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Rivera closed her eyes, restraining her tears with her entire will. "I'm sorry... I won't ask you again..." She touched her finger lightly to Kira's wrist. She wasn't about to give away her emotions again by speaking. Instead, she mentally gave the incantation. It wasn't as strong, but it didn't need to be at full power. The cuts Kira recieved from her steel wings would vanish in a breath of cool wind. Wincing as she retracted the wings into her back, she wrapped the sheets tighter around her. Her temperature dropped as her chaotic level dropped further.

Kai clambered clumsily through the window. "Damn... they should make windows bigger." He sat down on the window seat. "Please don't do that again, Kamichama... you'll make my hair blue before it turns black." Closing the window, he coughed. "What do you have to say for yourself, kiddo?"

Rivera smiled slightly. "Thank you... What would I do without the both of you?" When her eyes opened, they were bright with what tears she had restrained, growing dimmer as they drew further back.

"If you're seven and fourth feet tall with a 20 feet wing span... you're going to have trouble getting through a small window like that..." He muttered and stood up. "I have to go for tonight. Usagihana might do something explosive without me around. We can't risk that, of course. I wish you luck, Kamichama. I'll be back to pick you up tomorrow morning." Without another word, Kai walked to the door and left.

Rivera bit her lip, closing her eyes again. "It's my fault he's being cold..." She explained Kai's behavior softly to Kira. "It's my fault he hasn't slept in nearly a week... "

Rivera curled her fingers around Kira's hand. Each of her nails were naturally glossy and a little phosphorescent, almost a little like a fish scale. Atlanteans had strange little differences that were much like everyday miracles. As for the everday miracles, the fact Kira existed was miracle enough for her. Rivera couldn't imagine life without him... but she did, somehow. In those moments of doubt, within the grasp of chaos, she was completely helpless against her terrorized mind.

It seemed that a chain of catastrophic events followed her around after the Crimson Decadia. First she was completely exhausted after the ceremony and she had been skewering herself with her own Kairyu during the Decadia without even knowing it. Then she had to take three days' worth of medication to make up for the medicines she didn't take catching up on sleep afterwards. That led to drowsiness and grogginess, with the star test within half an hour of the side effects' initiation. Adding to her incompetence in battle, her partner fell asleep and passed out at the crucial point in the fight. By then, she had already broken a wrist, gotten herself slashed in two dozen places, added more scars to the already painfully impressive collection on her back and gotten herself impaled through the chest on a horn like a unicorn's. Out of the entire campus, only one or two people managed to erase one of her scratches and the only healer with any chance to heal her was on vacation... VACATION IN THE BAHAMAS, so they tried surgery on her... and after being in a coma for nearly a week from chaotic aural intoxication, she ends up lying on her back for an entire three hours before she managed to sit up, then slept for another hour before she gained enough energy to stand up and transfer herself to a wheelchair. When she thought that she could finally just sit back and relax summer before it was over, they called her back for this surgery and she ends up raising her chaotic level too far. That led to a series of very unfortunate events which created even more doubt and fear to fuel her chaotic side. And on top of all that, she didn't even get a chance to work on her part time summer job.

Putting all of that thinking into two words: BAD LUCK. It made her even more grateful for the everyday miracles like Kira and Kai. They were always there for her when she got herself into a pit that she couldn't climb out of.

After all that bad luck, there should be some good luck coming up, right? Sakura picnic... oh yes, that thing. She had made something specially for the Kimono Contest. She was going to try to enter, somehow... not that she thought she could win at all, but she thought it might be fun to wear a kimono. The only problem had been that she had never seen a kimono before. She was making her own in the Art Studio a few days ago. It barely qualified as a kimono... it was more chinese than Japanese anyway, and even a little... Celtic. It was unconventional, so she would change in a space rift once the contest started. She could wear a more comfortable outfit before and after then. Kira said that he liked her punky outfits... that would make some sense. He was the one who bought them for her birthday.

"It's in six days?" She whispered, "Well... I would have to get better faster then, don't I?" Kira had really pretty eyes. She could look into them forever and just sink into them, never to back out again. "I guess we can both finally relax after the past month of... hell." That was the only word that fit the position. The past month had been tiny pieces of problems taped and glued up into a big glob known as hell.

Rivera was about to close her eyes when something triggered a strange wavelength from an altered form of her silence combat technique, echoing throughout the room with a ghostly howl. It would've been creepier if the howl hadn't been distinctively ooh-ing and ahh-ing the theme song from 'Fruits Baskets'.

"Damn! Why now?" She muttered and closed her eyes. There was a supersonic squeak and a small click as it vanished into a clear silence. Rivera appeared to be whispering to no one in particular, but there was a conversation held between her and another.

"Usagi-san, you're recharged? Kai made it back, right? ... yes, in six days. No... tell them it's not going to work out, I'm on sick leave... If it's that bad of an emergency, get them to hire someone else..." Her voice grew a little agitated as she continued to speak, "That's got to be the lousiest threat I've heard in weeks. How are they going to steal something I keep with me all the time? ... Don't tell them that! It'll give them ideas... no... the tell them to '******** off with all due respect'. I don't care if I'm being rude, I'm not taking any more requests and especially not in the next six days! Okay, thank you... "

With a sigh, Rivera covered her eyes with her left forearm. Her right hand clutched the sheet to her chest. Kira's previous reaction said simply that nowadays, in this civilization in particular, the levels of decency were completely different. Even though there were bandages over them and even if she was just about completely flat, it was considered indecent in this strange society.

"Sorry about the creepy mental ringtone... Usagihana made me get it..." Rivera tried to turn onto her side. She usually slept on her stomach because it hurt to sleep on her back, but she had a chest wound so it wasn't a good idea. Even if she did, she would rather not let Kira see any of the scars on her back. He might ask about their origin and she might not be able to keep silent. "So much for my part time summer job... it's been a busy summer..." Rivera made her voice calm and nonchalant... but really all she wanted to do now was to cry. She couldn't get rid of her guilt.

Rivera let her hair blanket her back as she lay on her side. She hoped to hell she didn't turn all the way over to her stomach in her sleep. "You should get some sleep, Ki-kun... thank you for everything... " Drawing the sheets further over her chest, she fell asleep holding Kira's hand. All the warlike qualities left her. She usually seemed much older than she was, but when all the worries in the world had been lifted away from her, she appeared like nothing more than an average, 14 or 15 year old girl if not younger. She was a child, no matter how much she killed or how often or why. All the reason in the w orld couldn't change the fact that she just wanted to be a normal girl... to love and wanted to be loved.

<>

Rivera opened her eyes. It was unusual that she would open them neither snapped nor fluttered nor slow. They just opened as if she had just blinked, a rift within the fabric of time that just happened to tape on to this event. The echoing of music rung in her mind, a lingering memory from the previous night. She sat up slowly, testing her wound. When it didn't hurt, she sat up fully. The sheets slipped from her, revealing her battle scarred body. It was much like looking at a maimed rose, still defending diligently with its thorns, yet forever destroyed in beauty.

Rivera stood. Her raven silk tresses poured down her back in a ripple of smoothness, hiding the horrendous scars on her back. Kira was still asleep in his chair. She began too look about for her clothes. It was a while before she found the closet and opened it. The clothes she had worn the previous day were still there. Pulling on her white jeans, she began to think about how much she missed shorts. Well... not until she heals all of her wounds. Heck, she can't even go do simple gun tasks with the damn map of cuts and gashes she has. Picking up her jacket, she began to turn it from inside out back to the way it was.

"I slept well... thank you for staying with me..." She pulled on her shirt along with her jacket. There was still a dull pain in her chest, but she felt much better already. Her dropped chaotic level had made her a little more aware of pain, but less nervous and better prepared to withstand it. She finally pulled on her platform shoes and walked towards Kira to give him a quick kiss. "Beautiful music... I wish I could play an instrument that way..." She leant against him gently.

"Would you like to get some food? I haven't eaten any solid food in two days..." She smiled bashfully as her stomach growled. Rivera stepped away from him and sent a mental note to Usagihana to tell Kai that she would be leaving.

((And here is the entrance and set-up for Rivera's next great adventure... a very very boring and technical set up... but what the heck!? I have to use some sort of set up for her to move more into the post-modern underground! In other words... I was stuck for a long time without internet and this was the best idea I could come up with for a plot... >.> Gomenasai!))

Rivera took Kira's hand and walked out of the room... She heard an odd and out-of-place rustling as she walked through the hall. She wasn't strong enough to lift either Kairyu nor Kairen, so she had left those two in her dorm. No one could steal them, they were forged directly from her soul and can't be used by anyone but herself. The only weapons she brought with her were several hairpin sized blades tucked into various sheaths over her body and her two hand guns--the X-15 and the Min HP asa. If someone was trying to attack her, she would be able to fight them with these small, lightweight weapons.

Rivera seldom ever used guns as a combat weapon. It was unreliable and foolish if she did, being a lightweight body type with an emphasis on speed, balance and accuracy. She had low endurance,very little strength and almost no defense at all. With a gun, she wouldn't have anything but a weak forcefield barrier to shield herself with. Both of her guns were designed by herself, used only for ranged combat and stealth practice. Both guns had unique properties and nicknames granted to them not by her, but by the witnesses of the deaths of her victims. It wasn't as if they saw her when she used them. They saw the shot and the outcome, and if they're lucky, they lived to see her shadow. Only one person had ever survived a shot from one of her guns, and he is paralyzed from the neck down because of it. How he survived, no body knew.

The Min HP asa was a silver palm silencer no larger than a pack of poker cards. The bullets were so small they were almost mistaken for BBs. The only difference was that the spin on the bullets were massively strong and tore rather than punched through flesh. If it were to hit someone's heart, at least half of the heart would go missing. It was nicknamed 'Shuriken'. On the other hand, the X-15 was a larger than the average pistol. It was contained in black and silver plating that made it look very... boxy. It fired special hollow point bullets with a pure sodium compound core. Hollowpoints split open on impact and sodium explodes on contact with water. The explosive combination earned it the nickname 'Phoenix'.

Rivera's hand went immediately to her right hip before she realized that she wasn't wearing skirts or shorts. She usually kept both ammo and guns on leather thigh-straps at the respective leg, easily reached and hidden by pleats if hidden. Straps over her jeans proved to be much too confining, so she had placed both in the pockets of her baggy black jacket. She reached into the right side one to feel the comforting weight of the X-15 and the smooth curve of its trigger. She could hear the rustle even as she walked out of the building and turned the corner... whoever it was was definitely stalking her, according to the focal wavelengths she received in the direction... and was not bothering to hide, perhaps trying to seem casual. Rivera stopped and bowed to Kira in apology. "Please excuse me for a moment. Wait here, I will be back within a minute or two..." As if made of lightning and wind intertwined, she moved like a flash and vanished in her speed. Speed was nothing to her, it was as natural as breathing. She had relied on it as a child to escape etiquette class, she relied on it as a victim to escape the blows of her captors, she relied on it in the juvenile detention center to keep others away from her and she relied on it now for more dangerous tasks than any before. This little snatch of lightning was nothing compared to her potential.

Rivera was at the man's throat and on a roof before he realized what hit him. The cold muzzle of her silencer was jammed under his jaw. "You're too old to impersonate a student... lose the beard, idiot." Her whisper was cold and threatening, like the breath of an ice demon. The man didn't answer, so she continued to speak. "You're utterly pathetic... I'd like to tell your boss... Kleptos, is it? I'd like to tell him that he's almost as big a dumbass as you are."

The man finally managed to stutter out something that was barely comprehendable. "I-I-I'll t-tell hi-im th-th-th-that-t i-if y-y-you let m-me g-g-g-go! I b-beg!" His eyes told her one thing alone, pure fear. Suddenly, she returned to her thirteen-year-old self, the bloodlusting Gyrfalcon Princess... commander in chief of the Atlantean armed forces, the deadliest blademaster of the court, second only to Kai and the Emperor. She savored the look of fear in his eyes, tasting it thoroughly through her own eyes, demanding more. It seemed to make him even more afraid as her demonizing eyes slowly turned sharp gold.

"Oh, that's okay... I'll tell him that myself via phone... you won't have to do a thing." She smiled and suddenly pulled the trigger without warning. There was a splatter of blood and a blast of fire as she tightened a net of lightning around the corpse. The shot from her silencer made only a small coughing sound, but the crackle of lightning was like the snap of a bullsnake whip. The ashes that remained were scattered to the winds with the slight smell of charred flesh, not more than a mere passing thought. He never had a chance to scream, she had blasted upwards through his larynx and blew a hole through the top of his head.

Rivera suddenly snapped herself back into reality. She hadn't ever felt so bloodthirsty, not since she was in the juvenile detention center. Usually, she just killed coldly without enjoying nor hating any part of the process. She just did away with the target. How or why she enjoyed the fear in this man was beyond her... Rivera locked her gun and studied herself. Aside from a few droplets of blood on her face and her hands, she didn't notice anything else wrong with her. A sudden thought came to her... lifting her right hand, she licked a drop of blood off her wrist. It was pleasantly warm and the dull, metallic taste was quite enjoyable. Rivera thought about it for a few moments as she jumped off the roof and began to walk back towards Kira, wiping the blood from her hands with a handkerchief and trying to wipe all the blood off of her face. There were a few splatters she couldn't feel and she naturally missed a few small spots.

"Sorry, Ki-kun. There was a stalker..." She had lost the gold, hawkish eyes and regained the soft green shades and shadows. Rivera smiled lightly at Kira. She loved to smile for him... it didn't matter how bad her smiles looked, she wasn't a self conscious person anyway... Kira wouldn't care if she were ugly, would he? No... He's not that type of person, she didn't think so anyway. "I had to dispose of him... he was quite annoying." A few flecks of ash had fallen on her sleeve and she brushed them off with a casual flick that was almost cold if one knew the entire event that had taken place on the roof. "I think my energy is coming back. And there seems no need to dig him a grave... he was a very weak one anyway... probably doesn't deserve to be buried." The simplicity of her voice was quite frightening if one knew the whole story. She had killed a living being... and she was brushing it off as if it were killing a fly. Rivera was a little disgusted with herself. How could she kill and feel no pain for it? It was as if she had no sympathy... perhaps... she didn't. It made her wonder if Kira had seen the entire thing happen, if he still loved her in the same way when she somehow let her darker side break through. She already knew that even if she was accident prone and was always a soft speaker(despite the fact she talked a lot), was afraid of so many different things and was pretty much too shy to do anything with other people, Kira still liked her. Perhaps it was because it made him feel like he had a duty to protect her, and he loved her because she acted this way... would Kira love a monster? She was certainly acting like a monster... without sympathy, without care and without hesitation. This wasn't her... or was it? Long ago when she was still the gyrfalcon princess... yes... but now?

Rivera touched her hand to her chest. Her wound hurt a little worse than before, but it hadn't reopened. That was a good sign. Maybe she was finally on the way to recovery. She could feel a slight wetness on her right leg and a little on her left upper arm. Some of her wounds had reopened, but they were so minor the blood won't even seep all the way through her bandages. Those minute injuries wouldn't hinder her in the least. What was worrying her was her chaos level. It had shot up in a titanic wavelength and was trying to stabilize itself. If Kira asked any questions now, she may have no way of resisting answer.

"Oh yes, by the way... where exactly is the cafeteria? I've been here for over three months and I still have no idea where it is..." Rivera smiled sheepishly. "I don't usually eat with other people, so... heh..." She had learned to change the subject when awkward situations came up. As she was pelted by awkward situations, this was absolutely normal.

((Next post in the dining hall... but not today. I have to go it's almost midnight! You can post first if you want. I'll come in with another big long post ASAP... My plot is dying... ))

"Don't worry Caia!" Esmene said with a cheerful smile. "Zen is right, the doctors will help you, and everything will be alright!" Esmene knew how frightened she would have been in this situation, so she tried her best to make sure Caia didn't feel alone or worried. "We'll be here for you no matter what, okay?" She smiled briefly at Zen, and watched the doctor as he looked Caia over, waiting to hear what the doctor would have to say. The most she could do now was hope for the best, but always having optimism, things always looked up for her. Such was her luck anyway, she hoped that maybe some of it would go to helping Caia recover.