Find the Missing Jewelry

Raven read the sign “Santa’s Pawn Shop” with a scoff. She wasn’t even going to acknowledge the irony of that name for a place like that. Anyhow, the edifice she stood in front of was a sturdy 45 feet structure made from precisely cut stones painted with red and pale yellow. The sign board was made of rosewood. Enclosed within a thin white swirly looking border was the shop’s name and at the edges it was decorated with engravings of roses. The windows, though made of plain glass, were almost impossible to see through since white, lacy curtains were hung over them from the inside. However, behind the glass window was a display area meant for items of high value. She could tell from just one glance that the doors were made of rosewood too. It was a classic style pull out door. Yes, on an ordinary day as an ordinary person, Raven would have never guessed something like this to be a shop for thugs and hooligans trying to make some cash.

She stood outside the window with her soft palms pressed against the cool glass. She was trying to find some similarity from the items displayed with the items that was stolen. She found a pearl necklace polished to perfection. Whenever the sun hit the glossy surface, it radiated light back, almost giving it a white glow. Aside from that, there were also some brooches and rings. One brooch in particular caught her eyes. It looked like a bird with a beady black rhinestone glued in place of its eyes. The rest of it was painted in silver with a dab of black at the end of each wing. Raven liked the simplicity of the design but she wasn’t ready to claim it from a shop that sold stolen goods.

As she painfully tore her eyes away from it, they finally landed on something very familiar. Her right hand immediately disappeared into her jeans pocket to fish out a piece of paper she had written all the details down on. With neat handwriting, Raven had scribbled along the white paper details like appearance of the stolen jewelry and more. At the third sentence, she stopped to examine the object she found before turning her attention to the paper again. A thin gold ring with flower motif and a ruby cut in the shape of a flower in the middle was what she had written down. Just to be clear, she had even drawn a small picture of it. It matched word by word with the small golden ring that she found in the shop’s window display.

“This is it.”

No more words were uttered as she pulled Kite by his hands into the shop. Like a refined young lady, she walked into the shop and bowed, drawing all of her humdrum classes on being a proper princess to help her pull the act off. She made sure she looked like a lady from the highest parts of society. Not that she had to make an effort for it. Raven gave off the aura of a queen naturally. From the tip of her hair to the end of her toes, Raven was very well aware that she painted the picture of a refined, rich young lady. She thanked her royal blood for it even though there were times she felt she would have been better off without it.

“Sir, I would like to inquire you about something very important,” Raven began, smiling coyly at the man who could not be more than thirty. He had jet black hair with white streaks and golden eyes that was shaped like a cat’s. She could feel his intense gaze fall on her eyes and then slowly move down and back up again. Once he saw the piece of jewelry Raven wore around her neck, he was grinning like a fool. “How may I help you, Madam?” his voice was equally flirtatious. Though it made Raven gag in her head, she showed none of it outside.

“You see, sir, I am searching for a diamond ring. It was stolen from my mother while she was in Hargeon and well, it is very important. You see, it was a gift from her father and as she lost it, she has fallen deeply into depression. More importantly, that ring is very vital to the inheritance of our family wealth. I have another sister who is such a goody two shoes. She is starting to suck up to my mother to get a better share, that ugly witch,” Raven sighed, sadly lowering her eyes and running the back of her palm over them. “I was always the unwanted one. If my sister gets everything, she will definitely throw me out into the cold! I heard, from a friend of mine, that this shop sells stolen goods. I don’t mind if it is illegal. I don’t care at all! But oh gentleman, won’t you please be kind and see if one of your acquaintances has my mother’s ring? I'll definitely trade something better for it” she pleaded, falling dramatically on to the young man's chest. If she played that part right, she should be able to coax the guy into showing where they keep the stolen goods. She just hoped that Kite would play along.

Kite stood by Raven upon arriving at the Pawn Shop they were told about. The building wasn't a very large one standing short of 50 feet in height. Right above the door was a hanging wooden sign that read "Santa's Pawn Shop" right inside a swirled boarder. The sign was red and a pale yellow. Kite read the sign over once more and gave a small chuckle at the name and the irony that accompanied it. ”Santa's shop Huh? You think we will run into some elves while we are here?“ he asked with a smirk on his face. He followed her as she walked up the storefront and pressed her hand against the display window and started to eye down the merchandise for sale on the other side of the glass. He looked at the assorted style of jewelry that was on display. Some of the items displayed were of higher quality than others. Kite was unimpressed but that was mainly because he had no real need for any thing that this store had on display. However it would seem that Raven would have a different stance on that view, he saw her eyes fixate on a spot on the other side of the window and so he followed her line of site and noticed there were a few pieces of jewelry with in her line of sight. Just from the little he knew about his guildmaster he was able to determine what she was looking at through process of elimination he was able to figure out which item she had tickled her fancy. It was a quaint brooch that was forged and molded to resemble a bird, it shined silver except on the tips of the wings and the dark stone that was fastened right where the eye of the bird would have been. ”See something that you like? “ he asked simply but Raven seemed to have moved past the brooch and scanned the rest of the display case and definitively said that this was it.

Kite looked at her when she said it, giving her a puzzling look not exactly sure if she was saying that in general or if she happened to make a discovery of some sort but he didn’t get a chance to ask what specifically meant by that because his words were silenced when she grabbed him by his hand. Kite immediately looked down at her grip around his hand and looked back up at her. The next thing he knew he was being pulled by his hands in the direction she wanted to go, which was into the store and without resistance from him. Upon passed across the threshold of Raven performed a bow, establishing her properness and refinement. In the mean time Kite just simply looked around the store with his free hand in his pocket. He wasn’t going to attempt to show the same sort of manners as Raven. It wasn’t in his nature plus he was already mismatched when with her. He knew she radiated the aura of elegance and and grace, he knew that he over all presence was average. After her bow she called out to the owner of the store stating that she had something to discuss with the gentleman. The man, slightly older than Kite, had black hair with streaks of white running through it clearly showing age. Kite watched as the man’s golden eyes locked onto Raven and grinned after looking her over from head to toe and then asked if he could help her with anything ignoring him altogether. It took all Kite had to mind his thoughts and his temper. ”Geez, this guy is no better than those out in the streets. “ he thought to himself wanting to burn the creep.

What happened next was quite unexpected to say the least. Plucking a story out of thin air Raven went on about how a family heirloom, a diamond ring that belonged to her mother had been stolen while they were in town. Went on further to fabricate a story about how her imaginary sister was trying to worm her way into their mother’s good graces in order to take everything for herself. Kite just stood back and watched Raven spin her web of lies, all in an attempt to work her way into the man’s good graces. What happened next was unexpected, Raven drove the point home by explaining that she heard from a friend of hers that this store dealt with stolen items and that she was willing to offer compensation in order to see said merchandise. Out of the blue Raven flung herself at the man so she pressed against his chest, this act almost made Kite lose sight of the objective, watching her fall on the man it was enough to fluster Kite mentally but he shook himself out of it. ”Please sir, this piece of jewelry would be the only thing insure that her mother won’t leave everything for her conniving sister. We are willing to pay any price to get find this ring “ he said to the man pleading the best he could all the while pushing back the thought of burning down this whole store for what the shop owner must be thinking right now.


Stats
HP-95%
MP-90
Cool Down
Flame Fist X2

It had worked. The plan that Raven conjured out of nowhere actually worked on the young man. The last play from her side must have been its deciding point. Under her ears, his heart elated into a loud clamor of beats, singing a song by itself. Without a doubt, her run-of-the-mill idea had actually worked on the guy.

Not wanting to stay in his arms any longer than necessary, Raven pulled away, wiping imaginary tears from her eyes. He seemed embarrassed but the redness in his cheeks only lasted a second. Soon, he was stumbling around the shop like a foolish duck, evidently searching for something that not even he had an idea of. On top of the cupboards, behind the goods and even under the potted plants, he searched for something until he emerged from under a couch with a cry of victory.

If Raven was thinking he was an idiot, she didn’t show it. Instead, she skillfully drew the features of bewilderment in her vibrant eyes. The item he searched high and low for turned out to be a very small bronze key. It was tiny, probably a finger long and the crown of it was nothing extraordinary. However, the triumphant man flashed Raven a smile and pushed his key into the keyhole of the door behind his counter. “Right this way, this is where we keep the goods,” he told her and then disappeared down into the room.

As she entered after him, Raven concluded that the guy she was dealing with was not the actual boss in this story. He was nothing but a henchman to the real threat. But Raven was lucky that this guy was stupid. This new room was empty save for a large rectangular opening in the floor. A flight of stairs lead down into the basement and that was where they were going to find this tale's climax.

The member 'Raven' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

'Monster Dice' :

” “
He wasn’t sure how well he did at playing his part in Raven’s plan that she didn’t share with him, but that didn’t stop him from trying his best to act out his part. One thing that was uncertain for sure was whether or not he was convincing enough for the shopkeeper to fall for the rouse. Even in a normal situation he wasn’t exactly cut out for split second acting, it was even more difficult for him when he was pushing as much of his anger to the back of his mind from seeing this pig’s face as Raven leaned on him. Kite had to turn the other way in order maintain the fake calm he was presenting. Kite let out a sigh through his nose which lightly shot out a small stream of white flame as a way to let out a small portion of his anger that he was building up. He crossed his arms and walked over towards the display case located at the window that they were looking in before they entered the shop. His eyes scanned the case and the items that were displayed there, mainly wanted to make it look like he was browsing while he talked to himself ”I really want to burn this place down “ he said admitting to himself he didn’t like how things were particularly proceeding.

Not long after that Kite heard the creepy storekeeper started to speak to Raven, directing her to the now unlocked and opened for her specifically. Kite turned and started to walk towards the same door that Raven walked in but before he could pass the threshold he felt an open hand press against his chest. Kite looked down at the hand opened and pushing against him, he then began to follow down the wrist to the forearm and then up to the shoulder and finally at the man who had the balls to physically stop him. Kite looked at him and then back down at the hand and finally back up at the ugly face owned by the shopkeeper ”Is there a problem? “ he asked the man in a sharp and cold tone. The shopkeeper had a goofy grin on his face, “ Sorry bud but, you ain’t going in, only the dame”. Kite didn’t say anything, he didn’t make any move to assert how big of a mistake that was, he just simply began to heat up the area around him with his body the source of the heat. The shopkeeper felt the raise in heat and had to remove his hand in a quick manner shaking off the burnt feeling that now plagued his palm. ”Where she goes, I go “ he made it perfectly clear to him and walked right past the man following Raven down the stairs into the basement office. Sitting behind the the desk on the other side of the room was a middle age man, black short hair. He was wearing a black suit with a matching hat. He looked up from a sheet of paper he had in his hand and made eye contact with the pretty woman. “So, what sort of dirty business brings a hot piece like you down into my world?” he asked. Kite held back a scowl ”That is another one that will burn “ he thought to himself, unfortunately this wasn’t the time for him to do anything but wait for Raven to do her thing and talk business with the creep. .



Stats
HP-95%
MP-90
Cool Down
Flame Fist X1

The basement was dark. For a normal person, it would have been quite difficult to take another step in the heavy setting. In the next room, a candle sitting at the edge of a desk illuminated the desk. Shadows flickered behind it as Raven found a lean figure sitting behind the desk. He held a dark, vicious aura which spelt out that he was the man they were searching for. So in the end, this wasn’t a simple missing jewelry case at all.

What still unsettled her greatly was the darkness. The candlelight didn’t reach far and every corner was shrouded in deep void. She felt presences; multiple presences and they were all coming down the stairs towards the basement. Could it be? Could it be that this guy knew who they were?

“You chose the wrong person to mess with, Missy,” the man chuckled, getting up from his seat. “We knew you two were on our tail from the moment you landed in this city,” he continued, stepping around the desk and facing Raven. “Don’t underestimate us, Sabertooth guild master!” his voice turned menacing and he gave a signal, spinning two fingers.

The sharp knife aimed to tear her flesh away was missed rather narrowly by the violet haired girl who moved to the left. She could hear laughter flood the room but no face came to her view. But they were messing with the wrong person and if they thought it was easy to take her and Kite down, they had another thing coming.

“Kite, I want you to light up this place but don’t set anything on fire because that will be too dangerous. Just give us a little more light and refrain from using too much fire spells. It would be best to use a weapon.”

Kite stood in the back with Raven as things began to play out in front of him, or at least as ,much as he could tell. The room was very dark and the only source of light was the flickering flame from the candlestick on the desk where the older gentleman was sitting. Something seemed incredibly off, the room was far to dark for his liking. Kite looked around the room briefly before he took notice of the sound of steps, multiple steps coming from the staircase they used to enter the basement. Kite turned his head to his right and looked over his shoulder as the sounds got louder, ”Ambush? “ he asked himself as he wondered if they had actually found themselves in a trap of some sort.

This was all but confirmed when the gentleman, who had to be the man in charge of the organization began to speak to them. The man came off as cocky as he stood from his seat speaking to Raven declaring that she picked the wrong man to mess with and further showed off his bravado by stating that he and his organization had known about their arrival the second they entered town. With a hand signal a knife shot out from the darkness that engulfed the entire room and whizzed directly at Raven’s face, which she dodged by moving her head to the side. Things had gotten serious now, and Kite had enough of holding back his anger. His body temperature began to rise as he looked around ”Real tough, fighting from the darkness like cowards, you will pay for trying to hurt my guild master! “ he said to them as he began to channel the magic in his hands getting ready to unleash a blaze of fire at them.

However this didn’t happen the way he wanted it to. Right before Kite unleashed a spell recklessly into the darkness Raven gave him his orders, telling him to light up the area but directly ordered him not to set anything ablaze due to the danger that would come along with it and suggested that he use a weapon. He let out a sigh of disappointment upon hearing her words and looked at her ”But.. as you wish “ he said as he let the flames wrap themselves around him an aura of fire which began to illuminate the room and pushed back the darkness revealing several men along the walls and corners of the basement, one in particular caught his attention. The man had a bandage wrapped around his hand, the hand that tried to stop him from joining Raven as she went into the basement, he had a scowl on his face which made Kite’s face grew serious and slightly cold with expression. ”I’m sorry Raven, I wouldn’t be able to bring out my weapon fast enough to catch these bastards off guard. I will keep the tabs on my flames I promise and I won’t hold back either “He said to her reassuring her before returning his attention back to the shop keeper ”Don’t worry, For what you did I will make the rest of your body will feel the same way your hand does “ Kite said referring more to what disgusting thoughts he conjured up as Raven was pressed against his chest. He entered a fighting stance and let the White flames swirl around his fists and shortly after he began to concentrate his flames into his hands something happened. A blueish tint could be seen in his pure white flames. Kite was tapping into true power now.. ”Flame Demon’s Flare fist! “he quickly pushed his right hand forward punching the air, or so it seemed. Erupting from the end of his punch, was a large burst of flames in the shape of a fist that came crashing into the shop keeper pushing him back as well as burning the clothes that he had on.

She sighed. Raven wanted Kite to keep his fire magic under control since in a place like where they were, things could easily get dangerous. However, surprising her, Kite was showing a great deal of skill by controlling his magic perfectly. No move was wasted and no fire spread towards the wooden boxes. And more importantly, he was quite energetic with the fight, almost taking most of them out by himself whereas Raven just stood to the side for a few minutes.

Suddenly, the fluttering of wings was heard and ravens filled the room, coming out of nowhere. They engulfed Raven’s right hand, molding itself into a long dark sword with raven motif at the very end of it. It was quite an addition to Raven’s appearance and the blades glistened under the pale light of crackling fire that Kite summoned. It wasn’t so difficult to see anymore and she took the time to calculate. All of them were small ones, people that she can take out more than easily. What could be considered their greatest advantage was the numbers. There were well over thirty thugs surrounding them all in a dingy dark basement.

She summoned two raven dolls each by her side and then gave them orders. As they flew out in opposite directions, Raven went straight towards the boss. The dark blade seemed to cry out of delight when she first swung it at him and she spun again and again, almost giving him no time to react. While the two dolls were already slashing through others, she was engaged in a dance with their boss. He was a flexible man; she had to admit, since he almost evaded all of her slashes. However, she wasn’t taking it as seriously as he would think.

He reflexively ducked when she swung her blade once more and tried to punch her stomach but because Raven danced away from his grasps before it could connect, it went straight to the side of his desk, knocking over the candle. Taking his dazed self to advantage, Raven managed to plunge her sword straight through his shoulder. She purposefully avoided the heart and other areas since, well, killing wasn’t her style. Nothing was going to come out of killing those low lives anyway. “Kite, come on. Let’s finish up here and take the stolen goods to our client.”

” “
The fiery first crashed into the shop keeper and the small explosion was isolated on him and the men close to him sending his minions to the ground also scorched by his pale flames. Kite looked back at Raven with a slight smirk proud of the look of surprise that was on her face. However before Kite had a chance to think up something witty to say in response to her impressed expression he caught out of the movement of something in his peripheral vision. It turned out that one the men that wasn't caught in his flare fist charged at him with a knife looking to stick him with the blade.. Kite turned to face him and snapped both of his hands out catching the man's knife hand by the wrist and torqued his arm up and back tossing the man to the ground and not wanting to waste any movement or energy Kite brought his leg up and forcefully drove it back down stomping down on the man’s knife hand and effectively crushing the man’s hand under the force. Kite put his weight on it causing the man a fair amount of pain as well as forcing him to yelp out in pain. ”That’ll keep you put for a while.“ Kite said taunting the man, as well as making it obvious that he had no intention on letting the man back up.

Within the next moment a man came up from behind Kite and wrapped his left arm around his the demon slayer’s neck and started to squeeze. Kite could feel the pressure being put on his carotid arteries with the attention behind the hold well known to him, the man wanted to put Kite to sleep with a blood choke. Kite made a clicking noise with his tongue upon feeling the sensation of his blood being cut off, not wanting to risk falling unconscious to this potentially dangerous hold Kite acted quickly by putting his free leg straight out to the side to widen his base and simultaneously gripped the arm around his neck with both hands. Kite lowered his base so his hips were under his foe’s and whipped himself forwards so he was now bending over, pulling the man by his arm and dumping him on the ground on top of the man who Kite was holding down. Kite inhaled deeply drawing a plume of flames into his mouth, quickly he brought his body upwards and flung himself back down letting loose his Flame Demon’s Rage, a blast of white flames right on top of the two thugs engulfing them both in a stream of demon slayer fire bursting on impact catching them both scorching their entire bodies.

He was contemplating his next move but before he could act on his thoughts he heard Raven’s voice meet his ears making it clear that she wanted to wrap up business here and get back to the client with item they were meant to procure on this job. Still slightly bent over Kite grinned and let his pale white flames gather around his body again causing an bright glow bright enough to cause the front of his body to be cast in a shadow completely blacking most of his feature out even still Kite then looked up at the remaining men that had sought to pick a fight with him. All they would see was the outline of his head and hair, that was until they noticed the area where his eyes were located, and how they were glowing white, ”So boy’s you hear that?. The pretty lady no longer wants to waste her time with the likes of you. So tell me who is next to be charbroiled like those other two guys? “ he asked them goading them to make the mistake of coming at him at once.

However instead of having the distinct pleasure of adding their scorched bodies to the pile next to him the men started to exit the basement and up the stairs in a haste, it was surprising that none of them tripped over themselves. Kite stood up straight and began to let his flames simmer down a bit but still had an outline of energy lingering from the unleashed power he called for. Kite had wanted to turn to face Raven so he could say something but alas it seemed that not all the thugs ran for the hills. The shopkeeper was still there and somehow snuck around Kite and looked to try to take a potshot at Raven with a wooden club like object. ”Oh, no you don’t! Flame Demon’s Flamberges “ he gathered the flames in his hands and quickly them forming two swords made of his flames. Kite quickly rotated his body and dropped down to a low base making a slashing motion catching the the shopkeeper right on his achilles tendon, searing right through it making him drop to the ground holding onto his leg right by his ankle. Still in a squatted position he looked up at Raven who was next to the “boss” who had a pretty nasty wound on his back. Proceeding to stand up straight placed his hands on his hips ”I guess that takes care of that… are you ready to get out of this hell hole and meet up with the client?“ He knew the answer to this question for he knew that Raven was over this job back when they were in the alleyway. Kite looked down at the man writhing in pain from the injury he sustained to his ankle as he walked past him. He said nothing, no words were needed to be said at this point in time for the pain was doing all the talking for him. Kite headed up the stairs towards the main lobby of the store ahead of her. Once he was in the shop he had remembered something. He turned to Raven while reaching into his pocket grasping the small trinket he had tucked away while no one was looking. ”Before I forget, this is for you “ he said revealing the Bird shaped brooch that she had been mesmerized earlier.
Stats
HP-95%
MP-70
Duration
Power of the Apocalypse X 1
Cool Down
Flare Fist X3
Rage X4
FlamebergsX4