A/N: As promised the start of Suikoden II (Crowd goes wild). I name the hero of Suikoden II Justin. At the time it has this joke about be there Just-in time. With the Rain Comes Problems
The week that Jason was diagnosed to be out of his coma turned into a month. Racqel was in the infirmary everyday to take care of him. She wanted to be there, ready for whenever he woke up. And every time she came in, the fortress of books that Tuta surround himself with would be taller than the last. Soon, not even the top of Tuta's head could be seen anymore.
"You're taking this pretty seriously." Racqel commented one day as she came in with a fresh bowl of water. The water was used to wet a cloth that would be placed on Jason's bump, taking down any swelling that might still be there. He was laid on his stomach, so that his head would not lie on the bruise.
"I just don't get it." Tuta's frustrated voice comes from the fortress of books. "It's a concussion. The guy should have come to by now." The sound of pages flipping was heard before a book is slammed shut and was out from. Afterwards, a hand comes up to grab another book down from one of stacks.
Racqel shakes her head as she sets the bowl of water on a table beside Jason's bed and has a seat. "How do you get in and out of there?" She asked as she dips a clean cloth into the bowl. "I mean, you have to be able to enter and leave this room when you need to. Right?" After bring the cloth out of the water, Racqel wrung the excess water from it and folds it into a rectangle. "I appreciate your help, but if it will affect your health…" She placed the cloth on back of Jason's head.
"Don't worry. I've managed to make a tunnel." Tuta informed her. "I've eaten, I've slept, and I've even taken a bath or two." Another book was tossed out. "I just…it's that…. I feel really unprofessional when I make a misdiagnosis. Feels like I didn't study enough. If Dr. Huan was here and saw me make a mistake like that, he'd…"
"He'd explain where you went wrong, if you went wrong." Racqel said in an informative, yet comforting tone. "Who knows, he might have made the same mistake."
"No way." Tuta jumped up so suddenly, that his fortress crumbled and books fall in every direction. "There is no way Dr. Huan could ever make a mistake like that. He's the best, the greatest doctor there is. Someday…" The young lad gave a sigh. "Someday I hope to become his equal." He said with awe as he steps over the fallen books and begins to pile them back up. "I'm going to study hard, take lots of notes, and observe his every move."
"With a plan like that, there is no way you could fail." Racqel chuckled. She takes the cloth from Jason's head and dips it in the water again. Just as she finished putting it back on his head, the door to the infirmary flies open.
The loud slam it made cause not only shakes the room, but cause Racqel and Tuta to jump with fright. The first wall of books Tuta had just built fall at his feet. Both he and Racqel look to the doorway to see a very unhappy, very wet, Viktor. He walked in with a scowl on his face and something wrapped in a blanket over his right shoulder.
"What did you do!" Racqel looked at her brother with surprise as she stood up. "Jump in the river?"
"Yeah." Viktor grumbled as he went over to an open bed.
Racqel watches him toss the blanket object on to the bed. "Why?"
Viktor opens the blanket to reveal a young boy. "Because of him."
The boy had short brown hair with a golden ring headband. He wore a red T-shirt with gold trimming, black pants, and ankle high leather boots. There was a bump on the boy's forehead where the golden ring didn't connect. At first the bump was red, but it looked like it was starting to turn a little blue…maybe purple.
"Flik and I were taking some men out on a training run by the river. Figure it would do them some good." Viktor told them. "With the way Highland seems to be testing the limits of the peace treaty, it will be only a matter of time before it breaks and we're at war with them again. Flik just thinks I'm being paranoid, but I know Highland and if he wasn't thinking the same thing he wouldn't have agreed to the training." Feeling eyes glaring into the back of his head, Viktor turns to see Racqel staring at him with her arms crossed and tapping her foot. She was still waiting for an explanation as to why he went jumping in the river. The bear-man clears his throat before continuing. "Anyway, I see this kid floating down the river. At first I thought he was dead, but then he gives this sudden flinch. So I feel like being a nice guy and go in to fish him out. Seems the kid had more life in him than I thought, cause next thing I know he starts struggling while still being unconscious and I find myself losing my balance."
Flik comes into the room. "The idiot falls butt first and makes a big enough splash to cause a tidal wave." He wasn't just dripping wet, he was soaking. A large puddle of water develops around his feet. "And I had the misfortune to get the brunt of it."
"Didn't help when it started to rain." Viktor complained. He runs his fingers through his wet hair and flicks the water off them.
"It didn't just rain." Flik snorted as he wrung out his cape. The water from it adds to the puddle, making even bigger. "The clouds just came around, opened up, and poured down on us." He took off his bandanna. "I wonder if those things just hovering around up there in the sky collecting water till they see some unsuspecting people and think to themselves, 'Hell, we're bored. Lets just dump on them.'" Flik wrung the bandanna out in anger.
"You make it sound like the heavens were out to get you or something." Racqel wiped off some of the water Viktor happen to get on her. "I don't suppose you found out who this boy is before clubbing him."
"Clubbing him?" Viktor looked at his sister with shock. "Do I look like the kind of guy to add insult to someone's injuries?" Racqel gave him an 'uh, yeah' look and points to the boy's forehead. Viktor gives a nervous chuckle and then clears his throat. "Well for your information, I only did it in self defense." He told her in a 'matter-of-fact' way. "Just after I finish getting back to my feet, the boy goes limp, like he was all worn out. So I drag him and myself out of the river. Soon as I do, that's when he decided to come to."
"The boy takes one look at Viktor and swings some sort of plank at his head." Flik waved to a soldier that was standing behind him. The soldier, who was just as wet as Flik and Viktor, comes in carrying pair of some sort of wooden weapon. Flik takes the weapons from the soldier and dismisses him. Thankful to finally be able to change into dry clothes, the soldier leaves.
"I know what they are." Racqel said as she walks over to the man in blue. She takes the weapons from him, holding the handles in her hands and the long boards against her arms. "They are called tofas. They're usually used as a defensive weapon by martial artist." Racqel twirls one of them. "Boy this brings back memories. Great grandfather had a pair of these displayed at his dojo. Sometimes he'd let me play with them, but they weren't really my weapon of choice."
"Getting back to me." Viktor coughed to get everyone's attention. "I duck in time for him to miss my head and grabbed his shirt front to get in his face."
"I'm surprised that the kid didn't pass out from your breath." Flik butted in. He takes the tofas back from Racqel.
"You think you're so funny." Viktor replied sarcastically. "Anyway I asked the kid who he was. After thinking for a bit, the kid tells us he his name is Justin."
"That's was before the kid kneed Viktor in the groin and Viktor head butted him in retaliation." Flik chimed in again. A big grin came onto his face.
Viktor gives Flik a glare. "Hey, it hurt me just as much as it hurt him."
"Maybe, but who was still left standing?" The grin fades as Flik glared back. "And who doesn't have a large bump on their forehead?" Viktor rubbed his forehead to find no bump. "With a thick skull like yours, you think that you would have any mark!" Flik asked with surprise.
"Oh, shut up." Viktor retorted as he brushed pass him and out of the infirmary.
Flik goes out after the bear-man. "Where are you going?"
"I don't know about you, but I prefer to wear dry clothes." Viktor's faded voice could be heard before there was a faint door slamming shut.
"No need to be nasty about it." Flik said before another door slam was heard. It was loud, cause Flik's room was next to the infirmary.
Racqel decided to ignore the two 'boys' and focus on the new patient. "So what do you think?" She asked as she looked at Tuta.
Tuta moved over to Justin and looked at the boy's forehead. "Hmmm…" He felt the bump. "Not that bad. I give him a couple hours or so. But him…" Tuta pointed a thumb over to Jason. "It's him I'll still have to figure out." He went over to his fallen books and starts to stack them up again. "He's really thrown me for a loop."
"Well maybe there is more to it than we think." Racqel suggested. She goes back over to Jason's bedside and sits down again. "Maybe it has to do with what happen two years ago."
Tuta looks over at Racqel curiously. "You mean when he woke from that strange slumber?"
"Yeah." Racqel nodded. "We don't know why the four of us were in that slumber, what the purpose was, or even how it was all suppose to work." She gave a shrug. "Perhaps the way he woke up affected him some how."
"Well, he was woken up early." Tuta put a finger to his chin. "But that couldn't be it. Sir Viktor was awaken six months after going to sleep and a month or two later he woke Sir Flik."
"So you think naturally waking up would have been good for him?" Racqel asked. "I mean, I woke up on my own and turned out ok."
"Hmmm…" Tuta looked like he realized something. "I sort of see a pattern among the wakings."
"Oh?" Racqel looked at Tuta thoughtfully. "What would that be?"
"Well..." Tuta crosses his arms and stood in a professional way. "You woke up when you were ready to. So you were over the shock of whatever happen, meaning that your memory was intact. Sir Viktor and Sir Flik were awakened, but they had people who knew them. They were called by their proper name and treated in a way that would remind them of who they were." Tuta moved over to Jason and pats the guy's shoulder. "Sir Jason was awaken early and surrounded by people who didn't know him."
Racqel raised an eyebrow. "So you're saying that if someone treated him like what he was use to, he would have remembered who he was?"
"Yeah, I guess that's my point." Tuta rubbed the back of his head. "Well maybe it would have taken a little while for it all to sink in." He gave a tiny shrug.
"What proof is there that this theory would work?" Racqel cocked her head. "Not that I doubt you, but I was just wondering." She added quickly as she straightens it up again.
"Well think about what Luna said." Tuta pointed out to Racqel. "When Jason was told he was Moroku, he had to learn to be Moroku. Sir Viktor and Sir Flik did not have to learn who they were."
"So if Viktor had not been there for Flik or had both awaken else where, course the same would go for me, we could have suffered like Jason did." Racqel surmised.
"Yeah." Tuta rubbed his chin. "So Jason might be trying to figure out who he is. Maybe, because he's so confused in the head, he doesn't want to come to until he's sure."
"Well that all makes sense." Racqel smiled at the young boy. "And you were worried about not being good enough."
Tuta drops his hands to his sides, doubt coming onto his face. "But what if I'm wrong about this?"
"Time will tell on any medical diagnosis." Racqel reminded him. "Point is how you make someone feel when they have to wait." She gave him a confident smile. "If Dr. Huan was here, he would have been proud."
"You really think so?" Tuta saw Racqel nod her head and a smile comes to his lip.
A moment later, Flik's door could be heard opening and his footsteps come from his room to the infirmary doorway. "You up for some lunch?" He asked Racqel when he stuck his head in.
"I thought that we were low on potch." Racqel was confused. "Are you sure we could afford to have three meals a day? I mean I haven't even got new clothes yet." She looked down at what she wore. The shirt with black thread that crookedly stitch closed the large hole it had. The pants had started to develop holes in the knees from climbing all over the roof and she missed having a cape. "I figured we'd have to cut back on breakfast and cut out lunch all together." She added as she looked back up at Flik.
"Sacrifices have to be made, that's true." Flik crossed his arms and nods. "But we wouldn't get far with soldiers on half empty to empty stomachs." He uncrossed his arms so he could give his bandanna a tug to make sure it was tied properly. "Besides you didn't want to buy clothes when we had potch, so it's kind of your own fault you don't have new ones now."
"Point taken." Racqel sighed.
Tuta speaks up. "Well go have you're meal. And don't worry about the patients. I'll be up here to keep an eye on them." Now that it seemed that the current problem was somewhat solved for the moment, there was no more need for the book and the young boy starts putting them back on the shelves.
"Ok." Racqel head for the doorway. "Be sure to let us know when either one wakes up." She added before walking out into the hallway.
"Especially that new kid." Flik told Tuta. "I want to get some information from him." He and Racqel walked down the hall to Viktor's and her room.
"What is it you want to know?" Racqel asked as they get to the door.
"For one, what he and his friend were doing in the river." Flik answered.
"The kid wasn't alone?" Racqel looked at Flik with disbelief. "Where is his friend?"
"Don't know." Flik shrugged. "I was about to grab him as he floated by, but lost him when Viktor fell in."
Racqel knocks on door. "Think the friend would be ok?"
"Don't know on that either." Flik shrugged again. "I tried to send some men to follow the river, see where it would take the boy. But the rain became so thick that you couldn't see a couple inches in front of you."
"Besides being in the river, what else do you want to know from the kid?" Racqel asked as she knocked on the door again.
"Where they came from." Flik crossed his arms and leaned on the wall next to the door with his left shoulder. "According to the map, the start of the river comes from a high mountain area in Highland. But there is no way they could have survive jumping from such a height or a ride like that." He started rap the fingers of his right hand on his left arm impatiently. "Hey Vik, what's taking you so long in there? Need a map to find you way through your shirt?" Flik yelled through the door.
"Keep your cape on blue boy." Viktor's muffled voice came yelling back. After a few minutes it opens. "For your information, I was dressed a long time ago."
Flik straightens up and rubs his left shoulder before going over to the stairs. "So what were you doing in there?" He went down first with Racqel following behind him.
"None of your business." Viktor snorted as he followed Racqel.
Racqel stops in middle of the stairs and looks back at her brother. "Does it have anything to do with that green thing you been working on?"
Viktor had to stop a step up from her. "Uh…(ahem)…maybe." His face seemed to fade of color.
"You've been working on that thing for awhile. I would think it be done by now." Racqel sighed as she starts down the stairs again. "By the way…" She stopped and turned around to look at Viktor again, "when did you learn to sew?"
Flik whips around after getting off the last step. "Sew!" He looked up at them. "Don't tell me the great Viktor is sewing." Flik said before he starts to laugh.
Viktor's face gained its color back quite quickly. In fact, it was a mixture of embarrassment and anger. "Hey, what's wrong with a guy sewing?" He asked in an insulted tone.
"N…nothing." Flik managed to choke out through his laughter. "It's just that…trying to picture you sewing…is very hard to believe." The man in blue started to holds his sides as they were beginning to hurt. He finally stops laughing and wipes a few tear from his eyes. "Sewing needs a delicate touch. How many needles and spools of thread have you gone through?"
"Not many." The color in Viktor's face turns to normal when Flik stop laughing. "At least, not after I started getting the hang of it."
"So what are you making?" Racqel asked as she continued down the stairs once more. "I see that it is taking on some sort of form, but I'm not exactly sure what to make of it."
"Hopefully it's not new clothes for you." Flik chuckled as he leads them to an open table. "I can just imagine it. The shirt would have one arm too long, one arm too short, and the bottom would look like a tent if you nail down. The pants would have its legs sewn together." He shook his head as he has a seat.
"It's not clothes Mr.-Know-It-All." Viktor grumbled as he took a seat across from Flik. "For your information, it's a flag."
Racqel sits down next to her brother. "A flag?"
"Yup. A flag to represents our fort." Viktor said with pride. "You know how the City-State has a flag, and the Matilda Knights, even Highland has their own flag." He puffed his chest up. "So I figure we should have one."
"Why should we have our own flag?" Flik looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "We're working for the City-State right now. Shouldn't we be flying their flag?"
"We're mercenaries." Viktor reminded him. "We are our own army, so we should have our own flag to show who we are."
Racqel looks at Viktor with a smirk. "I thought mercenaries go where the money goes." The bear-man's reply was to stick out his tongue out at her.
"So mature Viktor." Leona said as she come up with a tray full of sandwiches and three mugs of ale. She set the try down in the middle of the table.
Viktor picks up one of the sandwiches to take a peek in it. "Let's see what we got." There was a thin layer of mustard on the bottom bread, thin layer of mayonnaise on the top bread, and an extremely thin slice of mystery meat in the middle. He looked back up at Leona, his face seem to say 'you got to be kidding'.
"Don't give me that look." Leona snapped at him. "It's all we got left. And no, I don't know what kind of meat is. Frankly I don't think I really want to."
"Fine, but is this really ale right?" Viktor asked hopefully.
"Yeah, it's really ale." Leona sighed.
"Should we really be drinking this early in the day?" Racqel asked as she takes one of the sandwiches and sniffs it before taking a bite. As she munches on the bit, her face seemed to take on a slight disgusted look. "Um…it's good." She said after swallowing hard.
"You don't need to lie. I know it's bad." Leona replied. "The men said that the ale takes most of the taste out of the sandwich."
"Besides, if you drunk enough, you wouldn't want to eat anyway. There would be a fear that it would all come back up again." Viktor raised his glass to Leona before taking a drink.
"Who would want to taste this a second time?" Flik asked as he munched on his sandwich.
"I have to admit, the good thing about the war was that it was bring in potch." Leona said while she took a sandwich off the tray. "We were eating well while it was going on." She takes a bite and her face turns green. "Oh my…that really is bad. Oh…excuse me." Leona holds her hand over her mouth as she quickly walks back to the kitchen area.
Racqel, Viktor, and Flik stifle a laugh at poor Leona's expense before going back to choking down their lunch. They just started eating again when the front door of the fort flies open and slams against the wall.
"Vik! Vik!" Pohl shouted as he comes running in. His feet were muddy from outside. "Vik, you're not going to believe this." He comes to a sliding stop at the table and leans on it to catch his breath.
"What is it?" Viktor asked as he chewed on another bite of sandwich.
"The war…the war is on again." Pohl panted. "The peace treaty has been broken."
"What!" Viktor choked on the bite.
Racqel began hitting his back as hard as she could. Flik's eyes grew wide when he realized the direction the piece of sandwich was going to go. When Racqel gave a final good whack to Viktor's back, Flik ducked under the table in time to have the piece fly over his head and hit the wall behind him. When it was over, Flik peeked over the top of the table to make sure it was safe enough to sit up again.
Viktor looks over at Pohl after guzzling his mug of ale. "You're kidding aren't you? How do you know about this?"
"This." Pohl held up a ripped open envelope and a letter that was messily stuffed back into it. "I…uh…took the liberty of reading it for you. Fitcher, Annabelle's number one messenger, delivered it. You know how fast his legs can be."
"Oh yes." Flik nodded. "Especially when he's running away from something."
"Anyway, Annabelle says that Highland has reinstated the war because we broke the treaty." Pohl went to hand the letter to Viktor, but Flik takes it from him instead.
"We broke the treaty!" Viktor asked Pohl in shock. "How did we do that?"
"According to the letter, the City-State ambushed one of the Highland's units." Flik's eyes moved as he reads the letter. They widen when they got to a certain point. "Oh, it worse than that." He groaned. "According to the letter, the City-State is accused of killing Highland's Unicorn Youth Brigade."
"Killing the Youth Brigade!" Racqel exclaimed with shock. "Why would we go and kill children? Nobody is that heartless."
"Well somebody is, cause their all dead…wait a minute, all except two boys." Flik's eyes continued to move along down the letter. "Seem that the two boys that survived are City-State spies. It was they that set up the attack."
"Annabelle didn't send any boys to spy on the Highland army…did they?" Racqel looked at Viktor.
"Of course not." Viktor crossed his wrist in front of him and shook his head. "No way she would send children out to do such a dangerous job."
"There's no description of who the boys are in the letter," Flik reads the letter again, "but I have a feeling that the kid upstairs might know a thing or two." He handed the letter to Viktor and gets up from the table.
"Where are you going?" Racqel asked as she watched him go to the stairs.
"To see if the kid is awake or not." Flik answered.
"But we only left them about maybe an hour ago." Racqel told Flik. He stops on the first step and looks over at her. "Tuta says the kid won't be up for longer than that."
"So we'll have to break out the smelling salts or something." Flik replied. "If that kid has information about any of this, we need to know about it as soon as possible." He goes up the stairs.
After reading the letter, Viktor stuffs it back in the envelope, gets up from the table and jogs up the stairs after Flik.
Racqel also gets up from the table and follows him. "I take it you agree with Flik."
"He has a point." Viktor said. "Anything that is useful could be helpful." He reached the top of the stairs just as Flik was about to enter the infirmary.
"Well you better let Flik do all the talking." Racqel told her older brother when she got to the top of the stairs. "If we let you talk to the kid again, he might not wake up after the second knockout."
"She has a point." Flik joshed as he entered the infirmary.
Viktor waves a hand at Flik's backside. "Yeah, yeah." He followed in after Flik and Racqel enters after him.
"Sir Flik." Tuta jumped to attention. "The new guy isn't up yet."
"I know." Flik waved for Tuta to be at ease. "But the kid needs to wake up now. Do we have anything that will make him come to?"
"I think so." Tuta runs over to his medical back and brings out a bottle of oddly colored liquid. "It's the newest thing now, better than smelling salts. Can bring anybody out of anything from what I hear." He handed the bottle to Flik. "The stuff is pretty strong, so be careful."
Flik nods. "Right." He goes over to Justin, grabs the collar of the boy's shirt and pops the top of the bottle off with his thumb. "Ok kiddo, now it's…. Whoa!" Flik waves it under the boy's nose, but gets a good whiff of what came out of the bottle at the same time. The smell was as strong as vinegar and twice as bad as week old trashed mixed with manure. "Oh Runes!" It also didn't help that his extra sensitive nose made it smell three times as worse than it would for someone with a regular sense. As he coughed at the smell, Flik lost hold of both Justin's front and the bottle.
"By the Runes!" Viktor choked as he dives for the bottle. "The last thing we need it for it to stink up the whole fort" He managed to catch the bottle before it hit the ground. Holding his breath, Viktor gets to his feet and puts his palm over the top of the bottle to lessen the smell. "Find the top to this thing will ya?"
"Hang on." Racqel replied as she bent down to picked up the top and goes to put it back on the bottle.
Flik stops her from before she does so. "No wait." He pulled his cape up over his nose. "Viktor, you just keep your hand over that bottle. Racqel, give me the bottle top." Racqel hands the top over to Flik and he waves it under Justin's nose. "Come on." Flik said to the boy. "Time to wake up." Justin just lies there, so Flik holds it under the boy's nose. Still no moment. "Geez. This stuff is enough to wake the dead. So how come this boy is still just lying there?" He looked over to Tuta for an answer.
Tuta shrugged. "I told you that it was new."
"Oook…" Flik sighed. He breathes through his mouth so he could drop his cape from his nose. "Come on kid." Flik continued to wave the bottle top under Justin's nose with one hand and with the other one, lightly smacks the boy's cheeks.
Tuta looks at Racqel. "You don't think he's suffering like Sir Jason is, do you?"
Racqel shakes her head. "I don't think so." She shoots a look over at her brother. "I think Viktor really doesn't know his strength."
"Oh sure, blame me." Viktor retorted as he threw hands up in the air, causing some of the liquid to splash out of the bottle.
"Hey, watch it!" Racqel exclaimed as she jump away from him. "I don't want any of that spilled on me."
"By the Runes, will whatever died in here please be gotten rid of?" Somebody groaned. "It's enough to make pigs choke." Everyone looks over to where the voice is coming from and sees Jason sitting up on his knees, holding his nose.
Racqel clasps her cheeks with her hands. "Oh wow."
Flik looks over at his brother with smile of relief and happiness on his face. Viktor gives a hardy laugh of delight as he brought his hands down and puts a thumb over the top of the bottle to hold in the smell.
Racqel excitedly she makes for the young man in red's bedside. "Jason, you awake!" But stops just short of it with a sudden questioning/worried look. "You…you are Jason aren't you? Not Moroku?"
"Moroku?" Jason looked at her with surprise. "What are you talking…about…? Oh yeah." A smile came on to his face and he shakes his head while he chuckled a bit. "I know what you're talking about now. Nah, it's me, I'm back."
"That's great." Racqel finishes going over to him and throws her arms around his neck. "I was so worried about you." She gave him a kiss on the cheek.
"Well we know the stuff works on somebody." Flik said while holding his nose again. "Not exactly the person we were aiming for, but good enough."
"Glad to know that you cared." Jason replied sarcastically to Flik. He gets off the bed and stands next to Racqel. "Well, um…I see that you are busy and that stuff is giving me a headache, so…"
"Let's go for a walk." Racqel said as she grabbed his arm and pulls him towards the door. "There still the tour of the fort I need to give you."
"Sure." Jason nodded while Racqel led him out of the room. As they pass by Viktor, the big man holds up his free hand and Jason clasps it with his own free hand.
"Good to see you back to your senses." Viktor told Jason as they squeeze hands.
"Glad to be back." Jason replied as the two men let go. Jason leaves with Racqel, while Flik and Viktor stay to deal with the young boy. "Before we go on that tour," Jason looks Racqel over, "why don't we get you some new clothes."
"But…we don't have any potch to spare for any." Racqel answered timidly.
"Well I have potch to use." Jason told her. "The thing about being a monk was that people pay to show their gratitude." He let out a sigh. "Moroku was a pig, but a good monk. A lot of people asked for his services, so I was able to make a lot of money along the way."
Racqel looks at Jason with a smirk. "But I thought monks weren't suppose to take money for their services." Jason looks away from her, whistling an unrecognized tune. Racqel lets out a little laugh. "Well, your bag is this way. I'm assuming that that's where you were keeping your money." Jason nods and Racqel leads him to the Meeting Room.
Jason's pack, which held Racqel's book of Herbology and her flute, sat in a wooden closet in the right far corner of the room. Racqel opens the closet so Jason could take the pack out. He rummages through it and pulls out a large roll of potch. Racqel's eyes grew wide as she saw how much he had. "That's an awful lot of gratitude." She managed to choke out.
"Funny how happy people get when you get rid of a demon or two from their house." Jason chuckled. "Or save a village from having to sacrifice their children to an deity that stepped over the line." He takes a small pouch out from the pack before putting it back into the closet. "Think we could go to Muse for a little shopping?" Jason asked while he put the potch into the pouch and hooked into his belt. "I hear that it has some nice armor."
"Uh…yeah, sure." Racqel nodded. "But…I think your going to have to apologize to Apollo. In fact you may have to apologize a lot to him."
"What for…oh yeah." Jason rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. "Maybe if I promise him something, he might forgive me."
"You can only hope." Racqel replied as she led the way out of the meeting room.
"Hey, before we go. Can I have my monk staff back?" Jason asked as they get to the hallway. Racqel looks at him with confusion. "The year I spent with the monks, I learned how to use the monk staff like a Bo staff. Even learned some martial arts." Jason explained. "Besides, I lost my sword. So I need something to fight those creatures out there until I get another sword. Then the staff will become my secondary weapon." Racqel nods in acknowledgement before going over to the room she shared with Viktor. She disappears into the room and comes back out with her weapons and Jason's staff. "Thanks." Jason said as he took his staff from her. The two of them go down stairs to find their animal friends and ride off to Muse City for some clothes shopping.
Meanwhile back in the infirmary…Flik was still trying to get Justin to come to. "Obviously the top isn't going to do it." He sighed and hands the bottle top over to Tuta. "Viktor, bring that bottle over here. We'll have to try that again."
Viktor lets out a sigh and comes over to Justin's bedside. Flik grabs his nose again with his cape while Viktor holds the bottle under Justin's nose. When the blue man gave the signal, the bear-man lifts his thumb off the top of the bottle. The smell reeks out and floats under the boy's nose…along with floating around the rest of the room.
"Come on kid. If this don't work, I swear I'll submerge you head in a tub of ice cold water." Flik threatened.
"Sir Flik, you wouldn't!" Tuta said with shock. "I can't let you." He rushed over to push Flik away from Justin.
"Relax." Viktor told Tuta. "Flik is just getting a little frustrated that all." He turned to Flik. "Why not give this…stuff a chance." They wait a bit more.
"Oh…good runes…" Justin moaned. "Not laundry duty again." He moved his head away from the bottle. "Captain Rowd have mercy, at the least give me a clothes pin for my nose." Justin shakes his head as he slowly opens his eyes. "Uh…" He looked around to see Viktor and Flik's face almost in his. "What the…!" Justin jumped to his feet on the bed. "Who are you…? Where am I?" He pressed his back to the wall that was behind the bed.
"I'm the guy who fished you out of the river." Viktor told Justin sternly. He hands the bottle back to Tuta, who puts the top back on and puts it way into his bag. "As to where you are at, you are at the mercenary fort currently under employment of the City-State of Jowston."
"A City-State fort!" The color in Justin's face drained way. "It was you're guys' fault. You are to blame."
Flik drops the end of his cape. "Blame for what?"
"You're country killed my friends." Justin cried out with fright. "You with your rotten spies!" His tone turns nasty. "You slipped in at the dead of night into the mountains back in Highland and cornered us in the woods." Now he yelled at them with anger. "You slaughtered all my friends." Angry tears streamed down his face.
"What are you talking about?" Flik asked.
"The City-State has honored the peace treat that was signed months ago." Viktor retorted as he got into Justin's face. Panicked, Justin presses himself further against the wall. "We would never think about trying to break it. And even if we did, we wouldn't be cruel enough to kill a bunch of kids."
"That's right." Flik added while he pulls Viktor back from the boy. "Nobody is that heartless."
Justin, though still pressed against the wall, relaxes a little. "It…it wasn't you?" Now he was confused. "Really? It wasn't you?" The two men nodded. "But…I could have sworn…wait…" Justin closed his eyes as he puts his hands up to the temples of his head and starts to rub them. "No…you're right, it wasn't you. It wasn't the City-State. But then who was it?"
"Well, we were going to ask you where you came from, but it seems you already answered that question." Viktor answered.
"So now we were hoping you'd tell us what happen last night." Flik said. "We just got a note that said the Highland Unicorn Brigade was killed at that time and that the City-State was accused of the crime."
"I really don't remember." Justin shakes his head, trying to remember. "Jowy…Jowy would know." He opened his eyes and look around the room. "Where is he?"
"Sorry kid." Flik sighed. "I couldn't grab him in time. He floated down the river and out of sight."
"Jowy…" Justin mumbled. "We escaped together."
"Escaped from who?" Flik asked.
"Not really sure…" Justin drops his hands from his temples. "I think we were running away from our own country. Really don't know why though." He shook his head sadly.
"Well, I am sorry for your loss." Viktor told Justin sympathetically. "But you are the enemy and I'm afraid we're going to have to treat you like we would with any other prisoner." He takes hold of Justin's collar and pulls the boy off the bed. "Come with me." He led the boy out of the infirmary and down the stair to the first floor.
Tuta was about to protest, but Flik stops him. He looks at the man in blue. "But Sir Flik…"
"Viktor has a point." Flik told him. "The boy is an enemy and as such, we must treat him like one." Tuta let out a sigh and slowly nods in agreement.
Viktor leads Justin down another set of stairs to the basement and over to the jail cell. "I know it's not very comfortable, but you are a prisoner and we're really not an inn." The big man said as he opened the door to the cell and pushes Justin in. "It'll be a cold night, so bundle up." He closed the door to the cell and walks away.
"We'll this is just great." Justin muttered to himself. He goes over to the box bed, sits cross-legged on them, folds his arms, and bows his head. "My unit is dead, my best friend is missing, and now I'm being house in an enemy fort. Talk about fall out of the pot into the fire." Justin lifted his head to look up at the ceiling. "Worse than that, I think it was my own country who kill my friends and I don't know why." The young boy let out a sad sigh before flopping back on the box bed and tucks his arms underneath his head to continue staring at the ceiling. "I just hope Nanami can keep herself safe enough till I can get back to her."