The first place to check was a clearing that seemed to be in the middle of nowhere. While Eld checked that clearing on his own, with Kaze waiting behind a ways, there was no indication that another person had visited such a place after Eld's recent use of it. This ruled out one of two major possibilities rather quickly, and unfortunately wasted about twenty minutes of time to get there.

Kaze wasn't too disappointed by the news that there was no sign of her brother there or anywhere in the vicinity, but such was to be expected from her. She was fairly lax with the search, truth be told, while aggressive at the same time. Aggression in patches was a good way to describe it.

"Oh well . . . he-- he could be somewhere else, maybe? Somewhere else here in the woods?" Kaze asked hopefully as she started to walk the other way.

And not just a moment later, there was a sound. It was very slight, but it sounded much like a twig breaking under someone's feet . . .

Indeed, Remmy's training ground was empty. Eld was actually grateful for that; he didn't like the idea of some stranger staying here, and he hesitated even to bring Kaze here in the first place. It was a childish feeling, perhaps, but some part of him considered this sacred ground.

He was about to reign Kaze in--lord knows he didn't want her wandering off in the woods without any idea where she was going--when he very clearly heard the snapping of a branch. Someone else was here.

"Who's there?" he demanded, whirling around to the source. He berated himself for not grabbing a weapon, but there was no way he could have gotten one without Kaze being suspicious. (Maybe--who knows what went through her head?) But it wasn't as though he was helpless unarmed...

"Away from her!"

It hadn't been even half of a second following Eld's declared question that the male voice cried out to him. It was male, yes, without a doubt--but he didn't sound younger than Kaze. If anything, he sounded as if he were in his late twenties or so, much more mature than Kaze was, who appeared to be in her earlier twenties or even her late teens, at best.

There was a rattle of a chain at that moment, a hasty rattle, following along with the sound of more branches breaking and leaves crunching under thick boots.

And at Eld's side, right at his flank, where he hadn't been looking, he'd experience a body hitting his--shoulder first. The man carried a lot of force behind him when he gained momentum, and could easily throw Eld off of his feet--unnervingly so, as the sound of running seemed to have come from somewhere else.

Nonetheless, whether Eld evaded the partial tackle or took it and was thrown off of his feet, he'd find that the man responsible was eerily similar to one Kaze had described: a man with shoulder-length blue hair, hazy blue, who was fairly tall, and appeared to wear thick tan clothes, a tan winter jacket and corresponding pants, as well as winter boots--and a cold glare with blue-green eyes into the heart of Eldridge Tsukimono.

He could hear him running at him, and he braced himself, ready to defend. It was only a split second before he was hit that he realized he couldn't feel anyone's Qi in that direction.

It wasn't soon enough, however; he was still in mid-turn when something plowed into him with a force that seemed impossible with the short time his opponent must have had to start their charge. He let out a brief cry of alarm as he was sent completely off his feet, though he managed to roll and quickly pop back up.

He stood, completely different from the moment before, his eyes dangerously serious as he studied his opponent. But it was only for a moment--he quickly recognized the man from the description he'd been given, and let himself fall back into his normal mode of being.

Which was comically trying to defuse a situation. "W-Wait," he said, his hands raising from a ready stance to waving palms out, pleading for his opponent to stop. "Y-You're misunderstanding--I'm helping her look for you."

Hopefully Kaze would have noticed the scuffle and come to back up his claim...

Just as she glanced back at Eld, he was plowed into and thrown several feet back. Panic was a natural thing to feel in this situation, but Kaze didn't feel it all that strongly at first. Initially, she simply stared at the scene with her brow furrowed in confusion and concern, before she finally recognized the one that he slammed shoulder first into Eld.

It was her brother? Yes! It was her brother, at last! It felt like she had been searching for him for years, and she very well could have! Kaze hadn't the slightest clue anymore just how long she had been in this village. Without even thinking about it, she positioned herself between her brother and Eldridge Tsukimono, albeit without an immediate sense of urgency. It wasn't for a second that she finally experienced the urgency she should have felt a moment prior, and she opened her arms up accordingly, to indicate that she was defending Eld.

"Y-yeah. We were looking all over for you!" Kaze declared, though her voice wasn't quite that loud enough to be that imperative of one, even though she was standing between her brother and Eld.

Kaze's brother's eyes, once narrowed, relaxed just the same as his brow. He stood up straight and tilted his head to the side confusedly. Notably, he didn't appear Cizokian, nor anything similar to the offshoot of Cizokian that Kaze appeared to be. In fact, the man looked as if he had come from Algeroth.

"Wait . . ." he trailed off. "You're . . . with him?"

It was amusing the way Kaze threw herself in front of him, as though to physically protect him from assault. She didn't look that strong, and he was fairly certain he could take a hit far better than she could. If the brother insisted on fighting him for whatever reason, Eld's biggest worry would be putting him down without seriously hurting him more than likely.

Fortunately that wasn't the case. "Y-Yeah," he replied with a small wince as he rubbed his shoulder. This brother of hers hit harder than his appearance would suggest. Of course, the same could accurately be said about Eld himself.

"Next time, ask first and then attack, okay? Jeez..." Well, he couldn't be too upset, since at least Kaze was reunited with her brother. And if he could fight a bit, then he could worry less about them getting hurt when he started investigating the emblem he'd found.

"Yeah! The entire time I've been in this, um--where ever we are!" Kaze exclaimed.

"The entire time . . .?" he asked.

"Yeah! The entire time!"

"Then . . . you mean to say . . ." he trailed off, his eyes half shut as he averted his eyes from Kaze, "That you've befriended him?"

"Y-yeah!" Kaze exclaimed. "He's a really sweet guy, I don't think I could've helped it even if I tried!"

"Sister . . . you'd really befriend a man like him?" Kaze's brother, Dekishui as she had once called him, inquired with the utmost concern, yet at the same time there was noticeable hurt in his expression.

Indeed, that was one thing that was easy to notice about him: his expression was not static. Never did he keep a median expression, it so far seemed to be an extreme, no matter what. His reaction was extremely unexpected, though; Kaze furrowed her brow after a moment and tilted her head to the side confusedly. Her brother wasn't talking much like he knew Eld personally, but he clearly seemed to be accusing him of something or the rather. Or maybe he was accusing all persons outside of their family? Kaze hadn't the slightest clue.

Eld couldn't help but be a bit offended by Kaze's brother. (He was blanking out on the name at the moment; she'd only mentioned it once.) He'd never met him before, and he was already passing judgment on him like he knew him! Or at least knew of him.

Actually, that wasn't entirely impossible, he realized. He knew there were occasionally rumors about him; how could there not be, with his role against the bandits and all the crazy stuff that he'd been involved in since? He actually wasn't sure what those rumors might have been, though; for the most part, he only associated with his close friends and family, so he was completely out of touch with what the village thought of him, though the way those in the bar yesterday reacted to him suggested they hadn't forgotten what he was capable of...

He forced himself from that line of thought; he was done worrying about what most people thought of him. Obsessing over how they must have thought he was a monster had caused him to nearly flee the village once, and he wasn't going to do that again.

"I-I know there's probably some rumors about me, but...but it's not like I'm evil or anything," he protested. It wasn't so much that her brother clearly didn't like him that was the problem; it was the implication that she was somehow not safe with him that bothered him.

And the man's expression changed in an instant. His eyes lifted to focus upon Eld, where he stood just past Kaze, and the look of concern and lament changed--reverting to an extreme rage, his face tensing up, his brow furrowing, and eyes narrowing. Eld quickly became the object of disdain.

"Rumors? Rumors?!" he shouted, "There are no rumors, only facts!"

"B-brother, stop!" Kaze shouted almost immediately following his shout of anger.

She didn't understand where he was getting all this pent up rage at Eld, but Eldridge Tsukimono was her friend, even if she couldn't remember his name for the life of her--and she was bound and determined to defend him accordingly . . . but also to bring her brother back home, too. It was a bit of a tough situation, to want to defend a friend's name, a name she couldn't recall, from a man who was extremely important to her all the same--family, in fact.

Kaze's brother immediately recoiled, almost as if he were afraid that his sister was going to harm him. He even lifted his arms to cover his face.

"Why?!" he shouted, his voice giving the hint of dejection, "Why would you befriend a murderer?!"

Kaze stared at him for a second. That was a completely random accusation; Kaze hadn't the slightest clue where it came from, but she didn't like the idea that her own brother was calling a good friend of hers a murderer. "Wh-what? A murderer? He's way too sweet to be a killer. You'd know, too, if you gave him a chance!"

"No--no--" her brother shook his head quickly as he backed away, almost as if he were afraid, "He's a killer and he's going to hurt you"

"I-- what? No, he's not a killer! And he's here because we were both looking for you!"

Kaze's brother let his arms fall from his face, revealing a look of disbelief. "What-- looking for me? You and he both?"

"Yes, of course! I told you, he's a real sweet guy!" Kaze insisted.

But her brother received a completely different connotation: "You . . . brought him to me? You brought him to kill me . . .?"

Eld listened for awhile, and as he did so what started as vague indignation became very specific, precise indignation, until he could finally not help but speak his mind at the boy's last accusation.

"She's not trying to kill you, she's worried about you, you idiot!" he spat. Kaze could be a spacey, true, but her brother's behavior was just belligerently stupid. "She ended up in nearly the wrong town, trying to look for you on her own, and easily could have been taken advantage of by anybody of the right mindset--" including Eld himself, had he been so inclined, "--and then she finds you and you accuse her of trying kill you? Are you that unbelievably insensitive?"

He took a deep breath, trying to calm down from his tirade. "Look, I don't care what you think you know; I'm not a murderer, and I'm not going to hurt her, or hurt you unless you try and bum rush me again. If it'll make you feel better, I can give you two some privacy and go back home."

Although she didn't appreciate Eld calling her brother insensitive, Kaze could sort of see why he might think that. Still, she didn't think he was being insensitive. She should have expected this, even--but she had failed to remember just how her brother could be sometimes . . .

Kaze nodded firmly and declared in agreement with Eld: "Y-yea--"

But she was cut off promptly. "NO!"

Kaze stopped short of speaking, silenced in an instant. She should have taken this into account, yes--this was how he could be sometimes! Kaze was just beginning to remember bits and pieces, enough to know that she needed to be soft with him.

"Hey-- hey . . ." Kaze spoke softly, calmly, "It's okay. I'll take you back home and everything will be okay . . ."

But then, her brother said something that astounded her:

"My sister's not a traitor, my sister's not a traitor, my sister's not a traitor, my sister's not a traitor," he repeated to himself under his breath, but every so often his voice spiked in pitch and loudness, rising almost like a scream, each time startling Kaze into nearly jumping back away from him.

Astounded in the worst of ways, that is . . .

"Wh-what . . .? No--I haven't betrayed anyone," she whispered; she was remarkably calm, all things considered, but a little shaky.

"You're a traitor!" he cried at last, throwing his arms out and leaning forward, tears visibly running down his cheeks--an image which threw Kaze off instantly, keeping her from stopping him when he whipped around and broke into a run, as if he were fleeing from Kaze and Eld entirely . . .

And a second would pass before she'd finally reach her hand out and plead with him, a second too late to say, ". . . w-wait!"

Eld was taken by surprise too; though he was not as shocked as Kaze it was still unusual behavior. He made no effort to stop him, however; he had a feeling that any physical move made towards the boy would be a bad idea.

Not having any idea what was going through his head, Eld could come to only one conclusion: That must be one major sister complex he has. As far as he could tell, that was the only reason he might feel betrayed by Kaze associating with him, if he suspected that...well, that Kaze felt for him as she did.

In any case, he was less worried about the brother--he might have been a bit neurotic, but he was clearly capable of taking care of himself--and more about Kaze.

"...Are you okay?" he asked. For all he knew this kind of outburst was normal for him, but while he didn't have any actual siblings he knew if, say, Emma called him a traitor he'd be pretty hurt by it.

For awhile, Kaze said nothing. She slowly retracted her hand and returned it to where it was before, when she had her arms folded over her diaphragm. Her expression fell quickly, down to an utterly downtrodden state, but with good reason. And silence persisted for some time.

"I . . ." she started, only to trail off when she couldn't find the words.

Yet again, there was silence.

A traitor? What would make her a traitor? Kaze ran it all through her head. She took her brother's words to heart, even if they didn't make a lick of sense to her. The problem that arose within her was the act of trying to make sense of them, actually. Who could she have possibly betrayed by befriending Eld? He was a great guy. In fact, her mother would have probably been happy for her if things had turned out different! Happy that she had found someone that she really liked, that would be kind to her no matter what. Her father probably would have approved, too.

So why didn't her brother?

"Y-yeah . . . I-- I'm okay," she lied, obviously.

And by that point, there didn't seem to be even a remote trace of Kaze's brother anymore . . .

Kaze was clearly rattled by her brother's words and behavior; Eld wondered about it too. It was one thing to be distrustful of him if he'd heard anything about him (or distrustful of a boy alone with her in general, which was a rather justified worry), but why would Kaze be a traitor? The only thing he could think of was a serious sister complex, but they seemed a bit too old for that to be the case.

"Should we go after him? Or would you like to head back?" he inquired gently, rather than call her on her fib.

The brother had run off in a hurry, so even if he was out of sight he left a pretty noticeable trail through the woods--and he had to stop somewhere. Though, if she wanted to go after him, there was a small dilemma--it was likely Kaze would just get lost on her own, and equally likely that if Eld went with her the encounter would be just as bad or worse.

"I . . . I don't know . . ." Kaze sighed.

She didn't, truly. To go after him or not? It was a conflict of interests that she couldn't quite answer. She knew she could catch up with him if she tried, but she also suspected it would end very poorly. For awhile, the woman looked ahead, saying nothing more for several long moments. It might seem as if she had blanked out again, but this time, she had not. No, Kaze had wrapped herself up in thought. She tried desperately to arrange her thoughts in a reasonable order, and while she may have failed continuously, she did come to one conclusion:

"Maybe . . ." she thought aloud, ". . . Maybe he's . . . maybe he's in town."

She may not have said it outright, but this was as good of an indication as any that she wanted to head back. Chasing him might not have been a good idea, after all.