Breath of Fire II, Katt, Bow, Rand, Sten, Ryu, Nina, Deis, Spar, and other characters as well as the Breath of Fire name are copyrights of Capcom. I do not own any of the characters from those games. Any similarities between my own Characters, and new BoF characters is purely coincidental
e-mail at kkisblpeen@aol.com
http://kirkis-elf.com/
Days Ahead (Breath of Fire 2.5)
By Kirkis
Chapter three - The talented thief, Ruki
Silence had befallen the darkened warehouse. Ruki stood, knives ready to strike. Ryu concentrated on watching her every move. She swayed a bit to her right, Ryu tensed. A smirk crept onto her face.
"The drug is taking full effect, He won't be able to defend himself very good. Just go to sleep, hot stuff," Ruki thought, staring at her opponent.
"She's waiting for the poison to take effect. I have to get that antidote before this poison kills me," Ryu thought, as he made a move for his sword. Ruki's eye twitched, she stepped forward preparing an attack.
"::BEELLCHH!!!:: Woo hoo, I finally got that thing out," Bow said patting his chest. Both Ryu and Ruki pulled themselves off the floor. "Hey buddy what was it you said about getting an antidote?" Bow asked, turning to Ryu.
"Never mind that now, just get ready to fight," He replied. Ruki dusted off a shoulder, and glared at Ryu.
"Fight? Why, I don't want to fight a pretty girl like this," Bow said.
"If you want the antidote, either give me the Dragon Tear, or try to take it from me," Ruki said, dangling the pouch in front of her again.
"We have no choice," Ryu said, drawing his sword. Ruki bolted forward, slashing fluidly with her knives. Ryu managed to dodge most of them, but was clipped on the left forearm. He threw his sword toward her, But she jumped before he could finish his swing. In mid air she changed direction, and kicked Ryu in the mouth. He stumbled back, but didn't fall.
"Hey, c'mon guys, why do we have to fight? Let's be friends," Bow said, approaching Ruki.
"Get away from me you drunk!" She responded, doing a summersault and kicking him twice in the process. Bow stumbled back and fell over some boxes. Ryu lunged for her as she was landing, but she twisted her body and just barely avoided his sword. She countered with an elbow to his nose, then jumped back, laughing.
"You might be able to beat me if it weren't for the poison. Do yourself a favor, and just give me the Dragon Tear," Ryu steadied himself, and wiped some blood away from his nose. He glared at her, searching for any possible weakness. "I'm too fast for you hot stuff," She said. Ryu looked down at his sword.
"The Holy Dragon Sword of the god, Landon. It's been with me ever since I defeated Deathevan, and it's always been a very powerful sword. But it doesn't matter if I can't hit her," Ryu thought. Within his own thoughts he realized the answer. "Rand was so big, and yet, he was still so quick to attack. He had no weapon, just his… fists," He thought, dropping his sword where he stood.
"Hmph, you giving up already? How boring," Ruki said arrogantly. Ryu balled up his fists and cracked the knuckles on one hand. "Oh c'mon, You can't be serious? Fighting me without a weapon when you're so badly poisoned," She responded. Ryu cracked the knuckles on his other hand, and charged at her. She jumped to her left he followed with a fist. She ducked it and threw a kick up toward his face. He side stepped it and swung a low sweeping kick. She jumped again, but she was now on the defensive. Ryu threw a punch straight at her. She jumped over his head, landing softly behind him. She raised a knife to stab at his lower back.
Ryu heard her land behind and decided the best counter would be the skill Katt had been trying to teach him for months, A variation on her Keep skill that was faster, but less powerful. He hadn't totally mastered it, and he could never match her speed and power, but on a small girl like Ruki it would be quite effective. He drew his right foot forward and swung it behind him, making sure to throw his whole body into the swing. The kick landed just above her waist, and pushed with such force that it threw the young thief across the room and into the wall. She bounced off the wall and landed in the floor, gripping her side. Ryu calmly walked up and pulled the pouch from her hand, smelling the contents.
"You…you think you're so great, just cause you can beat a defenseless girl, " She said, sitting up.
"You aren't exactly defenseless, besides, you left me no alternative," He said to the small girl. He took out a small amount of the antidote and rubbed it on the inside of his lip.
"It wasn't poison, it was just to put you to sleep," Ruki said, sitting up.
"Next time you steal from someone, make sure it's not someone who can beat you," Ryu said, tossing her pouch back to her.
"I'm not so easy to defeat, It's time I brought out my true strength!" She yelled, crawling to her feet. Ryu backed up a few steps. Ruki cupped her hands in front of her chest as if she were holding a ball. A deep red glow kindled at the center of her hands.
"What are you doing?! Don't use fire magic, this whole place-" Ryu yelled at her. She paid no attention.
"FIREBALL!!" She yelled, Ryu didn't have time to counter with an ice spell. The fireball, tore around the room lighting everything on fire. The door burst under the heat and pressure, allowing flames to spill out into the rest of the warehouse.
"Are you crazy!? This whole place is full of flame powder!" Ryu yelled.
"What are you talking about, Flame powder. HA! If you can't take the heat, get out of the-" her triumphant bragging was interrupted by an explosion.
"See, Flame powder burns, or in extreme cases, explodes. We've got to get out of here!" Ryu yelled at her.
"Get out whatever way you wish, I have my own way out," She said, sticking out her tongue, squinting one eye and pulling the other lower eyelid down with her finger.* She ducked back behind some barrels, and pushed a spot on the wall. A small hatch opened under it.
"Ta ta!" She said, slipping through the hatch. Ryu bolted after her, but the hatch swung shut. He pushed the button to open the hatch like she had. As it opened, thick smoke poured out from the opening, and a small figure crawled back out coughing.
"The explosion blew up my secret passage," She said meekly, looking up at him. "You gotta help me! I don't wanna die here," She said, almost crying.
"You shouldn't have used that fireball," Ryu said to her.
"Well, you shouldn't have fought me, you should've given me that Dragon Tear!" She said, putting her hands on her hips.
"Never mind that now, We've got to get out of here," He said. Ryu jumped through the flames over to where Bow was lying. Ruki followed, jumping through the flames at the same place. Her small lacey tutu caught fire.
"Ahh help, put me out!" She yelled frantically. Ryu brushed the small flames off her singed clothes.
"Calm down would you," He said.
"Calm down!? I'm going to die here, burned to death with a drunk and an idiot and you're telling me to calm down!?" She reacted. Ryu scanned the room for any possible way to get out. There was only the door that led back into the warehouse. More explosions rocked the warehouse, Ruki lost her balance and fell into Ryu.
"I'll have to do it, I'll have to summon the power of the ice dragon," Ryu thought. He turned to Ruki.
"Can you please see if my friend is alright?" He said to her, smiling warmly? She said nothing but nodded. She turned and knelt down by bow, he was breathing, and a small snot bubble protruded from his nose. Ruki scrunched her nose at the sight of it.
"Looks like he's-" She said turning back to Ryu, but stopping dead in her sentence. Ryu's fists clenched, his body was emitting a blue aura, his eyes glowed white, and his hair was rising above him as if wind were blowing up from below. "What the," She said.
"YYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!" Ryu cried, as the blue aura swelled to consume his whole body. Out of the blue aura a blue lizard tail emerged, followed by a leg, then another. Ruki watched in awe as the Blue dragon raised its head before her. It drew in the hot cinders of the fire as it gasped for air. Holding its breath for only a second, It blew the air from its lungs like a gust of winter wind. Freezing cold air filled the room, as the flames began to die down. The dragon inhaled again, then released another gale upon the flames.
Ruki shivered as the temperature dropped almost fifty five degrees in a matter of seconds. The dragon continued its ice breathing assault on the fire. Everything in the room was being covered in frost. Ruki rubbed her arms, trying to keep warm.
"This thing is unbelievable, It's summer and we were in an inferno, and yet, only seconds later, I'm freezing cold. Is that what the dragon tear does, grant the form of a dragon to its owner?" Ruki thought, watching the dragon plow through the door, smashing the frame as it went. She stood up and drug Bow out of the room, walking in the frozen path of the Ice Dragon.
* This thing is done often in Anime, I'm not sure what it's called, but it's fairly common. My description of it is quite mechanical.
"Oi Baan, Hurry up, I need to get back to Wyndia!" Katt yelled back down the hill at her burly companion. Baan heaved for breath as he hiked up the side of the hill. The morning had been crisp, but now, with the sun high in the noon sky, it was almost unbearable. Baan was having trouble dealing with the heat. As soon as he had reached the top, he drooped over, resting his hands on his knees. Katt stood by with one hand on her hip.
"C'mon what's the hold up?" She asked, twitching her tail. Being half Woren and half human, she had more tolerance to temperature extremes.
"Slow down… I need… a rest…" He heaved, standing up straight. Katt sighed a sigh of annoyance.
"I didn't know blacksmiths were so out of shape, or are you just that way?" She asked, jokingly.
"Not everyone in this world is as physically fit as you," He said. "I'm strong, but I don't have to go hiking up hills every day,"
"Well, just try to keep up, I wanna find my friends, so we can continue our journey," She said, turning to continue. "You said the port was this way, so I assumed you could make the trip," She added.
"Well, this is the direction of the port, but the road goes east, not south. it then curves around in the low-lying areas, following the contour of the land. So I'm not used to going straight to the port,"
"I can't waste anymore time, I don't want to miss my friends in Wyndia," She said in soft determination. She turned back to Baan. "C'mon, lets go,"
"Wait, I have to sit down," He said, still heaving. "There's a shade tree over there we can sit under," He said, pointing at a large peach tree.
"AWW C'mon, I need to get to Wyndia and you fizzle out after the first hill!" Katt said, holding her fists straight down by her sides in frustration. Baan walked over to the tree, not responding to her anger. Her eyes narrowed, as she watched him walk away from her, not paying attention. She stomped after him, her tail twitching all the way. Katt stepped into the shade of the tree, and pulled a plump peach from a branch.
"I guess if you're gonna do this at the top of every hill, we might as well take the road," She said, biting into the juicy fruit.
"I thought you didn't like plants," Baan said, looking up at her as he fiddled with a blade of grass.
"Peaches are okay," She replied, taking another bite. Her bites could remove a little over one fourth of the peach. She pulled another peach from the tree in anticipation of finishing the one in her hand. "You want one?" She asked, extending a fruit to him.
"No thanks, but how did a girl who doesn't like plants come to like peaches?" He asked.
"A friend of mine got me into eating them. She bet me that she could finish a mouthful of one of my favorite foods before I could take one bite of one of hers," She said, sitting cross-legged on the ground.
"Oh, and peaches were the food she picked? What was the food she had to eat?" Baan asked. To most people it might have sounded like small talk or a childish story, but to Baan, conversation like this was priceless. It was these kind of things that drew him closer to people. His friends at home never talked about much more than their apprenticeships, he enjoyed hearing stories like hers.
"She had to eat Dy'oth," Katt said, almost giggling.
"What's Dy'oth?" He asked.
"Boar Guts," Katt answered, nonchalantly. Baan's face contorted into a hideous grimace at the mere thought of having to eat a boar's intestines.
"Boar Guts, You mean like, intestines?!" was all he could come up with for about ten seconds. "Why would anyone want to eat that?" He asked, causing Katt's eyebrows to scrunch up.
"Hey, when prepared right, Dy'oth is a Woren delicacy. Wild boar who feed on Galleka grass make the best Dy'oth ever. That's one thing Plants are good for, adding spice," She said. "But I've never met anyone who wasn't Woren who would eat it."
"So I take it you won the bet, huh?" He said, trying to distance the conversation from boar tripe before Katt got into more graphic details.
"Actually no, I lost. See, she was Wyndian, and they have really weak stomachs, so I figured she'd never get it down. But she put a forkful in her mouth, chewed it up, and swallowed it," Katt said, pausing just long enough for a huge grin to shine across her face. "And she made the most awfulest face you ever saw, coughing and gagging. But she kept it down, so I figured, I might as well at least try it. So I did, and I liked it, and I still like them now," She finished.
"So, who taught a Woren girl how to chew with her mouth closed?" He asked. Katt looked up with ears twitching in confusion. "Last night, and just now, you chewed your food with your mouth closed."
"Oh that would be Nina, she tried to teach me a lot of manners, but I never picked up on to many. But still, she always tried to make me more lady like," Katt said, looking up into the tree overhead.
"Nina sounds like a very kind person," Baan said, looking at her.
"Oh yeah, She's the first girl that ever treated me like her equal. She's so kind, and kinda sad," Katt said, tucking her legs up against her chest. "I sure do miss em'," She added, still looking up into the limbs of the tree. Baan watched as a smile crept to her face.
"Well," He said, rising to his feet. "I'm sorry I held you up."
"You're ready to go then?" She asked, standing up. She flicked her tail, shaking some grass from it. "We'll take the road from there," She said pointing at a dragon god statue. "So you won't get so beat and have to stop," She added. The two set off down the hill toward the statue.
"Hey buddy, wake up! It's morning already."
"Do you think he'll wake up?"
"Oh sure, it just takes a lot out of him, you know turning into a dragon and all."
"Does he do this often?"
"umm, no, not really, but I've been traveling with him for a long time."
"Uhhnh…"
"He's coming around."
"Hey buddy, c'mon wake up," Bow said, shaking him. Ryu's eyes opened and he managed to focus a little despite having his head thrashed about.
"Alright, alright, I'm awake," He said trying to sit up. He sat up and took a look around. He was in a small bed in what looked like a bedroom. "Where am I?" He asked, looking up at Bow.
"You passed out after you put out the fire, and we had to bring you back here," Bow answered with a floppy cheeked grin.
"Where's here?" Ryu asked.
"This is my room, so you better not've ruined the sheets," Ruki said.
"You're that girl," Ryu said. He felt his pockets, not finding his money pouch, he looked to Bow.
"Don't worry buddy, I got our money and the Dragon Tear," He responded. Ryu relaxed a bit, taking another look around the room. Ryu had been in girls' rooms before, Mina's, Petape's, Sylvia's, But none were as flashy as this room. There were mirrors everywhere, a dresser with a mirror, was covered in makeup, perfume bottles and hairbrushes. The floor was covered in thick furry carpet, and literally everything in the room was pink. Ruki had changed clothes from the night before. She was now wearing pink Kimono, her hair had been let down, and the makeup had been cleaned off her face.
"Well, If we've got our money and the Dragon Tear, we should be on our way Bow," Ryu started, throwing the covers off his legs.
"Wait just a minute, I didn't let you rest here just so you could leave. I want to ask you a few questions?" Ruki said, crossing her arms. Without letting Ryu or Bow react, she started. "First off, if you have the power of a dragon, why didn't you use it the moment I picked the fight with you?" She asked, looking directly at Ryu.
"That's not what the Dragon powers are used for," He answered, standing up.
"Ok, so where did you find this Dragon Tear?" She asked.
"Why are you asking so many questions?" Ryu asked, turning to her.
"I'm asking the questions," She responded. "Where did ya get it?" Ryu glared at her for a moment before answering.
"My mother gave it to me when I was a boy," He finally answered. "there, are you satisfied now?"
"No. How is it that it can turn you into a dragon, and flash different colors when it's in your hands but when I hold it it's only clear?" Ryu looked at her puzzled for a moment as Bow doubled over in laughter. "What the hell is so funny, tubby?" She yelled at him. Ryu smiled, fighting back laughter himself.
"The Dragon Tear does not turn me into a dragon, That's a power I have in my blood. The Tear lets me see the true soul of someone, if they mean no harm to me and my friends, the Tear will glow orange or yellow. Like this," He said, holding the Dragon Tear toward her, the color melted into a yellow-orange. "If I'm friends with someone, it will glow green or blue, and if I am destined to cross paths with someone, it will flash all colors of the rainbow," He said, holding the Tear toward Bow. It flickered a rainbow of colors. "But, only a dragon can use the tear, if anyone else holds it," He said, handing it to Bow, The colors instantly dissipated like ink in a pool of water until the whole gem was totally clear. "It will not work," He finished. Ruki looked on with amazement at the treasure.
"Damn, that would still be a great treasure to have, if it worked," She said, grinning. "A person could see who was a friend and who was a foe,"
"Yeah, well, it's helped me a number of times," Ryu said, slipping it back into his pack. "If that's all you wanted, we'll be on our way," He said, lifting his bag over his shoulder. He headed for the door with Bow close behind, still chuckling.
"Wait," She yelled, throwing her closet door open. She dug into the mess, pulled out a satchel, and began feverishly stuffing it with clothes.
"Wait a minute, you can't come with us!" Bow yelled. She didn't acknowledge his statement. "Buddy, tell her she can't come. She's too unruly, and… we've already got a thief in our group," He said. "And besides, she wouldn't get along with Katt," He added. Ruki stood up, with the satchel in hand, clothes sticking out from ever hole.
"If I can't have a Dragon Tear that will work for me, I'll just take advantage of yours," She said smiling. Ryu took out the Tear and held it in her direction.
"Oh NO Buddy, you can't," Bow yelled.
"Just last night you wanted to marry her," Ryu said, looking at him.
"Yeah but I was drunk," Bow pouted. Ryu tucked the light green Tear back into his pouch.
"You better be able to hold your own," He said, turning toward the door, Bow moping behind him.
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