Harry was not the kind of person known for his physical strength or brilliant mind. He was not known for his incredible deductive skills, nor was he known for his tendency to point out the obvious things to the rest of his insane guild buddies. He was just your usual, short, skinny guy with usual brown hair and perhaps a bit strange hairstyle (he happened to like wearing a ponytail, thank you very much). There was nothing that would make him stand out, especially not in a town he's only visited once before and hadn't really spoken to anybody except for that one time he tried to talk to a real nice girl, with devastating results.

Or maybe not. For all seventeen years and thirty days how long he'd been alive, there seemed to some kind of a magnet attached to his butt, a magnet attracted by any kind of potential trouble.

Try as much as he liked, something always went wrong around him. Most of the time it was 'the funny' wrong, like accidentally stepping on the foot of somebody who annoyed him a lot, or maybe accidentally pouring a bucket full of water on their head or generally getting in their way. Not funny when people started yelling at him, but hilarious after the danger has passed.

And then there were the times where the tinniest actions had immense consequences, such as the time he'd unintentionally missed the entrance exams for one of the academies in Salemburg, the most beautiful city of Central region and probably the most beautiful city in the whole world. For a boy who had been living in a small village Talun at the very border of Central and Northern Limits, visiting such a city was an incredible experience and he'd had so much to see—keeping a track of time was difficult when you didn't have a wristwatch. He'd reached the academy five minutes after the exams had started, but nobody would let him in.

Because of that, his father had then thrown both him and his mother out of the house and—doing the only thing they could, they'd moved to Taft, where his grandparents used to live. He'd lived with her until the time he joined Fuurinkazan, but he had a feeling she'd never quite forgiven his troublemaking habits, no matter how unintentional they really were.

This was one of those times when good intentions happened to have bad consequences.

He and Dynamm had finally finished with shopping and were struggling to carry one large water container per hand, some fruit and deep frozen meet, everything they were going to need for the trip to Cremen, for the road there had very few places for rest. They were going to need as much food and water as they could get.

They'd been talking about—predictably enough—Aincrad, and how excited Harry was that he was going to get to see it. Fuurinakazan had, as a guild, travelled to Algade many times before, but Harry had joined only two months ago. He'd travelled with them to Friben, a town a bit further north of Urbus, but that was as far as he'd gone. And if what he'd heard was correct, then visiting Aincrad, the parts that didn't belong to the academy proper, was allowed during weekdays.

Dynamm, the 'crazy moustache' guy and Harry's second favorite person in the guild could really only sigh at his enthusiasm, mentioning that he was acting more childish than either of the kids they were taking along. Frankly, Harry couldn't argue that. The kids had the exams to worry about. He didn't. He could act as giddy and excited as much as he liked.

Which is why, naturally, something had to go wrong.

They'd just entered the street where their inn was located, a paved, not overly wide street with lampposts on every few meters of distance. Being off the main street, it was mostly devoid of people, or at least it should have been. Harry discovered otherwise the hard way, when he bumped into somebody with his shoulder. He probably wouldn't have even paid attention to the group otherwise, but the bump was pretty tough and he nearly dropped the container.

Regaining his grip a moment before it would all spill, Harry sighed in relief. But those were heavy containers so he put them both down and sighed.

"Sorry, I wasn't—"

"Well just what were you thinking, you piece of—"

Harry looked up in surprise, noting that the person he bumped into was a part of a bigger group, though not much older or taller than him. His manners, however, seemed to be severely lacking, to the point where the man standing beside him, who had to be several years his senior, had to pull him back.

"Shinkawa, shut up."

"But the stupid brat—"

Harry frowned at the way he was being addressed. Everyone over the age of sixteen, if they were not attending an academy of any kind, were considered to be rightful adults. And this guy hardly looked much older.

He prepared to argue back, point out that he already apologized and that he hadn't bumped into him on purpose, when something caught his eye.

The group of people in front of him—five of them—were a strangely varied bunch. The person he'd bumped into couldn't have been much older than Harry despite the way he was acting, and he had a strange fang-like object in his ear. The other one who'd tried to calm him down had to be at least in his mid-twenties and his clothes were leagues better than what the Shinkawa person was wearing, made of smooth material, cotton, maybe, that seemed rather fitting in this heat. He also had a tattoo on his wrist, a clear sign he had to be of noble origin.

The other two members were just as odd. Twins, that's what they had to be. They looked more like bears, tall with broad shoulders and muscles of the kind Harry had never seen before, not even on the miners. But what reinforced his impression of bears were more the hairs on their neck and arms visible under their short sleeved light blue and deep brown colored shirts, even though their heads were nearly devoid of any. Carrying a water container or five probably wouldn't even make them sweat, let alone exhaust them.

The final member of the gang was a girl, about Harry's height, well endowed and well dressed in a clean white shirt and knee-length skirt, though most of her face was hidden under the hood of her cloak. How she wasn't dying from the heat in that thing, Harry would never know. In her hand was a knife—or maybe a dagger of some kind Harry hadn't seen before—held under the throat of an older lady who looked like she could have been crying for hours.

Connecting the pieces from there was easy enough.

Harry did not, in any way, consider himself to be a courageous or an incredibly intelligent person. If anything, he was completely stupid. Because the worst thing one could do when they encountered a group of armed robbers was call them out on their bull. And that was exactly what he did.

"Hey, what the?! Let her go!"

Reactions were instantaneous.

One of the muscled guys, the one in the brown shirt, grabbed Harry's neck before he could do much more than drop the fruit bag, lifting him in the air to the point only the tips of his toes were touching the ground.

Harry strangled out a cough.

"Man… for a guy… your size… you're crazy fast."

Some kind of a commotion was taking place everywhere around him, but the most Harry could see was the angry face of the guy trying to strangle him. Dynamm's shout, "Get help! Run!" reached him and Harry felt a bit of relief that at least a veteran like him didn't get caught so easily.

His capturer seemed to be of two minds on what he was supposed to do with him, constantly looking over his shoulder to the woman and the well-dressed man who were most probably the leaders, and were at the moment too busy dealing with Dynamm, who, thankfully, had remembered to at least take along his dagger.

"Let him go," he said, nothing in his face betraying anything other than frustration.

"You let Shinkawa go first, and maybe we'll agree to let your friend live," the woman hissed.

Taking a better look, Harry could clearly see that the tip of Dynamm's dagger was right under the neck of the Shinkawa person and one smooth movement would be more than enough to end his life. He was pretty sure that Dynamm also wasn't the kind of person to do that thing, but it wasn't something one could guess by looking at his face.

Shinkawa, rather than showing fear, had his young features distorted into a grimace, whether from pain or anger, or possibly both. His wrist was twisted to the point where it was only a matter of time before it would snap and the dagger wasn't leaving him much space to breathe.

"Sorry, I don't like that deal," Dynamm said.

"Well, we can let you kill him if you like. Boss?"

Just as Harry had thought, she addressed the man who was clearly a member of a minor noble family, now that he was taking the time to pay attention to details. He was far too collected and relaxed for somebody whose robbery attempt had just fallen apart and the tattoo over his wrist, two hammers, but it didn't resemble the town Coat of Arms much.

Other than the woman, however, none of them seemed to have any kind of weapon at hand, or anything else useful, which was probably the reason Harry and Dynamm were still alive. The woman, however, seemed more than eager to use it if given opportunity.

The leader frowned, brushing his fingers through his short cropped charcoal hair.

"Let them go both at the same time?" he offered.

"Sorry, I don't like that deal, either. Seems kinda unfair, seeing as there five of you and two of us."

The leader hummed in amusement. "Point, there."

Harry had issues finding anything amusing about this situation. His neck hurt and, thankfully, the guy at least let him stand on his own feet, but that wasn't changing the fact he could only barely breathe and the tips of his fingers were just a bit away from—

Resisting the urge to smack himself and commending the big guy's own stupidity, Harry extended his arm and fingers until they were barely, only barely, gripping the water container. He gripped the big guy's wrist, a pointless action that would not set him free, but it allowed the rest of his body to move just enough so that his right hand could grab the handle of the container.

The container in total weighed about eight kilos, though seven of that was the water inside. The plug they'd had for it, as small as it was, had been lost a while ago so they had to watch out not to spill anything. Containers like these were typically used for long journeys and it would take a long time to fill one completely. However, Harry still thought about his life as a bit more important than the stupid container and he doubted anyone would blame him later.

Gritting his teeth as his lungs burned, he poured all the strength he had in his right arm, lifting the heavy metal object from the ground. The big guy noticed what he was doing, but it was too late, at that point. Harry gave it a wild swing, feeling something snap in his arm as the heavy object collided with the big man's head and water spilled over both of them. The hand around Harry's neck retracted and he took in large gulps of air, taking several steps back and nearly falling down to his knees.

Having noticed Harry's intended actions before anybody else had, Shinkawa also seemed to have acted, using the moment everyone's attention was on Harry to step on Dynamm's foot and push his elbow in his abdomen, successfully releasing himself.

Harry noticed the move the big guy made on him at the last second and ducked under the heavy fist, though it would have missed him either way. Even if he still conscious somehow, he seemed to have trouble aiming straight.

Harry didn't care. He grabbed the second water container with the intention to repeat the same action, but he didn't even move it, his right arm burning in pain to the point where he felt like it was being ripped off.

It was enough of a distraction for the big guy to grab him by the collar and slam him into the nearest stone wall. Lights flashed before Harry's eyes and the images in front of him seemed to double, even triple, his head hurting as much as his arm did.

He clumsily tried to bite his attacker and failed, but his knee successfully dug into the man's groin.

Collar free, Harry staggered away, using the wall for support even as everything around him seemed to be spinning and dancing like it was a festival in his home village.

Since when were there so many people around?

It took a moment to realize that he was seeing double and that the girl with the knife seemed to have decided to rush after him—or rather, after the older woman he could see retreating away.

Pushing himself away from the wall and in her path, Harry nearly fell down on top of her, succeeding in as much as grabbing her wrist. He lost the hold on her less than a second later when she whipped her arm in a sharp motion that managed to look both endearing and exaggerated.

Less than a second later was when the force homed in. In a brief moment, he felt his hair whirl around his face before he was lifted off his feet and the sense of dizziness momentarily disappeared. He was flying backwards, he realized, but it felt good, if only because he didn't have to struggle to stand straight.

A scream reached his ears, leaving him less than a second to wonder what was going on, before he felt the back of his neck, head and then shoulders hit against something.

His final landing hurt more than anything in his life had ever before. It hurt so much that he wanted to scream, curse everything he could, if only he actually had any air in his lungs to do it. There was sharp pain in his back, his shoulders, but surprisingly not his head, or maybe he'd already gone numb in that area. He couldn't do much more than make a low sound deep in his throat.

When he briefly opened his eyes, it was to see the blurry image of that pretty face of the brown haired bartender who'd served them at the inn and he had to wonder if he was actually dreaming. She looked surprised what with that sweet gesture when her hand covered her open mouth. She looked worried.

Man, he couldn't let a girl worry.

"Hey," he croaked and smiled, maybe to convince her that he was okay, maybe to convince himself.

Then she disappeared in blackness.

Kazuto wasn't sure what was happening, but when Kunimittz sprinted back inside the inn as a scream sounded, he followed after him. A moment later, so did Eugeo.

Inside, sprawled over the floor after having fallen in through the window and knocked down everything that had been on the table where they'd been sitting, was Harry. He had multiple tiny cuts on his arms, one on his forehead, bleeding quite a bit and his eyes were half open.

The waitress was kneeling over him, in horror looking over at Kunimittz as he knelt next to her. She was struggling to say something, but no coherent words were coming out, instead sounding more like a breathless babble.

"Alive," Kunimittz noted and there was an incredible amount of relief in his voice which Kazuto normally would not have come to associate with the older man. Kunimittz had seemed to be taking everything in stride and like a joking matter, hearing him sound so relieved made it evident how serious the situation really was.

He turned, spotting the two boys lingering, then reached for his pocket. A moment later, he took something out and threw it at them.

Kazuto nearly missed the object—which turned out to be a room key—and looked at Kunimittz in askance.

"First floor, third or fourth door on the right. Get any weapons you can find. And a first aid kit."

Kazuto nodded and immediately made his way towards the stairs.

"I'll go take ours," Eugeo informed him.

Kazuto hummed an affirmative, but he doubted the other boy heard him. His own mind was preoccupied, the thought they're going to fight going through his head like a mantra of some kind, leaving him at the same time itching for a weapon and running as far as his feet would carry him.

For all his experience with swordplay, and he had plenty of it, spending hours daily honing his skills and continuously ranking among the best duelists at his school during all the years except for the final one, Kazuto had never participated in a real fight. Swinging a practice sword and doing it according to the strict rules so that no serious injuries would be caused to the other party could not possibly compare to something like this.

He no longer had a practice sword, however. The only one he had, he'd given to Suguha, because he was sincerely hoping that she could come with him to Aincrad next year. He'd even promised her that, if she couldn't convince their mother, he'd try to do it instead.

So rather than a practice sword, he'd brought the Anneal Blade, the only object in their house that could be said to belong to Kirigaya Minetaka, or at least it used to. It was an old sword, one that, according to his mother, his father had stopped using years ago, having gotten a brand new one when he joined Lady Akemi's personal guard. It was the only thing she'd managed to salvage before they had to leave Raisel, a small village at the edge of the Forest of Cedar where his mother had grown up.

Kazuto couldn't remember much from that time. What he could remember was his dad's smile that one time he'd pat him on the head after an exhausting day and a scary fire consuming a forest, though he wasn't sure whether the latter really happened or had just been a nightmare.

Either way, the Anneal Blade became his primary training weapon at all times, except during the duels and sparring. Thinking of heading to Aincrad without it had left him feeling edgy and nervous, to the point he didn't even take Klein's offer to leave it with all the other weapons, preferring to carry it on his back until he'd finally given in after six hours of exhausting riding.

Now, he was sorely regretting not having it with him when the chaos started out.

He found Klein and Kunimittz's room on the first try, inserting the key and nearly breaking down the door in an attempt to get inside.

He found the weapons resting in their sheaths, leaned against a small nightstand. He recognized Klein's sword, the curved blade of the kind he'd never seen before. Klein had identified it as a katana, a curved weapon which design had originated from the City of Selari, a city west of Algade. Kunimittz's sword was shorter and, according to him, known as an arming sword, though it was slowly going out of use do to some of its disadvantages. Kazuto didn't really know which ones, but it felt significantly lighter in his hand than his own sword did. He didn't dwell on it much.

He met with Eugeo right outside, his friend giving him a worried look.

"Come on," Kazuto said.

Eugeo nodded. They were halfway down the stairs when Kazuto froze.

"What? What's wrong?"

"First aid kit. I forgot. Do you know what it looks like?"

"A wooden box, I think. There should be some bandages in it, but I'm not sure. I'll go get it."

Kazuto nodded and passed him the room key. "Thanks."

He accepted the Anneal Blade and clumsily put it over his shoulder before rushing back down.

Kunimittz and the waitress were still lingering over Harry, but at least the youngest fulltime member of Fuurinkazan seemed to be awake now, judging by the pained grimace on his face.

"Kunimittz—" Kazuto started.

"Take them to Klein," he said immediately.

"Right. And Harry?"

"Fine enough for him to keep complaining," Kunimittz said.

The other party groaned and, in a raspy voice said, "Hurts."

Kunimittz snorted. "Where exactly?"

"Everywhere."

"Well, you heard him." Kunimittz took a deep breath. "Go, Kazuto. The guards should be here soon, but being unarmed is not a good thing, not now."

Kazuto nodded and sprinted outside. He was pretty sure it would not be a good thing if things got even more out of hand. It was already bad enough as it was.

However, as soon as he was out, he really only had a moment to deduce that there were three people running, two of them about as tall as the inn entrance door and equally as wide. They were running straight at him.

Klein gritted his teeth. He'd had a bad feeling the entire morning, but seeing two different people punch one of his friends in the face did not account for a good morning, let alone the rest of the day. Dynamm had managed to score a hit of his own, but as a result he'd lost his dagger in the struggle and would have been doomed if he had not been a skilled telekinetic.

As he was pretty skilled, he'd managed to successfully knock out one of the assailants by knocking a streetlight down on his head.

But now he had two guys on him, one of them big enough that Klein wouldn't have wanted to fight even with every possible advantage.

In the meantime, another big guy was getting in his way and Klein was sorely tempted to do something he knew he'd regret, but he couldn't let this continue. Issin had gone to fight the girl with the dagger after she'd tried to lunge at Dale, or rather, the woman hiding behind him. Issin was keeping her busy on his own now for the two of them had gone to look for the town guards, and his opponent didn't look very happy about it.

Klein was on his own, too, though his opponent didn't seem to be very willing to engage in direct combat. A good thing, because Klein was pretty sure he'd be flattened with earth in that case, but he also couldn't help but notice a area of dark red skin over his cheek and temple and the fact that his cheekbone looked slightly deformed. However he'd got that, it had to have hurt a lot.

Klein didn't have time to focus on that, though. They were beating up his buddy right before his eyes and he'd be damned if he let them get away with it.

"You asked for it," he said, partially to warn the big guy in front of him, partially to reassure himself. Then he swung his fist.

For a moment, the big guy looked really proud that he caught it without harm, even though it was a clumsy catch. As either a sign of his dominance or whatever, he tried to twist Klein's wrist. It was about the worst mistake he could have made.

He drew his hand back, scream as high pitched as a little girl's, grasping his it with teary eyes and glaring at Klein, or rather, at his fist and the fire burning around it.

For a fire affinity, Klein's abilities with it were rather limited. Producing flames large in size and doing that continuously exhausted him a lot, but for that reason, there were very few things his flame couldn't burn down completely. His current obstacle of a man was very, very lucky Klein didn't have the time to focus on him, otherwise only ash would have remained of his hand.

Klein crossed the distance to his next target, but the man noticed him in time to miss the fist going for his face. He jumped away from Dynamm, lifting his arms in a guard, but it was obvious he wasn't very skilled at close combat. Dark grey eyes narrowed and the look on his face, previously angry, now was livid. Klein didn't miss the wrist tattoo. He almost cursed their bad luck.

"Well, damn it. Should've known you weren't from around here, but to think you're them…" the member of one of Urbus' royal families said.

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Klein demanded, one eye on his enemy and other on Dynamm as his buddy used the wall as support to stand up. He was only mildly aware of the big guy in a light shirt standing off in the distance, eyes moving from Klein to his ally and then Dynamm, as if uncertain of what he was supposed to do.

"Nothing," the dark haired enemy said, brushing his fingers through his hair. "But to think that off all the other possible groups, we'd fight the Fuurinkazan, I guess we're really out of luck today."

Klein opened his mouth to respond, demand to know how was it that he knew who they were, but the man's voice suffocated any other sound made anywhere close.

"Lia, retreat!" he yelled.

Klein turned in time to see the girl nod and whip out her hand, a gust of wind successfully sending Issin backwards until his back collided with the stone wall of a nearby house. Wind affinity, obviously, and very strong at that.

"Stop her!" Klein yelled, though whom he was yelling that to, he wasn't sure. She was too far for him to do anything and the distance, unfortunately, was nothing for her. The gust of wind she sent his way knocked him back into Dynamm and allowed her allies to follow after her without hindrance. Klein tried to get up quickly, but he knew he couldn't leave Dynamm there even if he wanted to go after them.

"Issin!" he yelled, but it put the girl on alarm, too, and she sent another gust of wind his way, knocking him back down.

One of the big guys, the one who had been standing off to the side almost the whole time, stopped to help their youngest member stand straight, the boy who'd gotten the streetlight into the head. When it failed, he threw him over his shoulder before proceeding to trot after the others.

That was when Klein noticed something at the door of the inn and, getting a better look, recognized the person as Kazuto. He also recognized the sheath of his beloved katana and Kunimittz's sword, but there was no time to ask of Kazuto to throw it. They were heading his way. The woman had already gone far ahead, but the rest of them were just meters away from the boy. Even if Klein had screamed a warning, it would have been too late.

But Kazuto was either quicker on the uptake than he'd given him credit for, or he was just acting in panic. He dropped the two extra weapons and drew his own sword, his wide swing narrowly missing the man who stood out as the leader. He was going too fast to stop or turn in order to attack, but his voice carried.

"Taki!"

The big guy with the facial injury groaned in response. He did not slow down, as Klein had been expecting him to. It was more as if he was intending on just running over him and stomping him into the ground. Or so Klein had been expecting.

What he did was the mimic of what his twin had done, grabbing the front of Kazuto's shirt and throwing the boy over his shoulder as he continued running. Kazuto yelped, kicked and screamed, but none of that seemed to help. He even tried to get a better grip on his sword and use it to attack, but the muscled man then reached back, trying to grab his wrist.

Kazuto manage to wriggle a bit and look behind, his wide eyes meeting Klein's for a moment before the group made a turn left and disappeared behind the buildings.

Metallic sound rang clearly throughout the silent street and Issin, the closest to the street corner, pushed himself off the wall, running after them, though he may as well had been staggering.

Klein watched, dumbfounded, before his attention was once again on Dynamm as he coughed.

"Well, damn. I don't think we've ever been this pathetic before," he said.

Klein's fists tightened. "We're going after them. As soon as Dale returns with the guards, we're…" he trailed off at the sight of Issin walking back into the street, head lowered, a familiar sword in his hand.

He walked over to Klein slowly, probably not capable of moving any faster, holding out the sword which Klein knew should belong to Kazuto. It was the Anneal Blade and Klein could only wonder how a mere village boy could have gotten in possession of such a valuable weapon, but it was not something he wanted to ask about.

"I lost them," Issin admitted. "I saw the first turn, but they know their way around. They know it too well."

"We have to find him," Klein said.

"We won't be able to make it in time."

"I don't care. We're not leaving this place until we're all accounted for."

He met Issin's eyes with his own, daring him to voice any kind of disagreement, but what he got instead was something else entirely.

"Good," Issin said. It's nice to know your priorities are still in order—went unsaid, but not unnoticed.

Klein nodded. He knew Issin still had issues with some of the decision he'd made in the past few weeks. The reasons for his disagreements were logical and based on good arguments, though some of them had brought Klein's decision making in question. It was comforting to know that they agreed on this much.

Now all they had to do was wait for guards to come, before they got arrested for carrying weapons, using their affinities in offensive purpose and generally causing unrest on the streets. They didn't have any offenses here and they had the official permission to carry weapons signed by the watch of Algade, but that would all be for naught if they were the ones accused of starting this mess, a very likely outcome. Which reminded him of another important thing.

"Dynamm, where's Harry?"

"What? You didn't see him fly through the window?"

Klein froze. "Wait, that was him? He was the one punched through the glass?"

"Punched? More like blown through it. I've never seen somebody with that good control of the wind. Think we could use it to identify her?"

Klein shook his head. "Wind affinities aren't that rare. But you saw it, didn't you? I don't know who that guy was, but he's from a minor noble family. Those are the only families that allow wrist tattoos, if I remember the classification correctly."

"Pretty much," Dynam agreed. "Doesn't make this any less of a problem, though. Not even the guards will stand on our side if they've got strong connections. At best, we'll be thrown out of the town before we can find the kid."

Klein gritted his teeth. He took several deep breaths, an attempt to calm down at least a little, but it wasn't working out too well.

"I know," he said. "I know. Come on. We have to get you to a doctor."

"It's fine."

"It's not fine. You look like you're going to fall over any moment. Issin, can you watch over him while I go look for a doctor? Or a healer, if there's any available."

Issin nodded. "Just make sure to get him to Harry first. I think he's the worst off."

Klein nodded. It was the least he could do at this point.

"Well, damn it. Damn it, damn it, damn it."

The small crossroads was located somewhere farther off the main streets. The four directions it stretched towards were all narrow and dirty, a clear sign that it was not a place where most people liked to come. The sun that was at this point pretty high in the sky didn't reach the street, leaving it relatively pleasant temperature wise.

Most of the surrounding buildings were the so-called apartment buildings, about two storey high and most of them didn't have windows at that particular side. Judging by the trash swept in the corners, it was not a place frequented by many people, even less so by children.

A few meters away from the crossroads, at the back of one of the buildings, were a door, but they lacked any kind of knob that could open them. Right in front of the door were two stairs, the exact place where the leader of the group who that had pretty much kidnapped Kazuto had chosen to sit.

"God damn it!"

His fist made a dull sound when it connected with the wooden door and two people standing the closest made a hesitant step back.

"Taki, just what the hell were you thinking?"

Kazuto didn't need to turn much to know who exactly he was addressing to. The giant of a man who had taken it upon himself to carry Kazuto along scratched the back of his head while his other hand firmly held the back of Kazuto's shirt, leaving him with his feet dangling in the air.

Kazuto knew pretty well that he was neither tall nor heavy as most other kids his age. Part of it was due to his low immunity. He was usually the first to catch a cold and he simply couldn't bring himself to eat much even when healthy. A part of it was due to the time he'd spent in a hospital little after the final school year had started, at the end of the ninth month. He'd spent nearly two months there, eating only the so called healthy food and in small doses because the doctors were concerned that the food could possibly affect their diagnosis. When he had finally been released, he'd been skin and bones to the point his teachers had been concerned about how well the doctors had done their job. He'd immediately gone back to harsh training in order to make up for the strength he'd lost, but even now he wasn't sure if he was as good as he'd been before the hospital.

Actually, if anything, his current status of a prisoner didn't bother him nearly as much as the fact that he was hanging in the air for almost five minutes now and the person at fault for that didn't seem to be bothered in the slightest. It felt both degrading and insulting and no amount of kicking and trashing had managed to set him free yet.

The giant named Taki had a firm grip. Kazuto only wished he was as smart as he was strong.

"Sorry, boss," Taki said.

"Sorry isn't going to cut it! What did I tell you?"

"You told me that if a man is standing in my way, I should push them, not pick them up," he replied.

"And what did you do?"

Reluctantly glancing towards the giant's face, Kazuto could see that the man was clearly confused.

"Taki, what did you do?"

"But… but… He's a kid!"

He extended the arm gripping Kazuto's shirt forward, nearly brining him face to face with the leader. Just a little bit closer and Kazuto might've been able to score a pretty good kick, though he was sure that wasn't going to help him get away. The last time he tried something similar, he'd ended up held in the air like a cat.

"A kid with a sword. A kid with a frigging sword. And if I saw that right, it was the frigging Anneal Blade, too. You don't just pick up kids with swords. And you most definitely do not throw away valuable swords. Is that clear?"

"Yes, boss. I will not pick up kids with swords. I will not throw swords."

The leader sighed before covering his eyes with his hand. "Okay. Lia, how is Shinkawa doing?"

"I'm fine!" the person who Kazuto presumed was Shinkawa answered, only to get a smack in the back of his head.

"Shut up, brat. You've got a fine bruise there, you're lucky you don't have a concussion. And your reckless escape attempt is exactly what earned you that cut on the neck. Now keep still and let me at least wipe the blood away!"

Shinkawa hissed something under his breath, but if the woman had heard it, she didn't show it.

"How is your head?" the leader asked and it took a few moments for mostly everyone to realize who he was referring to. Taki, of course, was the only one who didn't, until his twin brother elbowed him in ribs.

"Oh. Uh. Hurts. I sometimes see double."

"Lia, you don't happen to know a good doctor? Who hopefully won't ask too many questions?"

"The last time you asked me that, we got chased out of the office the moment he saw you. Why don't you ask your sister for that? I'm pretty sure she's good at immediate care."

"We are not involving her in this shit. And, come to think of it, what the hell are we going to do with him?"

Kazuto tensed at the finger pointed at him, as if that gesture suddenly placed the blame of everything that had happened on his back.

You could let me go, he wanted to say. It seemed like a reasonable thing to say.

"We could let him go," said Taki, much to Kazuto's surprise.

"Yeah, not happening," Shinkawa said.

"Why ever not? It's not like we need him. Besides, look at him. He looks like a good kid. Hasn't even caused as much trouble as you'd expect," Lia said.

"Except that he had the Anneal Blade. You don't carry that around just anywhere," the leader pointed out.

Lia snorted. "You do if you're trying out for a better academy, Hiro. They usually look upon you more favorably if you've got a weapon with some background. Well, they used to. Don't know how much that changed in the past few years."

"Well, either way, we're not getting it back now," the leader—named Hiro, apparently—sighed. "Might as well let the kid go. Or, wait a sec. Kid?"

Kazuto bit the inside of his lip to stop himself from making a comment that might get him in more trouble. His eyes met with the leader's, but he didn't say anything. He tried to keep his facial expression neutral, make it clear he wasn't scared. At least, not anymore.

"Do you happen to be a member of Fuurinkazan? Or were you somebody who got into this mess by accident?"

Kazuto knew what the intelligent thing to say in this moment would be. But denying any kind of membership would be outright lying in their faces and if something had been ingrained in him, it was that lying mostly tended to cause trouble. Before he could say anything, the woman interfered.

"What makes you think—no, never mind. Asahina made it clear she won't allow underage people to work for her and pretty much everybody who knows about her also knows about her ties to Fuurinkazan. If she really allows them in the inner circle, not only are we completely doomed, we also won't be able to become a part of outer circle, either."

"I'm aware, thank you very much," Hiro bit off. "Look, we have an explanation. Things got out of hand, we didn't immediately realize who they were and the next time you decide to attack a newcomer from Central, do it at night, why don't you?"

"I told you already—"

"Forget it, it's done now."

Lia, for what little of her Kazuto could see, looked ready to object. She had a pretty face and the long dark hair really made her green eyes stand out, but her face now was a dissatisfied pout that didn't look very fantastic. She didn't say anything, but it was clear she didn't want to just 'forget it'. She wasn't given a chance to do anything because the leader stood up.

"Taki, leave the kid here. I don't want the guards to think we're harassing a brat. They've probably already reported us anyway."

"Okay, boss."

Taki didn't put Kazuto down as much as he dropped him. Kazuto, not having expected it to be so quick, barely caught himself before falling flat on his face. He looked up at the group to see the leader and Taki walking away. Lia walked past him without sparing him a look and Shinkawa on purpose walked too close and carelessly swung his hand, pretty much pushing him out of the way.

The final person to walk past him was the second giant, clearly Taki's twin, though just looking at him suggested a significantly higher level of intelligence.

"Sorry for the trouble, kid. Hope they didn't rough you up too much."

"I'm fine," Kazuto said and was surprised to find that it was the truth. He was a bit shaken and stiff, but he wasn't hurt. He was more bothered by the fact that the five of them weren't nearly as evil as he'd initially imagined them to be. Mean, maybe, but… they were surprisingly more human.

However, the image of Harry bleeding in several places was still etched deep in his consciousness. To think that the same people who had done that to him had now let Kazuto go no worse for wear left him thinking that it was strangely unfair. He wanted to know why they'd done it. They had no reason, or at least, from what he'd picked up, it was some sort of a misunderstanding. But wasn't it a bit much for a misunderstanding?

He didn't look after Taki's twin as the man walked away. He wasn't going to ask for directions, either, because despite letting him go, they'd still hurt his friend. Could he really just let them get away with it?

Yes, he realized. Yes, he could.

Because there was nothing he could do about it. Yet.

None of that, however, changed the fact that he was alone in some backwater street without any clue how he was supposed to go back. He felt a rumble in his stomach.

Fantastic. Lost and hungry.

Kazuto sighed, looking up at the sky. Hopefully, he'd find somebody who could tell him which way to go, at least to the town plaza. He should be able to find his way then. Probably.