"You guys talk too much!" Sanshouuo hissed as he came zooming for Walter and Eric, who were just half-ready to fight him. The two Minors got ready to assist each other, preparing themselves for the torpedoing opponent. "I'll make this quick," the slithering foe promised.

Still rushing through the air, Sanshouuo swung his arms twice as he approached the two awaiting boys, churning the air around them mysteriously. "What? What's going on?" Walter asked as he noticed the oxygen at the ground begin to fizz like soda. It hissed evilly as it dragged dust with it, circling the two. "No way!" Walter realized. "Heat?" The two Minors waited back to back, watching the heat wave encircle them, hissing wildly as it caused friction with each other.

"Die!" Sanshouuo declared as the gathered heat became more intense. Walter took a deep breath as he realized what was about to happen. He cried out as his feet were taken away by an enormous explosion, the sound of cracking and blasting filling his ears wildly. He was pushed outward, rolling away from the rising smoke. Hot redness painted the dead trees once again as bits of rock fell back to the floor like slow, stony hail. Sanshouuo grinned as he watched the smoke disperse.

Walter spit out his own blood, realizing that he had just bit his tongue. The taste of it was bitter and unpleasant, but he forced it down anyway. He began to breathe hard, letting the wound be. The scent of hot ash filled the air. Eric… he thought. Where's Eric? Walter wiped his mouth with his wrist as he peered into the dying smoke. Its blackish gray dye was annoying, and Walter squinted hard to find traces of him. "I wonder…" Sanshouuo piqued. "Did he die?" He grinned.

Walter hoped not. He doubted the fact that his teammate had died. The smoke finally cleared away, and something sudden was shown. The sight shocked both sides. A human size cocoon made completely of thick water was inside the clearing fog, wrapped around something like it was its own kind. Slowly, the water began to fall apart, big chunks of it collapsing to the floor into splashing puddles. It began to reveal bit by bit what it hid so dearly, and it was none other than Eric. "Oh?" Sanshouuo became interested. "Interesting."

"I… I protected him?" Walter asked in disbelief, watching the puddles on the floor. I protected him before myself? Why? I…I don't know, he answered his own question. Walter brought his hands to his face and watched them, making sure he was himself. My body just acted on its own, he realized.

"Thanks," Eric said dully as he helped his teammate back up, preparing themselves for another round. Walter couldn't find his voice to reply. He was still so surprised that he did something so…not involved with him. What was going on with him lately?

After finally discovering his voice again, becoming alert once more, Walter replied. "Whatever," he brushed Eric's words off. "What do you say we beat this guy to shreds?" Walter suggested as he stood side by side with Eric. Sanshouuo smirked at the challenge.

"I'll second that request," Eric replied happily, readying his stance.

PoVS

Mark and Gaia fought hand to hand, both sides not afraid of anything. Mark tightened his expression in a watchful glance as Gaia seemed to be having the time of his life, smiling at every little thing as if nothing in the world was serious. The sound of blocking of various attempts filled the moving forest, cool breezes ignored as Mark couldn't find his own attacks to be effective. They continued fighting like this as they paced backward into the forest, the sound of impacts filling the air.

"Enough," Gaia muttered, flying backward to dodge a round of punches. Mark cried out in surprise. He wondered what was next. Gaia pounded the floor with his fist, waves of clay and dirt emerging into the air like geysers, snaking their bodies downward into the unsuspecting Mark. His mouth hung wide open as his legs shook, begging themselves to move. It was too late. The pillars of dirt came crashing down into a huge explosion like none other, piles of it flying into the air after its enormous impact. As the dust cleared away, it began to show nothing but a broken up statue inside a pile of dirt. "Stone Statue?" Gaia muttered to himself. He scoffed. "How interesting," he admitted as he found the real one rushing away into the trees. Gaia began to play with his tongue again.

Mark ran through the trees, panting heavily as he looked back once in a while to check if his foe was on his trail. Beads of hard work showed on his forehead. The cooling sun seemed to be warming at the same time as it shimmered off the trees gloriously. Turning back, Mark found something up ahead. Or better yet, someone. Someone he recognized. No way! Mark thought. What's he doing here? He stopped in his tracks as he neared him, watching the weakened state of the other Minor. "Daniel?" Mark brought the Minor up to his feet. His clothes were torn completely, his glasses cracked. Dirt marks covered his skin and blood seemed to leak out from everywhere. "What happened?" Mark asked.

"I…" Daniel tried to answer. His voice was weak and his skin was freezing cold. "Over there… they're in danger," Daniel answered bluntly. His eyes could only remain half open. He pointed to another way into the forest, making the best effort he could to lift his hand as he began to lose his consciousness.

"I see," Mark replied dully, looking down seriously. His eyes were shaded over, completely hidden in shadow. Holding Daniel's arm with one hand and tightening his fist with the other, Mark reeled back his punch, crying out as he landed a big one against the side of Daniel's cheek, blowing him a few feet away. The punch hit hard and hurt like hell.

Daniel laughed as he got up to his feet easily this time. "I see," he said evilly wiping the pain away from his cheek. "How'd you know?" Daniel asked as his skin fell to the floor like clay, his clothes doing the same, churning into a liquid mixture of mud and dirt. Beneath the fake identity was Gaia, a bruise on his cheek.

"You faker," Mark muttered. "Daniel has rectangular glasses, not oval," he let him know.

"I see," Gaia piqued. "I must have been careless again," he realized.

So it was this one, Mark noted. It was this one who could change his identity. However, it seems that even he can't make a perfect copy. From now on, it looks like I'll have to make sure whoever I meet is that person. If he manages a perfect copy, I'm dead, Mark told himself, tightening his fist in readiness. He rushed through the forest once more, and jumped as he attempted to land a punch on his opponent.

PoVS

This is bad, Walter thought as he and Eric watched Sanshouuo circle them in a complete daze, trying to confuse them. I've been using nothing but my body water up until now. Eventually, I'll get dehydrated. There's no source of water around here for miles, not even underground. I can't just use wasteful moves anymore. He swallowed hard as the scent of fresh dirt invaded him. "You can't run away," Sanshouuo's voice circled them. He seemed to drag dust along with him, clouding his presence. "I can intensify any source of heat around me and control it for my benefit," he explained. "I can churn it into high levels of friction, and make it into an immense explosion. Even if you try, there's no escape!"

I see, Walter realized. If he controls heat then that means his weakness must be dampness. But, it's hard using water from my body. Sanshouuo came out of the circling daze and began using physical moves against Walter. He blocked his punch, and tried to land a kick. He missed, and Sanshouuo zoomed away from Walter, still facing him. Taking a deep breath, Walter spit out puddles of pressurized water, all of them missing as Sanshouuo created distance. Like a catapult, Sanshouuo began to slither back, now diminishing the distance between him and Walter.

This time, Eric made attempts to attack. He spit out three equivalent small blasts of fire, all of them missing as well. Eric and Sanshouuo soon found themselves in a lock of fighting, both of them spinning and twisting just to get away from each other's attacks. Walter watched, examining their movements expertly. Wait until a good moment where he's forced to stop… Walter thought to himself, bringing a hand to his lips to get ready to blast another shot of water. Now! Walter shot out a blast of water, sending Sanshouuo flying, slamming him against a tree as the water stuck on his body.

Bringing a hand up to his face to wipe away the saliva, Sanshouuo smiled. "I must admit, you do pose a threat to me," he began. His voice was as croaky and unforgiving as ever. "But, you two are fire and water. Two complete opposites. Even if you try to work together, your attacks will interfere with each other. Therefore, you cannot work well enough to defeat me, let alone kill me."

Eric and Walter gave each other a short glance. "You're wrong!" Eric cried out. Walter was shocked at his teammate's outburst. Eric… he thought to himself. "We'll show you what real teamwork is! Right?" Eric turned to Walter, grinning a confident grin. Walter couldn't help but grin and nod back.

"Is that so?" their opponent doubted. "I'd like to see that…" he hissed. Eric and Walter readied themselves once more.

PoVS

Derek sighed as he dropped to his feet. "I can't keep going on like this," he told his two teammates as he brought a hand to the side of his face. He closed his eyes as he resisted moving completely. "I still can't believe you guys ate all the food in one day," he spoke with concealed, narrow eyes.

"Sorry, Derek-san," Dylan apologized. Dylan brought a hand to the back of his head to scratch his hair nervously. He smiled and chuckled, not knowing what else to do as he put his friendliest face on. A sweat drop grew on the side of his face. "If there's anything I can do for you, you just name it, because -" his words were suddenly cut off.

"Hey, hey!" Zack called out to Dylan. He put a mean look on as his hands were brought to his waist. "Why are you always so quick to apologize? You're too nice," Zack scorned him.

"You idiot," Derek said behind muffled hands. "If you were more like him I wouldn't be having such a hard time right now," he explained, getting up on his feet weakly. He seemed crankier than ever now that he hadn't had food for a day and a half. He should've eaten before they came here.

"What?" Zack began to shoot back. "I'm not an idiot! Why, you-" This time, Zack was the one who was cut off by Dylan. It was sort of like revenge. As Zack's voice calmed down, the silence came to again before Dylan spoke. The freshness of the forest never seemed fresh, and the sun began to glimmer off of everything. Derek sighed again, breathing in a big breath of fresh, soil air. Birds began to chirp before the snakes came to give their death, as if a punishment for singing the worst song.

"Wait," Dylan said quietly. He caught everyone's attention immediately. "Look," he pointed to a shadowy figure hiding behind a tree. It seemed to be eavesdropping on them. Derek scoffed. He was too weak and too tired to do anything about another enemy. He just found such a thing troublesome at the moment.

Zack scoffed as well. "I'll teach you to eavesdrop on us, you freak of nature!" Zack began to run to the tree where the figure was hiding. It seemed to react to him uneasily. Derek opened his eyes wide as he couldn't believe what Zack was trying to do. A confrontation from the front? Is he crazy? He soon realized that even if Zack was a bother to him all the time, he cared about him just like he did for every other Minor. He just didn't like to show that. That's what his parents taught him.

Zack neared the tree and began to drive a punch at the figure, who took the hit miserably. The figure came flying backward, surprised at the sudden hit. Zack was surprised that someone from the place they were in didn't think to dodge it. "Who… who are you?" the voice called out in fear, looking up at Zack with shuddering eyes. Zack's mouth hung wide open as he saw the appearance of the figure. It seemed to be a teenager, just about their age with blue hair, bangs at the side of his head like a decoration. The blue was a light blue, and not the crazy electric blue from those wild kids. He had white, innocent eyes as well, just like Minoa. He had a backpack slung on his back and an old style Japanese robe with a white garment underneath, just like the kind Dylan was wearing.

"Hey," Zack said, calmer this time. From far away, Derek wondered what was going on. He was too lazy to do anything with the shadows, no matter how much he motivated to. "You're not from here, are you?" Zack asked as he brought the teenager up to his feet. "Sorry about that punch. Who are you?"

"My name is Kawari-san," he told Zack, accepting his help immediately. They shook hands and Zack introduced himself as well. "But, you aren't from around here, either, are you?" Kawari asked Zack as he brought him out to meet Derek and Dylan.

Zack smiled. "We'll explain everything later," he told him. A few moments later, All four of them found themselves talking and explaining things to each other, and Derek just felt like he wanted to go to sleep. The sun seemed to die out as they talked out of its own boredom. It turned out Kawari was a societal danger locked up inside Swamp of Mystery, but soon after he realized his mistakes and he wanted to change. People rarely came by here to check up on them, but he hoped that one day they would let him out once they saw how much he changed.

"I see, so you guys are Minors?" Kawari asked. Dylan gave a friendly nod. He was always the one to bond closest first with others. He easily got along with new people, even if they were from Swamp of Mystery.

"Wait a minute," Derek said, his hand still muffling one half of his face. He continued to sit weakly at the trunk of a tree as he caught Kawari's attention. "How do we know you're not just tricking us before you sneak up on us and kill us?" Derek asked. Zack began to scold him for his rudeness. He acted so high and mighty all the time, it was funny.

"Oh no, I'm not going to do anything like that," Kawari said honestly, putting a hand behind his head nervously and waving his hand, indicating "no." Derek didn't buy it. Kawari could tell. "I can prove it," Kawari said. "Here, have these," he muttered as he shuffled his hands through his backpack and found three bento lunches. "A token of my appreciation for listening to me," he explained, chuckling nervously.

Derek gulped tensely. "Wow, great!" Zack smiled in awe. He took his boxed lunch and put it into the bag the Council had given them. "Oh, I forgot," Zack noted. "You might want yours now, Derek," Zack told his teammate with a smile, grinning evilly, poking the food at him. Derek stared comically, his eyes unable to lift from the rectangular treasure. He gulped hard, and then looked away, scoffing silently. He crossed his arms in front of him as he looked away meanly. You could tell that a slight blush was growing above his lips.

"Well, you're wrong," he said unstably. "I don't need food. I believe you anyway, Kawari."

Zack snickered. "Too tough to take something from someone else, eh, Derek?" he chuckled. Derek swallowed hard once more uneasily. He could feel his insides tense up.

"Shut up!" Derek shot at Zack, who continued to giggle harder and harder. He kept his arms crossed, continuing to look even more stiff as he looked away. Everyone laughed. Derek scoffed. "Whatever, I don't know how we're going to survive through this whole week though. We need to rest more, and there could be tons of others out there that could be stronger than us," Derek began, desperate to change the subject.

"Well, I'll tell you one thing," Kawari began. He drew everyone's attention closer to him. "You told me that you risked your own good for the succession of the plan against that glass girl, right, Dylan-san?" Kawari asked. Dylan nodded. He ran a finger to his own wound next to his heart and felt the pain shoot through his body. It hadn't faded yet. He remembered that moment, feeling the glass shards strike through his body and holding her glassy arm weakly, waiting for the roots to rise and take over her energy, smiling as the streak of blood came down the corner of his lips. "If you do things more often like that, if you show you're not afraid to show some pain and take a risk, then you guys can be okay. From the looks of it, it sounds like you Minors have a road that you are forced to take where you have to take down this White Cloak guy, right?"

Everyone nodded. "You're not going to beat him if you run away from pain. You confront it and act as if it's nothing. Blood should become a normal sight from now on. Wounds have the same relevance as a flower. You have to push yourself, no matter what condition you guys are in. Do you understand that?"

"I guess you're right," Dylan admitted to Kawari. "I guess that means I've been way ahead of you guys for a while now," he smiled. Zack denied it. Derek didn't seem to care. Suddenly, pain shot through Kawari's body. Damn it! He thought to himself, wincing as he clutched his side. Embracing is the hardest part to this process, he thought to himself. I found the wrong group as well, he realized. This isn't good. I'll have to stay from trouble for a while. Meanwhile, I'll have to deal with this pain. To think that I never knew the gold mine this place was. How stupid, Kawari thought as he clutched his side even more, the voices of chatting Minors filling his ears as he held back his cries of pain.

PoVS

What? Teresa thought as she turned around. She sensed a presence nearby. It had been lingering for a while now, and her violet eyes couldn't catch one figure hiding itself. It's like it's been stalking us ever since the first day, Teresa realized, turning back to the group. They sat cross-legged, having their breakfast before they got up to travel again. She hadn't touched a bit of her food.

Teresa thought to herself silently, watching Daniel and Kenneth fool around, shoving each other when they said something stupid. Their words were blank echoes in the back of Teresa's mind. She just paid attention to how much fun they had. She smiled lightly. It must be fun to have someone so close to you, she thought. Suddenly, as if a reminder, she had a flashback that rid her of her current feelings about connections. She remembered the pain and the agony she had to go through because of the bond she had, because of the closeness with someone else. The sudden memory caused pain for Teresa, giving her a sudden shock from the past. She cried out in shock as her body weakened, wanting to curl up into a ball and call away the memories.

She remembered her friends lying in pools of their own blood, staring up accusingly as if she had done something wrong. She remembered having their blood caked on her face, and that axe glimmering in the faint moonlight, lying in between her teeth with fresh blood on its blade. She remembered the face of that ghost, the ghost she couldn't see now because she lacked something, something she didn't know. For now, she had lost her abilities to see spirits. She had lost her family's legacy. She held back the need to throw up, fighting off wave after wave of nauseating energy.

"Teresa, are you okay?" Daniel noticed her in pain, stopping his conversation with his brother. He wondered if he should care for her.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm okay," Teresa said weakly, bringing her head back up. She swallowed the nausea down as she fought away the painful memories. Her weak lie seemed to satisfy Daniel. This creepy feeling… Teresa thought to herself. It's too familiar. Behind her, a light gust of wind blew by, carrying dead, blackish leaves away to their funeral. The whistling of the breeze filled her ears with eeriness. I can still hear their screams in my head… Teresa realized as she fought the cries away. In front of her, her wrapped plate of food and her thermos of tea remained untouched. The open thermos let out hot, steamy air like a trail of temptation, the brown liquid just waiting for lips to delicately take it away into another world.

Eric… Teresa suddenly remembered. Were your words helpful enough? She thought, remembering his helpful grin and his protective eyes. I wonder… who are you helping now? She wondered, peering to the trees. They swayed lightly as the winds carried their leaves away.