What is this brightness? It blinding our eyes.

Slowly, it faded. There's three people standing in front of Tatenashi-san and I.

Who are they?

"Onee-chan, Zane-san, Crime Sorciere has came to your aid!" Kanzashi-chan told us through telepathy.

"Yo, I've come to pay your so-called debt." a recognizable voice spoke.

"Ceh, you're late, Jellal." I smirked.

"You guys okay?" Meldy asked.

"I'm fine, but I don't know that about Zane-kun." Tatenashi-san looked at me while she was holding me.

"I'm alright, now let's get out of here." I grunted in pain.

"Trying to run away from a pirate ship? Think again!" An old man voice is heard.

"Who's there?" The thrid person who came to our aid spoke. I haven't looked closely at him yet. So far, Crime Sorciere only has Jellal and Meldy and the rest of the Oracion Seis members.

"Huh, don't tell me your Doranbolt?"

"What? You didn't recognize me until now?" Doranbolt was astonished. Guess I disappointed him.

"So what's the plan now?" Meldy asked.

"Escape."

"You all have some nerve to come to my ship, I shall reward you with your demise!" The old man finally showed his face. He was standing on the second floor of this room, with even more people surrounding him. He had an eyepatch, a blue bandana wrapped on top of his head and a scar across his face. Guess he is the boss of Bombard. Why does all big bosses has scars on their faces?

Anyway, back to the situation, we are at a disadvantage here. We were totally surrounded by these guys and the worst case is my little sister, Kazuha is with them. I'm still confused about it. Why would they let her work for them? Aren't they trying to kill all of us?

"Kanzashi-chan, what's on the bottom of our feet?" I asked Kanzashi-chan through telepathy out of curiousity.

"Sea water. You guys are in a deeper part of the ship, which the bottom touched the water surface. Wait... Don't tell me you're going to escape from there?"

"Good guess, thanks. Tatenashi-san you heard that?"

"Of course I did. But how are you going to do it? There's just too many people here."

"Everyone! Kill these intruders! Leave no one alive!" Their head commanded.

Everyone charged at us. Seems like all of them are mages. Just how many Bounty Hunters are there in Bombard? These guys are at a higher level than the grunts we were facing. Jellal, Meldy and Doranbolt started fighthing back.

"We should go too, Zane-kun!" Tatenashi-san said. I nodded.

I mustered up my strength and stood back up. I was able to move around but not too vigorously.

"Roar of Water Dragon!" Tatenashi-san blasted some of them away to clear a a path for me.

"Seiun Sword Style: Full Moon Strike!" I finished off the leftovers Tatenashi-san left.

One of the guy used Guns Magic and tried to shoot me. I reacted by creating a shield.

My shield was gone the next moment!?

"Watch out!" Tatenashi-san covered me with a water wall.

My magic just now didn't explode. So it wasn't Neo's doing. Then, who did this? Who erased my magic?

Then I sensed something behind me. I turned around, only to see a big wave icicles coming at me. It was my own magic attacking me?

It was her... Kazuha did it.

I couldn't eat my own ice so I just sliced every icicle. We had to get out of here now!

"Tatenashi-san, we need to regroup!" I told her through telepathy.

"Everyone, come back!" I shouted. Everyone heard me and started to regroup. Kazuha heard that and created pillars of ice to slow everyone down.

"Damn it, you made me do this!" I was getting agitated by her actions.

"Ice Make: Arrows, then... Laser Shot!" I created a big bow and load it with arrows. Then, I channeled my flames to the tip of the arrows and shot it like a laser beam. That shot down most of the walls in an instant. Seems like my fames are a little more effective against her ice.

Somehow, Kazuha didn't counterattack.

We all regrouped to a corner, facing all their lackeys.

"Thanks, so what's your plan now?" Jellal asked.

"Tatenashi-san, make a water force field and buy me 20 seconds!"

"Okay!" A big force field surrounded us. It was slowly freezing. Kazuha was trying to freeze but the water currents are too fast to be frozen in one place. Tatenashi-san can't hold it anymore, I have to be fast!

"Water Glacier Dragon Mode! Then, Ice Make: Drill!" I made a drill and charged it with my flames and water. It created enough penetrating power and crushed the floor below us. The powerful water jets helped in penetrating the floor. When the wood planks smashed, water started leaking into the ship.

"You bastard! How dare you sink my ship!" The boss yelled.

Everyone began attacking us. Meldy, Tatenashi-san and Jellal was doing a great job stopping them. But, they can't stop all of their attacks. Now's the vance to get out!

"Jump down now!" I said and made a big ice shield to protect them from attacks. Tatenashi-san created a big bubble to allow everyone to breath underwater.

Within seconds, the ice shield exploded.

Everyone jumped down into the bubble. I followed them and left the floor with a big hole bursting with water. Seconds later, the hole was sealed by ice. Thankfully I'm already out of the ship by that time.

In the big bubble, we were able to breath and moved quickly underwater heading for the shore. When we reached the shore, there were men chasing us.

"Jellal, Doranbolt, take Meldy and Tatenashi-san out of here!"

"What about you?"

"I'll be right at your back." I smirked.

Jellal carried Meldy and dashed off with his Meteor. Doranbolt grabbed Tatenashi-san and vanished.

They surrounded me.

"Mhahahaha! You can't escape now!" One of them laughed.

"Bye and I'll be back." The next moment, I vanished. Their legs and the sand was frozen, stopping their movements. Some of them were knocked back too in an instant.

Jellal and the others made it back to where Kanzashi-chan and Mom are.

"Where's Zane-san?" Kanzashi-chan asked.

"I don't know, that idiot! Where did he go?" Tatenashi-san started pouting.

"Am I the idiot you're mentioning?"

I showed up.

Tatenashi-san turned around and saw me. The next second, she was hugging me.

"You're an idiot for trying to buy us time while you're the one who has the most injury! So, how did you escape?"

"Heh, I mastered how to propelled myself and fly around with my flames as a thruster. I could go fast enough to make people thought I was teleporting."

"So that's you been training to do the whole time! You always went off to somewhere and come back with scratches and bruises for the past few weeks."

"Smart girl." I patted her head as a reward.

"So what happened in there?" Mom asked.

"Woah?! Who's this woman?" Jellal freaked out when Mom showed up behind Kanzashi-chan.

"She's my mother, her name's Misaki."

"Ohh, hi there, Zane's friends. Nice to meet you. Thank you for taking care of Zane every time." she bowed down and greeted them.

"Mom, the blue hair is Jellal, former Ten Wizard Saint. The pink haired girl is Meldy while the black hair guy is Doranbolt, a Council member." I introduced them.

"Wow! Zane has so many friends!"

"I know right? It's so unexpected to see Zane-kun, the unsociable guy get so many friends. This onee-san is jealous too."

Out of tiredness, I sat on the floor as I felt powerless and weak. The stab wound in my stomach was hurting me too.

"Anyway! We have to treat everyone's wounds!" Kanzashi-chan blurted out, looking worried while flailing her hands around.

While we were treating each other's wounds, we explained what happened in Bombard's ship. We moved away and retuned to the town and stayed in a motel in the town for a while to hide ourselves. Hope we can buy enough time to recover before we were found out by Bombard. The sakura trees stopped blooming for a while and there were less sakura than the time we first arrived the island. Till now I still don't understand how a tree can render me useless...

"Kazuha is with them? She's alive?!" Mom started to tear up, looking worried but happy for her daughter's survival.

"Yeah, but I will save her next time, for sure."

"Ok ok, but first get some rest now. Your as weak as a twig now." Tatenashi-san tried to push me to the bed.

"Wait, I'm fine now! Just let me stay up a little more." I grabbed her and stopped her actions.

"Fine."

"Anyway, how many Bounty Hunters are there in Bombard?" I asked.

"We haven't confirmed anything. So far from the reports in Council, they have seen only five including the head of Bombard. There is Jackson, the one you guys sent in, Seraph, Neo, Kazuha and Orage, the head of Bombard." Doranbolt said.

"So what's our next move? We can't stay here for a long time." Jellal asked.

"With this many people on our side, Kanzashi-chan can act as our monitor, we will storm into Bombard once more. But this time, we'll tear the group down!"

"Huh?! Are you crazy? Bombard is almost as strong as a guild full of S-rank mages!"

"We took down Extort with almost the same amount of people too. This time, we'll make it work too."

"I'm going with you all, I can fight too!" Mom stood up.

"You can't. They want to kill us now, and you don't even know how to use magic, how are you going to protect yourself?"

"It is the truth. I'm weak, because I'm weak, I can't protect Kazuha. But still, I want to help everyone, I want to save Kazuha, even I knew she won't forgive me. I want my daughter back!"

"But…." I'm still against it.

"Don't worry, this onee-san will protect her. I will just stay at the rear and give support. I could attack from a wide range."

"The it's decided. We Crime Sorciere will help you guys too." Jellal agreed to join the battle.

"Thanks, we need all the help we can get." I thank him.

"How did everyone get back up so quick? It's not certain we'll win this fight." Kanzashi-chan was thinking out loud accidentally without noticing.

"That's because... There's this onee-san!" She stood out and puffed her chest.

Kanzashi-chan was shocked. The rest of us were frowning from her answer. Mom was sitting at a corner smiling.

"Just joking. Everyone has their own resolve. That is the most important. Carrying a resolve that you must accomplish gives you strength. For example, Zane-kun and Mom wants to save Kazuha-chan: I just want to help Zane-kun; Jellal and Meldy wants to banish Bombard, and Doranbolt-san... Um what's his intention again?"

"I'm just helping out too. And also, I want to clear Bombard to prevent anymore evil doings."

"There you have it." she tilted her head to the right and smiled.

"Everyone is so strong….."

"Kanzashi-chan is strong too. You hold out the telepathy system longer than I thought you could."

That got back Kanzashi-chan smiling and even more determined.

Tatenashi-san is really a good sister. She could handle any problems calmly. That's what I like about her too.

"Ohh yeah. I found out something weird. These Bombard guys might be scared of the Icecrafters' powers."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"When Tatenashi-san and I fought against Neo and Seraph clones, I set up a wall in between them to prevent them from working together. They didn't destroy that wall. Same goes for Jackson. He could have free himself from the ice cuffs but he didn't."

"Than explains why Seraph didn't ran away to get help when I was stuck in his illusions. You froze the whole room."

"Then we have our advantage here, with two Icecrafters on our side." Doranbolt said.

"No, the fact doesn't help out much. They're pretty strong too. Plus, they know how to work with each other, they're not lone wolves."

"Okay now, everyone head to bed! Enough with overflying your brains to defeat them!" Tatenashi-san suddenly called out, clapping her hands. Everyone head back to their own rooms. Jellal and Doranbolt shared a room, Kanzashi-chan and Meldy shared another room, so that leaves me with Tatenashi-san and Mom?

Back in Bombard...

"Kazuha, why did you let him go?" Orage spoke.

"I didn't, he undid my ice at the last second. He's stronger than I expected."

"I don't allow excuses, you will have to take out those Icecrafters with your own hands, since they know our existence, we can't catch them off guard. You're the only one who can take take them down, understand?"

Kazuha shuddered as Orage gave her a stern look. She hesitated for a while, then replied:

"I understand." She said and left the room.

She entered another room after a walk. Probably her own room. She sat down on the floor, leaning against the wall. She took out her necklace and looked at it.

"Onii-san... Mom…"

She he;d the necklace tightly, with a face full of pain and sadness. She was confused about what to do.

The next day...

"Okay everyone, ready to go?!" Tatenashi-san asked.

"Yup." we gave her a reply.

My wounds didn't healed completely, but at least I can still move around. It definitely sucks to be the one with the most injuries.

Suddenly, Gabriel called me. I summoned her out. Unexpectedly, Tatenashi-san summoned Diana too.

"Zane-sama! Remember to use me too!"

"Woi! Don't say things that are easy to misunderstand." I was shocked to hear her random babbles.

"Er... I mean battles. You never called me out to help you. Am I not good enough?"

"She's right. Tatenashi-sama, it seems like you two tend to get so focused in your fight you forgot our existence." Diana said. She was right.

Gabriel started giving me a sad dog look. Now she's learning stuff from Tatenashi-san?

"You're strong. It's...just….that.."

"You forgot her right?" Tatenashi-san gave some 'help'.

"Hey you! Zane-sama will never forget me okay? Right, Zane-sama?"

"Err... yes of course!" I quickly gave a response.

"Gabriel, I'm sorry I didn't use your help. I promise, I will ask you to help me out this time. Will you help me?"

"No! Not just this time, it's forever!"

"Okay okay."

"Everyone, we don't have much time!"

"Chill, Kanzashi-chan's scooping out thier location. How are we supposed to reach there if we don't know where is it." I said.

Kanzashi-chan was hiding her face behind those screens. How can she monitor three screens at once? That girl is amazing.

She located the ship. It's in the middle of the sea?

"Ara... Don't tell me they are scared of Zane-kun?" Tatenashi-san smirked.

"No, they must have set a trap. That's pretty obvious."

"So how do we get to there?"

"Hmmm. Maybe I have a way." I suggested.