PHENOMENIST

“I am sorry. I didn’t want to…” Kentaro let out between his sobs, but there was no time for apologies and Nikaido grabbed his little brother by the wrist and pulled him away before the people who had seen him could actually call the guards.

Years they had lived in the eastern city, as peaceful as it was possible in this post war time, but then Kentaro suddenly became one of them. One of those people which weren’t allowed in any city, but they couldn’t easily leave either. The country was destroyed, just a few major cities still somehow capable of keeping the order. Huge fences, which had at first been a defense over years of wars with other countries, were now surrounding them to keep the so called Phenomenists away from the cities. Helping a Phenomenist was forbidden and punished with death, but how could he leave his own brother behind?

For a few weeks they had managed, but Kentaro’s abilities were becoming too obvious, his emotions too hard to control and the heavy rain had made things even worse. Water was what he could control, one of the four existing abilities a Phenomenist could have and it wasn’t even clear yet if he also possessed others as well.

A routine control had escalated when soldiers had found Kentaro suspicious without even doing anything and they had threatened to bring him to the tower, the center of the city. Kentaro wanted to stop them, but without using his abilities he would have been no match and because he couldn’t control his abilities yet and his brother wasn’t around to help him, he was easily exposed when he tried to attack one of the soldiers, but it was a wave of water coming from one of the paddles of the ground hitting the person instead of a punch.

Nikaido had luckily reached them soon enough to prevent the worst from happening and he used the chaos to flee with Kentaro, but now they were in big trouble. The whole city was equipped with cameras, the next armed guard definitely not far away and while they wouldn’t see Nikaido as their enemy just like this, it would be different the moment all the soldiers around them got to know about his little brother being a Phenomenist.

“I’m sorry…” Kentaro sobbed as he got dragged along on which Nikaido’s grip on his wrist tightened.

“Stop apologizing. It’s not like you did something bad, they are the assholes,” Nikaido hissed and tried to somehow come up with an escape plan. The sounds of trucks passing by at the main road made him stop and pull Kentaro behind him. They were on their way out of the city to get supplies.

“That’s our chance,” Nikaido whispered and turned to his brother. “Whatever happens I want you to run in case they get me.”

“What? I will never leave you behind!”

“If they get you, they will kill you!”

“They will also kill you for helping me,” Kentaro said, shaking his head nonstop. When his tears started falling again the rain that had fallen the entire day already seemed to become even heavier.

Nikaido hurried to take his brother’s face into his hands and wipe away the tears, trying to sooth him. “Calm down, okay? It’s not like I want us to get separated, you know that! I don’t care if you have become a Phenomenist or not. But now we can’t stay anymore. We knew this day could come.”

Kentaro nodded immediately, because they were the last members of their family, the only ones who had survived the war. Kentaro had still been too young to even remember their parents, so Nikaido was his only family and he knew that his brother would never turn his back on him.

The sound of the gate opening made Nikaido turn back to the corner. “We have no time, let’s go. We can’t think about failing now!”

Kentaro tried to get a grip and concentrate as well as they dashed out of their hiding place, sneaking on the back of one of the empty supply trucks under the cover of the heavy rain.

“Get down,” Nikaido whispered and they hid behind the empty boxes while the trucks were driving out of the city.

On the faint sound of the gate closing again Nikaido finally relaxed and sat against the side of the truck.

“I guess we can relax for a bit now and as soon as we’re far enough, let's get off.”

When there was no reply Nikaido looked over to his brother who was lying on his back, but when he took a closer look, he realized that Kentaro had once more fainted. Using their abilities usually made Phenomenists feel exhausted and there were even rumors about them being at risk of heavier damage when they used their abilities too much so Nikaido wanted to make sure to become strong as well even without any abilities so that Kentaro didn’t have any reason to use them to a dangerous degree.

***

A nuclear war had turned the world upside down several years ago. New weapons, new chemicals, new miscalculations. Whole countries had been destroyed, population erased and then the humans themselves had started changing. A mutation as a lot of people called it at first, but it wasn’t that easy. Men were changing, women weren’t, the reason for that was the y chromosome which was attacked by a virus which circled over the whole planet after hundreds of different chemical and nuclear weapons had infested land and water.

The war which had started through the humans' never-ending greed and search for ultimate power had now turned into a war against their own. Those who had shown the mutations were taken to research centers at first, but soon the situation escalated as a lot of them couldn’t control their abilities at first.

The plan on research had been changed to a plan of extinction and at first it seemed like the mutation carrier, called Phenomenists by the researchers, were about to get extinct, but then suddenly new people became Phenomenists after months even years after the war and they realized that the mutation could still take place years later. Mainly children or young adults would suddenly turn or more like awaken their abilities, mostly after being triggered by a dangerous situation. Major cities started to force their citizens into regular DNA tests with which they could uncover the Phenomenists.

A lot of them had gone into hiding, afraid of getting found and killed, others had enough and attacked the people trying to kill them.

In the end humanity had been forced into two groups, the humans without mutations, called Infirm, hiding in their huge cities, surrounded by high fences and armed guards and the Phenomenists, hiding outside the danger zones, trying to form a new life on their own.

While everything had calmed down at first as the cities weren’t directly attacked by any Phenomenists, there was a new uproar inside their own fences now. Even years after separation between both groups, there were still people suddenly changing into Phenomenists. The cities’ guards would immediately execute those who showed any kind of mutation. With the fear of getting killed in their own city there were also those who decided to leave and live alongside the Phenomenists, but it was only a matter of time until one of both groups would start another uproar, but with the number of Phenomenists rising, another civil war could have a destructive outcome.

***

“Don’t walk that fast, we are not getting followed,” Nikaido said as Kentaro kept moving straight ahead through the forest even though they had no clue where they had ended up. At some point Nikaido had decided that it was better to get off the truck, but as expected there was nothing around.

“I just, I don’t know, it feels like this is a good direction.”

“A good direction for what?” Nikaido asked confused, on which Kentaro stopped and shrugged his shoulders.

“No clue actually, just a gut feeling?”

A pretty strong gut feeling that was for sure, because it was rare to see Kentaro that determined, especially after what had happened just hours before.

This behavior was definitely one Nikaido preferred though, so he just followed his little brother through the woods until he could hear a sound.

“A river?”

“Take a look at this,” Kentaro shouted, already out of Nikaido’s sight and the older one hurried towards him. A waterfall and fast flowing river were what awaited him at a small cliff where Kentaro was standing.

“Wow, that’s amazing,” Nikaido let out.

“Let’s take a rest here for now?” Kentaro asked and Nikaido nodded immediately. They had had no time to bring anything with them, so a place where they had fresh water which was not in any way chemically loaded like the city water, was definitely something they needed.

“We can go down here,” Kentaro said as he found a place where they could easily get down to the riverside.

Nikaido looked after his little brother with a thoughtful expression, but Kentaro was already running towards the water. This wasn’t just a gut feeling, that was for sure. Being able to sense the water from such a distance was definitely connected to his abilities and Nikaido could just hope that everything connected to them would stay this positive.

“Let’s try and make a fire, it's getting dark,” Nikaido said as he picked a bit of wood up on the way. At least it wasn’t raining out here in the woods, but it was definitely going to be quite cold at night.

“Would be awesome if we could somehow get some fish to eat,” Kentaro said as he stared at the river, seeing some trouts swimming by.

“Don’t you dare and step in there, the current is way too strong it will drag you along,” Nikaido warned him as he sat down on a bigger stone at the riverbank and tried to start a fire with what they had gathered. They hadn’t been able to gather any of their belongings on their way out of the city, so they had no provisions or anything else that could help them out here.

Kentaro kept staring at the river for the time being as if the river itself could give him a fish or two instead of him going in and trying to get it.

“At least something that worked out,” Nikaido said relieved as a few sparks finally made the dry wood catch fire. A squeal from his little brother made him look up right away, ready to scold him in case he had actually dared to go into the river. What he saw though was making him blink in confusion.

“Don’t ask me, I have no clue! It jumped into my arms I swear!” Kentaro defended himself as he held a huge trout, still trying to get out of his grip.

“So what, the river gave you the fish?” Nikaido teased him, but then he realized that it wasn’t as weird as it sounded at first. Kentaro’s abilities were connected to water after all. The city forbad it to learn about Phenomenists and their abilities so they didn’t know much, but what they had heard was that the abilities were becoming stronger or weaker depending on the emotional condition of the person and Kentaro was desperate for food, so maybe he had subconsciously moved the water to get the fish.

“Well now that you have it already let’s eat it,” Nikaido said, shrugging his shoulders, trying to play the confusion about all the weird happenings down, because he could already see that Kentaro was also overwhelmed with his own abilites.

As expected, it turned dark pretty soon and unfortunately, they had nothing but the fire to keep themselves warm and Nikaido sat down next to Kentaro.

“You need to sleep a bit, come lie down,” Nikaido said and clapped on his own thighs on which Kentaro shook his head.

“I am not so tired. You should sleep first.”

“I am the older brother, no complaints!”

Luckily that was a tactic that always worked and a bit reluctantly Kentaro finally tried to find a somehow comfortable position and put his head on his brother’s legs.

“Where do we go from here? Do you think they will try and find us?”

Kentaro had turned on the side, but Nikaido could read the worry in his voice and he put his hand on the boy’s hair. “They won’t try to come after us, don’t worry. They left the Phenomenists outside of the cities alone for now and just attacked those who dared to come close to the city. So as long as we don’t try to go back it’s going to be fine.”

If it eventually would be fine, he couldn’t tell of course, but as the older brother he wanted to make sure that Kentaro didn’t have to worry that much. “We might find some abandoned places to get supplies.”

As there was no reply at all, Nikaido leaned a bit to the front, smiling as he realized that Kentaro had already fallen asleep. “Not tired, right…” he whispered with a chuckle.

***

When the morning arrived Nikaido realized that he had fallen asleep at some point after all and what made him wake up even faster was the fact that Kentaro was not lying next to him. When he sat up and took a look around, he found the boy next to the river.

“What are you doing this early in the morning?” Nikaido asked as he walked up to his brother.

“I tried to get us another fish, but it won’t work.”

“Don’t worry about it too much. You don’t even know how you did that or if it really was just a coincidence so let’s keep moving.”

Nikaido was totally understanding his little brother’s bad mood after not being able to control the abilities which he had been given without even wanting them, but maybe time would bring him answers or they were lucky and would meet other Phenomenists who could actually help him.

“So where shall we go?”

“Why do you ask me that?” Kentaro asked in confusion.

“Because your gut feeling brought us here, so maybe it can bring us to another good spot after this?”

It had been meant to be just a bit of teasing, but unfortunately Kentaro’s mood turned even worse. “I can’t even tell how my abilities work so it might be better to not trust me with this.”

Nikaido patted him on the shoulder before he chose a direction randomly to head off to. “Don’t worry there will be a day when you can make good use out of them.”

If Kentaro even wanted that was still unclear, but what else than trying to support him could Nikaido do? If he could he would take the powers away from him, but that was something he of course wasn’t capable of.

A second night had them left in the middle of the forest without food or water, but they kept walking through a thick forest the next day while they had to slow down as their surroundings got more and more steep, leading them into the mountains.

“If we go too high, I fear it will become even colder in the evenings,” Kentaro let out worried and Nikaido nodded.

“Let’s see if we can find somewhere alongside the mountain where it’s easy to walk.”

After a few more minutes in the thick forest, they suddenly reached an area where it got easier to walk and they scanned their surroundings.

“It almost looks like a path,” Kentaro said as two open areas were visible in front of them.

“Now the question is just which way do we go?” Nikaido asked while he had walked up to the area that lead up the mountain, but then he realized that Kentaro wasn’t even listening to him. He had already made a few steps onto the path ahead, looking concentrated into the forest.

“Kentaro?” Nikaido asked, but didn’t get a reply on which he stepped closer and waved his hand in front of the boy’s face. “Hey, everything okay?”

Kentaro flinched on the move as if he had totally forgotten that he wasn’t alone. “Sorry, I just, I don’t know, forget it…”

“You think we should go that way, right?” Nikaido analyzed his behavior and he knew he was right when Kentaro bit his lip.

“I know I said earlier we shouldn’t rely on this weird gut feeling ,but I really think we should go this way,” Kentaro explained, to which Nikaido gave him a smile.

“Then it’s decided, let’s go!”

It didn’t matter if they trusted Kentaro’s feeling or not, they just had two directions to choose from anyways.

The path got even clearer after a while, but the forest continued as before with the difference that they weren’t getting even more up into the mountains, but followed on the side of it.

“Do you hear that?” Nikaido asked and they both stopped, listening to the sound they could hear.

“I have a bad feeling about this,” Kentaro said, but kept walking, because what was awaiting them wasn’t dangerous, as long as they didn’t have to pass it, but luck didn’t seem on their side as they found a huge waterfall in front of them after a bit more of walking.

The waterfall was coming from the rocks right over the path and made it impossible to keep going as the water hit the path with full force and would make them fall and looking down the waterfall continued quite a long way.

“So are we turning around?” Nikaido asked a bit disappointed about the sudden dead end.

Kentaro walked a bit closer to the waterfall though, but there was no way around it. “Don’t you think this is strange?”

“Why?” Nikaido asked and stepped next to him.

“The path continued completely clearly until here and suddenly it stops like this? I doubt a lot of people would randomly walk up here and then turn around.”

“Maybe people live nearby and get their water from here?” Nikaido said, trying to find an explanation.

“Wouldn’t it be easier to get the water down where the waterfall ends then instead of walking up here?”

“Also true,” Nikaido said defeated. “Anyways, let’s head back. It’s getting dark soon so we should find somewhere to rest close by so we have water for the night.”

Already looking around if he could spot a good place to try and make another fire, he didn’t realize that Kentaro wasn’t following him until he turned around. Looking back to the waterfall he realized that his brother had disappeared. “Kentaro?”

Not wanting to panic right away he tried to spot him in the forest, maybe he had tried to find a way around, but there was no sign of him on which Nikaido dashed back to the waterfall, panic rising fast now. Had he fallen? But he would have shouted out for him if he had lost his balance or slipped.

“Kentaro, where are you?” Nikaido shouted this time, but again no answer. When he was ready to actually turn and dash down back the path to see if Kentaro had actually really fallen, a movement on his side made him jolt and jump to the sight.

“What the actual fuck?” He said in pure disbelief about a hand being stretched out to him from inside the waterfall. The next moment Kentaro stepped half out of it, looking at his brother as confused as the other way around.

“What are you doing? What- How…?”

Kentaro was standing under the full force of the waterfall, but the water didn’t even touch him. Like an invisible wall it seemed to flow around him. “I have no clue why, but I suddenly had the feeling I could go through it and I tried. So take my hand and come with me, because I have the feeling if I think about this too much it might not work anymore.”

There was so much speaking against trying this, because trying meant they could fail. Who said that Nikaido would be even able to follow Kentaro without getting crushed? He was an Infirm after all.

“Trust me,” Kentaro said and stretched out his hand. Seeing his little brother this confident about his still unexplored abilities made Nikaido finally move and he took his hand and dared his first step under the crushing water and it worked. The shield seemed to protect them both and so Nikaido made sure to walk as close to Kentaro as possible.

It was making Nikaido feel proud of his little brother to see how he tried so hard to make the best use of this abilities, but with the water crushing down right above them he couldn’t concentrate on anything else than the question when they would be through and luckily his question got answered seconds later and they finally arrived back on the path.

“I knew it,” Kentaro said as he looked ahead at the clear path. “This waterfall is something like a barricade for protection.

“You mean whoever uses this path wants Infirms to stay outside.” It wasn’t even sounding that weird, because Infirms had hunted Phenomenists down for years so they were definitely not fond of them.

“Let’s see where it leads to,” Kentaro said and kept walking. They kept walking for quite some time, the path not continuing this clearly after a while, with the forest showing rocky surfaces on one side and thick forest to the other side, but Kentaro kept going as if he knew exactly where he aimed for. Just after quite some time of walking when Nikaido doubted that they were reaching any certain place at all after losing the direct path, Kentaro suddenly stopped.

“What is it?” Nikaido asked and followed the boy’s look through the forest. Then he saw the movement. There was someone hiding behind the trees. “Kentaro, wait!”

But Kentaro dared to make a few steps forward and when he came into a dangerous distance for both sides, they suddenly saw who had been hiding. Two kids dashed out of their hiding place, running off into the opposite direction. A girl and a boy, definitely still younger than ten.

Kentaro and Nikaido exchanged a worried look, but then decided to carefully follow them. They hadn’t intended to scare them, but they didn't know that there were people around.

“Look there is a glade!” Kentaro said as he saw the last sunlight before the dawn breaking through the trees. The place in front of them wasn’t just a small place though. They could see over a huge place without trees and in the middle was a village. All sides were thick forest, but between the village and them was a wide-open area with nothing but grass on it.

“Shall we try and talk to the people here?” Kentaro asked, a bit worried as he saw the two kids running back towards the few first huts on their way and on that way the boy suddenly stopped at a wooden pole and he rang the bell on it before he also vanished between the huts. There were just small buildings out of wood, except for one bigger building in the middle of the village which had obviously been made out of the stones they got from the steep walls in the mountains. But with the evening hours approaching no one was out in the open fields around them.

When they finally dared to move out on the grass to walk down to the village they saw more movement down between the buildings.

The first person coming into their sight walked past the last huts with big steps and Nikaido automatically walked in front of Kentaro, not liking the way they got approached.

“Be careful there is a small stream in front of you,” Kentaro warned him and pulled on his sleeve before he could actually stumble over it. It wasn’t wide nor deep, but it seemed to surround the whole village.

“Thank you,” Nikaido said before he wanted to make a small jump over it, but then shouting down in the village made them both look up.

They were too far away to hear them clearly, but there was a second person running after the man who was approaching them. Before they could decide what to do though a movement of the man made them both freeze.

Without any kind of warning fire was forming in front of him and even worse it was moving towards them. The fire blast was huge and way too fast to even think about running from it.

“Get down!” Nikaido shouted at Kentaro, but when he wanted to drag him down, Kentaro jumped in front of him. Nikaido feared for him to get burned alive, but Kentaro didn’t seem afraid at all. When the fire blast was right in front of them, he lifted his arms and with that he moved the water of the stream into a wall turning the fire into smoke.

Nikaido was out of words through that sudden move, because it seemed like Kentaro was always able to control his abilities at exactly the right moments.

“Stop it! You don’t have to attack them!”

Now the voices were clearer, but that also meant they were close by. Before Nikaido could decide what to do he saw Kentaro stumbling to the back. At the same moment he saw another blast of fire coming through the smoke, but this time the person from before had the fire still right in front of him, jumping over the stream ready to attack. Nikaido sank to his knees, catching Kentaro as the boy fell unconsciously into his arms before he turned towards the person attacking them. To his surprise the man who was around the same age as him, stopped his attack and stepped right in front of them, the fire still visible in front of his hand.

“Who are you?” The man asked in a dangerous tone. He had brown wavy hair, already a bit too long for Nikaido’s liking, but that wasn’t important at the moment. In a physical fight he was sure he could beat the slim figure in front of him, but against a Phenomenist he had no chance.

Before Nikaido could reply the person in front of him yelped as he got hit on the back of his head, losing his fire and rubbing his head with a curse. “What the heck was that for?” He asked as he turned to a boy coming out of the finally resolving smoke.

“That is my question! Taisuke, I told you not to attack them. Can’t you for once not be this suspicious about people?”

It surprised Nikaido to see how the older one pouted on the younger one’s reaction, but a groan from Kentaro made him focus back on his little brother.

“He must be exhausted after using his abilities in such a hurry. Come, I will bring you to our doctor,” the boy said, to which the older one gave him a disbelieving look.

“Taiga, are you out of your mind? We don’t even know them. I won’t let them get into the village like this.”

The younger one rolled his eyes immediately and pointed back at the village. “Didn’t you hear what Hana and Ken said? They came from the waterfall.”

“That doesn’t make them good people!”

“For god’s sake Taisuke, look at them,” Taiga yelled this time, Nikaido tightening his grip around Kentaro a bit more as both their attention was back on them. “They aren’t even wet, so they both made it through with the boy’s ability. You know how much trust is needed to make an Infirm be able to follow through that. And you just saw yourself how he deflected your attack with his abilities.”

“Just because they trust each other, doesn’t mean they are good people.”

“And you are?” Nikaido said, not being able to stay silent anymore.

“Excuse me?” Taisuke shot back annoyed.

“You attacked us out of the blue. We didn’t do anything!”

“You are here, that is already enough!” Taisuke shot back at which Taiga finally had enough and hit the other one against the shoulder.

“Could you finally cut it out!”

“Okay that’s enough both of you,” a third person was suddenly heard. Through all their fighting they hadn’t even realized that someone else had walked up to them. A look down to the village also showed that a lot of people were now curiously looking at them.

“Mitsu, would you please make him stop?” Taiga asked of the short man walking up to them with a calm expression.

“Would you stop behaving like the older brother?” Taisuke shot back, resulting in Taiga getting ready to jump at him, but while they had moved towards each other, they suddenly found themselves a few meters apart from each other. Nikaido gasped on the sudden movement he couldn’t explain. As if lifted by an invisible force they had ended up being thrown out of balance, but then placed back on their feet without harm.

“Good that I am the oldest brother and you two have to listen to me,” Hiromitsu said with a faint smile on which Taisuke rolled his eyes and Taiga pouted.

“Sorry for the rough greeting,” Hiromitsu finally addressed Nikaido this time. “I am sure you both had a tough journey up here. This place is not easy to find, but I guess the boy’s abilities have helped you to not lose your way.”

Nikaido felt a bit relieved about the normal conversation and it also didn’t seem like the other one would suddenly attack them. “If you want, we can take you in for a bit? I bet the boy needs a long rest after using his abilities for the waterfall and defending you against my stupid brother.”

A growl from Taisuke was heard on that comment, but he didn’t try to interfere this time.

“If it’s really okay then we would like to stay for a while, but just if we don’t have to fear any more sudden attacks,” Nikaido said looking at Taisuke who gave him a death glare in return.

“Don’t worry about him. He can be really suspicious about people, but he won’t do you any harm, you have my word.”

Still not completely trusting the situation, Nikaido lifted his brother up in his arms and nodded. “Then I would like to accept your offer and give my brother a good rest.”

“Oh great, more siblings in the village,” Taiga let out in excitement.

“If you want, I can make it easier for you,” Hiromitsu said as he lifted his arm and Nikaido felt how Kentaro got lighter in his arms, but he protectively kept a tight grip on him and shook his head.

“Thank you, but I will carry him myself.”

“As you wish,” Hiromitsu said before he turned and walked down to the village, followed by Taisuke who immediately started a discussion with him.

“Don’t worry, he is really not as bad as he seems at first,” Taiga said as he stepped next to Nikaido. “By the way what’s your name?”

“I am Nikaido and this is my little brother Kentaro.”

“Welcome to our village then Nikaido,” Taiga said with a smile as they started walking down towards the village. “As you already heard through all the scolding, I am Taiga, I am the youngest of us three siblings,” Taiga explained as he pointed at the two men walking in front of them. “Taisuke is the middle brother and Hiromitsu the oldest one. Hiromitsu is also the leader of this village at least at the moment. But this might be too much explanation at once, so let’s get you somewhere to rest for now.”

Nikaido nodded gratefully, because he would definitely get a headache if he explained too much right away. When they arrived between the first huts Nikaido saw people whispering, pointing at them and some even trying to hide from them. There were families, children, young and old people, like a normal village they seemed to live here in the mountains, but Nikaido was already sure that they didn’t trust outsiders. While women couldn't become Phenomenists and seemed to live peacefully with everyone in the village it was definitely a different matter for strangers who were Infirms.

“Don’t take it personally, this village has quite a rough background with outsiders,” Taiga confirmed Nikaido’s worries. “Come over here, this is our doctor's house, he will have a quick look at Kentaro.”

Hiromitsu was waiting in front of the hut, but Taisuke had kept walking, now moving away from them. He turned around to Nikaido with another annoyed look before he entered the stone building in the middle of the village, disappearing out of his view.

“This is Miyata, our doctor,” Taiga introduced the man standing in the open door.

“Oh I see, we have someone who is still quite overwhelmed by his own abilities,” Miyata greeted them with a look at Kentaro’s condition. “Come in.”
Nikaido stepped inside the wooden hut, surprised to find quite some advanced equipment inside. It looked almost the same as the hospitals in the city, just a bit more chaotic as a few things were of course missing and others were improvised.

“We built the village ourselves, but we got what we needed from bigger towns down the mountain as they were all destroyed and abandoned anyways,” Hiromitsu explained.

“Put him here,” Miyata said as he pointed to a simple mattress on a wooden frame, a bit higher than a normal bed. Nikaido carefully put him down and stepped back as Miyata stepped closer.

Steps from another room made Nikaido turn and he spotted the two kids from before peeking inside the room.

“Kids, what did I tell you?” Miyata said scolding on which they vanished with a giggle. “Sorry, they are way too hyper to stay out of my treatment room even though I always tell them they are not allowed in here.”

Nikaido didn’t mind though after all it was thanks to them that they had found the village. “Are they your children?”

“Yes my daughter Hana, she is seven and my son Ken, he is five.”

Nikaido was sure that he would do a typical routine check up on Kentaro, but all he did was put his hand on the boy’s forehead and then silence followed.

A bit confused about the situation, Nikaido looked at Hiromitsu who gave him an understanding look. “Miyata can use power transfer to see with his own abilities if something isn’t okay with your brother.”

“Confusing, right?” Taiga said with a chuckle, because Nikaido’s expression told them that he was not getting at all what was going on. “Don’t worry we can explain everything in more detail if you want?”

“To be honest I would prefer the explanations later, for now I am happy if you can make sure he is fine, however that looks like.”

“You seem to be able to judge people very well,” Hiromitsu said on which Nikaido looked up at him. “It’s not easy to leave the treatment of your brother in a stranger's hands.”

“It’s the first time someone wants to help him after finding out he is a Phenomenist. Usually everyone tries to kill him.”

“Are you from one of the cities?” Taiga said curiously, to which Nikaido nodded.

“We lived in the eastern city since the end of the war, but a while ago Kentaro’s abilities suddenly surfaced and we couldn’t stay when he failed in hiding them.”

“You made a wise decision to run and did a good job in staying alive until now,” Hiromitsu praised him.

“It’s not like I did much, Kentaro was the one who could somehow sense you and find the way,” Nikaido said on which Hiromitsu shook his head.

“He needs you more than you might think,” the man said with a smile before Miyata finally walked up to them.

“He is completely fine, just pretty exhausted. A night of sleep will help him a lot.”

“Perfect, then let’s find you an empty hut,” Hiromitsu announced and looked at Taiga who got the message which Nikaido of course had no clue about and the boy excused himself, leaving the hut.

“When he wakes up make sure that he stays calm,” Miyata added on which Nikaido raised an eyebrow at him. “Do you know if he has any other abilities?”

Nikaido shook his head on that question. “I just saw him using water until now and he said he doesn’t know if he has any other abilities.”

“Then let’s be careful for now. When a Phenomenist is stressed, they might do things they regret later if they can’t control their abilities. If he can just use water then it won’t be a problem, because as long as you don’t put a bucket of water in front of his bed there won’t be anything he can use, but if he has other abilities, it could also be dangerous for you to be around when he wakes up.”

“I am staying with him no matter what.”

Hiromitsu had obviously seen that reply coming and nodded. “Well then let’s go.”

Nikaido thanked Miyata for his quick check up and lifted Kentaro up again, walking towards the door with Hiromitsu. When they stepped outside, Taiga was waiting for them, but he wasn’t alone. A man with dark red hair stood next to him and gave them a calm smile.

“Let me introduce you,” Hiromitsu said as he walked up to them. “This is Massu, one of our Phenomenists.”

“Nice to see a new face in a while,” Massu said with a bright smile. “Especially a calm water user that is always nicer than the hot headed Phenomenists,” Massu added on which Taiga hit him with his elbow.

“You are a fire user yourself idiot.”

“But I am not blowing up half the village,” Massu said with a wink on which Taiga laughed.

“Yeah, we leave that to Taisuke,” Taiga replied teasingly.

It wasn’t clear if they were joking or not, but Nikaido just started to dislike Taisuke even more after hearing that.

“So Massu will have an eye on you for the time being,” Hiromitsu said, to which Nikaido gave him a suspicious look. “I know, I am sorry about that, but you have to understand that we just need to be sure that we can trust you. I know that applies the other way around too, so don’t worry he won’t stay too close. He will just guard around the hut we will give you, making sure you stay safe and our people stay safe.”

As much as it seemed like a way too big security matter Nikaido couldn’t deny that they had all right to be suspicious about them and this was a way nicer treatment than they would get in the city.

After agreeing to everything, they got to one of the huts the furthest away from the center, also something Nikaido could understand. The hut was as all the others a simple one out of wood and the inside was just one big room. There was a fire place which made Nikaido feel relieved right away as the sun had already set and it was pretty cold here in the mountains. There was just one bed in the hut, but it was spacious enough for both of them and a chair was standing next to the fireplace as well as a table with two chairs they could use too.

“I know it’s not much, but please try and rest as well as you can,” Hiromitsu said before he and Taiga left.

“If anything is up, please make sure to let me know, I won’t bite you know?” Massu said with a smile and Nikaido thanked him before he went inside and put Kentaro carefully on the bed.

It seemed like Taiga had prepared the hut for them earlier as the fire was already lit and there was also some food and water put on the table.

“Let’s hope that my gut feeling is as good as yours,” Nikaido whispered as he sat down next to Kentaro and caressed his hair.

Kentaro woke up with a feeling of having slept a few days in a row. A bit disorientated he opened his eyes, facing a wooden wall. With a groan he tried to remember what had happened and then the image of the fire blast getting thrown towards them flashed through his mind and with a gasp he sat up. Even though he hadn’t done anything else but that, a shattering sound from inside the room made him flinch. Looking over to the table he saw a cup on the ground, water all over the floor.

Still too confused about what had happened after he had passed out, he looked next to him and felt immediate relief to find Nikaido next to him. His brother must have been too exhausted to even realize the noise as he didn’t seem to be disturbed in his sleep. The fact that he was sleeping this calmly made Kentaro hope that whatever had happened was a good outcome and wouldn’t bring them any more trouble.

Carefully he got up from the bed, not wanting to wake the other one up. The fireplace was still warm, but the fire seemed to have gone out a while ago. Now that it was daytime and the sunlight was already searching its way into the hut, he decided to leave it like this.

When he dared to look out of one of the windows, he could see the village they had arrived at the day before. People were already outside, some of them carrying grain so there were definitely fields around. Then he saw the two kids from the day before running around close to their hut, a woman yelling their names to make them follow her.

Curiously Kentaro went over to the door, before he turned to Nikaido once more. His brother needed the rest, but somehow Kentaro felt like he could leave him alone without fearing for any kind of trouble. His stomach feeling had brought them just positive results until now, so he hoped it would continue like that. Carefully Kentaro sneaked out the hut, closing the door as silent as possible.

“And where are we heading?”

On the sound of an unfamiliar voice Kentaro swirled around, unfortunately realizing too late that there had been stairs in front of him and with a squeal he fell to the front, already preparing for a hard landing on the ground. But the person in front of the hut had caught him on the arm at the last second, but released him the moment Kentaro found his balance.

“A small klutz, aren’t we?” Massu asked with a smile. “Did you have a good rest?”

On the question Kentaro nodded, but kept looking at the unknown man.

“Oh sorry, I guess Nikaido is still asleep and didn’t tell you anything yet?”

Once more Kentaro nodded and Massu stepped a bit back. “I’m Massu. For a while I will look out for you two if you want to call it that way.”

“Nice to meet you,” Kentaro said as politely as he could.

“I heard you were quite impressive standing up against Taisuke yesterday.”

He didn’t know the name, but he knew that it must have been the man who had attacked them and immediately his expression turned a bit darker.

“Don’t worry, he won’t attack you again,” Massu said, immediately trying to cheer him up.

“Don’t make promises my brother can’t keep,” Taiga was heard as he approached them. “You know Taisuke’s mood changes every few minutes.”

With a teasing smile he walked up to them, giving Kentaro a scanning look on which the boy looked a bit embarrassed to the ground. “I am Taiga, the little brother of the idiot who attacked you yesterday. Don’t worry he got a lot of scolding from our oldest brother already.”

“By the way, what are you doing here?” Massu finally asked on which Taiga pointed at Kentaro.

“I thought I could show him around a bit? You want to wake up your brother as well?”

“I actually would like to give him as much of a rest as he can get,” Kentaro said and Taiga nodded.

“Totally understandable, then let’s go?”

“Taiga, I don’t think this is a good idea.”

“No, you think that Taisuke won’t think of this as a good idea, but luckily he is not here, right?” Taiga teased.

A bit hesitant Kentaro walked after Taiga who had turned away from him without even looking if he was following him.

“Don’t worry, Taiga is the best company you can have to make sure to not get into trouble,” Massu explained. “I will be here in case your brother wakes up.”

“Thank you,” Kentaro replied and hurried after Taiga.

“So where do you want to start?” Taiga asked as they walked around the village.

“Maybe by knowing where what is?” Kentaro asked and Taiga nodded.

“Well, that is easily explained luckily,” the boy explained as they walked up to the big stone building in the middle of the village. It looked pretty strong judging by the heavy stone walls and even the door seemed to be made out of iron instead of wood.

“This is the meeting hall. We use it for gatherings and also just to eat together sometimes. It’s also our shelter in case we get attacked. You see the bells all around?”

Kentaro nodded as he had seen Ken using them when they had arrived. One was right next to the meeting hall while others were scattered around the village even a bit outside of the center.

“We use them to warn the others in case there is an emergency. Everyone who is not part of our fighters has to come to the city hall immediately when someone rings the bell.”

“So outsiders like us cause a lot of uproar in your village, sorry about that,” Kentaro said.

“Don’t worry about that. We’re just trying to be ready in case someone from the city shows up and I don’t mean civilians. We have fighters to stand against them, but we still need to be careful.”

“When you say fighters, you mean the Phenomenists in your village?” Kentaro asked and before Taiga could reply there was an impact heard from the other side of the village on which Kentaro gave Taiga a worried look, but the latter just smiled.

“Perfect timing to explain this a bit easier,” Taiga said and waved at him. “Follow me.”

They passed a few more huts on their way, Kentaro trying to ignore the way he was stared at by most of the people.

“So over there are our fields by the way,” Taiga said as they left the last huts behind them and left the village to the opposite side from where Nikaido and Kentaro had come from the day before. There were rice fields along one side, which also explained the stream flowing down there. They had obviously built it to be able to water their fields.

“Down here just the fighters are allowed,” Taiga explained as they walked towards a rocky area right before the forest started again. As they kept walking around a small hillside another open space got visible, but it wasn’t at all the same as the village. It looked like a battlefield. Stones, more like huge rocks, were lying around as if they had been ripped out of the ground and tossed around. Cracks in the ground made it almost impossible to run without falling and still there were people in front of them fighting on exactly this destroyed ground.

“It’s our personal training ground. Here they can destroy what they want without risking to hurt someone, well except other fighters, but that is their own fault,” Taiga said with a chuckle. “We also have the stream from the village flow down here so water users can use their abilities as well, it also functions as a protection surrounding the village. But right now, you’re the only water user in the village.”

Kentaro saw the stream being just a few meters in front of them and going directly down to the training ground. Absentmindedly he kept staring at the people training. They were so concentrated that they hadn’t even noticed their presence yet. When a fire blast was shot through the air, he spotted Taisuke and his look immediately darkened.

“Don’t worry I know he overdid it at your first meeting, but as soon as he gets to know you better, he won’t be that aggressive anymore.”

“Better for him or I won’t just dodge next time,” Kentaro hissed on which Taiga gave him a stunt expression.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t talk like this about your brother. I wouldn’t want anyone to talk like this about mine either,” Kentaro apologized, making Taiga laugh to his surprise.

“Don’t worry, Taisuke gets scolded by Mitsu and me often enough he could use scolding from other people as well.”

Kentaro focused back on the people on the training ground, trying to figure out what abilities they had. He spotted a few younger boys as well between them, but while he could see how some of them lifted stones around them and even stopped people’s movements others weren’t using any abilities and kept attacking with their bare fists or weapons.

“Wataru and Aran are Infirms,” Taiga explained before Kentaro could even ask. “They are our best fighters without abilities. I train with them sometimes as well, but Mitsu is too much of an overprotective brother and he won’t let me participate in the training with the Phenomenists.”

“So you are an Infirm as well?” Kentaro asked a bit surprised even though the boy hadn’t shown him any sign of being a Phenomenist.

“I am. The only one of us three, but well I am still young so who knows maybe one day I will also have some ability?” It wasn’t obvious if he wanted to become like his brothers or if he preferred it to stay as he was, but Kentaro wouldn’t judge him for either. “Anyway, the reason why I am usually not training with them is actually Taisuke. He is even worse than Mitsu and super bad at control so as soon as something goes wrong at the training he usually freaks and because that brings the others in danger I am staying away from his training.”

“Sounds like a lot of trouble,” Kentaro said this time with a light smile on which Taiga chuckled.

“Trust me this village is full of trouble makers.”

“Who are the others?” Kentaro asked, pointing down at the fighters on which Taiga pointed at a dark brown haired boy who was throwing fire towards Wataru. Even though Wataru had no powers to defend himself he dodged the fire blasts quite well and got easily into the reach of the boy.

“That is Fuma. He is super explosive with his blasts and if they hit it will be the last attack you will get hit by, but-”

Before Taiga could explain more, Fuma stumbled to the back after getting kicked in the stomach by Wataru. The kick didn’t seem too bad and usually he could just form another blast now to get out of his reach, but then he fell on one knee, obviously exhausted.

“He has no control over his abilities, so while he can use an impressive amount of strength before fainting, he will easily overdo it,” Taiga explained. “The other two boys down there are Myuto and Ryosuke, both of them use telekinesis and Ryosuke can also use power transfer, Fuma as well by the way.”

“Okay I really think someone needs to explain all the ability stuff to me later, because I feel like I don’t even know what I can do or what others can do,” Kentaro explained a bit embarrassed on which Taiga patted his shoulder.

“Watch out!”

Without even knowing what had happened both boys turned towards the training ground and a fire blast was suddenly coming towards them. Taiga yelped and stumbled to the back while Kentaro stepped intuitively to the front and raised his hands. The fire blast was already past the stream, but that didn’t stop Kentaro and he found a way to make the water form a wave to catch up to the fire, burying it under it right before it could actually hit them. The result was that both of them ended up being swallowed by the wave as well and after the first moment of surprise Taiga started laughing. “Nice safe!”

“Are you okay?” Myuto asked as he ran towards them. “Sorry I didn’t notice you were watching and redirected Taisuke’s blast.”

“It’s okay, sorry we shouldn’t have come by without letting you know,” Taiga said, but before Kentaro could also say something Taisuke was up next to them as well.

“What the hell were you thinking?” Taisuke yelled at them the moment he walked up to them.

“Sorry I was showing Kentaro around and-”

“Where is Massu?” Taisuke interrupted him.

“Back at the house, Nikaido was still sleeping so-”

Without waiting for any more explanations Taisuke suddenly grabbed Kentaro by the arm and wanted to drag him away from the training ground. “This is no place for you and I don’t want you to walk around without guards.”

Kentaro didn’t even know what to reply and he wasn’t planning on causing an uproar so he just let himself get dragged along, but suddenly Taiga jumped in between them, slashing his brother’s hand away and standing in front of Kentaro.

“Why don’t you just go back to training and leave him alone?” Taiga hissed at his brother. “As you can see, we are totally fine without you. I was showing him around, no need to get angry at him.”

“Fine then I get angry at you,” Taisuke hissed back. “I forbid you to be around him or his brother without anyone else.”

Taiga couldn’t hide an ironic chuckle on that. “Yeah right, because Kentaro is so damn dangerous. It was your fire blast that almost hit me right now, but Kentaro’s water which protected me, just so you know.”

“Guys could we just calm down a bit?” Myuto asked carefully on which he got hit by two death glares at once. “Well I was just suggesting…”

Without testing his luck too much Myuto retreated a bit and the other fighters also looked up to them, but looked more annoyed instead of wanting to interfere. It seemed like this sibling fight wasn’t something new for them.

“Anyways, you get back now!” Taisuke said and shoved Taiga out of the way to pull Kentaro away from the training ground. This time though he seemed so annoyed already that he actually hurt him with his tight grip and Kentaro let out a hiss, automatically trying to pull his wrist out of the other one’s grip.

“Stop struggling and keep moving,” Taisuke shouted, tightening his grip, but suddenly something changed and Kentaro felt a weird pain shooting up his arm to his chest and with a gasp he put his free hand up to his chest.

“Hands off my brother!”

The shouting came from the entrance of the training ground where Nikaido stormed down to them, followed by Massu. Taisuke rolled his eyes in annoyance not even realizing Kentaro’s condition as he let go of him and turned to Nikaido.

“What do you-”

He couldn’t end his sentence as Nikaido hit him straight in the face the moment he reached him on which Massu finally dashed towards them as well, already in between them before Taisuke could even think about freaking out, but the fire was already visible around his fists.

“Okay, time out, both of you!” Massu scolded them both.

“Hey, Kentaro, are you okay?” Taiga asked worriedly as the boy kept breathing heavily and leant to the front, his hand still clenched into his shirt over his chest.

“What did you do to him?” Nikaido shouted at Taisuke as he walked up to Kentaro and took a closer look at him. Kentaro reached out for him immediately, pulling himself into a hug as if this could somehow stop the weird pain.

“I’m sorry. Taiga was just showing me around,” Kentaro replied, out of breath as if he had been training with the others.

“We can discuss that later, what did happen that you are in pain?”

“I don’t know, everything was fine and then suddenly the pain shot through my arm to my chest.”

“Wait, let me see,” Massu said and Nikaido made space for him so he could have a closer look at him before he turned towards Taisuke instead. The latter wasn’t pleased by Massu’s scanning look and even less happy about the annoyed tongue clicking he let out seconds later.

“What?” Taisuke growled.

“Do you feel by any way totally refreshed as if you haven’t even trained right now?”

“What, why would I-” Taisuke started, but then he gasped, realizing that he was right and then he looked over to Kentaro. It was the first time they saw an apologizing look on his face.

“As I thought,” Massu said before he looked down at the other fighters. “Ryosuke, can you come up here for a moment?”

The boy in question came running immediately. A boy just a bit older than Kentaro and Taiga, gray eyes and light brown hair. A silver earring on his left ear was making him look like a person hard to approach, but his honest smile made that first impression change.

“So, as it seems, Taisuke has stolen some power from Kentaro,” Massu explained.

“Not on purpose though,” Taisuke added on which he got a glare from his little brother.

“Anyway, would you mind restoring it?” Massu continued.

“Sure, no problem,” the boy said, but when he stepped closer, Kentaro pulled himself back against Nikaido’s chest and his older brother looked a bit nervous at everyone around.

“Don’t worry, Ryosuke is the best when it comes to power transfer, he will make the pain stop,” Massu soothed them and Kentaro looked over his shoulder at Ryosuke who waited patiently for the boy to come to him. A bit hesitantly Kentaro finally stepped away from his brother and stretched his arm out to Ryosuke.

“The pain will be gone in no time, don’t worry,” Ryosuke promised and closed both of his hands around Kentaro’s hand and then without anything actually happening the pain was gone.

“Here you go,” Ryosuke said with a smile and stepped back as Nikaido took a closer look at his brother who didn’t seem to be in pain at all from one second to the other.

“Wow, that is a convenient ability,” Kentaro said.

“And a dangerous one when not used wisely,” Taiga added with a side glance to his brother on which Massu clapped his hands.

“Okay great so everything is finally back to normal. Taisuke, you go back to training, Taiga you come with us. No discussions!”

Luckily everyone seemed to respect Massu enough to really not discuss this any further and Nikaido didn’t even feel the need to apologize as he looked up at Taisuke, seeing how he would definitely carry a bruise on his cheekbone from his punch.

“He didn’t do it on purpose, let’s just leave,” Kentaro said as he realized his brother’s rising tension and luckily Nikaido turned without any mocking comment.

This time Kentaro felt even worse than the other times he had collapsed and a heavy headache made him groan and keep his eyes closed.

“Finally awake?”

On the sound of his brother’s voice Kentaro finally opened his eyes, finding himself in their hut and it was bright daylight outside so he had at least slept since the afternoon the day before.

“Please tell me that you didn’t get angry at Taisuke?”

Nikaido couldn’t hide a chuckle on that question and shook his head. “This is the first thing you worry about?”

“Well, I provoked him on purpose so it wouldn’t be fair to get angry at him.”

“Yeah, I heard everything from Hiromitsu, but please promise me to not be so reckless with your abilities from now on. I know you want to prove that you can keep up with them, but remember that your own ability could cause you harm as well.”

Kentaro felt embarrassed for causing trouble again while all he wanted was proving that he was in control of his ability, which reminded him that he wasn’t, because he couldn’t even remember how he had ended up with that shield of water around him. With an analyzing look he touched his own skin, but nothing seemed to have changed.

“I heard you used a technique Hiromitsu hasn’t seen until now,” Nikaido said with a proud undertone.

“I guess I did. I am not sure how though. It just felt right to do, well, nothing? And let the water do the rest? That sounds stupid, right?”

Nikaido shook his head when he got up and walked over to the fireplace to put in more wood as it was a pretty cold day now that the winter time was rushing towards their mountain.

“For an Infirm I guess it sounds weird indeed, but I know that you wouldn’t risk your life for some stupid training so I guess your ability might guide you more than you guide it?”

That was indeed a good explanation, because it was always like the water was telling him what he could do and not the other way around.

“For now, rest a bit more and let’s get dinner in the meeting hall later if you feel well enough? Wataru came by earlier telling me that they had a meeting with a small dinner together in the evening.”

That was some distraction he could definitely need and getting food sounded amazing to his empty stomach as well.

***

The meeting hall seemed like a building of the city instead of this village. Before the war they were all modern like this, but with limited sources it was understandable that they couldn’t actually build a whole village with heavy metal doors and strong stone walls.

The hall itself was just one big room with wooden tables and chairs spread over the place. In the front was a podium which was usually used when they were having meetings, but for now Nikaido and Kentaro hadn’t been part of any which was understandable after all they were still strangers to most of them.

Miyata greeted them on the way in and asked Kentaro how he was feeling. His impatient kids cut the conversation short as he was dragged away by them so they could finally eat.

“This reminds me of the camp side we used to go to,” Nikaido said with a faint smile.

“I remember bits and pieces of that time,” Kentaro replied. He had been too young to remember much from the peaceful times before the war and his memories of places and faces was only faint.

“Oh you came, great,” Hiromitsu greeted them.

“Thank you for inviting us,” Nikaido replied and followed Hiromitsu through the room as he walked towards a table where Wataru and Massu were sitting, but stopped before sitting down.

Kentaro wasn’t even surprised when Taiga showed up next to him and hooked his elbow into his. “Want to sit with us?”

Nikaido lifted an eyebrow at the sudden invitation which was obviously just meant for his little brother, but he realized soon that Hiromitsu nodded gratefully at Taiga.

“Nikaido, why don’t you join us and let the younger ones have some playtime?” Hiromitsu offered.

“We’re not that young,” Taiga complained, but dragged Kentaro after him anyway. “Here, sit down.”

Kentaro did as he was told as he was shoved on a bench next to Fuma and Taiga sat down on his other side. Opposite him Myuto and Aran were sitting, but they were eating in silence for now. Looking over his shoulder Kentaro spotted his brother having a talk with the village leader and the other older ones instead of having dinner first. He couldn’t hear them over the talking of all the people in the room, but he didn’t miss the short glances over to their table from time to time.

“Don’t bother, they always talk about the complicated things,” Fuma explained before he shoved a way too big bread in his mouth resulting in him coughing a few times before he was able to swallow it.

“I just wonder why my brother was called over for it?”

“To be honest I think it has something to do with the patrols,” Taiga explained, on which Taiga tilted his head in confusion. “Do you realize that some people are missing? Or were missing over some part of the day?”

Now that he took a look around he indeed realized that he couldn’t spot Ryosuke or Taisuke, as well as some of their other fighters he had met before.

“We usually send out people to patrol around our borders. Not every entrance to the village is blocked by something like the waterfall you came through,” Taiga explained.

“So not only Phenomenists are going on patrol?”

“There has to be at least one in the group, yes. We usually form groups of two or three members. For tonight Ryosuke and Taisuke are out with other fighters. There are quite a few points we have to check, but we cannot let every Phenomenist leave the village for such a long time, so we have to take the risk and leave some points open.”

“Sounds logical,” Kentaro said nodding.

“I am going tomorrow morning, maybe you can ask if you can join?” Fuma said. “I am with Massu so there is another spot open if you want to join?”

A disapproving hum came from the other side of the table and all eyes were on Aran. The boy didn’t even seem to feel caught and kept looking at Kentaro with an annoyed expression.

“Any complaints?” Fuma asked dangerously.

“Oh no of course not. Let a Phenomenist we don’t know anything about patrol our borders. Don’t be surprised though if he vanishes after seeing them all so that he can report back to the city.”

“And now he comes with his conspiracy theory again,” Fuma said and couldn’t from forming a mocking smile.

“Stop making fun of him,” Taiga interfered warningly. “Aran, we know you had a lot of trouble with Phenomenists before, but we didn’t judge you either when you came to us.”

Aran didn’t seem in any way getting calmer through that statement and he crossed his arms to his chest with a pouting expression.

“I don’t want to make things even worse, but can I ask something?” Kentaro dared to ask.

“Sure, what is it?” Taiga asked as open as always.

“Why would I as a Phenomenist report to any city?”

It was a valid question, because Phenomenists weren’t allowed in any city, but Aran had just made it sound like he was of the bad kind and with the people actually hunting them down.

“Why would I leave the city?” Aran asked back.

A moment of silence followed his question as Kentaro wasn’t sure if that was a rhetorical question or not.

“Aran thinks there are Phenomenists in the city teaming up with Infirms to get rid of those who don’t want to corporate,” Myuto finally spilled.

“I don’t think that I know it. I’ve seen them and exactly that is why I had to get away.”

“Teaming up with the enemy,” Kentaro let out in a low voice on which Aran seemed ready to explode, but Kentaro wasn’t actually making fun of him. “Doesn’t sound impossible.”

“Oh god, not you too,” Fuma said, rolling his eyes. “It’s enough when we have one idiot coming up with all those stories.”

It happened before anyone could react. Kentaro gasped, but Fuma didn’t even move.

The water which had stopped midair came out of Aran’s cup. Angry about getting made fun of all the time he had emptied it towards Fuma, but it hadn’t been Fuma using his ability as he could only use fire and power transfer.

“Oh no, did Myuto ruin all the fun for you?” Fuma teased, resulting in Aran slamming the cup back on the table, making some people turn towards them.

“One day you will all pay for not believing me,” Aran hissed before he stormed out of the meeting hall.

“Well, so much for a calm dinner,” Myuto said as he used the cup to catch the midair hanging water. When he got up no one stopped him or asked where he was going, but all Kentaro could do was staring forth and back between Fuma and Taiga in confusion.

“Okay, so do I get to know what is going on?”

“Never seen a quarrel before?” Fuma asked while he kept eating as if nothing had happened.

“Okay I might not know any of you that well, but this was completely awkward. You do believe him, don’t you?”

“Fast in catching up as always,” Taiga said with a smile. “Yes, we do, but it’s not like he has any names or locations. There are too many things he is just overly suspicious about. He said he has seen someone who got caught as a Phenomenist suddenly showing up with the soldiers one day. But he could never confirm that it was indeed the same person or if he was using any abilities.”

“And there is nothing we can do about it. He ran from the city, feeling trapped, but it’s not like we would easily go there to investigate,” Fuma added.

So there was indeed more to the story than just some friends teasing him about something which was actually quite logical.

“But he has Myuto to take care of him, so no worries,” Fuma added and shrugged his shoulders.

“But didn’t you say those two were troublemakers?”

“They are, but not towards each other,” Taiga said with a teasing smile, making Kentaro refrain from more questions.

***

Nikaido looked a bit worried over to the younger boys after Aran had stormed out the building followed by Myuto.

“Don’t mind them, that happens a lot,” Wataru soothed him.

“Back to the topic, what do you think?” Hiromitsu asked. The moment Hiromitsu had asked him if it was okay for him to send Kentaro out on a patrol his appetite had vanished.

“I don’t know. His ability is not that reliable yet, is it?”

“Well, it is pretty strong when he needs to protect himself or someone else, so as long as we don’t team him up with someone, he wouldn’t want to protect he should be completely fine,” Hiromitsu explained.

“And we would make sure to send at least two people with him at first and give him short patrols at daytime,” Massu added.

“Can’t I go with him?” Nikaido asked, but Wataru shook his head.

“We have a rule about family members not being allowed to go together, it’s just, you know, always a bit difficult with the judgment when you go with someone you care about too much.”

“We also watch out not to send out people together who have a too strong bond or can’t judge the situation right anymore if they are with a close friend,” Hiromitsu added.

“But someone like Taisuke seems to get emotional no matter who he is with? Aren’t you his best friend?” Nikaido asked after he had seen Taisuke with Wataru on a patrol before.

“Well, Taisuke is a special case, but most of the older ones were trained by the founders, so usually we’re all pretty good in judging the situation no matter who is with us.”

“The founders?” Nikaido asked.

“The village founders,” Massu explained. “They left the village in Hiromitsu’s care and traveled northwards about two years ago.”

“But there is nothing left northwards.”

“There are other Phenomenists,” Wataru said. “They try to find as many of them as possible. They created small communities to leave them with other leaders in the near future.”

Nikaido slowly nodded, but everyone was still looking at him and he finally let out a sigh. “Fine, he can patrol as soon as you think he is ready.”

Hiromitsu didn’t even ask what made him agree. Kentaro was fighting with Fuma over the last bread, while Taiga was laughing at them and cheering for Kentaro. It was definitely a bittersweet memory for Nikaido to see his little brother that lively.

“Great, I will make sure he stays safe,” Hiromitsu said.

“I have one condition though,” Nikaido said, making all three look at him. “You said he shouldn’t go with someone he didn’t want to protect.”

Hiromitsu understood immediately and nodded. “No worries I will make sure he is with the best people.”

“There is actually a second request we have,” Wataru suddenly said. Why didn’t he like the way they exchanged nervous looks on exactly that request? It was already the second time he felt like this and he feared that it would end the same way as before.

***

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Taisuke growled as they all met the next morning in the meeting hall to announce the new teams and he wasn’t the only one not happy about his team.

“Don’t think I am happy about this,” Nikaido replied with crossed arms to his chest.

“Then say you won’t go! Why are you and your brother part of the teams in the first place?” When Taisuke kept throwing his arms around as if he wanted to actually rip down the whole building, Hiromitsu stepped in between them. After all, Taisuke was known for a bad ability control so he could actually damage something or someone.

“This is a decision that has nothing to do with you, remember you were the one who said you don’t want any responsibility for the village, that is why you are not part of the council.”

Hiromitsu, Massu and Wataru were usually taking on the part of the council, while Taisuke had immediately said when they had formed it that he didn’t want to be part of it.

Taisuke pouted on all the scolding and crossed his arms to his chest making it hard for Taiga and Kentaro who were standing a bit in the back to not laugh at their older brothers as they looked exactly the same now. Both pissed and both behaving like children.

“And you are also okay with going out on patrol?” Taiga whispered towards Kentaro while Hiromitsu continued his scolding. Kentaro nodded, but couldn’t hide a nervous expression.

“If there is anything I can do for the village I want to try, even though I feel like I will be more of a burden at first.”

“Don’t worry, you have at least an ability, people usually complain when they have me on the team,” Taiga laughed off his weakness of fighting. “Not that I go often on patrols in the first place.”

“Okay everyone, listen up,” Hiromitsu finally said and everyone who was gathered stepped closer to the board in front where all their names and regions of the patrols were written down.

“We have two new members on our patrol teams, Nikaido and Kentaro,” Hiromitsu announced, but except for Taisuke no one seemed really annoyed by that announcement.

“So, to make it easier for them I will go through the basic explanation once more,” Hiromitsu said and gave Taisuke a warning look the moment he rolled his eyes. “We have three directions for patrols. Not more than three teams are allowed to go out at the same time so that we have enough people left at the village to protect it. The route itself can be chosen by the team. We have checkpoints like the waterfall which always need to be passed, but other than that the area around the district can be patrolled without a particular route, which is also to make sure that in the case someone spots someone on patrol they won’t be able to sneak around us because we are patrolling the same path every day.”

It made a lot of sense to Kentaro and he really wanted to know how the area around the village looked like. Until now he just knew the thick forest to the south.

“The most dangerous region to go is southwards, because the Eastern city is closest there. In the north there are no other cities left, so the north route is a spacious area, but usually the calmest. To the west the mountains aren’t as high and sometimes patrols from the city try to make their way northwards from there, so on that route you also have to watch out.”

Nikaido listened closely to everything, because no matter with whom he’d be out on patrol he would need to make sure he and the other people would stay safe.

“The team for the south will be Myuto, Massu and Fuma.”

“I get the chaos troop today,” Massu said with a sigh on which Fuma patted his back. “It’s okay I will make sure Myuto won’t be too annoying.”

Massu hit him on the back of his head on which Fuma pouted. “I am talking about you, idiot!”

Myuto couldn’t hide a chuckle, but Kentaro also didn’t necessarily want those two in his team for his first patrol.

“The north is going to Ryosuke, Kentaro and myself,” Hiromitsu announced. As it was already written on the board, they weren’t surprised, but earlier Taiga had explained that it was rare for Hiromitsu to leave the village in Wataru’s care, but because it was Kentaro’s first patrol he was obviously trying to make sure he’d be safe. After all, Ryosuke was one of their best Phenomenists and yet he joined as well.

“For the west route Nikaido and Taisuke will go.”

“Can’t you put someone else in the team? Even Aran would be fine,” Taisuke complained and Kentaro was sure that the ‘even Aran’ part would have made the boy freak, but luckily he wasn’t present. It was clear though that Myuto also didn’t like the way Taisuke talked about him and other Infirm most of the time, even though he was such good friends with Wataru.

“It’s enough if you get on the nerves of one person, trust me,” Wataru was the one to interfere. “Remember that the priority of any patrol is to come back safely. You don’t have to take any risks. All you need to do if you see soldiers from the city is to report back. If a fight is unpreventable make sure to protect each other.”

“As if he could even protect himself,” Taisuke growled, making Nikaido roll his eyes, but bit back a mocking comment about Taisuke’s bad ability control.

“Then off you go, be back before the sun reaches the peak of the mountain,” Hiromitsu warned them before they all got their bags with some proviant for the day.

“Be careful,” Nikaido said to his little brother and patted his shoulder. Kentaro gave him a faint smile and nodded.

“You too, and don’t rip each other apart,” Kentaro teased. Nikaido cracked a smile before he walked after Taisuke who was of course ready to leave without him if he didn’t hurry.

***

“Could you stop making this a competition?” Nikaido growled. Taisuke stopped so abruptly that Nikaido almost bumped into him.

“A competition? Against who, you?” Taisuke asked with a smirk. “You are an Infirm and not even good at fighting, there is no way you could ever compete against me.”

Nikaido rolled his eyes on that statement, but what else did he expect? “Whatever, just stop hurrying that much. I don’t think we need to dash through the forest like this, do we?”

They obviously didn’t have to, but Taisuke wanted to get over with their patrol as fast as possible. Without giving a reply Taisuke kept moving, but this time he finally started walking slower which made it easier for Nikaido to keep up with him. After all he didn’t know the surroundings and needed to watch out where to step to not stumble.

After a few more minutes in silence, they had reached a steep hillside with a pretty fast flowing river, meters under them.

“This is where we usually turn around,” Taisuke said, sounding pretty happy about half of the patrol being over. “There is no way to the other side, so all we do is check a bit up and down the river if anyone tried to somehow get over, but to be honest it’s almost impossible.”

“Well almost is still a good reason to check,” Nikaido said and he didn’t miss Taisuke’s annoyed look before he started moving alongside the river.

“Does each patrol route have something like this river or the waterfall we came though?” Nikaido asked as the silence started annoying him. It wasn’t like he liked small talk, especially with Taisuke, but there was also no reason to keep this moody atmosphere between them.

“It’s not like our village is inaccessible from all directions, that’s why we have patrols. You would have known that if you listened to Hiromitsu in the morning,” Taisuke started an almost normal conversation for once in a while with just a bit of cynic behavior. “We have our turn around spots, but especially from the south it’s always possible that some troops from the city could make it through the mountains without us noticing that’s why the south patrol is the most important one, towards the east side the cliff of the waterfall unfolds to a depth that it is impossible to access the village from the east, that is why don’t patrol much over there.”

Nikaido nodded on hearing that, because it made sense. Nikaido and Kentaro had made it through a part usually not taken by Infirm, so they wouldn’t check it as much as easier accessible paths.

“Did anyone from the city ever make it to your village? I mean those who didn’t seek shelter.”

The way Taisuke’s look darkened showed that he had understood the question the right way.

“There were, a long time ago,” Taisuke said, then he fell silent.

Nikaido knew this was already more information than Taisuke would usually give price towards an outsider. There was no meaning in trying to make him talk about it if he didn’t trust him. A few more minutes they walked in silence next to the river until Taisuke stopped.

“I guess we can head back towards the village from here.”

Nikaido nodded, already turning around, but when he realized that Taisuke wasn’t following him he waited. The older one was facing the river, his hands slightly clenched to fists.

“I want to make this clear,” he suddenly started, but didn’t turn around. “I don’t hate you or your brother. I have no personal grudge against any of you. But I trusted someone before and in the end I got betrayed, that leaves a lot of scars.”

There was nothing Nikaido could reply. It had been the most honest thing Taisuke had told him so far. It made him feel somehow relieved to see that he can actually show a weak side as well.

***

“Don’t be so concentrated all the time,” Ryosuke said and patted Kentaro’s shoulder on which he slightly flinched. “Look, you are way too tense for a patrol.”

“But aren’t we supposed to watch out for attacks and people sneaking around?”

Ryosuke couldn’t hide his laughter when Hiromitsu turned towards them, but then just kept moving with a smile.

“First, we have the northern route so not much to worry about, second even if someone is around, Hiromitsu would notice that before you could even decide if it’s a friend or foe.”

Ryosuke sounded pretty convinced by his own words, but no matter how awesome all their abilities were he still feared that if they didn’t watch out it could be a fatal mistake sooner or later.

“Okay, here let me distract you,” Ryosuke said and took his arm without a warning.

“Hey,” Kentaro said and ripped his arm out of his grip. “Why would you steal my abilities on a patrol?”

“Oh, you realized that fast,” Ryosuke said impressed. “I didn’t even have the time to get much of them.”

Kentaro kept pouting for a few more steps until they reached a part where they had to climb up a small stone area. Hiromitsu was waiting on top of it already and when Kentaro made it to the top without problems he finally raised an eyebrow.

“Oh, seems like someone learned a bit more about Power transfer?” Hiromitsu asked as Kentaro looked confused at his own hands.

“Why am I not feeling exhausted? The last time Taisuke accidently took my abilities I felt like collapsing.”

“That’s because Taisuke’s power transfer sucks and mine doesn’t,” Ryosuke said, Hiromitsu hitting him on the back of the head.

“You just learn quicker than him and now keep a look around, would you?”

Ryosuke hurried to the front of their group while Hiromitsu stayed with Kentaro this time.

“Taisuke can’t control his abilities well, so when he uses his power transfer it’s usually connected to his emotions which drags along the energy of the person together with the ability.

“But wait, does that mean you can drag actual life energy out of a human? Is that working with Infirm as well?”

It didn’t seem like Hiromitsu had heard this question for the first time, but he also didn’t seem to like answering it.

“You know when we train, we try not to hurt each other, but especially because we have Infirm training with us, accidents happen and sometimes they actually help us to learn more about our abilities.”

“So, you can actually draw energy from an Infirm, not just abilities from Phenomenists?” Kentaro asked directly this time and Hiromitsu had no other choice, but to nod.

“Yes, it is possible. It was Taisuke who did it by accident, but only Phenomenists with good power transfer control can actually divide if they want to draw energy or an ability.”

“So maybe it’s difficult for fire users, because they are hot headed?” Kentaro asked with a small smile on which Hiromitsu chuckled.

“That could be actually true,” Hiromitsu said.

Kentaro suddenly stopped as he got distracted and he tried to put a finger on what he was sensing. Why was he sensing something in the first place? Maybe it was a side effect through Ryosuke taking some of his abilities? Even when he stopped walking, Hiromitsu didn’t even seem to realize that something was wrong or was there even something wrong? Something made him turn his attention towards the western side of the patrol area.

“Kentaro, all good?” Ryosuke asked from the front on which Hiromitsu also finally stopped and turned.

There was no time to reply, because the ground was suddenly shaking and they all gasped as they saw half a mountainside collapse towards the west.

“What the hell?” Ryosuke asked in shock while Hiromitsu was already walking back towards Kentaro, but the boy wasn’t waiting for him. This was definitely no coincidence as the collapsed mountainside was on Nikaido and Taisuke’s patrol path.

Nikaido and Taisuke headed back over a pretty hard to walk on hillside and the neutral mood from before got slowly replaced by Taisuke's annoyed sighs each time he had to wait for Nikaido to keep up with him.

"If you don't want to wait it's fine," Nikaido said as he caught up. "I am just not used to walking on such dangerous steep sides of a mountain."

It wasn't in any way meant to sound offensive, but as always Taisuke's short temper made it hard for him to see it as calm as Nikaido.

"If I leave you behind I will get scolded and if you get hurt I also get scolded and here I was happy when Taiga was finally old enough to take care of himself."

"Are you comparing me to a child?" Nikaido asked irritated this time.

"Well, not much of a difference right now, is there? Newbies especially Infirms are always kind of slow."

"My apologies for not being as awesome as my brother," Nikaido snorted before he passed by Taisuke with fast steps and hit his shoulder against the other one on purpose.

"Would you at least make sure not to hurt yourself?" Taisuke asked as he followed. "Hey, I asked you something!"

Not even bothering turning around, Nikaido lifted his hand over his shoulder and flipped the other one off.

"Look, now that behavior is indeed pretty childish."

This time Nikaido had enough and he swirled around, taking Taisuke by full surprise as he grabbed him by the collar. "Why is it that you just have two moods? Freaking out about every little thing or playing victim?"

"Excuse me what? You don't really have an awesome emotional range either!"

With the next move Nikaido shoved the other one to the back and clicked his tongue. "At least I know how to act human."

It had sounded way worse than he had intended it to, but the damage had already been done. Taisuke's look darkened immediately and he dashed forward punching Nikaido so hard that the latter stumbled to the back and hurt his leg on a sharp rock.

"Say that again and I'll kill you!"

"Right, because you can easily do that," Nikaido mocked him before he tried to land a punch as well, but while Taisuke had thought Nikaido was an easy opponent he was taken off guard when Nikaido moved faster than expected and used the punch only for distraction before he landed a harsh kick on Taisuke’s ribs.

"Don't challenge your luck!" Taisuke growled as he didn’t back out this easily and eventually Nikaido grabbed Taisuke's arm after another attempt to punch and pulled him closer by the hair. "Try me."

A dangerous challenge for sure and with the next punch fire spread between them, Nikaido falling back with a yelp. Instead of feeling guilty though, Taisuke walked up to Nikaido and stood above him, lifting him up by the collar. "I have no problem getting rid of you if you become a threat to us."

The fire dancing around his raised fist was definitely proof enough of that, but Nikaido grabbed his wrist and pulled his arm away. "Don't talk so high and mighty. A fight is always between two after all! Maybe this attitude is why you got betrayed?"

Taisuke lunged out immediately, but Nikaido was still holding on to Taisuke's wrist so that he was able to bring the latter out of balance before he could cause any damage. When he had brought him to fall he sat on top of him and gave him a harsh punch which, judging by the sound, might have broken Taisuke's cheekbone.

Taisuke caught the other one’s wrist on his next try to punch him.

"You leave me no other choice," Taisuke hissed before he used his power transfer to drag enough energy from Nikaido so that he wouldn't be able to fight anymore.

"As If I'd let you!" Nikaido roared and tried to rip himself out of the other one's grip. "LET GO!"

When he couldn't break free and felt how he was about to collapse there was a change. It wasn't clear if it was Taisuke who had done something or not, but everything seemed to go reverse and the next second Taisuke's eyes widened as he also realized that something was off. The touch of Taisuke's hand burned like fire and with a yelp Taisuke was the one to let go, holding his hand in pain. "What did you do?"

But Nikaido didn't do anything, did he? His body felt like burning up though and his breaths got heavier and erratic.

When Taisuke tried to walk up to him he lifted his hand. "Don't come closer!" And he wouldn't be able to, because as impossible as it seemed with that hand movement a fire blast was released towards Taisuke who had to jump out of the way.

"What the hell?" Taisuke said in confusion while Nikaido was more in panic than just confused. He looked at his hands in sheer horror. He wasn't a Phenomenist. He was too old to even become one and those abilities didn't feel like his at all.

"I can't control them," Nikaido said in panic towards Taisuke who looked as lost as him. With a pained yelp Nikaido fell to his knees, folding in two through the sharp pain the ability inside of him caused.

"Release them!" Taisuke shouted, still not daring to get closer. "Let them break free, it might be the only chance to get rid of them."

Nikaido turned his head towards Taisuke with an unsure expression and for the first time Taisuke seemed to be able to read the atmosphere. "Don't worry I will make sure to get you back to the village. The abilities won't kill you as long as you get them out."

That was at least his theory. Something like this had never happened before, of course Nikaido could die and he would if he didn't get rid of the fire ability which didn't belong to him.

"Get out of reach," Nikaido hissed in between his painful gasps and Taisuke couldn't suppress an ironic chuckle.

"A minute ago we were ready to kill each other and by the way those abilities are mine so there is no way I'll let them kill me."

He had a point there and Nikaido had no more time to argue. With a deep breath he dared to spread his arms and the pain of the fire getting released made him feel like his body was getting ripped into half. He had his eyes closed, only hearing the fire blasts cutting through the rocks around him. Even his own screams were not audible between the sound of the cracking rocks and then the ground right underneath him gave in.

***

“How did this happen?”

“I don’t know!”

“Okay, let me rephrase this. What happened that you two ended up in such a mess?” Hiromitsu asked.

Things had gone terribly wrong from the moment Nikaido had released the fire which had threatened to kill him. In the end the whole hillside they had been on had collapsed and Taisuke had to use the rest of his strength to somehow keep them both protected from falling rocks and collapsing trees. End of the story was that Hiromitsu and the others had to dash over to their patrol path and luckily found them to bring them back to the village.

While Nikaido was still asleep, Miyata taking care of him, Taisuke had woken up after a few hours.

Now Massu, Wataru, Hiromitsu and Taisuke were at the meeting hall not allowing anyone else in for now. They needed to know what was going on first before the whole village would actually start panicking.

“I- we had a fight,” Taisuke finally started, leaning to the back.

“Well, we could have guessed that,” Wataru said resting his elbows on the table. “And?”

Taisuke remained silent on that question and looked nervously over to his older brother who was already guessing a lot through just that behavior.

“Taisuke, spill it. We already know you messed up, but for now we need to know what happened, because we don’t even know yet if Nikaido will recover. Miyata said that he is in the same state as a Phenomenist who used his abilities too much.”

“He did use abilities that’s the reason,” Taisuke replied, knowing already that everyone would give him disbelieving looks.

“How’s that?” Massu asked with a raised eyebrow.

“They were my abilities, I guess…” Taisuke replied and as much as he would like to skip details he knew the questioning wouldn’t stop before they knew everything, so he retold the whole story, leaving them all staring at him in disbelief.

“So wait, you tried to draw out his energy and somehow Nikaido stole your abilities instead?” Wataru tried to understand what he had just been told.

“Pretty much yeah,” Taisuke said.

Hiromitsu had drifted off in a thoughtful state, but who were they kidding? None of them had any clue how this had happened.

“I know I told you not to use your abilities on Infirm if it’s not an enemy,” Hiromitsu started on which Taisuke sank more into the chair. “On the other hand, now that this happened, I need to make sure if this has something to do with you and your power transfer or if for example Fuma can do this too.”

“Oh god please not Fuma, who knows what will happen if someone gets his abilities? Taisuke’s abilities almost killed Nikaido, imagine what Fuma could do to an Infirm?” Massu let out. Taisuke was out of control, but Fuma’s abilities were extremely destructive as well.

“Exactly, that is why we need to know. Wataru, I have a request,” Hiromitsu said. “Would you mind trying the same power transfer with Taisuke?”

“Are you out of your mind?” Taisuke shouted, jumping up. “This was an accident, why would I do something like this to a friend?”

“Then what if it’s the next random person you get into a fight with? What if it’s Taiga?” Hiromitsu replied seriously and on the mention of their little brother, Taisuke finally fell silent.

“Don’t worry, now that you told us what happened I know at least that if it works all I have to do is to get the fire out. But maybe we should try this outside?”

“To be honest I fear this won’t work,” Taisuke interfered. “Nikaido realized what I was up to so he tried to stop me and I guess that is how this whole mess started. Even if we fake such a situation, I doubt it will work.”

***

Kentaro shifted nervously on the chair next to his brother's bed, but while Taisuke had been up without any problems earlier already there was no sign of his brother waking up so far.

"Don't worry if it's really like Miyata said then he will wake up eventually," Taiga tried to sooth him.

"But he isn't a Phenomenist so what if he can't heal?" Kentaro asked worriedly and there was no way Taiga, who was sitting at the other side of the bed in one of the wooden chairs, could take away that worry.

"I really hoped they could get along for a few hours. Guess we can't let them go on patrol again," Kentaro said with a sigh and fell back against the backrest.

"Or now we can finally let them go without worrying?"

Taiga's question made Kentaro tilt his head. "I mean think about it. Putting those two right away on a patrol was the best and worst idea at the same time."

Kentaro didn't really understand that logic on which Taiga tried to explain himself. "Mitsu let them go together even though he knew the worst could happen and it did. So what else could happen from now on if we let them go together?"

Finally Kentaro caught up to the younger one's thoughts and he nodded slowly.

"Well, I guess whatever happened made them learn their lesson?"

Taiga couldn't from smiling, because he thought exactly the same. They were all sure that there had been no attack even though they didn't know the details yet.

"Maybe from now on they will even get along better?" Taiga asked, making Kentaro chuckle.

The next moment their attention was drawn to Nikaido though as the latter finally moved.

"Are you awake?" Kentaro asked right away and jumped up from his chair.

It took a moment for Nikaido to move again and open his eyes. He looked pretty disoriented and who could blame him?

"You're in Miyata's hut. We brought you back," Kentaro explained.

Nikaido tried to sit up and Taiga moved to help him. When Kentaro reached out for his brother's arm as well Nikaido shifted a bit away. "It's okay."

"Do you remember what happened?" Taiga asked on which Nikaido took a moment to gather his thoughts before he gave a side glance to his little brother who seemed still way too worried.

"Not completely, but-" he raised his hands looking at them as if he feared for the same thing to happen again, but there was nothing. They were just his hands, his body also feeling completely normal.

"Where's Taisuke?" He asked instead of explaining more.

"He woke up a bit before you and is with Hiromitsu and the others," Taiga explained.

"You should rest some more," Kentaro said and reached out for his brother's hand. The emotion visible on his face when Nikaido pulled away was something Nikaido never wanted to cause, but for now he had to be careful.

"Do you remember why both of you passed out?" Taiga asked, trying to ignore the weird atmosphere.

"I am not sure. When we…" Nikaido's thoughts drifted off to the fight they had and he bit his lip. He was at fault for a lot of what had happened. And maybe it was better to let everyone know so that they could make sure it wouldn't happen to them. "When Taisuke-"

"When I lost control over my abilities in our fight, Nikaido tried to stop me from shredding the hillside into pieces, but he got caught up in my attacks. After that the hillside crumbled and I somehow tried to get us both away from the falling rocks. End of story, you're satisfied now?"

Taisuke’s sudden appearance in the room had them all turn to the door. Taisuke was leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed with the same annoyed expression as always.

“But that doesn’t explain-”

“Kentaro, why don’t we let your brother rest for a bit longer?” Taiga interrupted him and already walked away from the bed.

Kentaro gave him a confused look and then turned to his brother who nodded. “Don’t worry it’s not like I will go anywhere and you can come back later to check up on me.”

There was nothing else Kentaro could say, because all eyes were on him, waiting for him to leave. On his way out he gave Taisuke a side glance, but Taiga grabbed him by the wrist and pulled him out of Miyata’s hut before he could actually start any argument.

“Were you seriously planning on telling them the truth?” Taisuke asked as he shut the door and walked up to the bed, but didn’t sit down. Instead he leaned his back against the wall and gave Nikaido a scolding look.

“They are our brothers, why should we lie to them?”

“Did you think one second about how they will react?” Taisuke asked.

“It’s not like we even know what happened,” Nikaido hissed back, still feeling too exhausted to actually have another argument now.

“Exactly! So imagine me telling Taiga ‘oh by the way I might blow you up with my abilities the next time we have an argument and I touch you.”

Nikaido was ready to counter that they needed to trust each other, but then he remained silent and clenched his hands. Hadn’t he just done the same in reverse minutes ago? Nothing was clear yet, maybe it had something to do with Taisuke’s abilities or it was something about Nikaido, but exactly because he didn’t know he had kept his own brother away from him. Not because he was afraid of hurting him, but of getting hurt himself by another Phenomenist.

“Then what did you tell the others?” Nikaido asked after he got a grip again.

“Hiromitsu, Massu and Wataru know the truth, because there is no way I can hide this from them, but as expected we won’t easily figure out what happened. We just tried it with Wataru and as I thought nothing happened.”

“You tried to do this to your best friend?” Nikaido asked shocked, because no matter how much they don’t get along, he always saw Taisuke as a pretty protective person when it was about family and friends.

“Trust me I didn’t want to, but Hiromitsu insisted and Wataru said it was okay. In the end nothing happened though, because honestly I think this is something that can only happen when things are heated up on both sides.”

Which reminded Nikaido of their argument before everything escalated and he felt like crawling under his covers and hide. “You know at our argument, I didn’t realize how bad what I said sounded until I had already said it.”

Taisuke knew of course what part he was talking about, but he just shrugged his shoulders. “It’s not like you are the only Infirm out there saying stuff like that.”

“And that’s exactly what I didn’t want to say with it!” Nikaido interrupted him. “I know it totally sounded like a stupid Infirm judging a Phenomenist, but that’s not it. I love my brother over everything in the world and that didn’t change at all when he turned and I don’t judge people by who they are in matters of Infirm and Phenomenist. But... I judge people when they are assholes.”

At first Taisuke remained silent, then he slowly nodded and finally he looked up at the other one with wide eyes. “What?”

Without being able to help it, Nikaido bursted out laughing. Never had he expected Taisuke to show such a hilarious reaction. If he had caught up to what he had said immediately he would have definitely stormed out of the room or started another argument, but now all he could do was look super embarrassed.

With Nikaido finally getting in control of his laughter again Taisuke hawked and walked away from the wall. “Well, better an asshole than an inhuman monster I guess.”

“You definitely just showed the most human-like reaction there is,” Nikaido teased while Taisuke had already walked up to the door, not turning around to face him. “Thank you Taisuke and I am sorry.”

First there was just silence, but then Taisuke turned his head just a bit. “Be happy that your punch didn’t break my cheekbone or I wouldn’t accept that apology.”

Not waiting for a reply Taisuke left the room and even though Nikaido still had a faint smile on his face it faded slowly after that.

They had messed up big time and he had started the worst part of it and never again did he want to hurt someone’s feelings that bad just because they weren’t getting along. Now the question was just if they could change the tension between them.

***

“Where are we going?” Kentaro asked when Taiga dragged him not just out of the hut, but away from the village.

“You’ll see,” Taiga said with a smile as he finally let go of the other one, knowing he wouldn’t try to get back to his brother.

“Do you think they will be okay?” Kentaro asked after a few more moments of silence in which Taiga hummed and looked up to the sky.

“Usually my brother has just two moods. Either he becomes friends with you immediately or he will forever hate you.”

That didn’t sound like a positive reply and Kentaro let out a sigh on which Taiga patted his shoulder. “But don’t worry, I have the feeling this time it might be different.”

“Which part? Can he actually go from hating someone to wanting to kill that person?”

“Wow that pessimistic view is something you should be careful with, your abilities could suffer under it, you know?”

No, he didn’t know that, but that was his smallest problem.

“By the way, we are here,” Taiga finally announced after they had left the training ground behind them and reached a pretty huge rock, which was cracked at several parts.

“Did you use this for training as well?” Kentaro asked as Taiga already started climbing it and waved at Kentaro to follow him.

“Actually, this one is Taisuke’s fault,” Taiga replied with a chuckle as he sat down right at the center of the narrow top. The rock was several meters high so Kentaro took his time to climb after him to not fall.

“He blew it up?” Kentaro asked not even surprised.

“More or less yes. But as you can see it’s not like the usual damage his fire blasts would cause.”

After sitting down next to Taiga, Kentaro took a closer look and the cracks were indeed not what he would say was caused by a fire blast.

“The day this happened was a pretty dark one for all of us and with that day it started that Taisuke doubted people’s intentions.”

Kentaro replied with a nod in silence, because he didn’t miss the way Taiga’s expression turned serious.

“A friend betrayed him or more all of us and since then it had become hard for him to accept new people. Those who came after the betrayal were Myuto, Aran and Ryosuke, the others had been here before. It was really complicated at first to integrate Aran into the village.”

“Is the friend who betrayed you an Infirm?”

“He was an Infirm when he arrived. He then turned into a Phenomenist, but he talked about fellow Phenomenists as if they were monsters. Things started to get weirder when he wanted to convince them all to not use their abilities and then one day he actually asked Taisuke to go with him to the city to put an end to their misery.”

That was a pretty dark and also confusing story and Kentaro could understand how hard it would be for someone to trust others again after that, but there was definitely more to the story Taiga didn’t feel comfortable talking about yet. Other Phenomenists were also definitely hard to accept since then, but the chances to have Infirm coming from any city was also always there so letting people like Aran or also Nikaido and Kentaro stay was definitely always a risky decision.

“How sure are you that you can trust everyone in the village?” Kentaro dared to ask as he looked back at the small village with just a few lid fires in the tiny huts visible.

“Not sure at all,” Taiga replied honestly. “We were all like a family over all those years until that happening. It’s not like it happened from one day to the other and Taisuke had tried so much to stop him from, well, seeing them as monsters? But now he has shut himself out from personal feelings, all he can feel is rage. Putting effort into something or even someone just to get betrayed in the end is something he never wants to do again.”

It was understandable and yet it sounded like a really empty life, even though he had his siblings and close friends to support him.

“But who knows maybe this time he can finally put at least a tiny bit of trust in someone again?” Taiga asked with a small smile. Kentaro gave him a nod, because he really hoped that his brother was worth putting his trust into even though they started on really bad terms.

“Oh look,” Taiga said and pointed towards the sky. Kentaro followed his look, but didn’t find anything but the clear night sky. But after a few seconds he gasped.

“Shooting stars?”

“You didn’t really see any from the eastern city, did you?” Taiga asked now lying back on the rock to watch the beautiful night sky spectacle. Kentaro shook his head before he leant back and rested on his elbows on the rock to be able to look up better. “The city usually doesn’t even give a clear view of the sky with all the smoke the factories shoot into the air and to be honest there was no time to even think about something like watching the stars.”

“Lucky that you can do it now, because it is worth all your time,” Taiga said.

They remained silent for a while, both in their own thoughts while watching a few more shooting stars come and disappear in the same second. Their life seemed to change as fast as those shooting stars were disappearing. Each star bringing something new, good or bad wasn’t decided yet. After all the trouble in the first days in the village they had now finally made it to a point where people started trusting them more, but as Taiga had said they couldn’t be sure about anyone and who knew if they had to face another betrayal or an attack from the city at some point. So for now watching the night sky in this calm night really seemed like a privilege and he would enjoy every second of it.

“Are you sure that you don’t need more rest?”

“Kentaro stop nagging, I am fine,” Nikaido assured him again. The day before he had indeed felt drained of all energy and yet he understood way better now how his brother and the others must feel after using their abilities.

When his brother looked a little bit down after the scolding he stopped and sighed before turning towards him and patted his shoulder. “I know you are still worried and I promise you that I will talk to Hiromitsu and the others later and see if we can find out what it was and if it will affect me from now on, okay?”

Immediately a small smile formed on Kentaro’s lips as he nodded. It was important to him after all that Nikaido wouldn’t take things too lightly. Whatever had brought that weird power transfer had split half a mountain apart, so who knew what could happen next time if they weren’t careful.

“You are late,” Fuma scolded Kentaro as he threw a fork towards his direction and Kentaro caught it with an apologizing smile. Fuma gave Nikaido a scanning look, but didn’t comment on anything before he waved Kentaro over to help with the field work.

Nikaido also got ready to help out when he spotted Taisuke carrying two bags of harvested grains. A few steps later one of the bags slipped from his shoulder and Nikaido automatically made a step to the front, but then he halted. Too many thoughts were bothering him. Not just about how he felt about the situation, but also how Taisuke felt about it. Then he shook his head, scolding himself before he started walking towards the other one.

“Let me carry it,” Nikaido said as he grabbed the bag before Taisuke could try and get it up while balancing the second one still on his shoulder. First Taisuke gave the other one a confused expression, eyes a bit too wide to even call it confused, more like shocked and it made Nikaido feel a bit uncomfortable, but he still lifted the bag up and threw it over his shoulder.

Taisuke needed a moment to move and he tried to keep his expression neutral as he kept walking next to Nikaido. They didn’t talk while putting the grain bags into the storage room, but when Taisuke handed his bag to him and Nikaido accidently touched his hand, Taisuke pulled away immediately, letting the bag drop to the ground.

Both kept staring at the bag, a weird silence spreading between them as they gave each other doubtful looks.

“We really need to do something about this,” Nikaido finally said and while it wasn’t clear at first if Taisuke even wanted to bother he actually nodded after a moment.

“But I don’t know what to do,” Taisuke let out in a low voice.

“It’s because you usually go head first through every possible wall to solve things,” Nikaido explained and Taisuke didn’t even get angry, showing that he indeed felt troubled. “But luckily I know what we can do.”

Taisuke gave him a skeptical look on the other one’s confident smile, but for now he would try almost everything if it meant he could keep the people around him safe, especially Taiga.

***

“Is that a good or bad sign?” Ryosuke asked as some of them had already gathered for the afternoon training as he spotted Taisuke and Nikaido walking down towards them.

“Well, they are not yelling at each other so I think we’re safe?” Myuto laughed.

Taisuke walked up right to Wataru who already gave him a knowing look.

"We'll train together," Taisuke said straight forward and pointed at Nikaido. "But I need to ask a favor for that."

"Let me guess you want to train with Nikaido, but because you know whatever happened before won't work without a real threat you need the others to help you out, but you don't want to put them in danger."

Of course his friend had already understood his request and while Taisuke still looked unsure about his own idea, Wataru waved some of them over.

"We actually already discussed this as I thought you'd sooner or later come and ask. Massu and Ryosuke will train with you."

"And I will as well."

Taisuke turned around and immediately shook his head when Hiromitsu walked up to them.

"You know that I won't fight seriously against you," Taisuke said.

"Don't worry about that, trust me I will make you fight for your life if needed," Hiromitsu said and his serious look showed that he wasn't in any way joking.

"Leave the training of the others to me. You go and do whatever it takes to find out what happened."

Nikaido also gratefully nodded at everyone's support, but he was also as nervous as Taisuke, because he feared things would escalate again. But if they wanted to know if it could happen again they needed to try. Especially because Miyata had explained that maybe, just a tiny maybe, Nikaido could control those abilities, but they had to test it the hard way if they wanted to find out. If he succeeded then that could mean that whatever was going on didn’t just come from Taisuke, but made Nikaido somehow a Phenomenist as well. A passive unknown type until now, without any direct active abilities.

"Okay, then let's start. You get five minutes."

"Five minutes for what?" Nikaido asked with a raised eyebrow at Hiromitsu.

"To run," Massu explained.

"And then we will hunt you down and trust me when I say we'll all go for real after you. Better put your mind on enemy mode, because this is no game," Hiromitsu added seriously. They had decided on this method to make it realistic for them and to also keep them away from the village.

Nikaido gave Taisuke an unsure look, but then the older one nodded. "Fine, then come at us like we're your enemies, but I can't guarantee that the same thing won't accidentally happen to you."

"That's why we try this, right?" Ryosuke said with a challenging smile.

Nikaido wondered for a moment if it wasn't better to have Nikaido fight against him and not have him on the same team as the first time the power transfer happened was when they had a fight and this time all their opponents were Phenomenists, but maybe this was the safest start for them all.

"What is going on?" Kentaro was heard when he came running towards the training ground with Taiga when they saw everyone gathered.

"We're going to do a training exercise outside the village. Don't worry, we'll be back by nightfall," Nikaido explained and no one added any more details even though Kentaro looked more than skeptical.

"We'll take care of them," Hiromitsu said and put his hand on Kentaro's shoulder.

"Five minutes from now," Massu said and Taisuke gave Hiromitsu another brief look before he told Nikaido to follow him towards the forest.

"This is more than just a harmless training exercise, isn't it?" Taiga asked his older brother, making sure that Kentaro wouldn't hear them.

"It's Taisuke's request and I promise we'll bring them back in the evening."

"Bring them back, so chances are high that they can't walk back on their own. You know that Kentaro will scold you big time if you hurt Nikaido right after that recent incident."

"It's exactly because of what happened that we need to find out more about it, but don't you think it's better to get the backlash from Kentaro later than now?" Hiromitsu asked with a smile and Taiga sighed, but then nodded.

"Fine, but make sure to apologize to him later if his brother really gets hurt. I already guessed that you’re hiding something from us, but at least take responsibility for it."

"So you're not worried for your own brothers?" Hiromitsu teased.

"Taisuke always gets hurt and I doubt I ever have to worry about you," Taiga said when Massu told them to start following the other two. When Hiromitsu turned away, Taiga grabbed him by the sleeve. "But still, don't overdo it, okay?"

Hiromitsu gave him a small chuckle on that reaction and ruffled through his hair. "Don't worry, we're a tough family, right?"

Taiga looked after them with a troubled expression, but when he saw how Kentaro tried to play down his worries too as he had definitely realized that they were keeping secrets from him, Taiga pushed him towards Aran and Myuto.

"Let's train? Now that all the troublemakers are out of the village, we can for once train without accidents."

"And all the focus will be on you, so don't think this will be easy training," Wataru said from the side with a lopsided smile.

***

"Slow down," Nikaido finally said when Taisuke kept jumping up some steep rock side.

"They will immediately find us if we don't hurry."

"It's not like we're playing hide and seek. How about we make a plan about where to hide so we can try to attack them first?"

Nikaido's idea was good, but Taisuke was bad at teamwork, but what was new?

“That’s easier said than done and you’re not really of much help when fighting.”

"If you want to pick another fight go ahead, then we'll just end up like last time," Nikaido said and that actually changed the older one's expression.

"Fine, then let's look for a higher ground and we need to put a fake track, but Mitsu is really good at realizing stuff like that so maybe two fake tracks are better. One obvious one and one that seems like we tried to hide it."

"Great, you do that and I'll try to find a good hiding spot," Nikaido said and kept walking up to the highest point of the rocky surface from where a waterfall was visible from a steep cliff they couldn't possibly climb.

"I warn you all the people who are after us won't show us any mercy. With us accepting this training we have to be ready for a real fight. Don't come crying because you broke something," Taisuke reminded him while he started with the fake track.

Nikaido only rolled his eyes while he kept looking for a good hiding place.

"They can sense you, right?" Nikaido asked when Taisuke came back to create the second fake trail.

"It's not like we can sense a direct location, but we know when Phenomenists are around."

"That's how Kentaro was drawn to your village," Nikaido realized. "But won't they realize then when they go on the fake trail?"

"They might," Taisuke said and then turned around, obviously realizing that the others were catching up. "But there is a way to confuse them."

"What way?"

Nikaido regretted his question the moment Taisuke looked back at him with a teasing smile and suddenly pushed him to the back. The waterfall was next to them and the rocks they were standing on ended on a steep end, under it the river flowing at a slow pace.

What Taisuke obviously hadn't seen coming though was Nikaido reaching out for the front of his shirt at the last second and pulling him down with him into the river.

"How often do you want to try and kill me?" Nikaido yelled as they both broke through the surface again.

In reply Taisuke shoved some water into the other one's face. "A fall into water won't kill you."

Nikaido growled at that comment, but Taisuke grabbed his arm and pulled him towards the waterfall. "Hurry, they are almost here."

"We can't even fight down here," Nikaido complained, but followed Taisuke towards the waterfall where they dived under it and found a small hiding spot in the water on the other side.

"We don't need to fight. They can't see us, hear us or sense us here," Taisuke explained. "Kentaro would be able to, but there is no one with water abilities and as a fire user the water blocks my abilities."

"Wait, so you can't use your abilities inside the water?" Nikaido asked.

Taisuke lifted his fist, but only a small flame appeared and it vanished after a few seconds.

"There are some fire users who can use their fire even underwater, but it drains me of my abilities and as you know I am not the best with controlling my fire."

"But the others know that, right? Won't they try and look here?"

"They don't think of me as someone who would hide," Taisuke said.

"You mean they don't expect you to come up with such a good idea, not that half of it wasn't mine," Nikaido replied teasingly.

Taisuke shoved some water in his face for that comment, but Nikaido only laughed, not feeling like picking a fight over this topic.

"So how long are we supposed to wait here? I don't think they planned this as a hide and seek with us winning if we hide long enough."

"They will realize the fake track quickly so the moment they pass us we need to plan a surprise attack," Taisuke said.

"Against three Phenomenists? How are we supposed to surprise them?"

Taisuke's lopsided smile made Nikaido already regret his decision to join this training. He just knew that Taisuke would come up with some ridiculous and dangerous idea.

***

"Then let's see if water can beat fire," Fuma challenged while Wataru made them train by themselves, a good exercise to find out how far they were allowed to go in training, something Fuma was extremely bad at.

Taiga was training with Aran and Myuto under Wataru's supervision, giving them a jealous look from time to time.

"If you space out I will immediately win," Fuma reminded him and Kentaro made sure to step closer to the small stream behind him.

Fuma didn't waste any time and attacked straight on with a fire blast and Kentaro used the water to block it, but the smoke rising through that had given Fuma the perfect cover to jump at Kentaro, bringing him to fall. But Kentaro wouldn't lose that easily as he had learned some helpful moves from Hiromitsu and Wataru so with a swift movement he twisted to the side and used his legs to make it difficult for Fuma to breath.

Yet he had to let him go the moment he realized the other one was forming another fire blast.

"Almost good. Next time add some water to your move?"

"It's not like getting us drowned under a wave will help," Kentaro teased, but Fuma shook his head.

"Did you ever try something different?"

"Different how?"

Fuma showed him instead of telling him and Kentaro gasped when Fuma used the fire in his hand and formed a bridge of fire between both of his hands before he let it go from one hand like a whip, making Kentaro jump out of the way.

"I didn't know fire users could do this," Kentaro said impressed.

"Not all of us can. Taisuke is too unconcentrated to actually learn anything new and Massu has his own special techniques. Maybe it's time to push you some more so you can find yours."

Kentaro wanted to complain that if he was under too much pressure, he might not be able to even think about something, but Fuma already went for his next attack and this time he was indeed not going easy on him, but he also pushed Kentaro away from the stream, making the other one panic.

"Don't rely on your abilities too much," Fuma warned him as he hit a really good hook on Kentaro's face the next second, making the boy fall to the back. When he put his hand down to get up, he realized that they had moved so much towards the side of the training ground that the rocky surface had changed to grass and it was slightly wet as it had rained the night before.

In his thoughts Kentaro almost missed the fire blast coming at him or more like he had indeed been too slow this time and unfortunately the others hadn't realized it so no one was able to redirect it.

"Kentaro, move!" Fuma yelled at him, but all Kentaro could do was cross his arms in front of his face and while the stream was too far away to use its water, he felt like his hands tried to protect him with the usual water wall, but then the fire blast hit him straight on.

"Kentaro!" Taiga was heard from the back as they had finally realized what had happened and he dashed past Fuma as the boy was unable to move, afraid of the damage he had caused.

"Myuto, call Miyata," Wataru shouted at Myuto and Aran as he made it over to the boys as well.

“No need for that,” Taiga said as he reached Kentaro and stopped with a relieved yet confused expression.

"What happened?" Kentaro asked as he looked down his arms, which were miraculously unhurt.

"You tell us. We didn't see what happened," Taiga said.

"I tried to form a wall as usual, but the stream was too far away, but I feel like I succeeded? It felt like the one time the water connected to my skin."

Everyone exchanged a confused look before Fuma sank to his knees with a long sigh.

"Whatever you did, I'm happy you did it, because your brother would have killed me if I had burned your arms."

"But now we have to figure out how you did it. Not that we figured it out last time. This time we need to find out where you got the water from." Wataru said with a thoughtful expression.

"Can we do that after a break?" Kentaro asked as he was still a bit shaken about what had happened and luckily the others all agreed that it was time for a break.

***

A stone dropped from the side of the cliff, making a lot of noise until it reached the bottom.

"You're of no use," Taisuke scolded the other one.

"Right, as if Phenomenists were ghosts and make no noise," Nikaido hissed back. "Do you even have any plan where we are going?"

"Of course I do," Taisuke said as he kept moving up towards a steep rocky surface, but for Nikaido it wasn't that easy especially because his clothes were still wet and his shoes kept slipping, while Taisuke as a fire user was able to dry himself easier and of course he had said they didn't have enough time to make him help Nikaido to get dry.

"But if you don't hurry, we won't make it," Taisuke said and the only reason he held his hand out towards the other one was so that Nikaido would hurry up. With a growl the younger one took his hand and let himself get dragged up. Taisuke urged him to stay low as they reached the highest point.

"I made sure they'd follow this fake track so they will make it back this path soon."

"You don't want us to jump down from here, do you?" Nikaido asked startled as they were several meters above the path below.

"I can throw you? It would be a perfect surprise attack," Taisuke teased, making the other one roll his eyes in annoyance.

"I'll use my fire blasts from here while you can roll those rocks down," Taisuke said, pointing at a handful of extremely heavy looking rocks. "Remember most of them are telekinesis users, they can easily stop them."

"Right, so what do we do after they stop them?"

Taisuke stayed silent on that question while he kept looking down to the path, then looked at the rocks and back at Nikaido.

"You didn't think this through, did you?"

"I didn't have much time to make a plan, okay?"

"You know that we had enough time to set traps for them instead of going up here?" Nikaido asked back, making Taisuke snort.

"Then why didn't you come up with that earlier?"

"You didn't ask!" Nikaido hissed back. "You always run head first into every dangerous situation, thinking all Infirm are just in your way. Newsflash, we have ideas too and some might be better than yours."

Taisuke got up with a pissed expression as he was as always unable to take criticism, but Nikaido stopped him on the shoulder. "You want to run away now? We decided on this training, so let's go through with it. All we will do is lose in the end, no big deal."

"Then fight them alone," Taisuke complained and slashed the other one's hand away. But the next second Nikaido tackled him down, making Taisuke yell at him even more, but then he heard how a huge rock landed right next to them.

"You're so loud, we could hear you kilometers away," Ryosuke teased as he had kicked a heavy rock off and had used his telekinesis to throw it towards them. "Taisuke, you should thank Nikaido. He has better reflexes than you."

"Whatever," Taisuke hissed as he shoved Nikaido away and immediately formed a fire blast to shoot it at Ryosuke while Nikaido tried to spot the other two.

"You really want to do that?" Ryosuke asked, but of course Taisuke had already released the blast, which then changed directions and went directly for Nikaido. He had been able to jump away, but with the rocky surface he couldn't find a good foothold to move fast.

"Told you," Ryosuke said with a lopsided smile.

Nikaido pulled Taisuke back on the arm when he wanted to go for a frontal attack and for once he halted when Nikaido whispered something. Taisuke nodded, but then he still dashed to the front.

"No teamwork after all?" Ryosuke asked, but when Taisuke jumped away Ryosuke had to duck away from a stone flying towards his direction and the next one Nikaido was throwing was way heavier and Ryosuke used his telekinesis to block it, but then a fire blast appeared right next to him, forcing him retreat as he couldn't use his telekinesis on such a high speed between two directions.

"Oh, interesting idea," Ryosuke said proudly on their first actual teamwork. They kept that technique for a while until Taisuke celebrated too early as he thought he had finally gotten Ryosuke. But the fire blast stopped midair before it got thrown back at him.

"Nice idea, but with more people it might not be that helpful," Hiromitsu was heard as he had used his abilities from down the cliff.

"At least we tried," Taisuke hissed.

"Wait, that's it. You're out of ideas?" Ryosuke asked, a bit perplexed.

"You're surprised?" Hiromitsu asked with a smirk.

"It's not like you'd really try to kill us and I didn't have enough time to think of something," Taisuke complained.

"No time in the world would be enough for you," Ryosuke laughed. "But you're also wrong."

"With what?" Taisuke asked with a raised eyebrow.

"We told you that we're serious and we meant it," Ryosuke said and the next second the entire stone wall next to Nikaido burst into fire and crumbled under him, leaving him in shock yet unable to do anything as there was nothing to hold on to.

"NIKA!" Taisuke immediately jumped after him, fast enough to catch his hand and somehow hold on to some remaining sharp stones, cutting his arm badly on that move. Before he could even say anything the stone construction he was hanging on to was also breaking off and he desperately looked for a way to get them both out of the situation, but then he couldn't hold on to Nikaido anymore.

At the last second, he realized that something felt different in his touch, but the panic in the other one's eyes was still clearly visible when they both fell down the cliff. Taisuke knew he could save himself, but without telekinesis he wouldn't be able to help Nikaido, yet there was no need for it as Nikaido somehow moved more precisely the moment he had realized the same familiar change. But this time he was able to use the energy to his advantage in his panic and he moved as fast as Taisuke and they both managed to somehow avoid the falling stones and slow down their fall with some precise jumps off the remaining cliff wall.

The entire scenario had barely taken more than a handful of seconds, but when Taisuke hit the ground a bit too rough, he could hear how Nikaido had definitely hurt himself through the impact as well as he wasn't used to the abilities of a Phenomenist. It wasn’t like their physical strength would increase much, but Phenomenists were known to be able to react faster and smoother in dangerous situations.

"Are you okay?" Taisuke asked as he dashed over to him, but to his surprise he got shoved away the next second and Nikaido also jumped away when another fire blast made it towards them and was then redirected to Nikaido.

"You'll kill him!" Taisuke roared as he realized that Massu and Hiromitsu had waited for them.

Nikaido had no time to even doubt that he could do what he felt he was able to do and he put his hands to the front and a fire blast of his own collided with the other one, making the fire vanish into a smoke cloud.

"What the hell," Taisuke let out in shock and then shook his head before he took a run up at his older brother and took him by the collar.

"And here you call me reckless? What the hell were you thinking?"

Hiromitsu gave his brother a calm expression, waiting for him to calm down and luckily he let go of him to see if Nikaido was okay.

"What happened?" Nikaido asked, still overwhelmed by the situation, sitting on the ground unable to get up.

"The same as before with the difference that you somehow made use of my abilities. We can be lucky that you're alive," Taisuke said and tried to pull the other one up from the ground, but then hissed when he finally realized that he had hurt himself.

"We told you this wasn't a game," Ryosuke said as he had made it down to them.

"But you were safe the entire time," Hiromitsu explained, making Taisuke want to explode again, but Nikaido held him back, because of his arm injury.

"If Nikaido hadn't been able to use your abilities then I would have caught him with my telekinesis, Ryosuke could have interfered too," Hiromitsu explained.

"So hurting your brother in the process is okay?"

It took Hiromitsu off guard that Nikaido was speaking up for Taisuke, but he had a point after all.

"That's on me I guess, sorry for that," Massu said apologizing as he had used his fire to crush the cliff without even thinking about looking out for Taisuke.

"Well at least we got some results? Let's get back for now, it's getting dark," Ryosuke said and luckily Nikaido seemed to have gathered his thoughts enough to push Taisuke ahead before he could pick a fight with his older brother. Taisuke kept complaining that he was fine, but Nikaido was already using the vest he had been wearing to somehow help stopping the bleeding of Taisuke’s arm injury.

"They will have a lot to figure out on their own from here," Hiromitsu said with a faint smile while the other two kept quarrelling on their way back, so busy with each other that they hadn’t even realized that Nikaido had not taken any heavy damage this time even though he had used the active abilities of a Phenomenist.

***

Taiga left towards the village after Wataru had called it a day for their training, but before he could follow the others, Kentaro pulled him away from the group.

"What are you doing?"

Kentaro signaled him to stay quiet and follow him away from the village.

"You're not going to try and go after our brothers, are you?" Taiga asked, but Kentaro gave him a smile.

"It's still not completely dark so I'll trust them for now. But I want to go somewhere else."

Taiga gave him a skeptical look, but still followed him towards the forest and soon the river, the main source for their small streams, came into their sight.

"And now?"

"And now we train," Kentaro said.

"But we already trained."

"No, I did. You didn't."

Kentaro's words made Taiga give him a proud look. "You noticed, didn't you?"

Kentaro nodded as he had of course realized that Wataru made Taiga train way less than the others. He was handled with kid gloves through the position of his oldest brother, but Kentaro had realized that he didn't feel in any way happy about that.

"And I still have to figure out how I managed to build that water armor around me so we can help each other," Kentaro challenged and Taiga was more than happy to take that offer. "But we should make sure not to get too overboard or the others will scold us."

"We can help you with that."

The sudden interruption made both of them turn when Aran, Myuto and Fuma walked up to them.

"Well, except for Fuma. He might go overboard even more," Myuto added.

"Won't you get into trouble for this?" Kentaro asked.

"Not more than you," Fuma laughed. "And I really want to see that water armor again."

"Jealous?" Kentaro joked.

"Who knows maybe we can find even more new abilities this way," Myuto said thoughtfully.

"Are we going to make this a survival of the fittest kind of training like your brothers do so that you have to activate new abilities?" Aran asked a bit worried.

"Not for now," Taiga soothed him. "I'd say we'll get scolded enough if they find out that we're training on our own, but I think a bit of extra training will help all of us."

"Then let's get ready for some unsupervised ass kicking," Fuma yelled in excitement and they all exchanged an excited look.

***

It had turned completely dark outside by the time Taisuke and the others made it back to the village and they hurried towards the meeting hall, knowing that the others were waiting for them there.

The moment they opened the doors the boys jumped up from their chairs and while Kentaro jumped directly into Nikaido's arms who lifted him up from the ground to squeeze him even more, Taiga stopped in front of Taisuke and Hiromitsu with a scolding look towards Taisuke's arm.

"I guess you can be happy that it's you who got hurt and not Nikaido," Taiga let out scolding.

"It's not like we promised that no one would get hurt and it's just a small cut," Taisuke said before he walked past Taiga towards Wataru to talk about the upcoming patrols for the next day.

Everyone from their group except for Hiromitsu also walked towards the others in the room, Fuma and the boys already asking how it went while trying hard to hide their own small injuries they had caused through their extra training.

"Are you really okay?" Kentaro asked when Nikaido stepped back.

"I'm feeling cold and tired, but this time I'm fine, yes."

“So will you finally tell us the truth?” Kentaro asked and Nikaido gave Hiromitsu a knowing look and the older one sighed.

“I bet you already guessed a lot, but yes there is more to the story than Taisuke just losing control over his power transfer. He can transfer his abilities to Nikaido and he can use those abilities.”

“Wait, you’re a Phenomenist?” Kentaro asked, not knowing if he felt relieved or not about that information. Nikaido could only shrug his shoulders though as he didn’t seem to have any active abilities of himself.

“But can Taisuke do the same with others?” Taiga asked.

“I am not even sure if this comes from Taisuke,” Hiromitsu said and looked at Nikaido. “But for now we can just see how it goes. Miyata thinks that Nikaido might have had a passive power transfer for some years already, but was never aware of it.”

“Then you could steal my abilities too?” Kentaro asked, making Hiromitsu look at the younger one in slight worry as he had thought about that possibility as well, but then he shook his head.

“We actually tried that out,” Nikaido explained as the same question had come up on their way back, but Nikaido couldn’t even feel anything like a power transfer ability and at least in a calm situation he hadn’t been able to get any ability from anyone else. Ryosuke had even tried to use his power transfer to see if Nikaido could reverse it.

“It might be a bit more complicated to understand the details then,” Taiga let out, but seemed relieved that they finally knew what was going on.

"Come, let's sit and eat for now. I bet you're more exhausted than you want to say," Kentaro said, knowing that his brother wanted to stay strong in front of the others, but he looked even more exhausted after he sat down.

"I'll ask if we're having a patrol tomorrow too," Taiga said and excused himself for a moment.

"So you really used a Phenomenist's ability today?" Kentaro asked while Nikaido took some food from the plate for now.

"More or less. I would have gotten badly hurt without his abilities, not that Hiromitsu didn't have a backup plan to help me in the worst case," he added before Kentaro could get angry at their rough methods. “How did your training go by the way?"

"It was okay," Kentaro said, but when he remained silent Nikaido gave him a knowing look.

"Do I need to ask the others?"

Kentaro sighed on that question, but then shook his head. "We discovered some new ability I can use, but I can't figure out how I did it so I don't really want to talk about it yet. I didn’t even figure out the last thing I did, I can’t deal with anything new right now."

"Fine with me, but don't be reckless just so you can master it immediately. Taisuke and I will need time with whatever is going on and you can also take as much time as you need with your training."

Nikaido ruffled through his little brother's hair, finally turning Kentaro's slightly gloomy expression into a brief smile.

Their secret training had not shown any results on his side for now, but at least Taiga got to train a bit more seriously for once in a while and they had already decided to continue their extra training as often as they could.

“Hana, be careful with that,” Taiga said when the little girl started playing with one of the rakes on the fields, while her brother tried to lift up one of the rice bags.

“That’s a bit too heavy for you little man,” Myuto said and held out a smaller bag to the boy. “Want to trade?”

The boy immediately took the bag from him and told his sister to follow him to the storage.

“They’re growing up so fast,” Taiga said as he remembered the times when they were only crybabies and Miyata had his hands full with them every single day.

“There are others also finally growing up,” Myuto said, making Taiga laugh.

“Don’t you mean growing a bond here?”

“They behaved quite childish until now,” Myuto said as he looked over to Nikaido and Taisuke who were finally back to helping out in the village again after another day of rest.

Myuto squealed when cold water hit him on the side of his face, Taiga grinning at him with a teasing smile. “You can be quite childish too, don’t forget that.”

“Says the one splashing water at me,” Myuto pouted and kicked up some water at Taiga who laughed.

These calm days were what he treasured the most and what he wanted to be their everyday life, but reality had hit him hard enough several times before so he would take every single calm moment as a precious one and never for granted.

“If you have so much fun getting water over your heads, ask Kentaro to help you out,” Taisuke shouted from the side as he and Nikaido were bringing some rice bags in. Taiga stretched his tongue out towards his brother, but kept laughing.

“That’s not a quantity of water I want emptied over me,” Myuto said as he looked around, but luckily Kentaro was training with Massu so he could rest assured not to get a waterfall shower.

Nikaido stepped to the side when Miyata’s kids ran out of the storage and dashed down to the huts, squealing and laughing.

“What are you smiling at? Never saw kids playing?” Taiuske asked as he put his rice bag down and waited for Nikaido to hand him the one he was carrying.

“In the city there is not much laughter left, you know,” Nikaido said, but his expression stayed positive. “I haven’t seen my little brother laugh this much in years.”

Taisuke didn’t know what to reply so he only nodded, but Nikaido was lost in his thoughts now, making Taisuke snap his fingers.

“Nikaido, give me your bag. We don’t have the entire day for this.”

The one in question turned back to Taisuke, but his look had turned to confused.

“What?”

“Nika.”

Taisuke tilted his head, still not understanding what he meant.

“You called me Nika before, why are you going back to formal now?”

“I never called you that. Why would I call you that?” Taisuke asked as he snatched the bag away from Nikaido who gave him a teasing look now.

“Pretending to not remember, mh? Fine with me, Gaya.”

Taisuke almost lost his balance when he put the rice bag on the top shelf and stumbled half to the back, facing Nikaido with such a confused look that the younger one burst out laughing.

“You know, I just found it fair. You call me Nika, then I call you Gaya.”

“I won’t call you Ni-”

“Whatever. Let’s go, Gaya. We have a lot of work left for the day.”

Taisuke just blinked at the other one dumbfounded as he walked out back to the fields with a satisfied smile on his face, but when he turned back, Taisuke immediately pointed at him.

“Don’t say it again. I warn you,” Taisuke yelled before he ran after Nikaido and this time the other one started running away from him, repeating his new found nickname.

“Nika, I swear I make you pay for that ridiculous name,” Taisuke yelled after him, not even realizing how naturally he used his own nickname for the other one already.

***

Unable to think of any other move, Kentaro let himself drop into the river behind him after Massu had cornered him at their training and it was difficult enough for him to dodge Massu’s fire blasts, but Ryosuke had joined the training and kept stopping his movements and redirecting the fire blasts, so when he couldn’t focus enough on his own abilities he just took the easiest way out.

“For others that would have been suicide,” Ryosuke said when Kentaro got out of the water a few meters downstream.

“Why? Can no one of you swim?” Kentaro asked, tilting his head.

“As expected from a water user,” Massu said with a laugh. “Look at that fast flow of the river. You didn’t even fear getting dragged along or hit a rock. You trust the water, that’s a really good sign for getting your abilities under control even more.”

Kentaro hadn’t even realized it, but he was indeed not afraid of the river, while others could indeed maybe drown in it.

“Let’s call it a day?” Ryosuke asked and Kentaro gratefully nodded. He was getting better with his training, but he still couldn’t figure out more about the technique he had used before. When he was standing right inside the water then he had learned how to create a water armor, but other than that he could still not use any water if not directly next to it.

In his thoughts he kept walking a bit behind Ryosuke and Massu until they made it back to the village border where he looked down to the training ground. Aran was training with a bo staff on his own and while he wasn’t a Phenomenist he was definitely a skilled fighter and especially speed wise he was most likely the fastest out of their Infirm fighters.

“Are you coming?” Massu asked as Kentaro had stopped.

“Would you mind going ahead without me?” Kentaro asked and Massu read the atmosphere as he nodded and left with Ryosuke first while Kentaro walked up to the training ground.

Aran successfully ignored Kentaro’s presence for several minutes, his focus being incredibly precise, but at some point even he had to take a break. Training alone or with opponents didn’t matter as he gave every move he made the energy he would in a real fight as well and with heavy breathes he pushed the end of the staff into the ground, holding on to it for a bit of support.

“Had fun watching?”

Aran always seemed annoyed no matter what others did around him, but Kentaro had learned to read his mood by now and he wouldn’t easily get offended by him so he nodded with a smile.

“Everything you do looks so natural. I feel like I am lacking that physical ability.”

“That’s because people like you are relying on your abilities too much,” Aran shot back.

“And even with them I suck,” Kentaro said with a small sigh.

“You suck because you doubt yourself,” Aran said as he pulled his staff back up and walked up to the other one. “If I doubted myself just one second out there in a real fight, I’d be dead on the spot. No matter who I am up against. You are not invincible either and your mind knows that, but you have to teach it to feel invincible so that you can use the full potential of your abilities.”

Kentaro was surprised by the advice Aran gave him as he hadn’t thought the boy would care in the first place.

“I will definitely try that, thanks,” Kentaro said and didn’t want to disturb the other one for longer, but then Aran let out a whistle and when Kentaro turned back he flinched a bit as he caught another staff at the last second.

“Talking about doing something later is good for nothing. If you want to train then do it now. No time to feel exhausted.”

Weirdly Kentaro had immediately forgotten the exhaustion from the hour-long training with Massu as he gratefully accepted Aran’s offer to train him in a different kind of fighting style and he definitely needed this one as much as the one with his abilities.

“Don’t run crying to your brother if I hurt you,” Aran warned and pointed the end of his staff at the smaller one.

“As long as you don’t run to Myuto if I kick your ass by accident,” Kentaro challenged and for a brief moment Aran finally showed a small smile.

Maybe at some point Aran would open up to all of them a bit more, but for now getting his ass kicked by him was more attention than Kentaro could have asked for in the first place.

***

"So just the two of them?" Taiga asked after Hiromitsu had decided the patrols for the next day and his older brother only nodded, not understanding the younger one's pouting expression.

"They're getting along well, right?"

"I wouldn't really say well, not yet," Taiga said as he looked at Nikaido and Taisuke who hadn't looked that excited about having to go on patrol together once more. "But that's not the point."

"Then what is it? You always complain that I don't let you patrol enough, but now that I put you on patrol, you're not happy either."

"Four people," Taiga only said and Hiromitsu immediately got the hint and rolled his eyes.

"It's the south route, of course your group is bigger."

"Right, because Massu and Ryosuke don’t do the south all by themselves usually."

"They are both Phenomenists," Hiromitsu argued.

"Then take one off the team, because my team has now three Phenomenists."

"Kentaro is still in training," Hiromitsu explained after he had put the two boys together with Ryosuke and Fuma.

"And still you trust him more than me," Taiga pouted, but Hiromitsu gave him a soft smile.

"He trusts you that's why I wanted him to be on your team and he easily freaks out while you stay calm, so I thought you could leave the work to Ryosuke and Fuma and just talk a bit?"

Taiga wanted to keep arguing as he knew that his brother was just good at making it sound like he put so many people on his team to actually help the others, but eventually he just nodded.

***

"Why are you in such a hurry?" Nikaido asked while Taisuke kept walking up their route on the western side as if his life depended on making it back to the village in an hour.

"No particular reason," Taisuke replied and made it to the top of the rocky riverside next to one of their biggest rivers around their territory. After some dry days in the northern region the water wasn’t as fast flowing as usual, but the river was still extremely wide around this area.

"You don't behave like it's for no particular reason," Nikaido said as he stopped next to him, but of course Taisuke wanted to immediately turn back. This time though, Nikaido grabbed his wrist and stopped him. "Don't tell me you're still pissed going on patrol with me? I thought we were past that."

Nikaido wasn't exactly angry he was pouting though and to his surprise Taisuke let out a chuckle on his behavior. "No, it's not your fault."

"Then tell me why you're hurrying so much or are you still not trusting me enough? We're here for weeks already and I feel like we didn't give anyone a single reason to doubt us."

Taisuke's expression turned a bit gloomy on his words and Nikaido slowly understood why Taisuke was so restless today.

"It's because Taiga is patrolling the south," Nikaido concluded and Taisuke's look showed him that he was right.

"I got betrayed by someone I called a close friend, as close as Wataru almost. I just feel scared that I can't be at the right place at the right timing if something ever was to happen again."

Nikaido was surprised about the other one's honest words as Taisuke obviously didn't like sharing his personal thoughts. With a supportive clap Nikaido put his hand on the other one's shoulder and gave him a smile.

"They have Fuma and Ryosuke with them. And if anyone ever dared to betray you then at least one of them would kick their asses."

"I don't doubt you and your brother," Taisuke said as he had of course realized that Nikaido hadn't said the name of his own brother on purpose. "At least I don't want to. I feel that for once I want to put my trust into people again, but it's difficult."

Another quite emotional statement, but Nikaido was more than happy about the other one finally opening up.

"You can totally kick my ass if I ever betray you," Nikaido said seriously before his look turned softer and he pushed Taisuke to the back. "Let's head back then?"

Taisuke nodded and wanted to start walking, but then he turned back to the river. Nikaido didn't even have time to ask what was going on before Taisuke pulled him down towards one of the bigger rocks, but the move came so sudden that Nikaido stumbled to the front and dragged Taisuke down with him, Taisuke hitting the back of his head on the rock behind him with a hiss.

"Sorry," Nikaido said as he had only been able to break his own fall at the last second, his hand now next to Taisuke's head on the rock. Taisuke obviously wanted to scold him, but when he looked up, he didn't say anything as he hadn't realized how close Nikaido had ended up in front of him and he was more or less trapped between the other one's legs so he put his arms out to push him to the back.

"Stay down," Taisuke warned as Nikaido wanted to get back up as he got pushed away. But Taisuke pulled him down next to him, but rubbed his head next.

"Let me have a look," Nikaido said and the other one didn't complain when he touched the back of his head. Taisuke flinched a bit on the touch and Nikaido let out a sigh.

"It's bleeding, but it's not too bad I think. If we hurry back then Miyata can have a look."

"I don't think we should head back," Taisuke said and pointed to the other side of the river. Now Nikaido finally spotted them as well. Soldiers from the city. Two trucks.

"Why are they so far out here?" Nikaido asked.

"There could be many reasons. We've always waited for them to come. After all, we don't know if our location was revealed to the city. Maybe they're also just finally trying to hunt all of us down?"

Nikaido nodded as that could definitely be possible. Their village got betrayed before, but no soldiers had shown up after that for years, but that didn't mean that the one who had betrayed them couldn't easily still lead an attack against them if he was involved with the city.

"Do you think there are more?" Nikaido asked.

"Most likely not, I feel like they're looking for someone maybe?"

The way the soldiers hurried ahead on the other side of the river could actually mean that they were chasing after someone.

"Another Phenomenist?"

"Maybe? Or someone like Aran," Taisuke concluded.

"Shall we keep an eye on them or go to Taiga's location?" Nikaido asked, knowing of course that the other one was worried.

"Let's go after them," Taisuke said and while it was obvious that he wanted to head to his little brother's location he also knew that the village was in danger if the soldiers made it inside their territory. So stopping them was their first priority for now.

***

"Stop pouting," Ryosuke said and hit Taiga against the ribs with his elbow, making the other one retreat towards the other side of Kentaro.

"Look he's running away from you so that he can pout next to the only person who won't scold him," Fuma laughed, dragging Ryosuke's attention to the front and the two boys made their way ahead.

"I bet your brother is pouting right now as well," Kentaro said with a teasing smile and it made Taiga smile a bit too.

"Each time Mitsu let me do anything in the first place, Taisuke would freak out. I feel sorry for Nikaido already."

"He'll be alright. They can handle each other," Kentaro laughed as he kept walking so they wouldn't lose Fuma and Ryosuke who had started quarreling as the forest ground in front of them turned muddy close to the waterfall and Fuma wanted to push Ryosuke into one of the mud puddles.

"Let's take a look at the border and head back?" Kentaro said and pointed at the waterfall in front of them, next to the cliff that would stop everyone from trying to sneak their way into their territory.

"You don't want to show off?" Ryosuke asked when they stopped at the waterfall and Kentaro waited for them to turn around.

"What?" Kentaro asked startled.

"You're the only one who can go through," Fuma said and pointed at the heavy water falling all the way down to the bottom of the cliff.

"Do we need to go to the other side?"

"Scared that your own ability will fail you?" Ryosuke teased, but by now Kentaro was sure that the water would never do him any harm. But the challenging looks the other two gave him, made him step right under the waterfall, the water not touching his skin at all.

"Impressive," Fuma laughed, but then Kentaro stretched out his arm and grabbed Fuma's wrist.

"Then you should try it too."

Fuma started squealing when Kentaro tried to drag him under the waterfall and he broke free before he could end up under it.

"Fire users are hydrophobic," Ryosuke laughed.

"Then what about you?" Kentaro asked challenging, but Ryosuke shook his head.

"No way I'll try that."

"I'll do it," Taiga said and stepped towards Kentaro without hesitation and his friend gave him a proud look before he took the other one's hand.

"Not even a Phenomenist and yet braver than you," Kentaro teased the others before he pulled Taiga under the waterfall. The waterfall itself was several meters wide and moved around the mountain so they wouldn't be able to see the others from the other side anymore, but Kentaro wasn't in a hurry. He enjoyed the way Taiga looked up in fascination as the water missed both of them by inches even if he lifted his hand and tried to touch it.

"I guess we shouldn't tell your brothers that we tried this?" Kentaro asked and Taiga nodded with a chuckle.

"They'll definitely not let you go on patrol with me again if we tell them."

"Then let's make the best out of it," Kentaro said and dared something he wasn't even sure would work, but somehow his trust into the water had become a lot more and while he needed to keep his hand around Taiga’s, he made a step away from the wall and Taiga immediately grabbed his arm with his free hand. "What are you up to? You'll fall," Taiga said when Kentaro was one step away from where the water would fall down the cliff.

"Are you sure of that?" Kentaro asked and dared to step off the path. As if it was only a game with no consequences he felt confident enough to dare this move and while Taiga had clawed his hands into the other one's arm, ready to actually try and hold his bodyweight if he fell, the other one wasn't falling.

"What…but how?" Taiga asked when he realized that the water underneath Kentaro had formed something like a puddle, but it was hanging in the air.

"Don't ask me about details I have no clue. I just felt like I could do it. Want to try?" Kentaro asked and finally Taiga relaxed his hands, feeling sorry for digging his fingernails into the other one's skin, but he had been prepared to fall over with him as he was sure that he wouldn't have been able to rescue them both. But this time he hesitated a moment, but then he took a deep breath and dared his foot out and to his astonishment the puddle widened, allowing him to step on it.

But when he dared both of his feet off the path, he took a tight grip on Kentaro, still not trusting the situation.

"Water users are amazing," Taiga said with a wide smile. It was nice seeing Taiga more relaxed and daring what his brothers would never allow him. But Kentaro still dragged them both back to the path before anything could actually happen.

"Guys come on, we need to leave," Ryosuke was heard from the other side. Only a faint voice as the water was too loud to hear him clearly.

"Okay, then let's just have a peak on the other side and leave," Kentaro said and guided the way while keeping Taiga's wrist in a tight grip.

What none of them had seen coming was someone dashing towards their direction and he didn't stop at the waterfall. A move that could not be called anything else than suicidal. Kentaro didn’t have enough time to react and the person crashed right into him, making them both fall and that was when he accidentally let go of Taiga's arm.

Taiga didn't even have enough time to let out a scream when the water dragged him over the side of the path, but with him the other person also got dragged along.

"TAIGA!" Kentaro shouted in panic as he had turned on his stomach and stretched his arm out towards the cliff. He knew that he wouldn't be fast enough to jump after them, but while he had feared to not even be able to spot them anymore, something incredible had happened.

Both boys were lying on another water puddle, the water now moving beside them. Kentaro couldn't believe his eyes, but he knew he had to focus.

Taiga looked more than shaken, so did the other boy. A boy their age, a panicked expression on his face as he looked at Taiga.

"Don't move. I'll get you up," Kentaro said and took another deep breath, knowing that he needed to put all his energy into his abilities now to lift them up on the water. Luckily he succeeded and he grabbed both boys by the arms and the puddle fell like the rest of the water.

"I seriously thought I'd be dead," Taiga let out with heavy breaths, but then looked up at the boy. "Let's get him out."

Kentaro immediately nodded as he was close to collapsing after using so much of his energy. But the boy shook his head with a panicked look when they wanted to push him towards the way he came from.

"Please, they will kill me!"

Now they halted as they exchanged a knowing look.

"Are soldiers after you?" Taiga asked and the boy nodded in a hurry. He looked beaten and exhausted, obviously running for days already, but there was no time for long talks as Kentaro put his last energy into keeping a tight grip on their arms and Taiga had to decide quickly so he pulled both towards the side of the village.

"Let's talk on the other side. Kentaro, just hold on for a few moments longer," Taiga said as he helped Kentaro stand and the other boy read the atmosphere and helped Kentaro as well.

The moment they dashed out the waterfall on the other side things escalated in seconds as Ryosuke misunderstood the situation and almost threw the other boy with his telekinesis back into the waterfall, but Kentaro used the water to push the boy back.

"Stop, he's not going to do you any harm. He's getting followed by soldiers," Taiga interfered and jumped in front of the boy.

"Right, what an amazing timing to stand on the other side of the waterfall without any soldiers actually being behind him," Ryosuke said skeptically while Kentaro dropped to the ground and gave up on interfering as he was now completely out of energy.

"I'm sorry for the trouble. I thought I shook them off last night, but I could suddenly hear their trucks right behind me and panicked," the boy explained.

"So you thought committing suicide was the best way out?" Fuma asked, also quite skeptical.

"I hoped I could somehow make it through without getting dragged over the edge," the boy said in a low voice, the exhaustion on his face more than clear.

"Anyway, we need to report that soldiers are around and my brother can decide the rest," Taiga decided and turned towards the boy who was also sitting on the ground now. When Taiga stretched his arm out to him, the boy hesitated.

"We're not here to hurt you, don't worry," Taiga said and the boy finally took his hand, letting himself get dragged up.

"The only one who got hurt here is Kentaro and I won't take Nikaido's scolding for it," Fuma said as he walked up to the boy who was lying flat on the ground.

"Be happy that Taiga didn't get hurt or we'd be dead," Ryosuke said and joined Fuma so that they could help Kentaro up.

"Then let's go, the sooner we report back the better," Fuma said and started moving while Taiga looked at the new boy.

"What's your name?" Taiga asked as he wanted to keep the complicated questions for later.

The boy didn't seem reluctant to answer and he didn't seem like someone who would easily get scared, yet whatever had him flee from the city had him obviously fear for his life.

"Juri," the boy finally replied with a slight bow.

"Nice to meet you, Juri. Well I guess you know our names by now already with all the scolding," Taiga laughed, but Juri was still too tense to easily join the teasing mood.

"I promise you that there is nothing bad awaiting you ahead," Taiga said a bit more serious, but Juri seemed to not be able to easily trust people and Taiga definitely had to make sure that Taisuke wouldn’t do the same to him as he did with Kentaro and Nikaido or Juri would definitely not stay and somehow Taiga didn't want the other one to immediately leave again.

"They're trying to get over," Nikaido realized as they had followed the soldiers almost up to the northern border where the river wasn't as deep anymore and they wanted to try their luck getting over it with their trucks.

"Now we could use Kentaro's abilities," Taisuke said as he tried to figure out what to do.

"Shall we hurry back and get everyone for backup?" Nikaido asked.

"If there are even more of them then they might be busy already so let's do something on our own," Taisuke said, but didn't dare to step away from the rocks they had followed down the cliff side of the river until now.

"They will know that we're here if we attack straight on so they could send more trucks," Nikaido concluded and that was also the other one's worry.

"But if we let them go on then they will reach the village," Taisuke said a bit panicked as the first truck approached the small slope between the cliffs they were standing on.

"I've got an idea," Nikaido said and dashed ahead. Taisuke followed him to the back of the cliffs. "Let's make it crumble. If we stay hidden and make your fire spread on the backside then they will think it was just a natural disaster."

"I can only make one side crumble, we won't have enough time for both sides," Taisuke said.

"Right, you need to stay here, but I can go," Nikaido said and held out his hand.

"Who says you'll even make it over there with my abilities?"

"Then you go and I stay here, but hurry up," Nikaido said, but Taisuke hesitated. They didn't even know if this would work that easily.

"You prefer them entering the village area?" Nikaido asked and with a click of his tongue Taisuke put his hand in Nikaido's, but nothing happened. Even when he tried to use his transfer abilities it didn't show the desired result.

"Focus, Gaya!"

"Don't call me that," the other one said, but it had done the trick as the moment he had squeezed Nikaido's hand in a scolding manner, the same feeling as before went through his body and Nikaido closed his eyes with a small gasp as he tried to calm down.

"Breath slowly and keep an eye on me," Taisuke told him when he dared to get up. He had to hurry if they wanted this to work. "I'll give you a sign from the other side when to release the fire."

Nikaido only nodded, clenching his fists and trying hard to keep the untamed fire inside of him for as long as possible.

Taisuke hurried to make it to the other side of the cliffs, unseen by the soldiers, but he needed to retreat from the slope for that and it took him way more time than they had.

Finally on top of the cliffs on the opposite side of the slope, the second truck had also made it on their side of the river and they were approaching the slope.

There was no time to waste and Taisuke searched for Nikaido, the other one waiting more than impatiently for his signal as he had already folded to the front.

Taisuke raised one arm and pulled it back down, Nikaido immediately putting his hands down to the ground and the strength he was able to put into Taisuke's fire was fascinating. Taisuke immediately did the same, but while he didn't feel like he had transferred too much to Nikaido, his own remaining fire couldn't at all bring the same destruction as Nikaido on his side. Luckily though it was enough for both of the cliffs to start crumbling. Unfortunately through the dust rising from the falling rocks, Taisuke couldn't spot the other one anymore when he jumped back, escaping the falling rocks.

Now that the rocks had formed a wall between them and the soldiers, he dared to directly dash towards Nikaido's direction.

"Nikaido, where are you?" He shouted, knowing that the soldiers wouldn't hear him. But he couldn't spot the other one around the collapsed area. "Damn it, this was your plan."

With some curses he tried to move some rocks and climb up more, but still no sign.

"I swear I'll kill you," Taisuke hissed as he kept looking. "Nika, come on, this can't always happen when I give you my abilities."

"And it won't."

The voice came from behind and Taisuke turned around with a death glare as he spotted the other one grinning up at him from a safe distance away from the rocks.

"I got used to using your abilities more than I thought," Nikaido said proudly as he was completely unharmed and only a bit exhausted.

Taisuke stormed back down to him, so fast actually that he almost ran into the other one and pointed at his face. "I'll go back to hating you if you keep that attitude."

"So you can have an attitude and I can't?" Nikaido teased, not feeling threatened at all. "By the way you said it again."

"Said what?" Taisuke yelled back as he threw his arms up, still angry at the other one.

"Nika," Nikaido said with a bright smile and Taisuke immediately rolled his eyes.

“Whatever, let’s hurry back. We need to find out why they were around here,” Taisuke said. If they were aiming for their village then this was going to be just the beginning.

***

“Daddy, you need to ring the bells,” Hana yelled towards Miyata as she and her brother ran up to him and his mother from behind their hut.

“Why is that honey?” Her mother asked and the little girl pointed towards the forest.

“They brought someone new.”

The adults exchanged a worried look and hurried around the hut, seeing Fuma and Ryosuke stabilizing Kentaro, while Taiga walked in the back with an unknown boy.

“Ken, don’t!” Miyata warned his son as he was about to run up to one of the bells. But the situation didn’t seem dangerous and Miyata didn’t want anyone to attack them without knowing the situation.

“What’s going on?” Aran asked as he walked up to Miyata after he had heard the children shout. But then he looked ahead and tensed on the arrival of someone new.

“Aran, get Hiromitsu and Wataru here,” Miyata ordered and Aran immediately did as he was told.

Massu was out on patrol and most of the others were in the fields or in the meeting hall so he hurried to find them, not that it looked like a dangerous situation.

“At least they didn’t seem to see you as a direct threat,” Taiga said as he realized that no one was ringing the bells even though some people had already spotted them.

“I am grateful for your help, I won’t cause any trouble,” Juri said, but Fuma laughed.

“You might not, but they will.”

On that statement Taiga looked ahead to the other side of the forest border and with the worst timing ever Nikaido and Taisuke had also just arrived back at the village and had of course immediately spotted them.

“Stop here,” Kentaro said and made Ryosuke and Fuma let go of him as they had reached the small stream around the village that Kentaro had used on their arrival as well. “Could you do me the favor and run ahead and explain the situation?”

Ryosuke and Fuma nodded, but they had to be fast, because Taisuke had already spotted the new boy and of course he was on his way over to them, while Nikaido obviously worried as well, but tried to make him slow down.

“Stay behind me,” Kentaro said as he realized that Hiromitsu was rushing towards them from the huts as well, followed by Wataru. Aran and Myuto were following them, but they took their distance.

“He’s not dangerous. He got followed by soldiers, we rescued him,” Ryosuke shouted over to Taisuke before he had even been close, but he knew already that those words won’t easily stop him.

“Are we now just letting everyone come here and tell their oh so heartwarming story?” Taisuke hissed at him and Fuma jumped out of the way when Taisuke didn’t even think about stopping in front of them.

“Gaya, look at him. Does he look dangerous?” Nikaido tried to argue and finally reached out for the other one’s wrist after Ryosuke and Fuma didn’t want to risk interfering more.

Taisuke tried to shake him off, but to his surprise Nikaido used more force than he expected and pulled him back so that he almost stumbled.

“For god’s sake, I’m not telling you to greet him with a hug, but don’t you think that if he wanted to directly harm someone that he would have already done so?” Nikaido scolded the other one. “Taiga is beside him, but so is Kentaro and look at them, they are ready to stop you from attacking him, so just give them some space?”

In the moment they had stopped, Hiromitsu had made it over to the boys and Taiga gave Juri a soothing smile when Hiromitsu told him and Kentaro to get over to Wataru and of course they obeyed.

“Fine, let’s hear what he has to say then,” Taisuke said and took a deep breath. Something Nikaido hadn’t seen coming as he thought Taisuke would pick a fight with him now, but he had indeed succeeded to relax enough for Nikaido to believe in him for once and they made it over to Mitsu with calmer steps.

“So what is going on?” Taisuke asked and looked first at Taiga then at Juri. His little brother gave him a proud look though as he realized how hard it was for him to stay this calm.

“We checked up on the waterfall and when we were at the other side he ran into us. He said he was followed by soldiers,” Kentaro said and Nikaido walked up to him, putting his arm around his shoulder as he realized how exhausted he was and the boy gave him a grateful smile.

“Is that true?” Hiromitsu asked Juri who seemed a bit uncomfortable standing all by himself with the village members all around him.

“Yes,” he let out with a nod.

“Are you a Phenomenist?” Wataru asked, but the boy shook his head. “Then why did you flee from the city?”

By now Ryosuke and Fuma had walked back up to them, while Aran and Myuto had also finally dared to join them.

“I’ve seen something I wasn’t supposed to see and I was afraid that they would kill me if they found out so I ran.”

“That would explain why the soldiers even went all the way up north to look for him,” Nikaido said as he explained that they had run into soldiers at the river.

“Is that why you are hurt?” Taiga asked as he realized that Taisuke had some dried blood on the back of his head and his brother put his hand up to the now dry wound and looked over to Nikaido who wasn’t looking back at him so he only nodded with a weird feeling in his chest. “Yeah kind of. Nothing bad though.”

Taiga gave him a skeptical look, but moved his attention back to Juri.

“Mind telling us about what you’ve seen?” Hiromitsu asked, but the boy seemed unsure. The panic from before was back in his eyes and Taiga walked up to Hiromitsu.

“Can we give him some time to calm down? He almost fell down the cliffs at the waterfall. He definitely ran through the forest for days, fearing for his life. Give him some time?”

Taiga’s request was answered with a nod from his oldest brother, but then Taisuke walked up to his other side and touched his clothes.

“Seems like he wasn’t the only one taking his chances at the waterfall?” Taisuke asked and looked back at Kentaro.

“Don’t even start any scolding now. Everything was fine, we couldn’t have predicted Juri showing up out of nowhere.”

“Everyone is safe, so let’s leave it at that for now, okay?” Wataru suggested and everyone agreed.

“I'll stay with you until Massu is back from his patrol,” Hiromitsu said and Juri nodded.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Taisuke asked Taiga as the boy walked up to Juri.

“How would you feel if someone threw you alone into a hut in a village where you know absolutely no one with a guard in front of your house?” Taiga replied and before Taisuke could turn things into an argument Aran actually stepped up.

“I can join you guys, then Taiga won’t be alone at least?”

“Count me in too then you have at least a Phenomenist around too,” Myuto offered and Hiromitsu agreed, but then looked at Juri.

“Is that okay for you? If you want to be left alone then that is also okay with us.”

“I’m okay with them staying,” Juri immediately said, stepping a bit more towards Taiga.

“Then let’s do it that way and you two need to explain where you’ve seen the soldiers so that we can send out more people in the afternoon once more towards the waterfall and the river,” Wataru said and with that Taisuke had no choice, but to join Wataru in the meeting hall and leave Taiga with the others, but Nikaido clapped him on the shoulder with a supportive look.

“He’ll be fine, don’t worry.”

“I will join them later too, but I really want to lie down,” Kentaro said.

When Fuma and Ryosuke wanted to help Kentaro to get to his hut so that Nikaido could follow the others to the meeting hall, Taisuke stepped in front of him.

“Did you let Taiga go under the waterfall?” Taisuke asked directly and now that things had indeed turned out quite dangerous, Kentaro felt bad about letting the boy join. But it was obvious so he could only nod.

Nikaido got ready to interfere and scold Taisuke in case he would lay a hand on his little brother, but to everyone’s surprise it came different as Taisuke sighed and stepped back.

“At least you took responsibility and got him out of there.”

Kentaro blinked in confusion when Taisuke just turned around and left like that, Nikaido showing a smile before he hurried after Taisuke.

“Was that a passive thank you for rescuing Taiga?” Fuma asked.

“After a scolding for putting Taiga into danger,” Ryosuke added with a chuckle.

“I can’t read the atmosphere anymore when he is around,” Kentaro said and massaged his temples.

“Your brother seems to be a good influence,” Ryosuke said with a smile. “For now leave the patrolling stuff to us, because you need to rest, let’s go.”

***

“We can leave at any time, just let us know if you want to rest,” Taiga said when they entered one of the huts while Hiromitsu remained outside.

Aran and Myuto moved over to the table and sat down, keeping a bit of distance so that they wouldn’t overwhelm Juri right from the start.

“Here, I think they should fit,” Taiga said as he handed Juri some of his own clothes he had taken from his hut in a hurry on their way as well as a change of clothes for himself.

“Right, you’re still completely soaked,” Aran realized and walked up to the stove, Myuto helping him to start a fire to help them dry their clothes.

Taiga just got out of his jacket and shirt without any hesitation, but when he caught Juri looking, but not moving himself he gave him a small smile. “We can also leave the hut for a moment if you want more privacy to change?” Taiga asked, but Juri immediately shook his head, but still turned away a bit to change his clothes.

Juri joined Taiga on the carpet in front of the stove to hang up his clothes and when he sat back, he looked towards the door.

“No one will hurt you here, don’t worry,” Taiga reminded him.

“I guess you’ve never encountered Phenomenists so far?” Myuto asked, but to their surprise Juri shook his head. First it seemed like Juri wanted to say something, but then he clenched his fists into the fabric of his trousers and bit his lip.

“Well, let’s start with some introductions?” Taiga asked and Juri seemed relieved about the way Taiga was able to read the atmosphere. “I’m the youngest brother of three. Mitsu is the leader of our village, he is my oldest brother. Then we have Taisuke…”

“The noisy one, you just met him,” Myuto said with a teasing smile.

“That one,” Taiga laughed. “He is the troublemaker in our family. The middle brother. Both of them are Phenomenists, I am an Infirm.”

“For now,” Myuto reminded him.

“What do you mean?” Juri asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Phenomenists can still get their abilities when they are young adults, so Taiga could also still become one,” Aran explained.

“So could you,” Myuto teased, but Aran rolled his eyes.

“Better not.”

“Do you not like Phenomenists?” Juri asked in surprise as Aran was obviously a member of this village.

“I don’t like some Phenomenists, but they are not here so it’s fine. But that doesn’t mean I want to become one.”

Something about what Aran had said made Juri look at him for a moment, but when they all just kept the conversation going, he looked back down for a moment, but Taiga had of course seen his reaction.

“Good that everyone here is nice, well maybe a few need some time to warm up to outsiders, but as long as you don’t attack Taiga, Taisuke won’t try to kill you,” Myuto laughed and Taiga kicked his chair, but then shrugged his shoulders, because it was more or less true.

“I am not sure if I should stay,” Juri finally let out and somehow that brought a sad expression on Taiga’s face.

“Kentaro, the boy who helped you out at the waterfall just came a few weeks ago with his older brother to this village and they fit in really well, I bet you would too.”

Juri seemed grateful for Taiga’s words, but he also didn’t seem convinced that he should stay.

“Where else would you go?” Aran asked. “To the north are just more Phenomenists scattered over the country, no other Infirm cities lie ahead.”

“I just fear that I will cause trouble for you if I stay. The soldiers tracked my location so far northwards already, I feel like they won’t easily give up.”

The boys exchanged a worried look on hearing that as they definitely needed to know more about why they were after Juri, but for now they wanted to give the boy a break.

A knock on the door made them turn as Massu opened the door.

“Sorry for the interruption. I just heard what happened, you all good in here?”

On his question all the boys nodded and Juri gave the other one a light bow before his look fell on Hiromitsu who remained outside, but gave him a brief smile as well.

“Mitsu wants to have a talk tomorrow at the meeting hall,” Massu explained. “For now some of us will patrol around the closer borders of the village, but at least one of us will be around. Until tomorrow I have to ask you to stay inside, okay?”

Juri immediately nodded and then Massu turned towards the boys. “I need to ask you to patrol in shifts with everyone, but we will send someone else in later so until then you can stay.”

They all nodded as Taiga was aware that none of them would be allowed to stay alone with Juri for now, but they were at least not that over skeptical as with Nikaido and Kentaro.

***

“So for now they don’t seem to have found any way towards the village,” Nikaido said in relief as they had come back from their second patrol in the evening as it was already dark outside.

“If the boy has done something that will make them keep chasing him then it will just be a matter of time though,” Taisuke said.

“We will hopefully get to know more about that by tomorrow.”

When they kept walking Wataru came towards their direction, taking over the patrol with some other fighters as they were extra careful and would patrol at least close to the village even overnight.

“Anything?” Wataru asked, but Taisuke shook his head.

“Here?”

“Oh yeah so much. Juri became a fearful Phenomenist out of nowhere and took Taiga hostage, fleeing into the forest,” Wataru teased, gaining a laugh from Nikaido and a death glare from Taisuke.

“But seriously Taisuke, just relax for the rest of the night, okay?” Wataru said and clapped his friend on the shoulder. “Massu is guarding the place and Kentaro, Fuma and Taiga are with Juri. They will be fine.”

“Not good at taking long rests,” Nikaido scolded his little brother, but he understood that he wanted to be with Taiga in this situation.

“Be careful,” Taisuke said as Wataru walked towards the border and waved at them once more.

In silence they walked back towards the village, but then Nikaido slowed down close to Taisuke’s hut. “Why do you have your own hut and Taiga is staying with Mitsu?”

“Because we have enough huts? Taiga could live by himself if he wanted to.”

Somehow that didn’t seem like the reply Nikaido had expected and he let out a thoughtful hum.

“What?”

“Nothing, I just thought it’s a bit weird that your hut is so much at the outside of the village while you usually try to protect Taiga all the time.”

“I am protecting him with this,” Taisuke said, his voice lower this time.

“And how is that?” Nikaido asked and when the other one turned away with a kind of pouting expression through all the questions, Nikaido started teasing him and kept hitting him on the shoulder so that he would reply.

“Would you stop that? Damn, you can be so annoying!” Taisuke said and tried to stop the other one from poking him the entire time, but the way he did it was more than cute as he kept waving around him like a child, trying to hit Nikaido’s hands on the way, making the other one laugh.

“Then tell me,” Nikaido teased, but then Taisuke’s look turned a bit darker as he looked towards the back of the village where one of the huge rocks close to the training ground still reminded him of how destructive his abilities could be.

“I feel like I could eventually hurt someone if I can’t control my abilities,” Taisuke finally admitted and that was more of the reply Nikaido had expected.

“Not making fun of me?” Taisuke asked and Nikaido smiled back at him.

“Oh, if you want me to, then I can totally do that, but to be honest after I’ve experienced how much out of control your abilities can be I can totally understand your reasons.”

Taisuke hadn’t expected the other one to understand his reasons so well, but he also still didn’t like it to speak this honestly so he turned away and started walking towards his hut. “Then you know why I chose this hut. You can be happy that yours is also not close by.”

Right at his door Taisuke realized that Nikaido had kept walking after him and now he looked over his shoulder in slight confusion when Nikaido gave him a piercing look.

“What now?”

“Let me stay.”

“WHAT?” Taisuke had yelled the question louder than he wanted to, but luckily no one was around who could easily hear them and Nikaido tried hard to hide his laughter.

“I just asked you to let me stay, nothing more. Is your hut such a mess or why won’t you let anyone stay?”

“I didn’t say I wouldn't let anyone stay,” Taisuke hissed back at the other one in a quieter voice this time.

“Great,” Nikaido replied and walked up to the door, Taisuke immediately blocking the entrance.

“That was no invitation. You have your own hut and Kentaro is not even there right now, so you won’t wake him up.”

“Yet I have to make sure that you wake up on time tomorrow morning for the meeting. You have a habit of being late, remember? And now Taiga is busy so he won’t be able to throw you out of bed,” Nikaido teased.

“You can still come by tomorrow morning if I oversleep,” Taisuke replied, while he became smaller and smaller, trapped between Nikaido and the door.

“Then take it as a challenge,” Nikaido replied. “You are afraid of hurting others with your abilities, yet I can absorb them and I showed you that I got better in handling them too, so I am the perfect person to try and corner you a bit when you feel like your abilities could cause trouble.”

“I don’t need anyone to corner me for that,” Taisuke bit back, but then Nikaido put one hand to the doorframe, making Taisuke press his back even more into the door.

“Then why are you trying so hard to run away?”

Taisuke had prepared a good reply, but then he suddenly fell back as he had accidentally put too much pressure on the door and had opened it while leaning back. With a squeal he fell inside his own hut, making Nikaido burst out laughing.

“Well, now I am taking this as an invitation,” Nikaido said and casually stepped over Taisuke, entering the hut.

It was a bit smaller than the one he was using with Kentaro as it was obviously only made for one person in the first place.

“What the hell?” Taisuke complained, but shut the door instead of trying to make Nikaido leave.

“Now I am here, get over it. How about you help light a fire, it’s not really warm right now, you know?”

Taisuke let out a snort, but actually walked up to the stove to help and when the fire was finally lit, he sat down at the small table that had only space for two people instead of four like most of their huts.

“You don’t want to sleep?” Nikaido asked and Taisuke threw his hands up into the air.

“I want to, trust me, but you are here, keeping me awake.”

“I have nothing against going to bed. We patrolled a lot today and we need to wake up early anyway.”

“Then go home!” Taisuke complained, but Nikaido pointed at Taisuke’s bed.

“You have a double bed.”

“AND?” Taisuke asked, now getting up from the chair to walk over to his bed. “I don’t get you. I almost killed you with my dumb power transfer the first time and just because it somehow worked this time, you are unnecessarily putting yourself into danger.”

There was a brief moment where Nikaido could see the fire forming in Taisuke’s hands, the typical reaction he would show when he was getting emotional.

Taisuke immediately clenched his fists, cursing himself, but then he froze when Nikaido reached out for his hands and put his own over the other one’s closed fists.

“I am putting myself into danger, because I want you to trust yourself. Just if you finally learn how to control your own abilities, you will be able to calm down around everyone.”

“This is ridiculous, why would you-”

“Let my reasons be my own for now, okay? I am one of the people you get angry at the easiest, so I can help you the most with getting in control too, don’t you think?”

“And I can kill you the easiest out of everyone because of that,” Taisuke said and pulled his hands back, but this time no fire emerged as he crossed his arms and sat down on his bed.

“You’re doing great so far,” Nikaido said. “But I won’t push you any further if you really think that you wouldn’t be able to stay calm, but I believe that you could.”

“I will kick you out of my bed I swear,” Taisuke said, making the other one chuckle.

“If that is the only thing I have to worry about then that’s a relief.”

To Nikaido’s surprise Taisuke moved to the back of his bed, maybe a bit too far towards the corner, but it was an obvious invitation and Nikaido sat down on the bed with a proud smile.

“I still think this is ridiculous,” Taisuke said as he pulled on the covers so that Nikaido would get off them.

“Well, that is because you are putting too much pressure on yourself. Just think about it as if Wataru was going to stay the night, no problem with that, right?”

Taisuke would indeed not have a problem with that, except that he wouldn’t allow that either as he had his hut for himself out of exactly those security reasons. He just feared too much that his abilities could suddenly cause uproar for the most ridiculous reasons even though it hadn’t happened to that extent anymore after the night he had been betrayed.

Yet something about Nikaido’s words had him stare at the other one’s back as Nikaido had moved under the covers, but gave Taisuke the space he needed and turned towards the other side.

“Let me know if I have to move to the carpet at some point,” Nikaido teased as he looked over his shoulder once more at which Taisuke took one of his pillows to hit Nikaido with it.

“Shut up!”

Nikaido only laughed at the other one’s pouting reaction and turned back, but somehow Taisuke felt calmer than he thought he would. He was still annoyed, that was for sure, but he was also kind of pouting about the lack of attention he got now after the other one had more or less forced him to let him stay. His own thoughts made him shake his head though and he turned towards the wall. This was definitely an outcome he hadn’t seen coming, yet it brought a smile on his face.

"What do you mean he wasn't home?" Taiga asked when Kentaro had gone to wake up Nikaido, because he feared he'd run late for the meeting after patrolling for so long.

Taiga went with him as he knew that he had to wake up Taisuke as well for sure.

"But Mitsu said they weren't at the meeting hall, right?" Taiga asked with a thoughtful expression. "Let's wake up my brother for now so we have at least one going."

Taiga also wanted to add that he wanted to return to the hall as fast as possible as Juri didn't seem thrilled to be left alone with Hiromitsu and Wataru. The others had to patrol and for once Taiga was grateful that he didn't need to patrol if he didn't want to and right now he definitely didn't want to.

"Maybe he thought I was home so he didn't want to wake me up? Maybe he used one of the open huts?" Kentaro asked and Taiga only nodded as he approached Taisuke's hut and opened the door without even knocking.

Kentaro waited outside, but when Taiga had frozen half in the doorframe, he got curious and walked up to him, looking into the room over his shoulder.

The moment he took a deep breath though, Taiga immediately put his hand over his mouth and shook his head. He pointed towards the door and just stretched his arm out to put a cup on the table on the side so it would start rolling before he carefully closed the door and told Kentaro to start walking before the cup would hit the ground.

Behind the next hut they stopped, both of them dumbfounded for a moment.

"You've seen what I've seen, right?" Taiga asked and Kentaro slowly nodded.

"So, what do we do?" Kentaro asked, but Taiga shrugged his shoulders.

"Pretend we didn't see it? Because honestly," Taiga started and slowly formed a smile. "I don't really mind?"

Kentaro seemed more than happy about the other one's reaction as he nodded. For him it was definitely a weird choice, but if his brother was able to actually form a bond after such a rough start then he wouldn't stand in his way.

"Great, then let's hurry back, they will definitely jump up and run over to the meeting hall immediately," Taiga said and the boys made their way back with some chuckles and head shaking.

Just a few days ago their brothers still started random fights with each other so this was definitely the calmest outcome for now.

***

The cup rolled for a few seconds and then the metal hit the wooden floor.

Nikaido immediately sat up, confused for a moment from where the sound had come, but then he sighed and lay back down, intuitively turning around and then he froze.

Taisuke hadn't even woken up through the noise, but overnight he had moved closer and was now lying right in front of the other one.

Nikaido knew that they would run late, but he wondered when the last time was that Taisuke had actually dared to let someone get this close? Lost in his thoughts he almost missed when Taisuke opened his eyes and he wanted to shift to the back, not realizing that the bed ended sooner than he thought and with a yelp he landed on the ground.

"What's with the noise so early in the morning?" Taisuke asked in a tired voice when he looked over the bed frame to the ground.

"First it's not early. We're running late and second this isn't the first noise, but you seem to be a really deep sleeper after all," Nikaido said as he sat up and was now right in front of Taisuke.

A few seconds passed in silence until Taisuke's eyes grew wide. He had obviously forgotten that Nikaido had been with him in the first place and when he threw the blanket over himself Nikaido chuckled and got up.

"Let's get ready," Nikaido said neutrally and gave Taisuke the space he needed right now.

Without delay they got ready and headed to the meeting hall. Of course everyone was already waiting for them and Mitsu scolded them for running late.

“Why are you here?” Taisuke asked as Taiga was waiting inside the meeting hall while it should have been only Hiromitsu and Wataru together with Juri.

“Juri asked if he could join,” Wataru said before Taisuke could get angry yet Juri seemed to be the one who feared to have angered the other one.

“Fine,” Taisuke said and walked to the other side of the meeting table to sit down next to Nikaido.

“Okay, let’s not make this too much of a scary meeting,” Hiromitsu started. “Juri, we really want to help you, but we need to know more about what happened or your presence in our village might bring trouble to all of us.”

Juri understood that of course and he slowly nodded, but gave a side glance towards Taiga and when he got a supportive nod, Nikaido leant over to Taisuke.

“I feel like they have already spoken about this last night,” Nikaido whispered and Taisuke had the same thought. Having Taiga and the other boys stay with Juri had a positive effect on the boy, but that didn’t mean that Taisuke would immediately trust him.

“There are Phenomenists in the city,” Juri started, an information that wasn’t that new to them. “Those who get discovered inside the city always get taken to the tower research center and until recently no one had ever seen anyone leave it.”

“Did you ever witness that as well?” Wataru asked Nikaido who needed a moment to realize that the question was for him. Slowly he nodded, feeling as uncomfortable as Juri talking about happenings of the city.

“The tower is the base of the soldiers and they are in charge of finding Phenomenists in the city. That’s why I knew I had to get Kentaro out as fast as possible after he got discovered,” Nikaido said, but while he seemed to consider adding something he just remained silent, Taisuke giving him a questioning side glance.

“Back to the topic,” Taisuke said and drew the attention back to Juri.

“A few weeks ago I saw soldiers chase after a boy. I hid as I was afraid of getting involved, but eventually they got him,” Juri continued.

“Did you see him use his abilities?” Hiromitsu asked.

“Kind of. It was raining and I could see that in his panic the water moved with him when he waved his arms around, trying to make them back off. But I feel like he didn’t know much about his own abilities.”

“A water user,” Nikaido said as his mind drifted off to the day Kentaro accidentally used his abilities, forcing them out of the city.

“Weeks later though I spotted the same boy walking through the streets,” Juri added, making them all exchange a look.

“Did he escape?” Wataru asked, but Juri shook his head.

“He was too calm for that. The soldiers didn’t really pay him any attention, it seemed as if they were even keeping their distance on purpose.”

There was a moment of silence before Wataru let out a sigh. “I feel like we should have taken Aran a bit more seriously as I fear this will go towards his direction.”

“It’s not like we never considered his stories to be true,” Hiromitsu interfered as they had never made fun out of Aran or called him a liar, they just didn’t have any reason to attack the city just through what he thought he had seen back then.

“So he knows something as well, right?” Juri asked.

“You talked about it?” Hiromitsu asked, but Juri shook his head.

“I could just somehow sense it in the way he talked about Phenomenists. It’s one thing knowing that they fled the city to be safe from the soldiers, but another to know that they are on their side as we Infirm could easily suffer under them in our own city.”

Juri had a good point as not all Phenomenists were friendly. Some of them had indeed tried to attack the city, some battles here and there leaving victims on both sides. But that was exactly why they had tried to make Aran forget about the city as much as possible and try and get a steady life here with them.

“But you saw more, right?” Taiga asked as Juri started shifting a bit more uncomfortably in his chair.

“The second time I saw the boy I got curious, maybe a bit too curious. I started following him around and just through dumb luck and the soldiers not following him around I managed to sneak after him into one of the research buildings. I don’t even know why I was so stupid to go inside…”

When Juri clenched his fists, Taiga put his hands over them with a soothing look. “You were not just curious, you were worried and I guess not just for yourself, but for everyone in the city. So while it was indeed dangerous I think you can help a lot of people with your information.”

“And bring even more danger towards them, like with your village,” Juri said and looked into the round, but no one actually looked scolding.

“We’re not here to judge you,” Wataru said with a soft smile. “We want to help you as much as we want to help our own people. You don’t have to fear us.”

Finally Juri nodded and continued. “Inside they had so much going on that I can’t even remember everything. Machines, weapons, gadgets I have never seen in my life. I couldn’t even tell what was dangerous and what was not.”

“Is there anything in particular you remember?” Hiromitsu asked curiously as he wanted to know what they were up against.

“The one thing that stood out the most was some kind of cell. But it wasn’t out of metal, it was see-through, yet it was hard as stone as they had trapped a Phenomenist inside of it and he tried to throw fire blasts at it, but he crumbled to the ground after the first few tries.

They all exchanged a worried look on hearing about that cell as their abilities would usually be able to break even through walls, but this sounded like it wasn’t just a pretty strong material, but also weakening them somehow.

“The rest I don’t clearly remember. I saw some weapons, normal guns, but I couldn’t tell if they were special or not.”

“Who were the people around?” Nikaido asked.

“The boy from before was there. Then there was that one man who observed everything from the side. He looked really pleased with the cell, but also with the way the boy had come back. I feel like he is behind all this research and recruiting Phenomenists.”

“Recruiting, right…” Taisuke hissed under his breath.

“Do you think he forced them?” Wataru asked, but Juri could only shrug his shoulders.

“They looked calm, but not really forced or emotionless, so I couldn’t really tell.”

“They?” Wataru asked.

“There was one more Phenomenist in the room. He seemed younger than the researcher, but already too old to have become a Phenomenist just recently.”

“I wonder if the one in charge is an Infirm?” Hiromitsu said in his thoughts, but once more Juri couldn’t tell.

“The other one used telekinesis for something random in the facility as if he was just playing around, that’s why I knew he was one, but the researcher didn’t show anything. The last person who entered was also a Phenomenist. He is the one who attacked me when he realized that I was hiding and watching.”

“Did they talk about anything?” Wataru asked.

“The Phenomenist who entered told the researcher that some kind of preparations were finally done and they all looked excited about the news. Then he asked what to do with the Phenomenist in the cell and the researcher told them to observe for a bit longer and get rid of him if he wouldn’t change.”

“Change…?” Nikaido whispered thoughtfully. “Are they giving them some kind of drugs or medicine to make them obedient?”

“That could be,” Hiromitsu said and nodded. “Something is definitely going one”

“Did you see anything else? Or have any other information?” Wataru asked.

“I tried to get out of the room before things could escalate, but then the boy spotted me and without a warning the other Phenomenist shot fire into my direction and I only got away because I stumbled and threw over some boxes in the back of the room. That Phenomenist could also use telekinesis, but luckily the boxes blocked his attempt to stop me.”

Nikaido looked at Taisuke as the other one seemed to have tensed on the mention of that Phenomenist having both those active abilities, as it wasn’t common. Having a main ability like water, fire or telekinesis together with power transfer was more common and in their village no one possessed two main abilities.

“I also remember the name of him as the researcher said it when he entered the room,” Juri remembered.

“And what is his name?” Hiromitsu asked, his look on Taisuke for a second before he looked back at Juri.

“Tama.”

Taisuke's reaction had been immediate and he had left the meeting without another word. As calm as the way he left seemed, Nikaido could tell more by now and he gave Hiromitsu and Taiga a nod, hurrying after him.

Juri looked a bit confused, but Taiga told him to not worry about his brother too much, even though he had also looked kind of pale after hearing Tama’s name.

Nikaido left the rest to Hiromitsu and dashed after Taisuke who immediately aimed for the forest border after leaving the meeting hall.

Instead of trying to stop him, Nikaido just followed him on a safe distance until Taisuke finally stopped at a downhill area from where the village couldn't be spotted anymore. He clenched his fists and started screaming as he leant to the front.

Fire immediately formed around him and when he sank to his knees and let out another scream while hitting the ground, the rocky surface around him cracked and Nikaido made a few steps back as fire emerged from the cracks around him.

Nikaido didn't need any expansion as he had already caught up to the fact that Tama was the friend who had betrayed Taisuke. Knowing that he was in the city now was definitely a hard blow for Taisuke, yet it was something the other one had definitely already guessed. The few parts Nikaido had heard so far showed that Tama had most likely gone to the city on his free will. Maybe even wanting to end his life as a Phenomenist as he had seemed quite troubled about it. If he was now doing everything out of his own free will or not was questionable, but whatever the city was up to involved him and it would definitely reach their village sooner or later.

"You fucking asshole," Taisuke roared and hit the ground again, flames emerging once more, but this time Taisuke was running out of energy and he had to stabilize himself. But while he would usually faint after using this much fire, he kept going. Cursing and throwing fire all around him.

At one point Nikaido was sure that the other one would end up committing suicide if he kept going and while it seemed like suicide from his side as well he dared to make his way over to Taisuke.

The other one was bending to the front, heavily breathing and unable to get up again. Just when Taisuke let out another roar and lunged out towards the ground, the fire already around his fist, Nikaido had reached him and while he didn't understand where he took the confidence from he closed his hands around Taisuke's fist. He got ready to get burned, but it didn't happen. The fire vanished when he touched the other one's skin and hadn’t caused any damage.

Taisuke jolted and wanted to pull back, but he had not enough energy left to do so. "Idiot, let go!"

Instead of letting Taisuke back off, Nikaido moved one arm around Taisuke to pull him against his chest. Taisuke struggled even more on that move, yelling nonstop at the other one to get away from him.

Taisuke's fire showed up in front of him once more while they were struggling, but Nikaido hurried to trap both of the other one's hands in his own.

"You're not at fault for what he's doing, so don't punish yourself for it," Nikaido yelled at the other one and forced him to stay put as he was easily overpowering him now. That was also the moment he felt Taisuke's remaining energy running through his own body, but this time something felt slightly different. There was no way Taisuke had accidentally used his power transfer in his rage. So it must have been Nikaido who had taken them from the other one.

Still confused about what had just happened, Nikaido had to close his arms even more around the other one as Taisuke collapsed to the front, finally too exhausted to keep fighting back. Nikaido carefully put the other one's head on his lap as he sat back, but he needed a moment as well to calm down as he now felt Taisuke's fire inside of him, but he didn't want to release it in this critical situation and after a few deep breaths he actually succeeded in taming the flame inside of him.

"He'll come for us," Taisuke said in a low voice as he looked up into the sky between the high trees. "He thinks we're demons who don't belong in this world. Now he has what it takes to hunt every single one of us down."

"But he's still a Phenomenist himself," Nikaido said, but Taisuke shook his head.

"As weird as it might seem to outsiders, I think his plan will end with his own death."

That was indeed quite a drastic move. Something Nikaido couldn't understand, on the other hand he had heard of Phenomenists who committed suicide because they couldn't handle their abilities so having someone who didn't just hated his own life, but everyone of his kind to such a degree didn't seem impossible.

"Nika, I won't be able to face him," Taisuke admitted, his eyes now slightly teary. "He was so confused when he came to the village. Such a shy and nice character. The kids loved him. But the more we trained and I tried to show him that being a Phenomenist wasn't much different from being an Infirm, the more his rage started growing. At some point I couldn't even recognize him anymore."

"So he left the village behind to go to the city," Nikaido concluded, but there was more to it Taisuke hadn't told him yet.

"When he realized that we weren't sharing his point of view and wouldn't leave the village, he just took things in his own hands."

Taisuke tried to sit up and Nikaido helped him. In silence he watched how Taisuke pulled his shirt up his back and with a gasp he looked at the other one's back. His entire back was one big burn mark.

"He tried to attack the Phenomenists in our village. Myuto and Ryosuke were still not at our village at that time, neither was Aran. Massu was unfortunately out on patrol so he went for Fuma who had been pissed at Tama from the start for his attitude. But Tama had three abilities and was in way more control of them than Fuma."

Taisuke stopped for a moment and took a shaking breath as he had never talked about that day. A memory that had made him overprotective and skeptical of strangers.

"Fuma was no match for him and before Mitsu and I could make it to the outer part of the village, Taiga had shown up between them. He had always believed that through kindness he could help people, but Tama was a different case and the moment I saw the fire in Tama's hand I dashed towards them as fast as I could. I made it in time, but just the thought of how easily someone I trusted could have taken away one of the most important people in my life scared me so much that I freaked on the spot. Tama’s attack shouldn’t even have hurt me as fire users are usually immune against burns, yet Tama’s fire left this heavy scar with me. Luckily Mitsu got Fuma and Taiga out of the way before they could get hurt. I was so out of control that I could have easily killed Tama if he had dared to attack, but he vanished. Just like that he left."

The exhaustion on Taisuke's face wasn't just physical anymore. Those memories were heavy and still not progressed by the other one. They hurt like a knife in the chest and Taisuke took another shaking breath, a few silent tears falling this time.

Slowly Nikaido pulled the other one's shirt back down and put his arms gently around his upper body.

"Thank you for finally telling me," Nikaido said in a soothing voice. "I'll swear to you that I won't betray you and I'll be there for you if anyone ever tries to backstab you ever again."

Taisuke put his hands around the other one's arms as he pulled his back more against Nikaido's chest.

"I want to believe you," Taisuke said. "I really want to."

"Then try," Nikaido replied. "For now just try and if I ever give you a reason to lose that trust you can always stop trying."

***

"Are you sure?" Juri asked again after Hiromitsu had allowed Taiga to show Juri around the village after the meeting, but Juri was worrying more about Taisuke than Taiga did.

"He's fine. Nikaido is with him," Taiga said with a smile. Kentaro, who had joined them after the meeting, also nodded.

"Are they something like best friends?" Juri asked and the boys looked at each other for a moment before they cracked a teasing smile.

"More like eternal enemies," Kentaro teased.

"With benefits," Taiga added, making Kentaro laugh even more while Juri raised an eyebrow.

Massu who had come back from his patrol was following them around the village for now just in case, but he took his distance to not make Juri feel even more uneasy.

The same as with Kentaro before, Taiga explained where everything was in the village and who was a Phenomenist and who wasn't.

Kentaro watched them from the back, grinning to himself as Taiga seemed way more excited about showing everything to Juri than he had been back when Kentaro had arrived.

"Finally allowed around the crowd?" Fuma greeted them as they arrived at the training ground, where Myuto, Aran and Fuma were the only ones training as they had increased the patrolling time.

"Are we getting to know more too?" Aran asked, trying to not sound too scolding and Taiga immediately nodded.

"My brother will have a talk with everyone in the meeting hall later, don't worry."

"Great, until then let's do something more fun?" Myuto asked and Juri tilted his head.

"Remember that Massu is around," Kentaro warned them.

“Then let’s give Massu a challenge?” Myuto teased and Aran knew exactly what the other one was up to and while Taiga and Kentaro looked at each other not knowing what was going on, Fuma pushed them and Juri towards the forest.

“We are allowed around the river, right?” Fuma asked. “Right now Ryosuke and Mitsu are on patrol in the north so nothing for us to worry about.”

“He will totally scold you for this later,” Taiga said as it dawned on him what they were up to.

“Us, they will scold us,” Myuto corrected him.

“What are they talking about?” Juri asked towards Kentaro who could only shrug his shoulders.

For a while nothing unusual happened. They had walked towards the river, playing around at the riverbank, knowing of course that Massu was watching them.

“Show him some of your abilities,” Fuma said towards Kentaro after a while.

“He has seen more than enough of them I think,” Kentaro said as he remembered the chaos at the waterfall. Still a moment Kentaro was more than confused about as once more he had used his abilities in a way he didn’t know he could.

“We can combine all our abilities,” Myuto said and Fuma of course got immediately excited. Kentaro didn’t have much to say against that and they played around with all their abilities for a while.

“Impressed?” Taiga asked when Juri kept looking at them in fascination, but also a bit of unease.

“A bit,” Juri said with a nod.

“Wait until you see Taisuke exploding, then you will be impressed or dead scared, depending on where you are at that moment,” Aran said, trying to sound a bit teasing, but while he hadn’t been there on the day Taisuke had lost control completely, he had of course heard stories and he never wanted to experience it.

“What are they up to now,” Taiga asked a bit scolding as he hadn’t missed the nod between Myuto and Fuma before they told Kentaro to try and create a wall of water and the moment Kentaro did so Fuma threw a fire blast into it, making the water splash into the air and that was when Myuto kept the water up there. It was all over the place now, surrounding them and then Fuma threw another fire blast, making the small water drops in the air slowly turn into fog.

“So that’s it,” Taiga said with a chuckle and while Juri still didn’t understand what was going on, Fuma and Myuto dashed right back to them.

“Let’s go,” Myuto yelled in excitement as they had formed the fog to get away.

“Don’t worry, it’s safe around here,” Taiga immediately soothed Juri as he looked a bit panicked when the others tried to make them stand up and follow them.

“We’ll get into so much trouble later,” Kentaro said while shaking his head, but still followed the others with a small smile.

“Let’s try the lower hillside at the side stream. It’s right around the corner and Massu will definitely look down the main river first,” Myuto said as he took Aran’s wrist and dashed ahead. The smaller one was scolding him for his dumb ideas, yet he looked the most entertained together with him after all. All his worries seemed only half as pressuring when Myuto was around.

Kentaro walked behind everyone as he wanted to make sure that Massu wasn’t following them or got too angry if they kept running away from him. But then he stopped as he was sure for a moment that Massu had immediately caught up to them. The next second though he realized that the position he thought he had spotted him, couldn't possibly work out as it had been inside the fog over the river. But he was sure that he had seen someone, but the river was fast flowing after all and also too deep for someone to just stand in it.

“Kentaro, are you coming?” Taiga asked and the other one nodded, hurrying after them. He tried to shake his worries off as all that was going to await them was some scolding later. Concentrating on something else, Kentaro looked at Juri and Taiga. The new boy still seemed to feel uneasy, especially with their sudden hide and seek game, but the way he kept clinging to Taiga so obviously made Kentaro smile. It felt like Taiga had finally found someone who was matching his energy. Of course he was a close friend to Kentaro too by now and the other boys also got along perfectly with Taiga, but with his older brother leading the village and him being the only Infirm it felt like he was always the one who got overprotected and with Juri he had finally someone he could actually support on the same level without getting seen as the weak one.

“Let’s stay around here for now,” Fuma announced and they jumped down to a small hillside. There weren’t many trees around the area, but it was also hard to spot from the forest. One of the few open grass fields close to the river. Sometimes when the rain was too heavy it would completely fill up with water.

Myuto started running towards the high grass, but his legs got tangled and he fell over, making Aran and Fuma laugh at him and this time Juri also showed a smile.

“Are you feeling that bad about us getting into trouble?” Taiga asked after Kentaro hadn’t even realized that he had spaced out and kept looking towards the river while Taiga had walked up to him.

“No, that’s not it,” Kentaro said and shook his head, trying to form a smile. “Not that I think we will get away with just a bit of scolding. Especially you.”

Taiga laughed on hearing that as the other one was definitely right. “Then let’s make the best out of it.”

Kentaro nodded and looked after Taiga who jumped into a puddle of clear water that was still left from a heavy rain day a few days ago and Juri squealed next to him when he got all the water into the face.

Kentaro chuckled on his reaction and looked at them as Juri tried to kick some water up at the others, Myuto hiding behind Aran who scolded him for not using his abilities to stop the water while Fuma was about to just throw Taiga head first into the next puddle.

Kentaro turned back to the river one more time and while that move had been to make himself calm down and join the others, he stopped once more. He was sure that his mind was playing tricks on him.

The first thing he realized was something that couldn’t possibly happen. The river was flowing backwards.

“What the hell is going on,” Kentaro said as he dared to walk over to the river while the others hadn’t realized what was going on yet. Right next to it he stopped and crouched down. When he put his hand into the water he could feel that something was different. There was something in the water, some energy. The same kind as his! When he looked towards the direction where the water was now flowing to, he realized the next impossible thing. Someone was standing downstream. But not next to the river, on the river!

Kentaro got up, looking at the other one with wide eyes. The other one didn’t necessarily look dangerous, he even looked kind of playful? He was of tall build, the same as Myuto and with black wavy hair and a teasing smile on his lips. But when Kentaro wanted to take a step back to let the others know about what was going on the boy disappeared. He dropped into the water, but so smooth and fast that it had been no accident.

The next second a whistle went through the forest and finally the other boys also turned towards Kentaro’s direction. All of them looked ahead to the other side of the river now. Someone was walking up towards them. Hands in his pockets, totally casually as if on a walk and with a challenging smile towards Kentaro. The man was maybe around the same age as Wataru, but he was of strong build with short blonde hair.

For a moment the man’s eyes wandered off towards the other boys and he formed a lopsided smile and gave a small nod.

Just for a brief moment Kentaro turned towards the others, all of them as confused as them, except for one of them. Taiga’s look was hard to interpret. It almost seemed like he was annoyed and relieved at the same time, but before Kentaro could ask about it there was a movement right in front of him and the boy who had vanished into the river before grabbed his feet and with a yelp Kentaro was dragged down into the river.

"Why are we going back? You can't seriously just leave Kentaro behind," Fuma yelled at Taiga, but the boy had immediately made everyone leave, especially when Myuto and Fuma got ready to attack. Luckily Taiga had enough saying in the village to make his voice heard and they only gave a death glare to the man who slowly moved downstream as if nothing had happened in the first place.

"He'll be fine," Taiga said as they hurried upstream and then Massu came into sight, a really pissed expression on his face.

"I'll do the talking, you wait here," Taiga ordered and even though the boys were still looking behind them, still not believing that they had just left Kentaro behind, they obeyed once more and Taiga walked ahead.

At first Massu crossed his arms to his chest in annoyance, but then his expression changed as he looked downstream, but no one was there anymore.

Massu made them get back to the village immediately and luckily Hiromitsu and Ryosuke had also just come back from their patrol.

"You're missing someone," Hiromitsu immediately said as he was sure that Kentaro wasn't with anyone else in the village while the others were gathered.

"They've gone missing all at once at some point," Massu said with a side glance, making Taiga look to the ground.

"Then we'll find some punishment for you boys later," Hiromitsu said and the boys groaned.

"Are we in that much trouble?" Juri asked Aran.

"Not in the fearing for your life trouble, but Hiromitsu is really mean when it's about punishments."

"He'll leave the entire harvest of this year to us I can see it," Myuto complained, but that realization made Juri relax as that was something he could definitely deal with.

"Then let's hear what happened," Hiromitsu said, but lifted his hand when Taiga wanted to explain. "As short as possible."

Taiga only shrugged his shoulders as if what had happened wasn't a big deal in the first place. "Fine, you want the short version," Taiga said and then his look changed to something more exciting. "Ueda."

***

Things had escalated so quickly that Kentaro didn't even have the time to take a deep breath when he got dragged into the water. But while the stream dragged them both with it he didn't panic as he knew that he could trust his abilities. The problem was that his abilities seemed to refuse to attack the boy who was holding him underwater and no matter how awesome his control was, breathing underwater was not one of his skills. But the other boy didn't seem to feel the same way as he had been underwater for quite some time already before he had pulled Kentaro in.

After struggling for air too much, Kentaro just lunged out for punches and kicks instead and to his surprise the boy let go. Without wasting time Kentaro put all his energy into getting out of the river and he formed a water platform that would lift him out, but the moment he broke through the surface to take a deep breath he had to duck down as a fire blast was thrown right into his direction without a warning. The moment he went back down underwater the boy threw a pressure wave at him. Something Kentaro didn't know was possible even underwater. But now he tried it as well, trying to form a wave inside the water and he was able to block the other one's next attack as both waves collided and formed a maelstrom.

Before Kentaro could get trapped underwater again he made his way back to the surface, but this time he was prepared and he didn't move when the fire blast came right at him.

The fire blast hit the water barrier around Kentaro and smoke rose to the sky. The man from before stood at the riverbank while the boy also jumped out of the water and landed gracefully next to him.

"Oh, that's a fascinating way of using the water,” the boy chirped in excitement while the man nodded, but put his hands back into his pockets as if he hadn’t attacked in the first place. While the water was now moving downstream again, Kentaro had learned how to not get dragged down with it.

"What the hell do you want from me?” Kentaro hissed at them as he dared to get out of the river on their side as he was sure the boy could easily walk over the river towards him anyway.

“Ueda-sensei, you made him angry,” the boy teased the older one, but bowed slightly when he got a side glance on his carefree behavior.

“Are you new in the village?” Ueda asked and just the fact that the other one knew about the village made Kentaro doubt that he was in the worst trouble, but he was still skeptical and refused to reply.

“Reo, let’s go,” Ueda said and just turned around without another word and the tall boy gave Kentaro a bright smile before he walked after the older one.

“Wait!” Kentaro yelled from the back, but they just kept walking. While Kentaro should definitely just be happy about them leaving him alone, he got angry at the way Ueda was playing around with him and without even lifting his hand for a direct attack, his anger formed through just clenching his fists and a thin sharp whip from the water moved towards them.

What happened next had Kentaro stare in astonishment as Reo seemed to be in control of something Kentaro had only been able to use once without even realizing how he had done it.

Reo had only turned his head, not even lifting his hand and as if appearing out of nowhere, without using the water of the river, an almost invisible wall stopped Kentaro’s attack. So thin that the water floating in the air was almost invisible to the eye. Water that had been picked up from the soil and the air. A technique the others hadn’t seen with other water users until now, but now there was finally someone who could use it.

But Kentaro’s sudden attack wasn’t going to end with Reo’s small defense move and without a warning Ueda had thrown a fire blast at the exact same time, making Kentaro stumble back as he had to focus on actually getting the water to move this time.

“Too slow,” Ueda said and appeared right through his fire blast when it vanished into smoke on contact with the water right in front of Kentaro. There was no distance left to fight and Ueda had already put one foot to the front, sweeping Kentaro’s legs easily and the boy landed on the ground. Before he could even think about any other move he flinched when Ueda stopped his fist right in front of his face with fire dancing around it.

“So much potential, yet no control at all,” Ueda scolded the boy. “You’re thinking way too much for a water user.”

Once more Ueda backed off and walked away as if nothing had happened, but this time Kentaro didn’t get angry. There was something about Ueda’s aggressive way of fighting that made Kentaro realize how helpless he would actually still be in a serious fight. Seeing Reo using the water easily made it even clearer how bad he was with his own abilities.

“Wait,” Kentaro let out again, but this time the other two actually stopped as his tone had been different. In a hurry Kentaro got up and dared to approach them without any attempt to attack them.

Ueda gave him a scanning look as he stopped right in front of them. He hesitated for a moment as he didn’t even know who they were and what they wanted so close to the village, but something told him that this encounter would benefit him if he let his pride step aside for a bit. He slowly looked up towards Reo, but then he realized that he needed to address Ueda. The boy had made it clear, Ueda was the teacher. Even though their abilities were different, Reo wasn’t going to decide anything without Ueda’s approval.

“I don’t know who you are and what you want here, but as you are fellow Phenomenists I am certain that we are on the same side,” Kentaro started, Ueda giving him an almost mocking smile. A reaction that made Kentaro clench his fists once more, but he succeeded in keeping his abilities out of it this time.

“So?” Ueda asked when the other one paused once more as he realized how stupid he must sound. After all he had been just attacked by those two and yet he tried to benefit from the situation, they would definitely laugh at him, but he still wanted to ask.

“Can you teach me how to control my abilities the same way he does?” Kentaro finally asked straightforward and Reo gave Ueda an excited look from the side, but stayed silent as expected.

“No,” Ueda replied so suddenly that Kentaro stared back at him dumbfounded until Ueda turned away and kept walking upstream. To his surprise Reo didn’t follow and gave him a sign with a head movement to follow Ueda so Kentaro ran after the other one and made sure to block his way.

“Why not?”

“I feel like you’re going to be a waste of time.”

“What?” Kentaro asked almost scandalized about that way too direct reply and the way Ueda scanned him from head to toe and let out a sigh made his anger rise again.

“Look how easily you get angry. As a water user that will stand in your way,” Ueda explained.

When Ueda tried to just keep going, Kentaro blocked his way once more, but this time Ueda stepped so close to him that Kentaro leant a bit to the back.

“But you are a fast learner,” Ueda praised him for the first time. “Moving with the flow instead of trying to break a wall with a wave.”

Kentaro understood the other one’s words as his anger had immediately made him attack around him at first and now he was able to keep it under control. But now he needed to prove to the other one that he could control it at all times and that was something he wouldn’t be able to learn in just a few minutes.

“Why do you want me to train you?” Ueda asked and Kentaro made a step back on those words. “Don’t come me with any I want to become stronger shit, because then I won’t change my mind.”

Those words had Reo chuckle in the back, but he kept observing from the side, obviously cheering for Kentaro.

“I want to know where my place is,” Kentaro replied while he kept looking to the ground. He wasn’t even sure why he had said it and if that was indeed his main goal, but the words had just come out. “I am tired of running and looking over my back, trying to figure out where I belong and who I can trust. I don’t even know myself anymore since I’ve become a Phenomenist.”

Ueda let out a hum on the other one’s words and then looked over his shoulder. “What do you think? You want a new training mate?”

“YES,” Reo yelled in excitement and jumped up several times.

“It’s difficult to find other water users, especially those who seem to be able to control their abilities this well,” Ueda said as he looked back at Kentaro. “But let me warn you, if you say that you want to train under me then you can’t take that back.”

Kentaro gave the other one a determined look and finally nodded on which Reo jumped at him with a tight hug, making their sudden fight from before seem as if it hadn’t happened in the first place.

“Then let’s see how much chaos the others have brought up on the village over the past years,” Ueda said as he casually kept walking, Kentaro unable to follow as Reo shook him on the shoulders in excitement.

“Wait, you know the people from the village?” Kentaro asked, but when Reo finally released him, the boy shook his head.

“I don’t. But he does.”

Without any further explanation Reo ran after his teacher and yelled at Kentaro to follow him.

***

Instead of walking directly back towards the village, Taisuke and Nikaido had kept walking through the forest. As always Taisuke had fallen silent after he felt like he had shared way too much about his past, but each time he was with Nikaido he just let his guard drop easier than usual.

“What do you think about Juri’s story?” Taisuke finally asked after they had walked away from the river for quite a while.

“It doesn’t sound like an impossible story,” Nikaido said, but the way he phrased it made Taisuke give him a knowing look. “But I feel like he got to know a lot of details about things no one should have had access to that easily.”

“And he got out alive,” Taisuke added, making Nikaido nod.

“Do you think I am overreacting?” Taisuke asked.

“I think you have any right to feel skeptical and I bet Mitsu and the others are also not that easily going to believe him. The question now is if what happened was out of his hands. A plan from Tama’s side to make someone deliver a message without him even realizing it or if there is more to the entire situation?”

“After Tama had left no one came to our village for months. I really hoped everything would just stay that quiet, but with more Phenomenists still getting discovered and getting their abilities, it was just a question of time for more people finding this place.”

“But until now everyone fit in perfectly, right?” Nikaido asked as he didn’t feel like any members of the village disliked each other no matter if Phenomenist or Infirm.

“Aran was the first one to arrive and all his talking about the city being up to something made me retreat from everyone even more,” Taisuke explained. “Luckily Myuto joined soon after and he somehow found a connection to the boy in his own annoying way to keep his topics away from everyone.”

“Not that Aran was telling lies,” Nikaido said as they now knew better as long as Juri wasn’t telling the same exact lies.

“Juri had seen enough to make it sound realistic at least. Aran just had all his conspiracy theories without any proof,” Taisuke said, but now he felt a bit sorry for him as he hadn’t been that off track with them.

“Then Ryosuke joined I think?” Nikaido changed back to the topic.

“Yes, he joined a few months after Myuto. The others were already all in the village so for good a year it had fallen silent until you arrived.”

“Did you give all of them the harsh greeting we got?” Nikaido asked with a teasing smile, making Taisuke roll his eyes.

“Your timing was bad, that was all.”

“Oh so everyone else really got a nicer welcome?” Nikaido asked once more, now shoving Taisuke a bit to the side, making the older one chuckle.

“Hey, at least you knew what was going to await you if you stayed,” Taisuke teased back and hit the other one against the shoulder.

“So you don’t mind us staying anymore?” Nikaido asked a bit more seriously this time and Taisuke stopped for a moment, looking at the other one.

“I want you to stay,” Taisuke let out with a nod. “Actually-”

“Actually what?” Nikaido asked when Taisuke stopped and shook his head as if he was about to say something he felt embarrassed about.

“Nevermind. It’s nothing.”

Nikaido pouted on the way Taisuke dropped the topic and he poked him several times to make the other one say it, but Taisuke shook the other one off and ran ahead yelling at him to stop.

Right at a clearing with a rocky surface close to where one of their biggest mountain ranges started, Taisuke wanted to run back to the river, but Nikaido had caught up to him, yet he received such a harsh pull on his upper arm that he wanted to scold Nikaido when he was almost thrown off his feet.

Yet when he turned his head, the other one gave him a sign to remain silent and pointed ahead before he pulled Taisuke behind a few trees.

“Someone is over there,” Nikaido whispered, but Taisuke couldn’t spot anyone. “I saw someone casually walking down towards the river, I am sure of it. He didn’t look like a soldier, but he was too far away to say for sure.”

“But we’re up in the north,” Taisuke whispered back. “Except for soldiers, no one would attack us from here.”

After a moment of silence, Taisuke let out a weird noise between a pout and a hum, making Nikaido tilt his head at him.

“What is it?” Nikaido asked, but then got pulled into the direction of the river.

“Just try to stay as hidden as possible. Don’t let him see you.”

“Are you out of your mind?” Nikaido asked, but something about Taisuke’s behavior made him tag along for now. They should somehow be able to handle a single soldier if it was indeed one.

A few moments later they could hear voices, still far away, but they didn’t sound like fighting noises.

“Why do I think that they are not supposed to be down here?” Nikaido asked scolding as he spotted Kentaro first, standing at the other side of the river, while Taiga and the others were still a bit at the back, but something didn’t feel right.

“What are they looking at?” Nikaido asked as he realized that Kentaro was staring down at the river, but then lifted his head towards the forest while the others also approached and looked in the same direction on the sound of a whistle.

“There he is,” Taisuke said as calm as Nikaido hadn’t expected him to be as Taiga was with the others. Usually that was enough to make Taisuke freak at everyone who tried to approach.

Nikaido looked at the man who seemed to be the one he had spotted before. Blonde hair and casual clothes, no soldier. But what was he doing here?

The situation escalated when Kentaro suddenly let out a gasp as he got dragged down into the river.

“Don’t,” Taisuke said and grabbed Nikaido’s arm when the other one wanted to dash to his little brother’s rescue. Nikaido was angry enough to lose his patience in a second and he was about to punch Taisuke right into the face for a second time as the other one was always the overprotective older brother so he couldn’t understand why he would stop him. Yet Taisuke was faster and used his power transfer to make Nikaido stumble and at the same time he pulled him down into a sitting position.

“Don’t you dare steal my abilities now,” Taisuke hissed at the other one. “Listen, okay?”

“Talk fast then,” Nikaido barked back, trying to spot what was going on at the river.

“I hope this coming from me will make you believe my words,” Taisuke started. “This person is one of the few I trust with my life. Am I clear?”

At first Nikaido hadn’t listened as he was too restless, but then he turned to Taisuke with wide eyes. After everything he had just told him about Tama and how hard it was for him to trust Juri or even let Nikaido and Kentaro stay in the first place, he had just told him that this stranger was a trustworthy person?

“You know them?” Nikaido asked, finally calming down a bit.

“I know Ueda,” Taisuke said with an excited look. “The other boy I don’t know, but he seems to be a water user like your brother.”

“But what are they doing here?” Nikaido asked and looked back up just to find Taiga’s group retreating from the river, while Ueda was almost out of sight towards the other direction.

“He will definitely tell us that later, but want to watch for now?”

“Watch what?” Nikaido asked as he was still speechless about Taiga and the others casually leaving, but when even Taisuke said that he trusted that man, then it seemed to be the same for Taiga.

“Ueda’s more than questionable training methods,” Taisuke said and Nikaido wanted to slap him for saying it in such excitement.

***

“Oh, look at who is back first,” Myuto said when he spotted Nikaido and Taisuke.

“Do not tell them anything I warn you,” Massu said the moment Taiga jumped up from one of the benches close to the meeting hall.

“Right, because it is so damn unsuspicious that we are all gathered around here,” Taiga teased.

Hiromitsu had made the boys stay with Wataru and Ryosuke while he and Massu had taken charge of making his round through the village so that people wouldn’t freak out about more new arrivals. Not that this one was a new one.

But when Hiromitsu had told Miyata and his kids had immediately ran back into the house with his mum laughing at them, Aran raised an eyebrow.

“So who is that Ueda again?” Aran asked skeptically, before Taisuke and Nikaido were close enough to hear them.

“He’s one of the three founders, did you even listen?” Wataru said from the side, still pissed at the boys for running off earlier.

“That is not much of an explanation,” Fuma agreed, but didn’t bother getting up from the bench on which he was lying flat on his back.

“The details can wait for later, just one warning,” Wataru said and got everyone’s attention. “Don’t get in his way. You will regret it.”

“Sounds scary enough to stay away,” Ryosuke said, but seemed excited to meet him. “Shouldn’t we call Massu back as well before he arrives?”

“Not yet. It’s better if he joins later,” Wataru said.

“Why is that?” Myuto asked curiously as he sat on the grass with outstretched legs.

“They have a few things to settle,” Wataru said, but then fell silent when Nikaido and Taisuke walked up towards them.

Juri remained next to Aran, while Taiga walked up to them.

“Everything alright?” Taiga asked as he of course knew that Taisuke had been in a miserable state earlier when he had left the meeting in a hurry and Juri looked sorry as well, while it wasn’t his fault of course.

“All good, don’t worry,” Taisuke said and ruffled through the younger one’s hair. “How about everything here? Having another meeting?”

“Babysitting the runners,” Wataru let out, making the boys bow a bit, except for Fuma who chuckled.

“It was fun though,” Fuma said as Nikaido walked up to him.

“Leaving my brother behind seemed to have been fun as well I guess?”

On those words Fuma tried to sit up and turn at the same time, ending with him falling from the bench right in front of the older one.

“Taiga made us,” Fuma immediately stuttered and pointed at the other boy.

When Nikaido started laughing, Fuma blinked in confusion and leant over to Myuto who had tried to crawl away a bit from the bench.

“Did he lose it now?”

“Idiots, they know,” Taiga said with a smile and gave Taisuke an excited look.

“We indeed do. We saw what happened,” Taisuke said and turned towards the forest. “Which means we will soon get company.”

And sooner than they thought Ueda and the two boys came into sight at the forest border after Taisuke and Nikaido had left after observing for a while longer than Taiga and the others did.

“Was he too harsh on him?” Taiga whispered towards Taisuke, but the older one shook his head.

“I would say he was too nice,” Taisuke said with a chuckle. “But I doubt he will continue being that nice, especially with the potential Kentaro showed him.”

“Now I have to watch out to not become the overprotective older brother,” Nikaido said as he sighed. It had been hard enough to watch from the sideline before and he knew it would be even harder to keep watching their training from now on.

“What a welcome. I guess the boys couldn’t wait to tell you,” Ueda teased as he joined the group at the meeting hall and now all the boys got up to their feet, Juri still remaining a bit in the background as he was still overwhelmed with being around all the new people in the village and having someone like Ueda showing up at this timing, had him even more intimidated.

But the next moment Taiga walked up to him and hooked his elbow with his and pulled him a bit to the back when Hiromitsu came back to greet Ueda and for a moment the older ones had a serious talk.

“Don’t worry about them too much. Ueda is not a bad person and while he will shout a lot at training, you will not have much to do with him. Just stick with me and the boys.

Juri slowly nodded as that was definitely the best thing to do for now.

“Had a nice swim?” Nikaido asked when Kentaro walked up to him.

“Wait, you saw us?” Kentaro asked, now seeming kind of embarrassed.

“Taisuke, always bad at sneaking around, like always,” Ueda greeted the other one and hit him so hard on the shoulder that Taisuke let out a hiss. “And I see that you’ve gotten a lot new company.”

Ueda’s look fell on the boys first, Fuma, Aran, Myuto, Ryosuke and Juri all new faces to him. He gave them all a scanning look before he pointed at Fuma. “You suck at controlling your abilities.”

While Fuma let out a snort on hearing that, the other boys started laughing.

“He isn’t wrong, you know?” Myuto laughed, but then fell silent when Ueda pointed at him next.

“You need more than just a bit of work on your physical strength, because otherwise even a chaos loaded guy like him can totally beat you, no matter how good your telekinesis is.”

“What? How?” Myuto stuttered as he hadn’t in any way shown him what abilities he possessed.

Ueda just kept going and stopped at Aran, the boy wanting to step back as he wasn’t a Phenomenist, but Ueda still pointed at him. “You’ve the cool head a lot of these boys could actually need.”

Fuma immediately let out a laugh on hearing that as that wasn’t the way he would describe Aran, but Myuto actually nodded with a proud smile towards the smaller one as he knew that Aran could be more concentrated than all of them at training and possessed an extremely sharp tactical thinking.

“You,” Ueda went on as he pointed at Ryosuke, the boy waiting patiently for a reaction. But then Ueda tilted his head as if he wasn’t sure for the first time. “Quite some power control, interesting.”

That was all he said and Ryosuke shrugged his shoulders as he seemed satisfied with that reply.

Ueda looked at Taiga who he already knew of course and then his eyes met Juri’s insecure look as the boy stepped a bit behind Taiga.

“Interesting,” Ueda let out without any other explanation and turned back towards Taisuke. Then his look fell on Nikaido.

“You’re his older brother,” Ueda said and looked at Kentaro.

“Right,” Nikaido replied calmly.

“So you agree with his decision to train under me?”

“Not sure about that,” Nikaido said and gave his little brother a side glance. “But he decided that for himself, so now he has to keep his word.”

“Wise words,” Ueda said with a lopsided smile. “Then let’s not disturb everyone’s work. Mitsu, can we have a talk inside?”

Hiromitsu nodded and told the boys to go back to their daily routine. Some of them had to get ready for patrolling, others had duties on the fields or upcoming training.

Only Wataru and Hiromitsu stayed with Ueda.

“What am I supposed to do?” Reo asked while he had been standing in the back quietly until now.

“Do what you do best, make some friends,” Ueda teased and left the boy to the others and Reo immediately looked excited about that and grabbed Kentaro’s arm.

“Introduce me!” Reo yelled and dragged Kentaro towards the others.

“It’s going to be quite noisy for a while,” Nikaido said with a sigh.

“You’re always welcome at my hut if yours is getting too noisy.”

On Taiuske’s words the younger one turned to him, but Taisuke had immediately turned away and walked down towards the fields instead. Way faster than he needed to, but Nikaido only smiled after him.

Explanations had been kept as short as possible and Mitsu had only made clear that they had to make a decision about the city as their village's safety was at stake.

"Attacking the city is impossible," Nikaido said as he walked back from the last patrol with Taisuke.

It was already the second evening after Ueda had arrived, but they had to keep up their patrols after all and it came to no one's surprise that Mitsu left the entire village in Ueda's care for more people to patrol. Yet there was still that one mystery around Massu as he hadn't been that thrilled about Ueda arriving, not that they interacted much yet.

"I feel like Mitsu's idea is more about a spying team," Taisuke explained. "But with Tama in the city we can't go."

"But the younger ones could. He also doesn't know me so I could -"

"It's suicide to go back to the city even for spying," Taisuke cut him.

"Then would you prefer Ueda's idea?" Nikaido asked and the other one fell silent for a moment.

Nikaido had caught up to the history of the village that there had been three founders and they decided to help out around the north as they knew that more Phenomenists were up there. But as Tama knew them all as well they wouldn't be able to help with the spying. Ueda offered for all of them to move to the north as they had built communities up there over the years as well.

Yet Mitsu wanted to see if anyone was up for actually trying his risky plan, so he had sent Wataru and a few fighters to the north to talk to the remaining founders.

"It will only delay everything if we hide up more north now," Taisuke said and scratched his head in annoyance. "I don't know what to do."

"Neither do we, so don't worry," Nikaido comforted the other one as they stepped back into their borders. As they had the west side, they were close to the training field and they immediately spotted the water getting tossed around at the small stream.

"How often do I have to tell you to not force it. You can't just shape the water by command. Waving your arms around like that only makes you look like a fool."

Taisuke chuckled on the way Ueda's voice was heard even at that distance. Nikaido shook his head and tried to stay calm even while Reo was trying to bury his little brother alive under tons of water.

"Oh, trouble ahead," Taisuke said as he spotted Massu walking up to the training grounds and they hurried down towards them too.

"Stop for now. He's unfortunately not having the stamina I want him to have," Ueda said and waved his hand, Reo only nodding before he sat down next to Kentaro who was lying on his back, breathing heavily.

"Need some help?"

"Go away," Kentaro replied, but Reo only laughed.

"Am I finally getting a welcome back hug?" Ueda teased when Massu walked up towards him.

"You're only going to get a welcome back punch in the face."

Massu's words had Nikaido look at Taisuke in worry and he signaled him to go help his brother and Taisuke also kept his distance.

"Still angry, I see."

"What happened between them?" Reo asked as he obviously didn't know either, but Nikaido could only shrug his shoulders as he helped Kentaro up into a sitting position.

"Already regretting your choice?" Nikaido teased while Kentaro let out a cough after having swallowed too much water.

"It's too early for that," Reo replied instead. "You haven't even experienced half of his real training yet."

"Totally looking forward to it."

"You should move," Taisuke said as he urged them to get back.

"Are they going to have a fight?" Reo asked in excitement.

"I doubt there will be much of a long fight, but Massu needs to let off some steam," Taisuke said and they all walked up the hill a bit, spotting Mitsu watching from the village, obviously also not interfering for now.     

"You weren't ready back then and I doubt you're now," Ueda said, but still opened his arms invitingly as Massu obviously didn't care and the fire already danced around his fists.

"Then let me prove you wrong," Massu hissed before he dashed towards Ueda.

"So, Ueda trained Massu before?" Nikaido asked, but to his surprise Taisuke shook his head.

"Massu had asked him over and over again to help with his fire ability as Massu couldn't get a hold of it as well as Ueda, but he refused."

"Was he afraid that Massu could become better than him?" Kentaro asked.

"He gave him a challenge," Taisuke explained. "He had to land one direct hit with his fire for Ueda to train him."

"But he never hit," Reo concluded, but then shrugged his shoulders. "Guess I didn't have that much potential, because I never got that challenge."

"Why is he even training you in the first place? You don't have the same ability," Kentaro asked.

"But fire and water both need to be controlled mentally more than physically," Taisuke explained. "While Ueda looks like someone who would try to control it through strength like Fuma does, he has the best control I've ever seen.”

"He should train you," Nikaido teased, making Taisuke hit him.

They were interrupted by the heat of two fire blasts clashing and spiraling up into the air. Massu dashed through the smoke and tried his luck with kicks and punches, but no matter what he tried or how fast his movements actually looked, Ueda easily dodged them all. He wasn't even countering or blocking, all he did was smoothly avoiding.

"He's not taking him serious at all," Nikaido said in astonishment.

"Ueda knows how to keep his abilities charged for as long as possible. The first fire blast was just to show off," Reo explained. "He'd usually easily beat you by letting you exhaust yourself."

"But Massu needs to land a hit so he needs to go all out," Kentaro said and observed the fight.

"That's why he can't make it," Reo explained. "The way he tries to solve this fight is by using his fire as much as possible. He only gets a few minutes of fighting time through that before he'll collapse."

"So Ueda wouldn't even counter if Massu didn't attack that fiercely?" Nikaido asked, but Reo couldn't tell that for sure.

"He could try? I feel like that is what Ueda wants to teach him, but this time he will fail once more."

Massu seemed already exhausted after several failed attempts to hit any fire or punch on Ueda, while the other one didn't even seem affected by the fight.

"Still not ready," Ueda said, making Massu curse and attack with another fire blast, but Ueda swiftly moved out of the way and made the other one stumble.

"But let me be nice, because I stood you up for years," Ueda said, but instead of stopping the fight he formed fire himself this time. A challenge Massu would gladly accept even though he was already close to losing the fight. "Let me show you what control means."

Massu dashed to the front, throwing two fire blasts in a row, getting ready to make his way through the smoke, but Ueda didn't dodge or block. He just waited for the fire to approach.

There was an impact, but not as they had expected it and the fire blast moved as if it had hit a wall right in front of Ueda, the second one following and making the fire burn up even higher. Instead of it vanishing it grew and Massu stopped at the last second before he could get caught up in it. Then he had to retreat even more when Ueda used his own fire to add to the size of it and like a tornado of spiraling fire he sent it all out from his body without even lifting his arms. It rushed over the training area with a high speed and made everyone look in astonishment until they realized that the fire wouldn't vanish even after several meters.

"We need to get further away," Nikaido said, but Reo stepped to the front.

"No need for that," the boy casually said and lifted his hands. The small stream was on the other side yet Kentaro could see the water drops form once again, out of thin air.

Massu had dashed behind a rock on the training ground to avoid the blast and while it came towards Reo with full force it hit the water wall in the air with a sizzling noise as it exploded into smoke.

"Well, he tried," Taisuke said and walked casually away from the training ground.

Nikaido looked down towards them when the smoke lifted, but Massu sat with his back against the rock, obviously not able to start another attack, but to his surprise Ueda walked up to him and stretched out his hand towards him. The other one let himself get dragged back up.

Their abilities had potential that most of them didn't even know of yet and even with the city trying to get rid of them, Nikaido hoped that they had the better chances in this battle.

***

“Juri, catch,” Taiga said, but unfortunately too late and the boy had barely stretched a hand out when the bag of rice hit him against the chest and took him off his feet.

Taiga looked down at him for a few seconds before he burst out laughing. “You are surely not made for heavy work.”

“I am not made for heavy stuff getting thrown at me,” Juri complained as he sat up and got the rice bag off him.

Without any complaints he had agreed on helping out in the village with everyone else, but as he wasn’t a Phenomenist, Mitsu had decided to not make him train with everyone. For now he wanted the boy to calm down. Taiga had of course volunteered to explain the work to him and now that it was already afternoon they were finally done on the fields.

Just a few of the Infirm of the village were working with them, while Mitsu had made most of their fighters patrol.

“Let’s bring the last bags in and call it a day?” Taiga asked and stretched out a hand towards Juri. The boy took it and let himself get dragged back up.

“You’re not much heavier than I am, yet you don’t seem to care about the hard work,” Juri said as Taiga put a bag double the size of Juri’s on his shoulder.

“I am used to it, that’s all. I was still very young when we ran from the city as my oldest brother became a Phenomenist, so this isn’t even hard work for me.”

Juri only nodded as he now lifted up the bag easily. After all, it wasn't thrown at him this time.

“What were you doing in the city?” Taiga asked as they walked towards the storage building.

“Surviving,” Juri said with a gloomy expression as he put the bag down on one of the lower shelves, while Taiga threw his on top of one of the bigger ones, but then two of the piles on the side started falling over as they hadn’t been properly stored.

Taiga stretched his hands out, trying to avoid getting directly hit by the heavy bags, but to his surprise he got pulled to the back at the last second, the bags landing on the ground, two of them ripping on the impact.

“Nice move,” Taiga teased as he looked over his shoulder.

Juri had seen the bags moving and had grabbed Taiga by the waist, pulling him bag, but as he now still had his arms closed around the other one’s hips he seemed to feel more than embarrassed and pulled back without another word.

“Let’s clean this up,” Taiga said and threw an empty bag at Juri and took another one to start and refill the broken ones. “Am I supposed to do it by myself?”

“What?” Juri asked, a bit perplexed as he hadn’t even realized that he had remained standing and looking at Taiga, while the boy had already started cleaning up.

Again seeming a bit embarrassed Juri sat down next to him to fill his bag with the rice from the floor.

“You want me to stay with you tonight?”

Juri immediately let the new bag drop to the front and half of the rice fell back on the ground on Taiga’s question.

“Yeah, I guess I should definitely stay with you,” Taiga let out, so randomly and calmly that Juri stopped trying to get the rice back into the bag.

“What do you mean?” Juri finally brought out.

“Look at yourself. You’re still so restless. We told you that you have nothing to fear in our village, but I can understand that it’s not easy to feel at ease just like this. That’s why I think it’s better if I stay with you or do you prefer staying alone in your hut? Then I can of course-”

“No,” Juri immediately replied, shaking his head. “I mean, I don’t mind you staying.”

Taiga gave him a bright smile on that reply, but then threw some rice at him. “Then start picking up your mess or we won’t get done with anything today.”

“It’s not like it crumbled because of me,” Juri pouted.

“That was most likely my brother’s fault. He and Nikaido are not good at working together,” Taiga laughed as he already knew that the worst piles were always their fault.

***

“They trained again?” Taisuke asked and shook his head after Nikaido had told him on their patrol that Ueda had sent Reo over right after dinner at the meeting hall for more training.

“I feel like he will explode in no time,” Nikaido laughed as they headed already back towards the village border as it was almost midnight when they made it back.

“But he doesn’t really seem like an explosive person. Well as long as I don’t pick a fight with him.”

“Everyone explodes when you pick a fight with them,” Nikaido reminded him. “You are just not an easy person to stay calm around.”

“Look what an amazing job you are doing then,” Taisuke proudly announced, making Nikaido burst out laughing. “But I think with Ueda, he definitely will reach his limits at some point. He is amazing with his control, but not really with his limits.”

“The same as Kentaro then, but I think it’s a different kind of limit,” Nikaido explained. “Kentaro gets worked up over mistakes a lot, so if he can’t learn what Ueda wants him to, then he will just throw it all out of the window at some point.”

“If Ueda lets him,” Taisuke said with a nostalgic look. “I feel like I am the only person Ueda ever gave up on.”

“Fire training fire might have not been a good idea?” Nikaido tried to sound positive as they reached the fields at the village.

“It works with Massu,” Taisuke said, kind of defeated. “Not to forget that the other founders possess Telekinesis instead, but they also didn’t have much success with my training.”

“Now you have me for that,” Nikaido teased and put his hand on the other one’s arm. At first he didn’t want to risk it, but then he could feel how he was indeed able to actually feel Taisuke’s abilities and he dared to steal just a tiny little bit of it.

“Hey,” Taisuke complained and pulled his arm away, but Nikaido only chuckled and let a flame show up in his palm.

“Look, I can control your abilities way better than you, maybe we should give Ueda a second chance and try to train together with him?”

“That- doesn’t even sound that weird,” Taisuke said. “Maybe we actually should.”

Nikaido closed his hand, letting the fire vanish as he gave Taisuke a teasing look. “Recently you got so much better at actually sounding reasonable.”

“Fuck off,” Taisuke immediately replied and kicked the other one against the back of his thigh, making Nikaido jump a bit to the front. When Nikaido turned around and stopped, Taisuke realized that they had arrived at his hut.

“Then let’s ask Ueda about training tomorrow? Wataru will still take days, maybe even weeks to get the other founders down here, so let’s use the time between patrols wisely.”

They had no clue where exactly the others were in the north as they had all split up for a few months, so Ueda could only give them rough locations. They also had to be aware of sudden patrols or attacks on their village, so training was the best they could do.

“Fine,” Taisuke let out and put his hands into his pocket with a slightly pouting expression.

“Great, see you tomorrow then,” Nikaido said and casually turned around.

“Wait,” Taisuke said, making a step to the front and Nikaido immediately turned back towards him. “I bet Kentaro is more than exhausted through Ueda’s training and most likely he will kick him out of bed early in the morning too.”

“So?” Nikaido asked, his teasing smile already showing that he only asked to make Taisuke voice it out and the older one rolled his eyes.

“So I would suggest you let him sleep in peace and stay at my place tonight.”

“Invitation accepted,” Nikaido said with a bright smile as he skipped over to the other one in excitement.

“You waited for me to say this, didn’t you?” Taisuke asked and Nikaido didn’t even try to hide it.

“Why else would I ask Mitsu to give us the evening patrols?” Nikaido asked with a wink and even dared to enter Taisuke’s hut first.

Taisuke replied with a disbelieving snort, but he should have guessed by now that Nikaido was setting this up and Mitsu had definitely already caught up as well.

Now it was only Taisuke who had to stop pretending that he only accepted Nikaido this close to him because of the connection they somehow shared. But daring another step closer could cost both of them a lot if at some point he couldn’t keep his abilities under control and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to risk hurting someone who had grown as close as his own family to him in such a short time.

***

“I don’t train Infirm, you know that,” Ueda said when Taisuke and Nikaido asked Ueda about their training the next day and Kentaro seemed more than grateful for the break after Ueda hadn’t even waited for the boy to get breakfast and now he just lay in the grass close to the training ground while Reo seemed like he hadn’t used any of his abilities at all.

“Well, he is not quite an Infirm,” Taisuke explained, making Ueda raise an eyebrow as he was usually quite good at reading people and their abilities, but with Nikaido he hadn’t sensed anything special.

“Okay, then show me something interesting and I might reconsider,” Ueda challenged.

Nikaido looked at Taisuke and this time they were both ready for their power transfer, so for the first time it all happened calmly and smoothly as Taisuke only had to let the other one take his abilities, while Nikaido had to decide how much he wanted to take.

Not taking too much of a risk at the first try, Nikaido only took enough fire from the other one to not feel overwhelmed and he stepped back, releasing the fire in front of his fist. He could feel that he had taken enough to use a few fire blasts, but he looked at Ueda first and the older one moved his arm.

“Go ahead.”

Nikaido chose the open field in front of him to release two fire blasts and then let the remaining fire dance around his fits and let them lid up into the air until the fire he had stored was gone.

“Fascinating,” Ueda said with an approving nod. “He can use your abilities so much better than you.”

Taisuke immediately pouted, but he of course knew that as well.

“Do you mind?” Ueda asked as he stretched out his arm and Nikaido let him use his power transfer on him.

“You can’t do the same with my abilities, can you?” Ueda asked after he couldn’t sense anything from the other one even with his own power transfer ability.

Nikaido touched the other one’s wrist, but then shook his head. He had tried with Mitsu and others before as well, but he could only steal Taisuke’s abilities.

“What do you think it is?” Taisuke asked.

“Without any advanced research I can’t say for sure, but I am pretty sure that Nikaido is somehow a special kind of Phenomenist.”

“But I have no active abilities,” Nikaido said.

“But one passive one. It’s rare to only possess power transfer and definitely the first case I’ve seen where you can only take from one specific person, on top of that steal his active ability. If you train the transfer more, maybe you can also transfer to and from other people, but for that I would indeed need to train you guys.”

“Then it’s set, awesome,” Taisuke said in excitement.

“You just threw yourself into hell, you know that, right?” Ueda teased with an evil smile, but to his surprise Taisuke didn’t seem to care that much. A reaction that had Ueda look at Nikaido with a knowing look. “Fine, you two seem to be serious about this, so let me do you the favor and see how much of a Phenomenist ability lies into Nikaido’s transfer ability.”

***

“They seem so ready to just give up,” Myuto teased as he saw Nikaido and Taisuke half lying over their table instead of eating after Ueda had turned their training day into hell.

“At least I got a break through that,” Kentaro said as he sat down next to Taiga, but the moment he put his plate on the table, Reo stole one of his bread slices.

“Hey, you can get your own food.”

“Already had mine, wasn’t enough,” Reo said between already trying to eat the bread without choking.

“You got competition,” Taiga teased and looked at Fuma who had his mouth so full that he couldn’t even speak, but just his look towards Reo made him eat even faster and soon both of them had ended up in a food showdown.

“Great, even more chaos,” Aran said and rolled his eyes, Myuto hitting him against the shoulder with a chuckle.

“Hey, he fits perfectly into our group.”

“You should try train with him. He is a monster,” Kentaro said and let his face rest in his palms for a moment as he was still tired from the training that had barely ended minutes before their dinner time. Because no matter if Ueda also trained his brother now, he would still yell at him in between to take his training with Reo seriously.

“But you won’t get better otherwise,” Reo yelled as if the food in his mouth made it impossible for him to speak normally and then of course he choked at his food, making Fuma laugh at him, but then both of them ended up having trouble swallowing their food and Myuto clapped Fuma on the back.

“Have you learned anything new so far?” Taiga asked as he leant back on the bench, revealing Juri who was sitting in silence next to him and seemed to feel caught the moment Kentaro caught him staring at Taiga.

“That my stamina sucks? Or that I can’t relax while fighting. Oh and my arm movements apparently look like a wild double headed snake on drugs.”

Reo burst out laughing as he had been the one saying those words in the first place and Fuma high fived him on the creativity.

“They will so end up as best friends,” Aran said, looking at the two boys just enjoying being chaotic together.

“Maybe you should train with us in between as well?” Myuto offered. “Just to see how your abilities changed?”

“I would be up for a training match,” Aran said and that made Reo suddenly look at him. “What?”

“You let Infirm fight with Phenomenists?”

“Yes of course, why shouldn’t we?” Taiga asked.

“That’s amazing!” Reo yelled. “I will challenge you all tomorrow!”

“I fear you have to stuck with Aran,” Myuto told him, but Reo pointed at Taiga and Juri.

“They are also Infirm.”

“Taisuke will kill you if you lay a hand on Taiga,” Fuma told him.

“With that ability control he can try,” Reo teased.

“Trust me, you don’t want to see his abilities explode when he is angry,” Ryosuke said as he walked up to their table. He had just come back from a patrol with Mitsu, while Massu had left for the next one, giving Taisuke and Nikaido a bit more time to rest before they would also take on another night patrol.

“Now I want to,” Reo said and gave Taiga a challenging look.

“Don’t you dare attack me just to make my brother angry,” Taiga warned him and then pointed at Juri. “I will throw Juri into the next round then.”

“What? Why me?” Juri said in panic and everyone started laughing at the honest fear in his eyes.

“Exactly because of that reaction. Reo won’t be able to attack when you are facing him, because I bet he won’t attack if he knows his opponent has no chance.”

“Boring,” Reo pouted as he would indeed not just attack if he felt like an Infirm would not stand a chance against him.

“Don’t worry, I would protect you against him if he dared,” Taiga teased and pulled Juri closer to him with his arm around his shoulder.

“Let me fight you first tomorrow,” Fuma offered and Reo’s eyes shone in excitement about that offer.

“Guess I will look at that first before I decide if I try my luck,” Aran said, making Myuto grin at him.

“I won’t rescue you if you do.”

“What the hell. Even Taiga just offered to rescue Juri, why won’t you rescue me?”

The played anger made them all laugh, but Taiga turned towards Juri as he had of course realized that the boy was still not that good at talking openly with everyone.

“Want to get some fresh air?”

Juri immediately nodded and Taiga turned to Kentaro who gave him a small nod as he realized that the boy needed some more time to warm up to everyone and the way Reo and the others were shouting over the table, getting excited about their matches, didn’t make it easy for him to relax.

Mitsu gave them a warning at some point to calm down as they were annoying the entire hall with their shouting. They calmed down a bit and just chuckled for a moment until Myuto looked over to the door when Juri and Taiga stepped out.

“He is so blind to his looks,” Myuto let out with a chuckle and Aran immediately grinned and nodded. Even Fuma seemed to understand what they were talking about, but Ryosuke, Kentaro and Reo only gave them questioning looks.

“You’re not around them that much for the past days so you haven’t noticed,” Aran explained. “But unexpectedly Taiga is either extremely professional in taking care of the new arrival or he is blind to the most obvious hints I have ever seen.”

“Wait, you mean?” Ryosuke asked with a surprised look as he pointed to the door and made a right and left movement with his finger even though the two boys weren’t there anymore.

“He is more obvious than them,” Fuma said and pointed at Myuto and Aran, getting a double stare. “What? You weren’t ever in any way trying to hide your interest in each other.”

“I’m too tired for this talk,” Kentaro said and rubbed his temples. “Let me get this clear, you think Juri is interested in Taiga, while Taiga is either not interested at all or isn’t reading the signs?”

“Take a closer look at them over the next few days and tell us, because we don’t really know either,” Aran said and shrugged his shoulders. “It’s just a guess.”

“That would be definitely unexpected,” Ryosuke said with a smile towards the door.

“Which one? The being interested in him part or the not getting the hints part?” Reo asked.

“Who does not get what hints?” Mitsu asked right next to their table, making Ryosuke flinch as he had been standing close to him, but with his back towards him.

“No one.”

“Nothing.”

“No hints here.”

Myuto, Aran and Fuma kept trying to somehow form a sentence, but they didn’t make much sense together and Mitsu raised an eyebrow at them.

“Fine, whatever. Make sure you get enough rest for the night. I need you to patrol tomorrow as well. We have no clue when Wataru will return and I can’t risk the village being unprotected at such a critical moment.

“I can patrol too,” Reo said and raised his hand, Mitsu nodding in approval.

“If Ueda allows it then I would appreciate it.”

“But only after our challenge,” Fuma said and once more the room filled with their cheering and shouting.

“Great, so they are getting half the day off and I don’t,” Kentaro groaned after Reo had picked him up from his hut at sunrise.

“They just came back from their patrol a few hours ago, right?” Reo asked, but Kentaro shrugged his shoulders.

“I don’t even know. My brother has been staying a lot over at Taisuke’s place recently.”

“And here they shout so much at each other while training. I thought they can’t stand each other?”

Reo’s words had Kentaro chuckle and shake his head. “Shouting is their love language. But they haven’t figured that out completely yet.”

“Oh, I see,” Reo grinned back at him, but then he stopped at the forest border.

“Are we not training at the training ground today?” Kentaro asked.

“I am not training at all. Remember that I have to prepare for a challenge against Fuma? Ueda is waiting at the river.”

Until now Reo had always been part of their training so Kentaro felt a bit insecure when he kept walking to the river by himself. Ueda was waiting next to the river with his arms crossed to his chest.

“Don’t give me that attitude,” Ueda greeted him and Kentaro immediately felt even more pissed.

“I didn’t even say anything.”

“Right, because your eyes are sparkling with joy about this training. You didn’t even learn anything so far and a whole week has already passed.”

“Maybe your methods don’t work for me,” Kentaro said judging and this time Ueda’s look turned darker. He had been quite neutral over the entire week, but something had changed now.

“Then let’s see what method works for you.”

Without any kind of warning Ueda formed fire and shot it towards Kentaro. Even this tired, Kentaro was still able to dodge, but he could feel the exhaustion of his body and mind from the hard training and the lack of proper rest.

“That’s unfair. How am I supposed to even fight at full force?” Kentaro complained as he was forced to jump back two more times, but Ueda wouldn’t let off him and reached him right in front of the river and grabbed his arm.

“You still didn’t learn anything,” Ueda scolded him and Kentaro wasn’t fast enough to stop the other one from stealing some power from him, but with a hand movement, Kentaro got the water up from the river and made Ueda jump back right before he could form another fire blast, but now Ueda just formed the fire all around him and shot it out in a spiral.

As one of his typical moves, Kentaro just let himself drop to the back, right into the river. He trusted his abilities and the water to protect him, but when he tried to get back to the surface, he was greeted with a fire storm rushing right over the river, leaving heavy smoke on the surface through which Kentaro couldn’t tell where Ueda was standing.

Kentaro had learned to control the flow of the water around him, so the river wouldn’t take him downstream, but now he allowed the river to take him away a few meters so that he could try to get back up, but once more he could only get one breath before more fire moved over his head.

With a silent groan underwater Kentaro wasn’t sure if he should just let himself get dragged away far enough for Ueda to not be able to follow, but he realized that his breath wouldn’t hold long enough for that. Something Reo seemed to have no problem with, but Kentaro hadn’t really learned any secret methods from the other one. Something he had wondered about already as Reo didn’t really teach him how to control his abilities, all he did was attacking him a lot while Ueda kept scolding him from the side. The only outcome was him being more than exhausted by now.

Once more Kentaro needed to get back to the surface and he tried his luck behind a rock and he got two deep breaths in, but the fire was too strong for him to even stay at that place as Ueda was able to make it spread way further than any other fire user. This time though Kentaro hadn’t seen the fire coming and it moved so fiercely around the rock that he almost lost his air the moment he tried to get back underwater as the fire had burned the side of his face.

The shock about the fire actually touching him had him in a state of panic as he was immediately out of air again and he suddenly lost his trust into the water. It hadn’t protected him, causing a burn on his face and the next moment the water pressure around him seemed to increase, dragging him faster down the river.

In his panic he needed to get back to the surface and while he was now moving down with the stream, Ueda still had no trouble catching up with him.

“Wait,” Kentaro shouted at him and stretched his hand out as Ueda wouldn’t stop his attacks. Kentaro had dared to stretch his arm out as usual, but this time he let out a curse and pulled back when the fire blast burned his hand and he immediately put the hand into the water.

“What is happening,” he asked himself, but then he had to concentrate back on the river as he had reached a part with many rocks and a fast flow and he couldn’t stop his movements or lift himself out of the river.

“Giving up?” Ueda asked from the side.

“You burned me!” Kentaro shouted back, but the older one seemed more than aware of that.

“That one is on you,” Ueda replied before he formed another fire blast and this time Kentaro went back underwater to escape it, but then he hit a rock with his side, losing his air once more and he cursed himself for the lack of control. He felt as if he hadn’t been able to control his abilities at all until now. As if he was back on his first day when he had become a Phenomenist he was just a person with some useless abilities.

He hoped his anger would help him get back into control, but the water seemed to have completely separated from him, leaving him like any other human in a dangerous situation in the middle of a fast-flowing river.

Kentaro waited for another fire blast as he dared to get back to the surface, but what he hadn’t seen coming at all was Ueda jumping right on top of him. The older one dragged him down and used his power transfer to weaken him even more. Just seconds later Kentaro felt like he had no energy left in his entire body. His body was so physically exhausted that his body refused to fight back. He clawed his hands into the other one’s arms, but Ueda didn’t seem to have much problem with staying underwater with him and luckily, they had left the sharp stones behind them and were now at a slower flowing part of the river, but the water was even deeper here and Ueda had dragged him down to the bottom.

What happened next was something Kentaro could not find any logical explanation for as Ueda’s fire burned him even underwater. He could feel the pain on his arms, but the fire didn’t emerge through the water, but the pain was there and he tried to slash the other one’s arms away. Ueda reacted by trapping one of his wrists and putting one hand around his neck, closing it with a burning grip.

Kentaro let out a silent scream on the pain, losing the last air he had been holding on to. He just waited for Ueda to drag them back to the surface to make fun out of him how he couldn’t handle Ueda’s training methods, but the other one wouldn’t read the signs or he didn’t want to. Would he risk killing Kentaro for training purposes?

The way Ueda looked so calm would have made Kentaro turn even angrier a few moments ago, but his mind seemed too exhausted to even bring up that emotion anymore and then Ueda let go of him. There was a small change in his eyes when he pushed the younger one down while getting back to the surface himself.

But Kentaro wasn’t able to follow him. He couldn’t even move his body anymore and while he knew that it was impossible he just closed his eyes to take a last deep breath and admit defeat. But while his lungs should have filled with water, he could feel air filling his lunges. A sudden calm feeling taking over his exhausted body. He didn’t feel the need to fight or attack around him. It was like the water told him to relax and so he kept his eyes closed and just waited. He put his trust back into the water. Not just his trust, but his life and that was the missing connection he had had the entire time with his abilities. He had treated them as an outside ability he could move around, while it was a part of him the entire time. A part he hadn’t been able to completely understand, no matter the training methods he had used.

He felt like minutes had passed in which he had stayed motionless underwater, the water flowing around him, splitting air and water around him to make it possible for him to breathe.

When he felt like his strength was restored enough for him to move, he let the water bring him back to the surface. This time he didn’t fear any attack. No matter if he got attacked or not, he was sure that the water would protect him, because now he wasn’t moving it around anymore, he was moving together with it.

Still too exhausted to use much of his active abilities as Ueda had stolen a lot of his energy before, he only let the water bring him back to the riverbank and he crawled up to it by himself, letting out some heavy coughs as he had of course swallowed some water in the first place.

“Really not a fast learner,” Ueda said as he stepped next to him. “But at least you finally understood the main issue.”

Kentaro clenched his fists into the wet forest ground before he stood up and Ueda had definitely not seen it coming as Kentaro lunged out and punched him against the cheekbone. Ueda looked surprised, but not angry. He only looked back at the other one with wide eyes, but Kentaro was sure that he wouldn’t attack him just through that one punch.

“Are you proud of yourself?” Kentaro hissed at him. “Are you now going to brag to everyone how you helped me to control my abilities better?”

Ueda didn’t reply, but he also didn’t look like he felt as if he should apologize, but that lack of reaction made Kentaro even more angry.

“Phenomenists are humans too,” Kentaro shouted this time. “We’re not just abilities walking around. Did you for one second consider my safety when you came up with this method?”

On Kentaro’s sudden outburst Ueda fell completely immobile as he had definitely not seen the other one’s outraged reaction coming. But Kentaro wasn’t done and he ripped the half burned jacket down his arms, revealing two heavy burn marks on his upper arms, wrist and hand and he could feel that he had the same on his face and neck.

“Are you taking pride in them? Because I don’t,” Kentaro yelled once more, but this time his voice cracked a bit as his eyes filled with tears of rage. “I trusted you! I wanted you to help me with my training.”

Something Ueda had done, at least in his own way and there was something in his expression that showed Kentaro that maybe he shouldn’t react so overemotional and let the other one come to word as well, but he just couldn’t forgive him. He had been dead scared, ready to actually die and that fear was now eating him up.

His body was shaking when he put one hand to his face, immediately feeling the burned skin on his cheek and when Ueda made a step towards him, he immediately backed away. A reaction that brought a sad expression on the older one’s face for the first time. But Kentaro couldn’t feel sorry for him. He had planned this training. He had known that he needed to push Kentaro to his limits to help him gain full control of his abilities, because yes he was bad at learning fast, he was bad at seeing situations as dangerous as he always trusted people. A trust that had to be broken. A situation that had to be real. So Ueda had turned himself into the bad guy to help Kentaro reach what he had asked for. Kentaro understood all of that in the back of his head, but right now he was too shaken to even let any clear thought come through.

With the tears ready to fall, Kentaro glared up at the other one once more. He wanted to trust him. He wanted to accept that apologizing expression, because for once someone had taken him seriously, but it had been a ridge walk for him and he had fallen off to the wrong side and now he needed more time to see if he could climb back up.

Once more Ueda attempted to make a step towards the boy and say something, but Kentaro’s tears flew over on that reaction. He hated his tears, he wanted the other one to see his anger and disappointment, and not his fear.

“Stay away from me,” Kentaro let out in such a hurt voice that Ueda’s expression fell completely and he didn’t even move when Kentaro passed him with fast steps and headed back to the village.

***

Fuma fell on his back with a curse while Reo jumped around and yelled in triumph.

"It's not like you beat me," Fuma growled and sat back up.

"But you ran out of energy to attack. Feel free to come at me without fire," Reo challenged, but Fuma clicked his tongue and looked at Myuto.

"You go next. Take revenge."

"So dramatic," Myuto laughed at his words. "Do you want a rest?"

Reo shook his head and got ready for the next fight. "No need for that. Let's see how long your abilities last."

"Good that I won't have that problem later," Aran said at the edge of the training ground where he was sitting with Taiga and Juri.

Reo had woken them all up as early as possible as they all had to go on patrols today too.

"Let's see if you have a better stamina than the others," Taiga replied and looked at the way Myuto skillfully stopped most of Reo's water attacks.

"Are you sure you don't want to train with us?" Taiga asked and Juri needed a moment to realize that the question was for him.

"I'm not really a fighter."

"Even more reason to join us," Aran said, but then got up.

"Oh that was fast," Taiga laughed as Myuto started running away from Reo after only minutes.

"How can you have so much energy left?" Myuto yelled at the other one as he couldn't stop the amount of water Reo kept throwing at him.

"It's called control, Myuto," Aran scolded the other and when Myuto got distracted and pointed at him to say something, a huge wave of water buried him for a moment.

Taiga laughed at the look Myuto gave Reo after he had landed on the ground, completely soaked.

Even Juri let out a chuckle this time, but looked away when Taiga turned towards him.

"Well, if you ever feel like training I'll help you out."

Juri nodded on that offer, but then looked up at Aran who got ready to face Reo this time.

"You don't want any weapons?" Reo asked, but the boy only raised his fists.

"If you give me a good challenge I'll consider weapons for the next fight," Aran said with a challenging smile and Reo enjoyed the attitude. Next to Reo a lot of water drops formed in the air and Aran analyzed them all until he saw a movement behind Reo at the forest.

"Timeout!" Aran said the moment Reo was about to release the first attack towards him and with a squeal he let the water drop at the last second.

"Dude, that was unfair," Reo complained, but then realized that everyone's attention was on someone else. When he turned around, he saw Kentaro storming out of the forest.

"What the-" Fuma started as the burn marks were painfully visible to them.

"Juri, can I leave you with the others for a while?" Taiga asked as he jumped up and while Juri didn't seem that happy about it he of course nodded as he could read the atmosphere. "I'll be back later, okay?"

"Take your time," Aran said as he knew that Kentaro wouldn't want them all storming towards him, but if one had to go then Taiga was the best option.

"Is Nikaido put on patrol?" Myuto asked, but Aran shook his head.

"He should be asleep, but he will definitely get up soon. This won't end well," Aran feared.

"Why did Ueda do that?" Fuma asked as he got up with a pissed expression. "I know Mitsu and the others are praising him and the founders a lot, but seriously what the fuck?"

Aran stepped next to Reo as he realized that the boy didn't seem in any way affected by Kentaro's situation.

"You know something, don't you?" Aran asked and the boy gave them all a smile to their surprise.

***

Kentaro was aiming for his but, ignoring everyone who saw him on the way as he wasn't going to be able to bring out any logical words right now and when he had reached the door of his hut, he wanted to slam it shut behind him, but someone grabbed the door and stopped him.

Kentaro got ready to yell as he turned around, but then he realized that it was Taiga and the boy hurried to shut the door behind them. When he turned back to Kentaro, silence fell between them for a moment.

Then Kentaro's body started shaking as he finally allowed himself to break down and Taiga hurried to the front to pull the boy into his embrace.

Kentaro sank to the ground in his arms, crying and screaming. He hadn't thought of his own strength to be this limited. Especially his mental one, but he was more than grateful for Taiga being with him right now.

For a while Taiga didn't say anything at all. He kept stroking over the other one's back while Kentaro muffled his screams and sobs on the other one's shoulder until his body folded even more to the front out of exhaustion.

"You want to lie down?" Taiga asked in a soothing voice after a few minutes, but the other one replied with his arms closing even more around his friend.

"I don't want to hate him," Kentaro let out in a shaking voice and Taiga immediately knew who he meant. "I just -, I don't know, I'm just too weak to forgive him."

"You're not weak Kentaro, stop trying to make yourself the bad one in this," Taiga scolded him, but still patted his hair in response. "You need some rest for now. Physically as well as mentally. I'll stay with you, okay?"

Kentaro only nodded as he knew that he had to calm down first to even think clearly about what had happened.

***

"I don't want to get up," Taisuke complained when he felt a pull on the blanket.

"I'm not telling you to get up, I just want a part of the blanket," Nikaido complained and tucked again on the blanket, but Taisuke just muffled something and turned towards the wall, taking the entire blanket with him.

"Fine, have it your way," Nikaido said and with the next move he closed his arms around Taisuke's upper body, pulling the other one against his chest.

Taisuke froze on the move, but didn't say anything. After a moment he relaxed and pulled the blanket to the back so that it would cover Nikaido as well.

"Don't think I'll back off because of that," Nikaido said and with him being so close now, Taisuke shivered on the breath he could feel on his neck.

"You don't have to back off, but shut up. I want to go back to sleep," Taisuke said and immediately hid his face on his pillow while he could feel a slight chuckle going through Nikaido's body. He received another pull on his upper body, but Nikaido wanted to go back to sleep for a bit longer as well.

Their plans were cut short though when someone opened the door without any kind of warning and Taisuke immediately threw the blanket over his head, not that it would hide Nikaido.

"Ever heard of knocking?" Nikaido asked as he had already let go of the other one and turned towards the door, the moment he heard footsteps in front of the hut.

When he turned around and met Mitsu and Massu's look, he immediately sat up with a worried expression.

"If you think we don't know that you're staying together recently you're mistaken, so pull yourself together," Mitsu scolded his younger brother and with an annoyed groan Taisuke sat up.

"That doesn't give you the right to just dash in here. What do you want?"

"We need to talk," Mitsu said.

"Why is Massu here too if it's just a talk?" Taisuke asked, but Nikaido sensed something weird about the way both had come in such a rush.

"Then talk fast and clear," Nikaido said as he already sensed that this wasn't about Taisuke.

"Only if you promise to not just dash out and jump to conclusions," Mitsu warned and this time Taisuke also gave his older brother a skeptical look.

"That's why Massu is here too," Taisuke said while shaking his head. "What can be so bad that you think even Nikaido would just attack wild around him. Not that he could do so without my abilities."

"Spill it or I'll just see for myself," Nikaido said as he got up from the bed.

"Fine, but let me finish, okay?" Mitsu warned once more. "Ueda burned Kentaro at the morning training."

***

"You should go back, Juri is definitely feeling super uncomfortable with the others," Kentaro said after he had woken up after a needed nap.

"He'll be fine. It's not like I'm doing anything different from the others," Taiga said as he played with a cup on the table and Kentaro joined him, accepting the water he offered him.

"But he's only trusting you," Kentaro said with a teasing smile. "He's not even spending anyone else any attention."

"Because he is shy. He'll need some more time."

"You really didn't notice, did you?" Kentaro asked straight forward this time and the honest confused look of his friend showed him that he was right.

"Noticed what?"

"Nevermind," Kentaro said with a smile before he wanted to get up, but he had forgotten about the cup next to his hand and he threw it over. It was just water so he didn't make a big scene out of it and just put his hand on the wet spot on the table. Suddenly the water felt so much different to him. Before he was just asking the water to move for him, now he understood that there was no need for that. They moved together no matter if Kentaro even made a direct movement or not.

In his thoughts he hadn't even realized that the water had moved up his hand and Taiga looked at it in fascination, but then he gasped.

Kentaro also looked in slight confusion as the water closed around only the burned parts of his hand and when it got absorbed into his skin, the burn marks vanished together with it.

"That was incredibly cool," Taiga said in astonishment. "I didn't even know water users could do something like that."

There was nothing Kentaro could reply as he hadn’t known either and suddenly he wasn’t sure how to feel about the training anymore. Did Ueda know? Had Kentaro judged him too fast? But on the other hand, couldn’t he have told him from the start? But nothing made sense to him at the moment and then they were distracted by shouting going through the village.

“Oh that doesn’t sound good,” Taiga said and hurried to the door, Kentaro right behind him.

“Guys, big trouble!” Myuto yelled as he ran up to Kentaro’s hut, followed by Aran and Juri. “Nikaido and Ueda clashed.”

“What?” Kentaro asked in confusion until he realized that the only reason for that could be his brother getting to know about what had happened at the training and he dashed out of the door, right towards where he could hear the shouting, close to the fields.

“Mitsu had come back from a patrol and Ueda had told him what had happened. At first it seemed like he wouldn’t do anything at all as he sent out Ryosuke, Fuma, Reo and a few others for the patrols, but he didn’t make Taisuke and Nikaido leave,” Aran explained as he ran after Kentaro with the others.

“Nikaido can at least not cause as much damage,” Taiga said, but when they arrived at the fields, they were proven wrong.

The shouting part had obviously already happened and the next thing to happen was Nikaido punching Ueda in the face. The other one didn’t seem too pissed, but still blocked the next punch.

“Nikaido, calm down. I told you that it’s not that bad and he can-”

“I don’t care what he can and cannot do. How dare you treat him that way?” Nikaido roared at Ueda after cutting off Mitsu. They had still not realized that the boys had arrived as they were standing half hidden behind the last hut.

“Are you not going to calm him down?” Massu asked and Taisuke raised an eyebrow at him.

“From all people, you are asking me to calm someone down?”

“Well, you share a connection after all.”

“You know what, you’re right,” Taisuke said to his surprise and he walked up towards Nikaido, giving his older brother a judging look on the way, as he had immediately sided with Nikaido.

“If you dare tell me to calm down, I will punch you too,” Nikaido said as he was pushed back from Ueda after he had tried to go for his collar and Taisuke had stepped next to him.

“Would never do such a stupid thing,” Taisuke said and suddenly held out his hand.

Nikaido looked confused for a moment, but then his look changed to excitement. 

“Might as well fight this out for real,” Taisuke said with a smile towards Ueda who had also realized what they were up to.

“Do what you want. It’s not like I did this to anger you or your brother,” Ueda said and waited with crossed arms as Nikaido touched Taisuke’s arm to steal his abilities.

“Don’t overdo it,” Taisuke warned him as he felt like losing his balance after Nikaido had taken way more than he’d usually be able to handle.

“I already did, so now let me finish this,” Nikaido said and immediately released the first few fire blasts towards Ueda.

“This is ridiculous,” Taiga said and wanted to step towards the others to make them stop, but Kentaro was the one to stop him.

“The only one here allowed to interfere is me, am I clear?” Kentaro said and everyone nodded as they could sense the tension in the other one’s body. He had clenched his fists and he didn’t seem pleased at all about what was going on.

“Impressive, you are really using Taisuke’s abilities very well. What a shame that you’re not used to fighting with a Phenomenist’s ability,” Ueda mocked the other one, but Nikaido surprised him once more as he actually fought indeed so human like that Ueda hadn’t seen it coming that in between his fire blasts he used tactical thinking to recharge while throwing kicks and punches, but that wasn’t all. Nikaido’s way of fighting was unfair, but he didn’t care as he had heard enough to know that Ueda wasn’t fighting fair either.

Close to the fields the ground had a lot of soil instead of grass and he had kicked it up right at the other one, right before using a fire blast as a distraction. The next fire blast came so sudden that it actually hit Ueda on the shoulder.

“What a shame that a fire user can’t get burned,” Ueda said as he brushed off his skin under his now burned shirt. No burn mark even visible.

“So instead, you give others burn marks. Are you enjoying your superiority that much?” Nikaido roared at him before he wanted to attack with the last bit of fire he was holding on to, but this time Ueda’s look had changed and Kentaro knew what the other one could do with his fire without even sending out a normal fire blast so he finally dashed to the front.

Nikaido had his fire ready to release, but then small flames around Ueda emerged and they would pierce through the air like needles and definitely hit Nikaido as the other one wouldn’t have enough stamina left to even jump out of the way.

The second both of them released their fire was when the air turned into water drops between them. All of Ueda’s fire needles hit precisely against those water drops. The water chased the fire in the air, while Nikaido’s fire blast was stopped by a water wall hanging in the air.

“Oh wow, that’s what I call progress,” Aran said in the back as they hadn’t followed the boy, but before everyone could even show a big reaction or see that Kentaro was the one responsible, the boy had lost his calm completely and had dragged the water from the fields into a wave, swallowing Ueda and Nikaido, crashing them both into the ground.

“Not the outcome I have seen coming,” Mitsu said, but didn’t interfere.

When Ueda shook his head, getting the water out of his hair and sitting up, he looked at Kentaro who had now stopped in front of him and Nikaido, who was also looking back at him in a mix of confusion and also anger. No anger at him, but still at Ueda as he was of course seeing the burn marks on Kentaro’s neck and face.

“Stay out of this,” Kentaro said harshly towards his brother, something he had never done so far. But also something he realized he needed to do to actually get taken seriously. “I can deal with my problems alone.”

His older brother just looked at him in a mix of disbelief and apology, but for now Kentaro just felt still too outraged to have any long talks, so he turned to look at Ueda who had stood back up, but looked as indifferent as usual. The few times he showed other emotions he immediately fixed that expression, something that made it so much harder for Kentaro to even say something without getting emotional again.

“And you,” Kentaro said in a steady voice towards Ueda. “You just stay away from me.”

There it was again, the small change on the other one’s face, yet he didn’t say anything. Didn’t get angry or make fun of him. Just indifference.

But for now, Kentaro wouldn’t be able to stay calm enough so he just turned around and headed back towards his hut, this time Taiga stayed behind with the others as he realized that for the rest of the day the boy needed some space.

“Are you sure he is okay by himself?” Juri asked when he walked away with Taiga after everything had calmed down again and Mitsu had made everyone get into groups to patrol as soon as the other groups made it back so that no other fights would start.

“He is fine, don’t worry. He gets easily emotional, but he isn’t the type to just give up,” Taiga said as they casually walked towards the forest border.

“Are we allowed out here?”

“Do you see anyone telling us to not be here?” Taiga teased, but with everything being a bit chaotic, they hadn’t actually cared much about having someone around Juri. “It’s not like anyone really thinks that you would suddenly attack around you.”

Taiga proved that point when he lifted up a branch and threw it at Juri, the boy almost getting hit in the face when he barely caught it. “Look, you’re way too harmless to be taken as a threat. Kentaro and Nikaido were making it more difficult for some people to trust them at first.”

“Why is that? They seem to get along with everyone fine?” Juri asked as he kept the branch in his hand and walked after Taiga who seemed to be looking for a similar big branch.

“Well, Nikaido’s first day here ended with him punching my brother in the face, not that he didn’t deserve it.”

“He seems to like punching people,” Juri said so neutrally that Taiga bursted out laughing, making the other one look away with an embarrassed look.

“A lot of Phenomenists are hot headed after all.”

“But is he a Phenomenist?” Juri asked as he picked up a branch that seemed the same size as the one he was carrying and when he turned back to Taiga the boy had already walked up directly towards him, making Juri freeze on the spot when Taiga grabbed the branch with an excited look and brushed over Juri’s hand on the movement, making the other one let go of the wood and pull back his hand.

“Well, Ueda thinks he is. He has no active abilities so it’s hard to tell, but a normal Infirm wouldn’t be able to steal abilities even from one single person and use them without dying.”

Taiga walked away with the branch and nodded at it after swinging it around a few times. Then he turned back to the younger one with a challenging smile and lifted the branch like a sword.

Juri kept looking at him in confusion and as so often he looked away when he realized that he kept staring, but then Taiga made a few fast steps towards him, bringing the branch down and Juri jumped to the back with an even more confused look.

“Oh come on, you don’t want to fight in front of the others, I get that. I bet you have actually no fighting experience at all and you don’t want to get laughed at. But we can train in secret, can’t we? Or are you against fights in common?”

Juri needed a moment to even get what Taiga meant and he brought his own branch in front of his chest with an unsure look.

“I just don’t feel like I would have the stamina or strength to fight. I am usually only good at running away.”

Juri’s words had Taiga smile once more, but this time he gave Juri time to react as he signed him to get the branch up. “Then just try to react intuitively? No need to see this as training or a serious fight? Just two friends playing around.”

“Right,” Juri said and his look turned to something disappointed on the other one’s words, but then he tried to cheer himself up and lifted the branch. Taiga looked excited on the other one’s acceptance of this playful training and Taiga gave him more time to react when he moved this time.

Juri only blocked and dodged, needing a lot of time to coordinate his hands and legs together to not fall on the uneven forest ground while also looking at Taiga’s movements. But after a few minutes he could finally show some smiles as well as Taiga wasn’t going to attack for real. He just wanted Juri to get out of his tense state for a while.

At some point Taiga tried to corner Juri a bit more and to his surprise the boy countered for the first time, but then immediately stopped and lowered his branch after he realized that he had hit Taiga on the arm.

“Don’t look like you’ve cut off my arm. You just hit it with a piece of wood,” Taiga laughed at him and Juri gave him a shy nod.

“Well, we shouldn’t overdo it in the first place, not that we have anything important to do.”

Taiga’s gloomy look made Juri walk up to him with a curious expression.

“But you and your brothers are running the village, right? The boys are listening to you when it’s about important decisions. I think you make a pretty good leader.”

Juri’s praise made Taiga show a small smile, but it didn’t last for long. Trying to keep the good mood, Taiga threw his branch back into the forest and nodded. “Well, I guess I have to be useful for at least something, right?”

When Taiga turned away and wanted to start walking, Juri tried to reach out for the other one’s arm. Taiga tried so hard to make him feel comfortable in the village that he wanted to repay him, even if it was just through positive talk about how much Taiga was actually helping in the village, no matter if through fighting or other duties.

The moment he touched the other one’s sleeve, something hit the back of his hand with such a force that he pulled back with a hiss.

“What happened?” Taiga asked as he hadn’t even realized that the boy had reached out for him, but now he looked worried at Juri’s hand which showed a red mark on the back.

“I don’t know. Something…came flying?” Juri said as he wasn’t even sure what had happened, but then they both heard a chuckle and they immediately turned towards the forest. 

“For two Infirm that are this bad at fighting, you dare your way out here quite easily.”

The one who had spoken stepped out from behind a tree a few meters away from them and Juri gave Taiga a questioning look, but Taiga didn’t seem to recognize the boy their age.

“For a Phenomenist you are quite fast in judging the situation,” Taiga said in annoyance of the arrogant behavior the boy with slightly wavy black hair showed towards them.

“Oh, so you think you would stand a chance in a fight against a Phenomenist?”

There was something about that challenge that had Taiga immediately step to the front, but this time Juri grabbed his arm and shook his head. “Let’s get back to the village. We need to report him, right?”

“Oh, you think you would be able to outrun me?”

Juri seemed already in a state of panic through the other one’s words, but Taiga could see the playful behavior in the other one’s attitude, not that it made his arrogance easier to handle.

With a swift movement Taiga took the branch from Juri and dashed to the front without a warning. Juri shouted at him to stop, while the other boy gave him a lopsided smile as he greeted his attacks with smooth movements of dodging.

He was only playing around, Taiga knew that, but he also trained a lot with the other boys now so he immediately knew that the boy was a telekinesis user. The stone that had hit Juri was proof already, but the way the other boy didn’t use his arms much while dodging, showed that he didn’t see Taiga as dangerous enough to easily use his abilities.

So when he tried to move his hand up, Taiga immediately lunged out for his hand and the boy pulled back at the last second with a whistle.

“Oh, surprising. I might have judged you too soon after all.”

“What a shame that I think I judged you right from the very beginning,” Taiga mocked back before he tried to keep attacking, but the boy showed his abilities now and easily got out of Taiga’s reach to block his movements as he could stop him each time he would try to attack him. “Look, I was right. An arrogant Phenomenist who only relies on his abilities.”

The boy didn’t seem to feel angered by that comment, but then Taiga suddenly stumbled to the front as the telekinesis vanished and he almost collided with the boy.

The branch got kicked out of his hand and the boy attacked with swift kicks and punches, forcing Taiga back at such a high pace that Taiga had to take a sharp breath when he hit a tree with his back. Before he could think about any counter move, the boy had lunged out, but at the last moment he moved his fist towards the tree and Taiga flinched.

His anger about the mocking smile the other one showed would definitely get him through another round of fighting if the other one wouldn’t use his abilities, but the boy only moved closer to Taiga’s face, making him press his back even more into the tree.

“Look, I am overpowering you even without my abilities.”

With those words he casually stepped back and turned to Juri who hadn’t even moved since they had started fighting. The smile he gave him had something provoking and Juri didn’t look scared or angry, there was something else on his face. Something that made the unknown boy grab Taiga by the front of his shirt and pull him away from the tree.

“Feels like you don’t have good back up with you.”

Instead of starting a fight again, Taiga just clenched his fists. He couldn’t explain why, but even though he didn’t know the boy he could tell that under that arrogance lay nothing more than a playful and provoking attitude. There was nothing dangerous about him.

“That depends on how you see back up,” Taiga said with a confident look. “After all, helping someone in a fight doesn’t have to happen through direct attacks.”

“So, freezing on the spot helps?” Hokuto laughed and looked back at Juri who was now clenching his fists as well, but then he looked over to the forest border and Hokuto followed his look. The closest bells of their warning system were right at the last tree. 

“I see. You think he took his distance and observed so that he could run for the bells in the worst case.”

“What a shame that you don’t seem to have anyone you could call back up,” Taiga mocked back and the boy shoved him a bit to the back after releasing him, but he didn’t seem like he wanted to keep fighting.

“I’m quite okay on my own.”

“Then does the lone wolf have a name?” Taiga asked and Juri seemed more than irritated by the situation by now as he was still on such high alert while Taiga had dropped his caution.

“Maybe? Does my opponent have one?” The boy asked back and this time his smile lost a bit of the mocking and arrogance, revealing a quite charming smile.

“Taiga.”

Juri immediately let out a scolding sound next to them, but it was just a name after all, nothing to make a big deal of and by now Taiga was sure already that the other one hadn’t just stumbled over this place.

“What a fierce name for such a smart aspiring village leader,” the boy said and those words just proved that Taiga was right.

“Make sure to not make me your enemy on the very first day,” Taiga teased back now, showing a smile himself now and that reaction had Juri finally walk up to them, but he stepped a bit behind Taiga, giving the other one a skeptical look.

“I wouldn’t dare,” the boy teased as he took a small bow, playing polite and somehow Taiga suddenly found his arrogance charming.

“Then give me your name and I might forgive you the rough greeting.”

“Matsumura Hokuto,” the boy finally replied.

“Pupil of the all mighty Kamenashi,” Taiga said, making the other one look a bit astonished.

“I feel like you indeed don’t really need that much fighting ability. You seem skilled enough with reading people,” Hokuto replied.

“Who is Kamenashi?” Juri asked as he put his hands around Taiga’s arm, trying to pull him a bit away from Hokuto as he just couldn’t trust the boy yet and he didn’t like him in common, while Hokuto didn’t seem to feel bothered by the boy’s cold attitude.

“One of the founders,” Taiga explained. “The same as Reo, I somehow already thought that he is a pupil of one of them, but his attitude would be too much for Nakamaru.”

Hokuto laughed on hearing that as Taiga was absolutely right about that.

“So are they back?” Taiga asked and the boy nodded.

“They are. They should be in the village already. But I spotted you on my way so-”

“So Kamenashi thought it would be a good idea for you to make some enemies on your first day,” Taiga replied, but the teasing between them was obvious.

“Great, he succeeded,” Juri said and this time he actually dared to pull a bit more on Taiga’s arm to make him start moving back to the village.

Hokuto shrugged his shoulders and followed them as they all needed to have a meeting now anyway as they had waited for their arrival.

***

“Rough day?” Mitsu asked as he sat on the bench of the other side of the table, where Ueda was sitting and just staring ahead as most of the others had gone for their round of patrols and the boys had of course not dared to approach him after they had heard what had happened. Reo on the other hand wasn't even surprised about everything eventually escalating and his carefree attitude was most likely the only reason Ueda had been able to teach him without them clashing at some point too.

“Well, I feel like this time I totally deserve it,” Ueda said and sat up a bit and rested his chin on the back of his hands.

“I am impressed that you actually kept it together that well,” Mitsu said as he knew Ueda from before already and the man wasn’t known for staying calm, Taisuke and Massu had been the victim of his bad mood a lot before.

“It’s not like there was any need to overdo it. Nikaido had all the right in the world to be pissed at me.”

“Yet you would usually still attack the moment someone dares to punch you,” Mitsu said knowingly. “But tell me, why didn’t you let Kentaro know that he could heal with his water ability?”

Ueda slowly shook his head and sat back with a sigh. “To be honest, I have no clue.”

Mitsu seemed surprised to hear such honest words from their most outraged founder.

“I just went with the flow on that day. I wanted to push him to his limits, because I knew that he could surpass even Reo as he had even more control of the water, but his emotions were in his way.”

“And then your emotions got in the way.”

This time it hadn’t been Mitsu who spoke and they looked towards the door of the meeting hall, Kamenashi walking up to them with a knowing expression. Nakamaru followed him with a calm, yet kind of excited look about being back after all these years. Wataru also finally returned together with them.

“It’s not like I am known to be calm,” Ueda teased back, but there was something more serious in Kamenashi’s eyes. Something scolding.

“If you had laughed at him for getting emotional and yelling at you, then telling him randomly that he should get a grip, because he can heal, yes then I wouldn’t be surprised. But you let him get angry at you and fight his problems on his own. That doesn’t sound much like you. Do I have to worry?”

“I fear we have way more important things to worry about than Ueda’s mood swings,” Wataru reminded them.

“Then let’s discuss those bigger problems, because I don’t need all that bad attention,” Ueda said and got up and left the meeting hall as Massu and some others still needed to get back from their patrols to have a meeting with everyone.

“Something is definitely not right,” Mitsu said as he looked after him with a worried expression. “Even Massu said that.”

“Massu is just jealous,” Nakamaru let out so neutral that Wataru burst out laughing.

“Just get ready for Massu scolding you two as well. His anger is mostly against Ueda, but that won’t stop him from yelling at you for leaving for this long.”

“Hey, now we are back and we weren’t even hard to find. It’s not like we were hiding,” Kamenashi said.

“Right, you all just got more talented pupils, another reason for Massu to get even angrier,” Mitsu laughed. “Or did you come by yourself?”

Kamenashi and Nakamaru exchanged a knowing look on that as they had let Hokuto run off, because they knew that Taisuke would freak at them later for that and teasing Taisuke was just too much fun to let any opportunity pass.

***

Having everyone gathered at the meeting hall wasn't the most pleasant atmosphere, but all of them had to put aside private emotions for now. So Kentaro stood with Taiga and the other boys, while Nikaido gave him an apologizing look, but remained with Taisuke.

Ueda was of course with the other founders, but even he gave Kentaro a side glance.

Those who weren't involved in any patrolling or fighting activity in the village were having an eye on the borders for the meeting time as for once they needed everyone to be present.

"I don't want to make this a complicated or long meeting," Mitsu started as he stood in the front with the founders and Wataru, while the others sat down at the tables.

"We won't get any explanation about our new arrivals," Myuto whispered a bit disappointed as he looked over to Reo and the new boy who hadn't even had the chance to introduce himself yet, not that Mitsu had introduced the other founders to the boys yet.

"He's Kamenashi's pupil. His name is Hokuto," Taiga whispered from the side.

"As always well informed," Ryosuke said with a smile, but then he looked at Juri who gave Hokuto an angry stare before he moved closer to Taiga. "I feel some tension growing there."

"I see the tension already," Aran giggled, but while Juri tried to ignore their teasing, Kentaro wasn't even paying them any attention.

"We had a meeting earlier and we decided that it'll be the best to check on the situation in the city."

Wataru's words had everyone immediately fall silent and look at him in disbelief.

"Right, let us all just go there and ask if everything is going well. Shall I walk up to Tama myself to ask if he changed his mind?" Taisuke mocked with a pissed expression.

"No one said that you had to go," Mitsu warned his brother. "We don't want to go to fight, but to check if there is a big fight ahead or not."

"If we run into Tama then we'll be in trouble though," Massu let out worried.

"That's why we need people to go who haven't met him yet."

Kamenashi entering the conversation had everyone look at him, but his words also made Ryosuke let out a sigh.

"That would only leave this table then."

The realization of that had the boys staring at each other and then Fuma hit with the flat hand on the table. "Bring it on. I'm totally up for that!"

As Fuma hadn't been in the city in the first place when he had turned into a Phenomenist, he had always wanted to go even if it was of course more than dangerous.

"I wouldn't mind either," Ryosuke let out. "But we have to decide this team very carefully."

"That's why we already decided for the members, as long as everyone is okay with going of course," Wataru explained.

"Taiga cannot join and Juri was spotted by them before so you two are not going," Mitsu said and while Taisuke also knew that there was no way Mitsu would let him go, a bit of tension fell from his chest on hearing that.

"Are we supposed to just wait here for them to return or are we having something like a back up plan? You know, just in case," Massu asked as it was clear that the team was going to be pretty young so having a plan B was definitely better.

"We'll discuss that in a bit," Nakamaru said and Massu nodded at him.

"Who's going?" Ryosuke asked to bring the attention back to the topic.

"As Fuma already said he wants to go, he is set," Mitsu said, making Fuma cheer. "You too if you're okay with it?"

Ryosuke nodded without hesitation. "Someone has to calm Fuma down or he will blow our cover," Ryosuke teased.

"Myuto, we would like to ask you as well," Wataru asked and the boy looked at Aran first.

"We can't let both of you go," Kamenashi said before they decided on anything. "We decided that family members and people in strong connections are not allowed together on the team."

"That's fair," Aran said and nodded. "You should go. It's not like I'd like to go back to the city."

"You sure?" Myuto asked again and while Aran's look didn't seem too excited, he nodded.

"Reo will join you too," Ueda announced, making the boy cheer in excitement and he high fived Fuma.

"Which means I'll most likely not go," Hokuto said and while he looked a bit disappointed, he didn't seem to be angry.

"We need you here," Nakamaru said, which showed that he had indeed thought of an extra plan just in case.

"We need one more person," Wataru said, but the person he was looking at wasn't looking at him, because his attention was still on his little brother. "Nikaido, you've been in the city until just a few months ago. It would be great to have someone on the team who knows the recent state of the city."

Kentaro turned around and looked at Nikaido, the same moment the other one looked up at Wataru.

"Me?"

"It's you or Kentaro," Mitsu explained.

"I-"

"I'll go," Nikaido immediately replied when Kentaro was about to say something. He knew that Kentaro would definitely volunteer just to get some space from recent happenings, but he also knew him well enough to know that he wouldn't be focused enough for such a mission.

"Don't decide that so lightly," Taisuke scolded him.

"When even the boys say they're going, why should I refuse?" Nikaido asked, but Taisuke couldn't find a good reply to that. "it'll be fine, I promise."

"Then the team is set. You'll depart tomorrow as we can't waste much time. Details will follow this evening. I want everyone who is departing tomorrow to stay in the village today and prepare. The rest is up for patrols until then."

Massu didn't complain as he wouldn't be able to help at the city. Wataru was also needed more in the village and now the founders were around too, so the village was well protected.

"You need to talk to him, you know that," Taiga said after they had all split up after the meeting and Taiga had demanded to be put on patrol with Kentaro. Mitsu had only agreed, because Taiga had immediately said that it was fine to put one or two other members on the team.

What he hadn't expected was him choosing Hokuto or more like Kamenashi telling him to put Hokuto on the team if he wants to be sure that he was fine.

The boy was pretty good at reading the atmosphere and he was walking ahead, giving the two boys some space. Juri hadn't been thrilled to be left behind, but Reo had immediately dragged him along to help prepare him with his departure.

"I just don't know what to say."

"He's your brother. You had every right to get angry at him before. Do you really think he's angry at you now? Because I fight a lot with my brothers and we're totally fine after that."

"You're used to those quarrels though," Kentaro said with a sigh. "I'm usually never getting into any fights with him."

"Then maybe it was about time," Taiga said with a smile. "Of course the timing could have been better, but you can't let him leave like this."

"I want to go instead of him," Kentaro let out. "Even if Ueda thinks my brother is also in some kind of way a Phenomenist, he has no active abilities."

"And you have too much going on to be able to control yours and you totally know that," Taiga reminded him. "You'll figure it out."

Taiga gave him a clap on the shoulder before he ran up to Hokuto to give the boy a bit of time to think about what he wanted to do.

"I was already told that you care too much for everyone else and not enough for yourself. The perfect leader," Hokuto teased him and Taiga shoved him a bit away on his shoulder.

"The leader here is still my oldest brother though and I don't want all that responsibility."

"But you want to get your voice heard more towards your brothers, don't you?" Hokuto asked with a knowing look.

"For them I'll always be responsible enough, but never strong enough. Having to train in secret to not make them worry sucks," Taiga said, realizing that he might have been too honest. If Hokuto stood more on Kamenashi's side then he could easily call him and the boys out.

"Then let me help you with that training."

The surprise was written all over Taiga's face and Hokuto chuckled as he moved closer and put his arm around the other one’s shoulder.

"I bet the others are helping you as best as they can, but let's be honest, you still suck at fighting."

Taiga immediately pouted, but Hokuto had proven that at their previous fight already.

"Let's make a game out of it?" Hokuto teased.

"What kind of game?" Taiga asked, obviously up for that idea.

"The city team will take at least one or two weeks to come back, so I give you a one week challenge. If you can at least hit one serious attack against me, then you win."

"What do I get if I win," Taiga teased back now.

"What do you want?"

Taiga seemed to think about it for a moment, but he couldn't find something on the spot.

"You can still tell me later, because I doubt you can win."

"What do you want if you win?" Taiga asked back and the other one’s look changed to something more challenging as he had obviously already thought about it. He dropped his arm from Taiga's shoulder to his hip before he pulled the other one a bit closer.

"I want you. For one day."

As if he had said nothing at all, Hokuto let go of the other one and kept walking while Taiga had stopped dead in his tracks.

"You might want to clarify this with someone."

Taiga flinched a bit when Kentaro had caught up to him and had obviously been able to understand the situation without hearing them, not that Hokuto wasn’t obviously enough to make Taisuke freak on the spot if he found out.

"I don't have to report my private matters to my brothers," Taiga bit back more harshly than he should have, but Kentaro wasn't angry at him and he shook his head.

"I don't mean them. But you might disappoint someone if he finds out later."

Once more Taiga didn't move while Kentaro walked after Hokuto. He felt like the only one left out from some important talk and he couldn't figure out which one it was.

***

As if it wasn't his own hut Kentaro hesitated when he opened the door to look inside. He had asked the others if his brother was with Taisuke, but they had told him that he had started packing his stuff for the next day so after his patrol Kentaro went to look for him.

"How was the patrol?" Nikaido asked as he put his bag on the table and of course realized that Kentaro was standing in the half open door.

"It was okay. The north is calm right now," Kentaro said and walked up to the other side of the table, looking at what Nikaido was packing. "Are you sure-"

"Yes, Kentaro. I'm okay with leading this team. You were about to offer as well, right? But I want you to focus on your training here for now. We're only getting information together, nothing more."

"About that…" Kentaro started, but Nikaido immediately threw one of his shirts at him, making Kentaro look up at him in confusion.

"Stop acting all this tense and apologizing, would you? I freaked at Ueda, because he hurt you, but that doesn't mean that your reaction wasn't justified. But that also means you have to deal with it yourself now, am I clear? No ignoring Ueda or stopping your training. The fact that you didn't even bother healing the remaining burn marks shows that you're not done! I know how much potential lies in your abilities. Don't throw it away!"

Kentaro hadn't expected his brother to throw all of this at him at once and for a moment he just remained silent. "So, you're not angry?"

Nikaido put his bag down and walked around the table, Kentaro worried that he was angering him now if he hadn't already done so, but Nikaido ruffled through the other one's hair before he pulled him into a brief hug.

"When was I ever able to be angry at you?" Nikaido asked with a smile. "Just promise me to not throw everything away just because I'm not here to scold you."

Now Kentaro had to chuckle as well and he nodded. "Fine, but only if you promise to bring everyone back safely and don't risk anything."

"Always," Nikaido replied with a bright smile and ruffled through his brother's hair once more.

***

"Do not go near their hut."

"What a welcome back," Taiga laughed on Fuma's reaction. Reo also giggled a bit next to him as they had obviously wanted to check up on Myuto and had had a really bad timing. Only Juri didn't join the teasing and looked at Hokuto instead. At first it looked like he wouldn't even notice, but then he put his arm around Taiga's shoulder and gave Juri a pretty obvious side glance.

"By the way you two will miss a fun week," Hokuto announced, making Taiga roll his eyes.

"Now I don't want to go anymore," Reo pouted without even knowing what they meant.

"I'll take care of his training while you're gone."

"Now I'm not sure if I want to still go either," Fuma laughed. "I'd love to see that! Juri you should join that training, you can use it!"

Juri stumbled to the side when Fuma shoved him way to harshly on the shoulder.

"Look," Fuma added, making Reo burst out laughing.

"You two should get ready," Taiga said and the two immediately pouted.

"You'll have enough time to tease everyone after you had your adventure in the city. But until tomorrow morning you should definitely get ready. I bet Ryosuke is already ready packed and off to sleep."

"Then let's annoy him for now," Fuma said and Taiga yelled after them as that wasn't what he wanted to say with that.

"I'm not sure if they'll be okay," Taiga let out worried.

"Nikaido is with them, so they should be fine, right?" Juri said, stepping closer to Taiga now and Hokuto pulled back, making space for Juri, but not without a teasing smile.

"I'll report back to Kamenashi," Hokuto said. "As I'm staying in the same hut as Reo, I bet I won't get much sleep. So I better hurry to get some before he is back. See you tomorrow."

Taiga nodded and gave him a wave before he turned towards Juri who didn't even feel caught this time as he gave the other one an intense stare.

"What?" Taiga asked curiously.

"You really think it's a good idea to train with him? What if you end up like Kentaro?"

Taiga didn't seem to share the other one's worries as he shook his head. "Ueda was too harsh on him that is for sure, but they will be alright in a few days, I'm sure of it. And Hokuto…"

With a weird feeling in his chest he looked after the other one, still not quite sure what he had gotten himself into.

"And Hokuto doesn't seem that thoughtful either," Juri ended the other one's sentence.

"It'll be alright. I'll make sure to not overdo it, okay? But you're totally welcome to join if you want?"

"Never."

That direct answer had Taiga blink at the other one in confusion for a moment until Juri realized how obvious he behaved and he immediately looked away, making Taiga chuckle.

"No problem. I can still join you for some sparring between friends when you feel like it."

Once more Juri's expression darkened on hearing those words, but Taiga would just not notice. But this time Juri grabbed the other one by the sleeve when Taiga wanted to leave towards the city hall.

"Would you mind staying at my place tonight?"

"Sure, I'll come over later."

Not getting the hint at all, but Juri was happy with the other one at least spending his time with him, even if it wasn't the way he wanted it to be. For Taiga and the other boys it had been normal to stay with Juri over the first days after all. Now Juri needed to find the courage to let Taiga know that friendship wasn't what he wanted.

***

A knock on the door made Taisuke look up from his cup, yet he didn't move. It was already late at night and Massu and a few others were out on the night patrol.

"Are you asleep or are you ignoring me?"

"Just come in," Taisuke replied and Nikaido did as he was told and closed the door. He seemed surprised to see the other one still up, but he joined him at the table.

"Did you have another fight with your brother?" Taisuke asked.

"He kicked me out, but not out of that reason," Nikaido said with a light smile as he knew that Kentaro was extremely worried as well and would have loved to have Nikaido with him before they departed, yet he was also well aware of the fact that Taisuke was trying to avoid any kind of emotional goodbye.

"You need to rest. You'll need a few days until the city with the route Nakamaru prepared for you," Taisuke said as he lifted the cup that was empty by now.

"I didn't come by to keep you up all night," Nikaido said a bit more serious, but Taisuke was avoiding looking up. Yet the next time he tried to lift his cup, Nikaido grabbed it and pulled it out of the other one's hand, putting it on his side of the table.

Taisuke fell back in his chair like a pouting child on that reaction.

"You're worried."

"Of course I am. You're all going to put yourself in more than just some small danger."

"Thank you."

Those words finally had Taisuke look up as he wasn't sure if he had heard right.

"What?"

"Thank you. For worrying. Because that means you trust me and that is all I need to know for now. I promise I won't betray that trust."

Taisuke clenched his fists and got up from the table, bad at emotional talks as always. But only this one time Nikaido didn't want him to run away. With a swift movement Nikaido was up and grabbed Taisuke's upper arms from the back. While the other one had definitely realized that Nikaido was stealing his abilities, he didn't complain. He even made a step back, so that his back collided with Nikaido's chest.

"I don't want any of you to get hurt," Taisuke said, still trying to make it about everyone else. "I wish I could go myself."

"But you can't, so leave it to me." While Nikaido made it clear that this was only about them. “Just for once can you try and shut all those worries out?”

It was a more than difficult task for Taisuke to do so, but Nikaido draining his energy was actually helping a lot with the progress and it wasn’t like Taisuke liked running away from Nikaido the last night before they wouldn’t see each other for weeks.

“I’m not good with such talks,” Taisuke let out without any outright as Nikaido understood of course what Taisuke referred to.

“Then let’s not talk?” Nikaido offered and pulled away.

Taisuke’s immediate reaction was to turn around as he somehow feared that he had made the other one angry, but Nikaido hadn’t stepped back completely so Taisuke was face to face with him when he turned around. Nikaido’s hand was on his cheek the same moment their lips were engaging in their first kiss.

Without a question this was a way Taisuke could handle way better than talking complicated emotions through in his restless state of mind and he couldn’t be more grateful for Nikaido always being one step ahead. Yet it was Nikaido who was obviously surprised by Taisuke’s fierce response as the older one deepened the kiss and put his arms around the other one’s shoulders. Nikaido smiled into the kiss, welcoming the other one’s tries to push him back, not that Nikaido would easily give the lead up.

When Nikaido wanted to pull back, Taisuke let out an unpleased sound into the kiss and pulled the other one back, but he hadn’t seen Nikaido’s reaction coming as he was suddenly lifted up on his hips and with a small gasp he broke the kiss just for a split second, but he wouldn’t let Nikaido talk and on the teasing chuckle he got on his reaction, Taisuke closed his legs around the other one’s hips a bit too tight before he grabbed Nikaido’s face to continue where they had just stopped.

A few seconds later Nikaido dropped the other one on the table, not the place Taisuke wanted to go to and he gave Nikaido a scolding tug on his hair. 

“Greedy, aren’t you?” Nikaido let out with a bright smile when he finally managed to pull away, but Taisuke immediately pouted and pulled the other one back on the collar. But this time he had calmed down a bit and their next kiss was slower and more passionate.

“You started this, so don’t complain now,” Taisuke replied as he kept the other one close with his legs and let his hands move down from Nikaido’s collar to the seam, but then Nikaido stopped him.

“You were the one who said I need sleep, remember?”

There was so much disbelief on Taisuke’s face at the serious way Nikaido had said it that the younger one burst out laughing, but he meant what he said.

“If you came by to make me angry before you leave, then you are doing well,” Taisuke complained and moved a bit back, resting his hands on the table with a scolding look.

“The opposite actually,” Nikaido said with a softer expression when he leant to the front and put his hand behind Taisuke’s neck to pull him closer once more and put his lips on his forehead for a brief moment. “I want you to wait for me. I want to give you a reason to remain calm until I return.”

“For once we do not agree,” Taisuke pouted once more, but it wasn’t like he didn’t get Nikaido’s point. Taisuke was just way more impatient than the other one and he didn’t want to wait until his return, yet he wouldn’t dare to ruin the other one’s mood and even more important, his concentration by starting a quarrel now.

“I didn’t say though that I need to sleep right away,” Nikaido replied with an inviting smile and while Taisuke still played offended he lifted his hand up to the other one’s face once more, moving his fingers slowly down from the side of his eyes, to the corner of his lips.

“Then let me get a good memory of your body tonight so that I won’t forget it until you come back.”

“So my face isn’t that important, I see,” Nikaido teased.

“You didn’t offer your face to me for the first time today though,” Taisuke replied as he moved his hand back towards the other one’s ear now to pull him closer and he only stopped when their lips touched again. “Today you offered everything to me and I will put my trust into you coming back to redeem yourself for making me wait.”

“Nothing easier than that,” Nikaido promised and gave the other one full control of their next passionate kiss.

***

“There is not much more I can tell you. Just make sure to not take any risks and just report back if you see anything that seems suspicious,” Wataru said after they had all gathered for a last morning meeting before their departure.

“The entire city is suspicious,” Aran said while he kept a tight grip on Myuto’s hand. Usually he didn’t show his worries openly, especially when everyone was gathered, but with Myuto leaving for the city and him having to stay behind he was worried more than he wanted to accept. 

“Juri, anything you want to add?” Mitsu asked and the boy seemed a bit startled by the sudden question. He had listened in silence, now looking up at the group of people who had already gotten up and was ready to leave.

“I think I gave you all the details I could remember, but whatever is going on, might have changed the city to an even higher security level. You should be prepared for that,” Juri replied as he wasn’t sure what else to say.

“We’ll approach carefully,” Ryosuke said with a grateful nod towards the other one. “We don’t want to get caught before we even enter the city after all.”

“Tell that to our two trouble makers, I fear they won’t be able to stay silent long enough for us to even sneak around for a second,” Myuto said and pointed at Fuma and Reo who both immediately threw a tantrum, proving his point even more.

For now they all left the meeting hall, a few of them giving them all some hugs or supportive words, while others just stayed at the side, waving them farewell.

“Take these just in case,” Miyata said and handed Nikaido a box with medicine. “It’s not like I have the most efficient medicine here in the village and I can’t give you a full bag of different medication, but this one might turn out to be useful.”

“What exactly is it?” Nikaido asked as he looked at the small glass container with a few capsules in it.

“It’s something like a tranquilizer. It works pretty amazing on Phenomenists and can stop them from going wild.”

“Means you have tried this one on Taisuke,” Nikaido said with a knowing smile and the doctor gave him a kind of apologizing smile. Not that Nikaido was angry at him, they all knew that Taisuke had had a pretty tough time with his abilities before.

“They will give you a lot of trouble,” Mitsu said as he looked over to the boys who already seemed to take this more as a field trip than some secret mission.

“I have Ryosuke to keep them in order,” Nikaido laughed.

“If he doesn’t tag along. Sometimes Ryosuke behaves childish as well,” Mitsu warned him. “Just make sure to be strict with them. Except for Fuma they all know the dangers of the city, but Reo hasn’t been there since childhood and Myuto can be easily overwhelmed. Ryosuke is the only one I am not that worried about.”

“I will make sure to keep them away from possible dangers as best as possible. All we need to find out this time is if this village and the new places the founders created towards the north are safe or not.”

“Then make sure to stick to that plan,” Massu said as he walked up to them. “We will give you a time limit of two weeks. If we haven’t heard anything back by then, we will send another team, but-”

“But that might already be too late for us if something really goes wrong,” Nikaido said with a knowing look.

“Come on! You’re all taking too long,” Fuma yelled from the open field as he and Reo had already walked ahead. Myuto had trouble leaving Aran behind, but Taiga and Juri kept promising him that they would be with him the entire time.

Ryosuke had, politely as he was, once more talked to the founders to assure them that their group would give their best to come back as soon as possible.

Then Nikaido’s look fell on the people he had to worry about the most over those two weeks. Taisuke was standing close to the last hut before the open field, obviously waiting for Nikaido to pass him so he could talk to him once more without everyone being around them.

Kentaro seemed extremely unsure where to be in the first place. It seemed weird to have him and Hokuto stand around in the middle without them actually talking to each other. Hokuto was looking at Myuto and the others, but didn’t seem to want to involve himself in an emotional farewell. He had even scolded Reo after the boy had tried to hug him.

With Hokuto, Kentaro had found the most neutral spot around for now and that was obviously what he had aimed for. He had had a long talk with Nikaido the evening before and Nikaido knew that Kentaro would keep his promise of not giving up his training, but this time the boy didn’t need his brother to be around for comfort. For the first time Kentaro needed space. It would be the first time for the brothers to be apart, but Nikaido was sure that his little brother would be okay.

When Kentaro looked up at Nikaido for a moment, the older one gave him a bright smile and he nodded, Kentaro immediately giving him a nod back, but he didn’t follow him when Nikaido left towards Taisuke’s direction as Fuma wouldn’t stop yelling and even Myuto finally dared his way away from the others.

“You think they will be fine?” Hokuto asked and Kentaro couldn’t even nod or shake his head.

“I don’t know,” he replied honestly. “But I don’t want to add to their worries.”

“So noble,” Hokuto teased, but Kentaro didn’t get angry at him as Hokuto hadn’t said it to mock him in the first place.

“You have to take a lot of responsibility now as well,” Nakamaru was heard next to them as Ryosuke had left towards Fuma’s direction. “Just because they head to the city, doesn’t mean that the village or the northern territories are going to be quiet.”

“We have enough power here to stop an entire army,” Hokuto said and put his arm around Kentaro.

“If he had the right control over it,” Kamenashi said as he walked up to them, but Kentaro didn’t miss his look towards Ueda who had walked up to Wataru instead.

“I will get that control,” Kentaro said to their obvious surprise. “I am not going to sit around here and wait for others to save our asses in case something doesn’t go as planned.”

“Looking forward to the results then,” Nakamaru replied with a supportive nod.

Nikaido looked back at his brother once more, but seeing everyone around him now made him smile. He knew that he was in good hands.

“You have like thirty seconds or Fuma will burst,” Nikaido said as he arrived next to Taisuke, while Fuma kept pulling Myuto and Reo was also telling Ryosuke to hurry up.

At first Nikaido thought Taisuke wouldn’t even say anything at all, as he still didn’t like such talks, but this time he seemed worried enough to drop those boundaries, which he would usually only let fall when they were in private.

Without any hesitation he flung his arms around the other one and gave him a tight hug. Nikaido needed a second to put his arms around the other one’s back, but Taisuke patiently waited for his reaction.

“Whatever happens, just don’t betray my trust.”

Nikaido had told him the night before already that he would never do that, but he knew how hard it was for Taisuke to trust anyone in the first place, so repeating his wish was a way to calm himself down.

“I hope one day you trust me enough to not have to ask me for this ever again,” Nikaido said seriously as he squeezed the other one once more before Taisuke stepped back. Now again his shy expression was back on his face as he knew that everyone had seen them this time, but just for once he didn’t want to care.

“Just don’t freak at anyone if they tease you about us over the next weeks, okay? Leave the village intact,” Nikaido said a bit more teasingly, but then he took Taisuke’s hand in his once more as he realized how tense Taisuke was.

“Gaya, we will all be back soon, okay?”

This time Taisuke’s look softened a bit. It wasn’t a smile, but he still nodded with a brighter expression as he let the other one go.

“We will all wait for your return.”

“Now?” Taiga asked perplexed when Hokuto told him just minutes after the others had left that they should train.

“You have anything better to do?” Hokuto challenged.

“That depends on what you are up to?” Mitsu was heard next to them, but Hokuto didn’t seem to feel caught.

“Making sure that your little brother can get himself out of trouble,” Hokuto let out without any outright. Mitsu looked from him to Taiga and like always there was something in his look that made Taiga angry.

“Don’t you dare say it’s dangerous or whatsoever,” Taiga let out straightforward. “It’s not like Hokuto is in any way out of control with his abilities and he is a pupil of Kamenashi, who would be better for training than someone like him?”

The determination Taiga spoke with made Mitsu smile and he slowly nodded, giving Hokuto a clap on the shoulder. “Well, I think he has a point, but remember who you are training with.”

Taiga rolled his eyes on that unnecessary warning, but Hokuto nodded with an understanding smile.

“Look, you seem to be free for training and now it’s even official,” Hokuto teased.

With a look over his shoulder Taiga saw that everyone had already vanished in the thick southern forest and most of the others were slowly getting back to their duties as well. But then Taiga realized that Juri wasn’t around anymore, so he started looking for him.

“Don’t look for excuses to not train,” Hokuto said and reached out for Taiga’s wrist, dragging him along.

Aran let out a sigh on everyone’s behavior, but then looked at Juri who was standing close to him, hiding half behind one of the huts.

“I will make this clear,” Aran said and crossed his arms to his chest, looking at Juri. “If you keep this up for the next two weeks then I will make sure that Taiga will finally get the hints, if you want that or not.”

Juri looked a bit panicked on the other one’s words, not that he didn’t know that everyone except Taiga had completely caught up already, but because he didn’t want Aran to talk to Taiga.

“If you are that jealous then you should make a move soon, because you can’t blame Taiga for going after someone else if he doesn’t even know that someone else is there he could turn to.”

“But because he doesn’t see it, I am not sure if I should even try,” Juri said as honestly as he hadn’t been with anyone in the village so far, but Aran walked up to him and gave him a light punch against the shoulder.

“Don’t even try to put this on Taiga. Just because he can’t get hints, doesn’t mean he wouldn’t be interested. Make up your mind, but do it fast!”

Definitely easier said than done as Juri didn’t feel like he had been in the village for long enough to even make such a bold move, especially not on Taiga as he was well aware of Taisuke’s and Mitsu’s overprotectiveness, not that Hokuto seemed to feel threatened by that.

***

The first day after everyone’s departure had gone by quiet with everyone doing their regular patrols and mostly just trying to not worry too much.

The second day started the same with Kentaro getting ready to work on the fields. When he tried to get the rake from the side of the storage room, Ken snatched it away with a loud laugh and dashed towards the field.

Kentaro looked after him with a smile as the boy was more than welcome to do his work if he wanted to. Miyata’s wife was also on the fields and he gave him a small apologizing bow when she realized that Ken had run off with the rake.

“Seems like someone is willing to do your work today,” Massu said as he stepped next to Kentaro.

“I would gladly leave it to him,” Kentaro joked and wanted to get another rake from inside the storage, but Massu stopped him.

“How about we switch?”

“What do you mean?” Kentaro said as the other one stepped towards the door.

“You go on patrol for me and I do your work.”

“Why would you-”

“It’s a deal then,” Massu said while Kentaro had not at all agreed, but then Massu walked up to the fields, Hanna immediately wanting him to lift her up and he put her on his shoulders while Ken showed off his skills with the rake.

Not even having the energy to argue, Kentaro made his way to the meeting hall as he had to go on patrol now if he wanted to or not. Massu was always nice to everyone, but it was clear that this time he wouldn’t take no for an answer. The reason for that was clear the moment Kentaro realized that the person waiting to leave on patrol with him was no other than Ueda.

The other one hadn’t spotted him yet and Kentaro stopped for a brief moment, unsure what to do. But then he remembered his promise to his brother and with a deep breath he walked up to the other one.

“Are you looking for someone?”

Ueda’s reaction had Kentaro’s mood drop for a moment, but he couldn’t blame the other one. Somehow Kentaro had hoped that it hadn’t been Massu’s idea, but actually Ueda’s idea to make them switch, yet his reaction showed that Massu had set them up. But Kentaro hadn’t done the first step either, so he couldn’t blame Ueda for taking his distance. After all that was what Kentaro had asked for and Ueda had given him the space he had demanded.

“I will switch with Massu for this patrol,” Kentaro said and started walking without waiting for Ueda’s reaction. Luckily the other one tagged along without any further questions.

As it was usually Massu’s patrol, they had the southern border, but with their city team just leaving the day before they were sure that they would have noticed if any soldiers had been close by.

Half of the patrol, they remained silent, none of them willing to start a conversation, yet when they reached the waterfall, Kentaro turned around, knowing that remaining silent like this won’t help with them moving on in any kind of direction.

“I am not done,” Kentaro said as he faced the other one, Ueda looking kind of confused by those words. “I am not done training, but even Reo can’t teach me how to control my abilities. He can show me the skills, but mastering them has to do more with my mind and not with my body.”

Ueda remained silent for a moment, his usual provoking attitude now buried under a guilty expression, but that wasn’t what Kentaro wanted to see. He didn’t want them to run around each other in circles now.

With determined steps Kentaro walked up towards the waterfall and stretched his hand out. As if it came natural to him now, the water moved on his skin, no doubt in Kentaro’s mind that their connection was stronger than ever before. He had learned his lesson the hard way, but the connection would stay forever.

Slowly the water aimed for his wrist, upper arms and neck and after the burn marks vanished, Kentaro turned back to Ueda.

“Better? Can you now stop looking at me like that?” Kentaro asked and once more Ueda was left speechless, but this time his expression softened a bit and a faint smile was visible.

“I don’t need you to apologize, okay? I know you are not the type of person who would do so. I should have been clear with my boundaries and you shouldn’t have just assumed them,” Kentaro let out more than clearly, but that was exactly what they both needed.

“Then how about I make sure to ask you from now on?” Ueda finally spoke up and this time Kentaro’s look brightened up as well as he nodded.

“And I will make sure to tell you, so as long as we both keep listening, everything is fine.”

“So, how careful do I have to be?” Ueda asked when he dared to step closer to the other one. “Because while I must admit that our last training was quite harsh even for my style, I won’t be able to train you if I have to make you aware of every possible uncomfortable surprise.”

“It’s not like I’m not used to your training. I was fine with it until that day, well more or less,” Kentaro said as he hadn’t actually minded the harsh methods as he had indeed gotten way more results through them than with the nice training with Wataru and the others.

“So surprises are still okay?” Ueda asked, still obviously not completely sure.

Kentaro rolled his eyes as he finally wanted them to go back to their normal behavior as he liked their yelling and mocking towards each other way more than this careful approach. He couldn’t handle Ueda like this. “Of course. I will tell you when something is not okay for me, okay? So yes surprises-”
There was a split second of complete confusion when he got shoved to the back by the other one without any kind of warning, then it was replaced by shock when he realized that the step he did to the back ended in the middle of nowhere, right over the cliffs. Then anger took over as he realized that Ueda had once more just acted without any kind of warning, but the second Kentaro fell to the back, his anger changed to something else and he let himself drop. A reaction that had Ueda obviously panic and he looked over the cliff with wide eyes, just to find Kentaro a few meters down on a water platform from the waterfall.

“At least you care enough to see if I died,” Kentaro said, but his anger had immediately vanished, because this was definitely more of the Ueda he wanted back and the fact that Ueda had indeed worried when Kentaro hadn’t used the water right away, made Kentaro understand that Ueda was sometimes taking it too far, yet never without calculating the risks first.

“Who knows, maybe eventually you will be the death of me instead,” Ueda joked as he waited for Kentaro to get himself back to the forest ground and he stretched his arm out towards the younger one and Kentaro took it as he let the water drop and jumped back towards the other one.

“You’re not allowed to die before you teach me how to fully control my abilities,” Kentaro teased as he started walking back towards the direction of the village.

“Then don’t die before I can teach you everything,” Ueda teased back.

“We should really not have such conversations in front of the others,” Kentaro said with a troubled expression as he realized how extreme it would sound towards the others, while they just enjoyed the mocking.

He turned back to the older one with a surprised look when Ueda laughed at those words. It was the first time Kentaro was seeing him laughing so loudly and showing such a bright smile. But seeing it made him feel like he had made the right decision in putting his trust into him once more. After all, Ueda wasn’t a bad person. He was only bad at expressing himself if it wasn’t through harsh training.

***

Fuma’s fire blast crashed into a wall of water and the smoke raised into the sky, Reo giving the other one a teasing smile.

“I still don’t get how you do that,” Fuma admitted.

“Well, I only take the water out of the air and the plants around. It takes a longer preparation time than if I had real water around.”

“What if you had a really dry environment? Like the city?” Myuto asked, while he was only sitting at the side as they were taking a break after already walking half of the second day.

“I can still get water out of the air, not that much though, especially because the city’s air is extremely dry as far as I can remember.”

“You’ve only been there at a young age, right?” Ryosuke asked.

“My parents ran from the city before I even had any abilities. It was around the time the city started to imprison the first with abilities so they were worried. Eventually a few others join and we build a community similar to your village, just way more far north.”

“And that is where Ueda showed up at some point,” Fuma concluded. “I wish he could teach me too.”

“He is not good with teaching other fire users,” Reo said as he also sat down as they knew that they shouldn’t waste their energy playing around.

“Explains why he gave up on Taisuke and refuses to train Massu too,” Ryosuke said.

“He is more or less training Massu though,” Reo explained. “Massu is still the calmest fire user in the village so Ueda uses his provoking methods to get through to him, that is how Massu realized that getting outraged won’t help him.”

“Different to Taisuke,” Myuto said with a chuckle. “He would just completely burst at some point. But that is also why it seems so weird to me that he is actually that calm when he is training with Nikaido even when Ueda is yelling at him.”

“That is because he has something he wants to protect in Nikaido,” Ryosuke said with a knowing smile over to Nikaido who was scouting out the path ahead with the map he had gotten from Nakamaru.

“And here he usually keeps everyone he wants to protect away from himself,” Myuto said as everyone knew of course that he was always taking his distance to Taiga and even Wataru a lot when he was angry so that he wouldn’t accidentally hurt them.

“Then let’s make sure to protect him too or Taisuke will come after us,” Fuma said, making everyone laugh, but they would definitely do that in case trouble awaited them at the city, because they knew that Nikaido was putting himself in the most danger without any active ability.

***

"You don't look like your training is going well," Aran said when Taiga sat down at his table, casually dropping right next to Juri who gave him a worried look as well as Taiga looked more than exhausted even though it was only the third day of training.

"It's going well for Hokuto," Taiga said and put his food to the side, obviously not in the mood to even eat. "Which means as much as that I won't be able to land a hit on him soon."

"Does that matter so much to you?" Juri asked. "It's not like you need to suddenly become strong enough to beat a Phenomenist."

"They made a bet," Aran said, of course having caught up to that.

"What kind of bet?" Juri asked, hearing about that part for the first time.

"Nothing important. Just a bet if I can become good enough in one week to get a hit on him."

"If you want to manage that, you need more of this," Kentaro was heard next as he sat down on the opposite side of Taiga, next to Aran before he shoved Taiga's food back in front of the other one. "Or do you want him to win?"

Taiga rolled his eyes at the other one, but still took a bite of his food.

"How was the patrol?" Aran asked.

"If you can call it a patrol," Kentaro said, but the smile on his face showed that he enjoyed the daily patrol he was on with Ueda. "He is throwing random training exercises at me."

"Sounds like fun," Aran teased.

"Which reminds me that I have to ask my brother to let me go on patrol as well. He's taking me out again," Taiga said and wanted to get up to talk to Mitsu, but Kentaro called him back and when he turned back to the table, Kentaro threw some bread at him.

"Don't get too worked up over everything."

Taiga only gave the other one a pouting look, but still took the bread with him.

"Says the one whose brother is on his way to the city," Aran reminded him.

"Not like your boyfriend isn't," Kentaro teased back. "But I want to trust them. Look at Taisuke, even he is doing his best to act calm."

Taisuke was indeed trying, mostly being around the founders or Wataru. Taking on every possible work or patrol he could get just to distract himself.

"Juri, maybe you should also ask to get out on patrol?" Aran asked, making the other one snap out of it as he had kept staring after Taiga as so often. "Hokuto is on patrol with Nakamaru tonight so I bet he won't go tomorrow morning."

A big hint and Juri only nodded, while Kentaro seemed too hungry after another half patrol half training session with Ueda to even put much into the conversation.

"Kentaro, do you know more about their bet?" Aran asked and the other one looked up in confusion.

"Didn't you just talk about that before I joined?" Kentaro asked, but Juri shook his head.

"Aran only assumed that there is a bet. Taiga kind of confirmed it. That's all," Juri said.

"Now getting embarrassed after agreeing, I see," Kentaro teased before he kept eating, but then felt the eyes of both boys on them. "If he didn't tell you, I can't."

"Oh come on," Aran said and started pushing and pulling on the other one's sleeve.

"Fine, but don't you dare tell him that I told you," Kentaro said and waved them closer to the middle of the table so that he could whisper.

"Taiga agreed that Hokuto could own him for a day if he can't land a hit in one week."

***

“Do we have a plan from here?” Fuma asked a bit skeptical when he saw the city for the first time and nothing about it looked inviting.

High fences and towers to overlook the area. Heavily guarded and checked gates. There was no way to enter the city in secret.

“We all made it out, then we should also be able to make it back in,” Myuto said, but he also didn’t look thrilled to see the high towers and heavily armed soldiers once more.

“We will just walk in,” Nikaido said, making the others look at him dumbfounded. “What else would we do?”

“I don’t know, I thought Nakamaru came up with some awesome idea?” Even Ryosuke said a bit taken aback by that way too easy sounding plan.

“It’s not like they can tell that anyone is a Phenomenist if you don’t use your abilities and if they get skeptical and stop us then we know they are using Phenomenists after all. They are the only ones who could sense you,” Nikaido said and got up from the cliff edge around the last mountains close to the city. “Just come up with some excuse why you want to enter the city. There are more cities in the south, you can pretend that you came over from there or that you are looking for someone. Just don’t be too creative or they will definitely be skeptical.”

“Wait, does that mean we are all entering on our own?” Reo asked. “I don’t remember the city. I won’t be able to find you again.”

“You can sense us,” Fuma said.

“Dude, we can sense each other in a certain area, I can’t run through the entire city to find your whereabouts between all those people.”

“Calm down, you won’t need to go alone. We will form teams,” Nikaido calmed everyone down. “You see that white tower there on the left?”

Everyone looked towards the area of the city with a lot of taller buildings. While most buildings were only two or three stories high, the left side of the city was a labyrinth of several skyscraper-like buildings, all connecting through bridges and walkways.

“Juri said that one of the smaller buildings around that center tower was where he encountered Tama and the others, so make sure to stay away from that area when you enter. We will make two teams, one enters today, the other one tomorrow. After you enter make your way to the northern part of the civilian part and look for the North ward civilian council station.”

“I will forget that name in five minutes,” Fuma said.

“I already forgot it,” Reo added.

“And that is why you can’t be on the same team,” Ryosuke laughed at them.

“Ryosuke, would you be okay with waiting with Reo until tomorrow?” Nikaido asked and of course the boy agreed, while Reo pouted about having to stay another night out in the cold, not that it was too cold around the city at this time of the year. At their village winter was approaching and the last harvests were brought in, but the city wasn’t that much in the north and also not high in the mountains.

“Make sure to stay safe,” Ryosuke said towards all of them. “And don’t cause Nikaido trouble.”

Fuma rolled his eyes as Myuto looked at him as well. “If any of you messes this up instead of me then I will totally remind you of this conversation.”

“Imagine me being the one who gets us all into trouble,” Ryosuke said, making everyone laugh.

“Let’s just not jinx it please,” Nikaido warned them. “Just please all watch out for each other and we will meet tomorrow evening at the council station. If a group or any member does not show up then we will proceed without you, as we can’t contact you and there is no way to find missing members.”

“Scary enough,” Myuto said, but they were all aware of the risk they were taking.

“Good luck to your team. Hopefully no trouble is coming our way,” Ryosuke said as the others got ready to enter the city first.

***

With a hiss Kentaro pulled out of the line of fire, but the whip Ueda had slashed through the air had hit over his arm before he was able to get any water out of the air.

“Don’t rely on your abilities too much,” Ueda warned, yet he halted, giving Kentaro a moment to gather himself and he looked at the burn mark he had left on the other one’s arm.

“Right, let me block it with my bare hands next time,” Kentaro said, but the only anger he was feeling was towards himself as they were already training for days and this was the fifth time by now that he got burned.

“Forming the water out of the air and plants is difficult, even Reo needs some time to be able to form any kind of protection out of it. Not to forget that you can usually not get enough water together to actually form an attack. So focus on certain areas, the smaller the better,” Ueda explained while Kentaro walked over to the small stream at the training ground to put his arm down into the water to heal the burn.

“Now how awesome would it be if water users could form their abilities out of nowhere the same as with fire and telekinesis,” Kentaro said as he stood up and looked at his arm healing slowly, but when he turned around, he almost collided with Ueda who had walked up to him and was now taking his arm in his hand. The moment the burn was healed he closed his hand around the area with a tight grip.

“Does it hurt?” Ueda asked and for a moment Kentaro forgot to reply as he kept looking up at the other one who was standing way too close.

“No,” Kentaro finally let out and Ueda loosened his grip, but kept his hand on his arm.

“That is something only water users can do, so I would say you have a pretty good extra ability. We fire users are more or less fireproof, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t be stabbed, shot or killed in another way.”

“But wouldn’t I be able to heal you?” Kentaro asked. Suddenly feeling restless about that question.

Ueda withdrew his hand, just to get out a knife and open a cut on the back of his hand. “You can try?”

Kentaro gave the other one a scolding look for hurting himself just to prove a point, yet Kentaro hurried to move some water up to the other one’s hand and while he didn’t think it was needed, he felt the urge to close his hands around the other one’s hand.

“But it’s a cut, not a burn, so maybe it wouldn’t even heal on me?” Kentaro asked, as he was afraid of the result.

“As a water user, you should be able to heal even severe injuries on yourself, no matter what weapon they were caused by. Thanks to Reo we even found out that you can cure poison inside your body.”

“Seriously? How the hell did he manage to get himself poisoned?” Kentaro asked, Ueda having a teasing smile on his lips now. But when he wanted to tell the story of Reo being as always way too carefree with what he was eating, Kentaro felt something warm around his hand and his look darkened when he realized that the blood from Ueda’s hand was dropping down on his.

With a sigh he let the water slowly drop and pulled his hands away, looking at the blood as if it had been caused by himself.

Ueda hurried to grab his hands so that Kentaro looked up at him. “Do not get discouraged by the fact that your abilities are not almighty, okay? Some Phenomenists can’t even control half of their abilities, you’re doing great.”

Kentaro’s look changed from disappointed to understanding, but then he narrowed his eyes, making Ueda blink at him.

“What?”

“What are you up to?”

Kentaro’s question had Ueda look back at him in the most hilarious way and instead of pulling away, Kentaro started laughing and grabbed Ueda’s hands on the way.

“I have no clue what is going on,” Ueda said so honestly that Kentaro laughed even more, now already crying while doing so. “What the hell did I do?”

Kentaro couldn’t calm down enough to actually reply to that question immediately, but while he had thought for a split second that Ueda had only come that close to be able to launch another surprise attack on him, the older one’s honest confusion about Kentaro’s skeptical reaction had him somehow drop his suspicion for the first time.

Even after continuing their training Kentaro had somehow still remained over cautious and tried his hardest to keep his distance, but this moment had him finally realize that maybe for the first time he had found someone he wasn’t sure of if his role was only meant to be his teacher.

“I didn’t expect you to be this good at lying,” Fuma said impressed after they had made it into the city without much trouble. They had to state their names, which they made up of course, their purpose of visit and from where they had come. Of course the soldiers gave them an extra scan, not that they had any suspicious items on them and they couldn’t tell at all if they were Phenomenists or not.

“Shall I take that as a compliment?” Nikaido asked with a lopsided smile while he walked off to a side street after they had left the gate area behind them, but he had been more nervous about this then the others realized yet.

“It is a handy skill for now?” Fuma laughed. “But I didn’t expect the city to be this crowded, are there really no other places humans are living?”

“They are too afraid of us for that,” Myuto said with a dark expression.

“My family lived outside of the city when I was a child, I remember that much,” Fuma said, but his expression turned gloomy on that memory. He became a Phenomenist at a pretty young age and his own family abandoned him. Massu had been the one finding him on a patrol as Fuma had tried to stay alive on his own for quite some years by himself. He had been good at hiding his abilities, but he had never dared to make it to the city. He had only encountered some travelers over the years, but no villages like the one they had built in the north.

“Over the years more people came to the city. It got even more crowded, with no living space left for most people. There are not enough jobs for everyone, so most people live at places provided by the council stations. New arrivals will be put into the station area with the most openings and if someone is needed at a job opening, they will go by arrival time.”

“Did you have a job and place to stay when you lived here?” Myuto asked while they kept walking away from the busy area of the city, but with that the buildings turned older and dirtier.

“Our parents died at a young age, so I always had to somehow make a living for us,” Nikaido explained. “When the city was created with the first Phenomenists appearing they luckily needed a lot of people to help out.”

“So what exactly was your job?” Fuma asked, but Nikaido seemed quite unwilling to reply and that made Myuto gasp.

“Don’t tell me…you were a soldier?”

“What? Seriously?” Fuma asked and Nikaido’s silence was answer enough. That topic had never really come up in the village, not even with Taisuke, so he had never dared to talk about it.

“I did what kept us alive at that time,” Nikaido said. “Which doesn’t mean that I am trying to find outrights. I would never choose to do it again. At that time, we weren’t ordered to be that harsh with the Phenomenists. I wasn’t even in a unit that was involved with them as I was mostly stationed around the fence area. I escorted some Phenomenists to the main tower, but I never saw what happened to them. Not many soldiers were allowed inside.”

“But then Kentaro became a Phenomenist,” Myuto said. “And you are one as well, more or less.”

“Right,” Nikaido said with a sad expression. “I just wish I could help more.”

“But you can,” Fuma said, seeming excited instead of angry as he walked in front of the other two and made them stop. “Think about it, who else could easily sneak into their buildings? Just come up with some excuse why you weren’t here for so many months. Just some civilians saw Kentaro use his abilities, right? They might have even thought you were a soldier capturing him and not someone helping him.”

“That…is quite a good plan and that from you,” Myuto said with a smile, making Fuma immediately pout.

“That might backfire,” Nikaido said, but wasn’t completely against the idea. “For now, let's head to the council station and wait for the others.”

***

Taiga’s fist was touching the other one’s skin, but only on the side and Hokuto had moved out of the way at the last second on purpose. Taiga tried to stop his own movement and turn around, but at the same time Hokuto had already moved to the front, sweeping away Taiga’s leg. But this time Taiga wouldn’t go down that easily and at the last moment he grabbed Hokuto by the arm, half pulling him over his shoulder. The result was Hokuto hitting the ground first, but Taiga wasn’t really landing gracefully on top of him so there was no opening to actually attack.

“That was such a good chance,” Hokuto teased after Taiga had almost hit his head on the ground next to Hokuto’s shoulder, because he didn’t want to fall straight on the other one.

“At least I am getting some chances finally,” Taiga said proudly as he sat up, but when he wanted to get up, Hokuto grabbed Taiga’s belt, keeping him down.

“But you only have a few days left, do you really think you will be able to win?”

When Hokuto pulled even more on Taiga’s belt, the other one was forced to put his hands back down so that he was face to face with Hokuto, who seemed to enjoy the situation a bit too much.

“Don’t judge the situation too fast,” Taiga let out, trying to act unaffected after Hokuto had pulled moves like this the entire week already, but somehow Taiga never felt the need to scold him. Yet he moved nevertheless as he could see someone approaching from the village.

“Poor sport,” Hokuto scolded the other one, but still released him and sat up after Taiga was back up standing and took a few steps away when the one approaching was Mitsu.

“Taiga, do you mind taking a break for a while?” Mitsu asked and of course his little brother’s expression immediately turned to angry, but Mitsu lifted his hand.

“I am not against your training. But I would like you to talk to Juri.”

“Juri? Why?” Taiga asked. The boy had suddenly volunteered to go on patrol with the others and Taiga felt that he had finally warmed up to everyone more. The day before he had gone out with Kamenashi and Wataru and in the morning he had left with Nakamaru and Massu.

“He got himself hurt.”

“Hurt? What happened? Are there soldiers around again?” Taiga asked so worried that Mitsu had to stop him from just dashing back to the village.

“That’s the thing,” Mitsu said with a worried expression. “No one was around. There wasn’t even any dangerous territory around. Massu told me that he seemed way too absentminded to be put on another patrol like this. So I thought maybe you could ask him what is going on?”

Not even knowing why exactly Taiga looked over his shoulder towards Hokuto, he somehow felt it a necessary move to ask permission. After all they were still training and he didn’t want to just run off like this.

“Go ahead, I don’t mind,” Hokuto said, neutral as always.

Taiga nodded at him and went down to the village first, while Mitsu remained with Hokuto.

“Hokuto, you-”

“I won’t go overboard, don’t worry,” Hokuto cut the other one, knowing of course that Mitsu and Taisuke were always overprotective of his little brother.

“That’s actually not what I meant,” Mitsu said and Hokuto immediately got the hint and as Mitsu wasn’t only the village leader, but also Taiga’s family member he dropped his teasing attitude with him.

“I am not trying to force anything if that’s what you worry about,” Hokuto replied honestly.

“I just want to make sure that you know what you’re getting yourself into. If your goal is just to play around then don’t judge Taiga if he will turn his back on you. Oh and Taisuke will definitely be your worst enemy if you dare to just approach him with those intentions.”

The warning was clear, yet Hokuto’s look remained serious.

“I am not going to hurt his feelings, but I need to wait a bit longer to see where his feelings are lying in the first place,” Hokuto replied and this time Mitsu seemed slightly confused as he and the other older ones hadn’t completely read the situation yet.

***

“Hey there troublemaker,” Taiga greeted Juri after knocking and entering the other one’s hut. “Miyata told me that you refused to stay at his place?”

“It’s not like I got hurt badly,” Juri said and only moved one hand over his right arm in embarrassment after he had stumbled on a path with quite a lot of sharp plants around. “I was just extremely clumsy today.”

“Are you feeling anxious with the others?” Taiga asked as he sat down next to Juri on his bed.

“I am not that antisocial,” Juri let out a bit too loud and immediately fell silent again.

“But something is bothering you, doesn’t it? You know that you can tell me, right? If you want to of course.”

This time Juri let out a snort and for the first time Taiga saw a different side of the other one. The annoyed side.

“You shouldn’t bother that much. It’s really nothing. Just go ahead and train with your oh so awesome partner. If you don’t watch out then he might win your bet, not that I think you wouldn’t want that in the first place.”

Taiga looked back at him in a loss of words and slowly Juri’s annoyed expression turned to a slightly apologizing one as he hadn’t even intended to be this aggressive and judgmental.

“Well, as everyone seems to know by now, I guess it’s really better if I go back,” Taiga said, so coldly that Juri intuitively reached out for the other one’s arm when he stood up, but to his surprise Taiga shook him off.

“Don’t you dare interfere with my private affairs now as well, Juri,” Taiga shot back at the other one, misunderstanding the situation, but who wouldn’t misunderstand Juri at this point? While Hokuto was pretty clear about his intentions, Juri was hiding his own perfectly.

“I am not telling you what to do,” Juri said as he got off the bed before Taiga could try and just leave.

“Then why can’t you just be the friend I need right now? With the others in the city we are all restless, I know that. But you’re not making it easier for me to calm down right now. You take your distance, then you come back to interfere with Hokuto. If I didn’t know better, I’d say you’re jealous.”

Taiga turned his back on the other one and was heading straight for the door, but this time Juri wouldn’t just stay silent. He knew that if he didn’t make his point clear once and for all, then Taiga would just leave him behind as the friend he didn’t want to be.

The moment Taiga tried to open the door, Juri grabbed him by the shoulder and turned him around. Taiga got ready to scold him as the other one was using way more force than actually needed, but before Taiga could say anything, Juri had pushed him into the closed door to give Taiga a rushed kiss.

Juri had left his hands on the other one’s collar, Taiga freezing in his movements until Juri pushed himself away from him. Silence followed between them for a moment, Juri clenching his fists, wanting to run away from the situation as so often, but he had to stay put.

“I don’t want to be your friend,” Juri finally dared to let out, but he couldn’t look up at the other one. Once more silence filled the room while Taiga had still not moved.

Just when Juri wasn’t sure if he should say anything else or not, he finally dared to look up at the other one. Taiga’s look was hard to interpret and it didn’t make it easier for Juri to choose his next move. The older one seemed startled, but other than that he just seemed neutral.

Juri made a step towards him, but that was the moment Taiga lifted his hand. A movement to make the other one stop and as harmless as the movement was, it hit Juri like a thousand needles in his chest.

Taiga wanted to say something, but he seemed unable to find the right words and he looked more and more stressed out.

“Maybe you should leave for now.”

Juri felt like hitting himself for being the one pushing Taiga away, but no matter how much he hoped for a positive reply, he hated seeing the other one this startled and luckily Taiga nodded, giving Juri another unreadable look before he left without another word.

When the door fell shut, Juri let out a sigh, his hands shaking as his body couldn’t hold on to the tension anymore. He wasn’t feeling sad or angry, just unsure about what to do depending on what Taiga’s answer would be.

***

“This has changed quite a bit,” Reo said after he had left the talking part at the gate to Ryosuke and they had easily made it in.

“I also remember it a bit less crowded, but also a bit less guarded,” Ryosuke said as he kept walking straight ahead on the main street.

“I really wonder if we could recognize the Phenomenists Juri had seen,” Reo said with a thoughtful expression. “Aran also said he had seen them using their abilities inside of the city, right? We should also be able to somehow sense them if they are close.”

“If they are on the city’s side then they might just be dressed like ordinary soldiers. I am not even sure if we could easily sense them, because of all the people around and we’re sensing each other already, so it might be difficult.”

“True,” Reo said as he looked around the shops on the main street. A lively place with a lot of variety of shops. From clothes, to food and other items. As always he got way too easily distracted and he started scanning each and every shop.

“Don’t take too much time, the others are waiting,” Ryosuke reminded him and while Reo nodded, he kept looking through the stores with an excited look. When he had reached the last store on his side of the street he turned around, but then he halted.

“Ryosuke?”

Still trying to stay calm as the main street was crowded, Reo called the other one a few times and started walking back the same way.

“Oh no, I will be so damn lost,” Reo said in panic, but then he jolted on a clap on his shoulder.

“How lucky then that you’re that tall and I can spot you easily,” Ryosuke teased as he had shown up behind him and Reo let out a sigh of relief.

“Seriously, I wouldn’t even know where to start looking for that whatsoever council thing,” Reo said and followed Ryosuke who told him to move away from the main street so that they had more space to walk.

As before Reo kept looking around, scanning the buildings and people around him, but less people kept crossing their way and at the next street Reo looked up, seeing the tower building high up at the end of the area they were in. Big modern buildings were surrounding them and no living quarters seemed to be around this area.

“Wait, weren’t we supposed to move away from that building?” Reo asked as he kept looking up at the white tower that seemed more than close by. When he looked back ahead, Ryosuke had stopped and turned back towards him.

“That was their plan, yes.”

When Ryosuke formed a lopsided sneer, Reo took a step back as he could sense other Phenomenists around after all and he was more than sure that they weren’t the ones they were supposed to meet up with.

“But my plan was different,” Ryosuke said as two more people showed up behind Reo.

“Interesting,” Reo said with a smile himself. He wasn’t easily scared of a fight. He was used to fighting more than one Phenomenist, but this outcome came even to his surprise.

“So you were with them the entire time,” Reo said as he gave just a small glance over his shoulder to the other two Phenomenists. “Took you pretty long to get us down here.”

Ryosuke chuckled on those words and shook his head. “I didn’t try to get you down here, not at least until I got the signal that it was time for it.”

This time Reo’s eyes widened as he realized that they were in more trouble than expected. “You’re not the only traitor.”

***

“You’re horribly silent,” Kentaro said, making Taisuke roll his eyes at him.

“It’s not like there is much to talk about?” The older one said while they had already turned around from their patrol back towards the village.

Mitsu had switched up the patrols just for everyone to stay more alert so Taisuke had been put with Kentaro.

“Well, then let me find a topic,” Kentaro offered. “Are you missing my brother?”

“HA?” Taisuke shot back so startled that Kentaro burst out laughing.

“Oh come on, is it because I am his brother that you don’t want to talk with me about him or do you just don’t want to talk about him in common?”

“It’s not like there is much interesting stuff to talk about,” Taisuke claimed, but Kentaro only laughed once more.

“Right, a Phenomenist and a person that seemed to have been an Infirm somehow being able to do some passive power transfer, making my brother the first passive ability Phenomenist and that also only in combination with your abilities. Not interesting at all. Not to forget your enemies to lovers story.”

“We were never enemies,” Taisuke said, but then halted and looked at the other with a scolding look. “And the rest is private!”

“Right, because you were behaving so modestly when you said goodbye to him,” Kentaro teased back.

Taisuke only rolled his eyes, but Kentaro didn’t want to annoy him with this topic. All he wanted was to know a bit more as he hadn’t gotten many opportunities to talk to Taisuke in the first place. Their first few days in the village had been more than rough between them all so it was definitely time to get on better terms.

As they got closer to the village border, Kentaro reached out for the other one’s sleeve, making him stop. Taisuke tried to not react too annoyed, but as always, his patience level wasn’t that high.

“What?”

“Thank you,” Kentaro said, taking Taisuke more than off guard and the older one’s expression immediately turned softer.

“For letting us stay and for trusting my brother even though you two didn’t really seem like people who could get along in the first place. My brother never really trusted anyone, so I know that it’s a huge step for him as well to get this close to you.”

“Took us long enough to make it this far,” Taisuke said, kind of scolding himself for being so resentful at first.

“But now you have reached a point where he even left me in your care. Trust me, a few months ago he would have never dared to let me stay with anyone if he wasn’t close by.”

“Guess I wasn’t the only one who needed to learn how to trust people again,” Taisuke said and this time a faint smile was visible on his face.

***

“They are late,” Myuto said as they had all walked outside to see if Ryosuke and Reo had somehow lost their way or didn’t know where to enter.

“I looked around any possible wrong locations around the building, but I couldn’t spot them,” Nikaido said as he walked back up to Myuto and Fuma.

The other two had been ordered to enter the village at sunrise and immediately head towards the north council station, but even an hour later they weren’t anywhere to be seen.

“Did they oversleep?” Fuma asked.

“Reo maybe, but together with Ryosuke I doubt so,” Myuto said.

“Maybe they got into trouble at the gate, let’s go and check,” Nikaido said.

“Shouldn’t we wait here in case they just arrive late?” Myuto asked, but Nikaido shook his head.

“I have a bad feeling about this so let’s not split up.”

They followed the older one back towards the main street, but there was no obvious uproar around the gate area or the main street.

“What do we do now?” Myuto asked, looking around in worry for the others.

“For now, we will stick to the plan, but let’s not panic too early. Maybe they just ran into trouble before they could even enter,” Nikaido explained, but then they heard soldiers down the street and the gate opened, people on the street making way for some trucks.

“Where are they heading too?” Fuma asked with an angry glare towards the soldiers on the trucks.

Nikaido looked at the trucks, but there were more than usual if it would be for a normal patrol. Then he looked at the last truck with a weird feeling and he realized how Myuto and Fuma had also turned.

When it passed by, Nikaido’s look fell on a young man his age, short black hair and a way too relaxed expression on his face for a soldier going on patrol. On the other side of the bench a boy was sitting. Red straight hair and a smile on his lips. Right before they drove through the gate both of them looked out of the truck to the back and the man’s eyes found Nikaido looking back at him. 

“They are Phenomenists,” Myuto said knowingly, but luckily they didn’t seem to have realized that they were also Phenomenists or they had somewhere more important to go so they left them alone, but that realization made Nikaido feel even more worried.

“What do we do?” Fuma asked.

“Our job and then we hurry back as fast as we can,” Nikaido said and turned towards the tower. When he started moving, he felt like a raindrop had hit him, but the sky was clear. After a few more steps it happened again and he stopped, putting his hand on his face.

“What is it?” Myuto asked, but Nikaido looked ahead. He narrowed his eyes and walked down a street between two shops and then he stopped once more.

Fuma wanted to go past him, but Nikaido stopped him.

“Look ahead,” Nikaido said, but while both boys did so they didn’t seem to understand what they were looking for. “You’re looking too far.”

Nikaido pointed towards the front, but he didn’t mean the end of the street, there was something right in front of his finger and this time Myuto gasped and walked next to it. A drop of water, hanging in the middle of the air. 

“Reo?” Myuto asked and Nikaido nodded.

“Something is wrong, that is for sure.”

“How lucky that Reo is in such awesome control of his abilities,” Fuma said as he headed down the street, looking for other drops and there were indeed more hanging in the air.

“It’s leading towards the tower,” Myuto realized after they had followed the water for two more streets.

“Guess we have to go with your plan after all,” Nikaido said and the boys tilted their heads at him. “I will return to being a soldier for now.”

The day had turned out to be way more tiring than Kentaro had thought, but he still fell into his bed with a smile.

He had trained with Ueda in the morning before he had left for the patrol in the afternoon and while he was feeling too exhausted to join for a meal in the meeting hall he was already looking forward to the next day.

Finally getting a bit of time for his own thoughts and he suddenly felt bad for not worrying about Nikaido. He had talked with Taisuke about him before, but somehow it felt like there was no need to worry for him. Yet Kentaro was aware that he only thought that way, because things were going positive for him in the village, not that it would help his brother if he would sit around and worry the entire time. Taisuke was definitely worried as well, but he was also not really letting it show that much.

A knock on his door made him sit back up as he had almost fallen asleep while being in his thoughts and he hurried to open the door.

“May I come in?”

“Sure,” Kentaro said as Taiga was waiting in front of his door and it was immediately clear that the other one wouldn’t come by at such a late hour without a good reason.

Kentaro let him sit down first and put a cup of water in front of him, waiting for Taiga to say something, but the boy kept looking down at the table. But that was also the only reaction Kentaro needed to see to know what was going on.

“Juri made a move on you, didn’t he?”

Kentaro’s words had Taiga’s eyes widen immediately as he looked back at his friend. “How-, I-,” Taiga stuttered before he let out a sigh. “You all knew, didn’t you?”

“Well, the ones involved are usually the most blind ones,” Kentaro said with a supportive smile.

“You even gave me hints, I bet the others did here and there as well. I am such an idiot,” Taiga said and sank even deeper into his chair.

“So, how did you react?” Kentaro asked, trying to not see Juri’s move as something negative as Taiga didn’t seem in any way angry, just definitely a bit absentminded.

“Not at all,” Taiga let out with a sigh as he let his forehead drop on the table, making Kentaro almost laugh.

“You know you have to be a bit clearer with what happened if you want me to say anything, right?” Kentaro asked and put his chin on the back of his hands, waiting patiently for Taiga to gather his thoughts.

“First of all, this is your fault,” Taiga suddenly said as he looked up and pointed at the other one, making Kentaro tilt his head.

“You told the others about the bet, didn’t you?”

“Well, they figured it out somehow already. It’s not like Hokuto is behaving inconspicuously around you, the entire village knows by now that he is interested in you.”

Once more Taiga let out a sigh and sat back in his chair with a pouting expression. “If I had known about Juri’s feelings then I could have at least stopped myself from sounding this stupid in front of him.”

“Details please,” Kentaro said and threw his hands into the air as he still had no clue what exactly had happened.

“I misunderstood Juri’s intentions and scolded him for trying to stop me from approaching Hokuto. I even called him jealous, while I was sure that couldn’t be the case. I feel like the biggest idiot.”

“Well, he is jealous that is for sure,” Kentaro replied, still piercing Taiga with an intense look until the other one clicked his tongue.

“He kissed me, okay? Satisfied?"

Kentaro formed a bright smile on hearing that as he had been supportive of what was going on the entire time as he was happy to see Taiga getting along with another Infirm this well.

“And what did you do?” Kentaro kept nagging and sitting more to the front. This time Taiga also moved to the front and flicked his finger against the other one’s forehead.

“I just told you. I did nothing at all.”

“Well, at least that means you’re not against the idea, are you?” Kentaro asked and Taiga needed a moment to organize his thoughts and absentmindedly his fingers went up to his lips.

“I didn’t know how to react or what to say. I felt like everything I could have said would have been misunderstood in that situation, so I just left. But I need to make up my mind.”

“Because even if you win your bet against Hokuto, you won’t keep your distance from him,” Kentaro said knowingly. “Which means you have a pretty hard decision to make.”

Taiga frowned as he knew that as well, but there was no way he could just point at one of them and make a decision.

“How about you stay here tonight?” Kentaro said and his friend seemed more than happy about that offer. “You can use my brother’s bed or stay in mine, I don’t mind either way.”

Taiga immediately nodded with a grateful expression as he wouldn’t be able to face even his brother tonight as he was sure that he had at least caught up to Hokuto and for now he wanted some time to manage the confusion in his own mind.

***

Coming up with another excuse why he had been away from the city for so long, Nikaido had easily won the trust of some soldiers. Unfortunately, that didn’t mean he’d easily get access to the main tower as soldiers would usually not be around it, except they are the guards inside and that duty was mainly for those who served for several years already. But Nikaido was aiming for something else and while that meant wasting an entire day he had put on his most convincing story about why he had come back to become a soldier once more and he had been allowed to join the patrols in the city without much trouble as he had been a loyal soldier before and none of them had realized about Kentaro so far, which meant they had no reason to doubt his intentions and as Fuma had said before, he was pretty good at lying.

The next day he went on patrol with some other soldiers around the main gate and he tried to catch anything about the Phenomenists and soldiers leaving the day before or any news about Reo or Ryosuke, but most of the soldiers around the city didn’t have that information.

But his aim wasn’t outside on the streets in the first place. After their patrol ended in the evening, they would head back to one of the buildings connected to the main tower and that was where Fuma and Myuto waited for them. Exactly two more soldiers were with Nikaido, one of them in charge of their team and they easily knocked them out without attracting any attention so that Fuma and Myuto could change into the soldiers’ clothes and steal the ID code that was needed to activate the scanner for the door.

“We only have one try. If they get suspicious or put out an alarm, we are out, you hear me?”

Both boys nodded even though they didn’t like the idea of leaving their friends behind, but if they all got captured then that wouldn’t help anyone in the first place.

As the city was heavily guarded and they usually only found a few new Phenomenists here and there, the building was pretty quiet inside, especially as it was already late in the evening. Nikaido remembered a few rooms and paths, so he was able to find the connection ways to the tower quite easily.

“This is where Juri found the Phenomenists he said, right?” Myuto said. “How the hell did he get in and then even out again?”

“Beginners luck,” Fuma whispered.

“The part Juri had described is on the lower levels. We are getting in from another building so for us it’s definitely more complicated, but I agree, for Juri it was just a lucky coincidence that he slipped in that time,” Nikaido explained as they made it over one of the connection bridges into the main tower.

A few floors down, Nikaido slowed down. They had to hide a few times as there were still people in the building and guards as well, but they didn’t encounter too much trouble, something that worried him.

“If you ask us to split up now after all, then I have to tell you that it would be pretty bad timing,” Myuto said as he realized Nikaido’s doubts.

“It’s all or nothing now,” Fuma said as he also wanted to proceed, no matter what was going to await them.

“Fine, but let’s be careful, okay?”

They all made their way towards the lowest level, where they hoped they would find the others and then Nikaido turned back to the boys and they gave him a nod as they were also able to sense more Phenomenists, but the question was how many?

They could see light in one corridor with a door at the side, wide open and well lid.

“They know we are here, don’t they,” Myuto whispered, already realizing that they had totally run into a trap.

“Then it’s time to punch the shit out of them,” Fuma said and walked ahead. Nikaido tried to stop him, but the boy just casually walked into the room. Everyone thought he’d start attacking wild around him, but there was no sound and they hurried after him, just to stop the same way as him inside the room.

“Took you long enough,” Ryosuke said as he greeted them. He was standing next to a research desk with another man, long brown hair and around the same height as Ryosuke. At the desk was another man, but in a research gown and he slowly looked up at everyone entering.

“Quite an impressive move to try and sneak in as a soldier once more, Nikaido.”

“You know him,” Myuto asked, but the older one shook his head.

“I know all of the soldiers in this city, I also know about all Phenomenists as long as they are not extremely good in hiding. Your brother wasn’t one of them.”

Nikaido’s eyes grew wide on releasing how much danger he had put everyone in by coming back to the city with them as Kentaro’s water use hadn’t gone by unnoticed after all.

“But what the hell are you doing here and where is Reo?” Fuma asked and pointed at Ryosuke.

“I was just playing my part,” the boy said and gave them all a teasing smile.

“You’re a fucking traitor,” Fuma hissed at him and wanted to dash up at him, but Ryosuke and the man next to him both gave him a warning look and moved their hands.

“Stop!”

The word had been spoken by the man at the desk and Nikaido at the same time.

“Oh, someone is still cool headed enough to read the situation,” the man said. “Then let me introduce myself for now before you try to stand up against Yara and Ryosuke, which by the way would be a pretty dumb idea. Both of them are pretty skilled Telekinesis users.”

“Then maybe we should go directly for you,” Myuto said.

“Good plan,” the man praised him. “I am an Infirm indeed, but I am in charge of the Phenomenist military movement of this city. My name is Domoto, nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you, my ass. Where the hell is Reo, what did you asshole do to him?” Fuma lost his calm, but while his fire was now in front of his fists, he still kept it under control.

“He’s going to be fine as long as he doesn’t resist the procedure,” Domoto said and got up from his desk, walking up to them without even caring for Fuma threatening him with his fire. But he stopped in front of Nikaido instead.

“So, you’re the passive Phenomenist, I’ve heard?”

Nikaido gave Ryosuke a side glance as the boy had obviously told Domoto everything about what was going on in the village.

“Why are you bringing Phenomenists under your control?”

“You never wondered why we ordered the soldiers to bring them to the tower and not kill or exile them? They are useful, that is why.”

A look at Yara and Ryosuke showed that they didn’t seem offended by those words at all. Something that also made Nikaido realize that they were definitely not behaving completely on their free will.

“I’ve heard enough, if you won’t tell us, then we will go find him ourselves,” Fuma said and raised the fire this time. Yara and Ryosuke immediately ready to stop his attack, but Myuto would also try to go against their telekinesis, not that he was confident enough to win against Ryosuke.

A sudden alarm had them all freeze and look at the corridor where red light was now filling the corridor.

“Oh? That’s a first,” Domoto said completely calmly as he went back to his desk and looked at the screen, the others couldn’t see. “Ryosuke, you brought a troublemaker in.”

“And here I wondered why he was so easily convinced to come without a fight,” Ryosuke said with a sigh.

“Well, Tama was there at that time too, it wasn’t like he had much of a choice,” Yara spoke up.

“Seems like he would have easily had a chance though,” Domoto said and the next second the entire building started shaking.

“What the hell is going on?” Myuto asked in panic, but they soon got their answer as the corridor’s ceiling collapsed after a huge amount of water was pressuring the stone enough to give in. They weren’t stopped when they dashed out to the corridor and when the water completely fell to the ground, they saw Reo standing in the middle of the rubble he had created.

“Right floor, great,” Reo said with a bright smile.

“Dude, you…” Fuma started, but couldn’t even find words, because he had never seen a Phenomenist use his abilities in such a big scale without collapsing afterwards.

“Sorry for the wait. Kamenashi told me to make sure to get as much information as possible, so getting in was the main goal.”

“You planned that behind our backs,” Nikaido scolded him.

“Would you have let me go if I told you?” Reo asked with another smile.

“But, did you know about Ryosuke?” Myuto asked and looked back into the room where Domoto didn’t even seem threatened by the situation while Reo now entered the room to look at the others.

“Ueda somehow realized it when he came to the village.”

“As expected,” Ryosuke said with a chuckle.

“Why the hell didn’t you tell us?” Nikaido complained.

“Because them splitting up would be easier for us to fight them,” Reo replied, making Myuto gasp.

“Wait, does that mean there is another traitor?”

“Damn that would make sense. Ryosuke was with us for so long and yet suddenly everything started moving towards the city over the past months without any direct attack,” Fuma said and obviously tried to figure out who the other traitor was if there was only one that was.

“Let’s keep those talks for later, we need to get out of here,” Nikaido said as he wasn’t planning on getting stuck here. Now that it was clear that the other Phenomenists were heading to the village they had to make it back as fast as possible as well.

Yara and Ryosuke looked at Domoto for orders, but for the first time the man didn’t seem to know what exactly to say. They were outnumbered, but only in the matters of Phenomenists. The sound of people approaching, showed that the soldiers were all coming in now through the alarm.

“So you want a fight?” Reo asked with an excited look towards Domoto.

“Well, it was my mistake to not consider the water inside the building, but I am still impressed that you were able to use it even through the cell walls. They are supposed to weaken you.”

“They did, that is why it took so long,” Reo said. “But now we unfortunately have to leave.”

He bowed towards them and wanted to turn away the same moment the soldiers entered the corridor from one end.

Ryosuke lifted his hands first, but Reo was faster. He didn’t even need the water that was flooding the corridor. He used the small particles from the air to form needles and threw them through the room. Of course Ryosuke and Yara stopped most of them, but they couldn’t stop all, especially because he had aimed for Domoto as well and Yara had protected him more than himself.

The equipment in the room also got damaged on the sudden impact and some of the machines caught on fire.

In the corridor, Myuto and Fuma had already dashed towards the soldiers, making sure they would get an escape route.

“Let’s go,” Reo yelled as he pushed Nikaido out towards the corridor and finally used some of the water from the ground to throw it right at Ryosuke and Yara as they tried to dash after them.

“Myuto, some help here,” Reo said and the boy immediately switched with Nikaido. Nikaido didn’t like attacking the soldiers, but he wouldn’t just do nothing so he jumped into the fight with Fuma.

Myuto hurried to give Reo the extra back up to keep the water moving while Yara and Ryosuke tried to stop a huge wave from crashing through the door of the room.

“Let’s use the stones,” Reo said as he looked down at the rubble from the upper floors and Myuto nodded. Reo let the water drop, but through the others’ telekinesis it still remained in the air for a moment longer. Enough time for Reo to lift the stones from the ground with another wave and that was when Myuto picked up their movement and slammed them right towards the room door.

The other two had been so busy with the huge amount of water that they hadn’t seen the stones coming and were forced back into the room while the stones now blocked the door.

“That will keep them busy,” Reo said as the stones were now immobile and they wouldn’t be able to use their telekinesis to move them.

“Fuma, move,” Reo shouted and the boy shot another fire blast right towards the soldiers, before he pulled Nikaido out of the way when Reo used such a high-pressure wave with the remaining water that all the soldiers were taking off their feet.

“How are you still standing?” Myuto asked in worry as he already felt a bit dizzy himself.

“Training with Ueda,” Reo laughed and dashed ahead.

As much as Nikaido wanted to believe that the boy had indeed the stamina to get them completely out of the city like this he made sure to stay close to him just in case he’d lose consciousness after all.

“You two stay back up, okay? Don’t use your abilities if not absolutely needed. We might need them later,” Nikaido yelled over his back and the other two nodded.

This would be the most difficult escape they ever had to do, but Nikaido would keep his promise and get them all out, even if he had to rely on their abilities.

Even leaving Ryosuke behind wasn’t making Nikaido feel at ease. At the moment he was their enemy, but he was sure that after everything that Domoto had said, not all of the Phenomenists chose to be on the side of the city, so their goal wasn’t to defeat the other Phenomenists, but to bring an end to the cities methods of controlling them.

***

With a squeal Kentaro slipped on his own created water and landed face first on the forest ground.

"You're not taking this seriously, are you?" Ueda asked as he casually dropped his fire and waited for the other one to get back up, but Kentaro just remained on the floor with a pouting expression.

They were on the northern patrol and Ueda had decided that a few cuts through the earth wouldn't be too dangerous and of course he had taken Kentaro by full surprise when he moved a huge fire wave through the ground. Kentaro had reacted intuitively and protected himself with every possible water he could collect and it had been raining the night before so luckily he didn't have much trouble getting a shield around him, but when he wanted to drop the shield and dash to the front he had found himself in his current position.

"I feel like the water wants to tell me to not attack you," Kentaro teased as he turned on his back and looked up to the trees instead of getting up.

"And why would the water tell you that?" Ueda asked as he stepped over Kentaro, blocking his view.

"Who knows?" Kentaro replied as he shrugged his shoulders, but then grabbed Ueda's outstretched hand to get himself dragged back up. The strength Ueda used to get him back up made him collide with the other one and with a swift movement Kentaro immediately stepped back.

"You're behaving weird since yesterday," Ueda let out, making Kentaro immediately shake his head. A reaction that had Ueda chuckle at him.

"Fine, if you want to pretend that everything is as usual, I'll ignore it."

Those words had Kentaro blink in confusion, but Ueda had already turned away and kept walking.

For the next few minutes Kentaro just followed in silence, but it was clear that Ueda had realized the change in behavior. Even if Kentaro was still more or less confused about his own feelings, Ueda was the one person who would immediately realize. That was also something Kentaro preferred as he wanted the other one to react first, but now that Ueda had told him that he wouldn't say anything if Kentaro behaved as if nothing was going on, it was difficult to decide what to do.

Lost in his thoughts he missed that Ueda had stopped and he collided with his back.

"Don't step back."

The words had been soft and in no way demanding, but Kentaro immediately stopped himself from doing exactly that step back.

"If distance is what you need, I'll always give it to you, but if you want something else, then you have to be clear about it."

Those direct words had Kentaro's eyes widened, but the older one wasn't turning around, neither walking away and Kentaro took a deep breath before he closed his eyes for a moment.

His hands weren't as steady as he wanted them to be, but he still lifted them up and moved them slowly to the front. When he crossed his arms in front of Ueda's body, he let the side of his head drop against the other one's back. For a few moments they remained like that in silence until Kentaro took another unsteady breath.

"I want to close that distance, but I'm not quite sure how yet," Kentaro replied completely honestly and then he could feel Ueda's touch on his arms.

"Then think about it once more and let me know tonight?"

Kentaro slowly nodded against the other one's back and let go, Ueda walking ahead without looking back at him.

Usually Kentaro was so straightforward with everything, always open to help his friends and brother with their emotional chaos as well, yet for the first time he wasn't sure what he wanted for himself.

***

There were a lot of people Taiga had expected to go looking for him, but Taisuke wasn't one of them.

Nevertheless, his older brother made his way up to the cracked stone on the open fields and sat down next to Taiga.

"Want to talk about it?"

"So straightforward," Taiga let out with a chuckle as he turned to face Taisuke. "Did anyone give you a hint or did you figure out yourself that something is going on?"

"Neither. I have no clue what is going to be honest. Mitsu just said that you didn't want to go on patrol today and Juri also refused while Hokuto suddenly said he's free to go. Did you guys fight?"

Taiga had to laugh at Taisuke's honest confusion about the situation, but he was still grateful about his worries.

"It's not really a fight, no. It's not even something negative, at least not for all of us…eventually."

"Okay, sounds complicated," Taisuke said, trying to not nag too much, but to his surprise Taiga shifted closer and put his head on his brother's shoulder.

"You're also worried for Nikaido way more than you want to let show."

"Are you also coming with that now? What do you all want me to do? Sit around crying and drawing circles in the fields with a pouting expression?"

The fact that Taisuke wasn't denying his worries showed that he had matured a lot over the past months and Taiga had to do so as well now, but he hated hurting people's feelings. Yet no matter what direction he chose, one person would eventually be hurt through it.

"You don't have to be that dramatic," Taiga replied and pinched the other one in the upper arm, making Taisuke flinch.

"Here I come to be the nice older brother and you play around," Taisuke complained and put his arm around Taiga's neck to pull him closer and ruffle through his hair, making Taiga squeal.

They had a lot of worries and problems to deal with, but deep down they all knew that their peaceful life out in the village was about to change, but if the outcome was going to be positive or negative would be decided by their determination.

"You're looking even worse than Taiga, what is wrong with you all?" Aran complained when he walked back from the training ground with his staff over his shoulders as he spotted Kentaro casually walking up and down in front of the huts.

"Well Taiga has at least two really good reasons for it," Kentaro said with a sigh.

"You definitely have at least one too. If it's good or not I'm not sure," Aran replied.

"Then we're already two who don't know," Kentaro said with a look down to the village.

"I unfortunately have the night patrol with Mitsu and Massu coming up so I won't be able to help much until tomorrow morning, but you know that if anything bothers you no matter if good or bad that you can come to me with those worries as well if Taiga and the others are busy with their own problems, right?"

“It can wait, the others-”

“Are in the city and no matter what we do, it won’t help them,” Aran reminded him. “We are all worried. I won’t even deny that I’m dead worried for Myuto and I bet you and Taisuke are no different, but you’re trying pretty hard to not let it show, but maybe a bit too hard? If you don’t relax and think about your own needs, you might miss a good chance?”

Kentaro wasn’t sure if Aran had caught up to his emotional chaos or if he just tried to give a steady neutral advice, but whichever it was, he was completely right.

Aran walked up to him and hit him on the shoulder with a supportive smile. “No matter what’s going on right now, just come to me tomorrow if you feel like talking? And if not, then you can also come to have a fight with me, I am always up for that too.”

This time Kentaro let out a loud laugh while Aran gave him a teasing smile.

“I might really come for that fight at some point, I could use another opponent once in a while.”

“Don’t think I would be easier to beat than Ueda just because I am not a Phenomenist.”

“Would never dare to think that,” Kentaro replied with a chuckle before he gave the other one another grateful nod. “But really thank you. I appreciate the support.”

“We’re all like a big family here after all. No matter if real siblings or not, most of us here are like brothers.”

“Or more,” Kentaro let out knowingly.

“And that is also totally okay, after all family can exist in a lot of forms, right?”

Aran’s honest and excited smile had Kentaro feel a bit more at ease as well. Maybe he had been too tense after all. They were all worried, but they also needed to still do their duties around the village, but as Aran said they were a big family and they would all have each other’s backs.

“See you tomorrow then. Come for that fight if you dare,” Aran challenged once more and moved his fist to the front, Kentaro giving the other one a challenging smile and bumping his fist against it.

“Always up for a fight between brothers,” Kentaro said and Aran was more than excited about the way Kentaro had phrased it.

***

The knock on his door came unexpectedly and the one who was in front of it was even more of a surprise. Nevertheless, Hokuto let Taiga into his hut as Reo wasn’t there at the moment so he was using it by himself.

Hokuto was as calm and collected as always, about to offer Taiga to sit down, but the older one didn’t seem comfortable staying for long and immediately came to the point.

“Can we postpone our bet?”

Hokuto only looked at the other one in a mix of surprise and amusement. “I love it that you said postpone and not cancel.”

“For now,” Taiga immediately added. He shifted uncomfortably, obviously not even sure what else to say.

“Fine with me,” Hokuto said as he walked up to his stove to put in more firewood. “Just let me be pretty clear here.”

Taiga waited for the other one to walk back to him and when Hokuto came a bit too close, Taiga made a step back, but collided with the wall. Hokuto leaned to the front, putting one hand to the wall, but Taiga didn’t try to move away.

“I am a pretty patient person and I have no intention in rushing you into decisions you can obviously not make right now, but if you want me to stay away at some point, then you have to make that very clear.”

All the confidence Taiga had somehow brought up to have this conversation had immediately left him as he wasn’t even sure what to reply, but Hokuto stepped back and gave him the space to actually realize that he had stopped breathing.

Casual as always Hokuto walked back to the table and sat down, but he kept his eyes on Taiga who was unsure about what to do.

“Well, as I guess you didn’t come to have a night training, I would say you should go and rest? Because no matter if our bet is postponed or not, I am still going to beat your ass tomorrow and if you dare to quit, then I will tell Kamenashi.”

That was a threat Taiga took seriously as Kamenashi had been one of the few people who had actually approved of Taiga training. Of course, he was still younger at the time the founders had been still in the village so he couldn’t go for hard training, but now that he had been given a chance again as his brothers couldn’t actually say much against it as long as Kamenashi was okay with it, he wouldn’t just throw the chance away.

“Then I guess I will see you tomorrow at the training ground,” Taiga said as he made it back over to the door.

“Oh and Taiga,” Hokuto added as the boy was already half out of the door, but looked over his shoulder once more. “I’m a person who is good at sharing, just in case that might help you.”

The teasing smile on Hokuto’s face had Taiga almost yell at him, but he could feel how the heat crawled up his cheeks and he hurried to close the door and he whispered some curses while walking away from the other one’s hut.

This conversation didn’t help him the slightest in making a decision and now he had to calm down first before he could go to the next person to finally talk things through after running away the entire day.

***

Feeling like an idiot, Kentaro was standing in front of the door for a felt ten minutes, still unsure if he should even be here. He couldn’t really say that he had made up his mind, but after telling Taiga that he needed to make up his mind, he should follow his own advice.

Just when he took another deep breath and wanted to finally knock, the door got already opened for him.

“I wondered for how long you wanted to stand there,” Ueda said and left the door open for the other one and Kentaro stepped inside the other one’s hut for the first time.

Of course the founders all had their own huts, pretty big ones actually, but instead of being at the center of the village, they were as outwards as Taisuke’s as they had always protected the village and made sure to be the first ones who could protect the village.

“You want to stand there for another five minutes?” Ueda asked as Kentaro remained in the open door without stepping in further, but now he hurried to close the door and step closer to the table.

Ueda had his own taste in interior that was for sure. They didn’t have much luxury out here in the woods, but Ueda had still used the darkest wood he had been able to find for his interior. The table was also not just simply square, but had a natural form to it with the rings of the tree still visible on top.

“You’re spacing out so much, I am not sure if you should actually be here,” Ueda said as he had sat down at the table and rested his chin on his thumb, while scanning the other one. Kentaro let out a hawk before he moved over to the table and sat down opposite of the older one as he realized that he was indeed looking around at things that would usually not catch his attention, just so that he didn’t have to look at Ueda.

“So?” Ueda asked as he put a cup randomly in front of the boy after he had obviously already expected him to come by. A cup as simple as the ones all of them had at their huts. He was doing it again and with a sigh he tried to focus and took the cup, gulping down the water to make sure that he was able to even speak with the way he behaved this ridiculous.

“You like me.”

Ueda’s words had taken him so off guard that he choked on his water and needed to cough it out before he could even think about replying anything. When he looked back up, Ueda was giving him a knowing smile. This had not been a question. It was a pretty set statement and Kentaro wasn’t going to deny it, but hearing it this directly from the other one made him sink back in his chair with an awkward look down to the ground.

“If we have a misunderstanding then-”

“No,” Kentaro immediately let out, sitting back up and moving to the front, but Ueda hadn’t even moved from his position, giving the other one an even brighter smile now that Kentaro had finally reacted. “I mean-, You-”

“I am not against it,” Ueda let out, making Kentaro suddenly change his expression to something more pouting, making Ueda raise an eyebrow at him.

“That was the moment I would have wanted something like I like you too and not a oh well it’s ok if you like me.”

Ueda had been taken so off guard by Kentaro’s attitude that he blinked at him in a loss of words until he burst out laughing, falling back in his chair, making Kentaro pout even more.

“Well then,” Ueda said as he had calmed down again and got up. Kentaro watched him as he walked around the table towards him, but he didn’t know how to react and he just remained seated and he didn’t have much time to react when Ueda suddenly cupped his face and gave him a kiss that felt way softer than he had expected from the other one. Before he could even decide what to do, Ueda backed off and casually went back to his chair.

“Was that a better reaction?” The older one asked with a teasing smile and slowly Kentaro nodded, still way too overwhelmed by what had just happened. “Just make sure that you know what you’re getting yourself into, because I am not the type to keep secrets.”

Which was a warning that he should definitely make sure to tell Nikaido before his brother would find out by himself. Another fight between them was the least he needed now, not that his brother would have any saying in this and for now Kentaro was going to take Aran’s advice and not let a good chance slip.

“Do you- Do you mind if I stay?” Kentaro asked straight forward this time and to his surprise Ueda didn’t tease him this time.

“Feel free to do so.”

The way Ueda seemed to be willing to go with Kentaro’s pace made the younger one relax and be more confident about his own decision. But he would definitely need to clear his mind the next day as he was still more than confused about how this situation had suddenly gone this much overboard in less than a few minutes, not that the outcome was in any way bad, but maybe a bit overwhelming for Kentaro.

***

“Don’t you dare faint now,” Myuto said as he pulled Fuma along. Together with Reo, Fuma had ripped down the gates at the city border as there was no way for them to sneak out. Luckily as it was night time there weren’t many civilians and Myuto had taken care of the few soldiers in their way.

“Just hold on until the mountains,” Nikaido said, but then Reo stumbled in front of him and he hurried to help him.

“Finally running out of energy?” Nikaido asked, still astonished about the boy’s stamina.

“Let’s leave from the east side,” Reo said and tried to keep running as they had barely left the city behind them and there was no way they would just let them run off like this, so trucks would follow them soon.

“I have never been to the east route,” Nikaido said, knowing that there was more or less a route around the coastline, but that was all.

“I saw some rough maps in our community,” Reo explained.

“Well, I doubt Ryosuke knows about it as the city’s troops can’t go there with their trucks so let’s take that route,” Nikaido said and made them hurry as much as possible.

They ran as far as they could and they could hear the trucks following them until they reached the rocky cliff side of the ocean and were finally able to get away from them.

“Take a quick rest, then we have to hurry back as fast as we can,” Nikaido said and Fuma immediately sank to the ground, heavily breathing after his fire blasts had cost him a lot of strength.

“Reo, you should sit down,” Myuto said as the boy stood a few meters away from them, facing the opposite direction. When there was no reply, Myuto walked up to him. “Seriously, Ueda’s training definitely made you tough, but even I feel more than exhausted and I haven’t even used such heavy attacks.”

Reo didn’t reply to the other one’s words and Myuto walked around to look at him, but then his eyes widened.

“Nikaido!” Myuto yelled and the older one was immediately making his way over to them at the other one’s worried voice.

“What is it?” Nikaido asked as he stepped next to Reo, but when he put his hand on the boy’s shoulder, Reo’s body started shaking as he was already clenching his hand into his shirt right over his chest.

“What is happening?” Myuto asked in worry, but didn’t know what to do while Reo folded to the front, unable to even speak. Nikaido tried to make him lay down, but even that movement seemed impossible as Reo’s body had tensed up in spastic movements and all Nikaido could do was put his hands around him to make sure he wouldn’t fall over in this state.

“He has a seizure,” Nikaido realized and pulled Reo down with him so that he wouldn’t risk getting hurt while collapsing.

“But why? He was fine just a few minutes ago?” Myuto asked as he sat down next to the other one, but Reo’s eyes had rolled up to white and Nikaido tried his best to try and make the other one’s arms stop clenching this violently in his own skin.

“That’s the problem, he wasn’t fine,” Nikaido said as he caught up to what had happened. “Reo isn’t able to use all this strength for so long through training. He most likely has the ability to go to extreme limits without having to slow down, but the risk is that he could overdo it to an extent that could kill him.”

“He could die?” Myuto asked in panic and looked back at Fuma who had fallen unconscious himself as a usual Phenomenist would react exactly like that after a high use of their abilities, but Reo was a special case. “Why didn’t he tell us?”

“Because he knew that we would have stopped him,” Nikaido said with a scolding yet sad expression. After a few more seconds he was able to pull the boy’s hands away easier, but with that the shaking of Reo’s body also stopped. Way too abruptly and Nikaido immediately moved to the boy’s face.

“Reo? Reo, wake up!”

Myuto looked in terror when Nikaido was shaking the unresponsive boy, letting out a curse when he realized that Reo had no pulse.

“This can’t be happening,” Myuto said as he shook his head while Nikaido started reanimating as there was nothing else he could do. “We made it out of the city. We need to head back. The others are in danger and here we’re losing him without the fight even starting.”

“Stop it, Myuto. We are not losing anyone today,” Nikaido cut the other one harshly while he wasn’t sure if he had broken some ribs already as Reo’s body wasn’t as strong as his abilities unfortunately. “Make yourself useful and look how Fuma is doing.”

The boy nodded, but needed a moment to be able to even get up. He felt so useless as he couldn’t even transfer any energy to help.

“I promised to bring you all back,” Nikaido hissed as he panicked after a few minutes of no reaction from the boy and he tried to somehow make his passive abilities work, but as expected it wouldn’t work. He couldn’t just transfer any energy or strength like users of the transfer ability.

Myuto was so stressed out that he missed that Fuma had woken up and only turned towards him, when Fuma sat up with a groan.

“Damn it, that wasn’t supposed to happen.”

Fuma stretched his neck and massaged his temples, still unaware of what was happening right next to him.

“Are we ready to-” Fuma started, but then his eyes grew wide when he finally looked up and saw Reo’s condition. Fuma immediately jumped up, but Myuto had to reach out for him the next second as Fuma wasn’t that easily back at full strength either.

“Don’t overdo it please,” Myuto said, but still let the other one rush over to Reo.

“Even if I do, then I will only collapse once more.”

Fuma reached out for the other one’s arm, Nikaido realizing that he was using his power transfer.

“Just please make sure that you’re not ending up like him,” Nikaido warned the boy before he stopped his movements and searched for Reo’s pulse.

“I have some asses to kick, there is no way I will die that easily,” Fuma said, but still fell to the back the moment Reo took a panicked breath and flung his eyes open.

Myuto caught Fuma and made sure that the boy was indeed okay while Nikaido checked up on Reo.

“Lie down for now. We can risk it to wait a few more minutes,” Nikaido soothed the boy as Reo seemed more than disorientated.

Nikaido kept looking down the cliffs to the forest, unsure if the soldiers would try to follow them by foot or if they thought they had gone up the main path over the mountains. But for now they had to rest, because there was no way Myuto and Nikaido could carry both boys with them, but for now Nikaido was putting his arms around Reo as he was more than relieved to see the boy alive.

When he looked up, Myuto had teared up, the stress getting the best of him, but Nikaido put his hand on the boy’s shoulder with a supportive squeeze.

“We’re going to be fine. All of us. We will head back and make sure that the others are also going to be okay. We need to stay strong, they are waiting for us.”

Myuto nodded as he had made the same promise as all of them. There were people waiting for all of them and he didn’t want to be the one breaking that promise, so they all had to make it back!

***

There was no need to be up this early, but Taiga felt too restless to stay in his hut and he started walking around the village. With it being still completely dark outside he decided to make his way to the meeting hall. When he tried to push the door open, someone else pulled it from the other side and while Taiga had realized that someone else was there, the person inside hadn't.

Juri flinched on the sudden appearance while letting out a high-pitched squeal, immediately feeling embarrassed by his own reaction.

Taiga on the other hand had found it quite cute and was now chuckling at the other one after the boy had made a few steps back into the meeting hall, holding one hand to his chest.

"I'm not that scary," Taiga complained as he stepped inside and closed the door so that they wouldn't wake anyone up.

"I would have been seriously scared by everyone coming in without a warning in the middle of the night," Juri said as he cleared his throat and tried to act like nothing had happened.

"It's morning already."

"What?" Juri asked, looking honestly confused.

"Did you sit in here the entire night?" Taiga asked, now his look showing some remorse about making Juri wait with a reply for this long. He should have known that Juri wouldn't get a single second of sleep after their last talk, well if they wanted to call it that.

"I just lost track of time. Guess I should get some sleep now or I'll be too tired on the next patrol."

"Mind if I join you on that one?"

Juri immediately stopped after he had tried to leave. Slowly he turned towards Taiga, obviously not sure how to reply.

"Sorry, that was a bit of a too rough start," Taiga said, nervously playing with the seam of his shirt. "I'm sorry for leaving like that."

Now he had Juri's full attention, yet Taiga didn't even know what to say. He hadn't been prepared to meet Juri so early and his thoughts were still a mess.

"I- I asked Hokuto to postpone our bet."

At first Juri's look turned to disappointed, most likely because he had immediately caught up to the word postponed in it, but then his expression turned a bit softer and he nodded.

"You're still undecided. That's fair. It's not like I gave you much time to think."

"And here you gave me so many hints and I was just too blind to see them."

"While you got Hokuto's immediately."

The hurt in the boy's words was obvious, but Taiga didn't want him to misunderstand him. He dared to step closer to Juri, the boy looking up at him with eager eyes.

"I already felt too comfortable around you to see the signs," Taiga admitted. "It was just so natural to have you around from the start that I put you on that friend level without giving it a second thought. But if you don't mind-"

Now Taiga lost a bit of his confidence as he realized that speaking his mind without thinking it through had led him to a pretty obvious decision.

"If you don't mind, I would like to give us a try. Just if you- you know…"

Before Taiga could finally find the right words, Juri had moved and flung his arms around the other one. This time he held back, knowing that startling Taiga too much once more, would just make things more complicated.

"I'm totally okay with that," Juri said as he backed off before Taiga could even react to the sudden hug. "But at your pace of course."

Taiga gave the other one a soft smile on the sudden nervous behavior. They had been so confident around each other as friends, while they felt all embarrassed about calling themselves lovers.

“We give them three more days, right?”

“Yes Aran, stop nagging,” Massu said as they finally turned around towards the village after an hour-long night patrol at the southern forest border.

“He has all right to be worried, you’re just tired, so stop biting back,” Mitsu teased from the back as he couldn’t deny that he was also tired, but after having a talk with the founders and having information the others didn’t have yet, he had to make them patrol more.

It wasn’t like they had been completely sure, but Ueda had told them about his worries that something was off with Ryosuke. He was good at reading people and their abilities so something about Ryosuke’s calm attitude had him weirdly suspicious. The others had taken his worries seriously, yet they had decided against telling everyone except Mitsu and Wataru, as they had no clue if other traitors were amongst them or not, so eventually letting everyone know about their suspicion would have taken their focus away from a possible attack.

“Why is Ueda allowed to sleep while we are out here?” Massu pouted, making Aran laugh at his childish attitude while he kept walking ahead with his bo staff over his shoulder.

“Kamenashi is at the northern border with Wataru and Taisuke and Nakamaru are in the west, so don’t pretend as if we’re the only ones awake for the entire night,” Mitsu scolded him. “Not to forget that we need day patrols too.”

“You didn’t leave many people for those patrols,” Aran said with a knowing smile. “But putting specific people together in the same patrol could turn out interesting.”

“Who are you talking about?” Massu asked as he had absolutely no clue what was going on with the younger ones.

“Find that out yourself,” Aran said with a wink, dashing ahead when Massu wanted to grab him and get the information from him now that he had denied him the interesting part of the story.

“Such troublemakers,” Mitsu said with a chuckle before he kept walking after them, but then he looked back. The sun was barely getting up, the night had been quiet so far, but something suddenly felt off. There was still no sound, but as they were getting closer to the village, they had dropped their guard. Maybe too early. Their focus had been too much on the Phenomenists towards the village so that Mitsu hadn’t even realized that he had felt something from the opposite direction. The moment Mitsu wanted to warn the others, there was a sudden sound going through the silent forest.

Everything happened way too fast to even decide where to turn to first or who to attack. The first noises were gunshots, bullets flying straight through the forest, hitting trees and leaves on the way, but also human flesh and with a yelp Aran fell to the ground, Massu immediately creating a huge fire blast towards the forest, but more bullets were coming towards them and Mitsu could only stop what he could see and it was still too dark to see the bullets clearly.

Thanks to Massu’s fire, the forest lit up enough for him to be able to spot their enemies. Soldiers from the city! Mitsu hurried to use his telekinesis to redirect bullets he could now see and shoot them back at their attackers, but there were way more people than he had expected.

“They know our location,” Massu yelled over at the other one before he shot one more blast of fire, but he made it fly across the forest ground so that it set fire through the ground and held off their attackers. No other attacks came their way so the Phenomenists Mitsu could sense were not directly at this location and even worse outcome.

Mitsu dashed over to Aran to help him up. The boy winced in pain while holding both hands to his upper body and with wide eyes Mitsu realized that Aran hadn’t been hit just once, but at least three times, all of the wounds in his upper body.

“There will be more of them in the village,” Mitsu said as he had no other choice, but to pull Aran up and throw him over his shoulder to carry him, even if Aran was in such a critical condition. Leaving him behind would mean certain death. “They set this up while we were at the border. They definitely came from other directions as well.”

Both of them had to duck down when another round of bullets hit through the fire, luckily not directly towards them as the soldiers couldn’t easily spot them anymore.

“Let’s hurry then,” Massu said as he threw more fire around them to make sure that the soldiers couldn’t easily aim or follow them. Another big fire blast he threw up into the sky, hoping it would reach its destination in time.

***

“You turned around that early on purpose,” Nakamaru teased as he and Taisuke had made it back to the fields of their village when the first light blue color of the sky got visible, the sun still hidden behind the horizon.

“We went all the way to the river, didn’t we?” Taisuke complained. “It’s not like I enjoy night walks enough to randomly stroll along the riverbank.”

“And here Nikaido seems like someone who would enjoy such a walk,” Nakamaru said.

“I didn’t say I wouldn’t go with him,” Taisuke replied to his obvious surprise and it took a moment for Nakamaru to let out a scolding sound and point at the younger one.

“Do you by any chance want to tell me that I am too boring to hang out with?”

“Well, if you for once had something interesting to say on our patrols I would gladly change my opinion,” Taisuke said as he turned back towards the other one with a teasing expression, but then both of them looked southwards as a sudden light shot up from the forest and hit the fields in front of them seconds later.

“Oh no,” Taisuke let out in disbelief as he realized what this sudden move meant and before he could even decide what to do, Nakamaru had dashed over to the closest bells to wake everyone up. It took only a few seconds for the first people to be awake and use the bells around the village to wake everyone else up.

Unfortunately, they wouldn’t have enough time to even come up with a plan, not that they didn’t have a set evacuation plan, exactly for such a sudden attack.

Nakamaru turned towards the forest when he could hear the sound of people approaching. More in the back he could also hear trucks now.

“They set us up,” Taisuke hissed. They had played right into their hands. First sending out a few skilled foot soldiers to scan the territory and look out for the patrols to get the back up in without them immediately realizing.

Taisuke used his abilities to set the entire forest around the west border on fire, but some people still made it through at the sides before he could cover enough area.

“Surround the village with your fire, except for the east,” Nakamaru shouted as he went for the soldiers who had made it through. They were immediately aiming for the village, Nakamaru trying to stop as many as possible, but his telekinesis couldn’t be used at several places at once.

He saw Hokuto, Kentaro and Ueda dashing towards their location and with them a few of the Infirm who were ready to fight instead of evacuating, but the soldiers were heavily armed. Bullets hitting all around them and not even Phenomenists would easily survive heavy wounds. Luckily Ueda created a precise attack with his fire, stopping most of the soldiers from entering the village, but they had to be fast if they didn’t want to be wiped out by this attack. They had seen an attack coming, but the size of it and especially the timing had been worse than they had expected.

Taisuke kept running northwards, trying to focus on throwing his fire towards the forest without overdoing it or he wouldn’t be able to fight in a few minutes. With a hiss he ducked after a bullet hit him in the shoulder, but he immediately turned around and threw a fire blast at his attacker, successfully setting the soldier on fire.

When he dashed ahead, someone else was getting out of the forest and without wasting any time, Taisuke threw another blast, setting everything around that person on fire, but then he stopped.

In between the fire someone stepped out of the flames. Completely unharmed and with a calm expression on his face as he stopped in front of Taisuke.

“Tama…” Taisuke let out in shock at the other one showing himself just like this.

“Missed me?” Tama asked. Yet a long talk wasn’t what he was aiming for as he immediately dashed to the front, ready to attack as that was why they had come after all. Tama was finally doing what he had wanted to do over all these years of what he had felt were horrible wasted years as a demon that didn’t belong in this world. Finally, he would put an end to those demons for good!

***

Kentaro had shot up on the sound of the bells and for a moment he was confused of where he even was, but when Ueda shoved him almost violently from the bed and yelled at him to get ready, Kentaro was immediately fully awake.

More bells were heard when they dashed outside and the moment Kentaro dashed around one of the huts, Ueda pulled him back on the back of his jacket, right in time for some bullets to miss him by inches.

"Careful. You're not bulletproof," Ueda said as he looked ahead, seeing how Nakamaru was trying to stop the soldiers at the border, but more and more of them made it around the fire Taisuke had created.

"Back me up," Ueda said and dashed towards the soldiers, using his fire to attack as many of them as possible while Kentaro tried hard to concentrate and get water up from the ground fast. His water was useful against fire, but bullets? The fact that he felt scared of them showed that the water couldn't protect him this time. Nevertheless, he dashed to the front and formed sharp needles with his water to attack those who got away from Ueda.

He had missed one soldier who had already made it closer to the village and with all big water sources too far away from him he wasn't able to get enough water up to protect himself.

When the soldier shot at him, Kentaro ducked down, but when he looked back up, he found the bullets half way stuck in the air before they were thrown back at the soldier.

"Get up," Hokuto yelled as he helped with deflecting the bullets and luckily the sky brightened up so that it was easier for them to see.

"They're entering the village, stop them!" Ueda yelled from the front and both boys ran towards the soldiers who tried to make it to the huts. To their surprise they were thrown back by Miyata who was trying to evacuate the civilians.

The next two people to be seen were Taiga and Juri, jumping at the soldiers who had been brought down by Miyata.

"He can't even fight, what the hell does he want with a gun," Hokuto hissed as he dashed towards Juri who struggled to get the gun from some soldier, but then the man was shot off him by Taiga who wasn't hesitating to use violence as they would all be dead in a few minutes if they didn't.

"Taiga, let's back them up," Kentaro shouted and pointed at the civilians. The boy nodded and hurried with Juri behind the people trying to get away over the east path.

"Kamenashi and Wataru definitely saw all the fire by now. They can give you cover on the way," Hokuto said towards Miyata who made sure that the way in front of them was clear. "We'll make sure that no one is following you."

Miyata nodded at them before he dashed to the front, leading the people. He picked up his son on the way while his wife was carrying their daughter.

The sad truth was that some of them hadn't even made it to the border as too many soldiers had been in the village too fast and with the arrival of the trucks they had started launching heavier weapons at them.

Right between Kentaro and Hokuto a bomb hit the ground. Hokuto was fast enough to somehow redirect the wave of the explosion, but it still took them both off their feet.

"Kentaro!" Taiga shouted, but Juri pulled him back as more soldiers made their way towards them and he finally dared to use his own gun, but as expected he was bad at aiming.

"Let's get them to the cliffs so that they won't follow the others," Hokuto said as he was up again, while Kentaro had ended up on the other side of the explosion, out of their sight for now. Taiga agreed and pushed Juri towards the east border where the high cliffs gave them a natural border.

***

"Watch out," Massu said when Mitsu dashed down towards the village, but was greeted by explosions and more firearms. He reacted in time to deflect most bullets, but next to him Massu hissed when he got hit in the leg.

"Sorry, I can't catch them all," Mitsu apologized.

His look fell on Nakamaru who was backed up by Ueda, but then he saw what was happening at the north border.

"You're back!" Kentaro yelled as he dashed towards them. After the explosion he had ended up being chased away from the others, but finally got the upper hand as he had reached the fields and had the advantage of the water flowing down to them.

"Kentaro, can you take care of Aran for me?" Mitsu asked and dropped the boy to the ground, Kentaro immediately nodding, but looking at Aran in shock.

"Go," Massu said with a nod, knowing where Mitsu was aiming. "And you try to take cover somewhere."

Kentaro couldn't even argue as Massu jumped right into the fight while Mitsu dashed straight ahead.

"Aran, can you hear me?" Kentaro asked and the boy had his eyes open, but needed a moment to even react to Kentaro's voice. "Let's move down to the fields!"

Kentaro tried to help Aran stand, but the boy was losing a dangerous amount of blood. But then he came up with an idea and moved the water over the boy's body. Aran let out a gasp on the weird feeling, but while Kentaro wouldn't be able to heal him, the water could at least form a barrier to help stop the blood loss.

"Let's stay here," Kentaro said as he dropped Aran next to the storage at the fields as no soldiers were around.

In worry Kentaro looked back towards the village. Parts of it were now on fire, huts had been torn down and even their meeting hall had half collapsed through a bomb.

"Don't worry for me. You need to go and fight," Aran let out in a weak voice, but Kentaro shook his head.

"They'll be able to stop them," Kentaro said, but wasn't trusting his own words.

"Oh, so much trust, aren't you cute."

Kentaro swirled around to someone he hadn't seen approaching and he immediately had to stop a fire blast. The attack came so sudden that Kentaro was taken off his feet by the force and his way to thin water protection. The other one wouldn’t let off him, chasing him around with the fire so that Kentaro was forced to keep the water from the fields around himself.

"A water user, interesting," the boy let out. A boy even younger than him. Red hair and with an excited smile about this encounter.

"You're a Phenomenist from the city," Kentaro said, once more looking around, but no one else was backing the boy up.

"Indeed. Reia, nice to meet you. You should consider joining us instead. We can help you survive this and you're skilled."

Kentaro gave the boy a death glare on his carefree behavior and moved the water to the front this time, throwing it towards Reia who easily stopped it with a huge fire wall. "Well, I guess that's a no. Suit yourself."

***

Taisuke was backing off with each attack, until Tama stopped him from moving.

"What's wrong? You should hate me enough to want to kill me," Tama mocked.

He was right, but Taisuke just couldn't attack the other one. He had attacked his family, given him a scar and betrayed his trust, yet Taisuke felt the need to run away. Was he that weak?

"I can give you another burn. Maybe on the face this time? Or shall I look for Taiga instead?"

The other tried to get Taisuke to attack, but when it didn't work, he clicked his tongue and released Taisuke from his telekinesis to kick him to the ground this time.

"I really hoped you'd give me a challenge. I feel almost sorry that I have to end it this way."

He was serious about his threat and he was standing above Taisuke with his fire already raised. "Oh by the way, I've seen your friends down in the city. What a shame that they won't be able to reunite with you."

Tama threw the fire, but to his surprise it got blocked by another fire blast, coming from Taisuke and he had to jump back as Taisuke had used more force.

"Finally, up for a fight?" Tama asked and released another fire blast, but this time it got redirected before Taisuke could attack himself.

"The brother to the rescue," Tama laughed as Mitsu joined their fight. Mitsu gave a side glance towards Taisuke, but luckily his younger brother seemed to have gotten a grip at the right timing.

"Will you be able to fight?" Mitsu asked and Taisuke nodded with a determined look.

"I've put my trust into the right person this time and I'll make sure to protect him," Taisuke let out, getting ready to defend the people he loved, even if that meant to kill someone he had once trusted.

***

"Great, we got their attention, now what?" Taiga asked when the soldiers had started chasing after them instead of trying to go northwards, but now they were surrounded, having no other choice but to run away to the east.

"Now we try to survive," Hokuto said as he made sure that no bullets were hitting them.

"That's easier said than done," Juri said and kept looking to the back. He was abruptly stopped by Taiga grabbing his arm and pulling him back. Juri almost lost balance to the front, but when he realized that in front of him a huge cliff started, he clawed his hands into Taiga's arm, the other one pulling him back at the last second.

"Now we're out of options," Hokuto said as he looked down the cliff. The river starting at the waterfall was running between the high walls, but there was no way that they could jump over the cliffs or even risk jumping down into the river. The sharp rocks inside the water and the height of the cliffs would turn that move into suicide.

"How the hell did they even manage to get this close even with our patrols?" Taiga hissed as he turned around, the soldiers close to them now. With a protective movement he intuitively shoved Juri behind him.

"Well, Tama is with them so he definitely told them how to approach the village," Hokuto said as he got ready to deflect as many bullets as possible, not that he felt like they would stand a chance without another Phenomenist.

"But with this timing? Perfectly when the others are in the city? After he hadn't moved for years?"

"I know you don't want to say it, but yes Taiga, that means we most likely have traitors amongst us and I bet at least one of them is on the city team."

Taiga didn't want to believe it. He trusted them all, there was no way he could point fingers, but Hokuto was right.

"But no one in the village is fighting against us," Taiga said, trying to convince himself that if there was a traitor he was moving alone."

"Might work in their favor in case they don't win the battle today? Doesn't seem to me like they're trying to make prisoners. They came to wipe us out."

Taiga looked back at Juri with a worried look, the boy clenching the gun in his hand. But what were they supposed to do with two guns against dozens of soldiers? Hokuto wouldn't be able to protect them for long.

"I guess we'll know more if the others return and we survive today," Hokuto said and stepped to the front when the soldiers made it out of the forest towards them.

"When," Taiga said sternly, making Hokuto look back at him. "When they will return."

Hokuto gave the boy a knowing nod before he turned back. They shouldn't give up hope this easily.

"Well then, bring it on," Hokuto said and lifted his hands, but to his surprise the soldiers halted after they had taken their aim at the boys.

Taiga wasn't sure if he should lift his own gun or not and then he saw Juri stepping closer to him and to his surprise he lifted his gun.

What happened next had Taiga in the biggest shock and confusion of his entire life as Juri stepped in front of Taiga and shot, but also pushed Taiga to the back with his other hand right after.

The shot had fallen and hit. A hit right into Hokuto's back. Taiga wanted to shout out for him, but he had been pushed immediately to the back and then he stepped into nothing. In his panic he stretched his hand out towards Juri, but when the boy turned his head towards him at the last second there was so much hurt visible. Nevertheless, Juri did not reach out for his hand and watched how Taiga fell down the cliffs.

***

Reia had thought he could easily overpower another Phenomenist, especially a water user, but Kentaro had easily turned the table. The moment Reia had started attacking, he had realized how much the boy needed to use his arms to even throw his fire far enough. He was able to use a huge amount of fire at once, but Kentaro was more skilled and in control of the water thanks to Ueda’s training and with another swift movement he avoided Reia’s attack, another huge blast, but nothing threatening to him, but the needles he shot towards the boy, had Reia cursing as he wasn’t fast enough to stop or avoid them.

“Kentaro, get rid of him,” Aran yelled from the side, unable to even get up to help. The water Kentaro had used to put pressure on his wounds was slowly forming a red cover over the boy’s body.

Kentaro knew that he wasn’t allowed to let the other one go, but he had never killed a person before and after what Juri had told them, the city was most likely forcing the Phenomenists to follow them, so he felt sad about having to make such a drastic decision.

His moment of hesitation gave Reia another chance to attack, but he seemed to get tired through the amount of energy he had used, not that Kentaro felt any different. Now it was a battle of stamina if Kentaro couldn’t get himself to kill the boy.

Unfortunately, his next attack was stopped from the back when several bullets hit him as he had been too busy with Reia and hadn’t watched his back.

“KENTARO!” Aran shouted while Reia laughed when Kentaro went down on his knees, the pain in his back too much to keep standing. The soldiers didn’t approach them as they tried to chase after everyone who was still in the village, but most Infirm that had been fighting with them had sadly died in this sudden battle already. Only one soldier approached them as Reia walked passed Kentaro.

“Then let’s make this quick, shall we?” Reia said and left the dirty work to the soldier who pointed his gun at Kentaro’s back. Kentaro hurried to get the water from the ground towards his body, but the pain was too much to lift the water from the canal towards him and a water shield wouldn’t protect him now.

Just when the soldier aimed at him, Aran launched himself at the soldier, both of them falling over towards the water filled rice fields, but Kentaro had heard the shot falling in that small moment and he cursed at himself to hurry up. The water was now on his back, luckily seeming able to heal even wounds caused by the bullets, but it took more time than with his burn wounds. He could hear Reia laugh behind him, but to his surprise the Phenomenist proceeded to join another battle instead of killing Kentaro. Most likely completely unaware of his healing abilities.

“Come on body, move,” Kentaro hissed and was finally able to get back up even though his body tried to still keep him from moving. When he made a few steps over to the others, the soldier got back up to his feet, but Aran didn’t. With wide eyes Kentaro looked down at the boy who was lying immobile in the shallow water.

The soldier didn’t even give Aran a second look before he lifted his gun towards Kentaro, but that was going to be his last movement.

Kentaro hadn’t even moved a finger. All he had done was look up at him with a murderous glare and that was when a thin line of water shot up, so fast and precise that it cut through the man’s throat without giving him any chance to avoid the deadly attack. With a confused look the soldier moved his hands up to his neck, but then collapsed to the back.

Kentaro dashed over to Aran, pulling him onto his lab, but the boy was unresponsive. A new shot wound right over his chest.

“Aran! Aran, come on, wake up!” Kentaro shook the other one violently on his shoulders, hurrying to bring his water over Aran’s body once more, but there was nothing he could do. Kentaro’s breaths turned more erratic as he pulled the other one up against his chest, but then he started screaming, unable to contain his emotions. What had started as a secret mission to see if they had to watch out for the city and move locations to stay safe, had turned out to be a massacre of their peaceful village.

All he wanted was someone to put an end to this sudden battle as he cried over his lost friend, not wanting to lose any more of those he had called his friends and family over the past months, but he was unable to get back up, unable to even look around to see if he had already lost more than he was able to bear.

There was a movement in front of him seconds later and he looked up with wide eyes, ready to slice everyone into pieces who would dare to touch Aran, but then he let his guard drop completely when he realized that it was Ueda who had made his way over to him.

With tears still streaming down his face, Kentaro pulled Aran even closer against him, but Ueda didn’t try to get the boy away from him.

“It’s okay,” Ueda said and crouched down next to them, pulling Kentaro against his chest, while putting one hand on Aran’s hair. “It’s going to be okay.”

Kentaro felt grateful for the other one not trying to convince him to keep moving or tell him that he couldn’t have done anything to prevent this. All he needed right now was Ueda being there for him and that was exactly what the older one did.

Even if it was just for a few seconds, Kentaro needed that support to get his emotions back under control. He wouldn’t let anyone else die!

***

Tama was incredibly skilled with using all his three abilities at once and he easily redirected Taisuke’s fire towards Mitsu and used his power transfer on Mitsu to overpower his telekinesis.

When he got a grip on Taisuke’s arm he burned the other one’s skin and Taisuke lunged out for him with a fire blast so that he would let go of him.

“Still getting burned by me. You’re really weak.”

Taisuke knew that this wasn’t a question about strong or weak, but about trust. A trust he had lost in Tama and also in his own abilities. The day Tama had burned him for the first time had been the day when he had lost control over his abilities and now he could be burned like an Infirm, while he was supposed to be able to walk through fire without a single burn as a fire user.

Mitsu jumped in between them, using kicks and punches to get to Tama, but the other one was easily using his telekinesis to stop Mitsu from hitting him and of course he could also burn him with his fire.

“If you think I will show any mercy on you, then you’ve thought wrong,” Tama said as he pushed the other one back and formed a fire blast. Mitsu redirected it at the last second, but as Tama had stolen some power from him, it was difficult for him to keep up.

“You’re all going to die here today,” Tama said with a satisfied look around the burning forest and half destroyed village.

Soldiers were all over the place, some of them had of course been killed by Massu, Nakamaru and their other fighters, but with their own people being scattered all over the place, it was hard to tell how many losses they had on their own side.

Massu had already gotten hit as well, having trouble defending himself as he had used his abilities to the limit already, now trying to somehow guard himself with his remaining fire from the soldiers, while Nakamaru tried to make his way over to them.

Even if Kamenashi and Wataru made it back to the village after bringing the civilians to safety, there was no way of winning, even Mitsu had realized that by now.

“I won’t let you do this,” Taisuke hissed and clenched his fists, Mitsu immediately realizing the change.

“Taisuke, don’t!” Mitsu warned him, but it was already too late. Taisuke had made up his mind and even if he died himself today, he would make sure to not let a single enemy live if they threatened to attack them again.

Tama didn’t seem to take Taisuke for full, but that cost him greatly. Mitsu had jumped away in time, remembering when Taisuke had gone overboard with his abilities before and now fire spread through the ground, making Tama lose his balance for a moment as he wasn’t prepared for the huge impact from below.

Before he could even think about countering, Taisuke had appeared right in front of him, this time using the power transfer in a way more powerful way than Tama would ever be able to. Even with three abilities he wouldn’t stand a chance against the destruction Taisuke could bring. Unable to use any of his abilities strongly enough, Tama could only back off and try to redirect Taisuke’s blasts. But the way Taisuke used the fire was different to how he had known him, so he wasn’t able to keep dodging when the fire spread in rings all around Taisuke, small fireballs flying right at him from every direction.

With his energy being drained, even Tama got burned by the fire and he backed off more and more. Soldiers now closing in to assist him.

Mitsu did his best to keep them away, not that he doubted that Taisuke could easily kill them in his current state, but the more he used his fire, the faster he would run out of energy.

Out of options, Tama started running away even more from the other one, but Taisuke blocked his way with a fire wall spreading behind him.

“Afraid?” Taisuke asked, his voice sounding unfamiliar to himself. Tama gave him a hateful stare on the confidence Taisuke showed, but this time he stood his ground.

“If you’re this invincible then I’d say it’s time to end this,” Tama said and pulled out a grenade from his belt.

Taisuke didn’t feel threatened by any weapons while he should definitely be more careful as his abilities wouldn’t protect him from explosions or shots. But this time Tama dashed to the front and attacked wild around him with his abilities as well, both their fires building up to a radius that the others had to run from the area, as they were already setting everything and everyone in their way on fire.

“He’s not going to last much longer,” Nakamaru said as he dashed over to Mitsu, but there was nothing they could do to help.

“Let’s just be ready to interfere the moment he runs out of energy,” Mitsu said, hoping that Taisuke wouldn’t overdo it to a degree that they couldn’t rescue him anymore.

Tama got himself more and more burned in their battle, but so did Taisuke. Just when he got ready to use a last huge attack to shatter everything around him, his body gave up on him.

To his surprise he didn’t collapse to the front as Tama had reached out for him, but his reasons weren’t as harmless as they seemed. Tama had reached his limits as well and pulled the other one towards him, but Taisuke had seen the movement of him pulling the grenade clip as he brought it right between them.

“Even if I die today, the city will make sure to hunt you all down. We’re not supposed to be in this world.”

Taisuke tried to break free, but his body had given up on him at the worst timing and there was nothing he could do when the grenade exploded between them.

The shockwave took him off his feet, but the pain he had expected wasn’t reaching his body as he only gasped on the impact on the ground. He immediately put his hands to his body, but there was no wound. When he looked up at Tama, the other one was lying several meters away, the parts of the grenade stuck all over his body. Miraculously though he didn’t seem to have died. But there was something else Taisuke was seeing. Grenade parts hang in the air, floating in the air. But he was sure that neither Mitsu nor Nakamaru would have been able to stop such a fast attack, especially on this distance.

“What the…” Taisuke said as he sat up, unable to get back up completely. He looked towards Mitsu and the others, but all eyes were on someone else.

With a look they had never seen in the boy’s eyes, Taiga was walking up towards them, ignoring all the soldiers around him. A few seconds passed by without anyone moving, but when Taiga stopped in the middle of the open grass fields, the soldiers finally snapped out of it and aimed at him.

“Taiga, get away!” Taisuke shouted, but there was no need for that. Right now, it was the opposite. No one would be able to get away from Taiga.

All the bullets got stopped in the air, silently hanging in the air for a moment.

“Telekinesis,” Nakamaru said in astonishment, but there was more to come.

Taiga threw all the bullets straight back at the soldiers without more than a small flick of his hand. The remaining soldiers in the village closed in on him, but Taiga let them come. The moment they were trying to aim for him, he took another deep breath and with the same violent power Taisuke possessed, but in such a control that only Ueda was able to show until now, Taiga let fire spread all around him, burning everyone in its way.

In the middle of the chaos soldiers made it over to Tama and Reia used his fire to make it over to them as well, retreating with them before Taiga could aim for them as well.

The others watched in complete silence, unable to even understand what was happening. The village fell silent seconds after the last soldier had burned to death while Taiga did nothing more than stare at their bodies falling slowly immobile.

There was just one movement between the huts a moment later, just in time when Taiga made an unstable step to the back. Hokuto dashed towards him, catching him with his abilities before he reached him and put him in his lab as the boy fell unconscious.

At the same moment Ueda and Kentaro made their way back from the fields everyone as they had realized that everything had suddenly fallen silent.

Mitsu looked at Ueda with wide eyes as he realized that he was carrying Aran in his arms and Massu fell to his knees a few meters away from them, his eyes showing nothing more than an empty stare.

One battle was won, but a lot was lost. Decisions had to be made and explanations had to follow, but just for this one moment they all needed to sort their thoughts out in silence.

“Let’s switch,” Myuto offered, but Nikaido shook his head.

“We’re almost there.”

“Yet you have carried him for almost the entire day,” Fuma complained and wanted to offer to carry Reo as well, but then they all stopped at another hillside.

They had taken a full four days to make it back over the coast line, but there was no other safe trail back. Reo had been conscious here and there, but he would need a better rest than the few hours on the forest ground they had gotten in between. But now they had way bigger trouble.

“What happened here?” Myuto asked when he saw the burned area in front of them.

“Bullets,” Fuma said as he crouched down and picked up an empty bullet casing from the ground.

“They came for the village after all,” Nikaido hissed, taking a tighter grip on Reo who had tried to walk by himself for the first half of the day, but hadn’t been in a good enough condition to keep a good pace and had fainted at some point once more.

“Let’s hurry,” Fuma said and walked ahead.

“Be careful. We don’t know when this happened and if there are still soldiers around,” Nikaido warned them, but the two boys hurried ahead, Nikaido having trouble keeping up with Reo on his back.

When the glade of the village came into sight, Nikaido sped up, but Fuma and Myuto had stopped at the fields. Nikaido had worried that they had been too late, but what he was seeing in front of him was way worse than he had ever expected.

“How could this happen?” Myuto asked with a shocked expression towards the burned and destroyed village. The fields and forest around it were destroyed as well, whole areas had been turned over by bombs.

“Where is everyone…” Nikaido let out in a low voice as if he didn’t want to ask, but the truth was that the village was abandoned. There was no one to be seen, no friend or foe, no living or dead. The entire place had been turned to a field of ashes.

“We have an evacuation route on the eastern side,” Fuma reminded them as they all were aware of that, but hadn’t immediately thought about it. “They might have all gotten away in time.”

A thought they all wanted to share, but the destruction in front of them showed that they had fought that was for sure.

“The fires have stopped,” Myuto said as no smoke was rising, which meant that the battle had taken place at least one or two days prior to their arrival. “The evacuation route doesn’t offer a place to stay, but maybe the founders guided them towards the north?”

Nikaido slowly nodded, wanting to believe the other one’s words, but it was just extremely hard. A movement on his back made him look at Reo as the boy woke up and looked ahead a bit perplexed until he realized where they were.

“You want to get down?” Nikaido asked and Reo nodded, slowly getting on his own feet, but he was as speechless as the others. There had been no plan for such an outcome, not even a talk about something like this possible to happen. They had underestimated the destructive force their enemy was going after them.

“So what do we do?” Reo asked and everyone looked at Nikaido to make a decision.

“For now, let’s head to the evacuation route?”

They all agreed on that and they headed down to the village, stopping here and there to look at the destruction, their own huts and see if they could find any hints that could give them hope.

“Truck traces are going towards the east route,” Fuma realized after they had passed by the training grounds.

“Let’s not judge too fast,” Nikaido calmed them down. “If they evacuated then the soldiers definitely followed them at first, but that doesn’t mean that they won.”

“The lack of dead bodies makes me hope,” Reo said, even though it didn’t mean that no one on their side had died. “The soldiers wouldn’t have cared to get our people out of the village if they were dead.”

“Except for the Phenomenists maybe, who knows what gruesome research they want to use them for.”

“Fuma, please,” Myuto said as he felt slightly overwhelmed with the silence in the village and the aftermath of their battle.

“Sorry,” Fuma said as he tried to stay positive himself, but it was difficult.

A few minutes into the evacuation route Nikaido made them all stop. “There is a truck coming.”

They all hurried to hide as they feared for soldiers approaching. Maybe they had given up, maybe they had finally hunted down the last people escaping. There were so many possibilities that Nikaido felt more than nauseous.

But when the truck came closer, they all exchanged a knowing look. Even though they still couldn’t see it, they all realized the same thing. Phenomenists. Which meant their presence wouldn’t go by unnoticed either. Now the question was just if they would encounter friend or foe?

“Let’s take the risk?” Reo asked and they all agreed and went out of their hiding place, back on the small forest path, which only showed a few truck traces from the past days, but wasn’t that visible to people walking through the forest. They could have easily lost their way if they had just kept walking ahead.

When the truck came into sight they all tensed, but just until they could finally see faces and for the first time in over a week they finally dared to relax.

They made it closer towards them with the truck, but before Mitsu even stopped it, Taisuke had jumped from the open back part and ran towards them. Nikaido waited for him to approach, but had to literally catch Taisuke as the older one jumped into his arms.

“That’s the welcome back I needed,” Nikaido said as he closed his arms around Taisuke a bit too tightly. “Please tell me that everyone is safe?”

The reaction Taisuke showed wasn't what Nikaido wanted to see as Taisuke closed his arms even more around the other one, refusing to lift his face from the other one’s shoulder.

The boys had walked up to the truck, not hearing their words as Mitsu took Fuma and Myuto into a hug while Nakamaru greeted Reo with the same warm embrace.

“Where are the others? What happened?” Fuma asked now as well and everyone exchanged a look in silence.

Slowly Nikaido pushed Taisuke to the back, the other one trying hard to keep his composure, but Taisuke had never been good in showing a poker face, so it was clear that things hadn’t ended as harmless as they had hoped for.

“Do you want the full version here or can you wait until we’re back with the others?” Mitsu asked and slowly everyone’s looks darkened as they knew what the requested delay meant.

“It’s definitely safer for us if we leave for now, right?” Nikaido asked and Nakamaru nodded.

“We have been coming down here since yesterday to see if you’ve made it back. It was too dangerous to stay around for long.”

“Then let’s leave for now and hear the details later,” Nikaido said and everyone agreed, even though the mood was even gloomier now that they hadn’t gotten direct replies to their worries.

“But I have to ask one question before we leave,” Mitsu said seriously. “Ryosuke?”

It was obvious that they were already guessing as they didn’t seem at all worried that the boy wasn’t with them.

“A damn ass traitor,” Fuma replied with his usual attitude.

“Well, then we can hear your story later as well. One person less to worry about,” Mitsu said and told everyone to get ready to depart.

The boys got on the back of the truck, but Taisuke pulled Nikaido back before he could follow.

“Kentaro is okay,” Taisuke whispered and Nikaido pulled the other one closer and pressed a kiss on his hair.

“Thank you.”

His biggest worry had been his brother after all, but Taisuke had of course realized that.

“Taiga?” Nikaido dared to ask and luckily Taisuke nodded, yet there was still some kind of worry on the other one’s face, but the remaining questions could wait for later.

***

Even with the truck it took them almost half a day to make it back to the location Kamenashi had guided them to. For now, it was just for the time being as they definitely needed to decide what to do next, but the area was well hidden around some steep scarps. The mountains offered some shelter with some caves, but they had already started building at least one bigger building so that everyone could gather in a bigger and warmer place when it was done. The north was still colder even just a few hours out here.

When the truck arrived back at the improvised camp, everyone present seemed more than relieved to see them back, but of course on both sides there were people missing so the gloomy atmosphere remained.

“Welcome back,” Kamenashi greeted them and immediately received an update about Ryosuke from Mitsu. “As we thought then.”

“You could have fucking told us” Fuma hissed, getting ready to explode, but Nakamaru told him to calm down and listen first.

“Ueda had a guess that in the case that there was really a traitor that it might be Ryosuke, that’s all we knew and basing that off on a guess was too dangerous to actually let everyone know,” Kamenashi explained.

“Wataru and I were told, but we let you go anyway. I’m sorry that eventually the suspicion had turned out to be true, but taking Ryosuke off the team wouldn’t have made much difference eventually.”

“Tama and the others attacked you, right? I think we saw them leaving the city,” Nikaido said.

“Yes, they got the information from Ryosuke and as Tama knew the village, they were way better prepared than we thought.”

“But why now?” Myuto asked.

“Because he had been told the timing,” Wataru said as he joined the conversation.

“Another traitor?” Reo asked, all of them now waiting for detailed information.

Mitsu slowly nodded, seeming surprised about the discovery as well. “Juri.”

“What?” Myuto and Fuma asked at the same time.

Fuma kicked the ground with an angry shout, ready to just storm ahead, but of course the other one wasn’t around.

“Juri escaped with some remaining soldiers, while a fire user called Reia got Tama out after he was almost killed. It’s not even clear if he is still alive with his injuries,” Wataru explained.

“So only soldiers died on their side?” Nikaido asked and Wataru nodded.

“And on our side?” Myuto finally dared to ask and on that question everyone fell silent.

“For further talks I’d like to separate everyone for a while? Just because I know that you’re all tired and emotions are running high,” Kamenashi said and that warning was enough to make them all worry.

“Reo, you seem pretty exhausted, let’s have Miyata run a check up on you?” Kamenashi said and the boy nodded, giving the others a sad expression as he left first with Kamenashi.

“Taisuke, we sent the boys to the river, you mind bringing Nikaido along to tell them that they’re back?” Wataru asked and Taisuke slowly nodded, reaching out for Nikaido’s hand, giving it a pretty tight squeeze as he pulled him along, unable to even look back at the others.

Just the way Wataru had said boys instead of certain people had Myuto suddenly tear up. He was always the emotional one, but this time he could feel it, something was horribly wrong. When Nakamaru put his hand on Fuma’s shoulder and told him to follow along to help out with the civilians and hurt fighters, Fuma gave Myuto a worried side glance, but Myuto couldn’t even look at the other one anymore.

When he was left alone with Wataru and Mitsu he finally dared to look up at the two, his tears already flowing over as he could read their expressions perfectly.

“You want to visit him?”

The question sounded so innocent, almost like a daily reminder to make sure to take care of your loved ones and while Myuto was feeling so numb and empty inside, he formed a shaking smile and nodded. The realization of him having protected his promise while the other one hadn’t been able to, would take a few more days to completely sink in, but for now he was grateful for the time he had been given with the other one, while the grief about not having been able to say goodbye was overshadowing their happy memories.

***

Taiga crouched down at the river and kept looking at it, his own body still feeling extremely unfamiliar. So much had happened at their battle that he couldn’t explain himself, but different to his physical changes, he was still overwhelmed by his own emotions. Juri’s betrayal had hit him so unexpectedly that he had only felt extreme rage building up inside of him the moment the other one had pushed him off the cliffs. Thanks to that act though he had awakened his abilities of a Phenomenist. Fire and Telekinesis, but no power transfer as it seemed, but his active powers were stronger than those of the others, so he would need to learn how to control them. But after the battle had ended, the rage had disappeared, numbness now replacing it.  

“You’re going to sit there the entire day or are you actually going to help?” Hokuto said as he hit the other one lightly on the head with a branch as he had collected firewood with Kentaro.

“Is this enough help for you?” Taiga asked as he pointed at the wooden basket in which he had already put a good dozen fish.

“Nice, and here I thought we needed to ask Kentaro to catch us some later.”

Hokuto’s teasing was left hanging in the air as Taiga hadn’t been open to even talk about his abilities since the battle. Kentaro had also fallen dangerously quiet since they had moved to this place for evacuation, but at the moment no one could be judged for feeling more than overwhelmed by what had happened so if people demanded some space, everyone would give them exactly that.

“Oh, finally something that will brighten up your mood,” Hokuto said as he turned around, already realizing that someone was approaching.

Kentaro turned to look as well, but the next second he let the firewood drop and dashed towards his brother. Nikaido had stopped and opened his arms, Kentaro jumping into them while Nikaido lifted him up in his arms.

“Thanks god you’re safe,” Kentaro said as he refused to let go of his brother and crossed his legs behind the other one’s back so that Nikaido couldn’t let him down.

“Sorry to keep you waiting that long. I wish we could have made it back sooner.”

Taisuke had told Nikaido about the battle on the way to the river so that he was informed about at least the rough happenings, but there were still some parts even Taisuke hadn’t fully heard about yet as his own brother refused to talk.

“Is everyone safely back?” Kentaro asked as he finally let go so that his brother could put him back down.

“Everyone who was on our side, yes,” Nikaido said with a gloomy expression, now Hokuto and Taiga also walking up to him, wanting to hear more. “Ryosuke betrayed us.”

“I told him about our situation,” Taisuke said as Kentaro seemed unsure what to reply.

“Myuto, is he…?”

“Wataru and Mitsu are with him,” Taisuke explained and he didn’t miss Taiga’s expression turning even darker and Hokuto also gave him a side glance. Both boys had told them that Juri had betrayed them, but Hokuto had left the detailed story to Taiga, yet the boy had only said that Juri attacked them out of the blue and that through his anger he had somehow gotten his Phenomenist abilities, but Taisuke could tell that something was off. There was something both were keeping a secret.

“Let’s talk about everything later? We need to make it a bit more comfortable for everyone, right?” Nikaido said, trying to remain positive. They had heavy decisions to make from here on, but just for a few more days they felt safe enough to remain at the same location.

***

They had somehow managed to finish the shelter by night, right in time before a thunderstorm was making them all retreat in the improvised shelter. To the back the biggest cave they had found was connected to the wooden building that would give everyone enough space and shelter for the night.

To make sure that they wouldn’t end up in the same mess once more, they had put up a guarding area around the place. Instead of big patrols they had several guarding points from which they were able to immediately report back if anyone was approaching.

“Are you really okay not going?” Kentaro asked when Nikaido remained with him in the shelter after Taisuke had said he would go to one of the guarding points over the night.

“We are distracting each other too much to be on the same guarding point right now,” Nikaido said and while Kentaro of course understood the other one’s worries he felt like everyone was way too on edge to concentrate on anything in particular.

Massu had joined Taisuke on his watch, while Nakamaru was at another watch point with Reo and the third point was taken care of by Wataru and Mitsu.

“Come here,” Nikaido said as Kentaro sat by one of the fires and kept staring absentmindedly into the flames. On his brother’s words he moved over to him and Nikaido pulled him closer to him while he leaned his back against one of the wooden pillars of the shelter.

They had taken on the watch at the entrance of the shelter so that the others could find some rest, not that it was comfortable for any of them to sleep on the ground. They had brought some blankets and supplies from the village on the second day, but of course this could only be temporary.

“What burdens you so much?” Nikaido asked after he had put his arm around his brother, Kentaro reaching out for the other one’s sleeve to play nervously with the seam.

“Everything,” Kentaro replied honestly as he looked back into the shelter where he could see two more fires. At one he could spot Taiga, staring right into the flames like he had done before, while Hokuto watched him from the back, but took his distance. At the wall of the cave, at the last fire he could spot Myuto, the boy seeming unable to even show any kind of emotion on his face. “Ryosuke betrayed you, Juri betrayed us, people died and those who survived carry so many scars now.”

“But while scars will never disappear, they can fade,” Nikaido reminded his brother and gave him a small pad on the hair with his free hand. “Make sure to take care of your own scars before it’s too late.”

“I couldn’t do anything,” Kentaro said, knowing that ignoring his mental scars wouldn’t help him eventually. “I learned so much about my abilities since we arrived in the village. Ueda helped me to get into full control of them, yet I feel like in the end it didn’t matter that I had them at all.”

“You were there for him, that’s what counts. You fought and sometimes we cannot rescue everyone,” Nikaido said with a soothing squeeze on the other one’s upper body, but while Kentaro understood that of course, he just couldn’t accept it right now. The picture in front of him was still way too clear. His abilities seemed worthless to him as he was able to save himself, but had to watch others die. He had to watch Aran die.

“I don’t want to see anyone else die,” Kentaro said as he looked back at the others, everyone in their own dark thoughts. “But I don’t feel confident enough to be able to protect them.”

Before Nikaido could scold him for his ongoing dark thoughts, they saw Ueda and Kamenashi approaching through the rain after they had switched with Wataru and Mitsu at one of the guard points.

Nikaido looked after his brother as Kentaro jumped up to get blankets from the shelter and Nikaido didn’t miss how he had first only lifted up one and then hurried to bring a second one and handed them to the two men who were drained from the rain.

“Thanks, so sweet of you,” Kamenashi said as he used the blanket to dry his hair. He gave Kentaro a pad on the shoulder and nodded at Nikaido before he moved further into the cave and it definitely didn’t happen by chance that he sat down close to Taiga and Hokuto.

Hokuto immediately offered to get him some dry spare clothes and Kamenashi thanked him, but then addressed Taiga. The boy seemed unwilling at first to even engage into any conversation, but Kamenashi wouldn’t easily let him drown in his thoughts like this and he moved the blanket away from his hair to squeeze some of the water out of it into his hand, just to throw the water at Taiga’s face. The boy seemed startled for a moment before he finally looked at Kamenashi and replied to what he was saying. Nikaido couldn’t hear them, but he felt grateful to the founder for taking so much care of the boy as Mitsu and Taisuke had decided to give him some space as they had always been seen as the overprotective siblings in the first place, so they could understand that Taiga didn’t want them around right now.

“You should get some sleep, you’ll need to go to one of the guard points tomorrow as well,” Ueda said, but to Nikaido’s surprise his little brother’s face had brightened up, the dark thoughts now not that visible anymore.

“I need to guard the shelter tonight.”

“Let me do it,” Ueda said and ruffled through the boy’s hair. “You need to be awake at the guard point. There are enough people in the shelter who can switch with Nikaido and me later.”

Even more surprise was written on Nikaido’s face when Kentaro agreed to the rest. Nikaido also urged him to sleep as much as he could, but he still looked after him in slight confusion and worry when the boy took a blanket and moved towards the back of the cave.

At first he seemed not sure where to go, but then Nikaido had to smile at Kentaro’s mental strength as he made his way over to Myuto instead of just looking for an empty spot between all the civilians.

The boy gave him a lost look at first when Kentaro stepped next to him, but when Kentaro just sat down and threw the blanket half over Myuto, the boy showed a faint smile. They didn’t speak, but just being there for each other was worth more than any words they could speak right now.

“This was a horribly hard life lesson for all of them,” Ueda said as he sat down opposite the fire and looked at Kentaro and the others in the shelter.

“Thanks for being there for him when I couldn’t,” Nikaido said as he had heard most of the details of the fight from Taisuke, not that the other one had been able to openly talk about his own fight yet, but the same as with Taiga, Nikaido was also giving Taisuke a bit of space for now. They had all just found back together and emotions were running too high for everyone to just sit down and talk things through.

“Thank you for rescuing Reo,” Ueda replied. “I unfortunately couldn’t do much for Aran either.”

“You put the boy into a pretty difficult position,” Nikaido said and got Ueda’s full attention. “I mean with telling him to get as much information as possible without us even knowing that he would take that risk without letting us know. Ryosuke could have easily killed him on that day.”

“I was the one who tried to talk him out of it.”

“What?” Nikaido asked perplexed.

“We had a talk with Reo about the mission, because we knew that he liked to go overboard and while Nakamaru had indeed asked him to keep it a secret to you guys that we talked, it wasn’t to make Reo run into trouble by himself.”

Nikaido slowly nodded, understanding that Ueda was indeed worried for the boy and wouldn’t easily give him such a dangerous mission without second guessing it.

“When we moved northwards to find more refugees and build more communities I kept going on towards the northern border after Nakamaru and Kamenashi had remained in two other communities they had built over a few months. A handful of Phenomenists moved northwards with me to see if there were any Phenomenists left.”

“That’s where you met Reo?” Nikaido asked and the other one nodded.

“He was a cheerful boy even though he had been brought up to the north by his family already years before the cities had started putting up the fences and hunt Phenomenists.”

“His parents, are they…?”

“They are well,” Ueda said with a smile. “They love him to bits, but they also know that they can’t stop him when he wants to do something so they let him leave with me when Wataru came to our community to ask for our help.”

Nikaido was impressed by the boy’s determination even though he had a safe place to return to.

“Some of us are fighting for a brighter future, others to prevent horrible events from repeating themselves. No matter if our past is paved with dark memories or if it’s filled with laughter, eventually we’re all fighting for the same future.”

Ueda looked back into the shelter for a moment before his look turned a bit more serious after he met eyes with Taiga who was looking at him briefly after talking to Kamenashi and Hokuto was also looking over to them at some point.

“So, there is something going on here, right?”

“Well, we had thought about something and there were a few people we wanted to talk about before we talk to everyone openly tomorrow.”

Nikaido felt a bit nervous on the other one’s words, while he was sure that it couldn’t be something bad as Taiga and Hokuto looked too calm for that, but as it seemed important enough to have a talk in private, Nikaido nodded and sat closer to the fire this time.

“I want to clarify something with you so that you can make a choice as well until tomorrow.”

Nikaido nodded as he wasn’t even sure what kind of information was going to await him.

“I want to talk to you about Kentaro.”

With the morning hours the sun finally came out once more and with that most of the people were leaving the shelter, bringing in water and food from the river and the forest.

Miyata had problems keeping his children from running around between everyone, but it was good to see that they hadn’t lost their chaotic spirit through the horrible happenings.

Instead of getting more people out to the guarding points, they had everyone come back around noon.

“Sorry for the sudden meeting, but we talked a few things through yesterday and we want to offer something,” Nakamaru explained, getting everyone’s attention. “To come straight to the point, we would like to offer everyone a new place to live in our northern communities.”

A whisper went through the rows, some seeming excited, others worried.

“We’re not saying that we will just ignore the threat from the city,” Kamenashi followed up. “They showed that they won’t leave us alone. Even if months or years pass silently in the north, they will eventually come after us once more, but our communities are well hidden and difficult to access with trucks. Through the recent happenings we will also make sure that all communities are well protected.”

“But there is one thing we need to ask of you,” Ueda added and gave a side glance towards Nikaido and of course Kentaro had noticed, but his brother only put his hand on his shoulder with a nod before Ueda continued. “Our communities are not as big as your village, but that also means that we can’t easily bring a lot of new people into them without having the time to build new huts and grow more food.”

“They want us to split up,” Kentaro realized and Nikaido gave his shoulder a small squeeze.

“Let him finish,” Nikaido soothed him.

“If you’re okay with that, then we can depart today already. There is no need to have you stay in these conditions any longer. We will give you some time to think about it,” Ueda finished and everyone immediately started discussing the topic.

“I am totally not okay with this,” Fuma said next to them and Kentaro gave him an understanding look before he looked up at Nikaido.

“You knew, didn’t you?”

“Ueda talked to me a bit yesterday. It’s understandable that they can’t accept everyone in the same community.”

“But what I’ve heard so far is that those communities lie weeks apart from each other,” Kentaro complained.

“Which gives quite a long time of travel from the city,” Reo entered the conversation from the side.

“That’s pretty good,” Fuma nodded. “But how are we supposed to decide who is going where? I don’t want to end up without people I can train with.”

“We have other Phenomenists in our communities you can train with,” Reo explained in excitement.

“Are they fun to train with?” Fuma asked, making Reo laugh.

“There is no way we can all go to the same community, right?” Kentaro asked knowingly and Nikaido nodded.

“Unfortunately, with all the families and civilians some of us will have to split up to keep them safe on the way. But as the founders explained already, we won’t just sit there and wait for another attack, but I agree with them. Just for a while we might need this new start to gather our thoughts and then meet again with new plans.”

Kentaro was still worried about that time apart though as he couldn’t even say where he wanted to go, especially if people he didn’t want to part from would go to another community.

“Kentaro…”

The voice had almost been missed by the one in question as Taiga hadn’t spoken up much, but then he looked up at the boy. “Can I talk to you for a moment?”

Kentaro looked up at his brother and he of course nodded and Kentaro followed Taiga who walked away from everyone as they were all discussing the topic.

When they had made it to the river he finally stopped, but Kentaro waited patiently for him to say something as it was the first time Taiga had finally come to talk to someone.

“I will go with Kamenashi,” Taiga said as he turned back to the other one. “We talked about it yesterday for a bit. Hokuto will join as well. Now that I am a Phenomenist I need to get taught and I need to do that without any distraction.”

A dozen thoughts shot through Kentaro’s mind on those words. Teasing ones like Hokuto not being a distraction to Taiga was a pretty obvious lie, serious ones like Mitsu and Taisuke most likely not going with him as his brothers would definitely be a distraction for his training, and sad ones like the fact that he had told him because of one obvious reason.

“You don’t want me to go to that community.”

It hadn’t even been a question and he couldn’t deny that he felt hurt through those words, but Taiga had also gathered his entire courage to tell Kentaro and now the boy was tearing up and bowing so deeply that Kentaro couldn’t see his face, but he could of course hear the shaking in his voice and see the tears fall.

“I’m sorry. I’m a horrible friend to ask this of you.”

When Kentaro didn’t reply anything, Taiga looked back up after a moment, but before he could say anything else, Kentaro walked up to him and gave him a tight hug. Taiga froze in the other one’s arms, not sure what to do.

“I’m proud of you for speaking your mind. If this is what you need right now, then I will gladly give you that space. I am not angry at you and no you’re not a bad friend. You’re an awesome friend for telling me instead of just leaving.”

Once more Taiga’s sobs were heard when he grabbed the boy’s jacket on the back with shaking hands. “Kentaro, there is-”

“Tell me when we meet again, okay?” Kentaro said as he pushed the other one back, a bit of teary eyes now himself. “We all have our parts of this battle we have to deal with and it’s okay if you can’t share it right now.”

Taiga’s expression showed extreme guilt about keeping obvious secrets, but whatever it was Kentaro was the last one who would judge him for it.  

“Thank you,” Taiga said, finally a part of the burden falling from his chest, while he was of course still carrying big parts of it with him, but Kentaro was sure that with Hokuto at his side he would be able to get his confidence back. After all the other one was part of that secret that was for sure.

***

For Myuto it didn’t matter where he was going and he didn’t care talking it through with anyone, so eventually he had ended up sitting at the same place he had stayed at any possible minute since his arrival.

All the graves were the same. A row with fresh earth and simple stones at the top. Way too many of them. Myuto had to remind himself that he wasn’t the only one who had lost someone. The other graves had fresh flowers picked around the river area lying on the graves. Even the soldiers had gotten buried, but closer to the village and without the extra effort of marking the graves, not that Taiga had left a lot of bodies that could have been buried.

Sudden steps made him turn around towards the one approaching and while he had expected family members of the others to come and say their farewells, it was actually Reo who approached.

“You mind?” Reo asked and held out one flower of many he had in his hands and Myuto stood up, looking at Reo how he put one flower on every grave, putting the only violet flower he had found on Aran’s grave. “I’m so sorry for your loss.”

“Thank you,” Myuto said, not knowing what else to say.

“You don’t want to leave him behind here, right?” Reo asked.

“Personally no, but I know that this area will be peaceful from now. We will destroy the shelter and leave this area in an untouched state so they will find more peace here then around another village where another battle could happen.”

“But it still hurts to go,” Reo replied knowingly.

It’s weird, isn’t it?” Myuto asked, laughing at himself. “I already lost him and now I feel like I will lose him again.”

“But we can come visit this place. It will of course take a lot of time from the north, but I’d go with you if you want to visit.”

Myuto looked at the other one with a grateful nod, but he couldn’t even imagine himself living in the north in peace long enough to think about visiting here again. The founders had said it themselves. This wasn’t a permanent stay in peace, it was just a small rest before they had to decide where to go from here.

“Take your time. We’re not leaving before the afternoon,” Reo said with a brief smile and clapped the other one on the back before he left. Myuto looked after him for a moment before he looked down at the flower. A simple iris flower, but its meaning made Myuto smile. He wasn’t allowed to be swallowed by all the dark thoughts now, he knew that Aran would scold him if he did.

“For you as well I will try and start over,” Myuto said, but couldn’t stop a few silent tears from falling even while he was smiling.

***

“Sorry for the hurry with this decision, but we think you all might prefer getting northwards sooner than later,” Nakamaru explained when everyone gathered once more. “We will take the trucks with us at first for those who cannot walk that much and for the few belongings everyone has left. But to make sure that no traces will lead to the communities and the possibility that the trucks will run out of gasoline, we will leave them behind at different locations.”

“Everyone who already made a decision please come forward to the community you want to join,” Kamenashi said as the founders stood apart from each other. Most civilians had already decided for groups and walked over. Luckily the amount of people seemed to be mostly even.

“Then I guess we need to hurry with our choices too or nightfall will soon come,” Wataru said and took the hand of his wife and walked over to Kamenashi.

“I guess I will be mostly needed here then,” Miyata announced and moved with his family towards Nakamaru.

“Why is that?” Taisuke asked curiously and Miyata gave Wataru a knowing look.

“We decided for this community because it is the closest and easiest to walk to,” Wataru said as he put one hand around his wife’s shoulder, the woman giving everyone a bright smile and when she put one hand on her belly, Taisuke forgot for a second how hard the previous days were.

“Oh my god, you’re pregnant?” Taisuke yelled and dashed over to his friend and hugged both of them, everyone else was also extremely happy for them even though the timing wasn’t the best. But with Miyata joining their community they were sure that they were going to be okay.

“Are you going to join us?” Wataru asked, but to his surprise Taisuke didn’t look sad when he shook his head and waited for Nikaido to walk up to him and they stepped towards Nakamaru. “We decided that it might be the right timing for us to get some time for ourselves.”

“What?” Kentaro let out first, not having heard of his brother choosing that path. He immediately looked at Ueda and the panic was clear, but Nikaido walked back to him and took him by the hand to pull him over to Ueda.

“You already picked your path, didn’t you?”

“But, how-, I didn’t-”

“It’s okay,” Nikaido soothed the other one. “It’s just for a while, remember? I feel like this might be a good opportunity for you as well.”

Nikaido looked up at Ueda and Kentaro immediately realized that his brother was aware of the situation and he felt weirdly embarrassed with everyone around reading the atmosphere.

“I did not see that coming,” Reo whispered towards Fuma and Myuto.

“I thought they barely tolerated each other,” Fuma replied.

“Okay then that is clear as well,” Kamenashi said as he would still give them all time to say their farewells later on the way. “I think we have some already decided members left?”

The founder looked towards the boys and next Taiga and Hokuto walked up to him. Taiga gave Kentaro a brief look, but the boy only nodded as he had known of the other one’s decision already. But when Taiga looked at Taisuke, even his brother didn’t seem to oppose his decision. Mitsu walked up to him next, but to his surprise the oldest brother only ruffled through his hair with a smile before he stepped towards Ueda. “We all have to make choices that will help us the most right now. Don’t feel bad about wanting to take care of your own needs for once.”

Taiga had promised himself to not be emotional, but he hadn’t thought that his brothers would be this understanding and give him the space he needed. With teary eyes he bowed towards his brothers, knowing that for them it was hard to let him go for the first time, even if he was now a Phenomenist.

“How about everyone else?” Ueda asked.

“Well, I have my place in the community already,” Reo said as he skipped over to Ueda. “And I need to make sure that you get to train enough.”

Reo hit Kentaro against the arm and received a smile in return.

“Do you mind if I join that training?” Myuto asked a bit hesitantly and both boys exchanged an excited look and pulled Myuto towards their group.

“Massu, Fuma, I would like to offer you to come to my community. I think I would have fantastic people up there to help you train,” Nakamaru offered.

“Are they as boring as you? Then no,” Fuma immediately complained, but Massu hit him on the back of his head.

“Afraid to train with your senpai instead of with the boys?” Massu challenged him as he walked towards Nikaido and Taisuke. Fuma immediately pouted and mumbled something about kicking people’s ass before he moved over to Nakamaru.

“You got all the hot-headed fire users with you, good luck,” Ueda teased.

“But you and Kamenashi will get most of the scolding if you don’t watch out enough for certain people,” Nakamaru countered and Taiga immediately shifted uncomfortably next to Hokuto, while Kentaro looked a bit embarrassed towards the ground.

“Well then we all have our challenges from now on, let’s get ready before it gets dark,” Kamenashi ordered everyone and for now they all prepared in silence.

***

When they left the trucks behind and the moment finally came at which they had to go separate ways, everyone fell awkwardly silent. Friends and families gave each other a last supportive hug, knowing that for most of them no new battle would start as long as the city wouldn’t chase them the entire way up to the north, but those who were willing to fight only took this as the calm before the storm.

“Are you just going to leave like this or am I getting a hug,” Kentaro asked Taiga who kept standing towards the path they had to leave from.

Before Taiga could even reply, Kentaro already walked up to him and gave him a tight hug, the other one chuckling as he closed his arms around his friend. When Kentaro wanted to let go, Taiga tightened the hug just a bit more, making Kentaro chuckle when he was finally released.

“It’s okay to get emotional at such a moment,” Kentaro reminded his friend. “And you definitely have good support in your community.”

Kentaro looked up at Hokuto who stood a bit to the side, but gave him a smile on those words.

“Then go and be emotional yourself,” Taiga said and waved over to Nikaido who was talking to Wataru and Massu.

“Fine, I will leave before you start crying,” Kentaro teased his friend, but after he had already made a step away, he turned back once more and put one hand on Taiga’s shoulder before he gave the boy a slight clap on the cheek with the other one, making Taiga look at him in confusion.

“We’re all here for you, no matter where we are for a while, you understand?”

Now he had made Taiga tear up for good once more, but Kentaro wanted to make sure that Taiga understood that no one was angry at him for being selfish for once in his life.

Kentaro turned around after making his point clear and walked over to his brother, Taiga needing a moment to calm down again.

“You’re not getting away this easily, you realize that, right?”

Taiga let out an annoyed sound and hid his face in his hands for a second. “Give me a break,” Taiga complained, but still didn’t complain when Taisuke pulled his little brother into a hug, followed by Mitsu joining and ruffling through the boy’s hair. Now Taiga had started crying after all, but he didn’t feel that embarrassed about it, after all Taisuke didn’t look much better.

“Finally leaving the nest,” Mitsu teased when Taiga finally looked up and took a shaking breath as he tried to stop crying. “Wished it could have been under better circumstances.”

“But at least I have safe company?” Taiga reminded them and while he was talking about Kamenashi, his brothers’ looks went to Hokuto.

“Maybe not safe, but at least entertaining?”

Taiga hit Taisuke against the stomach on that comment, making the other one laugh.

Kentaro was watching them on his way to the other side of the clearing they were on and on his way he saw Fuma, standing a bit lost around after he had already said goodbye to Myuto, Reo and a few others.

“You can still change your mind,” Kentaro said as he stepped next to him.

“What do you mean?”

“You want to challenge yourself by going with Massu, I understand that, but I can also see that it’s pretty hard for you to not come with us to Ueda’s place.”

That was the obvious truth and Fuma let out a sad sigh, but then he shook his head. “I think for once this is the better decision for all of us.”

“Doesn’t sound like you think so much about everyone else,” Kentaro teased, but he had seen that Fuma had changed the same way as most of them. They didn’t have had the biggest battle at the city, but Fuma had to use a lot of his abilities as well to get them out and he had realized that Reo was more than on top of his game while he had used up his energy way easier. Nakamaru’s offer was the best thing he could accept for now.

“I am doing this so I can kick everyone’s ass when we come back together.”

“I see, bragging to everyone about how awesome you are is the final goal,” Kentaro laughed, knowing that Fuma was only saying that to make himself not sound too emotional. “Then I am looking forward to that powerup of yours.”

Kentaro was holding out his hand, knowing that Fuma wasn’t a fan of all the hugging, but when Fuma took it, he still pulled the other one closer and gave him a pad on the back.

“Same for you. Those water abilities don’t seem to have any limit. I’m looking forward to you surpassing Reo.”

Kentaro had to laugh on hearing that as he didn’t see that as a possible goal, but he still of course promised that he would try.

With a smile he looked at everyone as they tried to stay positive at this temporary farewell. When he was lost in his thoughts, someone pulled him into a hug from the back and when he looked up, Nikaido was smiling down at him.

“Everyone is ready as it seems,” Nikaido said as they watched everyone slowly walk up to their paths and while Kentaro hadn’t been that emotional with everyone, he let out a shuddering breath this time as he turned around in his brother’s arms and gave him a tight hug while Nikaido put one hand on the boy’s back and patted his hair with a light touch.

“Don’t make them wait,” Nikaido said and pushed his brother a bit to the back. Kentaro knew that if he wouldn’t leave now that he’d be even more emotional than Taiga, but once more he looked up at his brother.

“After this is all over, I want a longer hug,” Kentaro said so seriously that Nikaido couldn’t hide a bright smile, but then nodded.

“As long as you need,” Nikaido promised.

***

“You told him,” Kentaro said as he walked next to Ueda as they all departed.

“Told who what?” Ueda asked and got pinched on the arm by the younger one immediately, making him pull back with a hiss. “Fine, yes I told Nikaido, but I told you that I won’t make a secret out of it.”

“You could have at least let me know before you walk up to my brother and tell him randomly that we’re…well, closer than he thinks.”

Ueda chuckled on the boy’s shy try to voice out the type of relationship they had, but with all the chaos there hadn’t been any time for them to talk things through.

“I just thought as Nikaido obviously needs some time to figure things out in his own relationship, I would give him a positive motivation to take some time for himself while not having to worry about you.”

“He could have done that in the same community,” Kentaro pouted.

“Would you have really wanted that?” Ueda asked, but Kentaro couldn’t easily reply. It would be the first time without his brother, but Taiga had chosen the same path, but maybe that was the real problem.

“In the city we never had close friends and in the village I finally found friends that grew as close as a family to me,” Kentaro explained, Ueda knowing what he wanted to say, but then Kentaro looked up at him with an apologetic look, but Ueda shook his head.

“It’s okay, no need to apologize. I know that you didn’t want to say that I am not important enough to you to be called close to you, but I get your point. Your brother has always been there for you, Taiga has grown to be your closest friend and even with Myuto and Mitsu coming with us, you will feel alone at first, that is understandable. You will need more time to adjust, but maybe Reo and the other members of the community might be able to help you? Give it a shot, okay? I won’t force you to stay if you can really not do it.”

That reminder had Kentaro’s look soften as he had to remind himself that they weren’t forced to stay apart after all. A few days' walk could reunite them if things really didn’t work out.

***

Kamenashi’s community was the closest, yet also the hardest to find. Mountains weren’t the problem, but thick forests with a big possibility of losing orientation easily. Everything looked the same for almost an entire day.

“You will like the community,” Hokuto said randomly on their second day. “We will reach it right before nightfall at this pace.”

“Why will I like it?” Taiga asked as he tried to not behave too moody, not that Hokuto minded the silence between them. Hokuto was always easy to have around no matter in what kind of mood Taiga was.

“People mind their own business there,” Hokuto teased, making Taiga roll his eyes. For a moment they kept walking in silence, watching the people in front of them as they had taken on the duty to walk last to make sure no one was going to get lost.

“Do you think I should tell them?” Taiga finally asked. A question only Hokuto understood.

“I told you that I will go with what you decide, but now that we’re all separated anyway, I think you should put that thought aside for now. If you think you can’t do that then you should at least tell Kamenashi and Wataru? If you think it will make you feel better?”

Taiga thought about it for a moment, but then shook his head. As long as he wasn’t sorting out his own thoughts, there was no way he could tell anyone else.

For most of the way he had kept spacing out until Hokuto suddenly reached out for his hand and pulled him along to the side.

“Where are we going?” Taiga asked as he looked back at the people following Kamenashi through some small hillsides with the same thick forest they had seen for two days straight now.

“They will be fine, don’t worry,” Hokuto said as he made the other one follow up another hill, pulling Taiga up the steep rocks until he had to release him so that they could both use their hands to climb as the area was harder to access than Taiga had thought.

Hokuto gave the other one an excited smile when he waited on top of the rocks and held out his hand to help Taiga up.

“If we have to get back down from here later then I hope for you that it was worth the climb,” Taiga complained.

“You can decide that in a second,” Hokuto said as he waved at him to follow and then they finally left the last trees behind them and the red evening sun greeted them over the open ocean. Taiga was left speechless on the view in front of him.

The forest and hills were abruptly ending, giving way to a beautiful green area, with rice fields, small canals and the community buildings in the center of the fields. Right behind it a cliff gave the perfect border to the ocean with no direct access from boats as the cliff wasn’t high enough to be called deadly if fallen off, but too high for anyone to launch a surprise attack.

“Are those cows?” Taiga asked, making Hokuto let out a disbelieving snort.

“I am showing you a breathtaking evening view of the setting sun over the ocean and you ask me about our cows?”

While it indeed sounded silly to ask, for Taiga it had been the first time to see farm animals as they didn’t have any animals in the city and their own village had only wild life around which they had hunted for food.

“And yes they are cows, we also have chicken, if you want to know,” Hokuto teased now as he pointed to a fence area behind one of the fields.

“It looks so peaceful,” Taiga said as he looked down at the huts when some people walked up to Kamenashi and the others as they reached them. He could see how Kamenashi pointed over his back, up to them when Wataru was obviously worried after not seeing the boys.

“That’s because it is. You can rest assured that we will not let the same thing happen here,” Hokuto said as he stepped closer to Taiga and the boy looked at him with a mixed expression.

He wanted to believe that they could get some weeks to get their own thoughts sorted, but the fear of the city attacking them again was still way too big to calm down.

“You see that hut over there on the right, the two people standing at the side?”

Taiga needed a moment to find the right hut, not that there were as many as in their village. They would need to build a few new ones if they didn’t want to have all the new people squeezed in the same small huts. The building style was the same as in their village, showing that the founders had indeed created the first village as well.

“The man with the gray shirt and the woman with the long black hair?” Taiga finally said as he thought he found the right hut and Hokuto nodded with a bright smile.

“Those are my parents. Let me introduce you to them.”
“Your parents?” Taiga asked in disbelief.

Hokuto nodded and waved at him to follow down another path to the community. Slowly Taiga shook his head at himself and finally followed the other one with a small smile. Just because some of them had lost their families, not everyone shared that fate and Taiga needed a moment to remind him of that. Reo was with his parents as well and while he had somehow thought Hokuto was on his own, he kind of looked forward to meeting his parents.

***

“Don’t you dare ask again,” Massu said when Fuma let out another sigh on the fourth day. “Complaining won’t make us arrive sooner.”

“Then I will complain that I want a break,” Fuma said instead, but got shoved to the side by Massu for his childish behavior.

“Stop arguing, we’re almost there,” Nikaido said, making Fuma click his tongue in annoyance. “You said that yesterday already.”

While complaining, Fuma stumbled over a root on the ground, getting angry enough to pick a fight with the wood.

“Don’t you dare shoot fire at it,” Taisuke warned him, making Nikaido laugh.

“You telling people to not throw around with fire, that’s new.”

“This area is a mess, who would think about building a community here?” Fuma complained once more as he kicked the root and had to immediately watch out to not fall over the next one.

“That’s exactly why we chose this area,” Nakamaru explained. No one would even think of someone living around here. No trucks can make it through either.”

“And no Fumas either,” Massu teased, running to the front when Fuma threatened to use one of the roots to strangle him.
They ran ahead to another hillside, but then suddenly stopped as they looked ahead.

Nikaido and Taisuke hurried after them and were surprised to not see any clearing or other fields.

“Welcome to the community,” Nakamaru said and guided the people towards the huts. Huts that were barely visible at this distance as they were part of all the huge trees and overgrown roots.

Taisuke pulled on Nikaido’s sleeve and pointed up, making Nikaido let out a whistle on the huts that were actually built in between the trees.

“And here I thought this community would be the most boring one,” Fuma said in disbelief. “This is going to be fun!”

What’s on your mind?” Nikaido asked when Taisuke looked a bit skeptical.

“Nakamaru said there would be great opportunities for us to train here, right? But all I see are high chances of setting an entire forest on fire.”

Nikaido had to chuckle on that thought, but he was wondering about that as well. Everything around the area seemed flammable, but who knew what kind of other surprises would await them around the community.

***

Reo jumped right into the arms of his mum when she came running the moment they saw them approaching.

“You’re okay. Thank God, you’re okay,” she said while stroking over the boy's hair. She was way smaller than Reo and his father was also not as tall as him. The man seemed calmer than his wife, but also more than happy to be able to welcome his son back.

“Thank you for watching out for him,” the man said towards Ueda. “He wanted to go so badly, there was no way for us to say no.”

Ueda assured them that everything was okay, leaving out the fact that Reo had almost died, because there was no need for negativity in this happy reunion.

“Come on, I will show you around,” Reo said and walked behind Kentaro and Myuto, pushing them to the front.

“Go ahead, have fun,” Mitsu said, Ueda nodding next to him. They had to take care of dividing the remaining people into the huts, so the boys could explore for now.

“Anyone want to stay at my hut?” Reo asked as he pointed at one of the smaller huts, but Kentaro was still too focused on his surroundings.

Ueda had told him that they preferred a wide space to see incoming people as soon as possible, but even though he had said wide, this was way wider than Kentaro could have imagined.

There was a huge lake right in front of them, three tall mountains on its back, while they had left the last forest behind them an hour ago and behind them all he could see was grassland and fields. Through that the huts were all separated by everyone’s more or less personal fields and gardens, not just simple rice, but also vegetables growing all over the place. There were even fields for farm animals. Sheep, cows and Kentaro even spotted horses.

“You’re not living with your parents?” Myuto asked and finally Kentaro spent the conversation attention again.

“It’s not like we don’t have the space for more huts and I am pretty loud and annoying sometimes,” Reo teased.

“Well, I guess then I will move in with you for now, I bet you don’t have enough empty huts for everyone right now,” Myuto realized on the way Mitsu was trying to help divide groups for now.

“What about you?” Reo asked, addressing Kentaro.

“Thanks, but I’m fine.”

“But it would be more fun if you stayed with us,” Reo complained, but then got hit with the elbow by Myuto. “What?”

Myuto only pointed his finger at Kentaro who was still spacing out more than actually spending attention and then he pointed at Ueda who was casually looking over at them at that moment while Kentaro also looked at him. A weird moment in which both looked away followed, Myuto giving Reo a knowing look and finally the boy started laughing.

“Right, never mind.”

“You have any training grounds?” Myuto asked and on that question Reo’s look showed a whole new level of excitement.

“Follow me!” He yelled and started running towards the lake, Kentaro having trouble keeping up as the other two had no problem with running this fast with the long legs they had compared to Kentaro.

“Welcome to the fun place,” Reo announced as he pointed at a river flowing down towards an open rocky area in front of the lake. The ground was burned and flipped over at several parts, showing that they were training in a quite serious manner.

“This will be fun for you two to train at the lake,” Myuto said with a smile, but Kentaro didn’t want to think about training right away. Not that he couldn’t deny that it would be the first time for him to have so much water to move around. But for now, he wanted a few calm days, just that.

Over the first day everything had been calm as all they had done was dividing the huts. Hokuto had offered Taiga to stay with him and his parents, but Taiga had kindly refused. For now he needed at least some time to think and luckily Kamenashi had realized that and had offered Taiga a small hut for himself. It was already pretty old and they wanted to replace it, but hadn't found the need and time yet. Taiga walked to the door the next morning, the wood making squeaking noises under his feet.

Taiga was up early, yet some people were already on the fields and he walked towards the cliffs first, looking down at the surprisingly deep water. There were no sharp rocks or high waves. The cliff was going perfectly straight down.

"You're up early, want to help out?" Hokuto asked as he approached the boy.

"If there is anything I can help with then yes," Taiga offered.

"Great, then you can help with feeding the animals later, but for now-"

Taiga looked in confusion when Hokuto got out of his shirt and put his shoes aside as well without another comment.

"What are you…" Taiga tried to ask, but Hokuto only gave him a smile and took a sudden run up to the cliffs, jumping off as if it was only a normal daily routine.

Taiga hurried closer and looked down with wide eyes, but Hokuto was waving at him from below. "Come down."

"Never," Taiga shouted down before he looked around, but no one seemed to have been worried of the other one jumping, so this was definitely something he regularly did, but the height was no joke.

"I can push you if it's easier," Wataru teased when he walked over to the cliffs.

"Don't you dare!" Taiga warned and made a step back from the edge.

"It's okay for you to have fun," Wataru said, making the boy fall silent. "Punishing ourselves for something that is in the past won't help anyone, you know?"

With a smile Wataru clapped him on the shoulder and left to help Miyata and the kids with getting ready to build the first new huts.

Taiga felt sorry for not immediately joining them, but no one gave him any judging looks. With a long sigh Taiga put his shoes aside and got out of his shirt, but he hesitated once more when he stepped towards the edge.

"Take a run up, it's easier," Hokuto shouted up to him.

There was so much going on in Taiga's mind that he didn't even find the concentration to tell his feet to run, but that was when he realized that he was indeed overthinking it. He couldn't even handle daily tasks right now. He couldn't concentrate on his abilities or training. Of what use was he to anyone if everyone kept worrying for him?

With another deep breath he cleared his mind and finally dashed to the front. The moment he jumped off the cliff his mind indeed felt finally empty for the first time, but then he realized that he had indeed jumped and would fall now, so after the first second of adrenaline rushing through his body, he let out a squeal while falling down into the water.

With a cough he broke through the surface, Hokuto immediately swimming over to him.

"Look that wasn't that bad, was it?" Hokuto teased and finally Taiga could show a smile again. He shoved water at the other one, Hokuto immediately laughing and trying to push the other one under water.

Taiga was laughing too much and swallowed water on the way, making Hokuto finally go easier on him and swim behind him to help him swim for a moment and cough the water out.

"How do we get out?" Taiga asked when he realized that in front of them there was no obvious way back up.

"Already done having some fun?" Hokuto asked, faking a disappointed expression before he dived under the water.

Taiga waited for him to get back up, but the other one didn't show up for quite some time, making Taiga worry. The next second though he was grabbed by the leg and pulled underwater.

Hokuto released him to give him the chance to get back up, but this time Taiga had been able to take a breath and he looked at the other one and Hokuto pointed down at the reef that lay a few meters underneath them.

They had to go back to the surface for another breath first, but then they moved down and Taiga was fascinated by all the fish and corals. Hokuto kept watching him from the side, obviously enjoying showing the other one around.

They finally had to go back to the surface after a moment, Taiga way more out of breath than Hokuto.

"Finally cleared your head a bit?" Hokuto asked and the way the boy still seemed to worry for him, yet tried to show a calm smile, made Taiga realize that he was indeed wasting everyone's time with his bad mood. His own time as well and finally he made the decision that for now he could choose to be happy just for once.

Instead of replying, Taiga swam a bit closer and took Hokuto by full surprise when he put his hands on the other one's face to pull him into a kiss.

Hokuto didn't hesitate to deepen the kiss and reach out for the other one's hair. While it was easy for Hokuto to swim even like that, Taiga had some trouble, but Hokuto pulled him closer, easily helping him to stay afloat together with him.

Their kiss was messy, but also passionate. The impatience in it was obvious on both sides and Hokuto wouldn't easily let the other one back off now that he had made the first step.

The shallow waves pushed them back towards the cliff and Hokuto only broke the kiss to pull Taiga a bit around the cliff side, finally their way back up coming into sight. A rocky surface like a natural staircase. Still hard to climb, but possible. Around it they were able to finally find a foothold and that was all Hokuto wanted right now as he pulled the other one on the rocks where they wouldn't need to swim anymore. With the next move he pushed Taiga with his back into the cliff wall. Not exactly gentle, but also not too rough for Taiga to handle. Hokuto showed the perfect balance of impatience and roughness while not overwhelming Taiga with it.

Taiga gave in to the next rushed kiss and let Hokuto lead it. Hokuto's hands went down to Taiga's exposed upper body and finally the other one also made the same move to explore with his hands.

Their pace was too fast that was for sure, but Taiga felt like he hesitated just a single moment then his mind would shut down again.

The moment Taiga pulled on Hokuto's pants the boy broke the kiss, but still remained close with their noses touching. "Are you sure?"

"Don't ask," Taiga said and searched for the other one's lips again. "Don't make me think."

That was a request Hokuto could easily follow and he hurried to get rid of his pants, throwing them towards the rocks so that they wouldn't get lost. Instead of letting Taiga move, he put his hands into the seam of Taiga's pants and pulled the boy against his body while moving his lips down to his neck. When he kissed his way down to his chest where the water was starting to get in the way he could feel Taiga's body shake against his lips.

With one deep breath Hokuto went underwater to pull the other one's pants away and he didn't lose much time to tease Taiga when he didn't get up immediately and put his hands around the boy's thighs instead, not directly touching his crotch, but getting close enough for Taiga's legs to feel weak.

Taiga's hand found Hokuto's hair to pull him back to the surface and Hokuto had barely enough time to throw Taiga's pants on a safe surface before Taiga pulled him a bit too roughly into their next kiss.

"We have duties to take care of today, right?"

Taiga's words meant that for now they had to hurry and as they were both impatient, Hokuto had nothing to put against that. He lifted Taiga up, making the boy close his legs around him and they already felt way too aroused by that body contact to delay things.

With another kiss Hokuto distracted Taiga when he started stretching the boy as this wouldn't be as pleasant as they wanted it to be if they had to rush this much. The water was helping, but it would still be difficult.

At some point Taiga broke the kiss and pulled himself more against the other one's body, trying to relax.

There was no way Hokuto would ask to delay this now after the other one was the one to ask in the first place, which didn't mean that he wouldn't adjust to his pace.

"Turn around," Hokuto said against the other one's ear and Taiga obeyed, turning towards the cliff walls, but Hokuto wouldn't give him much time to think as he put his hands around his body, Taiga slightly jolting when Hokuto finally dared to reach out for his erection. With a muffled moan Taiga reached out for the rocks in front of him, his hair already half hanging in the water when he leant to the front.

Hokuto pushed in slow, giving Taiga the time to adjust and while Taiga still remained tense, Hokuto started thrusting deeper while trying to distract him.

He pushed him even more towards the wall, placing a kiss on the back of his neck, resulting in another low moan. Taiga finally dared one hand away from the wall and moved it towards the other one's butt, making Hokuto chuckle a bit on the impatient groping.

When Hokuto gave the other one the first deep thrust he had to hold Taiga in place as the boy was slowly losing his foothold.

"Come for me," Hokuto whispered into the other one's ear while he now thrusted harder, Taiga unable to stop from moaning and he threw his head back on the boy's shoulder.

Hokuto gave the other one's erection another slow stroke before he put his lips on the boy's shoulder, but then moved closer to his neck, daring his tongue out before his teeth found his skin. The sensation overwhelmed Taiga way faster than he wanted to and he came first with another low moan.

Hokuto found release just seconds later through Taiga's way too sweet moans and he let out a long breath right next to Taiga's face when he froze in his movements and had to put one hand to the wall for support this time as well.

Just for a moment they remained like that before Hokuto carefully pulled out, but he felt the way Taiga flinched. The boy was good in overcoming pain, no matter if mentally or physically, but that was also why Hokuto looked at him a bit scolding when he pulled the boy around and pulled him in a short soft kiss.

"Next time we take more time for this, okay?" Hokuto said and Taiga gave him a shy nod, now back to his usual behavior after he had nothing left to keep his mind busy with and with his cheeks all flushed, Hokuto had to chuckle at him once more before he placed a kiss on his hair.

"Let's get dry for now?"

Taiga slowly nodded and finally dared to look up at the other one. He knew that there was no reason to feel embarrassed, but he somehow felt like a different person with Hokuto. A feeling of excitement, but also something he needed to explore more from now.

***

Their first night at the community had felt weirdly quiet, all of them tense about a sudden attack. They couldn’t trust their surroundings anymore, no matter how far off from any trails or city they were. Nevertheless their exhaustion had forced them to sleep in the end, but when Nikaido woke up, Taisuke wasn’t with him. They had gotten a place for themselves, a bit towards the outside of the community on Taisuke’s request as he was worried as so often that he could accidentally blow something up.

Nikaido got up and looked for the other one, finding him outside the wooden building. The other one was sitting on the edge of the small platform in front of their hut. Nikaido wasn’t fond of the place they had gotten as it was built up in one of the trees and the high place gave him anxiety. Yet he walked up to the other one and sat down, but he kept his legs up on the platform.

“Couldn’t sleep?” Nikaido asked, but Taisuke shook his head.

“There is no way I could have gone any longer without sleep,” Taisuke said, but it was obvious that the moment he had woken up he had immediately felt too restless to try and fall asleep again.

“Nakamaru said something about showing us the training ground today, right?” Nikaido tried to change the topic, but Taisuke couldn’t easily be brought out of his own thoughts. “You’re not feeling safe with me.”

“What? That’s nonsense,” Taisuke immediately replied and faced the other one with a scolding look.

“But you always trusted your brothers and friends with stopping you when you took it too far and now you’re not sure if you can control your abilities with them not being around.”

“You can stop me the best.”

“Yet, you still fear that you could hurt me while I do. I proved to you that I am fireproof against you, isn’t that enough for you to feel safe?” Nikaido asked, but Taisuke’s look remained gloomy.

“Hey you lovebirds,” Fuma shouted from the huts beneath them. “Come down, it’s time to kick some ass.”

“Let me translate that for you,” Massu said next to him. “Nakamaru asked us to get you to show us the training ground.”

“I said the same,” Fuma complained.

“Well, he did, just in his own language,” Nikaido laughed.

They got down to them to meet with Nakamaru, but Nikaido hadn’t even seen any open grounds around the forest the day before. The area had been forest for hours of walk so he wondered how far the training ground would be away.

“We have no water users in our community so we don’t have any river or lake at the training ground,” Nakamaru explained as he walked through the forest with the others.

“Do you have any emergency plan in case those two put everything on fire,” Massu asked and pointed at Fuma and Taisuke, both pouting on his words.

“Don’t worry, there is no way they will set anything on fire,” Nakamaru said as he walked through a slim path with some rocks, between a lot of vines. Then he suddenly stopped, making the others look at him questioningly. “We’re here.”

“If this is a joke I will explode,” Fuma said, but then Nakamaru pointed to the side. A rock blocked their view and when Massu stepped towards Nakamaru he let out a surprised sound.

“That’s an interesting choice for training.”

“What are you even talking about?” Fuma complained and walked over to them, but then he saw the entrance to a cave. There were some torches on the sides, showing that the entrance area was quite long and they couldn’t see the end of the tunnel.

“Definitely no place to set anything on fire,” Nikaido approved as they followed the other one inside. After a while they could hear voices and see more fire that didn’t come from one of the torches. A big cave was coming into sight at the end of the tunnel, with a handful of people training in it.

“Nice,” Fuma said in astonishment over the high ceiling and the size of the cave.

“Just make sure you’re not aiming for the ceiling please,” Nakamaru warned them.

Everyone looked at them on their arrival, but no one seemed annoyed by them joining. A few of them had already talked to them the day before and except for Nakamaru and two others, everyone was a fire user.

“So how is this going to work? Are we just training the same way as in the village?” Nikaido asked, but Nakamaru shook his head.

“I have something planned for you two later, so for now you’re dismissed.”

“Really?” Taisuke asked in disbelief, but Nakamaru seemed serious.

“Feel free to use the day as you like, I just wanted to make sure you know the place. I want you to come back right before sunset, okay?”

“Sure?” Nikaido said and gave Massu and Fuma a nod before they left the cave without delay as they obviously weren’t needed at the moment.

“Are you afraid that Taisuke could blow up the cave?” Fuma laughed.

“With what I have planned he could, so I want to try it later without everyone present.”

That honest reply had Fuma excited, but he knew that it wasn’t his place to ask to be present at that training.

“Massu, let me introduce you to those you’ll be training with, Fuma you wait here for a moment.”

The boy just nodded and waited. Massu talked to a few of the fire users and Nakamaru left him with them before he walked up to another boy who hadn’t trained actively when they had entered, but it also didn’t look like he was taking a break. He looked extremely concentrated even though he was only sitting and looking ahead. When Nakamaru talked to him the boy showed a charming smile before he nodded and got up. There was something about him that didn’t make him look like a fire user, so at first Fuma feared Nakamaru would pair him with a telekinesis user, but luckily he was wrong.

“Fuma, this is Kento, he is one of our best fire users. He will train with you.”

Kento looked at Fuma and gave him a scanning look from head to toe before he chuckled and put his hand up to his mouth like he felt embarrassed of his own reaction.

“Something funny?” Fuma asked, suddenly not sure if he would be able to train with the boy without punching some teeth out of that smile.

“My apologies,” Kento said as he immediately stopped smiling and gave the boy a small bow. “I just found it interesting to have a training partner like you.”

“Like me? Mind being a bit more precise with that?” Fuma hissed.

“The explosive kind,” Kento said.

“Oh, I can show you explosive if you’re so interested in seeing it,” Fuma challenged as he cracked his knuckles, but that reaction had Kento smile again and all Fuma wanted was to beat that smile off his face.

“Then go ahead,” Nakamaru said, making Fuma look at him in confusion. “What? You said you want to fight then go ahead, that’s what we’re here for. Let me see what you can do and see if your explosive behavior stands a chance against Kento.”

“Fine,” Fuma said and walked away from the entrance area towards an open spot at the back, not that they didn’t have enough space to have an entire war in here.

“I give you the first attack,” Kento said calmly as he waited with his hands behind his back, provoking Fuma even more.”

“I will make you regret that choice,” Fuma said and didn’t hesitate to make fire spread in front of his fists. He didn’t make the fire blasts too big so that he wouldn’t use too much energy right away, but the way Kento easily avoided all of them without even using his own fire, made Fuma get annoyed.

Instead of his fire he used his fists next, more than sure that he would easily break Kento’s cheekbone if the boy wouldn’t use his abilities this time, but somehow Kento was always faster than them. Smooth movements so fast that it seemed like he was moving before Fuma even was. Then he realized that this was indeed the case and he stopped attacking for a moment.

“Already done?” Kento asked in amusement.

“Are you that bad with your abilities or why are you not using them?” Fuma tried to provoke the other one, but Kento didn’t react.

“I use them when I need to use them.”

“Okay, then let me make this more serious,” Fuma said as he let fire spread around him this time, a move he didn’t use often as it took a lot of effort for him as he wasn’t as skilled in forming the fire the way he liked it. Ueda was the best at that, but for Fuma fire blasts were the easiest and most powerful attack. Yet he realized that with Kento he wouldn’t get far with them.

Kento took the next attack a bit more seriously when Fuma used the fire around him to shoot it at Kento at different sizes and angles this time, some of them combining in the air or lashing out like whips, making it more difficult for Kento to avoid them. But as a fire user Kento didn’t need to fear the attacks too much as they wouldn’t burn him, not that Fuma didn’t take pride when a fire blast finally hit the boy at the arm.

Kento pulled his arm back and clapped on the burning sleeve, as their clothes weren’t fire proof. Fuma gave Nakamaru a side glance on the first hit, but to his surprise Nakamaru seemed a bit worried as he looked at Kento.

The reason for that was obvious when Fuma looked at the boy and realized that a burn mark was visible on his arm.

“You get burned?” Fuma asked in confusion as he had seen the same happening with Taisuke, but for him to become that vulnerable for his own fire it had taken a lot of emotional damage. Kento just smiled when he looked at the new burn mark before he lifted up his shirt to show Fuma the side of his body.

“Just one of a lot, so nothing to worry about.”

Fuma was taken aback by the playful behavior the boy showed while his body was full of burn marks. Now he also realized that he was the only one training in long sleeves and a high neck shirt, even though it was quite warm inside the cave.

“So, what’s your next move?” Kento asked as he opened his arms, inviting Fuma for a next attack, but this time the boy hesitated.

“Do not get distracted by his disadvantage. Water and Telekinesis users are also getting burned and you trained with them until now as well,” Nakamaru reminded him and that was a fair point.

“If you don’t feel like attacking, then let me go first this time,” Kento said and the speed the boy used to create fire made Fuma jump back, but he could barely escape two fire blasts before the third one hit him right on the chest, taking him off his feet.

Instead of stopping his attack, Kento kept attacking, using something Fuma had never seen before when the boy lifted his leg to kick down towards him, but then fire spread around his leg and Fuma rolled away when the fire spread on the impact.

“What the actually fuck,” Fuma said impressed and the boy didn’t seem to be done as he took a deep breath, looking as concentrated as before as he stopped his movements for a brief moment before he turned to Fuma with an excited smile. The next second fire spread around his legs and arms, in a way Fuma had never seen it before. It wasn’t touching him, yet it looked like it was sheltering him from any possible attack.

“Enough of a challenge or are you still thinking I can’t take you on?” Kento challenged and this time Fuma chuckled as he let fire spread in front of his fists again. The boy had proven that he wasn’t afraid, so Fuma wouldn’t go easy on him.

“Don’t come crying later if I burn you again.”

“Good luck trying,” Kento said and they finally took the fight to the next level.

“There is seriously nothing else than forest,” Taisuke said after they had walked around the area for over an hour. No big mountains or any fields had crossed their path. Just two rivers and even those didn’t have any big riverside without trees.

“Definitely a good place to hide that is for sure,” Nikaido said as he looked up to the tall trees. “You want to turn around?”

“If we find the way back in this labyrinth of trees,” Taisuke said as he had left remembering the way to Nikaido from the very start.

After a few minutes of walking Nikaido had enough and pulled Taisuke back on the elbow, making the other one abruptly stop.

“What?” Taisuke asked, obviously irritated.

“There is no meaning in going back to the cave for training if you’re in this mood,” Nikaido said.

“Then what am I supposed to do? Just sit around until we all gather again?”

“Right as if you wouldn’t explode before that,” Nikaido replied knowingly.

“I would say I got pretty good at staying calm,” Taisuke said and crossed his arms to his chest, but pretending to be calm and actually being calm were two different things and Nikaido would prove him wrong.

With a determined look Nikaido stepped closed, shoving Taisuke back into the closest tree and the other one immediately changed his behavior as all the anger got replaced by an overwhelmed attitude when Nikaido put his hand on the other one’s face.

Nikaido only pulled the other one right to his face, but then stopped, Taisuke also immediately freezing in his movements.

“If you’re so calm then why are you trying so hard to keep your distance?” Nikaido asked and teased the other one as he didn’t quite kiss him yet, but took the other one’s bottom lip between his teeth for a brief moment. Taisuke closed his eyes on that move, but his movements were stiff and reluctant when he put his hands on the other one’s shirt, obviously not sure if he should push or pull.

“You said it yourself, everything is quite a mess and new to us, so-”

“Don’t make the others your excuse,” Nikaido warned him and pushed him even more into the tree, moving his leg between Taisuke’s and once more the other one tensed. “This is your own problem to fix.”

Taisuke had realized that as well of course, but behind all the anger and distance seeking was worry and anxiety he wasn’t fond of showing so he kept running away.

“Trust me,” Nikaido said as he put his hand even more demanding from the other one’s cheek down to his neck and this time he dared to pull the other one into a kiss.

Taisuke’s hand on the other one’s shirt immediately clenched into a fist while he tried to somehow relax and dared his other hand up to Nikaido’s neck, but the sudden tension in Taisuke’s body made him too anxious and he tried to pull away. Nikaido immediately put one hand over Taisuke’s hand and backed off just a tiny little bit.

The fire wasn’t visible yet, but Taisuke could feel it around his hand and he felt even more restless when Nikaido wouldn’t let him pull away. He felt more and more anxious about his own missing control.

“Gaya, breath,” Nikaido said against the other one’s lips and when he squeezed his hand over the other one’s slightly shaking fist, Taisuke could feel the familiar sensation of Nikaido stealing his abilities and with that his body finally relaxed a bit and he was able to take a shaking breath. “Look, everything is okay.”

Nikaido made the other one relax his hand and put it flat on Nikaido’s chest. The older one seemed surprised to find Nikaido’s heartbeat slow even after taking Taisuke’s fire into his own body.

“I can handle you without any trouble so now you only have to handle yourself,” Nikaido soothed the other one and after another moment of hesitation Taisuke finally dared to pull himself into another kiss, which turned even messier when he realized that he wouldn’t lose control that easily anymore now that Nikaido had not just taken away his abilities, but part of his irritation and anxiety with it.

Nikaido chuckled into the kiss at some point when Taisuke relaxed enough to throw his arms around the other one’s neck to pull himself into it even more.

“Good to know that you didn’t push me away this entire time because you didn’t like me anymore,” Nikaido teased when Taisuke finally let him go to take another deep breath.

“Idiot, why would I suddenly push you away after I was so afraid of losing you in that dumb city?” Taisuke complained and hit the other one against the chest.

“Well, you have mood swings, so I couldn’t be sure, could I? Especially when you deny that you’re feeling troubled and put the blame on everyone but yourself.”

“Shut up,” Taisuke said and pushed the other one a bit to the back just to pull him closer on the collar again for another passionate kiss. “Be happy that you can take my fire away or this would never work out.”

“Then let me show you how extremely well this can work when we’re done with our training,” Nikaido challenged and moved one hand around the other one’s back, but instead of stopping there he pulled him into another kiss the moment he let his hand vanish into the back of the other one’s pants, making Taisuke slightly flinch.

When Nikaido just retreated after that move and took a few steps back, Taisuke gave him a scolding look.

“What? You want to go for it before training? Fine with me,” Nikaido challenged, but Taisuke preferred their hut over the forest for that. But with that thought his expression turned towards gloomy once more. He had been more than proud of himself that he had even let someone this close, but he wasn’t sure how well he could handle his own emotions even with Nikaido calming him down with his power transfer. If the other one had to take even more fire on himself then it would put too much trouble and pressure on Nikaido.

“Don’t space out,” Nikaido said and made a few steps back to him, but this time he didn’t make any move as all he did was take Taisuke’s hand to make him start moving. “We have to concentrate on training for now, right? Who knows how much energy we will even have left after that?”

A positive point of their training actually and Taisuke nodded as he realized that the energy he would lose through the training could make everything even easier for them and he was willing to try as long as Nikaido was supporting him.

***

Myuto squealed and intuitively stepped behind Reo when the fire spread all over the place. Reo chuckled on that reaction and put up a wall of water in front of them while they watched how Ueda and Kentaro went way too serious for their first training the next day.

“Are they trying to kill us?” Myuto complained.

“More like each other,” Reo said. “But that’s also why they’re training without the others for now. We can join the regular training later if you’d like?”

“That depends on how they behave?” Myuto asked as he wondered if everyone in this community was as outraged as Ueda or overwhelmingly energetic like Reo, but the boy laughed and shook his head.

“Don’t worry, we will definitely be able to get you some training partners who are not trying to kill you.”

“Watch out,” Myuto said as he pointed to the front where Kentaro had now lost his patience after getting thrown into the lake. The wave he created to throw at Ueda would easily swallow them as well, but Reo stepped back and put his arm around Myuto.

“Hold on, but trust me you want to keep your eyes open,” Reo teased as he didn’t lift any water at all this time, making Myuto panic, but he froze and waited for the water to hit them, but then the flow was redirected when Reo put his hand up. Even though the wave had a crushing weight, Reo smoothly guided the water over them, Myuto looking at the water in awe.

“That was fun,” Reo said with a bright smile while Myuto worried for Ueda, but while the older one hadn’t been taken of his feet, he hadn’t been able to avoid the wave and he had ended up completely soaked and then they could hear Kentaro laugh while Ueda’s look showed something threatening, yet also slight amusement.

“Well, I guess they will be fine. Let me show you something,” Reo said and suddenly turned around, pulling Myuto away from the training ground towards the other side of the lake where a forest region started before the tall mountains.

“Where are we going?” Myuto asked, but Reo kept it a secret after they had finally reached the forest after a few minutes.

Myuto blinked in confusion when he spotted a path in the forest, but it wasn’t just a forest path, there were wooden lanterns at the side of it and at the end Myuto could see the wooden gate.

“Is this…?”

“A shrine, yes,” Reo said as he waved at him to follow. “Ueda built it with everyone after a while in the community. He said it would be great to have a place where everyone could retreat to with all their worries.”

“That is way more thoughtful of him than I thought he could be,” Myuto said and wondered how Ueda could show such extreme different sides.

Myuto was impressed by the details they had put into this place even though their resources were limited. The wooden lanterns had candles inside of them for the night, beside the gate was a small stone with a natural water stream putting water into it for the ritual cleansing before entering a shrine.

The shrine itself was still a bit further into the mountains, a small staircase and a stone path remaining between them and the shrine. When it came into sight, Myuto scanned the roof first, it looked simple, but it was easily recognizable as a shrine. When he looked towards the area in front of the shrine he saw someone standing in front of the building. A boy with long black hair, up in a high ponytail and while he had his back turned towards them, Myuto realized that he was praying.

He automatically stopped and Reo gave him a small smile on his consideration. In front of the boy a colorful rope was hanging down towards the ground, an already rusty bell under the ceiling connected to it. Inside the shrine Myuto could see different small containers alongside a handmade wooden buddha statue.

Before he could ask Reo about them, the boy turned towards them and seemed surprised to find someone else at the shrine.

“Hey, Konpi. You’re early today,” Reo said with a bright smile and the boy nodded as he walked up to them.

“I heard that Ueda wanted to train with you guys, so I thought I would go early in case he rips half of the training ground into pieces today,” Konpi teased.

“He already did that,” Myuto said, remembering the boy from a brief introduction when they had entered the community.

“So you decided to run, definitely the better option,” Konpi said with a smile before he excused himself.

“Konno Taiki,” Reo said when the boy had walked down the staircase. “You can call him Konpi. He is a telekinesis user.”

“Is he all by himself?” Myuto asked as he remembered that he had been on his own the day before as well.

“He was in this community already before Ueda came up here, the same as me. His grandfather fled the city with him, now he comes up here daily to visit him.”

Reo’s word had Myuto walk up to the shrine and look at the boxes around the buddha once more. “You lay them to rest here.”

“I thought it would be a good place for you to get some time for yourself sometimes?” Reo explained and Myuto was more than grateful for that thought. “I bet Ueda would also be more than willing to bring him up here.”

That was a thought Myuto was feeling even more emotional about, but for now he couldn’t even tell what their future would bring so he didn’t want to disturb the other one’s final rest if it wasn’t going to be a permanent place for him.

“Ueda will definitely not make us train today before the afternoon so take your time,” Reo said and stepped back, but Myuto turned around to him.

“Do you mind staying? Just if it doesn’t bother you of course, I promise I won’t take too long.”

“And even if you took the entire day, I am totally okay with accompanying you,” Reo said with a smile as he flashed the other one another smile and stayed a bit to the back when Myuto walked up to the bell, ringing it before giving his prayers. To his surprise Reo did the same in the back and gave his respects as well.

Just knowing that he had someone around who was supporting him this way, made him feel a bit more at ease. He had definitely chosen the right community to come to.

***

“Do not take all that water into my hut,” Ueda complained when Kentaro walked back with him after training, if it could be called that, because they had not really learned anything today, except where the limits of their abilities are, especially for Kentaro. Ueda was in such good control that he was never even seeming in any way exhausted, while Kentaro had overdone it to such a dangerous degree that Ueda had to get him out of the lake eventually after he had fainted inside the water.

“Fine with me,” Kentaro said as he stopped at the steps in front of it and concentrated on his abilities to actually make the water from his clothes flow to the ground. A new silly ability he had learned, but he still gave Ueda a teasing look. The clothes weren’t immediately dry, but at least he wasn’t completely soaked anymore, different to Ueda who gave him a scolding look now.

“What?” Kentaro asked, pretending to not know what Ueda wanted from him.

“You want to play it that way, okay,” Ueda said and got out of his shirt in front of his hut. Throwing it to the ground, followed by his boots and while Kentaro was more than amused by the situation and enjoyed it in the fullest, he didn’t see it coming that Ueda got out of his trousers without any hesitation as well and threw them towards Kentaro who had been so taken off guard that the wet clothes landed straight on his face.

Without another word Ueda walked into his hut with nothing but his underwear, but left the door wide open for Kentaro who was left speechless as he pulled the clothes from his face to put them on the ground next to the stairs. At first he hesitated, but as it was still in the middle of the day, a lot of people were walking around the community and when he heard people approaching he intuitively went inside the hut and shut the door.

Kentaro looked to the ground at first, but then he realized that he was acting ridiculous. He had been the one who had said it was okay for him to stay at Ueda’s hut and even his own brother had given him the chance to finally get the privacy he needed.

When a towel landed on his head he slightly flinched and the next moment Ueda rubbed it over the boy’s hair. “No matter if you’re a water user or not, you can still catch a cold through it.”

Kentaro had a teasing reply ready, but when he looked up, he immediately forgot what he was going to say. Ueda had put a towel over his shoulders as well, but other than that he hadn’t put any new clothes on.

“You should get changed too,” Ueda said as he touched the boy’s sleeve and while it was indeed not that wet anymore, it was also far from dry. Kentaro only nodded when Ueda went over to his cupboard to get some clothes out and that was when Kentaro realized that he was acting ridiculous indeed.

He hurried to get out of his shirt and put it up over one of the chairs so that it could dry, but once more he hesitated when he put his hands to the seam of his trousers. This time he didn’t just flinch, he jolted way more than needed when Ueda suddenly stood behind him and put his hands over his while he pulled him against his exposed upper body.

“Need some help?” Ueda asked over the boy’s shoulder, while Kentaro felt the heat crawling up his face.

The moment Ueda moved his hands to the side and pulled on the seam, Kentaro’s hands automatically grabbed the fabric with even more force. Ueda didn’t use the strength advantage he had, but he also didn’t let go and leant towards the boy’s ear instead.

“You can always tell me to stop, but if you don’t do so, then…” With that warning Ueda pulled once more and this time hard enough for Kentaro’s hands to lose the grip on the fabric and he froze in his movements while Ueda pulled the boy’s trousers to the ground.

With the next move he pulled Kentaro to the back, making him step out of them, but he wouldn’t make him turn around and that was for the better, because Kentaro still felt like he was behaving ridiculous, yet he couldn’t get himself to calm down. On the other hand, he also didn’t feel the need to tell the other one to stop.

The way Ueda put his hands up to the boy’s neck, made Kentaro shiver and he felt even more embarrassed when he couldn’t suppress a small sound when Ueda kissed the back of his neck. The chuckle he received in return made him finally relax a bit and he took another deep breath and finally dared to turn around.

His eyes immediately traveled to the floor once more, but he forced himself to look up. Bit by bit. At the same time he dared his hands out as he traced Ueda’s veins from his hands all the way up to his shoulders and when he finally dared to look up at the other one there was not much time for hesitation this time. If Kentaro wanted a slower pace he had to say it now and that pretty clear, because Ueda had already put his hands on the other one’s face to pull him closer. But this time Kentaro reacted the same and pulled himself into the kiss, slowly closing his arms around the older one’s shoulders, while Ueda fisted the boy’s hair, not even having to demand control over the kiss as Kentaro didn’t feel capable of thinking straight in the first place.

He couldn’t even tell what pace would be the best for him so he could only go with what Ueda had told him and tell him when something was not okay for him. But right now, he felt like he handled himself way better than a few moments ago and when Ueda broke the kiss just to lift Kentaro up to carry him to the bed, Kentaro even let out a chuckle, finally relaxing enough to be able to get into control of his own emotional mess.

“Remember that there is more training later today,” Kentaro warned the other one when Ueda didn’t seem to hesitate at all to test Kentaro’s limits as he pushed the boy down into the sheets.

“If you think you can exhaust me more than any training we’ve done so far, then I would call that more than overconfident,” Ueda replied.

“Let me try then?” Kentaro teased as he pulled the other one down for the next kiss and this time he moved his hands from the other one’s face, down to his chest, while Ueda needed to keep his hands more or less off as he was putting his weight on his elbows so that he was giving Kentaro enough space, but when he lowered his hips to trap the boy under him, Kentaro failed miserably in not letting out a moan into the kiss this time. When Ueda let out a chuckle into the kiss, Kentaro moved one hand up to the other one’s head, just to give him a scolding slap.

Their excitement grew through all the teasing and Ueda made a move to get the remaining clothes out of the way and while Kentaro didn’t want to tense, it wasn’t that easy to stay calm. But then Ueda moved his hand up to the boy’s face instead and deepened the kiss, trying to get his attention back. 

“Do you trust me?” Ueda asked and of course Kentaro nodded as he knew that as much as Ueda was known for going head first through every wall, he could also control himself perfectly when needed.

This time Kentaro didn’t tense when Ueda’s hands traveled lower once more. Kentaro put his hands to the other one’s back with more determined movements as well as he clawed Ueda’s back, finally making the other one let out a low sound himself.

It was that small moment though where something felt extremely wrong as Kentaro could feel the tension in his body returning against his will, but it didn’t happen because he felt overwhelmed with the situation. Ueda didn’t seem to have noticed at first as he didn’t break the kiss, but then Kentaro clawed his hands a bit too harsh into the other one’s back, making Ueda back off to look at him, but everything had happened too fast, without any obvious explanation and Ueda realized the change immediately.

“Are you alright?” Ueda asked soothingly when Kentaro’s breathing pace seemed a bit too heavy and then the boy pulled his own shaking hand up to his chest with a groan, closing his eyes. “Kentaro, what is going on? Talk to me!”

Ueda jumped up, trying to figure out what was going on, but there had been no injuries at their training and Ueda had also not used his power transfer. But that was when it clicked and he put his hand on the boy’s forehead as Kentaro kept groaning in pain without any obvious cause.

“No,” Ueda let out in realization of what was going on. Kentaro wanted to ask him what was going on, but he felt like he was going to faint, his heart racing and his vision blurry. He felt like someone had pulled every single bit of energy out of him.

Ueda rushed to get dressed and he only threw a blanket over Kentaro when he lifted him off the bed. Whatever was going on, needed to be explained by the other one later as Kentaro had to give up on staying conscious the moment they left the hut.

***

The fire spread between them before Taiga could stop it, not that he knew how to stop it yet.

“And another win for me,” Hokuto said as he jumped back from the fire at the last moment.

“Taiga, don’t think too much about attacking for now. Telekinesis works better as defense,” Kamenashi explained from the side.

The challenge was easily explained, yet more than hard to win for Taiga. He wasn’t allowed to use his fire while fighting against Hokuto, but each time he got cornered the fire just appeared.

“I am as bad as Taisuke in controlling my abilities,” Taiga let out with a sigh.

“If that was the case you would have put Hokuto on fire already,” Kamenashi soothed him with a smile. “Fire is usually harder to control than Telekinesis, that’s why I want you to focus on not using it for now. Your anger made you control it better than anyone else, so that is a huge difference to Taisuke. Now you have to learn how to control it while you’re not angry. Give it a few more tries and then call it a day.”

With that Kamenashi helped the others out with their training and Taiga looked up the high cliffs once more. The training ground was a few minutes’ walk from the community at a small area in front of the cliffs where a rocky surface gave them enough space to train until the high tide would swallow them.

“Shall I give you a better challenge?” Hokuto asked as he invited Taiga for another attack.

“You already share my bed, what else would you possibly want?” Taiga asked as he knew of course that Hokuto was trying to give him a similar challenge to the first one.

“This one has something pretty invitingly for you,” Hokuto said as he dashed to the front, only using his telekinesis to stop Taiga’s movements, while his attacks were simple kicks and punches, but Taiga got better in doing the same and not letting himself get stopped that easily.

Yet their fights usually only lasted a few seconds until either Hokuto would get the upper hand or Taiga would lose control of his fire abilities once more. This time though Hokuto challenged the other one even more and pressured him so much that he almost fell off the rocks to the back. At the last moment Hokuto reached out for his collar and pulled him back and with that move he pulled him into a short kiss, Taiga pushing him away with a scolding look.

“Shy as always,” Hokuto teased as he had realized that Taiga didn’t like it when he kept being too touchy in front of everyone, not that everyone hadn’t already caught up to what was going on. “But maybe this would also be a good challenge.”

“So that I am running away from your kisses instead of your attacks, really inventive I have to give you that,” Taiga replied teasingly as he wouldn’t actually mind that challenge. “But then what is in it for me?”

Hokuto showed an excited smile on that question and waved his hand, making Taiga attack first this time and he stood a good chance, making perfect use of his telekinesis until Hokuto overpowered him physically once more and with a curse Taiga jumped back, shaking off the fire from his fists. That small moment was enough for Hokuto to surprise him with another rushed kiss and this time Taiga licked his lips with an even more embarrassed expression as he realized that Kamenashi had seen them this time, but the older one seemed more amused than anything else.

Instead of continuing the fight, Hokuto pulled the other one closer and leant to the front. “If you succeed in landing a hit on me then I will give myself to you for the night.”

That was indeed an offer Taiga felt more than excited about, but not showing that excitement was also a challenge and when Hokuto backed off, Taiga needed to take a deep breath to calm himself down to be able to continue the training.

“So? Up for it?” Hokuto challenged and this time Taiga got ready to put all the control of his abilities into the training to win this challenge. Even if it could take days, he wouldn’t give up this time. There was no reason left for him to not accept Hokuto’s challenge.

”I don’t understand why we need any extra training again, we didn't do anything special yesterday,” Taisuke complained when he made it to the cave the next evening once more.

“Nakamaru wanted to analyze yesterday, that’s why. So better be prepared today,” Nikaido warned him.

“For what? It’s not like Nakamaru’s training methods seem in any way interesting.

“Well, he got Fuma to calm down his fire quite easily, that’s something no one of you managed to do so far.”

“He didn’t calm down. He just doesn’t want to burn that boy alive. I know how he feels,” Taisuke said and put one hand up to his neck where the second burn mark he had gotten from Tama still remained.

“But the idea to make him fight against such an opponent is helping him now with his focus,” Nikaido said when they entered the cave and to their surprise Massu was waiting with Nakamaru this time.

”I already don’t like this,” Taisuke said as he walked into the middle of the cave.

“Well then you won’t like the rest either trust me,” Nakamaru said straight forward. “But let’s not waste time with talking, because if we don’t try things out, I can’t tell you what is going to happen.”

“So you brought Massu in case something goes out of hand? What do you want us to try?” Nikaido asked.

“I want you to take all of Taisuke’s abilities.”

“Right, such an amazing idea. Shall I push a knife in his chest before or after we tried that?” Taisuke mocked.

“This might be even more dangerous for you than for him,” Nakamaru clarified.

“And yet no other Phenomenist with power transfer is present. Did you really think this through?” Taisuke asked.

“Well, I doubt anyone would even be able to get close to you if things really go out of hand, so no need for that.”

“So honest,” Nikaido said with a chuckle before he turned to Taisuke. “I think we can give it a try? If your abilities overwhelm me then I can still stop. I feel like I am pretty good at knowing my limits.”

“Great, then let’s try it,” Nakamaru said.

“Hey, I didn’t agree yet. You just said yourself that it could be even more dangerous for me, shouldn’t I agree first then?”

“You don’t get asked,” Nakamaru replied and when Taisuke wanted to complain, the founder gave him a warning look, which made Taisuke click his tongue in annoyance before he turned to Nikaido.

“Fine, it’s on you if anyone dies.”

“So dramatic today,” Massu laughed.

“Well, I agree with him on that one though,” Nikaido said as he grabbed Taisuke’s arm. At first everything happened as usual. Their power transfer was working perfectly smoothly especially after Ueda had trained with them for a bit as well. But then the point came where Nikaido knew that he would get overwhelmed by Taisuke’s abilities.

“Just concentrate on only the abilities. Don’t pull any other energy from him,” Nakamaru said.

Until now that problem hadn’t even crossed Nikaido’s mind as he had always only thought about calming Taisuke down or getting his fire to use is, but now that he concentrated on them, he could indeed feel the difference. Taking Taisuke’s energy was different from just taking his fire. With the other one always being worried for Nikaido he automatically threw his feelings into the mix and through that Nikaido always ended up pulling both types of energies from him. Now that he focused on it, he was able to only go for the fire and leave the rest with Taisuke.

What Nikaido hadn’t seen coming was Taisuke pulling away right before Nikaido thought he had taken almost all of Taisuke’s fire away. There was an almost panicked expression on his face when he pulled his hands up to his chest. He didn’t seem to be in pain, but he also didn’t seem fine.

“Taisuke, you have to get rid of all of your fire,” Nakamaru warned him, but Taisuke shook his head. “Well then.”

With a hand movement of Nakamaru, Massu suddenly jumped to the front, attacking Taisuke and Nikaido was left looking at them in confusion, but he felt that if he was going to interfere now that the fire inside of him would explode.

“You just keep that fire under control,” Nakamaru said as he pointed at Nikaido. “Don’t interfere.”

At first Taisuke just backed off, dodging Massu’s attacks, not getting burned anyway by the other one even if hit with a fire blast, but his body obviously wanted him to attack and his lack of control made him finally release the last fire he had been holding on to. Massu immediately retreated after that move and then they all fell silent, waiting for any reaction, but Taisuke only looked back at Nikaido with a lost expression as he had obviously expected something big to happen.

“What now?” Nikaido asked.

“Now we wait for a while,” Nakamaru said and they all waited for the other one to give any other orders.

“Taisuke, do you feel like any of your fire got restored?” Nakamaru asked and Taisuke wasn’t that sure as it seemed.

“Maybe a bit?”

“The bit you released towards Massu?” Nakamaru asked knowingly and the other one nodded as he felt like he could use one single attack, but not more.

“Is that weird?” Nikaido asked a bit alarmed.

“Usually if power transfer is used then the life energy as well as the abilities will get restored after a while,” Nakamaru explained.

“But your power transfer is different,” Massu added as he also realized what was going on.

“Different how?”

“If you had taken all of Taisuke’s fire instead and would release them, then Taisuke would never get his abilities back.”

“What?” Nikaido asked in disbelief, giving Taisuke a troubled look as he could see that the older one seemed more than terrified by that possibility. “But until now he always got all his abilities back no matter how much I took?”

“And he will this time as well, but it will take longer than if someone else with a regular power transfer took them or if he just released them all and fainted,” Nakamaru explained. “I talked about it with Ueda before. The reason you can only do this with Taisuke is because your ability is not really a power transfer, it is more of a stealing ability and it got activated the first time with Taisuke, so only if you stole his entire abilities then you could go on to someone else to do it again. This is all of course theoretical.”

“Wait,” Nikaido said, needing to even understand what the other one was saying. “Are you telling me that I could actually turn Phenomenists back into Infirm?”

“Yes,” Nakamaru said with a nod. “After everything I heard from the others about all the happenings and trainings, it makes sense. Especially because Taisuke automatically pulled back today before all his fire could be stolen. Every Phenomenist would react the same on your ability.”

“But why can’t I just do it with someone else? And I can’t keep the abilities, right?” Nikaido asked.

“That is most likely something related to the mutation of that abilitiy, the details I cannot explain, but you would only be able to use the ability the same way as you do right now. Of course if I am mistaken then you could turn into a fire user, but I highly doubt that. As long as you only steal bits, Taisuke will be totally fine. If you ever steal all of them, then your connection will fade and you will be able to use your ability with someone else.”

“So, I wouldn’t be able to give them back even if I don’t release them?” Nikaido asked, but Nakamaru didn’t seem to have a reply to that.

“You let us try something like this even though you knew I could have lost all my abilities?” Taisuke finally said.

“He would have stopped you before a complete transfer,” Massu said, having heard about the idea before the others had arrived.

“And what if you hadn’t realized in time? What if Nikaido’s ability would have been faster?” Taisuke asked, slowly getting angry.

“That is a what if question that didn’t happen so let’s be happy that it didn’t come to that,” Nakamaru said, but Taisuke walked up to him with threatening steps, Nikaido stopping him before he could pick a fight.

“Let’s all calm down for now, okay? Let me try something for now,” Nikaido said as he put his hand back on the other one’s arm. “Help me to give your abilities back. Let’s see if it works? We won’t find out if it works with all your abilities, because I will never dare to steal them all, but let’s see if I can give them back instead of releasing them?”

Taisuke nodded and put his focus on Nikaido, using his own power transfer to try and get his fire back.

“Try it the same way Nakamaru said, don’t focus on life energy, but on the fire itself,” Nikaido said and also tried to focus on giving instead of stealing and to their surprise it worked. Taisuke could feel his own fire restoring while Nikaido felt how the pressure in his chest got less.

“Interesting,” Massu said. “I wonder if you could give the fire to someone else as well if you stole them all.”

“That is a really interesting thought,” Nakamaru said, but was of course met with two death glares. “Which doesn’t mean that we will try that. For today you are dismissed.”

***

Instead of waking up calmly as he’d usually do after using too much of his abilities or getting his energy drained after a power transfer, Kentaro felt like he had just been dragged out of a pitch black hole and he flung his eyes open with a gasp, his body jolting before he sat up, feeling like suffocating if he stayed down.

The hut he was in wasn’t Ueda’s that was immediately obvious to him, but it also seemed to be in the middle of the night and only a small fire at the fireplace showed him his surroundings.

There was a bed on the other side of the small hut and Myuto was deeply asleep on it. Then Kentaro realized that he was lying in a bed as well and at the end of it he found Reo half lying on it after he had obviously given up on sitting on the chair next to it.

Kentaro felt like scolding the boy for not just sleeping at someone else’s place and he was sure that Myuto had definitely offered to switch with him or share his bed, but now he looked so peaceful in his cat-like position so Kentaro didn’t want to wake any of them up.

He felt okay enough to get up and while he felt a bit dizzy, he was sure that he could walk without problems. As quiet as possible he got dressed as he realized that Reo had put his clothes next to him.

The entire community was quiet at this hour, the moon and stars showing Kentaro that he had indeed woken up in the middle of the night, but he didn’t feel like going back to sleep, not that it had been just a harmless sleep he had gotten and because of exactly that reason he needed explanations and even though the hour was late, he needed them now.

He wasn’t even angry that Ueda had let Kentaro stay with the boys after whatever had happened, he could understand that whatever worried the older one wasn’t making it easy for him to have Kentaro around. But exactly that fact made Kentaro worry even more about what had happened. One ‘what if’ scenario after the other haunted his mind and he needed to shut it up so he finally stopped in front of Ueda’s door, quietly knocking as he didn’t want to just enter at this time of the day. Yet he wasn’t surprised that Ueda had obviously not been sleeping and opened the door way faster than he thought.

“Let me guess, you told Reo to let you know when I wake up?” Kentaro asked, because Ueda’s look had immediately changed when he saw that it was Kentaro and not Reo. “He is asleep, so is Myuto and I didn’t want to wake them up. Am I allowed in or…?”

Ueda stepped aside and let the boy in, both of them sitting down at the table without talking for a moment. The look on Ueda’s face was so difficult for Kentaro to interpret, so he wasn’t sure what to say or ask.

“Are you going to tell me what happened?” Kentaro finally let out as he wasn’t sure what else to ask.

“I lost control,” Ueda replied simply, but of course he wasn’t leaving it at such a short explanation, yet it was obvious how hard it was for him to find any words. “My power transfer is my strongest ability. I am usually always in perfect control of both of my abilities, but if I wanted to then I could use my power transfer to such an intensity that I could immediately strip even Taisuke of all his abilities.”

“Which also means you can take all the life energy at once,” Kentaro immediately guessed as he had already feared that something like this was at fault for what had happened, but because it was Ueda he had thought it would be impossible, the older one had indeed extremely overflowing abilities, but he was also perfectly in control of them, until now.

“But, can your power transfer take even more? You know…could it…?”

“Kill someone, yes,” Ueda replied without any outright and this time he finally looked up at Kentaro after facing the table the entire time. But his look showed so much hurt, so much disappointment in himself.

“But if you train it then it should be fine, right?” Kentaro asked, trying to see the positive side of it.

“This is not something where you walk away with a burn mark that can be healed,” Ueda warned the boy, now his look turning to scolding. “It was an instant moment of control loss and I didn’t even see it coming in any way. I can’t even explain why it happened or how I could stop it from happening.”

“That is why we need to try or we won’t figure anything out,” Kentaro replied as he didn’t want to just throw everything out of the window. “I am fine, aren’t I? Even if your powers could indeed kill someone, I trust yo-”

“Don’t say that,” Ueda interrupted him and shook his head. “You cannot trust me. I can’t even trust myself.”

“I just fainted, why do you think it could turn out worse next time if we don’t try it? Maybe you can easily figure it out next time.”

“You didn’t just faint,” Ueda said as he leant back on the chair with a troubled expression.

“What do you mean? I feel fine, still a bit tired, but that’s it. My abilities didn’t even seem to have been affected.”

“Three days.”

“What?” Kentaro asked, not understanding what Ueda meant.

“You were unresponsive for three days,” Ueda explained and this time Kentaro had nothing else to say anymore. “You didn’t just faint and sleep the exhaustion off. Your body was fighting for its life over these past three days.”

Minutes of silence fell between them, but then Kentaro slowly shook his head. “I don’t care.”

“Kentaro-” Ueda started, already rolling his eyes on the boy’s stubbornness, but to his surprise Kentaro leant to the front and slammed his fist on the table.

“I mean it! Yes, you lost control and I won’t deny that knowing about what happened and what else could happen, is scaring me, but that doesn’t mean that I will just let you run away now and retreat from me.”

Ueda closed his eyes with a sigh, but didn’t interrupt Kentaro as it was obvious that the boy would definitely start yelling if he did.

“You burned me and almost drowned me to get my abilities to fully awaken and while you knew that I would be able to heal myself afterwards, you still took the risk that I would not forgive you. So let me tell you that if you dare give up on us now, I will indeed hate you for good this time.”

Kentaro’s voice hadn’t been steady at the end anymore and he stood up in a hurry, aiming for the door without looking back, but he stopped once more before he left.

“If you fear hurting me this much, then let me tell you that it will hurt me way more if you leave me behind like this. I will await your reply tomorrow at the training ground, but if you’re not willing to fight for us then I will leave this community tomorrow night.”

Heavy words and Kentaro needed a moment to calm down after he had left the hut. He had started crying the moment he had walked outside and then he had started running towards the lake, unable to contain his sobs anymore.

He was as scared as never before, but not just because of Ueda’s power transfer. He didn’t want to leave the community. He didn’t want to feel this lost, but he had to speak his mind and there was no way he could stay if Ueda would put a glass wall between them, pretending as if they had never made this one step closer to each other.

***

"Take him serious, Fuma," Nakamaru warned and before Fuma could even complain, Kento had moved faster than him as so often and landed a pretty hard fire kick right over the boy's chest.

Massu let out a whistle on the attack as he was also pretty impressed by the boy's control.

"He's almost as good as Ueda with his fire," Massu said.

"I'd go as far and say he's even better, but their way of controlling the fire is completely different."

"And he has the disadvantage of getting burned," Massu added.

"And running out of stamina too fast," Nakamaru added when Kento stumbled a bit to the back, but until now he had always been fast enough to win against Fuma before he felt too dizzy, yet Fuma wasn't fighting with all his strength.

"If Fuma fought him the way he fights with me and the other Phenomenists I wonder who would win," Massu asked while Kento walked up to Fuma and helped him up after the boy hadn't even bothered getting back up and lay flat on the ground instead.

"That's exactly why I chose Kento," Nakamaru said, Massu giving him a questioning look.

"Fuma would most likely win through brutal strength and the better stamina, but I need him to understand the control of his own abilities more so that he can use it even better."

"So, learning how to fight seriously yet not overdo it is something that will be the easiest for him with Kento," Massu understood. "And he can make a new friend like this too."

Nakamaru chuckled and shook his head. "Kento is nice to everyone, but trust me, making Kento his friend will be even harder for Fuma than fighting seriously against him."

"Did he have a bad past with someone?" Massu asked and he wasn't surprised when Nakamaru nodded.

"He was pretty young when he got his abilities and not many Phenomenists had been discovered at that time. Some of them had been seen as monsters and had been immediately killed. Kento wasn't in the city at that time, yet his fate could have been the same if his abilities hadn't protected him one last time on that day."

Massu felt a lot of rage building up inside of him, hearing about families and friends who couldn't support someone close to them after becoming a Phenomenist. He himself had been alone since a young age and luckily out of the city when he got his abilities, but not everyone had that much luck. "His family burned their house down?"

Massu had only guessed, but he had been right and Nakamaru's look darkened. "He shares the same dark past as Fuma, yet they dealt with it in completely different ways. Maybe

If Kento dares to let someone get close again then they can help each other with more than just their abilities."

***

"Don't you dare kick that chicken."

The warning came unexpectedly and made Taiga stop after he had kept running away from one angry chicken chasing him. Not that he had done anything bad. He had only run out of food to give and somehow that one chicken took it personally.

"Why would I kick it? I'm trying to shake it off," Taiga said as the chicken caught up to him and this time Taiga jumped behind Hokuto who threw the animal the remaining food he was holding on to so that it finally stopped.

"Just a warning as I've once done that and the other chicken chased me down to the cliffs because of that."

Taiga thought he was joking, but Hokuto seemed more than serious, finally making Taiga laugh.

They had been feeding the animals around the community in the early morning and headed back when they saw Kamenashi talking to two Phenomenists who then left towards the forest.

"They're discussing the timing already," Taiga let out with a sigh. They wouldn't be able to just hide from the city, but over a week had already passed and they needed a new plan.

"They will take at least another week to make it back after discussing with the other two communities, so let that be a problem for later."

"Maybe I should have told Kamenashi before they left."

The gloomy expression had Hokuto hit the other one on the shoulder, but of course he understood his worries.

"Again a problem of your future self. If you want to tell him, just do it. I told you so often that I'll go with your decision. But for now-"

Hokuto pushed Taiga down towards the training ground area without letting the other one complain.

"We train."

"But we didn't even have breakfast yet," Taiga pouted, making Hokuto laugh.

"Even better. Like this you've something to fight for."

"Oh, I do have something to fight for already," Taiga reminded the other one as their challenge was still on.

"Maybe on an empty stomach you'll finally stand a chance?" Hokuto teased and Taiga hurried to the training ground even faster as he was indeed now double motivated to get the training done and he wasn't the only one with an empty stomach after all, so he set his goals high to finally win this challenge!

***

Kentaro knew that he wasn't giving Ueda much time to think everything through, but he didn't want to wait until the evening, because everyone would ask him about what was going on.

He hadn't gone back to Reo's hut and was sitting at the lake until the sky slowly turned blue.

To his surprise someone else saw him at the lake before Ueda, not that he could be sure that the other one was even going to show up. In silence Konpi walked up to him and sat down. They hadn't spoken much until now, only trained a bit with each other, but the boy seemed to be good at reading people's emotions.

"How are you feeling?"

"Better," Kentaro simply replied.

"You want to talk about it?"

"I wouldn't even know where to start," Kentaro said honestly and moved his fingers through his hair.

"Ueda was in such a panic when he brought you to our community doctor. I've never seen him this worried," Konpi said as he was one of the few who had actually seen them right after.

"Did he…?"

Konpi immediately shook his head. "No, Ueda didn't let us know what happened. I also didn't tell anyone that I saw you. I knew you two needed to figure that out by yourselves, but that doesn't mean I'm not willing to listen if you want to talk."

Kentaro chuckled at those words, making Konpi look at him questioningly.

"You just reminded me a lot of one of my friends who is in another community right now. Thank you for the offer that's really nice of you. Can I ask what Ueda told you?"

"He just said that there was an accident with his power transfer. But the other boys asked me to check on you and I could tell that whatever happened was more than a small overdoing at some training."

"Yeah, I wish it was that easy," Kentaro said and stared ahead to the river for a moment. "Do you think it's egoistic to ask someone to challenge their abilities if they could hurt someone with them by accident?"

"If you're the one who could hurt someone then maybe? But if you're the one who could get hurt then I wouldn't call it egoistic. You take a risk and the other person definitely doesn't easily approve of that, so you should consider that person's feelings as well."

Kentaro was surprised how serious the young boy thought about the question and how easily he had caught up to the situation. But then Konpi stood up and gave him a small clap on the shoulder.

"You'll figure it out, it's not like you've to rush anything, right? Just make sure to understand each other."

With that the boy walked off towards the forest area at the other side of the lake for another shrine visit.

Deep in his thoughts Kentaro kept looking at the water until the first sunbeams made it over the mountains.

He kept playing with the water, making it move forth and back, letting it form an armor around his arm before he pulled it up to his face. "It would be so much easier if you could help to protect me from power transfers as well."

But of course, the water couldn't and as long as he wouldn't suddenly discover any power transfer himself, he needed to burden Ueda with finding the control over his own ability.

When Kentaro dropped the water and looked over his shoulder his chest suddenly felt heavy. He felt relieved about Ueda walking up to him, but he hadn't heard his answer yet. He got up and turned to the other one with his heart racing as he was afraid of the possibility of having to leave the community. Not that he hadn't made that decision himself. He could still just stay in the community as Ueda's pupil, but that thought made him immediately feel even more uneasy.

Ueda stopped a few steps away from Kentaro, putting his hands into his pockets, but luckily he didn't avoid looking up at the younger one.

"So?" Kentaro asked as he didn't want to talk around the topic. He had made his point clear.

"I want to send you away."

The words came so sudden that Kentaro couldn't even feel angry, hurt or anything else, but something about Ueda's expression told him that he didn't have to freak out yet.

"To keep you safe I really want to send you away. Just using my abilities as usual at training will be a tough challenge from now on, but letting you leave and accepting defeat is something I cannot do. Not with you."

Now Kentaro's heartbeat calmed down a bit as this was exactly what he had hoped to hear.

"I accepted you as my pupil after I didn't think you could even learn half the abilities Reo has. Now I'm the one who has to relearn how to control my own abilities, but for that I need to ask you once more if this is really what you wish for. You could get hurt even more badly than before and if the worst case happens then-"

"Then we will deal with it at that time," Kentaro interrupted the other one and stopped right in front of him. "Just don't let us walk back a path we already know. We have one single problem to fix, nothing else."

Kentaro's words made Ueda realize what he meant as the boy hadn't reached out for him, but waited for Ueda to give his final reply. Tiptoeing around non-existing problems wouldn't help them and Ueda knew that. Still the worry was slightly visible when he reached out for Kentaro's face. The boy hurried to put his own hand over his so that he wouldn't just pull away.

"Only one problem," Kentaro repeated and this time Ueda relaxed a bit as he was aware that his ability control was able to handle at least this much so he finally leant in for the kiss Kentaro was demanding as a final reply.

They kept it slow and passionate, Kentaro letting the other one decide the pace and he didn't complain when Ueda pulled away first.

"Look, no problems here at all," Kentaro said with a smile.

"Great, then get ready for training," Ueda said as he stepped back, making Kentaro blink at him in a loss of words.

"What? You said last night that you're fine, didn't you? And training is also no problem, as you just said yourself."

"But, I- I didn't even sleep…"

"That's on you," Ueda said and waved his hand, walking casually back towards the community. "Wake up Reo and Myuto. Meet me here in half an hour."

Kentaro shook his head as he looked after the other one, but then he formed a smile and dashed after him, jumping on his back, making Ueda almost stumble as he scolded the boy loudly before he also started laughing, allowing the boy to get carried back to the huts.

Taisuke had stayed mad at Nakamaru for days, making things even more complicated for Nikaido as the older one was now refusing to try any power transfer at all.

"Let's call it a day," Nikaido said as he turned around without even waiting for Taisuke's reply. They had taken on one of the patrols around the community, but with the thick forest and hidden traps that would warn them of people approaching they didn't have to walk too far.

Taisuke followed without any complain, but that was also what made Nikaido so angry and he clicked his tongue in annoyance as he stopped once more and turned back towards the other one.

"What?" Taisuke asked.

"Would you finally snap out of it?" Nikaido almost yelled as he had had enough. From one day to the other Taisuke's usual energy and aggression had vanished and got replaced by a depressive state and Nikaido just couldn't handle him like that after they had finally found a way to actually use the power transfer to calm Taisuke down.

"Oh, my apologies for being afraid of losing my abilities," Taisuke hissed back, but the attitude was something Nikaido could handle better. Maybe for once they needed to have another fight.

"Why would I ever take all your abilities? It could have happened by accident before when we still didn't know, but I'd never dare to take them all."

"And who says that it could still not happen by accident?" Taisuke replied, now his snappy attitude back.

"Who of us is the one with the bad power control? You have power transfer as well, so technically you can stop me from stealing your abilities if you finally get a hold of that ability, but oh wait, you refuse to train so never mind."

Nikaido gave Taisuke a judging look and the other one showed him a dangerous glare that he hadn't seen for a while.

"Am I wrong?" Nikaido asked, provoking the other one even more. "Trying to protect your friends and family by staying away, playing it all so safely and heroically, but now that there is a way that could actually get rid of those dangerous abilities, you're playing egoistic and want to protect them. Seems like you're the most important person to yourself after all."

This time Nikaido had made the other one snap and he had barely time to step back before fire spread between them, Taisuke clenching his fists in anger.

"Look, as always you're out of control," Nikaido yelled at him. "How will you ever protect anyone other than yourself in that state?"

Nikaido felt like he was overdoing it, but he needed Taisuke to finally snap out of it.

This time Taisuke tried to control his anger, but when he failed, he screamed and fell to the ground, the ground cracking when the fire spread through the ground. Luckily the plants around were all still wet from some light rain the night before or Taisuke would have set the entire forest on fire.

Nikaido made a step towards the other one, but Taisuke lifted his arm, throwing more fire into the air. Now tears of anger were visible in his eyes as he hated showing this side of himself to others, but that was exactly what Nikaido needed him to do.

"Stay away," Taisuke hissed when Nikaido didn't stop and he tried to stop him with more fire, but the other one kept going.

"Idiot, stop!" Taisuke shouted as Nikaido ran right into the fire, but then Taisuke was left speechless when Nikaido stepped right in front of him with only some burned clothes, but no obvious injuries. Nikaido was after all fireproof against Taisuke’s fire, unfortunately not towards others.

When Nikaido crouched down to the other one, Taisuke had run out of energy and couldn't attack wild around him anymore. Yet he tried to pull away when Nikaido reached out for his hand. But the younger one wouldn't let him pull away and he grabbed the other one's hand tightly with both hands.

"Gaya, look at me!"

Reluctantly the one in question looked up, but his look was hard to interpret. He was angry, but also scared and disappointed in himself.

"Show me that you can be in control. Take what you need," Nikaido offered and first Taisuke shook his head, but Nikaido only tightened his grip until Taisuke took a shuddering breath and used his power transfer to steal some energy from Nikaido to not faint.

"Look, you can use it. Now let me use it."

Taisuke immediately tensed when Nikaido took back just a tiny little bit of that energy.

"Look, the remaining fire in you are still there. I didn't touch it. If you want me to stay around then you need to trust me."

Slowly Taisuke nodded, but he still seemed extremely shaken. "I know that I can hurt people with my abilities," he finally explained. "But I can also protect them."

"I know," Nikaido said with a smile. "I know that your reason for not wanting to lose your abilities is that you can protect others with them, even when things turn dangerous sometimes. But I still needed you to understand that I'm here to help you with that and not to steal your abilities. I'm not your enemy."

The small change in Taisuke's look showed that he was indeed troubled over the small part of him that still couldn't trust people and with Nikaido having the ability to steal his abilities and even turn him back into an Infirm, his emotions had gotten the best of him.

"Let's keep trying? Even if it's only bit by bit. We will manage, okay?"

Taisuke nodded and tried to see the positive side of Nikaido's power transfer, but it would take a lot for him to trust him completely even after everything they had gone through.

On their way back to the community they didn't talk much, but they promised each other to keep training with the others.

"Who's that?" Nikaido asked when they made it to the outskirts of the community and saw someone walking towards it from close to them, but the way he had made it until here without anyone getting suspicious, made them both calm down. Especially when they saw Nakamaru walking up to him after someone had told him that the man was approaching.

"He's from Kamenashi's community, I think?" Taisuke guessed.

"So, we're going to start moving soon. However, that is going to look like," Nikaido said and gave the other one a worried look.

"Which means we need to get our stuff sorted out fast, let's go!" Taisuke said and took the other one's wrist to pull him towards the caves.

Nikaido gave him a proud smile as he wanted the older one to finally show exactly this determination.

***

As always Reo easily stopped ever attack on him, but this time Myuto and Konpi had come up with a plan and instead of Reo's water shielding him, it suddenly attacked him.

With a yelp Reo stumbled to the back, surprised about the sudden use of the boys' telekinesis in that way.

But they didn't stop there, Konpi had found the opening to turn Reo's water against him and now Myuto had found another opening to throw Reo straight into the lake. Not that for Reo that seemed like a dangerous move as he could breathe underwater the same as Kentaro, but once more the two boys moved differently from their other training and jumped after him, forcing the air around him to move away, leaving Reo with no option than to get back to the surface.

"Really impressive," Reo said as he stood on the water. "But here you messed up."

The boys looked at each other in confusion, but different to Reo they wouldn't easily be able to get out of the water so Reo could use the water with such force against them that their telekinesis wouldn't be able to keep up.

"Okay stop! We give up!" Myuto yelled after he could barely make it back to the surface.

"Thought so," Reo said and stretched out his hand towards Myuto who gave him a confused look. "If you trust me then I can pull you up."

Myuto was still not sure about it, but he let the other one try and to his surprise he was able to step on the water next to him. But it felt extremely weird and he put one arm around Reo's shoulder, afraid that he could just fall back into the water.

"Even if I let you drop, it won't hurt. It's just water," Reo laughed, but put his hand around the other one's waist to push him to move. "You can walk back to the shore with me. Just relax."

"Easier said than done," Myuto said as he looked at Konpi who had made it back to the shore by himself, but now he gave them a challenging smile.

"Don't you dare!" Myuto yelled at him, but Konpi was already using his telekinesis to interfere with the water movement and while Reo didn't even care, Myuto started panicking on the waves and clung even more to Reo.

Eventually he lost his trust in the other one's ability and Reo had to let him drop, but Myuto had pulled him down into the lake when he fell.

Reo broke through the surface laughing, while Myuto looked a bit embarrassed about panicking this much.

"Don't worry, that happens a lot," Reo teased as he clapped the other one on the shoulder. "It's not easy to put your trust into someone."

Myuto looked after Reo as he swam back to the surface, but somehow he felt worse about that statement than he wanted to. He knew that Reo didn't mean it in a bad way, but Myuto felt like he tried to disconnect from everyone on purpose and weirdly especially from Reo.

***

The door of Taiga’s old hut almost didn’t manage to stay in its angles when Taiga harshly pushed it open just to slam it right back shut after he had dragged Hokuto inside. With his next move he risked it breaking completely when he pushed Hokuto into the old wood that made a dangerous squeaking sound.

“Careful or you will have to move in with my parents from tomorrow on,” Hokuto teased, but Taiga was too impatient to be careful. Finally he had won their bet! Like a miracle he had suppressed using his fire and used his telekinesis well enough to actually land a hit on the other one. Only a small punch, nothing special, yet that was everything he had needed. Training seemed to have taken forever after that until Kamenashi had finally let them leave.

“I am not trying to destroy my bed, not that I would mind,” Taiga teased and when Hokuto made a move to step to the front, Taiga pushed him back into the door, followed by a rushed kiss and his hands already on Hokuto’s clothes.

“If you weren’t this impatient you could enjoy this way more,” Hokuto said, but Taiga only gave him a challenging look after he had thrown both their shirts to the ground and pulled Hokuto closer on the seam of his pants.

“Trust me I am enjoying it this way to the fullest as well.”

Hokuto smiled into the next kiss, but didn’t complain when Taiga pulled him towards the bed and smoothly got rid of their remaining clothes before shoving Hokuto a bit too harshly on the bed, making another part of his hut almost break.

“Are you going to rush this as well or am I getting some service here?” Hokuto asked as he let his hands move around Taiga’s back, down to his legs with a challenging look.

“That depends on how rough you like it,” Taiga challenged back, obviously enjoying this way more than Hokuto had expected.

“Dangerous question,” Hokuto teased back and moved his hands back up to Taiga’s face before he fisted his hair and pulled him harshly down into an impatient kiss. “But are you really sure that you can satisfy my needs?”

The shine in Taiga’s eyes immediately changed and the way he impatiently shifted his body weight showed that he would take that challenge more than seriously. Hokuto had just given him a dangerous okay to take the rough way and Taiga would gladly give him that satisfaction.

“Don’t dare stop me halfway then,” Taiga said as a last warning and Hokuto only thrusted up his hips on those words before he pulled Taiga down into another way too messy kiss.

Taiga didn’t even bother breaking the kiss and while he felt overwhelmed already, he managed to not thrusting in as rushed as his body was telling him to.

Hokuto’s body immediately tensed, but the younger one didn’t break the kiss. His body arched more and more with the first thrusts Taiga took and while he moved indeed more careful than he thought he would be able to, Hokuto let out the first few low moans into their kiss and clenched his hands into the sheets to calm his own movements down.

But when Hokuto had relaxed a bit more, Taiga finally dared to move more to his own satisfaction and this time Hokuto finally broke the kiss on the first deep thrust he received. Taiga let out a chuckle next to the other one’s ear, more than happy about the way Hokuto wasn’t able to stay as calm as he wanted to be.

When Hokuto clawed the other one’s back, Taiga responded with deeper thrusts and this time he let out a long breath next to Hokuto’s ear before he moved his mouth down to the other one’s neck, causing Hokuto’s entire body to shiver when he bit down on the exposed skin.

Taiga didn’t miss the way Hokuto’s hands moved away from his back, but he immediately reached out for Hokuto’s wrists and brought them both up over the other one’s head.

He backed off just enough to be able to look at the other one and the annoyed look he received made him smile.

“What? You really thought I would make it this easy for you?” Taiga asked as he leant in for another kiss, but kept it short this time as he pulled back to bite on the other one’s bottom lip the moment he started thrusting more desperately. Hokuto’s moans were turning sweeter now, closer to the pleading noises Taiga wanted to hear, but he needed to make sure to not satisfy his own needs first, so he slowed his thrusts down, enjoying the shivers he got through his teeth and tongue finding the boy’s collarbone and chest.

He kept a tight grip on Hokuto’s wrists with one hand while his other hand traveled to the boy’s lower stomach, but he didn’t move deeper. He was aware of the fact that Hokuto could at any time turn the tables if he wanted, but the fact that he stood by his word and let Taiga enjoy his won challenge made him get even more excited.

“Shall I play nice?” Taiga whispered next to the other one’s ear, but at first Hokuto didn’t reply. His pride stood in the way of the words he wanted to say, so Taiga only let out a chuckle and moved his hand to the side of the other one’s thigh, making Hokuto’s moan turn into a whine. “I can go on without you if you want.”

Another outcome that was indeed close as Taiga needed to keep himself calm as well, but luckily he had won the game already and this time Hokuto searched for the other one’s lips for a short movement before another impatient thrust of the older one made him throw his head back with an erratic breath.

“So?” Taiga asked again, biting the other one on the chin line.

“Please,” Hokuto finally let out and that one single word had Taiga’s body in a way too excited state already. He wanted to tease more, to make him say more, but he was unable to hold on.

With a swift movement Taiga moved his hand around Hokuto’s erection and dared to take a few harsher thrusts as he knew that they would both barely last a few more seconds.

To his surprise it was Hokuto this time who moved his lips away and bit Taiga so harshly on the neck that Taiga wasn’t sure if he had moaned or screamed when he had come, while Hokuto fell back with a moan as well right after.

Taiga was barely able to keep himself up above the other one, but Hokuto made it easier for him as he easily freed his wrists now and pulled the other one down on his chest, allowing Taiga to rest.

“Was it worth the bet?” Hokuto asked after a few moments of them trying to calm down. Taiga slid a bit to the side so that he wasn’t putting all his weight on the other one, but he left his head on Hokuto’s chest and moved one hand teasingly over the other one’s abs, enjoying the small shivers he created through that.

“Maybe it’s too early to say that?” Taiga teased as he looked up at the other one. “I could definitely go for another challenge.”

Hokuto smiled on hearing that and gave Taiga a small smack on the head before he moved to kiss the same spot. “The next challenge will definitely be a lot harder.”

“Which means I can also be meaner if I win,” Taiga teased and pulled himself more against the other one.

“But I guess we might not have enough time for another big challenge,” Hokuto said as he looked absentmindedly towards the ceiling while playing with Taiga’s hair.

“That’s no problem,” Taiga said confidently as he suddenly sat up and gave the other one a more serious look before he moved to pull Hokuto in a passionate kiss. “Because after all this is over, I will come back here to annoy you for as long as you are up for it.”

That offer had Hokuto smile and put a soft kiss on the other one’s forehead. “Then be ready to stay in this community for the rest of your life.”

***

The same as Miyata, a power transfer user was checking on everyone in Ueda’s community. He was a skilled doctor as well, but this time he couldn’t give much advice to Kentaro as the power transfer problem lay with Ueda and there was not much explaining he could do. Ueda had to figure things out by himself.

For now at least a normal training had become possible between them again and Kentaro had made sure that Ueda would not back out when it came to using his power transfer at training, but as usual he was in perfect control when it came to the use of his abilities in training situations.

“You seem troubled,” Mitsu said as he walked up to the boy who was working on one of the fields in the afternoon after everyone had been training the entire morning already.

“That obvious?” Kentaro asked.

“Well, you are putting the rice shells in the bag, while throwing away the good rice.”

Kentaro immediately looked at his bag and realized that he was indeed doing that. With a sigh he emptied the bag and started collecting the rice he had now randomly scattered next to the field. Mitsu started helping him with a teasing smile.

“I wish I could help you out with that power transfer problem, but I fear without those abilities I am not that much help,” Mitsu explained.

“That’s okay, it’s not like any other power transfer user can easily just check on Ueda’s ability and see why it’s suddenly getting out of control.”

“But wouldn’t that be a start? Let Konpi train with him or call him over when it happens?”

The honest worry had Kentaro nod at first, but then he remembered that they had still not really clarified when exactly that one power transfer accident happened.

“Taisuke easily loses control of his power transfer when he gets emotional. Remember when he suddenly dragged your energy out without even realizing?”

Kentaro nodded as that was the first time he had felt how power transfer worked. He had felt the same pain in his chest at that time, but luckily Taiga had stopped Taisuke and Ryosuke had given him that energy back right away.

“Do you think Ueda could focus on giving energy instead of dragging it out? So that it wouldn’t even come to such an outcome again?”

Mitsu gave it a thought, but he seemed skeptical. “You can’t use power transfer for a long time. Even if you want to focus on it the entire time, if you’re training then you would need to focus on so much more that you’d most likely not have the time and calm to do a steady power transfer.”

“What if it wasn’t training?”

“What?” Mitsu asked when Kentaro had whispered the words as if he didn’t want to be heard in the first place, but then the older one gave him a knowing smile.

“Well, if we consider a situation here where the surrounding is calmer and there is no interference then it might be possible. Someone like Ueda is usually in such good control of his abilities that I bet he could steadily do a long power transfer instead of stealing powers out of some emotional chaos.”

Kentaro nodded, but then Mitsu snatched the bag from him. “You’re doing it again.”

Kentaro apologized when he had put the rice next to the bag this time, not even concentrated enough for such simple work.

“How about you talk to Ueda about that idea for now?”

“Fine,” Kentaro replied and left the rest of the work to Mitsu. When he passed by the rest of the fields, he spotted Myuto and Reo playing around more than actually harvesting the fields, but Kentaro liked the way Myuto was laughing instead of feeling down all the time.

Kentaro looked around for Ueda until he found him talking to Reo’s parents at their hut, but to his surprise the parents had a worried expression on their faces, not that it was hard to understand. Reo was the type who would definitely ask to come with them if they decided to start their own attack and his parents would definitely be dead worried for him once more. His father spotted Kentaro approaching and Ueda turned towards him next, excusing himself and walking up to the boy.

“Weren’t you supposed to be on the fields?” Ueda asked scoldingly.

“I was, but then Mitsu took over for me, because I wasn’t really of much use. By the way, what did you talk about?”

Kentaro looked back to the hut, but Reo’s mother had already walked back into the hut and his father gave Kentaro a small wave, trying to form a smile.

“They look kind of worried. Did you prepare them for the chance that Reo will go for another fight with us?”

“Something like that,” Ueda said, but something about the way he looked back towards the hut made Kentaro feel suspicious about the situation, but then his attention was taken somewhere else.

“There is someone approaching,” Kentaro said as he spotted the man walking down the fields still far away from the community as there was enough flat land to see people from hundreds of meters away.

“Kamenashi’s messenger,” Ueda said with a serious expression.

“So, we need to make a decision now, right?” Kentaro asked, feeling more than restless all of a sudden. He wanted more time to calm down and fix their personal problems for now, but he was also aware of the threat the big cities were to them, now that they had already started a civil war with one of them. It was just a matter of time until they would gather more soldiers and possible Phenomenists from other cities to hunt them down until the most northern part of the country.

“Let’s hear what the others told him for now and then decide,” Ueda said, but then put his hand on the boy’s hair, making Kentaro look at him. “No matter what this battle will bring, this will not be the end for our communities.”

Kentaro only nodded as he of course hoped the same, but even if they were able to protect everyone who stayed behind, those who went to the frontline might not all return and that was the painful truth they all had to accept.

“Not this time,” Kento said and grabbed Fuma by the arm, stealing his energy before Fuma could even try and use his own power transfer to stop him. Kento was faster in using his abilities than the other one, so if he got his hands on Fuma in time, then he could easily win, but of course Fuma was aware of that too and tried to keep the boy on distance at all times to make him run out of stamina first.

“Well, then let me show you a new technique,” Fuma said and to Kento’s surprise the boy took a direct run up at him, ignoring the fire Kento had put between them as he didn’t need to fear it and then he tackled Kento to the ground, trapping his arms with Kento struggling to get out of his grip, but at the last moment Fuma actually turned them around landing on his back instead of Kento.

Taisuke let out a snort at the other side of the cave while watching them, making Massu and Nikaido look at him questioningly.

“He had the advantage, yet he took the impact of the fall to protect him. He is so not even trying to win any fight against Kento.”

“I am impressed that you of all people noticed that,” Massu laughed.

“As if it was hard to spot,” Taisuke complained.

“Well, then I leave you to the challenge to spot your own problems,” Massu said with a wink as he went back to training.

“What the hell did he mean with that?” Taisuke asked Nikaido who chuckled while shaking his head.

“Good at analyzing others, but not yourself,” Nikaido teased. “Shall we call it a day?”

They had trained seriously for the past few days, without any happenings and while Taisuke still felt restless about every power transfer they did, he at least didn’t try to run away from it.

“Fine with me, I feel like I might have overdone it today,” Taisuke said as he stretched his neck a bit and moved one hand to his temples.

“Here,” Nikaido said and handed him the bottle of water he had brought to the training session and Taisuke emptied the rest.

Nikaido urged him to leave for their hut as they had trained and patrolled more than anything else over the last few days. It was hard to get Taisuke to calm down and just relax for once, but this time Nikaido had taken care of that.

“Did you draw more energy than I thought you did or what the hell is going on?” Taisuke asked as he sat down on their bed with a tired expression.

“This one has nothing to do with my power transfer,” Nikaido said and this time Taisuke gave him a scolding look as he immediately realized Nikaido’s teasing expression.

“What did you do?” Taisuke demanded an explanation.

Nikaido put the empty bottle on the table before he gave the other one a slightly apologizing expression. “I might have put something in your water.”

Taisuke’s expression turned from annoyed to speechless and then he just sighed and dropped to the back to Nikaido’s obvious entertainment.

“Well, might be better this way. At least I am not going on everyone’s nerves like this.”

Taisuke had closed his eyes, but it wasn’t like he was feeling exhausted to a degree that he would just fall asleep. Instead of energy getting drained from him, it felt more relaxing, like his mind was for once freed from all the worries he was carrying.

He felt the movement on the bed and when he opened his eyes again, Nikaido was hovering over him. Instead of feeling the need to scold the other one even more, Taisuke reached out for the other one’s face and pulled him down for a slow kiss.

“I was sure I would get a lot more scolding before we would get to this part,” Nikaido teased.

“Well, I am pretty sure that this is some of Miyata’s stuff you got, right? Then I don’t have to scold you too much at least.”

“Oh, I just grabbed some stuff in the forest, mixed it all together and put it in your water. The violet berries and the weird mushrooms we saw earlier seemed to be amazing to try,” Nikaido teased, immediately receiving a pinch on the side of his ribs from the other one for his ridiculous teasing.

“Don’t challenge your luck too much,” Taisuke warned, but his playful mood still took the upper hand and Nikaido would still leave him alone if he was annoyed by what he had done, but it luckily seemed like Taisuke had indeed just needed that peace of mind to finally see past all his anxiety and troubles.

“Then I will only challenge you for now,” Nikaido said as he pushed the other one down into the covers with a more demanding kiss this time, but Taisuke did not complain even once.

Their pace was slow, yet their touches and kisses were greedy enough to get more and more clothes out of the way.

“How come we took months to make it until here?” Taisuke asked, so innocently that Nikaido had to smile and press a soft kiss on the other one’s forehead.

“Well, I am not good at cornering you and you are not good at calming down enough to get cornered in the first place.”

“I guess we need to ask Miyata for help later once more.”

“Not confident enough that you can handle it without next time? That will be a fun moment when you need to explain to him why you need the medication,” Nikaido said with a laugh.

“We can definitely try,” Taisuke challenged before he moved his hands into Nikaido’s hair and pulled him down for another greedy kiss and he was sure that if he was at full strength this wouldn’t work out as calmly as it did. “But if I blow up the hut next time, then that is on you. I will not explain the details to Nakamaru then.”

“Fine with me,” Nikaido said, but this time his look remained serious as he traced Taisuke’s chin line and moved his lips lower, daring his teeth and tongue out while moving from the other one’s neck, down to his chest and Taisuke’s hands slowly clenched into fists into the other one’s hair. “Maybe I can leave the lead to you next time, when you’re at full strength.”

“For today you will take full advantage of me I guess?” Taisuke asked, but the excitement about his own question was visible in his greedy look.

Instead of pulling Nikaido back up, he actually dared to push him more down and Nikaido gave him a dangerous look on his demanding attitude.

“What? You wanted a challenge, here it is. Entertain me.”

“So demanding,” Nikaido replied, but then he moved his hands right down to the other one’s erection, making Taisuke flinch on the sudden touch. “Oh, already too much?”

“Shut up and get to work,” Taisuke ordered, but the way he could still remain this calm, made it even more entertaining for both of them.

Nikaido wasn’t sure for how long he could keep the same slow pace, but for now he would do Taisuke the favor he was asking for, not that he wouldn’t make him beg for more in less than a few minutes, because even in this situation Nikaido was sure that he could hold back for way longer than the other one.

“If you look away then I will take that as an okay to take it to the next stage,” Nikaido challenged and Taisuke tried his best to not show his excitement too much, but when Nikaido finally dared to take the other one’s erection in his mouth, Taisuke immediately clenched his hands in the sheets and tried desperately to not close his eyes or throw his head to the back. He knew that Nikaido would definitely tease him later if he got overwhelmed this easily.

But Nikaido hadn’t promised too much and he easily got Taisuke to finally lose the game after just a few more slow movements and with a deep moan he threw his head to the back, cursing himself while Nikaido let out a low chuckle when he changed positions just to cause Taisuke the next uncontrolled body movement when Nikaido didn’t lose any time and started stretching the other one.

“You’re enjoying this a bit too much,” Taisuke scolded him and reached out for the other one’s ear, instead of his hair to pull him closer again and instead of a harmless kiss, Taisuke bit the other one on the lip, using a bit too much force, but instead of pulling back, Nikaido just pushed his fingers in deeper, while using the small gasp Taisuke let out to deepen the kiss.

“If you don’t hurry then I will definitely not give you such an advantage again,” Taisuke scolded the other one after Nikaido enjoyed Taisuke’s try to stay calm.

“As you wish,” Nikaido replied, but didn’t even move away from the other one’s face when he repositioned himself once more, but to his surprise Taisuke closed his arms around his shoulders and didn’t break their eye contact this time. At least not until the moment Nikaido dared to take the first deep thrust and Taisuke immediately withdrew his hands from the other one’s back, putting them to his own face when he threw his head back once more.

“So shy today,” Nikaido teased when he placed a kiss on the other one’s hands, on which Taisuke slowly moved them up to Nikaido’s face instead.

Nikaido found more pleasure in teasing the other one with a slow pace than rushing through everything, even though his own excitement made it difficult to not move rougher. But now he couldn’t from imagining how Taisuke would behave if he was at full strength, because in the worst case Nikaido could still calm him down with his power transfer, but to not make Taisuke tense up again he didn’t want to use it at this delicate first try.

After all the trouble they had gone through, starting off more as enemies than anything else, this was for sure one of the calmest moments they had ever shared. There was no provoking between them, only slight teasing. A full understanding on physical and mental level was making this way more intimate than Nikaido had imagined when he had come up with this more or less improvised plan to get Taisuke to calm down enough to actually take this step.

“Nika…”

The whine close to his ear was swallowed by another moan, but Nikaido had clearly heard his name and the desperation in the other one’s voice. No matter how slow he wanted to take it and how much he enjoyed the other one slowly crumbling under him, with more and more sweaty strands of hair sticking to his forehead, there was a limit for him as well.

“You need to promise me something,” Nikaido whispered next to the other one’s ear, but before Taisuke could even say anything, Nikaido depend his thrusts, making Taisuke claw his hands into the younger one’s arms while he gave him a short scolding look before he had to close his eyes once more on the next thrust, unable to hold it together for much longer.

“Promise me that you’re not backing out from now on, no matter what happens.”

Nikaido’s words were meant for everything regarding their relationship and Taisuke was well aware of that, but instead of a direct reply he moved his hands to Nikaido’s face and pulled him into such a desperate kiss that he clawed the other one’s face on the movement.

“Right now, I would promise you everything in this world,” Taisuke teased as he thrusted his hips up. That reply was enough for Nikaido, at least for the moment and he finally helped the other one to find the release he so desperately needed and with Taisuke’s sweet moan right in front of his face, Nikaido reached his climax right after, refusing to back off even a bit.

Taisuke’s hands moved to Nikaido’s hair, pulling their foreheads together and after a few heavy breathes he gave the other one a short kiss before he started chuckling, making Nikaido grin as well.

“I can’t believe that you seriously planned all this through,” Taisuke scolded the other one while caressing the marks he had accidentally left on the other one’s face.

“It’s not like I did more than setting the mood or more like the possibility to go further this time,” Nikaido replied as he dropped next to the other one on the bed and kissed the side of Taisuke’s head while pulling him closer towards him.

“Do you think there is someone in this community who can make a similar kind of medicine?” Taisuke asked. He kept his teasing expression, but it was clear that he wasn’t exactly joking.

“If not then you still have me, I can create the same calm state for you at any time, if you trust me,” Nikaido reminded him and this time there was no worry on Taisuke’s face when he gave him a smile.

“Let me see how impatient I will be over the next few days and I might consider it.”

“Oh I hope you will, because if you say you already have enough than I might not be satisfying enough for you,” Nikaido laughed.

“But you’re the only person who can satisfy me in the first place. I would rip everyone else apart before they could even get close to me.”

“I bet Wataru wouldn’t be in such danger.”

Taisuke let out a disgusted sound on that thought, but Nikaido immediately let out a loud laugh. “I didn’t mean it that way. As your friend he wouldn’t need to fear you that much, because no matter how out of control you can be, I bet you would never hurt him or your brothers, right?”

“I hope not,” Taisuke said as he had indeed not done so until now, but he had always kept his distance to not risk anything.

“Maybe together we can try and get you close to everyone from now on,” Nikaido suggested and kept drawing circles on the other one’s hair. Taisuke nodded and put his head on the younger one’s shoulder.

“That would definitely be a big step in the right direction.”

***

“The power your fire has equals Taisuke,” Kamenashi said at their training as he had switched the challenge and had Taiga use only his fire ability without his Telekinesis.

“With the difference that Taiga is in way better control of his fire,” Hokuto said after the only injury he had received was a slight burn on his arm after he hadn’t been fast enough to get the fire out on it.

But even with the injury being this small, Taiga had still walked up to Hokuto to take a look at the small burn. It wasn’t even a high degree burn, so if there was even a scar going to remain, then it would be only a faint scar.

Kamenashi observed them for a moment before he told them to end the training, but while the other Phenomenists kept training, Kamenashi ordered them to follow him to a place that was similar to their former meeting hall.

“By now I think our messenger will have reached Ueda’s community,” Kamenashi spoke as they sat down and the boys only nodded, not sure why they were told this in private.

“I did not send him to make a plan, because we already had one,” Kamenashi said to their surprise, making Taiga tilt his head in confusion, while Hokuto didn’t seem that surprised. “But the same as with our guess about Ryosuke, there is something we can only guess this time as well, so I would like to confirm something with you two.”

This time Taiga sank a bit back on the bench he was sitting on as he already saw in which direction this talk was going.

“I will not force you to talk, but if we miscalculated something this time, then our plan might be a waste of time and the city could easily make a move first. So in case there is anything that could give us more information about the Phenomenists in the city then I would like you to tell me.”

Silence filled the room, while Taiga looked to the ground, but then Hokuto reached out for his hands, which he had clenched almost violently together on his lap.

“Think about who you want to protect the most here,” Hokuto reminded him and he wasn’t talking about himself. All the members of their communities could be in danger if the city made a move first.

“I’m not sure if any of my information will help you,” Taiga let out, but Kamenashi only gave him a calm nod as he just wanted to ensure that they had considered every possibility and Taiga’s missing piece of the story might change their plan from here.

With a sigh Taiga looked at Hokuto who gave him an encouraging nod.

***

- Day of the battle in the village -

Taiga had tried to reach out for Juri’s hand, but the way the other one wasn’t even trying to reach it, made everything clear. Juri had betrayed them.

At the last moment Taiga looked at Hokuto, but the boy had fallen to the front, the soldiers ready to attack and with that he fell down the cliff, not sure if his anger, disappointment or fear was taking over the most in the few seconds he fell to his certain death.

The water would be as hard as a rock at this height so Taiga didn’t even hope for any possibility of surviving, but on the impact something felt way different than he had thought.

The impact had taken his breath away for a moment and he had closed his eyes with his body violently jolting as it had prepared for the impact, but then he realized that the impact had been softer than he had thought. It had still been painful through the height, but after a few seconds the state of shock he was in finally got replaced by his will to survive and with a shaky breath he finally opened his eyes. He tried to move, but to his surprise the surface he was on wasn’t even or hard.

“What the hell is going on,” Taiga said as he somehow managed to get up on his knees and touched the water underneath him. Like a cushion it was moving with his movements. So the water had caught him and taken most of the impact, but that still made absolutely no sense to him, because he was more than sure that he wasn’t the one using the water.

He got distracted when he heard the soldiers on top of the cliff. His fall had brought him so close to the walls that they wouldn’t spot him even if they looked for him, but after he heard some of the soldiers yelling something it fell quiet.

With that the water under him started to fall apart and he hurried to find a good hold on the steep walls before the water fell back into the river as if it had never moved in the first place.

After another moment of shock and confusion, Taiga’s look changed once more and he grabbed the rocks with an outraged look towards the cliffs.

He needed to get back up! Hokuto was up there and Taiga wasn’t going to give up like this. The cliff was definitely too steep to be climbed by anyone, but Taiga wouldn’t just get only himself to safety.

“I’m not going to let anyone die,” Taiga hissed as he tried to reach out for the next rocks, but the surface was wet and slippery. With a few curses he kept slipping down to the start point until his worry for Hokuto made him scream out in anger over his lacking ability to fight. With that one scream he punched one of the rocks, making it break off, but to his surprise it didn’t fall. It kept floating in the air right in front of his eyes.

His confusion was at its peak, but this time he was sure that he was using the ability he was seeing in front of him. He had finally become a Phenomenist himself. With tears of rage in his eyes he looked up and used his new found ability to get himself up the cliff.

It still took him a tremendous effort to make it to the top as he wasn’t use to his own abilities yet and needed to make sure that he wouldn’t exhaust himself too much or he would just faint and die after all. But the telekinesis could help him throw stones off the wall to use them to actually lift him up.

When he was almost on top of the steep wall, he could feel something he never felt before. The presence of other Phenomenists. It felt so natural to feel their presence, even though he wasn’t sure how close they were or if it was only one, but for now his hopes were that he was feeling Hokuto, so the boy was still alive!

While cursing at himself to drag his body over the cliff before his body could give up on him, he fell to the front, more than relieved over the grass underneath him. But the danger was not over and he hurried to sit up to look for any soldiers, but they had moved on, except for one. And that one person was now sitting next to Hokuto.

Taiga didn’t move, didn’t even find the right words at first. Nothing made sense to him at the moment, but the way Hokuto was lying motionless with the gunshot wound painfully visible on his back, Taiga lost his patience and with that a new wave of rage filled his body, so strong and untamed that Taiga couldn’t even recognize his own movements at first when he jumped up and tackled Juri away from Hokuto without the boy even trying to defend himself.

“Get away from him!” Taiga roared. Juri seemed relieved so see that Taiga was fine, but his rage was taking over too much to connect the dots yet.

“Taiga, I-” Juri tried to explain, but Taiga interrupted him as he pushed him to the back once more.

“I don’t want to hear anything from you!” Taiga shouted, this time his tears blurring his vision. “I trusted you! We trusted you!”

Taiga pointed back at Hokuto with his tears finally flowing over and when Juri made a step to the front, Taiga moved his arm to tell him to stay away, but with that movement fire spread between them and Juri jumped back with wide eyes.

“You…you became a Phenomenist,” Juri said in shock, not sure if he was impressed about it or actually scared.

Taiga needed a moment to get a grip himself as he hadn’t expected another active ability, but then he took another shaky breath.

“Then you know better than to attack. I give you this one chance. Get lost and never show up here again,” Taiga hissed.

Juri seemed surprised that Taiga was offering him to flee instead of actually attacking him, but Juri shook his head, making Taiga curse once more as he felt how his own abilities tried to force him down, but all he wanted for now was for Juri to get out of his sight.

“I will leave,” Juri said, his eyes now teary as well, not that Taiga cared. “But let me help him first.”

Taiga seemed confused when Juri pointed at Hokuto and dared to make another step to the front. The fire immediately spread around Taiga’s fists and the boy stopped once more.

“Let me explain,” Juri asked and moved his hands up and with that something happened that had Taiga gasp.

“You lied about everything,” Taiga let out in such a hurtful voice that it seemed to break Juri as well as he let the water dance in the air between them.

“Not everyth-”

“I don’t care,” Taiga interrupted him. “I really don’t care anymore. So what? You’re a water user and what will that help?”

“I can heal others.”

The casual way he had said it made Taiga stay silent for a moment, unable to even comprehend what he had said. An ability Kentaro and Reo didn’t possess. An ability so strong that so many of them hoped they could gain it at some point to help others, yet the one who possessed that ability was nothing more than a traitor.

“I promise I will be gone the moment I healed him. He is still alive. I can rescue him.”

Now everything made sense and slowly Taiga sank to the ground, the use of his abilities finally forcing him to lay low as he was sure that for now his life wasn’t in danger. Juri hadn’t aimed to kill them. He had known that the soldiers would just kill them so he had taken charge and as a Phenomenist, the soldiers would follow his orders. He had made them leave after they thought Hokuto and Taiga were both dead, while he had caught Taiga behind their backs and was only leaving long enough to make the soldiers believe that he was entering the battle at the village once more, just to make it back in time to safe Hokuto’s life as well.

“Will you let me heal him?” Juri asked once more as he wasn’t sure if he was allowed to move or not, but while Taiga’s look immediately darkened when he looked up at Juri, he finally nodded.

“Be aware that if this is another lie of yours that your life will end here and now!”

That threat had Juri nod with a hurt expression, but Taiga could not feel sorry for him. Nevertheless, he looked in awe when Juri brought water up from the plants and the air around him to use it on Hokuto’s back. Taiga had seen it with Kentaro as well, but he had heard that he wasn’t able to heal Ueda before and that he felt like without the ability of healing others his abilities wouldn’t be at their strongest. Seeing that Juri could do it, gave hope that eventually Kentaro would be able to master it as well.

A movement from Hokuto had Taiga jump up and while it hadn’t been a threatening movement, Juri had immediately retreated and taken a few steps back when Taiga crouched down next to Hokuto.

“What the hell happened?” Hokuto asked when Taiga helped him up and was left in even more confusion when Taiga pulled him into a desperate hug. “Why were we attacked from behind, what is…”

Hokuto was able to reply to his own words the moment he looked up at Juri and saw the other one’s apologetic look. He got ready to get up, but Taiga pushed him back down on the shoulders.

“Let him go,” Taiga said.

“What? He is a traitor! He might kill the others if we let him leave now,” Hokuto argued as he gave Juri another hateful look, not even knowing the entire story yet.

“He saved your life,” Taiga said, finally making Hokuto look at him instead. “And mine.”

“I will retreat as promised. I can’t make the others follow, I don’t have that kind of authority, but you might want to help the others at the village.”

When Juri just turned around and wanted to hurry away, Taiga got up once more, Juri immediately turning back, fearing that Taiga’s rage was too much after all to let him leave.

“Why are you with the Phenomenists of the city?” Taiga asked, obviously not wanting him to leave this easily.

“I have no other choice,” Juri explained.

“Why not? We could have protected you. If you had told us then we could have helped you out.”

“No,” Juri said as he shook his head with a sad expression. “There is no way out. We either move exactly as ordered or our lives will be lost.”

“What does that mean? It’s not like someone is standing with a gun right behind you the entire time,” Hokuto said as he walked up next to Taiga now.

“There is no need for that,” Juri said with a mocking smile towards himself as he lifted his hand with two gun fingers pointing towards his head. “The gun is right here.”

“Inside of you?” Taiga asked, slowly getting overwhelmed by the situation as he couldn’t be sure if Juri wasn’t telling another lie just to make them show mercy.

“Your body either accepts the serum or it kills you. After that you’re nothing more than a puppet,” Juri explained, the fear in his eyes seeming so real that Taiga wanted to believe him, but once more he felt how fire was forming around his hands and this time Hokuto gave him a stunned look as he hadn’t realized yet that Taiga had changed.

“I am not the only one,” Juri said, making them both focus back on him. “But I am the only one who is still having his original mindset.”

“What does that even mean?” Hokuto asked, but then they all looked over to the village where fire shot up into the sky, showing them that Taisuke was most likely out of control and they had to hurry to help.

“Wait, then Tama…?” Taiga asked, but to his surprise Juri shook his head.

“Tama is different,” Juri said with a sad expression. “Tama is the one who started all of this. He had offered his own life to the researchers to find a way to control other Phenomenists. He is a lost soul that can’t live with his own abilities. It’s because of him and the researcher Domoto who is in charge of the serum creation that so many Phenomenists have fallen victim to their attempt to create a civil war between Phenomenists.”

“Which means our group got spotted in the city or there was another traitor amongst them,” Hokuto said and Juri slowly nodded, but they had no time for more detailed talks as they could hear more soldiers approaching through the forest.

“The others are only following orders. They are not able to get attached. All they do is tell lies to get to their goal, even if they have to keep the act up for months, maybe years.”

“So, the serum didn’t work as planned on you?” Taiga asked while Hokuto was already pulling him to the back, knowing that they had to hurry if they didn’t want to be trapped at the cliff again.

“I only obey orders because I am too afraid of dying,” Juri said with a chuckle. “I was weak as a human and am weak as a Phenomenist as well. So weak that not even Ueda could feel my presence. No one can even tell that I am a Phenomenist."

Slowly Juri stepped to the back, giving them both another apologizing look before his eyes rested on Taiga bit longer. “But different from the others, my feelings are not affected. I can still show real affection and don’t have to hide behind lies. But I wish I could have spared you all the hardship that awaits you from here. But no one is safe from the city. There is no way out.”

This time Juri finally turned around for good and made a few fast steps away from them, while Hokuto pulled Taiga towards the forest, but then Taiga turned around one more time.

“I will prove you wrong,” Taiga yelled after the other one. Juri stopped, but didn’t turn back towards them. “I will show you that there is a way out and at that time I hope you will have become strong enough to actually believe me.”

Juri clenched his fists before he started running towards the forest this time, vanishing from their sight right before some soldiers were arriving at their location and spotted the boys.

“Let’s run,” Hokuto said, but Taiga shook his head and stepped to the front.

“I am done running,” Taiga said with a murderous glare towards the soldiers. “Running will not help us in this war anymore.”

The way Taiga’s fire spread all around his body this time had the soldiers step back a bit, but then they lifted their guns and Hokuto wanted to interfere, but to his surprise Taiga stopped him.

“No need for that.”

Hokuto gave the other one a worried look when Taiga stepped to the front, but when the first few bullets were shot towards them, they stopped in the air. Hokuto letting out a whistle as he hadn’t been the one stopping them.

“Well, who would have guessed that such a bad happening can also have a good outcome.”

Taiga looked over his shoulder with a lopsided smile before he focused back on the soldiers. “Two in this case.”

With that he used both his new found abilities to attack the soldiers and he was determined to get rid of everyone threatening their village. He wasn’t going to let the city take away the peaceful life they had built up over the past years.

___

“Wait, you didn’t tell me that he threw you off the cliff,” Hokuto said as he had heard some parts of the story the first time as well.

“You wouldn’t have let him go if I had told you.”

“Definitely not,” Hokuto said, but he still kept a kind of teasing attitude. Taiga had only told him on that day that he wanted to keep everything a secret for now and while he had told Hokuto that Juri was a water user who had been able to save his life, there had been another reason for him to hide that fact from everyone else.

“He can heal others,” Kamenashi said with a knowing look as he seemed to understand Taiga’s reasons a bit better now.

“If Kentaro had found out right after the battle, it would have broken him,” Taiga said as he knew how much Kentaro had struggled with the fact that he hadn’t been able to save Aran. Knowing that someone else could have actually done it, would have thrown him off even more.

“And you also didn’t want the others to go after Juri,” Kamenashi said. “But this is exactly what we have feared the most.”

“You knew there was something controlling them?” Hokuto asked.

“Ueda’s way of analyzing everyone’s abilities had shown him an abnormality with Ryosuke’s ability, but he had also immediately figured out that Juri wasn’t just a normal Infirm.”

“So, the story he had told us wasn’t completely a lie,” Hokuto said, making Taiga raise an eyebrow at him. “He talked about having seen a Phenomenist getting taken by the soldiers, right? That he was put in one of the cells and received the serum. The only difference is that Juri hadn’t witnessed all of that, but had been that Phenomenist.”

Taiga’s look darkened on realizing that, but they couldn’t just storm the city and destroy the tower. There were other cities as well and who knew if they had also received that serum to turn even more Phenomenists against them.

“But was there something off with Ryosuke’s abilities or why had Ueda already seen him as a possible traitor?” Hokuto asked.

“It was after the city team came back that we were more certain. The reports we received from Reo about the facility and from Nikaido about Domoto, made Ueda realize that this serum was indeed possible to identify.”

“But except for Ueda no one would easily realize, I think?” Taiga asked and Kamenashi nodded.

“That is why our plan stands or falls with what is going to happen in Ueda’s community now.”

“Why there?” Taiga asked, giving the other one a worried look.

“Because if we’re right, then the city won’t move until they hear back from one more traitor amongst us.”

It had become a routine by now to visit the shrine, the same as Konpi did on a daily basis. But Reo would always be with him, Myuto somehow feeling calmer when the boy was around.

This time Myuto had turned around first and caught himself staring at Reo as the boy still stood with his eyes closed. When he finally looked up, Myuto immediately looked away, making Reo laugh.

“You want to know what I’m praying for?” Reo asked as they both headed back towards the community.

“Isn’t it bad to tell others?” Myuto asked.

“I think that’s only if it’s about wishes, right? I am not really wishing for anything.”

“You’re not?” Myuto asked a bit surprised, but the positive attitude Reo always carried made him wonder what else he could actually use his prayers for then.

“I only say thank you,” Reo said with another bright smile as they walked alongside the lake, away from the training ground where the area around the water was more of a sandbank than a rocky surface.

“Thank you for what?”

“For every single day, because we never know when there will be no tomorrow for one of us.”

Myuto slowly nodded on those words as he hadn’t even thought about such a kind of prayer. His prayers were darker, more desperate, but they were also about the past and not the future, something he should maybe change at some point.

“Reo, there is-”

Myuto was interrupted by ice cold water suddenly dropping on the back of his neck and with a squeal he jumped to the side. Reo burst out laughing on his reaction as he had moved some water from the lake up to his back while he was in his thoughts.

“I can drop more if you keep that gloomy look,” Reo teased as he lifted up more water, but then Myuto let go of his dark thoughts for now and jumped to the front before the boy could move the water, resulting in both of them ending up in the sand, Reo laughing at Myuto’s attempt to stop Reo from dropping more water on him.

“I can still drop it,” Reo warned.

“But this time you will be hit as well if you do,” Myuto teased as the water was over him now, but Reo was lying underneath him.

“But I can also stop the water before it hits me,” Reo challenged and stretched out one hand past Myuto’s face. It was a move to reach the water, but Myuto suddenly grabbed Reo’s hand, making Reo give him a questioning look.

“I need to apologize, but I also want to say thank you,” Myuto suddenly said, his look so troubled that Reo couldn’t decide what to even reply, but there was no need for that as Myuto made his point more than clear the next moment when he leant down to give Reo a sudden kiss.

The action had taken Reo by such a surprise that he dropped the water after all and with a gasp Myuto flinched and backed off on the amount of water hitting his back, but of course it had also all hit Reo as he hadn't concentrated enough to stop the water.

Myuto had frozen in front of the other one, Reo now blinking away the water on his face before he started laughing, making Myuto finally sit back up with an embarrassed expression.

“You’ve an interesting way of saying thank you,” Reo teased as he sat up as well. Myuto felt relieved that the other one wasn’t angry at him, but he still felt stupid for suddenly stepping too close. He had tried to stop himself from exactly this stupid move.

“But why do you have to apologize?” Reo asked as he shook a bit of the water from his hair. But that question had Myuto’s look darken a bit once more.

“You think it’s too early, right?” Reo asked with such an understanding look that Myuto felt like tearing up.

“There is actually more,” Myuto said as he put his hands down into the sand, but he couldn’t get a tight grip on the soft substance so he just hid his fists in it to not make it too obvious how much he didn’t want to say it out loud. “I feel like it’s too early, that is right. I tried to stay away as I realized that I was getting too close. I don’t want to use you as a distraction. I can’t even clearly say if that is why I want to be closer to you or not.”

“Then try it out and let me know later.”

Reo’s honest words had Myuto look up at him in confusion, but what else had he expected from Reo? He was always the positive one. The one who always wanted to help everyone and didn’t let it show when he felt hurt by something or he indeed just didn’t mind, but that thought was exactly why Myuto shook his head.

“You don’t deserve to be treated that way. You’re a precious friend to me and I don’t want to shatter that friendship by assuming that I might feel a closer connection.”

“Then how about we continue that friendship until you’re sure?” Reo suggested, but once more Myuto’s look changed and this time he let out a long breath, unable to even look up at the other one.

“When I visited Aran’s grave the first time I had a horrible thought.”

Myuto’s words hung between them for a while as his mind refused to keep talking, but he needed to get it off his chest, even if he could just keep his ridiculous thoughts a secret, but it felt wrong if he was indeed going to try and change this friendship to something more.

“It was just for one brief moment, but I was just so devastated and frustrated about the situation, that I wished that instead of Aran, it would have been easier for me if we had lost you instead.”

Myuto kept staring towards the ground as he knew how horrible it sounded. It had been a horrible thought in his mind already, but saying it out loud felt even more horrible. When Reo moved in front of him and got up, Myuto couldn’t even look up at him, but then the other one hit him on the head with the flat hand, making Myuto finally look up. To his surprise Reo was holding his hand out towards him.

“That thought doesn’t make you a bad person, it makes you human,” Reo said with a smile. “No matter how much we wish for everyone to be happy and safe, when it comes to the people closest to us, we will all be egoistic sometimes. You almost lost me at the city, yet you didn’t have the chance to try and safe Aran. It’s a natural thought. Don’t let that stop you from finding your happiness anew.”

This time Myuto couldn’t hold back his tears and he grabbed the other one’s hand to let himself get dragged up. Reo let out a chuckle when he got pulled into a hug the next moment. He let Myuto get emotional for now while drawing circles on his back with his hand until Myuto finally let go and turned away with an embarrassed expression.

“Better?” Reo teased, making Myuto only wave his hands around without turning back as he tried to make his tears finally stop.

“You’re way too nice, you know that?” Myuto said with a chuckle mixed with a sob as he finally turned back towards the other one, but then he looked ahead as he saw Konpi approaching from the community and he tried to get a grip.

“I’m not too nice, you just have to learn how to be nicer to yourself,” Reo teased as he turned towards Konpi as the boy arrived.

“Ueda wants you to come to the meeting hall. Kamenashi sent someone over and he wants everyone to talk about what to do from here.”

“That’s so sudden,” Myuto said with a restless expression, but Reo gave him another encouraging smile.

“Don’t worry, I bet we won’t just dash down towards the city without any good plan. Let’s hear what the plan is for now?” Reo said and waved at Myuto to follow.

Having another battle was something Myuto definitely didn’t want, but the same as Reo he wanted to put his focus more on the future than the past. There were still people around him that were worth protecting.

***

Kentaro looked a bit confused after their meeting and when the messenger had left in the evening he made his way to Ueda’s hut just to find the other one in a restless state.

“Are you going to tell me what is going on?” Kentaro asked as he closed the door. “You’ve been acting weird since the moment he showed up.

“Hopefully you’re the only one who realized that.”

“Now you’re freaking me out,” Kentaro said as he sat down opposite of the older one with a piercing look. Ueda leant to the front, resting his chin on his hands while giving Kentaro the same intense look.

“Do you trust me?”

“You’re not making it easy to trust you right now. All we talked about earlier was some forth and back between the communities and some patrols towards the city. I doubt you’re really trying to keep us here for much longer. You know how easily they could ambush us again if they find our locations before we find them.”

“And that is exactly what will happen now,” Ueda said, Kentaro not missing the way he talked in a lower voice.

“And why would that happen?” Kentaro asked back, now moving closer as well.

“Because they will get told about our fake decision.”

There it was. It had been indeed all fake and while most of the community members didn’t seem in any way suspicious about waiting for further instructions, Kentaro knew the leaders well enough by now to understand that they wouldn’t do all of this planning halfheartedly.

“Unless?” Kentaro asked, already knowing where this conversation was going and while he felt stupid for not even realizing the danger until now, he was ready to fight even if it was going to be amongst their own people for now.

“Unless you trust me enough to stand by my side, no matter how the others will react.”

Kentaro moved his hands to the front, Ueda backing off just a bit on the movement when the boy grabbed his hands to pull them down to the table and squeeze them. “I lost my trust in you once,” Kentaro explained, making Ueda’s look darken a bit. “But that doesn’t mean that I would ever betray you. I will stand with you.”

Ueda seemed more than relieved to hear that as he was obviously more than worried that he’d have to make his plan work all by himself eventually and he risked turning the entire community against him if he didn’t watch out for the right timing.

“Then let’s move, we need to find the right timing or things will turn out chaotic.”

***

“I didn’t get told anything different,” Kento said, but Fuma only let out a growl while they walked through the forest back from the training ground.

“So we’re only waiting? For what?” Fuma asked after Nakamaru hadn’t really told any of them what he and the Phenomenist from Kamenashi’s community had talked about.

“Maybe for the final confirmation from Ueda? Whatever is going on will definitely be told to us when we need to know.”

“You’re really annoying sometimes,” Fuma said as he threw his head to the back with an annoyed sigh. “And I really need some food. Massu is taking our training way too seriously.”

“You’re just unnecessarily getting into fights with him. The training itself isn’t that bad,” Kento teased, making Fuma give him an annoyed look.

“Easy for you to say. It’s not like you are a frontline fighter.”

“Says who?” Kento asked.

Fuma immediately stopped and looked at the boy with a questioning look. “You’re not telling me that you’re going to go with us in case we start an attack, are you?”

“Why wouldn’t I? I am a Phenomenist, I am pretty good at using my abilities and on top of that I will not just sit here and wait for everyone to do my job.”

Fuma got ready to complain, but Kento immediately lifted his hand. “If you talk about any of my weaknesses now, I will totally argue you into the ground, okay? Because I have way more arguments why Infirm shouldn’t join our fight or why non-fire users should also not join, because they’re not fireproof either, not to forget that there are people with less stamina than me as well.”

Fuma was immediately out of arguments and just shrugged his shoulders. “Fine, suit yourself, but make sure to tag along if we really attack.”

“Tag along you? Why?” Kento asked while Fuma rolled his eyes.

“You’re the smart one here, think for yourself.”

Kento knew of course why Fuma offered to team up as Fuma had enough energy for two and both of them had power transfer abilities so they would indeed make a perfect team.

“Just don’t get into my way,” Fuma warned, making Kento laugh.

“I would never dare.”

***

“You sure we shouldn’t have said something to everyone?” Kentaro whispered as they had walked away from the community in the cover of the dark.

“As much as everyone here trusts me, I am not sure if they’d stay on my side if I just attack without any proof.”

“I don’t think he would have attacked in the first place. He would have just denied everything,” Kentaro replied as they were lying in the shadow of a hill for half the night already, from where they could overlook the entire area in front of the community.

“And that is exactly the problem,” Ueda replied as they fell silent once more.

“Do you think he will wait a few days? So that we let our guard down?” Kentaro asked, but Ueda shook his head before he made a head movement towards the community.

“The fake plan we told everyone gives him a time limit so I was sure he’d immediately move.”

Now Kentaro could spot him too. Sneaking away from the community in the middle of the night. He didn’t even have anything with him, no bag or provisions. He just moved as ordered and it made Kentaro feel so useless once more. How hadn’t they realized? Not even given it a second thought, while Ueda had immediately realized the danger the moment the city team had returned. On the other hand, they hadn’t even doubted Ryosuke or Juri so how could they have even split up in different communities if they had continued to doubt every single one of them.

“Do not let yourself get talked on the wrong side,” Ueda warned him once more.

“He will definitely have a lot of good excuses, but don’t worry,” Kentaro said as he followed Ueda when the older one got up and started walking towards the one traitor who was now approaching the area close to them.

Even when they stood in the middle of one of the fields, the other one didn’t slow down. As if he was actually heading right towards them and not away from the community, he kept walking and then stopped with a smile in front of them.

“What are you doing out here?”

As expected, nothing felt off. Reo was smiling at both of them, giving them the question first while that was actually their question.

“Waiting for you,” Ueda replied straight forward.

“You knew I was coming? And here I was wondering why both of you weren’t at your hut. I was looking for you, but then I could feel Phenomenists out here and took a look. Are you taking a night walk? Am I interrupting?”

Kentaro gave Ueda a worried look as Reo really seemed to be the same as always. Perfectly calm and in no way dangerous.

“Why did you look for us?” Kentaro asked this time, observing Reo’s every move.

“I just wanted to ask about training tomorrow. I bet we have training tomorrow morning, right? We should maybe head back then?”

“Reo, wait,” Ueda said and Kentaro could hear how troubled the other one was when Reo turned away from them, but stopped on the other one’s words. Ueda was the boy’s teacher for a long time by now, so while Reo acted perfectly in front of everyone, Ueda had doubted him the moment he had come back. “You really want to keep the act up? We won’t let you get away, no matter how hard you try.”

At first Reo chuckled, turning back to them with the same carefree smile as always and while Kentaro thought he would try to keep the act up, it came different as Reo’s smile changed. With it his look also changed to something Kentaro had never seen before and he automatically made a step to the back.

A small part of Kentaro had hoped everything was a lie and that if it was true that they could just solve everything in a calm way, but Reo definitely thought differently now and everything happened way too fast for him to even react.

As always Reo was so swift with his abilities that even without any direct water source he was able to move enough water up from the grass in such a short time without even obviously moving, that Kentaro could only lift his arms when Reo shot the water in thin blades towards them.

Ueda had immediately created a firewall, pushing it out so that Reo was forced back, but both of them had been hit by a few of Reo’s water needles, but luckily none of them got heavily injured.

“Kentaro, take the left side,” Ueda said as he moved his fire to the right so that Reo couldn’t try to dash away to that side. Kentaro nodded and dashed towards the left side of the fire, but this time he was prepared and blocked Reo’s incoming water with his own water shield, successfully shooting his own attack back at the other one while Ueda lunged out with a fire whip towards him.

Reo jumped back a few times, enjoying their tries to stop him, but while Reo was indeed extremely skillful with his water, he was up against two opponents and Ueda would easily be able to last double of the time.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” Kentaro said when Reo suddenly jumped in close combat with him so that Ueda couldn’t throw more fire at him.

“What a shame that I don’t care,” Reo said as he had gathered enough water to form a dangerous sharp water whip going through the air and Kentaro only barely dodged, receiving a cut on his cheek that was deeper than he first thought. The warm blood streaming down his cheek after a few seconds.

Just when Ueda threw some fire between them, Kentaro could spot people rushing towards them, but that was also when Reo’s behavior changed and Kentaro was left speechless when the boy let Ueda hit with his fire straight on, making him fall to the back with the shirt over his chest on fire.

“What is going on? What are you doing?” Myuto yelled at them as he ran towards Reo to get the fire out, while Konpi looked at everyone in confusion, but stayed away from everyone for now.

“Myuto, get away from him,” Ueda ordered, but Myuto ignored him and helped Reo with the fire for now and this time Reo was back to his typical behavior. Looking scared and overwhelmed, holding on to Myuto when the other one helped him up and shoved him behind him.

“They suddenly attacked me. I don’t know what is going on,” Reo said, making everything look like he was indeed unaware of their intentions. “Could they be traitors?”

Ueda let out a sigh on the boy’s words, but Myuto’s look turned to murderous towards him as he had of course not been aware of what was going on.

“Myuto, we’re no traitors. He is,” Kentaro explained. “We tried to stop him from leaving. He will report back to the city.”

“Don’t let them fool you. I saw them leaving so I asked them where they were heading, but they immediately attacked me.”

“This is exactly the outcome I didn’t want,” Ueda said as he could tell that Myuto was completely on Reo’s side and more Phenomenists gathered at the community border.

“Come on Myuto, think about it. He was in the city before with you. Do you really think he was able to just get out of there on his own?” Kentaro asked.

“You and your brother also miraculously made it out alive even though soldiers were after you,” Myuto countered.

“Then why would Ueda be a traitor too? When he and the other founders made it out to the village, they hadn’t even started to capture Phenomenists for research.”

“Who knows, they could all be involved in this,” Myuto replied stubbornly and kept pushing Reo towards the back and then looked at Konpi. “What do you think?”

Calmly Konpi started walking and left Myuto speechless when he stepped next to Ueda without any hesitation.

“I can understand that after everything that happened on your mission in the city and the loss you had to suffer at your village that you want to trust in people, but that means you should also understand why I fully trust Ueda. He would never attack Reo if it wasn’t out of exactly the reason he just stated. Reo is a traitor. He is not at fault for that. He was forced into it, but to protect him and ourselves we need to stop him.”

“Myuto, let’s just run,” Reo said and pulled on the other one’s arm. “Together we should be able to shake them off.”

“The remaining people in the village will definitely believe you. Let’s ask them for help. Your parents…”

“Will most likely be overwhelmed by the situation and not know what to do, I don’t want to hurt anyone, but if they don’t leave us a choice then I will, to protect you as well.”

Reo’s plan was good, Kentaro had to give him the credit for that, but there was no way they would let them leave. Even if that meant having to hurt Myuto as well. Eventually the boy needed to understand that if he left with Reo now that he would be dead the moment they were out of sight.

“Myuto, I will only tell you to step to the side once,” Ueda said as he stepped closer to the two boys. “I will not let the faith of all our communities be destroyed by Reo giving away our locations.”

“Then why did you let him come back here in the first place? Why didn’t you say something when we were all still together?” Myuto asked.

“Because I had hope,” Ueda said, this time his expression a bit softer when he gave Reo a side glance. “I hoped I was wrong. I hoped I could bring a son sound and safe back to his family and while I wasn’t sure if I would be able to eventually save him, I wanted them to reunite at least one last time.”

Kentaro shifted uncomfortably next to him on those words, because he remembered when Ueda had talked to Reo’s family. The only ones he had told about what was going on. Even though they were the closest to the boy and could have easily helped him escape, Ueda knew that they understood his reasons. Even as a Phenomenist of the city, he hoped that there was hope for Reo to return to normal. They had seen it first hand now, that a person could change this drastically in the city. Reo had even told them. Juri had as well. The cells, the serum. The chance of them changing or dying in the process.

Reo had been let go just to make everyone believe that they were safe. With Reo they had chosen the right person as no one would easily suspect that he was lying as he indeed possessed the destructive power to break out of that tower by himself, but Ueda could sense more. Sense the same weird feeling he had had with Ryosuke and Juri.

Myuto looked back at Reo who gave him a worried look. “Are you also turning against me?”

The played hurt reaction made Myuto shake his head and grab the boy’s arm. When he looked back at Ueda, the older one gave him a stern look as he stepped in front of the two boys.

“Suit yourself. If your emotions are standing in the way of your logic right now, then I can only tell you that I warned you.”

Ueda let the fire spread around him once more, Konpi and Kentaro also getting ready to attack when Reo stepped in front of Myuto.

“Let me handle them,” Reo said, making it look perfectly like he wanted to protect Myuto and not make the first step in this fight.

Reo got ready to dash to the front, but Myuto reached out for him once more and pulled the boy with his back against his chest as he closed his arms around him in a sudden hug, but the others had seen the movement, Reo hadn’t been able to spot from the back and he jolted in the other one’s arm. He didn’t struggle, but started chuckling instead.

“You played me better, than I played you,” Reo said before he sank to his knees, Kentaro making a step to the front, but Ueda told him to wait.

Myuto wasn’t letting go of the other one, but that was also because he had just stabbed a knife in the boy’s side and didn’t dare to move more as he had aimed to stop the other one, but not to kill him.

“So primitive,” Reo laughed when he let his head drop on the other one’s shoulder. “I could still attack you like this, you know…”

“I know, but what will it matter? Your abilities will keep you moving for a bit longer, but you have no chance against us. Are you that desperate to report back to the city?”

“It’s either reporting back or dying, what do you think?” Reo laughed, but he didn’t show any sad emotions about his own thoughts. Just like a puppet that was moving on command, that was all he was at the moment.

“We won’t let you die,” Ueda said as he hadn’t just made a plan until this part.

“We will rescue you,” Myuto promised. “We will rescue as many as possible.”

“Be careful that you don’t lose someone precious on that way again,” Reo mocked, but on those words Myuto dared to pull the knife out, forcing a groan out of Reo as he fell to the front. Ueda immediately moved and grabbed the boy, Reo trying to get some water up around him, but Kentaro was forcing the water down, while Ueda used his power transfer to force Reo down completely.

“There is no way you can win,” Reo hissed right before he fell unconscious and with that Myuto finally let out a shaking breath before he teared up, Kentaro immediately hurrying over to him and pulled him into a hug.

“I’m grateful that you believed us,” Kentaro said while his friend grabbed his shirt and pulled himself into his embrace. He was shaking violently now, more than shaken by the sudden betrayal and his own actions, but even with Reo’s amazing acting and Myuto’s emotional connection, there was no way that Myuto would throw his logic that easily overboard. To protect everyone, he had to accept that people had to get hurt on the way. If that spared them certain death, then he was willing to carry that guilt.

"I want to fight too," Massu pouted while the others were fighting. A challenge Nakamaru had given them. Fuma and Kento against Taisuke and Nikaido. To his surprise Taisuke had calmed down enough to share his fire with Nikaido. Fuma's mocking of easily going to win against them had fueled Taisuke's will to win the fight.

"You'll get your fight. Just for this one it would be unfair," Nakamaru promised him.

"Not that Nikaido is a full Phenomenist, so three against two wouldn't sound that unfair to me."

But on Massu's words Nikaido had landed a pretty impressive hit on Kento after moving away from his fire long enough to get the upper hand and while he only used his own fire as a distraction, because he would easily run out of Taisuke's fire, his fighting skills were impressive.

"You said?" Nakamaru asked and the other one rolled his eyes, observing Fuma and Taisuke instead. Both fighting head on, using their fire to an extent that they wouldn't last much longer. But then Kento ran away from Nikaido and reached out for Fuma. The other one seemed confused for a moment until Kento stumbled to the back and sank to his knees.

"And here I'm the reckless one usually," Fuma said as he realized that Kento had transferred the rest of his energy to him as he knew that he wouldn't stand a chance much longer.

Fuma released that fire towards Taisuke and Nikaido, making both dash to the back of the cave and Taisuke was forced to use his fire to create a wall to protect them both.

After the fire had calmed down, both sides seemed to be exhausted, but Taisuke got ready to jump into the fight again. Just when someone entered the cave and said something to Nakamaru, only Massu could hear, they all stopped.

Massu's look turned to surprised, as he faced Nakamaru with a questioning look. The other one nodded and sent the other person out the cave again before he let out a sigh.

"What happened?" Kento asked when they all decided to take a break.

"Something we had seen coming. Get ready, we're leaving."

Nakamaru's words had everyone except Massu in confusion.

"Just like this? Why? Didn't you say we wouldn't directly attack?" Nikaido asked.

"Seems like the founders had another plan," Massu said a bit scolding as he had obviously also not known about what was going on.

"I'll explain everything when the others arrive. They left the community a few days ago so they should be here soon," Nakamaru explained.

Nikaido and Taisuke exchanged a worried look, knowing that keeping everything a secret to have everyone focus on their training and themselves for now had definitely been a good idea, but now they had to focus on the real battle immediately without any chance of delay.

***

"Leave the rest to me."

"Are you sure?" Taiga asked, when Wataru offered to take care of the remaining animals as they had been out on the fields since the early morning hours.

"I have the perfect helpers," Wataru said with a smile towards Hana and Ken who were chasing the chicken, Taiga being jealous that the chicken didn't seem to want to turn around the game except if it was him chasing them.

"They can prepare you for the chaos you'll have to face from now on," Taiga said with a grin.

"Luckily I will only have to face half the chaos at first," Wataru laughed and went over to the kids. Miyata was busy with making medication as he had found a lot of rare ingredients in the forest over the past weeks and he wanted to make sure that they had a lot in case they went for battle.

Taiga walked away from the fields with a calm smile, but by now he was also feeling a bit restless. They had been in this community for over a month now and while Kamenashi's messenger had already returned a while ago, there were no updates. None Kamenashi was giving them at least.

When Taiga spotted Hokuto at the cliffs he threw his worries to the back of his mind for now and then he formed a teasing smile as he hurried to get out of his shirt and shoes.

By now he wasn't afraid of running towards the cliffs anymore and he had aimed to take Hokuto down the cliffs with him, because Hokuto had done the same to him before and the same as Hokuto, Taiga was planning on stopping their falls with his telekinesis if the fall would turn out dangerous. But the moment Taiga had reached the other one and had already put his hands out to push Hokuto, the other one had smoothly avoided the push and had swiftly moved out of the way, turning behind Taiga and giving him an extra push so that he fell off the cliff by himself with a curse.

With a cough Taiga broke through the surface of the water, Hokuto laughing at him from the cliffs.

"Nice try."

"One day I swear I'll pay you back for everything," Taiga yelled and pointed at the other one with a pouting expression.

Hokuto only laughed, but then got ready to join the other one and he jumped right next to Taiga. When he came back up, he grabbed the other one by the hips and pulled him down instead. Taiga didn't try to get away, instead he searched for the other one's face and pulled him into a kiss. A dangerous move underwater as they had failed this several times already, but they had become better and didn't mess up this time.

When they made it back to the surface Hokuto demanded a deeper kiss that Taiga was more than willing to give him and by now he had learned how to keep the balance in the water without getting thrown off by the incoming waves.

"In summer we can do this even more often," Hokuto said as it was barely spring and they couldn't be in the water for longer than a few minutes.

"Which means we have a really good reason to come back here."

Taiga's words meant something heavier than just a promise about coming back to have a swim, but Hokuto knew that of course.

"But for now we can just enjoy the few minutes we have before freezing to death," Hokuto let out dramatically, making Taiga laugh before he put his hands around the other one's neck, pulling him into another impatient kiss.

A whistle from the top of the cliffs had them back off and look up with scolding looks.

"Sorry to interrupt," Kamenashi shouted down towards them. "But I think there are a few people you might want to meet."

They both looked at each other in confusion, but then Mitsu and Taisuke stepped next to Kamenashi, making Taiga form an excited smile. There was also worry about them suddenly showing up without Kamenashi letting them know and if he hadn't known then that seemed even more suspicious, but for now the two boys hurried out of the water. Taiga wanted to see the positive things and leave the rest for the time when it was unavoidable.

Their confusion got even bigger when they had made it back up to the community and saw that not just their own fighters, but also other people from the remaining communities had arrived.

"You seem to have had a pretty calm time. Did you train at all?" Taisuke teased when he demanded a hug and Taiga gave him a punch against the chest before he threw his arms around his brother.

"You'd be surprised. I'd totally beat you by now."

"Oh, so overconfident. You both share that," Mitsu laughed from the side and stretched out his arms next as he also wanted a hug after all.

"Say that again after he beat you," Hokuto teased from the side, not that Taiga was that strong yet. His abilities were definitely stronger than those of his brothers, but physically and tactically he still needed to learn a lot.

"Hopefully we won’t get into a fight then," Mitsu said as he clapped Taiga on the shoulder after he released him.

"Are you all back? I see some unknown faces, but some people are also not here yet?"

Taiga's look towards the community had his brothers exchange a knowing look.

"So it was true," Hokuto said as he realized what their silence meant. "There was another traitor."

"You knew?" Mitsu asked.

"Kamenashi told us. More or less. I- also told him some things you all should get to know about later as well…" Taiga said in a lower voice this time, but then he looked back at the community. Worry suddenly taking over.

"Everyone is fine, don't worry," Taisuke said. "They are close by, but the same as with our community they first wanted to explain everything before everyone came in."

The atmosphere was heavy when they all listened to what Nakamaru and Kamenashi explained to them and while it all made sense and they all felt like they should have seen this coming as well, they couldn't easily see the city Phenomenists as traitors anymore.

Kamenashi had told them all about Juri as well and of course his brothers looked a bit concerned as they hadn't heard even half of that story yet.

The only ones that hadn't been present at that talk walked towards the community later and it just hurt so much to see Reo in chains, with Konpi and Ueda constantly at his side to make sure to draw his energy out enough to keep everyone safe.

Kentaro and Nikaido were with them as well and at first, they all only exchanged a few words before they made sure to keep Reo under strict supervision.

"Good that we built so many extra huts," Miyata said with a smile as he tried to brighten the mood.

"Boys, show the others around, would you?" Wataru asked of Hokuto and Taiga and the boys nodded.

Hokuto gave Reo a side glance when a few Phenomenists with power transfer abilities took over for now so that the others could have a rest, but the boy didn't even really react to him or the others. His look had turned indifferent.

"Hey," Taiga said as he approached Kentaro. The boy looked exhausted. Kentaro looked up at him without any reply and Taiga didn't hesitate to pull his friend into a hug.

Nikaido gave them a smile from the side when Kentaro closed his eyes for a moment and just enjoyed the calm moment. He had been like this already when they had arrived at Nikaido's community, but there was not much Nikaido could do to make him feel better. While most of them had gotten some clam time, Kentaro hadn't been able to even enjoy his private time with Ueda without problems yet and then they also had to deal with Reo.

"Let's show you all around for now, shall we?" Taiga said with another squeeze and Kentaro nodded with a grateful smile. Even if it would only be a day or two until they needed to keep moving, every single calm second was something he would treasure for now.

***

“Well, this is a first,” Fuma said as he jumped on one of the two available beds, while the remaining places were only improvised blankets on the floor, but they didn’t have enough huts and while Taiga and Hokuto could stay somewhere else, they had decided to stay with the boys.

Kamenashi had made everyone build two bigger buildings that could be used for exactly such a time and then be remodeled into whatever else would be needed later on.

The boys had all agreed on staying in the same place after the founders had had a meeting with the older ones, but Taiga had realized that the details could wait for the following morning and he urged everyone to take some rest. Yet they wouldn’t easily get rest with everyone in the same place.

“Are you sure you want to stay? You two definitely have nicer beds, don’t you?” Myuto asked Taiga and Hokuto.

“More of one bed I’d say,” Fuma teased, making Taiga take one of the pillows to throw it at him.

“Kentaro, you can take the other bed,” Kento said as the boy sat down on one of the blankets. They were filled up so they weren’t that hard, but definitely not as nice as the mattresses of the beds, which of course took a bit longer to make.

“It’s fine, don’t worry.”

“The beds are big enough for two people,” Hokuto said and as you said we have our own beds. you traveled down here over days so you should take the beds.”

“Well three people won’t fit though I guess?” Kentaro said as he pointed at Konpi and Kento who were also in the same building.

“Then we will just bring our mattress over later,” Taiga said, making Fuma laugh.

“Look, I told you they only had one.”

“No one questioned that except you,” Hokuto said, not even feeling caught.

“Whatever. So, then Myuto and Kentaro can share one bed, Konpi will get your mattress later and then Kento can stay with me.”

“I did not agree to that,” Kento said, but Fuma just grabbed the boy’s wrist and pulled him down to sit on the mattress.

“Be happy I agree on sharing, I am not known to do so often.”

“You’re not known to share at all,” Taiga said with a teasing smile towards both of them this time.

“For now let’s all settle down,” Hokuto said, making them all sit on the blankets around Fuma’s bed. Taiga urged Myuto to sit on his left while Kentaro was on his right. Hokuto didn’t mind as he sat close to Konpi.

“Two unknown faces for me,” Hokuto said as he looked at Konpi and Kento.

They had a small introduction round as the other boys also didn’t know the new boys yet.

“Telekinesis and Fire, that is amazing,” Kento said after Taiga had told them what abilities he had.

“When did you get them?” Konpi asked, not knowing about the heavy past connected to them. But this time Taiga didn’t stay silent. He knew that it was time to talk.

“I got them on the day of our battle in the village. We got betrayed and I got thrown down a cliff and from there on everything kind of escalated.”

“What do you mean with you got thrown down a cliff,” Fuma said as he hadn’t heard that part either. Myuto and Kentaro immediately looking at him as well.

“I talked to Kamenashi about everything already and most of the others have heard about it on arrival. What happened on that day wasn’t just the simple betrayal we made you all believe and I am sorry for keeping it a secret for so long. If I had known that Reo was going through the same then I would have said something sooner.”

“The same what?” Kentaro asked, still absolutely not understanding what Taiga was talking about.

“Juri is a Phenomenist,” Taiga finally said, making everyone give him a disbelieving look. “A lot happened at that cliff and I know you might get angry at me if I tell you now, but I think if we really head straight into battle this time, then it’s better if you know everything.”

Taiga didn’t leave out any details. Everything was now out in the open. The control the city had over the Phenomenists. Something that Taiga wasn’t sure about if it was true until Reo had shown them that Juri had indeed said the truth. The one thing Taiga was most afraid about saying out loud was the fact that Juri was able to heal others and he kept that part until the very end. After that a heavy silence filled the room.

Kentaro was the first one to take a deep breath, but he didn’t make an attempt to leave the room, yet he said what everyone was definitely thinking. “He could have saved Aran.”

“No, he couldn’t have,” Myuto immediately interrupted the other one, making Kentaro look at him in a loss of words. “No one could have, because he wasn’t there. No matter what abilities anyone else has, they haven’t been there. Let’s not start any of these what if scenarios, okay? He is a traitor, so maybe he wouldn’t have even considered saving him. Let’s be honest here, the reason he saved Hokuto was because he knew that Taiga wouldn’t forgive him if he died.”

“What does that have to do with it,” Taiga asked, a bit snappier than he wanted to sound.

“Come on,” even Fuma interfered now. “No matter if traitor or not, Juri had a crush on you the moment he stepped into our village and there is no way that was fake.”

Taiga got ready to start an argument, but Myuto put his hand on his shoulder. “Let’s not discuss this any further, okay? It won’t help anyone if we do. We’re getting ready to fight, aren’t we? If we don’t trust each other fully, then we might just end up like them or even worse.”

“It’s rare to have you as the one who talks everyone into order,” Fuma teased and pointed at Taiga. “Usually you’re the one doing that.”

“I can jump in for him as well if you need someone to be a bit more direct with all of you,” Hokuto said, making Taiga chuckle.

“Be careful of listening to him. The first thing he will do is either throw you off a cliff or letting chicken chase after you.”

“Why is everybody throwing you off cliffs?” Kentaro asked this time.

“And please keep those chickens away from me,” Konpi added.

For a few moments silence followed until they all started chuckling, finally breaking the heavy atmosphere between them. Everything that had been of importance had finally been made clear and they would all carry some burdens into the fight, but they needed to make sure that they had each other’s backs, no matter what the situation was.

“By the way, you’re not staying with Ueda tonight?” Taiga finally dared to ask when they all got ready to sleep and Hokuto left with Fuma and Kento to get an extra mattress.

Myuto and Konpi exchanged a knowing look before they suddenly excused themselves and said they would get some firewood for the night before it got too dark outside.

“Okay…anything I need to know?” Taiga asked a bit worried when Kentaro sat down on the bed and Taiga hurried to sit down next to him.

“Now that you explained your part of the story, I guess I should explain my part as well, but there is no need for everyone to know,” Kentaro said as he hadn’t even told Myuto and Konpi the entire story yet. Mitsu had figured out most of it already, but he had of course also made sure that their private matter would stay exactly that, private.

“Please don’t tell me you broke up this fast,” Taiga asked, making Kentaro chuckle.

“I wish it was that easy. We have some trouble going on, but with Reo being another traitor and him being in danger of just getting killed off by the city, we didn’t really have much time to figure things out yet.”

“You will definitely get enough time later,” Taiga said with an encouraging smile. A hope they all carried, but they didn’t even know what was going to await them. As Myuto had said, all the what if questions would drive them crazy, but of course Kentaro had a lot of them as well. What if they lost? What if not all of them made it back? What if…no one made it back? But he wanted to see the bright side as well and nodded.

“By the way, I know I might ruin your mood once more, but there was one thing I wanted to tell you about Juri.”

That change of topic indeed had Taiga’s look turn a bit gloomier, but he still nodded and let the other one speak.

“I will not defend him in any way, but while it was our first encounter at the waterfall and he had absolutely no connection at that time with us, he immediately showed us that he wasn’t a ruthless killer.”

“What do you mean?” Taiga asked.

“The waterfall incident,” Kentaro said. “Now everything makes sense.”

“You have to be a bit more specific about what exactly you mean,” Taiga said impatiently.

“I wasn’t the one to rescue you, it was Juri,” Kentaro explained, making Taiga’s eyes grow wide. “I wasn’t in enough control at that time to easily form such a huge platform without even seeing you. I was sure you two would die and yet you miraculously didn’t. I couldn’t explain it this entire time, thinking it was just my panic which made me do something I shouldn’t have been able to do. But it was Juri who formed the platform to rescue you both. His cover wasn’t blown, because I was a water user too.”

“So instead of just rescuing himself or even getting rid of us because we could have realized that he was a Phenomenist, he had thrown his plan out of the window right away,” Taiga realized. Without Kentaro present, his cover would have been blown and with that maybe his entire plan wouldn’t have worked out.

“I know it doesn’t really change anything, but I wanted to let you know. It all makes sense now that I know about his water abilities.”

Taiga only nodded, not wanting to drown in that topic for too long so he tried to shake the topic off once more.

“Do you want to stay at Ueda’s community? When everything has calmed down” Taiga asked and Kentaro gave it a thought, not at all angry that Taiga went back to their previous topic.

“Well, if my brother wants to go somewhere else again then I’m not sure,” he replied honestly.

“I will come back here,” Taiga said with a bright smile, the determination obvious. “I want to stay here. This is a place I fight for, so that I can return to this place afterwards and that with all the people connected to it.”

“Please include me and the others as well,” Kentaro pouted, making Taiga laugh.

“You’re all family. You’re always included.”

“Yet I feel like you found even more of that family here, right?” Kentaro asked and Taiga gave him a shy smile.

For the first time he had indeed found a connection so strong that he was prepared to put his entire strength into keeping that connection alive. It wasn’t just the people or the place he didn’t want to lose once more, but his own future.

All of them were fighting for a brighter future and they would fight until the end to see that future to finally be more than just a dream.

***

“They’re treating this like a sleep over,” Taisuke said after he had spotted Hokuto with a few of the others as they carried a mattress half through the community. Nikaido only chuckled and let them be while he kept walking around the cliffs with Taisuke.

“Let them have their fun. They can use every calm moment they can get.”

“Taiga definitely had a lot more fun down here then we had over the past month,” Taisuke said and Nikaido didn’t miss the look he gave Hokuto when the boy entered the building with the others again.

“Okay first of all that’s not true, except you want to say that Hokuto is better company to Taiga than I am to you,” Nikaido complained, while Taisuke tried to not picture that in the first place. “And second, while I get the overprotective older brother part, trust me I totally do, I think you can trust Hokuto with Taiga no matter what.”

“I didn’t say I don’t,” Taisuke replied.

“Yet you still worry. You don’t want Taiga to get hurt again.”

“I just fear that if anything happens that he’ll totally shut himself away from all of us,” Taisuke said with a worried look out towards the ocean. “But I also worry for everyone else. This situation is a mess. I am grateful for everyone who volunteered to fight with us, but to be completely honest, I wonder if it wouldn’t be a better idea if we all just ran instead of confronting the city.”

“Run where?” Nikaido asked and of course Taisuke had no answer. If they left the country then they might just get killed at the next border as they didn’t even know how the situation in other countries was at the moment.

“I just want everyone to be safe,” Taisuke said with a sigh and Nikaido pulled him closer to place a kiss on his hair.

“And we will be. It might not be an immediate peaceful time we easily stumble into, but the city has shown us that they won’t lay low for long. With Phenomenists on their side, no matter if willingly or not, they stand a chance against us and that means we need to make our move fast or we will just end up like the last time and who knows how many people would survive another surprise attack.”

Just that thought had Taisuke restless again, but now that they were all at the same community, they had made sure to have guards around Reo and also enough people patrolling the area until the next morning.

“How is Kentaro doing?” Taisuke changed the topic when he signaled Nikaido to sit down with him on some rocks near the cliffs.

“He’s managing, but I know there is something he doesn’t want to tell me yet.”

“I bet he has told Taiga by now,” Taisuke said, not sure if it had been the right moment to tease, but Nikaido only nodded with a smile.

“As I said before, I know how it is to be the overprotective brother, so I totally understand that Kentaro wouldn’t easily come with his relationship problems to me and I am totally fine with that. He knows that I am always there to talk, but as long as he somehow manages it’s fine.”

“It must be hard on them,” Taisuke said. “Not that we don’t know how problematic the start of a relationship can be.”

“Speak for yourself. For me there was only one problem and that one is sitting next to me.”

Taisuke pouted on hearing that, but then he shrugged his shoulders and dropped his head on the younger one’s shoulder.

“Well, then let’s hope that they’re not both the problem in their relationship or they will have double the problems.”

“That would definitely be too much to take, you’re hard enough to deal with. Two of you would be too much,” Nikaido teased and got pinched in the thigh as a result.

“For this battle you wished you had more of me. I would blow up the entire city in less than an hour.”

“I totally believe that,” Nikaido laughed before he looked back at the community that had fallen silent now that it was dark outside. “But let’s hope that everyone’s strength will be enough for us to win this battle.”

Because the last they wanted to see were more of their friends and family lost in this ongoing cruel reality.

“Is there even a need to make us patrol?” Myuto pouted as they had been urged to leave the community right in the morning to patrol.

“I think the problem is that for once the founders don’t really have a good plan,” Hokuto said to their surprise, Taiga nodding next to him as he actually thought exactly the same.

“But we can’t just keep hiding. If they don’t hear back from Reo then-”

“Please do not finish that sentence,” Myuto said and Taiga gave him a sad look.

“Do you think he could be reached?” Taiga asked after they kept walking through the forest, not really making this a patrol as they were all not really concentrated in the first place. “I mean like Juri, maybe there is something we could do to help him remember?”

“And what will that help?” Myuto asked, sounding snappier than he obviously wanted to. “I mean if what Juri said is true then that Domoto guy can easily get rid of him if he thinks he won’t be of any use.”

“By now I fear that everything Juri said is true, looking at Reo’s state and thinking about how easily Ryosuke had played everyone for months,” Hokuto said.

“Great, so either Reo will get killed right in front of our eyes or we need to kill him in a battle,” Myuto said as he stopped to kick a tree, not that he used much force, but Taiga still gave him a worried look.

“I’m sorry that you had to go through all of that while we hoped you could have a calm time in Ueda’s community,” Taiga said, but the other one shook his head.

“It’s not like Ueda was completely sure at that time and just throwing around speculations wouldn’t have helped either. Who knows what Reo would have done if he had realized that we knew something.”

“Did he behave like usual until you confronted him?” Hokuto asked, but this time Myuto remained silent for a moment, lost in his thoughts.

“Did you already suspect something?” Taiga asked, but this time Myuto immediately shook his head.

“No, that’s not it. Forget it,” Myuto said, but Taiga could tell that there was something he wasn’t telling them, but it didn’t seem like something extremely negative so Taiga patted his shoulder with a brief smile before he kept walking.

“Then for now let’s hurry. We’re so many people out on patrol right now, there is no need for us to even go that far.”

Taiga was trying to keep the light mood, instead of dropping back into their dark one, the others trying to give him smiles when he turned towards them when he had walked away a bit further.

All the what if questions would just make them go insane over the next few days and if the founders didn’t have any good battle plan, then they just had to head straight to the eastern city if they wanted to or not.

Taiga kept walking deep in his thoughts, trying to find any possible topic to brighten up the mood. With a small chuckle he thought of telling Myuto about that one annoying chicken, because that topic would definitely cheer up anyone. Ready to wait for the others who were several meters behind him by now, Taiga slowed down, but when he looked up there was a movement a few meters ahead of him and he immediately stopped.

It didn’t make sense. Not at all. He was alone and he wasn’t supposed to be this close without them noticing. It should be impossible.

“As I said before, there is no way for you to sense me,” Juri said after he had casually stepped out behind a tree as if he had waited for them the entire time. Hokuto and Myuto had spotted him immediately as well, but froze on the spot instead of trying to get closer.

“One thing that wasn’t a lie then,” Taiga hissed at him, as if the situation was as simple as having an argument with a friend, well not that Juri was a friend, not now and not quite before either.

Juri didn’t react to those words, but looked at all three of them with the same neutral look as before. “You can’t sense me,” Juri repeated. “But I can sense you way stronger than any other Phenomenist.”

“So many useful abilities, yet on the wrong team,” Hokuto hissed at him as he dared to make a few careful steps to the front, aiming to get closer to Taiga as he was right in front of Juri and the other one’s sudden appearance couldn’t mean anything good.

“So what? Did you sense us all the way from the city?” Taiga barked back.

“No need for that,” Juri said as his abilities were not that strong after all, but his words also meant something even worse and Taiga’s eyes widened.

“You can track them…”

Juri slowly nodded, now his look turning darker again. “The serum is special in a lot of ways.”

“Well, he just made completely clear on which team he is,” Myuto said, now a murderous glare towards the other one as he got ready to attack, but Hokuto gave him a warning look. They were three against one, but the situation wasn’t that easy they all understood that.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know at that time what had happened in the city. I didn’t know that another traitor was amongst you.”

“He is not a traitor,” Myuto yelled this time, stomping his foot on the ground. “All this brainwashing shit is not his fault.”

“But is it mine then?” Juri asked, but instead of facing Myuto he looked at Taiga as he wanted to see the other one’s reaction.

“The outcome is your responsibility,” Taiga replied with a stern look towards the other one. “As you said before, you still know what you’re doing, so you decide for yourself who lives and dies.”

“Right,” Juri said as he slowly lifted his hand and this time Hokuto dared a few more slow steps to the front, now right behind Taiga and while Juri didn’t stop him, he gave all of them a kind of warning look as Myuto also got his hands up, but didn’t use his abilities yet.

“Then here is my honest advice to you,” Juri said as he made a step to the back instead of towards them and Taiga gave him a questioning look, this time Juri’s eyes showing more sadness than anything else once more. “Run.”

With that word Juri turned away and used his abilities to lift water from a nearby small stream and he shot the water into the air. A sign that their tracker system seemed to work on a wide radius, but for the closer tracking they needed something else. For the attack on their village, they had gotten the information straight from Ryosuke and Juri had easily found the village through his strong sensing abilities and this time as well they had sent in Juri first to get closer to the community without them noticing that they had been faster after all.

Taiga was left speechless as he looked at the water that remained like a pillar in the air, definitely visible for several kilometers.

“Hurry, let’s get it down,” Myuto said as he wanted to attack Juri, knowing that they could take him on, but then Taiga turned around and shoved Hokuto back and yelled at Myuto on the way.

“Stop! Let’s warn the others. We have to hurry,” Taiga yelled and didn’t let any room for complaints. Hokuto luckily agreed and pushed Myuto to the back as the other one didn’t want to leave.

Taiga looked back at Juri once more, the other one not making a move to attack and while he couldn’t hear him, he could see how Juri formed the words I’m sorry and while it was definitely the stupidest thought right now, for once Taiga believed him that he was indeed telling the truth and for now their priority was to warn the others as they were sure that they had waited too long this time. They had known where Reo was the entire time and had started moving out the moment they had gathered at Kamenashi’s community. Like this they were at least all at the same place, but that also meant they needed to get the civilians to safety as fast as possible, while also not getting trapped at the cliffs. A double challenge that was maybe impossible to win right now.

***

“That is a lot of chaos for a few months,” Konpi said after he had asked Kentaro for a summary of what had happened before they had made it up to their communities, not that it was easy to explain in a short version.

“I wished we could have ended things on that day without involving all of you,” Kentaro said, but the boy shook his head.

“It’s not like Ueda hadn’t already prepared us for such an outcome. When he left after Wataru had told him what was going on, he had told all the fighters that chances were high that something was going on in the cities and that we should make up our minds what we wanted to do if it came down to a battle. Reo had already made up his mind on that day, yet he’s the one fighting for the wrong side right now.”

Konpi’s look showed how much he was troubled by what had happened to Reo and it was clear that Ueda thought the same, but he had too much responsibility right now to let his emotions take over and Kentaro didn’t want to cause distraction so he had left him alone for now.

“His parents didn’t even come to see him once more before we left,” Kentaro remembered as they had left right in the morning after capturing Reo.

“I wouldn’t want to see a family member in such a state either,” Konpi explained. “But they trust Ueda so they definitely hope that we can find a way to turn him back to normal.”

“I wonder if that is even possible,” Kentaro said, but he didn’t get deeper into that thought. For now they had to keep up their hope.

A whistle made him look up and he saw Kento and Fuma walking up towards them and before they were in hearing distance Konpi let out a chuckle.

“What is it?” Kentaro asked and Konpi nodded at Kento. Look closer and you will know.

Kentaro blinked in confusion as he looked back at Kento and the boy was walking a bit behind Fuma, his hand weirdly pulling the collar of his jacket up while he looked a bit uncomfortable until Fuma looked over his shoulder and gave him a knowing smile, making Kento pull his collar almost half over his face and that was when it clicked.

“Well, that explains why Fuma asked for a patrol with only the two of them,” Kentaro chuckled and waited with Konpi for both of them to come closer.

“Had a calm patrol?” Konpi asked, totally not trying to hide that he knew what had happened.

“We had some surprises here and there,” Fuma said, grinning from ear to ear, but this time Kento didn’t just stand back and he actually kicked Fuma in the back of his knee, making Fuma curse and jump a bit to the front.

“Someone might not have liked those surprises,” Kentaro teased and looked at Kento who had let his collar drop while kicking the other one, but immediately pulled it back up when he found the other one staring. Kentaro didn’t say anything, but there was no way Kento would be able to hide those hickeys for long.

“Maybe you can borrow Taiga’s hut later,” Konpi kept teasing, making Kento’s face brighten up even more and Fuma just laughed.

Kentaro got distracted in the middle of their conversation as he could hear something in the distance. The presence of Phenomenists was all around them with them on patrol so he wasn’t even that worried when he felt others close by, but when he tried to locate the sound he was hearing, he looked up into the sky and between the trees he could see something that felt unreal.

“Kentaro, what is it?” Konpi asked as the boy hadn’t joined his teasing and then he looked up as well, gasping the next second.

“What the hell is that?” Fuma asked when he spotted the water pillar standing high in the air.

“Water?” Kento asked. “Could Reo have gotten away?”

“Without everyone already shouting in uproar, I doubt so,” Konpi said.

Kentaro looked back into the forest as he remembered that he had heard something before and now he could hear it even cleared. People were running and soon they were getting into sight.

“Okay, that’s not good,” Fuma said on the sight of Taiga, Hokuto and Myuto dashing towards them.

“What is going on?” Kentaro yelled towards them, but as they didn’t look back while running it didn’t seem like they were in immediate danger.

“Run!” Taiga yelled and without even questioning the situation they all turned for now and started running, only slowing down for the other three to reach them.

“They found us first,” Hokuto said when they caught up to them. “We need to warn the others.”

“Are they already that close? How are we supposed to outrun them?” Konpi asked as he looked over his shoulder in panic, but no one was to be seen and that was when Kentaro gasped.

“The water…Juri?”

His question hang in the air for a moment as Taiga didn’t slow down, but then he gave Kentaro a side glance, which was enough of a reply to make them all understand what had happened.

“Wait,” Hokuto said before they could make it down the last part before the steep walls of the cliffs surrounding the community and everyone halted when Hokuto dashed towards the part where he had showed the community to Taiga on the first day. In a hurry he dashed up to the last rocks and pulled out something from his pocket. Seconds later a small firework was released towards the community. Instead of shooting it up in the sky, Hokuto had shot it towards the ocean, so that it wouldn’t be visible from the forest.

“A warning signal?” Kento asked and the other one nodded as he told them to keep going.

“The sooner they know, the better. They need to evacuate fast.”

“What if they surrounded us already?” Myuto asked, but Hokuto shook his head.

“We won’t evacuate the civilians over land,” Hokuto said, making even Taiga look at him in confusion.

When they had finally made it down to the community, everything was already a big uproar. Mitsu spotted the boys first and looked more than relieved to see all of them back.

“What happened?” Mitsu asked when Taiga ran up to him first.

“They found us. They can track people with the serum. They will soon be here,” Taiga explained as they couldn’t see the water pillar from down here so they hadn’t noticed yet.

“Did they attack you? Is anyone hurt?”

Taiga shook his head and halted for a moment, but then he realized that it was not the time to keep secrets once more. “Juri showed up alone. He gave us a warning, but also the signal for the others where to find us. While we can’t sense him, he can sense us even stronger.”

“Well, at least that’s not the worst outcome,” Mitsu concluded. “Help with the civilians for now. They need to get to the boats.”

“Boats?” Taiga asked in confusion, but then he realized how everyone evacuated towards the training grounds. He had never walked further than that part, but it made sense that as they were at the ocean that they had boats hidden somewhere for exactly a situation like this.

-

“There they are,” Taisuke said when he saw Kentaro and Konpi run towards him and Nikaido as they had helped with the evacuation as Kamenashi had immediately made everyone follow his orders.

Kentaro jumped at his brother, realizing how worried Nikaido had been. “Are you okay?”

“Yes, everyone is fine. Juri showed up. It’s thanks to him that we actually got away. He could have just led them straight to us, but he gave us time to warn everyone.”

“He won’t get a thank you from me for that,” Taisuke growled.

“He ran into Taiga first, he wouldn’t have been so nice to any of us I fear,” Konpi added, making Taisuke slowly nod.

“For now let’s hurry, we can’t have them arrive here with all the civilians in the center of the battle,” Nikaido said and the boys hurried to help out.

-

“Myuto, what are you doing here?” Ueda asked when the boy came running towards the hut where they were keeping Reo, but now Ueda was dragging the boy out, but of course Reo tried to break free even with Ueda using his power transfer to a degree that it was a miracle that Reo wasn’t collapsing.

“You will need to fight when they come, leave Reo to me.”

“Myuto, you don’t have any transfer powers.”

“Then I will ask Konpi to help me, but I doubt that it’s a good idea to have you in the back, trying to keep Reo under control,” Myuto said, urging Ueda to leave the boy to him, but Ueda remained skeptical.

“Ueda, I got this,” Myuto said with a determination he hadn’t seen from Myuto until now as the boy had been extremely quiet since Aran had passed away. “I won’t let them kill him.”

That was a promise he couldn’t make, but Ueda still nodded. He knew that Myuto wanted to protect Reo and that was the one feeling they shared. Ueda didn’t want Reo to fight against them and for that they had to drag him away from the main battle, but Myuto was right, the main battle needed the fighters with the strongest abilities so he needed to be at the frontline.

“Take care of him,” Ueda said and left Reo to Myuto.

“I will, I promise.”

-

“What’s the plan?” Massu asked when Kamenashi and Nakamaru had made sure that a few fighters were with the civilians on the boats just in case.

“For now, don’t let any water user near the cliffs,” Nakamaru said. “We should be able to hold them off long enough for the boats to get behind the peninsular, then they are out of sight.”

“Let’s delay them,” Ueda said, making Massu stare at the other two founders, but they didn’t seem against the idea.

“Let’s make different teams,” Kamenashi ordered once more and as all the remaining fighters finally made it back to the community, he took a quick look at everyone.

“To delay them we will create a distraction,” Kamenashi explained and to his surprise Fuma stepped next to Ueda, followed by Massu.

“Say no more,” Fuma said with a smirk. “Fire is always the most distracting one.”

“I’m impressed that you got the hint right away,” Kento teased when he also stepped close to them, but Fuma shoved him back, making Kento blink at him in confusion.

“No chance that you will be on this team. We need strong fire and people who don’t easily collapse, so you and Taisuke are out.”

“Hey,” Taisuke complained from the side.

“Stop it,” Kamenashi interfered. “You three, leave now. Make sure to not get to close to them. Just delay them, by blocking their route.

“If Reia and Tama are with them then they can make it through,” Wataru said from the back, Taisuke giving him a displeased look.

“What the hell are you doing here? We told you to stay with the boats, together with Miyata.”

“There are a handful of other Phenomenists with them so they will be fine,” Wataru said, ignoring Taisuke’s judging look.

“Let’s hurry,” Ueda urged the others and they all headed up to the cliffs, but a hand on his sleeve stopped Ueda. He gave Kentaro a knowing look when the boy wasn’t even sure what to say.

“We will be careful. We won’t jump right into the battle. If any fire users get into our way, we will retreat.”

“And we will have a backup team ready,” Kamenashi said and urged them to leave.

“Be careful,” Kentaro finally said and the older one patted his hair and nodded before they hurried to the forest.

“They don’t even know if they are coming from several directions,” Taisuke complained.

“Trust Ueda, he knows what he is doing,” Nakamaru said. “They will use the fire to have them all close in to the same spots if they are trying to approach from different directions.”

“And we need back up for exactly those spots,” Kamenashi said and pointed at Kento and Mitsu. “North.”

That was all he said before he pointed at Taisuke and Nikaido. “South.

Then he turned to Taiga and Hokuto, but also pointed at himself. “We will go west as the main force could come from that direction if everything goes as planned. That also means I want Kentaro, Nakamaru and Wataru as our back up.”

Taisuke got ready to complain, but Kamenashi gave him a warning look before he ordered the back up for the other teams as they had several more Phenomenists and Infirm who were ready to fight with them.

“Everyone concentrate and protect everyone in your team,” Kamenashi ordered and made everyone move immediately.

Kentaro hurried to Nikaido to give him a hug before his brother could leave. “Please be careful.”

“You too. Stay on backup as long as you can. Analyze before you jump into any fight.”

“Better tell that Taisuke,” Kentaro tried to tease and Nikaido smiled at him and placed a kiss on the boy’s hair.

“I can at least put the entire forest on fire at once if I have to,” Taisuke defended himself, getting a hit on the arm from Taiga on those words. 

“Please don’t or you will burn all of us on the way.”

“At least you’re fireproof now as well, one person less to worry about.”

“Right, because I am not in danger of any other attacks,” Taiga teased, but then only nodded as he got ready to leave, unsure of what else to say as he didn’t want to make promises, he wasn’t sure anyone could keep.

“Watch out for everyone,” Taisuke said instead and that was something Taiga could promise and he nodded.

***

"Why are we heading to the forest? What if they come from even more up north?" Konpi asked while keeping his hand around Reo's wrist, not that the boy was even conscious right now. Myuto had asked him to drain enough energy to keep Reo unconscious so for now he was carrying him on his back.

"If he wakes up and is close to the ocean then we're screwed," Myuto explained.

"It's Reo, we're screwed no matter where he is in case he gets enough strength back."

"Then make sure he won't," Myuto said while he kept walking up the hillside close to the cliffs, hoping they would be too far north already for any soldiers to even consider going there.

"Do you think they can win?" Konpi asked after Myuto had to slow down as the path was too steep to walk faster.

"I fear that winning means killing all the other Phenomenists as we can't capture all of them and just hope that Juri lied and they can't kill them remotely."

"But if it's true then they will kill Reo if he doesn't return to the city with them, right?"

Myuto didn't know what to reply as he feared that as well, but for now he just wanted Reo to stay out of the fighting that was all. He could think about all the following troubles later.

When they had reached the top of the hillside, Myuto told Konpi to take a break as well and the boy removed his hand, wanting to give Myuto some space to put Reo down.

The moment Myuto made a move to drop the other one he could feel Reo's body tensing and from one second to the other Reo seemed to have regained enough energy to slam his head right against Myuto's, resulting in the boy hissing and dropping Reo to the ground.

"What the hell?" Konpi said as he hurried to get over to Reo. The boy had his hands still tied to the back, but he tried to kick Konpi so that he couldn't get his hands on him.

"How fast can Reo recharge, like seriously?" Konpi complained, but Myuto knew that this wasn't just a harmless fast recharge. Remembering what had happened at the city border, Myuto was sure that Reo was using every single bit of strength he had left to get away and with his current mindset he wouldn't even mind if he died in the process.

"Don't drain even more energy," Myuto warned the younger one. "Reo doesn't have enough energy left to use his abilities and he will exhaust himself enough to collapse if we corner him enough."

"Fine, then help me out here," Konpi said when Reo got to his feet and tried to dash away, but Myuto was faster and threw the younger one to the ground.

For now, hoping that Reo's body would give up before another horrible outcome, was all Myuto could do.

"We're splitting up?" Fuma asked after they had put a fire southward to have any possible attack to focus more on the west.

"Chances are high that they're trying to get around to the north. So Fuma I want you to head northwards and try to shift the attack back to the west in case any soldiers make it up there."

Fuma nodded and immediately dashed away. They had to be fast if they wanted to get the upper hand in this fight.

"We're heading to the west side, let's see if we can minimize the attack zone," Ueda said and urged the other one to leave.

The west side was hard to overlook as the forest was the thickest over there, but if they wanted to try and put a fire here then they would put themselves into danger if the fire spread towards their community too fast.

"They're on foot," Massu said as he could hear soldiers approaching, but this time they luckily didn't have any chance of getting close with their trucks and heavy rocket launchers.

"They still might have a lot of weapons on them, be careful."

They both hid on a lower part close to some fallen trees until they spotted the first soldiers approaching. As expected there were a lot. More than the last time for sure.

"If they split up then that means there are a lot of them this time," Massu whispered, the worry on his face obvious.

"And there is even more trouble," Ueda said when he spotted a handful of people at the front of the attack who didn't have any heavy weapons on them.

"More Phenomenists?"

"While we hid, they definitely had enough time to get more soldiers from other cities and with that also more Phenomenists," Ueda explained.

"I wonder how easily they can bring them under their control," Massu said, but didn't even want to know the details. If what Juri had said wasn't all a lie then they could also die through that weird serum after all.

"Let's split them up," Ueda said and Massu nodded.

Ueda jumped out of their hiding place before the soldiers were close enough to take a good aim. He risked a lot when he used as much energy as possible in one attack when he shot not just a blast at them, but created a thin fire wall, slicing right through the rows of soldiers, forcing them to jump to either side through which they forced them to split up. The immediate response was fire coming right back at him so at least one of the new Phenomenists was a fire user, but Massu jumped in to block the incoming fire with his own.

“Make them follow you, Kamenashi definitely sent out backup after us already,” Ueda said and while he tried his best to not show any worry it was clear that the number of soldiers and new Phenomenists was worrying him to an extend that he wasn’t even sure if fighting head on was still an option.

“Make sure to keep them busy too,” Massu said as he attacked the soldiers who had scattered to the right, but his blast was redirected, coming back at him, so telekinesis users were with them as well, but for now he only wanted their attention and no head on fight.

Ueda did the same with the soldiers on the left and dashed a bit more towards the southern region.

Soon the area around them got too wide to keep them all in the same place and soldiers started scattering away towards the community direction, but Ueda had to trust the backup teams, because one of the Phenomenists had caught up to him and while he was a Telekinesis user, he was pretty skilled in redirecting Ueda’s attacks. When shots fell behind him Ueda wondered if the soldiers wouldn’t even care if they shot the Phenomenists on their side, but it had obviously been part of the plan as the other one was using the bullets to redirect them precisely towards Ueda.

If it was a normal one on one, Ueda would easily overpower him, but soon fire got thrown towards him and he was forced to stop running or he wouldn’t be able to concentrate enough to fight both of them. Yet the soldiers started surrounding him now as well. Luckily only around a dozen were left while the rest had moved towards another direction.

“Done running?” The Telekinesis user asked as he stopped as well, signaling the fire user to get behind Ueda, but with dozens of guns being pointed at him there was nowhere to run to anyway.

“If any of you is still reachable, then help us. We can turn this around with your help.”

Of course Ueda earned laughter from both of them, but he just wanted to see their reaction to see if maybe others were the same as Juri, but with all the soldiers around it was hard to tell if they would easily let him know in the first place.

One of them lifted their hand and the soldiers immediately fired, giving Ueda no other chance but to create a huge fire circle around him, making it spiral out towards the soldiers. The fire of the other Phenomenist interfered with that move, but couldn’t stand up to Ueda’s strength, yet the Telekinesis user was skilled enough to use every possible opening and with a hiss Ueda fell on one knee, after getting hit by a redirected bullet into the thigh.

When the fire user tried to get closer, Ueda threw a fire blast right at him and if he hadn’t been the same fire user then he would have definitely burned to death right on the spot.

“Impressive, even after all the energy you already used, you can still use that much,” the other one said impressed and kept his distance. “We could definitely need someone like you, but I fear you’re too much of a pain in the ass to bring back with us.”

“Bring back with you?” Ueda asked, knowing by the smile of the other one that he wouldn’t give him any details, but the fact that they hadn’t come to just kill them all off, meant that they were aiming to create more Phenomenists that obeyed the city.

“Let’s just get rid of him then,” the fire user said and snatched away one of the guns of the soldiers and moved right in front of Ueda as he didn’t need to fear the other one’s fire.

What none of them seemed to have seen coming was a bullet hitting the fire user into the shoulder and seconds later a huge fire wall moved towards them, making the soldiers run for their lives and the telekinesis user jumped out of the way at the very last second, to hide behind a few rocks that gave him shelter.

Ueda jumped at the Phenomenist in front of him before the fire had even vanished and he pulled the gun out of his hand, but instead of keeping it he threw it towards Nikaido who was holding another gun already, so he and Taisuke had most likely encountered more soldiers on the way already, but luckily made it towards him in time.

“Nice timing,” Ueda said when Taisuke jumped at the fire user and used brutal strength to knock him out for now. The deep breathes he had to take after that showed that he had used too much of his energy already, but now no one could easily approach them anymore and Nikaido made sure to aim at the soldiers that tried to make it back towards them, but then one of the bullets came back at him and he ducked at the last second.

“A familiar face, how interesting.”

Nikaido turned to the telekinesis user with a death glare, not that he could make him responsible for what he was doing, but he wished he could just kill him and the others without feeling guilty.

“You met him?” Taisuke asked.

“Yara, he was with Domoto and the others in the city,” Nikaido explained.

“I’m so honored that you remember my name,” the man said with a mocking smile. “So, let’s see, another fire user who seems a bit too much out of control and you are an Infirm? Or not? Domoto said you seemed like an interesting case. Maybe it wouldn’t be wise to kill you.”

“As if you would let anyone alive in the first place,” Taisuke growled, but Ueda pulled him back when he wanted to attack.

“They don’t seem to be here to just get rid of us,” Ueda said and the other two didn’t seem too surprised.

“There will be more Phenomenists in the future. The more they can get under their control, the easier they can get a hold of them,” Nikaido concluded.

“I know that they are not at fault for what they are doing, but if there is no way out, then don’t hesitate to kill them, okay?” Ueda said and while they hesitated a bit, they both nodded.

The soldiers approached on Yara’s signal, the man confident in being able to get the upper hand even without another Phenomenist on his side.

For now they had to make sure that they would all stay alive and if that meant to kill those who were fighting against their will, then that was going to be the cruel, but unavoidable outcome.

***

“Oh what a shame, can’t find any water?” Fuma laughed after he had encountered a water user after some soldiers had made it as planned alongside the fire to his location, but when Fuma realized that a water user was trying to extinguish the fire to get them better access through the forest he had cut him off from every possible water source and the fire was completely surrounding them by now, making it even difficult for the soldiers to reach them.

“I was told to not kill any other Phenomenist, but if you don’t make it out of the fire by yourself then that is on you,” Fuma said and stepped back, trapping the other one in a maze of flames. For him the flames weren’t dangerous, but he didn’t want to lose his clothes to them so he tried to make his way around his own fire, but a sudden movement on his right side made him jump right through one of his fire walls, leaving him suddenly in front of some soldiers and he immediately threw more fire at them, but by now he had used a lot of his fire and he tried to just distract them and get away, but then again someone showed up right next to him, too fast this time to get away and his fire blast got redirected the moment the other one got his hand on his arm, but Fuma lunged out and hit the other one successful on the face, making Ryosuke stumble to the back with a laugh.

“You I will kill with or without the others agreeing,” Fuma hissed at the boy, but of course he couldn’t easily attack after Ryosuke had just stolen some of his energy and he was already feeling dizzy before.

“Oh so mean and here we got along so well before,” Ryosuke mocked.

“You brought all this shit on Reo and gave Domoto our exact location. You’re at fault for a lot of deaths and I don’t care if you did it willingly or not.”

“Primitive, yet honest,” Ryosuke laughed again while the soldiers caught up to them and aimed at Fuma while the water user from before had also somehow made it back to them.

Fuma clicked his tongue with an annoyed look, but got ready to use his abilities to the fullest, but then fire got thrown at the soldiers from the side and while Ryosuke tried to redirect it, someone else had interfered with his telekinesis, stopping the fire from getting redirected.

The next second Mitsu jumped at the water user while Kento dashed towards Ryosuke and forced him back.

“Nice timing,” Fuma cheered and jumped into the fight as well. He left the fire attacks to Kento, so that Ryosuke was busy using his telekinesis on him, which gave Fuma the opening he needed to hit some punches and kicks on Ryosuke and try to get some powers back from him. Unfortunately, with both of them using power transfer it was an eternal forth and back, so eventually he just kicked Ryosuke to the ground and jumped back.

“Here, let’s try it this way,” Kento said and transferred a great amount of his energy to Fuma, leaving him only with enough energy to keep fighting.

“I didn’t ask for your help,” Fuma complained, but Kento only gave him a lopsided smile.

“I won’t take it back so better use it wisely.”

“Right, because I am so good at doing that,” Fuma laughed before he dashed at Ryosuke straight on while Kento turned towards the soldiers who had been caught up between Mitsu and the water user, but some of them had made it over to them now and Kento could still fight enough to keep them busy.

***

“Go for it Kentaro!”

That was all Massu said when he dashed right towards him, Nakamaru and Wataru.

“Right, if there is water just leave it to the water user,” Kentaro said and rolled his eyes, but still used the river in between them and the soldiers running after Massu, to crash them all into the ground with one huge wave.

“Why didn’t Kamenashi’s group cross your way?” Nakamaru asked while Massu caught his breath for a moment.

“Oh they did,” Massu said. “But then there were too many Phenomenists interfering and I took care of getting the soldiers away, knowing it would be easier for them to fight. Well, more or less.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” Wataru asked with a raised eyebrow.

“I didn’t really leave them with the easiest opponents,” Massu admitted, but then they all had to duck away from bullets from several machine guns and Kentaro fell to the back with a yelp, Nakamaru jumping to the front to stop as many bullets as possible. At the same time the fighters from their community attacked from all around them as they had been on back up as well and had waited hidden in the forest, on the trees and behind the soldiers, now attacking from all angles. Even if they only had a handful of firearms, they were skilled with bow and arrow, knives and swords as well, so they would be able to stop them as long as they didn’t have too much back up, but the machine guns were the most dangerous weapon they had on them and Kentaro had been hit on the right arm by two bullets, Wataru pulling him back while Massu jumped into the fight as well.

“Can you heal?” Wataru asked and Kentaro nodded as he had enough water around him to actually heal himself quickly under the cover the others gave him, but when he got ready to jump into the fight as well there were several explosions around them and he hurried to lift a wall of water in front of him and Wataru.

“Grenades,” Wataru said and looked to see if the others were okay, but at least Massu and Nakamaru had been safe from the attacks. "Kentaro, I want you to go ahead."

"What?" The boy asked a bit panicked as there was still too much happening around them to even relax. People were still shooting, grenades were hitting around them and at the last moment he stopped exactly one of those grenades to be thrown right towards them. It exploded inside the water and left everyone around it getting swallowed by another wave.

"We can hold them off, but as I can't see any Phenomenists around I feel like the others need more backup. Leave this to us."

Kentaro felt a bit restless about that decision, but Nakamaru and Massu were not the only Phenomenists at this location fighting, so even with a huge number of soldiers they would definitely manage.

Eventually Kentaro agreed and fought his way around the incoming soldiers. With so many Phenomenists around he wasn't even sure where exactly to head to as he could feel them all around. But then he decided for the south, as he knew that if Ueda was still at the west part that Kamenashi was his backup, but if his brother had no backup then he was needed more down there even though he was extremely troubled about choosing a direction.

With no one around he sped up and tried to catch any fighting sounds around him, but then the first fire came into sight so he knew the others would be around somewhere. Just when he dashed alongside the firewall someone jumped right at him from the other side.

Kentaro had been so taken off guard that he didn’t even have the time to try and get any water together as there was no river close by and the air was dry through the fire.

He had seen the fire coming towards him from the other one's hand, but through that he had missed the knife in his other hand.

There hadn't even been a fight, they just froze like this.

"Seems like you fight better when you're angry," Reia laughed at him, twisting the knife in his stomach and Kentaro let out a hiss and tried to push himself away from the other one to heal, but Reia knew of course that he could do that so he kept pushing, making Kentaro stumbled to the back.

Instead of throwing fire directly at Kentaro, the boy set everything around them on fire.

"Now try to get your water together," the boy laughed. Kentaro had gotten at least a small amount of water together, but the pain distracted him too much to actively use it and when Reia suddenly lifted his knee to kick him right next were he kept the knife in his body, Kentaro let out a small scream and the water automatically moved to his stomach area. He wouldn't be able to close the wound like this, but the water could at least help with stopping the internal bleedings to a certain degree.

"I think you'd be a good candidate," Reia said with a lopsided sneer before he stopped Kentaro from trying to punch him and with the next move Reia slammed him into a tree, pushing the knife even further into his body.

"If you don't behave, I need go get rid of you after all."

Something Kentaro wouldn't allow, but he had to come up with something fast or he would indeed not be able to survive this.

***

"Playtime is not over," Tama said when he suddenly jumped right in front of Hokuto and Taiga.

The fire he released distracted Hokuto as he needed to redirect it while Tama had lunged out for Taiga with a normal punch next, making Taiga use his telekinesis to stop the other one, but when he tried to counter with a kick to also not use too much of his abilities right away, Tama grabbed his leg and forced Taiga to twist with the movement and he landed on the ground.

Hokuto had immediately jumped on them, but Tama and taken some of Taiga's energy with him, forcing Hokuto back with fire blasts.

Just before Tama could hit him, Kamenashi had redirected some bullets from the soldiers, which hit Tama on the shoulder and ribs. With a laugh the man jumped to the back, but there were too many soldiers for them all to concentrate on Tama.

When the older one pointed at Taiga, the boy gave him a death glare. "I wonder how Taisuke would react if I kill his beloved little brother first."

"We won't find out, because you'll be the only one dying today," Hokuto replied as he stepped in front of Taiga.

"Overprotective boyfriend, I will deal with you later," Tama said and suddenly whistled. The next person to approach had Taiga's eyes narrow as Juri made it over to Tama.

He didn't show any reaction towards the boy. He played his role as the slave of the city perfectly.

"Go play," Tama ordered and Juri looked at Hokuto without any change of emotion and he immediately used the water of a small stream behind him to attack Hokuto and force him away from Taiga.

Kamenashi interfered before Tama could attack and jumped in between them, pushing Taiga to the back. "Take care of the soldiers."

Taiga felt a wave of rage through those words. Even as a Phenomenist, even with two active abilities, people still tried to protect him, but for now he dashed towards the soldiers, knowing that arguing wasn't a question right now. His abilities were strong enough to win against Tama, Taiga had shown that at the village already, but this time the situation was different. Kamenashi and Hokuto were too close, the environment not open enough for him to be able to spot every bullet that got shot and he couldn’t even make up his mind if he wanted to attack Juri or not.

***

"Stop him!" Myuto shouted.

"I'm trying," Konpi shouted back as he was already sitting on top of Reo, while Myuto had gotten a grip on Reo's legs, trying to stop him from kicking them off him.

"He's somehow resisting the power transfer," Konpi yelled as his transfer seemed to work in slow motion and couldn't drag enough energy from Reo to make him stop moving.

Reo slammed his head up the next second and when he collided with Konpi, the boy fell back with a yelp.

Myuto immediately tried to use his telekinesis to keep Reo from moving, but then water suddenly formed in the air nevertheless and when the drops formed to sharp pins, Myuto had to jump back, protecting himself from any injuries.

The next second Reo was up, using the water to cut the chains and with his hands free, things got even more out of hand.

He immediately tried to run, aiming for the ocean, but Konpi forced him to stop, yet Reo could use his abilities even without being able to move and the same as with Myuto he formed a wall of water and forced Konpi to concentrate on the incoming attack.

"He'll get himself killed if he keeps using his abilities while being this weakened," Myuto said, while he assisted Konpi with blocking the incoming attacks.

"Then what do we do?" Konpi asked as he kept backing off instead of attacking straight on, because Reo was indeed not looking well. He was pale with his body shaking, but he forced himself to keep going.

"Let him go."

"What?" Konpi asked in disbelief.

"We can follow him and keep him away from the main fight. He wants to get to the ocean to get more water, so for now let him go."

"But the moment he will get enough water, he can recharge as well."

Something Myuto was well aware off, but he couldn't just watch how Reo was killing himself through trying to fight them no matter the consequences.

"Then we'll fight him seriously at the ocean. At least it's a fair fight then."

***

Kentaro had started clawing Reia's face at some point, out of options as the heat around them made it impossible to get any water together and the tiny bit he kept somehow together was trying desperately to stop the bleeding, yet Reia kept a strong hold on the knife.

"Just stay still for a bit longer," Reia said, enjoying his superiority after he had been forced to run at their last fight. The boy had something like a transmitter on him, so he was definitely asking for backup, but there was not a split second he was unconcentrated.

When Kentaro had gotten enough water out of the dry air to actually try and attack Reia with it the boy jumped back, dragging the knife with him. He avoided the water pins aiming for him and as he knew that Kentaro wouldn't be able to get up easily he immediately approached him once more, kicking him back down and stomping right on his wound, making Kentaro scream out.

"Oh sorry was that too harsh?"

With another laugh Reia wanted to bring the knife down once more, but then a fire blast broke through the fire around them, making Reia jump off the other one.

Kentaro didn't move as he used the moment to try and heal, but it would take way more time than usual. With a look to one of the fire walls he saw how Ueda walked through the fire, throwing his burning shirt to the ground the next moment. He gave Kentaro a worried look, but so did Kentaro. If Ueda was here by himself, where were Nikaido and Taisuke?

Things had taken a chaotic turn after the water user had used the fire Fuma had set to create smoke all around them. It was already difficult for Kento to keep up with the number of enemies as he wasn't at full strength, but then the soldiers had kept shooting through the smoke and while Mitsu had been able to stop a few bullets, he couldn't stop what he couldn't see and in the end he as well as Kento had ended up hit by several bullets.

Fuma had seen the chaos unfolding, but Ryosuke wouldn't let him get away.

"What a shame that you can't help them," Ryosuke mocked and the boy definitely had the upper hand. His power transfer worked faster than Fuma's so he kept losing against the boy's speed. With each time he tried to find an opening to attack or dash over to the others, Ryosuke easily stopped his movements.

This time though Ryosuke went into the offensive and Fuma laughed at the way Ryosuke used a simple gun for that, but with his telekinesis it was indeed a good combination. Even if he missed, he could easily redirect the bullet.

Fuma had dodged two attacks, but got hit on the side of his stomach on the third bullet, but he used his remaining strength to create another firewall to create some space. What he hadn't seen coming were a handful of soldiers suddenly standing behind him.

"You gotta be kidding me," Fuma hissed and jumped up, ready to fight them off, but he lost his balance, no fire emerging as he was out of energy. The soldiers in front of him immediately shot, but the bullets stopped in the air, Mitsu luckily close enough to stop them. But then there was another shot and with it a movement Fuma wasn't even able to stop anymore as he was close to fainting.

Kento had dashed behind him and on the sound of the shot, Kento fell on Fuma's back.

There was not much time to even realize what had happened as the water user was attacking Mitsu so that he wouldn't be able to stop the next bullets, but behind Fuma, Ryosuke was heard laughing.

"He really seems to treasure you more than himself," Ryosuke mocked after he had shot through the slowly fading firewall and had hit Kento instead of Fuma.

But there had been more to it. Something Ryosuke and the soldiers hadn't realized and Fuma reached out for Kento's arms to pull him off his back and put him to the ground next to him. The boy was still conscious, barely. But he still gave Fuma a smile.

"That was pretty reckless."

"Hey, I told you I won't get in your way, but if you can't fight anymore, I need to do something about it, right?"

Now Fuma also formed a smile, but also shook his head as he looked over his shoulder at Ryosuke.

"You better run," Fuma hissed at him, but of course the boy only laughed.

"Why is that?"

"Because I promised to not kill any Phenomenists today, but if you don't run fast enough then it's on you."

With those words Fuma created a ring of fire around him and Mitsu immediately dashed away, the water user following him, while the soldiers were aiming for Fuma now, but they wouldn't make it. Kento had given all his abilities to Fuma. A huge risk with being hurt already, but Fuma would not let it go to waste and with a move that would usually only be possible for Ueda, he let the fire around him form a spiral movement. And in a split second it went out to the others, forming a flaming tornado.

Screams started surrounding them as the soldiers hadn't been able to retreat in time and for a split second Fuma saw Ryosuke getting caught up in the fire, but the boy still tried to dash away. Not that Fuma would chase after him. For now, his priorities lay somewhere else.

***

Even with no Phenomenists at their location, Massu and the others had their hands full with most of the soldiers heavily armed. Machine guns and grenades had caused losses on their side. Nakamaru had successfully thrown back two grenades with his telekinesis, while Massu had used the distraction of the soldiers to set more fire into their rows, but now both of them were close to exhausting their own abilities.

"We got this, take a breather," Wataru said and attacked with the other Infirm. Now they had a good cover through the smoke and the soldiers slowly were running out of bullets as well.

"What are they up to?" Massu asked and Nakamaru gave him a worried look. It was obvious by now that the soldiers were only here to buy time. If they killed them or not didn't seem the main priority.

"They knew that we'd send out Phenomenists first and to different locations, so I think they did so as well. Instead of storming towards the community they collided with them head on."

"While it would have been easier to kill them if they had attacked on the same spot with full force," Massu said.

"Which means their goal might be something else," Nakamaru realized.

"Watch out!"

The voice was still too far away to be an immediate threat, but what made both of them swirl around was the fact that the voice came from the back. At the last moment Nakamaru blocked the water pins getting shot at them, but Massu wasn't fast enough to aim at Reo as the boy was swift and used to fight against fire users.

There was no direct water source, so Massu tried to keep Reo from forming enough water, yet the boy didn't seem to even consider attacking them seriously.

"He's trying to run!" Konpi shouted as he reached them with Myuto, while Reo just dashed away as if they hadn't even been there.

"Well, I doubt we can easily stop him," Massu said as he didn't even try to get after him.

"What are you saying? We need to bring him back!" Myuto yelled at the other one.

"You let him run in the first place, didn't you?" Nakamaru asked and Konpi looked at Myuto who immediately rolled his eyes.

“We hoped he'd try to get to the ocean. He would have committed suicide if we had tried to draw even more energy from him."

"But he aimed to run instead, which makes sense. He needs to return with the others to the city or they will definitely kill him," Nakamaru concluded.

"Do you think they can really just kill them? From that distance?" Konpi asked, but none of them could answer that important question.

"Then let him go," Myuto said to everyone's surprise. He didn't say that easily, but he didn't want to see Reo die just because they kept him here. "For now, let's push them back. We don't even know how the front line looks like."

"Good decision," Massu said and clapped the boy on the shoulder. They had to try and remain logical, no matter the outcome of the fight.

***

“Why did you say we had this under control?” Taisuke yelled after he had barely dodged some small rocks that had come flying right towards his head after Yara had used the impact Taisuke had created with his fire. Luckily the soldiers had been hit by the fire and the rocks and falling trees Taisuke had created with that, but now he couldn’t bring the energy up to keep running from Yara, but Nikaido shot at the Phenomenist, making him hide behind some trees.

“Because we do. Just don’t overdo it. As long as you can rest enough and I keep him busy in between we’re fine.”

“Right, because you will be able to keep him busy the moment the bullets of that gun are gone,” Taisuke scolded the other one and tried to get back up to his feet after sitting down for a moment, but his body refused to move yet and Nikaido had to reach out for the other one’s arm to stabilize him.

“I can attack in your place if you want to?” Nikaido offered, but of course he wouldn’t just steal any fire without asking.

“Or you could just give me some of your energy and let me go wild instead,” Taisuke challenged and Nikaido only shrugged his shoulders.

“That is up to you. I won’t stop you.”

Nikaido moved his hand to Taisuke’s palm and the older one seemed a bit surprised that Nikaido would let Taisuke take the energy from him instead, but he felt grateful for the trust and also the understanding Nikaido showed so he hurried to take at least enough energy from the other one to be able to dash into another attack as he still had enough firepower to actually chase Yara all the way down to the cliffs if needed.

“Well then,” Nikaido said and sat down casually, trying to overplay that he was indeed feeling a bit dizzy after the transfer. “Playtime for you. But don’t mess it up, because I can’t try and get any new gun for a few minutes now.”

“First everything around the soldiers is on fire anyway, do not run over there to get a gun, because second you won’t need a gun, I will end this here.”

“You’re worried,” Nikaido said when Taisuke already walked in front of him, Yara now also stepping out of his hiding place as he realized that Taisuke was going to confront him.

“Last time Tama came to provoke us, especially me, but this time I feel like they are playing a game. There is something else going on here. If they just wanted to massacre us then they would have found a more secret way to do it.”

“I agree,” Nikaido said, also worried about the way the city soldiers had split up. They had aimed for it, but it just went a bit too smoothly, that was also why Nikaido had told Ueda to head back first to see how the others were doing, after all Tama, Ryosuke and other dangerous Phenomenists and soldiers were still all around them.

“Even more reason to end this fast,” Taisuke said and created more fire around his fists, ready to turn the entire forest upside down if that meant he could make it back to the others sooner. His stomach feeling told him that they were only wasting their time with this fight.

***

What was different this time? Taiga couldn’t really tell. When he had gotten his abilities, he had acted out of rage, his abilities taking over his logic. But this time it shouldn’t be much of a difference. People he loved had gotten hurt. His own life was in danger and yet he was the one losing this time.

Things had taken a horrible turn when Kamenashi’s idea of letting Taiga take care of the soldiers had backfired in the worst way possible as the soldiers had been aware of his active abilities. They had distracted him with normal gun fire and side attacks to make him focus his telekinesis on the bullets and his fire on the approaching soldiers. Yet that had been an almost fatal mistake as Taiga had missed the grenades and he hadn’t been able to redirect all the attacks as smoothly as he wanted to. On top of that they had opened fire at him with two machine guns, way too many bullets to doge all of them.

To his surprise though he hadn’t been as badly hurt as he had thought, but that had been because Kamenashi and Hokuto had both reacted in time and redirected most of the remaining bullets, yet that had cost them greatly.

Hokuto had been immediately taken off his feet by a pretty rough water attack from Juri, not that Taiga feared for Hokuto’s life this time. Somehow, he could read Juri’s expression now way better than before and while he still felt so much rage about the other one fighting against them, he couldn’t actually bring himself to attack with full force, but neither did Hokuto and luckily Juri had realized that, so their fight wasn’t as serious as what was going on around them.

It was different for Tama and Kamenashi though as Tama was obviously aiming to kill whoever was going to get in his way and with Kamenashi being distracted for just a second too long, Tama had also redirected some of the bullets and Kamenashi had been hit in the shoulder and on the hip, now falling to the front, but the danger wasn’t over. Tama immediately threw a fire blast at the other one, Kamenashi still having enough energy left to redirect it, but Tama was going strong as well and the soldiers helped him with shooting into his direction as well as at Taiga’s direction. Bullets getting redirected into so many directions that it was hard to tell who was shooting who by now.

Eventually Kamenashi screamed out when he got heavily burned on the arm, but Tama wouldn’t stop, he was aiming to burn the other one alive.

That was when Taiga finally found the strength he was looking for as he moved intuitively and that right in time to force Tama to jump away when he redirected another handful of bullets towards him, but also used his fire to cut off the remaining soldiers from their battle as best as possible. To make everything more believable for Tama he also made sure to use another fire blast to get Juri away from Hokuto, so that the other one could run over to Kamenashi to get him away from Tama while Taiga stopped in front of him.

“And what now? You really think you can beat me?”

“I made you run away last time as much as I remember,” Taiga hissed.

“I should have killed you the last time I got the chance,” Tama mocked. “Together with your brothers and all those other useless Phenomenists.”

“Then why don’t you do us the favor and go ahead yourself first?” Taiga said, now the fire was already around his fists as he lost his calm with the way Tama was just not able to think straight anymore.

“I fear if you want me dead first, then you have to do it yourself,” Tama laughed. He seemed surprised though when Taiga lashed out for him with a thin fire whip, a move he hadn’t even learned from anyone yet, but he had seen Ueda use his fire in pretty impressive ways and the more he got pissed the better he was able to control his fire.

The next attack he started clashed into a wall of water, creating smoke between him and Tama. Of course, the other one immediately used that moment to attack as well. As they hadn’t been able to see each other for a brief moment Tama had missed the annoyed look Taiga had given Juri, but instead of giving Tama the advantage through his attack he had reminded Taiga of him still being part of this battle and if Taiga ignored him then Tama would realize that. Taiga hurried to redirect Tama’s fire towards Juri, the boy putting more water as a defense until their surroundings were more smoke than anything else.

“Go after the other two, you’re in the way,” Tama complained and Juri only nodded, hurrying after Hokuto who was trying to get Kamenashi away from the main fight as he also realized that like this Juri would hopefully follow them and then he could rejoin the main fight.

“I really want to see Taisuke’s face when I hand him your corpse,” Tama said and those words had Taiga slightly shiver as he still couldn’t believe how much Tama had changed after becoming a Phenomenist. He had been such a cheerful Infirm and yet after peacefully living with Phenomenists for years, he was now one of their most dangerous enemies. But Taiga wasn’t going to let him hurt even more of their people even if that meant to defeat someone who once was a good friend of him and his brothers.

***

Usually there was no way that Reia could get the upper hand against Ueda, but the situation wasn’t really the easiest. Kentaro had immediately realized that Ueda was hurt. He had somehow bandaged his leg, but Reia had of course taken advantage of his wound and tried to aim for a more physical fight than just exhausting their abilities, but then the boy jumped back with a whistle after Ueda had grabbed him on the arm just for a brief moment.

“Damn, that was a close one. Stupid power transfer,” the boy mocked after he had caused some cuts on Ueda’s skin already, but nothing too serious for now.

“If you’re just here to delay us then get lost,” Ueda warned the boy and gave Kentaro a worried look. But exactly that look made Reia aim for Kentaro and just in time a small water wall somehow protected him from even heavier damage, but exactly that move made Reia laugh. “Oh, I’m so sorry, did I force you to use all that precious water on that defense?”

With nothing to get water from, Kentaro wasn’t able to close his wounds. He remained on the ground, pressing his hands against the wound on his stomach, but there was no other way out than Ueda trying to buy time or Kentaro wouldn’t make it out alive.

When Reia aimed for Kentaro again, Ueda dashed to the front, making sure to not put too much pressure on his own body and just keep the boy busy with his attacks. Energy wise he should easily overpower Reia, but the boy knew that as well of course.

“Watch out!”

Kentaro’s shouting had taken Ueda off guard as he had been so focused on Reia that he had missed someone else running up at him and jumping right at his back, successfully kicking the wound on his leg and bringing him to fall.

Things went out of hand too fast after that. Reo had shown up out of nowhere, Ueda now trying to get the boy off him, but at the same time Reia had suddenly fired a flare gun into the sky before approaching Ueda with fast steps. The older one had immediately drained Reo off as much energy as possible, not that Reo could use much water to attack. But Reo was as determined as the other Phenomenists to fight them to the death, a horrible fighting style coming with it as he tried to claw Ueda’s face, biting the other one on the arm when Ueda tried to make him finally back off.

But as the focus was on Reo, Reia was aiming for Ueda with his knife and Kentaro shouted once more, trying to somehow get to his feet. What he hadn’t seen coming were soldiers suddenly showing up behind him. This time he was shouting at them instead when they suddenly reached out for him and tried to pull him away from the fight.

“KENTARO!” Ueda called out for him and even though he felt more than sorry about what he had to do, he burned Reo badly when he forced the boy off with a fire blast, knowing he would be able to heal later. The boy fell back with a yelp, but Reia was right in front of Ueda the next second, trying to stop him, but now Ueda had gotten enough power from Reo to actually forget about the pain of his body for now, yet the moment he threw more fire at Reia in an attempt to get the boy out of the way, Reia just created fire himself and they both vanished into a spiral of fire.

Kentaro jolted when the next thing that happened were some of the soldiers next to him suddenly shooting with machine guns into the fire. Reia jumped out of the fire blast at the side right after, obviously having this all planned ahead, but Ueda didn’t emerge from any side.

“LET ME GO!” Kentaro roared at the soldiers, but his body was giving up on him, his abilities useless in his surroundings and then a sharp pain hit him on the neck and with a gasp he fell to the front, two soldiers keeping a tight grip on him so that he wouldn’t collapse to the front.

“Letting you go would be a waste. You’re tough enough to survive, but also not too dangerous to have to kill you, so you’re a good choice,” Reia laughed at him, but Kentaro couldn’t even make sense out of his words. He felt dizzy and his vision was blurry. The fire was still raging in front of him and Ueda was just not coming into sight. Some soldiers had helped Reo up, but the boy looked horrible. The fire had burned him heavily, but he didn’t even seem to care. He didn’t even look at Kentaro when he walked off without another word.

When Kentaro felt the soldiers pulling him to the back he started struggling again, trying to use the bit of water he could somehow get together to attack and the soldiers fell back with a yelp when Kentaro hit them with sharp pins right in the face.

“UEDA!” Kentaro yelled as he tried to crawl to the front. “UEDA, PLEASE!”

But there was no reaction. No last second rescue move or any sign of the other one being still able to fight or being even alive. A thought that made Kentaro scream out.

“So much drama,” Reia said as he kicked Kentaro so hard against his ribs that he fell on his back with yelp as the boy had hit his open wound. “Just finally faint, would you?”

He was indeed close to it, but whatever the soldiers had given him, didn’t seem to affect Phenomenists that fast, but Reia was running out of patience. “Then let’s do it the traditional way. See you later.”

With that Reia kicked Kentaro so hard against the head that there was no way for Kentaro to stay conscious, but his worries were more with Ueda than with himself, but for now he wouldn’t be able to rescue either of them.

***

Fuma had collapsed after the huge amount of fire he had used, but while there was no immediate attack there was a sudden flare gun being shot up from Mitsu’s direction.

Kento got up on his knees with a groan, helping Fuma up as well, but they were both badly hurt, out of energy and surrounded by their own fire.

Ryosuke was nowhere to be seen, Fuma forming a brief mocking smile as he knew that he had burned Ryosuke heavily enough to make him retreat, but the danger wasn’t over as some soldiers suddenly showed up at their location.

“How many of them are there?” Fuma hissed.

“I guess we gave them too much time to mobilize soldiers from other cities as well,” Kento said and tried to get up, but it was no use. His back was in too much pain from the bullet he had taken and the fire blast he shot towards the soldiers was neither big nor dangerous to them. Just that small attack made him fall back to the front.

“Take only one,” the water user suddenly yelled over to the soldiers and with that Mitsu’s look turned murderous as he realized what they were up to.

The soldiers immediately charged at the two boys, both unable to even get up and when the soldiers tried to drag Kento along, Fuma pulled the boy back to the ground, protectively closing his arms around him.

“Get rid of him,” the water user interfered once more, but this time Mitsu was already dashing in for an attack. He was badly wounded by now as well, his strength barely still somehow of any use, but now he was furious enough to tackle the man down and use brutal force to keep him there. After a few punches the man tried to get some water up towards Mitsu, but luckily he wasn’t as skilled with the water as the other boys and Mitsu was faster, grabbing a stone from the ground and slamming it right against the other one’s head.

With a yelp the man turned to the side and let the water drop, but Mitsu had no time to deal with him so he jumped up and attacked the soldiers around Fuma and Kento. They immediately shot at him, but Mitsu redirected the bullets, forcing them back at least a bit, but then he also fell to his knees, unable to keep up with the dizziness of his body.

“Get rid of all of them if they cause too much trouble,” the water user said as he got up and walked up to Mitsu with unsteady steps and a heavy bleeding head injury. “You’re definitely too much trouble.”

The water that got lifted from the nearby river this time would definitely slice through Mitsu with the way it was already formed into a thin line, but then the water got stopped right before it could hit Mitsu.

“You’ve caused enough damage for today,” Nakamaru was heard as he forced the water back at the Phenomenist, but the sharp edge was lost so it didn’t create much damage. But for that Massu had come with him and he gave the soldiers a warning look with his fire raised in front of his fists. They all lifted their guns, still up for a fight as it seemed, but all of the bullets got stopped with one smooth hand movement of Nakamaru. He had the most control of a wide area with his ability and he sent them all back precisely at the soldiers, finally making the water user shout at them to retreat.

“You look horrible,” Nakamaru said as he stepped next to Mitsu, while Massu helped Fuma and Kento.

“You don’t, which hopefully means you didn’t have that much trouble in the community.”

“We had enough fighters to hold them off. We had some losses though. They were armed heavily, but I felt like they were only trying to hold us off.”

“They just tried to drag Kento with them, so I think that was indeed the case. We need to make sure the others are safe,” Mitsu said, but Nakamaru pushed him back down on the shoulder.

“You’re in no way able to fight anymore and we can’t leave you here in case they come back. Leave it to the others. We send out people to all locations.”

“But if you pushed them back by now, I wonder if they already got someone,” Fuma said worried and Massu’s look told him that he feared for the same.

“For now, we can only hope that everyone is safe and head back to secure the community,” Massu said.

“Fine,” Fuma said, knowing his own limits for now. He pulled on Kento’s shoulder to help him up, but the weight was more than he expected and when he looked at the other one, he realized that Kento had fainted. “Well, I didn’t even think he could fight for this long.”

“I told you he was a good training partner for you,” Nakamaru teased and helped Mitsu up while Massu offered to carry Kento.

“Are you okay to walk on your own?” Massu asked. Fuma snorted on that, but still had trouble actually standing up, so they took it slow. Fuma put his hand to Kento’s back, making it look like he was stabilizing himself, but Nakamaru gave him a smile as he realized that he was trying to stop the bleeding of the boy’s wound.

“Let’s hurry back. The sooner we get everyone to safety, the faster we can go and help the remaining fighters,” Nakamaru urged them.