Three days after the ceremony that crowned veronica as the next Lord of the city and declared the black fire and elite squad as the protectors of the city had passed, every citizen of the city were in kojin's memorial, they were all wearing black, the sky seemed to be very dark and the environment was gloomy. Some were crying, some felt sad, even diablo attended the memorial, while looking at kojin's grave with a sad look in his face, he was having an inner dialogue "Kojin, you were always there for me. As a kid, while I was being shunned by everyone in this city, you opened up to me. You had no business with me, and even tho you didn't really feel all that empathetic for me, you still showed me kindness. Thank you.", the dark clouds started to disappear and the sun started to shine down brightly, he asks himself "How much more, how many people do we have to lose?". Alex on the other had started to remember the times were kojin usually took care of him while his grandpa was always away, "That's right, kojin always looked out for me as a child. While grandpa was always away, kojin always came to check up on me. He bought some food for me and gave me cool clothes. May your soul rest in peace." Later on after the memorial, the rest of the day seemed to be bright but quiet, people kept going on with their lives, but the place was rather quiet than it usually was. The news of kojin's death spreaded across other countries, especially the lightning country, city of steel, and the country of raijin. Lady Najenda was in her office with some work, although she was just finishing them up "Kojin's dead huh? Well damn, that's a shame. Wasn't expecting him to go so soon." She turned to her window looking at the bright environment and says "Its about time I retired, I'm getting to old for this.(She's just 45)". Lady shinra from the country of raijin had already declared that she was retiring from her lordship position, although it had happen three days before she heard of kojin's death, she was heavily wounded emotionally and mentally after fighting zodia in the war, although she seemed to be behaving like her normal self. One week had passed, Raquel was in Alex's room, she was sitting on his bed while eating some of his snacks, alex comes In from the shower wearing black shorts and a white shirt and with wet hair "Ahh damn, the shower has been hitting different lately, summer begins next month. Guess we can catch a break and go to our normal slice of life activities. Looks like you've made yourself comfortable Raquel.", raquel responds "How many times have I told you never to have a shower without me whenever I'm around?", alex just responds "Ahh calm down, I just felt abit nostalgia that's all. Besides you seemed to be enjoying my snacks, why disturb you?". He lays on her lap while Raquel starts to clean his ears, "I can't believe its been a week since kojin passed away. Its too damn sad.", raquel says "Well, God gives and he takes as well. It was a battle that decided the fate of the world, people were bound to die. Both the good guys and the bad guys". They both are silent for a good moment, the environment was quite with just birds chirping outside, Raquel asks "By the way Alex, did you die during the war?", alex doesn't respond for a moment. He closes his eyes and says "Yes, I did die. But that's not important right now, I'm still here with you, aren't I?", Raquel just smiles "Yeah, you still are, and im grateful for that." Meanwhile, kinto was in the iron country at rin's house, rin asks "So what brings you here? Wasn't expecting to see you, I thought you'd be trying to recover.", kinto replies "I'm here to see your brother, kazu to be exact.", "Why do you want to see him? Is there a problem?" Rin asked in confusion. Kazu and shouya were having a sparing match in a stadium, shouya is causing hands to bursts out of the ground and attack kazu, kazu was just jumping around at a great speed and dodging them. Kazu continues to do this while acknowledging the fact that shouya's attack speed has gotten faster, He ended up blitzing shouya and wants to land a punch, but shouya was about to land a punch of his own. Before their blows collide, rin walk in the stadium and yells "Enough you two", the two brothers pauses for a moment and realize that rin and kinto were watching them the entire time. Few moments had passed and kazu asks kinto "What do you want? I wasn't expecting to see you.", kinto trying to be funny replied "That's not how you thank someone who saved your country from total enaihilation", rin just elbows him on his arm signifying that its not time for jokes. Kinto just smiles nervously and says "Riiiiight. Hehe. Either way I came to return something.", he does a few hand signs and then a katana appeared. He explains "This was kenji's katana. I thought I'd give it to you guys since you were like siblings to him. To kenji, you three were his only reason to keep moving, his sword was rather in shambles after our fight, so I took it and repaired it.", he stretches out the sword to kazu "Here, have it.". Kazu looks at the sword for a moment and just sighs, he takes the sword "Thanks, rin told me everything. About how kenji and our dad were close, how he protected us from our higher ups because we were to strong, how he wanted us to hate him so we'd become stronger on our own. It's kinda sad if you think of it.", the place becomes quiet with a sad tone. Shouya just sighs and says "Kinto, thanks for saving our country, and thanks for returning this to us. By the way, how's alex doing?" Kinto replied "You're welcome, and alex is doing well. I'll tell him you were asking of him. I'm off", rin follows him "I'll accompany you." As kinto was leaving and with rin's accompany, kinto was looking at the hills and mountains, he says "Wow the land scape of your country looks beautiful, glad im alive to see it.", rin then says "Yeah they do. Hey kinto, I want to ask you something.", he turns around and asks "What's up?", rin shyly asks "Would you... um.. would you like to be my boyfriend?"
END OF CHAPTER.