It has been four hours since we got caught by one of the many brave Yokai that lives near the river. I thought these things would hand out some sort of judgement to us for killing their kind but instead we were treated like we're another of their kind. They give us foods to eat and comfortable bed to sleep on. The only thing they required from us was some sort of labour work that was related to what we did last night.
"What do they mean by that labour work again?" I asked the others who were enjoying the 'cell'.
Hemrietta replied, "It's a ceremony for the ones that we have killed. I think it's a burial."
"Well then...I feel bad for killing them, then."
Lin then expressed her feelings, "I shouldn't have acted harshly like that. I should have known that not all Yokai are enemies to the human."
I looked at her and said, "Now hold on. That's not the ninja I know of. You're not the type to be emotional aren't you? Or is that just a mask you wear?"
"No..." Lin disagreed and said, "It is part of me. But I'm not supposed to be a generic silent person. I am who I am."
"Then should you really be blaming yourself for the situation we are in? I mean we kind of went in with the flow as well. It's all our fault. Not just yours."
She nodded her head and went to sleep afterwards. We followed suit a few minutes later and before we know it, it was already morning. The Oni guarding us opened our cells and asked us to collect some woods for the burial later. Lin was still asleep at the time but we didn't wanted to bother her at all considering that she's a woman and this kind of job is for men like us. We asked the Oni guarding about it and they already considered it. Once she wakes up, she will have her own special task.
In the meantime, as we were tasked to collect some wood, Kallen was seen using his shadow controlling ability to collect the twigs and sticks that was on the ground.
I told him off, "Isn't that a bit unfair for us, Kallen?"
"What are you talking about? This makes things faster. Maybe you should use your ability on the villagers so that we can get away from this terrible place."
"Can you take that back? The Yokai gave us food and shelter even though we're prisoners. Plus, they aren't even watching us collecting these woods."
"Big deal." Kallen doesn't seem to care at all. "I rather if we get to go somewhere else other than being stuck in this hell hole of a place."
"Kallen! You're going to bring trouble if you said that to the Yokai. What is wrong with you?"
Kallen stopped his work and told me, "What is wrong with me? I'm not the problem here. The problem here is why aren't we running away and continue looking for White and Ethereal! Plus, Zenith left us on her own."
"But she's with Recordia..." Azreal interrupted.
"Shut up, Azreal!" Kallen raised his voice to his fellow friend.
Hemrietta tried to stop him, "Now hold on, young man. Just because you're an ex-Watcher doesn't mean that you have to be the one in charge of everything."
"Young man?! We're the same age for goodness sake. You guys needs to be fixing. Not me. I'm fine as always." He continued to collect sticks and twigs after that.
Then I suddenly said something that triggers him, "You're only mad because that's the only thing you are good at. That's why you guys got told off by Sam the other day..."
"That wasn't entirely my fault, Aspye!" Kallen pointed his index finger at me. "Azreal, Ralph and Yumiko were also at fault. It was a collective agreement."
"So it wasn't your idea to play hooky? You only gave that idea because you think you have that kind of power as a Watcher." Hemrietta cuts him off.
"What do you know about being a Watcher?!"
"I know that being one leads to you becoming a more dangerous person. Remember what you did during Sam's campaign?" Hemrietta wasn't letting him go that easily.
Azreal tried to stop their argument, "Guys...can we stop fighting and get the woods now?"
Both Hemrietta and Kallen shouted to him at the same time, "Shut up!"
Azreal was taken aback by their words and decided to bring out his scythe.
I noticed that and quickly noted off to him, "Azreal...what are you doing...?"
"Nothing...nothing that will harm them physically that is..." Azreal was serious all of a sudden.
Azreal was focusing his scythe toward Kallen. He gently pushed his scythe forward. Kallen who was a few centimetres away from him suddenly felt a push.
"What the? What was that?" Kallen was caught off guard from that.
I tried to stop Azreal, knowing what's about to happen, "Azreal, stop!"
"What's going on, Aspye?! What is that idiot doing?!"
"It's his ability, Kallen. Soul Touch. He can physically touch your soul. You don't someone touching your soul every day, don't you, Kallen?"
"And what does touching my soul will even do?"
Azreal explained, "Do you know that your soul is the very essence of you living right now? Without it, you are only a corpse. I don't even need to strike hard enough on your soul much as I need to strike on your body. I can just do this!"
Azreal forcibly pushed his scythe forward which then made Kallen suddenly fallen to his knees with both of his hands on his stomach.
"What...was that?!"
"I already told you, Kallen." I walked to him. "That's Azreal's ability. You should really stop fighting. You too as well, Hem."
"I'm not going to lose to an idiot like him!"
Kallen unleashed his shadows toward Azreal but Azreal simply moved his scythe just a little which immediately stopped the shadow from moving. Kallen tried to force himself out of Azreal's control but then, Hemrietta makes his move.
"Is this some sort of measuring contest? Then I'll show you what I'm capable of." Hemrietta clenched his fist.
His hand started to grow claw and his eyes was like a reptilian beast. He pounced on Azreal, which releases Kallen from his Soul Touch control. Kallen quickly captured both Azreal and Hemrietta with his shadow. But his 'shadow rope' was quickly broken off by Hemrietta as he now grows some sort of spikes over his back. Hemrietta ran toward Kallen as fast as a running reptile and caught his left hand. Kallen tried to fight back by punching Hemrietta on the face but it doesn't seem to hurt him by a large portion at all.
"What the heck are you?!" Kallen was scared.
"Dino DNA! It's a family trait that I happen to be master at. I was indeed born as some sort of half human half dinosaur. But for some time, I've been able to hide my Dinosaur side so I could probably use this to my own advantage."
Then I suddenly interrupted, "Wait...one of your parents married to a monster?"
"It's called interracial relationship, Aspye. Haven't you heard of it?"
"Dude, that's just...weird." Kallen expressed his disgust in full display with his disgusted look at Hemrietta.
"I think it's awesome." Azreal was amused.
"You think so?" Hemrietta sounded happy. "See? Azreal seems to agree to my specialty!"
"Oh really?" I walked to Hemrietta and touched him.
"Wait...Aspye, no!"
"What a great lie you have there, Hem. You were never born as a Halfling to begin with."
Hemrietta sighed and told the truth, "You and your memory trip. Fine, my parent is just normal wizards as I am. They are both beast masters, reptilian beast masters..."
"Way to make an introduction there, Hem." Kallen laughed.
"I was just showing off! Can't I take a break?"
"Now hold on, Hem. I have another question. Are all beast masters supposed to be different? Because you said that your parents are reptilian beast masters."
"You must be talking the difference between me and that girl from White's class correct? What's her name again?"
"I think it was Rose Lindow or something." Said Azreal.
"Yes." Hemrietta snapped his finger. "She's actually a Beast Master that can only transform into a beast that she have seen before and defeated it and absorbed its essence. She can't change into a dinosaur or anything rare. Meanwhile, I already have some of those dinosaur essences from both of my parent."
"Huh...For some reason, everyone just stopped fighting after your revelation, Hem. Good job." I applauded at him.
"Well I was aiming for that originally. I didn't expect violence would stop us from fighting."
"Oh well..." Kallen stood up and said, "Maybe we should just forget about that childish banter we had just now and move on. You fine, Azreal?"
"I think I'm fine...for now at least..." Azreal hides his scythe away from our vision.
It's good that we finally stopped fighting. I didn't expect that Hemrietta would be the one to stop us from fighting. I think it was probably because of how simple everyone was. We all kind of had a simple mind and not as complex as anyone else. The way I explained that sounded like the four of us are idiots or something. That came out wrong. But still, I'm glad things are starting to slow down now that we have the time to spend together. We're only missing three other members from this band of idiocy. Ziggs is on a different tour group and both Yumiko and White had gone missing somewhere. I wonder where that two went...I hope it is not something chaotic...
TO BE CONTINUED