The breeze of the night ran across the field illuminated by the pale moonlight, on the complete dark of the sky, only broken by the faint light of millions of stars and that gigantic almost orb shaping that slowly had been disappearing like every time it became full only to appear again at the same amount of time on an endless cycle, the grass swaying at the grass as the moon shone over the dark green turning it into a bright green for a second before continuing it`s eternal movement, a near tree branches moving at the wind sending some flowers and leaves at the mercy of the wind, the flowers of beautiful colors now completely black at the darkness engulfing them all the quiet and beautiful evening glow, among the grass aa figure standing on it, the small figure took a second to admire the sight in front of him, in the night a church standing alongside the tree, the figure got closer to the light to reveal a hooded figure, a rather small human like figure if it wasn't because two tails where on his back, as the light started to illuminate him more, beneath the hood there were two cat paws instead of shoes.
"It has been so long since I came here" said the figure "since I left those child's with Celica"
The figure looked the church again but something else caught his attention, on the shades a little further another figure stood on the shadows gazing at the church the hooded figure got closer only to show an smile, on the shadows the same man who had been there some days earlier, the leader of the six heroes and for the figure a long time partner.
"I wasn't expecting to meet you so soon" said the hooded figure clearly conscious that the warrior had spotted him for a long time
"What are you doing here Mitsuyoshi?" said the completely white armored masked warrior still gazing at the church
"You know I don't go by that name anymore" said the hooded figure as the moonlight illuminated his face showing his face, the face of a cat
"What are you doing here Jubei?" said the warrior on the armor
"I'm not sure myself" said the cat warrior named Jubei "for some reason I came here while I continue my mission, but you"
"I know" said Hakumen "somehow I escaped but, this seems to be planned by that"
"I know what you mean" said Jubei looking inside the church, on that same church he would have gotten married; in fact his wife was the older sister of the woman now taking care of the church, and on it three child he found on a lab to be taken care of, one of them being safe from a man that gained the hate of those warriors after betraying them and hurting everyone they cared for
"Does he knows about this place?" asked Hakumen
"No" said Jubei "she should be safe by now, but, is just a matter of time, until he finds out"
Hakumen merely looked inside the church from the windows, on this same place; they defeated a creature that almost brought the world to its destruction, the black beast, the church and the wild life was a marker of what happened on that same place years ago
"Have you met them?" asked Jubei "they must be growing up"
"One of them" said Hakumen, for Jubei it was clear that he was not going to speak about it, the cat warrior looked up as some clouds covered the moon for a moment before allowing it to shine again, the night was calm and a calm breeze like this would help sleep but for some reason the cat warrior felt nervous, he looked up for a moment only to look to the church alarmed as he heard the cracking of a door, coming out of the church alongside Jubei the masked warrior saw a young girl with long blonde hair and green eyes wearing a completely white dress she used as a pajama, Hakumen saw at the girl not much before, her name Saya, the girl walked towards a near place to show a hidden hole on a tree as she retrieved a book from inside of it, quickly she showed a pen as she wrote on it, Jubei looked intrigued at the girl, sometimes she stopped to cough but after a moment of rest she continued, both warriors tried to stay hidden but the wind flowing towards Jubei had a different smell only noticeable to the accurate sense of smell of the cat warrior, the smell of tears
"That's" said Hakumen
"Isn't a little late for a child to be awake?" asked Jubei coming closer to the girl that only looked at him with red cheeks
"What?" asked Saya "who are you?"
"My name is Jubei" said the cat "and old friend of the sister"
"O, very nice to meet you, I'm Saya" said the young girl making a bow
"What are you doing so late Saya?" asked Jubei "I hope you weren't crying all this time"
"No" said the blonde girl moving her head "is just, something childish"
"Childish?" asked Hakumen coming closer
"Just a nightmare" said Saya "something as simple as a nightmare"
"A nightmare?" asked the cat
"Yeah" said Saya "but it seemed, so real that" started before sitting holding her legs "it was almost as if that happened?"
"Real?" inquired the masked warrior
"I was, I was hurting people, people that I didn't knew, there was a really pretty girl with a face like mine and" started the girl before trembling holding her legs closer to her chest
"No sense on being scared of a dream kid" said Jubei on his usual cheerful tone "is just a bad dream after all so cheer up"
Saya nodded trying to smile before sneezing at the breeze Hakumen tried to block it, even a breeze like this could be dangerous for the girl and he knew it too well, however Saya was caught on one of them to end shortly after that
"Come here" said the cat as he tugged the girl under his coat to keep her warm "better small one?"
"Yes" said Saya as she nodded getting deeper to the chest of the beastkin "plus your fur is so soft and warm, is really nice to the touch"
"I'll take that as a compliment" said Jubei
Little by little Saya started to close her eyes and breath slower until she sneezed again
"Hey" said the cat beastkin trying to help her to sleep "wanna hear a story?" after that she saw Saya Nod under his head, even when he was just a little taller than she was, or most probably she was trying to be smaller to be warmer "ok then, is a story that I heard once a long time ago" said the cat with a smile however he looked at the warrior "a long time ago a monster appeared on a great kingdom attacking it without reason, the people of the kingdom lived on fear knowing that no matter what they tried the monster would someday destroy them, but one day, a man fought the beast, even when it would cost his life, he gave the people hope and time, years after the people came together to live and to remember, the leaders a group of persons that the people called the six heroes, alongside the humanity the where able to defeat the beast and live happily ever after"
"That was sad" said Saya
"It was but people was happy afterwards?" said Jubei
"But" said Saya "why did the beast had to die?" asked Saya with innocence as Hakumen somehow looked at her
"Why do ya ask that?" asked Jubei curious
"because" started Saya "surely the beast wasn't bad, it was just scared, it was on an unknown place when people started to fear and attack it, perhaps it was just defending his life, and wanted to live alongside everyone until they killed hi, perhaps that warrior was his hope for having a friend, someone that would save it from his loneliness"
Saya looked to the ground but she could feel that Jubei got his paws out of the sleeves to somehow hug her inside the cloak getting her closer to him
"Perhaps" said Jubei "the tale could have gone that way, one world where the beast and the people lived alongside each other, but sadly, it could not be"
"it just like the girl and the book" said Saya "no matter what the girl tried or how much she want it, she has a book with the beginning and the end written, she always tried to make a happy ending and loved to write the journey of the hero, but in the end, the hero killed the beast and the girl he cared for"
"Where you heard that tale?" asked Hakumen, Saya might not know it, but it was something as simple as a tale
"Once I saw a girl with two long ponytails and told me the story" said Saya "she said that it was sad but also full of hope"
"Either way" said Jubei as Saya yawned loudly "is quite late you should be sleeping lil one, come on I'll walk you in"
After that Saya merely wished good night to both warriors heading inside with Jubei close to her, not much later Jubei came out looking at the white soldier, Saya had just felt pity for the black beast, a creature that could have destroyed the world, even when everyone feared and hated it, she tough the beast was just a lonesome creature that meant no harm and was scared, she didn't knew that the beast had been real and the two warriors she just meet where part of the six heroes the group that defeated the beast
"Quite the soft one hu?" said Jubei with a half-smile"
"She is far too naïve and pure for this world" said Hakumen "and that tale she heard"
"It seems the missy has been here already" said Jubei, meaning Rachel someone who knew what had to happen already, something that would mark a moment on this exact place "I wonder that Rachel had to do with her?"
"That's nothing to worry about" said the completely white soldier "at any rate, you should continue unless you wish to say hi to Celica"
"What about you?" asked the cat as he prepared himself to continue the journey
"Perhaps I'll stay here until tomorrow morning, the vampire could appear again" said Hakumen
"If you think so" said Jubei "it has been nice to see you again"
The cat warrior started to walk again under the moonlight stooping for a moment not looking back but clearly he had something else to say
"And you should not worry" said Jubei "Saya and Ragna are safe, the time for you to defeat him hasn't come yet"
After that Jubei walked away as Hakumen directed a last glance to the church, he knew what had to happen at some point, and sadly he could not do anything, just wait until that moment when Saya, her sister, would become the vessel, the object he came to hate, the being known as Hades Izanami, the girl of her nightmares
