Red stood in the kitchen, scratching his chin as he stared into the open ice chest. He went to lean against a wall but stopped himself before touching it. The fresh paint covering the walls had a propensity to get on clothes and never come off.
He looked around the kitchen, and then out into the common area. Fresh paint was slathered on every wall and shiny brown wood adorned the floors.
Red looked over at the animal skin couch and saw Yasuke asleep, yawning aloud while sitting up.
Red grabbed a fistful of shallots and lemons and shut the chest tight. He tossed the lemons in a pot full of oil and the shallots in a bowl full of other vegetables.
Hearing shuffling, Red turned to see Yasuke adjusting in his sleep, his head falling onto his shoulder.
Red pressed down on the lemons, crushing them immediately. After admiring his work for a moment, he extracted anything that wasn't liquid.
Moody raced down the stairs with a book in hand. He looked at Red in the kitchen and Yasuke in the common area. He ran his free hand through his slicked-back hair, causing a few ghostly white strands to fall in from to front of his face. He walked over to Yasuke and tapped him with the book.
Yasuke got up in a panic and scowled at Moody. Yasuke shouted, "Oh I get it, so you want to spar with me again, right?"
Red poured his lemon vinaigrette concoction over the bowl of chopped vegetables and asked, "Yasuke, it's only been a little while since you got out, you should be taking more time to recover. I think King Esa will be giving us an assignment soon."
Yasuke stood up and flexed his arm, "It's been three weeks, Red. And I'm feeling right as rain. I need to teach this kid to respect his elders a little bit," He turned to Moody, who stood by the front door with his arms crossed, "So I don't think I'll use my sword on you this time, since I destroyed you with it the last time."
Looking at Yasuke, Red agreed with his assessment. He no longer looked emaciated and dehydrated, over a short amount of time he gained all of his muscle mass back and even added some on.
Yasuke looked down at his outfit before heading out the door. His clothes were cleanly pressed and appeared to be brand new. He wore a white wrap-around jacket and long black trousers similar to a skirt that dragged across the ground. He grabbed a short black katana with gold accents from the table in front of him. The acutely sharp blade was completely exposed, there was no scabbard in sight. Instead, Yasuke held on to the blade with his left hand and held it at his side.
Red pointed at it and went to say something but Yasuke cut him off, "This is something I thought of when I was imprisoned. This should eliminate that half a second it takes to unsheathe my sword out of a scabbard. Trust me on this."
Red put both his hands up and shook his head. Yasuke turned to Moody and asked, "The usual spot, right?"
Moody nodded his head. The three of them headed out of a small door tucked away in the back of headquarters, leading to a moderate patch of grass.
Red closed the door as he stepped into the back area and leaned against the wall of the headquarters. On the other side of this back area was an oppressively tall stone wall, that stretched up into the sky. The two buildings flanking the headquarters did not have the same designs, so they were surrounded on both sides by dull homogenous brick.
Yasuke and Moody both got on opposite sides. Yasuke tossed his sword over to Red and assumed his stance, holding both palms up and spacing his feet shoulder length apart. Moody jumped up and down while punching in the air, his loose black trousers bouncing as he did so. The punches were hard and sharp, they cut through the air with a sound like a sonic boom.
Moody stood shirtless, completely exposing his lean musculature. He stopped jumping after a few more moments and dug his bare feet into the grass.
Yasuke still held his stance, shouting out, "Are you ready yet?"
Moody didn't respond, only lifting his leg and grabbing his foot.
Yasuke stepped in, zipping through the grass quickly. Before he could throw an attack, Moody disappeared from his view. Yasuke snapped his head back and forth hastily, finally spotting Moody standing on his left. Moody tapped the back of Yasuke's knee with his knee, causing him to stumble slightly.
Moody pivoted his body and delivered a kick with his other foot into Yasuke's face.
Yasuke staggered back momentarily, blood gushing from his nose. He bounced back after a second and closed the distance between them again and got low to the ground. From the low position, he delivered a very stiff punch. His hips and his shoulders didn't move at all, and he didn't rotate his wrists. He placed his fist into Moody's chest with a small sharp motion.
Moody gasped for air as he attempted to stand his ground, but he only found it harder to breathe by the second.
Moody's eyes darted up and down for a second before he reached out and grabbed onto the sleeves of Yasuke's jacket. Moody quickly turned and hoisted Yasuke onto his back, before throwing him over his shoulder all in one motion.
"One-handed shoulder throw? That's pretty impressive." Red thought to himself.
Yasuke laid on his back motionless for a long time, while Moody still struggled and gasped for air.
After a few moments, Moody plopped down on top of him. He raised his fist to strike Yasuke but changed his mind at the last moment. Instead, he placed one arm under Yasuke's hand, and clasped his hands together, effectively isolating his shoulder and trapping his neck.
Red pushed himself off of the wall and got close to the fight, thinking to himself, "I've never seen anything like this before. This kid is a savant."
Red waved his arms in the air and yelled out, "Stop, stop! You've already beat him, no need to knock him out too."
Moody jumped up, still rubbing his chest, before falling onto his back. Yasuke got up slowly, rubbing the blood rushing from his nose.
Yasuke turned away from Moody, scratching his arm ferociously. He shouted out, "Good job once again kid. You might be one of the strongest hand-to-hand fighters on the continent, maybe even the world. Your knowledge regarding different martial arts is truly undeniable, and your ability to use them in combination with one another to draw out their strengths and hide their weaknesses is a pipe dream even for some masters."
Yasuke turned back to him, still scratching his arm, "But in this world that simply isn't enough. In a fair world you would be one of the strongest, but in this world of the blessed and the chosen, being talented isn't enough. You seem to have a decent grasp on magic already, some Patron abilities would take you to the next level."
Red nodded his head, "I agree with Yasuke's assessment. You may have beat Yasuke in this little spar, but keep in mind Yasuke didn't use his abilities or his sword and he was still able to do significant damage to you. Still, a very impressive job for someone your age."
Moody didn't respond, he remained sitting and looked up into the cheery morning sky.
Yasuke stepped into the headquarters, both hands tightly clenched into fists.
Red walked over to Moody and stood over him for a while, before smiling and reaching a hand out and helping him up.
Moody traced a word in the air with his finger, "Strong."
Red patted him on the back, "Yeah I was pretty surprised myself. I knew Yasuke was strong but I think I've been underestimating. He was the right hand to the Commander Grand Officer for years, so this shouldn't be too big of a shock."
As they both headed in, Yasuke shouted out, "Red come here now!"
Red and Moody both rushed in to find Yasuke standing at the front door holding it open. In the doorway stood a mysterious figure draped in all black. They wore a large cloak that covered their torso down to their feet and a large pointed hat. The figure emanated a large amount of energy, their aura was almost suffocating.
"Day, is that you?" Red called out.
The figure lifted their hat and revealed themselves as Day. She smiled meekly, but the stress on her face was obvious.
Yasuke backed up from the door and shook his head furiously. Turning to Red, he shouted, "No Red! Not her, anyone but her! Do I need to remind you what she did?"
Red put his hand on his head, "Now that she's here both of your sides of the situation in detail, and then we should figure out how to move forward, together. Now let's head outside and take our time with this."
The four of them walked through the headquarters and out the back door. Red leaned against the wall of the headquarters and Day stood next to him. Examining Day more closely, Red noted that she was wearing a long dress with a large cloak draped over her. Her pointed hat had a face carved into it.
Moody leaned against the building on their left and put his head up toward the sky.
Yasuke stood opposite Red and Day, crossing his arms and biting down hard on his lip.
Red looked at both of them before speaking, "Let's start from the beginning. Go ahead Day."
Day spoke softly, looking away from Yasuke, "There isn't much to say. After you disappeared, Yasuke and I remained as the only members of Squad Zero. We did a few missions, mostly monster extermination and requests from surrounding towns."
She paused and breathed in deeply before continuing, "Our squad became larger. We got a few new members."
"Say their names," Yasuke growled.
Day sighed aloud, "I don't re-"
Yasuke cut her off, "Ade, Chidi, Ekon, Kaien, Lucas."
Day looked at him confused and shrugged, "Uh…right, them. Anyways, Olo came to me asking about the day-to-day operations of our squad. I let him know everything I knew. He asked me that because Princess Emere requested that I join her personal guard temporarily. That squad is made up of all women, so I was a top candidate."
Yasuke squinted, "There's another reason you were a top candidate too, right?"
Day rolled her eyes and robotically stated, "Yes, my father is the leader of Asthenic, and he is a vassal to King Esa. Since my family has such close ties to Oldum, that also went in my favor."
Yasuke shook his head and turned away from Day.
She continued, "That was still a way off, so I continued with Squad Zero. I wasn't close with Yasuke and I definitely wasn't close with the other knights. I just served as their healer."
She grabbed her forehead, "Olo came back around and gave me an official date when I would be assigned to Princess Emere's guard. At the same time, the energy slowly started to shift here. Everyone started to actively avoid me, and they spoke in hushed voices when they thought I couldn't hear."
Yasuke scratched at his neck but remained turned away from Day.
She looked at him and continued, "Yasuke still treated me the same though, so I assumed the new members just weren't taking to me. One day, I heard two of them saying something about a coup. All I did was report those two to Olo."
Yasuke turned around and lashed out, putting a finger in Day's face, "She's a damn liar! A manipulator! She's just trying to curry favor with you, our squad members weren't talking anything about a coup! They weren't talking anything about a…!" Yasuke stumbled over his words as he struggled to make his point, "They were talking about how they want to change the world."
Day's expression darkened, anger filled her features, "You should think about being nicer to me, samurai. I'm your ally. So trust me when I say, they didn't give a damn about changing the world. They were insurgents."
Yasuke scratched his neck, faster now, and blood began to seep between his fingers, "So this is what you do when you hear one little thing you dislike or don't understand? I guess it's okay if you feed me to the wolves, we only knew each other for a few months. But what if we have a difference of opinion here? Or worse yet, Olo or King Esa threaten your family during our new operation, are you gonna sell us out again? Are you gonna rat out Red?"
Day scoffed, "The only wolves I've seen were those squad mates you called friend."
Without hesitation, Yasuke grabbed Day by the neck and threw her through the stone wall they stood opposite of, shattering it in the process.
Day hovered in the air, unscathed. Yasuke ran and grabbed the sword that lay between Red's legs.
"What the hell are you doing?" Red called out, but Yasuke continued to run off.
Yasuke jumped through the hole Day made and slashed at her. She dodged easily and watched as he fell. Past the city wall, there was a sheer drop, well over two hundred and fifty feet before they reached the ground.
Yasuke dug his sword into the wall, holding it with one hand to gradually slow his fall, cutting through layers of brick and stone as he did. While he slid down, he used his opposite hand to shoot off dark energy balls.
Day kept a close distance but easily evaded his attacks as she flew down with him.
"I thought you could control smoke? What in the world is this?" Day yelled out.
"You know Day," He yelled back, still shooting off the dark energy, "After you got me imprisoned I was able to do some self-reflecting. That ability was just a product of my weakness, something I borrowed. This is what I'm truly capable of."
Yasuke finally came to a stop, and he quickly pulled himself up and stood on the blade. He held open his palm and pointed it at Day.
Yasuke yelled out, "Dark Blind!"
Day's vision was immediately obscured. She wasn't exactly blind but everything was cloudy and murky. She attempted to rub her eyes frantically to no avail. After a moment, she calmed down and breathed in and out slowly.
"I understand Yasuke. I guess this is how it has to be," Day said as she ripped off a piece of her cloak and wrapped it around her eyes. Day put her hand out and ten multilayered runic rings appeared. Her runic rings were unusual, containing a different runic language than what was typically seen. They were spinning decagrams with something akin to child's scribblings on them, neat and sloppy all at the same time.
Day chanted in a strange language, as a large blue fireball appeared and launched toward Yasuke.
Yasuke grabbed his sword out of the wall and began to fall again. Day flew down a shot off more large fireballs consecutively. Yasuke reverse-gripped the sword, holding the blade in the opposite direction of Day.
He yelled out, "Hidden Draw Style Seventh Technique: Zephyr!"
Yasuke cut the air one time. Then two more. Each slash shot off a dark beam of energy toward Day at a blinding speed.
She narrowly avoided the three of them. While continuing to shoot fireballs, she used her off hand to make spikes protruding from the wall opposite Yasuke.
Yasuke put his blade at his feet and jumped up, avoiding a spike that attempted to penetrate his body. Yasuke then put his back to the wall and jumped off of it, grabbing the sword from its free fall. Yasuke was now significantly farther from the wall and closer to Day. Rather than taking a swing at her, he used Zephyr to slow his momentum as they neared the ground.
Day landed softly on both feet as Yasuke tumbled attempting to land.
"You're still taking it easy on me Day." Yasuke snarled, "What you just did was very impressive, but show me what makes Red want to keep a traitor like you around so badly."
Day scowled at him while reaching into her cloak.