The earth was hard and almost barren. Gazi and Tanaka followed the two Yera Shiri guards in hardened leather vests. As they passed through the stone gates, Tanaka's eyes wandered about as he saw the great wall made from thick, cleanly cut wood with multiple guard outposts a short distance away from each other. The village was underwhelming, to say the least. Past the gates were multiple wood and cloth stalls with vendors calling out their produce.
"Do not stare," Gazi told Tanaka.
He fixed his head forward, following the burly men ahead, but his irises couldn't help but curve every now and then as he saw some stalls filled to the brim with produce whilst others barely had enough to count on both hands. As they walked further in, the people kept taking their eyes off the stalls to stare at the strangers.
"Yeah, I'm a little dirty, I haven't had a bath in weeks. What's their excuse?" Tanaka thought as he saw their dirty, ragged clothes.
"That symbol," someone whispered. "They are Yera Shumba."
"But they were attacked."
"Does this mean we are at war?"
The hushed whispers continued as the locals gave mean glares and worried expressions. Swordsmiths stopped swinging their hammers, vendors ignored the customers in front of them, all just to catch a glimpse of them. Some of the villagers seemed to stare out of admiration, but others glared at them in a way which gave meaning to the saying if looks could kill.
"Don't mind them. We are not used to having visitors here," one of the guards commented.
Tanaka looked at the people themselves; though looking worried and some angry, most of them had an expression he had seen before – a silent fear and quiet desperation.
"Everything here just seems so... sad," Tanaka whispered to Gazi, adjusting to the sight of misery that was before him, a sight unlike the regal Yera Shumba village, one he had never grown accustomed to, or even known existed. Among the people, Tanaka saw most of their hands were full of blisters, yet they continued to work despite them. The children's eyes looked drained rather than full of mischief, as Tanaka was used to, as if they had been given no choice but to grow up too soon. Suddenly, a loud shriek sounded from an alleyway, cutting through the noise and hushed whispers of the village patrons. Tanaka's heart raced, and without a thought, he hurried over, running towards the sound of distress.
"Ahhh, dammit," the burly guard shouted, looking at the boy run further into the village.
Gazi and the guards hurriedly followed after him. Tanaka's sandals skidded on the floor as he stopped. There was a woman seated between two buildings, ruffling her short hair as tears dried on her face whilst more fell. Tanaka stepped into the shadows of the alley as he slowly approached the woman.
"What's wrong?" he asked as he knelt down beside her.
She spoke with a soft, strained voice, "My – my bread. P-please help."
"Calm down, what's wrong?"
"A th-thief stole my loaf of bread. Please help. It's the only one I have. My ch-children have slept the past two days without any food... please."
Tears fell as she rested her hands on Tanaka's shoulders and bowed her head. Words choked up on his throat, he took her hands into his own and squeezed them lightly as he offered her a hopeful smile.
"Don't worry, I'll get it back for you," he reassured the woman as Gazi and the guards finally caught up with him.
Tanaka stood up, his eyes glowing a pale orange as he balled his hands to fists and clenched his jaw. He ran off once again, following the footprints left by the thief in the sand before the wind had covered them.
"Agggh, this kid," Gazi groaned, seeing him jolt off once more.
"Hmm?" he knelt near the sobbing woman, whom he had just noticed.
"My apologies, ma'am. I hadn't seen you there. Are you okay?"
Tanaka kept running, following where ever the footprints led. He pounced off the buildings in the alleys using his fingertips to do a front flip and push down to propel him forward faster. He stumbled lightly each time, almost tripping when he was about to land. His heart raced as his eyes glowed brighter, their orange color being stained with a bit of red. As the marks appeared on his fingers. But the darkness of the alleys began to slowly get replaced by the sun reflecting on the sand, stone, and grass. He moved closer towards the light and appeared at what seemed to be the exit. Floods of people moved randomly around. His nose scrunched up in annoyance. There were countless footprints now, others were even smudged out by carriage wheel prints.
He bent down, placing his hand on the ground like a cat, and smirked, "You're not getting away."
He tensed up all his muscles and rotated himself into a headstand while pressing down midway with great force. A cloud of fierce dust blew from the ground when he launched himself far up into the air so he could have an aerial view. Once midair, he quickly realigned himself to be upright as the wind blew his shirt and dreads upwards. He scanned the market area for anything suspicious.
"Got ya!"
His lips parted into a wide grin as he saw a hooded person on a hay carriage with a single loaf of bread. He reached a peak height as gravity prepared to send him back down. As he descended, he positioned himself midair such that he'd be able to immediately accelerate towards the culprit soon after landing. Gazi finally made it out of the alley with the woman and Yera Shiri guards behind him. He saw the crowd of people pointing to the sky and instinctively looked in the direction.
"Impossible," he stood dumbfounded as he looked at Tanaka, eyes glowing, descending like a muddy silver missile. "He's barely had chipo for a day."
Tanaka's feet landed like a lion chasing prey. He ran after the carriage that was carrying the thief, bumping into people and knocking over fruit baskets on the way.
"Heyyyy! Yer bastard!" one vendor yelled.
"Sorry," Tanaka responded, but not once had he looked back.
Once he had gotten close enough to the carriage, he stretched and wiggled his fingers before clenching them into a tight fist as his tattoos glowed a bright orange that illuminated the nearby surroundings.
"HEY!" he yelled as he jumped from the ground.
The thief turned around to see the source of the voice only to be met by a hard, curled fist from Tanaka. The punch landed with a most satisfying crunch as the cloaked man flew off the carriage. People started gathering around the scene to see the hooded man whose front center teeth had been knocked out as a stream of blood trickled between his lips. Some village guards hurried over to the site. They saw the unconscious, bleeding man on the ground and Tanaka standing over him with a heaving chest. They growled, preparing to apprehend Tanaka for assault and battery. Gazi and the gate guards, along with the woman, showed up just before Tanaka was about to be arrested.
"Would you stop running off already," Gazi complained.
"Hey, Mbasi, what's going on here?" one of the guards asked, looking at the burly gate guard.
"Bah! That kid right there went bonkers chasing after some stolen bread."
"Really?"
"Yes. Take that guy into custody; he's the real criminal," Mbasi pointed out the guy who was unconscious on the ground.
The Yera Shiri guards did as told, detaining the man. Tanaka took the bread from the thief before he was taken away.
"Here you go, ma'am. I hope your kids won't mind; the bread kinda fell down when I punched that guy," he said gently as he nervously stroked the back of his neck. The woman sobbed softly but smiled nonetheless.
"Thank you, kind child; you have no idea how much this means to me."
"Oh no, it's okay, ma'am. No need to thank me. I'm just happy to help," Tanaka said, blushing.
The woman went on her way but not before turning around here and there to say thank you once more.
"You know, you can't just do things like that. You are a royal, the last royal, in fact; try to act like it," Gazi commented.
"I know, but she needed help, and I could help her, so I did. You taught me that, Gazi."
Gazi's lips curved upwards slightly, not so much that it was noticeable, but still enough.
"Well, look at what all that 'help' did," Gazi showed Tanaka the scene behind them.
Fruits were scattered all over. The hay caravan that was carrying the thief had tipped over, and the people were glaring at Tanaka whilst trying to fix their vending stalls.
"Ohh... hehe, sorry," he softly said, waving to the vendors who just groaned in displeasure.
"Bastard," one vendor muttered.
"Hmm, it has not even been a day since your arrival, and yet you have still managed to cause such mayhem," a soft, melodic voice spoke behind them.
Gazi and Tanaka spun around to see the source. The guards present just stood at attention and bowed slightly.
"Forgive our incompetence, Chief Onye. These are Yera Shumba men, and we were accompanying them to see you,"
She smiled softly at the guards. "No need for apologies. And besides, it seems you met your mission to completion" she chuckled softly "Please continue on"
"Yes maam" they exclaimed in synchrony.
She then faced Tanaka and Gazi. Her hair neatly tied into a bun with some white strands of hair running on the right.
"Ahh you two. We need to have a chat don't we"