POWER: A Tale of Greatness

Chapter 58: Compromised

"Now that everyone is here..." Rocky smirked. "Let the games, begin!"

Rocky jumped up above the top of the valley's edge and disappeared into the mountains.

"No...!" Bulls exclaimed. "Please don't."

Thor pulled Bulls back after he almost ran towards Rocky.

"No, Bulls. Do not allow your emotions be in your way. Think! You are a wise man and this is nothing compared to the challenges we have encountered!" Thor cheered his friend up. "Now, calm yourself, James needs our help and in order to do that, we must follow Rocky's rules."

Bulls nodded in response, "Okay. I know, but I can't stop thinking about him, Rocky took him and compared to the challenges we have been before, he's in a different level of difficulty."

"But before, you don't have me." Hiro interrupted. "I can be useful to you, I know the mountains of Chicola, I can be your guide! And also... my friends might help you."

"Thank you, Hiro." Bulls said.

After the long silence in the village, the other villagers began to come out of their houses. The elderly, the women, and the children, all of them, they saw everything that happened through the holes in their houses, they watched there, while praying for safety to their mountain deities. They began to help the unconscious and the wounded ninjas.

"Bulls, I am sorry about how I approached you, earlier at the outskirts of Hinoryu. I was just afraid, that you are the same as the other plains dwellers, that you will also hunt my friends." Hiro apologized. "It was a stereotype in our country that if we saw a plains dwellers, we must kill them before they could do something bad to us. Again, I'm sorry."

Hiro kneeled on the snow and bowed his head, smashing on the ground.

"Hey! You don't have to be sorry, we are the ones who should be sorry. Look around you, look at the mess that we've brought to your village." Bulls frowned, kneeling in front of Hiro. "I'm sorry."

"Should both of you genuinely regret your actions towards one another, then gather yourselves accordingly..." Thor said. "... We will save James!"

Hiro and Bulls stood back up and yelled. "We will!"

An old man suddenly appeared from nowhere and approached them.

"Young man..."

"... be afraid, be courageous, yet be humble and kind..."

"... life may throw challenges at you, but never give up, they are here to challenge our strength and strengthen our weaknesses."

The old man grabbed Bulls's hands.

"You might get lost or fail..."

"... but always remember, follow your heart always and you will never get lost again."

Bulls smiled as the old man pointed his chest.

"Thank you, Sir." He said, thanking the old man.

"Ishikawa-sama, Grandfather, you should be sleeping by now. You should not leave your house, it's dangerous out here!" Hiro worriedly said. "Where's your caregiver?"

"Ishikawa-sama!" A woman exclaimed. "You... suddenly disappeared."

The woman pants after she ran towards the old man.

"What are you doing, Fumiyo? You should be taking good care of my great grandfather?" Hiro complained. "What if something bad happens to him while he's out of your sight?!"

"Taka... Hiro... san." The woman whispered. "You can remember me?"

"What?!" Hiro asked.

"N-Nothing." She replied. "Ch-Chief... come and let's go home."