Thousands of small, transparent souls gathered on the shore under the shadow of the iceberg. Horohoro stared in surprise when he saw where they were coming from. The blocks began to lose their rectangular form and grew tails, paws and noses. They squeaked together in a random chorus with no harmony, bringing the news of their master's defeat.
"This pack of mice souls was the blocks' true identity. He was manipulating them with his oversoul." Horohoro gazed at them sadly. "Blocken was a really sinister guy. Hao's gang is made up of weirdoes." He heard a grunt from behind him. The Ice Men were stirring. "And now, what am I going to do with the Ice Men?" He questioned himself. "Faust will heal them. But I am too exhausted to carry them."
Bill sat up with smile. He will finish the job that he started. Blocken couldn't do it. Bill looked over at the iceberg. It will melt evetually. Days perhaps. If Kaia was here... He muffled a chuckle. He hoped she wouldn't come. She was in no position to travel all that way just for them.
Kaia panted hard as she took heavier, shorter steps and held herself up on her staff. Turbine looked back and sighed. He bent down at her feet, wrapped his arm around her legs and lifted her up onto his shoulder. He carried her over his shoulder, humiliating her in front of Zang-Ching and Peyote, unintentionally.
"Don't take it so hard, Kaia. Your health is not to be gambled on." Turbine told her as they walked through the forest. Peyote laughed through his bandana.
"Oh, stuff it Turbine. She'll make it okay. After all, Blocken did train her." He waved his gloved hand at him.
"Blocken's really hard on her, don't you think?" Zang-Ching adjusted his glasses on his nose. "I mean, he insisted that I practically chop her up to increase her furyoku and she was willing to take it."
"I am sorry to have put you both through that." Turbine said to Zang-Ching and Kaia, who was half awake. The swaying motion of Turbine's walk had put her to sleep. "I think Blocken has seen how having a lot of furyoku is beneficial and doesn't want Kaia to be the weakest link. No offense, Kaia."
"Mnah." Kaia mumbled in her sleep.
"The beach is just up ahead." Peyote pointed and half jogged towards it. He disappeared through the wall of trees and onto the shore.
It was hard to see as it was night time when they had set out. Blocken and Bill was expected around noon but they never turned up. Hao was not worried but Zang-Ching was. Peyote only wanted to go to laugh if Bill and Blocken had died. He hated them both. He hated all of them, except Kaia. He wished they would all drop dead and leave them alone. It would probably come down to him killing all of them one day, soon. If only for the sake of being with Kaia. Turbine wanted to go because he had promised to take Kaia on a walk anyways and he was sure she would have wanted to go and check on those two also.
"This is retarded." Zang-Ching frowned as the walked up along the beach. "Since he was late, we started to worry and here we are."
Turbine laid Kaia down on the sand. "So, Peyote. Is he still living?" He asked.
Kaia turned her head toward the cliff where Peyote had bent over, looking down at Bill. "Please be okay." She whispered, sleepily. She didn't want to go to sleep until she was sure both Bill and Blocken were okay. She didn't think she could survive another night knowing that a friend was dead.
"Yes, I think he will survive." Peyote said disappointedly as he turned around to face them. He laughed. "We send him to chase easy souls and this is the state we find him in? Damn, Bill. Isn't he ashamed?"
Bill lay on his back in red sand, stained with his blood. His hair was covered in it, his clothes were drenched in it. A giant red "X" was cut across his chest as he laid, sprawled on the ground. Cut up, beaten, battered and overall bloody, Kaia should be thankful she didn't see what had happened to him while she laid in the sand, sleep calling her.
"After this incident, Bill's power will increase." Turbine said as the night wind blew through his robes and veil. His messy black hair that barely stuck out from under his turbin shifted slightly. It had grew out since the start of this tournament, like Bill's.
"Hmph." Zang-Ching sighed. "He isn't really powerful but he sure can take a good hit. In fact-" Zang-Ching smirked as he turned his gaze to a small figure in the sand. "It's useless to only have furyoku."
Blocken sat on his lego hands and knees, drenched in icy cold water. He panted and sputtered, the water still remained in his lungs. "I underestimated my opponent. If you have time to burn, you should increase your furyoku level."
"Heh. I don't have to take tips from you." Zang-Ching crossed his arms in front of his chest defiantly.
"You should." Kaia muttered.
"You're here too, Kaia?" Blocken asked, surprised and relieved.
"Yeah." She smiled. Her eyelids felt heavy. Now she could rest without any worries.
"And now..." Turbine interrupted. "Would you explain to us what happened here?"
"Ah?" Blocken felt pressured. He had wanted to talk to Kaia longer but it looked like she needed rest and Turbine was a little scary when it involved Kaia.
"In the ice? What did you see when you were trapped in it?" Turbine stared at him with those mystic eyes, outlined by his turbin and veil, adding to his mysteriousness.
Blocken fell back in fear. "Uh..."
"We were aware of the details. But Bill tried to follow his mission and was seriously hurt." Turbine informed him. "Who did this?" He rose his head slightly, his eyes resting on Blocken. "Who evacuated the Ice Men?"
"Don't scare him, Turbine." Kaia pleaded with no avail as Turbine stared Blocken down.
"Eh...well..." Blocken shook nervously as everyone watched him. All this attention, it was too much. "Eh...Well...The X-Laws."
"What!?" Turbine exclaimed.
"There is no doubt." Blocken said as he stared into the sand. "It happened so fast that I didn't see much, but it was an X-Law. When Bill got up to finish the boy, there was a ray of light. Then two and then three. I saw Bill's body covered in blood." Blocken shook with fear as he remembered what had happened. "It was the first time I saw one so fast. But I am confident of what I saw. It was definitely an angel."
"That's weird." Turbine simply said with no surprise in his voice.
"What? You doubt what I saw?" Blocken stood up.
"If it was a real X-Law, Bill would have been executed. They wouldn't have left him alive." Peyote said as he stood up from the cliff. "I think we should keep investigating. Zang-Ching, Turbine, let's go. We're leaving." He started to walk back up to the path. "Blocken, I am counting on you to take care of Bill. Bill is big but with Blocks, you should be okay."
"But what about Kaia?" Turbine asked.
"Turbine, don't worry about me. I'll just be dead weight if you were to take me with you."
"I can take care of her, I still have a lot of furyoku left." Blocken added.
"Alright. I will return for you." He knelt down next to her, pulling down his veil and kissed her forehead. She smiled up at him before he turned and left with Peyote.
"We must look for tracks in order to find the angel's owner." Peyote said as he searched for a trace of tracks.
"But what do you mean... to go investigate? Don't tell me that..." Blocken sweated nervously.
"We don't give a damn that Bill is hurt." Peyote raised his guitar in the air. "For us, that means that they attacked Master Hao. It means revenge." He growled underneath his disguise. "We will find the guilty one and execute him."
The Grande Phantasma rose out of the water and joined the three hunters in their quest for revenge. Kaia looked at Blocken when they disappeared in the woods.
"You okay?" She whispered, she was utterly tired.
"Yeah, don't worry about me Kaia." He got up and walked towards her.
"Please. Tell me what happened to you." She laid with her hands clasped together at her mid-section.
"I might as well, now that you see me like this." He sat down next to her.
The ocean roared with life even though it should be at rest tonight. The moon tugged on the tide, washing the blood away. Kaia stared up at the stars as she waited for Blocken to tell his story. He swallowed hard and prepared himself to tell the story he swore never to speak of again. Hao told him it wasn't of great importance if Kaia found out. Afterall, his story was nothing compared to Kaia's. He saw her differently now after what Hao had told her. She looked so harmless, so innocent, so... beautiful. No, she was Turbine's fiance. But he was sure in for a surprise. He didn't know of her origins, her fate. What if they found him and Kaia? They would break the engagement. They would take her away from him. They would possibly kill him out of entertainment. Oh the heartache! The cruelty! He didn't want to be involved in her situation. But he always found himself mixed up in someone else's problems.
"Blocken?" She called out for him.
"Yeah, Kaia?" He bent over towards her.
"You don't want to tell me your past, do you?" She asked through half-closed eyes.
"Not really. I'm sorry." He muttered.
"That's okay. I'll find out sooner or later." She smiled and stared up at the stars again. "I used to think you were scary. But when we were put on a team, I began to respect you. I've never had a father before so I don't know what it's like." Tears came to her eyes and streamed down the sides of her face and dropped into the sand. "Would it be wrong to say that you set that father figure for me?"
Blocken was shocked by her words. He remembered the grinning face and dark hair. He was never called a "father" and never thought he would set that example for someone else. For Kaia to say that... he was speechless. "I don't know, Kaia. A long time ago, I was a like father to a boy once." He shook his head to get rid of the memories but it was useless. That boy was a living memory of what had happened to him.
"I wonder if I really did have a father." Kaia closed her eyes and imagined what he would have been like. "I bet my mother was beautiful. Oh, I wish I had a picture of her!" She took a deep breath.
Blocken frowned beneath his mask. If only Kaia knew, he thought. He would do a better job of being a father than he ever did.
"Blocken, I've heard that a bride's father gives her away on her wedding day and... um... Turbine and I are supposed to be married after the tournament and..." She stuttered.
"I... I would be happy to." Blocken lied. He knew he shouldn't get too attached. You never know if something could happen like what happened to Basil. "I will give you away on your wedding day."
"Thank you." Kaia whispered as she wiped her eyes clear of the tears. They sat together for the longest time, Kaia laying down in the sand, staring up at the stars while Blocken stared out into the dark sea, wondering what his life would have been like if that baby was never delivered at his window by a "stork."
To be continued in Chapter 38!