UNWRITTEN JUSTICE

TO THE PARTY

They all sat in the horse cart. Kyle sat in rear of the cart, his mother right nesxt to him and his father sat across him. As the journey started,Kyle's brightened as he always liked riding in horse carts.

"What are you smiling for?",his dad asked in a playful tone.

"I don't know ,dad.It seems this horse is going very fast."

"Maybe it's because you are interested about going to the party.", Haruko stated.

"Maybe.", Kyle replied, then saw outside the cart.On the way,he noticed a man feeding meat to a black dog in the corner of a house. And when that man looked at Kai, he looked away as if he didn't look at him.He heard some rustling noise from his right.

It was Helena, examining the four gifts she packed for Taiko's family, wrapped in a origami paper.Sweets ,a long yellow frock for Yvette, Theodore's wife and toys for Thomas were in the three gifts she packed.

Alfred requested to gift-wrap a box he gave, for Theodore.When asked about it, he didn't give a clear answer.

Haruko did not question him much,about the box,it had a number 304 in top right corner. Thinking about what it could be , she looked at Akira. He was talking with the bald man.

"How do you know about Theodore?",Akira inquired.

"Me? I, Takumi Yamamoto of Ichikawa village, knows everything that happens in this village."

Akira stared at him in a funnier way.

"Ah,I was kidding. Today when I was getting ready for the work, my mother asked me to drop her at his house in the evening.When asked about him, she said  he used to buy sweets from her shop."

"Sweets?", Akira asked,thinking about a woman from their childhood, from whom they used to buy their favourite snack during their childhood.

"Yes.My mother used to run Yamo's sweet shop. It was famous back in those days.", Takumi said looking at the horse struggling along the challenging path.

"Ah yes,Now I remember we used to go there . But they closed the shop 25 years ago saying that she was not able to run it anymore ",Akira replied with a light smile on his face.

"Yeah, she was having sudden headaches and fainted at times.That's why we closed the shop.My mother said me that Taiko's army defeated Senuas who posed a threat to king and his army. Are you his friend?"

"Mm. Yes ,We used to be very close back but now we rarely get chances as he is busy serving the army".

"Okay." ,Takumi said and that put an end to their conversation. Akira decided to have a nap thinking about his childhood memories.

Meanwhile, Kai started to think about Theodore. Takumi's mention about defeating Senuas really made Kai interested to meet Taiko.He also started to think about himself whether he would join army..Then he shut his thought murmuring thqt he is not courageous enough to join .

After about 15 minutes,the cart stopped.
Kai asked loudly," Have we reached the place?". Then he peaked  but there was nothing there, but a forest.

Alfred woke up.

"What happened?" he asked sleepily.

Takumi replied,"We have got a problem here." Akira then looked through Takumi, he saw a huge Oak tree lying in the path.

Stepping out of the cart,Alfred decided to have a close look at the tree.

"What happened here?",Haruko asked.Then she looked at the trunk of the tree and asked both Akira and Takumi to look at it.They saw green cracked bark in the trunk.

"It looks like some fungal infection made this tree to fall",Takumi shared his first thoughts.

Kai stood there gazing at the huge trees around him.He was also frightened as the huge trees felt unreal to him.Haruko was stunned and unable to think. She was staring at a stream of water flowing nearby

"What can we do, now?" This tree is obstructing the path",Akira asked.Even though Akira felt tense, he didn't show it on his face.

Takumi, even though knew all paths her,e he was pondering about how could such a huge oak tree fell. Then he came up with the idea.

"We cannot go through this path now. There is a small path through the forest which leads to Haruno lake. But we have to go back now."

Even though Alfred accepted, Helena was hesitant to go through the forest path since it's going to get darker.But then she accepeted as there was no other way.

Kai felt nervous as he has never been to a forest before.They all began to travel again.They all reached the small path Takumi was talking about.They rode through the path.

Haruko was starting to get anxious at it was getting very late to the party. Akira,on the other hand didn't have much emotions in his face.It seems that he has no tension about getting late to the party

"I told you already.We should have gotten ready earlier. But now see, we are getting late.", Haruko complained."Don't worry, we will reach there at the correct time",Akira consoled her

On their way, Kai heard the sound of water trickling over pebbles and small rocks.He heard cicadas humming all over the oak trees.He soon started to admire the forest.

They crossed the small stream of water.On their way they rarely some houses but they couldn't even find a single person.After some time, they could only see trees upto a certain height and beyond that was complete dark

After 15 minutes of traveling in this path, they finally reached to the normal way and from there they could reach the party within ten minutes.Takumi started to ride his horse fast.Getting closer and closer to the party, Kai's interest also increased.

Takumi humming his favourite song and decided to talk to the boy."Hey, little one. What grade are you in?"

"2nd grade.", he replied in a shy voice."Oh second grade, you are a big man then.What are you going to do when you grow up?"

"Ar...", swallowing his saliva he said," Artist."

"Oh then when you grow up you can draw me one",Takumi encouraged. Kai had a little smile on his face. They reached the spot and they gazed at the huge banner saying "HOMECOMING PARTY." Taikumi unloaded their luggage and handed it over to Akira. Haruko gave Takumi 60 Ryu as he drove them through a tough path. Kai gave a goodbye smile to the bald man. Then he left.

It was almost 7 in the evening. Kai started to look around . There were some children playing around the table which had welcoming cards for guests.Many look anticipated to meet Taiko. It seems he didn't arrive there yet.

They started to move.Haruko showed Akira a picture of Taiko with his metal sword hanging there near two people . Akira rather than focusing on the picture focused on the people. It seemed he knew them. Even though Akira couldn't find at first notice he immediately got flashed.They were his childhood friends with whom Akira and Taiko used to play.

Kai was looking at the posters saying
"Comeback Hero"
"One who killed an army"
"Zhang Wei's commander"

When Akira approached his friends, he heard a voice saying, "Hey there."