Mizuki: Sorry for the wait, I had to go to visit my grandma and my great grandma over the weekend, and I've been banned from the internet for a while, because I was on there for 6 or 7 hours strait for 5 days, and, on top of that, I got sick, and, while I was sick, I wrote a really bad chapter to let out my anger.
Armeria: You killed me off
Mizuki: Sorry. I was incoherent.
Skulls: You are REALLY addicted to this. You need to get off of here.
Mizuki: I guess you don't want to know what happens to Armeria, or who Ryuu is.
Skulls: I never said I wanted to know!
Mizuki: You didn't, but you want to.
Skulls: I really hate you.
Mizuki: I know. Now I ran out of people I like to do the disclaimer, so I brought in Reid. I'm not sure if I want him to show up in the story or not.
Reid: Mizuki Hamihachi owns nothing. Especially me.
Everyone: No one wants to own you.

Armeria's POV

For the second time that day, I drifted as I dreamed, or was I remembering? Was I remembering the day when I decided never to let myself be a weakling again?

..::Dream::..

I walked down the steps – taking them two at a time – with my suitcase in one hand, and my locket in the other. At the door, was a man. He was tall, handsome, all the girls wanted, and I refused him. "Alto," he said, using the false name I'd given him, "Let's talk about this. One night wouldn't kill you. I could even—"

I cut him off with a sharp, "NO. You know that my heart belongs to another. You're like a brother to me, but that's it, a brother. I can't bring myself to think of you in any other way."

Now he was mad. He didn't say a word, but he grabbed my hair, and flung me into the dinning room table. He then grabbed a whip off the wall. What happened next was the worst time of my life. By the time his twin brother, Romeo, got there, I had three lethal scratches on my back, several semi-lethal, and many shallow ones. That night I left the house in which I had been welcomed into ever since I had come there, without even bothering to heal the wounds. No one knew that the wounds that needed to be healed would take years of love from the one I held closest.

..::End Dream..::

I woke up, wrapped in a blanket, and the only light came from the moon above. I turned over onto my side, knowing that he was there. I briefly saw his face, peaceful and sleeping, and then a cloud covered the moon and wrapped me into darkness. My hands reached out, searching for a piece of him. They rested upon his bare chest, and pulled me closer to him. I shut my eyes and pretended to be asleep as he woke up. He stroked my hair, probably thinking I was still asleep. Just for his benefit, I snuggled myself into his chest and murmured, "Skulls."

It seemed as if he gave me a gentle smile, but with my face buried into his chest I couldn't tell. "That Ryuu guy really hurt you didn't he?" Skulls said, as he put his hand underneath my shirt and on the part where my scars were. It was at that moment that I realized that they had been wrapped. "No wonder you shrink whenever I yell at you. You're so afraid that it'll happen again. I'll have to kill him if I see him again." He then walked out of the cabin, unknowingly leaving me contemplate what he had said. Unwilling to think of Romeo or Ryuu, I thought about what he had said, " 'No wonder you shrink whenever I yell at you."' I knew good and well that that wasn't the reason that I didn't like his yelling. I wasn't afraid of any man yelling at me. Any man but him. Though this, once again, brought me to a furry of unanswered questions. Was it Luce's anger I feared, or Skulls? Not wanting to even try and come up with an answer, I listened to the foot-steps of the crew. Finally, I decided that I had been mopping for long enough, and got off my lazy butt.

I put on a pair of tight, black pants, a light blue shirt, and placed my daggers between my belt and my hip. I walked out of the cabin, ready for any questions they asked me, and prepared to jump ship if need be.

I knew, the minute I walked onto the ship, they all wanted me back in the cabin where I wouldn't get hurt. I took the stares until John (This is the bowler hat guy's new name, deal with it) gave me a somber look. "What?!" I screamed, no longer able to take their stares, "I. Am. Fine. I was just a little surprised to see him, that's all."

The crew looked to me as if I was missing something. They could tell that if they didn't tell me soon, I would become violent, so Doc said, "Alto . . . You fainted from blood loss. Either the shock of seeing that man, or the fight reopened a lot of them. I was able to patch you up, but a lot of the wounds reopened."

I hid my shock easily; I knew that they would reopen one day. "Well," I said, as if it was no big deal, "I've been dealing with these scars for years. I'll be fine in two days tops."

"Alto," said Doc, suddenly looking serious, "You haven't had those scars for two years, and, on top of that, you knew, good and well, that at least three of those cuts would never heal. Ever. You've known that they were made with a horse's whip, and you know that if you keep this up there's a chance you will die."

Before I could tell him that he was over reacting , we were hit with a canon. "Where's captain?" I asked the first mate as I held onto the ship for dear life.

Speak of the devil and the devil shalt appear. The moment I spoke his name, I herd Skull's voice, "Get to position, raise the sails in case we have to run, Alto get you but into the cabin, Kail take the wheel." I ignored the order aimed for me, and ran to the canon balls, preparing to get them to the canons. When I had given the ball to the loaders, I froze because there, giving orders on the ship, was a man with the face of Ryuu Soma, but if you had a sharp eye and were adapted to the voices of everyone in the soma family, you could tell that it was his brother Romeo. Oh, frap.

Mizuki: Done, and it only took me this long.
Armeria: And you forgot to mention another excuses for your lateness.
Mizuki: Oh. I forgot. Two friends and I are writing a manga! Well, I'm writing, they're drawing. With
those two I might as well have four editors. If I'm late on my updates it's their fault
Skulls: Why are you blaming them?
Mizuki: Because, at least on of them are evil.
Skulls: R&R please