I don't own anything from Danball Senki/W/WARS
Do review! (Is it really that hard to simply type a few words and hit a button?)
Jin stared at Muraku with both hateful and sad eyes. "Muraku…did you know?"
"Not until just now." Muraku cracked out.
"Hmph, I don't care how long you've known. Come back to me Muraku. I want you by my side when I get my revenge on Yoshimtisu Kaidou." The queen extended her hand. Behind her, Reika was creeping over to her with her sword in her hands but stopped when Muraku lifted his head and shook his head subtly, gesturing towards Jin and the girls. Reika nodded and went back into the shadows.
"…If I agree to go to you, you have to spare Jin and the girls." Muraku told his birth mother.
"No can do." Queen Kinako scowled. "I'm not giving you a choice on this."
"What kind of a mother are you!?" Yuno demanded. "You sent your own son away to be used as a tool for revenge and when you want him back, you won't fulfil his only request!"
"Do you think that it was easy for me to send him away!?" Queen Kinako shot back fiercely. "I would never have sent him away if it meant that he would be in danger. Thankfully, Yoshimitsu Kaidou was too engross with molding his other grandson into the perfect heir that he never recognized him. As for his request, I cannot fulfil it because it will cost me my one and only chance at revenge at Yoshimtisu Kaidou and I will never be satisfied until he watches all of his plans and schemes crumble before he dies!"
Yuno and Hana could only shake their heads in disgust while Jin glared at Muraku. Muraku on the other hand, stood firm. "If you don't want to comply, fine. I'll just leave now since you already have Mia to keep you company."
"Like I said, I'm not giving a choice on this matter." Queen Kinako said in a low voice and flicked her arm in a random direction only for Reika to howl in pain and fall out of her hiding spot with a knife prodding out of her chest and what remained of her flute in her hands.
"Reika!" Muraku rushed to her side and pulled out the knife. Upon closer inspection, the flute was damaged due to the knife and it was not imbedded deeply in her and missed her heart. But he can still tell that it will be dangerous if she did not receive help in time.
"Did you really think that you can hide from me?" Queen Kinako smirked at her. "I knew that you would come back here the moment you sent the Wecastian soldiers away. Without your flute, there is no way you can help them escape."
"No." Reika groaned as Muraku steadied her and pressed a section of her cloak at it. "I don't think you actually know this, but the key is not the flute."
"What?" Queen Kinako frowned.
Reika responded by raising two fingers to her lips and whistled out a small tune. Almost immediately, the wind began to pick up and blew away Bandit and Seredy. Even Queen Kinako had trouble staying on her feet.
"Come on." Muraku supported Reika and pulled Jin's hand away, with Yuno and Hana following behind them.
When the wind died down, they were already gone from the clearing. Queen Kinako roared and turned to Seredy. "Send your men out to find them! They could not have gotten far!"
"A-as you wish." Seredy bowed and quickly left with his men before they could incur the wrath of an angry Queen Kinako.
As soon as Muraku deemed that it was safe, he stopped and allowed Reika to sink onto the ground, leaning against a tree.
"You never said that the melody of your tunes were the key in all this transportation business." Muraku panted out with a small grin as he checked her injuries.
"You never asked. By the way, not everyone can do it. It took me years just to be able to whistle out that tune without any help of a flute. I only use it to stabilize the tunes. But I like to make others into thinking that it is what makes the teleportation happen so that they won't be able to find out the truth." Reika groaned out. Hana dropped beside her and motioned for Muraku to let her take over. Muraku nodded and turned to Yuno and Jin. The former was trying to talk to the latter but he kept on ignoring her in favor of glaring at him.
Hana flicked her eyes at him and signed, 'Give him some time. He has a lot to take in.'
Muraku signed but relented. "Alright."
"By the way, the queen will find us sooner or later even if we can move." Reika forced out. "Are you sure that you can talk her out of killing that guy?"
"I'm not sure anymore." Muraku admitted. "She's a psychopath. She doesn't care about anything other than revenge."
"That may not be entirely true." Yuno said, coming up to them. "I can tell that she does care about you. And I only saw Mia once but the way she was so happy told me that her mother loves her very much and she supports her ambitions wholeheartedly and willingly."
"But she has a very funny way of showing it." Muraku sighed.
"Maybe you should show that you want to support her ambitions." Reika suggests out of the blue.
"What?" Muraku shot her an incredulous look. "Why would I want to do that!?"
"It's what you told me when we first met." Reika reminded him with a deadpan look. She cleared her throat and mimicked Muraku's voice. "I want to stop Yoshimitsu Kaidou and bring him to justice."
"Revenge and justice are two different things." Yuno explained patiently, much to Muraku's relief.
Reika blinked in surprise. "They're not the same?"
"No." Yuno and Muraku shook their heads.
Hana paused in thought and once she was done treating Reika, she turned to Muraku. 'I think you should do as what she said. If you do, then she may be more willing to let us go.'
"I think she has a point." Yuno nodded in agreement. "She may have been too angry just now to listen to you. You should also explain why and how important Jin is to you. Maybe she'll throw away the whole idea of revenge."
There was a moment of silence as Muraku mulled over their words. Finally he nodded. "It may be worth the try." He glanced around and noticed that Jin was not around. "Where's Jin?"
Yuno gave him a sad smile at that. "He blew me off and stormed off towards the lake we passed by just now. I think he is overwhelmed more by the fact that Yoshimitsu Kaidou does not care one bit for him than that the queen who is sworn to kill him and his grandfather is your mother."
'He knew.' Hana signed with a sad look. 'He knew all along but the way the queen told him hit him hard. I told him the same thing over and over but he didn't take it to heart.'
"You only said what was on the surface. The queen told him the full reason why." Muraku said softly. "I'm going to try to talk to him."
He was about to get up when Hana placed a hand on his shoulder, stopping him.
'Wait, let me go. He'll listen to me more than he would to you right now. Don't worry, once he calms down, I'm sure that he'll want to talk to you again.'
"Are you sure?"
Hana nodded and signed at Yuno. 'If Bandit and the queen arrives before we get back, run away and don't look for us. But shout as loud as you can to let us know.'
Yuno did not like the idea but nodded nevertheless. Hana got up and went over to the spot Yuno said that Jin stormed off to. She soon came across him throwing stones into the lake with a frustrated growl. Hana simply sat down at the spot beside him and waited for him to notice her.
"Grandfather…why did you betray me!?" Jin yelled as he threw another stone into the lake. "You took me in only to turn me into your puppet! You never cared for me…" He trailed off when he finally noticed Hana. "When did you get here?"
'Just now.' She signed. 'I figured that you'll want to blow off some steam so I told the others to leave you alone for the time being.'
Jin grunted and sat down beside her. "I don't know what I should do now or whether I should go back to the palace."
Hana let out a small hum and stared at the lake. 'It's so beautiful here.'
"I guess." Jin grunted.
'Stop letting your worries prevent you from seeing the beauty of this area.' Hana chided softly. 'It may calm your mind.'
"Are you speaking from experience?" Jin frowned at her. At her nod, he glanced at her and saw the reminiscing smile on her face and deduced that she was referring to her time when she was with Aidara.
'Jin, I know that I'm pushing you away and it's hurting you. But it's not because I hate you.' Hana suddenly signed. 'In fact, I just realized that I still love you even after all these years and I was afraid to face it because of what I am now. But at the same time, I don't want to repeat the same mistakes we did five years ago. Even though when you found out about my affiliations with Aidara, you still said that you love me. But that only covered the problem instead of solving it. We still hated each other for our positions under the surface. That's why things went downhill and it became worse when Bandit captured me. So until we can clear up our feelings, let's just stay friends.'
"Friends?" Jin frowned.
'Yeah. But don't worry, it won't be forever.' Hana smiled cheerily at him. 'I just need time to sort out my feelings. But maybe one day when we don't have to worry about your grandfather or the Lambary queen, then I'll be willing to be back by your side for good this time. And no matter what decision you make, I'll be behind you all the way because I know that you are not your grandfather's puppet but Jin Kaidou, your own person.'
"…Thank you Hana." Jin whispered tearfully and pulled her into a hug. Unlike many times before, Hana slowly returned the hug and rested her head on his shoulders.
"Hana! Jin! Run!"
The both of them pulled away and jumped on their feet. "Yuno!" Jin jumped to his feet.
Hana however grabbed his hand. 'I told Yuno to yell for us if Bandit appear while they get away. We'll go in a separate direction and catch up with them so that Bandit can't catch all of us at once. Come on.' She quickly signed.
"Good point." Jin reluctantly admitted. "Come on. We better put some distance before they come here."
Hana nodded and allowed Jin to guide her through the forest while hoping that Seredy would not find them.