Following the death of the magistrate the group stand. Petrified from the shock they had no idea how to comprehend what had just happened.
Swift as the wind the assassin leaps from the shadows. "Was a lot easier then i expected," The assassin clad in dark clothing , and a mask says as they kneel down to the magistrates body. "I can't believe that noble man went through all of this trouble to hire us for a nobody like you." The assassin taunts.
The leader shakes their head. "To try and kill your own friends, I expected more."
The assassin snaps their head to the three, the both of them clearly afraid jumps. "Were you two with him?" They asks.
Rika quickly shakes her head. "Never seen that guy in my life." She lies. Nanami nods. "Not a single day." She adds.
The assassin stares at them. "Come now it's all girls here be honest." She says. Rika and Nanami decides not to answer. She doesn't appreciate their silence. Tilting her head she summons two additonal assassin's who appear so swiftly. It's as if they teleported.
"We have no need to continue, killing the bystanders wont gain us anything." A taller male assassin states plainly. The other one nods. "Yes, boss will be happy with our success, now that this Kaito fella is dead." The third unknown one states.
Nanami, Toni, and Rika edged away from the assassins, every step measured and cautious.
"It looks like they're letting us go," Nanami murmured, exhaling slowly.
Rika sagged with relief. "Thank the gods... now just pray Kaito doesn't show up."
But the rapid thud of approaching footsteps shattered that hope.
Kaito burst into the room, wild-eyed. His gaze locked onto the lifeless body on the floor, and his face contorted in disbelief.
"I'm... dead?" he gasped.
Panic overtook him as he patted himself down frantically. "Wait... am I a ghost now!?"
Before anyone could answer, the corpse shimmered, the illusion dissolving to reveal the true form of the magistrate. Kaito let out a breath of shaky relief.
But the moment's peace was short-lived.
The assassins, realizing the deception, sprang into action. The leader summoned a gleaming short sword with a snarl.
"We've been had!" she barked, lunging at Kaito.
With a swift gesture, Rika conjured another illusion, a massive beast barreling through the fortress, snarling and wild-eyed. The assassins turned instinctively toward the new threat.
Seizing the distraction, Rika grabbed Kaito's arm. "Run!"
They sprinted for the exit just as Dante skidded into the room, late and breathless. Without missing a beat, Rika shoved him forward.
"Move it!"
The five of them fled down the corridor together, the sounds of chaos echoing behind them.
The leader assassin's realizes this is a mere illusion. Before they get too far she gives chase.
"What happened!?" Dante asks. "Magistrate's dead, he disguised himself as Kaito and those assassins killed him!" Nanami explains, the kids take a sharp right turn continuing their escape.
"He's dead?! What now?!" Kaito questions. Rika hands Dante and Kaito back their stuff. "I don't know!"
Kaito spins on instinct...
CLANG!
Deflecting a dagger that whistles past his face. No time to breathe. The assassin lunges from the shadows, blade flashing toward his throat.
Steel scrapes steel. He blocks again, barely.
Kaito leaps back, but she stays on him like a shadow. Another slash. Another block. Somehow, he's reading her strikes. Too well.
"How is he keeping up? I've hidden every intention…" she thinks, brow furrowing.
She sweeps low. Kaito's legs are torn from under him, but as he falls, he twists, locking his ankles around her and dragging her down with him.
With startling grace, she flips mid-fall, kicking her legs skyward and hammering Kaito into the ground.
"You're keeping up. Impressive. Assassin-trained?" she asks coolly, brushing dust from her coat.
Kaito scoffs as he rises. "As if!"
"Very well," she replies, voice colder. "Then I'll end this."
She dashes in, faster this time. A blur.
Kaito counters with an underhand strike. She veers off-course mid-motion, dodging it cleanly, but too late. The dagger's edge sings across her mask, slicing it with precision.
"I... missed that?" she thinks, stunned.
Kaito wastes no time. He channels Energy Fission, and rockets forward. The shockwave rattles the tiles beneath them. The assassin narrowly flips into the air, dodging by inches.
From above, she launches a thunderous counterstrike, descending like a blade from the heavens.
"Should we help?" Dante asks, peering over the edge.
Toni scoffs. "Heck no."
Nanami shakes her head, eyes wide. "I can't follow what's happening. We'd just slow him down."
Rika, watching closely, lets out a low whistle. "Yeah... let's stay out of this one."
Kaito blocks, but the blow knocks him off balance. She darts to his side, slash... a clean cut across his forearm.
He retaliates instantly, scoring a hit of his own across her bicep. They break apart, breathing heavily.
"He's good," she admits quietly. "Might've made a fine assassin."
Suddenly, she halts. The wind calms.
She begins to circle him, slow, deliberate. Then something strange: more of her appear, afterimages slipping between steps. A blur of motion. This is Assassin Step, a mastery technique that overwhelms with illusions.
Kaito blinks. Then grins wide. "That's so cool!" he yells. "How'd you do that?"
She stumbles, confused by his reaction, as Kaito starts copying her movement, mimicking the rhythm.
With raw instinct and a spark of mimicry, shimmering, imperfect clones flicker beside him. Not refined, but close enough to surprise her.
"You… you copied it?"
Then her tone shifts. Cold again.
"Tell me, boy, why did you abduct that man's daughter?"
Kaito frowns. "I didn't. He's got it wrong. I never touched Nyla."
"Yeah, he's innocent!" Rika calls out from behind, startling the assassin.
She snaps her head toward Rika, who promptly ducks behind Dante.
The assassin narrows her eyes, considering. Then relaxes. "Alright, Kaito. Leave. Now. Others will come, and they won't be as forgiving."
"You don't have to tell me twice!" Rika says, bolting.
Kaito lingers, giving the assassin a long look. There's a flicker of respect between them, then he runs.
Once they've vanished into the distance, the assassin exhales. Though she never speaks, she just watches as he runs off, "glad I held back so much."
The kids storm outside of the inner fortress. Down storage corridors filled with debris from Kaito's earlier mayhem, sparking conduit cables, shredded crate wood, scattered Uniform plates, bent wheels, collapsed shelving, and one extremely confused mannequin wearing half an imperial general's coat.
Nanami skidded to a halt at a junk pile.
"No," Rika hissed. "We can't stop!"
"No, we can," Nanami cut back, already kneeling, hands moving. "We just can't stop long. Cover me for ten seconds."
Toni planted himself beside her, guitar humming faintly, "Some good suspense music."
Imperial searchlights stabbed the far hall, mechanical hounds screeching somewhere above. Enemy boots were converging. Time was dissolving like thin ice under heat.
Nanami grabbed the first things her hands hit:
A wagon axle.
Three different sizes of wheels, none matching, one still smoking.
A shield panel stamped "Property of the Empire, if found, mind your business."
A coil of torque wire, one busted pressure valve, and a bundle of shock-absorbent cloth meant for artillery mounts.
Kaito dove right into the fray, fighting off any soldier that turned the corner.
Rika begins shaking. "CRAFT FASTER!"
"You shut up and keep them off me!" she snarled, yanking the valve open and repurposing the spring inside. Metal snapped, tension record-breaking.
Dante kicked a locker over for cover as Nanami hammered wheel spokes into place with a wrench she definitely didn't own ten seconds ago.
Improvised cart assembly complete, but it looked feral, untested, and absolutely functional in the way a desperate late-night invention always was.
The group barely fit when she shoved them into it, wheels spinning unevenly but gripping gravel.
"Everybody hold something, preferably yourselves," she warned, and kicked the torque coil like a starter piston. "This isn't an alchemy engine, so I can't really steer it!"
The cart exploded forward, jerking them toward the exit arch.
They burst into the street.
Imperial cruisers were already waiting.
Gatling fire opened immediately, rounds screaming toward them like iron locusts.
The rest of the group ducked.
Nanami did not.
She vaulted out of the moving cart, landing in front of a burst crate in the street, hands grabbing parts mid-skip like momentum was paying interest. "Dante, go grab our cart!" He nodded and ran off.
The others stopped it and Kaito rushed in the fight once more.
A snapped rifle barrel.
A capacitor core the size of a fist.
A handle from a frying pan.
And what may or may not have once been a sacred bell used for ceremonial religion and now used for tactical violence.
The gun formed itself in her grip like a puzzle solving very angrily.
Toni shouted, "Nanami, don't build anything that explodes with us emotionally attached to it!"
"Relics don't count if I rename them!" she fired back, slamming the bell into the stock as a stabilizer, feeding the capacitor core in like a heart transplant done by a blacksmith who lost a bet.
She primed it.
And fired.
The blast wasn't bullet-clean. It was industrial lightning, a bolt cannon screaming down the street, frying the front cruiser engine into molten slag and forcing the rest to fishtail away from the road.
Rika leaned out of the cart, terrified awe in her voice. "Since when do you make weapons that scream?!"
"Since the Empire started shooting at my favorite idiots!" she yelled, grabbing more scrap while walking, a sidearm this time, humming with stun-pulse energy. She tossed it to Toni without looking. "Don't aim this. Just point it and negotiate."
Toni pointed it.
A shock shockwave dropped a squad of advancing soldiers mid-step, armor seizing as they crumpled into sparking officer–origami.
Kaito cheered. "WEAPONS VIOLENCE, BUT CRAFTED! I LOVE THIS!"
Dante came back and hooked Nanami by the coat and dragged her back into the cart at full roll, wheels screaming but road-legal just enough. The others hopping into the cart.
Nanami hit the seat breathing hard, already assembling something else.
Rika yanked her hands away from the pile she was grabbing like reflex. "No. We've escaped. We're escaping more.You're done building for the next thirty seconds."
Nanami heaved a strained nod, hands empty now, brain still sparking with invention energy dissipating too slow.
Toni breathed out the words like a prayer: "Looks like we're runaway bandits now."
She gave him a deadpan glare. "…noted. But this is statistically cooler."
The cart hit the main road, uneven wheels finally syncing into a death-defying gallop, threading into the city crowds like heroes disguised as chaos disguised as a food-delivery malfunction.
Behind them, the Empire alarms shifted tone. "This boy, has now murdered our magistrate, and defiled our facility." The commander bit his lip. "Kaito, I will capture you."