We fear and despise
What we cannot control
Hato found himself sitting at the dining table of the East family. Yukna was sitting next to him wishing that she could leave and look for Kyona. Kentaro was sitting next to her, his eagle eyes watching her every move. There was a lot of tension in the air no doubt.
"Here, eat." Mrs East walked over to the table and placed down a large plater lined with silver with various cuts of fruit laid down on it. "I have contacted your parents; they are perfectly alright with you staying here." She reassured them.
"Thank you." Hato replied. He wasn't that hungry, and he felt it rude to simply barge into their household and eat their food, but Yukna had already dived into the food and was stuffing her face.
"So, when are we going to go get Kyona?" Yukna asked casually. Kentaro glared at her in annoyance. "Well Grey and June haven't come back so..." She gestured to the door and mimed in her chair sneaking out.
"No." Kentaro replied coldly.
"Why?" Yukna asked him with aggression. She was mad.
"We were instructed not to-"
"Oh, so you're gonna go down that road, are you?" Yukna asked him with sass in her voice and anger in her tone. "You're always going by the books, what happened to that boy who was the biggest troublemaker of all of us, huh?" She pushed him in his chair. "Now you're always by the rules now, even if it costs Kyona her life!" Yukna stood up in rage. She stood so abruptly that her chair fell. It made a deafening crack sound as it hit the ground. Everyone fell silent. Kentaro sat there silently as he sipped his tea. "Say something!"
"What do you want me to say?" Kentaro said slightly agitated. He slammed his cup down on the table and everyone flinched slightly at his uncharacteristic anger. "I'm not selling out Kyona to the rules, I just, I don't know what to do. The Masters know better than I do, so they should handle it." He reached his hands into his hair and fiddled with it, a motion he did when he was thinking.
"I...I'm sorry." Yukna said quietly as she fixed her fallen chair upright again. She sat back down and remained quiet for the rest of the afternoon.
After eating a hefty dinner, Mrs East insisted that they eat, the three of them renewed themselves and rested in Kentaro's room. His room wasn't quite bland, but it wasn't the most exciting thing. It was a large room with a large single bed in the left corner with bedside table next to it. Laid down next to the bed were two fluffy mattresses, fitted with woollen sheets and pillows. The walls were a perfect wooden pattern much like Kyona's home but with only one outward window, though his house was surprisingly larger. On each mattress laid a new pair of clean, white pyjamas .
"Uh..." Yukna groaned tiredly as she fell arms out onto a mattress on the floor. "Worrying makes me tired." She said, exhausted. She snuggled herself comfortably into her sheets. Yukna curled into a relaxed ball in her sheets and prepared herself immediately for a good night's sleep. "Goodnight..." She whispered softly as she drifted off to sleep.
"Man, she sleeps quickly." Hato said surprised. He shook her in her bed to make sure she was asleep. Yukna didn't respond, but she secretly lay awake.
"Yeah, I envy her." Kentaro said as tears formed slightly in his eyes. He held them back as hard as he could, but a single tear escaped his eyes and it rolled down his chiselled cheek. Hato noticed this and tried to keep a conversation going, to distract him from whatever was bothering him.
"Why?" Hato asked him gently.
Kentaro replied sombrely, "She's always ready to disobey, for the right reasons. And she's just so carefree, she's the same child she was 12 years ago." He looked down envyingly at her sleeping form. "I wish I had the same child's spirit as her, but I lost that wild spirited boy a while ago." Kentaro toyed his fingers into his thick hair.
"I guess, but what happened?" Hato asked him as he made his to his friend sitting on a bed across the room. "One day you just came to school and did nothing but obey the rules."
"No-one knows what happened, except for my family of course." Kentaro hesitated to continue, his voice unusually shivering. "My cousin, my best friend, he was on a mission, five years ago." He paused. "He disobeyed orders to save his squad and died." Tears rolled down his chiselled features. "He died Hato, He died!" Kentaro slapped his mattress hard, grief overcoming his expression.
"I'm sorry." Hato said quietly. Yukna stirred slightly. "But, he did it to save his friends, right?" Hato paused to place his hand on his friend's shoulder to comfort him. "A friend is worth it, rules and regulations are important, but you shouldn't live by them 24/7 no matter what happens." Hato opened his arms expecting an embrace from his friend, but Kentaro slapped away his hands.
"I'll sleep it off." Kentaro said quietly. Kentaro fell down on his bed with a thud. He laid down quietly on his bed and soon fell asleep.
"Goodnight." Hato said to himself. He laid down on his floor mattress comfortably, but he found it hard to fall asleep. He had a lot on his mind; mostly about Kyona's wellbeing. Ever since she had left the village, he couldn't shake the feeling something horrible had happened. "I'll sleep it off." Hato convinced himself silently. Something was wrong, and it was coming fast.
"Good morning Hato." A cheerful voice said to him. Hato opened his eyes slowly, as he just woke from a restless sleep. As he sat up slowly and cautiously, he saw Yukna lingering over him, cheerful as ever. "Gross! Why are you sweating so much!" Yukna said disgusted as she grabbed his hand to pull him up from his bed. He patted himself and realised that he was covered on cold sweat. He shrugged it off and simply said he was worried. That was really all it was.
"Well, breakfast is ready, you're lucky we don't have to go to training today." Kentaro said coolly. He was running his fingers in his hair again while Yukna jumped up and down excitedly.
"Wait, it's a Tuesday, did something happen?" Hato asked confused. He walked over to the corner of the room where his clothes from yesterday laid and began to take off his shirt. He lent down gently and picked up his shirt to put it on.
"Well, Yukna seems to want to explain." He said calmly as he gestured elegantly to Yukna's excited form. She squealed with eagerness.
"Kentaro said we can go and find Kyona!" She said quietly but excitedly. "We're going to sneak out of the village undetected and..." Yukna continued to outline and explain a plan as she rolled out a map of the region on the floor, tracing their path with her finger.
"But we're going to wait for confirmation of her location before we leave." Kentaro added.
"How?" Hato and Yukna questioned.
"Her Trida of course!" Kentaro said in a matter-of-fact way. The others looked at each other confused. Kentaro recognised their confusion and elaborated. "Kyona's smart, she literally tamed her Trida yesterday and knows that she doesn't have enough experience with it." He paused to see if Hato and Yukna were understanding where he was going with it. "So if she can't fight with it, then the only other logical thing to do would be to send it on its way on Urata here so it can warn someone. So we just have to wait until it-"
Kentaro was interrupted by a loud knock on the door. The loud knock was then followed by a deafening thud of antlers on a brick wall. Then loud thumping of grass on hooves was audible.
"Whoever it is they're eager." Yukna said as she left the room hurriedly to answer the door.
"So Kentaro, when did you choose to disobey huh?" Hato said as soon as Yukna had left the room. He elbowed his friend in a joking manner.
"I haven't violated any rules, Hato." Kentaro said quietly, whispering into Hato's ear.
"What!" Hato yelled loudly. He through his hands in the air in confusion. Kentaro hushed him hurriedly. He put his finger to his lips and lowered himself and Hato so that from the doorway, their conversations were barely audible.
"Long story short, I met up with Master Ricco last night, he gave me the go ahead to do this mission if we are accompanied by-" Kentaro said quietly and hastily.
"Ahh!" Yukna's scream interrupted Kentaro midsentence. Yukna rushed scared into the room, tripping on the doorframe. She stumbled into the room clumsily and out of breath. "There's a, there's a..." She panted heavily as she walked stumbled into the room. Kentaro got up immediately and reached her just in time to catch her as she stumbled.
"What is it?" Hato asked Yukna in concern. All Yukna did was point forward. She huddled into a ball in Kentaro's arms. A menacing shadow began to manifest on the wall. Fangs protruding from the things rounded head.
"What the hell is-" Hato asked to himself quietly. As he did, the thing that seemed to be casting the shadow slowly began to round the corner. The shadow reseeded, and the seemingly menacing creature emerge from the hallway. To their surprise, a small snake emerged. A straight line of turquoise running down it's pure white scales with piercing eyes of navy blue.
"Ahh!" Yukna screamed and huddled even closer into Kentaro's arms.
"Oh, it's you." Fujiri said disgustedly when he saw Hato in the room with them. Hato looked at Fujiri in anger and confusion mixed on his expression.
"Wha- Okay, okay, okay." Hato slapped his face to regain his composure. "You can talk?" Hato said with surprise.
"Of course I can!" Fujiri yelled to him angrily. "We don't have time for this!" Fujiri yelled angrily.
"You're Kyona's Trida, correct?" Kentaro asked him. He let go of Yukna who was still cowering.
"The name's Fujiri," he said impatiently, "and yes." Fujiri slithered around hurriedly, pacing around the room. His navy eyes stared at each human in the room, staring them up and down. He looked to Yukna who flinched as he stared. He looked to Kentaro who stared back. Finally he stared at Hato who simply ignored his glaring eyes.
"Where is Kyona?" Kentaro asked Fujiri sternly.
"You're smart," Fujiri said, "you must be Kentaro." Kentaro looked down at the small snake slightly flabbergasted. "I was directed here on the complement of Master Ricco." Fujiri said as he read the confusion on his face.
"Well?" Kentaro asked him. He pulled Yukna out of her position on the bed and assured her that the snake wouldn't hurt her. It was odd that she had ophidiophobia, considering one of her best friends was a Trida Lord.
Fujiri began to explain the situation to them, location and the predicament that had been presented to him. He went into detail on Kisam's state and on how he got to the village. He continued into detail on how he looked to the Masters for help, but that Master Ricco directed him to Kentaro's home.
"Hmm." Kentaro pondered as he ran his fingers through his blonde locks. "Okay, Hato, I want you to bring Fujiri to Sir Julian." Kentaro said after only a few moments of thinking. "Yukna, go take Urata back to the grazing paddock." He pointed to Yukna and she nodded her head. She cautiously and slowly got up and walked passed Fujiri who ignored her fear of him. "I'll go tell Master Ricco. Meet me back here at 8 Hour. The time now is 7.5 Hour, so you have 30 minutes, hurry." He left the room quickly. Yukna sprinted out of the doorway as fast as she could. Hato walked over to Fujiri and put his hands down to pick him up.
"I can get up myself thank you very much." Fujiri said with as much sass as Kyona would. He wrapped himself around Hato's arm and slithered up to his shoulder.
"Are you at least going to help us, without the sass?" Hato asked him.
"A Trida has many duties, but one of them is to prevent the corruption of their tamer, and if your hunch is right, then I am dutybound to help you." Fujiri replied. "Now, let's get on with it." Fujiri slapped Hato's back with his scaly tail as if kicking the hind of a horse. Hato ran to the door and down the hallway to the front door. He ran outside and setoff onto the dirt path, running as fast as his long legs could carry him, Fujiri bouncing up and down on his shoulder.
"Sir Julian!" Hato yelled as he entered the downstairs library of the Trida Lord Training School. He looked around the library. His eyes drifting to the small round table where he and Kyona had studied demons together only a day earlier. Julian was nowhere to be found in the downstairs area. Hato climbed the stairs and after climbing a few sets of stairs he found himself in a long hallway. This Training School was significantly different from his, so he didn't know where he was going. He walked down the hallway quickly glancing inside each classroom to see where Julian was. He checked two classrooms before he came to the end of the hallway. He turned around to find nothing there, and he had checked all of the classrooms. The only other places he could be were either outside or in the staffroom.
"Go check in the staffroom first." Fujiri said as if reading his thoughts.
"That's why he chose me." Hato said to himself.
"Oh? And who's that?"
"Kentaro isn't a big fan of rule breaking and going through the staffroom is strictly forbidden for some reason." Hato explained. He ran to the stairs and hastily ran down the stairs. He turned a sharp corner and kicked down the door that was embedded in the thick staircase. Inside was a large room, seemingly larger than it should have been. It was lined with thin bookshelves, small house plants and velvet couches. In the centre of the room was a large map table with a map of the village and the surrounding regions. There were numerous people huddled around the table all wearing the insignia and uniform of the Trida Lord Sect of the Nokuan Army. There were conversing about taking over a certain area before they all looked to the door and Hato standing there with a Trida on his shoulder.
"Which one of you is Julian?" Fujiri asked them sternly as he slithered off of Hato's shoulder and onto the floor.
"Apologies for the interruption everyone, can you all please meet here tomorrow at the designated time?" A general like voice asked. The men and women in uniform nodded and pushed passed Hato to leave. They all simply ignored him and formally walked out of the door. There was only one person left in the room with them. It was Julian. He walked over to them angrily and irritated.
"What are you doing here?" Julian asked them. He was wearing the same military uniform as the others who had just left. "Why do you have Kyona's Trida?" He yelled at them angrily.
"Julian, I need a bit of your time, just for a moment." Fujiri said to him. He slithered onto Julian's square shoulder.
"Only for a moment, then you Hato, will not be excused." Julian said sternly. Fujiri went on explaining what had happened to him and Kyona the day before. Julian listened more and more closely with every passing word. Finally, after a minute or two of pondering the information he said, "Okay, then you are excused for your behaviour. But why tell me?"
"Honestly, I'm not quite sure, but Kentaro never does anything without a reason." Hato said to Julian with full seriousness.
"Well, thank you. Is there anything else?" Julian asked him as he turned his back and began to shuffle papers around on the map table.
"Yeah, what is this place?" Hato asked. He looked around the room one more time. This time he noticed military tapestries and posters of strategies and wall mounts with various types of equipment laid on them.
"I know you can keep a secret Hato, and I might as well, seeing as though you've been here and has seen it all." Julian didn't turn to face him as he said the words defeatedly. "This is the rendezvous point for the Trida Sect. there is one in every school. That's all you need to know." He said. He waved them off with the back of his hand without turning.
"Well that's why we can't go in the staffrooms." Hato said wonderingly as he walked out of the school and onto the dirt path again with Fujiri wrapped around him.
"Yep." Fujiri replied.
Hato and Fujiri found themselves at the front door of Kentaro's home at 7.99 Hour. A few minutes early. No one else had arrived. Hato was standing there alone with Fujiri. Finally, after a minute or two of waiting, Yukna and Kentaro walked up to him walking together quickly side by side.
"Were you followed?" Kentaro asked him as soon as they were in whispering distance of each other.
"Was I supposed to be checking?" Hato replied innocently. He looked around frantically, now on the alert for anyone who may have followed him.
"It's fine," Kentaro said as he patted Hato on the shoulder, "probably." He looked at Fujiri who rested on Hato's shoulder comfortably. "You may leave now Fujiri, we will contact you if we require your assistance, but for now head to the Centre and stay there with the Masters." Fujiri agreed silently and slithered his way off of Hato's shoulder and down the path towards the Centre. Kentaro glided past Hato and opened the door. It slid open easily with the push pf his palm. They all walked in together and made their way quickly back to Kentaro's blank room.
"So," Yukna said immediately after the door had closed behind her, "what next?" She looked to Kentaro expectantly.
"We play the waiting game." Kentaro replied nonchalantly.
"What!" Yukna yelled in an outrage. Hato had to shush her with his hands so that she wouldn't raise a commotion like she normally did. "Why?" She said quieter but still angry.
"Because I told the Masters, they'll soon send out a search party." Kentaro began to explain as he readied a small bag. "That will take several days ten at the most five at the very least, but with Julian knowing the same amount of information as the Masters do, it will take maybe six or seven days to assemble a team."
"Why would telling Julian make the process faster?" Yukna asked him.
"I assume Julian has some kind of military status." Kentaro said casually. Hato and Yukna looked at him confused. He elaborated – "Well there has to be a good reason for the strict rule of no entry into the staffroom. It is heavily enforced, more than any other rule. The only plausible reason for that is because of a military status. To back that up even further, Julian as well as other military figures are often seen entering the school." Kentaro said. The others nodded. It made sense to them.
"Why don't we just go search for her ourselves, wasn't that the plan in the first place?" She asked still agitated.
"Everyone is on guard because they know we will likely make an attempt to leave. This means that security is tight, and it will be difficult to leave." Kentaro continued to explain calmly. "If they think we'll be at ease once a search team is let out then they'll lower their guard," he paused for effect, but not long enough to let Yukna complain, "in addition, if we follow a search team not only will we have a higher rate of survival, it will give us more time to prepare and they know what they're doing and where they're going." He looked back at them. "It would simply be easier and more effective if we followed a search team."
"Alright, so what do we do while we wait?" Hato asked him.
"First, you two have to get home and grab anything essential, you'll be staying here for a while." Kentaro held up his bag. It was quite small and looked as though it would be light to carry. "A bag like this is good. I also strongly suggest bringing any texts on demons that we can study. Meet me back here at 10 Hour."
"Sweet, see you then!" Yukna yelled as she raced out of the room and down the hall. As she left Hato walked up to the door and closed it silently. He turned back to Kentaro.
"Now what did you mean by 'I haven't disobeyed'?" Hato asked him once he was sure that the door was shut securely.
Kentaro sighed. "Like I was saying, we will be accompanied by two trained guards along the way. The guards will be in the search team, the others will not know that we will be there." Kentaro began. "To the others who are oblivious to the real plan, it will seem like we are following when in all actuality we are a part of the search team."
"Okay, but why?" Hato asked him. "Why keep it from Yukna and why not simply make it public that we are on the team?"
"Our enemy will only be expecting a search team of five, that's the maximum. I am also assuming that they know that the village is on high alert and that we specifically will not be let out." Kentaro continued to explain. "We are keeping this from Yukna because she needs to think that we are being independent. She seems to try less when she can depend on others, she is at her best when she believes she is acting of her own volition and against the rules."
"Alright." Hato said with a sigh. "I'll see you at 10 Hour." Hato walked out of the room, down the hall and out the front door. He couldn't deny that Kentaro had an unbeatable strategy but lying to Yukna was something that he was against. Hato was not someone to lie to anyone about anything. It's for Kyona he repeated to himself to keep himself from telling the truth.
After a little while of moseying down the dirt path, Hato had arrived at his house. It was small, much smaller than Kentaro's and Kyona's wealthy estates. The front was layered with stones with grey mortar in between each brick. The door was a dark pine wood with a bronze door handle. He tried to push on the door to open it and soon found that it was locked. He pulled out a necklace chain from his neck. The pendants on the necklace were two small keys; one bronze and one silver. He took the bronze key and put it into the lock and turned it. It opened with a click.
Inside was a small dining table with four chairs gathered around it. There were two doors behind the table. One led to a small kitchen, the other to a bathroom. There was no upstairs, instead there was an open hallway. Hato walked down the hallway, which was short, and into a small room. The room was lined with bookshelves, desks and six beds.
"Alright, small things, essentials only and demon texts." Hato said to himself to confirm what he needed to pack. He looked around the room again and saw a small sack laying on his bed. He snatched up the sack and walked over to the bookshelf the stood next to his bed. He skimmed over spines and labels of numerous books and scrolls until finally he had gathered up a small pile of two scrolls and one book. He placed the book and scrolls in his bag as he meandered over to a draw that sat at the foot of his bed. He plucked out three days' worth of clothes and put those in his bag.
As Hato moseyed out of the hall and into the dining room. He noticed a small note on the wooden table. It read;
Hato my boy, I will be home late – I've been held back for work. Can you please look after your brother. Olivia will be at her friend's house all night and Annella is out of the village and your elder brother is out on a mission.
So both of your sisters are out of the house, your brother is also out. It will just be you and Noah. Please give him dinner, that's all he will need.
Thank you; Mother.
Hato regretted not staying. Noah was young, but old enough to take care of himself. Noah was only two years Hato's junior – 16 years old. Hato's older brother Lucas was 20 and in the Wizard Sect, but he still lived with the rest of the family. Olivia and Annella were both 17 years of age as they were identical twins. His mother and father were always out of the house always held back at work or some other excuse. Lucas was always out of the village on missions and only dropped off to say hello or drop in for food once in a while. Since Hato was usually the eldest home he had learnt to take care of his siblings. He had never missed a day or evening of caring for his brothers and sisters, this would be the first.
It was 10 Hour and Hato was sitting on a mattress that laid flat on the floorboards of the East estate. Kentaro was standing at the doorway of his room, occasionally checking the hall for a loudmouthed Yukna. A few minutes went by and Yukna still hadn't appeared. After 30 minutes of waiting, Yukna arrived at the home, but instead of entering through the front door like a normal person – which was far from what she was – Hato saw her sneaking around the side of the house. She knocked on the window with the knuckle of her middle finger. Hato looked at her with a confused look on his face as he shrugged his shoulders and gestured to her in wonder. She gestured to the window and mimicked the action of opening it. Hato unlatched the window and shoved it open just enough so that Yukna's slender figure could climb through.
"Finally!" Hato said to her as she shut the window and latched it closed. "Where have you been?"
"Well I walked all the way to Training to pick up some texts and kind of lost track of time." She said. Yukna dragged her bag across the floor and slapped it onto the desk in the corner of Kentaro's room.
"Why is your bag so big?" Kentaro asked her as he sat down at his desk. Yukna explained that it was all books and scrolls with essential information. Hato could have sworn that she had half of the entire collection of demon texts in a downstairs library in her bag.
"Let's see what we've got." Kentaro said. He sat down at his desk and pulled out two stools from underneath his table. The other two sat down on the stools and emptied there books and scrolls onto the table. They moved the books and scrolls to one side and pulled out their own blank papers onto the table.
"Let's get on with it." Yukna complained.
"Yeah, I'd like to train for it before we go." Hato said to her. Yukna nodded in agreement.
Kentaro picked out a book from the pile and opened it to the first page. He laid it on a stand, and everyone began scribbling notes about the book. They sped through the first textbook and continued onto a scroll. They repeated the tedious process of pulling out texts and summarising them on small parts of paper.
Midnight arose. The three of them had been sitting at the desk writing notes for hours. Plates of food were stacked on top of each other on the ground. There was a large mound of books and scrolls lying messily on the floor. Stacks of scrolls were strewn about on the desk as pencils rolled onto the floor.
"Finished!" Yukna sighed as she slammed her pencil onto the table. Kentaro plucked the book off of the stand and gently lowered it onto the pile. They all sighed in relief as Hato and Kentaro slumped over on the desk.
"Let's get to training!" Yukna yelled energetically as she stood up. She was filled with determination and not even the slightest bit tired. The others grunted in annoyance and weariness.
"I'm gonna sleep first." Hato said as he slowly meandered over to his mattress. He fell onto the woollen mat with a soft thud as he drifted off into a soundless sleep. Kentaro followed suite and flopped lazily into his bed and into a tired and well-earned sleep.
"Really?" Yukna said. "Fine, I guess a sleep wouldn't hurt." She moseyed to her mattress and sat down on it. She checked her watch. The clock on the opposite side of the room was too hard to see – there was no natural light coming in from the window. It was around 12.6 Hour. It was late, later than Yukna cared to admit. "Maybe sleep is a good idea." She collapsed onto the pillows and huddled into the sheets.
The sun rose gloriously on the horizon of the next Summer day. The heat radiating from outside seemed to seep into the room from the slightly opened window. The humid air filled the room, every inch of it hot and moist.
"Rise and shine sleepy heads!" Yukna could be heard yelling at the top her lungs as she strutted around the room. She banged on Hato's head, but he just rolled over and tried to ignore her. She did the same to Kentaro. He sat up lazily and looked at her, his blonde hair in disarray.
"You want to train?" Kentaro asked her as he lifted his sheets off of him and stepped out of bed. Yukna nodded excitedly in response. "Fine." Kentaro sighed. He motioned to Yukna to turn around so that he could change clothing in peace. "No peeking." She turned around to let him get naked, but she couldn't help herself but to peek slightly at Kentaro's naked form. It was perfect. Every muscle was defined with exquisite detail on his seemingly thin body. She only saw the upper half of him. She didn't dare float below the threshold, no matter if he was wearing...underpants. He noticed that Yukna was looking at him, but he knew that Yukna wasn't that indecent. He put his clothes back on, and as soon as his pants were on, Yukna turned around. He pulled his shirt onto each arm and closed it on his shirtless figure as he walked over to his desk.
"Now you." Kentaro threw her the sack that was resting on his table. She caught it easily. She pulled out a pair of pants and a kimono shirt. Kentaro turned around as Yukna turned. She took off her pyjamas to reveal her underwear, bra and bare skin. She took her time taking off her clothes. Each deliberate movement taking more time than it should have. Kentaro looked slightly over his shoulder to watch her as her hands slid down her shoulder. Her body was slim and defined. Each crevasse in her body was exaggerated in beautiful detail. She didn't look back to look at him, she had to remember Hato was still in the room. She ever so slowly lifted her legs into her pants. Yukna pulled on her kimono shirts and tied it closed.
As they turned to face each other, they simply smiled – not a word was shared between them, but a smile was all that they needed. Kentaro picked up his sword that was leaning up against the door frame of his room. As he did Hato began to stir in his bed. Yukna marched over to his bed and nudged him with the tip of her toe. He slowly opened his eyes as he sat up as slow as a slug.
Kentaro threw another bag in his face and said, "Time to get ready. We've got work to do."
"We're not going to Training?" Hato asked sluggishly.
"Nope, we're under house arrest!" Kentaro exclaimed.
"What?!" Yukna yelled alarmed.
"I told the Masters and they said we can't leave the East Estate until this all sorted out, so we're training here." Kentaro explained. The other two didn't protest. It made sense that the Masters would want them in a close proximity, they would do anything to Kyona back – well at least Yukna and Hato would.
Hato quickly got changed in peace so they could begin as soon as possible. Out of the door they marched and into the large house's backyard. There was one long garden wall that stretched from one side of the yard to the other. The wall was covered with roses and various other flowers and vines. Kentaro led them to the wall. He rested his hand on the wall and moved it around. Nothing seemed to happen. It looked like a normal wall with nothing special about it, but when Kentaro found a specific dent in the wood he smiled. He took his sword and pressed the hilt of his sword into the dent. With a silent movement, the wood next to them began to open, opening on its hinges as silently as a mouse.
"Coming?" Kentaro gestured for them to follow him through the door. Past the door was an even larger yard. This yard however was similar to that of the Outdoor Training Grounds at the Schools. It was lined with wooden benches. In the yard was numerous hay dummies, rolled up grass mats, workout equipment like stone weights and ropes and other varieties of training equipment. In the left corner was a long smithing table with anvils, furnaces, water buckets and more required for smithing. Next to the table was a reasonably medium sized shed with a long black chimney sticking out of it. That was Ken's – Kentaro's father's – smithing shed for his unique craftsmanship.
"Let's get started!" Yukna yelled excitedly. She plucked her Combat Cloths out of her pants pocket and speedily wrapped them around her fists. Yukna sprinted up to a dummy and began to pummel it with hit after hit of her fists, shins, elbows and more.
Hato sat down at a bench and began to roll out his Arc. He studied it closely reading every word on it closely. With every passing spell he read, he attempted to perform it on the spot or in his hands. He tried to achieve spells of many kinds, close range, long range and assisting spells were ones he all attempted.
Kentaro sliced and diced grass mats with his Blade Cloth cover sword. His sword cut cleanly through the rolled-up mats. He surrounded himself with hay dummies and grass mats that he could slice through. He slashed through the air and hit heads with his hilt.
It was their time to train and they were going to train either until they dropped of exhaustion or the search team was ready, and they could leave the village.
Hours went by. Kentaro's father was seen entering and exiting the secret yard multiple times during their training sessions and Kentaro's mother dropped off platers of food for them.
"Prepared?" Yukna asked them at the end of the day. She was covered in hot sweat.
"Not even close." Hato replied. He panted heavily as he wiped dripping sweat from his brow. For Khuas, magic isn't infinite, they have to rest to build it back up. The same goes for Nhuas; they cannot use their body eternally; it has to rest. "But it seems like your body needs a break."
"I know nothing of magic, but it seems you're running low on magic power." Yukna replied.
"We all need to rest." Kentaro interrupted them. They were all tired and if they went any further, they would hurt themselves. They followed Kentaro out of the yard and into the house where they found refreshments waiting for them.
They rested for only an hour until they got back to work training. This was going to prepare for whatever they were going to face. A balance of learning the most they can on their enemy and refining their own skills.
The would do anything to save Kyona to whatever she was going through.