North Yamanashi Stronghold, Overtaken

It took Hinokami quite sometime before he regained consciousness. As soon as Kazuichi and the others found him struggling by the bushes, they immediately set to work wrapping him up with bandages and realigning his limbs. 

He's a Hybrid and Hybrids are as resilient as they could get. That's why, no matter how many injuries a Hybrid would suffer, they would live, provided that their heads weren't cut off, or that they weren't burned to ashes.

That's why, although Hinokami looked badly beaten up and on the verge of death, Kazuichi and his party remained calm. He'd live. As long as he was wrapped up real nicely, he'd live. 

"What do you think happened to him?" Arisu asked. Although she knew that Hinokami totally deserved the beating, she didn't express that sentiment and instead wore a worried expression on her face. The others did the same as well. 

"He probably offended someone not as merciful. He got it coming for him with that rotten personality of his and all." Tris commented as she turned away, opening another canned good before digging in on their early dinner. 

To be fair, she didn't want anything to do with him, and if she was the one in charge, she'd have left him to die in the middle of the street.

"Or maybe... no, I don't want to say it." Kazuichi shook his head. He couldn't believe that his mind thought of something so ominous, that's why he didn't entertain the thought— the thought of the North Yamanashi Stronghold's destruction. 

After all, Kurosawa Hinokami is the current North Yamanashi Stronghold leader. Sure there was a small possibility that he was beaten up due to different reasons, but Kazuichi couldn't help but think of the worst-case scenario.

What if... what if the North Yamanashi Stronghold had been destroyed? What do we do then? Kazuichi asked himself while he wore a concerned expression. If that were to happen, then the balance of the four Yamanashi strongholds would tip, and an all-out war might occur. 

Shaking his head, Kazuichi stole a glance at Hinokami. Just then, his eyelids fluttered and he woke up, greeted by the setting town from the horizon that painted the entire sky a tint of bright red-orange. 

When he woke up, Hinokami let out a gasp before he bolted upright. Clear memories of what had happened to him resurfaced in his mind, causing his body to jerk up in shock before his tight muscles slowly relaxed from their spasms. 

A sigh of relief left his mouth. At the very least, he was just thankful that he was still alive. A lot might have happened during his struggle and there was also a good chance that he would've died during his escape. Yet he lived. 

Those conniving bastards. I'm going to make them pay. Hinokami inwardly thought in his mind as he clenched his fists. Even now, he couldn't believe that those guys did that, especially when they had respected each other's boundaries when their strongholds were built. 

"You're awake." Kazuichi let out, sitting right beside him as he eyed him down. Although it had already been a couple of days, the memories of Hinokami's harassment still rang clear in his head, and it caused him to wear a suspicious expression on his face. "What happened?" 

Hinokami blinked twice before he realized that it was none other than Kazuichi who rescued him. Once again, his entire body flinched, and he subconsciously distanced himself from Kazuichi by scooting a couple of inches away from him. 

"What happened?" Kazuichi asked a second time. "Were you attacked? Is the North Yamanashi Stronghold finished?"

With pupils dilating, Hinokami stared at Kazuichi as if he had just seen a ghost. "How did you know? How did you know that we were attacked? Those damned stronghold leaders... they planned all these behind my back." 

"Nope, you probably brought it upon yourself." Kazuichi brushed off his anger as he stood up. He then sauntered towards the campfire and grabbed a canned good there, tossing it towards Hinokami before he approached him once again. 

"Eat up, then tell us what happened," Kazuichi suggested as he too sat down and started eating. 

Slowly, Hinokami's expression softened, and he sheepishly muttered a soft thanks before he started eating. In hindsight, it was really his fault that his stronghold was attacked. And now it was conquered by another stronghold... and it was all because of him. 

After eating a spoonful, Hinokami started tearing up. He wasn't the type to get overly emotional about anything but right now, the tears just naturally flowed while he ate. It didn't take long before he was bawling his eyes out, a continuous stream of tears flowing on his face, down to his cheeks and neckline. 

In silence, the group watched Hinokami from afar as they ate as well. They didn't want to interrupt him since he was going through pain and regret at the same time. This was a lesson for him, and Kazuichi didn't want to speak to him for fear that he might say the wrong things. 

There were a lot of things that Kazuichi wanted to say. In essence, he wanted to slap him with his words. But right now, that would just be met with anger since Hinokami was currently not in his right mind.

"I can more or less guess what happened." Arisu let out a sigh as she looked at Hinokami who continued eating. "Remember, there are four strongholds... right? Here in Yamanashi, these strongholds are the powerhouses, and they're always sensitive with each other." 

"After all, the four of them were kissing borders, and a war between strongholds might occur at any moment." 

"Remember what happened during the auction. You defeated most of Hinokami's subordinates... not to mention when we fought them at Shig's shelter. Because of his poor decisions, he left his stronghold unguarded, and it resulted in the other strongholds taking their chance and attacking the stronghold while it was at its lowest." 

Kazuichi and the other ladies nodded their heads at Arisu's monologue. Everything started making sense, down to how injured Hinokami was. He may be spontaneous when it came to his decisions, and he may have the maturity of a toddler, but he loved his stronghold. It was obvious that he stood his ground until the very end, and he almost died as he did so. 

This time, it was Kazuichi who let out a condescending exhale. They were already at the border of Yamanashi Prefecture and Tokyo. Just a couple more steps and they'd reach home territory. One or two more days and he could finally return to his laid-back life in the past... but it seemed they had to take a little detour. 

"Don't say it, Kazuichi." Ayaka half-threatened him as her eyes turned pinkish. She growled under her breath since she could more or less already guess what Kazuichi was about to say.

"Look, we can't just turn a blind eye to a stronghold. There are innocent people there..." Kazuichi reasoned out as his gaze randomly redirected to Hinokami who was still sniffling and wiping snot off his face. 

"Let's help him." Kazuichi finally said. "I'm not going to help him for him... it's for the uninfected and the people at his stronghold. We do that, and then we can return. It's just a little detour, right?" 

"A little detour, you say," Tris mumbled, but it was obvious that all of them were willing to help despite the harassment that Hinokami caused to them.