The Hoshidan Army's Special Forces responded to Mikoto's distress call quickly, traveling as fast as they could to reach her location without trying to wear themselves out. To drown out the nagging voice in the back of his head, Kamui struck up a quick question to see what kind of threat they were going up against; the others mentioned the Faceless rather scarcely, and with so many lives on the line he needed to prepare himself for them.

"Excuse me, Big Brother," Kamui began, "what exactly are the Faceless? I've heard you mention them before but…"

"Simply put, they're murderous monsters," Ryouma answered.

"Monsters?" Kamui said. Ryouma could already hear his younger brother's thoughts: I thought monsters weren't real he was likely to say and for good reason: Ryouma and Hinoka used to tell Kamui that monsters ate misbehaving children to scare the young prince into obedience, and it lasted for a good while until Takumi exposed the lie. Here he is years later telling his little brother that monsters are real after all, and it was with an ironic smile that he almost wished that it was the made-up ones they were dealing with instead.

'Irony couldn't have had a worse timing if it tried…' Ryouma thought with a small laugh, but he wasn't in much mood for humor so he returned to focus on his younger brother. "Kamui, do you remember the monsters that me and Hinoka used to warn you about? The ones that come in the night and devour misbehaving children?"

"Of course," the younger prince replied. "Didn't you two and Takumi say that they weren't real after all?"

"Yes, but the times like to change in funny ways: monsters are real, but these ones—the Faceless, are nothing like what we used to scare you with. They will kill anything that moves if they are given the chance; do not give them that chance, understood?" Ryouma knew that Kamui was usually a collected young man, but he needed to make sure that his younger brother knew just how serious the situation was. He didn't want to go through the pain of losing more people after his blood parents.

"Do you know where the Faceless are coming from?" Kamui asked, wanting to gauge the situation at hand since he was new to the Faceless rout.

"Does it look like we know?" Takumi replied in irritation. "By the time we're notified of a Faceless attack it's already underway, though we do know that they frequently target villages that don't have any soldiers of their own. If we can relocate some of our own troops to these villages without having the villagers think it's some occupation, it'll narrow down the amount of locations the Faceless will strike and maybe we can pinpoint where they seem to be coming from." Takumi himself had been pushing to have such a measure put in place but to no avail, leaving him sourer over the Faceless raids than most others. It didn't help that this time they were in a snowbound area; his Fūjinkyū made traversing through the terrain a joke for him, not to mention that he could simply use his dragon's vein to enhance his mobility, but the chill of the air often numbed his fingers and he didn't want to expend too much of his draconic energy to keep himself warm (if he could utilize it in the first place). The result was his already thin patience slowly eroding.

"If you ask me, I think it's a coward's ploy," Hinoka added. "The Faceless dissolve into gas when they die and don't leave traces of themselves on the bodies of their victims, leaving us nothing to investigate. Orochi always seems to be busy when this happens so this gets annoying fast. But, you know: the longer it takes us the figure these monsters out, the better I'll be kicking someone's butt when we find them, and you can't run or hide from me forever."

Kamui shared his sister's sentiment on the subject, and he wasn't afraid to fight monsters to protect innocent people. He'd gladly die for their sake if need be, so if anything this gave him the perfect chance to test the extents of his dragon's vein's power out in the wilderness. In the midst of their travel the group of soldiers had stopped cold in their tracks upon stumbling into a trail of mutilated Hoshidans leading further up north, some of which happened to be Flame Tribalists. The faint of heart couldn't stand looking at the scene, but Saizou—a grizzled soldier himself, knelt to inspect several of the corpses.

"The wounds are about three minutes old," Saizou concluded. "We're close by our targets." Hoping that someone or something was careless enough with the Faceless, he dabbed a special solution he made with Orochi's help to find out if there were traces of Hoshidan-rooted magic left on the victims. Said divine mage herself had studied nearly all forms of Hoshidan sorcery, and if she didn't recognize it then it likely wasn't Hoshidan.

"Well?" Kagerou asked. "Have you discovered anything new?"

"It's not Hoshidan magic, or at least not one Orochi would recognize," Saizou replied. "See how the agent is reacting to the victim's body? It only glows this color if Orochi isn't largely aware of the magic being used here. Thankfully I had enough foresight to bring this chemical with me before we headed out." Immediately upon inspecting the solution's color a bit closer however, Kagerou knew exactly what kind of magic they were dealing with.

"I've seen this color before," the kunoichi said. "It's Nohrian magic." The statement initially confused her partner so she went into greater detail about her findings. "The color here may look like it's an undiscovered form of magic, but the correct hue for that would be magenta rather than violet. There's also no traces gold near the edges of the solution if it was unidentified." Saizou had to take a closer look himself and found that Kagerou was right. That made the shinobi think back on what Kamui told him earlier: he knew how to get secrets out of the prince with his stern mien, but he didn't expect that the prince foresaw an attack on Hoshido from Nohr.

'Nohrian mages eh? Guess we'll see for ourselves soon enough.' Finished with his autopsy Saizou gave his liege the details on what he and Kagerou found; Ryouma was silent for a while, reflecting on all the information he'd acquired thus far.

'I should have known that this day was going to come sooner or later…' he thought bitterly. 'The Nohrians have killed our blood mother, kidnapped our second sister and killed my father after formally apologizing for the death of the former queen, and now they're sending our kidnapped, brainwashed sister to kill our new mother in the face of our non-aggression treaty…I've had enough of this madness. We're not going to sit here as these cowards move in on our home and take over our fair kingdom. If the Nohrians are watching us here, then it's time we showed them that we're not taking any more of their bullshit.' The others could sense his powerful anger but kept to themselves, feeling that he didn't want to be disturbed. He allowed himself a moment of calmness to address his soldiers before he would speak to his succeeding brother about how things were escalating.

"Before we head off," Ryouma said, "does anyone have any strategies that they'd like to share?"

"Stick to each other in groups at all times," Takumi spoke. "The Faceless will come at us full tilt once we enter their field of vision, so maintain a strong defense throughout. Those with the better bulk of their group should be the ones absorbing the blows from the Faceless, but that does not mean you should stupidly sit there and take their punches like an all-you-can-eat buffet. Everyone got that?"

"Sound idea Takumi." As soon as the third prince came up with the idea the retainers elected to guard their lieges, but if that were the case then Kamui had no one to defend him. He wasn't formally accepted into the military yet and thus had no retainers of his own, just happening to be close with its best members and sparred with them every week. Takumi—being the brains of the group, saw this coming a mile away and quickly thought up an alternative.

"You know what, I've got another idea," he said. "We'll be doing things a little differently this time: you guys all cover for each other and we royals will cover for Kamui. Think of it as him having four bodyguards to help him through this since he's not used to taking on the Faceless. And now that he's able to use his dragon's vein, Ryouma and Hinoka would be able to teach him how to use it properly, and the sooner he learns how to use it then the better thing will go for us, right?"

"'Four' bodyguards you say?" Asama asked. "Am I to take it that Lady Sakura will also be defending her older brother from the onslaught of the Faceless? My word, I never thought that she had it in her—or rather, this is a classic example of preserving the royal bloodline in case anything goes wrong? If we retainers die out here and you four royals live, then you can always find more retainers to serve you, am I right?" The remark had Takumi replay his own words for a bit, remembering that Sakura had not been accepted into the military either. He corrected himself in short notice but Asama took one last swipe at the prince before getting thwacked on the noggin by his liege. By now everyone was raring to go, but Kamui seemed lost in thoughts. His mind was usually clear, but it bothered him that he had no recollection of a Faceless attack in his dream. Put that together with the fact that his mother's life was at stake, the prince began to wonder if events could change if things were different by just a little bit. What if Mikoto was destined to die not at Shirasagi Castle Town, but in the frozen woods near the Flame Tribe settlement?

"Something wrong Kamui?" Ryouma asked, sensing his brother's distress.

"Huh? Oh, i-it's nothing important. I just…lost my nerve for a moment." Everyone knew whenever Kamui tried to hide something, and the two oldest royals wondered if it had to do with what Saizou told them back home before leaving. Hinoka passed Ryouma a worrying glance and the two of them pulled the second prince aside for a brief whisper.

"I think it's about time that we tell everyone about what you've learned from your visit with Orochi," Ryouma said. Kamui was initially shocked and stumped that his brother knew, but his surprise faded believing that Saizou informed his eldest siblings when he told the shinobi about it himself. "We finally know that Nohrians are behind these attacks, and the longer we wait to tell everyone about it the less time we'll have to prepare for the eventual invasion." Kamui had wanted to wait until after the whole incident blew over, but with the confirmed threat of Nohrian aggression looming over them there was no more time to waste. The army needed to know what they were going up against and what to expect afterward. His mind made up, Kamui walked up to the group of anxiously waiting soldiers and cleared his throat.

"Excuse me, may I have everyone's attention?" the prince asked. "I've got something really important to say." And just like that, everyone stopped to turn and listen; the other royals were proud of how much their retainers respected Kamui enough to pay attention when he spoke. "I probably should have told you all this sooner, and I apologize for this, but I paid Lady Orochi a visit earlier today to talk about this dream I've been having for the last couple of months."

"Wait, is this what you were talking about earlier?" Kazahana asked. "I was actually wondering when you were going to speak up about that."

"Yeah," Takumi chimed in. "If this is so important, how come you didn't talk to us about it the moment you got back from school so that we wouldn't waste any time standing here? If this is some really bad news, don't you think you should have explained it back home so that we'd have time to adjust to it first instead of dropping the bombshell on us at the worst possible moment?"

"Hang on for a second Takumi," Ryouma said. "Let him speak first before you start throwing questions at him. You may continue Kamui." The third prince nodded in response and went on to explain his prophetic dream in detail. Parts of it that he lingered on frequently involved his twin Corrin, including the parts where she murdered Mikoto at Shirasagi Castle Town's square and when she attempted to steal the Yato-no-kami blade along with the other divine Hoshidan weapons. Whether she was successful or not in stealing the Yato-no-kami was uncertain because the dream always ended then and there, or rather it stopped at an aqua-haired woman he didn't know singing a song he never heard before. To say that this was probably not the best of times to inform everyone about the dream was an understatement, as most of the soldiers had become beside themselves with a sense of new-found dread and worry. Takumi had to resist the urge to tell Kamui "I told you so" considering the group's dampened mood, but Ryouma would not let the atmosphere sour before their big battle.

"Men and women of Hoshido, listen up," Ryouma spoke. "Now is not the time for fear to take root in your hearts, now is the time for bold action! Now that we know what's ahead of us, are we going to march out there with terror gripping us—letting our enemy know that we're scared them, or are we going to march out there with the fury of a thousand men and let these cowards know we are sick and tired of this nonsense?!"

"This is where me make our stand!" Hinoka chimed in. "We've got the future in our sights, so let's go on out there and change the course of history!"

"I don't know about you all, but I'm just about ready to turn some Nohrian scum into my personal bull's-eyes," Takumi added. "If you have any reservations have fighting, cast them out of you right now because now's not the time for second guessing ourselves; we're out here to kick ass and take names. Do I make myself clear?" The Hoshidan army didn't need to be told twice that they were in for some serious throw downs, and from how confident the royals seemed despite the shocking revelation made it hard not to be a little inspired by them.

"Soldiers, let's move out! For the villagers and for our queen, we shall not fail!" Now having a clear vision of who their enemy was, the Hoshidan Special Forces' fortitude was ignited and they followed the trail of broken bodies to catch their targets in the winterwood. A four-minute march yielded the results they wanted; the Faceless shambled slowly toward their quarry further off, ignorant of the new challengers behind them. Looking at their hulking figures wasn't something Kamui nor Sakura were prepared to see, but it wasn't fearsome enough to get them to back down.

"G-Goodness," Sakura muttered. "I-I didn't think that the Faceless looked so horrifying…"

"They are quite the ferocious beasts," Asama noted. "Don't you worry your sweet little head, Lady Sakura. If we are to die here at the hands of the Faceless then that is how things must be. Although, I do have some modicum faith in our allies' will to protect us both from harm if that is what they wish. Isn't that right, Lord Kamui?"

"Of course," the prince replied. "I'll do everything in my power to protect you on my honor as the second prince of Hoshido."

"Splendid to hear young prince. In return, we'll do everything in our power to ensure that you fulfill your mission. Whenever you are close to death, we'll be certain to bring you back to full combat capacity. How does that sound?"

"Sounds like a fair deal to me." Kamui was often confounded but rather accepting of Asama's behavior to everyone's surprise. The monk's liege on the other hand wasn't as tolerant.

"Asama, when are you going to pick up a weapon and learn to defend yourself and others for once?" Hinoka asked. "You already have the potential to perform well in combat if only you simply worked up the effort to try."

"I'll begin my training with weapons whenever the opportunity to do so is most convenient for me," the monk answered. "Although, if Lady Sakura can prove that there is a place on the front lines for even shrine maidens, then perhaps a simple mountain monk such as I won't be as needed for offense hm?" Hinoka had to stop herself from arguing with her retainer further, ending the conversation with a sigh. It was then that some of the Faceless finally took notice of the Hoshidans' presence, and after a roar from one of them the small quartet charged ahead at the soldiers; all were felled easily with swift counterattacks, and the sound of bodies collapsing and dying groans attracted more Faceless to the area. The group soon found themselves locked in a heated encounter in the harsh cold, but they were filled with determination they hadn't possessed before

"Ready yourselves troops!" Ryouma commanded. "For the glory of Hoshido!"

Theme: Past Light (Storm)

The Faceless took the initiative, barreling toward the Hoshidans with monstrous speed. While they could feel the harsh environment around them, their sensitivity to it was inferior to the sensitivity their human prey could experience so they had no trouble maintaining high speed throughout the terrain by ignoring the biting chill. It helped that they were coherent enough to maneuver around and through the uneven ground to reach their targets, either avoiding hidden stones or large clumps of snow entirely or smashing over and through them. For once many of the foot-soldier Hoshidans were incredibly wary because of the severe disadvantage at play, but they refused to let it get to their nerves. Eventually the two parties came together and traded many a blow intent to kill; had anyone else been there to see the battle, it would have appeared especially one-sided in the Faceless' favor; the usually agile soldiers were now making very few actual steps to lightly dodge or maintain a strong defensive stance. The fliers and Takumi were incredibly indispensable thanks to them being able to traverse their surroundings with little issue, but even they had to take extreme caution thanks to their relative frailty.

Kamui found himself almost pitifully underprepared for the skirmish despite his excellent skill, not having much room to move around and his feet were starting to freeze at an alarming rate. It was a scary experience for him to put it lightly even with everyone else doing their best to protect each other, but he would not let himself give in to fear; he would help defeat the Faceless no matter how grim the outlook appeared. A single faceless tried to punch his head clean off and he narrowly dodged the blow, and his brothers came to his aid with light blows meant to create a window of opportunity for him. From then the Hoshidan prince wasted no time landing a killing blow with a quick decapitation. His first kill wasn't as nerve-wracking as he thought it would be but he dared not relax: his siblings were already on to their next target and he made it a priority to help them out as soon as he could.

The other soldiers who weren't agile enough to evade the onslaught of the faceless were shrugging off the blows as best as they could: Saizou, Hinata, and Tsubaki had their work cut out for them having to constantly defend their less sturdier partners, but the burden was lessened somewhat thanks to Kagerou, Oboro, and Kazahana providing more than enough firepower to take the Faceless down. Between the royal siblings, Ryouma, Hinoka, and Takumi were pulling their group of five through with their high offensive power, though they too were constantly shifting around to cover for each other to make up for their smaller number and relatively poor defenses. Kamui lacked the raw power his other siblings had on top of being fragile and not having his great agility at his disposal, resulting in him having to throw out quick and weak swipes before backing away as fast as he could to avoid a counterattack. Sakura did her best to heal any major injury her older siblings suffered while sticking to the center of the "square" they formed to protect her, but she often found herself veering too close to them in the middle of their fight before being roughly told to back off for her safety.

Eventually, the Faceless found themselves unable to muster anymore strength to attack the Hoshidans, shortly falling victim to a surge of all-out pummeling from everyone who had a weapon once it was clear that had lost their steam. One by one they fell into the snow, staining the landscape with their blood before evaporating into the air, until there were none left in the immediate vicinity.

"Finally…" Kamui rasped out. "I thought it'd never end…"

"Now you see what we must do every time we hear of a Faceless attack," Ryouma spoke. "Granted, this is the first we've had to deal with them in the snowy wildlands."

"Either way, don't get too comfortable," Hinoka warned. "I doubt this is all the Faceless we have to deal with out here."

"Also, it could be just me, but it seems like the Faceless are a little smarter this time around," Takumi said. "They kept trying to get around me and attack Sakura; usually they just slug it out at whatever's in front of them."

"In that case, we need to be on our toes even more out here. Saizou, Kagerou, you two will be leading your group of eight. Tsubaki, you will be providing a bird's eye view of the landscape for the rest of your comrades and guide them closer toward the endangered village. We'll catch up to you shortly."

"Understood Prince Ryouma," the three Hoshidans replied. With their directives, the soldiers marched ahead of their lieges. Takumi was about to ask what was going on until Ryouma directed his attention to Kamui.

"Listen up Kamui, I'll give you a brief rundown of how our dragon's veins work. If you want to use a lot of energy, recite the ancient Hoshidan Royal Family's prayer to the Dawn Dragon, Hydra. You can also perform small-scale usage of your dragon's vein known as 'bending': the advantages this offers over large-scale dragon's vein usage is smaller energy consumption, making it more readily accessible. For this battle, we'll want you to practice becoming well acquainted with the Breath of Air variant of bending; I want you to reach inside yourself and find the source of your royal power like you did back at the sparring session, then coat yourself with it and use it to feel the air surrounding you."

Kamui did as instructed and mimicked the meditation process Ryouma and Hinoka used to utilize their dragon's veins; he found a feral, draconic force within himself that felt like the energy he was surrounded with during the earlier spar, and he wasted no time trying to channel this power outside himself. Sooner than expected, he had gotten the hang of drawing out his energy and covering himself with it.

"I think I've got it Big Brother," Kamui announced.

"Good, now try extending your energy past your body to move the air around you." The young prince did just that, moving his arms in a slow and steady motion while keeping his energy tethered to himself, feeling the wind he was generating from his movements. It didn't feel like he was just swishing his arms through the air, rather the winds he created were like extensions of his own body. This impressed his siblings at how fast he was catching on to the practice.

"Well done Kamui," Hinoka congratulated. "Now, let's see you create a miniature cyclone around your legs to push yourself into the air. The key to doing this is envisioning the cyclone itself as you direct and swirl your natural energy underneath your feet. Maintain this swirl of energy and you'll find yourself lifted into the air." Kamui listened and tried envisioning a small tornado beneath himself as he directed the energy underneath himself. It was a slow process but eventually Kamui learned how to sustain the winds and briefly lift himself a foot or two above the ground. Physically and mentally, Kamui felt elated with finally able to fly to an extent, satisfying one of his childhood dreams.

"Unbelievable…" Takumi said aloud. He had been working hard to do the same thing and his older brother—who had never properly practiced prior, had managed to accomplish in one day what he aspired to do for years with no apparent success. A part of him was happy for his brother, but the other part couldn't help but feel a good deal of jealously toward him. Kamui's lack of long-term experience with bending eventually made him tire from maintaining the flow of energy, but it was a little later than what Ryouma and Hinoka had expected from him.

"Nicely done," Ryouma said. "You're already showing great bending aptitude with just a little bit of practice; no doubt you'll be able to master these arts soon if you start applying yourself like me and Hinoka."

"We'll be with you throughout the beginning of this training, but after that you'll have to develop your own sense for bending," Hinoka added.

"I doubt he'll need a lot of help even now," Takumi commented. "With that done and over, shouldn't we be catching up to the others instead of standing here? We'll have more time to do this later."

"Erm, right you are Takumi," Ryouma said. "Feel free to practice your bending on the way, Kamui, but don't let it interfere with the task at hand."

"Alright."


"You guys think these Nohrian mages are nearby?" Hinata asked. "Not to sound grateful or anything, 'cause even though these faceless raids have been pretty good exercise, I'm startin' to get really tired of seein' 'em. I know our barrier keeps baddies out except for the faceless, but maybe they can still control them while inside the barrier…?" The only immediate response he got was a bunch of funny looks for his dumb question. "Yeah…I guess not."

"I honestly wish that they're nearby," Oboro said. "Attacking defenseless villagers like this…Words cannot express how disgusting this is." The tailor could feel her grip on her naginata intensify every second, but she calmed herself to avoid letting her anger get the best of her. Silently, she swore that she would defend the village from the monsters even if it killed her; she didn't want a repeat of what happened to her family.

"We know Oboro, we know…" Kazahana said with sympathy for the other woman's experiences. "They're not getting away with this little stunt, that's for sure, so cheer up for us eh?" Even if she got a tad too close and physical for Oboro's comfort, it was hard for the other woman to not smile and the effort was appreciated greatly. The sis-hug was cut short when Tsubaki announced his minutely update of the situation.

"Lady Mikoto and the village she's defending are still doing just fine, though there's still no clear sign of Orochi, Yuugiri, or nearby Flame Tribalists anywhere," the tenma warrior explained. ". There's also a distinct lack of faceless close to us as if they're numbers are dwindling greatly, but I would still remain on guard: they seem smarter this time around like Prince Takumi said and they could be lying in wait for us." Just then, Tsubaki could hear something or someone approaching his group quickly: instinctively he had his tenma face the direction of the sound. He felt at ease, though, when he saw that it was simply Hinoka and Sakura on the former's mount; down below he could spot Takumi, Ryouma, and what looked like an airbending Kamui arriving too.

"Sorry we're late guys!" Kamui said. "I think I've gotten the hang of using my dragon's vein a little, at least when it comes to moving around with the breath of air."

"That fast?" Asama questioned. "My, you must have greater proficiency than even your older siblings if that's the case. Or maybe their dragon's veins are atrophying?" This time the wise-cracking monk saw the conk-on-the-head from his liege coming, letting his partner Setsuna be the unfortunate victim instead. Chuckling at the spacy girl's luck, he wasn't aware of Ryouma enough who promptly dope-slapped him with compacted mud to the ground.

"Not funny," the prince said dryly.

"Thanks Ryouma," Hinoka said as she was helping Setsuna to her feet.

"Um, a little help your majesties?" Asama muffled out through the snow.

"On your feet soldier, that's an order," Ryouma commanded.

"As you wish…" Now that everyone had reunited, Tsubaki gave his report to his superiors on how the situation had progressed before returning to his bird's eye position. On guard for the faceless, the group travelled slowly to not spring a trap once they got close. A minute later and they had almost gotten caught in the blast of magic from their queen's royal diviner Orochi who looked busy competing with Yuugiri. Seeing the two women handling the monsters like nothing put them at ease, also knowing that with them around they were much closer to reaching Mikoto and the endangered village.

"My kill count's at twenty-three," Orochi shouted out to Yuugiri. "What about you?"

"Twenty-seven," the kinshi warrior replied smugly. "Make that twenty-eight."

"Show-off."

"Don't start crying now since you're the one who started this little game. I love you as a sister, but I'll be damned if I lose this sort of sport to anyone."

"Remind me to not spar with you after this."

"Hi misses Orochi and Yuugiri!" Kamui greeted, ignoring the fact that there were still Faceless in the area.

"Lord Kamui?" the momentary distraction almost cost Orochi her head, but she was fast on her reflexes and struck the monster down after dodging its attack. "Goodness me, I was worried that we'd be out here fighting these dreadful things by our lonesome. I'm so glad you decided to join us."

"These faceless aren't so tough this time around," Yuugiri spoke, "but it seems they've grown some in intelligence: little Orochi here was almost worm food earlier had it not been for a hasty retreat."

"Way to remind a gal…"

"I hope I didn't miss anything important," a newcomer's voice said. Everyone quickly recognized the voice belonging to none other than the Flame Tribe's princess, Rinka. Despite what was last heard of her she looked no worse for wear, ready to bash faceless heads in with her kanabō.

"Not at all," Ryouma responded. "You're just in time to help us rescue moth-, I mean, Her Grace."

"Rinka!" Kamui exclaimed. "But, I thought you were—"

"We had some help in escaping," the tribalist responded.

"We…?" Right on cue a familiar flash of green zoomed in front of Kamui's eyes and stopped right in between Saizou and Kagerou.

"Apologies for the late arrival," the newly arrived ninja spoke. "Captain Kirigakure reporting for duty."

"Kaze, you're okay!" Kamui was so joyed to see one of his comrades okay he had almost thrown his arms around the older man in childlike excitement; Saizou's hand warned him to not get too close.

"Let's give him some room first, Prince Kamui," the older ninja said. "So, Suzukaze, how was your time in Nohrian captivity?"

"Brother, please don't let this spiral into an 'I told you so' situation."

"I wasn't even going to—"

"We had our asses handed to us by Princess Corrin and her abductors," Rinka answered for Suzukaze. "After that we were thrown into some dungeon called 'The Pit', but one of the Nohrians let us escape. On the way here we met and travelled with three other escapees carrying an injured refugee with them. We went our separate ways once we reached a border outpost; the other guys said they needed more weapons since they lost theirs during their stay in Nohr."

'Three other escapees…carrying a refugee?' Kamui thought. If his suspicions were correct then this was when he would meet his other future vassal, but he was curious about the other three Hoshidans. He didn't want to think it, but he had a creeping feeling that these "escapees" were spies already in their homeland. "Can you describe what they looked like?"

"Guys, look," Takumi interrupted. "I'm sure we're all excited to see Rinka and Suzukaze back in good health despite what earlier reports said, but we really, really need to keep moving. Mother—I mean, Her Grace could be in serious trouble right now."

"Once again, you are right Takumi," Ryouma said. "We've wasted enough precious time already; the sooner we get this done the sooner we can prepare for the invasion." Rinka and Suzukaze were about to question the mention of an invasion but they kept silent. The large group of Hoshidans travelled further north to the endangered village and hoped that they weren't too late. Hinoka and Tsubaki continuously fed the group with a bird's-eye-view of the situation while Ryouma was busy tearing through the rough terrain with his dragon's vein to let the group pass through easily. When they got close enough to their destination they finally caught sight of their queen keeping a single faceless at bay with her arrows, but it wasn't just any regular faceless he and the others had faced: it was a bigger beast with skin that looked like it was made of solid gold. It already had wounds engraved into its flesh but it didn't appear deterred because of it. Nothing Queen Mikoto could do would do anything significant to the monster, simply waiting for the beast to inch its way closer to her and the village while her strength had simply left her.

"Mother's in trouble: we have to do something!" Kamui was gripping his silver katana tight, and Ryouma hatched an idea seeing this. Everyone but him and Sakura had defeated the "leading" faceless during each raid and came out stronger for it, and Ryouma felt that it was now his brother's turn to ease into how a real fight was.

"Kamui," he began, "you're going to take that thing down." While this earned the crown prince a disbelieving stare from everyone else, Kamui was near ready to rush off and attack the monster to protect his mother. "However, you're not going to do it alone: Suzukaze, Rinka, you two will be assisting him in the battle. Now go, quickly."

"Ryouma, I don't want to be that guy, but are you for real right now?!" Takumi asked. "Seriously, look at that thing! Mother's stronger than us, and if she couldn't put a dent into it by herself what makes you think Kamui of all people is gonna take that thing down even with Suzukaze's and Rinka's help?"

"I just have this feeling that he will." That was all Ryouma was going to say on the matter, and before Takumi could question him further he sent a silencing glare his way, killing whatever protest the younger prince had left. "We'll jump in and help if we need to, but this next battle is yours Kamui. Give it your all, understand?"

"Understood. Come on guys, let's beat this monster!" Neither Suzukaze nor Rinka resisted the order and followed the prince to the golden faceless; everyone else travelled ahead the trio but focused on getting to Mikoto before the monster did. In the short amount of time he had, Kamui had already thought up a battle strategy to handle their enemy. "Alright, here's the plan: we'll all start off using our ranged weapons for an early advantage until the faceless gets close enough, and after that I'll switch between my iron and practice katana throughout depending on the situation, finally finishing the faceless with my silver katana if needed. Kaze, stick close to us when the faceless gets close, but try and stay out of the faceless's range as much as possible okay? Rinka, you and me will be alternating between each other to attack the faceless and defend each other. Are you comfortable with that?"

"Sure."

"Okay then, let's do this!" By then Ryouma and the other Hoshidans were keeping the beast at bay while Kamui's trio caught up to them and began flinging their weapons at it. First came a few of Suzukaze's gale-needles burying themselves into it, causing it minor irritation from the impact and incredible annoyance once the poison set in. The needles also released a special chemical that enhanced the reflexes of its owner's allies within a two-yard radius. Making use of the increase in agility, Kamui and Rinka kept up the ranged onslaught until the monster was thrown into a complete fit.

"Here it comes!" Kamui's warning steeled himself, Rinka, and Suzukaze for the incoming monster. Rinka and Suzukaze had little issue of moving out of the way of its attack, but Kamui had hardly moved much, blocking the punch with his iron katana and staggering thanks to an uneven stance. To his fortune he had Rinka cover for him, pushing the monster away from him and engaging in storm of fire-enhanced blows while more of Suzukaze's shuriken hit their target. Rinka's high body temperature had kept her warm in the cold atmosphere despite being underdressed compared to others, so she had no problem maintaining a steady stance to fight with. But, even though it seemed like Rinka had an advantage over the enemy, the monster suddenly caught her kanabō mid-swing and engaged in a tug-of-war with her, clearly displaying its superior strength. Rinka found herself slowly being pulled toward the monster and promptly let go of her weapon, quickly using her firebending to jet herself away from the beast.

"Rinka!" Kamui was ready to come to the woman's aid but ended up slipping in some of the mush Rinka created with her warmth and landed on his rear, it would have been comical if the situation wasn't so dangerous. The Faceless saw this and ran past Rinka toward the prince to attack him in a surprising burst of speed; it almost succeeded in getting hit on him but Rinka's flaming fists crashed into the metal mask on its head, knocking it off. Kamui and Rinka saw that the so-called "Faceless" wasn't without a face, though they much preferred the beast to have kept the mask on.

"Good gods, that thing is hideous!" Rinka commented.

"Alright guys, it's close and weak enough: pummel it in rotation!" Kamui ordered. Rinka regained her nerves and wrapped herself in a light sheet of flames while Kamui and Suzukaze took out their iron katana and steel shuriken respectively. Despite the strain that bending took on him, Kamui took to the air with his airbending since staying on the ground wasn't going to help him. Suzukaze was the first to attack in the rotation, utilizing quick leaps across the ground while slashing at the monster's torso in a hit-and-run maneuver before tossing a shuriken; Kamui followed the ninja with mid-air dashes, going in for a quick slice and then flying over to the other side of the monster to throw his kodachi. Rinka was the last to go, throwing in a flaming punch or two and then backing off to fire off a flame blast in time for Suzukaze to repeat his portion of the cycle. After a few seconds the monster couldn't find anywhere to retreat to from the continued assault, furiously spinning its arms out in a sweeping clothesline to force its attackers off it. It caught all three in its counterattack and flung them a ways away from each other. Ryouma and Takumi were ready to strike the monster with a ranged weapon the moment it looked ready to finish off Kamui, Suzukaze, or Rinka. The benders could stand on their feet again but Suzukaze wasn't so swift to do so. The monster noticed this and slowly trudged its way over to the man.

"No!" Kamui and Rinka dashed up to the monster to save their comrade but took another arm swipe from it. With Suzukaze too injured to help his allies, he could only watch as it changed targets from him to them. The monster raised its fists to do both Kamui and Rinka in, and that was when it took two blindingly-fast darts in its eyes. In its confusion it only pushed the shuriken in deeper, blinding itself and taking two more shuriken in its torso. These two shuriken exploded and released a strengthening powder that Kamui and Rinka ended up inhaling. Kagerou and Saizou rushed out to the battlefield to help their allies.

"Sorry for taking so long to assist you," Kagerou apologized, feeding the benders her vulnerary and helping them up. Saizou had dodged around the flailing faceless to carry his brother off the battlefield back to the others. With Kamui and Rinka back in action, the two Hoshidans rushed in to finally deal the killing blow: Kamui embedded his silver katana into the monster and pulled out before Rinka drove her fists into the opening and let loose a fiery explosion. Finally the faceless had been taken down, collapsing into the snow with a heavy thud before evaporating into smog. Kamui and Rinka simply couldn't believe how durable the damned thing had been, but with the abomination dead and over they allowed themselves relaxation and fell into the snow as well.

Theme End

"Gods…that was pure torture…" Kamui rasped out. "What was that thing made of…?"

"Who cares…?" Rinka panted. "At least we put it down…I never want to have to see another one of those things again…"

"Ditto…"

"Well done you three," Ryouma spoke as he walked up to the group. "This was your first real fight against a golden faceless."

"You mean you've…fought that thing before?"

"Of course, otherwise I wouldn't have had you fight it this time around. Although, I must admit I was slightly worried in that you wouldn't be able to handle it. Thankfully, Saizou and Kagerou were on standby to help you out."

"Someone had to be if he was going to survive it in case he proved too weak," Asama said, instantly getting everyone's eyes on him. "I'm just saying."

"Thanks guys…" Kamui said to Kagerou and Saizou, ignoring the current conversation topic. "I owe you guys big time…"

"There is no need to repay us Prince Kamui," Kagerou responded. "We are but vassals fulfilling our sworn duty."

"Just be sure to take care of yourself more often Prince Kamui," Saizou added. "We may not always be around to cover for you in case something goes wrong."

"I'll remember that…"

Theme: Paradise (Light)

"Thank you all for coming to our aid," Queen Mikoto finally spoke. "There has been a small number of casualties and property damage, but overall the village remains standing from the faceless threat."

"I'm sorry that we have not come sooner, moth—I mean, Your Grace," Ryouma said while bowing.

"Oh son, there is no need to only refer to me as 'Your Grace': 'mother' also works just fine."

"Yes, of course, mother." It was a force of habit for Ryouma to refer to his mother with an honorific in the presence of other nobility from outside of mainland Hoshido such as Rinka, but he very much preferred to call her "mother".

"The flame tribalists have been very instrumental to defending this village from further harm," Mikoto said, "so we must give them our thanks as well for their cooperation."

"Think nothing of it," Rinka said. "Now, I'm certain you would like to hear this small bit of news concerning Princess Corrin: she is indeed alive and well, but it doesn't seem like she recognizes you as her mother. If anything, she's convinced that you tried to kidnap her and Kamui when they were children. For that reason she doesn't think favorably of Hoshidans."

"It's true," Suzukaze added. "We were even released from Nohrian prison to be used as test dummies for the princess. The plan was to rescue Princess Corrin and escort here back here, but she nearly killed us after engaging in a battle with us. She doesn't even remember being kidnapped, which smells strongly of brainwashing." The news wasn't very surprising for a few individuals but it was not something they wanted to hear; this effectively confirmed that the only way to get Corrin to remember her origins was to capture her and place her upon Hoshido's throne, forcibly if need be. "Also, there were three other captured Hoshidan soldiers who were taking another refugee to one of our infirmaries. Aside from requesting weapons, they said that they wished to speak with you about what they learned in Nohr about incoming spies who want to destroy our barrier."

"I see," Queen Mikoto wanted to stay out in the snow and wait for confirmation that everything was in order, but something told her that the three Hoshidans needed to be seen at once. "Princess Kagu-tsuchi, would you mind looking after the village for a short spell to ensure that nothing else needs to be taken care of and report to me in Shirasagi's throne room whenever possible? You will be assisted by your fellow tribalists while inside."

"I'll do it," the oni savage replied, "but I'm afraid I'll have to mail you a litter either this evening or tomorrow morning. My father will want me to stay in our village for at least a day before I am let back out again after what happened in Nohr."

"That is understandable. Do take care of yourself out here."

"Will do." Bidding a temporary farewell to the flame princess, Queen Mikoto gathered her soldiers and directed the group back toward their capital to meet the refugee and her Hoshidan saviors. After the revelation of Nohrians being behind the attack, many in the group began suspecting the refugees as the spies that were mentioned. No one had reason to suspect that the Hoshidans were the potential moles, but Kamui had a nagging feeling that the Hoshidans weren't all what they appeared to be. He tried wracking his memory of who out of the Nohrians in his vision seemed most likely to be the spies they would encounter soon, and exactly three Nohrians stood out from the others: Óðinn, Selena, and Laslow. Laslow himself claimed to have ninja training which likely meant that he once lived in Hoshido and knew his way around it. Still, he didn't want to jump to conclusions yet, he'd have to wait and see who these Hoshidans were before making any hasty decisions. Ultimately, he wanted to be nothing more than wrong about who the three Hoshidans really were.


Author's Closing Notes: It's been a while since I started to get back to work on this old chapter. Anyways, there's some things I wanted to list off before I close out: if anyone is wondering how Kamui can quickly get the hang of using his dragon's vein, it's because of his more direct dragon lineage compared to the Hoshidan royal siblings, letting him draw out the energy more naturally. This is related to what Xander told Corrin back in the first chapter about dragons having to deal with less strain when using their dragon's veins. His biological father is the same in this story as it is in the base games, but that subject will not come up in this story until the very end. Second, I know that the games has all of the royal siblings able to utilize their dragon's veins, for the sake of character progression not all of them ae able to actually draw out their energy necessary to do so for personal reasons: Takumi because of his rash behavior which will provide some rivalry between him and Kamui later on, Sakura because she doesn't see much of a reason to do so at the time being until she's forced to later, and Elise for much of the same reasons as Sakura and the dragon twins (didn't receive formal training yet). For anyone wondering what role Aqua/Azura will have in the story, she will be making a brief appearance in the next two chapters but she's removed from the royal families as the fifth family member with a different position in each country (both Avatars fill in the position of the fifth family members). Also, the next immediate part of this chapter will be dialogue oriented with very little combat if any like Chapter 3a. That's all I can really say for now, but if anyone has something else that they've thought of or some inquiries then don't be afraid to leave it in the reviews or in a PM. Anywho, that's about it for now; this is Motley World Studios signing off the air. Until next time folks.