"We found you two tickets to the empire on an airship."
"Two Tickets?" Ryu's eyes narrowed.
"Sayera is going with you as far as Fiend City."
Ryu's numb heart sank for a fraction of a moment but his curiosity soon took over flooding his mind with the question of: Where had the female ninja been for the last two months?
"Don't worry I wont get in your way." Ryu turned and saw Sayera in her Ninja uniform and Be-ru. Above the black material her eyes were dancing and Ryu felt slight annoyance at her from his childhood. He didn't need this, not now when the smoke of his villiage still clung to his clothing.
"Cant she take her own transport there?" he asked and she laughed.
"If you really can't stay with me in a room for ten hours then I suppose I'll have to." She bowed their master and turned intent on leaving the room.
"What do you need to get back into the empire for anyway?" Ryu asked and she looked back over her shoulder her eyes devoid of all emotion.
"My business in the empire is my own." She said. "Excuse me." She pulled the sliding door aside and Ryu now wondered how she got in without him noticing in the first place.
"She goes to the empire to find someone, she did not tell me anymore than that." Murai said. "And I was not going to push her for details."
Ryu nodded. "When does the airship leave?"
"Tonight."
Ryu bowed and went after Sayera knowing that she wouldn't be risking going to empire for no good reason and however much he wanted to be alone at the moment he owed it to her, as a ninja.
He found her on the roof of the training building looking towards the east. He was so used to being silent he found himself beside her before she had realized he was there. However if he startled her then it didn't show.
"I'm sorry." He said "I didn't mean it like that I just don't think we get on well." She didn't look around but he could tell she'd heard him.
"What is it about me that annoys you?" She asked curiously.
"I don't know exactly." He replied.
"I'm sure you do."
For an unsettling moment Ryu relived the first time he had met Sayera and knew she was right.
"Just so you know, she feeling isn't mutual." Ryu thought that this conversation had taken a strange twist and resolved to get back to the real reason he was here.
"I just wanted to say that you can still take the airship with me if you want to." Ryu felt stupid for a second as he realized how that sounded but it quickly faded.
"I'll be very welcome I'm sure." She replied with more than a little amusement. Ryu turned and walked away not knowing exactly what he should be feeling after the slaughter of his village but guessing that whatever he felt came with the territory. Numb and deep down anger, good for revenge no?