Editing BlazBlue:Calamity Trigger Part 2 Chapter 2 (section)

===Part 1===
'''December 30, 2199 - 17:15'''

As he followed the guide, before he knew it, the city of Orient Town had come to an end.

The neon lights, the signs, and the crowds had gone somewhere, and they were surrounded by a scenery that was hard to believe was within a large city, where only the framework and the foundation of the city began to move.

Chasing after Taokaka, who was leading the way with light footsteps, Ragna walked along the rocky path. It was not a paved road for passing, but a path like a mountain trail that was created because it was repeatedly trodden.

The fact that such a place was left unattended not far from Orient Town shows how little the lower layer of Kagutsuchi was in the eyes of the NOL. About half a day after the infiltration, not to mention the bounty hunters, they had yet to encounter any soldiers from the NOL, let alone even see them properly, which made him convinced of the current situation.

"Good Guy~, this way, meow~" Taokaka waved her big hand, nimbly crossing over what looked like the remains of a rockfall.

Ragna was used to rough roads, but this journey was a bit tough for post-meal exercise. Jumping down a steep step that was too steep to be called a staircase, Ragna finally realized that he had arrived at his destination. It was a hollow cave with a high ceiling and a wide opening. It was a wild space that was hard to believe was inside a large Hierarchical City.

It was much more humid than outside, and of course there was no sunlight, and it was dark all around. There were no colorful neon lights or streetlights like in Orient Town, but instead, torches and bonfires were lit here and there, and he could see several huts built between them.

"Is this... the 'village' you were talking about?"

Kaka Village. When he heard that, he was worried about what kind of outrageous place he would be taken to, but seeing it like this, it was certainly a village. It seemed that there was a different society there from the Hierarchical City of Kagutsuchi and Orient Town.

"That's right, meow. It's the village of the Kaka tribe where we live, meow." Taokaka puffed out her chest proudly and wagged her tail happily. "You can rest here. Outsiders can never come in here."

"Yeah, that entrance is something you wouldn't enter unless you had a guide or some kind of accident."

A crack in the rock face at the edge of Orient Town, where there were only half-destroyed and abandoned huts and no one approached. Who would imagine that such a place would lead to such a village through a crack that could hardly be called a road?

Perhaps there were several other entrances, but at least Ragna would never think of trying to enter that crack.

"Now that you've come to the Kaka tribe's village, it's good to meet the elder, meow. The elder knows everything, meow!"

"Elder?"

Was she talking about the 'chief'? Ragna reluctantly followed Taokaka's bouncing figure, who had started walking without even waiting for a reply. It was unreasonable to ask that cat girl for a logical explanation.

Besides, if the 'elder' really knew everything, that would be perfect. While he was here, he might as well ask for a convenient shortcut.

Although, if that 'elder' was the same kind of person as Taokaka, he couldn't rely on him much.

When they left the wild rocky ground, a stone pavement-like ground appeared. Passing between the sporadically lit bonfires, Taokaka headed for the house furthest in among the small houses lined up.

The wooden door, which had a strange mark drawn on it instead of a nameplate, was a little small for Ragna. Taokaka opened that door with a very cheerful momentum. She stepped in with a casual stride without any hesitation.

"Elder, I'm home, meow!"

"Hey, you..."

For a moment, he wondered if it was a house for a wealthy person, but considering Taokaka's personality, she probably didn't even understand the meaning of a wealthy person. It wouldn't get through to her even if he said something. Ragna swallowed his grumbling words, scratching his temple in exasperation, and followed Taokaka.

Passing through a cloth hung like a partition, he entered the back room. There, without even confirming, was the 'elder' that Taokaka was talking about, sitting on a pile of cloths.

Her body was much smaller than Taokaka's, and even if she stood up, her head would not reach Ragna's chest. The shadowy face with round eyeballs and a crescent-shaped mouth wasn't there, but was hidden by a mask that imitated a guardian. However, the clothes that completely covered her body, the downward-pointing triangular ears, and the cat's tail extending from the back were very similar to Taokaka's.

In her large hands, which were shaped like a cat's paws, she held a pillow that was larger than her height, and just that made him feel that this masked Kaka tribe member was in a special and prestigious position.

The hair that flowed out from between the hood and the mask was fluffy and had a bright water-gray color, and the long tail that gently swayed only at the tip also had the same mysterious color.

"Oh, elder! I brought a guest!" When Taokaka energetically raised her hand and tail, the elder, leaning on her cane, slowly raised her waist and responded in exasperation.

"...Tao. I told you this morning to open the door more quietly."

"Huh? Was that so, meow? Well, don't worry about the small things, meow."

From that appearance, Ragna lost all tension and vigilance, and involuntarily dropped his shoulders behind Taokaka in amazement.

The elder looked at him slowly and sullenly through her mask.

"...Our guest."

"I'm sorry to intrude. It's just that... well, there's been a lot going on." Ragna, on the spur of the moment, was about to blurt out the whole truth, but he stopped the words that were about to spill out.

It was fine up to the point where he was attacked by Taokaka and was about to be forced to treat her to a meal, but he couldn't carelessly talk about how he was known as a wanted criminal by the bounty hunters and was chased after. Let alone that he was the bounty head "Ragna the Bloodedge" that Taokaka was chasing after.

"Elder. This white guy is a good guy, meow! He gave Tao a lot of food to eat while I was starving!" Taokaka cheerfully rejoiced, her expression joyful as she raised both hands high and posed like a banzai.

"Well, I haven't treated her yet." Ragna scratched his head out of a little guilt. That was unavoidable. But in reality, it was certainly a dine-and-dash.

With a small sound, the cane of the masked elder poked the laid-out cloth. Relying on that, the elder of the Kaka tribe took a few steps forward.

"Hmm... it seems that Tao was indebted to you. I'm sorry. Please allow me to express my apologies and gratitude as well." She was a Kaka tribe member who was smaller than Ragna, and even smaller than Taokaka. Her aged voice, though rough, had a certain charm.

Being addressed so formally made Ragna feel awkward. He frowned in confusion and looked away.

"Nah, it's nothing. It's already over... Besides, I'm the one who ended up being helped."

If there hadn't been a wanted poster there, Ragna's identity wouldn't have been known to the people around him, but it was Ragna himself who carelessly shouted the name of the most wanted criminal with the highest bounty in history. It's not like he didn't have a shred of gratitude for Taokaka, who took him to her village without even hearing the circumstances.

Ragna hadn't even told Taokaka his identity, let alone his name. And yet, being treated so unguardedly made the usually harsh world he was in seem ridiculous.

"Oh, that's right, Elder. Taokaka said that you 'know everything,' but are you familiar with the geography around here?" Pulling back the feelings that were about to completely slip away, Ragna asked the elder. Taokaka's purpose was probably just to have them meet, but for Ragna, there was no point in entering this house unless he heard that. "I want to go to the upper layer of Kagutsuchi. Do you know of any ways to get there as quickly as possible, or any secret passages, or anything like that?"

He couldn't criticize Taokaka. He was hardly polite himself and asked bluntly, looking down at the elder of the Kaka tribe without hesitation.

Without taking offense, the elder of the Kaka tribe leaned on her cane, raised her face, and stared at the white-haired young man standing before her. After a pause as if deeply pondering something, and when Ragna became slightly irritated by the silence, she slowly replied from under her mask.

"There is a path that leads to the outskirts of the upper layer."

"Seriously!? That's a big help!" At the elder's leisurely tone, Ragna took a step forward as if lunging at her. 

The elder didn't flinch even when approached by a man taller than her with a weapon hanging at his waist. She was either very calm or just easygoing. Like Taokaka, who had already settled down in a corner of the room and was stretching her body, Ragna couldn't gauge how shallowly he should estimate what was inside him.

"Please, let me use that secret passage. Won't you guide me?" He was about to lunge again, but Ragna suppressed his volume as much as possible. But at his side, he clenched his fist tightly and pleaded.

"Are there people... waiting for you above?" The elder, who looked like a resident of a fairy tale, asked quietly and deeply.

Ragna gritted his teeth and swallowed. "I can't say."

To destroy the Kagutsuchi branch of the NOL in the uppermost layer. Ragna's purpose was clear and simple, but to lightly mention it here would be to make this village his collaborator.

Though he kept his reasons to himself, Ragna directed a sharp, stern gaze straight and sincerely at the elder.

"I just have to get to the upper layer no matter what. There are things I have to do."

He doubted how much meaning human sincerity had to the tribe living in this dark town. But to the nonchalant Taokaka, who was already doing something like grooming, the elder looked back at Ragna's eyes and remained silent for a while, as if thinking.




Eventually…

"Very well. Tao, please guide him."The elder turned to Taokaka and spoke with a breath that seemed like a smile.

Called by her name, Taokaka, who had been narrowing her eyes sleepily, perked up her ears and looked up.

While glancing at Taokaka, who jumped to her feet, Ragna opened his mouth to confirm.

"Is it okay? To tell me?"

"It doesn't matter. Even if it's a secret passage, it's not like we made it. We're just telling you about a road that's been here since long ago." Saying that, the elder, as if laughing, brought her long sleeve to her mouth and tilted her head slightly.

The long, hairy tail that swayed leisurely was, like his gestures, somewhat languid.

"Here, Tao. Go on."

"Meow!" Urged, Taokaka made a gesture that imitated a sharp salute. Jumping up, she lined up next to Ragna and moved her big hand, urging him to come.

Ragna couldn't help but burst out laughing briefly. He thought he hated all the Hierarchical Cities controlled by the NOL, but this place didn't have a bad atmosphere.

"Alright, I'll ask you to guide me." Relaxing his rigid expression into a loose smile, Ragna lifted the cloth that served as the entrance to the room, as if brushing it aside, and followed Taokaka, who had bounced out. Stepping out, he turned back over his shoulder.

"Well, I'm sorry I disturbed you. Thanks for telling me."

"It's nothing. Be careful on your way, disciple of Mitsuyoshi-sama."

"Eh?" Ragna stopped at the name the elder uttered. Mitsuyoshi. It was a name he didn't know. Ragna was about to ask who she was talking about…

"Good Guy, let's go, meow!"

"Ugh!" Taokaka, who had jumped on him, wrapped her arms around his neck from behind and hung on him, stopping him. Perhaps his backward-leaning neck and head were so funny, Taokaka, still hanging on him, flailed her legs and frolicked.

Grabbing the arms of the cat girl, whose weight had suddenly increased, Ragna desperately, literally desperately, tried to straighten his body.

"Guh, ooh... let me go, you..."

"Come on, let's go. Secret passage, secret passage, meow. Otherwise, Tao will go play, anytime, meow. Good Guy will play with me, meow!"

"I'm not going to play! I don't understand what you mean!" While shouting, he peeled off Taokaka's clinging body. When he threw her, Taokaka put her feet on the wall and lightly reversed her body, passing Ragna and descending lightly.

"Meeeeooooowww~" She ran out of the hut playfully like a kitten.

"Wait, wait, wait! Where are you going on your own! Guide me!" If he left her alone, she might really go somewhere on her own. He had only just met Taokaka. He didn't know what kind of circumstances she was born and raised in, or what kind of background she had. He hardly knew anything. But... he had a feeling that she was the type to really go somewhere on her own in situations like this.

"See ya, grandma! Live long!" 

As he left, he couldn't think of a farewell greeting on the spur of the moment, and he threw those words away as if abandoning them, and chased after Taokaka, leaving the elder's house.

The rough sound of the door closing shook the small house, and the hurried footsteps faded away. While listening to it... Elder Totokaka chuckled.

"My, my... what energetic children they are."

It was as if the wind had rushed through.

The elder leaned on her cane and returned to her designated spot on the piled cloths, then slowly lowered herself there, taking a deep breath as if recalling a distant past.




It was shortly after Ragna chased after Taokaka and set off for the secret passage. In the quiet room after the sudden visitors had left, the elder was dozing off on her favorite spot, the piled cloths.

The Kaka tribe's village was always peaceful and always serene. Even now, many Kaka people were probably enjoying their naps in their favorite spots all over the village. There was no Kaka tribe member who disliked naps.

It was at such a time the Kaka tribe's village welcomed another guest.

The wooden door was knocked on with a calm tempo. At that sound, the elder's slumber burst like a soap bubble, and her head, which had been leaning against the pillow she had crossed her arms on, rose.

"Come in." The elder responded, still sitting on the cloth.

But whether they had been waiting for that or not, the door was opened almost simultaneously with the words, and four small Kaka tribe members rolled into the elder's room one after another.

The first was Cali-kaka, with a light green ribbon on her chest and her white, brown, and black tricolor tail held upright. The second was Fluffy-kaka, with a black tail wagging and an orange ribbon on her chest. The third was Spotty-kaka, with only the tip of her white tail dyed gray and a pink ribbon on her chest. The fourth was Feisty-kaka, with a water-colored ribbon on her chest and a black tail with only a white tip.

"Elder!"

"Elder~ Elder~"

"There's a guest~"

"I guided her~"

The four small Kaka who came in, saying things one after another and jumping around, brought with them a woman.

"I'm sorry to be noisy, excuse me, Elder-sama." The woman being led by Spotty-kaka and Feisty-kaka said with a wry smile and a polite demeanor.

She was a beautiful woman. She wore a long dress based on red and white, and her sensual limbs could be seen through the body-hugging fabric. Full breasts, a constricted waist, and shapely protruding buttocks. The long legs extending from there swayed her red dress with every step, and a cool rustling sound echoed in her hair.

Her name was Litchi Faye Ling. She was a young female doctor who ran a small hospital in a corner of Orient Town.

In contrast to her alluring figure, her slender glasses and deep-colored eyes, framed by long eyelashes, were dignified and intelligent.

She was the main one who had knocked and one of the few people who knew of the Kaka tribe's village. She was close to the elder and visited the village like this from time to time.

She wasn't just here to play with the Kaka tribe members she knew.

Litchi was a doctor. In addition to checking the health condition of the Kaka tribe members who couldn't go to the hospital in the city, she was also asked by the elder to investigate the Kaka tribe's ecology. Today, she'd come to report on that investigation.

The elder invited Litchi, who bowed her head in greeting at the entrance of the room, into the room in a friendly manner.

"Litchi-dono, you've come all the way here. Please sit down. I'll get some tea."

"No, that's alright. I don't think it will take long." While gently declining, Litchi was about to sit down on the round cushion that Cali-kaka had brought. But that action stopped when she knelt.

"Eh?" A sigh of doubt leaked from her thinly rouged lips. Litchi's finger was touching the small stuffed panda attached to her hair. As if she was talking to it, she turned her attention to the stuffed animal in her hair, and then suddenly Litchi's expression became slightly tense.

"Elder, I'm sorry to ask you something strange. But... did someone come here a little while ago?" While touching the small panda hair ornament with her fingertips, Litchi slid her eyes behind her glasses and looked at the elder.

Her seductive gaze, which would not fail to captivate a man if she smiled like that, was now secretly sharp and trying to find something.

Tilting her head at Litchi's sharpness, the elder answered as she was asked.

"Hmm, Tao brought a guest. He said he wanted to know a secret passage that leads to the upper layer, so I had Tao guide him to the sewer that can be reached from the outskirts of the village."

"To the sewer? What did he look like?" 

"He was a young man. With white hair and wearing red clothes."

"White hair, red clothes... and this presence." As if breaking something in the back of her throat, Litchi bit her lip slightly and covered her mouth with her fingertips that touched the stuffed panda.

She had felt an unusual presence. It was something she had often been exposed to, not as a doctor, but as a researcher before coming to this city. And something she continues to secretly experience even now, behind her work as a doctor.

The presence of the Azure.

"This is bad!" Taking a breath, Litchi stood up as if she had been bounced. "I'm sorry, Elder-sama. I'll come back later!"

Litchi said this in a panic as she threw away the documents and rushed out of the small house, her clothes and hair looking disheveled.