Aria looked back to see the cloaked villain that she had left behind clung onto her wrist with a tight grasp.
The wind let a peak of the villain's tightly shaped battle gear that hugged his well built body through many complicated compartments that added to the whole appeal.
Shocked, her arm was quickly flung away leaving her gloved hand to be wide open with nothing.
The Red Tear was not in her hand.
The cloaked villain then adjusted his body to aim under her skirt from where her last hand was, though quickly realizing the situation.
Aria swiftly dodged away in a flush as she kicked the guy aiming to hurt his family jewels because of his daring actions, flushing from how shameless this villain was being.
She quickly swung her parasol at his head for a last jab in the head in retailance from all the conflicted emotions that swell in her.
The anger that consumed her face left with a satisfied smile as she saw through the grimace that followed his head getting whacked as again, annoyance flicked across her face as her lips pursed.
She had promised to go to Alora's apartment at night to meet up with her friends but she was getting pursued by a mad man!
As the cloaked villain winced, bucking in his legs, he ran after her and only slowed down to a steady pace when he caught up with her.
Having said that she actually liked the thrill and the confidence it gave her, she still knew how shameless he was to even attempt to reach under her skirt.
He still had the audacity to follow her.
She turned her back and narrowed her eyes on the man in front of her.
He wore a black cloak that covered his face and went all the way down only leaving peeks of black combat boots that also gave a glimpse of the bottom portions of his body.
Strong and leaned muscles that popped up then to his revealed big and veiny arms. His hands were covered with a pair of black open fingered gloves.
The guy in front of her slowly moved his hands up to show that she could trust him.
Fucking fat chance.
He chuckled as he said, "Sorry, we must've gone on the wrong foot here.
The names Shadow at your service, milady. You know how our organization can be if we don't get our mission done.
You can relax, we can have a civil conversation between the two of us." he pulled the pointed parasol away from his hand with a grouched face from Aria.
"Give me the Red Tear, and we won't have to do this the hard way."
She looked at him getting closer with a tight face as she stepped back every time he stepped forward. He was going to take back her hard earned stole?
You know how much guts it took her to fall off the roof again.
The crunch sound of the roof tops falling with increasing speed as she shuffled faster and faster.
"Uh— how about not?"
Her hair swooshed against the wind as the slow motion of Shadow's face punch zoomed out. She realized she could see his flaws and possible movements, her eyes widened in shock.
Promptly, when the slow mo went back to normal time and she knew instinctively what to do, she dealt with his surging attacks. Her arm was raised to counterattack his punches, pushing herself from the roof. A clear mark of her footprints clawed the roof.
"Uuhh," she winced from the recoil of his hardening punches.
The man smirked fully knowing she was at a disadvantage with her clear red hand marks that laid on her arms but because he didn't know her superpower, he was still precautious of this new figure.
"You don't have to do this, from wherever you came from, give me the necklace now," he said in annoyance as he continued mockingly.
"Y'know boss will give me an earful but he'll go after you with more people. So do yourself a favor and give it to me."
He swung his arm at her but she dodged it in time.
"Ah where is it? If you don't give it to me, then don't think I won't do it," he kept on rambling on and on as he persistently egged her on.
She quickly analyzed that the man in front of her had a similar power level as her so trying to get her distracted so she'll leave an opening.
Fat chance!
Dodging punches and twisting her neck, she had enough of this.
Aria swiftly dodged the incoming attack, she ducked down and moved towards him at a fast pace. The jolted movement from Shadow showed that he was surprised but as they tumbled down.
Who had the last laugh now.
They had crashed down from the roof with titles falling and crumbling, their bodies rolled together, Aria wiped out her newly bought ropes from her system and quickly tied Shadow's hand above him with her hands firmly pressed onto his.
"Urg, what have you done to me you stupid woman!" The man below her body tried to resist but with her hands tightly gripping his. She laughed when she saw faint usages of superpower come from her shadows as they tried to rise from her.
The wide glint of her eyes smiled as curiosity kicked in.
Huh, a shadow superpower. That was pretty cool considering how well it went with the whole villain thing.
However, Aria was mad.
She was whopping mad because although she knew everything wasn't going to go according to her plan, this really bugged her.
How was she supposed to know this guy, this dude would also want the Red Tear?
And the shamelessness he would try to go after to achieve his goals?
Immoral! Bastard! Indecent! Motherfucking! Cunt!
But then recalling how he also said he was a part of an organization. She facepalmed.
Great, already against an organization that's probably been there for years.
She had hoped that tonight would just be successful so she can go in and back out and then arrive at her friend's apartment as planned but nope she'll have to be late because of this guy and whatever phony organization he came from.
"You, I did you, Shadow," She said it unconsciously from how happy she was to beat this dumb man that wanted to go after her goods.
She quickly adjusted her face, not letting her face crack into crumbles when she noticed how wrong it sounded but thank the world somehow, the man in front of her didn't seem to notice.
He was just frowning in anger and consumed in violent happy thoughts.
That's all.
"Fuck you, I haven't lost yet," he snarled not knowing he was in for a treat.
Not willing to entertain him now, she was in her own world.
Aria sighed, 'oh poor me, how tragic and sad I must do to grow stronger, Gatsby. Look! This is my sacrifice!" But not waiting for a response, she decisively yanked Shadow's cloak of his body earning a wide shrek from the now youthful man that laid below her.
She quickly moved her free hand over his mouth to shut his mouth, not worrying how much panic and force she endowed into that move.
She heard a faint, "Ow" echoed from her mouth.
The man in front of her had dark black raven hair that smothered messily on top of his head as a clear silver-like mask covered his eyes and nose.
His deep and black eyes stared at her with his smooth and pale appearance that added nicely with his black outfit.
She rolled her eyes.
'Uhm, excuse me? I thought he was like I dunno, an oldie? Didn't that butler say that they had fought each other claiming to be long rivals between superheroes and villains?
Look at this soft baby of a stick.
Wait, this can't be an old person right?' The thoughts twirled in Aria's mind as she pushed everything aside. Enough of that, she had more important things to do.
Laying sparingly on a stray dark yet creepy alleyway for midnight didn't sound all that weird. No, it totally was! This mister Shadow wasn't going to leave not empty-handed after crossing her.
After what he has done to her.
Aria had left her hand from Shadow's mouth to roam across his body threatening him that if he made a commotion.
She would steal everything from him including his clothes on his body leaving absolutely nothing behind. That made him really quiet for a second before he persistently rambled on and on.
Does he have no shame? Is he not scared?
With her other hand getting a tight hold of Shadow while simultaneously briefly touching his bare skin, she was already stealing his attributes.
The ramblings of this new villain were annoying.
Who had all this energy at midnight and this crass?
"Where are you from?"
"What organization did you come from?"
"Hey don't steal that, that's mine!"
"No, not that! Leave that, fuck you!"
She tuned out his ramblings and had opened all of the compartments, pockets, and zigzags on Shadow's suit. She found many different types of niche things.
It was hard to open them up, but hearing the loud and boisterous Shadow cry after each successful pocket was picked up.
It was weird, Aria thought.
He wasn't all that sappy about his losses looking at the array of tools that now littered in her system inventory. If anything, it looked like he was entertaining her to pass the time.
'Huh, am I overthinking this?'
No, there must be some secretive and well hidden compartment she hadn't yet found out. Something valuable. Afterall, she had all the time in the world to waste time before she successfully stole his attributes. She looked closely at his body.
"Aye, what are you looking at so intensely? Like what you see, " Shadow laughed annoyingly.
Hmph, yeah right.
"Shut up Shadow boy," rolling her eyes she had noticed something.
There in the top of his shirt peaked a loosely tied necklace hidden casually with a dark haze over its shiny exterior jade-like appearance.
How had she not thought of this? This world was full of fantasy and magic. Of course, they'll have subspaces to store inventory.
It would be way safer to put valuable stuff in these than on your body.
But here's the problem, how do you identify one?
Aria pushed this on the back of her head because yet again an ingenious and bad plan formed inside her mind.
Shadow tried to steal her Red Tear, was shameless, and was a pervert.
These were all capital offenses, well, to her.
She'll just steal all of Shadow's stuff in the mental repercussions he caused her because she already offended him and his organization by taking the Red Tear, something that would be most indefinitely helpful to her system mission and her growth.
Aria whistled from her successful pop up notifications her system showed entailing what a huge success today was.
She bolted away leaving a bare man with just his clothes tied to a rope by a stationed vent she had looped it around multiple times. However, not before she had looked straight into Shadow's eyes and said this.
"Rain," Aria laughed in a weird laughter as she successfully snatched his necklace and accessories unknowingly to him. She had always wanted to do this.
Shadow was lucky to be her first recipient to hear her utter her name as her first victim.
Shadow, who was her first victim, was soon forgotten as she had more important things to do like going to her friend's apartment to get ready for a big stage of their first official appearance.
She shivered just at the thought of it as she muttered, "Success, woohoo! Now I just hope Alora and the other's aren't mad now ugh," her voice muttered outside the man's hearing range.
…
The night got darker, almost appearing deeper into the night and more eerie as the wind blew strangely not into the alleyway where a laid bared man was tied to a vent.
A pair of dark and black eyes stared into the darkness as a sigh came over every so often.
Some faint works of powers were visibly shown around him as shadows of night try to divulge and move in different shapes and sizes. It was all for nought.
A pair of shadows try to get out of its shadow but with his manipulation being sealed, it hovered just about to be successful before it wilted and died down back to its roots, the shadows.
What seemed like a decade for him, Shadow was soon grinning as he noticed a familiar presence that would soon help him out of his predicament.
He knew that his teammates had found out he had failed but knowing how he'll get an earful.
It was a lot better than being restricted with no super powers.
It all felt so unfamiliar to him to be deprived of his ability.
The whoosh sounds of a cloak flapping around and a pair of heels clacking hitting the concrete ground as Shadow heard it coming closer and closer with every dread in his body going lower.
What bursts out in the opening was a loud and skinny yet tall guy in black. His childhood friend and best friend of all time, and behind him was his mentor.
Mentor?
Shit!
Almost wanting to scramble but soon realizing that he was still in his predicament, the harsh words that filtered out of his friend's mouth still echoed into the alleyway and unfortunately his ears too.
It wasn't the warmest welcome to a victim, him, that had all of his goods stripped from an evil woman.
"Shadow! Where have you been? In this ditchy alleyway?! What happened?!" He ran to Shadow's side trying to get rid of the rope, "What the FUCK! How do you get rid of this?"
Shadow face was grim from hearing this and seeing his mentor getting closer to him with a disappointed face.
The tall, closely resembling figure of himself walked in steady paces as the darker and more dangerous aura hidden behind his cold and indifferent face he had always seen throughout his life.
The epitome of what he had inherited from his position all too well.
"Father, I am sorry I have failed," his face lowered as he waited for his words.
"SHIT, wait what happened to your necklace?" his friend's shocked voice echoed in the dark. "..."
His necklace?! His eyes enlarged in shock knowing this was a grave matter as he looked at his father's face.
The tablet.
With a sigh, his father slashed through the rope that had tied him up but the very moment it broke, the rope dissipated into dust.
He frowned looking down on his freed son and Night Dream, the best friend of his son that he grew up watching over like a son. He sighed, they were still two young for this.
"Shadow, what happened?"