Hardly anybody was about. From what I could see, doors were all locked, and windows were barred up. What's happened had really affected these people, so much so that this village feels deserted. Pulling the request slip out of my pocket once more and took note of the directions to the clients home.

"Whilst you guys meet with your client I'll keep looking around for anymore leads." Hibiki spoke up before walking off in another direction, "we'll meet back here once we're done."

"The clients home is this way Lyon." I told the man in question before heading off in the direction given. It was a short walk until we were stood outside a small cottage, that I could imagine had once looked lively. But now the polished wood looked dull and the curtains were closed, completely shutting out the light.

Giving a small, sad sigh, I walked up and knocked on the door lightly. Stepping back, my hearing caught the sounds of shuffling footsteps before the door was opened slowly, and cautiously. Upon seeing no threat, she opened the door wider, her face still scared. The young woman before me looked broken. Her long, blonde hair was hanging limply and looked like it hadn't been brushed for a while. Her blue eyes held no brightness of life in them, and were rimmed with red, making it obvious that she had been crying. They also held a look of fear.

"H-Hello? C-can I help you?" She stuttered out in a meek voice.

"We're the Lamia Scale wizards you requested. I'm Ciella Redfox, the Mage you sent for." I gestures to Lyon standing beside me, "and this is Lyon Vastia, my partner for the time being."

"Ah, y-yes. Thank you so much for answering my request," her eyes flickered nervously to Lyon, "but I had no idea you'd be bringing someone else with you."

"I know, but due to the nature of the request I was advised to bring someone along with me." I informed her, explaining Lyons presence. Only that was just part of the reason why he was here, "may we come in."

"O-Of course. Come in. Quickly though please." She opened the door wider to let us both in, before shutting the door quickly behind us. My eyes scanned the cottage as we were lead to what was obviously the living room, leaving our luggage out in the hall. She gestured for us to sit on the small sofa, and sat down on the chair across from them, her head lowered.

"I- I'm Kami, and it was my younger sister that was taken. I trust you know m-most of the details of this job request?" I could see the tears forming in her eyes, and couldn't imagine the worry she was going through.

"Yes, we know what's been happening. But we were wondering if you could possibly tell us anymore about what happened to you're sister?" I said softly. The last thing we needed to do was to upset her by being unconcerned.

"There's not much I can tell you I'm afraid. We were both afraid at hearing about what happened to the other girls. One night, we had how to sleep as usual. But when I woke up the next morning, she was just, gone." She paused at this, taking a deep shuddering breath, "nothing was out of place, even the bed was made up. The only thing left behind...was this." She brought a folded up piece of paper out of her pocket, unfolding and sliding it across the table. As expected, it was the three eyed snake again. I sighed trying to dispel the image of last nights dream from my head, "but that's all the information I have. I know I can't be of much use," she sniffed a couple of times, and looked back up at us, the tears falling freely down her cheeks, "but please, please find Yuki and being her back to me. I just want her back safe, please."

Her hands covered her face as she began to sob. It was heart wrenching to watch that I had to turn my head away from the scene. Closing my eyes and regaining myself, I turned back.

"I promise you, we'll find your sister, and bring her home. But there's one more question I have. Did you realise there was someone else investigating?" She quickly nodded her head, "so I was just wondering, why did you ask for me specifically?"

She looked up at me, trying to compose herself, "well, I'd heard there was a Mage from Lamia Scale who was extremely good at tracking people. I- I asked around and eventually found someone who'd heard of your name. I was so desperate for someone to be able to find my sister that I called you in."

"Okay, thank you for answering that. Would it be too much for me to ask to look in your sisters room for anymore clues to her whereabouts." I asked her, not too sure if she'd merit such an act.

After a pause, she gave a brief nod, "sure. If anything can be found about her whereabouts then go ahead. Please, just find her. It's the door on the left when you go up the stairs."

"Thank you." I stood and gestured to Lyon to stay down here, before cautiously making my way upstairs. Once reaching the top I turned left as she had said. Opening the door, I stepped inside and looked around. Kami was right, there was nothing out of place. The bed pressed up against the wall nearly made. The desk tidy, the door to the closet shut tightly. But the feeling of the surroundings, the aura. It was that sense of foreboding, like something dark had been here. That presence was familiar. Extremely. I still remember that day. I can feel the hand around my mouth cutting off my screams. The several hands grabbing me and holding me down, preventing me from using magic. That laugh, that spine chilling laugh. Why were these memories surfacing now. I don't need them. I don't want them. They would only hinder my ability to think straight. I'd locked them away for a reason.

As a reflex, my body flinched as I felt a hand on my shoulder. But I relaxed as soon as I saw it was just Lyon.

"I thought I told you to stay down stairs." I told him.

"I know, but you were taking a long time so I thought I'd come check up on you. Are you alright?" He gave me a concerned look, searching my eyes for any sort of sign that I wasn't. But I turned my eyes away from him before he could see the pain behind them, so I could regain myself.

"I'm fine, it's about time we met back up Hibiki."

Lyon sighed in defeat, before agreeing with me. In my eyes, the quicker we wrap this up, the better.

Going back downstairs, I turned to Kami and giving her a slight now, "I promise you, we'll find your sister. As well as the other girls."

"Thank you so much. I-I know there wasn't any reward advertised but after my sister is home I'm willing to-" I raised my hand to cut her off and put it on her shoulder.

"Don't worry about that. Our main priority is to find those girls. Not thinking about the reward." I told her. I wasn't doing this for the reward, I was doing this to help those who needed it. And they needed it desperately. After reassuring her further, me and Lyon grabbed our luggage and left on our way to meet up with Hibiki to come up with a plan to find the girls and catch the person doing this.

Third Person P.O.V

After the two mages had left, Kami turned back to the living room and pulled out the communication Lacrima she had been provided. She quickly activated it, and in the smooth sphere, the image of a shadowy figure popped up.

"I- I did what you asked me to do. S-she's here. A- And from what I heard she has t-two accomplices with her." She managed to stutter out, the tears still falling down her face.

"Thank you Kami, for informing me of this bad bringing her here. You're information of her accomplices will be most useful to me." The deep, reverberating, sadistic voice spoke up from the Lacrima.

"Please, I-I did as you asked. Now please, return my sister to me." She pleaded with the man, only wanting her sister back home safe and sound.

"In due course of time my dear. Just let the events run their course. After I have the girl, you'll be reunited with your sister like I promised. In due course of time." Along with that last sentence, the Lacrima cracked into pieces, the shards falling to the floor, leaving Kami sitting their sobbing, worrying for her sister every second.

Ciella's P.O.V

"You know, I know you aren't fine. Please just tell me what's going on." This was the first time Lyon had spoken to me since we had left Kami's house. We had previously been making our way back to the meeting place in silence, until he decided to break it.

"Just drop it Lyon." I said quietly, but loud enough for him to hear.

His hand reached out to grab my shoulder, stopping me in my tracks and turning me to face him.

"No, I won't drop it. You've been acting strange since the beginning of this job and I want to know why. This isn't like you, and..." He sighed exasperatedly, "and it's worrying me. I just want to know what's going on with you."

Looking away from him, I closed my eyes, and whispered, "Please just leave it Lyon, I really can't tell you. It's too painful. Please try to understand that."

Sighing in defeat, he let my shoulder go, "alright, I understand. But just so you know, if you ever need to talk, I'm here for you."

Looking up at him, I couldn't help but let the sad smile come up on my face, "thanks Lyon. You're a good friend." There was an awkward pause between the two of us, and this time I was the one to break the tension, "let's go find Hibiki yeah?"

"Yeah, we should go."

So we walked off again, heading to the edge of town. Once we'd made it close enough, we saw Hibiki in the distance waiting for us. Once he had spotted us, he immediately walked over to us.

"Any luck?" He asked, referring to our meeting with the client.

"No. All we got was the same as ever. The bedroom was untouched, the only thing left behind being a slip of paper with that...symbol, on it. Nothing else." I informed him.

Breathing out, he gestured to the inn that was nearby, "we might want to drop our luggage off in the inn, before we continue on."

"That's probably the best idea." Lyon agreed, and we headed to the inn, renting out two rooms again, and dropping our luggage off before I joined the boys in their room again.

"So, what's our best course of action to take now?" Hibiki asked.

"Well, our main priority remains finding these girls and getting them to safety, after that we can apprehend whoever is doing this." I spoke up. I only wanted to get those girls out of there. They didn't deserve to go through the same pain.

"Ciella's right. That means the first plan of action we should carry out is locating them. Then once we find them, we can form a plan to get them out, as well as apprehend anyone else who is inclined in these kidnappings." Lyon continued on, "Ciella, do you think you could-"

I interrupted him before he'd even finished, "yes, I've already thought of that. But first we'll have to go out into the forest. The bare earth will give me a better connection to it."

"Am I missing something here?" Hibiki asked us. That's right, he didn't know about that power.

"I can use a technique called Earth Sense to try and locate the girls. It's something that helps me feel enhanced vibrations and signatures through contact with the Earth. If the girls are moving about enough, which hopefully they are, then I should be able to," I stood up then, and began pacing. A habit of seemed to acquire when nervous, "but there's a problem. The people in the village may give some interference. Hopefully the kidnapper has taken them to quite an obscure location, so that I'd be able to locate them with ease."

"In sure you'll be able to find them." Lyon spoke up encouragingly.

"Alright then, I suppose we should go." Hibiki stood up, and together, we left the inn and headed towards the forest, moving out the way of the stone paths placed down over the soil of the ground. Once in a clear patch of bare earth, we stopped and I immediately bent down to my knees, and placed both palms on the floor, focusing my energy into the earth. I could feel the faint vibrations of the village residents, through the stone paths. I tried widening my area, but nothing came up. It wasn't like anything that I had felt when feeling no vibrations at all. No, this was a complete blankness. White and empty. There was something interfering with my magic.

I grunted as I pulled my hands off the earth.

"No use." I told the boys, "in getting nothing, almost like there's something interfering with my magic. It's completely blank underneath the whole forest that's bordering the village. I can't sense anything at all."

"It's alright," Lyon reassured, "you tried your best." But it wasn't alright. Because of me failing, those girls were stuck there for longer, "We need to come up with a new plan. I suggest searching the forest. It's not a coincidence that that's the area that's being blocked from your magic."

"No," I spoke up, disagreeing with Lyons plan, "searching the whole forest would take too long, a couple of days at least. And splitting up isn't an option either. No, we need to think of something else."

We stood in the forest in silence, trying to figure out a way to solve this, and rescue the girls. Then it clicked. If we ant find the kidnapper ourselves, then the only option is to draw them out. The be perfectly honest, this option terrified me. Knowing that mark, knowing who it belonged to. But I reassured myself that it couldn't be him. He was locked away for the atrocious crimes he's committed. No, he was gone and WA never coming back. That's what made me decide on this idea, that I'd be able to carry it out. It was risky, and it would risk my safety. But isn't that what I do anyway? I'm always doing it, risking my safety. But that means Lyon will be tough to convince to go along with it. Yet right now, at this desperate time, I concluded that it was the only option we had at the moment.

"I know what we have to do."

"You can't be serious about this. No, it's too dangerous." We were back at the inn, where I had just explained my idea to Lyon and Hibiki. As suspected, Lyon did not approve, "what are you thinking Ciella? No, there has to be another way."

"But there isn't Lyon," I finally snapped, "this is our only option right at this point. If we can't find this kidnapper, we have to draw them out ourselves. If that means offering me up as bait, then I'm willing to do it."

Shaking his head with an angry sigh, he spoke up again, "you know what I told you about risking your life. And you know what Jura would say to."

I looked away from him, he would really bring up Jura at a time like this. That was a low blow, "right now, I'm choosing to ignore those factors," looking back up at him angrily, I continued on, "but right now, all I care about is completing this job and saving those girls. I'm willing to risk my life if it means saving them. No matter what you say, I have made up my mind already, and I am going through with this."

All he did was run his hand over his face in irritation, giving a sigh, "alright, but I still don't approve."

"Don't worry," I reassured him, "you and Hibiki will be in the other room, ready to help me when the time comes. I know you won't fail me."

"It's not exactly a reassuring thought that you'll be alone in there though."

Turning my back to him, I just closed my eyes, "I know, but I'm willing to put my trust in you guys. I have always trusted you."

The tensions were still running high, and Lyon was still sceptical about my plan, but had accepted the fact that it was our only course of action. He eventually put his faith in me, like I had him. We spent the rest of the early afternoon, going over every single detail in our plan. Everything has to be pinpointed, so it was foolproof. We didn't want to take too many risks. It was hard to figure everything out exactly, but we managed. With everyone's input, we formed quite a solid plan to carry out.

But still, with everything I had been feeling that day. Like someone was watching me. Like there was a familiar presence nearby. That foreboding feeling that made me seem to feel everything I had felt in that time a year and a half ago. The thing that scared me the most was the fact that these memories that I had locked away, were managing to resurface and show their ugly face again. That was what made me worry. That maybe something was going to happen. Something extremely terrifying.

Preview

Kidnapping Arc: Chapter 15 - This Familiar Face

As their plan is enacted out, Hibiki is confident that everything will go to plan. But the fear settles into Ciella, when the arrival of a very familiar face from her past causes her to lose sight of what she has to do, and the plan seems to fall apart.