Going the Extra Mile

Having jewel made Vajra feel a lot better.

After having successfully taken care of Mr. Perfect and leaving the woman wide open for her former client to go try to win over, Vajra had decided she had earned a bit of a celebration. She sat at a different bar than the one she was at the night before, nursing a large glass of malt liquor as she rested in a corner stall. She sighed happily as she brought the mug up to her lips and took a healthy swallow, drinking down the sharp tasting liquid until it settled into her stomach. All the fruity drinks she had last night had put a sour taste in her mouth and washing it away with the taste of real alcohol was making her feel a lot better.

Truthfully, this wasn't the first celebration of the day. She'd had a mini-celebration with the heart-broken woman, taking the other woman's mind off her terrible former beau and opening her up to an entirely new side of sexuality. Where the woman had found comfort, Vajra had found release and it was gratifying to no longer be all twisted and bent out of shape. The woman had asked her to stay with her, clearly wanting more of the comfort the purple-haired woman could offer. But she had declined, putting on the act of what they had done being wrong and she had to go. She chuckled, thinking of how her former client would be fighting an even more uphill battle now. Here he thought she'd be ready waiting for him and now...well, she may not even be interested in a man at all.

"If only I could stay around to see how that plays out."

Unfortunately, Vajra had more important things to take care of. She'd come through this town only to continue onwards. Cedar didn't offer much in terms of information about Savage Skull or so she believed. The crime rate seemed to be so low here that finding a criminal worth interrogating was about as plausible as finding a dragon. This celebration would be only for tonight and then tomorrow she would be off on her journey once more.

Just as she brought the mug back up to her lips, the door of the bar kicked open and a loud group blundered inside. Three mages walked in, chattering louder than the people walking by outside. The leader of the group, a short, rotund man, was perhaps the loudest of all -- though his two friends gave him quite the run for his money.

"Another day, another successful job!" He snorted out as he walked over to a table and sat himself down. "Those lizards never knew what hit them! I bet they'll never bother those farmers again." He was obviously quite proud of the work they had done.

The small amount of people that were actually in the bar turned in their seats to look at the mages, who had all found themselves a spot at the table now. The next one to speak was a tall, dark-haired woman who was wearing a large feathered cap and sported a magic pistol on her hip. "Twilight Ogre does whatever they can to help the people. That's why they're one of the best guilds in all of Fiore!" She pumped her fist into the air and received a cheer from the people in the bar, some even going as far as to hold their beers in the air as well.

Vajra was not one of those people.

This was the one thing that Vajra hated about this free world.

She had grown up in an upbringing where everyday was about survival. There was no guarantee that she would live beyond the present and she had to claw, fight and manipulate everyone around her to stay alive as long as she did. She had proven that she was not weak and anyone that hadn't done as much as she had...well, they probably didn't survive. Weakness was what got people killed and strength was what allowed them to live on.

Yet here were these...'legal' mages that went around and helped people that couldn't provide for themselves. They weren't wiping out weakness; they were practically cultivating it. While they did the work, the farmers probably sat back and watched with a smug grin on their faces and waited until it was all over with. The strong had provided for the weak, allowed them to survive without doing anything to provide for themselves. And these mages did it happily, only charging a small jewel fee for the service. In Vajra's eyes, they were just as bad as the weaklings.

And frankly, she wasn't going to let it go unpunished. No, she had a plan.

Vajra's eyes snapped to the bartender as he suddenly began to move. He looked around the room for a moment before he turned and walked through the swinging doors, disappearing into the back of the bar. With all the attention on the presenting mages, the purple-haired woman swallowed down the rest of her drink and got up from her seat. Even as the patrons cheered and listened intently to the boring tale of the battle against monstrous lizards, she walked up to the bar and placed her mug on the wooden frame. It was so easy; as she moved the mug over towards the other empty ones at the end of the bar, her other hand slithered to the other side where the unattended register was. A quick tug and it popped open, revealing the bevy of jewel notes.

As the leader of the mage group was coming to the conclusion of his story, Vajra came up from behind him and swung around his chair, planting her ass right in his lap. "My, you sound so strong!" She said, her voice jumping up two octaves so she sounded as mindless and idiotic as the rest of the people here. She grinned down at the man, who was already starting to blush.

"W-We sure are!" He said, trying to still sound as firm as possible with a beautiful woman sitting in his lap. "Twilight Ogre doesn't play around!"

"It sure sounds like that!" She said in between giggles before she leaned forward to give him a hug. "But I think I might want to play around with a Twilight Ogre." She whispered into his ear, giving the lobe a small nibble before she pulled back.

His face was beat-red and no words escaped his mouth, just a small groan that carried through. Smiling, she popped up from his lap and walked towards the door, intentionally swaying her hips as she went. She could feel his eyes -- no, all of the eyes of the patron's -- on her as she left, turning back long enough to give him one last look before she shut the door.

As the door shut behind her, Vajra turned away from the bar and began walking towards the main road down the way. Her arms swung at her side, her hands open and free and revealing nothing in them. Of course she had snatched the money from the register and she knew that no one had managed to catch her in the act -- otherwise they'd already be pursuing her.

And even if they had, it wasn't like she had the money on her self any longer. She'd used her body and her words to distract the idiotic legal mage and when she was hugging him, she'd taken the time to shove the large wad of cash from the register into the pocket. She'd planted the evidence but that wasn't enough. Anyone inside the bar could easily defend him, saying that he never went over to the bar and couldn't have swiped the jewels. But...he was a magic user and that provided her with an ample opportunity.

Instantly her face changed as she spotted one of the knights down the street. Tears popped up at the corners of her eyes and she began to run towards the knight. She began to cry as she came up to him, her body already beginning to shake as he turned to look at her.

"Miss? What's the matter?" He asked her, trying to see if she was physically hurt.

"I-I-It was those mages in there." She said between sobs, her voice scratched and terrified. "They came in talking about how they were bigshots for Twilight Ogre. And then one of them cast a spell on me when no one was looking. I couldn't control my own body; I just walked over to the bar and took the jewel inside the register and then the short one used his magic to make me sit on his lap and put the money in his pocket. Oh gods, I'm so sorry. I couldn't help myself." She fell against the knight, weeping into his chestplate.

"Miss, it's okay. You need to get a hold of yourself." He tried to reassure her, even as his eyes turned towards the street she had come from. He pulled her back and held her gently. "Wait here. I'll go investigate. You just try to calm down."

Vajra sniffled and nodded, even as the knight brushed past her and began to head towards the bar. As her hair fell in front of her still tear-streaked face, a gentle grin painted itself over her lips.

It was almost too easy.

Vajra stood on the rooftop across the from bar, pressed against the smokestack so she couldn't be seen. She watched quietly as the door of the bar swung open and out came the three legal mages that had been bragging earlier. Each one of them were in cuffs, magical items that kept their magic bound and reined in. They were escorted outside by half a dozen knights, with the one Vajra had spoken to taking up the rear with the bartender.

"So no idea where the woman went?" The bartender asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

"No sir but she was the one that alerted us to their theft." The knight responded, turning his head to look at the prisoners.

"It's a shame. I'd like to apologize to her myself. Getting manipulated by magic is bad enough but being forced to steal..." The bartender sighed and looked past the knight at the mages. "Consider yourselves banned from my bar. And I'll be talking your guild master myself."

"As will I." The knight added.

"You don't understand! I didn't use any magic on any woman! All we did was come in to celebrate! We sat right down and that was it. We're innocent." The portly leader oinked, trying to turn and face the other two. One of the other knights gave him a hard smack across the head to keep from wriggling.

"The money was in your pocket, just as she said it was. You can argue you all you want but the facts are there." The knight hissed back. "Take them away."

With that, the group began to move down the street with their quarry in tow. The lead knight shook the bartender's hand and followed after, marching right behind the leader of the mages. Slowly Vajra came around the chimney so she could continue watching, even as the sun began to set on the horizon. She was still wearing the same malevolent smile.

"There's step one."