BOOOM! Chapter 3 is hereeee! At the end, there's more dialogue! (finally...) More talk from now on..! Enjoy :3

Chapter 3

"…Meiko!"

Kaito hastily sheathed his katana and ran up to her, scooping her up in a tight hug. Meiko laughed with joy and returned his embrace, nearly dropping her lantern.

"It's been so long, Meiko…" said Kaito, releasing his tight hold of Meiko and looked closely at the scar on her face. It had been 17 long years before he had last seen the scar, and seeing it again brought back so many childhood memories. Meiko smiled at him and brushed a lock of dark brown hair from her eyes.

"Yes, it has been." Meiko answered, and held the lantern in between up to his face so she could see him properly. He looked so similar to when he was young – he had the same skin colour, mouth, nose, hair and sapphire blue eyes. He looked like he hadn't changed as all. But she knew he had. She knew that he wouldn't be the same person he was that long time ago. He would have changed, and for the better too. Meiko's smile faded and looked down at her feet. She placed her hand over her left eye to cover her scar.

Kaito looked curiously at Meiko. "Hey, are you okay?"

Meiko looked back at him and lowered the lantern. "Yes, I… I'm fine." Kaito wrapped her arm around her, and she nearly shuddered. He looked at her worryingly – her body was as cold as ice and he saw in her clouded eyes that she was scared.

"What have you been doing the last 17 years?" he asked, in hopes to comfort her from whatever she was feeling.

"N…Nothing much. I guess…" she stuttered. She was shocked and slightly happy that Kaito was worried about her. It had been so long since she felt such pure warmth from anyone.

"Where do you live now?" Kaito asked. They were starting to walk slowly through the village. The smell of putrid flesh and bodies seem to have deteriorated around them, and it seemed like they were just having a normal conversation between the closest of friends.

"I live a little far from here; in a fortressed town." Kaito began to try to remember any fortressed towns in the area, in the hopes that he could visit her one day.

"What about you, Kaito? Where do you live?"

"In one of the major towns. I'm a member of Scarlet Tiger," Kaito beamed. Despite the hardships when enlisting into the troupe of "justice bringers", being a member of Scarlet Tiger was a dream to most people, and they were highly respected. Kaito looked to Meiko and expected to see her smling at him and congratulating him. Instead, her eyes showed her horror, and she was evidently trying to remain calm. She looked terrified.

"What's wrong?"

"N…Nothing! Being a member of Scarlet Tiger is great! Y…Yeah!" She couldn't even lie properly. Kaito stopped and looked at her, the dim light of the lantern obscuring her scar. There were tears in her eyes.

"Meiko… did I make you cry? I'm sorry… um…"

"No, it's not that." Meiko wiped her eyes with the sleeves of her yukata, her flowery hair ornament bobbing up and down. "…it's just that… Scarlet Tiger…"

"….Scarlet Tiger killed my parents."

"I'm sorry Kaito, but I have to go."

Meiko turned away from him and sighed sadly, glimpsing back at him. Kaito stared at her in disbelief. She couldn't just leave after they had only met for about an hour or so…?

"Hey, Meiko. I can come meet you in your village right?"

Meiko turned back him, what Kaito saw in her eyes was an expression he had never seen before. It was an expression of mixed fear and anger, a frightening expression that she had never used.

"No. Please, don't come visit me. My life is hard, and I wouldn't be able to meet you properly anymore. I'm sorry. Goodbye, Kaito."

Kaito could only watch as she began to walk away into the darkness, stopping to put down her lantern.

"Here, you take this. You need it more than I do." She didn't even look at him, but he could tell that she was choking on tears. What was going on? Sure, he was a member of Scarlet Tiger, but did that make her hate him so much?

She had already left, and the stench of ashes and death began to strengthen around him. He needed to go back to camp.

"Hey, Kaito, you were out for a while, so I was becoming worried," Luka said, as Kaito walked back into the view of the warm campfire. The others had already retired to their tents, and Luka seemed to be just about to, as she was untying her hair. Gakupo always used to secretly admire the way Luka undid her hair, and he would always talk to Kaito about it, and Kaito would tell him to get a proper life. Gakupo didn't watch Luka undo her hair every night anymore, instead, he always tried to get a good peek at her while she was bathing with the other girls, often getting himself sliced up by Luka, but he always said it was worth it.

"Yeah, I was out. Did anything important happen?"

"No, not really. You should get some rest. We'll be investigating nearby villages next. We're going to see if anything relating to the arson can be found out. Miku was worried about you being so late. What were you doing?" she asked, as she slipped on smaller knives and a bag of salt. She looked at him anxiously and patiently waited. Kaito knew he was not going to get out of this one with just 'nothing really'.

"I was just looking around, then I got lost." That was half true, and Kaito tried desperately to look Luka in the eye when he said that, to try and look innocent. Luka raised an eyebrow, but nodded.

"If you want to hide something, you should practice. Even I can read your face, and you know I'm terrible at that," she answered, smiling sympathetically. Kaito looked at her in disbelief, and she laughed almost mockingly, and pointed to the lantern he was holding.

"'Night," and with that, she had dismissed herself into her own tent.

Kaito sighed and ran his hands through his dark blue hair. He sat down near the still-burning fire and looked through the flames. They were going to look at "nearby villages", but there were quite a few. What were the chances they would go to the fortressed village where Meiko was? Highly unlikely – it would be heavily guarded, and it would only make sense to go to towns that were less secured for life's sake of simplicity.

But that night, he couldn't help thinking that everyone else seemed so much closer to each other than he did. He was always keeping his emotions to himself, never letting them show to anyone. In fact, the only person he had ever revealed himself to was Meiko, and it would be long before he met her again.

But what was wrong with her? Meiko seemed afraid of him somehow. What happened to her?

He couldn't sleep well, and dreamt too many nightmares for a night.

It was morning, and Kaito was helping Gumi load the cart. He was still thinking about the day before when he realized that she was trying to speak to him.

"Kaito, nii-san, did you just hear what I said?"

"Uh… no. Sorry, could you say it again?"

"I asked you what you did last night." Kaito cringed at the question, but was cautious not to show that.

"NO LOITERING! GET YOUR ASSES UP AND MOVING. WE GOT A JOB TO DO." Len bellowed, watching down at them from the top of a boulder he had miraculously climbed.

"Yessir." No one was bothered to argue, and Gumi didn't ask Kaito again. But that made him wonder, what was Meiko doing out so late at night, in a burnt down village with nothing to protect herself with?

"Len~! Get over here!" Rin cooed. They all snapped a horrified face to Rin, who was smiling brightly as she tied up a blanket in a tight knot. There were all somewhat jealous of her – Rin was the only one who could address him so casually and not get merciless punishment. It wasn't fair, but it was a running joke in their division.

"Don't call me by my first name in such a nasty tone. Watch your tongue, Kagamine."

"LENNERS!"

"Kagamine, I want you to stop packing up and do a hundred pushups now."

"But your name is Kagamine too, so you have to do it too~."

"Two hundred."

"But LEN…!"

"THREE HUNDRED."

The rest of them couldn't help but laugh a bit at Rin, but they could all see that she thought it was definitely worth getting on Len's bad side just to annoy him. They looked similar and even had the same last name, and it was sometimes even adorable to see them almost argue over the puniest of matters.

"The rest of you, keep laughing and I'll have to break a neck today."

That shut everyone up. Why? Because Kagamine Len was not afraid to do it – heck, once Kaito himself disobeyed that rule and literally had an arm broken.

"EVERYONE. MOVE! We're going to the town closest by, Rian, and we're going to do some of that investigation. We're going to work out who was behind the massacre if it's the last thing we do."

"Wait… Luka you faggot, you never told me that we had to do that sort of investigation," Kaito spat, mostly in annoyance but slightly in humour.

"Well, we are doing that sort of investigation."

"But why?"

"SHION, MEGURINE, KAMUI. ONE HUNDRED PUSHUPS."

"Hey, why me too?" Gakupo groaned, as the three of them trudged slowly to where Rin was on her 47th push-up and started counting.

Kaito began to think to himself. Why did Len order some of that type of investigation to be carried out. What evidence had they found was so worrying that they needed to do that?

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