Chapter 9 – A New Kind of Bond
The village was still recovering. Grief lingered in the air like smoke that refused to clear. Funerals had passed, but pain remained. Everyone handled it differently. Kaze? He trained. Atlas? He tried to stay busy. And Kazuki? No one really knew yet.
He sat alone on the rooftop of the healer's hut, legs crossed, bandaged face turned toward the sun he couldn't see. Kaze watched him from below, arms folded, eyes narrowed.
"Hey, eyeless," Kaze called up. "You just gonna sit there and meditate, or you gonna help patch up the damn training field you wrecked yesterday?"
Kazuki tilted his head. "Didn't know it was your training field. Thought it belonged to the village."
"Oh, so you can talk normal now," Kaze muttered, hopping up onto the roof with wind magic. "What's your deal anyway? You show up, when everyone's already dead, then act like a ghost."
"Didn't realize I needed to explain myself to the wind brat," Kazuki said, cracking a small grin behind the bloodstained bandages.
Atlas leaned out a window below. "Hey! I just fixed that roof! If you idiots break it again—"
"Shut up, Atlas," Kaze and Kazuki said in unison.
Atlas sighed. "You two are gonna be best friends, I swear."
Kaze looked at Kazuki. "You ever had friends?"
Kazuki leaned back on his hands. "Had one. She was nine. She liked cooking. She's dead now. So no, not really."
Kaze winced. "Damn. That's… that's rough."
Kazuki shrugged. "What about you? Accidentally summoned a hurricane and killed your whole family, right?"
Kaze turned his head fast, blinking. "You piece of—"
Kazuki laughed, a dry, cold sound. "What? You started it."
Atlas climbed up onto the roof, sitting between them. "You two are messed up."
Kaze glanced over at him. "Yeah, but we're alive. That counts for something."
The three of them sat there for a moment. The village, broken but mending, stretched out in front of them. Kids played. Adults worked. Life refused to stop.
"I think we should leave for a bit," Kazuki said suddenly.
Kaze raised a brow. "Run away?"
"No. Train," Kazuki replied. "Somewhere far. Somewhere quiet. I'll teach you swordsmanship if you stop whining every ten minutes."
"I don't whine—" Kaze started, then stopped himself. "Okay. Maybe I whine a little."
Atlas smiled. "I'm in. I wanna learn to fight without depending on just magic."
Kazuki gave a rare nod. "Good. You'll both need it. This world? It doesn't forgive weakness."
Kaze grinned. "Well, I'm not weak."
"You cry when you see rabbits get hurt," Atlas reminded.
"They're fluffy and innocent!" Kaze snapped. "Not my fault you're all emotionally dead!"
Kazuki chuckled again, low and quiet. "This is gonna be interesting."
"Wait," Atlas said, suddenly serious. "You sure you're okay with us joking about… you know…"
"My sister?" Kazuki said flatly. "If I couldn't take dark jokes, I'd be in the ground next to her. Let's get one thing straight: you don't pity me. You fight beside me. You laugh with me. That's it."
Kaze stood, stretching. "Fine. Just don't cry when I whoop your blind ass with a stick."
Kazuki smirked beneath the bandages. "Bring it, windy."
The sun lowered a bit as the three boys leapt off the roof and headed toward the woods just beyond the village. No ceremony. No dramatic farewell. Just three kids walking into the trees, talking trash.
But maybe, just maybe, this was the kind of bond they all needed—raw, broken, and real.