Night time came to be.

It was the time where children had to sleep. The dusk was signaled by the blackened sky, as millions of white stars had been scattered across the void, centering themselves around the shattered moon. As the fragments looked to be drifting away, this was the scenery that they were familiar with for as long as they could remember, but to Naofumi, this probably wasn't one of those days where they should be staying up late to admire the beauty of the night.

Nevertheless, a soft whisper had been tugging on him. He tried to lazily fight back against the words, too tired to figure out who it was, but as the whispers repeated themselves, it started to become a familiar voice.

"...fumi… Naofumi… Hey, Naofumi!"

He was starting to become annoyed, but at least he knew who had been pushing against his body from the tone alone.

Naofumi rolled over to face his exasperated expression over to the culprit—as much as he could express with groggily eyes. He rubbed them to clear them up, seeing his curly-haired friend right by his bedside. Even in the darkness, it was rather easy to pick out his friend's figure.

"What do you want, Itsuki?"

"I was wondering where you were! Ren and Moto are already waiting outside! And here you are, sleeping away! I thought we promised that we would all go out tonight!"

As Itsuki childishly complained, Naofumi took a moment to recall his memory, vaguely latching onto the agreement that they formed about a week about.

"Oh. Right." However, Naofumi rolled back into his bed, turning his back towards Itsuki and covering himself in his blanket. "Look, I'm not going. We're going to get in deep trouble, especially with yesterday's antics we pulled off. It's better if we lay low with these types of shenanigans."

"W-What!?"

Itsuki threw his hands onto Naofumi's shoulder, tugging the tired friend back and forth. Now, he was starting to understand how Ren felt when he had to deal with some of the younger kids that presided here. Albeit, he really didn't want to understand from that perspective.

Naofumi kept grumbling, tugging against Itsuki's force. "Besides, it's not like there's much for us to do. Where would you even want to do at this time of the day?"

Itsuki raised his eyebrows in offense. "Huh? Isn't that the entire point of an adventure!? Let's go exploring! The night only makes it that much more adventurous!"

Naofumi sighed. "Itsuki. I know it's your fourteenth birthday and all, but wasn't the celebration this afternoon enough already? Having fun with the children as the staff here must have been enough for you today. I mean, they were all over you. I don't think I've seen them smile that much before even though they smile plenty already."

"This afternoon was different!" Itsuki pouted. "I want to go on an adventure with my best friends!"

Naofumi was not in the mood for dealing with this stubborn side of his friend. He was tired from helping around the building with the annual celebration and cleaning up after the mess that was made all over. He was thankful that everyone was able to have fun, but this was pretty much pushing it. He even tried to made it evident as to how tired he was by exaggerating his voice slightly.

"Please, Itsuki. Let's just go to sleep. Aren't you and Ren on chore duties tomorrow morning?"

"That's not your problem! Now let's go!"

"I want to sleep!"

Itsuki stopped his shaking. It seemed like what Naofumi had to do was to be honest with the truth—that he really was tired and wanted some rest for tomorrow. However, he heard Itsuki as he cleared his throat.

"Oh, look at me! I'm Naofumi Iwatani!" He didn't even want to turn around to look at him, knowing that he was probably doing some actions to go along with the blatant imitation. "Rather than going on an adventure, filled with amusement and joy, I rather be a grumpy person and stay in bed and ruin the entire plan that I previously agreed to, only for a few extra hours of sleep!"

"Itsuki, please knock it off."

"I'm Naofumi Iwatani, and I'm telling my friend Itsuki Kawasumi to knock off the clearly accurate representation of myself!"

"Goddammit, Itsuki." Naofumi tried to cover his ears from Itsuki's mockery with his pillow, gritting his teeth. There wasn't any real success to it, as if it hadn't been the words, it would have been the body-shaking motion Itsuki went back to.

"Don't be like this, Nao!" The shaking got to the point where the bed must have been feeling the force. "Ren and Moto are getting impatient already! You know how irritated Ren gets when people make him wait for a long time! And besides, you already promised! No take-backs!"

This was most likely a battle Naofumi lost, regardless of how he wanted to approach it. Itsuki's stubbornness would probably last as long as it would take, effectively killing those few hours he would have saving to sleep. As Naofumi took this time to weigh the options and outcomes, he finally took one more sigh—this time, it was out of defeat.

"Fine, fine!"

"That's the spirit, Nao!"

Naofumi growled lightly as he turned over towards Itsuki. With the ecstatic smile of his friend radiating within the room, Naofumi rolled out of the bed, laying his blanket on the side. His clothes were around the closet at the other end of the room—

—or so he thought. It looked like Itsuki went into the trouble of selecting his clothes for him, laying them on along the dresser beside Naofumi's bed. It wasn't much, consisting of only of a white shirt and black pants, but Itsuki must have known that Naofumi would have literally taken the first thing he saw in the closet, replicating that action himself. He even got Naofumi's favourite green sweater, to seal the deal.

However, there was something awfully concerning next to the clothes.

There was a rope made from tied clothings, laced together with a strong knot. Naofumi didn't even believe that Itsuki could have done such a tight knot like that, but after thinking about it, it must have been Ren that made the rope. Things like that were up his alley, but he didn't know what it was for.

"Just get ready, Nao! Quickly!"

"Shush! You've been speaking too loud! You might wake up the others in the next rooms!"

"A-Ah…" Itsuki wrly chuckled. "R-Right."

Naofumi quickly got changed as Itsuki turned his back, letting him slip into his pre-selected clothing. His sweater was the last article to be worn, as he did his instinctive arms stretches afterwards.

"Alright, let's get out of here." Naofumi began to walk ahead of Itsuki towards the door. As his hand held the door knob, he looked back at him. "Where did you say Ren and Motoyasu were again?"

"Why tell you? I'll just bring you there."

However, Itsuki's hand had been held against Naofumi's shoulder. There was a devious smirk painted across Itsuki's expression, making Naofumi worry about what was going on. Itsuki was acting odd, odder than usual.

He began pulling him away from the door, causing Naofumi to be perplexed at the clear contradiction of Itsuki's desires and actions. There was only one way out of this room as far as Naofumi knew about it. They were on the fourth floor of the building, so it wasn't as if the window had been an opt—

—… oh no.

Suddenly, the rope made sense, but Naofumi didn't want to acknowledge it.

He really didn't want Itsuki to take this route.

"I-Itsuki! Hey, Itsuki!" There was almost a plea in Naofumi's tone; a sense of desperation that what he assumed was wrong; a hope that Itsuki simply forgot how rooms worked in the heat of the moment. "You know, the doors are on the other side of the room! How can we leave if we don't use the door!?"

"Ohohohoh… I know." Itsuki looked back, almost with a mischievous glare to his eyes. Naofumi held his breath. "I said we're going on an adventure, right!?"

Itsuki released Naofumi from his pulling and once they reached the window, Itsuki opened it to let in the cold breeze. However, Naofumi dreaded that Itsuki didn't simply open it for a cold breeze. Even up to this moment, Naofumi was depending on the fact that Itsuki might have been pranking him.

"Doors are for pussies! We're leaving this room like they do within those Assassin's Creed video games!" Itsuki announced, tossing the held rope into the outside world then wrapping the end around the nearby dresser's leg. It turned out that Ren eventually taught Itsuki how to do this specific knot apparently.

He was frozen at the convoluted plan to leave the building. He wasn't even believing in what he was hearing here. Nevertheless, Naofumi desperately tried to make some reason with the spirited friend.

"H-Have you even played those games!? We don't have computers here, much less consoles!" Naofumi was trying this tie this around to a reasoning that these types of escapes had been more difficult than Itsuki might expect, but Itsuki managed to cut him off before he could say anymore.

"I saw trailers in some of the stores when we were taken to town that one time!" A grin, the specific expression that Naofumi could say that belonged to a maniac, appeared across Itsuki's mouth. "Now, let's go! Don't be a party pooper!"

"W-Wait, you're going to hurt—!"

Before Naofumi could have anymore words to interject, Itsuki leapt out of the window with the rope in his hand. Naofumi quickly dashed behind him and sticking his head out in horror.

Itsuki had slid down the rope with such skill, smoothly sailing towards the roof of the second floor. He dropped himself off and slowly made him way over towards the fire emergency staircase that connected the roof with the front yard. Before Itsuki descended, he shot a glance upwards to the distressed Naofumi, waving in content.

The big question still remained for Naofumi. Does he still go?

He looked back inside the room, void of anyone except for him. He looked back towards Itsuki, who had the biggest smile pushing up his cheeks. It was like his eyes were sparkling within the night. But then he looked back towards the room, specifically his own bed. Technically speaking, if he really wanted to, he could pull up the rope and go back to sleep.

"C'mon, Nao! What's the hold-up!?"

Naofumi stared at the happy Itsuki, probably at the fact that he managed to pull a certain person out of bed when they were supposed to be sleeping. Despite the rules that they were clearly breaking, Naofumi couldn't help but to sigh. He clenched his hands together.

I'm going to regret this so much, aren't I?

Naofumi gulped. The adrenaline had been ramping up within his head as his hands tightly held onto the rope. the knot had looked sturdy enough and he wasn't needing to descend all three floors at once to reach the ground. However, it still meant he had to cover two floors and that was still rather high.

He took a deep breath as he carefully threaded himself through the window. Sweat was starting to form along his hands as he slowly slipped out, little by little—inch by inch.

He really didn't understand how Itsuki was able to slide on down so easily. Getting past the first level was already a difficult challenge without straight-up getting hurt. His heart was starting to beat harder than before as he continued on his way. There was saying 'slowly and surely' that existed, but Naofumi knew now that it didn't take into account fear.

"Oh? Is Naofumi really climbing downwards?"

Naofumi turned his head downwards, seeing that two figures had rose up from the fire emergency stairwell that would have led to the front yard. One person had his blue hoodie, covering his black hair while the other had somewhat long and blonde hair. There were enough jokes in the group to get him to tie it in short ponytail, in which he did.

Itsuki turned around to see the same, only from the obvious different angle.

"Oh, Ren. Moto. You came to see what was going on?" Itsuki turned back to the descending Naofumi. He was at the quartered mark of the destination. "He's taking his sweet time though. I didn't find it to be that hard..."

"... Itsuki." Ren nudged him against his arm. "You do remember that Naofumi has a fear of heights… right?"

Itsuki's eyes widened.

Motoyasu nodded. "Yeah. That's why we were making bets and everything while you were getting Nao. Ren said that he'll be able to climb down, while I said said he would chicken out."

"... Oh… shit." He immediately looked out cupping his voice to send to Naofumi. "S-Sorry! I completely forgot about that! Why didn't you say anything!?"

"I-I tried!"

Ren, Itsuki and Motoyasu glanced upwards as they watched Naofumi make it towards the halfway point. It was getting rather close, but it stilled like despite the decreased height between him and the ground, Naofumi had significantly slowed his pace.

"C'mon, Naofumi!" Ren shouted. "You're almost there. Just don't look down!"

"That's right! Take your time! You got this!" Motoyasu cheered.

However, Ren glared over to Motoyasu as he did, narrowing his eyes. "Hey, Motoyasu. I thought you were betting against Naofumi that he wouldn't be able to make it down."

Motoyasu raised his eyebrows, as if Ren had asked something obvious. "Uh, Nao is my friend too, you know. If we cheer him on, he might eventually get over his fear of heights one day!"

"And why did you bet against him?"

Motoyasu smirked. "Because I was playing the game with the highest probability!"

"... Whatever," Ren shrugged. "It's your money—or rather, my money now."

Naofumi got flustered at Motoyasu's clear declaration and turned his head to shut down in a panicked state. "S-Screw you! I'm right here, Motoyasu! You know I-I can do—"

However, his quick twist caused his hands to slip from the rope. His body had been falling backwards towards the second floor roof, causing Ren and Motoyasu to be thrown onto their alerts.

"Naofumi!" "NAO!"

As Naofumi's body had been falling down, back pointed against the surface both Ren and Motoyasu pushed Itsuki out of the way. Their quick acting led both children to slide underneath where Naofumi was falling, landing against their own bodies. The impact ended with a subtle sound, but Naofumi had his heart pounding. Thankfully, it was pretty much the only thing that had been irregular in his systems.

"Grrah…" Ren groaned underneath the boy. "You're lucky that it wasn't a far drop…"

"You had me worried there…" Motoyasu chuckled out of his slight discomfort.

Naofumi quickly shook his off and got himself off his friends. "T-Thanks, you two. That would be a lot more serious if I landed on the roof itself."

Ren and Motoyasu got back up, rolling their limbs around to see if anything broke. If it did, Naofumi wouldn't have known what to do about it, but considering how they were back to smiling in content, he was inclined to believe that they got lucky this time around. However, Itsuki approached the three friends once more.

"Y-You guys okay!?"

"Something like that?" Ren shrugged it off. "It shouldn't have done much."

"Well," Motoyasu sighed, "I am down 1 Lien now. Ren, do you accept IOU's?"

"Of course, as always. What's the total now? 5 Lien?"

"5?" Motoyasu was taken back. "I could have sworn it was—"

"It was a trick question, Motoyasu. I know it's 5 Lien."

"Hehehehe…" Motoyasu tried to laugh off his attempt at decreasing the amount he owed Ren from the previous lost bets. All he did was add another 1 Lien to the pot.

"Alright! If everyone is ready, then let's head on towards adventure!" Itsuki brazenly exclaimed as he pointed to whatever seemed like a random direction. To what Naofumi knew, there wasn't anything particularly exciting around the area that Itsuki shown.

"Uh, where are you pointing to?" Ren asked before Naofumi could open his mouth.

"I don't know!" Itsuki responded, looking at Ren in offense. "If I knew, would I have recommended that direction!? Anyways, c'mon! Last one in the front yard is a rotting grim!"

With those words, he dashed forward and started going down the fire stairs in a sprint. Ren wordlessly followed him, passing both Naofumi and Motoyasu. He was probably past his patience for waiting around at this point. Either that or Ren really didn't want to be a rotting grim.

"I can't believe we're doing this. We're gonna get into so much trouble," Naofumi complained.

"Relax! We'll think about it later! This is definitely gonna be fun!" Motoyasu smiled, patting Naofumi on the back. "What's the point of adventure if we don't actually venture?"

At this point, Naofumi was too tired to keep fighting that logic. Motoyasu was right. If he was already out here, he might as well enjoy his time with his friends before the reckoning comes when they returned. Naofumi surrendered himself in the grasp of his friends, something he wasn't going to complain much about.

Night time had fallen.

And yet, the city was still bright enough for the friends to walk down without any visual problems. There weren't many people out around this time, only the occasional employee that was probably working overtime, rushing home to collect as much sleep as they could before the sun rose again. To them, it might have been odd to see a group of youths wandering around the streets at this time, but it wasn't their job to waste more time on getting them home. Passing underneath the many street lamps, Naofumi stared at the handful of people who passed by, with them disregarding the group, and him wishing that his little group had realized the time by now, following in the workers' footsteps.

Naofumi could hear the licks and slurps that came from in front. Ren and Itsuki were happily snacking on popsicles that they had bought in the convenience store they came across a few minutes ago. Itsuki couldn't help but be a bit messy when holding the chilled refreshment, as Naofumi noticed a few of its melted drops landing onto the cemented pavement.

"Mmmph!" Itsuki pulled out the popsicle, sliding the cold edge against the edges of his mouth. "It's so good! I always wanted to try out one of these! It's as good as I thought it was, and then some!"

"You sure said it." Ren hadn't been licking it against the sides, pulling it in and out repeatedly. Ren had simply been biting the end and letting it sit in his mouth. "It was pretty cheap too. We sure struck gold when it was on sale for half a lien."

"Hey, Naofumi? Motoyasu? Are you sure you two didn't want to buy one for yourself?"

Itsuki looked over his shoulder to see the other two as Motoyasu and Naofumi had been left with none. All they did was walk behind the munching pair. Ren and Itsuki bought the ice cream using their own pocket money after all, so despite their brotherly friendship, it was every man for themselves when it came to money and trivial spendings.

Motoyasu sighed, dipping his head down slightly. "I don't have any money… I'm still waiting for that next allowance period and even with that allowance, I don't think I'm going to keep most of it…"

Ren had to chuckle in amusement as Motoyasu's words trailed off.

If Motoyasu hadn't taken as many bets as he did with Ren, Motoyasu would have definitely scooped up two for himself. Naofumi could call them somewhat mindless bets, but perhaps he could even call them downright stupid. There were times where the outcome was obvious, but Motoyasu had still bet against it. Naofumi couldn't say it wasn't in good ol' fun though, since Motoyasu enjoyed raising the stakes, smiling even when he lost.

Itsuki glanced over at Naofumi. "What about you? I know you have some pocket change. It's only a few minutes back to the convenience store, so we can easily return if we wanted to."

Naofumi shook his head. "No, I'm fine. I didn't want one anyways."

"You want to taste it?" Itsuki stopped underneath a lamppost that had faulty lighting, flashing in and out. He pointed his popsicle over towards Naofumi's direction with him shaking his head again.

"Really, I'm fine. Thanks for the offer, though."

"Well, suit yourself." Itsuki shrugged, returning back to his focus of leading the way.

"But now that you got yours sweet taste of adventure, priced only at half the market value," Naofumi grumbled, "can we go home now? It's starting to get really late and something might happen if we're not too careful."

"Are you kidding me, Nao!?" Itsuki shot back a quick glance, almost as if he was offended by Naofumi's concerns. "We haven't even gotten started yet! This is just the tip of the iceberg in our adventure! We're doing enough adventures until we break the dawn!"

"... Y-You have chore duty tomorrow, Itsuki!" Naofumi claimed. "You are seriously planning to pull an all-nighter!?"

"Yeah, I agree with Itsuki!" Motoyasu exclaimed, recovering from his dejection from the missed popsicle. "We should do something fun!"

"Motoyasu, please don't motivate them!" Naofumi plead. "You're technically the oldest out of all of us here! Shouldn't you feel some levels of responsibility?"

Ren sighed in the mixture of excitement and bewilderment. "More adventures? Actually, now that I think about it, what would we do? We decided to go on this little adventure, but outside of that, there wasn't really a concrete plan to it. Honestly, we've been walking around the past hour without a goal in mind."

"Thank you, Ren." Naofumi had a moment of relief, seeing that somebody between the two chore-handlers was trying to take the next day seriously. It would be much easier to convince the other two once Ren had been on his side, but he was more focused on avoiding any types of punishment that came with this expedition. Any help is good help—

"If you need a goal for this little adventure of ours, I got an idea that might suit our tastes."

—or not. Naofumi was practically rolling around within his head out of frustration. He couldn't believe that Ren had been this deeply invested into this adventure, as the smile broke across Ren's mouth. As Naofumi held his head in his hands, both Itsuki and Motoyasu gave their attention towards him.

"What is it?" the curious Motoyasu asked.

"An idea?" Itsuki raised his eyebrows as the popsicle returned within his mouth.

Ren bit down on the last bits of his cold treat and slid out the stick smoothly. He took a few steps forward, noticing the nearby trash can and tossing the stick into it, landing right in the center, as he turned back around. There was a noticeable distinction of energy in his eyes, extending his arms outwards in a dramatic fashion.

"Let's find a place that's isolated. There, we can have a semblance stand-off!"

Naofumi froze. Out of all the ideas that could have been brought up, he was starting to curse Ren's offer the most. It wasn't as if he hated the idea of using their awakened semblances, but it was more of trying to use them against each other that irked him even more.

Before Naofumi could get a word out, Motoyasu stepped forward, swinging his arm forward in excitement.

"Ho-ho! I sure like the sound of that!" His arm stopped in front, as he extended a finger upwards. A small flame appeared over the top of that finger.

"What!? No! That's a crazy idea! With Itsuki and Ren, it might be borderline okay, but Motoyasu's main semblance is fire! Someone could get hurt or even seriously burned because of him!"

Naofumi managed to make the quick follow-up before anyone else had any words that wanted to say. He really needed to address the main issue with having any in-fighting, regardless if it was out of amusement, spirited competition or not. They clearly didn't have the same level of technology as seen from the bi-annual Vytal Festival's combat tournament. If Naofumi had to guess, Ren probably got this idea from the television showings in the main living quarters.

"Relax, Naofumi," Ren said, holding a finger up to stop him from speaking any further. "I would never recommend it if we didn't have you on our side. You can heal our wounds with your supportive-type semblance, right? You can even increase our defenses if you manage to predict when an attack is going to land! Though, I wouldn't worry too much about it. It's not like Motoyasu can land an attack on me or anything."

"C'mon, it's not going to be that bad," Motoyasu smiled, as if that was going to change Naofumi's mind. "I've been practicing my semblance behind everyone's back, so I got fairly good control of—Wait, what did you just say, Ren!?"

As Ren smugly chuckled and averted his gaze, Naofumi's complaints still went on.

"T-That doesn't matter! It's better to be safe than sorry here! What if someone gets a wound or an injury that I won't be able to heal!? The best I've ever done was helping with one of the kids' bruises on his knee! And it wasn't even bleeding that much!"

"... Actually, I don't think I like that idea." Itsuki slurped down the melted popsicle in his mouth tossed it over towards the trash can, netting the same results as Ren's attempt. "I really don't like the idea of us fighting with each other. I'd rather have us team up and fight against super villains, being like a team of heroes, fighting for justice."

"Don't worry that much, Itsuki!" Motoyasu responded. "We're just having a training session, not an actual fight! But you have to admit! Nao's cheating since he gets to use his semblance whenever he wants, but what about us? We never get to do the same thing or practice on using our semblances extensively like Nao does, so this is the perfect opportunity to do so!"

Naofumi didn't know how he felt about Motoyasu calling his semblance as a cheat. He never asked for something like this, but if he had it, he might as well use it to help others out. On the other hand, there were many limits on the semblances of the other three.

"If you want us to fight like a team," Ren replied afterwards, "then a stand-off between ourselves is the best way to learn how to do so. Through this, we can learn about our weaknesses and our strengths, alongside insight about everyone as well. We can be more efficient as a team in this case."

"Oh?" Motoyasu walked over and threw his arm over Ren's neck. "You're surprisingly down for this team-based exercise. I thought you were the lone wolf of our orphanage, as such proclaimed as you are. I always thought that moody attitude of yours prevented anything that involved a team!"

"Is that really how you see me?" Ren said, rolling his eyes. "Look, I hate dealing with people that are unreliable. That's all. On the other hand, you guys may be rather annoying and stupid sometimes, but you're definitely people I can count on."

"I don't know how to feel about that, but I'll take it as a compliment!"

Everyone laughed with Ren's interaction with Motoyasu, ending the small conversation with them having a fistbump with one another once Motoyasu released his headlock onto Ren. Even Naofumi had to laugh for a bit, but as the laughter died down, the sudden thought slashed across his mind. He didn't understand what possessed him to say it out loud, but he did anyways.

"... You know that we won't be together forever, right?"

The remnants of laughter within the three friends had suddenly vanished. The faulty lamp post finally gave out, breaking into the small patch of darkness compared to the rest of the street. The atmosphere became much heavier, as someone voiced the truth they didn't want to hear. They were orphans that were almost like brothers, but there might be a day where they'll be taken into another family. There might even be a time where they'll be forced to separate paths on their own accord. The rather awkward silence continued for a solid minute, as Naofumi started to curse himself for letting such a deep question drop like that.

He held his arm with his other hand, biting down on his lower lip. He looked back up towards his friends, each with some type of grief hidden across their faces, each with a varying degree of success.

"... What do you guys want to do in the future?"

As Naofumi tried to push the conversation along to recover from the silence he brought upon them, it proved to be tougher than he expected. The three friends held their tongues, obviously trying to get their mind off the underlying issue, but unable to branch off to another topic.

Naofumi messed up and he knew it. Even if this adventure was not allowed or unwarranted, he never had the intention of breaking them up with a heavy topic. The silence between them was very suffocating, to say the very least.

However, Motoyasu was the one to open his mouth, trying to stir up smiles back into his friends using his own.

"N-Nao, don't you think we're a little too young to think about things like that? We don't even have an adoptive family yet that would take us. Besides, we're all still fourteen years old. We got all the time in the world to think about what we want to do in the future, so why shouldn't we just have fun with the time we still have?"

The light from the lamp post seemed to have fixed itself, shining back onto the four friends.

"Y-Yeah…" Naofumi wryly scratched his head. "Sorry about that. I didn't mean to start talking about things like that."

"It's fine, Nao." Motoyasu walked up towards Naofumi, throwing both of his hands onto Naofumi's shoulders. "Let's not think about the future now, and worry about our present. That way, we'll have more fun!"

Both Ren and Itsuki nodded behind Motoyasu as Naofumi gave in towards the supportive words, smiling in Motoyasu's wake.

"I guess you're right."

Night time was ongoing, deep into the dusk of the darkness.

The urban setting had disappeared long ago, as the group of friends trailed further away from the orphanage. The adventure had continued, much uninfluenced by Naofumi's suggestion, as they must have wandered past the city's proper perimeters. Much to his surprise, Itsuki was eventually convinced to join into the training that Ren had offered, which heavily displeased him.

In the distance, a forest began to come into their sights. Compared to the city, it was a dark environment that could have held anything within. Recently, there had been reports of people seeing grimm within those boundaries and officials have made an attempt to surveillance the area. There was even a fence that was put up to prevent anyone from accidentally wandering in while the investigation was done. Naofumi knew this from the living quarters' television that occasionally broadcasted the news and that was one of its headlines this morning.

To most, Naofumi would have thought that this was the end of the adventure. If they started to walk back now, they would have a good amount of time left to rest up before they would have to be up for breakfast. As Naofumi was about to suggest the idea, Itsuki turned around with his eyes sparkling through the night.

Naofumi had a bad feeling.

"Guys! I have a great idea that could serve for that isolated place!"

Naofumi had a really bad feeling.

"I say that we should use that forest!"

… And there's the bad feeling confirmed.

"Okay, I've been lenient about everything so far," Naofumi exclaimed, almost at his wits' end. "This is something I can't allow to happen! The news said that there could be grimm in there! There's a reason why they fenced it off, you know!"

"But it's the perfect place to practice our semblances!" Itsuki argued. "We can't do it in the city, so we're forced to do it outside! It makes perfect sense!"

Ren pushed his hand against his chin, humming to the idea. "I suppose that is technically true. We won't be causing a commotion from any neighbours if all the neighbours are trees."

"If you're alright with dying, then sure!" Naofumi stamped his feet into the ground towards Ren. It felt like he was the only person thinking logically in this situation. "But here's the thing! I don't want to die! I don't want to see any of you guys dying! It's way too dangerous given the risks!"

He looked over towards Motoyasu who had been turning his head around, thinking more than Itsuki and Ren. As he twisted and turned, he frowned and sighed. "Y-Yeah… I think I have to agree with Nao this time around."

"Thank you."

"The adventure into a dark forest might be fun, but… I don't want to push our luck," he continued.

"Hey, it's not like we'll instantly die if we come across a grimm!" Itsuki exclaimed. "That old man who always visits us said that our semblances are strong! I'm sure that with our strengths added together, a single grimm wouldn't even be an issue!"

"The old man?" Naofumi tilted his head, itching at his memory. "Do you mean Mister Ozpin?"

"He's the only one that visits us on regular intervals! Who else would it be!?"

"Isn't his hair just white?" Motoyasu mulled. "I actually don't think he's that old. I remember some of the orphanage staff talking about him, mentioning that he was in his late twenties or early thirties."

Naofumi wondered about the man himself.

The friends first assumed that he was some type of doctor when they first saw him occasionally in the orphanage, but they never actually interacted with him until three months ago. Once they did, it became quickly obvious that he wasn't any type of doctors that they knew about since he asked to see their semblances. It was an odd request to the group of friends, but they ended up showing the man, one by one. He watched them use it as if he was analysing them, which made Naofumi slightly unnerved.

Apparently, their semblances held unique potential—to whatever that meant. However, Naofumi knew that semblances that helped with healing existed outside of their own little world, so there really wasn't a reason as to why he should have said that. Even Motoyasu's semblance, being the ability to cast fire, a form that had been somewhat common. It made him wonder if there was something more to it.

Nevertheless, this Ozpin character had only visited them a few times so far throughout the last three months. Each time he arrived, he would always ask to see how their semblances were faring. Since the orphanage normally didn't allow for Itsuki, Ren, and Motoyasu to use them normally, Naofumi couldn't understand what the meaning behind having them to show off was if the progression was continuous from the previous session. It slowly started to become eerie in a way, but his friends didn't see anything wrong with it. They were always ecstatic to see Mister Ozpin as it was another day where they could freely use their semblances without being scolded.

"Enough about Mister Ozpin now!" Itsuki announced, breaking Naofumi away from his thoughts. "We're having a tally to decide! It's yay or nay, pick one!"

"Nay." Naofumi had immediately answered with a deadpan expression.

"I'm seriously interested to see how my semblance fares in a real fight," Ren responded. He walked up towards Itsuki's side, looking over his shoulder at Naofumi and Motoyasu. "It's a yay for me."

"It's two to one! It's all up to you, Moto!" Itsuki exclaimed.

Naofumi snapped his neck quickly towards the undecided contestant in this tally game. His eyes were screaming quiet negativity to help influence the decision, something that Motoyasu was able to catch as he started to sweat a little.

"... I… I, uh…"

Naofumi cleared up his voice, pitching it low.

"... Motoyasu."

"Uhm…"

Naofumi narrowed his eyes, focusing all of the pressured attention onto him. Motoyasu tried to avert his gaze, but it clearly wasn't working.

"Don't even think about it."

"Well…"

Motoyasu's entire body was shaking at this point, but as he tried to croak out his words, Naofumi noticed that Motoyasu had been calming down. It seemed like Motoyasu was about to make the right, sane, and rational decision between the two. If Motoyasu declined the offer, then it would have been a tie, forcing the decision to fall onto their side. However—

"I'm sorry, Nao! I always wanted to fight a grimm!"

Motoyasu left him in the dust as he darted over towards Ren and Itsuki.

Naofumi was in disbelief and held his forehead within his hands.

"Goddammit, Motoyasu! You said that we shouldn't be pushing our luck!"

"B-But I also said that an adventure through the forest seemed fun too!"

Naofumi was exasperated at his friends' decision. It really felt like he was the only one that had been rationally thinking. This hadn't been a video game where if they died, they would simply respawn. If they lost their life here, then it was permanent and Naofumi never wanted to see that arise. And yet, his friends were all being upbeat about walking into the jaws of danger.

Naofumi couldn't fathom it.

Itsuki laughed heartily. "It's settled then! We're going!"

"No, please!" Naofumi made one last attempt at convincing them. "It's way too dangerous! We're going to get killed out there!"

With a smug smile, Ren responded. "Not if we kill them first." Ren took a step forwards towards the fence and ran. "Last one in the forest is a rotting grimm!"

As Ren got his unannounced head-start, Itsuki quickly followed. "H-Hey! That's my line!"

Both of the friends started to scale the fence as Motoyasu scampered behind them "H-Hey! Wait for me!"

However, Naofumi held still, speechless, as he watched Ren and Itsuki leap over the fence and as Motoyasu began to scale it. They knew that he absolutely hated this idea, but they were still going straight ahead, stubborn about the potential results.

… These idiots!

He clenched his fists and gritted his teeth, furious. Out of all the stupid ideas they had in their lives, this one easily took the first place in that leaderboard. He sighed and shook his head, but that didn't help him release his stored up anger. Everytime his friends did something he didn't like, he simply let it slide, but this was getting extreme.

He started running after them, not out of choice, but out of obligation.

The night seemed even bleaker through the brushes and leaves.

Naofumi prayed that this had been his imagination and this wasn't some type of omen.

After a few minutes of running, they have reached the main portion of the forest. It was surrounded by a wire fence this time around with even more "Beware of Grimm" warning signs on it. Obviously, the group wouldn't be able to jump this fence like they did with the last one, but if it wasn't clear enough with the extra fencing, the people who were investigating this area really didn't want anyone to stumble into this land by accident—or in this case, trespassing.

Naofumi thought that this would have clued his friends into the fact that they shouldn't have been doing this at all, but Motoyasu ignited a small flame along his hands and approached the wired fence.

"Stand back, guys! I got this!"

As Ren and Itsuki nodded, they complied and took a step back. All in the meanwhile, Naofumi tried to stop him from doing anything more stupid than that. Jumping a fence couldn't be proven, but when there was a burned out section in the fence, that's when things can start to escalate.

"W-Wait! Motoyasu, st—!"

Motoyasu sent out his fire in two streams, hitting the fence with intensive heat with the intention to melt it down. The light from it alone was bright enough to signal someone from afar that there was something occurring here.

However, there was still time until the iron melted into liquid.

"Motoyasu, stop it! We're going to get into a crazy amount of trouble, not just with the orphanage staff, but the people who manage this area of the forest! We're going way too far here!"

He felt a hand held against his shoulder, beckoning Naofumi to glance away momentarily. Itsuki smirked, meeting with Naofumi's distressed expression as if that was supposed to calm him down. Naofumi was tempted to break away and stop Motoyasu from burning down the fence, but Itsuki stopped him.

"Why don't you calm down a bit? It's going to be alright!" The bright cheerfulness strode across through the clear problems they were making. "If things really turn out to be too much for us, we can always retreat! The hole is probably going to be small enough that grimm won't be able to make it through!"

"That's clearly not the problem here, Itsuki! W-Well, it's one of the problems, but still!" Naofumi shook off Itsuki's hand and pleaded towards him and the listeners for once more. "We're destroying this property! We're going to a place where we're not allowed to go! And what if we come across a grimm that's smaller than hole!? Than we would have literally released a grimm into the public!"

"There's still that one fence we jumped," Ren commented.

"That's not the point I'm trying to make here!"

"Look." Itsuki brought down his hands onto each of Naofumi's shoulder and held him tightly. "Don't you ever get bored from always following the rules? You'll never have any types of adventures if you keep abiding by what others tell you! And you can't say it's entirely bad if you never actually tried to experience some rule breaking once in your life! Who knows? Maybe you'll feel great about it if you learned to let loose and have some fun!"

Feel… great… about breaking the rules…?

Naofumi held his tongue and studied the words Itsuki laid out for him. He had always tried to keep his friends in line, mostly from their stupid ideas, and he had always tried to listen to their caretakers as a sense of responsibility. Though, he started to wonder what his life would have been if it weren't for the antics of his friends and his despair of being dragged in.

It would have been bland.

It wouldn't have been interesting.

I wouldn't have been happy.

And as they smiled without many regrets for their mistakes, Naofumi had been the one, twirling his thumbs around, trying to be a good child, but he had to reluctantly agree. He smiled much less than his friends because of it.

He glanced back at Motoyasu, who had just finished breaking down the wire to a liquid mess, and Ren, who had approached the wire and sent out his water-based semblance to cool off the wired ends, ensuring that no one would get burned if he accidentally nudged into it. The redness from the wires faded away as Motoyasu started to roll his wrist around, grinning at a good job well done as Ren smirked, finishing up his end.

They all feel so certain about this and they're all… having fun.

I'm the outlier here.

Naofumi pondered on whether or not Itsuki had been right in his words.

I guess this is what they call as 'biting the bullet'.

"... Alright." Naofumi's shoulder had dropped its tenseness, turning back to Itsuki with a simple frown. "We'll go ahead with your idea and I'll wholeheartedly help out with this grimm extermination job."

"That's what I'm talking about—!"

"But this extermination quest stops at a single one," Naofumi continued, wiping away Itsuki's upbeat excitement by a percentage. "After we take down one grimm, we're going back to the orphanage immediately. Understand?"

Itsuki groaned. "One grimm? That doesn't seem like—"

"One. Grimm."

Itsuki scratched his head through Naofumi's stern words, but he ended up sighing with a disappointed tone. "Fine. We'll only kill one grimm and that will be that."

"You have to promise," Naofumi said, holding out his pinky.

Itsuki hesitated, but through Naofumi's rigidness, Itsuki had to comply unenthusiastically. He met up Naofumi's gesture with his own pinky, wrapping the two fingers together in a small shake and smiling softly at each other, both with different reasons.

"It's a promise, I guess."

I suppose with this, my concerns would lighten a bit...

"Uh, what's taking so long?" Motoyasu called out towards the duo and Naofumi glanced over, seeing that Ren and Motoyasu had already went through the hole they made. "Aren't we going to go find a grimm to take down?"

"Of course!" Itsuki ran towards them while Naofumi slowly followed him.

Maybe this isn't going to be that bad after all…

Naofumi didn't know how long night usually was, but tonight—it felt exceeding long. Every footstep they took had acted like minutes upon minutes, when in reality, the shadows of the forest casted a mere trickery to the mind where mere seconds had taken place.

In front, Motoyasu led the pack slowly, enlightening the path with a flame on the end of his pointing finger. As the vanguard, Ren and Itsuki held their breaths, cautiously paying attention to their surroundings. Ren's water emerged from his semblance, flowing gracefully around him. At a moment's notice, Ren could transform the elegant poise into a violent strike. On the other side, Itsuki's semblance allowed him to control some rocks he managed to pick along the way, hovering around his body, waiting to be used as bullets.

All in the meantime, Naofumi stayed in the backline, watching the three be much more vigilant as he expected. Despite all of the excitement that they were gleaming with, they were surprisingly taking this rather seriously.

Well, I guess I'll just get ready to give them a defense buff. There really isn't that much I can do in combat, if this was an RPG, I would be a healer. I guess someone has to do it, though I wish I could fight on my own too.

The shown motivation and apparent professionalism was almost enough to sway Naofumi over fully. He had to admit that acting like some type of squadron was slightly exhilarating. Itsuki had been using the term of adventure quite frequently, but if Naofumi had to say, this definitely was worth the title of adventure. His heart had been pounding, but his legs kept following.

It wasn't as if Naofumi hated adventure—he actually liked to enjoy himself with some of the adventurous-story novels that the orphanage had, but his complaints were simply to protect everyone from their own decision-making. However, this risk factor was the same adrenaline that kept his heart pumping so. He'd only wish that they would have taken a risk for something far more nobler than sheer amusement.

"Hey, Motoyasu."

"Huh? What is it?" Motoyasu glanced over his shoulder, hearing Ren's whispers. "Hear something?"

Ren clicked his tongue. "You know, there was a reason I was whispering, but… You know what? It doesn't matter anymore." He shook his head to get the previous notion back at hand. "Anyways, I was wondering how your mana is doing. Not only did you use a considerable amount on that fence, but you've been keeping that fire lit for a while now."

"My flames? I'm doing fine. There's no need to worry about me!"

Naofumi and his friends used the term 'mana' to describe the limits of their semblances. They could only use a certain quantity of their semblance before it requires time to recharge—this applied to Naofumi's supportive semblance as well. They once joked around about it, seeing how closely their limits of their semblances were just that those of gaming where mana was used as the meter for skills and spells. However, the joke-originated term had transformed into an easier way to refer to their limits, so it sorta stuck on to them, even if that wasn't really the technical term for it.

"... Well, if you say so, Motoyasu. You just seem a bit fatigued, that's all. Must be my imagination."

"A-Again, I'm fine!"

"Hold on," Itsuki said, raising his hand. His attention was pulled to the right. "I think I see something."

Motoyasu and Ren immediately turned to face the direction, as Naofumi lagged in action. He tried to make out what Itsuki saw in the distance, but Naofumi's eyesight wasn't as good as Itsuki's. Though, Itsuki's sight was the best out of the group, so that was for granted. The darkened scenery only made things tougher to spot things out, but much to Naofumi's surprise, he manage to notice a moving shadow, slowly trudging through the forest.

"Bingo."

It was soon obvious that whatever the shadow was, it hadn't been human.

"... A boarbatusk?" Naofumi muttered, remembering the image within a book. "So there really were grimm wandering this forest after all. I wonder what it's doing here in the first place."

"It's a grimm," Ren responded. "They hunt for destruction, nothing else. It's what happens when you don't really have much of a soul. It's that reason that cause them to wander around this world, searching for what it wants."

"A textbook answer, huh?"

"Look, I don't think it noticed us yet." Itsuki crept closer to the grimm, beckoning the friends to follow in steps. "We can still get the drop on it."

"Have an idea, Itsuki?"

"Moto, do you still know how to do that?"

"Hell yeah I do."

"Then let's do it. Ren, can you pull its attention when we're almost done charging it?"

"Fine. Guess someone has to do the boring job here."

"Naofumi, keep an eye out for any other grimm and tries to flank us and call us if its coming."

"S-Sure."

As the grimm continued to roam around, Motoyasu and Itsuki tried to keep quiet, though that wouldn't contribute much to hide their presence. Naofumi read once in a book that grimm, although that could detect using their senses, were sensitive to negative emotions. The fact that the boarbatusk hadn't seen them yet meant that not of them were emitting such.

Even Naofumi, who had been pessimistic about the entire adventure, didn't have any negativity—at least, enough to set off the monster.

Reaching a blind spot that was a good distance away and having a good line of sight onto it, Motoyasu intensified his flame, holding it out like some type of net. Itsuki lifted his rocks and aimed his finger towards the flaming barrier, imitating a gun.

"Now, Itsuki!"

"Got it! I'm firing!"

As the shouts roared through the forest, the boarbatusk immediately turned, causing Naofumi to stiffened. He didn't understand the reason that Motoyasu and Itsuki suddenly shouted, but the grimm had its sights on them now, breaking no moment to run forwards.

Unfortunately for the boarbatusk, Itsuki had already been sending his rocks through the barrier. As they passed by, each pebble caught on fire and rained hell onto the incoming grimm. Before it could realize, it was taking on the full extent of their combination attack. It screamed in pain, gouging its last cries. Its fur caught on fire where there had been bruises as it slid to a halt a few meters before them.

It stayed on the ground, writhing around and struggling to stand back up.

… Wait, that was it?

"Let me have this. I want to be a part of this too."

Ren held his hand up, summoning a blade of water above his shoulder. With a lunge, throwing his arm forward, the water blade responded likewise, driving itself straight into the grimm's head.

It stayed on the ground, silent and still until the monster turned into dust. The flaming rocks that were driven into the monster had dropped onto the ground.

… Huh. That… was it.

"Us, one! Grimm, zero!" Itsuki exclaimed in excitement, shooting up a fist in the air.

"That wasn't too bad! That was actually pretty easy!" Motoyasu grinned, contented.

"It was only inevitable that we took it out this quickly," Ren scoffed, smirking himself.

Even Naofumi found himself amused from the defeat of the grimm, even though he didn't contribute anything to the flank.

"It's time for round two!" Itsuki announced. "Who's the next challenger that dares to come across us!?"

"No, no, no," Naofumi said, shaking his head. "That's it for today. We had a promise that we made. If I kept my promise to you to come on this little adventure, then you have to keep your promise at limiting this adventure to one grimm kill."

"What!? But you saw how quickly that went! One more! This time will be the last one!"

"You should be thankful that I even agreed to the whole operation in the first place. Don't be pushing your luck, Itsuki." Naofumi glanced over to where the grimm formerly was, noticing that the rocks Itsuki shot out had still been on fire. It was starting to spread along the grass. "Ren, can you deal with that? We don't want to start a wildfire."

"Yeah, I got it."

Water materialized and glided across the forest according to Ren's command.

As the flamed rocks were being extinguished, he started replaying the entire fight over again. Itsuki had been right—the entire thing took no more than ten seconds to complete. If Naofumi had to admit, seeing them work together to fight in such a manner had his heart pumping, not out of fear, but out of excitement. And considering how professionally his friends dispatched the grimm, he'd say that they were practicing their semblances behind the caretakers' backs.

That only made their chances of success skyrocket from what he initially believed.

"... You know what? Fine. One more grimm wouldn't hurt."

"Hell yeah!" Itsuki smiled triumphantly.

"Though, I don't think we should stray far from where we entered," Motoyasu added on. "Be it as an adventure, I really don't want to get lost. I can barely tell the difference from location to location in here. I don't even know how far we're gone from the fence."

"We haven't gone that far yet," Ren answered, crossing his arms as he finished breaking apart the flames. "My sense of direction is pretty good, even in the darkness. As long as the moon can still provide us the light, so that we're not actually stumbling through, I think we should be fine."

"Well, I don't think we should head out any further," Naofumi said. "We still need to return to the orphanage by sunrise and surely, we don't want to risk increasing the amount of unexpected encounters."

"I guess that's a plan, if anything." Itsuki started walking around, already on the search. "Though, if there's one grimm here, there has to be another one close by. That's how it works, right?"

"That's…" Naofumi pondered for a brief second. "... I'm not entirely sure."

"Well, I mean—that's why we're going to search for them!"

"... No need. Looks like they'll be doing the work for us instead."

Ren turned his head, garnering everyone's attention towards the near distance. Through the shadows of the forest, the zenith of the shattered moon showered the center of their attention, as if it was a spotlight on cue. Red eyes sparked alit as its figure, one that was much bigger than the boarbatusk, began to creep slowly towards them, as it was sizing up its prey or perhaps, imagining how nicely they would taste. It certainly seemed so as the exposed fangs looked to be dripping out a lust to devour, glistening along the somber light.

"... It's… a Beowolf. W-What's something like that doing here!?"

Naofumi's spine had shivered as the atmosphere was completely turned on its head. His breath began to be short-taken. His heart, despite merely standing still, had started to pound, over and over again.

This feeling…

He bit down on his teeth.

… It's bloodlust! A strong one at that…!

Naofumi didn't know how they came across something so quickly like this, but he remembered that Motoyasu and Itsuki both made a really loud shout before they made their attack.

Was it possible that it was attracted by their voices!?

"... Uhm, guys?" Luckily, Naofumi didn't have to say anything to get somebody to believe this was a bad idea. Motoyasu was already on board, looking towards Ren and Itsuki nervously. His footsteps were already making a subtle retreat. "I suddenly don't know about this. M-Maybe we should scram…"

"You really think we can't take this, Motoyasu?" Ren gracefully brought out his water element as he formed it into a blade, aimed towards the slow-pacing grimm. "This is just the next level, isn't it? What's a little difficulty in our adventure anyways?"

"R-Ren!" Naofumi panicked, seeing that his friend was already prepared for an attack. "We shouldn't provoke it! We don't know if it's beyond our limits or—!"

"Take this!"

Ren had already shot the sword as Naofumi tried to parse his warning. With his battle cry resonating through the air, so did the sword as it flung straight towards the grimm. It went faster than Naofumi could notice, but the grimm quickly stood on its two hind limbs and swung forwards, easily breaking his attack.

"...!"

Ren widened his eyes, and gritted his teeth. In quick succession, he launched a few more. However, each one was blocked and knocked away, starting to leave a frustrated Ren in its wake. If anything, the only results were that Ren's mana was used and the Beowolf seemed to only be angered.

The grimm howled into the night sky and started its trek against the four friends. Only this time, it hadn't been analyzing anything.

It's coming fast!

"Split!"

Ren's command caused the four friends to leap out of the way as the Beowolf charged right through. It locked onto Ren and curved its trajectory, closing in quickly onto the black-haired youth. He hadn't even recovered from his roll yet, but he was already charging up another water blade.

A direct hit land onto the head, but it didn't make a difference. Using its arm, it struck Ren and flung him across the forest, forcing a roll before his body hit a tree.

Although in normal circumstances, he would be passed out from the impact—he was still conscious. There was a light green aura that had reflected against the moonlight covered Ren just as he was about to get hit. It was a sign and a result that Naofumi was able to cast his defensive support portion of his semblance in the nick of time.

"Ren!"

"He'll be fine, Itsuki! Focus on the fire rock trick again!"

"A-Ah…! G-Got it!"

Motoyasu rushed close to and unleashed his flaming barrier once again. Itsuki scouted for rocks he could use, resorting to a few from the distance, and readied another barrage of their combination attack.

"I'm firing now!"

The rocks went through as presumed, launching the array towards the grimm for another direct hit. Ren's water might have been weaker in comparison to their combination attack, but as it landed exactly how it did for the Boarbatusk, the Beowolf shook it off with little damage taken. If anything, it looked like it was annoyed.

It shook off the burning rocks like dust on its shoulders, flinging them towards the bushes and trees.

They started to spread, catching the leaves and trunks on fire. Nevertheless, the Beowolf simply glared at them, not thinking about the collateral it just caused.

"Oh shit, oh shit!"

"Oh no, this is really bad!"

Ren stood back up with Naofumi assistance and he immediately threw himself back into the fray, but sending his water over to the kindlings of a wildfire. He tried his best to keep up, but the shaken rocks had been spread out too vastly. Eventually, one of the bushes caught entirely on fire and it was starting to share its newfound warmth quickly.

"I can't extinguish this! The fire is spreading more quickly than I can take out!"

Hearing the defeat of the attempted douse, Motoyasu placed himself into a panic mode, immediately shooting out fireballs repeatedly without a care for if it was hitting the grimm or the background. Those that did hit the grimm were still brushed aside.

"This isn't going down! I don't think we can take this grimm on, Itsuki!"

"G-Group up! We need to group up and replan!"

"Right!"

Motoyasu started to run as he fired out the barrage, nudging Itsuki to follow through—as if he needed instructions. The fireballs weren't doing much, but it appeared that it was briefly stunning the Beowolf. Even Itsuki sent a few pebble bullets over towards the grimm in an attempt to help.

"Well, that just escalated!" Itsuki exclaimed as he caught up to Ren and Naofumi. "Any plans!?"

Naofumi looked back and forth, seeing both the flames catching onto the trees and the Beowolf that was being assaulted—probably would have been better to use the term tickling—by Motoyasu's attacks. It was like in a snap of a finger, the place turned to hell.

How the hell did it go so wrong so quickly!?

I was the one with the most common sense here! How was I even swayed by the mood so heavily!?

"W-We have to escape! We need to lose this grimm quickly!"

"What about the fire!?"

"We don't have a way to take care of it now! Ren's water can't keep up! We have to leave! That's only option here!"

"Grah!" Motoyasu's flame assault suddenly stopped as he backed off with a few steps, shaking his hands dramatically. "Dammit! I thought I could do that for longer!"

"Did your mana run out!?"

"N-No, my hands are just really numb now! Though, with the fireworks I shot at the Beowolf, I wouldn't be surprised if I was running low!"

The Beowolf growled once it was freed from Motoyasu's onslaught pressure, shaking from the few flames it caught on it blacken pelt. It glared at the four friends angrily as he dropped on all four limbs and started a hasten rush. It was using its skull as a battering ram, trying to mow down anything and anyone in its path.

"Split again!"

As Naofumi, Ren, and Motoyasu leapt out of the projected path, only Itsuki remained. His eyes were locked with the red gleam from the grimm's pupils, frozen in terror. It consumed him as Naofumi noticed that Itsuki had wanted to move so desperately, shaking his legs and nudging his own body to jump, but he couldn't commit to the action.

Ren and Motoyasu shot back a dreadful glance.

"Itsuki, what are you doing?!" "Jump quickly, Itsuki!"

Naofumi shouted his heart out.

"Itsuki!"

No matter what was called to him, it was like he couldn't hear them.

The Beowolf didn't care. It sped up regardless, drawing closer and closer towards the frozen target.

"Itsuki!"

Naofumi's heart stopped for a moment, as his surroundings started to feel more distant to him. He started feeling as if time had slowed down. It was like there was the sound of a clock ticking endlessly, never reaching its origin.

It was painful to see this scene that was going to unfold before him. Ren was lucky that he got flung across an arm from little created momentum. The damage done wouldn't have killed him, but Naofumi watched as the steps crept closer towards his friend. With the speed it had and the thick mask-like face it used as a weapon, there was no way that Itsuki could survive an impact like that, even if he had casted his defensive semblance onto him.

Even so—

—I can't.

—I can't lose you, Itsuki.

—Even if you get on my nerves sometimes,

—you're part of the family that I never had.

—I… I…

—I don't want to lose you.

Naofumi's tears started to run down his face on the sheer thought that he was going to lose Itsuki on an adventure that he shouldn't have been more adamant on not having. If he hadn't been so easily influenced, he could have stopped them one way or another. That was the belief he held onto and the belief that led he to think that this was his fault.

—I caused Itsuki's death.

However, through the coldness that was his despair and the heat that was the surroundings, Naofumi felt his heart beat a single time in the still state of his perspective. It was as if it was calling out to him, trying to urge Naofumi to break out of his own paralysis.

A voice, almost robotic in nature, had been the one that reached out.

[The shield is a being that buries his trust among the others.]

—Who's there?

[The shield is a being that protects those that he believes in.]

—Who's speaking?

[The shield is a being that takes on fate and challenges it with steel determination.]

—Who are you?

[Believe that you are strong. Believe that your allies are strong. Let them believe that you are strong.]

[That is your power. That is your shield against all odds.]

—My… power?

[Protect those that believe in you. Protect those you believe in. Protect those you love.]

[Now run.]

[Run.]

[Run.]

Run.

—Run.

Naofumi gritted his teeth as his heart started to pound faster than it has ever had in its lifetime.

—NOW RUN!

With the flow of time returning to normal, Naofumi kicked off from his place and rushed over in an instant. His heart had been warm—no, saying that it was warm hadn't been enough. It was brighter than any of the flames that could take on this forest and it burned with a glaze so intense, it placed the surroundings destruction to shame.

He stopped in front of Itsuki and before the attacking Beowolf and turned to face the grimm directly, crossing his arms in a defiant stance. Ren and Motoyasu were taken back from the sight, widening their eyes in the unbelievable scenery.

—I won't let you die!

—Not here!

—Not ever!

The burning feeling started to spread throughout Naofumi's body, extending towards his arms specifically. It was as if they were going to explode, but Naofumi didn't mind it.

—I will protect you!

—I will save you!

—Itsuki, I will become your shield!

He welcomed the feeling as the Beowolf collided with his arms.

Naofumi roared.

"GRAHHHHHHH!"

He roared his burning feeling out from his soul.

"Naofumi!" "Nao!"

To Be Continued

Welcome to Remnant Heroes (RIMN)!

A fic in which we will have a team consisting of the four cardinal heroes from ROTSH that will live through their very own adventures in the world of RWBY!

Unlike in ROTSH, where they are basically enemies, here they will be an actual team and friends, just like in my other fic about them [Four Heroes]

I just really wanted the four of them in RWBY, why? I don't even know, just seemed like a cool concept to me.

A few words of explanation in terms of their semblances:

- I just really wanted to have them still have their weapons, since it's their thing, though it was hard finding a good explanation for that, so I decided to go with the boring route of 'Yeah, it's just a semblance'

- Their semblaces are two-parters since they also get some degree of 'magic' with the elements they have affinities to in their story.

If you still have any questions feel free to ask me via review or PM!

I would like to give special thanks to [Pretty Lazy] , who helped tremendously by beautifying what I wrote, and fleshing it out. Thanks to them this fic feels much better and natural than what I would've done by myself, so be sure to check their profile out, as they also have some cool fics there.

Also, just as always, leaving any feedback on where we could improve would be very appreciated.

Rating is T, but may change in the future.

I guess that's it for now.

Anyway, I hope you liked it.

Cya!

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I have found the cover picture on google images and I don't even know who the original creator is.

I found it on google images, its not mine