"You are free to choose, but you're not free to decide what the consequences are." -Di'Ophion

The way there was peaceful, nothing much happened that would stop our walk. We were admiring the beauty of the nature around us on the way. One hour later of walking we finally got to the tree; it was pretty high compared to the other trees. It was about 150 meters from us. As soon as we stepped forwards into the zone of the tree, the griffon flew from the very top of the tree towards us. Kasai took out her singularity, but as soon as she did, I stopped her.

“No, we are not going to fight.”

“Alright…” The griffon landed 50 meters from us and then, we heard his voice in our heads saying,

“Step no further.”

“We’re not here to cause harm,” I said.

“Words are easily deceiving. How can I trust a man?”

“We’re friends with the advent children; Maria, Misaki, and Yumi in specific.” The griffon slowly started walking up to us.

“Any proof?”

“Your name… it’s Di’Ophion, right?”

“Hmm…If what you say is indeed true, I still can’t just let you pass through.”

“But…”

“Tell me, boy, what are your intentions with the fruit of Phoenix?” That’s the name? That’s so damn cool.

“My… my significant other needs this fruit to break a curse.”

“A cursed girl?”

“Yes… someone sealed her voice with a curse, and all I want is to get her voice back.”

“Hmm… not a selfish wish, I can respect that.”

“Wait, the fruit can be used for something else?”

“Yes, it grants youth to the person who eats it. It won’t make them immortal; however, it will change their age back to their prime.”

“Oh, I see.”

“The girl seems to be already on her prime, eating it won’t change her much.” The griffon was something that I’ve never thought of seeing in my entire life. With the body, tail, and back legs of a lion; the head and wings of an eagle, and the wisdom of the elders.

“Please…” I bowed and said, “I’ll do anything… just… just let us pass.” Kasai looked at me and said,

“Honey… maybe we could find another way.”

“No! I’m not giving up this close.”

“How about you, girl.”

“Me? You can hear me?”

“I can. Why do you want your voice back?”

“Why?... well… all I want is to Rukito to be happy if getting my voice back makes him happy, then I’ll get it back.”

“Wait, so you are doing this for my sake?!” I asked.

“I don’t really mind being mute as long as I’m happy with you, but I do want my voice back since I know it will make you happy.”

“Huh… how intriguing; a true love, Though… I must give my condolences, I can’t let anyone but elves get the fruit.”

“R-Really?” I asked.

“Yes… I suggest you to not come back.” I was shocked… The cure for her was right in front of us… but nothing, we weren’t allowed to get it.

“But-” Said Kasai. I stopped her and said,

“It’s fine Kasai… I guess we will just find another way; we have to respect this place, we are not that big of a deal compared to what this fruit could do to other people that are worse than you.” When I said that, the griffon flew up into the air back to the top of the tree.

“… Let’s leave, Kasai.”

“Alright.” As we were walking away, Di’Ophion stopped our way ahead, it had an orange fruit in its beak.

“That was a test to see if you would have been selfish and still walked in. Your response was very wise and understanding, and for that, I must commend you with the fruit of Phoenix.”

“Wait, seriously?!” I said.

“You must hurry before I change my mind.” Kasai let out her hand, and the griffon gave her the fruit.

“Don’t rejoice, the test has just begun.”

“Huh?”

“You must devour the fruit, or it will attract too many other creatures. After you do, fewer creatures will be attracted, but they will still come to you and kill her to then eat her.”

“Oh, alright. Thanks for everything, Di’Ophion.” I said.

“Yes, thank you very much!”

“No, you both deserve it; you are good people, send future queen Yumi my regards.”

“I sure will!” I was filled with happiness and accomplishment. I wanted to use my Katana, but there are enemies to come. Di’Ophion flew off and then, I saw Kasai looking at the fruit.

“So… do I peel this or what?”

“I have no idea but do it quick.” She took out the dagger and instantly peeled it.

“Alright, I hope it tastes well.” She took a bite out of it and then said,

“This is delicious!” She instantly ate all of it.

“So, can you talk?” I was super nervous, I didn’t know why but I was. I could finally hear her sweet voice clearly. She started coughing a bit; purple lights exited her body, then, a phoenix appeared flying around her, it took off into the skies and left.

“R-Rukito?” She spoke softly. I rushed towards her and gave her a warm hug.

“See?! I told you I was going to get your voice back!” She started crying and said,

“Thank you…” I caressed her head, kissed her, then said,

“No problem, now all we have to do is talk to the king, and we can go back home.” She started coughing a bit more. I took out water out of the bag and gave some to her. “You haven’t talked for years, let your vocal cords get used to it again.”

“I love you-cough-I love you so much.” I was filled with joy and relief, she finally could talk to people around her. I smiled and said,

“I love you too, but please take it easy.”

“Ok.” We both started walking back to Yumi’s house, the sun was about to set.

15 minutes later we heard a musical instrument being played, it sounded like a harp.

“Where’s that music coming from?” I asked myself. We were both attracted to the music like moths to light; it was such sweet harmony. We deviated from the path and walked in the woods, there we saw a fairy playing the harp, sitting on top of a stump with many different animals surrounding her to hear her song. She was beautiful and tiny, she was around 3 feet tall with long purple hair and a gorgeous black dress. She opened her eyes, and we noticed that they were a calming ocean blue color. What struck me was that she had no wings whatsoever.

“Good evening, travelers.” I also noticed she had a halo also with different shades of purple tilted on top of her head.

“G-Good evening.” Said Kasai. She was still playing the harp as we were speaking.

“You’re really good at playing the harp,” I said.

“Thank you, but I’m not very skilled yet.”

“Sounds awesome to me.”

“Rukito, I got a bad feeling about this.” Said Kasai with her telepathy.

“Don’t worry, it’s just a fairy. They are good people, only pixies are sometimes evil.”

“How do you know that she is a fairy and not a pixie?”

“Fairies are small, while pixies are as big as us! Or is it the other way around?... I don’t know, I wasn’t paying attention in mystical class.” Suddenly, the fairy changed songs and started playing a quicker song.

“Well, then let me show you more of what I’ve learned throughout the century.” Suddenly I couldn’t move a muscle, I was completely frozen, I could only talk.

“W-What’s happening?”

“I warned you!”

“Don’t worry travelers, I’ll quickly explain.” She continued playing her harp as she stood up.

“My name is Nightshade, I’m an exiled pixie from the black ash house.” She kept a serious face all along.

“Dammit, baby!” Said Kasai.

“Hey! Not my fault the teacher was too boring.” We still couldn’t manage to move an inch. The harp had to do something with it.

“This is my materialistic singularity, ‘Physical Crescendo’ I can control people’s bodies with different songs.”

“Haha! That’s a cool singularity, now can you let us go?”

“Not so fast.” She started walking around Kasai and me. “I shall finish this song.” She then started singing along with her notes, the harmony between the two beautiful sounds made Kasai and I start to cry.

“Despair…Sorrow… filled the boy… but only… if he had some joy.” Tears were running down my cheeks faster than ever. I looked over to Kasai, and she was also crying a lot.

“Everyone, around him died… He slowly, but surely cried.”

“Y-You can also control people’s emotions?!” She looked at me and said,

“Not just people…” We suddenly stopped crying.

“Drips, drops, falling lightly from the heavens~” It suddenly started raining out of nowhere.

“W-Wow! You’re amazing!” I said. I was trying to flatter her so she would let us go, I heard that if you praise a pixie good enough they will leave you alone.

“My sisters didn’t find it amazing...” As soon as she stops singing the rain stopped. She walked towards Kasai and asked,

“You just ate the fruit of Phoenix, right? I can smell it on you.”

“Y-Yes…”

“My apologies, but I’ll have to kill you.”

“W-Wait! Why?!” I yelled.

“Quiet down, you will scare the animals away.”

“S-Sorry…” I was trying not to get agitated since I was still trying to appeal to this pixie. “Say… I noticed you don’t have wings, what happened to them?” She gave a slight look of sadness and said,

“That’s none of your concerns, traveler.”

“You need the phoenix fruit to get them back, huh?”

“I said it’s none of your-”

“Di’Ophion found that as a selfish wish and he didn’t allow you in, right?”

“… Even if that was true, what would it matter to you?” I need to distract her from playing the harp somehow… Pixies value their looks a lot, maybe she thinks she is ugly now without wings.

“You know, you look precious even without the wings.” She quickly stepped back, blushed and said,

“W-what did you just say?” She stopped playing the harp for a second, I managed to take out my spirit daisho and lay my hand on the handle, but she quickly resumed playing. On the other side, Kasai was right about to slice her stomach.

“Y-You liar! You just want to escape!”

“Kasai! Don’t hurt her, we can make this work out without the needs of blood.”

“Ugh, alright.”

“No, Nightshade, I wasn’t lying.”

“Then why are you reading your weapon? She was about to kill me!”

“I already told her to not do that, she will not kill you, I promise.”

“How can I trust a stranger?...”

“Because…” I had to say it to get another second to pull my katana. “I think I’ve fallen in love with you.”

“Huh?!” She stopped playing the harp again, I unsheathed my katana and pointed it at her, but she quickly started playing again.

“That’s it! I’m not stopping anymore!”

“Sorry, Nightshade.”

“Sorry? For what?” She started looking around her, and many spiritual wolves started surrounding her. “Who are they?!”

“Rukito, didn’t you said not to kill her?”

“Counting that the wolves are part of my singularity… they won’t kill her.”

“What do you mean?” Suddenly, a wolf jumped on top of Nightshade and bit her neck, but it seemed like the wolf bit her soul, not her physical body; doing so, made her faint.

“Another person can’t touch one’s singularity, if they do, they will faint.”

“Ah! I see, so the wolves are part of your singular-cough- goddammit!”

“Take it easy, hahaha.” We walked towards Nightshade and told each other, “So we are just going to leave her here?”

“Of course, We need to go back to Yumi.”

“But… she seems like a nice person.”

“She is a pixie!”

“She is also exiled… maybe she is not like the others? Maybe exiling someone means ripping their wings off.”

“Come on baby, stop trying to help everyone in your way, it’s not our problem to deal with.”

“Imagine if I had that same mindset when I first met you, that it wasn’t my problem to deal with getting your voice back or warning the king about black tombstone!”

“You’re right…”

“I want to help her, she seemed alone and depressed. We both know how that feels… plus, her singularity could prove of great use to us in the future!”

“Yeah… alright, let’s help her then.”

“I’ll pick her up and take her to Yumi’s house.” I picked her up like a princess and said,

“Damn, she is so light! Feels like I’m carrying a pillow.”

“How are you going to make sure she doesn’t wake up?” I took out my tanto and laid it on top of her.

“She will feint forever like this!”

“Wow, that’s a way to do it.” We walked back even further, suddenly, we noticed that the whole forest started to get misty and dark.

“Uhm… are we going the right way?” Asked Kasai.

“I’m not a human GPS, but I’m sure we are.”

“Well… let’s just keep walking then.”

“This reminds me a lot of Charlotte.” As we kept walking the trail back, we then heard a voice saying,

“The path shall be found once you complete the word.”

“Huh? What the hell was that?” I asked.

“Hmm…” Kasai and I kept walking in silence for 10 minutes and still seeming as if we kept looping the same way over and over.

“What the…” As soon as I said those two words gallows appeared at our right.

“Wrong, try again.” We heard.

“What?!” I yelled again. When I said that, I felt a light invisible rope tied around my neck. I looked to the gallows, and the head of my soul was on the rope.

“Honey!” Yelled Kasai. As soon as she screamed that, the bottom part of the gallows were duplicated into another one.

“Wrong, try again.” We heard once more. ‘The path shall be found once you complete the word’… I think I was starting to get what was going on, we were… playing a real-life hanged man!

“Kasai, don’t talk using your voice, just communicate with telepathy,” I told her about my telepathy.

“Really?! I just got my voice back, come on!”

“We have to find what the word is…”

“What do you mean?”

“You never played hanged man?”

“No.” I sighed and said,

“Don’t worry, I got it.” I was going to start with syllabus since every word has at least one.

“A?” I asked. The silence was heard, a couple of seconds later, the blank words appeared in front of us. It was a three lettered word, those can be the hardest one to guess…

“Wrong, try again.” My body joined my head on the rope, and the rope got tighter around my neck, but I could still talk. With a three lettered word, it should be easy to find if I had a hint… it’s worth the shot.

“Hint?” A sudden silence was in the air for a couple of seconds, to then be interrupted by,

“You ask questions, I never answer. You ask who, what, when, how, and why? I answer… who?”

“Huh? How the hell is that a hint!” Said Kasai.

“It’s a riddle…”

“A what?”

“Haha, sometimes you’re just too cute with your lack of knowledge.”

“Hey! At least I don’t read books 24/7.” Hmmm… I don’t want to risk it and say more words, I might not be able to answer with the rope very tight on my neck.

“Who… he answers no question with an answer, he only says… who… who… who.” Kasai started giggling.

“Hmm? What’s so funny?”

“Nothing, you just sound like an owl.”

“An owl? AN OWL!”

“Huh?”

“Owl!” I said.

“Fuck, you’re right. Damn, I guess I have to let you go now.”

“Huh?” The mist instantly disappeared and an owl with a fedora hat on top of a tree branch looking at us.

“You can go, leave.”

“Wait, you can talk?!”

“Yeah, yeah, just go!” Said the owl. Kasai instantly dashed towards the owl and caught it in a second.

“Aww, who is a handsome little owl?!”

“H-Huh?! Let me go human! And my name is Edward!”

“Kasai, let him go, I don’t want to be in that stupid minigame again.”

“Stupid?! I’ll let you know that my ‘Hanged Man’ singularity is extremely good!”

“Couldn’t you have used a better word?”

“Better word?! Owl is the best word!” The sun was almost gone, Kasai and I had to hurry back to Yumi’s house.

“Kasai, we have to go, come on.”

“Alright. Goodbye, Edward!”

“Yeah, yeah, just leave me alone.” He said while flying away. We kept walking and walking, 30 minutes later we finally arrived back at Yumi’s house. I still had Nightshade in my arms. I realized that I didn’t know the secret words to unlock the rock since now the little mountain was there again.

“Uhm… Kasai, do you remember?”

“Yes, and now that I can finally talk I can open it.”

“Thank god.”

“Ashma la kamp wo lockrinato strada.” The rock opened once again.

“Wow, you have an excellent memory.”

“Thanks!” We walked inside and opened the door, as soon as Kasai opened the door I noticed Yumi in the kitchen cooking. I laid down Nightshade on the sofa and walked towards Yumi. “Hey, Yumi!” Said Kasai. Yumi turned around, looked at her with eyes of surprise and smiled.

“You did it! Congratulations, Kasai.”

“Thank you, thank you.”

“You have such a sweet voice, I’m glad you got it back.”

“Mhm, now I can sign all I want!”

“You like signing?” I asked.

“I used to do so before when I was bored, I grew attached to it, so I started signing every morning.”

“I’m sure you and Nightshade can make an amazing duet.”

“Nightshade?” Asked Yumi.

“Yeah, she needed some help. I hope you don’t mind if she stays here for a night.” Yumi walked to the living room and saw her sleeping on the sofa.

“Oh, a pixie. And an exiled one at that!”

“So I was right! When they get exiled, they rip their wings off.”

“Yes, most of the time they get exiled because they were seen helping people, they aren’t allowed helping people since they are supposed to misguide them and trick them.”

“Ah, I see.” Yumi got closer to her and said,

“But wait… she is from the black ash house.”

“Huh?”

“The different colored dresses they were signifies their houses. The black one is from the black ash house. There’s the maple house, the redwood house, and many other houses named after trees.”

“Interesting.” I wouldn’t have thought that pixies had their own branches.

“But the black ash house is from Tokiri Islands… she got exiled all the way over here?!”

“Tokiri Islands?”

“It’s an archipelago at the east of us, there is said to be a little civilization of humans over there.”

“Oh, ok.” I removed my singularity from her and said, “Let’s wait for her to wake up so we can discuss it.”

“I’ll keep an eye on her.” Said Yumi. “Kasai, can you continue cooking for me?”

“But of course.” Said Kasai walking towards the kitchen.

“Yumi, where’s Misaki?”

“She locked herself into her room for some reason. I tried talking to her but nothing.”

“Oh… I’ll talk to her.” I walked towards Misaki’s room, knocked, and said,

“Misaki, It’s me.”

“Rukito?” I heard from the other side of the door. She instantly opened the door and said with a big smile,

“What’s up?”

“Mind if I come in?”

“Not at all.” I walked inside Misaki’s room. It was filled with things that you would typically see in a boy’s room, but it had that sweet scent of a girl’s room.

“Where were you today?” I asked.

“We are getting closer and closer to finding out where the black tombstone hideout is at; I had to go and check on my group.” I looked at her bed and noticed some tear stains on the pillow, but I could be wrong.

“Really? That’s great! All we got to do is tell the king and-”

“No!”

“Huh?”

“I want the cloud elves to take care of this so we will never be looked down upon.” She had a fair point there. Maybe I should just let them take care of it.

“I still want to help out though,” I said.

“Alright, I’ll let you know when we find it so we can think of a plan together.”

“Shizuka is really good at strategizing, she could really help us on that part.”

“Shizu who?”

“A good friend of mine.” But then… wouldn’t she get more jealous after coming back with these many girls?

“Any other friend that could help us?”

“Uhm… actually Sachi-…” I felt a sudden void in my head like something important was gone entirely.

“Huh? Sachi?”

“Wait, what? Who’s that?” I asked.

“I don’t know! You said the name Sachi.”

“I have no idea of who you are talking about.”

“Ah, maybe I just heard things,” Said Misaki.

“We could definitely use Nightshade for the battle.”

“Nightshade?”

“A pixie we found on the way that needed help.”

“Oh, alright. The more people we find, the better.” I looked around her room for a while, later, I asked her,

“Are you alright Misaki?”

“Huh? Why would you ask something like that?” She said smiling. I knew that she wasn’t ok, but I didn’t want to invade her privacy if she felt that she wanted to be alone, so I just brushed it aside while saying,

“Remember, Misaki… if you ever need to someone to talk to and vent, I’m here, ok?” She gave me a half smile, came close and hugged me.

“I know Rukito. Don’t worry, it’s not a big deal.” She said while hugging me tighter. “I just… keep losing people, you know? I can’t ever learn to let people go and understand that they died.” I hugged her back and said,

“We’ll stop black tombstone, I promise.” She gave a quick snicker and said with a soft tone,

“Hell yeah, we will…” She quickly pushed me off and said, “Oh! Sorry! I keep forgetting that you have a girlfriend and I shouldn’t be this close to you.” I chuckled and said,

“Nah, don’t worry. Hugging is completely normal; Kasai is not a jealous girl, after all, she can get insecure about herself not being good enough, but I’m always there to remind her how amazing she is.” Misaki giggled and said,

“I envy you both so much. Hopefully, I find someone like you in the future.” Did she just low-key say she likes me without even noticing? Damn, I mean, being with a mafia boss is a scary thought.

“Oh trust me, you don’t know what envy is until you meet Shizuka.”

“What makes you say that?”

“She has been forever envious of Kasai, but at least she said she will apologize to her.”

“Oh! Talking about Kasai, I want you to do something.”

“Huh? What do you mean?” She got close and whispered into my ear,

“I heard from her that a couple of days ago it was your birthday, so I felt bad that I wasn’t able to give you something.”

“Haha, we didn’t know each other.”

“I know! But still, I feel like giving you something.”

“Then what is it?”

“I will buy for you your engagement ring.”

“E-Engagement right?!” I said while blushing.

“Yeah, I’m sure Kasai will love it.”

“But isn’t it a bit early? We have only been with each other for a month or so.”

“I know, I know! But listen, Maria will also get married a year from now with Hachimura, so I thought that it would be amazing if you both can have something like a double wedding!”

“Oh, that’s right, my master will get married too.”

“So, what do you think?!”

“Hmm… it’s still early though.”

“Do you really see yourself breaking up with her? And finding someone better?”

“Hell no.”

“Exactly! Plus, didn’t the priest tell you that you were both soul mates?”

“Yeah, you’re right.”

“Then voilà!”

“So you’re saying you are going to get the ring?”

“Yeah-yeah; tomorrow I’ll come here with the ring.”

“Tomorrow?!”

“Yeah.” I took a deep breath and said,

“Alright, I’m counting on you then.”