Rijuku Park

Sen crossed the park as part of his daily jogging sessions. He stopped at a pair of stairs, sat down and pulled his headphones down onto his neck. The Blondie wiped the sweat off his forehead with a handkerchief from the pocket of his tracker pants.

Completely ignoring the obvious discomfort of his back pushed against the rocky stairs, Sen rested his head on his arms and closed his eyes.

Aoi found herself wandering about after leaving the hospital. Thinking on it, the girl thought she knew the Reapers and recalled seeing Kraken many times before. Yet, trying to force the memory of it to become clear brought back her migraines and the loud ringing in her ears. Just what was wrong with her, exactly? She felt this way with Sera too... He... isn't a Reaper too, is he? "Ugh..." The poor lass groaned in frustration, truly unable to understand.

Then her foot hit something- someone.

Aoi tripped on Sen.

"Aaaah!"

Sen started bobbing his head, humming some tunes under his nose and enjoying his well earned rest on the hard concrete stairs. From the pocket of his tracker pants he pulled out a single Vanguard card and started playing around with it, juggling it between his fingers with a large smile on his face.

When the blonde felt something hit his leg follow by a scream he instantly got up as if pushed by a spring, put the card back into the backpocket and looked around, noticing a girl on the ground, reaching his hand to her. "Hey, are you okay? You could've just asked for me to move out of the way you know.."

Aoi's face was planted right into the ground, thankfully into soil nearby into of the solid concrete of the stairs. "Why have you forsaken me, Kami-sama?!" The girl gave a muffled shout, asking why her bad luck with this country continues. She lifted herself up, and spit out some dirt that came into her mouth. Keeping your mouth open while feeling into the dirt is a bad idea. "I-I'm... I-I don't think I'm okay..." Aoi shakily spoke, as if she was about to cry. That really hurt, and it tasted even worse!

The sniffling lass, red-faced, reached for his hand, and grabbed it.

Lua sat by the fountain, twiddling her thumbs. It had been a few days since a day one dream of hers got shattered almost instantly, and she wasn't really sure what to do beyond working. She had really wanted someone to take care of that was so attractive, like that blonde boy...

Well, maybe that white-haired guy would make a good secondary. He seemed like a bit more of a self-sufficient worker. Maybe he'd treat her well. Then again, he was awfully close to that white-haired richie...

"Gaaaaaah, why is this all so haaaaaard?!" she grumbled, holding her head. "I just want to practice taking care of someone in a closer way than just bringing them ramen! Can't a nurse have that chance?!"

Sen pulled the girl up onto her feet and backed away a bit, inspecting her for any injuries. "Well, it doesn't look like you've broken anything so.." after more or less confirming that the girl was fine, atleast as far as his knownledge went, Sen sat back onto the stairs. "I'm sorry for tripping you, by the way."

"N-No... T-That was my fault... Why are you laying on the stairs though?" Aoi rubbed away the tears and leftover soil from her face after standing, clearing her vision to look at the kind gent she tripped over.

Sen stretched his body and proceeded to relax once again, closing his eyes only to open one shortly after in response to the girl's question "Huh? Why not, it's preetty relaxing."

Aoi wound up distracted, looking at her phone to see a couple texts. She bit her lip, seeing something about Hoshiko and multiple people asking if she was alright. There had been metallic hissing and monstrous screeching from the distance, yet, she didn't want to go. The China girl was scared of the Reapers and didn't want to go.

She focused back on Sen.

"Laying on concrete can't be relaxing!"

"Huh? It sure is." he answered, closing both of his eyes and yawning, covering his mouth.

"It's bad for your back! ... I think it's bad for your back. Lying on solid ground like that is supposed to hurt, but maybe it could be a sort of exercise thing."

Aoi started contemplating what the masters would say. ... Then realized she wouldn't know since the masters usually speak in riddles or things that make no sense until she passed a test, or just didn't at all. This... is this one of Japan's customs the girl must also overcome? Staring long and hard at Sen with ferocity, this challenge was accepted. Walking over next to him came first, sitting down on a step was second, and finally... lying on the back. Aoi passionately... attempted to relax? It wasn't so bad the first few seconds, then the digging into her back got unbearable rather quickly.

"Gaaah!" Aoi launched upward, sitting up straight, then slumping forward some. "I will do it! I was master the art of stair-resting!"

This lass might be one short of the baker's dozen.

The blond male turned his head towards the girl, looking at her with one eye, then shrugged and went back to relaxing with his eyes closed, probably daydreaming. "Suit yourself."

"How do you do this?! What are your techniques?!" Aoi asked, bugging this man more than necessary over something trivial.

"There's no technique, I just find it relaxing.", with a shrug he responded to the unknown female's question.

"That can't be possible..."

Aoi sobbed, beginning to roll away through the grass in defeat.

"I don't get it." whispering under his nose, Sen got up and dusted himself off, streching one last time before picking up his bag. "Well, you have fun I guess, there are other things to do. See you, maybe." As he said his goodbyes to the female Sen put his headphones back on and wandered off.

With all that had happened, Raiden found himself in the park. He wanted to discover a way to locate the attackers, the Reapers. More important than that, he needed to know more about Chronos and the Gear Chronicle. It seemed they dealt with the flow of time but did the Reapers want that or was their existence just harming time that much?

"They say they can completely erase anything," Raiden mutter to himself as he looked at his deleted unit. He knew there had to be more to it than that. If they were completely deleted, why did the card remain? His mind flashed to Chronos attacking the Kraken. He didn't see what happened as he didn't have the Bangle at the time, but he understood what happened well enough. A blow to the head gave it a pain it could not deny existed. They deny the existence of pain to fake invincibility. Did Malice do the same? It was hard to tell. Too many questions left unanswered.

"I'm really sorry about that card.." he said, as he walked up to the man who seemed deep in thought. It was rather abrupt but Haruto was a naturally curious individual, he knew Raiden used the Gold Paladins like him and he too is interested in Chronos and this "Gear Chronicle".

"Please don't take offense to this...I know what it's like to lose someone precious...I can't bear to think what would happen if one of my Liberators shared the same fate." he said, with sincerity in his eyes. "Oh, where are my manners? My name is Haruto, Haruto Hayato."

Xat walked through the park when she saw her spirit animal and it began to run, and xat began to chase after it. It soon dissappered and xat stoped and looked around to see where it went. However instead she saw 2 people, and recognized the one from back in the forest. SHe wondered if they can help her in her decision, so she began to walk over to them.

Raiden turned quickly and saw the boy. He remembered his face. He had used Liberators in the battle against the Kraken. He turned his head back to the unit as he said, "Yeah... I got lucky when it happened. As far as I know, most people got it a lot worse, but at least I only lost some parts of one of them..."

He closed his eyes as he was thinking even more. "Right now, its more important to find the Reapers and to learn more about the Gear Chronicle clan that was mentioned before. There are a lot of things we don't know, so I don't have much time to think of myself."

"I understand, and I agree, finding the reapers and figuring this mystery clan out is of utmost priority...but I refuse to make sacrifices for it." he said, with a bit more determination.

"From what I can tell you're making this too much of a solo thing, disregarding your safety can be catastrophic, i'm sure they don't want that to happen to you." he said, pointing at Raiden's deck. Haruto may have seemed a bit off in this statement but his intentions were validated.

"...Hm...it looks like we're not alone here..." he said, turning around to see a young lady approaching them. "Who are you he asked?" he asked, he could feel something rather familiar about this lady but he could not remember clearly.

Xat looked at them before answering. "My name is Xateramusa and i was wondering if you can help me. but i can see you are busy." she said.

Raiden couldn't help but give a sigh as he knew that the boy had a point. He looked at his deck for a moment, then back at the boy before he said, "If someone has to be sacrificed, if there's no other choice, better it be someone with no connections to anyone here. Even you have people that would miss you if you disappeared, I do not so I have more of an advantage in a situation like this." That was what he believed, at least. If anyone had to go in a battle this harsh, and it was likely that someone would, better it be him.

He turned and noticed Xateramusa. It made sense that she would be in an area like this. She seemed to enjoy outdoors areas with trees and wildlife. "She isn't an enemy. You have no reason to be on guard around her." He wanted to make certain an unneeded fight did not start now. Hearing that she needed help made him raise a brow. "What exactly do you need help with?"

Having wandered around quite a bit... Not entirely sure what he should be doing right now, even after resolving himself to fight again, here he found himself once more. It was as if he was in limbo... That was his best comparison. Every time he had nothing to do, or no one to really be around, he made his way here. The park itself was peaceful enough to him, maybe more like a sanctuary than limbo. Even so, he was here to be alone and collect his thoughts, something he'd been doing far to much lately. Sit on his heels, collect his thoughts, think... wait, watch. It was almost... sad really. Such an endless cycle of things, wanting to be around everyone... but in times of stress going off to be by himself. Was he always this weak emotionally?

...No. Stopping in front of the lake, he stared out over it, both hands shoved in his pockets as he watched the soft ripples reverberating across the surface of the water. His mind went back to before the war with Link Joker even started. The War of Liberation... There he was a shy child, but stood up for what he thought was right, fighting against insurmountable odds... Though he was beaten in the end. His mind soon drifted forward, going over the events in the previous war... The losses on both sides, and even his own failures... He couldn't protect anyone... Lost Kagero once again, and almost lost Shadow Paladin as well.

Shutting his eyes he sighed, the thoughts continuing on. He'd lost someone very dear to him not once, but twice now... And this time, would she even come back? ...What was he fighting for now? Behind him the same shadow appeared, seeming to speak to him, saying things only he could hear. "...It's not like I can just give up, so don't think I'm going to not try." he spoke to seemingly thin air. "...I just need time to focus alright? What am I even doing here anymore? What purpose do I have left now that I have nothing to fight for?"

There was a pause, a rather long one... The air around him eerie and quiet... Then he spoke once more. "You're right, as always. Sorry... It's just been a long time since I've had something going for me I guess that I was blinded to what I have left." a sigh escaped his lips as he shook his head. Hopefully for him, the people nearby didn't notice that he was "talking to himself", as he had yet to even really notice them. He'd just come here to be alone and think.

"I have a choose to make and i don't know what one take." She said looking torn and kind of hesitant to them. She felt the presence of cath seith next to her giving her comfort.