Ch11

AKITO

Akito had decided that today would be the day he would truly explore the Lake Town. It was the day after the second competition where they had to detect poison. Since there was nothing else to do, he decided to come down the Mountain and have a look around the town.

The last time he was here he was very nervous to wander around and with the whole fiasco of the lamb chops and the little boy with the kidnapper everything put a damper to his plans.

Feeling a bit more relaxed than few days before, he was happily trudging through the town. But he had grossly underestimated his popularity among the cultivators.

When he decided to catch the eye of Kijuro Tokugawa by producing the blue fire he forgot about the rest of the cultivators. Him trying to stand out has made him the centre of attention.

It was less than two hours that he had been in the town and he had already been intercepted by more than ten cultivators who either wanted to spar with him or get to know him and some even wanted to buy him food.

Any other day he would not have said no to free food but not this time. The only possible solution he found to see himself out of this misery was by sticking to the roofs. He discreetly got some hot and fresh sticky buns from the vendor and made himself home over a roof of an establishment.

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MISAKI

Misaki Tokugawa was in a foul mood, not only her much-needed break time was disturbed but she had to also run an errand for her brother which had brought her down the mountain. If it was any other day, she would not have been this sulky.

Her trainer had pummeled her into the ground yesterday night during training. Her entire body felt sore and all she wanted was some sleep. Instead of dreaming in her soft silky bed right now, she was sitting in the restaurant sipping tea which has almost gone cold.

Thinking about her friend made her more restless. Asami had somehow made an enemy out of the crown prince and now she was on the path of revenge.

Misa tried to explain it to her that this was not a plausible situation because first, the Crown Prince was very powerful man and second, one cannot just attack the Crown Prince but she was promptly thrown out of the pavilion.

So, here she was, her friend has abandoned her, drinking some cold tea when she could have been sleeping now.

As she was looking down at the swirling pattern of her tea, she felt the presence of someone approaching her, which made her already down mood to go deeper. Misa was not in mood of socialising today and she wanted to avoid any possible interactions but looks like fate was against her.

It was Yamato Fujii, second son of the Heir of Fujii clan, she had only heard about the man and the first time they met was during the commotion caused by Ichihara Kyotaro. He had indirectly helped her out that day, as a gratitude she reigned back her temper and plastered her practised smile for diplomatic meetings.

Yamato approached her, they both bowed to each other and exchanged greetings.

"Konnichiwa, Yoroshiku onegaishimasu, Misaki-san." (Hello, Nice to make your acquaintance.)

"Konnichiwa, Yamato-san." Misaki indicated him to take a seat. She was not interested in chatting with him or anyone but Yamato came from a noble and powerful family and she had to show him respect.

A servant immediately came bringing tea for the lord and replaced her own with more hot tea.

"I must ask, is there anything that you wished to speak with me." Misa asked him directly getting to the point, she was not one to circle around the matters.

"I was looking forward to meeting the only daughter of Kioshi Tokugawa. I have heard many things about you, I was very curious to meet you."

"Let me guess, you heard that my beauty is unmatched to the levels of heaven and I am the reincarnation of goddess of purity. I've heard this line thousand times now, Yamato-san." Misa replied sassily as she continued to sip her tea.

Honestly if Misa ever finds the person who spread this ridiculous rumour, she will beat him black and blue. Hours and hours of teasing she had suffered from her aniki (brother) and Asami because of this rumour.

Yamato laughed heartily at her response which attracted looks from other patrons. She had half expected the man to storm off by now, these young lords often have fragile egos.

He placed his tea cup back as he spoke again. "Of course, I have heard of that many times but it was not that what I have been informed which made me eager to meet you."

"And what was the another ridiculous rumour that you heard." Misa asked a bit petulantly.

"I heard that you are the youngest cultivator to master the element air. And I wished that I could witness such a miraculous achievement. Alas, we were in different rounds but one of my family members was in your round and he informed me of you."

"And what did he say?"

Yamato leaned forward getting a bit closer to her. Misaki remained still as she looked at his intense eyes staring her down.

"He told me that rumours don't even come close to your real talent."

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It has been a while since Yamato left to go back to the mountain. But Misa was still reeling thinking about him. Nobody has ever acknowledged or praised her talents except Asami, she was always in the shadows of her brother. Everyone either fixates on how beautiful she is or that she is the sister of Kijuro Tokugawa.

Misa was in a predicament thinking what to make of Yamato, on one side the man spoke with genuine interest but she knew that there must be a catch. She needs to find out what is the motive of this move by the Fujii clan, before she is too late.

Misa looked out of the window to clear her mind. She needs to quickly finish her errand and report this development to her brother, politics in the cultivator realm shifts like a wave. Keeping one step ahead of others is how you survive.

As she was thinking about the situation, she felt a slight disturbance in the Qi. She focused on the street from where she noticed the disturbance occurred, when her eyes zeroed in on a scene happening down there.

Misa saw the owner of the sticky buns selling stall, was kicking a small child on the ground. This has already caused a commotion attracting many passers-by. The one thing Misa loathed more than anything was violence against innocent and helpless people.

The man pushed the kid away screaming at him no money no food, she looked at the small figure which has curled himself up holding his hands close to his body. That hand was probably injured. The child slowly picked himself up from the ground and walked away with his head bowed low.

Misa's eyes did not leave the kid as she found him walking into a narrow alley. Discarding her hot tea and throwing some money at the table, she walked down to the stall.

By now the gathered people had already left and the man was back to selling his goods. She bought few of those buns controlling herself not to pummel this man into the ground right there, right now. The kid was the priority right now not this loathsome man, focusing herself, she walked the same path the kid took and entered the alley.

to be continued------