A/N: Gomenasai for the long wait minna-san! It was a long wait, but the next chapter is finally here! Thanks to 4DarkMirror6, MusicOfMadness, RecordingDreams, Anime-Kunoichi and nallein for following/favouriting :D it is much appreciated~

I managed to find a way to upload from my phone!

So on with the show, you've all waited long enough!

Chapter 14

A gasp resonated through the room as Arica sat up abruptly in bed, eyes wide open and a sheen of sweat glistening on her forehead. The nightmare had come again, but at least she had been subconsciously expecting it, so she didn't freak out as much. That didn't make it any less unsettling, however. She blinked in confusion as she took in her surroundings while the dream ebbed further away from her memory. This wasn't her room…

Then her eyes landed on the middle-aged man standing next to the bed, staring down at her in concern. Arica gasped, her eyes widening as the memories of what happened only a few hours ago came rushing back to her. Instantly, she was on her feet, out of bed and grabbing a bathrobe to shield her scantily clad body from the cold of the night.

"Is he alright? Have you finished examining him? Can I go see him?" the girl fired in a whirlwind of words, not even giving the older man, who had come to wake her, a chance to speak.

Donald held his hands up to calm her down so he could actually do what he came there to do. "Calm down, Miss D'Angelo. Gokudera Hayato is perfectly fine, although he has suffered some severe injuries, but his life is in no danger whatsoever anymore. Yes, we are done examining and noting all of his injuries; that was why I came to wake you to give you this report." He lifted a hand and only then did Arica realize he was holding an envelope with Gokudera's name scribbled across the top.

She held out a slightly shaky hand and took the envelope with a thankful nod. "Thank you very much, Donald, that's good to hear." She paused and chewed her bottom lip for a second before repeating her final question. "May I go and see him?"

The elder man hesitated visibly as his eyes shifted to the clock on Andrew's bedside table. "Yes, absolutely, you can visit him anytime you like, Boss, but uhm… It's currently four o'clock in the morning. I would suggest you go see him first thing later this morning. Not to be rude, of course! But a young lady such as you needs her rest."

Arica's eyes narrowed slightly at him. "I don't care about my sleep necessities at this moment; all I want to do is make sure with my own eyes Gokudera is alright. Not that I don't trust your word, it's just that I won't be able to go to sleep otherwise," she explained and watched as the old man nodded in understanding and start to lead the way back to her own room she had given up.

When they arrived, Arica felt sympathy and guilt for what she saw. The bomber was covered in bandages and needles and tubes were sticking out of his arm. He was, of course, still unconscious. Timothy was still hovering over him when they entered and making sure everything was in place and taken care of. When he saw Arica, however, and the pointed look his senior gave him, the redhead excused himself along with Donald and they silently left the room. The two teenagers were alone.

The brunette made her way over to the bed, pulling her desk chair along with her as she passed it. Positioning it next to the bed, she hesitantly sat down and stared some more. When she looked down at her lap, she remembered the envelope still clutched in tightened fists and it was now rumpled a little. Taking a deep breath, fearing what she might find in it – she had reason to fear just by looking at the person on the bed – and then opening it and pulling a page from it.

She sat back in her chair, taking another deep breath as she began to read the report. Donald and Timothy listed all of his injuries, along with what they did and used to take care of it. How they took care of the internal injuries though, she didn't know.

A mild concussion, as it seemed that he had been hit over the head with something quite heavy – maybe a brick or pipe. His body was littered with multiple cuts, ranging from mere scratches to deep gouges, possibly caused by a knife. He had lost a great amount of blood due to those two types of injuries, yet she had no idea where the two medics got their hands on a bag or two or blood for him. Some things are better left a mystery. Two cracked ribs and one broken one, nearly having pierced a lung, but it seemed like the bomber had more luck than anyone would've thought. There was also some slight internal bleeding and his left wrist was broken. His legs were the worst, and the medics even wrote there that he might not be able to even walk for a few days, maybe even weeks; aside from the multiple slashes and bruises all over them, his right ankle was badly sprained.

Arica read the report about three or four times before she finally decided that it was enough and that it had been engraved in her brain as best it could ever be. She felt sick to her stomach, that churning feeling coming back as she thought of why and how this could've happened to him. Was it a coincidence that it was the exact day that they had met at Tsuna's house and had that fight? No, it couldn't have been. If it was, she would not feel this way; her gut won't be trying to make her throw up every time she thought of it. It had been her fault, she just knew it.

Sighing and running a hand through her slightly tousled hair, Arica glanced at the time to see that it was half past four in the morning. As if on cue, a large yawn bubbled up her throat and her eyes started to droop. Now that she had seen for herself, she could rest assured that Gokudera would get better and go on with his normal life soon. She was far too tired – more than she had originally thought – to go back to Andrew's room. Before she could even decide whether to go or not, however, her eyes slid shut and sleep claimed her instantly. Who knew experiencing one of your friends' near-death could be that tiring?

KHRKHRKHRKHRKHRKHRKHRKHRKHR

For the second time that morning, Arica was jolted awake, but this time she didn't know from what. When she had fallen asleep a few hours ago, the nightmare hadn't returned so it couldn't have been the cause of her abrupt awakening. She was still in the chair next to Gokudera's bed, where she had fallen asleep after going to visit him and reading the damage report.

Wait a minute… she thought and her gaze snapped towards the bed in front of her and she nearly screamed. The silver haired teen on the bed before her was trembling, his body convulsing and his face scrunched up in pain. She could practically hear his teeth gnashing, grinding on one another as his body writhed in what she could only identify as pain. A thin layer of sweat covered his body and soaked the sheets and pillow beneath him. His restlessness is what had woken Arica up since her head had been resting on the edge of the bed right next to him it seemed.

Snapping herself into action, the brunette jumped up from her seat and was momentarily at a loss of what to do. Her head whipped from side to side in search of something she could use to dull the pain. She had the basic knowledge of a field medic, but at least it was something. She couldn't just leave him to go and find someone else to help and when they got back, Gokudera would've gone into some kind of coma or something, or the needles would've pulled out. No, she had to do something herself. Finally, after what felt like hours of panic, she finally spotted the bottle among the assembled pills and other substances.

Arica snatched the bottle of aesthetics from the table, along with a clean syringe and rushed over to the seizing boy. She had some trouble injecting it with her shaky fingers, but managed after a few steadying breaths and words to herself. A few seconds later, the drugs took effect and he went still while Arica nearly collapsed in relief. She didn't waste any time in bursting into the hall and down the stairs to the dining hall where she believed everyone to be at that time – 9 a.m. – of the morning. Her suspicions were affirmed when she was met with no one in the corridors and a loud buzz floating from the closed double doors of the subordinates' dining hall.

Using her momentum, Arica pushed through the heavy doors easily, even making them bang against the wall. The entire hall jumped and went silent as approximately forty heads whipped around to stare at her, wide-eyed. She ignored the questioning eyes, her own frantic blue-green orbs darting from one shocked face to the other. It was all the young men and most of Ricardo's men who were blatantly gawking at her and Arica frowned in confusion before looking down at herself. The frown soon turned to an irritated glare as she saw what they were all staring at.

The brunette was still in her nightclothes. The black-and-red silky dress only reached to mid-thigh, barely covering everything. It was already – supposedly – too small for her and she knew it, but she just loved it too much to get rid of the old thing. The length and overall design of the dress was thus exposing slender, bare legs, arms and also some cleavage. Arica grimaced as she glanced back up at the piercing gazes she could almost physically feel on her. Like mentioned before, it was the young ones, all from Ricardo's mostly, with only one or two of her own men. They included Druitt. The older men of her subordinates whacked them upside the head and they would quickly turn away, blushing. She forgave them. Much more for what she could say about Ricardo's still staring masses.

Glaring so hard some of them shivered in slight fear, Arica said in a low yet firm and threatening voice, "If you all don't want to lose your eyes at the breakfast table on this lovely sunny morning, I suggest you avert your eyes before I do it for you. You are all supposed to be the best the Mariani and Rinaldi Famiglia has, yet you all behave like little children. Well, most of you, but you know who you are I'm sure. We want people who will risk their life for others and not melt into a brainless puddle whenever you see a scantily clad woman, for gods' sakes. Now pull yourself together or I'll come over there and slap you together. Understood?"

There was a ripple of frightened and amused 'yes, ma'am's – the amused ones being her own subordinates who didn't even pay her a second glance out of loyalty and respect. They were all disgusted at the other Family's reaction. The girl was fourteen years old for goodness sakes! She's had enough to deal with over the past few years and she didn't need a bunch of paedophiles drooling after her. Every man under her command would take out one from the other side at any given moment, but they didn't do anything to reprimand them or something equal to it since they knew it would all go down on Arica's head when it was over and there were critically injured men scattered around the house.

Arica's gaze softened a little as they started scanning the room for another reason. "Donald, Timothy, I need you to go and check up on Gokudera," she began and her eyes landed on the two men as they stood immediately upon hearing their names. They looked at her with utmost respect not a single spark of perverseness or attraction towards her whatsoever. This calmed her down a little. "I woke up a few minutes ago due to him flailing around in what I could only guess to be pain. I gave him some painkillers but I'm not sure if the sudden movements caused any further damage."

"We'll go right away, Boss," Donald said, both nodding curtly before they hurried towards Arica's room, their breakfast forgotten at the table. Arica watched them go and felt a small wave of relief wash over her. She looked back to the other men and some even jumped in fright and turned so quickly it looked as though their heads would keep spinning. Arica rolled her eyes and crossed her arms – incidentally lending her chest some support – about to turn away when a sudden outburst caught her eye.

A blond whom she recognised as one of Ricardo's young ones was blood-red in the face, clutching his nose to apparently hide a nosebleed as his wide eyes were glued to her chest. Everyone in the room heard the lady of the house's patience snap. At the speed of light, the girl's hand had shot out and grabbed a knife from the table closest to her. The silverware tore through the air, heading straight towards the boy. A loud thunk was heard as it embedded itself in the wall a mere centimetre from the shaking blonde's head.

"Hm, looks like I got a little rusty… I haven't trained in a few months, after all," Arica muttered seemingly to herself, but the room was so silent a pin could be heard when dropped. Blazing green orbs settled on the boy and she spoke a little louder, "I think I'll go train a little later after breakfast… next time I promise I won't miss." Arica then turned on her heel and stalked towards the stairs and to her room. These perverted bastards were starting to piss her off even more. Worse, neither Ricardo nor Andrew was there to ward any of them off should they decide to approach. Not that she really needed their help, but if the group was too large and overpowering, there wasn't much she would be able to do without seriously hurting them as well as herself.

When she reached her room, Donald and Timothy were checking the IV drip in the bomber's arm and going over some notes. The redhead looked up from his work and smiled at his boss while reassuring her, "Everything is just fine, Boss. As you said, it was merely pain, but we have it under control now. There were no further injuries caused by the attack except for the needle being ripped out, but that was easily fixed."

Arica breathed an audible sigh of relief and she managed to smile back slightly. "Thanks, you two. I'm really glad you're with my Famiglia, otherwise I don't know what I would've done," she praised them.

Donald chuckled softly, careful not to disturb Gokudera. "You're too kind, Boss. But you should go get something to eat; it'll do you good," he practically demanded, the tone in his voice inviting no argument.

Arica rolled her eyes mockingly before heading towards her closet for a set of clean clothes, muttering, "Geez, you're starting to sound like Andrew." Just then her stomach made itself heard, reminding her that she hadn't eaten since yesterday at Tsuna's house.

After she had dressed properly in a pair of jeans and a plain, white T-shirt, the brunet headed back downstairs and to the dining hall she had visited only a few minutes ago. As she entered, her eyes roamed the depleted crowd once more to find some place to sit. Most of the men had already dispersed and even more went when they saw her approaching.

"Hey, guys. Mind if I join you?" she asked the three men when she finally found them.

The brunet she was standing next to glanced up and grinned when he saw her. "As long as you don't throw a knife at any of us, sure," he joked and gestured for her to sit beside him. Druitt sat across from her and another dark haired man – the eldest of the three – sat beside him.

"Don't worry about it, Garrett; I like you far too much to do that," she laughed lightly as she sat down. Her eyes met wide blue as well as neutral brown across from her and she greeted them respectively, "Good morning, Druitt. Neil."

Neil gave an acknowledging nod, but that was all. He wasn't one to speak much, but when he did, people tended to listen. Druitt, on the other hand, was the exact opposite. His cheeks adopted a vibrant red hue as he started to sputter at Arica, "O-of course we wouldn't mind, Boss! You can sit anywhere you want…though why you would want to sit here and not in the main dining room is a little strange." The last part he had added under his breath, but Arica, Garrett and Neil still heard him.

The girl raised an incredulous brow at him and asked, "Am I not welcome here, then? I thought I could sit anywhere, like you said, and now you're chasing me away? If you don't want me here, Druitt, all you have to do is say so and I'll go."

"W-what?! No! That's not what I meant at all! I...you… I-I mean," he stuttered, desperately trying to straighten out the misunderstanding. He was about to die from embarrassment when he realized Garrett was trying very hard not to laugh. Druitt blinked in confusion, frowning as he glanced over at Neil only to see even the usually stoic man crack a smile. The blond instantly grew annoyed and glared at them indignantly.

"Gods, Druitt, you're so gullible! You should've seen your face," Garrett finally burst out, pulling a face. Arica snickered and got herself some cereal.

At the small sound of amusement from his boss, Druitt found himself melting all over again. It was a beautiful sound. And he had caused it! Well, he was the joke, but that didn't matter; what mattered was that he made her laugh. The angel almost never laughed! He would make it his goal to get a smile or chuckle from her, to have her give him that angelic, rosy-lipped smile. It would be even better if it was one of the legendary 'true smiles' he had heard so much about.

Garrett went on. "After being with us for a year, one would've thought that you'd learn the difference between a serious and joking Arica. It's not that difficult really: if she was really mad at you, there would be a lot more screaming involved – like last night."

Druitt focussed back on the topic at hand and nodded slowly as he thought back to earlier and he frowned once more. "But when she was here earlier and everyone was staring, she didn't shout…" he pointed out hesitantly, afraid he was going to say something out of line.

Garrett waved his fork at the youngest and answered around a piece of bacon, "There's a difference in being angry and being annoyed. Right, Neil?"

The man in question nodded in agreement and earned himself and Garrett a glare from Druitt, who grumbled, "Of course he'd agree with you; you two are dating! That's an unfair advantage."

"All's fair in love and war," Arica was the one to answer, a mischievous smirk on her face as she chose the elder men's side. It was so fun to annoy Druitt and get him angry – he had the cutest pout! Plus, she would always choose the lovers' side since she had known them and spent time with them since they joined the family just before her eighth birthday. Just before she was sent to that other place and her memories had been shut away. Come to think of it…she couldn't even remember how exactly they had met. They had always cheered her up when she would break down and cry in those first few months and they would still play with her whenever they had time, when other subordinates told her to go away because they were busy and there weren't other kids around.

Not since after her birthday and when she got back from that place, anyway. That was what she had shut away: the few months before her birthday. The memories she had forcibly forgotten. There had been someone who had played with her then – every day. However, when she had been allowed to go back home, that person wasn't there anymore and her father had told her they would never return. That was when the memories had left her. All she could still remember was that the person was male. And even that she only remembered recently when those flashes and voices had reeled through her mind since she had arrived in Namimori…

"Arica?" a seemingly distant voice spoke next to her and it took another call of her name to snap her out of her thoughts. Her head snapped to her left and her questioning look landed on a slightly frowning Garrett. Druitt had gone silent and was also staring at her in what seemed to be concern. Neil's sharp eyes were trained on her face in an intent stare as well. Garrett continued slowly, "Are you alright? You spaced out there and you look a little pale…"

Arica blinked a few times and shook her head a little as if she wanted to clear her mind so she could concentrate on the present and not the forgotten past that had been starting to mess with her mind ever since she had… When did it actually start anyway? Maybe that's why she was starting to act weird – all hyper and happy. "Yeah, uhm, I'm…I'm fine, thanks," she spoke slowly, still a little dazed. The girl got to her feet and their eyes followed her, ready to do the same should she fall over or something. She needed to think. Where the need suddenly came from, she didn't know but she just had to. Forcing a small smile, Arica told them, "I think I'll go do that training I was talking about earlier now," before she turned and headed for the door, leaving a barely touched bowl of cereal.

Three pairs of eyes stayed glued to her back in concern until she disappeared out the dining hall's doors. "What's wrong with her? Do you think she'll be alright?" Druitt fretted, nervous glances jumping from Garrett to Neil and back again. Both looked as worried as he felt but Garrett soon replaced it with a tight grin.

"Yeah, she'll be fine. She just needs to let off some steam. We'll go check on her later, though, just to be safe."

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

The room was large, cold and empty. Since they had moved to Namimori, Arica hadn't even been to the training room once. It was used frequently by the men in the house, but that day, however, everyone seemed to be too busy to train. Training mostly pertained to ranged or midrange weapons, and sometimes hand-to-hand, but they mostly preferred to do that outside in the open, fresh air and so on.

Arica walked slowly into the middle of the spacious room, looking around in mild curiosity. There wasn't much except targets, wooden dummies, a punching bag or two, some gym equipment and other miscellaneous objects. The centre of the room, though, was a large, almost circular open space, lain with hard, natural stone.

The girl took a deep breath of the humid, musky air and resisted the urge to grimace. It was so dull and…grey. Maybe she should ask some of the maids to bring flowers in just to give some colour and a pleasant smell. Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, Arica just stood in the middle of the room. She had said she was going to practice her knife-throwing, but…she didn't have any throwing knives on her at that moment. She had fought Hibari and had lost even though she had used one of her abilities. It hadn't been enough. Maybe if she had done some training in the last few weeks or so… No, that still wouldn't have been enough.

Arica frowned as these thoughts crossed her mind. She had lost to Hibari not just because she hadn't trained, but also because she wasn't nearly as good without her weapons. If she had had them, maybe she would've stood a chance – even though it would've probably been a very small chance. Maybe she was useless without them, like Ricardo believed. Then Gokudera's attack came to mind and her fists clenched. It had been her fault. Why and how, you ask? She still didn't figure that one out, but she knew she was partly – if not mostly – responsible for it.

Arica jumped as a shrill ringing pierced the silent air around her. She grabbed her phone from her pocket and checked the caller ID, only to breathe a sigh of annoyance when she saw who it was. Her heart was racing and her breathing coming in hard bursts, both from the fright and her thoughts. She had been so close to releasing them, so close.

Flipping the device open, the brunet placed it to her ear and snapped, "What do you want?"

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. Now is that any way to greet your future husband?" Ricardo scolded from the other end of the line and she could hear the smirk in his voice.

Arica rolled her eyes and lowered herself to the ground, crossing her legs. She had a feeling this was going to be a long, meaningless conversation. "Hello, Ricardo. That better? Now, I repeat: what do you want?"

"No need to be so stingy…" he muttered before continuing in a louder voice. "I called to say that we're on our way to the airport to drop Andrew off. He'll be there tomorrow morning at the latest, I guess. We managed to get an earlier flight."

"Really?" the girl asked incredulously, her tone positively brimming with excitement, not even caring what Ricardo would think. "That's great!"

"Hmm, I bet it is, though I wonder why…" he trailed off, waiting for an explanation.

Arica hesitated for a moment, contemplating whether or not to tell him the truth. It would be worse if she didn't and he found out later, she decided. And besides, he wasn't there to do anything at that moment, so maybe he'll calm down in the meantime. From the looks of it, he wasn't joining Andrew on the plane back to Japan. "One of my…friends was attacked and left for dead in an alley. Luckily, I found him and brought him back to the house, but Andrew wasn't there."

"And you need Andrew because he's the best? You know there's a man in my Famiglia that can possibly match Andrew in skill. But knowing you, you don't trust them, right?" Ricardo accused and Arica could hear the slight annoyance edging into his voice.

"Bingo. He's out of the danger zone now, but I would feel much better with Andrew here. I don't know why you had to take my right-hand man when you had yours as well," she grumbled, narrowing her eyes at a wooden dummy off to the side.

"Your father was attacked, as you should've heard by now and Andrew used to be his right-hand before he handed him down to you. Thus, Andrew knows your father's enemies or possible enemies a lot better than anyone else," he explained as quickly as he could, impatient to get to his own question. "Now, who is this 'friend' you keep mentioning?"

Arica was gritting her teeth, doing her best to stay calm while she spoke so as not to show him how frustrated she was getting while listening to his snide remarks and obviously jealous tone. "Don't worry about anything happening, Ricardo; there's definitely nothing between us. I've told you about him before, the one that hates my guts and all that? So, relax and don't worry about it." Arica wanted to smack herself. Why was she explaining this all to him of all people?

"Oh, that's good then, I guess," he sighed, audibly doing as she instructed and relaxed.

"And on another note," the girl added before he could say anything else. "Don't put so much trouble into finding the attackers. The old bastard's better off dead anyway."

The blond chuckled dryly and she heard the phone shift to the other ear before he spoke. "Don't count on it, my dear… Wait. Now that I think of it…shouldn't you be in school?" he asked in suspicion.

"I decided to stay at home until I'm sure Gokudera is fine," she answered, looking down at her hands as she did so. The thin, barely visible white lines on her arms caught her eye and she continued. "Besides, I realised I needed to get some training when I failed in impaling one of your snotty nosed subordinates with a butter knife."

Arica could practically hear Ricardo's glare. "Which one of the bastards was it? I'll come back there right now and blow his fucking head off!" he growled and she could hear Josh on the other side, trying to calm his boss down.

"Don't worry, I took care of him and I'm sure he's learnt his lesson," she assured quickly, both to stop him from doing something reckless and to stop him from coming back home so early; the longer he was away while Gokudera was there, the better. "And, like I said, I realised I needed training. You interrupted me just as I was about to get started."

Instantly his mood did a 360 as those words left her lips. She heard him shift the phone to his other ear, probably sitting up a little straighter in anticipation and excitement. "Oh? Knife training? As in those knives?" he inquired eagerly and Arica grimaced at the obvious eagerness in his voice.

"Yes, Rick, those knives. I figured I should probably get some training with them after all these years since they'll be needed when we find the Vongola," she told him, absentmindedly rubbing at her arms. If her suspicions were correct, they would definitely be needed against a certain Skylark, but she was glad that she wouldn't have to fight him. At least, not if her plan worked out the way she wanted it to. "You called just as I was about to cut myself."

"Hmm…I would love to be there right now and see them for myself. But alas. But now you can train and when I come back you can give me a little show, right? Oh, I can't wait to see them in action," he crooned wistfully, sounding more like a swooning fangirl than anything else and it made Arica wonder if she should gag in disgust or fall over laughing.

"I won't promise anything. It depends on whether I chicken out or not," she informed him. The call had disrupted her train of thought – the thoughts that would've been responsible for her weapon to be released. Now she wasn't so sure she wanted that anymore when the memories of what pain it would cause came back to her.

"Well, whatever you do, they'll come out sometime or other even if I have to force them out," he said way too pleasantly and Arica heard Andrew say something on the other side, but Ricardo ignored him and ended the call with, "You're father gave you a lot of things: a life, education, money, Andrew, and those abilities – soon you'll even have the Rinaldi throne. Don't let all that go to waste just because you're too scared to feel the pain of that time, because you're too weak to handle it."

Arica's fists had clenched more and more with each word spoken by the other and her teeth were gritted as she shook in anger. The call ended and she all but threw the cell phone into the wall. Who was he to tell her she was weak? She would've though he said all those things on purpose – and he probably did – if she didn't know just what kind of person that man was. He had said it to draw out her anger and also just because he could and because it had been exactly what he thought of her.

They all thought she was weak just because she actually knew what true pain felt like? They had no right to say that before they had experienced it themselves! Had they gone through what she had, they wouldn't be so quick to judge her and to tell her to release her power. They had no idea. None at all! And Ricardo spoke about everyone as if they were mere objects and that he was somehow superior to all life on earth. He had mentioned Andrew being 'handed down' to her by her father, being 'given' to her, like he was some old pair of shoes or something equally useless.

As Arica got to her feet, she was shaking in rage, her fists clenched so hard the knuckles turned whiter than white. She wouldn't allow anyone to speak about her friend – her family – like that, no matter who the hell he was; it could be the bloody president or king for all she cared. She hated the way someone like her father and Ricardo treated others like trash. She hated anyone like that. She hated how those kinds of people always thought they knew exactly how pain felt, how love, friendship and hate felt. But they didn't!

Arica winced as she started to feel the sting in her arms, her blunt nails digging into her palms and leaving reddening crescents. It had begun and there was no stopping it. Ricardo had added that last part on purpose to get her worked up and indirectly causing her weapons to surface for the first time in two and a half years. The sting became more prominent with each passing second and she felt her arms grow heavy and numb. Numb in the sense that she couldn't really move them, but she still felt the pain. It was as though it was specially enhanced just to spite her.

The girl's breathing grew heavier as the sting turned to burning. Her muscles started to burn and a pained whimper escaped her throat even while she was clenching her jaw as hard as she could. Every muscle in her body tensed and her eyes snapped shut tightly. Her head was pounding and it felt as though her brain was being melted. Then the pain multiplied by ten thousand. She could feel the things rise up in each arm, pushing their way closer and closer to the surface of her skin. But it wasn't a clear and easy path.

She felt every millimetre of muscle being sliced apart by the ascending blades. Her legs wobbled and gave in and she fell to her knees with a sharp, piercing scream, the stone floor scraping her knees through her jeans, but it went unnoticed like a ripple in a pool compared to a giant wave in the sea. Arica's head pounded, her body was on fire and it felt as if she was being trampled by barbed wire covered elephants. Another agonised scream tore through the air as she was aware of every nerve in the length of her arms being severed. It felt as though liquid fire was running through her veins instead of blood and she felt herself grow dizzy.

The last phase started as her swimming vision registered the white lines on her arms starting to turn red as the skin was sliced open from the inside, breaking apart to let the things out. The blood covered silver rose from her arms along with a river of blood that ran down her arms and dripped onto the cold, hard floor with loud, wet plops like the sound of pelting rain and also staining her shirt a bright red. All of this happened within seconds, but to the agonized Arica it felt like hours.

The ascension finally came to an end and the results showed a delicately carved silver blade in each arm, standing an inch above the skin and running the length of the outside of her arms from the elbow to the wrist. The blades curved up at the wrists and the rest of the blade had delicate curves and hooks everywhere on the razor-sharp edge. Delicate patterns were carved into the sides, portraying a sense of peacefulness, when in fact they brought only pain and distruction. They were horribly beautiful.

Arica's head swam and her vision turned black. Her eyes fell closed and she went down, sprawled out unconscious on the training room floor. The last thing she heard was her phone ringing and then everything was plunged into blood filled darkness.

A/N: And that is that dears! What did you think? Good, bad, meh? Would love to hear what you all think and if I can do better anywhere concerning detail and construction etc. I hope I can update again soon~ I hate to make you all wait like this. I do have some major writer's block at chapter 22 though…so maybe taking a while to update is better for all of us since it gives me time to try and write some more again and put serious effort into it to give you all the quality you expect :)

So ciao ciao, until we meet again!