After a few hours they had arrived just at the entrance to the town nicknamed "den of thieves."
Dante could only imagine what kind of people must live there for it to warrant such a nickname, though Karin advised for them to come here so it all worked out he guessed. It'd be a bit better if he wasn't getting tugged around by his shirt by his rowdy friend.
Once he managed to pry himself from Kaito's grip he had to catch his breath. "How can a person even run for hours straight without getting tired." He says. But as he caught his breath he noticed he actually wasn't all that tired either.
Maybe it was from all of Kaito's training with him, or maybe it was because he was drug most of the way here who knows. He's pulled from thought quickly.
"Dante look!" Kaito shouted.
When Dante had looked up he saw the girl who had robbed them, and behind her was a horde of angry boar chasing her down.
"I'm sorry i stabbed you! Please stop chasing me i have so much to live forrrr!" She shouts while running away crying. They both just stare at her.
"Karma." They both say while watching. "Please guys i dont even taste good you dont want me i swear!!" She shouts while still crying.
Dante laughs at her but Kaito taps his arm. "Uhm Dante, they're coming right at us." Kaito says, and then they both blankly stare at the girl and them.
The trickster notices them. "Run! Run from the murder pigs!" She shouts to them. Kaito and Dante turn around to run away, but the girl uses Dante as a step stool and jumps over him.
"Hey what the hell!?" Dante shouts at her. While running away she shouts behind her, "every man for themselves!" She says while running. Dante and Kaito run after her while all the boars chase them. "Why're you following me?! Lead them away not to me!" She shouts at them.
They all keep running but the girl trips and falls and the boars are coming straight towards her. "Goodbye cruel world." She says while an angel halo appears above her head. The boars are about to trample her but Kaito jumps in the way and launches a giant barrier and flips it, sending the boars flying away.
She sits on the ground amazed at first but then gets angry. "You could've done that this entire time?!" She asks him angrily. "I'm sorry i was focusing on NOT DYING FIRST" Kaito shouts back at her. "You should be lucky he even saved you." Dante says.
"You're right, thank you for almost letting me die is there anyway i could ever repay you oh great one." She sarcastically says. "By giving our stuff back!" Dante yells at her. "Oh yeah.. forgot that i actually did that." She looks at both of them and runs away. Right into the city.
Dante sighed, "at least this one has a barrier." He said. Kaito tapped Dante's arm and began running.
"Get back here!" Dante shouts at her while him and Kaito chase her. "You know it wouldn't look good for you two if anyone saw you chasing around a little girl!" She yells back at them. "You know she kind of has a point." Kaito says. "NO SHE DOESN'T!" Dante yells at him
The three of them spend a lot of time just running around. "Just stop chasing me pleeasseee!" She screams while crying. "Ive been running all day my legs hurt leave me alooo-ooonnne!" She yells.
She banked around a corner sharply and as they went to follow her.... she was gone. "How does she keep doing that?!" Kaito yells.
Dante stops and looks around the den of thieves.
The town was a crooked patchwork of decay, a place where roofs sagged like tired shoulders and the walls looked stitched together from whatever scraps people could find. Rusted sheets of tin rattled in the wind, nailed haphazardly over yawning gaps. Plywood, warped and splintered, was slapped across broken windows, though more often than not, rags or old blankets did the job. Paint, if any had been there to begin with, was long since peeled away, leaving only the gray, sickly bones of wood beneath.
The streets weren't much better. Cobblestones were cracked and uneven, some missing altogether, with weeds forcing their way up through the gaps. The air carried a damp, sour tang, like mold and smoke mixed with something metallic. Kaito wrinkled his nose at it, though not nearly as much as at the way the people stared.
Every pair of eyes seemed to follow them. Hollow stares, wide stares, jittering stares, faces worn thin, twisted by suspicion or hunger. Some looked through them like they weren't even human. Others glared, lips curling in something close to a snarl.
Kaito, grinning, met their madness with his own, exaggerating his eyes until they bulged and pulling faces back at them. "Look," he whispered, snickering, "they're all playing along."
"Kaito, stop doing that!" Dante hissed, voice tight. He clutched his bag to his chest like it might be ripped away at any second, teeth chattering more from nerves than the chill.
"But it's fun." Kaito shrugged, still grinning.
Dante's grip only tightened, his eyes darting from shadowed alley to broken doorway. "Let's just hurry and get out of here," he muttered, his steps quickening, as if the town itself might swallow them whole if they lingered too long.
Kaito nods agreeing with him. "Yeah this place looks like trash huh?" Kaito is very unimpressed, compared to every else he's been this place sucks.
They walk around the town for a while then they stop in front of a run down looking building. "This place looks shady..." Dante says. "It'll be fine." Kaito says as he heads in.
They stop at the door and see the girl.
"Trickster why'd you bring a bunch of garbage." A man behind the counter asks her. "It is not garbage these are elixirs! Theyre worth fifty thousand Blastie EACH." She says to him. Showing glowing vials she stole from someone. "Even so there's just two of them and most party's and guilds aren't gonna buy I'd be losing out on this deal." He says.
"Well what about this book! This thing looks pretty expensive." She says as she places Kaito's book onto the table. "How the hell did you get your hands on something like this?" He asks her. "See I knew it was worth something." She says. "This is more then worth something this things worth billions. Looks to be complete antique of the past. You've got yourself a deal." He says to her.
The trickster smiles brightly. "Billions!? With that I can pay my entire debt and more!" She says happily.
"Yeah, no." Kaito snatches his dagger from the man. The tricksters bang droops down on her head. "Oh uh hi guys." She says. "Hey who the hell are you!" He yells. "We're the people she stole that from and we're taking it back." Dante says. The trickster comes up to them. "Come on just lemme sell it you can just steal it back after." She whispers to them.
Kaito shakes his head. "No." He says. The man stands up at his desk. "Sorry trickster but ive gotta report this in, can't have my business at risk." He says. She begins to panic. "No don't turn me in I told you I'd pay all of you! The empire will kill me please." She cries and begs.
She darts her head around. "What's that!" She says and the three turn their heads looking for what she pointed at. She snatched Kaito's book again and ran away. Dante nods slowly. "How did I fall for that?"
Kaito begins chasing her. Dante reluctantly following.
As they chase her she throws stuff down in an attempt to block their way. Kaito acrobatically avoids all the objects she throws at him. Dante not as gracefully following.
The girl even goes as far to throw other people at them. Kaito and Dante doing their best to avoid as many as possible.
She drags them into marketplace stalls. Crashing through a mans winter melon selection. "MY MELONS!" The man shouts as he falls to his knees.
Eventually they catch up to her, stumbling back they plumet down into the roof of another shop. The fall is harsh. The shop owner begins whacking them all with a broom. "Get out! You mangy children!" He yells at them.
Now the three of them are running together to escape the onslaught of broom strikes.
After they escape Kaito almost gets his hands on her. She leaps into the air and spins around. With a gust of powerful wind she launches Kaito and Dante away from her sending them through a nearby building.
"Hehehe." She snickers, "you've been bested by the trickster!" She shouts as she quickly bumps into anther group of people. "Well, look who we have here." A man says before picking her up. By the scarf.
She nervously giggles. "Oh hey there Reyes." She smiles. "Thought you could steal from me and get away with it!?" He yells as he throws her in a cage. "Hey wait I can give it back! I just got more loot, honest!" She yells.
The other person in the group peers into the cage. "Like we believe that "trickster" you're gonna learn today, we got a mission for you." He says with a heavy Scottish accent. "No, release me!" She says playfully despite her very dire situation.
Dante and Kaito watched it happen. Dante shrugs. "Well she kinda deserves it." He says unbothered. Kaito seems unsure about it. "I don't know Dante, she doesn't seem bad." Kaito says. "She robbed us Kaito, TWICE!?" Dante shouts.
Kaito nods. "I just feel like she's not as bad as we think." Kaito says. Dante shakes his head. "She flung us through a building man." Dante says.
"Well they also have my book now, and I have to get it back no matter what!" Kaito shouts. Dante thinks and Kaito doesn't seem like much of a reader. "What does that book mean to you?" Dante asks him, he's seen Kaito with it every step of the way.
"It's my treasure, it means everything to me." Kaito says. Dante will understand, if the book is Kaito's most valuable possession. Then.... "Ok, let's go get your book back. And help the girl." Dante begrudgingly agrees to the mission.
Kaito beams with joy. "Thank you Dante!" He says happily. Kaito's joy cracks Dante and he smiles too. "Always." Dante responds.