The fog began to thin as the first rays of sunlight from the distant horizon finally made an appearance. It would be some time before this particular little valley was illuminated but the dark purple sky above started its shift into a brighter blue. A wheezing Ringo descended the tree as rapidly as she could, stumbling at the very bottom on her exhausted legs. The nasty looking Hajime cocoon gestated just a stone’s throw away from her, but Ringo did not dare move yet until she got confirmation the Agent was absolutely out of commission. At any rate the damage he took was far beyond her capability to fix so there was no hurry there. If anything the wad of bandage-like ribbons now encasing Hajime was probably keeping him from bleeding out entirely, assuming the boy hadn’t perished yet.

“Sir!” Ringo’s voice croaked, a bit hoarse from dehydration. “Sir! Hajime! Can you respond?”

She heard nothing, which wasn’t surprising. It seemed like a lot of their encounters ended with Hajime completely retired from action. His Daredevil’s Blood jutsu might have been the only thing keeping the child intact after he got beaten up so badly so many times. From behind Ringo heard the pair of casual footsteps approaching, and she quickly spun around to give a salute. “Captain Sir!” She looked at the otherwise unremarkable Annitou soldier as he approached, his demeanor rather relaxed for having just helped dispatch the murderous Agent. “Thank you for helping, Sir! What are your next orders?” It had been such a stroke of luck that another soldier had come back to assist, but that was just what made Annitou soldiers the best in the world! Utter loyalty in the face of certain death! With his help manning the cannon, Ringo had been able to finally deliver justice! What a great story this would make when they went back home!

The captain glanced towards the Hajime pile, then towards the distant smoking remains of where Hana landed, then down to the filthy girl gazing up at him expectantly. He placed a firm hand on top of her evenly cut hair as if he was going to pet her. How odd, Ringo thought. That wasn’t a proper Annitou salute.

The Captain’s expression didn’t change as his arm swung wide. The captain’s grip on Ringo’s head turned painful. She didn’t have any chance to respond as he swung her around and slammed her face first into a nearby trunk with a vicious sounding crack. The blow was more than enough to shatter the outer layer of bark on the poor tree.

Ringo bounced off the impact with her face smeared into a bloody pulp, and fell backwards like a lifeless doll. She hit the earth with a very quiet thud. After a brief inspection it was clear the girl wouldn’t be getting back up from that blow.

Another name to cross off the list. The captain advanced slowly, taking his time to step over any wayward ribbons that now decorated the battlefield. He regarded the lump of Hajime for a moment, then decided to best not get involved there. Instead he moved towards the smoldering pile of ribbons that now lay splayed open where Hana fell. As he drew closer he noticed that despite the solid hit, it seemed as though something diverted the cannonball’s trajectory slightly during the flight, so that Hana had been flung sideways from it upon collision with the tree rather than getting crushed under it completely. Even in those last few seconds, she had managed to mitigate the damage with her Weave? She would be an absolute monster in the future if left to grow. Better to deal with it now.

Well, perhaps the boy’s blood had something to do with it as well. The captain drew a knife from his belt and advanced towards Hana’s debris-covered body. Hana succeeded in those final moments at preserving her life even if her body ended up sustaining massive damage anyway. Left alone she might even recover eventually. This was a narrow window of opportunity. Gingerly he lifted off pieces of charred ribbons and fallen branches to reveal the girl concealed underneath. When he did find her he could barely tell the twisted and gnarled ribbons from her own skin. The injuries looked massive but were almost certainly better than getting vaporized into a bloody mist by a cannonball..

He could tell after a moment that there was an almost imperceptible up and down motion around where he guessed her torso was- still breathing, amazingly! Pity. Even if she were conscious the damage sustained must have been unimaginably painful. Finishing Hana here would have been a mercy, really. He brought the edge of his knife up towards the body, towards what had a good chance of being her neck.

A fragile little voice cracked out from behind him. “Back off or I’ll shoot.”

Placing the voice was somewhat difficult. It sounded too young to be an Annitou soldier, too boyish to be Ringo, and too feminine to be Hajime. Process of elimination meant there could only be one owner. “Yuu of the Metsina Royal Family, I presume.” The captain remained motionless, though his eyes continued searching Hana’s body for his real objective.

The voice continued, heavy with fatigue. “You’re actually Daisuke, aren’t you? The Daisuke that attacked us before. ”

“If you believe as much, you best let me finish.” Motonobu’s tone gave no indication of feeling threatened, despite his disguise as an Annitou captain having failed already. His hands remained still but twitched as he spied what he was after. “This girl- your partner, is still alive. If you shoot me with that crossbow I’m assuming you’re holding, I’ll have more than ample time to do as I please.”

“If you do anything at all I won’t hesitate to end you where you stand.”

“Conflicting orders. Very unprofessional.” Motonubu dropped his knife and used his two hands to push up off the twisted remains. As he did so black smoke poured imperceptibly off both his palms. When he stood fully upright it looked as though he held nothing in his hands but wads of bloodied bandages. Motonubu turned towards the sound of the voice and sure enough there stood the diminutive appearance of the royal Yuu, his long hair knotted and matted with leaf litter and his clothes torn and grimy. In his hands he struggled to hold upright one of the large Annitou crossbows and had it trained right at his target. It was difficult to place his expression- but, also, not terribly important. Both of the Metsina Agents were useless now, having served their purpose. It was time to move on.

“I said get away from her!”

“Certainly.” Motonubu jerked his head in no particular direction. “Annitou reinforcements are sure to be here any moment. I have no intention of sticking around. Drop your weapon and I’ll flee. I have no more business with you people.”

That earned a bit of derisive but pained laughter from Yuu. “You took it off her, didn’t you? The artifact?”

“Of course not. Look.” Motonubu’s eyes motioned down at the body. Sure enough, sitting atop the pile of debris was something that looked very much like the skull relic the Metsina pair had been seeking this entire time. “It turns out I did not need it. I only needed to collect the dagger you stole from my ally.” Now it was his turn to give a disconcerting chuckle. “All this carnage could have been spared if you Metsina folks could have kept your thieving instincts at bay. Is that not amusing?”

The standoff became silent. The dilemma was apparent on Yuu’s end. He was clearly in no condition to load the crossbow again and firing even once and missing would have put him and Hana in even more danger. Yet every second that passed threatened the reveal of more Annitou forces. Yuu somehow dodged most of them while trying to track Hana down, but if he had to carry her somewhere safe as well there would be no escaping the tightening noose of soldiers. Maybe capture wasn’t the worst, but Hana would never forgive him for that.

Assuming there was enough of Hana left to do any forgiving, anyway.

The pressure only increased as distant shouting reached their ears. It was a call- for Ringo, specifically, as the soldiers she had met during her questionable ‘retreat’ now returned with friends in tow. Yuu’s face contorted with frustration. He needed to shoot this Agent, he wanted to, and by all rights if there was any justice in the world he would have. But doing so meant condemning himself and Hana. This whole twisted situation must have been Motonubu’s deliberate setup. Yuu didn’t even try to disguise his disgust.

“Turn around and get lost.” Yuu gestured with the crossbow. “If you even so much as look back, I’ll put a bolt in your neck.”

An absolutely insufferable smile spread across Motonubu’s face. “Gladly.” With his own deliberate slowness Motonubu turned around, then casually walked off into the fog. He did so almost completely silently as to not alert any potential scouts to his location, either. That meant there was still time!

Yuu advanced just as slowly after Motonubu, until he reached Hana. Then once the Agent disappeared Yuu dropped his crossbow and fell to his knees. His breathing became rapid as he surveyed the damage and couldn’t believe how Hana was even alive. How in the hell was he going to get her out of here in this state?

Almost as a second thought he reached out to grab the skull as well. The royal family’s treasure seemed like the least important thing to worry about right then but he wanted to make sure he didn’t forget it. As he did so his fingers brushed up against what he thought to be the stone surface of the relic, but instead they merely pushed through it as though it were smoke. He blinked, then grabbed at the object again. A swirl of black particles around it dispersed as if someone popped a balloon, revealing nothing more than a wad of filthy bandages underneath.

That man, that Agent! His disguising jutsu, that let him pose as so many people, it could even be used to disguise objects as well? It made a certain sense, given that Motonubu could transform his clothing as well, but realizing this too late meant once again the skull slipped through Yuu’s fingers. It explained Daisuke’s confusion about the ‘hourglass’ as well. Everyone on the island was getting bamboozled by the same jutsu. The emotional damage hit harder than any crossbow bolt would have.

The distant shouting intensified and Yuu tossed away the bandages in disgust. There were far more important tasks at hand now.