Notes: In which, Gojo realizes why his new assignment is a punishment.

Chapter 6

12 years ago

It took just one glance at Karuori village for Satoru to realize why the clan elders considered this place a punishment. As he and Suguru crested the final hill before the village, he looked down and saw a small clearing in the valley below with a cluster of small homes with some smoke from cookfires going in one or two of them. The area between the hill he and his horse stood on had been mostly cleared of trees, and empty fields lay resting under a light dusting of snow from the night before. Beyond the village lay more forests which had not been cleared, and at the far side of the valley rose another foothill.

He let out a sigh. "Fuck, I hate this mission already."

At his side, Suguru said nothing. The Six Eyes bearer doubted his friend wanted to be out here in the middle of nowhere either, though he would hide his annoyance more skillfully.

The two friends made their way between the rows of dormant fields toward the village. It was late afternoon and the temperature was just warm enough for the snow on the fields to begin to melt, making the ground soggy under their horses' hooves.

An old man leaning on a knobby cane greeted them as they entered, bowing as much as his frail form would allow. "Lord Gojo. Lord Geto. Welcome to our humble village. We are most blessed that your esteemed family has placed you here in our midst. My name is Hayagawa Yoshi, and I am the elder of Karuori village."

Suguru dismounted and gave a slight bow. His response was formal. "I thank you for your hospitality, Elder Hayagawa. Gojo and I are happy to help with anything you or the villagers need during our time here."

Satoru was not, in fact, happy to help with anything. But this was why he let Suguru handle this kind of diplomatic stuff. Elder Hayagawa led the two of them to one of the largest homes in the village, which still looked like a hovel in Satoru's opinion. He idly wondered who in his family had a connection here; the place was so out of the way and obscure.

The elder's wife greeted them with a hearty meal at the least, though Satoru had been hoping for some… younger hosts during their stay. He glanced around, but there was no sugar pot with which to sweeten his tea. He tried not to gag on the bitter drink, used to having a little tea with his sugar as Suguru always joked about it. I can't live like this, he thought. I'll go into the mountains and become a hermit and grow sugarcane. Yes, that's a good plan.

Oblivious to his friend's inner thoughts, Suguru made polite conversation with the elder and his wife. How was the weather? It had been favorable this winter thus far. Any problems with demons or devils? No, the last major attack had been when the two of them were young. There was a goblin troupe that had started harassing the herdsmen and carrying off some of the goats when they grazed in the foothills though. Maybe the two of them could look into that as their first task?

"Of course. It would be best to wait until morning," Suguru was saying as Satoru finally tuned back into the actual words of the conversation instead of just the beats of the topics. "The trip to the foothills will take the better part of the day on foot. And you said the goats remain out there for days?"

"Yes," the elder's wife, whose name Satoru had either not caught or not been mentioned yet, said. "The herdsmen stay out there with them. None of them have been attacked yet, but it seems they are chasing off more and more goblins more and more often."

"It's likely word is spreading to other nearby goblins about the easy food," Suguru explained. "If their numbers continue to increase, it won't be long until they become bold enough to enter the village proper. Goblins are naturally wary of humans, but they do pose a danger when in large groups."

The elders nodded their thanks as dinner wrapped up, and showed the two to their room. The place was large for the village but small for a normal building. The two would have to share a room unless one wanted to sleep in the main living/kitchen area. Satoru shook his head. No, he wouldn't want to sleep out in the living area, where people could come and go at any time. He entered the room and lay down on the pile of blankets and pillows atop the tatami mat floor.

Suguru stayed in the doorway as Elder Hayagawa asked in a quiet voice, "Is Lord Gojo a mute?"

"Oh no," Suguru was quick to correct the man. "He's usually very chatty. It must be because of the long journey to get here."

Bless him for making up an excuse. It took the elder's blatant question for Satoru to realize that he hadn't uttered a single word to anyone since entering the village.

The elder and his wife went back to the main room to tend the fire before bed and clean up the dinner dishes. Suguru slid the door to their room shut. He did not approach his own futon but sat cross-legged on the floor with his back to the door and folded his arms. When he spoke, it was quietly, obviously not wanting their hosts to hear what he had to say.

"Satoru, I understand you're unhappy. Hells, I am too. Mages of our skill are wasted out here in this village. Their biggest problem is some goblins, and any C-rank mage or even a pair of D-ranks could take care of that. I think we've been sent away partially as punishment and partially to rob the king of the chance to send us out on some more challenging missions. On those, we could be doing some actual good that hardly anyone else could do."

The Gojo Clan, while mostly independent, did to some extent need to answer to the mage-king. And with him being a Zen'in, they did everything in their power to subvert him. They tended to do this in petty ways like this - sending their two S-ranks away for a long period of time, making them unavailable to take on any important missions. Satoru found the politicking between the three clans tiresome, and he knew Suguru did as well, though for different reasons.

Satoru sighed and rolled onto his back, lifting his head to slide his hands back behind it. "What's done is done. Let's just make the most of it. We can look into the goblins first thing tomorrow like you said we would."

Suguru raised an eyebrow. "What a remarkably mature response from you. Turning over a new leaf?"

"Plotting a sugarcane farm in the foothills," Satoru muttered.

His best friend laughed.

The two mages headed up to the mountains the next morning. It didn't take long for them to wipe out the goblin troupe. They decided to set up a patrol area, even though it was unlikely there would be any goblin activity in the area for years. If any goblins had escaped the slaughter, they would run far away and warn any goblins they came across not to trespass in that area. Suguru raised all the goblins and stored them in his pocket dimension. Satoru greatly appreciated this for the cleanup value alone - whenever he went on missions with the necromancer there was never any gravedigging cleanup to be done afterward.

Over the next few days, the two friends fell into a routine. Suguru would get up early and assist their hosts with stoking the fire and making breakfast. He even chopped wood for them and had some of his undead army carry it back to their home from the forest outskirts.

Satoru went for a run on their patrol route. While known to put in minimal effort in many areas of life, that did not extend to maintaining his physical fitness. He ran to the high foothill on the far side of the village and scaled the almost sheer cliff toward the top. The view was pretty good too, he had to admit. He did pushups and situps while gazing out across the next valley toward the mountains in the distance. A dense fog existed at their base, sometimes refracting the light in various colors if the sun hit it at the right angle.

Afternoons often found Satoru in hiding. He got much better with mana suppression as the weeks went by, with little else to work on. All mages who were B-rank or higher learned the essential skill in order to not overwhelm those around them with their magical presence, but Satoru had so much power that it constantly roiled around him, straining to be let loose. His control had never been as smooth as Suguru's, but his friend told him he had noticed marked improvement as of late.

His seventeenth birthday came and went with little celebration. Suguru had whittled him a little carving of a bird and his hosts made a small cake (which he dubbed bread behind their backs due to the lack of sugar - he swore he was going into withdrawal), but that was it. The bird sat next to his pillow at night, reminding him that Suguru's birthday would be approaching in another two months. He wondered if they would still be stuck in bumsville.

"Reversal: Red." The red light coalesced at his fingertip before once again sputtering out. Satoru sighed and lay back on the hill. The winter sun was sinking, and he would soon have to go back to the village. He was beginning to hear voices behind him.

"Suguru, Suguru, can't we play some more?"

"It's time to head in for the day, Minato," came the voice of Suguru.

"Aww, but we wanted to try to make some carvings too," complained another voice.

"First thing tomorrow, Kenji."

Satoru's best friend had attracted the attention of some (well, pretty much all) of the children in the village, what with being an interesting stranger in their midst. The boys, Minato and Kenji, followed him almost everywhere. The girls, Hana and Suzume, did as well whenever they were done with their chores. They smiled and giggled over Suguru, but hid behind him whenever Satoru was around, staring at the white-haired mage with wide eyes.

Jumping up and turning, Satoru soon caught up with his friend and the posse of children. Hana was reaching up to hold his left hand and Suzume his right and the two of them skipped along as he walked the path back to the village.

Slouching, Satoru fell into line behind them. "Yo."

The girls stopped skipping and buried their faces in Suguru's black kimono. He patted each one on the head and ushered them along. The two boys hardly noted Satoru's approach and continued arguing over what carvings to make the next day.

Suguru smiled in greeting but continued his conversations with the children. Satoru wasn't sure why he made such an effort. He strolled casually along with his hands laced together behind his head. There were only two women close to his age in the village and both were married, one with an infant already. There was no tavern in the village to speak to strangers at, hardly any sugar, and even fewer enemies to fight. The Six Eyes bearer had little to do but exercise and work on his magic. Maybe his family thought he would marry when he came home if he returned bored enough.

Time continued to pass, and the only things that seemed to change in the village were the weather and the distant fog, which continued to creep closer. Satoru's Six Eyes could only penetrate the outer section of it but didn't see anything amiss. There were only forests over there anyway.

On Suguru's birthday, he did spot one thing out of the ordinary on his run back from his lookout. A black cat sat sunning itself on a rock. Green eyes narrowed their focus on him suspiciously.

"You can't possibly belong here," he murmured under his breath. The cat leapt up and made to bound away, but Satoru drew himself toward it with extreme speed by applying Blue. "Gotcha. Ouch!" He instinctively cast Infinity around himself, holding the cat between his arms as it yowled and tried to scratch him again. Its first attack had drawn thin scrapes on his arms. The scratches might have bled if he hadn't instinctively been reinforcing himself with mana.

"Damn cat. I was going to take you home. Suguru needs a birthday present."

Being in the middle of nowhere, he couldn't go out and buy something for his friend the way he usually would. And his wood carvings so far had all turned out so bad it was laughable.

The ungrateful cat hissed half of the way back to the village before giving up and accepting its fate. "Happy birthday!" Satoru announced, hefting the cat up in the air at his friend, who sat helping the children carve what must have been their fiftieth carvings.

"A cat?" Sugaru asked, raising one eyebrow. He reached out to accept the cat.

"Careful, he scratches," Satoru warned.

The cat, however, purred and settled peacefully in Suguru's lap, allowing itself to be pet by Minato, Kenji, Hana, and Suzume all. Apparently it only disliked him.

"Poor guy had a hard life," Suguru commented, gesturing toward a scar on the cat's flank Satoru had previously noticed while wrestling with said beast. "We'll all take good care of it, won't we?" he asked the children, who had dropped their carvings at once in order to inspect the new creature.

"Don't be too upset if he runs away," Satoru warned. The girls no longer tried to hide behind Suguru when he approached, and the boys seemed somewhat amazed by his abilities. Satoru considered this great progress. Suguru considered it the bare minimum as far as socialization. "He's one ungrateful bast- I mean kitty."

The children then began arguing over what to name the cat. Satoru tuned this out, sitting down on the ground with them and picking up a knife and stick. By the time they were all ready to head back to the village, he had whittled a very poor model of the cat.

February passed. March arrived, and with it, spring. The entire village except for the extremely old and young worked the fields, tilling and planting. Suguru brought forth the undead goblins he had raised on their second day at the village, using them to assist the villagers. Even Satoru put in some small amount of effort, using Blue to blast down some trees that needed to be cleared to expand the fields.

He still continued his morning runs, and the ever-creeping fog soon pressed up against the northern flank of his foothill. It had a slightly acrid smell to it. Satoru pushed his dark spectacles down his nose and peered into the odd fog with his Six Eyes bared.

He saw nothing.

Satoru returned to the village. On one hand he wanted to let Suguru know about the fog rolling in, but on the other hand, he hadn't seen anything in it, even with the Six Eyes. By this point he very much doubted it was a natural phenomenon. But if there really was something behind it, it was either very small, very far away, or very powerful and skilled at concealment. If he kept it to himself, maybe whatever it was would make it to the village and he would finally have a real fight on his hands. The thought that the villagers might be in danger due to his negligence despite the barriers Suguru had set up when they first arrived was but a fleeting thought in the back of his mind.

Five days later, he got his answer. He had been lying on his usual hill in a state of half-sleep when the sun overhead went dark. Instantly awake, he jumped to his feet and saw a massive form in the sky, descending toward Karuori village. He ran toward the form, fully expecting to do battle. The villagers screamed in fright as the green scaled giant landed near their huts and opened its mouth. Suguru stood in front of it, right hand raised toward it, ready to use his magic against it.

"Puny humans," came the deep voice of the creature.

As Satoru skidded to a halt beside Suguru, he saw its curved jawline and gaping maw, open in speech. Its scales were both dark and light shades of green, and it had a crest beginning near its eyes and continuing down its spine. Its tail lashed once, destroying one of the huts near the field. Leathery spiked plates ran down the sides of its long neck. It was Satoru's first time seeing one of the rare creatures in person, but he could tell it was a dragon. An adult, but not an ancient beast. The fog made sense now; green dragons breathed poison, hence the acrid fog that constantly hung around their lairs. It must have been expanding its territory this way and finally came upon the village.

"If you offer me piles of gold and silver, I will not kill you and raze your homes and fields. A fair offer," the dragon said. "Who is your leader?"

Elder Hayagawa stepped forward, trembling. But Suguru must have noticed the old man about to put himself in danger, and stepped forward instead. "I can answer for them. And I tell you, dragon, we have no gold or silver to offer. This is only a poor village. But," a glint entered his eye, "If you continue to threaten us, we will have no choice but to drive you off."

The dragon's voice boomed through the valley with an echoing laugh. "You think you can fight off me, Hokori?" It laughed again. "You are a foolish little human. But if you have no gold or silver, then you are useless as anything but food. So come at me all at once!"

It flapped its wings, knocking a few of the staring villagers back a pace. Satoru and Suguru stood their ground. Glancing sideways at his friend's clenched jaw, Satoru made his move. His friend preferred diplomacy against intelligent foes, but he had to make an exception this time with the villagers in imminent danger. And with a dragon named Pride, Satoru had the solution.

"Hokori, I challenge you to a fight! Me versus you. If you win, the village is yours. If I win, well, you'll be dead," he proclaimed with a smirk.

The dragon snorted, poison billowing out before dissipating in the air. "I'll give you that you're the second strongest here, but you really think you can defeat me, who has lived for a hundred years? You should send out the black-haired one instead."

Satoru pouted, ignoring the dragon's comment that Suguru was stronger than him. "You're only one hundred? Disappointing."

By now, Hokori was working into a fury from Satoru talking down to him.

"Satoru, is this really a good idea?" Suguru asked.

"We're the strongest, aren't we? You protect the villagers, I'll fight the dragon." Satoru smiled at his friend, entirely confident in his victory. He cracked his knuckles. "Let's get down to business, Hokori. We'll fight down there." He pointed deeper in the valley to the area which had just been cleared of trees but still needed to be plowed before it could be planted. That area would minimize the damage to the village during their fight.

Satoru strode toward the spot of the fight, loose and relaxed. He shoved his hands in the pockets of the loose pants he wore, his dark blue haori fluttered in the wind. As the dragon thumped over on its four legs, he removed his spectacles and shoved them in his pocket. Brilliant turquoise eyes sparked with challenge and met the gaze of one deep, forest green orb glowing with malevolent rage.

"Try not to damage it too much!" Suguru called from behind them where he was erecting a barrier to protect the village from any fallout of the fight. The dragon had smashed through the other ones on its flight in.

"Start on three?" Satoru asked the dragon chipperly, nodding his acknowledgement of Suguru's request.

Poison leaked from Hokori's nostrils again. "That is acceptable. You will regret this, human."

"I don't think I will. One, two, three."

As soon as Satoru finished the count, the dragon lunged, maw spreading wide to show rows of razor sharp teeth, preparing to rip his head from his neck. The jaws met with resistance centimeters from his shoulders.

"Tsk tsk," Satoru said, voice muffled from inside the dragon's mouth. The jaws were still straining to close around him.

He held his breath as poison spewed toward him, unsure if Infinity could block a gas. He removed one hand from his pocket and pushed the dragon's head away with a strength that seemed to surprise the creature. The green eye facing him darkened in anger, and its tail whipped forward to sweep Satoru's feed out from under him, only to be stopped again by Infinity. Satoru breathed again. He figured the poison gas was the only thing he really needed to be wary of. One hundred, while ancient for a human, was fairly young for a dragon.

Hokori tried an attack with its right front claw. The sharp talons slid past him on Infinity yet again. Satoru smirked as the dragon continued to work itself up, battering him with tail and talons to no effect.

After a few minutes, the dragon stopped attacking and its eyes narrowed. The Six Eyes bearer still stood confidently, one hand in a pocket and the other dangling at his side. He was utterly assured of his victory as he toyed with the creature. He could imagine Suguru's annoyance at him for drawing out the fight, but really, this was the best challenge he had had in a while. Probably since the mage-king had deployed the two of them to fight a couple of arch-demons.

Hokori opened its mouth and poison billowed forth. Satoru swiftly dodged to the side, avoiding the toxic gas. The dragon's eyes glinted. The mage had moved to dodge the attack, and now the dragon knew it had a weapon in its arsenal which could harm him. To Satoru's surprise, the dragon's neck reared back instead of arching forward to press the attack. It shifted on its four legs and opened its mouth again, but words came forth instead of poison gas. "Domain Expansion: Poison Forest."

As the shell of the domain's barrier closed around him, Satoru filled his lungs with fresh air. If the dragon was using a domain instead of pressing its advantage of poison breath, that meant the sure-hit effect of the domain would be the toxic air. Even if the domain hadn't nullified his Infinity, it would still have been able to affect him. This sucked. He removed his other hand from his pocket as the barrier closed. He turned off Infinity as it would do him no good against the guaranteed hit of a domain.

Brilliant ocean-blue light gathered on one fingertip. He pointed it at Hokori and released the converging power of Blue.

The domain's barrier shattered and Satoru waited a few seconds for the poison gas to dissipate before taking another breath. Hokori was roaring in anguish, one wing ripped off in the attack; the barrier had dropped due to the damage caused to its caster. Oops, Suguru won't be happy about that, he thought as he closed in, floating in the air til he was alongside the dragon's pained green eye. He released his hold on his mana, and it flared to life. Hokori's visible eye widened.

"You… were suppressing it this whole time?" it croaked out. Blood was pouring from the shoulder where the wing had been severed cleanly by Blue.

Satoru shrugged. It was a little disappointing the dragon didn't seem to know powerful mages suppressed their mana near-constantly. He wondered if it had always lived far from humans and never learned such a thing as a consequence of that. "I had little else to do. Farewell, Hokori." Red light gathered at his fingertip where blue had previously. "Red."

The light streaked toward the dragon's eye, the beast's pupil shrinking as it came closer. It dissipated before striking its target. "It didn't work!" Satoru said in a happy tone. He finished off the dragon with a blast of Blue through the eye instead, and Hokori breathed its last.

The villagers, stunned, began cheering and hugging one another as Suguru dropped the barrier he had been holding around them. "Not bad, this shouldn't take too long to fix," he said, placing a hand on the severed wing. It had been sheared off cleanly thanks to Blue.

"Sorry, I didn't expect it to have a poison gas domain," Satoru apologized with a shrug. "I could have blasted it right away, but that wouldn't have been any fun."

Suguru sighed and rested a hand on the dragon's massive head. "Arise." The eye opened, pale fire shining in it. It was under the necromancer's control now. He began work healing the wing immediately, dragging it over to put next to the joint with Satoru's help. Mending the clean tear would be much faster than trying to regrow the entire wing, which could take an entire day's worth of concentration as well as depleting his mana store significantly.

Several men of the village greeted Satoru with cheers as he strode toward them, taking his spectacles out of his pocket and covering his Six Eyes with them. The world's colors muted and grew manageable to take in, the glow of mana everywhere dimmed to a duller state. They patted him on the back and said how amazing he had been out there. The women told him how brave he had been, facing that gigantic beast. Satoru thrived under the attention. Things were as they should be.

A feast was prepared for that night. There was still a serious lack of sugar, Satoru thought while eating his third rice ball. He had regaled the crowd early in the dinner with his story of the dragon's domain, though that hadn't taken long since he had broken out of it so quickly. Soon Suguru took over, telling tales of their adventures on other missions hunting down demons and devils, destroying ghoul lairs, and finding objects of rare magical power.

During a pause between stories, Satoru turned to his friend. "Suguru, aren't dragons supposed to have lairs? Places where they collect treasure and all that?"

The necromancer nodded. "That's what all the lore says. This dragon was relatively young for its kind though, so don't expect much in its horde."

Satoru looked thoughtful for a moment. "I think I have a good idea of where the dragon came from. There was this fog I noticed far off in the distance when we first got here. It looked completely natural I swear!" he added quickly as Suguru frowned at him. He conveniently left out the part where he figured out later on the fog was indeed not natural. "But if we search out past the next valley over we should be able to find it. And… we should fly there!"

"Hmm, not a bad way to test out my latest soldier," the necromancer said, apparently deciding to humor his friend for once.

They enjoyed the rest of the feast and agreed to leave first thing in the morning the next day.

Half the village was out to see the dragon from the other day appear through a massive rip in space and hunker down for Suguru and Satoru to climb aboard its broad back. They waved goodbye as the duo flew off, wind from the dragon's flapping wings ruffling the new leaves on the trees.

Satoru laughed as they flew, his Six Eyes taking in the magnificent view from the sky even through the dark spectacles covering them. Even Suguru smiled, enjoying himself. The wind ruffled through his hair and his bangs flew loose despite the tight knot he had tied his hair up in earlier. In no time at all, they passed through the next valley over - now clear of the suspicious fog since Hokori was slain - and banked sharply to glide around the next looming foothill.

There was a lot of area beyond that valley to cover. The duo flew for hours until Suguru grew tired of maintaining the flow of mana required, and they landed for food and a rest. Satoru had not thought to bring food (nor anything else for that matter), but Suguru had. The happy villagers had sent him off with plenty for several days. It turned out they would need that since finding the lair had not been as straightforward as simply flying beyond the foothill where Satoru had first seen the fog. Suguru recalled from Yaga's lessons that green dragons enjoyed forests, so they would be best off looking through the foothills for a cavern or ruins of some sort that were large enough for Hokori lair in.

After no success the first day, they camped out under the stars for the first time since their travels to Karuori village nearly three and a half months prior. Suguru estimated their provisions would last another two days, so they either needed to hurry their search up or start supplementing by hunting. They decided to do both.

Two days later, they spotted a promising cavern entrance near the peak of a foothill. Suguru dismissed their ride and the two friends entered the cave, each creating a mage-light with one hand for light in the dim interior. The dank interior still carried very faint fumes of the green dragon's poison breath. That was even more promising. The toxins had dissipated enough to not pose danger when breathed in at this point, so they continued further into the cave system. Several dead-ends led to piles of bones.

"Not worth anything," Satoru commented, kicking the skull of what might have been a goblin once, "But this dragon sure ate a lot. Maybe it was large for its age?" He had been surprised the dragon had only lived through one century and yet grown to such an immense size, head able to top tall trees when its neck was stretched to its full length.

"Lots of prey, not many predators," Suguru noted in response. "It was an ideal location."

After a bit more searching, they found the treasure horde of Hokori. A small pile of gold and silver (small meaning only up to Satoru's knees and roughly the length and width of the elder's hut in the village - he had been expecting a vast pile large enough for the dragon to bury itself in) was most prominent. Suguru wandered over to where some books lay on the ground nearby as Satoru took off his haori and began gathering up the gold and silver in it. He hardly made a dent in it.

"Why are you even bothering with that? Isn't our family rich enough?" the necromancer asked, opening and closing several of the tomes.

"Family being the key word," Satoru said. "This is for me personally. Too bad you can't summon those goblins and have them carry it in your pocket dimension." If he tried to attempt this, the gold and silver would not make it through the dimensional rip and just drop to the floor of the cavern. Only the undead could enter and leave, and only at Suguru's command. He would have to suffice with what he could carry himself. "Anything good in those books?"

Suguru had picked up some of the books and tucked them in his kimono's inner pockets. "Some treatises on magic. Some are about domain expansion. Thought it might be good for the archives. And they're a lot less heavy than gold and silver," he commented, seeing Satoru first pour mana into his haori to strengthen it and apply Limitless to the makeshift sack just to lift his haul of coins.

"What's that?" Satoru asked, setting down his filled haori near the exit they would be taking later. He made a beeline toward a dark corner of the cavern, several mage-lights following in his wake. With a mere thought, the lights moved in front of him, lighting the area in front of him. His Six Eyes had picked up some odd mana emanating from this corner, and the source was a small object in this corner. Picking it up in one hand, he examined it. "It's an egg."

Suguru had come over and now stood behind him to examine the egg. "It's way too small to be Hokori's egg, so we don't have a dragon on our hands," he noted.

Satoru's expression showed slight disappointment but even though he didn't pay much attention to studies about magical creatures, he had guessed the same based on the size. "I still think we should take it. Whatever it is might not survive here without something to look after it. And if that dragon kept it, it must have some value." Seeing Suguru's doubt he continued, "Even if it's something dangerous, we can take care of it after it hatches, right?"

"When you say 'take care of' you mean kill right?" The necromancer frowned at whatever expression he saw on Satoru's face. "You mean raise it as a pet. Great."

Satoru raised his free hand in defense. "Hey, no matter what it is, it can't touch me," he said, turning on Infinity with half a thought. The egg now floated slightly above his palm. "A deal then: I won't keep it for myself, I'll give it to Shoko as a wedding present."

Suguru shook his head, likely wondering what kind of deal he was making. But Shoko would appreciate the gift. "If it's something dangerous, let her dissect it," he bargained.

"Deal." Satoru stuck out his arm and the two shook on it. Satoru beamed widely for someone who had just bargained away the life of whatever creature was in the egg. He then proceeded to take off his shirt and use it to wrap the egg carefully for transport. He would deal with the cold winds on the flight back to the village. He wouldn't risk the egg.

Suguru finished gathering up what scrolls he deemed valuable and met Satoru at the cave entrance. The Six Eyes bearer had left earlier, hefting the haori full of coins in his arms, and levitating the shirt-wrapped egg alongside him with Limitless. The necromancer summoned their ride, and Satoru focused on the ground as they launched into the air. He hoped he would be able to convince Suguru to return later and get more of the horde.

It took less than a day to return, flying directly instead of around and around in search of the dragon's lair. Satoru realized he had never been this far on the outskirts of Nara kingdom, and wondered what other kinds of monsters lurked out in the lands which had little communication with the capital. He knew other lands and kingdoms existed overseas, but trade with them was scarce due to the danger merchants faced traversing the distances filled with monsters and demons who didn't care for anything but destruction.

Satoru's visions of a triumphal return were shattered as the duo landed and Suguru dismissed Hokori back to the other dimension. The villagers were hard at work and only the four children Suguru had befriended during their stay ran out to greet them. He wondered what had happened. There couldn't have been some other large threat already, could there have been? Even most demons would steer clear of an adult dragon.

Elder Hayagawa greeted them at the entrance to his home, wringing his gnarled hands. "Lord Gojo, Lord Geto, you have a guest."

Opening the door since Satoru's arms were full, Suguru was the first to see a man dressed in a plain white kimono facing the door looking irate. "Riku?" he asked, puzzled.

The man, who was hardly much older than the two friends, looked sternly at Suguru and frowned upon seeing Satoru enter shirtless, carrying his haul.

"Lord Gojo, Lord Geto," he bowed deeply due to their status. Satoru dropped the coins to the floor with a heavy thud, startling the man out of his bow. "You have been recalled by the elders and are needed urgently."

"So urgently they sent a messenger instead of a raven?" Suguru raised an eyebrow.

Riku huffed. "They did send a raven. You didn't answer. So they sent a raven to me with a message to deliver to you since I was only a day's ride away instead of an entire week like anyone coming directly from the estate."

At this point, both friends noted a raven sitting on the table near Riku. It had a note still tied to its leg. Good to note the elders of the village respected the privacy of messages. The bird cawed and flew to Satoru, attempting to land on his shoulder but glancing off his Infinity which was still activated.

The bird cawed again and landed at the floor, pecking at the dirt as if there were insects to be found there. Satoru turned off Infinity and obliged the creature by stooping down to untie the message. It fluffed its feathers importantly and flew back to the table.

Satoru,

Consider your punishment completed. Your mother and I have need of you two back home.

Gojo Satoshi

A hand on his shoulder meant Suguru was trying to read the note as well. He turned the note so his friend could see it better.

"Wow, that's harsh," he commented upon seeing the short sentences. His name was not mentioned but implied by 'you two'. But there was no doubt the harshness was directed at Satoshi's wayward son.

Satoru shrugged. "That's about what I'd expect from him. You know, this is the first message I've gotten from him or mother while we've been here." His father had likely forbidden his mother to write as yet further punishment for his son. Suguru on the other hand had gotten letters weekly from Shoko and been diligent in his replies.

"Put a shirt on and pack your things," Riku said. "Time is of the essence. I've been waiting here three days already." Satoru had almost forgotten the man's presence. He must have arrived at the village not long after he and Suguru left on dragonback.

A glint entered Satoru's eyes and he pushed his dark spectacles down to peer at Riku with brilliant blue eyes. "If time is of the essence, how would you like to fly back?"