Before Tomorrow

“Shuna? That’s a strange name.” he blurted without thinking.

“Well I don’t think you should be one to talk, Kaito.”

They looked at each other blankly, feeling a sense of familiarity. They snickered and giggled at the truth behind their words, a dangerous thought flowing into their brains. A thought they both had at the same time.

Could they be Japanese?

The thought crossed their mind only for a second before disappearing into the nothingness it had come from.

“Are you alright now?” Kaito asked.

“Yeah, thank you for saving me. Are you a swordsman?”

“Ah no no, I just train with my master, I’m an adventurer and quite frankly speaking, a very weak one.”

“I mean you took care of their two guys, you can’t be that weak”

She put her hands on her hips and playfully tilted her head.

“No really, I just made quick work of those guys because if they used any magic I would’ve been in real trouble.”

“Oh really? Why, you have low mana?”

She turned to the hustle and bustle out in the street, starting to head back. Kaito caught up to her at a brisk pace, remembering what he had set out to do.

“Yeah, something like that.”

He raised his arm and scratched the back of his neck. Shuna smiled at the awkward hero, then seemed to dissociate from the world. They took a few steps up the street and Kaito looked over to see what had made her quiet.

His eyes opened slightly, now having a better look at her. Her hair black hair was sleek and shiny, and her face felt so similar to his. If he had to guess, the girl was probably of high school age, and the clothes she wore were strikingly similar to a uniform of some sort. She wore black pants and a black vest atop a collared undershirt, with her hair resting atop it like a blanket drooping off a couch.

I didn’t know they had clothes like this here too. Damn she's probably some super high ranking noble. I should be more careful.

Her face was all over the place, a frown, a smile, and smirk.

Maybe they did something to her?

“Hey Shuna, are you sure you're well? Should I look for a medical center?”

She looked over at him with an eyebrow raised, her long bottom eyelashes flew up and down as she tilted her head.

“Why so formal?”

“Oh.. uh it’s because I thought maybe…you were a noble.”

She looked at him puzzled, still walking up the street, now missing the corner where Kaito had planned to split up and refocus on his search.

“Pffft! A noble…Bwahahahaha!”

Shuna stopped and laughed, her hands holding her stomach that now contracted painfully with every giggle.

“It- it’s not funny.” Kaito cracked a smile.

“Hahaah ha dude,” she tried to compose herself “you’re like dead…”

Shuna paused, her eyes staring into the ground and her voice cutting off abruptly. After a moment, she looked up with a more composed face and smiled at him before continuing their walk.

“Maybe I am? Maybe I’m not.”

“Haha, mysterious much?”

The two walked up the road, enjoying each other's company. They continued a back and forth of words all the way to the castle, Shuna surprisingly being the one that wanted to head over and look at how it was built, how many doors it had, what entrances were closest to the outer wall.

“I’m sort of an artist…, yeah an artist.”

“Really? And you want to draw the city?”

“Yes, I want- I plan on drawing a map of the city, one so good that I could even be used for battle plans hehe.”

“Wow, that's cool!”

“What about you?”

“Huh?”

Kaito looked at Shuna who was staring up at the grey building.

“You wanted to come see this place too, no?”

“Ah, yeah, I’m looking for someone.”

“Woah you know a royal guard?”

“No. Well, maybe he is, I don’t know.”

“What do you mean?” Shuna looked at him in confusion and then started to walk around the perimeter, some guards giving her dirty looks.

“Have you seen those four?”

She turned and looked at him with a Really descriptive genius type face, encouraging him to explain further.

“They’re like four kids with big blindfolds. I think they might be like some elite squad in the Order.”

“...”

Shuna continued forward in silence, her slender back turned to face Kaito who’s eyes darted around in search of that golden hair.

“Yeah I’ve seen them. They sure are strong.” Shuna said her voice was different this time, the tone shifting like if Kaito had struck a nerve.

“One of those children is my kid brother. He was kidnapped by the order and made to become part of that elite force. Me and my party have been searching for him for a year now, and just yesterday I found out he was alive here.”

“There” Kaito pointed at the castle windows, the curtains blocking the view to the inside.

“He’s in the castle?”

“I don’t know, but I know for sure that he’s part of whatever is protecting the castle.”

“The Order?”

“...”

“I don’t know if I should tell you this, are you not from around here?”

“Ah- no no I’m not, I came from a smaller village up north” she said with a few drops of sweat flowing down her forehead.

Kaito looked at the ground and his eyes seemed to shake.

"They killed them.”

“What?”

“The Order, this city killed them. For some reason… they thought the Order had betrayed them. A piece of trash that attacked them came from Jandra and did something. That’s all I know about it.”

Shuna’s face was composed and she seemed to show no sign of remorse, or even emotion after hearing those words. She was once again lost in thought and after only a few steps also looked to the ground and expressed her sadness.

The two continued on making conversation and soon they lost track of time. They spent the day trying to grill the soldiers near the castle on details for both of their endeavors, which were unsuccessful at first but gradually began to buckle under their constant pressure and repeated inquiries.

They learned that the four children were part of an elite force in the Royal Guard, which was the authority in the city. They were known as the Four Shields, with names being the Sun, Wind, Blaze, and Force Shields.

Kaito guessed that the wind shield was either the girl or boy that had run to the old man’s aid on foot. He was positive that Talos was the Sun Shield after seeing his magic and the one that had been on the wall was the Blaze Shield. However, other than Talos who Kaito already knew about, the others were not so easy to get descriptions from which created the end of the road for his search for leads.

The soldiers were even harsher on Shuna, having not appreciated her ideals for art at the current times they lived in, most turned her down and even condemned her for her actions. Kaito consoled her a few times as they looked around the area as Shuna seemed to take everything she saw to heart, not having so much as paper or something to jot down what she was seeing. She looked up at the sun, now past the middle of the sky, Shuna turned to Kaito and smiled at him warmly from a distance.

She was a cheerful yet wordy girl, getting along well with Kaito despite their first ever encounter. Kaito felt a weird sense of nostalgia coming from her, her contagious smile cheering him up past his sorrow of incompetence. Shuna walked over to Kaito and leaned in close, her dark eyes revealing a hint of blue at the increased proximity between the two. She looked at him worriedly, as if she was looking at a flower in a field from a distance, not knowing if she would see it again the day she came back.

“Hey.”

“Yeah?”

“Y-you should leave.”

“Oh, yeah I guess I might be getting in your way, I also had-”

“NO!”

“?”

“I mean…I have this bad feeling.”

She started taking steps back, she knew that what she was doing was hopeless, but having spent time with Kaito today had led her to want him to persevere.

“You need to leave TODAY! Tomorrow…tomorrow will- Please just be gone by tomorrow.”

“What? What are you-”

“Please!” her face looked extremely worried as she started to run away, looking back at him, “You need to leave!!”

Shuna ran down the street they’d come up from and turned at the first corner she saw. Kaito was puzzled by her sudden change in personality. He’d thought about chasing after her but he thought about what he would say once he caught up, what she meant by her words, and just who exactly she was.

By the time Kaito walked up to the corner she’d run into a sudden curiosity sparked inside him. The alleyway led to a flat brick wall, a dead end, with no sign of it having any sort of shady activity or maybe a struggle of some kind between two people.

Shuna was gone, her words echoing in his ears.

Footsteps sounded past the alley, huffs and puffs repeating over and over as Eira and Ansel quickly ran through the city in search of their brother. The footsteps stopped further up the road and turned quickly back, running into a dead end alleyway with nothing but Kaito just standing in its center.

“Kaito!!!” Ansel yelled.

“We found HIM!”