As Joki and Double leave, completely out of sight from Kashikoi. Kashikoi sits down and does a sigh of relief, it begins raining outside, and Kashikoi looks up in the sky, catching raindrops in his hand.
'He looks at me like a coward, turns his back to me. Just like before...he treats me as an inferior, but that won't last long. No man or woman in the world can boast of knowing a diviner mind than mine.' Kashikoi thinks to himself.
Two hours later, inside of the cabin.
Double wakes up inside of the cabin, as he leans forward he feels a sharp pain in his stomach. He looks forward and notices Joki sitting in front of him.
Joki had noticed a burn mark on Double's stomach. Double had only sustained damage to the back and abdomen, breaking his ribs and posing a risk of internal injuries, because of that, Joki had decided to keep a close eye on him while he was sleeping, making sure nothing happened to him.
"Don't move...you're still badly hurt, it'll be best for you to rest here and try to clear your mind. I'll explain everything later." Joki says.
"I can't stay put, I've had enough rest...I'm gonna go fight him again, and do what I should have done the first time." Double says, attempting to stand up.
Joki quickly stands up in front of Double, blocking his way. Double tries to move past Joki, but quickly jumps back in pain.
"Look at yourself, you can't even muster the energy to take a step forward, yet you wanna have a death battle. I will bring you water and food to eat, just rest here for now Double." Joki says.
Double hears everything Joki tells him, but his mind is still fixated on Kashikoi. The thought of him nearly losing his life to him, and Joki having some strange connection with him enraged him, making him act irrationally.
"I don't want your damn food, I want answers, who is Kashikoi to you. Were supposed to be friends, but you saw me at death's door, and you decided to let him live! Why?" Double asks.
Joki stands there frozen, not able to muster any words to come up with a response for Double. Double begins to think back to the words he heard from Joki.
"When you said...we aren't little kids anymore in front of Kashikoi, that's when I knew that something was wrong. Tell me the damn truth Joki!" Double yells, staring into the eyes of Joki.
Joki's expression begins to show that of frustration, he begins to try and speak, but suddenly Joki notices something strange in the corner of the room.
A man standing in the corner in plain sight, but hiding his aura as to not be detected by Double and Joki. The man had to have moved there recently, and had been so quiet, listening in to everything that was going on.
'Who the hell is he...and how did he slip past me so easily, I understand I had been watching Double, but for him to get past me so easily would take a hell of a lot of control of his aura.' Joki thinks to himself, unsheathing his sword.
Without a second thought, Joki begins to approach the man in the corner of the room, but the man comes out of the corner with his hands in the air, signaling that he's harmless.
Joki had been thrown off, and begin let go of his sword, and had now been face to face with the strange man.
"You two were in a huge rush, you're lucky I'm the only one who noticed the amount of aura being given off here. Seriously...I don't know how the hell you guys live in a cabin anyways, people try to break in don't they?" The man says.
"All these questions, and still no explanation of who you are. I forgot to reinforce the cabin, therefore it made it easy for someone to detect us in here. I assume that's how you got in?" Joki asks.
"It's more complicated than that." The man says.
The man laughs a little under his breath, and as he does, he pulls out his sword and hands it to Joki. Joki holding the sword notices something peculiar about it, the feeling, how light it is, and how basic the sword looked felt off to him.
"Why are you giving this to me?" Joki asks.
"Long story short, that's how I got into your cabin. My ability happens to revolve around that sword, it's pretty lame but I've trained upon it a lot. I trust you to hold it though, from what I know you are trustworthy." The man says, a smile on his face.
"From what you know? What the hell is your name?" Joki asks
"My name is Kazu Michikazu, a swordsman that was born in Illinois. I traveled here not too long ago, just because here in Virginia is actually where most of everyone is apparently. For some reason, everyone is attracted to this place." Kazu says.
Double looks ahead, and gets flashbacks from Joki conversating with Kashikoi, unable to move, all Double could do is sit back and look at the two, feeling nothing but anger.
"Hey! Kazu right? who the hell are you?" Double asks
"I...just explained who I am, have you been listening?" Kazu asks.
Joki starts laughing, and quickly goes to the kitchen to grab the food and water that he had prepared for Double.
While Joki goes to the kitchen, Kazu proceeds to go and sit next to an annoyed Double. As Kazu sits, he looks over, and notices Double's injuries.
"So...what about you, tell me about yourself. I see you got into a pretty rough situation, I'm surprised you can get hurt with someone like him around." Kazu says.
"I don't know what to think anymore...I feel like I'm going crazy. My name is Double, sorry for the awkward introduction." Double says, beginning to calm down.
"It's fine, I know you guys have been through a lot." Kazu says.
"What do you mean you know? You keep going on and on about things that you know about." Double says, looking at Kazu with a curious expression.
Before Kazu could speak, Joki comes back into the room with the food and water he had made for Double. Kazu looks over, and ignores it understanding the food hadn't been for him.
"You're here now right, you might as well eat too kid. Maybe that'll help you start telling us when you got here and why the hell have you been watching us." Joki says
"How...did you know I was watching you?" Kazu asks, taking a bite from the food.
"No normal person would just know that much about someone unless they had prior knowledge, and you look like you've been wanting to make yourself known for a while now." Joki says.
Kazu had been watching over Joki for a while, scared to come into his presence, not knowing the type of person Joki had been. The entire time, Kazu had been afraid, not afraid of death, but afraid Joki would shut him out, and he would have no one to rely on.
In this world, you need people to rely on, Kazu had become aware of that, being alone poses greater risks of death.
"I see...also, what's your actual name Double?" Kazu asks
Double looks at Kazu with a confused expression, the only name Double had known to this point was Double, and nothing else.
"That's my actual name from what I know, Double is the only name I know of." Double says.
"That's odd, but who am I to judge." Kazu says.
Joki knelt down, his gaze piercing as he locked eyes with Kazu, who stared back in wide-eyed astonishment.
"Alright! Enough side tracking, what more do you know about us, and tell us a little more about you Kazu." Joki says.