"Why hello there, old friend!" I cheerfully greeted to the open chest that had been dropped by earlier today. It also came alongside my confirmation of my success in the exam but I was more interested in the chest. For within its thick metal and wooden hold was anything I had on me that was not declared Rose's. And it was lucky I had my bracelet lied about, otherwise, I'd just be putting it on now!

Either way, I was just really glad to have a pile of bandages in my hands again. Yet, I did not put them on as I was mostly disgusted by them. Were they always this filthy? They were stained with blood, muck, riddled with damage and so on.

"First thing to do is laundry, got it." I then said in confirmation before I began to pick up everything, then opening the door once it was all in hand. A giggle leaving me as the door had also been quickly replaced so now I could leave on my own! I was no longer bound to some stupid rota and various bonds of trust! I had the ability to self-determine when I wanted the door open again!

"Make way coming down!" I let out happily as I hopped gently down the stairs until I was downstairs again. Shrugging when it turned out that no one was actually on the stairs and then moving on into the kitchen. A sudden force putting me into the wall when I turned the corner.

"What did I hit!?" I heard Einervaene question suddenly as footsteps began to flood the area. There were signs of panic also being heard as I removed myself from the wall. Staring intently at the chest that fell apart in my hands like a weak cardboard can holder.

"Best apologise!" Lari then demanded of the copper-haired woman as I looked up at them before laughing.

"I don't think that will clean them." I said through the laughter as I began to gather it all up. Carefully inspecting the mask first, however. If that had been broken then there might be an actual issue. But, couldn't I get one made like how Einervaene got an outfit made?

"So how are you feeling, Chitter?" I was then asked by Omb as he came over with a brush to deal with the mess.

"You don't have to do that..." Einervaene tried to say before she was waved down by him. Her sense of responsibility however made her very nosey over how Omb did it.

"It's fine, just some wood and metal. Besides, smoking meat with wood is good and this wood won't disappear." Omb said with a hearty chuckle as the pan he brought filled up.

A few chitters leaving me before I then said anything, "Chitters? That's a new one... Jiggly..." I began to say before just going with what came to my head for a nickname.

"I suppose he is!" Lari then said as she began to prod at Omb, much to his pleasure.

"Oh, stop it you two." he said with some embarrassment before he left after patting my back.

"So what is all this then?" I was then asked by the sapphire-haired beauty who had helped me get to this point. A brief nervousness flushing itself through me before it went away.

"This is what I was wearing before I was forced to wear this..." I said to her before saying it to myself. A frown on my face before I then tore off the prisoner's attire.

"Oh my, Nin!" Lari cheered while Einervaene went red and looked away.

"Have some decency... There are children who live here." Einervaene mumbled.

"A child, now, Big-Harlot, get changed or get out of my sight." Quinshuu corrected before he then demanded. His arms crossing over while he shook his head.

"I am suddenly inclined to not get changed." I tell him as I drop everything and start to stretch. Mostly doing what one might have done in front of a mirror to show off their muscles. The sudden series of gasps I then got when the Grouchy Nomad left making me stop.

"Where... When did you get all these scars?" Lari then asked me as she took my hand and rubbed it.

"I've had them for a while..." I say to her as I rub two related to my death. That one Vapooliar must have given me and the other from Waionr. Personally, that latter one confused me, how did a cut my soul get transfer to my actual body...? To say nothing of how this one felt strange altogether.

"Your back is looking much better." Einervaene commented shortly after as she looked at where I was pecked.

"I wanna see." I said as I began to try and lean my head over my shoulder. A giggle leaving Lari just before my back was made wet and then dry.

"Here you go!" she said with a smile as she held in her hands a solid and wet reconstruction of my back.

"Still healing...? Well, alright..." I commented in confusion while staring at the outlines of where beaks got into my back.

"I think it has healed, it just stands out more." Lari said to me as her fingers went across my back.

"How can something that has properly healed stand out?" I asked her, which, oddly, made her go quiet.

"I think she means your carapace has changed shape a little." Einervaene then offered up as clarification.

"Changed how?" I counter-asked with.

"Correction, colour, it's gotten a bit paler."

"Then why is the magic replica thinner at parts...?"

Lari looked away embarrassed, "It's water, I can't do colour so I made it thinner to emphasise colour."

"Should have seen that coming." I told her with a laugh before picking up my stuff again. Nodding out a thanks to Einervaene after our hands briefly touched collecting all the bandages. Soon moving on to my task once again while those two followed.

"So when's the party?" Lari asked as she danced ahead of me. Einervaene seemingly more focused on it than I.

"Party?" I asked her as I began to sort everything out. My cloak and bandages soon going into a washing machine while my mask was left alone. I might have to do that manually by the looks of it. Or not going by the magic in Lari's hand.

"You know, to celebrate everyone in our dorm passing their entrance exams!"

"Everyone here passed?" I asked her as I gave her the mask and some soap or something. Her magic quickly becoming filled with bubbles before she then began to clean my mask. The washing machine having been turned on as well so that was thumping away. Well, for an absurdly short time.

A few blinks of my eyes being directed at the machine before I began to fiddle with it, "It's meant to be that short, but yes! Everyone passed! I, you, Tiya, Ombbo, Quinshuu, Einervaene, Rose, Dandel'lhia and Vadei! All of them! So let's celebrate!" Lari demanded with a cheer as I was given back my soaking wet mask. Sniffing it first before then leaving it by a window to dry out before I then sat down.

"Well, I did have some plans for tonight or whenever..." I mumbled while rocking in my chair. My mind focused on the drama regarding the Thrurstradtur guards leaving. Some students were being hysterical about it while I was ready to laugh my throat to death over it. I even planned on going to the big arch at the main entrance to this place and doing it on that.

"Oh? What'cha doing? What'cha doing?" Lari asked me while hopping up at down before she then leaned on me to do it. A smile on my face as I moved along with the vibrations she was sending through me.

"Bit of climbing, not too much." I tell her before then remembering something when I looked at Einervaene.

"Yes, Urtuoi-kischu?" she asked me as I stood up.

"What was the time Baltanthan wanted to see us?" I asked her as I remembered the one who apparently secured my future. Lari had been in joyful tears when she got back here and spoke to me about it. She was sobbing so much over something that never came to be as well. Which, oddly enough, made me very happy and very giddy.

It felt nice knowing someone was that upset over such a thought, she was a true friend of mine.

"Not long from now, should we get going then?" Einervaene asked back with as she began to leave the dorm.

"You coming?" I asked Lari as I followed the lightning maker with my carapace fully showing. It made me nervous, but I wanted to really enjoy the guards leaving.

"No, I'm fine, I am going to do something while you are gone!" she barely explained before dancing off. Her hands having slapped Einervaene against me on her way out and a shock going into me as such.

"I'M SORRY!" Einervaene screamed out in my face as she went on top of me after I dropped down due to the shock.

"APOLOGY ACCEPTED!" I shouted back at her as she got up after realising what she just did. The getting on me part, not the shocking me part.

"So are you not going to...?" she asked while looking away and looking back sometimes. Her eyes focused mainly on my main scar along the chest.

"No, I have plans that are best served by being... Naked." I explain to her before slowing down mentally. Was I truly naked as osibindah didn't really wear clothes full stop? Nothing was freely dangling and this carapace was like an outfit in and of itself but even then... Was I naked or just clothesless?

"It can get quite chilly out there, are you sure?" she asked me as she looked at the dormant washing machine.

"No it doesn't, besides, you can't say much Lady Clevage." I tell her as I poke a claw dangerously close to her skin. Right at the underside of her front where her breasts hanged out from.

"I... I... I ca..." she began to mumble while she just kept on heating up. An entertained huff coming from me as I got her moving shortly after.

"Focus now." I tell her with a gentle slap before I stopped at the door. Nervousness of my own filling me as I stood there. I was about to go on a full display of my osibindah body to a public that could easily kill me... And then, with slow nods accompanying it, I went outside.

Nervously laughing to myself awkwardly as lots of eyes suddenly focused on me. Lots of chittering leaving my mouth while I stuck close to Einervaene as we walked across the academy. And it was odd now, here I was with my full body on display and no one was saying anything. Days prior they were happy to make fun of me, mock me and deride me and so on.

Yet now they did nothing but stare... Maybe they were still registering my success and were just in shock? Or, perhaps they now had to treat me nicely as I was a student and not a potential corpse? I hoped it was them finally leaving me alone, but that was too optimistic.

"Is that Rossie-chira over there?" Einervaene then pointed out with a finger. My head following it and watching in confusion as what seemed to be Rose sped off.

"It was Rose over there." I corrected under the assumption that was her. They were a bit far away so I guess it was a guess made by Einervaene. She was likely right, though. Not many here with petal-like hair the colour of red roses with narrow, needle-like legs and a tail.

Or a preference for skimpy clothing.

"Are you perhaps going to want to speak to her now that your... Issue is dealt with?" Einervaene asked me with how she did it confusing me. Why was she dodging the topic of my potential execution? Was she trying to be polite or something? It didn't really matter now, I was going to live!

"I'll leave it for now, let her come of her own accord." I told her as I began to briefly think on what was once my closest companion. Even if it was a rather one-sided closeness from her. I may have been in a better mood than usual but she had hurt me badly with her words. As such, I still had some resentment towards her which stayed my initiative.

"Do you still harbour any ill will towards me over when I was like that...?" I was then asked out of the blue by Einervaene.

"A little." I joked with little cues that it was a joke. But I then made it clear when she started to look upset. And I did so by moving to tickle her a little before then being shocked off.

"Sorry!" she immediately let out while I shook my hands.

"How did you pass your exam with that level of control?" I joked to her while thinking on how she has become... I want to say unstable around me but that gave the wrong implications. Perhaps jittery was a better description as she seemed more like that? I did not really know, either way, she was embarrassed as per the usual with her.

That happened a lot as of late so maybe I needed to find out why? Or, I could get a third party involved to do it for me as I might not get a meaningful answer. Just more stutters and red faces. Which, admittedly, I would not mind, it is what made teasing Einervaene fun.

"This is my first time ever coming here." I then commented as we came upon the entrance of the grounds of the Traditional something. Having also passed the small army by the main entrance as it was clear the guards were getting ready to go. But, there was easily lots of students there too, no way that was just guards brought here to watch me. That was clearly too many!

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

"It's a lot denser than our part of the academy." Einervaene commented while she looked at the rows upon rows of dorms and buildings. It was like being in a city again! Not even Tryhpeltzweig was this heavily developed and that was an actual town! All this urbanisation even made me yearn for home as it was just so close in feel.

Well, maybe not too close as I was now getting the usual responses I got here. Insults, rubbish being hurled at me and so on. Pretty much the usual I had been dealing with but much more of it. Yet, most people here seemed too scared to act.

"You're making them nervous. Get in." Baltanthan said as he suddenly appeared from a doorway. His aggressive hands ushering us inside before he then slammed the door and rushed upstairs. A shouting match happening between him and what sounded like a dozen women or something. I would call him lucky but I don't think he likes people at all.

"So, enjoying your stay here?" I then asked him as soon as he came back to us with a red face and aggravated sigh.

"I was hoping that these Aahtha Zealots would be gone now. Instead, they linger and now they are breathing down my neck over you being here. Better yet, why'd you come naked!?" he explained before he picked up on the aggression and got in my face.

"I'm not naked, I'm just clothesless." I replied while smiling, a chuckle building up in my mouth while his eye twitched.

"Exactly what being naked is you damn bug." he angrily mumbled before he collapsed into a chair. A long and tired sigh leaving him as his head turned to Einervaene. A wave from her being met with a half-hearted gesture from him.

"So why'd did you want to meet us here?"

"Where's the snobby one first?" I got in return. Something that led to my own sigh coming out while Einervaene moved forward.

"She and Urtuoi-kischu have had issues develop. They aren't seeing each other anymore."

"I thought you said you weren't dating." I was then accusingly asked.

"We weren't!" I told him loudly while Einervaene looked away embarrassed. Her lips making movements but she did not say anything.

"Sure, but this is fine by me, the tolerable one is here and the one I need to clarify to is also here." Baltanthan began with before I took the opportunity to tease.

"Hear that Einervaene, he needs to clarify something to you." I said to her with a chitterish laugh.

"Not her, you!" Baltanthan began as he stood up, "I want it to be made clear to you that you are alive because of me coming to help you and that I now owe you nothing!"

"Why did you owe me...?" I asked while tilting my head, genuinely having no clue what he was on about. Was this some kind of thanks regarding the hunts we did while travelling here? I can't recall an instance where I saved his life at all. Maybe it was just something that happened and it stuck with him...?

"For getting me out of that low-altitude ravine town!" he said, filling me with enlightenment with that short answer.

"Ah... In which case... Thank you?" I told him while moving to rub my carapace-covered neck. My equally armoured claws sliding along the smooth shell as I did so. Then, I just turned to face the oven as it was cooking something and I was frankly lost.

"Thanks are not needed, just wanted to clarify this to you so don't get any ideas!"

"Alright, alright, but why did the others have to be here...?"

"Because, ultimately, they still played into my arrival here. So, as such, a thanks is owed to them too." he further explained with various gestures.

"It was no trouble, really, Baltanthan, we were travelling together. It was only right I helped out." Einervaene said to him while showing a very modest level of bashfulness. An amused gust of air leaving my nose over that.

"Even so, I can now live the dream I have wanted to enact for so long." he said quietly while rubbing a rusty piece of metal. Looked like some kind of bolt by the looks of it. One rusted orange and brown so it must have been an iron bolt.

"Well, I suppose I should thank you too, Baltanthan, and I mean it. What you did literally stopped me dying." I told him before patting his back with a smile, one being on his face too. A particularly smug one at that too.

"Great, in which case we are done here then!" Baltanthan exclaimed before he moved to the door. A gloved hand from my big-chested companion stopping him.

"Baltanthan, this is the first time we have seen you since we got here and were separated all those months ago! At least spend some time with us, come to our part of the Academy even!" Einervaene offered while tugging at his arm enthusiastically.

"No, I got studying to do. I want to take part in as many magic-focused clubs and events as possible now and I want to experience it all! Got three free years here anyway, plenty of time to get settled in as well." he said while continuing to ramble on about various things. He talked about what clubs interested him and how he might do these contracts the Academy offers and so on. He even went on about Mechanical House and doing stuff there.

Einervaene giggled at this and tugged some more, "Then think about it like this, you are just studying with us to figure out new ways to handle your magic. After all, we have a light user, me, Urtuoi-kischu and his more physical approach. A fire, water and ice user too!" that last one getting his attention real good.

"Ice magic...?" he asked before he brought a notetablet out of his pockets. And by the gods did he have a lot of pockets. He even found ways to stuff them all fully too!

"Come with us and find out!" Einervaene told him as she began to leave along with him.

"Fine, I'll go. I'll go and see what all the fuss is about." he said while nodding eagerly before a sudden surge of upwards noise happened. Lots of bangs and loud whispers.

"Is he gone now!?" someone called from upstairs.

"NO!" Baltanthan shouted back before he slammed the door with me still being in the building. He and Einervaene having left it when he closed the door.

"Baltanthan!? What about now!?" a different voice called out before it was followed by screaming. The women upstairs having panicked when they saw me standing there, chittering away.

"Not as bothersome as it used to be." I said with an odd expression on my face. I was both smiling slightly while also frowning. Not really something that went well together at all. Like melted cheese on bread. But, I had also lied as well, it still bothered me, it bothered me a lot.

Perhaps it was just how I dealt with it now that made it seem like it was less of an issue?

"Bug!" Baltanthan then called when the door suddenly opened in my face. A loud bang ringing out as it shook after having hit my blocky foot.

"Try not to close the door on me this time." I told him with a mocking headshake before moving on out with them. Just sort of listening to the pair talk while I looked around some more at all the buildings. Looking up at the roofs and all the way down whenever we passed a narrow staircase made of stone.

"Hold on you two, I got to go do something." I then told the pair all of a sudden once we left Baltanthan's part of the Academy. Racing over to the big arch at the entrance and climbing up it with a wide grin on my face before making myself known. Laughing maniacally at the guards as they left the Academy grounds in long but thin columns. An uproar of boos and insults being directed at me as I carried on laughing down at them.

"NO! THAT DOES IT! I AIN'T LETTING THAT THING LIVE!" someone from the guard columns shouted in rage before magical bullets began to be fired at me. A squeak nearly leaving me as I got away from the quickly interrupted stream of shots. My head taking its time before I peaked over. A brow soon being raised as I watched some other kind of guards drag the shooter to the ground.

"Where have you guys been...?" I sarcastically asked as I watched these guards completely ignore me and take the rest away. All except that one that fired at me who was now shouting in rage at how he committed no crime and other rubbish.

"That kind of behaviour is unacceptable! Take him away, you two. To the Lawbreaker's Containment with him!" some man dressed in lots of silvery plate armour with a big sword ordered. A frustrated shake of his head coming from him before he looked at me as I came down. An intense stare being what I got from him and the men he commanded. And I was uncomfortable with these men, they said and did nothing but stare with beady eyes...

Surrounded by darkness... A bit like the ones I met with Vapooliar in that mountain after she showed me those airships.

"So you're the one we were borrowed for?" the armoured man asked me in amusement while he paced around me.

"Borrowed for?" I asked while staring at his sword. Mentally swearing I had seen that kind of fancy and overly large kind of blade before. I even swore I knew that armour as it looked oddly like Vapooliar's shattered up set. Well, admittedly, I might just be conflating needlessly.

"Yes, the Suhurlodst Academy of Arcane Learning and Understanding wanted to use the guaranteed discipline of these Men of Joint-Skill under my command to ensure nothing like that would happen."

"Right... Well, thank you." I said while looking away in embarrassment. Only returning my gaze when he began to laugh.

"Just doing our job, Student Nin."

"You know my name?"

"Of course, bit hard not to know the name of the only recorded osibindah student in all of Jhermonikra!"

"I see..." I said while returning to intently staring at his equipment. My ears even picking up on a few whispers from the other students still near us. Some were sad I was not dead or dying while others kept saying a particular word over and over. A word I had strong associations with to some extent.

Valkinvar, what Vapooliar is or was...

"Something wrong?" I was then asked as this man looked down at his armour to see if anything was wrong with it. His attention soon going to the pure emerald cloth he had on around his waist and lower torso. And I was talking, like, really pure emerald cloth, it looked like glass yet clearly wasn't!

"Is that meant to be...?" I then asked him in an effort to get my mind away from Vapooliar for the moment. A claw pointed directly at a picture of a large mountain that dominated others in scale. Our eyes also moving to face the mountain in question.

"Jhroungijherammujhernosumonaterikra? It is indeed that mountain most blessed by Mighty Jhrarda." he explained with a smile before he bowed his head after looking at the sky. Or, rather, where the moon known as Jhrarda likely was.

"Why do you have that kind of symbolism?" I then asked while carefully noting how these guards looked. They had neither the same equipment, posture or colours as the men from Thrurstradtur. So were they perhaps a different country? Vapooliar did mention a war of some kind.

"Because we are the specially created micro-army based out of the Royal Jhermonikra Air-Navy Airship Illustrious that is charged with guarding The Second Up and Coming Royal Heir Lathamethurn." he explained with pride and happiness and a large smile.

"Interesting, well, I guess I will see you lot around then...?"

"Heirguard Galanmarck is the name." he said after catching on to my gestures.

"Right, see you later, Galanmarck!" I said before scurrying off. His head having shot back in surprise when I said his actual name rather than his job first. I don't think I will ever get used to saying peoples jobs first alongside their name. Felt weird and I was not going to do it, but, for now, I had a dorm to get back to.

So I ran and ran and then jumped up high in order to get around easier. It was also just more comfortable leaping about the roofs of these buildings and so on. Lari really had done a number on me if this was the case as it was just so much more enjoyable that it was hard to describe. I was away from all the problems of the academy and all I had was my focus and momentum.

Momentum I cast away like nothing once I finally got back to the dorm I had been staying at. A brief sense of confusion filling me up as I noted how spacious this place really was in comparison to Baltanthan's House. Confusion that stayed and warped into another kind when I got inside as my mailbox was marked. I gave the others permission to get rid of any spiteful mail directed at me yet this was here.

Not even stone either, this one was written entirely on paper and rather well as well! So, with a growing sense of curiosity, I moved to open it.

"Ah, Nin, someone dropped that off for you not too long ago. They did it in person and were insistent on just you reading it."

"Haven't we been over this, Tiya," I started off with as I turned to face Lari's sister, "Even if they say just me, still inspect it!" I told her while shaking the letter.

"I thought about doing that, but she was just too insistent about it. She promised it was not any kind of taunt or threat and so on. Just a request." she explained while raising her hand.

"A polite request to kill myself no doubt." I muttered before reading it, my expression softening as I got through it. Nothing like I had just foretold at all, it was just a simple request to meet at Suhurlodst. At a segment called the Nest of the Hunter-Bird. And at the bottom of the letter, it was signed...

Signed by Vapooliar...

"Well?" I was then prodded with before I began to rush away from the dorm.

"Tell the others I got something to do! It's very important!" I called out to Tiya just before I properly raced off away from our dorm. Soon slowing down however when I read the letter again. It was insisting on me coming at night, when it was dark and so on. But it wouldn't be dark for a while yet so I guess I would have to linger.

Yet, instead, I chose to go back to Tiya, "Ignore what I just said, I'll be staying here for a bit." I said while breathing as if I was panting. But, rather, I was both shocked and surprised and nervous. Vapooliar wanted to see me, after all this time I would finally see her again! Yet, I was what we once fought to escape from...

I was a more developed form of what caused her to enter a state of hysterics when near... And as I rubbed my left arm, about where she had crushed it, I shivered. Was I just walking into a new way to be killed...? Vapooliar didn't just hate osibindah, she was terrified of them from what I had seen from her!

Gods help me...

.

.

.

"Now seems to be a good time." I mumbled to myself as I snuck away from the music-filled dorm. One filled with laughter and joy so I could wander off into solitude and anxiety. All so I could see someone important again, someone I have been meaning to see for a long time. Yet, even as I walked, jumped and ran there in various orders...

I just could not shake off certain feelings about how it might play out. I have not seen Vapooliar since I said I would deal with Rose back at her flower... And she has not seen me since she cut me in half. From shoulder to hip in what must have been one clean cut. And as I thought on that, my hand went across my exposed scar.

I had not put on the bandages or mask again, but, I had put on my cloak and hat again. Just so I could potentially hide my form from her when I finally saw her again. She hated my left arm being the way it was, it was clear she would hate my body being like it too. Not even my voice was safe as I just could not stop the chitters.

"Undwote stay away," I started off with a stutter in my voice before moving on to a prayer I hadn't used in a while, "Loyal Pack of Seven I tell you: begone! God of Death, I tell you to remember your other calling, that of Friendship..." I began to say before remembering it would not work here. It was one used for someone else dying. Not for yourself.

Either way, I guess it didn't matter as now I was here at the place I was asked to be. So far away from the Academy named after this ruin I was now at. I was surprised I even got out here without issue. I just kept expecting airships to run me down!

But, I was just too nervous now, so I turned to move away before I heard footsteps. Moving back in fright as a shadowy figure moved through the darkness of the ruins. A soft green glow about them that went on to go away as they stepped out into the moon's light. And I looked on with widened eyes at what I saw.

A woman with tanned skin and short, brown hair with a green tint to it with her eyes being the same. Her figure was slender and gifted yet it was still very clearly defined with refined muscle. It was the body of a warrior and the way the air changed around them made it clear. My magic training having made me much more sensitive to her aura and external-magic.

The magic that saved me so many times... That of Vapooliar, my friend.

"So it is true." she quietly said with hurt in her voice before she stepped away slightly.

"Vapooliar... You don't have to worry, this isn't a trick, it is me! I am Nin Urtuan! We were in a camp together for a week or so with a tailed-woman called Vadei and a pair of slavers! They were furry and had spines all over their backs and..." I quietly said at first before I began to pick up the tone and speed along. Listing off as many details as I could to get her to listen before she raised her hand and silenced me.

"I don't need you to tell me that, I never doubted it for a moment when I saw your face."

"My face?" I repeated in confusion... What about my face...?

"Your eyes, those are yours. I could never forget those eyes. Nor can I forget the face they are now on." she said to me as her eyes focused intensely on my chest and its long scar.

"I see..." I respond with while slimming down my posture. Nervously rubbing my claws together before I then watched the simply dressed woman strip down. Her body standing proudly under the moon despite its exposure. And as I did not know how to react, I turned away, trying to hide that view from my sight.

"And now I know it is not an osibindah in that head of yours." she said as she turned around and showed me her back. One of her hands eagerly moving about as if it wanted to grasp something. Was... Was she waiting for me to give her an excuse to cut me in two again!?

"Is there a reason you wanted to see me after all this time...? Why now? If you saw my name or heard it why didn't you come sooner!?"

"I was not ready to, that is all I will say."

"Okay..."

"And I fear this may also be the last time I will ever speak to you like this." she then went on to say. Something that made me flinch and regain some confidence in my movements. At least, until I saw a more aggressive posture from her...

"But why...? You're my friend! I am your friend!"

"A friend I was forced to kill because he turned into a monster." and then it happened, tears began to form.

"I'm not..." I tearfully mumbled while stepping back slightly.

"Yes, you are. You are a monster here to make a mockery of me. I don't know how you are back or if you even really are Nin. But he is dead, I killed him. I had to..." she said coldly at first before she too began to break down.

"I'm not here to do any of that... I just want to see my friend..." I tell her with the chitters in my voice sounding so much louder now. Her magic ever more imposing and scary.

"Goodbye... Nin." she then suddenly blurted out before she shot off into the sky with a boom. The force having brought me down to the ground as I was not prepared. And as I lay there, on the grass, watching her magic trail get smaller and smaller. I just cried, I just laid there and cried without stopping even as my claws tried to block my eyes.