Tia's Memories: The First of Ten \\ Tia & Kaori \\ Private

Kaori had watched from aboard her flag ship as a small, blimp like vessel had docked in the port. She hadn't known when Tia had acquired a ship, nor did she care. She was occupying a space that was reserved for a cargo ship that was supposed to be coming into port within a few minutes. Looking at a different screen in her office, Kaori saw that the cargo ship was early. Kaori's office was her trophy room as well as her guardian post. It was a room on her flagship that doubled as the war and strategic planning room. In the middle of it was a large, circular table with the map of the world and rolled up pages pinned to it with daggers. The pages marked contracts that Kaori had taken up, and there were currently four of them. Wooden figures shaped like men, horses, and ships dotted the map. A large cluster of men and horses were in Midi, with several ships on the largest port in the country. All of the ship pieces looked like a normal boat, except for one... At Hargeon's end of the map were two ships, one that was a normal boat piece, the other was a tiny version of the Arc of Destiny that was scaled to match.

The walls of the room were made of bloodwood, an extremely rare and expensive, but beautiful and rugged wood. Mounted on the walls at the top were the heads of different animals, taking up three rows and encircling the room. The animals weren't the cute ones like deer, elk, and gazelle; no, they were the horrifying types... the ones that Lamia Scale hunted. Below them, on each of the walls were weapons galore. Swords, spears, axes, bows, daggers, guns from all civilizations and time periods- all in perfect condition. Tables with glass cases on them lined the bottom of the room with treasures within, neatly arranged to display Kaori's travels. On the far side of the room was a desk with a stack of paper on it a foot thick sitting in the middle, and four more stacks of equal size on the right side. The desk, like the walls, was made of bloodwood and had an ornate golden pattern embedded into the top that made of gold, not gold paint. Hovering in front the desk were a dozen lacrima screens, all flashing with video feeds from within the residing guild and port town of Hargeon.

What was this exquisite room being housed in? Well, the Arc of Destiny of course! The ship alone was one-thousand five hundred feet from front to back and three-hundred fifty feet across. It towered at six hundred feet above the sea, and had two massive guns that a grown man could walk in, jump around and never hit the top of the barrel in. The top of the ship had a hatch that opened up to reveal a third one of these guns, and the sides had another hatch with two more half their size... the most terrifying part of the ship was that a man could still never hit his head on the top of the barrels if he jumped around in them. Hargeon Port's government had no problem with Kaori parking such a monstrosity in its port as the one who owned it was technically a government official herself, and held high status in the Magic Council as a 'Star' of sorts. While people did know of the ship, since it stuck out like a sore thumb; no one had ever seen the insides. No inspections were performed of the vessel since the ship was also considered Midi territory and any trespassing could be considered an act of war. No one was taken on board who wasn't crew, and the people who were crew were people Kaori all knew better than they knew themselves.

Needless to say, the ship was easily spotted from anywhere in the docks. Kaori pulled out her iLac and made a call to one of the dock officials. "There's currently a young woman docked in bay 36-C, would you mind rerouting her to 41-P?" she said, to which the official said he'd have done immediately. The official would point out to Tia the massive cargo ship that was about to pull in whether she moved or no, and asked her respectfully to move over to the Personal Ship section; even designating a spot that Kaori pointed out. While this was going on, Kaori had stood up and made her way over to the marina.

Upon arriving to Tia's ship, she would notice a different body guard with Kaori. Instead of the suave, and strong Ikuchi being present as she knew him; there was a rather large creature with Kaori. What was with her had a massive head with large, demon-like horns pointing behind it. The head would have many exposed teeth, and be decorated with black, gem-like scales that had crimson trimming on the ends. These scales continued down the back of Ikuchi, all the way to the tip of his tail. His sides, and belly were covered in a thick, dark grey, leathery material that may as well be on a rhino. His four massive claws were the same material as his scales, and were razor sharp. In terms of size, Ikuchi stood at six feet tall while standing on its four massive legs, fifteen feet from nose to tail, and three feet from shoulder to shoulder. It walked beside Kaori, towering her and even being larger than Tia herself. It would approach the ship, moving up to Tia and and giving her a quick smell before nudging her in the stomach with his snout. "That means he likes you." Kaori said in a calm voice. "Ikuchi's currently on a mission, so this one's gonna be accompanying me. Don't worry about him tearing anything up, he normally just finds a corner to curl up in." Kaori added.

The Dragonhound moved away from Tia and found his way to Chai who's entire body was smaller than his head. The teeth came close to her and he began sniffing at the small creature before picking her up in his teeth. She'd notice that his wasn't clamping down as he stalked off with the small purple exceed, and on his way past some books he'd used his tail to remove a book and balance it while walking. "And Chai's fate is sealed..." Kaori said nonchalantly, implying this was normal behavior. As Kaori said he would, the dragonhound went to a corner and curled up in it. The book was gently placed on the floor along with Chai, and the former was slid towards the latter with his tail. It was a simple book called 'Twisted' by Laurie Halse, and his whimpering implied he wanted her to read it to him. If anyone would look the dragonhound in the eyes, they'd notice his eyes were closed.

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Word Count: 1,163/6000
Mana: 100%

Tia had asked what Kaori had been up to for the past few months. "Nothing fun..." Kaori said with a disappointed tone. "I had a few meetings, killed some monsters, hunted a thief, blew myself up... twice, literally went to heaven to fight an archangel, got a free library, and stubbed my toe. Quite literally nothing fun to report." Kaori's tone implied she was serious when she said none of that was fun. Granted no one liked going to meetings, very few people could say they hunted monsters actively. No many people could tell a tale of how they tracked a thief to Fat Monsterland in the Cursed Lands and kicked her ass before reclaiming the stolen item. Very few people made themselves explode by practicing magic, which while not fun, it was an entertaining tale. Most people who went to heaven, normally did not come back. When people went to heaven, they didn't go there to fight one of the most elite of their fighters and everyone below them, and not all of them lived through it either. It was normal to get a new book or two for free, but to obtain an entire library -not to mention the library was from heaven itself and contained many books never seen by mortal eyes- was restricted to inheritance, blackmail, or buying it out. All Kaori had to do was bead down a shit ton of angels, talk down to a general, and threaten to turn his city into a pile of really expensive rubble- not like that would make a good story or anything...

Kaori had just remembered something she'd noticed earlier and wanted to check out. She suddenly vanished from being near Tia and reappeared behind Ray. The unsuspecting girl wouldn't hear a single thing since Kaori's movements didn't produce any natural sound. If she had enhanced hearing, she would hear a water droplet as it hit the surface of a body of water, but only one. Kaori also had a rather strange blessing, one that changed her scent to match that of the world around her which made it so she may as well not had any scent at all. Standing behind their lovely pilot, Kaori had a wide grin while staring at the pair of wings on her back and wiggling her fingers in anticipation. She would suddenly feel something pinching both of the wings. "Holy crap those are real!" Kaori shouted in surprise, not haven ever seen a human with wings before. "They're so cut!!!" she added while pinching them some more. The pinches weren't hard like when you tried confirming that you weren't in a dream, but rather just a very gentle touch... like when a lover caresses your body. While that's an extreme comparison, it's still valid. Kaori moved to a nearby window and looked out at the ocean, feeling a large smile grow on her face. She loved the sea, and the sky, and even the land. Not the way a tree hugger loved them, but rather, she loved being surrounded by it and seeing them change. Mountains became deserts that became prairies, that in turn became lush forests. Oceans became deltas, then rivers before finally ending at a large lake or turning into more rivers that lead back out to the ocean. Traveling by air, the skies were vast and the clouds looked soft enough to sleep on.

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Word Count: 1,731/6000
Mana: 100%

As the ship landed on the island, Kaori paid attention to the warm sun and the sand all over the place. There were a great deal of boulders littering the beach, with some trees much farther up ahead. The girl was asked to guard the ship, an idea that was pretty good considering as pirates had a tendency to come to islands. The dragonhound stalked his way out of the ship, slowly digging his five inch claws into the warm sand while looking around. Kaori looked back to the exceed and said "Chai, you should stay here too. If anything happens you can come and find us." with a calm voice. While the reason given was logical, the other reason was that she didn't want anyone with them who couldn't kick some ass. If Chai were to come along and get captured, it would mean that Tia and Kaori would have to stray from the mission at hand and find her again. It wouldn't be too hard since Ikuchi had her scent, but it'd still be a pain in the ass all the same.

Tia had noticed something that Kaori had not. Where she saw the land glowing, Kaori saw nothing but the sunlight radiating off the sand. Where she saw a beacon firing from a mountain, Kaori had seen a maintain standing tall and proud among the rest of the world around it. Tia had heard a voice, but where she heard that, Kaori had heard nothing more than the wind blowing. "I... actually didn't see anything..." Kaori said with an awkward tone, trying not to sound like she were accusing Tia of being insane. "How about for this one you lead, and I'll cover your back." Kaori said and gestured for Tia to take point. With a half dragon and the most dangerous person in Hargeon at her back, she had nothing to be afraid of.

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Word Count: 2,050/6000
Mana: 100%

Kaori watched as a small blue light showed up and began talking, to which she had no reaction to. If this were Kaori from the time she'd arrived in Fiore, she would have been thoroughly impressed. She would have been considering herself insane as she stood beside herself not knowing. In her short time in Fiore, Kaori had come across a zombie pirate that was friendly. She'd encountered a dragonhound that turned into a human, had a portal to another realm open up in the middle of her room, acquired an angel servant, summoned people from an entirely different realm, and so much more weird shit... A talking light at this point was just another day where 'because magic' was a valid explanation for it. The light turned into a woman about the size of an average book, so like... six or seven inches who split off into five others. Kaori stood there and blinked while tilting her head to the side while the small creatures explained they'd need to prove their strength. 'They do realize that just Tia alone could beat them, Ikuchi and I are... overkill when compared to overkill.' she thought while watching Tia begin.

Tia had used her fire book thing to dispatch two of the fairies. The other three commented on how they shouldn't be singing praises just yet, as three of them remained. They made it begin drizzling, a trick that made Kaori put on a bored face. "You three have even less a chance against us than before." Kaori said in a sigh and snapped her fingers. A white circle appeared in a large radius around them, marking the end of the battle as the three fairies were in range of the attack. A pure white magic circle formed within the area Kaori's spell specified as the air filled with a strange display of white, snow-like particles. Tia would see the particles appearing one by one and feel herself filling with a different emotion from whatever she was feeling before. She'd feel her heart grow heavy. She'd feel sadness, fear, despair, confusion, and an all encompassing feeling of helplessness. She'd then feel her body grow increasingly heavy until she was unable to move under the weight of Kaori's troubled heart. The three remaining fairies all hit the floor from the weight and slowly trembled with wide eyes at the amount of pain the attack produced. The pain wasn't the same as being hit by Tia's fire attack, but rather an emotional pain caused by the amount of pain Kaori lived with on a daily basis. Ikuchi seemed unaffected by the attack as he was bonded with Kaori, he knew her pains and aided in shouldering what few she would let him.

"We won." Kaori said bluntly, retracting her magic circle and allowing the three fairies and Tia to stop feeling her negative emotions. The three fairies laid on the ground still quivering from the attack, obviously having sustained some form of trauma from spending ten seconds in Kaori's life. "I'm sorry for doing that Miss Haiku, but I didn't feel like killing them." Kaori said while looking at Tia, her voice slightly distorted from the mask she wore. Ikuchi had walked over to one of the fairies and grabbed it by its clothes with his teeth. This action caused the small lady to return from her trip to hell and begin screaming to be released, even trying to bargain with the animal stating she's not worth eating. Kaori let out a sigh "Dammit, what's it with dragons and fairies...? Drop her!" Kaori exclaimed the command. The dragonhound opened its jaws and let the woman hit the floor before gently resting one of his toes on her, preventing escape. He let out a series of groans, much like the ones huskies let out, as though talking. "I don't care if you think she's cute, you can't have her!" Kaori argued with the beast.

Dragonhound: *More husky like groans* (But we won, we should get a prize.)
Kaori: "We've been through this before, people aren't prizes."
Dragonhound: *three short groans* (It's a fairy...)
Kaori: "That's actually a good point... still, no!."
Dragonhound: *long whine* (Why noooooot?)
Kaori: "Because I see it as human."
Dragonhound: *whimpering* (Please, master.)
Kaori: "Do we need to do more... 'training' tomorrow?"
Dragonhound: *sharp whine & groaning sound* (No ma'am!)

The dragonhound lifted its toe from the fairy, letting it go free. Meanwhile the other two fairies had watched the scene with a large sweat-bubble creeping down their back. The cause for it was that there was a human talking to a beast as though it were human, the beast was replying with full understanding of what the human was saying (or seemed like it knew), and they were arguing about the morality of claiming a fairy as a prize. That, and one of their comrades was being held captive by a giant monster of a dog... demon... thing and they had not the slightest clue what the hell to do. The three fairies were left to leave in the end, and Ikuchi was rather sad as he didn't get a new friend. Kaori rubbed his snout "There, there... if one of them picks you then you can pick him or her back..." Kaori said, providing a glimmer of home. Ikuchi licked her mask to show a sign of affection, making Kaori grateful she wore the mask. "Alright, now that we're done with that madness... Miss Haiku, you said we were going to the mountain, yes?" Kaori asked while looking at their fearless leader.

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Word Count: 2,984/6000
Mana: 100%

It wasn't too far after the events that their fearless leader had fallen for one of the most classic of all traps... the pit fall. Kaori's eyes turned to a black expression as she stopped and watched Tia continue walking, and then screaming as though genuinely surprised that she fell into a black pit. Sand everywhere and then a pile of leaves covering a singular patch of sand, and her logic was to walk right over it... It was almost enough to make Kaori leave her there while she went off to finish the mission, but only Tia knew where the book was. Kaori walked to the edge to see Tia pulling herself back up. 'Granted she was raised in what may as well be captivity, she's good at thinking quickly.' Kaori thought, giving the somewhat new adventurer credit where it was due. As she called for Kaori to help her out, she'd feel her body lifting up while a dark violet glow took over her form. Kaori used her telekinesis to se Tia gently on the safe side of the trap before moving herself over with the same technique. The dragonhound simply lept across the gap with no trouble at all, his powerful lets allowing him to do this. "Next time we come across a pile of leaves conveniently placed in the middle of our path, I'm casting my vote to go around it. All in favor?" Kaori said while holding her hand up, the dragonhound raising his tail. Her tone wasn't condescending, or even sarcastic; but rather it reflected the fact that she was trying to make a joke out of what could've been a nasty situation.

Attracted by the sound of Tia's rather vulnerable and cut scream, a group of Dark Mages crossed the duo's path as they continued forward. Kaori would put her hand on Tia's waist while moving herself in front of the group and drawing her sword. "These ones, I don't mind killing." she said while continuing her advance. The ten mages all began creating some sort of fusion spell, combining their shadowy magic to create a single blast of darkness. Kaori put her hand in front her and created a barrier that completely stopped the attack. She then vanished and when she reappeared, two of the mage's heads hit the floor followed by their bodies. The other eight mages all turned, realizing that their comrades had died before they even noticing Kaori vanishing. One of them tried to take a step back, as he was the closest to her, but was immediately cut from groin to mandible. A female dark mage was next on the menu, and as she charged a black orb to fite at Kaori, the ninja moved text to her while spinning on a heel. This put Kaori behid the mage, where she proceeded to cut her spine open. A vertical slash down the middle of the girl's back had ended her life, and Kaori vanished once more. When she reappeared, a fifth mage had met his end with a sword through the heart. Three of the remaining mages tried running for their lives, but the dragonhound flicked his tail and sent out a series of onyx spikes that hit them. The first one took four spikes to the head, heart, and lungs. The second had spikes fly through her stomach and tear her insides out, and the third had been hit in the head. The last two were coming at Tia, and Kaori had no concerns for the woman's ability to defend herself so she would let her handle them.

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Word Count: 3,585/6000
Mana: 100%

Kaori watched in silence as Tia dismissed the other two mages using one of her books. The first time she'd seen the pale girl use her void book, it was against two very large creatures. That time was a bit different from this time, as last time she used it she didn't go into a trance like state and begin speaking ancient languages. Normal people would be phased by such things. Normal people didn't have dragons that turned into people. Normal people didn't have war ships that towered over the port they're parked in. Normal people couldn't turn into ten versions of themselves and kill an enemy without batting an eyelash... Kaori wasn't normal by any means. Once the spell was done, Tia seemed to return to normal and began panicking from the situation. Kaori walked over and said "Relax..." before using her knuckle to wipe away the couple tears that fell from her face. "...We're here to get answers anyways, so let's pin this one to the wall. Kay?" she said with a comforting tone. The ninja was used to weird stuff since she'd been in Fiore, and she was already really good at keeping her composure in the face of adversity; so, she had a leg up on Tia in that department. Being a clan leader does that to a person...

They had arrived at the base of the mountains and upon Tia realizing the climb would be a lot longer than expected, tried asking about Ikuchi as a means of passing time. Kaori and the dragonhound looked at each other while Tia was looking at the path leading up the mountain, and then looked back at Tia. "Iku's been alright. He trains hard, and keeps up with his chores." Kaori got on the dragonhound's back and had him walk faster to catch up with Tia and nudge her on the back. "Though the rest of his story might be alarming for you..." Kaori teased, intentionally not telling Tia about Gabriella. She knew both had an interest in her servant, but Kaori didn't feel like letting Tia know she had competition. "Anyhow, call me lazy but I'd rather not climb this mountain on foot. Get on." Kaori said with a friendly voice at first that quickly changed to an authoritative one. As soon as Tia got on, Kaori would tell her not to let go of her under any circumstance...

Once Tia got on and had a good grip on Kaori, the dragonhound would turn to the mountain and slam his five inch claws in the side of it to begin climbing. The creature was a mass of muscle, scales, and badassness- he didn't even feel like there were two girls on his back while climbing, and he didn't slow down at all. In no time at all, he'd arrived to the part of the path that lead inside the mountain and he gently leaned his side over to let his passengers disembark. "So much faster than walking." Kaori commented. "You okay Miss Haiku?" she would ask, knowing that most first time riders ended up losing their lunch from the vertical angle, bumpiness, and over all rough ride.

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Motorcycle
Ikuchi
Word Count: 4,116/6000
Mana: 100%

Often times truth was hard to accept, and for someone who lived a relatively comfortable life, the knowledge of tragety was something easy to deny. Kaori was used to this sort of thing where reality turned to a vision of the past since she did it fairly often, and the scene of people being slaughtered wasn't that unfamiliar to her either. Kaori had slaughtered plenty of settlements, and she had seen them being slaughtered multiple times so she was completely numb to any emotions it might cause. There wasn't anything Kaori could say to make it hurt any less, and certainly nothing she could do. Tia had known Kaori had the ability to do the exact same thing the book had done, but she didn't want to remind her of that since there was the risk of learning everything at once. Doing that would overload the woman, and likely make her either lose her mind or become numb to emotion.

Things had taken a turn when a monster jumped out of the book that was causing the vision that genuinely surprised Kaori. 'Okay... that's a thing.' she thought while watching the fight begin, being surprised enough to let Tia begin the fight. She had done well for the first few seconds, but seemed to have pissed off the manticore. Kaori let out a sigh "Ancient ruins, giant ass monsters, and they're always pissed off..." she said in a soft, annoyed tone. The dragonhound had begun charging the manticore and rammed into it, sending it flying across the ground and letting it know that it wasn't going to be a one on one fight. Kaori had drawn her Katana and vanished, reappearing near Tia. "This is your fight, so you'll be the one to finish it. We'll cover you." Kaori said in a calm tone, getting ready for the battle ahead. She would move with Tia and use her barrier to block ranged attacks. The dragonhound would keep the manticore from landing any physical attacks while also distracting it by firing tail spikes it it.

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Word Count: 4,461/6000
Mana: 100%

Kaori and Ikuchi continued keeping the manticore busy while Tia hit it with a pair of fused spells. A point came where Kaori was told to fall back, and she did as told. Ikuchi moved out of the way in time to see a bright light engulf the beast and destroy it. Tia was the only one to hear the voice telling her that their mission was complete, and only she saw the beacon firing. Kaori had known that there are some things only meant for one set of eyes and ears, and had no questions about it. Tia had hugged Kaori tightly, an action the masked ninja returned to a less bone crushing extent. She had assumed it was a show of gratitude for accompanying her to this strange place.

The trip back, Kaori was quiet unless Tia spoke to her. The woman had lived much of her life not knowing her past, and Kaori knew she'd need time to come to terms with what she saw. At the same time, Kaori was going over the questions she'd asked during the fight to the manticore. Naturally they were rhetorical, not meant to be answered as surly Tia knew the beast had no method of replying beyond snarls, growls, and roars. 'This one reacts differently to death than you do.' Ikuchi said in Kaori's head. 'People in my clan are accustom to seeing death. We both know that death has no effect on me, I've seen and caused too much to actually care.' Kaori replied in a calm mental tone. 'So it is normal to have no reaction, or to have a negative one?' the dragonhound asked, trying to get clarification. 'It depends on how you were raised. Gaijin are raised in comfortable homes with all their needs provided. They have no reason to fight for land, and thus don't see much- if any death during their privileged lives. When something suddenly stops living, they react by falling apart.' Kaori replied, explaining the difference. Ikuchi knew that Kaori's life was the opposite... Up till the time she'd arrived in Lamia Scale, she was lucky to go a day only needing to kill two or three people. She had to master stealing in order to get food while in cities, and abandon any form of humanity she had to survive to be as old as she was. He only replied by saying 'I understand.' in her mind, to acknowledge he had no further questions.

Upon getting to the ship but not boarding it, standing a good ten or so yards from the vessel, Kaori called to Tia to get her attention. "I understand it is difficult to know, and you have ill feelings towards the manticore." she began, choosing her words carefully. "But understand that the difference between man and monster is morality and ideals. To the manticore, it was merely asserting dominance and doing what comes naturally to it. As for your father, do not mourn his death but celebrate his life. He lived long enough to find love, and produce a child with more power than himself who didn't turn to darkness. When the choice came to sacrifice himself, or sacrifice someone else; he chose to die a hero. Pray that you could die being half of that, if not more. That is how the people of my clan treat death." Kaori said before continuing her path to the ship. The dragonhound wouldn't be far behind her.

Once on the ship, Kaori would be sitting up at the wheel house with Ray. She had a book that was extremely ancient looking, and it wasn't just for show. The cover was made of leather that was folded in half, the pages within were held in place by a leather band that kept everything together by being weaved at the spine. Where modern books had embroidered, or inked in titles, this book had its titled branded onto it with a hot iron piece. The pages were yellow, and so brittle that Kaori had to her her telekinesis to turn them or risk breaking the pages with her touch. The writing was writting in a language so old that very few humans, Kaori included, could read their letters. It was the tongue of the dragons, a language that was no longer used since almost no dragons existed anymore and what few did, had no relations with human settlements. The book had pictures of different kinds of dragons, and words at the bottom of the pages to describe the dragons and their natural abilities. Kaori was combing over them carefully to understand the creatures in the event she ever had to fight one, that, and for the sake of just knowing about them.

Once the ship had been sailing for an hour or so, Kaori pulled out the pair of broken glasses that Tia had thrown aside earlier in the mission. She viewed the history of the object from the time they entered the ruins and then a violet glow took over the object. The missing piece of glass had reformed, and the crack began receding to leave behind a pair of undamaged lenses. However, Kaori didn't stop at just undoing the damage done to them on that day. Kaori had continued restoring the glasses to make them exactly how they were when Tia had first gotten them, removing any scratches that they'd gotten over time, or any blemishes from prior use. She would then close her dragon book and store it in her satchel before going to wherever Tia was to return them to her, saying that she fixed her glasses and that she looked cute without them, but cuter with them.

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Word Count: 5,412/6000
Mana: 100%

Kaori had thanked Tia for making dinner and went over to the bar to find salad, and some yellow... thing... She poked at it with her fork and a bewildered look, noting that it smelled like a strange kind of cheese. She skewered one single piece on her fork and slid her mask up only enough to expose her lips before she put it in her mouth, noting the distinct squishiness and strange taste before opening her mouth and putting it back. "Fiorans are strange people..." she said under her breath and took the salad. She went to the guest room and closed to door to take her mask off and finish the salad, something she at least knew the name of. After she finished, Kaori put her mask back on and left the room to sleep with the dragonhound, who was using Kaori's lap as a pillow.

In his dream... He was standing at the top of a mountain, Ikuchi could see the world around him for miles. His crimson, dragon like eyes continued burning will hellfire in them as he looked across the vast forgotten desert, scanned over the to sky tower in the distance, even landing on the cursed lands when he looked in their direction. The dragon in human form had been to this mountain before while he was traveling to find something less boring to do, but had never taken the time to look at his surroundings. He took a seat on the ground and noticed it beginning to snow. White flakes slowly fell into his line of sight and landed on his silk shirt before turning to water. The snow began falling faster, heavier, and a wind kicked up that surrounded him. Soon, the world was no longer that of the top of a mountain, but rather it was flat and stretched for miles around. Snow covered everything, and not a single tree, rock, or bush was in sight. He stood up and said "Enough with the mysticism, whadda you want old man!?" with an annoyed tone. A large dragon covered in deep blue scales appeared in front of him, the rest of the serpent like body materializing afterwards coiled around Ikuchi. "Old is a bit cruel, I'm only a few millennia old my son..." he replied light heartedly. "You're over ten thousand, you're old." Ikuchi replied with a blunt tone. "How are your travels my child? Have you any hatchlings of your own yet? Or perhaps... someone you wish to-" "No." "Fine, grouch. I'll call to you later..." his father said before vanishing.

When the ship arrived at Hargeon, Kaori and the dragonhound disembarked the ship and went to the restaraunt Kaori owned to see the final product of all the changes she'd made. The walls of the restaurant was a large, elegant waterfall that wrapped around the entire room. Behind the waterfall, various goldfish could be seen swimming around completely unaware of the presence of humans in their home. The waterfalls emptied into a recepticle that looked like it was made of glass despite being made of a transparent type of steel, making it highly resiliant. In the walls of the recepticle was more freshwater fish that were small enough to not mind the limited space. In the recepticles where the waterfalls empties into, but not in the walls, were koi fish that children could feed if they so desired. The entire floor of the restaraunt was another story, and the only one of its kind... They were made of the same transparent steel as the walls of the waterfoundtain recepticles, and under that was sound lacrima that negated even the loudest of foot stomps. Under that was a massive aquarium with various saltwater fish. The Aquarium hosted blue ringed octopi, lion fish, small sharks, pistol shrimp, several different species of tang, eels, and a couple tasmanian giant crab and crayfish were scuttling about the various corals within. Despite there being so many predators, none of them attacked each other no matter how close they got since they were trained to know three things; when meal time was, what was on the menu, and that there was plenty to go around. The bar counter was made of the same kind of steel and showed many different sized lobster and crab in front it. The backboard was made of black steel, and behind the counter were wooden shelves to hold their various cups and glasses. The overhead shelf was made entirely of bloodwood, Kaori's favorite kind for its dark and rich color. The tables were one with the floor, and allowed the smaller fish and eels to swim up the legs and move about the table tops which amused many of the young children as they ate. A bloodwood staircase in the corner lead to rooms that all had bloodwood floors, but aquarium walls. The hallways were bloodwood to make it so no one could spy on the residents, and between each room was a blacksteel wall inside their walls for the same purpose. Sound lacrima provided privacy, and negated any chance of eaves dropping for the more... intimate residents who stayed the night. Small gaps at the top and bottoms of the steel walls allowed the hundred or so tiny fish move about between rooms. These fish were all bioluminescent salt water fish, and even a few small varieties of squid that put on a dazzling display when the lights were turned out at night. Kaori liked how it all turned out, and she didn't go over her initial budget, which was a plus too!

Lava Hawk
Motorcycle
Ikuchi
Word Count: Done
Mana: 100%