SO I KINDA FORGOT BUT I WENT ON A CRUISE AND I HAD NO WIFI WHICH IS WHY I'M UPLOADING NOW HAHAHAHHAHA OH MY GOD I'M SO SORRY YOU ALL I'M NOT DEAD I'M NOT ABANDONING BUT I AM SORRY OK HERE READ ENJOY KILL ME LATER
Chapter 26~ Trial #9: Oh, It's On
Fuko generally, as a rule, had strange ways of introducing us to the trials. But this one was by far the weirdest, and most unexpected.
First off, she gave no warning whatsoever. She had told us at least a bit in advance each time before. This time, there wasn't even a PA announcement.
Then there was the matter of me falling through a hole in the ground.
No joke. I was there on my bed, reading a gag manga one second, and the next it was like fucking Alice in Wonderland or something. A giant hole randomly opened up beneath my bed, and I tumbled through, mattress and all.
Even thought I was seriously scared of heights, I didn't scream, mostly because I was surprised. It was over within a few seconds, anyways. My bed bounced off somewhere to the side and crashed, completely ruined. I landed in a mass of cushion-y, gel-like pillows. I didn't make any attempt to move.
"Rima, are you okay?" Amu's concerned face appeared as she bent over me, offering a hand. I took it expressionlessly, and heaved a sigh as I got up.
"What is she doing this time?" I asked, annoyed. Amu shrugged.
"I'm guessing it's another trial. But we're the only ones here so far." The words had barely left her mouth when Yaya came crashing through the ceiling, Utau close behind. They ungracefully picked themselves up, just in time for Kukai and Tadase to fall near them, causing them to lose their balance and fall back into the pillows.
"Oh, dear," Amu groaned, starting forward to help our motor-challenged friends, squirming around in the slippery cushions as Ikuto calmly fell through, landing on his feet and simply walking off.
Kairi and Nagihiko were the last to come through, excluding Nadeshiko, who walked in sometime between Utau kicking Tadase in the head, and Yaya blinding Tadase with her hair. Poor kid.
Finally, we all stood in a somewhat straight line, tired before the real struggle had even begun. Fuko pranced in, clapping sarcastically. "Well, I guess I have to try a different method next time. This one didn't work so well."
"Damn right it didn't," I snapped. "I almost had a heart attack."
Fuko laughed. "Good! Something to get your blood racing. Anyways, I've called you all here for Trial Nine. In the first trial, you demonstrated to me your combat skills. While your group is certainly formidable, you're all nowhere close to being as good as you possibly could. But since then, you've all improved. Hopefully. Your teamwork should also be a bit better, although some of us could use a little work. This trial is a checkup on how well you guys are improving, and if there's something you're not so great at…" she flashed a wicked smile. "In ten days, you'll be a master."
Throughout her speech, all I could think was Goddamn, she's gonna make me run, isn't she?
"You're gonna make us fight each other again?" Ikuto asked, eyes narrowed.
Kairi pushed up his glasses. "Wouldn't it make more sense to start this trial after we have all developed our Influences?"
Fuko shook her head, and then she nodded. "I'm not going to make you fight each other, exactly. Think of this as more of a friendly competition."
"Greeeat," I muttered sarcastically.
She ignored me and continued. "And yes, it would, but we're running out of time. I only have a certain amount of time to prepare the ten of you, before I tell you Rima's secret and with it, the responsibility you hold. After that, it's literally up to you guys to save the world."
"We'll make it through," Nadeshiko said, a little thoughtfully. "After all, in the past few days most of you have made it through third pain, and I believe Amu's due for fourth today. Kairi's the only one that hasn't been through third, correct?"
The green-haired samurai said nothing, but Fuko gave a brisk nod. "Right, then. Let's get to work. First, we have a little physical competition."
She led us through the door into a different room, a gym of sorts. But Fuko snapped her fingers and a bunch of random people ran out of nowhere, dragging along pieces of equipment, attaching things, detaching things, building things, arrange things, until an obstacle course stood, proudly constructed.
Two people ran along the sides of the gym, on opposite sides, dragging pieces of red tape. One on the far end, one close to where we stood.
It sounded less amazing than it actually was, because the course was long. And quite narrow, in such a way that would force us to bypass all the obstacles.
The first structure was about a hundred meters away. Before it was all empty space, so I assumed the first stretch was a run.
Great, I thought. I'm definitely going to be last.
Or so I thought, until I heard Fuko's last piece of instruction. "Nothing, I repeat, nothing, is off-limits."
"Sabotage!" Kukai crowed, and she smiled in approval. She lined us up at the red tape, and before any of us even knew what was going on, she blew a whistle.
Most of us, anyways. I shot off, as fast as I could. Since I was an awful runner, and short besides, I had to make the most of my time. But within a few seconds, Nagihiko had caught up and grabbed my arm.
"What are you doing?" I hissed. We were currently in the lead, but Kukai was catching up fast, and Nadeshiko wasn't far behind.
"We're a team, aren't we?" Nagihiko said, somehow managing to take a line from Catching Fire.
And in that moment, I understood. In one of the previous trials, the one with the riddles, Fuko had forced us into groups and made us cooperate. This time, it would be a natural drifting towards whoever would benefit. The level of intuition that would go into this would decide the winners.
I kept running as fast as I could, and Nagihiko shot off, dragging me. Together, we managed to get there a fraction of a second before Kukai, climbing the first obstacle.
Luck must've been on our side, for after we climbed up (Nagihiko gave me a boost and I did my best to pull him up) we had to squirm through a tunnel. For me, it was no problem, since I was so small. Nagihiko, with his agility, easily made it through as well.
We could hear Kukai transforming, ready to fly up, but when time came for him to crawl through the tunnel, his skateboard would be a hassle. I snickered inwardly and took off again.
We came to a stop at a huge rock wall. I frowned.
"Can't we just transform and fly up there?" Nagi nodded in agreement, and with a few flashes of light and only a couple of seconds, we were decked out as Clown Drop and Beat Jumper.
But as we advanced near the top, suddenly I felt a choking sensation in my chest and my transformation, for lack of a better description, shut off. I felt myself plummet and I could see a streak of purple next to me, and for a terrifying moment, I felt as though we were both going to die.
Then I bounced off of something golden and squishy. My first impression was the absolute bounciness of the object I had landed on. My second thought was that I felt Nagi next to me, and relief swelled as I realized we were both alive.
Then I sat up and cried, "Tadase!"
"You're welcome," he said, smiling kindly. "After all," he murmured, quietly, "it's the least I could do after our talk. Thank you, again."
I gave a nod, as Nagi stood up, sheepishly laughing. "Wanna join us?" I asked, gesturing to the purple-head next to me. Tadase nodded.
"Everyone's further ahead, though," Nagihiko said thoughtfully, watching the others scale the wall. They were about halfway up, give or take depending on the person. Kukai, Nadeshiko, and Ikuto were in the lead, while Yaya and Amu were near the bottom. "What do we do?"
"Why did our transformations corrupt?" I demanded, looking towards the ceiling.
"I forgot to tell you," Fuko shouted over the PA system. "You're only allowed to use your charas if your Influence hasn't developed yet. Sorry!"
"You could've shut it off some time when we WEREN'T in the air!" I exclaimed, glaring. I could imagine her shrugging, for she didn't respond.
"Okay, well, now what?" Tadase asked, looking worried as Kukai disappeared over the top of the wall.
"Now," I growled, "We play dirty."
I ran towards the wall and set my hands on fire, then began to burn a hole through the bottom. "Nagi, sweet talk them and get them to slow down."
A different allure entered Nagihiko's voice as he began to shout at them. "Hey guys, slow down! Aren't you tired? Just rest for a minute, and you can keep moving later! Just stop, and rest!"
"No fair!" Yaya wailed, as she ceased moving. "Nagi, you're mean!"
"I'm sorry," Nagi said sincerely, but his smile was wicked. "But I know you're not mad. You don't mind, do you?"
"Nuh-uh, Yaya doesn't mind," Yaya murmured a little sleepily. "Alright, I'll just take a small break. One minute."
Amu followed suit and soon, everybody had either slowed down or stopped moving- except Utau and Nadeshiko. Nagi frowned as both of them seemed to have no response. With a couple of swift movements, they disappeared over the top of the wall.
"Got it," I muttered, shutting off the fire as I singed a hole through the wall. I didn't know what material it was, but evidently it was burn-able. Or my fire had special properties. Probably both.
"Go!" Nagi shouted, pushing me through. I ungracefully tumbled in, and turned around to shoot him a glare, but decided that winning was more important. I scrambled out and Tadase followed, Nagihiko emerging last.
"Run!" Tadase urged, as he flew. Nagihiko easily kept up, but I was falling behind.
The next obstacle appeared, swinging vines that were high in the sky (ceiling?). They seemed to be stretchy and not entirely trustworthy.
"I can do this," I muttered. "I guess being small helps sometimes."
Utau was standing at the base of the rope ladder, unwilling to get up there. I guessed that she was either scared of heights, or didn't trust the vines to hold her weight.
Spikes protruded from the ground, making it impossible to run across- and dangerous if we fell. The vines were so thick and tangled that you couldn't fly through, either. My only hope was to weave between each vine, separating them with my hands and crawling through.
Swiftly passing Utau and gripping the rope, I began to climb. The ladder swayed and I gulped, but soon I latched onto the nearest vine.
I had a brief moment of panic when the ladder fell away from my legs, swinging, and I only had a single hand attached to a vine. I felt like it would break at any moment, and it stretched, bringing me lower and lower. In desperation, I blindly reached out and grabbed another vine, and twisted my feet to fit some below me. Then suddenly, I realized something.
The vines were so thickly concentrated that even if I fell, if I spread myself out something would catch me. As long as I didn't fall from the lowest vines to the floor, I would be safe.
Behind me, the rest of them had caught up. Ikuto and Nadeshiko decided to try their luck and were pushing each other to get to the ladder. Taking advantage of that, Yaya vaulted upwards and started climbing.
Realizing that just standing here in the vines would get me nowhere, I started scrambling to get a hold. At first, it was hard, because I would slip and slide everywhere, a heart-stopping moment accompanying each movement. But soon I fell into a natural rhythm, swinging from one vine to the next. I felt rather silly, but that thought quickly lost importance as Ikuto and Nadeshiko sped ahead, Yaya not far behind.
What now? I wondered. There was no way in hell I'd let anybody else win. Do I burn the vines and make them crash? Or do I just try to catch up? Internally, I quickly weighed the pros and cons. Then I looked behind me and as soon as the last person had gotten onto the vines, I thrust out my hands and shot fire at the vine beneath Ikuto's feet. Disconnecting my own vine so that I would swing far forwards, I continued to burn all that I could. A couple more swings and I tumbled free, away from the spikes.
Ikuto fell, but his transformation allowed him to agilely avoid the spikes. A rubber ducky cushioned Yaya's fall, and Nadeshiko was consequently unharmed as well, partly because she was a robot, and partly because she managed to land on part of Yaya's rubber ducky as well.
I couldn't stick around for the aftermath, but I didn't quite know if I was supposed to wait for Nagihiko and Tadase either. Then I heard a shout. "Go!"
It was Tadase's voice, and nothing had really registered yet until I felt Nagihiko grabbing me around the waist and carrying me over to the next obstacle. Or rather, we were lifted up.
"What the actual hell?" I breathed, taking in our surroundings. We teetered precariously on a surface about five feet across as the diameter of our circle.
The rest was empty space, as we were being lifted higher and higher into the air, balancing on this tiny rock column.
Other columns were shooting up around us, and we probably only had a couple seconds before everybody else caught up.
Or not. Utau swiftly leaped from her column to one very near ours. Eru's wings gave her a specific advantage over the rest of us. I narrowed my eyes. Reaching around for a weapon- any would do, I closed my fist around a rock that had parted ways with the original structure. Taking care to aim, I threw it so that it struck her wing as she was in mid-air, and with shock evident on her features, she plummeted quite a ways before she reacted and caught herself, landing safely on the ground. Her transformation disappeared and Eru drifted out, looking exhausted. There was no way Utau would be able to get back on the columns.
"Rima, this way!" Before I could actually turn around to face "this way" I felt Nagi tossing me onto a moving column. I landed with a thud, but it didn't necessarily hurt. He leaped on and I understood that we had to keep moving.
Along the way, I chucked a few rocks and shot a few flares, but I didn't expect anything to come flying at me. That's why when the disks started zooming around the arena to complicate this obstacle, I came dizzingly close to being concussed. Not for the first time, my height saved me.
Kukai wasn't so lucky, caught unawares by the clay Frisbees zooming every which way. A solid thunk! And he was out. I had to suppress a snicker, because it was actually quite comical.
Finally, we reached the far end of the canyon, jumping from the last column onto the cliff at the end. The last was simply a running stretch. And it was downhill, too, so Nagi and I had no trouble getting down.
A whistle blew, shrilly blasting the air. It took me a moment to realize that we were the first ones past the red tape. Nadeshiko skidded over, and Ikuto followed. Kairi and Tadase arrived around the same time, as did Amu and Yaya. Poor Kukai was still out cold on his column, and Utau was stuck at the bottom of the canyon until Eru could recover, or Iru decided to hatch.
The latter was apparently more likely, since Utau looked pissed. Devil wings sprouted and within a matter of seconds she touched down next to us.
So basically, there was just Kukai, looking dumb and unconscious.
Fuko jogged up to us, clipboard in hand. "For Rima and Nagi, ten points. Nade gets eight, Ikuto seven. Tadase got here slightly before Kairi; therefore, he has earned six points and Kairi, five. Amu and Yaya both get four, and Utau, two. Mr. Kukai over there gets one. Commence next round!"
"Wait-" Amu started, but a giant blast of wind caused us to all shut our eyes and lay low. When I pried open an eyelid, I saw that the arena had changed. There were tinted glass walls between me and Nagi, and beyond that, I could see another wall separated him and whoever he had been next to. Utau, by the looks of all that blond hair. I turned towards my own confines, and to my surprise, saw Ikuto groaning, clutching his head and grasping the wall.
I rushed over and lent him a hand, helping him to his feet. On our other side, another tinted glass wall separated us from Kukai, who had magically been transported from the column and was now awake. Nadeshiko stood next to him.
As far as I could tell, we had all been trapped in an entirely glass cage, separated by twos. But what now…surely Fuko wasn't planning on making us fight each other again?
Her voice crackled to life over the announcements. "Round Two: Decisions. You have two choices: Either you fight, or you love."
"What?" I asked, irritated. She was making no sense.
Abruptly, a shield and sword appeared in front of me, as did two daggers. They were heaped in a pile in the middle, and suddenly, I felt a strange warmth on certain parts of my body and looked around to find glowing red diamonds hovering on my skin. One over my heart, two on my neck, one on the side of my stomach, one on my head, and one on the underside of my leg. I instinctively understood that these were my weak points- I would die if they were hit in real life by a sword or something.
"You have been given weapons. At the end of the thirty second countdown, you can either fight each other and hit three of the crucial spots with the given weapons- whoever manages to do so first gets the points and both of you are let out- or you can do something else that's very simple. You can kiss your partner. In that case, both of you are awarded the points. The countdown begins now. 30, 29, 28…"
What the fu-
I looked around and everybody else seemed to have much of the same reactions. Except for Yaya, who was blushing insanely hard at the thought of kissing Kairi. Nade was emotionless, while Kukai looked flustered.
Utau seemed appalled at the thought of ever doing anything like that with Tadase, and Nagi and Amu literally started laughing.
I looked at Ikuto. The clock now read five seconds. "Sorry, but I think I'd rather die than kiss you. No offense."
He smirked. "Same, midget."
I bristled. "I'm not a fucking mid-" The whistle sounded, and I quickly abandoned my words and dove forward, managing to snag two daggers before springing back and facing him, one weapon in each hand. I wondered briefly if I looked like one of those really creepy little girls in the horror movies. All I was missing was a horrific smile. The thought made me chuckle a bit.
He hefted his shield, sword pointed outwards. We circled around our glass prison, eyeing each other. His shield allowed him to be better protected, but it also slowed him down and obstructed his view of me, since I was shorter.
However, since he had the shield, I was not allowed to make the first move. It would be unwise on my part, so I simply stood, warily alert, and waited. Sure enough, he soon lunged forward.
Instead of blocking, I darted forward as well, sliding under his legs and slashing at the red diamond on his thigh. He winced as it disappeared, and a tiny cut in his pants revealed a small drop of blood. The diamond had mostly protected him, but I supposed that I had struck a bit too hard.
Hurriedly scrambling out of the way, breathing heavily from the adrenaline rush, I decided to take advantage of him being unhinged and went in again, this time aiming for his stomach, since I wouldn't be able to reach any higher than his neck.
But he wasn't completely off-guard, and my blade struck his metal shield. I sprang back and warily watched him.
Fast as lightning, he darted forward with his sword. Twisting myself out of harm's way, I clumsily crashed into a wall and stumbled for a second. But a second was enough for him to nick the diamond on my head.
A slight tingling sensation accompanied the dissolution of the diamond, but I felt no other pain. Rolling away and standing up again, blades at the ready, we rushed in towards each other, blades clanging. I twisted one dagger so that it ran along the length of my forearm, instead of extending outwards. With my left hand, I continued to slash at him, blocking his attacks. Then, with my right hand, I suddenly leaped up and swiped my arm across his forehead, successfully earning myself another diamond.
He suddenly dropped his shield, stumbling backwards with his hands up in the air. "Okay, I surrender. You can have my last diamond."
I straightened up. "Really?"
He nodded. I walked forward, but just as I was about to claim the one over his heart, he lunged forward and stole the diamond that hovered over my neck.
Glaring at him, I retreated and he grinned at me, bringing both hands to his sword and leaving the shield on the ground. I spun my daggers a couple of times, then kept an eye on him as we circled each other. "That wasn't nice."
"Nobody said we had to play fair."
True, I conceded, momentarily feeling approving of Ikuto. But only I'm allowed to win.
I focused my eyes on his heart, wanting him to think that I was aiming for that one in particular. As he raised his shield slightly higher to protect his chest, I charged forward- and kicked him in the balls.
Not hard, but enough to make him double over and drop his shield in surprise. I struck downward and my blade met the diamond on the back of his neck- but in that instant, his sword shot forward and claimed the diamond resting on my stomach.
We broke apart again, and our weapons dissolved into thin air, the glass walls lifting. Who had won?
We found everybody assembled outside our cage, watching our epic battle. They had evidently finished well before us, and Fuko clapped as we exited with a friendly handshake.
Fuko was scribbling on her clipboard again. "Tie for Ikuto and Rima: For Ikuto, 12 points total, Rima, 15. Amu holds 9 points and Nagihiko remains at 10. Kukai and Nade both have earned five points this round, and in total Nade has 13 and Kukai holds 6."
"Wait," Utau said, frowning, but Fuko cut her off with the continuation of her scorekeeping.
"Utau won her round, so 7 points total and Tadase still has 6. Kairi and Yaya both have five points this round- so Kairi has 10 total and Yaya has 9. The order is as follows: Rima, Nadeshiko, Ikuto, tie between Nagihiko and Kairi, tie between Yaya and Amu, Utau, and tie between Kukai and Tadase."
"Hold on," Utau cut in again, eyes narrowed. "Both Nade and Kukai earned five points? You guys tied?"
There was a small stony silence, and then Nadeshiko said, "No, I kissed him."
Another small pause, and then suddenly all hell broke loose. "Why you little bitch!" Utau exclaimed, stalking over to Nadeshiko, who remained calm but shrank back slightly.
"Wait Utau, I can explain, she-" Kukai started, but withered as Utau shot him an angry and hurt glare.
"You can explain after I'm done pummeling your brains out, you bastard." Tears were glinting at the corner of her eyes.
Tadase looked hurt, too. "Well that was…unexpected."
Ikuto stalked towards Kukai, a murderous glint in his eyes. "How dare you do that to my sister."
"Wait Ikuto, maybe we should listen to what he has to say-" Amu tried to reason with her boyfriend, but he ignored her and lifted Kukai up by the shirt. Kukai did not protest, which only led to further signs of guilt.
Fuko was observing with a calm, calculating expression, but there was a shadow over her eyes. I couldn't tell whether that indicated dissatisfaction or intrigue. Whatever it was, she stayed out of this.
But I didn't, and neither did Nagi.
"GUYS!" I shouted with such force that everybody paused what they were doing and looked at me. "Everybody shut the fuck up!"
"You don't understand, Rima, this bitch-" Utau started, but I glared at her.
"No, I do understand that this causes issues, but there's a bigger issue out there. And in order to get closer to that big issue that might be threatening the entire world, we have all work together and get past this trial. I get that you're hurt and angry. But channel your energy into completing this trial, and then you can beat Kukai and Nadeshiko up as long as you want. But this trial is priority. Understood?"
For a second, nobody moved. Then Nagihiko spoke up. "She's right. We can stand here arguing all day, but we still wouldn't be past this trial. We need to move on, and save your fighting for later. I get that it's important but this is of higher priority, like Rima said."
Then Ikuto slowly released Kukai and with a sneer, pushed him back. Kukai staggered backwards but did not shoot a defiant glare at Ikuto, like I probably would've. Utau let Nadeshiko off with a warning glare, and the robot hung her head, looking slightly ashamed. Tadase cast a glance filled with hurt towards her, and I thought I saw a tear at the corner of her eyes.
We assembled in a scraggly line in front of Fuko, who nodded. "Ready for the next part?"
We nodded and muttered various degrees of assent. She clapped her hands and suddenly, the walls separated us all again, but this time we each had our own section.
"This next section is to train your reflexes," Fuko informed us, as weapons appeared in the corner of the room. "I will give you five minutes to take your weapon of choice."
I ran over to the pile and started digging, careful to avoid all the sharp edges.
Bow and arrow? No, I'm not strong enough to keep drawing the string back. Spear? Ha. No. I could do sword and shield like Ikuto, but… I hefted the shield. Too heavy for continued use. Rapier? Then what do I do with my other hand? Pistol? I can't aim for shit.
Double daggers worked just fine last time, I decided; fishing out two thin, long knives. They gleamed in what little light was available in the cage.
"Five, four, three, two, one, begin!"
Three cursors blinked to life above me. I blinked, confused, but decided to worry about it later as random creepy little critters started to melt out of the cracks in the walls.
When I say "random creepy little critters", what I really mean is glowing, red, vaguely animal shaped, extremely creepy creatures heading my wall- from various directions. They had no features, just gleaming all over. They looked kind of like a cross between a monkey and a crab from the way it moved. But it hissed like a snake.
"Whatever," I muttered, deciding to focus on taking them down instead. Each one was about two feet across, and as tall as my knees. Nasty.
There were currently two coming at me from the front, one on the walls, and one behind me.
Darting forward and avoiding the weird claw-like things, I thrust my dagger into its soft underside. With a screech, it disintegrated. Swiftly turning around, I sliced open the other one on the floor. Dancing out of the way as the one on the ceiling dropped towards me, I stabbed downwards with one arm and slashed its belly with the other. Wailing, it dissolved.
I spun around to face the last one, which was surprisingly fast. I had to jump over it and then kill it as it abruptly halted and started to turn around.
I was hardly out of breath, which was pretty new to me. But it had been fairly easy to beat them. I narrowed my eyes as the walls made this weird sound that sounded like it belonged in a video game. They closed in tighter on me. Well, shit.
The creatures once again came at me, this time slightly faster. I swung my daggers and simultaneously took out two of them, but didn't have time to react as one slammed into me from behind. Ow.
Thankfully, I moved aside before it could sink its fangs into me, or something. Slashing downwards, I put that sorry sucker away for good.
The process repeated itself a couple of times, each time the walls closing in further and thus giving me less time before the creatures were upon me.
The first one bit me in the third round, and while I felt no pain, I saw that one of the cursors had gone out with a ping! I understood that I had three lives, and one of them had been lost.
I kept fighting and fighting, letting instinct take over and reflexes control my blade, until I had finally lost all my lives. The walls lifted, and I stepped out, daggers still clutched in my hands.
A couple people were still fighting- Ikuto, Utau, Kukai, and Nadeshiko. Nagihiko had been too, but he stepped out about three seconds after I did. As did Kairi.
We waited patiently for the rest of them to finish, and then we assembled in front on Fuko, who was busy recording on her clipboard.
" Alright," she announced. "For Rima, twenty two points. Total, 37. Ikuto, forty-one points. Total of 53. Kairi earned thirty points, and total of 40. Utau, thirty four points, total 41."
On and on she went, listing points attained and how many total points they had. Dammit, everybody's beating me. "Final scores: In the lead, Ikuto-53. Nadeshiko, 42. Utau at 41 and Kairi at 40. Rima and Nagi tied at 37, and Kukai at 36. Amu at 35, and Tadase at 31. Finally, Yaya at 29."
She glanced at us. We all stood tense, awaiting her next orders. Seconds ticked past and nobody moved, somehow not even daring to breathe.
"You guys must be hungry. Go to dinner. I'll tell you results tomorrow."
Fuko looked thoughtful and we were all just plain confused.
"Wait-" I started to protest, but she waved me off.
Something had started to brew in her mind and I was quite sure I didn't like the looks of it.
We all exchanged glances and without anything else we could do, we left the arena and went to go have dinner.
With a sudden cry, Amu fell to the floor, writhing. "The Influence!" Ikuto shouted, or as close as a shout could be for him.
We crowded around Amu with concern as her shuddering came to a stop. Then suddenly, with a flash of light, Amu disappeared.
In her place was a small tiger.
Ah. Finally the update is done. Hope you enjoyed that haha...I'm so rusty. I tried to go over it and make it less awkward but some parts just wouldn't flow, so I apologize.
I guess I'm feeling slightly better so I'll try to work harder on this story. Again, I'm really sorry! Thank you all so much for being patient with me and reading this story. It means a lot to me, more than you know.
Review? I'm one away from 200!
I love you all. Thank you and sorry.
~Sea