D. N. Angel Fan Fiction ❯ Who is the Greatest Thief? ❯ A World of One's Own ( Chapter 5 )

Who is the Greatest Thief?

 

Chapter 5—A World of One's Own

 

Note:::

 

`. . .' is Daisuke speaking to Dark

 

:. . .: is Dark speaking to Daisuke

 

---

 

Akkiko was situated in the shadows beside an ancient throne. A few guards had passed by and not given her a glance. Magic shimmered around her, causing the eyes to slide away, the mind to turn to more important matters.

 

When the lights went out at last, she stood and stretched. “'Bout time, Kitsune,” she grumbled, making her way through the dark corridors of the museum. Her eyes gleamed pure silver when any light caught them.

 

She entered the room where Athena's Divine Star was located. Someone—perhaps a die-hard worshipper of Athena—had lit a candle and placed in front of the display case. The flame reflected against the glass and the sapphire itself, causing an illusion of eerie blue mist to shine on the walls.

 

A voice crackled in Akkiko's earpiece. “We're good to go. The alarm's off on the case,” Kitsune said.

 

“Thanks.” Akkiko bowed her head for a brief moment, then licked her fingers and snuffed the candle. She then pushed a few buttons on the consol, and the glass lifted. She took the sapphire in hand, cradling it gently. She spun when she heard a sound in the next room. A guard? she thought. Or is it Dark?

 

She crouched, running low to the ground toward the sound. She leaned against the wall, peering around the corner. As she listened, she slipped the jewel into a pouch at her belt.

 

Dark ran out of the room, crashing into her. Akkiko fell to the floor, and heard shouting.

 

“Some phantom thief,” she said, arching an eyebrow. “Isn't the point not to get caught?”

 

“Oh, shut up,” Dark grumbled. “You done here?”

 

“Yeah—”

 

“Then move it.” Dark grabbed her arm, pulling her up as he ran. Akkiko stumbled, then fell into step beside him.

 

“You going up?” she asked.

 

Dark nodded as they entered the central part of the museum. A huge skylight was above them. “Ladies first.”

 

Akkiko made a face and took off, Dark a hair's breath behind her. The skylight shattered, and Akkiko shielded her face as she gained altitude. So much for a quiet exit, she thought. Out of the corned of her eye, Akkiko saw Tenshi coming towards her. Time to try and salvage their plan. . .

 

“Tenshi! Think fast!” Akkiko called, and tossed the Divine Star at the darkangel, who yelped.

 

“I'm in handcuffs, here!”

 

A dark shape zipped past, snatching up the sapphire. Akkiko and Tenshi both called out as Dark landed on the roof, smirking. The crowd below was going nuts.

 

“Evening ladies,” he said, bowing slightly.

 

Akkiko blew some hair out of her eyes, impatient. “Lemme guess—turnabout is fair play.”

 

“Oh yeah. It's payback time.” The Phantom Thief held up the sapphire, turning it this way and that. “Not a bad piece. But I am curious about why you'd want it. I'd think three pretty girls like you would have boyfriends to buy you jewels—hey!!”

 

Akkiko had flown over to Tenshi, and was trying to unlock the handcuffs.

 

“Ow!” Tenshi said in protest.

 

“Damn new models. . .” Akkiko muttered, reaching into the kit on her belt for another lock-pick.

 

Dark fumed. :Maybe I should just take it.:

 

`Dark! Let's just get out of here!' Daisuke pleaded. The crowd below was growing larger; the searchlights had been turned on and were focused on the roof, giving everyone a clear view of the three thieves present.

 

“Got it!” Akkiko laughed as Tenshi rubbed her freed wrists. “There's no lock I can't beat!”

 

“How nice for you,” Dark grumbled. He turned his gaze to Tenshi. “By the way, what kind of thief can't even undo a set of handcuffs?”

 

Tenshi glared at him. “That's not my job—I'm not the one who deals with the locks and crap.”

 

“Er, guys? I don't think this is the best place for a conversation,” Akkiko said, thumbing at the crowd.

 

“Oh, so now you're the voice of reason,” Tenshi scoffed.

 

Before Akkiko could come up with a suitable retort, the doors of the museum burst open. A police officer ran out, reached the middle of the courtyard, and pulled off `his' uniform with one motion.

 

Kitsune looked up at the roof, ignoring the chaos her entry had caused. The dust around her feet swirled as wind came from her person, and then black fire spun itself from the wind, surrounding her, supporting her, lifting her into the air.

 

“Where's the Divine Star?” she called.

 

“Hiya, Kit,” Akkiko said, her expression bland. “Nice to see you too. I loved your entrance. But isn't flashy more my style?”

 

“I had to get out quickly and find you,” Kitsune snapped. “Now where's the jewel?” Tenshi and Akkiko both pointed at Dark. “Okay. Don't move.”

 

“Why not?” Dark asked. “Don't you want this back?” He held out the Divine Star. Kitsune flinched.

 

Tenshi stared at her. “Kitsune, what's wrong?”

 

“It's a bomb.”

 

“What?!” In a typical reaction to such news, Dark almost dropped the gem. Everyone on the roof froze.

 

“Why is it that whenever we steal something we have little to no info on, it's capable of killing us?” Tenshi asked, her voice icy.

 

“Yeah, remember that sword in India? I still can't believe it possessed you, Kitsune,” Akkiko said, smiling grimly.

 

“Oy, don't you have some protective seals we can put on that thing?” Tenshi asked Kitsune, who shook her head.

 

“No, I didn't think we'd need them.”

 

“And you used to be Girl Scout.” Everyone gave her a blank looks. Tenshi smacked her forehead, and saluted with three fingers. “Be prepared?” Recognition dawned on their faces. “Oh, whatever,” she snapped, and went towards Dark, holding out her hand. “Give it to me; there are mild wards on my carrying bag. Hopefully it won't go off while it's in there.”

 

“Hopefully?” Dark carefully handed it over, wincing as the weight left his hands and went into hers.

 

“Hey, just be grateful that you're not the one with the hot potato anymore.” Tucking the jewel in her bag, Tenshi retied it to her waist, looking a little pale.

 

“If you need magical wards,” Dark said, “we. . .Daisuke's family should have some.”

 

The three girls glanced at each other. “We don't have time to go back to the apartment,” Kitsune said, checking her watch.

 

“Okay.” Akkiko nodded at Dark. “Lead the way.”

 

---

 

“Before we hand over the seals,” Dark said, sitting on the couch with Wiz asleep on his knee, “I would like to know just what you're doing here.”

 

“Stealing stuff,” Akkiko said, accepting a cup of tea from Emiko Niwa. She smirked at Dark's annoyed glare.

 

“We're retrieving special items and returning them to the rightful owners,” Kitsune said, rolling her eyes.

 

“`Rightful owners'?” Kosuke Niwa looked up from his book.

 

The three girls looked at each other.

 

“. . .What we mean is, people who live in different worlds. Different dimensions,” Tenshi finally said.

 

“What are you saying, like the Twilight Zone?” Dark asked sarcastically.

 

“It's a possibility,” the three girls said at once.

 

“Here's how it was explained to us,” Kitsune said. “A single world only extends to what a person knows and feels and sees. But beyond that there are infinite causalities—infinite universes.”

 

“We're from a different world,” Akkiko said, taking a bite of cake. “It's the same case with science fiction or fantasy worlds in books or movies—everything has truth to it, it just may not be in this world. Thank-you for the snacks, Mrs. Niwa.”

 

“Oh—you're welcome,” Emiko said, a little startled. “But. . .”

 

“How do we know you're not making this up?” Dark snapped.

 

“It's true that some worlds in books are made up,” Tenshi said, her arms crossed. “And what we're saying could be made up. It all depends on your point-of-view.” She leaned forward, looking directly into Dark's eyes, and sliding her gaze to each member of the Niwa family. “You've all seen amazing things—true things. But to those who do not normally experience these things, they would merely be delusional, made up stuff.”

 

“The world we come from,” Kitsune continued. “Is much like this one—but boring. There isn't much magic there anymore. It's all died out; been forgotten. So we decided to take up work in other worlds. That way we could see different ways the planet turned out—and the different ways we turned out.”

 

“Eh?” The Niwa family glanced at each other, confused.

 

“Oh,” Akkiko laughed. “Sometimes in a different world there are different versions of one character. For example: us. Somewhere in this world, there could be another version of Akkiko, Kitsune and Tenshi, but they've grown up under different circumstances, lived different lives.”

 

“But we would share the same souls with them.” Kitsune poured herself another cup of tea. “Any questions?”

 

“So—are you saying that there could be different versions of me?” Dark shouted. “Or of Daisuke?”

 

“Sure,” Tenshi said. “There could even be worlds where you are two separate entities—two bodies instead of one.”

 

“And in another world you may not exist outside of some shojo manga fantasy,” Kitsune added.

 

Dark collapsed on the couch, looking rather overwhelmed.

 

“Now that you mention shojo manga. . .” Akkiko said slowly, staring at Dark.

 

Tenshi blinked. “Wait a minute.” The three girls stared at each other for several moments. A story of a normal teenage boy whose alter ego was a famous art thief. . .

 

(Interruption: The authoress grins evilly and waves to everyone reading this. Nyah-ha-ha.)

 

Kitsune coughed. “Anyways—how about those seals?”

 

“Hang on,” Dark said, coming out of his reverie. “You haven't answered my question. I can accept that you're here from another world, or whatever—but why are you stealing pieces from this world?”

 

“They're not,” the girls said in unison again.

 

“Sometimes things accidentally slip through to different worlds,” Kitsune said. “More often, someone who's jumping between worlds brings artifacts and sells them off or just leaves them.”

 

“Think of it as a multi-universal black market,” Akkiko put in.

 

“The problem is that it causes an imbalance between worlds,” Tenshi said. “You all know the power a piece of art holds—when that power is taken away from one world, and concentrates in another. . .well, it can start to cause problems.”

 

“What kinds of problems?” Kosuke asked.

 

“Chaos begins to break out. The world the art is introduced to may not be able to handle the magic it brings—such is the case with the Divine Star.” She nodded to the jewel, still in the pouch, that had been placed on the table. “It is a perfectly harmless thing to most in this world, but it was created to be a weapon in its original world.”

 

“The problems can be endless,” Kitsune said. “The soul of an artwork can grow stronger, and begin to possess people—or the soul can wane away, so the magic is lost forever to every world. And in some places magic is everything, the most precious thing.”

 

“So that's why we're thieves,” Akkiko said. “We return artifacts to their original owners—their original worlds. And in return we get to see many different worlds.”

 

“But how can you travel from world to world?” Grandpa Niwa asked. “Surely it isn't easy.”

 

The three girls grinned at each other. “We have a very good travel agent,” Akkiko said.

 

“She's one of those people who understands about balance between worlds,” Tenshi added. “Mainly because she's traveled to a lot of them.”

 

“Now that we've answered your question, can we please put some magic seals on the bomb?” Kitsune asked cheerfully.

 

“Eh? Oh, yeah. Sure.” Dark looked over at Grandpa. “Daiki?”

 

Grandpa opened a door and pulled out some ofuda. Kitsune took these and examined them.

 

“Not bad,” she muttered. “I just to make a few modifications, if you don't mind.”

 

“Not at all.”

 

“Tenshi? Akkiko?”

 

Tenshi stood, her wings growing to their full length and pulling a feather out. Akkiko pulled a knife from her belt and handed it to Tenshi, who pricked one finger. Dipping the tip of the feather in the blood that welled up, she leaned over the ofuda held by Kitsune and added some symbols.

 

“That should do it.” Kitsune held out her hand, and Tenshi placed the Divine Star into it. Slapping the seal on the stone, Kitsune closed her eyes and was silent.

 

A brief crackle of green lightning swept over her hands, the stone and seal.

 

Everyone exhaled. “Well, that wasn't so hard, now was it?” Akkiko asked.

 

---

 

Yay! The huge explanation scene is done!! XD

 

Please note that most of the explanation of how there are many different worlds was essentially ripped from xxxHOLiC volume 2 ;;;; Sorry, but they just describe it so much more eloquently than I ever could. . .

 

Disclaimer: D.N.Angel, its characters, scenarios and settings, all belong to Yukiru Sugisaki. I only own Tenshi/Korazuma, Akkiko/Ginryu, Kitsune/Aiko, and the plotline, which is about to get more complicated. MUCH more complicated.