Part 7.5: The Crossblade
Chapter 56: Exploring Terra Gamma (3)
This is just pretty much when most of the characters come back from being not important currently.
But actually some of this is fun, so heck.
I don't own Pokémon.
Rayse
A crash!
A greenish flare erupted behind me. Icy wind combed through my fur as I dove for the nearest cover, which only happened to be a tiny chunk of land that didn't get too far off the ground when this place was formed. It was higher than me, but maybe not my ears. I flattened them, the sounds of combat still swarming around the giant battlefield. Nobody was next to me. No one on the right and no one on the left. Vibrations shook the ground beneath me. Cracks and crashes deafened me. Maybe there was shouting, but I couldn't hear anything. The turmoil made the ground tremble, rumbling up my legs and through my belly.
Another peek to the left. More cracks against the air. Was Mari all on her own out there?! I tried to look, poking my muzzle out just slightly – JUST enough to get myself flashed by a ray of green light. A stray shot from Flicker's techno-cannon thingy flew off into the ground and blew up into a tiny burst of verdant hues. I blinked. I sniffed. The smells were wild. Symbis fighting each other, the Crossblade in there somewhere, with different Pokémon powers and Flux mixing in. It wasn't my Flux. There was a Fluxed buizel out there fighting, too. What was he doing? I tried to find him, or anybody! I saw Jirachi. She wasn't with Pat, but her Crossblade was out floating next to her, and there was something very gooey and red hot on her yellow bands. That was to say, chasing her.
"Kkhehehe! Get BACK here! Kheehehe, why don't you show me your Cross up close?!" the Flux mocked. It still had the ability to talk! That was more than what most Fluxes could, um, literally say for themselves.
"You want it?! Fine!" she rallied back at him, her vorpal blade meandering into her two tiny hands, ready to put the Flux at its mercy.
Well, the gooey Flux monster didn't look like easy prey. It grew larger, its leg tendrils growing, lifting its main, heart-shaped body off of the ground until it towered and leaned over Jirachi, even in midair. Its arms began to reach for her. Quick as a bolt of lightning, she threw herself to the ground, her puny legs touching down. She avoided the arms and the pair of thorns that appeared to shoot from sockets at their ends. Wasting no time, our mythical darted off between the monster's wavy tentacle legs, then disappeared from sight, until she reappeared glistening in the red sunlight high above the monstrosity, Crossblade at its peak, ready to swing over the thing's gross head.
Its zig-zag smile disappeared into its liquid body, eyes swallowed by the reddish goop that it was made of. In an instant following that, the Flux collapsed, falling apart like a thick syrup. Its consistency kept getting thinner, until it was just a blanket of red over the grass. Thus, Jirachi's downward strike ended in a splash of such liquid, splattering into the grass at my feet. After curiously pulling one of the three ends of her blade from the corrupted soil, the liquid began to rise around her, encasing her in an upward folding sphere. I yelled her name. The liquid Flux gathered together like petals of a flower attempting to lock Jirachi in its core.
A shape shot from the top of the folding Flux before it could entomb her. Jira, empty handed, spun into the air, her yellow ribbons twirling as a golden spiral. At a point, she stopped ascended, likely once the monster had already realized she escaped. With both arms raised, sleeves drooping, a ball of dense, dark matter grew between her hands. I could hear her shout something over the bedlam of bright lights and distant attacks.
"Gravity, go!" she asserted. The black ball burst from her grasp, several small strands of strange matter swerving into the ground, cutting right through the forming ball of red, sentient liquid, but dealing no damage. Once all strands were no longer visible, the ball suddenly convulsed, then shrank, closing in on itself. My feet, ears, tail, and fluff around my neck were being pulled. I leaned back, stepped away, but only ended up on my butt. I was being sucked in to her attack, but I was okay! I was still a bit too far to be swallowed.
While the Flux was rendered helpless and small, Jira inverted herself. She was laying in the air, arms and legs extended, belly facing the ground. I think her eyes were closed, but the one on her chest shot open, silver tears flung into the anomaly. In the swarm of light tears, her Crossblade manifested, then, once constituted, shot into the monster thanks to the aid of her gravity attack. Plummeting like a bullet with silver streaks following it, the end result was an impact violent enough to rupture both the monster and the gravity sphere, a blast of black energy and bloody goop. Warm droplets drizzled over me. I looked away and squeaked, closing my eyes and shutting my mouth. I hopped back. I didn't want this on me! GROSS! I sneezed and shook my head, backing out of my cover like a dumb vee.
When I opened my eyes next, they were on Astraea, the meanest butterfly girl this side of Gamma. She was flying, too, except she actually had to depend on the wind. I think. I didn't really know, but it seemed like her wings were holding her up just fine even in front of the unreal gusts of wind thrown around by the giant chunks of suspended land behind her.
Blinking a few times to try and adjust to the bloom, I saw something shiny on her right wrist. It looked like a bracelet that wasn't there before. Or something? It could only see that it had three blue lights. What purpose did it serve? Was that what her Symbi really looked like?
Whatever it did, she was pointing her jewel-clad fist forward, hesitant. Who was she fighting? It tried to look at wherever it was she was aiming. Maybe Mari was up there? A sky battle would'a kinda made sense between the two, which may have also made Flicker's job a lot easier. But, wait, weren't those green bolts earlier FROM Flicker's Symbi? They didn't look like they were shot into the sky! Was she shooting Patty?! No way! Why?!
Well, I found a pink skywisp taken to the air! Sure enough, Mari's Solacea thingy was out, and she was on the defensive. Since she was nimble and had a Symbi that could heal her, I imagined her having more survivability than most fighters that... didn't regenerate, hopefully like that Flux guy.
The blue baubles on Astraea's bracelet launched forth, spreading out. I squinted, watching as closely as I could. Fine threads of light, similar to the threads encircling Mari's Symbi, connected these baubles, slowing their pace through the air as they grew thicker. While that was happening, the orbs spread further and further, creating what looked like a big floating triangle connected by bright tethers. The shape came to a stop before it reached Mari. Watching Astraea again, three more baubles flew from her arm, implying that the things replaced previously launched ones. Another triangle formed, creating an obstacle of traps for the skywisp.
A green bolt flew by Mari. She turned, swerved away, and nearly flew into the trap lain out for her. Flicking her tongue out at the immediate danger, weighing the threats she had been caught between, she flew through one triangle, narrowly avoided another shot by Flicker from below, and dove beneath the second triangle altogether. Flicker and Astraea were working together! They were going to either snare or shoot Mari right out of the sky, and the fact that they hadn't done it yet meant that they were either really bad at their jobs, or they were just playing with her. It meant one thing to heal yourself, but when the pressure was on, how could you get away?
So, I had to help her! It had to be two on two! With a healthy dose of faith that Jirachi had the Flux all handled (and a epiphany or two over why she couldn't help out with Maya before), I hopped out of my cover and traced the bursts of green back to their origin. Fluffy Flicker, why did it have to be this way?! Maybe it was because of something she wasn't telling us. She had the smell of Red all over her, but there was something else to it. It wasn't on the outer layer. Inside, the oily sweet smell of Black was, umm, making her... do its bidding, but that felt too derogatory. No? I didn't know. I had to get to her and find out, but she would've shot me, and I didn't want to be shot all that much.
Crossblade time? Maybe Crossblade time. Not that I could control it whenever I had the single tiniest compulsion to let the thing free. The pain welled up in my chest. Soreness, sharpness, sickness – it all mixed together to freeze me in place and wish I was anywhere else, anything else, until all the pain blended into something that felt more like burning. Then, in that horrible flash of light, it was there in my mouth, me biting down on a hilt. I was muzzled to it, because, if I wasn't biting down, the pain was too much. I had to bite down. I was bound to this thing. A reminder, every time I summoned it. That was my power.
I couldn't keep an eye on Mari anymore. Was she okay? I didn't know. Flicker was aiming high with her futuristic techno-weapon thing clamped to one arm. She was focused. The grit teeth and the annoyed glare gave that away, even with half of her face damaged, then covered by an ear. I was closing in on the blue-furred sniper. What was I supposed to do when I was there, I thought? Maybe I could just scare her with the Crossblade. Wait, wasn't this what Symbi wielders wanted? Would I have been helping her if I brought my Crossblade to her? No, it was already mine! Whatever, I had to tackle her or something and show her that I was a threat!
My feet left the ground, but my legs kept moving. Only when I realized they weren't taking me anywhere or there was nothing left to touch did I notice, but it was too late. I was being dragged into the air. I gasped through my nose, heart racing. A bright orb to my left, a bright orb to my right. They were burning hot, but not enough to shout over the pain of the Cross. They were squeezing into me. One of them was pressing down on my back, so there were three, and they were all connected by some scorching hot thread. I wanted to spit the Cross out and yell for help, but I was afraid that the pain would have broken me. I wasn't being squeezed, from what I could tell, hard enough to be injured. I was trapped. It was Astraea, watching me now, a fist aimed at me. The look in her face was of uncertainty and pride, like she had me where she wanted me, but now she wasn't all that sure what to do with me. Wasn't I useful to her? I was a Crossblade girl; I was a 'Crusader'. She didn't WANT to hurt me... right?
Flicker, though. A glance from her motivated my fear over my doubt. I swallowed that fear down and it ran through my body like ice water. The barrel of her canon was so dark, then so bright, and in that instant, I was sandwiched between dread and regret. I was weak. A shot to the face was going to prove that to me, and I was gonna-
No!
Mari! The sutures orbiting her bent weapon laced around Flicker's weapon like thin, bright fingers, pulling the barrel up before it could fire with me at the receiving end. Well, it did still fire, but the shot went way off into the sky somewhere unimportant. Then, Flicker was dragged, despite resisting, grasping her weapon arm with her other and pulling away from Mari, legs bent, sharp heels trying to secure a spot in the soil. For the most part, the two displayed equal strength, and Flicker's Symbi wasn't in any position to do anybody harm. Mari, however, still had two more orbital strings to use. By some means unseen, she commanded them around the same shoulder holding up Flicker's weapon. With Astraea far too focused on keeping me in this magic net, the intensity between Mari and Flicker blew out like a fire in a hurricane, favoring Mari. The tug-of-war tolled Flicker's arm too heavily, and she gave, letting her Symbi simply vanish.
The wind howled and whistled through the visual wonderland of hanging islands, confused clouds, and a red sky. We watched one other, silent, until the situation demanded that one of us, well, made some sort of demand. That was Flicker.
"You won't let go of me. Right?" the bunny-esque girl spoke, calm after the tension.
Mari did not reply.
"How much does Travis matter to you?" she asked again.
Mari said nothing, but she had something to say. Her desire to keep it inside was waning. Her eyes shut, but her threads still bore Flicker's arm. Just one arm, too. Neither of them were really struggling anymore. Flicker could probably bring the weapon back out with the other, and Mari could easily cuff both of Flicker's wrists or something, but they didn't do anything like that.
"More than your own sons?" she pressed.
"What?" I heard Mari utter. Maybe it wasn't that. The wind was making it hard to hear them.
"Well, where are they now?" Flicker asked.
"I thought that you didn't take over your host. I was told you let your host wield you, hey." Mari spoke up. This time, I could hear her.
"Travis became a host the moment he became a masterpiece for Delta Meadow;" said Flicker. "A host for every heart that touched his. Weren't you there for all of it? For every single heart that you forced into a place where it didn't belong?"
"That's not something I do anymore. I only wanted to protect you and Bryan and Atticus. If you're using Travis' memory, then you'll know the reason I left Delta Meadow – why I left the Inner Circle." Mari explained.
Flicker seemed unimpressed by the response. She didn't bat an eye from Mari, like she was testing the skywisp, daring her to speak further.
"For as poor a doctor and surgeon as I was, I still realized what they were doing was evil. I KNEW it was dark stuff."
"How many names did it take? It wasn't just Travis'," said Flicker. "It wasn't Chaile. It wasn't Topher. It wasn't until Molly that you and that old man finally understood that what you were doing was making a monster out of tangled hearts and cells. You made cancer and you dressed it.
It doesn't matter what you did after that. The pain and suffering that you caused, the blood and guts that you spilled...
Isn't it strange that those two things have come back to haunt this world? The Crossblade and the Flux? Coincidence, 'Doctor'?"
"That has nothing to do with Gamma! It happened long BEFORE Gamma ever came to Earth. I agree, when you put it that way, it makes me question what the Crossblade and Flux are, but then... No, we don't understand Gamma. It's out of our league, beyond our control." Mari admitted.
"It's beyond your control," echoed Flicker. "Like your morbid curiosity. Like the little demon you gave life to those years ago. Solacea can't heal any of that. 'Glitra' can't heal any of that. That's why you're in control."
The silenced that followed their one-sided argument gave me enough space for thought. Cancer? Coincidence? How much did Flicker know? Was this something that Kat knew, too? Did Delta Meadow actually have something to do with why Gamma was here at ALL? I assumed we were supposed to come here, because there was nowhere left to go. This was a fated place, because fate was the only thing we had left to look towards, until we got to where we needed to be. That was a world full of Gamma, where our memories were back and our lives were whole. It's as real as me...
Just what IS the Flux, really? What IS the Crossblade? I can only think that they're so... attached, to the world they came from, that they can't be anything other than an absolute necessary evil of their world. I know the Flux. It's as real as... as me!
"In exchange for information coinciding with the Symbis' interests," Flicker began. "Travis was given the task of putting you down, wisp. A child with so many faces that even a Gamma being could hardly understand his intentions... That's your fault. It's not why I took over, but..."
"You took over Travis. You're no better than me." Mari grunted.
"It's the only way left to protect him. Glitra could learn a lot from us if she cared to listen. I don't know why this person wants us to kill you, but if brings us closer to wiping away the Flux, then it needs to happen." Flicker said, motionless, but with a scornful intent brewing in her cheeks and lips.
These bindings were getting a little tight. I couldn't imagine what the heat would have – SHOULD have felt like. The Crossblade was my only strength here. I remembered what Kat told me. It kept me distracted.
"Sister never liked becoming involved with the Crossblade," Astraea finally spoke up. At my side, a gust of gentle wind and the scent of something caustic – Jirachi and her Crossblade were here now. Still, there was no Patty. "At least, she never told me anything. But Xima told me.
To kill a Crossblade," she started. My ears perked as high as they could go. Astraea knew?! My heart pounded like a thunder ready to burst me into pieces. My breaths were short and impatient. "You first gotta understand WHAT a Crossblade really is. It's your spirit, torn in three.
You can still break that spirit, and when you do, there's nothing left.
Their Crossblades shatter, and they're gone forever. They might as well be dead."
Oh. Oh, okay... I get it. That's not very nice, but I get it.
I could feel Jira's gaze on me, or maybe it was my Cross. It dawned on me. Jira and I really were linked. We were inseparable – 'kay, maybe not totally stuck together all like a monster thing, but she was bound to me on a level I didn't see, 'cept for when we had our blades at the ready. They were literally our lifeline, and they were miserable to wield. I felt hopeless. I wanted to wonder what it meant to have your spirit broken, though. You didn't die yet. Were you just like me? Hopeless? Or did it go deeper than that? Did you have to know a hopelessness so big and bad that, no matter how much you tried clawed your way back, you were lost?
"Kkhehe...!" something laughed. No, it rumbled awfully. It was familiar though. That laugh, sharp with spit, for as little as I heard it, was unforgettable. The red, bloody blob that Jira had tried to do away with just came right on back, slithering through the grass as a long, fluid snake, 'till it came up underneath Mari, lurched at her with two thorn covered tendrils, and painfully coiled around her.
Mari gasped, shouted out in short breaths, and lifted her Symbi high, letting Flicker free (or whoever the Symbi controlling Flicker was). The sutures fluttered around the crystalline bar with manic expression, trying to diagnose its wielder. All four of them shot into the blocked wound created by the Flux's coil. The Flux began erecting itself into its original form, that tall heart-like shape with horns, a jack O' lantern smile, and big black eyes dotted with a white speckle, indicating some kind of... person, locked away in there. Those two little dots were locked down at Mari, beaming longingly. No. Longingly? That should'a been impossible. Flux only had one feeling. Need? Need wasn't the kind of feeling this one got all stuck inside of.
"I-it's okay! I got it!" Jira shouted, taking her Cross in both hands and bolting out into the fray with a marked foe.
Meanwhile, Mari's healing sutures were fighting with the Flux, disappearing into her own body and the Flux's. What was happening?! How much pain was she in? Those tendrils around her kept spinning and cutting her up, and I imagined the Flux could keep that up for as long as it wanted. And that was all Solacea could do?! It just healed her over and over, while she was sliced with the same damage.
There was Jirachi, ready to lay down some justice and make space for Mari to break out. That was, until Flicker took a graceful leap back, opened a hand, palm high, and then closed it into a fist, pulling the trigger of a weapon that wasn't all there quite yet. A flash of green flew from the forming canon, blasting an unfortunate mythical away from her goal. I called her name and coughed. I spit out the Crossblade when I did that. My jaw was burning. No, strips of my skin were burning! I tried to call her name again, and this time it worked, but the last vowel turned into more of a scream for help than anything. Everything else went to heck and back. I lifted my head and shut my eyes while the magic tethers stifled me from the inside out!
But then, they stopped burning. One of the lines was snapped. Then another. I fell to the grass, where I lay on my tummy and let the cool dew on on the soil treat the owie. Astraea's trap dematerialized around me, baubles and all, everything fizzling out of order and then dripping into the grass as tiny, helpless blue embers. I could smell the strong, burning acidic flavor of my Crossblade. No surprise. It was right there in front of my face. Next to it, though, a blue... uh, foot? Two of them! I gasped quietly, looked up, and saw a certain bipedal mudkip flicking her hands like she'd just gotten 'em smushed into a door hinge or something. Wait, she pulled the trap apart?! With her bare hands?!
No! Hold up, that wasn't just Patty! I put an arm forward to give me some leverage, leaned a little higher, and saw a mysterious orangey red glow that became a lot less mysterious the more it came into view. It was fire! It was a whole WING of fire, and it was on Patty! It danced and, despite being segmented, kept its shape as a functioning wing – maybe not functioning, but certainly a wing. All angelic-like and stuff! So cool! Was that her Symbi?!
Patty brushed the shoulder owning the wing, rolled her neck and popped it once, then shook her hands off one last time, protectively walking before me and my venomous Cross.
"This has become irksome!" Patty exclaimed. "I've had enough of the dribble. Kindly take yourselves and scoot along!"
"You're kidding me," Astraea growled, letting her wings go still and dropping to her feet. She punched the ground as she landed, then stood up straight. "Ugh, you've gotta be freakin' kidding me!"
"It's all falling into place," Flicker said, weapon down. "Mother Amaterasu."
"Uh, 'scuse me, no," somebody said, full of energy, sass, and, appropriately fire! The wing at Patty's back shuddered, the flames connecting. The process was quick, the colors moving and mixing into one other so harmoniously that it was beautiful. It was awesome! The wing detached itself from our 'kip's body and flew out by its own will, fully formed as... Willow? That fiery ponytail and the little flame hairs sticking up, the armless body with a coat of red draped around where its neck should be, almost like a scarf of embers – this was totally Willow! Her pointy tail curved up and its tip reshaped into a fiery hand, with which she waved one of its fingers. "It's Emiterasu!"
The living fire turned around, showing her cute face. It didn't show much confidence, but she seemed pretty overexcited. I could relate!
"Was that cool or what? I'm – you saw that? I did an entrance. Ohmygosh, Pat, this is like a movie. This is so fire~!" Emiterasu clamored.
"Em-..." Patty stuttered.
Jira seemed fine, too. She got back up, put her arms out, and pulled an unsuspecting Flux away from Mari. Well, really, I didn't know what she was up to, but she was still trying to help out! I had to at least TRY, unless I was gonna be netted up like wild prey. Not this time! I stuck my nose into the ground, bit onto the hilt of my misshapen Cross, and took it with me.
"Waaaaaaahh...~" the fiery being yawned, stretching her tail out high like an arm. "All RIGHT, baby, gimme some action! Enough snoozing, time to bring out the sizzle!"
"Emelina?! How?! I-..." the poor mudkip stood still, yet totally shaken.
A moment passed Pat by, like my own self, walking beside the speechless Pokémon and her new partner. And, if what I'd recalled what Alli told me about this supposed partner, now I had even more of a reason to get back to her. I couldn't tell Patty or her friend anything on account of having a mouthful of 'pain and suffering', but I could give her all the delight in my face that said I had her back, and that this new (maybe old) friend of hers, in more than a couple ways, had her back, too.
"I take it that Amaterasu's original wielder died? Since when?!" Flicker contested.
"Ooooh yeah, I made you by accident, huh Susano'o'whoa'whoa? Sorry! They blindfolded me the whole time. Blame the scientists!" the living fire, er, apologized.
"Mmgh, you're just a child who turned into a Symbi," Flicker sighed. She faced Mari, who had been aided free of the Flux's restraint. Jira was keeping that Flux busy, luring it away from the skywisp. The battlefield had more than evened out for us. It was like that from the start, but I wasn't the best fighter right now, and Patty – well, Patty just awakened to an kick-butt power that I couldn't wait to see! "Fine. Now's not the time. Astraea, let's move on. Amaterasu is nothing but a stranger to me."
"But, what about Mari?! O-okay, maybe..." Astraea flailed, fists tight. "Maybe not her, but what about Arcadia?! My sister's still out there. What if the Flux-"
"Arcadia's gone! Leave that matter alone!" Flicker snapped. "We have other things to consider. Just... come on. You're the only ally I can afford to have right now."
"But, Joel, too..." Astraea grumbled.
"We'll get Andromeda back. He's not going to become another experiment. I'll make damn sure of that." said the blue fluff. From here, it really did seem like they wanted to protect somebody that they cared about, but underneath the surface, that couldn't excuse wanting to wipe out the Pokémon population.
"Kkkhhee, Vis come... Vis can come-make-Travissss happy, too. Khehehekee!" the pulsating blob proclaimed, swerving and contorting itself through the air to join up with its 'master', of sorts. It stood over her, looking down at her with a blank, sharp smile that meant less than nothing to her; or, at least, it meant about as much as whatever an agitated tapping of her foot against the soil could portray. Annoyance? Encumbrance? One white hand on her hip and a shake of the head spoke decision louder than any words. Actually, holy heck, shoving the barrel of her weapon in the Flux's squishy face and then shooting a hole through him meant so much more, the loud zap of the weapon screaming into the wind, red liquid and green light mixing, gushing in a ray of viscera-tinted energy.
Still, pathetic, whimpery cackles shook the bubbly surface of the Flux. Even if its mouth or whole face had been blown to smitheroons, it was still making noise, or trying to. Then, it just melted, betrayed, reduced to a sickening batter. It flattened out into the grass, tendrils trying to reach out for Flicker. They were met with more shots from her weapon. The shots didn't look as powerful. They didn't erupt, nor were they that loud, but they still subdued the blob into a helpless puddle.
"I feel ashamed of myself," Flicker scowled, a menace standing over a loyal, dying Flux, gun pointed down. "I used you to gain an edge, when I should have killed you so much sooner. I should feel nothing for you, but good grief and alas."
"Ew. Fluxes are all kinds'a blech. You should shoot them more." said the vivillon siren. I shouldn't have seen it as her mocking Fluxes, but because I happened to, oh I don't know, BE one, it made me a mad vee. How could Gamma beings not sympathize? Weren't they so much better than this? If this was how Symbis were, then... N-no, Cadi was amazing. Amaterasu must'a been good, too. And Solacea, or Glitra – was she really as bad as Astraea said?
Well...
...Rumbling?
...Rumbling underfoot?
Was this another of those little tremors? Those were weird. Why'd they happen? Oh, wait, NO DUH, the world was splitting apart. Stoopid Rayse, you were standing in front of the maw of a super-mega cataclysmic stairway to heaven deal. OH GEE I WONDER WHAT CAUSED EARTHQUAKES. Maybe the earth being torn out from underground, that place where earthquakes happen.
But it was so puny, like it was just a... uh, creature, burrowing underneath my feet. Was it like a mole?
A recurrent sense of furor.
A tiny geyser of dirt and roots blasted out from beneath Mari, who had flown oblivious to the interruptions beneath her. As soon as she had gotten out of her bind, another one tied her up. It was so aggressively fast that I could've blinked and missed it. Actually, I wasn't sure if I did blink, because the skywisp was already snared in an entanglement of fleshy vines. Another Flux, I thought! Boy, EVERYTHING was out to trap Mari today! It was a serious marvel how she managed to get out of a place called The Tangle with this kind of luck.
There was a flower at the end of these vines. It was yellow, petals rigid, tipped off with black.
It had patches of scarlet on its crazed, round face, right where its cheeks would have been.
That, and it HAD a face. It was a living flower. As for Flux? None. It didn't smell like Flux, from what I could tell with the other Flux's melted body near it. This (new) smiling abomination smelt like a rotting carcass laden with ozone and pollen. On top of that, the nauseating flair of White lingered, and it was so strong that it made mine and Jira's trivial by comparison.
"Guess who's baaaAAAACK~?!" the living flower sang out, discordant.
I gulped...
…
To Be Continued...
