Disclaimer: All characters belong to Namco.



The Chinese teenager smiled brightly and held her arms out to the sides. "The one and only!"

And those arms of hers embraced the unexpecting Kilik, nearly causing the youth to leap back and yelp in surprise; he uneasily returned the hug, still surprised that his friend was standing before him. Of course, he didn't express his feelings of confusion towards her. It had been a long time since he had last seen Xianghua and he was honestly happy to see her. "It's been so long... How did you know I was here?"

Xianghua grinned, flashing him her porcelain white teeth. "The girls all over this town have been whispering about a foreign boy with a mirrored belt about him..."

"Ah," Kilik chuckled, running his thumb along one of the mirrors of the Dvapara-Yuga. "Dead giveaway."

And, inexplicably, he found his memory returning to a certain letter... The letter where Seung Mi Na insisted that he speak and apologize to Xianghua for upsetting her before their months-long separation. "Hey, Xianghua...?"

"Yes?"

"I need to talk to you," he paused to look around, "in private." He noticed that, as foreigners from the East, they stood out like sore thumbs and were drawing some unwanted attention to themselves. It couldn't be helped. But the last thing Kilik wanted was to have strangers hear his conversations.

Xianghua blinked her sepia eyes at him, wondering just what her handsome friend had in mind. Overcome with curiosity, she nodded and left the tavern with him, post haste.




"So," Kilik bashfully gazed up at Xianghua through the thin strands of tawny bangs that often dangled in front of his matching-in-color eyes. From his spot atop a mossy riverbank just outside of the German village, he saw her fidget and glance away every now and then. While he knew Xianghua to be an active girl, Kilik also knew her enough to say she seldom fidgeted and only did so when her mind was occupied with some kind of internal conflict. He didn't know of the conflicts, as she remained deathly quiet especially whilst he gave her his most sincere and heartfelt apology. He didn't know if his truthful words struck a chord within her. He hoped they did, in a positive way. Xianghua was his friend and the last thing he wanted was for her to have a grudge against him; he couldn't live with himself if she did.

Finally, after a few moments of thinking and even more fidgeting, Xianghua looked to him with her reply: "Of course I do, silly."

Kilik felt the relief of a great burden at the sound of that. "Thank you..."

"Kilik?"

"Hm?"

"I..." Xianghua's lips parted but no sound escaped them. The words were trapped in her throat, apparently. In a self-conscious manner, she rubbed the nape of her neck. "Oh, it's nothing."

"You sure? It sounded very important," Kilik said.

"I'm sure. I'm sure!" Xianghua replied hastily. And she quickly sought to digress. "Anyway, what did you do while we were seperated...?"

Kilik's brown eyebrows furrowed together in suspicion but he said nothing of it. He didn't want to argue with her. "Oh, I just headed north," he replied cooly, keeping an eye on her as she attempted to look casual by throwing stones along the surface of the smooth running river. "I went through Venice---"

"Ooh, really!?" she squealed. "I've heard so much about it! Isn't it a lovely place?"

Kilik's eyes lowered and his kind grin nearly faded. "It's...okay. I mean, it's nothing to write home about..."

"Oh," Xianghua said, her excitement about hearing tales of the lovely Italian city forever gone, "and here I thought Venice was a city of beauty and love." She wrinkled her nose.

She barely noticed the somewhat crestfallen gaze on Kilik's face as he chuckled dryly, though without any mirth. "Heh. Love."

She blinked at him. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Kilik said abruptly. Now it was his turn to digress. "Say, you've seen Maxi?"

The Chinese shrugged. "No. Haven't seen him since I last saw you. But I picked up on a clue from some girls I spoke to on my travels. They say he's heading north. But he could be anywhere now."

"Girls." Kilik shook his head, almost laughing. "Why am I not surprised that they know more about his whereabouts than we do?"

"Beats me," Xianghua said with a giggle. "And the rumor of the Azure Knight and the legion of demons is very eminent here, too..."

Kilik suddenly glanced to her as a thought crossed his mind. "So Maxi is..."

Xianghua returned a similar, alarmed gaze. "...he's here in Germany..!"


****


A/N: Whew, that was kind of short, huh? Well, this was actually the rest of what I put up for Chapter 1, in case any confusion pops up. Chapter 3? Hm. I don't know when I can get that typed out. I'll try today but I can't make any promises...

Please read and review or send me an e-mail at: kaldea@tekken.cc