Though Shintaro was grateful for the hospitality and the shelter, he knew that he needed to be extremely cautious around Ozai. Shintaro didn't know what his father wanted with this man; but whatever it was, Brethren had been intent on finding him. Shintaro suspected that was why Brethren was ordering his Darks to randomly attack nearby towns recently - because Brethren was on a hunt for this man. 

That fact raised many questions in Shintaro's mind, ones that he didn't have the answers to. Who was Ozai to Brethren? Did the two men know each other personally? When Brethren had asked Shintaro if he'd heard of Ozai, was the fire in his eyes indicated rivalry? Did Brethren fear Ozai's power, since Ozai seemed to be a magically enhanced Dark? Was Ozai planning to overthrow Brethren in the near future? Had Brethren been searching for Ozai because he was an excellent spy, and once he'd found him, Brethren had sent him here to gather information from Shintaro and his friends? Was Ozai really intent on hiding from The Dark Lord? Even if he was, why would he? Did he know that Brethren would easily beat him in a battle for the title of leader? Was Ozai anything like Kai - rebellious against the ways of the Darks? 

These questions were running through Shintaro's head constantly as he sat at the couch with a few of his friends, politely eating a meal that Ozai had provided for them (Shintaro had to admit, this man wasn't a bad cook.). Gabriel, Linda, Ruby, Moon, Zeke, and Rachel were sitting in the dining room at the table, but there weren't enough chairs for everyone; therefore, the rest of them - Falte, Shintaro, Abby, Amy, and Nanami - were seated in the living room along the couch and in the chairs. Ozai was in the kitchen, bustling around and cleaning up after the prep of the meal. 

Abby and Nanami were on the floor in front of the coffee table, while Amy, Falte, and Shintaro were sitting on the couch, quietly eating their food. 

"So, Amy," Falte said conversationally, toying with the chicken on his plate with his fork. "How long ago did you live here?" 

Amy opened her mouth to answer him, frowned, and closed it again. She set her plate on her lap and started counting on her fingers, mumbling different numbers incoherently under her breath. 

Finally, she looked up with a renewed smile. "Twelve years ago," she replied, picking her plate back up and returning to the salad she'd piled onto her plate. "My family and I evacuated when I was fourteen, but we never came back here." 

"How many were in your family?" Falte asked curiously. "I'm going to safely assume quite a few, since there are four bedrooms upstairs." 

"Four children, two adults," Amy answered cheerfully. "Six in total. I've heard of families with eight or ten total people, and I seriously pity them. Just having four siblings was crazy." She stuffed a bite of salad into her mouth. 

"You're already crazy," Shintaro muttered under his breath. "Have you ever considered their side of the story?" 

Amy turned to him with her fork sticking out her mouth and a playful frown on her face. She pulled out her fork, stuck up her finger in a wait gesture, chewed, swallowed, and pouted humorously at Shintaro. "I heard that, you big lug," she said snottily. "They were able - and had to - put up with me, and they got used to it pretty quick. It was each other that drove them, and me, crazy." 

"Are you the oldest?" Abby piped up, stirring her chopped up chicken around her plate absentmindedly. 

"Yep," Amy said, setting her plate empty plate on the coffee table in front of her. "When we moved out, I was fourteen, my siblings were twelve, ten, seven, and five. They were great siblings, when they weren't at each other's throats." 

Abby's expression softened, and she tentatively opened her mouth to ask another question. "How long ago did they..." 

"My parents died in a car crash six years ago," Amy replied in the same soft tone. "I wasn't really close to them, so I didn't really know how to take it. Four months later, my brother - the one I was closest to in age and relationship - got sick and died in the hospital five days later. A year later - several months after I found and helped Rachel regain her physical and mental health - the youngest, my little sister, committed suicide when she was only thirteen. Just two years ago, my two other siblings died in a house fire. 

"I couldn't go visit them, because I didn't really have a decent... job," Amy said with a shrug of her shoulders. "I couldn't afford a car, so I only heard of their deaths from letters sent in the mail by the doctors or close friends of my parents'." 

"Oh, Amy, I'm sorry," Abby said sincerely; and Shintaro knew if the two girls were nearer to each other, Abby would wrap Amy in a tight squeeze. 

Amy shrugged again. "It's not really a big deal. I wasn't that close to my family. My brother and I weren't as close as you probably are thinking. I just knew him better than the rest of my siblings, and we would talk and joke more." 

Falte gently set his plate down on the table, eyeing Amy with pity and concern. "You don't have to talk about it anymore if you don't want to." 

"We can keep talking about my family," Amy said with yet another shrug. "I don't mind that. Just maybe not their deaths." She gave Falte and Abby a smile that seemed somewhat forced, but Shintaro could tell it wasn't too emotional. She seemed to have her past in check. 

Nanami pointed to the wall behind the couch, her face curious and confused. "What happened?" 

Shintaro and Amy both turned around to see what she was looking at, and they found a smudge of faded blue on the wall just above the couch. It was shaped in a splatter, like someone had thrown something blue harshly at the wall. 

Amy peered at it for a moment before breaking into delighted laughter. When she recovered, she was smiling from ear to ear. "My brothers were being idiots," she said, obviously recalling the memory with another small chuckle. "They somehow found paint balls and started throwing them at each other. My mother tried to stop them before something like that would happen, but she didn't do very well. Shawn felt so bad after that, especially after facing our dad's wrath." 

Falte laughed too. "Kai did something like that when he was two. He didn't know any better, and he thought since there was already paint on the walls, he could put more on them. Haley had set him down the living room while she cooked food, but I guess she didn't notice that he'd disappeared into the hallway with a bottle of red paint. I was really mad when I came home, and I think I may have terrified Kai into not doing things like that." 

Abby giggled, shifting her position slightly to sit cross legged on the floor. "Kai did some funny things when he was little that I don't ever expect to see him do now." 

Falte nodded in agreement. "When he got older, he gained his quiet, helpful, sarcastic, and sweet personality. He's a lot like his mother. Maybe a little more sarcastic," he added with a chuckle. 

Shintaro looked up when Ozai walked from the kitchen into the living room, brushing his hands on his jeans briefly. He smiled politely when he spotted Shintaro looking at him, and Shintaro searched his face - but found nothing but formal politeness behind Ozai's smile. 

Looking away, Shintaro wasn't sure if he was disappointed or grateful for the fact that Ozai seemed like a harmless, docile man who had every intent to keep them safe from Brethren as long as he could - while also hiding from The Dark Lord. 

Shintaro suddenly was aware of something like a tug in the back of his mind, and, so he wouldn't draw attention, held back the small flinch that had been working its way up to his shoulders. The tug wasn't painful, but it was unsettling as it pulled at his thoughts again.

Warily, he glanced over at Ozai; but the man had simply sat down a little ways away from the two girls that were sitting on the floor, his legs folded neatly under him and his hands clasped politely in his lap. He smiled gratefully when Falte complimented the food, and showed no signs of using any magic to disturb Shintaro. 

For the first time, Shintaro realized that Ozai was covered in faint scars. A long, thin scar slid across his nose; one crawled up his right cheek to just below his eye; another cut through his eyebrow and left eye; a small, white scar cut across his chin; and Shintaro saw a few more peeking out on his shoulders from under his shirt. 

The unsettling tug grew irresistible, and Shintaro frowned harshly at the chair he was facing.  

Realizing that it was probably Linda just trying to get his attention, he opened up the mental block on his mind that he'd involuntarily put there many years ago. 

"Finally," Linda's impatient voice said in his head, and Shintaro held back a small shiver. Linda had never used her telepathy to speak in his head, and it was confusing. It sounded like her voice was like a speaker in his head, her words almost echoing as if she was talking loudly in a big, empty space. 

"You're mind is oddly hard to get to," Linda said blatantly. "I haven't been able to hear your thoughts, so you don't need to worry about me intruding in your head. Unless you let me in," she added, "which you finally just did." 

Is there something you needed? Shintaro asked, forcing the rest of his questions, suspicions, and memories to the back of his head, guarded. He wasn't sure how he knew how to do the trick, but he'd managed to teach himself to shove unimportant thoughts to the back of his head. If he was focused and calm enough. 

"You realize who this guy is, right? Ozai?" she clarified in his head, her tone sounding skeptical and wary.  

I don't know exactly who he is, Shintaro thought back with a sidelong glance at Ozai, who was talking with Falte and Amy now. But I know Brethren is tearing up this world looking for him. I suspect that is why all those towns have been randomly attacked. 

"Do you know why?" Linda asked curiously. 

No, Shintaro replied. I'm not sure if Ozai did something to The Dark Lord years ago, and Brethren wants revenge; or if Brethren was looking for him to send him here as a spy; or if Ozai is planning to usurp Brethren; or if Brethren knows Ozai personally. 

"Those are all pretty good reasons," Linda said thoughtfully. "But. He doesn't seem like a spy at all. When he told us that he's hiding from The Dark Lord, he was telling the truth. His mind is like yours in a way - it's hard to read, but I can still get bits and snippets of his thoughts. He's terrified of Brethren, Shintaro. I don't have to read his mind to know that. Why would he be a spy or planning to usurp The Dark Lord if he is terrified of him?" 

Shintaro frowned at the floor, realizing that Linda would know more about this man than he could, and that she was probably right. What she'd heard from his mind were his thoughts - but what if they were staged? 

"I don't think Ozai would make a very good spy," Linda said in his head, probably replying to Shintaro's most recent thought. "He's not lying, Shintaro. It's easy for me to tell when someone is lying, because most of the time, their thoughts betray the truth. If he can lie in his mind, he's seriously skilled." 

Shintaro glanced up as Linda, Rachel, Ruby, Moon, Gabriel, and Zeke trailed out of the dining room. Zeke was carrying the plates, stacked one on top of the other, to the kitchen while the other five were heading toward the recliners. 

Linda caught his eye for a moment as she sat down on Abby's right side, crossing her legs under her. "I'm not saying we shouldn't be cautious of him," she said firmly in Shintaro's head. "We still can't trust him just yet. He's a powerful Dark; and although I haven't heard any thoughts betraying how he's a spy or he's here to hurt us, we don't know if he could attack." 

Shintaro leaned back against the cushions of the couch, crossing his arms over his chest and casting another sidelong glance at Ozai. 

This man didn't seem like he wanted to harm them. 

He was showing them hospitality. 

He was letting them stay with him, even though they could probably be found soon. 

He was risking that for them, the strangers he didn't even know. 

For some reason, Shintaro almost...

Wanted to trust him.

But why?

~

I'm already twenty-four chapters into this book!?!?!?! WHAT??!?!?!

I HAVE SO MUCH PLANNED, HOW WILL I MAKE THIS BOOK FREAKING NORMAL LENGTH?!?!

Eh, whatever. XD

This chapter is much longer than my more recent chapters, so that's an accomplishment LOL. 

I hope you guys like Ozai!! What do y'all think of him?? 

I personally WUV HIM. 

HE'S CUTE. 

AH!

But WHO IS HE?!

Well, thanks for reading XD. 

Love y'all!!

P3ac3!!!~~~