Well... After much trial and error, I finally managed to finish this. And it's my longest chapter ever. I should throw a party or something. XD Anyway, I'll reply to last chapter's reviews now.
ultimashadow: Thank you. :) Oh, shoot, really? Well... When I read that part, I started to get all worried. You know, like I always do. ;) But I think that I might have remedied that a little... Though what I'm talking about may make you (and everyone else) run for the hills, there is now a sort-of-reasonable explanation for Kluke's behavior. Still, if you think that I should change it, let me know. Oh, you do? Well... (Jiro: ... She's going to do WHAT?! Y-you can't DO this to me! You said I was your favorite character!!) To Jiro: And in the game, you still are, and will be for a long time to come. Maybe someone shouldn't read ahead. ;P Besides, Jiro dear, I'm thinking of scrapping that idea anyway. We'll see. ;) That aside, I couldn't agree with you more about Jiro. :) (Jiro: None taken. Though I suggest you don't say that too loudly around my counterpart...) Alright - I'll do my best. :)
Prince of Tennis' Shaman: Thanks. And, if all goes well, there should be loads of Jiro and Bouquet scenes to come. ;D Same goes for the Jiro and Shu scenes... and the Jiro and Kluke scenes... There'll be a lot of Jiro scenes in general. ;) Yeah, I see him like that, too - that's one of the reasons I like him so much. :) Ah, I'm looking forward to it! :D Sounds great - I'd love to see it. :)
Review replies are done. Now, before I say anything else, I have an important notice for the readers and writers of Blue Dragon fan fiction. So...
IMPORTANT NOTICE: A CHARACTER LIST HAS BEEN ADDED FOR THE BLUE DRAGON GAME CATEGORY.
If you've written any stories for Blue Dragon, you should probably try to add a character label (or whatever you want to call it) if you can. I know, for some stories, it's impossible to do this, because it focuses on too many characters to just have either one or two character labels. But if your story focuses on one or two characters, it would probably be a good idea to do that. Since the archive is getting close to three pages - yay!! - it'll make it easier for people to find and stuff... Besides, it's probably just me, but I think it's kind of neat. XD Anyway... On the same note, I am so stoked that accepted my character list! :D And it only took the two days to get it, too; I hadn't expected them to accept it that fast at all, since it seems like they're usually pretty busy. They told me in a reply to my character request that I should spread the word, and I figured that the best way to do this was in one of my stories. :) Oh... Also, I have a minor little warning; because it's minor, I'm only going to underline it: The following chapter, in the beginning, deals with a... not exactly mature subject matter. Despite this, I will not change the rating because of this. The subject in question is an important one to everyone, and I think it's better to know than not to know. I'll explain more at the bottom of the page, since I don't want to give too much away. Well, I think that's all that I have to bother you with (for now). So, after the chapter title, we can finally get on with the long-awaited chapter twelve of Blue Dragon Beyond! :D
Chapter 12: Bakuro (Revelation)
When Jiro and Bouquet had gotten downstairs, the first thing they heard and saw was-
"Ow, Kluke! I'm only worried about your safety! You didn't have to go and hit me!"
"J-just leave me alone, alright?!" Kluke's voice was trembling, and her face was red. "I'm fine!"
"No, you're not!" Marumaro pointed to the chair. "There's blood where you were sitting!"
"... I cut myself." she said after a moment.
"You cut the inside of your thigh?" Shu snorted, holding the top of his head where Kluke had hit him. "Yeah, right."
"I was shaving, okay?!" Kluke didn't sound very convincing.
Shu raised an eyebrow at her. "And you did this while me and Marumaro were here, talking with you?"
"Of course not!" she snapped at him. "I did it before I got here!"
"Why didn't it start bleeding until now?" Marumaro added.
"S-sometimes wounds take a long time to bleed!"
Jiro leaned his head against the doorpost in exasperation. "I can't believe this is happening..."
Bouquet just looked curiously at him, then the scene taking place, then back to Jiro again.
"Oh, Jiro!" Kluke started rushing towards him. "Thank God you're here! Can you talk to-"
"Oh, no!" Jiro cut her off swiftly, already starting to back away. "No, no, no, no, no! Kluke, you want to talk to me about what you're going through right now, that's fine. I'm more than happy to listen and be there for you. But you will not rope me into another 'facts of life' conversation with Shu! It's your turn!"
"Well, maybe if someone hadn't botched up the last 'facts of live' conversation with Shu, and botched up the ones before that, we wouldn't have to take turns!" she countered.
"Just for your information, Shu is standing right here," Shu grated, thoroughly nettled at being treated like he wasn't in the room. "And Shu would also like to know why when he asks you a question, you keep telling him that you'll tell him when he's thirteen!"
Though she was a little confused, Bouquet thought she might as well try to help sort all of this out. "Excuse me..." She took a step inside of the room and-
"Bouquet!!!" Shu was crushing her in a hug in seconds.
"The Devee Dance of Joy!" Marumaro started spinning around in his normal dance patterns, glad that he was able to finally do one of his dances to celebrate Bouquet's recovery.
"Well, that was the real reason I came down here." Jiro said sheepishly, scratching the back of his head.
"Oh," Kluke flushed in embarrassment. "Sorry. I guess I got a little... carried away."
"I'm so happy you're okay!" Shu almost cried - he was so glad that she was safe - but held off, since crying in front of someone was bad enough, but he didn't want to do it in front of four people (possibly six, if Jiro's parents decided to come into the room). "I was so worried about you..."
"I'm sorry," Bouquet moved a bit, just so she could breathe a little. "I didn't mean to worry you."
"It's fine," Shu shook his head, moving so he held her at arms' length. "As long as you're safe, I don't care."
"Alright, alright, break it up," Kluke waved a hand in his face, not least of all because she was a little jealous, then turned her attention to Bouquet. "Let me see if I can fix you up, okay?"
"Ouch!" Bouquet attempted to pull her hand away, but it was in vain; Kluke had a stronger grip than she seemed to.
"I'm sorry, kiddo," Kluke's tone was apologetic. "The medicine stings, but I have to put it on. If a burn like this gets infected, it's going to hurt a lot worse than it does right now."
Bouquet shuddered at the thought of infection, but that didn't keep her from whimpering as Kluke applied more of the balm.
Jiro racked his brain for a moment, until he came up with something that he thought might occupy her. "Bouquet, it seems to me that you like artifacts a lot, so I thought I would tell you a little bit about the ruins near the village..."
Shu stared at Bouquet's hand as Kluke bandaged it, though he didn't really see it - he was thinking about too much to really pay attention to what he was looking at.
"... and it looked pretty old. With the way that it aged, it was a little difficult to tell, but I'm guessing that it's 500 years old at the least, 1,250 years at the most..."
"How do I go about asking her?" Shu held back a sigh. "I need to know, but I don't want her to be upset."
Marumaro tilted his head. "How were you able to tell how old it was?"
"Oh, there are little ways to tell... Certain kinds of stone, certain kinds of paint... The way that it's constructed..."
"She's already been through so much." He glanced at Bouquet, seeing how her eyes got big as she listened to Jiro's stories of the ruins and the things inside of them. It was moments like these that you could see how she was still a kid, but sometimes it was still hard to believe she was as young as she was. The way she had bravely tried to destroy Nene's machine, only caring about saving the children, having no concern for her own safety... It was one of the most amazing things Shu had ever seen.
"There," Kluke said as she finished wrapping Bouquet's hand. "That should hold for a little while. At least until I have to change it again."
Bouquet withdrew her hand, holding it to her chest, fear written all over her face. "Y-you're going to change it again?"
"Yes; I'll have to keep changing it until it heals."
She bit her lip. "But... It really hurts, and-"
"Bouquet," The tone in Shu's voice wasn't happy, angry or sad. But there was something underneath... It was something that stopped everything and called everyone's attention to the speaker. "What happened to you?"
"Wh-what do you mean?"
Shu sighed a little. "I mean what I said. I want to know what happened to you. How all of this happened between you and Nene," he looked up, locking eyes with her. "I want to know how you got to where you are now."
"Oh..." A sad kind of understanding lit up her eyes, snuffing out the youthful wonder that had been there only a second before. "I'll tell you, but I want to ask you a question first." She took a deep breath. "What happened to the children?"
"They're fine," Jiro smiled a little. "Kluke was mostly preoccupied treating you, so the children were taken to Jibral for their treatment."
"Remember that little one who wouldn't let go of Shu?" Kluke giggled.
"Would you drop that already?!" Shu flushed in embarrassment. "I already told you what happened - she was scared, so I held her for a few minutes. That's all."
"She seemed pretty determined to stay with you, though."
"Kluke, knock it off!" Mumbling to himself under his breath, he added, "Why is she acting so weird today?..." He shook his head, then turned his attention back to Bouquet. "Don't worry about the kids; like Jiro said, they're fine. Go ahead and tell us what happened."
She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. "I guess it really started about ten years ago. I was only a baby at the time, so I don't remember much of it; I only know what my..." Her voice caught for a second, but she ignored it and continued. "What my parents told me. There had been attacks on the village that I and my siblings were born in. I don't know what kind of attacks they were, because they never went into that much detail about it. My parents feared for their children, so they left the village. It wasn't that hard of a move, since they'd wanted to leave anyway, so they could study the world."
"Wait," Shu cut in. "What do you mean 'study the world'?"
Her lips upturned in a small, sad smile. "My family liked to study different things. The thing my father liked to study was artifacts," she glanced at Jiro for a second. "While my mother preferred herbs and plant life. My older sister liked the stars and the moons, and my brother liked creatures. I kind of developed a like for all of those things, though I liked artifacts more than anything else. My little sister..." Bouquet looked away. "She was a baby, so none of us ever found out what she would've liked."
The room fell into complete silence. A horrible, understanding silence. After a few moments had passed by without anyone saying anything, Shu reached over and took Bouquet's hand. He didn't speak, but he squeezed it in what he hoped was a reassuring manner.
It seemed to work a little. Bouquet looked back at him, that sad smile still there, but her eyes were shining more than they were before. Very similar to the unusual brightness of unshed tears. "Sorry. I'm alright... I got a little off track, so let me just continue..."
"We traveled together for four years. We rode around in a wagon, and when we stopped for a break, we would camp out in tents until we moved along. It... It was a nice life. Maybe not the kind of life that everyone else is used to, but it was still a nice life." She took another deep breath. "All of that changed six years ago. We had been moving around like normal, when... Well, it happened suddenly. Mecha Robos came out of nowhere, and started attacking the caravan. My father managed to hide me, but the Robos took everyone else, including him. They destroyed everything... All of our belongings... All of my father's artifacts..."
"I was left alone. I had no where to go. The village we had come from had been reduced to nothing long ago. I just kind of... wandered around for a while. After a few days or so, I ended up in Kolin. I started to try and find little jobs I could do, things like helping people clean their houses, so I could get money to buy food. It was hard to find any kind of real work, since not many people hire five-year-olds."
"I had been in the city about a week when he came to me. I was by the city's junk piles, looking for things that I could sell or use in the abandoned house I was living in-"
"That house was abandoned?" Shu gaped at her.
"Yes, why?" she blinked at him. "That's why there were so many holes in the floor and walls."
"You never said anything..."
"Shu, be quiet!" Marumaro yelled at him. "Maro wants to hear the rest of Bouquet's story!"
"Well... Like I was saying, I was searching the junk piles. And then it happened like it did last time; suddenly, and without warning. Something grabbed me hard from behind, and when I turned to see what it was, it was one of the Mecha Robos that had taken my family. I started kicking and screaming, trying to get away from it, but its grip was too strong. When it turned me around, I saw more Mecha Robos surrounding an old man. Before I could do or say anything else, he told me that he had my parents. I yelled at him to tell me where they were, but he only laughed at me. He promised me that if I helped him, he would give my parents back."
"I... I was young at the time. Well, younger than I am now. Anyway, I didn't think about the things he was going to try and do... I told him that I'd do whatever he wanted, as long as he let me see my family again. He told me that he would... and I was stupid enough to believe him."
"You weren't stupid," Shu said, bitterness towards Nene seeping into his voice. "Nene just likes to toy with people."
"That may be true, but I still fell for it," She looked down at her hands folded in her lap. "For a while, I didn't have much contact with Nene. He still sent me little reminders that he had my parents, in the form of talking to me through the Ancient monitors that were in the antique shop I liked to go to. A few times I thought of not going there, since I couldn't stand to look at the person who was responsible for taking my parents away. But being around so many antiques was comforting, since it reminded me of my father. And I wanted to make sure that I didn't miss any of his 'conversations', because I figured that eventually he would stop taunting me and tell me what I had to do so I could see my family again."
"I had to wait three, agonizing years before Nene finally told me anything. Actually, he did more than told me. While I was searching the junk piles again, he appeared to me much like he had before. This time, he gave me a sphere of light, and told me to swallow it. He said that it would give me incredible power, and he needed those powers to grow in me before he could utilize them properly. I was scared, but I knew that this would be the only way to see my family again, so I did it. My throat burned, and my shadow grew... I guess it happened the same way it happened to the rest of you."
Her smile grew, finally reaching her eyes as she said, "My Shadow became close with me very quickly. The Shadow didn't talk, but Hippopotamus always listened to me. During that time... I really needed that. I just needed someone to be there."
The happiness left her eyes. "Nene was right about one thing - my powers grew. As I discovered what these powers were, I started to become afraid of all of these things that I could do." She almost told them everything, what these powers were that she had. But she couldn't bring herself to do it. Not yet.
"He told me to train using my Shadow, so that's what I did. I always made sure that I was far away from anyone who might see. I thought that if my powers frightened me as much as they did, anyone else would be just as afraid."
"I really should've known that something was wrong when Nene told me that I needed to practice with my flute. But... I guess I should probably explain, since that doesn't make much sense. You see... I'm a descendant of the Ra Clan, which no longer exists after Nene's attacks. And one of the special abilities that the Ra Clan has is the skill with the flute. If a descendant of the Ra Clan plays a certain song, it's almost like casting a spell with a Shadow. The magic isn't quite that powerful, but there are things that can be done with one of the flute songs that can't be done with Shadow magic. I guess that's why Nene chose me."
"I continued to practice, both my powers and the songs. Life just went on like that, each day hoping that I would be closer to getting my family back. One day, about six months ago, he finally told me what I had to do. I was supposed to use the Shadow magic to warp around cities, using the flute music to kidnap children. The children had to be human, and they had to be under the age of thirteen. That's why I only took Shu and didn't take the rest of you. The age and race had something to do with the magic energy that Nene wanted to drain; I guess that a young human provides a more potent magic or something. I'm not really sure - he wasn't that specific, and I couldn't find out much otherwise."
"Well... I kind of went back and forth, taking a few children, then resting in Kolin. One time while I was by the junk piles, I saw something falling through the sky. When it landed at the top of one of the piles, it sent all of that stuff flying towards me. I managed to dig myself out a few minutes later. I was curious about what it was, so I climbed the pile and dug out the items that had collapsed inside the hole the flying object had made. I discovered that it was a boy... And, well, you know the rest."
"Bouquet..." Shu didn't really know what else to say. But, somehow, saying her name seemed more appropriate than anything else.
Bouquet looked down, her hair covering her face, her shoulders shaking. "I... I know I'm a bad person for helping Nene... A-and I'm sorry... I know that what I did shouldn't be forgiven, but I'm still sorry..." She was interrupted when she inhaled sharply - the beginning of a sob.
"Don't," Kluke placed a hand on her arm. "Don't do that to yourself. What other choice did you have? If I could have my parents back..." Her voice trembled for a moment. "I don't know if there's anything I wouldn't do."
"You want to help defeat Nene, don't you?" When Bouquet rapidly nodded her head, Shu continued. "Then that's all that matters. You're sorry for what you did, and you didn't even want to do it in the first place. The things you did to help him are in the past, so don't worry about it anymore."
Marumaro hopped out of his chair, moving over in front of Bouquet, taking her hand. "Maro thinks you're a good person!"
Jiro nodded, smiling. "I agree with him. Everyone makes mistakes - no matter how hard we try, we can't be perfect, because that's just the way people are. But that doesn't mean that we can't move past those mistakes."
"I..." Bouquet closed her eyes for a second. When she opened them, there were small tears forming. She looked at the four of them, their smiling faces that were welcoming and trusting. "Thank you... All of you... Thank you."
Jiro set the book down on the table with a loud "thud". "I think you'll like this."
Bouquet's eyes widened as she saw it "This... This is a..."
"Dictionary in one of the ancient languages," he finished for her, grinning broadly. "I've been trying to decipher it, but I haven't been able to get that far. You seem very knowledgeable, so I thought you could help me."
"I'd love to!" As he sat down next to her, Bouquet was so happy that she thought might start to float.
Marumaro, who was sitting next to her, briefly wondered three things. One: How had he gotten into this? Two: Why hadn't he gotten out of the chair sooner? And three: How was he going to get out of this?
Kluke stared hard as she watched Jiro point out words in the dictionary to Bouquet.
"Why are you looking at them like that?" She nearly jumped when she heard Shu's voice. "I thought you liked Bouquet."
"I do," Kluke said quickly. "I guess... I'm just looking in that direction, but I'm not actually glaring at Bouquet. I'm thinking about Nene, and what he did to her, so that's why I look angry. I mean... If I do look angry; I don't even know."
"I see," he nodded. "I know what you mean. As soon as Zola gets back, I want to go after Nene as quickly as possible."
Kluke brightened a little. "Zola was supposed to come back pretty soon, wasn't she?"
"Yeah, definitely sometime today. For all we know, maybe even the next few minutes. All we can really do is wait."
Shu wasn't that far off. Not really. To be exact, it was about fifteen minutes later when Zola arrived in the mechat.
"Jiro! Marumaro! Bouquet! Come on!" Kluke stood near the currently open front door of Jiro's house; she was waiting for them by herself, since Shu had run outside as soon as he heard the familiar sound of the engine. "Zola's back!"
Jiro was about to reply, but his mother placed her hand on his shoulder first. "Go on ahead, dear. I'll put this away."
"Thank you." Jiro smiled at her warmly, standing. "Even if we have to go, I'll come back to let you and Father know, so I'll see you in a few minutes."
After the three of them had left the room, Jiro's mother sighed, holding the book close to her. She felt incredibly proud of her son, but... She just wished that he could be at home more.
Outside, the others finally caught up to Shu, who was standing near the mechat. Just as they reached him, Zola jumped down from the ladder.
"Lady Zola!" Marumaro hugged her leg immediately.
Like in the Ancient Sphere, she mostly ignored it, but didn't really mind that he was doing it anyway. But also like that time in the Ancient Sphere, the sense of urgency was what made her ignore him. "The Jibral scientists were able to increase the power of their radar with the help of the mechat's radar, so they've now managed to detect Nene. He's not very far from where he took off - we're not sure what is, but something's slowing him down. But that means that if we hurry, we should be able to catch him."
"Then what are we waiting for?" Shu looked everyone behind him, then at Zola again. "Let's go, guys."
"M-me too?" Bouquet pointed to herself.
He smiled at her. "Of course. You're one of us now."
"Okay," she nodded. "I'll do my best!"
"Alright!" Shu fisted his hand, moving it downward for emphasis. "Let's take Nene down!"
... I can't believe I finally finished it. This took me so long... And I don't even know why. I've been having really bad writer's block with all of my stuff lately. :( Anyway, I don't know how this chapter turned out... But I hope that you enjoyed it. :) I'm still a bit... worried, about the beginning part with Kluke. I still don't think I should change the rating, since that's something everyone should know, regardless of your gender. Chances are that you'll have to deal with it, one way or another, regardless of your gender. :P Anyway, I already have some loose ideas for the next chapter, so it shouldn't be too long before the next chapter is done. Hopefully, it won't take as long as this one did. So... Please review if you can (though it's fine if you can't). I'll try to update after 10 hits. See you soon! :D