Morning came in the abandoned Amia. Shokei and her party woke up from their resting spot. The party regroups altogether. However, ...

  "Hey, where did Marie go off to?" Saeko asked.

  "That's strange..." Shokei said and asked. "Where did she go off to?"

  "Hmm..." Saeko pondered. "That's not like her to leave us without telling anybody..."

  "Guys, over here!"

  The party can hear Naoko getting her attention. Everyone heads to the backyard of the mansion as they see Naoko standing there.

  "What's up?" Shokei asked her.

  "You're not going to believe this..." Naoko said.

  The party looks down to see that there is shattered pieces on the floor. Looking at the site they found Marie's clothing torn and ripped up. Shokei takes a piece of clothing and looks at it.

  "What the hell happened here?" Shokei asked as she stares at the torn fabric.

  "My thoughts exactly." Naoko said, scratching her head.

  "This is a sick joke, right?" Beatrice asked. "Don't tell me that Marie is..."

  "No!" Mizuki interrupted her. "That's not possible."

  "Hmm..." Rei said. "No sign of any bloodstains. Something may have happened to Marie. Does not seem to be foul py."

  "How do you know?" Tamiko asked. "There really was no problem or condition that Marie was having."

  "Marie told me that she has compints on her body." Rei said. "I thought she felt sick to her stomach."

  "Then again, we have not eaten for days." Tamiko said.

  "Maybe...there could be more to this situation." Saeko said.

  "Either way, we can't leave Marie behind like this." Shokei said. "Perhaps there could be more to this problem."

  "Huh?" Naoko looks down on her feet. "Hey! Check this out!"

  The party looks down and discovered another clue to the problem. Paw prints. They can see that there are paw print markings on the soil ground. The paw prints lead up to the wall as the trail ended.

  "This is strange..." Beatrice said. "You don't think..."

  "It could be a curse." Mizuki said. "Maybe she found something during our search and might have attracted to her."

  "She..." Naoko said, feeling concerned. "I hope...Marie isn't...what I think she is..."

  "A wild monster?" Beatrice asked.

  "Then she might have found something within this mansion." Tamiko said. "That's probably why her clothes are discarded in pieces."

  "So, it seems." Shokei said. "Then again, Marie could be out there in the forest. We'll have to continue onward without her if that's the case."

  "Oh no..." Saeko said, feeling sad.

  "But...but her situation." Beatrice said. "How in the world will we be able to find her? What does she even look like?"

  "You asked a silly question." Rei said to her.

  "I'm sure we'll find her." Shokei said. "Let's head for the tower."

  The party leaves the mansion and are heading their way to the direction where the tower is as they leave Amia.

  Somewhere within the forests of Euna, Marie hides herself in a safe pce. She rests peacefully in her Werecat form without disturbance. Suddenly a scream was heard as Marie became awake. Her long ears sensed that there was trouble nearby. Using her monster form instincts, Marie climbs the nearest long tree near her and cws her way to the top. She used her agility to move from one tree to another to catch up to the scene.

  "GIMMIE ALL YOUR MONEY!!"

  "NO! NO!! Please, don't!!"

  Marie arrived at the scene. Looking down, she sees two adults and a child being ambushed by a group of bandits. There are about five of them as each are equipped with a club weapon. There is a carry wagon with goods inside. There was no animal carrying the wagon.

  "P-Please! Don't take our m-money!! I beg of you!!" The adult male victim pleaded. "I-I'll give you whatever items we have, but not my money!!"

  "Who the hell cares about your money old man?" The lead bandit tells him. "Besides, it would be fair to have both your money and your possessions. Simple and easy."

  The adult female and her child hold each other close as they are terrified of the bandits.

  "M-Mommy!! I-I-I'm s-scared!!" The child cried in tears.

  "Hmmph! This juvenile here is afraid." The bandit taunted. "What's the matter? Afraid that you're going to get hurt by us?"

  "You...you LEAVE my child alone!!" The mother yelled at him.

  "As if I care much." The bandit said. "Heh! We'll take the child with us and make a man out of him!!"

  "Hahaha! Riiiight! A real man to join us!" Another bandit said, ughing.

  Marie watched as the adult male tried to make a move against the bandits. The bandit saw him trying to take a swing at him, but he kicked him on the shoulder and swing his club. The victim takes the hit by the shoulder and goes down.

  "D-Daddy!!" The child cried out.

  "Yeah pops! That wasn't wise to take on one of us." The bandit said, shaking his head.

  "You really want us to go hard on ya?" The lead bandit asked him. "That's fine by me because we'll kill you in front of your wife and child."

  "N-NO! NOOOO!!"

  Marie gasped. She sees that the scenario is becoming serious as the bandits are about to kill their victim. The lead bandit holds a long and sharp knife that he holds in his hand as he kicks the victim on the stomach.

  I cannot let them do this! There's no way in hell I'll let these bastards have their way...wait a sec. With this new form that I've turned into, what can I do?

  Seeing her Werecat form, Marie takes the courage and swoops down into action. She nds on her feet perfectly and goes into a fighting stance as she presents herself in front of everyone.

  "WOAH!" One of the bandits look to see the Werecat.

  "The hell?" The lead bandit noticed a monstrous figure in pce.

  The victimized family watch as they got their attention on the humanoid cat-like monster. The leader of the bandits looks at the Werecat.

  "Hmmph! A wildcat huh?" The bandit said, smirking. "I'm amused...but you look weak enough for me to break ya. I ain't afraid to kill ya."

  Marie hears what the bandit said. She then sets herself in a serious fighting stance and hissed as she is all set to take on the five men. The lead bandit and his cohorts ughed.

  "Are you serious?!" The lead bandit ughed and shook his head. "The little pussy here wants to py with us. How surprising! Heheh..."

  Marie sees the bandit moving close to her. She did not back away as she tried to be courageous.

  "You want to take a free shot at me? Go ahead...but I'll break you if you don't..."

  Without warning, Marie quickly cws right at the lead bandit as she nails the brute on the left side of his waist. The bandit felt the cut being done to him and then he felt a powerful jump kick, knocking him to the ground. The four bandits are surprised at this sudden action, and they all grip their clubs.

  "Tch!!" The lead bandit, feeling the pain done on his body, gets up and turned to face the Werecat. "You found fiend! I'll kill your ass!!"

  "Kill this son of a bitch!!" One of the bandits cried out.

  The bandits take action immediately as they charge right at the Werecat.

  Marie can feel her instincts of being a Werecat taking control as she combats her enemies with melee attacks. One of the bandits tried to strike at her with a club. Marie quickly ducks down and pulled a sweep kick. The enemy tripped over as he fell back down on the ground. Marie gets up and sees that the lead bandit is striking at her with his knife. Marie bashed him with an elbow strike and then she grabbed the enemy by the legs and pulls him up. The bandit feels his ankles and body going up as he is thrown to the ground. Marie can see that another bandit is trying to attack her. Marie blocks the attack with her arm and swift kicks that bandit in the stomach. Then, she held the bandit by the shoulders and gave the bandit a few more kicks and pounds the enemy to the back with both fists balled. The bandit that was swept by her kick gets up, but it was too te for him to react as Marie goes for a reversal roundhouse kick. The bandit was sent flying right up to a tree as he takes damage.

  Marie gets up on her feet after delivering a powerful kick against the bandit. She turned around and sees that one of the bandits have yet to attack her. He goes for his cohort that was damaged by the tree. The leader of the bandits gets up in pain as he is about to retreat.

  "This vile beast is too strong for us!" The bandit tells his men. "Let's get out of here!"

  Marie looks to see that the bandits are fleeing the scene. She did not chase after them as she watched them leave.

  That takes care of them! They got what they deserved!

  Marie turned back on the family. The family can see a Werecat in their presence. They felt relief that the situation was saved by a wild monster. The child wanted to approach the monster, seeing that the Werecat has saved his family. His mother held him back as she would not allow it. Marie looks at the family for a few seconds and then she leaves them by climbing up to another tree and fled.

  As Marie ran away, someone else was watching the whole scene. The unknown being watch to see Marie the Werecat running by jumping from one tree to the next. The being has a grin on its face and rubbed its chin.

  Not far away from where the incident took pce, Shokei and her party are continuing their journey for the book. Using the map as a guide, they are heading for the tower that is miles away. Their search for Marie continues as they are on their way to their quest.

  "I really miss Marie." Saeko said with a sigh. "I'm curious to know what happened to her."

  "I'm sure we'll find her eventually." Shokei said. "But with her clothes discarded, we can't tell what truly happened to her."

  "Wait a minute..." Rei thinks about this and said, "If I recall correctly, Marie was wearing a fancy ring on her hand."

  "She was?" Tamiko asked.

  "Yeah, she had a nice-looking ring on her finger." Rei said. "However, she never told us about the ring and where did she find it."

  "Hmm, I...never noticed." Tamiko said.

  "I mean, Marie is the kind of person that is fascinated by jewelry." Shokei said.

  "Maybe she found that ring in the mansion and never told us about it." Tamiko said. "Typical Marie..."

  "She should have told us about that ring." Saeko said. "Maybe the ring could have been fancy."

  "Heh, and I'm jealous." Beatrice said.

  "Or maybe...that ring could be a mystery to her disappearance." Mizuki said.

  "Perhaps...why she wasn't feeling well st night." Rei said.

  "Hey, what's that?!"

  Naoko looks up from above. The party looks to see that there is a wild Werecat jumping from one tree to the next.

  "What the hell is that?!" Beatrice asked.

  "Huh?" Mizuki looks carefully at the figure. "A Werecat..."

  "Really?" Tamiko asked.

  "It is." Mizuki said. "But it doesn't seem to notice us."

  The Werecat continued jumping through the trees as it runs off. Neither of them knew that Marie is in the form of the monster. Once the Werecat is out of sight, the party looks at each other.

  "I seen a lot of weird and unusual things that go on within a forest." Naoko said. "But for a monster to bypass us, that's...strange."

  "Well...at least it didn't come down to attack us." Saeko said.

  "That's true...but let's move on." Mizuki said.

  The party continues onward on the path that they are walking. From there, the party can see a family putting back belongings on their wagon, in which the bandits failed to take from them.

  "Wow, what happened here?" Tamiko asked.

  "Let's find out."

  Shokei decided to approach the family and meets them up close.

  "Hey there. Do you need any help with your belongings?" Shokei asked them.

  "Hmm?" The father looks up to see a woman talking to them and responded. "No no! We're good. We're almost done packing up."

  "I see." Shokei said. "But you and your family are in bad shape. Maybe...you like to tell us what happened here."

  "To tell you the truth, we were stopped by hooligans that tried to rob us." The father said. "Thankfully, we were saved by a strange looking Werecat that took care of our problem."

  "What kind of monster was it?" Mizuki asked.

  "This monster was blue-skinned...a cat-like monster." The mother said. "That vicious wildcat fought those bandits like crazy. Once they were taken care of, the wild beast did not harm my family. It ran off through the trees and left."

  "You have to admit, that was one mean feline of a monster." The father said. "It was amazing how that Werecat fought those bandits with its bare hands. None of them were no match for it."

  "Aha." Shokei said. "That expins a lot."

  "Anyways, we're nearly done packing and good to go." The father said.

  "Thanks for telling us about this." Shokei said to him.

  "No problem." The father said. "And be safe, please. This forest isn't safe these days. Bandits are using this area as personal properties. So, you be careful out here."

  "We will." Shokei nodded.

  Shokei and Mizuki returned back to their party.

  "What seemed to be the problem?" Rei asked.

  "The family were ambushed by bandits, and they were saved by a Werecat." Shokei tells the party.

  "I see." Rei said. "And I thought they were in an accident."

  "Did they describe what the monster was like?" Beatrice asked.

  "They said it was a 'cat-like monster' that saved the family from those bandits." Shokei said.

  "Really?" Saeko said. "Usually, monsters would have an intent to strike at victims."

  "Not like their scenario." Mizuki said, seeing the family leaving.

  "It still bothers me how that Werecat saved the lives of those people from those bandits...and not cause trouble towards them." Saeko said.

  "Hmmm..." Mariko thinks about this and then speaks up. "That reminds me."

  The party turns to the young witch.

  "That ring your friend was wearing. I got a glimpse of it but I never asked her about it." Mariko said.

  "Do you remember what the ring looked like?" Mizuki asked.

  "The ring that she wore looked special to me. That ring was orange with a pupil eye engraved on it." Mariko said in memory.

  "Perhaps that ring Marie found has something in connection with her situation." Tamiko said. "I bet the ring she is wearing is cursed."

  "You really think so?" Saeko asked.

  "My thoughts exactly." Tamiko nodded slightly.

  "If that's the case, we should seek someone that can help us with Marie's problem." Shokei said. "Maybe Marie has left us, but...I'm sure that the ring she had on her might be a clue to this mystery."

  "I know someone in Indum that is great at identifying cursed items." Mariko tells the party. "She is knowledgeable on cursed items and she's psychic."

  "She can predict where Marie is?" Shokei asked.

  "Positive." Mariko nodded. "Just don't bel her as a fake or fraudulent or you'll face consequences."

  "Hmm, all right." Shokei said. "But I think we should take care of your situation first."

  "Right! We should keep going now." Mariko said and took off. "Onward!"

  "Huh?! Hey, wait for us!" Shokei called out to her.

  The party continues their trail has they are heading up the path to the mountains.