Destiny (Anime Style)

Chapter 23: Just Business

Some time after Leah was kidn*pped, she and the woman carrying her arrived to an old abandoned warehouse located quite far away from the crowded sectors of the Vestian Outpost. And after waiting in there for a very long time, the other male bounty hunter finally arrived as well.

"What took you so long?" the woman asked her partner with annoyance while tossing Leah to the floor, who was still handcuffed by the way.

"I had some trouble, but it's okay..." the man replied. "It's already been dealt with"

"Whatever you say... Did you get it or not?"

"Of course I did" he answered while showing his hand holding a turned off Wire.

Leah widened her eyes in shock once more after noticing that. "N-no way... Wire..." She then stared at both mercenaries with a defiant look. "Who the hell are you? What do you want?!"

"Oh my dear..." a sarcastic voice Leah had heard before said from behind. "...you don't need to be afraid"

The human girl turned around and then widened her eyes at the sight of none other than the old geezer who Ravi had accidentally bumped into the day before. "Y-you?! Wh-what's going on?! And what so you want?!"

"Isn't it obvious? Your little ghosts are quite rare specimens in these corners of the system. They'll surely be worth a lot of money"

"You are... going to sell them?!"

"Yeah... but not just them..." At that moment, the old man approached Leah and grabbed her face with one hand. "An exotic product like you will surely earn me quite a lot of riches as well... hehehe..."

Leah startled in feat at those words. She definitely had an idea of what the man meant by saying that, but was hoping she was wrong. "You... You can't be serious..." the huntress muttered as she uselessly tried to escape the old man's grip on her face.

"Oh, I'm very serious. It's nothing personal though... That's just how things are in this place. One has to find a way to make a living by himself. Whether it's through the weapon market, illegal spices, or even..." he then gave a quick but also very thirsty look to the entirety of Leah's body. "Well, you understand what I'm trying to say, don't you? Hahahaha...." the geezer began laughing hard as the poor young girl was one step away from crying.

After this, the old man ordered the pair of deadly mercenaries to stay there and protect the ghosts given that a client would soon come in order to buy them. Meanwhile, he also forced Leah to stand up while still handcuffed, and made her sleep with an old cloth covered in some kind of weird drug, after which he then disposed himself to leave along with the huntress towards his own hideout.

Nonetheless, it was also at that moment, as Leah was being taken away by force to yet another unknown place, that from the debris of the hostel that blew up some time ago, someone finally emerged from beneath it all with a great explosion and blast of fire.

That's right, it was Ravi. "Are you... all okay?" he asked some awoken people while panting heavily.

"Y-yeah... thank you a lot, sir" one of the awoken said. Turns out the explosion basically crumbled the whole hostel, and the warlock did all he could to protect as many of the people who were inside when it happened. Still, he couldn't save all of them... including of course Leah.

'Damn that guy!' the bluenette thought with anger as he remembered what happened before...

...

>

The EMP wave shut down every electronic device in the hostel and all around it. And while Leah was dealing with one of the mercenaries in her room, Ravi woke up in a hurry and noticed Wire laying on the floor with no signs of life. He quickly stood up from his bed and put on his coat. Luckily, he never took off his boots since he was trying to be alert in case something happened. And right after that, a smoke and flash grenade suddenly entered his room as well.

"GAAHHH!" Ravi grumbled as he tripped on the floor and lost his vision temporarily. Then, the male bounty hunter entered through the window. "Who the hell is there?!" the blue-haired boy tried to open his eyes, but it was useless.

"Hmph! You are still awake?" the man asked. "Seems like you lightbearers are tougher than we thought" He then approached Ravi and took out a gun. "This is nothing personal. We hold no grudge against you. It's just business"

"B-business?"

"That's right... We are being paid a very big amount for the 2 little droids... AND that girl"

Ravi startled after hearing this. He could feel his concern and anger growing after the man mentioned Leah. "You bastard! What do you want from her?!"

"Heh! I don't care! Our client wants her... that's all I know. Though I gotta say, I do have an idea of why she wants such extravagant product" Ravi's anger was increasing exponentially at that point. "It doesn't matter though... cause you are going to die here anyway"

The man pointed the gun at Ravi as this last one was laying on the floor without vision. There really seemed to be no way for him to escape now, but surprisingly, he actually dodged the shot and kicked the gun away even without his eyes.

"What the...?!" the man claimed as he pulled back. Buy Ravi didn't stop there... He rushed towards the man with his arms on fire and went for a punch. "It doesn't make any sense! How can you see?!" the man yelled as he barely dodged the attack.

"I have no idea! All I know is you are not getting away!" Ravi yelled as he tried to tackle the man. This last one however, dodged once again and then decided to speed up his plan. And as such, he began running away through the window, only to be noticed by Ravi who could still sense the man trying to get away for some reason. "YOU ARE NOT ESCAPING!" Just as the human boy yelled this, a huge explosion happened at one side of the hostel.

Little by little, the whole place started blowing up without control. Turns out there were bombs located strategically so that they would explode one after the other, destroying the entire place along the way.

Ravi lost his balance because of this and so, he did the only thing he could think of at that point in order to not lose the man's trail. 'Damn it! I won't let you escape me that easily!' he thought as he threw one of the many trackers he built himself onto the man's clothing.

What happened later can be deduced easily. Ravi was slowly getting his vision back, and as the place was crumbling from every single corner it had, he immediately gathered as many of the guests that were present and tried to keep them safe by risking his own life.

>

...

'Wire, Cybel... Leah...' Ravi thought as he walked out of the debris and remembered all that had happened. 'That man said he wasn't alone, so there might be at least one more enemy. Also, he said they wanted our ghosts and Leah herself... which means that they may still be alive' He then clenched his fist with determination as he mixed with the crowd. 'That's right... they are fine... Leah is fine! And I'm going to save them no matter what!'

And so, with that thought plastered inside his mind, the blue-haired boy took out the tracker device and stared following its signal. As he was running across and through the different streets of the black market, only 1 thing remained present in his head at every moment: making sure Wire, Cybel and Leah were safe.

...

...

...

After some minutes, Ravi finally reached the place the tracker was leading him to: an old, abandoned and distant warehouse in which the human girl's kidnappers were. Then, as Ravi was doing some scouting, he noticed there were other people just arriving as well... A group of fallen creatures to be precise.

'Fallen? What are they doing here?' the bluenette asked himself as he noticed these fallen were actually different than others he ever faced. They weren't just wearing a different style of clothing with many spikes around the back, they also wielded different weapons than the usual knives. These ones had spears. 'Well, it doesn't matter what kind of fallen they are' he finally thought as he sneaked above the warehouse without being noticed.

The warehouse had a small window at the top, which Ravi could use to spy or strike when necessary. However, he decided to wait a bit and make sure Leah and the others were there. Though the only thing he got to distinguish inside were both mercenaries carrying a tiny cage covered by a piece of cloth.

"Hey! Let us go already!" a male voice yelled from inside the cage.

"We are not your pets, damn it!" another female voice added from inside the cage as well.

After a while, the blue-haired warlock finally realized it was Wire and Cybel who were complaining and immediately prepared to attack. Nonetheless, as he was about to sneak in, he noticed the fallen he saw before entering the warehouse.

"So, you came after all" the male bounty hunter told the group of fallen. "We were starting to worry you might have backed up from this sale"

"Sale?" Ravi muttered to himself.

One of the fallen stepped up front and began talking. "If what you said is true, and your boss does have a pair of ghosts in offer, then there will be no problem" he said in a menacing way.

"Oh, it's true. Just look" the female bounty hunter added, after which she removed the cloth covering the cage, only to reveal both Wire and Cybel staring with terrified looks at everyone around.

"So, it is true. Are they completely functional though?"

"I can guarantee you. Even a crime leader like Spider will be pleased with what he's being offered here"

'Spider?' Ravi thought once more as he began positioning himself in order to attack.

Meanwhile, the pair of ghosts couldn't be more scared. They were about to be sold to an unknown buyer, an to top it all, it was a fallen criminal. However, it was then that the determined blue-haired warlock finally decided to intervene.

"YOU AIN'T BUYING A THING!" Ravi yelled as he crushed through the roof with fire in both arms.

"WHAT THE HELL?!" the female mercenary yelled.

"IT CAN'T BE! HOW DID HE FOUND US?!" the male one added.

Right after landing, the warlock immediately shot his fire at the Fallen, which inevitably had to pull back as flames began spreading all around the place.

"DAMN YOU, IDIOTS!" one of the fallen yelled at the mercenaries. "YOU NEVER SAID THE GUARDIANS YOU TOOK THOSE GHOSTS FROM WERE STILL AROUND!"

"NO! WAIT!" the woman yelled in desperation after witnessing the fallen leaving one by one.

"THE DEAL IS CANCELLED! WE ARE IN NO POSITION TO DEAL WITH ANNOYING LIGHTBEARERS!" The group of fallen ran away, leaving both of the geezer's mercenaries angry and more than irritated.

"As I said... You are not selling my friends to anyone!" Ravi yelled with determination.

"Ravi!" both Wire and Cybel claimed, relieved to see the blue-haired trainee alive.

"You have no idea what you just did, you brat!" the male mercenary claimed with fury. "I'm not just going to kill you. I'll make it so that no one can recognize you once I'm done with you!" At that moment, the man grabbed the giant sword he was carrying on his back and rushed to attack Ravi. However, even with that big weapon, the bounty hunter was still surprisingly fast and agile.

"What?!" Ravi yelled as he barely dodged one of the sword's swings, which hit the floor and actually managed to break it.

"Do you like it?! You are not the only one full of surprises!" Ravi kept on dodging every attack while trying to find an opening to counterattack, but there just didn't seem to be any chance at all. "What's wrong, kid?! Where did all your determination go?!"

"I'll show it to you!" Ravi replied with fury as he abruptly caught the sword with one hand.

"What the... How?!"

"This is nothing new to me... I already have experience dealing with big swords after all" the guardian trainee said referring to the battle he and Leah had with that big hive knight back on Earth. "If you don't give me any chance to fight back, then I'll create my own!" He then raised his hand and caused a potent explosion of fire which sent the man and his sword flying backwards.

"Brother!" the woman yelled.

The man hit the ground a few moments later, but rolled and stood back up almost immediately.

"Brother! Are you okay?!"

"Yeah... This is nothing, sis" the male mercenary replied.

"Wait a sec... Brother? Sis?" Ravi asked himself. "I see, so you 2 are siblings"

"Not just any siblings. We are the best duo when it comes to our job. Never have we failed a single task... not until today" the brother clenched his fist in anger. "And all because of you!"

"Is that why you did what you did?! Is that why you killed all those people at the hostel?! Tell me! Was it worth it?! Does the lives of all those people mean nothing?!"

"A brat like you would never understand..." An uncomfortable silence invaded the room, until the brother finally spoke again. "LOOK AROUND YOU! THIS PLACE IS HELL! NO ONE LIVES A HEALTHY OR PLEASANT LIFE! WE MUST DO WHAT WE CAN TO SURVIVE! SOMEONE WHO LIVED HIS ENTIRE LIFE IN A CITY FULL OF LUXURIES CAN'T POSSIBLY KNOW HOW WE FEEL!"

Ravi was silent for several seconds. "Oh... But I do know" he finally muttered in a more calmed but troubled way.

"Huh?"

"I completely understand, because I used to think that same way"

After spending his entire childhood in a wasteland and having to survive by himself, the bluenette obviously understood the siblings' feelings... even if just a little bit.

"But now, I'm trying to change that. I'm still on the process, but..." At that moment, he turned on his fire once more. "...I'm not gonna back up!"

Everyone stayed in silence after Ravi's declaration. And then...

"You said you and your sister are the best duo when it comes to your job, right? Well, let me tell you something" Ravi got ready to attack once more. "The girl that you kidn*pped and I are also the best duo at our job, and I simply can't forgive you for taking her away!"

"Ravi..." Cybel muttered.

Then, the blue-haired boy immediately rushed to attack again. However, the man was actually waiting for him, ready to counter. "DIE YOU BRAT!" he yelled while swinging his sword in an attempt to cut Ravi in half. Nonetheless, this last one swiftly dodged the attack, just like Leah dodged one of Derek's punches back at the entrance exam, and landed a potent kick surrounded with fire on the man's face which also managed to sent him flying away and make him crash against a wall at one side.

After that, the man just fell on the floor, totally knocked out. "And now... you will tell me where to find Leah... And then I'll save her...

...

...

...

"...EVEN IF IT'S THE LAST THING I DO!"