*Ren’s Perspective*

A few Hours Earlier -

I stood in the middle of several Salamank corpses as I wiped the blood from my blade, panting heavily. Looking over, I could see that crazy woman Ki glaring at me before she too cleared her daggers and sheathed them. She started walking towards me and I shivered a little.

Ever since she spent 2 hours beating the living the daylights out of me when we first met as a warning not to betray Yuki, I have found myself scared of her. My ribs still burn when I think about it. I at least felt a little good getting a few kicks to her stomach that day.

Ki raised me up by my collar and shook me.

“ You said that you would protect him! YOU PROMISED! Now he is in the damn hands of those Vance black market traders, Delta and Kelt!!! “ Said Ki, her voice was rougher than her usual maid tone.

[ I wish Yuki could see her like this! ]

My hands had unwittingly turned into fists as she shook me and anger crossed my face. I thought about all the abuse that has happened since I got to Aikyo manor at her hands.

[ If it wasn’t got Gramps and Yuki I would…!]

“ Oh, here we go! Blame me for not being able to protect him, how was I supposed to know that two of the nastiest people from the Vance black market would throw spirit beast hormones on us!? Our mission was only to train Yuki for a few days in case cockroaches appeared to cause trouble!” I retorted as my face went red.

Ki took a step back and clicked her tongue.

“ The famous White Fang pissing his pants over a few black market chumps!” Ki responded with acid dripping from each word.

“ I was trying to stop my head from getting bitten off by seven rank 4 beasts! So were you miss Death Dealer. Why couldn’t you grab him in time?! Just blaming me isn’t going to sort this out!! He's gone!” I responded.

“ Mmm he's gone” Replied Ki with words that I barely caught, the angry mask on her face disappeared and was replaced by a complex one I was unable to read.

She stood quietly for a moment before she walked over to a nearby tree and punched it repeatedly.

Bam!

Bam!

Bam!

“ Hey stop that it, won’t bring him back! We need to think of what to do next! “ I said after a moment.

I watched as her knuckles bled.

The punching stopped for a moment. She rested her head on the now hole filled trunk and said self deprecatingly. “ I took this job just three years ago, I thought getting paid to watch a brat wouldn’t be so bad. Watching him grow up... He grew on me ya know... Now for the first time ever, he actually needed me and I failed him.”

“ There is still a chance those worms don’t know who they've picked up! Yuki is a smart kid, I am sure he won’t have told them anything. If I were them I would …” I said out loud in thought.

Ki looked up at me, her face seemingly grateful.

“ Go to the middle section of the Tama forest then make my way to the border,” said Ki

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“ Why the middle section?” I replied confused.

“ There is a gap in the wall that slave traders use for human trafficking there. I’ve snuck through it a few times for missions in Vance. The king plays dumb and pretends it doesn’t exist so he can keep an eye on their movements, better he knows where the hole is rather than those Vance chumps building a new one!” Ki responded as the colour returned to her face.

She walked up and stood in front of me, looking straight into my eyes. She crossed her hands over her chest.

“ It's the only idea I’ve got unless you have a better one, I think we should head straight to the gap and set a trap for those bastards!” Ki said as she started to fume.

[ She has more mood swings than a pendulum.]

At that moment, out of the corner of my eyes I saw a bush tremble.

“ Who?!” Ki and I said in unison. We unsheathed our blades.

A small injured creature came out of the thickets, its fur a dark red with sharp facial features. It had super long ears and red whiskers with thick black fur covering its cat-like eyes.

“ A young Kithun? What's it doing here? I wonder if the Salamanks from before trampled the nest it was in” Ki said as she approached the injured creature.

“ It looks like a runt, it’s injured anyway it won’t last long,” Ki said again after a moment. She then put her blades back into her waist holsters.

I walked over to inspect it. It was limping a little. It was startled and tried it’s best to hiss at me, its hackles were up and its long ears were turned up against its spine. It tried its best to look intimidating but instead, it looked really cute.

[ This looks a little like someone ]

I compared this creature to Yuki in my head and it made me smile. I took a vile out of my bag and forced the Kithun to drink it. It seemed to cough and splutter a bit before it feel asleep. I wrapped it up in my travel cloak and then attached the bundle to my bag.

“ What are you doing, we don't have time for this!” Said Ki

“ Apology present.. Doesn’t it look a bit like someone?” I said as I grinned slightly.

Ki looked at the sleeping cat bundle in my bag with its head poking out. She looked back at me and smiled.

“ I guess there are things we can agree on, “ Ki said and nodded once.

After checking our equipment one last time we took to the treetops where Ki started leading us to the slave traders hole.

We finally got there just before the sun had set. Still sitting in the treetops we looked over to the spot where people slip through. There was a gigantic wall that seemed to span the whole forest.

Looking around I spotted a hole just big enough for 3 people to stand side by side. Next to it, there seemed to be a camp where 6 people were going about mundane tasks.

“ Mm just as I suspected, looks like they were herb hunting, “ Ki said as she pointed to a stocky well-built creature that was covered in nets filled with herbs.

“ Why come to Tama, why not just search in Vance?” I whispered back to Ki.

“ The medicines in this forest are hard to come by in Vance and trading is currently illegal. The black market comes here from time to time to steal and make a profit off the ill and sick” said Ki her fist shaking a little.

[ Some people can be really despicable! ]

The campsite had just started getting some fires lit.

“ No sign of Yuki, we should get rid of some of these flies before he gets here to welcome those two who took him!” I said through gritted teeth.

I looked at Ki and she looked back at me, we both nodded.

Waiting for the right moment we jumped down from the tree tops silently and made our way to the camp. Breathing in slightly, I activated my darkness attribute magic and melded in with the surroundings.

Ki, on the other hand, went to distract them, since her magic was water element, she took some of the vapour from the air and shouted. At that moment I felt slightly sorry for our enemies.

Forming small bubbles of water she shot them so they landed directly on the targets running for her. Their heads were instantly covered in a small bubble of water. They held their necks struggling for air.

“ Small fries!!” Ki said as she ran at one and sliced.

I ran to the entrance of the hole and blocked anyone from escaping.

Checking the other side of the hole as I killed a runner, I noticed that the coast was clear.

I signalled to Ki as she had taken out the last attacker. We then did one last check of the area before hiding all the bodies in the tents.

Ki had gone through each of their pockets before loading up anything of value on to the pack mount laden with herbs.

[ Really? ]

I gave her a strange look.

“ Consider it my apology gift for Yuki. There is roughly 4 months worth of heart medication here. As well as some for training magic and even a marrow and bone wash!” Ki said as she tied the beast to a post near one of the tents.

We did one final check of the area, cleaned our weapons and finally headed back into the treetops.

We began to wait.

I took one more look at Ki who was few trees over.

Then looked over into the distance.

[ I hope this works. We are coming for you Yuki!]