Yay! I posted a new chapter before the weekend finished! Whew!

I had a lot of fun working on this one. I hope you like it as much as I enjoyed writing it!

To Salt_the_Catgirl: Thank you! :)

To Apple of Eris: Thank you for your favorite! I hope I can continue to please you!

To anyone who reads this chapter: Enjoy Chapter 6: Bad Memories

While things straightened out between Gareki, Tsukumo, Karoku (who still kind of wished the cat-brat would leave) and Yuki relatively well, it took a lot more convincing, bickering, and harsh glares for Iva to accept the fact that Yuki would be staying with them from now on.

"WWWWHHHHHYYYYY!" she screeched irately.

"Because. I. Said. So." Hirato intoned for the hundredth time (he and Yuki had decided not to tell the others about their deal for the sake of their respective sanities). He was starting to get frustrated with the green-haired woman. When would she get over herself and talk to the girl without trying to kill her?!

"Umm…Iva-san?" Yuki tried to get the woman's attention.

"What do you want, brat?" Iva hissed in reply.

"Er…I was wondering if there was anything I could do to help you realize that I'm not going to hurt anyone," the cat-girl shifted from foot to foot uncomfortably, "I would really like to get along with you…" In her mind, however, there was a whole different conversation going on, Yeah right! There's no way I'd actually try to make friends with this psycho! Darn you Hirato, why'd ya have to go and say 'She regrets her actions and would like to apologize." I don't wanna apologize! She should be sayin' sorry to me, not the other way around! Hmph…I am not happy with this arrangement. Even though she was thinking those furious thoughts, she still kept a slightly frightened look on her face. Nai was the only one who could tell just how enraged she was feeling to have to act like this. He smiled to himself. He had been quite happy to hear that Yuki would be staying on the ship with everyone else. Though he was a little curious about what Hirato and Yuki had talked about in his office, he trusted the cat-girl and was glad she seemed to be happier than before.

Iva, on the other hand, was anything but pleased with the little brat that hurt her captain. As she was swearing under her breath about the unfairness of it all, a brilliant idea came to her. She ceased her muttering and began to stare at the cat-brat evilly. Yuki shivered, feeling a murderous aura sweep over her. She turned around and saw that Iva was staring at her, bloodlust perfectly clear to the girl. The cat-girl shied away from the woman, taking refuge next to Nai instead (something he was totally fine with).

"Actually," Iva sneered, "I do have something in mind." She paused, eyes glittering with excitement. Yuki's heart dropped straight to the floor. This was not going to end well.

"If you are really as…human as you say you are, then you won't be against fighting a couple Varuga for Circus. Right?" The question she spoke at the end was more of a challenge (or dare, if you like). Yuki raised an eyebrow.

"What kind of Varuga?" She asked, suspicious of the woman's intentions.

"Oh, just a Post-Animal we've had our eye on for a while," she paused, "It lives in the forests just outside Paiso. Think you can handle it?" Yuki glared at the woman, not noticing in her anger that the rest of the people in the room had begun to frown when Iva mentioned the Varuga's territory. No one was interested in going back there. That place harbored many bad memories.

Hirato was the first to state his displeasure with Iva's choice of location, "Iva, I refuse to take anyone to that country. You know what happened last time and I won't subject my subordinates to reliving that particular nightmare. You should know better." He frowned at her. Iva huffed, but she understood what he meant and relented.

"Fine. Then what if I took her there myself? That incident didn't involve me directly so it isn't as painful. Please, Hirato. I want to test her. You know how difficult this mission is, not counting the emotional baggage of the location." The woman looked at Hirato with pleading eyes. She knew that he simply didn't want Gareki or Nai going back there.

"Haaah…fine. But only you." He gave Nai a pointed look. Nai puffed out his cheeks and pouted a bit (not for too long though; he didn't ever want to go back there). Yuki smirked. This is going to be a piece of cake! She thought, triumphantly.

"When do we leave?" She asked.

"How about now?" Iva looked at her with a scornful smile.

"Fine with me," came the sickly sweet reply. Yuki smiled back at Iva. One could practically see the sparks of lightning flashing between the two of them. The males all took about four steps backward, not wanting to be caught in the crossfire. Tsukumo was the smartest though; she had backed off before things escalated over the top.

"Should I assume you can keep up with me?" Iva remarked in a singsong voice.

"Why, yes of course, Iva-san," Yuki quipped back, imitating her tone perfectly, "In fact, I'm a little worried about you petering out before we get there. After all, you do seem to be getting a little old for high speeds, don't you think?"

If looks could kill, Yuki would be dead a million times over. Iva was barely keeping herself from attacking the girl with all she had.

"Is that so?" She hissed murderously, "Would you like to bet on me 'petering out' before you do?"

"If I had any money, yeah." The cat-girl snickered; entirely confident in her abilities (they had saved her life more times than she could count).

"How about we bet with our time?" Iva spat, "If I last the longest you'll be my servant for a week. If you do I'll be yours for a month. Sound good?" She glared haughtily at the girl.

"Are you going easy on me?" Yuki challenged.

"You are a lot younger than I am. Your poor body might tire out after all the work I'm going to put you through." The green-haired woman leered at her. She was also planning to put faith in her talents.

"Fine," the cat-girl purred, "We'll do this your way."

Ω

An hour later the two females were ready to go. They lined up at the ship's exit (they had to say a few 'goodbyes' before leaving), jumped out, and began their mission/race/stamina battle. They flew right next to each other and continued at the same pace for quite a while.

After covering two thirds of the way, Iva began to slow down. Yuki frowned at her; she wasn't even close to being tired and she thought that the woman would have been able to last for a lot longer than what they had done so far.

"Iva-san?" She asked with a hint of worry, "Are you okay?"

…

"Iva-san?"

…

Yuki pulled back to be next to the older woman.

"Iva! What's wrong?!" The cat-girl had concern plastered all over her face. Even though she didn't particularly enjoy Iva's company, she certainly bore no ill will against her.

Iva looked at her, blinking drowsily, "What?" she asked in confusion.

"Are you okay?!"

"Why shouldn't I be?"

"You didn't answer when I called. What happened?"

"Oh…I dunno. Guess I must've dozed off for a bit."

Yuki stared at her in disbelief, "Dozed off? While FLYING?!" the confused girl was practically shouting now.

"Yeah. You'd be surprised at how often it happens to me. Why do you care so much anyway?" the woman cocked her head and raised an eyebrow.

"I…you…who said I…wh-…haaaah. Never mind. I just…uh…didn't want to have to carry you to safety, or something like that…" she trailed off, frustrated with herself for worrying over nothing.

"Were you really worried about me?" Iva asked in curiosity.

Yuki blushed brightly, "Yes," she mumbled, honestly.

"Oh…" Iva was surprised. She thought that the cat-girl would be glad to be rid of her.

Said cat-girl looked away in embarrassment. Iva smiled a little at her, "Thank you." Yuki blushed even redder and put on a burst of speed to get ahead of the woman. Iva giggled a bit, before moving up to be next to her. After an hour of more flying Iva broke the silence between them by asking a rather personal question.

"Yuki? What was your childhood like?"

"Huh?" was the stunned reply.

"Did you not hear me?"

"No. I heard your words; I just don't really know why you asked." Yuki glanced at her, eyebrows raised (her blush was still slightly present, giving her an innocent appearance).

"Because I'm curious. Why else?"

"Okay then. Hmm…where should I start?"

"Try the beginning, genius."

"Haha…very funny," Yuki rolled her eyes at Iva's antics, "I suppose I'll start with my first master…"

Ω Nine years ago Ω

"KYAAAAAAAAA!" A young child screamed as he was torn away from his family. Even though he fought back, it had no effect on the man tugging at him. He simply huffed and ripped him out of his mother's arms. He threw the boy over his shoulder and carried him off. I never saw that kid again.

I was next. Thankfully, they weren't as harsh with me; mostly it was due to the fact that I didn't have any family to try to stay with. When the big man came to get me, I let him throw me over his shoulder, like he had with the boy, and carry me to a wagon, filled to the brim with other slave kids. He tossed me over the side, making me land on top of a boy who happened to be a lot bigger than I was. The boy shot me a murderous glare and shoved me off. Eventually, I was able to squeeze into a spot on the actual wood, instead of having to sit on one of the others. Five more joined us before we began our journey to the next buyer.

Eight grueling hours later, we reached our destination. The big man unlatched the back of the wagon and growled at us to get out. I waited till everyone else had jumped down before following. When I landed, I was immediately swept off my feet by a man. He was much shorter than the big one, but he was just as broad. He carried me and a few of the others over to a platform, where he set us all down and began attaching shackles to our feet. Apparently, we were up for sale first.

I had never been in a sale up till then. I had always been told I was too small to be of use. Now though, I was the subject of a loud bidding war. I was considered a high quality item because of my incredibly rare feline qualities (even though I was merely the result of some dumb scientist's experiment). All of the buyers were trying to get me. When the highest bid reached ten million yen things started to slow down. I was eventually bought for 10,090,000¥ by a man who looked like he was used to getting exactly what he wanted when he wanted it. In my case, he was successful.

He motioned for me to come with him. He led me to his expensive looking car and told me to get in. I did as I was asked before lapsing into my usual silence. My new master got in next to me, ordered his chauffeur to drive home, and settled in for the ride. A while later he began explaining what would be happening while I worked for him.

"Alright, here's how things are going to work while you're with me." He paused and looked at me; I blinked back at him, before twitching my ears and tilting my head to show I was listening. He smiled and continued, "You will obey to me and me alone. Ignore anyone else who tries to give you orders, unless I specifically tell you to listen to them. Do you understand?" I nodded quickly, "Good. Now, about your clothes. You will wear a black jumpsuit that is never to be taken off, except for when you take a shower. You will call me 'Master' unless I give you permission to call me otherwise. Do you have a name?" I nodded again and told him, 'Yuki.' He began again, "Okay then…Yuki. Any questions?" I shook my head, "Good. Ah…here's my house. Welcome to your new home, Yuki." He smiled at me again and opened the car door. I looked up at my 'new home' and my jaw dropped straight to the floor. It wasn't a house. It was a mansion! I was really excited to have been bought by this person. Unfortunately, my thoughts were ill-founded. 'Master' wasn't a nice person. He beat me often for things I didn't do and his go-to punishment for any lesser…crime was withholding my meals. It took me about a week to learn to hate him with every fiber of my being.

I was owned by him for two years; after that he grew tired of abusing me, so he sold me to some rookie trader, who decided he wanted to brand all his merchandise with their names. I got 2521119. He then began giving us medicine, as he called it, which made a lot of the other slaves sick. Some of them even died. They were the lucky ones, though. You have no idea how painful having your body turning against itself is. It felt like I was being pulled inside out.

After my transformation was completed, I was put back on the market. That was when I was bought by Uro-sama. He's my current master. I actually like having Uro-sama as my owner; he made me feel at home the moment I got to his house. The main reason being Ka-chan and Haru-chan, or Kagiri and Kiharu as most people call them, think of me as a little sister and have always regarded me as such. I complete missions for Uro-sama and in return he treats me well. There really isn't much else to say. In short, my childhood was awful and I'm, relatively, happy with the life I have now.

Ω

Iva blinked in astonishment. They had landed in the forests outside of Paiso ten minutes ago and were sitting underneath a tree (their bet had been totally forgotten). It wasn't often that she was stunned into silence, but this time she couldn't even think of something to say. She had started to pity the cat-girl about half way through her story and felt like giving her a comforting hug now that she was done. The woman looked down at the ground in front of her. I wish I hadn't been so harsh with her. She's been through enough already. Poor thing…

"Do you pity me?" Yuki asked, eyes hidden behind her bangs.

"…Y-yes. Should I not?" Iva had finally found her voice.

"Well, I don't need your sympathy," she paused and glanced at her companion, "I've never gotten any before and I would rather keep it that way." She crossed her arms across her chest and leaned back against the tree. She hated telling people her life story. It brought back way too many memories. I wish I could just forget about what happened to me before Uro-sama boug-

She was interrupted mid-thought by two arms wrapping around her upper torso. Her body was softly pulled into the older woman's embrace. Iva stroked the cat-girl's hair and hugged her tighter. Yuki found herself blinking back tears. I'm crying? Why? I never cry! Haah…something is seriously wrong with me… She let Iva squeeze her gently and allowed her tears to flow without restraint. It had been years, nine to be exact, since she had cried over her painful past. Everything she had experienced over the years was washed away with every tear she wept.

Well...originally Iva and Yuki were supposed to stay enemies but I like this version much better. Hope you did too!

A few notes: As Salt_the_Catgirl mentioned in her review, the 'rookie' trader is Meiga. In addition, Yuki's first master isn't anyone from the manga or anime. I simply made up his character, he doesn't even have a name, to be honest.

Alright, thank you again for reading my story and I hope you have enjoyed it so far!

Later!