"You little THIEVES, why did you take all those fruits?" a man shouted as he lifted two children by their collars, each of them clutching what looked like a paper bag full of fruits and vegetables.
Relieved, Jack asked around what happened. Apparently, the children tried to snatch and run away with the fruits from his customers.
"Hey sir, unhand them. I will cover up the costs," Jack said, walking over to the three, relieved this wasn't another terrorist incident.
"Stay out of this. I catch these two every other day. It's about time I teach them a lesson," the man said, still not letting go.
"But you do catch them, right? Even if they did, come on, you have such a big shop. If one or two kilograms of fruit go missing, you wouldn't even notice," Jack said, grabbing the man's arm as he began to assist the flailing children.
"I said stay out of this, before I frame you as one employing these children to steal for you," the man spat angrily.
Suddenly, Jack felt a surge of Kana energy coming from behind. As he looked to see what it was, he could feel it coming from the front now, and when he turned again, the source of the energy surge disappeared somewhere into the crowd.
"AARGH! I SAID LET ME GO, YOU MORON!" the man screamed. Jack had unconsciously tightened his grip when he sensed that foreign energy. He let go of the man's hand, and the man backed off and threw the two children away.
"You... You are gonna pay for this. You don't know my connections. My friends are high in the administration department. So now, leave and join the bitch you came with," the man said furiously, walking towards Jack with his fists clenched.
"You must be the joker of the group. The unsuccessful bud leeching off their achievements. If you were using their legacies as motivation for yourself instead of petty threats, you might've amounted to something," Jack said, dodging the man's strike before smoothly wrapping an arm around his neck.
"Now how about you stop making a commotion? I said I will pay. Otherwise, I won't mind cutting the whole shop down," Jack whispered coldly into his ear, manifesting a small point of Kazekiri's blade on his hand, which prodded the neck of the man, drawing a small stream of fresh blood. "I'm sure those successful friends of yours would lend you some money to repair the place."
"T-T-There is no need for that. I will take the payment," the man said, wiggling free of Jack's grasp and backing away.
Jack walked towards the two children. "Hey, are you two okay? Hurt anywhere?" he asked, helping them back onto their feet, brushing away dust from their clothes.
"No, mister. I'm okay. I think my sister is too. Thank you for saving us," the boy mumbled as he stared into the ground.
"It's no big deal. Where are your parents?" Jack asked. Now that he properly looked at them, the kids didn't exactly look like they came from a beggar family. Their clothes were of their size, but it was dirty and torn in places. Almost as if they were thrown into this condition recently.
"Oh... Uh... They are working away in a factory far off," the boy stammered.
"He is lying," Enak remarked.
"I see. Okay. May I have your name?" Jack said, ruffling their hair affectionately.
"I'm Chris. This is Nate. We are siblings," the boy said as he watched Jack pay for the fruits he and his sibling had tried to steal.
"Here you go, Chris," Jack said, handing the two bags to Chris. "Here you go, Nate," he said, handing them another two bags.
"Thank you, mister..." they mumbled.
"Hey Jack, what's going on?" Ethan asked as he and Diana came out of the café.
"Nothing much, just a small scuffle," Jack scoffed. Noticing how the children's eyes shook from scrutiny by the crowd, Jack informed them they could go, as he sensed their discomfort.
The two children left, and once they disappeared into a turn, Jack sensed the flash of Kana energy appear in the crowd and follow them.
"Follow me, no time to explain," Jack said hurriedly to Ethan and Diana as he got into the car.
Jack began trailing the two children, and as he drove, he explained what happened to them.
"You'd be a great extorter," Ethan remarked with a smirk.
"Surely enough," Jack replied while Diana nodded.
"What if it's a trap?" Diana said worriedly.
"I don't know. Enak told me he didn't sense that mind-controlling energy anywhere around, so if it really is a Kratian, it's highly likely they are survivors like us," Jack said. "We need to gather people. We are not strong enough with just us."
Following the children led them into a factory ruin. Large rusted iron machines littered the ground around the main building. The three of them got off and followed the children inside.
"Are you not coming?" Diana asked when Jack suddenly stopped outside the entrance to the main building.
"Uh... Yeah, I am," he said, fighting back a groan.
His dantian had started paining. He could feel his Kana vessels on his left side about to blast apart.
"Ugh... Why now... Enak..." he groaned in his mind.
"I know, I'm on it," Enak said restlessly.
Soon, the pain subsided and disappeared, and Jack was able to breathe properly.
"Wow, it was literally a solid clump of Kana energy. You are progressing exponentially, master," Enak said proudly.
As long as I don't die, Jack thought before walking in with Diana and Ethan.
"Where did they go?" Ethan asked.
The children were nowhere to be seen, and the three of them got a nasty feeling that they were being watched.
"Don't move," Jack said, stretching his arm out in front of Diana and Ethan to halt their movements.
In the next moment, Enak deployed himself around Jack and manifested Kazekiri in Jack's arm. Jack set up his strongest barrier around Diana and Ethan.
Suddenly there was a surge of Kana energy in the room. The air around Jack grew heavy with energy, crackling wildly. And the surge came from the far right end of the room. No... from the left?
It felt as if it was everywhere.
Jack could barely catch a speck of silver moving rapidly around the room, and then it rushed behind him.
Jack managed to block the strike on his neck with Kazekiri, but before he could turn to look at the opponent, he felt him move in front of him, a sword stretched out, ready to strike its way through Jack's dantian.
And he didn't wait to do that.
With a mighty push, the attacker drove the blade forward into his stomach. At least he tried to. Enak rapidly absorbed the blade and drained Jack almost completely of Kana energy.
"Interesting," Jack heard the man say before he acted again, this time striking his gut with his bare hands.
Jack could feel his Kana system get blocked; intense pain spread through his body, and darkness washed over him.
"Was that a resonator strike?" Enak asked panicking, as he retracted Kazekiri again.
With that, Jack felt himself go unconscious, devoid of energy, in front of someone he didn't know was a friend or foe.