Narrator's POV
"Ryan~! You're back!"
Ryan had read a message from Welt that they were ready to start the pursue of Kafka, just minutes later of his talk with Tingyun, and right now Ryan's face slowly let out a small smile, one that was definitely holding back his dread as he saw Stelle get closer with a grin.
"You know? We tested Diting for a little while, they're pretty NEATING" the girl smiled at him.
"I should've turned off my phone"
"Now now~ I don't think it's the time for that kind of jokes, Benefactor" Tingyun approached with a smile.
"Now that we have the means to track down Kafka, we shouldn't waste time" Welt spoke up.
"Mr.Yang is right, we should take advantage of the time we have" Serval nodded at the adult's words.
"Then we should go look for her now!" March seemed rather excited as she held Diting in her arm, taking a selfie with her free hand.
"Let's set out to Stargazer Navalia then~" Tingyun started to walk and the group soon followed behind her.
"Is there something we should be expecting there, Ms.Tingyun?" Ryan asked and the fox woman soon replied.
"Besides Kafka, I don't think so, it doesn't look like the Stellaron's corrosion reached that place, we might stumble across some Cloudknights in patrol, but with how thinly stretched we are in personnel at the moment, there might be less than 15 in Stargazer Navalia..." She explained and Ryan nodded silently.
"It'd be dangerous to fight Kafka overall...I know that she wants us here for that Script of hers, SAM already told me that I am not part of that script, if I could isolate Kafka for a few seconds and talk to her, we could get to an agreement and I get information in exchange for my cooperation in whatever she's planning" he frowns lightly at the thought. "If I can change whatever happens here, everything could end up way worse than it was supposed to, I need to be-"
He immediately stopped, turning around looking to the roof of a building, but he saw nothing, for a single second he felt as if someone was watching him, perhaps he was growing paranoid, but the tight feeling on his chest was really making him think otherwise.
"Ryan, is something wrong?" Welt asked momentarily stopping to look at him.
"...I'm not sure Mr.Yang...let's continue, Kafka is the priority right now" he started to walk again.
Welt looked at him, somewhat worried before letting out a soft sigh, briefly throwing a look at where he was watching before also walking, following the rest of the group towards Stargazer Navalia.
Completely out of view from below, Jingliu calmly let out a little smile, picking her phone she immediately sent a message to her companion.
________________________________________
[Jingliu]
"Luocha, looks like I found the boy"
[Luocha]
"👍"
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Was that the only thing he'd send as a reply? Rather rude coming from the healer, but again, he had his own route to take, she wouldn't expect more from someone doing a busy work.
"I'll need to wait for him to be alone" she walked to the edge of the roof, looking at the group. "If there's too many around, it might be a problem"
With those thoughts going through her mind, the woman started to follow them, continuing her hunt.
....
"Oh my...I never thought Stargazer Navalia would be so quiet" Tingyun drove a hand to her cheek somewhat sad. "People used to write poems about this place"
"I can't really think of any romantic poem that could be written about this place..." March scratched the back of her head.
"Fufu~ that's probably because you don't know what this place is, this is where all Starskiffs are created, you'll probably be able to see the process while we stroll around here~" the woman started to walk.
"Stroll...she seems to be taking it like it's just a casual walk through the neighborhood" March sighed and walked behind her.
"What will we do against Kafka? Will the 6 of us be enough to beat her?" Serval asked.
Tingyun's ears immediately flattened at the blonde's words "Oh, I'm sorry benefactors" she looked back at the group. "But I won't be joining the confrontation against the Stellaron Hunter, I'm not made for battle you see?"
"Can't you at least wave your arms and say 'Wololoooo' to distract her or something?" Stelle looked at the woman a little bothered.
"I...can do my best and cheer you from the back" she let out a small nervous laugh.
"Do not worry Ms.Tingyun, we won't take you out of your confort zone"
"I'd be incredibly thankful of that~" she smiled a bit nervously though her tail seemed to wag a little. "We should look for clues on Kafka's whereabouts, then we could use them to have Diting track her scent"
"Looks like we won't have to advance much more..." Welt stopped walking.
The group looked at the distance, seeing what seemed to be some remnants of a small fight, getting closer they separated a little from each other, Stelle kneeling down to pick up a few shard of a broken weapon.
"I found something..." The Racoon stood up with the broken shards in her hand. "Looks like broken pieces of a weapon"
"Perhaps from the Cloudknights, could it be that Kafka stumbled across them" Serval asked towards Tingyun.
"It's...improbable, unless that was what she wanted, I don't think she'd let herself be found out so easily..." The fox woman drove a hand to her cheek to think.
"I found something too" Ryan got close to the others with something on his hand.
March was the first one to get closer. "What is it? Ryan that's a grenade!" She immediately backed off.
The white-haired boy simply looked down at the grenade on his hand, before deadpanning at March. "Bold of you to assume I know what a Grenade is..."
"That explodes, Ryan, but It looks like this one is a fake" Welt got close and Ryan handed him the grenade. "But it does seem to have something written on it with...lipstick, 'a small something for the lost'..."
"Ugh! That woman is clearly taunting us!" March spoke up a little annoyed.
"No need to fuss up Benefactor" Tingyun got close to Welt and eyed the grenade. "If this lipstick is Kafka's, we could use it to track her down."
"Good! Diting, Cutie~ come here" March kneeled down and Diting approached her, she quickly picked them up and got them close to the grenade.
The dog started to slowly sniff the grenade for a few seconds, catching the scent of the woman they were meant to track down, after finishing he let out a small bark, a sign for March to put them down and after she did, Diting started to walk in a certain direction.
"Looks like they found her~ let's go Benefactors, time is of the essence!" The fox woman quickly started to follow behind Diting.
The group looked at each other before quickly following the small dog and the Amicassador, Diting tracked the scent of the Stellaron Hunter for a few minutes before it suddenly stopped, looking around somewhat confused.
"Uh? Why did it stop? Did it lose the scent?" Serval asked a little confused.
"No~ you simply reached your destination"
The voice of Kafka made them all perk up, looking directly at the front, they saw the woman walk around the corner of a container, looking at them with a little smug smile while behind her 4 Cloudknights stood with their weapons ready.
"Eeek! There she is!" March pointed with an accusing finger directly at her. "And are those Cloudknights?"
"They're not Mara-Struck...what did you do to them?!" Tingyun rose her voice towards Kafka.
"Not much, just a little Persuasion" she let out a soft chuckle but quickly moved her head to the side to dodge a flying sword. "Rude as always, Ace"
"Can you blame me? We're meant to capture you"
"If I hadn't dodged that, it would've skewered my head" Kafka drove a hand to her mouth faking a small gasp.
"As if you didn't have the ability to dodge that" Ryan gave Welt a discreet signal pointing two fingers to the ground.
Ryan quickly waved his hand towards Kafka and the Cloudknights, throwing a wave of fire at them, the Knights backed off alongside Kafka and at the same time Welt tapped the ground with his cane forming a small area of heightened gravity between the Knights that started to expand catching them.
Jumped back to dodge the expanding area, but Ryan quickly rose two fingers, using some magic on himself so he could go through Welt's area, he quickly dashed through the area directly at Kafka who immediately grabbed one of her submachine guns shooting various bullets at the group, Stelle got in front of the group using her lance to create an amber shield to block the bullets while Ryan gave a step back a bit taken back though he manages to use his scabbard to block the various bullets.
After shooting, Kafka threw a grenade directly at Ryan, the boy immediately rose his arms and scabbard creating an ice shield with his magic but instead of an explosion, the grenade let out a thick cloud of smoke that covered him and the Knights and also blocking the view of the rest of the group not letting them see Kafka.
"This place is too far away from the diviner, so I'll be going, have fun~" from behind the smoke, Kafka's voice slowly got away.
A strong gust of wind dissipated the smoke, Ryan was about to look for Kafka but one of the Cloudknights jumped at him with his glaive going down on him, he turned around and blocked the weapon, the other three going towards the Trailblazers while Tingyun quickly got behind a few boxes.
In a quick movement, Ryan kicked the Cloudknight's leg destabilizing him and letting Ryan throw him onto the floor, he then quickly leaned down putting a hand on the Knight's chestplate growing ice on him to stuck him on the ground and then quickly stood up looking for Kafka, seeing her on the distance, waving at him while slowly closing a gateway.
While the trailblazers quickly dealt with the hypnotized Cloudknights, Ryan took advantage and dashed in the direction of Kafka, before the gateway completely closed he rose 2 fingers using time magic to slow down time enough for him to get through the gateway, time started to flow normally and Kafka looked at him, in a mix of curiosity and some mild surprise.
"Well~ I didn't expect this, I think you're overestimating your abilities, Ace" she teased him with a smile on her face. "You can't beat me alone"
"I'm not here for that...We're alone now Kafka" his hand still held the scabbard. "I want to cooperate, tell me what the Script says"
"Oh? Is that so~?" She mused before starting to walk. "Walk with me for a little while"
As the Stellaron Hunter started to walk, Ryan looked at the closed gateway for a little while before sighing and following her.
"SAM told you about the Script, and also about Elio not being able to see you, I don't know what you're or why the fate of this universe doesn't take you into account...yet, at least"
"She told me that I caused changes in Jarilo-VI, that Cocolia was meant to die and Serval should've stayed in Jarilo-VI, I can guess that the Express arriving here in the Luofu is part of the Script" he spoke while following the woman. "I know I'm an unpredictable variable to that script, I don't think I've made any changes for now, and if you tell me what the Script says I can stick to it"
"Or you could twist the fate in your advantage, not only that, but you're pretty bold to assume only your actions change fate" she looked around for a few seconds before looking back at him while walking backwards. "Let's say you want to go left in a crossroad because it's what fate decided, but because of certain actions in the past, everyone else's collectively decide to go right...what will you do then?"
"You're saying that right now I'm not the only one able to change the Script"
"Everyone around you now has the potential to change the Script, everyone you've spoken to, everyone you've somehow influenced or interacted with could change the Script, and even if we can see those changes, how much time would we have to react and adapt the script to those changes?"
"Which is why me knowing the Script would be of help, collaborating would let me help in keeping the Script on a manageable state, with as few changes as possible"
"But again, you could use the Script and change it to your advantage, you're not a good person, the Stellaron Hunters can't trust you, and I guess you can't trust us either, we could give you a false script, and you could change it however you saw fit, this collaboration would not work at all, while I agree that it would be of great help, we can't take the risk" she stopped walking and looked around before nodding her head. "This place will be fine, Ace, let me ask you something, would you be willing to die for the sake of the universe?"
He thought for a few seconds before replying to her question. "No, I can't allow myself to die, Kafka"
"I see...then this collaboration will not work, your whole existence will mess up everything you know? A whole new Path and Aeon, who knows how many emanators you'll have? You're really going to give us a headache..."
The woman let out a tired sigh before both of her hands moved behind her, grabbing both of her submachine guns and quickly shot at Ryan, who quickly surrounded his scabbard with Ice and used it to deflect all the bullets he could though some of them managed to get him, one piercing his right shoulder, two on his stomach and one on his left leg.
Ryan backed up as much as he could once the woman stopped shooting, he then made himself invisible with magic making the woman let out a small chuckle before pulling some grenades taking off all the safest and throwing them around her, the white-haired boy managed to get away from the multiple explosions and hide behind a container, starting to heal himself with magic still in an invisible.
Looks down at the wounds on his body "damnit...I want one of those"
"C'mon Ace, my hands just slipped~ we can keep talking if you want" her right hand slowly relaxed her at side while her left hand unsheathed her katana, the tips of her free fingers slowly creating some thin purple strings that started to expand on across the floor. "I won't shoot you again I promise"
After healing himself completely Ryan let out a soft sigh, still invisible he came out from behind the container while looking at Kafka, who looked to be standing still while looking around trying to find him, he frowned and held the scabbard on his hand surrounding the tip with a sharp ice edge before dashing at Kafka, though at halfway towards her, he didn't react fast enough when he stepped on a string.
"There you are~"
Immediately a bunch of string came out from the floor and managed to wrap themselves around Ryan, he grunted as the Invisibility wore off and the strings forced him down to his knees while the outline of his eyes flashed pink for a second.
"Don't resist it, didn't you say you wanted to collaborate~?" Kafka mused down at him with a smile as she approached.
With some effort, he put a hand on the floor and a light blue magic circle appeared under him, Kafka looked up and jumped back, dodging a lightning that fell right on him, she smirked a little at that.
"You tried to knock yourself out with that? You caught me off guard I'll give you that~" she got closer after the lightning dissapeared. "But...looks like you were a little too late~"
...
"Mr.Yang! Over there!"
The group looked to the distance as a lightning fell to the ground, Welt clicked his tongue and immediately started to run in that direction alongside the group.
"Everyone be ready, Ryan must be fighting Kafka already" he announced and the group nodded.
Welt said that, but as soon as they arrived to the place, they saw Kafka, calmly sitting on top of a box while casually spinning one of her submachine guns on one finger, the woman stopped and smiled at them.
"Good, you're all here~ this little chase got me a little tired" she smiled warmly at them.
"Good, you're giving up then, right?" March asked a little wary while slowly forming an arrow on her bow.
"No~ I'm just gonna sit down and rest for a little while, Ace, stall them out for a little while okay?"
Welt immediately looked up and back off, dodging a downwards attack from a scabbard, jumping back he frowned, the group behind him looking a little confused as Ryan stared directly at them, his eyes now surrounded by a dim pink glow, and with the group looking at their hypnotized friend, Welt was the first one to speak up.
"Oh no"
★ ★ ★
A/N: Guys guys, did you see the Myriad Celestia video and that The Herta/Irontomb fusion?
Ryan would still smash
Also I started playing Duet Night Abyss and now I kinda want to write something with it.
Anyways, hope you all enjoyed.