Hi minna~ 3 MEN~! *winks*
O_O Chotto. Why am I acting like Ichiya all of a sudden? This is bad…-.-"

Anyway, sorry for the wait, Here's another chapter for The's Tale. And not to forget, the disclaimer : Hiro Mashima-sensei is the owner of FT. I'm just a dreamer~ *^*

"Uhuk Uhuk…", coughs her in front of the toilet bowl. Hibiki pats her back.

"Honey, are you sure this is just food poisoning? From the way I see it, it seems worse than that", he says with a tone full of worries.

"Naahhh….I'm good", she lifts her face after washing her mouth. But seconds after that, her stomach hurls back the food she consumed last night. Unfortunately, she has to face the round shining skin of the toilet bowl again. When she was done, almost all of the dish she ate before was thrown out. Washing her stained lips and mouth, she sighs of relief. "Now, let's go to bed."

She walks weakly into the master bedroom and slumps herself onto the cozy mattress. Her soft snore is heard moments after that. Hibiki scratches his head. "God, what's wrong with her?"

Nevertheless, he joins her afterwards on the bed.

She opens her eyes slowly and gets up from her bed. The sky outside is still dark, but she knew it is morning now because she heard the nearby cockerel screams like crazy. Slowly and surreptitiously, she climbs off the bed and began packing her things. She is at her maximum level of carefulness not to make a bit of sound that might wake her husband up. After she had finished packing, Reika decides to cook something for breakfast; maybe the last breakfast with her man.

While she is walking to the kitchen, she saw through the window pane, some papers spilling out of the mailbox outside. She halts her route and turns to pick the papers outside first; The morning looks gloomy as if it will pour out rain soon. As she picks the stack of papers, her eyes widen. They are pictures!

Hibiki wakes up after he smells the delicious aroma from the kitchen. Quickly taking his bath, he paces outside of the master bedroom towards the dining table, not realizing that some of the things in the bedroom is gone.

He lifts the cover on the foods cooked by his wife and drool abundantly. Reika sure is some cook! He quickly moves towards the sink to wash his hands but slips on the way.

Rubbing his aching butt, he looks at the source of his fall. Seems like papers…..

Then, he takes a closer look at the pieces of paper. One is a letter, and another one is a picture. Wait, why does the letter was written with red ink? Is this a blackmail? His eyes hungrily read the words and profanities written by the sender. Feeling mad, he crumples the letter and throws it aside.

-Damn! That Cahynn! How did he managed to get out alive? I thought the Prison of Council is inpenetrable.-, he shouts in his mind. -Now Reika's in danger! No wonder her face looks so worried yesterday….Then, why didn't she tell me about this?-

Sigh comes out from his mouth. His tummy no longer thinks of food now that he fears Reika might have ran away at that time. His eyes accidentally saw the picture in his grasp.

-Chotto matte. Wasn't this was when I attended Christine's house the night before? In this pic, it looked like it was just me and her! Ayumi's still inside with Julie…-

Then, the thought of Reika struck upon him. Hastily, he changes into his casual outfit and runs to Ayumi's house after locking the door. -Shit shit shit shit! Don't tell me….-

Christine looks strangely at Reika bowing her head in front of her early in the morning. "A-Ano…..Reika-san? What are you doing here so early?"

"I wanna say goodbye." She lifts her head and smiles softly. Her grin is missing now that her heart is worrying for her village. She had a hunch however that her village is in danger.

"And I saw this in the mailbox this morning." She shows Christine the pictures. "Shit! I must've dropped one of them. It's too many to handle with full hands."

Christine's face shows utter shock. "Reika-san, I c-can explain-"

"-There's no need." She shooks her head slowly, stopping Christine's line with just a slight movement of her head. This shows how much Christine is afraid of Reika right now. "I just wanna say-"

"REIKA!"

Hibiki arrives before Reika could finish her sentence. Reika's face turns to an astonished one. "Damn, he's fast!" She quickly grabs her backpack and tries to run away but he manages to grab a hold of her arm.

"You're not going anywhere, honey." He pulls her closer roughly and yells, "WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME ABOUT THIS LETTER?! THAT EGO OF YOURS PREVENT YOU FROM DOING THAT? AM I NOT IMPORTANT TO YOU THAT YOU COULD JUST LEAVE ME?! JUST LIKE THAT?!"

Reika's eyes widen. Hibiki had never shouted to her. Suddenly, she felt like crying. But she bites her lower lips and replies. "Yeah….My ego is too big for a cheap man like you."

"What?" Hibiki feels his nose is flaring with anger. "Say that again, if you dare?"

She shoves the pictures from Christine's hands to his face. Hibiki's face changes after seeing more of the pictures of him and Christine going inside of the house. "Explain that, if you dare."

"You're misunderstanding things! This means nothing! We are just-"

"-JUST WHAT? DOING ONE-NIGHT STAND?! I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU! YOU'RE MY HUSBAND AND YET YOU STILL HAVE THE GUTS TO GO TO ANOTHER GIRL'S HOUSE?! I KNOW YOU'RE A FLIRT BUT THIS DEED IS UNFORGIVABLE! YOU'RE MARRIED! SHAME ON YOU!"

All went silent after that. Hibiki's eyes goes all wide, seeing Reika's rage. She had never been this mad before. Are the pictures a little too much for her?

"I'm sorry, Reika-san….", Christine tries to calm her down.

"Don't be, Christine. You better be quiet in this matter or I'll snap at you too." Reika retorts at her, gritting her teeth not to shout out her feelings that particular time.

"Don't be mad at Christine, she's innocent!"

"Say that after she allows you to go into her house!"

"That's my problem, not hers. So don't involve her in this argument!"

"Why are you defending her so much? Is she your new love?", Reika asks Hibiki with a mocking tone. "Oh, sure…You had a night with her and now you've forgotten about me! Go and marry her then! Let me go!"

"Reika, you just need to calm down!" Hibiki holds her shoulder. "I don't know what's in your mind but we never had such relationship!"

"DON'T TOUCH ME!" She pushes Hibiki away from her, and Hibiki falls on the ground with an 'ouch'. "DON'T TOUCH ME WITH THAT FILTHY HANDS OF YOURS!"

"Reika-san! It's not like what you think!" Christine tries to interfere again as she sees this fight is going to get worse.

"SHUT UP!" She gives a death glare at Christine. "Shut that tiny mouth of yours. Or you'll get a punch the next time you talk."

"You shut your mouth, Reika!" Hibiki grips her shoulders. "This is too much. Stop this instant or else…"

"Or else what?", she challenges him.

Hibiki shuts his eyes, withstanding his angriness. If Reika is a boy, she would get a taste of his punch long ago.

"Screw all of this. I'm going back to my hometown."

"Matte, Reika-san", Christine stops her. "At least, before you go, tell us the name of it. Maybe we could go there after this."

"For what?", Reika roughly replies.

"Maybe we could talk later, without yelling or anything." Christine's voice is so soothing that Reika almost cooled down completely. "So…What's the name of your village?"

"It's Mizu." She looks away, doesn't want to look at her husband, or she may explode again.

"It can't be….M-Mizu Village? In the outskirts of Magnolia?", Christine asks her back with a very worried voice.

"What's with that tone?" Reika faces the troubled Christine.

"I-I read the newspaper yesterday, that Mizu village outside Magnolia was washed away by a tsunami days ago…"

Hibiki looks at Christine weirdly. "That's strange, how come I don't know anything about it?"

"It's supposedly to be published today. I got it early because one of my friends works in the news department. And she was the one who wrote about that."

Reika feels her hands are going numb because of the tightness of her grips. She grits her teeth and steps closer to Christine and….

"REIKA, STOP IT!", Hibiki yells at her.

Reika grabs Christine's collar and lifts her upwards. "I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF THIS NONSENSE! YOU HAD TAKEN MY HUSBAND AND NOW YOU SAY THAT MY VILLAGE IS GONE!? WHAT OTHER LIES ARE YOU TRYING TO GIVE ME HUH?!"

"A-Argghh…..H-Hibik…ii…Help me..", Christine whimpers as her neck feels choked by the grip at her collar.

"REIKA!" Hibiki reaches for her hands and accidentally pushes her backwards with all the strength he got. Reika falls to the ground hardly.

Sadly, Hibiki goes to find Christine first to be looked at, and Reika felt that is the cue that she was no longer important to him. She glances back at her tummy. -Mommy hopes you'll be alright.-

Slowly, she stands back, enduring the pain in her womb, and grabs her back while walking away with a very disappointed heart. But after a few steps, she turns back and faces her love.

"Take this back." She unclasps the silver pendant and hands it over to Hibiki. "I don't think you would want to know my whereabouts either. And I don't want you to follow me after this."

She walks over to Christine, that is now in Hibiki's arms, and says something, almost similar to a whisper, "Take care of him."

Christine's eyes widen. What? Take care? What does she mean by that?

Reika quickly runs after that, not giving them the time to question her more about her actions. Along the way to her village, she cries.

"Goodbye, Hibiki Laytis."

She sits on the bench at the park, taking a five minutes rest before resuming her journey back to her village. While still moping about what happened earlier, she numerously glances at her tummy, constantly saying 'sorry'.

-Mommy's so sorry. Looks like your father had abandoned us, and I hope you wouldn't leave me too. Or else, I'll be lonely.- She cries, reminiscing back the time when he married her, their first night, her first kiss with him, the incident in Tsul town, and the first time they met at Blue Pegasus. She cries even more after that.

-If I know that love would bring this much pain, I wouldn't want to be involved in the first place.-

Wiping her tears away, she stands back on her two feet and resumes her walk, but after a few steps, she looks back at the bench. It was the bench she and Hibiki had sat when they were done shopping at the grocery shop, when the cashier were to do the act of fraud upon her in which Hibiki managed to save her(and her penny). She strengthens herself, bites her lower lips, and ignores it while walking away.

The anonymous silhouette is still following her from the time she started running from Magnolia town. The figure watches every single thing Reika does, and keeps in its hiding place, preventing from being spotted by her. Then, the person chuckles evilly.

-This is what you get from messing with me.-

Reika strolls at the dusty street lazily, tired of the constant running back then. She holds her bag firm. Her eyes are tired too, both from crying and from sightseeing. Reika is still bothered by Christine's statement. Did her village really got washed away by a tsunami? When and how? Why didn't Magnolia get affected?

Her mind wanders as she steps forward and saw something. She stops.

-The hills…..Behind there is Mizu village. If it's still there, I promise I would kill Christine after that.- Her legs pace forward and nervously, her eyes observe the scenery behind the hills….

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MIZU VILLAGE IS HERE! IT'S STILL HERE! No damned tsunami or whatsoever. The village is in good shape. Reika smiles. Though the sky looks gloomy, at least her hometown is still standing. -I'll really gonna kill that girl when I come back.-

With the least bit of energy left in her legs, she runs happily towards her village. -Now, I'm gonna make some noise in my place first.-

"TADAIMA MINNA~!"

"Hibiki", Ren looks at him with worry. "You look so pale. Are you okay?"

True, Hibiki has gone insane these past few days. It's been three nights since Reika left him, and the times he had his good night sleep can be counted with one hand. Weakly, his eyes looks back at his fellow friend. "I think I'm okay."

"You think? Come on, Hibiki! This is not the first time I've seen you like this", Ren chides Hibiki for not telling him the truth. He knows, the man sitting in front of him is suffering from a runaway wife. Back then, he could tell when Hibiki and Karen was having a fight. He would have this 'leave-me-alone' aura surrounding him. But this time, he is weaker.

"I told you, I'm alright! Leave me alone…", Hibiki starts to get mad.

See? I told you.

Ren sighs. Hibiki easily gets mad these days, and it was so not like him.

"Listen", Ren stands right in front of Hibiki before continuing, "I know what's jumbling up your mind now, but it's no excuse for you to just sit here and mop around doing nothing. Now, stand up and let's meet Master Bob. He wants to see us now." He pulls Hibiki's muscular arms to help him stand. Giving up, Hibiki just goes with the flow.

"I summoned you three here because as you can see, I'm already at the verge of resigning."

Ichiya, Ren and Hibiki are speechless. That's so…..straightforward. So that's why Master Bob called them.

"Excuse me for interrupting, but why didn't you call Eve too?" Ren asks. Master Bob forms his wonderful smile.

"Ah….That cute young lad. I want to call him too, but he is too young to be nominated as a Master."

Again, their mouth are wide open because of the shocking news.

"So this meeting is for the men who are suitable for the Master rank? MEN~?" Ichiya guesses, in which receives a nod from Master Bob.

"Yeah, you got that right, Ichiya. From my point of view, you three are suited for this title and I want you three to decide whether you could handle the job here or not. And I want you to give an absolute answer by the end of this week. Okay, that's it. Any questions?"

Hibiki quickly asks, "Can I strip myself from the title? Because I don't think I'm ready yet for such a big responsibility." Ren glares at him, but Hibiki ignores Ren. Besides, Master Bob asked for whoever wanted to give question, right?

"Hibiki, I understand the position you're in but you know you can't involve any personal problems when it comes to working in a guild."

"I'm well aware about that, Master but that isn't my point", Hibiki counteracts. "What I'm trying to say is that I think I'm too young and inexperienced in this field. Same goes to Ren. And judging from the nominators, Ichiya-senpai is the most suitable and will most probably got an unanimous vote by the end of this week. Shouldn't we just choose him as the next Master instead?"

Master Bob stares at Hibiki while smiling. "You know, sometimes you just can't see the potential in yourself. And I, as the current master, feels obliged to let you know about it. From my past experiences, you two has the strength to be on par with Ichiya. In this nomination, I hope you three can go all out to win the title. Okay, anymore questions?"

Since the needed questions are already being asked, the three went silent.

"Okay then, see you again in Saturday."

"My beautiful MEN~", Ichiya walks ahead of the two and shows his two index fingers towards them. "I can't believe my men are now my rivals. I felt so happy seeing you two has grown up."

Hibiki and Ren just smile. They had been together since Master Bob decided to start Blue Pegasus. That time, Ren and Hibiki were still young, and Ichiya is still a hopeless romantic ladies man. And now they have to compete to be the successor of Master Bob, it feels odd.

"So, ganbatte ne, minna", Hibiki gives his half-heartedly support.

"Oh come on! I know that's not what you wanted to say", Ren mocks him. Ichiya intervenes, "Yes, MEN~! Since this is a competition, let's do it the friendly way~! Release the parfum of real men~!"

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The three smirk.

"I hope you'll break your leg and die."

"Oh, I'll hope you would go on a mission and never comes back."

"Ikemen~! I hope you two would involve in a fight and die in the chaos."

They laugh. Their true colors are shown! Yeah, sometimes they just need to have a rough play, don't you think?

Thank you to all the follows and favourites and reviews. TTvTT I really appreciate it. I just can't describe the happy feeling when I saw " New Review for The's Tale" in my inbox. Felt like jumping over the roof but I'm sure it must've hurt, so I don't jump that high. Haha.

Since I know some of you would start to question why Reika was being such a b**** in the fight, here's the fact. Pregnant woman are not the person you would want to fight with. Believe me.

Until next chapter then. Ja' ne~