[3] A cruel encounter for the phoenix

As Rin was looking at him, Kaho suddenly said as he lowered his voice "I'm... guessing they heard us.." at this moment Rin was already getting ready to leave, he then replied "seems like it.." by this time Rin put out the fire and said "were leaving" as he was walking towards Kaho. When Kaho heard this, he quickly replied in a quiet voice "what!?... but I still can't steady myself!..." before he could say more, Rin was already supporting him and as expected Rin had quickly transported the both of them to another terrain.

After the both of them arrived, almost immediately Rin felt a strong presence of magic on every distance of the place they were in. According to where the presence was the both of them would run at the opposite way but as they ran from here to there the presence was rapidly increasing, Rin looked at a distance until he suddenly stopped on his tracks and realized 'if the ones that are surrounding us are only targeting the both of us, if they truly are people... if I'm correct the presence count of them around this place right now is about fifteen to twenty-four of them. Then why are they not targeting each other?? but..are they even human?...' As Kaho noticed this, shocked he said "what.. is it...?" while he looked at Rin with a tense and confused expression. Rin looked at him with a pained expression and looked at every distance around them, then said "we need to hide.. now" As Rin was about to run again, Kaho looked at him closed his eyes and opened them again, as Rin had noticed this he stopped.

Kaho said with a pained expression "... right.. hide first then rest.. I'm okay enough to handle that.." Kaho looked around at where they were, he saw a mountain from a far and pointed at it, he said "there... if we're lucky enough, I think that's the mountain with a cave in it..." as he said this, loud and ferocious sounds of growls were surrounding them, Rin hearing this looked around and as expected some could already be seen running towards them from a far. Rin jolted a bit from the sight, having an injured person alongside him and having to face beasts, was not the best situation he was facing. when the beasts had gotten closer Kaho then shouted "crap! what are you waiting for!? transport us or we'll get killed!!" Rin hearing this loud and clear, he quickly came back to his senses right before they could get crowded and get eaten by these beasts, he quickly transported them to the mountain that Kaho had mentioned earlier.

After they got transported to the mountain, the beasts could no longer catch after them. The mountain was almost as far as the eye could see, as the both of them arrived at the mountain Rin looked for a place where Kaho and him could hide in and stay for the night. After a while of searching Rin finally found the cave that Kaho had told him about, as they entered the cave Rin had lit up fire. Almost the entire cave was illuminated with light from the fire that Rin had lit up in the middle of the cave, one part of the cave was filled with stalactites and the other was the opposite.

Rin looked at Kaho and said "how did you know there was a cave on this mountain?" as he let go of supporting Kaho and put up a locked barrier, Rin then walked to the sides of the cave and lit up small floating little ball of flames, one after another.

Kaho hearing this he said "I visit most of the terrains whenever I feel like I want to train myself, when I was venturing a few mountains I came across this cave, this mountain has a waterfall on the other side. That also explains why there are stalactites here" At this time Rin had already lit up the last side of the cave and walked back to where he was planning to sit, Kaho said "the barrier that you put up on the cave's exit, are you sure it isn't going to attract those things?" while he was slowly untying the hair that Rin had tied up on his leg. As Rin was looking at him his face had a slight hint of a pained expression and said "for a person who had been bitten by six empowered leeches, chased by beasts in the process of recovering and almost getting crowded by beasts and such, you talk quite a lot. not to mention a person who is currently in the process of recovering." By this time Kaho had already untied the hair "whoa, uh.. hey! can your hair always be used like this? well I mean, you know, even if it's already a month later after it had been cut off?" he said as he saw his leg fully recovered from internal and external, until he realized what Rin had said and quickly replied "wai- what-!? what do you even mean?! I'm fully recovered to talk this much!!" Rin then looked at him with a pained look and said as he sighed "no... my hair can't be used as a permanent healing material, it can only be used once or twice before it turns into ash by time" At this time the both of them heard a noise near the exit of the cave, the both of them looked at each other. Rin stood up and put out the fire one after another all of them were burned out, Kaho on the other side slowly stood up as he grabbed the wall of the cave for support, he let go of the wall and looked at Rin in the eye, Kaho then nodded as understanding Rin nodded back. Rin walked closer to the entrance and by the time he looked outside, he was suddenly pulled by someone, a hand gripped his neck as tight as possible.

Kaho took a stick and as he was unsteadily running at the back of this unknown person and was about to hit him, he noticed something and said "K-Kabuki...? what are you..?" After Kaho said this, the person instantly froze his grip and turned around. As he looked at the person that was behind him he said with a loud voice that could be heard from over five miles away "what do you mean? I thought you were captured by him??" he then turned around to see Rin panting and was struggling to breathe because of Kabuki's grip on his neck. Kabuki tried to look at his face, he thought that the more this very person tried to relaxed their face the more familiar it looked, then for a moment Kabuki had thought that thunder had struck upon his shoulders, he gasped and said as he let go of his grip "Wait aren't you-!?.. Rin?.." As he looked at him his gaze landed on Rin's hair, his eyes widened from shock and said in a small voice while he had a shocked look "But- your hair...why..is it?" He then looked at Kaho and as expected, he was indeed holding half of Rin's hair, Kabuki's gaze widened even more and looked back at Rin. As Kaho was about to say something, Rin lifted his gaze and shook his head, clearly signifying for them to be a bit patient and quiet with his state as the person who had his hair cut off and also the person who was almost choked with such a powerful grip on his neck.