Enlightened Shadow | Rogue Cheney X OC

Ch 22 | Fate

P.o.v. Rogue Cheney

"Good sir, can I interest you in a good quality sword?" a vendor asked me, pointing at several steel longswords in a barrel. On a normal day, I would've just ignored him and went on with my day. But this was not that kind of day, I looked at him with my death glare, causing him to apologize and retreat inside his shop.

Even with Frosch walking beside me I couldn't manage to get in a better mood. Although I can't suppress a smile when Frosch is chasing a butterfly, quickly replaced by wide eyes when he managed to cross a corner and disappeared from my view. I also crossed it but couldn't find the pink colour of his frog suit anywhere.

At the end of the alleyway, I looked left, nothing. On the right side, I saw a person in a cape picking Frosch up and quickly climbing the fire escape stairs when he noticed he wasn't alone anymore. I quickly followed the figure up the stairs and ran across the roofs of the buildings. The kidnapper seemed to be very agile in moving across the houses, this must be his playground.

But because we were this high up, I could easily notice his posture swiftly moving around. Every step I came closer, he managed to jump two steps further ahead. I had to quickly make up a plan to stop the criminal in his tracks. I jumped over a 5 feet wide gap barely making it to the edge of the next house. I had to find my balance before I could resume chasing the cloaked individual. I saw him a little further trying to jump across another gap, but he didn't make the edge and disappeared from view.

When I arrived at that spot, I noticed a couple of crates making a DIY staircase to the street below. I descended it and looked around trying to find the person, but instead of a cloaked man and Frosch I also saw a certain Fairy Tail mage.

"Are you OK, Frosch? Did the bad man hurt you somewhere?" she asked my exceed crouching down to his level with her back to me. The criminal I was chasing was laying knocked out beside her, revealing his bearded face. "Frosch feels great," he answered her politely. When I walked up closer, she turned around and smiled brightly at me, I am so happy to see her. The sun managed to light up her face just right, softening her features and illuminating her eyes.

I'm so grateful that she was at exactly the right moment to knock out the criminal. "Thank you so much to rescue him", I shifted my attention to Frosch while I crouched down beside Yanida, "Are you sure that man didn't hurt you?" I asked concerned and he nodded smiling.

"It's only natural to help when someone is in trouble. It also helped that I was trying to catch that guy for several days now." She said turning on her feet and going through the possessions of the kidnapper. I picked up Frosch, straightened myself and looked at Yanida's movements; "Why do you need him?", "He is the last piece of the puzzle I need to go and complete my job,... I think" she explained slapping the man in the face, trying to wake him up. "What type of job is it?" I asked her curious, looking down at her attempts to waking him up.

She stopped her slapping to look up to me and answer; "I have to find this old book for a cocky rich guy and deliver it back to him. The employer isn't that friendly but pretending to be a detective is a lot of fun". Her answer and carefree smile caused me to smile back, I noticed that my bad mood slowly gets replaced by a calm one. I'm just happy to have Frosch back in my arms and seeing the guy responsible for his kidnapping laying hurt on the floor.

"I beat him up too much, he's not going to wake up any time soon," she sighed taking sea stone shackles out of her leather belt pocket and secured it around one wrist and one ankle of the man, preventing him to run away when he wakes up. Yanida got up and stood next to me with her arms crossed over her chest, looking at me.

I noticed she had a light frown on her face and her eyes looked too serious; "Can you not read my mind, please?" I asked her casually. She looked busted for a couple of seconds but smiled right after; "Your thoughts are just all over the place, it seemed odd", she took another minute to add the rest of her sentence, "So, what happened between you and Sting?".