Days have gone since her arrival in the desert outskirts of Egypt. Their daily training was unbearable under the heat and the burning sun of khemet, they were youngsters who had to learn how to cope with the harsh environment of the desert; they had to learn how to hold weapons carefully and shoot their enemies. They were not allowed to give up, even if they were severely wounded and on the verge of death.

Her first weapon was heavy and had a powerful smell of death and nothingness in it. Kanna was unsure if she ever will be able to shoot anyone in her life. The idea of taking someone's life made her blood froze and hands shake in fear.

Back in Japan she used to like sport a lot even if she wasn't the most athletic student in her class. It wasn't really the moves or victory that was interesting to her, no…what she liked before anything else was the spirit of competition; the feeling of being a part of a wholesome community made her feel complete and safe. Even if she didn't really share her father's passion for intellectual games she still liked to test her abilities in her own ways.

Sometimes in life loss didn't only affect Man's pride and ego, in her case loss can come at a massive price: her own life. She admired Mana for always being optimistic in such a stressful situation. They could be attacked by terrorists any time and yet the blue-eyed brunette still found a way to enjoy life, her mind clean of all negative thoughts.

Mana liked to chat and laugh a lot with their comrades, even if she lightly understood arabic, Not all of them were nice people. Some of them thought fighting in a war was a heroic act worthy of attention and admiration from their peers...they were what she would call extreme narcissists. And of course Akefia was one of them; Kanna found him to be very annoying with an irritating self-confidence. He always tried to surpass everyone in the training camp, in other words he was some kind of leader, a king in his own definition.

Later that day, as she was holding two cups of tea. The idea of melting the ice between her and the white-haired man came to her mind. So she decided to give him a cup and hoped to start what could be called a "dialogue" with him. Maybe the young man was just misunderstood after all.

"Hello…" she said in such a wary tone.

The young just gave her a silent stare without giving the girl the courtesy of returning her salutation and continued smoking his cigarette.

"You could at least have the politeness of responding back. I have two cups of tea and I was wondering that maybe sharing one with someone wouldn't be a bad idea."

"I have no attention of getting involved with some girl I don't know. If you really wanted to drink with anyone why did you have to pick me of all the idiots here?" Sarcasm and arrogance were clearly emanating from his answer.

Despite the crystal-clear rejection from his response Kanna was determined to keep trying.

"I thought that this the occasion to learn about each others, And to be honest I felt that we might have something in common, since we don't have many friends…"

"So you are saying that you felt sorry for me…the poor outcast, right?"

This time the brown-haired girl didn't know how to react; she never meant to offend him. But deep down his reaction wasn't that much of a surprise to her, for some reason Mana warned her and advised her to stay away from the tanned man, and now she could see why...

"Listen girl, if you are going to lecture me on the importance of solidarity you'd better keep your speeches to yourself. I don't take lessons from anyone, and besides, if we truly become friends I'm going to teach you many things I know too, some of which you won't like…" His answer was cold and distant.

He threw his cigarette away and walked past her. Never in her life had she been spoken to in such an impropriate way; had he treated her as she was nothing. Just a naïve woman who didn't know any better than he does. At heart she feared that there was some truth in his words. He was older than her and had probably many experiences in the past, she was just an adolescent girl who had led a normal life until know.