Immediately the wandering swordsman (Rean) and Laura clash blades
and both begin to apply pressure to overpower the other but they are
unable to achieve any sort of advantage and end up in a stalemate.
"Impressed with her opponents strength Laura gives him a smile of
respect Rean returns her smile due to the nostalgic feeling he gets
from when the two sparred then they both break away from each other.
the two the slowly then slowly begin orbiting around the center of the
ring watching each others movements " i must admit for someone
whose recently achieved a master level your a lot more experienced then
you let on" says Laura " you no slouch yourself i should expect as much
from the instructor of the arseid style " Rean says " but something is
definitely wrong here the Laura i know is a lot stronger than this why is
she hesitating" he ponders. The two dash at each other again their
attacks clash together causing sparks to fly as they move past each
other they both immediately spin around and slash at each other again
making more sparks fly as their blades cross paths with each other
they both then immediately spin around slash at each other again
causing more sparks to fly Laura immediately then goes for an overhead
slash and strikes vertically downward which Rean manges to block but
the impact causes him to slide back Laura then observes his next move but
all Rean does is look guilty at her " Laura what happened when i left this
isn't how you usually are" he ponders " why does his face always appear
at the most in opportune times everytime i go in for an attack i keep
seeing HIS face and then i hesitate but that's not him ,Reans gone we
all saw it him, Crow, and Millium are gone" Laura ponders " i had to stop my
training because of this, but i refuse to lose because of my guilt of not
being able to help him i will win this duel in his memory" she confirms in
her mind. once she confirms her thoughts in her mind Laura
immediately takes her signature stance from her days as a member of
class 7, the wash of nostalgia causes Rean to see a flash of Laura from
their school days to replace Laura's for second then it vanishes Rean
then smiles in response " your different from a few minutes ago" he
says" i just needed to get over a conflicted issue in my mind" Laura
responds " we'll then i guess i won't hold back either" he says then
takes his signature stance also causing his past self to flash infront of
Laura for a second " that stance if you really are him then let's if you can
handle me at full strength" she ponders the two immediately start
emitting huge auras that cause every spectator to need to move back a
bit" this heat how strong our these two" says third pupil. the two
opponents then immediately dash at each other and their swords clash
causing a shockwave to erupt from the impact they then break away
from each other but they both immediately spin a around slash at each
other causing their blades to cross making sparks fly immediately
Laura slashes downward forcing Rean to back up she then tries to
follow up with a horizontal strike but Rean then jumps over it and
immediately strikes behind her forcing Laura to turn around and
sloppily block the the blow which slightly causes her to stumble
backwards. Laura then uses her Azure Cleaver which again causes a
past image of herself from the second civil war to flash in front of Rean
who cancels it out with Crescent Slash which causes his past image
from the second civil war to flash infront of Laura's face, Rean then
dashes infront of Laura and another past image of him flashes infront of
her from when he was teaching at the Branch campus as he uses
Crescent Flash effectively hitting Laura knocking her back Rean then
follows up with a horizontal slash but Laura dodges by jumping in the
air and using lion rush which causes a huge shockwave hitting Rean
flying and crashing at the end of the arena " that got him" ponders Laura
but before she could be claimed the victor she notices her opponent
slowly starts to stand up and her face immediately goes into a shocked
expression as he stands up and looks directly at her without his face
being hidden by the hood from the rags he wore, this allowed Laura to
see a face she hasn't seen in a long time. " that face no way it can't be"
she says in her mind suddenly all the past images she seen of Rean all
flash in front of her one after the other until it ends on this scarred and
battered Rean then looking closer she notices his bandaged arm and
the corrupted parts of his face. Rean who didn't notice his disguise was
gone immediately sheathe his sword and prepared his final blow.
noticing Rean hasn't paid any heed to his situation her shocked
expression is replaced with a small smile and readies her final strike "
very well then Rean we'll talk after we've decided the winner to this
duel" she confirms in her head. their is brief moment of silence then the
two immediately dash towards each other for the final time and dash
past each other and strike at each other as the pass each other they
both come to a stop and the two just stand their after what some
seems like a minute of waiting Laura immediately drops her sword and
falls on one knee about a second later Rean also drops to the ground
the third pupil then immediately jumps into the ring to act as a
temporary judicator to see if they can continue both immediately
surrender indicating their duel as a draw as the two notices his rags are
missing but doesn't look shocked " looks like you've discovered the
identity of the wondering swordsman huh?" asks Rean who stands up
and starts to turn around but as soon as he faces Laura she
immediately wraps her arms around his neck pulling him into a hug
which catches the three pupils off guard " some how i knew you would
come back no matter how hopeless I felt I never stopped believing you"
she says then pulling away she looks directly at Rean to see tears
coming from her eyes" its so good to see you again" she says smiling
Rean wraps his arms around her and hugs her as well " its good to be
back im glad to see that your doing well" Rean says but sounding a lot
more exhausted then he should " Rean are you okay" asks Laura pulling
away slightly " yeah i..m j..ust so ha..." but before Rean could finish he
suddenly realizes somethings wrong and pulls away from Laura and
falls to his knees coughing up blood. Once done he then immediately
falls to the ground unconscious" REAN!!!" Laura shouts. suddenly six
hooded figures appear from behind the spectator and join her on the ring " darn
it i knew something was wrong" says one of them while unveiling their
hood " Crow !?" says Laura " hey Laura " says another one unveiling their
hood " Millium your here to ?! " asks Laura " Elliot is he okay ?" says Crow to
the hooded figure on the other side of the unconscious Rean " he's okay he just used
alot of mana he should be fine with rest
but we should use some healing magic
just in case " says Elliot unveiling his hood " Elliot's here to ?" ponders
Laura " Laura is there any place we can let him rest?"
asks Crow " yeah he can rest in the estate" answers Laura still in shock
of everything that's happened " alright well take him there" says Crow.
Location: Viscount Estate
After a few minutes of carrying Rean into the estate Laura leads them to
a spare room in the estate. Once there Crow, Elliot, Ash carefully place
him on the bed while Laura explains to her father the situation in his
study " i see, i guess that explains why you seem to be in high spirits"
says the Viscount " huh ?" questions Laura " a father always knows"
answers the Viscount " i could tell something changed when we didn't
see you with your friends, im glad to see your doing better" he says with
a warm smile " so can they stay here until Rean recovers" she asks "of
course he can at least until he can recover" answers the Viscount "
thank you father" Laura says and she leaves his study. After explaining
the situation to her father Laura immediately heads to the vacant room
the group was staying at. As she enters the room she sees Elliot and
Altina using healing magic to stabilize Rean while everyone else seems
to keep their distance. " how is he?" asks Laura " well he's breathing and
nothing else seems wrong but man i knew we forgot something" says
Crow " what do you mean" asks Laura "its a long story" says Kurt " I've
got plenty of time she says " alright well your gonna want to sit down
then" says Crow. So the group explains everything that's happened
since leaving that mountain including their quest to revive class 7
throughout the whole time they receive very similar expressions from
when they explained it to Elliot. After explaining for twenty minutes
Laura seemingly tries to process everything they told her " wow you've
been through quite a lot huh? asks Laura " yeah pretty much" answers
Millium " so your saying whatever is effecting the fog here is also
effecting Rean's condition making him feel pain?" she also asks "our
current theory is that the corruption seems to be causing Rean's corrupted
mana to be uncontrollable to where it causes him to go bereserk like with the
crystals but if its presumably not a strong corruption it causes him to feel pain like
you said earlier" answers Altina " i see says Laura. after a
few minutes of waiting Elliot and Altina stop using their magic" i think
that's the best we can do right now" says Elliot " looks like its getting
late " says Juna looking out one of the windows" " we should have
someone watch him" says Kurt " I can do it" says Musse" okay someone
except Musse" says Kurt. So Elliot, Crow, and Laura volunteered to
watch over him by taking shifts while the others would rest at the Inn.
Once it was Elliot's turn to switch Laura came into take over but before
Elliot left the room Laura stopped him " can we talk?" she asks " huh
sure" Elliot says while pulling up spare chair next to her " what's going
on?" he asks " Elliot do you remember the last time that class 7 got
together? she asks " yeah" answers Elliot " I'm sorry Elliot i shouldn't have
snapped then" says Laura " what do you mean?" asks Elliot " when you
defended Machias the words you used just made me lose my control"
says Laura seemingly tightening her fists " oh that i don't what came
over me when i said it i just remember trying to stop Machias and Jusis
from trying to kill each other and then that happened" says Elliot" i think
we all said something we didn't want to" says Laura " yeah, but now that
we have Rean, Crow, and Millium back we can finally be together again"
says Elliot " you know I'd want that more than anything but is it even
possible" asks Laura " of course it is as long as we all work together we
can definitely succeed" answers Elliot smiling " hmm i haven't seen you
smile like that in awhile" says Laura " we'll then if you think its possible
then i guess you can include me into the group" she says " really?" asks
Elliot Laura nods her head " that's great everyone will be so excited "
says Elliot " is their anything else you wanted to talk about?" he asks "
no I'm fine now" answers Laura " okay " says Elliot and he leaves the
room leaving Laura alone with Rean. Laura then gently places her hand
on Rean's corrupted hand even with slight roughness of the corruption
his skin still felt the same as ever" Rean i always find myself impressed
woth how much you are willing to sacrifice for us please wake up soon"
she says with a small smile. after a little bit of time Laura starts to drift
off to sleep next to Rean's bed
