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"Fire and Water, prologue" Days have went by since the battle at the Mercenary Fortress. The man cloaked himself in ragged cloth, with the fake beard covering most of his face, a scowl look pasted on it. "Ridiculous, I don't see why I must stoop to this." said the man. "It's not that bad, 'Rook', we're doing this to find out more about the security they have around this area anyway, so we're supposed to do this." said another, shorter man behind him, also raggedly costumed. "Don't call me Rook" "And risk our lives by calling you your real name? I'm not as insane as you are, boy." "How dare you speak to me that way." "What way? Remember, boy, you are not a prince as of this moment and I am not your underling. You are my nephew and I am your uncle, we are on our way to make a deal with this Shu fella regarding our currently attained sugar products. And remember, I am to be called 'Uncle Justy'." "Justan, this is stupid and ridiculous, and just the fact that we actually need to do this is also stupid. We don't need to do this, the Jowstoners have lowered their defenses enough. All..." 'Uncle Justy' interrupted the disguised prince, hand raised, "Are you truly an idiot Ruka? Sorry, 'Rook'. We have destroyed TWO of their towns and a Security Fort, THAT is enough for them to be aware of our presence and raise more security measures that might just overthrow our forces on the next battle. So now, we need to find out more about just how much defenses they have raised. Plus, having one of out troops defeated by one lone ninja boy is very peculiar. This confirms that we SHOULD check out the security these people have now. Do you understand me, boy?" "....." "And call me Uncle Justy. I was a big member here before, people might just remember me." the older of the two exclaimed and they walked towards the little town of Radat. A week, and still no idea what to do. "Why don't you just work as usual?" I can't, I don't have a boat, and plus, this is Radat, they have laws on fishing and stuff. They're more organised, they have guilds and a union thing for the Fishermen, thanks to Shu and Amada. That's how they can have the people here to always help guard the floodgate and everything. "Ahhh, I see you've been working on finding out more information around the place." Of course I have, you were around while I was doing all that. "At some moments I need phase off, or how people would say, turned off, thanks to the fact that I'm not being used." Well, sorry, there's nobody I need to kill or heal. "You know what you should do? You should start travelling. By foot." I hate travelling by foot. It's not the right way to travel you know? One should always travel by the sea, the water, while the wind breezes through your face, smelling the sweet, unpolluted air. That's the way it should always be. "I thought you'd be like that, just testing to see if I chose the right guy to wield me, that's all." Testing? I never knew I was being tested. How did I do? "Still can't tell, we still haven't been doing anything yet, so I need more information and facts." Oh, okay. How am I doing so far then? "......" Hey? True Water Rune? Hey, I'm talking to you. "Sorry, phased off... what were you saying?" I asked how did I fare the test so far? "......" Oh, forget it. In any case, I wanna get out of this room. Definitely have to find a place to sleep for tonight, cos we're short on money and the only ones we have now is only enough for food. Hmmm? What's this? "Found something interesting in your pocket?" Huh, no kidding, will you look at this? Today might just be my lucky day. My dices have been hiding in there this whole time. Don't know how they coulda stayed in there this whole time throughout the time I was in the Whale's Belly, but this is cool enough. I can definitely use them to get more money. "Excuse me?" A little dice game, with people to bet on it. And since I was lucky enough to find the dices today, when my money's running out, I bet I can definitely get a lot of profit with them. "......" Phased out again? "No, just thinking if this is a good idea or not. Currently leaning towards not." Don't worry, my hunches always comes out okay. Okay, not always. 9 out of 10. Okay, maybe 6 out of 10. Well, around there anyway. "......" "I'm hungry anyway, let's just slide into this inn and grab some food." said, Ruka... no, Rook, as they stood on the sandy ground of Radat's entrance, right in front of the inn. Uncle Justy turned around and smiled at the younger, bearded man, one hand rested on top of a cane and another just below his hunched back. He opened up his mouth, "What a great idea, 'Rook', my back's killing me carrying all this Sugar." Just as Uncle Justy finished his words, a crowd began to gather around them. "Sugar?" "You got Sugar?" "How much?" "Hey, quit pushin' I was here first!" Rook was getting iritated by the people who were blocking their way into the inn and pushing and shoving to get to Uncle Justy to deal with him on the Sugar prices. A scowl was slowly painting itself on his face, unfortunately for the crowd, it was coming on unnoticed thanks to the hood that covered Rook's face in shadows. He snapped his fingers behind him and a spark of fire abounded off it. Under the views of the crowd, he pointed his finger towards the bag of sugar Uncle Justy was carrying. In a second, a small spark of flame jumped off the finger landed on the bottom of the bag and in a matte of seconds, the whole bag caught on fire. "WHOAH!" everyone started to shout and they all jumped back as the fire grew uncontrollable. "FIRE!" "SHIT, someone, get some water!!" "Save the Sugar!!" Uncle Justy turned around to look at Rook with an angry face, but Rook never even turned away. He stared back at Uncle Justy with his fiery eyes. But the staring contest didn't last long as a huge splash came from the sky and doused the uncontrollable flame was put out. Both Rook and Justy looked up and saw a middle aged man, dressed rather poorly, looking down, a kooky smile etched on his face. The man's hand was dripping with water. Rook looked closely and saw that the water actually originated from the man's hand, as he saw no markings of a pail handle on the man's hands or red marks on the fingers to prove that he had carried something that would have hold the large amount of water that came about. "Sorry about the sugar, old sport, but at least the fire's put out, right?" the man shouted out towards Uncle Justy. "No, no problem, at least the big problem is averted." Uncle Justy replied to the man, "Isn't that right Rook?" "What's your name?" Rook asked the man, ignoring Uncle Justy totally. "Tai Ho, nice to meetcha, what's yours?" "Ru... ook... Rook, and nice to meet you too." Rook answered, a grin grew on his face.
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