Samui at last

It had be shitty past couple of days for the young Silver Knight. A few weeks ago he was tasked with doing a mission he hated, an escort mission. Hiro was forever scarred since the last escort mission he nearly died in a few months back, escort missions had always tended to take a turn for the worst and this one he had currently failed did just that. Not only the ship they were on had been raided and destroyed by sea bandits, the captain of said sea bandits had managed to kill the person he was supposed to bring to Xan and though by the grace of the God Queen Carmen he had managed to survive the onslaught, he still had a bitter taste in his mouth. Though he didn’t know the kid, he didn’t deserve to die, especially in such a horrific and brutal manner such as that. He had gotten his revenge though and he would ensure that one day he’ll find that damn pirate ship and wipe it off the face of the earth. “We’re here.” The clone said pointing in the direction of the hidden village. Thankfully Xan had given him the direction to Samui or they would’ve died from hypothermia for sure this time, even though inside of the village was damn cold too. It hadn’t taken them long to find the TLAH order headquarters as it was basically situated in the heart of village. “Ummm… Hello?” Hiro said as he opened the door and entered the building.

A woman humming in the distance while sitting on top of a snow covered rock near the village gates would stop upon hearing Hiro's voice. She would wave towards him and beckon him closer and once he got within about ten feet she would hop off the rock and dust off her outfit while picking her staff from the ground. Her outfit looked very tribal comprised of furs and bones and even had some spikes which were still blood covered yet her overall demeanor seemed to be tranquil almost pleasant to be around in a comforting way. Hello there, you must be Xan-dono's successful apprentice. But where is the initiate you were supposed to bring with you? The Mikaboshi that said he wanted to forsake his deity for Jashin-sama and immortality. Clair said twirling her skull tipped staff and holding it on her shoulders while hooking her arms around it to secure it in place.

Well this place seems deserted, Hiro thought to himself as the headquarters seemed completely empty. He had hoped to run into Xan so he could discuss a few things with his mentor but maybe he was busy with whatever it is he does when he isn’t torturing working Hiro like a slave. Closing the door behind him, Hiro’s eyes would fall upon a woman sitting on a rock in the distance. At first, he was bit hesitant to go over to the woman who was beckoning him as his mother always told him not to talk to strangely dressed people, especially those that lived in Pandora, but she did seem friendly and sane from what he could tell so why the hell not. Having reached about 10 feet in front of her, he would relax after noticing her calm demeanor and would let out a sigh of relief after she spoke of Xan. “Well…. We ran into some sea bandits while we were on our way here and even though I was able to repel them, Gohan-san didn’t make it out alive…. ” Hiro reported to the woman as he tried his best not to collapse from sheer exhaustion.

"So the initiate perished, how unfortunate for him. Oh well, you must be tired and cold come along let's get you warmed up I'm Clair by the way Clair Ibwa, it is nice to meet you favored of Xan-dono. Clair said with a small incline of the head in greeting and then turning using the other hand to beckon him to follow. If he did they would head past the rock and continue onward until the gates of Samuigakure were within sight. It was still as remote as it was originally, surrounded by mountains on all sides yet some how still not being buried neither by snow or avalanches. Instead of taking him to an inn or something she would march straight to the Ibwa District.

"Without the initiate I'm afraid you can not stay long but the least I can do for you is to give you clothes so you can make the journey back to the Land of Ash safely. Tomorrow that is, once you have eaten and rested." she would continue even though the Ibwa compound was eerie, what with ghosts occasionally moving through houses and the general scenery being something straight out of an old oriental horror film. She would come to a stop at a mansion area before stepping to the side when she opened the sliding door. "This is the Isley household other than Xan-dono, the only other occupant is Jake-san. So feel free to stay here for the night."

A soft sigh escaped his lips as he recalled the whole ordeal with the sea bandits. The fight between Blake and her crew was probably the most difficult fight he had to endure and he was glad he had managed to get out alive, though he would probably be having nightmares about this for quite some time, that and he was pretty sure he wasn’t going to be traveling by ship anytime soon. “Getting warmed up sounds like a great idea, if I stay out here any longer I’ll suffer from hypothermia.” Hiro said as he was still feeling the effects of that damn woman’s winter’s breath technique. “Nice to meet you Clair, my names Hiroshima, well I guess you already knew that.” He stated as he began following her lead. I wonder how much Xan actually speaks about me. Hiro thought to himself as he tried to move his tired legs as quickly as possible.

“Umm… Why does the Ibwa district look so…. Dead?” The clone said as they made their way through the clan grounds. Hiro himself was thinking the exact same thing but the clone had beaten him to punch. Then again Xan was the clan head so he why did he expect the place to be all lively and fun? Arriving at the mansion, Hiro and his clone would step inside with the bodies they carried. Obviously just tossing the bodies inside Xan’s place would be a no no, but they both were on the brink of collapsing. “Clair-san, where do we put these?”

His question would make her laugh, it sharply contrasted with her nice demeanor and pleasant voice as it was a sinister cackle. "Ah, I'm sorry it's just you know we of the Ibwa Clan worship Lord-Jashin. Well ever since Xan-dono pioneered the creation of Undead we've been embracing our connection to the Afterlife. Many of the spirits and undead you see here are the result of our clan members practicing and forgetting to return them to the ground. Some of them linger long enough that they become part of the clan in terms of being available for summoning and things like that. Not to mention we offer room and board for undead belonging to Pandora as our abilities work better in tandem with them. she would cover her mouth as if she were embarrassed that he heard that side of her and quickly explain the state of things.

"Just give them to me, I'll take care of them." Clair said reaching to take them from him once she was handed the bodies she would hold them both by their necks as if they were as light as a feather. "You go in and get warm. I'll send a slave to tend to you since you must be hungry and thirsty after your battle." she wouldn't let him reply before she would walk away going to deposit the bodies whereas it was that bodies were kept. Not that the climate wasn't favorable to corpses maybe that was why the largest population of undead within Pandora were in Samuigakure.

Interesting, Hiro thought as he listened to her explanation. Maybe if he had actually managed to find Gohan’s body, maybe they would’ve been able to resurrect him, too bad it was probably now at the bottom of the frozen sea. He wanted to ask if it would’ve been possible for them go get Gohan’s body but he knew asking for help with such a task would be futile, after all, he was just a random shinobi looking to join Pandora, and he was pretty sure that they really didn’t care that he had died.

Handing over the two bodies, Hiro would let out a sigh of relief as he was now free of the massive weight of the dead body. The clone would hand over the weapon that the Zakiyoshi had held before disappearing. “Okay.” He simply said as she walked off. He would wander throughout the mansion before locating an empty guest room and began removing his armor. “I hope I never see another Toketsu as long as I live.” He said to himself as he was still trembling, luckily there was a fire place in the eerie mansion where he could warm up.

A servant would return after about twenty minutes, if Hiro had looked around he would see that there was a fireplace, though instead of logs it looked like corpses had been used instead, very macabre and the area around it smelled like burning meat. Pleasant to the nose, but knowing exactly what was burning would put off most people who weren't depraved, cannibals or used to things like that. The servant would have a fresh pair of clothes in a similar style to what Hiro had been wearing and would hand it to him. "Would you like for me to dry your armor and wash your wet clothes for you young master?" the man said with a low bow, the obvious stich markings adorning his body would reveal that he was undead but he was dressed more so like a butler than a servant. Still even so he was a civilian who had joined Pandora's ranks after all only the chosen by the Goddess Queen herself were allowed to live peacefully within Pandora's borders.

The feeling in his arms would return to him as the numbness would slowly dissipate thanks to the fire place. “Umm sure? The gloves and armor have hidden compartments that house senbons so be careful not to spring the mechanism that fires them.” Hiro said with a smile as he took the fresh clothes from the servant and would hand over his. Normally he would be creeped out by the strange people and atmosphere that this place had but in all honest he was too tired to show it. With all his weaponry stacked neatly in the corner, Hiro would throw his tired body on the rather soft bed in the room and dozed off.

While Hiro was sleeping, his clothes would be taken care of and after a couple of hours, eight to be specific, Clair would return only to tap him in order to wake him up. The servant had long since finishing washing and drying his clothes careful to not spring any hidden mechanisms and making sure everything was in place while hanging it up on an armor rack in the room he was currently staying in. "Hiro-san, Hiro-san you have to wake up. Clair said so with a gentle voice trying to gently rouse him though if he didn't wake up soon she would have to pinch him hard to wake him up via pain.

No matter how he woke up she would smile at him pleasantly before speaking. "Xan-dono sent a message, he wants you to either return to the Land of Ash or you can stay here but you can't slack on your morning exercises and he would take it to mean that you are joining the TLAH Order. Alternatively if you are joining another order then you can head to that base to get acquainted with the surroundings and perhaps even purchase a living space for your slave. But he said you are always welcome at the Isley home after all you his potential heir."

The sound of someone calling out to him caused him to awake from his slumber. Ever since he had started his training with Xan, the slightest sound would awaken him. Was it due to training heightening his senses? Or was it due to the fact that he often tried to push his hearing to its limits when they were sparring to avoid getting sneaked up on. “I’m up, I’m up.” Hiro stated before releasing a soft yawn. Though it wasn’t as long as he hoped, the rest he had gotten was enough for him to regain his stamina and natural energy reserves. “Though joining Xan-sensei’s order sounds fun, I’m not stealthy at all so it wouldn’t make much sense. Besides I’ve already decided that I’ll be checking out the HUIT order….where ever that is.” Hiro had no idea where the other orders were located, in fact all this time he thought Xan had lived in the Land of Ash, so maybe Clair would give him some directions to where the HUIT was located.

"HUIT you say? Hmm I would tell you that you are in luck as TLAH and HUIT are within relatively close proximity to each other, however the HUIT Order base is underwater. Beneath the Polar sea in it's south east quadrant are a series of underwater volcanos and in the center their is the HUIT base it is built underwater. So if you are unable to envelop your body in a protective shell I suggest you wait until you can do so otherwise you'll freeze to death like many others who thought they were man enough to join the order famed for assault." Clair said frowning though sweetly telling him where it was nonetheless. Getting into HUIT was even harder than TLAH as they only accepted the best and the brightest the types who were brought into this plane for one purpose and that was battle. She knew that once he joined he would be surrounded by people who would end up changing him. Hiro might not grow into a raging battle nut but perhaps might develop a merciless ice cold personality like Xan-dono, she could see it now, no wonder he was chosen as his heir.

HUIT was underwater? The hell? Hiro thought as finished getting dressed. Why they decided that putting the assault order underwater was beyond him did that mean that they all were able to fight underground? Does that mean that the order was filled with Zakiyoshi and Toketsu? Ugh I hope not, but how was going to join now? Scoffing Hiro would place his weaponry in their appropriate slots before turning towards the woman. “Who is the Blue Humming Bird? Is it a man or a woman? What is this person like?” Hiro asked as this was something that was on his mind. Since he was planning on joining the order, it would be best to learn this information beforehand. Besides meeting and training under the Bloody Ruler, he hadn’t heard or known much about the other Gods of Pandora. Hopefully who ever this person was, he or she wouldn’t be as ruthless as Xan was

She saw that he had reconsidered, and thought about his joining of the Knight Order more carefully instead of rushing in recklessly. She approved of this being reckless was only okay when you were blessed with immortality by Jashin like she was a Magician like him should value his life more. "There is no Blue Humming Bird, this is because one will be chosen in a tournament in 2 years time. Cardinal Knights, members of the Huit Order and any Knight Templar not in an Order are all able to participate as only the strongest of them all will be chosen as the new Blue Hummingbird." she would motion towards the food that had been brought for him, the food they ate on the Origin Continent was lighter, but here on the Polar Continent they ate lots of breads, hardy vegetables like potatoes and meat, all typically served with mead, beer or vodka. She hadn't known what he liked so she had instructed the servant to bring him enough so that he could pick and choose what he would prefer to eat. "Or are you not hungry?"

Well that explained why he had never heard of the Blue Humming Bird, there wasn’t one. Which also meant that there were others within the order and outside that were eyeing the position so unless he was going to receive a massive power boost in the next two years, that position would be out of his reach, what a bummer. Well it was probably best he figured out some means of actually getting to the underwater headquarters before he thought of becoming the new Humming Bird. “I’ll probably take some to go, my failure today showed me that I’m not at the level I thought I was. Besides if I nearly lost to a group of sea pirates, how will I be able to beat Xan-sensei?” He said hoping that they would forgive him for wanting crashing at their place then leaving so suddenly.

"It was nice meeting you" Clair said with a bow and would proceed to walk away. "I trust you don't need an escort right? Because I was hoping to get back to my order duties, so I will be taking my leave now. If you need anything else before you head out feel free to ask the servants. I wish you luck in what your trying to acconplish, Xan-dono is not an easy man to defeat. she knew it would take serious training to do so, but if that was his goal then maybe joining the HUIT order would help him. "I would suggest you participate in the HUIT tournament then, fighting a wide selection of oppponent even if you do not win will help your growth. But I'll be rooting for you."

(Clair Ibwa Exits)

“Thanks for the hospitality Clair-san.” Hiro said before bowing slighting to the woman. Of course he didn’t need an escort to take him back to the Land of Ash but some company would’ve been nice, plus he was still a bit concerned that some more pirates would show up to rob the ship that he would have to take, but hopefully the God Queen would be watching over him as he traveled.

Hiro exits