Lunar Succession

Author: ~Heartless Spirit~

Disclaimer: I don't own SM or GW. I DO own Dederi, so no stealin'!

AN: HEY PPL! THIS CHAPTER IS VERY HUMOROUS (well, to me anyway..something happens to Wufei that's hilarious)
OoH! I love this chapter already! [sees weird stares coming from readers] uh...heheh...heh...neva you mind! Read
already!

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Lunar Succession
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Chapter 7-Early Morning (Getting to Know You)
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Trowa opened his eyes as the morning rays of the sun shined through the silk white curtains of the balcony windows.
He yawned and looked at the alarm clock on his end table to the left of him. "6:30." He smoothed his long brown hair
out of his right eye and his hair went back into place, like it usually does. The Latin pilot pulled the warm blanket
off the rest of his body and put on his white muscle tee (AN: No, baka hentais, he had pants on.:P). [Wonder why I'm
up so early. Oh well, might as well get my breakfast. The others probably won't be up for a few more hours.] Trowa
decided as he opened his bedroom door quietly. After he closed the door, he walked down the main stairs leading to
the foyer/living room, then turned to the left and entered the kitchen, pushing the white lattice doors open slowly.
He was suprised to hear a soft humming noise. A small laugh escaped his lips as he watched Dederi cooking while
she was in black flannel pants and an extremely large blue t-shirt that went down to her upper thighs. "Good morning."
He said.

Dederi was preparing breakfast for everyone in the kitchen. She had woken up at six o'clock and hadn't been able
to get to sleep, so she decided to cook and give the chefs and maids a break. Dederi didn't know why she was being so
considerate again, like she had in her original dimension. Maybe it was because her human emotions were getting the
better of her. She didn't know. Could she be becoming more human? Of course, there WAS also that 'weakness' that
Dederi had when she had first come to the Gundam era.

Dederi snapped out of her daze as she heard someone say, "Good morning." She turned around and put on her usual scowl.
"Don't sneak up on me like that, Barton!"

"Why, did the rival of the 'Perfect Soldier' get scared?" Trowa teased as he pulled up a seat on the polished mahogany
counter.

"Very funny, unibang." She retorted, cutting up a few tomatoes for her salad, which currently laid in a crystal bowl
to the left of her.

Trowa chuckled. "You know, I don't think I've ever seen or hear you name call anyone before."

Dederi grinned. "That's because I'm more irritable in the morning, Barton." She put the sliced tomatoes into the
salad. "What are you doing up so early in the morning anyway?" She opened the pantry and took out a series of
salad dressings.

"I could ask you the same thing."

"You first."

Trowa sighed. "I woke up early for no reason. I just couldn't get back to sleep." He looked at the overhead
lamps above the center counter and the hanging pots and copper pans and utensils.

"Same reason." Dederi smiled.

"Look, you smiled." Trowa pointed out.

Dederi chuckled. [Why the hell do I feel so giddy? I'm acting like Venus.] "You know, I never thought I'd
smile so early in the morning. Usually I become so much like a jerk it affects the rest of the day." Dederi
began to crack the eggs she had laid out on a tray and into a blender, adding milk and some other ingredients.
Trowa guessed she was going to make pancakes. The Latin teen noticed that Dederi had now begun to continually
smile as she cooked.

"You look nicer when you smile." Trowa complimented.

Dederi stopped cooking suddenly and turned to Trowa with a suprised expression on her pale face, although it
didn't stay pale for long. Trowa laughed heartily as he watched Dederi's face turn into a tomato. Dederi
tried to keep the blood from rushing to her cheeks, but then she realized she couldn't do that!

"Uh, t-thanks. No one's ever said that to me before." She laughed nervously.

Trowa, although he couldn't believe he was going to do this, went over and wrapped his arms around Dederi, her
back facing him. "I'm suprised." Dederi wasn't a tomato anymore. As a matter of fact, she looked like she
was going to die from blushing.

"What are you doing?" Dederi tried not to lose her consciousness.

"This." Trowa turned her around and softly put his lips to hers.

Dederi's eyes widened in suprise. [...] She tried not to faint, although her eyes slowly closed. Dederi
suprisedly found herself kissing back. After a few more minutes, they reluctantly drew back and breathed
heavily. All Dederi found herself saying was, "Wow."

Trowa smiled. "Yeah."

Dederi smiled back, then put her arms around his neck and kissed him again. Trowa had his arms around her waist
tightly and kissed her more passionately than last time. A small moan escaped Dederi's lips.

Soon after, their lips parted, once again breathing heavily. Both were blushing furiously. Dederi broke the
uncomfortable silence. "So, uh, do you want to help me finish making breakfast?"
Trowa panted and nodded at the same time, then both set about making fresh orange juice, pancakes, and french
toast. Both occassionally glanced at each other and smiled, content with each other's company.

When it was about 8:30AM, Dederi heard indistinct chatter outside the wooden lattice doors which led to the
foyer/living room. Dederi laughed. "Trowa-kun, they're awake. And from the sounds of it, they all are."
Trowa chuckled. He seemed to be now very comfortable with Dederi's musings. Dederi gathered the last two
plates of food, one had french toast and the other had waffles. "I'll just set these down in the dining
room. The salad and pancakes are there already, right?"

Trowa nodded and kissed her on the cheek before picking up the pitcher of orange juice that he had just made.
"Should we keep this to ourselves for now, Dede-chan?"

Dederi nodded. "If you want. Besides, wouldn't it just be hilarious if we saw their faces?"

Trowa laughed. "Good point. Alright, let's keep it to just the two of us for now."

They kissed one more time and walked out the doors into the dining room.

"Wow! Look, Q-man! Did your cooks do this?" Duo's eyes bulged out of his head when he saw all of the food.

"No. My cooks don't begin until 9AM, Duo. I wonder who did this.." Quatre was baffled.

The senshi and pilots heard a laugh. "Actually, it was us, Duo." Trowa set the orange juice near the
glass cups and Dederi placed the waffles and french toast near the pancakes. "Like what you see?"
Dederi and Trowa noticed that the senshi and the pilots were all still in their pajamas, as they were.

"Oh, YEAH!" Duo exclaimed, sitting down and began to toss everything onto his plate. Everyone laughed and sat
down, marveling all of the food that was created.

Dederi grinned. "I'll be right back, I forgot the salad dressing." The raven-haired assassin disappeared
through the kitchen doors.

"Hey, Tro-man, I have a question for ya." Duo stated between forkfuls of pancake.

Trowa poured orange juice into his glass. "What is it?"

"Why were ya in the kitchen with Dede-chan at 6:30 in the morning?" Duo asked, globs of excess pancake spewing
from his mouth, causing the girls to stick out their tongues in disgust.

Trowa slightly blushed (he couldn't help it, a'ight?). "Well, I couldn't sleep, so I went to the kitchen to fix
myself breakfast when I saw Dederi in the kitchen making all of ours. So-"

"So, he decided to help me cook breakfast." Dederi finished for him. "Here's the salad dressing."

Makoto put a slice of waffle into her mouth. After chewing it for a bit, she concluded, "Hey, this is good! Dederi-kun,
where'd you learn to cook like this?"

"Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that all Romeclyst assassins and agents must learn to cook for international missions,
in case we're assigned to houses." Nova smiled as she put syrup onto her waffles. "Weird, huh?"

"This is as good as Mako-chan's cooking!" Ami exclaimed.

Dederi sat down across from Trowa. She gave way to a small smile, though no one noticed but Trowa. He smiled back.

"Kuro-chan, I haven't eaten great food like this since before you left!" Ibaren grinned, which made Dederi chuckle
proudly.

After breakfast, the maids took the empty plates away, murmuring their thanks to Dederi and Trowa for setting and
cooking. The sight of the full bellies of the senshi and pilots showed that they were thankful too.

"Man, I loved that breakfast!" Minako sighed in content. "Hey, could you guys cook for lunch, too?"

Dederi grinned. "All right, but if you eat as much as you did at breakfast, you'll turn up to be as fat as an
elephant." Everyone laughed except Minako, who blushed furiously.

As Dederi left the room, Nova murmured to Duo, "You know, she's acting more cheery. Wonder why that is."

Ibaren walked out the door. [She found something to warm her cold and unfeeling heart.]

Heero stalked off towards the training room. He needed to think.

"I'm going to go swimming. Anyone care to join me?" Michiru smiled.

"Me!" Makoto, Ami, Rei, Duo, Nova, Quatre, Minako, Hotaru, and Haruka chorused.

Wufei grunted. "No way." He trudged to the courtyard to meditate.

Setsuna laughed. "Not me, I'll be in the library. I'm fascinated as to what happened in the past of this dimension."

Dederi sat in the living room, or rather, lying on a couch in the living room, when Trowa walked in. "Hey."
"Hey." Trowa replied, leaning over Dederi. "Could you teach me how you did those energy blasts?"
"What?" Dederi sat up.
"You know, those red and black energy blasts that you did to eliminate the rest of the soldiers last night."
"Oh, those." Dederi remembered. "Yeah, sure. C'mon." She stood up. "Oh, wait. I think we should change into
casual clothing first." She laughed.
Trowa nodded and walked up the stairs with Dederi. "I'll meet you in the courtyard near the outdoor swimming
pool, okay, Dede-chan?"
Dederi nodded.

"WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!" Duo screamed as he cannon-balled into the large pool. "Yeah! Woo! Come on in, babes, the
water's fine!" He wore black swimming trunks.
Minako and Quatre jumped in. Minako yelled,"Aah! C-cold!"
"It's not that bad, Minako." Quatre said.
"Easy for you to say, Qua-chan!" Minako retorted.
Minako wore a orange strapless swimsuit with a yellow bow on the chest-part and Quatre wore orange and blue swim trunks.
Makoto wore a dark green and powder pink bikini, Ami wore a simple sea blue one-piece that glittered when she was in the
water, Rei wore a strapless red swimsuit with a phoenix design in gold on the front, Hotaru wore a black one-piece with
purple frills on the arms, Haruka had a navy blue one piece with a transparent white overshirt (she didn't want to swim,
just to get a tan), Michiru wore a aquamarine two piece with glitter as the outline and her hair was up in a yellow
bow, and Nova wore a black and yellow bikini with her hair down. Altogether, they seemed very movie star-ish.

Michiru swan-dived in, splashing Haruka in the process. Haruka growled at her girlfriend. "Hey, Michi-chan! What'd you
do that for?!"

Nova walked over to the diving board, looking at the cool, clean chlorine-filled water. It seemed so calm until she
realized that Duo had gotten out of the pool and was about to push her in! "Duo, you wouldn't!"

"I could!"

"You couldn't!"

Duo pushed her off the diving board and into the pool. He laughed as she rose from the water, soaked and shaking her
fist. Duo snickered. "I did!"

"Duo!" Nova screamed as she pulled his feet in. "You baka!"

As chaos ensued...

A certain large-banged latin teenager waited patiently underneath the newly-blossomed cherry blossom tree for Dederi.
He was wearing his usual black turtleneck shirt and jeans, the same impassive look on his face as he put his hands
in his pockets.

"Hey." Dederi said as she walked up to him. She wore a thick-strapped red tank top and black jeans with dark brown
low-cut boots. She also wore black finger-less gloves and dangling earrings that resembled black tears. She had her
hair up in a high ponytail with two strands of hair dangling at the sides of her face, tied by a black rubber band.
To Trowa, she looked absolutely stunning. Actually, if you looked at her from far away, you wouldn't've recognized
her.

Trowa grinned. "You look nice." She blushed and kissed him on the cheek. Unbeknownst to them, Wufei was meditating in
the courtyard as well. He had opened his eyes to take a break and gasped when he saw a girl with a long ponytail
kiss Trowa. He got up and walked over. "Hey Barton. Who's the onna?"

Dederi broke off the kiss when he heard Wufei's voice. Trowa looked up. "So much for keeping it to ourselves."

"Trowa, who's the onna?" Wufei repeated, not taking his eyes off her.

Trowa and Dederi laughed. Trowa tried not to, but to no avail. "Y-you don't recognize her, Wufei?" He laughed.
"Yeah, I've never seen her before. For an onna, she seems strong, and rather pretty." Wufei admitted, causing the
'unknown onna' to blush. Trowa continued to laugh. "Well, since you don't recognize her, I'll introduce you again.
Wufei, meet Dederi." He laughed louder.
Wufei froze instantly. "That onna is DEDERI?!?!"
"Hai." Dederi managed to answer between laughs. "Man, I can't breathe!"
"That ONNA is DEDERI!?!?"
Dederi stopped laughing. "What? I don't look THAT different."
"You do too!" Wufei retorted. "How was I supposed to know you changed your appearance?!"
Trowa laughed. "Not to mention her personality's rather changed."
Dederi wasn't amused. "Haha. Very funny. Do you want to learn how to manage ki blasts or not, Barton?"
"Yeah."
"So stop it and we can start."
Wufei crossed his arms. "Ki blasts?"
"Yes, ki blasts. Remember Relena's ballroom?" Dederi informed sitting down next to Trowa under the cherry blossom tree.
[Trowa's going to learn that?!] "Could you teach me too?"
Dederi snickered. "Oh, is the great Wufei Chang willing to be taught by a weak onna?" Dederi and Trowa laughed.
"I won't call you that anymore if you teach me." Wufei proposed.
"Deal. Sit down." Dederi pointed to the spot next to Trowa and her. (AN: They're sitting in a triangle under the tree)

"Now, this isn't easy. It'll take a few hours, maybe days. So have a lot of patience." Dederi began to sound like Setsuna.
"I want you to clear your mind of all disturbances and distractions. Become calm. Serene.

"Now, search in yourself. Something that calms you, some fire, for example." Dederi said as she watched the two pilots
with their eyes closed. "Something warm. To better put it, search for your essence, or soul, as others put it."

"I feel it. It's warm." Wufei answered, opening his eyes. "It's like a white flame..Pure but unsettled.."

"Good. Each person has an essence, or soul, and that essence has a visible form. Such as fire, or light. Mine
is different from all others, I'm afraid, but that can't be helped. What does yours look or feel like, Trowa?"

"It feels warm and comforting..it's so quiet..." Trowa opened his eyes. "It almost looks like an orb. It was dark
green with a shade of black in the center..."

Dederi smiled, which Wufei was suprised at. She explained, "Wufei, your soul represents purity and strength. Although,
your outer personality is the exact opposite." She sneered. "And Trowa," she smiled kindly, "Yours represents
silence and mystery, as well as properity and kindness. Now, do you still have your essences in reach?"

Both nodded.

"Now, feel around its warmth and slowly and steady pull it out onto the tips of your fingers, like this." Dederi put out
her hand and it began to glow a black and bloody red. It took form like an orb, the black on the outside of it with a
crimson center.

Trowa and Wufei nodded. Trowa closed his eyes, feeling the warmth within his body. He once again found that dark green
orb and grasped it with his mind. With his eyes remaining closed, he pulled it out onto its visible form. It took form
as a glowing ki sphere on the palm of his hand, and had a dark green outer shell with a mysterious black center. He opened
his eyes. "Whoa. I did it."

Dederi grinned. "Wufei, you try."

Wufei nodded nervously and closed his eyes, feeling also for that warmth. He felt for it, and finally found that white
flame and slowly pulled it out of his body and onto his hands. He put his hands together and a white light formed from them.
When he opened his eyes and hands, he found himself holding a floating white ki sphere. "It..it changed."

Dederi chuckled. "Yes. You see, Trowa and Wufei, within your body, your essence is in its original and free state. But
outside your body, where you can control it, it forms into visible energy. If you wish, you could put it into it's
original state, but you wouldn't be able to control it as well as you would as a sphere or blast. Do you understand?"

"I think so." Wufei nodded.

Dederi got up. "Now, try to blast me."

"W-what?! Both students exclaimed.

She walked three feet away from them and turned around, looking at them with her arms in a cross position. "You have
learned to bring them out, now hit me with ki blasts, if you can. But for now, try to continuously throw ki spheres
at me. All you need to do is throw the spheres you have now, then bring them out from your body faster." She looked on.
"Well? You want to practice or not?"

"But we could hurt you, Dederi-kun." Trowa's eyes filled with concern.

"Oh, don't worry about that. You're too inexperienced still to throw me back, let alone bruise. Try your best."

"Alright, I guess." Wufei held out his other hand and slowly brought out another white ki sphere. The Chinese pilot
threw his first ki sphere at the girl. Dederi yawned as the sphere hit her dark red shield, which matterialized
when the sphere went into contact with it.

"Come on, you can do better than that."

[So that shield will protect her even if we attack.] Trowa stared. [Well, I might as well do as she says.] He
threw a green ki sphere at her. The shield deflected it.

"Good, Trowa, but you can do better." She raised her right gloved hand in the air and a black and red ki sphere
matterialized. "Now you both know how to throw your spheres. How about this. I won't use my shield, but I'll through
my own spheres and ki blasts to deflect them, instead. If both of you can go past my defenses and hit me with
your attacks, I'll teach you how to use your essence as a shield. Deal?"

"Deal." Both nodded. Then they began to throw numerous spheres at her.

"You learn fast." Dederi smirked as she ki blasted four ki spheres into oblivion. "But throw quicker. Produce the
energy spheres quicker!" She threw a sphere at another of Wufei's white ones.

Trowa put out his left hand and drew out a green and black sphere. [Maybe I can make it larger..] He narrowed
his eyes and concentrated as Wufei kept throwing his attacks, which Dederi effortlessly rendevoed with her own
blasts and spheres. Trowa's ki sphere grew to the size of his head, and he hurled it like he would in dodgeball.
Dederi turned to his sphere right before it hit her. She drew back, panting. "You learn well, Barton. All right,
Wufei, all you have to do now is hit me." [I didn't expect him to learn that form of attack yet. How smart.]

Wufei smirked at her simple statement. [Alright.] He drew out his ki into a large blindingly white sphere, then
hurled it to her like a fast ball. "Think fast!"

Dederi sighed and prepared to blow it up with her own ki blast. To her suprise, though, Wufei threw his hand
up, and the ki sphere was following his hand's movements! "Yaah!" Wufei yelled and threw his hand down, causing the
sphere to speed down and onto Dederi. There was an explosion as the sphere hit Dederi, a cloud of white mist.

When the mist parted, the two teenage pilots found Dederi chuckling in the center of the mist. "Good, you two. Very
good." She clapped her hands together, congratulating her two 'students'. "You two learned well. Now, as promised,
I'll teach you to use your essence as shields to deflect attacks." She went over to them, still clapping. When she
stopped clapping she put her hands out in front of the pilots' faces. "Try and hit my hands." She was only one
foot apart from the pilots. Wufei attempted to hit her hand with a punch, but was pushed back by a red shield covering
Dederi's hands.

Trowa attempted to punch Dederi's right hand, but couldn't even touch it.

Wufei tried drop-kicking. Didn't work.

Dederi laughed. "You use your essence as a shield simply by concentrating your energy around yourself. Or if you're
against someone, concentrate on their attacks and use your essence to block. Is that simple enough?"

Trowa and Wufei, a tad confused, nodded anyway.

"Okay, you guys try."

Trowa put his hand out in front of himself and concentrated. Dederi attempted to elbow his hand lightly and was slightly
pushed back by a dark green shield. Then she attempted to kick Wufei in the stomach, and succeeded. Wufei fell to the
ground, groaning in pain. She sighed. "You didn't concentrate hard enough, Wufei." She held out a hand. "Get up and I'll
try to hit you again." He reluctantly pulled himself up with a groan.

He closed his eyes and crossed his arms.

This time, Dederi threw an uppercut at her Chinese student. Her attack was deflected by a white energy shield. "Good.
See, that wasn't so bad."

At this moment, Dederi noticed that Trowa and Wufei were panting. Heavily, I might add. "I forgot to tell you something.
You need to save your energy. Beginners like you have just found their essence and controlled them, so be careful. But
you must realize that all people who are able to control their essence need to use their energy wisely. Using all of your
essence will make you tired and make you sick. When I first learned to control my energy with my other two friends, we
used up all our energy fighting the enemy we all ended up in the hospital for a few days. And I don't want you two
to become seriously ill. Understand?"

Both nodded, still tired.

Dederi continued her lecture. "But anyway, once you get used to your energy and have more control over it, you'll be
able to use it more often." She then laughed. "Which means, Wufei, when Duo calls you Wu-man again, you'll be able to
ki sphere him into traction someday."

Wufei grinned. [That'll be fun.]

"Actually, you can do that now, but only use small spheres and blasts since you just started, okay?"

The Chinese pilot nodded.

Trowa smirked at Wufei's grin. "Just don't put him into a coma, Wufei."

All three laughed. Dederi had an idea. "Why don't I fix us some lunch? It's almost 12:30, anyway." She said as she looked
at her watch. "We can eat the food here and have a picnic. After lunch we'll resume training."

"Yeah, I'm in." Trowa smiled.

"I'm starving." Wufei agreed.

"All right, then. I'll be back in, say, twenty minutes? What do you guys want?"

"I'll have whatever you have, Dederi-kun." the Latin pilot said, sitting down under the cherry blossom tree.

"Same with me. I don't care."

Dederi nodded and walked back through the white glass door, which led to Quatre's large mahogany-based kitchen.

As Trowa leaned on the trunk of the cherry blossom tree and Wufei sitting cross-legged two feet away from him, Wufei
remembered what he saw a few hours ago. "You and Dederi..never would have thought, Barton." He sneered.

"How so?" Trowa put his hands behind his head as he leaned on the trunk.

Wufei cracked his knuckles. "Well, it's just unexpected. I didn't think you'd be one to fall for an onna."

Trowa smiled. "Well, I did. Don't tell anyone. No one was supposed to find out." Then he laughed. "Your suprised
expression was priceless."

Wufei's face turned red. "Well how the hell was I supposed to know she changed her look, Barton!?"

"Well, I must admit, I didn't recognize her at first."

"See my point?" Wufei sneered.

"Just don't tell anyone, all right?"

"What's in it for me?" He grinned mischeviously.

Trowa sweatdropped. "Oh, so now you're blackmailing me?"

"What's he blackmailing you for?" Dederi said as she closed the lattice door, carrying a basket full of food.
"I heard you talking. Wufei, I swear, you're loud enough to hear a mile away."

"He's blackmailing me because he could tell everyone about us." Trowa said simply.

Dederi smirked. "Typical."

"Well? What's in it for me?" Wufei repeated.

Dederi grinned mischieviously. "If you don't tell, I won't kick your ass."

"Like you could."

"Oh?" She put down the basket next to Trowa. Her eyes shimmered evilly. Then she walked over to Wufei and picked him
up by the collar. "Really? You think so?"

Dederi dragged him over to the outdoor pool, where everyone was. She held him by his shirt over the shallow end of the pool.
"Do you still think so?"

Duo and Nova looked at the shallow side. "Hey, Dede-chan, whatcha doin' to Wu-man?"

"You'll see, braided-baka." She turned her attention back to Wufei, who began to sweat. "Now, you sure you don't want to
reconsider?"

Rei began to laugh. "HAHAHA! Dump him in! Dump him in!" She cheered on.

Minako looked at Dederi. "Hey, nice look!"

Rei sweatdropped. "What does that have to do with anything?"

Minako laughed. "Heheh.."

Dederi grinned. "You know what the worst thing I could do to you right now?"

"W-what?"

"I could pay Maxwell to kiss you."

Wufei glared. "You wouldn't dare!"

"Hey, Maxwell! I'll pay you-"

"Alright! Alright! I won't tell! Just don't tell him to kiss me!" Wufei pleaded.

Dederi laughed. "I know you'd see it our way."

Duo was confused. "What isn't he supposed to say?"

"Nothing." Wufei answered, not wanting to get kissed by the braided kisama.

"And who's 'our'?" Nova wondered getting out of the pool.

"No one." Wufei and Dederi scowled. "Come on, Chang. The food's getting cold." With that, the two scowling martial
artists turned the corner and left in the direction of the courtyard.

"FOOD?!?" Duo perked up.

"What was that all about?" Haruka asked, lifting her sunglasses from her eyes.

Minako got an idea. "I'm gonna find out! Come on!"

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AN: WHOOOOWEEEE!!!! THAT WAS FUN!!! I love this chapter. ^_^

If I get enough reviews, I WILL COME UP WITH THE NEXT CHAPTER BY TOMMOROW! I'm starting it right after I post it..
Which is in five minutes! AM I RAMBLING CUZ I DONT CARE!!!! IDEAS ARE FLOODING INTO MY HEAD LIKE...A FLOOD!!!
MUA~HA~HA~HA~HA!!!!

Email: ketsekiburade@hotmail.com