"What are we doing?" Linda mused.
"If nothing's happening, I'm leaving." Korū walked away, Kaguya following him as usual, along with his siblings.
Hikari watched him leave with a sigh.
"He's still hung up about what happened before, huh. We should have known not to tease him about something like that." Alina muttered sadly, also watching his fading figure. She felt like she failed as a friend.
"I'll go after him to make sure nothing dumber than me going after him happens." Cayne announced, making his way towards the same direction.
"Not the best idea-" Hikari started. Cayne was out of earshot by then, considering how briskly he was walking.
Korū was at the edge of a cliff, his legs dangling off it, staring into the distance with the cats lounging around him.
Cayne approached like he did the last time, but he didn't speak this time. He just sat a short distance away, as silent company. It had been easy to find Korū, considering he had no reason to cover it up without everyone else sending their trackers in worry.
Korū just stayed sitting like that, back facing him, not speaking.
Back in an empty room in the pack house, the three girls were chilling, two with alcohol in hand, and one with coffee.
"Do you think Cayne is dead yet?" Alina asked, scrunching her eyebrows together.
"That's a possibility," Hikari responded. "Or he might be just beaten up."
"You guys have so little hope in both of them," Linda said, chuckling.
"Whaddya mean?"
Linda just stayed quiet, except for the small sounds of laughing as she sipped from her cup.
"No, seriously, what do you mean?"
Linda looked at her weirdly. "As in to not kill each other in sight."
Alina snorted loudly, chugging her drink and pouring herself more. "Chill out, Hikari. It could happen, or it won't."
Hikari finished off her soju and grabbed another bottle. "Hope it won't. I'm just gonna pray."
"Why not?" Alina asked. "It could turn out amazing. You can't do anything without a risk of some sorts."
Linda shook her head, a small smile on her face. "I think the two of you are moving too fast."
"Mh, whatever." She held out the soju bottle to Linda. "Try some."
"Eh, we're underage, but I promise I'll try when I'm eighteen." Linda said.
"Why the hell eighteen and not now? There isn't even an actual legal age to drink in the inner world." Alina asked, taking more gulps of her drink.
"Plus the legal age is twenty-one and not eighteen," Hikari added.
Linda shrugged. "Just something I promised myself to stick to long ago. Anyway, it's the legal age in some other countries."
"Eh, goody two shoes," Hikari teased.
Linda grinned. "Someone needs to stay sober."
"I'm not even drunk," Hikari laughed.
"But really fucking buzzed." Alina added.
Meanwhile, Korū was left wondering why in the world he had not chased Cayne away yet.
The next day, the five of them gathered again and said their goodbyes, Cayne's mother reluctant to let him go.
Korū waited a distance away, hands shoved into his pockets, his typical hostile expression on his face.
"Mum, Dad, I'll be fine. Look, I've got some of the best fighters with me, see?" Cayne said exasperatedly, gesturing to his new friends. At least, he considered them friends. They hadn't tried to kill each other just yet, which was great. And he just said that they were the best fighters to appease his mother.
His mum sighed. "Doesn't matter how strong you guys are, there's always danger."
"He'll be in danger here too, Luna." Alina said, hiding her annoyance.
The Luna sighed and nodded.
"Gosh, so dramatic. And clingy." Alina thought to herself, as the Luna wiped at her tears. It was like she had already started mourning.
"I called your friends to join the trip. They'll meet you on the other side."
"What?!" Cayne exclaimed, turning to his father. "You contacted Cole and Liam?!"
The Alpha nodded, and Cayne groaned. "Argh."
"What the fuck?" Korū stalked over. "Why the fuck would you even do that?"
Hikari was kinda looking forward to knocking Liam out again and leaving him behind. Korū was probably thinking of ways to break Cole's other wrist as well. Though now that she thought about it, the broken wrist was probably already healed.
"Guys, be nice." Linda said. She then mindlinked them. "Look, if they come, there's a chance they'll get cursed." Always looking one the bright side.
Cayne snorted.
Korū and Hikari weren't convinced. "Screw being nice. I don't give a shit."
"They're gonna have a hard time," Hikari snickered.
Linda sighed.
Alina turned to the Alpha. "You didn't think to ask us?"
"You would have objected. You are objecting."
"For a reason." Alina seethed.
"They're assholes," Korū added unhelpfully.
"They kinda attempted to beat us up," Hikari chipped in.
"And you kinda succeeded in beating them up." The Alpha shot back.
"Which is another reason why they won't be helpful." Alina reasoned, Linda standing quietly at one side. They guys weren't actually that bad at fighting, considering the amount of training they must have had for their future positions. Her crew were just that much above average that they could somehow beat up future Alphas. And get away with it. But their personalities seemed to clash pretty badly, so it was hard to tell how teaming up with them would turn out.
"Goddess, just let them come and leave it as it is."
"No," Hikari stated.
"Fuck off," Korū grumbled. He didn't give two fucks about the fact that the person he was talking to was an Alpha, firstly because he was the Moonlight pack's Alpha and the simple fact that he didn't listen to anyone if he didn't want to.
The Alpha sighed. "Just… argh."
"Argh." Alina said.
"Argh." Cayne sighed. "They're going to die."
"Argh." Linda muttered. "My job just got harder, though." Would she even be physically strong enough if things really went south?
"They're gonna die 'cause we're gonna kill them." Hikari's smile grew a little wider. How smiling like this was within her physical abilities was beyond everyone. It was pretty creepy.
Korū had taken to casting weirded out glances at his sister.
"Cayne here isn't dead yet though." Alina pointed out. "Do we need to amend that?"
"Nope. He has permission to stay alive for now." Hikari stated, eyes gleaming, while Linda rolled her own.
Korū was left wondering why, and what had happened in his absence.
"Warriors, please." The Night Stalker Alpha stepped in. "You're running late. Bloodlust is expecting you in a few hours."
Korū just glared and said, "fuck off."
The Alpha gave him a stern look. "Get on with your journey. We'll contact you if there are any developments. Now, go."
There was a mix of grumbles, sighs, curses, another spiteful look from Korū and nods, but they finally left.
"Aye, I'm gonna murder people," Hikari sort of celebrated when they reached Bloodlust after trekking leisurely through the forest.
"Who?" Alina asked.
"I'm gonna do more than knock out that piece of crap this time," Hikari said cheerfully.
Korū casually turned and went off in a different direction, away from his slightly insane sister. The two of them were two different kinds of crazy.
"Supplies?" Alina asked Linda.
"Supplies." Linda replied, and they walked off together, ignoring the twins and leaving Cayne to do whatever. Cayne decided it would be good to make sure less than ten people died that day, so he went after Hikari, praying, which he seemed to be doing a lot of lately, that he himself would survive.