the universe was determined to make Rogue fail because apparently, Dobengal didn't have a noticeable smell. Sting wouldn't know either if he had tailed the ninja for days before his cover was blown—except if Sting could figure out the man's sleep schedule, the Dragon Slayer would have had the time to discern a scent while he was at it. "That bastard!" Rogue growled, looking towards the guild hall in the horizon. "When I get back to the guild, I'm going to wring your neck, Sting!"
"You're kidding me. Did you really think you could dye chamomiles pink and call it echinacea?" A thoroughly annoyed voice carried over in the background. Rogue perked up and turned around to see Dobengal several yards away at an herbalist's stall, glaring at a pink flower that he held up to the blanched face of the herbalist. With Dobengal's undivided attention on the merchant, Rogue was able to melt into a shadow and merge with the ninja's unnoticed.
"S-surely you're jesting," the herbalist laughed nervously. Within his shadow, Rogue decided to concentrate on the smell of the flower between Dobengal's fingers, breathing in a calming fragrance that reminded him of the tea Rufus drank before bed. "Dying my herbs? There's no way I could run a business like that."
"Really?" The tone of Dobengal's voice made it clear that he didn't believe a single word. "You're selling crushed coriander seed and allspice as nutmeg, your turmeric is ginger dyed orange, and your marjoram is really oregano." Rogue could practically smell the fear sweating out of the herbalist, indicating that Dobengal had hit his marks. Dobengal walked over to a crate somewhere and picked up a root to snap it in half. There was a long silence before the ninja let out an exasperated huff. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'll take the osha root. You have that right at least."
The herbalist sighed in relief. "Y-yes, of course. Five pounds? That's 500,000 Jewels." Rogue would have whistled if he knew it wouldn't give his position away.
The Shadow Dragon Slayer cocked his head in interest when he heard the ninja scoff. Rogue could even hear the sneer in there. "For five pounds, make it 200,000 Jewels." Despite the fact that no one could see him, Rogue's eyebrows rose at the low offer.
The herbalist sputtered at this. "475,000, especially with this grade!"
"220,000, especially with your brains!" Dobengal countered.
"450,000 or I'm packing up!"
"250,000 or see if I care!"
Rogue really wished he had some kind of snack to munch on or even a pillow to muffle his laughter with as he listened to Dobengal and the herbalist haggle and trade threats.
"270,000 if you take that evil spirit with you," came the disturbed voice of the herbalist.
Evil spirit? Where? Rogue only saw the disgruntled herbalist reluctantly trade the roots for roughly half of the original price when Dobengal vanished on the spot, leaving Rogue as a lone shadow on the ground. "It's still here!" the herbalist cried.
Rogue rose out of his shadow and confronted the crooked herbalist. "Do you know where the ninja went?!"
"The spirit is really a demon!" The herbalist cried, eyes rolling back as the man collapsed in a dead faint.
Rogue tried to shake the man awake with no luck. Rogue clicked his tongue and sped away from the stall, searching everywhere for the ninja. It was bad enough when Rogue missed him at the guild, but now he had no idea where the man was.
"Gihihi~There you are!" Rogue barely turned around when an iron club came out of nowhere and hit him on the side of the head. "You're under arrest!"
The doors to the guild opened as more Saber Tooth mages began to come down the stairs. Sting looked up from the bar and cocked his head when he saw the newcomers. "Weren't you guys part of Fairy Tail? What brings you here?"
Levy McGarden and Panther Lily strode into Saber Tooth, the emblem of the Magic Council printed on both arms of their uniforms drawing hushed murmurs from other mages who had woken up. "We were just in the area and we wanted to say hello!" Levy greeted.
"But we did want to give you a notice," Panther Lily acknowledged, producing a flyer to give to Sting. Lector and Frosch joined the White Dragon Slayer at his shoulder to see that it was a bounty poster of a masked man wanted at 2,000,000 Jewels. "Lately there have been numerous thefts by a thief called Zaiba. What's unusual is that he always sends a notice to his victims one day in advance."
"If he gives his victims a heads-up, wouldn't that make his job harder?" Sting asked.
"In hindsight it would, but the thief managed to hoodwink all of his victims despite their security measures," Levy confessed. "So far there's no other pattern to this thief's methods, not even in his victims, his targets, or the locations."
"It sounds like he's just stealing for the thrill of it," Lector pointed out.
"Fro thinks so too!"
"His recent sighting was last night in the Lupinus Town," Levy said. "We wanted to let you know in case the gentleman thief moves into your—" She was cut off when the doors opened with a loud bang, drawing all eyes to Gajeel strolling in with an unconscious Rogue over his shoulder. "Gajeel?!"
"What happened to Rogue?" Sting exclaimed as Gajeel dropped the Shadow Dragon Slayer unceremoniously into a chair.
"What does it look like? I arrested him!" Gajeel barked, dusting off his hands before he crossed his arms over his puffed chest. "Gihi!"
"Arrested?" Frosch repeated.
"You can't just arrest people whenever you like, Gajeel!" Levy protested. "Only certain actions and behaviors warrant an arrest!"
"Oh yeah?" Gajeel slapped a hand on Rogue's shoulder and the man didn't stir in the slightest. "Stalking, public intoxication, harassment of civilians and officers, disruption of peace, and obstruction of justice! How's that, Shrimp?!"
"You just made those up, didn't you!"
"I'm afraid Gajeel likes to exaggerate charges," Panther Lily explained to Sting and the Saber Tooth Exceed, looking embarrassed.
Lector sweated visibly as he laughed lightly. "You don't say..."
"Fro thinks so too!"
"Who was crazy enough to make Gajeel an officer?" The young guild master asked Panther Lily.
"I heard that, Blondie!" Gajeel barked in Sting's direction.
Panther Lily sighed tiredly. "Gajeel, Levy is right. Do you have legitimate grounds for arresting Rogue?"
"A whole market street's worth! First he screamed into every face he could find—even mine," the Iron Dragon Slayer added with a dirty look at Rogue, "then he's scaring everyone by going around as a disembodied shadow—"
"You'd think the people would be used to it by now," Sting muttered to Lector.
Lector nodded. "Indeed."
"I'm telling the story right now!" Gajeel snapped at the two, only to receive a sharp elbow to his side from Levy. "He ran away from me when I tried to arrest him the first time—"
"The first time?" Lector repeated doubtfully.
"So where do stalking and public intoxication come in?" Levy asked, placing her hands on her hips.
Sting had the sneaking suspicion he knew what brought on the stalking "charge" but not intoxication. Rogue didn't smell like anything right now except the spice pantry in the kitchens. "Just going off a hunch," Gajeel grumbled, looking away from Levy's disapproving glare. "Rogue was going on about needing to find a ninja, so I figure he got too close to some magic mushrooms."
Sting groaned and slapped a hand to his face at the same time the very man Rogue was accused of stalking came out of the kitchens holding a teapot. "What about magic mushrooms?" Dobengal asked.
"When did you get back?!" Sting yelled.
"There really was a ninja!" Gajeel cried with wide eyes.
"Welcome home!" Frosch greeted.
"...my head..." Rogue woke up and blinked rapidly. "...when did I get back?"
"Just a few minutes ago, buddy," the young guild master explained, his voice oddly calm and higher pitched than usual. Lector grabbed Frosch's paw and led him away from Sting slowly. "Gajeel brought you home—right after he arrested you!" Sting decided the best way to welcome Rogue back was to lunge across the table and sock him in the face, much to the shock of his guests and his guild.
