King listened intently now, taking in every detail of Kaizen's story. It was one he hadn't expect but maybe he'd sensed it, that's what had drawn him to the man before him. A true tragedy had fallen upon this man's life but he was still calm, well held together, and king couldn't help but question it. Could it be that the training in the way of the monks of the fire temple had prepared him for such a loss and he was adept in handling such situations? Or was it simply that he held his grief in check by keeping his mind focused, on either answers or revenge. One way or another, his eyes held focus when it came to discussing the details of the island and this is where king's focus now lied. He'd traveled through the mist above, and even he with all his training had struggled and would have been lost without the help of his eyes. Now here he was, hearing of a large group that had optionally split up above ground without hesitation and had plans for the island, not caring about the mist. Now what could lay to the south, what was going on here? Now Kaizen rose to his feet, ready to make his move, but just before he did, King held out his right hand placing it on Kaizen's right shoulder as he went to move, holding him in place for a moment before he could proceed with his pursuit.
"I'm sorry for your loss, and it's never easy, and we all need closure. I can't pretend to know how you must feel or what must be going through your head right now, but i will say this. Consider me your ally, we will find your answers and i promise... if it costs me my life... i wont let anything happen to these people..."
He never breaks eye contact as he speaks, leaving a smile on his face with the last of his words as he lowered his hand once more and left Kaizen to move through the crowd in pursuit, leaving king with his own thoughts in how to proceed. Now, what he knew so far was there was a mist that never faded, animals that were possessed in a weird way, and an oppressed people that were made to fear ever leaving these mines. The answers to all his questions would now lie with one of these men, yet he only had one in his grasp, but how to go about gathering the information. The quick and easy option would be to go invisible and sneak up and try and listen in, but then what if he had a way to sense king? It could cause an unnecessary altercation putting the innocent people in harms way. The other method would be just a direct approach with a friendly manor, to test his reactions, but once again, without knowing much about the man, he had no idea how he would react to this. King was assuming these men were the ones that were responsible for the massacre at the fire temple, and it would take someone with blood thirsty resolve to do such a deed like that. Even the thought of such brutality made king feel a bit sick on the inside as he found himself clenching his fists. He realized and soon relaxed his hand a little. Now he thought about it from a civilian sense, what way could he angle this so that it wouldn't come across as a threat or provocation to the man?
That's when it came to him. The one thing king always had to deal with was that people thought he was just a kid due to his appearance, but now was the time to play this to his advantage. He placed his staff on the ground for a moment and looked around, it was near the man he saw several children playing a game of tag near to where the man was stood. He walked over with a big grin on his face and decided to play along.
"Hey, can i play, this looks like fun"
They all stopped, looked at him and then looked at each other. One of the kids, about the same height as king with long dark hair walked up to him, stood one food away from him, looking him in the eye. Then suddenly swung his right hand around hitting king on his shoulder...
"Tag... you're it!"
And with that the kid ran off. It took King a moment of confusion to realize, he had his answer, he was playing. Now this would be an easy game usually, with his ninja reflexes and battle training, catching any one of these kids would be an easy task. But that wasn't his goal here. The man was watching him, so king went along with it, chasing after one of the girls as though he was trying to get her, even faking tripping up to make it seem as though he was clumsy. After a few moments of this charade the man turned away, pressing buttons on his phone and king continued to play. And that was his opportune moment to act. He now, unknowingly to one of the boys, would chase him, but in a sneaky way so that he only had one direction to go, towards the man. Like herding sheep, he guided this boy, then as he was about to run into the man king shouted...
"I'm gonna get you!"
Instinctively the boy spun around mid run to look to see if king was close but in that moment he ran clean into the man, knocking him down and the phone out of his hand. A child's mistake, clearly. King not being able to stop his momentum ended up piling on top of them both as they lay on the ground, all wrapped up in the man's cloak. Now he had to act quick while the man tried to make sense of what happened, he grabbed the man's phone and flipped it open and read through it quick, catching words, phrases, clues, he didn't have time to read it all but he read enough.
Now the man pushed the boys off him swearing and thrashing then pushing himself to his feet looking angry as he looked around, king rolled over onto his front pushing himself up then as he stood, he held out the phone, closed now, palm open offering the phone to the man.
"I'm so sorry sir... is this yours? That was my fault... i'm sorry"
The man snatched the phone from the boy then ushered them to go away in an angry manor, and both kind and the boy got up and ran away back into the crowd. King now headed towards where his staff was as he looked back to see the man now look at his phone. For a moment, the man opened his phone then looked at it, confused. What was wrong with him. Was it a new message? What was going on. Then the man's head snapped up in the direction of king, he was looking for him in the crowd. Now he shouted over everyone else in the room, demanding silence with his voice echoing as everyone turned to look at him.
"Very clever your little shit... but don't take me for a fool... reading my messages were you...."
King stopped frozen now, facing the other direction to the man, how did he know?
"Next time don't open a message i haven't seen.... now where is that monk you seemed to be all buddied up with? Huh? Well it matters not. I don't care who you are... and another monk on the body count just ties up the loose ends... play time is over..."
Meanwhile... as Kaizen searches for the other mysterious man.....