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“There’s no need to have her get in trouble. She can simply be lost and in need of a safe place to stay for the night so I was going to show her the way when I happened to run into a particular thief.” Neko explained. Apparently he was still weaving the plan together but it seemed to be falling into place nicely. “And since I wouldn’t want to loose said thief or leave her alone I brought you both back to the tower. You to interrogate on the stolen goods and her to keep safe until I can escort her to an Inn for the night.”

Turning to Riyo as she poked him he looked at her concentrating face giving a bit of a smirk. No doubt she was trying to do the same thing he had but it was obviously failing. “You might want to breathe, Riyo.” He patted her on the shoulder as she took a much needed breath of air. Turning back to Blade Neko motioned him forward so he could ‘lead’ him to the tower. “Let’s get going, it won’t be long before I will change back. Full body shape shifting takes a lot of energy.”

((Very short sorry sorry ;_; ))

“Right,” Reaching out Neko took hold of the back of Blade’s jacket to appear as if he was forcing him along. Before he headed toward the tower he looked back at Riyo. “Are you ready for this?” He hoped she wouldn’t panic and give them away. The last thing he needed was to attempt to dig their way out of a well guarded area.

It was apparent that Riyo seemed to gasp the situation they were getting themselves into and was more than willing to play the part of the helpless lost maiden. Neko would have to remember to reward her later. Standing tall trying to keep his face a bit smug, which really wasn’t much of a stretch, Neko approached the guard tower. The two that stood at the entrance guarding the front didn’t even seem to question Neko as he approached.

“Evenin’ Lieutenant. Whot you got ther?” The first guard asked stepping a bit closer to have a look at Riyo. He didn’t seem like your typical guard, a bit too happy and cheerful looking.

“A thief and a lost girl,” Neko replied keeping his voice low. One thing he couldn’t mimic was voices. He could steal them but he couldn’t imitate them.

“Ah thief you say?” The first guard seemed to show much more interest than the second who continued to stand guard by the door. “Well, I say, migh’y gud work ther, Sir.” The young guard gave a salute, which Neko quickly returned allowing the young man to drop back at ease.

“Carry on,” Neko stated leading the two through the door calmly. He could feel his body beginning to tingle all over, it was rejecting this form so he didn’t have long. “This way.” Neko started to lead Riyo and Blade toward a staircase not far off when yet another voice called out to him.

“Lieutenant Hartril,” The voice was deep and firm, one of authority that demanded respect. Neko cringed as he turned on his heels giving a salute keeping a firm hold of Blade’s collar. It was lucky that he decided to show this sort of respect for before him stood a man of much higher status than the Lieutenant Hartril. Neko wasn’t sure what position this man was in but by the way he was dressed and the metals pinned to his uniform it was leagues above and beyond. “At ease, Lieutenant.” The man gave a bit of a laugh the bushy mustache below his nose wiggling from the gesture.

“Sir,” Neko nodded allowing his hand to drop back down at his side.

“So what brings you back to the guard tower so soon? You were only here not even an hour ago.” The senior officer gave the two beside ‘Lieutenant Hartril’ a once over.

Inwardly Neko began to panic, he was going to have to give some sort of explanation to this man who was obviously going to be familiar with what the lieutenant sounded like. Giving a bit of a cough Neko attempted to make his voice as raspy as possible. “I found this girl wandering around the streets, Sir. She was lost so I was going to lead her to an Inn for the night when I ran into the thief we were after from earlier. I couldn’t just leave her so I brought them both back here.”

“Dear Lord, Hartril, what happened to your voice? You sound like death warmed over.”

“We got in a bit of a scuffle, Sir. Punched me in the throat. I should be fine though. But I was going to take him to my office and interrogate him on the stolen goods since he no longer possesses them.”

“Ha HA! Good lad!” The senior officer stepped forward slapping Neko on the back as if to say a job well done. The sudden jolt caught Neko off guard forcing his features to slightly change back.

Riyo's ears fell back as the guard began inspecting her. He was a bit too close for comfort. "N.. Nyuu..." She mumbled and scooted a little bit closer to Neko. She was relieved when they'd started moving again, but her neck hairs stood on end when a louder voice stopped Neko in his tracks.

It seemed to be working. The little game they were playing had this man fooled... Until the slap on the back. She looked towards Neko's face and realized that his disguise wasn't complete anymore. If something wasn't done, the game would be over.

Her mind thought quickly. She had to get the attention away from Neko. She looked around at all of the guards, eyes all wide. "N..." She sobbed, her nose sniffling. Her hands reached up to cover her eyes. "NYUUUUUU." She shouted as she began 'crying'. Was she really? Nope. It was all an act. "Riyo wanna go hooooooome!" Though, a pretty convincing one.

The thief had twitched slightly upon hearing Riyo cry, but he figured it was just an act to help things move along. After being rushed to a more secluded spot, he straightened up and looked at the others. Neko seemed to be a bit strained but hopefully he'd recover in the next minute or so since it wasn't too good of an idea for them to be staying in one spot for too long.

"Close call there... but anyway now we head to the captain's room. I haven't been there myself, but I'm pretty certain it's up on the top floor of this place. We'll mainly just have to move about carefully."

If given more time to learn about the place, Blade probably would have been able to use the least troublesome passage there was in the tower. But that wasn't quite the case so it just called for further caution. Still, he took a moment to try and think of anything that would help.

"You two have sharper senses than I do so let me know if something's up and I don't quite realize it. If guards are nearby, we hide. And if they stay in the area instead of walk on to wherever, then we'll figure out how to get by them with what resources we have... I don't think the disguise thing will be able pull us through much more from this point. So hopefully if we get stuck waiting for someone to leave we can do something to pull their attention elsewhere so we can move on. I've a few things that could help but it'll really depend on where we are for if they'll be of use."

“Close call is right,” Neko huffed. His energy had been drained at the moment but it would return soon enough. “Captain’s room, right. Well we may stumble upon something a tad more interest on the way, who knows.” As Blade continued to explain his plan Neko looked over to Riyo, as she was obviously happy to see his true self again, but what was she doing? “Riyo, what are you doing?” It looked as if she was trying to do something, concentration evident on her face.

There was something.

She could feel some kind of barrier. She didn't know what it was for, or what it was protecting. Only that there was something very... Interesting behind it.

Her eyes narrowed. She could break it. There was a driving force imploring her to break it.

"Something's there.." She whispered to Neko in response to his question. She stayed quiet for a moment as she kept concentrating. Almost there... Almost there.

The abrupt sound of breaking glass echoed for a moment from Riyo's being. Her eyes widened as she stood there in shock for what seemed like an eternity for her, but was actually only about 10 seconds.

What had that been? What was that sound? "Mm..." She mumbled and looked down at herself. Something was broken now. And she felt... Terribly wrong. Or did she feel more right than before?

That was when she noticed. Her hands. Something was dripping off of them. It was like a gas, yet had the attributes of a liquid. It was pure malice. It had the smell of something toxic yet intoxicating.

"Isn't it beautiful? "

The voice commented. "With this... You can create and destroy."

With this, there came a feeling from deep within the pit of her stomach. It was a feeling of thirst... Of passion..

A feeling of desire. Desire to do what, though?

An odd grin krept over her face. Her eyes once again slitted like they had before.

"After 13 years from the first Act, the second fast approaches. But this time, my hunger will not be sustained."

As she spoke, the malice began to spread.

"I am crippled with desire."

Seeing Riyo's hand exude some sort of strange substance, Blade narrowed his eyes slightly before staring at her. The way she looked and the way she spoke seemed completely different from how she was acting just moments ago. Since he barely knew the girl, he couldn't tell which was her true self, but the one that was present now creeped him out some.

"What the hell...?"

His left hand had gone over by the hilt of his weapon, seeing how he wasn't sure where this situation was going. The thief just had a feeling she was considerably more hostile now, but he couldn't be sure. So he just stayed where he was and watched the two demons. Neko knew her better, so he decided to let him handle things here.