21 Chapter 16: Meet up

From the knowledge he had from his previous life, the energy that exists in this world, ora, could be used to accomplish more than just violence. In the end, it didn't matter, since he was also happy that it was like this. Because of this, achieving his ultimate goal of immortality was just around the corner.

"Alright, we walk from here." Daru said. 

After walking a while through the forest, they encountered someone. It was odd that someone would even be here so deep into the forest, but that was the very thing they wanted, it was one of theirs from another squad.

Once the other sighted Kazi and his squad, he raised an arm to wave. "Hey." He then walked closer to meet them.

"You must be the ones sent to meet up with us. My name is Zuki..." Before she finished speaking, Daru took out a scroll from his utility belt and tossed it to Zuki who read it briefly before tossing it back.

"Come on, I'll lead the way."

As they walked, Zuki explained how they had been waiting since the previous day, as Daru's team was supposed to arrived a day before. Daru explained to Zuki why it happened like so, and she understood perfectly. 

"I was gonna ask why a team of third class were sent on such a mission..."

"They weren't." Again, Daru dismissed the question.

Zuki didn't push the matter and left it at that. After walking for about ten minutes, they finally arrived at a small tent, a makeshift shelter. 

"There, the leader of the Flameless squad is inside." Zuki directed. The tent was constructed out of various planks of wood and a white material could be seen in between the spaces left from the wooden planks, and the tent was big enough, but Daru was the only one to enter while the rest remained outside

"Ah you guys finally came. It's an honour to meet you here, Daru Shama." Rando Gaz, the captain of flameless said, to which Daru waved off and returned the pleasantries. 

"Well, let's skip the small talk for later. Do you have a plan of attack? You should have scouted the place a bit." Daru said.

"About that, I can't yet come up with a feasible plan. The problem is because the place is well placed in a very strategic manner so that there's only one entrance and exit. Well, technically there are three exits, but using them is difficult. It is located in-between a carve out of a mountain and the place leads underground it seems. We couldn't get too close because of the tightness of the security there."

"Hmm, I see. Then, how about we do it like this..."

After a while, Daru emerged from the tent with Gaz behind him. They had finished formulating a plan. Even though Gaz thought it was a crazy plan, he wanted the rest to give their opinions also, maybe then if they all had the same thought as him, Daru would agree to change it. Daru was his senior and more experienced with these things, that was why Gaz had not opposed too much.

After coming out of the tent, Daru nodded at his team and as though they communicated telepathically, they understood that he wanted them to come to his side. Not everyone understood, but the rest followed those that got the message.

"Zuki, call the rest. Let's review the plan Daru has plotted."

After receiving the order from her captain, Zuki rushed to carry it out. The rest of the flameless team were all standing guard in different places, so she went to each of them to deliver the message.

Kazi looked around while they waited outside the tent, looking for nothing specifically. In this short time, their team had developed a bit. Lanira and Ann got along quite ok, and Koro was his normal energetic self and got along with everybody, he also troubled Garu the most with questions and whatnot, the only problem Garu faced was that none were useless questions, so he actually needed to provide some answers. As for Kazi and Linx, they were always left at the rare of the team and would talk little to each other. Though, whenever the others would refer to them, Kazi answered brightly unlike Linx.

There was a catch here of course. Kazi noticed that Daru had an eye on him ever since before they set out on the mission. He paid attention to the kids, but Kazi felt that the attention towards him was different. Because of this, he still needed to act like a regular kid around his squad members whenever he got the chance. He would even strike up conversation sometimes, even though he ended up not talking much through it, the keyword there was strike up. It showed that he was on good terms with his squad mates.

'That way, nothing will happen to my integrity when something happens.' Kazi thought to himself. While on that thought, he notices something over at a distance, something fishy about one of the trees. Even though the place was a bit foggy, lightly, Kazi could still see clearly through the fog, his senses were after all better than that of a normal sutori, not to mention, he had learnt all the clan had to teach about the clan's bloodline technique.