I walked out into the garden of the house. It was a large field, capable of housing at least a hundred people. Behind the field, there was a wall of hedges, that led to what I could only call a maze of sorts. Ok, maybe calling it a maze was too much, but it could be tricky moving about.

Unhappy about the fact that I had to move around such large distances with my small body, I grunted and moved along towards my target.

Faint traces of his energy had been littered all around in a way to confuse me. Unfortunately for this young boy, I was an expert in chasing down creatures that had no sort of supernatural energy. My time as a regular blacksmith helped out with that a lot. It also helped me figure out the scent of nether energy.

I concentrated intensely and begun my journey to find my idiot brother. A cool, calming breeze came through. The leaves of the hedges rustled and I strained my ears to recognise the sound. Once I committed it to memory, I ran through the maze, looking out for tracks.

Unfortunately, I found none. This child had somehow managed to avoid leaving any tracks whatsoever and had even left multiple dummy auras to trick me. If that wasn’t talent, I didn’t know what was.

Still, wasn’t it too much for him to not even leave a single footprint while running away from me at full speed?

‘It’s almost like he was flying. Or…’

I noticed fallen leaves from the hedges. No one had come to cut them, but they looked fresh.

My vision rose up to the top of the hedges.

‘Don’t tell me this brat... he ran atop the hedges? But to jump that high. Even I can’t do that as I am, but he can’t have kept running there for long.’

I looked at the leaves once again and smirked. Daichi was definitely smart, but a child had limits. I simply needed to follow the leaves till they stopped. I had an idea of where he would be hiding.

Quickly, I tracked down the leaves. Once I found Daichi, he would get what was coming to him.

***

Daichi POV

The little half-elf slowed his breathing and had closed his eyes in quiet meditation. Currently, where he was, there was no way Ibuki would find him, so he had to focus on more important things, like causing distractions.

Ever since the day Ibuki forced him to fight her, Daichi found out he actually had talent for the sword. His mother, Yellen, had always told him to avoid violence, so he had to hide his want to master the sword. It felt like he was shunning an important part of himself, but he decided that so long as it pleased everyone around him, he would do just that.

That was until his little sister appeared. There was just something about her the moment he first saw her. She was weird for a baby, but then again, his family wasn’t normal. He was the only one in his class who was actually an elf.

There were other elves in the school, but even they didn’t consider him a true elf. They called him a helfa. He soon came to find out it was their own form of bullying. He couldn’t tell his mother since it would cause problems for her. He couldn’t tell his father because he would worry. If he fought back, there would be a lot of issues and several people would worry. He couldn’t worry people.

So, why did he start learning swordsmanship? Why did he start being more open about his feelings to his parents? Why did he slap that boy? He didn’t know. Maybe it was out of gratitude? Maybe it was out of a sense of loyalty. Maybe it was simply all his pent-up feelings coming out. He didn’t know and he wouldn’t know for a while.

One thing he knew for sure, was that his sister was the most precious thing to him at this moment. Right now, he was going to prove to her that all she’d done for him really had taken effect.

He was concentrating on spreading his energy signature to multiple places to throw her off. Surely that was enough to throw her off long enough for her to fall asleep from exhaustion.

“Found you.”

His ears perked up the moment they heard her cute, authoritative voice. He could hear her heart beat and saw her figure standing right in front of him. For a second, he would have yelped, but he noticed that she hadn’t actually found him.

‘Is she just going to random places and shouting “Found you!”?’

The thought crossed his mind. After all, she was currently a helpless child in search of her older brother. It was possible for her to resort to such means.

Daichi’s perception of his little sister was warped from the actual truth a little bit.

He needed to focus his attention on the dummy auras. Daichi’s eyes closed as his focus intensified. Weirdly enough, Ibuki hadn’t moved from that spot. He opened his eyes to investigate and saw that her emerald eyes were looking at him with worry.

‘Oh, she’s getting sad, but I can’t lose now.’

“Daichi!”

She cried out and his heart throbbed at the thought of making his little sister worry so much. Still, wasn’t it worse for him to fail her here?

The dilemma he found himself in was one he couldn’t have ever thought up and it was tearing him up on what he would have to choose between the two. He closed his eyes and grunted.

Before he knew it, two arms had wrapped themselves around his neck and dragged him out of his hiding spot and into the outside, where Ibuki now sat on his chest. He saw tears on her face as she lightly punched his face.

“So that was where you were.”

“Sorry, sorry.”

Daichi smiled and looked at his sister.

‘Of course, how can I ever make my little sister cry.’

He regretted his decision of staying in there and making her wait for so long.

***

In reality, Ibuki was punching Daichi, but her attacks were so light it wasn’t having much of an effect on him. She was sweating because she had been out in the sun for thirty minutes and was getting tired. What he assumed was her innocently searching for him was her sending death glares at him.

Her punches only grew weaker, then she passed out on Daichi. Once he felt she was done, he got up and carried her on his back towards the mansion.

What fate lied ahead for the brother-sister pair?

***

“What was that all about? I thought you and your family didn’t mind children being so violent.”

Alexis scratched his head and sat on the bed. It was getting frustrating seeing Yellen pace up and down the room, biting her finger and muttering.

He got up and grabbed her by the shoulders and forced her to look at him. This wasn’t easy to do considering Yellen’s strength, but he eventually managed to do it and their eyes connected.

“Sorry, sorry. It’s just…”

She grabbed her aching head and Alexis helped her sit down on the bed.

“Take your time. I’m here to listen to you.”

“You know I don’t care if the kids get violent. I just do that to annoy my mother, but according to him Ibuki is not the one.”

“What?”

Alexis’ grip on her shoulder lessened and he himself could feel a headache coming.

“Seriously?”

“Yeah. He says the next kid. For sure that child will be the one.”

“I thought you said Ibuki displayed some swordsmanship that had been lost and was definitely the one.”

“Yeah, but according to both Daisuke and Ichigo, she is just gifted.”

“But-”

“Don’t worry. I’ll handle the aftermath this time. I have my guild after all.”

“That’s not it. How can you trust him? Who makes this kind of mistake?”

A vein popped on Alexis’ forehead.

“The thought of you having to go through that again is just so infuriating.”

Yellen could see him turning red and it made her heart skip a beat. A man who would never get angry unless it was on her behalf. How she longed for such a man and to think they met in a very mundane way.

She grabbed his cheeks and her lips curved upwards in a bright, beautiful smile.

“I love you, Alexis.”

Alexis’ face turned red, but for a completely different reason. He had to look away from her, which led to her giggling.

 

<A/N: I have absolutely no excuse for this late post, but um, here you go? I've been doing a bit more world building and plot development all this while though and I can confidently say I've planned out majority of the story in earnest now. So, I am back to posting. I think I'll call this the Innocent Childhood Days Arc... could use a better name, but you should get it.>