"Heyyy, Ikari..." Star says while shaking Ikari's sleeping body.
"C'mon, wake up we have stuff to do." She says quietly.
All Ikari can hear is a fading voice as he slowly wakes up.
"Oh hey, you actually woke up." She says with a smile.
The bow drowsily sits up and yawns.
"What time is it?" He says while rubbing his eyes.
"Ten o clock." She replies.
Ikari eyes widen.
"How long was I asleep for?" He asks.
"That doesn't matter, just hurry and get up! We have work to do!" She says.
Ikari sighs and sits up. He grabs and puts on his ruined shirt before standing up.
"Hina gave us some money to get some new clothes and get something to eat." She says with a cheerful tone.
"Where even is Hina?" He says while stretching.
"Shes out getting stuff to repair your dagger." She replies.
Ikari nods before putting on his shoes.
"You ready to go?" Star asks.
"Yeah, just give me a minute." He replies. He walks to the front of the store and leaves his used dagger on the counter for Hina.
"Ok, ready." He says.
Star nods and walks out of the store, Ikari closely follows.
Ikari is almost blinded by the fierce sunlight as he walks outside. He blocks the sun out of his eyes.
"Well then, lets go visit the tailors." Star says, she grips Ikari's arm and walks towards a shopping area.
While they're walking, they occasionally get stares from passerby's wondering what happened to their clothes.
The boy sighs and keeps his head down.
After a couple of minutes, they arrive to the tailor and enter the store. The two are instantly met with clothes hanging off walls, hangars and other places. Star's eyes light up at the scene, she quickly runs to the clothes, examining them all.
Ikari sighs and follows the girl.
"Oh! Oh! Ikari! Let me help you pick your clothes!" She says.
"I don't know..." He sighs.
"Please..." The girl pleads, giving the boy puppy eyes.
He disregards her eyes and thinks for a moment.
"Fine..." He merely replies. Star smiles widely and swiftly runs to find some clothes for him.
"She acts as if she was a kid..." He sighs.
He walks to the changing room as he can hear Star's giggling.
The boy begins wondering if he should be scared or not.
After a couple of minutes of waiting Star approaches the changing room.
"Ikari! Help me out!" She yells.
Ikari sighs and opens the door only to be met with Star holding a pile of clothes that cover her face.
The boy feels his heart drop, knowing this is about to be hell.
Star chuckles mischievously.
"Go ahead get changing." She says with a mischievous grin.
The girl hands him the pile of clothes as Ikari stands there, staring at the pile, just dumbfounded by the amount of clothes.
Star pushes him inside the changing room and closes the door.
Ikari stands still for a bit before shaking his head and getting ready to change his clothes.
Star laughs at him every time he walks out to show off the clothing, Ikari is clearly embarrassed to be wearing such ridiculous clothing.
After several minutes that seem like hours for Ikari, he puts on an outfit that he genuinely likes, he examines himself in the mirror, he has on a short, zipped up, hooded red cloak which matches his hair, under the cloak is a light grey shirt, one half is tucked in while the other is not. He also wears a pair of dark black pants which is tucked into his brown and red boots, and finally he has a red belt with another red weapons belt under it which holds his dagger's sheathe, to finish off his outfit, he puts bandages on his lower arm held together with straps and then, he pulls on his fingerless black gloves.
The boy takes one last look at himself in the mirror before walking outside.
Star turns to face him, her eyes widen in surprise at Ikari's new outfit.
"That actually... Looks kind of good." She says as she smiles at him.
The boy keeps a straight face and crosses his arms.
"Im fine with this outfit." He says.
"Okay then! Let me find something for myself." She says.
Ikari sighs and leans against a wall as Star quickly grabs a few clothes and enters the changing room.
As Star hums while changing Ikari looks around the store, suddenly something catches his eye.
He walks towards a community board only to find a poster that reads.
"BOUNTY
IKARI PHOENIX
17,000 GOLD
WANTED FOR THE MURDER OF 3 MEN.
LAST KNOWN LOCATION:LANCASTER'S REST
WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE."
The boy stares at the poster, anger suddenly arises in him. He looks around to see if any other patrons or the shop owner are nearby before grabbing and pocketing the poster.
The changing room door swings open as Star walks out and walks up to Ikari.
"So? How do I look?" She says with a smile.
The boy examines her outfit; she wears a long dark blue sleeved mini dress, on her back has a long dark blue hooded cape, she also wears stockings that rise from her blue and gold boots. She wears a belt with open holsters on her waist and fancy gloves that tuck into her dress sleeves. Her blonde hair flows down onto the front and back of her clothes as a golden necklace comes into view.
Ikari looks at her.
"Im the last person you should be asking about this." He says unemotionally.
Star smiles at him and he doesn't know why. Suddenly the necklace captures his eye.
"Whats with the necklace?" He asks.
Star looks down at it and holds it up.
"It just seems special... I don't know how to describe it." She says casually.
Ikari creeks his head at her words but disregards it.
"Anyways lets go ahead and pay." She says.
They both walk to the counter, and the tailor examines their clothing and tells them the price.
"2000 GOLD?!" Both of the pair yells.
"How much money do we even have?" Ikari yells.
"Hina only gave us 2500!" She replies.
"You could put up the clothes if you'd like." The tailor says with a smile.
Star defeatedly hands him the gold, the owner counts it up.
"Thanks for shopping, please come again." He says with the same smile on his face.
Ikari and Star both walk outside.
"We only have five hundred gold now..." Ikari sighs.
"That should be at least enough to get us something to eat right?" Star asks with concern.
"It depends on where we eat." He replies.
Star thinks before an idea strikes her, she slowly turns to face Ikari with a smile.
"You mentioned you wanted to go to Tranquil right?" She says smugly.
"Yeah." He replies turning to look at her.
"It just so happens that I know a good cafe there." She says, still smiling.
"Im there to investigate, not slack off." He says with a cold stare.
"C'mon! You can eat and then investigate." She pleads.
"You can go eat, I'll just investigate." He replies.
The girl looks at him and sighs.
"Fine." She says.
Ikari puts his hands in his pockets and follows Star to Tranquil.
It's a brief and quiet walk, upon arriving to the town Ikari can see that it's way more quiet then Lancaster's Rest and Sebastian's Omen. He looks around, some people roam the street but its not jammed up like the other towns, popular restaurants and other businesses are seen too.
"Is that a horse stable?" He asks.
"Should we look into it?" Star asks.
"Later." He replies.
The boy begins walking away.
"H-Hey! Wait up!" Star yells.
Star runs after Ikari. The boy looks around the town, looking for any trace of the group of men, but his search is cut short by someone yelling.
"This could be something..." He says to himself.
"What?" Star asks.
Suddenly Ikari begins to run towards the yelling.
"H-Hey! Whats with you and running today?" She says with a sigh.
As they get closer the yelling becomes more and more clear.
"Cmon! Please help me!"Wails a boy's voice.
"Let go of me you brat!" Yells a man.
Ikari and Star finally get to the source of the yelling. The pair is met with a kid, probably around 13, holding onto a shop keeper's arm. Other citizens are watching the kid as if he's a monster.
"P-Please they're gonna kill them!" He cries.
"Good! Maybe that will silence you!" The man screams at him. He throws the kid to the ground.
Ikari examines the boy. He has white hair and looks skinny. He examines his elemental power next, and his eyes widen in surprise.
The white-haired boy stands up and looks around at all the people staring at him.
"Why do you all hate me?!" He yells sadly.
"I've done nothing to you all!" He continues to yell.
"Fine! If none of y'all with help, I'll just save them myself!" He finishes yelling and begins to run out of the town.
Ikari watches the boy run away, he grips his fist in anger, he walks in front of the crowd of people.
Star watches him confusedly.
"Shame on you all." He says coldly.
"Who cares if you like him or not, he's just a boy and you let him leave all alone." He continues.
"But he's a monster!" One of the people in the crowd yell.
"Your no more of a monster then he is." He says while staring coldly at the person.
He looks at Star and nods his head, signaling to leave.
Star walks to Ikari's side and begin to follow the boy's path.
After a minute of silence, Star speaks up.
"See, you still have something in your heart." She says with a smile.
"Shut up." He says coldly.
Star laughs at him as they continue following the tracks.
"He shouldn't be far now." Ikari says.
Suddenly a figure emerges out of the path and runs straight into Ikari.
A loud "SLAM" echo through the path as Ikari and the figure falls onto the ground.
"Owwwww..." Both of them groan.
Ikari opens his eyes and sees the same boy from earlier.
"Im sorry!" The boy says.
"Your fine..." Ikari says while getting up.
He extends his hand to help pick the boy up.
The boy looks at him as if his action shocks him.
He grins and grips his hand in which Ikari pulls him up.
"My name is Eclipse Aphelion." He says with a smile.
"This here is Ikari Phoenix, and I'm Star." Says the girl as she slowly approaches the boy.
"Phoenix?" Eclipse asks silently.
Ikari disregards his question.
"So why we're you running all the way out here?" Star asks.
"Wait will you help me?!" He asks in a cheerful tone.
"It depends on what the problem is." Ikari replies.
"Oh! Well... Some bandits kidnapped my friends..." He says sadly.
Star creeks her head.
"Why would they kidnap a couple of kids?" She asks.
"Hey don't call me a kid! Also, they said they would free them if I would join them..." He says.
Star laughs awkwardly at the boy.
Ikari nods his head.
"Okay, we'll help you." He says. Star looks at him and smiles.
"Y-You will?" Eclipse asks.
"Yeah." He replies.
Eclipse looks as if he's about to cry.
"Thank you..." He stutters with tears forming in his eyes.
"You two and my friends are the only people that aren't scared of me." He says sadly, he looks down.
"Listen, now isn't the time for this, let's save your friends first." Ikari says.
Eclipse lifts his head up and gives a determined smile.
"Yeah, let's do this!"