YAY the longest update to date :P
Oh this story will take a while, there's still many many people to introduce.
I have fallen a bit behind in updating.
I originally wanted to update once a week, but with dragonboat season it's very hard for me to do.
Thanks for the reviews.
So this ch. we'll have some Natsume appearance...some sort of appearance :P
We'll do a Misaki and Tsubasa day next. It'll be fun.
EDIT
CHANGED THE CARD THING IN HERE TOO
Some days later
It was day off for our little brunette today and she's busy sleeping the day away.
"Hey Mikan, are you there?" A voice could be heard on her communicator as she had forgotten to turn it off.
Mikan stirred a little in her sleep as she heard her name.
"Hey Mikan, it's me Ruka."
"Wha??" she murmured unintelligently, "5 more minutes please."
"Mikan? It's me, Ruka, remember me?" Ruka repeated louder this time.
"Huh? Wha?" Mikan mumbled as she slowly woke up, "Ruka?" she repeated groggily.
"WHAT'S RUKA DOING IN MY ROOM." Mikan exclaimed panicky as she finally realized she heard a male voice in her room.
She looks around frantically but doesn't find anyone in her room.
Then she spots her communicator on her desk and it hits her.
"Oh, I must have left my communicator on. Opps, better call Ruka back." Mikan said to herself as she went over to her desk to pick up her communicator.
"Hey Ruka, did you call me?" Mikan asks.
"Oh hey Mikan. Yeah I was trying to see if you're free today but I didn't get a response." Ruka replied.
"Oh, heehee, I was sleeping when I heard your voice. I just got up."
"Ah, sorry, didn't mean to wake you up."
"Oh no, it's ok. I should get up anyways. So what's up Ruka?"
"Well I have today off to do whatever I wanted so I was wondering if you would want to go training with me."
"That would be fun! I can go with you since I have a day off too! So where do you want to go?"
"I was thinking that we can train in the desert between Prontera and Morroc, than maybe visit my home town afterwards."
"Oh? I didn't know lived in Prontera too!"
"haha, no, my hometown is Morroc. I only live in Payon because of school. My family is in Morroc."
"I understand now. Can you give me some time to get ready?"
"Yeah sure, I'll meet you at the South Prontera gate in half an hour. Is that enough time?"
"Yup, I'll see you then!" Mikan replies as she places her communicator back onto her desk and proceeds to get ready for today's event.
Half an hour later
"Hi Ruka, were you waiting for long?" Mikan ask as she walked towards Ruka.
"Oh no, I got here earlier to check out the shops. I can see why people say Prontera is the best for shopping."
Mikan giggles, "Yeah, we have a lot of shops. It seems like merchants like to gather here to sell their goods since we're in the middle of the continent and lots of people pass by travelling by foot or by warps."
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"Yeah, I got myself new tights that can be enchanted. The pair I have right now cannot be enchanted so I got myself this new pair. Equipment that has the ability to combine with a monster's essence is so much more expensive. Oh well, now all I have to do is get a Pupa's essence from hunting or I'll have to buy it off someone."
"It's interesting how some monsters leave their essence behind when they die."
"Yeah, I'm glad someone found out how to use it and combine it with equipment. Enchanted equipment makes such a big difference." Ruka replies. "Anyways, let's start heading out, Morroc is a long walk and I want to get in training time before it gets too late."
"All right! Lets go." Mikan said excited as she went through the gates.
Outside Prontera Gates
"You know, this is where I use to level with Hotaru when were novices."
"Ah, yeah the monsters closer to town are usually weaker."
"Yeah, some of them are so cute too! I felt bad for fighting them sometimes." Mikan said sadly.
"It's ok. Wild monsters are dangerous. But there are taming items you can use to try to tame one for a pet."
"I would like a pet but I don't think I'm responsible enough for one."
"Well," Ruka said thoughtfully, "I actually got a taming pet item when I was in the market as well. I wanted to try capturing a pet! If I get one you can play with it."
"Oh wow, what pet capture did you get?"
"I got a rainbow carrot, it's suppose to attract lunatics."
"Oh the fluffy white bunny?"
"Yeah, I've always liked rabbits so I thought it would be a good pet to have."
"Let's go try to capture one!" Mikan said excitedly and pulled Ruka around the forest looking for a lunatic.
"Ah here's one!" Mikan exclaimed as she found a lunatic sitting under a bush resting. "So what do we do now?"
"Oh the merchant told me that I have to get its attention first, then try to fed it. Some monsters are not tamable. But some are." Ruka replied as he poked the lunatic.
The lunatic started to attack Ruka but he stayed calm and held out the Rainbow Carrot to it.
The lunatic eventually stopped attacking Ruka and stared at the carrot. Reluctant to take a bit at first it just stared at it. It gave up resisting to eat the carrot and took a small bite out of it. Soon after, it devoured the entire carrot and snuggle against Ruka's hand.
"I think you did it. YAY" Mikan cheers.
"Would you like to pet it?" Ruka asks.
"Can I?"
"Sure, I don't think it'll mind." Ruka said as Mikan pet the lunatic.
"Do you have food to eat it?" Mikan asks
"Yup, I got some carrot juice at the merchant who sold me the pet tame. He said lunatics drink carrot
juice as it's food." Ruka replies.
"Ah I see. I guess we can start heading towards Morroc now that we're ready." Mikan said.
"Yeah, lets go" Ruka said as he started walking South West of Prontera into the desert with the lunatic trailing behind him.
In the Morroc Desert
"It's so hot," Mikan said while she tried to fan herself with her hand.
"Yeah it is, you're lucky you have a hat so you don't get heat stroke! I only have this apple on my head." Ruka replies.
"Now that you mention it, why do you have an apple on your head?" Mikan asks.
"Oh, this headgear is called Apple of Archer. It's a good headgear for the archer class because it helps train our balance and increase our dexterity," Ruka explains and continues to walk.
"Oh I see, that's cool." Mikan replies while carelessly around trying to look for shade.
Squeak, the sound came from under Mikan's foot.
"Huh?" Mikan said as she looks around for what made the sound.
She looks down on the ground behind her to find what looks like an egg cooked sunny side up on the ground with her footprint on it.
Slowly it starts to move towards Mikan and pulls a frying pan out trying to swing it at her.
What the Mikan thought as she stared at the strange looking egg coming at her with a frying pan.
OMG it's trying to hit me! She thought before she started to run for her life.
"RUKAAAAAAA HELP, there's an egg trying to hit me with a frying pan!" Mikan screamed as she continued to run.
Questions marked popped up above Ruka's head at what he heard and then he looked at Mikan to find the egg chasing after her.
Without wasting anymore time, he starts shooting at the egg with his bow and arrow.
Soon the egg dropped its pan and dissolved into the ground.
"I think that was a Magnolia." Ruka said as he walked towards Mikan.
"That was weird, I never thought I would get chased by an egg."
Ruka laughed, "Hey, you know, that might be a good way for us to gain experience!"
"What?! Me getting chased by an egg?"
"Well yes and no. If you can hit a monster, any monster, and run around with it while I kill it, we can train without really getting hurt!"
"Oh, I see what you mean. We can try it. I'm pretty good at track so I can run for a bit. But let's try to find more palm trees and run in the shade."
Ruka laughs and agrees.
Many hours later
"I think it's about time we head to town." Ruka stated after he saw the time on his communicator.
"I don't need a watch to tell me that I'm tired." Mikan replied, "All that running is very tiring."
"Sorry for making you do all that running. But at least it was good experience."
"I had fun today. Thanks for inviting me. Now let's head to your home town. I can't wait to see what it's like; I've never been there before."
"Did you want to rest first? It's still about an hour walk."
Grumble Grumble
Mikan blushes because of the noise her tummy made.
Ruka chuckles, "I guess you're hungry after all that running." He rummages through his bag and pulls out an apple. "Here have this apple while we head to town. It should help until we get there."
Mikan took the apple, thanked Ruka and ate it happily.
On the away to town
"Ruka, isn't it strange how we haven't seen any monsters for a while?" Mikan asks.
"Yeah, it is sort of strange. The last Magnolia we saw was about 20 mins ago. It's too quiet here."
"I have a bad feeling about this" Mikan said with a shiver.
"Let's walk faster," Ruka suggested. So the pair picked up their pace and started to walk faster hoping to shake off this uneasy feeling they have.
aaawwwwhoooooooooo (A/N I can't type sound effects..i'm so sorry…that was the best I could do /swt)
They heard a howl in a distance behind them.
"I know I thought it was weird that it was so quiet, but I don't like the sound of that." Mikan said as she tried to look for what made that sound.
"Let's not stay here to find out what that was." Ruka urged Mikan to continue walking.
"Alright," Mikan replied and recast the increase agility spell on both of them so they can run faster.
A desert wolf jumps out in front of them and growls causing them to come to a sudden halt.
Ruka reaches for his arrows and takes aim at the wolf while Mikan casts more suppose spells on both of them.
Ruka fires the arrows but the wolf dodges it just in time. He curses and reloads the bow while the wolf gives off a loud howl.
Just as Ruka fired his arrow, other howls were heard in response and more wolves slowly appeared and surrounded them.
Two of the wolves went to the one that first appeared to check its wound and then growled at them.
"Crap this isn't good," Ruka cursed.
"I'm scared Ruka," Mikan said as she grabbed onto Ruka's arm. Normally he would have blushed at her touch but right now he was too worried about the wolves to be aware of their physical closeness.
"I'll try to take down some wolves in front of us and we'll make a run for it. Have your mace ready in case any of them gets too close." Ruka commanded.
Mikan grabs her mace with her right hand and holds on tightly to her shield in the left.
Ruka uses his skill, double strafe, to fire 2 arrows into the wolf in front of them.
As if on cue, the rest of the wolves started their assault.
Ruka continued to fire arrows while Mikan tries to fend off a wolf that came up to her.
Just as things were looking really grim, spikes shot up from the ground impaling several of the wolves killing them instantly.
Then a figure appeared and continued to fight off the wolves along with Ruka.
Mikan turns to provide support to the two fighters when a wolf makes a move and pounces on her.
"Mikan watch out behind you!" Ruka shouted to warn her.
Mikan turns around and holds up her shield in time to block the wolf's bite but ends up on the ground with it on top of her.
Once on the ground, the wolf tries to bite her once again but the stranger knocks the wolf off of her and they ended up on the ground.
The wolf snapped with its jaws at the stranger. He blocked it with his bare arm and stabbed it with his other hand.
Mikan got off the ground and saw what happened. She quickly casted a heal for the stranger and focus her attention on Ruka once again.
Once all the fighting was over, Ruka came to check on Mikan.
"Are you ok? I'm sorry I wasn't able to stop that wolf from jumping on you."
"It's ok, he saved me." Mikan replied and pointed to the stranger.
"Oh yeah, he was injured because he got tangled up with that wolf that was on top of me. I should go heal him and thank him.
The man was sitting on the ground trying to bandage the wound on his arm. They couldn't see his face as he was wearing a sakkat and a mask of some sort that hides his mouths and nose.
"Here, let me help you." Mikan said as she reached out to help him.
He flinches at her touch and moves his arm away.
Mikan ignores his reaction, grabs his arm and heals him even though he didn't want her help.
The stranger looks up and stares at her with his crimson eyes.
"Natsume," Ruka whispered as he came up behind Mikan to check on the stranger and saw the red color eyes.
Even though it was only a whisper, it seemed to have caught the stranger's attention as he looked up at Ruka.
"Natsume, is that really you?" Ruka asked this time a little louder.
"Huh? Natsume?" Mikan repeated the name and looked at Ruka in question. "Isn't that the name of your best friend?"
When Mikan turned her attention away from the stranger to look at Ruka, the stranger took this chance and disappeared.
"Wait!" Ruka said and diverted Mikan's attention back to where Natsume supposedly was except he was missing.
"Where did he go?' Mikan asked bewildered.
"He was dressed in the assassin uniform, he must have cloaked away." Ruka commented.
"So that was your best friend?"
"I don't know. I haven't seen him since we left novice school but I don't think he would become an assassin. I mean, I know we lived in Morroc but we were never the type of people that would become assassins. Not that they're bad or anything."
"Assassins are not bad? But don't they kill people?"
"Well good assassins only take assassination jobs assigned by the official assassin guild. It's the assassin guild's job to keep a balance between good and evil. There are assassins that don't kill people, but trained to be assassin for their combat skills. Then there are the assassins that took the wrong path, who will kill for money and such. They are the ones that give assassins the bad name. But you'll find those kinds of people in every different job class there is. Just the name assassin is very intimidating and creates a bad image in most people's mind when you mention their class." Ruka said thoughtfully.
"If he was your friend, why would he run away like that." Mikan asks
"I have no idea, maybe it was just someone with the same color eyes as him." Ruka replied hopefully.
"I've never met anyone with red eyes before." Mikan commented.
"Let's hurry to town, then we'll find out for sure." Ruka said as he headed to town in a fast pace.
In Morroc
"Yay we're finally here!" Mikan exclaimed as she stepped through the gates into the city of Morroc.
The city itself reflects the surrounding. The buildings here are made of yellow stone almost blending with the sand of the desert. There were some palm trees every so often carefully planted by the town to provide shade for it's citizen. The Morroc palace is in the centre of the city surrounded by a man made moat. Children can be seen running through the streets playing while merchants have their stores set up south of the palace.
"Let's go to my house first, then we'll stop by Natsume's house to check up on him." Ruka said as he led the way to his house.
"I'm home!" Ruka shouted as he entered into a quaint little house in the south east corner of the town.
"Ah, Ruka, you're home! You've grown from the last time I saw you. Awww my little boy is growing up." Mrs. Nogi said as she hugged Ruka.
"Awww mom, you're embarrassing me." Ruka said while blushing.
"Well who do we have here? Are you going to introduce us?" Mrs. Nogi asks.
"Mom, this is my friend Mikan Sakura. Mikan this is my mom." Ruka introduced the two ladies.
"Hi Mrs. Nogi, nice to meet you." Mikan flashed her famous smile and shook Mrs. Nogi's hand.
"Nice to meet you too Mikan. I see that you're an acolyte. So how did you meet Ruka?" Mrs. Nogi asks mischievously. She's happy to find Ruka bringing home such a pretty girl to meet her.
"Oh, I was assigned to help people at the Payon caves and I met Ruka there!" Mikan replies.
"That's nice. So will you two be staying for dinner?"
"That would be nice mom. We're really hungry. We've been training all day."
"Why don't you two go refresh yourselves first? I need to cook extra dishes now that you're here. You should have told me earlier that you were going to visit today and I would have prepared more food!" Mrs. Nogi chided Ruka lightly.
"I think I'll go visit Natsume first to see how he's doing. I haven't seen him since we left novice school."
Mrs. Nogi looked nervously around, "Ruka, I don't know how to break this to you." She takes a deep breath and continues. "You see, several months ago, there was a big fire. Natsume's house was caught in the fire. Luckily, Natsume and Aoi survived, but the same couldn't be said about their parents. After the fire we took them in. But one day, a strange man wearing a Opera Mask came with papers showing us that he's the legal guardian of Aoi and took her away. Natsume tried to fight to keep Aoi but it didn't
work. A bit after that, Natsume disappeared one day. I think he's still out there trying to look for Aoi." Mrs. Nogi said sadly.
Ruka was stunned at the news of his best friend's misfortune. "Then that could have been him." He muttered softly.
"You've seen Natsume?" Mrs Nogi asked.
"Maybe. I'm not sure, I couldn't see his face, all I could see were his eyes. We were attacked by a pack of Desert wolves on the way here. An assassin helped fend them off and he had red eyes. But he disappeared without telling us who he is." Ruka replied.
"It's too short of a period for him to advance to the assassin class if it is Natsume!" Mrs. Nogi exclaimed.
"Well, he has always been really smart and at the top of the class." Ruka responded.
"Well, if it is him, I hope he's doing alright and don't go astray." Mrs. Nogi said, "You two go get ready for dinner, I'll have it done in no time."
"I hope he's alright too", Ruka said softly as he slumps into the couch.
Mikan can only watch and softly pat Ruka's back trying to comfort the boy.
I know...it looks like MxR right now...don't worry...it'll be NxM :)
I hope you like this chapter
Please review!