Stuck in the rain

The events following his experience at the Sheol Gate had gone by in a blur. Meeting Terumi again, parting ways with Noel, and finally dragging his tired ass to this dirty section of the city. Hunkered down in a small alleyway, a man wearing a filthy brown cloak sat with his back against the wall. By stretching out his legs he could almost touch the other side of the narrow alley. Lowering his head deeper into the hood of the old cloak, Ragna did his best to keep himself dry in this depressing rain. Hopefully it would pass soon enough but until then he was stuck in this stinking hole. He could make another try at the Library but it seemed a bit pointless now that he had a lead on Terumi. If he could just track down that scrawny son of a bitch he could end this once and for all but sadly, it didn't look like it would be that simple. Rabbit hadn't even given him any concrete clues to go off of.

"Jesus this is a pain in the ass."

Caelica didn´t even intend to meet Ragna right now, she just walked through the alley to the other side, mindless and restless, trying to stay dry in the rain with her cloak as a makeshift umbrella.
Avoiding raindrops, she almost managed to get to the other side, almost, almost... before she stumbled, falling flat on the face, by tripping over a pair of legs that reached out to the other side.

"Wha.. ow...!"

It didn´t hurt her much, although the katana that was slung over her shoulder in a carry bag slapped her hard on the back. While she was on the ground, she felt something familiar, a presence... but she couldn`t quite pinpoint it...

Sitting there against the wall, the light tapping of rain drops gave off a soothing sound. Between that and his already tired state, Ragna slowly drifted off into a light sleep. However, his slumber only lasted a few moments before somethign bumped into his leg and woke him from an actually pleasant dream. Shaking his head to clear it, Ragna grumbled to himself and glanced at the idiot who had stumbled into him. He could only see their back from this position but he could tell they were carrying a sword on them. It wasn't that out of the ordinary actually, seemed like everyone was armed these days so Ragna wasn't worried.

"Hey dumbass, watch were you're walking. I'm trying to get some sleep here."

Caelica blinked, and whimpered as she was called names, but then turned around, sitting on her back and blinked.

"Ragna..?" She asked quietly, remembering his voice... could it be him? Caelica jumped back up, dusting off before tugging on the coat he wore.

"Ragna, is that you..?"

Groaning to himself as he realized the stranger was a woman based on her sniffling, Ragna facepalmed and shook his head in frustration. He hated dealing with teary eyed women, the fact was guilt trips worked like a charm on him. Ever since he was a kid with Saya and Jin his sister's tears had managed to manipulate him. Suddenly the girl addressed him by name and began tugging as his cloak disguise. Making a grab for his cloak to keep it in place, Ragna was able to keep the garment on but the hood fell down revealing his white hair and distinctive eyes. Swearing under his breath, Ragna looked down each end of the alley to make sure nobody else was around and quickly hauled himself to his feet.

"Look you got the wrong guy alright? Anybody asks, you didn't see me here." he said as he was about to turn and leave. However, a last minute glance at the girls face caused him to pause a moment. She looked so familiar, he could almost place her facebut the identity remained just out of reach. It was almost like remembering an old dream, the outline was there but the bulk was foggy.

"It.. it really is you.. i was wondering if you´d still be here with all the wanted posters, but you are..."

Caelica´s eyes grew wide, then a smile appeared and she giggled.

"I thought we`d never see each other again.. but i suppose that couldn´t be helped... you don´t even remember me anymore, do you.."

The look on Ragna`s face said that he at least had a memory left of her, but it was probably just a subconcious image of her when she was treating him as a kid. She had so much to tell him, but most of it would probably not be of any sense to him... still, it warmed her heart to see that he was still alive and well.

Raising an eyebrow, Ragna looked at the woman as if she had two heads. "Do I...know you from somewhere?" She was certainly acting like they had a history together but he certainly couldn't place it. Outside of Jubei and Rachel he hadn't really had many real companions since the Church. It was possible he had run into her during his travels to take out the NOL but that wouldn't have been anything important enough to remember. Then again maybe she was just an obsessed fangirl. Glancing over his shoulder, Ragna could hear footsteps in the distance even with the rain. It might be a dockworker or something but he couldn't take many chances considering the bounty on his head and all the psychos in this city willing to take a shot. "Damnit, I can't even get five minutes to myself these days."

Caelica smiled, lightly shakeing her head.

"I guess you were too young to actually remember it.. i took care of you for a while back at the church in the woods. I... i had to leave you and Jin and Saya after a while though, i didn`t want to scare you because i don´t... well, age."

After Ragna looked around suspiciously at the sounds, she too noticed them, blinking a bit. Was that a bounty hunter comeing for Ragna, or even an NOL soldier who noticed him? One way or the other, it sounded like trouble.

"Alright, so this is the port? Now let's hope that I can find a good little victim...someone who isn't so strong." this said with a small smile as he went the way up, his tail whisking high as he crept to the edge of the building's edges, sneaking around the back is just what the Kaka tribe specialized at, this here of course was no exception. This was all for the effort of the Kaka tribe, since he found himself creeping closer and whisking his tail up and down, with his spear in tow, he moved in. Unsure of what it was that he was following. Though his senses screamed out to him to be alert, he figured it was simply the excitement of finally seeing some action.

However this came to be a quick aversion to the new trouble on hand, as he caught notice of just who it was that he'd found out here. "T-The...Grim Reaper...oh man, why me? Nyan...always someone who can turn me into kibble." Kageo was no fool, knowing well of the reputation and the strength of which he held. Indeed this wasn't going to be something pretty if he were seen. "I know...I'll just get my tail outta here, Nyah...Kokonoe always gets mad whenever I get hurt...then those scary needles, n-no...I won't have that."

Taking action, he would attempt slowly to sneak around him, since he was out of sight that would be easy right?

Rounding on the mysterious woman, Ragna looked at her awestruck. "Wait...you're..." Before Ragna could finish the statement, he heard a small voice coming from nearby. It was muffled and less than understandable, but somebody was definitely nearby. Growling to himself, Ragna narrowed his eyes at Caelica. "I don't know if you are who you say you are but I'll sort that out later. Right now I got other crap to take care of." Turning his back on "Caelica", which was perhaps a dangerous move considering he didn't know her true intentions yet, Ragna looked down the alleyway in the direction of the voice. He couldn't see where teh evesdropper was but maybe he could bluff his way past that and scare him out. "Listen up whoever you are, you caught me in one helluva bad temper. Now get your ass out here and tell me what you want before I really get pissed." he said resting a hand on the hilt of his massive great sword.

"Nyah..! Always with the superhuman abilities, why do I always have suck luck? Aiya..." wasting no time, especially after such a demand, Kageo launched himself from the rooftop, placing the spear skillfully upon his back while in mid-flip. Since there was no point in hiding out, upon landing before Ragna's line of sight, albeit still some feet away; he looked up and rubbed the back of his head.

"Nyan...really simple Ragna-guy, I'm looking for a low level bounty so I can feed the Kaka tribe, that's all honesty! Nyan." his response was relatively fast, over-energetic but point be to point, he wasn't looking to try and start anything with the Bloodedge, his life was in dangerous: just the thing Kokonoe got pissed at him for regularly. He rubbed the back of his head and gave a light look around, ears perked up as he paid full attention. His body was relaxed...but fortunately, thanks to the artifice cores, he'd be able to react faster in a dodge if necessary.

Caelica blinked and stood up, pulling her own sword out with some struggle as the Tsuba resisted from its light coat of rust. As she got it out, she almost tripped, but eventually got a good grip on it with both hands and stepped beside Ragna, holding the sword in front of her, faceing Kageo.

Is that... a Kaka-cat? It looks different somehow... as if it´s been modified.
Her eyes flew over its body, checking for anything strange, but she was no expert in kaka physique, so she found nothing in preticular... still, she was on her toes, staying close to Ragna in case something happened.
A smile came across her lips.

I would´ve never dreamed of it to actually fight with Ragna, not just aid him in his fights...

Looking the newly revealed kaka over, Ragna didn't see much to be worried about. This kid didn't seem any more dangerous than Tao. Then again, with kakas you could never be too sure so the Bloodedge remained on guard anyway. When the mysterious woman claiming to be hischildhood caretaker drew her own blade and stood alongside him he took a moment to glance her way, evidently a bit suprised. Was this girl trying to back him up or something? Part of him was ready to believe she really was the kind woman who had raised him as a boy but that woman was old and dead. He had seen it with his own eyes so there was almost no way this could really be her could it? Shaking his head, Ragna turned back to the kaka and grunted. "Tch, I don't have time to play around with some kid pretending to be a Vigilante. Tell ya what, I'll buy you a meat bun if you promise to keep quiet about seeing me."

"Meat bun? Ooo Kageo loooves a meat bun." his tail swished madly as he hopped up and down, not only was he not gonna be attacked by Ragna, but he'd buy him a meat bun right? He loved the idea entirely, and nodded his head rapidly. Ignoring the comment about being a 'fake vigilante', while he had some pride, his survival was more important than that. Besides he was getting foood! Kageo nodded to Ragna and beamed with a typical kaka grin. Though finally calming himself down, he composed his behavior and then offered one more slow nod to this.

"Kageo accepts this Ragna-guy, I shall keep quiet about you." he kept his words clear, simple to understand, and of course relatively quiet. There was no need to yell and ruin the chance at meat bun, so this was Ragna the Bloodedge right? Well he didn't seem that bad, at least since he hadn't been turned into a form of disfigured flesh yet; he could get along with this program and find some low level bounty later. There were usually a few hanging down here anyway.

Caelica blinked as Ragna actually managed to solve the problem without resulting to violence. Why was he hunted for again? He was being more civil than the vigilantes were!
Speaking of which, she really couldn´t picture this Kaka... or any Kaka, for that matter, to be a vigilante. The cats aren´t the sorts of violent killers you ususally saw captureing criminals.
Sighing a bit, she lowered her sword, ready to sleath it and return to a non-combat state.

Good... well, that ended rather peacefully. I didn´t have to use the Azure and i didn´t have to kill.. thats a plus already.

Reaching into his pocket, Ragna pulled out a smal bronze colored coin and tossed it to the kaka vigilante. Shrugging more to himself than anything he let out a sigh. "Yea, yea I get it. You love food. Now take the money and get out of here before I change my mind and decide to turn your ass into a punching bag." Keeping his feet firmly planted, he turned his head and looked at Caelica out of the corner of his crimson eye. "As for you, almost no one alive should know what you do about me. I'm not sure I buy the story about you being the real Caelica so start explaining. Why aren't you dead and why haven't you aged?" he asked. His voice was not quite the guttural growl he addressed his opponents with but it stil carried a noticible edge to it. Ragna hated being lied to and he was in no mood for it tonight.

Taking the coins he did just that, well there was no point for him to get involved in anything. He'd heard a few more things, but showed no interest in them. Why not? Because it was food! After all a meat bun did taste awful good, especially when he hadn't eaten in a little while. He made off towards the port food establishment, after all what better place to buy a lovely piece of cuisine that he desired right?

"Oh happy times, I avoid my end and get good eats out of it ^^~" He was of course while leaving overly happy, scurrying off to be sure he avoided the 'changing his mind' aspect that Ragna mentioned. It wasn't as if he stood a chance against Ragna, even at his best it would allow him a minute or two of survival in defense before his power reserves gave out and then he ended up a corpse. The mere thought made him shiver. But ever quick to forget something bad, he disappeared around the corner; all but forgetting that gloomy thought of his.

Caelica sighed a bit, sleathing the sword and stepping back to lean against a wall.

"Its a long story.. long and complicated.... Actually, i died long before you were born, right after the end of the dark war. Everyone had underestimated Terumi and his evil, so i was an easy victim.. I don´t know what they did to me exactly but i woke up in this fake body i`m in now, created from seithr and dead matter and fueled by a machine they called the Azure Grimiore. Yeah, the same thing you have on yourself."

She sighed again, trying to find the next point of the story and how to explain it without hurting his feelings.

"I returned to the church as fast as i could, hid there from Terumi... and after eighty five years, someone dropped you and your silblings at my door... but right there i knew i couldn´t be there for you the whole time, i couldn´t show you my true face or else you´d know what i am and be scared of me.. so i only raised you until you were three years old, then a woman of the nearby village aided me and raised you children.... later she told you she was Caelica Mercury."

A long, sorrowful sigh followed, along with a tear.

"Of course, that led Terumi to believe that she was me, and he murdered her..."

With the departure of the kaka, Ragna was able to put his full attention on the woman before him. His brow furrowed at her words. Another Azure besides his own and Terumi's? It was a bit of a stretch but it would certainly explain things on the surface at least. He stared at his own right arm for a moment as the memories of his time at the church flashed by along with the night Terumi destroyed his life. The shell on the back of his hand throbbed once as if in recognition of a similar power nearby and he closed his eyes. "So what you're saying is...almost my entire childhood was a lie. Well why now? Why come back now? God knows I could have used some help when I was lying there with my damn arm cut off! Or how about when I was nearly dragged into a Cauldron? Where were you then huh?!"

Finding that meat bun stand nice and pleasantly, he led himself to the vendor and perked his tail up with a happy look his face. "That'll be one meat bun please!" he was quite proud of the fact that he'd said it without giving out a 'nyan' as often he did, trying to learn to loosen his kaka drawl just a little bit had been a challenge. But it seemed to be working, he felt a small pang in his stomach and likened it to his hunger. "Hang on a few more minutes stomach, Kageo is feeding you soon you know~"

Patting his belly with one claw he turned his attention fully back to the vendor, while awaiting that meat bun. After his attention drifted around in his waiting, his nose drew his glance back to the vendor and the steam bun before his nose. Soon it would be in his belly, oh how wonderful it would taste to him really. "Thank you very much!" he dropped the coins that Ragna had given him on the counter, it was just perfect; though he figured on eventually leaving to train. It was just reasons like this that he knew he had to become stronger, at least so he could be sure not to die just that easily yet.

"I didn´t even know you were alive... i´m sorry, Ragna... and even if i would`ve been there, i would´ve been useless. Even my sister couldn´t defeat Terumi and she`s the third strongest person i knew."

Caelica was close to tears, but she expected that to happen.
She didn´t even know what to say anymore. What could she possibly say that would make him step down from the cold truth? There was little she could´ve done to change it.

"...You know, you`re a lot like Bloodedge used to be..."

She finally said, quietly and muttering.

Looking away from the teary eyed woman, Ragna grit his teeth angrily. He shouldn't be this bitter at her. Regardless of how much shit had gone wrong in his life, it wasn't her fault and he shouldn't blame her. Opening his eyes, he sighed sadly and replied. No...it's not your fault what happened to me and my family. You did what you could..." he fell into a momentary silence after that and brought a hand up to feel the jacket he wore. This jacket, this sword, Jubei had said they were the Bloodedge's but Ragna still knew almost nothing about the man. The only thing he knew for sure was that he had sacrificed himself against the Black Beast to save humanity. "The Bloodedge huh? Jubei talked about him alot. Who was he anyway?"

Caelica blinked in suprise to hear this. Jubei didn`t tell him...? Well, he probably had a good reason for it... it was a bit strange. Ragna`s name was identical, and in these clothes and hairdo he almost looked like an exact copy of him.

"Nobody knew that for sure. He just appeared one day, severely injuried and alone.... i patched him together the best i could, but his arm and his eye were beyond saveing... still, despite that, he was one of the strongest men i`ve ever seen, standing against Jubei and Hakumen with only one arm."

Caelica smiled a little, looking down to her feet. Should she be telling him the whole story?

"He was a good man, though, despite his appearance. He looked a lot like you, but his character was a strong willed and yet heartful one, helping those in need and selflessly chargeing into battle to save others. It`d eventually cost him his life, but he didn´t even seem to mind. If he didn`t, he would´ve probably single handedly destroyed the beast once the Nox Nyctores were invented... or even before that."

She looked back up, looking into Ragna`s eyes, thinking.

"I`ve always wondered why you looked so much like him.. and why Jubei, of all people, decided to train you.. and give you his relicts. "

Ragna stood there silently taking in the woman's words. This Bloodedge sounded like a legend equal to the Legendary Six and yet almost no one knew his name. Ragna scowled at that thought and dismissed it as just one more pieve of information the Library decided to cover for for god know why. Reaching behind his back, he slowly drew his sword and looked long and hard at it. This sword was able to hold back Jubei, Hakumen, and even the Black Beast? Frowning deeply, he spun the blade once and sheathed it. "I wondered that myself from the day he started looking after me...never did get an answer. But it doesn't matter anymore. Whoever this Bloodedge was, whatever I have to do with him, I don't care. I'm going to stop Terumi once and for all, no matter what it takes."

"I can´t do anything but wish you the best of luck for it.. i doubt i would stand a chance against him."

Caelica smiled weakly, folding her hands lightly as she continued to look at him.

"But if anyone has a chance to defeat him i would bet its you.. not just because you remind me of Bloodedge a lot. Just be careful, i can feel that Nine is still out there and if she is, she´s most definately with the Librarium.."

She shuddered a bit. She heard rumors of Nine being alive, but working under the NOL.. if that was true, if she really did fall for the organization she once founded.. Haveing Nine as one`s enemy would be a hundred times worse than Terumi.