Saburo and Sayumi stopped for a moment as they realized that they were up against two people with foreign powers that they weren’t prepared for. But that setback didn’t deter them. Sayumi dove forward toward the puddle to grab the crystal, causing Kyoko to panic. She held out a hand toward the puddle in a desperate attempt to do something, anything to stop her.

“No! I won’t let you take it!” Kyoko called out, as she felt the power flow from her hand, as if her grasp extended immensely, causing the puddle to swirl into a blob of water floating in the air. The force from her hand rushing forward splashed the dirty forest water all over Sayumi, only a small bubble remaining with the now exposed glorious purple gem inside, it was just as beautiful as her own.

Takeo looked at her with a proud expression on his face that was swiftly cut short as he just barely managed to dodge out of the way of the knife in time for him to only suffer a small scratch, causing a drop of blood to escape his arm. He clenched his fist, causing a brilliant staff of light to appear in his hands. He struck at Saburo, keeping him at a distance, using the length of the pole to help keep him out of range of the knife.

Sayumi, only momentarily distracted by the splash of water, continued to rush forwards, trying to grab at the gem inside of the bubble. Kyoko thought swiftly on her feet, popping the bubble and dropping the amulet on the ground, causing Sayumi to be thrown off balance as her prize quickly changed locations. Unfortunately for Kyoko, however, that sent her stumbling in her direction, and while she was off balance, she was still armed with a baton. Kyoko ducked, trying to make herself as small and tough a target as she could, still not sure if she could handle an adult in a close fight. Sayumi was watching closely this time, managing to stop herself before the girl. When Kyoko looked up at her, it was clear that Sayumi’s initially emotionless expression changed to an intense smile.

“Are you enjoying this?” Kyoko stumbled, crawling backwards, caught off guard by her strangely jovial expression in the middle of a battle.

“I am… In fact things just got fun.” Her monotone voice was eerie mixed with her enthusiastic expression. Sayumi slammed her baton down on the ground, only managing to hit dirt as Kyoko rolled out of the way.

During all of this, Satoko didn’t know what to do. She didn’t know how to fight. She didn’t have some kind of magic like her friends. All she could do was watch while Takeo tried to stave off Saburo’s knife, and Kyoko rolled and dodged out of the way of Sayumi’s baton. She felt scared. Like all of this just became incredibly real to her. The story, the threat of some kind of dark kingdom, all of it felt so much more tangible. And who was she in all of this? A girl who got in over her head, because she’s just a normal kid. But then, she saw it. The shine of the crystal behind all of the combatants, completely unattended to. The adults were so involved in fighting the magic kids that they didn’t seem to have any concern for the scared one who hasn’t been able to do anything so far. But she could use that to her advantage. What she didn’t have in power, she could make up for in speed and smarts, that was her specialty her whole life.

Without giving it another thought, she bolted at full speed, even managing to run faster than Kyoko on her best day. She took to the clearing and swiped the purple gem off of the ground, kicking up dirt as she stopped herself from continuing in the direction away from her friends. She then charged through the four combatants and yelled at the top of her lungs.

“RUN! WE HAVE IT!” Satoko was running on pure adrenaline, despite her size, she was a bullet of speed. Saburo was so caught off guard by the turn of events that it gave Takeo the perfect opportunity to sweep at his legs, knocking the adult right onto his butt, and then turning his attention toward Sayumi and Kyoko. While she was so caught up in trying to hit Kyoko, he realized he could use her downward momentum against her. As she moved to swing down on Kyoko, Takeo ran up behind her and thwacked her on the back of the head, causing her to grunt in pain and fall to the ground, staggered by the surprisingly strong blow. Takeo took Kyoko’s hand and the pair bolted out into the woods after Satoko.

Their headstart was clear, and just as the adults stood to their feet, watching the kids run off into the distance, Saburo took a step forward to chase after them. As he did, he was stopped by Sayumi, her expression back to being straight and emotionless.

“It’s their win. We can’t take a fight with kids into a town, it’d be far too suspicious, and it’d blow our cover. We need to report back. Let’s go.” She stated plainly. Saburo stamped his foot in the ground, upset.

“Yeah… sure.” He shook his head, letting out a deep sigh. “Boss isn’t gonna like this though.”

Kyoko and Takeo made it into town. They looked behind them and were happy to see that there were no adults chasing them anymore. Takeo put his hands on his knees and started breathing heavily, not being used to that kind of running. While he was catching his breath, Kyoko patted him on the back, and Satoko stepped forward, also out of breath, but recovered enough to hold out the prize of the day. She smiled widely as she showed off the purple gem to the pair. Kyoko and Takeo looked at each other with wide grins.

“We won! We totally won!” They both shouted in celebration as the trio gathered into a group hug.

Hours later, Saburo and Sayumi approach a dark car parked on a side street in Shirakawa, the capital of the region that Palmont was in. A window rolled down, revealing a man in sunglasses. He looked to his two subordinates and raised an eyebrow as they approached, both looking dirty from fighting in the forest.

“Well? How did things go, then?” He asked with a professional voice, containing his curiosity at the events that led them to look as they do.

“Well you see… Things got a little messy.” Saburo started, but was swiftly cut off by Sayumi, who adopted a more professional stance while explaining.

“There were three young children who also found the gem as we did. Two of them seemed to use these gems, while the third one used her cowardice and lack of power to her advantage, swiping the gem while I and Saburo were occupied trying to handle the two who did have them. It seems one of them is from Eden, the other? I can’t say. But she newly acquired what appeared to be powers of water. The third, powerless one, escaped with the gem, running into the town. We decided not to give chase, as it would have blown our cover. You have our deepest apologies for this failure, we will do better next time.” After finishing her explanation, Sayumi gave the man in the car a deep apologetic bow, and Saburo took his queue to do the same.

“Two people, children nonetheless, with powers of the crystals? That is an unexpected development.” The man held a hand to her chin as he went deep into thought. “We will have to discuss our next movements in a more discreet location. Come, get into the back of the car. Things have just gotten very interesting indeed…” The bespectacled man smirked as he considered just what this all meant for the remainder of the mission.