Eld doubted he needed to point out that her brother had run opposite of the way they came--he could tell that, for once, the suggestion wasn't borne of Kaze's faulty memory.

"Alright...let's go back."

Even if he were willing to speak to her, it might not be until after he'd cooled down some. He was feeling rather helpless; he'd managed to help her find her brother, but what could he do from here? Whatever he had against him, it got him angry simply looking at him--enough that it overpowered his reason and feelings he had for his sister.

And he was torn, as well; he wanted to be there for Kaze, but he also wanted to talk to Etsu about the strange token he'd found. It was rarely a good thing when he felt Qi disturbances in the village.

Kaze was silent for a long while. Time was usually a fleeting thing for her, but now it felt rigid and painful--a lot like the wind they were experiencing. It was coming in from behind them, and while it wasn't gale force or anything like that, it was fairly constant and disruptive. It whipped Kaze's hair and knocked her long pigtails into her face every so often, which she disregarded for the most part. The wind had been rather sudden, though, just like the trouble in the sky. What had started as a calm, clear blue sky, was slowly becoming a cloudy, disturbed sky--with darker clouds over the horizon.

"It doesn't make any sense . . ." Kaze lamented as she walked.

Kaze bit her lower lip. She couldn't even begin to cheer up or calm down at this point. She was troubled, and it was all she could think about. Granted, these thoughts were all, in themselves, fleeting, but she seemed to be able to hold onto these thoughts a little easier. Funny, it was the bad thoughts that had staying power, not the good ones.

She'd been trying to make sense of it the whole time they were walking, and it just wasn't happening. "Why he'd call you a killer, and me a traitor . . ."

As she was trailing behind him slightly, it would be difficult for Kaze to the way Eld's faze paled as he stopped abruptly, but if she were perceptive she'd notice the way the hairs on the back of his neck stood out.

"K-Kaze, I-I..."

What should he say? How much could he tell her? Part of him wanted nothing more than to keep walking as though he hadn't heard her, and pretend that she was perfectly correct in saying there was no reason anyone would call him a killer.

But while not lying, it was dishonest. He didn't particularly want Kaze to know so much about him, and normally he would think nothing of avoiding talking about that part of him, but now...

"I-I'm not a murderer...b-but...there was a battle several months ago...I fought in it, and I...I killed in it." He remained standing still, not being able to turn and face her. The memory of her defending him burned him, as he very much wanted to just be the sweet boy she thought he was...but ultimately he wasn't. Perhaps, once, he was, but he would never be that simple boy again.

"S-So...your brother...might not be completely mistaken..." He wasn't a cold-blooded murdered like he seemed to think, but...he was far from innocent all the same.

At the approximate time of her surprise at Eld's admittance of guilt, they had reached town. They could see farmhouses from here, and even the Vaerbond ranch. Kaze, at that moment, couldn't see them. She could only see Eld, at whom she stared, stupefied--almost horrified.

There was a long silence between them, as Kaze tried to arrange her thoughts fruitlessly. Now, she didn't know what to think.

With great hesitation, she began to ask, "S-so-- so wait-- y-you mean to say that you really did kill--"

Kaze was interrupted before she could say much more, however: "MUCH. MORE."

It was a shout, a scream, an enraged battle cry. Direction was difficult to ascertain, however; it sounded distant, yet near, yet all around, with little to no sign of there even being anyone to shout at them--yet the person speaking would be obvious. It was Kaze's brother, without a doubt in the world.

If Eld remained where he was, he would soon find himself grounded by a work of steel slammed down hard upon his shoulder--and were he to look behind him, he would find the source of the attack: Kaze's brother, descending upon Eld from a seemingly undisclosed location, holding a weapon in his hands, and bringing it down upon Eld with vengeful force. It was a pole, a quarter staff--except, unlike traditional quarter staffs, it was made entirely of metal. Iron, to be precise.

And with this, he screamed: "RECENTLY."

A killing on Eld's part, committed closer to their present day, much closer than the rebellion against the bandits. Considering who Eld was and how seriously he took the subjects of death, dying, and fighting, he shouldn't have been able to forget the recent death in Galaens so quickly, or even forget it at all--yet it wouldn't be entirely out of the question for it to have slipped Eld's mind. That had nothing to do with Eld's on conscious thoughts, though . . .

The death he'd caused more recently hadn't completely slipped his mind, though he did try not to think about it. He'd been mostly successful, but the accusations of him being a killer brought them back...though...already the incident seemed oddly faraway.

But he wasn't going to divulge that information--that was part of his life he didn't talk to just anyone about. He may have liked Kaze (in a platonic way) and even already considered her a friend, but he wasn't going to let her in on his secrets if he could avoid it. He had no idea just how relevant the incident really was.

Eld heard the voice of Kaze's brother, but he couldn't tell where from. The sound seemed to come from everywhere; perhaps with Kageko's help he could have pinpointed it, but his own senses were apparently not sharp enough.

And then there was pain, a loud smack followed by an audible pop as he tumbled forward into the grass with a yelp of pain. Quickly scrabbling back to his feet, his right arm was limp until he took the injured shoulder with his good hand and popped it back into place with grimace.

"What the hell is your problem?!" Eld shouted, not exactly thrilled to be attacked from nowhere again, and this time more prepared to defend himself. It was one thing to just be tackled, but wielding a metal weapon--even a blunt one--required him to take this at least a bit seriously.

Once alert to the danger, if Eld were to take a look at the man's stance, he'd find that it was fairly solid. The way he held his quarter staff at the base, the way he spread his hands out across it for both a stronger grip and control, and the way he spread his feet to allow himself a near perfect balance. It was almost like he was trained for this--which meant Eld was lucky. Had he got Eld with a horizontal swing in the first strike, around the same area, he would have broken the youth's neck instantly.

"YOU," his voice echoed to Eld.

Already spurred into a state of shock by Eld, Kaze reacted rather quickly. Had she retained a depressed state, it would have taken her a moment to respond to her brother's assault of Eld with much swiftness.

Standing between man with the quarter staff and Eld was Kaze, her arms outstretched and back to Eld. She was standing, specifically, to defend Eld, feeling that her brother would not try to go through her in order to get to Eld--for whatever reason it was he wanted to get to him. Kaze didn't know what that reason was for sure, anymore. Eld only killed some bandits, and they didn't know of any bandits.

"Stop it!" Kaze cried shakily.

She wasn't about to let these two physically fight each other . . .

Upon being able to size up Kaze's brother, Eld realized he wasn't just some angry kid swinging blindly with a pole. He knew how to use that thing as a weapon, not just a club. Of course, that alone wasn't enough to worry him too greatly, but it did mean he couldn't afford to let his guard down.

But before he could say anything, Kaze stepped between them, and Eld's features softened. As much as he might be losing his patience with her brother, he had to remember that it would only be painful for her to see them fight.

"I don't know what you have against me, but...is taking out your anger worth hurting your sister over?" he asked.

He wanted to think he wouldn't attack Kaze, but just in case, Eld was prepared to push her out of the way if need be.

"Why?" he suddenly sounded . . . regretful. Yes, regretful. It wasn't that he even sounded depressed or upset about anything. Just filled with rue. "When she's already done so much to hurt us. Her family!"

Kaze, already in a shocked and surprised state, was capable of feeling that emotion much more strongly than normal. Her eyes widened as she felt the sting of his words. Why? What would drive him to say these things? As far as she knew, she'd done nothing to hurt or drive off her family. Everyone was okay, everyone but her younger brother, and that's why she was here! She was here to find him and take him back home and make sure everything was okay. How could she have hurt her family in the process?

"I-- . . . what?" Kaze whispered painfully.

"You can't even remember our names!"

This was a bit of a low blow to Kaze, causing her to visibly recoil. She replied promptly, though: "N-no! I can! I can remember your names!"

"Then what's mine?" asked her brother in a sudden show of aggression.

"I--" Kaze paused. She averted her eyes from him as she thought hard about this. His name--his name. She had it up there somewhere, somewhere in her scattered brain. She just had to find it. She just had to think of it . . .

"Seiry--" she began quietly.

"NO," her brother roared, interrupting her, "Oboreru! My-- name-- is-- Oboreru! You don't care enough about me to even remember something so simple--why should I not hurt you, huh?!"

Eld placed a hand on Kaze's shoulder as he stepped past her. Her brother sounded like he was going to attack her at any second, and that was something he would not abide by.

"She may have trouble with names, but even in the short time since I've met her I know she remembers what's important. She came out here looking for you, worried about you, thinking you would be all alone--she cares about you like a sister should. Isn't that more important than a name?" he asked softly.

He hoped Oboreru would listen, would see how much Kaze cared about him. But he was ready in case he didn't--to defend both his own person and hers.

"Has she?" Oboreru's was an expression of disbelief.

"I-- I really have!" Kaze replied.

Without even a second's hesitation, he took one step forward, swinging the quarter staff horizontally before him, ideally across both bodies, to shatter ribs and throw them off to the side. He was trying to hurt them--the both of them, attacking without even a thought or hesitation regarding his sister's safety.

Which, of course, wouldn't be too difficult to dodge, at least not for Eld. Counterattacking, if necessary, might have been difficult. He was, after all, going to try and keep Kaze from getting hurt in the process . . .

"THEN WHY'D SHE BRING YOU ALONG?" Oboreru roared.

As usual, Eld's first instinct was to dodge. Despite his bursts of strength, he wasn't a particularly hardy fellow...well, not compared to the people he usually ended up fighting, anyway. He had to fight that urge, however; dodging would leave Kaze to take the blow, and that wasn't acceptable.

So instead he caught the blow, stopping with his left hand and wrapping his right arm around the weapon, though it caused pain to shoot up his arm--stopping an attack from a metal weapon hurt even if it was a normal person, let alone someone who knew how to use it. It also shoved him a bit to the side; he wasn't kidding around with that swing.

"Because she didn't have anyone else," he replied with a wince. "She was lost when I ran into her, and I couldn't just leave her alone. So I took her where she wanted to go, which was here, and decided to help her find you."

"You're right about one thing, though; she shouldn't be with me. It should be you taking care of her." He leveled a glare at Oboreru. "So calm down already; it's not like I'm going to take her from you or anything."

Eld caught the attack and stuck by Kaze, who was now visibly frightened by what was happening. Her brother was getting more violent--and she knew, if there was anything they had remotely in common . . .

The next moment was something of a blur. Eld would feel his movements and perception suddenly muffled, muddled down even--as if all senses blurred together so briefly, like a solution of dozen dense and light liquids, piled on top of each other until disrupted, rearranged and disorganized for a only a moment. Eld's experience would be exactly that.

Except as far as pain receptors went, that is.

It was the exact opposite of something else Eld knew well--something he, himself, could do, but sans the borrowed utilities of her presence, he couldn't anticipate and pick out sensory experiences. And now, worse, they all became one.

There were a blur of movement and feeling, as Oboreru slid his hands down the quarter staff and twisted it forward, to forcibly wrench it from Eld's grasp, where he had only the far tip, while Oboreru himself had the entirety of the weapon under his command, and leverage in the middle. It would snap from Eld's containment as he took a step forward, letting the staff continue in its downward motion on the far side, to spin at for half a rotation and plant its opposite tip into Eld's forehead.

It was a blow that would no doubt throw him to the ground and fill his head with a different kind of blur, the kind of post-concussion disorientation that left even a powerful warrior grounded for a few seconds.

Eld had prepared himself, figuring Oboreru would try and wrench the pole from his grasp; the man had spirit, but disarmed he wouldn't be much of a threat, and he figured from there he could hold him down or something until he cooled off, or at worst knock him out if he refused to.

What he hadn't prepared for was having all his senses suddenly distort into each other. For several moments he knew what sounded tasted like and took in the scenery through his nose; then pain blossomed from his forehead and he found himself laying on his back, wondering what in the world had just happened.

And then he tensed and rolled to the side, not even looking but being fairly certain that if he was so worked up as to attack his sister, Oboreru would not stop with simply knocking him down...

When Eld was thrown to the ground, Kaze was left standing alone. The whole thing surprised her, as well. She barely saw him coming, but unlike Eld, she didn't experience a sensory muddling. She saw how her brother dashed forward, took his weapon back from Eld, and swung it up to beam him in the forehead. Oboreru even paused for a moment to survey the fallen Eld, before raising his quarter staff again.

However, just as he moved to slam it down upon Eld, something which could have kept him from fighting any further, even without a muddled sensory experience, Kaze was between them--yet, rather than taking the blow for Eld, she was halting it. Held underhanded in her right hand was a steel fan, no more the length of her forearm. It was clamped shut and still exuded a white mist. This was the means of stopping the blow, with Kaze bent at her knees and leaned forward to brace herself and her arm, which strained against Oboreru's strength.

"Stop it!" she finally shouted--her mood risen to the point that she could raise her voice.

Oboreru wasn't surprised. He didn't look it, nor did he act it. In fact, he looked . . . happy. He was smiling like a child that just got done playing with bugs all day. It was around that time that Eld's sensory experience would begin to slow and return to normal--but not instantly. It might still be difficult for him to walk after it, in fact, and twice as difficult to see, especially after a blow to the skull like he experienced. He would, at the very least, be able to see the silhouette of Kaze standing before him, somehow stopping Oboreru from attacking Eld again.

"You'll really go this far for him? To take up arms against your family?" Oboreru asked pleasantly.

"I--" Kaze began quickly, but trailed off almost immediately afterward. She didn't know how to answer that question. She didn't want to.

"For our family, I come to kill this man--and you take up arms against me. How can you not see a traitor in the mirror, sister?" Oboreru asked.

Kaze felt her arm weakening with her resolve, and the steel staff pushed forward a bit. However, just as she felt this, she forced her resolve forward. Pushing the edge of her fan against the staff, she took one step forward, to push her brother's staff back, to glide her fan down its bottom edge, and to get close to him all the same.

"I won't let you hurt him again," Kaze replied sternly. She didn't address the notion that she was a traitor to her family, not directly, but these words may as well have been enough to suggest her willingness to be one.

Fortunately, the blow Eld had anticipated would be aimed for him never came; as he stopped rolling and looked up, he could tell why. Sort of. His vision was still blurry, but the thin, colorful silhouette standing over him could only be Kaze. It seemed like she'd stopped the attack somehow, but with his vision still blurry he couldn't tell what, though he could hear them fairly clearly despite the slight ringing in his head.

This was...bad. He probably had a concussion, and while in the short run he'd likely be fine, it was the kind of injury he couldn't just shrug off--he'd have to have his parents look at it later, and then explain to them why he thought he had a concussion. And he wasn't the best liar in the world, at least when it came to lying to those he cared about.

But he had more immediate concerns, namely that it looked like Kaze was going to fight her own brother. He sat up, which made him dizzy enough that he decided standing wasn't going to happen just yet.

"You took up arms against her first," he said, slightly slurring his speech. While his senses were no longer chaotically entangled with one another, they were all still somewhat muddled, which made talking a bit difficult--or perhaps it was just the blow to the head. "Which one of you is really the traitor?"

He wanted to make Oboreru see that he was the only one forcing any kind of violence; he still wasn't entirely sure why he wanted to kill him, but it wasn't as though Eld was actively a threat to the young man. He didn't plan to hurt Kaze at all, and he was only going to hurt Oboreru himself in self-defense if necessary.