Love Hurts 5 Ways (OUTDATED STORY)

by Aloubell

This is an outdated story and the beta version for the current Destiny Song series. The story premise is generally the same, but in this beta version, things just kind of happen without much of a plan. I'm keeping it on this site as a record of what used to be. Please check out "Destiny Song" if you want a more coherent story. Thank you!

28. Real Confidence, True Strength

ATTENTION READERS: This is the Beta version of LH5W, if you want to read the official, updated version of the story, you'll have to go over to DeviantArt. com and head on over to my page. My username is Aloubell. You can also get there by going to my fanfiction. net profile which provides a link over there.
In any case, this Beta version is basically the rough draft of LH5W, my first attempt at it. Much of the plot points from this version will be the same in the official version, but there are significant and consistent characterization changes, a few (but very important) plot differences, expansion of past ideas, and overall better quality in storytelling.

All of this will be done over on DeviantArt. I no longer will write the story in traditional prose nor submit/update it here to fanfiction. net. The Beta version will remain here, just know that it isn't the 100% official story.
The official version will be written in a lazy prose mixed with play-writing elements (you'll get what I mean when you see it).
This is the new format for the story from now on.
So please head on over there if you're interested in updates to the story! Thank you for stopping by =D

-Aloe

PLEASE NOTE: The official version is being written somewhat out of order. The official version will start on chapter 46, the place where the Beta version left off. The official version will go on to complete the last chapters of Season 2. Once those are done, I will redo the story over again from Chapter 1 which will be the official version.

Having said that, if you choose to continue on reading, I hope you enjoy the Beta version and look forward to the official!

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After our experiences with the first trial, the three of us continued to wander the mysterious and confusing maze for about three days. No matter where we turned, it never seemed like we would get any closer to the end of this universe-formulated place. Even with the frustrations against the maze aside, our travels were significantly more pleasant with the atmosphere around the three being a lot less hostile. Ever since Genrou and I established our friendship (and having the spell broken between us), things had seemed to be going on a lot more smoothly. Let me tell you, it is was more easy to travel around with someone who you can trust (more or less) than someone you have to keep on high surveillance almost all the time—not to mention the hate-filled arguments we would engage in since the moment we met. The awkward silences completely dispersed as well, and that's always a good thing (however, we all know that they'll return eventually, so I was just enjoying the moment before they came back).

Before we started back up on finding the Sacred Blood Lily, the self-inflicted wounds from the result of my previous breakdown had to be tended to. So, my head had to be bandaged up in order to allow the gash to heal (looking back on it, punching myself repeatedly on the forehead may have not been the most productive use of my energy). To add to the trouble, my whole body was completely sore and even bruised in some places due to my attempts at being a human shield. The fact that I hadn't broken any bones was truly a miracle if not dumb luck. Considering my whole body was aching something fierce, walking proved to be rather difficult, so both Genrou and Chichiri had to take turns supporting me in order for us to progress further. I hated that my body couldn't stand up on its own very properly, but even I had to admit that I was banged up pretty bad. If I weren't so physically fragile (something that I would never admit out loud to anyone), it wouldn't have come down to them helping me out like that. One of the things I really couldn't stand was having to rely on someone for such a futile thing.

But once again, I had no choice.

Genrou even continued to scold me some more for doing something so stupid like that—which prompted me to remind him to not mention anything about that day (our agreement was still intact after all). Aside from my pain, though, things were alright.

During our third night (well, we couldn't really tell that it was in the evening considering it always seemed like it was as dark as night in there) we decided to take a rest and make camp. Chichiri had suggested that in order to pass the time, we should do something to help the three of us get to know each other a little better. And what better time to do that than around a campfire?

The other two couldn't quite find the right way to do that, so I ended up suggesting and explaining two popular ice-breaking games from my world: "Truth or Dare" and "Never have I Ever". To me, they were slightly lame games that teens in my world tended to have way too much fun with by including drinking (Genrou may have approved of this one), stripping, violence, and humiliation, but I refrained from mentioning those things to my companions—leaving the combination of games to be completely clean.

The three of us went around in a circle, one by one, choosing whether we'd have someone do "Truth or Dare" or if the person did "Never Have I Ever" in order to get the other two to admit to things they have or haven't done.

After a few rounds, it came back around to the bangs-defying-gravity monk himself. Putting his finger on his chin, Chichiri pondered on his next action. "Hmm…I wonder what I should do, ya know?"

"Just pick somethin' already Chichiri!" The impatient Genrou yelled out. "I have a good one in mind and I don't wanna forget!"

My sigh ended in a smirk. "What's wrong? Is your brain so basic that it can't hold on to a simple thought? How sad."

Instead of lashing out at me, he growled a bit before placing a mischievous look on his face. "Ya better watch it before I change my mind about what I'm gonna do. I might have ya doin' somethin' real embarrasin'."

Rolling my eyes, I pretended to ignore his threat. "Don't listen to him Chichiri—take as much time as you—"

"I got it, ya know!" Well…okay then… He dabbed a fist in his other hand as an idea came to him. "Never have I ever been arrested, ya know?"

When what he had said had sunk in, I ended up raising my hand almost at the same time as Genrou. Narrowing my eyes slightly, I thought, why am I notsurprised?The moment he noticed my look, he gave a full, toothy smile. "What else do ya expect? It would be sorta insultin' if a bandit such as me never got arrested." Placing his hands on his sides, he turned away keeping the proud expression on his face. "O' course, they were never able to keep me long enough to keep me detained, but they sure did try!"

Splashing the smirk back on, I said, "A delinquent through and through, eh?"

He snapped his head back at me. "Damn straight!" Then he thought about my words for a second. The volume of his voiced increased as he caught onto the insult. "Hey, what a second!" I snickered in amusement at the late reaction. Pointing a finger at me, he spout out, "Well if yer so damn pure, then why the hell were you arrested?"

Resting my head on my hand, my smugness died down. "It wasn't exactly my fault—my overly naïve friend took a guy's words way too literally and attempted to get jewels from the emperor."

"Whoa! This person tried ta steal from His Highness?" Genrou sounded impressed. "That's hardcore!"

I shook my head. "Not exactly. You see, she and I were trying to look for another friend of ours, and this guy we ran into said that he'd only help us if we managed to get one of the royal jewels for him." The memory almost immediately made me grimace. "I like her and all, but that dope of a friend of mine decided to run out in the middle of a royal procession—without thinking—to ask the emperor if she could have one of his jewels. At the time, I was trying to keep my powers a secret, so I couldn't exactly make a daring and flashy escape. So the guards arrested us."

"Is this how you met the emperor Aki?" Chichiri asked.

"Yeah!" I nodded enthusiastically. Of course I was quick to answer—after all, we were talking about the hottest looking ruler in the history of ever. Realizing that my actions were too eager, my face flushed a bit as I cleared my throat. "I-I mean…Yes, that is how we met. He's actually a really nice guy and let the three of us go. Because of certain circumstances, we all became friends and he invited us to stay in the palace as honored guests." Reaching into my personal space, the kunai Hotohori gave me materialized in a flash of light and dropped into my hands. "This weapon was given to me by him before I left so that I could better protect myself in close combat battles." Since my physical abilities are so bad,I need some sort of edge whenever an enemy gets tooclose.I looked down at the weapon in my hand. Taiitsukun warned me against the Tornado Fist and this is what I'm left with.

"Yer doin' it wrong."

Snapping me out of my thoughts, I realized that Genrou had said something. "What?"

Extending his arm out, he reached for the kunai in my hands. "Yer supposed ta hold it like this." He took the weapon from my hand only to replace it in a different position—palm facing inward as the blade pointed down. "Since yer probably goin' fer more of a defense position, this is more efficient. But if ya wanna go on the offensive, then ya need to know how to maneuver it back into the right position. Just remember that it's supposed ta be an extension of yer arm, that way it'll flow a bit more naturally."

I couldn't help but be impressed with his knowledge of weapons. But instead of showing my gratitude, I decided to go the more nonchalant route that Aki is so very used to. Putting on an irritated façade, I asked him, "What does it matter how I hold it? As long as I get the enemy then it's all good." It's not reallylike I plan on using it often anyway.Hearing my reply prompted him to flick my forehead in a swift manner. The uncomfortable stinging sensation left me holding my head in utter irritation. "Dude!"

"It matters 'cause it could be a matter of life er death. Don't protect yourself properly, and you'll regret it."

I scoffed. "Overly-dramatic much?" Before he had the chance to shoot back with a rebuttal, I told him, "We're still playing a game remember? And it's yourturn." To show that there were no hard feelings, I flashed him a friendly smile as I summoned the kunai away once more.

Seeing as how I diffused the situation, he calmed down after realizing that my real intention wasn't to start a fight…at least not this time. "Well…okay then. Never have I ever…umm…" He bit his tongue. "Dammit! I forgot what I was goin' to say!" Part of me wanted to shout out "just pick something!" but he quickly recovered from his moment of absentmindedness. "Never have I ever been across the ocean—I'm a man of the mountains all the way!"

His chosen subject compelled me to chuckle a bit. "After all that, the epic thing you chose to do was that you've never 'been across the ocean'?" As he shot a sharp look at me, I continued to show my amusement. "Fine, fine, it's acceptable!" Chichiri had already been raising his hand regarding the statement before I even had a chance to do so.

The monk spoke through his playful grin. "I did a lot of traveling, ya know? It's really relaxing to just go around and explore the way other people do things and how they live, ya know?" He did come off to me as a sort of free-spirit—his whole vibe just seems so…relaxed. But I knew more than anyone that outside characters can be deceiving.

Remembering that I had to explain myself as well, I told them, "For about twelve years, I lived in my home country of Japan. Then, about five years ago, I moved to another country called the United States. Since the two of them are completely different land masses separated by a huge body of water called the Pacific Ocean, I used a large transportation mechanism called an airplane to fly over the ocean and into the new country." It was sort of funny that I had to use such detail with these two—they didn't know the world I lived in—its geography, demographic, or even its advanced technology. This, of course, often led my explanations in this game to be a tad bit longer in order for them to really understand what I'm saying. Of course, I had never blatantly said that "I am from another world", but by this point, it may have been pretty obvious. I was just thankful that I didn't have to go through millions of questions from my companions about it. There was still always the chance that they never caught on though…

"How interesting!" Chichiri spoke in a cheerful voice, "you never fail in having fascinating things to say, ya know?" I almost told him that his life was probably more exciting since he did so much traveling, then I remembered that in the past year, I had been to five different worlds, meeting different people, seeing completely different things—makes me question exactly which trade school my travel agent attended. I may not have been to a plethora of countries around one world, but it's probably safe to say that inter-dimensional travel counts as quite the expedition.

Instead of elaborating any further, I turned to my blue-haired friend. "Okay Chichiri: truth or dare?"

"Umm…I choose dare, ya know?"

Already having my dare in mind, I gave a wide, Cheshire Cat grin. "I dare you to pretend to be Genrou in any way you see fit."

"What?" Genrou's expression of shock was absolutely priceless.

Chichiri snapped his fingers as he thought of an efficient way to carry out the dare. "I hope that you guys get a kick out of this, ya know?" In a blink, the monk's body was shrouded in a poof of white smoke. Giddy from anticipation, I patiently waited for what would emerge from the cloud. When it finally dissipated, Genrou and I sat there in surprise to see a second Genrou standing in place of Chichiri. Holy crap! I didn't know that Chichiri could transform intoother people!That's awesome! As impressed as I was, I refused to allow myself to ask him to teach me how to do it. Past experiences told me that he wasn't exactly the best person to ask to be taught from when you were expecting a normal lesson. For all I knew, this technique would require me to sleep with all the people I wanted to transform into. While I really doubted that that was the case, I wasn't willing to take any chances. I learned how to see auras and I'm already a Master Sorceress—it wouldn't be good to start becoming greedy.

Jumping out of my seat, I inspected Chichiri's new form from head to toe with increased interest. "Impressive! You've got his whole look down! Now that you can walk the walk, let's see if you can talk the talk." The real Genrou's scrunched up face signified that he wasn't too thrilled about this whole dare—I, on the other hand, found the situation to be rather comical.

"Everyone better watch out, 'cause the manliest man ta ever walk the face of the earth has arrived!" "Genrou" proclaimed as he perched one of his legs up on a giant rock and placed his hands on his sides. "I may not know much about nothin' else, but when it comes ta bein' a tough, ass kickin' mountain man, then who cares? I can't quite contemplate the complex bein' that is woman, so I refuse to like 'em!"

At this point, I was laughing. "That is totally what he's like!" Steam could practically be seen coming from Genrou as he sizzled in comical anger.

"Honestly," The fake Genrou continued with a confident, proud voice, "if I could repopulate the world with jus' men, then I'd be a happy camper! Women just make things too complicated and are contaminated with cooties!" The monk definitely earned some points on my "cool-o-meter" for his performance.

"Hey!" The real Genrou shoot up from his seat and pointed accusingly at his imposter. "First of all, I would never say 'cooties'! Second, I never said that I want the world to be just men. I may not like women, but they are necessary!" He must have sensed that I was going to say something because he quickly turned to me and demanded, "Don't'cha dare say it! I am not gay!"

Through my snickering, I managed to say, "Who are you tryin' to convince?" Clearing my throat, I held up a finger as if I were about to explain something, pretending to act serious. "Remember Genrou, we don't judge. But you can't fully accept who you are if you stay in d-e-n-i-a-l."

With an obvious blush starting to appear on his face, the flame-haired bandit turned his focus back onto the transformed monk. "I had enougha this! Chichiri, mock Aki why don't'cha?" As I opened my mouth to tell him that Chichiri wouldn't do that, my mind was taken for a loop when the familiar puff of white smoke consumed Chichiri's body once more. My smile was quickly starting to falter when I realized that he was taking Genrou up on his suggestion.What?It wasn't a second later when I was face to face with myself—scarlet irises staring into scarlet irises. Okay…this is weird.The imitation Aki had on the same sporty outfit that I did, short dark-brown hair off to the sides and back with long bangs falling past her eyes—her face wearing a smug expression on it. The first thing that came to mind wasn't "oh my gosh, I wonder what he's going to do!"—no, it was more like: Is that honestly what my hair looks like fromthe front?

"Hmph!" My clone stomped her foot in frustration and crossed "her" arms, breaking me away from my hair-issues. "Genrou may think he's all that, but in reality, my powers practically make me the queen of everything! Give me any monsters, demons, or bandits you can find and I'll take them down with just my pinky! However, if you get my clothes dirty, you can just forget about me joining in the fight! Unless you call me an unnecessary name or make me mad, then I might completely flip out and blow you away with my mystic powers!" "She" flipped "her" hair. "Oh, and if you start hearing me ramble on and on about things that make absolutely no sense—like say My Small Horses or the White Cabin—just ignore me because the explanation is too difficult for minds other than mine to comprehend."

With my face completely fallen, I sat there in disbelief in what I was hearing. Before I had a chance to defend myself, Genrou erupted with laughter, falling to the ground as he held his stomach. "Man Chichiri, ya got 'er down completely!" He flashed me a sharp look through his smile. "Not so great seein' his interpretation, is it? Bet'cha wish that ya never dared him, huh?"

Attempting very horribly to hide my extreme displeasure, I strained to maintain a fake smile, the corners of my lips twitching from the added effort. "Not at all! I can admit my faults—unlike some people." Standing up, I nonchalantly walked (stomped) over to Aki Number Two trying my very best to keep the bogus grin. "Aki" must have sensed my anger because she started to tremble and hold her hands up in passive defense. "And as for you…" Reaching out for "her" cheeks, I stretched them as far as they could go, making sure that it brought "her" pain. "If you're going to do a horrible impression of me, make sure you get the terminology right—it's My Little Ponies and the White House. Got it?"

"She" nodded quickly. "Yes, I got it, ya know?" Releasing "her" face from my grasp, I went back over to my seat with puffed up cheeks showing my irritation.

Genrou sat up from his laughing spot on the ground. "Oh come on Aki, it's not funny when it's about'cha but when it's directed at me, it's hilarious?" ? Now you're thinking! "Be a good sport."

Thinking of an idea, I spoke, mocking his accent. "Ya didn't think it was so funny when it was about you. Yer just bein' a hypocrite only laughin' at other people's expense 'cept yer own." Winking at him, I asked in my normal way, "Right?"

Hearing my voice coming from a place other than myself, the two of us faced the still transformed monk. "Hey guys, we're still in the game, ya know?" Genrou and I gave each other a knowing look signifying that at that moment, we had thought of the same course of action. We both took our long bangs with one of our hands to make them stand up on end—pretending that they were standing up by themselves—followed by closing our eyes and transforming our faces into a playful fox one similar to Chichiri's. It was our turn to mock him.

"It would be better if we could all just get along, ya know?" I decided to go with a cheery way of speaking.

Genrou played along as well. "I'm just goin' ta stay completely calm and flow with the wind—almost as if nothing bothers me at all, ya know?"

"I'm just going to use my trippy mystic powers—"

"ta make my friends mouths drop in confusion—"

Then we both said at the same time, "Ya know?" It wasn't a second later when the three of us burst out laughing at the ridiculousness of it all. This was pretty much the first time that all of us really enjoyed each other's company—it definitely beat flying around by my lonesome while being completely bored out of my mind. Chichiri was laughing so hard that he lost focus in his spell and poofed back into himself (that was good because looking at me in that sense was getting sort of weird).

When we finally calmed down and wiped away our tears, the game resumed and our blue-haired monk decided to take his turn. After thinking it over for a few seconds, he leaned over to Genrou and suspiciously whispered in his ear. The bandit told him out loud, "Oh yeah, dare for sure!" Chichiri was speaking too softly for me to hear, so part of me was considering that he was up to no good. What is he telling him?

I figured that whatever message he was giving Fang-boy was over because Genrou started to snicker mischievously. Facing me, he looked at me straight on with his perceptive amber eyes, spiking my own curiosity.

"Wha—what?" I asked in an annoyed yet bewildered tone.

"Witch." The name brought out the mental fuse that becomes ignited the moment someone pisses me off. Eyes narrowing at him, I dared him to say that again. Ordinarily, someone would get the hint after calling me that the first time—but not this idiot. "Witch, witch, witch, witchy-witch, witch, witchier of all witches, witch-witchy, Aki the witch, you are a witch, just accept it, you have the powers and all, you are a witch—" In the blink of an eye, I brought out a much larger version of the red and yellow toy hammer that Taiitsukun had hit me with before (it was probably about six feet tall). Genrou never saw it coming when I jumped up in the air and comically smashed him straight to the ground with the overly-grown plastic toy. I decided to just keep the hammer there with its victim underneath, appendages twitching from the pain as a goofy smile was plastered on his face. With strained words, he sputtered, "Damn…you…Chichiri…"

Just as I was about to reassure him of the pain he'd really go through if he ever intentionally called me a witch again, Chichiri faced me with his playful expression. "At that brings me to my next question, ya know?" My eyebrow cocked up. "How come you don't like being called a witch?"

Hearing the perfectly reasonable question almost automatically made me lose my frustration towards my flame-headed companion. "Oh! Umm…well, whenever you hear the word 'witch', it's usually associated with a negative connotation. I don't know about this place, but where I come from, a witch has a stereotypical pointy black hat and broom, and people expect them to create diabolical potions with gross ingredient and curse people rather than work for the greater good. It's always, 'let's burn the witch!' or 'let's ban the witch!'. Almost always, a witch is thought of as a bad or evil individual." Not to mention that the word "witch" was dangerously close to bandits and jerks' uncreative nickname for me "wench". So you can imagine how fed up I was with hearing any of those words. Hikaru and Kaoru sure got a kick out of it back when I was with them and I refused to stand for it then as well. "In any case, you usually don't get any negative feedback with the title of sorceress, and it has more of a powerful tone to it, don't'cha think?" I gave Genrou the evil eye as he remained one with the ground. "And I'd appreciate it if people where to label to me with the preferred title thank you very much."

In an instant, Genrou threw away the hammer and got up completely back on his feet—a blazing fire could be seen in his eyes from his sudden, yet perfectly understandable, rage. He shouted out, "Aki! Truth er dare?"

Surprised that he wasn't grilling me for completely owning him with a toy hammer, I gave my response in a rather blasé tone to show that his newfound anger hadn't gotten to me. Hell, I should have been the one who was upset—he persisted on calling me an undesirable name and was punished for it. Justice had been served. Deciding to humor him, I replied with, "Dare."

Smirking evilly, he pointed at me. "I dare ya ta go a whole day without usin' yer powers! One. Whole. Day." Part of me wanted to laugh at his dare and ask if he was serious, but the unfaltering look in his eye told me that he was completely serious and expected me to forsake my well-deserved powers for twenty-four hours. I mean, does he know me? Like I was ever going to do something as stupid as that. Thinking that I could break him by glaring at him long enough, maybe I'd get him to change his mind and realize how much of a moronic dare he was expecting me to execute. His eyes read in bold letters the word "revenge", making it clear that he was really only doing this to get back at me for impaling him with a toy hammer (in my opinion, he's lucky that I used a toy and not the actual thing).

Sighing, I closed my eyes and thought to myself, how petty is this?Opening one of my eyes back up, I expressed my answer by saying, "No deal."

With his temper on the rise, he gritted his teeth as anger veins appeared where his temple was. "Ya don't have a choice—it's the rules of the game."

"When it's a matter of life or death, then the dare becomes null in void." Opening the other eye back up, I continued while still acting rather relaxed, "I can't not use my powers—you understand."

His stance shifted into a defensive one as he held up his fists with resentment. "Look, ya can't just go around bendin' the rules of the game fer yer own pleasure. Ya told us the rules and ya have to go by 'em just like we do. Besides that, ya shouldn't be so damn dependent on those powers of yers all the time!"

I chuckled as my own annoyance for the topic was starting to become apparent. "Yeah…Okay, first of all, you're only daring me to do this 'cause you're sour about getting a little boo-boo on your head for calling me a witch—which is completely justified on my part. Second of all, you're not from where I come from and know nothing of my culture, for all you know, I could be holding out on a bunch of the rules 'n stuff and just giving you simple ones to follow. And lastly," by this point, I was up out of my seat wagging my finger in his face, "my powers are here for me to use and not disown—so I have every right to use them how I want and when I want without any confirmation from you sir." Seeing as how he was going to give a retort, I showed my palm in front of his face to prevent him from speaking. "After having my powers sealed for seventeen years, I have every liberty to use them and will not allow some punk bandit who thinks he knows better to tell me the most effective way that he thinks I should utilize my special abilities." Sitting back down in my seat I crossed my arms. "And so if you didn't get any of that, let me summarize it by saying that your dare is stupid and that I won't go through with it." Sure, some might say that I was getting upset over nothing, but I really wasn't. With all the crappy things that happened in my life, my powers have been the one good thing that has remained with me. Even as I was forced to leave friends behind and accept that I'd never see them again, I was at least certain that I had something good that would constantly be with me. For once I was in control of something—for once, I had the freedom to enjoy something that was my own and wouldn't fade away. So maybe to him it was just some meaningless dare, but to me, it meant turning my back on a precious gift—and that wasn't worth it, not even for a seemingly short twenty-four hours.

I had no desire to jeopardize our new friendship because of some insignificant game, but I needed him to understand just how important my powers were to me.

It didn't really seem like he was quite getting it though…

Recovering from my intentionally sharp speech, he retorted, "You attacked me with your goddamn mallet because o' this game, so you should be willin' ta make some sacrifices."

Starting to believe that he was a lost cause, I groaned in frustration as I pinched the space in between my eyes. "Look, you didn't have to go through with Chichiri's dare—and my assumption is probably right that Chichiri dared you to call me a witch or something along those lines. With games like this it's important for one to use some common sense. If someone dared you to jump off of a bridge into a pool of water containing deadly, man-eating piranha and sharks, would' ja do it?" Knowing him, he probably would go through with a dare like that—thinking that he wouldn't be manly if he backed down. Maybe a bit of this argument was unfair since I should have been partially mad at Chichiri for giving Genrou the dare. But once again, the subject of him being able to reject the dare was still in the air, so he could have chosen to not call me a witch. For all I knew, Chichiri could have been testing Genrou, wondering if he'd actually go through with it—or perhaps he just set up the situation simply to ask me why I didn't like being called a witch. Regardless of all that, Genrou went through with it and suffered the consequences.

In the background of our continuous bickering, I swore that I could hear Chichiri talking to himself or some invisible audience by saying, "Things were going so well…The two of them had been cooperating so nicely and now they've regressed and started fighting again, ya know?"

Neither of us acknowledged what he was saying considering the argument persisted. "You've seen the things that can pop out of this maze—it'd be suicide to give up my powers for that long."

"Well that's why you have Chichiri 'n I ta protect ya."

"Thanks for the offer and all, but the only protecting of Aki there's gonna be is by Aki herself." I huffed. "I don't want to have to depend on anyone else—I'd rather rescue myself." Which always suited me just fine. I really wasn't to sound like some kind of bitch, but I didn't want others to get hurt because of the danger I tended to attract way too often. As long as I was able to protect myself, then others wouldn't have to suffer in trying to make sure that I stayed safe. Even if my physical abilities weren't all that great, I wasn't some wounded animal on the side of the road that required a bunch of attention and TLC. No, I was strong and I made sure that people knew and respected that. But mostly I just wanted them to not worry about me so that they could focus on staying alive themselves…

He growled from hearing my words. "We're supposed ta be friends Aki. We agreed to watch each other's backs!"

"Exactly! So how the hell do you expect me to do that if you dare me to not use my freakin' powers?" At this point, you could practically see the line of static frustration being exchanged between the two of us—it seemed like that whole issue could have been volleyed back and forth for quite a while. The whole "Truth or Dare" game was definitely getting a bit too out of hand.

Before another set of "pleasantries" were exchanged, Chichiri finally decided to make a move by slamming both of his hands on our heads in order to get our attention. To my surprise, he used enough force to cause the both of us to twitch from discomfort. "I'm gonna settle this right here and now, ya know?" His sudden interruption obligated the two of us to shut up and listen up to what the rationally diplomatic monk had to say. First, he faced Genrou. "You can't ask Aki to do something like that since it's her only line of defense against enemies—magic is her survival, ya know?" Feeling an uncharacteristically childish urge, I stuck my tongue out at the flame-headed bandit. He then faced me. "You don't have to stop using your powers, but considering our friends' words here—it would probably be a good idea to learn other ways to defend yourself just in case something happens that makes you unable to use your powers, ya know?" Rustling the hair on both of our heads, he added with a cheery smile, "Does that make sense to you two?"

Still shooting daggers with our eyes, we both reluctantly said, "Yeah…"

"Well it's good that you two agree on something, ya know?"

As soon as he released our heads, the two of us sat back down in our seats with our arms crossed, refusing to look at each other.

"Stubborn," he spouted out.

I scoffed. "Impossible."

Chichiri let out a heavy sigh followed by a sweat drop—arms dangling down in hopelessness. "I thought you two were friends, ya know?"

Almost instantly, we both snapped our heads towards him and responded with a loud and confident, "We are!"

"Well you two have one of the most interesting friendships I've ever seen, ya know?"

All of a sudden, my head started to spin, the brief distortion of the world and light-headedness almost causing me to fall over. Something was off. Although the dizziness was short lived, I knew there had been an abrupt shift of energy in the air. The feeling was really eating at me—it felt like one of those high-pitched white noises were etched into my brain, inducing a headache and attempting to either screw with my senses or warn me of something. The more I thought about it, the more I had realized that my whole body was reacting to whatever this was. A subtle and compelling vibration was literally pulsating through my silver veins—almost like something was calling out to me and only my body was able to sense it.

"Do—do you guys feel that?" I asked after the initial shock had dispersed.

Genrou gave me a blank look. "Feel what?" Feverishly scanning the surrounding area, I wondered to myself whether or not he was bluffing about not being able to feel anything.

The blue-haired monk smoothly checked the air, attempting to investigate the phenomenon. "Yes, I do feel it, ya know? I wonder what it is…"

"What?" Genrou jumped out of his seat in irritated surprise. "How come you guys can sense somethin' and I'm completely in the dark?" Huh, that is only magic users are more acute to things like this…

With a calm tone, I said, "I'll go check it out…" Using my energy, I lifted my body up and unto the air, allowing the weightlessness to overtake me. Elevating to a high enough altitude (and for any of you asking why I didn't just fly in the first place to look for the exit to the maze, the place was surprisingly smart enough to change its topography whenever we thought that it was set one way…yeah that's right, it outsmarted us), I was able to spot a giant peculiar circular blood-red-glowing pattern edged into the ground. It looked like it was at least half a block in radius. The power emitting from it was so brilliant that it was drawing me in just by looking at it. What is that? And why do I want to go to it so badly?

Fighting the urge to just fly to it then and there, I hesitantly lowered back down to my two comrades.

"Well, what did you see?"

I shook my head. "Hard to say—it was some glowing circle, but it's kind of hard to explain the feeling that I'm getting from it…"

"Why're we waitin' around fer then?" The bandit started to march confidently in the direction of the alluring anomaly. "Let's go an' see what this thing is so that we can get on with our treasure hunt!" Treasure hunt? Is that what looking for the Sacred Blood Lily has turned into?

"I agree—we should definitely go investigate, ya know?" Even though he wasn't showing it, I could tell that Chichiri really wanted to get to that circle just as much as I did. It seemed to be pulling us in and neither of us seemed like we'd be satisfied until we reached it.

After about fifteen minutes, we finally reached our destination—the edge of the mysteriously glowing pattern. At that close proximity, my whole being was just itching to step inside—I knew that I should have been more concerned about it, but for some reason, any and all of the formulated possible consequences just floated out of my brain.

"What is it? Seems like some kinda magic thing." Genrou faces Chichiri and I who continued to stare at the glowing brilliance. "Right up yer guys' alley, right?" His question had processed, but neither Chichiri nor I acknowledged it. All we wanted to do was step closer into its center.

"Perhaps…we should… go inside, ya know?" Chichiri's voice seemed distant almost like his voice was playing on automatic without any emotion.

I spoke with a similarly sleepy tone. "Yes…that would seem like the smartest thing to do…" Simultaneously, the two of us stepped inside, causing the circle's red radiance to flare slightly before returning back to its original luminosity.

As we both walked in parallel rhythm, Genrou's almost muffled voice rang out from behind. "Wait! What're you guys doin'? Ya can't just walk in there without knowin' what yer dealin' with! Hey!"

My response to him was monotone and brief. "It's fine…nothing bad will happen…"

"Aki!" Attempting to reach us, he ran full-speed towards the mysterious abnormality only to be violently repelled back by some electromagnetic barrier. The moment the painful electrocution surged through his body, his sudden sense of alarm broke through to me, automatically breaking me out of the trance.What…happened?

Blinking a few times in panic, I turned around to face my now sizzling friend who was on the ground, struggling to get up only when he was moments away from passing out. "Genrou!" I shouted out. Just as I was about to race to his side, the circle reacted to my outburst, realizing that it no longer had me under its hypnotism. Chichiri, however, still seemed unfazed. Crackling bolts of red electricity raced through the glowing formation, keeping our feet magnetized to the ground trapping the two of us inside. For some reason, it felt like my energy was being attacked directly, causing me to instantly feel both restrained and physically drained at the same time. My energy seemed to be flowing further and further away from my very being, almost to a point where I felt cold and empty. Wha—what is this feeling?What's happening to me?

The ground underneath us started to suck inwards towards the center, emulating a black hole. With the ominous circle collapsing in on itself there seemed to be no escape in sight. Chichiri was still stuck in the trance, Genrou was pretty much out of commission, and I couldn't move my body—making the whole situation seem pointless to even try and fight it. After that, the rest just seemed like a rapid blur. I wasn't prepared to be sucked in like a vacuum, but, as with fate (or the universe) it didn't wait until I was even remotely ready. The only part of the situation that was able to register with my brain was that I had been sucked into the black hole—being able to see the light of the outside realm for only a few seconds longer until my whole world went black.

---

Realizing that all of the commotion had finally settled, I sat there, completely mesmerized from all of the events that had just happened—I still couldn't quite grasp onto everything. How was it that something that had occurred so fast could be that impactful? It didn't seem like I was in the maze anymore. Instead, I was in some dark, rocky space and the only natural light I had to guide me was the silver veins that branched along the surface of my body. But, for some unexplainable reason, the brightness had dimmed considerably allowing me to only see a couple feet in front of me somewhat clearly. In fact, the light seemed to be lacking in life altogether, reminding me of a candle that was about to fizzle out (oh gosh, I really hoped it wouldn't fizzle out).

Nonetheless, it was my only source of light and it was the only way that I could tell that Chichiri was on the ground next to me, unconscious. There was a smaller, glowing, scarlet circle reflecting the giant one from before on his forehead. And before the questions about that had arisen, I realized that the same sign was on my forehead too—characterized by a warm and tingly feeling that sent a slight static shock to my hand whenever I tried to touch it. But this peculiar labeling wasn't what shocked me the most—it was the fact that his face looked completely different as he slept. And I don't mean something like how much more innocent or whatever he looked—no, I mean he looked really different. The whole structure of his face seemed to have changed. It was more angular and looked less childish and fox-like—he actually looked his age (which, once again I was assuming was around early twenties…most likely). His most prominent feature seemed to be a rather harsh looking scar than ran across and over his left eye. I couldn't help but wonder if he could even use that eye…by the severity of it, probably not…Why does he look so different now? Is this the same Chichiri? Or is the maze playing another trick on me?

It was time that I tried waking him up again.

"Chichiri…Chichiri! Wake up!" Attempting to use the shake-down method, I was convinced that I saw his eye flutter a few times as I persisted with breaking him of his unconsciousness. In the middle of my efforts, something caught my eye. Reaching down to the other side of his body, I picked up what seemed like some sort of mask. Investigating further, my eyes widened at the face that was plastered on it. It was…Chichiri's face! I mean, the one Genrou and I were used to—his fox-like one that was almost constantly cheery looking. But why is it here? Thinking on it a bit longer, a realization suddenly hit me: whatif…this whole time, he had been wearing this mask, using magic to make it realistic, hiding his real face? That would be the only plausible explanation. If that'strue…I looked down at the sleeping companion of mine—the one I thought that I had pretty much all figured out. And now, he added a whole new level of complicated and confusing into the mix. Why would he hide himself like this?

Shaking my head, I knew that I had to focus on what I was trying to do before. Setting the mask aside, I resumed with trying to wake him up. I was tempted to touch his scar, but resisted since I didn't want him to get mad or overly sensitive about it (not to mention that that would have been a violation of personal space. Him being asleep would have made that even worse). If anyone knew about scars of the past, it was me—so I knew that he probably didn't want to talk about it. Otherwise, he wouldn't go through such lengths to hide it from everyone. So, I'd respect his wishes and focus on the task at hand.

"Chichiri! C'mon! Please wake up! Chichiri!" Feeling his body stir, a wave of relief coursed through me as he opened his eye (it seemed like I was right about him only being able to use one eye)—wait…he opened his eye? It had just occurred to me that I had never seen his eyes—er, eye—before. I was finally getting my chance. "You're okay...that's good. And I hope that you're out of the trance?"

"Aki?" Holding his head, he replied with a groggy tone. "Yeah, I'm fine, ya know? How about you?" Turning to face me, my heart did a little flip with his real (and not masked) features. The drastic increase in maturity without the mask was absolutely astounding—who would have thought that he was actually good-looking? I could actually take him a bit more seriously now! To add to all of the new findings, the small amount of light allowed me to notice that he had deep, red-brown eyes.

I guess you learn something new every day…

"Of course I'm fine." I flashed a confident smile. "In fact, I've been awake for a while now trying to get you to wake up. You were really out of it…" With every word that I had spoken, a huge chunk of me just wanted to point out his "real" face and just bombard him with questions. Bur since I hated it when people did that to me, I figured that he probably would have just wanted me to leave it alone.

"Huh, well I—" he stopped mid-sentence when I extended the mask out to give back to him. With his eye widening, he paused to see if I would probe him for answers. Instead, I silently held out my hand so that he could take back him property—it wasn't exactly my place to start diving into his past and personal life. "Oh…thank you…." Slowly taking the mask back, he stared at it a bit with a so solemn look on his face. The Chichiri that I had come to know so bubbly and cheery most of the time, and now he was surrounded by an intense atmosphere of dread. Something real bad must have happened in order to inspire him to hide behind a happy mask all the time—he must have been in pain. But all I could do was sit there and watch him sort through his thoughts. A good friend would have asked what was up with him, but that would probably get us closer than I was comfortable with. Not only that, but I might have felt compelled to give him personal information about myself since he was trusting enough to tell me his problems. Considering my situation, though, perhaps getting that close to someone wasn't all that smart—especially when I could potentially leave at any time…

So I decided to change the subject. "A lot of weird things happened back in that circle. And now we're in some dark place and I didn't want to look around until you finally came to."

When he realized that I wasn't interesting in invading his privacy, he inserted the mask back onto his face. And not a second later, some magical force fused it to his face to make it seem like the mask was his face—even the red glowing symbol burned through onto his faux forehead. Just like before, he wore the cheery, fox-like expression that never gave off any kind of depressing vibe. In fact, if I were still in the dark about this whole subject, I would have still been convinced that that really was his face. But now I know that there was more to this monk than meets the eye.

"I see. So I'm guessing that Genrou got left behind at the spot we were at last?" He asked, accepting the subject change. Eyes widening slightly, I was surprised that the status of Genrou's state didn't even occur in my mind. It kind of made me feel like a jerk… "That must be it, ya know? Then we can assume that he's fine!" He showed that cheery smile that I was so used to. Did he only feel comfortable flashing a smile with his mask? "Hey Aki, were you aware that you had a glowing seal on your head?" He pointed to my forehead.

"Huh? Oh, yeah…" When his words processed through my brain, I quickly added, "Wait—did you just say 'seal'?" That word meant that something was being restricted, but what?

Nodding, he crossed his arms and legs. "Yup. Now that I can see it more clearly, I'm pretty sure that I came across this seal in my magical studies, ya know? This is quite troublesome—"

"Stop leaving me hanging and just tell me what it's sealing!" Oh boy did I hope that it wasn't sealing what I thought it was sealing.

"Well…Your powers…" He sighed. "Your powers have been sealed, ya know? And I'm also going to assume that I have the exact same seal on me. Which means…" A sudden burst of perkiness hit him. "That we're probably in huge danger, ya know?"

My whole body froze and I could feel my throat getting choked up. In a low tone, my denial became apparent. "No way…" There's just no way! Trying to gather my energy together, I knew that something was wrong since there was no rush of adrenaline and ecstasy or even an empowering sensation that I felt whenever I controlled the elements or used a spell. I still had to try though! "Light of life, brighter than flame, let thy power gather in my hand. Lighting!"When there wasn't even a spark emerging in my palm, I tried again. "Lighting!" Still nothing. "No, no, no, no, no! This cannot be happening!" There was absolutely no way in hell that this was happening. How was this happening? That had to be why the silver veins on me were dimmed so considerably—why I felt completely drained while we were in the middle of the circle. How could the universe be that cruel—not to mention ironic? It knew I was saying all that stuff before about how important my powers were to me when I was arguing with Genrou, and then it goes off and does something like this. What. The. F&%#ing. Hell.

Facing the monk, I was a bit irritated by how relaxed he was about the whole thing. "Umm…I don't know if you've realized this, but we're kind of screwed. How can you be so calm?"

Tilting his head to the side, he answered with, "Well, I think about it like this: we're both safe, ya know? All we need to do is look for our way out and everything will be fine, ya know?" Completely collapsing to the ground, I groaned.

"I don't quite think that you grasp onto the severity of the situation Chichiri…" Reviewing my luck, I knew that it wouldn't be long until something popped out of nowhere and tried to kill me. Without my powers and in a new state of vulnerability that bet was pretty much certain. Almost every five seconds, my head would snap around in a paranoid manner thinking that something was lurking in the shadows.

He chuckled. "Oh come on, what's the worst that can happen?"

Oh God.

Even with my energy blocked away from my use, there was nothing to stop the weak, yet familiar chilling sensation that ran down my spine. It was really, really slight, but the feeling was still there. I could feel all of the blood draining from my face when the horrific thought of Shadow Maidens being nearby entered my consciousness.

It was then that about ten pairs of glowing yellow eyes surrounded the two of us completely. The sudden attack of extreme paranoia was causing me to panic and hyperventilate—silent yet rapid gasps of air were all that I was capable of manifesting from my lungs. This can't be happening! Just as my fears were about to get the best of me, I looked closer at our adversaries. They were much, much shorter than Shadow Maidens or Shadow Kissed—which were human sized. These things were more like the size of medium-sized dogs. Perhaps I was freaking out over nothing. But I can still feel the chill of their darkness. Sure, I was curious about what they were, but not curious enough to want to stick around and see what they could do.

But I had no choice. According to Taiitsukun and the male voice, it was my job to deal with any kinds of manifestations of Darkness—and I couldn't turn my back on this. Otherwise…I'd just seem weak…

"What do you think that those things are?" Chichiri asked.

Silently gulping, I told him, "A threat" then I faced him with a grimace. "Chichiri, do me a favor and never ask 'what's the worst that can happen' whenever you're around me, okay?" We couldn't exactly see what they were but thanks to the little light that my veins were able to give off, we'd know when the creatures got too close.

Before another thought could race through my head, the eyes suddenly rushed at us.

I had to stop this before it erupted into something bad—scratch that—before it erupted into something horrible.

Bringing my hands out in front of me, I thought of what kind of spell would have the biggest affect. Chichiri then bolted in front of me with his staff extended out, a mysterious force repelling the beasts back.

Looking back at me, he said, "We lost our powers, ya know? It would be best that you don't forget that." Dammit, he's right. And I almost attempted a spell.Every time something came at us, Chichiri would flip around his staff to push them out of our way with some kind of barrier consisting of light blue electricity.How can he do that without magic? I understood how he was hitting them with such precision—he was looking at their eerie, dark violet auras that traced out their odd, raggedy shape. If I never acquired the ability to see them, then I'd really have some issues.

Without warning, Chichiri turned around, grabbed my hand, and bolted the hell out of there.

"Don't stop Aki!" Without even looking back, the two of us went deeper and deeper into the cave-like place we had been suddenly thrust into. The thing that ate at me the most was that I had to be saved. Having to rely on someone just felt so damn low. Even though it was stupid of me to forget our predicament, I never asked him to save me.

With my lungs burning and legs giving out, the two of us finally stopped when we thought we were far enough. He released my hand as I found a rocky wall to support my body up against to pant vigorously attempting to find my breath. Coughing violently, I held my arm up to grab my chest, doing my best to calm myself down before I developed some type of attack. Oh, and if I didn't mention it before, I have mild asthma (or at least I think I do, my neglectful parents never took me to a doctor to find out) which would definitely contribute to my weaker physical stature. Sliding down to the ground my breathing finally slowed.

"Are you alright?" Chichiri looked down at me with concern.

Through gasps, I reassured him. "Yeah…" Getting the feeling that he would keep on asking about my health, I asked him, "How were you able to do all that stuff you did back there without your powers—your chi?"

"Oh…that." Holding up his golden staff, the rings on it jingled a bit. "This staff was enchanted with sacred abilities, ya know? And since it's detached from my person, it's not affected by the seal. Anything unholy that comes into contact with it is instantly repelled, ya know?" His face fell a bit. "Unfortunately, it wouldn't have been enough to defeat those creatures back there, ya know?" Well that's never good news… "We really need to find a way out of here so that we can get our powers back, ya know? Looking closer at where we're at, it seems like we're underground somewhere. So all we have to do is make it back to the surface, ya know?" He wants us to just…run away?

Still coughing a bit, I showed him a serious expression. "Those Shadow Minions (yes I know, it's a creative name) are still in here with us. If we don't take them out now, they'll just get worse." Taking a few more seconds to painfully cough, I continued with, "It's my job to deal with them and leaving them alone could be disastrous."

"Look Aki, it's admirable that you want to do that, but you need to remember that we're still in the maze, ya know? This whole thing is probably one of the trials that we have to go through." I failed to see how knowing that we were still in the maze was significant to taking down Shadow Minions. As if reading my thoughts he told me, "You say that it's your job to take our those creatures, but what if these specific creatures were formulated by the maze and aren't actually the things that you have to defeat? That is most likely what's going on, ya know?"

I shook my head. No, that chill was all too real. Even if we were still in that twisted, universe-formulated maze, nothing could mistake that feeling I had whenever my enemies of darkness showed up. "Those creatures are capable of horrible things…" Gradually standing up, I deeply breathed in and out to make sure that my lungs were back to normal. "I'm the only one who has what it takes to win against them, so I have to—"

"No you don't!" His voice had suddenly become very demanding with response to my words. Backing off a bit, he added, "At the moment, I'm sorry, but you can't face them, ya know? The smartest way to go at it would be to make our way out of here so that we can break the seal, ya know?" With an even more understanding tone, a small smile played on his lips. "And if you really want, you can come back down here and deal with them after we get our powers back, ya know?" I absolutely couldn't stand it, but there was no choice but to agree with him. All I could do was hope that the damage caused by them wouldn't get too bad—luckily no communities of people lived underground. But other than that…When the hell did Chichiri become so serious and calculating?Ever since his mask came off, his personality seems to have changed a bit.

Or maybe it was just me.

For what seemed like hours the two of us wandered around the dark, eerie cave wishing to navigate our way out. I'd be more hopeful about our little trek if I actually thought that we were getting closer to the exit. But something told me that we may have been getting farther into the caverns rather than finding our way out. I couldn't help but wonder how this whole thing was working. Before, we were in a leafy maze under a constant night sky. And now, Chichiri and I seemed to be in some cave—probably underground since we were sucked downwards back in the circle. So does that mean that the mazes twistedness still applied? Did being under the maze still mean that we were in it? And since we were progressively making our way to who knows where, did that mean that we were getting farther from the spot in the world above that sucked is in? Or is this whole trail we're walking on just a sub-dimension that is still in the same place? So many questions—confusing ones at that—and there was no one there to answer. So we had to hope that answers would come into light for us. Until then…we were lost.

If only I still had my powers—then I'd be able to blast a hole somewhere so that we could get the hell out of here!

Every now and then, we were forced to hide from some Shadow Minions that happened to be passing by. Lucky for us, these particular creatures of darkness didn't seem to have all that great of eyesight. So whenever the familiar, yet weak chill hit me, we had to halt in our tracks and breathe very lightly so that they wouldn't find us. If we felt that they were too close, we had to quickly drop to the ground and not make a sound. Because my veins were a dead giveaway (even though they were dimmed, they still emitted some light), Chichiri veiled me with his cloak to make sure that I wouldn't be the cause of our detection.

That whole routine pretty much went down pretty much for the whole day—and I hated every minute of it. Having to hide from my enemies—it was cowardly and disgraceful. Damn this stupid seal! If only I had my powers I could put an end to all this!

"If you didn't dwell on what you didn't have for so long, then it wouldn't make you feel so bad, ya know?"

Blinking a few times, I brought my head up. "Huh?"

"Weren't you just thinking about what you'd be able to do if you had your powers?"

"Umm…yeah…" My eyes trailed off to the side in annoyance. Man I'm starting to hate it when he does that.

He chuckled. "I'm sorry, but your thoughts tend to be really entertaining, ya know? I found that it lightens my mood to hear your commentary on things, ya know?"

I grimaced. "I'm not sure if I should be flattered or offended."

"Don't worry. I don't do it all the time, ya know? If I did, that would be an invasion of privacy! I really only do it when strategy is required or if I'm bored, ya know!" Which could honestly be at any time.

The conversation was cut short when an even stronger chilling sensation overcame me. My more apparent and irritably, newly formed paranoia was beginning to let me believe that this time it was actually the more deadly Shadow Maidens. But upon further inspection, I realized that the feeling wasn't quite drastic enough to reach the intensity that those dark souls brought along. But this was different than the puny, yet increasingly harmful Shadow Minions (or maybe Heartless would be a better name for them. If I gave the base name "Shadow" to every manifestation of darkness I came across, then my expression of creativity may have been threatened).

Frightening and ferocious howls mixed with roars could be heard—a crescendo of horror from behind our present location. Chichiri didn't need to ask me if I sensed them because he could hear our assassins loud and clear. Their stampeding footsteps were getting closer as larger yellow eyes attempted to track us down. Closing my eyes, I could tell by the shape of their auras that they looked like giant demonic lion-dogs with sharp, flesh tearing teeth. And if they really were dogs then they probably relied on their sense of smell rather than their eyes to find their prey.

Crap.

Chichiri grabbed my wrist and dashed further into the unknown so that we could escape. I still hadn't completely recovered from all the running of the day, so I wasn't sure if I could sprint at that moment. Chichiri wouldn't' have let me stop though—even if I tried to slow down, I didn't completely doubt that he would just drag me on the ground. Okay, I knew he wouldn't do that, but still…

It didn't take long before Chichiri spotted a tight opening in the walls beside us. Immediately halting, he urged me inside first, uncomfortably squeezing me through the crack. On the other side was a tiny enclosed area that was only as big as a small closet. When he forced himself through, he didn't hesitate to take back his cloak and droop it over his staff. Then he perched it in the cracked opening to hide us from our adversaries.

For about ten minutes we sat in the small space, extremely quiet to wait for the hounds and Heartless to pass by. I was truly fascinated by the amazing light-green glowing rocks that made up the smaller cave. Never before had I seen rocks glow and if this had been at any other time with a special person, this could have been a really romantic spot. If it weren't for the cloak hiding the light from the radiant rocks and the staff to ward away anything "unholy", we would have been in deep trouble.

This whole situation was so ridiculous. Me, Akimoto Tsubaki hiding from a bunch of demonic jerks—boy did that piss me off. I just wasn't use to not being able to protect myself—and the only person I ever allowed to take care of me had been my older sister Kajou. Even after she died still had the dark ring to protect me, so I was never, ever defenseless. And more recently, my powers had been awakened, ensuring that my enemies wouldn't be able to harm me without a violent struggle in return. Nothing had been able to seriously harm me—my advantages guaranteed that my life would be preserved, so I never really knew what it was like to be afraid…or it was more accurate to say that I wasn't used to fear. Not being able to take action against things that threatened me was also a completely foreign concept. The reason that I had such a confident outward personality was because one, I didn't want people to think that I was a hesitant weakling, and two, I knew that I would always be able to take care of myself.

Kajou had told me to be strong and never show weakness to anyone except her—saying that I could only rely on her for safety and comfort. But without her around, I only had myself. And that was just fine—as long as people knew that I wasn't someone to mess with. I had promised her after she died that I would never be weak or admit defeat or show anyone that I lacked strength. It was against who I was…

To be helpless was completely unbearable, unnatural, and humiliating. Call me conceited or whatever, but a while ago, I figured that I developed something called an "immortality complex" where I believe that I would always have the advantage and never die. Sure, I might have been really arrogant to think in that manner, but I couldn't doubt that part of my consciousness was in fact stuck in that state of mind—especially since the complex proved true more often than not. It was probably because of my over-confidence that the universe loved to toy with me as much as it did—it was trying to test how much it would take until I finally broke.

The only real time that I experienced true fear was when it came to being submerged in water. That one time when I was a kid and those horrible boys tried to drown me was the only moment in my life where Kajou almost got there too late and my dark ring only made things worse. Water was the substance that defied my immortality complex and almost took my life. So whenever I was underneath it, I freaked out and recalled that awful memory…

As we sat in that cave, backed into a corner, Kajou wasn't there, the dark ring was gone, and my powers were once again sealed. Usually what I lacked in physical strength (and boy did I lack), I made up for in special abilities. And without those, I had absolutely nothing to protect myself. I hated being the damsel—I mean…I saved the damsels, and everyone else! It was I who rescued other people and got myself out of serious situations. I don't rely on people to save me—I don't do helpless!

When you're Akimoto Tsubaki, the worst thing you could possibly be is weak and defenseless. There were creatures out there that were hell-bent on killing me, or worse, make me one of them. In the worst case scenario, I'd end up losing the life I thought was just starting or I'd be consumed in eternal darkness—eternally wishing for a death that would never come. Now, I couldn't stop them from coming, I couldn't call forth light or any of the elements. Those creatures were close enough before, but now, I was free game.

My body started to shake feverishly as fear overwhelmed me. I'm not immortal at all! Genrou was probably right about me finding another means to protect myself. Where was my surge of confidence? Being powerless and vulnerable had brought me closer to death and I wasn't even hurt yet.

I'm sorry Kajou…

Fear is a horrible feeling. My confidence in my powers—my strength—has kept me safe all my life in the form of multiple, indestructible, metaphorical shells that protected the fragile being I truly was.

I didn't expect it when Chichiri's arm unexpectedly wrapped around my shoulders, causing me to instantly tense up with his touch. "Everything will be okay, ya know? I'll keep you safe, and I'm sure that if Genrou were here, he'd do the same thing, ya know? So don't worry!" But! I don't need you to keep me safe...I shouldn't need anyone... He flashed me a cheery smile, and with that mask, the atmosphere could have easily lightened up. But…

It doesn't feel right having to depend on someone other than Kajou.

"I can imagine how weird it feels to become the one who has to depend on others, ya know? But you have to realize that sometimes it's necessary and accepting it is just fine, ya know? There are those out there who care about you and want to keep you safe." Avoiding his gaze, I couldn't quite believe what he had said. No one's willing to put their lives on the line for mine—there would be no benefit to it…not for them. That was why I never trusted my life in the hands of someone else…there was just no guarantee that they'd come through to me. I had to be strong since others couldn't do it for me. And I never blamed them or expected them to—it wouldn't have been fair to hate people for wanting to protect themselves instead of me. Most people do want to stay alive after all. That's just the way things are.

Bringing me closer to him, he gave my shoulder a slight squeeze as a means of comfort. "You know, it's okay to be scared."

Giving an unconvincing scoff, I told him, "I'm not scared…Once I get my powers back," My fists clenched. "I'm going to go medieval on those shadow bastards." Confident words. So why can't I stop shaking? Even if I am afraid, I'll never admit it.

When he found that I wouldn't say anymore, he suggested something. "Hey, why don't you sing for me? Back at that lake when you sang, I knew you had real talent, ya know?" His sudden recommendation threw my head for a loop, causing me to look at him skeptically. "C'mon! It'll make you feel better, ya know?"

Cocking my eyebrow up, I looked at him in disbelief for proposing something like that in such a serious moment. "I don't really want to…"

Rocking me back and forth, he urged me on playfully. "C'mon! We have nothing else to pass the time with, ya know?"

Turning away, I couldn't help but grin, thus raising his hope up. But then my expression turned smug, "Sorry dude, but no free concerts." Then I proceeded to pretend as if I were disappointed in him. "Taking advantage of the situation like that. How sneaky for someone who is supposed to be a monk~"

His head dropped in shame with a small sheepish smile I noticed on his lips. "You think I was trying to be sneaky? That really wasn't my intentions, ya know?" A chuckle escaped from me, even in our situation there were still ways of me appearing to be stronger than I was. And Chichiri made that easy sometimes. In fact, I felt better with him around—even more so while knowing that he was doing his best to cheer me up. It made traveling through the fact that we were sitting ducks a little easier on me. Although not so much easier as to totally distract me from the reality of we were freakin'. Sitting. Ducks.

Just as my fear was starting to calm down, the sound of rustling rocks and dirt could be heard from in back of us. The two of us turned around in alarm to discover that something was trying to dig its way through. It was probably those Hellhound things from before! How did they find us? Both of us talked as quietly as possible! Unless they knew where we were the whole time. After all, all they had to do was avoid the sacred staff's abilities. So of course they went around. And now they were trying to dig their way through.

Dammit.

With those dogs focusing on us from behind, their buddies must have gotten the hint since they were starting to ram their heads into the opening with the staff there. If they managed to knock the staff over, we were toast. Chichiri tried to hold his staff up, but both he and I were distracted by the cracks that were forming under is. Not a second later, the two of us fell straight through the ground. Landing straight on my butt (as I always seem to do when I freefell), Chichiri however, landed nimbly on his feet, cloak and staff in hand. It looked like we ended up in a huge cave of similarly glowing rocks from before. There was no time to marvel in the beauty of it since the Hellhounds decided to make their hasty appearances.

Backed up against a wall, Chichiri placed himself a few feet in front of me to fend them off. From all sides, both Heartless and Hellhounds charged at him—claws extended and fangs bared. It didn't take long for them to recover from the staff's swings. A few times, the dogs managed to bite down on the weapon, but gave up when the holy power was too much. The only means of defense/offense the monk had was his staff that was enchanted with sacred abilities. But like he said before, he wouldn't be able to hold them off for very long, much less defeat them.

Why was he doing that? Things shouldn't have been that way. It shouldn't have been me being the one protected!

With one hand, he proceeded with using his staff to defend himself. But why only one hand? He'd never be able to keep them away unless he put all of his force into it! And you could tell he was struggling, with how his body jolted whenever one of the beasts impacted his weapon and repelled off. With his free hand, Chichiri brought it up to his chest and formed some sort of sign. What's he doing?

Glancing back at me for only a moment, he gave me a reassuring smile. "I'm gonna get us out of this, so just sit tight!"

What? "But...how? We can't use our magic!"

He turned his attention back to our enemies. "There is always a way out of a spell, ya know? It's just that sometimes, you have to be a bit more resourceful and creative in order to figure out what it is. Plus..." Then he paused for dramatic effect, leaving me hanging in suspense. Plus? "Plus, magic is part of who we are. Nothing and no one can really take it away. If we stay in the mindset that we can't do anything about it, we're only giving into what they want, ya know?"

Even through all he was doing, the monk stood firm and didn't allow what was happening to ruin his concentration. Chichiri...even though his powers were sealed, as well as mine, was actually trying to break whatever was on us. I hadn't even thought of trying that—believing that with the access to our magic blocked, it was a lost cause. He...really was more advanced than me. And he was better at staying calm in these types of situations. I may have looked tough on the outside but...what good was that if I couldn't handle situations like this?

Stop it Aki! This is no time to be feeling self-pity! I heard another me telling myself in my mind. Chichiri isn't alone in this! He's counting on you too!

A sudden rush of memories began to play through my brain, but they were so clear and vivid…like a movie…The events of my life not only since beginning this journey, but also of my experiences as a kid, it was imperative that I never backed out, that I never showed a hint of fear. But...I had felt fear, even if I didn't show it, I still had human emotions. Even so, I had fought through different levels of fear, and I made it through them. As far as I was concerned this was just another test.

Another test...

That's right!

You are still Akimoto Tsubaki! Are you really going to let some shadow creatures and some maze ruin the image you have built for yourself over the years?

Hell no.

Something finally snapped in my brain.

What was I thinking?

My powers, if nothing else, was truly the one thing that I was both proud and confident in. I could always count on them and they made me that much more confident about the things I was able to do. Those memories reminded me of how even when things seemed rough, I showed my enemies no fear and no mercy. And even before my powers were awakened, there was no doubt that I had the strength to get through anything. I may have been insecure when it came to relationships with other people and may even have some trust issues, but one thing was certain:

I Am. Not. Weak.

Aside from the fact that the universe enjoyed playing with me too much to allow my demise to be so quick and easy, I refused to accept that after everything I had been through, something as personal and highly developed as my powers could just be taken away. They were mine to command and no two-bit seal was strong enough to take what was rightfully mine. Kajou may have been lost to me, and the disappearance of the dark ring was a complete mystery, but my powers belonged to me and there was no way in Hell that something as evolved as them could be tamed by anyone else but me.

As I stood there watching Chichiri dissect through every nook and cranny of this spell on us, his fatigue was beginning to show.

Closing my eyes, I concentrated real hard to find the core of my energy. Wind…you're supposed to be my element—my greatest ally against all those who oppose me. You're not allowed to leave me. You belong to me and I demand that you do what I say—only I can command you.

Taiitsukun's words from when my journey began rang through my head.

"Foolish girl! One of the basic rules of magic is that you have to control it, don't let it control you. If you want something to happen, don't hesitate! There should be no question as to what comes out of that wand. You should never be surprised. Know what you want, then make it happen."

It didn't take much more thinking for me to make up my mind. Without another thought, I dashed in front of Chichiri just as another wave of Hellhounds and Heartless were about to charge. He was hard at work trying to break the seal, I couldn't allow him to get hit any more.

"A-Aki—" 'I still need a few more moments!' He telepathically told me.

I nodded back at him, then faced forward. "I'd just like to point something out to you guys…I'm not helpless…" Bringing my hands to my heart and closing my eyes, I searched for the epicenter of my power. "…and I'm not a damsel…So…" According to their auras, they leaped towards me with their teeth and claws aimed at my person.

Just then, my whole body pulsated strongly only once, followed by a quick, blinding red flash. The burning effect of the seal centered on my forehead literally peeled off, relieving me of the uncomfortable sensation as the actual, tiny seal itself proceeded to float directly in front of my line of sight. And as if someone snapped their fingers as to switch off a light, the pesky little thing disappeared without a trace.

He...he did it! Chichiri broke the seal! A rush of adrenaline suddenly coursed through my being—I was finally beginning to feel empowered, feeling similarly to the way I felt when I first awakened my powers and how I felt in every new stage in my magical development. It was a pleasant sensation that flowed through my veins—literally. The silver lines on my body brightened gradually until their illumination was so brilliant that it was almost blinding. Even my aura—which was the same silver color as the veins on me—had so much of an energetic boost that it started to manifest into plain view, for everyone to see.

Chichiri then shouted out. "Aki, if you're going to do something, do it now!"

With a sudden burst of energy, I stretched my arms out wide, and then yelled, "Back off! Gigano Saisu!" Swiftly bringing my arms towards each other and crossing them like scissors, a larger, orange-tinted version of the Wind-blast crescent-shaped attack shot out and attacked the monsters head-on, knocking them all clear across the cave and into the wall of the other side. I didn't give them a chance to recover since another spell came to mind. "Wind that blows across eternity, gather in my hands and become my strength!" Like I know it always will be…Emulating a cross-bow, a powerful collection of Wind gathered around my arm and manifested as a single arrow, the tip followed the contour of my arm. Finishing the spell, I yelled, "Bram Gush!" Releasing the arrow, it flew straight towards the already wounded creatures with incredible speed. The moment it reached them, it burst open on contact, shredding all of them to pieces.

Panting vigorously, my body sank to the ground on my knees. The silver veins on my body dimmed back to their original glow—a smile of relief wiped across my face. Thank God it's over!

Chichiri appeared from behind, and placed a hand on my shoulder (somehow, his mask was already back on his face. Sneaky one, isn't he?). "You did good Aki."

Talking through short bursts of breath, I told him, "Yeah, well...you did better." Then, with a slight blush on my cheeks, I said in almost a whisper, "Thank you for being my rock Chichiri..." Of course, with that mask, he couldn't help but look cheerful from what I told him. But I knew, almost for a fact, that Chichiri's real lips were smiling as well. Taking a deep breath in, I let it out in exasperation. Then I shook off the tender moment and ascended from my spot on the ground, dusting myself off. "So, are we finally ready to leave this Hell-hole?"

Nodding, he returned with a separate question. "Do you think that Genrou's still up there? I mean, there's always the chance that he went on ahead, ya know?"

Looking upwards, I tried to focus on our bandit friend. Then I gave a confident answer. "Yeah, he's still up there…" I could feel his presence—the mysterious bond we shared still allowed me to find him even though we were in some maze-formulated sub-space. He was worried and anxious about us, not to mention exhausted from trying to dig his way down to us (but never making any progress). A part of me couldn't help but feel real warm on the inside knowing that he was such a dedicated friend to work tirelessly to get us back.

Chichiri's smile never faltered. "I think that he's up there too, ya know?" I really appreciated the comfort that he gave me back in the cave—even if I didn't accept it for the majority of the time. He really was a kind person and a really great friend. If I had a big brother, would he be just like Chichiri? Was that what it was like to have an older male sibling? Well that was how he was starting to look to me…like an older brother who actually wanted to look out for me and guide me in the right direction. Kajou would have scolded me against feeling that way, but I couldn't help it. I knew that I still couldn't completely trust him—forming that kind of bond too quickly would end up disastrous in the end. But just like I did in the past, I fooled my brain into thinking that this was a genuine friendship that would last. There were still some mysteries surrounding him, but I respected them since he respected me so much. After all, everyone has their secrets and things that they aren't proud of. Hell, I know that I do.

"Hey Aki? Do you mind keeping the whole issue with the mask a secret? It's just that—"

Holding my hand up to him, I interrupted his sentence. "No need to explain yourself, I understand. And I'll gladly keep it a secret. But enough of that," looking around, I added, "I'm ready to get out of here." Taking a deep breath in, I shouted, "Hey maze! We passed your damn test! So release us already!"

"Umm…Aki? I don't think that will—" A portal suddenly appeared above us, showing the night sky of the maze that we were surprisingly beginning to miss. Giving him an "I told ya so" look, Chichiri scratched the side of his cheek. "Well I'll be damned, ya know?" In the blink of an eye, we were standing in the field where the giant glowing red circle was—the one that took us down to that deathly underground world.

The seal instantly broke with our release, the tingle from the sign on our foreheads fading away. Reaching up to touch the spot, I was delighted to know that there was no static shock repelling me away.

"Chichiri! Aki!" Genrou's apprehensive voice came up from behind us, causing us to instinctively turn around and face him. Running up to us, I thought that he was going to give us a warm welcome back with open arms. It wasn't a complete shock to me when he decided to roar at us instead. "Where the hell were you two? Do you have any idea how worried I was? I thought you two were dead or—or worse!"

Chichiri held up his hands in defense. "We apologize, ya know? It's not like we had a choice though."

Chuckling assuredly, I told him, "You should've known better than to be worried about us. Besides, you should have more faith in my fantastical magical powers."

"Will you get serious about this?" Apparently my little remark didn't compel him to lighten up. "I know how you were feelin' when you were away. You were scared, I don't know why, but ya were." He growled. "I might not have the whole story, but if you were afraid, then I know that somethin' real bad musta happened to make ya feel that horrible. What happened?" He really sounds like was worried about me…I shook my head in disbelief. But that's not possible…Either way, I couldn't tell him about my moment of weakness. Sure the bond allowed him to feel what I felt, but as long as he was in the dark I didn't have to mention my disgraceful vulnerability.

Chichiri decided to answer instead. "It wasn't anything she couldn't handle, ya know?" Flashing him a smile, I sent a message to him, and I wasn't sure if he read it or not. Thank you.

Smirking mischievously I said, "You know, it's not really like you to care so much Genrou. What's with the sudden change of heart?" When his face went a slight red instead of an answer, my face softened into a warm smile. "Whatever. But really, I'm fine. Oh, and one more thing," Returning him the favor from earlier, I flicked his forehead in a similar force as his.

Grabbing his head, he shouted out, "Hey! What the hell?"

"You were wrong before."

"About what?"

"My powers are completely reliable and it's not necessary for me to learn other means of defending myself. The elements are on my side and they won't let me down." Smiling confidently, I held my wand up. "I'll keep using magic 'til my heart's content. After all, it is my birthright." In a flash of light, my wand broke up into an uncountable amount of tiny silver fragments. Circling my body a few times, each one of them managed to make their way back into my body. It was good seeing you again old friend. Thank you. Guessing that Genrou was about to give a rebuttal, I finished by telling him, "However, I will consider taking your advice about broadening my defensive and offensive horizons." I summoned the kunai that Hotohori gave me. "This was given to me so that I could better protect myself. I guess it would be rude to make it go to waste, right?" I'm up for anything as long as it will make me even stronger.

So that I can never be afraid like that again.

So that I can always defeat my enemies.

So that I can get my wish.

So that I can be the protector…and not the protected.

---

After everything was said and done, we all agreed that that day had been both physically and emotionally draining, so we all went to sleep around yet another campfire. Only…I had pretended to go to sleep. When I was sure that they were out, I sneaked off and went behind some bushes. Summoning Water from the moisture in the air, I froze a puddle of it and created a makeshift mirror.

Pulling my tube top down past my bra, I revealed once again the deep, drastic scar that was placed between my breasts.

Things that I'm not proud of…huh?

I wished that I had the ability to erase or even change the past—or even better, I wished that I could forget everything that happened almost eight years ago. Those things… should have never…never happened. That was when I started to truly hate the universe. Sure, life was bad for me before those events unfolded, but after Kajou went and killed herself…everything that was good that was left in the world shattered into a million tiny pieces that could never be put back together. My whole world had changed—it completely crumbled. Life got painfully worse, and I'd always remember my pain because of that scar that would always be on my chest. When the doctors stitched it up, they said that it was too deep to heal completely and that a scar would always be there.

I'll never be that weak again…and I'll never fall that deep into despair. I have to stay strong, just like Kajou told me to do.

I won't be responsible for the world falling into darkness.

---

ATTENTION READERS: This is the Beta version of LH5W, if you want to read the official, updated version of the story, you'll have to go over to DeviantArt. com and head on over to my page. My username is Aloubell. You can also get there by going to my fanfiction. net profile which provides a link over there.
In any case, this Beta version is basically the rough draft of LH5W, my first attempt at it. Much of the plot points from this version will be the same in the official version, but there are significant and consistent characterization changes, a few (but very important) plot differences, expansion of past ideas, and overall better quality in storytelling.

All of this will be done over on DeviantArt. I no longer will write the story in traditional prose nor submit/update it here to fanfiction. net. The Beta version will remain here, just know that it isn't the 100% official story.
The official version will be written in a lazy prose mixed with play-writing elements (you'll get what I mean when you see it).
This is the new format for the story from now on.
So please head on over there if you're interested in updates to the story! Thank you for stopping by =D

-Aloe

PLEASE NOTE: The official version is being written somewhat out of order. The official version will start on chapter 46, the place where the Beta version left off. The official version will go on to complete the last chapters of Season 2. Once those are done, I will redo the story over again from Chapter 1 which will be the official version.

Having said that, if you choose to continue on reading, I hope you enjoy the Beta version and look forward to the official!