And the World Shall Forget You

[Zach Kaiser]

"Ah." It wasn't hard for him to figure out that Etsu was well aware what the argument had been about; if she didn't, she wouldn't have been upset. "I'm sorry; both that you had to hear that, and that we seem to have done wrong to both our son and you."

As he tended towards stoicism it was a bit difficult to tell, but Urikuse was taking this much better than either his wife or his son. He was more forlorn than upset; he understood why both of them were acting they way they were. They needed to hear each other's side of the story, and that required both of them to calm down first.

He wished to placate Etsu as well, and hoped that if she had something on her mind she'd talk to him rather than scream or sulk. "Gomennasai," he said somberly, bowing to her at the waist. It was a fairly odd occurrence, for someone to show such deference to someone so much younger.

[Nayt]

Odd, but extremely effective. Socially speaking, her culture was built entirely around subtleties. When meeting someone, you bowed lower depending on gender and class, for instance. No one outside of Cizok even recognized it, but subtleties like that had been driven into Etsu's head since she was a little girl, and Urikuse, too, was clearly accustomed to them. In Cizok, the concept of "it isn't what you say but how you say it" was much, much stronger than it was in Common speaking countries, and Urikuse was clearly a master of it.

"It . . . it is . . ." okay? No, it wasn't okay. It wasn't okay at all. She felt downright insulted right now, and even if she was accepting her uncle's apology, this wasn't okay.

Urikuse at the very least calmed Etsu down enough that she wasn't going to go storming off like Eld, or outright running away like she had the urge to do a moment earlier. She was still upset, but made eye contact with Urikuse and tried to reason this out, anyways.

"I do not under-stand, Ojisan," she said on the precipice of a sigh, "Why wour-rd you set up sumiengumi and not even want to?"

She paused at length, and even though she was silent, it was very clear in the way she bit her lower lip that she had something more important to ask than that.

". . . and not ter-rr me it was off?" And by that, of course, she meant that she had wanted to see her aunt and uncle in person, but she didn't get that. All she was told of it was her mother saying she didn't need to worry about it anymore, which was somehow supposed to mean that the arranged marriage was called off . . .

[Zach Kaiser]

"Hmmm..." Urikuse contemplated these questions for a minute, deep in thought. The answer to one of those was probably much more simple than Etsu thought, and the other much more complex.

He started with the simple one. "For why we didn't come in person, the answer is simply that the clinic kept us busy. I apologize for that too; only once since our families met for the sumiengumi has even one of us been able to get away for any length of time."

"As for why it didn't happen...for now, let me just assure that it had nothing to do with you, Etsu-chan. We would have been happy to have you as a daughter-in-law." He neglected to mention that he wasn't entirely sure it wouldn't still happen. "It's something Eld should hear too, however, so if it's not too much to ask I'd like to wait until he's calmed down and I can tell both of you at once."

[Nayt]

"Souka . . ." Etsu trailed off and sighed.

So it had nothing to do with her? Really? Well, she felt a little less insulted, then, but she was still both curious and a little bit hurt. Honestly, even with the clinic keeping them busy, one of them could have ridden down to her hometown and told her in person. But that was an argument she wasn't even going to try to start.

Any real answers were clearly going to come later, though. Sometime after Eld calmed down. Judging by how upset he was when she saw him, that probably wasn't going to happen for awhile. Maybe it was still best if she vacated for a little while, if only to let things cool down, now.

". . . I wir-rr be back to-morrow, then," she said, "I am going to stay with Vaerbond-san to-night . . . if that is o-kay."

Technically they were her guardians right now, and since she didn't want to run away anymore, she felt the need to ask permission for these sorts of things. Eld's sort of lavish do-what-you-want-just-be-responsible sort of lifestyle was neither something she could understand nor bear with. Etsu knew her age and knew where that placed her in the world; she needed boundaries and she needed someone strong to tell her not to cross them. That was the big deal with her stepfather. He was weak and let her do whatever it was she wanted; he placed no expectations on her, not even a curfew. It was one of the things she loathed about him.

[Zach Kaiser]

"It's fine," Urikuse answered with a nod of assent. Ordinarily he would have been a little uneasy with having the her away from the house for another night--their little camping trip had lasted longer than he'd expected--but given the construction and the current mood it couldn't be helped.

"And if you see Eld...no, nevermind." It wasn't right to use Etsu as a go-between here. He had work to do and couldn't look for him right now, but he made a note to talk to him before the day was done.

[Nayt]

The good news was that Etsu felt a little better already. The bad news was that there was still turmoil in the family that wasn't going to be dealt with until tomorrow. But alas . . .

Etsu tilted her head to the side when Urikuse decided against asking a favor of her. Whatever it was, she would have done it--but oh well. She probably wasn't going to see Eld again until tomorrow, anyways. She'd never seen him upset before, but he really seemed like the type to waltz off to a secluded hill and sulk to himself when particularly upset . . . or something along those lines.

"Arigatou, Ojisan," Etsu said with a bow.

With that, she adjourned to Eld's room to rummage through the clothes she'd brought to the camping trip and never worn, picked out a couple of outfits, stole Eld's best pillow, and returned to the Vaerbond family ranch.

[Zach Kaiser]

Elsewhere, an angry young man was trying to blow off steam.

Eldridge Tsukimono retreated to the same place he always went when he was especially upset and wanted to be alone: the hill in the wooded area a little ways behind his house. But today, simply staying up there and spacing out was impossible, so using what room he had to work with he began going through the exercises his grandfather had taught him. Though ostensibly a form of martial arts, the exercises were more about the flow of movement than any traditional strikes or stances.

However, his tension could only be subdued so much. He was hurt, angry, and frustrated. But no matter how much he might have blamed his parents right now, his mind continually returned to the same thought again and again:

Why did I say that?

[Nayt]

Eld wasn't the only person out and active this afternoon, though. He'd more than likely eventually catch a glimpse of something happening down in town. From the top of the hill, he could see most of town, after all (though a good bit of it was of his sight; when the town was smaller, a village, one might have seen all of it from this point).

In town, there appeared to be a scuffle. It was outside of the center-town pub. Though Hillcrest was large enough that you could go your entire life there without seeing every face in town, it still rarely experienced many drunken bar fights or brawls. The center-town pub didn't see many fights either inside or outside of its walls. It was hard to see exactly what was going on, only that it was bad. One man was going up against about six. He was outnumbered and probably outmatched, though there were a couple of men already on the ground and clearly not moving very quickly-- likely unconscious or at least incapacitated.

From this distance, it was impossible to tell who exactly was involved.

[Zach Kaiser]

Whether it would turn out to be for good or ill fortune, Eld managed to find something to distract him from his troubles. "What the...?" he actually said aloud, slowing his current exercise to a stop. Down in town there was a fight going on, and a big one at that. A couple of people were already on the ground, and while it was hard to tell it seemed like it was just one guy on six.

Regardless of the odds or who was whose side, people were getting hurt. If he couldn't stop it, he could at least provide some aid to anyone who got injured. So he bolted down the hill as fast as he could, heading for the site of the fight, to do whatever he could to minimize the damage done.

[Nayt]

He ducked left, ducked right, threw a punched, missed by an inch, and was blindsided by a fist in his ribs. He stumbled back, but not before slamming his elbow into his blindsider. In doing, he threw a third man to the ground, but took a fist to his face, too. Stumbling again, he slammed his back against the front door of the pub, which nearly collapsed under the force of it.

Breathing heavily, Noah Herst forced himself up away from the door. He wiped his lip with the back of his hand, smearing a trail of blood across his cheek. Noah wore little more than a white muscle shirt and a pair of tan slacks, and was incidentally a lot better built than he was when Eld last saw him without a shirt on (or in this case, a shirt that may as well have not been one at all). Then again, that was years ago--but still, Noah had done a lot more than study when he was away from home, it seemed. His clothes were a bit tattered and dirty and now had a few splotches of blood on them, but he really wasn't as badly hurt as he seemed. More than anything, he was just winded.

The six men-- three of which still stood --were all clad in already tattered clothes. Dirty jackets, ripped up trousers, loose coats . . . the works. They were tattooed all over and a couple of them even wore red bandannas over their faces. One of them was stacked; twice Noah's size, even. He'd been the one to land his knuckles into Noah's face a second ago. While it was impossible to know literally every face in Hillcrest in one's lifetime, it was very clear that these men were not from around here. People would have told stories about roughians and folk wouldn't turned up in the clinic as a result.

"Guess this's it for ya now, ain't it?" said the largest man as he cracked his neck and adopted a grin.

[Zach Kaiser]

Eld was in a dead sprint when he came within view of the fight, and once he got close enough to see who was involved, he skidded to a halt. It wasn't the six tough, mean looking man that surprised him though; it was the lone person standing against them. Noah.

Until now he would have claimed he'd pay to see Noah get beaten to a pulp. And truth be told if he was just a little roughed up it would probably be a rather satisfying sight. But he was bleeding, and if he fell against these men they were going to do some serious damage to him. Perhaps even if he didn't.

In any case, he couldn't in good conscience just stand and watch. "Hey!" he shouted suddenly, slowly walking closer. "Break it up!"

He tried not to pass judgment on either side; for all he knew, Noah had stupidly picked a fight with these men for no good reason. Though something him that probably wasn't the case here...

[Nayt]

Eld's approach did not go unnoticed by either side. At least four people heard the boy sprinting for them, and as soon as Noah looked in the direction of it, so did the biggest of these burly figures.

"Eld . . .?" Noah asked with a furrowed brow.

As far as Noah was concerned, this probably made the problem even larger than before. Shit, Eld's going to get himself hurt out here, happened to be one of Noah's concerns. Which was weird, because he'd never actually felt himself genuinely concerned about Eldridge Tsukimono's physical safety before.

The big man shrugged Eld off entirely, though. Eld had called for them to cut it out, but he wasn't going to even remotely adhere to that.

"Fuck outta here, kid," the big man said, "This ain't your deal."

[Zach Kaiser]

"People are getting hurt, so it is," he stated matter-of-factly. The men were big--especially the one who seemed to be the leader--but he lived next to the Terras. When one was used to seeing Gestahl, even if just in passing occasionally, it took more considerably more size to intimidate a person on that alone.

"Why don't we all cool down here; there's a nearby clinic, everyone can get patched up there." He felt it was a reasonable suggestion. Noah seemed to have KO'd half of them already, even if he was looking a bit beat up; if they had any kind of solidarity, surely they'd want to make sure their friends got help, right?

But while he may have been hopeful, possibly to the point of being naive, Eld was no idiot. He was prepared in case of them decided to attack him rather than listen to him.

[Nayt]

The larger man had almost completely shrugged Eld off. He looked away from the kid and focused his attention on Noah entirely. Without warning, he took another couple of steps forward, almost closing the gap between he and Herst. This put Noah on even higher alert. Most of the heavy hits he'd taken thus far were from that guy, who was regrettably the most durable bastard of them all.

"What, you deaf?" said one of the smaller men to Eld, "He said step off."

One of the two standing smaller guys interjected himself between Eld and the big man. He grabbed Eld by the wrist harshly and moved to throw him down.

Shiiiiiiiiit, Noah thought to himself. He bolted forward, but was blocked off by the larger man throwing another punch at him, one that would have clocked Noah out like the guys on the ground if he hadn't been insightful enough to duck right and take a step back. Unfortunately, that ensured he wasn't going to be there in time to help Eld out of the bind he'd just gotten himself into . . .

[Zach Kaiser]

Eld was fairly small for a guy, it was true; even if he was in decent shape, there was simply no chance he was going to be able to out-muscle most other men. But what he did have were reflexes; between competing with Sarah for most of his life and training with his grandfather for a few years now, Eld's reactions were far better than the average sixteen-year old.

When the man that came at him grabbed his wrist, Eld twisted his own hand so he could put his thumb on a pressure point on the man's wrist, side-stepped and spun out of the way of the shove, grabbing the man's arm with both hands and simultaneously pulling as he went past and placing his foot in front of the man's foot to trip him up.

The end result being that the man would feel pain in his hand (and probably let go of Eld's), whiff his push and lose his balance as he was pulled off his feet. Just how hard he hit the ground largely depended on how much of his weight he put behind the push.

"Fine, then look at it this way," Eld said, sidestepping to put some space between him and the man he'd just thrown. He would probably not be knocked out unless he landed especially bad (or was already hurt by Noah), so he'd be a little angry when he got up, he imagined. "He already took out half of you without help. If he gets help, what do you think your chances are?"

And he probably just proved he would not be a burden on Noah, either.