Chapter 7: Arrivals and Meetings part 2

Sayako Nightbringer


The walk to Ilene's house was more or less quiet. I was fine with watching the group chatter amongst themselves, still unsure of how I fitted into all of this. My hand lifted to touch the necklace around my neck, slightly surprised to still feel it there. The shock from being dragged into this world had caused me to forget all about it. I watched Leon as my fingers brushed the necklace, frowning when I didn't get a response. Had the necklace shorted by bringing me here? Or did my close proximity to Leon mean it no longer needed to connect our minds?

I shook the thought away as we approached a very nice house. Obviously whoever lived here lived well. Leon stepped up to the door, knocking sharply. A minute or two passed before a maid opened the door, bowing respectively before looking at our party strangely.

"Who might you all be?" she asked politely. Her eyes scanned our group – briefly resting on me in confusion – before looking at Leon. "Maybe... Are you Leon Magnus-sama and his compatriots?"

I raised an eyebrow at the long word before remembering that speech was a bit different here. After all, they seemed to still be using the suffix's even though they were speaking English. Or maybe I was hearing all this in English when in fact they were actually speaking Japanese? I had no idea.

Leon cut off my train of thought by speaking. "Yes. Is Ilene here?" He gave no reaction to Dymlos commenting about it being wise to gather information; we were here for that anyway. The maid frowned softly.

"The Lady has stepped out for a moment; she should be back shortly." She explained to us. Leon nodded again, though it gave me no idea what he thought of the fact that we now had to wait for the woman to return.

"Allow us to wait here" He said, not really asking so much as demanding. Polite demand, but still demanding. The maid smiled softly, paying no mind to this. It was her job to accept things like this I guess.

"Certainly" She replied, stepping aside to let up into the living room. Or main room? I have no idea what all the rooms were called. This was higher class than I was back home. Though I didn't have any experience with the social classes anyway, unless you counted high school cliques.

I watched everyone spread out to either find seating or to the walls to inspect the other items in the room. Not that there were that many, but enough to feel like the place was owned by a person who had a good living. My gaze turned to the maid, who bowed and left after saying she'd inform us when her Lady had come home.

Stahn walked over to me, touching my shoulder. "Hey... can I talk to you for a sec?" He looked nervous about something, so I followed him out into the hallway. He rubbed the back of his head, sighing.

"Look... about what Dymlos said..."

I smiled and shook my head, realizing what was bothering him. "Don't worry about it Stahn. I just get defensive when people read into my emotions. It was wrong of me to snap at you both and for that I apologize."

The blond grinned. "Oh good! I was worried that he had upset you. Well, he had, but that's not what I meant. I just didn't want you two to stay on bad terms. He can be a nag, but he means well."

"I can think of several people in our group who are nags. So there's no big problem with that. Just let him know not to read into my emotions so much. Or if he does, tell him to keep his mouth shut." I told him, smiling. Stahn nodded eagerly, looking every bit as friendly as I knew from Tales of the World.

"I'll let him know. Thanks for listening Erica!" he said before walking back into the room. I lingered there for a moment longer, not really sure what to do to pass the time. With a sigh, I walked back into the room, my thoughts drifting back to my necklace. Why had it brought me here? I was still suspicious of it since I'd found it in a dream, but some part of me thanked it. After all, I'd always dreamed of coming here.

Wait... Dreams? I thought, finding an unoccupied chair and sitting down. The necklace I'd found in a dream, bringing me to a place I've dreamed the most about. Maybe there was a connection? Either that or I was finally going crazy from all the talk of wanting to travel to other worlds with Angel. I was still going to run it past Leon to see what he thought about it however. If we could figure out how I got here, then we might have a way to send me home when this was over.

No way in hell was I leaving before this was over though. This necklace had given me something I'd been wishing for, so there was no way I was passing this chance up. I giggled softly when I thought of how Angel would react to my grand adventure, knowing that she had wanted world travel much more than I did. There would definitely be a retelling of all this to my friend when I got home.

I touched the necklace gently, hoping that with all my worry about what this necklace was for, it was just me being paranoid. After all, I was no fighter. I knew I'd have to learn to defend myself, but I wasn't going to go on a tangent of becoming stronger for any purposes other then getting through this game alive. Though really... this wasn't a game anymore was it...

Rutee stopped her pacing across the room, catching my attention and pulling me out of my thoughts. She looked frustrated, most likely bored from waiting. "...Ilene is pretty late. What in the world is she doing?" she grumbled. After a moment she turned her attention to her best friend. "Mary, where did you get that Ice Candy?"

The orange haired woman shrugged, smiling. "From a shop in town." She replied calmly. Though she looked eager to go get more. Rutee nodded and crossed her arms, looking around at everyone before back at Mary.

"I want to go get some; I'm tired of waiting." She said, complaining just a little. Mary chucked at her best friend, nodding.

"Lets go together."

Stahn perked up at this, glad for an idea of what to do while they all waited. "Me too; I've never had any." He said, standing from his sitting position on one of the other couches. He glanced over at Phillia who nodded in agreement.

"I will come too." She said softly, joining the group as they figured out who wanted to go. Her gaze settled on me while Stahn talked to Leon about what he wanted to do. "Erica-san... do you want to come with us?"

I shook my head, smiling a little. "No thanks Phillia. Thanks for the offer though. I think I'll stay here." I told her, catching Stahn's gaze as he nodded.

"So the two of you will wait for Ilene to come home?" The blond asked, earning a nod from both Leon and I. He grinned, looking to the rest of the group who was going with him. "Alright! Let's go!" He led the group out of the house, leaving me with the ever quiet Leon.

He stood after a moment and headed somewhere else in the house. I didn't follow him at first, nervous about stalking him around like I seemed to be doing. But after five minutes of silence and my mind wandering in circles about my necklace, I stood to go track Leon down. The teen was in the back yard, training with Chal. I was surprised to find him with his cape off, since the only time he seemed to take it off was when he was alone and about to go to bed (I only knew this from the boat trip).

For a few minutes I just watched, slightly memorized by the amount of effort and calculation I could see in each strike as he fought against his invisible enemy. His hair at his neck was plastered to his skin from the heat, which I was curious as to how he handled it so well. I was always at a colder temperature by nature, yet even this heat was starting to bug me. I looked at my jeans and my long sleeved shirt – the sleeves of which I had rolled up to my elbows – and my vest on top of that. It was colder back home, and only in mid July (usually) did it get this hot. My gaze returned to Leon, watching with some envy at his ability to fight. I was dead weight right now until we figured out why the necklace wanted me here. Or why I was called here...

"What are you doing?"

I jumped at his voice, blinking and realizing that not only had he noticed me, but he had started staring back at me. A weak laugh escaped me, more nervous than anything else. "Ah.. I was gonna ask you something... but then I forgot..."

Leon rolled his eyes, rubbing the back of his neck and his face with a towel that the maid from earlier had provided. "Idiot." He muttered, moving to sheath Chal, but then stopping as an idea seemed to form in his head. His violet eyes turned to me with a calculating look. "Can you fight?"

For a moment my mind didn't register what he had said, but then I gaped at him. "You think I would have sat in one place and let that wolf jump at me back when I first arrived if I could?" I asked, slightly wondering if he had gone crazy. He shook his head, rubbing the bridge of his nose in irritation.

"I just thought I'd ask. You never know if it was just shock at being in a new place. Anyway, if you stay as you are you're going to get yourself killed. I can teach you the basics and give you the ability to stay alive those few seconds longer so the rest of us can get to you." Leon explained, walking over to me with Chal. He looked over my clothes for a moment, frowning. He didn't ask about the hot weather, just shrugged. "You'll want to take that vest off. I'll go get another sword." He said before he walked away from me.

I stared after him for a few more moments before shrugging out of the vest, curious as to why he suddenly wanted to teach me. Though I had to admit, his reason was valid. I could get killed here quite easily without training of some kind. I didn't like the thought of still having to rely on the group for my safety, but he never said anything about not training to get good enough to fight my share. I nodded to myself, swearing that I was not going to drag this team down any further.

It was then that Leon came back with a second sword. Chal was sheathed – for now I was guessing – while he walked over to me and handed the clean blade over. I looked at it, surprised that the blade hadn't gone plummeting into the dirt at my feet. In fact, it seemed perfect for me to hold. "Where did you get this?" I asked, looking at him. He scowled at me before answering.

"I got one from a sword shop nearby. There weren't any here so I had to go get you one. But this is only for your safety you got it? I told your mother I'd bring you home, and that's exactly what I'm going to do." He said firmly, leaving me no room to guess at his intentions. Though the faint nervous blush I could see made me smile a little. I understood that this was so I could get home, but it was nice to know he was taking the time to make my stay a little more survivable. Even though he had no real idea how to be nice to people.

"Alright." I said calmly, looking at the sword. It still felt awkward in my hands, since I was almost sure I was holding it wrong. A pair of calloused hands covered mine, shifting my grip so the sword felt more comfortable in my hold. Though my mind was nowhere near comfortable right now.

Leon had his arms around me, having me mimic his stance so he could guide me without needing to see everything backwards. "Hold it like that, not too tight or you'll hurt yourself. There we go. Come on, follow my movements.." He said, his voice calm but firm as he led me into a slow horizontal slash. I struggled to keep my focus on what he was showing me, going through a few strokes before he stepped away from behind me to move directly in front of me. "Alright, now I want you to do that again, but attack me. I'll show you how to block those attacks so then you can try guarding." I bit my lip as he drew Chal again, spotting the spirit and earning an encouraging smile from him. Nodding at the silver haired man, I attacked Leon without much force. I had no stamina so trying to put too much effort into this on a hot day would exhaust me.

Leon easily blocked my strikes, frowning. "Put more effort into it. You won't get better with halfhearted moves. Things like that will get you killed, idiot."

I glared at him, putting more force into my next swing, growling when he blocked it. "Better. Again!"

We kept at it for quite some time – not that I was paying too much attention to time for once – before switching tactics, so suddenly I was the one defending. This was more difficult, because I could feel the restrained force behind each of Leon's attacks. He wasn't going easy on me just because I was new to this, he seemed to honestly think I could do it. So with that thought in mind, I started trying to deflect his attacks to be able to attack him. Not that that went well, considering I ended up on my backside more than once from stupid moves that he just knocked me back after.

I lay gasping on my side after who knows how long, my hands burning from every strong clash of Leon's blade against mine. Leon stood off to the side, but I couldn't see what he was doing since my hair had fallen in my face. He'd told me earlier that only an hour had gone past. Not that I really believed him. It felt like much longer than that, though the sun hadn't moved very far in the sky, so I had no choice but to believe him. I rolled onto my back, pushing my hair out of my face so I could stare at the nearby trees. I had to go back inside soon or I'd melt from the heat.

"Oi."

I looked up at Leon – hard not to when he's standing right above me – feeling quite confused. "What is it?" I asked. He stared at me for a few moments before sighing and holding out his hand to me. His gaze was somewhere else, and I could almost hear his complaints at doing this, but I was still touched by it.

"You did well for a beginner according to Chal. Now get up. I'm sick of this heat."

I giggled, ignoring his glare while I took his hand to allow him to pull me to my feet. He walked inside before me, leaving me to watch him go. There was no reason for him to give me this, but he had. I smiled slightly, keeping myself from deluding myself into seeing something that wasn't there. He was doing this to keep me alive. It made a lot of sense for him to do this considering that I'd fallen into a dangerous world. I'm not an active person, but during this adventure I'd have to be. Who knows if I'd have to kill here. I didn't know what lurked in this world to stop us from reaching our goal, but I would be forced to kill if it came down to my life or another person's life.

Biting my lip, I made my way inside to find one of the maids. I seriously needed a bath or something from training so long. One of the maids spotted me and helped me find one of the bathrooms so I could take a hot bath. The hot water felt like heaven on my sore body, especially on the blisters on my hands. I stared at the water, sighing softly. From what Leon had said he'd only be giving me this one piece of training that I'd have to keep practicing on. But I knew that wouldn't be enough. I'll have to ask someone else to help train me the rest of the way to be able to fight alongside them. I can't leave myself at a stage where they always have to save me. That will get them killed one of these days.

I washed up and got out of the bath quickly, changing into clean clothes that had been left for me after a moment of at myself in a mirror to check my appearance, I could see a dark green shirt that cut off at my shoulders, black pants that were a little more form-fitting than my old ones, a white belt, black boots to tuck my pants into, and long black fingerless gloves with green and white arm guards. I glared at the arm guards, knowing that Leon must have grabbed these for me. I had bad blocking skills, so he had once mentioned that one day my arms would get cut off. Just like him to get me these to mock me...

There was also a green and white chest armor sitting on the chair which I hadn't put on. It was thin, but I wasn't sure how heavy or how strong it was. Knowing Leon's keen eye it was most likely good, but I had no experience with armor. I was surprised that I'd been able to put on the arm guards. My gaze drifted to my dragon necklace and the sword at my left hip. He'd even gotten a better chain for my dragon pendant, so it didn't hang down as low as it used to and it was much less breakable. I adjusted the small packs that I had attached to my belt, smiling a little. My old clothes had been packed away after being cleaned, so I'd have them with me, but I wouldn't get them ruined by battles.

I walked downstairs, eager to show Leon how the outfit looked, but fell silent when I entered the main room. Leon was sitting on one of the single chairs, but he had fallen asleep. There was no way that I could bring myself to wake him up, so I decided to curl up on one of the chairs to relax. My eyes closed after a few moments, my mind wandering to the music I'd been listening to before I'd been brought here. Thankfully I always carried my music around, but I wouldn't be allowed to listen to it here. So instead I kept it stashed away so nothing would damage my MP3 player. I yawned quietly, curling up tighter to rest my head on the arm of the chair, falling asleep quickly from how exhausted I was.

-x-

I woke up to someone shaking my shoulder, which startled me a bit into sitting up quickly. This however caused me to smack my forehead against whoever had tried to wake me up, both of us yelping in pain. I rubbed my sore forehead and worked my eyes open, blushing when I saw Leon standing there, rubbing his own forehead and glaring at me.

"You going to wake up now? It's too hot here so I'm going out for a bit. Chal wanted to know if you wanted to come along." He grumbled, lowering his hand so he could cross his arms. Chaltier appeared by Leon's side, smiling softly.

"What he means is he's going out for Ice Candy. The maid here said she'd let Ilene know that we were here." Chal explained, looking happy to be getting out of the house. Poor spirit was probably bored. So I nodded at him, stretching and moving to stand.

"Yeah I'll go along. If we run into Stahn and the others, I need to ask either him or Mary how to put on the stupid chest armor. I can't figure it out." I said, following Leon and Chal out of the house. Chal didn't stay silent for too long, his eagerness getting the better of him.

"Young master, young master." Chal moved from shoulder to shoulder, trying to get Leon's attention. And attention he got. Leon sighed and watched him absently, most likely used to this behavior by now, but still too tired to really get irritated st the silver haired spirit.

"What is it?" He grumbled after a moment of watching Chal's antics. "You're so loud." Chal grinned and moved over by me, bringing Leon and I to a halt while we watched him.

"I wonder what ice candy tastes like! It sounds good!" He said happily, already off in his own little world while he contemplated what the treat tasted like. Leon watched Chal quietly, his eyes almost looking a little sad at whatever he was thinking of.

"Is that right..." Leon muttered softly, his tone telling me that he didn't like that his close friend was stuck as a spirit. "Chal can't eat it."

Chaltier moved over to Leon, lifting a hand as if to ruffle the teen's hair, but only able to 'settle' his hand on his hair since he was unable to really touch him. "So, young master. If it's good, you and Erica have to tell me!"

Leon nodded after a moment, his composure stitched back together, leaving me surprised that I'd been allowed to see a slight glimpse at the friendship these two had. Let alone be mentioned in a moment that had been originally just theirs. "All right, we will." He moved his gaze over to me after Chal vanished back into the sword, serious again. "Let's go." I nodded and followed him, not sure if I should be surprised he knew the direction the vendor was in or not. A smile crossed my face, watching Leon's back. He really liked being around Chal, and I could tell he liked being around the others when they weren't being idiots. There was just the road block of having been someone that was forced to grow up too fast, then dealing with people who hadn't needed to do that for the most part. Rutee had been forced to grow up fast, but I wouldn't mention that. I was keeping these observations to myself for now.

It didn't take all that long to get to the vendor. The man smiled at me, waving lightly as we stepped up to him. "Welcome back! Want some Ice Candy for you and your friend here?" he asked cheerfully. I blushed and shook my head.

"I'm not getting any, but he is." I said, gesturing at Leon. The vendor nodded, turning his gaze to Leon.

"What flavor would you like sir?"

Leon stood there in silence, which turned my attention to him. The teen looked really uncomfortable while he looked at the list of flavors. I shared a look with the vendor, shrugging when he silently asked what was wrong with him.

"Sir?"

Leon still didn't say anything, which made me look at Chal who shrugged. The spirit moved over to me to whisper in my ear so Leon wouldn't hear and get embarrassed I bet. "He does this a lot. Doesn't like admitting that he wants something."

"Sir!"

This startled Leon into actually saying something, still looking uncomfortable. "Ah, no, it's not that I particularly want one..." he mumbled, looking close to fidgeting with something. Chal rolled his eyes and chuckled.

"Bo-chan, stop being embarrassed and just buy one!"

The teen jumped slightly, blushing slightly as he fumbled over his words. He really didn't seem used to this, and it took all I had to not giggle at his discomfort. Since he reminded me so much of myself at the moment. "A-ahh... that's right. Excuse me... I'll have-"

"AAAAAAAAHHHH!"

Leon and I turned sharply, trying to look for the source of the scream. The vendor ducked down, hiding after stating that a monster was there, hovering over a girl who looked ready to pass out from fear. Leon, Chal, and I looked at each other, then back at the girl. "Bo-chan, let's help her!"

He didn't need to be told twice, but he looked at me sternly. "Stay here and protect him."

I shook my head. "I can help!" Besides, I wasn't about to get any better if I didn't fight. Leon didn't seem to agree with me, since he shook his head angrily.

"No!" Leon replied, not giving me any time to retort as he rushed at the monster, distracting it from the girl with a Stone Wall. The monster turned to him, forgetting the girl quickly and attacking. Leon dodged the attack easily, pulling Chal underneath him before slicing up through the monster while its guard was down, watching the creature fall backwards onto the ground with a heavy THUD. He stood there for a moment, making sure it wasn't about to get up again before looking at the girl behind him. She stared at him, shaking and blushing darkly despite the scary situation she'd just been in.

"T-Thank you!" she said nervously, allowing me to help her up before she followed some of the other townsfolk who were running. Chal noticed this and frowned, moving into Leon's field of vision to catch his attention.

"I'm worried about the state of the city. Let's go take a look." Leon and I glanced at each other, me glaring while he seemed reluctant.

"Do not go anywhere where I can't see you." He said sternly. I huffed at him but nodded, knowing I wouldn't get my way this time. We moved around the dead monster, running back to the heart of town. Once there, we stood in shock as people ran past us to get away from the monsters we could see running around. Leon caught one man by the arm, scaring the poor man until he realized that it was human instead of a monster. "Hey, you. What's going on?" Leon asked in a commanding tone, wanting to know the problem quickly so we could take care of it.

The man shivered and shook, looking scared half to death. "I-I don't know! All of a sudden, monsters started coming up out of the ocean!" he replied, shaking like he wanted to run as fast as he could instead of sit here talking.

"About how many of them?" Leon asked, his firm tone calming the man only slightly.

"Swarms!" The man replied without missing a beat, no longer shaking but not wanting to stay put any longer. Leon let him go, knowing he wouldn't run as he cursed under his breath.

"Dammit, where did Stahn and the others go? I won't be able to take care of this alone!" He hissed. I glared at him, my hands on my hips.

"Excuse me? I CAN help you know!" I snapped at him. Leon glared at me, shaking his head, and already I knew that he wasn't about to listen. I sighed, ignoring Chal's soft laughter, which Leon quickly picked up on.

"What are you laughing about at a time like this, Chal?" Leon asked, feeling confused at the spirit's amusement. Even I was confused as to why he was laughing at a time like this. Chal shook his head, smirking slightly.

"Ah, no, that's right. I wonder where everyone went?" He said, though I could have sworn that he sing-songed that...

Leon shook his head, ignoring the crazy spirit. "Besides that, I'm worried about Elaine. It'd be good if she was safe, but..."

The man took this chance to speak up, nervous. "If you're talking about Ilene-san, I just saw with some people at coliseum." He muttered. Leon turned to him sharply, dead serious.

"Really?"

"Like I'd lie about that! Can I go, already?" The man snapped, dancing from foot from foot. Leon nodded, not bothering to watch as the man ran off with the other townsfolk. Chaltier apparently had decided to be serious again, because he moved over to Leon's side from mine. Though I don't know when he'd been at my side, since my mind was still trying to wrap around what the heck was going on.

"Do you think the people Ilene was with could be Stahn and the others?" He asked, watching Leon nod quietly. He looked at Chal, watching him.

"I hope that's the case. All right, let's go to the coliseum." He said, gripping my wrist and running again. I don't know why he did that, since it sent a lot of blood to my face, but I soon found out why as I felt my energy run out. With him holding onto me, it forced me to run with him instead of stop and become monster food. I wanted to grip onto his hand, but I knew it was safer for him to hold my wrist right now. We reached the coliseum in no time at all, getting there just in time to see Stahn shaking hands with some sort of fighter. I had no idea how to describe the man, but Leon quickly let me go to walk over to Stahn and the rest of our group. "What the hell are you all doing here!" he snapped, gaining the group's attention.

Stahn stared at Leon in surprise, walking over to meet the two of us half way. "Leon? The match is already over."

Leon groaned, looking ready to facepalm himself. "There is no time for this! The town has been swamped by monsters!" he snapped, startling the group and the strange fighter who had walked up next to Stahn.

"What was that?" Stahn and the fighter exclaimed in shock, glancing at each other in worry. The fighter looked at Leon, punching the palm of his other hand in frustration.

"Damn, just what has happened!" he growled, looking quite ready to fight. Dymlos appeared next to Stahn, sharing a look with the blond. Stahn nodded slightly, bringing our (Those who could see Dymlos) attention to the swordian spirit.

"We should go too."

Stahn's hands clenched into fists, looking serious. "Why are monsters here! Anyway lets check out the town!" He said to grab the attention of those who couldn't hear Dymlos. This way everyone was on the same track. We all glanced around at each other, nodding and heading to town after Leon strictly told me to stay with Ilene if we found her while we were in town. I honestly wanted to learn how to fight and pull my own weight, but I couldn't do that if I was stuck on guard duty. Or more accurately: Just standing there and defending from anything that gets past the others till someone else can kill it. It was irritating, but I kept quiet as we raced back to town.


Sayako: Well... I got it done! Now my only problem is that my two scripts I'm using don't agree after this point. I don't have Stahn's side of the game so a lot of things are missing and I have no idea where to go. If anyone could help me figure out where to find the other side of the script I'd be most grateful! The Original game and the Remake have too many differences script-wise from what I see... So... Help (and reviews) are greatly wanted! *bows*