A constant sound envelops her from all directions. Steps, a multitude of them, run up and down hitting the wood planks and stairs that are part of the slums, high in the ridge.

Cuddling the shadows, from the window to her right she can see a multitude of law enforcement officers checking everywhere for her. Wielding spears, carrying crimson mithril chains, to some of them have joined anti-J’avo corps in the search, wearing heavy armor that gleams with a cold light.

How… How dare they…?

Hashi can’t help but feel insulted and sulk a little while in the darkness.

Looking to her left, the room she is in is illuminated by the red light that the barrier irradiates, with the constant flashes of light of the Ether particles hitting it that come from the Ether storm at the distance. Further, there is another room, this one has a warm yellow light that bleeds into the room where she is, one of the rare cases where someone in the slums has a functioning light system in their house.

She thinks back to the man that was standing there moments before together with his son. He was very cooperative and accepted hiding her once Hashi presented a huge bag with thousands of golden Zen. Ever since, a couple of law enforcement officials have entered the house to scour it, but as long as no one in the house mentioned a thing about her presence, the cloak and hood she has will do its trick and keep her in hiding.

Truly, such an useful object… even in this dump, it manages to keep itself clean…

As she rises her eyes to her left, she sees the son of the man by her side. Startled a little bit by this, she recoils before giving a good look at what was happening.

The boy was standing there, in silence, looking down on her with both arms and hands extended. As Hashi meets the boy’s eyes, he opens and closes his hands.

-”What a sneaky little boy you are… what is it that you want? I already gave more than enough to your father…”-

The boy doesn’t utter a word, instead, he just shakes his head and then points towards himself.

-”What… You want me to give you money? Sorry, but that isn’t how this works. Now, scram, go back to your father and don’t be a greedy kid.”- Hashi says as she waves her hand towards him.

Frowning and pouting, the boy turns around and leaves the room.

Looking once again over the window, Hashi notices how the area has been emptied by the law enforcement officials, leaving only just a couple of them to mount guard in place, probably just in case she happens to be around the zone and managed to stay hidden for that long… which is exactly what she did.

Dropping her gaze even more, her eyes reach the bottom of the chasm that is to the side of this house. She can see houses all the way to the bottom and multiple streets that go up and down in a chaotic fashion.

TkClearly this place was built without any sort of planning.

As she was appreciating the scenery, strong sounds reached her ears coming from below. From one end of the chasm to her left, Hashi catches a boy and a man running along the dirt road, and behind them multiple law enforcement officers throwing spells, chants, arrows and shackles. Just when one of the restraining spells was about to reach the man, a light blue light deflected it to the side, catching Hashi’s attention as the spell restrained other officer who tried to take down the man from a position further down the road that the man and boy surely would go through.

Then, she sees how the boy tells something to the man as he points further down the road, and the man answers back. At this, the spoke just a couple of words and small rainbow sparks appeared on the ground behind the man, all the way to the officers and slugging them down. Seeing this, two anti-J’avo officers jumped into the fray, running right over the muddled ground and picking up the chase, cleaning with each step the ground from the spell that the man threw before.

Turning to her right, Hashi is taken by surprise as she now doesn’t manage to catch where the boy went. It is only the man there, standing against the officers. As they reach his position and one of them thrust his spear towards him, Hashi observes how out of nowhere a sudden pressure in the air stops both officers in their tracks. They struggle, trying to reach the man as little glints of crimson start to surround them and are being pushed back, but to no avail, both of them end up being thrown off back, high into the sky, as a sound that rips the air reach Hashi’s ears and a cloud of dust and dirt rises into the air.

How… in the world… did he…

Hashi’s mouth stood open for some seconds, and while she was dumbfounded she managed to catch the man entering to a house of multiple floors to one side of the chasm, and closing the door behind. Some rainbow sparks then appear around the door, but nothing visible happens.

Then, a strong voice reaches Hashi from behind. Turning, she catches three officers standing right in the next room, one of them looking straight at her in the eyes, and besides them, the son of the man pointing towards her, still frowning and sticking his tongue out. It is then when she realizes that she was standing and leaning over the window.

This brat!…

-”Stop right there!”- says the officers as they make a run towards her.

Instinctively jumping out of the window, Hashi says -”Sorry, men that are pushy are no good!”- while her cloak envelops her and she glides towards the ground, at the bottom of the chasm, right in front of the house in which the man previously entered. As she incorporates herself, she leaves the hood on while enveloping her hand with the cloak and reaching to open the door. At the touch of the cloak, some rainbow sparks go off but nothing happens.

-”Good.”- Hashi mutters as she opens the door, only to reveal a passage that goes deep into the chasm. Somehow they have managed to dig up an entire passage into one of the walls of the chasm, with proper lighting that barely reach the high roof this passage has.

-”Stop right there!”- Hashi hears from her left. Turning slightly, she manages to see that the cloud of dust has managed to settle and the officers down in the chasm have seen her, including the two anti-J’avo ones. Biting her lower lip and thinking back to the man and the suspicious nature of this passage, Hashi enters the house, making a run for it.