Fox & Bear

The scared boy can't say anything; Kaido tries to figure out what's going on while Akira and Gamble still look terrified. The whole scene is interrupted by Giene, who intervenes with a sword from Akira's hand. "What's wrong with you?!" Evil Giene asks. The boys realize it's not a burglar or anyone else but the kid they saved.

"Do you not feel it?" Akira asks Giene. "Feel what?" a disoriented Giene responds. "His mana... It's comparable to Akira's... Which means it's greater than mine," Gamble adds.

 Now Giene also starts to look scared, and the whole action is interrupted by the boy who begs for mercy on his knees.

Kaido approaches the boy and says, "Ignore them; they're probably just fooling around to make it cool here." But the boy remains terribly frightened. "Akira, come on, seriously," serious Gamble says.

The boys go upstairs, and in the background, you can hear Kaido trying to convince the boy to play.

In Gamble's room, the boys begin to wonder what's going on with this kid. "Do you have any idea what's going on?" Gamble asks. Akira thinks for a moment and suddenly says, "He's half fox, right?". Gamble nods and asks, "So what?" 

Akira runs out of the room and into the smaller room next door, where Gamble has set up a little library. 

Akira looks at the books, and when he finds the one he was looking for, he returns to the room and shows them the forbidden book about myths, legends, and magic. Akira opens the book to the section on fox myths and reads aloud, "There's a legend of a fox that possessed almost divine power, which transformed into a human. A beautiful woman who could enchant anyone, but when she fell in love with one of the Lidzi, his name is unknown to us, but it marked the era of half foxes."

"And what does that have to do with anything?" Gamble asks. Gamble replies, "Because there's no room here for another tenant."

Akira now speaks to the boy, "Do you like to fight?"

 The boy replies, "Yes, I want to be very strong, but..."

 Akira intrigued asks, "Go on." 

The boy tells what happened. "When my mother threw me out of the house, they kidnapped me and took me to slave fights. And when I lost, they took me to those guys you met. Since then, I've been their servant and punching bag." 

Akira says without hesitation, "I'll take you as my student." 

The boy, disoriented, tries to ask something but doesn't have time because Kaido says, "Now we'll train together," with a smile. 

Gamble, looking at Akira with a murderous gaze, says, "You're taking responsibility for this," and goes upstairs. Akira says to the boy, "I don't know your true goals, but I know you lied to me for a good reason," then goes to the closet and gives the boy clothes. "These are my clothes when I was a kid; they should do for now," he adds, walking away. 

"And can you explain one thing to me?" the boy asks.

 "What's that? Um... And can you repeat your name?" Akira asks boy.

 "I'm Kaen,"

 "All right, Kaen, what's the question?" Akira asks.

 "Are you the strongest one here?" he asks seriously. "It depends," Akira replies with a smile. 

"It depends? How so?" a curious Kaido asks. "You took that from what Gamble said about me having more mana than him?" Akira asks. The kids nod, and Akira adds, "I have more mana, and he uses much less of it." 

Gamble interrupts the conversation, saying, "We're leaving tonight. Take everything you need; I'll go get the cart." "Are you coming with us, Kaen?" Kaido asks.

 "I guess," he replies. "You have three hours for yourselves; then we'll start training before we leave," Gamble says, leaving the house. The kids look at Akira, and he asks, "Shall we train now?" Akira replies, "Go to the field; I'll join you shortly."

In the field, Kaen starts warming up, and Kaido asks with curiosity in his voice, "What do you really want to achieve?" 

Kaen responds with surprise, "I want to return to my clan as the head of the fox clan." After the response, he resumes warming up, and after 5 minutes, Akira arrives, dressed in loose pants and a tank top. "Can we begin?" Akira asks. Both Kaido and Kaen stand before Akira.

"Kaido, you start from the basics, and you, Kaen?" Akira asks, adjusting the belt on his pants.

"I know a little, but nothing extraordinary," the young boy replies. "Okay," Akira shouts, "both of you attack me at once, try to kill me," he says, assuming a combat position.

Kaido and Kaen look at each other, and Kaen begins to speak, "But this doesn't make sense because we—" he doesn't finish as Akira knocks Kaen to the ground.

Seeing this, Kaido believes she has a chance to attack, and as she prepares to attack, Akira places his leg, and Kaido falls. 

"I said you are to try to kill me," Akira says with a serious tone.

Kaen gets up from the ground and, standing in a fighting stance, says to Kaido, "Engage him with anything; I have a plan."

From the ground, Kaido rushes towards Akira with dizzying speed from behind, attempting an attack but gets blocked by an invisible force field that repels her.

Kaido quickly lands on her feet and moves towards Akira, but he executes a clean and perfect dodge, grabbing Kaido's hand, throwing her into the air, and pronouncing words while pointing his open hand towards her, "let my target be struck by Zeus's thunder... Zeus Strike." Black clouds loaded with electrical energy start hovering above Kaido.

Panicking when she notices this, Kaen jumps to her, pushing her to the ground with his legs, and himself opens up for Akira's attack. The lightning shoots, but it doesn't hit Kaen or Kaido; instead, it strikes Akira, who catches the lightning and throws it towards Kaido. Time slows down for Kaido; she couldn't move either, but she hears a mysterious voice, "catch and repel."

After time returns to normal for her, she catches the lightning and, with a rotation, sends it back to Akira, who, in turn, deflects it towards Kaen, who has already landed on the ground.

Kaen barely avoids the lightning, and after missing its target, the lightning changes direction upwards with a manual command from Akira.

"Okay, I'm ready. Kaido, come to me," Kaen says, and Kaido runs to Kaen.

Akira thinks to himself, "I guess he already knows what and how."

Kaen says to Kaido, "Extend your hand and imagine wind sphere."

Kaido does as Kaen says, and wind spheres form in her hands. Kaen immediately adds his hand and adds fire to it.

Akira says to the kids, "I thought it was some battle tactics, not a spell." Then he jumps behind Kaen and Kaido.

But Kaen smiles and immediately turns with Kaido, and hits Akira with a flaming sphere, shouting, "HELL BALL."

After being hit, Akira flies off and stops on a tree. "Darn... I got caught off guard."

Akira smiles to himself and says, "Okay, end of activation."

Akira jumps to the celebrating Kaido and Kaen, then copies the kids' moves.

When Kaen wakes up, he sees he's at home, and Kaido is sleeping in the bed next to him. 

As he exits the room, he sees Gamble packing clothes into a backpack and Akira cleaning his sword. From the corner of his eye, Gamble notices Kaen standing in the doorway. "Oh, you're awake. That's good; you can help us," he says. "Take the backpack and pack six books from upstairs. The titles are..." Gamble says the titles to Kaen, who goes to pack them. When packing the last one, he notices a book about spells. It's written by a former shield hero. Kaen decides to pack one more book.

As he goes downstairs, he sees Kaido is also up. 

"We took quite a beating," she says with a smile to Kaen, who just nods, handing the backpack to Gamble.

Getting up, Akira says, "All set?" 

Gamble nods, and taking the backpack, he shouts to Giene, "We're leaving. Leaving the house in your hands."

Akira says to the kids, "You take food and potions," handing two backpacks to Kaido and Kaen. As the sun sets, our team reaches the horse rental quickly takes one and sets off. Leaving the city in the sun set, Kaido falls asleep again, and Kaen reads the book he took earlier.

"So you took something," says Gamble. Kaen, embarrassed, closes and returns the book, saying, "I'm sorry." 

"Not saying you have to return it, just finish reading," Gamble says, turning away.

As the team rides through the forest, they encounter a girl who is beaten and covered in blood. Akira immediately stops the cart and runs to the girl to check if she's alive. Meanwhile, Gamble checks if it's not a trap. When Akira uses basic healing on the girl, he takes her onto the cart and says, "We're going to the nearby town; we'll spend the night there."