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Samako casually walked into the picnic area, gazing at the trees, which was confusing as her eyes were covered in bandages. She spotted a small stream and skipped over to it, plonking herself down and beginning to take off her large boots so she could dip her feet in the stream and was off some of the blood that had begun flowing again when she was distracted.

Lucky for her the boots had always been a size or two too big so she could easilly slip them off after getting half way down them, and after sliding them off she happily let her feet sway in the clear stream, turning it pink for a few seconds as it cleaned her feet and soaked through her bandages.

Laying back she bagan to practice her powers again, sending her pale green light through a tiny sapling by the stream and slowly twisting it and growing it, giggling as it's leaves changed from a simple water-side plant to that of an apple tree.

Mmm... I guess I'm improving then... it's not just from a mandarine to an orange anymore... now I can jump entire species instead of sub-species... if only I could do it fast though...

She rested her head on the grass, and would have closed her eyes as well as smiling... if she only had any...

Her smile abruptly stopped forming and was replaced by a frown as she remembered her deformities, yet she sighed and quickly went back to changing the now apple tree... which through her few seconds of being side-tract had grown thorns and scratchy branches.

Marcus stepped rather lively over to a picnic table, holidng what appeared to be a rice ball in one hand and a small pill in the other. Sitting down he shoved the pill into the rice and wholfed around a quarter of his food down in a single bite, bits of rice fall down into his lap as he ate. He was rather excited about the trees or the event as a whole...perhaps both. He had never seen a real cherry tree before, let alone this many at such a time of year...it was rather breathtaking. However some things always held him down, one might of been that he really didn't know anyone too well, however seeing as he had only been here for two days it wasn't so bad.

As he munched on the rice ball he had somehow managed to aquire through his own methods he thought about what it was he actually planned to do...there were quite a few thngs to do, games, food....food......FOOD! Marcus really was interested in the food, a he generally enjoyed eating many different types of food, excluding the burgers or pizza he usually ate back home. It was about that time when a small butterfly landed right on top of the remaining portion of the rice ball he so desired to eat...Marcus stared at it for a second..hen extended his hand to it. The tiny insect climbed aboard his hand and he smiled, a rare moment indeed lest it was all you can eat down...well just about anywhere. "What a nice butterfly.....remaindes me of me in a way" he said to himself as he touched one of it's slowly beating wings. "It's also like a dream, it can go to places only it can go...now fly dreams fly!" he said as he threw it into the air, watching as it flew. However the small butterfly didn't last long as a passsing bird swooped in and ate it, swallowing it as it struggled.

Marcus however still held the same expression of happiness even as the tiny symbol of hope got eaten. "Like all dreams.....it can only go so close to paradise before being eaten by the wings of reality" he said quietly, finishing the rest of his food. He reached down and brushed his lap off, bits of rice falling to the petal covered ground below.....which were quickly lost in the Cherry tree petals. He quickly however had some form f idea, as a rather large smile came once again to his face. Reaching into his shirt he removed a small book, the one he usually carried with him, from an inside pocket along with a tiny pencil. Opening his book to a fresh page he begain to sketch something. At first glance it would appear that his drawing was of the cherry tree he sat in front of, and surprisingly enough his drawings were fairly good...much better than his handwriting. However if one were to look carefully.....one could see a bird on one side, and a butterfly on he other.

As Joseph and Rachel continued eating with their new friends, the mood seemed to have settled down to a manageable degree. Joseph was spending his time making small talk with Wisp and Seira and stealing furtive flirtatious glances at Seira every so often, and Rachel was simply sitting there listening quietly as she worked on her meal. She and Joseph had both eaten quite a bit already, but there was still a lot of food left - their powers required a lot of energy to maintain. Of course, with such a serene atmosphere, it was almost certain that something would happen soon to disrupt things...

Rachel's head instantly spun around to face Nobara as she called out to the little group. At first, she was happy to see her and began waving back, but after a moment, she seemed to realize something, and her expression turned into one of abject terror. She began waving her arms around wildly, trying to get Nobara to turn back around, but...

"Well, well, well! And who is this charming creature?" Joseph said, springing up and clasping Nobara by the hands, looking into her eyes.

...Too late. Rachel buried her head in her hands, knowing exactly what was coming. This was going to be a nightmare, and there was absolutely nothing she could do now to stop it. Shrinking back into the place where she was sitting, she gave a small wave to Nobara, sighing.

"Enchante, mademoiselle," Joseph said, turning on his supernatural charm and sending it out in gentle waves toward Nobara. Winking and placing a hand over his heart, he gave an elegant bow and kissed her hand.

Rachel simply watched in horror, seemingly unable to do anything as she watched her best friend in the clutches of her sleazeball older brother. Not knowing what to do, she heaved a deep sigh.

"Yeah... Gomenasai..." Rivera sweatdropped, hiding her own embarrassment behind her fan, now snapped open. She looked up at Kai. "Well... where HAVE you been? I thought you were just getting a change of clothing?" He had been gone an awfully long time. And Kai was good with auras. He shouldn't have had any problems looking for them... so the fact that he did run into trouble gave her suspicions. "Usagihana wasn't with you, neh?"

Kai smiled at her, "I decided that it's about time for you to take a very very long break from being an assassin. I've taken over your codename!" The sudden statement made Rivera silent for a very long moment before she burst out in bewilderment, anger and something much like 'WTF?!?'.

"You did WHAT?!"

Kai laughed, "I was joking, Kamichama! Do give me that divine temper of yours... well, that proves that you're regaining your two millenia past personality. Not sure if that's a good thing or not but..."

Rivera just muttered under her breath, shielding her face behind her fan again. Her heart was pounding like a jackrabbit. Another unwritten law of the assassins: Never take an undeceased hitman's codename. "You wanna know? I'll kick you two millenia back and you can find out for sure." Her voice was full of annoyance.

"Naw. Usagi eavesdropped on you two... so Kira's going to try his hand at stealth killing? I'd say good luck... but there's no way you can learn all that stuff in three days. We're going to have to install a memory chip in your CNS. I'm dealing with that."

Rivera wasn't as surprised, but she frowned a little, "You're not going to put anything like that in him. If it shortcircuits, he might pass out."

"Well, what do you suggest?" Kai retorted.

"Kira can handle it... I think." Rivera said, a little uncertainly. "But he will make his own decisions, I will suppose that much."

"Before any of that happens. I'll sub for the both of you." He suddenly snapped a silencer from his wrist. "You're letting your guard down."

Rachel sighed again, watching as Nobara fell under her brother's spell. Joseph simply smiled, winking at Nobara and sweeping his arm out toward the blanket they had set out on the ground. Taking Nobara gently by the arm, he led her over to the picnic setup, sitting down across from his sister and smiling brightly.

"This..." Rachel began quietly, gesturing toward Joseph, "...is my brother, Joseph." She shook her head, noticing the dreamy look in Nobara's eyes.

"So this is a friend of yours, then?" Joseph asked Rachel, grinning and looking back at Nobara. "Well, Nobara, I hope the two of us can become friends too," he said, waggling his eyebrows suggestively at the mention of the word 'friend.' "Maybe I should stay a few more days, Rachel... get to know your friends a little better."

Rachel's face contorted into all sorts of various expressions of abject terror at this suggestion. This was really, really bad. If Nobara and Joseph hit it off, and her brother decided to stay at Ria... That would be like hell on earth. Frowning and looking incredibly irritated, Rachel fell silent as she tried to think of a way out of this mess.

Kai waved cheerfully at them, "I'll be gathering wayward info on Kleptos then! Ciao!" Usagihana dashed off first, expecting Kai to follow in any case. The android vanished within seconds. Kai turned away, a pained look on his face. It was slight, but it was true. Jealously at away at him like a worm in an apple. Life really sucked, didn't it? He spread his wings and took off. "Hoi, Usagi-chan! Wait up!"

Rivera blinked several times, quite confused. Kira began to lead her off quickly and she waved for half a second before turning away, her fan still shielding her slightly pink face. "Kira, we only have about three days before Kestrel or Ravenhawk can strike again. Both of them will be fully recovered about then, or one of them will be. We can't afford that. We're lucky, since I will regain my full power by tomorrow and you're already physically healed. I can heal you fully four times before running low on power, but that's it. They'll try to disturb us as much as they can so we'll be on edge the whole time... we have three days..."

She took a deep breath, not knowing whether or not she should say this. The research had confirmed it, but Usagi and Kai were keeping their mouths shut about it. This was her story... and they will not intrude on it. At this point, it was important to both of their survival to leak the truth, no matter how much she hated to. "I know who Kleptos really is. I've done many underground searches and obtained old hairs for DNA testing. It seems fitting that you'll be the one to take him down... but in reality, it is my fight... I will gladly give up my honor for one night so you can take him out. There are two fights fought on the battle field, one for survival and one for pride. We fight in the same battle , but with different conflicts... I'm going to risk everything to tell you this... and I mean everything."

She looked at him with uncertain, gray-blue eyes. "After all... YOU are my everything."

Lancaster turned to Cat leaning down, Tsuki still perfectly blanced. The two of them had been at this pirate and pet routine so long it had become second nature for the two. He placed his hands on Cat's shoulders looking to her, with worried eyes. "Kitten, whats wrong dear? Don't be frightened your friends are here." His attention was taken away as the girl tripped over Ame, him blinking at the two newcomers and Ame. "Are you girls alright?"