Though relieved that it sounded like she was feeling better, he question quickly threw off his train of thought. Smell? There was a small pause before a thought ran through Eld's head, one he didn't mean to telegraph: When did I last take a bath?

But he quickly rejected that line of thought. There was no way that Kageko should have been able to smell him...or smell anything, for that matter. Besides, he'd just taken a bath last night.

Umm...I'm not sure. How can you smell anything? While she could sense what was happening around him to a limited extent, he knew, he couldn't recall her being able to smell anything before. Besides, he didn't smell anything unusual; his room was clean as it always was.

It was weird, though. Eld suggested that she shouldn't be able to smell anything, in a roundabout way, but she was. It was hard to describe what she smelled, too. It smelled extremely familiar.

But . . . perhaps he was right. No, no, Eld was definitely right about this. This had to be a problem of her own body at work.

I . . .

Kageko trailed off. She stared ahead, into the darkness. She couldn't help but feel a little silly, now. It was strange of her to ever think she could genuinely smell anything from Eld's world when she was inside of here. Kageko rubbed her nose with her index finger.

I apologize, Master. Perhaps I am still unwell. When humans are ill, don't their noses work strangely, too?

Well, it's more like they stop working entirely. Eld wasn't denying that she did smell something, but he was rather curious as to how. Another mystery added to the list of things he needed to talk to her about when he had the chance.

Unfortunately, he didn't have a whole lot of time to dwell on it just now. Are you feeling alright? I could use your help, but only if you're up to it. The last thing he wanted was to push Kageko. At least with him he more or less knew his own (physical) limits, but he had no idea what the consequences of Kageko getting sick or straining herself might be.

I am all right . . .

She didn't sound too convinced of her own words, but there wasn't much Eld could do about that. Kageko was her own person, and part of her wants and desires as her own person was to be of assistance to Eld in every way she could. If there was something that she could help him with, all she wanted to do was assist him. Personal illness did little to calm that want.

There really wasn't much proof that using her powers was making her illness worse, either. She was fluctuating, and clearly feeling a lot better at the moment, but she was definitely not 100%.

Still, she could help him, so she would.

Please do not worry about me, Master.

While getting potentially injured (which happened if he got injured while using her) certainly could help her illness, Eld was still largely at a loss as to how she could get sick to begin with. There was still a lot he didn't understand about her, and he hoped soon he could talk to her about it. Even if she didn't know for sure either they might be able to come up with a theory, at least.

For now, he just had to try not to get hurt and hope for the best, he supposed. He didn't want to leave Kaze on her own any longer than he had to; though, finding her in the forest if she was still searching blindly wasn't exactly going to be easy, it was better than leaving her on her own out there.

Not wanting to alert his parents (though he'd tried to hint that they should be careful of strangers), he took Kageko (and his kusari-gama, just in case) and shifted into Purgatory, intending to stay there until he got to the forest.

I suppose I should fill you in on what's happened...

It was true that Kageko and Eld hadn't the chance to talk much recently. It started to dawn on Kageko just then that the two of them hadn't talked at all, really. It was kind of disconcerting, really. She enjoyed it when Eld talked to her--or anything to do with her, really. At night, they saw each other. They did anything from talking to doing . . . things. Kageko might not have been the best of conversation, but she was always willing to listen when Eld wanted to talk, and she did all she knew how to facilitate conversation, too. It was a little disappointing, in hindsight, that they'd been very much apart in the recent past.

Though, as much as regretted not having talked to Eld much in the recent past, she did have quite a lot on her mind.

Yes, Master?

Kageko spoke just as a means of getting Eld to go on, really.

Umm...let me see... It was a weird situation to be sure, and the fact that he was only moderately bothered by it probably said something for what his life had become like.

I met a girl in Galaens yesterday who was looking for her brother; she thought he was going to Hillcrest. So I brought her back here and agreed to help her look. She's...a bit of a space case, so I thought she'd need some help. Well, we found her brother earlier, except that the reason he's here is because he wants to kill me.

He paused for a moment; a few months ago someone, anyone wanting to kill him would have greatly disturbed him. Now he was just grateful that the person wasn't some monstrously strong maniac who'd stoop to anything to get his way.

Since he saw her with me, the brother--Oboreru--now thinks his sister--Kaze--is a "traitor." She's looking for him now because she hopes she can beat him up and drag him off before he hurts me again. But I'm worried about her, so I'm going to go look for them. When he confronted us earlier, he did something that messed up my senses bad--at least I think he did it. I'm hoping you can counteract that.

He left out a lot of details, like that Kaze had fallen in love with him, or that Oboreru seemed to think he'd killed someone close to him, but those weren't particularly relevant at the moment, he felt.

I see.

A weird tale, to be sure. At least, weird to anyone else. Kageko was, herself, a strange person. She wasn't even a human being, and she openly admitted this. She referred to people similar to Eld as "other humans," for example, rather than using a less indicative title. Regular human drama was weird to Kageko. Off the wall stuff like this, however, was presumably commonplace. She saw very little in it that was disconcerting or disturbing--or even that strange at all.

Her initial deduction, in fact, was that neither Kaze nor Oboreru were human beings like Eld, Sarah, and the rest of them.

Kageko failed to make note of this openly, however.

I will do my best, Master.

Eld tended to forget how little Kageko knew about humans, particularly what was normal. Which really didn't help his own sense of normalcy. But he tended to figure through observing him and his friends she probably got a better idea of what humans were like than any attempt of his to explain it could accomplish.

By the time she replied he'd made his way to the edge of the forest, and with a quick look to make sure no one was around he phased back into the material world. Mostly he didn't want to worry his parents, but in fact the village in general would probably get nervous he was seen walking around with his weapons. He could never be sure just how much they knew about him, but at the very least they seemed to gather than he was looking ready for a fight one was probably imminent.

It was a shame he knew he didn't have nearly good enough luck for Kaze to have found and beaten her brother already. Again, he had to wonder just how she fought if she'd really beaten him numerous times before.

Hopefully I won't need to find out, he thought as he entered the forest and began searching.

There was . . . commotion. Someone was shouting, someone, somewhere, in the distance. They were in the forest, but they were deep--and quite the opposite direction of Remmy's former training grounds. It was towards Galaens, but even distant from there. Although distant from where Eld was initially, if he were to pursue it, he'd find that the sounds grew louder and continued, ranging from shouts to cries of pain, from hollow winds to resounding blows.

From Hillcrest, it was a forty minute walk.

It would be there that Eld would find them, Oboreru and Kaze, brother and sister, squared off, secluded, in a clearing spaced between Hillcrest and Galaens, and not too distant from a lakeside where Etsu Hikane enjoyed fishing whenever she had the opportunity.

Oboreru stood weakly, holding himself up with his quarter staff implanted into the ground, hugging it with his arms and angling his weight down on it to keep himself from falling forward. He was exhausted, but at the same time, he was a lot more than that. Oboreru was just as exhausted as he was hurt. Perhaps emotionally, but definitely physically.

The shoulder of his coat was ripped. His back was shredded. Trails of blood wet his hair and slid down his forehead and coated his cheeks. His undershirt was torn and stained. His right leg was jabbed one direction, his foot inhumanly turned in leftward, brokenly refusing to cooperate with further activity.

Oboreru was terribly injured.

Kaze was not.

She stood straight up with her arms folded over her diaphragm. She didn't appear to have any form of weaponry on her person. Her stare, leveled with Oboreru's face, was both condescending and worried.

"You won't . . . take me back . . ." hissed Oboreru.

It wasn't long before Eld heard sounds of conflict in the forest, and as he quickly made his way towards them. They were in the other direction this time; evidently Oboreru knew enough not to return to Remmy's training ground if he wanted to stay hidden.

Not that it apparently helped. "Kaze!" Eld shouted as he burst through a last bit of flora, appearing between them but a bit off to the side. "Are you all..." he trailed off as he saw for himself. Kaze didn't have so much of a scratch on her, but Oboreru looked like he'd been mauled.

He was a bit taken aback. Did she really do all this? Oboreru had a number of grievous injuries and was bleeding heavily; nothing fatal, if he got medical attention soon, but if left untreated he'd be in danger.

"Look...just give up, alright?" he asked, addressing Oboreru instead. "I'm amazed you're even standing with those injuries; you need to get treated." In contrast to Eld's appearance, which was decidedly more intimidating with his weaponry on him, he was more concerned about Oboreru's health than worried about him hurting anybody at this point.

Kaze's mood had been a relatively serious one. Oboreru was wounded, and she was concerned--but no longer for her or Eld's safety. It would be best if Oboreru didn't charge at her anymore, so she wouldn't have to put him down again. It was beginning to get the best of him. Anymore of this, and he might find himself seriously injured. Kaze didn't want to hurt her brother permanently or anything, but this, this wind at her back, it felt so familiar--nostalgic? No. Who could be nostalgic about this? It was deja vu.

She was about to take a step towards him, when Eld burst upon the scene. Although still noticeably serious, she seemed a little surprised by Eld's appearance. "Ah? You?"

Eld got Oboreru's immediate attention, too. He wasn't screaming or verbally violent, but the way his face fell, he looked more hateful than anything else.

"Y-you . . ." Oboreru hissed again.

Eld's remark about Oboreru's health, showing concern and the like, likely did very little to convince him of Eld's good intentions.

"What're you doing here?" asked Kaze, slowly slipping away from her seriousness and progressively towards a curious mood--curious and perhaps cheerful. That was how she felt around Eld, at least--or how she liked to feel, rather.

"I was worried about you," Eld replied, surprised she even needed to ask. "Though, I guess I didn't need to be." Kaze was clearly handling herself just fine, which made him both glad and a bit embarrassed, as he'd let Oboreru get the best of him earlier.

It also made him wonder once more just how she fought; she didn't have any visible weapons on her and he didn't sense any more Qi than normal either on her or in the area. Was she a martial artist? That was the only thing he could think of, but she had to be pretty damn good to deal that much damage without taking so much as a scratch.

"Look...I know you hate me, but can you be reasonable? It's pretty clear she's got you beat; you're just going to end up hurting yourself more if you keep attacking. Maybe you should just go home and take some time off."

Eld hoped such a thing would cool his head a bit, so that he wouldn't be so consumed by revenge for...whatever it was he did.

"Oh," Kaze thought aloud, "Oh yeah. Were we supposed to meet or something?"

Truth be told, she had since forgotten Eld's name, and especially the name of his village, which was no longer written on Eld's forehead to remind her. She'd long since forgotten that she was actually supposed to go back and meet Eld, especially since she found Oboreru, and her train of thought just continued from there, until all knowledge that she ever had to meet Eld back in his village was long gone.

Kaze moved to Eld's side, where she was subconsciously comfortable. While saying that she'd fallen in love with him might have been a bit of an overstatement, she was extremely fond of him, and he thus could make her extremely comfortable when she was open to it.

She was slowly reverting back to the ditsy space case Eld knew--a transition that was interrupted by Oboreru, however, who at last replied to Eld's concerns:

"After . . . what you've done," Oboreru heaved, "I'll kill you--I'll kill you, or I'll die trying."

He didn't take a step forward, but he was leering at Eld with a genuine hate in his eyes--hate for so many things, with one new reason added onto it: the very fact that Kaze stood beside of Eld, even when she knew that Oboreru had every problem in the world with it.

Eld just nodded to Kaze; not that he was terribly surprised she'd forgotten, though admittedly he wouldn't have guessed she'd forgotten as much as she did. Even if she had trouble with names and directions and details, he still attributed some basic level of memory to her.

"And what did I do?" Eld asked Oboreru. It wasn't so much that he couldn't think of any reason for Oboreru to hate him, but pinning just one was difficult. There were so many incidents he'd been involved in lately--many that led to someone's death or incarceration--that there were honestly a number of reasons he could possibly be hated.

But many of those involved the supernatural, which he discounted. Thus far, Oboreru and Kaze had proven to be strange, sure, but nothing as out there as some of what he'd been dealing with.