Ronin Warriors Fan Fiction ❯ Ronin Warriors: Hell Back on Earth ❯ Rebuilding and Ruins ( Chapter 2 )

The darkness was flooded with light as a girl opened her eyes to blurry figures standing over her.

"Hey Karen, wake up!" the voice said again.

Her eyes came into focus as her consciousness began to catch up with her.

"Come on sleepyhead, wake up. You've got to stop immersing yourself in those anime soundtracks of yours." the taller girl said. She had dirty blonde hair and wore glasses.
"Yeah, C'mon Karen, let's go get something to eat, I'm starving. I've already circled this whole park about 5 times while you were out for about 20 minutes." the other, more athletic girl said. She was Korean and was wearing a arm and kneepads as well as a helmet, wearing in-line skates.

The girl slowly rose to her feet and stretched out as she yawned. She was of Japanese decent and had long black hair with brown highlights, and her face seemed to echo Ran's slightly as she wiped the sleep from her brown eyes. She plucked the earbuds from her ears as the faint sounds of "Philosophy in a Tea Cup" played on. Her two friends grabbed her and dragged her out of the Esplanade and off into the city of Boston.

"Karen, come on! I'm starving!" one of the girls said.
"I know I know Allison, you're always starving." Karen replied as she was dragged off "Can't you see I just woke up?"
"Girl, we need to have a talk with you about zoning out while listening to your music and falling asleep." the other girl answered.
"I know I know..." Karen mumbled.

KAREN (V. O.): Hey there! My name's Karen Furukiayu. Welcome! I live in Boston, MA and I'm nineteen years old.

"Maybe we should hit Chili's." Teresa said.
"No, we went there YESTERDAY. We'll do Friday's." Allison said.
"We did that the day before..." Teresa reminded her. "Where are your friends meeting us anyway?"
"They said Gyuhama. Oops! I forgot!" Allison replied.

Teresa got an anger square on her forehead, eying Allison angrily.

KAREN (V.O.): That's Teresa, my best friend since kindergarten. Neat huh? She's really cool and is really smart too. She really wants to get into the music industry, behind the scenes more though. Me? I want to write it for movies and TV, that's why I'm going to majoring in Film Scoring at Berklee College of Music in the fall. Teresa goes there too, we decided to go together because it's the right fit for both of us. There's another reason, but I won't get into that yet...

"Karen, let's go! They're probably waiting for us still!" Allison shouted.
"Okay okay, but first I have to go check in with my dad." she replied.
"That's not on the WAY..." Allison complained about not being able to deal with the issue out on the way.

Allison brought out her cellphone and proceeded to call her friends to let them know that the three would be late to dinner--again.

KAREN (V.O.): That Asian girl there? That's my other friend, Allison. She's gonna be a junior at Berklee in the fall, she's majoring in Voice Performance. She can REALLY sing. I've been trying to get her to do a duet with her voice with me on piano for MONTHS and she finally agreed. Her parents adopted her from Korea when she was a baby. She's the one who sold Teresa and I on the school in the first place. We met her at Pops Goes the Fourth a summer ago, back when Teresa and I were on the verge of starting our senior year of high school. There was no place to sit so Allison was nice enough to let us sit with her and her friends. We got to talking, and we basically found out everything there. Small world, huh?

"KAREN...can we please get to your father's NOW?" Allison shouted.
"Right! Let's go!" Karen apologized.

The three girls headed for the nearest T stop and hopped on the Red Line, heading up towards Park Street near where she lived, and very close to the Boston Common, another popular hangout spot for the girls. Allison really did not care for going there because she was not allowed to skate through most of the park, but the group would head there on days when the Esplanade was too crowded. As the train sped off one station up, people were listening to music on their headphones or slumped over in their seats attempting to sleep. By the time the train reached Park Street the train had become so crowded that the girls had to squeeze their way through all the passengers and once again snap Karen out of her Trigun induced trance. They could hear the squeaking wheels of the Green Line trolleys as they raced up the steps to the upper part of the station. They crossed over the Inbound tracks in the old looking, tile walled station and ran up the stairs through the turnstile, pardoning their way through people heading down to board. From there the girls headed up towards the townhouses at Beacon Hill, past joggers, people walking along the paths, past people having picnics on the grass, sunbathing, or just sitting in the shade, as well as the Frog Pond where hundreds of little kids were splashing around having the time of their lives. The three trudged up the steep hill leading to the penthouse apartment that Karen lived in with her dad, headed in the front door and hopped in the elevator, while the girls waited below, as this would only take a few minutes.

When the elevator door opened, Karen pulled out her keys and opened the front door, which opened into a family room to her left, and the kitchen almost directly in front of her. Her father, Tenma, was in the kitchen cooking dinner when he noticed Karen walk in. He had short black hair, looking very businesslike in his appearance, dressed in a long sleeve shirt and pants even though it was summer. Karen had never understood that. While every summer, she had dragged out her shorts, tank tops, T-shirts and swimsuits, her father always insisted on wearing long sleeve shirts and pants of some sort, and turned the air conditioning up enough to keep him cool, sometimes forcing Karen to wear a sweatshirt or light jacket around the house to stay warm. She had never seen him wear any short sleeve clothing, even when he used to take her to the beach as a kid, he always insisted on covering up. She could never figure out why. She was almost twenty, and she STILL had not figured it out.

KAREN (V.O.): That's my dad. He adopted me from Japan when I was three. I learned English in school here, but he insisted that I keep up with my Japanese as part of my heritage. To tell you the truth, I really don't know what he does for a living, or how we can afford this really nice apartment. Weird huh?

"<Dad, I'm going out with Teresa and Allison tonight! I'll be back about eight or so, okay?>" she called in Japanese.
"<All right dear. Have fun.>" he replied.

Karen waved good-bye and climbed back in the elevator, and headed back downstairs, where Teresa was waiting patiently, almost sympathetic, where Allison was tapping her foot impatiently, with an annoyed look on her face.

"LET'S GO!!!!!" Allison shouted again, grabbing Karen and Teresa and charging out the door.

The three girls hurried back to the subway, paid the fare and climbed aboard the first outbound train they could find, heading over to Copley place, then running up the street past the Romanesque Boston Public Library into the Westin Hotel, where they rushed past store after store, fountains, people, partially through the Marriott hotel on the other side, where a cover band was playing to a quite packed audience, over the glass footbridge connecting the two buildings, past even more stores, screeching around to the right, past the Food Court, down the escalator, out of the glass windows of the shopping gallery underneath the Tower, which headed high into the sky, seeming closer to them than it actually was, across the street to the restaurant. After a quick conversation with the hostess, the three learned that Allison's friends had gotten there ahead of them and had already been seated. The girls were lead over to a series of round tables, where they first had to remove their shoes and place them in a series of cubbies, before taking their seats on mats.

"Sorry we're late!" Karen apologized. "I had to go let my dad know where I was going."
"It's okay." Allison's friend Kathryn replied. "My dad can be kind of strict about that too, and I'm a college graduate."
"It just seems quite unusual, almost like her father needs her for some purpose. It's like keeping your best vocalist in the recording studio at all times or at least keeping them on speed dial." her boyfriend, Brendan replied.

Kathryn reached back with her hand and whacked Brendan on the back of the neck lightly.

"You and your theories." Kathryn replied.

KAREN (V.O.): That's Kathryn and her boyfriend Brendan. They've been going out since we met them. Kathryn graduated last year from Berklee with a degree in Film Scoring, yep, she's the one who got me interested and gave me some pointers. Brendan's going to be a senior in the fall and helps run the school's idie label. He's really nice, and a hell of a guitar player. I made him play H.T. for me once; at least he actually agrees unlike some other person I know...he's been trying to get Allison and her band to put together a demo for the longest time, she keeps telling him no and makes all sorts of other excuses about why they can't or don't. I really don't get Allison sometimes...

"Guess what?" Kathryn exclaimed, as she took a sip of her wine while Teresa for the umpteenth time attempted to break her chopsticks in two.
"What?" Karen asked, as she for the umpteenth time had to separate them for her.
"I got called by some producer, he's doing this video game based on an original story he wrote, and I'm going to be doing the music for it!"
"Cool! What's it called?" Karen asked.
"Shards of Light and Darkness. I can't wait to get started!" Kathryn shouted happily.

The waitress appeared to take their orders at last. Allison as usual, ordered sushi, followed up by Karen, while the others went for more cooked fare. Little did they know, things were beginning to form on the other side of the Pacific...

"I can't believe you're making US help rebuild your house Mia." Kento groaned as he moved a beam into place.
"Well, I have you guys to blame for knocking it down in the first place!" Mia shouted back.
"We didn't do it, it was Anubis and his temper tantrum!" Kento fired back.
"Navcase was trying to kill us? What did you want me to do, ask him nicely, 'I'm sorry, can we fight outside the house, we don't want to destroy it'?" Anubis answered sarcastically.
"Can't we just wait for the contractor to arrive?" Ryo asked as he used his power to slash through wood.
"They're not going to get started until Tuesday! We were lucky Kinjiro was nice enough to put us up in that fancy hotel." Mia shot back.
"Does it help if we say we're reeeeeeeeeeeeeeely sorry?" Kale asked.
"Do you know how long this house has been in my family? And you destroyed it in a matter of minutes!" Mia replied.
"How many times do I have to say 'I'm sorry'?" Anubis replied. "For crying out loud, we're samurai, not carpenters!"
"Samurai are known for being warriors of various skills, not just those of battle. Such as being able to rebuild my house after one of their battles gets it destroyed!" Mia yelled. "NOW WORK!!!!!"
"Geez, why don't Hariel and his guys have to help out here?" Sage asked angrily.
"Because they have to keep the Isle of Mists protected in case Ceiphied attacks or little green haired girls get lost and think it's their hometown!"
"What about twin mages of which one thinks he's a genius?" Sai asked.
"Mist! Not MYSTIA!!!!" Mia shot back.
"Sorry..." Sai replied.

As the group trudged on with the manual labor prescribed by Slave Driver Mia, Ryo and Anubis began to remember the great final battle with Ceiphied. The others had not remembered much, being under mind control. They had remembered the narrow escape, Ceiphied shooting into the air and vowing to return, before heading back to the Isle and deciding that they should rebuild Mia's house in the interim. Something kept pulling them to return to the base and see if they could find anything. Maybe there was some clue to help them find the Drakka Shichiseishi and take them out before they could pose a problem.

"Anubis, I think we should all go investigate the military base that Ceiphied took over. There might be some clues there." Ryo said.
"True Ryo, but how are we supposed to get past Slave Driver Mia over there?" Anubis said, pointing to Mia, who seemed to be enjoying the job a little too much.
"Easy. Tsubasa no Hi...Genkaku En!" Ryo said.

His wings appeared and turned to a misty flame, which the group fled out through. By the time the mist vanished, all the warriors were still working. Mia had noticed the mist; she was confused, but the guys were still working. That was all that mattered.

Meanwhile...

"Okay, this is it. The base." Ryo said, as the group slowly touched down on the desolate area.

Asphalt was torn up. What was left of the walls were cracked beyond belief, any structures left standing were badly ruined and still smoking from the assault. A large hole remained from when Ceiphied had burst out from the ruins. There were lots of places to check, and they had to work fast.

"All right." Ryo said, taking charge. "Kale, you and Sage go check down the hole Ceiphied left. Be careful, especially you Kale." he said.
"Don't worry! I'll be fine!" Kale declared.
"Famous last words..." Sage mumbled under his breath as they headed off down into the hole, Kale using his heat rod to rappel downward. Several minutes later Ryo heard a crash and Sage's voice asking if Kale was all right, and Kale shouting upward to report that he was all right. Ryo slapped his hand against his face at Kale's bad luck with things hurting him.
"Okay, Dais, Rowen, you two search over on that side, see if you can turn up anything. Kento, you and Sai check over there. Anubis and I will make sure there's no stragglers." Ryo said, summoning his Seishi wardrobe.

With that, the scouring began. Sage and Kale spelunked deep into the hole/tunnel that had been left behind; other than a few dozen dead Draconai and human remains, they found nothing of importance. Ryo and Anubis focused their energy, trying to pick up any enemy energy signatures, but none seemed to appear. Kento stubbed his foot and Sai tried to get him to calm down as he cussed a mile a minute, while Rowen and Dais searched painstakingly in their own area, trying to find at least something.

Anubis yawned from the boredom and monotony of the search. Nothing had happened, short of Kale getting clonked on the head from some falling debris. Something had almost told them to return here, but what? He looked at the sky in the hot summer night, mosquitos were buzzing about as usual, but they were being fried by the illumination and immolation of Ryo's wings. But there was something else in the air, besides the bugs. Cicadas were chirping loudly despite them not being near Tokyo Tower. He saw something, reached into the air, and snatched it out of the sky, and opened his hand slowly to examine it. A cherry blossom. He looked up again. Lots of pink blossoms. What could this possibly mean? He had to tell Ryo about it, still. He looked for the flaming hero, who was no longer next to him, but looking over in a different corner. Anubis looked, and almost gasped in surprise when he saw a silhouette of some sort stalking him, slowly drawing a pair of swords to strike Ryo down.

"RYO!!! BEHIND YOU!!!!" Anubis shouted, startling the flaming hero enough to turn and block with his flame swords as the blades clashed. Ryo slashed at his assailant, who seemed to leap at least ten feet into the air and going from a gentle to fast decent in a matter of moments towards Anubis, who dove into a somersault and headed over to Ryo, summoning his scythe and Seishi attire.

"Let's get him." Ryo said.

Anubis nodded and the two charged. Ryo slashed with his swords, but their opponent backflipped out of the way of Ryo's twin blades of flame, before nailing Ryo with a side kick that knocked him about twenty feet away towards a wall. Ryo managed to slow himself in midair and raced back towards Anubis with the aid of his wings. Sparks flashed in the air as Anubis' scythe and his opponent's sword clashed. This warrior was fast; he moved along the ground as if his own bodily weight was not an issue. In an effort to distract him, Ryo hefted a large piece of metal lying around and hurled it at their attacker, he sliced through it with his swords as if it was tinfoil, as Ryo and Anubis charged him once again. With expert timing he sprang high into the air, with his swords ready, and came falling down towards them. The two held up their weapons and braced themselves, however the force with which he connected was so great that they were knocked to the ground hard. The warrior held his swords up and prepared to finish them, however he heard the cries of the other Ronins and Warlords coming. He sheathed his weapons and nimble as a cat, ran towards the wall and flipped over it, and began leaping from building to building, seeming to almost float.

"What was that guy..." Ryo wondered, dazed as he struggled to his feet.
"I'm not sure myself..." Anubis replied, as he too got to his feet.
"What happened to you two?" Sage asked as the others ran up.
"Someone or something attacked us." Anubis replied.
"Whatever it was, it was really fast. Nimble too. Like he or she could control their own weight better than Kento."
"I resent that." Kento replied, before complaining about his stubbed foot.
"Well, we found something. Apparently what Kento hurt his foot on was some sort of mecha." Sai answered.

Heading over to the spot, they made out part of a letter. Ryo reached in and brushed away most of the dirt covering it, revealing the logo "Otoantou Industries."

"Hmm...Otoantou Industries...hmmm. Maybe we should go check with Mia." Ryo thought.

After returning to the hotel Kinjiro had put them up in, the group explained the situation to Mia. She was furious at them for tricking her with an illusion so they could go on a scavenger hunt, but was surprised at the name they brought back. She ran it through her computer, and found an address. Otoantou Industries was apparently a very big international corporation that specialized in armaments for military purposes. Although they did not have an official contract with the Strategic Self-Defense Force, they distributed their wares to various other small countries, many Third World, and even supplied to terrorists, gang members, among other low-lifes. There were even rumors that they were front suppliers for the Japanese organized crime clans, known as the Yakuza. Still, there was enough reason for the group to go investigate. Ryo and the others agreed that they should go tomorrow night.

The following night the group found themselves standing outside the front gate of Otoantou's facilities, decked out in full battle gear, as opposed to Ryo and Anubis, who felt that their Seishi power could handle it. Kale brought out his beam sword, and sliced cleanly through the fence with it, after that the group filed in, not realizing that they had tripped a silent alarm that had gone off in the CEO's office. From within this dark room, a dark figure pushed the intercom button.

"Send out the troops. Don't leave anyone alive." he replied in an evil voice.
"Yes sir." the voice on the other end said.

Throughout the facility, things came to life. Lights turned on, soldiers donned bulletproof armor, grabbed automatic cannons, others ran into hangar bays, hopping into tanks, still others rushed towards helipads to launch VTOL fighters. The heroes heard all this commotion and stood their ground as soldiers filed out of what appeared to be barracks, opening fire with their rifles, sending Ryo and Anubis for cover while the bullets bounced off the Gundam armor of the others. The group ducked behind a building while they returned fire.

"What are we supposed to do?" Ryo shouted, confused.
"Kill them?" Sekhmet suggested.
"Sekhmet, they're innocent human beings, not Draconai or animated suits of armor." Anubis explained.
"But they're armed, and they're shooting at us. They're soldiers, so they've taken it into their own hands to kill us. Thus we should fight back!" Sekhmet shouted.
"But they're innocent!" Dais shouted back.
"Yeah, innocents, trying to KILL US!!!! Let me at 'em!" Sekhmet shouted.
"NO!" Anubis shot back.
"Aww, you never let me have any fun..." Sekhmet whined.
"Okay, let's go out. But no killing. That goes sextuple for you Sekhmet." Ryo ordered.
"Yes Mommy." Sekhmet replied in a childish voice.
"One...two...three!" Anubis counted, on three the group rushed out from where they were hiding, only to find several tanks had driven out, and were transforming to "Blow Everything to Hell Mode."
"On second thought...run! That way!" Anubis shouted, barely managing to leap out of the way as a cannon fired, making a large dent in the building they were just hiding behind.
"I have an idea. You guys go that way. I'll try and draw their fire." Dais said.

Anubis and the others rushed off away from the cannon, causing it to aim at them, but Dais got in the way.

"Yeah you! Go for me!" he shouted, starting to run, the cannon following him, leaving a crater with every move. Soldiers fired at Dais as he ran towards them, the bullets bouncing off his heavy armor as he took them down like bowling pins with his nunchucku, running towards another tank in the distance.

A group of soldiers, accompanied by some that were apparently cybernetic, others robotic had closed in on the heroes, who were trying to figure out what Dais was up to.

"Okay, fend them off. But no killing." Ryo instructed.

Anubis arced upward with his scythe, slicing one of the cyborgs in half, while Rowen used his martial arts skills to punch and kick some of the infantry trying to kill them, while Kento used his staff to kill off some of the robots. Sekhmet seemed to be enjoying killing the other robots off, but more kept coming as Dais continued to run, the tank commanders continuing to fire at him, as he ran in front of one, getting it to target him, but just enough so that the splash damage would take out the other tank behind him. The operators realized what Dais was up to and prepared to evacuate it, barely diving out as the tank was vaporized. Dais ran up to yet another tank, which seemed to be armed with missiles and what seemed like very powerful guns. He climbed on top, knocked on the hatch, and when the soldiers inside came up to investigate he threw them out and climbed inside himself. Looking around, he discovered that this was a new model that OI was working on, called a Mammoth Tank. He put it into gear and headed towards the others, blasting his way through whatever got into his line of fire.

In this time, the others had managed to take down a large scrap heap of robot parts, cyborg parts, and many dazed soldiers as a tank drove up.

"We're going to die, aren't we." Sai replied.
"Be quiet Sai." Anubis said.

The group quivered in fear as the hatch on top opened up to reveal Dais.

"Need a lift?" he asked.
"DAIS!!!" the group exclaimed, charging towards the vehicle as they heard a loud tremor.
"What was that?" Sage wondered.
"Probably nothing." Ryo thought.

At that, another tremor was felt under their metal feet.

"That, was something." Kento said.

At that, a huge shadow loomed overhead, as the group stared up surprised, terrified and dumbfounded at the large four-legged, saurian weapons platform that was standing there. They heard the hum of electromagnets as something on the thing began to charge up.

"ABANDON TANK!!!!" Anubis shouted as the group dove off their ride as it was vaporized by the machine's rail gun, and proceeded to make a beeline for the front gate as it lumbered painstakingly towards them, firing again and again, making dents in the asphalt. The group breathed a sigh of relief as they reached the front gate of the facility, only to find several ships hovering, ready to fire on them, with the large beast thing stomping up behind them.

"We're all gonna die..." Sai replied for the second time.
"SHUT UP!!! We're not going down like this!" Anubis declared.

The group heard the hum of the railgun warming up as they all braced for the end. Instead they heard the sound of some sort of missile whistling over their head, as they turned to see the large mecha behind them suddenly freeze up and the gun dying down. They could almost hear the crew screaming and cursing. They tilted their heads over abruptly to find Kashin standing in the back of some sort of APC, wearing some sort of strange suit and carrying a strange rifle.

"GET IN!!!!" he shouted, prompting the heroes to file into the vehicle, and fly off as the tires screeched as the machine came out of its freeze up and fired the cannon as they sped off.
"What were you thinking? Didn't you know that OI is a major weapons manufacturer?" Kashin asked them.
"We did. We didn't think they'd be throwing tanks and giant Empire Strikes Back reject machines at us!" Anubis replied angrily. "WHAT WAS THAT THING?"
"Otoantou's newest toy from his Westwood branch. Mechanical walker, armed with rail guns and a shitload of antiaircraft fire. It's as heavily armored as all of you guys put together." Kashin explained calmly to a group of heroes whose jaws had dropped in sheer shock.
"Why does he need something like that?" Anubis asked.
"Security I guess." Kashin said.
"What was that thing you used on it?" Rowen asked.
"Lockdown shell. Temporarily shuts down anything mechanical for about ten minutes. Lucky I ran into you guys, or you would be dead."
"So, you've finally come around?" Ryo asked.
"OF COURSE NOT! I WOULDN'T HELP YOU MORONS WILLINGLY! Actually, that bitch of a sun goddess told me to tell Fire Boy and Carrot Top here to go to the Palace, she wants to see you.
"Fire Boy?" Ryo replied angrily.
"Carrot Top?" Anubis added.
"Just how do you know all this stuff about OI?" Dais asked.
"My secret." Kashin replied, angering the normally calm Dais.

Later...

"What is it Amaterasu?" Ryo asked once he and Anubis had arrived, and survived being glomped out of excitement by Sakura.
"Kinjiro has picked up high levels of Chi coming from the Eastern United States, centered around Boston, Massachusetts." she explained.
"Odd. I would think that the Seishi would all be in Japan..." Anubis thought.
"Hmm..." Kashin thought to himself.
"Still, I need some of you to go investigate. Any volunteers?"
"I'll go." Navcase stated boldly.
"Sure he would...has to be be all noble and everything." Kashin replied.

Navcase cast a disapproving look at Kashin.

"Anyone else?" Amaterasu asked.
"I'll go with him." Yuriko volunteered.
"I'll go with them. They'll need someone who can speak English." Ran said.
"Like, I've got stuff to do."
"What, go check out the latest fashions at the mall?" Kashin asked sarcastically.
"Wow, how'd you know?" Yoko asked excitedly.
"Lucky guess." Kashin replied in his usual tone of voice.
"I'll have Kinjiro arrange transportation. You three can leave at once."
"Yeah, whatever." Kashin replied in a Hayami-ish tone before heading off to his room.

Meanwhile...

"Sir, my facility was attacked by those Ronins and two of the Amaterasu Seishi. Don't worry, everything is still on schedule, and I got a chance to test out my new toy. They didn't get enough information as it is, and they don't suspect anything. The only interesting thing is that they were bailed out by Captain Zoutou."
"Zoutou...him again..." the voice on the other end said.
"Yes sir. My information seems to show that he's also one, but unwillingly. Oh yes. One of my competitors, Osaki, has made airline reservations to Boston in his name. Three passengers. I trust you'll be waiting for them?"
"Of course. Keep up the production work, Houji. Keep me posted." the other voice said.
"As you wish, Mr. Furukiayu." Houji replied.

On the other end, Tenma Furukiayu hung up the phone in the kitchen. He peeked into the bedroom nearby, where Karen was sound asleep after a long day of fun with her friends.

"Soon..." he said, smiling evilly. "Very soon..."

He poured himself another glass of sake before bringing out his cellphone and dialing another number.

"It's me. Get over to Otoantou and get on a plane soon. I've got a job for you." Tenma said before hanging up.

Next Episode

NAVCASE: Greetings, it is I, Navcase.
YURIKO: Shinta-chan sounds better!
NAVCASE: In our next chapter, Ran, Yuriko, and myself arrive in Boston, in search of the strange energy reading Kinjiro got. Acting on a hunch, I follow a group of girls, only to be diverted into a dark and dangerous park, where I am attacked. Can I stop them? It's the next chapter of Ronin Warriors: Hell Back on Earth, Arrival in Boston. Don't miss it!
YURIKO: We'll be sure to have plenty of Shinta-chan fanservice too!
NAVCASE: ::blushes:: Yuriko...