Keane could do nothing but smile when he heard the tale of Aya's upbringing. He had always enjoyed hearing of and talking to people who were natural debaters. While miffed that his tactical question had been ignored, he would be too surprised by the sudden intensity of the young woman's mannerisms. When she was done speaking, he would say: "I find it surprising that you will fight me with such intensity, and refuse to fight the people coming after you. But never mind.

"I simply submit this: If the stealthiest of Cizoks soldiers, the Kensai, if memory permits, were to sneak past your sentries, how many would they be able to capture -or worse- before we would even be able to raise the alarm? One? Ten? Fifty? I simply ask that we have some semblance of strategy, or if we do have one that isn't composed entirely of running, what it is. I swear, I am fully devoted to helping to keep this camp safe for as long as I remain."

A confused expression crossed Aya’s face as she watched the man she spoke with. As he spoke, her eyes quietly searched his. When he was done, “Professor, don’t confuse my intensity for fighting and standing for what I believe in with pure stupidity.” She smiled lightly at him to show she meant no insult by what she said, but her tone remained serious. “Please don’t be surprised. I would fight with this intensity on anything. And when the time comes, I will physically fight with this same level of intensity. But that time is not right now.”

“I won’t put the lives of innocent women and children laid out right before the blades of the Kensai. We both know where that will get us. So isn’t it smarter of me to lead the people away…or well, run with them…away from the danger and keep them protected until a right time to fight?

Its not that I refuse to fight the Kensai, but I do refuse to waste lives that could be spared with the smarter course of action than just rushing into the point of a blade. Do I make my argument?”

She hadn’t meant to seem to cut him off, even though that is how it would come to seem. But when he continued on with his conversation, she did silence herself to listen. She smiled whole-heartedly at his conviction and devotion to what cause had been brought up in this short conversation. “We’re prepared for the possibility of any of them getting past our look-outs. One of them being my reason for scouting the perimeters of the camp, and not just me but others as well. We have our security and alarm systems well thought-out, I assure you, sir.” She stood from the log by the fire and idly scuffed some dried leaves into the flames which only further fed the blaze.

“If you’re truly committed to this, then I’d have no problem showing you how to help me out. If you’re willing to put forth the effort, you’d be of great help, I’m sure. While our strategy of fleeing is pretty much all we have or want at the moment, we could always use an extra voice for our alarms.” Brushing invisible dirt from her front, she made a half-turn, positioning herself in such a direction that she still faced the professor, but silently indicated that she was about to take a walk if he’d like to follow.

“We’re not looking to have anyone turn and fight the soldiers when and if they come, while we run, that is unless we absolutely have to. I’d rather not lose any of the fighters’ lives when it’s not time yet to fight. But enough of just words. Its coming time for me to make another run of the camp’s perimeter, check with the outlooks and venture out for any coming citizens. Would you like to join me? See it first hand and get a taste for helping, Professor.”

with the level of confidence he was up against, Keane was forced to reconsider his way of going about this. He would sigh and then say: "Maybe you're right. I suppose I have had to fight so often recently that I started believing it was to only way to solve the problems of the revolution. And I doubt sincerely that being forcefully seperated from my dear allies had nothing to do with it."

Keane would follow after her, now eager to help any way he could. "I would be happy to aid the camp, especially if I could help on the watch. I had almost forgotten that the great majority of my techniques are evasive or defensive. I can guarantee the safety of the inhabitants of the area until the alarm is raised. However, please let me know if you can think of some way in which I could be a better help."

At this point, having little else to say for once, Keane would shut up for a second and look around for anything out of the ordinary.

A smile lit Aya’s lips when the professor agreed to follow her into the woods for her next trip. She was pleased that he seemed genuine in the commitment he made to the camp and helping the people however he could. In time, she was sure that the men of the camp would find other, better, more helpful uses for him; perhaps even fighting when the time came to that. However, for now, she enjoyed the fact that she’d get someone else to help her with her duties.

With the professor in tow, Aya turned her back entirely on the fire and made her way into the tree line. Having taken a few moments to take in his explanation of his will for fighting, Aya never really answered him but had nodded in agreement with him. There wasn’t really anything she could say to it; her loss was different than his, and she wasn’t in any kind of stable place to discuss her type of loss. Her world before Day Three had been shut into the back of her mind, harder and more important things stood before her at this moment. She could grieve later when it was safe to do so.

Again she’d disregarded his mention of any kind of ‘revolution’, no such thing existed yet so far as she knew, and she didn’t feel like mentioning it to him again and poking a stick at his hope—however flawed it might be.

Within the cover of the trees, Aya’s eyes searched the endless green of nature for signs of movement that weren’t created by animals or the wind. Although she was always on the lookout for other citizens, her eyes always strained to focus for the possible danger that could be sneaking about. Up until this point, Aya hadn’t spoken a word in reply to the professor’s monologue before. Belatedly, she answered a request. “I will inform you of such things, Professor.” Her voice was lowered, but remained as calm as any other moment, but held a stronger note of concentration now. “And thank you, sir, for deciding to come along and or your help. Surely, you’ll prove to help even more in the future so, I thank you for those events-to-come as well.”

Quick movement in the trees drew Aya’s eyes and attention abruptly and without hesitation she crouched low to the base of one of the many massive trees in these woods and waved for the professor to follow suit. Whether it was soldiers on the move or not, she wasn’t willing to take the reckless chance until knowing for sure whether it was friend or foe.

Keane would let out a rather nostalgic smile at the realization that he had, again, been talking for too long. To resolve this, he thought, he would have to do something else to keep his mind occupied besides forging a path through the forest trail. after thinking for a moment, he would pull out his water container and pull a quart of liquid out with his magic, leaving suspended in the air for a minute. It would then form into four spheres of equal size, and using his hydromancy to greatly strengthen their surface tension, Keane would begin to juggle them while walking.

A few seconds afterwards, however, he would be beckoned to crouch down. If he had to avoid detection, he thought, it wouldn't do to be throwing things in the air. So, after crouching, he would take the four orbs and rest two on each unfurled hand and begin rotating them around without letting them touch. Although it was almost subconscious, Keane was cheating slightly at this, using hydromancy to keep them moving correctly. His subconscious thoroughly occupied, he would now turn his conscious to whatever Aya was looking at.

From where the two of them were crouched, Aya couldn’t make out the forms in the distance moving through the trees. Squinting her eyes in an attempt to make out a more detailed profile of the moving figures, she dropped from her crouching position and onto her hands and knees. In the dirt without a care, she inched silently forward past the cover of the base of the tree. Keeping low to the forest floor, she angled herself in such a way to help her get a better look.

In the distance she could spot the forms moving at a relaxed pace; either soldiers not on the hunt or on guard, or citizens too exhausted from running that they’d downgraded to relentless walking. Backing herself up to the base of the tree again, Aya turned into her crouching position once more and pushed her back up against the tree. Glancing to the professor, she now noticed the orbs that which he moved subconsciously in his grasp. “Professor!” she exclaimed in a surprised and strained whisper, “You know magic?” She couldn’t believe it! What luck could have only been given to her from her father up in Heaven, the professor with his magic must’ve been sent to her and the camp. She’d have time after this crucial moment to talk further with him about it.

Peering from around the base of the tree again, Aya couldn’t yet be sure if they were citizens or soldiers. “Professor, any ideas?” The two of them needed to either find out for sure which one the figures in the distance were or at least get a better idea of which they might be.

Keane, stil spinning the orbs in his hands would look cautiously over the bush he was hiding behind. He too spotted the leisurely figures walking along and put the whole of his mind on logic analyses based on whether or not they were more likely to be citizens or soldiers. This concentration would be broken when Aya whispered loudly at him. In fact, so would his subconscious concentration, leaving him with just enough time before the water fell apart and fell to the ground to hold it in place and bring it back into his water container. "Yes," he would say, "I do. I am surprised and almost insulted you didn't notice before. Yes, I, and in fact all five of my missing associates practice magic."

With a small snort, he would look back over the hedge. It would be dreadfully unwise and hasty to attack them, but perhaps even more so to let them pass without being sure. So, the professor hatached a little plan. Placing his hands to the ground, he would begin lifting a small portion of the groundwater below the ground in the path of the unknowns up to the surface. This would cause the dirt path to become fully saturated and become a thick mud that it would be very difficult not to become mired in. And, best of all, it would be nearly impossible to tell the trap was there, because it had happened from the bottom up, and thus all the leaves and underbrush still laid on top. This made for very good chances that the two figured would get stuck in the sudden swamp. It would be hard to tell the professor had dome anything, except for the fact that he was nearly hyperventilating from the exertion. When he was done, he would whisper back: "Why yes I do. Let me introduce you to my way of fighting. Non-violent and non-confrontational."

She hadn’t meant to insult the man, but she somehow had. Perhaps she’d been concentrating too much on the task at hand, and had become wrapped up with her duties and the cause, that she no longer made good observations upon the outside world. Sooner or later, sooner rather than later, she’d have to right that wrong, and apologize to the professor. With a sheepish smile, Aya turned her gaze back upon the passing figures and away from the professor’s stare.

With the sudden hyperventilating from over her shoulder, Aya glanced back to the professor in confusion. They’d only been…watching…the strangers in the distance. They hadn’t exerted themselves by running anywhere yet. Or could the professor be in that much of a panic? But it would be before she was able to fully think through what was happening, did the professor speak up and clear the mystery for her. Ah, magic. His way of fighting? A brow perked and a moment later she could hear in the distance the muffled cries of stress and surprise.

The expression of confusion written across her brow quickly rose in satisfaction as she turned her head towards the noise. They’d trapped their people in question it seemed, or well, the professor had. “Very nice, Professor.” Aya began rising from her crouching position at the base of the tree and peeked out from behind its massive frame. “We should still go with caution…” she suggested as she continued listening to the struggling and the unsuccessful attempts of the strangers ahead trying to free themselves of the magically-made mud trap.

As she slowly stepped out from behind the tree and began maneuvering her way from one tree to the next, in attempt to get a more correct view of the people in question, she threw her warning quietly back to the man. “If we can get close enough to see them and not be seen, and they prove to be Kensai, you and I both know we will have to make a run for the camp and begin to get everyone moved quickly.”

The mired state of the unknowns was a good start, but if they were truly, truly dangerous people, they could get out of that muck as simply as a swimming pool, once they'd gotten past their surprise. Half-ignoring Aya, Keane would again plant his hands to the ground and swiftly return the area to it's unaffected state, leaving the possibly hapless interlopers encased in solid earth. After, of course, checking to see if they had formed some manner of airhole from their sudden entry. Now registering what Aya had said, he would nod in reponse to being told to be careful.

At this time, Keane would cease all other magics he was doing and focus on two: First, he would place two sizable waterslicks under his feet, both ensuring his silence when sliding over the forest ground and adding the potential of a quick escape. (although that would not be pleasent, as he would have to pull himself away by the ankles.) Second, water would rush into his hands, seeming to fill an lengthy invisible cylindrical container. When it was done, he would be holding a staff made of shifting water, made for the purposes of self-defense.

Keane would then grow a devious grin on his face and whisper before they started moving: "If there are any other options besides packing up and running, I am partial to intimidation. For a good while, I have been working on a very effective 'I am a nature god and you have disturbed my realm' bit. The looks on people's faces are priceless after I've done it."

It was always fun and games until someone poked their eye out…or in this case, got hopelessly stuck in the mud. The professor’s tricks and magical abilities surprised and awed Aya into a state of silence. Never had she known very much of any kind of magic, though her father had always tried to teach her to be aware of the many different possibilities one had. This left her with a sort of nostalgia, she felt as though her father were continuing to teach her even from the grave.

Waiting until the professor was finished with his trap, she then carefully followed him a few steps behind; his waterslick strides making him that much easier to get around, not to mention faster. When it seemed he’d be coming up on the unknown people in the mud soon, she slowed her foot falls and remained a few feet behind. The key to this situation was caution, and being careful, not to mention the anxious feeling of a continuous ‘itching’ desire to run.

‘For a good while, I have been working on a very effective 'I am a nature god and you have disturbed my realm' bit. The looks on people's faces are priceless after I've done it.’

If they hadn’t been in the questionable company of strangers, Aya would’ve laughed out loud at his remark. She tossed him a sarcastic look, though, she doubted he’d see it; being ahead of her quite a few feet and all. The look was given regardless, and she inched slowly towards him, keeping quiet. “Professor, I’m thinking you might have to wait to use your intimidation tactics some other time, on someone else…” she strained to see ahead where the struggling pair in the mud resided.

“I’m starting to think these two aren’t are enemies, and are in fact citizens!” Although her exclamation was an excited one, she worked to keep her tone low, her voice a whisper. “I’d like to get closer of course to make sure, but, I don’t think they mean us any harm. I think we’ve stumbled across more people that need to be guided to the camp. That is your job now, after all, sir.” She smiled lightly at him and turned her gaze back to the stuck two, who continued to grunt and struggle in their efforts to free themselves of the restraining mud.

The professor was actually dissappointed upon hearing that the interlopers meant no harm. A whole realm of fun he hadn't had the chance to have was now closed to him. With a half smile on his face, he would begin hyperventilating again with his hands to the ground, bringing the water back up to the top and making mud around the fugitive pair again. Taking his hands from the cool forest ground, he would simply say: "Ah, well. Maybe next time then."

His waterslicks and waterstaff would fall back into formless water and continue on to become a pair of makeshift rescue slings. Keane would use these to drag the likely confused people out of the mire onto dry land. Following this, as if to apologize for what he'd done with them, he would use the slingwater to quickly and effectively wash the mud off of the citizens. He would then pull the water back, leaving them relatively clean and dry as a bone.

As they recuperated, Keane would bow and speak: "I am Professor Keane Sigmund, and I dearly apologize for the attack I made upon your persons and garments. However, I am sure you understand that one cannot be too careful these days. I have been appointed with the task of helping people like you navigate their way through this forest, and I intend to carry out said job. If you wish, follow along once you have gotten your bearings straight."

The fact that the Professor seemed disappointed with the positive turn of events left Aya feeling kind of strange. It was one thing to get your hopes up about a fight, only to have them be let down when there wasn’t such a fight; but that could only apply when many other’s lives weren’t hanging in the balance! The delicate corners of Ayameko’s lips tugged downwards at the man’s confirmation to his disappointment in words. With a gentle shrug, she nodded slightly and decided to turn her focus back to the stuck people at hand.

She watched quietly, and with never-ceasing amazement, as the Professor worked his abilities again and eased the hold of the mud on the pair before them. The way in which he worked without any seeming effort, using his skills to quickly and perfectly execute the plan at hand; rescue the citizens from the mud, clean, and dry them off. Aya smiled pleasantly to the rescued pair once they had been freed and cleaned.

Two citizens pulled from the mud, and two citizens to add to the camp. This day was working out to be on their side it seemed. Aya proudly beamed at the fact the Professor seemed to take his newly appointed task sincerely and that he seemed to settle into the mold of such a job easily. A true helper, he was. She withheld her words from the air, seeing as how he’d already performed the initial explanation and anything that needed to be followed up on.

Besides, the two citizens still seemed a bit too stunned to really be able to let anything either of them said to sink in yet. They tried to play catch up in a shocked silence. Surely, they must’ve been through a lot since their fleeing from the city. Brushing and smoothing of their garments, although there was nothing to clean off, the two citizens watched Keane as he introduced himself and invited them along. They gave a wary glance to the woman that accompanied the man, but didn’t pay her much mind when she didn’t immediately introduce herself as well. They were just thankful to not have run into any soldiers. The two citizens, a young woman and an even younger boy, seemed gracious to Keane for pulling them from the mud.

A nod of approval was given to the Professor as she began turning to head back into the direction of their camp. It was always a good sign, first things first, when the rounded up citizens decided to follow them. Crunching leaves lightly underfoot, Aya took a step or two in the direction they needed to be heading, and waved a hand for the three to follow.

There was no need to dwell in one place for very long when out in the open like they were.

Despite the sadistic bit of fun Keane had missed out on, he was nevertheless still very happy to be helping people again, rather than stumbling blindly through the woods. He was still stumbling through the woods, mind you, but this time, he had an actual destination, and that made a world of difference to him. Again he would pull water under his feet to obscure any sounds he made. Also, this time, he would drag a sort of water mat behind him, actively wiping away footprints, The precision of this task was daunting, but not so much so that he couldn't speak without losing the spell.

The professor would start speaking in a low, hard-to-hear tone with a sigh: "So many things have happened since I returned to my homeland. I never expected to get wrapped up in this conflict, but after the fiasco at the Akinai fishing docks, I suppose I had little other recourse. But, over the course of my stay, I have met so many patriotic people, so many connected intimately to their homeland. It makes it almost worth the trouble."

With a reassured (and hopefully reassuring) ear-to-ear grin, Keane would say in a slightly more well-humored tone: "Anyway, don't mean to vent. Need to stay alert on this little trip."

Traversing through the dense forest again, on their way back to the camp where they had ventured from, the trees began looking like exact replicas of one another. If Aya hadn’t crossed these paths and made these rounds so many times before recently, surely they would’ve found themselves lost to the trees. She kept quiet as she strode, keeping a watchful eye on the breaks between the trees around them, ears alert for any kind of sound that didn’t belong. The soldiers were a sneaky type, who seemed to pop out when you least expected them to, more prepared than you are to fight. Or just end your life.

As they walked, Aya overheard the Professor speaking quietly, whether to himself or to the citizens she couldn’t be sure, but she’d already decided before then that she would allow herself to give way to silence. Giving into the silence these days always seemed like a peaceful retreat that one couldn’t get as easily anymore. Another fact of matter was that they were getting closer and closer to the camp anyway with every step they took and it was wise to save her breath—and her introductions—until they arrived back…home.

The younger boy took a curious liking to Keane. Being too young to know much of what a Professor would be, and never having been one to exactly address just anyone by their family name, the boy was more bound to go by the given names. Keane’s idle speaking caught the boy’s interest, and his wild eyes watched the man he followed with intrigue. The young woman the boy was accompanied by, young but much older than he, still remained quiet for the time being. He assumed that she’d caught a case of the shy bug for now. That, or she was biding her time and words, thinking of the best thing to say and the best time to say it. She’d always seemed like that, to him anyway.

By the time Keane had apologized for his ramblings, the young boy had paced himself alongside him and now stared up at his flashy grin. “You aren’t,” the boy began quiet at first, unsure of himself with the recent stranger-turned-Keane, and then shoved his hands timidly in his pockets as he introduced a skip in his step to keep up with the man. He continued, “Venting, I mean. I’d very much like to hear more. What happened at the fishing docks?” The young boy’s eyes searched Keane’s countenance as they walked, eagerly waiting this new opportunity for a story. Before Keane had a chance to begin his story for the boy, the boy decided he had one more tidbit he had to state.

“My name is Yoshi Katsurou.”

Yoshi wanted a story, and with lore being one of the professor's favorite pasttimes, he was only too happy to oblige. With an enthusiastic grin and emphatic hand gestures, he would begin: "It all started when I came back to Cizok to reexamine my roots. I happened upon a speaker known as Maguro. He was either famous or infamous, as a non-conformist or a heretic, respectively. some people got a bit emotional, and before long, the perimeter was surrounded by imperial guards. By now, we all knew a fight would break out, we all just waited for the tension to break first. Soon after, fighting broke out."

Keane would now gesture towards his water insoles and aqua mat behind them, then continue: "Now, I manipulate water, as has been demonstrated. In fact, my occupation involves teaching others the same skill. I used the water I had with me to place water slicks under the soldiers' feet, much like what I have now. However, they lacked proper training to balance on them and simply fell. Then, unfortunately, an unpleasent samurai man froze up all of my water with his own chi magic. Now, I cannot manipulate ice or snow. Not in my range. Then, though, I noticed something quite important.

"I was on the Akinai fishing docks. This meant, of course, the sea was nearby. So I pulled a large amount of seawater into a sphere above the forces. Whenever a soldier so much as made a move against me, I would lash out at him with a whip of pure water. Soon, though, an airship came around. I was told by a local young man to make sure the ship didn't hit ground. I didn't know what he meant until he struck the ship with a bolt of lightning. I could do little but knock down all the soldiers and use my water sphere to form a ramp under the ship before it gained too much downward momentum. Dumped it right into the sea.

"After that, everyone was in shock or battle, so I thought it opportune to flee. Several important meetings and one huge battle in the middle of the city later, I ended up out here. Is that a good enough answer, young Yoshi-san?" Surprised even at himself for using a traditional Cizokian title after all these years, Keane would fall silent for a bit with a nostalgic smirk.