The Ranch

Fairytale Maze (1)

The next day, during the group's usual breakfast together, the group talks about the events from yesterday.

Tih has been staring at Lucien unnaturally all morning. Lucien ignored it at first, but the longer it continues, the further the creeping feeling deepens. But, Lucien has never been the one to initiate conversations and continues to eat his meal that seems to lack flavor and Tih's eyes bore into him.

Actually, the reason Tih is staring at Lucien is because he remembered Lucien took a picture of him and Kai yesterday and Instructor Kane said cameras are bad. Of course, Tih wouldn't say the reason himself, so Lucien is left to eat his bland meal with the burden that's Tih's stare.

After Kai gives the rest of the group a long and detailed recap on the events that transgressed yesterday and Tih's involvement in them, Sherlock comments," This should be partly our fault. We weren't thorough enough and believed the matter to be over and leaving Tih on his own." The two glance at the band-aids that Tih has yet to peel off.

Sherlock continues," And the result, there's most likely video footage of Tih floating around. I know you said the people recording were all caught by an instructor, but we can't rule out the idea of someone slipping away."

Kai was also thinking about this, "The stuff Tih did before and the rumors it created were fine, because there no images to link the rumors back to Tih, but now they know what he looks like. If soldiers involved in other incidents start recognizing and commenting about it..." He doesn't feel like continuing that sentence.

"It'll be a mess." Lucien concludes bluntly.

"Right! Lucien, can you hack into their devices and delete any remaining videos?"

Sherlock come up with an idea but Lucien immediately refutes, "Can't. Searching through individual devices would take too long, so I could only search through the headquarter's system which is connected to most devices, probably to more easily monitor conversations." Lucien seems to talk more whenever his favorite subjects involved.

Sherlock looks down in silence so Kai speaks up instead," Then just do that instead."

Lucien shakes his head lightly and mutters in a downcast mood," Can't. Underestimated headquarter's security, they noticed me. I'll have to go into hiding for a couple of years and wait for headquarters to lower their guard.

"What were you searching for?" Kai asks innocently.

"That's..." a gloomy Sherlock speaks up," Its my fault. I wanted him to look for some information on a murder. I have a gut feeling...no, that doesn't matter right now. Anyways, at this point in time, we can't make use of headquarter's mainframe."

Kai decidedly moves the conversation to a different topic. They come around to talking about their team alliance.

"We need more people," is Sherlock's opinion.

"No, we don't." Kai is reluctant.

"We're lacking influence, money, and manpower. If we want to be able to do what we want in the future, we need to solve those problems now."

"We don't need to be in such a rush and grab a bunch of unwanted attention."

"Who says wed be doing all those thing out in the open for everyone to see? And we need to build a foundation, the faster the better. This  island isn't all flowers and sunshine." Sherlock gets a little sarcastic at the end, getting frustrated.

Kai's expression drops a little, "Don't treat me like some sheltered toddler. You don't know what I've been through. Don't think you can just deduce everything about me because your trying to mimic someone you're not." His voice gets lower, colder, and calmer.

"..." Sherlock pauses for a moment, used to a friendly, happy-go-lucky, and talkative Kai that usually agrees with him on decisions. After composing himself, he gets serious," Says the mask-wearing hypocrite. What, you think I haven't noticed? Looks to me like you're the one assuming things."

Lucien looks between the two and decides to stay out of it, but if it gets out of control, he'll be on Sherlock's side.

Tih can feel the negativity in the air, his face remains the same but he becomes incredibly still, as if he's waiting for something.

Kai's eyes dim, he remains silent. Sherlock knows he's gone too far and attempt go messily get back on topic, "We should at least look at potential members."

"Like." Kai bites the bait purposefully.

Sherlock takes whatever he can get," Like, let's say, the five aces? They have the strength and influence among our generation. They have a lot of potential future worth. It'd be good to get them on our side and I believe they'd be willing." He pauses to see if Kai wants to insert something. He's being especially careful, since he's the one trying to persuade Kai.

Kai doesn't give him what he wants. "Oh?" It's said in a monotone voice, not giving Sherlock's persuasion any respect.

An imperceptible frown appear on Sherlock's face as he continues," They already call Tih "boss" and seem to respect him quite a bit. If we make Tih our figurehead, I have confidence that they'd accept."

"And if they really do join." Kai's lowered voice starts.

"What about it?" Sherlock has a bad feeling.

"Who says we'll be able to cooperate well. There won't be any trust between teams, which can only create disharmony. And what if they decide to withhold info from us? What happens when we have split decisions and opinions? It'll be five to four. Not mentioning numbers, they have more power than us. They're strong enough to take control over entire group or they can betray us the moment they gain benefits from it." He states one unreasonable reason after another, at least that's what Sherlock hears.

"Why would they do that?!" Sherlock can't comprehend Kai's logic.

"Why wouldn't they!?" Kai pounds his fist on the table with a serious expression.

Sherlock is infuriated by Kai's pigheaded words that are are completely opinionated. He slams the table in frustration," Dammit Kai! You can't just let your trust issues interfere with our decisions!" He lets his hypothesis slip out, quickly realizing his mistake, but doesn't take it back.

Kai's body language only gets calmer and colder," Let's end it here for today." He gets up and walks away without anyone else's agreement.

There was no physical fight, but a seed of discord has already been sown.