A/N: Hi, guys! Hana here! No, I did not write this chapter. I'm just doing the Author's Note for Ichi. xDD *shot*

Oh crap! The Dream Messenger slipped into Tobari Academy? Who is this mysterious messenger who keeps mentioning the Murasaki Legacy?

Note: Akagi/Cyrus, Shirona/Cynthia

Tobari Shinobi: Shinou Scandal
CH
7: Dream Messenger

A man was looking at the messages that the Dream Messenger has sent so far. He gritted his teeth, staring at the message that was sent a few days ago.

Don't ignore that bloody past that killed the nations.

Scandals… Secrets…

Everything will be revealed through the Murasaki Legacy.

-Dream Messenger-

"I thought this was gotten rid of years ago!" He threw the leaflet down with fury. "Damn this piece of bullshit!"

"Akagi-Sama, please calm down. I'm sure that no one knows where it is," a woman with red hair tried to reassure her boss. "We were the ones who prevented the Murasaki Legacy from being fully destroyed after all."

Akagi glared at the red-headed woman. "You're certainly right, Mars, but it was hidden by that damn man! Because of him, my plans became ruined." He sat on the cushion, contemplating about this. "And now, the Dream Messenger will terminate my plans of searching for that Murasaki Legacy!"

"You will find it, Akagi-Sama." A man with blue hair then entered the room. "You are the minister of war, are you not? You can use war strategies to discover the whereabouts of the Murasaki Legacy without the Dream Messenger being a hindrance."

Akagi merely smirked. "Hn, I'll be the very first to find it. That way… I can create… the perfect world."

~.~.~

It was only a few days before the Yumi・Katana Competition. Shinji was training both Hikari and Jun… a little harsher than usual. They started training without their Pokémon forms. It almost tired even Jun out.

"Shinji-Senpai, you are insane!" Hikari whined, "How is it possible that your training is so intense that even Jun can barely keep up?" She let her body go limp from doing so many pull-ups. Sweat had coated her whole body and her hair was wet and tangled from it.

Shinji had tied a cloth around her and Jun's wrists and on a thick tree branch to hold their weight. They've been doing pull-ups like that for an hour now.

Jun was beside Hikari, sweating like crazy. "Ah, dammit! I can keep up, Hikaru!" He attempted to a pull-up, but he couldn't even lift himself up. "… Bah, what the hell? Get me off of this thing!"

The prince was smirking at his two kouhai, somehow amused at their reaction. "Well, I think you did enough for today."

"ENOUGH?" Hikari shrieked. "This is too much! You hear me? TOO! MUCH!"

"Ah, shut up." Shinji untied their binds and let them rest. "There's a river nearby, so you guys can get some water and wash up."

"It's so hot…!" Jun exclaimed. He sat up and took off his shirt. "This is crazy!" Hikari went wide-eyed at Jun's sudden… outburst. Her face went pink and turned away from him. "Hikaru, aren't you hot too? You're literally soaked in your own sweat!" He inched over to her. "Just take off that shirt! You'll feel really cool!"

Hikari shook her head frantically. "No! I-it's really fine. I don't need to take it off, really."

"Oh, come on…" Jun insisted. "You gotta be joking. You're still sweating, man!"

"And I said I'm fine!" she exclaimed. She slapped his hand away from her and proceeded to head to the river. Shinji helped Jun up and headed to the river.

Jun rolled his eyes as he followed the stomping Hikari. "Geez, what's gotten into him?"

Shinji raised a brow. "I don't think he's the type to be touched so suddenly by a guy."

"Oh yeah… Hikaru has been like that since I met him…" Jun murmured under his breath. His stomach growled. "Are we gonna have snacks, by the way?"

"I'm sure Hikaru packed something," Shinji replied. "Hey, Troublesome Idiot!"

Hikari turned around with a popped vein throbbing on her head. "Don't call me a 'Troublesome Idiot'!" She puffed her cheeks angrily and took out something wrapped in a handkerchief. "And yes, I brought some snacks! We'll eat after washing up."

Jun threw his arms up in the air in joy. "Yes!"

Shinji heard rustling nearby and wheeled around. "Satoshi, what do you want?"

On cue, Satoshi hung down from a tree, eating a juicy apple. "What's up, guys? I happened to pass by your training session and decided to watch!" He grinned as he jumped down. "So you got snacks, huh?"

Hikari smugly raised a brow and crossed her arms. "Did you really think I wouldn't forget you, Satoshi-Senpai? It's kinda obvious that you're hanging around much more often." She held it in her hands. "Well, I did bring more than usual… But I think I'll just give it to our starving Jun."

Satoshi's jaw hung open. "No, gimme some too!"

"I'd rather not…!" she joked. Satoshi chased after her to grab the wrapped snacks from her hands. "You can't catch me, Senpai!"

Shinji sighed as he watched the two play around. Strangely, he somehow… felt uncomfortable. He grabbed Satoshi by the collar and dragged him back. "Hey, Hikaru has sweat all over him. You wouldn't want to touch him."

"Good point." Satoshi nervously laughed and turned to Hikari. "Just gimme the snacks when you wash up, okay?"

Hikari smiled and nodded. "Of course!" They arrived to the river, where they saw clean and sparkling water. "Wow! It's such a pretty river!" She ran over to the water, immediately plunging into it after setting down the snack. "Ah… It's so cool…"

Jun dived in, splashing water all over Shinji and Satoshi. Of course, Satoshi decided to cover for the snacks Hikari made. A vein popped in Shinji's head and he sighed. "Oops… Sorry, guys!" He grinned and started swimming while Hikari just floated.

Shinji shook the water out of his hair and put his feet inside the water. It felt soothing for his aching feet. He was standing in front of his kouhai all day today, watching them train.

Satoshi opened up the wrapping and found two rows of rice balls in it. "Woohoo! It's onigiri!" He got one and took a huge bite.

A kind laugh came from behind them. "Enjoying yourselves, are you?" A man appeared from the forest behind them. His hair was dark green, which ended in a blue-green. He wore small square-like glasses on the bridge of his nose, revealing his shining blue eyes. Although the actual Pokémon had yellow fruits hanging on their neck, he had them growing on the edges of his large leaf-life wings.

His name is Midorikawa Katsu Tropius, the teacher for PokéFood class.

Hikari beamed at the man before them. "Ah, Midorikawa-Sensei!" She jumped up from the spot and ran over to the said teacher.

"Ah, it's Midorikawa-Sensei…" Satoshi muttered.

"Satoshi-Kun, you shouldn't eat too much snacks. It's unhealthy."

"See, this is why I don't like being in his class!" Satoshi whined. "He scolds me for eating snacks!"

Shinji suppressed a chuckle that was about to escape his lips. "Katsu-Sensei is right, though. You're always eating so many snacks a day."

Hikari rolled her eyes at Satoshi. "Satoshi-Senpai, how come you never get fat no matter how many snacks you eat?"

Jun stopped swimming to take a look at Satoshi. "Maybe it's because he's always going around to look for something. You barely see him around all the time!" They all glanced at the brown-eyed student. "I think he's always losing weight by flying around, no matter how many snacks he eats!"

Katsu nudged his glasses up. "Hmmm… That's true. He always looked the same every day."

"Aw, you guys are mean!" Satoshi exclaimed as he took another bite. "Geez…"

Hikari turned to Katsu. "Midorikawa-Sensei, what are you doing here?"

"Well, I always come here to get some peace and quiet." He smiled at Hikari. "But it's good to hear some young kids play around, right?" He laughed again, which sounded wonderful to Hikari's ears. "May I ask what you kids are doing here?"

Jun started swimming again. "Shinji was training us for the Yumi・Katana Competition. Our training session just ended, and we had to wash up."

"Shinji-Kun, training your kouhai too hard will come back to haunt you," Katsu teased. But then, he became very serious. "No, really… I mean it." He shuddered at a certain thought.

Shinji simply smirked at Katsu's remark. "Katsu-Sensei, they'll never have a chance to touch me." Unfortunately, he said that too late. Hikari had splashed water at his face. While Katsu tried his best to suppress his laughter, Shinji gritted his teeth in agitation. "… You are dead."

Hikari stuck out a playful tongue. "I won't be unless you catch me!" Pink wings appeared on her back and she flew away to the other side of the river, which was quite far. She started to make jokes and funny faces at him.

"…" He disappeared in his own shadow, giving everyone an eerie aura. Hikari knew what was going to happen and flew up before Shinji caught her foot using her own shadow. "Damn it."

"Senpai, you'll have to be smarter than that!" However, she wasn't that smart at the moment. Her energy was depleted from the intensive training and her wings didn't last much longer. Her wings slowly chipped away and vanished. "Eh…" Then, she fell towards the stony ground.

Shinji's eyes widened. "Hikaru!"

"Hikaru-Kun!" Katsu flew in to catch Hikari in his arms. He held her to him closely before making sure she was alright. "I think it was a bad idea to provoke him without regaining your energy." He got a bundle of his yellow fruits and gave them to Hikari. "Eat it and I'll carry you back." He flew over to the other side of the river while Hikari ate the delicious fruit.

"This is so good!" Hikari squealed. "It's no wonder you're the PokéFood teacher! You have the best and delicious recipes!"

Jun stared at the yellow fruits and was reminded of the snacks Hikari brought. "Oh yeah! Hey, Satoshi! Give me some of that onigiri!" Satoshi handed the blonde one. Jun took a bite, savoring the flavor. "Man, this is good! You make the best food too, you know!"

Hikari scratched her head nervously. "Yeah… But I'm not as good as my twin sister. She's better than me! I just know how to make simple food."

"Oh, you have a twin sister, Hikaru-Kun?" Katsu asked.

"Ah, I haven't told you about her, did I?" she replied. "Well, her name's Aikawa Hikari. I'm her twin brother, Aikawa Hikaru."

Katsu's eyes seemed to widen for a moment, but his eyes softened and smiled. "Is that so? What about your father? Was he a student here?"

Hikari smiled wider and nodded. "Of course! He was Aikawa Katsumi Celebi!" She looked at the blue sky. "Apparently, my father saved the nations from an all-out war. I… never got to meet or see him, but I'm sure he was an awesome person!"

The teacher chuckled at the optimism of the blunette before him. "I'm sure you'll meet him someday. Just because he passed away doesn't mean you can't or won't meet him." He gave her a grin and stood back up. "Well, even though it was short, I had a great time with you guys. I better get going to do some paperwork."

Satoshi raised his hands up in the air. "Hooray!" He took another bite of the onigiri. Jun and Hikari waved good-bye while Shinji greeted him 'bye'.

Tropius appeared on Katsu's shoulder as he passed through the forest. "Katsu, are you okay?"

"Yes, Tropius. I'm… more than fine." Katsu pursed his lips to prevent an emotion from escaping. "Thanks for your help, Tropius. I appreciate it." Tropius nodded his head and disappeared, making Katsu's appearance look normal. He sighed and leaned against the tree.

A single tear escaped his eye.

~.~.~

The next day, the usual quartet went through their classes and it was another session of training. This time, it was a spar battle… for Hikari and Shinji, anyways. Jun was to simply try hitting the center of the target. Satoshi decided to sleep on a tree branch nearby.

"Alright, you and I are half the importance of our team. Jun's the other half."

"But since there are two swordsmen in one team, our points will be twice the archer's." Hikari and Shinji unsheathed their katana and prepared to fight. "Oh, I feel a little uneasy about this," Hikari muttered worriedly.

Shinji rolled his eyes and sheathed his sword. "This is why I made you go through all that training." He pointed at Hikari. "The reason why you are weak is because you're always feeling uneasy. That's why you nearly got killed by Kouhei that time!"

Hikari gulped, remembering what Kouhei almost tried to do to her. "Yes, I remember." She took a deep breath to clear her head. "Okay, I'm ready."

"Good. I won't be going easy on you." Shinji unsheathed his sword once again and charged immediately. He appeared in front of Hikari and attempted to slash her down. Hikari brought her sword above her head, Shinji's sword clashing with hers. He jumped back, smirking. "Good job. That was a perfect defense. Now it's time for offense!"

"Oh boy…" Hikari sighed. She shook away her uneasiness again and gained some confidence. She charged towards Shinji, her katana close to her side. She attempted to strike Shinji's dominant arm but was blocked. Before Shinji had a chance to attack, Hikari ducked and swept him off the ground. He fell on his back. "I got you now."

Shinji found the blade of her katana at the side of his neck. He stayed still for a moment, contemplating about this situation. "That was good, but it's better if you aim your whole sword at my neck. Don't put your blade beside my neck." He pointed his blade at her stomach. "Even though it won't kill you immediately, the enemy can severely injure you to your death if you place it beside the neck."

"Oh, so it's like… a double-edged sword?" Hikari asked. Shinji nodded to confirm her thoughts. "Okay… Aim at neck, not beside the neck."

"Now, jump back or else I'll really slash your stomach." He sliced the air when Hikari flew into the air. "Oh, so it's an air battle now?" He also floated into the sky, his black cloak flowing with the breeze. "Anyways, let's combine defense and offense together with our abilities. Ready?"

"Yes, sir!"

Shinji's eyes glowed aquamarine as his appearance changed into his Darkrai form. "Dark Pulse." His black sword was covered in black rings.

Hikari also turned into her Crecelia form. She held the katana up to her lips. Rainbow-colored energy flowed out through her lips and coated the blade of the katana. "Aurora Beam."

"Hm, you now know how to change certain energies into different forms? When'd you learn that?"

"I've been training by myself for a while now…" Hikari laughed. Her wings fluttered in the air, releasing some sparkling particles. "Let's go, Senpai!" She charged with speed towards Shinji. The flowing energy on her blade suddenly hardened into ice as she clashed with his sword. The energy then changed again and rubbed onto the Dark Pulse of his sword.

Shinji used more power to throw her back. Unfortunately, half of his power-coated katana was frozen. He stared at it for a while. "… Hn." He smacked it against a tree and the ice fell apart. "That's a good way to distract an enemy, that's for sure. Was that your intention?"

"Yes, but it didn't work on you though…" Hikari sighed and puffed her cheeks. "Geez… And I used so much effort to think of it and pull it off!"

He slightly chuckled at his kouhai. "Well, not everything can go your way." He then took a deep breath. "Haze!" A thick black smoke surrounded the two. "Now think fast!" He attempted to tap Hikari, but he was met with the dull side of the blade. "Hm?"

That was when he noticed that there were shining particles everywhere. Hikari had used the combination of her wings' particles and her Aurora Beam to create a barrier of floating ice shards. If he were to penetrate that barrier, she'd know where he was going to come from.

"What do you think?" she asked. "Isn't this a great way to tell where the enemy's going to come from?"

Shinji smirked at the confidence in her tone. The Dark Pulse wore away on his katana. "Yes, it certainly is… but it won't last that long." He breathed out a pink mist, coating his blade. "Prepare to go to sleep."

Hikari's eye twitched, remembering that very day where Shinji lost control. "… Uh-oh…"

"Hey, Jun!"

The called looked up at the dark cloud. "Uh… What?"

"You should train near the opposite side of the tree. There's no telling what kind of energy will fall out this haze."

Jun's brows shot up in surprise. "Oh boy… Alright!" He got the target and moved to the other side of the tree. He resumed his practice.

Without another warning, Shinji charged towards Hikari with his energy-covered sword. Hikari gasped and clashed swords with him. "Oh shit, my barrier…!" She mentally smacked herself for not realizing.

"Well, it wasn't too bad of an idea. But you might want to improvise."

Hikari smirked at the purple-haired prince. "Did you really think I was standing here listening to you?" Another Hikari appeared behind him and tried to touch his neck with the tip of her blade.

However, Shinji sighed when he realized that Hikari was behind him. "… Sorry…" He released a black ball around them, making both fall asleep. They began to fall down to the ground.

Satoshi, who happened to wake up, saw them fall from such a height! "Shinji! Hikaru!" He flew in to catch the two of them in his arms! "Geez, you two really know how to spar, don't you?" He set them down on the tree and wiped his forehead.

Jun witnessed the scene and he was amazed. "Dude! I think that's the most amazing thing I've ever seen you do!"

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?"

The blonde shrugged, smugly looking at his senpai. "Oh, I don't know. You tell me."

Meanwhile, Shinji and Hikari were asleep next to each other. But, Hikari was leaning on his shoulder, her blue hair touching his. Shinji was not aware of this, but he did have the most soothing dream of his life.

~.~.~

That night…

The crescent moon was shining brightly in the night.

A shadow moved within the darkness, swiftly running across the roofs of houses in silence. It was, once again, the Dream Messenger. He now jumped from roof to roof, eventually arriving to the top of the palace.

He raised his sword up, a white orb forming at the tip. "And the Dream Messenger strikes again." He shot it into the air. The orb broke into more orbs, scattering across the region. One traveled to the center of Tobari City and broke into smaller orbs. When they stopped, they exploded in a blinding light and disappeared.

But letter began to form in mid-air!

The Dream Messenger sat down, watching his messages form. That was cut short, for Sumomo had spotted him.

"You!" Sumomo leapt up until she was near the same level as the Dream Messenger. "What are you doing?" Dream pinched his nose, hard. "What have you done? Can't you see that this will only hurt the people and cause the nations to go into war again?"

"… My messages are not to cause war." He unsheathed his katana, which gleamed in the moonlight. But Sumomo couldn't make out the color of it. "If you will not let me pass, I will have to fight you."

Sumomo took a fighting stance, ready to fight the enemy before her. "Oh, I'm not gonna let you pass." Her appearance then changed into the Lucario form. "Get ready, Dream Messenger! I may be a girl, but I know how to fight!" A katana suddenly appeared in her hand as she ran towards him. Their swords clashed with brute force.

The Dream Messenger seemed unaffected by her strength. "Hn." He smirked and inhaled deeply. "Haze!"

"That won't work on me!" Sumomo lifted up one of her hands and pointed it at the Dream Messenger. "Aura-!"

However, his smirk grew wider. "Just kidding… Hypnosis!" He released a pink-colored mist at Sumomo. She became unconscious and began to fall backwards.

Luckily, Reiji came out just in time. He was wondering why he heard clashing swords. He found Sumomo falling to her doom. His eyes widened and ran towards her. "Sumomo!" He jumped with all his might and caught her in his arms. Reiji landed softly and stared at the dark shadow that stared back at him.

Reiji stood up, preparing to fight the Dream Messenger himself. But the shadow disappeared once he blinked. He relaxed and turned his attention back to Sumomo. "Why… why would he do such a thing…? What if he causes war again?"

The Dream Messenger teleported to a mansion nearby. He shot an orb at the mansion and disappeared. The orb went through the door of a room and disappeared within a wall. Letters began to form on the wall glowing with an eerie aura.

Are you sure you're protecting our region?

The current Shinou is a horrible nation, hurting our people by pretending as if nothing happened.

Someone in the government is at fault.

-Dream Messenger-

The room in which the letters were forming was the bedroom of Akagi, the Minister of War. He went wide-eyed as he read the message. "Impossible…!" He ran outside the door, finding a shadow watching him with hateful eyes. "Commanders! Chase after that Dream Messenger!"

Commander Mars and Saturn got their armies and went after the Dream Messenger. He ran away from the two armies approaching him.

"Commander Saturn, corner him!" Mars exclaimed. "We'll go this way!" Saturn's army rushed to another direction and chased after the Messenger. Eventually, he got cornered by both armies.

Saturn looked at the Dream Messenger and smirked. "Huh, you're tougher and faster than I thought." Mars and he pointed at Messenger. "Attack!" Guards began to attack him one by one.

"Tch." Messenger managed to fight them off, not even missing a single one. He dodged every attack that came his way or used them against each other. "You'll have to do better than that, you weaklings." He reached in his back pocket and took out something. "See ya." He threw down three smoke balls, using the smoke to escape.

The armies coughed, unable to take the intensity of the smoke.

"What is this smoke? It's so strong!" Mars shouted. Her throat was burning like crazy, her eyes were watering, and her nostrils felt stung.

Saturn also felt the same thing. "It's a pepper bomb combined with a smoke bomb! Get out of this smoke immediately! Retreat!" They ran out the cloud of pepper smoke and retreated.

Mars coughed and sneezed. "So… That Dream Messenger… is a prankster too, huh?"

Akagi ran over to his commanders. "What happened? Did you catch him?"

"No, sir!" Saturn coughed. "He escaped using a pepper and smoke bomb!"

The leader gritted his teeth and clenched his hands into fists. "He must be caught, no matter what!"

~.~.~

Satoshi was walking around the campus. Yes, he was bored. There was nothing fun to do alone in his dorm, so he decided to take a walk.

On his walk, he saw a white orb float by. "Uh-oh…" He watched the orb fly away from him. "And the Dream Messenger strikes again, huh?" He followed the orb to see the message this time.

It stopped at the center of the campus and disappeared. However, glowing letters began to write themselves in the air, spooking Satoshi.

"Oh shi-!" He slapped his mouth shut, looking around. No one heard him or saw him. Once the message was carved out, he read the message. "Are you sure you're protecting our region? The current Shinou is a horrible nation, hurting our people as if nothing happened. Someone in the government is at fault."

He sighed and shook his head. "If that's what Dream says, I'll just have to believe it." Satoshi walked away, a slightly dark expression on his face. "Dream might be right after all…"

Right when Satoshi disappeared, Takeshi ran in to find the message. "Has he struck again?" Takeshi hissed. He read the letters with a serious look. "What's going on? Why would the Dream Messenger say such words?"

Takeshi pursed his lips, not knowing what to do. He then used his telepathy to contact the teachers. "Attention to all faculty members of Tobari Academy! The Dream Messenger has struck again! His message is written in the center of the academy!"

Within a few minutes, all the staff members gathered around the center. They all read the message and murmured to themselves.

Shirona (Cynthia), the principal of Tobari Academy, stepped up to the message. "Teachers, please calm down. Let's discuss this in the faculty room and not wake up the students." They followed her to the room where they discussed the Dream Messenger's message.

Takeshi stood up from his chair. "I felt a strange energy in the academy so I went to look. There, I found the Dream Messenger's new message written in the air!" Murmurs went around. "It's like the Dream Messenger has a certain grudge against the government."

"Plus, this doesn't seem like any normal power," Katsu added, "This has to be the work of a student here!"

The murmurs became louder. "That's impossible!" "One of our students? Stop stating such nonsense!" "But there are also others who possess these abilities, other than our students!"

"You may be right, Katsu-Sensei," Shirona replied. "There aren't much government officials who are bonded with a Pokémon that can create dreams." She pointed outside of the room. "Have you not noticed how you can see your own nightmares and dreams in those letters? It's most likely that the culprit is a student bonded with a dream-related Pokémon!"

"Wait!" someone exclaimed. "What if it was someone from another region? That's also possible!"

Takeshi bit his lower lip, thinking about the possibilities. "That could also be a likely chance. The Murasaki Legacy was created in the Shinou region after all. There's no telling if someone from another region did this."

Shirona sighed and crossed her arms. "We don't have enough clues yet. We will have to wait until the right time to figure this out. Meeting dismissed." The room emptied out and the academy became quiet in the night.

But it wasn't going to be that easy for the students the next morning.

It was a huge uproar that morning, when most of the students gathered around the message. Some were outraged, shocked, excited, or speechless. Satoshi, Shinji, Hikari, and Jun were at the back of the crowd.

"So you're saying that you saw that thing yourself?" Hikari whispered.

"Yeah!" Satoshi replied. "It totally spooked me when the message began writing itself!" He scratched his head, still a little scared. "I swear, it felt like I was watching those special effects of a movie!"

Jun looked at Shinji, who looked at him back. "Who do you think it was?"

Shinji crossed his arms, staring at the message. "It's probably someone who has a huge grudge on someone from the government." He seemed unfazed by the nightmares he saw in those letters. But one thing caught his eye. In all that darkness, there was a small light in the 'D' of 'Dream'. He wondered if it was actually a good dream he had in his life.

But it was actually that same soothing dream he had yesterday.

"…" He raised a brow, glancing at Hikari. She was talking to Jun about who it could be. Of course, Satoshi jokingly accused Hikari, whose jaw hung down in reply.

"How can you suspect me?" she pouted. "Ask Jun or Shinji-Senpai! I'm always the first one to sleep!"

Jun snickered. "I dunno, Hikaru. That could've been just a clone and you sneaked out to send the message!"

Satoshi snapped his fingers. "Oh! Jun's got a point!"

"Jun! Satoshi-Senpai!" Hikari whined. "Stop making fun of me! Shinji-Senpai, help me!"

They smirked and messed with him a little more. Shinji stared at Hikari with smug eyes and smirked. "Are you sure you're not the Dream Messenger?"

"SENPAI!" Hikari jumped up and down like a frustrated kid. "You guys are mean to me!"

They all chuckled as Hikari complained about the teasing.

~.~.~

It was two days before the competition. This time, they decided to train in the area where the competition was going to be held.

"Alright, we'll be training here until the competition," Shinji declared. "Until then, use full effort to train."

"Yeah!" Jun and Hikari cheered. "Let's do this!"

Shinji smirked at their enthusiasm. He thought they would've broken down from the training by now. "I'm surprised you two actually came this far." He shrugged, knowing it was obvious. "Well, it's you guys after all. I don't think anyone else would be able to stand me."

Hikari smugly rolled her eyes. "Well, I sometimes can't stand you, but I think it's a good thing being your student, kouhai, and team member. Cheers to Shinji-Senpai, Jun, and me!"

Satoshi's jaw hung low as he stared at Hikari. "Hikaru, what about me? I'm part of this team too!"

"Oh, o-of course!" Hikari blushed from embarrassment. "Sorry, Satoshi-Senpai." She nervously laughed while scratching her head.

"Let's get to training already!" Jun exclaimed. Everyone chuckled and went back to business. Satoshi watched over Jun for the archery. Shinji and Hikari had some more sparring to do.

They fought again, attacking each other with full force. Hikari was surprised at how strong she got. She just hoped that she didn't have huge muscles popping out of her arms. That would be very… unattractive…

No! No! There is NO time to be thinking about that! She charged towards Shinji again, their katana clashing with each other.

Meanwhile, Jun was shooting arrows with his abilities this time. "Hey, Satoshi?"

"Hm?"

"You do archery too, right?"

Satoshi nodded firmly. "Of course I do archery."

Jun put his bow down. "Then, how come you don't participate in the Competition?" He raised a brow at Satoshi. "Is there something wrong or whatever?"

"Hmmm…" The brown-eyed student tapped his chin. "I guess you can say I'm like Shinji's guardian – sorta. I have special conditions in which I don't need to participate."

The blonde rolled his eyes. "Well, I can't tell if it's a bummer or a lucky thing." He raised his bow and focused on the center of the target ahead. "Aura Sphere!" He shot the arrow, surrounded by blue energy. When it struck the center of the target, the arrow exploded. When the smoke was gone, the target had shattered to pieces.

Satoshi whistled. "Damn, that's some powerful move you got there. What have you been doing with your Aura Sphere?"

Jun blinked, shocked to see what he did. "Wow…! It looks like my training paid off!" He looked at Satoshi with excited eyes. "You see, I've been training my moves behind their backs! I can't believe this is my result!" He pumped up a fist, cheering. "Hell yeah!"

"You know, you get double the points if you shatter the target. It just depends on where you hit as the target shatters." Satoshi pointed at a target. "It has ten circles. If you hit that center and shatter it at the same time, you get twenty points."

"Ha! That's simple!" Jun exclaimed.

"It's not as simple as you think, though," Satoshi warned, "If you hit any other rings outside of the deep red color zone (8, 9, 10), you'll get no points at all. Even if you shatter that target, if you hit it outside 8… no points…"

Jun smirked, aiming his arrow at the center. "Nah, I'm sure I'll hit that deep red zone." He grinned. "DragonBreath." He breathed out a blue-purple flame on the arrow. He shot the flame-engulfed arrow. When it hit the target, cracks were made all the way from the center to edge. "Well, it didn't exactly shatter, but that was good, right?"

"Yeah, that's better than good!" Satoshi replied. "Dude, you'll do really great at the competition. Just keep this up, okay?"

"Obviously!"

While Jun and Satoshi continued to practice, Shinji and Hikari just finished sparring.

Hikari wiped some sweat off her forehead and sheathed her sword. "Okay… That battle was intense… I bet one with Kouhei-Senpai…"

"I thought I told you not to give him that honorific name," Shinji reminded. "I feel uncomfortable hearing you call him that."

The blunette smiled and giggled. "You have a good side to you after all." She sat on the platform for the archers and took a drink of water. "Well, I was gonna say that a battle with him is going to be more intense than our battle."

Shinji looked at the ground, chuckling darkly. "What are you talking about?" He smirked at Hikari. "I was only using half my strength most of the time." He crossed his arms. "If I went full strength at you, you'd die immediately."

Hikari's eyes widened as if she saw his head turn 180 degrees. "What?" she squeaked. "That was only half and I thought that was intense?" She wanted to smack herself. "But what about his? Won't he be as strong your full strength?"

"I'm a prince, Hikaru. Kouhei is just an Elite student." Shinji shrugged, knowing that their level of power had a huge gap. "I could probably defeat him in seconds."

"Alright, Senpai…" Hikari laughed. "I'll be resting for a bit." She took another sip of water and looked at the sky. It was clear and the sun was shining brilliantly.

~.~.~

The next night…

The Dream Messenger was going to strike again. He was now traveling along the streets, scattering small glowing orbs along the way. However, nothing happened when the orbs hit the ground. They bounced up and down for a while and floated on ankle-level.

He definitely expected the armies to be prepared to fight him off tonight. "Hn, idiots." A smirk was seen and he continued his job. When he turned a corner, he found Saturn a few feet away from him. "Tch."

"Well, well, well…" Saturn chuckled darkly. "It looks like I picked the right time to patrol this area." He took two steps forward towards the Dream Messenger. "It seems we meet again."

Dream took a step back, scanning the surroundings. Another army led by Mars was right behind him and another army had gathered in the route he came from.

"We're idiots, you say?" Mars scoffed. "It's more like you're the moron that got trapped. What are you gonna do about this?"

Dream charged towards Mars and punched him so hard that the commander knocked over a line of guards.

"Saturn, don't put your guard down!" Mars exclaimed. When she a knocked out Saturn, she gritted her teeth and glared at Dream. "Guards, attack the Dream Messenger at once!" A group of guards charged towards Dream and attempted to slash with their spears.

But Dream was swift. He dodged every attack and countered them by making them attack each other. He was quite nimble with his feet.

"Ugh, you worthless grunts! I'll take care of this myself!" Mars took out a small knife and ran at Dream. "Take this!" She brought down her knife on him, but he dodged it. Something strange happened though. Once Dream looked at Mars, he pinched his nose. Mars raised a brow but that didn't let her get distracted.

They continued to fight with Mars attacking and Dream dodging. Dream made sure not to stumble over any of the unconscious guards. As he continued jumping back to evade the slices of the knife, something – or someone – grabbed his ankle. He looked down to see a barely conscious Saturn firmly gripping his leg.

"Aha!" Mars leapt into the air and sliced Dream on the waist and across his dominant arm.

Dream suppressed the urge to scream in pain. He had absolutely NO time to do that. He released a pink mist at Mars and Saturn and used the opportunity to escape. Mars and Saturn fell asleep and fell to the ground.

"Fuck!" Dream hissed. He touched his waist, where the wound was and looked at it. His hand was covered in blood. Blood was also smudging his sleeve, where the wound on his arm began to drip blood. He couldn't run anymore, but he had to get back to Tobari Academy. He slipped into the same abandoned storage room.

The Dream Messenger panted, sweating like crazy. The wound on his waist and arm was serious. He needed to heal at all costs. Tomorrow was the Yumi・Katana Competition! "Damn it…! I won't be able to fight with these wounds…!"

Dream took off the head gear that disguised his true identity. The white streak on his hair was beginning to disappear and his appearance was changing. His midnight black eyes seemed to suppress the urge to scream. "Look for any herbs that can at least stop the bleeding!" He hung his head low from the lack of strength.

"Hang in there!" Darkrai speeded throughout the storage room to find the herb to stop his partner's bleeding.

The true identity of the Dream Messenger was Murasaki Shinji – the Prince of Shinou.

~.~.~

A/N: Well, like you guys said… Yes, the Dream Messenger IS Shinji. Congrats to the people that had the thought of Shinji!

Hana: But this isn't the right time to celebrate right now! Shinji's in trouble! He has severe wounds, so how is he going to fight in the competition?

Ichi: You'll just have to find out in the next chapter!