Tyranny (Ryoka Sulfinare & Kaitou Cat)

[Ryoka]

"Flaming lands... I must be in the underworld because it sure feels like it..."

The words that came were out of a young boy's own lips. He walked himself in a shaded alley way of a giant city. Looking no younger, yet no older than that of the age of thirteen, his icy blue eyes tried to blink away sweat that was accumulating on his forehead and dripping down, although to no avail. He heaved out a sigh.

Souta despite his age, was shorter than most boys his age. That said, he was muscular. Very muscular but not necessarily overwhelming. His plain white T-shirt (dampened in some spots due to his sweat from the heat), darker sky blue shorts that stopped at his knees, and his simple leather brown boots didn't hide the muscular frame that he dawned. He dressed like a normal boy, but he clearly wasn't normal. His icy blue eyes, too, betrayed that innocence of look that his short height gave.

Having dark brown hair that was evenly cut into a more boyish look, also added to his innocent look. Souta felt at times it was a disguise from his real self, but at other times, believed it matched his personality. His deeper, inner personality. He didn't necessarily build all of the muscle he trained himself for just for trying to give himself muscles that bulged to change his look and show off; he made himself stronger and worked out because it was the only protection he had. Thus, betrayed the innocent look.

What also betrayed his look from seeming like a normal boy was the fact he wore light brown leather gloves on his hands. They seemed to be a little too large for him; the wrists were wrinkled and his fingers looked a little too big. These gloves too, were from protection. And not just for typically gripping things with his hands. They served a more... sinister purpose than that.

Struggling to see due to the sweat that kept invading his eyes, Souta stopped for a second. He glanced ahead of him in the alleyway. Nobody was in front of him. He glanced back, nobody was behind him. Easing out a breath, Souta turned back around ahead of him as he lifted the front end of his shirt and pulled it up to his face, wiping his face with it. His stomach had anyone been watching would have revealed the hard abs he also owned which too gleamed with sweat. There was a reason he usually walked in alleyways and such rather than public streets. His muscle brought too much attention. Several times, his "sexy looks" had got him into quite a lot of trouble. The kind of trouble with the people he despised the most. People who wanted to use him as a sex object. After all, any pervert wouldn't mind taking a young teen such as himself who he admittedly thought as 'good looking' and 'sexy' to have a bit of dirty fun with...

It was a day such as this where Souta had done the very act he had done now; wiping his face with his shirt to get rid of sweat in the middle of a public street of a different city that attracted the attention of a guard. All the guards in this Kingdom were not really guards; the King was a Tyrant. And the 'guards' kept the people in check by ruling them under fear. Guards were above the law. They could steal and take things from others pretty much unchecked. The guard had stopped Souta saying cause that he looked suspicious and wanted him to come into an alleyway for questioning.

Souta knew better that something more was amiss. He had laughed mentally to himself at that time. He was no adult and still young to this world... But he wasn't an idiot.

He wasn't reckless either, though. To avoid commotion, he had allowed himself to be lured into the alleyway. All the way to the back. Trapped between a wall and the soldier, he was ordered to lift his shirt up for inspection.

Souta did as he was ordered. He could already tell then and there that the soldier was looking at his body with lustful eyes. After a moment, the soldier said he needed a better look, and had ordered Souta to take off his shirt completely.

Souta had sighed. Knowing how this was going to be and had again then done as ordered. It was when the soldier had began roaming his hand over his body, even though the soldier wore gloves, that sent Souta's temper flaring nearly to the point of snapping. It had taken all of his strength then; but it was even harder when the man moved his hand down and then squeezed his package through his blue shorts that Souta's power was on the verge of leaking out.

Thankfully perhaps because the soldier feared of getting caught by others, though he had nothing to fear, that he had stopped then and there and had just randomly started walking off. Souta at that point was quite surprised, for had he continued for a moment longer, Souta would have killed him. He was quite angry however that the soldier got away with what he had done for free. But such was how this kingdom was apparently ruled. And anybody was lucky to be able to leave it. He was not the only one treated this way he had decided and that he was lucky it was left only to that.

It was the last time such a situation had rose, but it was certainly not the first, and certainly not the worst.


He shifted in realization that he had his face buried into his shirt and his stomach showing for probably several minutes now. He dropped his shirt as he looked back up, blinking his eyes a few times as they fixed and regained focus. As if on queue thinking about his stomach, it growled quite loudly. He let out a moan of dismay. He hadn't been eating much lately, but that was because, out of the fact he had no money, there was little to no chance to get some. This drought the kingdom was been having has been nothing but sucky. Not just for him, who favored the cold, due to his powers being based off of the power of ice, but pretty much everyone, citizens and soldiers alike. Everyone was hot and humid and even though it looked like a great day with no cloud in the sky, probably everyone would have liked nothing more than rain cloud billowing in.

Souta sighed, walking onwards which lead out of the alley, and stepped out reluctantly onto busy streets. He had to eat somehow. And with no money to buy anything with, there was only one option; to steal.

Getting caught stealing was very much a sign of trouble and not the jail kind of trouble. Souta didn't know why, but most of the soldiers loved to dominate others that were usually clearly younger than him, even younger male adults who may be in their early twenties, with forcing sex... or maybe closer described as rape. After all, to them, there must have been no more entertaining punishment, other than a gang mob of soldiers beaten the violator (violator being a broad term due to the fact a large portion of innocent people were often punished for no reason, much like Souta had to endure with nearly being a sex object) to almost no more than a pulp; sometimes to death. Souta doubted he would ever get caught by soldiers even if he got caught in the act, but it still made him nervous. He had seen someone get caught only a few years older than he, was beaten near to death. Nobody dared to step in, lest they be beaten to. Souta couldn't dare watch the entire thing and opted to walk away before he had thrown up at the sight.

 

[Kaitou Cat]

Several miles on the outskirts of the city, a young male with short neat black hair silently walked as his feline like ears twitched and his long fluffy feline tail dragged lazily through the crispy sun dried summer grasses of the plains. His slender and light body only slightly glistening from sweat as he seemed unable to produce much to cool himself off. His arm which was covered with long black gloves made of a silk like fabric that extended up to the elbow in length reached up to wipe a bit of sweat from his forehead as his clear azure eyes scanned the horizon for a source of shade from the relentless sumer heat as his dark colored clothing did little to nothing to help protect him.

Some may find his attire a bit strange for someone travling out here in this type of weather, although what most do not know is that the boy had traveled from farther away lands which were usually much cooler than the warm shadeless plains. He had traveled far as he was searching for new targets to steal from as the people from the previous lands he had been from had finally found him out despite his illusionary disguise, having seen him as he had reverted back and drove him far away and forcing him to find new grounds to steal where people would not reconize him as the notorious phantom theif that he often became to steal from the rich.

The reason he would dawn the disguise to steal from another? Simply for the thrill of it and the fact that he was highly attracted to all things shiny, particullarly gems of all sizes and color. Occasionally he would also steal gold and silver although he often was not as fond of these and often left them on the doorsteps of someone who would perhaps need or appriciate it more than he as he did not require the money as he often prefered to take on his true form of a cheetah/snow leopard mix and hunt for his own food rather than risk entering possibly dangerous towns unless he had to.

Having heard of the large city he had decided that this place would be a good place to start a new although he had not expected there to be such little foliage to use as cover and having heard rumors of the terrible leader and the ways of the city, he was reluctant to enter and had instead chosen to take refuge at what appeared to be a small abandoned farm near a small road in hopes of being able to ambush any body under who happens to pass by or camp there, using the cover of the night to hide the sleek form of the theiving cat.

Considering it was still day light though, he figured it would be alright to maybe get a bit closer to scout the area and see if the rumors were true.

Having put on a cloak and hat to hide his feline features, he peeked around cautiously as he was still unsure about entering the bustling city as he quietly muttered to himself.

"So this is the place.. It is quite large and populated, far more so than I expected.. Perhaps it would be best to come back later when things may be a bit more quiet.."

Having said that he silently retreated back towards the quiet little farm.​

 

[Ryoka]

Souta moved his way around the bustling road of many in the city. So crowded the city was that sometimes coming into contact with people was impossible. That alone was why Souta tended to keep off of them when he could. His powers of ice tended to create an icy aura around him when his emotions were not in control. Souta merely only had to be in a bad mood or angry for his powers to seep out. He knew how to use his power; but he still required more experience to control them completely at his own will. The worse he was, the worse the cold around him was. Too much could potentially harm people.

Some emotions didn't tend to trigger his powers though. Surprise would not trigger it, disappointment would not trigger it, happiness of course would not trigger it... it was mostly based, as far as he could tell, anger or grief which caused the power to erupt against his will the less he managed to keep himself calm.

Souta kept himself to the side of the road, one for the fact it generally meant less people on one side that he'd brush against constantly, but the other for the fact he was eying vendors to the side of the road, looking for any food stands. He saw plenty and many assortments of foods of various fruits and veggies to assortments of nuts meats and even cooking ingredients.

This wasn't the capital of the kingdom where the King was housed; however, it was next to it. And thus, an assortment of traders all over, even outside the kingdom would come here. The King could not keep the citizens of other countries and kingdoms locked inside of his tyrant rule. They were "property" of other kingdoms. Although the King's greed was evident, he would not "steal" citizens which would most likely spark a war against him. Souta himself was sure that the other Kingdoms knew how much of a tyrant the king was. But as long as he "behaved" and didn't cause a trouble for them, they did not really care.

There was only really two ways to get out of the King's grasp. And those were:

Join him.
Get enough money as a trader, make the excuse to trade outside the country and flee. However, the chances of even being allowed to simply trade outside the country were slim. Most people had to leave their own families alone, leaving them up to their fate of the obviously flawed laws the Kingdom had.

As long as you joined the King, you would be pretty much put above the laws; with no effort and were safe from the King's grasp as long as you followed occasional orders and commands. Because it was so easy, there were so many soldiers which only added to the King's army and control. Thus lead to the problem that was now in place. Unless in a big city like this; there was almost nowhere you could go where there were not guards able to watch you at every corner. The exception were a few alleyways like Souta had been walking in. Those were exceptionally dangerous to travel in, not because of a random thug passerby; but because of a passerby soldier. Souta didn't mind though because inside the alleyway if such a problem did occur, he could easily escape via rooftops without making a scene and having a fleet of soldiers trying to catch him. Soldiers often times he had found would give up such a situation rather than making a big scene about it as long as it wasn't seen by anyone else. They would just most likely target a new individual.

Souta's eyes flicked and he soon stopped; a mistake as a line of people suddenly plowed into him and he staggered forwards which then caused a small ruckus behind him as everyone plowed into each other in a chain reaction.

"Hey kid! Watch it!"
"Step off the road if you're not gonna walk!"

"Sorry..." he muttered absent-mindedly as he side stepped off the road.

He headed his way to a fruit stand set up just off of the road, the merchant selling nothing other than baskets full of apples, oranges, pears, bananas, and an array assortment of berries and grapes was already dealing with a few customers. Souta walked up casually, to the stand, keeping himself casual looking as possible. He merely needed to touch any fruit with one of his hands; preferably the apple. Any fruit would have done fine, but the apple was the easiest to get away with. An orange would be too, although getting into the orange's skin and peel it without a sharp object would prove to be a little difficult.

Souta pretended that he looked at the apples, picking some up, looking at which apple he wanted -- it wasn't far from the truth from what he was doing until he did find the apple he wanted to take. They all felt ripe and were a deep healthy red, but the size of this one was a little bit bigger and it seemed more round than the others. Releasing just a tad of his power; a nearly invisible string of ice attached to the apple from the middle finger of his glove. Souta set the apple down, as the string of ice stayed connected. Souta eyed a few more apples as if curious, but he slowly slunk away, much less to the vendor trying to coax him back, but Souta just smiled innocently and shook his head.

The teenager then walked himself to the nearest valley, his eyes darting back to the thread of ice that was extending the further distance he walked. Only careful watchers would see the shine of his ice to those who were even aware of it, and even then it may not even look to odd.

Looking back and forth to see if he wasn't being watched, Souta crouched himself down, before jumping up to a low roof building, grabbing the side of the roof with his hands, with a little grunt, he began hoisting himself up onto the roof. Once he sat himself down, he scooted back a bit and lay low to keep himself as invisible as he could to any potential person who may have looked down the alleyway.

The teenager held his hand out now, and with a signal of his power; the string of ice attached to his glove began to reel in.

From a bit of ways from his position, the apple would have seemingly fallen over and rolled on the ground on its own. Souta waited a moment; people may have potentially gotten interest, but would not stop to bend down to pick up the apple. After 5 seconds, Souta with a signal of his power again, reeled in the string as fast as he could.

The apple from the fruit stand would be rolling at a ridiculous rate; it would raise suspicion but nobody would find out it was actually him who stole the apple. It would roll in the exact path Souta had laid out with his string. He peeked his head out seeing the red fruit rolling into the alleyway now. He held his hand out and flicked his finger attached to the string as the apple coiled up around his backhand and flew straight into his palm as if it was like a yo-yo. With that accomplished, he released the power from the apple and moved himself back more onto the roof again. He sat himself upright, and with hunger now gnawing at his stomach worse seeing the food that was now in his possession, first dusting off the apple of any potential dirt with his other hand, he opened his mouth and took a crunchy chunk of the fruit.

 

[Kaitou Cat]

Having returned to his destination he quickly went about gathering some fresh herbs from the surrounding area as well as some crops from scrappy looking fields that had looked like they had either not been tended to in a long time or were poorly taken care of before going into a damaged building that appeared to be the living quarters of the previous owners and stashed the food up in the cabnits for later. After which he silently trudged through the house until he came upon the bedroom which only contained a bed hardly big enough for two, most likely for a husband and his wife, as well as a few dressers which only seemed to contain a few articles of clothing. Making his way over to the bed he gently patted it and went into a coughing fit as dust and dirt flew from the dirtied sheets. Grabbing said dirty sheets he quickly retreated outdoors to beat them and cleanse them of the filthy particles before returning to place them back onto the bed in which he flopped onto to rest once it was deemed clean enough.

Glancing out the window the feline eared boy took notice of the sun starting to set before his eyes drifted closed for the time being.​

 

[Ryoka]

Souta still sat astride on top of the roof, continuing to chew and swallow bite after bite of the apple; almost in desperate need. He hadn't realized how hungry he had actually been until he took his first swallow of the fruit.

Then suddenly something shoved him from behind hard enough that he yelped and was thrown off the roof, he grunted as he crashed into the ground and skidded a little; his apple falling a short distance away beside him and the half eaten fruit splattered into the ground, completely ruined.

Souta groaned as he moved to push himself up, holding his head. He felt the footfalls of someone landing beside him and not even a moment later, he cried out in pain as his hair was grabbed by the back of his head and was yanked back.



"Well well, aren't you the crafty little thief boy?"


Souta felt his heart sank. Had he been spotted somehow? Had he not been careful enough?

"Stand, brat."

Souta did as he was told, slowly pushing himself onto his feet, making sure not to even pull his head forwards lest the grip on the back of his head worsen.

When he stood he took a glance and as he predicted it was indeed a soldier. He didn't get much of a good look though because the man pushed him forwards back further into the alleyway. His heart was sinking more by now, already fearing the worst. But on the positive side, being pushed further into the alleyway meant he could get away without much of a fuss from anyone else.

Then they turned a corner and his eyes widened.

"Oh, caught another one did you?"

Souta looked as there were 3 more soldiers at the end of the alleyway waiting with their arms crossed, sly grins on their faces. Souta heard the one herding him in speak behind him.

"Yeah, stole an apple so I guess he wants to volunteer to face punishment, huh boys?"

To hell with that.

With one quick motion, Souta reached his arm out and elbowed the man hard in the stomach through his leather armor, the man let go of the grip on his head to clutch his groin where Souta had struck him.

The other 3 at the end of the alleyway reacted and began charging forward towards him. Souta quickly held out both his hands out in front of him. Where on the base of his knuckles through the gloves, icicles formed on his hands within a blink of an eye, three on each hand. With his left hand, Souta aimed his fist at the ground in front of him. The icicle from his hand shot one by one out from his fist shattering against the ground along in a line, and seconds later, Souta slammed said fist into the ground. The shattered pieces of the icicle rose up to be giant spikes of at least eight feet high. With so many spikes along the alleyway, it effectively acted as a wall. Souta quickly began sprinting off. Not bothering to even turn around in the corner. Instead, the teen jumped up a roof instead when the turn came and quickly hoisted himself up. As he was climbing up, he heard a twang. He turned around but only in time to see an arrow split the flesh of his left leg. He cried out in pain. His vision momentarily went hot white with pain. He faltered his grip, sliding down a distance but catching himself. One of the men trapped within the spikes of ice had bow and arrows.

There was another twang and then a 'tink' as the arrow hit below him, hitting the stone of the building and bouncing away doing nothing but chipping the chunk of rock it had hit. Blood dripping from his leg, Souta quickly rolled onto the other side of the roof out of the soldier's vision so he wouldn't be under a volley of fire anymore.

Out of sight, he panted as he looked to the leg to examine the damage. It was still bleeding, dripping warm blood onto the roof. He tried for a second to put just a tiny bit of weight on it and moaned in pain just from that. This was bad; he needed to get out of the city but he couldn't move. Soldier's always tried to find those who somehow managed to get away from 'punishment'. It not only hurt their pride but other than that it was to try and set an example. If he was caught now, he would have to worry a lot more than just four soldiers doing whatever they wanted with him. He would probably be locked in a dungeon and then have the entire city of guards being worried about doing whatever they wanted from him.

He couldn't just walk out with a bleeding leg. He would have to go over the wall. Thankfully, he was very close to one. It was only a few blocks away, it was the eastern wall if he remembered correctly. He would have to use his power to travel. He could hardly move his leg with it causing as much pain as it was in the first place. But first, he decided it would be best to stop the bleeding. Placing his hand over his wound, he would release his energy as ice began wrapping around his leg. A thin sheet. It was cold but with his entire power unleashed an aura of cold was around him in the first place. Had grass been nearby it would have been covered in frost just from being near his proximity.

When he lifted his hand, the area of ice where the wound was had been painted red; but no more blood was dripping out. It was only temporary; this certainly wasn't nothing like a bandage. Pointing his fist towards the wall, he shot an icicle far off into the distance past the walls where it would land somewhere on the ground nearby. Souta waited a few seconds before shooting another icicle right in front of him which instead of shattering like before "melted" to form a small yet thick puddle of ice. Souta moved on top of it, and panting with the pain, slowly began sliding down into the ice, disappearing.

Where he had reappeared would have been outside of the city in plain area on the ground. The teen pulling himself out as if he had been climbing out of a pitfall trap headfirst. A wave of dizziness washed over him which nearly made him collapse and the feeling persisted. Such a move with his power was severely consuming on his energy; especially since he moved such a larger distance than he normally would.

He glanced behind him to see the setting sun and the city. As fast as he could, he began to half crawl, and half run away from the town. Looking for any sort of cover where he could do his best to nurse this wound before it got worse. The first thing he noticed was what appeared to be an barn off into the distance. It took maybe a good twelve minutes for him to get up towards it as it was not only a good distance away, but Souta was moving quite slowly. As he got closer, Souta felt fortunate that the barn appeared to be abandoned.

When he made it after much trouble, instead of going to the house of the barn, he decided to hide himself into the stables where any animals may have been kept. The door was locked though and so he had to do some painful ramming; not able to get leverage due to his leg and each ram felt like a knife seared through the leg each time. The ramming itself certainly was noisy but he believed nobody was nearby to hear. At least he hoped as such.

Finally after about the 7th attempt the boy would have been able to force the door to open where he pretty much just stumbled and tumbled before he soon completely collapsed facedown into the ground from both pain and exhaustion. His body was slick with a thin layer of sweat. The ice cast had melted by now and his leg was once again leaking blood, although slower. This just wasn't his day.