Disclaimer: I do not own Soul Calibur or anything else that may appear in this story.

Soul Calibur IV is now out!

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Ch. 2 – Shiny and Colorful

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Tira was on a journey. A journey of love. She wandered across the world searching to fill that void in her heart. Now she was in the middle of the streets of an ancient city, thinking about serious matters. Tira's heart ached. It was unbearable. The feeling that she had to be accepted. She wanted to be needed. She wanted to be used. She wanted to be-

"Hey! Out of the way!"

Tira's eyes shot open in irritation. Who would dare to interrupt her when she was thinking of matters this important? She turned her head to the speaker and her eyes lit up.

He was shirtless and wore a green bandana. He held a sword in one hand and a loaf of bread in the other and looked as equally irritated as Tira.

"Can you move? I'm rather in a hurry," the young man said as he nervously glanced over his shoulder. Tira did not hear him. She was too busy staring at his amazingly muscular chest. It seemed almost humanly impossible that anybody's chest could become this muscular. Tira felt a sudden attraction for this young man. She finally managed to tear her eyes away from his chest.

"Hi! I'm Tira! What's your name?" she asked brightly.

"Huh?" The man seemed taken back by this sudden question and it took him a little while to answer. "Uh, I'm Yunsung."

"Well, I think that we'll make a great couple! Don't you?" Tira half-yelled.

"What?!" Yunsung exclaimed. "I don't even know you!" he protested.

Tira's cheerful demeanor immediately vanished as she spoke in a low voice. "Didn't you pay attention to me?!"

Yunsung, sensing that something was about to go very wrong looked nervously around him for a way out. But an exit was not a luxury that he could afford at that time.

Tira was getting very angry as this man seemed to be ignoring her. "I don't like it when people don't pay attention to me," she spoke in a dangerously low voice. "It makes me angry when people don't pay attention to me."

"Look," Yunsung stammered. "I think this was all a big understanding, so if you could just move out of the way…"

"You won't like me when I'm angry," Tira hissed taking out her weapon, completely ignoring everything Yunsung was saying.

"Yunsung! There you are!" Two new people ran towards the trapped Yunsung. The two newcomers were females. One of them looked around 20 years old and the other looked younger than Yunsung.

The older looking one spoke, "I finally found you. Go home and leave Soul Edge to me."

"I can't let you go on. The sword is evil," the younger one added.

"Hi! My name is Tira! What's yours!?" Tira exclaimed cheerfully, putting her ring away. The other two stared in surprise as if they had just realized she was standing there. After several seconds of staring, one of them broke the silence.

"Hi, I'm Mina," one of them answered.

"I am Talim," the other said.

"Well, I think that we'll make a great couple! Don't you?" Tira exclaimed suddenly, startling the two girls.

"What?" Mina exclaimed.

"Poor girl. I fear she has been touched by the evil wind," Talim muttered. "We must purify her immediately."

"I don't think you'll need to worry about that," Yunsung interrupted. "She's just crazy."

Tira's eyes filled up with tears. She fell to the ground and started pounding the ground, bawling. "Waaa. You're not very nice!"

"Oh, great. Now look what you've done," Mina scolded. "You've made her cry."

"What?" Yunsung protested. "She wasn't like this a second ago. I'm telling you, something's wrong with her!"

"Wind, guide me," Talim muttered.

"Oh, shut up, both of you," Mina snapped. She turned to Tira with a concerned look. "Are you okay?"

Tira's face brightened up. "I'm fine. How are you?"

Mina's face showed nothing but utter bewilderment. "What the…" she muttered.

"Told ya," Yunsung whispered to her.

"Conflict lies within you," Talim said to Tira.

Tira gasped. "How could you tell?" she asked.

"It's not that hard to figure it out," Yunsung muttered under his breath. His remark earned him a slap on the head from Mina, who had overheard.

"I am one with the wind," Talim answered simply.

"Well, it was nice meeting you," Mina started. "But I think we better be going our way."

"Sure thing," Tira said.

"Let's go, Yunsung," Mina said to her fellow companion. As the three started to walk away, Tira shouted after them.

"Wait! He promised to marry me!"

All three froze at this remark and slowly turned back to face Tira.

"What?!" they all exclaimed at the same time. Mina and Talim stared at Yunsung, both fuming.

"It's true," Tira said calmly. "We met several years ago and he promised me then: The next time we meet on a crowded street and I'm carrying both a sword and a loaf of bread, I will marry you," she explained. "It was so romantic!"

"I can't believe this," Mina shouted at Yunsung.

"I swear, I've never even seen her until five minutes ago!" Yunsung yelled back.

"Don't worry Talim. Believe in yourself!" Talim screamed.

"Oh, don't be so shy. After all, we'll be happily married soon," Tira giggled. She slowly walked up to Yunsung and kissed him on the lips. When they separated, Yunsung fell to the ground in a slump, motionless.

Mina shrieked. "What's wrong with him!?"

Talim shrieked. "Wind, guide me!"

Tira shrieked. "Why are you all screaming?!"

Thunder cracked. Everything turned dark. "TIRA!" a loud, ominous voice boomed. A tall man wearing a hood, wielding a massive scythe slowly walked towards them. Mina and Talim stared, terrified.

"Hi, Zassy!" Tira joyfully greeted the man, waving frantically. There was suddenly no more thunder. The sun shined again, and the sound of birds chirping filled the air.

"What are you?" Talim asked, as if she had summoned all her courage to ask this question.

"I am Zasalamel," Zasalamel replied in his loud, booming voice.

"You're human, aren't you?" Talim asked, staring at him.

Zasalamel was taken by surprise. "Uh…well, I…" He suddenly remembered why he was here, and broke off in the middle of the sentence. "Never mind that."

He turned to Tira in rage and began to yell. "What's wrong with you! It hasn't even been one day since I talked to you about your problem and you've already kissed someone?!"

"But..but… He was so shiny and colorful…," Tira whimpered.

"Excuse me," Mina interrupted. "But what's going to happen to Yunsung? He's not dead, right?"

"No," Zasalamel replied. "His soul is slightly damaged, but he should be fine after a couple months."

"What?" Mina asked incredulously.

"Well," Zasalamel started. "Here's the deal…" He proceeded to tell Tira's story.

A few minutes later, Mina and Talim were both scratching their heads, trying to understand what Zasalamel had just told them.

"So, this happens every time she kisses someone?" Mina asked.

"Well, it shouldn't happen anymore because Tira's not going to kiss anyone now." He turned his face towards Tira and asked, "Right, Tira?"

"Huh?" Tira answered. After quickly getting bored after Zasalamel had started the story, she was now using her ring as a hula hoop.

"Well," Mina started nervously. "It was wonderful meeting you, but I think we'd better get going."

"I will be like the wind," Talim added in.

Moments later, Tira and Zasalamel watched as Mina and Talim hurriedly dragged Yunsung's unconscious body through the streets in order to get as far away as possible from Tira.

"My heart is still pounding," they heard Talim say.

"Why were they in such a hurry?" Tira asked Zasalamel innocently, watching their figures become smaller by the second.

Zasalamel groaned in reply.