by Imai-chi 22nd December 2018, 9:36 am
Ah, thankfully she did have a spell up her sleeve, it appeared. So the plan was that he would take the early stages of the constructing to his advantage, find a blind area and climb up the wall. Because of how new this place was and how early they had started to settle, the bandits were far from surveillance-covered to the T. Even a brat like Imai would have trouble being spotted if he just snuck in sneakily.
An illusionary downpour? Did she mean rain? She could make an image of raining appear everywhere? Wait, wait… it must’ve been relative to her kitsune heritage that she was an illusionist - maybe, just maybe, Imai was afraid of judging her - so such an illusion was… well, when was the last time that Imai saw her use illusion magic? As far as he remembered, he did know that she could use some kind of healing magic. Maybe she could use tail magic? Why was he focusing on her tails, again?!
So once when her magic took effect, he would enter the fortress. No objectives to that. He could finally go in and show her what a Sabertooth Ace was capable of - total fighting power was on his side. Also, her magic did take effect at this moment - the clouds quickly darkened, almost making him believe that Itori actually bent reality instead of just projecting illusionary images… or well, perhaps both?
With Itori busy with that, Imai charged down the hill controlled by his calculated footsteps. He aimed for the edge of the fortress where steel bars were seen holding up the infrastructure of a future wall. Some workers dashed into the fortress when the rain appeared. Grabbing onto a steel bar, he swung himself inside, leaning onto a naked wall that would lead him further into the building. Imai was now inside.
… This fortress does look sweet, though. Maybe I should refrain from leveling it, me and Koguma could play around here when I’ve cleared it of burglar fools…
He snuck across the floors for roughly 5 minutes before reaching the opening to a room where many of the burglars took shelter. Given by their masks - as Imai stuck an eye out to see - they looked like… ninjas? Freaking ninjas? Were they from Midi?!
He had never fought a ninja before. This would prove funnier than he expected. However, as his main objective was the book, he kept searching around. The opening prevented him from advancing without getting spotted head-on by the ninjas, so he would have to cause a distraction and move on… but was that a good idea? Like, as soon as he had the book in his possession, that would do, right?
Where would they hide such a treasured book, anyway? Maybe at the top? When one entered or broke into the fortress, finding the book should be the very last thing that they would achieve. He assumed the destination to be the tallest room in the fortress and turned around, leaving the room full of burglars for a later visit.
Sneaking up ladders, he soon made it to the upper floor. He worryingly looked around before advancing, but the footsteps of a strange source made him hang onto a steel club on the roof. A ninja walked by… and Imai’s secret hiding spot was revealed. “A-AR-“ the ninja let out furiously before getting a light blast to his face, instantly giving him other ideas than being awake and hostile.
The sound was heard by nearby ninjas who quickly came to find the source. There was a bathroom next to the star mage, so he grabbed the fainted body of the ninja and dashed in. The highly trained ninjas wouldn’t let any trace be left unobserved, so when they spotted the waving door to the bathroom, they obviously entered to check for safety’s sake. Trapped inside the only toilet, Imai began growling and moaning like one who was taking care of business - to everybody’s surprise, it did leave the ninjas confused. At that point, they didn’t know if something had happened or if their guard was just taking a shitter.
“HNNNNNG… *crash*!!!”
“Ufff, hurry up, already!” one of the ninjas complained as they left the room. Embarrassed by the sound of what they assumed to be from their ninja ally, they continued their shelter-chatting and planning of their next target after that rich dude.
Imai had used the loud sound to punch a hole through the wall and crawl out - thanks to his magic sensory, he was free from anyone’s eyes. This room contained a bunch of chests… jackpot. It couldn’t have been more perfect for him. He went over to a chest and realized that with this many, he’d have to be lucky to find the book. Given the description, the book had a blue cover, so having given 5 more minutes, the star mage finally found it.
“Bingo,” he let out in relief, finally able to give Itori the signal. Clenching a hand, he manifested a black hole - calm down, it was a small one - and launched it down through the floor. It leaked down to the room from previously, and boom; it began attracting everything and everyone. A large portion of the roof crashed down and got sucked into the black hole, while the ninjas down there were fighting for their limbs not to get sucked in as well. Near the actual entrance to the fortress, a white hole manifested and began spitting out rocks and poor ninjas.
WC: 932 + 2966 = 3898