Hitori led the way downstairs. He examined the walls, then he saw the fire patches of burn and the fire around the hall.
The sofa was nothing but the remains of leather and cotton and wood. It had black patches all over, with a little ash under it.
The dining table had a big hole in it as if someone from another world punched it through. The legs were alright, but the joints around the corners were dangling.
But the coffee table was missing. A scroll might have fallen on it, bursting into pieces and leaving nothing.
The rug in the drawing room was half burned and half good, but what good was that half part? The curtains that once stopped the sunlight from entering the hall were burning to the top. Some had burned to ashes, but some had not.
Hitori had to jump off the second stair since the first one was nothing but a busted hole in the wooden floor. "Watch out," he said as he turned to his room.
They had made the decision of leaving Kakashi and Eya in the room– but he was glad they came upstairs. Nothing was left of the door, just some pieces of wood hanging from the top.
Hitori stood in front of his room and examined the mess the scrolls have created. His bed was on fire, he was worried about his books, and not to mention the gaming console. That was a high price to pay for doing nothing.
'Now that Kakashi is conscious, they will be safe,' Kyo-san had said. Perhaps this is what he meant. Kakashi knew what to do and just when to do it. He saved Reon from the disaster.
"Are you going to stare or help us clean the mess?"
Hitori turned and found Kakashi standing behind him. "Yeah… uh, how bad is it?" he asked.
Kakashi shrugged. His wand was in his hand and his clothes were covered in black patches. "Enough to cost us around half a million renovating this house."
"Then why are we cleaning?"
"Because this is OUR house, boy. Does not matter if we are going to renovate it or not, we need to clean the shit we did. Now get your wand, and inspect the house for a fire. Does not matter how small it is, extinguish it. We will do the hard work."
Hitori nodded. He glanced out of the empty sliding door frame on his left and saw the sun's rays falling on the dark blackish-green leaves and the brown roots.
"Hitori," he heard Reon say behind him, "let us go." She put on a smile on her tired face.
Everyone was tired, but they were still doing their job. So Hitori had to check for a fire around the house before jumping on the bed.
He walked to the broken front door. When he came out, he saw the stairs veranda was a victim of the blast. Nothing was left of it but a few logs hanging on the sides. Rest was in ashes.
Even the stairs were gone. Oh, shit. Reon jumped off the front step and then waited for Hitori– who could not come.
Hitori sat on the corner, then prepared himself to jump from the two feet height– an easy job, right? Not for him. Even two feet seemed like twenty feet.
Suddenly, his butt left the hot wooden platform (of whatever was remaining). Hitori lifted his head and saw Kyoryu levitating him to the ground.
"Thanks," Hitori said.
Kyo hummed. "How is your back?"
"Better, I guess. Not good enough, but Reon used a lot of mana to heal me. Why did you have to throw me so hard anyway? I have trouble walking now."
"For the very same, Hitori, to make it hard for you to run."
"But I said I can not even WALK without the pain reaching up my spine. Maybe Bind or Petrify would have worked, do you not think so?"
"If I had aimed my want at you, you would have petrified me before I could even get a chance to—"
"Of course, I would have got away."Hitori bobbed his head.
"See? I had to make you the victim. And I barely had much time to draw my wand and stop you– you were in a rage."
"I was just angry."
"Well, then your anger is always in a rage. And I know better than to stop an angry calm and tell him to calm, especially teens."
Hitori nodded. "What about the noise though? The firing and the blast. Although the house is half a kilometer from the town, at least someone must have heard the commotion. Do you have anyone o deal with it?"
"Do worry, nothing left this place."
"How can you tell?"
"Because Tengokused their tech to prevent the noise from leaving the area. It created some sort of a bubble shield. He did not want to gain attention. Even he wanted to stay away from the police and guards.
Hitori wanted to blame himself again. "And I let him go…"
"He is not a bird, you can not let him go just like that." Kyoryu kept his hand on Hitori's shoulder. "For the price of losing a finger, you did a pretty good job. Of course, you will improve with time, so keep up."
Improve? Keep up? What did Kyo mean? It is not a game that he will keep practicing and will improve and will keep up the good work. It was an attack he defended against. The next—
Next time, next time, next time. Hitori was sick of thinking of the next time. Right now, even he was not sure if he was going to see that rising sun, set this evening. Tengoku could be any and everywhere.
"I will get going," he said as he walked past Kyo.
"Sure. Now that you are on your way, check on the Guardian Spirit. God knows what happened to that fraud."
"Seriously," Hitori turned, "if he had helped us, we would have got Tengoku for sure."
"We two were enough, Hitori," Reon said, "we do not need any tree to help us."
Kyoryu chuckled. "No, lady. Our fight is not with Tengoku– he is just an obstacle. Like the main villain's guardian."
"G-Guardian?" she scoffed, "what is that supposed to mean?"
"That your fight is not with Tengoku. It is with Onogi. It doe snot matter who kills Tengoku, but do not let anyone else kill Onogi– that would be a shame."
That was deep. So deep that Hitori and Reon had to exchange glances. And he knew that look in Reon's eyes because he was considering the same: Tengoku and Onogi were at the same level. No one was anyone's 'guardian'.
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