Chapter 358: All things can be baited
“Mew!”
“Kitty!”
“Ah! Janice, wait!”
“Clear the way!”
Before Jasper could stop her, the little girl proceeded to rush across the street and towards the kitten in the box.
Jasper was about to grab and stop her, but at that exact moment, a group of ox-drawn carts went up the street and separated the two.
As the mobile wall of flesh, wood and metal blocked his way, Jasper could only watch as his adopted sister approach the kitten without a care in the world.
“Aish,” Jasper exhaled.
‘It should be fine for her to be away from my side for a few minutes…right?,’ Jasper thought to himself as he watched Janice pet the kitten.
“Kitty.”
“Mew.”
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“Ey yo, what the fuck? I thought you said the kitten box worked on all children?!”
“It does! I guess this kid is more straight-laced than we thought.”
“Fuck man, if we just nab her, we’re gonna be short on our payout. What do we do? Do I just grab her now?”
“No, no, hold off it for now. There’s a chance the girl takes so long that the boy has time to catch up and check on her.”
“Oh…but what if she finishes and go towards him?”
“Then you just grab her and we run! Ya dingus!”
“Don’t call me a dingus!”
“Hey, shut the fuck up! The boy’s about to come over.”
“Oh shit…”
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For a few tense minutes, Jasper could nothing but watch as Janice continued to pet the head of this small kitten in a box, because between him and her was a maddeningly long line of ox drawn carts.
From what he could see, they were hauling in fresh vegetables, but he really didn’t care.
“Come on you stupid carts, hurry up please…,”Jasper quietly grumbled as the carts took their sweet time crossing, the sight of cabbages and carrots acting as a barricade.
“Hehehe, kitty kitty.~”
“Mew!”
On the plus side, he could still see Janice playing with the kitten from across the street through the occasional gaps between the carts. It was simultaneously annoying and reassuring.
“Come on, come on…,” Jasper began to chant himself as the carts just kept rolling through.
When the last cart passed by, Jasper let out an audible “yes” before rushing over to Janice’s side. Nothing had between the literal five minutes of ox carts crossing, but it didn’t change the fact that he was still worried as all hell for her.
“Janice! What did I say about running off on your own like that?,” Jasper lightly scolded, his voice mostly relief than anger.
“I’m sorry, Jasper,” Janice said cutely, “but the kitten looked so adorable! I couldn’t help myself.”
“Mew!”
“See?”
Jasper let out a sigh at the little girl’s reasoning. He knew the kitten was cute too, but that was no reason to rush off like the kitten was going to disappear on them out of nowhere.
Perhaps this time, he needed to be more forceful?
“Janice,” Jasper began to say in a voice as a stern as a nine year old could do, “you can’t just-”
“GOTCHA!”
“BWAH!”
“JASPER!”
“MEW!”
But before Jasper could even get a word in, a pair of meaty arms suddenly shot out of nowhere and shoved him, Janice and the kitten into a burlap sack that reeked of old cheese and sweat.
Worryingly, nobody on this rather busy intersection witnessed a bloody thing, but that could have been due to the enactors of this heinous deed knowing an aether art that allowed them to do such things unnoticed by the greater populace.
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Name: Public Camoflague
Class: Minor Ethereal Art
Element: Dark
Description: A contradictory aether art favored by warriors who make their living on the seedier side of society. This art relies on the user to diffuse aether into the body and have it blend in with it’s surroundings, making use of the aether naturally released by people on their day to day lives in order to hide their own.
As long as the user does nothing to draw attention to themselves, they can blend into any street corner and not be spotted, even when sitting in plain sight.
While the strength of this art’s camouflaging is not reliant on the capabilities of the user, it is highly dependent on the size of the crowd surrounding them.
You can hide a leaf in a forest, you can’t hide it in a fucking desert.
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Exterior: City Alleway, afternoon
In a dark alleyway, away from the prying eyes of the city’s denizen, a pair of young criminals were busy admiring their latest haul, or rather, surprised it had happened in the first place.
“Holy shit, Simo. I can’t believe that worked.”
“See Graff, what did I tell you? Kitten box works every time.”
“Yeah! Wait…wasn’t this the first time we used that?”
“Yeah, but…that also means it works every time because we’ve only done it the one time, successfully!”
“Oh…that makes sense.”
Simo and Graff weren’t exactly seasoned criminals, but they had been learning to become as such in a rather aggressive manner.
The two of them used to be outer disciples for a medium sized sect about the size of the Zhen branch clan, both of them reaching peak Aether Acolytes if you can believe it, but due to fucking up one too many times, and fucking people they shouldn’t have one too many times, the two of them were summarily banished upon threat of death by worm.
Singular.
Now many would be discouraged after being kicked out of similarly prestige organizations, but Simo and Graff found the whole thing to be actually freeing.
The two of them had spent a long, long time living a strict and structured life, that the moment they could cut loose and indulge in all of the “vices” the sect preached against, they dove it into it hard.
Drugs, hookers, gambling, it didn’t matter what vice it was, what sin was committed, they just took that opportunity and ran with it into the ground…which, evidently, lead to now.
Don’t get it twisted, the two of them may have had fallen into the criminal lifestyle due to accruing a massive amount of gambling and drug debt, but the moment they learned how much money and power they could get by taking this “side route” of life, they immediately decided to try and plunge in headfirst.
Their first few heists namely consisted of scamming people in rigged games, mugging the occasional weakling and some minor bouts of pickpocketing and shoplifting.
All of which were activities that were quite easy to pull with a choice few aether arts.
However, once the two of them had joined up with Madam Venus, their activities took a massive leap forward in terms of risk and reward, namely due to them now being in the kidnapping game alongside the thievery.
“Hey, ya think that after we hand over these two goodies, we’ll finally have the capital to move up the ranks? Hire some goons of our own?”
“I think we need a base for that first.”
“Ah, right….hey, is it just me, or are these kids being unusually quiet?”
“I mean…I’m used to more kicking and screaming, but I don’t mind this change.”
“True…”
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Madam Venus had a reputation for being a rather reliable supplier of all sorts of goods.
Rare aether plants that were said to only be grown in the environments prepared by certain sects.
Unusual treasures with abilities not known to even their current owners.
Aether Beasts long thought to be extinct, live or otherwise.
And of course, “free labor” , “volunteers” and “stress relief”.
But how does a single lady manage to haul around all of these goodies, how does one manage to earn the reputation of being “reliable”?
Why, by delivering and acquiring the goods in person, of course.
While travelling in the open for all to see, of course.
Because, who would question why a diva, an operatic star that could only be heard once in a generation, would have a private ship?
Who would question the spending habits of a woman with the means and then some to acquire anything she wanted?
That is to say, isn’t it natural for a diva to carry around her whole living room in specialized crates? The comfort of a star, is of utmost importance after all…
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Interior: The inside of a smelly gunnysack.
“Jasper…I’m scared…”
“Mew…”
“Shh, shh,” Jasper comforted, “it’s okay Janice, I’m going to figure out a way to get us out of here.”
Jasper didn’t know how long he, Janice and the kitten had been stuck in this sack for, but he did notice that they were still being moved to…somewhere. Wherever it was, he just knew that it was probably gonna be bad for both himself and Janice, and that they had to bail ASAP.
However, that would involve cutting open the sack they were trapped in and neither of them had a knife.
‘Come on…I have to think of something…’
