Vibrancy

Asumi cleared her throat, the overbearing pressure rushed over her. Eira's big blue eyes pierced her and made her even more nervous. Eira just sort of stared at her, waiting while admiring how the soft pink aura fluctuated.

Asumi finally grouped herself together and took a deep breath. She blushed lightly and opened her mouth.

"That time we ate in the village was fun. Let's go again... like with Ali.." Asumi fiddles with her fingers as she talks to Eira. She slightly looked into her eyes waiting for a response. Her light pink eyes met with Eira's light blue eyes. Eira smiled and nodded.

Asumi sighed in relief, Eira felt as if Asumi was slowly opening up to Eira, she could almost feel like the red outline of her outline was slowly becoming more transparent. She loved this feeling. The day had been so... productive. Ali got his sword and showed everyone what he was capable of, Eira was able to slightly grow from her fears and overwhelming urges to retreat no matter how much danger she faced. And Asumi had made progress in making topics first and seemed to be more kind and sweet recently. They were all growing. Together.

They both asked Ali if he wanted to go get food out in the same village, with the knowledge that the village was half a day away when walking. After a great deal of convincing the old lady, Ali was dismissed early, they all celebrated as the old lady shook her head with a small smile. They all packed up their stuff and departed from the house.

The house almost glowed with the hope of change. Moving forward. That's all they had their minds on. Their goals stood clear in their path.

"So where are we eating? Make sure it's something big yeah? Wanna get a proper meal before the next mission." Ali stretched. Being discharged early he still had some patches of bandages under his uniform, but it was nothing too bad. 3 days of recovery was all Ali needed. Of course he wasn't fully recovered but he was back in fighting form. Ali was full of hope, he felt the heavy weight of the sword on his waist. Ali got a bright idea. As they walked, Asumi glanced here and there at Ali who was fixing his sword constantly. Seemingly trying to make it at the right angle.

About 10 minutes into the walk Ali finally stopped fiddling and stopped in his path. Asumi continued on walking, not paying any attention to Ali's antics. Eira however looked back, slowing her pace. Her eyes went wide. She felt a charge of danger behind her, goosebumps formed and her body became stiff. Eira shrieked and jumped out the way, as Ali dashed forward. Asumi's hair went crazy and her haori went over her head as Ali used a breathing technique to propel himself forward. Ali managed to dash an impressive 50 metres forward. Eira got up, she had jumped right into a rice farm paddock. Her clothes soaked, she stood up and tugged off her wet jacket off her. Asumi was no different, her hair all messed up. She looked back at Eira, they both had the same thought. All of a sudden, Eira and Asumi sprinted towards Ali. Ali found this to be the most terrifying moment of his life. He dashed forward too, in a desperate attempt to escape their wrath. Needless to say, Asumi stopped chasing because Eira tired out, Ali maintained a 50 metre gap between him and the two girls. Ali would once in a while look back in fear, not sure if they would punish him for his annoying actions. Regardless, the walk remained quiet and rather calm after. About 3 hours of walking Ali flopped onto a tree log. He sighed and stretched, as he laid out on the ground.

"Man, I hate walking. Why couldn't we just have like... automatic carriages." Ali sighed. He had seen carriages being pulled by horses, but those were mostly used by the rich.

"Like that'll happen. Could you just imagine a hundred machines driving on one path. It would be so chaotic." Eira laughed a bit. Eira had no idea what an automatic carriage would look like but she imagined it to have a big sprout at the back, blowing out wind to propel it forward. Something like that.

Asumi sighed and pulled up Ali again, she couldn't ignore a certain factor. Ali had formed a slight pink scar under his eye. She stared at it, without thought she moved closer to his face.

"Jeez... that's not going to go away." Asumi cringed, staring at the scar. Ali sighed and put a finger to it.

"Yeah I know, shame I developed a scar on the first mission huh?" Ali shrugged and stood up. Ali hadn't really realised but he was much taller than Eira, there was about a 20 centimetre height difference between them. Ali imagined what it would be like fighting Eira, he would definitely have trouble trying to connect a hit to her face, his arm would be in an awkward position. He shook his head and cleared his head.

"Not like I'll ever have to fight Eira anyways" Ali thought in his head and pulled them to start walking again. He didn't want to waste time, it could be anytime that a crow could swoop down and order them off in another direction. Ali stared at the back of Asumi's head as she and Eira walked in front of him. His heart thumped as he stared at the flower. He had realised it before but noticed she never brought it up. He expected Eira to have said something about it already.

Ali was lost in thoughts, constantly switching topics in his head.

"Man... I wanna fight a lower moon so bad." Ali sighed in his head. Ali looked up to the sky, it flaunted a deep blue colour. For some reason, he resonated with the deep blue, it was a nice colour.

"Ali. We're here" Asumi said to him, the night life of the village bursted with colour, lights from every corner of the village illuminating the village, chatter erupting from the stalls and laughter was a never ending sound. The vibrant village combined with the irresistible food stalls never failed to lift a person's mood. Ali smiled a bit.

Eira and Asumi rushed forward, hurrying to try the delicious food again. Ali clenched his sword, his eyes darted to behind him. The wind blew softly, but it carried a message. Something dangerous was near. Waves of chills rushed over Ali, he turned his body to the darkness of the path behind him, the shadows were hiding something… As if it was about to jump out at him. Ali heard Asumi call out his name. With a soft sigh he turned around and walked slowly to Asumi and Eira.