Welcome to Gaia! ::

".. Ah... It seems there is less people here... good... I can't stand too much people and there was wayy too many people in the waiting rooms" Ai said to herself as she walked into a place where you can watch the fights thats going on through some TV's. Though, Ai wasn't really paying attention to them that much. She was more hungry.

"Hmm, what to eat. I don't want to eat too much that I can't fight." she said softly as she looked at a menu at DJ's and Sarah's place. She remembered having a pizza form them at the Summer Festival and Sarah was kind of.. hyper. Ai had a lot of fun at the Festival, even if she was there for one week.

"How may I help you?" Said the voice of DJ's. She looked at Ai waiting for an answer.

"Uh, yeah. I would like a small Ice tea, please" Ai said with a smile as she took out a dollar for DJ. DJ smiled as she turned around and grabbed a small soft drink cup and started to pour Ice Tea into the cup. Ai looked around DJ, nope, no sign of Sarah. To tell the truth, Ai is kind of scared of Sarah, she pulled Ai's hair because she thought that if you rip someones hair off you can place it on your head. And Ai doesn't want to be bald.

"Here you go, MIss. Have a nice day!" DJ said as she handed AI her drink. Ai took it and made a jog for it, she didn't want to encounter Sarah.

Few. That was a close one. I h- Ai's thought was cutt of by a very small voice and soft.

"Look, Maria, its Ai! Its Ai!" cried a small voice from a nun. She had dark auburn hair pulled back in a bun and she was wearing a nun outfit with a cross around her neck. It was Ai's friend Katy from the slayer school Ai grew up in. Well kind of. Next to Katy was a tall nun, and had kind of large breasts. It was the leader of the training programs at the slayer school, Maria. She had long blonde curly hair and smal glasses.

"How are you Ai?" she said as they both walked closer to Ai. Ai had a large smile, she hasn't seen them in a couple of months, but she was wondering why they came to Ria? Did Sabrina sent them?

"I'm fine! Well, I don't know if I'll be fine after my battle. Just wondering who I'm going to verse and what the battlefield is going to be" she said as she rolled her eyes and glanced up at the Televisions. Maria and Katy did the same thing.

Ai pretty soon got bored with the fights. I mean, Kurai fighting a little girl? Pssh. The girl is going to win, Ai thinks so. Just look at those moves! Wind vs. Fire, common! Wind is usually blows out fire. Besides, Kurai looked pathetic, letting a littel girl use all those tricks. Ai grinned as she watched that fight and almost wanted to burst out in laughter, and maybe tears. If Ai was fighting that little girl, she would take it seriously, she has to anyways.

Though as much as she wanted to laugh out, Maria and Katy would have no clue why she is laughing and would think she is a total maniac. And that would make Ai look stupid. Lately, during this whole tournament thingy, Ai has been pumped to fight! She hopes to actually fight someone she is really good friends with, like Makie. Speaking of Makie, Ai heard a voice, a rather cold yet with a strange kind of warmth, from Misty. One of Makie's old friend from wayy back. Back in the day, when the dinosaurs roamed the earth, just kidding!

"Oh! Oh! Hey Misty! You made me jump.. I was.. jus thinking" she said with a soft innocent 'heh.' Truth was, AI was laughing inside her head. She had this whole mental image that she was laughing like a clown or something, like she won the whole tournament and got eternal respect and absolute popularity!

"Ahahaha" she said with that anime sweatdropping as she placed one hand behind her neck looking rather uncomfortable. Truth is, sometimes AI feels really uncomfortable with "dark" people like Feena and Misty. She doesn't know why, maybe because of those devils from her past. But the past is the past! You must forget about it! But the past always catches up with Ai.

"Eh?! Oh yeah! This is Maria, she was my old trainer back in the day when I was a slay-" she was cutt off by Maria's angry rants.

"Who are you calling old?!" she said shaking a fist in fron of Ai's face. Ai raised her hands up in defense while Katy introduced herself to Misty.

"Hello, there! My name is Katy Christ, but you may call me Katy! You're Misty, I presume?" Katy said as she extended out her hand for Misty to shake, Katy had all that nun sweetness personality when she smiled at Misty.

Feena was never classifeid in any cliche or in a catagory, like animals when the're placed in a family or something. She was always unknown, and she doesn't even know where she got her phantom genes, not from her father, her father is part ice demon like Hiro. Oliver is something, but no one knows, and Ai is a obviously an angel like her mom. So what makes Feena? She doesn't know.

Ai in the other hand, she is classified as that pretty girl who is stupid and innocent, she sometimes gets sick of hearing that. People would always complement her that she is gorgeous or something, well, duh, she is an angel after all. But, wouldn't that make you sick if someone kept saying that they wish the were pretty as you? AI has always believed that everyone is beautiful in something. Inside, outside, in soccor, in math, whatever it is. Everyone is beautiful. Even Misty's "I-don't-care" looks can be attractive to guys.

But you know, Ai doesn't care much about those relationships, until that day in the potluck when she met Ikaika. Ever since then, she's become more shy than ever, and that makes her feel pretty pathetic. Though, so far, Ai doesn't see Ikaika at the tournment. She was kind of relieved, though, part of her really wanted him to watch her fight. Even if she loses, at least someone she cares would watch her.

"Eh?! Oh! Makie-san! I will look forward to versing ehr too! But how does she know if we will ever fight each other? I mean, I could llose the first round or Makie will lose the first round. The chances are slim for our names to be drawn for the same arena! Is Makie-san phychic?" she said kind of interested yet happy that her friend wanted to fight her. Its not like AI would go easy on her because she is her friend, Ai never goes easy, she just wonders if Makie's little body can handle this kind of stuff. Yes, Ai is small, but not as small as Makie-san and sometimes this worry's Ai.

"And. Maria and Katy are only here to watch, they have no intentions to fight. By the way, why are you guys here? All the way from the south to Ria? It must of been a long trip!" Ai said looking from Misty to her slayer friends. Katy and Maria looked at each other, they looked rather uneasy.

"Um. We got orders from Sabrina, she says that if you fight a demon your duty of a slayer comes first, that you must kill unholy demons" Maria said in a very soft uneasy voice, Katy had her hands together neatly placed down in front of her as she looked down at her small feet. Maria took out a gun from her pocket, it was a special gun, all slayers have one, it is silver with a gold cross on it.

"Oh.. heh.. sorry.. but I have to disobey orders. I will not hurt anyone! Especially not my friends!" she said with a serious look on her pale face as she declinded the gun. Then a smile was replaced on her face, removing the frown.

"... silly orders.." she said softly as she chuckled a little.

Misty never cared for any one, at least not like love. Yes, she cared for Makie as a sister, yes she cared for her parents and she cared for the well beings of her close friends, but... Love? It was not for her... I mean, guys, she would rather them as sparring partners than partners for life. She often found love was one sided. Both of them love each other, occasional fights, a good relationship, hardly apart, the way it makes you feel. To Misty, love was obviously a lie... All of it.

"Well... I dunno... Ask Makie!" Her voice sounded a little aggrivated, but she coughed purposely to regain her 'niceness'. "She's the one who told me to tell you... So I really don't know why she said that... I guess you're friends and she would rather fight a friend than a stranger..." Then Misty scratched the side of her head, since her black hat blocked the top of it. as she did this she tried to think about why Makie would say something like that.

"Rather to beat or lose to a friend than to a stranger, I suppose..." Misty said, before Ai began to talk to Maria and Katy. Her sky blue eyes stared at them for a moment. 'So, these two must also be slayers... Since they're talking about orders... Maria and Katy go to some school for slayers with Ai, eh?' She thought to herself. Then it came to the point of the conversation about demons.

"... She says that if you fight a demon your duty of a slayer comes first, that you must kill unholy demons."

Unholy demons, sinful demons, elemental demons, or just regular demons... They're all different, and yet all the same considered evil creatures that create false feelings of love, or friendship, then often steal the person's soul and or just kill them. They would kidnap small children, place curses on humans, and fight angels... That's what people wrote about in books. Why couldn't there be such a thing as an angelic demon? Well, there are such things as angelic demons, but there aren't a lot of them left. Angelic demons are demons who act like angels, there are also demonic angels, who are angels that act like demons, but... No one ever thinks about angels being bad and demons being good, it's always the angels who are good and the demons who are bad.

Misty would often read up on angels or demons, you never know when you might fight one! She also read about them because of the mystery that surrounds both races. The woman was often interested in the culture and customs of other races, not that she was a follower of these different cultures and teachings, but... You could learn a lot about another angel or demon by reading books like them, especially when they're not written by some human who didn't know all the facts.

Misty turned towards the new voice that came up. Her brow raised. 'Great... Another person to talk with... Woot woot!' She thought to herself sarcastically. 'It's bad enough trying to stay nice to these people here... I swear, I'm going to crack if any more people come!' The midnight haired girl watched the new girl. A white T-shirt, jeans, short blond hair and emerald green eyes. Although, she could not judge on looks, the new girl looked like a regular girl. Not like Misty who looked like some gothic weirdo walking around with dark clothes on and a sword on her back.

"I haven't been here too long... Less than a year..." Misty said, with a sigh. "It's a nice place... It has a lot of events too..." Then in her head she finished the sentance. '... Which means there are too many people that walk up to you an start talking... Man... Maybe it was a bad idea coming here and talking to Ai...' Misty shrugged the thought off, anyways with a silent breath.

"I'm Misty... Pleasure to meet you... Emily." With that she left the rest to Ai. She hated talking with people, which is why she felt uncomfortable at the moment. The only way you could tell how she was feeling, was because she took a sip of her drink and let her intense eyes wander around her current surroundings.

( Hoe!! My name is Emily!! Woot! I can role play with myself!! XDDD Except I have longer blond hair and blue eyes... And I'm super hyper... >.> Kay... So we're different, but my name is used for a character, it's like "Hey Emily!" Both the character and real Emily turn around. 'Which one?' XDDDD )

***
"Mom, why are devils mean?" a very young Ai asked as she looked out of a small window, ina dreaming daze as she stared at the twinkling stars of the sky. It was in a middle of story time, about the mermaid and the prince, Ai's favorite story next to the moon maiden story.

"I mean, I don't see anything wrong with them, and I bet inside their hearts their nice people!" she said happy and energetic as she turned around to face her mother. AI smiled, a very cute smile as she chuckled lightly. Ai had very gentle soul and that she would never hurt someone. But what she didn't know, that she'll someday become a devil slayer than someone saving them. Feena acted like a devil even though she is a phantom, but in ways, phantoms can be more destructive than devils.

".. Silly... I don't know why devils are mean, hun. They are just misunderstood." thats the best way AI's mom can put it, Ai stopped laughing and tilted her head. Kind of confused.

***

Ai just stared at the gun that Maria was holding, a very sad smile came across her face. She remembered that day, the day she gave up on being a slayer even though Sabrina has a contract that Ai will always be a slayer until further notice. AI hated it, but she has no choice, but this time, she is refusing all offers and jobs from that school! She will not become Hexen! Hexen was her codename in that school meaning she can't be called Ai no matter what.

But Katy and Maria came to se her! And now they can call her Ai all they want! Ai was happy to the fact that her own friends from way back came to see ehr fight! It ment alot for her, she wanted to show them how much she gained control of her feelings and see how much she improved from the last time they saw her.

Thats when Ai snapped out of her mind and back to reality.

"Oh! I see, Well, I can't wait to fight Makie! I want to give all that I got! But I won't hurt her too much, I promise. Cross my heart and hope to die!" she said in that figure of speach as she crossed her own heart and her throat. Afterwards, she laughed lightly making sure that Misty knew she wasn't serious about the 'hope to die' part. Sometimes people are too gullible and take things serious.

Ai is gullible in a different way, she mostly spaces out whenever someone is talking to her, even if its someone she likes or cares for. And then suddenly, someone would notice that she's not paying any attention and they would say something totally random, that Ai would believe it nad make a fool of herself. Like if you said 'Look! Flying pigs!' or 'Whats that on your shirt' and then they would flick her chin and say 'Gotcha ya!' Yeah, she's that gullible.

Still.. that gun.. it was like a mementum of her past. Like is came back saying 'remember..' It was really bugging her.

***
"Hold it there, devil!" cried a boy with white hair and aqua highlights, his hair was tied back in a small ponytail and the same slayer gun in his handsm just pointing it at a small child devil. The devil looked scared and he was scared, but most of all, he was cornered by Kirua and the other slayer Kent, but there was rushing water behind him. How was he to escape? When his powers have been diminished and his weapons destroyed.

The boy Kent had a very hard and cold look to his face as he to pointed his gun at the devil, he looked ready to kill the damn thing. Kent had short black hair with a red bandana tying over his forehead, they were both wearing the same uniform as Ai but with long pants than shorts. The devil had long black hair, even his hair barely covered his eyes. He had cold and scared red eyes and he had many scares all over his body.

Attemptedly, he tried to cause a small earthquake so that the two slayer boys would fall in the crack and the devil would make the escape, since this devil is an earth devil. But he had a name, it was Poison, but he doesn't know why he was named that.

Kent and Kirua saw this and jumped out of the way as they started to shooting at the small creature. Poison raised his arms to his face for self defense, but why wasn't he killed? He raise his head and to his surprised a young girl with beautiful purple hair took the bullets for him! Why? Why would such a creature more worthy than him take the bullets? And she is the enemy!

"HEXEN! GET OUT OF THE WAY!" yelled out Kirua, he really hated yelling at a friend of his even when she was hurt and bleeding rather rapidly on the shoulders.

"... no.. I will.. not.." she drew one hand over her wounded shoulder where she was shot as she stood in front of the small devil. Her enchanting lavender eyes staring at her friends, like they were enemys, then she simply smiled.

".. why can't we all get along?.. h-he's just a child.. and and I'm disgusted at myself! I'm a horrible person! Why didn't I see this when I signed that contract! I wanted to protect my people but only I'm hurting more people.. "

"Hex-" Kirua started to say but was enterupted by Ai again.

"No! Don't tell me I did the right choice by making people like him suffer! Devils are creatures like angels and humans, thus they have feelings and lives, how would you feel if someone tried to hunt you down? E-everyone has a second chance" she said as she gazed down at her shoes, her hand still on her shoulders. She turned around to face the little boy known as Poison, he was astonished that someone, an angel, would care so much.

He was about to say something, until, he slipped and started to fall off the cliff and into the rushing water. AI saw this and acted quickly, her warm hand capturing his small hands. Ai smiled as she kept holding on.

"Don't worry, I got yo-" thats when the little devil smiled, its strange, a little devil smiling.

"Thank you" he said simply as he let go of Ai's hand and fell into the dephs of the water. Ai yelled out at him, but it was hopeless. Minutes later, she pulled herself back up on her feet, her eyes hidden by her bangs as she wiped at her eyes.

".. lets go home... "

Some say, that it was snowing in the south, very unusual. But the reason why it was snowing was that an angel was crying for a fallen one.

****

"Eh? Oh! Hello, Emily! My name is Ai! Its very nice to meet you!" she said as she bowed lightly at the newcomer. Ai found it astonishing that every day more and more new people are coming to Ria. It was nice, so then AI could make more and more friendships that would last forever! No matter what problems and troubles would come flying at her and her friends. At least friends are their to help, support, or taunt you respectfully!

"Yeah.. Ria is a nice place.Its very cozy and gives you great opputunites for you to learn and improve your skills. But most of all, you get to make friendships that can last forever!" she said as she joyfully raised her hands up in the air with a bright smile. Katy and Maria smiled as they looked up at the television's that are airing the fights. Are they over?

((.. long post. xD))

Lily entered the Audience hangout area alone, but differnt than the last time Darius had seen her. Her deep dark purple hair was back, and her eye had changed to match. It was the old Lily returned to Ria.....which also ment that the old Liz had returned to Ria.

Darius did not know that Lily had split her soul, and she didn't intend to tell him either. She wasn't sure how he'd react to it, not to mention that Liz and Darius weren't exactly the best of friends.

Lily noticed a group of girls standing and talking, but she chose to avoid them, as she didn't know them, and wasn't sure if they felt like getting to know her anyway. Instead she sat down, watching the tv that was broadcasting Darius' fight. It would be a very interesting one, and she'd be rooting for Darius through the whole thing.

Derek walked casually into the area, glancing at the Televisions uninterested. It did not matter to him who was fighting or how they were doing or who was going to win. He was more interested in who he had seen enter the area only a little while before. It was Lily.

He hadn't seen Lily a in awhile now, not since they'd returned to Ria from the slave rescue. He scanned the people, looking for the blond Lily that he had known. Instead he saw a flashback of his past. Lily was no longer the blonde, blue eyed girl she was when he first met her at Ria. No, she was now the purple haired Lily whom survuved the death round 6 times over.

He rushed up to her, confused by her change, but not totaly phazed. He still knew what he had come to do, and had a plan too. He sat down next her to, wrapping his arm around her neck.

"Hey baby..." He wispered softly in her ear.