Volume II: Unforgiving Kingdom
Chapter XV: Phantom Thief
Location: Underground Tunnel between the 12th Floor and the 7th Floor
After their little problem within the eleventh floor Ragna, Monika, Feena, Grena, and now their new addition Goblin Mage, were finally able to return to the underground tunnels and get a move on once again, occasionally chatting and asking Feena questions about herself and Goblin Mage, to which most questions she declined to answer.
"Feena, come on." Monika complained. "If all of us are gonna be traveling together like this, then the least you can do is at least tell us more than what you've said."
"Haven't I said enough?" Feena asked.
"You've barely said anything!"
"Girls give it a rest will you?" Ragna sighed. "If she hasn't spoken up about it yet, then you pestering her about it over and over again isn't gonna change anything Monika."
"But it's not fair!" Monika whined.
"She ain't talking, let it go." Grena commented. "Time to call it quits. Besides, we've got other things to worry about other than Feena not wanting to talk about motherhood."
"M-Motherhood?!" Feena said in an embarrassed tone as she waved her hands frantically. "Wait, that doesn't mean I'm Goblin Mage's mother figure! And I'm definitely not her mother! Th-That's not me!"
"It might as well be. She thinks real highly of you... for some reason."
"What's that supposed to mean?!"
While the girls had been talking back and forth, Goblin Mage wasn't really paying attention to any part of their conversation. She was merely walking along beside them and holding a shiny coin in her hand, focusing all of her attention on that coin. Her other hand was holding onto Feena's hand, the mercenary pulling her along to prevent her from wandering off.
"I'm not trying to really say anything, okay?" Grena said. "I'm just still surprised, that's all. Despite being a mercenary you've been dragging this kid with you for a while now I suppose. I'm just surprised that she's really that dedicated to helping you."
"It's like I told you Grena." Feena said. "Goblin Mage and I have really been through thick and thin. We've got one hell of a tight bond with each other and that's why we stick together."
"You said something about a grudge against Goblins right?" Ragna asked. "Are you sure you're holding a grudge against them? I wouldn't take care of the one thing I hate more than anything if I were you."
"I know, but Goblin Mage isn't like those other ugly creatures. She's different."
"Well, I'll admit." Grena commented while looking at Goblin Mage. "She's certainly cuter looking than you'd expect from a goblin."
"All things aside, I don't think that carrying her along with us will be a burden." Monika stated.
"So long as she doesn't wander off or steal anything else." Ragna also added.
"Don't worry about all that." Feena said, lifting up Goblin Mage to the top of her head. "I'll keep a close eye on her now that she's with us. That's a promise!"
The group all nodded and smiled at that comment, expecting Feena to uphold it.
"Well then with that settled," Ragna started to say. "We should be on the tenth floor by now, shouldn't we?"
"Yeah, the stairway down is just a little further ahead." Grena answered. "Keep this up, we'll be down onto the seventh floor in no time."
Soon the group found themselves walking down a dark stairway that led into another part of the tunnel. As of now, they had successfully made their way to the tenth floor, making this another step closer to escaping from Goldenia.
"Hey, I don't think I ever asked." Grena said to the group. "What's your goal anyway? Why are you guys going to such great lengths to get out of Goldenia? How'd you get marked as criminals?"
"Gotta be because of this guy here." Feena answered as she points to Ragna.
"From what he's told us, Ragna here isn't from Riverbrandt like we are." Monika started to explain. "He's from another world outside of our own and we thought that bringing him to Goldenia we'd find somebody that could help us send him back to his world. Unfortunately before we could, our little skirmish with Prime Minister Alexiel and Her new Highness, Queen Freesia happened. Now, we've all been marked as criminals and none of this is of any benefit to Ragna and his situation."
"It's still partially my fault." Feena said while looking down. "I turned against them in the end and got the two of them arrested. Now we're in this damn mess because of my own selfish reasons..."
Goblin Mage starts smothering Feena's cheeks with her hands. "No need to feel down, Feena." She said. "We're all together now and we're all fine."
"Goblin Mage, I can't see."
"The girl's right." Ragna sighed. "As much shit as you've caused for us, putting all the blame on you isn't gonna get us anywhere. You, me, and Monika are all in the same boat. We don't have a choice but to get along. If you wanna play the blame game, do that after we've escaped from this kingdom."
"Without you, we never would've gotten this far." Monika added. "We went from the Imperial Dungeon to the tenth floor in a few days. Sure, we've hit some bumps along the way, but we're still close to escaping from Goldenia."
CLICK
"?! What the?!"
The group all suddenly looked alive at the sounds of a camera snapping a photograph. Ragna, Monika and Feena had their hands on their weapons while Grena spun her chains around slowly. Looking around the underground tunnel the group of five could see nothing in sight, despite the sound that they heard.
"What the hell was that?" Ragna asked.
"It sounded like a camera." Grena answered.
"Indeed it was."
Everyone was alert as they turned around upon hearing someone's voice behind them.
"But, in your cases, I would be more concern with the picture taken by the camera, rather than the camera itself. Don't you think?"
As everyone turned around, they all laid eyes on the source of the voice as well as the camera sounds from earlier. There was a young blonde hair boy wearing a large hat as well as a monocle. He wore a fancy purple-brown shirt with a white collar and a decorated cape. He wore white pants with light armored boots, the left boot taller than the right. In his left hand he held a long brass cane with the tip and a cat head made of diamonds. In his right hand, he was currently holding a photograph as well as a camera was hanging around his neck.
"Ah, the damage that one simple photo could cause." The boy said. "I wonder what would happen if I showed this photo to the Imperial Army, and then give them a tip about the tunnels?"
"Who the hell are you?" Ragna asked.
"What do you want kid?' Monika also asked.
"You're kidding..." Feena and Grena said in unison, catching the former two's attention.
"You know this kid?" Monika asked the two mercenaries.
"This..." Grena started to say. "Is Chat Noir."
Monika's eyes widened upon hearing Grena say that.
"Chat Noir?!" She exclaimed. "As in, THE Chat Noir?!"
"The one and only." Feena said.
"A pleasure to make all of your acquaintances." The kid, known as Chat Noir said to the group. "Indeed. I am THE Chat Noir. And-"
"Never heard of you." Ragna bluntly stated.
"Wha-?!"
Ragna's blunt comment managed to catch Chat Noir off guard, not expecting someone to not have heard of him.
"Chat Noir's a infamous Phantom Thief throughout all of Riverbrandt." Feena explained. "Started young, he's amassed the largest bounty throughout all of Riverbrandt. The public knows about him, but very few know what he looks like. His wanted posters are all blank but the crowd would know him if they saw him in real life."
"I also accept some jobs as mercenaries every now and then, using random aliases that I come up with." Chat Noir added into Feena's explanation. "It doesn't pay as well as precious gems I might add. I don't understand how you do this as a living."
"What do you want now, Chat? You here to try and capture us too?"
"I did mention mercenary jobs now didn't I Feena?"
"You two know each other?" Monika asked.
"We've worked together in the past before." Feena answered. "Chat's the one who told me all about the tunnels. But now it looks like he's definitely not here to help us."
"You'd be right." Chat Noir answered. "Normally I'm not one who would concern myself with the bounties of other criminals like myself. However, a reward as high as anything I wish from the Imperial Court. That is an offer that nobody in their right mind would ever pass up. All I have to do is turn in you three..." Chat turns his attention to Grena. "But, I'm not sure what I should do about the Crimson Chain. I wasn't expecting you."
"Same goes for you, Mr. Phantom Thief of the hour." Grena said in response. "What's with that camera? I don't recall you being one for photography."
"Ah, right." Chat Noir said. "As I was saying;"
Chat Noir turns around the photograph in his hand, revealing it to be two photos actually. The first photo was of the entire group inside of the tunnel. The second was the area that was directly outside the part of the tunnel they were currently in, even how to enter in the tunnels.
"I believe that with these photos they would make excellent pieces of proof to aid the Imperial Army in capturing you five. Once the tunnels are exposed it will only be a matter of time before they hunt you down and for me to claim my rewards."
"You're not gonna take us on yourself?" Ragna asked.
"Absolutely not. If i can, I'm willing to avoid confrontation."
"Then why would you even bring this up in front of us?" Feena asked. "Chat, you're skilled enough to have taken that picture and gotten out of here without us ever knowing you're here. Why show your face now?"
"Because, I want to play a little game with you all." Chat Noir answered.
"A game?" Goblin Mage asked out of curiosity.
"I won't turn in the pictures to any soldiers I find wandering around if you guys can manage to catch me before I decide to. If you can catch me, I'll give you the photos and camera to do as you want with. But if you fail and I manage to get these to the authorities, then well, I think you know what happens next."
"What kind of game is this?!" Ragna asked angrily. "This is a damn ultimatum. Either we play and win this game or we get arrested. That's some game you came up with you ass!"
"True, but you don't have many other options do you?" Chat leans on the wall as he spins his cane around. "So do we have a deal or not? I'll wait here while you make your decision."
The group were all left in a situation that they had no escape from. While true Chat Noir was willing to wait for their decision, they knew that they couldn't wait around forever or else they'd make no progress. But they knew that if they denied his request they would be ratted out and all possibly captured, or in the case of Ragna and Goblin Mage; killed. They also knew that if they accept this, they'd have to deal with chasing down a master thief, someone who specializes in evading capture. Even though he was right in front of them, they knew that they would have a hard time catching him. None of their options would be in their favor. That is the one thing that they could all agree on. As of now, everyone huddled up and whispered amongst each other.
"Well shit." Grena sighed. "Looks like we're really caught in a web now, huh?"
"Either we do as he says and risk everything, or we don't and all the progress we made was for nothing." Monika stated quietly. "Feena? What are our chances of actually succeeding in catching him?"
"Not good." Feena said in a defeated tone, implying she's somewhat already given up. "In his heists, he purposely lets everybody know when and where it'll take place, and no one's ever come close to catching him. Hell, I won't even have a chance at trying to haggle our way out of this one either."
"If we act quickly when we accept this, we should be able to catch him before we can even get this thing started." Ragna stated.
"You don't understand, Ragna." Grena said. "I don't know what kind of criminals you've dealt with wherever you're from, but Chat Noir isn't someone you can underestimate. He's not gonna let you get the jump on him."
"Do either of you have any better options?"
No one could offer any type of reply to Ragna's question, as they were out of ideas.
"Maybe we could try asking him nicely to not turn us in?" Goblin Mage however, still offered an innocent suggestion.
Eventually the group of five broke their huddle and turned to face Chat Noir, Ragna standing out in front.
"Alright kid." Ragna answered. "We'll play your little game."
Without giving the phantom thief a chance to even breathe in response Ragna rushed at him, his hand transformed in a dark claw as he lunged and attempted to grab Chat Noir off the bat. However, when he looked he was surprised to see that Chat Noir was nowhere in sight, and that in his hand was a bunch of cards with cat faces all over them.
"Cards?" He asked.
"He's long gone!" Grena exclaimed.
Before anyone else could make a comment Grena shot upwards using her flames and went straight out of a little hole that was the opening that led into the above area of the tenth floor. Knowing they'd have no other options Ragna and Monika followed after her. Feena sat Goblin Mage down and left her with her shiny coin from earlier.
"Goblin Mage, don't move from here until I get back." She said as she also went through the opening after the others.
As Grena came out of the tunnels first, she rolled out in the open and immediately started looking around for their target. Suddenly she heard someone whistling from above her. Looking up, she could see Chat Noir standing ontop of a wall waving at her. Once he was noticed, he jumped down on the other side of the wall, in which Grena climbed up the same wall quickly using her chains and then proceeded to do the same as she gave chase to him. Meanwhile Ragna, Monika, and Feena also emerged from the tunnel opening.
"Out in the open like this?" Monika asked in a concerned tone. "Wouldn't he be in danger too?"
"No one knows what he looks like Monika." Feena answered. "He can walk around in plain sight and even the Prime Ministers couldn't point him out!"
"We split up from here." Ragna said. "He's gotta be somewhere. And try not to get caught you two."
"Right."
The three of them all ran off in different directions to begin their search.
With Grena, the woman had successfully landed after flinging herself to the other side of the wall. There, she could see Chat Noir heading into the open streets. Grena growled, knowing that Chat Noir was waiting for her so that she could follow him, and ran in his direction. Upon reaching the streets, the phantom thief caused his cane and top hat to suddenly turn into shadows and sink into the ground under his, making him look less suspicious as he walked through the crowds as a normal citizen. Though he didn't remove his monocle, as he wanted something to help the group pick him out easily. It helped, as the moment Grena reached the streets, she could see the sun's reflection shining off of his monocle, and could pick him out. Immediately she dove into the crowd and started making her way up towards him, occasionally shoving others out of her way as she squeezed through.
Upon reaching a large intersection Chat Noir stepped out of the crowd of people and ran across towards a residential area. Grena managed to see him step out and quickly made her way over to where he ran into. Upon reaching the area, she could see Chat Noir walking around behind a few houses. Though instead of going at him head on, she used her chains and swung to the top of some houses, running across the roofs in order to reach him. As Chat Noir prepared to take off, Grena suddenly jumped down in front of him, and wrapped her chains around the boy, prevent him from escaping.
"Game over, Chat!" She exclaimed with a smirk.
"Au contraire, Grena." Chat Noir chuckled. "The game's just beginning."
Grena's smirk disappeared as Chat Noir's body suddenly dissolved into a pile of cat-faced cards.
"Card clones?!" She exclaimed again as the cards disappeared as well. "He tricked me!"
With Chat Noir, the phantom thief was standing outside of the residential area. The boy smirked as he phased into the shadows, knowing that he's successfully tricked Grena.
With Monika, the woman was doing her best to stay out of view of the public, going as far as to hide her face by tilting her hat down, and even untying her hair. She looked around endlessly, trying to see if she could spot Chat Noir anywhere. Suddenly when she looked behind her, she saw the phantom thief in question walking into an alleyway behind her. Quickly she turned around and ran into the alleyway. When she arrived, she saw that it was a dead end, but Chat Noir was nowhere in sight.
"Impossible!" She exclaimed. "I-I saw him walk down here! Where did he go?"
"If you're gonna look straight ahead, then you're not gonna get anywhere chasing me."
Monika spun around quickly as she heard the phantom thief's voice behind her. There, she saw Chat Noir emerge from the shadow of one of the walls in the alleyway.
"No wonder I didn't see him." Monika said as Chat Noir ran off. "He moves through the shadows. This guy's one hell of a thief."
Monika quickly ran out of the alleyway as well, looking around to see Chat Noir had ran off to the left outside of the alleyway. She immediately took off after him. Despite his head start, Chat Noir couldn't help but note that Monika managed to catch up to him pretty quickly. While running, the phantom thief jumped up into the air, and grabbed onto a ladder. He began climbing up the ladder next to a building just as Monika caught up completely, in which she proceeded to shoot up to the top of the building in a gust of wind. She grabbed onto the ledge and pulled herself upwards to the roof, just in time as Chat Noir had finished climbing. In order to keep him from trying anything, Monika pulled out her peacemaker and pointed it at him.
"Don't move or I'll shoot." She ordered.
Chat Noir just simply smiled and held his hands up in the air. "Oh well. Looks like I won't be able to move a single part of my body now will I?"
Suddenly from underneath Monika's own shadow, Chat Noir's cane came up spinning around, knocking Monika's peacemaker out of her hand and down onto the ground below. While she was distracted, Chat Noir's cane spun back around and returned to its owner. The phantom thief tapped it on the ground twice, and suddenly his own shadow turned into a staircase that led to another taller building. As he walked up the stairs disappeared behind him. Monika, seeing him get away, jumped down to grab her pistol and then shot herself back up in another gust of wind. By the time she got up to the next roof, she saw Chat Noir jump down from the roof, and into the streets below. When she ran over to look and see where he was going however, the boy was nowhere in sight.
"Disappearing act again?" She sighed. "Dammit, we'll never get anywhere at this rate!"
With Ragna, the man had instead decided to forcefully push his way through the streets as he had the feeling that he would have to be out in the open in order to find Chat Noir. After several moments of risking getting caught, he eventually headed down another backstreet that no one seemed to be using. Looking around there, he still didn't seem to spot Chat Noir at all. Eventually, he sighed as he shook his head and started walking off once again. However as he did so he suddenly stopped as he sensed somebody behind him. Turning around, he was surprised to see that Chat Noir was indeed behind him, sitting ontop of a pile of crates.
"So, are you really from another world?" Chat Noir asked curiously. "If so, then why come to Riverbrandt?"
Chat Noir blinked in confusion as Ragna didn't respond. The man in question, he didn't seem to pay much attention to the question as he had a bigger one in his mind. As he managed to get a good look at the boy in question, he started to see him differently.
"Alright, come on out."
"How long have you known we were here?"
"Since the moment you first laid eyes on me. You know. Give or take."
In Ragna's head, the image of another boy who looked similar to Chat Noir had started to manifest in his mind. The differences that stood out to him were that the boy in his head wore glasses instead of a monocle like the phantom thief, as well as that the glasses-wearing kid also had a large mechanical woman standing behind him, the woman wearing colors of purple and grey, matching up with the boy's outfit. Ragna couldn't help it. When he looked at Chat Noir, he saw the image of this boy in his place.
"A... bounty hunter...?" He said quietly while holding a hand on his head.
"Hey. You okay? You look like you're off somewhere else."
Eventually, Ragna started to come back to his senses as he heard Chat Noir calling out to him. He then shook his head, and in an attempt to get the jump on the kid, he lunged at him and attempted to tackle him down off of the boxes and to the ground. How when he did so, only a pile of cards remained on the ground under Ragna. As the man got back up he turned back around to see Chat Noir now on his feet.
"Phew, that was a close one." The phantom thief said, while applauding Ragna. "Acting like you zoned out for some reason to confuse me. Nice one. I'll watch out for that next time."
Chat Noir proceeded to run off down the backstreets.
"Hey!" Ragna called out. "Get back here!"
Ragna ran down the backstreet right after Chat Noir, still thinking about what just happened.
"Do I..." He thought to himself while running. "Do I know this kid...?"
As Chat Noir reached the end of the backstreets he ended up on another side of the city that wasn't as crowded, which would be to his disadvantage. Despite this, the phantom thief still ran out into the open, with Ragna soon following close behind him. As both had arrived in the open, Ragna continued to keep Chat Noir in his view as he chased after the boy. Chat Noir on the other hand was impressed to see how long Ragna was keeping up with him. However he still had a smile on his face. Suddenly he sidestepped behind a corner and dropped his staff, watching it disappear into his shadow. He then held his hands behind his back as he sunk down into his shadow as well, and used his own shadow to climb up the wall he was behind without being seen. When Ragna had finally caught up, he looked around to see that Chat Noir wasn't in sight. Unknowing to him, the phantom thief's shadow was hovering right above him. Since Ragna was unaware of him, Chat Noir managed to also fade into Ragna's shadow.
"Dammit!" Ragna exclaimed. "Where the hell did that brat go?!"
Ragna kept running off in the same direction in hopes of trying to find Chat Noir. As he ran beside another building, Chat Noir's shadow suddenly ran off from Ragna's and onto the building. When Ragna was out of sight, he reappeared. The boy smiled as he ran off from the building and hopped across several other buildings as he got away from Ragna. However, while Chat Noir was running across one building he suddenly stopped as he heard something from above him. Suddenly out of nowhere Feena appeared from above and landed right in front of him, wielding dual swords. Before the phantom thief could react, Feena elbowed the boy and quickly spun around behind him, holding both swords around his neck to prevent him from going anywhere.
"Gotcha you little sneak!" Feena exclaimed.
"I gotta admit, you really caught me off guard." Chat Noir said.
"That's a surprise. I thought you would've seen me coming from a mile away."
"I may be a phantom thief, but even I can be surprised if the circumstances allow for it. The same goes for all living creatures, does it not? That includes you and I."
"Oh cut the chatter will you? Your game's over. Now hand over the photos!"
"Not yet."
Suddenly a black cat sprang out from Chat Noir's shadow and clawed at Feena, causing her to let go of one of her sword and allowed Chat Noir to break free and grab it.
"En garde!" He stated while pointing the sword at Feena.
"Why you!"
Soon a match of fencing began between the mercenary and the phantom thief, both doing their best to push the other back while rapidly thrusting their swords towards their opponent. Clash after clash, the sound of sword against sword filled the air around them as the two remained on even ground for a good moment. However, considering who both of these people were, neither one would play fair. Feena quickly pulled out her crossbow and shot straight at Chat Noir, while at the same time he in return called forth the same black cat from earlier to appear and hopped on Feena's face. The arrow that was fired scraped the side of the armor plating around the phantom thief's leg while Feena was forced to drop both weapons in order to deal with the cat.
"Stupid cat!" She exclaimed. "Get off me! I can't see shit!"
"Now if you'll excuse me, I'll be taking my leave." Chat Noir said as he ran off. "See you at the docks!"
Just as Chat Noir had finally gotten away, Feena manages to rip the cat off of her face and soon started to look around for her target. She looked behind her to see that Chat Noir was long gone. She groaned loudly and placed her hands on her head as she fell backwards. She then picked up her crossbow while on the ground and held it up. She fired an explosive arrow into the air first and then a flaming one afterwards, creating a small explosion in the sky for everyone to see, especially Ragna, Monika and Grena. With Ragna, the man was still walking around when he heard and saw the explosion behind him.
"I've got no other leads on that brat's location." He said. "I'd better check that out.
Monika was still running around through the alleyways trying to find out where Chat Noir was. Suddenly she also heard and saw the explosion as well.
"A signal flare?" She asked herself. "That's not Chat Noir, so it must be my friends."
With Grena, the chained mercenary was swinging across buildings out in the open as she attempted to find Chat Noir from above. Like Ragna and Monika, she also caught wind of the explosion.
"The hell?" She questioned. "That's gotta be from one of them."
With Feena, the girl had been standing around out of sight as she was waiting for Ragna, Monika, and Grena to show up, knowing that they would respond to seeing her signal. Eventually as she looked down from the building, she saw the three of them all approaching. Immediately, she then hopped down from the building and landed in front of them, getting all of their attention.
"Feena, was that you?" Monika asked.
"Yeah." Feena answered.
"Did you find him?" Grena asked.
"He got away. Said he was heading for the airship docks."
"The airship docks?" Monika questioned. "Why would Chat Noir go there?"
"He is playing with us after all." Grena responded. "That's the only reason I can think of. He's pretty much toying with all of us right now. We've gotten nowhere with coming close to getting those pictures back. He's just one step ahead of us at all times."
"Do you really think he's heading for the airship docks? You do realize that place is most certainly guarded. We already have a thief to deal with. We don't need to add the imperial army onto our troubles right now."
"I don't see any reason for him to wanna lie about that." Feena answered. "We don't have any other ways of catching him, so all we can do is search there and hope for the best." Feena sighed. "Dammit, and I was so close. I almost had him."
"I let my guard down." Monika said while folding her arms. "I knew I should've gotten closer.
"He tricked me good." Grena said, while holding her hands in the air. "Wasn't anything more I could do."
Monika looked over at Ragna. "What about you Ragna? How were things on your end?"
...
...
"Ragna?"
The three looked up at the man who seemed to have zoned out of their conversation.
Location: Unknown
The sounds of weapons clashing against each other rang throughout the area. In said area, there was Ragna alone, being forced to combat against tall purple machine like woman, with large arms. The robotic woman spun around midair, spinning as if she were a drill, and collided head first with Ragna's large sword. The man parried her off into the other direction, but did not manage to catch a break as immediately she came back, swinging her claws left and right as Ragna counter with his blade. As he went for a horizontal swing, she jumped into the air, and attempted to lunge at him with her claws before landing on the ground once again. As Ragna and the robotic woman clashed over and over, a young boy was walking over to the two. He wore a purple hat and cape, as well as glasses and quite the extraordinary outfit. The young boy walked towards the fight with a look of complete confidence on his face.
In the middle of Ragna's clash with the robotic woman, the young boy approached and extended his hand out. Suddenly a long flagpole shot out from underneath his cape, nearly striking Ragna if he hadn't stepped out of the way. However that didn't last as this also led to a small explosion occurred due to the woman attempting to strike down Ragna from above missing and colliding with the ground. This also leveled part of the area the three were fighting in. Despite this being a one on two fight, Ragna held his own pretty well. As he recovered, the young boy also hopped down to his level a good distance away from him. However this could only seem to be a distraction as out of nowhere the robotic woman sprung up from behind Ragna, nearly striking him off guard if he hadn't avoided her attacks at the last second. The woman continued to swing at Ragna, pushing him back towards a steel beam hovering over a source of water below.
"Yeah. You're right sis." The boy said. "I thought he'd be more of a challenge also." The boy kept speaking as the woman, presumed to be his sister, continued to push Ragna back to the edge of the steel beam. "I'm just glad you tracked him down before any of the other bounty hunters. Excellent work."
Ragna looked down and realized how close he was to nearly being pushed off. Right in front of him the robotic woman stood, ready to attack him at any time. Meanwhile the young boy continued to watch this predicament from a distance away from Ragna and the woman.
Location: 10th Floor, Goldenia
"Ragna?"
"Hey! Ragna!"
Ragna suddenly looked up as he heard someone calling out to him. Looking to his side, he saw Monika, Feena, and Grena all standing next to him, all staring at him.
"You alright there?" Monika asked.
'You were really off in your own world for a good while there." Feena stated. "Everything okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." Ragna responded. "Don't worry about me. What were you three talking about?"
"Chat's heading for the airship docks." Grena said. "They're on the edge of this floor. It's bound to be guarded so we're gonna be taking one hell of a chance here. If you're not feeling up to it, just say something."
"I already said I'm fine. If there's more soldiers that means there's less room for him to prance around, right?"
"Ragna's right." Feena responded. "If we play our cards right, we can work this into our favor."
"We can talk about this on the way." Monika said. "We're not gonna get anywhere just by standing here."
The group all nodded as they ran off in the direction of the airship docks.
Location: Airship Dock Entrance, 10th Floor, Goldenia
The group to large area. On the outer part, it was as if it was still under construction as several building parts could be sticking out. There were platforms that led to the outside also as well as areas that can be used to guide airships inside. On the inside, several airship were chained to the walls and floors, sitting on small platforms under them to prevent them from falling off the side, considering the airships are ten floors up. People were boarding and leaving several airships that came and go. Imperial soldiers stood on almost every corner, guarding the docks from the inside while several gun wielders stood outside as guards as well.
As of now, Chat Noir was currently standing outside the entrance to the lobby of the airship dock. His cane and hat had merged into shadows while he stood against a wall reading a book. Suddenly, he looked in front of him as his cat made of shadows was running in his direction. Knowing what was coming, he closed his book and took a knee to kneel down at the cat's level.
"They got here sooner than I expected." He said to himself. "I got to admit, they really are entertaining." The shadow cat banished into his shadow. "Alright now. Looks like the games are back on."
Chat Noir proceed to walk off into the lobby. Just as he left Ragna, Monika, Feena, and Grena arrived in front of the lobby area as well.
"How are we supposed to get in there to search for him?" Grena asked. "
"You'll do better than we will." Monika answered. "You weren't made a criminal by her Highness."
"I'm still wanted you know, asshole!"
"Save your arguing for later." Ragna butted in. "Let's get this over with."
The group wasted no more time and ran straight into the lobby area, preparing to split up as they all went inside. However they soon discovered that splitting up would be unnecessary as standing up on a floor above them was Chat Noir, who waved and smiled. As the group all ran up to get to him, he turned around and ran through the door behind him, going out into the area where the airships were either being boarded or dropping off people. The four quickly bursted through the area as well. Looking out into the area around them, they were a little intimidated to see just how well guarded this place was.
"Dammit, there's about a dozen soldiers here!" Feena said.
"Shut up, and keep running!" Monika said, while hopping over a rail to get down. "Standing around will just help us get caught even more!"
That was all that was said to provoke the others to all take off in different directions
Meanwhile with Chat Noir, the young boy was hiding behind a large crate, looking around and counting the number of soldiers in the general area.
"Thirteen, Fourteen, about Fifteen." He said to himself. "That'll complicate things, but I've evaded large numbers before. Now then, where to first?"
"There you are!"
Chat Noir was cut off from his thoughts as Ragna suddenly sprang out in front of him and catching him off guard. Chat Noir cartwheeled backwards at the last moment in order to get out of the way.
"Surprised me again!" Chat Noir said. "You really are something aren't-"
"Cut the crap you brat!" Ragna said. "What the hell do you know about me?"
"Huh?" Chat Noir could only muster up a confused look. "What do you mean? Aren't you the one who's made quite the name for himself as the demon that's taken Goldenia by storm?"
"So you're not the same kid after all."
"Same?" Chat Noir shook his head. "Oh, I see what you're doing! You're not gonna trick me up this time!"
Chat Noir summoned his cane from under him and swung it in Ragna's direction as a distraction, only for Ragna to parry it backwards with his large sword.
"Hell's Fang!"
With a fist coated in dark energy, Ragna rushed to throw a punch at Chat Noir, in which the boy jumped over him, rolling as he landed on the ground and took off running behind Ragna. Immediately recovering from his missed attack Ragna ran straight after the phantom thief, not letting him out of his sight. Chat Noir even went as far as purposely running past soldiers as an attempt to stall Ragna, though that didn't work as the man just shoved them out of his way. Suddenly Chat Noir faded into the shadows behind him after leading Ragna far enough from the others.
"Don't even try it! Hell's Fang!"
Not letting the phantom thief's disappearance trick stop him, Ragna used his power to punch through the wall and destroy it in hopes of grabbing Chat Noir. However the moment his fist reached the wall, the wall itself exploded with dark energy, sending Ragna flying to the wall closest to the roof of the inner building as well as getting the attention of everybody within the area.
"What was that?!" A soldier asked while readying his sword.
"It came from over here! Let's move!" Said another soldier.
Seeing the explosion for themselves, Monika, Feena, and Grena had all started to come to the conclusion that Chat Noir had to be near there somewhere. This prompted all of them to head over from their different areas.
Ragna in the meantime, still found himself lodged in the wall. He groaned as he opened one eye and looked to see Chat Noir standing on top of one of the airships, staring at him with a smug look on his face.
"He's got tricks up his sleeve just like him..." Ragna groaned to himself. "I can't catch him because he disappears or pulls shit like that. How the hell am I gonna stop someone like this?"
Location: Unknown
"Now, to cut off that pesky Azure!"
On the kid's command, the woman lunged at Ragna once more and attempted to strike at him with her claws. Ragna responded by hopping over her and instead of attacking her, he went after the boy giving her orders. He swung his sword straight down over the boy, but crashed it into the ground as he dodged out of the way.
"Ha!" The kid gloated. "Missed me!- Huh?!"
This however, only served to destroy the ground under them even more, as Ragna's attacks completely decimated the platforms under them, sending them all downwards on the wreckage of the floor they stood on.
Location: Airship Dock Boarding Grounds, 10th Floor, Goldenia
"That's it!"
Chat Noir watched as Ragna pulled himself out of the wall and landed on the ground, picking up his large sword in the process.
"Wonder what he's planning now..." The phantom thief pondered.
"I'll just use this place to my benefit too!"
Ragna then suddenly hopped into the air above Chat Noir, the boy looking up as he did so. The phantom thief was even more surprised as when he hopped out of the way, Ragna brought his blade down onto the airship anyway. Chat Noir watched as the airship was nearly split in half, several explosions happening that shook the entire dock in the process of Ragna doing so. After cutting a good ways into the airship, Ragna jumped and back-flipped onto the other side of it, and shoved the piece of the airship he cut with all of his strength, knocking the anchors loose from the piece and sending it flying away from the rest of the airship. Chat Noir hopped out of the way again as the piece crashed into the ground under him, however when he landed he was taken by surprise when the ground under him caved in and fell.
"The heck?!" He said while looking around. "Whoa-!"
Chat Noir continued to fall downward as the ground caved in even more. Ragna on the other hand was also falling downwards as well, but was using his sword to slow himself to the point of stopping as he hung on the piece of the ground that hadn't yet collapsed. As everyone around saw this, people could be seen panicking as they started to run for the lobby, soldiers now directing their attention to helping civilians escape or escaping themselves. Soon Monika, Feena, and Grena all arrived as well and saw the results of Ragna's attack.
"Whoa what in the hell?!" Feena exclaimed. "What happened-"
The girls were interrupted as more of the floor of the docks continued to cave in as well, sending them all flying downwards too. Feena managed to slow her fall by floating among the wind flowing in from the outside via the opening created by the airship explosions, while Grena and Monika used their main weapons to continue hanging on the floor that hadn't caved in. Suddenly the piece of the airship cut open had finally exploded itself, causing the ground above Ragna to cave in and leaving the man to fall downwards some more. Meanwhile Chat Noir was using his shadow to form several platforms that he could use to hop back up to the top of the docks, but was thrown off as airship debris started to fall downwards as it fell off the openings and into the sky below.
"Dammit, this is making things much more difficult!" Feena said while dodging debris.
"You guys are telling me!" Chat Noir also chimed in. The boy was using his cane to create a large shield made out of shadows to knock away debris about to hit him as he was not stuck in one spot.
"Look out!"
Everyone looked alive as Monika shouted. The broken airship had also started to explode as a butterfly effect from part of it being cut off. The debris was being flung in all directions, including towards the area where the five of them were barely hanging on.
"If we don't get out of here, not of us are gonna leave this kingdom alive!" Ragna stated. The man was doing his best to make his way upward, while cutting apart any debris that came towards him with his large sword. "Anyone got any bright ideas?!"
"Hate to break it to you but I'm as clueless as you are!" Grena said while hanging on via chains. This didn't last long as the platform she hung onto started to fall, forcing her to swing to another platform. "We're stuck here!"
"There's gotta be something we can do!" Monika was constantly hopping around from platform to debris to debris again, trying to climb upwards to little effect. "We can't just-"
Monika was suddenly struck across the head by a metal board, throwing her off and causing her to fall straight down.
"Monika!" Feena called out.
Chat Noir had suddenly looked up as well and saw the girl falling to her death. Quickly the shield of shadows above him disappeared and soon he held his cane out at Monika's falling path, causing the shield to reappear there. Monika soon landed on said shield.
"What the-?!"
"Hey, white hair!" Chat Noir called out to Ragna, getting his attention. "Up she goes!"
Chat quickly moved his cane upwards. The shield acted like a catapult and flung Monika upwards to Ragna, who quickly held out his hand and caught the girl, pulling him up to his level. He then suddenly look back at Chat Noir's direction.
"Hey!" Ragna yelled at Chat Noir. "Above you!"
Chat Noir looked up as a large chunk of debris was heading straight to him. He attempted to once again position his shield above him as quickly as possible, but his shadows just weren't able to move fast enough. The debris struck the phantom thief and the area under him, taking all of it downwards into the open sky."
"Chat!" Feena called out, about ready to hop into the open sky and try to get him. "We can't-"
"Feena, catch!"
Feena suddenly looked to her right as Grena threw her chains at her. The ranged mercenary quickly caught them and held on with all her strength as Grena swung downwards, spinning around to increase the length of the chain Feena held onto. She moved around the debris and threw out a second chain that wrapped around the falling Chat Noir, pulling him to her as she swung upwards again. Once she reached a certain height, Feena let go of the chain and shot out a gust of wind under Grena to propel her back up to the top, followed by another gust in front of her to knock herself out of the way of crashing debris and into a broken piece of ground behind her.
"Damn, that's gonna hurt later!" She groaned.
Grena reached the top successfully, an injured Chat Noir in hand. She sat him down on the ground beside her and then started spinning her chains around.
"Heads up!"
She threw one set of chains in Ragna's and Monika's direction and the other in Feena's.
"Monika, hang on!" Ragna said to the girl beside him.
"Right." She responded.
Monika wrapped her arms around Ragna as he jumped forth and grabbed onto Grena's chains, immediately wrapping it around his arm for extra security. Feena also did the same thing. Grena then began pulling with all her might, refusing to let go despite the three of them combined being quite heavy.
"Ain't nothing like gravity gonna stop me!"
Grena let out a war cry as she turned herself into a wheel of fire and spun backwards, pulling in Ragna, Monika, and Feena until they all reached the safest part of the top floor. She then stopped rolling and went back to normal, breathing heavily. As the three reached the topic, Monika let go of Ragna while Feena picked up Chat Noir. Quickly, all of them ran for the boarding area's entrance in order to get as far away from the airship wreckage as possible. After getting out of range of any danger, the four were all catching their breaths. Feena soon sighed in relief.
"Oh man, that was close as hell!" She said while laughing. "I saw my life flash before my eyes for a moment.
"How is he?" Monika asked, referring to Chat Noir who was unconscious.
"Ah, he'll be fine. Banged up a bit but nothing that won't heal up."
"Soldiers are gonna be all over us in a minute as they'll wanna investigate this place before finally sealing it off." Grena stated. "There's a crowd of people out front being calmed down by them right now. We need to sneak out of here while we can."
"You want us to carry that kid with us for that long?" Ragna asked. "If we keep running with him like this, he's not gonna get better that quickly is he?"
"We can rest in the clock tower on this floor." Monika replied. "It's close by and the inside of it is closed off. No one goes in there anymore so it would make the perfect hiding spot for now."
"Right." Feena agreed. "Come on, let's move."
Immediately the group started running off as they were about to make their way to the aforementioned clock tower without being seen by anybody.