Across the ragged weedy field, Daisuke dragged Kiyo to the base of the far back grand stone wall. The two of them were mere ants in its presence, yet they looked upon it with all the more wonder.

“I’ve always wanted to come here. And look, not a single guardian in sight.”

“I don’t know. Is this safe?” Kiyo asked hesitantly as he glanced back at the path they came from.

“Safe?” Daisuke perched his lips and blew a little puff of spit-laced air toward Kiyo. “Pfff! It’s easy, probably. Just follow me.” Daisuke said cockily, a sly smirk creasing his lips.

Daisuke stretched up and grabbed onto a loose stone in the wall. He swung himself side to side and caught onto the middle ledge. Easing his body up into the air, he scaled the wall up the three tared rock levels to the wooden midsection. Kiyo watched from the ground below, finger in his mouth as Daisuke ascended to the top. The rough tacky vass blades pricked into his bare feet, yet he enjoyed the feeling. It was unique but familiar somehow.

“Almost—there.” Daisuke huffed out.

With bare torn palms, he continued the ascension to the top. His tiny hands clasped onto the stuck-out notches with every pull upward. The last was the most tiresome as he flung himself up onto the flat top of the wall.

“Fweeew!” Daisuke leaned over the edge and panted in the fresh afternoon air. “See? Easy!”

Daisuke gazed back down at the perplexed Kiyo, body riddled with shakes and lips clenched. His hands balled into fists at his sides as he stared up at Daisuke, unable to move a muscle.

“What?” Daisuke questioned, face scrunched at the sight of Kiyo’s apparent fear.

“It’s just a-a little high. And it’s already past noon-”

“Kiyo,” Daisuke said abruptly.

“Yeah?”

“Shut up and come look at this.” Daisuke said joyfully, eyes full of glee. A widespread awestricken smile gripped his face as he turned back and took in the scenery beyond the wall. What he had dreamed of seeing up close since he was able to peer out his window.

“Look at what?”

Silence filled the air after Kiyo’s question went unheard. Daisuke had no verbal response to offer as he took in the moment, captivated by the grander world he had only heard about in stories. Kiyo left in the dark. 

“D-Daisuke?” Still nothing. Kiyo sighed as he ran his gaze from the base of the wall to the tippy top where Daisuke sat upright. Checking to see if no one else was nearby, Kiyo shuffled side to side at the thought of scaling the wall. An antsy jitter was apparent in the wobble of his legs. His innate fear of heights was battled by the little fuzzy sensation of curiosity to see what had taken Daisuke’s breath away.

“C’mon up. It’s so cool.” Daisuke egged on.

That was it. Kiyo opened up his hands and made his way over to the wall. Fueled by a single tingle that spread throughout his body, he grabbed onto the wall. Stones clenched in his palms, he dug his nails into the cracks and held on now or never. 

One foot at a time, Kiyo propelled himself up the wall, step by step. Pace a little faster than Daisuke as he flung himself up the grand wall. Kiyo’s fingers grappled onto the top to only be grabbed by Daisuke as he yanked Kiyo up. The force swept Kiyo into the air, mouth gaping open as surprise filled in the empty space.

Without time to react, Kiyo fell on his butt with a light slap from the wood. He winced in pain but fell silent as he followed Daisuke’s steady arm. At the very end, his outstretched finger pointed toward the greater horizon, the world they had only heard of until then.

“Look Kiyo. It’s amazing.”

“Wooah,” Kiyo responded as he stood upright.

The two friends gazed out into the world beyond the Nippon village. Down the steep cliffside, a short distance from the wall led to the Sun-touched tan vastalleys that grew over the ashy gray dirt. Pitch black tar pits scattered throughout the lowlands with clusters of people down there to harvest them for construction. Small round lumped flesh toothers scavenged the grounds as they fled capture from Nippon hunters. A minor inconvenience-tumored animal that dared to get so close to the village out of instinctual stupidity. Its tooth-covered gnarly body a mere warning for what lurked further out in the world. Creatures worth fearing.

“Daisuke look over there,” Kiyo said excitedly, a small smirk parted his lips from one another.

Kiyo pointed past the other various gray rock structure that dotted the landscape to the growing horizon, a hint of green visible on its edge. A sliver of land they had both never seen. The destination of dreams for any young Paladinian. To journey out into the world.

Wow. I can’t wait to see it all. Daisuke thought to himself, unable to hold back the joy of the moment that left him with a grin.

But then an idea popped into Daisuke’s mind. With his hand gripped onto his chin, he narrowed his focus for a minute and glanced over at Kiyo. His friend was just as captivated by the view, the subtle yellow gleam in Kiyo’s eyes just a tad brighter than before. The pain he held close to him was forgotten, even if for just a moment. A joyful stare settled it.

“I got it,” Daisuke announced.

“What do you got?”

“Why don’t we meet here every day?”

It was unexpected, Kiyo’s smirk shrunk a little at the thought of it, gaze falling to the wooden beam beneath them as his father barged into his mind. Terrified of how he would react to his absence. Kiyo rubbed up and down his arms as memories of the pain flared up in his mind. A scarred childhood.

“But my father will worry. And—”

“Just for two turns? It’s not that long. Just two.” Daisuke bargained, hands clutched together as he shook them at Kiyo.

“You're right,” Kiyo said, the small smirk still expanding across his face. Cheeks a warm rosy red as the joy of the moment flooded back in. “It is nice here.”

“Yeah!” Daisuke jumped up into the air, his fist punched toward the heavenly sky. “Every day, same time.” Daisuke yelled out. 

On the outside he continued to celebrate, wood creaking beneath his bombarded excitement for the future at hand. But there was more to it, his true inner emotions tied to the situation. He was more thrilled to have made a friend. Someone new outside the four walls of his own home.

Kiyo in the same manner of interest was surprised to even find someone like Daisuke. Everything about him only bewildered the little boy. Lost for words, awestruck by the open friendliness of someone else his age. The boundless joy.

It felt nice. A comfortable presence to dwell within. Each was the other’s balancer, their peacekeeper. 

In each other they found freedom. A reason to be happy.

“Oh and stick out your hand,” Daisuke said abruptly as he stopped celebrating, right pointer finger hurled toward Kiyo.

“What for?”

Daisuke chuckled and grabbed Kiyo’s arm on his own accord. Pulling out Kiyo’s left hand toward himself, Daisuke extended out a full arm’s length. Their hands clutched together in the middle. Daisuke fidgeted them about for a couple of seconds to get the gesture he wanted, it proving to be more difficult than he imagined. With his open hand, he held it up in front of them. Eventually, with a pointer and middle finger straightened out, he tucked the rest of his fingers into his palm.

“What’s that?” Kiyo questioned.

“C’mon do it. Promise it’s good.”

“Okay.”

Kiyo mimicked Daisuke’s hand gesture.

“Now tap my fingers with yours.”

Kiyo nodded and reached out toward Daisuke’s fingers. Without hesitation, Daisuke clenched Kiyo’s fingers with his own and brought them toward his palm. Taken aback by the instantaneous action, Kiyo could only watch Daisuke enact an unseen foreign gesture. Something Daisuke had practiced on his own for weeks.

The best friend handshake.

“Peroo!” Daisuke imitated an explosion as he shoved Kiyo’s hand away from his.

“What was that?” Kiyo asked worriedly.

“A handshake. You know . . . for friends.”

“Friends?”

“Yeah us, have to be friends if we got a hideout.”

Kiyo gasped. The word unheard of to him, something beaten out of his mind in the isolation his father chained him down too. Stuck in unfamiliarity, he stared into his hand-shaken palm for a minute, lost in the thought of what it meant. Warm unfamiliar emotions rose within him, and the odd comfort grew immensely.

It was friendship. Something neither had ever truly experienced before. This day was one of many that lay ahead for the duo, a plethora of new awaiting them that they would never forget. But this first one was beyond special. It was locked within their young minds for all of eternity. Daisuke the cause of it all. The catalyst for opening up.

Kiyo’s first friend.

“Yeah . . . friends.”