DISCLAIMER: Does anyone actually read these?

((AN: Thanks again for all the nice feedback, I really appreciate all of your encouragement. ^^ ))

St. Peter's High School, April 3, 2000

"Good morning Natsuki-chan!" Mai greeted her roommate cheerfully as the dark haired girl was pouring herself some coffee.

"Unfortunately." She grumbled, flopping down in the chair across from Mai at their tiny card table.

Mai laughed, "What, you're not excited about our first day of classes?"

"Are you?" Natsuki questioned, glancing over her coffee at her strangely cheerful roommate.

"I'm just so excited that my first year of senior high is finally starting! I'm looking forward to making lots of fun memories." Mai's blue-grey eyes twinkled with excitement.

"Eh, I guess there might be some fun to be had." Chugging down the rest of her coffee, Natsuki got up to refill her mug. "Let me finish drinking this and then I'll get back to you."

Mai nodded and put a paper bag she had been holding on the table, "Also I'm in a good mood because I got up early and splurged at the dining hall this morning. I brought you back a jelly donut."

Natsuki was immediately next to the table looking in the small white bag. Pulling out the coveted pastry she gave her roommate a blinding grin, "Mai, I love you."

The orange haired girl blushed slightly, "I was just worried that you didn't get enough to eat yesterday. You slept almost all day."

"I just wanted to make sure I was rested enough for the first day." Natsuki defended herself, a mournful expression on her face since the donut was already gone. "Ugh, I guess it's time to head to class. Do you know who our homeroom professor is supposed to be?" She questioned, grabbing her backpack from its spot next to the door.

"No actually, apparently it changed since they printed up our schedules at the beginning of last month. It was the Japanese History instructor, but he had to retire suddenly because he had a really bad heart attack. Apparently he was an older man." Mai explained, "I haven't been able to find out from anyone who they got to replace him."

Natsuki shrugged, "Guess we'll find out when we get there. I'm just glad we're in the same class this year."

"Me too." Mai said with a shy smile, "Did you say you were going to go to the kendo team's practice after classes let out?"

"I was thinking about it, why?"

"Um, I was just wondering if you thought Tate-kun might be there even though he's got that injury."

Natsuki raised her eyebrow in question, "Tate-kun?" She asked, her voice dripping sarcasm. "Anyway I dunno. I'll see how I feel later. I wanted to get in some sparring though, so maybe. It's just that I've been trying to avoid Takeda so that he doesn't get the wrong idea."

Mai blushed slightly, but tried to deflect the conversation away from herself, "But why are you avoiding him? He seems like a nice guy."

"Because he's dense and can't take a hint. He can't even take an outright refusal." Natsuki explained rolling her eyes, "I'm just not interested in dating right now and he won't just drop the idea. And even if I was interested in dating someone, I still wouldn't be interested in dating him."

"I see..." Mai said though she seemed confused, as though she couldn't quite wrap her brain around the concept of someone being uninterested in dating.

When they reached the classroom there were plenty of students already seated at their desks, but there was no sign of their homeroom teacher just yet. Mai and Natsuki found two desks one in front of the other next to the windows. "What do we have first?"

"Japanese History."

Natsuki groaned a bit, history wasn't really her favourite subject. When their teacher for the first class finally walked in, she thought her eyes were going to fall out of their sockets in surprise, "Holy shit!" She cursed loudly in English.

The teacher just laughed, "Good morning to you too Natsuki." Midori grinned.

"M-Midori?" Natsuki exclaimed, momentarily oblivious to the fact that everyone in the room was staring back and forth between her and their new teacher.

Midori just gave the Slayer a playful wink and moved to the whiteboard and began writing quickly, "Good morning class. My name is Sugiura Midori, I'll be your class's homeroom teacher this year, as well as teaching you Japanese History. Also if any of you need extra help in English, you can feel free to see me during my office hours for that as well if your English professor is busy."

"That's your guardian isn't it?" Mai whispered leaning forward in her seat.

"Yep."

"She seems cool."

"Yep." Natsuki blushed when Midori turned to look at her, for a moment fearing that she was going to get called out for talking already. But Midori just grinned and walked over to pull a stack of papers out of the rucksack that she'd dropped on the desk when she'd come in.

"Alright, this is the syllabus for this term. It has the dates for all of your graded assignments as well as a rough outline for what we will be covering. It is subject to change though, so you could find yourself in trouble if you're skipping class too often and relying just on this to tell you when your tests are." Midori rattled off as she handed them out. Natsuki was impressed, it sounded like Midori had been teaching for years. "The syllabus also has my office hours and school email address on it; I want all of you to feel free to use them if you have any questions about the material we're covering in class. All of your homework assignments for this class will be completed online; there are instructions for how to register for that on the syllabus as well."

Midori wandered back to the desk, leaning against it as she absently watched the students passing the papers back. "Alright... now I guess I'll pretend like you all care and tell you a bit about myself." She grinned as some of the students laughed nervously, "I'm from Hokkaido, but I went to university at Oxford in England. I got my Bachelor's and Master's in History, with a focus on ancient civilizations. After that I spent five years doing fieldwork in North Africa and Southwest Asia." Her gaze fell on Natsuki, her eyes shining affectionately as she continued, "The last few years or so I took a bit of a break to do something different, spent some time as a personal trainer in several martial arts, most notably naginatajutsu."

Natsuki grinned back at Midori, glancing about at the various looks of wide-eyed awe on the other students faces. Damn, I never realized how cool my Watcher is before. Natsuki looked over her shoulder to see Mai's reaction and laughed a bit at her similarly awestruck expression. "So..." Midori continued, "That's enough about me. Let's have each of you give a brief self-introduction and then we'll get started with the short lesson for today."

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"You didn't tell me that Sugiura-sensei was so cool!" Mai accused her roommate as they headed towards the dining hall. The orange haired girl had packed a lunch, but they had agreed to meet up with Chie, Tate and the others for the free period.

Natsuki rolled her eyes, "Yeah well she didn't tell me that she was applying to work here either."

Mai laughed, "I'm sure she just wanted to surprise you."

"Well she definitely succeeded." Natsuki grumbled, though her eyes were dancing with amusement. "Just when I think I've got her all figured out."

"I packed you some sandwiches too Natsuki-chan." Mai commented as Natsuki held open the door to the dining hall for her friend. "Though knowing you, you should still pick up something else to eat too." She teased, having already figured out that her roommate had a more than healthy appetite.

Natsuki grinned, "Thanks Mai, and yeah I'll go pick something up while you go grab me a seat at our table. Did you want me to get you a drink or anything?"

"Iced tea?"

"Sure. I'll be right back." She gave her friend a wave as she headed over to the line, grinning to find that it wasn't too long yet since their math professor had let them go a few minutes early. Just one more reason why it's my favourite subject! She grabbed a bowl of beef teriyaki, an apple, a soda and Mai's tea before paying with her meal card and heading over to the table where most of her friends were already sitting. She wondered briefly why Shizuru didn't seem to hang out with Chie and Tate much these days. "Hey Chie, are you in Shizuru's class this year?" She asked as she sat down next to Mai and as far away from Takeda as possible, silently thanking Mai for thinking about that when she chose her seat.

"Yeah why?" Chie asked as she typed on her phone, apparently sending someone a text message. "Aoi said her science lab ran five minutes over but she'll be here in a minute." Chie added, as though anyone else at their table cared just as much as she did about exactly when Aoi got there.

"I was just wondering why she doesn't seem to hang out with you much these days?"

Chie shrugged, "She seems to mostly hang out with Reito, Haruka and her sempai on the Student Council. It started last year actually when she got selected as our class representative, she just started hanging out with the rest of us less often. She's still polite enough, but you know how Shizuru-san can be."

Natsuki gazed worriedly out the window, "I hope she's okay..."

Chie scoffed, "Eh, you know you don't have to worry about Shizuru-san." She looked at the two first years, "Anyway does your year have History with that new professor we just got too? Over here Kenji-kun!" She called out, seeing Yukino and Kenji walking around looking for them. "So, do you guys have that new History professor?" She asked again as the other two sat down.

"We did!" Yukino exclaimed excitedly, "She seemed really cool! She was telling our class about this archaeological dig that she was on in Israel, it sounded amazing." Kenji nodded enthusiastically as well; though he was too busy trying to eat his pizza as quickly as possible to add anything verbally.

"She's Natsuki-chan's legal guardian." Mai interjected slyly, causing everyone to turn and stare at the dark haired girl.

"Who's Natsuki-kun's guardian?" Aoi asked, sitting down next to Chie.

"That new Japanese History professor, Sugiura-sensei." Chie said her light brown eyes glinting with curiosity.

"Really? I haven't had her class yet." Aoi pouted. "Everyone else says she's awesome though, I guess I just have to wait until after lunch." She turned her soft blue eyes to Natsuki, "I do think I remember seeing her a few times at Shizuru-san's house though when we went over there for her birthday parties. She's pretty."

Natsuki just rolled her eyes as she hurried to finish the food she was chewing so she could answer her friends' questions. "If you mean the tall redhead, then yeah that's her. She adopted me when I was seven." She explained, anticipating their next question but leaving out most of the details.

"Does she really know a whole bunch of martial arts?" Tate asked excitedly.

"She does! She was on Oxford's fencing team during college too. Her specialty is as an epee dual-wielder." Natsuki grinned, proud to boast about her Watcher's fighting prowess. "She's a black belt in Wing Chun kung fu and Aikido, and is really talented in kendo as well. She's also really good shot with a crossbow." She leaned in closer to her friends, laughing inwardly at their spellbound expressions, "I also happen to know that she owns a grappling hook."

"No shit? And she's teaching at our school why?" Kenji asked, puzzled.

Natsuki shrugged, "To keep an eye on me probably. Since she's letting me live in the dorms this year." Natsuki rolled her eyes as her friends laughed at her expense.

"Anyway I'm going over to her apartment this weekend with Natsuki-chan." Mai bragged.

"Natsuki-chan do you think you could see about getting me an interview with her for the school paper?" Yukino asked her friend shyly.

Natsuki tried to ignore them but after a minute she put down her sandwich with a sigh, taking in the eager looks on her friends' faces, "Yukino, you should just email her. I know she'll say yes. As for visiting her apartment... Not this weekend for the rest of you alright? She's just getting moved in. I'll ask her though." She rolled her eyes again at the enthusiastic agreements. My Watcher is going to be more popular at my new school than I am this year. Still Natsuki smiled to herself as she went back to eating her lunch, it felt good to know that she would be seeing her Watcher almost every day, even if things would be different than before.

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Thursday April 6, 2000

Natsuki looked nervously up and down the hall, hiding one hand behind her back as she knocked hesitantly on the door to the faculty lounge. She only had to wait a few moments before the door opened slowly to reveal her math professor, who raised a bushy eyebrow in question when he spotted Natsuki.

"Oh, um hi Murakami-sensei. Is Midori... um I mean, Sugiura-sensei in? I needed to drop something off for her." She asked, still feeling awkward about using Midori's surname.

He smiled at her, "She sure is Kuga-san, don't worry she warned the rest of us ahead of time that you might be dropping by occasionally. Come on in, just don't let the other students know I let you into the clubhouse alright?"

"I swear on my sword."

He laughed as she followed him in to the lounge. Wow this is just as swanky as the dorms. She thought absently as she looked around, spotting Midori reading in a comfortable looking leather easy chair by one of the large windows with a lovely view of the campus. She grinned as she looked at her Watcher for a moment, She certainly doesn't look any older today than she ever has. Thirty-eight. Time sure flies.

"Hey Midori." She spoke softly as she reached the redhead's side.

The Watcher glanced up, slightly startled as always at being pulled out of her own personal world she entered when reading, but still smiling at the sound of her Slayer's voice, "Hey Natsuki! What brings you to my secret lair?"

Natsuki grinned revealing what she had been hiding behind her back, a bouquet of wildflowers and a black plush lion. "Happy Birthday Midori." She said simply, grinning wider as her Watcher blushed red as she accepted the gifts. "It's not much I know but..."

Midori stood quickly and pulled her Slayer into a one-armed hug, "Thank you Natsuki, it was sweet of you to think of me."

Natsuki gazed up into her Watcher's eyes affectionately, "Of course I did. Do you like working here so far?"

"If only for the posh teacher's lounge." Midori replied with a grin, before continuing in a soft voice that only Natsuki would be close enough to hear, "Yeah actually I like it more than I thought I would. Strangely even though I always knew I would be a Watcher, I never thought about teaching. There seem to be some similarities."

"Well I know from being your Slayer that you'll be the best teacher any of these rich kids have ever had." Natsuki replied sincerely.

Midori blushed again making Natsuki laugh a little. "Yes well... how have your first few days been?" She asked, desperate to get the sentimental attention away from herself, not comfortable with displaying so much emotion in a public space.

Natsuki rolled her eyes, "Well they've been pretty alright. Suddenly everyone wants to ask me for insider information about this really hot young professor that just joined the staff."

"Oh?" Midori asked raising her eyebrow, "Who is this hot young professor? Perhaps you should introduce me too."

Natsuki just laughed, "You're so silly sometimes. Did you want to do anything this evening to celebrate?"

"I dunno... maybe ice cream?"

"Sounds great, just call me on my cellphone when you're ready to go and I'll come meet up with you alright?"

"Sure. You have a good day! And thanks again for thinking of me."

"Always."

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It was a warm sunny spring afternoon, but Natsuki still felt a bit cold inside as she stood on the grassy hill overlooking the small church. The white stone building was smaller than most of the others here, but it still seemed to dominate the campus. Natsuki absently reached up and pulled her necklace out of the collar of her uniform shirt, running her fingers lightly over the cool metal of the large silver cross. Natsuki wondered for a moment why she felt drawn here today, after she had said goodbye to Midori earlier she had been hit hard by the weight she felt on her shoulders from the events of the last couple of months. Duran had still not appeared to her with any helpful advice about the new demon threats or the glow, indeed he had not appeared to her to explain Sakuya's comments from months ago either. The stress of the new threat, her rift with Shizuru and the distancing she felt from Midori with the move, all added up to leave the Slayer feeling more alone than she had in years.

Taking a deep breath she headed slowly down the hill, feeling her heart pounding hard in her chest as she eased open one of the heavy wooden doors of the cathedral. The large room was empty when she entered, and even though she stepped softly the sound of her footsteps seemed to echo loudly off the stone walls. It seemed both dark and light inside the cathedral, there were no electric lights so the room was dimly lit, but the sun streaming through the large stained glass windows painted the room in bright colours. Walking further into the room, she spotted a small altar in a dimly lit corner, the only light coming from a dozen small candles that flickered warmly, illuminating the simple wooden carving on the wall behind them. Natsuki approached cautiously, taking in the image of the martyred saviour who had died alone, apparently to save the souls of people who mostly didn't know him. She stood awkwardly looking at the altar for a moment, not certain what she was doing here, before she reached out hesitantly to grab a small white candle and lighting it placed it carefully beside the others.

She felt a small warmth in her chest as she gazed at the tiny flame for a moment before walking over and sitting down on a thinly cushioned pew bench, gazing up at the large stained glass window at the front of the church. She draped her arms over the bench in front of her and rested her chin on them, allowing her eyes to drift closed as she enjoyed the peaceful stillness, something she had gained a new appreciation for lately. She deliberately slowed her breathing, listening to the sound of her heartbeat echoing in her ears. After a while she again found herself tracing the silver metal of the cross pendant, thinking not for the first time about the similar burden a Slayer was faced with. Probably dying much too young, protecting people I don't know from dangers they don't understand.

It wasn't really something that Natsuki liked to dwell on; in fact she'd never brought up her worries about this part of her calling to Midori. She knew that her Watcher worried enough already without knowing that lately the Slayer was thinking about her own mortality more than she had in the past. Opening her eyes she gazed up at the stained glass depiction of the kind looking bearded young man in a white robe. He was standing in the moonlight holding a lantern and offering out his hand for one to take hold of it and follow him down the path. Were you scared too? Knowing that you were going to have to die for them? The man in the glass just smiled at her kindly, but remained silent. I don't suppose you know anything about the ancient glow? For a moment she thought the silver cross in her hand felt warmer, but figured it must have just been a trick of her mind.

Hearing a slight creak of wood and metal, she looked over to see two people entering the sanctuary through one of the side doors. One of them was a young blonde girl, no older than seven and the other she recognized as being Miyu from her class this year, though they had not spoken much. Miyu was a rather stern, quiet girl who mostly kept to herself, only speaking to others when asked a direct question. Her eyes were similar in colour to Shizuru's, but the few times Natsuki had spoken with Miyu all she could think was that even if they were red, Miyu's eyes always seemed cold. Her skin and hair were both rather pale, nearly white, in colour and Natsuki suspected that the stern girl might be an albino. Though obviously she wasn't about to ask the cold girl such a personal question.

Natsuki watched the two of them curiously while trying not to be obvious about it. She had to admit that she wasn't expecting to see Miyu here, certainly not with a young child. Though in the golden haired girl's presence, the expression on Miyu's face seemed almost soft as she looked down into the young girl's wide blue eyes. "Ojou-sama." Miyu spoke softly to the young girl, her voice full of emotion instead of cold and flat like every other time Natsuki had heard her speak.

"Thank you Miyu." The small girl replied, her own tone also warm and affectionate. She gave the older girl's hand a squeeze before releasing it to go stand on the raised platform at the front, while Miyu walked back further in the room to take a seat in one of the benches across the aisle from where Natsuki was sitting.

The sanctuary was silent once more for a few long moments as the golden haired girl simply stood gazing at Miyu affectionately. Then her bright blue eyes drifted closed and she began to sing in heavily accented, but still beautiful English. Natsuki blinked in surprise at the sound of the young girl's strong, pure voice. The acoustics of the stone made it seem as though her voice filled up the entire room like a warm golden light. Natsuki glanced over at Miyu to see her gazing at the young girl with warm eyes and a peaceful smile on her face. When Natsuki exited the cathedral a short while later, she felt much warmer inside than she had when she entered. It's nice to sometimes get a reminder that even if I don't know them all, they're worth it.

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"Thanks for hanging out with an old lady like me this evening to celebrate my birthday." Midori grinned as she pulled her red sedan up in front of Natsuki's dorm. They had ended up going out for dinner and heading to the arcade for a little while, it was already 9p.m. but tomorrow was Friday. "You looked nice tonight by the way. You should dress up more often."

"Midori. You're not old." Natsuki replied automatically looking down self-consciously at her light blue oxford shirt and khakis, chuckling a bit to herself at how her style seemed to resemble Midori's. "And thanks, I guess I still think it's more trouble than it's worth, but I'll get dressed up nice for the right person." She grinned at her Watcher, "So Saturday morning Mai and me will try to get to the house by 8:30. Did you want us to bring donuts or anything?"

"Sure that would be great. I'm looking forward to getting to know her, she sounds nice."

Natsuki nodded enthusiastically, "She is, I really lucked out getting her as a roommate." She leaned over to give her Watcher an awkward hug, "Anyway I'll see you in class tomorrow I guess... drive safe alright?"

Midori returned the hug with a smile, "I promise. Remember call me if you need anything."

Putting on her leather jacket the Slayer got out of the little car, giving a wave as her Watcher drove away. Natsuki sighed, running a hand through her dark hair and allowing the loneliness to wash over her. She looked up to see a light in the room she shared with Mai, and for a moment considered just going upstairs and spending some time with her new friend to try and banish the feeling. Instead she swallowed down the emptiness and turned in the opposite direction, heading into the dark for a quick patrol. Since the first night last week she had only encountered a couple more vampires on campus. Midori had explained that no one noticed because the incidents of violence at this school were actually lower than most of the senior high schools in the city, despite the slight vampire problem.

Natsuki gazed up at the dark sky as she walked slowly across campus, the sky was mostly overcast and there was a new moon so her familiar white companion wasn't out to keep her company tonight either. She found her feet carrying her in the direction of the church, and was startled to notice another person walking on the dark path a little ways ahead of her. A glimpse of pale hair in the dim light was enough for Natsuki to identify Miyu. What's she doing heading out this way so late at night? Natsuki wondered, following behind at a distance to avoid disturbing the girl's alone time but close enough to keep an eye on her. After all she didn't want something to happen to Miyu when she'd only today discovered the kind side of the otherwise stern girl.

Natsuki blinked in surprise when she saw Miyu enter through the backdoor of the church. She thought it would be locked up this time of night. She waited, watching from the shadows for five minutes and when she didn't see the pale girl come back out from the church, she hesitantly approached the door herself only to find that it was locked. The Slayer sighed as she glared at the locked door. It would be easy enough for her to break the lock, but since she couldn't be sure that there was a good reason to, she couldn't really justify the property destruction. Besides if she somehow got caught breaking into the church on campus of all things, she was fairly certain that would be grounds for the administration to revoke her permission to have her bladed weapons in her room.

Deciding that she wasn't going to encounter any baddies on patrol tonight, the Slayer turned and started heading back to her dorm. She had only walked a short distance when there was a sudden flash of bright gold light behind her, and before she could turn around to see what had caused it there was a large scaly hand closing around the back of her neck.

"Champion." It hissed, "Why is it here? We knows that the glow cannot be here. The Champion leaves it unprotected."

"Yeah, well this Champion has to go to school." Natsuki growled out.

The demon grunted before tensing his arm and throwing the Slayer into a nearby tree. She hit the rough bark hard, cursing herself for not stopping to get some heavier weapons before heading out on patrol. She should have known better than to only expect vampires when this new threat was around. She leapt to her feet, blinking rapidly to try and clear her blurry vision. The demon, who looked more like two demons to Natsuki at the moment laughed as it approached her. She backed up behind the tree, putting some distance between herself and the demon, hoping to buy more time. Gritting her teeth she quickly extended out her boneclaws, feeling the extra rush of adrenaline released by the pain.

"Come outs Champion! They saids that you were tough, but you is hiding from us." The demon hissed. "If the Champion tells us where we can finds the glow, we will lets the Champion go."

Her vision finally cleared, Natsuki turned to see that the demon really did seem to be doubled. It had two heads and four arms at least. Like the demon at the monastery it seemed to be made from a conglomeration of human parts, only instead of having a spidery squid-like appearance, it seemed to be more like a fish. Its entire body was covered with pale brown scales and bony protrusions that resembled fins, the ones on its hands seemed like they could double as natural weapons similar to Natsuki's own boneclaws.

The Slayer took an unsteady breath, trying to assess the situation more calmly. This was a larger demon, one that she would prefer not to face completely unarmed. She could give it false information to send it away, but that would almost certainly lead to someone else getting hurt or worse. Also there was the small fact that demons weren't really known for keeping their word when offering a bargain like this in the first place, so she would be giving it a freebee.

She glared into the demon's faces, clenching her fists that were concealed by the long sleeves of her leather jacket, hiding her natural weapons from the demon's sight. "Bite me."

The demon let out a hissing laugh, "Goood. We prefers it this way." The fish-like demon strode toward her with unexpected swiftness, striking at her stomach with a bony fist so rapidly that Natsuki barely got her own fists up fast enough to avoid being gutted.

The Slayer let out a low grunt of pain as she dug the claws of both of her hands deeper into the demon's thick arm. Three of its own claws were embedded a few centimetres deep into her stomach, if they had gone much deeper, or if she hadn't been as well muscled, her intestines would probably spilling all over the ground under this tree. There was one good thing about this situation though, the Slayer noted with a feral grin as she twisted her claws and shoved the demon back hard, sending him falling to the ground several meters away. I'm actually stronger than him. He's just fast. She jumped quickly before the demon could stand, driving the claws of one hand into the eyes of the demon's right head and the claws of the other fist through a fin, using it to pin the demon to the ground more firmly.

"Now," She growled grinning into the demon's remaining eyes, ignoring the steady flow of blood pouring from the wound in her stomach onto her captive, "How about you tell me who you work for, and then I'll let you live."

The demon just shrugged helplessly and shook his head. "As the Champion says, we tells you nothing. 'Bite us.'"

The Slayer grunted in acknowledgement, removing her gore-covered claws from the eyes of the no longer moving right head, and swiftly stabbing them cleanly through the neck of the left, neatly severing the bony spine. She let out a ragged breath as she retracted her claws, the pain in her wounds hitting her strongly as she struggled to stand. Suddenly she lost her balance and fell to the ground when the demon's body unexpectedly disintegrated in a shower of gold sparks. What the hell, it poofed like a vamp? She tried to remember if the demon at the monastery had done that too. I'm pretty sure its body was still on the floor after I'd finished searching around upstairs... She sighed, again slowly rising to her feet. I guess I'll have to ask Midori.

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"Ojou-sama!" Miyu exclaimed as she rushed forward to catch the small blonde girl right as her knees gave out. Her sensors registered a strange sensation as those big blue eyes gazed up at her, the pupils dilated from pain. A brief touch to the girl's neck confirmed that Alyssa's pulse and breathing were much too slow and weak. Miyu protectively cradled the young girl against her chest, unable to find any protocol in her programming to help. "You need to rest." She murmured into Alyssa's soft golden hair.

"I can't yet Miyu. I failed." The small girl spoke very slowly, her words so slurred with her fatigue that Miyu's auditory sensors could barely make them out. Miyu gritted her teeth, and glared up at the tall black robed older man who had just entered the room. She wished that her programming would allow her to eliminate him.

"Alyssa, how could you fail to get the location? From just one girl? We need that information!" He yelled throwing the heavy book he was holding onto the floor next to the two girls.

Miyu couldn't take it. "Ojou-sama is still weak from the summoning days ago Greer-sama." She growled out the hated man's name with as much emotion as she could. "Her reserves were only at 57% when she performed the summoning tonight."

The old man just narrowed his small black eyes at the pale protector, "I don't want to hear your excuses for her. She has been wasting too much of her time on music instead of practicing her control over her magic." He turned his beady eyes to Alyssa's tired blue ones that she was barely keeping open, "If we don't have some results by the end of the month, I will forbid you from singing in next month's festival."

"Yes Father." Alyssa replied weakly, her blue eyes finally drifting closed completely as the small girl had no more energy to keep them open.

Miyu just glared at the older man as she stood, easily holding the slight weight of her Alyssa in her arms. She fought with her programming, trying to find some loophole that would allow her to break the neck of the insufferable man standing in front of her. Finding nothing, she simply nodded stiffly to him and walked from the cold basement, careful not to wake the golden haired girl asleep in her arms.