Cheerful laughter filled the air as the sound of police sirens rang in the background. A hand lashed out in the air and grabbed a rope that was knotted at the bottom, as they easily slid their foot into the hoop.
"Phantom Nightingale never fails!" the figure called out, their face obscured by a mask that was shaped like a bird's beak and a veil that flapped in the wind. Their grip on the rope was secure as the hidden airship above began to pick up speed and slowly bring the rope and the thief inside.
"Another successful haul, Boss!" reported her assistant. His silver hair blew (the parts that weren't in the ponytail anyway) in the wind, but he could care less since his green eyes were protected by the goggles he wore.
Behind him were several boxes.
"Good work Hayato. Mind taking this off my hands so I can get in?" she asked pleased.
Hayato took the statue and after putting it down in the secure box next to him (where they usually stored all small items so they wouldn't fall if the ship hit any turbulence during transit) he held out his hand and pulled her inside.
The thief closed the door, then unhooked the veil from her face and removed the mask.
The back of the mask had several colorful feathers that could be switched around (and often were, as they became damaged during a heist). It also neatly hid her actual hair color, since she found dying it to be too troublesome. Wigs were much easier.
"Is everything packed up and ready for resale?" she asked.
Hayato nodded, pushing up his goggles to rest on his forehead.
"In that case, head back to the Professor's dungeon!" she said cheerfully.
"You know he calls it a lab right?" said Hayato amused, already tapping the keys on his wrist band that remotely controlled the ship.
"Until he chooses to come out of the underground and not hiss every time he sees sunlight, I'm calling it a dungeon," she shot back.
Hayato snickered at that.
"I got the bath ready for you, so take your time. I'll let you know when we're almost to the 'dungeons'," said Hayato.
"And that right there is why I am never replacing you as my Right Hand slash assistant," she said happily.
Hayato blushed at that, but was happy for the praise.
Once he was out of the room, she made her way to the bathroom and made very, very sure that the door was locked.
In no time at all she was relaxing in the decently sized tub under a giant mountain of bubbles. She was happy to put aside "Phantom Nightingale" and become Setsuna again.
"Boss, we have about two hours before we reach the professor," announced Hayato over the intercom.
"Thanks Haya-kun," she called out.
She stayed in until she was nice and wrinkled, before getting out and washing off the remaining bubbles.
Setsuna couldn't help but think back as she sat in front of the mirror to brush out her hair.
It was hard to believe that a year and a half ago, she used to deal with attacks from all sides from her teachers, peers and even her own mother to an extent.
Her teachers had openly given up on her long before she even entered middle school, having heard from their colleagues about what a bad student she was. Her fellow students had already figured out that the adults wouldn't stop them from harassing, belittling and outright bullying her (though they were too afraid to do anything more than minor harassment thanks to the Demon Prefect). And her mother, who should have supported her, was more interested in sighing over a man who was NEVER around rather than actually RAISE her daughter or encourage her to do better.
It was rather inevitable that something had to give. In this case, Setsuna had enough of Namimori's nonsense and left...but not before she was firmly enrolled in online courses. She didn't want to have her options limited by leaving.
At first it had been terrifying, living on her own. But that shock quickly turned to a feeling of freedom and it was very liberating.
Once outside Namimori, no one knew who she was. The nickname that had followed her for years suddenly disappeared. She was completely anonymous.
Slowly, she started to make a name for herself. Though she doubted anyone would have expected "thief" as her future career path.
Though in hindsight, the whole "Phantom Thief" persona had been a happy accident.
Giving Hayato the job of being her assistant/right hand, not so much. It had taken the poor Storm two full months before he finally started relaxing about his position.
She was just glad she managed to get him to stick to the nickname of "boss" rather than "princess" or anything that would identify her gender. His hero-worship was bad enough as is.
The air ship began to descend into a secret hanger, and they waited for the doors to close before they got out.
"Professor, we're back!" Setsuna called out.
There was a string of curses as something dropped, and the two shared a look. A rather odd alligator came into the hanger and hissed at them, as if to say "Welcome home".
Kaimen happily accepted the treat/bribe from Setsuna and the pat to the head.
At least with her and the Storm around he got fed regularly and his master had someone to remind him to take a break every once in a while.
Setsuna walked into the lab, but didn't find the professor. So the next place they looked was the kitchen and sure enough there he was with something living flailing angrily in the skillet trying to strangle him.
The green haired man should know better than to try and cook, but he never learned.
"Hayato, unspeakable abomination in the skillet. I'll get to work on dinner," said Setsuna with a sigh of long suffering and tolerance.
"On it boss," agreed Hayato with an eye roll.
Honestly, even he knew better than to let the professor cook. They kept the freezer well stocked with foods he could simply microwave for a reason.
Once the near catastrophe was averted, Setsuna stood with a disapproving look on her face.
"Professor Verde, what have I explicitly stated about attempting to cook?" she said firmly.
"Don't. My scientific mind has a bad habit of turning even a simple omelet into an unspeakable abomination of nature, though we have no idea why it always happens or where they come from," repeated Verde dutifully in annoyance. It wasn't like he set out to make the damn things!
"And why didn't you simply use the food we leave in the fridge pre-made or the frozen meals that we keep stocked for exactly that reason?" asked Setsuna.
Verde grumbled under his breath.
"What was that?" she said, arching an eyebrow.
"I have several sensitive experiments that could be adversely affected by the microwave running!" he repeated irate.
"...Then why in god's name didn't you just wait for us to get back? I called you three hours ago saying we were returning," said Hayato incredulous. "And don't give me that 'I was too hungry to wait' line. I know you've gone two days without real food and Boss made you a massive lunch just to avoid this scenario!"
Verde sulked.
Hayato tuned out the lecture Setsuna gave the older man with the odd green pacifier around his neck. For all that the Verde was a genius, he was VERY absentminded. It did not surprise the teen in the least that when Verde found out that Setsuna could cook and clean and knew better than to go near his experiments when they were active, that he had allowed her to stay in his labs while he upgraded the old air ship that she had somehow managed to find and steal.
Even after he finished the upgrades and repairs, she had stuck around while she familiarized herself with her new home/transport.
And by the time he did register the fact she hadn't left, he had gotten so used to having someone leave actual food within easy reach whenever he had a new experiment and a clean lab that had an assistant that knew better than to touch any of the active experiments that he couldn't bring himself to kick her out. It didn't help that she had become a master at maneuvering him into his room to sleep for a few hours.
Besides, she got Kaimen to quit nipping his ankles because he forgot to feed him.
"How was your heist?" asked Verde, once Setsuna got the usual lecture out of the way.
"I was successful once again," she said dismissively.
Verde hummed to himself. It wasn't like he cared, outside of the fact that at least his source of actual food and a clean lab was able to fend for herself, money-wise.
He was still surprised she managed to find a competent, loyal Storm that was able to keep up with his genius.
He yelped when she grabbed his ear.
"Now that you've been fed and watered, you are going to sleep professor. You must be tired if you thought it was a good idea to cook in MY kitchen," said Setsuna, eyes glowing an ominous orange color in annoyance.
Verde didn't argue and allowed her to lead him to his room, which used to be a complete mess until she actually made use of the multiple bookshelves within and put the number of old reference books in their place. He collapsed on the bed and was out cold within minutes. She sighed and pulled the covers on top of him.
Hayato hadn't bothered to get up from where he was drinking his coffee. He had seen this happen so many times that he was used to it.
Setsuna sighed. At least she knew Verde tended to keep his...unholy creations...limited to just the pan. It wasn't the preparation part that caused the mess (he was methodical enough to keep it contained), it was the cooking aspect itself that caused problems.
"I swear, we go through more pots, pans and skillets whenever he attempts to cook than we do beakers," she said exasperated.
She knew from long experience that attempting to reuse whatever Verde was cooking with was pointless. It never came out quite right and she'd swear that the thing was waiting to latch onto her soul and eat her if she attempted it.
(Though in her defense, she had been unusually exhausted and sleep deprived when she first said that. Didn't make it any less true though.)
A figure was sipping his coffee while reading the newspaper.
Phantom Nightingale strikes again! Police left humiliated after failed attempt to arrest thief!
He snorted. This Phantom Nightingale was all the lower ranks could talk about. No one was sure what their Flame type was, or even if they were active, but the stunts they pulled were rather interesting and bordered miraculous considering how close the cops came to catching them a few times.
At least the name sounded vaguely original, even if it was clear that the teen had modeled themselves over the romanticized "phantom thief" genre that was so popular in Japan at the moment.
There had been an upsurge in new thieves in the underworld lately because of it, though the majority of them were anything but successful. And they kept coming up with the most ridiculous of names.
The figure snorted at some of the stories in the paper. Though he would never admit it, Reborn (the man drinking his coffee) found Phantom Nightingale amusing if for no other reason than the fact that she clearly had help from a world-class scientist. That was the only way he could reasonably explain where she got so many odd gadgets, some of which should still be firmly in the testing phase.
There was also the substantial "rumor" that Verde had finally acquired a proper assistant who could keep up with him and not end up an experiment for annoying him with their incompetence.
He knew that one was partially true. Someone had come in and paid him to do repairs and an upgrade on some machine or other, and when he finally finished with the commission they had stuck around. The last time Verde came to their yearly meeting his clothes had actually been clean and he had shown multiple signs of regular sleep and food for once.
Apparently the stray who had commissioned his help had realized pretty quick that the scientist needed a minder who knew what the boundaries were when it came to his labs, and had taken it upon themselves to insure that he was fed, watered and occasionally remembered to sleep once every three days and take regular showers outside of the decontamination area.
Needless to say the others had been very amused to hear that particular rant from a grudgingly accepting Verde. Especially when said rant included a complaint about how it was his lab, so why the hell was he banned from the kitchens! It wasn't his fault that every time he attempted to do more than reheat food he made "unholy abominations", and she was able to defend herself from the damn things anyway so what was she complaining about?
Reborn smirked. That had been particularly hilarious to listen to, as the other Arcobaleno had learned very quickly never to let Verde near the kitchen unless they wanted to kill some random hell spawn that he had managed to conjure from ordinary ingredients.
The fact this mystery girl had the sense to kick Verde out of the kitchens and was mostly just exasperated by his inability to actually cook was very amusing indeed.
He highly suspected that this "Phantom Nightingale" was the same mystery assistant who lectured Verde every time she caught him in her kitchen. It would explain a lot.
It was only as he was about to leave that he caught sight that he remembered something he didn't consider important.
His birthday was next week.
Meh, who cared? It wasn't like he had anyone to actually celebrate it with, and he was too old for parties unless he was allowed to cause chaos in the name of training.