Holy crud it's been a while since I've updated this story. I guess most of you don't remember a lot huh? Well, here's the next chapter.

Chapter 9

Time passes too quickly sometimes. One day I'm suffering in a strange place that would have never held any interest to me. It was dull, consistent, and a caged environment. Never was I out of there sight, never was I allowed to seek comfort from my loved ones, never was I allowed to see the sun out of the prison they had deemed Luna.

But then another day I would find myself slowly forming into the consistency of the daily routines held. It was not the only thing I started to realize. I realized that not only had I grown physically when the incident appeared back at home, I had grown mentally. And without my friends it had been growing too fast. The simplicity of the world I had once lived in turned into a complicated entanglement of existence. Everything seemed connected somehow, someway. It was a constant factor. I had once been stubborn and…childish. I had once wished to be free of the cage they had placed me in. But now my mind does not see a cage.

Everyday I found myself more active, proof that I was already becoming one of them and farther away from what I was. But even though change had inevitably gripped me, one thing hadn't changed, the strong beliefs that had always been a part of me.

Even with those things still being a part of me, I still wonder when time would allow me to meet with my friends, if ever.

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It has been a year and a half since I left Shuggazoom. The organization had prospered tremendously causing a rise in production. Everyone seemed to be busy. Whether it was because of deliveries or just entering paperwork and information into the databases. By this time I was already a part of the organization and because of what I meant to the organization and to their prosperity, I was trained and educated differently then others. Balthazar gave me the best he could offer and I quickly advanced through their ranks. I was turning out to be well known and, according to others, a very difficult opponent to beat in both physical and mental tasks. I believe Antauri would have been proud of me and my feat if it wasn't for the circumstances that I was here instead of training under him and the rest of the team.

The rest of the team…how were they fairing? Was Balthazar keeping his promise? I would know if…

" Chiro, you're daydreaming again…"

Meaniel stared at me, a smirk plastered on his face. I had long since forgiven him for knowing what he did back then. He was now one of the few people that I trusted entirely here. He was a friend.

"Oh, sorry." I was often daydreaming so I was no longer annoyed that others found it funny.

"You better finish your report. Balthazar will be waiting for it." Meaniel said, almost teasing me.

"Balthazar can wait. In fact I think I'll be late just because I feel like it." The dirt bag could live a few minutes without his precious report. Besides, I had been feeling a disturbance coming from him. Something was bothering him to the extreme if I could feel it.

Slowly I continued to write out my report. The glory of going through the higher ranks had lost its grandeur because of the massive amount of paperwork connected to each job. My current job was a Lieutenant, which meant that I was the manager for a specific area in Luna. I didn't need to interact with many of the workers, just make calculations on their profits and visit the area to make sure they were doing work and keeping to the rules. There have been many times where I had to break up a few arguments.

My mind wandered again to my team…where they faring well without me? Then a pierce of jealousy hit me, what if they found a replacement for me? How could they?! I ground my teeth together trying to cool myself down and give me time to think. My team had every right to find a replacement for me. I looked down at my hands, remembering the days when they were smaller.

'They have every right to replace me…especially after what I have become here…'

I grabbed my report quickly and left my adjoining desk with Meaniel who paid little attention to my sudden movement. Walking down the hallway down to Balthazar's office seemed to help me calm down and muzzle the sudden sadness that seemed to fill me knowing that it was possible that my place with my team had been replaced like a fresh pack of new batteries.

I halted in front of Balthazar's office and pressed the blue button to right of it then I placed my right hand above the scanner. The door slid open and I walked in, ignoring the slight anger radiating from the Tsuki leader. I plopped my report on his desk and waited for him to wave me off, but it didn't come. Instead he read the reports, placed them in a filing cabinet behind him, leaned in his chair, and stared at me. The slits of his eyes narrowed as he pondered something I believed to have just come up.

"Follow me."

He stood up from his desk and stalked to the door, still in deep thought. I did as he asked, merely curious as to what could have happened to have Balthazar acting so strange. He continued to go through the hallways, the ones that weren't often used, I reminded myself. After a few minutes I was shocked to find that we were entering his private quarters. He opened the door and told me to sit on one of the chairs that occupied the far west side of the room. His room had very little to offer. It was as simple as the guest rooms and nothing seemed to yell out 'important', 'rare', or anything of significance. The only thing that grabbed my attention was the pile of books that bulked up the opposite side of the room. Many were spilled over on the floor, their spines sticking out and stretching to the ceiling. Others were placed one above the other overlapping the ones below so that it appeared that if you touched it the tower would break. Even the notes were unruly as they spilled around the books and peeped out of their pages.

"Chiro."

I tore my eyes away from the pile of books and looked over to Balthazar, who now looked somewhat relieved.

"Yes?" I kept a straight face, not wanting my curiosity to stand out.

"You have been aware of my sudden stress, yes?"

"It's quite obvious in my opinion." Nothing like a small stab to your boss's ego to cause tension. He did not like having emotional 'weaknesses'. This was short-lived since he quickly dismissed it.

"Then you understand I need your cooperation. You see, we will be having a visitor in approximately half an hour. The King's Men to be exact. So we need you hidden. Not only that we need to show them that I have some sort of weakness in order to confirm a trust with them and ensure trade."

"Alright. I understand the need for me to hide, but why do you need a weakness?" I stared at him. Balthazar despised weaknesses. He arched an eyebrow at me as he read the amazement in my tone of voice.

"They will not agree to the trust if they believe they do not have something to gain an upper hand on me just in case."

"And what does that have to do with me?" I could tell I was not going to like what was going to happen. Balthazar just smiled as he watched me twitch in agitation.

"Well, surely you can do both." His smile had grown ten fold.

The door behind us opened and my second surprise of the day entered the room.

"What is up Boss?" Meaniel had his hair kit in one hand and a brush in another.

"Please get Chiro, or should I say Chikika ready for the meeting today."

"Yes, Sir! You ready for another make-over Chiro, oh I mean Chikika?" Meaniel stepped out of the way as movers started to wheel in a few dressers and appliances from Meaniel's personal 'Good Looking' and 'Hot Stuff' kits. I could tell what they were because Meaniel had spent a week and a half fussing over them and giving them those two ridiculous names.

"By the time I'm done with you Chikika" he said with a sugary undertone to my new name "you will look Fabulous!"

Oh man...the crack idea ensues.