Impermanence Land

Chapter Four

It took a few minutes for the pursuer to regain consciousness. Waking up, he wasn't surprised to see Harold and Bruno looking down at him.

"Alright, kid!" Harold said. "I'm assuming your name is Yong and you know who we are? Why did you follow us?"

"I'm not telling you anything!"

Bruno gets mad. "If you want to play hard, I can always beat you up again!"

Yong sighs. "Fine! But you can't tell the Jade Cat that it was me. Alright?!"

Harold nods. "Don't worry. I'll leave you out of it when my cousin and I find him."

"Alright, then! He told me that if I can stop you guys from going after him, he would tell his uncle to only buy my crops and not from my competitor."

Harold's eyes light up. "Uncle? Does his uncle have influence on the imports of this town?"

"Yeah! His uncle is the mayor of this town! Can I go now?"

"Not yet, buddy! I'm assuming the mayor lives in the center of town in that mansion?"

"Yeah," Yong began to stand up. "Just go to that mansion and knock on the door! If he's there, then do your thing. If not, then I don't know!"

"Does he have any associates we should know about?"

"Tsk! Maybe his assistant Yuze! They work side by side, so maybe you guys can find him for more information. That's all I know!"

"One last thing, did you give that note to the little boy earlier this morning?"

Yong has a confused look on his face and shakes his head. "No."

"Alright, you can go now! Just don't get involved with us anymore." Harold motioned his head for Yong to leave.

Harold and Bruno watched as Yong quickly went to the north gates.

"And now we go to the mansion at the center of town." Harold said.

Harold and Bruno made their way to the central district of town where they stood at the front gate of the mansion.

"Should we go in and knock on the door," Bruno suggested. "And see what happens?"

Harold thinks to himself for a bit. "I guess we just need to be wary of an assistant named Yuze."

"That would be me!" an unknown voice came from the east near the mansion.

Both Harold and Bruno are startled and turn to see a man in a tailored suit with combed black hair.

"And you are?!" Harold asked.

"I believe I just answered that." said the man in the tailored suit. "I'm the mayor's assistant named Yuze. I can't let you in there!" Yuze starts to walk closer to the boys. "Alright, boys! Why don't you leave before anything happens, huh?"

Harold scoffs. "And what will happen if we don't leave?"

"I'll be forced to deal with you two."

Bruno smirks. "You? You're going to deal with us? Alone?"

Yuze shakes his head calmly. "No, Haoran and I will deal with both of you."

Harold is confused. "Haoran? Who's Haoran? The mayor?"

"Oh, I see. Harold and Bruno, you two haven't found out his name yet."

"You know our names, so you must also know that we're here for the stolen painting. Once we have it, we'll leave."

Bruno gets impatient and looks at Harold. "I'll take care of this guy! Why don't you go inside?"

As Harold reaches for the gate, a cat's claws swipe his left arm with a Jade Claw attack. The cat's claws belong to a young man who just appears next to Yuze.

Harold and Bruno turn to look at the young man. It is none other than the Jade Cat in his human form.

"Surprise!" said the Jade Cat. "You guys just couldn't let the painting go, huh? Oh, well! I'll just beat you guys and send you to the hotel."

Haoran transforms his left hand into his Cat paw and swipes at Harold with Jade Claw. The attack connects on Harold's right rib which causes some bleeding.

After rolling away from Haoran, Harold transforms into his Wolf form. Haoran throws a Jade Spellbomb at Harold. It explodes into jade-colored stone particles.

Harold takes the damage, but manages to stand on all four legs. He quickly rolls over and throws a Leaf Spellbomb at his opponent, but the latter easily dodges.

Yuze lunges at Bruno who uses both his arms to block the incoming attack. Repeated punches are thrown by Yuze which push Bruno back several inches. Bruno pivots to the right and punches Yuze in the rib with his right hand.

With his right hand, Yuze throws a Rock Spellbomb at Bruno. It explodes into dark yellow rock particles. At close range, he follows up with a Rock Punch. This causes Bruno to fall onto the ground.

Rolling back to distance himself from his opponent, Bruno transforms into his Bear form. He unleashes several Rain Claws at Yuze, but only one attack lands on Yuze's chest. The wound is severe enough to spill blood.

Yuze ignores the pain and continues to repeatedly attack with Rock Punches. As a result of enduring multiple hits, the Bear begins to transform back into Bruno.

Stella and Lyla were sitting on the couch when Haoyu showed up wearing a yellow night robe.

He is already a fat man, and the oversize robe makes him look even heavier. "Shall we? You girls must be hungry. I'll make you something to eat. Stay here!" He goes to the kitchen.

Stella thinks to herself. "Hey! Why don't we just leave and run away?"

Lyla's eyes light up. "Oh, yes! Let's try that!"

Both girls stand up and quietly sneak a peek into the kitchen. Stella slowly pokes her head into the kitchen.

"Stella! Lyla! Come here!" Haoyu called out while looking at the steaks.

"Oh, we're here!" Stella answered.

Haoyu turns to see the girls. "That was fast! Well, anyways! Let's grill these steaks! Only the highest class can eat these." He goes back upstairs.

Stella and Lyla start to grill the three steaks when they hear a Midrash explosion outside in the front yard.

"What was that?" Stella asked. "It sounded very close."

"I'll check it out." Lyla walks to the entrance of the mansion.

At the entrance, Lyla opens the curtain and sees Harold and Bruno fighting against two other people. She quickly closes the curtains and runs back to Stella.