Chapter 1-7: Looking Forward

"To move forward, you must sometimes look behind yourself. However, the road already traveled will try to hypnotize you into stopping. I have never been tempted myself, but you do not have to look far to see those trapped."

-Devil

It's been about an hour since the flare signaling 2-F's victory went up.

'Great timing, too,' Mark thinks as he walks up along the side of a nearby hill. 'I was pretty much BS-ing the others when I took those hits. If Momoyo attacked again I would have been screwed.' He looks down at the hole in the center of his hoodie and his missing shirt sleeve. The wounds have healed over the course of several minutes. 'And this is why I bought several outfits of clothes; can't have anything nice around here.'

Mark saw Momoyo jump (literally) away from the celebration and onto this hill just a few minutes ago, and decided to find and talk to her. At the peak, he sees her watching the party below while leaning on a tree. He walks next to her and sits on a fallen tree, following Momoyo's gaze. "I thought you would be bitterer," he says to her.

"Bitterer?" she asks.

He smiles awkwardly, "...Not the best word for it, I guess… What are you thinking about?" She looks down, embarrassed. He responds in a reassuring voice, "I won't tell and I won't judge: just speak your mind."

"I was thinking about how I was going to apologize to you. I've been pretty mean to you…" He continues to look at her, urging her on. "Ever since you gave Wanko that special training, I've been a… well, a jerk, and you didn't deserve it. Then, I bullied you into a corner when you were dying. And now, while we were fighting, I delivered an attack that would have killed anyone else."

"You don't have to apologize. I understand why you did what you did. I probably would have done the same if somebody had messed with my…" she looks at him as he stops himself, "…with one of my friends." He quickly moves to change the subject. "As for what just happened I'm glad you did it."

"You're glad that I almost killed you?" she asked, somewhat surprised.

"I'm glad that I was the one you almost killed." He quickly explains, "I've been through a lot, so it's good that you hit me with it first and not someone else."

"So you're saying that I should try to kill you instead of someone else because you won't die," Momoyo summarizes.

"Yep, pretty much nothing kills me."

She looks at him dubiously, "Exactly how many times have you almost been killed?"

He laughs, "That's a loooong list. Let's see…" He thinks quickly. "I've been shot in the heart with a shell from a tank's cannon, that was a fun one. Umm, I fell into a volcano one time. It sucked. Oh yeah, I've been decapitated! I can barely remember how now that I'm thinking back on it."

"You got decapitated?! Then how is your head on your body?!"

"I got better. I kinda had to, I tried rolling around a bit but that …" Momoyo starts laughing. "What did I say?"

"Hahaha…It's nothing…hahaha," she continues to laugh. He shrugs while smiling and waits for her laughter to die down. "Sorry about that…so did you want to talk with me about something or…"

"I was just making sure that there were no problems between us. I'm going to be operating in Kawakami for awhile, and I would feel better if I still had you as a friend."

Momoyo smiles as if he said something silly. "Of course we're friends," she states. "You didn't have to worry yourself about it."

"Good," he says, relieved. He once again turns to look at the victory party with her in silence. Eventually, she switches her gaze back to him, but he doesn't look back and instead quickly cuts her off. "I'm sorry, Devil is still out of your league."

She sighs, "Can you at least tell me what I need to beat him?"

"…That's a hard question. When it comes to Devil, you need to have a certain mindset as well as strength..." They both sense someone walking up the hill, towards them. Mark sees Momoyo's face change in the corner of his vision and, using that, realizes that the person is Yamato. "Guessing by your expression I'd say that you two have something important to discuss." He gets up.

"Wait," she says to stop him leaving, "what about Devil?"

"We can talk about him later. As I told you earlier, I'm going to be here for awhile. I'll come by and visit you."

"Fine, but I'll hold you to that."

He grins in acknowledgement before blinking away.

Mark is in a room in the 'mental plane' as Devil refers to it. It looks exactly like the old room he had back as a kid: same bed, same window, same feel.

Devil taught him how to create these 'rooms' inside his dreams two weeks ago. By focusing ones thoughts via ones soul, they can create realms that can completely access one's mind, including memories, thoughts, and several other mental keepsakes.

Mark started with a familiar room, then expanded the walls and added a chair and a desk that contains his memories as well as a bed to 'truly rest' as Devil put it. Afterwards he added a fireplace, a plastic dummy to practice new attacks, and a stand to put his brother's Bo Staff.

For now, Mark is deep in thought while sitting on the chair behind the desk. He's going through his notes and is creating new notes, which suddenly appear as floating letters and images. He arranges them with a serious look; putting together names, arranging the notes in a different order, trying to predict the future. 'How the hell does Devil do this so easily?!' he thinks.

Suddenly he is grabbed from behind. He jumps up a bit, but the woman (guessing by what's pressing against his back) is putting her weight on him, keeping him from moving. "I'm a little jealous," she whispers seductively. "Why don't you come to the bed and focus on me~?"

She licks the side of his neck as he speaks, "Azumi…how did you get in here? I didn't create an image or shell of you."

She slowly lowers her hands to his abdomen. "Heh, maybe you created me unconsciously because you want me~" he grabs her hands to stop her. She let's go and sits on his desk, where he sees she's only wearing red lingerie, "What's wrong?"

He doesn't look at her. "Devil," he says loudly toward the center of the room. "Why are you doing this?"

Devil suddenly appears where Mark is looking with a concerned look. "You are too stressed and I thought that this would help."

"So why the deception? You could have just told me."

"I could have, but you would not have listened," he explains. Mark sighs; Devil is probably right about that. "Are you like this because of Eberbach and Friedrich? Or are you nervous about the future?"

Mark sighs again, deeper this time. "I guess I'm just overwhelmed by everything."

Devil thinks for a few moments. "I doubt that anything I say will deter you to resting, so allow me to assuage you by helping you," Mark nods and creates a chair opposite to him for Devil to sit on. Devil disperses the Azumi shell as he sits down, "Let us start by taking a step back and reviewing the people that you would like to be your student."

"We already know who I want, why should we go over it?"

"If you are overwhelmed, you fall back and analyze the situation."

Mark ponders that state for a few moments before giving in, "I suppose that's solid logic." Mark scatters the notes and pulls up four pictures with attachments.

He grabs one and shows it to Devil as Mark explains. "The first is Christiane Friedrich. She could be a little 'princess-y' at times, but she knows what's right and can be trusted. Her father is serious a problem, though, and he will cause her emotional distress since we are currently enemies."

Mark grabs the second picture, and like before, gives it to Devil. "The second is Kazuko Kawakami. A hard worker and a pure girl, Kazuko has a strong will and is very loyal. She's an orphan who deeply admires her sister, and will not give up the Kawakami temple without a fight, not to mention that this could trigger Momoyo Kawakami's anger and that would be very bad."

Still listening calmly, Devil takes the third picture. "Third is Yukie Mayuzumi, or Mayucchi to her friends, the elder daughter of the Eleventh-dan Sword Saint. Mayucchi has a high amount of power and has already trained her aura to a basic degree (compared to Aura Artists), she will easily pick up the necessary skills. According to several accounts, Mayucchi believes that power is the reason for her lack of friends, and she will most likely be reluctant to take a chance to become stronger."

Now Mark gives the final picture. "Fourth is Miyako Shiina, one of the Five Great Archers. Miyako has a strong spirit, and could make a powerful ally. However, she is, um… 'passionate' about Yamato Naoe and is uninterested in anything that doesn't involve him.

These are currently the only people I'm interested that I haven't proposed the idea to."

"So you already asked Eberabach and Oshitari to be your disciple?"

"Heh, I asked them to be my partner. If I told them I wanted them to leave their current employers to become my student they would have kicked my ass."

"True," Devil thinks for a moment. "I propose we split our tasks between us." Mark looks at him curiously. "I shall offer the idea to Shiina and Mayuzumi…"

"While I ask Chris and Kazuko. That makes some sense theoretically, but what makes you think that they will even listen to you?"

"Hahah, have I done something to make you doubt me?"

Mark scratches the back of his head. "Alright, I'll trust you with this."

Devil smiles gratefully. "With that settled, I would like to voice my concern for your next plan."

"Hm? Oh, you mean Missy?"

"No, Chef Sia's grand opening does not concern me. I am more worried about our steps against Friedrich."

Mark twitches slightly. "With our friends and connections, we'll be able to harass while keeping a few steps-"

"I am more concerned about you… Are you all right with doing this?"

"…I'm no stranger to this, but still..." Mark fidgets in his chair. "The problem with these things is that somebody is going to lose… I have to do this. I will change this world, Devil."

Mark stares at Devil to show his resolve. "Very well, Survivor," he says as he gets up and get's ready to leave.

"Wait," Mark tells him, Devil stops as he was commanded. "What about your thoughts in this?"

Devil smiles and doesn't hesitate before talking, "I do everything for you, and what you are doing for me is far more than I deserve." Then he's gone. Mark mulls that over for a bit before shrugging in satisfaction. He stands up and walks to the bed before closing his eyes…

"Everything's in motion now…"