First Encounter - Mesuda Village Arc

Honō was once again laying on the couch unable to fall asleep. Other than the bishop, the rest of that day had been uneventful as they only helped the reconstruction efforts and while there were no onlookers, Honō placed nodes of ice in each of beast’s corpses similar to the ones he used for the perimeter in Zallo village.

As Honō laid on the couch he noticed how he could no longer see the roof like the night before due the clouds covering the moon, leaving him in complete darkness with only his thoughts.

— “What was the bishops deal”

— “Was there any coffee left?”

— “When would the man dressed in black come for the corpses?”

— “Would the man dressed in black come for the corpses even?”

— “I really could use a coffee”

As he thought this, he gave in to his desires causing him to get up and attempt to make his way to the kitchen to make coffee. He stood at the counter for a few moments before realising he had no way to make coffee without waking everyone up.

After this realisation, the clouds began to clear allowing light into the cabin once more. As light entered through the windows, Honō turned to look out through the window at the moon.

As he looked out the window, he thought that for a moment he saw a dark figure standing outside it looking in causing him to rub his eyes as he was tired and doubted what he saw was true. Honō looked through the window once more to see the full moon in its illuminated glory.

Honō felt off as he looked at the moon, something felt wrong causing Honō mind to fill with thoughts.

— “What if the figure was real”

— “Was someone watching them”

— “What if it was the man dressed in black”

As Honō thought this he felt a pulse wave from the ice nodes he had placed in the beasts. It was the man dressed in black. He had come for the corpses. 

After quietly leaving the cabin, he turned to the direction of the where the corpses were and after a moment’s hesitation Honō began to run as fast as he could without using his aether.

He ran for five minutes over to the beast corpses, but when he arrived the corpses were still there, and no one was around only a crow sitting atop the piled corpses.

“Shit it was just a crow that set it off” sighed Honō as he decided he didn’t care if he might wake everyone up, he was gonna make a coffee.

As Honō turned around to go back to the cabin there stood a man about six feet away from him covered in a long black cloak that covered his entire body only showing his face which was covered in a black mask with the only colour in his entire outfit being a blue gem acting as the linchpin for the cloak and the deep purple eyes of his mask that felt as if there was a bottomless abyss behind them.

It was the man in black.

“Hello Honō, how are you this fine night?” Asked the man dressed in black as he stood in the way of Honō and the cabin leaving him isolated.

“Who are you, how do you know my name?” Returned Honō now on guard against the man who stood in front of him.

“Hmm no hello for me even after setting up such an elaborate trap for little oh me? Oh well I guess I’ll introduce myself then, my name is Osore” spoke the man in black in a sarcastic voice up until the end.

“Ok now how do you know my name?” Demanded Honō slightly worried as he had been the one to fall for the trap.

“Oh, I know a lot more about you than just your name Honō Hantā of the Meka guild, user of electric frost and failure of a child who g-” ranted Osore before being cut off by Honō.

“SHUT UP, NOW TELL ME, HOW DO YOU KNOW ALL THIS” shouted Honō prepared to fight.

“Well, when someone is trying to get in my way I try make it my business to know who it is I’m dealing with. Oh, and in case you think you’re special I’ve also looked into Witz Meka daughter of technology’s champion, Armatura Meka and Aria Meka who died from illness six years ago. Then for Ash well he doesn’t know of me yet, so I haven’t bothered to look into him yet same with Selene seeing as you only told her of me a night ago” Spoke Osore sarcastically trying to sound like he was some old friend.

Honō stood unable to comprehend how he knew so much about them, the only conclusion is that he was watching them since they arrived in Mesuda village. Maybe even before that.

The beast attack in Mesuda village was a trap set by Osore.

And they had fallen for it.