Nana was now resting, but was still in the infirmary. She slowly opened up her eyes. Though her vision was blurry for a moment, she stood up only to feel a rush of pain hit her and she slumped her head back down on the pillow. 'A pillow?'

"I had brought you a pillow and a blanket to keep you comfortable." she heard Rogue's voice, causing her to turn her head slightly. She could see his calm expression and warm smile looking at her. "But I am glad to see you awake."

"Oh..." Nana took a deep breath, which came out as a short burst of air. "H... how long... have I been out?"

Rogue rubbed the back of his neck with his hand. "For a couple of hours. I've been here since then to keep an eye on you."

The pink-haired diclonius felt her cheeks flush from the Shadow Dragon Slayer's kindness. "T-Thanks... but you didn't have to..."

Rogue lifted up his shoulders. "Well, I don't want to leave you here all alone. Otherwise, it would be quiet and lonely."

'That's true...' Nana thought, then another thought came to her. "Where is Lucy-san, Rogue?"

"You mean, Kaede?" Rogue lifted up his eyebrows, then relaxed them. "She went with Sting on a mission to stop a huge monster that is invading a city near our Guild."

Nana didn't respond to his answer, she just remained silent. She had wanted to thank Kaede for helping tend to her wounds earlier. Even though it damaged her, but it seemed that Kaede must have been in a hurry.

"They'll be back in a little while." Rogue spoke up to help ease her nervousness. It seemed to work when he saw her relieved smile. "Say, what about we talk for the time being? We have had some interactions here and there, including when I saved you from those two creeps." he frowned remembering that horrible scene. "But I thought it would be nice to get to know you better."

Nana felt her cheeks redden once more, but she let out a weak giggle. "Okay."

The two instantly hit it off, first starting with their interests, and then Nana asking how life is here at the Sabertooth Guild. As he was telling her the story, beginning with his first time here, she had her maroon eyes on him, gazing into his eyes.

Her eyes widened as she realized what she was doing. 'What... is going on? Why do I suddenly feel all mushy inside? Is it because of Rogue...?' she shook her head. 'No, it can't be...'

Rogue noticed her confused look, pausing the story. "Are you alright, Nana?"

Nana locked her eyes on the dark-haired man instantly, then quickly looked away. "I-I'm fine... um... you can continue..."

'Now my heart is going at a faster pace... but I can't help it...' she thought aside. 'Rogue is so handsome and... and...'

"If you're not feeling alright for the time being, I can continue the story later."

Nana assured him that she's alright and that she would love to hear more about the story. So with a sigh, Rogue continued where he left off.

The sixteen year old diclonius carefully turned to her side and sunk the side of her head into the pillow. A shy smile came across her face as she blushed.

When he finished the story, he saw that Nana had fallen asleep. He knew that she enjoyed the story. 'I guess the healing of her wounds had tired her out...' he pondered. 'I'll let her sleep.'

He leaned forward, moving the blanket up so it was now at Nana's shoulder level. 'She does look adorable when she's asleep...' he thought, but felt his cheeks redden. 'W-What am I thinking? Nana's sixteen, I'm nineteen. I shouldn't be thinking stuff like that.'

XXX

Kaede and Sting went through the town in search of clues on where to find this 'Monster' they were supposed to kill. It required two Dragon Slayers which means that the monster had to be horrific.

"When are we going to find that damn thing?!" Kaede exclaimed with a blaze of fire surrounding her, showing off her anger at not being able to locate the monster.

"Kaede, calm down. You're going to hurt other people with those flames." Sting said calmly.

"How can I be calm when we don't even know what it looks like!" She yelled the fire growing brighter with her emotions. Everyone began to feel the air around them become humid and started sweating.

"Kaede, you're making a scene. I know that you want to get this job over with and so do I, but we have to be calm."

"Fine" Kaede said, taking a deep breath and let it out slowly. The flames than died down and the air began to become much more cooler.

That was when Kaede heard two girls talking about her. She knew eavesdropping was wrong, but she couldn't help but listen to the conversation. It was about her after all.

"That girl must be new to Sabertooth"

"Yeah, but look at those things on her head."

"I noticed that too. They look like horns"

"Eew Freaky" the two girls said together.

Kaede began feeling angry, but fire didn't appear around her. This time her vectors came out instead. 'I'll show you who's freaky' she thought causing her vectors to go straight at the girls. They stopped centimeters away from their faces. 'No this is wrong. I can't allow myself to do stuff like this anymore'

The vectors then retreated back into Kaede's body. 'Although the feeling of blood lust is coming back.'

Kaede shook her head to clear it of such thoughts...thoughts of killing others. 'I need to get out of this area' "Come on Sting let's go and find that monster" She didn't give him time to answer her, Kaede just grabbed him by the arm and began dragging him with her. She could feel her bloodlust slowly going away with each step she took.

Kaede let out a sigh of relief, but that feeling didn't last long because Sting and her heard a loud screeching noise and people running the opposite direction away from the sound.

"I think we found our monster" Sting said.

"Yeah" Kaede said smiling, finally excited to do some damage. For some reason she wanted to say 'I'm all fired up', but she didn't.

The two began running towards the place where the monster was. When they got there, they saw that it was a hydra with six heads.

"Damn that is one big creature" Kaede said looking at the size of the monster. It must've been as tall as a building.

Sting silently agreed with Kaede. That hydra was one big creature.

"Well then let's get this over with" Kaede said igniting her fists in flames. She then began rushing at the beast using her vectors to help her gain some height.

"Kaede, wait! We need a plan!" Sting called out after her, but it seems that she couldn't hear him.

"Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!" Kaede yelled out rising into the air with the help of her vectors and punching the hydra right in one of their jaws.

The hydra screeched loudly, obviously in pain. She leaped away from it as one of its' heads began to go after her.

"Are you going to help!" Kaede said, calling after Sting.

'Should I help out?' he thought then decided 'Nah, this will be part of her training and how well she controls her powers.' "No, I think I'll just stay here and let you handle it!" Sting yelled back.

"What the hell-Woah!" Kaede said as she dodged another head. 'I have an idea' Kaede, then began to lead the heads together into a knot by dodging and running around it's body so it would be able to chase her. Eventually the hydra's heads were all tied up together and it couldn't move.

"Time to finish this" Kaede sent her vectors at the hydra cutting off all six heads and slicing the body in half. That caused a bunch of blood to be on Kaede's clothes. She didn't mind that much, because she used to kill in the past. However, now she doesn't or at least tries not to.

Kaede goes down over to Sting and says "I'm done"

"Great job, Kaede" Sting complimented her, but then saw the bloody clothes. "Kaede?"

"Yes?"

"Your clothes are all blood stained."

"Oh, that must've been when I killed that hydra."

"You might want to get that cleaned up"

"I can't right now, because I don't have any spare clothes with me"

"I see, let's just wait until we get back to the guild then. Hopefully no one will give us bad looks"

"I ag-" Before Kaede could say anything back she sensed another diclonius. She could feel it was very close, almost too close.

"Kaede, what's wrong?"

Kaede didn't say anything back to Sting, she just followed the presence until she was right behind the hydra.

"Who are you and come out?" Kaede said in a threatening voice clearly not in the mood to play hide and seek.

Slowly a young girl around the age of four years old came out from behind a tree. She had on rags and had hair as short of Nana's, one side was black while the other side was pink. Her eyes were red and were staring right at Kaede as if studying her.

Suddenly the girl's face broke out into a huge smile and she yelled out "Auntie!" and began hugging her.