Kenn, Yemen, and Victor have always been on edge since what happened at the Pleasure Palace. So don’t blame them when they have to be extra careful and a bit happy trigger when a sudden threat arises. The door opened, but on the other side wasn’t the police or a burglar, it was just an old man. An old man that Victor knew too well and too familiar with. Victor placed down the stool and let out a sigh of relief while Kenn and Yemen looked at each other with confusion in their eyes.

“What are you doing here, and how did you find us?”

“Excuse me, do you know this ancient patriarch?” Kenn turned his gaze at Victor after gesturing to the old man.

“He’s basically my employer. Just called him Old Man, he prefers it that way. So, Old Man, how did you find us?”

“I owned this warehouse and that booze you just drank. Did you think I wouldn’t know if someone broke into my warehouse?” The Old Man shrugged before making his way to a nearby stool to take a seat on it. Yemen tried to hide the bottle they chugged together behind him. “Don’t worry about it. Help yourself. You’ll need it.”

“It’s good to see you, Old Man. I need a way out of this place, got anything for me?”

“Oh, I thought you were involved with them.” Victor stepped forward.

“No, I’m not. I’m a victim of the circumstances, and I wish to get out of here as soon as possible.”

“Good news for you then, a ship will dock here tomorrow morning. The Captain is an old friend of mine. You can board it, free of charge, and embark out of here as soon as possible. But I may have bad news for you, Victor.” It was the first time that the Old Man ever looked at him with a pleading gaze. That means something had gone wrong.

“Shit…” Victor knew what it was and he was a damn fool.

“Haruhi, that foolish girl got caught while trying to find you. If only the bad news ends there. Tomorrow morning she will be hung at the plaza for conspiring with a traitor. Alongside a group of Pirates.”

Victor slammed his clenched fist against a wooden beam and caused the dust to rain down on them. He looked away and kept cursing himself to death. It was all his fault, he shouldn’t get involved, he shouldn’t have got close to her, why didn’t he understand that? All of this could have been avoided if he kept his distance.

“Wait, mate. My crew will be hung for trying to rob food supplies?“

“Trying? You succeeded in robbing it. The food supplies are gone,” said the Old Man.

“What? That’s not possible, mate. We couldn’t even touch them, let alone take them away,” Yemen shot back with disbelief and furrowed eyebrows.

“Where is she right now?” Victor rubbed the hilt of his sword and looked at the old man with furious intention.

“Unfortunately, in a heavily guarded prison. Trust me when I say that you won't make it past the gate.”

Victor began walking toward the door with determined eyes. Kenn stopped the man from leaving by grabbing his shoulder. The determined man glared at the rookie. Kenn shook his head. “Don't you understand? You will die before you make it. However, we can save, but it needs to be tomorrow morning. I have a plan. You too, Yemen. I promise you that I will get all of them out there safely.”

“Why are you helping us?”

“I live by the code. We protect the innocents, and I deemed all of them innocent. There’s clearly something wrong going here, and I will not let them pay for something they wrongly accused of.”

“A Rookie Police. A Drunk Pirate. And A Disgrace Outsider. I think you just got yourself a team. Stay here, rest, and tomorrow morning I will keep that ship here as long as it takes. Make sure to bring her back safely, Victor.” The old man stroked his beard and took a deep sigh.

“I will.” The old man left his stool and the warehouse after closing the door behind him.

“So what’s the plan, mate?” asked Yemen as he closed in on the two of them.

“First of all, your cuff.” Kenn reached into his pocket and took out a single key.

“Finally, mate! My nuts are itching to get scratch.” Yemen extended his cuff and Kenn unlocked it.

“Okay, you both need a weapon.” Yemen looked around and found a pitchfork, close enough to the spear he had always used, so it will be easy to improvise. He swung it around and like a charm, it was easy to use, but he still preferred a bow. However, Kenn walked up to him and broke the triple tips.

“What did you do, mate? That was a perfectly good weapon, ey.”

“You can’t kill them. That’s rule number one.”

“While they are trying to kill me? They have bloody crossbows, mate. I need to take them out before they get us first.”

“No, they’re only following orders. You may be trying to save your men, but the people you are fighting against are still my comrades. I know them. So the answer is no, we can’t have accidental kill here.”

“Ah, bloody hell. This gonna be harder than I thought. So what’s your plan, mate? How are we gonna rescue them without fighting?”

“I agree with the Pirate. Bloodshed is unavoidable.”

“I’m not saying you can’t hurt them. I am saying that you can’t kill them, and don’t worry, I know how to pull some of the force away from the gallow. I need you to trust me on this, but you need to give me time, I need to meet someone there.” Kenn looked at both of them with a pleading gaze to trust him and his plan.

“It’s not like I got any other options, but if you’re late, I will rescue Haruhi by myself, with or without killing.”

“As I said before, I have a plan. How about you, Yemen?”

“Shit, bloody, corn! Fine… But I’m with Victor, don’t be late or we will start killing your friends.”

“Okay, here the plan….”

 

***

 

They waited till morning, under a pair of large cloaks, Victor and Yemen made their way to the plaza without any problem, and with the help of the jam-packed crowd, they managed to avoid suspicions. They couldn’t get close to the gallows or risk exposing themselves to the Imperial Police. So they had to stay in the middle of the crowd and kept circling around for a weak point. After looking at the roofs around them, it was concluded that there were five archers with longbows. On a good day, that thing could shoot about 100 yards or about 90 meters away, and to their luck, today looked like it was going to be a good day.

“Now we wait for Kenn.”

“That’s the hardest part, mate. The waiting game.”

In a dark alley, near the plaza, Kenn looked above him at the two walls beside him. He stretched his legs and arms before jumping from one wall to the other until he made it to the top without causing any unnecessary noise or attention. He ducked down and avoided the archer line of sight. With stealth, he sneaked toward one of the archers and quickly wrapped his arm around the archer’s neck before dragging him down and knocking the man out. He took the longbow and a pair of arrows with a small cylinder attached to the tip.

Kenn didn’t waste time as he made his way to a certain balcony, he snuck in using an opened window. After being inside the small storage room, Kenn made his way to the door and peeked through the gap. A guard was walking down the stairs and disappeared from his line of sight. Now that the coast is clear, Kenn sneaked out and into another room where a high-value person was residing.

“Private Kenn Miyazawa?” A bearded man with a little bit of gray in his black lush hair turned toward Kenn with wide eyes.

“High Commander Goro, sir! Don’t be alarmed. I have no intention of hurting you.”

“What are you talking about? That line of thought is unthinkable. You’re my nephew, we’re family.”

“It’s an honor, sir, that you never had a doubt about me, but sir, you may have heard about what happened last night?”

“The information was inadequate to make any assumption, but if you don’t mind, can you fill in the blanks?”

“I would in a heartbeat tell you everything I know, but I don’t have the time to debrief you about the entire thing. Unfortunately, I have to give you the short version of it, sir.”

Kenn told him the bare bones of what had happened last night and The Commander listened with extra focus. “A fake order by me? That is what you believed?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Where is the evidence now, Private Kenn?”

“Somewhere safe. The less you know, the safer you will be. I don't want you to get more mixed up with this.”

“Good work, Private Kenn, but you have a long path ahead of you if you wish to investigate it further.”

“Thank you, sir. Then forgive me for my sudden leave. There’s a promise I must keep.” Kenn bowed his head before sneaking out of the room and left the same way he got in.

A dozen pirates and a lone woman were escorted out of the barred carriage. Haruhi was that woman. They were forced to walk up the stairs to their punishment. Haruhi's neck was the first to be wrapped with rope. Victor was about to make his move when he saw the woman squirmed, but Yemen stopped him by reminding him of the plan.

“We need to trust his plan, mate.”

Dashing on top of rooftops while arming his longbow. He took one of the arrows, scraping it against a wall, and ignited the fuse. Before it could explode, Kenn shot it above him and a burst of black smoke alarmed the sky. Most people wouldn't know what it meant, but for the Imperial Police, it was a signal that one of their comrades is engaging with a target. One signal wouldn't be enough to draw the majority of the force, that’s why he shot another one after diving down into a tight alley.

Victor looked around him as the majority of the force began moving toward the black smoke, but the five archers remained behind, guarding the prisoners and a couple of Imperial Police stayed behind to execute the punishment. Victor looked at his newfound ally and nodded his head. They need to proceed or they will miss the chance.

“I’m sorry… I’m sorry that I got myself in this mess, and I’m sorry that I am a bit selfish, but...” muttered Haruhi under her breath while both her eyes were puffed out from trying to hold back the tears.

“I want you to save me! Please, Vic! Wherever you are! Save me!!” The dam of tears she had kept back all this time burst opened by a single cry of help.

That cry of help was heard, loud and clear. Victor rushed through the crowd at top speed, pushing and parting random bystanders out of his way while Yemen followed behind. After Keiko's death, Victor had trained himself over and over again with what his teacher had managed to teach him. Coupled with his experience getting into street brawls, his body had been trained to withstand his own strength.

However, Victor had an ace in the hole. he had perfected it, no, that was an understatement. He had improved that one palm strike from the night of her death. There’s no need for the overdramatic hand gesture or say Victor because he understood the core of it, understood it fully to execute in a simpler form.

His teacher taught him to keep his emotions in and don't let it elude his mind, but this palm strike was the opposite, it was about letting go of everything you had. So that what he does, every emotion he had; sadness, love, or even happiness, he put it all in this one strike. The Imperial Police tried to stop Victor's charge, but that where Yemen came in, using his poorly made staff, he bopped them out of the way.

It took only a single palm strike against the wooden support.

As if a tsunami had crashed against it, the support was obliterated in an instant while the entire gallows collapsed down. The few small debris became dust and it encompassed the surrounding area. Suddenly, the archers had no clear sight of their target or their allies. Haruhi’s eyes were wide shut as she waited for her body to slam against the ground, but before it could happen, someone had caught her in his arms as gently as they could.

“Loud and clear...” said Victor.

“Vic. I knew it. You had to save--”

“My best girl?”

“Vic, I was so scared! The thought of you missing, hurt and alone, scared me to death. I had to try,” she sobbed against his chest, wetting the lapel. Victor calmed her by pressing his forehead against her and with a giant smile on his face showed her his relief. Haruhi was overwhelmed by the happiness Victor’s showed, but who could blame her, not a lot of people would risk their lives to save someone like her, and was glad to do it.

“I’m glad that you’re okay, but we need to leave. Yemen, got anything for us?”

“Oh, you have no idea, mate. Come on, boys. Let’s break free!” Yemen shouted at his men as they unlocked the chain that tied them together.