Kyle took a deep breath. He was standing in front of the door to the girls' room. He could hear several voices chattering inside. Kyle waited for a moment, and then knocked on the door.
The chattering died down a little and Kyle could hear footsteps. The door opened slightly to reveal a tall, white-haired woman with tanned skin and her hair tied up in a pony tail. Aran; the warrior of Rien.
"Whaddya want?" She asked, leaning against the door frame. A few seconds later, her face lit up in recognition. "Oh wait, you're that dragon kid. The Kaiser, right?"
Kyle nodded.
"What brings you here?" Aran gave a teasing grin. "Come to give your little friend you brought along a goodni-"
"Aran! Don't tease the boy!" From behind the warrior came a softer voice that Kyle recognized as Mercedes. The elf queen had her hair tied up in a bun, and seemed to radiate a regal aura.
"So, is there anything we can do for you?" The queen asked.
"Um..." Kyle paused for a moment, and then remembered why he was there. "Oh! Right, I wanted to ask Tear if she wanted to go for a walk."
The two women stared blankly for a moment, and then broke out in two equally large grins.
"Sure, sure!" Aran said, waving her hand. She turned around slightly. "Hey Teary, your friend's here for 'ya!"
The orange-haired Nova girl approached the doorway, and Mercedes let her through. She was dressed in a earth-green robe that had been provided by the hot spring. It appeared to be at least a half a size too big, as the sleeves came down around the base of her fingers. Two holes had been cut out of the back to let her wings through. Kyle opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted by Aran.
"He said he wanted to take a walk with 'ya! You should go! You should go!"
"I-wha-huh!?" Tear looked a bit startled, and her face flushed.
"Don't worry!" Chuckled Aran. "Go on with him." The warrior playfully shoved the girl into the hallway.
"Have fun~!" She teased, and shut the door, leaving two slightly stunned Novas alone in the dimly-lit hallway.
"...what was that about?" Asked Kyle.
"H-huh?! Oh! That! I dunno." Responded Tear. "W-what did you mean 'go for a walk' anyway?"
"Huh? W-well, it's nice out, so I just felt like it." Kyle lied. "Besides, I...thought you might be a bit lonely. What with you being the only normal girl in a room full of heroes."
"O-oh...right..." Tear said sheepishly and turned a deep shade of red. She slapped her cheeks twice and shook her head to get herself back to normal. "So...walking."
Kyle let out a laugh as the two headed down the hall.
Tear was enthusiastically telling Kyle the story Kyrin had been telling everyone, something about Valerie getting drunk and accidentally firing Cutter's favorite toolbox from the Nautilus torpedo tube, as the two walked outside. They stepped out into a small, outdoor rock garden lit by nothing but the occasional lantern and firefly. It was a sort of cross between dark and creepy, and astonishingly beautiful.
Kyle noticed where he was and started to put Neinheart's plan into practice.
"You know, Hawkeye was talking about how this place was haunted."
"Haunted?" Tear laughed. "That's silly!"
"It's true, it's true! Apparently a man who had a secret he told no one about died here suddenly, unable to reveal his secret to anyone, he finds those who also have secrets, and if they don't reveal them, he drags them down to hell!" At the end of this story, Kyle made his best "scary story" face and grabbed Tear's shoulders lightly.
"KYAAAAHAHAHA" Tear let out a half-scream, half-laugh. "Spooky, scary, hahaha!" She pushed Kyle back.
Kyle laughed as well. "Hey hey, it's only a story. Something Hawkeye told on top of that! Nothing to worry about!"
"Is that so?" A voice spoke outloud. It had an unearthly echo to it, like wind blown through a hollow piece of wood.
Tear froze and instantly paled. "Wh...who...said that...?"
There was silence.
And as the silence grew deeper, a black chain shot out of the shadows, and latched itself onto Kyles foot. It tugged backwards, and Kyle fell to the ground, the chain dragging him towards the center of the garden. Kyle's body was lifted off the ground, and the air whipped itself into a whirlwind around him. Black energy flowed out of the ground and permeated within the tornado.
"The thing about faking being captured is that you need some way to make the capture seem real." Neinheart said. "If there are no real powerful monsters in the area, then we must create a powerful monster of our own."
"Yeah, but, how?" Asked Jack.
"We have three powerful mages, two of which have direct relations to dark magic." Neinheart gestured towards Luminous, Brighton, and Evan.
"I see..." Said Mihile. "We become the monster."
"Precisely." Neinheart nodded. "Kyle tells Tear a rumor of a 'ghost'. Once she has the story in her head, we proceed to create some special effects to fuel the rumor and make it seem real; wind magic, courtesy of Evan, mixed with the dark energy, which we can draw from Brighton and Luminous, to create a presence where there is none. The rest of us make voices that seem to come from 'nowhere', and you have yourself a 'ghost'."
"KYLE!" Shouted Tear.
"Secrets...secrets must be told..." Called a voice from a nearby tree.
"S-secrets..." Tear looked nervous. She shook her head and shouted into the night. "I DON'T KNOW WHO YOU ARE, BUT YOU BETTER GIVE KYLE BACK!"
"Tell...you must tell..." Cried another from the bushes.
"Y-you're that ghost!" Tear stammered. "I-I don't care how scary you are, let Kyle go!"
"Only if you tell..." Spoke one from behind.
"N-no..."
"Tear!" Shouted Kyle.
"Tell..."
"...tell..."
Tear looked around her, searching for some way out, some way to help.
Finding none, Tear grit her teeth, took a deep breath, and then proclaimed at the top of her lungs:
"I'M IN LOVE WITH YOU! I'VE BEEN IN LOVE WITH YOU FOR THE LONGEST TIME NOW, KYLE!"
The words echoed off into the night.
"Wha...?" Asked a befuddled Kyle.
The whirlwind stopped instantaneously, and Kyle fell to the ground with an loud "Oomph!"
"KYLE!" Tear ran to his side. "Are...are you ok?"
"I...buh...huh?" Managed a dazed Kyle.
"SHE SAID WHAT NOW?!" Exclaimed a voice from behind Tear.
"W-who's there?! Show yourself!" Tear angrily yelled.
There was loud, confused mutter, followed by a "woah!" as Hawkeye, Jack, and Yuuki came tumbling out of a nearby bush.
"W-who...!?"
"'YER IN A LOVE WITH HIM?!" Exclaimed Hawkeye. "SWEET TRANSCENDENTS I DIDN'T SEE THAT COMIN'!"
"Wha...wha..." Tear stuttered, turning bright red.
"I mean we come out here to figure out if 'yer the Angelic Buster or not and wind up learning that you love 'im!? Holy sh-"
"Hawkeye!" Shouted Mihile as he climed out from behind a large rock. "Shut up! Now!"
"A-an...angeli...angelic..." Tear's face was entirely red by this point. "Angelic...angel...UWAAAAAAH!"
The orange-haired girl ran off passed the pile of heroes and towards the door to the building.
"T-Tear!" Called Kyle, finally able to catch his breath, though still on the ground.
The door opened wide to reveal Aran, as well as a smaller girl with animal ears and a purple-haired girl with a ribbon headband.
"Wha's goin' o-WOAH!" Yelped Aran as the crying Nova girl ran past her. There was a long, awkward silence.
"I dunno what's going on..." Aran glowered at the various men who were climbing out of their hiding spots. She focused hard on Kyle. "...but you had better get your ass movin' and apologize to that girl before I use Maha to tear you a new one, capiche?"
Kyle scrambled to his feet, and raced past the towering warrior and after his friend.
"Now..." Aran shot an evil look to the remaining men and cracked her knuckles. "Line up, and explain, so I can hit you."