Gomenasai, but I don't really know how to work this account very well, so please cut me some slack for the technical stuff - (in reality computers hate my guts; they usually end up malfunctioning around me). Kyungsamnida and Domo arigatou for all those who have reviewed and read my story thus far!

Keeper of Balance- Thank you for the whole spell check, I appreciate your meticulous care for grammar. And yes, Odin's Tear is all my own;p (I love Norse myth). NARUTO ALL THE WAY!!!!-

Dawnstarshine/ Fehize/ guardian-angel910/ Midnight Promise- OYAKO FLUFF!! I LOVES IT!!! I'm gonna try to make this story a balance of Oyako, and other elements, but don't worry, there's more to come.

Kikuren- nah, he's not her brother, he just really admires her and pretty much grew up with her. A lot of the kids are probably gonna call her

Onee-san.

Oh, yeah just to tell you, this story will be like if you had taken the path where you keep Kratos and get the locket, except I'm not gonna kill off Zelos. It's more fun that way.

Disclaimer: I do not own Tales of Symphonia, though if I had my way, this would be the sequel. (this disclaimer goes for the other chapters as well….I uh, hehehe…I forgot. Oopsies)

CHAPTER 3

SYMPHONIA

"I wouldn't advise that, Lloyd."

Kratos and Lloyd were still waiting patiently in the meeting room for Sheena to return. Well, one of them anyway. Kratos sat cross-legged on a floor cushion warily watching his curious son.

"Ah, don't worry, I'm sure it's perfectly fine. It's just tea."

Lloyd had gotten bored of sitting still after the first few minutes, and had begun to wander around the room. A clay tea set in a corner of the room had caught his attention. It rested on a small varnished table and consisted of a single small tea pot, three cups, and an assortment of different vials and bowls of multicolored powders and sweet smelling liquids. The pot was steaming with freshly brewed tea.

"I wonder if these are flavorings for tea," Lloyd pointed to the vials of fragrant liquids and shuffled through the many jars.

"Or poisons for getting rid of nosey teenagers," Kratos sighed.

Lloyd gulped and turned nervously to his father, "They wouldn't just put them out here in the open…would they?"

"Who knows? I'm no ninja," he smirked.

"Ah, but I'm sure you could be. Such talent," a raspy voice spoke up suddenly.

Kratos and Lloyd nearly jumped out of their skins and turned to the new voice, weapons raised.

A wizened old woman sat on one of the cushions, calmly sipping tea. She wore a simple brown kimono and her wispy white hair was pulled into a tight bun. Her eyes were hidden behind closed, withered eye-lids.

"My, some new faces. Would you be Lloyd?" the woman nodded to the red-clad teen. She sounded as old as she looked. Which was quite old.

"Who are you? And how did you get in here without us noticing?" Kratos slowly sheathed his sword, eyeing the woman.

"Hmm? I simply walked in through the door and picked up a cup of tea," she replied as if talking to silly little child.

The two turned to the tea set and saw that a cup was missing from the tray. They turned back to the woman who merely continued to drink her tea.

"But, how-" Lloyd started, flabbergasted.

"Ninjas," Kratos muttered a slight tone of exasperation in his voice.

"Would you like some tea, young man? I assure you, that batch isn't poisoned," she addressed Lloyd.

That batch? Lloyd thought to himself, feeling a pit in the bottom of his stomach, What about the other batches?

"It's a very healthy mix. Good for the body…" she said taking another drink as if to prove her point.

Lloyd eyed the tea uncertainly for a second, and then hesitantly picked up a cup, filling it with the steaming brown-green liquid.

Hmmm…they have no reason to poison us. I suppose it would be okay, Kratos thought to himself. All the same, he poised himself to rush to his son's aid if harm came to him. Of course, afterwards he would be in an awfully bad and merciless mood. Even to an elderly woman.

Lloyd decided to just gulp it down and get it over with. I f he made the wrong choice…well, he lived a good life.

"…I must warn you though. It's not very pleasing to the tongue," the woman finished her statement. Too late for Lloyd.

"Hrf," Lloyd instantly ran to the window, jumped out and spewed out the foul liquid into a nearby bush.

Wretching sounds could be heard out the window as Kratos walked over to it. Kratos looked out and sighed as he watched Lloyd try to wash out the taste with berries from the bush.

"You should know that healthy things always taste bad," Kratos said to him, all the while keeping his straight face.

"Yah, bu dey don dase li roden wamp wa'er," Lloyd shot indignantly, and then put his hands up to his mouth in shock.

Kratos stared in surprise at his son's incoherent babbling.

"Ah, yes. And just so you know, that bush has berries used for very potent anesthetics."

Lloyd thrust his head through the window and looked at her incredulously, "Nahw u del mi?!"

"Don't worry. It should wear off. Eventually. A couple hours. Maybe."

"Uugh!" Lloyd flung his arms over the window sill and leaned out into the hut, his head hung down.

Lloyd heard a strangled sound and looked up to his father. Kratos was looking away with a hand clamped tight over his mouth, and shaking slightly.

"Was rung?" Lloyd tried to get Kratos to face him, but he kept turning away.

"Ey! Ook a mi!" he demanded.

Kratos turned slightly and Lloyd was shocked to see his father's eyes tearing and his hand hiding a constrained smile. Finally, he couldn't take it any more.

Kratos doubled over in laughter, losing his normally icy exterior. He continued to laugh, gripping his abdomen from the lack of breath. Lloyd could only stare at him, not believing what he was seeing.

Kratos finally calmed down, and regained his composure. Well…almost. He held his head in his hand and continued with light chuckling.

"Wa id rweally tha funy?" Lloyd asked curiously.

Kratos waited a few moments before talking, to make sure he was done, "Thank you, Lloyd. I…I haven't laughed like that in so very long," he ruffled through Lloyd's hair affectionately. It seemed it was becoming a new habit. Or maybe just an old one that had resurfaced. "Perhaps my heart feels lighter."

Lloyd was aghast for a moment, surprised his father would open up to him like that. But he soon gave Kratos a knowing smile.

"Besides, this isn't the first time something like this has happened," Kratos said.

"Mm?" Lloyd cocked his head questioningly.

"When you were a little over two years old, you had eaten berries from a similar bush before I could stop you. You were trying to tell me something, but being hardly able to talk in the first place, I had no idea what you were saying. Then your mother came and saw the red juice and heard your babbling, thinking you had bit your tongue. She panicked and ran back and forth for a while. I tried to explain, but she picked you up and ran for the nearest doctor. Then Noishe went running after you, bashing into trees along the way. Turns out those berries were like catnip to him."

Kratos paused for a moment and smiled fondly before continuing, "I ran after all of you. It was quite a sight: a woman running frantically through town, holding a baby yelling out complete nonsense, followed by a strange drunken dog-creature, and a full grown man chasing after them. We had to move on to a new town after that."

It was Lloyd's turn to burst into laughter. He had to lean on the outside of the hut for support. Then the sound of the screen door opening ceased his fit.

"Lloyd? What are you doing out there?"

Lloyd jumped back inside the hut and was greeted by Sheena, donning a lavender and violet kimono with a black silk sash.

"I'm sorry I took so long, but someone hid my kimono."

Kratos and Lloyd didn't have to wonder who.

"Wow, u ook nice theena!" Lloyd smiled.

Sheena blushed slightly and muttered, "Well, of course. The village head is representative of all the people, therefore is expected to look his or her best when dealing with important matters and such."

Then she realized how Lloyd was speaking, and looked up at him, slightly surprised, "Did you eat those red berries out there, Lloyd?" She walked over to the tea set and saw the brewed tea.

Sheena let out a long breath then called tiredly, "Obaa-chan!"

"Yes, She-chan? What can I do for you?" the old woman from before walked up and stood behind her.

Lloyd and Kratos jumped slightly, forgetting that the elderly woman was even there.

"Did you give Lloyd the Chikari-cha?"

"I offered it to him, yes."

"Without warning him?"

"Oh, no I warned him. About the tea and the berries."

"Knowing you it was probably after you had your fun."

"What can I say?" the so called 'Obaa-chan' smirked, her eyes never opening.

Maybe she's blind? Lloyd pondered to himself.

"I presume this happens often, judging by the way you could understand him so easily," Kratos said, his cold exterior back up, all back to business.

"Unfortunately, yes," Sheena replied as she opened Lloyd's mouth to examine it, "Stupid kids always eat them either to just be silly, or defiant." She finished looking and turned back to the tea set, "No cuts or bruises. Sometimes people injure themselves without realizing it, because they can't feel anything."

"So is there are way to nullify the effects, or do we have to wait it out?" Kratos asked, arms crossed in front of him.

"Well there is one way to get rid of the effects instantaneously…"

"Wha is id?"

Sheena turned around and held out another cup of the putrid brown tea, and said, "Bottoms up."

"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugggghh…."

"Well, now that that's settled, let us move on to the matter at hand."

Sheena, Lloyd, Kratos, and the old woman known only as Obaa-chan sat in a circle around snack of rice cakes and tea (which Lloyd didn't dare touch) with Sheena placed at the head, where her grandfather sat before her.

It had taken a few minutes for Lloyd to psyche up for the tea. In that time, Kratos had explained the situation to Sheena. Then Lloyd realized that if his mouth was numb, he wouldn't taste anything, so he took a big swig. He was wrong.

Lloyd was still grieving for his poor tongue when Sheena spoke again, "Seeing as Mizuho has no information on this Odin's Tear- well, aside from the fact that it's a legendary artifact of ancient lore- we'll need to track down Raine. That won't be a problem; we have at least one shinobi in each region. It shouldn't take too long. You can wait here until we get word."

Kratos nodded silently.

"As for the exspheres, we've even found some ourselves. In fact some of our people are working with researchers from the United Scholars Society. They are trying to combine our trackers with some old exsphere research to create an exsphere detector of sorts."

"United Scholars Society?" Kratos asked.

Both Sheena and Lloyd looked at him for a moment, then they started in realization.

"Oh, yes that's right. I'm sorry, you wouldn't know," Sheena said apologetically, "A lot has happened in these past few years. When the two worlds were reunited, it was a little chaotic at first. The planet's size increased two-fold, in order to contain the two. So now the landscape is a fusion of Tethe'alla and Sylvarant; or I guess it went back to the way it originally was."

Kratos merely nodded again.

"So," Sheena continued, "Obviously there needed to be a kind of authority figure. Although the King of Tethe'alla seemed a good choice, the people of Sylvarant had no reason to obey him. So we all came to an agreement: The

Symphony. It's a grand council that has a representative from each city. The king keeps his rule over Meltokio, however, each town from both worlds elects a leader, who all meet at Meltokio and discuss matters and what measures to take. They all have equal power in the council."

"Yes, that makes sense. A good move," Kratos nodded approvingly.

"The United Scholars Society is an organization made up of the top scientists and scholars from Sybak, Meltokio, Palmacosta, and other educational facilities," Lloyd picked up where Sheena left off. He grinned widely and said proudly, "Genis and the Professor are members."

"Not surprising," Kratos thought back to the small genius.

"The whole exsphere experience was troubling to many, so it was decided that much of the U.S.S resources be put into the finding and destroying of them," continued Sheena, "Come, we'll go to the communications station to get more information on their progress."

She stood up and began walking out of the hut. Lloyd and Kratos followed shortly. Lloyd turned to look for the old woman, but she was gone. Weird.

"So," Kratos murmured as they walked through the village, "The Symphony…a blend of different people, ideas, races…like the harmony of many different instruments-all with different voices, yet playing to the same tune. A good name."

Lloyd smiled and looked up to the clear blue sky. The clouds swirled peacefully in the infinite space.

"Yeah," Lloyd said, "just like our brand new world, where there will finally be the unity of every single voice of every single living thing. A new world called Symphonia."

Yeah, I wanted those last three paragraphs to be kinda dramatic and inspirational (I'm not sure if I got that tho')

Since it is summer break, I promise to update as much as possible, but probably not ever day like this. This was more like a "Grand Opening Three Chapter Special". But I'll see ya soon!