During the week journey back, no student spoke a single word. That was what exactly to be the case on the first and third wagon. The news of Kane's death really hit home upon the hearts of the students. Kane had a lot of times sparred and given advice to his fellow friends. So the death of Kane really wasn't something that most could accept.

Wagon one had the two seniors who seemed to both have very solemn looks. They probably blamed themselves for not supervising all of their students more closely. Letting them run off to their death was not on their plans.

As for wagon three, no one seemed to bother the grief stricken Kioxe. They knew Kane and Kioxe were roommates so the two had spent a lot of time together. Though the most important thing was that Kane came here on the trip because of Kioxe. That was the mindset in which Kioxe was pondering while on the wagon.

In but just a week, the students and seniors had came back home to Zabudi. Though most seemed to want to bring Kane's body to his parents.

"Hey, Dan! I think those are the seniors and students of the School of Zen. Why have they come here?" A middle aged women questioned.

"Probably something to do with our son. Come, let's take a look." Dan replied.

As the students and seniors got closer, Dan couldn't help but be a bit nervous. He didn't understand why so many people had come to his house. Well, his son shouldn't be causing trouble. Though he did play around with people a lot so there was still a chance that he did something wrong.

"Dan and Susan right?" Beltur asked solemnly.

"Why yes, we're Dan and Susan. May we ask why you seniors have come?" Dan couldn't help but think that maybe his son did get in trouble. Maybe he did do something heinous.

"I'm sorry to say...but your son has passed away." Those simple words from Beltur made Susan froze in time as she finally caught sight of a casket right behind the seniors.

"N-n-nooooooooooooooo! H-how did this happen? Explain!" Tears flowed out of Susan endlessly.

"We were septem searching and your son was attacked by a shark....I'm sorry ma'am, but this truly was a twist of fate in which we could've prevented." Beltur blamed himself.

"Oh my baby...my baby, my baby!" Susan stared through the casket to see a black haired plain looking boy who assuredly was her son.

"Ma'am, I was the one who had caused Susan's death. I had brought him to our annual septem search so that he could find my septems for me. I didn't know that my selfishness would be Kane's downfall." Kioxe came up and cried out his thoughts.

Going from what the seniors said and what Kioxe said, Susan could easily see that her son had come to help a little boy with his septem, but died to the hands of a shark. It truly was a twist of fate.

"Oh there now, it's not your fault. He died helping someone at least....at least that's something to be proud of." Susan comforted Kioxe.

As the casket was brung into the home of Dan and Susan, everyone spoke of their condolences and left. It was just Susan and Kioxe comforting each other while Dan watched with saddened eyes.

"Ma'am, here's thirty platinum coins. Use it well, as I'm sure it wouldn't replace your son, but it's all I've got." Kioxe placed the coins on their table and with that, Kioxe left.

It didn't matter where he was going, Kioxe just felt that he should leave. Walking out of the commoners area and towards the western gate. Kioxe couldn't bring himself to go back to school. He'd feel too guilty to stay in Zabudi. So he left.

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"Hey kid, where you going? Kid!" A guard had shouted.

But for Kioxe, all he heard was the wind. The whistling of the wind would surely guide him. With that, Kioxe's wings took him towards wherever the wind blew. When the wind had stopped, Kioxe found himself near a mountain. Seeing as there was no wind, Kioxe decided to fuse with the mantis shrimp. Kioxe had already reached the third septem stage on the wagon trip back and so it seemed like the perfect time to fuse with the mantis shrimp.

The feeling as he fused with the mantis shrimp was even more intense than Kioxe had imagined. His eyes became what felt like burning hot pancakes as the pain intensified.

"Arghhh! Ahhhhh!" Kioxe wailed in pain. The torment was too much for Kioxe to handle. It was then that Kioxe blanked out.

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"Urghh!" Kioxe moaned as he sat up. What the? It was dark. Too dark in fact.

"Are you okay?" A kind voice rang out.

"Stop worrying about him sis, don't you see our precarious situation?" Another girl cried in disapproval. She seemed to be older as her voice was more mature.

"I'm fine." Kioxe grunted.

Remembering that he just fused with the mantis shrimp, he decided to use it for the first time. It was crazily amazing. If all he saw was darkness before, he now saw what seemed to be a large rectangular steel box entrapping him. As for the the girls in the darkness, there seemed to be two. He could see their body heat upon using his new eyes.

"Why are we in a large steel container?" Kioxe asked.

"We're probably in an interspatial ring. Won't be long til we get sold off as slaves in the market." The elder girl from before said half heartedly.

"What?" Kioxe couldn't believe of the thought. Although you could put any living thing inside of something and then store it inside the interspatial ring, never would he thought of storing real life humans.

"Yeah, you see....in these parts, people get kidnapped and sold a lot. As for my town, we were under the control of a slave organization." The elder girl said it like it was no biggie. Something that seemed to be really common around these parts.

"I see...." Kioxe didn't mind too much as he thought this was God's will.

"So what are the names of the two of you? I'm Kioxe, a seven year old boy." Kioxe greeted.

"Eh...I'm Sasha and the girl next to be is my little sister Lily. We're fourteen and seven." Sasha replied.

"I guess we'll be stuck here for a long time huh?" Kioxe cried out. Although he was able to destroy the steel container, he didn't want to think of what would happen if a living person was to be out in the open within an interspatial ring.

"Tell me about it..." Sasha rolled her eyes.

Kioxe couldn't help but smile a bit. Sasha seemed like a negative type of person but she would always reply. As for Lily, she was shy and quiet but really nice.

The amount of time the three spent together was unknown to them, but Kioxe had estimated it to be a week. Kioxe grew really fond of them as talking with them would relieve him of his boredom. It wasn't that much longer until they heard a loud thud.

The container then opened and the three were able to finally open their eyes to light.

Author's Note:

I guess there will now be a plot for young lil Kioxe to grow upon?

Now as always, I hope you all enjoy! :D