"Man, I'm so full!"
Itoshi grunted, pressing both palms against his belly as he leaned back in his chair.
"That was actually really good,"
Ryujin admitted, setting his empty plate aside.
"Thank god you enjoyed it!"
Kara beamed, clearly relieved the scavenged rations had been a success.
Kirashi stared at his clean plate, his voice softening.
"It's been a while since I ate with people."
Ayro reached over and patted Kirashi's back without hesitation. Kirashi instinctively scoffed, pulling away slightly, but then his gaze drifted down to Ayro's hand.
"Don't flinch. The ones who offer their hands first are either fools or friends. Either way, you'll know which fast enough."
His master's voice echoed in the back of his mind, gravelly and stern.
Kirashi sighed and looked toward the ceiling.
"Old man..."
"How many times are you gonna do that?"
Kirashi asked, looking back at Ayro.
"Every time you say something depressing,"
Ayro replied, completely deadpan.
Kirashi gave him a strange, bewildered look while the others snickered. The moment of warmth was suddenly interrupted by a loud complaint.
"Man, why is it so hot inside the café but freezing cold outside? Can't wind get in here?"
Itoshi muttered.
He sat on a wooden chair, rocking it back and forth on its rear legs with a restless energy. He turned to Ayro with a cheeky, mischievous tone.
"Ayrooo..."
Ayro raised a brow, lifting his tea in hand.
"Hmm?"
"Can I sit next to Kirashi?"
Itoshi asked with a wide, innocent smile.
Ayro looked confused at first, glancing between the two.
"How would that even—oh." He realized the punchline a second later. "Wow."
Kara grunted, facing her "stupid" big brother with a look of pure disappointment.
"That was a horrible joke."
"You're a flame user, Itoshi. Deal with it,"
Ayro shot back.
Utterly defeated, Itoshi stopped rocking his chair and let the front legs slam back onto the floor.
"Bruh."
Ayro smirked while Kirashi and Kara burst into genuine laughter.
Once lunch was finished, the four boys stepped outside into the salt-heavy air while Kara stayed behind to collect the disposable dishes.
"Damn, Kara's really kind, isn't she?"
Kirashi noted, looking back through the window.
Curious, Itoshi turned to him.
"What makes you say that?"
With his arms on his waist, Kirashi spoke with a hint of awe.
"Ryujin offered to help clean up, but she insisted on doing it alone."
"That's just how she is,"
Itoshi replied, facing forward again with a furrowed, slightly annoyed brow.
"She loves helping people—even if she gets nothing back."
"That's not really a bad thing though, right?"
Kirashi asked.
Itoshi hesitated, his gaze drifting toward the horizon.
"I don't know..."
"Yo, Ryujin—Kirashi's joining us now, right?"
Ayro joined them, leaning against the doorframe.
Without looking back, Ryujin responded,
"Yeah?"
"Hmm... five people. Good enough for a squad on the mainland,"
Ayro mused.
Ryujin snickered.
"Absolutely."
Ayro stepped down to stand in line with the other three, nodding at Ryujin's response before circling back to the earlier conversation.
"On the mainland... too much kindness gets you exploited. Even when you want to help someone, sometimes you just can't."
Surprised, Kirashi stepped ahead of the group, his face filled with sudden enthusiasm as he spun around to face them.
"You guys have been to the mainland?"
"Me and Ayro, yeah. Not sure about Itoshi though,"
Ryujin quickly responded.
"Nah. I've never been,"
Itoshi added.
Ryujin took a deep breath, his eyes clouding over with a bit of distaste.
"The mainland... it feels suffocating. Figuratively and literally. Tokyo's population exploded—so they started building up. Like, way up. Skyscrapers stacked like toothpicks."
Ayro pointed a finger toward the sky, aiming across the dark sea.
"See that light over there?"
He pointed to a faint, glowing red hue pulsing on the distant horizon.
Itoshi scratched the back of his head, squinting.
"I've always wondered what that is."
"That's the tallest building in Tokyo,"
Ayro added.
"Tokyo's around 1,500 kilometers from here,"
Ryujin noted.
Itoshi jolted back, shocked by the sheer scale of what he was seeing.
"Jeez. That light's visible from here? Just how tall is it?"
"Last I saw? About five kilometers tall,"
Ayro replied.
Kirashi's eyes went wide.
"Five?!"
"Could be taller,"
Ayro added dryly.
Just then, Kara joined them outside, clutching an old, slightly worn stuffed toy.
"Oh! What are you guys talking about?"
Ryujin nodded toward the distant red glow.
"That red glow."
Curious, Kara turned in that direction and picked it up instantly.
"Ah! The Tokyo Skydancer?"
"How the hell do you know its name?"
Itoshi demanded.
Face deadpan, Kara turned to her brother.
"Maybe try listening in class for once?"
"Seriously, how does that thing even stay standing?"
Itoshi muttered, ignoring her.
"No one knows. The building's blueprints were never released to the public,"
Ryujin explained.
With a smirk, Ayro added,
"If you think that's huge, wait 'til you see the Chronos."
"Chronos?"
Kirashi asked.
"Just another tower. Even taller,"
Ayro bluntly replied.
Itoshi gripped the sides of his head and crouched down in frustration.
"Arghhh! You guys are boring me with all this tower talk! Can't we do something to kill time?"
Ayro raised a brow.
"Like what?"
Itoshi looked up as if his soul had just left his body.
"You mean you guys just sit around waiting for commissions or orders?"
Ryujin shrugged.
"Pretty much."
Kara paused to ponder, tapping her chin before an idea struck. She leaned forward excitedly.
"Hmm... What if we check out where Kirashi used to live?"
Kirashi looked unbothered.
"My house? There's nothing interesting there."
"Still... it's bugged me. How did you even manage to live alone for nine years?"
Ryujin added, his interest piqued.
"Well then!—should we go?"
Itoshi asked, jumping to his feet.
The rest of the group nodded in agreement.
"Sure."
Kirashi blinked in disbelief as they all started looking at him for directions.
"You guys serious?"
"What do I show with these people..."
Kirashi thought to himself, a strange mix of anxiety and warmth bubbling in his chest.
~~~Somewhere in the Forested area of Cape Hedo~~~
The five moved deeper into the dense, forested area of Hedo, the canopy thick above them until they finally reached the place Kirashi called home.
"Here we go, guys."
It was a small hut constructed of jagged rocks and thick vines, with a straw roof that looked like it was barely holding together against the coastal winds.
"Here it is. This was my nine years,"
Kirashi said, standing by the entrance.
The blue-haired siblings looked around, their eyes shining with genuine wonder rather than pity.
"Oouhhhhh,"
They harmonized.
As he stepped through the straw-roofed entryway, Kirashi glanced over his shoulder at the others. Years ago, his master had told him:
"Look at their eyes. The ones worth trusting won't flinch at the sight of simplicity."
None of them hesitated. Not even Ryujin, who looked like he belonged in a world built of cold steel and high tech. Kirashi gave a slight nod. This was okay.
He gave them a brief tour of the cramped interior.
"This is where I ate."
He pointed to two mismatched chairs stacked to create a makeshift table.
"I just basically sat on the floor."
Arms crossed but still curious and undoubting, Ryujin asked,
"How about food?"
Kirashi paused, a bit hesitant.
"If you climb that lookout up in the tree, you can see my food source."
Without even needing to look, Ayro caught the direction.
"The fish harbor?"
Kirashi nodded, breaking eye contact for a moment.
"Indeed. I took fish from there and cooked it here. Had to hide the smoke to avoid unwanted attention, though."
"How did you do that?"
Itoshi asked, leaning in with enthusiasm.
"I cooked it underground."
"What?"
Kirashi led them to a hidden, stone-lined cooking pit embedded behind the hut.
"See? It doesn't hide all the smoke, but enough that it won't be noticed from far off."
Kara spotted a small, moss-covered well nearby and leaned over the edge.
"Does this well have water in it?"
"Yep. Fresh water. That's where I drank. Gotta boil it first, though. Oh—and these are my clothes. All torn now."
He rubbed the back of his neck, half-embarrassed by the rags hanging off him.
Ryujin reached into his pocket and tossed something small toward him.
"Take this."
Kirashi caught it mid-air.
"A small cube?"
"It's a uniform, like mine. It's yours now."
Kirashi pressed the center of the cube and his eyes glowed as the technology activated. In a soft pop of compressed space, a sharp, durable set of clothes and pants unfolded.
"Whoa. This is really mine?"
"Yeah."
"Thanks!"
There was a hitch of silence, the weight of the future hanging in the air, before Ryujin finally asked,
"Why'd you stay here all these years?"
Kirashi didn't hesitate this time.
"Like I said, my master told me to protect this place the best I could. Seele always came here. I had to guard something special for him."
"Wait... so you can't come with us?"
Itoshi asked, his face falling.
Kirashi looked down, genuinely feeling the sting of the statement.
"I'd love to see the world. But yeah... I can't... Not yet."
He turned to Ryujin, awkward smile etched on his face as he scratched the back of his neck.
"Sorry Ryujin, Seems like me helping your dream come true is a lot trickier to do."
The five stayed in Kirashi's hut until nightfall. That's when Ryujin finally revealed their next move: a full-scale operation to flush out the Seele still roaming the Kunigami region.
"So we're staying here tonight?"
Itoshi asked.
"Probably another all-nighter. Be prepared,"
Ayro warned.
"You gonna be okay, Kara? You can rest inside,"
Ryujin offered.
Kara shook her head, a determined smile on her face.
"Not at all! I want to see how you guys fight."
"Alright,"
Ryujin responded with a nod.
The sun began its final descent, turning the rising tide into a sea of liquid orange. From a small lookout Kirashi had rigged into a towering tree, Itoshi watched the horizon.
"April 1, huh... that's in a few hours. Where are you now, Hishiki?"
Itoshi closed his eyes, a brief, painful memory of them and Hishiki flickering through his mind.
Kara climbed up and joined him quietly, sensing the mood. Meanwhile, Ryujin scouted the perimeter while Ayro and Kirashi sat on the thatched roof.
"Hey y'all!"
Itoshi called down.
"Hmm?"
Ayro grunted.
"Is it okay to leave our stuff at the café?"
"There's no reason for Seele to go there. You're not there,"
Ayro replied.
"What about bandits? Pirates?"
"Unlikely."
"Okay!!"
Ayro muttered under his breath,
"I left a shadow of mine there just in case, anyway."
Kirashi glanced at Ayro, his green irises catching the twilight.
"Ayro?"
"Hmm?"
"When you said to Itoshi, 'There's no reason for Seele to go there, you're not there,' what did you mean?"
Ayro took a breath, his tone becoming uncharacteristically hesitant.
"He's possibly the rarest flame user—U.W.D.S. has been chasing the blue flame for centuries... And with what happened earlier... Seems like his rhythm can bait Seele. Gotta put that to a test sometime."
Kirashi turned his head back to the sunset.
"You can't control him, though."
"We don't want to control him,"
Ayro argued, closing his eyes.
"We just don't want him falling into the wrong hands."
Suddenly, Kirashi was reminded of another lesson.
"Right now he's your greatest ally—or your biggest regret,"
he mused aloud.
"My master once said, 'Some powers choose their wielder... but it's the people around them who decide if they stay sane.'"
Ayro and Kirashi both looked up toward the lookout where Itoshi and Kara were talking.
"Oh well. His sister is cute though,"
Kirashi muttered. Ayro's head snapped toward him instantly.
Kirashi watched as Kara quietly leaned on the railing beside her brother. She didn't talk much—she just listened.
"The ones who don't fight for attention? Keep them close."
His master's voice echoed one last time. Kirashi looked away and smiled faintly.
~~~To be Continued~~~