Heirot

When they came back downstairs, the tavern was in a bit of an uproar. Several men wearing coats Soran recognized as those of the Black Crows, one of the local gangs, were hassling a young man and woman at one of the tables. The man was being held by two Crows with his arms behind his bak, and another two were crouching over the woman, who wore a look of frightened outrage.

"You think you can just take Andy's girl?" one of the Crows sneered angrily at the young man.

"L-..Leave her alone. She wants to be with me," the man argued nervously, though he was clearly not built for fighting.

"Jake, leave him alone! I don't want anything to do with you people!" the girl shouted.

"You watch your mouth, you little bitch," growled the Crow, holding a dagger out toward her menacingly.

"Don't hurt her!" cried the young man, which sent the dagger dangerously close to his own throat instead.

"Stop!" the girl screamed.

"Knock it off," Soran said coldly from where he'd just emerged at the base of the stairs with Rai.

His voice silenced all involved, who looked at him warily.

"Heh! You expect us to fear you when you're on babysitting duty?" one of the Crows sneered, rousing cheers from one of his colleagues and a nervous stare from the other two.

Rai put her hands on her hips and let go of Soran's hand and before he could stop her she ran up to the man and kicked him in the shin.

"He's not a baby sitter! He's my daddy!" she said, looking at him with narrowed eyes and a wrinkled nose. She ran back to Soran's side.

The man Rai had just kicked squealed in pain and curled over, cradling his aching shin. "That little bitch kicked me!" he screamed in disbelief.

The Crow with the dagger, who appeared to be the brains of the bunch, looked at Soran and Rai with a deadly glare. "You're awful brave to challenge us when you aren't even carrying your weapons," he said darkly, eyeing the rogue's bladeless arms.

The rest of the patrons whispered to one another, nervous and excited that a fight seemed to be breaking out. The barkeep looked at Soran pleadingly, his eyes saying he didn't want bloodshed in his bar.

"Put down that knife. Now." Soran challenged.

"Rai, remember my boots?" Soran said to Rai in a low voice, hinting at something.

Rai grinned at Soran and nodded to him, letting go of his hands again.

Soran walked forward and circled the table slowly, drawing the attention of all the men. Instinctively, the three men stood a bit closer together.

"You seem to think I'm unarmed," the rogue said flatly. "Unfortunately, that's not the case. Shourai," he spoke darkly, and the magic-powered blades appeared along his arms.

He reached down and grabbed the man who was still nursing his leg and tugged him up by the collar, stepping backward with the ganster in tow. "If you'd like, we can trade. Those two, for him," he said evenly, raising his blade close to the shuddering man's neck.

The lead Crow glared at him, unnerved, knowing that this situation was no longer in his advantage.

"Drop the knife," Soran reiterated, and the two stared each other down for a very long moment.

Rai was crawling around on the floor, untying and tying shoe strings together or tying them to the legs of chairs. She was trying not to giggle, because she thought it was funny.

She had just finished the last knott when she snorted from holding in a giggle. She popped up in front of the leader and waved, then kicked him as hard as she could.

The leader yelped and dropped his knife onto the table, jumping backward to see what had kicked him. As soon as he moved, however, soemthing yanked on his foot and his stumbled. The other men suddenly felt things tugging on their feet too, and the whole group panicked, tumbling down over each other and realizing they were somehow all stuck together. To make matters worse, one of the bar chairs were int he mix, and the more they kicked at it the more buises they got from the heavy wooden object flailing around. Clinging to each other in panic and tumbling ridiculously, the entire group fled for the door, which took them a good 20 seconds to reach while the rest of the bar looked on in astonishment.

"We'll remember this!" one of them warned nervously as they tumbled out the door, still tangled with the chair, and fled down the street.

There was just one left. Soran turned toward the ganster he'd been holding and gave him a smug glare, cold eyes burning into his skull. For a second the Crow held perfectly still like a deer in headlights, and then he suddenly bolted for the door and ran after his friends clumsily.

The girl who had been at knifepoint was the first to break the silence, as she began laughing histerically. Within moments, the rest of the room followed suit.

Rai giggled and waved good bye to them as they stumbled out the door. She couldn't stop giggling. She ran over to Soran and hugged his leg, grinning up at him.

The man who had been sitting with the girl walked up to Soran and Rai and bowed sheepishly. "Thank you, Mr. Nightblade," he said respectfully. Remembering Rai, he squatted down in front of her. "And what is your name?"

Rai grinned. "Renalia Sunstorm! But, everyone calls me Rai!" she said excitedly, still hugging Soran's leg to her.

She looked up at Soran, her curly hair falling over her shoulders. "Can we go look for a place to live?" she asked.

The patrons giggled at Rai's cute behavior. "Haha," the young man laughed. "Well, you're quite the young heroine, miss Sunstorm," the man praised, "Good luck finding a place to live."

Soran nodded to the bartender and headed for the door.

"Bring your butt-kicking munchkin here any time," the barkeep called after them as they left, still almost too amused to speak.

When they were back outside, Soran reached down and messed up Rai's hair proudly.

Rai giggled and looked at Soran, beaming. Her cheeks were a nice shade of rose. "Butt-kicking munchkin?" she asked, giggling and trying to striaghten the mess Soran had created with her hair.

She looked back at the inn, guessing it wasn't as bad as she had thought it would be. It was actually very funny.

"Can we go beat someone else up?!" she asked him, laughing.

Soran let out a low chuckle. "Depends if he'll offer us a mortgage or not." They walked down the street toward a small civilian house with a green painted door.

Rai blinked and followed him. "A mort...gage?" she asked, the word sounding a bit funny on her tnogue. "Whats a mortigag?" she asked. "It sounds funny..."

She stopped and looked at the house with the green door. It was nice.

Red moved onto the bed with Mizuki. She had finally calmed down. She cluchted Blade to her chest, afraid to let him go.

"What happened Mizuki?" Red asked again. "Tell me everything." Mizuki nodded, sniffed, then began to talk. She told him everything that happened this morning. Her dream with Soran up to now. Red listened, unbelievingly. Could that really happen?

"I think I'm going insane." she confessed. She was depressed and tired from crying. She leaned against Red heavily, tired and worn out. Red held her like a brother would his sister, and he rocked her gently.

"You're not insane Mizuki. Maybe you're just sick, or you've caught something..." he tried to reason.

"Or maybe it's a curse. So much has happened too me, kiddnappings and forced... marriages. I can't take it anymore!"

"Mizuki calm down." Red hushed her again and Mizuki seemed to finally relax. She even feel asleep against him. Blade had also fallen back asleep against his mother. Red sighed, he didn't want to disturb them so he was stuck beneath them.