Mise’s POV:

Mise wasn’t able to stay asleep for very long, for obvious reasons, so he decided now was a good a time as any to get started on breakfast, he got up and was looking around and noticed that most of the fruit and berries from the surrounding bushes and trees had been swiped during the night.

“well that’s just great; I guess I’ll have to go forage for food.” Mise said as he grabbed his hatchet out of bag and grabbed his rifle
Mise loaded his rifle, slung it over his torso, and set down the mountain in search for food.

Shard’s POV:

‘I'm so going to kick his ass, I swear to Faust’ shard thought as he trekked through the thick forest
Shard finally reached the base of the mountain itself, he now had climb the actual mountain

“the things I do for honor, I swear.” Shard said as he started his climb up the face of the mountain.

Unbeknownst to him, Mise was currently hiking down a jagged slope, on the opposite side of the mountain.

Shard continued to climb until he reached the rocky out crop at the top of the mountain, which opened to the mouth of Mise’s cave-hideout

Shard pulled himself on to the ledge only to find Mise’s camp void of life, specifically Mise.

“oh I'm so going to Sparta kick that idiot’s ass. I guess I’ll just wait here for him to return. No use in playing an endless game cat and mouse” shard said as he set his stuff down

Mise’s POV:

“damn, I knew I shouldn’t have eaten all that jerky on my way here. Oh well I just need to find some rabbits or some-thing….” Mise said weakly as he stopped dead in his tracks

Mise was now face to face with a 300 pound grizzly bear, and it was pissed

“ok, now I'm scared…” Mise as he slowly backed away

The bear roared at Mise before swiping at him with it giant paws. Mise then decided cut his losses and turned tail and ran to a nearby ledge and got up as fast as he could. The bear ran after Mise, determined to catch him.

Mise fumbled around with his rifle trying to get it off his body and aimed. Normally he would just play dead, but he was starving, scared, and wasn’t about to take any chances.

Mise got the bear in his sights and pulled the trigger. The bear went down instantly and humanely. Mise shouldered his gun and went down to the bear.

“I'm sorry I had to that, but I promise your sacrifice will not be in vein.” Mise said to the bear as he proceeded to pick up the bear and carry it to his mountain hideout.

Shard’s POV:

It had been about a half hour since shard had reached the cave and he was currently sharpening his swords while he awaited Mise’s return

He didn’t have to wait long as he heard the distinct sound of boots dragging across stone and dirt.

He stopped what he was doing and turned to in the direction of the sound and just a large furry mass lumbering up the path. He quickly saw it was Mise carrying a bear fireman style.

“well well well, it’s about time you showed up.” Shard said completely taking Mise by surprise

“SHARD!? What the…how the…WHAT?!” Mise said completely shocked to see another person, let alone one of his friends

“at the request of ditzy, I'm going to give you a chance to explain yourself before I turn you into human sashimi.” Shard standing up

“nice to see you too, and I don’t know what you’re doing here but I'm not going back, not yet.” Mise said putting the bear down on the cave floor

“ok, I'm going to give you one more chance, enough bullshit, what the fuck were you thinking abandoning everyone like that? Do you realize the impact you had when you left? Do you even care about how many of your friends you hurt?” shard asked bluntly

Mise stood up with his back facing shard and spoke

“you want to know what I was thinking, because I’ll tell you, I was thinking that why should someone like me be so blessed, why should I be so privileged, I deserved the worst, nothing less. If you thought Octavia and fang and artemis, and everyone else is hurting right now, well I got news for you, I've been hurting like that for years now, forcing myself to go on in blessed and privileged life.” Mise said shaking

“what the hell are you talking about? Come on I'm taking you home” shard said

“you just don’t get it, I'm a horrid excuse for human being, do you realize the things I’ve done? I MURDERED ENOUGH PEOPLE TO REPLACE THE STUDENT BODY OF CHS! I ripped apart countless families and relationships, you know what I wished for myself after my last mission, I wished myself the worst in life because some like me deserves nothing good in life. I wished things upon myself what I wouldn’t wish upon my worst enemy” Mise said as he turned to face shard

“I'm aware of your actions, while quite gruesome and terrible, that doesn’t excuse you from what you have done to all our friends. BUT…” shard said calmly trying not to blow up on the clearly unstable person in front of him.

“but what?” Mise asked

“But if its inner peace you're after or mental healing you should have just said so, I know a place where you can do that, and it cleanses your very soul. It's my families old temple in Japan built inside Mount Fuji, my jet can get us there in about three hours tops, if you want full disclosure, you'll never have to run again...I'll make sure of that” shard offered

Mise thought about it for a second, looking around, and then back to shard

“ok, I’ll go, but before we do, you mind helping me with Yogi here?” Mise asked gesturing to the bear

“fine, but we have to go after that.” Shard said as he walked over to the bear and pulled out his sword

After Mise and shard finished dressing the bear and packing the parts away in a storage container shard got from CyCorp

The pair packed up all their stuff and made their way back to the jet and got on.

3 hours later…

Mise and shard were now in Japan, and were on their way to the temple. While on the plane, Mise swallowed his pride and grabbed hold of his manhood and video-called Octavia. After an ear-shattering scolding, Mise explained the situation and told Octavia that he would be home the next day, but for now he would be with shard in Japan.

As they were walking down the path Mise’s phone began to ring and he picked it up to see it was gaige

“hey Gaige, what’s up…yes, I know…if called to harass me just hang up…yeah I'm in Japan…ok...ok...yeah I can do that…does treble want anything…seriously, of things…ok fine, I’ll get treble a Pepsi…ok bye.” Mise said as he hung up

“so what did gaige want?” shard asked

“she wanted me to pick her up a model Gundam” Mise said

“Ahh, well here we are. Let’s get inside and get you patched up, you broken, broken man” shard said

“I don’t see anything besides Mt. Fuji” Mise said confused

“We have to fine the small cave opening on the other side, The temple is called Tsumi No Taki, meaning Waterfall of Sin” shard explained

The pair found a small cave opening on the opposite side of Mount Fuji. After they walked through a long system of tunnels they came to a large underground chamber with just a small gap in the mountain allowing Ray's of sunlight to shine though onto the temple.

The front of the temple consisted of a stone staircase that was boxed in by pillars. There was a huge door with a small plaque on the front; Shard placed his hand on it for the door, causing it to open.

Inside was a large circular chamber with the middle having small round pond with lily pads. The walls had carvings of the oldest of each generation of Storms, including Shard.

“Ok Mise I need you strip down your underwear go to that platform in the middle of the pond and get on his knees” shard said as he walked over to the platform while Mise did as he was told

Once Mise was done getting undressed, he went to the platform and got on his knees

From the top of the chamber water will began to gently fall from the ceiling and onto Mise's back, washing away his sins and purifying his soul and body, allowing him to feel refreshed.

After the cleansing, Mise got dressed again and the pair got up and left with the door closing behind them.