... read on. *Yawn*
Enjoy
Arme put her cauldron down on the table in Urashin's move and seated herself across from him. Urashin didn't say a word, he merely ran his hand across the cauldron and slowly examined every inch of the unadorned metal. After several minutes, he removed his hand from the cauldron and sat calmly.
"There are no marks or magical symbols on the weapon... I find myself greatly interested in how the blessing is actually carried out. I heard that you were the first to have your weapon change?" Arme nodded, relieved that he hadn't actually forgotten she was there. "I see, tell me exactly what happened.
"Time froze, and I found myself in a place that was completely white. Karina, the alchemist, appeared and told me that I was within my own mind, or at least a certain part of it. Then she spoke to me for a little while and gave me this necklace." Arme took off Karina's necklace and showed it to Urashin. He took it in his arms and ran his fingers across it, examining it very carefully. "After she gave me that, I was back into our world facing Elena, but my wand had become this cauldron."
"Interesting, there are experiments to do, hypotheses to check, and answers to find." Arme nodded and the two got to work.
"Come on Lire!" Yuria yelled to Lire as she fell over again. "I know that you're weakened because of the weapons but you can still learn this." Lire stood up, rubbing her shoulder. "Now watch again." Yuria grabbed a small piece of wood off of a pile next to her and threw it into the air. She moved forward quickly and twisted her body in an unreal way. Her hands hit the ground and she pushed off with her leg, hitting the piece of wood back into the air. She quickly spun her body around again reaching to her quiver and pulling out one of the enormous arrows she used with her bow. Holding the arrowhead between her index and middle finger she jumped and slashed at hte wood, which fell to the ground in two pieces. Yuria held out the large arrow to Lire.
"These aren't like your old arrows. They can be used as melee weapons in a tough situation. It's important that you learn this for the future, an archer can't depend on her bow all the time, when you come up against a certain enemy, you'll find yourself dead. That's how many of our ancestors lost their lives. For now work on the kick." Lire nodded as Yuria moved out of her way. Lire charged forward and attempted to copy Yuria's kick. As her leg went up, her arms buckled under the weight of her body and she fell down again. Yuria shook her head. "Do you know what you're doing wrong?" Lire shook her head.
"I'm not sure, I thought I was copying your movements properly."
"No, not at all. You're rushing the kick and pushing off to early. This destroys your balance and prevents your ability to make the kick properly. Now try to follow me." Yuria stood next to Lire and ran her through the process for making the kick again.
"So, I have to tuck my arms in farther so that they can hold my weight, and then I have to use my legs to push as far into the kick as I can so that my arms don't get any unnecessary strain." Lire repeated the factors that Yuria had just explained to her. "Alright." Lire tried the kick again. She pushed her arms as far under her body as possible before pushing off with her legs. She got her leg up higher than she had before, but her arms still buckled under her weight and she collapsed on the ground. Lire stood up as quickly as she could and brushed herself off before trying again. Yuria shook her head.
"This could take awhile." She muttered, less than enthusiastically.
"Focus, feel the energy flowing through your body."
"What, energy."
"Everyone has an inherent type of energy flowing through their body, from this point forward I'll be referring to it as chakra. most people can't access it. I am one of the few who can access this energy and so are you."
"How do you know that?"
"Have you forgotten already, there's very little about you that I haven't already determined, now be quiet and listen."
"Fine, I'm listening."
"Chakra comes in many forms, but essentially it's an energy flowing through your body that determines your abilities. Chakra is everything, Those with large amounts of a certain type of chakra may have the ability to manipulate outside energy like Ronan and Arme while people like Amy have a different type which could strengthen their legs, giving them a high level of speed."
"So then, what's my chakra?"
"You're special. Like me you have a well balanced form of chakra. Only people with a properly balanced level of the seven chakras can control them. The man who originally discovered chakra was a man named Evan. He created his own sword style based around the release and control of chakra outside ones body. This style is powerful and few have ever mastered it, those who have are known as Evan Stripers."
"What? are you going to teach me to use this style."
"I can't, my attempt at becoming an Evan Striper failed miserably. I'm going to teach you how to manipulate the chakra within your body. By controlling the flow of chakra within one's body they can create many effects upon themselves. At this, I was also a failure. I only mastered one form and that was the form of invisibility. The style of fighting you're going to learn relies heavily on hitting your opponent's vital points. You'll learn to turn claws into an extension of your body and to eliminate your presence until the enemy is dead. Remember, if the enemy isn't dead after the first hit, then you'll be facing a tough fight."
"You're not as tough as you act are you. You fight like a coward."
"I'll tell you this. A coward like me will live a lot longer than someone who acts like a hero."
"I don't disagree."
"Good, then let's begin. Close your eyes." Lass obeyed. "Look into yourself and find your chakra flow. Find it, and know it. See the way your chakra moves and know where each type is at any given time." Lass sat still for several minutes with his eyes closed, searching himself.
"I think I can see it."
"You can see it, or you know it? It took me 4 days of meditation before I was ready to move to the next step." The two sat there for a good expanse of time. After several hours had passed, Lass opened his eyes.
"I know it. I can still feel the chakra as it flows through me, and I can distinguish them now. They're like a part of me."
"Impossible, that was only a few hours. Unless you're some kind of prodigy then there's just no way."
"No, it was familiar. I think I've always felt the chakra but until now I couldn't tell what it was and I never took the time to stop and determine it."
"You, felt this before. Impossible, the only person who ever felt chakra before he was aware of it's existence was Evan."
"Well, now there's two. So, are you supposed to teach me how to control the flow or something?" Shuren was visibly annoyed at Lass, but he continued all the same.
"The seven chakra you can see should be in seven different colors. Each chakra represents one of the seven elements. Red is fire, blue is water, green is nature, brown is earth, yellow is wind, white is light, and black is darkness. Everything that exists is a combination of these seven elements in some way and every person has strong elements to them. For example, Ryan has strong nature chakra which creates his connection to the land as well as fire chakra which forms his high strength however his water chakra and dark chakra are weak. That's why we, as people who have a perfect balance of the seven, are the people who can control them properly. We can control all seven chakras equally and, theoretically, we could create anything we wanted if we learned perfect control of chakra. At any rate, a line of chakra is known as a chakra stream. Now tap into the wind chakra stream. After you have you need to control the chakra flow so that it moves to where you need it. You need to guide two types of chakra to the centre of your body. Control the wind and light chakras and form them into a continual loop." Lass sat perfectly still, with his eyes closed and controlled the chakra within his body. After about twenty minutes, he opened his eyes again.
"Alright, what's next?"
"Now spread the chakra. Don't let it break it's loop but extend it throughout your entire body so that the chakra is in a tight path. This path should cover your entire body as opposed to it's original path." Lass nodded and closed his eyes again. This seemed to be a more difficult task, as he spent several hours on it. He opened his eyes again.
"Ok... what's. next." His voice was strained.
"Calm down kid, we'll continue tomorrow. Controlling chakra is a tiring activity."
"Alright then. I'm tired so... continuing tomorrow is probably a good idea. Can I ask something?"
"Go for it."
"Alright. When Rose gave me the scimitar I immediately had an immense jump in my speed and abilities. If I have balanced chakra then why would my speed be at such a higher level than the others?"
"You received knowledge from this Rose woman correct? It's likely that she, like most assassins, had strong wind chakra and the knowledge given by her taught you to tap into your wind chakra and use it. Her abilities were probably stronger than what you could use after accepting the weapon. We may have balanced chakra but depending on what we're trying to do we'll call them at different levels. The only real difference between us and the average person is our versatility."
"I see, so then the chakra determine a person's strengths, is there anything else they do?"
"Yes. Chakra could be described as what some have taken to calling the soul. The chakra also determine personality. Red is fire, a chakra of strength and aggresion. Fire is a force that destroys all in it's path without fail As someone's fire chakra grows stronger, their physical strength's will raise and their personality will reflect their anger and arrogance. This chakra is particularly notable within Elesis. Water is a chakra of serenity and change. Water is always moving and always changing. Whether a calm lake or a raging river, water will always be changing itself to accomadate what's around it, what enters it. It takes everything in turn but keeps moving. Someone's ability to change their thoughts and actions to their situation and find the solution is stronger in someone with strong water chakra. Water chakra is also necessary to create a calm enough mind to cast magic. Ronan is a particularly good example of someone with exceptional water chakra. Wind is a chakra of speed and adaptability. Those with strong wind chakra will be able to hold to their convictions longer than others. When someone argues with them, they'll just brush it off and move past it. The stronger someone's wind chakra, the more skilled they are at moving past their opponent's regardless of the opposition. Wind chakra also determines a person's speed and abillities, someone with strong enough wind chakra would practically be able to fly with their speed and jumping abilities. Amy is an excellent example of someone with strong wind chakra. Shall I continue or have you had enough?"
"No, I find this quite interesting. Please go on I want to hear the rest of the chakras." Shuren nodded and continued his lecture.
"Earth is an unmoving and sturdy chakra. Stronger earth chakra means that they will be unmoving in their conviction and stance. Someone with strong earth chakra is a fighter who can take on the enemy with the same form every time and always succeed. Earth chakra also determines someone's stamina and physical constitution. Strong earth chakra means a bigger frame and larger muscle mass. People strong with earth chakra are harder to find than others, my best example would be Eiau. Light and Darkness are special, they're two sides of the same coin and have to constantly keep themselves in balance. Someone with strong light chakra has less dark chakra and vice-versa. Light is the chakra of honour, and darkness is the chakra of deceit. People with to much light will always try to follow the rules of a fight and will always try to fight with honour. Those with darkness win more than they lose because of this blaring weakness of light. Keeping the two as balanced as possible is the way to make someone the strongest. As we are perfectly balanced, we know when we need to uphold our honour and when we need to fight, for lack of a better word, dirty. Someone with dark chakra that has risen to a dangerous level become like Kaze'aze and Faren, while people with an excess of light chakra will become like Aria."
"So light and darkness are special and determine someone's affinity towards good and evil?"
"In Layman's terms yes, but it's not quite so black and white. It would take some time to explain everything though, so we'll leave them at that."
"Alright, there's one more right."
"Nature is also special. Nature is the chakra of growth and life. The stronger your nature chakra, the longer your life and the greater your ability to grow. Strong nature chakra also means that you will never stop growing, you will always be able to grow stronger and it will be very difficult to reach your limit. Nature chakra is prevalent in elves far more than humans, hence the reason that elves live twice as long as us on average. Of course, for examples of this we have Lire, Ryan, Yuria and Riallan. Do you understand everything I just said?" Lass nodded.
"Yeah, I got it. Chakra is everything, but few people know about it, essentially."
"Yes and no. Remember not to tell anyone else about chakra, it just makes thing difficult on them."
"What do you mean?"
"Arme, for example, knows about the strength of mana. Her chakra is what allows mana to flow properly and mana is chakra itself. She knows mana, trying to break it down further into chakra will confuse her and add more weight to her mind than necessary. She would no longer be able to focus well enough to cast at her highest power. In this sense, while mana is chakra, at the same time, it is not."
"I see, that makes some sense. Is there anything above it, stronger than chakra?"
"Yes, Aether."
"What's Aether."
"Aether is like the most concentrated form of chakra. It is divided into elements and is the true strength of creation. Chakra can mold the world around us and create effects or objects that normally could be. Aether can create from nothing. Aether is a special force, usable only by the gods and deity's. We, as humans and elves, will never gain the right to use so powerful a force."
"Unbelievable... can I ask one more thing."
"Make it quick."
"How did you learn all this?"
"My father taught me this, he was the final Evan Striper. It's impossible to become an Evan Striper now because I was a failure, and my father couldn't pass the style along. Now... they don't exist anymore." Shuren spoke almost apologetically as he said this.
"I see, thanks for answering all my questions."
"Don't worry about it kid. I'm going to teach you invisibility tomorrow, so make sure you can still feel your chakra." Shuren, looking tired and upset, disappeared and left the room.
Lire walked, or rather, limped, down the hall rubbing her arm. Sakura walked next to her.
"Are you sure you're alright?" Sakura asked concerned.
"I'm fine, I don't need help walking." Lire said as she shoved her away.
"OK, OK fine." Sakura yawned.
"What were you doing anyway?"
"Training in ways that I never thought I would." Lire groaned as she rubbed her neck. "And now I'm just sore."
"Of course you are." Sakura pushed the door open. She and Lire stepped outside to get some air. Lass was sitting just to the side of the door with his eyes closed. "You OK Lass?"
"Why wouldn't I be?" He responded without opening his eye.
"You just seem kind of out of it and you missed dinner."
"Oh, you guys already ate? Sorry, I'm trying to keep myself ready for tomorrow's training. I think I should be OK now, is there anything left."
"Yeah, that's why we came to find you."
"We?" Lass opened his eyes. His face drooped slightly at the sight of Lire. "Oh, hello." Lire weakly waved her hand.
"Um, hi." The two stared at each other awkwardly. Sakura stepped in between them.
"Go eat Lass." Lass shook his head back and forth to break himself from his daze and went back into the house.
He turned and looked at Lire again. "Sorry." He said as he entered the house. Sakura stared at Lire.
"What?"
"Something happened and you never told me."
"Nothing happened."
"Liar."
"Think whatever you want." Lire calmly limped back into the house. Sakura crossed her arms and glared at her back before following her.
"Hey Ronan!" Justin called as he approached him. "You know this woman?" Justin set his laptop on the table and turned it to Ronan. His eyes grew wide in a second.
"My mother?"
"Seriously...? A japanese woman who disappeared about thirty years ago... I'm gonna look more into this, if I can get more info on where she was when she disappeared then we may find a way to get you guys back yet." Justin stood and headed towards the door.
"Justin...?"
"Look Ronan, just because Aria's here doesn't mean your mother's alive alright. She moved worlds, she's not immune to death. Alright?" Ronan looked down.
"Yeah, I know... thanks though. I don't think knowing that my mom's from this world is a bad thing."
"Knowing about your parents can only be considered a good thing, I guess. I suck at this kind of thing, go find someone else if you want a heart to heart."
"I'm fine, thanks. We're all doing our best, so thanks for always doing yours to help us." Justin grinned and nodded before leaving the room. Ronan rubbed his head and sighed.
"Try this on." Amy shoved something into Arme's arms as she entered the room.
"What's this?"
"A dress."
"Obviously. Where did it come from?"
"My birth father collected a lot of things from around the world, we're just going through it." Sakura answered as she opened a large box.
"So why are you going through it all now?"
"Because we can't train, for the most part, and we're all bored." Elesis answered as she and Lire dug through another box.
"This is cute!" Amy exclaimed as she pulled a soft pink evening gown out of her box. There was a slit up the side which looked as though it would reach about halfway up Amy's leg. "I'm gonna try this on. Come on Arme, let's change."
"I don't want to." Arme refused and resisted, but Amy was much stronger and easily dragged Arme out of the room with her. She dragged her to the next room over and started changing. Arme blushed and turned her back on Amy.
"Don't you have any shame?"
"What's the problem? We saw each other when we were putting on the yukatas before."
"I didn't look."
"You're just to innocent."
"And you should be more innocent, I'm older than you, you know." Amy stuck her tounge out at Arme.
"Whatever, come on, put the dress on." Arme sighed and looked at the dress in her hands. It was a deep violet and was clearly for shorter people than Arme, as it looked like it would just reach her knees.
"Turn around." Amy shrugged and turned around so Arme could change. "Alright done."
"Wow, that looks perfect on you." Amy praised Arme. Arme looked down at herself. The dark violet colour suited her perfectly and the pleated skirt which reached just slightly past her knees looked good.
"I don't know..." Arme's thought trailed off. She felt uncomfortable playing dress up while they should be training or looking for a way back to their world.
"Just take my word for it. Come on, everyone else'll say the same." Amy grabbed Arme's hand and dragged her back to the girl's room. "Sorry, we took so long, Arme wouldn't cooperate. Oh, you guys look cute." While the two were gone the others had all changed into some outfit or other. Sakura had on a normal maid's uniform while Lire wore a yellow china dress and Elesis wore a large white gown complete with wedding veil.
"Why am I wearing this again?" Elesis asked.
"Oh come on, you look great." Sakura told her. "I can't believe you two got me into this though."
"Why, what's wrong with it? All of Ronan's maids looked great, the dresses are cute."
"I like this one, where did it come from?" Lire asked.
"I think that one probably came from China. The slit in the side usually goes up farther, well to he best of my knowledge at least." Lire looked down at the slit in the side of her dress which only reached her knee. "Depending on what it's used for, it can go from your knee all the up to your hips."
"Up to here?" Lire asked, surprised, with her hand on her hip.
"Yeah, you have to be careful when you where one that revealing, not that I'm an expert in Chinese clothing or anything."
"Seriously, why did you guys decide to have me put this one on?" Elesis asked again.
"Arme, you look perfect in that." Sakura exclaimed, completely ignoring Elesis.
"You do look good." Lire commented.
"Doesn't she?" Amy responded happily as she dragged Arme over to the other girls.
"Why?" Arme asked quietly.
"What was that?"
"Why are we playing dress-up right now?" Arme screamed. "Master Urashin is at the end of his rope trying to figure out how to make us strong enough to fight Faren and Justin is working hard to figure out how to get us back. Lass, Ronan and Ryan are still training what they can even though it's difficult so why are we doing this? I can't believe you girls." Everyone stared at Arme surprised at the, usually collected although somewhat immature, mage's outburst.
"Arme..." Lire trailed off, unable to find the words to diffuse the situation like she always did.
"You think we're just playing around for the hell of it?" Elesis raised her voice to match Arme's. Lire's thoughts immediately wandered to what had happened at the orc temple. She remembered that the argument had been helpful at the time but she couldn't see any advantage to it at this point.
"Elesis, Arme, stop." Lire cut the two off, trying to stop them.
"Just stop Lire!" Elesis yelled at her. "Ever since we first met you've always been this calm collected girl who acts like your better than us whenever we don't act perfectly! Well stop it! Don't get in between us when all you ever do is stand to the side and jump in when it's convenient! I'm so sick of that attitude!" Everyone stared at Elesis as she finished her spiel. Everyone except Lire. Lire stared at the ground, Amy noticed that her hands were trembling. Lire jumped at Elesis tackling her to the ground. Elesis landed on her back and Lire straddled her. Lire pushed Elesis' shoulders down, preventing her from getting up.
"Just shut up!" Lire yelled at Elesis. "This has been my role since the beginning. It had to be me since you and Arme were so damn immature that I had to stay out and keep my calm no matter what, otherwise the three of us would never have gotten anywhere! I'm not some perfect girl who can take everything you throw! There was time after time when I wanted to scream at you two, but I didn't because as soon as I did we'd fall apart!" Elesis rolled throwing Lire under her and shoved her arms down.
"There you go again, thinking your better than me!"
"Stop it Elesis!" Arme yelled, finally rejoining the conversation. "Leave Lire alone, she's right. If she hadn't always been there to have a cool head and guide the two of us, then we probably would have died back in the tower, we wouldn't have gotten anywhere. I always knew that, but I... I tried to help but I always fell back into myself and..."
"That's enough Arme!" Lire yelled as she pushed Elesis off and stood up. "You're no better than Elesis. You realized what was happening and you just let it go on? What the hell is wrong with you? I always had to keep my head, then suddenly you get giggly over Ronan while Elesis gets so overly serious that she can't even see the road in front of her... I had no chance to actually let anything out. I just can't... I can't take it, I can't take you two anymore. I've had enough!" Lire grabbed the sun dress she had been wearing in this world and ran out of the room. Elesis shot a glance at Arme, collected her clothes and left as well.
"I'm sorry." Arme muttered.
"What was that?" Sakura asked in complete shock.
"I heard that those three were the first to start this quest." Amy answered. "It wasn't long before Ronan and Ryan joined up with them, but even so... I guess they went through a lot before I joined up, even though it wasn't all that long."
"How long between when they started and when you joined?"
"A couple of weeks, I guess, three max. I never would have expected that these three resented each other that much."
"I don't think that's it at all, they're all stressed and old feeling were forced up. Honestly, you guys have gone through a lot more than most people I know your age. I don't understand you guys at all... but I can guess at how much stress you're all under... even you, though you seem rather calm."
"I'm fine, I fought with general Kirion back on Xenia. Xenia is dangerous, you never know what kind of super-powerful enemy will jump out at you. I'm good at dealing with the stress and keeping my bubbly attitude to keep the people around me calm, but right now it seems like it'll do more harm than good." Amy walked over and sat next to Arme.
"What do you want?"
"Are you ok? They said some pretty harsh things but I don't think they mean it."
"No, they did and Lire's right. Me and Elesis have been nothing but a burden from day one. We could fight but... beyond that we were just a problem. When we went to Kanavan, I had to follow Lire or I would have lost my way. I was so scared when we washed up on Ellia without Lire or Ronan, the only reason we got through there was because I knew Mr. Lirios and he helped us. Lire was the one who figured out how to save Lass and pushed us to do what we had to do to save him. Sorry Amy, just leave me alone for awhile." Arme collected her clothes and left the room.
"She seems pretty down." Sakura commented.
"Yeah, I'm amazed they didn't come after me... I hope those three can fix this up. I don't think that I'll be of much help to them this time."
"Whoa, Elesis, calm down!" Ryan yelled as he tried to avoid her spear. He spun and struck the shaft of her spear with his crescent blade. He placed his hand on the ground and shot his leg out towards he stomach. Elesis staggered backwards and used her spear to balance herself. Without any serious thought she charged forward again. Ryan blocked the stab and swung himself around Elesis, grabbing her arms and forcing her to drop the spear. "Sorry, my win again."
"Ugh, why can't I win."
"Because your pissed off and not thinking clearly, you're not beating me in that state and you know it."
"Yeah, I know. Now let me go." Ryan let go of Elesis' wrists and sat down.
"So what happened that's got you so angry?" Elesis explained what had happened and what everyone had said. "Wow, you guys said all of that?"
"Yeah, I can't believe Lire. Always acting like she's so much better than me. Acting like we would all be dead without her."
"We would." Elesis shot a surprised look at Ryan. "Well, think about it. We can fight but what use are we beyond that? Ronan and Lire took care of everything else. Ronan and Grant made the plan to beat Gaikoz, Lire figured out how to save Lass. Ronan was the one who had Emil help us and kept the seals safe. Honestly, what use are we?"
"How can you say that."
"Because I look at things as they are. We all have problems that stop us from being good with things like that. Arme takes everything to personally and tends to over-analyze a lot of stuff, Amy's ditzy and likes to act immature and I knew nothing about the world outside of the forest. Lire and Ronan both have cool heads and know what needs to be done. Frankly we wouldn't have gotten anywhere without them but you can reverse it to, I wonder just how far Lire and Ronan would have gotten on their own. We may not be that great with maps, or money or keeping our possessions safe, but we aren't weak and we can always change and become better at what we're bad at."
"Change? What do you mean, how should I change?"
"All depends on the person. I started changing as soon as I left the forest. The more I learn about the outside world the more useful I'll become... it'll just take time."
"Then how do you suggest I change so that I become less useless?"
"Whoa, I never called you useless. But how to change and become better at what you're bad at. Well, I won't tell you, that's for you to figure out. If I just told you what was stopping you then you wouldn't be able to break it fully, ever. And don't forget, just because you're bad at something, you're good at other things. There are things you can do that Ronan and Lire can't, that's why we make a good team. Our strengths overshadow each others weaknesses, that's why we've made it so far. At any rate, I think you should apologize to Lire."
"No, I won't. Not yet. If I apologize now, it'll just be like I'm making the apology for the sake of apologizing. I'll apologize after I figure out how to be more useful, that way, she'll know I mean it."
"You think pretty deeply on some surprising subjects."
"It's how my mother raised me. Don't tell anyone we talked about this, ok?"
"Your secret's safe with me."
"What are you doing in here?" Ronan asked Lire.
"Avoiding Elesis and Arme."
"What happened?" Lass asked, coming out from behind Ronan. "Was it really necessary to hide in our room?"
"When did you get behind me?" Ronan asked, surprised.
"Ages ago." Lass turned to Lire. "Back to you. What happened?" Lire narrowed her eyes at Lass. "Yeah yeah, I get that it's uncomfortable talking to me so I'll just lie over here and you can talk to Ronan." Lass walked over and dropped onto one of the futons.
"Lass that's Ryan's bed." Lass rolled over.
"She's laying on mine."
"Ugh, fine. So what did happen?" Lire explained to Ronan what had happened. "Geez, what happened with you three? I can't believe you guys said that stuff."
"It was just what Elesis said that made me snap."
"Elesis always says stuff like that, always. And she always feels bad afterwards. Be honest, how far would we have made it without Elesis or Arme. They were the first accepted by the heroes, I'd say that they're the strongest of us."
"I don't care! I've had to keep myself calm and collected no matter how much I've wanted to get angry and I'm sick of it. I'm not so great a person! I get mad and sad like anyone else but those two, from day one, made me feel like I couldn't show it. I felt like I had to be perfect and I hated it!"
"Calm down, It's not me you're mad at."
"You're the only one to blame you know." Both of them turned and looked at Lass who had rolled over again and was staring at them. "It's your fault for not expressing yourself when you wanted to."
"Weren't you listening, the way those two acted made me feel lik-"
"I heard you, dammit! And frankly, you're choice was just plain stupid. You're a smart person Lire, I know that, the fact that you chose to hold yourself back makes you one of the dumbest people I know. That's not to say that Elesis should have said what she said, but you need to apologize to both of them either way."
"I thought you were going to stay out of it."
"I'm not going to stay out of it. After hearing something like that I have to step in."
"Sorry Lire, I agree with Lass on this one. It was your fault that you held all this back for so long. If you hadn't then you probably would have been able to diffuse the situation earlier rather than making it worse. You do need to apologize to them."
"Forget it, I refuse. None of this was my fault."
"Geez, Lire. I've never seen such and immature side to you."
"Well excuse me. This is the real me. When I first met Arme and Elesis I realize that I had to hide it and keep the two on track so I've been doing so." Ronan shook his head.
"Lire..."
"Fool." They both looked at Lass again. "It's possible to be yourself without having the entire team break down. Just show us more of it from now on. I'd prefer to know the real you than this image of perfection you put out."
"Geez, Lass. When did you get so wise?" Ronan asked, jokingly.
"Let me... think about it. Can I sleep in here tonight?" Ronan scratched his head.
"I guess... I'll ask Sakura if we can get another one of these futons."
"Thanks, and don't tell the other girls I'm in here... it's already getting late so I'm just going to sleep."
"Yeah, alright. Sleep on it, just think about what we said, ok?" Lire nodded and laid down. Lass stood up from Ryan's bed.
"She can have mine so let's go and get another." Ronan and Lass left the room to find Sakura.
"What was all that?" Ronan asked. "I've never seen you act so concerned about anyone before. Normally you'd just ignore it and sleep."
"I fell in love with Lire." Ronan stared at Lass.
"Geez, how blunt can you be."
"What's the point in hiding it."
"Well, yeah I guess. It all depends on how you think about it."
"Exactly. Now I'm tired, let's find Sakura."
Elesis entered the girl's room but the only one there was Amy. She had changed out of the dress and packed everything up, leaving it in the corner.
"Hey." She greeted Elesis.
"Where are the others?"
"Arme's staying in Sakura's room tonight and I haven't seen Lire since the fight."
"Oh, I see."
"Yeah, let's go to sleep. I'm sure everything will be better in the morning."
"Yeah, thanks Amy." Amy smiled and layed down on her futon. "Everything should be better by morning... Man I feel terrible." Elesis muttered to herself as she layed down on her own futon.
That's that. Hoping to get the next chapter out quickly but this time I'm running lights for the play which means very little free time starting tomorrow until mid-March. I also decided that I'll definitely be writing a sequel to this story... when I do finally get to it. It'll be coming out at the same speed as this story though. But I promise, the next chapter will be the last of the chapters on earth. I really do have high hopes for the sequel. Well review and have a nice day.