In a desolate clearing in the Illusion Forest, Yuuki lifted her hands up and a pair of knives came out of her back pocket, wind magic carried it through the air. She gestured forwards and they moved so fast, that in a flash it soared through the air, onto the target in the tree. Satisfied they both hit bullseye, she turned, pulled out her intricately decorated flute from her back. As elegant as an artic fox, she played it like Marsyas.* Beautiful notes echoed into the ground, flowers and animals. Nature froze and listened to her song. But as a contrast to her meoldy, a blazing fire slowly emerged above her head. It scorched the surrounding air menacingly.
Smirking, she stopped playing her tune and slipped the flute into her pocket. Gathering more mana from the earth beneath her, Yuuki expanded the flame and aimed it at a clueless Sanji to her right, who was practicing his mana-gathering meditation. You had to be completely still for it to work properly, it was more efficient than other strategies. It dashed towards him immediately and quickly closed in on him.
Suddenly stopping his meditating, Sanji sensed something flying towards him at breakneck speed. Without even thinking, his reflexes took action and he instinctively grabbed his blue and black swords from the ground. Jumping up, he stitched his shadow into his blades. As he clashed them together in a 'X' shape, a gush of cold shadows swept the area in front of him- also eliminating the raging fireball zooming at him.
He looked at Yuuki, annoyed.
"What was that for, Yuuki? Couldn't you see I was busy?"
Yuuki in response walked over and said, "I was testing you. You seemed a bit rusty lately" She said without blinking, "Also, I wanted to see if we can do Illusion again. I want to try again after all this time." She added.
"Have you perfected it by yourself yet? You know it's hard doing Illusion for both of us. We're always so tired in the aftermath." He called out as he withdrew his blades.
Ever since they created this unique attack-and-defence system they worked hard on perfecting it but everytime something went wrong. Either Yuuki's Illusion wasn't real enough or Sanji forged the incorrect sounds. They both knew this was going to drain them of their mana. Nonetheless, Sanji still wanted to give it a go.
Both Yuuki and Sanji stood in their fighting stances and Sanji took his weapons out. He marked Yuuki with his sound magic. Instead of using her flute, this time Yuuki sang an enchanting song. It sounded heavenly to any living being's ears and lulled them into a different reality. All they saw was darkness. Nothing around them. Sanji put his swords out. He restricted any sound going in without his permission. The illusion then changed to a dark forest, filled with dead trees. He ran around the outskirts of the radius while creating branch snapping noises in most directions. Yuuki whispered under her breath,
"Clone on my 7, walking slowly," A masked clone then entered the illusion, looking just like Sanji. Maybe not perfect but good enough to be real to a panicked individual. Sanji erected sound magic to make it so it had footsteps, like it was really him. Sanji then lunged behind the target and wrapped one sword around the neck and the other at its leg. He then pulled back, slicing it.
"Target is cut like a loaf of bread!" Sanji loudly stated. The illusion enveloped on itself, as if it was never there. Sanji jumped over to Yuuki, skipping almost. "If we had a moving target, you could use Sage to block it. Well, your weak walls might not be able to slow it down that much though!" He giggled, Yuuki looked at him dead in the eyes and flicked a pebble at him.
"Say that again." She dared.
"Alright calm down 5 tails." She was still glaring at him sternly. "That means I'm younger you know. I'm on my 4th reincarnation according to the Kitsune's reincarnation. You're on your 6th! Ha, you're so old!"
"I'll throw something alot larger than a pebble at you if you carry on." Sanji's eyes widened.
"Sorry grandma," he muttered.
She picked up a rock and threw it straight at his head. "Think you got something on that useless head of yours!"
The rock crashed into the ground after contact with his face. He wiped off the dust and shook his head. "Earth users are annoying.."
After a few more hours of practice, the kids finished up and headed to their homes.
In a clean dark room Sanji put on his stealth suit. Crisp black clothes that stuck to his skin tightly. He equipped himself with his weapons. A set of normal throwing knives on each of his calves and his signature double blades called The Excructiating Shadow Blades- Shadow Blades for short. He also had a map of the Illusion Forest just in case they had to escape into the forest to escape pursuit.
Meanwhile in a messy room with shelves overflowing with medical and research books, Yuuki sat in the middle, dressed in her pitch back stealth suit aswell. Her weapons were also packed beside her- the Divine Flute and a basic enchanted cross-bow. As an extra measure she hid a retractable mini dagger in her hair, which looked like a bulky hairclip.
Three white masks were hanging by the window. They had an intricately carved design that she had personally made. A few days ago, she was experimenting and had forged aura-suppressing elixir into them. Now, if they met anyone, they would not be able to detect their auras unless they were extremely skilled and experienced.
Yuuki decided her best option right now was collecting as much mana as possible. After she finished, she gathered her stuff and walked towards the window. She stared outside into the night. It was breath-taking.
Fireflies buzzed in the navy blue sky like stars, as the moonlight shone onto the luscious green trees. Mother Nature radiated a calming atmosphere that relaxed her nerves. The plentiful long grass swayed back and forth in the gentle wind. The flowers around her were small, but they covered most the area.
Although she had this mesmerising view before her, she still couldn't shake off the feeling that something was going to go wrong. Maybe it was because she was about to do something big or maybe it was simply the idea of the unknown future. Whatever it was, she was dreading it.
But as much as she didn't like it, she had to do this. She still felt incredibly guilty about barging into Kira's room and frightening her.
So putting her thoughts aside, Yuuki leaped out of the window and ran towards the direction Sanji's home.
The time had come.
"Now or never Sanji." Sanji tried to convince himself under his breath. He jumped out of his window.
In the middle of the Town Centre, was a fountain with a statue of the village elder and around it were 4 other crystals symbolifying the rest of the elders. On the ground was three clean cobblestone pathways leading out of the town. This was where most traders came to sell or buy goods so the village occupants always kept it neat and tidy.
Sanji and Yuuki was sat by the fountain discussing what to do next.
"Since we already broke in two times, there would be security guards. Probably pretty skilled ones at that. I'll distract them and you should take Kira and leave as fast as possible. Don't forget to give her one of the masks. We have to be extra cautious now. We can't leave any traces behind." Sanji said.
Yuuki nodded. Sanji was just about to get up when she pulled him back down again.
"Sanji...I feel like something is off. I don't know what exactly but we should do something about it. When I was meditating earlier...I had another vision. It was a vision of me and you and Kira being captured by the guards."
Sanji was closely listening and when he heard that Yuuki had another vision he whipped his head in shock. It was very rare that she had visions and usually it was not in the near future. This had to be her clairvoyance warning them. His mind raced at solutions to solve their dilemma. They couldn't just leave Kira but they couldn't barge in like they have done before. This was definetly something that was slightly troubling. Yuuki also racked her brain on what to do but to no avail.
Just when both kids were about to give up an idea dawned on Sanji.
"Okay so. This might sound weird but.. We should steal some ability-enhancing pills." He blurted. "Before you turn me down, think about it. If we take some from the Hunter's Pharmacy, we could use it to make us even more efficient." When Yuuki finally processed what Sanji was trying to say, she violently shook her head.
"Sanji! Are you crazy? What the hell are you thinking? Not only have we already broken into a restricted room TWICE, now you wanna steal some highly expensive pills?! Are you trying to get us killed?" She whisper-shouted.
"Well, first off, instead of crazy I prefer creative and no im not trying to get us killed. Although this mission is dangerous, we can do it- but not without the pills. You know this Yuuki. Think about what we can do with Illusion if we can make it stronger and even combine it with Sage. I said it as a joke before but maybe we can actually make it happen." He knew they needed these pills. It was necessary for them to be able to complete this mission.
Yuuki was still hesitating. She stood up and walked briskly away from him before turning around and pointing a stern finger at him.
"Fine. But if we get caught or we fail, this is all on you. And you owe me. Big time." She sighed.
Her best friend's face lit up.
"Yesss. Thanks Yuuki! You're not an old grandma after all!" Sanji jumped up.
Dismissing his comment, she turned around and headed towards the path that took them to the pharmacy.
At 1AM they arrived in front of the pharmacy. It was a small round building with a pointed roof. It was very dull and boring compared to the other side of the village.
"This is crazy." Yuuki muttered.
"This is awesome!" Sanji beamed.
And so the process of entering begun.
Sanji stepped forward and tried to pick the lock first. When that didn't work, he pulled out his blade but the lock was absorbent to brute force. Yuuki yawned behind him. He turned around.
"There must be something wrong with the lock-"
"No Sanji there isn't something wrong with the lock. As you try to pry it open it gets more and more force absorbent. You should have guessed that. Or at least sensed it's aura. What have I been teaching you? Let me have a go." A smug look was plastered all over her face.
She pulled out the dagger pinned in her black hair and smirked at Sanji.
She then infused some Divine magic into it and inserted it into the lock. Turning it, they heard a soft, almost inaudible, click.
A scoff was heard behind Yuuki.
"Unbelievable. You're so childish." She rolled her eyes.
She pushed the door open gently and entered, also trying to sense any hidden traps.
Inside was dozens of rows of different elixirs,poisons and pills. But what they were looking for wasn't in any of these shelves. It was at a guarded vault. They both knew that getting the pill wasn't as easy as taking it from any shelf. Since it was a rare and expensive pill, it had to be monitored.
They crept deeper into the storage room of the cool pharmacy. Finally at the end of a small bleak corridor, they saw an iron door with a heavy wheel.
This time Sanji was hesitant to try first, after being humiliated. So Yuuki summoned a flickering multicoloured light at her hands. It had no particular shape but it definitely looked powerful with its sparkling glow. She pressed her hand at the wheel and closed her earth-brown eyes.
After some rattling from the vault door, it still didn't budge. Yuuki stepped back, stunned. Why wouldn't it work? In the midst of her confusion what she didn't realise was Sanji taking a turn and using one blade at the centre of the large wheel. But this time, he wouldn't be fooled. He also used magic but not the magic that the door-makers had expected and made the door prepared for. For his forte was dark shadow magic. It was a rare ability only a few had and if they were born with it, they would be able to master it within their lifetimes. Some people chose to adopt this as their main magic mana but they would never be as skilled as the people who were chosen to wield it.
Sanji was always comfortable in the dark and since this hallway was dark, there were a lot of shadows. 'Perfect' he thought. This time he gathered some shadows to the tip of his elongated dagger and bursted them sharply at the wheel. It immediately spun and unlocked.
Yuuki only snapped out of her daze when she saw Sanji heave the door.
"How..." She stuttered but this had to be expected. 'How stupid of me not to think of that' She cursed herself. Of course shadows were easier to break in with, they were misleading and silent, the perfect power for an assassin or a ninja. She made a mental note to not underestimate Sanji's assassin skills anymore.
Now that the door was finally open they both strode inside.
*Marsyas was a satyr in Greek Mythology who picked up the cursed flute that belonged to Athena and played it beautifuly. But later challenged Apollo to a musical duel. Marsyas lost the battle and Apollo took his life for it.