The Adventures Through Paradise

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Introduction
In the city of Utopia, people where going through there daily routines. Shops where open everywhere, selling everything from food to magic items. Everyone seemed to be going about there business, despite the fact that any moment another earthquake could strike and tear the city apart. Walking through a crowded market, Peltin and Raven where arguing, with Akane Chiyoko and Taichi Marsh following behind them. Taichi was having a hard time beliving that they where actually teammates, while Akane simply looked annoyed that she had been split up from Zaraki.

"So your telling me I had to be dragged all the way down here because you screwed up?" Raven said mockingly, pointing at the bandages around Peltin's head. "Some S-Class you are."

"At least I made the cut." Peltin shot back, though it was unclear if he was poking fun, or trying to get on Raven's nerves. People parted to eather sides of the street as they walked past, not wanting to get involved with ether of the two mages.

"Are these two always like this?" Taichi asked when he looked over to Akane, he had seen guildmates arguing before so it wasn't new to him, but with those two, it was like a dog chasing after a cat because he gave him  a dirty look, it was something else.

"Don't worry, deep down their annoying cold hearts, they care about each other in a way, but they're too thick-headed to ever realize it" Akane replied as they continued to walk through the shopping arcade to check out some of the things they were selling.

Preoccupied with there comrades argument, the 4 mages hadn't noticed that the street noticeably became more empty. Sevral of the buildings looked damaged, and some where nothing but piles of ruble in the dirt. Finally taking not of his surroundings, Peltin stopped surprised. "Did we take a wrong turn somewhere?" he asked Taichi.

The air around them began to change, it felt as if an outside force was eminating from it as the area slowly began to turn dark, a few seconds later, one mage came in front of them in a hodded cloak as he looked at the group.

"A dark mage...." Tai said as he and Akane prepared themselves and focused their magic on the person.

Glancing around, Peltin spotted several figures hiding within the buildings. "Looks like we walked into some bandits ambush spot." he said ,retrieving his pistols from inside his jacket.

"Really?" Raven said sarcastically. Taking a step towards the figure he grinned mockingly. "So what can we do for you today?"

"Hello you poor fools, you've had the misfortune of running into Jugo's gang." The hooded figure said, much louder than was needed. "Drop your belongings on the ground and I might let you walk out of here." Finishing his speech, several bandits began emerging from there hiding spots among the buildings.

Akane looked at them, feeling their thurst for blood and wanting to kill them as she kept her stance, wanting to make sure they wouldn't try anything against their group. Tai walked a bit towards them, showing his power as the area began to become under pressure. "I'll warn you now Jugo, let us pass or you will die" He said with a serious tone.

A dull hissing sound was heard coming from beside Tai. The air around Raven was distorted, and with each breath small embers came out of his mouth. "Yeah, there isn't going to be much left of you or your little gang after picking a fight with me." he said, trying to goad Jugo into a fight.

"Is that so?" Jugo asked as some of his men began to laugh. "I know who you are, mages from Blazing Soul. We know about the shipwreck you had, and how your strongest agent is nursing some real serious injuries." Pointing to Peltin, he then looked at Raven and Akane, "And I know about the others with you, an ex-government worker, an alcoholic, and the little redhead that's been following you around."

Raven immediately lost his composure. Laughing hysterically he turned to Akane and said "How funny is that? They think we're engaged." Akane only sighed at Ravens mocking, figuring it a waste of time correcting him.

"Maybe after dealing with you, I'll go after the other brat and see what kind of ransom I can get from your guild." Jugo gloated, making his entire gang start laughing. His face twisting in disgust, Taichi began building up magic, but was startled by the sound of a gunshot going off behind him.

Jugo's hood flew off and he howled in pain, clutching his left ear with his hand. Blood began running between his fingers and down his jaw. The bandits around them stopped laughing as they quickly looked between the group they had surrounded and there leader. Peltin stood with a pistol trained on Jugo, no smile on his face for the first time since waking up on the beach. "I'd advise against that." he said seriously, gesturing to his eye patch as he continued, "I may be half blind, but I won't miss again. Bet on it."

Right then and there, Jugo roared as he ordered everyone to attack the group.

"Thanks a lot Peltin" Akane said as she began to take down someone of the low level mages without worrying about her magic as she punched through some of them.

Taichi quickly moved at lightning fast speed as he took down about a dozen of people that tried to destroy the place around them.

Keeping his eye trained on Jugo, Pelting weaved his way through the crowd of bandits to where he was standing. Seeing him approach, Jugo extended his arm and a ball of air shot towards Peltin. Easily jumping over the attack, Peltin landed in front of the stunned Jugo and slammed a barrel of his gun down on Jugo's head. Not missing a beet as Jugo doubled over, Peltin kicked the man in the chest, sending him tumbling to his back. Unimpressed, Peltin stood over the man and said, "Is that all you got?" there was no doubt this time that he wasn't kidding.

Looking at the fights going on around him, Raven gained a menacing grin. "And I thought this was going to be boring." he said aloud as a group of banded surrounded him. Shouting threats, a pair of them charged towards him, weapons drawn. "Hahaha, just try it, Agni." he shouted as he waved his arm out towards the bandits, creating an intense wave of fire that engulfed them both. Calling back the flames, Raven formed a fire tornado in his hand and looked at the others around him. "Who's next?"

Taichi took in a deep breath, letting out a powerful yell as suddenly the energy began to grow stronger as the form of a lion took shape, pouncing on the thugs one by one, sending them flying as he continued to use this power against them.

Standing up, Jugo ignored the fact that his gang was being desimated, focused more on the one eyed man in front of him. "Alright you bastard. No more small attacks, I want your head!" Building up magic in his hands, the air around him began to shake, and any loose dirt on the ground flew away from him.

"You sound like a child." Peltin said, finally regaining his grin. "You want my head so damn bad? Come and take it." Raising his guns, Peltin stood at the ready to take whatever was coming.

Jugo quickly smiled lifting his hand at Peltin as he used Airspace to create high explosions around him and the other members.

Taichi quickly went on the offensive as he shot out a Sound-Make attack right back at Jugo.

In retaliation, Jugo created a wave of air in front of him, stopping Taichi's attack in it's tracks. "You dumbass." He called mockingly, "You can't hurt an air mage like me with sound magic." Holding his arms out in front of him, he shot a pair of air shots towards Peltin and Taichi.

Leaping out of the way, Taichi rolled and stopped on one knee. Peltin jumped back, sprung off his hands, and landed hard on his feet. Instantly Peltin looked to be in pain, clutching his side he muttered, "Damn it, why now?"

Sensing an opportunity, Jugo razed a hand towards Peltin. Just as he was about to launch another spell, when a wall of fire shot up in front of him, engulfing his lower arm. As Jugo rolled back in agony clutching the charred skin of his arm, Peltin looked to see Raven standing at the end of the fire line. "Wake up man, I shouldn't have to watch your ass like this." he said in his usual mocking tone.

Though obviously still in pain, Peltin grinned. "Punk." Then retrained his guns at the place Jugo was laying. "Bolt Rain." he shouted as red shots of magic flew from his guns, quickly closing in on Jugo.

Taichi added on to the shots with another sound burst attack as they combined together and all headed right towards Jugo.

Panicking, Jugo quickly focused his magic around himself, then faded away just as there attacks where about to make contact. As the dust was thrown into the air, Jugo reappeared in a pile of rubble where some of his gang where hiding. "Damn it." he yelled, looking over his burned arm. "The hell is going on? We where prepared to fight maybe 3 people including that injured S-Class. There was nothing about a fire mage in the report, or the mage from Phantom Breaker."

"Boss, I think I recognise him." one of his subordinates said as Peltin and Taichi returned to fighting the other bandits. "He was once a part of a real strong dark guild, like illegally strong." Looking Jugo in the eye, Jugo could see pure fear in his subordinates eyes. "His names Raven Tyran, Hellfire Raven."

Hearing the name, Jugo immediately realised they where outclassed. Thinking for a moment, he turned and pointed at two of his subordinates, "You, go tell the boss about this. And you, find that redhead kid, we need something else to fight with." As the two took off, Jugo dove out a nearby window as a fireball flew into the building and exploded. Looking up, he spotted Raven looking towards him, a small grin creeping it's way across his face.

"Raven, stop wasting time with them, they're not worth the trouble" Akane said pulling him from the collar and continued to walk around Utopia to see the sights, and to get some medical attention for Peltin, who had pulled nearly every stiche he had.

Watching the 4 mages walk away, it finally sunk in how much Jugo didn't stand a chance against them together. Had he attacked right out of the gate, there would be nothing left of him except a short memory. "We'll really need the boss for this one." he muttered.

Playful Teachings
Meanwhile back at the guild, Zaraki, Kat, Tori, and Carra were sitting around the bar area, trying to figure out how to pass the time as Zaraki was on his fourth bottle of sake and was barley drunk.

"Man, how much can this guy drink??" Tori asked shocked at how many bottles there were on the table.

"This is nothing. Try being the one who has to keep up with him as well as serve the rest of the guild." Carra moned, trying not to think about it. "Sometimes I think it would have been better to work in the library with Shelly."

Siting next to her, Kat through her arm around Carra's shoulders, "Don't be so hard on yourself Carra. I don't think anyone else has the skills to keep up with that one." Whether she was joking around or not didn't matter, as her words seemed to cheer Carra up.

"So, since we're the ones stuck here, anything we should check out?" Zaraki said finishing his last bottle as Tori thought to herself for a moment, she knew that Carra and Kat would probably enjoy some places to go to, but Zaraki was another story. "So guys, anything you want to do for today?"

"Well..." Carra said, resting her head in her hands as she thought. "Theres always the nursery." Hoping they could get the chance to play with the children again. Though that hope was quickly shot down by Zaraki moaning.

"You guys got any mage jobs to do around here?" Kat asked looking at Tori. She was still very unfamiliar with the country of Genosha, but she had heard that the guilds have specific duties pertaining to the upkeep of the city's there.

Tori decided to go check out the board, seeing some of the requests that were on there, and found something of interest to her. "Hey, look at this" She said as the others walked over, "It says here that the local village nearby is hosting a food competition and they want some mages to be entertainers".

"Entertainers huh?" Kat said with a sly grin looking over at Carra and Zaraki. "I think that's the perfict way to relive some boredom. Come on guys." getting up, she grabbed the chairs her guild mates where sitting in and made for the door, dragging the others behind her. Reaching the door she looked back at Tori and asked, "So you coming or what?"

Before walking to the group, she went over to the bartender who reviewed the paper and placed a stamp on it, approving it as she went running back to her allies as they began their way to the village. On the way there, They began to pitch out different ideas for how to entertain the people.

"So, in total for all of us, how many magic's do we possess?" Tori asked gripping her bag.

Taking a moment to think, Kat answered for all of them. "Well, Carra uses Archive Magic, so she can do things like light shows and stuff." Pointing back to Zaraki she said "Our friend with the iron liver specializes in Familiar Spirit Magic, but I think his drinking aptitude would be more entertaining than that." Turning to face Tori, she began walking backwards as she continued, "And yours truly can use both Shadow and Take Over. How about you Little Bird?"

Before she could blink, Tori's hand stretch right passed her face as it returned back to Tori's side, "That would be my Stretch Magic, I can also do Healing Magic too so I could add it to the light show" She said with a smile on her face.

"Oh wow." both Carra and Kat said in unison, nether of them had seen anything like that before. Zaraki had begun walking ahead of the rest of them, so he missed the display, but didn't seem to bothered by it. Thinking for a minuet, Kat had an idea. Pulling Carra and Tori aside she asked, "Hey, what do you think of dressing up for this?"

"W-What?" Carra said nervously, knowing about Kat's flirty tendencies. Crossing her arms infront of her chest, she rested her hands on her sholders and said "What do you mean 'dress up'?"

"She just means making us look more fun to watch, besides I think it would be awesome, what do you think Zaraki?" Tori said with a smile, looking over to him as he just scoffed and looked away, trying hard not to show a smile.

"Guess it's settled then." Kat said with a sly grin, laughing to herself at Carra, who still looked unsure about the idea. "Come oooon, you'll have fun." she said pulling Carra along by the arm, making Tori laugh and pull on her other arm.

Unknown to them, a man had been trailing behind them, stepping in and out of alleyways so as to not be noticed. Reaching into his pocket he retrieved a small Lacrima and activated it with a touch. "Hey boss, I think I found them.... Yeah the red head and the drunk guy, as well as another mage from Phantom Breaker.... There's some other lady there to, but I don't recognise her." Listening for a moment the man grinned, "Yeah, I'll take care of it, tell Jugo he'll get some payback soon." Putting the Lacrima back into his pocket, the man stepped back into an ally and faded from view.

Apon arriving, they saw that a festival was already in action, making the group look around with joy as they began walking to the building where the performers were. "So what exactly is this festival about?" Zaraki wondered as he grabbed a sake bottle and paid for it.

"This is the year that most of the crops are harvested and not destroyed by natural diasters, we call it the festival of life" Tori replied with a smile as a vender offered her and her comrades snacks, which they took and began to eat.

"Man, these snacks are actually pretty tasty" Zaraki replied as he dunked them into his sake, making the three girls stare at him.

"You know that drives Akane up the wall right?" Kat asked, taking a bite of her food. Quickly losing interest as Zaraki munched on, "Anyways, where do you guys want to start?" she asked.

"We could go looking for games." Carra said quietly, forgetting that they came there on official mage business. Though she had remembered the 'dressing up' idea, and wanted to stay as far away from that topic as possible. Looking over at her new friend she asked, "They must have some sort of competition here right?"

Tori smiled as she saw that Carra really wanted to try out the games, "we're not expected for another three hours, which gives us all plenty of time to check out the festival" Tori said as Carra cheered and hugged her best friend.

In a flash, both Carra and Tori disappeared into the crowd in search of some form of fun, leaving Kat and Zaraki in the dust. "Ah, what it must be like to be that young." Kat said, a little envies of their energy. "Wouldn't you say?" nudging Zaraki in the ribs causing him to grunt a little.

In the crowd, the same man who had been following them had changed his focus from the adults to the two kids who had just broken off from the group. Slowly, he began trailing them through the crowd, keeping just far away enough that he wouldn't be discovered. Sensing something for a moment, Kat looked toward the crowd, but found nothing. "Did you feel that?" she asked Zaraki, but found him fully immersed in his meal, unlikely that he had noticed anything else.

"Yes, It seems that there is a darkness around here, but it's too risky to draw them out with so many innocent people" Zaraki replied as he continued to enjoy himself, acting normally with Kat.

"For you maybe. I think I can handle some simple tracking though." Kat said looking towards the crowd again. Scanning for a moment, she realised that there was just to much movement to follow anyone in particular. Looking back to Zaraki she said, "Keep a look out for the girls, I got an idea." Not waiting for a response, Kat faded into a shadow on the ground and zoomed away, jumping from shadow to shadow as she traveled.

Zaraki glared at Kat's trail, hating the fact that she never told anyone her plans, but quickly ignored it as he continued walking around, eventually finding Tori and Carra in one of the booths, trying to win a prize.

After a couple attempts at a ring toss game, Carra won a small teddy bear as a prize. Holding it out in front of her as she noticed Zaraki approach. "Look at what I got." she said excitedly. Between her job and taking care of herself, she rarely had time to go to things like festivals. Looking around for a moment, she noticed someone was missing. "Where's Kat?"

Not wanting the kids to think something was wrong, he acted like his normal self, "Don't know, we got separated, sure she's probably doing something" He said drinking from his sake bottle as he secretly looked around trying to sense where Kat was.

"Come on, let's go hit another booth" Tori cheered as Carra replied with a cheer of her own and ran with Zaraki walking after them.

Just as the two kids began to disappear from sight, a man in a cloak stepped in front of Zaraki, blocking him from following the girls. "Sorry about this..." he said sarcastically, "But i got a job to deliver a message to ya." reaching into his pocket, he retrieved a small communications Lacrima and handed it to him.

Before he got the chance to use it, a voice echoed out from the Lacrima, just loud enough for Zaraki to hear. "Hey there drunk man," the voice said mockingly. "Are you companions with the gun touting asshole and the chick with the blond hair?"

"So what if I am? I'm not interested in talking with your third rate flunkies, I want to see you now and away from here" Zaraki said glaring at the device in his hand.

"You can make demands when you got something to bargain with." The device said as the other man continued to eye Zaraki. "I'm looking at a little redhead and her friend right now, I wonder how much damage I can do before you get there." Before Zaraki could react, he was hit from the side with a ball of air, sending him crashing through one of the booths.

"Why do you always got to play with people like that Jugo?" the cloaked man asked as the crowd parted to reveal another man with several bandages over his right arm.

"Part of the job." Jugo said, keeping an eye on the wreckage of the booth. "Come on, the boss is waiting for us to get that kid." With that, Jugo and his accomplice turned and began to walk away. Heading in the direction Carra and Tori headed off to moments earlier.

Running through the empty festival grounds, Peltin only stopped to look down intersecting alleyways to look for Carra. "Damn it." He said aloud "Not again." Grabbing at his necklace, he franticly looked around again before taking off down the street.

Carra and Tori could be seen inside one of the nearby pet stores, looking at some of the animals there as they were playing in the puppy pin. "Aw, who's a cute little baby?? You are, yes you are" Tori said in a baby voice as she had one of the puppies in her hands.

Standing just behind Tori, Carra seemed apprehensive about going near any of the pets. The only thing she could think of where their small teeth and claws, despite how small they where. Any time she would reach out to one, they would jump excitedly towards her arm, and she would snap back out of fear. Looking down. She blushed in embarrassment, "Sorry, I'm not to good with animals."

"That's what you said when you carried a baby, this is the same thing" She said bringing one up into her arms and holding it towards Carra, "Think of this little cutie just like the baby, only he's a bit older, there's no reason to be afraid of him" Tori said with a smile as the puppy barked happily at Carra, wanting her to hold it as it let out a cute whine and it's eyes grew wider.

Biting her lip, Carra slowly reached out to the small dog, hoping it wouldn't move to fast. Picking it up, she held it close to her and began scratching it's ears. As the puppy relaxed in her arms, Carra grew less tense. "I guess your right." she said quietly.

Tori smiled as she saw her and the dog bonding together, "You know, I never told anyone this, but I was kind of like you when I was a bit younger, no offense" Tori replied as another puppy had caught her attention as she picked it up and snuggled it into her chest.

"You lost your parents too? You never said anything before." Carra asked suprised. She would have never guessed that Tori was an orphan as well, though it did make sense, given how much time she spends taking care of the other orphans at the guild.

"Not exactly, I lost my mother to a disease a year ago and my father is still around in the guild, but what I meant was I was the shy and nervous type myself" She said as the puppy feel asleep, "Though if you knew my father, he would've tried to get you to do just about anything, something I inherited from him" She replied and looked over to see the puppy in Carra's arms yawn and snuggle closer to her.

"Oh..." Carra said, thinking back to all the things Tori had talked her into doing over their brief travels together. She smiled after remembering everything "I guess so." she said looking down at the dog.

"You know, you can take him with you if you want, I'm sure your guild back home won't mind a new mascot" Tori said with a sincere smile as the puppy in her arms yawned and she placed it back in the pen with it's other brothers and sisters.

"I don't know, we have sort of already have one." Carra said looking down at the puppy, "But maybe I could keep him as a pet." she said, smiling at the thought of owning a dog.

"Then by all means, take him" The shop owner said walking over to Carra as she smiled with joy and looked at the puppy in her arms.

"Is it really okay?" Tori looked over to the owner.

"Of course, I've been around animals to know which animal is perfect for who and young lady, that puppy has your name all over it, call it a thank you for all that Phantom Breaker has done" She said bowing to them.