The first thing the next morning, the young master made his way to his Little Blue's house. His steps were quick and frantic as he basically ran down the path to the blue-haired girl's house. He shouldn't have told her last night. He should've just kept it quiet. If she never found out then...

He burst through the door, a loud bang sounding through the house. Without waiting for the door the rebound off the wall, he had crossed the living room and slammed the door to room of the little blue-haired ogre open.

"Little Blue!" he yelled worriedly, striding across the floor and yanking the blanket off the bed. Her dual-colored eyes opened to meet red and she blinked, confused. Before she had time to process anything, the young master had pulled her into a tight hug, burying his face into the crook of her neck. The small black horns growing from his forehead thankfully weren't sharp enough to tear through her skin. The pressure was a bit uncomfortable, but the blue-haired girl ignored it in her daze. Still not quite sure what was going on, she gently wrapped her hands around him and patted him gently on the back.

"Young Master?" she called quietly. The young master lifted his head and she saw that his eyes were a little teary. Confused, she tilted her head to the side and lifted her sleeve to wipe slightly at the corner of his eye. "Young master, what happened?"

"It was just a nightmare," he mumbled, relief washing over him as he stared at the small blue-haired girl. At first she didn't get it, but then understanding flashed through her dual-colored eyes. He had a nightmare that she had done something rash and hurt herself. Smiling a little, she pulled him into a hug.

"I promised you didn't I? Plus, if I did anything stupid, who would be here to deal with you, birdbrain?" She patted his back gently as she talked, but at the last word he pulled out of her embrace and flicked her on the forehead to the right of her small white horn.

"I'm older than you. Be nice."

"Since when has age been a deciding factor in our friendship?" She pouted and crossed her arms

"Since you called me birdbrain."

"But you are a birdbrain." Another flick to the forehead. She lifted her small hands to cover the spot where the red-haired boy had flicked and puffed her cheeks. An evil smirk came over her after a few seconds and she lowered her hands slowly from her forehead with her fingers pointed at the young master. He paled and quickly tried to get away, but it was too late.

She lunged forward from her sitting position on the bed, using her body weight to knock the young master down on the bed as she assaulted his sides with tickles. He burst into laughter and tried to wiggle his way out from under the smaller eight year old but he had lost all strength from being tickled. The more he struggled, the more she tickled him until he finally managed to get his revenge by poking her side. She yelped and retracted her hands for just a second, but it was enough for the young master to roll out from under her and onto the floor. He stood up, dusting himself off as he gave her a triumphant smile.

"You can't win against me," he said with a confident tone. She stared at him before bursting into genuine laughter, holding her stomach as she collapsed face-down onto the bed giggling. The sound made the young master smile softly in return. He would protect this smile.

~~~

"That was cheating," the red-haired ogre complained as he and Little Blue walked out of her house hand in hand. His cheeks were hurting from laughing too much.

"All is fair in a war of tickling," she refuted with a shrug of her shoulders. The grin on her face wasn't subsiding. "Just admit it, you lost to someone two years younger than you."

"I didn't lose. I just let you win," he pouted.

"Yea, because saying you surrender is not losing."

"It isn't losing if you live to fight another day." The two children glared at each other, their eyes locked together until both of them burst into laughter. They had stopped walking, both of them doubled over in laughter with their hands still linked. It took a few minutes before the two of them managed to calm down from their random laughing fit, minus the occasional giggle. Eventually they settled into a comfortable silence as they continued their walk

"I thought about what you told me last night," the blue-haired girl said, her tone a bit sad. The young master remained silent, though a bit of anxiety flooded into him as he worried about her response. Their steps slowed down until they were walking at a snail's pace.

"I won't go looking for my parents, nor will I wish to see them again. For their life, I'll move on." She hesitated. "Can you do me a favor?"

"Anything for you, Little Blue." Her grip on his hand tightened.

"Can you make sure that they're living happily?" Her voice was steady and she was smiling, but her eyes had a glassy look to them as she held back tears. "I won't be able to live with myself if they're living in a bad condition. You don't need to tell me how you found them, where they are or anything. Just that they're alive and well."

"I promise you that I'll make sure they're doing fine," the young master replied to the small blue-haired girl. He was relieved that she wasn't going to do anything drastic, but his heart ached seeing her have to give up the one thing she wanted the most - to see her parents again.

"Maybe if no one needs me in this village one day, I'll leave to go somewhere far away and my parents can come back to here and live the rest of their lives surrounded by everyone. They didn't ask to give birth to a monster that would kill them."

"Don't think like that, Little Blue. Your parents wouldn't want you to feel like it's your fault. Plus, your cousin, the princess and I will always need you. You can't escape us that easily. Your parents will be fine. They probably already found another ogre village and was welcomed in." The young girl's heterochromia eyes scanned the young master's red orbs. He held her gaze, his eyes telling her that he meant every word he said. She smiled a small smile and broke their eye contact.

"Thank you, Bird. I will always need you as well." The young master smiled at her words.

"Ah. Wait here, Fish. I'll be right back." The blue-haired ogre girl tilted her head a bit confused since they had move just a few blocks away from her house. Nonetheless, she nodded and released his hand from her grasp. He sent her a cheeky smile before running off down the street before turning a corner and disappearing from her sight.

As promised, she waited there patiently, rocking back and forth on her feet from heel to toe and back. With nothing but the tiles of the path to keep her entertained. She resorted to counting the number of tiles that spanned out in front of her.

"Look who it is," a voice called out as she counted the 326th tile. She flinched, immediately raising her head. She was met with a group of sneering, snickering bullies. Hurriedly, she stepped back, trying to escape before they surrounded her, but it was too late as the oldest ogre of the group reached out and grabbed her just before she slipped through. Eventually, the rest of the group surrounded her in a circle. Quickly, she locked her eyes onto the ground.

"Are you going to call for your parents?" someone from her right taunted.

"Shut up," she mumbled quietly.

"Oh that's right, even if you did, there's no one here because you drove them away." another ogre from her left added.

"Shut up," she repeated, a bit louder.

"What did you just say?" The ogre in front of her smirked as if daring her to repeat it. The blue-haired girl lifted her head defiantly, her sunset eye gleaming.

"I said shut up. I don't want to hear it anymore."

The ogre holding her narrowed his eyes before shoving her backwards into another ogre in the circle. The second she felt the hands on her back, she was pushed forward, into yet another ogre. The cycle continued back and forth until she stumbled and fell to the ground. Around her, the ogres laughed.

"What are you doing to my Little Blue?!" a strong voice yelled from outside the circle. It was the young master. The ogres surrounding the girl flinched, quickly retreating back into one crowd as the young master ran up to them, followed by the blue-haired ogre boy and the princess.

"Little Blue!" her cousin called. They quickly picked her up off the floor, worried for the youngest girl. She looked up to see a look of despair in their eyes as they all blamed themselves for not being here to protect her. Even the princess looked upset. In an attempt to ease their worries, the blue-haired ogre girl smiled lightly.

"I'm okay. We were just playing when I fell."

"Y-Yeah. We were just playing," one of the ogres in the group quickly agreed. The lie was obviously fake and the two boys protecting Little Blue glared harshly at the group. They paled and wisely retreated.The two of them turned their attention back to the blue-haired girl in front of them, noticing that her smile was more and more forced the more their emotions seemed to rage. Sighing, they calmed themselves down.

"I got this for you, Fish." The young master pulled out a flower hair clip ornament. It was a beautiful light blue, five petal flower that matched her hair perfectly. The petals faded from a darker blue to an almost white color.

"Why are you giving me a gift?" she asked, tilting her head to the side cutely.

"Until this flower dies, remember that I will always need you by my side," the young master replied as he clipped the flower onto the right side of her hair.

"It's not a real flower. It doesn't die," the blue-haired girl said confused as she reached a hand up to gently touch the ornament.

"Exactly," the young master smiled cheekily. "Now let's go. These two were sent to us because we took too long to get to breakfast"

~~~

8 years passed quickly and the blue-haired, dual-color-eyed girl kept her promise. Sometimes a sad look came over her when she saw other child ogres with their parents, but she quickly buried it and smiled. When she would be asked if she wanted to see her parents, she would immediately and resolutely reply no.

Little Blue had grown up beautifully over the years and reached a height of 250 centimeters. Her cousin and best friend, the young master, grew to almost 300 centimeters and towered over her and the Princess.

"If you keep glaring like that you're going to scare off everyone," the blue-haired girl said as she wandered around the young master's study, occasionally picking up a random object around the room to examine. For the past six years, he had been starting the preparations to take over as the master of the village, though he complained left and right about taking over. All those who knew the young master knew that he would much prefer to be fighting on the front lines instead of sitting back. The only thing that the young master had settled happily with was his power over deciding who was worthy to marry his younger sister. Just now, one of the elder ogres had left shaking in his shoes from the terrifying glare the young master sent him after he suggested to the young master to convince his father to have the princess married into another ogre village. As the blue-haired female said the last word, he turned her glare to her, but she remained unfazed.

"Why are you here anyways?" he asked with a sigh as he turned back to his studies. The female ogre he considered one of his best friends wasn't affected by his glare anyways, no matter how scary it was to others. "Shouldn't you be practicing your swordsmanship with your cousin?"

"I think it's better if I'm here. After all, you haven't had a fit with your powers as badly as the one yesterday in months." She turned to face the red-haired ogre and stared at him worriedly. She walked up and placed the back of her hand onto his forehead between his large black horns. At that moment, the young master was glad his skin was tinged as red as it was so that she didn't see him blush.

He had admitted to himself just a few years ago that he had started to fall for his best friend. At first, he wanted to tell her straight away about his feelings, but he hesitated and ended up pushing it off. He didn't regret pushing it off because he was able to notice that she seemed to always agree with whatever he wanted, even if she wasn't very happy with it. For example, the young girl definitely wasn't fond of the princess messing with her long blue hair, but if the young master mentioned anything along the lines of wanting the blue-haired girl to let the princess touch her hair, she would immediately cease her complaints and comply, albeit her expression would still show her distaste. There were many other instances and the young master tested it out with various commands such as asking her to hug him or duel her cousin, all of which she complied to. He concluded that he couldn't confess to her after he asked her if she would marry into another village if he commanded. She replied with a 'if it will make you happy, then yes.' The young master didn't want to have her like him because she felt obliged to.

"Just fall for me already," he mumbled almost inaudibly to the girl standing in front of him.

"Hm?" she hummed, clearly not having heard what he said. Instead of repeating it, he smirked and ruffled her hair.

"With a sword that is almost as tall as you, it's no wonder you wield it as gracefully as a fish tangled in seaweed." She glared at him, moving her hand from his forehead to one of his horns before gripping it strongly and yanking his head down, retracting her hand just before his face hit the table he was sitting behind. He quickly sat up, rubbing his nose as he glared at her.

"Excuse me. I thought I saw an ostrich behind you," she said with an innocent smile. "I'm glad that you think I can wield my claymore as gracefully as a swan though."

"What swan? You can be a lobster if you want."

"Sure," she agreed with a smile as she reached over to his arm. Swiftly, she pinched him hard before quickly retreating to the door. "This lobster will go practice her swordsmanship now, you angry duckling."

As she disappeared out his door, he couldn't help but smile a little at his best friend's antics. They've been together for 16 years now and he still could never get bored with her around.

~~~

"Stop glaring, you angry duck," the blue-haired girl scolded as she lightly slapped the young master's chest with the back of her hand. It was the end of the day and he was currently walking her back to her house at the edge of the village.

"It's that group that has been messing with you for years," the red-haired ogre complained as he glared at a nearby group. Indeed, it was the ogres that had surrounded the heterochromia girl years ago and still continued to try to torment her whenever they got a chance. "You'd think they would've grown up a bit."

"I'm fine, you don't need to get all protective," she said as she placed a hand over his clenched fist.

"But-"

"You've been walking me home every night for the past eight years and they usually don't dare to do anything in broad daylight aside from verbal insults that I can ignore." The young master sighed, releasing a breathe to try to calm down before his rage caused his powers to cause more issues. As the blue-haired ogre felt the hand she was holding rise in temperature, she quickly interlinked their fingers and sent some of her energy while absorbing the heat as she had always done. By now, she had managed to successfully suppress most of the energy, though sometimes when the young master's temperature rose too high, she would feel the pain of the heat as she absorbed it. For now, however, she was okay.

"You know, you're actually a lobster," the young master said as he stared at their linked hands. She tilted her head, confused.

"A lobster?" she echoed.

"Yes. A hard-shelled, oblivious lobster." He flicked her forehead with his freehand before turning and dragging her with him down the road to her house. She stumbled a couple steps before she caught herself and quickly caught up to the red-haired ogre's pace.

"What are you talking about?" she questioned, her hand comfortably resting in his grasp. As much as the young master hated and loved it at the same time, holding hands was completely normal for the two of them. He explained no further and the two simply continued their walk in comfortable silence until they reached her door.

"I'll come get you in the morning for breakfast." The young master brushed the blue-haired girl's hair back behind her shoulder lightly. His hand drifted up to the flower ornament that he had given her just over eight years ago. Clearly, she had been taking good care of it.

"You know you don't have to come get me every morning, right?" she asked as she leaned instinctively leaned towards his hand. "I can already beat that stoic cousin of mine with my claymore. I'm more than capable of protecting myself."

"Yet you won't raise a hand against that group who bullied you," the young master deadpanned as he curled his hand into a fist and gently tapped the side of her head in scolding. She smiled sheepishly.

"It's not like they're doing anything drastic. A few shoves and insults won't do anything to me. On the other hand, if I actually fight them, that would cause more trouble for you to take care of."

"I don't care about if you cause me trouble or not," the red-haired ogre sighed.

"Well I care," she rebutted with a soft smile. Before he could argue any further, she turned around and opened the door to her house, turning back to face the young master again after she swung the door open. "I'll see you bright and early tomorrow morning, you turkey."

"Goodnight to you too, clownfish.

~~~

"Keep your eyes on your opponent! You carry a claymore so you won't be able to carry a shield! If you cannot predict your opponent's moves, you will get hit!"

The white-haired ogre's instructions rang out clearly to the blue-haired girl. She had grown enough to be able to wield the claymore that her parents had left behind. It was a long, silver, double-edged sword that had blue accents. Sparks from the blade flew as hers met the young master's katana. Immediately knowing that her attack had been blocked, she withdrew her sword, leaping back to avoid a strike from her opponent. Without a second to rest, she pushed off again towards the red-haired ogre, their swords once again meeting. Even when training, she dressed in a traditional kimono, though it didn't seem to affect her movements at all. She moved just as gracefully with her claymore and it almost looked as if she was dancing. It would be entrancing to anyone watching.At long last, their practice ended once she ran out of stamina and was quickly defeated by the red-haired male.

"You're getting better," he complimented as he pulled her off the ground. She allowed him to pull her up, but not before she grabbed her sword off the ground. With a swift motion, she sheathed the blade into the scabbard slung across her back diagonally. The length of the sheathed sword was almost as tall as the girl herself.

"You better keep practicing, birdbrain, or else I'll catch up to you quickly," she taunted, sticking her tongue out childishly at her best friend. "After all, I surpassed that stoic cousin of mine in no time. The sweet taste of victory after seeing that proud cousin of mine scared and shocked of the blade pointed at his neck."

"I'd prefer you not bring that up again," came the blue-haired male's reply. His expression remained unchanged, but a light pink flooded his cheeks from embarrassment. His first loss had been quick to say the least. He underestimated his own cousin and suffered a defeat that neither his best friend, the young master, nor his cousin has let him forget about. "Plus, you'd never be able to catch up to the young master with as low stamina as you have."

"Hey! I was able to duel for a good hour this time, even after the long training!" She puffed her cheeks in indignation as her cousin calmly argued with her.

"Once you can last five hours, then you can think about taking the young master on," the blue-haired male replied, his expression still unchanging.

"Who's side are you on anyways? Shouldn't you agree with me since I'm your precious little cousin?"

"Of course he agrees with me," the young master butted in, slinging his arm across the blue-haired male's shoulder. The two of them were just about the same height at about 300 cm. "Who would side with a floundering fish like you?"

"Better than a featherless chicken," she refuted, crossing her arms as she turned her head away from the two boys. As she turned away, she saw the pink-haired princess. Immediately, her defiant expression turned to large crocodile tears and she ran up to the shorter female ogre and hugged her.

"Princess! That Dodo that you call your brother is so mean to me!" she fake cried to the girl, scooting so that she was behind the girl and hidden from view. From behind the mass of pink hair, the young master saw her poke her head out, tears completely gone as she stuck her tongue out and smirked.

"Wha- a Dodo? Now you're asking for it." The young master dropped his katana onto the grass and tried to catch the blue haired girl, only for her to spin around to the other side of the princess.

"Hold that eel of a friend, Princess!" the young master demanded as she once again spun around the pink-haired girl to avoid being caught.

"Eel?! What do you mean eel?!" she cried indignantly as she immediately stopped fleeing and instead used her foot to try to trip the young master. He stumbled, grabbing onto the blue-haired girl to try to steady himself, but ended up bringing her down with him. As the two processed what had just happened, they burst into laughter. The princess who had been standing still looked down at the two laughing idiots on the floor with an exasperated look before moving away to stand by the other male ogre who had been watching on the sidelines.

"So when do you think they'll be getting married?" the pink-haired princess asked quietly to the blue-haired male.

"She won't be marrying anyone anytime soon," he replied stiffly. After all, she was his baby cousin. Not even the young master could be good enough for his precious cousin.

"Aw, but aren't they cute together?" she asked him again, trying to persuade him even a little bit to admit it. He said nothing in reply, and so the princess took it as an agreement.

"Enough," the old white-haired ogre intervened. He picked up the katana that the red-haired boy had dropped, sheathing it and tossing it back to its owner. "It's getting late so I'm sending all of you home for dinner." Before anyone could say a goodbye to their instructor, he was gone.

"That old man, always just leaving after he's done saying his part..." The young master glared at the spot where the white-haired ogre had just been. Then, after a couple seconds of grumbling, he turned to the two blue-haired cousins.

"Why don't you two come have dinner at our house?" he offered, his eyes gleaming as his eyes flickered back and forth between the two blue-haired ogres.

"If we won't be imposing," the girl said happily while the boy simply nodded in agreement.

"It's settled! Let's head back now!" With that, the young master looped his arm over the other male's shoulder and dragged him away while the girls trailed behind the two of them, chatting quietly.

As they headed back towards the village, the girls who were chatting without paying much attention ran into the backs of their two male companions who had stopped in the middle of the path. Their large bodies blocked the view, but it seemed that the two of them were in a defensive stance. The young master even had a hand on his blade. Suddenly more cautious, the blue-haired girl pulled the Princess straight to her side, her left hand lightly outstretched in front of the other girl while her right hand had inched toward her own blade. She poked her head around the side of the young master who was standing to the right of her cousin to see that there was just one person standing in their path.

"A majin..." the princess informed as she poked out from behind the other girl. Immediately, the young master took his hand off the blade, outstretching his right hand in front of the two girls as if shielding them.

"Who are you and why have you come here?" the young master called cautiously. Despite his complaints about being the heir to the village chief, he was still the young master and he had to protect his village.

"My name is Lord Gelmud," the majin introduced. He had a mask with a long, pointed nose or beak. The holes were his eyes were supposed to be seemed to glow ominously as the sun set. The aura around the majin seemed mysteriously dark as well. "I shall name you."

"I refuse a name from such a suspicious majin such as yourself. Leave this village at once." The young master was unyielding, a small flame forming in his hand as if to reinforce the command to leave.

"How dare you refuse me, Lord Gelmud?!" the majin cried indignantly. "I am a superior majin who is offering you a name! I demand -"

The majin was cut off as the young master launched a ball of fire at his feet, purposely missing the majin. Despite that, the majin screamed as he jumped back.

"I refuse to accept a name from just anyone. I don't trust you in the slightest. We, the ogres, are a proud, warring race. We do not just follow anyone. Leave at once," the young master demanded again.

"How dare you?!" the majin cried again. Getting annoyed, the two blue-haired companions of the young master drew their swords, the young master also reaching for his own. Their eyes was trained stiffly on the majin who was throwing a tantrum. It might not have been wise to act as hostile as they had towards the majin, but they were uncomfortable with the aura of this majin. It was dark and seemed to invite danger.

"Leave, or you will be perceived as a threat to this village." The young master finally drew his sword, pointing the katana at the majin who flinched back seeing all three blades raised.

"You will regret not receiving a name from me. Remember that I am Lord Gelmud and I could've offered you power beyond what you have now." With the last threat, the majin flew off, disappearing into the dark. The three ogres still had their swords raised with the princess standing close behind them. Once they were sure the majin wasn't coming back, they sheathed their blades again.

"What in the world was that?" the blue-haired girl asked as she stared at where the majin had disappeared. "Who would go around offering names and threatening those who don't accept it?"

"Who knows," the young master sighed in reply. What a weird encounter that was. "Let's just head back for dinner. I'm sure we can just ignore that majin."

The rest of the group agreed and they started their path back to the leading family's house. By the time they arrived, they had all basically forgotten about the majin.

"Hey, that's my fish!" the blue-haired girl complained as the young master stole a piece from her bowl.

"You cannibal!" he gasped jokingly as he swallowed the piece before she could take it back.

"Now, now, children," the lady of the village laughed. She placed another fish onto the girl's plate and the heterochromia girl gave her a happy thank you.

"I'm not a child anymore, mother," the young master grumbled as he used his chopsticks to block the blue-haired girl's chopsticks from his plate. She glared lightly at him and tried to get around, but it was to no avail. Eventually, she gave up and went back to her own food.

"You'll always be a baby to me," his mother said fondly, reaching over to pinch the young master's cheek. He let her do as she pleased, but not without a few small complaints as she pulled at his cheek.

As the six ogres finished eating their dinner together, the lady of the village insisted that the two blue-haired cousins stay over for the night. She had complained that it was too late to send them home and assured them that they had free rooms. Unable to refute, the two blue-haired ogres were quickly brought to their individual guest rooms to settle for the night.

"Sorry mother is so forceful," the young master said as he popped his head in through the door. The blue-haired girl had just finished getting ready to sleep, so her hair was slightly damp. The lady of the village had lent her one of her night clothes, though it was a little big on the smaller female. As the young master saw her in this state, he blushed, though it was barely visible on his red skin. He quickly turned away and stood outside her room with his back to the door.

"I don't mind," she replied with a smile as she used her powers to remove all the water from her hair. Once it was dried, she made her way to the door where the young master had remained out of respect for her privacy. She opened it half way, though enough for the young master to easily slip into the room if he had wanted to. "Did you need something, Pheasant?"

"Are you ever going to run out of bird names?" the young master asked with a sigh as he turned to face the younger girl. She grinned up at him.

"Nope. Just like how you never seem to run out of fish names. Though, I don't think a lobster is a fish."

"They live in the water, it's close enough. I'll have to start calling you a whale or a dolphin soon if I don't find out more about fish species..."

She giggled, bringing her hand up to cover her mouth slightly.

"If you call me either one of those, I'll take it that you ran out of names then. It'll be my victory then."

"Since when was this a competition?" the young master asked, leaning his arm slightly on the door frame. He towered over her by 50 centimeters at least, though he did adore her smaller stature.

"Since now." The blue-haired girl smirked before lightly pushing him off the door frame and back into the hallway. "It's getting late so goodnight, sir penguin."

"Goodnight, my lionfish." He smirked as he picked up her hand and kissed the back of it like he had seen his parents do a years ago. She blushed at the action, which caused the young master to freeze and stare. Embarrassed, she quickly pulled her hand away and turned into her room.

"Goodnight," she said shyly before shutting the door, leaving the young master to stare at the wooden barrier.

Can I hope that you're starting to fall for me?

~~~

"Little Blue!" A yell from outside her door came. She woke up with a start. Had she slept too long? Outside her window seemed bright as well. As groggily rubbed her eyes and was about to lay back down when she caught the scent of smoke. She scrambled out of bed, glancing out the window to see that the light she had seen earlier wasn't the sun, but rather blazes of fire tearing through the village.

Frantically, she haphazardly threw her kimono on over her nightgown, leaving the cloth untied to flow around her. Grabbing the flower clip the young master had given her, she ran out of her room.

"Young master?!" she called back desperately. Smoke had begun to fill the house and it was only a matter of time before she saw the fire. She ran towards the entrance of the house, hoping that she would see the young master, the princess or her cousin along the way.

"Little Blue!" the young master's voice sounded again, though this time closer. She veered towards his voice, noticing that his face was gaunt as if he had just witnessed something worse than the fire. Behind him, a flame raged. It was the room of the master and lady of the village.

Immediately, the blue-haired girl summoned up her powers and tried to stop the fire, but was dragged away by the young master who had begun pulling her out of the house. On the way, he managed to grab their swords, tossing her claymore to her as she followed behind him.

"Young master! That was your parents' room. I could've -" She was cut off as he answered her with a defeated reply.

"There's no point. They were already dead by the time I got to their room." She felt tears build up in her eyes. He had seen his parents' dead bodies. He didn't turn back to look at the blue-haired girl as he pulled the two of them out of the flaming house. However, the rest of the village didn't look any better.

Ogres were frantically running out of multiple burning houses left and right. Cries of fear and sorrow were heard throughout the village. Immediately, she pulled her hand from the young master's grasp.

"I have to help them put out the fires," she declared, turning towards the nearest burning house. "Go find your sister and my cousin first. I'll meet up with you after I help as much as I can."

"No, come find them with me," the young master pleaded desperately, not wanting to let her out of his sight for the time being. He was scared that if he let her go, she would get hurt herself.

"I'll be okay. You are now the head of this village. I will help you as much as I can but we're all depending on you." As much as he hated to admit it, he knew she was right. He made her promise that she would stay safe before running off to find the others. The blue-haired girl turned back anxiously to the burning building, immediately releasing a flood of water to stop as much of the fire as possible. House after house, she sent waves of water to stop the fires, but there were so many it seemed almost hopeless.

At long last, it seemed like she was getting somewhere as a few fires died down. Without rest, she started to make her way down the street and towards the other fires that burned all throughout the ogre village of 300 inhabitants. As she ran towards the fires, the shaking of the ground around her forced her to halt and draw her claymore. She took a defensive stance in the middle of the road, quickly using herself to stand between the direction of the vibrations and the ogre children that had been shaking nearby.

To her horror, the vibrations were from thousands of armored Orcs invading the Ogre village.