While doing her previous job with Raymus, she was walking home to her house with her family. Nakamura Manor was filled with lights and everything showing a sign of life still inside of it. Lector walked beside her as they reached the gates, she unlocked it with a small keypad. After typing in the code, the gates opened. When she returned into the house, she slumped onto the couch out of exhaustion. Lying her head back on the edge of the couch, Lector checked the mail to see if anything interesting showed up. A special envelope with a red wax seal and a special stamp of importance. She recognized the stamp on the envelope. The last time she had seen this was when she was a Rune Knight years ago. Special jobs like this were approved with this seal and sent to specific mage requested to follow. Rarely, would they ever send this kind of job to anyone in a light guild. This was something fishy. She could smell the raw seafood smell emitting from this envelope.

“What’s this?” Lector leaped onto her shoulder to see what she was staring at. Several minutes of silence remained. It wasn’t until she grabbed her father’s letter opener and neatly ripped the envelope. Inside, a letter written to her making the request to do some fake job. Clearly, she couldn’t tell how legit this was, but why the hell not? IF someone went out of their way to mail this to her, she might as well follow through with this. With a heavy sigh, she dragged herself to go find this client. This was smelling fishy as hell to her, but what could she do.

“Let’s go on another job, Lector. This is a special job request meant for us,” she replied, finally. Lee was tired and wanted to sleep, but a mage can’t sleep when there was evil about. She adjusted her hair into a ponytail and fixed up her appearance for fighting. Getting the right outfit is what she learned from Blue Pegasus to keep up a decent appearance when fighting. Having the right clothing can make all the more difference. After a half hour of getting ready, she finally felt right enough to go on this mission. Lector was waiting by the door, she let her parents know where she was going in case she went missing again. The dragon slayer opened the door and closed it behind them. Lector hopped onto Lee’s shoulder for a free ride. They walked down the dark streets of Hargeon in the well lit areas. She looked at the job again to make sure she got the correct information. There laid a lot of information on where to specifically meet which was odd since jobs gavea a general area. She shrugged it off. Lee followed the directions to the letter and found a small spot that was not well lit that gave her shivers.

Ragtime grew worried. “Kid, I don’t like the looks of this.” The feeling grew even more within her stomach growing tight and more into a knot. She took a look around within the dark. A small flame emitted in her palm to provide light. The warmer tones lit the brick walls of two buildings and several areas such as a bench and a lacrima lamppost. Lector was still on her shoulder and saw something rattling around in an alleyway. He pointed his paw a person with familiar pink hair and armor. Her heart dropped a little bit seeing her brother. Ragtime already smelled something fishy. The stretch smelled like burning straw to the dragon slayer’s nose. The smell of ash and lavender. A weird combination in her opinion. Her eyes caught something as the figure stood up, turning towards her. Lee’s eyes grew as her heart leaped into her throat.

“Hikaru? What….how...Where have you been? Dad and I miss you so much,” he smiled, covering her mouth. Tears of joy streamed down her face. Hikaru stared at her with a blank face and without a word spoke slowly. Hikaru’s movements were jagged as if he were a robot or being controlled by someone or something. Lee felt a little uncomfortable with the not so humanistic movement.

“Lee….Ann….I….missed….you….tooo….” it spoke very slowly. She grew a little worried as she stared at her brother with a little bit of a cocked head tilt to the side. “Hikaru? Why are you talking so funny? Big bro, you know its okay to talk faster, right?” All of the sudden he moved towards her. W

“Kid, look out!” Ragtime took over her body and moved out of the way just in time. Hikaru had lunged towards her to attempt to attack her. Luckly, Ragtime moved out of hte way. “That’s not your brother, kid! It’s clearly a puppet, look carefully…” told Ragtime. Now, she carefully look around once Ragtime allowed her to stare at the doll for a split second. She saw very faint strings glistening in the moonlight connected to the joints.

“He’s a puppet….this whole thing was a trap!”

Ragtime groaned in irritation. “No shit sherlock. Now, let me do my thing.” He could feel the hesitation in Lee’s body not wanting to attack what looked to be exactly like her brother. Ragtime took over her body once again. He knew going into this situation something was not right.

“Lector, lift me up!”

“Yes, ma’am.” Lector wrapped his tail around her waist and lifted her up 5 meters into the air. Ragtime did his job to coordinate everything. “Now!”

“On it,” replied Lector. He unwrapped his tail to let Lee downward. “Kid, I am going to let you do this. Now...beat the living shit out of this puppet. Remember this isn’t you brother.” Ragtime let her go, back into control of her body. Lee aimed her feet downward on the puppet. IT wasn’t the fastest thing as she landed on it causing C-rank damage. The dragon slayer moved quickly to give the two of them space.

“Hikaru, please! Can you listen to me? Please...lets not fight”

“Kid, listen to me. This is NOT your brother. Stop thinking that,” pleaded Ragtime. Lee was still rather confused even if she knew this was a trap. The puppet must have some resemblance to Hikaru physically; it looks almost exactly alike apart from the puppet-like joints. Inside, she felt her heart break. This couldn’t be her brother. This was someone’s thought of a dirty joke they had made a fool over her already. She kept playing catch up with her brother. He didn’t seem to want to attack her magically. This made her believe the puppet had some reminiscences of her big brother. He was so kind and loving. His hugs, his words, even his gaze. Her stomach turned into knots seeing this remembering all the good times they had together as children.

She huffed. Her left hand formed a tight ball, cursing under her breath. She hated this to anything that resembled her elder brother, but this was a puppet. It was fake. Lifting her left arm to her side in an outward motion. A red magic circle appeared underneath her causing her left arm to appear into a flaming blade. She huffed. She ran at him at “ “ and swung her left arm at him 4 different times causing 4 D-rank’s worth of damage and hopped backward. There was a small pause before swung her right hand into the puppets back causing 1 C-rank worth of damage and swiped her blade twice causing another C-rank worth of damage. She was slowly chipping damage away bit by bit. The puppet lunged again, this time she stepped to the right a few feet.

“This thing definitely doesn’t fight like Hikaru.” Ragtime mentioned to Lee. She nodded in agreement. The puppet paused.

“Why...LeeAnn...why...would…you...hurt….your big...bro..ther” it spoke slowly. The puppet cried a fake tear, making LeeAnn hesitate again. Ragtime groaned and got tired of her behavior. He took over her body once more. He dissipated the spell and lunged at “....” speed at the puppet. Lee left hooked the puppet then a right hook, causing 2 C-rank worth damage. He added another punch then a kick.

“I..am...so...sick...of this shit,” she spoke. Ragtime punched the seven different times on the face out of anger. He was so sick of someone imitating Hikaru which was one, disrespectful and two mind gaming his host. It was annoying and caused her to suffer. Even a chaotic spirit has his limits. Huffing, he punched eight more times making his point clear. The last punch caused the head to rip off. This made Lee scream and wanting to go back, but Ragtime forced her to go pick up the head and stare at it. He studied it for quite some time before he saw loose stuffing. Some of it fell out of the head and onto the ground. Inside the stuffing was a note. Lee picked it up and opened up the note saying:

“The Nakamura family is next!”

Ragtime gritted his teeth. Both of them fumed with anger for using Hikaru as a way to get to her, but aiming for Lee’s family. Lee’s anger rose within her much like a smoldering fire. The note burned into ash as she fumed with rage.

“Not if I get to him first! Watch out, Solomon. I am coming.” Ragtime couldn’t get a hold of her attention at all, no matter what he could do. He was completely shut out by her. “Lee, wait! Do you even know where to look? Or anything about this guy?”

Lee paused, realizing the chaotic spirit had a point. She knew nothing of this Solomon guy, only he was behind Astrid’s attack and now this one.She stamped the ground angry. The kitsune hugged and flared her nostrils, dragon-like. Embers emerged from the huffy breaths of her temper. Ragtime and Lector had to calm her down before making a plan. An angry Lee is an unpredictable Lee. The unlit bench was nearby. She sat on it as she leaned back looking back at the puppet. It’s lifeless body lies there making her feel an urge with pain and guilt. That was a false image of her brother. His eyes were much warmer and kinder towards his baby sister. Oh now much she missed him, but how much he would be in trouble if Solomon got a hold of him. The dragon slayer had her mind running a mile a minute. Taking a death breath and holding it for a few moments, she felt her heart skip a beat then slow down. Letting out all of hte tense energy, she felt better.

“Now, kid, here’s the gist. This Solomon guy is after you and the family. Find out his plan and stop it.”

She rolled her eyes at how vague Ragtime was. Internally, she wanted more of a thorough plan and well thought out. “Not how it works, Ragtime. If anyone else knows about Solomon, it would be dad and Uncle Simon. I am going to meet with them tomorrow. I am tired of running around in circles trying to find a ghost of an unknown past,” she explained. Getting up, she picked Lector up and hugged him. This whole time the exceed grew worried thinking she was going crazy, but knew there was something else up she wasn’t telling him. “Are you talking to yourself again?”

“No buddy. Talking to Ragtime, that ghost you keep seeing” she spoke. The exceed didn’t argie with her, knowing what the results would be. She dragged the puppet and the head to a patch of unkempt land and burned it to ash. The flames emitting from the burning straw corpse made her cry yet calm. As the smoke rose up into the sky, she gave this puppet a viking funeral. Even if it tried to kill her, it still was some resemblance of her brother. She kept the necklace it was wearing as a memento to her brother. “I am so sorry. Hikaru, please be okay.”

“Kid, you did the right thing. Even if the puppet wasn’t alive, it seemed to be forced to attack you. Maybe puppets hold some memory of their beholder like your brother. I did see it cry a little.” The comment from Ragtime made her fall to her knees and sob as the fire grew more with the smoke.

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