At an Izakaya, two men sat beside each other on the island, leaning against the table and looking at their glasses filled with a strong alcoholic drink. Beside their glasses were trays with raw salmon and sushi. They were sulking, not talking much, except when ordering more shots of their drink.
They were drunk already, but far from their limit. They could still take many shots before collapsing, assuming that they could pay for them all.
"We are cowards", Gen, the merchant, said dejectedly.
"We are wise. It's different", Hiro quipped grumpily. While Hiro seemed to be rather sad about the situation, Gen was angry. His face was also showing how depressed he was, but he expressed himself through his grumpiness.
"Yeah. So wise that we exchanged our lives for the life of a little boy", Gen swallowed down the rest of his drink, then ate some salmon before ordering one more.
"Well, you know... he was not that young. Do you remember Hinode? He died when he was sixteen. That's about the age of that boy, isn't it? He is not even underage anymore, so it should be fine", Hiro shrugged, but he himself didn't believe what he was saying.
"Could be a fifty-year-old vegetable and I would still feel guilty about throwing them on the death row."
"I am not saying that I am not feeling bad about it, but there is no helping it, man! We are not, and shouldn't be, the type of guys to put our life at risk over nothing. Come on... That's how we have been surviving until now, isn't it? That's the least we can do in this cruel world."
Gen sighed at his brother's remark. That fact still didn't make him feel better about what he had done.
"We could have lied, at least. I am not even talking about fighting off royal guards. I know very well we cannot do this."
Hiro shook his head.
"Once they found out that we were lying, we would be done for in no time. Even if we ran away, they would find us somehow. Besides, they have influence over the banks, so all our riches would be restrained."
Hiro took the last sip of his drink and ordered more. This time, a stronger one.
"Do you really think they will kill him?"
Gen shrugged once again.
"I don't know. That captain that interrogated us was hard to read. It was as if I couldn't see his soul in his eyes. They were empty and opaque. He was nonchalant. But there was malice in his voice, no doubt."
"What do we do now, then? Young Hayato might be in danger."
"We did what we could do. I pointed that captain to the longest road to Kigayo. Besides, Kigayo is so big that it will be difficult for them to find him. They will need to contact the guards of that city, gather information with them, talk with witnesses, influential businessmen, etc. It will take some time for them to find the boy. Besides, Hayato seems to be a very cautious person, so I bet he is not doing anything flashy out there to draw attention."
"True", Gen agreed, but his face still showed a lot of concern.
"If, at least, we knew where he is, we could send a letter or something, warning about the guards. It's a way of helping that is not as dangerous as lying to the guards, at least", Hiro suggested. No, it was more a rambling than a suggestion. After all, even if Hiro agreed with the idea of sending a letter, they would need to find Hayato's location for that.
"Yeah..." Gen sipped his drink, a displeased look on his face.
However, his eyes flashed and his face got a little brighter as his expression softened.
'Wait, what is this drunk homo thinking?' Hiro gulped.
Gen smiled and turned to look at Hiro at breakneck speed.
"I have an idea!"
"You have not."
"Yes, I do."
"No!", Hiro said sternly as he took a long sip of his drink.
"..."
"..."
Both drank a little bit and ate their sushi. They didn't look at each other's faces during this short time.
At some point, Gen finished with his current row of shots. After the last sip, he breathed heavily, then squinted his eyes and opened his mouth, still avoiding looking at Hiro's face.
"Yes, I do have an idea... old geezer."
"Oh, you-!"
****
Under the hot sun of the summer, in the middle of the day, three people walked on a dirt road. The wind was blowing to the east, but it only served to raise the dust and make the environment even more unbearable for the wanderers.
Two of them carried huge and heavy backpacks filled to the brim with whatever they were carrying. One would guess that, maybe, those were clothes, supplies, and even goods that they intended to sell. However, hardly any hawker would be in the middle of such a long road.
That road was supposed to connect the cities of that province. Usually, you wouldn't see anyone wandering there. At times, a homeless that was already insane or maybe drunk (or both) would end up in such a place, walking until their feet bleed, without water or food... just to die at some point, never being able to get anywhere. Aside from that, nobody would dare to try and cover such a distance instead of hitching a ride in a caravan.
Nonetheless, there they were, carrying heavy equipment, weapons on their waists, wearing simple and plain clothes, and pure white masks. Their faces were nonchalant, they didn't seem bothered by the sun or exhausted by the long walk. It was hard to imagine how they could maintain their composure, even though they were already so far away on that road.
That was a feat that no ordinary human being should be able to do...
"Are you sure that we should be going in this direction? Why would she be in Sekitan's province? I thought she was sticking to Buki's province before..." One of the three people, a man, asked his partner, who was walking a few steps ahead of them. His voice was gruff, yet extremely calm.
His white mask was not plain, which meant that he was not exactly a peasant. It had an expression of melancholy mixed with anger. A black dot was placed right under the right eye of the mask, looking like it represented a mole. On the left, there was a dot, too... but it was red and fairly bigger than the black one.
He was tall and red-haired, though the color was not natural. He wore a poncho that hid most of his trunk, but couldn't hide his evident build of a warrior. His shoulders were very large, after all.
A katana rested on the right side of his waist, a gun on the left. The gun had the same design as a close-quarters shotgun, but what stood out was the katana. Its scabbard was very worn out. It looked like he had set it on fire.
"I am sure. That's what the coordinate tells me", the guider said as he took a device attached to the side of his backpack. That device looked and worked like a tablet, but its screen only showed one thing: a map of their surroundings on a very detailed scale. The map was blue, but a red dot stood out from the rest.
The guide was shorter than his partner. His clothes were just as plain. His mask had about the same level of detail, too, with the difference that it was much more nonchalant. His voice had the intonation expected for a young man, but the long beard behind the mask made it look like he was much older.
Besides the heavy backpack, he had one firearm on each side of his waist.
"Hmph... This coordinate is not accurate, so I can't help but wonder."
"We want to find Hina as much as you want, Kaen. But you need to be patient."
Kaen grumbled something but didn't pursue the matter any further. However, it was clear as day that he was not happy with that.
"Really, you need to settle down... I am sorry if I cannot lead us accurately, but she has an entire district to hide from us. It's not my fault that we are grabbing just air for so long."
"I know", he said coarsely. "I am not trying to blame you, Ryuu. It's just that I am worried. And I miss her."
"We all miss her, Kaen. We three share this same feeling. You are not the only one", the female walking alongside them butted in. She had eyes as dark as petroleum and the rest of her face was hidden under a mask with a very, very melancholic expression. A blue tear was drawn in the white mask, which was very outstanding from the rest. It was hard to see masks with colors out of the neutral spectrum.
"However, our hearts and souls will be connected forever. I am sure we will find her soon. I can feel it."
"...You have been saying it since the first day we started searching for her."
"Yes. True", she giggled. "It's just that our conception of time is different, Kaen. Our conception of space, too. While for you some years are an eternity and thousands of kilometers are an exhaustive distance... for me, these things are as insignificant as little ants, for my love is so, so big, that I have yet to see something surpass its grandiosity.
"My love for Hina will surely shorten these gaps of time and space to the point of nonexistence. At the right time, we will be together again."
Those words resonated across the dirt road. For that woman, they did resonate, at least. So loudly and so certainly, that they covered all that distance in a matter of seconds.