**Whee! And another chapter down--er, up, either way, really. ^_^;; Depends on which way you look at it, but ANYWAY. I just want to say thanks and ::HUG:: to EVERYONE who has reviewed! You guys make me soooooo happy when you do that! ^_^ Seriously, just ask Saito or UA. ^_^;; Anyhoo, I do read the reviews, and, per such, I still can't have Ben as a main character with them forever and ever (GOMEN!!!), however, I think that maybe, just MAYBE, he'll be a recurring character, kinda like O'aka. ^_~ Ask and maybe ye shall receive, ne? ^_^ Well, on with the story! Yeeeeehah!**
Mariana had made the decision to leave Djose temple in the middle of the night, despite both Genki's and the temple's priest's protests to at least rest for a little while. As soon as Mariana had gained the next Aeon, she pulled Genki, whining all the while, and strode out of the temple. Genki had put up a rather weak fight, due to the fact that he hadn't gotten any rest within the past 24 hours or so. He almost fell asleep as she dragged him, much to Mariana's own dismay. He really had become a load...
Finally, Mariana had reached the point she had rushed so much to get to. Staring across the water, she shook poor Genki awake. He grumbled something unintelligibly before opening his eyes. When they were finally open, they remained so for the longest time.
"This...I have wanted to see since I was a child." Mariana sat on the water's edge, her now bare feet just grazing the glowing waters below her. Genki shrugged off the humungous backpack and sat next to her. Her demeanor had changed once more, from pushy and angry to that of a happy child. Her eyes simply shone as she watched the pyreflies flutter around the Moonflow. "This place was always in my dreams, but...never as beautiful as this."
Genki let out a happy, tired sigh. "I always wondered what it would look like myself, I guess."
A long stretch of silence came between the two, as they just watched the pyreflies move in and out of the water and around each other. Finally, Mariana, her voice very soft, spoke.
"We'll sleep here tonight." Her eyes never moved from the water in front of her. "No tents." Genki nodded, past trespasses temporarily forgotten, and went to fetch the sleeping bags.
Mariana's eyes continued to stare across the lake. Tears slowly fell from the corners of her eyes, and she smiled.
I finally got here, Mama. I saw it for you. She quickly wiped away her tears as Genki came bag with the bags. Stretching out on his own, he let out another sigh, looking at the waters.
"I don't think I'll be able to fall asleep," he said, smiling and closing his eyes. Mariana let out a low chuckle.
"Neither do I."
*-*-*-*-*
"Ah, what a beautiful morning!"
Yueh took in a deep breath. Perhaps a little too deep. She gave a few coughs as she let out the breath and Arashi giggled.
"I guess too much air is bad for you," Arashi said, smiling. She was hooking up the two chocobos back into their harnesses while Niet and Ben saddled the third. Finishing, she gave each a small pat on the beak before scrambling up onto the front seat to help drive. "Do we have everything, Yueh?"
"We didn't take anything out of the wagon, did we?" Yueh ran around the covered wagon and hopped in the back, her eyes checking for everything. She crawled through to the front and gave a thumbs up.
"Everything's all right here!" Niet shouted out. Ben was trying to get up on his chocobo, but couldn't quite figure out how to now that his crutches were no longer needed. Niet finally sighed and gave him a swift boot in the rear, making him yelp and clutch the neck of his chocobo.
"Hey! That hurt!"
Niet grinned. "You're on the chocobo now, aren't you?" Pulling out her rapier, she went on. "At least I didn't hit you with this." Leaving Ben shocked and stuttering, Niet jumped into the back of the wagon and peeked her head through the front. "Ready to go!" She gave a quick peace sign.
"You didn't need to kick him, Niet," Arashi reprimanded. Niet gave a shrug and simply grinned. Shaking her head and laughing, Arashi lightly tapped the reins on the chocobos sides. "Hup hup! Ikimashou! Onward!"
The village priest waved farewell as the four went off once more, forward to New Luca and the Blitzball tournament.
Which, of course, Ben would not shut up about.
"I always liked Blitzball, no matter what anyone else said." He was looking straight forwards on his chocobo, still looking for threats as they talked. "Raising the stats of the players, winning a bunch of neat stuff in tournaments...man, if my leg weren't still all crappy I'd be playing in it myself! Of course, I need a team, then, don't I?"
"Won't he ever shut up?" Niet whispered hoarsely.
"Let him have his fun," Arashi said, smiling kindly. "I don't like Blitzball any more than you do." Giggling, she went on. "Then again, I have the ability to totally tune people out..."
"I don't think that's a great trait for a summoner to have," Niet said. Ben continued to drone on in the background.
"I'd be coach, but without Wakka's freaky accent. I don't need to say ya at the end of every sentence to coach, right? But then again, maybe doing that would motivate the team more?" Ben looked like he was deep in thought. "Or would it annoy them? You know..."
"Hm? What did you say, Niet?" Arashi tried not to smile when Niet began to get all red and freak out.
"Arashi, I just said that--" Arashi finally burst out laughing, and Niet realized that she was joking. "Aheh, oh..."
Yueh had been paying attention to the map for the whole time, doing calculations in her head of the amount of time it would take at this pace to get to New Luca. So she didn't quite get why Niet was blushing like mad and Arashi was laughing so hard. She coughed to get their attention.
"I think we need to go a bit faster, Arashi." Yueh rolled up her arm warmers a bit and held the map out to the other two girls. "At this rate, we're going to take a whole week just to get to New Luca. Think we can, ah, step up the pace a little?" She gave Arashi a wink. "If you know what I mean..."
"I got it, Yueh. You may want to climb in back first, though." Arashi grinned. "Its time to move!"
"This'll shut Ben up, I bet," Niet remarked as Yueh climbed in the back with her. Yueh laughed.
"We can only hope." Loading herself down to the floor of the wagon with their supplies (Niet did the same), Yueh gave a wave to the front. "All ready back here!" Arashi gave a quick nod in return.
"Hey, Ben!"
Ben turned his head and gave a quizzical look to Arashi. "What?"
Yueh could just imagine the grin on Arashi's face right now, and, by the laughter she heard from Niet, Niet was doing the same. Yueh closed her eyes and smiled, waiting for the wagon to jump forward.
"Hold on to your saddle! Haste!" Arashi flung her free hand down quickly, and the air around their wagon and Ben and his chocobo was filled with the sparkling light of white magic. Arashi's laughter could barely be heard over the chocobo's trampling talons and Ben's rather high-pitched screaming.
"Arashiiiiii!"
Yueh pulled out the map again and looked at the now rapidly moving flashing arrow. She grinned. "At this rate, it'll be only two, three days tops!" she shouted. Niet smiled and leaned back, putting her hands behind her head.
"Three days until more decent food...that I can handle."
Still laughing, Arashi let out a loud, happy scream as they hit a particularly large bump. Yueh noticed pyreflies floating up from the rear of the wagon as they went past it.
"Nothing like Sin spawn roadkill, eh?" Niet said, closing her eyes.
Yueh let out a happy sigh, which couldn't be heard over Ben's screaming. "Nothing like it..."
*-*-*-*-*
They managed to reach New Luca within the three day estimate that Yueh had put down that day. They got there on the third day, around sunset, and had gotten the "preferential" treatment all summoner's parties got. Despite the fact that the inns in the immediate vicinity had previously been booked, the largest one in the city kicked out three young men in one room and a Blitzball team captain from another to accommodate them. The girls felt rather bad about this, but Ben was rather indifferent towards the whole situation.
In fact, he had plopped down in his room's bed and let out such a loud sigh that the girls could hear it from their own room. Only seconds afterwards, snoring could easily be heard coming from his room.
"How pleasant," Niet commented, pretending to clean out one of her ears.
"No worse than Arashi," Yueh said, giggling. Arashi gave Yueh a small look. "Hey, its true!"
Arashi sighed. "I know, unfortunately. Anyway," she pulled out a small, blue, folded piece of paper and began to read it, "the Blitzball festivities start tonight with the 8:00 Blitz Bowl. The, ah, New Luca Runners versus the New Kilika Kickers."
"Lovely names," Yueh said.
"Does that mean we have to wake up snoring boy over there?" Niet said, giving a quick nod towards the room next door. "If its this loud in here, I don't want to know how loud it is in there." She winced as Ben let out a particularly loud snort. "We'd go deaf."
"I'll zap him with some lightning," Yueh said, waving a hand. A loud bell rang, 8 times total, and Arashi gave a short nod. Yueh begrudgingly went to fetch Ben, while Arashi and Niet went to fetch a good seat.
Yueh crept into Ben's room, grimacing at the noise Ben was letting out as he slept. Trying to plug her ears at the same time, Yueh let a small bolt of lightning slip from her fingers and onto Ben's backside. He jumped up with a start and let out a yelp. Blinking wildly, he finally saw Yueh standing in front of him. He pointed at her, his mouth hanging open, trying to make out words.
"Blitzball is starting. We kind of figured you wanted to see it," Yueh said. Ben jumped out of the bed and ran out the doorway past her.
"Is it--crap! Outta the way! Outta--my--way!" Yueh heard a few screams and quite a few curses as Ben galumphed down the hallway. She winced again as she heard something only identifiable as pottery of some sort crash onto the floor and Ben shout, "Sorry 'bout that!"
"Why oh why did his leg have to get better so quickly?" Yueh asked to no one in particular. Starting down the hallway, she sighed. "Then again, it could have been worse..." Yueh picked up the pace and followed Ben's trail of destruction down the hallway. Noting that it was a large platter of food Ben had made someone drop, she ran out the doorway to try to find her friends in the overlarge Blitzball stadium. As it turned out, it was a much easier task than she thought.
"Yueh! Hey, Yueh! Over here!" Niet waved wildly to her, from a row that was front and center to the whole entire water sphere. She jogged lightly to Ben, Arashi, and Niet--the last's arms being filled with stadium vendor food.
"How much of our money did you spend?" Yueh asked, eyeing the food warily. Niet waved a hand and talked through a particularly large mouthful of hotdog and popcorn.
"Nufin'! Sinsh Ar'shi's a summ'ner, we get to eat fer free!" Yueh shook her head, and, after Niet scooted over, sat down next to her temporarily Goku-esque friend.
"At least don't talk with your mouth full," Yueh said, laughing. Niet gave a shrug and went right on gulping down the snacks. Shaking her head, Yueh continued to giggle. Ben quickly waved a hand in front of the two.
"Zip it! They're starting!" From that point on, Ben's eyes were glued to the sphere. Yueh simply sighed and watched the sphere blankly.
"Aaaand welcome to the Blitzball Blitz Bowl! The kick-off to the tournament, pitting the two best teams against each other right away!" The announcer's voice blared over loudspeakers, making Yueh's ears ring. It was worse than when she squeaked a high note on her flute.
"That's right, Bobba, the New Luca Runners and the New Kilika Kickers are certainly two of the best Blitz teams out there right now," another voice rang. "And to make this event even more special, a summoner and her guardians have arrived to watch the game!"
"Really, Jimma?"
"That's right, Bobba--Lady Arashi and her guardians have decided to watch the game from the very front row!" Yueh wanted to hide very badly at this point, and, from the looks of it, so did Niet. Arashi, however, continued to sit straight up as if no one had just mentioned very loudly where she was sitting. "So, if you see them, make sure to thank them for stopping along the way!"
"And on with the game! The Runner's center, Jinni, and the Kicker's center, Kat, will start off the game with the Blitz off..."
With that, the game began.