By morning, when the rainfall had long subsided, Ragna saw that Jubei never strayed far from him. This continued for the next day as he kept walking, hoping the old man would leave him be already. Yet Jubei remained insistent that he had something to do in the same direction.
Kagutsuchi now rested in the distance as a messy shape nestled in the mountains, and none of the light from the sprawling city could reach them. In the dead of night, only the flickering glow from a campfire helped them see. They had their weapons propped next to them while sitting on fallen logs. After a meal of freshly-caught fish, they made small talk until the fire grew dim. Being surrounded by wilderness again brought a kind of assurance to Ragna, one that guaranteed a form of peace. And with Jubei around, it was never too quiet.
As Ragna watched him stir the embers around with a thin stick, he finally found the guts to say what he truly had in mind. "You're just following me now, aren't you?"
On the other side of the dying fire, Jubei's eye looked up at him. It held still for a lengthy second. He then snorted a laugh. "Ah, well… It ain't like I've been doin' a mighty fine job of keepin' it a secret."
With his suspicion confirmed, the off-putting feeling he had became less worrying. "Great, so I wasn't just being paranoid…"
His thoughts went back to what happened before he began casting doubt on Jubei's intentions, which was right when he found his way out of Kagutsuchi's undergrounds. At the time, his encounters with Jin hadn't sat right with him—another addition to a growing pile of anomalies. He had truly believed that Jin wouldn't let himself be beaten to that extent by Relius Clover, assuming the guy had learnt when to accept a loss and flee.
Ragna pushed that line of thinking for later as he shifted in his seat. He wanted to know something from Jubei. "You're keeping an eye on me for a reason, right? I'd sure like to know why at the very least."
"Yer sharper than ya look, I'll give ya that." His smirk faded off, giving way to a graver look. "It's yer arm, kid. Where didja get something like that?"
Reminded of the differences from his own memories, he opted to stay vague with his answers as he had done so during most of their conversations. "It's…a long story. It's been with me for years." Ragna squeezed the hand in question. His arm no longer gave off an annoying throb after he had taken it out of its 'sleep'. The more he remembered, the more he was relieved from this confusion weighing down on him. Replacing that weight, however, was the burden of knowledge.
"I felt it, ya know? As soon as I saw ya use the thing, I knew that feelin' from years ago… It's dangerous. Jin must've known too if he was after yer neck," said Jubei, tossing the half-burnt twig in his hand into the fire. As he reached to the side to grab some dry leaves, a crooked smile showed up. "Couldn't risk pissin' ya off in the middle of a city, so I kept my mouth nice an' shut. But, I was wrong 'bout ya. Yer good company it turns out."
"Uh, thanks?" To be secretly treated like a bomb with a short fuse the entire time they traveled together almost impressed Ragna. Knowing that Jubei had no intention to start a fight, he allowed himself to relax once more. "Look...J-Jubei, you don't have to stress about it. I've had this arm for the better half of my life, so I know how to handle it."
Once he threw in some fuel to revive the fire, he dusted his sleeves. "I'll call the shots on that. I dunno what that young lass' shtick was back there but I trust in Jin's instincts. He ain't the type to be gung-ho 'bout killin' without reason."
Ragna listened to him with a doubtful frown. "Huh, you sure are confident about this. What if he's just being dramatic?"
"Haha, that's 'cause I'm sure as can be. I trained 'im up for a lil' while after all, so I know what he's capable of," replied Jubei. With that said, something else crossed his mind. "Hm…"
Hearing him trail off into silence before grumbling some words to himself, Ragna stopped staring at the sparks flitting up into the air. "What's up?"
He shut his eye for a bit. "Oh, just a wee thing I remembered I still gotta do."
"We can go our separate ways when the sun comes back," Ragna suggested half-heartedly. The more time he spent with his former mentor, the more he found himself reluctant to split up. "On second thought, I…wouldn't mind tagging along with you."
"Huh, color me surprised." Jubei appeared to entertain the idea at the same time as not being entirely convinced. "Be honest with me here. Don'tcha got somewhere ya gotta be? I mean, I'd hate ta stop ya if ya got somethin' that needs ta be done on time."
Upon mention, Ragna mused that he didn't have a place he particularly needed to be at. "…As long as we stay the hell away from Kagutsuchi, I'll follow you pretty much anywhere. I'd rather stay on the move."
"I can get behind that," Jubei answered with a nod. He paused for a moment to think. "Anyhow, take yer time ta rest up. I'll handle night watch duty. We've got one heckuva trek ahead."
"If you say so... I'm hitting the hay then. Wake me up when it's time." After finding a comfortable spot to lie down, Ragna's eyelids soon grew heavy. He had nearly forgotten what it was like to have someone watch his back as he slept.
Before closing his eyes and turning to his side, Ragna hadn't bothered asking where Jubei planned to go. All he had been doing was drifting to whichever place felt right while being wary of pursuers, so following Jubei wouldn't be any different.
No, that wasn't quite true. Now untethered to anything in this world, he should be able to do as he pleased. But the events in the past few days had him wondering if he had just been running away from his troubles. For the sake of what had been done, it would be for the best if he kept a low profile after all. But whether he would be able to keep this up or not, Ragna had deliberated over it without a concrete answer. He knew he shouldn't indulge himself in this nostalgia for longer than he already had, but for now, he wanted this feeling to last.
Peacefully, the night passed by.