"Akira?" Ichiro looked at the boy and Akira nodded. "What is it?", "I need to ask you a favor. Since you are the best sharp shooter and archer in Fiore, we need you to stay in the background and take enemies down from distance. Only join the fight when I give the signal with my Water Magic, alright?" Akira said nothing at first, but then, he nodded. "Agreed.", "Great. I knew I could count on ya.", "The best sharp shooter and archer?" Tomoko looked at Raze. "Yeah. Akira is capable of using weapon magic. So, he can use guns and bows, but also swords, knifes, daggers... all that stuff.", "Pretty cool." Tomoko said. "But... is that all or do those weapons possess any other kind of magic...?", "Sure they do." Raze said. "He can set his arrows on fire, for example. It's only down to the four elements, lightning and ice, but at least something. That's enough to make him the most dangerous wizard around here.", "Awesome!" Akira turned around and his look fell on Tomoko. "It's not as awesome as you think it is. My Weapon Magic may be powerful, but there are other Weapon Magic users, especially Requip Magic users who are one hundred times more powerful than me.", "But you can shoot them in seconds without them having time to react, right?" Tomoko asked. "Sorta." Akira said. "But when they discover me, I have a huge problem." With that, he went towards the bar. "That's true..." Eaden said. "We once fought against a guild called Oblivion Wing. One of their most powerful wizards discovered Akira and badly injured him... He was in life danger. Since that day, Akira doesn't have enough trust in himself. He trains day and night, but that wasn't good for his health... He has been ill for a while. The job he returned from was the first one after his long sickness period. But he didn't give himself enough time to fully recover, you may guess...", "Poor guy..." Tomoko said. "He has a scar on his chest from that attack back then." Raze added. "He will always be reminded of it." Tomoko looked at Akira. He talked to Alena. "That's also the reason why Nicole joined him." Eaden explained. "At first, they were individuals. Both of them. They went on their missions alone but since Akira had that time it went downhill, she decided to team up with him to support him.", "How kind of her." Tomoko said. "Yeah..." Eaden just nodded.
After a while, Homura came over to them. "Raze." she said. "I want you to take care about Tomoko." Raze nodded. "Nothing more likely than that, master.", "I count on ya. I don't want anything bad to happen to her.", "I got it!" Homura smiled. "Fine." Nicole joined them. "Oh, hi! You must be Takako, right?", "Eh... actually, it's Tomoko." Tomoko said. "Whoops... how stupid of me. Sorry, my memory for names isn't the best one, so don't feel insulted when I use a wrong name, okay?", "It's fine." Tomoko smiled. "Thank goodness." Nicole laughed. "Well, Alena told me that we had a newbie in our guild, so... I became curious. You're quite young, but that doesn't mean anything. I mean, look at Ichiro, he's only 13 and already a bad-ass butt-kicker." Raze and Eaden bursted into laughter. "Bad-ass butt-kicker... creative." Raze commented. Tomoko giggled. "What? It's true!" Nicole said. "Whatever, welcome in our guild. I feel sorry for you, I mean, you're just one day in here and we already get into a conflict with a group of boneheads.", "That's life." Raze said. "I'm okay with that." Tomoko smiled timidly. "You... have been fighting other guilds already... right?", "Yeah." Eaden nodded. "Oblivion Wing was just one of those we destroyed. We also once fought a legal guild that disobeyed the laws of Fiore... It's name was Sky Fortress.", "And further?" Tomoko asked. "It's a sad chapter of our existance." Homura said. "Before you joined, we were thirteen. Sky Fortess didn't have many members too, but we were still outnumbered.", "Oh..." Tomoko lowered her look. "Yeah... sad story. Kaio and Blide were killed by Sky Frostess' guild master. Two years ago. We won the fight, but we weren't happy." Eaden said. "We... we burried them at the place, were the roses grow. They cover their graves.", "We don't seem to learn from our mistakes..." Raze sighed. "Defeating Oblivion Wing wasn't difficult at all... They weren't strong. Except of... a few wizards. One of them wounded Akira, as I told you." Eaden explained. "And... since Sky Fortress was an independent guild... nearly no one really knew about them. Sure, there are well-known ones, such as Crime Sociére, for example... but most of them stay in the shade until they need to act. As for Sky Fortress... only the king and a few others knew about them. The request for their destruction came from the princess. She wanted a strong no-name guild to do that job- When bigger guilds would have taken action, they would've known. Sky Fortress had many spies... so asking great guilds like Sabertooth or Lamia Scale was no option. Then, she heard about us- About a Dark Guild that had risen up from the ashes. Most of the people mistrusted us... so Sky Fortress didn't see any threat in us. That was their greatest mistake...", "So... actually... the beautiful rose garden is a graveyard?" Tomoko asked. "Yeah... unfortunately." Nicole nodded. "If... if I would've known that talking about that hurts so much, I wouldn't have asked... I'm sorry." Tomoko said. Nicole placed a hand on her head. "Hey, little one, it's no big deal. Really. Don't make such a guilty face, it doesn't suit ya. By the way... you're cute.", "Wh-what?" Tomoko turned red. "Aaaaww! Hey, don't be ashamed! I meant it as a compliment.", "I- I know, but... I can't help it." Nicole took her hand away. "She's such a cutie. Take good care about her!" She smiled and then went over to the bar. Homura also turned around. "I'll be announcing our departure soon... be ready. This ain't easy... we are hopelessly outnumbered. And Raze... don't fight too risky. By all respect for your strength, but hold back this time.", "Okay... understood." This was obviously not pleasing Raze. But she seemed to know Homura was right. "Run through a wall with your head held high and show you ain't afraid of what's behind it... But sometimes it's better to solve things through using your brain instead of your force..." she said.