Thx to all reviewers!
Reyemile-errr.not sure of ur quote there. Could it be it was a bit too violent for ur liking? I could tone that down later on.
Cole W-Thanks man. Glad to know I could actually make it to someone's fav author list. Btw, I've read a bit of NoBaka's story and it is really damned gd.
Silver Kitsune-sorry bout that, but I thought 1 or 2 cliffies would be nice (. I'll try to update my story sooner since you are enjoying it so far!
Gleenthefrog-*grin* keep up the gd work? Sure thing!
On with the story!
Breath of Fire 2: Chapter 3-Two Demons, A Winged Girl and a Gangsters' Place
"Two more minutes, man." Katt giggled, somewhat guiltily as she tried to poke Ryu awake. He had been asleep for two hours straight even after taking the antidote. "What am I going to say when he wakes up? 'Sorry Baba' or 'Thanks for rescuing me'? That sounds so lame.He sure is cute though, for a name like Baba."
"That's what I told him too, Katt." A gruff voice behind her caused Katt to jump three feet high and she turned about to glare at Rand, her face red from embarrassment. "What? It seemed as though you were declaring this to the whole world with that voice of yours." Came the defensive reply.
"Where am I?" The spiky head of Ryu came in view of Rand as he stood up. "Oh, hey, Miss Chuan. So I assume that you are all right? Not poisoned or anything?"
"Nah. Listen Baba, I'm sorry for doubting you and thanks for rescuing me from those needles. By the way, call me Katt. All my friends call me that." The Woren replied sheepishly as she shyly extended a hand to Ryu.
"Geez. The world must have changed while I was out cold. Some time ago you were determined to kill me and now I'm your friend? This is weird." Ryu said with a mock-confused expression on his face, to which Katt made a face in response but eventually smiled at his joke.
Ryu grinned as the Tear turned from yellow to a light shade of green. "Oh yeah, I nearly forgot. My real name is Ryu Bateson. Had to take that dumb Baba name just to enter this competition to meet up with you." "It's not what you think!" Ryu waved his arms frantically as he saw Katt redden and Rand raise an eyebrow. He then hurriedly explained the reason for his entry to the competition.
"I see. So this rumour has got you racin' 'ere?" Rand said. "Hmm.I would like to help ya very much, Ryu, but now I just feel like kicking Augus's ass now, don't you too, Katt?"
"Yeah! Leave the left side for me, Rand!" Came the feisty reply. Ryu chuckled and buckled his sword in place.
"Very well. Seems as if I feel like doing the same to him. Let's go!"
* * * *
Rand charged through the door with Ryu and Katt following through, knocking out all the minions of Augus. To their surprise, he turned from the fireplace calmly and faced them. "So you have come, finally. I was getting rather impatient for your arrival."
"This fight was meant as a nice show for my God, and you have all RUINED IT!!" Augus screamed as he looked at the trio venomously and in front of their very eyes, He transfigured slowly.
His face was twisted in a grimace of pain as his torso, fingers, legs, face grew out brown hair. The extremely loose purple robe tightened to fit his rapidly growing body. Something seemed to twist and turn as it popped out of Augus's shoulder, forming into a lupine head, as did the human head. Two large clubs materialized out of nowhere and the creature once called Augus grabbed them.
"It was nice knowing you, Ryu Bateson, Katt Chuan and Rand Marks. You will be remembered as decent meals!!" The thing slobbered as it rushed forward to attack.
Half an hour later, Ryu, Katt and Rand sat on the ground, exhausted from the battle. In front of them laid the demon-beast, bleeding from numerous sword wounds in his chest and claw-staff wounds on his back with a couple of big, ugly bruises on his face by Rand.
"Argh!! But that doesn't matter.The seed has been planted already.It is a new age.an age of darkness.The age of our GOD!!!Your futile efforts of killing me would avail to naught, fools. Especially you, the Destined Child.HAHAHAHAHA!!" The demon-beast laughed and died in an unholy fire, turning him into ashes while the trio watched on.
Destined child? But that can't be! How could this thing know about his nightmares? And how did it know its real name? Unless he was the nightmare itself.Ryu couldn't help but felt that this was only the beginning of something great and terrible.
"What the hell is he talkin' about? What God?" Ryu heard Rand wheeze as he helped Katt up. "Sheesh, this is too much for me to handle. I gotta get out of this goddamned place."
"I'm gonna follow Ryu." Came Katt's bright voice.
"Wha-"
"Please Ryu. I'm an orphan and have no home. Perhaps you can help me look for one, at the very least, please?"
Ryu sighed. He hated people who pleaded with him, but was particularly annoyed when he knew he had to accede to their pleas. "All right, Katt. You can come along. Rand, if you like, you can come along too. I know of a place, though it isn't much, it is still a place."
"Yay!"
"But," Ryu said with a little grin. "You are going to help out with the repairs of that place, Miss Chuan."
"Yeah, yeah. I know that. Piece of cake for me!"
"Good little kitty! Now let's go!" Ryu yelped as he received a kick from Katt on the butt. Rand laughed and followed the duo out of the door.
* * * *
"Hey, Ryu! You're back!" Bow came running out and greeted his friend with a friendly punch on the arm. "Erm.no offense, but who are these people?" Bow indicated a paw towards the Woren girl and the Armadillo man.
"They are friends, man. Let's go inside so we can talk some more."
"Right."
Inside the slightly roofed Ruins, Ryu enlightened Niro and Bow about his adventures in Coursair, with the help of Katt and Rand, whose extreme novelisations seem to memerise the old man and the Grass Runner.
"That's cool, man! Wish I could've went with you. But I guess I can't. Yet. Rand, could you help with the repairs?" Bow asked.
"Sure."
"What about me?" Katt's emerald eyes were wide and innocent, giving her a vulnerable look as she inquired about what she could do.
"Ah.Katt, maybe you could go with Ryu. He might need some help on finding the thief. Not even he can take on everything, ya know."
"Okay!" Katt said cheerfully as Bow sighed with relief.
"I guess you think she can't handle to repair job, right?" Ryu whispered, earning vigorous nodding from Bow.
"Okay, Katt, let's g-gahhh!" Ryu gagged as Katt dragged him by the collar out the door.
"We will find the female thief for you Bow! Count on us!" She waved happily while Bow waved uncertainly back. "Hope Ryu can handle that girl."
"Where to next, Ryu?" Katt asked eagerly as Ryu sat on a rock to catch his breath.
"Sheesh, slow down a bit! At the rate you are travelling at, even Father Time is gonna lose to you."
"You're getting old, that's all. So where to next?"
Ryu sat silently as he searched his memory. "Oh yeah, Galden(the Hometown guard's name) said something about a girl with wings in the Magic School of Hometown. Let's hit the place and find out more."
"Magic? Can I learn some, Ryu?" the eagerness in Katt's voice doubled. Ryu looked at her skeptically and finally nodded. "Yeah, sure. Why not? It's not like you can't learn that stuff are something."
"Yay! Let's go!" and off she went, dragging a poor, choking Ryu by his collar again.
* * * *
"What's that sound?" Katt said. Ryu's senses immediately woke up and he rushed to the Magic School, where the sound had come from.
He arrived in time to see the gate explode in a flare of fire and lightning and three thugs were thrown backwards from the entrance of the School.
"Excuse me. Are any of you hurt?" A soft voice made its way to Ryu's ears and he turned to see the owner of the voice.
The person was a girl about his age. She had waist-long, shiny blonde hair and even more of it was piled up on her head, just like a pixie's hairstyle. She wore boots that nearly reached her knees and a tight blue dress, which had a slit up to her hips on both sides, showing off the creamy ivory skin of her legs. The dress also seemed to accentuate her every curve, which seemed as numerous as Ryu could count and her well- shaped oval face was complemented with small cherry red lips and sparkling sapphire eyes. Ryu felt his breath caught in his throat but managed to notice her beautiful ebony wings befpre
"What the f**k! Are you trying to kill us?"
"Sorry. But you gentlemen just wouldn't leave me alone and I just couldn't control my magic for a while."
The three thugs surrounded her and cackled. "Come with us quietly to see the boss, Nina. Then maybe he will consider giving you a better life as his personal.assistant."
Three bolts of lightning struck the thugs, stunning them and blasting them four feet away from the girl. "Please don't force me to 'lose control' again. The next time, you could wind up dead. Accidentally." The girl stated with a serious but simple tone. It somehow sounded more like a command to move away from her, Ryu thought, and her tone implied that she had commanded people before. For what, Ryu didn't know.
"We'll be back! Let's go!" The three thugs picked themselves up gingerly and stalked off out of town and the girl, breathing a sigh of relief, walked back into the School.
".That's so cool! Right, Ryu? Hey, hello!" Katt waved a hand in front of Ryu as he stared after the winged girl. He finally snapped out of his little trance when Katt pinched him.
"Oww! Yeah that was cool. Let's go in and let you learn something, right? Then we find out about this winged girl here."
"Okay!" Katt said cheerfully.
They entered the spacious foyer and searched about. Katt had found something interesting on attack magics and had stayed in that particular section of the building while Ryu continued to look for the girl. He finally saw the pair of black wings and approached her.
"Ah, excuse me." Ryu called out to her. She whirled around and sent a Spark spell straight at him. Reflexively, Ryu drew out his sword and tried out his new technique: spinning his sword rapidly so the flames were spreaded out onto his blade, acting as a shield."
"Is it you again? You even have the nerve to enter this place-" Nina stopped as she looked at her 'assailant'. Instead of the rough clothes and shifty eyes and large build of a man, she took in a sheepish-looking teenage boy about her age with spiky blue hair tied in a long ponytail and a round, strong face with startlingly emerald eyes. The tight shirt did nothing to hide his impressive muscles, which were lean and not bulky. She admired them for a while before noticing the slight burns on his hands. It was then she realized her mistake and began to blush.
"Oh, I'm so sorry! I hurt you, didn't I?" She immediately produced bandages from her pouch and bound them around Ryu's hands. "I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to-"
"I-It's okay." Ryu stuttered out. "This kind of little wounds don't bother me much and anyway, it is good that you are still on the alert for your assailants, the Joker Gang, from the looks of their clothing." Damned, Ryu thought now I realized something: He had a stupid problem with pretty girls too.
And that was the mere task of talking to them.
" You saw me fighting them?" the girl asked, blue eyes wide with surprise. Ryu could only nod and stammer out a reply. "T-that was some fight you put up."
Damned. Couldn't he say anything better?
"Ah.Thank you. I had to train myself in case I got into this kind of trouble. By the way, my name is Nina Wyndia."
"Oh. You're welcome. My name is R-Ryu Bateson. Nice to meet you, Miss Wyndia."
"Just call me Nina, Ryu."
"Okay." The Tear flared a deep green colour, providing some timely distraction for Ryu.
"What's that?" Nina pointed a slender finger to the jewel. It was encircled by the shape of a dragon, which was made of a rare silvery metal. Ryu flushed and explained the purpose of the Dragon Tear.
"Umm.Well.It shows the emotions that is projected towards the wearer by other people he or she interacts and comes in contact with. For example, if I talk with a person full of hatred, the jewel in the center will glow a bright crimson colour to indicate intense hatred. Now the gem is deep green, so.so it means you are willing to be my friend, or something like that.Actually, I don't know the meanings of some of the colour indicators shown."
"Wow. Can anyone else wear it besides you?"
"Huh?"
"I mean, no offense, but I saw you fingering the Dragon Tear absentmindedly like it was something very precious to you."
"My deceased mother left it for me, to protect me. It seemed as though the Tear doesn't work for anyone else, though."
"I'm sorry."
"It's okay. It's been so long ago already." Ryu trailed off, thinking yet again about how his mother would look like.
Nina shifted a bit uncomfortably and said to Ryu, "Sorry again, Ryu, but I have to report in to Master Yoji for punishment of misusing magic."
Ryu was puzzled. "Punishment? Must be one of the rules of the School."
"Yeah. Please wait a while." Nina said as she walked up the stairs.
"Wait!" Ryu shouted, causing a surprised Nina to turn about. "Erm.L-Let me a-accompany y-you." Ryu stammered as he felt his ears burn. "I need to query you about something anyway."
"Thank you, Ryu." She said softly to him, who promptly indicated that he had to get his companion to come along first. Nina smiled and nodded before watching him zoom towards the 'Heavy duty attack magics' section.
Moments later, Ryu was back, dragging an unwilling Katt towards Nina. "Nina, I want you to meet Katt Chuan. She is one of my friends and a travelling companion." Ryu stated, avoiding Nina's eyes lest he made a fool of himself again. "Katt, this is Nina Wyndia, the winged girl you were impressed with earlier on."
"Wow! Hi Nina! Can you teach me some magic please? Oh, you can call me Katt, by the way." The Woren's excitement reached its peak as she looked eagerly at Nina.
"Hi, Katt. You can call me Nina. I'm afraid I'm not qualified to teach you magic yet. Maybe Master Yoji could enlighten you about magic, though."
"Okay! Just lead me to him, Nina!" Katt giggled like a schoolgirl while Nina smiled, beckoning to Ryu to follow her as she walked up towards the Advanced Magics classroom.
* * * *
"I'm sorry, Master Yoji, I misused my magic." Nina stood in front of a hunchbacked, slight old man, with Ryu and Katt behind her. He looked rather fragile and weak, but one look at his eyes and Ryu knew that his man was a man of great wisdom and magical power.
".Hmm?? Please explain, child." The soft voice of Yoji floated across the room to the trio like a ghost, unexpectedly.
".Recently, thugs from the Joker Gang have harassed me, trying to force me to join them and I had to use my magic to keep them from getting near me."
"Hmm.Self-defense is no punishment, child. There is nothing to forgive." The old magician smiled benignly and walked over to Katt. "And this child wants to learn magic." He stated.
"Yeah! Can you teach me, so that I can take out the bad guys harassing Nina?"
".I don't know, child. Magic takes a lot of time and effort, so I guess if you really want to, then I can teach you some attack spells. But remember, time and effort."
Katt nodded vigorously and the old man let out a hearty chuckle, a deep, rich sound. " You can leave to continue your studies, Nina." With that, he proceeded to teach Katt, leaving Ryu and Nina standing alone.
"Phew. No punishment. I never thought even the Master Magician would bend the rules a little." Ryu said, happy no punishment was given to Nina. "Okay, now it's my turn. Nina, do you know anything a-about the theft of-" An explosion was heard downstairs, immediately drowning out his voice. He immediately drew his sword and headed downstairs with Nina hot on his heels and both of them gasped simultaneously as they saw the same thugs with reinforcements, right in front of a large hole in the wall of the School.
"The Joker Gang!" Both of them said at the same time, making the duo blush. They quickly regained their composure and got ready to battle, only to see a blue-haired girl being held hostage by the leader of the thugs.
A figure found its way to the nasty little invasion by the thugs and two of them went down in pain, clutching their bruised ribs. Katt Chuan stood defiantly in front of the group of a dozen, raging fire burning within her green eyes. "You losers still have the nerve to come back after getting your pathetic little asses kicked by a girl. Wow, the world is really changing." The remark brought about more than a few growls and scowls, but the leader had frozen a strange victorious little smile on his face as he stepped forward to face the raging Woren warrior directly.
"Of course, we have the nerve, miss. Firstly, we have a hostage here and we can kill her if you don't back off and do what we tell you to. Secondly, perhaps the name 'Mina' can persuade cute lil' Nina here to change her mind about joining us."
Ryu blinked. Wasn't Mina the girl he and Bow had helped a little while ago? He turned to look at Nina curiously. She had gritted her teeth and summoned a myriad of energies around her hand, the glow of her aura making her look dangerous and ethereally angelic. "What have you done to her?" The steel in her voice was more than obvious; so much that even Ryu winced. He took a mental note of trying his best not to get on this Winidian's bad side.
"Oh, nothing yet, Nina. But your lil' sister sure is cute. Some my brothers are even thinking beyond that now." Ryu sent the dirtiest look he could muster at the leader while tightening his grip on his sword. Katt followed suit, accompanied with a few growls. "Hey hey, chill man. I did say we haven't done anything yet. But if you don't come, Nina, our brothers might get rough."
The glow around Nina slowly faded as she sighed softly in defeat, contrasting the volcanic glare she had directed towards the leader. "..Fine. I'm coming with you. But if I find out that anything has happened to Mina."
"Yeah, I know, Nina. Nobody likes to be an overcooked marshmallow. Don't worry, babe. Nobody's touchin' Mina.yet." Ryu felt his control over the raging beast in him waver and his left hand developed a new interest for the handle of his sword. He did not realize that he had been gripping his sword until Katt poked him in the arm, a concerned expression on her face. Ryu slowly released the handle and glowered at the leader as Nina followed the group meekly out of the unnatural entrance.
Yoji, who had came down to investigate the noise, sighed in defeat. "The Joker Gang.are going to force Nina to work for them.Please help her!" He implored Ryu and Katt. Katt nodded fiercely, while Ryu looked strangely calm.
"Come on Ryu, let's go get them bad guys!" Katt exclaimed, her voice full of righteous fury. "Don't stand there like a piece of wood, let's go help Nina!" She rushed towards the hole and was about to step out when the ranger's quiet voice stopped her.
"Wait, Katt." Ryu took up a large piece of debris and flung it towards the ground just outside of the hole. Rattling sounds were heard and lethal iron spikes rushed up from the earth, ending any lives that stepped upon the treacherous ground. Katt's heart skipped a beat as her green eyes widened at the sight of the trap and tried to suppress the mounting fear inside her. "The Joker Gang is always up to no good. Gotta take that in mind." Ryu said nonchalantly. But as Katt took a closer look at him, she could see his mouth set into a frown and his eyes tranmitted the message that he is not to be messed with now. Silently, Katt followed Ryu out through the main entrance of the Magic School to look for the Joker Gang hideout.
* * * *
"Alright man, I will tell you! Just don't hit me any more!" The lone Joker Gang member was quite a sight, with the pretty little purple and blue bruises on his face. In front of him stood a angry Ryu and an even angrier Katt whom he had tried to take a few liberties with but was discovered. Katt beat him up badly while Ryu tried to pry information about the Gang's location. The gangster finally relented on the fourth beating. "It is in a cave somewhere." He trailed off and stopped.
"Somewhere where?" The quiet menace in Ryu's voice was unlike anything Katt had heard from him. Even though she had been with him for a short time, she knew that this Ryu was way out of character. The laughing, grinning face was gone and in its place was a brooding darkness, made of menace, anger and threats.
"Okay, okay! The concourse is at the Southwestern part of Coursair!"
"Concourse?"
"It's the hideout's secret name. I'm tellin' ya, they are gonna kill me for ratting on them."
"Then let me save you from such a fate." Those were the final words the gangster heard from the azure-haired teen as he felt an exploding pain at the back of his head and dropped to the ground like a rock. "Let's get to work." Ryu walked on towards the hideout and Katt followed meekly, unsure of what to say to him.
"So this is the hideout."
"Yeah, can't be wrong." Ryu whispered back as the duo hid behind some rocks to watch gang members moving in and out, carrying crates and sacks. The metallic clink confirmed the suspicions of Katt that there was gold or silver in those sacks and crates. Each member had their trademark Joker sign tattoo on their right arm, probably to confirm their identities with the burly and dangerous-looking guard, standing like a ominous statue. As the last gangster got in, Ryu rushed out without a word and swung his sword at the guard. The scuffle lasted for about five seconds as Katt jumped into the fray and knocked out the guard. The stab wound inflicted by the guard on Ryu's chest was not deep, but showed the folly of Ryu's impatient and mad charge. Katt decided not to push her luck to chid him.
"Who are you? Hey, you aren't our gang members! Who the hell are you people?"
"We're mercenaries Joker has decided to hire. Now if you would excuse me, we have important business with him."
The gangster was taken aback and recovered his composure only after scrutinizing them. "All right. In you go, especially you, little kitty." The sentence was unfinished as the man cowered before Katt's threatening staff, making him look like a sniveling fool. Katt grinned maliciously at him before following Ryu towards the 'basement'.
After umpteen times of explanation of who they were, Ryu was starting to think that hacking and slashing through the hideout was a much better idea. He growled in frustration as his imagination wandered, thinking of the danger a certain winged girl could be in. He did not even noticed that he had collided with someone until he felt a little dizzy.
"Wha-???" Ryu looked at the person he had collided with. "Pain? You are a Joker Gang member?"
The man called Pain stood up painfully (no pun intended) and grinned nervously at Ryu. "Er.Hi Ryu. What are you doing here?"
Ryu stared hard at him, then let his face relax into a faint smile. " So this was your 'secret agenda' eh, friend?" He slapped Pain on the back, causing him to stumble forward.
"Yeah, I guess you could say that." The bearded but obviously young man laughed in relief: It seemed as though he was really scared of the ranger.
"Good. So how about paying back your little debt? Take me to the Joker's humble abode and the debt will never exist at all after that."
"Ah hahaha. Sure, why not? My uncle favours me quite a lot, anyway. Let me take you along the safe route; the one without the traps." With that, Pain grinned and beckoned for the two to follow his lead. Katt looked at Ryu with a bemused expression, who simply shrugged and finally showed her one of his trademark mischievous grins as they followed the gangster.
"In there, Ryu Dragonate. You can walk through this corridor and to the last room. That is where all the important functions of our gang are held. My uncle is in there now, so I advise you to wait for his meeting to end before-"
"Will do. Off with you now before I change my mind about the debt." Ryu waved an impatient hand at Pain, who decided that less words from him is a better choice. He hurried off into the darkness that almost swallowed the whole corridor.
Katt looked at Ryu and asked curiously, "What kind of debt was it and what's with the Dragonate name?"
"Oh, it's.I'll tell you some other day, alright? Let's go rescue Nina first."
So it was Nina, Katt thought as she saw Ryu's jaw tighten in anticipation and impatience. She felt a pang of jealousy that the regal Winidian was getting all of Ryu's attention at the moment. But.rescuing people should be one of a ranger's duties.right?
She pushed the cobweb of thoughts aside and decided to concentrate on the task at hand. She carefully and quietly stepped over two unconscious guards and laid down low beside Ryu to listen to the conversation going on between Nina and a roly-poly man, flanked by half a dozen thugs.
"Return my sister to me please." Nina's voice resonated throughout the spacey room. It looked fit for a king and was rather well furnished and would have had a nobleman's standard for a house if not for the natural stalactites and rocks. The fat man sitting on a chair was wearing livery fit for kings and all his six thugs looked as menacing as the longswords they were holding, the blades serrated and gleaming brightly, reflecting the light from the flame torches needed to light up the place.
At one glance, Ryu knew that the fat man was the infamous Joker. The glitter in his eyes showed the extreme greed of certain things and although Ryu thought he was imagining things, he saw a malevolent sparkle in the eyes of the Joker, the same he had saw in Angus's eyes. It was something big, bad and ugly.
It could even be a demon.
The well-nourished man smiled, showing his dimples on his cheeks. "Haha, sure Nina! I will release your sister Mina, but only if you comply with my conditions about working for me. Maybe after that, we could get to know each other much more.personally."
Ryu felt strangely vexed and angry at that statement. Maybe because Nina was his friend.yeah, that's right, he thought. No friend of his is going to meet any sort of harm or abuse as long as he draws breath. He was poised to leap into action but Katt put a restraining hand on his shoulder as she pointed to three new figures entering the room through a side door. A winged girl, shorter than Nina with wings of the purest white and two thugs right behind her.
Mina.
"Mina! Are you hurt?" Nina asked anxiously. Mina nodded, fear written all over her face. She turned to the Joker angrily and in an eerily quiet voice, said, "Return my sister to me now."
"My, Nina. Does that mean you are willing to join my services?" The Joker smiled as though he was a child and had been given a new toy.
"Yeah, Nina, then all of us can get to know you better." The thug 'accidentally brushed his hand across Nina's backside while the other thugs snickered.
Nina had enough. She spun around and a vicious ball of fire flew straight towards the thug and engulfed him in angry flames. The thug fell down, unconscious after screaming his heart out from the pain. He looked black enough to be completely invisible in the night and Nina looked like a vengeance incarnate with the fiery expression on her face. "I'm going to repeat myself: Return Mina to me now or.I'll really get serious."
"Ho Ho Ho! You sure are feisty, Nina. I like feisty women even more, because they tend to play hard to get." Joker rumbled with laughter, his oversized belly bobbing up and down. "Hmm.Let's do this my way. Either you join us, or Mina will DIE!"
Nina froze immediately. The thugs grabbed her by her arms and brought her in front of the gang leader in a kneeling position, so as to force her to agree. Ryu was about to leap to the rescue when he noticed that Katt was missing from her hiding spot.
"Hiyah!" A feminine battle cry rang out as the three thugs guarding Mina were downed by a black and yellow blur of action and attacks. "Ryu, Mina's safe! Do your stuff!" Ryu wasted no time and leapt into action, his long sword held in a double-handed grip, his blade baying for the blood of evil and singing of justice.
Nina swiveled around, surprised. When did Ryu come? No matter, since all that mattered was that Mina was safe. She struggled out of the iron grip of the thugs while they were astounded by the fact that an intruder had arrived and got to her feet. That move, however, saw her backed up against a wall. Three of the six converged on her and she got into a fighting stance. But before Nina could move another inch, the six thugs landed on the ground with an audible thud. Relieved emerald eyes peered into hers the next moment and she squeaked in surprise, even after feeling that those eyes did not belong to anyone with hostile intentions towards her.
"Hey." The familiar voice of Ryu Bateson greeted her. The dancing shadows caused by the flickering flames were finally forced to reveal the handsome face of his. He was smiling, full of relief and he seemed completely relaxed, free of stress and of all malevolent emotions. "Are you okay?"
Nina realized that Ryu was staring and backed away from him slowly. "Erm.Yeah, I'm alright. Was there something strange about my face or anything?"
"Hmm?"
"You were.staring at me."
Ryu blushed, all his composure gone in a blink of an eye. "Oh.erm.that was." He left his words unfinished, fearful of what a fool he might look had those words tumbled out of his mouth. He quickly reverted his attention on the womanizing, greedy gang leader of the Joker gang.
"Oh no, they are all.gone!" He reached for a lever but was blocked by Katt, who decided to take the liberty of clobbering the fat man. She was having the time of her life until a warning shout from Nina alerted her enough to leap out of danger, as loose clods of earth and rocks fell onto Joker. "Augh."
Nina turned to Ryu and Katt as the last, large boulder fell, pinning all the other debris underneath. ".Thank you for saving me, Ryu, Katt. I don't know what could have happened to me or Mina had both of you not come in the nick of time. And speaking of Mina." Nina sent a stern glance at Mina and put her hands on her hips, as though she was speaking to some guilty child. "What in the world were you thinking? Going out of the castle with less than a dozen guards just so you can visit me?"
".Sorry Sis. I just wanted to see you again. It's been so long since I last saw you at the Magic School. I only wanted to get a glimpse of you." Mina looked away, guilt chewing her conscience away and Nina softened her attitude. She was her sister after all, and because of one.reason, she had to be separated from her sister. She had to be exiled.
Just because of that one little reason..
The boulders started to shift and rumble, snapping Nina back to reality. She could see that Ryu and Katt were already poised for battle and were watching the boulders closely. A strange and grotesque voice could be heard laughing and the rocks broke into pieces like shattered glass. In place of them was a fat, purple-skined, slit-eyed demon. His mouth was large enough to swallow possibly three or four men at one go. Without warning, a long object flicked out from his mouth and binded itself around Nina.
"How dare you.HOW DARE YOU HURT ME!" The demon roared in his grotesque voice, the echoes produced by the alcoves only making it sound more frightening. "Hmm.Winidian for lunch, and a beautiful one too. Sounds good to me!" The demon laughed at his own joke and started to 'reel' the struggling winged girl in..
.Only to feel extreme agony somewhere at the centermost part of his tongue. He looked at it and discovered that half of his tongue was gone and the remaining part was bleeding demon blood and yellowish green bile profusely. The monstrosity screamed in utter frustration and pure anger and charged towards the blue-haired fool who dared to defile his favourite body part.
* * * *
"Hope she's alright."
"Well, she ought to be. She's a magic spell-caster, or something like that."
"It's magician, Katt. And she doesn't look like the type to be able to hold off her own in a melee combat. Maybe we should let her rest and stay with her until she's well enough to travel. It wouldn't be safe for a girl like her to be all alone; she could get bullied or abused by.scum."
Nina smiled mentally to herself. The care that Ryu was unconsciously displaying towards her warmed her heart, but she decided to surprise the pair, who still did not have the foggiest idea that the Winidian was already awake.
"It's all my fault..If I hadn't been so foolish to run off to find Sis, this wouldn't have happened." the sadness and guilt in the angelic voice of her sister's was enough to make cold-blooded murderers weep. Nina could bear it no longer and decided to open her eyes to look at her rescuers and her sister.
"Finally, you're awake!" Katt greeted her with a bright smile. "Now we can get moving!"
"Hang on a sec, Katt. She's still a bit weak. Can't you see?" Ryu said as he steadied Nina, who had stumbled after standing up. "Can you walk?" Nina looked at her sister and flashed her a tired but reassuring smile. Mina immediately brightened up considerably and hugged her sister tightly.
Nina smiled sweetly at the overly concerned Ryu. "Yeah. I think I'm going to be just fine." Ryu managed to nod, a tomato face nodding vigorously as if to
Was it her imagination, or did her actions somehow make Ryu.blush?
Have to stop spending time with spell books. Nina thought, amused. They sure can alter one's imagination drastically. Smiling to herself, she lay back on the bed and drifted off to a pleasant, dreamless slumber.
How waz it? Please do read and review!
P.S if there are any areas that need improvement, plz do inform me in the reviews. Advice is greatly appreciated and your enjoyment will be magnified if I write a better story with ur advice!
Reyemile-errr.not sure of ur quote there. Could it be it was a bit too violent for ur liking? I could tone that down later on.
Cole W-Thanks man. Glad to know I could actually make it to someone's fav author list. Btw, I've read a bit of NoBaka's story and it is really damned gd.
Silver Kitsune-sorry bout that, but I thought 1 or 2 cliffies would be nice (. I'll try to update my story sooner since you are enjoying it so far!
Gleenthefrog-*grin* keep up the gd work? Sure thing!
On with the story!
Breath of Fire 2: Chapter 3-Two Demons, A Winged Girl and a Gangsters' Place
"Two more minutes, man." Katt giggled, somewhat guiltily as she tried to poke Ryu awake. He had been asleep for two hours straight even after taking the antidote. "What am I going to say when he wakes up? 'Sorry Baba' or 'Thanks for rescuing me'? That sounds so lame.He sure is cute though, for a name like Baba."
"That's what I told him too, Katt." A gruff voice behind her caused Katt to jump three feet high and she turned about to glare at Rand, her face red from embarrassment. "What? It seemed as though you were declaring this to the whole world with that voice of yours." Came the defensive reply.
"Where am I?" The spiky head of Ryu came in view of Rand as he stood up. "Oh, hey, Miss Chuan. So I assume that you are all right? Not poisoned or anything?"
"Nah. Listen Baba, I'm sorry for doubting you and thanks for rescuing me from those needles. By the way, call me Katt. All my friends call me that." The Woren replied sheepishly as she shyly extended a hand to Ryu.
"Geez. The world must have changed while I was out cold. Some time ago you were determined to kill me and now I'm your friend? This is weird." Ryu said with a mock-confused expression on his face, to which Katt made a face in response but eventually smiled at his joke.
Ryu grinned as the Tear turned from yellow to a light shade of green. "Oh yeah, I nearly forgot. My real name is Ryu Bateson. Had to take that dumb Baba name just to enter this competition to meet up with you." "It's not what you think!" Ryu waved his arms frantically as he saw Katt redden and Rand raise an eyebrow. He then hurriedly explained the reason for his entry to the competition.
"I see. So this rumour has got you racin' 'ere?" Rand said. "Hmm.I would like to help ya very much, Ryu, but now I just feel like kicking Augus's ass now, don't you too, Katt?"
"Yeah! Leave the left side for me, Rand!" Came the feisty reply. Ryu chuckled and buckled his sword in place.
"Very well. Seems as if I feel like doing the same to him. Let's go!"
* * * *
Rand charged through the door with Ryu and Katt following through, knocking out all the minions of Augus. To their surprise, he turned from the fireplace calmly and faced them. "So you have come, finally. I was getting rather impatient for your arrival."
"This fight was meant as a nice show for my God, and you have all RUINED IT!!" Augus screamed as he looked at the trio venomously and in front of their very eyes, He transfigured slowly.
His face was twisted in a grimace of pain as his torso, fingers, legs, face grew out brown hair. The extremely loose purple robe tightened to fit his rapidly growing body. Something seemed to twist and turn as it popped out of Augus's shoulder, forming into a lupine head, as did the human head. Two large clubs materialized out of nowhere and the creature once called Augus grabbed them.
"It was nice knowing you, Ryu Bateson, Katt Chuan and Rand Marks. You will be remembered as decent meals!!" The thing slobbered as it rushed forward to attack.
Half an hour later, Ryu, Katt and Rand sat on the ground, exhausted from the battle. In front of them laid the demon-beast, bleeding from numerous sword wounds in his chest and claw-staff wounds on his back with a couple of big, ugly bruises on his face by Rand.
"Argh!! But that doesn't matter.The seed has been planted already.It is a new age.an age of darkness.The age of our GOD!!!Your futile efforts of killing me would avail to naught, fools. Especially you, the Destined Child.HAHAHAHAHA!!" The demon-beast laughed and died in an unholy fire, turning him into ashes while the trio watched on.
Destined child? But that can't be! How could this thing know about his nightmares? And how did it know its real name? Unless he was the nightmare itself.Ryu couldn't help but felt that this was only the beginning of something great and terrible.
"What the hell is he talkin' about? What God?" Ryu heard Rand wheeze as he helped Katt up. "Sheesh, this is too much for me to handle. I gotta get out of this goddamned place."
"I'm gonna follow Ryu." Came Katt's bright voice.
"Wha-"
"Please Ryu. I'm an orphan and have no home. Perhaps you can help me look for one, at the very least, please?"
Ryu sighed. He hated people who pleaded with him, but was particularly annoyed when he knew he had to accede to their pleas. "All right, Katt. You can come along. Rand, if you like, you can come along too. I know of a place, though it isn't much, it is still a place."
"Yay!"
"But," Ryu said with a little grin. "You are going to help out with the repairs of that place, Miss Chuan."
"Yeah, yeah. I know that. Piece of cake for me!"
"Good little kitty! Now let's go!" Ryu yelped as he received a kick from Katt on the butt. Rand laughed and followed the duo out of the door.
* * * *
"Hey, Ryu! You're back!" Bow came running out and greeted his friend with a friendly punch on the arm. "Erm.no offense, but who are these people?" Bow indicated a paw towards the Woren girl and the Armadillo man.
"They are friends, man. Let's go inside so we can talk some more."
"Right."
Inside the slightly roofed Ruins, Ryu enlightened Niro and Bow about his adventures in Coursair, with the help of Katt and Rand, whose extreme novelisations seem to memerise the old man and the Grass Runner.
"That's cool, man! Wish I could've went with you. But I guess I can't. Yet. Rand, could you help with the repairs?" Bow asked.
"Sure."
"What about me?" Katt's emerald eyes were wide and innocent, giving her a vulnerable look as she inquired about what she could do.
"Ah.Katt, maybe you could go with Ryu. He might need some help on finding the thief. Not even he can take on everything, ya know."
"Okay!" Katt said cheerfully as Bow sighed with relief.
"I guess you think she can't handle to repair job, right?" Ryu whispered, earning vigorous nodding from Bow.
"Okay, Katt, let's g-gahhh!" Ryu gagged as Katt dragged him by the collar out the door.
"We will find the female thief for you Bow! Count on us!" She waved happily while Bow waved uncertainly back. "Hope Ryu can handle that girl."
"Where to next, Ryu?" Katt asked eagerly as Ryu sat on a rock to catch his breath.
"Sheesh, slow down a bit! At the rate you are travelling at, even Father Time is gonna lose to you."
"You're getting old, that's all. So where to next?"
Ryu sat silently as he searched his memory. "Oh yeah, Galden(the Hometown guard's name) said something about a girl with wings in the Magic School of Hometown. Let's hit the place and find out more."
"Magic? Can I learn some, Ryu?" the eagerness in Katt's voice doubled. Ryu looked at her skeptically and finally nodded. "Yeah, sure. Why not? It's not like you can't learn that stuff are something."
"Yay! Let's go!" and off she went, dragging a poor, choking Ryu by his collar again.
* * * *
"What's that sound?" Katt said. Ryu's senses immediately woke up and he rushed to the Magic School, where the sound had come from.
He arrived in time to see the gate explode in a flare of fire and lightning and three thugs were thrown backwards from the entrance of the School.
"Excuse me. Are any of you hurt?" A soft voice made its way to Ryu's ears and he turned to see the owner of the voice.
The person was a girl about his age. She had waist-long, shiny blonde hair and even more of it was piled up on her head, just like a pixie's hairstyle. She wore boots that nearly reached her knees and a tight blue dress, which had a slit up to her hips on both sides, showing off the creamy ivory skin of her legs. The dress also seemed to accentuate her every curve, which seemed as numerous as Ryu could count and her well- shaped oval face was complemented with small cherry red lips and sparkling sapphire eyes. Ryu felt his breath caught in his throat but managed to notice her beautiful ebony wings befpre
"What the f**k! Are you trying to kill us?"
"Sorry. But you gentlemen just wouldn't leave me alone and I just couldn't control my magic for a while."
The three thugs surrounded her and cackled. "Come with us quietly to see the boss, Nina. Then maybe he will consider giving you a better life as his personal.assistant."
Three bolts of lightning struck the thugs, stunning them and blasting them four feet away from the girl. "Please don't force me to 'lose control' again. The next time, you could wind up dead. Accidentally." The girl stated with a serious but simple tone. It somehow sounded more like a command to move away from her, Ryu thought, and her tone implied that she had commanded people before. For what, Ryu didn't know.
"We'll be back! Let's go!" The three thugs picked themselves up gingerly and stalked off out of town and the girl, breathing a sigh of relief, walked back into the School.
".That's so cool! Right, Ryu? Hey, hello!" Katt waved a hand in front of Ryu as he stared after the winged girl. He finally snapped out of his little trance when Katt pinched him.
"Oww! Yeah that was cool. Let's go in and let you learn something, right? Then we find out about this winged girl here."
"Okay!" Katt said cheerfully.
They entered the spacious foyer and searched about. Katt had found something interesting on attack magics and had stayed in that particular section of the building while Ryu continued to look for the girl. He finally saw the pair of black wings and approached her.
"Ah, excuse me." Ryu called out to her. She whirled around and sent a Spark spell straight at him. Reflexively, Ryu drew out his sword and tried out his new technique: spinning his sword rapidly so the flames were spreaded out onto his blade, acting as a shield."
"Is it you again? You even have the nerve to enter this place-" Nina stopped as she looked at her 'assailant'. Instead of the rough clothes and shifty eyes and large build of a man, she took in a sheepish-looking teenage boy about her age with spiky blue hair tied in a long ponytail and a round, strong face with startlingly emerald eyes. The tight shirt did nothing to hide his impressive muscles, which were lean and not bulky. She admired them for a while before noticing the slight burns on his hands. It was then she realized her mistake and began to blush.
"Oh, I'm so sorry! I hurt you, didn't I?" She immediately produced bandages from her pouch and bound them around Ryu's hands. "I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to-"
"I-It's okay." Ryu stuttered out. "This kind of little wounds don't bother me much and anyway, it is good that you are still on the alert for your assailants, the Joker Gang, from the looks of their clothing." Damned, Ryu thought now I realized something: He had a stupid problem with pretty girls too.
And that was the mere task of talking to them.
" You saw me fighting them?" the girl asked, blue eyes wide with surprise. Ryu could only nod and stammer out a reply. "T-that was some fight you put up."
Damned. Couldn't he say anything better?
"Ah.Thank you. I had to train myself in case I got into this kind of trouble. By the way, my name is Nina Wyndia."
"Oh. You're welcome. My name is R-Ryu Bateson. Nice to meet you, Miss Wyndia."
"Just call me Nina, Ryu."
"Okay." The Tear flared a deep green colour, providing some timely distraction for Ryu.
"What's that?" Nina pointed a slender finger to the jewel. It was encircled by the shape of a dragon, which was made of a rare silvery metal. Ryu flushed and explained the purpose of the Dragon Tear.
"Umm.Well.It shows the emotions that is projected towards the wearer by other people he or she interacts and comes in contact with. For example, if I talk with a person full of hatred, the jewel in the center will glow a bright crimson colour to indicate intense hatred. Now the gem is deep green, so.so it means you are willing to be my friend, or something like that.Actually, I don't know the meanings of some of the colour indicators shown."
"Wow. Can anyone else wear it besides you?"
"Huh?"
"I mean, no offense, but I saw you fingering the Dragon Tear absentmindedly like it was something very precious to you."
"My deceased mother left it for me, to protect me. It seemed as though the Tear doesn't work for anyone else, though."
"I'm sorry."
"It's okay. It's been so long ago already." Ryu trailed off, thinking yet again about how his mother would look like.
Nina shifted a bit uncomfortably and said to Ryu, "Sorry again, Ryu, but I have to report in to Master Yoji for punishment of misusing magic."
Ryu was puzzled. "Punishment? Must be one of the rules of the School."
"Yeah. Please wait a while." Nina said as she walked up the stairs.
"Wait!" Ryu shouted, causing a surprised Nina to turn about. "Erm.L-Let me a-accompany y-you." Ryu stammered as he felt his ears burn. "I need to query you about something anyway."
"Thank you, Ryu." She said softly to him, who promptly indicated that he had to get his companion to come along first. Nina smiled and nodded before watching him zoom towards the 'Heavy duty attack magics' section.
Moments later, Ryu was back, dragging an unwilling Katt towards Nina. "Nina, I want you to meet Katt Chuan. She is one of my friends and a travelling companion." Ryu stated, avoiding Nina's eyes lest he made a fool of himself again. "Katt, this is Nina Wyndia, the winged girl you were impressed with earlier on."
"Wow! Hi Nina! Can you teach me some magic please? Oh, you can call me Katt, by the way." The Woren's excitement reached its peak as she looked eagerly at Nina.
"Hi, Katt. You can call me Nina. I'm afraid I'm not qualified to teach you magic yet. Maybe Master Yoji could enlighten you about magic, though."
"Okay! Just lead me to him, Nina!" Katt giggled like a schoolgirl while Nina smiled, beckoning to Ryu to follow her as she walked up towards the Advanced Magics classroom.
* * * *
"I'm sorry, Master Yoji, I misused my magic." Nina stood in front of a hunchbacked, slight old man, with Ryu and Katt behind her. He looked rather fragile and weak, but one look at his eyes and Ryu knew that his man was a man of great wisdom and magical power.
".Hmm?? Please explain, child." The soft voice of Yoji floated across the room to the trio like a ghost, unexpectedly.
".Recently, thugs from the Joker Gang have harassed me, trying to force me to join them and I had to use my magic to keep them from getting near me."
"Hmm.Self-defense is no punishment, child. There is nothing to forgive." The old magician smiled benignly and walked over to Katt. "And this child wants to learn magic." He stated.
"Yeah! Can you teach me, so that I can take out the bad guys harassing Nina?"
".I don't know, child. Magic takes a lot of time and effort, so I guess if you really want to, then I can teach you some attack spells. But remember, time and effort."
Katt nodded vigorously and the old man let out a hearty chuckle, a deep, rich sound. " You can leave to continue your studies, Nina." With that, he proceeded to teach Katt, leaving Ryu and Nina standing alone.
"Phew. No punishment. I never thought even the Master Magician would bend the rules a little." Ryu said, happy no punishment was given to Nina. "Okay, now it's my turn. Nina, do you know anything a-about the theft of-" An explosion was heard downstairs, immediately drowning out his voice. He immediately drew his sword and headed downstairs with Nina hot on his heels and both of them gasped simultaneously as they saw the same thugs with reinforcements, right in front of a large hole in the wall of the School.
"The Joker Gang!" Both of them said at the same time, making the duo blush. They quickly regained their composure and got ready to battle, only to see a blue-haired girl being held hostage by the leader of the thugs.
A figure found its way to the nasty little invasion by the thugs and two of them went down in pain, clutching their bruised ribs. Katt Chuan stood defiantly in front of the group of a dozen, raging fire burning within her green eyes. "You losers still have the nerve to come back after getting your pathetic little asses kicked by a girl. Wow, the world is really changing." The remark brought about more than a few growls and scowls, but the leader had frozen a strange victorious little smile on his face as he stepped forward to face the raging Woren warrior directly.
"Of course, we have the nerve, miss. Firstly, we have a hostage here and we can kill her if you don't back off and do what we tell you to. Secondly, perhaps the name 'Mina' can persuade cute lil' Nina here to change her mind about joining us."
Ryu blinked. Wasn't Mina the girl he and Bow had helped a little while ago? He turned to look at Nina curiously. She had gritted her teeth and summoned a myriad of energies around her hand, the glow of her aura making her look dangerous and ethereally angelic. "What have you done to her?" The steel in her voice was more than obvious; so much that even Ryu winced. He took a mental note of trying his best not to get on this Winidian's bad side.
"Oh, nothing yet, Nina. But your lil' sister sure is cute. Some my brothers are even thinking beyond that now." Ryu sent the dirtiest look he could muster at the leader while tightening his grip on his sword. Katt followed suit, accompanied with a few growls. "Hey hey, chill man. I did say we haven't done anything yet. But if you don't come, Nina, our brothers might get rough."
The glow around Nina slowly faded as she sighed softly in defeat, contrasting the volcanic glare she had directed towards the leader. "..Fine. I'm coming with you. But if I find out that anything has happened to Mina."
"Yeah, I know, Nina. Nobody likes to be an overcooked marshmallow. Don't worry, babe. Nobody's touchin' Mina.yet." Ryu felt his control over the raging beast in him waver and his left hand developed a new interest for the handle of his sword. He did not realize that he had been gripping his sword until Katt poked him in the arm, a concerned expression on her face. Ryu slowly released the handle and glowered at the leader as Nina followed the group meekly out of the unnatural entrance.
Yoji, who had came down to investigate the noise, sighed in defeat. "The Joker Gang.are going to force Nina to work for them.Please help her!" He implored Ryu and Katt. Katt nodded fiercely, while Ryu looked strangely calm.
"Come on Ryu, let's go get them bad guys!" Katt exclaimed, her voice full of righteous fury. "Don't stand there like a piece of wood, let's go help Nina!" She rushed towards the hole and was about to step out when the ranger's quiet voice stopped her.
"Wait, Katt." Ryu took up a large piece of debris and flung it towards the ground just outside of the hole. Rattling sounds were heard and lethal iron spikes rushed up from the earth, ending any lives that stepped upon the treacherous ground. Katt's heart skipped a beat as her green eyes widened at the sight of the trap and tried to suppress the mounting fear inside her. "The Joker Gang is always up to no good. Gotta take that in mind." Ryu said nonchalantly. But as Katt took a closer look at him, she could see his mouth set into a frown and his eyes tranmitted the message that he is not to be messed with now. Silently, Katt followed Ryu out through the main entrance of the Magic School to look for the Joker Gang hideout.
* * * *
"Alright man, I will tell you! Just don't hit me any more!" The lone Joker Gang member was quite a sight, with the pretty little purple and blue bruises on his face. In front of him stood a angry Ryu and an even angrier Katt whom he had tried to take a few liberties with but was discovered. Katt beat him up badly while Ryu tried to pry information about the Gang's location. The gangster finally relented on the fourth beating. "It is in a cave somewhere." He trailed off and stopped.
"Somewhere where?" The quiet menace in Ryu's voice was unlike anything Katt had heard from him. Even though she had been with him for a short time, she knew that this Ryu was way out of character. The laughing, grinning face was gone and in its place was a brooding darkness, made of menace, anger and threats.
"Okay, okay! The concourse is at the Southwestern part of Coursair!"
"Concourse?"
"It's the hideout's secret name. I'm tellin' ya, they are gonna kill me for ratting on them."
"Then let me save you from such a fate." Those were the final words the gangster heard from the azure-haired teen as he felt an exploding pain at the back of his head and dropped to the ground like a rock. "Let's get to work." Ryu walked on towards the hideout and Katt followed meekly, unsure of what to say to him.
"So this is the hideout."
"Yeah, can't be wrong." Ryu whispered back as the duo hid behind some rocks to watch gang members moving in and out, carrying crates and sacks. The metallic clink confirmed the suspicions of Katt that there was gold or silver in those sacks and crates. Each member had their trademark Joker sign tattoo on their right arm, probably to confirm their identities with the burly and dangerous-looking guard, standing like a ominous statue. As the last gangster got in, Ryu rushed out without a word and swung his sword at the guard. The scuffle lasted for about five seconds as Katt jumped into the fray and knocked out the guard. The stab wound inflicted by the guard on Ryu's chest was not deep, but showed the folly of Ryu's impatient and mad charge. Katt decided not to push her luck to chid him.
"Who are you? Hey, you aren't our gang members! Who the hell are you people?"
"We're mercenaries Joker has decided to hire. Now if you would excuse me, we have important business with him."
The gangster was taken aback and recovered his composure only after scrutinizing them. "All right. In you go, especially you, little kitty." The sentence was unfinished as the man cowered before Katt's threatening staff, making him look like a sniveling fool. Katt grinned maliciously at him before following Ryu towards the 'basement'.
After umpteen times of explanation of who they were, Ryu was starting to think that hacking and slashing through the hideout was a much better idea. He growled in frustration as his imagination wandered, thinking of the danger a certain winged girl could be in. He did not even noticed that he had collided with someone until he felt a little dizzy.
"Wha-???" Ryu looked at the person he had collided with. "Pain? You are a Joker Gang member?"
The man called Pain stood up painfully (no pun intended) and grinned nervously at Ryu. "Er.Hi Ryu. What are you doing here?"
Ryu stared hard at him, then let his face relax into a faint smile. " So this was your 'secret agenda' eh, friend?" He slapped Pain on the back, causing him to stumble forward.
"Yeah, I guess you could say that." The bearded but obviously young man laughed in relief: It seemed as though he was really scared of the ranger.
"Good. So how about paying back your little debt? Take me to the Joker's humble abode and the debt will never exist at all after that."
"Ah hahaha. Sure, why not? My uncle favours me quite a lot, anyway. Let me take you along the safe route; the one without the traps." With that, Pain grinned and beckoned for the two to follow his lead. Katt looked at Ryu with a bemused expression, who simply shrugged and finally showed her one of his trademark mischievous grins as they followed the gangster.
"In there, Ryu Dragonate. You can walk through this corridor and to the last room. That is where all the important functions of our gang are held. My uncle is in there now, so I advise you to wait for his meeting to end before-"
"Will do. Off with you now before I change my mind about the debt." Ryu waved an impatient hand at Pain, who decided that less words from him is a better choice. He hurried off into the darkness that almost swallowed the whole corridor.
Katt looked at Ryu and asked curiously, "What kind of debt was it and what's with the Dragonate name?"
"Oh, it's.I'll tell you some other day, alright? Let's go rescue Nina first."
So it was Nina, Katt thought as she saw Ryu's jaw tighten in anticipation and impatience. She felt a pang of jealousy that the regal Winidian was getting all of Ryu's attention at the moment. But.rescuing people should be one of a ranger's duties.right?
She pushed the cobweb of thoughts aside and decided to concentrate on the task at hand. She carefully and quietly stepped over two unconscious guards and laid down low beside Ryu to listen to the conversation going on between Nina and a roly-poly man, flanked by half a dozen thugs.
"Return my sister to me please." Nina's voice resonated throughout the spacey room. It looked fit for a king and was rather well furnished and would have had a nobleman's standard for a house if not for the natural stalactites and rocks. The fat man sitting on a chair was wearing livery fit for kings and all his six thugs looked as menacing as the longswords they were holding, the blades serrated and gleaming brightly, reflecting the light from the flame torches needed to light up the place.
At one glance, Ryu knew that the fat man was the infamous Joker. The glitter in his eyes showed the extreme greed of certain things and although Ryu thought he was imagining things, he saw a malevolent sparkle in the eyes of the Joker, the same he had saw in Angus's eyes. It was something big, bad and ugly.
It could even be a demon.
The well-nourished man smiled, showing his dimples on his cheeks. "Haha, sure Nina! I will release your sister Mina, but only if you comply with my conditions about working for me. Maybe after that, we could get to know each other much more.personally."
Ryu felt strangely vexed and angry at that statement. Maybe because Nina was his friend.yeah, that's right, he thought. No friend of his is going to meet any sort of harm or abuse as long as he draws breath. He was poised to leap into action but Katt put a restraining hand on his shoulder as she pointed to three new figures entering the room through a side door. A winged girl, shorter than Nina with wings of the purest white and two thugs right behind her.
Mina.
"Mina! Are you hurt?" Nina asked anxiously. Mina nodded, fear written all over her face. She turned to the Joker angrily and in an eerily quiet voice, said, "Return my sister to me now."
"My, Nina. Does that mean you are willing to join my services?" The Joker smiled as though he was a child and had been given a new toy.
"Yeah, Nina, then all of us can get to know you better." The thug 'accidentally brushed his hand across Nina's backside while the other thugs snickered.
Nina had enough. She spun around and a vicious ball of fire flew straight towards the thug and engulfed him in angry flames. The thug fell down, unconscious after screaming his heart out from the pain. He looked black enough to be completely invisible in the night and Nina looked like a vengeance incarnate with the fiery expression on her face. "I'm going to repeat myself: Return Mina to me now or.I'll really get serious."
"Ho Ho Ho! You sure are feisty, Nina. I like feisty women even more, because they tend to play hard to get." Joker rumbled with laughter, his oversized belly bobbing up and down. "Hmm.Let's do this my way. Either you join us, or Mina will DIE!"
Nina froze immediately. The thugs grabbed her by her arms and brought her in front of the gang leader in a kneeling position, so as to force her to agree. Ryu was about to leap to the rescue when he noticed that Katt was missing from her hiding spot.
"Hiyah!" A feminine battle cry rang out as the three thugs guarding Mina were downed by a black and yellow blur of action and attacks. "Ryu, Mina's safe! Do your stuff!" Ryu wasted no time and leapt into action, his long sword held in a double-handed grip, his blade baying for the blood of evil and singing of justice.
Nina swiveled around, surprised. When did Ryu come? No matter, since all that mattered was that Mina was safe. She struggled out of the iron grip of the thugs while they were astounded by the fact that an intruder had arrived and got to her feet. That move, however, saw her backed up against a wall. Three of the six converged on her and she got into a fighting stance. But before Nina could move another inch, the six thugs landed on the ground with an audible thud. Relieved emerald eyes peered into hers the next moment and she squeaked in surprise, even after feeling that those eyes did not belong to anyone with hostile intentions towards her.
"Hey." The familiar voice of Ryu Bateson greeted her. The dancing shadows caused by the flickering flames were finally forced to reveal the handsome face of his. He was smiling, full of relief and he seemed completely relaxed, free of stress and of all malevolent emotions. "Are you okay?"
Nina realized that Ryu was staring and backed away from him slowly. "Erm.Yeah, I'm alright. Was there something strange about my face or anything?"
"Hmm?"
"You were.staring at me."
Ryu blushed, all his composure gone in a blink of an eye. "Oh.erm.that was." He left his words unfinished, fearful of what a fool he might look had those words tumbled out of his mouth. He quickly reverted his attention on the womanizing, greedy gang leader of the Joker gang.
"Oh no, they are all.gone!" He reached for a lever but was blocked by Katt, who decided to take the liberty of clobbering the fat man. She was having the time of her life until a warning shout from Nina alerted her enough to leap out of danger, as loose clods of earth and rocks fell onto Joker. "Augh."
Nina turned to Ryu and Katt as the last, large boulder fell, pinning all the other debris underneath. ".Thank you for saving me, Ryu, Katt. I don't know what could have happened to me or Mina had both of you not come in the nick of time. And speaking of Mina." Nina sent a stern glance at Mina and put her hands on her hips, as though she was speaking to some guilty child. "What in the world were you thinking? Going out of the castle with less than a dozen guards just so you can visit me?"
".Sorry Sis. I just wanted to see you again. It's been so long since I last saw you at the Magic School. I only wanted to get a glimpse of you." Mina looked away, guilt chewing her conscience away and Nina softened her attitude. She was her sister after all, and because of one.reason, she had to be separated from her sister. She had to be exiled.
Just because of that one little reason..
The boulders started to shift and rumble, snapping Nina back to reality. She could see that Ryu and Katt were already poised for battle and were watching the boulders closely. A strange and grotesque voice could be heard laughing and the rocks broke into pieces like shattered glass. In place of them was a fat, purple-skined, slit-eyed demon. His mouth was large enough to swallow possibly three or four men at one go. Without warning, a long object flicked out from his mouth and binded itself around Nina.
"How dare you.HOW DARE YOU HURT ME!" The demon roared in his grotesque voice, the echoes produced by the alcoves only making it sound more frightening. "Hmm.Winidian for lunch, and a beautiful one too. Sounds good to me!" The demon laughed at his own joke and started to 'reel' the struggling winged girl in..
.Only to feel extreme agony somewhere at the centermost part of his tongue. He looked at it and discovered that half of his tongue was gone and the remaining part was bleeding demon blood and yellowish green bile profusely. The monstrosity screamed in utter frustration and pure anger and charged towards the blue-haired fool who dared to defile his favourite body part.
* * * *
"Hope she's alright."
"Well, she ought to be. She's a magic spell-caster, or something like that."
"It's magician, Katt. And she doesn't look like the type to be able to hold off her own in a melee combat. Maybe we should let her rest and stay with her until she's well enough to travel. It wouldn't be safe for a girl like her to be all alone; she could get bullied or abused by.scum."
Nina smiled mentally to herself. The care that Ryu was unconsciously displaying towards her warmed her heart, but she decided to surprise the pair, who still did not have the foggiest idea that the Winidian was already awake.
"It's all my fault..If I hadn't been so foolish to run off to find Sis, this wouldn't have happened." the sadness and guilt in the angelic voice of her sister's was enough to make cold-blooded murderers weep. Nina could bear it no longer and decided to open her eyes to look at her rescuers and her sister.
"Finally, you're awake!" Katt greeted her with a bright smile. "Now we can get moving!"
"Hang on a sec, Katt. She's still a bit weak. Can't you see?" Ryu said as he steadied Nina, who had stumbled after standing up. "Can you walk?" Nina looked at her sister and flashed her a tired but reassuring smile. Mina immediately brightened up considerably and hugged her sister tightly.
Nina smiled sweetly at the overly concerned Ryu. "Yeah. I think I'm going to be just fine." Ryu managed to nod, a tomato face nodding vigorously as if to
Was it her imagination, or did her actions somehow make Ryu.blush?
Have to stop spending time with spell books. Nina thought, amused. They sure can alter one's imagination drastically. Smiling to herself, she lay back on the bed and drifted off to a pleasant, dreamless slumber.
How waz it? Please do read and review!
P.S if there are any areas that need improvement, plz do inform me in the reviews. Advice is greatly appreciated and your enjoyment will be magnified if I write a better story with ur advice!