"Hey, Huo! Lady Koukyuu!" a girl in a black suit yelled, waving at us as we arrived at the station. Her long, shiny, cyan hair waved as a train rushed past her and came to a stop. We had stopped in Xiaomi, a tiny town near the border with Tora.

Koukyuu? So that's her name—a pretty name for a beautiful lady.

"Hey," Huoyin said, running over to her.

"W-who is the p-pretty girl?" I asked, pointing at her. Was she Huoyin's girlfriend? How did a guy with a sucky attitude even get a girl before me?

"She's Lidia, and don't worry, she's not Huoyin's girlfriend. Trust me, I asked already," Nate said, laughing.

I gasped as Lidia boarded the train with Huo. "W-wait, s-she's coming with us?"

Koukyuu nodded. "Yes."

"W-why didn't wasn't she in the car like Au?"

Lidia laughed as she stood by the opened doors as we drew closer. "That's because I didn't want to get in that car again. At least not with the instructor as the driver."

"I should've stayed with you," Huo said from within the train.

Couldn't blame either of them.

Lady Koukyuu sighed as we got in. "How rude."

I glanced around at the train's nice-looking crimson seats. Their arrangement was similar to the seats in a subway rather than most trains. Based on their appearance, this had to be the first class cart. It had been years since I'd last sat in first class. Nine Petal had to be quite wealthy if it could buy such expensive seats for kids who weren't even students yet.

Aurelius sat on his knees on one of the seats and peered out of the window as the train began to move.

I quickly sat down next to him. "Anything interesting?" I asked.

"This whole place is interesting," he said even as we passed through a tunnel.

I laughed. He sounded like a little kid. It reminded me of the first time I boarded this train. Mom was still alive back then, and Dad was bearable. After her death, he became colder.

Sis told me not to judge him too harshly, but how couldn't I? He kicked us out of the house had always called us useless and inept. Neither of us could reach even a sliver of the expectations he had for us.

"You okay?" Nate asked, staring at me from across the aisle.

I scratched my head. "Yeah, just feeling a little nostalgic is all."

Nate chuckled. "I see. Assume they're family related?"

"How did you know?"

Nate glanced outside of his window. "I have the same look in my eyes whenever I think of my family."

It must've been hard for him to be so far away from home.

"Must be nice to have a family," Huo said, lowering his head.

"What do you mean? You do have a family!"

"I mean parents."

"We have Fan and the other caretakers! They and the rest of us are your real family, dummy," Lidia said, smiling.

Huoyin looked up and gave her a faint smile. "Yeah, you're right."

Were the two of them raised in an orphanage? Given that Father disowned me, I probably would've been taken to one when I was caught stealing, had my sister not stepped in.

Suddenly, the lights of our train cart went dark.

"What's going on?" I asked, jumping to my feet.

"I'm not sure, but I don't like it one bit," Lidia said, gulping.

I heard the sound of a door opening.

"Stand back!" Nate said. "I'll handle this."

"Handle what?" I asked, sitting back down.

My eyes widened as I heard a man groan in agony.

"Who are you?" Nate asked.

A flame lit up in our guide's palm, lighting up the cart. On the floor was a man in black clothing. Even his face was covered up.

"Is he the one who opened the door?" I asked.

Nate nodded and pulled the guy up by the collar of his coat. "Based on his outfit, think he's a robber."

"I agree," Huoyin said.

"Ditto," I said.

"How could you see me?" he mumbled.

Nate smirked. "I got excellent 'night' vision."

The man's body dissolved into shadows, but stopped midway.

"What? W-why isn't my magic working?" he cried out, looking around as half his body remained in the surface.

Nate smiled. "I stopped it. It seems that my control of darkness is greater than yours."

The man clicked his tongue. "Cocky little bastard!" He reached for the pocket of his coat but was stopped by tendrils of darkness. "Damn it! Why can't I break away? Is this even magic?"

Nate let go of the man and watched as more binds apprehended him. "Don't try anything funny, or you will regret it. Now, tell me. How many of you are there?"

"There's more?" I asked. Screams echoed from further back in the train.

"Seems that the others have made their move," the thief said, grinning. "Unlike me, they won't be taken down as easily by a bunch of snot-nosed brats."

"You better not be calling me one," our guide said, standing up. Ice appeared and crawled up the man's arms and feet.

"L-let me go!" he yelled.

"Sorry, but I can not trust you to stay still." She stared at us. "Boys, Lidia, stay here. I'm going to go take out the others."

"Can't we go with you?" I asked.

"Yeah, let us help!" Lidia said.

"Hey, you didn't stutter this time, Cart," Nate said, laughing.

My cheeks warmed up. "Shut up. Now's not the time!"

"He's right!" Lidia said, glaring at him.

Koukyuu sighed. "This one might've been easy to take down, but we know nothing of the others."

"That's why we need to get him to speak up," Nate said. He punched his hand and grinned at the thief. "So, ready to spill the beans?"

The thief gulped as Nate continued to smile at him.

"Scary," I mumbled.

Huoyin nodded.

"Reminds me of my dad," Aurelius said, laughing.

"Your dad is a mafia boss or something?" I asked.

"No, he's chief of our tribe."

I smiled. "Ahh, so he is a kind of boss." My shifted shifted to our guide. I gasped, she saw gone ahead and left. In her place was a floating fireball.

"Wow, I want to learn how to do that," I whispered as I walked over to it.

"Are you a fire mage?" Aurelius asked as we left Nate to do all of the interrogating.

I nodded. "Yeah, but it's fairly weak." I could produce embers, but anything beyond that proved too hard for me. Not that I would tell him that. It would make me look uncool.

"At least you have magic," Huoyin said, staring at his hands.

True, I had to be grateful.

"So, what do you have, Au?" Lidia asked, glancing at our dark skinned friend.

"I have wind," Aurelius said, smiling.

"A-and it seems that Nate has darkness," I said, looking over my shoulder. Nate was poking the thief's forehead in an attempt to get him to talk.

Nate glanced at us and laughed. "Actually, I have wind and fire magic too. Not to mention wood and earth. I know a bit of ice magic too."

My left eye twitched. He knew how to use six elements? But, I bet that they weren't as strong as his darkness magic.

Huo also seemed annoyed as he gave Nate a glare. Life could really be unfair.

"Now, speak, Mister, or I'll have to resort to using fire on you," Nate said, grinning at the man.

The thief shivered but continued to give him a defiant look.

"Leave him. I don't think he'll crack. Criminals have an honor code where the cardinal rules are don't get caught, and if you do, you're better off dead than a snitch," I said, walking toward the door. I know as I was one...

"Where are you going? Koukyuu told us to stay here!" Aurelius said, following after me.

"I want to help her out. As she said, we don't know the full extent of their operation. They may ambush her before she even has a chance to fight."

"I wouldn't worry about that—Koukyuu's strong. You saw how quickly she froze this guy's arms," Nate said as he walked over to us. "If anything, we should be the ones worried."

"Us, why?" I asked.

"This is the prized area. The first class cart."

He was right!

"I think we're the only one with people on it," Aurelius said, glancing into the empty neighboring cart.

"Yes. The thieves should've waited until later to attack. Then again, Tora is filled with strong magicians, so any picked up on the way are potential threats," Nate said.

"Yeah, now's the optimal time to strike," Huoyin whispered.

"Are you saying that people from my country aren't strong?" I asked, leering at them. If Dad heard him, he would've punched the two of them.

Nate shook his head. "No. Not at all. I'm simply talking about reputation here."

He was right, though it was still annoying. After becoming Magus Maximus, my next goal should be to make my country the strongest. Accomplishing the first would help its reputation, though.

"You brats think that you can beat us?" the bounded thief asked.

"Get back!" Nate yelled, pushing us into the next cart. Spikes rose from the floor and tore through the train.

"Nate!" Aurelius yelled. He clapped his hands, unleashing a wave of wind. Though that was a mistake as it blew out Koukyuu's floating flame.

I curled my hands into fists.

"I'm fine!" Nate said, running over to us. He held out his hand and created a fireball to light our way.

I glanced into our cart and saw the thief passed out.

"Guess that there really was no hope in getting him to talk, huh?" Aurelius said, sighing.

"Sadly," Nate said as he held his hand toward the man. "Hedera!" Ivy wrapped emerged from the palm of his hand and wrapped itself around the thief, forming a thick cocoon.

"Is that stuff the itchy kind?" I asked, wincing.

Nate chuckled. "Want to find out?"

I raised my hands in front of myself and shook my head before backing away. "No. I don't think I do!"

Aurelius laughed. "So, what now? Are we going to stay here?"

Nate looked forward. "I'll go to the front of the train. The conductor may be in trouble."

"Wait, I'm coming with you!" I said, running ahead.

"Same here!" Aurelius said, rushing over to us.

"Alright, but be careful. The other thieves could sneak up on us at any moment."

The train reached the end of the tunnel, causing light to rain into the cabin. The seats we were seated on awhile ago were now torn. Likely shredded by the dark spikes.

Nate gasped as the train swayed side to side.

"What's going on?" Aurelius asked as he wobbled as if surfing.

Nate slammed his hands on the floor of the train. "I think one of the thieves is an earth user!" he yelled, grunting.

"They must also be desperate," I said, eyeing the forest. The western side of the mountain range was indeed different from the more barren eastern half.

"Why are earth mages such desperate fighters?" Huo snapped.

"Wish I knew," Lidia said, holding on to to the rail for support.

"They're likely fighting Koukyuu. You to go on ahead! I'll meet up with you once I've stabilized this train!"

"Alright!" I said, running toward the front of the train.

I gasped as several men in black rushed toward us from both sides of the cart. Seemed we had train trouble in our hands.

**Solar Note: Hope that you enjoyed this chapter. Thoughts thus far on the new characters?**