They were awakened at dawn by distant noise drawing steadily closer.

  Soon, the villagers emerged from the treeline, armed with pitchforks and whatever weapons they could find.

  They charged like animals starved for blood.

  Uzu shielded Ku while defending himself.

  Leborgne only evaded.

  When he grew tired of the pointless struggle, he moved.

  In a matter of seconds, he brushed his hand across every weapon within reach.

  That was enough.

  The blades tore free from their owners’ grips and rose into the air.

  They hovered above the villagers’ heads.

  Every single one.

  Because any weapon Leborgne touched became bound to him.

  He could command it from a distance.

  And no weapon he had previously touched could ever wound him.

  The fight ended instantly.

  The villagers dropped to their knees, staring upward at the steel threatening to fall upon them.

  “Kill us,” they begged.

  Uzu chuckled.

  “So… what do you plan to do with them?”

  “Nothing,” Leborgne replied.

  “I suspected as much. Though perhaps you should remove the floating blades before you exhaust yourself.”

  Leborgne shrank each weapon with magic before returning it.

  “They’ll return to normal once you’re back in the village.”

  He turned away.

  The villagers fled.

  “Well,” Uzu laughed, “one never gets bored around here.”

  Ku laughed too.

  ---

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  They set off toward the first two of the eighteen water sources.

  They stood side by side without touching, formed by the merging of four smaller springs.

  They were called Tears of the Earth.

  “One slows the body’s aging,” Uzu explained.

  “The other heals all wounds. Even some inflicted by magic.”

  As they walked, Leborgne spoke.

  “Would they have spared me if I had been defenseless?”

  “To be honest? No,” Uzu replied. “But that isn’t the point. You showed restraint knowing they wouldn’t have. That matters.”

  He lifted a shield from his pack.

  “This one restores itself the instant it’s damaged. Tonight, I’ll show you how we’ll train.”

  ---

  They walked for hours. During breaks, Uzu handed Ku a flute.

  She learned quickly.

  Night fell.

  Leborgne returned empty-handed from hunting.

  Uzu shared fruit, giving Ku slightly more.

  “Women first,” he declared lightly. “Come, Leborgne. Training.”

  “I’m coming too,” Ku said.

  “Do as you wish,” Leborgne answered.

  They moved away from camp.

  Uzu explained the exercise.

  “When I throw the shield, draw. Not before. Divide your blade, strike the rim successively. And keep it within this circle.”

  He marked the ground.

  The first strike missed. The next connected.

  Leborgne handled multiple blades well. Precision and control were harder.

  Uzu stepped beside Ku and taught her a melody.

  “It will help him focus.”

  She played softly.

  Leborgne found rhythm—

  Then a beast’s noise broke his concentration.

  One blade veered toward Ku.

  Uzu moved too late.

  The blade stopped midair.

  A translucent wave had formed around her.

  Leborgne, unaware, had already gone after the animal.

  Uzu rushed to Ku.

  “You’re unharmed?”

  “I… I’m fine.”

  He studied her.

  “You’re from my mother’s clan.”

  “What clan?”

  “The Gisei.”

  He explained.

  A tribe of women. No natural reproduction. They abducted young girls to preserve their lineage. Extraordinary strength. A wave ability, unique in color to each user.

  “And when they reached a certain age… they removed their own organs and burned them. Otherwise, they were cursed.”

  Ku began to cry.

  The subject ended there.

  ---

  At sunrise, they reached Tears of the Earth.

  The site was now controlled by a man named Yoru. Entry required payment.

  Uzu paid.

  They descended a long staircase carved like a dragon’s neck.

  At the bottom, Uzu vanished.

  He returned in the form of a small boy and took Ku’s hand.

  “We look like a family, don’t we?”

  She laughed softly.

  Leborgne asked to separate.

  Ku allowed it.

  ---

  While Ku trained with Uzu, Leborgne wandered near the barrier.

  He noticed three birds fighting.

  He assumed two males fought over a female.

  He saw little point in it.

  Nearby, a breach in the barrier led unknowingly toward the source.

  He stepped through.

  He found a shallow pool and saw his reflection.

  His blind eye.

  Opaque black.

  Why him?

  Why was he born this way?

  He closed his good eye.

  Darkness swallowed him.

  Then—

  Something stirred within the blind one.

  A shadow moved.

  It felt like something breaking.

  Or something finally being found.

  It seemed to look at him.

  Familiar.

  His breathing became uneven.

  He felt something close to anger.

  A foreign sensation.

  His entire life, anger had never truly formed within him. As if there were a hollow inside his chest, preventing it from gathering.

  But here—

  Near the source—

  It surged.

  He had felt this once before. Near another spring whose name he could no longer recall.

  The shadow shifted again.

  And Leborgne began to sing.

  ---

  Later, Uzu explained the birds.

  “Phalaropes.”

  “Two females were fighting. The passive one was the male. In their species, roles are reversed.”

  Leborgne frowned.

  “There’s nothing wrong with a woman making the first move,” Uzu continued. “Ku… who confessed first?”

  She blushed.

  They staged a mock courtship under a tree.

  Letters were exchanged.

  Ku spoke from the heart.

  Leborgne followed Uzu’s advice.

  Until he stalled.

  “What should I answer?” he asked.

  “You struggle with dialogue,” Ku said.

  He denied it.

  “When I asked what you liked about me,” she continued, “you said: my feet.”

  Uzu burst into laughter.

  “You walk fast,” Leborgne defended. “I could have said legs. That would have sounded worse.”

  “That’s absurd.”

  “We aren’t truly engaged.”

  “Not truly?” Uzu raised a brow.

  Ku finally spoke openly.

  She confessed her despair. Her guilt. Her belief that she was cursed. That those close to her disappeared.

  Uzu listened in silence.

  “You hid things from me,” he said at last. “But not to harm me. I chose to walk with you. I’m not changing my mind.”

  He paused.

  “But no more secrets. Especially if they put our lives at risk.”

  They agreed.

  ---

  They reached the source.

  It was not the right one.

  The water lay stagnant. Cold. Lifeless.

  As if it existed without purpose.

  Uzu admitted he never understood what it offered.

  The silence lingered.

  The road was far from over.

  It had barely begun.