Chikyu Stop was marked as a village on the map, but honestly, it didn’t even deserve that title. It had a total of fifteen old, wooden buildings in the entire place, a lot of which were two-stories with a shop on the bottom and living quarters on top. It wouldn’t even have been large enough to warrant an Astral Headquarters if not for being high traffic when heading to Hoshizora.

The Chikyu Inn was in the town’s northwest quarter, while the Carriage Station was in the southeast. Chikyu’s Astrals would be on that end as well. The Hakai-wannabes had really set up the perfect way to ambush any interesting or wealthy people. If Ichiro saw such a set-up, he would shake the earth with his fury.

Kina assessed all of this before her eyes fell on the vanishing back of one of the tattooed men. He’d been walking into an alley. The crimson-clad girl and her henchmen were nowhere to be seen, which only left one option.

With a sigh, Kina strolled over to the opposite side of the street. She looked the building up and down while stretching her legs. Twenty feet, maybe twenty-five. Easy peasy.

Channeling lux was as simple as breathing, but she would never get over the thrill of feeling it pulse from her very core. With prodding from her, the energy settled in her legs. She leapt… almost ten feet higher than she needed.

She landed on the roof of the building with a wince. Crouching, she listened. Nobody shouted. Good, maybe her blunder hadn’t revealed her position. Then again, she did have three more buildings to cross.

Each building had a gap of ten feet between them, making it a simple matter to hop across them. Wind carried voices to her at the second building. When she reached the end of the third, though, she could make out the words.

“—famous Ganji bloodline. You must have some pretty things to give us.”

“If you don’t release me at this moment, I’ll make you regret it.”

Someone snorted. “If that was the case, you’d’ve done it by now, darling. The most you can do is scream, but try, and we’ll see if your blood is as red as they say.”

Ganji. Blood which color being red was somehow odd. Kina knew that information should have triggered some memory, but this girl’s lineage and potential Radiance didn’t change what Kina had to do, so she shoved it from her mind and peered over the edge.

The two young men who had been carrying the Ganji girl’s bags lay on the ground, hopefully unconscious. What had been only two goons had doubled, so now four stood in the alley with the girl.

One was a woman who stood chest-to-chest with the Ganji girl, daggers crossed at her throat. The other new addition was a guy that may have been freakishly tall if not for his hunched back. No, not a man. His pale green skin stretched thin over his face, which was all sharp angles and pointed ends, except for his mouth, which jutted out from the rest of his face. Two short horns protruded from each of his temples.

A beastkin. For half a second, Kina considered stepping away. She’d seen the way that those of higher society treated beastkin, and she wouldn’t be surprised if the girl had somehow instigated all of this. But Kina forced herself to remain there, eyes flicking to the original two grunts. No, this was planned, and as much as she could understand if someone like a beastkin wanted money, she couldn’t allow this to happen.

The girl may have been a brat, but Kina was aiming to be an Astral. What kind of Astral would she be if she turned a blind eye? Maybe she could offer the beastkin her own money, since it seemed the other three gathered around him. How many glints did she have left—

“Or maybe,” the beastkin went on, “I can let you scream. But it will be in a very different way.”

Ugh, gross. Nevermind, the horned beastkin had crossed the line.

“I’d listen to the boss, Ganji-sama,” one of the men said, pitching his voice in a horrible impression of the inn owner. “He’s a top member of Hakai, and your riches can’t save you from them.”

And another reason to teach these guys a lesson. She knew they weren’t truly Hakai members, but they had been foolish enough to imitate them, and not just imitate them, but do it anywhere near her. Kina closed her eyes and reached for her lux.

“Look.” The girl’s voice trembled. “I don’t have any of the heirlooms with me.”

Kina knew nothing about the Radiances of those below her, and she had to ensure she didn’t accidentally injure the girl’s henchmen in case they weren’t dead. Which technique would be best in this scenario?

“Don’t play me for a fool,” the beastkin hissed. “Every member of the Ganji head family has one.”

Well, of her options, only one heavily increased her brute force, and that was the easiest method to avoid wide area damage.

A whimper, almost a sob, came from the girl. “You’ve searched my luggage, you found nothing. Isn’t that proof?”

Kina brought her arms apart, curling her hands into fists as she summoned an outflow of lux.

The Hakai-wannabes below snickered. “Well, I think that only leaves us one option,” the woman all but purred. “We will just have to search you instead.”

Movement below. The girl shouted, “No, please!”

Then, the beastkin spoke. “Wait, do you feel that?”

Kina smirked and brought her fists crashing together. Brown-grey lux poured from where her hands connected. “Form Radiance: Earth Form!” Without giving time for the ability to complete, she lunged off the edge, fists still held tightly together.

The lux spread, coating her and hardening. Her skin vanished below a layer of cracked grey rock. The familiar weight pulled her down even faster, and her face crackled as her smirk turned into a large grin.

Either having heard her spell or sensing her, all in the alleyway looked up, but it was too late. Kina crashed on top of the goon closest to the alley exit, and he crumbled under her force. She balanced herself on his back and spun, leg outstretched, and swept the other goon from the inn off her feet. Something whistled through the air. Kina somersaulted back, and the flung daggers thunked into the ground.

Kina stood in the alley, an ear-to-ear grin on her face, as the beastkin and woman stared at her. The two fallen men scrambled to their feet with varying levels of difficulty.

When she had all of their attention, she raised her hand and waved. “Hiya, guys. I hope you don’t mind that I decided to drop in.”

In response, the beastkin snapped, “Get her!”