Trial II: First Hunt

Growl…

"Shut up…"

Growl….

"I ate a stick an hour ago. What do you want from me?"

Growl…

"...Dammit, I gotta find somewhere to eat."

Luck certainly wasn't with Ragna the Bloodedge as the youth traveled through the wilds, hoping that he'd have been able to find somewhere to eat before he died of starvation. He'd left his master's company about three days ago, but now that he was outside of the area around Celica's church that he'd come to know very well he was having some trouble finding grub… might've been the fact that now he had Seither to account for. Now he was just hoping to find some signs of civilization… but most of what he found were ruined cities that had been destroyed during either the Dark War or the still ongoing Ikaruga Civil War.

"Well… this certainly can't get any worse," he muttered to himself as he proceeded through the treeline.

"Gripe, gripe, gripe goes the worm. Can you really do nothing save complain?"

"Whoa!" Ragna shouted in surprise as he looked up into the tree branches and saw a familiar girl in blonde pigtails sitting atop one of the high branches, a small cushion beneath her to make the perch more comfortable. "Rabbit! What the hell!?"

"A good day to you as well Ragna, I can easily say I'm disappointed to see that nothing about you has changed," Rachel Alucard said to him as she began drinking tea from her perch.

"Like you should've been expecting anything! It's only been a few days!" Ragna shouted at her as he crossed his arms. "The hell do you want with me anyways?"

"Consider it curiosity, I wished to see if you'd decided to reveal a touch of maturity with the presence of Mister Hero removed, but alas… I see that a bug is still as much an insect without a boot holding itself threateningly overhead as it is with."

"You're giving me beef about maturity? That's a laugh. How many centuries have you been acting like a stuck up brat?" Ragna demanded. He was about to proceed onward and leave the words of Rachel's taunting behind him, but that was when he noticed that he was surrounded by a circle of pink wind. Too fast for him to avoid, the winds formed a vortex which launched him into the air and forced him to soar where he remained eye level with Rachel.

"...Care to repeat yourself?" Rachel asked him before she took a delicate sip of her tea.

"Put me down, will you?" It was clear that the young warrior to be didn't have much patience to deal with Rachel's games.

"As you wish," Rachel told him, stopping the winds and letting Ragna fall to the floor with a painful crash. He barely had time to giving an annoyed groan before the winds picked up and lifted him into the air once more. "Gracious, what fun. Would you care to try that again?"

"I'd rather not," Ragna told her with a scowl as he floated before her, biting his tongue like crazy to keep from swearing at the minuet girl. "Put me down for real this time… please?"

"Oh, you're acting courteous now?" Rachel asked as she gave Ragna a rather pitying smile. "I have to say, it is rather disappointing to see you give up so easily."

"I ain't giving up jack; one of us is trying to be reasonable," he bit back. Rachel wasn't one to let anyone have the final point, so simply kept him suspended there. "What, going to keep me floating here until I starve?"

"An interesting idea, but not the one I was looking for…" Rachel told him as she continued to sip her tea. "Tell me, where is you destination at present?"

"You couldn't have just lead with that?" Ragna muttered. Now he was able to control his body in the winds enough to turn himself upright and crossed his arms. "Damn, I dunno… I have no idea what's around here, even after climbing those damn trees every few miles." He then gave a sigh. "I'm gonna guess you're not here to help me?"

"You are indeed correct; Mister Hero's final test was for you not I, my helping you would turn the whole matter fruitless."

"Meanwhile you pissing me off and getting in my way is just business as usual," he decided with annoyance.

"What's this? Do I suddenly hear an iota of actual reasoning?" the vampiress asked, seeming genuinely surprised. Ragna didn't respond, only continuing to cross his arms and glare scathingly at her. "Hmph, I see nothing further to be gained here." Once again the winds stopped, but now that Ragna was ready for it he managed to right his body and roughly land on his feet. Looking upwards, he gave one last glare to Rachel. "Well then? Off with you. What else are you-?"

SHING!

Ragna had roughly taken out his oversized sword and performed a single slash at the air before him directed upwards in Rachel's direction. While he may not have ever been able to reach her at the high distance she waited above him, the sharp and powerful shock wave generated from that slash was certainly able to leave the branch she'd been sitting upon to be separated from its tree base. Ragna gave a cocky smirk as the severed branch fell to the ground… but returned to a scowl as he saw Rachel still sitting upon her cushion as it floated in the same place as if nothing had happened.

"...You must feel ever so clever right now," Rachel once more teased mockingly.

"One of these days I'm making you cry, I swear to god," Ragna said scathingly to her as he reset his sword before finally walking off and trying his damndest to ignore Rachel's haughty giggle behind him.

Hours Later

"Finally I found something; talk about a sight for sore eyes," Ragna said as he stood on a cliff overlooking a small city that lay before him.

It certainly wasn't nearly as big as the Hierarchical Cities that he'd read about back in the church, but it did seem decently sized in his eyes. This could have been considered a town out in the boonies, somewhere so far away from civilization that many people wouldn't have known it existed. Looking at the machinery, Ragna guessed that this was some sort of Seither harvesting town; somewhere that you could acquire harvested and processed Seither for a variety of different options. Harvesting the stuff like this was dangerous and it took months to refine even a tiny amount. That made towns like this difficult to find and even more difficult to maintain… not that it mattered as much to him.

"As long as I can finally find some food down there I'll be content," he thought to himself before considering his place. "Then again… I don't really have any cash on me, so how am I going to get anything to eat? I can't sell my sword either… maybe if I can get some work done then they'll treat me to a meal? But if they won't let me work… I guess if I gotta steal, Hakumen would under-"

Before Ragna could even finish that thought, he saw a small flash suddenly emerge from the town below him. He didn't understand what it was, right before he managed to make the details of a fiery explosion. His eyes growing wide, he managed to hear barely audible gunfire and other sounds of combat coming from down below.

"No, no, no, no, NO!" Ragna shouted as he leaped over the cliff and began a free fall to the ground. "You are NOT destroying my only chance of grabbing a meal!" Once he'd gotten close enough to the ground, he gave a forward flip before he stuck the landing and caused a few cracks on the surface from the force. The town was still a way off in the distance, so he took off running as fast as he could, praying that he'd find something still edible in town.

Inside the City

"Come on! I know I saw 'em running down this way!" a voice shouted, followed by several footsteps hurrying through the rubble filled city. "When you find the bastard's flush them out! Break their legs if you have to, but we need them alive!"

Quickly ducking behind a corner, the young woman used the few seconds she bought herself to catch her breath. Sweat glistened down her tanned skin and her silver hair was a dirty mess. It had been too long since she'd last been able to shower or clean her clothing and gauntlets, but resources were running low and the invading force had shut down all of the water leading into the city. Hearing another series of footsteps closing in on her hiding stop, she steeled herself before taking off in a sprint.

'Found him!" one of the vagrants shouted as they caught sight of the woman, mistaking their gender. "Everyone this way!"

While most chased after her with melee weapons drawn, a fair few of them had long ranged weapons be they guns, bows, or even projectile Ars Magus. Their shots were careful aimed, just barely missing this woman's legs as they tried to make sure they'd bring her in alive. She didn't leave herself completely in the open either. Ducking behind piles of rubble and even leaping off of walls to make her a harder target to hit proved to do the trick as she continued to keep her distance.

'Almost there,' she thought, partially to assure herself that she was going to make. 'Just a few more streets and we'll have them right where we want them!' Going around one narrow turn, she barely managed to avoid additional gunfire… only slam face first into something. "Gah!"

Knocked off her feet and falling back, she landed on her rear and let out a low groan. Opening her golden eyes and looking up, she was surprised to see a young man about her age looking down at her with a sort of surprised expression himself. If given the time, she'd have probably yelled at him for getting in her way, but with the sound of footsteps closing in it was clear that she wouldn't have that chance.

"There they are!" shouted a voice from behind as she realized she'd been put in a bad spot with the sudden run in. Hurrying to her feet, she was about to take off running past this guy, only to see more thugs coming from the other side of the street, boxing her in.

"Not good…" she said quietly as men from both sides made to box her in making sure that she wouldn't get a chance to escape. She was still nowhere near as close as she'd needed to take them and she doubted she could get an easy signal to the rest of her unit. These thugs might've been weak alone, but there was no way she'd be able to take these sheer numbers while flanked and without the element of surprise. Now she could take a chance to at least glare at the one who'd stopped her.

"A woman? Didn't think those damned mercenaries had one with 'em," the lead thug giving the orders noted as he slung his broadsword over his shoulder, the Ars Magus infused into the metal giving off a small crimson flame. He then glanced at the newcomer, realizing he didn't share the same uniform as the girl did nor did he recognize him as one of his own men. "...You're with her?"

Ragna didn't say a word in response, only glancing around him as he tried to get a bearing of the situation. Many of the thugs noticed the giant sword he was carrying on his back, but despite the muscles he was clearly showing they thought it'd be a stretch for him to swing that hunk of metal around.

"Tch, quiet one aren't you?" the leader noted with a snarl. "You know, we only need one hostage."

"My thoughts exactly," one of the gunners agreed, bringing up their sniper rifle. The woman beside Ragna was about to call of a warning, but proved to be too late as the gunman fired off a quick shot… only to watch as the man move in blur, deflecting the bullet with a single handed swing of his giant sword.

"He… he… he blocked it!?" the lead said with surprise, only to hear a low death gurgle beside him. The sniper that had fired that shot fell to the ground, his eyes wide and blood pouring from the bullet wound in the center of their face. "No damned way..."

(Cue Final Fantasy VII Remake: Those Who Fight V4)

"Hey, chick," Ragna finally spoke as he brought his sword up and rested the blunt end on his shoulder. "I'll take these assholes out, but I'm not working for free here." The woman beside him scowled as the thugs realized that he really intended to take them all on at once. "Once I'm done with them, you damn well better be feeding me."

"Keep acting so cocky and you're dead," she told him harshly, revving her gauntlets as she got ready for a fight herself now that all other options were off the table. "And the name's Bullet."

"Tch, whatever."

"Kill him! But make sure you get the girl alive!" the leader shouted as the thugs charged forward towards the two.

Even if she didn't have any idea of who this new guy was, Bullet knew that she had to let him watch her back if she was going to have any chance of surviving this. Unleashing flames from her gauntlets, she fired a powerful shot at the ground that caused a small explosion. Even if none of her opponents were in range for the attack, the shockwave the attack generated was strong enough to knock them off their feet and those that weren't had to hesitate for a moment. Rushing forward to the closest one she grabbed them, lifted them off of their feet, and flung him into a group of his allies, knocking several of them off their feet and getting her time to charge her fire once more.

Meanwhile on Ragna's side, his method of defense was to raise an Ars Magus barrier between him and his these were his first opponent's he'd had to face since his constant sparring with his master Ragna had put a lot of effort into making his Barrier hold, more effort than he needed to apparently. The collection of attacks against his barrier barely caused it to weaken and a majority of them were so weak that they seemed to bounce off harmlessly. Keeping his mind focused on the battle, he dropped the barrier before he gave another heavy swing and managed to cleave through several of the thugs. Moving his sword quickly in a blur he managed to deflect another weapon swing and sent the attacker sprawling away, but making another quick slash and destroying the weapon of another thug. Quickly impaling his sword into the ground before swinging it back up and sending a cloud of debris and dust, enough to disorient most of his opponents. Roaring as he rushed forward, he spun his body into a twist on deadly slashes, causing the thugs around him to be launched into the air with fatal cuts across their chests.

'What the hell?' Bullet thought as she got a quick glance at what her evident partner was doing. She didn't have too long to look away as the thugs remained a threat. Dodging impalement from a lance, she quickly closed the distance and delivered a rib crushing jab to the user's chest. Barely able to weave out of the wave of a sword, she leaped into and upward knew under the user's head and sent them into the air before grabbing them midflight and slamming them to the ground with a Fire Ars explosion. Forced to leap back as more closed in on her, she found herself surrounded. 'Dammit, there are just way too many of them!'

"AUGH!"

To her surprise, a violent force of wind then hit the thugs and sent them flying over her. Turning to the opening, she saw that her enigmatic ally had just completed a single swing of his sword to generate the force needed to literally blast their opponents off their feet. Bullet couldn't hesitate for long as Ragna then took off for the lead thug who was still hiding behind his men and left her to fend for herself once more.

"K-KEEP HIM BACK!" they shouted as Ragna charged forward, cutting his men down left and right in deadly dance of his blade. Knocking them to the side as he rushed forward. Leaping into the air he cleared over the rest of the fodder as he drove his blade in a diagonal dive. "WAIT! I'M WORTH-!"

He couldn't finish whatever he'd been about to claim as Ragna cut him across the chest, cleaving him in half. Now that they could see what he was really made of, the rest of the thugs said nothing as they looked blankly at the youth while swung his sword to rid it of blood. Ragna then brought his sword up and rested it on his shoulder as turned to scowl at them.

"Anyone else?"

"Uh… ah…" one of the closer thugs stuttered as they looked into Ragna's eyes, almost seeing something demonic in them. "RETREAT!"

(End Theme)

"...Guess not," Ragna muttered as he put the Aramasa back on the straps on his back. Bullet didn't say anything to him, watching as the remaining thugs took off running for the hills. "What? You're not even going to say thanks?"

"Why would I? The only reason I was surrounded in the first place was because I had to run into you," Bullet told him with a scowl.

"And I could've just walked on and let 'em take you. Long story short; you owe me, I haven't eaten in several days, so let's go get some food," Ragna explained nonchalantly. "One meal, is that really so much to ask for?"

"With you being such an ass about it, yeah it is!" she shouted back to him, in a foul mood. "Look around you! With the town looking like this, do you really think we have a lot of food to spare?"

"Fair point, but…" A low painful growl as Ragna winced. "...If I don't eat something soon, I think I'm gonna keel over."

'This is the guy that just wiped out most of the force?' Bullet thought to herself as she facepalmed. That was when the two heard footsteps approaching them. As expected Bullet went on guard while Ragna simply stood casually and glanced to the approaching group. Recognizing her own unit, Bullet let herself relax. "Captain."

"I thought I told you to go on a scouting mission, not a hunt," he addressed her, though he didn't exactly sound displeased by the events. He was both tall and wide, a general giant of a man. Even his chin was broad and his giant arms looked like they could easily tear through steel. Shifting his gaze, he looked to Ragna. "And who's this?"

"Someone who's owed a meal for getting this chick out of trouble," he said bluntly, not giving his own name out yet.

"Someone who's not getting a meal for landing me in said trouble," Bullet shot back, leading for Ragna to shrug as she wasn't exactly wrong.

"Regardless on the why or how, you somehow managed to make our jobs a touch easier so you have my thanks for that," he told him. Bullet was about to protest, but the smug look Ragna was currently giving her got her ire up so high she could barely form words. "Anyways, I'm Bullet's commanding officer. I go by Captain-"

"Captain!" one of the fellow mercs interrupted as they overlooked the bodies. "You should come over here and see this!" Giving a nod, he only raised his hand and walked off to look over the bodies.

"Captain what?" Ragna asked as he turned to Bullet for answers.

"Doesn't really matter; most of us just call him Captain anyways," she explained, giving him that much of an explanation.

"So Captain Anyways then?" he asked humorlessly, but still somehow in bad taste.

"...I want to hit you."

"Can't you just feed me?"

"No!"

"Pipe down you two," one of the mercs scolded as the Captain looked over the bodies. "So?"

"This is their second in command alright, and the only other person that was threat enough to be on the individual bounty boards," Tager said as he looked over the lead man. "Shame though, I think that bounty asked for him alive." 'And even with Bullet's training, there's little chance she could've beaten him herself… so that leaves.' Raising to his feet, the commander turned back to the other youth. "I never got your name."

"Ragna… Ragna the Bloodedge," he said, using the name that Hakumen had called him by for the first time.

'Bloodedge?' Bullet asked at the surname, having never heard of it before.

"Thank you again for your help," the Captain told him, right before hearing a low growl coming from the boy's stomach. "...You said you were hungry?"

Later -Town Storage Site-

'Why on earth am I the one stuck cooking for him?' Bullet thought for herself with ire as she mixed the fried rice over. 'Bad enough that he's getting what he wants, but now he has to see me in this damn pink apron. Why do we still have this thing anyways!?'

The merc's base was a series of small buildings that were closely packed together and armed with heavy security doors, difficult to break because of both their dense steel material and their protective Ars Magus seals with complex encryptions. The walls (much like most building materials in this world) also had Ars Magus seals protecting them, both the keep the material from deteriorating and to provide a far stronger defense. Most of the members of Bullet's mercenary force stood on watch outside, a few were inside resting or enjoying their own rations, and the Captain of said force was looking over a map of the city a few rooms down. In the first of the subfloor were the common workers of the town, huddled around a source of light while they tried their best not to panic with the danger the were in. The subfloors beyond that were locked.

"So…" Ragna began as he lounged off to the side of the kitchen at one of the tables. "Mind filling me in on what's really going on here?"

"You can't figure out what's going on for yourself?" Bullet bit back harshly. Ragna only gave her a modest shrug, so she sighed as she continued to stir the rice. "So it's like this, you know what this refinery is for, don't you?"

"It's for concentrating Seither; focusing it into either fuel for their ships or ammunition. Most Ars Magus weapons and ships models can manage with Seither in the air, but this can help to give them that extra push that they need," Ragna explained. "Most of it's used by the lower ranking members of the Librarium, the ones that have trouble with Ars Magus and actually need this to stand a chance on the battlefield. Apparently these things were almost unheard of before the civil war started… so much so that they were actually illegal."

"So you do know something then," the mercenary told him as she added the last of the spices. "The NOL didn't want this type of power getting out to anyone, but since they need better warriors on the front lines for their battles they decided to outsource to a few key areas. This actually used to be bootleg operation before they started hiring these people to work for them. Making sure they were told to sell to only them under no exceptions."

"Sounds like an NOL takeover alright, but what about these thugs?"

"What else? They wanted that concentrated Seither for themselves, so they came here in a raid and demanded whatever the makers had already made for the next shipment. If our clients didn't already have an emergency plan for this, they'd have been killed before they could turn the storage room into a safehouse. As things stand, those outlaws have total control over the refinery. It's a good thing none of them seem to know how to work it."

"Good thing too, otherwise you'd all be in deep shit," Ragna told her crassly. Bullet gritted her teeth at his wording, but said nothing as she proceeded to plate up the food she'd made for the both of them. "So the Library isn't doing anything about this? You'd think making sure they have these refineries would be priority number one."

"Not compared to the civil war; which is why we were called in," Bullet explained as she finally threw off her apron as she carried the food over. "We've been stationed here for almost a month now. It's been hard and we've managed to hold them back to keep them from trying to break through, but there are just too many of them and the refinery offers too good of a defense to attack them head on."

"So you're not expecting the Library to send help, finishing these people off is all on you," Ragna questioned as Bullet set the pile of Fried Rice in front of him. There seemed to be something off about it with the way it was smelling, but with how hungry Ragna was he couldn't be bothered. "So this is fried rice?"

"You're saying it's not?" Bullet demanded, expecting a comment mocking her cooking.

"It's not that… just I've never had any before," he explained before he clapped his hands together. "Itadakimasu."

"At least you know some manners," the mercenary said as she seated herself. "I think one came out pretty well, so if you stop being an ass I can let you have-"

"AUUUUGH!"

"... seconds?" she finished. She had to peer over the table's edge to see Ragna rolling around on the floor in pain, holding his mouth with his hands as his entire face burned bright red. Only a single spoonful of the rice had been eaten.

"She did it again," her commanding officer muttered to himself a few floors down as he looked over the city outline to plan the merc group's next offensive.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS IN THAT!?" Ragna asked as he frantically searched the room for water.

"Just the usual," Bullet told him, trying to fight a smirk as Ragna continued to rush around the room in pain looking for a way to dampen the spices. "Rice, egg, corn, pepper flakes, Ghost peppers. I even put in a few rare Wadatsumi Reaper peppers from my personal stash since you were so-"

"ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME!?" Ragna screamed at her, giving up on his water even though there were tears streaming from his eyes. Unable to hide her smug smirk any longer, Bullet took a spoonful of food off Ragna's plate and downed it. He watched in awe as she didn't even flinch.

"Hmph, milder than I remembered," Bullet said, as if to taunt him. Ragna scowl might've been intimidating if his face wasn't cartoonishly red. "If you don't like it, you don't have to eat it. I just thought you'd be hungry with all of your talk of food earlier."

'Dammit, first the Rabbit, then Kokonoe, and now this? What the hell is it with me and women?' he thought. He was about to go and tell her off before his stomach gave yet another growl, reminding him that he still needed to eat. Giving a gulp of fear as he reset his chair, the Reaper took a seat at the table. Then grabbing his spoon (in Jojo levels of dramatic fashion) he plunged the eating utensil into the pile and started shoveling the food in his mouth so quickly, he didn't even have time to breath. In just a few minutes, the plate had been completely cleared and his mouth was in pure agony.

"...I'm pretty sure that's the first time anyone besides the Captain's managed to clean their plate," Bullet noted, somewhat impressed.

"Oh bite me," he told off before he regretted doing so; the mere act of talking just made his mouth feel even worse and that was nothing compared to how his stomach would be feeling later.

"Shame you didn't bring that lead guy in alive," she said as she began eating her cooking like it was nothing. "Its not like it was a lot, but the money on his head would've been worth at least a few meals for you." Ragna didn't say anything, only remaining dazed in his own little spicy hell. "The only other guy here with an actual bounty on his head is the thug's leader and… he's sort of a big reason why we haven't been able to take the refinery back all this time."

"This… this leader guy," Ragna asked as he tried to shake off this spice pain. "He worth a lot?"

"Not really; he's only a D-class criminal. He's supposed to be dangerous enough with Ars Magus, but the real problem is all of the men surrounding him. It it wasn't for all of them, my Captain might've been able to take him on his own."

"That right?" Ragna asked slowly, as he finally rose to his feet. "I'm outta here."

"Out of- where on earth do you think you could go?" Bullet demanded as she glared.

"Somewhere with food that won't kill me I hope," he shot back boredly. "What's got you so worried anyways, I thought you'd be happy to see me go."

"That's not-" she tried to say before grunting and giving up. "Just what are you anyways? You're clearly not a Bounty Hunter, you're certainly no NOL agent, and you can't belong to a mercenary group. So what does that leave?"

"Easy. For now I'm just a wanderer," Ragna told her as he headed out of the room, leaving Bullet to finish her own cooking in solitude.

'Wanderer? In this wasteland?' she couldn't help but think. 'Where on earth could he possibly be wandering to?'

Meanwhile -Refinery Office-

"To think I lost an entire third of my men in a single day..." The man sitting with his feet up on a desk said with a sigh before glaring at one of the few survivors from the group that had attacked Ragna. This leader of the raiders went by the name of Guzo. He was a tall man with a thin yet toned frame and spiky brown hair. He had a stranger reverse-vest with crimson red covering his sides and pitch black covering his arms. He also wore baggy military style pants with a black and grey camouflage pattern and black combat boots which he rest up on the desk as he leaned back in his seat. He didn't have a weapon on him, but his gloves seemed to glow with a strange form of energy. "And we've never seen that one with the sword before?"

"We haven't, which makes this an even bigger problem," one of the few surviving members of the attack force said as he stood nervously in front of his leader. "You think he's an NOL agent?"

"No, if the NOL had sent someone they'd want us to know. And if all that was done by one person it'd need to have been one of their stronger officers; they wouldn't send one here with the civil war still raging on." Guzo started up as he tried to gather his thoughts. "Now what?"

"Maybe we should just call it quits here?" the survivor suggested. As soon as his leader started glaring at him, he broke into a cold sweat. The deadly look from a man that could kill him with just a pinky reminded him who he was talking to. For several moments Guzo didn't say or do anything, only keeping his unblinking glare focused on the failure before him who had managed to somehow make it out alive.

"...That's not a terrible idea actually," he finally said, taking his eyes off of the man who only gripped his chest as he let out the terrified breath of air he'd been holding in. "These mercenaries aren't like anything else we've fought up until now. The longer we hold out, the more men we're going to be losing and the more resources we're going to have to spend on this little raid. Add in that infuriating new arrival and you have a recipe for trouble."

"So then-?"

"Let the men know; take the machines apart as best you can and we'll make off with everything of value we can carry. If can manage to sell some of the more important parts on the black market we still might manage a profit out of this whole mess."

"Right! I'll let the others know to get started!" he said as he ran off, more relieved than anything that he was going to make it through another day.

"Damn, and here I thought it'd be easy to raise hell and turn a profit now that the Library's busy with the damn war that they started. But now the damn vigilantes and mercs are out anywhere and everywhere… even in a backwater place like this."

Reaching under the desk, he grabbed a hold of a bottle of aged wine he'd been hiding for himself. Originally he'd been planning on enjoying it when they finally managed to break into the vault and make off with the condensed Seither, but that clearly wasn't happening so he might as well enjoy it now. Using his Ars Magus, he took the cork out of the bottle and set in the table as he waited for it to aerate. 30 minutes later the bottle was ready to be enjoyed. Not bothering to set out a wine glass, he took a long swig of the bottle.

"Tch, it ain't great but I guess that this is going to be the best I'll get for a while," Guzo muttered as he raised the bottle to his lips once more only to notice the loud rumbling that was coming from a few floors down. "For the love of god… BE CAREFUL WITH THAT YOU IDIOTS! THAT'S THE ONLY PAY WE'RE GETTING!" The only response was another series of rumbling, followed by screams of terror coming from his men. Growling that he was getting interrupted, he downed the rest of his wine in a single long swig before vaulting himself over his desk and sprinting downstairs. "Now of all times, what's going-?"

He couldn't finish as he reached the refinery floor. The mechaines had only been slightly bent and they'd barely been taken apart, most with only a few bolts missing. Most of his men, the large force that he'd hired and gathered over years of less than savory work, laid dead on the floor. A lone youth stood at the center with an oversized blade slung over his shoulder.

'Shit…' Guzo internally swore as Ragna turned towards him. 'I didn't think he'd come after me since he went and killed my second-in-command, but he's already here…. And he's wiped out all of my men just like that.'

"How about you make this easy for me?" Ragna offered, though his tone and posture made it feel more like a threat. "If you don't try to fight your way out of this, it'll make it that much easier for me to turn you in alive."

(Cue TEKKEN 3 Bryan Fury's Theme)

'Turn me in alive? It was my second-in-command that had to be brought in still breathing. This guy doesn't know that I'm on the Dead or Alive list,' the bandit leader thought to himself before scowling at his opponents as his gloves began glowing with Ars Magus sigils forming. "Even still, if I let myself get caught I have a decent idea of what the Library would do to me. Forget it."

"Then don't say I didn't try," Ragna said bitterly as he brought his sword up.

Guzo's gauntlets gave of a strong blow before he rushed forward, so blindingly fast that he actually let a sonic shockwave behind him. Keeping his body low so he didn't make a larger target out of himself, he brought his just up in a wild hook. Ragna managed to keep up and retaliated with his own sword swing. As they made contact, both fighters were blasted back. Guzo involuntarily formed a fist, his hand a little numb but otherwise fine as he threw out a powerful jab at Ragna from a good distance away. Due to his training, Ragna knew to dodge to the side as the kinetic energy blew a hole in the wall behind him.

'This guy ain't like the others,' he thought as Guzo rushed forward again this time with a kick that screamed through the air. Ragna raised his barrier and managed to block, but Guzo landed on his feet and managed to quickly circle behind him. He attempted chop to his collar, but Ragna guarded against the attack with his free hand as his barrier quickly dropped. Guzo went for a grapple, but Ragna's upward swing with his sword forced him to step back before launching himself forwards up a lunging jab. Countering with a second sword slash, a second shockwave was created as both fighters were sent flying back. 'Nothing like the others.'

Firing off another distant kinetic punch, this time Guzo aimed for the ground right in front of Ragna, sending up a cloud of shrapnel. While Ragna again had to raise his barrier, Guzo closed the distance and made a powerful axe kick over Ragna's guard. Leaping to the side, he barely dodged the lethal heel and it gave the flooring a wicked crack. Not giving Ragna a chance to turn to the offensive, Guzo turned into a roundhouse kick that wave enhanced with Ars Magus so it sent out a wave of energy. Barely able to guard again with his sword, Ragna felt himself getting pushed back.

'Damn, he's still alive thanks to those skills of his,' Guzo thought. As a wanted man, he'd done his part to try and keep as low of a profile as he could until the bigs job, leaving him only at a D Rank. In theory this would've meant he could easily finish off any two-bit Vigilante that came after him while the tougher ones went after marks with actual cash on their heads. This had worked to his favor before the Ikaruga war had started, but now he was in for an actual fight.

"...Gotta keep pushing," he muttered, so focused on battle that he barely realized that he'd spoken. Blasting forward again, he unleash a flurry of punches that forced Ragna to guard using his barrier. 'He'll be at his limits with that soon enough. I just gotta wear his defence out until I can go for the kill.'

Ragna then dropped his barrier in the middle of Guzo's onslaught, the sudden move only phasing the Raider for a second. Once second was all Ragna needed as he twisted into a roundhouse kick straight to Guzo's gut. His opponent coughed up his own spit as he was flung back into the wall, cracking into it painfully. While Ragna was standing calm despite being forced to the defensive for so long, Guzo was practically drenched with sweat at the abuse of his Ars Magus enhancements.

'Think I got a little bit left,' Guzo sighed as he forced himself up, likely only working with a second wind. 'I can't beat this guy with speed…' This time Ragna had taken his turn to rush forward as Guzo shakily got to his feet. 'So then..'

Attacking with a sudden sucker punch, Guzo came with a high power upward punch. Ragna counted with his sword to try and block the attack, but was surprised when the punch was hard enough to actually blast his sword out of the way.

'I GO WITH POWER.'

Flying forward with his fist, it connecting with Ragna's guarding forearm and sent him sliding back. The next kinetic punch had so much power that it tore the ground under the energy as it raced forward. The attack connected dead on and managed to black Ragna off of his feet, but he managed to halt his slide by plunging his sword into the ground.

'One more!' Guzo thought as he rushed again, swinging wildly as Ragna was forced to swing his sword around to guard himself from the punches. 'I just gotta land one more good punch on him!' Roaring, Guzo put all of his strength behind one final punch as he brought it down, a move so deadly it had impaled some of his earlier targets.

CLANG!

...Only for Ragna to deflected with ease. Bringing his sword back, he quickly thrust it just under Guzo's neck. Ragna stared him down with dark eyes, telling him the fight was over. His bounty didn't even have the strength to surrender as his knees gave out and he fell to the floor, overcome with exhaustion.

(End theme)

"That was it?" Ragna asked, not exactly impressed with the opponent he'd been fighting against… but then again, he had been trained by one of the legendary Six Heroes; it might've been more upsetting than anything if he'd lost here. Sighing, he set his sword on his back as he heard the same series of footsteps coming towards him. Knowing full well that any surviving raiders would turn tail and get as far away from him as possible, Ragna didn't bother grabbing his blade out a second time to see who he'd been approached by. Three of the mercenaries that that had been defending the town (the captain and two others) ran onto the scene, shocked to find the man that had been giving them trouble for the last several months was out cold on the ground while an unfazed Ragna stood in the middle of a room filled with his defeated comrades.

"Look, I don't like to stay in one place for too long and I can't expect the NOL to come pick this guy up anytime soon," Ragna told them as he glanced down to Guzo's beaten form. "A week's worth of supplies and you can have him, then I'll be heading on my way."

'With the state we're still in; a week's worth of supplies still isn't a cheap request,' the Captain thought to himself before he too looked down to Guzo. 'But with him and his Raiders out of the way as long as they have supplies leftover we should be fine. And the bounty's not insignificant at least.' "Agreed, we'll be sure to find the proper rations to send you off with and-"

"Also…" Ragna interrupted, scratching the bridge of his nose. "...Bullet's not allowed to make my rations."

"Once again, we're agreed."

Later -Nightfall-

The starry sky above seemed like a fitting send off as Ragna began making his way out of the ruined town, the people formerly taking shelter already eagerly working to make repairs and get the machines operating once more. A few of the mercenaries were helping out as well by moving both rubble and supplies… though they kept shooting Ragna odd looks as he made his way out, still unsure how he could've possibly been able to get out of that fight unscathed as he was. He didn't see Bullet anywhere around, but knowing her she was probably making an active point to avoid him. Once he got to the town exit however…

"I've been told Seither beasts become much more aggressive at night and they're much harder to spot in the darkness," the female mercenary chastised him. "If you've actually been wandering around like you've been claiming you probably already know it's stupid to head out this late, but you're going to do it anyways."

"You're right that I'm heading out, but after what I pulled today you've really got your head up your ass if you think that's all it would take to kill me," Ragna bit back snarkily, somewhat hoping to get a rise out of Bullet. She just kept giving him the same serious glare so he decided to change subjects. "So what's next for you guys? Gonna head off now that you've got the raiders finished off?"

"Nope, our contract to protect the town is still in effect. We're still stuck here until we get our pay from the next NOL freight here. Guzo's bounty is just a bonus." With the sly smirk that Ragna was continuing to give her, Bullet sighed as she knew what he wanted to hear from her. "...That you got us."

"Now was that so hard?" he teased as he started walking off, before suddenly stopping. "Hey, if we ever do see each other again…"

"Again?" Bullet asked, facing Ragna's back for a moment before he looked over his shoulder to continue his thought.

"Next time I'm doing the cooking," he said half to get on her nerves, but also half as an offer. It took her a moment to react, but eventually she pointed her thumb northward.

"It'll take a couple of days and the terrain is less than ideal, but that's the closest Hierarchical city around," she informed before walking off to rejoin her unit. "If you can survive long enough for us to meet again, then I'm holding you to that promise. Just make sure whatever food you make is spicy enough."

"Hah! I'd have to clear off an entire spice rack and then some," Ragna said in return as he finally headed off to the wildlands, giving an uncommitted wave behind him.

'He's a weird one alright, probably the strangest guy I've ever met,' Bullet thought to herself as she continued to walk, giving off a smirk that only she could know was there. 'Next time I see him, his food had better be gourmet with all the crap he gave me.'

Author's Note

To updating a story that's been dead in the water for far too long. Here here. For those of you that don't know I've now got a list up on my profile page that'll be listing my next series of updates. Obviously a few of them have to be set in stone (not like anyone wants to be rid of Awakening after how long it's taken me to get around to it), but if you PM me a request I can try to see if I can find a way to fit it into my busy schedule. Now, let's get some reviews addressed.

Mythfan: That laugh… it's been so long you probably don't know what you were chuckling about.

Shirosaki Kizuro: Well here's another 8,000 or so words for ya.

Blazeking: I can't answer much, but this was his obvious meeting with Bullet.

Yuuki Terumi Ouroborus master Basically, but most of Hakumen's training will be in flashbacks.

Ad: Yeah, kind of wish the games did that more too.

Terumi Gremory: Oof, with this being a flashback Arc you might be waiting for a bit.

Marconator360: Yeah, Kokonoe's relationship is something I'm really going to need to flesh out down the line isn't it?

KnightSpark: The return was at least.

DragonAlex5533: Wait, last chapter we were still waiting on the Centralfiction DEMO!? ...Dammit, this was too overdue.

Pepebomb: Here's to returning to my hobby.

TheThotAudit: Sorry the vote didn't go the way you wanted to, but here's to an overdue continuation.

MechaDragon99: Congrats, you're getting your wish after all.

Guest (1): Soul Eater eh? Add that one to the list of stories that I need to give some attention to…

Guest (2): It's an idea, but I'd rather focus on the characters I still have.

PanickingNoob94: And arguably the best main Sonic theme. Thanks for all of the reviews.

Guest (3): I felt bad writing her into that; beneath the Yandere there's a truly tragic character.

Ragnir Shiba: He's stronger than he was at this point in Jubei's training, there's that.

Until next time everyone, later!