Propositions
Chapter VIII: Machinist Contest! -or- Heretics! Murond is Forbidden!

The Highwind set sail immediately after unloading its cargo. The Captain insisted on it, he wanted to get away from Ai as quickly as possible. The group saw him off, save for Alicia who was chartering a boat to Murond with what was left of their money.

Alicia stood at a dock, talking to the owner of a small sailboat, for transporting cargo. The man shook his head, as Alicia pleaded.

"No way!" The sailor repeated. "I can get you to Murond, but I'm not going any further North. My boat can't handle the rough seas north of Murond, and even if it could, you can barely make it to Murond if I wasn't nice enough to cut the price for you..."

"Can't you at least try? You are sending supplies up to the temple, right?" Alicia asked.

"Yeah, but they wouldn't have us go North unless something big was going on," the sailor said. "With the war breaking out, maybe, but I hear the Church is claiming neutrality."

"Alicia, what's wrong with Murond?" Ai asked, stepping up to Alicia with the rest of the group. Lavian also looked a bit nervous when the subject of Murond came up.

"N-Nothing," Alicia said. "I just don't want to bother the Church, you know?"

"Yeah, let's not bother the church..." Lavian nodded.

"Come on, it's the Church, right? They'll help anyone in need!" Rad said, Lavian elbowed him in the side. "Ow, what?"

"Look, I can get you to the church, but from there you're on your own," the sailor repeated.

"All right, deal..." Alicia sighed, reaching into her bag for a handful of gil. "When do you head out?"

"At noon, you'll get to the temple by morning," the sailor said. "Name's Lamont, Captain Lamont." He held his hand forward, Alicia shook it.

"Thank you, Captain, we'll load our stuff onto the ship and wait on board." Alicia said.

"All right, I've got to get back to work," Lamont walked to the edge of the dock and boarded his ship. He gave orders to the crew as they loaded crates on deck.

"Alicia, what's going on?" Ai whispered. "You act like you're a heretic or something?"

"Uh...Remember when you guys and Rad went on that little mining adventure?" Alicia asked.

"Yeah, why?"

"Ah...Nevermind, actually," Alicia smiled, nervously. "It's nothing, I forgot, you're a Priest, you should be able to get us some help from the Church after all."

Ai shrugged. "I guess..."

By noon, the ship had set sail for the Murond Holy Palace. By the next morning, before sunrise, the ship had docked at the front of the giant church.

Alicia and Lavian hadn't slept a wink, while everyone else slept without problem. As they stepped off the ship, Alicia and Lavian kept behind the group.

"All right, what's wrong?" Rad asked. "You two are driving me crazy! You haven't said a word since we got on the ship!"

Alicia glanced away, Lavian scratched the back of her head nervously. "...Nothing." They both replied.

Rad let out an exasperated sigh and hurried after Ai. The Murond Church wasn't too far from the southern dock. As they neared the church Alicia and Lavian stopped. The entire group paused and looked back at them, confused. Especially because Lavian was hiding behind a bush.

"...You guys go ahead," Lavian said, poking her head up from the bush. "We'll wait here."

Osamu sighed, "What's going on?"

"N-Nothing!" Both girls replied, shaking their heads.

"Then come with us already!" Ai shouted.

"But--"

"Now!" Rad added. "Geez, what's wrong? Did Ramza fire you two or something!?"

"DON'T SAY THAT NAME!" Alicia and Lavian shouted.

"What? Ramza?" Rad asked.

"What's wrong with saying Ramza?" Osamu asked.

Jokingly, Ken said, "Ramza, Ramza, Ramza!" In a sing-song voice.

Guys! Stop!" Alicia shouted, looking around. "Don't say--"

"Did you say Ramza!?"

Everyone turned to see a young apprentice from the church approaching the group. Behind him was a small group of other young priests and monks, still training. A group of a dozen in total. They looked to be a bunch of kids and young teens.

"Yeah, Ramza Beoulve," Ai said, Alicia and Lavian paled. "We got separated from him and the rest of our group a while ago, we're going back to Gallionne to meet up with him. Do you think the Church could spare a boat?"

Immediately, one of the younger apprentices in the back of the group started running back to the church, screaming, "MASTER ZALMO! MASTER ZALMO! HERETICS! MASTER ZALMO!"

"What?!" Ai shouted.

The group of apprentices drew out staves, knives and whatever weapons they could. A couple of them were also monks in training.

"GET THE HERETICS! THEY'VE COME TO ATTACK THE CHURCH!"

"HOLY AJORA, GIVE US THE STRENGTH TO CLEANSE THE WORLD OF THESE HEATHENS!"

"MAY AJORA PROTECT US!"

As the group closed in, Rad noticed reinforcements (actual fighters) coming from the church itself. "RUN!" He screamed.

The group took off running back to the docks. A small army of Clergy from Murond chased after them. The boat they had arrived on was just pulling away from the dock, everyone made a frantic leap for the side of the boat. Osamu barely made it, having to grab onto Lavian's cape.

The crew helped them back onto the deck as the army of Priests and Monks shook their fists at them, screaming, "HERETICS!" and "REPENT!" Thankfully, the ship was far enough out of range for the crew not to be able to understand them.

"What'd you guys do? Make fun of High Priest Funeral or something?" Captain Lamont asked, stepping aboard.

"...Yeah, Alicia, Lavian, what did you guys do to get the church so angry?" Ai asked.

"Ah..." Alicia laughed nervously. "We accidentally stepped on a heresy examiner's foot..."

"Oh, Zalmo, right?" Lamont asked. "Yeah, come up an ounce short on a shipment of flour and he'll cast you to the lowest layer of Hell for it."

"Can you take us back to Goug?" Ken asked.

"Yeah, it's not like we can take you anywhere else." Lamont shrugged. "Current's with us for the return, so we'll be there by nightfall."

"Thanks," Ai replied, shooting a glare at Alicia and Lavian. They both laughed nervously.

To be safe, no-one mentioned 'Ramza' in front of the crew or even talked about to incident until they got back to Goug. Ai checked in at the nearest inn and everyone gathered in her room.

"Explain. Now." Rad said.

"Well, you see...When you guys were out mining, Ramza asked us to stick around with Agrias and well... There was some...unpleasantness." Lavian explained.

"Define 'unpleasantness,'" Osamu said.

"Um...You know how Cardinal Draclau was actually an evil demon possessed by the Zodiac stone?" Alicia asked.

Everyone nodded.

"Well, the church found out about how we kinda, you know, killed him, but apparently whoever told them...Left out the whole part about the evil demon and replaced it with 'Saintly Cardinal who died in the name of Holy Ajora.'" Lavian finished.

"...In other words..." Ai trailed off.

"...Ramza's...kind of been branded a heretic. When we got to Gariland, we were supposed to tell you, but then that whole burglary thing with Zero. We were going to Orbonne to get another holy stone." Alicia let out a nervous chuckle. "Kinda funny, if you...Think about it... Ha ha ha ha..."

"...Ha ha." Rad rolled his eyes.

"Okay, so, going back through Murond is out..." Ai sighed. "You know what this means, right?"

"Yeah, we gotta go through Lionel," Osamu groaned. "God help us if we hit monsters of Barius Hill-- Oh, wait! We're heretics! Someone else help us!" He stomped on the floor a couple times, looking down.

"Sorry, we wanted to tell you, but...Well..." Lavian sighed. "We were kinda worried you guys would try to...Well, Alicia and I were the only ones implicated among us, since we were there when Ramza fought with the heresy examiner--"

"We're not abandoning you or Ramza," Osamu shook his head. "Especially now," he looked to Ken, "thanks to Mister 'Ramza Ramza Ramza!'" He said in a mocking tone.

"Oh, like I knew the Church wanted his head!" Ken shouted.

"Enough," Ai came between Osamu and Ken. "We'll start to Lionel tomorrow morning."

"That could be tough," Lavian said. "Do we have enough to buy supplies and pay for the ferry out of Goug?"

"We'll need a lot of supplies," Osamu said. "Barius Hill is not going to be easy."

"And this inn wasn't exactly cheap." Ai sighed, "Great... We're back to where we started..."

Rad groaned, "Well, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go down to the bar and drink enough to forget any of this ever happened."

Ken and Lavian went to join him.

"...Well, looks like it's just you and me," Osamu said. Ai started to the bar. "...Fine, i need a pot of tea anyway..."

Upon arrival to the bar, which was unusually busy. It was almost filled, save for one or two small tables. The group had to split up to two tables that were next to each other. Rad, Ken and Osamu on one, Ai, Alicia and Lavian on the other.

"Talk about busy..." Rad trailed off.

"Yeah," Ken nodded. A waitress came by to take their order. "Hey, is this place usually so busy?"

"You mean you aren't here for the contest?" The waitress replied.

Lavian spoke up, turning her head, "Contest?"

"The Goug Machinist Contest! Inventors from all over Ivalice come by to try to win the 10,000 gil prize!"

"...Ten thousand gil you say?" Osamu asked.

"Competition's pretty fierce, though," the waitress added. "A lot of groups try to sabotage each other."

This gave Alicia an idea. Once everyone placed their orders, she said, "Guys, huddle up."

Rad, Osamu and Ken got up and stood around Ai, Alicia and Lavian's table. "What is it?" Rad asked.

"She said competition is fierce, right? Why not offer our services as guards?" Lavian explained. "We're fairly good in battle, we could stand guard and couple nights and make some gil to get out of here!"

"Not a bad idea, but how do we find someone to work for?" Osamu asked.

"We'll scout out some inventors in the morning," Lavian said.

"We should try to find someone who looks likely to win," Ai added. "The more likely to win, the more they'll pay."

The drinks arrived, the group drank quickly and went back to the inn to get an early start.

However, as they neared the inn... They saw the strangest of sights.

A silver chocobo, shining in the moonlight! A HUGE silver chocobo! It kicked up an incredible amount of dust, especially on a stone road. It was far off in the distance, but looked to be coming closer. Even in the darkness, they could make out its bright yellow eyes...Though, chocobos usually didn't have bright yellow eyes.

"What the...?" Ai muttered.

The chocobo let out a frightening, low WARK as it approached. The occasional explosion sounded like it could use Chocobo Meteor!

Osamu, Ken and Lavian drew out their weapons, Ai and Alicia prepared to cast their most powerful spells. Rad hid in a half-full rain barrel.

The chocobo came to a skidding halt in front of the inn...It was then that everyone saw what it truly was. A machine. It was a mechanical chocobo that could hold eight people on its back, a row of two in the front, two rows of three in the back. Three elderly men were seated on the chocobo, one was driving it with a pair of chain pulleys.

"What are you looking at?" The driver asked. "Haven't you seen a Choco-Car before?" He had a long white beard, glasses and a black cap. He wore a black suit as well. He looked to be the oldest of the three.

"Um...Not really..." Ken shook his head.

The three men in the "Choco-Car" burst into a roaring laughter.

"Good, I'd have been worried then!" The driver said, turning off the Choco-Car and climbing off. The others got off as well.

"Are you three here for the contest?" Ai asked.

"Yeah, we'll be the winners this year!" The a short and slightly chubby man replied. He appeared the youngest (around fifty).

"To think, we will have a flying model in fifty years!" The third man shouted, he was bald with a white suit. "Too bad we won't be around long enough to build it!"

The three men laughed once more.

Rad poked his head out of the rain barrel. "So...How's it work?"

"Ah, ah, that is our secret!" The bald man shook his finger.

"Something like this is sure to win," Lavian stated. "But, I hear competition is fierce..."

"Yeah," the three men muttered in somewhat uninterested agreement.

"People might try to wreck your invention..." Alicia said.

"Go on..." The man driving trailed off.

"How'd you like some guards to protect it?" Ken asked.

The three men huddled together, then disbanded and said, "No!"

"What!? Why not?" Ai shouted.

"How do we know you're not here to sabotage our invention at our cost?" The driver asked.

"Would a priest lie?" Ai asked.

The three men huddled together again, then disbanded and said, "Yes!"

"What?!" Ai screamed.

"Are you implying that even a Priest is incapable of lying? And if he is, is he or she incapable of being impersonated?" Asked the bald man.

"We get that!" Alicia shouted, she was going to follow up on that explaining that Ai was, in fact, a real (and moderately trustworthy) Priest, but she was interrupted.

"Oh, good, we'll be off then," the driver lead his companions into the inn. They just left the Choco-Car by the side of the inn.

Ai sighed, "Well, either way, we can try again tomorrow..."

Ken looked over the car, "This thing is amazing!"

That night, the group awoke to a startling noise.

"WARK! WARK! WARK! WARK! WARK!"

Ai was the first to scream, "WHAT'S GOING ON!?"

"WARK! WARK! WARK! WARK! WARK!"

Rad had fallen out of bed, Ken had tripped over Rad, Osamu was guiding himself to a window with a sword-sheath, accidentally poking Lavian in the side with it as she got out of bed.

"WARK! WARK! WARK! WARK! WARK!"

Alicia slept through the whole thing.

"WARK! WARK! WARK! WARK! WARK!"

Ai was the first to the window, down below a group of figures in black clothes were running from the Choco-Car in terror. The Choco-Car's wings were flapping, the eyes were turning on and off violently and it was raising its head up and down, letting out mechanized chocobo warks.

The three men, who had the room next to Ai and the others, had their heads out of their window.

"That's what you get for trying to steal the Choco-Car!" Shouted the bald man, laughing.

"It comes alive!" The shortest man cried, laughing.

"What's going on with that thing!?" Ai shouted.

"They set off my other invention, the Choco-Car Alarm!" The man with the beard shouted. "I should problem turn it off, nu?"

The other two men huddled together as more people from the inn began screaming out their windows about the noise. They disbanded and said, "Yeah!"

The bearded man went down to turn off the alarm. "Shut up!" He shouted as he walked up to it. He kicked the side of the Choco-Car and it shut off. "Good Choco-Car! You get a candy tomorrow!" He joked as he went back into the inn.

Outside of his room, Ai waited. "...You sure you don't want protection?"

"What is this? An annoy the inventor convention?" The old man asked.

"No, we just really need money and since someone already tried to steal your invention, you might want to take extra precaution."

"Hm, very well, I will give you five hundred gil per day to watch it until the contest starts!"

Ai nodded. "Sounds good." In just a week, they would have enough to get even as far as Igros.

"Shall we shake on it?"

Ai extended her hand and shook with the old inventor. "It's a deal. Oh, but, when's the contest?"

"The day after tomorrow," the old man replied. Before Ai could object, he added, "And don't think of charging me for tonight!"

"Why not!?"

"Someone already tried to steal it right from under your nose, why should I?" The old man went into his room before Ai could object any further. "I expect better work tomorrow!"

Ai groaned, "Sneaky old man..." She went to her room to break the news to the others. Osamu and Rad volunteered to watch the Choco-Car for the rest of the night, while everyone else would take over the next day.

By the next afternoon, everyone was sitting around the Choco-Car at the entrance of the inn.

By that time, the shortest of the old men came out, "What is this? You call this guarding!?"

"What's wrong?" Ai asked, looking up from inside the Choco-Car.

"When I was a student under the great Professor Goripan, he taught me never to let people know he was watching them!" The old man exclaimed.

"Meaning?" Osamu asked, yawning. He had been taking a nap by the inn until the old man woke him up.

"Don't just sit in the Choco-Car going, 'la dee da, no-one's going to steal this,' hide around and catch any would-be thieves in the act! That is what the great Professor Goripan taught me!"

"So we should hide?" Lavian asked.

"No, you should be sitting around playing checkers!" The old man screamed. "Of course you should hide!"

"Right, right, sorry..." Lavian rolled her eyes. "All right, we're on it..."

"Hey, old man," Rad spoke up. "Who's this Professor Goripan who taught you anyhow? The old guy with the beard?"

"Him? Bah!" The old man shook his head, he started back to the inn. "I taught myself everything I know!"

"This isn't worth five hundred gil..." Ken muttered.

"We're this desperate," Ai muttered.

"We are?" Alicia asked.

"Probably not, I just want to pretend that's why I'm putting up with this..." Ai groaned.

The group started to hide around the Choco-Car.

The bald old man came out of the inn and shouted, "What kind of guards is Eugene payin' for!?"

Lavian poked her head out from a rain barrel, "We're hiding, in case some thieves show up--"

"What?! You're hiding before they get here now?!" The bald man screamed.

"No, but if they show up, we'd catch them in the act," Ai explained, crawling out from behind a bush.

"Oh, like I'm gonna believe that one after I catch you in the act!" The old man shouted. "Forget it, I'll watch this thing myself!"

"No, no, sir, please, we're watching it, really!" Ai shouted.

"I bet you were sleeping on the job!" The old man shouted.

"No, we weren't!" Ken climbed out a window from the inn.

"When I was studying under the Legendary Professor Goripan, I learned how to tell if someone's lying!" The old man crossed his arms.

"And how is that?" Ai asked.

The old man walked over to a crate by a corner of the inn. He pulled up Rad, who had fallen asleep due to taking the night watch. Rad woke up in surprise. "Because there's always evidence! ...That, and I could hear this one lying from the second floor."

"He took the night shift with me," Osamu explained.

"Then why aren't you asleep?" The old man asked.

"I took a nap while we were watching the Choco-Car earlier," Osamu explained. "Before we hid. He hasn't had more than an hour of sleep since--"

"What moron told you to hide in broad daylight, anyway!? If you planned to hide, you should do it at night when a saboteur would strike!" The old man shouted, shaking Rad and then dropping him on the ground. "Get back out and keep eye out for suspicious people! They'll want to check out the crime scene before they commit it! What moron gave you any idea otherwise?!"

Ken snapped, "That Professor you just mentioned! The shorter guy!"

"What!? What would I have to learn from that idiot!? I taught myself everything I know!" The old man slammed the door to the inn.

"This sucks..." Ai muttered, getting out of her hiding place with the others.

"It could be worse..." Rad muttered.

"How?" Ai asked.

"We could have been caught in Murond..." Rad yawned.

"That's debatable," Ken said.

The day went on into night. Ai, Alicia and Ken took the first watch (until midnight), while Osamu, Rad and Lavian took the watch until morning.

By morning, the old men were ready to take the Choco-Car to the contest. They insisted that the group go with them. Reluctantly they followed to the town square, where dozens of inventions were displayed.

"Just make sure nothing happens to the Choco-Car while I go check out the competition," The man with a beard said. Everyone had gathered in a covered booth to unveil the invention for the judges, add a bit of showmanship to it.

The group saluted, "Yes, sir!" The other two old men did the same.

The oldest man walked off.

"Feh, we'll win this one for sure," the shorter man said. He pat the metalic chocobo on the side.

Rad spoke up. "Hey, um... Is it supposed to leak like that?"

The two old men looked down, below the Choco-Car a pool of green liquid was forming. They then looked to each other and panicked. "Oh no! A fuel leak! Oh no!" They screamed. "This is bad!"

"He treats this thing like his own son!" The shorter man screamed.

"No, better than a son!" The bald man shouted.

"Can it be fixed?" Ai shouted. "You all invented it, right!?"

"Right, right, now's not the time to panic, but we haven't got the tools! They're back at the inn! And if the 'father' comes back and sees this to his invention, he'll kill us in cold blood!" The bald man shouted. "Wait, I know!" He pointed to Ai, Alicia and Lavian, "You three! Distract the judges!" He pointed to Osamu and Ken. "You two, distract the father!" He pointed to Rad. "You! I don't care how, get me some tools!"

The shorter man began collecting the fuel in a piece of scrap metal.

Everyone quickly split up.

Rad went from booth to booth, snatching whatever tools he could. He brought them back to the booth as the two old men began making repairs. The shorter man was under the Choco-Car, while the taller man had taken its "head" off. "We need more tools! Hurry! Hurry!" They screamed. Rad went back out for more.

On his way to another booth, he caught sight of what looked like a group of Priests and Monks from Murond. This was not a good sign! Rad spotted Lavian, she was chatting up a somewhat older judge.

Lavian hated herself for this, but said, "You know, I've always liked older men..."

"...Really?" The judge asked, a smiling spreading across his face.

Rad whispered behind Lavian. "Church is here. We're dead."

Lavian did her best to stay calm. "Excuse me..." She walked away with Rad. "Warn the others! I'll see what I can do to distract them and the judges!"

"Right!" Rad dashed off in search of the others and more tools.

Osamu and Ken were holding off the old man with a beard.

"Why can't I go back to my invention?!" The old man shouted, stomping his foot on the ground.

"Well, you...You know, you haven't really told us much about yourself." Ken said. "What are your...Your...Hopes!"

"And dreams!" Osamu added.

"I hope to get back to my invention and dream of getting you two out of my sight!"

"What about your plans for the future?"

"They involve kicking you two in the face if you don't let me pass!"

Rad slipped under a covered side of the booth and dropped off more tools. The old men were about done, despite fighting over a wrench when he got there. As he went back out to warn the others, he bumped into a Priest.

"Watch it!" The Priest shouted.

"Oh, s-sorry! I didn't see you!" Rad apologized.

"...Wait, you look familiar...Have we met?" The Priest asked.

"Uh...Probably saw me...Last Sunday... Yeah!"

"...What was the sermon about?"

"...Uh...Ajora..."

"...And...?"

"...God?"

"...Well, I guess that kinda checks out..." The Priest muttered. "Have you seen anyone suspicious?"

"How so?"

"We're looking for some heretics that escaped on a cargo ship from Murond--"

"I know who you're talking about!" Rad quickly said. "I heard 'em in a bar, they said they were heading to uh...Warjilis!"

"Really? Are you sure it was them!?" The Priest shouted.

"Positive! One of 'em had 'heretic' written all over his face! They mentioned this...Ah...Something-za guy...Lamza...Zamza..."

"Ramza!?"

"Yeah!"

"I need to report this...Thank you! Go with God!" The Priest ran off.

Rad let out a sigh of relief, he glanced to Ken and Osamu. They seemed to be running out of ideas. He quickly dove under the covered booth again.

"That does it! If I don't see my Choco-Car before I count to ten..." The old man growled.

Osamu and Ken sighed, letting him pass.

The old man opened the covered booth, seeing the other two men polishing the side of the Choco-Car with a couple green rags.

"Oh, you goofed! We needed another ten minutes at least!" The shorter man shouted. "We wanted to surprise him with a polish!"

The old man with a beard laughed, "So, that's what this was about! Well, then, the judges will be here soon! I'll go talk to them..." He walked off.

Ken and Osamu sighed in relief.

"You fixed it?" Ken asked.

The two men nodded.

"So, why polish it?" Osamu asked.

Rad came out from outside the booth. His green vest and hat were missing. "...Can I have them back?"

"No, need to give it a spit shine!" The short man joked, tossing Rad his hat.

"Convenient excuse for trying to stall him, no?" Rad said, putting his hat and vest back on.

The judging was complete. After a quick test drive, the Choco-Car was determined the winner.

The old man with a beard gave a short victory speech to the crowd.

"I want to thank the city of Goug for this prize. It is an honor that my Choco-Car should win this contest. When I was a young man, living in Goug, I learned everything from the magnificent Professor Goripan! It is thanks to him, I won this award."

Osamu looked to the bald man. "So, you're his Professor?"

"Feh, what? Me? Compared to him, I'm an idiot!" The old bald man shouted, motioning the man with a beard. "He taught himself everything he knows!"

The group shrugged with a sigh.

After the contest, a quick victory drink at the bar lead to the old man with a beard confronting Ai outside of her room.

"This is your payment," the old man said, holding up a leather pouch. "But, there's a rule!" He pulled it back before she could accept it. "You'll be going out of town, won't you?"

"How'd you know?"

"A hunch," The old man chuckled. "You can't open this until you've left town."

"Why?"

"I'm the great inventor here, no asking questions!" The old man snapped. "Just open it after you've left town!"

"Trust us, we'll know!" The bald man said, walking up behind the old man with a beard. The shorter man was behind him.

The shorter man spoke up, "Yeah, you can't put one over on students of Professor Goripan!"

"...Who is this professor guy, anyway?" Ai asked.

The three old men bust into laughter and walked into their room.

Ai shrugged. Everyone started to pack up, bought what supplies they could without opening their payment (which everyone began to theorize was empty) and left for Lionel.

They were on a ferry to Lionel when Rad spoke up, "Think we're far enough out of town yet?"

Ai shrugged and open the pouch. Inside was two thousand gil and a letter:

Heretics! We've alerted the church of your whereabouts!

Ha ha ha, just kidding!

Saw you guys runnin' out of Murond on our way to Goug,
thought you could use some money getting to Lionel or wherever
it is you need to go. Best of luck in your journeys, hope we didn't
give you too much trouble!

-The Goripan Brothers

Ai looked up. "The...Goripan...brothers?"

Rad shrugged. "...They taught themselves everything they knew..."

To Be Continued...

Notes:

...I suppose it is time to come clean. I am not the original author of Propositions, nor the original holder of this account. The original writer (Shibaryou\Kenji) had left to pursue a literary career. He has given me control of this series and his FFN account after much...Well, to be honest, begging.

The original chapters are roughly the same, save for corrected errors and some edits for continuity purposes (requested by Shibaryou).

I'm sorry for the deception, but he asked me not to reveal this until I wrote my own chapter of Propositions. Don't worry, the story will go along with his intended storyline, I was given a detailed summary of the series as well as character descriptions and details.

I hope you will continue reading despite the series' change of hands.

-"Shibaryou"