Ananias sighed. "Man," he muttered, "all this searching and asking and we're still no closer to finding the guys who razed our fields." He folded his arms, bowed his head, and closed his eyes, deep in thought. "Is there something we're missing?" He gave himself another moment to think before letting out another exasperated sigh. "Well, if there is, then I definitely can't see it. Maybe I should just start over. Go back to the scene of the crime and see if I missed anything. And who knows? Maybe Mozu's found something that could help."


"Oh, hello there, Ananias," Mozu said, taking a break from tilling the soil to wipe some of the sweat off her brow and properly greet him. "What brings you here?"

"Hey there, Mozu. Nothing much really. We've just sort of hit a dead end in our search, so I figured I'd come by and see if there's anything we might've missed." He then looked at the newly tilled fields and let out a low and impressed whistle. "Though considering how well you've cleaned and fixed the place up, it'll be a miracle if I find anything at all." He turned back to Mozu. "You clean up nice."

Mozu blushed and averted her eyes. "O-oh, well, um... thank you! That's... really sweet of you to say."

Ananias blinked in confusion. "Um, it is? I thought I was just stating the obvious."

"T-the obvious?" A flustered Mozu looked down at her attire. "Even when I'm wearing this old thing?"

"What does what you're wearing have to do with it?"

"W-well, you just said that I clean up nicely, but I'm just wearing something that I usually wear anyway, so..."

"..."

"..."

"Um, okay." Ananias didn't exactly know what that was all about, but he decided to get right back to business rather than pry any further. "So, did you notice anything else while you were cleaning up the mess left by those vandals? Anything we might've missed the first time?"

Mozu's eyes widened in surprise as she blushed even harder. "W-what? Oh, s-so that's what you meant. Um," she shook her head, "no, I don't think so. What you saw the first time was basically all there was. Just smashed vegetables and trampled crops everywhere. Nothing more, really."

"Darn."

"H-hey, if it makes you feel any better, I'm awfully grateful for all of the time and effort that you've put into this. It puts a girl's mind at ease to know that she's got friends like you looking out for her."

"Ah, don't mention it," Ananias said, waving her compliment off. "I'm sure you would've done the same thing for me if it were my fields. Which, I mean, it kind of was, because, well, you know, the whole shared fields thing and all."

Mozu giggled. "Right. How could I forget?" She then gasped. "Oh! And speaking of forgetting, I forgot to put away the extra seeds! Wouldn't want the animals to stumble across it and take it all for themselves, now would we?"

"No, we wouldn't. Do you need any help with that?"

Mozu shook her head. "No, no, I've got it! You just sit tight! I'll be back in a jiffy!"

Ananias watched her as she grabbed the bags of extra seeds and took them back to the nearby shed. "She's quite the workhorse, isn't she? If this had been done to anyone else, then I might've been a little bit more worried, but she really is a wonder-worker when it comes to farming." He bowed his head in frustration. "Doesn't make what happened to her any less wrong though. Come on, Ananias. There must be something you've been missing. You just need to figure out what." He then heard a faint noise in the distance. "Hmm?" He head it again. "What was that?" He held out his ear and tried listening harder. "Sounds like... kids?" He looked around until he spotted some kids out in the distance. "Hey. Hey!" He ran towards them, having remained silent the entire way until he had caught them red-handed. "What...," he took a moment to catch his breath, "just what do you think you kids are doing?"

"Huh?" one of the kids disinterestedly asked. "What does it look like we're doing?"

"It... it looks like you're digging up the seeds and then replacing them with... pebbles?"

One of the other kids smirked as he looked at his fellow partners in crime. "Oh, is that what these are? Pebbles? I thought they were seeds!"

"You know those aren't seeds!" Ananias argued. "Why are you kids doing this?"

"Oh, um," the third kid said, "sorry, we're stupid."

Ananias gave him a completely baffled look. "W-what?"

The first kid smirked. "Yeah, we're really stupid. We just can't tell the difference between pebbles and seeds."

"O-okay, but even if that's true, why dig up the seeds that were already planted and then just replace them like that? Somebody I know worked really hard to plant all those seeds. Why do that to her?"

"Oh, we're sorry," the second kid said. "We won't do it again."

"You're still putting the pebbles into the ground though!"

"Oh, but aren't these seeds?"

Ananias let out a frustrated sigh. "Okay, look, I get it, you three are just messing with me. But can you just, like, not mess with my friend though? Like, just put all of the seeds back where you found them and just call it a day? Please?"

"Okay," the third kid said. "Once we're done, we'll put everything back."

"N-no! I'm saying to stop what you're doing now! Then put everything back!"

"You want us to stop stopping what we're doing?"

"What? No! I'm telling you to stop digging up the seeds and replacing them with pebbles!"

"But we're not replacing them with pebbles! Look, they're seeds!"

"Those are definitely not seeds!"

"Oh, how can you tell mister? I don't think we see what you're seeing."

"I find that very hard to believe at this point!"

The three kids then started laughing. "Man, what a loser!" the first kid cried.

Ananias' eyes widened in surprise. "'Loser'?! Hey, that's not very nice!"

"But it's true though!" the second kid said.

"E-even if it were, that's not a very nice thing to say!"

The third kid smirked. "Okay, then we'll just think it!"

"N-no! I mean, you can, if you really think that, but -"

"Oh my gosh!" the first kid cried. "Can this guy be any more of a loser?"

"Yeah, no wonder this army sucks!" the second kid replied. "It's filled with losers like him!"

"H-hey! I am just... one guy! One guy out of many!"

"So?" the third kid asked. "My dad says that a team is only as strong as its weakest link. So if you're a loser, then that must mean that the rest of this army is full of losers too!"

"Excuse me!" Mozu cried, an angry look on her face as she folded her arms. "What did you just say?"

"I said -"

"Nah ah ah!" Mozu interrupted, raising a finger to silence him. "I heard you the first time!"

"Then why did you -"

"I was asking because I couldn't believe my ears, but now I'm starting to wonder if the three of you have any sense at all! Now stand up! All of you!" The three kids looked at each other. "Now!" The three kids quickly obeyed. "Now empty your pockets!" The kids did just that, emptying their pockets of any other pebbles and seeds that they had already collected. Mozu shook her head in disgust. "Now just what in the world were you kids thinking?" When none of the children immediately answered, Mozu glared at them and said, "I'm waiting."

"We thought it would be funny," the first kid quietly answered.

"And what exactly is so funny about this?" Mozu demanded. "Because me and my friend don't find it the least bit funny at all."

"We think the army is a bunch of jerks, so we thought we'd prank them by messing with some of their food," the second kid said.

"Some? Some?! You smashed all of the vegetables and crops and now you're replacing the seeds from our fields!"

The three boys' eyes widened in surprise. "How do you know that it was us who smashed those vegetables?" the third boy asked.

"Oh, I've got a pretty good feeling that it was! And I think I'm going to go and have a stern talk with your parents!"

"W-what?!"

"B-but that's not fair!"

"It is too fair!"

"Y-you don't have any proof!"

"Yeah, and we didn't do it!"

"Oh, I'm sure your parents will help us figure out if you did it or not. But even if it wasn't, we've caught you red-handed doing this, so you can drop the whole 'innocent' act! Now, let's get you kids back to your parents!"

"Aw man!" the three kids groaned.

Mozu turned to Ananias, who had been stunned silent the moment Mozu had taken charge. "Can you replant all of the seeds that these three stole? Don't worry, I'll be back as soon as I've taken care of these little troublemakers."

"Um, yeah, you got it." Ananias watched in awe as Mozu escorted the three kids out of the fields and back to their parents. "Man, who would've thought Mozu had that in her? She can really step it up if she needs to." He shamefully bowed his head. "Can't say the same for me though. I totally botched that. How could I have let those kids bully me like that?" He sighed. "No, I've got to be more assertive, like Mozu. Otherwise, what good am I?"


Author's Note #1: After Mozu's supports, I'll finally be able to get to the Warriors supports. The results will be revealed and locked in then.

Author's Note #2: The Fire Emblem Warriors poll is up on my profile. Vote for which five characters you want for Ananias to support with from that game the most and, in the end, ten characters will be selected for Ananias to support with, so make your voices heard. Happy voting!

Author's Note #3: I've been asked about Three Houses supports a lot, and recently I was asked about potential Heroes supports, so I might as well address future plans for the story after I've completed the Warriors supports. Basically, I plan to do ten short stories/chapters with Ananias as the focus after the Warriors supports as a way to send off the character and this particular story, since this story has been around for quite a while now. These short stories can range from actual backstory stuff to just plain fun, but I will definitely only limit myself to ten, regardless of what types of stories they end up being. As many have asked for Three Houses and Heroes, I will definitely devote one chapter/story to each, but obviously they won't be full on supports with specific characters like the rest of this story has been. That means that'll leave eight stories left for me to do with this character besides those two, which will then officially close the book on his (and this) story. I hope that that works for all of you.

Author's Note #4: I do plan on making "The Lost Children" stories/supports with Lumaria, Tan'bay, Zephyra, Tenk, and Lana (as Lana is the only child character of the OC characters). While getting through all of one character's supports took a lot of time, the saving grace would be that the other characters wouldn't have as much justification to cross over into other games (the only reason why I did it with Ananias was that he was part of the Anna family and that Inigo, Severa, and Owain crossed over and became retainers to the Nohrian royals, with Elise being the odd one out), so they would just support with characters from their game and then it'll just end there. Tan'bay, Tenk, Zephyra, and Lumaria would support with the Awakening kids, their parents, and the avatar, while Lana would support with the Nohrian kids, her parents, the avatar, and a few exceptions from Hoshido (as per how the games did it). I don't plan on making new supports for the characters and Ananias. I'll just re-edit the supports Ananias already had with them and use those.