Photograph

The moon remains in the dark sky filled with clouds being moved by the wind in different directions.

Inside a bus traveling among vehicles, Andres and Kenyon are seated on two joint seats at the right part of the bus.

Andres is looking through the glass window beside him, taking sight of the wide field of grass followed by small houses made of wood, and some mountains.

He inhales deeply through his small parted lips, and he whispers, "About the folder–!"

Kenyon leans closer to Andres. "Shh... risky."

Andres closes his lip, and he leans his back in his seat. He closes his eyes and says to himself. "This is going to be a long trip."

Kenyon opens his eyes from his slumber. He looks beside him and sees Andres leaning on the glass window right next to him while his mouth is open a bit, and eyes are closed.

Kenyon leans closer to Andres, and then, he puts his left hand on his clenched right hand before thrusting his right elbow toward Andres' tummy.

"Wake up."

Kenyon watches Andres, his eyes open widely, and his mouth opens as strains of saliva emerge from it. He leans forward while coughing, and does a piercing stare at Kenyon.

He stands up from his seat and walks toward the open glass door of the bus. Andres stands up and rolls his eyes with a scoff while chasing Kenyon's pace.

"Slow down!"

"You're just a lazy boy."

"Oh! Thank you for throwing an elbow strike straight to my tummy, dumbass!"

"Welcome."

"It was not gratitude and I didn't feel any reason to thank you, Kenyon, the dumbass!"

Kenyon remains calm amidst the loud voice of Andres. "You already thanked me."

Andres cracks his knuckles while glaring at Kenyon's back. "Just wait! I'll beat your ass!"

Both come out of the bus, and buildings are composed of restaurants, houses, hotels, and some malls around them.

Kenyon brings out a compass from his pocket. He looks at it, and Andres continues to look at Kenyon.

He releases a visible white breath, and the arrows on the compass are covered by ice as they begin to rotate swiftly until they stop at North.

"Follow me," Kenyon said.

Andres nods and they look around them only to see that the buildings have disappeared, replaced by a vast terrain of snow.

"This is impossible!" Andres looked around him, and embraced himself; his body shaking while breathing deeply and exhaling faster.

Kenyon lends Andres a scarf, and Andres looks at the scarf. He takes the scarf from Kenyon's hand and wraps it around his neck.

Kenyon moves his white eyes toward the massive dark temple in front of them.

He tells Andres. "Andres, everything is possible. Now, you are standing in front of my training ground."

Kenyon's voice is calm and smooth, and he's like a comforting uncle but from Andres' perspective: he is sometimes annoying and sometimes not so annoying.

"Okay, okay! You told me that you'll train me but I didn't think of training in the middle of an ice age!" Andres let out while pointing around him with a piercing stare at Kenyon.

Kenyon brings out a pair of gloves and throws them at Andres.

The gloves hit his scarf, and Andres catches them, and he looks at the scarf; dark and hard when being touched, and it has a large word "ice" knitted on it.

"Really? Now, you're giving me grandma knitted gloves?!" Andres lets himself fall on the snow but he immediately stands up.

"OW! OW! OW!"

Andres is running in circles while holding his ass and Kenyon sighs.

Kenyon calmly points at the rock. "Thank you rock for hurting that moron. Andres, that's what you get for whining like a girl."

Andres stops running, and he looks at Kenyon and sighs while letting go of his ass.

"Fine! Let's train!" Andres brought out his knife.

Kenyon travels toward Andres at great speed, their face closer with their nose almost touching.

Andres punches Kenyon's face but Kenyon easily steps backward.

"Stop getting closer to my face! Fuck!" Andres performed a stance.

"Now, for the evaluation," Kenyon jumped repeatedly in his spot while rotating his head.

Kenyon stops jumping and looks at Andres' eyes. "When you were fighting the masked attackers, you didn't have the necessary ability to defeat them."

"If it wasn't for my aid, you wouldn't drive them away." Kenyon pointed his hands at each other.

Ice particles manifest in between his palms, and an ice-short sword has been constructed.

Andres looks up and he looks at his palm and sees a snowflake land on his palm. He looks up and says, "You are right and I have no reason to counter what you said. I don't get the point why you brought me into this place."

Kenyon throws the short sword at Andres, and Andres steps forward and swings his hand in mid-air; catching the short sword.

"We have the main evidence of the missing students," Kenyon replies calmly, "training you in NCR can be a risk because creatures like them... evolved, and now they live among us."

Kenyon inhales deeply and looks at the tiny snowdrops falling from the sky. "They will sense you and they will do anything to get the folder you have.

"Now that you are a warrior: you are like a diamond to them, they will do anything to get you even if they need to kill a mass of people that you cherish."

Andres swings the ice-short sword and his eyes widen a bit, and he tells himself. "Hey! After he gave me the scarf and gloves, it doesn't feel cold anymore."

Kenyon clears his throat and looks at Andres. "If you had to choose to rescue but you can only choose between your 'family' and 'mass of people' who would you choose to save?"

Andres blinks, and he looks up at Kenyon.

"Choose between your family and the people, who would you choose?" Kenyon watched Andres' expression.

Andres swallows his saliva and tightens his grip on his short sword. "I will choose to save my family."

"Even if they turn against you? Or did crimes? Would you still save them?" Kenyon started to walk slowly from left to right while twirling his ice-long sword.

"My family," Andres swallows his saliva once again, "I will save them from the darkness because they are the only ones I have, they will never do that kind of thing."

He begins to blink, and Kenyon appears in front of his face. Everything goes slow for Andres while Kenyon is swinging his foot towards Andres' cheek.

Kenyon's foot lands on his cheek and he is thrown away and hits against the gate of the temple, and the gates open upon his impact.

The huge wooden gate swings back and forth as Andres pushes himself up to his feet. He raises his hand to his lip and wipes the blood from it.

"As a warrior, we should choose those who must be saved." Kenyon is rotating his sword while ambling towards Andres.

Andres coughs while straightening his back. He swings his short sword and points it at Kenyon. "Is my family not counted to be saved?!"

Kenyon stops walking, and he looks at Andres who's standing in front of the temple's gate.

"Growing up, I gained my consciousness in this place... not having a thing called family, I always yearn to save people," Kenyon replies to Andres, "I will ask for your forgiveness that I don't see a family worth saving."

"Then why?!" Andres narrows his eyes at him, his tone becoming angry, "They're people also! Who must be saved!"

"Because they're only a small part of the percentage of the human population."

Kenyon remains standing while looking at Andres with his dull white eyes, doesn't show any sadness or happiness only his calmness.

Andres looks at his short sword as Kenyon begins to walk toward Andres. He stops beside Andres and taps his shoulder, and Andres turns his attention to Kenyon.

"Choose to save the hundreds of people rather than saving those who cannot replace those amounts," Kenyon calmly told Andres.

Andres is left standing there, his eyes looking down at the ground covered in snow. Kenyon stops walking toward the gate and turns around.

Kenyon tells him. "Andres, we have a case to investigate. I will appreciate it if you come along inside."

Andres swings his sword and points it at Kenyon. "We have different philosophies! You said that you would protect me, and now, you have no choice but to stick with whoever I want to save."

Kenyon looks at him for a brief moment before walking back to the gate.

After many hours, Andres and Kenyon are standing in front of a wooden house located in Pampanga.

"Like what we investigated back in my dojo, this," Kenyon brings out the folder from his bag, "is the house of Miss Luningning."

Andres looks around the house. "It looks abandoned... I can't hear any voices or movements."

Kenyon walks towards the wooden door and swings his hand toward it, causing a loud sound to occur.

"Hello?! Is someone here?!" Andres yelled at the top of his lungs.

An old man walks toward them, and both men stop their movement. Kenyon looks at the old man and the old man raises his eyeglasses back to his eyes.

"We're here for the parents of Miss Luningning, do you know her?" Kenyon asked.

The old man hums. "Well, what I know is that after Kathrina disappeared: her mother went mad; shouting all over the streets."

"Where is Kathrina's mother?" Kenyon looked calmly into the old man's eyes.

The old man looks down and he brings out a picture from the pocket of his shorts. He tells Kenyon while lending the picture.

"You see when she was brought into the mental hospital, she was seen holding onto this picture."

Kenyon looks down at his hand, and gently clutches the picture with his hand. He moves the picture close to his eyes, and his eyes widen a bit.

"This picture," Kenyon said.

The old man turns around. "I'll be taking my leave, take care of yourselves, young ones."

"That picture! The mask is the same as the ones I've encountered," Andres looks at the picture, "Is that a clue?"

Kenyon shakes his head and he flips the picture, and from the back of the photograph: red numbers can be seen.

"Those numbers," Andres points at the numbers, "those are the ones I saw in the folder."

Kenyon looks up. "The old man is gone. The good thing is that he lent us a clue."