Flames.
Everywhere.
Sweat dripped down Ritsu's forehead as she struggled to breathe. Even though she was a Fire and had a high tolerance for the thick smoke and heat of fire, it was hard for even her to breathe even relatively normally.
"This is your own fault, Ritsu," a familiar voice told her. It was unnerving that she could not see the person talking to her and Ritsu struggled to stay away, feeling her own blood drip down from her skull.
"You're crazy," Ritsu replied, in a choked, hoarse voice.
"Crazy for you, babe."
Ritsu sighed as she ran her hand along the red couch that she had grown quite accustomed to. Sitting in the clubroom relaxed her, and with there being so much on her mind…she really did need some relaxation. But she knew that classes would start soon and that she would have to pack up her stuff and head there.
She couldn't do that, though, until she had the chance to speak with Azusa. She had told the younger girl to meet her here before school hours so that they could talk about what had really occurred the other day.
Ritsu did not want anyone getting hurt- especially not her friends, because of her past.
"A-ano…Ritsu-senpai?"
Ritsu plastered on her signature smile and hoped it was convincing enough for Azusa. "Yo! Azusa-chan!"
The girl seemed a bit nervous; slowly coming all the way into the room and hesitantly taking a seat on the couch next to Ritsu.
Ritsu sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "Heh. Right…guess we should get right to the point, huh?"
That was when Azusa exploded. "T-that girl told me to tell you that you're girlfriend is looking for you!"
It was pretty uncharacteristic for Azusa to have such a sudden outburst. Ritsu, at least, saw her as a strong willed, even-headed girl. Ritsu smiled. "You must've been pretty worried."
Azusa blushed ever so slightly. "O-of course Ritsu-senpai…"
Ritsu nodded and patted the girl on the back. "Don't worry about it! I've got it under control!" She assured her, pointing to herself with her thumb along with her signature grin. Azusa's eyes sparkled as she looked at Ritsu.
"Are you sure?" Azusa asked quietly. "I- I'll help you however you want! I don't want-"
Azusa's eyes widened when Ritsu suddenly put a finger to her lip. The sandy-brown haired girl shook her head back and forth slowly. "Just don't tell anyone about this."
Azusa nodded, and Ritsu's finger slipped from her lips.
Three days passed without incident, and the problem with Ritsu slowly faded into the back of Azusa's mind. Everything seemed to be alright, and other more pressing matters had arisen.
Like their performance coming up.
But of course, they hardly got any practice in.
Even now, for instance, the girls were goofing off. The weather was fairly warm, and though they did not have much time on their hands, the girls were doing what they did best…and that was doing anything and everything that had nothing to do with what they were supposed to be doing.
"Ne, ne! More tea over here Mugi-chan!" Yui shouted, waving her hands around, allowing speckles of light to fall from her fingertips.
Mugi giggled and nodded, "Hai, Yui-chan!" Her eyes a dark blue, the girl willed the liquid to towards her, allowing the tea to float up in large bubbles. The water elemental of the girl had five spinning bubbles of tea going while her friends cheered her playful yet skilled antics on. She aimed for Yui and Ritsu's teacups, successfully shooting fresh into the cups without spilling a drop.
"Arigato!" Ritsu and Yui thanked their friend, Ritsu taking a big slurp from her tea.
"Gah! It's hot!" Ritsu cried, setting her tea onto the wooden table.
"Baka. It's what you get for slurping your tea like that," Mio scorned, nonetheless helping her friend out by waving her hand, sending a small gust of cool wind over Ritsu's tea cup.
"Heh. Gomen, gomen." Ritsu apologized.
Azusa sighed, looking at their untouched instruments, practically begging to be played! But the older girls did not seem to care at the moment. Still, Azusa was terrified that they wouldn't pull of their performance at the Sakura Festival! Sawako-sensei had been kind enough to get a slot for them to perform too…she did not want to let her down.
"You guys! Shouldn't we practice now?" the youngest of the group inquired, furrowing her eyebrows.
"Aww Azunyan!" Yui cuddled against the girl. "Let's just have some cake for now!"
"Yui-senpai!" Azusa's face warmed in her anger. "We've hardly practiced at all and the performance is coming up soon!"
Before anyone could respond to Azusa's scorning, a strange thing happened. Azusa, who was standing right in front of the window, did not notice what was about to come through said window. Mio, the quickest out of the group, immediately sprang into action. Azusa found hands wrapped around her slender body and she was suddenly forced into the air, and for a moment she felt what it was like to be an Air as her body floated, only to come back down softly in Mio's arms, bridal-style.
The sudden crashing sound of the window breaking startled everyone as they dodged a dark energy ball gone haywire. It flew all around the room in an uncontrolled frenzy, not hitting any of the walls…making them realize that the ball did not have a mind of its own- it was aiming for to hit a person, instead of an object.
"Yui!" Mio shouted, and the usually air headed girl nodded.
"Right!" Yui shouted back, training her eyes on the energy orb. "Aim…" she whispered, as it was a habit for her to say what she was about to do since it helped her concentrate better. A ball of light so bright shone in Yui's palm, radiating pure and tamed elemancy that was the exact opposite of the haywire orb that was attacking them. "Fire!" Like a skilled pitcher about throwing a baseball, Yui through her energy at the orb, successfully hitting it. The two orbs collided and exploded against each other, creating a light and dark mesh before they finally dissipating, leaving only a crackling noise like firecrackers behind.
There was complete silence as the girls checked their surroundings. Mugi and Ritsu were at the broken window, Water and Fire standing lookout. "I didn't see anyone," Mugi pointed out, water twirling in a circles around her two wrists that she had been prepared to fight with.
"Who would do that?" the blond continued, voicing the question that everyone had wanted to ask.
Azusa, still in Mio's arms, looked up at the older girl. Her face had gone completely pale as she stared at Ritsu and Mugi. "M-Mio-senpai?" Azusa said tentatively, successfully snapping the girl from her daze.
Mio gently sat Azusa onto her feet, looking her over with worried eyes. "Are you alright, Azusa-chan?"
"Yes," Azusa nodded, "Thank you Mio-senpai." Though she felt a bit embarrassed, Azusa wrapped her arms around Mio's waist.
Mio smiled gently and gave Azusa's head a rub.
Ritsu let out a breath with a hand on her heart. She then looked to Yui and gave her a thumbs-up. "Good job, Yui!"
"Heh heh," Yui laughed nervously, rubbing the back of her head. "Thanks!"
"Ah!" Azusa bounced up, "Arigato Yui-senpai!"
"Aww! Anything for Azunyan!" Yui cooed, embracing her young friend.
"A-ano…this is…" Mugi trailed off, bending down to the ground.
"What is it, Mugi?" Mio asked as everyone neared her. Mugi pointed down onto the ground, where a crumpled up piece of paper lay. If it had not been crackling with dark elemancy, the girls would not have thought anything of it.
Mio picked up the elemancy charged paper and un-crumbled it. They all read it, and they were all silent.
Who is Tainaka Ritsu? Who is Akiyama Mio?
"What…is that supposed to mean?" Ritsu asked after awhile, sweat dropping at the foolishness of the supposedly mysterious letter.
"Eh? Mio-chan is Mio-chan and Ricchan is Ricchan," Yui explained in her own way.
"Eh…Yui…" Ritsu and the rest of the girls sweat dropped at Yui's strange logic.
Sitting in the park by herself, Mio ran her hands along the wooden bench. Everything had all seemed so peaceful…but it now seemed that things would start to get difficult. She could not think of anyone that would try to harm her or her friends. What made matters even more confusing was that she did not know many Dark Elementals that would do such a thing.
She had been so scared when Azusa had almost gotten hurt. Even though she did not know who it was that had anonymously attacked them, Mio could not help but feel a bit guilty.
The only other clue was the strange letter. But still, it could have been anyone because there were so many people that knew the duo that was Ritsu and Mio. But what did they mean by those questions?
Her brain scrambling for answers and not being able to think of any, Mio sighed and stood to her feet. For now…she could not do much of anything but keep a watchful eye on her friends.
Mugi sighed in contentment as she dipped her feet into the cool waters of the ocean. She would always come to the beach when her mind was in turmoil. It was a good way to both practice and relieve stress.
Water.
Sometimes it was steady and beautiful. At other times, it raged and crashed against itself, swallowing in its enemies, drowning them, stealing the breath from them.
As Mugi moved in a dance made by some of the world's greatest Water Elementals (a dance her father had made sure she was taught) the surrounding water enveloped her body, the cool mist touching her body in light playful kisses. She swung the water around her waist, arms, legs, ankles, hands, hair until her entire body was encased in the cool sheet. She spun around as quickly as she could, feeling as she at any moment she could turn into the ocean. Wild, clear, untamed, mastered…
Her elemancy charged to its fullest, it was easy for Mugi to discern the presence of someone else even though her eyes were closed. She gasped and the quickly stopped the water from its dance around her body into a whip at her side, quickly going into a battle stance.
"Eh- gomen! I didn't mean to scare you!"
Mugi raised her eyebrows, dropping the water back into the ocean as she recognized the person that had snuck up on her. "R-Ricchan?" Mugi blushed, embarrassed that she had been caught red-handed in her dance.
Ritsu smiled as Mugi neared her and stood on the sand beside her. The Water Elemental ran her hands along her long white skirt first, which had been soaked, then her shirt and hair, pulling the excess water from them. She slipped into her sandals, which she had purposely left on the beach. "I didn't think you would come to the beach," Mugi said, just to make conversation as they walked onto the boardwalk.
"Heh, I was just taking a run and then I ended up there," Ritsu explained. "You were so beautiful!" Ritsu exclaimed, trying to mimic Mugi's twists and turns.
Mugi blushed and shook her head. "I- It's a dance that a lot of Waters know!"
Ritsu grinned and nodded. "I was gonna learn a Fire dance once…but it didn't really work out." Ritsu laughed nervously.
The two girls walked towards the road where they would have to go in opposite directions to reach their respective homes. The sun was setting behind them, and even though they were walking in silence it was not awkward.
But there was the day's events on their minds.
"Ne, Mugi…I don't want you to worry."
Mugi was walking slightly behind Ritsu, so she could not see the girl's expression, but if it matched her voice then Mugi was sure it looked troubled.
"I don't know what that was about but," Ritsu continued, "it'll be okay."
"Ricchan…" Mugi frowned and grabbed the girl's hand. She gave it a firm squeeze and looked into Ritsu's eyes. "Whatever it is, I'll be here to help you."
"Mugi," Ritsu raised her eyebrows in surprise. She then smiled. It was just like the compassionate Mugi to want to help in whatever way she could. "Thanks."
Mugi smiled back and nodded her head.
"Well, let's do our best!" Ritsu cheered, throwing an arm around Mugi's shoulder.
"Yeah!" Mugi cheered, throwing a fist into the air.
The two girls laughed as they continued their walk.
It really seemed like everything would be okay.
They hoped it would be…but sometimes, hoping is not good enough.