Chapter VIII: Miko and Fira vs. Ice Titan

Sitting around a warm toasty fire was Fira and Miko. The both of them talked for miles as the moon turned with the tides of time around them.

meek tone "this may be too personal a question Fira but why did you decide to become a SeeD" Miko asked sitting on her sleeping bag as Fira laid back on his.

" It's always been a goal of ours to become SeeDs" Fira said.

meek tone " Ours you mean Boko?" Miko asked.

" Noway!" Fira said.

meek tone " Who then?" She asked timidly trying not to upset her bodyguard. She looked away for alittle while then turned her eyes back towards him. She noticed his dark eyes peering at her and at that moment her heart dropped. meek tone "What?" Miko asked.

" Well you wanted to know didn't you?" Fira asked.

meek tone " Oh yea" Miko said shaking her head yes.

" Well his name is Zero a ninja from Wutai, I met him back when I was about 13 we been buddies ever since we traveled together fought fiends and stuff it was cool" Fira said.

meek tone " Oh that sounds great it's good to know that such good friends like you still exist" Miko said with a gentle smile.

" Yea well" Fira said slightly blushing from her remark. He didn't know how to take a good compliment. " Well let's uh get some sleep we got a big day ahead of us" Fira said turning over.

meek tone " sure" Miko said lying back on her sleeping bag. She folded the sleeping bag over her body and stared up at the starry night. All of a sudden a loud snore filled the air killing the mood that Miko was in. "my goodness" She said covering her ears.

The next morning

It was around the crack of dawn Fira's eye had opened with the morning sun. The sky was still sort of starry and the sun was just on the horizon. Fira got up immediately to prepare for the journey ahead. He put the sleeping bag back in the Al Bhed Travelers case that was in the middle of the forest. Then he went over to lake that wasn't too far from where they camped. Fira stopped and casted Watera to make the water rise up in a big bubbled from where he stood he could pick the fishes out that he wanted. He picked out two big ones about the size of his arm then held them under his armpits and left the lake. The campfire had completely disappeared with the night's cold wind. He dropped the fish down then pointed his Kingdom Keyblade at the fire wood and blasted it once relighting it's flame.

He then sat down and cleaned the fish thoroughly and carefully as Miko slept trying not to wake the innocent girl's sleep. After cleaning the fish he sat it over the warm fire… He yawned afew times then found himself looking at the sleeping girl again. ' I can't believe how well I'm guarding her… I'm really starting off this SeeD business right way!' Fira thought as a smile raised on his face.

The fish then began to cook as the warm fire cackled under it crisping the meat inside of it up.

' I wonder if I'm gonna go up a rank because of this!' Fira thought smiling. ' Yea I'll raise to rank 2 after this!'

meek tone " Link, don't leave me behind! Please Link take me with you!" Miko said in her sleep raising her hands and her feet kicking lazily.

" She's so childish" Fira said looking back at the flame.

meek tone " Link no…don't leave!" Miko said in her sleep again.

" Man she talks well in her sleep wonder if she'll tell me her secrets?" Fira said to himself turning over the fish on the other side so it cook evenly. " Nah that wouldn't be nice"

meek tone " Boko I'm sorry for whatever I did, please let me ride you" Miko said running in her sleep while in resting position. " I must ride you Boko to follow Link"

" Hahaha" Fira laughed slightly covering his mouth quickly. Miko still didn't wake up thankfully… The sun was about 3/4 of the way out into sky. At that moment an idea sprung into Fira's head. He smiled deviously while starring at Miko. He crawled over to her then pulled out an old packet of ketchup out of his pocket. He opened the packet and squirted ketchup on himself all over. He counted off on his fingers while brilliantly laughing.

" MIKO MIKO I'M DYING RUN… FIENDS!" Fira screamed Miko jumped up and saw the blood on him her eyes grew wide and she screamed loudly.

" FIRA! NO!" Miko said holding onto Fira as tears dropped down her cheeks.

" Miko come closer" Fira said pulling on her shirt. Miko drew in closer to him, he pulled on her shirt again. " Come closer" He beckoned as Miko cried for him. She drew in closer to him her ear just inches away from his mouth. " I'm just…messin with ya" Fira said.

O.O!

" Hahahaha yea I was just yankin your chain" Fira said jumping up on his feet. " Man your easy my grandma could tell that this was ketchup" Fira said walking over to the lake and taking his shirt off and bulletproof vest.

TT " whatever don't do that's it's frightening Fira" Miko said.

" Yea whatever" He then kneeled down and washed his face of the ketchup. " I caught some fish eat up and let's get moving." Miko looked at the fish then back at Fira, she then shrugged and picked up the fish on a stick and ate as much as she could which was only about four or five bites. Fira after washing himself of his horrendous ketchup joke walked back over to Miko and sat down.

" Is that all your gonna eat?" Fira asked.

meek tone " I'm afraid so" Miko said blushing in embarrassment. Fira grabbed the remaining fish and began to take large bits.

" You should eat more to get your strength up" Fira said with a full mouth.

TT meek tone "I'm still shaking from that joke you pulled" Miko said staring at him blankly.

" Yea well what ya gonna do eh?" Fira said standing up and burping.

meek tone "Um excuse you?" Miko said fanning herself.

" Yea excuse me" Fira said. " Let's go Miko we're almost to Macalania Lake, you'd better prepare yourself"

(Author's note: hey readers think about this for five seconds seriously, if this were a game and you were currently overshadowing Miko, this would be one of those times O'aka the 23rd would come out and you'd have to stock up on potions and weapons and crap then talk to Fira when you were ready to continue… either that or I'm just crazy)

Suddenly there was a scrambling in the bush. Fira had quickly draw both of his keyblades and started to spin them like batons as the rumbling got louder. Miko reached over to her left and picked up her reverse blade sword. Falling out of the bushes was a man with a tight blue shirt, tight brown high water pants, a strange looking hat and a huge green backpack.

O.o " Huh?" Fira and Miko stared at eachother oddly.

" Hi there, O'aka the 23rd at your service, items, weapons, Materia anything you can name and O'aka has it" He said tossing out a long piece of paper with weapons and materials on it. Fira and Miko bent down to take a look at the items.

meek tone " Wow these items are great… I'd definitely like to purchase something" Miko said pulling out a pocket book with gil in it. Fira took a scanning look at everything he had and he closed his eyes shaking his head.

" Well hurry up" Fira said standing up.

" What about you sir? Is there something you'd like to buy?" O'aka asked Fira with his back turned.

" Nope" Fira replied.

" What about a weapon certainly…" O'aka started.

" No there isn't a weapon there that suits me," Fira said.

" Okay then" O'aka said receiving money from Miko in exchange for afew items.

meek tone " Thank you O'aka" Miko said bowing.

" No thank you" O'aka replied with a bow. He then took off walking down the trail that led to the Calm Lands. Fira and Miko began walking towards Lake Macalania. Miko had bought four Materia pieces and a normal bangle with only two slots in it. "So what did you buy from that guy?" Fira asked as he walked along side her.

meek tone " I bought two Fira materia stones, an Ice materia and an elemental materia" Miko replied. She socked the elemental and the ice materia in the bangle. Then socked both Fira materia in her reverse blade sword socket, which only had one socket, and her bow, which only had three materia sockets. " These items will come in handy with our up coming fight"

The two of them finally walked through the forest and made it just outside of Rin's Inn snow was falling and from where they stood they could see the frozen lake. Fira and Miko started down the walk way towards the lake the second Fira laid his black boot onto the frozen lake, the giant Ice Titan arose from his frosted slumber. He stood at about fifteen stories high and his legs were frozen solid onto the lake, he roared sending a cold chill through the air.

" Whoa it was easier to get his attention then I thought" Fira said.

O.O meek tone " Aren't you the least bit afraid?" Miko said shaking behind him. " When you said Ice Titan I thought you ment a snow fiend or something like that not a GIANT SNOW FIEND!"

" Yea he is kinda big eh?" Fira said with a smile. At that second the Ice Titan tossed down ice stalagmites at them. Fira grabbed Miko and dove aside as the giant stalagmites struck were they were once standing like missiles made completely of ice. " Now that's just playing dirty" Fira said standing up and drawing both keyblades.

'Who is this guy?' Miko thought standing up. ' I dunno why but I feel…less afraid when I'm with him, just like when I was with Link'

" Miko okay here's how it's gonna go down" Fira said standing infront of her. She just stared at him as he twirled the keyblades not paying attention to the real threat at hand. " I'll act as a diversion while you attack him with everything you've got, use Fire Magic it's no brainier against an ice enemy, we keep up repeating that one step then the battle will be ours." Fira said turning around with a smile.

meek tone " Right let's do this together" Miko said full of confidence now. Fira then at that moment rushed off running towards the Ice Titan. He ran in between the giant's legs and to the other side of him. Fira then stopped sliding on the solid lake. " Turn around face me!" Fira shouted tossing the Metal Chocobo keyblade like a boomerang the keyblade struck the side of the Ice Titan's mouth then the Ice Titan taking on step at a time turned around. He then waved his hand once and missiles of ice stalagmites came at Fira again. He cartwheeled to the side dodging one then ran for them, to the side attaching the Kingdom Key from it's hilt to the Metal Chocobo from the hilt he then started to spin the two keyblades all at once creating a huge fan like doubled sided Keyblade. The giant missile stalagmite disappeared and broke apart as they filtered into Fira's fan like attack. Meanwhile on the other side of the Ice Titan Miko was slowly chipping off the Ice Titan's HP by firing off Fira Arrows at it's head. She landed every shot like a true archer. After about 45 to an hour long of this same strategy the Ice Titan finally fell to it's knees… It fell down lowering it's head dizzy from all of the Fire attacks Miko had been pounding him with. Fira rushed in separating his Keyblades. He jumped up with a side spin slashing the Ice Titan about 12 to 15 times as he spun. The Ice Titan dropped down completely turning into straight broken shards of Ice. He dropped down melted into the frozen lake.

The lake of Macalania began to cackle. Fira and Miko looked up at one another then back down at their feet all of a sudden the lake broke apart and they both went hurdling down to the bottom.

Under the Lake

" Miko…Miko wake up" Fira's image came in clear to her and she stood up startled. She found herself being held by Fira in knee high water. From where they stood they could both hear the song of the fayth.

O.o meek tone "Where am I? What's that music? Am I dead?" Miko asked.

" No far from it as a matter of fact" Fira said. " We did it we defeated the Ice Titan look over there" Fira said pointing behind him. A blue shining sphere was floating in the water it's light was what lit up the entire underground of the lake.

meek tone "what is that?" Miko asked.

" It's your GF just ready and waiting to be Junctioned" Fira said standing up too. He pulled out a keychain from his back pocket. " Yea the Ice Titan left us both something apparently"

(Author's Note: Fira has the Keychain for the Ice Queen Keyblade)

Miko walked over to the sphere and kneeled down to pick it up. She held it in both hands staring down into it mesmerized by it's beauty. Although she didn't know it, staring back at her was Shiva.

meek tone " Thank you Fira" Miko said. " I've finally got my first GF, I would have never got it if it weren't for you thank you" She walked over to him and stared at him abit. Felling butterflies he backed up…

"Uhh yea your welcome, no problem or whatever ugh… let's get back to the uh hahaha Garden or whatever ya know" Fira said rubbing the back of his head.

TT meek tone " Are you blushing" She asked.

" No" Fira said turning around and fake coughing.

Later that day around dusk Fira and Miko had just made it over the horizon and were on their way into the Garden. On the outside they seen Kuro sitting down with her legs crossed and her hands spreaded out.

O.o meek tone " hello…" Fira covered Miko's mouth.

" Trust me messing with her meditation style is THE last thing you'd want to do" Fira said. " It's best we act like we didn't see her and walk inside" Miko replied with a nod then the both of them walked past the meditating Black Mage and into the front gates.

(Author's Note: If you don't know why it's bad to touch or talk to Kuro when she's meditating then I'd advise to look into the previous chapters)

The both of them walked into the intersection where the elevator and the hallways met.

meek tone" I'm so glad to be home" Miko said clearing her hair of her face.

" Yea I know what you mean, well you go and get some rest I'll report to the Headmaster of the mission's success" Fira said.

meek tone " thank you Fira san I could use a nap anyways" Miko yawned.

" You've earned it, well gotta go I hope we get teamed up for missions in the future" Fira said as Miko shook his hand.

meek tone " Likewise" Miko replied.

They went their separate ways.

(Author's Note: This isn't the last we've seen of Miko readers)

After Fira had filed his report he went back to his room which he hasn't been to in nearly three to four days. He walked in and a cool refreshing breeze hit him. He stared around in his room noticing it wasn't as he left it. Fira's room always had something on the floor, candy wrappers, ramen noodle cups, manga and spider man comics on the floor, his bed was always a mess. His bed was made up and his floor was cleaned with an extra spit shine too.

" RIKKU!" Fira shouted. A pair of firm arms wrapped around his neck.

" Fira san! I haven't seen you in days, ya know everybody's been asking about you!" Rikku said giving Fira a power noogie.

" Whatever what happened to my room? It's actually clean for once" Fira said.

" I cleaned it Fira" Stepping from out of Fira's closet was a woman with long blonde hair, wearing a cleaning apron and….nothing else…just a cleaning apron. She held a broom in one hand and a dust pan in the other. "Torrence?"

" Yea it's me, I hope you don't mind Fira I've cleaned your room while you were away?" Torrence said walking up to him. Fira backed up abit as did Rikku, Blood ran from Fira's nose as she drew in like a shark to a body corpse.

" Your bleeding" Torrence said rubbing her breast against his chest. "Here…" She said making erotic sounds as she handed him a tissue. Fira snatched it out of his hand and wiped his nose clean.

" Torrence get out of here" Fira said.

" I see you need more time to appreciate my cleaning" Torrence said grabbing her cleaning supplies and walking out.

" Yea let's go with that" Fira said. Torrence tried to blow him a kiss but the kiss stopped short at the door as Fira slammed it. " I seriously need to get a security alarm system or something" Fira said flopping down on the bed. " But she did do a good job with this room though"