Disclaimer: I don't own anything from Kyo Kara Maoh, this is purely fan-made.

Chapter 25: Battle Scars

Hallway: Yosak's POV

I'll admit, the little lady certainly had spunk...

When I noticed the extra sailor making his way to her room I knew something was up, seeing as the Captain and the young man were all waiting for her to wake up so they could talk to her. Therefore it seemed odd that they'd decide to send her dinner to the bedroom instead. Sure they wanted to let her sleep but they wanted answers more, and besides, we were worried about her. Yeah, even though I didn't really know her the way Conrart spoke about the little lady kind of tipped me off that oddly enough he sort of admired her. And to have him admire anyone in and of itself was quite the feat.

I was shocked when I saw how quickly the little lady reacted when the first White Crow showed his true colors to us. They were right, the way she used fire magic was unlike anything I've ever seen Lord Von Bielefeld do, or any fire user for that matter. I felt the heat wave when her power whipped across the floor as a warning to keep back.

She was clearly trying to act tough but was secretly scared out of her mind. I could relate. Still, I had to keep her from lashing out with her power even though they already knew we'd left The Great Demon Kingdom since if my experience with His Highness has taught me anything, its that magic is more unpredictable especially when the user is at the height of emotion.

I had a job to do but I did my best to reassure the little lady and that seemed to do the trick when we exchanged some light-hearted banter despite what was going down at the moment. And yeah I was surprised she knew who I was but her logic was sound, at least this time. That's why I decided to warn her not to be so trusting when she made this adorable pouty face and told me she knew that already which is why she didn't trust the sailor when he started acting weird. I had to hand it to her, unlike His Highness she had a sharp eye for these things.

What worried me though, was why? Why was the little lady so attuned to the possible dangers around her when Earth was supposed to be a very safe place? Was it because she grew up in a different country than King Yuri? I knew the gist about what her life had been like, never able to settle down anywhere with a family that didn't drop out of adopting her at the last minute. That still didn't explain the way the little lady reacted as she'd been formally trained in combat and battle strategy her entire life.

The way she moved when I was too busy fighting another disguised White Crow, it was so fluent and from the looks of it the little lady moved instinctively as if her body already knew how it was suppose to move to avoid an attack. At least she was relying mostly on me like I asked her to and called my name when another attacker closed in on her. I was grateful that the little lady knew how to keep a cool head despite all this and how scared she was, really, she could teach King Yuri a thing or two about not playing the hero all the time and being reckless.

She was by no means a coward though, in fact I'd forgotten they armed her with a small dagger and the little lady didn't hesitate to use it to defend herself when I couldn't reach her in time. Still, when I looked down at her trembling hands, it was clear that this whole thing was effecting her as much as it would have anyone in her position. Being targeted like this took awhile to get used to. King Yuri could attest to that but...unlike this young lady, he's always had us. Ok well maybe not me at first since to be honest he was just some clueless kid handed power over our lives on a silver platter with no idea how to use it. That's why I disliked him or at the very least felt the need to challenge him. Eventually, like everyone else, he won me over and here I was, willing to die for my king as easily as I would for my best friend Conrart.

I couldn't help but feel a similar desired to test this girl, so I told her to keep the dagger out just in case. The idea troubled her at first, but it didn't take long for the little lady to see the necessity of keeping it out and at the ready. What I didn't expect though, was for the little lady to actually kill one of the men I thought I'd already taken out that tried to sneak up on the poor girl while my back was turned. And I soon came to regret my decision about testing that strength of will Conrart was telling me about...

I expected the little lady to pull the weapon out and faint from shock or something but with a frightened determination in her eyes she held her ground and waited for the man to fall to the ground and stop breathing. After that, she sort of stood there, eyes glazed over and she started shining gold from the inside just like earlier only this time was different.

Conrart described what happened to me before but to see her change before my eyes came as a complete shock. Her hair faded from reddish-brown to gold and so did her eyes. Then tears of light began falling from her cheeks as she asked, "How did it come to this...?" in a strangely ethereal voice with a otherworldly echo.

I didn't have much time to ponder though as several other White Crows, who had spotted the light coming off of the little lady from down this hall came right at us. I decided to grab her and make a run for it since there were too many of them but she didn't seem to notice when I slung her over my shoulders like a sack of potatoes. Unfortunately she dropped the dagger somewhere along the way but it wasn't as if she could use it in the state she was in. It wasn't until a few minutes later when I managed to throw them off our trail by dashing into a nearby room that she finally snapped out of it.

Blinking a few times after the light faded and her hair and eyes changed back, the little lady grasped her head, shaking it and said, "I remember. I've...fought like this before. A long time ago. But, no, that wasn't me was it?"

After I carefully set her back down and let her regain her footing, I smiled as I ruffled her hair again, earning a confused look as I told her, "Welcome back little lady, you had me worried for a second there when you-" I stopped though when a look of horror flitted across her face when she remembered something else, something she'd done just moments ago.

"D-did I really just kill that man?" she asked in alarm, grabbing fists full of my shirt as her terrified eyes bore into mine. "I did, didn't I? How could you let me do something so awful? Please, tell me I didn't just murder someone! I didn't mean to! Oh my god...oh my god..."

Oh crap she's freaking out, I better say something fast! I thought before taking her hands off of me as gently as I could even though her grip was surprisingly strong for someone so small as I led her further into the room and lowered my voice to a whisper.

"Shh. It's ok. Calm down, you didn't murder anyone. There's a big difference between defending yourself and murdering someone," I watched her expression intently for any signs that she wasn't taking what I was saying well before continuing firmly, "Murdering someone means you kill them out of malice or for personal gain. Now tell me, did you kill that man to get something out of it?"

Swallowing hard, she shook her head and replied shakily, "No. I-I didn't want to k-kill him. I only meant t-to hurt him a little so h-he'd back off."

"See? You were only defending yourself. There's nothing wrong with that. I'm just sorry I didn't get back over to you in time little lady. You shouldn't have had to do that. But, you did what you had to," I patted her head again, watching quietly as more tears fell from her cheeks as she desperately tried to calm herself by taking in several deep breaths. Once it looked like she had calmed herself down enough, I added seriously. "Listen, I need you to do me a favor. I know they've already found you and know you're somewhere on the ship, but you have to try not to use any magic then you already have in case it breaks that crystal that His Eminence gave you. If you lose control of it here then we'll all be in trouble, especially you. Also, I know it's a lot to ask when we're in the middle of a fight but, I need you to stay here and wait for me. I'm going to try and draw them off."

"You're leaving?" she asked, looking slightly panicked for a second until the look she gave me moments later showed me the little lady realized that I wasn't abandoning her. Though clearly she was still in shock.

Truthfully, I was just trying to avoid putting her in such a compromising position again. Especially now that she'd lost her dagger and the only real weapon she had left were her powers...

Looking at me with large quivering eyes, the little lady finally nodded solemnly, "I understand. I'll stay here, but if you don't come back in five minutes I'm going to-"

"Hey, I said I'll be back and I will be before you know it! Everything is gonna be fine, I promise," I smiled brightly hoping to reassure the poor thing while in the back of my mind I was secretly impressed by how well she was holding herself together now despite how scary this situation must be from her perspective.

Glancing over my shoulder though, I tensed when I heard footsteps outside the room. Crud, they might have already found us and I've got to keep her from changing forms again, I thought, moving to position myself in front of her, facing the door when it slowly began to creak open.

It could have been anyone opening that door. But since it was most likely an enemy we both tensed, though the little lady was barely able to stop herself from breathing too heavily and alerting whoever was on the other side. Not that it mattered since they were already opening the door. I felt a weight press against my back when the little lady hid further behind me, obviously having reached her limit in the bravery department, but I ignored it for now, all of my focus trained on the door as a figure stepped inside, followed by another soon after.

It was pretty dark in this room even with the moonlight coming through the cabin's window so I could barely make out the outline of two people but once I did I relaxed the tension on my sword slightly. I was about to tell the little lady she could relax when one of the figures spoke instead. "Lady Ashlynn, are you in here?"

"Its alright, we've taken care of most of the White Crows in the hallway now. You two can come out now," the second voice called, which I recognized as King Saralegui's while the first obviously belonged to his bodyguard Berias.

Of course the little lady realized who was speaking as well and an audible sigh of relief escaped her lips and she collapsed to her knees. Shaking her head in denial, she breathed, "No, it's not alright Sara. I...I killed someone. I didn't mean to but I killed them. So many people died today...and for what? What could possibly justify such senseless violence? How did it come to this? Someone tell me. Why...?"

"This again?" I wondered out loud when in the middle of her sentence her voice changed again and she started to give off her own light, rendering the lantern in King Saralegui's hand useless.

Frowning, the young king turned to me asked me in a dangerously low voice, "What is she talking about? Who did she kill? And more importantly how could you put her in that position? I thought protecting her was your job."

I returned his frown tenfold and replied bluntly, "Look Your Highness, we don't have time for this. From the sound of it at least you already know we're under attack by undercover White Crows. I know you're just as worried as I am about the little lady but as you can see we've got bigger problems. And unfortunately the little lady hasn't really had any time to recover from the shock of someone trying to drug her before all hell broke loose. As for the White Crow she killed, the little lady was only trying to protect herself when I was too busy fighting another Crow and then she used that dagger we gave her a bit too well. Other then that I really don't know what she's talking about. My guess is that something about what happened back there made her recall something traumatic from her past life and as a defense mechanism she keeps unconsciously shifting into that other form. You're a persuasive guy, mind seeing if you can help her calm down again? She'll be safe with you and I need to report back to Conrart."

As expected he nodded, all too eager to get rid of me which made me wonder if I was making the right choice entrusting her to his care. After all, by now all we really knew about the little lady was some of the incredible things she was capable of and if she was anything like King Yuri then this guy was sure to want to exploit that power somehow. I don't care how much he's supposedly changed, King Saralegui still has a long way to go in my books before I start blindly trusting the guy. At the same time though I knew the little lady really needed the support and I wasn't sure I was the right guy for the job. Sure I understood fighting and the battlefield but that's because I'm a soldier. And I had this sinking feeling that this girl, whether she remembered it or not, had more then a few battle scars of her own hiding just beneath the surface...