Linkmaster27: I am back! After sooo long… sorry guys but schoolwork kills…. I beat Tales of Symphonia! Hope you like my story!

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Tales of Symphonia: The Aftermath

Chapter 1: Practice

"Hell Pyre!" yelled Zelos Wilder, as the red-haired playboy practiced with his fellow swordsman, Lloyd Irving.

"Not bad, Zelos, I think we're getting better!" Lloyd smiled in encouragement.

"Hey guys, what are you doing?" asked the Igaguri fighter Sheena Fujibayashi as she walked in the dojo in the Mizuho village.

"Practicing." Zelos stated while swinging around his sword, practicing his form.

"Haha, you guys are still at it? After all, we HAVE defeated Mithos." Sheena said with a ring of happiness in her voice.

Lloyd chuckled. "Yeah, I know. But I still want to practice my form and my techs. Besides, sparring is fun, don't you agree Zelos?"

"Hell yeah. I have to admit you can't see THIS much grace from a swordsman as well."

Sheena groaned but smiled.

"Well, Sheena, want to for a round?" asked Lloyd. "Fighting isn't only limited to swordsmen alone."

"Alright." Sheena agreed, pulling out her Card of Water. Lloyd positioned himself with his Wooden Blade; he reasoned that it didn't make sense to use his best weapons in practice. Might as well find a use for his old stuff.

Sheena got into her stance. She armed up by tossing around her cards a little, and practicing her form.

Lloyd warmed up by practicing his techs, and also some new ones that he created for himself.

Zelos decided to referee.

"First one to get 100 hits where the opponent does not block wins. Ready? 3…2…1… Duel!"

Lloyd and Sheena charged at each other. Lloyd lashed out his swords in swift rapid motions, but didn't see Sheena's Pyre Seal coming. He was blown through the air, but quickly somersaulted and regained his balance.

"Nice, Sheena!" Lloyd complimented as he dodged some of Sheena's attacks. Sheena then quickly went in with another set of rapid strikes, quickly chaining a Power Seal Absolute into another Pyre Seal. This time, Lloyd was ready, he quickly blocked and maintained a strong stance before he could lose his balance and take the full blow of the powerful technique.

The fight went on for a long while as the two skilled fighters fought steadily.

Before the duel, they also had agreed on a time limit to achieve the 100 points, which was 15 minutes. From Zelos's calculations, each fighter was at 80 hits; but with the 10 seconds left, he could bet that neither would pull of fifteen hits in such short time. Even if Lloyd used Sword Rain, Sheena could easily jump back in succession.

But then he heard something he hadn't expected.

"Sword Rain Omega!"

Zelos blinked. He had never heard of this one.

Lloyd caught Sheena off guard, hitting her with the bunt of his sword and then following with a variation of a Raining Tiger Blade, but after the last strike, he used all his force from his legs to somersault into an Omega Tempest.

What the hell, Zelos thought, only 17 hits. Not enough.

But Lloyd wasn't finished. After the Tempest was finished, he landed in front of Sheena, and quickly, he crossed his legs into a stance that gave him momentum, then took both his swords and charged them with mana, and spun himself so his swords would spin, adding 6 additional hits.

Zelos blinked. Where did Lloyd get this from? Nevertheless, he called "Time!" and Lloyd shook Sheena's hand.

"Awesome, Lloyd. Where did you create that from?" asked a smiling yet bewildered Sheena.

"Ah… well… I just kinda followed Kratos's philosophy, something he told me, you know, before he went to Derris-Kharlan…" Lloyd's voice faded.

"Yeah, I remember. "Cockiness breeds carelessness" right?"

Lloyd chuckled. "Yeah, that, and he also told me that the more I train, and the more I discover myself, then I will always be in progress of discovering the sword."

"Do you miss him?" asked Zelos.

"Well… yeah, he is my father, after all. And it would be great to train alongside him. But he promised me he'd come back. I'm going to hold him to that."

Sheena smiled. "See? Don't worry, it'll work out." She placed an encouraging hand on Lloyd's shoulder.

"Thanks guys." Lloyd smiled.

"So, what do you guys wanna do tomorrow? Colette is still in Iselia, she went just to say hi to Phaidra and Frank." Zelos remarked. "Genis and Raine went to Heimdall and to Exire to talk to some friends of theirs. Regal and Presea paid a visit to Alicia's grave to pay their respects."

"I don't know, we could go to Altamira at the beach or something." Suggested Lloyd.

"Ah…guys… you're going to have to count me out." Sheena said with disappointment.

"Why?" asked a puzzled Zelos. He had already started to imagine the advantages of a beach… and a girl… combined… what an equation! Sheena's statement pulled him out of his dreamland of seeing girls in swimsuits.

"Well, the Mizuho festival is coming up!" Sheena announced with enthusiasm.

"Huh?" Lloyd and Zelos stared blankly.

"Well, it's a celebration that we've always had. It's a lot of fun for the whole village. We host games for the little children and let them have some fun, while usually the older people such as us just help out and chill later in the day. What do you think? Do you want to help?"

"Sounds great to me!" Lloyd said with interest.

Zelos nodded in agreement.

Sheena smiled.

"Come on, we've got work to do!"

Time passed by. Zelos and Lloyd listened to Sheena as they created all the party games. Lloyd was amazed at what the Mizuho people did for fun. Somersaulting through fire circles and kicking off walls? That was too cool to be missed.

When Lloyd mentioned it to her, Sheena laughed and said "Yeah, we let them do some "cool" stuff for once. I'm sure you guys can do it as well. Lloyd, if you can flip through the air with Hunting Beast, I don't think you should have a problem. Zelos… you've always told you get your flexibility from… ah never mind." Sheena stopped as she blushed, realizing what she was going to say.

After a couple of days, it was the day of the festival. All the Mizuho children were dressed in their ninja robes, with Sheena as their leader.

Lloyd and Zelos watched from a distance as Sheena did a warm-up with them all, and saying, "Ok, you wanna have fun?"

Lloyd couldn't help but smile.

"It's nice, isn't it?" Lloyd gently spoke.

"What?" asked Zelos, looking towards Lloyd.

"I dunno, I just find it nice to see Sheena smiling and happy. I'm really glad we've finally ridded Tethéalla and Sylvarant of all of Mithos's crap."

Zelos nodded in agreement.

Then came the events. Lloyd watched amazed as the kids sped through an obstacle course, pulling off amazing ninja moves.

Sheena approached them.

"Wanna give it a try? You guys helped, and it's your first time ever being a part of this, so I think you really deserve it."

"Sure." Lloyd chuckled.

Lloyd started at the beginning, where he saw that one had to flip over a pile of bricks. Using his flip from his Hunting Beast move, he made it over and then proceeded to the next part, where there was a huge hill to climb. Lloyd grinned and used his Psi Tempest move to easily scale the mountain.

Lloyd then came to the wall-kicking part of the obstacle course, where someone had to kick off the walls to get to the next floor of the well-constructed obstacle course.

Lloyd maintained a constant rhythm and managed to complete the rest of the obstacle course, and passed the finish line.

"Wow Lloyd! 32 seconds! That's great!" The Mizuho people cheered and laughed in the spirit of the festival and cheered on the grand swordsman.

Zelos was about to go, when-

"ZELOS! WATCH OUT!" Sheena yelled.

What was going on? A fleet of Dark Dragons, just like the ones that Lloyd and the others had encountered at Vinheim, Mithos's castle.

"You've… got… to be… kidding me." Zelos stammered after he had jumped out of the way."

Lloyd grunted in disgust.

"DAMN! How is this possible?" he thought.

Lloyd reached for his Material Blade; but to his misfortune, he had left it inside the dojo!

Sheena and Zelos also had their crappiest weapons on them; and they were a team of three.

Sheena ordered for all the children and the people of Mizuho to take shelter. The Dark Dragons were dangerous, especially if you didn't have an exsphere.

Sheena, Lloyd and Zelos braced themselves; could they do it? And why were Mithos's creatures here?

Linkmaster27: Haha! Cliffy! Well, please read and review! You'll find out more in the next chapter. Why ARE Mithos's creatures here?

Thanks for reading! Catch you later.