"Miss Sukuraji?" Chiyo asked, stepping forward as the familiar archer stood with back to her. "Miss Sukuraji? What's wrong?" She clapped her hands together, looking worried.

"C-Chiyo…" she stuttered, turning ever so slightly, her face concealed in the shadows. They were surrounded by the darkness, a single spotlight shining down on each of them. "W-why are you here?"

"I don't know, where am I?" she asked, stepping forward, but with each step forward Sukuraji moved farther back. It was now she noticed that Sukuraji's hair was slightly shorter than it's normal length, her archer clothes seemed a little less worn. Plus she could tell from where she stood Suku wasn't wearing her blindfold or sunglasses.

"Stay back!" the archer screamed, pressing her back against the shadow wall, pink hair falling over her face. She slid her back down the wall, resting her forehand in the palms of her hands, "You'll just leave… just like the others…"

"Please Miss Sukuraji!" Chiyo ran forward, "What happened to you? Why won't you open yourself up to people! What are you hiding!"

"I'm not hiding anything, if you just…"

"Good morning sunshine!" the familiar voice chirped. Mira.

The bright morning light welcomed her as she slowly sat up. Her back ached from sleeping n the ground, and her head mind was foggy. "Wha? Miss Mira?"

"Please stop calling me miss-" she pouted, "Makes me sound old." Mira grabbed one of Chiyo's wrists, "Come now! Much to do today-! So go wash up!" the merchant pushed her in the direction of the river.

"Whoa-!" Chiyo ran forward to catch her balance, and before she knew it she was standing at the water's edge. After splashing cool water on her face and scrubbing some dirt off her tunic beforeshe returned to the campsite. Mira had already packed up everything while Sukuraji was dousing the fire with water, she grumbled a little when she missed the fire and water spilt on her boots.

They walked in awkward silence, the archer's water filled shoes squishing with each step. Mira led the way into the forest, Sukuraji following right behind her and Chiyo next to Suku. It was a peaceful day, and porings were bouncing everywhere, searching for items on the ground.

Chiyo looked longingly at the little pink creatures, she looked to Mira then back at the monster. "Go for it." The merchant chirped as the novice practically jumped on one of the creatures. She was able to defeat quite a few before having to down another bitter novice potion. She used them sparingly so not to run out before she gained a few job levels.

"Your pretty good," Mira smiled, Sukuraji didn't even nod; in fact, she'd been giving the two a sour look all morning. Apparently she was still mad.

"Really? You think so!" Chiyo jumped to her feet, feeling the strength return as the potion's power coursed through her veins.

"In a little while you'll be able to get your class." Mira smiled again, "And I know so. What do you think Sukuraji?" the merchant turned her head to look at her comrade, who, ignored her.

It was funny how Mira and Sukuraji seemed to represent night and day. Mira seemed happier during the day, chatty, cheerful, and all around happy. At night Sukuraji was dragged out of her shell and talked a little. She did most of her training in the dark too. During the day she became completely silent like this, only talking when necessary.

Now that she was royally pissed she didn't speak at all. Mira smiled once again, "Actions are louder than words."

Sukuraji curled a fist in reply.

"On second thought… let's get going!" They returned to their three-person formation and moved silently through the forest. Sukuraji opened her mouth several times to say something, but words never came out.

After twenty minutes of travel she couldn't hold her question back anymore, "Where're we going?" Mira grinned.

"We've been going in circles for about forty minutes, I just wanted you to talk- we're going back to Payon."

Now she was furious. Sukuraji broke out of formation, heading in no particular direction. Mira reached out, mouth agape as if she tried to call Sukuraji back. Then she wore this look of shock as a shadowy figure appeared on the cliff above them.

"No need fear Byzantinie is hear!" the voice boomed as she leapt off the cliff and did a dive right for Sukuraji, who, shuddered and stood still.

"Sukuraji!" the voice cried again, wrapping her arms around the archer's shoulder and slamming them both into the ground. The impact created a huge cloud of dust and coughs could be heard from both of them.

As the dust cleared away Chiyo could see that Sukuraji laid flat on her back, with an emotionless look. 'Byzantinie' was a silver haired thief, a haircut similar to Sukuraji's. She wore a white mask across her nose and mouth. She had a cheerful air about her, one of friendliness and maybe a little bit of mystery.

Said thief sort of straddled Sukuraji's stomach with a sly grin. "That's my new 'flying death' approach. Bet cha' didn't even see me coming! Did ja'!" her grin grew wider (though you couldn't see ti fromunder the mask) as she leaned in to be face-to-face with the archer, "Oh, that's right. You didn't 'cause of your stupid obsession with that blindfold."

"Nice to see you too Byz…" the archer propped herself up on her elbows, "It's not an obsession it's training. Now get off." With that she jerked her body over so she lay on her side. The thief was too fast for her though. She jumped to her feet, grabbing Sukuraji's wrists.

"And! I'm too quick for ya'! All my agility training paid off!"

Thought she wasn't prepared for Sukuraji's strike back. The archer shifted her lower half, kicked her legs up so they wrapped around behind Byz's back. Then she pushed her legs back down and made the thief do a face plant.

"Mind you I'm still the strongest." Sukuraji stood up, dusting dirt off her purple dress.

"I didn't know you were in town Byza!" Mira piped up, Chiya remained quiet. For the first time Mira seemed a little scared, she flashed a fake smile and turned her gaze towards Sukuraji, "Did you know about this Sukuraji?"

"No." she said dryly, looking very very annoyed, "So what brings you here?" she asked the thief who was still wiping dirt from her steel colored eyes.

"I heard from an itty bitty birdie that we got ourselves a new shrimp." She crossed her arms over her chest, pulling the mask from her mouth so it hung around her neck.

Byzantinie was rather pretty, but to sum up her appearance one could describe Byza as a lollipop. She had a round shaped head with two large gray eyes and chin length silvery, choppy hair. With her mask on her face was barely visible, eyes hidden under shag-dog bangs and mouth and nose under the mask. With her mask off she was actually quite cute. Her form was stick thin, like most thieves who live and work in the dark and don't get proper nutrition; sometimes going a day without food because they're busy stealing.

"Shrimp?" Chiyo turned and titlted her head up to the merchant.

Mira sighed, "You're the new shrimp, meaning the weakest member of our party." She said that last part quietly.

The purple haired girl sighed, "Oh. Then who was it before me?"

"Ridd."

"Riddili."

"Ri." Sukuraji, Mira and Byza said in unison and in that order.

"Ridd Riddili Ri? That's a weird name." The novice cocked her head to the side, ditz.

"No…" Mira smacked her forehead, "She's got a lot of nicknames. Her real name is Riddili Rath." The blonde smiled and shook her head, "She's our Prontera branch, does a bunch of healing up in South Pront."

The thief and archer nodded, "Quite the airhead, can go two feet with tripping or breaking something, usually priceless vases and crap."

Mira and Byza smirked, "We don't care though, cause Suku gets stuck paying for it!"

The archer glowered at her comrades while Chiyo laughed, "You guys won't be laughing when one of you takes my position."

Byza grinned, Mira frowned and Chiyo just looked confused. "Let's go back to town, need to pick up arrows." She hadn't quite mastered arrow crafting yet.

She picked up nine hundred arrows yesterday… Chiyo thought, maybe she's just angry with us. No wait, duh, she's really angry with us.

"This one's mine!"

"C'mon Mira lemme at it!"

Lost in her thoughts Chiyo hadn't noticed the others were far ahead, circling around a Spore. Sukuraji was ready to open a can of butt whoop but Mira was already at it. "Mammomite!" she cried as the sound of coins jingling rang through the air.

Byza jumped in after the merchant's attack and Sukuraji used a Double Strafe. Her arrows hit the creature right between the eyes, it became stunned and was on it's last legs when the thief struck the final blow.

Mira drank a red potion while Byza cleaned off her daggers, "Yo shrimp! Why didn't ya join in?" the thief asked.

"I'm sorry…" Chiyo replied softly, she gasped when Sukuraji pulled out about three arrows and her crossbow, pointing them right at the novice.

"Don't move…" she said in a hushed voice, Mira and Byza looked frightened, not frightened, terrified. Despite Sukuraji's warning she couldn't help but turned her head, and out of the corner of her eye she saw the silhouette of a woman.

Not a woman, a leaotus.

A/N: Hey Hey, thanks for the reviews guys, and thanks Iro isles for the encouragement! Yeah, so Valiant has quite a few characters branched out around Rune Migard. Riddili (Rih-duh-lil-ee) won't come into play for quite a while, maybe in the next couple of chapters, and we won't know what's up with Sukuraji until after Chiyo gets her class. Then things start to really unravel! I'm having ltos of fun writing this, so I hope you guys enjoy it.

Omigod! What do I do! I've got an extremely powerful monster behind me! It's even too strong for Sukuraji! I don't want to die yet! We've got one thing we can still do though! RUN! I'm not gonna tell you anymore 'cause then I'll give the rest of the chapter away!

Next time Bravery comes with Monsters! Chiyo, outtie ya'll!