Part 1

The gourmet guild were bundled up in heavy winter jackets and boots as they traveled their way up a mountain on a guild quest to make some more money.

"Come on Pecorine, of all the quests you had to pick, it was this one?" Kyaru said in an angry tone.

"Sorry Kyaru, but we're short of money this month and I promised Karin I'd pay her as soon as possible!" Pecorine said. As the gang made their way up the mountain, the wind became colder and stronger.

"My lord, hold onto my hand."

"Sure. Are you OK?" Yuuki asked Kokkoro.

"I'm fine my lord. I appreciate your concerns, but I'm more worried about you. You're not very good in cold weather are you?"

"Hey I'm not very good in this weather either!" Kyaru shouted back at Kokkoro and Yuuki. "Seriously Kokkoro stop babying Yuuki! He can handle this weather just fine!"

"I'm sorry but it's my duty to protect and serve my lord. I must do everything I can to keep him out of harm's way."

Unfortunately for Kokkoro, something that was going to put Yuuki in harm's way was coming. As the gang climbed the mountain, they started to hear a low rumbling sound.

"Hey, did you guys hear that?" Shefi asked. Everyone stopped and listened closely, but the only thing they could hear was the low sound of the wind.

"Maybe it was just my imagination, but I could have sworn I heard a low rumbling sound."

"Must be my stomach, it has been a while since I've eaten." Pecorine said, rubbing her stomach.

It wasn't her stomach though, what it was was an avalanche. Coming towards the gang was a giant pile of snow rushing down the mountain.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Kyaru stated before taking off and running. The gang quickly followed behind, trying to outrun the giant pile of snow. The snow was getting closer and closer to them, and showed no signs of stopping. Yuuki, seeing the danger right behind him, grabbed Kokkoro and carried her fireman style.

"My lord! I appreciate you carrying me but-"

Before she could say anything, the snow knocked Yuuki to the ground. The whole gang got swallowed up by the avalanche, sending them down the mountain.

"Jeez…what happened?"

Shefi was the first one to make it out of the pile of snow, holding her head which was currently aching. She was shaken up from the avalanche, but mostly OK. Not too far from her was Kyaru, who popped out of the snow and sneezed.

"Damn it Pecorine, I knew this was a bad idea! We should have chosen to do a job near the beach or the forest!" Kyaru said, wrapping her arms around herself in order to try and keep warm. While she was doing that, Pecorine and Kokkoro popped their heads out of the snow.

"Is everyone OK?" Pecorine asked.

"No! I'm freezing!" Kyaru said. Pecorine responded to this by hugging Kyaru tightly.

"What the heck are you doing?"

"Warming you up silly." Pecorine said in a cheerful voice.

"I would tell you to get off of me, but this honestly does feel nice…"

"My lord? My lord! Has anyone seen my lord?" Kokkoro said, looking around.

"Yuuki shouldn't be too far from here." Pecorine said.

"True, but I can't seem to find him anywhere. I know before he fell down under the snow he was carrying me." Kokkoro said.

"Well come on then! Let's go look for him!" Pecorine said, getting up and brushing off the snow.

"Ugh, damn that Yuuki. He's always getting himself lost in some sort of way. I almost wish there was a way we could keep him on a collar or something." Kyaru thought to herself.

Meanwhile, not too far away Ranpha was walking by herself. Going on walks to clear her mind was something she liked to do, and she really needed to do it right now as she was faced with a harsh situation.

"I don't want to tamper with his memories, but at the same time Eris is going to be very upset with me if I don't do this." she said to herself. She reached into her pocket and pulled out the orb that Eris had given her, taking a long hard look at it.

It was a small thing, yet powerful enough to mess with someone's memories.

"Ugh."

Ranpha looked up when she heard the sound of someone moaning in pain.

"Hello? Is anyone there?"

She looked around, but couldn't find anyone at first. She then looked down to see someone face down in the snow. She cautiously went over to the person and question and turned them over.

"Yuuki?"

Indeed, before her was the boy she was looking for. Yuuki wasn't looking so good however. The avalanche did a number on his body, leaving him with bruises all over. If it wasn't for the heavy jacket and pants, said bruises would have been cuts.

Ranpha placed Yuuki's head on her lap.

"How did you get this way Yuuki?" she asked him. Yuuki didn't respond. He was still very out of it after getting knocked around by the snow. Ranpha looked at the orb she had in her hand. She was still hesitant to use it, but now seemed like a good time as Yuuki laid before her, completely out of it.

There was also the possibility that the gourmet guild would show up soon. It was now or never for her.

Yuuki slowly opened up his eyes to see Ranpha looking down at him.

"Ranpha? What's she doing here?" he thought to himself, still unable to speak.

"I hate to do this to you Yuuki, and quite honestly I don't want to. However, you seem in really bad shape right now…maybe, doing this will help you in some way…" Ranpha said. Yuuki was in too much pain to be confused, and once again shut his eyes.

Ranpha did the same, picturing the face of the boy as she held the orb tightly, which started to glow up from her hand. Ranpha was taking Yuuki to a dream, but not the type that Yuuki was used too…

Part 2:

"Hey are you alright?"

Standing over yuuki was a man with a mustache wearing a top hat and a dress suit. Yuuki was on the cold hard ground looking up at him.

"Ugh, yeah. I must have fallen." Yuuki said, grabbing the man's hand and pulling himself up off the ground.

"Thanks." Yuuki said, dusting himself off. While up, yuuki gave the man his ticket to enter the building. As yuuki entered, he started to feel lost and confused.

"How exactly did I end up in this situation?" Yuuki asked himself. He was positive that he was doing something else before he entered this place.

Yuuki felt lost, wandering around the hall while trying not to bump into anyone.

"You seem nervous." One of the men said to him.

"I guess you could say that…" Yuuki told him.

"I don't blame you for being on edge tonight. One of the most beautiful girls in the country is gonna be attending the ball tonight."

"One of the most beautiful girls in the country?"

The man nodded.

"I've been looking forward to this dance because of her. She's going to choose someone to dance with her tonight, and if that partner puts on a good show, we'll, I don't want to get too ahead of myself…"

Now along with being lost, Yuuki was nervous. This was his first ball after all, and to hear that the stakes were this high for one girl made him quite nervous.

As he looked around though, his nerves settled. Around him were a ton of other men in all sorts of suits and other fancy clothes that would fit someone of a high class status. Chances were, yuuki wasn't going to get chosen to dance with whoever this girl was.

To calm his nerves, Yuuki went ahead and grabbed some stuff to eat. Just as he was going to sit down and eat, the room got quiet. Yuuki turned around to see a girl coming into view. The girl had dark hair with a red horn on the side of her head. She wore a dark blue dress, and from what Yuuki could see, was barefoot.

"Well, there she is! Her name is Ranpha, what a beauty she is." the man who talked to Yuuki earlier said. Yuuki couldn't help but agree, as even he was taken back by her beauty. The girl looked around the room, scanning it to see who was there.

She looked so innocent and shy as she did, seemingly taking her time to decide who she was going to dance with. That's when her eyes met Yuuki's. Slowly, the girl started to walk towards Yuuki. He wasn't sure if she was going to choose him, or someone else that was at his table. By the time she reached him however, her intentions were clear.

"Would you care to dance with me…" she said in a hushed tone. Yuuki nodded.

The two took to the dance floor as calming dance music played. Yuuki was nervous, but Ranpha guided him, taking his hands and dancing with him slowly on the floor.

"Are you nervous?" she asked him.

"Yeah…"

"It's OK, so am I," she said. Despite the two being nervous, they were both able to slow dance with one another. This was an entirely new experience for the two, and yet, they were able to do it without a missed step. When the music stopped, both Yuuki and Ranpha took a bow. The audience clapped at the two's performance.

Yuuki was going to head back to his table, but stopped as he felt Ranpha squeeze his hand.

"Can we talk out on the balcony?" she asked him. Yuuki nervously walked out to the balcony with Ranpha. Though it was winter, it didn't feel that cold outside to Yuuki. Ranpha was still barefoot, which Yuuki pointed out, worried that she would get frostbite.

"It's OK, I'm actually quite used to the cold." she said.

"So what did you want to talk to me about?"

"Nothing important, I just wanted to get to know you." she said in a quiet voice. "I know that your name is Yuuki, but I want to know other things about you." she said.

"What else would you like to know?" Yuuki said. Ranpha took a moment to answer, looking out at the view on the balcony. Yuuki also looked out with her. From the balcony, Yuuki saw nothing but the woods and the stars in the night sky. The snow started to slowly fall down and land on the trees and ground below.

"Why are you so nice to people?" Ranpha asked.

"That's a good question honestly…it's one I don't even know myself." Yuuki said. This caused Ranpha to tilt her head to the side.

"I suppose the best answer I can give is that I want to protect the people I care about. I know it sounds generic, but it's true. I want to give my friends happiness whenever I can…even when times are tough."

"Even when the world can be so cruel?"

"Hey, someone has to brighten up a dark room." Yuuki said, smiling at her. He then went to face the view from the balcony, the snow still coming down slowly. As he did, Ranpha slowly wrapped her arms around Yuuki. Yuuki didn't mind, nor flinch. Having Ranpha snuggle up to him was comforting and warm. So comforting in fact that he found himself dozing off.

Just then, Yuuki woke up. He looked around to find himself in what appeared to be a cabin. Just then, Yuuki got glomped by Pecorine and Kokkoro.

"My lord! Thank goodness you're alright!" Kokkoro said, tears in her eyes.

Slowly but surely Yuuki started to remember what had happened before he entered the dream, he was on a quest with his guild to find a monster that was attacking people in the mountains. As they were trying to find the monster, an avalanche came down on them and whipped them out.

"Sorry for making you guys worry." Yuuki said.

"I'm just glad you're ok! I don't know what we would do without you." Pecorine said, still clinging to Yuuki.

"I told you this was a bad idea Pecorine!" Kyaru said. "I'd be devastated if something happened yo Yuuki!" right after she said that, Kyaru covered her mouth, realizing what she said.

"Aww Kyaru, I'm glad to hear that you were worried about Yuuki too." Pecorine said with a smile.

"Well of course, he is one of our guild members after all. If something were to happen to him…it would be really bad." she said, trying to act as though she didn't care, though clearly she did.

Meanwhile, Ranpha was up and leaning up against a tree, thinking about that dream she had with Yuuki.

"You seem determined to help anybody no matter what…maybe you can help Misora."

"You called?"

Ranhpa jumped and almost fell down as peeking out from the tree was Misora.

"Uh, Misora, what are you doing here?"

"I wanted to know what you were up to. I hear that Eris gave you some type of special orb that could affect memories?"

"Y-yeah." Ranpha said, looking to the ground.

"You know, we could use something like that to our advantage…" she said with a smile.

"How so?"

"It's simple. We erase Yuuki's memories and make him on our side."

"Wouldn't that-"

"I know, I know, it would hurt their feelings. But hey, why not? I've dealt with my fair share of hardships as a kid, why not slap these girls with reality as their precious Yuuki is bowing down to my every whim and command."

"But what about Eris?"

"I'm not a fan of this place either…but I"m not ready to leave it just yet…" Misora said, looking up at the sky. "Let's have some real fun, shall we?"