"Let go of me! I didn't do anything!" The man yelled as he struggled to break free from Makoto. "He was the one who started the fight."
"If that's the case, then why did you keep fighting and also attack a guard when he tried to separate you?" Makoto asked as he bound him by his wrists.
"Look, I wasn't thinking straight, okay? All I could see was red," he argued.
Makoto looked behind him at the other guy, who was now being bound by Lloyd. The man had a large stain of blood on his robe from all the blood that came streaming out of his gum when three of his teeth were knocked out.
He was barely conscious and was complying with Lloyd without any resistance, but when Lloyd tried to move him, he stumbled and fell to his knees. Lloyd and the other guard who were present had to help walk him, or else he would just fall again.
Makoto turned back to the other guy and started dragging him away, saying, "We'll get to the bottom of who started the fight when we get back. So just comply if you don't want this blowing over more than it should."
The man mumbled something at him before ultimately deciding to comply.
As the group walked away, Lloyd's gaze lingered on him as he thought, "Ever since that day in the alley, he's changed. He takes the job more seriously and doesn't fold to anyone."
"I know that's a good thing, but I can't help but feel bad for what I said to him then," he thought. "I went on and on lecturing him about justice when I know that if I was in his shoes, I would have done the same thing. And I insulted him too."
"I want to apologise, but I don't know if that would demean the person he's trying to become."
He slowed down his pace, trying to match that of the other guard as they held the injured man up.
Then he thought to himself, "If we let the djinn have their way, the lives of people like him will be ruined beyond repair, that is if they even survive."
"Dreams, hopes and attempts at growth washed away in a single violent surge."
His gaze turned away from him and started lingering to and from as he lost himself deeper in his thoughts.
"It's been four weeks since that night and we still haven't come up with a concrete plan," he sighed. "Every time we try, a new variable comes in that overturns the steps we were going to take before."
"Takae is still busy trying to figure out the nature of the impersonation ability, which is the biggest hurdle we have to overcome, but recently we've learnt something else," he thought. "Even though Keitaro Kobayashi is the priestess' personal guard, he still has ties to the Doshin, which begs the question: how many imposters are there in the Doshin?"
"Unlike in the shrine here, I don't have any major rumours to go over, which suggests that the imposters could be very few in number," he thought. "There's not much to go off of with that assumption, but it's the best I've got for now."
"Aside from that, we need to account for the relationship between the shrine and the council," he continued. "It became clear from what she said that the council has become just an outlet for their will, and now that they won't need them anymore, I'm sure that they will eliminate them to prevent any information about them from leaking."
"Making such a big move before their attack on the second night is unlikely, so both of them will probably overlap in the same night," he thought. "I doubt they have any idea what's coming to them, or they would have already started trying to escape the town before it happens."
"But then again, there was what happened to the merchant Suzuki and his family, which suggests that escape for them isn't possible even if they wanted to."
"If I'm right about this, then at least their forces will be scattered and more easily dealt with, which means that we can be able to divide our attention too," he thought. "But I should wait for Takae's final report before I tell them about this. Who knows what else could come up."
"We're cutting it close with the festival being a week away, but the surer she is about the ability, the better our chances," he concluded.
For most of the walk afterwards, he just stared blankly up ahead, not thinking about anything in particular, when he saw a boy and his father walking together, chatting happily like the world around them didn't exist.
A faint smile crossed his face, and he started to reminisce about the old days when he and his father were just like them.
Thinking back to this made him realise just how fast time was flying by.
"Just a few months ago, I was wandering around aimelessly in the Glades, and now I'm here staking my life out for a town that I've been in for only six months," he thought. "I met a lot of people, got a job as a guard, got to try out so many new foods, and even learnt how to read and write in the way of the East."
"This place almost makes me forget just how empty the Shadow Realm was," he continued. "Now whenever I go back inside, I don't feel trapped, but nothing could take away that feeling."
Then he asked himself, "If this place is destroyed and I lose everyone I know again, will my life go back to what it was?"
"Will I go back to wandering the world looking for a purpose that I don't understand?"
He clenched his fist tightly as he thought, "Not again. Never again!"
"I don't know what the future has in store for me, but the present demands that I fight to protect this place and all the people inside of it," he thought. "The people who welcomed me and gave me a fresh start."
He stared ahead more intently, a fierce drive burning bright in his eyes.
"It's time to pay back my debt to them," he thought. "And give them a fresh start too."