Enlightened Shadow | Rogue Cheney X OC

Ch 28 | Following Darkness

A/N Sorry I forgot to add the title.... 

p.o.v. 3th person

Some mage jobs lasted a month at most when they are particularly difficult, there was even a rumour that there is a 100-year job that up until now nobody could successfully finish. But the twin dragon slayers of Sabertooth weren't expecting that their current job would take a month to get as far as they are now, almost there; or so they thought. The job began to take its toll on the two best friends and their exceeds, it's no surprise that they would snap at each other every other minute or so. They were mentally and physically drained from trying to localize a group of bandits that were stealing random stuff from several stores.

It wasn't just a job to them anymore, it became personal and a matter of pride. This night they were in a small town where they followed the group to, it was a hunch that they would try and do something in this town but based on their investigations over the last month; the magic shop in this particular place could be their next aim. And so Rogue, Sting and their companions stayed awake for yet another night close to the possible target, keeping an eye out in the death of the night were Rogue felt more comfortable than his blonde friend. Although you wouldn't notice his uneasiness when you passed him in the streets, he seemed as cocky as ever.

"You think that they are going to show up tonight?" Sting asked in a way to strike up a conversation to pass the time, Rogue just shrugged his shoulders and didn't answer. This was not because he didn't have anything to say, or because he was mad at his friend. He just didn't feel like having a pointless conversation and preferred the silence more. "They have to right, you and Rogue figured out that they would need something from this store," Lector, Sting's exceed answered instead with a cheery agreement from Frosch.

In all honesty Rogue wasn't so sure anymore, this was just a hopeful hunch. Every day that passes it seemed to be less likely that they would solve this case, even though he was absolutely curious of who these bandits were. Up until now, they figured out that it wasn't a whole group that was stealing all those things, it was just three and that's the only thing that they were absolutely sure about.

"I'm going to check around the building, to see if they're at the back," Rogue announced before leaving Sting with the two exceeds on the roof of the house opposite of the shop. Truth was he needed to do something, even if it was just walking around aimlessly hoping for something to happen. This situation is ironic to say the least, because he was hoping with everything he has that the bandits would try and break into this building. To then stop them from doing so and catching them in the act. Rogue chuckled to himself when he realized this but turned around when he heard a tapping sound thinking he was caught in the act of smiling. But there was nobody behind him, so he looked up and saw three dark figures elegantly move over the roof tiles. His body was first to respond, going into his shadow and move swiftly up the roof of the buildings. Then his mind kicked in, thinking about a way to let Sting know that he found them. So, he directed a shadow-wing attack to the sky hoping that Sting wasn't too focused on having a conversation than watching the store.

The figures in front of him jumped of off the houses and landed on the street, with Rogue close behind. "ARE THAT THEM?" he heard behind him; Sting did notice his signal after all. One of the three bandits turned around and seemed to prepare himself for an attack. However, Rogue couldn't see any magic revealing itself, he did disappear inside his shadow to follow him without risking getting hit by the potential attack. Sting behind him soon fell to his knees clutching his hands to his head screaming bloody murder. This riled Rogue up even more, it wasn't just the job, or his pride anymore now it was also revenge for his friend.

When the person in the back noticed that his attack didn't hit everybody, he whispered to his companions to keep running with the goods, he will meet them at the place after having dealt with the problem. Rogue appeared physically before the bandit, locking his jaw as a way to prepare for the fight. He hasn't been this close to one of the thieves before, but he still couldn't recognize him. A black scarf hid his face from the nose down, together with a hood that sat upon his head casting a dark shadow over the eyes. Rogue must admit that his attire did leave much to his imagination, and he had to remove the hood or the scarf to be able to see his face. Knowing how one of them looked like would surely help this investigation.

So, that became the main goal of the fight for Rogue. It turned out that this bandit used some sort of psychic magic like Yanida. This means that he has to try and block his mind to him, so he can't predict his moves. She had told him that he needed to imagine a big concrete wall around his thoughts, how thicker the wall how harder it was to penetrate the mind. But up until now he was never able to keep her out of his mind, although that wasn't always her doing. He smiled absentmindedly thinking of her bright face smiling at him before his opponent smacked him to the ground.

Rogue needed a second or two to realize what happened and stood back up. He wiped the dirt off his face and glared at the bandit in front of him. He build the best imaginary concrete wall he could manage and did a shadow wing attack, his opponent dodged it just barely. Knowing that Rogue had to get closer, he tried engaging his opponent into a physical fistfight. Being too caught up to dodge Rogue's fast strikes he wasn't able to do any other mental attacks, judging by this he thoughts that he had the upper hand. And even though the bandit had trouble following up Rogue's speed he was able to dodge most of his attacks, but not all.

After several minutes his opponent took a curved sickle ring between the fingers of his left hand to cut Rogue in several places. When the light reflected off the slick silver metal Rogue's mind travelled to the fighting style of Yanida, and how it matched that of his opponent. Could it be? If this was anything like Yanida's tactics, he needed to take that weapon away from the bandit preventing him to cut any more places on his body.

Rogue did his best dodging the attacks that came from his left hand, and after a while, he grabbed his left wrist. Holding his wrist somehow felt wrong, he could close his fingers easily around it and felt the bones under the skin. His opponent tried to free himself from Rogue's grip, but it was no use. His other hand reached for the hood, revealing the upper face of the bandit.

The shadow dragon slayer's mouth fell open, this wasn't the person he expected to catch. He didn't expect to see these plum and blue coloured eyes to look at him like this. As if she did not know who he was, she glared at him with eyes that could cut through diamond; "I would suggest you let me go. Following me means following the darkness," she whispered to him, poison leaving her mouth, stunning Rogue right then and there.

He couldn't believe it was her, but it was unmistakably her voice and her eyes and her hair, it was her beautiful face that now looked menacing at him. She yanked hard, trying to release herself, but this caused Rogue to hold on even tighter. He wanted to say something, anything! But his voice failed, after several minutes he did manage to utter one word; "Yanida?", it came out less sure than he wanted to, but it was all he got. She did not respond in any form to her own name, as if she couldn't remember it. Rogue knitted his eyebrows together, maybe she didn't hear him; "Yanida, what are you doing?" his second try was certainly better than the first.

But still, no recognition in her menacing face, to busy trying to release herself. Rogue shook up her wrist, demanding her to look at him and she did; "It's me, ... It's Rogue! Don't you know, don't you-" but the words got stuck in his throat not flowing of his tongue. Then she looked him straight in the eyes for the first time, and he saw her again. Just barely, a couple of seconds at most, so short that he thought that he had imagined it.

"Rogue? You caught one?" Sting screamed my way, causing me to turn my head and look for his figure in the shadows. In that short moment of hesitation, she was finally able to release herself and ran away instantly. Rogue looked at her, running away from him and he exhaled not realizing he had held his breath the entire time. Sting caught up to him and he gave Rogue a slap against his head; "You had him! Why did you let go?" he demanded from his friend, not understanding what went through his head.

Rogue blinked several times, not being able to see her anymore and turned his head towards Sting. "That was Yanida," he said. Sting didn't believe him when those words left Rogue's mouth but the seriousness in his face wasn't open to interpretation. Rogue meant what he said and it broke something in him, he suddenly felt the adrenaline leave his body and the dozens of cuts Yanida made with her curved sickle stung.

What does this mean?