A/N: Longer chapter than usual. Things will start to be tied together pretty soon. People are slowly meeting each other. Please be patient with this story and me, both. Well, here's yet another chapter for you all to enjoy!

"So, the next town is just five miles down this road?"

"That's right."

"Okay, thanks so much for helping us!"

Hikari smiled sweetly at the man and bowed. She turned and ran back to Ken, who was busy trying to grab his hat, which had been blown away by a particularly strong wind.

"Got your hat?" Hikari giggled as Ken finally pounced onto the wide-brimmed witch's hat, pulling it on over his head and keeping it on with one hand just in case, straightening his long coat with the other hand.

"Got the directions?" he countered.

Hikari nodded happily. "Just five miles down this road, there's a town we could stay at."

"Good. I don't want to walk anymore," Ken said wearily. "Did you thank the guy?"

"Of course I did," Hikari replied, wrinkling her nose at the thought of being so impolite as to not thank him. She turned to look for the man, and found he was already leading his horse on down the road in the other direction.

"Well, let's get going then. I want to get there before nightfall," Ken said, striding forward purposefully.

"Yes, that would be a good idea," the Indian princess sighed, walking quickly to catch up with the long-legged witch.

Now far behind them, the man discreetly looked back over his shoulder at the people he had just "helped." He quickly searched in the sack hanging over the horse's back and pulled out a small device. He turned it on and brought it up to his mouth.

"You've got a witch and that Indian princess girl walking towards you. Thought you could use help finding your guy."

"Are you sure he's a witch?" a voice crackled over the device.

"If he isn't, then he's a very weird fellow, because he's all decked out in witch apparel," the man said dryly.

"Well, good work, Shin. We'll keep an eye out for them."

"No problem, Sora," the man replied. "Over and out."

"You are such a dork."

He turned the device off and smiled, slipping it back into the sack. The horse whinnied and tossed its head towards him.

"Yeah, yeah, we can start moving again," Shin said with a smile, patting the horse's neck and starting to walk again.

~ ~ ~ ~

Jun looked doubtfully at the device Sora was now lowering and shoving into a pocket.

"Your great 'friend in a high place' is my stupid ex-boyfriend?"

"Well, he's the only one with any spy experience."

"Spy experience? We just used him that one time to help spy on your ex-boyfriend and make sure he wasn't cheating on you."

"Okay, so he was the only one who would help out."

"Because he has no social life."

"Would you cut it out? At least he's doing something. He's sent that witch our way. Speaking of the witch, we should start looking out for him and his little Indian princess friend. Shouldn't be too long until they show up."

Jun sighed and threw her head back, rolling her eyes. Sora smacked her on the shoulder and they both shuffled out of the small bar they were in to walk towards the entrance to the fair-sized town. They figured they could hang around there and "bump into" the witch when they saw him. Once they found the entrance, they sat down on a couple of wooden crates to wait.

~ ~ ~ ~

"Um, you're who?"

"The ruler of the lands you have been traveling through. The owner of the forests and the villages you have lived in your entire lives. The Kaiser. You know, the King that got screwed-over-I-mean-tricked by the stupid Germans and now has to refer to himself as the German version of the title of Excellency."

"I still say I've never heard of you."

"Well...well you were all members of tiny little insignificant villages that know nothing about the world anyways!" the Kaiser spat moodily.

Taichi raised an eyebrow at him. "No need to get prissy."

"Who's prissy?!" the Kaiser screeched.

"Master," Osamu said softly, reaching a hand up to rest on the Kaiser's arm.

The Kaiser composed himself, frowning darkly at the three boys standing in front of him. Wallace looked up to give him a concerned look before looking back down at the others.

"Anyways, it's a good thing that you have come."

"It is?" Takeru asked uncertainly.

"Yes. That is because there is three of you. I now have enough of you to complete my end of the stupid deal."

Wallace looked up at him quickly, eyebrows raised. "I thought you only had to call yourself "Kaiser" instead of "King" and give them all your servants?"

"Er, there is one more thing," the Kaiser said slowly. "The Germans are greedy people, you know. They want me to create a six-man soccer team to play against them and purposefully lose the game."

"They want you to what?" Taichi asked, blinking slowly, eyes slightly wide.

"I don't repeat myself," the Kaiser said shrilly. He took a deep breath. "Well, consider yourselves soccer players and tell me your clothes' sizes. I will need to get uniforms."

"Whoa, when did we agree to be a part of this team?" Yamato asked, holding his hands up in front of him.

"Who said you had to agree?" the Kaiser asked, grinning maliciously. "If you refuse, I could easily send an army of (drunken) men to destroy your villages and kill your people."

"Sorry, that's already been done to me," Taichi said gloomily.

The Kaiser grinned a wolfish grin. "I know."

Taichi's head snapped up, eyes wide. He narrowed his eyes and sent the Kaiser a seething glare his way, fists clenching. "You didn't."

"I believe I did. And you would know, because you were there, weren't you? Not that you tried to save your precious village or anything."

"There was nothing I could do," Taichi said through his teeth.

"Right," the Kaiser replied with narrowed eyes. "So, are you all going to tell me your uniform sizes or not? Or do you want a few more villages to be demolished?"

The three looked at each other with shame in their eyes and began calling out numbers, one by one.

~ ~ ~ ~

"I want to set you free."

Jyou looked Koushirou over from across the fire. The redhead was licking chocolate frosting off of his fingers, looking up at him from under half-lowered eyelids. Jyou squirmed slightly.

"I still don't see why-"

"I told you. I hate my job. I'm through with it. I'm just sick of doing everything everyone ever tells me to do and hoping that I'll get some kind of praise, though I never do."

"Well, I would very much like to get out of the country to somewhere no one would recognize me," Jyou said truthfully.

"Consider it done," Koushirou said brightly. "I know just where to take you."

"And what about them?" Jyou asked, looking over at where Daisuke and Miyako sat listening to their conversation and feeding Mimi small bits of doughnut, and at where Iori sat near them, half-listening and half-staring out into space.

"Oh, don't worry about us," Miyako said cheerfully. "We'll just go to the next village or town and stay there until we can figure out where our friends are."

"The three of us can escort you to the town about fifteen miles to the north," Koushirou offered. "It's on our way to where we'll be headed, anyways."

"That would be awesome," Daisuke said with a big grin, giving them a thumbs-up before returning his hand to Mimi's arm.

"What about Iori?" Miyako asked, casting the youngest a worried look.

Iori didn't seem to register at first that they were talking about him. He broke out of his thoughts at the mention of his name and turned around slowly. "What?"

"What are you planning on doing, Iori? Do you want to stay with Daisuke and Miyako and see if you can find out in which direction your home lies?" Koushirou asked gently.

Iori shrugged. "I guess I have to. You've helped me enough, Kou. I shouldn't burden you anymore."

"You haven't been a burden at all, Iori," Koushirou reassured him lightly.

Iori smiled and lowered his eyes.

"Then it's settled," Koushirou said decisively. "We'll head out first thing tomorrow."

Everyone offered affirmative remarks and then they got ready to go to sleep, eager to rest up for the next day.

~ ~ ~ ~

Jun was roused from her daydreaming when she felt a finger poking her side. She turned to glare at Sora.

"What?"

"They're here," Sora said quietly, casting her eyes over to the entrance to the town, where a girl with a colorful headband and feathers poking out of her short brown hair and a boy with a long, black, buckled coat and a tall witch's hat on were just walking past the large sign with the town's name written across it in black spray paint.

"That has to be them, all right," Jun said with a smirk. Shin, for once, had been of some use to them. This boy was definitely a witch.

She stood and followed Sora out to the boy and the girl, who stood still, looking around themselves at the town and talking in hushed voices.

"Hello," Sora said brightly, stopping just in front of them.

"Hello," the girl replied cheerfully. The boy looked Sora up-and-down with a wary eye.

"Newcomers?" Jun asked politely, a greet-the-new-neighbors smile plastered on her face.

"Yeah, we just walked in," the boy replied, giving the sign they were standing near a pointed look.

Sora frowned briefly at the sarcasm but immediately regained her light tone. "Need someone to show you around town?"

"That would be great!" the girl replied gratefully.

"My name's Sora, and this is Jun," Sora said, offering a hand out.

The girl shook it eagerly, "Mine's Hikari. This is my friend, Ken."

"Ken," Sora repeated, looking at the boy. The boy looked back at her with an unreadable expression on his face.

"I'm so glad you two came out here to greet us. I would have been so lost if you hadn't," Hikari said gratefully.

"I could have found a place for us to stay," Ken said quietly, but confidently.

Hikari gave him a reproachful be-nice-or-else look. Jun raised an eyebrow and wondered if these two were really just "friends."

"Well, if you'll just follow us, we'll lead you to the best hotel in town," Sora said cheerfully. Hikari began walking next to them, chatting animatedly with Sora. Jun glanced back every once in a while to where Ken strode a few steps behind them.

They soon reached the hotel and Sora told the woman behind the counter to find two rooms for her two new friends. The woman gave Sora a searching look and Sora nodded ever so slightly. The woman quickly produced two keys.

"Thanks, you're an angel," Sora said with a wink. The woman smiled and tipped her head slightly one time.

In the hotel room, Hikari looked around with slightly wide eyes.

"Wow. This is a big difference compared to those huts I've lived in my whole life."

"You lived in huts?" Sora asked, making a face.

"Well, yeah," Hikari said slowly, fingering the feathers in her hair.

"Oh, yes, you're an Indian," Sora said, as if it was just dawning on her.

They heard a scuffle coming from the room next to them, where Jun had followed Ken in to make sure he got settled in.

"What was that?" Hikari asked quickly.

Sora scowled at the wall. She had given clear instructions to Jun about keeping things quiet.

"I'm sure it's nothing," Sora said with a sugary-sweet reassuring smile.

Hikari found herself unable to do anything but smile back. Sora stepped up close to her.

"Tell me, Indian princess, have you ever been kidnapped before? Surely a pretty girl like yourself has been stolen from your village at least once in the past?"

"Er, no," Hikari said, taking a step back from Sora. "No, that's never happened to me before."

"Are you sure?" Sora asked. "Never even once?"

"No," Hikari said slowly.

She gasped slightly as she felt her back connecting with the wall. Sora had cornered her. Sora's grin twisted into something not-as-sugary and something pressed against her stomach. Hikari had never had a gun pressed to her before, but she knew what it was. Hikari gave a small yelp.

"Well, now you have been," Sora said, all trace of sweetness gone from her voice.

She reached up to cover Hikari's mouth before she could scream.

"Jun!" she yelled.

Jun soon came in, dragging a tied-up and gagged Ken along with her, with much protesting and kicking on his part.

"Got her?"

"Yeah," Sora replied, holding onto Hikari while Jun came forward to grab her and tie her up as Sora stepped back and grabbed a hold of Ken's arm while still pointing the gun at Hikari's head.

"What do you want with us?" Hikari asked angrily.

"Simple. I just want your little witch friend to do a little magic for us. We need his help in finding a certain someone."

Hikari blinked. "Ken can do that?" she asked uncertainly.

Sora paused and remembered that not all witches had that ability. They all had different abilities, depending on the kinds of witches they were. She turned and motioned to Jun.

Jun removed Ken's gag. "Can you?" she asked him unkindly.

"Yeah, I can, but I need both a sample of his blood and a hair from his head," Ken said briskly.

"Got that covered," Sora grinned.


Jun raised an eyebrow. "You do?"

Sora laughed to herself and nodded. "It's in our room, though. Last time I saw Jyou, I got into quite the fight with him. Scratched him up and everything. I cleaned my hands on one of the towels I've brought along. It's stained with his blood, and I know I saw a few blue hairs on it."

"Bring me the towel, and I'll find your friend," Ken said, "but then you have to let us go."

"I don't like treating people so badly, but I really need the money on this guy's head," Sora said with a small smile, "so if there's something you need that isn't too much to ask for, I could try to do it for you."

"Actually, we're looking for a couple of friends," Ken said quickly at the mention of a favor.

"We could see what we could do for you," Sora said with a smirk. "First, do our favor."

Ken snorted at it being called a favor and waited as Sora left to retrieve the towel. She brought it back and tossed it onto the floor at Ken's feet.

"Well, work your magic, witch-boy," Sora said.

"Untie me first?" Ken asked wryly.

Jun made him promise not to try anything stupid like running off before undoing the ropes binding his wrists and ankles together. She blocked the doorway just in case.

"Go ahead," Sora said, motioning to the towel and keeping a hand on Hikari's shoulder and the gun against Hikari's head where they stood against one wall.

Ken sighed and looked up at her. "Right. I need complete silence."