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Airi's POV
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I hear their footsteps growing louder in coordination with the panic I feel rising in my body.

Looking around in desparation, I notice the lack of separations in the hallway, its linear path becoming all the more daunting.

In a last ditch effort, I sprint back down the hallway, my footsteps echoing against the stone brick walls as I reach my cell.

The clanging of the metal door resonates through the underground labyrinth as I try to act my role as a captive as well as possible, despite not being bound by anything.

Only seconds later, the two men appear at the far end of the corridor. They seem to be completely relaxed, but I have my suspicions, considering how loud I was.

They walk up to Ryu's cell and open it, stepping inside with smirks on their faces.

"This is the one." (Kidnapper)

"Heh, looks like a big sack of money to me." (???)

"Well, we won't get any if we don't get moving. Remember, he needs to be there at morning." (Kidnapper)

"Got it, split 50/50, right?" (???)

"Yep, 50/50." (Kidnapper)

Following the confirmation, the kidnapper leaves Ryu's cell and starts back towards the stairs, leaving only the unknown man.

"Now then, let's go, shall we?" (???)

The man moves closer to Ryu and starts unlocking the chains holding his hands to the wall.

Ryu's arms drop quickly, a sign of how heavy the cuffs placed of him are.

Grabbing onto the chain fastened to a collar around Ryu's neck, the man goes to leave the cell.

In a blur, Ryu dashes towards him and knocks him unconscious through a blow to the head with the cuffs.

"Hey, you can help me here, right?" (Ryu)

"Oh, sure." (Airi)

Making sure the kidnapper hadn't returned, I silently leave my cell and enter Ryu's, looting the man's body for the keys on him.

Within seconds, Ryu was free from the cuffs, and we began moving to escape.

We step outside the cell and are met with a cold breeze, which carries with it a putrid smell.

"What is that?" (Ryu)

"Who knows? Let's go check." (Airi)

Pushing forwards, despite our faces twisted in disgust, we reach the top of the stairs and are met with a pile of corpses being burnt in the rubble of several buildings.

"Hm, so he wasn't lying." (Ryu)

I take a look at Ryu and see him eyeing a small hut in the centre of the ruins.

"You been here?" (Airi)

"Before I got captured which..." (Ryu)

He diverts his attention to the red sky above us, the sun blocked by the walls surrounding the town.

"... Was last night." (Ryu)

We step out of the hole with the staircase and get a better view of our surroundings.

Several metres of rubble stretch out in every direction. We're basically standing in the middle of a battlefield, from the look of the area.

I spin around to look behind me and crouch down on reflex as I see another person walking around the edge of the space.

Grabbing Ryu's head, he gets pulled into a crouch.

"What--" (Ryu)

I put my index finger against my lips, signalling to be quiet and he follows abruptly, cutting himself off mid sentence.

Pointing towards the man of the outside of the area, we start moving.

All of our equipment got taken off of us when we were captured, so we can't get into a fight currently, but we can take him out silently.

It takes us several minutes to reach the man, who turned out turned out to be the kidnapper, and we quickly force him to the ground.

"Where's our stuff?" (Ryu)

Ryu threatens the man with a hand above his shoulder in a fist, ready to punch.

"The shed, but I'm gonna warn ya, yer messing with the wrong group--" (Kidnapper)

Blankly, Ryu punches the man directly in the face, knocking him unconscious, and stands up, making a start towards the hut.

In a minute, we reach it and step inside.

It's very shabby, slightly broken walls, several tiles falling off from the roof. Its floor seems matted with dirt and grime, a symbol of continued use and little care.

The boxes that litter the shelves on the inside seem to radiate dust when you move them, and it quickly piles up inside. We were forced to step outside to take a breather several times.

After around 10 minutes, we managed to regain all of our equipment and were ready for battle again.

"So, where now?" (Airi)

"I'm going to ask the seller where the buying point was." (Ryu)

Following the only lead we have, we head back down the stairs and drag the man from inside Ryu's cell back to the surface.

Not wanting to wait, Ryu tries to force the man awake, which works after several minutes.

"You finally woke up." (Ryu)

"Huh, wha-- where--?" (???)

"Answer my question." (Ryu)

"What?" (???)

"Answer my question. Where were you going to sell me?" (Ryu)

"Sell? ...Oh!" (???)

"You remember now?" (Ryu)

"Yes! Yes, I remember! Please, they wanted you to be sold on the South Side of town. The rich area, you know? With all the nobles!" (???)

"Where?" (Ryu)

Raising his fist, Ryu's face becomes darker, intimidating the man further.

"T-the Colosseum. It's a posh bar in town, the poshest. I was supposed to meet a guy called R at the bar." (???)

"Good." (Ryu)

Having gotten all the information we needed, Ryu knocked the man out once more and tied him together with the Kidnapper.

"Shall we get going?" (Airi)

With a single nod of confirmation, we start racing down the streets of the slums, heading towards the South of the town.

At full sprint, we managed to reach the nobility area in around half an hour, but we needed a long break after arriving, considering the distance and speed we ran at.

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Author Notes
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It's another chapter!! Woo?

This is, what I would call, a pretty average chapter.

When writing it, I managed to scrape the plot and stick it together with some scotch tape, and thus we ended up with the buyer, 'R', needing slaves.

That was all scraped together by me honestly. All of this is, I haven't planned any of it. I've sorted out the magic system (mostly), but nothing else, some of the back stories are done, but only 2 or 3.

Its weird, because I have a lot of plans for this, I want a timeskip, I want romance, I want deaths, but I can't get there without setting up the story.

I can't have a time skip which is absolutely irrelevant to the plot, I can't have romance between two undeveloped characters, I can't have a death for a character who felt bland and unoriginal.

So I'm panicking because I'm wondering if the characters I have in my head are truly the same as the ones you are reading right now, or if they are the ones developed after knowing their backstories and where they'll end up.

But rant over, this story was mostly a practice for me writing a story, if I do manage to finish this "book", I don't think it would bother me redoing it all over again, but better, and when I have more experience.