Preparation

"Fuck this! How do I do it now? Son of a bitch..." Yoichi gasped, stretching out his back muscles.

Entering the Heralds tower, Bunjiro knew his pursuer would stop his rush. The headquarters of Goldhaven's most famous guild was an impenetrable fortress. Anyone who was not part of the guild was not allowed to enter.

Yoichi was aware that even if he followed him inside the building, he would have no concrete evidence. That would have been his word against Bunjiro's. Who would the Heralds believe? To one of their warriors or a stranger who blindly threw accusations?

Losing his temper and irritated by what had just happened, Yoichi reached the main road. He avoided crossing the guards called by the blacksmith and called Ichiro in a low voice. Inoshuma reached him at a blind spot, behind a large barrel, and escorted him to the Nightblades tower.

When Yoichi reached his guild's headquarters, he recalled the Inoshuma and walked in. He pushed the door wing, freely accessing the ground floor of the tower.

As usual, the entrance was lightless and deserted. Puffing, he climbed the stairs and reached the first floor, hoping to get something to eat.

The dining room was empty, too. As calculated, the table was still laden with breakfast food. When his nose smelled the hot bread, Yoichi grabbed a piece of it without thinking twice.

The hungry young tamer sat at the table and began to gobble everything he had under his eyes. Both sweet and savoury food, cold and hot drinks: everything edible entered his hungry mouth, satiating his appetite.

"Yoichi? Dude, it's you! You're back!" Enatsu's voice rumbled into the table room, coming from the staircase leading to the upper floor.

"Enatsu" the young tamer smiled, biting yet another piece of hot bread and approaching his friend.

"How are you? We haven't seen each other for days and... well, you made me worry!" the merchant exclaimed. "Tweeet!" Sora added, perched on his shoulder.

"I know, brother. After the fight against Kato, I lost my senses. I woke up this morning in Ryutaro's private room," he replied.

"Yes, Sada-sensei had told us that the gatekeeper would heal your wounds. Honestly, I was afraid you wouldn't make it. Tell me everything, brother. What happened to you? How is the highest room in the Dojo?" Enatsu inquired. The merchant began to grill his friend about the recent events.

"Are you the only one in here?" Yoichi asked before answering questions.

"Eh? Um... no, Shioko is with me. Today is our turn to guard the tower. Why are you asking me?" Enatsu responded. After that sentence, a sound of footsteps echoed from the stairway.

The red-haired girl went down into the table room. Her hands in her pocket and an angry look as always. "Hey!" she said, greeting Yoichi with minimal effort.

"Hello!" the young tamer answered. Thinking back to the words of the wise Ryutaro, Yoichi knew he could not tell anyone about Kenji's true nature. From then on, he had to choose who to trust meticulously.

"Is that the truth?" Shioko asked out of the blue. Noisily crawling a chair on the floor, she sat at the other end of the table.

Yoichi sipped the still hot tea. "What?" he said.

"What your friend said. Ryutaro really allowed you to enter the highest room of the Dojo?" with a masculine and grumpy attitude, the red-haired girl looked her interlocutor in the eye. She sat in a disorderly way in her chair, with her hands still in the pockets.

"Yes. The gatekeeper healed my wounded body. Apparently, if they brought me here after my fight, I would have seriously risked dying." Yoichi drank his tea again.

Enatsu stood next to his friend. Knowing his extroverted way of doing things, he figured that Yoichi could not say what he wanted in Shioko's presence.

"Ryutaro offered me the chance to become his student. He believes that by combining my training in the arena with the cultivation of my spirit, I can accelerate my path as a professional tamer," he continued, merely reporting the facts superficially.

"I understand. Well, then I wish you luck. After all, we play in the same team, right?" in Shioko's question, there was a hint of malice. Before Yoichi could answer, the red-haired tamer continued, "it's no coincidence that your friend and I stayed here waiting for you. Sada-sensei ordered me to help you with your mission at the Blackvault Mines."

"I know. When you're ready to go, we can start collecting the supplies," Yoichi diligently suggested.

Shioko opened her arms, raising her shoulders. With that gesture, she made it clear to the young tamer that she was only waiting for his return to go on. "Thanks to your 'special request', the master has cancelled all the missions on my quest log. The sooner we leave, the sooner I can go back to my business," she complained.

Enatsu and Yoichi looked at each other. Communicating only with his eyes, the merchant made his friend guess that he had failed to establish a bond of friendship with her during his days of absence.

"Well then!" Yoichi spoke, drinking all the tea in the cup and wiping his mouth with his shirt sleeve "We'll leave right away. With your field experience, we should be able to complete the quest in record time. Of course, we're going to split the loot."

That word aroused an obvious interest in his interlocutor. Shioko's eyes, hearing of the 'loot' shone like those of a magpie in front of a bunch of jewelry.

Without adding anything else, knowing that that was not the best time to talk to Enatsu about Bunjiro, Yoichi began packing all the food still intact left on the table.

He wrapped the piece of bread he didn't bite using a piece of fabric. Tucking it into his backpack along with two apples, three onigiris and a portion of wakame seaweed carefully closed in earthenware, he prepared everything necessary for the long journey.

"How long will it take us to reach the Blackvault Mines?" he asked to break the awkward silence.

Shioko was intent on filling a leather flask with water. Careful not to waste a single drop, she decanted the well water from a heavy carboy in the corner of the room.