Ryuu no Escape Finale: Hana no Escape.

Name: Meru Tori. (Meru means something along the lines of "Sprout" or "Seedling". I named her that and found out that the creators named a mountain Meru too. It was funny.)

Blood type: -O ( O negative.)

Birthday: Aquarius 20th. (I'm pretty sure I saw Aquarius on the month thing, but I might be wrong.)

Class: Princess/ Sovereign

Hair color: Blond

Eye color: Bright blue.

Hometown: Jotunheim

Height: She's 5'3'' without her five inch heels on.

Notes: Meru's the runaway princess of Jotunheim. She's close to Dove who helped her get out of that town. Dove had a friend with her at the time. Anyway, Dove and Meru became buddies and escaped to the island they were trained on. Meru saw Ryuu and instantly fell for him. She ran away from home to see how the world was going to be. She wanted to earn something. She found out that Magnum had run away too and wanted to be like him. Magnum always looked sad while he was training Meru. Meru had no clue why. Another reason why Meru ran away was because she had found out that her father abused her mother. She felt like she was next. Meru doesn't know that she's the only thing that Victor finds very dear to him. Victor would never hurt her and did many unforgivable things for her.

Pros: She's considerate and thinks of everyone, she is friends with everyone, she has lots of willpower.

Cons: She's stupid, she's quite the gossiper, she'll get jealous of anyone close to Ryuu, she's really spoiled.

So, I have a question for you people. Could you please tell me your favorite characters? I'll tell you why. I'm going to write a series of extra chapters after the Narmer fight. I have a few favorite characters. Luna, Maki, Hana, and Aoimi. Don't forget Dove! I thought it might be nice if I went with the reader's favorite characters. Instead of mine… It'll be a bit of a challenge ,but I'm all for it! And it would be really great if someone told if the second stratum was underwater or not. Until then I'll assume it is underwater. Here's the chapter!

"Come on, Aoimi!" Hana was shouting. "You look oh-so strong until you're asked to put together a friggn' tent!" Aoimi and Hana were trying to complete the task Keiko had given them. Aoimi kept on letting go of one of the bendy pillar things and it kept on hitting Hana's nose. Whenever something hit her nose she sneezed. Her sneezes were "kitten sneezes" as Hanasaku called them. Aoimi was smiling ,but didn't mean to let go of the pillar. Aoimi made a noise.

"It's sad that the daughter of Hanami Zeus Zaki can't even build a tent." She retorted. She was pissed and knew that would get Hana to shut up for a time. Hana's expression darkened shortly after Aoimi spoke. She had had enough of her mother's name. Hana hated her, and the fact that everyone wouldn't stop comparing her to her mom didn't make it any better. Hana came to Armoroad to show everyone that she was better. She came to prove everyone wrong. Even Ryuu and Hanasaku compared Hana to Hanami. Hana was trying to ignore what had happened earlier, but Aoimi made it harder. Aoimi made everything hard. Even certain guys. Hana couldn't believe that Ryuu and Hanasaku didn't tell her that Armoroad already knew her name. She didn't want anyone to know she was related to her mother. Ryuu and Hanasaku still wouldn't tell her what had happened last night. Hana snatched the pillar from Aoimi and dug it in another part of the ground. Aoimi saw Hana redden and she regretted the choice she had made earlier.

"Hana, look, I was just kidding…" She moved toward her, "Can't you laugh at a joke?" the green-haired warrior flashed a few teeth.

Hana flew into laughter before she picked up another pillar. She quickly fell silent as she moved it in her hands some. She then whacked Aoimi in the face with it, and started laughing again.

Aoimi felt her face. "Ow!" She exclaimed. "Hey, why did you do that?!"

Hana covered her mouth. "You blended in with the plants." She answered.

"Do you want to die?"

Hana gave her a sardonic smirk. "'Can't you laugh at a joke?'"

"I'll take that as a yes!"Aoimi and Hana were like titans clashing. They threw parts of the tent at each other. Aoimi cheated and made Midori trip Hana. Hana whipped a bottle of super glue at Aoimi's face. Lamia sat still and watched with Flame and Yakusoku.

"I guess you have to think like Gears to become better than them, huh?" Lamia heaved a loud sigh. "This guild is weird."

Yakusoku squinted at Hana. "I thought the daughter of Hanami Zeus Zaki would be more calm and collected." She turned to Lamia and Flame. "I guess this works too."

Yakusoku didn't notice Hana listening in on her conversation. She scowled and began to rummage through the guild's things. She shoved some of the things in her pockets for an unknown reason, and threw the rest at Aoimi. One bottle of wet sand that Hana had collected from the beaches at their old training facility opened and all of the sand poured on to Aomi's head. Aoimi screamed something involving her hair before she collapsed. Hana went over because she knew that Aoimi loved her hair almost more than she did.

"Oops, I didn't mean to Aoimi." She put her hand in the direction of Aoimi's hair.

Aoimi forcefully held onto Hana's left wrist. "Don't touch my hair." She demanded.

Hana shivered for a brief moment. She could see Ryuu with a concerned look on his face. "The heck is wrong with you?! It's just sand! I can get it out!"

Aoimi furrowed her brow. "That's not it…" She was speaking in a low voice for once. "My older sister used to do my hair, and she betrayed me. I have a feeling that you'll do the same. You act a lot like her."

Hana was still red and angry. "You're weirder than I thought. This is why we can't become friends." She hissed. She stormed away with the items in her pockets. She stood next to Ryuu, Hanasaku ,and Meru. They were all staring at her like she had committed a sin.

"Why did you say that?! Aoimi's sister is a sensitive topic!" Meru yelled.

"My mom's one too. I tried to be nice. Now, you guys are getting me angry."

Ryuu and Hanasaku turned away. "Thank you for last night ,Ryuu." Hanasaku blushed. "I don't know what I would have done if you and Keiko weren't there."

Ryuu was was the same color as his scarf again. "You're welcome."

Hana gawked at them and walked toward Aoimi. "Screw this tent. We're sleeping in the fabric used to make it." Hana threw some fabric over herself. RAGNAROK followed Hana's order. They didn't want to upset her any more.

Keiko and Luna were the only ones who weren't sleep. Hana was half-asleep on a rock. I'm not sure if she counts. Keiko and Luna were friends since they looked at the world in a similar way. Luna was bored and tried to bring up conversation.

"So, Keiko. Why did you want to know what Raging Lion said to Hana?"

"Who?" Keiko asked.

"The man from earlier." Luna sounded annoyed.

"I'll tell you after you tell me why you were shooting daggers at him."

Luna reclined on a stone. "Raging Lion is merely one of his false titles. I'm not going to call him by his actual name. I'd shame my family for five generations." Luna stared at Keiko. "His family used to rival mine while his family still lived in the east. Then they moved to Armoroad while we were still in our little competition. So we, the Kakaseis won the eastern lands and we were deemed the strongest. We're called the Cursed Children because we have demon blood in our veins. His family came out of nowhere ,and had the Cursed Sword, or the Youtou Nihiru. How very original. That's what everyone thought. So we moved them here. My grandmother sent me here to beat them,once and for all." Luna began to scoff all sorts of insults about them. "Anyway… Why were you concerned about that trash's words?" Luna was frustrated.

Keiko gave Luna a confused gaze. "You have a very strong grudge against this man. You don't even know him."

"Stop stalling, you loser!" Luna's shout was still very flat.

Keiko's facial expression changed from his normal nonchalant one to an embarrassed one. He covered his cheeks. "Well, I think that we're close enough." He sighed a deep sigh. He stared at Hana. She was standing up and rubbing her eyes in a weird way. "Is the fact that I think Hana's cute a bad fact?"

What? No! I like you!

Luna choked on her spit as she thought that. She did like Keiko. Keiko was the only one who understood her, but now he had a thing for Hana. The irritating short Hana. Luna went to glare at her, but saw Hana with an infuriated look on her face. She was moving toward the door of the camp room. Keiko was blushing too hard to notice, and Luna was so aggravated that she was only thinking about one thing.

If she want's to kill herself, so be it. She's only in my way.

Hana stepped out of that room and felt relieved. No more of her secretive guild members holding her back. She had this nagging and reoccurring voice in her head that wouldn't stop saying things about her mother. So she decided to prove that voice, and everyone else at that, very wrong. She thought that she could take on this floor without any of her guild members. Not even Ryuu, or Hanasaku. She held on to the things in her pockets. She pulled out the map. It was her map anyway. If they annoyed her on purpose they didn't deserve it. She walked across the floral woods. She saw a door with a star shape floating on it. Hana's niece, Hanasaki, had told her about the labyrinth. Hanasaki said that there were special doors that couldn't be opened without a key. Hana assumed that that door was one of the special ones. She decided not to waste her time on it. She power-walked down a narrow pathway until she saw a patch of very thick mud. She did not want to step in it. It would ruin her boots. Her boots had costed ten thousand en. Haruka had gotten them for her on her eleventh birthday. She inhaled before she submerged her feet in it. She felt the warmth of it through her shoes. She tried hard to pull her feet out, and she flew a few feet ahead when she did. She peered upward and saw another lizard in front of her, but it was prancing in another direction. The mud was having no effect on its movement.

"This'll be hard." Hana said to herself. She had to elude the lizard while being slowed down due to the mud. She saw the lizard go into yet another pathway, and knew this was her chance. She sprinted and was happy that no one slow like Aoimi, or Tanaku were there. The mud slowed her down significantly. By the time she made it out the lizard was behind her. She tripped out of the way. She heard a rustle in the foliage and turned her attention to it. She had forgotten about the smaller monsters lurking in the shadows. It was past noon. Hana heard the murmurs of people, and the growling of beasts. She really wanted to eat her lunch, but she realized how much danger she was in. Was she ready to fight? She hated her mind. It always made her doubt herself.

"So… That's our pray?" A girl with a black ponytail inquired. It was Inki with her "brother", Ace. She saw Hana staring at them. "I shouldn't have spoken that loudly." She whispered.

"What's your prey?" Hana was indignant. She didn't like meeting new people. Especially people who called her their pray.

Inki looked as if she were going to slash at Hana. She flew in her direction before she throughly minced a Titan Arum that was lurking behind Hana. She just proceeded to cover up her mistake. She turned over to Hana after she put her katanas on her back. She stared at the girl.

"That was our prey." She frowned deeply. "What's a young girl like you doing in this place by yourself?"

Hana sighed; she did not want to answer. Inki had just saved her life; so she had to. "I lead a guild. Guild RAGNAROK." She was prepared to hear Ace or Inki compare her to her mother.

"Weren't you the one who scored that attack of six hundred seventy on a Lynx?"Ace asked. "We've been looking for you, Hana."

"Introduce yourselves. You're scaring the crap out of me right now." Hana pulled out a wipe from her pocket, and began to wipe off the mud on her shoes before it dried.

Inki smiled. "I'm Inki; he's Ace." She leaned down to Hana's height. "Would you mind if we joined your guild?" This was progressing quickly.

Hana gazed at them with distaste. She had met them three minutes ,no, three seconds ago. She had a bad feeling around them. They were strong enough to waltz in that place by themselves. Hana thought that she had it in her before ,but at the time she was angry. She realized she only made it that far because she hadn't gotten engaged in battle.

"I'll let you join if you guide me through this floor, and make sure that I don't go unconscious." Hana proposed her plan.

"Sounds easy enough." Ace's monotonous voice was muffled because of his scarf and his mask. Inki pulled Hana off the ground. The three began to walk down some more paths. They then ran into another astrologer. She wore a nervous expression and was frequently rubbing her temples. She asked if they had seen the leader of her guild, guild Murotsumi. Her leader was around Hana's age and he was an excited blue ball of energy. The girl, Hypatia, asked them if they could help her find him. Hana accepted with a guilty look on her face. She realized that she was exactly like Murotsumi's leader, Agata. She went off by herself thinking she could take on a labyrinth that no one else took on. She left Hypatia with her head pulsing and with a qualm. She'd go back after she tested Inki and Ace. They went down a path to the left because Ace told Hana that it was the quickest way to the stairs. Inki peered down at the girl.

"You did what guild Murotsumi's leader did, didn't you?" Inki saw the guilt on Hana's face. "It's a good thing that we're here now. You could have gotten hurt."

Hana woefully glanced at her feet. "Yeah…"

Ace pointed to another lizard. "There's mud everywhere down that path, but it's the closest path to the stairs." Ace's hair blew in a breeze. "We should go right behind this thing so we can make it. We're pretty fast. This shouldn't be a challenge." Ace, Hana, and Inki waited for the reptile to approach them. When it was right in front of them it turned away.

"We go right now." Inki took the lead. Hana had a hard time keeping up with the two. They were fast and agile, like Luna. They were about to turn into the hall that held the stairs down when they saw that the reptile had been provoked by the sound of the bells Inki wore.

"Stupid." That was the last thing Hana heard Ace say before they got engaged in battle with the "Greedy Lizard" as everyone called it. It hit Inki first and she flew a few feet away into a wall. Ace threw some daggers at it and it twitched slightly. The lizard whipped its tail in Ace's direction and Ace swiftly dodged it. He turned over to Hana before the reptile hit him into another wall. Inki got off the wall and quickly began to speak to Hana.

"You're an astrologer, right?" She swung one of her katanas at the beast. It went to bite her ,but she cut off part of its tongue. It began to writhe some. It slammed its tail in Inki's direction. Inki jumped her to side and slid on the ground. Ace had gotten up and threw sharper daggers at the fiend's back. Inki hopped back toward Hana, and she was nearly out of breath. "You're a Zodiac, and that thing is cold-blooded…" She inhaled. She shoved Hana out of the lizard's attack range.

"Are you saying that it lives in warm weather because it isn't good with cold?" Hana felt a smile on her face and didn't know why. She was so close to death she could kiss him. Maybe, it was just the rush of energy she had when she fought? She didn't even know. Hana put her hand up to the sky and began to chant a spell. Hana was so good a using voltage that she did not need to say a spell; all she needed to say was Volt Star. For Ice Star she had to say her spell and Ice Star, and she was currently unable to use fire for some reason. Inki and Ace began to distract it for Hana.

Inki didn't realize that her bells were still annoying it. The lizard was still aiming at her with virtually all of its attacks. Inki was very flexible and evaded most of them. Ace was helping Inki by putting poisons on his dagger and intoxicating it. Hana finished her spell and shards of ice rained over top of the reptile. The lizard struck Hana with its tail and she bounced into a nearing puddle of mud,and began to cough up blood. That thing hit hard. Hana wondered why its attacks didn't hurt Ace or Inki that much. She thought she was going to pass out cold, until a scream rang out. It wasn't too loud ,but scared Hana up. She rose to see the creature with its jaw tightly clenched over Inki's left shoulder. It had bitten her with its poisonous fangs.

Ace's voice was a little shaky. "Inki…" That was the loudest Hana had heard him speak. Inki collapsed and began to hold the two puncture wounds on her shoulder , and for wounds they were very deep. They were complete holes in her shoulder. She was wincing and looked as if she were going to tear up. Hana stared with the zest she had earlier finally disappearing. She became angry at the reptile. She sucked at using ice. Hanasaku was good at that. She thought that voltage would work better. She knew that there was a chance of her getting one of those erratic bursts of power. She ad come to realize that whenever she felt nervous about something she had always gotten a burst of power. Whenever she did she couldn't control what she was doing. She could only see what she was doing, She couldn't even speak, but when she did, she did could not choose what to say. She just heard herself say it. She felt like it was something subliminal. Something that was mental that she could not see. As she was thinking she picked up the surge she usually got when a burst of strength came. She stopped for a moment. She saw her guild run down one of the passages with Hypatia. Hana suddenly felt like she was being embraced. Ace gave her an awestruck look. She just let the magic happen after that. She flew up at the scaled creature and put her hand to the sky. There was the loud sound of thunder and flash of lightning. Hana came crashing back down ,and turned to the throng of teenagers that made her guild. Ryuu's eyes were opened and Aoimi was paralyzed from fear. Hanasaku moved her hand toward Hana's shoulder before she forcefully slapped her in her face.

"Ouch…" Hana stood there with a bewildered expression as she began to rub her face. "What did you do that for?"

"Are you stupid?!" Tanaku shouted out. "You scared everyone!" She inhaled sharply."And what you just did… did not make it any better!" Hana looked around to see that there was no sign of Meru, Dove, or even Luna.

Aoimi and Ryuu were still speechless. Ryuu had his "blind' eye opened widely. One might say that they were overreacting, but they had seen something important. When Hana did that, Ryuu and Aoimi saw the spirit of Hana's mother embrace her, and vanish into her.(Of course Aoimi can see the dead! How do you think she sees her sister?) Those two finally saw why Rai didn't like Haruka's relationship with Hana, and Hana's belief about her mother. Hana's mother was always there protecting her, like she had promised before she died. When Hana had those random outbursts of power her mother took control of her body and let her power out. Hana didn't know any of this. She hated her mother.

Ryuu had told Aoimi about his ability at the campsite, and Aoimi had explained hers. They learned plenty of news at that site. Fang wasn't so bad. They told them that Machaera was not trustworthy, and spread rumors faster than wildfire. That was why everyone found out about Hana so quickly. Fang told them about guild Blue Sky. Marin took Meru into questioning at the Via Senatus. When Marin went to leave Dove got nervous and shouted that she was "Misaou Himeko". Marin then took her into interrogation too. When they had found out that Luna did not say anything about Hana's disappearance, they sent her back home. Hanasaku also said that she couldn't leave her room until the day after tomorrow, Thursday.

Hana asked about Meru, Dove, and Luna. Hanasaku told her what had happened and then told Hypatia that they would return her favor. Hanasaku grew enraged after that when she had glared at Hana.

"Hana,no exploring until Thursday." She commanded. Hana's mouth dropped open. Hanasaku heard Hana about to shout before she heard Inki yelp loudly. Hana looked back at her faster than lightning. She had forgotten about her. Hana ran over to her with a worried look. She didn't want her to die because of her recklessness. Ace had already extracted the poison, but the holes in her shoulder made it an excruciating task to move her arm. Tsukiro peered down at Inki.

"So, you found new recruits? Well, Dove can heal almost anything. She should be back from questioning. Go to the inn for treatment." He said blandly while fixing his glasses. "Hypatia will go with you to make sure you don't go alone. We, on the other hand, have to go find the leader of her guild."

"Fine." Hana obeyed.

P.S.? Oh, I have this new sketch pad now. It's 18 by 12 inches! The joy! My math teacher let me have it since I have a 100% in her class. I'm drawing a picture in it now. Maybe I'll post it later…