"LEEEEEEEEEERRR!!!!"

To say the sight was terrifying was an understatement.

Elder Yun and the crowd were just glamouring the sight of the beautiful scorching blue sizzling into bits into the sky, finally rid of their problems for the day and probably for another great while in their lives--

Then, two boys screaming bloody murder just bulldozed out of the fire like madmen and punched their Elder in the face.

"Eldeeer!!!" the villagers shrieked at the sight.

"I hit something, Luz!" Cross sparkled.

Luz and Cross skidded to a stop, breathing out. They were lightly seared by the flames because they weren't in there long enough to be burned too badly-- their fists were gripped, their stances were ready to fight.

"You!" a villager charged at Cross, throwing a kunai in that direction.

"Tag Out," Cross snapped his fingers, flipping into Elder Yun's spot on the ground.

Elder Yun was jabbed in the shoulder with a kunai. The man groaned in pain and confusion-- 

"Tag In!" Cross returned to his spot beside Luz, throwing a punch right at the attacker's stomach.

"Dude, you're scaring me, what in the world is that?" Luz gawked with a bit of disgust, "and tell me beforehand, geez."

"Uh, I dunno how to explain so," Cross tagged into Luz's spot, sending a kick to an ambusher, then tagged back in, "but basically I can do that."

"Very informative!" Luz yelled sarcastically, "stop doing that to me!"

"Ookayy," Cross sang.

They stood back to back, with the flames behind them, and enemies before them.

Elder Yun croaked up, boiling with rage.

His upper body was exposed-- large, black burn scars marring his shoulder an ugly brown scab that would never, ever fade from him--

"So we punch?" Cross asked.

"We punch," Luz agreed.

ー

"Those idiots!" Visul sighed, "we need to stop them."

Takara sighed, groaning in a headache that came with anaemic nausea. He lay on the ground, content to just sleep off the exhaustion there.

He held Cross' weapons-- a triangular blade connected by bright red wires that only Cross could use. If Takara tried, he'd only slice his own arms open.

"To think he'd discard his weapons," Takara grumbled, "what's up with him?"

Visul leaned over, taking a closer look. "Maybe they're just too fired up over a fistfight," Visul muttered. She picked up the blade, noting the strange shape of the blade and the wires--

She rolled her finger over the wires.

"These are one-sided wires?" she blurted out, "what are these? they're only sharp on one side?"

At that, Takara raised an eyebrow, "wires can be one-sided?" he had to gawk, "wait, does that explain how Cross even uses these things--"

She inspected the blade-- the helm of the diamond-shaped object was carved in with intricate, decorative patterns perfectly symmetrical, proving the object a sacred, tribal look.

"Who... exactly is Cross?" she couldn't help turning to Takara, asking with only pure-hearted, confused curiosity, "these aren't just any classic weapon. These look like a specialised weapon you can only use after much training."

Who exactly is Cross?

Takara shrugged, "I don't know either, does it matter?" 

And Visul realized-- it really didn't.

ー

Elder Yun breathed a jet of fire from his mouth.

Cross and Luz leaped to opposing sides, avoiding the flamethrower. 

The circled around opposing sides, dashing to the back of the old man. They leaped off, foot raised for a kick-- Elder Yun swirled around, grabbing their feet out of the air and hurling them to the ground.

Cross tagged out, emerging five meters away-- he clenched his fist, and hopped forward with a punch.

Elder Yun threw Luz to Cross, the two crashing into each other before flying toward a tree.

Cross pried an eye open, eyes widening as a villager threw a sword down at them-- Cross kicked Luz off of him before the sword fell-- taking a hard slice at his shoulder.

"Cross!" Luz rolled. He crawled up, throwing himself onto the man and knocking him out.

Cross clutched his arm, a cry escaping his throat. 

Luz leaped forward, cringing at the sight of the wound, "You can't--"

"Get down!" Cross shoved Luz aside, raising his arm to defend against a kunai. The blade stabbing into his forearm, Cross covered for Luz once more against a shuriken.

"What are you doing?!" Luz yelled.

Cross staggered badly, arm landing heavily on a tree. A crowd surrounded them, villagers holding weapons bared against them-- 

Luz dragged them behind the tree-- Cross fell back, both hands over each other on the bark on the tree trunk.

"Tag Switch!" he commanded.

The tree uprooted, changing places with a large chunk of flaming wall-- debris from the mansion's explosion. 

A flurry of kunai, shuriken and arrows littered the wall, shattering it to pieces. 

Luz had pulled Cross away from the scene, and they disappeared into the branches.

ー

The flames were nearly searing them. Visul sat calmly beside Takara, who lay down, unable to take a rest.

They couldn't charge out like Luz and Cross did-- the flames were much too strong now. What Cross and Luz did was insane.

"You saw the grave, didn't you?" Visul asked, unsuspectingly stoical, "the bear took a bite out of the offering I gave my mother."

Takara spared her a glance, groaning, "that was your mother's grave? Sorry about that. I couldn't stop Leer in time. When this is over with, I'll give her another dozen or something."

Visul giggled, "it's fine, I doubt the grave is still intact after that fire."

"It's important to you, right?" Takara looked at her meaningfully, "I'll fix it for you."

"Things that are burned will never return, Takara, even burn wounds are left as scars," Visul sighed, eyeing the burns at her arms, wounds that stung in the breeze and boiled painfully in the heat of the blaze-- "the one wound the Chiryouito cannot heal are burns. The Yun, who are largely immune to flames, used that to their advantage--"

She stopped short.

"Isn't it beautiful, Ray?" Elder Yun called out. Taking off his coat, he exposed the deep brown burn scars on his shoulders, travelling down his arms, decorating his elbows-- "to meet you again, surrounded by the very flames you burned me in?"  

Takara lifted his head. "What?"

Her mouth hung agape in a sort of realization-- "call Cross. Now," she gripped Cross' wires in her hands, "I think I've found a way to defeat Elder Yun."

ー

"We don't have time to heal that," Luz winced at the sight, "so stop moving."

Cross' breathing was laboured. "I'm fine," he urged, "regardless, that old man's strong. Everyone crowding around the place makes it really hard to get a punch in on him."

Luz swallowed. They were overconfident-- Elder Yun himself was enough of a problem, but the amount of ninja on this island were still a crowd enough to take them down.

Just the two of them won't be enough-- especially if they were working on a time limit with Visul and Takara in the midst of the flames.

"I was careless," Cross mourned.

He leaped aside just in time to dodge a kunai-- he made his landing on another branch.

Luz threw a kunai upward, getting a man in the shin and making him fall from his spot. Cross tutted, ready to leap to another tree. They had to get moving now because they've been found.

"Don't move!" Luz called sharply.

Cross stopped abruptly, "what?"

Then Cross felt it. 

At his wrist, his neck-- and his side-- he found very thin, barely opaque threads slinging to his sides. It did not cut-- it wrapped flexibly around his body, as if it was only meant to surround, not to trap.

The two fell silent.

Cross swung back just in time to avoid an arrow embedding deep in the wood where his head was-- then leaping up, squeaking in fear of a flurry of kunai chucked at his feet.

"Takara! Stop! It's me!" Cross screeched. "Don't just throw at everything!"

"Sorry!" Takara hollered from behind the flames, "Visul said she found something moving, so-"

"We're moving, too!" Cross yelled back.

Luz sighed. Well, that broke the fuckin' mood. Looking around, Luz caught sight of the strings all around the place. It seemed that in their own way, Visul and Takara were giving their support.

A kunai stabbed the tree again, terrifyingly close to Luz's eyes.

There was a message attached to the hilt.

  ー  

  ー  

They stood before the flames.

"Back here again?" Elder Yun laughed, "so instead of running, you decided to face your death head on! Haven't you figured it out yet that this is completely useless?"

Cross stood strong.

Luz gripped his fists, his expressions stern despite his trembling knees.

Elder Yun took steps forward. "If you will not come to me, I will simply go to you," he said proudly, confidently-- he did not think at all that he would ever lose.

"Straight forward!" Cross abruptly declared, a finger pointed at Elder Yun.

He held a stone in his hand, holding it out with a finger straight like a finger gun--

"Huh?" Elder Yun stopped.

"Tag Switch!" the rock glitched out of sight, replaced by the long, wooden contraption of a loaded crossbow. A patterned blade-- Cross' weapon-- Cross guided the aim toward Elder Yun.

Cross smirked, "Tag Out!"

Takara slotted in place, his hand tugging down at the trigger. The blade spun out of the bolt-- narrowly missing Elder Yun. 

"Cheap tricks!" Elder Yun was angered-- "did you think that would work?"

The blade was attached to a string that led back into the flames behind Takara. A red wire that did not burn in the blue flames.

Visul held the end of the wire, wrapping the loop around her knuckles. Voluminous white strings bound her knuckles tightly-- the strings she had used earlier to detect enemies from outside.

"Spider Sting," she whispered, "Set..." She crossed her arms over each other-- 

"Retract!"

The strings pulled back. They were attached to trees with Kunai and shuriken as an anchor-- each anchor pulled out of their trees in turn, slicing at each person they came across. Some snapped right off the kunai, flicking it forward and sending them raining down blade-first.

Having never noticed any strings, no one was able to dodge. Elder Yun, at the center of the intersection, was assaulted in the back by an entire array of knives.

The red wire was attached to a blade-- Cross' blade-- instead of pulling itself back, it uprooted an entire tree and sent it crashing right into Elder Yun's back.

"Gah, how the hell do you use this thing?" Visul freaked out, "it's stuck on something, I think. It's really heavy."

"What should we do about Luz and Takara outside?" Cross spoke up beside her.

She froze, "Uh, pray for their safety?"

"Hey!" Cross freaked out.

Visul gripped the strings still on her knuckles, and focused. "You two, run away from the strings now!" Visul raised her voice.

The strings glowed white-- and seemed to come to life, lifting off the ground and defying gravity. It began to move rapidly, converging in the centre-- Luz, screaming, grabbed Takara by the arm, dragging the man aside in a mad dash for his life.

The strings swirled around Elder Yun, binding onto his limbs--

"Net, set," she whispered, "Retract!"

Elder Yun was pulled toward Visul-- diving headfirst toward the wall of flames right before her.

"Wait-- you're--" Elder Yun panicked, realizing now what he was facing, "that's-- the blue flames? No, you're not!"

Cross and Visul stood back to back-- that was the only amount of space left within the circle of flames.

"You!!" Elder Yun's voice resonated in the mountain, "I won't forgive you, I--"

Elder Yun was flung forward into the fire-- emerging right before Visul. Cross swirled forward, landing one final punch in the old man's face, sending him back into the flames.

Knocked into instant unconsciousness, the ring of blue flames around Visul and Cross dissipated in less than an instant.

"You..." Visul breathed out, tired, "you said Ray burned you, leaving scars, even though you're a Yun, supposedly immune to blue flames."

Her strings returned to her, wrapping around her arms like a bandage to keep her hands from shattering to pieces.

"You call yourself the elder... you call us cursed," Visul wiped the blood from her lip, scoffing at the old man's fallen form-- "but you're a half-blood too, aren't you?"

The man did not, could not respond to her-- but she had won.