Eld couldn't help but frown a bit; the man was drunk, true, and wouldn't have been the first person he'd have chosen to ask, but even so, he was being rather rude. Too rude to a young girl--there was no excuse for that, inebriated or not. And he was vaguely offended at his offend reference to Etsu as strange, even though her hair was, in fact, a rather strange color.

Walking up to the large, bearded man, he folded his arms and looked at him with disapproval. "Hey, you don't need to be so gruff. She's looking for her brother--if you were trying to find family that was missing, wouldn't you want people to be as helpful as possible?" he asked. It was almost...childlike, the way he objected to such a thing--especially to a burly drunk man--and a sign of the confidence he had now that he'd consider approaching him for any reason, let alone to reprimand him.

Well . . . yes, he had been a little mean to her, and that partially made Kaze more nervous than before. She was having a hard time making eye contact with any of the others here in the tavern, now. She felt a little ashamed for even trying.

"Ehhh?"

The man grunted as he turned around to face Eld. He set his beer down on a table just behind him.

"Look here, son," he grunted, "I don't feel obligated to talk to some out'a town slut, got it? Let alone be nice. The only things out'a towners bring anymore is shit. And that slut," he pointed directly to Kaze, "is probably just goin' to fuck somethin' up. Or someone."

Kaze looked away, now feeling extremely self conscious. She wasn't that, right? Whatever it was he called her. Maybe she was? And . . . and what if she was?! Then, Eld might start thinking the same, and he'd not want to be around her anymore. In fact, he might just start being mean to her, like the drunk man had. What was it about her that made her like that? Was it the way she talked? Or the way she dressed, maybe? Kaze half shut her eyes and pouted at the thought. She kind of didn't remember what the word meant; it wasn't uttered more than once amongst her family, but she remembered the emotional connotation, and it didn't make her feel good at all.

Eld's demeanor faltered slightly; while he hadn't been happy before, he hadn't been overly upset, either. Just a bit annoyed.

Now, that changed, and was evidenced by the change on his face. But he didn't frown, grimace, or growl--no, Eld wasn't the kind of person who showed aggression under most circumstances. Instead, he smiled.

"Now, I know you've been drinking, and it's effecting your judgment. You're saying things you normally wouldn't. And I know you don't mean it."

The words may have sounded understanding, but the tone was not. The tone said, I don't care if you're bigger or stronger or angrier. I am capable of making your life miserable so you had better agree with me, for your own good.

"Right?" he prodded.

Kaze watched reluctantly. This wasn't going to end well at all, was it? No, no--it couldn't possibly end well! She didn't act, though, not yet.

Eldridge Tsukimono was known as one of the two saviors of the village. Without a doubt, he was supposed to be as glorified as Remmy was, as far as combat prowess went! He should have been feared, even loathed to a certain extent. Everyone in the village knew him, or knew of him. Most, if not all, had seen him if they had lived in Hillcrest for just a couple of years--and definitely had seen him if they lived there for longer. To put a face to the stories was an easy task.

But this man was far too drunk to consider that.

"No," he grunted, "Matter'o fact, I do."

Kaze glanced between them. She was becoming progressively more nervous, especially as the man took a step towards Eld.

"W-we should . . . we should really leave . . ." Kaze declared as she slipped in front of Eld and held onto his jacket slightly, "We can talk to someone else, maybe? Okay?"

No--this man was far too big for Eld to even think about standing up against. Kaze certainly didn't want to. She wanted to avoid a fight if she could. It was imperative to her, in fact, that they leave and go somewhere else to ask. This man was drunk and disorderly, and could really hurt the both of them.

"Outta the way," the man grunted as he shoved Kaze by the shoulder--and roughly, at that. "Men're talkin."

He didn't know her down, though. Kaze stumbled slightly, quickly coming to a stop. She held onto her shoulder, however, and looked back to the man with an expression of much dejection, and a little bit of pain.

There was a wind in the room. It was subtle, barely noticeable even, but it was there--without a source, for that matter. None of the windows or doors were open.

Once more his demeanor shifted--he'd been not really upset, then upset but passive-aggressive, and now there was nothing hidden about his feelings. His eyes narrowed and the false smile fell from his face. It wasn't just his face, either--his entire body language changed: nervous, tense muscles became loose but ready, his shoulders, which usually slumped a bit, straightened noticeably.

"I think you need to calm down," he said, his voice low, as he grabbed the man's wrist.

To anyone watching who didn't know the men--which was likely just Kaze--it would seem to be a suicidal thing to do. Eld stood at just over five and a half feet tall, and the drunk man towered over him, and where he was burly Eld seemed to have an average frame at best, even still a bit on the scrawny side. It looked like the man could flatten him without even trying.

But looks could be deceiving.

The man paused for a moment to stare at Eld's hand, now holding onto his wrist. Perhaps, at first, he simply had not been able to understand what just happened, and that it took him a moment to fully realize it in his rather belligerent state.

But Kaze, regardless of how hurt she actually was (her shoulder was killing her, now), was much more worried about Eld than she was dejected, and it was kind of a weird feeling for her. Those were two very strong extremes she was feeling, and it made her much more nervous--confused, even. Steadily, though, her feelings regarding herself faded, and she focused on Eld. Slowly this time, she started towards him.

"H-hey . . ." Kaze started as she hesitantly reached towards Eld's shoulder, "C-come on. P-please, l-let's just . . ."

But she was cut off swiftly, as the belligerent man took his hand back from Eld, only to draw it back into a fist, one he intended to barrel into Eld's face, while shouting, "Screw you, hero!"

"I'm--"

Everyone who wasn't Kaze knew what was coming, and backed away accordingly. Thus, when Eld grabbed the man's arm with one hand, moved his other up his other arm and to his side, and hip tossed him into a table, he did so without worry of hurting any of the other patrons.

"--no hero," he corrected reflexively, his breathing hardly even increased by the effort.

And he watched the man, making sure he try and cause more trouble. Assuming he got up.

Kaze seemed about ready to grab at Eld and pull on him when the belligerent fellow threw a punch at him, but at the same time, she winced and lowered her head, tensing up as she expected just as much pain for herself as she did for Eld. This was exactly what she was afraid of! When a person's ego got involved, and the were under the influence, nothing good ever came of it--this she knew as a fact. A perfectly documented fact.

And there was a slam, just like Kaze was expecting. With her eyes shut tightly, she didn't know who exactly did the slamming, but she had an idea, and it couldn't have ended well for Eldridge Tsukimono. Slowly, Kaze opened her eyes, hoping Eld was okay--that he'd just have a bloody nose or something! And that the man would let them alone, and they could get out of the tavern as quickly as possible and never go back. That was the best case scenario in Kaze's eyes.

However, she was not greeted by that. In fact, she was greeted by a pleasant and extremely unexpected surprise: Eld, perfectly fine, and the belligerent fellow laid out upon the closest unoccupied table in proximity of them.

"E-Eld . . .?" she asked as she looked up to him, genuinely surprised to see that he was perfectly fine.

More surprising than the fact that she perfectly recalled his name.

The tavern was silent. All eyes were on them. Included in the silence was a barely conscious larger man, laying flat on his back on an unoccupied table, breathing still, coughing a bit, and muttering something in barely audible whispers. It was unlikely that even he knew what he was saying.

For several moments Eld continued to stare at the fallen, his eyes furrowed, as though wondering where to go from here. Part of him wanted to ensure the man received the point on how women should be treated, but the more reasonable side won out and he kept his restraint.

It was around then that he noticed that everyone was very quiet and staring at him. His demeanor shifted yet again, this time reverting to one more befitting of his age. He blushed profusely, looking rather embarrassed and rubbing the back of his head.

"S-Sorry!" he stammered, bowing deeply to the bartender in apology. "I got a bit carried away, I guess." In reality, while it may not have been the wisest choice to berate the drunken man for his rudeness, it wasn't as though he started the fight--if it could really be called that--either.

"I-I'll come by later and pay for any damages...uh...so please don't tell my parents about this." He doubted his parents would take too kindly to him being involved in a bar fight, regardless of the reason. (1)

"Ummm...so...has anyone seen a young man with blue hair recently?" he decided to ask while he had everyone's attention.

Footnote (1): Not in fact true--when told of the incident later, Rebbecca Tsukimono laughed so hard she began to shed tears, startling the informant.

Kaze was genuinely surprised by it all. Eld shouldn't have won out in that, but he did! He looked so scrawny, but there was a lot more to him than that, wasn't there? He had a really strong interior! His looks were a constant deception. Yes, yes, that was it. He maintained a deceptive look to throw off people just like this. That way, he could defend the honor of girls that drunks had insulted.

Which set her train of thought in a different direction: Eld just defended her honor, didn't he? A man didn't like her, went about the process of insulting her, in fact, and Eld stood up to him to shut him up and defend Kaze. She thought about that for awhile as she straightened up and continued to stare at Eld. Her disbelief was steadily fading, replaced by a very subtle tint of rose upon her cheeks.

Nevertheless, the response from the rest of the tavern was almost unanimous. Nearly every man in the bar shouted it at once:

"NO!"

Eld visibly flinched at the response, his face only turning a deeper red. "Err...t-thank you. And, uh, s-sorry for disturbing your day. We'll be going now." Turning to Kaze, he took her arm in order to lead her out of the tavern. "L-Let's keep looking, shall we?" he asked with a nervous laugh.

Once they were outside, he leaned over, placing his hands hands on his knees to catch his breath--not from tossing the man, but from the way being the center of attention like that had rattled his nerves.

"A-Are you alright?" he asked--she didn't seem to be injured, but it was still polite to ask.

When Eld took Kaze's arm, she got the point, and hastily retreated with him, returning to the outside of the tavern, where there were no angry drunks to worry about. Hopefully, only the tavern was going to contain the angry drunks worth paying any mind. She'd also have to make sure that, if she happened to see any people in the future that were walking funny, to avoid them as much as humanly possible.

"I'm . . . I'm okay," she replied with a sigh of relief, happy to be out of there. That's when she remembered that her shoulder hurt still. Kaze held onto it with a wince, "He just got me in the shoulder, that's all. It-- it hurts a little, but I'll be fine."

But that wasn't really all that important to her. She was lucky that she rarely ever tripped or fell or anything like that, because she bruised easily. It was a fairly constant pain for awhile, too, whenever she was bruised. It wasn't so much a bruise on her shoulder as it was her shoulder was sore from the force the man put against it. But Kaze figured she'd be okay. More importantly, though:

"Umm . . ." she started, "Did you really beat that guy up because he was being mean to me . . .?"

"Uhhh...I-I don't think I really beat him up," Eld replied with a nervous laugh. "I think I just knocked the wind out of him. A-And, well, he did shove you, and take a swing at me..." To say he'd done it just because he was mean to her was exaggerating it a bit, he thought. He wasn't that hot-headed.

He frowned a bit, though, in regards to her shoulder. "Well...if it keeps hurting, say so, alright? I can always bring you to the clinic, or take a quick look at it myself to make sure there's no permanent damage."

The last thing he wanted for someone he was currently looking out for to be injured! Well, he didn't like anyone getting injured, but especially not people he'd promised to help.

Kaze stared at him for a long moment. She almost forgot that her shoulder was hurting, actually. It wasn't hurting bad enough, then--not bad enough for her to notice it when she was thinking about other things. But then again, that applied to almost everything regarding the woman.

And then rather suddenly, without a moment's hesitation, when Eld was in mid-sentence about her shoulder hurting, Kaze threw her arms around him. Kaze had thrown her arms around his shoulders and neck and hugged him rather tightly. On one hand, it meant that her shoulder didn't hurt bad enough for her to resist the urge to hug Eld. On the other hand, it meant that she was pressing up against Eld rather close again.

Of course, such an action did merit an explanation:

"No one's ever done that for me!" she declared.

Fought for her, that is. It was likely that she meant it both verbally and physically, to boot; especially evident as she wasn't quite letting go of him.

"W-Well, there are b-better ways to s-solve most problems t-then fighting," Eld protested, but was likely ignored. It has hard to put much conviction into it when she was pressed against like that, anyway. Fortunately, he was already red, so it was difficult to tell that this embarrassed him further.

When Kaze didn't let go after a few moments, he decided to speak up. "S-Shouldn't we c-continue looking for y-your brother?"