Cristy's POV:-

I was waiting at our boarding house for any new information but the door never opened . The boarding house is where me , Taichi , Joe and Steph lived . Joe's parents died in a war and he helped Steph run away from hers . Taichi was kicked out of his house and forced to work till he met Ayano who helped him to live until Ayano was scouted by one of the heads and Taichi refused to leave her side . So he lives here now since he was allowed and it's more comfortable than his usual living arrangements. I was more or less brought here to help with technical things since I'm kind of a geek and I also help heal these guys when they return injured from missions . I can fight too but...I prefer not to and everyone accepts that . Apart from us , the only person living here is an old woman who Ayano calls 'bloody old crone ' . She's a powerful en-just du artist who trained Ayano before Ayano's memories were sealed . Ayano tends to come here a lot these days cause it's one of the few places where she doesn't have to keep up her 'kannagi princess' act . Even if she gave up her title , she still has her last name .
'I wonder how her talk with Kazuma went . I hope she's okay . Sometimes I wish that she really did tell him about all this . He's a contractor so it's not like he can't get involved and also the battlefield where Taka died seems like its being used too and the last thing she needs is to be reminded of Taka ...again.'
Just when I was going to go to bed , a small creaking sound was heard . My eyes widened as the door opened to reveal a soaking wet Ayano . Her spiritual presence was hidden meaning she was still on alert but Ayano Kannagi Does Not get Wet . Not unless she wants to .
"Ayano-chan , what happened?"
She turned to face me with a sad smile and an old emotion in her eyes and I immediately knew that it was about Kazuma .

'I shouldn't have told her to talk to him , what the heck happened between them?'

"Ah , Cris . You know where Taichi's at ?"
I felt a pang in my heart , of course I wanted to help but right now , she probably needed her best friend.
"Um...not really. You can try his phone if you want . What do you need him for?"
"I wanna spar ..."
I blinked as the water slowly evaporated from her body . She went to the couch and dropped flat on it covering her eyes with her hands.
"Spar?..."
"I want to release my pent up emotions and he's the least breakable thing that moves."
I simply looked at the back of the couch with a blank expression . Ayano and Taichi were the best team ever. They've been friends since they were young and always trained together despite the fact that she was an kannagi en-jutsu artist and he was a no-name fu-jutsu artist . Neither of them cared for that kind of stuff and they were both the strongest spirit-users once . Though now , Ayano's kind of conditioning her body into top form again through severe training since she kind of lost her large amount of natural spirit-energy before her memories were taken . It's actually the reason why she was made to forget us in the first place, while Taichi's become even stronger than he was during the last battle Ayano fought with us before sacrificing her uncannily large spiritual power . Nonetheless , he's still currently the only one ( apart from Ayano's sensai ) who can take on her full force attacks head on ( Joe and Steph probably could but they dont even try since its a big risk ) and at the rate Ayano's going they'll be equals soon .She has already reached Joe's and Steph's level in 4 years and trust me , that's saying something . But they're still the best team , completely in synch with each other . They're time together is probably why Ayano found it so easy to adjust to fighting with a fu-jutsu artist when Kazuma became her bodyguard . The kannagi heads were a bit suspicious since according to records , she's never fought alongside a fu-jutsu artist before , but fortunately they dropped it . After all , even if her mind forgot her time with us , her body didn't .
I walked up to her and kneeled down beside her . Her hands still covered her eyes but I knew she could sense me .
"Ayano-chan, if you want to talk ...I will listen."
She turned her head towards me and lowered one of her hands. When I saw her eyes , I wanted to cry, this was my fault. I told her to talk to him. What the heck happened ? A sad smile came on her face and her eyes softened . She put her hand on my head and said.
"Thanks Cris..."
I lowered my head , feeling ashamed at how useless I was.
"He saw me fight..."
My head shot up and my eyes widened but her's were closed. I didn't saw a word . I just listened.
"...he ...helped lure me to a challenger. I won...but ...he saw me . He...he knows...I've .. that I'm not...the girl he once knew..."
A chuckle escaped her lips and a few tears escaped her eyes.
"...but the funniest thing is... He ...he called me His princess..."
My eyes grew wide. no,No,NO. not now , not again.
"...and ...*heh* he tried that arrogant act , just like I expected ,but...he lost it..."
I didn't say a word , honestly though ...what could I say ? All I knew was ...
"He became Anxious, Kazuma became anxious and the things he said...I almost caved...but just when I felt like giving in... I ...I saw ...I saw Taka ..."
...this was bad . Ayano's hands were trembling , the tears were flowing faster , her whole body was shaking slightly.
"...it was like it was just yesterday , I remembered...I remembered his face ...I remembered him on the ground , lying in a pool of his own blood , a hole in the middle of his stomach ...looking at me..."
I was crying , I don't know when the tears began to fall , I held her hand as hard as I could , I couldn't stand it , it hurt to see her like this , and if it hurts so much for me...I can't imagine how it was for her.
"..smiling at me ...at the reason ...for his death."
"No.."
Ayano stopped speaking and opened her eyes a little and then her eyes shot open at the sight of me trying to hold back my sobs.
"Cris..."
"NO...You're wrong. Taka never blamed you. No one blames you except yourself."
She looked at me with sad eyes and then turned, lowering her head.
"That doesn't chance the fact that if I wasn't there , he would still be alive."
I couldn't reply . It was true . Taka died for her ...even though he said he would never throw his life away for someone else . At that moment ...he did...and he did it without a second thought .
"You would have done the same for him, wouldn't you?..."
No reply, it was true though . Because of the kannagi's experiment on her when she was young . Ayano was always reckless , never caring whether she was hurt ...or worse.

"And if you had , would you want him to blame himself ?.."
Her head whipped in my direction . Her tears already dried and her eyes redder than usual.
"OF COUSE NOT, BUT..."
I smiled at her . No matter what she never gave up , never ...sometimes I feel that she was better off not remembering . We've seen how...happy she was like that.
"...but ...Kazuma...he..."
A blush was on her face and her eyes were flooded with worry .
"He admitted it , didn't he ? ... He accepted...that he's in love with you..."
Her blush darkened and she shot up from the couch.
"He never actually said it . Implied , it was only im-plied..."
She shouted with a red face while I was stuck wide-eyed beside the couch staring at her . Can you blame me , she was crying , like, 20 seconds ago.
"...his implications can mean anything , ANYTHING . So no confession or anything took place alright ..."
"Confess...WHAT?"
Me and Ayano turned to see Taichi (completely dry) gaping at the doorway.I tried to cover for her but...
"Taichi, Ayano getting confessions is quite normal right ,hah hah..."
"Yeah , but Ayano wouldn't blush if a stranger ... OH MY *^+ # KAZUMA CONFESSED TO YOU?"
...Taichi knows her too well and Ayano was turning more red by the second.
"NO, HE DIDN'T ."
"THEN YOU CONFESSED TO HIM .?"
"OF COUSE NOT."
Enter Seraphinah (Also completely dry)
"Woah!woah! Something hot happen that Ayano doesn't wanna share ..."
"WHA...WHAT'S WITH THAT TONE , HUH..NO...NOTHING HAPPENED, I MEAN ,NOT NOTHING BUT..."
"OOOH ! COME ON , COME ON . SPILL IT AYANO? NOTHING, REALLY?..."
"WHAT THE ...I THOUGHT YOU WERE GOING TO KEEP A DISTANCE FROM HIM...YOU LIED TO ME ?"
"NO , I..."
"HAH, SO SOMETHING DID HAPPEN ."
"I WAS ANSWERING TAICHI."
I was watching as Ayano became more and more grilled, flustered and agitated and quickly ran outside the house passing Joe (slightly soaked) as he entered , saw what was happening and ran straight back out shouting.
"HIT THE DECK, SHE'S GONNA BLOW!"
"SHUT UP, SHUT UP , SHUT THE F*CK UUUUUUUUPPP..."

.

That night was spent rebuilding the remains of the front of the house . We had to wait for it to cool before we started . Ayano went back to the kannagi mansion ( First time she appreciated having a curfew) and the rest of us were working under the watchful eye of the sensai. As I watched , I couldn't help wonder . 'To think I only wanted to comfort her ...'
"WATCH OUT, THE ROOF'S CAVING"
I looked up and felt myself being lifted away and the place I was standing was coved by bricks.
"You okay?"
"Ye...yeah"
I was in Taichi's arms . He managed to get me out of the way . I got down when he lowered us to the ground and left .
"...next time, I'll just leave it to you."
"Did you say something ,Cris?"
I looked up with a weary smile.
"No , never mind..."
How did it end up like this?