-14-

Kai slowly walks through the quiet halls of the Shang Tu Palace, the orange glow from the sunset leaves a peaceful ambiance as the blue marble seemingly changes color to a warmer hue. As the husky carefully walks through the quiet halls, he spots Neera pacing back and forth through the halls, she appeared troubled; Kai approaches the priestess in response, "What's with the pacing… forget that, where exactly is your daughter?" he asks.

Neera simply passes by the canine before noticing his presence. Kai simply exchanges an impatient and uninterested glare at the panda, who had mutual expression, "Oh, it's you…"

"What exactly does that mean?"

"I thought you left, either way what gave you such a sudden change of heart?"

"Nothing. She just owes me a favor is all."

"A favor?"

"Look, I'm not quite in the mood for this, just tell me where your daughter is."

"No need to rush, I'm just suspicious why you would suddenly come back."

"Are you gonna get on my case, I have my reasons, so if you're not going to help me then I'll find Norah myself."

"Wait!" Neera demands, as the husky simply walks away without any care.

"Thanks for nothing!" Kai sarcastically shouts.

Neera snaps her tongue in frustration as she quickly incases the husky's legs in ice.

"Alright, what exactly do you want…" Kai sighs with an impatient and agitated voice, not appreciating the course of action Neera took, however due to his recent condition he had no choice but to listen to the priestess' request.

"I don't trust you." Neera starts.

"I'm pretty sure we've already establish that." Kai retorts.

"Anyways…" Neera interrupts, attempting to ignore the husky's rude behavior and getting her point across, "However, you and Milla are the only one who can help me get through to Norah. I know this is… a rather strange request… but can you two and Fokkusu, talk to her for me?"

"Trust me, today have been filled with strange requests." Kai hints as he aims his rifle at the mount of ice which had subdued him, from his rifle he fired what appeared to have been a FIRE energy bullet, therefore slowly melting the ice.

Neera losing her patience, saves Kai the trouble and shatters the ice into small intricate pieces, the husky then make sure his legs is in good health, stretching and bending them. "What do you mean by that?" Neera questions.

"Nothing important."

"Fine, just so you know, if you cause any trouble, you won't get away with it and if it's related to my daughter, I'll hunt you down… if my daughter is the trouble then no difference…"

"Eh… that's quite the tough love you got there…"

"Ahem, last time I checked, my daughter went into town, looking for Milla and Chan."

"I'm starting to understand why Norah ran away now…"

Neera simply stays silent, as she watch Kai hurry towards Norah, to her surprise she sees Milla and Chan walking their way towards her, the canine and vulpine are caught off guard by the husky's presence however they were unable to greet Kai before he left.

"W-was that Kai?!" Milla asks, towards no one in particular.

"I guess so, he seems to be quite in a hurry, well at least we know he came back… sort'a" Chan muses.

"Hey who's that old lady that was with the guy that passed us?" Charlotte announces, the older youths quickly covers the girl's mouth, preventing her from speaking anything more from her mind. However their attempts were in vain as the priestess begins to walk towards the youths, taking notice of their presence.

"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that… To answer your question, my name is Neera Li." The panda introduced in a rather offended manner towards the younger girl.

"Please to meet you, name's Charlotte, I'm this pervert's little sister." The fox girl introduces pointing towards Chan with mischievous intent, leaving her brother simply flabbergasted by the remark.

"Anyways…" Milla interrupts, "Was that Kai who passed by, where did he go?"

"He needed to talk with my daughter for some reason, I already issued a warning though." Neera reveals before mumbling to herself, "If the bastard does anything foolish, I'll be sure to be the first to incase him in ice."

"I can hear you clearly." Milla notes.

"Same." Charlotte reveals.

"Thrice." Chan continues.

Neera simply sighs in response, she then agrees to let Charlotte stay; however she stilled wondered what exactly did Kai want from Norah.

Norah was walking through the Shang Tu park searching for Milla, the lights glowed as nightfall approaches; the area was desolate, more so than usual, considering the city's small population. It was quiet, windy, chilly and the panda girl didn't like it, walking through the eere park into the large stone bridge. She sees a figure in the distance; expecting Milla, Norah shouts the basset hound's name looking for a response from the figure; the figure makes a slight movement in response, therefore the panda ran towards the person. However instead of Milla, it was Kai. "It's you…" Norah acknowledges in disappointment.

"Nice to see you again Norah." Kai greets in a dry tone.

"What are you doing here?"

"Looking for you actually, I heard you were looking for Milla, so I knew you would be here."

"She does like parks…" Norah admits underneath her breath.

"By the way, Milla is with Chan and some other girl back at the palace, either way that's not why I'm here…"

"Really, well I don't know if I should listen, I don't exactly appreciate when someone puts the blame on my best friend." Norah mockingly retorts.

"Can you just listen for one damn moment, I need you to do me a favor."

Norah crosses her arms in skepticism, waiting for the husky to continue.

Kai simply lean against the stone bridge's balustrade with his rifle leaning against the handle of the bridge juxtapositioned to the husky, "Your Móshù shī companion decided to talk to me in private, he admitted to working with Jai."

The panda girl goes into shock, she didn't believe what the husky had told her, she didn't know rather to burst into tears of disbelief or boil down into rage and anger, nonetheless she was happy to at least hear from her companion, even though it was through the husky's voice, "Vix." she simply states, not sure how to respond in any other way.

"Anyways, he claims that he never intended for everything to go like this, therefore he agreed to help me defeat Jai, under one condition. He wants me to team up with you guys again and to participate in the championship."

Norah remains silent, pondering on what she just heard.

"I'm not sure if I should trust him or not."

"I would."

"You sure?"

"Positive."

"Well, I hope so because what comes next is… sketchy."

Norah simply smiles, "It wouldn't be from Vix if it wasn't sketchy. I've always enjoyed how masochistic he can be."

"Batshit insane more like it. There's apparently something we need to steal something from the Shang Tu Palace."

"Is that so?"

"He was vague though, he said it was a special type of energy crystal."

"What affinity?"

"He said there's multiple, however he mentioned FIRE affinity specifically."

"I'll do it, not just because it's Vix's request, but also you owe me two thousand crystals afterwards."

"t-two thousand, like hell I'm giving you that kind of money!" Kai refuses.

"Fine you can steal this 'special' crystal yourself." Norah taunts.

"1000." Kai counters.

"1750." Norah persists.

"1500." Kai counters again, however the panda girl remained calm, this bothered the husky.

"I'm not going any lower than 1700, Kai." Norah informs.

Kai growls in frustration "Fine." he reluctantly submits.

"Hey, don't take it too seriously, you know very well you deserved it, besides it's business."

"You'll steal from me anyways…" Kai retorts walking away from the panda, expecting her to follow.

It takes Norah a few moments to notice what the husky had said, "W-wait! How do you know about that?!" she demands following the husky back to the Shang Tu Palace.

Meanwhile at the Red Scarves' HQ, Jai was in his usual post waiting for a couple of guests, Hmph, it's amusing how Vix thinks he can devise a plan without me knowing, in fact I'm sure to expect him to ask for their aid, funny how that works, I'm actually quite curious now…

I should kill Rob for his betrayal, but frankly that was predictable, also to assure that my second knight is under my control I should keep him alive, at least until the others are gone, also it would be quite amusing to see how far he would go to cover his tracks when I put him into a position where he have to fight against his own allies.

For now I have to rely on Hanna, Icarus is proving to be reckless, however the Red Scarves aren't my only allies, what I'm most interested to confirm is to see if Milla is worth my time, I already have my real goal in mind, but she would make it far easier for me to reach that goal…

As a bargaining chip that is, especially after losing Spade.

The wyvern hears his doors open, he simply makes a smirk in response, "I'm glad you two made it, Rob Stiil and Hanna Skarlett."

"What's the big idea Jai?" Hanna demands.

"With all do respect, we were just helping everyone from what happened a couple days ago, I don't know what you have planned, but I'd rather not be kept in the dark." Rob continues.

So he is trying to cover his tracks, Jai turns towards both husband and wife, "Are you two busy for the next couple of weeks?"

"Not in particular." Hanna answers, "Why?"

"Simple, you two are going to participate in the Annual Avalician Martial Arts Championship."

"W-what?!" Rob responds.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Hanna objects.

"Everything have been accounted for, the other leaders agreed, and ironically you two are actually the lowest ranking members to be taking place in this tournament."

"What do you mean?"

"I'll be participating as well."

Both Hanna and Rob simple exchange looks towards one another in disbelief, however considering the situation they agree to Jai's terms.