Sounds of laughter, eating and regular chatting fill the cafe. Ikari, Star and Eclipse sit in the cafe, trying to debrief what happened before.
Eclipse, still devastated after the events that transpired has been silent for all of this time. Only responding when asked.
Ikari sighs and scratches his hair.
"Listen Eclipse; you can't blame yourself for what happened, you didn't even know about that form." He says.
The boy doesn't even budge, he continues to look down at the table.
"He's right you know, although things didn't go as planned you still did what you set out to do." Star replies with a comforting smile.
"But even then, they still think that I'm a monster..." He says sadly.
"Who cares what they think? If they don't accept you even when all you did was good for them, they don't deserve you as a friend." Ikari replies.
"You're still a person who wants to do good, thats all that matters." He says.
Eclipse thinks for a moment and finally looks up at them.
"Thank you, both of you." He says as a smile finally cracks onto his face.
Star smiles at him and Ikari nods.
Suddenly, the waitress walks up to their table.
"Welcome to Oily how may we serve you three today!" She cheers happily.
Ikari raises his eyebrow at the name but disregards it.
"Umm... What do y'all serve?" He asks.
"Let's see... Oh! We just added our new special dish called Albedo's Wrap!"The waitress cheers.
He looks visibly disgusted by the name.
"I'll pass..." He says.
"Just get me a tea." The red-headed boy replies.
The waitress nods and takes Star and Eclipse's order before leaving.
A moment of silence hits the trio, all of them trying to piece together the events.
"That was the same aura as the dragons..." Ikari whispers to himself.
Star and Eclipse begin to talk to each other as Ikari still thinks to himself.
"Theres no doubt about it, they definitely were here." He places his hand on his chin.
"Ikari!"
His thoughts are cut off whenever Star gets his attention back.
"What?" He asks.
"Nothing, you just looked as if you were looking into space." She replies with a smile.
The boy gives her an unimpressed look before he gets an idea.
"Eclipse, have you seen a group of people, maybe around five members around here recently?"
Eclipse creeks his head and thinks about it.
"Well, I saw a guy with blue hair and a yellow headband, he looked a little strange but he turned out to be harmless." He replies with a thinking face.
"No, not a person, just a group." Ikari responds while sighing.
"Oh! I saw a guy with green hair and a green yukata... He looked a little lost, though..." He says with doubt in his voice.
Ikari sighs, knowing this isn't going anywhere.
"Wait! Yeah, I did see some people; they looked pretty strong... And evil." He replies, but this time with confidence.
Ikari's eyes widen as he hears the words.
"Please, tell me more." He says.
Star laughs nervously, at the two boys.
"Let's see... One of them split up from the group. I don't know if they're still here though..."
"Give me a description of them." Ikari keeps on asking.
"The leader, I presume, looked really tall. While the others looked totally different from each other. If I remember correctly, there was four men and one girl. The one that split off was a man, looked like he was in his twentys and had grey hair..." He finishes.
"Thats all I know though." He says with sadly.
"How do you know all of this?" Ikari asks.
"Well, they came to the town recently, as soon as they showed up they made a huge commotion by destroying stuff and saying that they own this town now..." He replies.
Ikari nods.
"Thank you Eclipse." He says with a slight smile.
Eclipse smiles back as Star looks at Ikari with a concerned look.
"Just what are you planning?" She asks.
"You already know what I plan to do." He says coldly.
Before Star can reply, the waitress arrives with their food. Eclipse's eyes shine just at the sight of it.
As soon as the waitress puts down his plate, he's practically gobbling it all down.
Everyone looks at him in surprise.
The waitress slowly puts down Ikari's tea and Star's food before leaving.
Star begins to eat with Eclipse as Ikari still thinks to himself, occasionally drinking his tea.
"Maybe if I can hurry up, I can find the bastard and get more information..." He thinks while sipping on his tea.
Eclipse gasps as he finishes his food.
"That hit the spot!" He says satisfied.
Star finishes her food as Eclipse pats his belly.
The trio chat a little bit before the waitress comes back.
She discusses their order and tells them their price.
"200 GOLD?!" Yells Star and Ikari!
"We're going to be dead broke in the matter of one day!" Star cries.
"You said eating here would be cheap!" Ikari yells.
"It wasn't this cheap the last time I came here!" She yells back.
The two argue for a bit more as Eclipse giggles at them. After they finally finish their bickering, Star defeatedly hands over the gold.
The waitress smiles at them.
"Thanks for eating at Oily! Please come again!" She says as she walks away.
The trio gets up and walks out of the cafe; Ikari sighs as Star slowly puts her wallet back up.
"What now?" Eclipse asks.
Ikari ponders for a moment.
"I want you and Star to go to Lancaster's Rest and gather supplies and collect my dagger." He replies.
Star looks at him.
"What are you going to do?" She asks with concern.
"I want to stay here and investigate a little bit." He says.
Star clearly doesn't like this, but she nods.
"Just stay safe, Okay?" She says.
"Sure." He nods.
Star smiles at him before she walks towards the exit of the town, Eclipse following shortly.
The boy watches them walk way before turning around and also leaving the area.
"I can probably track the corruption spell that he placed on those men..." He thinks to himself.
He quickly runs towards the area where Eclipse lost control of himself.
"Any trace, any of them could help me!" The boy claims to himself.
After a minute of running, he arrives back to the scene, But to his surprise, the bodies are missing. Instead lie a pile of dust that has the same white aura.
He walks over and kneels down to the dust.
He places his palm over the remains of the bodies, and he's instantly met with the magic that belongs to the leader.
The power stuns him for a bit.
"T-this is insane..." He mumbles to himself.
The presence of the magic begins to make him think of the day when "It" happened...
He remembers it vividly, the way the leader stood in front of him and his dead parents. The way he spoke to him, the way his weapon was pointed at his neck.
Rage quickly flies into the boy's head, he can feel bloodlust starting to open just at the memory alone.
"I have to..." He whispers.
Memories of his mother, father and his friends come to him...
"I have to avenge them!" He yells as he grips his fist in anger.
"No matter what!"
He gets up and begins to focus on the magic's trail.
He closes his eyes and keeps focusing.
Suddenly, he opens his eyes and a path of the magic's trail lights up in front of him.
He follows the trail by quickly dashing to wherever it lights up.
"I have to be quick! If it disappears, I'll lose my lead..." He says to himself.
He continues to follow the trail, just the thought of finding one of the members of the group causes adrenaline to rush into him.
Everytime he blinks he can feel himself getting closer to something.
"It feels like there's a campsite ahead, no ones active there though..." He thinks to himself.
He speeds himself up and quickly arrives at the camp.
The boy is met with... pretty much nothing.
He examines the area, only a sleeping bag, a fire thats still running and cans of food that surround the area...
"There has to be a clue here..."
He walks over to the fire and puts his hand over it.
"Looks like it's been lit for a day..." He sighs.
He continues to search around, but nothing catches his eye.
"Dammit!" He says frustrated.
Ikari is about to leave but suddenly he sees something.
Walking towards a tree, Ikari senses some elemental power coming from it.
He places his hand on the tree and suddenly a marking appears.
"It's marked with a Wind Seal..." He says.
"This was probably used, so they could probably find their way back..."
Another trail of magic appears before Ikari.
He takes a deep breath and begins to follow it.
"I wonder what the others are up to..." He sighs.
"Oh my gods! He's so cuteeee!" Hina yells as she nuzzles a confused Eclipse.
Star giggles at the scene.
"You said his name was Eclipse?" Hina asks.
Star nods.
"Eclipse, my name is Hina Heatwaker its a pleasure to meet you!" She says happily.
Eclipse awkwardly smiles at her.
"Oh! Wheres Ikari?" Hina asks.
"He's umm... Running some errands at Sebastian's Omen." Star replies with a smile.
Hina creeks her head at her.
"So I'm guessing you two are here for his dagger?" Hina continues to ask.
"Yeah! We're also here to gather supplies and such." Star says.
Hina nods and walks to the back of the store.
Eclipse walks around the store, examining all types of weapons. His eyes lighten up at some of them.
"Hey Star?" He asks for the girl.
"Yeah?"
"Do you use any weapons?" He asks, turning his head to face her.
"Hmm... No not really, I do have a little experience with the bow and arrow." She replies.
"I want to learn how to use a whole bunch of weapons..." He says with a determined grin.
Star smiles at his confidence.
"Andddd Here you go!" Hina says as she walks back to the pair.
She hands Star, Ikari's new and improved dagger.
"Woah, this feels great!" She cheers.
"I tried my best!" Hina replies with a smile.
Eclipse walks back to Star and gasps in amazement whenever he see's Ikari's dagger.
"That looks amazing!" He yells. He reaches for the dagger, but Star pulls it away.
The boy pouts as Hina laughs at him.
"Maybe one day I can make you, your own dagger Eclipse." She says with a reassuring smile.
Eclipse's eyes shine of excitement as he hears this.
"Yes! I would love that!" He cheers.
Star and Hina smile at him.
"Oh yeah, do you want to come with us to get some supplies?" Star asks Hina.
"Hmm... Sure, its not like any business is coming right now anyways." She replies.
"Okay then, let's get going!" Star says.
The sound of rushing wind hits Ikari's ears as he follows the trail.
He continues following the trail as fast as he can until he sees a breaking point out of the trees.
As he leaves the forest, he's met with a huge cliff looking over the area.
He looks around, confused.
"I was climbing a mountain?" He asks himself.
He looks at the area below him.
"You can see Tranquil from up here..." Ikari thinks to himself.
The sight is breathtaking, you could see the perfect blue sky, the sometimes quiet town and most importantly a man with grey hair walking into the town with a sword...
"Wait..." Ikari's eyes widen as he sees the man.
It was just like how he remembered him, grey raggedy hair and a face with a clear smirk on it.
Rage flies into the boy's body once again, he grips his fist.
"I promised..." He says to himself.
He jumps off of the cliff, wind flows through his hair as he falls.
"I'LL HAVE HIS HEAD!" He screams as he falls.
Ikari crashes into the ground, he looks up and bolts towards one of the various bastards he swore to end; ready to kill in any type of way.