flint

I took that guy to an old, abandoned settlement that's only used as a rest stop by warriors traveling outside the tribe, and he suspected nothing.

You can't say that for sure.

It's fine as long as he can't be sure of anything either.

As long as they don't get to the bottom of it, they won't report anything to their higher ups.

—That's what the Doctor said.

True.

They're just lackeys. They're bound to avoid the riskier option.

That's right! Besides! With me on the job, nothing can possibly go wrong!

Man, that was exhausting. You know how much work it is to take apart a transport and then put it right back together?

Sorry, but that's the only excuse I could come up with.

If you need me to pay for it...

No need! It's a piece of cake! We used to do this stuff all the time back when we were running cons... I mean, when we ran our old business. Don't believe me, ask Broca!

Wait... Hahahahaha! Broca, your face! Hahahahaha! That's hilarious!

...Shut up.

Hahahahahahaha!

Ahem. Okay, back on topic.

Now that they're gone, we should be able to keep the status quo for a while longer. Inam, Zumama, and Gavial are all away. We'll have to settle for this.

Those guys won't give up that easily.

I guess that's true. If this was going to be that simple, Inam wouldn't have asked me to hold the fort.

Yeah... I'll have my tribesmen keep an eye out around the rainforest. If any of them come back, we'll deal with it somehow.

Whoa.

...What?

Man, I didn't expect the boss, that Inam, to trust you so much!

I only ever see you follow Blaze around. You don't even talk to the other operators from here all that much. I really didn't think you'd come all the way back like they did the moment you got that letter.

It's true. I don't keep in contact with my tribe much.

Thankfully, I was in Columbia not too long ago. Inam gave me a call and asked me to bring a bunch of discarded metal choppers.

I'm not really too sure why she trusted me with this...

You brought all those here?

You have an eye for them. They can be put to good use once they're fixed up.

Why wouldn't she trust you? She saw how much you've grown. It's a good thing!

I followed you guys here thinking I could help come up with ideas when push came to shove, but looks like you didn't need me at all.

You're always fighting Broca, so I thought you were the kind of girl who rushes right up to your opponents to beat them up.

I did kind of do that, too.

Huh?

Never mind.

Acahualla's changed a lot, and the tribe has all these funny looking... machines. I really have no idea how they learned to put them together.

I thought Zumama's stuff was weird enough, but at least those things were shaped normal.

The ones they made are pretty interesting, if you ask me.

As long as it's practical.

That's true. At the very least, life's gotten much better with these machines.

Really? If you guys came up with a machine that planted crops and hunted on its own, your Tiacauh warrior fists wouldn't mean anything for much longer.

You seriously don't care even a little?

Hey, Chiave!

Eh, I'm just curious!

I lost the right to determine my tribe's direction the moment I left my tribesmen behind.

If the Tiacauhs chose this, then there's no problem. I don't understand what these machines are all about, but I trust the people here.

Yeah.

Fair enough.

Besides, I've thought about things while I was on Rhodes Island.

...If everything could be solved by beating up your enemies, I wouldn't have so much to worry about.

There was this time when... uh... I accompanied the Doctor as a bodyguard to a business meeting with a company, and they really tried to boss us around right from the start.

It happens.

I couldn't help myself, so I beat them all up.

...It happens.

Ahh... Yeah, that can be a pain in the ass to deal with.

How come the Doctor didn't stop you?

Of course they did, so I beat them up while the Doctor was asleep.

Hey, hold on. I think I heard about this.

So you were the one who wanted to give the Doctor more rest and stood guard outside the door, and ended up beating up all the guys who came looking for trouble?

Don't remind me...

The deal almost fell through because of that, but we managed to save it at the expense of the Doctor's sanity.

...Anyway, I gave everyone lots of trouble that time.

Good thing the Doctor was there. They didn't give you a hard time, right?

Not at all. Actually, after we got back to Rhodes Island, they told me that fists really do mean everything.

Huh?

But our fists have to be big enough for that to work... and we don't always have what it takes yet, so we have to come up with other ways to solve our problems.

Fair point.

M-Makes sense...

Hold on.

Did you hear something just now?

Phew, finally.

Stop musing. We need to get to work.

Hm? How come there are all these machines here?

Is that...

Hey, Kemar, good to see you.

Judging by the look on your face, I'm guessing nothing bad happened.

Everything turned out okay in the end, I guess...

Good. Then I suppose you chased them all away? I knew you were the right one for the job.

I have plenty of other things I need your help with, but for now...

I need all of you to help us clear some space for a village. Acahualla is going to see a large crowd of visitors from the underground soon.