Journey to a Better End II

Chapter 28

I decided to go ahead and switch to Ara and Ryota. Why not, right?
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        The safe place was just another abandoned building but this one was hard to get to and hardly noticeable. The building itself seemed perfectly fine on the outside but on the inside there were traces of a fight with various amounts of broken furniture and objects thrown around. "Luciela, I brought a friend!" Ryota announced as they entered the main living area. "I know. Didn't I tell you to warn me beforehand? I could have killed her you know," a nearby voice said. Ara and Ryota both jumped in surprise as they both looked to where a woman with long white hair stood with her back against a nearby wall.

        Neither of them had seen her there a second ago and were startled by her sudden appearance. Not even Eun had picked up on her presence until then. "Luciela, don't scare me like that. Where's Ciel? He must be around here somewhere," Ryota said relaxing once she realized that the woman was not a threat. Ara just stared at her not finding any reason to be at ease. "Upstairs of course. Where else would be be?" Luciela spoke keeping her sharp gaze on Ara who returned it with a hint of threatening intent.

        "I don't know. That's why I asked. Stop scaring my friend. She doesn't need you to be so intimidating. Chill out," Ryota said as she continued walking ahead now turning towards the set of stairs that Are wasn't even sure were safe enough to step on. "Whatever. It's my job so don't complain. You shouldn't have decided to stay here if you had a problem with that," Luciela muttered with a roll of her eyes. Ryota ignored her and kept walking making Ara follow since she didn't want to be left with the white haired woman.

        Ryota carefully ascended the stairs and Ara followed her steps almost exactly to avoid breaking the steps. "Ciel! I want to go try getting my dynamos back again!" Ryota called out as she stepped onto the second floor. She quickened her pace as she walked and stopped at the second door. "Ciel?" she called. Getting no answer, she sighed and pulled out another one of her sphere contraptions which startled Ara. Eun forced her to step back from the door as Ryota opened the door as quickly as she could and threw sphere into the room after pulling the pin.

         Ryota then bumped her fists together and jumped into the room before slapping her palms to the ground. The entire floor of the room suddenly erupted into electrical shocks as orange electricity sparked from her hands. A blur went past her which she dodged by rolling out of the way. The blur returned once the electricity dispersed this time revealing itself to be a child with dark blue hair and amazing speed. Ryota crossed her arms in a defensive stance as the boy punched at her. She quickly followed up with a kick that knocked the boy's feet from under him.

        Ryota pulled out one more of her sphere contraptions and pulled the pin with the object still in hand before leaping backwards into the ring of frozen time that still exisited from her earlier endeavors. Ara nearly called out to her as the blue haired boy recovered and followed after her stopping once he saw the orange outlines of the time stop. A few seconds later, Ryota is freed from the time stop and the boy sprang into action only for Ryota to throw the sphere at him and jump back the moment she hit the ground.

         The boy was trapped in the time stop and Ryota stood still and sat on the floor holding her head down as ahe regained her breath. "Ryota, are you okay?" Ara asked but the girl looked up at the frozen blue haired boy and bursted into laughter. "I got you this time! I bet you didn't see that coming did you?" Ryota sneered. Now Ara was confused. "You know him? Is this Ciel?" she inquired. Ryota smirked at Ciel before turning her attention to Ara.

        "Yes, this is my guardian for the time being. He's been training me in combat and countering demons. So far I've won fifty seven times out of four years if this fight is included. We fight every time I return so it could be several times a day depending on how often I leave," Ryota said with a little pride. Ciel was suddenly released from the time stop sphere's control and dropped to his knees. "You win this time...but don't get so full of yourself. That's just one more win to my thousand," Ciel said with a smirk as he remained on all fours. "Must you be so arrogant?" Ryota asked.