The party wakes up in the morning and they all get ready. Wasting no time they depart from the town.
Heading in the direction of the empire facility. Kaito excited to get on his trail finds himself getting impatient. "I wish we could move faster!"
"Nope no speeding this journey up, we gotta use the power of good ol legs!" Rika says happily.
Nanami stops for a moment. "That little boy?" She questions. Kaito stops for a moment before quickly shrugging it off. "I'm sure it's fine." He says.
In just a few hours they spot the facility, to their surprise they see the magistrate entering the building. "We got here at the same time as him?" Dante questions.
Kaito doesn't think far into the implications. "Good that means we can catch him!" He says.
"No flying monster, and the guild isn't here, I suppose he dropped them somewhere else first before coming here to avoid drawing suspicion to himself." Nanami explains.
Dante breathes a sigh of relief. He really didn't wanna deal with those guys again.
"Alright lets go in and find the guy." Kaito says.
Rika raises her hands and casts an illusion over the group. In an instant, the four of them vanish from sight. They walk straight past the guards, completely unnoticed.
Once inside, Rika lets the spell drop. "Alright, everyone—stealth is our best friend from here on out," she says.
Kaito grins and grabs Dante by the shoulders. "No problem. We're basically ninjas," he says with full confidence.
He then takes two steps and immediately locks eyes with a guard.
"…Hey! Intruders!" the guard shouts, sounding almost surprised.
An alarm blares. Kaito slowly turns to Rika and Nanami with a sheepish smile.
Rika gives him a long, disappointed look. "I'm gonna let you two handle this."
Nanami nods. "Yeah. Good luck with that. We'll go find the magistrate."
Before Kaito or Dante can protest, Rika recasts the illusion—just on herself and Nanami—and they vanish without another word.
"Wait—seriously? That was his fault!" Dante calls out, already hearing footsteps.
The guards begin flooding the hall.
Dante sighs and rubs the bridge of his nose. "Okay, new plan. I'll let them catch me. Once they stop sounding the alarm, find me, okay?"
Kaito gives a determined nod and ducks into the shadows. Seconds later, a net launches at Dante, and he's dragged off with minimal fanfare.
"Yep. Great plan," he mutters.
Meanwhile, Rika and Nanami stroll through the halls, invisible and calm.
"So… Kaito," Nanami says.
Rika sighs. "Yeah. He means well."
Back at the guard station, Dante is tossed into a glowing metal cage. Kaito silently follows from above, then drops down once the coast is clear.
He grabs the bars of the cage and immediately recoils. "Ow. That tingles."
"El-Metal," Dante explains. "They use it to hold mages. Cancels magic. And apparently zaps hands."
Kaito frowns. "Okay, so… how am I supposed to get you out?"
Dante leans back in the cage. "Well… you're good at improvising, right?"
Kaito stares at the cage like it personally offended him. "…Sure. Totally."
a slow applause from behind grabs their attention. Turning around Kaito sees the magistrate along with numerous guards. His cartoony laugh nearly making the duo's ears bleed. "You just walked right into my trap!" He looks around annoyed not seeing the other two.
"It would seem the women were able to avoid capture." The magistrate says before dramatically posing. "But no matter, for one as great as I!" He says before tapping his face.
In an instant, the magistrate's face shifts—morphing seamlessly into Rika's.
Kaito gasps, taking a full step back. "Rika?! You're the magistrate?!"
Dante blinks. "Seriously, Kaito?"
The magistrate, still wearing Rika's face, lets out a delighted laugh. "Oh, that's adorable. No. But thank you for the compliment."
He drops the illusion, revealing his true face again. "Guards! Kill them!"
The soldiers charge forward without hesitation. Their sheer numbers make Kaito instinctively step back—right into the cage again. The familiar magical buzz shoots up his arm, and something clicks in his brain.
"I've got it!" he exclaims.
Dante immediately looks concerned. "You've got something. That's for sure."
Kaito grabs the cage and hoists it off the ground, jostling Dante like a hamster in a very aggressive wheel.
"Kaito, don't—" Dante barely gets the words out before Kaito throws the cage, with Dante still inside.
The metal prison crashes into a cluster of guards with a loud clang, knocking them over like bowling pins. Before they can regroup, Kaito charges after it and uses the cage—again with Dante inside—as a battering ram to knock another guard flat.
From inside, Dante shouts, "I am not a weapon!"
Kaito, panting from the magical drain, doesn't stop. "You're a team player!"
He rushes at the next wave of guards, swinging the cage like a giant flail. The guards panic and start scattering.
The magistrate watches from a distance, arms crossed, expression slowly shifting from confident to mildly horrified. These were supposed to be elite imperial troops—and they were losing to one very sweaty teenager using his trapped friend as a blunt object.
"Come at me!" Kaito shouts, almost triumphant.
"Please don't," Dante adds from inside the cage.
As the guards flee down the hallway, yelping and tripping over each other, the magistrate sighs and slowly backs away.
"This is… embarrassing," he mutters.
Turning on his heel, he bolts down the corridor. "No matter! I'll catch the others myself—and use them as leverage to make that kid give up!"
His face shifts once more—this time into a perfect replica of Kaito's, complete with a slightly unhinged grin.
The magistrate cackles to himself, running off into the halls.
Kaito continues his attack with Dante inside of the cage. One final mighty throw into the guards causes the latch to break Dante spilling from the cage, in a dizzy mess.
"Come on Dante! We have to catch that guy!" Kaito says. Dante stands up barely able to hold his balance. "Yeah, uhm definetly mom." Dante responds, completly out of it.
As the girls wander around the place they run into the magistrate. "Oh Kaito, you got away." Rika says.
The magistrate poses. "But of course i did! I used my masterful cunning as you know." The magistrate says instantly raising alarm bells. "Why are you talking so..... smart?" Rika asks.
Nanami pulls her to the side. "Rika he's clearly a fake." Nanami mentions. "Not only is his eyebrow scar on the wrong side he's weird, but not Kaito weird." Nanami explains. The girls then turn their attention back to him.
Before they can turn to play along the magistrate seemed to have frozen in place. "Hey, buddy you alright?" They asks him. The magistrate's words come out like a gurgle before he falls down onto his face.
The girls seem startled so they slowly approach him. The sight that awaits them horrfies the grils. The magistrates body was pierced by three knives. one in his lower spine, on his shoulder and the third in his nape. The crimson blood stained the ground around them. The most horrible part of his death was he still had Kaito's face.
The only thing they saw was the lifeless body of their friend.