Okay... I know I've said that Caeldori was hard to write, I know I've said that Nina was hard to write... BUT MITAMA! Oh boy, this one was a challenge! A bit of a shame since I sort of ship her and Dwyer, but that's besides the point. The point is, Mitama is a bit of a one trick pony. She's lazy and she writes haiku. Seriously, almost all of her supports centers around one of those two, if not both. At least with the previous two, I could chalk their habits up to being linked to massive insecurities, but Mitama...just doesn't work that way! I don't know, maybe I just haven't pooled in enough research, but I tried my doggone best to give this starry eyed wonder a breathe of fresh air.

At least I know Rhajat will be easy... There's so many directions I can think of. Anyway, enjoy the chapter! And let me know what you think of my Mitama!

...

Dwyer stared at the calendar that was nailed to the wall across from his bed. He sighed, and took a few steps towards it, grabbing a pen and crossing off one of the days. He removed his hand from the calendar and stepped back, his eyes locked onto the day he had crossed off, before they moved on to the one next to it, which was circled upon Ophelia's request.

It was official. Dwyer had been in the army for two months. He could hardly believe it has been that long already, he felt like he barely joined a few weeks ago... The butler thought back on Ophelia's words from the other night. "You've changed a lot since we first met."

Had he? Dwyer certainly didn't feel any different. As far as he could tell, he was still the same, dry-witted, shaggy haired butler. Sure, maybe his training caused him to become a tad bit more muscular, but surely that couldn't have been what the dark mage was referring to, right?

It had been two days since Nina's surprise party, and Dwyer was stunned by the progress she made. Instead of simply indulging in her fantasies all day, the archer was now socializing with nearly every one of the children. The butler had never seen her smile so much, and it made him smile as well. Still, he was still sore from the partying, despite it being two days ago. Surely he deserved a quiet, peaceful nap for his two month anniversary, right? It's not like people expected him to celebrate it, right?

Sighing, the butler snatched up his pillow and tucked it underneath his arm, before he opened his door and stepped out into the late morning outdoors.

He took his routine moment to breathe in the air, closing his eyes blissfully as it filled his lungs. Today had to be a good day, he felt it in his bones! With a slight prep in his step, Dwyer began his search for a grassy, cozy spot to catch some more shut eye. He deserved the good treatment, after how he helped Nina and all. Actually, how he helped everybody. He sure wasn't going to admit it any time soon, but it did feel good to help others.

He was heading for a small hill that had a beautiful cherry blossom tree to provide shade. Whenever he was in the mood for an outdoor nap, that spot was the place to go. He could make sight of it, and his smile brightened, a rare sight to see for the other members of the army. However, his smile quickly disappeared when he saw someone already there, laying down beneath the tree.

It was Mitama.

Dwyer turned around immediately, and was about to leave when another thing Ophelia said floated in his memory. "Perhaps it is you who must break the darkness's hold on her, then..."

To most, this would've just sounded like an 'Ophelia thing', but all the time he had spent with her allowed Dwyer to hear the meanings behind her strange speech. She was telling him to make peace with Mitama, and the butler did not want to think about what could happen to him if he didn't follow through.

Sighing reluctantly, he turned to face the sleeping poet, and cautiously approached. He froze halfway, though, and observed Mitama curiously. She was...actually kind of cute, now that he thought about it. Perhaps it was because this was honestly the first time he has ever saw her without a scowl across her face. The poet looked peaceful, and happy...

Dwyer somehow knew his presence would disturb that, but he forced himself to continue onward. It wasn't until he was right above the sleeping girl that he felt guilty. Should he truly be intruding like this? He was about to turn around when a voice said, "Oh, it's you."

The butler glanced down, and he saw those familiar star shaped eyes looking at him. She wasn't glaring at him for once, but her expression was far from friendly. Dwyer forced a smile on his face and nodded. "Yup," he said. "It's me."

Mitama sighed. "What do you want?" she hissed.

"I came here to take a nap," Dwyer replied.

"This spot's taken. Go away."

The butler narrowed his eyes. "There's plenty of room," he pointed out, gesturing to the surrounding area. "I always nap here, I'll just stay a few feet away from you, you won't even know I'm here."

"Your mere presence is enough to anger me," Mitama growled, sitting up now and folding her arm. "Your presence brings pain/ A sharp arrow pierces me/ An arrow of grief."

Dwyer rolled his eyes, now regretting his decision to come here. "Whatever," he muttered. "I'm not dealing with this." He turned around and began walking away, fully aware of Mitama's satisfied smirk. The butler had a plan to circle around and lay down on the opposite side of the tree, but he could feel those starry eyes watching his every move, making sure that he truly was leaving.

'Well that plan failed,' he thought.

"Dwyer!" Mitama's voice rang from behind, and the butler turned to see the girl approaching him. She stopped in front of him, and held out her hand, as if wanting something. Dwyer stared at it in confusion, and then his gaze was slowly brought back up to Mitama.

"What?" he asked.

Mitama huffed in annoyance and pointed at Dwyer's pillow. "Since you've woken me up, you need to sacrifice something of yours," she explained. "That pillow of yours will do just fine."

The butler's eyes widened, and he instinctively hugged his pillow closer. "What on earth are you talking about?" he hissed, stepping back. "This is my favorite pillow! You can't just 'sacrifice' it!"

"Every action has consequences, Dwyer!" the girl with the star eyes barked.

"I'm not going to give up my pillow just to help boost your own ego!"

Ego?" Mitama snorted. "That's quite rich, coming from you!"

Dwyer raised an eyebrow. "Ego?" he repeated. "I don't have a clue what you mean."

Mitama scoffed. "Whatever."

"I think you just said I have an ego in order to mask your own," Dwyer pointed out, frowning. "Mitama, I know you and I haven't gotten along in the past, but can we just stop this childish bickering from now on? It's getting us nowhere!"

"There's nowhere for us to get to." Mitama said, turning away.

Dwyer sighed and shook his head. "Whatever, I tied," he muttered, walking away.

"Prove yourself to me."

The butler turned back around, raising an eyebrow. "Huh?"

"If you won't offer a sacrifice, then prove yourself to me," Mitama stated. "Prove that I was wrong about you." Her eyes narrowed. "However unlikely that may be."

"And how am I supposed to do that?" Dwyer asked, his arm tightening around his pillow slightly.

Mitama puffed her cheeks and placed her hands on her hips. "Figure it out, idiot!" she snarled.

Dwyer winced a tad bit, before he silently nodded and walked away, having little idea what he just put himself through. 'How the hell am I supposed to quote unquote prove myself?' he asked himself, eyebrows furrowing. All he wanted to do today was take a nap...

Couldn't Mitama have just been like the others and actually have a problem he could help solve? Couldn't things just be easy? "Nope," he whispered underneath his breath. "With Mitama, nothing's easy..."

...

Mitama stared after the butler as he left, sighing and slowly returning to her spot underneath the tree. Yawning, she allowed herself to settle down onto the soft grass, and a smile formed on her face...

...until an image of Dwyer popped up in her head.

Growling, the poet sat up in frustration, catching sight of a pair of feminine legs in front of her. Following them up, she saw Ophelia standing over her, arms crossed and a frown on her face. Mitama returned the frown and crossed her arms against her chest. "What?" she asked. "I gave him a chance, just like you wanted."

The dark mage sighed. "It could've gone a lot better," she muttered.

"Not my fault he's uncooperative," Mitama said, shrugging.

Ophelia's eyes narrowed. "Mitama," she began slowly. "Did you ever stop to think that it's you who is being uncooperative?"

For once, Ophelia's words seemed to reach the starry eyed poet. Mitama glanced away, biting her lip. She didn't answer her friend, and Ophelia internally celebrated, happy to know that she finally got the Hoshidan to listen.

"Why do you hate Dwyer?" she asked, sitting down next to Mitama. "It can't seriously be because he insulted your poetry, right?"

"Of course not," Mitama scoffed. "I'm not that shallow, and hate is a rather strong word. 'Loathe' would be a much more appropriate word choice."

'Still not that much of an improvement,' Ophelia thought. "But why?" she asked again. "Dwyer is a chosen one, Mitama! He's one of the best people in the army! Everyone else can see that, why can't you?"

"..." Mitama, once again, did not answer. She simply drew her knees and rested her chin on them.

"Mitama..?"

"Why, you ask?" Mitama whispered. "Who knows? Perhaps he reminds me of everything I dislike about my father, perhaps I am envious of him, perhaps I view him as a rival due to our similar roles, or perhaps I simply wish for him to be gone." She turned her head slowly back to Ophelia. "Or perhaps I never wished to loathe him in the first place, but I feel like it is too late for me to undo my mistakes."

"But it isn't too late!" Ophelia exclaimed, hopping to her feet. "You can still confront him about these things, Mitama! He won't turn you away, I know it!"

Mitama blinked, then sighed. "I'm a prideful woman, Ophelia. Can I face this boy?/ Whose very eyes shake the soul?/ My heart whispers no." After a moment of silence, Mitama pulled out her paper and brush, and carefully wrote the new haiku down for later uses. After she was done, Mitama put her materials away and shook her head. "If he is as good as you say he is, then he will prove it," she said.

Ophelia shook her head. "You are the most stubborn woman I've ever met," she grumbled. "And I have met Caeldori's mother..."

Mitama smirked, obviously taking some pride from that claim. "Perhaps," she said. Her face then turned serious, and she turned to stare at where Dwyer had walked off to. "He better not let me down..."

"He won't," Ophelia assured.

...

Days had past, and the first signs of winter were beginning to show themselves. Dwyer would've been content with just hibernating for the entire season, but Mitama's request still stood in his way. Dwyer would often sigh in frustration, as he tried everything he could think of. From sewing quilts to making her tea, from basically being her personal servant for a day to baking her five hundred croissants. Five hundred! Who even needed that many?!

No matter what he tried, however, Mitama would simply turn her nose up and huff, telling him to go try again. Seriously, Dwyer could handle her not appreciating his work, but for her to actually toss away the quilt he made?! That was taking things too far!

He would've given up right then if it wasn't for Ophelia's pleading look she tossed his way.

And now, to make matters even worse, the army was marching again. In the winter. Up a gods-damn mountain!

Dwyer tightened the scarf around himself, shivering as the snow began picking up. He wasn't built for this...this was for some hardened warrior who spilled the blood of hundreds, not some scrawny butler with nothing but a homemade scarf! He knew that this mountain was the only way for them to reach their next stop, though. He attended the war meeting the previous morning with his father, and Lord Corrin discovered that going around the mountain would not only take too long, but there have been numerous sightings of larger-than-usual faceless, and the army really wasn't in the mood to deal with that.

"T-This is the worse!" Nina stuttered, wrapping her thin cloak tighter around herself. "I k-knew I should've bought s-some winter w-wear!"

"Tell me about it..." Dwyer muttered. He began to unwrap his scarf, when Nina placed her hand on his.

"D-don't." she told him. "It's not w-worth freezing just t-to keep me a little warm. I'll b-be f-fine..."

Dwyer frowned, but didn't argue. He instead concentrated on moving forward, when he caught sight of Mitama several paces ahead. Like everyone else who was ill-prepared, she was shivering, although unlike everyone else, she was attempting to hide it by putting on a determined front.

"N-no luck with her?" Nina asked. Dwyer sighed and nodded. Nina frowned, and glanced away. "W-well, f-for what it's w-worth... I-I think you already d-did the b-best you c-could..."

"Thanks." Dwyer said, before he quickened his pace until he was right next to Mitama. The poet glanced at him and sighed.

"W-What do you want..?" she hissed.

Dwyer forced himself to give a friendly smile. "You look cold," he pointed out, offering his scarf to her.

Mitama looked at it for a moment with just the faintest blush, before she huffed and turned away. "Do you offer your scarf to all of the girls in the army?" she asked. "Is this some attempt to woo the hearts of many?"

"Um...no?" Dwyer replied, not knowing what Mitama was even talking about anymore. "I just thought you could use some warmth, sorry for making you uncomfortable."

"Forgiven," the poet said curtly.

Dwyer stared at the girl, shaking his head and returning his focus ahead of him. When were they going to get off this damn mountain...?

Then, suddenly, the worst thing that could've happened...happened.

"Invaders!" a voice that sounded a lot like Sir Benny's shouted, and in an instant the battle began. The dreaded invisible soldiers seemingly appeared out of nowhere, taking the form of various ninjas and samurais. Chaos erupted, and Dwyer watched in shock as the entire army was scattered, and he immediately knew that they were fighting a losing battle.

A dagger came out of nowhere, and Dwyer sprung into action. He grabbed Mitama's waist and yanked her away, the dagger soaring past her head. The poet's eyes widened, and she pushed away from Dwyer before rushing into the fray, holding up her healing staff. The butler gritted his teeth and gripped his own healing staff, turning around and mending a wounded Nina, who nodded her thanks before firing a barrage of arrows at the enemy.

A cry of pain caught his attention, and he turned around to see Selkie limping, an arrow through her leg. Dwyer rushed to his friend's aid, and he let her bite into his shuriken as he yanked out the bloody projectile. Selkie gasped in pain, but soon relaxed as her wound was healed. Then, her eyes widened. "Dwyer, look out!" she cried, and Dwyer turned around to see a sword swinging towards him.

Caeldori blocked it, and shoved the enemy back. With a cry, she lunged and impaled the invader. Sighing in relief, she gave Dwyer a brief nod before disappearing back into the battle. Dwyer turned back to Selkie, who was slowly rising to her feet. She stumbled, but Dwyer caught her. "Careful," he warned. "You should probably sit this one out for awhile."

Selkie puffed out her cheeks. "But I can-"

"Selkie, please." Dwyer interrupted, narrowing his eyes. Selkie hesitated, but finally nodded in defeat and gave her friend his shuriken back. Dwyer nodded as well, and he quickly rushed off to aid his allies.

A blast of fire appeared from his side, suddenly startling the butler. He turned around and saw that the invaders had mages now, and the battle was quickly growing closer to the side of the invisible warriors. He heard Lord Corrin shout orders, and the army was now making one last push to drive off the invaders. Dwyer took a deep breath and pulled out his shuriken. He glanced at it, whispering, "Please be useful for once."

He found a lone mage, and Dwyer took careful aim before he whipped his shuriken out of his hand. With a satisfying sound, the Hoshidan projectile stopped right between the invader's eyes. Dwyer stared at the dead monster, before he pumped his fist in the air. "Yes!" he cried. "I did it!"

Suddenly, dozens of eyes turned to him, all belonging to the invaders. Dwyer gulped, but before the invaders could attack, Jakob leaped in front of his son. "Get back, Dwyer," he ordered. "I'll take care of this!"

"No!" Dwyer protested, stepping forward. "I won't hide behind others anymore!"

"This isn't your battle, son..." Jakob growled, slashing open the throat of an enemy. "Go and heal the wounded. They need you more than I do."

"But, I-" Dwyer stopped, knowing this wasn't the time to argue. He nodded reluctantly, and ran off to heal his friends.

...

The battle ended as quickly as it had begun. As far as Dwyer could tell, no one in the army was lost. However, there was no way to be completely sure, since he had elected to stray a little from the group. The butler sighed and collapsed onto the snow, not caring about the cold at the moment, he was just grateful to be alive. 'I need a vacation,' he thought, before quickly adding, 'a paid vacation.'

"Well, I suppose it's nice to see you still alive," Mitama's familiar snarky tone sounded from above. "I would hate to see you unable to fulfill your sacrifice."

"I'm glad your safe too, Mitama," Dwyer replied, rolling his eyes. He found himself meaning it, though. Despite the front she put on, Mitama had to have had her good side, right?

"Well, I suppose I'll leave you alone now..." Mitama walked away, and Dwyer couldn't help but notice that it was the most civil she's been with him.

'Well that's progress, right?'

He glanced over at where Mitama was standing. She was standing over one of the mountain's cliffs, looking up at the sky with her paper and brush in her hand. 'Another haiku, huh?' Dwyer smiled softly, before closing his eyes. 'Welp, time for nap...'

"MITAMA!" a voice shrieked. Dwyer's eyes burst open just in time to see the snow underneath Mitama's feet give away, and he could only watch in complete horror as the poet plummeted down, becoming lost in the deep darkness below.

"No!" Dwyer shouted, rising to his feet. He scrambled to the edge of the cliff, peering down. Only a large, gaping black hole greeted him. "No..." he whispered. "Mitama!"

It couldn't be...she couldn't be...

"Mitama!" he shouted again.

"Dwyer!" Jakob hissed. "Get away from there!"

Dwyer glanced back up, and just then he felt something crack underneath him. His eyes widened. "Oh, you cannot be serious," he managed to deadpan, before the cliff gave away a second time.

And just like that, the army watched helplessly as two of its best healers were now at the mercy of the ice covered mountain.

...

Well that ending was certainly a...CLIFFHANGER! Yep, we're going two parts for Mitama, because honestly...I just cannot resolve her and Dwyer's issues in just one chapter. I tried, but it just looked...bad. Like, REALLY bad. Anyway, I tried making Mitama have a bit more character than her in game counterpart, but I'm not sure I really got to do that much in THIS part. Hopefully, the next part will be a LOT better.

Don't forget to review! And remember, stay wykkyd!