"Raena, ___ must be _______... From now on, you will _____ to ________ __ ______. You must also _______ ___ ___ a ___. Always ____ the __________ and ___ _ ____ you, __ ________ ________ ____ _____ ________ with you."

"_____, __ ____, I ____ you ______. ___ __ this is truly something you ____ to __, ____ if it will put you in danger, I will ___ ____ ___. Now, get going!"

"_____, __ ___ _____ _____ me. Your ____ ___ ___________ will be alright. My ____ ____ is... that you will ____ _______ there ___ _____ for you __ ____ __ _ __..."

Tear

"Wow! It's a carnival!" I looked around excitedly, at the amusement rides and vendors. "An actual carnival!"

"Jeez, I've never seen you so excited before, Tear..." Ail said to me, surprised by my enthusiasm.

"I went to one once with my family when I was little. I remember it being a lot of fun!"

"Oh, really? I've never actually been to one myself..."

"This is your first time?" I asked in surprise. "There's lots to do. It's great, really!"

"Oh, yeah? Then what should be do first?" Ail pointed at a ride closeby. "How about we go over there?"

"No, not yet. We have to buy tickets, first."

"What for?"

"You need tickets to gain admission into the rides and the other stuff here. So we should look for a ticket booth before we go anywhere else."

"Man, that's annoying..." Ail groaned.

We went to look for the booth that sells tickets. Lucky for us it was pretty close to where we already were.

"Why, hello there, lady and gentleman. My name is Ticket Guy, but you can just call me Ticket if you'd like."

W-wait, that's actually his name...?

"Would you like to buy some tickets from me?"

"Well, duh; why else would be here?" Ail uttered.

"Ha ha, of course. But it can get pretty boring sitting in this booth all day... It makes me wish someone would come here just to talk to me. Y'know what I mean?"

"No, not really..." He answered bluntly.

I checked the sign behind Ticket to look at the ticket prices.

"A-Ail, they're expensive..."

"Oh, really?" He checked the sign too. "Jeez, you're right... I wasn't expecting them to cost that much."

"In that case, just buy how many you think you'll need." Ticket Guy suggested.

"Hm... How many do you think I'll use until 6 o'clock?"

"I think 10 should about do it for ya."

"Alright, then."

"A-Ail, are you sure? I said I didn't want you to spend so much money, so I..."

"Don't worry about it. You were really excited when we first got here, right? Let's have some fun before we have to go back!"

"O-okay!"

--

We got some tickets from the booth, and decided to try out the ride closest to us first.

"I wonder what this ride is..." Ail said. "It's really tall..."

"U-um, it's a ferris wheel... I think?"

"Did someone call for me?" An unfamiliar fellow nearby asked.

"Who are you?"

"I'm so glad you asked, young miss! I am Ferris Guy, but you can just call me Ferris."

"Another one?!" Ail stated in shock. "What, are you Ticket's brother or something?"

"Wow, that's exactly right! You must have great intuition, sir!"

Um, even I don't need great intuition to figure that much out...

"You know, I've always wanted to work at a carnival ever since I was small. And starting today, that dream has finally come true!"

"Good for you, pal..."

"This is the carnival specialty of yours truly, the 'Ferris Wheel'!"

Oh, so it really is a ferris wheel...

"If you'd like to ride it, that'll be two tickets!"

"Two?! I thought it was only one per ride!"

"Puuulease, my good sir! I won't let anyone ride for a measley one ticket!"

"Ugh..." Ail turned his direction to me. "What do you think, Tear?"

"U-um, I prefer the slower rides over the faster ones, and I don't know if this carnival has any others besides this one..."

"It'll be nice and cozy for ya; don't you worry, miss!"

Ail sighed. "Fine, here..." Ail unhappily gave Ferris two tickets.

"Thanks; enjoy!"

We both got on one of the seats. Ferris pushed a lever down, and the ride started to move.

"So, this ride just moves up slowly until it gets to the top, right?" Ail asked me.

"Yeah, and it goes back down at the same speed. A lot of people like to ride this to look at the whole park from way up high. But I guess some people also get too scared to do that, and stay seated inside..."

"Oh, really? I see..."

"Why? Are you scared of heights, Ail?"

"Nah. Although I've never been high like this before... What about you, Tear?"

"No, not really. A-as long as it doesn't go fast, I'll be okay..."

"... Hey, wait a second. Aren't ferris wheel rides supposed to have boxed-in seats?"

"Um, now that you mention it, there isn't even anywhere for us to stand, either..."

All of a sudden the ride stopped, about a quarter of the way up, and a cage encircled the outer top part of our seat.

W-what's going on?!

"Hey!" Ail called down to Ferris. "What's this about?!"

"Heheh... Now's time for the real fun to begin!" Ferris shouted from the ground level. "Activating the 'Hyper Wheel'!"

The seat started to move faster.

"What is he..."

"A-ah!" I instinctively latched onto Ail's arm. "N-no!"

"Are you okay, Tear?" Ail asked me, looking worried.

"I-I really don't like fast rides..." I answered, shaking uncontrollably.

"Hey, stop this ride right now!" Ail yelled down at Ferris again.

When we reached the very top (which took no time at all at the speed we were going), the ride came to a halt.

"Um, that's not exactly what I meant..." Ail uttered.

"But at least it isn't going fa-..."

Before I could finish, the seat plummeted down.

"AHHH!!!"

The ride began to circle around at the same speed as when it dropped down. Terrified, I grabbed onto Ail ever harder than before. Ail grabbed onto me too, but it was to secure me down so I wouldn't collide with the cage.

--

After a while, the ride finally stopped and the seat reached ground level again. Although it lasted only three minutes, it felt like three hours.

"Hey Tear, it's over now..." Ail patted my head gently while I cried on his shoulder, like I had been the whole ride.

"R-really? I-it's really over?" I looked up at Ail, and he wiped the tears off my face.

"Yeah, let's go." Ail helped me off, since I was still shaking. Even after we had reached the ground, I couldn't pry myself off of Ail's arm, but he didn't seem to care.

"So, how was the riiide~?" Ferris asked cheerfully, although from his expression it seemed he already knew the answer.

"What the heck is wrong with you?!" Ail exclaimed, extremely peeved. "You never said the ride would be fast!"

"True, but I never said it wouldn't be fast, either~!" Ferris responded, obviously enjoying the situation.

"You...!"

"I don't get why you're so upset, sir... Thanks to me, you got that cutie to latch onto you oh so tightly! You should be gla-..."

He was interrupted by a punch to his face. From Ail, of course.

"Augh!" The force of the punch sent him sprawling on the ground. "... Ow."

"A-Ail! Why did you do that?!"

"He deserved it." Ail said, still glaring at Ferris.

"B-but..."

"It was bad enough he made you so scared, but to be enjoying it like that...!" Ail started. "I won't ever forgive someone for making you cry. And I'll never let them get away with it!"

"A-Ail..." My face became flushed. T-thank you...

--

Even after that, I was still shaking from the ride. I couldn't help it; that ride was just so scary...

To help me calm down, Ail brought me to a bench and gave me some water to drink.

"I-I'm sorry, Ail..."

"Don't worry about it. Unlike the tickets, the water here is pretty cheap."

"That's not what I meant. I-it's just... I'm sorry for being such a coward. It's stopping us from having fun right now..."

"Hey, if this is about what happened before, it's that ferris wheel guy's fault, not yours." He reassured me sternly. "And I'll only have fun doing things you think is fun too, okay?" Ail gave me a gentle smile.

"O-okay..."

"So, let's go find a ride you like, alright?" Ail said, helping me off the bench.

"I'll be fine with anything as long as it's something touching the ground..."

"I-if you're l-looking for a s-safer place than F-Ferris's Wheel, than t-this place should be p-perfect for you!" Another fellow stated, who was standing in front of an area we were passing through.

For some reason, he was wearing a bag over his head, was wearing very long sleeves and pants, and was wearing thick gloves. He wasn't showing any skin at all.

Who is he? His voice sounds kind of familiar...

"What is this place?" I asked, staring at the weird building the man was standing in front of. "Is this a ride?"

"A ride? It's just an empty room..."

"I-it's not just a-an empty room, my g-good sir..." He explained. "T-this is the 'Wondrous Maze'. It's so w-wondrous, that you c-can't even see it...!"

"Jeez, what's up with this guy? He stutters almost as much as you do, Tear!"

"I-I don't stutter that much, d-do I?" I asked him in disbelief.

"I-I am M-..."

"... Maze Guy, or just 'Maze' for short." Ail said for him. "And Ticket and Ferris are your brothers, right?"

"... H-how did you know t-that?!" Maze Guy shouted in extreme shock. "A-are you some sort o-of esper or something?!"

"Um, what?"

"P-please don't read a-anymore of my t-thoughts! T-there's stuff that I-I don't want a-anyone to know a-about..."

"Wow, too much information, pal..."

"I-instead, why don't you t-try out my maze?" Maze suggested.

"Hm... Are you going to make me give you two tickets like the other guy?" Ail asked.

"N-no way! I-I would never l-let you pay me t-two tickets!"

"Okay, then I-..."

"I-it's three tickets."

Ail slapped one of his hands onto his face.

"Seriously?!"

"Y-you get a prize if y-you finish it in time, t-though."

"A prize?"

Maze opened up a secret compartment in the building, which displayed all kinds of prizes.

"None of these things are very interesting, honestly..." Ail said.

Unlike Ail, there was something that caught my eye immediately.

"That bunny doll... I-it's so cute..."

"Do you want that small, stuffed animal, Tear?"

"U-um, I..." Yes...!

"This looks easy; I'll win it for you."

"A-are you sure? It costs a lot of tickets..."

"Don't worry about it. You can think of the prize as a souvenir of our day today."

Before I could protest any further, Ail handed the man three tickets.

"R-right this way..." The man opened up another secret compartment; this time it was a hidden door.

Ail entered the weird building. He looked around, confused.

"Like I thought before, this room is empty... right?" Ail uttered.

"B-begin navigating the m-maze, s-starting... now!"

"I just have to make it to the other side, right?" He began to take his first step. "Easy as... oof!" He said as he hit his head on something. ... At least that's what it looked like.

"A-are you okay, Ail?" I asked worriedly.

"What did I just crash into?!" Ail questioned, looking a little angry.

"T-the walls of t-this maze are i-invisible..." Maze explained. "J-just like I w-wish to be..."

... I can't think of a response to that...

"Man, this is annoying!" Ail exclaimed, continuing to crash into walls. "If I try to feel around everywhere, I'll never finish in time!"

I felt bad for Ail, but I couldn't help but find his situation kind of funny.

"H-he is scaring m-me... S-so now I will h-hide..." Maze ran away in a hurry, jumping into a bush and not coming out.

How will he know if Ail finishes if he's not looking at him?

"H-help!"

All of a sudden, I heard someone shout something from far away. It sounded like a child's voice...

"S-someone help me!"

What should I do? I want to help, but I don't want to leave Ail behind, either...

I looked at where Ail was, then to where I heard the voice.

... I'm sorry, Ail...

--

I ran as fast as I could to where I heard the voice, and ended up in a big open area. Oddly enough there was no one around, save for four people.

One was a rather short guy with a painted-on mustache and a top hat, but he still looked quite menacing. The other one with him was a rather large guy, about twice the size as Mac, holding a little girl over his shoulder.

The fourth was an older girl, who looked a couple years younger than me, seemed to be angry with them about something.

"Give me back my little sister, you jerks!" The older girl exclaimed.

"In that case, be a good girl and come with us like I asked earlier." The short man said snidely.

"Dah!" The big guy added.

"I already told you! That's not happening!"

"Oh man, oh maaan! Why do you have to be so difficult?!" The short man looked annoyed. "Our boss needs us to to bring you to him, so if you'd jus-..."

The girl kicked him in the leg.

"O-ow! Now what'd you go and do that for?!" The man looked even more cross.

"Put down my sister right now!" She reiterated.

"The only reason we kidnapped her in the first place is because you're being so difficult, you little brat! Now I have no choice but to..." He snapped his fingers. "Smash the child into the ground!"

"Dah!" The big guy raised the little girl higher into the air.

"N-no! Help me, big sis!" The little girl screamed.

"No! Let her go!" The older girl yelled, a frightened look appearing on her face.

"S-stop!" I shouted, while closing the gap between me and them.

"Huh? Who're you?" The short man asked snidely. "We're only interested in our target right now. So unless your name is 'Tear'... get lost!"

W-wha? But that's my name... Why...?

"U-um, my name is Tear..." I admitted. "But why do you...?"

"Eh? You're Tear?" He asked questioningly. "Hm... I guess it does kind of make sense, now that I think about it. I was wondering why this brat didn't meet the target's description."

"Huh?"

"According to what my boss told me, I am to capture a young girl named 'Tear', who holds a very dangerous power inside her." He explained. "She's a firebrand, sure, but I doubt such a little girl could cause much trouble..."

"I'll be happy to show you how much trouble I can cause, jerk!" The girl exclaimed angrily.

"You must really want your sister smashed into a pancake, don't you?!"

"... Urgh..." The girl made no further comment.

"So anyway, let's make a deal, shall we?" He said to me. "You come with us, and we'll leave these two alone, capeesh? I'm sure you wouldn't want anything to happen to them, right?"

"Dah!"

What should I do? I left my paintbrush emblem inside my pants pocket... And even if I did have it with me, it probably isn't a good idea to use it against these guys anyway...

"... I guess you don't care what happens to them after all, huh?"

"W-wait! I-I'll go, so please..."

"Heheh..."

There's nothing else I can do, after all...

"You heard the pretty young thing!" He snapped his fingers again. "Grab her!"

The big guy put down the little girl (surprisingly gently), and grabbed me instead. I was lifted over his shoulder like she was.

"Oh no! Nice lady!" The little girl called out sadly.

"Let go of her!" The older sister yelled, kicking the big guy in the leg this time.

However, unlike the short one, he didn't seem to be fazed by the kicks at all. "Dah!" He simply pushed her aside with ease.

"Alright, let's get going already." The short man said to the big guy. "Our boss might cut our pay if we take too long..."

"NO!!!" The two girls screamed, watching helplessly as they walked away with me.

Unfortunately for me, there isn't someone who'll save me, like I did for them...

After all, I'm truly all alo-...

"TEEEAAARRR!!!"

"W-what?!" The short man looked behind him to see who was screaming.

That voice! I-it's...

"AIIILLL!!!" I cried out, just as loud.

"WHERE ARE YOU!?"

"I'M RIGHT HERE! PLEASE COME SAVE ME!!!"

"Don't be stupid!" The man said to me snidely. "No one will come sa-..."

Just then, Ail became visible off in the distance, running faster than anyone I've ever seen before.

"... -ve you AHHH!!!" He hid his head in his hat. "The danger has arrived!"

"Dahhh!"

He eventually made it to where we were, looking a bit out of breath.

"L-let her go... NOW!!!" Ail gave them the sharpest glare I've ever seen.

"D-do you even know who we are?!" The man asked, still looking afraid. "Believe it or not, I am the one and only... Goony Thug! And this big fellow here is none other than the infamous Thuggy Goon himself!" A look of confidence returned to his face. "But unlike other goons, he and I are inseparable partners! There's no 'superior' in our relationshi-..."

"I don't care." Ail said flatly, the sharpness in his glare not waning.

"E-EH?! This guy doesn't..."

"Dah!"

"Pipe down, you inferior imbecile!"

"Give it up, jerk! We've got you outnumbered!" The older sister cut in.

Well, that's technically true, but...

"Just you wait! I've yet to play my trump card!" Thug took out something that was hidden in his pocket. "Know what this is?" A blade came out of the thing he was holding. "It's a knife, suckers!"

Oh no!

"A-Ail!"

Before Thug could move, Ail charged in, most likely to make sure he wouldn't hurt the kids. However...

"Heh! I knew you'd do that!" Thug prepared his knife. "Take this! Haaah!"

He moved in to slash just as Ail passed by. But instead of hitting him...

"Gaaah!" ...a sharp sound cut through the air, and Thug's knife flew out of his hand, hitting the ground without harming anyone.

What was that...?

I looked at Ail, and noticed he was holding something in his hand. It was...

... his treble emblem? You can do that with the emblem?!

Ail put away the emblem, and walked forward.

"N-nooo! Why?!" Thug whined while holding his arm, which was apparently in pain.

Ail picked up the knife, which was lying next to Thug, and pointed it at him.

Ail, y-you're not going to...!

"I'll say it one last time..." He uttered, continuing to glare at Thug. "Let. Tear. Go."

"Y-yes! O-of course!" Thug responded, looking even more frightened than before. "J-just don't kill me!"

Ail pointed the knife away from him, but didn't let go of it.

"H-hurry up, Thuggy! Release the girl!" Thug repeatedly snapped his hands nervously, failing to make any sounds a couple of times. "I-it's not worth risking my life over!"

"Dah..." He put me down without hesitation. As I walked toward Ail, Thug retreated to Goon's side, cowering behind him.

"A-Ail, I..." I started to say. "I-I'm so sor-..."

Before I could finish, Ail dropped the knife and embraced me in his arms.

"A-Ail!?" I squeaked, blushing.

"Why did you suddenly run off by yourself? Do you have any idea how worried I was?!" Ail asked, with an a lot calmer tone of voice.

"You were... worried about me?"

"Of course!" He let go, showing me that he was crying a little. "I was so afraid something bad would happen to you!"

"I-I... I'm sorry..."

"It's a good thing the idea I had at the last second worked. If not, I..."

"Wait, the thing you did with the emblem... You didn't...!"

"I had no idea what I was doing, honestly. I was scared of what would happen if it didn't work, but I felt I had no choice at the time..."

So he was scared, too... Ail, I'm so sorry...

"Eh, whatever." Ail unexpectedly became more placid. "I'm just glad you're okay. In the end, that's all I really care about."

"Ail..." I blushed even more.

"Um, excuse me..." The older sister cut in. "Thanks for your help, Miss Tear. And you..." She paused, staring at Ail.

"Hm?" Ail stated.

Her face began to turn red, and she started fidgeting. "Y-you were cool... Really cool... So, um..."

"Ah! Big sis has a crush!"

"Be quiet, I do not!"

Ail and I both chuckled.

"By the way, how did you two end up here by yourselves?" I decided to ask. "Where are your parents?"

"Actually, our mom is waiting for us at the carnival entrance, but..."

"Big sis said she would win me the bunny!"

"The bunny?" Ail questioned.

"Yeah, there's this prize at the maze that my little sister really wanted, so I decided to try and get it for her." She glared at the goons. "But then those guys came and took us away!" She sighed. "And now it's probably too late..."

"Bunny..."

"Would you happen to be talking about this, by any chance?" Ail asked, taking out something small and white from his pocket.

"It's the bunny!" Me and the two girls exclaimed in unison.

"After everything that happened, I forgot to mention it..." Ail gave me a thumbs-up sign. "I eventually ended up conquering that maze no problem, Tear!"

"Wow, you did?! I wish I was there to see it!"

"No; no you don't..." Ail uttered, looking a bit dejected all of a sudden.

"The bunny!" The little girl took it from Ail and started hugging it. "It's so soft and fluffy!"

"Hey, don't do that! That's not yours!" Her big sister chided her.

"Um, Ail? Is it okay?" I asked him.

"Sure, it's fine." He answered, understanding without me needing to explain.

"Make sure to take care of that bunny, okay?" I told the little girl, patting her head gently.

"W-wah! You mean I can have it?" She said in surprise, with sparkles in her eyes. "Yay! Hooray!"

Ail and I both smiled at the little girl, who was dancing around with her new stuffed friend.

--

"Oh, thank goodness! I was so worried!" Said the girls' mother, hugging both of them tightly after we brought them back to her.

"Mommy!" The little girl said, happily hugging her back.

"I'm sorry for making you worry, mom..." The older sister added.

"Thank you so much for finding them!" The mother said to us.

"No problem at all." Ail told her.

"Let's get going home now; your father must be wondering what's keeping us. Say goodbye to the nice people."

"Thank you; Miss Tear and Mister Ail!"

The three of them headed back home, waving to us goodbye.

"... It must be nice." Ail said suddenly.

"What is?"

"Y'know, to have a mom..."

My heart sank. That's right; I forgot... Ail's mother passed away...

"I wonder if she was nice? If she... loved me?"

"I'm sure she loved you very much, Ail." I said, without hesitation.

"... Thanks."

"Um, I..."

"Excuse me!"

I was suddenly interrupted by someone shouting. And the voice that made it sounded familiar...

"You two are still hanging around?!" Ail said to them, becoming peeved again. Apparently the goons had been following us. "What do you want?!"

"Ail, was it?" Thug asked. "There's something we'd like to ask you..."

"Dah!"

"Well, what is it?! Spit it out!"

"You see, after what we witnessed, we decided..." The two of them got down on their knees and lied on the ground. "We're not worthy!"

"Um, what?" Ail looked at them, confused.

"We can no longer consider ourselves equals to the likes of you! Please make us your subordinates!"

"Dah!"

Ail said nothing, not being able to decide whether he should be upset or baffled by them.

"Not only were you strong enough to take on the likes of us, but you also possess a heart of gold! To risk everything for your girl's sake... and you're even kind to children!" Thug bowed again. "You are truly a man among men!"

"I... see..."

"From now on, you are our 'big brother'! We shall follow you to the ends of th-..."

"No way. Get out of my face." Ail told them flatly, before they could finish.

"W-wah?! No way..." The two of them looked down, dejected.

"Get lost. I never want to see you guys again!"

"I see... But at least let me give you a token of my appreciation for you!" Thug handed him a familiar looking rounded, rectangular-shaped thing.

"Isn't this the knife from before...?" Ail questioned, not looking amused.

"It's not just any knife, big brother!" He explained. "It is an amazing tool known as the 'Switchflasher'! The truth is, it has a hidden flashlight inside! Neat, huh?"

"Um, a flashlight knife? That's more weird than neat, honestly..."

"Dah!" Goon shouted suddenly.

"Wha? Oh, right!" Thug coughed. "Sorry, my mistake. It's actually supposed to seem like an ordinary flashlight, and it's the knife that's supposed to be hidden! I just use it as a knife, so I got confused! Sorry about that!"

"..." Ail had nothing to say to that.

"Alright, if you don't need us anymore, we'll be off! Later, big brother!" The two of them ran off to who knows where.

"... Well, it's sure been a long day..." Ail uttered, putting away his new 'present'. "I think it's about time we headed home, too. It's already past 6."

"Okay..." I said, then realized something. "A-ah! We never used all of the tickets!"

"Yeah, you're right; we've still got half of them left..." He sighed. "Oh well."

"I'm sorry, this day was supposed to be fun, right? But..."

"Hey, I wanted you to have fun, remember? And I'm the one who brought you here, so if anything, it should be me that's apologizing right now."

"No way! I..." I thought about everything that happened today. "There was some weird things, and some bad things... But I still had fun. Lots of fun!"

"... Seriously?!" Ail looked at me weird, not believing a word I said. "I know today wasn't a very good one. I'll make it up to you another time, I promise..."

"No, that's okay." I reassured him. "It really was fun, and so has every day since I came back to Neturus... thanks to you, Ail."

Ail blushed slightly. "Jeez, now you're embarrassing me..."

Yes, thank you so much for everything, Ail...

"... Hey, um... Can I ask you a weird question?"

"Sure, what?"

"We'll be friends until the end of time... right, Ail?"

"Do you seriously need to ask such a stupid question?" He sighed, then smiled at me. "Of course we will."

--

The next day...

"It's almost time for Ail's concert... He's been practicing so hard today!" I said to myself, sitting in my dorm room alone. "I need to make sure to wish him luck as hard as I can!"

Even though the dorms are kind of far from the auditorium, I could still here them practicing from my room.

"I've gained so much confidence in myself thanks to Ail. Maybe I can finally gather the courage... to do what I came here to do..."

Come to think of it, because of the concert, I'm the only one in the dorms right now, right?

"Maybe it's not so bad to take that off for a while... It's been making me feel itchy lately..."

It was something I could never even think of doing when I first got here. I decided to take off that...

"Jeez, it's even making me feel a little sweaty, too..."

"Surprise!" Someone opened the door suddenly.

"A-Ail?!" I exclaimed in shock. "N-no, it's..."

"Y-you... You're..." The person backed away, just as shocked as me. "But w-why..."

"C-Chelsea!?"

... and I had realized then that taking that off was a huge mistake...

To be continued...

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Writer's Comments:

Wow, it's been a month already?! Wow, time flies when... wait, no it hasn't!

Why is this up so soon, you ask? Well you see, I'm actually planning on getting this series done by August. And if I did one per month, I'd end up with one not finished by then! So yeah, I decided to do this one now. Why this one in particular? I have my reasons...

Besides, this one wasn't supposed to be very long, anyway. In fact, last chapter, I forgot to mention this one wouldn't be like last time. ...except it totally is. I mean, jeez!

Is it because I added too many things? Nope! I was planning on adding some stuff, but they either got scrapped or saved for later (I'll talk about these ideas some other time). This chapter is pretty much a massively detailed version of the original. At first, I just wanted to expand the minor characters a little, but two characters' development got out of hand... Of course, I'm talking about the goons!

They ended up being so much more goofy and full of character than in the original, that I actually may use them for something else later on! The young girls will be as well (but that was planned already). For what, you ask? Well, that's not until way later (and considering how slow I am at putting up stuff... well...).

... And because of that, it felt like it took forever to finish this. I'm starting to get tired of writing right now, so I'll end things off here... except wait!

You want to know what's up with that ending part, right? Well, you'll have to wait until chapter 14 for that! ... Why not chapter 13? Well, you'll see...

- CS-Masyet

P.S. I actually tried to get this up on Valentine's Day, once I noticed what day it was! I barely made it: it's almost midnight right now! So yeah, in case you were wondering, it's not a coincidence...