Chapter 6: Kinpaku; Tension

The sun hung high over the group's head as they slowly made their way back to the capital. True to his words, Natsume did bring the group back to the capital in a span of 3 days. But that was because he had way higher expectations than Ruka and stopped less frequently.

Trying to remain as quiet as possible, Sumire accidentally stepped on a twig and the snap resounded throughout the barren grassland.

Natsume's head whipped around and he glared at the girl, who stood paralyzed.

"Sorry…" She murmured, looking at the ground nervously.

"Sorry isn't going to cut it around here princess." Natsume hissed.

Mikan who was crouching behind Sumire stood up in anger. "Really? Are you always this mean? She's not used to crouching for so long and her legs are beginning to tire."

Natsume hurried to Mikan's side and pulled her down. "Idiot, do you want to be spotted?!" The duo fell back to the ground and just sat there.

Mikan glared back into his crimson eyes, annoyed that they had been crouching ever since they entered the grasslands at the end of the forest. "Why are we crouching anyway?! There's no one in sight for miles! We should be walking and conserving our energy."

"Mikan-hime…" Ruka started.

"If you want to be spotted from the watch towers in the capital, go ahead, walk with your head held high." Natsume spat in an annoyed tone. Royals!

"Mikan-sama, just listen to Natsume. He knows these lands better than I do and he would know if we will be spotted from the watch tower." Ruka said in a soothing tone.

Letting out a sigh of anger, Mikan looked at her sister who was wincing in pain as the pins and needles began in her leg.

"Could we stop for a break then? We've been crouching around for more than an hour." Mikan pleaded.

Looking up in the sky to determine the time of the day, Natsume nodded slightly and both Ruka and Sumire collapsed to the ground, stretching their feet out to allow blood to flow back into them.

Opening his backpack, Natsume took out a small translucent candy and passed it to Sumire. "Here, eat this, it'll help relieve the pain in your muscles." Passing her the golden candy, Sumire popped it into her mouth and allowed the sweet flavor to fill her entire cavity. Slowly, she felt the effects of the sweet and smiled as she could once again feel her feet without the pain.

"Thank you Natsume-san." Sumire said with a slight blush.

The raven-haired boy nodded curtly and spoke, "Break's over. Let's move. Don't stand higher than these grasses or else we'll be detected. Ruka move front, I need an extra pair of trained eyes."

The group got to their feet and began moving.

"Natsume… must you be this harsh?" Ruka whispered after seeing that the two princesses were a distance away.

Natsume looked at Ruka with one of his eyebrows cocked up, "really? You're asking me this? If they want to survive, they should be able to throw away their pain."

"They've never trained like you and I have. I know it's of utmost importance we reach the capital before dark, but we could take it down a notch." Ruka tried reasoning.

Looking back at the two princesses who were trudging through the grass, Natsume winced with each sound they made. "Yeah… all right. I thought the other one would move faster though since her sister is better at this."

"You mean Sumire-hime?"

"How is it her sister is able to adapt faster while she can't? They're sisters aren't they?" Natsume scoffed.

Ruka merely looked at Natsume and smiled, "that's because Mikan has been training with the King's Guard."

Koko Yume looked at his kohai as they stood in the stable and began saddling their horses. Moving his arm to tighten the leather straps, he felt the scratchy material of their uniform and immediately stopped. Seeing how Yoichi also stopped moving as he felt the material, Koko started to read his mind.

"Argh, why did they use such lousy materials for the army's uniform! We're captains for goodness sake, couldn't they have made ours out of something with more quality?!"

Koko began to snigger at the younger boy, "Yoichi, I feel your pain, but I don't think we're going to get better quality uniforms any time soon."

Yoichi glared at his senior, "Koko-sempai, you've got to stop reading people's minds without their permission, it's rude."

"Aw Yoichi…" Koko pouted, "isn't that why I was promoted to captain in the first place?"

Rolling his eyes, Yoichi tried his best to ignore the scratchy material and scoffed at it once more. "Seriously, we look so grand in this material, but we have to sit so rigid because it's so scratchy!"

Commander Goshima walked into the stable and started giving out commands to the two captains.

"Captains." The 23-year-old commander walked in while Koko and Yoichi saluted. "You all ready?"

"Yes sir!"

"Good, you are to accompany the group of troops on their search for the princesses in the town. The general has expressed high hopes for the both of you, do not fail him. Reports must be sent by the end of the day. Dismissed."

Nodding to his subordinates, the cold commander left the stable.

"Koko, did you feel that?" Yoichi spoke in his mind.

Koko looked at him and nodded, they both felt a sudden surge in power as soon as Goshima walked into the room and this was unusual. Checking that their saddles were in place, both of them mounted their horses and rode to outside to where the troops were waiting for them.

"Be careful around Commander Goshima. He's different." Koko cautioned the younger boy.

The bells of the clock in the city centre chimed three times to indicate the time. Birds immediately took to flight once the loud resounding clanking of the brass bells began. Further below the clock tower, the townspeople have begun to lose track of time.

"How long has it been since we started living like this?"

This thought played out many times in everyone's mind. It seemed like they were living in such tough conditions for years, but in fact, it has only been a week or two.

Amongst the tired and worn out people who were fidgeting in the sun's heat, the group of four passed through the gates and were walking along to stalls.

"Keep your heads down and don't do anything to stand out." Natsume whispered to the two princesses.

Both girls nodded in compliance before following him. Occasionally daring a peek from the hoods that kept their faces hidden, Mikan and Sumire noted how the people were faring and they did not like what they saw. The atmosphere of the town which was once so lively was now reduced to a murmur. No one was shouting out loud to sell their goods, everyone was speaking in hush tones. There was a seemingly thick cloak of tension surrounding the entire capital.

Seeing how the group was walking, people eyed them yet kept out of the way. No one wanted any trouble, but trouble seemed to find the group.

The sound of hooves against the cobble ground resounded in the silent town. Upon hearing that familiar sound, which was associated with fear, many ran back into their houses and closed the door. More daring people stayed outside but kept to the side of the road. Shopkeepers coward in fear and muttered a short pray under their breaths.

The group looked to Natsume and he gave a curt nod before whispering, "this way." Ruka took the lead and led them to a back alley. "Stay in the shadows and move as quietly as you can."

Moving further away from the sound of the horses and the clanking of armour, the group finally reached the back door of a shop. Surveying the surroundings, Natsume opened his backpack and passed the princesses four leather skinned water bags.

"Here, fill them up by the small well round the corner. I'll be out as quick as I can. Ruka, come with me, I need you to help me carry some things." Passing Mikan and Sumire the water bags, Natsume then turned around and entered the door.

Clutching the leather water bags in their hands, Mikan and Sumire carefully made their way to the small well.

"They're suffering. What happened?" Mikan asked Sumire as she slowly poured the water from the bucket into the bag.

Sumire stayed silent. She never took an interest in public affairs, what more the welfare of the people. "Have they always looked like that? So shrivelled? So unhappy? Wasn't Mikan always telling that servant of hers that the town was always so lively?"

Drawing the bucket up for the last time, both girls were filling up the final water bag before the sounds they did not want to hear ended up at the end of the alley.

"Hey you two! We are soldiers from the Royal Army. Stop what you are doing and turn around." The two men with their full armour walked noisily towards the girls.

Both Mikan and Sumire froze on the spot.

"Why did I not smell them coming?!" Sumire mentally reprimanded herself.

Mikan slowly screwed the cap to the water bag on and slowly slinged it on her shoulder.

"Did you not hear what I say?! Turn around before I get angry. We just want to get this inspection over and done with." The soldier commanded with an angry tone.

Sumire eyed Mikan and saw her pull the top of her hood lower over her face. Doing the same thing, the both of them slowly turned around.

The two soldiers stopped walking when they saw the two girls turn around. Unable to see their faces or hair colour, they demanded both women to remove their hoods.

With trembling hands, Mikan raised her hands to her hood but then she felt a warm heat emitting from the katana she was carrying on her back. Reaching towards the hilt at her side, she slowed her breathing and calmed herself down.

Getting frustrated at the slowness, the soldier marched forward with his sword drawn and grabbed the cloth over Mikan's head before pulling it back. His eyes widened in shock as the image of the princess was staring back at him. Then recovering from his shock, he chuckled and pulled back the hood of Sumire's.

"Why… two birds with one stone. Let's report back to the captains and this useless search will be over." The other soldier commented with an amuse tone.

Grabbing Sumire by her arm, the closer soldier attempted to pull Sumire along with him, but she resisted not because she did not want to move, but her legs refused to listen to her. Feeling the warm feeling at her side, she could hear the faint words in her head.

"No… protect… defend…"

Anger flashed in the soldier's eye as her stubbornness was preventing him from getting on with his job, he raised his sword to hit her with the hilt of his sword but was met with a loud thud.

Sumire opened her eyes to see Mikan holding the katana in both hands and standing in front of her. The cloth covered side of the katana stopped the blow of the soldier's sword hilt and prevented him from injuring Sumire.

"Why you…" Removing his hand on Sumire, he lifted his hands against Mikan, knocking the wind out of her.

Mikan's hand had reached for the cloth around the katana and slowly peeled it back as the soldier was distracted with Sumire, and with quick speed, she stopped the blow meant for her sister by slashing him in the arm. Unsuspecting of what he would do next, Mikan felt her body fly and hit the well behind her and dropped the katana.

"The captains didn't say specify the conditions in which they were to be brought back. They deserve a beating after resisting us and making us go through all this trouble." The guard who was holding Sumire inspected the light wound on his arm and tightened his grip on Sumire. His partner seeing the commotion from afar, drew his sword as well and stood over Mikan on the ground.

"How… how can you do this!? Didn't you swear to protect the people of this kingdom when you joined the army?" Sumire cried out.

The guard wave his sword carelessly in the air and laughed, "ever since we decided to join Kuonji, do you know how liberated we felt, never having to be restrained when taking in prisoners? We could vent all out anger on them. Why on earth did the previous king even pass the law for criminals to be treated as equals?" He spat on the ground with vengeance.

"Scream and you will be hit even more. Now get up before I deal another blow. My patience is wearing thin." The second guard growled. Impatient that Mikan was taking a long time to get up, the guard kicked her in the gut before yanking her roughly by her arm to pull her to her feet.

Mikan started to taste iron in her mouth as the soldier vented his anger on her. Looking aside to see her sister, she saw how the man's hand had snaked its way round her waist and he was enjoying how uncomfortable Sumire was squirming.

Sumire clutched the hilt of her wakizashi inside her cloak and as soon she felt the warm breathe of the soldier on her ear, she unsheathed it and turned around with a quick speed, piercing him with it.

"ARGH!" The man screamed out in pain and released her from his snake like grip. He clutched the wound which Sumire had inflicted on his chest and cursed. The man's scream distracted his partner and he paused to look at the commotion. Using the distraction to her advantage, Mikan pushed herself off the guard and lurched for the katana lying close to her.

Holding the katana steadily with both hands, Sumire ran to her sister's side and held the wakizashi in front of her in a defensive stance.

"Wrenches!" The injured soldier cursed and staggered menacingly towards Sumire. "How dare you…" He raised his hand once again and attempted to slash his sword at Sumire but another force threw him upwards. Before he knew it, he was soon passing on to the underworld.

"Who… who are you two?" The remaining soldier looked at Ruka and Natsume in fear. Ruka was standing ready with his sword drawn while Natsume glared at him after throwing the other soldier over his head.

Ruka was always different when in a combat, his usual happy self was gone and replaced with a more serious and cold personality. Walking up to the remaining soldier, the soldier freaked out and began slashing his sword dangerously at Mikan.

"You will never take me alive! I'll never go down alone!" He hacked away while Mikan tried to parry. It was much difficult than she expected because the man was using his full strength and was much quicker than what she was used to. Within a few blows, the katana flew out of her hand and the man laughed in a mad way.

"Mikan-hime isn't as strong as rumoured. She's just a useless princess." The man commented before his neck was twisted by Natsume from the back and Ruka plunged his sword into him from the front at the same time.

"Shut up." Ruka murmured.

The man's eyes rolled back into his eyes and he crumbled onto the ground in a heap.

Staring wide eyed at the two corpses, Mikan and Sumire were clearly in shock having never seen deaths of people so close to them before.

Wiping his sword on the uniform of the dead soldier, Ruka sheathed his sword and took the wakizashi from Sumire's hand, wiping the blade clean from any blood. Bending down, he gently took Mikan's arm and held her up before bending down once again to pick up the katana. Then walking to the other princess, he helped Sumire to her feet.

Natsume let out a sigh and walked back to the well. Grabbing the filled water bags, he jerked his head in the direction of another alley and spoke, "we need to go now. Their bodies will be found soon."

Nodding in agreement, Ruka urged both girls to walk in front of him before looking back at the scene behind him.

"Check in!" Koko shouted and the guards who were on their patrols immediately assembled before him. "What's the strength?"

After standing to attention, the highest-ranking officer marched up to Koko.

"38 sir!"

Koko tapped his chin in a thoughtful way. "That's not good, we came with 40 and we have to return with 40. Who are the two soldiers missing?"

Yoichi joined Koko after walking around the town and asked him what the commotion was. "We're missing two men." Koko explained to Yoichi while looking a little distressed, "don't tell me they went off to have a little fun." Koko started whining.

Rolling his eyes, Yoichi asked if anyone could offer information on where the two soldiers were last seen. After gathering that they were seen entering a small alley, the young captain instructed the platoon to return to the palace barracks while he and Koko would look for them.

As the platoon marched off, Yoichi stalked off to the alley which was mentioned. Koko followed closely behind and was suddenly stopped in his tracks when he saw the two dead bodies in front of them.

"What… what do you see?" Koko asked Yoichi as he activated his alice.

Yoichi remained silent as he saw how death had claimed the two soldiers. He knew that one was thrown in the air and landed wrongly on his skull while the other had his head dislocated and stabbed in the gut.

"YO. !" Koko waved his hand in front of his junior when his question was not answered.

Something else bothered him. Yoichi's alice allowed him to see spirits and truthfully, he could see the two solider's spirit wondering around this plane. However, with every death, he could see how they died. Yoichi saw Mikan's bodyguard stab the guard with his neck dislocated while Sumire had stabbed the other guard.

"So that means the trio which we are looking for are in town." Yoichi thought.

However, what bothered him was that he could not see the person who had thrown the man in the air and dislocated the other soldier's neck. In fact, it seemed as if he was actively hiding his life force.

"Sempai, what can you infer from the bodies?" Yoichi asked while trying to solve the mystery in his head.

"Hm… the kills were clean. This guy landed the wrong way, by the indentation in his head, I'm assuming someone threw him over their body. The other guy," Koko pointed to the bleeding soldier, "he had some kind of fun. Removing his head from neck and getting stab in the gut." Standing up from his crouching position, Koko continued, "There were two people who killed them. They're not ordinary killers though. The impact on the head and the dislocation, it was done with one quick movement, almost as if you were trained to kill that way."

"Exactly. There are only a few people in the palace who can kill this way. Do you remember the rumors?" Yoichi walked out of the alley.

Koko placed his hands behind his head and looked at the orange sky. "You mean that unit under the King's guard?"

Yoichi nodded. "No one ever knows who were in that group except the King himself."

"This sucks, since Izumi-sama is gone, we can never find out who did this. But then again Yoichi, no one knows if that unit even exist, those were merely rumors." Koko let out a sigh.

"I'm sure it exists. But that's not our only problem, the princesses are here with Ruka-san."

Koko chocked on his saliva and stared wide eyed at his stoned faced kohai. "So… you mean to say that the people who killed them is that trio? Or more specifically Ruka? What are they doing back in the capital? Isn't it the most dangerous place now?"

Yoichi shrugged, "who knows. We can never tell what goes on in the mind of the royals. There's someone else with them."

"Hm…" Koko entered into his serious mode for the second time that day, "I can see why you were looking so troubled. Could you see that person?"

"No. He was trying his best to conceal his life force. That's why I said that unit exists. No one was taught how to conceal their life force, much less their Alice." Yoichi finally reached his horse and mounted it. "We have to be careful. If that person is really from that unit, trying to catch the princesses isn't going to be easy."

Koko nodded and mounted his own horse. "So what do we do? Do we report everything?"

Yoichi smirked, "I don't think Goshima is the person to act on rumors. We just tell him the essentials while we do more digging."

"Sounds like a good plan." Koko let out a loud sigh, "but still… we'll be sent out on patrol again! I really want to rest!"

"You rest too much senpai." Yoichi rolled his eyes again at Koko who was slumped over his horse.

The purple eyed girl sat on her flying duck and as she looked down on the lacklustre town, she felt irritation well up inside her.

"Hotaru-chan, why are we flying over the capital at night?" Misaki asked while clinging on tightly to Hotaru for her dear life as they hovered a few hundred feet from the ground.

Checking the beeping device on the front, Hotaru saw the red dot coming closer to the blue dot.

"Because if people looked up and saw a flying duck, I don't think they'll take well to it." Hotaru replied with annoyance. She hated when people questioned her motives, but most of all she was really peeved by this one fact; why is that moron doing in the capital when the guards were on full alert for her?!

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