Chapter Text
"You don't see someone with a ring as valuable as that every day."
"Well, maybe you don't."
Rosa walked out of the antique store satisfied with the amount of money she had gotten from selling what was probably the most valuable item in her possession. University fees had to be paid off somehow, after all.
As the young woman walked down the street towards her dorms, she heard the first windows opening around her and sped up a little. She wanted to be back before her roommate would wake up. Luckily for her, Yancy had never been an early bird, but she still didn't want to take any risk.
Once the streets of Castelia had been very pretty during dawn, however it didn't feel as homely anymore now that there were Wanted-posters on every street light. It was not like they had been able to get a good picture of the master thief they called Whi-Two, so Rosa doubted they would lead to anything but littering.
The first thing Yancy had said when they moved into the dorm room together had been: "If you ever have trouble with anything, be it lectures or boys or whatever, I want to know and I want to help." When Rosa quietly opened the door and sneaked back to her bed, she was very aware that mainly her friend wanted to know. Her curiosity had likely never heard of the concept of personal space before.
It wasn't like the pink-haired woman wouldn't have helped, of course, at least with most things, still there were some secrets better shared with nobody at all. "Morning, sleepyhead", she greeted her after getting out of bed thinking she had been the first one to stand up as always, kindly pulling the blanket away to force her to stand up.
"Who're you calling sleepyhat", Rosa asked, faking a yawn. Yancy probably got twice the amount of sleep she had, but at least this showed her theatrical skills were good enough to keep her best friend in the dark about her nightly activities.
Yancy laughed. "Hurry up now, we're gonna be late for the first class." She was already blocking the bathroom putting the make-up on which she needed for her acting course, so Rosa instead went to the kitchen and made them breakfast.
At least she didn't have to pay for the food on top of everything else, so she had been quick to order her favorite ingredients to their dorm. "Food's ready", she shouted when putting the two plates on the table and sat down, with her friend rushing to the kitchen to join her for a rushed meal.
With the two having found a good routine together, Yancy would manage to finish her meal even faster than her friend and go on to tie Rosa's long brown hair into buns for her while the latter was still eating. "What's on your schedule today?", she inquired casually.
Rosa thought for a second. "Just Criminal Law and Taxation Law today, so it will be a good day", she said with a smile.
Yancy wasn't satisfied with that answer, however: "You're going to have a break between these two lectures, did you forget?", she hummed innocently.
"And of course, I'm going to watch your golfing match in my break", her roommate gave in. Sports competitions had never been interesting to her, let alone golf, so she sighed at the prospect of watching one in her precious break, but after all it was for her best friend.
Who was very excited about her commitment. "Yes, that's right! I'm going to give my best for you!" Finishing her work, she stood up and got her bag from the chair. "I'll see you on the field, then, thank you for doing this for me!" And how could Rosa not when it made her so happy.
Thus, the brunette, now with her hair nicely tied into two buns and two long braids hanging down from each side, found herself on the university's own golf course a few hours later, climbing the stairs to the small platform near the first hole. From up here, she would have a good view on the track Yancy would hit the ball across with as few blows and putts as possible soon, going up against direct competitors in front of a crowd for the first time on that day.
She was early and could thus see the stands as well as the tee-off fill with players and viewers exponentially. Two seperate competitions for men and women were to take place, thus drawing in both male and female students to watch as well. Observing people in crowds had become a habit for her in such situations since seeing what she could learn about those around her was usually the most interesting thing to do while waiting.
It had been a long time since she'd been to such an event, so she had underestimated the noise the crowd made. When she couldn't listen in on the people around her anymore, she instead turned her attention to the letter that had been in her bag for a week now and read it for the thousandth time. "Dear Rosa", her mother had written, "I hope you are enjoying your life in Castelia and your studies at university go as planned. Is the money we sent you enough? Everything is going as always here in Floccesy, so I wish you that your life is more interesting. Your father has been getting better, the treatment he received helped a lot and he can't wait to see his daughter over the holidays. Please don't forget to write your family once in a while, we're always happy to hear from you. Love, Mom."
"No, mom, the money is by far not enough to get by here", her daughter had always wanted to answer but never did, instead sending a standard reply over how she was happy and everything was going well.
But soon distracting her from these troubles was that she'd get to watch her best friend do impressive shots and earn cheers from the audience with her great talent, so overall it was a good time.
Soon the balls were putted over green after green, always starting with far shots and ending with careful ones as the players tried to hit the holes – it wasn't more interesting than Rosa had expected, so she ended up paying little attention to it and keeping her eyes on Yancy, who occasionally glanced up to her when she didn't need to concentrate and showed her an overjoyed expression.
It turned out allowing herself to be entirely distracted from the other participants by that was an unwise decision, though, since that way she didn't see ball coming when it was swung past the carpet with way too much power and ended up racing straight for the young woman's head.
When she noticed it coming towards her with high speed, it was already too late for any evasive maneuver, she closed her eyes on reflex and hoped it wouldn't hurt much. And fair enough, it didn't hurt at all. "Are you okay?", she heard a calm, reassuring and youthful voice say.
Opening her eyes, Rosa saw the ball held in front of her, caught by the large hand of the person that had taken the place next to her. "Y-yes, I... think it's o-okay", she stumbled, trying to get a glimpse of the person who had saved her.
It was a young man with messy brown hair and a face softened by the caring smile on it, his sports visor a little out of place from the movement he had just made. "I'm glad to hear that", he spoke out with relief, lowering his arms and placing the ball at the side of the course. "Be a little more careful, will you?", he advise the guy rushing after his shot. His voice was gentle yet commanding, and the addressed nodded.
Yancy had seen what went on from a distance and looked at Rosa waiting for a facial expression to show her whether everything was alright. It took another moment for her to recover from the shock, then she gave her friend a reassuring smile to tell her she wasn't hurt.
"Thank you", the law student finally mouthed, looking the man up some more. "Do we know each other?"
Her rescuer gave her a warm look. "We have some of the same classes, but it's not like you get acquainted there. My name is Nate, I'm happy to meet you." He held out his hand, which she took as if she was in a trance, blushing a little until the sounds of the game resuming snapped her out of it.
"You enjoy watching golf often?", Rosa finally asked hoping to seem less awkward that way, and that he wouldn't notice her face getting more and more red.
Nate shook his head. "I prefer fencing, but my friend Leo is taking part in the contest, so of course I support him", he said happily, pointing at the smallest player on the field taking an even more notable amount of time before making his move than anyone else.
"Oh", Rosa understood, "I'm here to support my friend as well", she shared, before having another thought. "We haven't seen each other in the fencing course, though, have we?"
The young man showed her a smile like she hadn't seen before, immediately triggering emotions within her that she couldn't quite categorize. "I didn't sign up yet, I just changed to this university at the start of the term. But if you are there, I'd like to come watch." His innocent joy radiated from him like a visible aura.
When Yancy only now turned to her box again, it dawned on her friend that she had seen the whole interaction, feeling embarrassed by how much she was blushing and by how her counterpart seemed to not notice. Or perhaps she was glad he didn't, because she would have had no way to explain this.
"So, how was it?", Yancy immediately wanted to know when Rosa returned to their room after her last lecture.
The latter made a confused face. "How was what?", she asked as if she had no clue.
"Talking with that boy, obviously!", the other reminded her.
Rosa would have preferred to not talk about it. This could only get more awkward, couldn't it? "It was no big deal, he helped me out and that's it", she responded, sounding as genuine as she could.
Her acting skills failed her this time. "Your face had more red in it than the flags on the golf course, girl."
"Was it really that bad?", the brunette sighed and fell onto her bed.
Yancy was very blunt about it. "I saw it from the playing field, if your new friend didn't mention it, he's either the most kind or most dense guy on campus." Her intention to get her friend to giggle with her worked, reliably.
After a while, Rosa shook her head. "I think he didn't notice. But he's definitely very kind and supportive, he was there for his friend, too, and saved me like it was nothing-"
"Sounds like you have a crush to me", the future idol chirped, to which her roommate blushed furiously once more.
"No, I don't!", the other immediately denied, only afterwards noticing she said it way to fast.
"Yes, you do!"
"No, never!"
"It's so obvious", Yancy had fun playfully teasing her friend some more, as they continued arguing over it the rest of the evening, despite the attempts to distract with praise for the won competition or questions about each other's classes.
Eventually, the pink-haired woman had to give up first. "Fine, you win, I'm going to sleep now, I wish you sweet dreams of your definitely-not-crush", she rested her case with a wink before leaving to get ready for bed.
Rosa took a deep breath, knowing she'd have to focus again now, starting by pretending to do the same as her friend packing her bag for the next day of lectures and going to the bathroom to change clothes.
Once she had made sure Yancy was actually asleep, she got out the box hidden in the secret compartment invisible behind the mirror. A few minutes later, she quietly left the dorm in her costume, the sounds of her roommate's breathing in her sleep louder than her steps.
Her destination this night was the mansion of one of her most stern professors. It didn't have anything to do with him giving unfair grades and stuff like that, it was just that the teachers at university were usually very rich and had more to give, and she wouldn't have the heart to go after a professor who treated their students kindly. And after all, he would get the money for what she'd steal back since the university paid their overly high wages with the overly expensive student fees.
She had prepared in the previous days while waiting for the dust to settle after Whi-Two's last housebreaking, and had been careful to only sell what she last had stolen when nobody was looking for it anymore.
As she approached the mansion through the woods on its east, the cape of her costume - black as the rest of it to blend in with the night - waved in the soft wind blowing through the trees. Originally there had been no cape among her clothes, she had designed the outfit for practicability and inconspicuousness. However, when the police and newspapers had started to make her alter ego more famous or infamous, she thought she could as well roll with it, now sporting a black feather hat to better hide her hair, a mask more like for a ball and a cape hiding her backpack.
Since she would neither have the money for such items, nor would she waste the returns from what she had stolen like this, it was probably no surprise they had been handmade by her mother, who was thinking they were for a theater course at uni. "I'm sure the class will love it", Rosa remembered her saying. Sure enough, the Castelia citizens' gossip showed a lot of favoritism when seeing another article in the news, so that was something, right?
Most rich people in the city had started laying traps in their homes since they feared they could be the next victim of Whi-Two. Professor Colress was no exception, having had the ideas to attach gratings to his windows on the lower floor and letting his cat sleep exactly in front of the door so it'd wake up if anyone opened it from outside.
The master thief appreciated the effort as she climbed up the side of the house with her throwing hook and rope tied to it, staying hidden in the shadow the house threw due to the direction from which the moonlight shone on it. "We wouldn't wanna wake the poor kitten", she smiled to herself while carefully opening the window from outside with her equipment.
Entering the large house through said window, she found herself in a washroom, making no sound and hearing no sound around her. To prevent unexpected thoughts from outside ruining her plan, she closed the windows again, planning to go out on a different way to not run the risk of being cut off either way.
What she had come to this place for was a sculpture that Professor Colress had mentioned in one of his lectures as an example of something to be stolen. He should have probably seen that irony coming, Whi-Two thought when she was sneaking down the stairs to the entrance hall where said sculpture stood on a pedestal to greet visitors.
Carefully, the intruder tiptoed towards the object of her desire, positioned to be easily seen and thus easy to get to. Of course, its owner had spared no effort and laid out a string that would set off a bell if someone picked the valuable item up. Expecting it to be there, Whi-Two spared no effort and took a moment to cut the string the bell wasn't connected to the sculpture anymore.
That would have been the point at which she could simply finish her job and leave. Except this time, it wasn't as simple. The real trap hadn't been the string, instead, when she took what she had come for and quickly went to placing it in her backpack, four policemen from Scotland Yard, led by their Inspector whom the thief knew from many newspaper articles about herself, came out of the living room and kitchen raising their sabers at her to ensure she wouldn't try to fight them.
Their chief Clay had a satisfied smile on his face. "It seems our source was correct. We finally got the famous thief Whi-Two cornered. Miss, you're under arrest for countless cases with burglary. You're coming with us now", he exclaimed victory as he had surely waited to do for a long time.
"I'm afraid I have to decline", the young woman responded, half paying attention to her counterpart and half thinking of how she could escape this situation.
The Inspector's smile fell off his face quickly at these words. "That was not an offer." His blade pointed at her menacingly.
Whi-Two's smile, meanwhile, stayed intact. "I bet the newspapers will praise you even more highly when I put up a fight, won't they?"
Watching her drawing a rapier from her belt that had been hidden underneath the cape, the men grimaced. "Your shameful struggle will be noted by them for sure", their leader returned, launching an attack towards her.
All the times her opponents had used this move in her fencing course ran through the thief's mind, it was easy to dodge. She knew she was at a natural disadvantage due to her opponents having way more protective gear and weapons made to actually hurt. Hers was the cheapest one she had been able to get into the course with, thus the only promising option seemed to be disarming.
To keep the Inspector's saber away from her body, she hit the side of it with her own blade, then using the imbalance and surprise of her foe to go for a cuff cut, aiming for the wrist and leaving a wound - small, but enough to make him drop his weapon.
"Argh, you little-", he wanted to swear, but found himself met with his own blade threatening him as Whi-Two had quickly picked it up to keep him at a distance.
The other four, previously too overwhelmed to intervene, now found it was their time to step in, which the burglar knew was her time to step out. So many opponents at once, regardless of their skill, weren't desirable for her to fight.
Luckily, she had fought herself to a position from which she could flee in all the different rooms of the mansion. She used multiple smoke bombs from her arsenal to cover the room with a veil that made it impossible to see the direction she headed off to.
Still, the policemen were quick to react: "Don't let her escape!", their chief shouted as if the smoke also affected their hearing. "Each of you takes one room, I'll block the exit. She can't get out of here!" All four rooms on the ground floor were soon cut off by the officers. What they hadn't expected, however, was Whi-Two rushing up the stairs again.
Going back the way she had come in would have been too risky, since there were probably more officers outside waiting at the street to the mansion, so she had to reach a window at the backside of the building. She was able to deduce one of the two rooms which could have such a window was the bedroom of her professor, and while she didn't know whether he or his family were there, she wasn't inclined to find out.
That left her with only one choice, entering what was apparently a private library. She had no time to focus on the books, her attention was immediately taken by a young man wearing a costume clearly inspired by her own, his cape, mask and the feather on his hat shining blue in the little moonlight reaching the room. "So you fled up here instead of going for the door? I'd say it was unexpected, but if so I wouldn't be in this spot right now", he spoke, satisfied with his correct deduction.
The thief knew he meant trouble straight away. She didn't like the thought of her moves having been predicted, neither did she appreciate his way of copying. He was evidently free of her restrictions, as he neither had to worry about staying inconspicuous nor about saving money, having lots of silver ornaments on him to fully lean into the costume aspect of the clothes. "And who are you, copycat?", she inquired with a challenging tone.
"If you're Whi-Two, you can call me Lack-Two. I'm the one who will take you down."
"Does that mean you're with the police?", the addressed questioned, continuing to examine the new enemy and their surroundings.
At least his voice wasn't loud enough to alert the officers still in the lower floor. "Only for the time being, I like to think of myself as a private detective." He kept his eyes focused on her the entire time, surely noticing how her mind ran through different plans.
Once she had finally decided on how she wanted this to go, the smile found its way back on her face, beaming with confidence. "You want to take me down? What's in it for you? Money? Glory? A gold star on that costume of yours?", she teased, playing around with the two weapons she was still holding.
The detective met her expression, finding a liking in her poise. "That's what's in it for you, I'm mainly here to have some fun with a cute girl", he struck back. While his hands calmly adjusted the collar of his costume, in the corner of his eye he noticed her facade break for just a microsecond when he called her cute.
That didn't last long, however. "You wanna play?", she asked grinning. "Let's play."
Without another second wasted, Whi-Two attacked him with her two swords, hoping to scare him out of the way quickly. She had never trained wielding two blades before, thus using the second one to widen her reach and strike to where her foe could dodge to.
Just as quickly, however, she was surprised by him pulling out a training rapier similar to hers - except for this one being a more expensive model, of course - and using the fluid movement of him drawing it to parry her move. "Let's play." Before she knew it, the tip of his blade was behind her quillon, he simply straightened his bent wrist again to pull her rapier out of her hands.
Whi-Two watched her priced possession drop to the ground coming to a stop beneath the window she had wanted to escape through, finally finding her balance again realizing she'd need to. It was one weapon against one now, him with his rapier against her with the Inspector's saber. "You went for the rapier on purpose knowing I'm less used to this weapon", she noted, looking at the kind of sword she hadn't even held before. He was a challenge after all. One that she wanted to pass.
This time, it was him striking first, using a very basic prim cut, his blade moving down against her obvious block as she held the saber horizontally in front of her. "I'm not taking any risks when I don't know how good you are yet", Lack-Two confirmed her hypothesis, following his attack up with a step forward while she defended, closing the gap between them.
His opponent was forced to step back to avoid the tip of his weapon, opening the blade lock and thus giving him room for another strike from a different angle, and another and another. He kept pushing her back until she found an opening when he moved his blade upwards, dodging to her left side and using the momentum to go for his unguarded waist, only to get caught in his quillon.
"You're not underestimating me? Then this must be the best you've got", the thief tried to provoke her adversary, hoping it would lead him to make a mistake as her sharp edge came closer to his pretty face than he probably wanted it to be, his own rapier just barely fitting between to keep her from cutting it. She had no actual intention to harm him, and underestimated the power of a weapon not just made for show, but had little time to think about that now as he already twisted his wrist to make himself room for a counter attack.
The foe would not be teased, however. He even gave off the impression to enjoy her playfulness. "I'm gonna give my best for you if you go out with me, right now I'm just testing the waters", he retorted. His blade was longer than hers, and he used that to his advantage by bringing its top close to her once more despite their weapons still blocking each other, forcing her to step back as to not get hit.
She lifted her foot to move backwards and immediately regretted it. The detective made use of her second of imbalance by pushing forward. He went for her saber with a swift motion, hitting it directly and thereby making her stumble aback. Whi-Two felt the bookshelf behind her blocking any further escape in that direction, fear of being outdone by the stranger coming up inside her. He raised his right elbow preparing for another strike to her right side. Parrying would have required a very quick repositioning which she didn't feel brave enough for.
In her mind formed a plan, however, as she rolled to her left in order to evade the attack. With great precision, the tip of his rapier entered the hilt of her saber, allowing him to pull it out of her hand. His movement went in the opposite direction than her maneuver, thus making it impossible to hold on to the stolen weapon. He had disarmed her once more. Ending up in the position where he had stood before her duel, the burglar found herself met with the rapier pointed at her, with no sword left to defend herself. "Touche", she admitted with an impressed yet not defeated grin.
Hurried footsteps from the stairs were audible, announcing that the policemen were on the way, probably having caught on to the fight going on when they heard the rather heavy saber rattling as it hit the floor. "As much as I enjoy your company, it seems our little play must come to an end now", Lack-Two said, and it sounded to her like he would have preferred another repartee.
Surrendering was the last thing on her mind right now, though. "You fight well, but you made a crucial mistake." Her seductive smile to lure him in was showing effect.
"And what would that be?" His own smile showed curiosity above all else.
"Leaving the exit unguarded." Another smoke bomb dropped from her hand. With the surprise on her side, she managed to pick up her precious rapier and escape through the window as originally planned before he found a good way to react, since he evidently had no interest in risking to hit her with his sword more than necessary.
Reaching the windowsill with the rapier back on her belt and the climbing rope back in her hand, she saw the inspector tumble through the door frame closely followed by his subordinates, stopping behind Lack-Two trying to understand what was going on in the room. "See you again soon, detective", Whi-Two laughed, throwing a flying kiss to him in ecstasy over her successful getaway as she jumped outside, knowing that at this point they wouldn't be able to hold her anymore.
And her pursuers knew it as well, so they just stood there watching after her, all with different feelings. "So confident, how could I resist", the private detective enthused, earning himself a stunned look from the inspector as he looked out the window following the woman of his desire with his gaze as she disappeared into the woods.