Another Search Party (An Elsword Fanfic)

Chapter 20

Yet another chapter here to continue this story's plot!
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What more could Azure do but stand there and fight her conflicting emotions? She'd learned that the woman who was almost like a mother to her had been killed and the worst part was that she felt responsible for it. "If I'd been here...she wouldn't be dead. If I'd been here...none of this would have happened," Azure thought. Guilt began to cloud her thoughts and she began to fight her urge to cry. Heroes weren't supposed to cry, right?

"How could I possibly be a hero of any sort if I was unable to even save these people?" Azure thought as the tears fell. She kept her head down, letting her hair fall into her face. "But this town is far enoough away from Hamel not to be bothered. The attack was deliberate. Someone knew something that I didn't," Azure thought as more theories began to form in her head. The thought of revenge became the main root of them all and along with it came the burning anger that took over Azure's logic.

She gripped the handle of her cannon and stormed off towards the same area in the forest just outside of Senette that she always went to when she was angry. The moment she got to the small clearing, she slammed the end of the cannon to the ground, reloading it in the process, and fired her missiles directly in front of her at a completely innocent tree. Even with that, her anger had not been eased and she dropped her cannon and swiped her silver shooters from their holsters.

She didn't hesitate to light the tree "aflame" with her magic bullets, letting out a shout of anger as she did. Still angry, Azure tossed one of them aside. A sudden sound caught her attention and she instinctively began to shoot at whatever was making the sound, assuming it was an enemy. "Whoa, hold your fire Azure!" Kazumi's familiar voice could be heard yelping. The fox leaped to the side of where Azure was shooting and held one of her tails.

"That stuff hurts! You're lucky it was just one of my tails," Kazumi said but Azure was confused for Kazumi was much shorter...and younger? "Oh, my child form. I don't use it often. I prefer my teenager form to be honest," Kazumi said as she walked over to the somewhat still angry Azure. Hoya could be seen following after her. "What are you doing here?" Azure asked with suspicion.

"Who me? Well I could ask you the same thing. Everyone else is back in Senette. I found you guys' scent clustered there so I decided to do some border patrol and exploring. You shouldn't go shooting random trees like that. I thought the village was about to be attacked or something until I realized it was your scent over here," Kazumi said.

"Well I need you to leave. Now that you know I'm okay and not a threat, I'd like my privacy back," Azure said as she dropped her gun, picked up her cannon, and reloaded it. "Not so fast. You aren't acting like the usually calm and collected super rule based Azure that I don't really know that well. Something happened didn't it. You can tell me, I'm bound to find out anyway," Kazumi said as she picked up Hoya who was tugging at one of her tails.

Azure's eyes stung from the tears but she didn't let them fall and she turned away from Kazumi. "It's none of your concern. You wouldn't know how to help me anyway," Azure said. "Don't be like that Azure. You've got to stop destroying these trees like this too but that's not the point. Your friend is trying to help you out. You can't reject her help because of your own opinion," Ralsei's familiar voice said.

"Ralsei? What are you doing here?" Azure asked as she turned to him. Her guard had been down and she hadn't noticed him until then. "I'm your best friend. Why wouldn't I be here. Besides, I have to regrow the trees like I always do when you come and destroy them. But I'm here so you'll know that everything's going to be okay," Ralsei said. "But everything isn't okay! Lady Kitame is dead and it's all my fault!" Azure said as she threw her cannon aside.

Ralsei was a bit startled by her actions but he didn't stop walking towards Azure. "So that's what it is. You blame yourself huh. Azure, I told you to stop carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders," Ralsei said as he hugged Azure. When he did, Azure began to shake a little before she cried onto his shoulder, hugging him back as she did so. "This is confusing. His name is Ralsei and there is this other person who is Kitame...wait. When are we going to get some more creative names in this story. Too many K and R names...makes no sense," Kazumi muttered to herself.

Her muttering was heard by Azure and Ralsei but they didn't hear what she said. Either way, the moment was ruined. "Oh sorry, did I interrupt something here? Should I go?" Kazumi apologized. "No, that's alright. You can stay," Ralsei said as he let Azure go. She didn't though and kept her hug going while Ralsei petted her hair. "Don't act so tough all of the time. If you need to cry, then cry," Ralsei said to Azure and once again, Kazumi ruined the moment.

"Are you two really close....like more than friends sort of close?" Kazumi asked. "Wha- no way! We're too young for anything like that. Azure's only 14 and I'm only two years older than her. Plus...her father would probably kill me," Ralsei said but he continued to let Azure hug him as she sniffled a bit. "Oh...okay. People are quite confusing," Kazumi muttered.

"Are you going to criticize us or help me get Azure back to normal? She can't go to her comrades in this state. She'll never hear the end of it," Ralsei said. "Oh right, sorry. Azure, listen to me. I've got something to tell you during one of my rare times of wisdom giving," Kazumi said as she sat down in the grass with Hoya in her lap asleep. Ralsei got Azure to sit down in front of Kazumi as he did the same.

"Your father faced a similar predicament a long time ago when he was 13, a year younger than you. He lost his father to the demon army and Hamel fell that day. It still hasn't made a complete recovery since then but it is much better now despite all of the common attacks it experiences. What I'm trying to say is that you've got to be strong and keep going just as your father did. It's okay to mourn the loss of someone dear to you but you must keep fighting for their sake. Your father did and you see how he turned out. Now it's your turn. It's unfortunate for you to have to follow in his footsteps in such a way but it's going to make you a stronger person," Kazumi said as she stroked Hoya's fur.

"You sound so wise. It's annoying especially when you're in that form. I never thought I'd be getting advise from you," Azure muttered as she wiped a few stray tears. Kazumi's current form really did annoy her though. "You shouldn't be that way. I am over a thousand years old afterall. You have been included in a team that searches for beings like myself who have lived so long with Servius being one of them. It's only natural that you'd have to come to me for advise at least once...assuming I am able to give wise advise whenever you do," Kazumi said. Azure laughed a bit.

"First you brag about your wisdom and then you insult yourself. You're a strange one, Kazumi," Azure said. "What...you said Servius," Ralsei suddenly realized. "Yes...I did. You know of him?" Kazumi said. "Of course he does. You are the only one that seems to be uneducated on his existence," Azure said. She was feeling much better thanks to Kazumi and she would thank the fox later on when they got a chance to chat alone.

"Yes but the thing is, he is much different from how he is portrayed in the reports and stories about him. It's really odd," Ralsei said. "How would you know? You've never met him before," Azure accused. Ralsei shook his head to deny Azure's statement. "I did meet him. He's the one that saved our village," Ralsei said. What in the world was Servius doing in Senette?
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Sorry that it's been so long since our last update. We're working on things but at least this chapter got done. Until next time you amazing readers!