Yashin & Jiyu's Ultimate Adventure!

Knowledge Awaits [42]

After one long and seemingly uncomfortable night against the trees, the sun finally arose. This awakened a certain blonde princess.

Cyrus, the one currently on night watch, had nodded off. To this, Linette looked up at the orangey-blue sky and sighed. The death of their friend, Sweet, had finally kicked in. It took Linette a few seconds to recollect everything that had happened but when she did, she couldn't help but tear up. 

Around this time, Akarui had woken up. She noticed Linette wiping her eyes, in deep thought and asked quietly, ''...Are you okay?'', Linette smiled reassuringly at Akarui and quietly replied, ''Yeah... Just thinking about what happened to Sweet. It's unfair what that werewolf did to her.'' Akarui sat next to her, hand on the shoulder and with upturned eyebrows, she said, ''I know... It's my fault she was even in Itazura's way. She was trying to help me... And because of that... now, she's...'' Akarui started to tear up but Linette wiped the tears forming and responded, ''Nonsense. Don't blame yourself. It was a war, plenty of good people died.'' Akarui hugged Linette tightly as the two sat and talked for a few minutes, mourning their old friend.

About an hour later, Pico woke up. He greeted Akarui and Linette and then sat beside them waiting for the others to wake up. At this point, Yashin and Jiyu were cuddling and Cyrus held Seiko who was laying on Cyrus's lap. Pico noticed Yashin and Jiyu and refrained from chuckling so as to not wake them up. He then said silently, ''Those two are made for each other.''. Linette noticed what he was talking about and then smiled, agreeing. Akarui, however, let out a slight giggle at the sight. ''Just like back in the Karaoke bar!  They look so cute together...'' as Akarui was awed, Cyrus started to awaken again. ''O-Oh, Good morning...'' he said as he just realised Seiko was sleeping on his lap. His pale cheeks grew a light pink as he awkwardly waited for Seiko to wake up.

Finally, a few minutes had passed and Seiko, Yashin and Jiyu were awake, ready to plan their next move.

Once the squad had gotten ready, they heard movement in the darker end of the forest. It got louder. And louder. And louder. Until a familiar pair of bunny ears were seen from the distance, alongside a boy with black hair and a hood. They both were holding a few bags and once they arrived, they put them down. Tamari spoke, ''As I said, I'm back. You can borrow these camping supplies until you leave. Oh, and this is my friend and roommate, Sora.''. The one named Sora waved lightly with a reluctant smile. Pico thanked them as Seiko started to set up the tents. As he was trying to pin it down, it came loose and almost fell on him, however, Akarui instinctively caught it and continued to help him, along with Linette's help on the rest of the camp. While they were doing this, Tamari offered Yashin, Jiyu, Pico and Cyrus to briefly see the village to get to their apartment. Yashin thought for a moment then asked, ''Is there a library in your village? Or somewhere we can find books on other nations?'', ''No. But I do have some old, banned books on each nation.'' Sora said, suddenly. Tamari silently chuckled as she dragged him by his wrist and started walking back to the village. Before doing this, she exclaimed, ''Well, are you coming?'' to which Linette told her friends, ''Don't worry! We'll stay here and set up the camp. You guys go get those books!''. Upon saying this, Yashin, Jiyu, Pico and Cyrus left with a smile, following Tamari and Sora.

They arrived in front of a small, three-story building with a sign that had five names written on it. Two of the names were 'Tamari' and 'Sora' with the number 3 next to them.

After heading to the third floor, they entered an extremely messy, small apartment room. It looked as though it hadn't been sorted out in weeks. However, Tamari was able to locate a milk crate of books.

Jiyu picked up the first book, titled 'Nations of Ro'lyn'. She checked the contents and started flipping through the pages. Sora quickly cleared a couch for the four to sit on. Jiyu then sat down and started reading aloud, the missing nation they had yet to visit; ''Lastly on our list, the desert nation of Religion and Survival, O'Ryant. After a great war, many years ago, this nation started to become lost and forgotten as there had been growing conspiracies that if you step foot in O'Ryant's desert, you may never be heard from again. This created a fall in tourists and visitors and those left in the dying desert nation are only its citizens who stayed faithful to their homeland even if it meant dying out. The leader, Lord Addaline, has confirmed that in order to survive, he made a deal with the current President Itazura of Kwamslak and allows trade ships to bring them the supplies his nation needs. At this point in time, the only thing O'Ryant has going for it is its popular religious views. If one wishes to visit O'Ryant for its devotion to deities, one would simply head to the Church of Nokrihara as it is the best running, and currently, only church and religious building in all of Ro'lyn.'' Jiyu stopped reading there as it had shown a map to O'Ryants last surviving village. Pico then asked Tamari, who was leaning on a wall, ''Is there wifi around here?'', Tamari answered, ''Well, what else am I paying for every month? Of course, knock yourselves out.''. Pico then smiled and got out his phone, snapping a picture of the map.

As they continued to look through the books and talk to Tamari, Sora came out of the side room he was in but this time, without his hood. On the sides of his head were dragon horns, identical to that of the Dragon Queen's. Yashin noticed and stuttered, questioning him, ''Y-You're a dragon?!'' she exclaimed in shock as Sora corrected, ''Actually, its proper term is Dovahlynx. Don't worry though, I'm not with the Abyss if that's what you think. My moth- I mean, Nikita really gives our kind a bad rep.'' Sora finished as Cyrus asked, ''Nikita?'', Sora scratched the back of his neck but kept his aloof expression as he replied, ''Nikita, the dragon queen... Sorry, I assumed you met her because you know of the Dovahlynx.'' Sora then went quiet for a while, as did the others. Tamari cleared her throat and said, ''Well, it's already the afternoon so... you should get back to your camp. Take this, I drew a map through the forest to back here, in case you need us again.'' Tamari then handed Jiyu a small piece of paper with a hand-drawn map from where their camp is to the village apartments. Jiyu then spoke up and said with an excited tone, ''Thank you both, so much!''.

Tamari walked the four back to the camp, where their friends were waiting in front of a fully set up camp, with two tents and a better campfire alongside a few bags full of food. They were too excited about the camp to see Tamari leave, shortly after just having gotten back.

That afternoon, the squad enjoyed another meal and relaid all the new information they had found, along with ideas for what they could do next.