"Hey Cadet,you planning on sleeping here?" Hanabi,Head Watcher Garle's personal assistant,asked Rashen who sat in the corner of the files room surrounded by multiple documents and dozing off.
It was dark out and the files room was empty save Rashen and Hanabi. She had her casual clothes on which meant she was ready to leave.
"To tell you that truth Mi- I mean Hanabi...I just might" He said as he took another file from the stack, "I've been through like a hundred of these files and I can barely find anything on gangs and organized crime"
"Well you should know that the Watch has only been around for a few years now and most of the major crime gangs are gone and the gangs that are still present are mostly just street thugs that keep low profiles. I'm sorry cadet."
Rashen sighed, "I at least thought they'd be something. There has to be." Hanabi sighed,
"Cadet,how do you even come to the conclusion that what you're looking for is a criminal group just from barely seeing a tattoo on a girl's hand? I don't mean to put down your theory but it seems more likely that she might just be a regular child criminal, those aren't rare in Blak Acre.
Orphans who have no choice but to lead a life of crime to stay alive."
"You're right Hanabi,my theory might not be correct" Rashen said after a short silence, "But it might be...and if there's even a one percent chance it is, I'll keep going. I have to keep going." He rubbed his eyes after letting out a yawn,Hanabi walked towards him a placed her hand on his shoulder,
"You're tired cadet,you need some rest...if it'll help,you can stay here all night to go through the files if you believe you'll find anything helpful"
"Thank you Hanabi, you've been a real help. More helpful than even my own fellow cadets" Rashen said with a mix of gratefulness and bitterness,
"Don't say that, it's not true" Hanabi said reasonably,
"But it is, they completely disregarded my theory and made fun of me for it. I thought that after we rescued those people from the burning building we'd get closer,work as a team. But I don't even see much of them these days."
"Well that's simply because they're currently working on a cas-", but before she could finish her sentence the wall clock rang, indicating that it was exactly ten o'clock.
"I need to get going cadet,I trust you'll handle the files with care?!"
"Yeah I can. Do you need me to escort you home? It's pretty dark out and-"
"No need to worry about me cadet, you'll find I'm capable of defending myself" She said with a curt smile as she left the room.
Rashen was up till midnight going through the files and so far he had accomplished nothing of value. He had read some very interesting case files but none were at all helpful. He eventually gave up and decided that he'd at least get some sleep.
It wasn't until about eight o'clock in the morning he woke up. His hair was messier than usual,he had bags under his eyes and a bit of drool on him, and worst of all, the place was still a mess. He hadn't even bothered to arrange the files before going to sleep. He thought he could put things in order before Hanabi arrived but that thought was cut short when he heard the keys unlocking the door.
Hanabi looked at him and looked around at the room,her eyes landing on him again,
"Did you have a good night's rest cadet" she asked quite casually,
"Um...er - I think so..." Rashen replied nervously, "I'm sorry about the mess Hanabi, I'll clean it up before I take my leave" he added
"Well duh!" Hanabi replied, "You think I'm going to clean all this?"
Rashen couldn't help but chuckle nervously ar that response.
It took him over an hour to put everything back in order but he was glad he was done. He left the room and decided to head back to HQ before going back to Blak Acre once more, although he wasn't really looking forward to it.
He greeted Hanabi goodbye and headed towards the main entrance,he reached for the door handle but it flung open before he could get to it and standing at the entrance were Macy and Gayle,his fellow cadets,in their uniforms.
"Well if it ain't Rashikins" Gayle said with a smirk, "Catch any dreams lately?" He said, probably in regards to the fact that Rashen was still on the 'King of Thieves' case.
"You look horrible" Macy commented,
"Thanks. Thank you for that" Rashen simply said dryly. "And what are you guys doing here?" He asked,
"Now of all times you want to know what we're up to huh?!" Macy said, "Well for your information we're here to see Garle"
Rashen wasn't all too pleased with her first statement,he simply nodded and walked past them. Wanting to get to Blak Acre quickly he didn't even bother to walk or take a carriage home,he flew back to HQ with his blood red flames, refreshed himself,ate what was left of the breakfast Gayle had made and immediately left again flying all the way to Blak Acre.
This time, Rashen decided,he would use his aerial advantage to scour the region. He had a much wider view of the Bargain Center from up there but it was also very hard to make out what exactly people were doing.
He was eventually forced to land when he saw some commotion from the air. People were gathered around someone,they were loud and angry. It only took for Rashen to get closer to the crowd before realizing that the person they all swarmed was getting the daylight beaten out of him, getting hit with sticks,stones, bottles, whips and basically anything they could use as a tool for punishment.
"HEY!!! WHAT ARE YOU GUYS DOING!!!" Rashen bellowed. He started pushing through the angry crowd to get to the center where the beating was taking place. He managed to slap a broken bottle out of someone's hand before pushing him away. He shot his flames from his back to push back the angry mob,
"WHAT ARE YOUR DOING?" He asked as he knelt down to examine the man that was unfairly assaulted.
"The bloke stole from one of us. We found a stock load of Madam Myrtle's hard earned Phrites on him" one of the mob spoke out,
"Yeah. And he was acting like he didn't do it too" another called out.
Rashen looked down at the man. His clothes were torn and he was all bruised up and bleeding,with tears in his eyes he forced himself to whisper,
"I didn't do it...I swear."
"You all attacked this man first without even trying to hear him out" Rashen said shouting, "And you all were willing to kill him too without any proof"
"Without proof?" Someone from the crowd said incredulously, "How else do you explain the Phrites we found on him, the exact amount Myrtle was missing?"
Rashen looked conflicted,as it was the mob's words against the man's and those odds were not looking too good.
"Pl- Please... you have to believe me" the man whispered to Rashen again and he sounded genuine.
The mob believes he stole the money but the man denies the claim and says he has no idea how that money got on him. And that's when it hits Rashen.
Holding the man tightly he flies up into the air, lower than before,he could hear the mutters coming from the crowd below, some curse and some attempts to hit him with their sticks,stones and bottle shards.
Rashen wasn't too high in the air but he was high enough to get a good bird's eye view over that particular area in the Bargain Center.
It only took him a few moments to spot them from afar, suspicious movement from a group running above the rooftops. Their movements looked far too synchronized to be a coincidence. He quickly dropped the battered man on one of the rooftops,
"Don't move" he said to him quickly before flying off in the direction of the suspicious group.
It didn't take long for Rashen to cover the distance between himself and them,they seemed to have noticed him as they began to scatter attempting to lose him by running through windows into different buildings. To their advantage that particular area in the Bargain Center was heavily clustered with different buildings of varying sizes. Simply flying overhead wasn't going to do him much good,he landed to continue the chase.
He made sure not to lose sight of any of them as they maneuvered through the buildings,they were fast and exceptionally skilled at that. Rashen had the speed and the agility to keep up with them. He used his flames to boost his speed even more to catch up, controlling the direction the flames come out from his outgrowths allowed him to move faster and much more efficiently,so much so that the thieves,now feeling threatened, began pelting pellets at him as they ran, gas pellets that burst on contact temporarily blinding and disorienting who ever they hit.
Rashen wouldn't be deterred,he kept dodging every single one of them until they were stopped throwing to focus more on escaping. As he got closer towards he noticed the gap between the last building and the next, just then a pellet hit him at the side of the face and he was quickly covered in the noxious fumes and fell out of sight.
Relieved that he was finally gone, the masked thieves ran faster towards the next building and lept one after the other,each landing successfully. When it was time for the last thief, the same one who landed a hit on Rashen's face,to jump,she was caught from below before making it to the next building.
Rashen was fast enough to close his eyes and hold his breath as the pellet hit him,he pretended to fall when in actuality he wanted to go lower so he could intercept at least one of the thieves. It was so sudden that the one he caught let go of the sack they were carrying, squirming to get free.
"Let me go!!!" The thief said and in their squirming, Rashen felt a great surge of energy passing through his body,at first it was exhilarating,then the pain that followed shot through every cell in his body. Despite the pain he struggled not to let the thief go. It seemed whatever that pain was,it was too much for them as they was unconscious in his arms. Rashen unmasked the thief and to his greatest surprise,it was the same girl he rescued from Nigksy the Gutter.
"Almyrah!!!" One of the thieves called out,the others stopped to see what had happened. Rashen got a really good look at their physiques,they were all just kids. One of the taller kids ran back to grab the one who stopped first,they continued to make their get away without looking back. Rashen wasn't going after them anymore,he landed to where the sack Almyrah dropped in an alley way, it had burst open revealing the contents,spoons,forks,pots and other kitchen utensils. Rashen felt a surge of excitement,far different from the one he felt earlier. He laid Almyrah down and slowly rolled up the sleeve on her right hand revealing a tattoo,all in black,a doglike creature covered in rosy thorns.