Rika sneaks around the empire facility, looking for where her friends were placed, but first she found where they put everyone's stuff.
Her thief training took over first, weight on the toes, breath held during turns, palms brushing stone for orientation. The Empire's alarms were loud, but not loud enough to cover a boot scuff or a heartbeat if someone listened too closely.
Her illusions came second, thin veils of false shadows, bending lamplight just enough to blur her outline. Soldiers sprinted past her in the halls, chasing the chaos Kaito had unleashed. Their faces were angry, afraid, certain they were heroes hunting a villain.
She was hunting her friends, but the building didn't care about motivation.
She passed a patrol, raised a hand, and whispered a distortion spell, not offensive, just camouflage. The guards blinked, shook their heads, and continued. One swore he'd seen a flicker. Rika was already gone.
Holding block C5.
Cells like rib bones. Prisoners like breaths that had already been exhaled.
She found Toni first, but not intentionally. A southern melody drifted faint and low from behind an iron door. He wasn't singing to be heard, just humming to keep fear from filling the silence.
She phased through the door's sight using illusion, then lock-picked the real hinges for entry later.
Toni jolted when he saw her. His guitar was gone. His hat was gone. The spark in his eyes wasn't.
"You alive?" she asked.
"You broke into an Imperial death-trap to ask stupid questions?" he breathed. Barely audible. "Yes. I'm alive."
Rika opened his door and he smiled in relief. "Thanks friend."
Rika nods. "You see where they put Nanami?" She asks.
Nanami waves from a cell down the hall, "Down here!" She called.
The two of them quickly run over and, free Nanami from her cell. She sighs a breath of relief.
Nanami hugs Rika close, stunning her for a second. "Thank you," Nanami whispered into her shoulder. "For coming back for us."
Rika froze. She didn't deserve that sentiment. Not even stylized. But her arms lifted anyway, slowly closing around her friend as if the truth might spill out between their clothes if she held too tight.
"Yeah, well…" Rika rasp-smiled, pulling back with a stage wink she was still learning to perform honestly. "The great trickster always appears for the save, right?"
Toni snorted. "More like 'always late, but dramatic enough to get forgiven.'"
She shoved his arm lightly but her tone hardened. "Next time hold onto that guitar better, or you're rescuing yourself."
He gave a tiny salute with it. "Point taken."
Rika turned. "Let's find the others and get out of here!"
Toni nods. "Lead the way Rika."
Rika reached the courtyard first, shoes whisper-quiet from years of training. Toni was beside her, guitar case over his back, Nanami half a step behind.
The Empire facility was destabilizing, but this section of it looked untouched. Too staged. The stones were polished. The lanterns evenly spaced. Even the shadows, Rika noticed now, were a little too convenient, pooling in ideal hiding shapes instead of behaving naturally.
A figure stood ahead in the dim arches, robes flowing like misplaced elegance.
Then he turned.
Kaito's face.
The real Kaito her friend, trouble incarnate.
Except tonight the face looked… quieter. Sharper. Just a little too symmetrical. Like someone had studied it instead of lived it.
"Oh!" Rika blurted warmly, relief loosening her shoulders. "Kaito. Figures you'd be the one thing not locked in a cage."
The man grinned. "Did you doubt me?"
"I doubt you every day," she snorted, the old rhythm returning naturally. "The only constant is you proving everyone wrong by accident."
"Then not by accident tonight." His voice carried the smoothness of someone unscuffed by panic. "Deliberate brilliance, for a change."
Toni raised a brow but said nothing yet.
Nanami narrowed her eyes, but not enough to accuse, only enough to analyze. "Your confidence feels… curated."
"I was imprisoned," Kaito's face replied, hand to chest. "Not lobotomized."
Rika laughed. It bounced off the courtyard like the ricochet of a coin thrown in a well.
Toni watched him again. The laugh didn't infect the others like Kaito's nonsense normally did.
No ripple effect.
"Alright then," Nanami said casually, her ears flicking around. "Should we go then." She says as her ears continue dancing around.
Kaito's face blinked a beat too long. "Of course?"
Nanami stopped him. "Weird, you never seem to be able to keep away from the ears.... never."
Silence again.
The man smiled, but the mask twitched microscopically around the edges now, like warm wax disturbed by heat.
"Well," he said slowly, "tonight I am more tolerant of the ears."
Nanami snapped into a fighting stance, the sound crisp. "No you're not."
Rika's head turned sharply to her. "Nana-?"
"No," Nanami said, stepping forward fully. "That face is real. The loyalty behind it is not. You're not Kaito."
"I am absolutely Kaito," he said, voice velvet over wire.
"No," Toni said at the same time, putting himself between the man and the girls without drawing anything yet. "You're someone wearing his homework."
The Kaito-faced man sighed, disappointed but patient. "I expected sharper from you all."
"I expected eyebrows that don't swap sides when you 'mature'," Nanami snapped.
Rika inhaled sharply, finally seeing the detail clearly now.
Eyebrow scar on wrong side.
Not an imitation mistake.
A signature error.
Someone who assumed the trait was aesthetic, not personal history.
Then Rika whispered, "Be honest. You want the crown, don't you?"
The man smiled again. "Don't call it a crown. It has a name. A weight. A legacy. And it belongs in my hand, not yours."
Rika didn't argue. She just stepped back one step, jacket rustling where the Crown rested hidden. "Not a chance buddy!"
The man exhaled. "You idiot children don't understand what you're in the way of, we're in the process of reshaping this world." His eyes then grow cold. "And I will not allow you to get in the way of that!"
And he moved.
Fast.
Not Kaito fast, but still fast.
His hand shot out, grabbing Toni by the throat, lifting him off balance with a jerk that sent the guitar case slamming to the ground.
Toni clawed at the wrist too late.
The courtyard exploded into motion.
"Give it to me," he warned, voice low, not performing anymore, "or I crush the bard's windpipe, and the message is four bodies instead of one."
Rika surged forward, Nanami catching her arm instinctively, not to stop her, but to time the next move.
Toni choked out a ragged whisper. "Girls. I swear. Don't give him a thing."
The grip tightened.
Rika's hand went to her coat.
Not pulling theatrics anymore.
Not finding laughs.
Just choosing the knife-edge of the moment.
"You want a crown," she whispered, eyes flaring with trickster static like distortion heat.
"Then answer this carefully."
Toni gasped under the pressure.
Then...
The magistrates grip released, Toni falling to the ground coughing. The man just stood there, his eyes now bulged. Toni scurried back panicked. "You alright?" Rika asked then her breath caught.
Toni had blood on his face.... but it wasn't his. THUD.
The magistrates body slammed into the ground.