Part three
The two ragged men glared evilly at the two young strangers who has just appeared. Hanamichi silently stood at the side waiting for something to happen.
Raiki's partner could sense that the two strangers were not mere men but fighters by their stance and by the swords that they hold with confidence and ease so he waited until the other side makes a move but Raiki was not so patient.
Suddenly Raiki charged towards the blue-eyed man with a yell. The person smoothly evaded Raiki's knife and swiftly lifted his foot to kick the man in the stomach and the robber fell down in fits of coughs.
The spiky-haired one chuckled, before he turned towards the other robber and said, "So, you want to try as well?"
Raiki's partner narrowed his eyes angrily and spat, "I'll die before I run away from mere boys like yourselves!"
Saying so he pulled out his own sword and charged at the spiky-haired man with more caution than his partner did to the other stranger. The robber thrust his sword with fierceness but the young man managed to fend them off without so much as a sound before he himself began to strike. The robber was not as skilled and strong to go against the young man's attacks and soon, the older man dropped to the soil, panting and bruised.
"Better to live and learn than to die being foolish," the spiky-haired man said looking down at the robber.
Raiki's partner growled before he stood up and hurriedly went up to Raiki to pull up the still coughing man from the ground and, without another word, he dragged his partner away under the watchful eye of two young men and the curious stare of a young boy.
"We should've just killed them," said the blue-eyed man, sheathing his sword.
The other shrugged, "Cleaning blood off from the sword is such a bother."
"There are other ways to kill without spilling blood," said the blue-eyed man.
The spiky-haired one arched an eyebrow towards his partner, "Are you always this blood-thristy? Tell you what, next time we find a murderer I'll let you kill him."
The blue-eyed man scowled, "I didn't mean it like that."
His partner chuckled, "Maamaa. I know. I was just joking."
Then the spiky-haired man realised that the redheaded boy was still there.
"Hey, there," he greeted the boy.
When the boy didn't answer, the blue-eyed man walked up to the redhead and knelt down.
"Are you alone?" he asked.
"I am but I still could've beaten them without any of your help," said the boy with annoyance.
The blue-eyed man looked at the boy in irritation. This kid who barely reaches up to his chest was only not thanking them but also angry that they had helped him out of a dangerous situation.
"Do'aho," said the blue-eyed man standing up.
"Nani?!" cried the boy in anger, "You- you KITSUNE!"
The two young men looked at the boy in surprise before the spiky-haired one laughed out loud.
"Ahahahah! This is the first time I've heard someone say it to your face, Rukawa!" said the spiky-haired man grinning.
Ignoring the other's glare, the spiky-haired person went up to Hanamichi and bowed towards the boy, "Gomen nasai for assuming that you were unable to defend yourself. Next time we'll not be so hasty."
The redhead turned up his nose and said, "Of course I can defend myself! Maki said that I am the best student he has ever had because I learn fast!"
"Oh? A tensai?"
"Tensai? Yeah! I'm the tensai!" exclaimed the boy beaming proudly.
The blue-eyed man huffed in annoyance.
"And does this tensai have a name?" asked the spiky-haired man, smiling cheerfully.
"Sakuragi Hanamichi," answered the boy.
"Which one is your family name?" asked the young man.
"Family name?" said the boy puzzled before he remembered that the earth people have two names to indicate which family they come from whereas Hanamichi's people have two names to only indicate who they are.
"Uh... Sakuragi," said the redhead quickly, "but you can call me Hanamichi."
"Nice to meet you Hanamichi," said the spiky-haired man, "My name is Sendoh Akira. And the one over there is my brother, Rukawa Kaede."
"Brother?" asked Hanamichi looking at the blue-eyed boy leaning boredly against a tree.
"Actually, we are cousins but we look at each other as brothers because we grew up together," explained Sendoh, "Do you have any brothers, Hanamichi?"
"Yeah. Koshino and Fujima," answered the boy.
"And where are they now?" asked Sendoh.
"They're at... wait a minute!" said Hanamichi angrily, "Why do you want to know?!"
Sendoh sighed, disappointed that he was found out too early, "Although I don't doubt your ability in martial arts, I don't doubt that your family might be searching for you and worried about your disappearance."
"Nah," said Hanamichi, "They won't. They're too busy."
"You can't mean that noone will notice that you are gone?" asked Sendoh in a surprised tone.
Hanamichi's mind wandered towards his teacher for a moment before he shook his head and said, "Noone."
They heard a snort and the two turned around to see Rukawa looking at Hanamichi disbelievingly.
"Do you have something to say, kistune?" demanded Hanamichi.
"Little Do'aho," said the fox-eyed man.
"Nanda yo! Stupid kistune!" he yelled before he jumped on the unsuspecting Rukawa.
The two fell down on the dirt and the boy began delivering hard blows on the young man who was trying to fend it off with his arm but not succeeding. Soon Rukawa started hitting as well, not realising that he was fighting a kid with all his strength.
Sendoh at first was stunned before he collected himself and rushed forward to break them apart.
Pulling Hanamichi off of Rukawa, he held the boy away from the young man before he began berating his brother, "Are you crazy?! He's a kid for kami's sake!"
"He sure doesn't hit like a kid," growled Rukawa, fingering the bruise on his face.
"Let go of me!" yelled the redhead.
"Do'aho," Rukawa huffed picking himself up from the ground.
"Temme!! Kitsune!"
Sendoh yelped when the redhead bit his arm and he was forced to let the redhead go who instantly went to attack Rukawa again.
Sendoh watched the two fight on the ground with disbelief as he rubbed at his arm. Sighing, he went forward to pull the two apart again.
This is going to be a long journey.
Up in the heavens, a protector-guardian was searching the galaxies for the aura of a young Pheonix son. He was perturbed that he couldn't sense Hanamichi's whereabouts, afraid that something must've happened to his ward.
Hanamichi, where are you? wondered Maki for the thousandth time, Without you, I'd...
He quickly shut those thoughts off and continued his relentless search for the redheaded boy.