“Lower levels... Hm...” Breeze scans the temple corridors until she spotted a stairwell descending into darkness, the faint sound of splashing water heard coming from within. “Here we go!”

  Keiji examines the area with a wary gaze, noticing not a single guard was in sight before hurrying down to the lower level with Breeze.

  “Do you think Kaori will be alright?” She asks in a hushed voice.

  “She’s in good hands.”

  “You really trust Vicious that much?”

  “I wasn’t referring to him, nor Shomei for that matter, no matter how capable they may be.”

  “Then who are you talking about?”

  “I have a suspicion that the Souls are pushing her harder than before, giving her the resolve to end the conflict. It was more than likely the reason she was called upon.”

  “I see... I hope she won’t lose sight of rationality.”

  Keiji stops short, hearing a body fall into the wet ground in pain and the unfamiliar laugh of another man.

  “It’s him...” Breeze whispers with surprise. “What do we do?”

  Keiji guides Breeze into a corner and looks around it slowly, seeing Tai’s arms tied behind him as he lay on the wet ground, bleeding heavily and motionless while a guard dressed in black stood over him. “Only one,” he whispers to Breeze. “And we don’t kill anyone here.”

  Breeze nods understandably and reaches into her pocket, taking out a small glowing yellow sphere. “Let me handle it then.” She steps around the corner. “Hey! Hasn’t anyone ever told you to respect your elders?!”

  The guard turns and looks at Breeze with a malicious grin. “Another one of you dirty rats. I bet this one is mortal.”

  “Only a little.” She tosses the sphere at the guard lightly and hurries out of the way, bending down and covering her ears just as a piercing, high-pitched sound was made with a flash of blinding white light.

  Keiji turns the corner as everything went dark and silent, seeing the guard on the floor unconscious. “Well done” he says as he approached Breeze while she stood up.

  “No problem.” She turns and looks around, making sure the area was clear before rushing over to Tai, going to her knees at his side and picking him up in her lap. “Tai? Tai, are you okay?”

  Tai winces lightly, opening his eyes weakly in pain, unable to stabilize his consciousness despite his trying efforts to do so.

  “Just hold on.” Breeze takes a vial from her side pocket and helps him drink it, not surprised he soon became unconscious. “What are we going to do? He’s losing a lot of blood.”

  “Make sure you reach safe grounds and take care of him immediately. I’ll find Kaori and let her know he’s safely in our care,” Keiji informs Breeze.

  “Alright.” She gets Tai up on her back with the help of Keiji, not caring his blood was all over her. “C’mon idiot, let’s get you out of here,” she says softly.

  ?

  Kaori approaches a golden stairwell leading up to a large gold and white throne that was cracked and broken in several places. “This place...” She closes her eyes for a moment as a vision of a young woman chained to the throne while screaming silently as she tried to become free of the chains. She shakes her head, regaining her composure and looks around until she saw Grand Master Valo standing at the window side, staring out into the distance.

  “Welcome home, dear goddess,” Valo says in an empty tone.

  She glares at him hatefully. “This is not my home.”

  Valo turns and looks at her, his arms behind him. “I suppose. Its glory has faded, hasn’t it? It’s nothing of how you came accustomed to in the palace. Fortunately, there’s nothing there for you to go back to any longer.”

  Kaori clenches her fists at her sides.

  Shomei moves to stand next to Kaori. “The Emperor had information that the New Reform was to attack. But rather you’re saying the Yaban took her? Kaori left at the pleas of the emperor for her safety. Yaban weren’t a part of anything that happened there. Why would you blame them? Why were you there in the first place?”

  Valo slowly walks toward the throne and touches it lightly as if remembering something, completely ignoring Shomei. “What a sight it was...” He whispers reminiscently. “At the glory of this temple, the gods that watched over did so with such regality and pride. Now that you’re here, my lady, we can gain back our followers, maintain peace, and keep the impure away from our people. The Temple can be restored, and we can live in harmony the way it was intended to be all along.”

  “Why is my husband dead?” Kaori asks darkly.

  “Humans have no right to touch a god. Much less the goddess ruler of all deities. Though he may have been a descendant of a martyr, he would have never truly been worthy of your presence. Bartering for your hand in marriage... Pure sacrilege. It didn’t help that he had no intentions of following or distributing sacred texts to those under his rule. The end of his life... Was something needed to ensure you remembered your priorities of the Temple.”

  Vicious looks down, conflict and fear on his face as he came to understand Soujirou’s death was at the Temple’s hands.

  “And Taiichiro?” Shomei presses. “Why is a man who has avoided the Temple for hundreds of years being kept here?” Her voice laced with disappointment and disbelief.

  Valo turns his gaze at Shomei and smiles lightly. “He was merely a tool. Just as how he sees our goddess here.” He looks at Kaori. “My lady, we cannot lose you to someone who has vowed himself to manipulate you into giving him everything you have for the forgiveness of his own actions now, can we? You’re safer here, with us. Helping us defeat Aduro by lending us your power.”

  “I’m no one’s servant...” Kaori says quietly.

  “But you are,” Valo says holding out his hands to his side with a strange calmness about it. “A servant of the people, we ask for your help, and it is your duty to us to pay us retribution for our undying faith.” He nods to himself lightly. “Besides, we’ve already accomplished an alliance. There’s nearly nothing else to look forward to other than the destruction of Aduro and the complete eradication of Yaban.”

  Vicious looks up suddenly. “An alliance?”

  Valo smiles calmly. “Didn’t you know? We have achieved the unthinkable after young Akiko had fallen at Aduro’s hands. The war between us and the New Reform... It’s been over for five years,”

  “Then why?! Why kill the Emperor and hundreds of other innocent people and blame it on the Yaban? They are innocent people in all this!” Shomei shakes her head in shock.

  “They are the disgrace to the gods, as well as that creation of pure human blood and filthy Yaban. The first of his kind... We hoped it would be the last, but unfortunately a thousand years ago the Temple elite could only find his traitor of a father.” Valo shrugs a bit, as if the fact displeased him.

  “The Temple... Killed Taiichiro’s...” Vicious shakes his head in disbelief. “Wait, Grand Master, that’s against what the Temple stands behind isn’t it? To kill another human... And... Hunting down a man because of how he was born rather than what he had done. Something he may have never done if the Temple didn’t get involved with him.” He steps forward lightly. “That’s not what the scriptures say!”

  “The Temple does what it needs to in order to ensure the human race survives,” Valo responds aggressively. “And now that the entire lot of Yaban is mingling with humans it is time we rid the world of them, anyway we can. Even if it means holding a goddess accountable for creating them.”

  “Aduro was right...” Kaori looks at Valo hatefully, the ice around them melting rapidly. “Everyone on this earth wants to use me. To treat me as a tool, replace what they lost, destroy what they hate, and dispose of me.”

  “Dispose is such a strong word, my dear. We only want you to loan your power for a few just causes and in return you simply return home,” Valo replies.

  Kaori closes her eyes tightly as an image flashed before her of another young woman sadly stepping into the sacred ruins, the familiar woman who was once chained to the throne fall lifelessly to the grass covered ground, and an unfamiliar young man falling backward from a cliffside. “We don’t ever return home.” She opens her eyes, flames surrounding the walls of the room, burning brightly. “I will not be one of them...”

  ?

  Breeze tends to Tai’s wounds just outside of the Temple frantically. “What a mess you’ve gotten yourself into...” She mumbles quietly, seeing steady improvement as his wounds slowly started to heal, looking surprised as she heard Tai mutter in a painful voice.

  “K- Kaori...” Tai mumbles while wincing.

  She smiles sadly. “Idiot,” she whispers softly as she poured a few drops of liquid on one of Tai’s largest wounds on his arm. “Wonder what you were thinking, not fighting back. It won’t change how they see us. You know that,” she sighs tiredly as she relaxed a bit, putting her things away. “We’ll never get along with the likes of them. You don’t have to try so hard for our sake anymore,” she says in a regretful tone.

  Tai opens his eyes and sits up with difficulty. “The hell...” He turns and looks to his side at Breeze irritably.

  “Hey there,” Breeze says with a smile. “You okay?”

  He gets up quickly, unable to stand up for a moment while Breeze quickly stood up as well and helped him stand.

  “Whoa, slow down,” she says worriedly.

  “Kaori. Where is she?” He says suddenly.

  “She told us we had to leave. Keiji went on despite her request. She’s not really in a good mood to talk right now. She’s really upset about all this.”

  “That stupid girl.” He pushes away from Breeze seriously, starting to walk off back toward the Temple.

  “Wait! What are you going to do? She wanted us to stay out of the way.”

  He stops and looks down, clenching his fists. “They’ve formed an alliance with the New Reform,” he says in a dark tone. “They’ve come to the conclusion that if Kaori won’t fight for them against us, and against Aduro, they’ll force her to. Then they’ll kill her.”

  “What?” She asks softly, looking shocked.

  “They’ve decided who the common enemies are. They’ll kill everyone in the Homeland and stop at nothing until all of Yaban and Aduro are dead. They don’t see a God before them, all they see is a weapon. I won’t allow her to be used like that.”

  She groans with conflict written on her face. “Ugh, fine. But you’re still pretty beat up. I’m not letting you go alone. Keiji would be furious.” She hurries with him back to the Temple as fast as they could.

  ?

  “This ends here,” Kaori holds out her hand toward Valo, a shard of ice forming regardless of the flames around her.

  Valo smiles lightly, watching temple warriors run through the flames. “There is no way to win in this situation,” he says calmly as the warriors ran toward Kaori and grabbed her from behind the ice shard falling to the ground like glass.

  “Grand Master!” Vicious calls out loudly.

  “You can’t do this!” Shomei says desperately as she tried to move forward but is held back by more temple warriors along with Vicious.

  “You can’t use the power of the Gods for your own agenda!” Vicious pleads.

  The flames die down slightly as well as the broken shards of ice disappearing as she turned in a slightly panicked state. “Let me go!” Kaori struggles as she was forced to the ground, several guns pushed against her back.

  Valo slowly walks toward Kaori with a saddening sigh, ignoring Shomei and Vicious struggling to get out of the grips of the Temple Elite. “If you surrender to us, we could make this easier,” he says with a sense of worry in his tone. “We could work together to cleanse the world, the way it should be rather than the way Aduro wants. All you have to do is take back the throne.”

  “Never,” Kaori says hatefully while clenching her fists hard, unaware of the sparks of lightning starting to crackle around her body before swirls of water began surrounding the area while being wrapped with large bolts of lightning, flashing brightly. “This world isn’t good enough. The people in it... All want nothing but power. Power no one is capable of controlling. No one on Noroc will ever listen to the word of any god that falls. There’s only one way... I’ll have to show you what it truly is you cannot control.” A strong force of water wraps around every Temple Elite warrior near her before freezing into solid ice, allowing her to stand freely and stare at Valo with intense hatred in her eyes. “Never will the likes of humans contain our kind. I am the one in control. I am the one who creates fate.”

  “Kaori wait!” Shomei starts to run toward Kaori, now free of the guards that held her back, stopping as a wall of ice surrounded only Kaori and Valo inside. “No!” She hits the solid ice hard, unable to see what was happening inside.

  Keiji hurries up to Shomei and Vicious. “What’s happening?”

  “Grand Master... He...” Vicious shakes his head in disbelief. “It’s been a lie this entire time. None of this meant anything other than to bring Kaori herself to earth.”

  Keiji looks up at the thick wall of ice with concern, uncertain if he could be able to break through himself until he heard footsteps behind him, nodding lightly as he saw Tai and Breeze run up.

  “Sorry. You know he never listens to orders,” Breeze says out of breath.

  “Where is she?” Tai says before anything else.

  “Inside with Valo,” Keiji answers.

  If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  Tai looks at the wall of ice. “Well what are you waiting for? Get her out.”

  “Give me a sec. Everyone back up,” Breeze takes a red glowing ball from her side pouch and jams it into the ice, hurrying back in preparation. She frowns in disappointment and irritation as the explosion did very little to break the ice. “The hell?”

  “If we don’t stop her she could kill Valo,” Shomei says worriedly. “The way she was starting to sound, it was similar to Aduro. If she follows down that path, we’ve lost this fight for good.”

  Tai clenches his fists at his side then hurries down the nearby stairs.

  “Okay, hold on let me keep looking. I’ll figure something out,” Breeze says distractedly.

  Keiji looks over his shoulder lightly as Tai had left, his expression worried as well. “Breeze, please do what you can.”

  “She wants us out. There might really be nothing we can do anymore,” Vicious says apprehensively.

  ?

  Kaori steps toward Valo, stopping a few feet from him. “For the people. Protect humans at all costs... Isn’t that what I’ve done? I’ve given you a gift. Something that you should have cherished rather than become vengeful toward. I’ve watched for hundreds of years, each death of the Yaban caused by a human bringing pain to my heart. I’ve felt the pain of dozens of gods failing to be heard. Why couldn’t you have appreciated their protection? Their ways of guarding those who vowed to instill peace between all on Noroc?”

  “The moment you gave them power was the moment you showed that prayer and teachings meant nothing,” Valo replies in protest.

  “I gave humans the chance to be safe. The freedom to do whatever they pleased without having the weight of protecting someone they could never understand on their shoulders, yet you quarrel about useless power that none of you could ever comprehend. The human flaws were to make you perfect, yet you have all become selfish, cold creatures. This is not what I had ever wanted to see... This is where it all ends.” She holds up her hand as a ball of fire emerged and Valo had backed against the wall of ice.

  “Kill me and the New Reform only becomes stronger!”

  “It doesn’t matter. No human can compare,” The balls of fire suddenly becomes jagged frozen ice with fiery tips. “I shall meet you for your judgement.” She falters just before throwing the ice toward him, the sound of Tai calling her name causing her to stop.

  “Kaori!!” Tai’s voice yells loudly from an unknown area.

  Kaori steps back, the ball of fire and ice fading as the ceiling came crashing down and she covered her face from the falling stone, looking irritated until the dust cleared, and Tai started to stand from the rubble.

  “Again, that filthy Yaban,” Valo says in disgust as he glared at Tai.

  Tai turns and glares at Valo dangerously before turning and looking for Kaori, his eyes fixated on her as he saw her. “Kaori,” he steps toward her steadily, his attention fixated on the darkness of her eyes that overshadowed the usual golden halo he’d normally see.

  Kaori steps back lightly, causing Tai to stop. “Move out of my way,” she says seriously.

  Tai glances over his shoulder at Valo assessing the situation, then looks back at Kaori. “What are you planning on doing? Killing him?” he asks cautiously, recognizing that Kaori wasn’t completely herself.

  “Every word out of his mouth gives more and more reason to Aduro’s actions. I’m nothing but a source of power. They are the ones who need to be stopped. Not Yaban, maybe not even Aduro himself,” she says seriously, standing her ground firmly.

  “Listen to yourself right now,” Tai says shaking his head lightly. “This isn’t you. This isn’t what you believe in.”

  She looks at Tai irritably. “This is the only way they’ll understand.”

  Tai takes a single step carefully, stopping for a moment as he notice Kaori clench her fists tightly. “This solves nothing. I know it doesn’t I’ve tried, and I know this isn’t the part of yourself that you really are. You’re not the kind of person who would kill someone like him for revenge. You’re above that.” He steps toward her cautiously once more, slightly raising his hands to show he was of no threat. “We can go back to the ship now. Leave him be.”

  She looks at his hand for a moment as Tai held his hand out to her, a flicker of serenity, manifesting as a golden shimmer, flashing in her eyes briefly, showing a glimpse of her compassion, before anger took over once more once she noticed his bloodied and injured hand. “No. Not after what’s happened. Not after all the pain this has caused.” She stares past Tai and directly at Valo. “He will know the same loss, he’ll realize that his impact on my kingdom has repercussions.” She holds up her hand, a ball of water surrounding Valo’s entire body and floating upward, watching him struggle to breathe with no hint of remorse on her face.

  Tai turns and looks at Valo before quickly looking back at Kaori with frustration. “That’s enough!!”

  “I say when it’s enough!” She replies heartlessly.

  “You stubborn girl!” He grabs her hand forcefully, struggling to keep her from doing any more damage but ends up falling to the ground with him on top of her as she struggled to get him away from her. “You can’t kill these people, no matter what they’ve done!”

  She looks up at Tai seriously as she lay on the ground with him on top of her, her eyes strangely dark rather than the gold outer ring shining. “Let me go!”

  He forces her hands to the floor as he noticed her less vibrant eyes, staring into them deeply. “Kaori, this isn’t you...”

  She glares at him hatefully. “Let me handle this myself. I don’t need you babysitting me anymore.”

  He glances behind him as he saw Valo’s struggle slow down before looking back at Kaori. “Shit... Kaori, please, I seriously need you to listen to me. You can’t do this. I know first-hand that killing off the leaders of these corrupt factions won’t fix anything. It’ll make things worse; it’ll make them stronger, and it will do more harm than good. You have to let him go and you have to do this another way.”

  She looks up at him, struggling to remove herself from his strong grip. “I won’t! I won’t be manipulated and used anymore. I’m making these choices because they’ve pushed me to it!”

  He grips Kaori’s wrists tighter, not knowing what to do and trying to think quickly. “Kaori... If you listen to me just this once, I’ll show you the good memories...” He says almost defeatedly, the difficulty of the promise weighing on him heavily. “I’ll show you paradise, I’ll... I’ll create that world for you, just like you asked. All you have to do is remember that this isn’t what you wanted, this isn’t who you really are... Please. Just listen to me, this isn’t how we make the world better.”

  “You’re annoying me!” She struggles to break free once more, one hand able to release from Tai’s grip and places it on his chest, his clothes slowly starting to burn, irritated that Tai used his free hand to hold the one she had placed on him, and angry that, despite the obvious pain it caused him, he refused to let go.

  “I’m not going to let you go! Not like this!” He yells looking desperate, not realizing that his other hand had moved to hold hers, entangling his fingers around Kaori’s as he moved closer to her face, his forehead nearly touching hers as he stared into her eyes seriously while pain reflected in his. “You can hurt me as much as you want, I won’t give up. People are counting on you to do the right thing... I’m counting on you.” He grips the hand Kaori had placed on his chest tighter.

  She closes her eyes tightly, looking to be in pain before feeling her body become weak under Tai’s powerful grip. “I just didn’t want to hurt you... I don’t want to hurt anyone... All I wanted was for you to be okay. To make up for what I did to cause this... But not this way. None of this is what I wanted...” She opens her eyes slowly, looking up at Tai directly.

  He looks deep into her eyes, seeing the darkness slowly fade and the familiar golden halo to shine faintly. “There you are...” He whispers quietly through a soft exhale, unaware of the ice rapidly melting and an unconscious, though still alive, Valo fell to the ground.

  She feels her face become warm as she realized he was on top of her and his fingers gently entangling hers. “I-...” She feels her breathing become shallow. “I don’t feel so well...” She mumbles, the air escaping her lips in exhaustion.

  Breeze jumps over a large block of ice and hurries inside the blocked off area. “Kaori we were so worried we thought-” She stops as she saw Tai on top of Kaori just after Kaori had lost consciousness, noticing his eyes close for a long moment as he let out a soft sigh of what seemed to be relief. “Uh...” She looks away awkwardly and turns around to look at Keiji, her face slightly red and full of confusion.

  Keiji walks through an area clear of ice and looks passed Breeze, seeing Tai slowly move away from Kaori and smiles to himself. “Well...” He looks over at Valo and sighs. “Not too late but still... Messier than I thought it would be.”

  “Kaori,” Vicious pushes through just after Tai had put a considerable distance between him and Kaori and picks her up in his arms, checking for a pulse. “What’s going on? Is Grand Master dead?”

  “Unconscious,” Keiji replies simply. “Tai, would you like to explain some things?”

  “Weakened by an ugly truth... If she remained in such a state the Outcast could have taken full advantage of her fairly easily. I’m more than sure he was trying to do so in fact, using the very same method I’m constantly accused of doing.”

  “How did you... How’d you solve that little problem then?” Breeze asks with a nervous laugh.

  “None of your damn business,” Tai replies, ignoring Shomei who also had hurried to Kaori’s side.

  “Will she be alright?” Shomei asks worriedly to anyone who would answer.

  “I believe so. She’s a strong young woman, and I’m quite sure she isn’t unconscious due to what the outcast has done,” Keiji says softly with a knowing smile.

  Breeze giggles a little to herself, avoiding Tai’s deathly stare.

  “We haven’t much time, we take the Grand Master with us. I’m sure we can put him somewhere for a while until we figure out a way to ensure he receives proper punishment,” Keiji says through Breeze’s stifled laughter.

  “I can do it real quick,” Breeze says mischievously, hitting her fist on her hand.

  “Breeze...” Keiji warnings casually. “To the ship.”

  Breeze groans restlessly and does as told.

  ?

  Water is heard flowing steadily in the darkness, otherwise surrounded by silence.

  (“what’s that sound?”)

  “This world is for you... With everything I have left, I will make sure this will be the last memory you have with me,” Says a familiar voice of a woman in the darkness.

  (“That voice is the same woman from before... Who is she?”)

  “I hope you know that no matter what the future holds, I will always... Always love you.”

  ?

  Tai sits at the side of Kaori’s bed on the airship quietly, his hands near his face in deep thought with his elbows on his knees and leaning forward, only turning around once he heard Kaori turn in her sleep. “Kaori?”

  “Who...” She moans tiredly as she rolled over to put her face on her pillow.

  He moves off the bed and kneels down to her level, looking at her with a blank stare. “What are you dreaming about?” He whispers quietly as he watched her, almost as if he were genuinely curious about her.

  She stretches lightly as she breathed in deeply before opening her eyes. “Hmn...” She looks at Tai for a moment before closing her eyes once more, only to sit up in surprise, her eyes wide with shock as she realized he was there. “You’re here!” She yells suddenly. “You’re okay!” She tosses off the covers and throws herself into Tai’s arms, unintentionally knocking him down on the floor with her on top of him. “You’re really okay!” She says in tears.

  “Not if you don’t get off of me,” he says painfully not only from the usual pain of her touch but also from the fall to the ground, adding onto the pain he still felt from his previous injuries.

  She moves away quickly, sitting on her legs in front of him and shaking her head as she cleaned the tears from her face. “I’m sorry... I’m sorry for everything! I was so worried about you ever since Yogen showed me what happened and after we were blocked from entering the Temple my mind went blank and I had no idea what I was doing anymore or if Breeze and Keiji had found you and I just-,” she stops as Tai raised his hand and firmly placed it on her lips, taking her by surprise. “Hm-,”

  “You’re talking too much,” he says coldly, removing his hand from her as he spoke. “Where did you run off to anyway? You had everyone looking all over for you. That’s really inconsiderate you know,” he says heartlessly as he stood up.

  “I met the Guardian Soul. He had a very specific request from me that seemed important.”

  “I’m sure it wasn’t as important as you going off like that.” He holds out his hand to Kaori lightly. “And who’s Yogen?”

  “I think he’s my guide.” She takes Tai’s hand, not realizing he hadn’t let her go, and rather stepped forward closer to her. She nods lightly to herself. “He says he’s here to guide me along the path I choose.”

  He lets go of Kaori as he sighed lightly then hits her head in a near playful way. “Follow whatever path you want, just stop running away from me.”

  She looks up at Tai, her eyes and face still damp as she smiled sadly.

  “If you’re nearby it makes my job a lot easier,” he adds quickly.

  “What job? Now that...” She looks down a little hesitantly while speaking in a regretful tone. “Now that the Emperor is gone, you have no obligations regarding me, right?”

  “Protecting you for the rest of your life will always be my obligation you reckless idiot. That’s what the purpose of Yaban is.”

  She looks away quickly in attempt to hide the embarrassment on her face. “It’s so awkward.” She nods a little, trying to hide her face by avoiding eye contact with Tai.

  “Tch” He rolls his eyes lightly, noticing her embarrassment. “I can’t believe they let a childish person like you rule the gods,” he mumbles lightly.

  “That’s not nice,” she replies somewhat bitterly. “I’m sure I’m older than you.”

  “Then act like it.”

  She looks at Tai with a genuine smile, noticing him turn away from her frustratedly, causing her to laugh softly.

  He turns around and looks at her, almost surprised to hear her laugh for the first time.

  She stops suddenly. “Oh... Sorry I didn’t mean to it’s just your reactions are sometimes not what I expect of you. It doesn’t match your character at all.”

  “It’s fine it’s just...” He replies almost in confusion. “I’ve never heard you laugh before.”

  “I don’t think I ever have,” she admits, somewhat ashamed of the fact. “I feel I shouldn’t after everything that I’ve caused.”

  “Kaori you don’t-,” His voice goes silent as the door to Kaori’s room burst open and Breeze hurried through.

  “Taiiii!!!!! Keiji said you told him she was up!!!” Breeze yells while running in and pushing Tai out of her way carelessly, running straight to Kaori and embracing her tightly.

  He winces lightly as he heard Breeze screaming happily.

  “We were so scared we were going to lose you! Thank goodness Tai was there,” whines Breeze dramatically.

  She holds Breeze back with a peaceful look on her face, looking up just as Breeze moved away to smile at her when Keiji walks in.

  “I do hope we didn’t interrupt anything,” Keiji says with a smile. “I’m very happy to see you well again Kaori,” he glances at Tai lightly. “Thank you for making such a thing happen.”

  Kaori looks down a little thoughtfully. “Can I ask... What happened at the Temple? Everything feels like such a blur.”

  Breeze looks at Kaori in surprise. “Huh? You don’t remember?”

  Kaori shakes her head a bit. “The last thing I remember was not being able to get through the barrier. After that... I can’t remember anything, like I wasn’t even there,” she says nervously.

  “You didn’t seem to take Tai’s capture too lightly. In fact the last we saw of you, you were quite angered,” Keiji explains.

  Kaori blushes brightly as she looked down, ashamed of the fact she had lost her composure. “I see...”

  “Shomei and Vicious took you to see the Grand Master, and when we all reached the Room of Oversight you were encased in ice. The only one who could get to you was Tai.” Breeze glances over at Tai, her expression mischievous as she noticed how irritated he was starting to become with her. “That reminds me, how did you get in there?” she asks with a grin.

  “She was dumb enough to not block off the ceiling,” Tai replies simply.

  “Why would I keep you from coming in? Was something wrong?” Kaori asks curiously, ignoring Tai’s insult.

  “The details of what happened inside are something Tai knows,” Keiji’s eyes wander curiously toward Tai.

  Kaori looks at Tai curiously as well. “What happened?”

  Tai sighs irritably and walks toward the door, stopping before he reached it. “You tried to kill the Grand Master,” he says casually. “Hardly the actions of a goddess, but not surprising.” He shrugs flippantly. “Come to think of it, I should have just let her do it,” he adds carelessly before walking out. “I’m leaving, see you in Bumi.”

  Kaori covers her mouth looking horrified as Tai left the room, closing the door behind himself. “I did... I couldn’t have.”

  “You weren’t successful though,” she says with positivity in her voice. “So that’s something.”

  “How did it come to that?” She asks shaking her head in disbelief. “I didn’t want to be part of the Temple but I really had no intentions on hurting anyone there.”

  “I’m sure that’s something Shomei could answer,” Keiji says thoughtfully. “She was with you most of the time there.”

  “Where is she?”

  Breeze raises her hand a bit to interject. “With the Grand Master in the safe room. C’mon I’ll go with you.”

  “I’ve got a few things to do at the moment before we arrive to our next destination. I’ll meet you both later,” he says politely.

  “Got it captain,” she says with a playful salute and takes Kaori’s hand in hers. “Let’s go,” she says with a bright smile.

  He smiles contently as they both hurried out of the room, turning slightly as he saw the lunar lily that was still placed on a nearby dresser glow steadily. “Hm...” He walks out of Kaori’s room and to the control room where he saw Tai standing at the control panel quietly.

  Tai turns as he heard someone walk into the room then starts to leave, only stopping impatiently as Keiji spoke in a soft and calming tone.

  “Quite a scene, wasn’t it?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Keiji looks out at the sky from the window with a peaceful look on his face. “I believe what pushed her over the edge was thinking she could lose someone she became close to.”

  “Wasn’t me. Can’t die, remember?” He says sarcastically.

  “She wasn’t willing to go on without you. You know that, don’t you?”

  Tai stands in silence as he looked down.

  He laughs silently to himself. “I suppose she’s taken a liking to you.”

  “She’s na?ve.”

  “Maybe so, but she knows things beyond what I can see. I can merely see possibilities; she is the one who creates them.” He turns his attention toward Tai. “I’m sure there is a reason she has decided to trust your guidance.”

  “Doesn’t matter. It’s easier to just let her do what she wants sometimes.”

  “I’ve wanted to ask... How did you reach her?”

  He stares down at the ground hard. “I only called out to her... And she answered.”

  “I wonder why...” Keiji says to himself in a pensive tone.

  He rolls his eyes lightly with a restless sigh. “Who cares. I’m going.”

  “See you there,” he replies innocently, watching Tai walk out of the room.