Shady figures surrounded Kyoka outside the circle rune she was now unable to leave. "That was easier than we thought," said a tall man with a club. "Normally people need a little bit more convincing than that."
"Piece of cake," the second, the beggar, but with their cloak now revealing a sharp dagger, replied.
The third said nothing, just polished a knife casually. Kyoka stood up. She'd been caught in runes before, but this one looked a little different, she didn't recognize it.
"You're just filthy thieves," she accused.
"She catches on quick," the club man said. "Who'd really believe a random stranger would help them in a big village like this? You green or something? Consider this your first lesson in public form, barbarian girl."
"She's got money," the beggar said, slyly. "I heard a bunch more, and it's high grade too, are on the market. I say we make her give to us or we remove a finger."
"I don't know," the club man tilted his head. "She's not ugly, maybe we should have some fun before we get to the mutilation part."
Kyoka pulled out her knife. But she had limited movement, She cursed herself, how could she have been so stupid as to walk into a rune! She could take these clowns any other day if she was loose. Calling for help seemed like a bad idea too, anyone nearby might just join the thieves... and they weren't like the bandit tribe, no games here, no battle of wits. They just wanted to get what they came for... but the rune-- would it stop them? Or just her? This question got answered by the third one pointing their knife at her back.
"Don't try to run away now, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. The circle will keep you from attacking us, but squirming around a lot might make our blades slip, no telling what might happen."

Kyoka froze. She was a warrior, she'd battled hundreds of times, but this situation was terrifying in a whole new way to fighting any enemy or monster she'd seen before. Perhaps it was the unfamiliarity...
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," a familiar voice cut in. "What's going on here? Did I miss the party?"
All the thieves turned to see the blasted bard and his ugly alpaca standing there looking at them quizzically. Kyoka could have strangled him. Was this the time to walk blindly down an alley...oh right, just what she did two minute ago! She looked down instead, they were both idiots.
"Who the he-- are you?" Club man asked.
Denki rubbed the alpaca. "Oh, I'm...uh.. Not important, what are you doing? Is that a rune? That's so cool!"
The thief looked at him in disbelief.
"Are you lost or something, fool?" the beggar said. "Can't you see we're in the middle of something? If you don't want to be next, I suggest you run along and forget you saw this."
"Binding magic, very nice," Denki went on as if he hadn't heard. "I bet it's really useful for shanking unsuspecting idiots too, but a weak spell like that isn't going to last longer than a few minutes, you know. Unless you boost your stamina... fellow bard, am I right?"
The beggar frowned. "You're a bard?"
"I dabble," Denki shrugged. "I'm working on this new song right now, want to hear it?"
"He's a half wit," the Club Man stated. "Clearly, watch out, they can fly into a rage over nothing, I've heard." "Then you should bind him too!" The beggar snapped. "I don't want to take any chances that animal might have fleas."
"You have enough of your own, what are you worried about?" Club man jeered. "Look, fool, why don't you go back to whoever owns you and leave us alone."
Denki grinned. "Wow, you guys are stupid."
"Huh?" The Club Man said. Denki snapped his fingers and lightning shot out and hit all three of the thieves simultaneously, they all jerked and fell to the ground. Kyoka stared in astonishment. "And bingo!" Denki grabbed her wrist, "come on, are you stone or something? Before they recover."
He dragged her down the alley.
"Hey!" the thief with the knife wasn't as badly hit, he charged after them. Tibult neighed and kicked him with her hindquarters and he went flying back across the street.
"Time to get lost in the crowd," Denki grabbed Tibult's reins and dashed down the street and into the town square, Kyoka just followed silently.

Finally, after several turns, Denki stopped by a fountain that no longer had water to catch his breath. Kyoka wasn't out of breath, the run had been nothing, but she was white as a sheet.
"H-how did you break the rune?" She asked.
"I didn't, I just waited for it to time out, duh," Denki said. "Don't tell me you weren't paying attention."
Kyoka shook her head. "I...wasn't..." she started shaking.
Tibult looked at her with concern.
"Whoa, are you okay?" Denki said, now really surprised.
"I was so stupid! I can't believe I walked right into a trap!" Kyoka yelled, hugging her stomach. "One an idiot like you saw through! What kind of warrior am I?"
"All right, stop yelling!" Denki winced. "Sheesh, you are so over dramatic."
Kyoka went silent. Denki paused.
"Look, it's not that bad. They had it all planned out, and that thief was a bard too, a lot of beggars are low level bards who can't cut it as musicians, at least the dangerous ones are. They persuade people to do things and if they have a group like that, it can get ugly. That's why you shouldn't wander around this part of town alone, at least without a protection spell, I can't do those, though, you need a mage for that. Basically, anyone would have been in trouble there, so stop freaking out."
Kyoka blinked. "Right. A bard, I would never have done that normally, what was I thinking?"
"It does seem out of character with how suspicious you are," Denki honestly thought he was being comforting. "So, don't worry about it."
"But that's just it, I was completely susceptible," Kyoka was not at all comforted. "That could happen at any time! I hate the town!"
"Well it wouldn't have happened if you didn't wander off to begin with!" Denki said, now angry. "Seriously, where did you go? I turned around and poof! That was the stupid thing! There's worse people than beggars around here! You want something bad to happen to you?"
But Kyoka looked pretty close to crying, so he stopped. "Anyway," more calmly, "just stick close to me from now on. I don't want Princess Momo to kill me later."                                                                                                      Kyoka bit her lip, then she bowed very stiffly. "You're right, I apologize."
"You what-?" Denki was shocked.
"I moved to avoid refuse but I should have come back right away, as was the arrangement, not gotten distracted," Kyoka admitted. "It won't happen again." Then she pointed her knife at him. "But I demand to know where you learned that spell with lightning!" Denki put his hands up.
"It's not that hard, just a little shock to scare people off, anything more than that uses up too many points-- can you put the knife down?"
"You could have used that anytime?" Kyoka said.
"Well it's a little risky, so no," Denki said. "I only used it back there because the rune would keep you from being hit, otherwise I would fry everyone around me."
Kyoka frowned. "And you couldn't work on that?" "Believe it or not, I don't actually get in fights that often. Why fight when you can talk your way out of a situation?"
Denki tipped his hat jauntily. "Way less work."
"That sounds idiotic," Kyoka put her knife away. "But I'll overlook it this one time. It's just too bad I didn't even get the information after all that trouble."
''Oh, I almost forgot, I found out where the guild is," Denki said. He pointed "It's a little further this way. Between a blacksmith shop and an undertaker...which sounds creepy as heck but it'd be pretty hard to miss, right?"
Kyoka gave him a strange look. Then curtly she turned and started walking. "Are you going to move or what? We don't have all day."
"Who just saved who?" Denki muttered grumpily. Tibult looked at him in sympathy.

A few minutes later and they arrived at the right street, just at the same time Deku, Ei, and Bakugo did. But it was quite a bit longer for Shoto and Momo and the others had already located the guild and asked about Uraraka before they arrived. Kyoka couldn't believe they'd taken so long for shopping. "And why, when you could just make this stuff?"
"But shopping requires more skill," Momo said. "I never knew it before, but it's a real test of your knowledge, and isn't it pretty?"
Kyoka didn't have the heart or authority to argue with her further. "I suppose it's nice enough."
She took hers reluctantly. "No one tried to hurt you did they?"
"Oh no, Prince Shoto took excellent care of me," Momo smiled. "I didn't feel nervous at all after a while, the village is a lovely place, isn't it?"
"Not sure we're looking at the same village..." Kyoka said.
"The person at the desk said Uraraka's Order is just one person," Deku came back to tell them. "And she's currently at lunch... but she'll be back soon. I guess we were only looking for one mage, it's just kind of surprising."
"And where are the other ones?" Momo asked.
"That's just it, there's not that many," Denki gestured to a wall with job postings on it. "There's only a handful in this guild, and they all do lower level jobs from the looks of it. I think we may have made a mistake. I mean, Tsu's helpful, but maybe she misunderstood how powerful this girl was." "She said she didn't know," Shoto reflected, "just that she's trustworthy, in a party like ours, isn't that more important?"
"That's true," Deku said. "Any help would be good, none of you are mages, right?"
"Not like that," Shoto said. "I only do elemental magic."
"I only do creative magic," Mmo said.
"I can't do anything like protection spells or healing spells," Kyoka said.
Ei and Bakugo volunteered nothing.
"Then we have to ask her, at least," Deku said.

Just at that time, the door opened and a small girl in a mage's garb with a staff came walking in munching on a dumpling. She stopped when she saw 7 people waiting for her.
"Are you the Uraraka Mage?" Deku blurted out without thinking how alarming it might be to have 7 strangers looking for you. The mage dropped her dumpling and held her staff out.
"What do you want?" she demanded.
"We mean you no harm" Momo held up her hand. "You're a warrior?" the mage noticed her armor under the cloak. "And you're a mage..." glancing at Shoto. "And you're a barbarian..." Bakugo and Ei, "and you're..." she frowned at Denki "I'm not sure, but you look dangerous."
Denki grinned.
"He's really not," Kyoka said. He frowned.
"I don't know about you," the mage looked back at Deku. "Oh, I'm, uh... ordinary," Deku said. "If this about my debt," the mage said. "Then, you'll never take me alive!" She held up her staff more. No one knew how to respond--then Bakugo said "At least she's scrappy, maybe this won't be a complete waste of our time." "King, you shouldn't just say that to a random girl without context," Ei cried.
"Wait... so you aren't here for money?" the mage said. "Why would we be here for money?" Shoto said. "Don't people usually hire mages at places like this?"
"Yeah, we're looking for a mage," Denki said. "Tsuyu sent us."
"Oh, Tsuyu?" The mage straightened, "I haven't seen her in ages. That's all right then, sorry about that." She held out her hand. "I'm Ochaco."