"You should have listened to me.” Walnut barked, thrusting his finger into Kagami’s chest. “I told you what would happen if you came down here.”

“And I told you, I needed to do this! If I have any chance of seeing my wife, I’ll take it!” Kagami snapped back.

“Wife! Wife! Wife!” He shook his head. “She doesn’t exist! How many times have I told you that? It’s time to get that through your skull!”

Though the Prince was tired, he rose to his feet. His expression darkened. “Take that back. Asa is real. I won’t forgive you if you continue with that thought.”

Walnut couldn’t say that didn’t shake him, because it did. But he knew he was getting nowhere with this. The Prince in front of him was stubborn. He always was. It was also true, he didn’t act like a Prince or Nobleman. He acted like an idiot, taken in by the whims of his desires and delusions.

The Bandit scratched his beard, and demurred.

“Let’s move past that. There are two assassins after you from the Church.”

“Why would the Church send assassins?”

“Because.” He was starting to get angry at how many times he had to repeat this. “You. Are. A. Prince.”

“That’s dumb!” Kagami yelled.

Walnut huffed a great big sigh, shaking his head. It was like a bird telling him that he was a rabbit. He stood up, deciding he had enough of this circle of a conversation.

“Where are you going?”

“I’m going to find the mercenary. He went to fetch some water. That was a while ago,” Walnut said.

“Let me go with you.” He took a step forward and fell to the side, catching himself on the wall.

“No. You stay here. You’re in no shape to go anywhere right now.”

#

Subaru had long filled the water flasks, but he knew he stood at a crossroads here. The token flipped in the air and he caught it. Subaru repeated this action over and over as he mulled his situation in his head.

Kagami was safe. He had returned the favor for saving him and brought his body back to safety. Not only that, the Demon turned out to be Walnut, the Bandit King. He didn’t know what kind of twisted fate made them have a relationship together, but they did, and from the looks of it, he would protect him.

He was safe. He told himself. Subaru decided after catching the coin one last time, that it was time to leave.

The token was anchored to his home which was on the other side of the world. He was sure that the Threads wrapped around his neck wouldn’t extend that far.

There was a small chance that wasn’t the case and he would die the moment he activated the token and crossed back to his home.

His fingers picked at the threads, and he felt it quiver as if excited by the thought of him attempting to tamper it. Subaru quickly dropped his hands as far away from it as possible.

“What are you doing?” A gruff voice came from behind him.

Subaru quickly snatched the token made an ill attempt to hid the token behind but the Bandit King had already seen it.

“What do you have there?” Walnut’s eyes narrowed. “Show me!”

“Just a coin. My lucky coin,” he quickly lied. “It’s the memento of my mother.”

"A memento huh? Let me see it.”

If he weren’t so exhausted he would have fought back a little more. Walnut pried the token away from his grip as easily as a father prying a child’s grip. The giant held the token up at the sunroot, which was becoming brighter every minute, signaling morning was upon them.

Walnut lowered his hand.

“This is a Teleport Token isn’t it?”

“What? No, it isn’t.”

“Yeah it is. I’ve used these before. Must have cost you a fortune. I bet a leg that the Cult of the Moon paid for this.”

Subaru’s silence was his answer.

“Right, then I’ll keep this.”

“No!” Subaru grabbed his wrist. His wrist was large large enough where he couldn’t wrap his hand around it. “You’re not taking that! That is…that is…”

Walnut stared him down until he shut up. Then he pried his hand off of him.

“If it makes you feel better, I don’t plan to use it.”

“Bullshit!” Subaru found his voice again. “What other reason would you take it!”

“To make sure you stay and as a reward I’ll give this nice teleport token.”

“Give? That is mine.”

“Right, and I stole it.” He crossed his arms, giving him a small smile on his gaunt face. “I am a bandit after all. Now grab that flasks, we’re going back.”

#

In their pack that was given to them at the beginning of all of this, Kagami found eggs and bacon. The rest of the foodstuff were preserves. It was a clear sign of telling him to cook them now. So, he did just that.

The aroma from the sizzling of the bacon and eggs wafted in the air, filling the whole cave with its stomach rumbling smell. Kagami swallowed in anticipation not only for him eating it, but upon the good company that came in a few minutes later.

Kagami enjoyed cooking. More than anything, he enjoyed seeing the look on people’s faces light up when they took a bite of what he cooked. It helped him get past…tough times. Just like right now. He was glad, that despite not being in his old body, despite the lack of strength, he could still cook.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

He turned when he heard the footsteps behind him. Walnut and Subaru returned with clear confusion on their faces.

“What are you doing?” Walnut asked him, a tinge of anger in his voice.

“Cooking.” Kagami plated the eggs on some flat rocks. He handed it to him. “We fought all day yesterday and had nothing to eat. We all must be hungry right?”

“I am, but that’s not the point. There is smoke coming out of the cave. What if somebody found us? This is a death game after all.” Walnut snapped back.

“Nobody did. Here. It would be a waste of food if you didn’t eat it.”

Walnut eyed the food, and relieved the rock plate from his hands.

“Great Goddess.” He chewed regretfully. “It’s good. Just bacon and eggs, but their cooked perfectly.”

“Haha. Glad to hear it.”

“Where did you get the food?” Subaru asked, giving Walnut a skeptical look from his comment.

“It was in my bag. The one that Warden gave us.” Kagami answered him, handing him his food.

“Soo good!” Walnut said as he ravaged the bacon.

“It can’t be that good.” Subaru picked up a piece of crispy bacon. He took a bite. His eyes lit up. “What the heck? How can bacon be this good?”

He chomped on the bacon like a squirrel and an acorn.

A smile formed on Kagami’s lips. Watching them eat made his heart swell with pride. He dropped down, and sat cross legged. He took a bite of the crispy bacon and he chewed on it carefully. There wasn’t too many ways to screw up bacon or eggs. They were simple to cook too.

“It’s simple, but can prince’s even cook?” Subaru asked. “The pride of a noblemen would never allow them to cook. After all, cooking is a peasant’s job.”

The irked Kagami.

“It doesn’t matter how rich or poor you are. In the end everyone has to eat. There’s nothing lowly about cooking. In my old world, I had a restaurant. It had a lot of customers that came in that liked my food, and I always enjoyed watching them eat.”

Kagami paused for a moment looking up at the two men. It must have been impossible to believe what he said. Even he had a hard time to believing it. Another world? Old body? It hurt to think about, which was why he didn’t. There were stories about heroes summoned to this world long ago. Yet, there in those stories it always ended with the Goddess no longer being able to summon heroes.

He placed his half eaten food down on the floor. He crossed his fingers together like a net and thought long and hard about everything that had happened yesterday. What he needed to do. What he needed to admit. He still had his memories of the Phoenix that taunted him in his dreams.

“I lost.”

“Lost?” Subaru asked, prompting him to continue.

“Back in my world, I was strong. Possibly the strongest. I couldn’t die, no matter what I did. I thought I was invincible.” Kagami gave a derisive snort. “I guess I wasn’t, because here I am, trapped in another person’s body.” He was silent for a moment, trying to explain in words what he meant by all of this.

“I am weak.” Saying that hurt him quite a bit, but his voice grew stronger. “I’m weak. The way I fought, was the way I fought when I had my body. Even though I got this body stronger, I feel like I don’t know how to fight. All I had to do was punch something and I won.”

It was a new feeling for Kagami to say this. He felt so vulnerable. Yet, he also felt liberated.

“I don’t know how to handle this.”

“Well.” Subaru took the last bite of his breakfast. “The first thing you do is what you just did. Admitting what you are. Being weak. I know that feeling quite well.” Subaru raised his shirt to show a giant scar that went across his chest. “The second thing you do is get stronger.”

Kagami bit his lips. “Easier said than done. I’ve been training like crazy since I came down here. It hasn’t had the affect I wanted.”

“I told you.” Walnut leaned in at him, his eyes crazed and tired. “I told you, you should have run. And we still should.”

“I’m not going to do that.” Kagami met his eyes. “I will stay here and fight. I don’t like this game that the Warden is playing. If I leave than a lot more people die. Luke is here too. I can’t abandon him.”

“Only the strong could say something like that. You can’t save Luke. He wants to kill you,” Walnut said. “And for good reasons. He hates you.”

“He hates the Prince.”

“You are the Prince.”

“You know.” Subaru chimed in. “There’s nothing you really do anything here. Accepting weakness means accepting your limits. You said you trained? Your punches are quite scary, but you saw what happened when you attacked someone that could use Aura. You gotta ask yourself, what can you do right now? Stopping a death ritual doesn’t feel high on the list.”

His hands gripped into fists. He knew that. He understood how weak he was right now. But…

“I’m still staying.”

Walnut looked over to Subaru and sighed. “You can’t talk sense into him. The best thing we can do is tie him up and escape.”

“Sorry, Kagami. I really don’t want to die.”

Kagami stood up with them, crouching low in a fighting stance.

“If you think I’m going to just let myself get dragged away without trying to stop this, then you’ve got another thing coming. If I have to, I’ll knock you out again.” Kagami growled.

“Listen you,” Walnut took out one of those blue fruits. “Last time I was unprepared. I have this baby here. You want me to become an ogre? No amount of punches is going to make a dent on my skin.”

The fire in front of them popped and they stood still, all of them no doubt waiting for the first move to be made. Kagami looked at the wrinkled blue fruit. The one that granted the ability to open the Gates and unlock those super powers.

He couldn’t eat that, but it wasn’t like it would do any good either. The phoenix left his memories this time, so he knew why he couldn’t use his Gate. It was wrapped shut by those chains of fire.

That meant his only chance would be to punch them in the throat before they had the chance to eat it.

In a blink, Kagami found himself standing in front of the Warden again. He sat in his chair, smiling. It made his heart jump in surprise, but he calmed down when he remembered that this happened yesterday too.

“Good morning.” The Warden started. “I’m sure you’re wondering why I’m contacting you so soon. I had hoped that the half of you would be dead in three days, but we’ve already reached that number in a day. The next phase of the Ritual will now take place. All living shall move to the center where the Great Crimson Tree lies in five hours. Anyone that doesn’t arrive will be killed. That is all.”

Then Kagami found himself back in the real world, tied up, with Walnut sitting next to the campfire, giving him a gruff smirk.

“Did you have fun?”

“Hey! That’s cheating!” Kagami struggled to pull the ropes free, but something was wrong. He felt intense pain come from his shoulders.

And then he realized what Walnut had done. Kagami looked up in horror at the Bandit.

“You dislocated my shoulders.”

“I like to be thorough. The two of you suddenly fainted and shook like little bugs pinned to the ground with needles.” He gave a shit eating smile. “Luck was on my side.”

“God damn!” Kagami yelled. “Put my shoulders back in place. Have a fair fight with me! I’ll beat the shit out of you!”

Subaru came into view, holding his head in pain.

“Wow. You really are just as bad as the rumors say you are,” Subaru said with a dour expression.

“I’m a lot worse.” Walnut stood up, stretching.

“How long were we out for?”

“About twenty minutes. Why did both of you fall over like that?”

Subaru gave a quick explanation of the threads on their neck and their situation.

“Wow, that sucks.” Walnut concluded.

“Yeah, it does.” Subaru forced a laugh. “If only I had a magical token that would let me get far, far away from here.”

“Yeah, I’m sure you’ll find that somewhere along the way out of here.” Walnut slapped Subaru’s shoulder. “But, it sounds like the both of you aren’t in the best situation. Five hours huh.” Walnut rubbed his beard. “Hmmm, well, I don’t think it’s a problem for him. It’s not like you can die. We can just chop off your head and you’ll be fine.”

“Hey! I don’t want to die!” Kagami yelled.

“We don’t have that many options, Kagami.” Walnut narrowed his eyes. “Do you know what it means for me to be here? Being here means I’ve given up everything. My position of power, my house. You get it?” He leaned forward. Kagami could smell his breath and see his yellow teeth. “EVERYTHING.”

Walnut stayed silent to let that sink in, and it did. Kagami thought that over a couple of times and looked up at Walnut.

“I don’t get it then, why are you doing this? I don’t see you as someone selfless Walnut.”

The Bandit clicked his tongue.

“Why are you sharp in these situations? You’re usually so dull. Can’t you just believe I’m doing this for you?”

“No,” Kagami answered him. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate everything you’ve done for me.”

“Then you’ll escape.” Walnut asked.

“Nope. I want to fight.”

“Well, I tried.”

The last thing Kagami saw was Walnut’s foot before he was knocked out again.`