The group made plans to set up a trap for the man abducting girls, but little did they know, they were being watched by that very man themselves.
Their plan was to put their strategy in motion the next day. However, they wouldn't get the chance to do so as Deergen was putting his plan into motion as they slept.
"I've been looking for you, you foolish little trap." Deergen thought as he watched Leona sleep.
"You having a tough time sleeping old man?" Violence said.
"Wh-What are you doing here?" Deergen asked as he fell over in surprise.
"Of course I'd notice some creepy old man spying on me." Violence replied.
Deergen started to chuckle. "The old me would be quite frightened of you, but I've changed."
"I don't know the difference between the old you or the current you, but you better not mess with me or there will never be a future you." Violence said as he cracked his knuckles.
Violence wouldn't have known but Deergen looked quite different than how he used to. He was much larger and now had pale skin with black markings around his eyes.
"Explosion Fragrance!" Deergen shouted.
A huge explosion engulfed Violence. However, he didn't flinch at the attack, simply waiving the explosion off like a bad smell.
"I'll admit you're strong. It'd be a pain to fight you, and you aren't the one I'm looking for." Deergen said as he made his exit.
Suddenly, there was a cloud of smoke that surrounded Deergen and when it cleared he was gone.
"Why'd you let him go?" Ren asked as he showed up.
"It's not really my thing to chase after guys." Violence responded.
"Tch, I should have expected as much. Anyway, I didn't recognize that aura, it felt pretty sinister though. Any idea who it was?"
"How should I know?"
"I should have expected that too I guess. Did he say anything to you?"
"Nothing worth remembering."
"Eh, that's no help at all."
"What's going on out here?" Leona asked as the rest of the group arrived.
"Nothing much." Violence answered while giving a dismissive yawn.
"Nothing much? We heard an explosion." Celeste said.
"So?"
"What's his deal? I already kind of figured he was a guy that didn't act normal but it's almost like he's going out of his way to ignore our line of questioning." Ren said.
"Oh, I can explain." Ria said more enthusiastically than she should have. "Vi, only cares about two things fighting and women. If what just happened was a guy running away from a fight, then his brain probably already designated the information as unnecessary and deleted it."
"What? That's ridiculous, it just happened there's no way that's true. He can't be that stupid." Ren said as he turned to look at Violence who had a blank look on his face.
"Oh, actually he could be." Ren, Celeste, Leona said in unison.
"Well, that's a fine gag and all, but it doesn't help us figure out who just attacked us." Ren said.
"Hmm, that's not exactly true." Celeste suggested.
"How so?"
"We currently know three things: 1. There was a strange aura observing our position, 2. The person responsible for that aura attacked Violence, 3. That person was a man who retreated because he thought Violence was too strong."
"Ok, but that still does tell us anything about the intruder's intentions." Ren replied.
"No, but there would only be a few reasons why someone would be watching us like that. 1. It was a member of the Vercheg Navy sent here to capture Leona."
"That wouldn't explain the sinister aura though. Plus if it was the Vercheg Navy it would probably be Tigre and we'd have recognized his aura."
"Exactly, then there's reason number 2: the kidnapper that we're looking for got wind of our search and decided to look into us as well. The final explanation would be that even without using one of us as bait that same kidnapper just so happened to be stalking us as his next victim by coincidence. Either way, the only logical conclusion is that the very same kidnapper we were looking for was the one who was here tonight."
"That's one heck of a coincidence. If only it was one of us that confronted him instead."
"Wow! That's so amazing that you guys figured all that out so quickly! You two are so smart!" Ria said enthusiastically.
"Well we have to be smart we're surrounded by idiots." Ren and Celeste said but the others were too stupid to feel insulted.
"Still, even if we know all that, it's not going to help us catch the guy, in fact, if he's afraid of Violence then he's unlikely to go anywhere near us again." Ren said.
"That's a good point, unless…" Celeste pause as she was deep in thought.
"Unless what?" Leona asked.
"Unless the run in with Violence hurt his ego. In which case, he'd be all the more eager to get one of us." Celeste explained.
"So you still think we can bait him out?" Ren asked.
"Yes, but we'll have to be extra careful not to tip him off."
So, the group returned to their plan to use Celeste and Ria as bait. Leona insisted that she should be used as bait as well, but the others didn't keep an eye on her as they didn't expect a tomboy like her to be targeted.
While Leona was alone, Deergen followed her and waited to make his move. She had been his target all along.