Serra snoozed away on my back as we made our way down the remaining hills leading to the village. Thankfully, nothing bad appeared to have happened to it while we were gone. Had none of the demons attacked it? Or was it because the others had fended them off?

"Hope that they got Conrad back," Kohri said, staring at the storm. It had vanished for a bit, only to return not long after. He gasped as it subsided once more.

"Think perverted knight lost?" Yuko asked, furrowing her brow.

Setsuko shook her head. "No." She smiled. "Think it's safe to say that the battle is over." Her index finger pointed at Azami. In his arms was a sleeping Conrad.

"Uncle!" Rosa yelled, running over to her uncle.

"You folks sure took your sweet time getting back," Azami said, smiling at us. Accompanying him were Suzuki and Eita. Had the latter not gone to train with his brother?

Rosa stared at the unconscious Serra on my back and the unconscious Hyosetsu on Kohri's back. "Well, we have injured people with us. We could've gone ahead of Tetsu and Kohri, but things would go south quick if anyone were to attack them."

I sighed. "I'm pretty sure that I would be able to handle any attacker." A barrier manifested around me. "I am the Shield Knight after all. Keeping people safe is what I do."

I looked over my shoulder and gasped. Hyosetsu's friend was gone. When did he sneak away from us?

"What's wrong?" Setsuko asked.

"Asil, he's gone," I said. "Did you sense him leaving?"

Setsuko pointed back at the hill we had just descended with her thumb. Asil sat on the green pasture, arms and legs spread out. His blue eyes were on the equally blue sky above. "Think he's resting."

I smiled. Was scared for a moment that he had given us the slip.

"So pretty," Yuko exclaimed as she walked back toward the hill.

I nodded. It sure is. Felt like forever since I had seen the sky this blue.

"Bunny!" Serra said, slapping my face.

"I'm not Conrad, silly," I said, laughing as I turned around. "Your brother is over there!"

Azami smiled and brought the sleeping Conrad over.

"Bunny," the asleep Serra said, reaching to touch his brother's face.

"Carrot," Conrad mumbled as his stomach grumbled.

Me and several of the others burst into laughter.

"Seems he cares more about food than his big brother," Suzuki said, sighing.

"Cookie," Serra mumbled.

Eh? Did he hear that?

Conrad grabbed his brother's hand and snuggled it. "Big bro."

"Bunny," Serra said.

Setsuko smiled as she watched her cousins.

"So cute," Rosa said as she brought her hands close to her chest. She probably had to restrain herself from yelling that.

"Yeah," Ximena said, making her way to us along with Onami.

Setsuko crossed her arms. "Not saying that only because it's Serra, are you?"

Xime blushed. "No. I meant bond is cute."

I snickered. Not that she didn't find my cousin adorable.

"At least the family is back together," Onami said with a slight smile.

My eyes shifted around. "Wait, not everyone is here. I don't see my aunt anywhere and she went with Serra too. Where did she go?" She wasn't at the tower either.

"She went with your other aunt, Rocio," Setsuko said in a matter-of-fact tone. "Serra and I saw her running into a portal as they were fleeing Ifrit. It might be that one of them was badly injured during the fight, or he was too much for them to handle."

"I see," Azami said, snuggling Conrad. "Hopefully, they're fine. Even if they might belong to one of our enemies, I wouldn't wish harm on them."

"Nor would I," Haname said, averting her gaze. "My idiot ex would be sad if something did happen."

Azami laughed nervously. "Sounds like you were close."

Haname blushed. She opened her mouth, but failed to say a thing.

"Good thing that Hyo managed to do a number on him," Rosa said, smiling at the sleeping Hyosetsu.

I sighed. Yeah, Hyosetsu and Yuko dealt the most damage on the guy. Though, I couldn't really bring myself to hit him too hard. Ifrit might've been under control, but it was still my cousin's body. Then again, Con was an abysmal like me, he could heal quickly.

"Hyosetsu sure is incredible," Eita said, smiling. He gasped as he turned to his left. "Huh? Eiichi? Where did he go? Don't tell me he left to go train again!"

"You're barely noticing? He left a long time ago. Before the others even arrived," Suzuki said. She pointed at a large water fountain. A blue orb suspended in the air splashed the kids running around it. Several of them screaming and others laughing as Sabine chased them around. Eiichi stood under the shade of a tree by it, smiling at his sorta-girlfriend.

Naoru was also under the same tree, sleeping. If not for Eiichi, I would've laid Serra there to snooze the rest of his day away.

Yuko walked toward it.

"Want to go play?" Onami asked, smiling at her little sister.

My tanuki blushed. "Y-Yuko's not a little kid anymore, though."

"Nor is Sabine and she seems to be having the time of her life."

Yuko hummed before nodding her head. "Okay. Yuko will play." She seemed like she needed as much sleep as Serrano and Hyosetsu, yet she somehow managed to keep standing. For a sick little girl, she sure could keep going.

Onami giggled and nudged her little sister toward the fountain.

"I'm coming with you!" Rosa said, running after the Akiyama sisters.

Maybe I should join them later.

"So, how were things here while we were away?" I asked as I adjusted Serra. He had moved too much to one side when he reached out for Conrad's face.

"Uneventful, thankfully," Ximena said.

"That's good," Setsuko said, sighing. "One less thing to worry about."

"Hideo and the Seven Flame knights managed to put out the flames on the outskirts. Though, they've yet to return. Nor have Lorenzo and Reno."

"That's not good," Haname said, crossing her hands.

Suzuki chuckled. "I wouldn't worry about them. They handle themselves just fine. Mom, Dad, Uncle, and the royal siblings wanted to speak with the former king. The hope is that he would stop trying to start a new war."

Haname smiled. "That's good."

"Wait, do you know each other?" Eita asked, looking back and forth at the girls.

"Well, yeah, her mom is one of the Seven Flame Knights," Haname said, putting a hand on her hip.

Eita leered at her. "You say it as if it's obvious. I didn't meet all of my parents' co-workers until recently."

He was probably referring to my mom as I was pretty sure he met the other Seven Hill Knights long ago.

"That said, Taku and the others decided to start on the recovery process," Ximena said. "Seems that Taku had a lot of trust in your barrier. It helped protect the place from the shockwaves your clashes with the attackers were making."

I grinned. "Glad that it could help."

Xime laughed. "Yeah, it sure was handy. Though, it started to act strange when that weird tower appeared. It stabilized again once it vanished. What was that thing anyway?"

"Well..." Setsuko said.

As Setsuko explained what the tower was to Xime and the others, I glanced at the direction of what was once the southern end of the town. My big brother and some of the other guys were busy making the skeleton of a building. 

Even Prince Ryonoko had pulled up his sleeves and removed his vest. He looked like it was second nature to him. Did he help build homes for the poor back Wynaga? I'd heard about nobles and other rich folk doing those kind of things. Likely for the publicity that came along with it, but the Celestial-Dragon Prince didn't seem like someone who only stuck around for the photo-op. The same went for Zafir.

Silas also helped, but appeared to be struggling to keep up with the young adults. He stopped and glanced back to look at his little brother, Alex. The kid's face was deep red.

"Alex, I told you that you don't need to help," Silas said, putting down his load. He walked over to his brother and picked him up. "Let's take you over to the cooling station."

"N-no. I can continue to... help," the kid said, panting. He reminded me of my mom and Yuko. Could it be that he had inherited the same illness as Mom? Our mutual grandmother had the same thing.

Silas sighed and patted his back. "Don't try to act tough with me, Alex. Remember what happened at the hot springs last year?"

Alex opened his mouth but stopped speaking. He seemed too exhausted to talk.

His older brother sighed. "Let's get you some water. Marina went to get some at the river. Not sure why as she can make water out of thin air. Maybe it's not good like veggies grown with plant powers. Hopefully, it didn't get polluted during the fire."

"I got the water!" Marina yelled as she ran downhill with two large containers filled of the stuff.

"Yay!" some of the kids said, rushing her.

"Hey, save some water for Alex!" Silas yelled, rushing over to her.

Marina laughed. "Don't worry. There's going to be water for everyone."

"We brought the cups," Kiara said as she skateboarded on the ruined roads alongside several guys her age. A scared Etsuo clung to her as he held several bags of paper cups with his tail.

My monkey cousin jumped off as soon as the skateboard stopped. He sighed. "Finally, we stopped."

Kiara grinned. "Come on, it wasn't that scary, Monkey Boy."

He grumbled. "Maybe for you it wasn't."

Snickering, I turned to see what my sister was up to. Teresa, Camila, and Akane sat not too far from the house Taku, Ryonoko, Zafir, and the male villagers were working on. They were sowing what appeared to be blankets with some of the more humbly dressed women. A woman in a fancy dress fanned herself with an exasperated face. At least she wasn't barking orders at them.

The other noble-looking woman stood aside, talking to men who appeared to be their spouses. They seemed mad at them for some reason. I even heard one of them say to go do something, only have her words turned used back against her.

I sighed. Here I thought that I had managed to unify the village with my speech. Guess that even during times of crisis, the social strata wasn't entirely gone. At least the kids didn't keep themselves separate like their parents had.

"Something wrong?" Kohri asked as he stood by my side.

I sighed. "Not sure if most would see it like that. I was just pondering about how even during hard times, hierarchies exist."

"Sometimes, they're necessary," Setsuko said as she put a hand on the slumbering Serrano. "It would be nice if everyone could do things on their own without having anyone tell them, but not everyone works like that. The hard truth is, there are a lot of people who are followers in this world. Those same people are often the ones who rally around a leader, in the hopes that person would offer them some kind of security."

"Isn't that rather cynical? Sounds like something Hyo would say," Kohri asked, furrowing his brow.

She averted her gaze. "Yes, but like I said, it's the harsh reality." Her amber eyes glanced at the talking nobles. "Though, useless nobles are no good. Those who fail to help the people will eventually find themselves out on the street at best. At worse, they'll end up with their heads in a basket or hanging from a rope."

The noble man jumped at her loud words and ran over to help my brother and the others.

Setsuko smirked.

I laughed. "Were you threatening them?"

She sighed. "No. It's the people who will do them in if they continue like that. For better or worse, society pushes aside those who are of no use to it."

I lowered my head as I thought about those who were sick and unable to work. Society certainly was a double edged blade. Was there no way to achieve a balance; to avoid a dog eats dog world and a world where things fell apart due to lack of incentive to work?

Come to think of it, Kasai no Ki's fate was shaped by the latter while the former shaped Kuroriku. Kasai no Ki's lead to destruction, misery, and ruin. While Kuroriku's path did have misery, it hadn't resulted in as much destruction and ruin rained upon itself. At least, not yet. Something told me that wouldn't always remain the case if things continued on their current path.

"Don't worry, I'll do my best to avoid such a fate," Setsuko said, staring at the clear sky.

"Huh? D-did you read my mind?"

She shook her head and chuckled. "I guessed based on the expression you were making just now."

Kohri grinned. "I did too."

"You're my childhood friend, so you're as easy to read as a book. Well, most of the time you are," Xime said.

I laughed. It was good to know that I had friends who knew me well.

"I'm going to go help Taku!" I said, handing Serra over to the crown princess.

"I will too once I finish setting this dummy down," Setsuko said as she kicked the ground. We watched as she made a stone tent for Serra.

Azami stepped into it and set Conrad down next to his big brother. "Thanks, Tetsu, Setty. It's because of you and the others that both of my sons are here, safe and sound."

"Don't forget old Kohri," Kohri said, grinning.

My uncle-in-law laughed. "Right. I can't forget my bunny's best friend."

Kohri knelt beside Conrad and set Hyosetsu down next to him. "Wonder if he even remembers me."

Seeing him like this reminded me of that time back in Yuko's uncle's takoyaki stall. Serra had brought up Kohri's retirement from the Seven Hill Knights. That was the saddest I had ever seen him.

"I'm sure he does," I said, putting a hand on his shoulder.

Kohri smiled weakly. "I sure hope so."

**Solar Note: Hope that you enjoyed the chapter :). For those who might be confused by the opening, I expanded Ep. 52. It shows how Conrad, Suzuki, Eita, Eiichi, and Azami ended up back in the village. Btw, the Kitten in the title for those confused refers to a baby rabbit. Like how 'cub' is used for multiple animals, 'kitten' is used for more than just cats. Anyway, I would love to hear you thoughts, theories, and/or predictions?**