In the time it took both Tatsumi and Iris to make it back to his village very few words had been spoken. Whenever Tatsumi had tried to ask something or try and start a conversation she would quickly shut him down with a simple one or two-word sentence. Even though it felt rude Tatsumi could tell she didn't mean it that way and just based it on her being shy or something. But all of these thoughts were quickly pushed out of his head as Tatsumi saw a red glow on the horizon accompanied by the faint remains of a giant plume of smoke.

Not even hesitating he broke out into a full panicked run with Iris trailing not too far behind. Tatsumi was frantic wondering what happened even though somewhere in the back part of his mind he had already figured out. As he arrived at the top of a snowy hill looking over his village he was greeted with the ashen remains of what it once was. He felt as if the light was sucked out of him but he quickly ran towards the village hoping that everyone was okay even though he already knew the answer.

As he arrived in the village he quickly went over to where his home was or where it used to be. Charred gray wood along with ash was all that remained of his proud home but nonetheless he dug through the ashes in a desperate hope of finding anything or anyone that had survived. After five minutes of searching he had found nothing and at this moment the floodgates in his eyes finally broke as he let it all out. He slouched to the ground on his knees and put his face into the palms of his hands and continued to cry for minutes and would have lasted much longer if it wasn't for a small pair of arms pulling him forward. He didn't even have to check to know it was Iris due to the height of the person and continued to cry into her chest as she slowly rubbed his back in a comforting motion.

After a few more minutes the tears had run dry and Tatsumi finally managed to choke out the words, "Thank you." Iris didn't say anything as a dull flash of sunlight reflected off something in one of the small ash piles that Tatsumi didn't search. Walking over to the source she pulled out the source of the reflection of light to be presented with a blade that was nearly a foot long. For an adult, this wouldn't be considered more than a dagger but for someone of her and Tatsumi's age it was the perfect sword.

"Is this yours?" She asked as she walked over and presented the blade to Tatsumi. His eyes widened in recognition as he saw the blade and he quickly snatched it out of the girl's hands but was careful enough to make sure the blade didn't cut the girl. He hugged the blade close to him as he was just happy that one thing had survived.

"Yes, it was, thank you." He said to her.

"What happened here?" Iris asked him as she scanned the area. She had no clue what was going on other than that Tatsumi was saddened over this place and had so far deduced this was his village.

"A Teigu," Tatsumi said saying the words with the utmost malice and hatred. The second word caused Iris to shift uneasily but she quickly shook it off as she tilted her head in confusion.

"Teigu?" She asked.

"A weapon of unprecedented power." He said still keeping his hate in his words. "I learned about them from my master a year ago when he gave me this blade on my birthday. He said those weapons were unfair as they gave everyone who used them a shortcut to power."

"How do you know this was caused by a Teigu?" Iris asked him.

"Only three things could destroy a village like this. The first and most unlikely one is a dangerbeast but one of that power lives nowhere near here as we would have noticed a long time ago. The only other two options are a Teigu or the Empire and more than likely it was one of the Empire's Teigu users." He said remembered how much the Empire hated his village. First, they had taken away all the other children away and now they had completely removed the village.

"I'm sorry." Was all Iris could say as she had no idea what to say to make him feel better. She had never been in a position similar to this as she could barely remember anything from before Tatsumi had woken her up in the cave. She could remember places and animals but when she tried to recall anything specific it just ended up giving her a headache.

"Don't be it wasn't your fault. I will, however, bring the one responsible for this to death." Tatsumi said as he stood up.

"And how will you do that?" Iris asked wondering how he could kill someone who had burned down his whole village.

"Because I will it." Was his response as he started walking away from the village down a small road that no one would notice unless they knew what to look for. He then stopped in his walk and looked back to make sure Iris was following him only to notice she wasn't. "What's wrong you're not hungry anymore?" He asked causing a look of utter confusion to all on the girl. She was confused because a couple of minutes ago he was crying and now he was worried about her still being hungry. She kept that look of confusion until she inspected his green eyes and saw that they were duller than they were when she first saw him. Iris realized that Tatsumi was holding in his pain.

"You can cry some more if you want to." She said as she caught up to him.

"It wouldn't do any good." He replied. Iris wanted to argue saying it wasn't good to bottle up one's emotions but dropped it after looking at his face and just gave a simple nod. They walked for a few more minutes in silence until it was broken by the growl of Iris' stomach. "Don't worry we're almost there," Tatsumi said with a laugh causing Iris to smile. She was happy that even after what happened that he could still laugh even though you could see the pain laced in it.

"What are we eating anyways?" She asked to notice that Tatsumi had stopped and was looking over to their right. She followed his gaze to see a wild boar.

"They are pretty common around here and tend to stay close to the village since we bother them less than the dangerbeasts," Tatsumi explained as he slowly approached the boar. Iris began to wonder what he was planning as the boar would just run away or attack him but was left speechless when Tatsumi stopped walking for a split second and in the next was beside the boar whose neck had been cut clean in half.

"H-How?" Iris asked as Tatsumi returned to her with the boar's body in tow.

"I'll explain as we eat this but would you mind gathering some firewood as I skin it?" He asked her. While Iris wanted to know what he had just right away she could be a little patient and gave a nod as she walked away. As she got out of earshot Tatsumi immediately dropped the boar as he began having a violent fit of coughs as he spat out a glob of blood. Luckily the blood mixed with the already blood soaked snow that had resulted from the dead boar. He didn't want Iris to find out this part of the power as he had only used it to get them food. He started skinning the boar and Luckily soon enough after that Iris returned with the firewood and after a few failed attempts they got a fire going as they cooked pieces of the boar on sticks.

"Can you explain now?" She asked him from where she sat across from him. The snow was cold and a tad bit uncomfortable underneath the two of them but they really didn't have any alternatives.

"Let me find the words on how to start this." He replied. Tatsumi was going to leave some parts out of the story but some he would keep. "I suppose it would begin when I was born. I was born a very weak child and I was expected to die within the first week of birth. Luckily for my parents, there was a retired army veteran in the village who happened to know a bit of alchemy. They pleaded with him to make me better and so he agreed on the condition that I would become his apprentice in the future. My parents agreed to this as they handed me over to him."

I gave a pause to catch my breath as I tried to recall the next few details as they were hazy to me. "He experimented all night trying to help me and ultimately decided to fuse a bit of a dangerbeast core into my body. It had never been attempted before but he had theorized this would work and amazingly it did. My body after that operation was multiple times more healthy than any other child should be at that age." He left out the part about how if he used it his body would become incredibly weak and more than likely become injured.

"So since your body was fused with a dangerbeast core it enhances your physical attributes?" Iris asked him as she took her meat away from the fire pleased that her food was done cooking.

"Pretty much." They spent the few minutes in a comfortable silence as they ate the boar and the silence would have continued if not for the nearby crunching of snow. Tatsumi hurriedly stood up as he heard this noise. After being raised in the area for all his life practically he could tell mostly what was approached due to how the snow crunched and he knew a person was nearby. He silently drew his blade just in time to realize how pathetically useless it would be as a massive man with a mask on his face and a giant flamethrower in his arms came out of the trees.

"I'm sorry to do this." The man said in a sincere tone before all of Tatsumi's vision was filled with the violent torrent of flames.

Thanks to everyone who has read, favorited, followed, and reviewed the story so far! Hope you enjoy the chapter and keep the love coming!

Next Chapter: Out of the Snow and into the Inferno.