Impermanence Land

Chapter Five

Stella walks to the curtains where Lyla was standing. She is surprised when she sees the battles. "That's Harold and Bruno! And Yuze, too!"

Haoyu can be heard walking from around the corner. "Girls?! What's taking so long? I like my steak medium rare so it shouldn't take that long to…" He stops and sees the girls looking out the window. "What are you doing?"

Stella drops the curtain and turns around to Haoyu. "Oh, nothing! We thought we heard something, but it was nothing."

"Let's check on those steaks now." Lyla said.

Stella and Lyla start to walk back to the kitchen, but are stopped by Haoyu. "Let me see!" He walks to the curtains and opens to see what's going on outside. He stops and slowly turns back to face Stella and Lyla. "Well, I guess we can stop being fake now, huh!"

Stella has a confused look on her face. "...What do you mean?"

Both girls wait for Haoyu to say something, but instead he throws a yellow Stone Spellbomb at them. It is small and explodes into yellow stone particles at the girls' feet.

Stella and Lyla are both confused. The attack from Haoyu was so small and weak that it didn't even damage anyone.

"Oh, dang!" Haoyu yelled out and ran past the girls and to the door.

"Quick!" Lyla said. "We need to stop him so he doesn't interfere with the boys' fights!"

Stella and Lyla both run after Haoyu who's already at the door.

"Stop!" Stella yelled at Haoyu. "Wait!"

"Wait for what?!"

This time, instead of Stella and Lyla answering, they each throw their own Spellbomb directly at Haoyu. The door is destroyed and Haoyu is knocked out.

Yuze lunges towards Bruno and swings his right fist at Bruno's face. Instead of dodging, Bruno just endures the blow.

Bruno immediately punches Yuze repeatedly with both hands. The repeated punches from Bruno landed on Yuze's cheeks. Both cheeks change to red.

Yuze takes a few steps back, but Bruno is so reckless that he keeps punching and punching. After taking several more punches from Bruno, Yuze falls down onto the ground. Not allowing Yuze to recover, Bruno sits on top of Yuze and throws several more punches to finish off Yuze.

Everytime Harold tries to land a hit, Haoran just dodges very easily. Haoran throws a Jade Spellbomb at Harold who dodges. As soon as the Spellbomb explodes into jade-colored stone particles, Haoran comes at Harold with two Jade Claws and attacks Harold. Only the left-handed Jade Claws lands on Harold.

Haoran throws another Spellbomb at Harold and waits for the explosion.Instead of doing a second attack, he just stands there and grins. Out of nowhere, a Jade Spellbomb explodes in front of Harold. Haoran continues with multiple Claw attacks that make Harold transform back into human form.

Eyeing the corner of the gate, Harold throws a Leaf Spellbomb at Haoran's left side. Copying Haoran, Harold uses the explosion as a distraction and lunges toward Haoran with several punches. Harold knows Haoran would dodge the punches, so the former purposely throws punches to lead the latter into the corner of the gate.

Haoran steps back several feet to avoid Harold's punches. After dodging ten or more punches, Haoran is not able to step backwards anymore. He is now stuck at the corner. Looking upward, he tries to jump over the gate, but Harold has already thrown a Leaf Spellbomb so that if Haoran were to jump, he would be hit by the Spellbomb. This worked because the Spellbomb exploded when Haoran jumped up.

Seizing this chance, Harold throws another Leaf Spellbomb at Haoran and then throws several more punches. After several seconds of repeated punches, Haoran is finally knocked unconscious.

Harold is surprised to see Stella and Lyla in front of the mayor's house. "Lily? Lyla? The Jade Cat's uncle has your self-portrait." He looks at Bruno. "Let's carry these inside so we can question them."

Inside the house, Haoyu laid down on the couch while everyone else stood up. Yuze went upstairs to retrieve Stella's painting.

"So, you're Haoran?" Harold asked. "Why did you steal my friend's portrait? What need do you guys have for it?"

Before Haoran could answer, Yuze had returned with Stella's portrait.

Stella runs to it with a bright smile on her face. "Oh, there it is! Thank you!"

"We wanted to raise funds to build up our town." Haoran said and then looked at Yuze. "Yuze here can speak more about it. I just did the actual stealing of the painting."

"Allow me," Yuze said. "Our town is in danger of being taken over, so we needed some ways to increase the value of our town. One way was to sell expensive paintings. Stella's painting is painted by a high-paying artist. Anything produced by this artist can easily provide funds to make a town prosper. That's why we needed this painting."

Harold scoffs. "We don't care about your town. It has nothing to do with us. That's your problem."

Haoyu angrily gets up. "And I would have been made into a Count or a Duke if the plan were successful! But you two screwed it up!"

"Alright! We'll be leaving now." Harold said.

Harold waited for everyone to leave first, and then he walked up to the mayor and punched for holding Stella and Lyla hostage. Haoran and Yuze protested, but Harold left before they had a chance.

Inside Stella's house are herself, her mom and twin sister also named Stella. Harold, Lyla, and Bruno are also there for dinner. Everyone is seated in the kitchen. Stella explained to her mom and sister about the adventures to retrieve her stolen paintings. Mom thanked Harold and his relatives for their help.

"Well, now that the portrait is back," Mom said to Harold. "What do you plan on doing while Lily goes back to school? You know, Harold, you and Bruno are very good at what you guys do. Why not put those skills to something? Maybe undercover police work, military, security force, or intelligence?"

"I don't know," Harold said. "We'll think about it."

Mom smiles at Harold. "Take your time, dear. Grandkids can wait."

"Huh? What?! What are you talking about?!"

"Mom!" Stella said and took a bite from the sausage.

"Oh, I'm just teasing!"

At night, Harold and Bruno slept in the guest room while Lyla slept with Stella in her room.

In the morning, Stella and Mom go outside to say goodbye to Harold, Lyla, and Bruno as they go back home to Thistle Village. And this marks the end of this Saga!