Sneaking Through

"hmmm.... Do you have any.... Hearts?" A bandit asked as he glanced up from his deck of cards as he looked to his opponent. "Go fish." They replied which made them sigh as he picked from the center cards in front of them. "Man... I'm no good at this game." The bandit complained as he placed the picked card into his deck. "Cool your jets man. Not everyone's good." The other says as they try to comfort the downtrodden bandit. "Yeah, what he said"

suddenly, Tetsuga appears between the both of them as he takes both of their attention from the game. After he had knocked out the first guard and left him in the bush, he had now made his way further into the village as he stands between the two guards that were across from the first one. "Wha- intrude!-" before one of the two could call out, Tetsuga delivers a swift punch to their temple. Knocking them out instantly. "Oh shoot!" The other, seeing their comrade get their lights knocked out, tries to fish for their weapon but was failing to do so because of their panicking.

"You too bud." Tetsuga says before sucker punching them straight in the face. Laying him out cold on the chair. "Okay. They shouldn't find them here." After knocking out another two guards, he thought it to be best to hide them both within empty barrel drums as their legs hang out of the barrels lip. "Okay. If I were to capture a guy, where would I be hiding him..." He whispers to himself as he looked about from behind a house. "Ope!" He quickly hides behind it as a bandit walked right past. Releasing a sigh of relief, he peeks out again to see where he can or needs to go next.

"Hm?" As he peeked out from behind cover, he notices the sound of a conversation over to the left of him. He slowly inches his way towards it without raising suspicion before hiding behind a barrel to listen in as he had now found himself at their dining area. "God... I could NOT with that guy! That guy talked my ear off so much to the point I can still hear his voice!" A bandit complained as he downs a beer mug and gives out an exasperated breath. "Oh give it up Craig. At least your not being ordered to watch him right now." Another bandit said.

Tetsuga takes a little look from behind the barrel and sees the three bandits that had captured Derrick a while ago, who were now drinking their worries away. "I swear, if I hear even just a lick of a trivia fact... I will actually lose it. I will lose it I tell you!" Craig expresses his distaste for Derricks' influence

Which was most apparent from ho much he was refilling his drink. "If you don't like him that much then just stay away from the cells. I doubt Mr. Yurie would order us to watch it. Y'know, considering the fact that he does not even acknowledge us let alone remember." Their leader expressed in a disappointed tone.

"The cells. Right, it would obviously be the cells, adoy!" Tetsuga crouches back down behind the barrel as he finally got a destination in mind. He slowly makes his way out of the dining area and onwards to wherever the cells were as he stealthily took down some bandits that were in his way after having a few quick calls with some of them. It was certainly a miracle.that he was not found yet as he thought himself to be the unstealthiest individual according to himself. Hopefully this luck of his would last, he thought.

.....

"Please, you need to calm down! You don't need to make such a fuss! He's just an outsider!" One of the villagers tried to calm her down but she was already too heated from her short exchange with the bandit that took Derrick away to see Bandit boss Yurie. "Outsider or not, I can't just stand by and watch someone get taken away by Yurie! Not again!" She exclaimed as she paced around the room. Worried expressions flooded the villagers faces as they watched here pace around. "We know you are angry but we cannot risk making a scene. We're already backed into a corner as is." They tried to persuade her which worked a little as she stopped to think.

"Hey, you guys got a minute?" Suddenly, an unfamiliar voice startled them all as they all jumped back in caution from whoever that was. "Oops. Sorry, Guess I scared you guys a little." Luckily for them though, the voice belonged to Tetsuga who had now finally found the cell house where the villagers were held captive. "W-who are you?" Naturally, the girl was quick to ask after meeting yet another new face. "Doesn't really matter. Do you guys have a weird looking kid in there? He's about this tall I think.... Wears weird looking goggles." He asks, hoping that they would know who he was referring to, or at least, seen him.

"Do you mean Derrick Barnes? The alchemist boy?" The girl says to which Tetsuga nods. "Yeah, that guy. Have you seen him?" He asks them. The girl walks closer to the door as she meets him eye to eye. "They just took him to see the bastard." She says. Her eyes filled with scorn as she uttered her words. "Might wanna be a little specific there little lady, I've got at least 5 bastards that I know of." Tetsuga quips but the girl was quick with her reply. "Yurie. The bandit that runs this whole farce!" She expands on her statement.

"So he's with the big boss right now, eh?" Tetsuga mutters as he rubbed his chin in thought. "Listen, I might not know who you are but something is going down that concerns Derrick Barnes. If you are his friend then you need to find out why they want him." She tries to warn him as Tetsuga looks at her. "He's more of an acquaintance really, but you seem really invested in what's going on aren't you? I doubt you know him personally." Tetsuga says, somewhat intrigued by how the girl was worrying about Derrick.

"After what that bastard did to my father, I would rather not see anyone else die by his hands!.... We've already lost the village to them... I don't wanna lose anymore." She says as her teeth started to grit. Just the thought of seeing more innocents die by Yurie's dirty hands made her blood boil. "... Alright. I'll make sure to find out. You guys just sit tight here." Tetsuga tells them as he glances behind him to make sure no one sees him but he then sees someone coming into view as he quickly goes to find cover. "That's my cue." He says before leaving. "Wait! What did you mean by that?..." the girl tried to call out to him for a bit of clarification but he was already gone.

....

"Sir, I got the boy for you." The bandit walks in with Derrick in tow as he presents him to Yurie the bandit boss as the man sat across from the two. "Good. Now get out of here. I wanna talk with the alchemist in private." Yurie orders which the bandit follows, exiting the abode as quickly as they arrived. Now it was just the two of them. One with ropes around their wrist and the other a bandit. "You're probably wondering why we've captured you." Yurie starts their talk off. Standing up from his seat and slowly inching towards the alchemist in a very threatening manner. "Well, some would have the thought, yes. But I assume it's because of a bounty on my head, right?" Derrick assumes, making Yurie chuckle for a second.

"But do you know how much you have on your head kid?" Yurie tests as he gets closer and closer until they he just a few inches apart from Derrick. "I wouldn't know personally. I usually don't do illegal things in my spare time." He expressed in a witty manner to Yurie who didn't reply so in kind as the bandit suddenly grabs Derrick by his collar and stares him right in his green goggles eyes. "The reward for you could set me up for life boy! That's how much you got... And lucky for me, the contractor is well enough to pay for you." Yurie said with a dark tone but the tenseness of the situation was not at all sticking with Derrick as he still had somewhat of a goofy smile on his face.

"Is that so... Well, can I ask you one question, me Yurie?" Derrick asked. Wanting to get to the bottom of one thing that's been itching at him for a bit. Yurie luckily agreed as he flashed him a smirk. "Sure. You're going to get traded off as soon as the sun rises and when my contractor gets here so I'll bite. Go on boy." Yurie urges him to continue with the thought as waits for him to ask him the question. "Thank you. So considering you are a bandit Mr Yurie, why do you steal or pillage? Is it for survival? Necessity?" Derrick lays it out. Asking the reason for Yurie's crimes which was found amusing to the bandit as he gave him a hearty laugh.

"Why do I steal and pillage? Look around you boy. This world is full of weak people that always settle for less. So I take it. Take every single thing they have just cause I can. Those who can't control their things are weak.... Especially those who give away their crops in exchange for worthless people" he explains. A devil's smile etched across his face. "Y'know. I didn't have to kill their village Chief... I just did so because I wanted to show them that I'm in control now." He says in Derricks' face. But as soon as the words slipped out, someone slipped in. More rather, busted through.

"Argh!!" The bandit yelled out in pain as he hit the floor together with the broken remains of what used to be the door. "What the hell!?"Yurie shouted as he looked to who had done it to see Tetsuga standing there donning a serious expression as he stared straight at Yurie's eyes. "Oops. Looks like my hand slipped."