"Akio, you have to hide me!"

Leiko crashed against her husband, fists on his chest and a panicked look on her face. He looked puzzled.

"What?"

"I'm serious. You have to hide me."

Eyebrow raised, Akio awaited an explanation. Leiko gave an exasperated sigh.

"Wait."

She looked around, a little frantically, seemingly searching for something (or someone) in the crowd. Akio silently watched her.

"Okay, look. Haru told me a Guild official dropped by our camp while I wasn't there, and asked to see me. When he asked them what about, they said it had something to do with my registration."

"So... What's the problem?"

"Don't you understand?!"

Sharply, she grabbed his arms and began to shake him.

"I never told them I lied about my age when I first came into the Guild! They've figured it out!"

Akio remained calm as she shook him with growing vigour.

"Okay. And what do you think is going to happen?" he asked.

"They're gonna kick me out! I'll be jobless and homeless, I'll never be able to hunt again without being a criminal, and if you guys try to help me you'll be criminals as well! Nothing will ever be the same!"

She grew more distressed as she talked, until Akio could feel her fingers digging into his arms; he calmly, but firmly, put a hand on her shoulder. Pressing down gently, he got her to stop for a moment as she looked up to him.

"I think you're being a little dramatic. Do you really think they're going to kick one of the Ace Hunters out of the Guild?"

"YES!" she insisted, throwing her arms in the air. "You know how in love they are with their bureaucracy!"

"You are one of the best Hunters in the world. They're not going to kick you out," Akio assured. "I don't think anything short of murder would make them do that."

"Akio." Leiko suddenly wore a serious look, fatality sounding in her voice. "If someone figures out that one of the Ace Hunters lied to get into the Guild and there were no consequences, imagine the hit to the Guild's credibility. No one will ever follow their precious rules with the same assiduity. The entire Guild will crumble in on itself. They'll do anything to stop that!"

Dubitative, Akio raised his eyebrows and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Darling. I think you're being completely overdramatic."

He uncrossed his arms to offer a hand, and then gestured in the vague direction of the Guild Hall.

"We should just go down there ourselves, and figure out what they want with you. Chances are, they'll just have you change some of your identification, and that'll be that."

It was Leiko's turn to be doubtful, suspiciously eyeing Akio, then the Guild Hall, then Akio again.

"Are you suuure about that?"

He nodded.

"Fairly certain."

She stared at him, as if weighing her options.

"So you won't hide me to spare me from being cast out as a criminal."

He rolled his eyes.

"No, because that's not what's going to happen. But if it makes you feel better, if ever you are in danger of being thrown out of the Guild, I'll hide you all you want."

She crossed her arms, staring into him. Worry still tugged at the corner of her lips, and he couldn't help but feel – if not quite empathetic to what was clearly melodrama – a little bad. He reached for her hand which she gladly took.

"Well at least that's good to know."

He gave a small smile.

"Alright. Come on."

As they made their way through the streets, Leiko still somewhat nervously looked around the crowd, trying to spot what Akio assumed was a Guild official. He softly squeezed her hand to get her attention, and gave a half-smile to try and get her to calm down. She took a deep breath and sighed.

"You're probably right. It's probably nothing bad," she said.

It sounded more like she was trying to convince herself than anything else, but Akio took the small victory.

Soon enough, the Guild Hall came into view, bustling with activity. Leiko seemed to grow more nervous. They entered the hall, and saw someone discussing with the Guild Master. Patiently, they moved to the side, just within earshot of the conversation.

"... are you sure this is the right move? I mean, it's pretty minor, even if she is part of the Ace Hunters."

The Guild Master wore a stern, dark look, and Leiko side-eyed Akio.

"Yes. It must be done. It's a shame to lose such a good element, but the rules must be followed, especially important ones such as this."

"... Fine. I will go and find the Ace Hammer wielder and inform her of our decision."

Fast as thunder itself, Leiko pushed Akio down to the ground, under a table, out of sight of the officials. She turned to Akio and scream-whispered:

"I told you they'd kick me out! Oh my god, what are we going to do?!"

Eyes wide, he looked to her, trying to remain calm.

"I'm sure we misunderstood. They can't possibly be doing this," he breathed.

"You can't possibly rationalize this away! I'm completely fucked!"

"Calm down. We'll find a way."

"Akio!" she gestured wildly. "If we go against this, we're criminals! What could we possibly do?!"

Akio adjusted his position with the clanging of his armour. Leiko looked daggers at him, and he threw his hands up slightly in protest. Gathering every ounce of calm in his body, he took a breath.

"Look. Lets not panic."

"What is there to not panic about?!"

"I don't know! But scream-whispering isn't going to solve our problem right now!" he scream-whispered.

"Then stop scream-whispering!"

"You're the one who's scream-whispering!"

"Well you are too!"

He opened his mouth to protest, but clasped it shut. He closed his eyes, and squeezed the bridge of his nose with one hand, keeping his balance with the other.

"Okay, okay. We should both calm down. First of all, under a table in the Guild Hall is a terrible place to hide."

"Well I did my best with the literal three seconds I had!" she seethed.

He held his free hand up, palm towards her, in a show of good faith.

"Yes, that was all we could do. I'm not saying you did bad."

"We wouldn't be in this situation if you hadn't brought me here!"

"Leiko. I'm being serious right now. Being at each other's throats is not going to help. We can work through this together."

She scrunched her nose, grit her teeth, took a sharp inhale, and then had a long sigh.

"Alright. You're right. Sorry."

"That's alright. I'm sorry too, for not believing you."

Her features softened a little.

"That's okay. You were starting to convince me either way."

He gave a small nod, acknowledgement rather than satisfaction. They lay there in silence for a short while, both thinking.

Suddenly, Leiko's eyes lit up lightly, and she held a finger up.

"I have an idea! But we have to sneak out of here first."

"Alright."

Slowly, they rose to their knees and crawled until they were out of sight of the Guild Master, at which point they rose to their feet and sprinted away.

Koyoko's attention snapped to the two Hunters, out of breath, who'd just loudly barrelled into her wagon.

"Uh, hi?" she tried.

"KYOKO!" they both exclaimed. "YOU NEED TO HIDE US!"

Eyebrows raised, Kyoko stared at them.

"... What?"

Leiko took a step towards the Kindred Hunter, clearly completely panicked.

"This is capital. Soon, we'll be criminals."

"... What?"

The Ace grabbed Kyoko by the shoulders and looked straight into her eyes, despair seeping out of her every expression.

"Just tell me you'll hide us!"

Frightened by the clearly extremely severe situation, Kyoko put her hands up in surrender.

"Alright, alright, okay! I'll hide you guys! But please tell me what's happening!"

Akio took a step forward, quickly looking out of the windows of the wagon to make sure no one was coming.

"The Guild figured out that Leiko lied about her age when she first joined, and now they want to kick her out."

Kyoko's eyes widened and her eyebrows shot up.

"Excuse me?"

Leiko shook her.

"We heard them! They said that it was a shame to lose such a good element!"

Kyoko flopped around a little.

"But that makes absolutely no sense! Why would they kick out one of the Ace Hunters for something so minor?"

"I know! But it's what they said!"

Kyoko took some time to take in the severity of the situation. But before she could even come to a decision or figure out a plan, Akio exclaimed:

"Leiko! He's coming!"

"Shit!"

Leiko dove behind Kyoko's item chest, and Akio slid behind the door to the wagon... except there wasn't a door. So he slid up against the wall and hoped the Guild official wouldn't look this way, camouflaging himself as much as possible with the drapes that served to close the entrance.

The Guild official walked up to the entrance, knocking thrice on the wagon's wall. The wagon creaked. Kyoko walked forward, pushing away the heavy curtain Akio wasn't hiding behind, and waved at the man standing there.

"Hello. Can I help you?"

As she peeked out of her own dwelling, the Guild official eyed her with confusion.

"Um, yes. I'm looking for Leiko, the Ace Hammer wielder? I've heard you might know where she is."

"Oh, sorry. I have no idea."

Furious whispering caught her attention; Kyoko quickly turned to see Leiko peeking out of hiding, gesturing Akio over to her while he held his arms out slightly, frantically mouthing something Kyoko couldn't quite get. She quickly turned her head back to the official, who suspiciously tried to look past her.

"So uh, yeah. Sorry. No clue where she might be. Bye!"

She tried to shove the drape back, but he stopped her.

"Is something wrong?"

"Nooo!" Kyoko said as she gestured to the opposite direction, "Not at all! You can go, don't let me keep you!"

The Guild official stared at her, dubitative as he took a step forward, almost pushing past her.

As she stepped back to let him in, left without a choice, she kicked Akio to grab his attention, and Leiko's as well. Seeing someone come in, Leiko quickly dove back to hiding. The man stepped in, having a look around.

There was a small, metallic noise, followed by a very quiet 'shit!'. The Guild official looked to Kyoko.

"Are you sure everything is alright?"

"Yes. Yes, definitely. Completely. Don't even worry about it. Seriously. You should go, there's absolutely no problem here."

She tried to push him out as she talked, but he remained steadfast, eyes locked on Kyoko's item chest.

"I'm serious!" she insisted. "I'm fine!"

He walked towards the chest, and Kyoko grabbed his arm. He turned back to her, in full view of the entrance, and looked straight to Akio. The Ace Commander froze.

"... Ace Commander...?" the Guild official tried.

"Oh, yes. Hello. I was just, uh... fixing the drapes."

He mimed whatever he could approximate as a 'fixing' motion.

"Well, maybe you'll be able to help me, then. I'm looking for Leiko."

Akio stopped what he was doing.

"Oh? You know, that's weird, I haven't seen her since this morning. I truly don't know where she might be."

The official took a step back.

"Really? Now that's strange. Well, it's very important that I talk to her, so when you do see her, could you please tell her to come by the Guild Hall?"

"Oh, of course- NO"

Akio held out a hand as the Guild official finally got to Kyoko's chest, stretching his neck to see behind it.

Leiko looked up.

"Oh. Hiiiiiiiii. I heard you were looking for me?"

He pursed his lips.

"Yes."

There was pause. A moment in which Leiko, looking into the eyes of the man who would ruin everything she had accomplished so far, all of the dreams she had worked towards, considered her options.

With a scream, she leaped to her feet, vaulted over the chest, and positioned herself between the Guild official and the door.

"You can't do this to me! I'm an Ace Hunter! Is such a small lie really a reason to throw me out of the Guild?!" she screamed, gesturing wildly.

The official raised an eyebrow.

"... What?"

Leiko paused.

"... you're not here to kick me out?"

"Of course not!"

The three hunters had a long sigh of relief, much to the Guild official's confusion.

"Um... I'm simply here to... wait a minute..."

He reached to his pack, where he searched around for a couple seconds before pulling out a large black scale, still shimmering.

"This is one of the scales from the Fatalis you defeated. As a member of the Ace Hunters, it is traditionally mandatory for you to have a Guild Card made out of the scale of an Elder Dragon. As such, the Guild is proud to bestow you this piece of our research collection for such a use."

"..."

Akio stepped out of the drapes.

"I think I'm gonna cry," Leiko stated.

The Guild official stepped forward and offered Leiko the scale sternly. Without hesitation, she took it.

"Thank you."

He stared at her for a moment.

"But, I have to wonder... What did you say about a lie?"

Leiko straightened up, moving around the man and pushing him towards the exit.

"Don't worry about it, I misspoke! You have a good day now!"

He looked over his shoulder at the Ace Hammer wielder, then glanced at the Commander, and then at the Kindred Hunter before giving a sigh and heading out.

"Have a nice day," he said as she left, softly shaking his head.

Alone again, Leiko collapsed with a thunk on the wooden floor of Kyoko's wagon.

"I can't believe what just happened."

Akio stepped to her and sat down besides her.

"We did misunderstand."

Kyoko just stood there, staring at them.

"Just a thought," she begun, "I'm like, the worst person to hide people. I'm a terrible liar."

"That's okay," Leiko assured, "You did your best."

"Uh, thanks?"

The Hammer wielder stared at the ceiling, and squeezed the scale between her fingers. She lifted her head to look at it.

"Cool scale, though," she said.

She let her head fall back to the floor with a thump.

"So, what are you going to put as your title?" Akio asked.

"How about 'I'm definitely twenty-three, don't even worry about it'?"

"I think 'Ace Hammer wielder' is a little better," Akio suggested, looking down at her with a smile tugging at his lips.

"Yeah," she smiled back. "You're right."

"Haru, why the hell did you say 'registration' instead of 'Guild Card'?"

"Aren't those the same thing?"

"... You have no idea the trouble you've caused."