It had been two months since the amusement park incident and Chariot's discovery of music. By now, the warriors had assimilated into the human world and had even forgotten that Black Gold Saw was trying to find a new portal to send them to a different Realm. Not that it mattered, they didn't want to go back anymore. Chariot had made a few friends after the day she met Kukai, the boy with the violin. She was great at playing and continued to practice every day after school with him in the classroom they had met. Yuu was more than happy to see that Chariot was finally socializing but still tried to get her to try out more things or go places (so far she had just gotten her to go to a symphony). Things were going great for Chariot, so great that she had even stopped worrying about Kagari noticing her.
While things were going great for the blond warrior, things weren't quite the same for Rock and Dead Master. After the day at the amusement park, Rock had begun to avoid Dead Master. It took the green-loving girl a few days to notice but once she did, she couldn't ignore it. She had caught her staring a few times but her stares were always looks of confusion and frustration. After a few weeks, Dead stopped trying to talk to Rock and simply acted like she didn't care (which wasn't very hard for her). Yomi and Mato had taken noticed of the awkward tension between the two and had also tried to help but with no success. It wasn't until Yuu invited everyone over for a sleepover that things started to clear up.
"Hey! So glad you could come. Everyone's here already" greeted Yuu as Dead Master and Mato walked in through the door. It had been a while since everyone had gathered at Yuu's home but things didn't look too different. The atmosphere seemed a bit more cheerful than the previous time though, even if there was a bit of awkwardness.
This was the warriors' first official "sleepover" so the girls explained to them what was going on. They were going to eat junk food, watch movies, play games, and just talk about things in general. Rock smiled and nodded, she felt comfortable with what they described as a sleepover as she basically had one each day with Yomi. Dead and Chariot did a simple head nod and agreed to take part of it. They weren't as enthusiastic as the rest but they weren't going to ruin the night for everybody.
The night went by fast and suddenly, they found themselves at the point in the sleepover when things got personal and deep. Everybody began by asking Chariot about her new friends and giggled when they asked about Kukai. Chariot assured them they were only friends and did not understand why everybody was blushing and giggling, telling her that it was only her who thought of it as just a friendship. Suddenly everybody was talking about boys and crushes, going around asking each other if they had a significant other in their life. When they got to Rock however, things took a sudden turn. "Do you like anybody?" Mato asked the warrior with a teasing smile. Rock shuffled a bit and declared that she did. Everyone gasped, and the other two warriors looked at her in shock. They had been able to assimilate and become a bit more human but neither one of them had gotten to the point of actually loving someone. "Who is he?!" they all asked eagerly. Rock seemed to shrink a bit. "She's a girl."
After Rock revealed her crush was a female, everyone gasped. Rock looked down in awkwardness but not for long as the excitement soon returned and the girls continued to ask who this girl was and what she looked like and if she was in their class. Rock didn't answer any questions but instead looked for Dead Master's eyes. She caught them and noticed no expression in them. She probably didn't know. She was too narcissist thinking that everyone loved her to notice when someone really did. Seeing as how she wasn't answering any of the questions, the girls decided to leave her alone and continued to make their round. When they got to Dead Master, Rock looked up, hopeful that the warrior might respond with a vague answer or a yes but to her disappointment, Dead Master admitted to being unable to love anyone. Rock silently sighed and the sleepover continued on until a phone rang interrupting all the fun…
"Hello?" Chariot spoke into the cellphone. The girls all sat in silence, attentively listening since Chariot had told them it was Kukai calling. They had expected to hear something cute or interesting that proved their claim of Kukai liking Chariot but they didn't even hear a boy's voice on the phone. Chariot's face was expressionless and the light in her eyes had seemed to die out. "Okay. Thank you. Good night." She said as she hung up and looked around. Nobody knew what was going on but knew it couldn't be good. "He… he's… gone. Dead is permanent here. He must have not known. He must have thought it was temporary. He-" Chariot couldn't finish the sentence before she burst into tears. The girls tried to hug her but something stopped them. As they were about to hug her, they noticed something orange and gold flashing. It was like she was glowing in light and for a split second, she looked the way she used to look back in the Realm.