Kou and Bow were getting closer to the mansion. "She's not far. I can sense it. " Kou pointed out. He ran in the front. Bow noticed sweat dripping down Kou's face, indicating that Kou was nervous.
"He gives me different feelings than before. He seems much more determined than the last time. He changed a lot in those several days." Thought Bow, and with Kou ascended the stairs. "There they are!" he called.
Bow followed Kou's exclamation. He noticed two guards dragging Louisa with force. They were holding her on both sides of her arms and causing them some trouble. She was stubborn and repeatedly tried to break free. "Let me go, you jerks! That artifact is mine! You can't give it to your leader!"
She tried and tried but made no progress. "Louisa!" Kou's voice resounded behind her and the guards. She turned to look at them and smiled. "Kou!"
Bow stretched his arm and summoned his weapon. He created golden arrows and attached them to the string. He aimed it in front.
He released, shooting out double arrows that arched past Kou's shoulders. They spun, and the further they reached, the faster their maneuvering.
Two guards were in awe. Their eyes widened and unreadily tried to avoid it. Louisa took that opportunity to stomp on their feet and escape them. But it was too late.
Out of nowhere, a chain whipped forward and struck through the two arrows. Its heavy metal slapped the ground, creating a chained wall like a spider's web.
Kou and Bow slowed down instantly and decided to stop at a safe distance. "Are those chains? Where did that come from?" wondered Bow. "Damn it! Whatever it is! It's separating us from helping Louisa." Bow looked at Kou, who was standing still and watching the chains.
"Kou! Please, you've gotta help me! I don't know what they're going to do to me!" shouted Louisa, who held one of the chains. "Just... stay calm! I'll get you out of there in no time! I just need to figure out how to break those chains!"
Kou and Bow tried to find a way around it. "There should be a back alley to the mansion! If you follow it, then-" Chains wrapped around her whole body. One wrapped around her neck. It started squeezing her throat, which complicated things even more due to its tight grip. Louisa couldn't breathe or talk. "No, Louisa!" Kou yelled.
He started stressing out more. With Bow, he spotted Louisa's body getting pulled back and slammed against the wall. She couldn't use her arms as. She had no other way of breaking through them. "Stop it already! Whoever you are, show up already!" Called Kou.
Rosi stepped from around the corner. She had a chain wrapped around her right limb that connected every other chain in the area. "Huh? Who the hell are you?! I haven't seen you before! You've gotta be one of those underlings." Kou said. "Let go of her already!"
Rosi folded her arms beneath her chest and closed her eyes. She was calm. "I'll let her go." She eased up the chains' tight grip and released the pressure onto Louisa's throat. She tied her up onto the pole next to the mansion, listening to Louisa's painful groans.
"Or should I say; I'll let her go when she returns that artifact. You two, get up!" Rosi glanced at the two soldiers who were afraid. "Y-Yes! Of course, miss Rosi! W-What would you like us to do?" they called.
They positioned themselves straight, pressed their arms onto their sides, and waited for the orders. "Lord Niklas is currently occupied by storing the weapons ordered from the WPDA. Take the girl into the cell and bring the stolen artifact to him. He requires that artifact to empower those swords, so don't waste any more time, understand?"
They saluted. "Yes, ma'am!" and grabbed Louisa. "You witch! That artifact you claim she stole is hers! Let her go and give it back to her!" shouted Kou. Rosi dragged out her notebook in her left arm and flipped pages.
"In this rulebook, it says that every item, building, and livings things, belongs to Lord Niklas, no matter where those items came from. Items belong only to those who received Lord Niklas' permission." Her explanation perplexed them. "You have a rulebook?! That doesn't make sense!"
"Affirmative." she raised her chin, "A contract, more appropriately, meaning that everybody who lives on this island had to sign this book of contracts that they accept the requirements. One of the names, Harry Dillinger, signed this contract too." She flipped a page. "This girl, Louisa Dillinger, is his sibling. Because the artifact alternatively belonged to Harry, who signed the contract, and accepted that his creations now belong to Lord Niklas, it's considered Lord Niklas' possession. Here's proof."
She rotated the book around and showed it to them. "Louisa Dillinger hasn't signed the contract, but because she's not of the age 18 or above, then it means that the contracts her brother signed involve her too."
Kou and Bow looked at Louisa. "Louisa? Is that true?" Kou seemed astonished and noticed regret in her eyes. She didn't answer. "Louisa! Come on, answer me! Did your brother know about that? And if he did, why would he agree to something like that?!"
She was held firmly by the guards. She even tried looking away from them. "Louisa! Stop giving me the silent treatment!" Kou was determined to get answers, but it was futile.
Bow looked down at him. "Kou. If the contract really was signed by her older brother, then that means she participated in the robbery. She stole what's not hers anymore." He explained.
Kou looked at the ground and felt infuriated. "But that doesn't mean she needs to be put inside a cell. If her brother was the one who signed the contract, then he should be the one in the cell."
"That's unfortunately impossible." Rosi's sudden change of tone caught them off guard. They became confused. "Harry Dillinger, otherwise known as Kuro Kimoto is a professional craftsman and agent from the WPDA. He goes by the code name Harry Dillinger to keep himself out of trouble for fraud and illegal activities. He signed up the contract on purpose so that he would be protected by Lord Niklas.
"He gave us a special contract that everything involving faulty activities around the Craftsman Island is put onto the name Louisa Dillinger, otherwise known as Koume Kuno. In terms of her identity, we have yet to receive answers."
Kou and Bow were caught astonished and Louisa freaked out too. "Why would you tell them that?! I thought that was supposed to be a secret! You promised you wouldn't tell anyone else but Niklas!" she complained.
"We received permission from Kuro Kimoto and WPDA to reveal your identity. It was necessary so that WPDA would provide us with artificial swords. If you were to be told, that could have come to major consequences involving our reputation. You were kept in the dark for that specific reason, and it was stated in this contract that your "brother" signed."
Louisa's eyes opened wide and shook. "W-Wait. You're telling me that I was used? Kuro told me that if I keep my name hidden from society we would be able to finally stop Niklas! I've lived here since my birth and so has Kuro! I just wanted to stop this slavery!"
Rosi exchanged views with her. "I'm afraid that's the truth. Kuro Kimoto has been working as an undercover agent for 5 years and lived on Craftsman Island since his birth. He's been in contact with Yules Nomura, and Kuro was also the only reason why WPDA accepted to work with Niklas. But the WPDA wasn't aware of you being here. They were aware of Louisa Dillinger.
"Niklas hired a hitman, Peter Kisling to eliminate you as a "roleplay" or a "trick" that would derail WPDA's suspicion of another target and not Koume Kuno. The WPDA was well aware that Koume Kuno, or in other words, you, were fooled and dragged into a trap, and that's why Kuno asked you to be his scapegoat if something went wrong."
Louisa, now revealed to be identified as Koume became soft in the place and the guards managed to keep her still. Her eyes were wide open, her arms were hanging forward, and her sweat didn't stop running. "I was... tricked?" her heartbeat slowed down. "I was tricked..."
Kou and Bow easily learned that Koume was humiliated, and she'd lost all hope. "So, then this... artifact." Rosi nodded, looking at Koume. "That's right. The artifact was officially designed to empower the swords as we explained, but Kuro also understood that if he were to keep you as your scapegoat, he needed something to keep you busy and give Peter a reason to hunt you down. He knew you'd get attached to it because you saw him as a close friend."
Her artifact slipped outside her t-shirt and dropped on the floor. "I mean, Ralphie told us that he was friends with Harry, and Ralphie himself was once an agent as well. So, either Ralphie knew about it, or the two of them were once on the opposite sides of the agencies." Bow explained.
"I can't believe Harry would do that. Did he use her? I can't even imagine." But then, Kou realized something. "Hold on! That means that..." His eyes shook wide and he sweated. "He fooled all of us out! Me, you, Tim, Ayuka, and even Ralphie! Damn it, we need to warn them! They could be heading straight into a trap!"
Bow noticed stress inside Kou's face, and nodded. However, what they didn't know was that one of their friends was right next to a fraud.
Ralphie was running in front of Harry and they finally reached the door. Harry stopped behind him, keeping calm. "This is it! This is the door to the storage. Harry, so what's the code?"
Ralphie turned around, but as he did, he spotted Harry's silhouette holding a hammer in his hand, which he dragged from under the stairs. In just a flick of a hand, he smashed the top of Ralphie's head. It had enough force to make Ralphie bleed and even knock him unconscious. Ralphie's body was now lying beneath Harry's feet.
He was looking down at him with an intimidating face. His hammer dropped splashes of blood. "Sorry, Ralph, but there's no way I'm going to let you set off those explosives." Harry dropped the hammer. He reached inside his pocket, and dragged out a knife,. The blood dripped onto the ground.
He stepped over Ralphie's body and looked at the keypad. "You're not the brightest one, huh, Ralph? I didn't listen to the conversation. Niklas told me his code by himself. I thought you'd be less stupid than that, but I guess you really trusted me." He unlocked the door to the storage room without problems, tossed the knife next to Ralphie's body, and instantly entered the storage room.
"Time to get rid of these explosives."
To be continued...