AN: Well, hey guys! I'm not dead!

So, I haven't updated in this long because life. So yeah...

Still, here's the next chapter!

Chapter 6:

Kaede stared in half fascination and half boredom as the two boys in front of her continued to duke it out on the chessboard.

The fascinating part: they had already been playing for twenty minutes, yet they were still at their first game. Ascion was down to three pawns, two knights, a rook, and his queen. Akio had four pawns, a rook, a bishop and his queen, so the game was still rather intense.

The boring part: the game has been going on for more than twenty minutes.

A person can only stare at two boys moving pieces of plastic across a checkered board for so long before getting bored.

Based on what Kaede have learnt, all of Akio's previous challengers had tried to get him to talk, only to be met with a stony silence.

Ascion did no such thing, and the entire game was deathly silent save for the clicking of chess pieces and short announcements of "check". Both players concentrated fully on outplaying his opponent.

Which made things all the more boring since Kaede couldn't even chat with Ascion.

At the beginning of the game, both sides took their time to make their moves, but now, with few remaining pieces upon the board, the game sped up. Clicks and checks came more frequently.

Finally, after a few more minutes, Ascion slid his knight forward.

"Checkmate." Ascion gave Akio a small smile.

The crowd immediately burst into quiet chatter. Akio scanned the board, before he nodded. "Indeed." He murmured. Upon hearing that one word, several onlookers left immediately, no longer interested. After all, Akio only promised a request to the very first winner. Most stayed out of curiosity, though.

Akio looked at Ascion quizzically. His question was clear.

So, what do you want?

Ascion simply gave Akio a smile. "There isn't much time before the bell rings." Ascion commented. "Around ten minutes more?"

"Two and a half." Kaede corrected blandly after checking her phone.

Ascion winced. "Yikes. Alright, two minutes before the bell rings. Well then, shall we play again tomorrow?"

Akio's eyebrow raised, the slightest amount of surprise visible in his eyes. He quickly composed himself and nodded, before he started to put away his chess set. The remaining crowd immediately broke out into whispers. Not that Ascion cared.

As soon as the set was packed, Akio stood up, as did Ascion. Akio stared at Ascion in the eye for a few moments before he spoke.

"You are strange. Your request, unexpected."

"Life's full of surprises." Ascion replied.

"Indeed." And to the surprise of everybody in the vicinity, Akio gave Ascion a faint smile.

A new wave of chatter broke out. The smile fell off Akio's lips immediately, replaced by his patented expressionless face. Without another word, he left.

Ascion and Kaede trailed behind him back to class. "So, what do you think?" Kaede asked.

"He's got a good head on his shoulders. Quite intelligent. I could've lost a couple of times if I hadn't seen his traps. I'll try to make conversation next time, hopefully. Ask him about, you know, us."

"You're saying that is as if we're a couple."

Ascion rolled his eyes. "Of course not, Kaede." Facing away from the archer, Ascion missed the flash of disappointment that crossed her face. "I meant our… reputation."

"I see." The look disappeared almost immediately as the archer hummed in agreement. "That might be a problem."

"Hopefully, it wouldn't be."

Strange. If Akio was asked to describe the two people seated in front of him, that would be it.

Before all this, people either stayed away from him or tried to kill him. After his… adoption, people always wanted something from him.

The females reeked of pheromones, always wanting him or his time to please themselves.

The males made their jealousy known, always wanting to one-up him for their own satisfaction.

The adults wanted his attention when they were in that place called a… a classroom.

His guardian… He wasn't sure what his guardian wanted. But adults couldn't be trusted anyway. People can't be trusted in general, more so if they were adults. They were the ones who knew how to lie well.

He thought he had seen the last of the black haired boy after their rematch. Except that hadn't been the case.

The boy came the next day. And the next. And the day after that.

How curious.

The magician was different during their second match, more cheerful, more relaxed. Most likely due to the lack of people staring or glaring at the black haired boy. Of course he had noticed all the looks. They were too obvious to be missed.

The magician also started to ask some questions. Though he hadn't responded, the magician didn't seem perturbed. None of those twitches or mutterings to indicate his annoyance or irritation.

The magician asked the same questions during their next match. Still polite, still jovial, no irritation to be seen. In fact, it even seemed like the magician enjoyed playing against him. Or rather, the magician enjoyed spending time with him.

He wasn't sure how to feel about that. Usually, anybody who sought his company tried to make him speak. Even when he did, they persisted in making him speak more. Never understanding that he just was not comfortable with talking, always trying to forcefully make him change.

He hated that.

But the magician always seemed satisfied with his curt answers. After the first, strange question about whether he was afraid of the magician himself and his companion, the black haired boy seemed content with asking about mundane things.

How his day was, whether he's well, or how well he's coping with schoolwork, little things like that.

Sometimes, the magician's companion, the orange haired archer, would join in. Unlike the other females, she did not seem to want anything, just like the boy. Otherwise, she was content with just listening, or going off to one side to read.

One thing for sure was that the archer was always by the magician's side. That, and the girl would force both the magician and himself to eat, should lunch be forgotten.

Gradually, the boy moved on to more personal things. His hobbies, what he liked or disliked, how he learned to play chess so well. Though he had responded to those with small shakes of his head at first, the magician assured him that he does not have to answer if he does not want to.

A week passed. Their small, almost one-sided conversations continued. The magician never pushed him to answer, only asking questions and accepted his head shakes without complain. Eventually, he started to answer. He was mildly surprised by himself when he did.

When he thought about it in the silence of his room, he found that he enjoyed the company of the boy. He trusted the magician more than anybody else, save his deceased family, as miniscule as that trust was. Enough to be able to talk about himself.

Then, they appeared. Just like they always did. And he beat them back, just as he always did. His injuries forced him to stay at home, though.

The next day, the magician did not wait till their regular games at lunchtime. Instead of the usual wave the boy gave him every morning, the magician had walked up to him and asked about his injuries.

Almost everyone he met had questioned his injuries, but he felt more morbid curiosity than concern from them. Yet, he could sense how worried the magician was.

Is this how it feels like to be touched by someone's kindness?

… Strange. Strange, but pleasant.

It had been three weeks since their first game, and the mage could safely say that he liked the white haired warrior. Which was giving him a headache, because he was getting increasingly worried by the day.

He had learned a few things about Akio so far. The warrior was always punctual, had average grades, and was a very good fighter. He ignored anybody he didn't like, always wore full plate armour and never, ever takes his armour off. Ascion had a feeling that if the school rules had not forbidden headgear, Akio would have worn a helmet as well.

When Akio had failed to show up for school the first time, Ascion hadn't been overly worried, thinking that he was most probably sick.

Imagine his surprise when the warrior showed up the next day covered in bandages that were just barely visible under all his armour.

Although Akio had assured him that he was fine, Ascion couldn't help but be worried. Akio was no slouch when it came to combat, that much was certain during the combat classes held twice a week. None of his matches lasted more than ten seconds.

Then again, neither did Ascion's nor Kaede's, so maybe their classmates were just weak.

After the end of the second week, Akio returned to school with even more bandages. Nothing was broken, but it seems as if someone had tossed Akio into a den of hungry wolves, with only a stick to protect himself with. Ascion reluctantly left the subject alone when Akio insisted that he was fine.

The third time, though, finally pushed Ascion over the edge. He was most certainly not amused when Akio went missing the previous day only to return looking like a mummy.

Which was why the two were currently shadowing Akio home.

"We should not be doing this." Kaede muttered. "We really should not be doing this."

"C'mon, aren't you worried about him? You saw how people reacted to his injuries. It's like they were asking just to stock up on juicy gossip rather than out of concern. I'm going to make sure he's fine."

"That's good and all, but you are aware that shadowing somebody is technically a crime?"

"It's not."

"It's called stalking, Ascion."

"I mean it's not a crime if you don't get caught."

Kaede face-palmed. "Forget it."

Oddly, though, Akio did not returned to his presumed home at his guardian's place. Instead, he immediately left Perion, heading up into the dusty stone plateaus and hills the dry town was famous for.

They were currently hiding behind some of the many boulders that dot Perion's landscape. Their target did not seem to have noticed them yet, as Ascion had been quite liberal in his use of [Teleport] to make sure both he and Kaede stayed out of sight.

Mostly on himself, as Kaede was quite good at finding places to hide and hiding in general, what with the dexterity and experience that came with being an archer.

"Where's he going?" Ascion muttered with a frown. Akio had been walking along the stone paths for quite some time, getting further and further away from Perion. Despite his numerous injuries, the warrior barely slowed down when monsters attacked him, killing them with a single blow of his sword and continuing on as though they were never there.

"That's why we're following him, isn't it?"

"I know, I'm just saying."

The wind that was commonplace in Perion suddenly changed directions, blowing at their backs. Ascion ignored the change in favour of quickly and silently dispatching a Wild Boar before it could do anything that might alert Akio of their presence.

Just then, Akio moved behind a small hill, hiding himself from sight. Ascion and Kaede follow suit, making sure to keep a certain distance from the white haired boy.

The moment they rounded the corner however, they came face to face with Akio, the warrior's expression as bland as ever. His bandaged face and the dry, sand coloured surroundings made him look like an undead straight out of a horror movie.

"Holy-!" Ascion yelped, startled. Kaede let out a squeak as she jerked back in surprise. Akio did not seem amused.

Then again, Akio always had a blank face, so it's not like they could tell even when he was.

"Why follow me?" Akio asked, his tone still as bland as ever. If he was annoyed at being followed, he did a good job at hiding it.

"We were worried." Ascion answered honestly. "With your skills at fighting, not many things on Victoria Island can injure you this badly, so we wanted to make sure you weren't doing anything stupid."

Akio's expression gained a hint of curiosity. "Victoria Island?"

Ascion raised an eyebrow. "Uh, Victoria Island? The island we're on right now? That has the towns Henesys, Perion, Ellinia, Kerning, Lith Harbour, Sleepywood and Nautilus?"

"Ah." Akio nodded. "I see." He paused. "Thank you, but no."

Ascion blinked in surprise. "For telling you about where we are?"

"For caring. And no. Not doing anything stupid."

"Oh. Uh, you're welcome?"

Akio nodded. "Come, then." He turned around and started to walk again.

Ascion and Kaede exchanged looks. "He just invited us to follow him, didn't he?" Ascion asked.

"Yeah. Yeah, he did." Kaede replied, surprised. "I thought he was going to tell us to back off. I know I would've, if I was in his position."

"Sweet!" Ascion cheered, choosing to ignore the last part of what Kaede said. "He's opening up to us!"

"He was already opening up to us, with how persistent you have been." Kaede rolled her eyes. "I'm just surprised we hadn't crushed all the trust that we had built up with our creepy stalker stunt."

Again, Ascion pointedly ignored Kaede's last comment, looking off to the side. "Come on, let's catch up before he leaves us behind."

Kaede just shook her head, grinning wryly as Ascion hastily started after Akio. "Whatever you say."

Clink. Clink. Clink.

With another strike of flint against stone, the sparks finally caught. Within a minute, a small, crackling fire had been started.

"Sit." Akio waved around the fire, before he disappeared into the nearby cave.

Ascion and Kaede settled themselves around the fire. The rest of the trek had taken another half an hour, and it had ended at the cave they were currently sitting in front of. Ascion had tried to break the silence of the trip by chatting, and Akio replied with his customarily short answers.

While this created an illusion of tenseness and awkwardness, Ascion chose to see it as normal for Akio, since the warrior barely speaks anyway.

Within moments, Akio had exited the dark cave. He was now wearing a helmet that had a single, Y-shaped slit in the face plate to allow him to see and breathe. He held a large, heavy looking spear in his hand, his sword and shield nowhere to be seen. A similar spear was strapped to his back.

"Stay." Akio gestured to his spear. "I will get food."

"Ah, um, thanks?"

As soon as the warrior had stalked off, Ascion took another look around. The sun was still high in the sky, although if Ascion had to fathom a guess, he would say that it was about three in the afternoon. A little early to be eating dinner, but hey, it's Akio's place. He calls the shots, and Ascion wasn't about to contradict him.

Akio's hideout was a simple cave carved into the base of a large mountain. The mountain was steep, much steeper than what a person could easily climb, and the cave seemed rather extensive, from what little Ascion can see.

"Why do you think he brought us here?" Kaede asked.

"I don't know, but I'm sure he'll tell us when he gets back." Ascion hesitated. "If he doesn't come back, it's fine. I brought my map, so I can get us back to Perion."

While Ascion had initially brought the map to help get them out of the dusty wasteland if they had lost track of Akio, it could be of use now in case Akio had brought them all the way here just to abandon them on unfamiliar territory.

Ascion felt bad about it, but it remains a fact that he still could not trust the white haired warrior fully, not just yet. Ascion had not been openly trusting towards anybody that was not on his list of people-that-can-be-trusted since he was eight. That was maybe half a year after befriending Kaede.

On a side note, that list currently consists of four people. Five, actually, but he had never really spoken to the last one.

"The magic one you stole?" Kaede raised an eyebrow.

"Of course it's the magic one, or we'll definitely be lost, since neither of us have visited Perion much. And I borrowed it, Kaede, not stole."

"You took it without permission, so I would say that you stole it." Kaede sniped.

"Except I took it from my father's study, and I plan to return it. Someday. Besides, you know my family's rich enough not to care." Ascion countered.

Without him noticing, the two of them had quickly fallen into a comfortable banter. The tenseness he didn't even realise had built up drained out of him as he traded playful verbal jabs with his best friend.

"Trouble?" A voice suddenly spoke up behind him.

"Holy-!" Ascion yelped, jumping in shock and spinning around. A boar was slung over the warrior's shoulder like a sack of flour, his spear hanging grotesquely from its eye.

"You two were arguing. Problem?" Akio asked, easily tossing the large boar to the ground beside them.

"No, it's kind of like our pastime." Kaede answered as she took deep breaths to steady her heart. How had the boy with such a large weight on his shoulder, wearing full armour no less, managed to sneak up on them?

"I see." Akio nodded, before grabbing the spear stuck in the dead animal's eye and yanking it out. He tossed the spear next to the mouth of the cave, unstrapping the unused one on his back and dropping it next to the bloody one.

Settling down between the cave and the fire, Akio unsheathed a thick, heavy knife from his back and went about skinning the boar. He then carefully and easily removed all of the boar's organs, tossing them to the side. Its skin was stretched out on the ground, the carcass placed on top.

Neither Ascion nor Kaede balked at the sight, although Kaede turned slightly green. Although both of them had cleaned and gutted their fair share of animals, Kaede always felt bad for doing it. Ascion was mostly unaffected by the bloody task.

"You're not going to bury the organs?" Kaede asked.

Akio glanced at her before he placed his bloody knife next to the carcass. "Ground is too hard." He explained. "The organs will vanish themselves."

As was normal in their world, all wild animals and monsters dissipated in time. Unless preserved, the time it takes for them to disappear varies, with some disappearing within several hours and some over the course of a week.

Kaede was not very satisfied with his answer, however. "Doesn't the thick scent of blood cause you to lose your appetite?"

"No." Akio answered as he started to tear out the boar's skeleton with his bare hands as though it was child's play. To him, it probably was, all things considered. He glanced at the archer. "Does it bother you?"

"A little." Kaede admitted.

Akio then turned to Ascion. "And you?"

"Not really." Ascion responded. "I've been handling animal blood and guts since I was little. I wouldn't be alive otherwise."

Akio looked at Ascion, his perpetually bland expression disappearing as curiosity crept onto his face. "Why? No family?" He asked.

"Nah, I've got one." Ascion scoffed. "They don't feed me, though, and if they do, they don't care if any of my siblings steal my food. Which they do. I had to scavenge for food in the kitchens, in the bins where the chefs toss the unwanted meat and organs."

"Your family, wealthy?" Akio asked. It was a fair question. While most people would think that Ascion came from a poor family that didn't have enough food to feed everyone, Akio had picked up on two important details that says otherwise.

Only wealthy families have their own chefs. Also, people normally buy their meat from butchers, while families with adventurers normally clean and gut their game out in the wild. This means that there normally aren't any organs to throw away.

Ascion snorted. "Yeah, they're rich. Want their meat so fresh that they only kill the animals in the kitchen itself. Picky about which parts of the meat they want too, so they would throw away perfectly edible stuff." The mage shrugged. "More for me, though."

"Ah." Akio nodded in understanding. "Must have been hard. Bastard child?"

Despite the crude and rather rudely phrased question, Ascion wasn't affected by it. "Nope. Birth records show that I'm 100% legitimate." Ascion tried to sound nonchalant about it, but he knew he failed miserably. Even he could hear the bitterness in his voice. "I never got why I was treated like that."

"Ah." Akio nodded. "My apologies, brought up bad memories."

"Oh, it's fine." Ascion waved off his concern with a smile. "I'm over it now. Living by myself and all that."

Akio finished tearing the boar skeleton out, tossing the removed bones onto the organs. He then picked up his knife and started to roughly hack the carcass into smaller, more manageable pieces, stacking the small pieces on another side of the boar skin.

"What of your family, Kaede?" Akio asked. "Only if you are comfortable speaking." He tagged on.

She shrugged. "Nothing too interesting. Got a pretty nice family, though mom's a half elf and dad's a human, so I'm a quarter elf." She brushed some of her hair behind her ear. "See? My ear's kinda pointed, but that's about all I have to show of my elven side."

Ascion snorted. "You definitely inherited their grace. I once saw you jump off the second floor and landed without a scratch."

Akio cocked his head. "Elves just returned, right?"

Akio was referring to the rediscovery of Elluel, the city of elves. About three years ago, the city was found still half frozen from an evil god's curse. Which is, of course, too short a time for any of the recently awoken elves to have a teenage daughter.

Kaede just chuckled wryly. "No. Though rare, some elves weren't in Elluel when the curse struck a century ago. I'm one of their descendants."

Akio didn't respond with his by-now customary "ah". His hands stopped moving as his head suddenly perked up, nose twitching and eyes staring at one of the surrounding rock formations.

Ascion could not help but stare when Akio snarled.

Gone was the emotionless and calm face he usually had. His muscles were tense, and his teeth were bared. He forcefully stabbed his knife into the boar carcass before standing up and stalking into his cave.

The two friends stared at the shadowed entrance of the cave, gaping. After an awkward moment, Kaede piped up timidly. "Was it something I said?"

"I don't think so." Ascion replied, still a little shocked at the sudden change.

Akio exited his cave soon after, his sword and shield ready. A large, two handed hammer was strapped to his back, and an axe hung from his hip. He was scowling fiercely. "Leave." Akio growled at them.

"What?" Ascion blinked at the abrupt order.

Akio seemed to calm himself slightly as the scowl faded from his face. "My apologies. Please, leave. Quickly."

Ascion scrambled to his feet, his hand clenched tightly around his staff. Kaede got up beside him. Akio's odd behaviour was starting to unnerve both of them. "We're not leaving till you tell us what's going on."

Akio shook his head. "Please, go."

"You wouldn't snarl like that unless something's really wrong, Akio. I've seen you maintain your poker face during combat class or when bullies somehow think you're a prime target. This is different, it's troubling you, and I'm not leaving till you tell me what it is."

Akio studied Ascion silently, and Ascion stared back, arms crossed. After a few moments, Akio turned his gaze onto Kaede.

Kaede rolled her eyes. "Of course I'm staying."

Akio nodded. "Very well… I will tell-"

Kaede suddenly spun, whipping out her bow and nocking an arrow fluidly. She drew back the string and fired the arrow – which was starting to give off a red glow – into what seemed to be a solid rock wall about five meters behind them.

The [Arrow Bomb] sank into the wall before exploding spectacularly. Pieces of rock rained down around them as Kaede stalked forward, heedless of the smoke, then reached down and grabbed something buried in the rubble.

With a heave, Kaede dragged the buried object out easily and threw it near the fire.

"I thought I heard something moving behind that wall." Kaede returned her bow into its holster on her quiver as she looked down at what she had pulled out from the rocks.

It was a rabbit the size of a man. It was fat, covered in white fur, and dressed in black clothes. A glint in the rubble caught Kaede's attention, so she dug in the rubble some more.

When she dug out the object, she stiffened, recognizing it immediately. The archer tossed what she found on top of the groaning rabbit-man.

A black cap with an insignia at the front.

Ascion tensed the moment he saw the insignia. It was a purple gem, with white wings coming out from either side. He recognized the symbol, how could he not? It was the symbol of an infamous terrorist organization.

"Akio." Ascion said slowly, tearing his eyes away from the cap to look at the warrior. "Why is there a member of the Black Wings here?"

The only answer Akio gave was a growl as he stabbed his sword into the rabbit-man's head.

And that's a wrap! Please drop a review if you can, and see you guys in the next chapter!