The next day was Friday, meaning I could get a lot of things done before Saturday evening, before my date with Mira. I had hoped to take on a few quests, at least 2 before the day was over. I couldn't stop thinking about my training, but I tried my best to focus more on the upcoming date despite the fact that I was about to take on a request.

The quest was same as usual, a monster wreaking havoc that I had to smash, them a high paying reward. I was worried about getting beat up too badly which then I'd look too trashy to go on a date. I also didn't want to be wearing my jacket, which then would just be tacky. Maybe a T-shirt under a casual short sleeve button-down shirt would look fine. I didn't have a button-down shirt on me, so I teleported back home real quick and got the shirt I needed from my room. Mom wasn't home and I didn't have a key, so I ended up Shadow Switching through the crack under the door.

I unfolded the request paper for the first time and saw the reward was 605,000 Jewel to eliminate a tough horde of canyon dwelling monsters causing trouble for people who dare cross it. A pretty simple task, and a very good reward as well.

As I flew on the back of Fearow to the site, I started thinking about the quest I had just gone on with Erza. Well, we were technically there to bring Natsu and the gang back, but I wondered if she would ever consider taking me on an S-Rank quest someday with her, considering she was an S-Class Mage and I wasn't. I had no clue on how to become one, maybe by demonstrating a feat of strength, but I didn't know how that would happen. How could I prove I could take on an S-Rank quest if I couldn't take one on in the first place? I couldn't do regular quests forever. At the moment, they were still a bit difficult, but they would soon become too easy. I had completed a lot of requests ever since I stared at the guild, but not once did someone mention me becoming an S-Class wizard. It made no sense, but those were the rules. I had to follow them. Otherwise there would be punishment. I didn't even want to know what the punishment was, either.

As I landed at the site, a dark cave, I started wondering when I would face off against that crazy murderer Elementia. I had never actually seen what he looked like, because in my nightmares he was always a shadowy figure. Then I began wondering if he could hear my thoughts, if he was implanted in my brain somehow, and how. Maybe my dad had a blood pact with him back then, and Elementia's DNA had somehow gotten into my blood. A stream of other weird and/or bloody thoughts began invading my brain, which I had to drain out of my head immediately and focus on the mission at hand. I must've failed at ridding those thoughts from my brain, because I began ridiculing myself, thinking, What the hell am I thinking, blood pact? Tch. The way I think sometimes.

The request had a picture of a dark cave which was said to be the location of the horde of monsters. Flaming fist at the ready, both as a source of light and form of defense, I marched into the cave expecting an instant ambush of ferocious demons. Looking at the paper for a description of the monsters, all I saw was, "...big monsters..." and no further context. Yeah, real helpful. Most to all of the monsters I fought were more often than not, huge. Larger than my Giga Evolution. Speaking of, I wasn't planning on using that Evolution unless as a last resort. For the time being, my uncontrollable Giga Evolution was my trump card until I learned to control it to what I want it to do, to not become a mindless rampaging monster for however long it lasted.

The cave was dark, very dark indeed. My flame almost made no difference and I may have just as well have gone in the complete darkness. The only light was the now ever faint growing light of day and my dim... flame sounds like an overstatement, how about ember? A mere spark in the complete blackness. That's what my flame was compared to the massive, enveloping, swallowing darkness, and I was its next meal.

"Oh, you..." I muttered, followed by a quite audible echo. "Oh you, you greedy darkness you, is a diet of monsters not enough?" It was a stupid remark, but I wasn't focusing on the fact that every word I spoke would be greatly amplified by the hollow, resounding echo that followed. I wasn't being smart by speaking thus far into the cave, then I realized I could take advantage of that and lure the monsters out of the cave so I could see them when fighting, instead of being beaten around in the dark like a punching bag. A blind punching bag. Using Shadow Switch, I teleported instantly to the mouth of the cave, then jumped out of the shadow and made as much noise as possible, in case any of the monsters were in the cave.

However, the noise was all for naught, because the monsters had already caught up to me a few seconds after I jumped out of the shadows. A massive punch sent me flying back into the cave, where I was met by another punch in the gut by another monster, causing me to writhe and shrivel up like a ball. Before the monsters could get another hit on me, I dropped into the shadows to recover. I took some time to take a full look at the monsters, and the paper said that they would only attack at night, but had an incredible sense of hearing, and could hear a person walking from miles away. But if they're nocturnal, would that mean that they can't go in the sunlight? I thought. The pain had subsided, and I had an idea. Whether it was sunlight or light at all, I had a good idea.

I moved further into the cave where the monsters had moved away from, since they still thought I was near the mouth of the cave. Jumping out of the shadow, I Mega Evolved and began charging a Giga Flame Ball. The flame was like a main sequence star: the hotter the star gets, the brighter. The monsters began to notice the bright light emitting from the Flame Ball and began shielding their eyes, running away from the light, straight into the light, of day. It worked! I had pushed the monsters out of the cave, blinding them by the sunlight. They could no longer see, so I took the opportunity to throw the Giga Flame Ball at them, horribly singeing them. I was still in the cave, watching them hilariously swipe away at nothing.

"Haha! Ah, don't worry! I'll end all your sufferings!" I began charging Flare Laser, but then I felt a massive blow from behind, sending me flying out of the cave into the horde of monsters at high speed, blasting them all away as I continued to shoot forward at speed, eventually hitting the opposite wall of the canyon. The figure that kicked me out of the cave rushed up to kick me even further into the wall. This monster, I assumed was their leader.

"You DARE hurt my children?! You must now pay with your life!" it howled.

"How?" I groaned. "How are you not being blinded by the glorious rays of the sun?"

"I can adjust my vision based on how bright it is. I am more adaptable than the rest of my group. That is why I am their leader. If anyone dares trespass on our territory, they must pay with their lives. No one has ever gotten away with that, and neither will you!" He (because it had a masculine voice) tried landing a punch on me, but I took advantage of the sun's position casting a long shadow on the ground. Switching to his shadow left him angered and confused.

"Where have you gone? Show yourself!" He bellowed. I quickly jumped out of his shadow when his back was turned, and before he could notice me, I encased him in a small space using Pillar Stone. Though it only stopped him for a few seconds, that small window of time was all that was needed to land a massive blow on him with Hammer Fist. It definitely hurt him, but didn't kill him. I did my best to dodge whatever attacks he threw at me, but occasionally I failed to, which turned into me getting hit more often.

"Guuhh!" Another attack made me fly back, making dents in the rocky ground. I had Destroyed my jacket prior, foreseeing a tough fight. But this fight was tougher than I expected. I didn't want my jacket to get messed up, but in return, my shirt was getting filthy and ripped up. Good thing I saw this coming.

"You are pissing me off, human. It's time for you to die." With his gargantuan fist, he threw another powerful punch down onto my limp body on the ground. Luckily, I was able to roll out of the way in time and dodge far enough away to be able to aim my attack at him.

"Hydro Vortex!" A whirl of water blasted out from my fists that were over my mouth as if I were shooting a blowgun, knocking the monster forcefully onto its back. While he was down, I finished the fight by jumping extra high into the air, forming a sword out of flames; Flare Sword.

"Hyyaaahh!" Holding the sword down facing his head, my falling speed created enough force to jeam the sword right through his head, killing him instantly. His body shriveled up and turned black, reducing into a blue energy orb which got absorbed by my body. After I found my employer and gathered my reward, I returned to the guildhall to pick up another request.

All eyes stared at me the moment I stepped through the door. I was confused at first, but then remembered my scars and bruises and ripped up clothes. Just for reassurance, I Summoned my fedora and put it back on my head. After that, most of everyone went back to their business.

The moment I sat down at the bar, "Oh my goodness! What on earth?! Those monsters must've given you quite the beating!" exclaimed Mira.

"Eh, I'm alright. It didn't hurt a lot. Maybe got the wind knocked out of me sometimes, some kicks and punches here and there, but that's about it." Makarov wasn't in his usual spot I noticed, so I naturally assumed he was on important business. I wasn't too worried about it.

I took a little break for a bit to talk to Mira, asking some questions about S-Class, about the guild's past, and about her. You know, getting to know things.

"I know I got this jacket a few months ago, but I might consider switching it out again. I mean, styles will change; I won't keep this style forever. I feel like the leather jacket doesn't match my style. I'm starting to wonder what would go with this fedora and scarf. Hell, I don't even know why I'm wearing a scarf in the middle of spring," I said.

"That kind of depends on what style you're going for. Are you going a more causal look, or maybe formal?" Mira suggested.

"I don't know... I kinda want something in between, but I don't know what that'd be. I don't have much of a fashion sense."

"Hm. I could think about it too, do you mind?"

"I don't really know what you mean by that."

"Well, you'll see."

'I'll see?' I pondered. Sounds like she's planning to get me what I'm looking for, but how do I respond to that? What if she's planning something completely different? Immediately, unconfident feelings began invading my mind, making me worry and overthink everything. No, don't worry about it. Whatever happens will happen. Simple. But it wasn't as simple as that. How could I stop thinking about this important day, and what could go wrong? I was only human, or at least half, so I would make mistakes. So would Mirajane. That would be that.

The rest of the day was made eventful by the help of two more quests, both combined not paying as much as the one previously completed. The first was some giant who was going around, feasting off of livestock. Ugh. I could imaging a ten foot tall ogre type of beast, sweeping cows and other farm animals off their hooves, bones crunching, meat mashing messily between the terrible beasts' insatiable jaws.

It turns out, the beast wasn't an ogre, but almost sort of a lizard/dragon like Godzilla. It wasn't necessarily huge, but large enough to give me a tough challenge. So, imagine I was fighting a much smaller version of Godzilla mixed with a lion or fox or something. It was three times my size, forcing me to Giga Evolve in order to have a fair advantage against it. I didn't hold back against the monster this time, but despite this, it was still tough to defeat. It had regenerative powers, regenerating even when using a powerful attack on its head. After some time of futilely destroying some of its body parts and studying its attack patterns, I found that it regenerated from its heart, but not just the heart itself, but from its stomach, most likely due to the energy it gained from feeding off livestock. My Giga Evolution was starting to take its toll on me, so I hastily tried to find a way to destroy it completely, without causing harm to the village nearby. A very powerful and misjudged attack would cause the whole town to go up in flames, so I resorted to a less violent but no less powerful move, Magma Core. Doing my best to trap the beast in a closed area by using Pillar Stone, I cornered it and began encasing it in a sphere of molten hot lava, reaching temperatures to rival that of the planet's core. The terrible creature screamed in agony as its body slowly began disintegrating from the lava faster than it could regenerate, eventually burning both its gurgling stomach and vigorously thumping heart. I nearly passed out by overdoing it with Giga Evolution again, but I noticed that I was able to endure the pressure a bit longer than before, without passing out at the end of it. Granted, I was on the verge, but I saw this as the next step to mastering my Evolutions. I felt that there may be more evolutions after Giga Evolution, as I had seen in my first lucid Elementia nightmare.

Off and on, I felt feelings of anger and fright, discouragement and determination, all from thinking about how I may never be strong enough to face Elementia, how he killed my father and the rest of the Charizard Legion, how he could still absolutely crush me at the current state I was in, but ultimately deciding that what I was doing still wasn't enough, and that pushed me enough to keep going.

The next quest was a bit easier than the previous, not forcing me to use Giga Evolution. It was easier because I was now facing a massive behemoth that was threatening a city in a valley pretty far from Magnolia, a demon with pale green skin as hard as concrete and veins as large as ropes found on a barge, pulsating out from behind its massive muscles like water forcefully pushing through a hose. Now, I know you're thinking, wouldn't a huge demon be harder to defeat? Think of it this way. It's pretty damn hard to swat a mosquito, isn't it? No? What if the mosquito was flying ten times its regular speed? That mosquito was me and Fearow as we buzzed around the huge demon at high speeds thanks to my firepower blasting out of my hands, essentially acting as a demon soon noticed our presence and naturally began swinging its arms around, mildly annoyed. According to the job request, I was to prevent the demon from destroying one of the towns which the request came from, meaning that the request had been sent from many towns that were in danger of destruction. To hold the monster back as much as possible while I tried to defeat it, I sent Mewtwo and Tyranitar to push the demon's feet back; Tyranitar pushing the grounded legs, Mewtwo on the lifted legs. I sent out Breloom, having Tyranitar toss him up into the air to unleash a flurry of attacks on its stomach. It worked, and the monster was sent back a little, until it realized what was going on and forcefully smacked them out of the way.

"Woah! Hang in there guys!" I called to them. Flying Fearow down to the ground, I stepped off of him and Mega Evolved, but as said before, I wasn't forced to use Giga Evolution, as a few good attacks were enough. Starting by slicing off its limbs was proven a dangerous task, trying to dodge blows from the monster as best as possible, although I was more focused on attacking rather than defending, so I got knocked down quite a lot by the angry monster. The sun began setting over the orange lit horizon as a friendly reminder that I needed to finish this quest quickly. Pinning me to the ground, the demon began punching me furiously into the ground. And although it didn't hurt much, the continuous punches caused my rage to build. Using Pillar Stone, one of my most useful spells, jagged stone pillars rose up diagonally around me in between one of its attacks, allowing me to roll out of the way, charge up a Giga Flame Ball, and hurl it at the monster, all in quick succession. Then immediately after, I sliced off both of its arms (I had previously sliced off its legs before it began pounding me to the ground) and it roared in agony, only stopping after I froze its head with Freeze Wave and then shattered the ice casing with Titanium Fist. After returning my Pokémon, the monster was reduced to nothing more than a ball of energy. The energy was converted into magic by the Book of Magic, making a new Ice spell appear; Blizzard Crash. Curious to see the new spell, I held out my hand facing upwards, then thousands of razor sharp, medium sized ice spikes formed in the suddenly cold air, whirling around in a mighty storm, slowly closing in to the center when I closed my fist, then dissipating completely once all the ice had reached the center. I assumed the ice would probably cut the opponent even if they were trying to be careful, then hopefully, since they couldn't escape, get impaled or damaged by the spikes as they spun inward. Not bad, and I would hopefully find use for it in the future.

It had turned to nighttime, and vast array of bright points in the pitch black sky rose over the east horizon. I checked my phone. 10:13. I hoped that the guild was open, so I could go see Mirajane. I didn't forget to get my reward from the town that I saved, from the young employer who looked about in her late 20's, early 30's, maybe. Heading back to Magnolia to the guild, I stepped in to see Mira doing some cleaning by the bar area. She looked up and smiled a little as I stepped in.

"Hey," she sighed.

"Hey Mira. What's up?" I replied, noticing something different in her normally cheerful tone.

"Ugh, I don't even think I should… ah, alright, fine. I'll tell you."

"What? Are you okay? What happened while I was gone?"

"Oh boy. Let me tell you."

I hadn't been back to the guild in between the two previous quests, so I didn't see the team return. Apparently, Natsu was impatient and went to look for a request on the board, in which there were strange letters that they had Levy decode in order for them to get the reward on the paper. Then once Levy decoded the paper, everyone's brains switched into different bodies; Natsu's brain into Loke's body, Erza to Happy, Gray to Lucy, but worst of all, Makarov to Mira. Poor Mirajane! I couldn't imagine how Makarov reacted to his brain being switched over, probably not well, but Mira into Makarov's short body? It must've been torturous. As she finished the story, I had the freedom to yawn, moments later contagiously causing her to mimic my actions, indicating that we should rest. After the day that both of us had, we definitely needed it.

The next day, I was able to complete a very rewarding, but nevertheless difficult request worth about as much as the cave monsters quest. I couldn't help but notice, as I put a shirt on that morning, the deep gashes on my chest from the volcano monster from my first monster hunting quest had fully healed, but left behind three, very noticeable scars running diagonally, from the bottom of my left pec down to the bottom right side of my abs. It didn't hurt, maybe itched a little. I also noticed that my muscles were beginning to take form, after resting for a bit. So, resting my muscles was not bad after all.

My overall performance was greater, I realized, than before, or during my training. During my training, I assumed I was overworking myself so I couldn't grow as fast and I was now starting to the see results. I tried a few laps around Magnolia, noticing that my stamina and speed was much greater than before. Going back to my training just a bit, I traveled out to a field where I could spar with each of my Pokémon, asking them not to hold back against me. The results were outstanding, compared to before. My reaction time was much faster than before, but all my Pokémon teamed up against me were nearly matched with me without my Book of Magic and Mega or Giga Evolution. Most of them had a hard time landing physical attacks on me, in which they resorted to special attacks that wouldn't directly hurt them, not including Tyranitar. He couldn't hurt his hands, because they were tough enough to punch steel, not that it hurt my skeleton. I did feel pain, however, because Tyranitar didn't hold back and attacked me as if I was his worst enemy. Getting hit in the abdomen really knocked the wind out of me, and made me vomit all over the ground, the bitter bile burning the back of my throat, causing me to continuously cough. He still didn't let up, but I was able to get out of the way in time. I wasn't allowed to use my Shadow Magic to Shadow Switch to recover; I was only allowed to use my bare fists and regular power. None of them let up, giving me a real challenge. I nearly ran out of stamina and lost consciousness, but ended the fight by jumping around to each of them, attacking them until their stamina was low, then ended it with a much larger Flame Shield when they tried to get up close to me all at once. This new, explosive attack I dubbed Flare Dome, an update to a moderately old attack. Storing more fire in my body than before, I slammed my fist to the ground, activating the attack and causing a massive, fiery explosion in a large radius that wouldn't be easy to escape in time. This training bout lasted about two hours, with a five minute break in between. The first half hour was merely a refresher, maybe a bit of horseplay at some times, and it was only in the beginning of latter half that they began taking the bout seriously.

The amount of change I saw by giving my Pokémon rest as well was outstanding. They showed that they were giving it their all, and I could tell. Their reactions were quick, their strength was incredible, as well as speed, evasiveness, stamina and they all looked the part as well, much larger in muscle. Fearow had grown just a tad since we returned to the Regions, so I assumed the flight back had done it. Breloom's legs were the most improved out of all of my Pokémon, as well as his small arms which were more visible than before. Pikachu's legs were more shaped, making him the fastest on my whole team. He was a literal little bolt of lightning. Gyarados' jaws were much larger than before, and Mewtwo's muscles were also very well shaped. But most of all, Tyranitar's arms and legs were bigger, his broad chest being the most improved, being my strongest, most heavyweight Pokémon. I was reminded again that I should never overwork myself and my Pokémon.

xxxx

Our training continued until 7:00. Half an hour beforehand, I teleported back to my house, quickly sliding off my jacket and changing my t-shirt with a dark blue shirt and my button down, rolling up the sleeves to look a bit more casual. I felt the need to gel my hair, but after running it under some water and drying, it looked alright, even bough I hadn't showered in a few days. I would need a haircut sometime. Maybe I would ask Mira where a place was, because the only one I remember was in Lumiose, Kalos. My hair looked like it could be whipped wildly like a rockstar, but combing and running my fingers through made it seem better, but it would often fall down. I decided to put just a little bit of gel in my hair, just so it would stay. Getting gel required me to go back home, because I had run out.

"Hello? Oh, welcome home sweetie!" Mom answered the door after I knocked. "Did you leave something at home?"

"Yeah. Well first of all, I missed you a ton," I said, bending down a bit to wrap my arms around her.

"Ooh. I missed you too, sweetie. You look nice, what's the occasion?"

"I know Mom. I'm, uh... I'm going on a date."

"Aw! With who? Who's the lucky lady?" she teased.

"Mom, stop it...!" I chuckled. "You wouldn't know her, of course, but her name is Mirajane."

"Well, If you're going anywhere, you need to do something about the hair, young man. You need to look presentable."

"I know, I was just getting to that. I need hair gel. Is there an extra tin of it laying around somewhere?"

"Yes, there's one upstairs in the bathroom. Also, you need a haircut. You should be able to take care of these things."

"Yes, I know that Mom!" I called as I rushed upstairs to look for a can of hair gel. There seemed to be a few of them under the sink next to mom's curling iron and facial soap. Working a bit into my hair, it made it a thousand times better than before and I didn't look emo. I slid downstairs after Destroying the gel and washing my hands.

"You look stunningly handsome," said Mom. "Hold on..." she reached forward and adjusted my collar, making sure I looked my best. "Good luck sweetie, my boy Vincent, so strong, so grown up now... you've changed so much... good luck on your date, sweetie!" she called after me out the door.

I put my jacket and fedora back on just so people wouldn't suspect that I was on a date once I returned to the Magnolia. I didn't bother putting on my scarf, as it was too warm for that.

Opening the door...

Mira was not there. I panicked for a second, because I thought that she had bailed out on me. There weren't a lot of people there, Natsu and Gray were at their throats as usual, and Erza seemed to be resting her eyes. Happy was munching away at a fish, Makarov sat like a statue on the countertop, and few other people were sitting around, chatting and the like.

"Hey Vinny." I turned around, half expecting Mira to be there, but it was just Lucy.

"Oh. Hey," I muttered.

"If you're wondering where Mira is, she went home to get ready. You're a lucky guy, Vin."

I breathed a little sigh. "So you know?" I asked.

"I'm pretty sure everyone in the guild knows. Mirajane was being pestered with questions all day, asking about your date with her." So there's no use in trying to hide it, I thought, feeling a little embarrassed.

"Oh, by the way, how was the punishment...?" I asked with a devilish smile. However, to my surprise, Lucy wasn't really fazed too much.

"I never found out. Natsu read this one quest that switched everyone's brain."

"Yeah, Mira told me about that. But that stopped you from getting a punishment...?"

"Apparently."

I had an impulse to check the board, but I felt it would be rude, considering I was about to go on a date and all. However, the more I tried to suppress that impulse, the more it roared at me, finally I had to check the request board, to which I found nothing to my liking. No monster requests, no interesting quests at all.

"Whatever," I muttered.

20 minutes later at 7:00, Mira still hadn't shown up yet. I knew she was getting ready, but I didn't realize that she meant exactly 7:00, on the dot.

Actually, she didn't mean 7:00 on the dot, either. I was waiting about 10 minutes afterward.

Which turned into 20 minutes.

Then 25.

Then 30.

"Hey, Lucy? Do you remember when Mirajane left to get ready?"

"I don't know, I wasn't here when she left. When I came in, she had already left."

When my question went unanswered the first time, I asked Natsu.

"Hm? I dunno. I was on a quest with Lucy. Erza was on her own quest," replied Natsu.

"You wanna know when she left? Why, you getting impatient?" said Gray when I asked him.

"What do you care? I just wanna know when she left to get ready, that's all."

"I don't know for sure. I think about 6:20, I don't know the exact time."

How long does it take to get ready...? I thought. Granted it's for a date, but does it really take that long? I guess girls are different than guys.

"I'm gonna go wait outside," I muttered.

"No one's stopping you," said Gray.

"Shut up. No one asked for further input," I retorted as I found my way to the exit.

The evening air was cool and beautiful like a rose petal gently caressing my face. In the west, the sun was still high, but would soon cease to remain suspended in the grand pink and orange expanse. As I stared at the immense canvas of sky, I began to get lost in my thoughts, thinking about the future, thinking again about what I would do after defeating Elementia, places I've never been that I may travel to, how powerful I would grow after that, maybe I would reform the Legion, or start a new organization for more than just Charizard. I would call it the National Pokémon Alliance. It would include more than just the strongest of Pokémon, but train the weaker ones to become strong, to defend the world from evil. If I tried to eradicate evil by myself, god knows how long that would take. But then again, I thought if I did it by myself, I would be remembered as a hero after I passed.

Suddenly, I heard panting, accompanied by the clicking of high heeled shoes on the pavement, snapping me out of my thoughts, back into reality.

"Vin...Vincent! *huff* I'm sorry I'm late! I had to-*huff*- I needed a lot of time to get -*huff*- to get ready...!" From my right, Mirajane called to me, speaking between breaths. Once I turned to look at her, call it really corny but I was momentarily stunned by her her beauty. She wore a different dress than the one she usually wore; still red, but came up her left shoulder and not her right. It was one of those dresses where a bit of the thigh is visible, opposite of the side where the dress came up over the shoulder. Her long hair was put into an intricate bun held up by a stick, with a bit of hair coming down in front of her ears. Speaking of, I saw some earrings hidden behind her hair. She didn't wear a lot of makeup, maybe just a bit of cheek blush, and a tad bit of eye shadow and eyeliner. She looked nevertheless beautiful, but I honestly thought she looked more beautiful without makeup on. She wore high heels, but not too high that she couldn't run all the way here.

"H-*huff*-how do I look?" she asked. I didn't know how to immediately respond to that.

"I-I mean... how do you look...? Jeez, if I had to find the right words, that'd take more words than I've ever spoken in my life. To be honest... I mean, don't get me wrong, you look absolutely stunning, but maybe a bit overdressed. You're making me feel super informal and underdressed." As I spoke, I removed my jacket and fedora and showed her what I was wearing. I was worried she wouldn't like it or something, but a few seconds later she said, "You look dashingly handsome... Dang it, I knew I should've gone more casual...!"

"It's fine! It's alright. You look fine to me. Well, more than just fine. It's like..." I thought about what to say for a second. "You look as if you rose from sea foam like Venus. You look like a goddess, honestly. Now, I'm not saying it looks bad in that you look better without makeup. It's alright, though." I looked back at her face, which she looked overjoyed to hear me say that which I had just said. In fact, she was so happy to hear it that she stepped forward and embraced me tight.

"Thanks for being honest with me," her voice tingled close to my ear, tickling a bit.

"It's no problem. You're absurdly gorgeous. Don't think otherwise. What do you say we begin the date...?" I smiled.

"Hasn't it already begun?" teased Mira.

"I suppose you're right. Alright, so I haven't planned out where we're going, but we can go wherever you want."

"Hmm..." she hummed in thought. "You know what I haven't eaten in a while?"

"What would that be?"

"Ramen. Ramen noodles."

I smiled big, hoping she'd say that.

"You know, I was thinking the exact same thing."

xxxx

"Ha! So what did he say next?" I laughed. It was 9:16, Fiore time. We had eaten dinner at a ramen place in a neighboring town to Magnolia, and were sitting at the bar drinking sake. Don't worry. Laws in Fiore allow drinking at 18. I had just turned 18 a few months ago, and Mira was 19, so we were good.

"He said, he said, 'I'm a man! I don't do that puny stuff! Humph!'" Mira imitated Elfman in the deepest voice she could manage. "You said, uh, what's his name...?"

"Tyranitar, right? He's kinda like Elfman in a way, I said."

"Yeah! And what did he say?"

"Okay, okay. Lemme give an example. One time during my training, he was being ludicrous by trying to act like a grown up, even though he's like, 10 years old in human years, which would be like, half that in large Pokémon years. I'm telling you! He's just like Elfman! I don't remember exactly what he said, but he was tryna be all manly like, 'I'm too good for y'all. I'm stronger than all of you, I'll make a man out of each and every one of you!' Sometimes he forgets that I'm the trainer here, and he likes ordering the others around. Not bullying, but like a drill sergeant."

"Oh my gosh! That's exactly Elfman! He doesn't just talk about it, either. He leads by example." Mira seemed to be getting red in the cheeks, and it wasn't the cheek blush she was wearing either.

A while later...

"Hahaha! Then he was like, 'I'm better than you! Die!'" I said, causing Mira to burst into peals of laughter.

"Hey, -hee hee!- your face looks a little red, Vinny."

"Oh, -hahaha!- really? I wonder if I can walk straight."

To test my drunkness, I rose out of my seat and tried walking in a straight line. It was weird. I was walking mostly straight, but I was constantly dizzy, and my face felt warm and throbbed. The throbbing wasn't painful, though. Trying to stand in one place was futile, as I kept almost falling over. Mira saw this as a fun game and tried doing the same, but especially with heels on, she had trouble standing. Then she fell flat on her bottom, which normally, I would've been concerned and helped her up, but everything was funny. As with Mira. When she fell on her behind, she began laughing her ass off, and then I began laughing as well. I still helped her up, though. I seemed to be as drunk than her, maybe because she had a whole bottle and a half, and I had half a bottle. It was probably due to the fact that I had never had any alcohol before, making me go drunk more easily. And I liked to think she had at least some alcohol some times before. But everything felt... good. I felt like I was floating, sort of. I had yet to take her to that surprise place I said we would go to, because it was probably still early evening over in the Regions.

"Hahahahaha!" I cried. "A-alright, Mira! Let's... go! On an adventure!"

"Okay! Let's do this! Where're we going...?"

"You'll see! Hold on to my arm. And let's... -hic- let's... fly! Dimension Switch!" Performing a rather sloppy, but still effective Switch, we were able to teleport to our destination.

"Huh. Wasn't it -hic- almost nighttime a few seconds ago?" questioned Mira as we appeared at the destination, a vast field of beautiful, vibrant flowers.

"Yeah. It was, but we're in a different -hic- time zone. This is my home Region."

"Your home is a field of flowers...? Hahahaha-hic!" Even though it wasn't at all funny, I still laughed at that.

"No! Haha! Uh, no. We're in Floaroma Town. This is one of my most favorite places in the whole world. I love -hic- seeing the sun set over the horizon amongst a vast field of fragrant flowers."

Mira looked off into the horizon at the slow descending sun.

"It's beautiful... -hic.- it's so beautiful... I love sunsets, they make me feel warm and good. Hic." Mira hiccuped again.

"Wanna see something even more beautiful, later...? Hic."

"Something even more beautiful? Can anything -hic- be prettier than this?"

"Well, we can watch the sun go -hic- down for now. I'll show you what I'm talking about once the sun sets fully."

There we sat for the next few hours, talking, laughing uncontrollably at times due to our drunkenness not showing to be wearing off any time soon. We started running around a bit, ignoring the fact that we were technically adults and should be acting as such. It was fun to blow off some steam and have fun for a while.

"Vincent…!" called Mira, who was basically in heaven at the moment. She ran to me and fell into my arms.

"Hm? Yes m'darling?" I replied in a silly voice.

"I'm so heavy…! I can't stand…" With that, she pushed my over, falling on top of me. Drunkenly feeling like I should be dominant, I rolled over on top, laughing my ass off. Mira took this as a sign to win dominance over me, but my drunk self couldn't allow that, and we rolled all over the field, trying to get on top of each other, laughing like crazy lunatics, two crazy, drunk love birds wrestling each other in an orange lit, sun setting field. I felt like we would literally die from laughing.

"Hahahahahaha! I've claimed my rightful place again!" shouted Mira in peals of laughter.

"Hahaha… okay, I concede defeat… you wore me out." She hadn't, as I had a lot more stamina, but I acted tired out of courtesy.

"Yayyy! I win! Hahahaha...!" Mira quickly brought her face down and gave me playful smooch. Which caused a brief moment of awkwardness on my part, but after that moment which seemed like an eternity ended, Mira brought her face closer to mine a bit slower, and we shared our first, albeit drunk, kiss. A fiery passion swept through both of us as our interlocked lips danced, a slow waltz that seemed to freeze time itself, snapping us back into reality and out of our drunkenness for a short time. It was my first time noticing that Mira was a mess. Her hair was all ruffled, her dress a little out of place, and her makeup was slightly smeared, but I didn't care about that, because we were having the time of our life.

Mira slowly disconnected our lips, gazing into my eyes intently. "Let's have some more fun…" Her drunkenness returned, and she wanted to have a different kind of fun. My senses hit me hard, realizing what she meant, so I tried to ease her out of it without driving her away.

"Mira, no. I understand you're drunk-" she cut off my words my placing her lips back onto my mouth, a new vibe washing over us. I didn't like where this was going. If we weren't careful, we could get carried away and something bad could happen. I had enough sense to realize that.

"Mrra!" I shouted into her mouth, which she took as the signal to stop. She disconnected after a few seconds, panting hard.

"What, you don't want to have some fun…?" she whispered, giving me a sexy look, which I pushed aside.

"LIsten, Mira. I like you a lot, but we can't go there yet. For one, this is our first date, so if something happens between us, then that would be really bad. You get what I'm saying?"

"Aw, come on! You're no fun. What's wrong with a little... affection?" It was totally strange seeing Mira behave this way in the first place, but then talking about intimacy, now I knew that alcohol probably had a bad effect on her. I thought about it, and realized that I had talked her into having a drink with me, and she was hesitant. Yet I insisted. I wouldn't make that mistake in the future.

"Mirajane. Stop it." I rolled over carefully as to not accidentally crush her, and rose up, giving her a hand as well. "We can be in a relationship, but we can't do anything stupid. Look at me." She wouldn't make eye contact, and closed her eyes and looked away, in a pouty attitude. "Mira, come back to reality for a sec. I wanna show you that beautiful thing I was talking about." Her face lit up just a tad.

"What is that thing? Is it hot…?"

"Mira, stop acting like that. I know you're drunk and your senses are a little dulled, but you still know what's going on, right?"

"Ehh… a little… I'm funny, aren't I?" she giggled, clinging onto my arm. She's just drunk. She doesn't usually act like this. She doesn't know what's going on. She's just drunk. She's just drunk, I repeated in my mind.

"Mira, if you're tired, I can take you home. Do you wanna go home?"

"No…! I wanna… I wanna see the beautiful thing. What is it? Does it have to do with you?"

"No. It has absolutely nothing to do with me-"

"Is it your muscular chest? Can I see your muscles?" She cut me off, her voice becoming more and more slurred, meaning she was very tired. But she seemed to want to stay up. By this time, I was still a bit drunk, but it had worn off quite a bit.

"Mira, don't-" She cut me off by putting her cold hand underneath my shirt, making me jump. "Eek!"

"...Hahahahahaha! What kinda… what kind of yelp was that…?"

"Mira, stop it!"

"Damn, you have rock hard abs! Vincent… let's get closer…" She started up with the kinkiness again, to which I put a stop to again.

"Mira, it's alright for us to be close, but that's a different kind of close." I felt like a parent educating a first grader on the birds and the bees. I tried to ignore it for a while because she was drunk.

"I know what that means!" she said, indignantly, though I saw no reason why she was indignant at all, since she was the one trying to get it with me. And I thought it would be the other way around, normally with other guys, but I have morals too. Even if I'm technically a monster inside. I had the idea to fly up high on Fearow so we could see the lights of the Regions, the gorgeous night city lights, so Summoning him, I told him the conditions, and he laughed, almost looked shocked when I said that she was drunk and wanted to do it with me.

"Fearow. Fearow, Fear-Fearow." You're a lucky dude. Sure, if I'm strong enough to hold both of you.

"Oh, come on. If you can carry me just fine without much strain, surely you can carry me and someone much lighter than I am," I scoffed.

"Fear, Fearow." Well, Climb on.

Helping Mira onto Fearow's back seated behind me, we flew off like a majestic golden pegasus-pulled chariot of the gods, soaring into the night sky like a grand jet. Once we were high enough, the lights of Hearthome City came into view over the mountain, and higher up we were soon able to see the entirety of Sinnoh, and the distant regions to the south. Above the cloud layer, the moon slowly began to rise up from the sea, a mystic pearl borne of the waters, to begin its long journey through the black, star-spotted sky. Although, it was not entirely black, for the ambient light from below pierced the clouds, creating a visible aura around the majestic dragon on the sea, as if every soul residing on it resonated as one. Mira no longer had any trouble staying awake, for no creature who walked the world could escape such beauty as this; this gorgeous being, bathed in an ocean of white, surrounded by calm, stirring waters.

"Is this..." Mira could not simply articulate, nor comprehend such majesty. "...heaven...?"

For this description alone could not seal one's mind at the sight, more beautiful than words could ever reach. It was beyond even peace, a new reality where we could only simply marvel at this being, where time was meaningless; what only existed was what lay before our eyes in that moment. Mira joined me in this reality, temporarily sober, and gaped in complete awe as the being stared back at us, creating a seemingly endless loop of passion. Fearow's wings flapped rhythmically as he carried both us easily. However, not even the most beautiful things in life last forever, because after a while, Fearow began to strain, working himself hard to sustain us in the air. I took this as the sign for us to make a landing, otherwise we would plummet into the sea below. As difficult as it was to break my eyes free of this beauty, I allowed Fearow to make a landing in Newbark Town. We hopped off of Fearow and I returned him after commending him for his feat by petting him on the head, and thanking him for taking me and Mira up, then teleported us back to Magnolia in a simple fashion. I walked Mira back to her home, then returning home only after making sure she got into her dormitory safely.

It'd been a rather crazy night for a first date. It was the best night of my life up to this point, and I would remember it forever. I hoped to go on another date with Mira, making note to not get us drunk and to not get carried away. It was a good date, though. And we both had fun. As peaceful as it was, though, it wouldn't last forever. Meaning that it wouldn't last for more than a day. So with much reluctance, it was time to return to reality.

Because when I returned to the guild the next day, I was met by a horrible surprise.