Friends Forever

Author: Lariat

I uncover yet another package from the pile of stuff on Haru's side of the room, again. Another box that's labeled "Childhood Memories". Sheesh, you'd think a girly-looking guy with 'spring' in his name would know the meaning and ritual practice of the term "spring cleaning", but noooo, he has to have hoarding disease instead.

"Ack! Wait, don't touch that one!" aforementioned girly spring guy pointed and exclaimed. "That's—!"

"Important?" I finished his sentence. "Just as 'important' as the rest of your twenty-something boxes we're going to either pawn off or donate to charity?"

"It's my childhood memories! It clearly says so on the box, see?" he attempted to justify.

"Like it clearly says so on the eight or nine boxes that you hid all around the room until you ran out of room to hide them in so you put some in Ryuu's room too?"

"Well, that particular childhood memory box is the very most important one!" he said.

"…Just like—"

"I'm telling the truth this time!" he whined. "Please, please, pleeee---aaase don't throw whatever's in there away!"

Against his wishes (as per usual today of our spring cleaning), I opened the box and examine the contents. I closed my eyes and blindingly reached my hand into the box, singing "And the lucky little toy is going to toyless orphan number 108 is~!" grabbing the first thing I touch. "…This!" I said as I raised the object in my hand in all of its glorious selflessness.

"What?! No, no, no! Not that one!" Haru complained.

"Too late~" I sang. "This little thing is going to—…huh?" I examined the object I acquired from one of Haru's worthless treasure chests and found it quite familiar, just in the wrong structure. "Is… Is this a God's Eye?" I asked.

To me, it really did look like one, except it had six points and the 'handle' point was the one with Cross's name on it. On the rest of the points were Haru, Bean, Kaizu (probably her twin brother that they talk about  sometimes), and Ryuu's names on them. The top point seems to have broken off at some point.

"It, um…," Haru said. "It kinda sorta is, but its real value is more important than what we made it out to look like."

I rolled my eyes. "Oh, yes, of course, I'm so sorry for forgetting your mantra for these things."

"It's true!"

"Haru, one of the points is broken off," I said, emphasizing my point by literally pointing at the broken point. "This thing's as worthless as it is useless."

"No it's not!" he said. "You don't understand, that really means a lot to me. All of us made that together, we put our names on the ones we made, don't you see?!"

"Yes, I do. Junk, like all the rest," I said, getting ready to throw it to either the 'pawn off' or 'charity' pile.

"No you don't!" he whined again. "Don't you know about that kind of stuff? You know, you and your friends get together, make something, write your names on it—that kind of stuff?!"

"You say that like it's a superstition thing or something."

"It is!" He paused. "I-I mean it's not! I mean, okay, it sorta is—look, what I'm trying to say is is that there's a lot of sentimental meaning behind that! Look, let me explain—"

I gasped dramatically. "An explanation! For a piece of junk! Amazing, let's hear it!" I said in half-hearted joy.

"Stop that!" After giving the toy glare for the billionth time today, he ahem'd and proceeded to tell me his urban legend. "See, we street kids had a pretty strong thing for sticking with your allies and friends and stuff, you know?"

"Okay…?"

"Well, one of the things that symbolized our comaraderie was getting all the friends together and then pitching in to make something together. It didn't really matter what the little rascals made, all that mattered was that you all made it together."

"Uh huh…," I said with piqued interest. "Go on…"

"When you're done making your part of the thing, you carve your name on it before you attach it to all of the other pieces that your friends made. Are you starting to get it now, the whole friendship thing?"

"It… has something to do with… connecting bonds, right?"

"Right!" He pointed with glee. "You and all your friends made this little piece of yourselves and then you all attach it together; so all of those little pieces of you and your friends, they become a part of this whole big thing that stands as your friendship and connections with each other!"

My eyes became big with awe and realization. I looked back down at the broken, six-pointed God's Eye in my hand. "W-Wow, I… I didn't know it really meant that much…"

"Yup," Haru said proudly with hands on his hips. "And that's why I'm keeping it."

"Say, Haru," I started, "what happens if one of the pieces is broken off? Does that mean that the connection is broken off too?"

"Yeah," he said. "Just ask Nobu." He paused. "Don't ask Ryuu. He'll get mad at you."

I looked at him in curious confusion. "Why?"

"Um… Just trust me," he said. "Anyway, it's really important how the piece was broken off. Manari's piece got broken off because of this really bad storm this one time. It's really important to know because that's how you know how the person will end up later in life, in relation to the other pieces."

"Like how Manari died during the siege because it was a disastrous event that broke off the connection?" It took me a while to realize what I just said before Haru's face looked troubled and said nothing. "Oh, I mean… Look, Haru I—"

"Yes," he said automatically. He paused. "…The thing kind of… decides fate for you, in relation to the others that was attached to it," he repeated. "The person will die if they don't attach the piece back to it. Manari was really stupid like that, being all lazy and stuff."

Attempting to drive the subject away from Manari, I said, "That sounds pretty harsh, for a superstition to do that to a group of friends."

He shrugged. "Eh, it happens. The longer the pieces stay together—how many days have passed are equivalent to how many months it will stay together—the longer the group stays friends, you know?"

My friends felt around the God's Eye, particularly around Naebi and Kaizu's points; it looks and feels like it was re-attached. "What happens if you put the broken pieces back together?"

"Bean and Kaizu, huh?" he said, spying what I did. "It depends; if you put your own piece back together, then your group might split apart someday, but you all remain friends. If you put someone else's piece back, then there's no more friendship anymore, at least from the guy you were helping get back together."

"How do you know?"

"About?"

"Both."

He shrugged again. "Experience. Oh and just ask Nobu, too."

"Again?"

"Don't ask Ryuu."

"He'll get mad at me?"

"Right…"

"So you're just basing all of the effects based on your experiences alone?"

"Well," he said, "what I said all fits into what happened, right?"

"I guess…" Then a thought hit me. "Hey, does this have to do with why Nobu's mad at Ryuu all the time?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," he said automatically. "…Anyway, don't throw that out."

I laughed. "Yeah, yeah, I won't." I looked at it again and said, "Hey," calling out to him, "do you think, maybe… we could do this too?"

He blushed. "W-What…?"

"You know, with everyone in the Ginsenkei (except Nobu and Ryuu). It'll be nice."

"Oh… right." Silence. "I dunno Gin… you might break your piece before you even attach it to the thing!"

"What?!" I exclaimed in disbelief. "I know how to control my own strength!"

"Haha, right, sure you do. Oh! Which reminds me, make sure not to break that thing in your hand either. I don't want anything bad to happen to us."


I looked at him incredulously. "Haru, it's a miracle both you and Ryuu are even alive at all, being in the Ginsenkei for almost a year now. Even if I did break this, I doubt any one of you on this thing will die. You guys are pretty hard to kill."

"Still...," he said in a sort of depressing tone. "I... don't want to take that risk. Not after what happened to Manari." He paused. "Not after what happened to the entire family."

I looked at him and sighed in resignation. "Alright, alright," I said, "I won't throw this stupid little superstition treasure of yours away; it obviously means a lot to you."

"Gin...," he said, his face lighting up, then falling into a scowl. "Wait, what? Superstition?!"

"What?" I laughed. "It's true, isn't it?"

"What about you, Mister I-like-to-tell-tall-tales-all-the-time?!" he exclaimed.

"Exactly! And that's the difference Haru," I pointed out. "I know that they're not real!"

I laughed again when his face fumed with petty anger as I put the broken treasure back into his "Childhood Memories" box.

Desire

Author: Lariat

"It's not that I don't want to apologize, it's just…"

"Just what?" The young prince demanded. "What in the world is stopping you?"

"I—"

"It's just three—no, two words and three syllables you have to say! 'I'm'," one finger, "'sorry'," two fingers. "Is it that hard for you, Ryuu?!"

The lazy boy on the hammock gave him a pained look. "It's not hard—"

"If it's not that hard—!"

"Shut up," Ryuu interrupted. "I wasn't done yet. I'm not saying that it's a hard thing to do, I'm saying that it's not just as simple and easy as you think it is."

"According to your brother and your mentor, that translates to 'It's probably too hard for me and that's why I'm not going to do it, before I even try.' Did you know that sort of logical fallacy has a name, Ryuuto?"

"Shut up," he said with rising anger. "Don't get started on me with that. That has nothing to do with this. I'm not saying that either."

"Yes you are!" Taiki exclaimed. "You always do this, you always run away from your problems you think that you can't deal with, even though you can—!"

"Shut up, Taiki!" he yelled at the prince, sitting up, glowering. "It is a problem I can't deal with! It's not something I can solve as easily as you think I can! You don't know what happened, you weren't there, okay?! So shut up and leave me alone about it, okay?!"

He let out sharp, quick breaths, looking at the shocked face of his superior for a moment before sighing in realization of what he had just done.

"Look…," he choked. "…Look, it's—it's not that easy, alright? You don't know what happened… You can't relate…," he trailed off his words as he looked away, averting his eyes, seeing visions of that fateful day  with all of the memories before it. "…I," he muttered, but loud enough to hear for the boy before him. "Just… just don't bring that up again, alright?" he said weakly.

A brief silence passed before Taiki mustered the courage to speak again. "Have you… at least, tried to apologize before…?"

Ryuu did not answer at first, organizing his thoughts and memories of all that conspired. Then he said, "Yes… lots of times." He slowly laid himself back down on his hammock, hands behind his head as his pillow, and his eyes wandered again. "I told you, it's not that easy. If it was, then there would still be a Unit 8, right?" He sighed.

Simple Pleasure

Author: Lariat

"Why do you do that?"

I looked at him in confusion. "Do what?"

"That," Taiki said, pointing to my hands. "Those hand motions you do in front of your stomach while you crouch over a bit and then go, 'Hurumph huru huru huru rururu' or something like that."

"W-What…? You mean this?" I proceeded cup each of my hands, quickly alternating them in an up and down motion then make eating noises as if my mouth was full but decided to stuff my face anyway.

"Yes, that. You always do that when you're annoyed," he said, annoyed himself. "I've seen your brother and Cross do it sometimes as well, when they are annoyed or in some similar emotional state. I've seen Nobu do it as well."

"It came from Nobu, this thing," I declared, briefly doing the motion again.

"Really?"

"Yeah. Nobu did it, then I did it, then Nii-san did it, then Aniki did it, then the rest of our crew did it. Before Nobu, I think his crew leader started it." I paused. "At least, as far as I can guess."

"I see…," he said. "And?"

I looked at him in confusion again. "And what?"

"Why do you do that?" he said. "You never answered my first question."

"Don't you know?" I replied, "Many of us commoners eat when we're sad. Haven't you noticed?"

"Ah, yes," he caught on. "That unhealthy eating habit Iroki told me about, common amongst commoners and some nobles, at least from what I hear from Tel. What about it?"

"You know how we poor kids love to eat because of our malnourishment, right?" He nodded. "It's like a combination of both. We're eating both to make ourselves feel better and to not starve to death. Killing two birds with one stone."

"You have such a horrible temperament, Ryuu," Taiki said, ignoring my glare at him. "How could you have possibly been able to acquire such food every single time you were angry, sad, or annoyed?"

Begrudgingly ignoring his previous statement, I replied, "I didn't. I mean, we didn't. I don't have food on me now, right? But I'm pretending that I do anyway. See, when I do this," I proceeded to do the motion again, "I'm pretending that I'm overindulging myself on a pile of food set in front of me. The food's not there, but I'm still acting like I'm eating just to make myself feel better anyway. Understand?"

He squinted his eyes, not in an expression of skepticism, but in deeper confusion. I guess he doesn't understand. "I'm just repeating what Nobu told me when I asked him about it, okay? So… think about his mindset, kind of," I told him. I sighed when Taiki's face didn't change immediately and said, "You know what, never mind…"

"I think," he said suddenly, "…I think I understand somewhat."

"Good."

"Since you do not have food whenever you do that," he explained his findings, "you eat this sort of imaginative 'air food' coming from the hope in your mind that you'll still survive and that you'll get through that  seemingly hopeless state you're in right now, somehow. Similar to a dying soldier clinging to the hope that he'll be able to survive and eat his favorite crablette dish when he gets back to home base, so he imagines the taste and makes himself feel better, giving himself a state of contentment in mind. Right?"

I stared at him in silence.

"I read a scene like that in a novel," he then declared.

"Um…," I said, unsure of what to say in response of… that. "Uh… yeah, sure, it's kind of like that."

He leaned back in his chair and smiled in response to the approval. "I see. I'm glad I could understand."

"Yeah…" To be honest, I know what he said was more or less wrong, but he put it in such a way that I don't know how to prove that he was wrong.

"Well, Ryuu, since you're not in the state of near-death, I think you should just stop whining and get back to your paperwork already."

"Yeah… Wait, what?" I double-taked. "I just taught you a valuable lesson."

"A lesson you are not practicing properly," Taiki scolded, wagging his finger at me in shame. "Now get back to work, you whiny baby."

I glared at him, begrudgingly and reluctantly walking back to my work station, muttering, "Hurumph huru huru huru rururu" to myself.

Wishful Thinking

Author: Lariat

"You're the only one here who knows him the longest. Yet you don't even know his real name??"

I sighed. "Just because I'm the one who's known him the longest, that doesn't necessarily mean that I know his real name." I shrugged. "I mean, he never told me, or anyone else, not even Manari. How would I know?"

The purple haired heiress crossed her arms and sighed in disappointment in her seat. "Great…," she said tiredly. "So much for that…"

I raised an eyebrow. "You sound like you lost a bet or something." I paused. "Wait… hey, Shion, did you actually—

"N-No! No I did not!" she denied, waving her hands in front of her face, very badly hiding her intentions. "What kind of person do you take me for?!"

"A mafia princess who practices her future career of money extortion on her own friends," I immediately replied, earning me a sharp glare. "What? That's your specialty, remember? It's right on your résumé that you wrote up yourself."

"And what the heck are you sniffing around my papers for?!"

"And what the heck are you doing, making a bet that requires you to sniff out information that's not supposed to be available to you."

She sighed again, with more anger in her voice. "Of all the times you won't act stupid, it has to be now?"

"Yes."

Another glare.

"Yes, I had to answer that rhetorical question," I said before I could let her speak. "It's because Ryuu's not here, and you know how moody I get when he isn't around, so to compensate, I'm acting like a total smartass who throws subtle insults that belittles everyone's intelligence like a million steaks were falling out of the sky." I paused. "Aw, now I made myself hungry," I said to myself, pitying my conveniently empty stomach.

"WellitwasnicechattingwithyouShiongottagonowreallyhungryneedfoodandstufflikethatyouknowthethingwithachinghungerandall—Buh bye!" I quickly stood up from my chair to escape as fast as possible, ignoring her yelling at me to come back to her. Either she forgot that she was in the town library, or thinks that her status as both a wealthy person living it up and member of the law enforcement lets her have that kind of privilege.

Or both.

On the way of my awesomely fantastic daring escape of the boring museum of books, I spied with my little eye Senma, who came with Shion, in one of the aisles facepalming and shaking his head back in forth. Most obviously, in a place like the library, he couldn't help eavesdropping on my lovely conversation with Shion and couldn't help being witness to another one of his girlfriend's crazy antics.

As I successfully get out of the library and into the streets, I couldn't help but recall my conversation with the purple midget who claims to be older than I.

It's always like this; for some reason, whenever she wants to find out something, she always puts it in ways that piques my curiosity and have the same kind of desire for that particular, yet to be obtained knowledge. I both love and hate spending time with her.

Anyway, because of her self-imposed mission, now I kind of want to know it too.

Aniki's real name.

I wasn't lying when I said that I didn't know it, or at least as far as I can remember my life with him. I can only remember one instance where I first met Aniki in my early childhood, and that was when I was watching the passing of the Shark Comet. I've only come to know him ever since a bit ever I met Manari, when I was eight. I can't remember when I started calling him "Cross" or "Aniki", but that's all I remember calling him as.

At the very least, Aniki is honest with the fact that "Cross" is just a nickname given to him a long time ago. But unfortunately, Aniki being Aniki, whenever someone asks him, he just answers them in riddles likes he usually does, either because he enjoys frustrating everyone around him or because it's a big secret.

Or both.

I don't think even me or Ryuu could ever get a straight answer from Aniki about what his real name is. After all, Ryuu and I have and will always remember Aniki as Aniki or Cross during official matters. Wherever it came from, he wouldn't say… Er, what did he say again?

Wherever it came from

I won't say

You just have to remember that one afternoon

In the middle of May

Or something like that. Whatever the heck he meant by that. What does "one afternoon in the middle of May" have to do with his real name?

…He has a middle name and it's "May"? Pfft… Okay, too ridiculous… right?

Future

Author: Seth

"To know what is to come is to be forever haunted by that which you can never change."

Raitou tugged off his final sock, wriggling his feet pleasurably on the cold metal floor of his room before tossing the smelly article of clothing to join its partner at the foot of his bed. Normally he wouldn't be this sloppy, but the scarred panthryan was tired and really didn't feel like making the extra effort of ferrying his dirty laundry to the small hamper that sat next to his door. He'd do it tomorrow.

Settling onto his bed with a sigh, the silvery-headed soldier paused and held out a single hand, ticking off the passing seconds. At the count of ten, he smiled wanly and finally allowed himself to settle down on the firm bunk.

At which point a frantic knocking broke out at his door.

Of course.

Listing off a litany of mental curses, Rai hauled himself out of bed. And he'd been so ready for a good day's sleep too…

"What is it!?" The assassin barked moodily, yanking open his door. "Can't this wait unti- Ooof!"

Raitou stared dumbly down at the blue-haired figure of Shadow who'd shot through the door the moment he'd opened it and had latched her arms around his mid-riff like some fleshy vice. The girl was crying.

"H-Hey, what's wrong…?" The ex-mercenary asked, flustered as he awkwardly patted his companion's shoulder.

"I-I don't want you to die…" Shadow hiccupped, burying her face into his chest.

Rai blinked. Ok, where the hell had that come from? They had been fighting side by side for years and this was the first time she'd ever voiced such a fear.

"Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere," he whispered, even as he mentally swore at himself with the foulest language he could conjure. He'd uttered that promise before. Twice. He'd walked away both times with another life on his conscience and a word that was worth less than nothing.

Shadow nodded miserably, wiping her eyes on his muscle shirt.

"Sorry," she sniffled, offering no explanation for her sudden breakdown.

"It's all right," Rai assured her, deconstructing his perpetual personal bubble with a supreme effort of will and giving her a somewhat stiff hug.

Part of it was because he truly cared for his wonderfully simple-minded partner, but another part of it, the one he always hated himself for, was because that cold, analytical section of his mind knew just how much she meant to him. He held no illusions about his own mental stability – he couldn't afford to, given his career – and if Shadow broke, he knew he wouldn't be far behind.

Shadow nodded mutely, as much to tell her friend that she acknowledged his statement as to convince herself of its validity.

"I-I think I'm okay now…" The cyclopic girl mumbled as she drew away from her scarred companion.

Reaching forward, Shadow gently plucked at the yellow bandana that decorated Rai's left arm, still in the exact same place she'd first tied it.

"Could I… Could I take this with me? Just for a little bit?" She asked hesitantly.

Rai immediately slipped the length of bright cloth from his arm and offered it to his closest friend. He didn't know why she wanted it back, if only for a short time, and he wasn't about to ask. If it helped her feel better, that's all that mattered.

"Thanks," Shadow mumbled, gingerly accepting the accessory which she'd found all those years ago.

Raitou watched his partner leave without a word, staring at the door through which she'd left before shuffling back to his bed. The ex-Royal Guardsman tucked himself in and lay his head down on the thin pillow that crowned the top of the bed.

He didn't fall asleep for a long time.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Shadow sat cross-legged in that immense field of emerald grass, her ears filled with the rustle of swaying verdure, the caress of the wind and the insistent badgering of a certain blue-haired little terror.

The young spy had attention only for her eyes, though, which were riveted to a crude, crayon drawing. One featuring the other little bluette who was sporting the exact same bandana Shadow had begged of Rai hours (or maybe minutes, she could never tell here) before, and a one-armed stickman with a shock of silvery hair, clothed in a robe as black as Death.

"Nee-chan! Pay attention to Fuu, Shadow nee-chan!"

Slowly, Shadow lifted her eyes from the crayon rendered Fuu to her real live counterpart who was showcasing her recently acquired ability to handstand.

Fuu beamed with uninhibited pride at her accomplishment before her balance wavered and she fell on her rear with a squeak.

Shadow smiled sadly at the little girl. With great care, she folded up the crayon drawing and slipped it into her pocket.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Shadow's hands shook violently, barely managing to hang onto the match and its corresponding box. The bandana hung innocently off her bedpost, its sun-like design staring her in the face.

Waveringly, the one-eyed girl held the match to the rough strip of phosphorous that ran the length of the matchbox.

'Shadow nee-chan's the best! Fuu wants'ta be just like Shadow nee-chan!'

Shadow's hands shook, and the match spluttered to life. The young woman stared as the flame started to crawl down the length of the wood, her body shaking harder with each passing second.

In a violent motion, the blue-haired girl hurled both the match and the box at her wall, sinking limply to the floor as the box exploded against the wall and wooden matchsticks rained down upon the floor.

She couldn't do it. She just couldn't do it.

Tears began trickling down her face as she stared at that godforsaken piece of yellow cloth, mocking her from its perch on her bed.

"Why does it have to be this way?" Shadow sobbed quietly into the floor, blind to all but her own tears.

And the cycle groaned onwards, impervious as it always has been and always will be.

Translate

Author: Seth

"You've got to watch your pride and your priorities, you know? Some things aren't worth risking your friendship over."

Squeeze.

Hey, you all right?

Squeeze. Twist.

C'mon, answer me.

Squuuuueeeeeze.

Pretty, pretty please with a cherry and tons of sharp, pointy things on top?

Yank.

I'm warning you...

Whack.

Senma groaned, clutching his forehead and mentally cursed the people who had built the Ginsenkei compound. You would think that being one of the original members of the organization, they would have built the doors tall enough so that he wouldn't have to duck through every one, but nooooooooo.

Tug, tug. Squeeze.

Serves you right. Now, are you ready to be reasonable?

The blind teen suppressed the urge to shoot a glare in the direction he knew Shion to be standing. The girl was nothing if not persistent...

Senma shuddered as he felt himself pass within a hairsbreadth of a wooden pillar.

Tug. Squeeze. Pull.

You're making this difficult~

Senma shook his head.

"It's not your problem." He said out loud.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Shion replied, looking honestly confused.

Poke.

Watch it, buster.

Senma frowned and shrugged his shoulders.

I'll deal with it.

Shion copied her teammates frown, almost scarily so in its exactness

Prod. Drag. Flick.

One last chance...

Senma just shook his head. He was adamant in this, and Shion wasn't going to convince him otherwise, no matter...

Gone.

The ever present touch of his companion was suddenly gone. Senma stood stock still, completely shocked. They'd had their arguments before, but Shion had never gone so far as to outright abandon him mid-walk.

Gathering his wits about him, the blind archer started to move forward ever so carefully. He wasn't going to ask for help, and he wasn't going to use Air Field; either would prove his friend right.

A slight hint of a breeze. He was outside then. Probably near the courtyard. He'd lost track of their location during the discussion. Or rather, Shion had cajoled and he'd ignored her...

Easy, easy. No walls in front of him. No pillars either.

No pillars... what did that remind-

Whump.

Senma lay exactly where he'd fallen, face first in the dirt of the courtyard. He wasn't going to give in. He wasn't going to... He wasn't... He...

"All right, all right, I'll talk about it, ok?"

Pat. Grasp. Haul.

See? Was that so hard?

Senma sighed as Shion helped him to his feet. There were worse fates he supposed. He had to admit, it was probably wiser to give in before his friend resorted to more drastic measures to 'convince' him.

Organization

Author: Seth

"Sometimes, if you're lucky, you might be able to leave the organization, but the organization never leaves you."

Hakua rose from the deck of the small boat and raised an eyebrow at the arrow quivering in the center of the small mast.

Odd; the shaft had sunk into the wooden post about two heads higher than he was tall. Whoever had loosed the flight was either a piss poor shot, or they were giving them the benefit of a warning shot, both of which seemed equally unlikely.

The smell of ozone infested the air as the mast suddenly lit up like a sun, exploding a moment later in a furious storm of splinters, accompanied by the malevolent crackle of electricity.

Ahh, well that explained it.

"Gung ho, ain't they?" Akatonbi chuckled. The legendary pirate was still calmly standing at the tiller of their small boat, unperturbed by the sudden attack.

Hakua grunted in assent. If there was one thing he had to give the Rangers, they were tenacious, no doubt about that.

The lieutenant unsheathed a dagger and deflected another arrow aimed at their small craft. The sea lit up and sizzled as another bolt of lightning followed the fresh shaft.

The ex-Lunar Corpsman could admire the zeal with which the Rangers performed their duties, but that didn't stop it from aggravating him like nothing else. The police force's devotion to the hunt meant that they almost never gave up, which in turn meant that they could hold a grudge like nobody' business. This meant that all pirates were all but forced to eliminate any ranger they came in contact with because letting even one go alive usually came back to bite them in the ass in a rather fatal fashion.

Hakua shot a questioning glance at his captain who frowned and nodded sadly.

It was a shame. The figures shooting at them from the shore looked to be little more than children, but even so, she knew what she had to do. She hadn't survived so many years of being an outlaw by leaving loose ends laying around.

Letting go of the tiller, the young woman ran to the prow of the small ship, waiting only a moment for Hakua to grab her waist before leaping into the air, an accompanying gust of wind propelling the two pirates immeasurably farther than they should have gone.

Moments after they left the tiny craft another arrow sank straight into the deck. A second later, a bolt of pure energy slammed into the boat, nearly splitting it in two and dooming the small ship to the watery grave.

"That's some power," Akatonbi whistled as she directed both of them to the shore, "It's a good thing we didn't bring the Karura or she'd be the one sinking down there."

Hakua chose not to comment, instead focusing on not losing his breakfast. A rocking ship during the middle of a storm he could handle, but Akatonbi's preferred mode of transportation was a bit too jarring for his tastes.

The pirate captain set them down on the loamy shore, not twenty feet from the two young rangers.

Right into the path of a speeding arrow as it happens.

Akatonbi twisted her hand and the shaft came to an abrupt stop, spinning weightlessly in the air. A quick flick of her wrist sent the arrow flying back towards the young boys just in time for it to meet a crackling bolt of lighting halfway between the two groups.

"That's a powerful tag team you've got there." The red eyed woman nodded appreciatively. "It's a shame you won't ever improve it; it'd be interesting to see how far it could go. Sorry, we've got nothing against either of you," Akatonbi twisted her wrist and a malevolent wind howled up around her, "but it's you or us. You know how it is."

Both the Rangers gulped, but the blond one fit another steel headed arrow into his bow, the other holding the curved metal of his bow in front of him in; steeling themselves for the coming storm.

The coming storm which never came.

Akatonbi looked questioningly at the hand holding her wrist, and then the lieutenant the hand was connected to.

Hakua was staring at the smaller of the two Rangers with an intensity she'd not seen from him for a very long time. Slowly, the ex-Kurohyou member reached up and tugged at his helmet in what was unmistakably a salute.

Akatonbi blinked and looked from Hakua to the young Ranger who was still quivering right up to his red faux-hawk. "Oh you have got to be shitting me," the legendary pirate breathed.

The lieutenant slowly shook his head.

The pirate captain started laughing, much to the consternation of the two confused Rangers. "Haha-HA! That is brilliant, that is absolutely brilliant! What are the odds?!" Grinning, the young woman grasped Hakua's hand, "Well, it looks like it's your lucky day kiddies. But just this once, m'kay? We won't let you go if we run into you again."

Still laughing, Akatonbi launched both herself and her lieutenant – who had hastily grabbed onto her waist – as far into the sky as she could, leaving behind two completely bewildered Rangers.

Believe

Author: Seth

"Let those who have never suffered say what they want, true belief is eternal."

"Where do you think you're going?"

Tel stopped mid-pace, gently placing his foot back to the ground.

"I have some unfinished business to take care of. But you already know that, don't you?" He replied, refusing to turn around.

"You shouldn't go." Yuu admonished, though his words had no strength behind them. "You won't stop regretting. Not this time. Not the next. Not ever."

Tellyth trembled. "I don't want to hear that crap from you of all people. You know how this works. Why are you even trying when you know that all it will do is hurt us both?"

"I have enough to regret already." The redheaded shinigami answered quietly. "I don't need any more."

"… Does it really never leave you? Not ever?" Tel asked hesitantly and at length.

"No."

Finally, the ex-Ginsenkei soldier turned to meet the dull gaze of the death god. "And is it worth it?"

"I don't know." Yuu shook his head slowly.

Tellyth stood there, watching the other young boy, enveloped in his voluminous black robe. As he regarded the shinigami, he couldn't help but feel as if he'd never seen an older, more tired person, save for maybe one.

"But you never stop, even though you don't know." The trap expert looked down at his feet.

"Because I don't know." Yuu replied, turning on his heel and started walking away.

"So we have to hope?" Tellyth asked, slightly desperately. "Again, and again, and again because… we believe?"

Yuu let out a hollow laugh. "What else do we have?"

Tel stood in the same spot long after the steps of his companion had faded away, staring into space. Idly, he fingered his robe, tumbling the conversation over and over in his mind.

It was an odd feeling, having all the choice in the world, and absolutely no choice at all. In that context, he could understand his fellow's actions, if only faintly. It was something he had to do, not because it would accomplish anything, but because it was something he had to do.

Tel chuckled lowly. No difference, yet all the difference in the world. He was getting philosophical; fancy that.

Turning, he continued to walk the path he'd originally been walking. He had a reunion to go to.

"Because we believe… that it'll be worth it, huh?" He murmured quietly to himself as he let his existence bleed out of the pattern. "Forever."

Looking Back

Author: Seth

"Even though we always came so close to killing each other, I still think we couldn't have made a better choice."

She'd always known that this day would come. She'd worried about it constantly since they had separated; he to learn how to fight in hopes that he might one day save those who had fallen prey to trade that had torn their lives apart, and she to repay a life debt owed twice over.

And now here she was, facing her own family, knowing that she'd never forgive herself if he died.

As an arrow tore into the main mast, and jagged streams of pure energy followed ripping the sails to tatters, she smiled ever so slightly.

Maybe she needn't have worried. He'd grown up.

Retry

Author: Seth

"Do you honestly believe anybody's an addict because they want to be?"

Some wondered why he was bitter.

The first time had been like a shard of ice, driven straight into his heart. He'd been so close... So he tried again.

Once he had been asked whether being a cold bastard came naturally to him.

It wouldn't hurt so much if she didn't always smile that kind, sad smile.... If only he'd been a little faster, just a little faster... So he tried again.

 He'd simply smiled and told them that he wished it did.

A hundred times later the only difference is that he knows that he'll always be too slow, that he will never make it. Still he tries again.

 Practice makes perfect right?

Fears

Author: Seth

"Everyone's got their fears. Some might seem small or illogical, but in the end they all have the potential to be equally potent."

Rai settled down on his rough but comfortable bed with a sigh of contentment. The day was finally over, he had no missions waiting for him in the morning and for once he didn't have to wear that damned arm to bed. It was finally time for him to get some well deserved-

"OH KAMI, THERE'S HUNDREDS OF THEM!!!"

-rest…

Grumbling, the scarred panthryan heaved himself from his still cold cot and shuffled over to the door. He had a pretty good idea what Shadow was screaming about, but it never hurt to be sure.

Sliding his door open, Rai followed the sounds of frantic banging over to his partner's room. Without even bothering to knock, the silvery headed man creaked Shadow's door open and…

Yep.

Spiders. Lots of them.

It looked as if some sadistic twist of fate had spawned a spider generator under Shadow's bed, and the girl was most definitely not pleased.

Hopping around like a monkey on crack, the young assassin stomped flat every arachnid that got within a foot of her with a vindictiveness she rarely showed even to her enemies.

Unfortunately for the blue haired panthryan, her arch-nemesis had sheer numbers on their side, and if things continued as they were she'd wind up splattering enough of the eight-legged arthropods to carpet her floor.

"Shadow."

"DEATH TO THE EIGHT-LEGGED ONES!!!"

"Shadow!"

"YOU WERE JUST WAITING FOR ME TO FALL ASLEEP SO YOU COULD CRAWL DOWN MY THROAT, WEREN'T YOU!?"

"SHADOW!"

"YOU'LL NEVER GET ME YOU- Wha?"

Pausing mid-stomp, Shadow rotated towards the door.

Frowning, Rai beckoned shortly.

Shadow needed no further encouragement and all but rocketed from the room.

"So what's our plan of attack?!" The cyclopic girl grinned eagerly as Rai snapped the door shut. "We're going to make those eight-legged freaks pay, aren't we? Aren't we? Oh yes we will~" She giggled dementedly in a downright creepy fashion.

"We aren't going to have a plan of attack." Rai sighed.

"WHAT?! Bu-bu-but if we don't wipe 'em out, they win!" Shadow cried out.

"We aren't going to have a plan of attack." Rai repeated himself, steamrollering over Shadow's outburst. "We are going to get a professional exterminator to fumigate your room tomorrow morning."

"But that's my room!" Shadow whined. "I'm not letting those furry little bastards have it, I sleep in there!"

Rai palmed his face tiredly. It was far too late for this kind of crap…

"And I'm not grinding a couple hundred spiders into my feet, which, you might notice, are bare." Raitou commented dryly. "And I'm not going to get my shoes. Yours look like they need to be burned as they are." He eyed Shadow's gore stained sock-sandal-things pointedly.

"Listen," Rai said as Shadow opened her mouth, no doubt to raise another complaint, "I'm tired, and I want to get some sleep. If you need a place to sleep, then you can use my room." Shadow wavered slightly, and Rai wriggled his bait that crucial bit. "If you can wait until tomorrow to exact your horrible, horrible revenge on them, then there's a bunch of banana's in it for you."

Rai might as well have been able to see all the cogs clicking into place in Shadow's brain.

Hook, line, and sinker.

"Come on, you slowpoke!" The grey eyed girl called as she dashed to Raitou's room. "The sooner we get to sleep, the sooner tomorrow comes!"

Chuckling, Rai followed his companion at a far more sedate pace.

Funnily enough, he found that he didn't mind the whole fiasco all that much. In fact, it was… nice, in a way. His partner's abhorrent fear of spiders was just so… normal. It didn't stem from a horrible childhood, or torture, or death. It was just a simple fear for a simple girl.

Rai smiled. Yes, it was nice, having that small connection to a world of petty concerns. A world he'd left behind long, long ago.

Confusion

Author: Seth

"Me? I'm just a boy with a few family matters to take care of."

The rage… was gone.

Slowly, he became aware of his ragged gasping. The harsh sounds of battle started to override the roar of blood that had been pounding in his ears for so long he'd forgotten that any other sound existed. Bit by bit, the red haze that had clouded his sight bled from his eyes.

And the pain, let's not forget about the pain. It was as if his entire body, his entire being was made of the malevolent feeling.

'Shit, but I'll never get used to that.' Halo thought weakly to himself as he used his butcher's sword to push himself back to his feet. Just because it felt as if he'd be better off dead didn't give him the right to lie down and go through with it. There was still a battle to fight.

Dull footsteps rang out behind him, almost completely obscured by the crashes of the raging battle. Through a supreme effort of will, the spent drakonian heaved himself around, bringing up his cleaver just in time to intercept the forceful jab of a spear.

'There goes my bet with Marten.' Halo though wryly as he crashed to the ground. Oh well, losing, if it came to that, took second seat to other, more important matters. Like death.

Shakily, the orange haired man pulled his giant hunk of steel on a stick in front of his chest in a weak defence. The stony faced gryphane barely even acknowledged the effort, marching up towards the fallen drake and raising his spear for the final blow.

Wasn't it just typical, Halo mused as the enemy soldier blocked out what faint grey light there was on the battlefield. Of all the times he'd thrown himself into the hearts of enemy platoons, of all the other deaths he might have died and here he was, in the one position he'd promised himself he'd never end up in; lying on his back as he waited for the reaper.

A sharp whistling sound cut the air as the spear came down, and the gryphane was literally blown off his feet before the polearm could make contact. Halo was left blinking slowly, staring at the space his would be killer had occupied not half a second ago.

Turning his head to the left, Halo made out the two halves of what had once been a proud gryphane, savagely bisected by a gigantic circular weapon of some sort which lay embedded in the ground right in the middle of the two halves.

"You should take better care of yourself." A faintly amused voice sounded beside Halo. "One might get the impression that you don't care whether you live or die."

Weakly, Halo sat up and watched as a peculiar boy walked past him and uprooted the oversized implement of death, retracting the blades that jutted out of it. The boy (or was it a young man; he couldn't tell), obviously a drake by the way he so easily handled the heavy weapon, slung the now make-shift shield over his back.

"I stopped caring a long time ago." Halo replied tiredly, laboriously pulling himself to his feet. "But thanks for saving my life all the same."

"Are you so eager to venture to the other side?" The boy's entire face smiled calmly, his floppy yellow hat adding to the aura of queer cheerfulness that sat at complete odds with the nature of his words, not to mention the horror of the battlefield they found themselves in.

Something about the brown haired young man jiggled at Halo's memory, but he couldn't tell what.

"Maybe I am." Halo admitted as he strode forward painfully and retrieved his second cleaver from the place he'd dropped it earlier, slotting the two great butcher's knives together to form one enormous double-bladed sword.

"Only fools venture to the land of phantasms in pursuit of shadow dreams." The boy looked at Halo with something akin to nostalgia in his bright blue eyes.

 "That sounds like a quote of some sort." Halo said, his tone questioning.

"They're the words of a little boy who wished very dearly to return to his parents, though I suppose he wasn't so little when he said them." The youth sighed before turning his back on Halo.

"So which one is it, the land of phantasms?" Halo asked, staring at the dead gryphane. "This life or the next?"

"I'd like to know that myself." Ihe young man laughed without turning around, an odd melancholy tinging his voice.

Shaking himself from his stupor, Halo turned around.

"Wait a second." The jaded drakonian called out after the boy's retreating back. "I'd at least like to know the name of the person who saved my life."

The mysterious teen froze, and then slowly pivoted towards Halo.

"No you don't." He smiled the saddest smile the red eyed draconian had ever seen, and then whirled around and fled as if an army of ghosts were upon his heels.

Balk

Author: Seth

"Sometimes there comes a point where you've gotta draw the line."

A stiff wind blew across the bone dry dirt road, kicking up clouds of reddish dust. Coughing lightly, Mitsuyuki tucked his small necklace into his striped shirt before drawing the garment over his nose.

The blonde decided, as he blinked grit out of his eyes, that he infinitely preferred his last posting. At least the sea had fresh, clean air.

Not that what he wanted mattered all that much. Orders came, he obeyed. That was all there was to it.

Some of those orders could be… demanding, and obeying wasn't always easy, but then what use was a loyal servant if the things demanded of him were always straightforward? None at all, and that was the reason he held value.

He'd learned early on that the world was seldom kind to fools who faced the odds, and that to survive you had to have something that gave you worth. For him it was his ability to live more than one life, manoeuvre on more than one level, and it has served him well enough to land him in the service of those for whom the odds were very much in favour.

Even knowing these truths, even having received the great fortune to serve the Talons, he is still human and there are times when his heart overrides his logic. He's never truly betrayed those he serves, though. He knows better than to bite the hand that feeds him, but sometimes he falters.

His presence on this dusty, abandoned pathway is the result of one such attack of conscience. One that he has been struggling with for years.

Uncomfortably, he fingers his dagger. This silent battle between his heart and his head has gone on far too long; it's high time he made a choice. Failing to do so will lose him everything he has ever had.

Slowly, despite his wishes and better judgement his thoughts drift back to the Sorazame and the companions, the friends, the family (for there is truly no other word for it) he has there. He won't be able to return if he carries out his orders.

Well, that wasn't strictly true. He could return, would have to return, but it would not be the Yuki who'd sailed the seas with them for all those years who came back to them. His life with them would be a shell of what it was, he would be a shell of who he was, just as it had happened before.

He can't continue doing this, leaving his lives behind as so many empty shells, tossed on the surf. He knows this, and hates himself for it because it will get him killed. His undoing, orchestrated by his own ideology, is not an irony he wishes to experience any time soon.

His lives are spent; he has already left far too much of himself behind in the other two to do it again.

Ironically enough, it is his logic that finally provides him with an answer.

Alone, cloaked in whirling clouds of ruddy dust, Sanka pulls down the neck of his shirt and fishes out a simple necklace, a length of hardy cord with a small piece of crystal strung onto it.

It is a symbol, and a reminder. That he is a servant, always, of the Talons. But, he reminds himself, the whole clan pays homage to the royal family, and the monarch from whom he has received his orders has not always sat upon the Empyreal throne.

True, only half of their blood may be that of the highborn, but it is of the highest born. Even if his justification should prove unsound, they are not his only option.

After pondering for a moment his expression sets into one of resigned… contentment? And why not? His path is set; he doesn't need to make any more choices.

Smiling ironically the pirate sets off again in the direction he was initially traveling. It wasn't as if his plans needed much changing. He'd been planning on picking up a new dagger for ages now, and he heard that the weaponsmith of the Guild was the best. He wouldn't mind picking up a kasa while he was at it, the sun had been interminably hot this summer.

Old

Author: Seth

"Stop reading so much into this. Just because you're too lazy to make sure your heir is up to scratch doesn't mean I am."

Silent steps across moonlit rooftops.

He adored the night. It was like a familiar cloak that fell over him, hiding him from prying eyes. Eyes that, admittedly, probably weren't even there to begin with.

Not, however, the case on this night.

"For someone skulking around in the dark, you sure are loud."

He barely even registers his hand grabbing his quarterstaff, it's second nature now. Spinning around he levels the polearm in front of himself in a defensive position. No scything blade of electricity, his composure hasn't been completely shattered.

 "What's it to you?" He asks the silver haired figure that emerges from the shadows in front of him.

The figure laughs. It sounds faintly familiar, but he can't place it. The voice sounds slightly feminine, but the figure is one more suited to that of a boy.

"Well it's so embarrassing, watching someone so inept trying to sneak around, making more sound than a wounded elephant. It almost hurts." The – Boy? Girl? He can't tell – laughs again, though with a hard edge to its voice this time. "I can't stand it."

A momentary glint of metal in the moonlight is all the warning he has before sparks erupt in the night air. His assailant's katar screams as it grinds across his staff and he has to jump back hurriedly before the second one swoops into his gut.

"Then go somewhere else. No one's forcing you to be here." He growls as he counterattacks, jabbing his stave forward in a lightning quick thrust.

"Oh, but there is." The girl – He's almost sure it's a girl; even through the poor light he can see that the figure has no Adam's apple – parries his blow. "There is someone forcing me to be here, and what do I find when he finally arrives but that he's barely even competent at stealth. You can't blame a girl if that makes her a more than a little annoyed."

Ducking under the re-directed staff, the (now confirmed) girl leaps forward, attempting to disembowel him once again. It takes every bit of his innately high reflexes to let go of his weapon and spin out of the way. Coming out of his spin he slams his palm into the passing girl's back, blowing her forward with an extra strong burst of electricity as a parting gift.

He doesn't go in for the kill though, doesn't want to. Not this night. He has enough spectres haunting him as it is, no reason to add to them.

"I have no idea what you're taking about." He warily retrieves his staff, but doesn't return it to his holster. He knows the false security that comes with a downed enemy well enough by now. "I didn't force you to wait around on this rooftop all night. I've never done anything to you, I don't even know you."

A gurgling laugh erupts behind him and the purple eyed girl pulls herself to her feet. He's going to have to reconsider the amount of juice he puts into his attacks, she shouldn't have been able to stand up.

"Yeah, but I know you." She grins, the pale light of the moon glinting off her teeth.

"You're passable I guess." The silver-haired girl sniffs, putting away her katars. "But you'd better make sure you improve by the time we see each other again." She gives him an odd, unreadable look. "You've got a path to follow. A… duty; older than time, and if you haven't the decency or the capability to honour it I will hunt you down and end you myself. Are we clear?"

Her mysterious look vanishes, replaced by a mischievous grin. "Not that I wouldn't be hunting you down anyways."

Before he has a chance to ask a question, utter even a single word, the girl has already hopped off the roof, into the shadows below. He doubts he'd be able to track her down.

"What the hell was that all about?" He murmurs to himself, trying to piece together the cryptic words his fellow night time wanderer had given him.

"A… path. Old as time." He turns on the spot, taking in the city around him. Urban rooftops bathed in half-light and shadow, as far as the eye could see. "Is that what this is?"

Walk

Author: Seth

"How do you expect me to heal from something I let happen, each and every day of my life."

It was, Rai supposed, too tempting a prospect to pass up.

"Is there something I can do for you?" The young man in front of him, roughly eighteen years of aged, asked cheerily, curiously trying to get a peek under his hood.

Rai slowly withdrew his hand from the silvery haired youth's shoulder as a thousand words jammed themselves in his mouth, all screaming at him, pleading with him to be spoken.

He remained silent.

"If you don't nee-" the golden eyed teen started before a haggard voice cut him off.

"You're… Today is… Valentines day, isn't it?"

"… That's right…" the boy replied, quite wierded out by the stranger in the black robes. "Is there… something wrong with that?"

Rai paused as the words redoubled their efforts to break free.

"… No," the mangled panthryan finally shook his head ruefully. "There's nothing wrong. I'm just being a sentimental fool. Forgive me."

 Rai watched the young soldier hastily take his leave, while his heart bawled, screaming that it wasn't to late, urging him to run up to that oblivious boy and to tell him. But that was the catch, now wasn't it? It wouldn't ever be too late.

Even as his mind struggled with the choice that wasn't, Rai's body quietly took the only path that had ever been open to him and Slowly. Walked. Away.

Lurking

Author: Seth

"Sneak about the subject all you want, but you can't hide forever."

Night quietly slipped over the Ginsenkei compound, swiftly enveloping the entire garrison in a blanket of darkness. Something a certain creeping figure was trying to take advantage of.

'Almost there…' The shady individual thought tiredly. 'Just need to get a quick dressing on the wound, a change of pants.' A hand drifted down and gingerly felt the thigh high gash that had ripped the left pant leg open. 'The mission report can wait until tomorrow, and I can make a little side trip to burn these while I'm at it.'

Quickly stealing down a side passage, the night time spectre soundlessly slipped into the infirmary, finding the area deserted but also, and more importantly, a fresh roll of bandages and a bottle of antiseptic placed on an out of the way table in the north-western corner of the room.

The young assassin had an agreement with the medic boy. They both had their own way of doing things, and he'd let her take care of herself so long as she actually sought out professional medical attention when she required it.

Silently cleaning and dressing the wound, wincing only slightly when the antiseptic touched the raw flesh, the returning killer carefully replaced the supplies and padded off towards her room.

Pausing seven feet from the door, she quickly went over her 'mission plan' as she would have to pull every step off flawlessly if she hoped to make it to bed undisturbed.

Tiptoeing carefully towards the door, taking extra care to avoid that one plank right in front of the entryway that squeak, she reached forward and noiselessly slid the panel open. Curling past the partition, the infiltrator closed the door behind her and drifted over to a small chest lying next to her futon.

She eased the lid open… and let her shoulders droop as a flame lit up the room.

"You've got to stop doing this."   She carefully let the lid drop and turn to face both her teammates, now sitting up in their proper futons, the orange haired one with a tiny conflagration flowing up from her fingertips.

"I shouldn't have to-" She began, sitting herself down on her trunk, fully aware that she was going to be fighting a losing battle.

"Accepting a little help every now and then isn't a failure." The white haired one who had spoken first cut her off. "Is it too much ask? To share even a tiny bit of your burden?"

The light in the room flickered violently.

"Being alone, being 'independent', it's… not good." The golden eyed girl finally spoke up, the flame in her hand sputtering as she spread out her fingers. "Just look at my family. My older brother is the epitome of independence." Her voice grew bitter. "He doesn't need anybody, he just wants to watch things burn." The flame on her index finger sizzled and died. "My half-brother who saw my family for what it was and ran away." The fire on another finger slowly faded away. "My half-sister who's left to fill the void by herself." Another flame was snuffed out, leaving one tiny, flickering blaze on her pinkie. "And me." The final flame grew low. "And I found the two of you." The tiny spark erupted, enveloping her entire hand in a roaring light.

"We're not asking you to magically transform the way you do things right now." The blue eyed shifter added. "Just… think about it, ok?" She lay back on her futon and pulled the covers tightly over herself, closing the conversation. The Fire Sector princess quickly followed her example, extinguishing her hand and drowning the room in darkness once more.

The indigo haired assassin sat on her trunk for a long while after the shadows had reclaimed the room once more. Finally, she stood up and followed the last steps of what had been her mission plan before it had been irrevocably derailed.

'Think about it, huh…?'

She turned in her futon, her spare pair of pants slowly warming up to match the rest of her clothes.

Maybe tomorrow she'd see about getting the cut in her regular pants sewn up.

Rot

Author: Seth

"You really should quit. It's unhealthy. It'll rot you from the inside out."

"What are you doing out here so late at night?"

He didn't respond immediately, instead opting to take a long drag on his cigarette before languidly exhaling a nebulous plume of smoke. Jabbing his cancer-stick securely between his fingers the tousle-haired man leaned against the ships rail and sighed.

"Thinking."

"What else is new?" The woman sighed, though in a more exasperated fashion than her companion as she tugged at the bandana on her forehead.

Everybody seemed to be thinking these days. She couldn't blame them she guessed, what with the news from the mainland. A whole army, and inhuman to boot…

"Well don't waste too much of your time on it, ok? That's my job." The young woman joked; her voice tinged with a jagged hint of bitterness as she withdrew a slip of paper from under her bandana and stared at it for a moment.

The man looked over at her for a moment before heaving another sigh and taking another deep drag from his cigarette. Turning back to the sea, the man quietly watched the waves as the boat sped across the water.

Moments later the sound of boots echoed across the deck, a door was opened, and then closed, and the man was left alone with the sound of the waves lapping against his thoughts.

Light

Author: Seth

"I know you don't like it all that much, but do you really think I'll live long anough to regret it?"

3) Light

'Dammit, there has to be one somewhere... where'd I leave them?'

Not that it really mattered whether he remembered or not. The point was that he didn't have one on him now and it was killing him. He gave a little chuckle at the irony of the thought, which rapidly melted into an annoyed growl as his search continued to yield no results.

Giving up in disgust he contented himself with taking a small roll from a case he always carried around with him and sticking it in his mouth, unlit.

'Maybe Kitsuno is wandering around...' He mused, though he was in no mood to seek out the fiery prince.

Leaning back against the steps he was sitting on he closed his eyes for a moment. It was a nuisance, being out of matches, but he wasn't going to let that prevent him from enjoying what he did have. Down time was rare enough as it was, these days.

A sharp hiss split the air, followed by a sputtering light.

Cracking one of his eyes open he found the tip of his cigarette glowing a deep orange.

"Need a light?" His subordinate asked rhetorically as she eased herself down next to him, waving out the match in her hands.

His face softened as he took an experimental puff, leaning slightly into her.

"Thanks."

Empty

Author: Lariat


"It's nice to finally have you back, you know." She said with smile, laying down their respective tea cups, sitting down afterward. "I was getting worried about you."

"Please, as if I'd die off so easily like that." He said sarcastically taking his teacup in his hands.

"Well, I'm just saying, I'm relieved that you're all good and well."

"Mmhm." He concurred as he took a sip of tea.

A moment of silence quickly came. She was truly happy that his friend had come back after so long, alive, but at the same time, she was aware of the cautious atmosphere hanging around them, her being the one being very cautious, wary of her friend. She knew that he would have been to a lot of places in the span of nine years, no doubt. But she was afraid to bring up a topic to talk about, all because she knew all too well that he would drive the conversation all the way to that point. She knew him enough to know that it would come to that conclusion. They did live together in their childhood, after all.

Not standing it any longer, he set the teacup a bit less than gently and in a haste on the table, making a sort of loud tap, disrupting the silence between them. This followed shortly by him informing his friend, "I lived in the Hiwa Sector for a while." She twitched. She thought that maybe it would have been better to have had a conversation to delay that point in it.

"...Oh really? I wonder how you were able to take the heat." She said, trying to act natural. She thought that she could somehow drive the conversation away. Though he could sense the hesitance in her voice. He knows her all too well.

"It was okay. They had a pool."

She looked at him in astonishment, "What kind of place did you live in?"

"The palace, of course." He responded.

She started with disbelief in her voice, "The pa--..." She stopped short, realizing what he was doing. She sighed in her mind, 'I guess I still can't beat you, huh...?' "Oh... I see... Must have been nice."

"It was okay, I guess." He took another sip of tea. "He's doing fine, by the way, if you're asking."

'He's already cut to the chase...'

"...I wasn't." She hissed under her breath.

He ignored her growing temper and pressed on. "He asked how you were doing too." He paused. "...I thought you two were--"

"Well, we're not." She cut off harshly.

He looked at her then took another sip. "Hmph." he scoffed, "So it's finally dawned on you that he should be hated." She didn't respond. Rather, she didn't know how to respond. So another quick moment of silence passed. "...It may sound crazy, especially coming from me," 'Here we go...' "but... I think the only who shouldn't hate him..." 'The 'talk'.' "is you."

Another quick moment of silence. "...You're right. That does sound crazy, especially coming from you."

His tone of voice had changed; the tone he always uses whenever he would lecture someone. He was getting tired of this. "Look, I don't know what happened between the two of you, but--"

"You don't need to know."

"...I'm just saying...you should make up with him."

"And why should I?" She said harshly, trying to avoid eye contact as much as possible. He was pissing her off enough as it is.

"Because..." he started, with a hint of concern, "he... actually looked kind of sad when I told him that I haven't seen you for over eight years." He added, "I said that over a year ago." to be more specific.

"Why should I even care if he's sad or not?" She half-yelled, "He was probably just faking it and trying to gain your sympathy."

"You know that he never does anything without reason or merit." He starts off with his lecture tone of voice again, but this time with more...annoyance? "What could he possibly gain from me being sorry for him? Besides, that was the first time I ever saw him even remotely, openly sad." She didn't need to see his face scowling angrily at her. She could already tell what he was thinking. "Seeing him like that was just so foreign to me, I felt like the world was about to end." She knows him all too well. "I can't believe I'm saying this but, I think I'd prefer a happy Cain almost over anything else right now." And she was quite annoyed at how he was saying all of this to her as-a-matter-of-factly, as if she made a huge mistake in her life. "The only way he's going to be happy is if he had fun or..." He paused, trying to calm down, then saying his last words as calmly as possible, "if you were there having fun with him."

Another silence came.

"Think about it, Bean." He said, being the one to break the awkward silence once again, "I think he'd be really happy again... to at least see you one more time."

She still kept her head down low, avoiding eye contact with him. She stayed silent at first, not really sure as to how to respond. "...You say that as if he were dying or something."

He sighed, "Well... I'm not sure about that. But I'm just saying..." He paused once more, taking his last sip of tea, "you should make up with him."

"...No."

He sighed once more, finally giving up and stood up to leave. She didn't stop him. That was the end of that so she didn't care, as long as this conversation was over. He didn't leave immediately, only stopping in the doorway out the room to say just a few more words. "You're the only one who can make him happy, you know." Words that he hoped would make her change her mind. "And if he was happy again... wouldn't that be a nice sight for you? It would sure cheer you up to see that you made someone happy, even if it was Cain."

Another quick moment of silence.

She chuckled at the sight of her friend helping out one of his worst enemies. It was pretty unbelievable and kinda of funny. "Saying all of these stupid things that I would never expect to hear coming out of your mouth... You've really changed, Ryuu."

"Yeah. You have too." Another moment of silence. She knew he still had more to say, since he wasn't leaving completely yet even though he was ready to. Finally, he broke the silence once more, "...You know, I always thought you were so much prettier when your hair was long." This took her by surprise, though she didn't show it. To hear him say that to her...was unexpected. "It's a shame that you had to go and chop it all off." ...Of course, he had to follow up with an insult. "Cain would agree with me too." She twitched.

Another moment of silence came.

With that, Ryuu had left her house. She kept sitting there, staring at her now cold tea that has yet to be drunk. Contemplating the entirety of the conversation and thought back to his last words before leaving.

'I always thought you were so much prettier when your hair was long. It's a shame that you had to go and chop it all off. Cain would agree with me too.'

"...That's the reason why I cut it off in the first place." was her response.