Tanjo had not been exactly taken aback the moment he saw one of Heiwa no Kabe's entrances: the sheer size of the gates, which welcomed and blocked anyone who tried to pass through their massive frame.
Though the size was to be expected, Tanjo had to speculate how Asami managed to breach the protective gates. It is not unreasonable to believe that the entrance could deter warriors of all ranks, including the High-Class.
"So, what was your plan?" Tanjo inquired, moving his pondering gaze to the blue-haired woman at his side.
Asami brushed her chin with her index finger and thumb, a slick grin stretching across her lips. "I typically do this alone, but I have been quite curious as to test something out…"
Her eyes drifted toward the masked teenager, silently analyzing Tanjo with uncertainty. The boy quickly caught sight of his mentor's questionable countenance, arching a brow as he grew perplexed.
"I hope you're not going to do anything rash, Asami." Tanjo said, a hint of worry laced in his words.
The cloaked woman merely chuckled. A memory briefly flashed within her mind, an instant that she hoped that Tanjo had remembered as well.
"Quick question," Asami started. "Remember when we first met and a bunch of bandits attacked us?"
Tanjo's expression became pensive. "Yes? Why?"
"Well, if you do remember, I had been shot with arrows toward the end." Asami explained, enabling the masked boy to think back on the moment.
Tano nodded. "And that arrow flew straight through you; it was like your body became intangible."
Asami swayed her head from side to side, her long hair moving with the motion. "Not 'intangible', but liquid."
The boy had to blink once, twice, and three times after that. Sure, Tanjo had accepted the fact that Asami's body had somehow allowed for the arrow to fly directly through her chest and come out the other side, but Tanjo had never once come to the conclusion that she was capable of turning into water.
Maybe he should have asked her about her powers sooner.
"So you can become water?" Tanjo blatantly queried, tilting his head.
"I don't know if you noticed, but my main shtick is water." Asami claimed, folding her arms together. "I had thought that you'd catch on to that much faster."
"Sorry, but your personal life is not one of the things I strive to learn." Tanjo said, his soft tone contradicting the offensive wording.
Asami clicked her tongue together. "Damn brat…"
The jet-black-haired boy looked at the gate of Heiwa no Kabe once again, leaving Asami to numbly grumble. As a few seconds passed by, a revelation spawned within the boy's mind. He wanted to smack himself over the head for not understanding the context clue that was so obviously dished out to him.
"You plan to liquify both of us to sneak on through?"
The cloaked woman perked up. "I've never turned anyone else into water, but I doubt that it would kill you… maybe."
"I'm choosing to ignore that last part." Tanjo muttered, his voice wavering with nervousness.
Asami shrugged. "I don't have any other ideas, other than brazenly zipping past all the guards."
"We'd be spotted the moment we came to a stop." Tanjo knocked down the idea quickly, making Asami's eyebrows furrow.
"Got any other ideas then, genius?" Asami asked, annoyed.
Unfortunately, Tanjo did not. He had the audacity to purge any of Asami's ideas without forging any of his own. After mentally chastising himself, the masked boy lapsed into silence for numerous moments, his eyes dragging to the ground in contemplation.
There was not much to do in this scenario. There were most likely hundreds of thousands of guards; it would only take one of them to blow their cover upon attempting to sneak into Heiwa no Kabe.
So what could they do? Becoming water was not an idea Tanjo was smitten with.
As if Tanjo's head were a window, Asami could see as the boy's mind worked itself, all of his mental gears stressing themselves to formulate a viable plan for the both of them. Asami could not help but be proud.
'At least I don't have to teach him to be tactical. Too many times have warriors died being too impulsive.'
With this subtle admiration, Tanjo's mind quickly clung to a hopeful plan that had soon been conjured.
"Asami," Tanjo murmured his mentor's name.
The woman in question inclined her head toward the boy. "What?"
"What if we tried to cut the warriors' senses?" Tanjo suggested, lifting his head up.
Asami did not follow. "Huh?"
The teenager shifted quickly, turning to face his mentor. "Their senses. For them to sense us, waves of our own Aura Sense would have to travel to them; we're only able to 'mask' our Aura Sense most of the time because we make these waves significantly smaller and harder for the receiver to detect."
The blue-haired woman nodded, soaking in every word.
"So," Tanjo began. "What if we sensed the warriors' Aura Sense ourselves and moved at speeds that counteracted them? Just moving as fast as possible would work—for you, at least—but the moment you just stop, you'll pop into their senses again and just get caught."
What Tanjo offered as an idea was quite unheard of. It was true that warriors could only detect other warriors through the waves that traversed through the air, and those waves varied in speeds depending on how potent the magic of the wielder was.
For example, a High-Class warrior would be able to sneak past a Low-Class warrior with relative ease as they could move much faster than the weaker warrior's senses.
Asami was stumped. "Who the hell was your science teacher?"
Tanjo blinked. "Me…?"
"No shit!" Asami hollered, laughing. "I would've just turned ya into water without asking if you didn't come up with that!"
Tanjo's face fell. "You make me feel so safe…"
"Oh, lighten up." Asami said, waving her right hand. "Besides, the rest seems self-explanatory: just move faster the closer you move toward potent magic, yes?"
"What a good way to sum it up," Tanjo replied numbly, nodding nonetheless. She made it seem like it was a simple concept to think of.
Asami's laughter never left. "No time to sulk, Tanjo. We have to get in first!"
XXX
In Buraun, Naguru Akogare meandered through the pathways of the village with dejection brimming his body. It had been hard for the blonde to think straight; his first mission was a failure. To think that Mr. Oshieru invested so much time into training him and the rest of the students just for them to completely lose the assailant minutes after surrounding him. However, there was a secondary attacker they were never informed of.
After being trapped within the giant blue dome that stretched across the forest for several miles, Class 1AB quickly lost hope of success. Once the magic dome had been cracked by warriors outside, the students were rushed back to the academy, where they had been greeted by Mr. Oshieru, their instructor.
'If only I could have used my sword… I could have potentially won that fight!' Akogare thought, irate at the ugly memory of him failing to beat a fleeing enemy.
Mindlessly, the blonde student ended up walking outside the front of a familiar restaurant, 'Okunai Furaipan'. The place where he, Naderamu, and Tanjo used to eat in comfort while talking about their lives and what they had done that day at the academy.
Tanjo… Akogare still felt weak at the jet-black-haired boy's departure; everyone in Class 1AB felt saddened. Though Naderamu was seemingly hit the hardest, her frustration was at an all-time high after failing the mission, and nobody, not even Mr. Oshieru, could figure out why. It was as if she was hiding something.
That was not a pleasant thought.
All of this inner turmoil, despite all of its depressing presence, only motivated Akogare to keep moving forward and to hope that one day he and Naderamu would meet Tanjo once again—become friends again. Nobody Akogare had met was as friendly and welcoming as Tanjo, and he only wished to greet him one more time.
'Sucks that he had to move to a different village… I wonder why his pops made that decision?'
XXX
A little short, but a little nice. We really got to see Tanjo use his brain. He didn't earn an IQ of 250 for nothing! Who knows, maybe his intellect is still growing? He is only sixteen, after all! Brushing that aside, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and stay tuned for more!
Have a Great Day!
Peace - Cr1ticalz_