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SHEN

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"Woah! Can we get that?"

"Ooh, we didn\'t have that back home... We should get that too!"

For the longest time, Shen had thought that she was the least responsible out of the whole group. Despite her bravado, the past few days had put her in situations that had practically destroyed any and all bravado she had on her own capabilities. Sure, she was still wholly confident that she could fix anything so long as she could touch it, but certain situations had put to light just how weak she was in the grand scheme of things. She was practically useless beyond trying to fix people, and while she now had a few options in terms of defending herself, she knew that she was still far and beyond falling behind when compared to the older woman\'s healing capabilities.

"That looks delicious! Can we have two?"

"We have enough, Shen. Don\'t worry!"

And now here she was, in a port far away from the scrapyard she grew up in. Utterly foreign and devoid of familiarity, Shen did her best to prop herself up using her usual tactics. It worked, albeit partially, but for the life of her, she couldn\'t understand just how she ended up being the one holding the money when Shizu should be the older between the two of them.

"W-We\'re almost running out," Shen hesitantly spoke out, relaying their current financial status to Shizu who was still gawking at one of the nearby stalls. "We can\'t buy more books than this."

It was an utter comedy of conflicting emotions on her part. On one hand, she was practically frothing at the mouth to read all of the books Shizu was piling on top of her. On the other, she felt like she was abusing the goodwill her benefactors gave to her. Granted, she could pin all the blame on the princess, but she was, well, a princess. There was no way that they\'d ever not be fine with the Imperial Heiress splurging a bit.

"Weren\'t you excited to buy a ton of books earlier?" Shizu teasingly asked, her arms already full with stacks upon stacks of random books. "Come on! We can pay for this no problem anyway!"

Inwardly letting out a sigh, Shen puffed up her chest like she usually did as she put her foot down. "No, we can\'t! And I can\'t read all of them yet anyway!"

"Yes, you can!" Shizu beamed, the older woman\'s guilt laughably absent as she pulled out what few Chips they still had left. "Lady Guidance and I have made sure of that!"

The younger of the two could only place her palm on her forehead as she watched Shizu add more stuff to their already growing pile of new stuff. It was exciting to see, of course, but the foreign weight of responsibility sinking into her chest considerably dampened what she knew was supposed to be her jumping for joy upon seeing the new toys she had.

"Is this what responsibility is like..." Shen sighed.

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SHADE

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"How\'s the situation, Maruki?"

Taking stock of the current events, Shade took in a deep breath as he slinked into the shadows. Maruki was doing his best to pose as a normal citizen out in the streets. Well, as normal as the guy could do so despite his armor making him pop out in a crowd like nobody\'s business.

"The situation hasn\'t changed!"

Shade fought the urge to let out a loud sigh. Truly, as much as his friend was capable of much more, his tendency to shout out his words made him laughably bad at stealth missions.

Then again, why did he even think this would work in the first place?

"Quiet," Shade harshly whispered back, his demeanor making him look as small as possible beside the imposing man. "Just make sure to keep your eyes peeled. The Princess has too much cargo on her, and poor Shen is far from capable of protecting her."

Having split off into a group of their own, the two were running security detail on their rambunctious Princess. While they said that they\'ll be tracking down the stalker, Shade could tell that they won\'t be back for a long while. At least, until they were well vulnerable to any attempts at theft.

"Now, I\'ll be keeping an eye on the rooftops," Shade continued in hushed whispers. "You make sure that the Princess is safe."

"Ay-"

"Quiet," he stressed. "I\'ll keep in touch."

Seeing Maruki nod, Shade slinked into the shadows as he let Maruki do his job. Silently, he eyed the more inconspicuous and darker corners of the market, trained eyes spotting the slightest glint of blades as he cautiously tailed his liege.

"Scum of the Deep..."

He gritted his teeth in annoyance as he saw a few of them begin to make their move. He had already suspected that their stalker was simply a thief looking to scout out their wealth, and sure enough, he was right in that assessment. Port towns always had a reputation for petty theft. And as much as Marquee wanted to project that they had everything under control, the lack of correspondence from the one policeman they met told him more than enough about the security of the place.

"No, you don\'t..."

"Wha-"

[*thunk*]

Without any hesitation, Shade bumped the two thieves\' heads together, knocking them both out as he carefully flitted from one corner to the next. Subtly using his [Manifest], his suggestions made the people around him ignore his presence, allowing him to protect the Princess without causing a scene.

"No-"

[*thunk*]

[*thunk*]

[*thunk*]

Three bodies fell to the floor, Shade\'s annoyance rising steadily as he spotted yet another band of thieves by the nearest corner.

"How many of these guys are there?" he annoying huffed. "Does Marquee have a problem they\'re not telling the world?"

Shade let out a scoff at his own question. Of course, Marquee had those problems. And the same could be said for any of the other nations found in the Deep. There was simply no way that enemies would share out their weaknesses with the other, knowing that it might be used to further destabilize what might already be a massive gap in their defenses.

[*thunk*]

Disposing of yet another pair of thieves, Shade let out a sigh of relief as his preliminary scan yielded no results in terms of other would-be muggers.

"I guess that\'s all of them," Shade sighed. "And here I thought-"

"Don\'t you dare!"

He almost flinched at how loud the voice echoed from behind him. From the tone of it alone, he knew it was a woman and a familiar one at that.

"Let go, lady!"

"No! That\'s my life\'s work right there!"

Turning around, Shade came face-to-face with a robbery in progress, the insane woman from earlier being heckled by a young kid tugging at the crackling box she had in her hands.

"Don\'t make me call the authorities on you, kid!" the woman screamed, other people seemingly content with only watching the action unfold. "Let alone make me do the disciplining myself!"

"As if!" the kid laughed. "Just let go already! You\'re rich enough to make another one anyway!"

Turning around, Shade gave the Princess a glance as conflict began to play out in his head. Did he risk leaving the Princess in Maruki\'s care knowing full well that he\'d be loud and cause a ruckus? Or could he afford to pay his respects to the beautiful woman he just spotted being mugged in public?

"Ugh! Help!"

His decision was made almost instantly.

Letting out a sigh, Shade dashed towards the robbery in progress, kicking the kid\'s legs right underneath him before quickly disappearing back into the alleyways. He didn\'t need to look at the aftermath of his intervention. Hopefully, his small gesture would-

"Lookout-"

[*CRACKLE! BOOM!*]

A thunderous explosion echoed from behind him, almost surely catching everyone in it in the blast as smoke filtered through his feet. He inwardly cringed. Hopefully, everyone involved was alright from that incident. For now, however, he had to catch up to his princess.

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NICOLE

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"No way..."

Nicole almost felt her tears fall as she stared at the ruined state of her latest attempt at capturing Null Energy. While the blur that rescued her had been helpful, the way he did it almost made her wish she had just let go instead.

"That bastard... I\'ll make you pay!"

Dusting off the debris from her soot-covered coat, the wannabe Academic turned her gaze towards the alleyway her supposed savior had disappeared into. If the guy was going to run away from her, then he had another thing coming to him. She was going to make that guy pay for the newest attempt she was going to make and then some. If she was lucky, he might even be reasonably wealthy enough that she could guilt him into becoming her sponsor.

"Heh-Hehe...."

Almost immediately, her anger was forgotten, replaced with malicious intent as she gathered what salvageable scraps she had left before walking towards the alleyway. This was her chance.... Her ticket to fame and funding...

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