After being thrown up in the air and down a few times, akihira asks the mayor how his injuries were healed so quickly.
"Oh that, it was the daughter of our town's woodcutter." The Mayor says to him.
"Sugita? b-but how?" Akihira asks.
"You don't know I take it, she can use really advanced healing magic that can heal fatal wounds in a matter of minutes, but she couldn't master it. Even so, her magic's amazing." The Mayor explains.
"That's awesome, so where is she now? I'll go thank her." Akihira says.
"I don't think she wants to talk to anyone right now." The Mayor replies sadly.
Akihira then remembers what happened to Kushi, he starts to feel like an idiot for being so happy when so many people died just a few days ago.
"Okay, thanks for the info." Akihira says as he tries to hide his sadness.
He then walks away, after walking for a bit akihira spots Sugita sitting on the ground with her hands around her knees in front of a grave. He ran towards Sugita and stops right before reaching her.
"Hey uhh, sugita?" Akihira approches her.
"You're alive! I thought you were going to die, I'm glad." Sugita cries.
"Yeah, I heard from the mayor you were the one who healed me, Thanks a lot!" Akihira says.
"Y-Yes, but there was still no guarantee you would survive, I was so scared. I didn't want to lose anyone else." Sugita says.
"It's all right, you did your best and I'm very grateful." Akihira says
Akihira then sees the name of the grave in front of him, "Kushi Fukuhei" was written.
"Dammit, I'm so sorry. It's all my fault, if only I'd gotten there sooner then Mr. Fukuhei could still be alive." Akihira says sadly while clenching his fists.
"No, it's not your fault. I don't blame you." Sugita reassures him.
"Well, well, well, what's going on here?" Someone says.
Akihira and sugita look behind and see Ichitsu. Sugita quickly lets go of akihira and akihira goes towards ichitsu.
"Hey Ichitsu, you okay?" Akihira says.
"Yeah, I'm mostly fine, but how did my wounds heal so quickly?" Ichitsu asks.
"It was Sugita, who else? The Mayor told me that Sugita can use advanced healing or something..." Akihira explains.
"Why did I even expect a good answer from you?" Ichitsu sighs as he says that.
Ichitsu stood silently before the grave, the wind brushing through the trees around them. After a long pause, he lowered his head and spoke softly.
"I'm sorry, Sugita... for not being there when it mattered—just like Akihira said."
Sugita glanced at him, her expression gentle.
"You don't have to apologize," she said quietly. "I never blamed you. None of this was your fault."
A solemn silence settled between them as they both paid their respects.
Then, with one final look at Kushi's resting place, they turned and walked away—carrying the weight of memory, and the resolve to keep moving forward.
"It's getting dark now, I'm sure you both are hungry. Let's go have some dinner, the town's chef's probably cooked up something." Sugita says to them.
"Oh yeah, I'm soooo hungry. Feels like I haven't eaten in days." Akihira says while his stomach growls.
"That's because you haven't." Ichitsu replies.
They all reach the campsite where everyone welcomes them and gives them food.
"THANK YOU FOR THE FOOD!" Akihira says.
Akihira eats a lot of food very quickly.
"Dude, are you even chewing it?!" Ichitsu asks.
"MHM, I AM." Akihira says with a mouth full of food.
"Don't talk with your mouth full, where are your manners?" Ichitsu scolds him.
Akihira swallows his food and says.
"Okay, sorry geez."
Everyone then started to laugh, and after everyone ate, Akihira had something on his mind.
"Hey, Ichitsu." Akihira says.
"Yeah, what's up?" Ichitsu Replies.
Akihira: "Do you have any idea what happened to us during that fight with that demon guy? It felt like magic or something, but I wasn't even born with any magic... It's weird. My hand—was literally covered in fire—and not even normal fire!"
Ichitsu: "Yeah, same here. I don't know what that was. I've never read about anything like this... that kind of fire, or the way I could control shadows. It's not in any book I've seen."
Ichitsu: "Our powers are… really strange."
Akihira: "Yeah. But strange or not—these powers are exactly what we need."
Ichitsu: "What do you mean?"
Akihira: "Think about it. If we can figure out how to use these powers—really control them—then we'll be able to keep the promise we made to Mr. Fukuhei."
Ichitsu: "You're right! But... where do we even begin?"
"We'll try to figu-" Akihira was cut off by a loud roar in the forest.
"That roar, can't be." Ichitsu's expression darkens.
"No way. EVERYBODY RUN, IT'S THE IRON OXBEAST" Akihira shouts.
The beast was closer than it sounded and suddenly burst through the trees roaring louder than ever before, Sugita runs up to them.
"Sugita, are you okay?" Ichitsu Asks.
"I'm fine but, it's that monster again." Sugita says while frightened.
"Alright, Sugita, you go help all the people escape and we'll try to distract this thing." Akihira says to her.
"But your wounds, they haven't healed yet." Sugita says worriedly.
"We'll be fine, now go!" Akihira reassures her.
"Okay, please be safe." Sugita says as she goes to help the people.
"Soooooo....you uhhh....got any clues as to how we can distract this guy?" Akihira says with a neutral face.
"Nope, I got nothing." Ichitsu replies.
The oxbeast then looks towards them and starts running.
"I think it's time we make a 'Tactical Retreat' wouldn't you say?" Ichitsu says.
"MHM YEP, I AGREE." Akihira says as he repeatedly nods.
Both of them start running into the forest, desperately trying to escape. Then, it occurs to Ichitsu.
"Hey, this is actually good." Ichitsu says to akihira.
"Wh-HOW IS THIS EVEN REMOTELY GOOD?!" Akihira asks while moving his arms up and down to indicate annoyance.
"It's only following us so we can lure it away from the campsite." Ichitsu explains.
"Oh, yeah, I guess." Akihira replies.
As they kept on running away from the campsite, the beast uses its roar again which was many times stronger than before, and caused the trees to be ripped from the ground and fly away. Akihira and Ichitsu were sent flying back and hit the trees, and due to the force of the impact, their wounds opened up and caused great pain, because of which they weren't able to move.
"DAMMIT! If only we knew how to use our powers." Akihira says as he punches the ground in frustration.
"He's right, we can't do anything." Ichitsu thinks to himself.
"We're too weak." Ichitsu faces down, irritated.
Just as the beast was about to attack, a huge white light came out of nowhere and pierced the beast, killing it almost instantly.
"Wh-what the heck? Was that a giant white sword?" Ichitsu asks to akihira in surprise.
"I think it was." Akihira replies.
"Hm? Who are you, kids?" A voice asks them.
Then Akihira and Ichitsu see a mysterious man, come from atop the beast holding two swords. The same place where the giant sword had pierced it.
"Who in the world are you?!" Both Akihira and Ichitsu ask.
END OF CHAPTER 5