“We have the chance to start over,” Shomei implores as she spoke to Vicious while they stood at a distance from Keiji and Breeze in a large, hard, and dry open field where it looked as though the ground had been clawed through by a massive beast. “You can’t run from the fact they’re hiding something forever.”

  “We don’t know the full story,” Vicious replies with conflict in his voice and written all over his face. “We don’t... There might be a reason.”

  “They may have very well killed the Emperor,” Shomei says in a pleading whisper. “What possible reason could they give to justify that?”

  Vicious shakes his head, unable to process her accusations logically. “I... I don’t know.”

  Shomei studies his countenance and actions, trying to find the answer in his expression, only to sigh hopelessly and turn away from him. “I won’t return to the Temple without reason anymore. I can no longer support what they are becoming.”

  Vicious looks back at her worriedly. “If you don’t then what will you do? Return to the village outside Tinder? They’ll never forgive you for turning your back on them.”

  “I don’t want forgiveness from them, or anyone for this choice. I just want to make sure I never compromise my values for anyone,” Shomei says quietly.

  Vicious opens his mouth in response, but stops as Kaori and Tai had both jumped from a rope ladder hanging down from the ship.

  Kaori stumbles as she hit the ground, regaining her balance and composure with the help of Breeze.

  “You alright?” Breeze asks with a reassuring smile.

  “Yeah. Thanks,” Kaori responds emptily, catching the sound of her own tone and smiling with difficulty back at Breeze.

  Breeze’s smile softens kindly in response, worry in her eyes, then looks at Tai. “Okay, what direction?”

  “Follow me,” Tai responds already moving forward, Breeze following behind as she started to control the ship from her familiar holographic screen.

  Keiji walks with Kaori at his side, noticing she was looking down as she walked. “Something you wish to talk about?”

  Kaori shakes her head a little. “No. I know you’re all worried and I don’t mean to make everyone feel that way... I’ll try harder.”

  Keiji nods understandably. “It’s completely understandable. Take all the time you need.”

  Kaori looks ahead distantly. “I don’t deserve that kind of kindness,” she murmurs.

  “It’s the least we could do, considering you care for my people so deeply. That on its own means more to me than you can imagine,” Keiji responds.

  “No pressure, huh.” Kaori looks up as they reached a deep crevice in the earth.

  Keiji walks ahead of Kaori and the others as they all stopped and stands next to Tai. “Is this the entrance?” He asks softly, looking at a large hole where a few steps could be seen before fading into darkness.

  Tai turns and looks at Kaori, his expression barely noticeable to be somewhat than usual before looking back at Keiji. “Once she enters the light will guide the way.”

  “Very well,” Keiji turns to Breeze. “I trust you to guide them far from here.”

  “Already on it,” Breeze says with a nod. “Be careful...” She looks at Tai with concern. “Take care of her.”

  Tai looks at Breeze with narrow eyes, remaining otherwise unresponsive, then turns away from her and heads down the dark cavern first.

  Keiji gestures Kaori to go ahead along with a reassuring smile.

  Kaori nods and does as told, the walls, once again, glowing steadily around her. “It’s the same light as before.” She looks at the walls as she walked down the steps, noticing a pattern etched into the stone that glowed a soft white against the blue, different from what she had seen before. “No, it’s different this time.” She trips over a large rock in the middle of the path, not having the chance to brace herself to fall. “Uh!” She feels her body become lighter just before she hit the ground and is helped up to stand properly with Tai’s assistance. She looks up as Tai helped her stand, her expression taken aback as he looked back at her.

  “Watch where you’re going,” Tai says harshly.

  She nods hesitantly, moving away quickly. “I’ll be careful.”

  Tai looks at her simply before continuing on leading the way.

  “It almost felt like...” She looks down thoughtfully, only looking up ahead once Keiji spoke.

  “Are you able to see it?” Keiji asks Kaori softly.

  She looks at the glowing patterns on the walls and nods once. “What is it?”

  Tai glances at the walls for a moment before looking ahead, unwilling to contribute to their conversation.

  “A guide used to lead us down the path toward the end,” Keiji answers.

  She examines the walls with interest as Keiji continued talking.

  “Written in the old language of our people, it reacts to your presence.”

  “I wonder how...” She asks thoughtfully.

  “It’s because it was coated with my blood,” Tai replies darkly, his tone sharp enough to cause unwanted discomfort in the discussion that, in turn, caused Kaori to respond with a look of guilt of her own.

  “It was a different time then,” Keiji says, attempting to ease Kaori’s concern.

  “It’s still the same. If everyone else had their chance now they wouldn’t hesitate,” Tai adds bitterly.

  Kaori shakes her head with determination. “I won’t let them,” she says reassuringly. “Whatever was done will be the last time it happens.”

  Keiji smiles knowingly as he glanced toward Tai. “So says the ruler of gods,” he says distantly.

  Tai scoffs in disbelief. “Yeah right,” he stops with the others behind him and looks at the glowing patterns carefully for a moment before turning to Keiji.

  Keiji nods and goes ahead, placing his hand on the stone lightly.

  She watches the silent interaction between Keiji and Tai, seeming to understand they were communicating with one another. She watches both men stand firm as the large stone wall had started to move and make a dark path.

  “Beyond here there are traps,” cautions Tai. “We can’t avoid them so it’s best to be careful.”

  “I expect nothing less,” Keiji replies.

  She follows silently behind them, only half listening to them talk softly while she remained silent.

  “Were you productive during your time away?” Keiji asks.

  “Hardly...”

  Keiji chuckles knowingly. “Pity. There were so many things you could have done for me.”

  “I’m not your messenger,” Tai replies bitterly.

  “Hm. I suppose not,” he says with a smile. “Though there are things that only you are able to do. It does become useful.”

  “Whatever.”

  Kaori looks at the walls for a moment distantly, stopping as she heard a soft whisper around her.

  Keiji turns and looks at Kaori curiously. “Something wrong?” he asks, receiving a blank stare from Kaori before she shook her head causing him to examine the area, understanding that Kaori wasn’t being completely open with him.

  Tai turns and looks at Kaori as well. “You don’t tell us now and something happens you’ll regret it.”

  She stays silent for a moment, listening carefully. “It’s the same as before. I don’t know what it is.”

  Tai glances at Keiji with a serious look in his eyes.

  “What does it sound like?” Asks Keiji gently.

  She closes her eyes lightly, listening intently. “The pain of your past still burden you?” She shakes her head unable to clearly discern what she was hearing.

  Keiji looks at Tai who stood silently, listening to Kaori speak with confusion and uncertainty.

  “What else?” Tai asks roughly.

  Kaori listens intently in silence, hearing a faint whisper that no one else seemed to acknowledge. “I can fix that.”She opens her eyes and looks at Keiji worriedly. “It sounds like something I’ve heard before but... I don’t know.”

  Keiji starts to speak but is interrupted as Tai spoke in a stoic tone.

  “It’s just a dead language. There’s no meaning behind it.”

  “Tai...” Keiji says softly, urging him to be honest.

  Tai sighs heavily and rolls his eyes. “It’s our old language, one that died out over a five hundred years ago. The only ones who are left that can fully understand it are the Outcast, and myself,” Tai says reluctantly, his expression irritated.

  “Does that mean he’s here?” She asks looking fearful.

  “I can’t hear him so, no. But we need to hurry before they find out where we are,” Tai leads the way deeper into the cave, Keiji, and Kaori walking behind him quietly.

  She looks ahead with worry while they walked, her mind wandering off slowly. “I wonder what the voice was saying.” She feels the ground suddenly give way underneath her. “No!!” She grabs onto the stone edge just as Keiji and Tai both ran to help her.

  “Kaori! Are you alright?” Keiji asks worriedly.

  “I think so.” She struggles to climb up, reaching out for Keiji’s hand as he extended out toward her but is unable to reach him. “I can’t... I can’t reach you,” she says with difficulty.

  Keiji leans forward as far as possible, barely able to reach Kaori’s fingers.

  She stretches her arm as far as she could, the stone she was holding onto suddenly coming loose causing her grip to fail.

  “Kaori!” Yells Tai seriously.

  “She is mine now!”

  Without a second thought Tai jumps down the hole after Kaori, clearly being able to hear the voice of the man echo around them.

  Keiji stares down into the hole worriedly. “Tai...” he says with a heavy sigh. He then takes a small white glowing sphere from his pocket and tosses it down the hole, patiently waiting after he watched it fall until he no longer saw its light against the darkness.

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  ?

  Kaori winces, feeling a hand touch her cheek softly not realizing she was regaining consciousness as she lay on the cold dirt ground. “Hm...”

  “So Taiichiro finally found what he was looking for,” a male voice says in amazement.

  Kaori moans softly in disruption as she felt the hand move the hair from her face.

  “He’s going to start to worry if you don’t wake up,” he whispers, closer to Kaori’s ear than before.

  Kaori feels a heavy silence encompass her until Tai’s voice cuts through from the distance.

  “Kaori! Kaori if you can hear me answer me!” Tai calls out seriously.

  She feels herself become fully conscious and slowly sits up, her body feeling a rush of pain as she pushed herself up to an unsteady stand.

  “Kaori!!”

  “I-...” She holds her abdomen she spoke. “I’m here!” She says weakly.

  “I’m coming, okay?”

  She nods to herself and looks around her in the darkness. “That voice... Who was he? Was it a dream?” She stands hesitantly, her body absorbed by pain as she swayed lightly. “Where am I?” She hears footsteps near her and turns around, her eyes wide as she listened intently to a soft whisper around her that sounded like Aduro.

  “My dear ruler, the beauty of the heavens. A pity to go through such frivolous tasks to try and defeat me when we could end it here and now...” Aduro’s voice says darkly.

  Kaori feels a hand gently touch her neck and shakes head as she moved away quickly. “No!”

  “Broken heart. Broken will. Just as I before you... You’ll become just as the rest. And I will take everything else you have come to care for,” Aduro’s voice continues. “One by one.”

  She screams as a hand was placed firmly on her shoulder, unaware it was Tai. “Don’t!!”

  “Hey! It’s just me,” Tai says moving away and holding up his hands. “Calm down,” he pauses for a moment before putting a hand on Kaori’s arm to ensure where she was in the darkness. “You alright?” He asks softly, his hands holding onto her with a slight sense of concern in his touch.

  “I... My body hurts and I think there’s people here.”

  He lets go of Kaori and looks around just as a familiar glowing white sphere had fallen near them and illuminated a small area around them.

  “What’s that?” She asks worriedly as it rolled toward them.

  “From Keiji,” he goes over and picks it up, causing the glow to brighten and the light widening as it began floating above them and staying between them. “We need to find a way out,” he says quietly as he looked up at the light. “Can you walk okay?”

  “Yeah.”

  He looks at her carefully believing otherwise. “C’mon.” He picks her up with ease on his back, ignoring the lingering pain of Kaori’s touch.

  “But you-”

  “Just shut up okay?” He says seriously as he started walking, the orb of light that floated above them following along as well.

  She keeps a guilty gaze downward, hiding the uneasiness she felt even as she blushed.

  “If you see or hear something let me know.”

  “Okay...”

  He looks ahead calmly as they walked. “What had you so scared?” He asks quietly.

  “I heard Aduro... I don’t think he was here, but I could hear him though...”

  “Then... What did you mean there were people here? One of the Loyal Four?”

  “No. I heard a voice... He told me-,” her voice falls silent as the thought came to mind.

  “Finish your sentence,” he says seriously.

  “You’ve finally found what you wanted,” she replies nervously.

  His gaze wanders down for a moment. “I’m sure you were just imagining it.”

  She looks down with concern. “Yeah... Probably.”

  He sighs heavily knowing she believed otherwise from her tone. “I just don’t want to talk about that right now,” he mumbles lowly as he continued to walk.

  She frowns lightly and nods understandably. “I won’t push it.”

  He keeps his gaze ahead knowing Kaori had felt uncomfortable. “You know... More than likely when this is over you’ll still end up needing to go back to the palace.”

  “Will even be anything left?”

  “It won’t fall as long as you remain tied to it.”

  “So... I have a big responsibility then I guess. After saving the world I’ll need to make sure it stays safe.”

  “So do me a favor and lead the people the people the right way.”

  “I promise to do my best.”

  He winces lightly at the pain of Kaori’s touch as it became steadily stronger, attempting to keep the fact to himself as much as possible. He stops as they reached what looked to be a dead end and lets Kaori down, his body showing he was more tired than his expression showed. “There’s a path through here that leads back up to the upper level. I need you to open it.”

  She stands lightly and nods. “Okay. What do I do?”

  “Touch the center.”

  She reaches out and touches the center of the wall, the entirety of it glowing for a moment before moving and breaking open in two, leading to a stone stairwell going up to the next level as Tai had said before.

  He starts to pick up Kaori but stops as she backed away.

  “I can walk,” she says reassuringly.

  “Suit yourself,” he leads the way up the stairs, both of them walking in silence.

  She looks up as the small orb followed right between her and Tai steadily, noticing the light was slowly starting to fade. “I think it might be broken,” she says quietly.

  “The closer it reaches to the one who threw it the weaker the light gets.”

  She nods a little thoughtfully, her attention moving to the carvings etched in the walls.

  He reaches the top of the stair case, the orb behind him flickering until it faded, causing him to look around.

  “Alright?” Keiji asks in the darkness.

  She bumps into someone lightly. “Sorry,” she mutters apologetically, standing motionless as she felt whoever she had bumped into hold her securely, hearing the voice from before speaking softly near her ear.

  “He’s scared,” he whispers softly as he held her.

  Her eyes widen as she heard the voice whisper near her, feeling conflicted as a surge of emotion went through her.

  “Miss Kaori?” Keiji holds out a similar orb that lit up the area softly, showing that Tai had stood next to him and Kaori near the edge of the steps, alone, a short distance from the two of them. “Is something the matter?”

  She regains her composure quickly and shakes her head. “I’m okay. I think I still feel a bit weird from the fall.”

  “Would you like for me to carry you?” Keiji asks nicely.

  She smiles weakly. “I can’t ask you that,” she says kindly. “How much farther?”

  “Not too far, Keiji will help you inside,” Tai answers.

  “Okay,” she replies with a nod, following the two down the halls. “Am I going crazy? Who was that?”

  “Kaori,” Tai says sternly as if he repeated himself a few times.

  “Huh? Sorry I was... What?” She says shaking her head and regaining focus.

  Keiji smiles kindly and shows Kaori the entrance of the small room where the orb of light was waiting inside for them. “After you milady,” he says with a smile.

  “Right,” she hurries into the room passed Tai and Keiji.

  Keiji looks at Tai knowingly. “Your concern is showing.”

  He rolls his eyes lightly as he watched the two go into the small room that was slowly closing off once Keiji entered.

  She looks around seeing a small dark blue orb of light embedded into the wall. “That must be it.” She hurries over to it and takes it in her hands gently and holds it close to her heart. “Please, give me the strength.” She closes her eyes as the orb burst into dust and a cyclone of water shot up from under her and wrapped around her.

  He steps back as the water had shot up, looking concerned as it had suddenly fallen to the ground and dissipated with no sign of Kaori. “Hm...” He sighs softly as he came to a realization of what happened and walks out of the room where Tai was waiting.

  “Where’s Kaori?” Tai asks quickly, not seeing her.

  “Don’t know,” he says calmly.

  “What do you mean you don’t know? She was just in there with you.”

  “Seems this Soul has decided to summon her.”

  He looks at Keiji irritably. “And you just let her go?”

  He shrugs in casual defeat and shakes his head. “There’s nothing I can do if I can’t see her.”

  He sighs looking frustrated. “We need to figure out where she went before someone else does.”

  ?

  “Get down!!! Get down now!!” Yells an unfamiliar male voice loudly over the surrounding explosions and gun fire.

  Kaori opens her eyes as the cyclone of water fell and disappeared into the dry barren ground where people started running toward her. “Ah-!” She steps back, looking confused as the people who ran toward her failed to see her as they went through her body. “A dream?” She covers her head as an explosion went off nearby. “What’s going on?” She asks herself surveying her surroundings carefully, one man with dark blue, nearly black hair and deep blue eyes catching her complete attention as he called out to others around him.

  “Hurry!! Get behind the barrier!” Yells another man in the same manner while directing people in the correct direction to run towards.

  Kaori looks at him closely as if she knew who he was. “That voice.” She turns at the same timing as the young man and sees people who all resemble Yaban running into an unseen barrier. “Yaban.”

  “Wait... Stelle...” Says the man with dark blue hair then looks around seeing everyone running by him only to see a man with soft, white, short hair standing at the top of the highest rock in the area.

  “Everyone to the refuge, we can’t hold them off anymore!!” He yells from the top.

  “Leader Youji! Where’s Stelle?” Asks the blue haired young man.

  Youji looks at the young man with a serious stare for a moment. “She’s already at the refuge. You need to get out as well, there’s nothing else we can do here. We have to let it go.”

  “I’ve got to help Taiichiro,” Replies the blue haired man desperately.

  All of Kaori’s attention remains on the young man with interest as she heard Tai’s name. “This is... This is the peak of the war isn’t it?”

  “You can’t do anything for him. He’s left us,” Youji says regretfully.

  “He’s one of our own! I won’t leave him,” he says with determination as he ran against the barrier.

  “Ryota!” Youji yells with worry, about to go after him until he looked back down at the people below still running for safety.

  Kaori runs after Ryota into a darkness where everything was suddenly silent. “Ryota.” She sighs heavily as she realized she lost track of him. “Where is he?” She turns to the side, walking through the woods as she heard voices in the distance, not fully registering that her surroundings suddenly faded into that of twilight woods.

  Ryota sits with a slightly younger Tai on a fallen dead tree in a dim forest. “Taiichiro...”

  Tai puts his hands on his head looking uncharacteristically scared. “I wanted to protect the ones I cared about most, but...” He closes his eyes looking frustrated with himself. “I ended up ruining everything... I deserve this punishment and everything that comes with it.”

  “So you want me to hate you for it?” Ryota asks quietly. “Like everyone else?”

  “I just want to be alone. I can’t risk anyone else’s life,” Tai says in a broken tone.

  Ryota nudges Tai lightly with a grin. “C’mon man. I can’t just leave you.”

  Tai looks at Ryota with confusion. “Ryota...” He stands looking at him seriously. “If you’re trying to make up for what happened with Stelle you don’t have to. I don’t blame you and I don’t hate either of you for it. You don’t have to pity me.”

  Kaori frowns worriedly as she watched them interact.

  Ryota sighs heavily and shakes his head, rubbing his neck lightly. “Do you think I would go so low?” He asks with a small laugh. “You might only share half the blood of Yaban, but I will always consider you my brother,” he says with a smile. “Besides, I say I have about a hundred years left. Let’s go find you your savior.”

  Tai watches Ryota start to leave with apparent worry on his face. “And Stelle?”

  Ryota stops and nods to himself thoughtfully. “Yeah. You know... I think she could stand some time away from me. She always said I smothered her,” he says with a lighthearted chuckle.

  Kaori walks over to Tai slowly as she noticed he stood in place, not saying a word. “He looks so scared.” She feels her body being pulled back forcefully and falls forward as she stopped, her face and chest hitting the hard dirt ground. “What the...” She pushes herself up seeing Tai on his knees holding onto a heavily bleeding Ryota in the middle of Twilight Woods near a fallen tree.

  “Don’t...” Tai says painfully.

  Ryota smiles through his pain as he looked up at Tai. “Sorry... I couldn’t keep any promise I made to you.”

  Tai shakes his head in denial, tears falling from his eyes and down his face.

  “In the end I couldn’t take care of her and... We never found you the help you needed...”

  “Please... Ryota stay with me. I can take you back to the homeland and-,”

  “It’s okay...” Ryota says softly, his breathing becoming softer with each passing moment. “Just... Just don’t give up trying to find it okay? No matter how hard it gets.”

  “I can’t... I can’t do this alone.”

  “Don’t be afraid.” He holds his side tightly, leaning into Tai’s arms. “I’ll be waiting for you on the other side when your time comes.”

  “Ryota...” He holds onto Ryota’s lifeless body tightly as he cried, the pain in his heart reflecting on his broken expression. “Ryota!!” He closes his eyes tightly trying to hold back the tears but failing as they fell from his face and on Ryota’s lifeless face.

  Kaori places her hands near her heart as she watched, suddenly intrigued as she saw a familiar dark blue orb of light slowly emanate from Ryota’s body and manifest into a small ball of light that hovered above Tai for a moment before shooting off into the woods, unseen by Tai the entire time. “That was... The Guardian Soul! He’s one of them!” She feels the ground fall from under her, pulling her into the deep darkness below, far from the saddening image of Tai holding onto his dead best friend.

  ?

  Breeze stands with the others in the control room of the ship, looking at the monitor closely. “Ugh... Nothing is showing up,” she says looking frustrated.

  Tai sighs hopelessly, uncrossing his arms. “I’m leaving ahead then.”

  Breeze turns to Tai quickly. “Wait you can’t.”

  “Why not?” He retorts quickly with force. “If the Temple finds her first they’ll take her for their own.”

  “But we’re being hunted, more than ever... We can’t lose you either.”

  “I can handle it.”

  Shomei turns as Tai passed her. “What is it when the soul calls her?” She asks suddenly.

  Tai stops and looks down thoughtfully. “It’s rare, but it’s how they strengthen their bond with her,”

  “She’ll return?” Shomei asks quietly.

  “Supposedly when they summon her, they’ll take her to the place where they were deemed worthy of protecting a god,” Tai replies dryly. “No one knows who the souls are, if they’re at peace with being a guardian, or anything. They’re origin isn’t as well-known as you want to believe.”

  Keiji looks at Tai with concern. “If you insist on going, be sure to keep contact as much as possible.”

  “Sure thing,” Tai says carelessly as he left the room.

  Shomei crosses her arms thoughtfully. “It’s a bit strange that she would be summoned so suddenly,” she says softly.

  “Maybe... Maybe the soul had something important to show her?” Breeze says quietly. “Something that will help her journey?”

  “Well, it wasn’t threatening. We just need to find her,” Keiji says calmly.

  Vicious sighs heavily as he shook his head. “How this even happened is beyond my comprehension at this point.”

  “Well what was he supposed to do? Deny a request from them?” Breeze mumbles irritably.

  “I don’t know, maybe go with her?” Vicious snaps.

  “Then we’ll try that next time,” Keiji says in an empty tone, turning away from Vicious.