Haizea glanced around a few times to make sure no one was around, which was a tad bit silly, seeing as it was getting dark out and the area she was in was never highly populated, even during the day. Satisfied that no one would see her, she spread her wings and flapped them a few times, taking off into the air. Aderyn was waiting for her a few miles away, and Haizea needed to get moving if she was going to make it in time. She soared through the air, covering the three miles in about a half hour.

Aderyn was waiting for Haizea on the roof of the apartment building the pair lived in. While Haizea was about 13, Aderyn was 24 and Haizea's legal guardian. The older harpie had taken Haizea in when her mother had disappeared. When Haizea suddenly found herself with the powers of one of the air guardians, they both knew that Haizea's mother had died, and Aderyn legally took Haizea under her wing, no pun intended. Haizea swooped down, landing smoothly on the rooftop and tucking her wings away.

"You're getting good at that." Aderyn said.

Haizea smiled and shrugged, "Thanks. So, you said it was urgent, what's up?"

"Two things." Aderyn said. She held up one finger, while saying, "One- Avira's calling a meeting for some reason. Two- I think I know where Merla is."

"What? Where?!" Haizea asked, surprised. Merla, a 19 year old harpie, had gone missing about 6 weeks ago, and Haizea and Aderyn had committed most of their downtime to finding her.

"Have you ever heard of Aerai?" Aderyn asked.

Haizea shook her head.

"It's a harpie city near Russia. I was talking to a friend of mine who lives there, and she said that Merla was seen in town a couple of days ago. If we head there, we might be able to figure out where she went." Aderyn explained, "But we need to go to Avira's meeting first, she sounded stressed and Avira's never stressed.

Haizea nodded, "Okay. Where's Avira calling the meeting?"

"At her house. She lives in Kyoto." Aderyn said, "I've pulled you out of school for the week, so we can go to Kyoto and to Aerai. As much as I hate to admit it, this takes precedence over your education."

Haizea grinned, "Thanks, Aderyn!"

XXXX

Kiri soared through the air, Luchia on her heels, scanning the streets below them for any sign of Aryl. "There!" Luchia shouted, pointing. Kiri followed her finger to where Aryl was getting her butt kicked by Jeri. Kiri nodded and pulled her sword out, zooming downward towards the battle. She slashed her sword, the energy blast hitting Jeri's side. The water demon reeled backwards, surprised.

"Damn it." Kiri heard Jeri mutter. While she was caught off guard, Kiri rushed over to Aryl.

"Hey, you okay?" Kiri asked her friend.

"Peachy." Aryl answered, sarcastically. "Can we just get rid of her already?"

Kiri smirked, "Gladly. Luchia, sing something!"

"Ah! Oh, right!" Luchia shouted, quickly thinking of a song to sing. "Ah… um… Nanairo no kaze ni fukarete…"

As Luchia's singing voice echoed in the background, making it difficult for Jeri to think clearly, Kiri and Aryl attacked the water demon with their long range attacks, harming her more. Seeing no way she could win, at least not at that point, Jeri retreated, flying away before any of the mermaids could stop her.

"Yeah!" Kiri grinned.

"How about an encore?" Luchia grinned back.

Moments later, after smiling at the two, Aryl passed out.

XXXX

Sara sat on the couch in her and Tarou's apartment in silence, staring into space, seemingly thinking about something. Her eyes were glazed over and distant, and she looked like she could almost be asleep. Her thoughts were on the past, before she had come to the human world, even before she had met Tarou. Her thoughts were of her closest friend, Uya, the topaz warrior princess, who had died by Sara's hand 8 years previous.

When Uya's powers had gone out of control, Uya began to destroy the Indian Kingdom. When Sara caught up with her, Uya was sobbing and begging Sara to kill her before her powers killed another mermaid. When Uya lashed out at Sara, she did.

Since that day, Sara had kept Uya's bracelet, the one holding her topaz crystal, on her wrist and kept it as close to her as she kept her own orange pearl. What she didn't know was that until Uya's topaz was released into the waters of the Indian Ocean, the next topaz warrior couldn't be born. She couldn't let go of Uya yet… not yet.

After Uya's death, Sara fled to the human world and Tarou helped her out. She had eventually grown to love him, and the two had moved in together. Tarou knew all her secrets, and Sara all of his.

But for the first time, Sara was finding it hard to talk to him. Seeing a harpie, Haizea, for the first time in so long had jerked her memories back to… before. Before, when Uya was still alive. It made Sara sad to think about that, and usually when she was sad, she would talk to Tarou and he'd cheer her up. But, for some reason, she couldn't get the words out. She couldn't describe what was wrong, didn't want to talk. Instead, she was sitting on the couch, alone, eyes distant and thoughts far away, simply thinking.

XXXX

Lycoris walked down one of the streets of Tokyo, sighing. She had no idea where the mermaids she was supposed to be finding were, and she couldn't go back to Anayis again. Well, she COULD, but she didn't want to- she wanted to find the mermaids, deliver the message, THEN go back. Plus she didn't want to have to make the trip between the Polar kingdom and Japan AGAIN. She'd done it three times already, if she went back, it would be another three before she was done, and it wasn't an easy trip to make, exactly.

Tokyo was a rather large city, and Lycoris didn't really know her way around well. She'd only been on land for about 2 hours total, having gotten lost on her way over from California, and had stayed where she could still smell the water so she wouldn't get lost, but she was still having little luck finding the mermaids.

At least, she was having little luck finding the mermaids she was looking for. Just ahead of her on the street was a dark blue haired girl, a mermaid, looking like she was waiting for someone. Lycoris bit her lip, unsure of how to approach the girl, and finally decided to hang back and follow her, stalk her, if you will, until she was in a less crowded place so that there was less of a chance that she would be seen.

Just as she was deciding on this, a dark haired girl hurried over to the blue haired mermaid. Lycoris could tell she wasn't a human, but she wasn't a mermaid either.

"Noel, did you see anything?" the girl asked.

The mermaid, Noel, shook her head. That's when Lycoris noticed the picture Noel was holding in her hand. It was a picture of her.

'B-but… why would a girl I've never seen before have a picture of me?' Lycoris mentally questioned, before turning around and running in the other direction, very confused.

XXXX

Jeredeau brushed some dirt off of her skirt before flying into Edur's cloud. The spirit was sitting in a chair, reading a book. While Jeredeau mentally questioned how Edur GOT the book, when he was supposed to be in the cloud keeping the snowstorm going, she didn't say anything, as the snowstorm hadn't stopped and all she'd asked for was a snowstorm.

"Hello, Edur." Jeredeau said, lacing her words with malice.

Edur put his book down. "Hello." he replied, simply.

"How are things going? No sign of Milli or Orfio, I assume." Jeredeau said, glancing around the cloud.

"If Orfio reappeared, you'd be the first to know, being his opposite, and you know Milli doesn't like me." Edur replied, cleverly twisting his words so he wasn't lying.

"Yes, well, that is true. And I shouldn't expect Orfio to reappear any time soon, seeing as he's been missing for so long." Jeredeau sighed, "Ah, well, I'll continue going after Aqua as I have been. Getting to her through the mermaids is so strenuous. Ugh."

Edur raised an eyebrow but said nothing.

"Well, I'll be off. Just checking up. You know what will happen if you stop the snowstorm, yadda yadda, alrighty. Later." Jeredeau flew out and Edur rolled his eyes. Miriella, or her astral projection, peeked out from behind a table.

"THAT'S Jeredeau?" Miriella asked, surprised, "But, she's so… so…"

"Yes, I know." Edur frowned.

Miriella blinked a few times, still in shock.

XXXX

Jeredeau flew down to a cave by the water. Entering the cave, she smirked a tied up water demon girl. Jeredeau removed her bindings, holding the girls wrists firmly so she couldn't escape.

"S-stop using me for your schemes!" the girl shouted, squirming.

"Jeri, Jeri, Jeri, when will you learn?" Jeredeau smirked.

"That is not my name!" 'Jeri' shouted, twisting and struggling. Jeredeau finished her spell and possessed the water demon, turning her defenseless once again.

"Oh, yes it is, my dear." Jeredeau, now Jeri, smirked, "It is now." With that, Jeri exited the cave, diving into the water. She had a lot of work to do.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Really short chapter, sorry, and after a long break, too. I've been really busy with school and stuff, and I had a bit of writer's block on this chapter, but I think I can get the next one out sooner.

Hey, I have something to explain this time! The idea of the fight scene with Luchia and Kiri was that when an idol's singing alone, it's usually enough to make it that the water demon can't think straight. 2 or more of them drive a water demon so crazy that they retreat. So, when fighting together, an idol can confuse the demon while a warrior takes them out.

Before I post this up, I have to add this. It's a question, just answer in a review or something, 'kay? Which minor character do you want to see more of? Doesn't matter which one. Haizea's considered minor in my eyes and so are most of the canon characters right now. The canon characters have a much bigger part later on in the fic. Luchia's not a minor character, neither is Coco, Noel, or Caren. The rest are at this point, though Rina's part's going to grow steadily over the next few chapters.

And finally, I'm raising the fic's rating to M. Coco's part in the story is going to get a little… dark, and Rilene's past too. Oh, she's minor, by the way. It'll start getting a little darker next chapter, so I'm raising the rating sometime next week.

Next chapter: More from Miriella and Rina, the girls make a plan to save Coco, and Hanon's finally clued in on what's going on. Also, Luchia spills a bit more of her past, Anayis comes to Japan, Sara calls an old friend, and Lycoris figures out why Noel had a picture of her.

See you whenever I get the next chapter done! Thanks for reading!