Kaori stares out toward the sound she heard before pulling her attention ahead, leaving the path they walked up to the summit behind her, brushing away the thought, and rushing over to Breeze quickly.

Breeze turns to look at Kaori with a smile. “Keiji, Shomei, and me are all going to wait here for you while Tai, and Vicious take you through.”

Tai quickly looks over at Breeze dangerously as he heard his name mentioned.

“Don’t complain,” Breeze says seriously to him before he could say anything.

Tai glares at her angrily. “How do you expect me to babysit both of them? The girl is already hard enough to keep track of.”

“I can take care of myself unlike some people,” Vicious says bitterly.

Breeze sighs irritably. “Both of you shut it,” she says firmly, glaring at both of them as she crossed her arms. “Tai, you’re the only one who knows the way, and Vicious is there in case there’s something there you can’t handle.”

“Since when can’t I handle something?” Tai asks Breeze rhetorically.

“We all know the answer to that,” Vicious mumbles with his arms crossed, turning away.

Tai starts to move toward Vicious, stopping as Kaori spoke.

“We should hurry then,” Kaori says gently then looks at Breeze kindly. “We shouldn’t be too long.”

Breeze nods in agreement. “The inside is said to be pretty dangerous, so you’ll want to be very careful, okay?”

Kaori give Breeze an encouraging, though awkwardly forced, thumbs up. “We’ll be right back, safe.” She hurries in ahead of Vicious and Tai.

Tai glares at Vicious as he watched him run after her then looks at Breeze. “This is on you,” he says bitterly.

Breeze sticks her tongue out at him as both Tai and Vicious went in after Kaori. “Why does he have to be so difficult?” she says with a pout.

Keiji shrugs a bit. “I’m sure he wouldn’t say even if we asked,” he says casually.

❀

Kaori keeps running down the tunnel, looking as though she were trying to put distance between her and Vicious and Tai, more than anything. “I don’t want them both here if they’re going to argue. I don’t feel like I have the energy for it.” She slows down to a walk, looking frustrated. “It always feels like they have something against me, and it just further makes me feel like a burden, especially since my limitations bother everyone else just the same.” She suddenly feels her previously injured ankle weaken lightly as she stepped on a patch of ice, slipping suddenly and landing solidly on the frozen ground. She holds herself up on her hands and knees, looking at the ground in annoyance with herself. “Stupid ankle. If I’m really this powerful goddess they claim me to be, why am I so weak?” She looks up as Vicious had rushed over and helped her stand gently, holding her in his arms with a gentle touch.

Vicious looks at her with concern. “You okay?”

Kaori looks up at him for a moment, as though searching for something in his facial expression. “Yeah... I’m fine,” she answers emptily.

Tai hurries up, noticing what seemed to be a familiar moment between the two, his expression holding indignation as a result.

Vicious smiles warmly, a sense of genuine concern washing over Kaori as he spoke. “Don’t run off like that again. You could have been hurt.”

Kaori looks down uncomfortably. “Okay...” her hollow tone unchanging as she spoke.

Vicious lets her go reluctantly, clearing his throat.

Tai shoves Vicious hard as he walked by. “The pathway is down here,” he says sternly as he walked through a small decline.

Kaori looks up before following Vicious down the dark pathway after Tai, the walls glowing as she passes by, just as it did in other areas before.

Tai walks ahead quietly, paying no attention to Kaori and Vicious behind him.

Kaori looks down at the ground curiously, noticing it was starting to feel cold under her feet, and sees the path start turning to solid ice rather than sporadic patches. “They both make this venture so tense. What really happened between them to make them this way?”

Vicious looks over at Kaori worriedly, noticing her troubled expression. “You don’t have to keep doing this you know,” he says softly. “Master Izol is right; the Temple will always welcome you at any time.”

Kaori looks at Vicious curiously. “Hm?”

“The Temple won’t hold it against you that you came together with Yaban, or that you married the Emperor,” Vicious adds reassuringly.

Kaori shakes her head seriously in response. “I might be unsure of a lot of things, but this isn’t one of them. I’ll continue on with them because this is something that I want to do, and I am confident in my marriage to the emperor,” she replies quietly.

Tai glances behind him as Kaori spoke, quickly diverting his eyes back ahead with disinterest. He stops once they reached a wall made of solid ice, etched with familiar symbols that were once found on in the gorge of the fire soul.

Kaori stops not too far behind Tai, watching him gently touch the symbols, revealing a long, brightly lit path covered in a thick layer of ice, leading deeper into the cavern. “How far does it go?” She asks quietly, frowning lightly as he ignored her in response. She hurries after him as he continued on, Vicious not too far behind. “Why is he so angry at me? I didn’t do anything did I? Or does he just not want to even be around me?” She stops as Tai held out his arm quickly, preventing her from moving any further. “Huh?” She steps back, seeing a wide-open area in front of them.

“Why did you stop?” Vicious asks looking irritated.

She looks down, noticing a thin layer of ice between them and a deep, seemingly endless hole. “Oh…”

“Can you jump it?” Tai asks Vicious seriously.

He looks over to the other side seeing only a wall with the same engraved symbols. “If that was open,” Vicious says seriously.

Tai looks over at the far wall, trying to figure out if he could read it. “Take Kaori.” He backs up lightly and jumps over the wide-open area, barely landing on the sturdy ground near the wall. He quickly opens it by touching the symbols in what he assumed was the correct order, then turns to looks over at Kaori and Vicious. “Hurry up!!”

Vicious picks up Kaori in his arms with ease and jumps across, just as Tai did before, and gently sets her down on her feet.

“Thanks.” She straightens her clothes then looks over behind Tai, ducking down as a large white beast swung a bulky ice club at them. “Woah! Look out!!”

Tai turns around quickly, grabbing the ice club and holding it off from hitting them with all of his strength. “Hurry up and go ahead!” he yells with difficulty.

She follows Vicious as his hand had suddenly grabbed hers and pulled her running past Tai. Her hand slips away from Vicious’s suddenly as another beast punched him to the ground. “Vicious!”

He gets up, holding back another attack from the beast. “Just go forward. We’ll catch up!”

She nods hesitantly, then backs away quickly and starts to run deeper into the tunnel, eventually falling down as a third beast swung at her, forcing her to the ground. She hits her head hard on the floor, causing her forehead to bleed, groaning in pain as a result.

Tai quickly pulls out his sword and slashes the neck of the beast attacking him, turning as he heard Kaori fall on the ground. He runs toward her with urgency, narrowly avoiding Vicious as he continued to fight off the other beast.

“Ouch...” she says, wincing as she sits up slowly, seeing a few drops of blood fall to the ground. She turns as she heard Tai get knocked to the ground as he held off the beast from attempting to attack her once more.

Vicious knocks down the beast attacking him, turning his attention to Tai, who sat up in pain. “Kaori!” He rushes over as Kaori, punched back down as the previous beast got back up and incapacitated him. “Damn it!”

Tai moves to stand, seeing the nearby beast hurry up and pick up Kaori over its shoulder. “Shit...” he mumbles to himself, trying to regain his full composure after the attack he sustained.

“Help!!” She reaches her hand out to Tai desperately.

Tai grips his sword tightly, suddenly throwing it at the beast with full force. The serrated blade digs into the creature’s spine securely, causing its collapse. He then grabs Kaori’s outstretched hand, pulling her toward him just before the beast could hit the ground. He places one arm around her waist, picking her up just as she had instinctively wrapped her arms gently around his shoulders to keep from losing her balance. As the beast lays near them, Tai retrieves his sword from its body and slashes its neck, ensuring its death, before returning the weapon to its holster. He sighs softly, as if releasing his frustration, unaware that Kaori was looking up at him until her gaze caught his. He looks down at her as a result, maintaining his arm around her waist while she kept her hands placed on his shoulders. His attention moves to the wound on her forehead with a distant look in his eyes, prompting him to speak quietly. “You’re bleeding.” He unexpectedly cleans the blood from her forehead gently with his free hand, all the while ignoring the pain in his body from their prolonged contact.

She continues to stare into his eyes for a moment longer as though she were lost in thought. “I-... I’m fine...” She replies softly, and somewhat hesitantly, feeling nervous as he looked back at her directly. “There’s something familiar about him... Why is that?” She shakes her head in an attempt to regain her focus. “You shouldn’t touch me...” she whispers with difficulty, her hands moving away from him and closer to herself uneasily.

Tai hears the last beast fall, prompting him to move away from Kaori and look toward Vicious as he walked up.

“You’re no help at all,” Vicious says bitterly. “You can’t even enter these supposed codes in right.”

She moves her gaze away from Tai slowly and looks at Vicious. “It’s okay. We’re all safe now. Thank you,” she says in a gentle and thankful tone.

Vicious starts to say something but stops as he saw a deep bruise on Kaori’s forehead. “Are you sure you’re okay?” he asks worriedly.

She nods reassuringly. “Yeah, I’m sure. We should hurry up; I don’t want to keep the others waiting too long on my account.”

Tai turns away from them and leads the way down the iced over hallway until they reached the final wall. He carefully reads the inscriptions and looks back at Vicious. “You can’t go in,” he says simply.

“Why not?” Vicious asks skeptically.

“Yaban and Deities only,” replies Tai.

“I don’t believe you,” says Vicious shaking his head.

“Are you going to take that chance?” Tai asks seriously.

Vicious glares at Tai hatefully. “Fine,” he says in a slightly defeated tone. “I’ll stay out here, but if you take too long I’m going to find a way in whether you like it or not.”

Tai quickly opens the wall and allows Kaori to go in first, turning to look at Vicious before entering. “Risk it if you want,” he says carelessly and walks in after Kaori, paying no mind to the fact that the wall shut behind them. Inside, the once dimly room brightens up to reveal a large space surrounded by iridescent pearl walls and floors, with a ceiling made from glowing ice crystals.

Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

She looks around curiously then turns to Tai as she saw him start to open one side of the wall to reveal a glowing soft-white orb held on an altar.

He picks it up and tosses it to Kaori. “Here.”

She catches it lightly and looks down at it worriedly. “Will this be the same as the last one? Will it try to reject me too?”

“What?” he asks suddenly as he noticed her expression.

She shakes her head gently. “It’s not important.”

He steps over to her calmly and closes her hands gently around the orb, watching it for a moment before looking at Kaori blankly. “It’s not going to kill you.”

She pulls away slowly and shakes her head once more, blushing lightly in surprise as Tai forcefully pulled her back. A sudden light surrounds her body as she kept her hand clutched tightly around the soul with her head down in uneasiness.

He watches the light fade between their hands for a moment, then looks at Kaori as he felt her body relax slightly.

She slowly looks up as both of them lowered their hands, her heart racing as she noticed Tai still held her hands in his. “I can’t... I can’t keep letting him touch me like this if it hurts him...”

He looks at Kaori directly, the orb’s dust moving upward and wrapping around them, noticing the wound on her forehead start to heal slowly. He steps forward, closing the distance between them, looking like he wanted to say something. “Stupid girl,” he whispers softly.

She smiles a little, amused by at his sudden remark.

He looks at her thoughtfully, his eyes looking as if he were trying to figure something out.

“What?”

“It’s... Nothing.” He moves away, releasing her hands as a sudden burning shock radiated though his body. “Hurry up before Vicious starts whining about being left out.”

She steps toward the exit but stops Tai from opening it as she spoke. “Um...”

“What?”

“Please don’t touch me anymore... I don’t want you to feel pain because of me,” she says hesitantly.

He stares at the door quietly for a moment. “You talk like it’s entirely your fault when it isn’t. It’s something I have to live with, not you.”

“But you don’t have to if it can be helped,” she insists.

He turns and looks at her seriously and shakes his head. “You worry about meaningless things.”

“You aren’t meaningless to me.”

His eyes widen faintly, as if her statement surprised him. “You really are something else.”

❀

Breeze sighs with boredom. “This is taking too long. I wonder what the caverns look like inside.”

“Maybe you can assist him next,” says Keiji casually.

“Do you think he’ll let me?” Breeze asks hopefully.

Keiji chuckles softly. “Knowing him, probably not without a fight.”

“How can you be so trusting of him?” Shomei asks suddenly in a careful tone. “After all he’s done.”

“Hm? Well...” Breeze thinks for a moment.

“We truly believe that his past doesn’t define who he is,” Keiji replies simply. “He came to us after Akiko’s death with no desire to pursue retribution for his actions. All he wanted was to live peacefully from then on and has done so with us.”

“Besides if he were mortal he would have risked his life more than a few times for her; don’t you think that’s reason enough to have them together?” Breeze says happily.

“Don’t you fear that all your hard work will be for nothing if things work out for his behalf?” Shomei asks with concern.

“Forgiveness comes in many ways,” responds Keiji. “The scriptures can never really be proven to be true.”

“I suppose so... Do you have an idea on where you will go next?” Shomei asks curiously.

Keiji looks at the entrance of the cave with a curious glance. “Only Tai knows the locations of the Souls. We let him lead with Miss Kaori close behind of course.”

Breeze steps to Shomei’s side eagerly. “Oh hey! Rumor has it you’ve left the Temple for good, Shomei. What have you been doing since?”

Shomei nods once. “I have. I’ve been helping a village near Tinder to rebuild their homes after the last attack.”

Breeze frowns a bit. “Sounds so boring.”

Shomei smiles, amused at Breeze’s response. “It has its rewards in the end,” she replies with a hint of a stifled laugh. “Besides, helping others seems like a personal calling for me.”

“You ever think about traveling again?” Breeze asks with a playful grin, all their attention suddenly turning toward Kaori and the others as they emerged from the cave. “Hey! Welcome back.”

“How did it go?” Keiji asks curiously.

“I can see why you wanted me to go with him. He really can’t handle anything in there,” Vicious says angrily.

“Then by all means navigate the next one yourself and see how it turns out for you,” Tai replies hatefully, shoving past Vicious.

Keiji smiles lightly then looks at Kaori. “Did you find what you were looking for?”

Kaori nods once as she spoke. “Yes. I have already accepted it too.”

“Well done.” He turns to the others calmly. “There’s a quicker way down the path avoiding the Shrine. If we take it we will arrive much more quickly toward Aura lake.”

“We rest there for the night,” Breeze explains.

“Why rest there when we can just go to the shrine and be safe?” Vicious asks with a raised eyebrow.

“I don’t care much for that place,” Kaori says quietly as she followed the others back down the path, leaving Vicious trailing behind her and Tai following at the very end with Keiji.

“Really?” Vicious asks worriedly, trailing after her.

Tai looks down in thought as he heard her remark, distracted as Keiji spoke to him in a low tone.

Keiji looks over to Tai with a knowing smile. “Interesting.”

Tai sighs softly. “Don’t.”

Keiji chuckles quietly to himself. “I didn’t say anything.”

“You don’t have to say it,” Tai responds in a careless mumble.

“I’m pleased to see how her demeanor has changed since she’s been with us. She’s slowly coming into her own,” Keiji looks ahead at Kaori, watching her speak with Shomei.

“She’s still got a long way to go,” Tai’s gaze follows Keiji’s, his eyes gently landing on Kaori as well.

“I assume you’ll work with her more in the future?” Keiji asks as he glanced over at Tai, noticing where his attention gathered.

“If she needs it. But I doubt she will want to,” Tai says.

Keiji smiles kindly. “I’m sure she may look to you for assistance in the future. Any reason you took it upon yourself to do such a thing in the first place?”

“It’ll speed up this troublesome process. I’d rather have her off the ship and as far away from me as possible,” Tai answers, shrugging his shoulders.

Keiji nods understandably. “Well then, feel free to do as much as you need if that’s the case.” He says casually, the path they continued to walk along finally leading to the familiar glowing forest they had been to before.

Breeze hurries ahead of everyone as they reached the recognizable glowing lake. She runs to the edge looking down at the clear water with excitement. “I knew I should have gotten stuff here earlier. Well can’t go back now,” she shakes her head dismissively then smiles happily, dropping to her knees at the shore and taking a few small vials from her side pouch, carefully filling them up with water. “I won’t miss this chance.”

Tai looks toward Keiji seriously. “There’s a place not too far from here that can provide adequate shelter. I believe you already know of it.”

“Of course,” Keiji says, directing his attention toward Kaori who was now at Breeze’s side. “Take them when they’re finished, I’ll lead the others ahead first,” he says still speaking quietly to Tai.

Tai turns away from them as Keiji led Shomei and Vicious into the woods. He walks over to Kaori and Breeze, watching them impatiently.

“What does it do?” Kaori asks Breeze with curious innocence.

“I can use it as a base in some of my healing potions, not for Tai’s, of course,” Breeze smiles after filling all the bottles. “It’s a pretty valuable sale too. Not many people venture into the woods since it’s so dangerous. Sorry I didn’t consider it sooner; it might have really helped with your ankle earlier now that I think about it.”

Kaori smiles sweetly. “Don’t worry about it, things got out of hand then, and it wasn’t really on your mind.”

Breeze embraces Kaori happily. “Oh, you’re so sweet!!!” she yells out in playfully exaggerated tears, falling silent as Tai interrupted.

“Will you two hurry it up? We shouldn’t be out here too long,” he says seriously.

Breeze looks around curiously. “Where’s Keiji?”

“He went ahead to the shelter,” Tai answers stoically.

Breeze pouts, noticeably inconvenienced. “But he has the rest of my vials. I’m not leaving here without all of them filled,” she says with determination in her eyes and hurries over to Tai, pushing what she had already filled up into his arms. “Hold on to these, I’ll be right back.”

“Hey!” he glares at her as she hurried off. “Tch...” His expression becomes even more irritated as he noticed Kaori watching him with a smile. “What?” he asks forcefully.

“Nothing...” She turns and walks close to the water, her eyes wandering toward the small island, the tree in the middle glowing softly. “It’s very beautiful here,” she says quietly. “It’s almost sad to know that it isn’t safe.”

“So what?” He puts the small vials away in his pockets absentmindedly until he heard Kaori sigh softly, his eyes instinctively returning to her, watching her as she knelt down close to the water.

She reaches out to touch the water but stops as if a sudden thought came to mind. “Do you think The Emperor thinks of me often?” she asks hesitantly, breaking the silence between them as she stood up and looked over at Tai worriedly.

“Probably,” he replies curtly, noticing her uneasy expression as she turned away from him.

“You could find out if you wanted, couldn’t you?”

“Are you asking me to?” he asks irritably.

“No. I guess I kind of already knew the answer in the first place,” she mumbles in regret as she looked down at the ground.

Tai keeps silent for a while before speaking in a tone that expressed his discomfort. “He wishes you to know that you are someone who’s beauty is only matched by the kindness she holds in her heart, and constantly prays for your happiness and safety. But most of all he wants to tell you...” He stops, finding it difficult to finish his sentence.

She looks at him curiously, surprised he had started to tell her of what she asked.

“He will always love you,” he says reluctantly, averting his eyes from her awkwardly.

She blushes brightly and turns away herself.

“It’s like him to be so careless with his emotions,” Tai adds, his body turning away in annoyance at the thought. “He rarely knows when enough is enough.”

She shakes her head, looking down with embarrassment. “I guess it’s kind of... Sweet. It’s just that he hardly knows anything about me.”

He starts to walk away toward the direction of the others looking annoyed. “Doesn’t matter, he’s fixated on winning your heart in return for his.”

She turns slowly and looks over at Tai as she saw him walk away from her. “I know I said I was confident in my decision earlier but, do you think I should love him just as willingly?” she asks softly, causing Tai to stop.

“What’s the point?”

“To make him feel better, I suppose...”

“Does it make you feel any better?”

“I don’t...” her voice trails off as she shook her head in confusion.

“Then you don’t have to love him back.”

“Would you rather I stay with all of you?”

He shrugs carelessly, seeming to have no solidifying opinion on her question. “I suggested we throw you off the ship when we first met, remember? So I really don’t care what you do.”

“Truly?”

“If you love him, the least you could do is love him with everything you are. It would be the only thing that would make him happy.”

“I guess I’ll try...”

His expression becomes avoidant as his focus fell downward. “It’s getting late,” he mumbles distantly.

She nods, a light, reassuring smile on her face as she did so as if to feign a cheerful attitude. “We should head to the others, right?”

He glares over his shoulder at Kaori, noticing her smile, and rolls his eyes lightly in response. He starts walking through the woods, Kaori close behind, periodically glancing back at her as if making sure she was safely behind him until Breeze hurried up with an arm full of vials.

“Hey, I’m going to finish these up real quick and I’ll be done,” Breeze says happily.

“It’s too late for her to be out, I’m taking her to the others,” Tai says in an empty tone.

“Okay, I can make it back there so don’t worry about me,” Breeze says positively.

“I wasn’t going to,” he says carelessly, walking away calmly.

Kaori looks at Tai for a moment with a furrowed brow and concerned smile before looking at Breeze. “Are you sure? I can wait with you.”

“You can’t,” he says from a short distance.

Breeze glares toward Tai before smiling warmly back at Kaori. “It’s no big deal, your safety is first. Go get plenty of rest, alright?”

“Well, okay...” Kaori waves slightly toward Breeze before hurrying off toward Tai, following behind him willingly. “It was nice of him to tell me about the Emperor. But a bit sad. I’m not sure if I can ever return those feelings...”

He glances over his shoulder, back at Kaori, as they walked through the woods, noticing her troubled expression. “What?”

She stops a few steps behind Tai once they reached a small, run-down building nestled under several broken-down tree limbs and overgrown with wild, glowing vines, looking down thoughtfully. “Will... Will you come with Breeze and the others to visit me at the palace?”

“No,” he replies coldly.

She places a hand on her arm as she looked off to the side. “Right... I should have known. It was dumb of me to have asked.”

He sighs in defeat, clearly understanding she was hurt by his harsh tone. “Did you want me to?”

“It’s fine,” she says, shaking her head. “I mean you have plenty of other things to do with your time, right?”

“If I went to see you, people would see it as if I am still chasing my past.”

“I understand. I won’t hold it against you,” she looks up and inhales deeply, looking at Tai with a sense of calmness about her, but still seeming as if she wanted to say something to him.

Vicious walks out of the small cabin calmly, instantly seeing Kaori and hurries over to her. “There you are.”

Tai glares at Vicious as if he had interrupted a serious conversation between them.

“You should be resting, you know. Where were you?” Vicious asks worriedly.

“I was with Breeze, and then she told me to wait,” Kaori says uneasily.

“C’mon, Shomei made a place for you to rest. I’ll stay awake to make sure you’re safe, alright?” Vicious says while gently guiding her away from Tai.

Kaori glances back at Tai with a notable look of regret, before being pulled into the cabin.

Tai watches the door as it closed behind Kaori, clenching his fist as his expression became irritated with his own thoughts. He turns away from the cabin and walks through the forest, passing Breeze who was hurrying up in excitement with her arms full of Vials.

Breeze grins happily for a moment. “Hey Tai, look, I-...” Her voice trails off as Tai walked past her without saying a word. “Got enough for months...” she adds worriedly, turning and watching him walk deeper into the forest.

❀

The unfamiliar voice of an older woman speaks menacingly in the darkness, her words echoing softly with each word. “Dearest Goddess, who sleeps in peace. Remember this darkness, for later it shall become your only solace through your rightful pain... I can always reach you, near or far. You will never out run me; your heart will be mine, and your soul will belong to the one true god of pain and suffering.”