Sato, Sakura, and Ai continued walking to Sihalia. Ai plopped down on the ground. "My legs are tired," she pouted.


    Sato rubbed the back of his head trying to think, "Well, aren''t we close to Sihalia? Can''t you just persevere?"


    Ai shook her head. Sakura offered an idea, "Sihalia is close. But there are some hot springs a little while away from here. We could stop there if you want, Ai?"


    Sato interrupted, "You guys have hot springs here?" He was quite surprised that this jacked-up word had something in common with his home. Plus he felt it was kind of strange for Bakemono to have had the same invention as humans.


    "Of course we do. Why wouldn''t we?"


    "I-uh, just you know? Never mind." Sato pushed it aside not wanting to get on Sakura''s bad side.


    Sakura turned back to face Ai, "So, what do you say?"


    "I say, let''s go! But um, big brother, can you carry me?" Ai spread out her arms, "Please?"


    Sakura chuckled and Sato became a little embarrassed, "You''re serious?" Ai just smiled and kept her arms spread out waiting for Sato to pick her up. He didn''t really want to but just looking at Ai''s adorable face made it hard for him to say no.


    After a while, the group finally reached the hot springs and Ai jumped off of Sato''s back staring at the hot springs with joy, "Yay, we''re here!"


    Sakura started walking, "Come on Ai. Let''s go."


    "But I wanna go in the hot springs with big brother," Ai whined.


    Sato became flustered, "What are you talking about?! You can''t bathe with me!" No matter how adorable her face was, there was absolutely no way Sato would sit nude in hot water with her like nobody''s business.


    "Why, why not?" Ai started to cry.


    "Shame on you Sato. You just made poor little Ai cry. Do just hate kids or something?" Sakura joked.


    "Hey! You know that''s not true!" Sato retorted.


    "Whatever. Come on Ai, let''s leave the big meanie alone," Sakura walked off with Ai.


    Sato grunted, "Whatever." He took off his clothes and went into the hot springs. He sighed already relaxed and soothed from the piping hot water. An Ostrich shaped Bakemono with a bronze beak and worm for a tongue sat down next to Sato. Sato tried to ignore it and slowly moved away. But it kept moving closer. They kept doing this going around in circles faster and faster until the Ostrich like Bakemono jumped onto Sato and held him down.


    The Ostrich shaped Bakemono laughed a disturbing laugh that made it sound like he was having a seizure. "So you thought you could outrun a speed Bakemono, did ya? What a fool!"


    "Get off me, ya creep!" Sato squirmed underneath the Bakemono.


    The Bakemono held Sato''s wrists firmly in place as he glared at the teen. "Who are you calling a creep?! You disrespectful, little whippersnapper! Now use your manners and perhaps I will think of letting you go."


    Sato didn''t really want to show this creep any manners. He wanted to show him the stars. But as he continued to struggle underneath his body, he realized he had no choice. Sato''s eyebrow started to twitch, "Please, get off of me, sir."


    "Ah, that''s more like it," The Speed Bakemono got up off of Sato and introduced himself. "My name is Bunka and am I the elder of a nearby village."The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    "Well, I''m Yamagata Satoshi. I would say it''s nice to meet you but ya know. You kinda attacked me for no reason, so yeah," Sato said awkwardly.


    Bunka snorted, "No good reason, my ass! You kept running away from me like I was some wild beast or something!"


    "That''s because you look like one!" Sato protested.


    Bunka suddenly became quiet and just sighed, "So then, you''re like the rest of them, huh?"


    "What do you mean like the rest of them?" Sato inquired.


    "Every free-willing Bakemono always mistakes me for a mindless Bakemono. And not just me either, there are plenty of others like me who get killed by them without even giving us a chance. In fact, even some of the mindless Bakemono don''t deserve the fate they get. Thousands of them are killed without a problem like it''s stepping on a pebble. The world moves on, right? Wrong. I mean can you honestly say, you''ve never killed an innocent Bakemono."


    "Of course I..." Sato paused and thought back remembering the Elephant Bakemono. "Can''t."


    Bunka sighed again, "So you see, that''s what I mean by you''re just like the rest of them." Bunka stared up at the sky. Sato feeling nervous descended lower into the water.


    Meanwhile, in the woman''s hot springs Sakura and Ai were both having a nice time. Sakura stretched out her arms and yawned, "Ah, this is so relaxing." Nothing was better than a nice steaming hot bath. Especially after a bunch of fighting. Sakura was going to savor this break of hers.


    "Yeah, it''s really nice," Ai agreed. "So Sakura, I was wondering. Do you like Sato?"


    "Of course I do. I mean, he''s pretty cool and reliable most of the time. He''s definitely a good friend to have."


    Ai shook her head, "You know do you like like him?"


    Sakura was surprised why Ai was asking this all of a sudden. She guessed maybe Ai was bored. Sakura blushed, "Uh, well I just met the guy. He''s a real smart ass at times but he sure is fun to mess around with. Plus he has the potential to be a really good fighter."


    Ai mimicked a mouth talking with her hand, "Blah blah. Boring! I meant do you think he''s cute and wanna be his girlfriend?" Ai gets a cat-like smile on her face, "And do you wanna kiss him? I know I do~"


    An embarrassed Sakura shoved Ai down into the water. Ai came back up and took a big breath, "Hey that was mean! What did you do that for?!"


    Sakura''s back was now facing Ai so she wouldn''t see the obvious blush painted on her face. "No reason."


    Ai just crossed her arms and huffed.


    "Maybe one day, I just might though." Sakura thought to herself.


    Back in the men''s hot springs Sato and Bunka just finished drying off. Sato put on his shirt and noticed Bunka putting on a shirt as well. It was a simple dark blue polo but it still felt odd to Sato, seeing it on something like Bunka.


    Bunka noticed Sato staring at him strangely, "What is it?"


    "Oh, it''s just um, your shirt..." Sato caught a glimpse of Bunka giving him a warning glare. "I, uh just spaced out that''s all," Sato laughed awkwardly.


    Out of nowhere a giant silver rose-like Bakemono with a bee''s stinger lashed out at Sato but he jumped back just in the nick of time.


    "Bunka, since this thing attacked us first, it''s okay to kill it, right?" Sato quickly turned around and noticed that Bunka was running away.


    "Every man for himself!"


    "What a wimp! Oh well." Sato raised his left arm, "Illustrate!" A gleaming silver sword formed in his hands. "Looks like I''ll be fighting alone this time. I sure hope I don''t die. But I probably will..."


    Sato ran readying his sword. But the Rose Bakemono managed to strike first with its roots shooting up out of the ground. Sato barely managed to dodge them getting scraped by one occasionally. He realized he was trapped inside of all the roots. "Please, this is no challenge for my brain," Sato swung his sword to cut the roots but they stayed firmly planted with not even the slightest indication of being cut.


    "Okay, maybe it''s a little bit of a challenge..." Sato sat down trying to think and let his sword disappear. The Rose Bakemono didn''t give him much time. It flew over above Sato with its stinger aimed at him. Sato started knocking on his head, "Damn it Sato, think!"


    As the Rose Bakemono plunged for him, Sato reached his right arm overhead in the direction of the Rose Bakemono and his left arm straight in front of him. "Illustrate!" A small but sturdy iron shield formed in his right hand and an iron ax in his left.


    "Darn it! I wanted them to be bigger. Oh well, gotta work with what I got now." Sato tossed the shield up in the air with the Rose Bakemono on it as high as he could. He chopped the roots with the ax as fast as he could knowing he only had a limited amount of time.


    He just finished cutting down the last root and rolled out of the way from an angry Rose Bakemono whose stinger had ripped through the middle of the iron shield.


    Sato swung the ax slicing the Rose Bakemono in half and splattering silver colored blood all over his clothes. "Oh, that''s sick," Sato started to get pale. He thought about his earlier discussion with Bunka and put his right hand over his heart. "From now on, I will never kill a Bakemono without a valid reason. I swear on my life!"


    A little while later Sato met back up with Sakura and Ai and they walked up to the gates of Sihalia.


    Sato looked up at the enormous highly guarded gates awe-struck, "We''re finally here, in front of the gates to the Kingdom of Sihalia."