Re: The mask of soul//chapter 48/ 10/31

[darkacex99]

haha eri on sugar high is hilarious i know who im not messing with

its kool how ai kept her promise and is training with risa 

nice lengthy chapter it was good keep up the good work 

[MsSmigge]

rndmnwierd: I know right

darkacex99: People in sugar high are very dangerous, really.... Been there, seen that  And thanks~


Once again, thank you everyone for your interest and comments~

I might not update in a while, because I have two f***ing training incoming... They both last for 5 days and after that I will have my entrance exams. Yeah, I am going to die.

Anyways, here's the next chapter.

Here we go~



Chapter 28 – I really wish that you will come back alive


As Risa had guessed, she had no time to say proper farewell to her friends when they left the Castle after one week. She only got a small glimpse of them as the village's gates were opened and all the soldiers slowly floated outside, leaving their homes behind.

The Team Alfa had been in it's usual place, the second last group, and they all had their full armor on but Risa could still recognize her friends. The bean had also her armor on, for she was in the same situation as Miki had been when they had had their small talk a long time ago. She was in response of the village's safety now and thought nothing usually, and hopefully, happened in here, it was still a very responsible job.

There were also some other warrior's because Risa was still quite new and she could not be left alone with a responsibility like this. She had also gotten an order to help Lin Lin, who was supposed to be taking care of the wounded ones. The king had estimated that this battle was going to be bloody and hard. Jun Jun had once again brought some important information for them and it was revealed, that Heng was attacking with bigger force once again.

Though Yoshizawa seemed very cool of this situation, everyone knew that the king was very concerned about this. Every lost men made her heart broke and thought she knew that people died in war and had also accepted the fact, she could not help with how she felt. This time, Yoshizawa had stayed at the Castle, for Goto and Miki had insisted it.

It was too dangerous to take their king with them when the enemy was attacking with a such force. Yoshizawa had of course protested but her general's pleading finally made her give in. She also had some administerial things to take care of, so it was better if she stayed away from the battlefield.

Risa walked along the palace's corridors, greeting everyone who passed by politely and saluting higher ranking warrior's. Though no one showed it, there was a huge tension flowing around everyone. They knew that things started to get very serious now and that they should be prepared to anything. Risa was also prepared but she was also very afraid that someday, someone would bring news about her friends, who would never again return back to her.

Vanishing those thoughts away from her head, the bean instead thought about the past week which she had spent with her friends. And indeed, what an extraordinary week it had been! Though, they had practiced a lot the five women had also spend a lot of time with each others.

And for some odd reason, Risa had been extra happy when a certain leader had showed her face every time when they had met with the whole group. But seeing Ai was not the only thing that had made Risa's stomach flip over and butterflies fly in there.

It was the way she and Ai had been acting around each others: Gone were all the awkwardness and tension between them and even when the two had sat next to each others when they had watched how Eri and Reina had set up a fight about Eri's sugar addiction, the bean hadn't felt any kind of a discomfort. Also, Ai had seemed unusually relaxed and calm, though her shoulder had brushed once in a while against Risa's.

And not to mention, the way how Ai acted when they had talked had made Risa very happy. The leader was a bit shy, but she had also shown to have some kind of a humorous side in her and sometimes, she even joked about things. At first, this had confused Risa, but during this one week, she had grown used to it.

But what had impressed Risa the most was the caring side of Ai. Reina had once twisted her ankle in the training and to everyone surprise, Ai had been the first one to get to nurse her. Usually the leader was so concentrated in her own training that she didn't notice things like this. And though the injury hadn't been very bad, the group leader had insisted, that the kitten should go to the nurse. When Reina had refused, Ai had carried her to there.

This had been something Risa got very surprised about but at the same time, it made her feel very good. Ai indeed was a very gentle and nice person in truth and all that rudeness had been someone else in her shoes. And the bean indeed hoped that that gentle side of Ai would stay and never change again.

Stopping by a window, Risa looked outside and to the horizon. Far away, black smoke was visible which told the bean, that the fight had already begun. She prayed, that her friends would return alive and that the battlefield would not change Ai back to that cold and rude person she had been before.

Not now, when Risa had gotten to see under Ai's mask and find out a nice and gentle person.

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

After two weeks the first wounded ones arrived to the nurse's place. There were a lot of them and some people had to lend their homes so the warriors could be treated. It was one of the most horrible things Risa had ever seen; blood, a lot o blood, screaming warrior's who had lost limbs or their mental balance. Some survived, but some lost their lives, even though they were treated. In the first days, Risa did not sleep or eat at all, because she just couldn't. All the horrible pictures were all the time teasing her mind and the screams would not leave her alone, even when all the person's in the nurse's place were sleeping. Luckily Lin Lin understood immediately what would happen to a young person who saw this for the first time.

Once, she went to see Risa at night and gave her something to drink and after that she had taken the girl's head between her hands and rubbed her temples gently. Risa had not found out yet what Lin Lin had done to her that night but it made her feel a lot better. That night, she slept well and after this she was also able to eat and even when she was helping the patients, she kept her cool and was not so shocked of all the blood and injuries she saw. Without Lin Lin, Risa was sure she would have lost her mind in here. With her help, she was able to think clearly again.

After few days the warriors had left, Risa already found herself missing after them. But what surprised her even more was the fact, that she missed even Ai. The feeling was new for her and every night Risa went to sleep, she could not get the leader's face out of her mind. She even once got a dream of her! This was very strange indeed...

Soon, there was another wounded group to be fetched and Risa was ordered to do that. The wounded ones were usually transported some kilometers away from the battlefront, so it would be safer to evacuate them. Risa left with a small group, about 20 warriors, having wagons with her so they could take the wounded warriors away easily. As they approached the evacuating place, the scene around them turned darker and darker all the time. The sky was dark because of all the smoke and there were blood all around. Risa was sure that she even once saw a corpse on a side way.

When they finally arrived to their destination, there was one person standing beside the road, crouching behind a tree and keeping her eyes keenly on the road. When closer, Risa raised her hand up and did a signal which revealed that she was not an enemy. The warrior behind the tree answered and started immediately to wave with her hand when another warrior jumped from a hiding place to check the situation. Risa recognized the person immediately and so did the soldier as she gave more signals and soon, the road was filled with warrior's carrying wounded ones to the wagons. Risa rode closer to the person who had given the last signals and she could not help but feel a bit of happiness to see that she was okay.

The warrior met her halfway, but stopped a few meters away from the horse. Risa was once again riding Fuego and was by so far the only one who could handle it well. Seeing this, the bean stopped her horse and mounted down. After patting the stallion gently she went to the soldier, who had by now removed her mask and helmet so Risa could see her chocolate eyes better.

“Hi there.”

Risa greeted, which Ai only nodded her head a bit, but there was a visible smile on her lips. She was happy to see Risa again but at the same time, she was worried because this was not the exact place where she wanted to meet with the girl.

“Where are the others?”

Before she could chat anything else with Ai, Risa wanted to make sure that her other friends were okay as well.

“Reina is here helping me with the evacuating. Eri and Sayu are at the field doing their own mission.”

So they were all alive and okay. That made a relief wash through Risa and she allowed herself to relax. As long as her friends were okay, she would be okay.

“That's good to hear...”

The bean mumbled as she glanced at the wagons which were slowly loaded by the wounded ones. The ”emergency wagon” was already full and it was already leaving the place, like they had planned. It had the small textile, like all the evacuation wagon's, that it should not be attacked.

“How are things going at the Castle?”

Ai's voice dragged Risa's attention back to the leader, who was watching her now with a stern face.

“Quite well, though, we are drowning to these wounded warriors...”

”It's quite normal and this is not even much yet...”

”Yeah, I know...”

”Risa!!”

Suddenly a different voice interrupted them. When the two turned to look, they could see their kitten friend running toward them. When she got to them, Reina could not help but launch herself on Risa's neck, almost knocking the bean down.

“Well hi there Reina!”

Risa embraced the kitten back. It was so good to see her again. Ai smiled at the two, but suddenly she moved and grabbed both girl's by their shoulders and pulled them back.

”Hey, what the...”

Reina started to protest as she was teared away from her friend and almost fell down, Risa being the same. They were both standing behind Ai, who had spread her arms wide and was now staring the black stallion in front of her.

”Fuego...”

Risa whispered as she suddenly remembered that the horse was not very fond of others being close to her. Ai had seen how the animal had gotten restless as Reina and Risa were embracing each others and finally decided to divide them. The leader had pulled them away and immediately after seeing this, Fuego had stopped in front of the group leader, being much calmer now. Risa frowned a bit as she walked past Ai, but the leader grabbed her arm and pulled her away from the horse.

“Hey! What are yo doing?” Risa protested.

”Be careful around that horse!” Ai ordered, her eyes not leaving the stallion in front of her.

”Fuego knows me! It wont do anything to me!”

”Hey Ai, I think that's not very good idea to do that in front of that horse...”

Reina interrupted her friends as she had noticed in what kind of position they were. Ai had protectively wrapped one of her arms around Risa's waist, while she held her other free so she could do something, if the horse decided to do ”attack” again. Last time Reina even thought about approaching Risa around the horse, she had gotten almost kicked in head, for the stallion was very overprotective when it came to Risa.

The group leader turned to face Reina, frowning at the same time. What did she mean? That animal could be dangerous and she should do nothing?

“Ai, there's nothing to be worried about...”

Risa said calmly as she tried to gently pry herself away from Ai's hold.

“But that's Fuego! The most restless horse I have ever seen!”

”Yeah, but it is calm with me and if you didn't notice, I rode him here. Just look...”

And with that, Risa finally got away from the leader and went to pet thee animal, which had been calm for several minutes now. This caused Reina to frown. Why had the horse been so calm though Ai had had Risa in her arms? Suddenly, an idea came to her mind.

”Ai, go closer that horse.” Reina encouraged the leader.

”Why?”

”Just go now.”

Frowning, Ai did as her friend told her to and went beside the horse. Though she looked very calm and convinced, the leader was prepared all the time. She knew Fuego and once it had even bitten her, when she had been careless around the stallion.

”No, the other side! Where Risa is standing!”

Again, Ai did as asked but she was all the time thinking that her subordinate had lost her mind. What the heck was this? Risa was quite the same as she tried to figure out what the kitten was doing.

As Ai stopped beside Risa, Reina waited for a few moments and when nothing happened, she implied Ai to move aside. Ai did so and now Reina started to approach the horse and Risa. Immediately she got closer, the stallion started to act restless and calmed down only when Reina started to back away. After doing that, she showed Ai that she wanted her to go beside the horse again. Ai walked to her previous spot beside Risa, the stallion only waving it's tail few times but not showing any kind of signs to be restless because the leader was close to Risa.

“What the heck...”

Reina mumbled as Ai and Risa glanced at each others and then the kitten. They had no idea what the other warrior was trying to find out with this, but then their question was answered by Reina's outburst.

”Why is it that when I get closer, that horse goes crazy but when Ai is there, it's calm??!!”

Now the lights switched on in Risa's head too as she realized what Reina had tried to solve with this. Ai was standing between her and Fuego and the horse was calm as a cucumber. Usually, it didn't let anyone get close to her, but now it let the leader be. Strange...

“What do you mean?”

Ai was totally outside of this all and she had no idea what Reina was ranting about. Suddenly, the kitten's ranting stopped and for a while it seemed like she had seen a ghost or something. But then, her shocked face turned into a mischievous grin.

'Oh, so it's like that...'

“Reina, what's so funny?” Risa asked a bit concerned as she noticed the smirk.

“Oh, nothing nothing! Just that you look so lovely together." Reina paused and smirked even more, giving a wink to her friends. "Like a couple.”

”Reina!!”

”What the heck?!!”

Both Ai and Risa started to yell at the younger girl, who only giggled as she came closer. However her smile dropped immediately, when Fuego noticed her and started to turn it's ears behind and move restlessly again.

“Woah, woah. I wont come any closer to these lovebirds here.”

”WHAT??!!”

Now both Ai and Risa were blushing furiously. Risa just turned her face away while Ai growled and tried to go after her subordinate.

“Reina what the...”

”Oh! All the wounded ones are in the wagons! It means it's our time to go. See you around Risa!”

And with that the kitten gave a hand signal and the troops they had had with Ai started to follow her, leaving their leader behind. Ai growled as Reina got away. She would deal with her later. Turning around, Ai went to Risa, who was still facing away and was now absentmindedly brushing Fuego's soft fur.

“Hey, you okay?” She asked gently as she placed her hand on the younger girl's shoulder, causing her to stiffen immediately.

“Yeah! Yeah, I am... Ano, what Reina said...”

A silence fell between them as both women felt how their faces got a bit warmer. They turned away once again, Ai coughing few times and Risa mumbling something.

”Mm... about that...”

”Niigaki-san!”

A different voice interrupted them as a soldier approached them. A young man,  who was a lower ranking, came to them and immediately he noticed the leader, he gave a salute which Ai answered.

”May I talk to Niigaki-san, ma'am?”

”Sure.”

After gaining permission from Ai, the warrior turned towards Risa and spoke: ”We are ready to leave now. The wagons are loaded and men are ready.”

Risa nodded her head a bit and glanced behind her, noticing how the road was now empty off the warriors and only the wagons with their drivers were there.

”Okay. We will leave in two minutes. Get everyone ready.”

”Yes.”

And with that, the warrior saluted both of them and went away. Risa turned back towards Ai, who was looking at her with a concern.

”I think it's good bye now.”

”We will see again.”

The leader assured as she smiled a bit at the bean, who answered with her own smile. They stood a while in silence, till Ai gently tapped Risa's shoulder with her hand and took few steps backwards, putting her mask and helmet on at the same time.

”Take care of yourself.”

”You too.”

Before the mask was on Ai's face, Risa got a glimpse of her smiling face, before she turned her back to her and started to run after Reina and the others.

Slowly, Risa lifted her hand and placed it on her shoulder were Ai's hand had been a while ago. She could still feel the touch and it made her feel warm inside.

Watching Ai's back, Risa could not help but smile a bit as she sent her prayers after the other warrior.

'I really wish, that you will come back alive...'

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

As night came, both sides retired to their camps and did only small attacks once in a while. In Yoshizawa team's camp the atmosphere was quite heavy for there had been massive losses in their side. But what warmed their minds was that the enemy had lost at least the same amount of warriors, maybe even more, as they had. It always gave them hope to know, that they were not losing and that there was all the possibilities that they would win this battle.

But it was not easy, as they had to be on guard 24/7. They didn't get much sleep and when they did, it was very disjointed and every single fighter saw nightmares if they managed to fall asleep for a longer period.

There was a small basement few hundred meters away from the battle front, where the troops rested and sustained their equipment and themselves.

Ai was sitting outside of the tents, watching in a campfire. She wasn't tired, or more likely, she didn't want to sleep. She had gotten all kind of nightmares every time she fell asleep and when she woke up she was even more tired than what she had been before she had gone to rest.

She also avoided sleeping because the nightmares had been one of the things which had changed her five years ago. Even now, after the nightmares the group leader felt like a different person. And what was the worst was that she could not prevent those nightmares. They just came to her mind, though she tried to keep them away by thinking something nice.

So now she was spending her rest time just staring in space and thinking. The leader knew that she needed to sleep but she just could not. She hated those nightmares and this was the only way to avoid them.

“Ai.”

Her sub leader's gentle voice ended the silence and the turtle joined the leader, sitting beside her. Eri said nothing in a while, but Ai could sense that something was bothering her.

“You should sleep...”

And there it was. Smiling, Ai just shook her head and moved her gaze up, watching the sky were stars were not visible all because of the black smoke and clouds.

“I am fine, thank you. But shouldn't you go to rest, for....”

”Not before you go.”

Sayu's voice came out of nowhere and as Ai turned to watch, she found Reina following after the bunny and soon the whole team was sitting around the campfire. Ai knew what this was and she didn't like it. The look on her teams face told that they would sit here with her, till she would give in and go to sleep. A smile formed on Ai's face once again. Damn, she had great friends.

“You know that we wont leave before you go.”

Reina said in and crossed her arms in front of her, pouting at her leader, Sayu and Eri doing the same.

“But I don't want to...”

Ai said quietly as she dropped her head down, all the nightmares coming back in her mind and making her feel even worse. Damn this war...

“It's because of your nightmares?”

Eri's soft voice surprised Ai. How did she know? If Ai remembered right, she had not spend any rest time with Eri and when she had slept, she was positive that she had been alone then. The questioning look on her leader's face was all that Eri needed, so she could read the older one's mind once again.

”I saw you tossing around one night. It reminded me immediately of the time when your mental state was unbalanced and you had those nightmares.”

”Oh...”

That was all Ai was able to say. So someone had seen her while she had been sleeping. It was not that Ai didn't want to sleep with others, but every time she calmed down, her senses became hyper-active and all the small sounds made her jump up and be ready to action. That's why sleeping with others would be problematic, cause the leader would probably attack someone who just turned around when asleep.

“I know it's hard, but when you go to sleep, try to think something positive. Just anything. It helps me a lot.” Eri tried to advice her leader.

”Well you have Sayu to sleep with...”

Reina mumbled which caused everyone to look at her with a frown, the kitten once again spreading her arms and questioning the dark looks she received from others.

“What now? Of course you sleep better when you have your lovely bunny with you, ne?”

Ai was expected Eri or Sayu to say something back to Reina, but to her surprise the couple only nodded a bit, a visible blush decorating their face. Reina in turn just smiled broadly as she saw that she had been right.

”See? That's what you need. Someone to sleep with!”

"Reina....”

Sayu sighed as she noticed that her friend was getting a bit too excited again, which caused Eri and Ai to chuckle. Someone to sleep with would have been a bad idea, for Ai would have just kicked the poor person all night long, because of her senses.

”Hey, wait! I got a better idea!!”

Suddenly, the kitten had gotten extra energy and was now jumping around like Eri did when she got too much sugar.

“Oh yeah, I can't wait to hear this....”

Sayu mumbled After a while, Reina stopped, took a broad stance and held one finger up.

“Oh you're going to love this one.”

”What is it....”

”We should have Risa here for our leader.”

”What?”

”Risa?”

”.............”

Both Sayu and Eri watched their friend like she had gotten insane, but Reina's grin got even wider when she noticed how her leader hid her face.

”Reina what are you talking about?”

Eri laughed nervously, while Sayu was still watching the kitten like she was an idiot.

“Oh, you should have seen them together today. It was almost like they could not let each others go.”

”Hey, it did not go like that!!”

Ai protested as she tried to make Reina stop, but her friend was now posing dramatically, giving the whole team a show of her theatrical skills.

”Oh, Risa be careful! Yes, you too! Be sure to come back to me again!”

And so she went on, making all kind of classic ”farewell phrases” and poses.

“You know it was not like that! And you don't even know what happened in the end when you left so early!”

Suddenly ”the Reina theater” stopped and the whole team turned to look at their leader, Reina still grinning like a maniac while Eri and Sayu were staring at their leader with wide eyes and mouth open.

“Uuuu, so something happened?”

“No....”

The leader grumbled as she turned her face away, so her friends could not see it. She felt how the temperature raised slowly bit by bit and there was no way that her skin was as pale as it usually was. Yup, it had to be like an apple now.

“Aww, come on now Ai, you can tell us.”

”There's nothing to tell about...”

By now, Reina had somehow sneaked herself behind Ai and was leaning on her shoulder with her arm, having that stupid grin on her face all the time.

“Well that's true. There's no way that you will say something to us..." She mumbled quietly, but Eri and Sayu could see the mischievous grin on her face. "But, I am sure that your face does.”

Taking her leader by surprise, Reina poked her side a bit causing Ai to jump. Using this, the kitten pushed Ai forward so her face could be seen in the campfire light. There was a silence as both Sayu and Eri's eyes widened even more and their mouths fell open.

Ai was deeply blushing and there was no way that it was because of the heat. The campfire was just too weak and now was almost winter so the outside temperature was very low, too. Reina put her arm around Ai's shoulders and moved her face closer to Ai's blushing one.

“Now, would you like to admit that you have something to tell us?”

The leader said nothing, as her kitten friend cooed beside her. She just could not, there was no way that she could spill her mind out to these guys. She wasn't even sure of her feelings and she had all the time denied them when she was having a battle in her mind about this.

Suddenly, Risa's image popped in her mind again and the temperature in her body raised once again. That smile, those brown eyes very similar to her own, that voice and her whole being. That all made her feel funny inside and not noticing at all, the leader had soon spaced out and was blushing even deeper, which of course did not went unnoticed by her friends.

Eri decided that this was enough. Ai was seemly embarrassed and if they took this any longer, she would get frustrated or stressed out and that would not be a good thing at all.

“Reina, let her go. I think we should all go to sleep. You too, Ai.”

Reina pouted a bit, but when she saw Eri's determinated face, she decided to leave this subject to be.

”This is not over yet...”

She whispered to Ai, who did not respond anything. She just stared down her feed, trying to get herself calm down.

”Sayu and Reina go ahead. I'll escort Ai to her tent.”

Sayu just nodded and walked to Eri, giving her a quick kiss, while Reina just pouted but as Eri glared at her, the kitten shut up and went with Sayu, not saying a word to her leader about this subject.

As her friends had gone, Eri took a hold of Ai's arm and dragged her towards the tent. Surprisingly, Ai did not protest at all but followed the turtle obediently.

As they reached the small and empty tent which was Ai's resting place Eri held a ”door” open to her leader and Ai crawled inside, immediately laying on her side, but not closing her eyes. Eri smiled a bit and patted the older woman's thigh gently before leaving herself.

But before she could get even on her feet, the leader's voice made her to stop. At first, Eri did not hear what she said so she crouched down again and went a bit closer.

“What did you say?”

Again there was just some mumbling and Eri had to ask Ai to speak a bit louder, which caused the leader to bury her head in to the cushion she had under her. But now, she spoke louder and Eri could finally hear her.

”I can't get her out of my mind....”

This surprised Eri quite much, for she had really thought that this ”Risa Ai thing” was just something Reina had made up. But could it be that those two had gotten something between them? Could it...

Before starting to do any kind of analyzes, Eri just smiled and patted Ai' again, this time on her shoulder before she leaned forwards so she could whisper in her ear.

”Maybe, if she doesn't leave your mind, you might be able to sleep tonight.”

If she could choose, she would prefer to dream of Risa than those nightmares she had once in a while, too. Ai did not respond, only nodded her head and Eri got this as a sign that she should go now, before her leader would get up and resist to go back to sleep.

”Good night Ai. Sweet dreams.”

And with that Eri left her embarrassed leader to sleep and went to her own tent which she shared with Sayu. Ai stayed awake for a while, thinking about all the things her friends had said to her tonight. Then, her mind was filled again by Risa and especially with the moment today, when she had seen her at the evacuation place. How good it had felt to see her face again and know, that she was okay. Or well, of course she would be okay, if the front line was defended well. There was a very small risk for commando attacks, but they were possible, too. It had been a surprise strike to Risa's village too, thought he front line had been defended.

Before she could recall anymore of those sad memories, Ai changed the pictures in that girl who had made her life so different lately. And with Risa in her mind, Ai found her lids closing slowly and soon she was snoring lightly, having a dream of the person in her mind. That night, the young leader slept well, Risa in her mind through the whole night and when she woke up next morning, she felt like a reborn.

And then, she made her decision. She would survive today, too. She would go back home once again and she would see her. Right now, she wanted that more than anything else.

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

I hope you enjoyed~ 

[GNUpon]

I'm a ninja that has been lurking alot on this fic   
but this day i decided to show myself up 
and tell this is such a beautiful fic 

well then writer-san here are my reactions: 

that fuego horse is a takagaki shipper 

”Well you have Sayu to sleep with...”

Reina mumbled which caused everyone to look at her with a frown, the kitten once again spreading her arms and questioning the dark looks she received from others.

“What now? Of course you sleep better when you have your lovely bunny with you, ne?”

yeah someone to sleep with.





Thank you for this great chapter

  Bye bye~ 

[darkacex99]

yesss an update

risa helping out linlin oh yeaa
poor ai, cant sleep again and her awesome friends helping her out so nice

reina is juss too cute such a kid, i like "reina's theater" i can just imagine all the exaggerated things she does to replay the story haha

MsSmigge do you best these next couple of days, and dont die  u will survive u will suuurvivvvveee

[MsSmigge]

GNUpon: Well hello there new reader  Thank for your comment  And that huge face what ever got me totally Hope to see you more around here~

darkacex99: There has to be someone to lighten up the atmosphere in the middle of the war~ That's why Reina theater~ And thank you for cheer. I will survive somehow

Thank you everyone for your interest and comments~ I had my training and one entrance exam and now I just have to empty my head.  Then I can continue reading for my second entrance exam which is after one week~ (And I am going to write a new history for Europe like I did today.... I pity that person whoever checks my answer.)

Anyways, here's the next chapter.

Here we go~


Chapter 29 – A peace, which had grown to something deeper


The battle front was filled with smoke and fire. Death bodies laid all around and the stink of burned and rotten meet was almos unbearable.
There was a battle going on as the two teams had stroke against each others once again. This time, it was all or nothing duel, as both sides put all the force they had to use in their attack.

But one side was more nervous than the other one, for they had a certain uncertainty of one thing. Along the whole battle, which had taken for six weeks now, The Heng team had been disturbed by the Team Alfa. The small group always seemed to strike when the other side was in a bad situation and with their surprise attacks they managed to do a lot of damage to them and weaken their motivation to fight.

Once again, the team was prepared but now they had a whole different plan in their hands. It was required, because if they used the same plan all the time, enemy would start to learn their strategies and it would be easier to block them. This time, Goto was moving with the team, as they were hiding in a forest nearby the battle front. They had somehow managed to sneak behind their enemies side once again and it would have been easy to strike from here and make two fronts for the Heng. But the general had thought that they needed something stronger now, something that would push them back totally.

Ai was standing a bit separately with her team who were all on horse back. The small group of men where on foot, including Goto.

The general gave a signal and the group behind her prepared to strike. Gathering all her concentration, Goto but her palms together and soon, something started to form in between them. A grey dust ball like thing was soon formed and after it was about a size of a pumpkin, the general raised her arms up, aimed and released the ball from her hands.

The dust ball shot away landing exactly in the middle of the two battling groups. Miki was left with the other group and after getting a signal from the general she had had 10 seconds to back away. They had done so and now the enemy ran straight into their trap. As the ball Goto hand send hit it goal, a small explosion was heard and then the field was filled with smoke.

Immediately after this, the general gave a signal and the Team Alfa was on the move with the men behind them, swords drawn and ready to fight. They went quickly, but avoided screaming their far cries until they were in the middle of the smoke. They did not see anything but they knew their own men. The general had put a small light ball in their own men helmet so the warriors could recognize their friends in the smoke.

Ai was the first one to reach the smoke and almost immediately she was met by a group about 10 men of enemy warriors who were very shocked because of the smoke. The first few Ai blocked with her horse, making them to fall down and at least one of them lost consciousness. Next ones Ai used her sword mercilessly, causing blood to spill around and the soldiers to fall down with silent screams.

Soon the others joined in and now the enemy was just a mass of panicked soldiers. They did not see a thing and they were panicked because of the smoke. When they tried to escape, they were either blocked down by a horse or then someone just came out of nowhere from the smoke and killed them. This caused a huge panic erupt and all the warrior's on Heng side tried to escape.

Outside the smoke, where the Heng's general Ju was standing with her small group and Sayaka, all the warrior's were watching the scene with a shocked expression. They could not see anything, but they could hear what was happening. Their men begged for mercy and were escaping but on top of all noises were the war cries Yoshizawa's men were screaming.

Ju just gritted her teeth as she saw more men run away from the smoke.
Finally, one warrior crawl her way to the general. She had some wounds and her face was bleeding, but she could still move one.

”General!”

She cried out and fell on her knees beside Ju's horse. The general just glared at her because she knew what this bishop was about to tell her and she didn't want to hear it.

”General, we have to retreat. Our men wont last long and if we don't get away, we will all get killed.”

Ju just glared the smoke from where the soldiers were still escaping. After few minutes the screaming and running soldiers ended and one of Yoshizawa's soldier came into view. Ju snarled as she recognized the other general who was staring at her.

“General, we got to go...”

Suddenly Ju took her sword out and slashed to her side. There was a silence, which was followed by a thud as the female warrior's head fell to the ground. Ju didn't even bother to look at her side, for she was occupied now by Goto.

She pointed her swords towards the Yoshizawa's general sending daggers towards her.

“We'll meet again and then I'll finish you and that damn Takahashi.”

With that Ju kicked her horse's sides which caused the animal to jump. Giving some orders Ju rode away with her men and Sayaka and moment by moment, the battlefield got more quiet as the Heng clan's warriors were escaping.

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

As the last warriors, who had been able to escape, were gone, Yoshizawa's team started to clean up the battlefield. They searched their own wounded ones and treated them. They tried to help Heng's men too, but they usually only ended up committing suicide. It was a shame to be helped by the enemy and killing her or himself was a lot better way. It was also their master order that they had to do so, if they were offered help.

The Team Alfa was also helping with the clean up, taking wounded ones to the evacuation place and trying to treat them as best as they could.

Ai was carrying one wounded male warrior on her shoulders with Reina as they were approaching the place were the evacuated ones were to be taken. They had not survived without wounds either, but their injuries were less fatal. Ai had gotten some painful hits in her leg and upper body. There was quite nasty wound made by sword in her thigh, but luckily it was not very deep. The armor had protected her enough so the swords edge hadn't gotten very deep under her skin. But it was bit hard to walk because of the wound. Also, moving her other arm was one pain in the ass, but Ai could live with it somehow.

Reina had gotten her old wound open again and it had also gotten another hit, but luckily it had not caused any fatal bleeding. She had been lucky that her armor had not been completely on it's place as the hit had come, or she would probably have no arm anymore.

Eri had gotten a small slash in her stomach, but once again she was being lucky that the blade had not done very deep wound. Her stomach was only sore and it hurt to do some things, but it would go away with time. Sayu had survived almost without injuries, she had only some bruises here and there but nothing more.

When Ai and Reina finally arrived at the evacuation place they saw for their relief that wagons were already approaching them. This was good, so they did not need to wait anymore. They would get the injured ones away from here so they could be treated better in the nurse's place in the Castle.

The help they got on battlefield was very limited and all the others could do to them was draining the bleeding and give some basic magic which healed very small scratches and so. But they could not disinfect the wounds or sew them close, neither could they repair broken bones or do anything when someone's stomach was sliced open. The treatment they did kept the warrior alive, but did not erase the pain or injury. It was just something that kept their souls in their bodies till they got a real treatment from their nurse and other medical persons.

Ai lifted the man she was carrying carefully down with Reina and made sure that he was okay. This warrior had a tight bandage around his right leg, just above his knee. He had done it to himself when he had been injured and immediately evacuated from under the enemy's threat. These warriors were trained so, that they could act even under a lot of stress. Even though they felt pain and would be in panic, their training always kicked in first and they would save their or their friend's life before it was time to panic. If this man had not done this comprehension bandage to himself, he would have probably died in blood loss.

Checking that the bandage was okay and that the man was breathing, Ai left him in a comfortable position, keeping all the time sure that he could breath easily, and went to the approaching carriage. A disappointment washed over her as she noticed that the driver was not the person she wanted to see. It was some young girl, about 13 or 14 and she had younger student clothes. She saluted Ai immediately she got closer, the leader just waving her off when she recognized who the girl was.

“Takahashi Ai-san. Mittsui Aika ready to take injured one's away.”

Ai nodded her head a bit and pointed towards the group of wounded warrior's. Mittsui saluted again and gave some signals to the people behind her. Soon, there was a group of men taking care of the injured ones and loading them in the carriages.

Ai left them to do their work and went back to Reina, who was now talking with the captain. The leader hurried to them, because Miki's being told her that there were some news to be told. And she was right, for the captain immediately turned to her when she got closer.

“Ah there you are. I have some good news for you.”

”Yes, captain?”

”We are able to leave soon.”

Ai's eyes widened in surprise. What was this? They could leave?

“But isn't there a lot of work to do? Also, what about the enemy?”

”We are leaving a small group in here which should arrive from the Castle in any moment now," The captain said before Ai could open her mouth again. "We have tired and injured warrior's and they need their rest so they can fight better in the next battles. Also, the enemy thread has gotten smaller now. Jun Jun informed us about the situation behind the enemy borders and she even managed to spy some of the leader's talking. We have no need for such many men in here now, so we are sending you home. I'll go too and general stays here until she gets enough new leaders in here.”

Ai could not believe her ears. They were able to return to home now, they had won this battle. Though Ai loved to protect her land and fight for it, she also loved her home and sometimes it felt so good to get back and just rest for a while. But now, among all the other things, she had also something new occupying her mind.

'I can see her, too...'

“So, get your men ready and prepare to leave.”

”Yes, captain.”

Miki smiled a bit and left for to check the other warriors, leaving Ai alone with Reina. The two friends smiled at each others and gave each others high fives and an one armed hug.

“We are going home...”

”Yeah we are...”

They stayed like this for a while, savoring the truth that their friend was alive in front of them. Though they were warriors and they had to be prepared to that, that their friends might fall someday, they always joyed about these little moments when they all were safe and okay.

“Lets get prepare our leave. I want to see Sayu and Eri, too...”

Ai whispered to Reina who just nodded her head. They let go of each others and went to search for their friends, who they found soon. Sayu and Eri were very relieved to see their teammates too and immediately they got closer, Eri gave a bear hug to both Ai and Reina, causing the later one to blush furiously. Luckily, Ai neither Sayu didn't notice it at all and so the kitten avoided all questioning and such.

“We did it guys!”

Eri celebrated as she went back to Sayu and gave her a hug, the younger one reminding her all the time about her injury and how she should be careful. But Eri could care less now. She was alive, her friends were alive, the enemy had retreated and they were going home. Of course, they all knew that the war would continue but not for a while. Even few days without this hell was like blessing.

Soon the reinforcement arrived and Goto started to immediately put them in defense, the older troops leaving the place with the arrived carriages. As they rode back to the Castle, Ai could not help but feel her heart jumping wildly in her chest, as a familiar village came into her view. She knew she could see Risa soon and she was more than happy about it.

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

The nurse's place was floating with the injured ones, but they were not all going to die. There had been many losses, but by Lin Lin's, Risa's and some other helpers restless work, many were saved too. Lin Lin was the most reason why many were saved, for she used her healing skills very much and with them even many fatal injures were treated. But she would not have done this all alone, for Risa and the others kept doing all the smaller things like arranging the places and getting all the needed equipment and supplies, so the nurse had to only concentrate on the healing, which helped a lot.

There was a new emergency load coming and when Risa heard from Mittsui that this would probably be the last one, the bean's face lit up in surprise. Last one? There was no more to come? It meant then that...

”It's over?”

”Yes, this battle is over now. The enemy retreated and it seems very unreal that they would attack anytime soon. Oh, and the troops are heading back, too.”

”What?”

Risa almost let the plate in her hands drop as she heard the younger girl's words. Images of her friends came to her mind and Risa could feel how happiness flooded through her. But then it was replaced by an even warmer feeling as one certain warrior's face came into her mind. Though she had had a lot to do in here, Risa had remembered Ai, and the others of course, every night she went to sleep. She had prayed every night that they would come back alive and that they would be okay. Energized by these news, Risa rushed to help with Lin Lin so they could get these injures ones treated quickly.

After everything were taken care of and no one was under a danger, Risa and Lin Lin allowed themselves a small break. However it didn't last for long, when there was a loud shouting heard nearby.

“The warriors are returning!!”

Risa shot up immediately, but stopped as quickly too. She could not go, she had to treat these people in here. She could see her friends later but these people would lose their lives if she did not help. A sadness filled Risa's hear, for she really desired to see her dear friends.

“You can go.”

Lin Lin's soft voice said suddenly. Risa whipped around, staring the nurse with wide eyes.

”But these people need help! I can't leave....”

”There's no emergency patients left, so no one is under danger right now. Also, I have a lot of helpers in here and I think that you wont be much help when you're grieving to see your friends so much.”

”Lin Lin I can't...”

”You can. Go, we will survive in here.”

The nurse said gently as she got up and faced the bean. Risa just shook her head a bit as she came closer and gave the nurse a tight hug, causing her to laugh that happy laughter of hers.

“Thank you so much. But if there's an emergency, be sure to inform me. I'll come flying back.”

”Yes, I'll do that. Go now. She's already waiting to see you.”

Risa pulled a bit backwards and frowned at the nurse.

”She?”

Lin Lin's eyes widened as she tried to repair her little blurt.

“I mean they are. They are waiting for you. Your friends... Friends, there's more than one...”

The nurse laughed nervously as she ushered Risa to go. The bean did so and soon forgot her friend's words as she started to run down the street. Her heart was beating as she approached the front gates which were opening already. Risa was tired but she got some extra energy as she thought of her friends and seeing them after a long while. Instead of rushing in the middle of the people mass, the bean made b line to the stables where she knew the Alfa team would bring their horses. After waiting for about ten minutes, her patience was finally praised.

At first, in her view came Eri and Sayu who noticed the bean immediately and rushed to her. Eri even mounted down from the horse and ran to her friend, not caring about Sayu's warnings about her injury. As Risa got to her friend, she gave her a bear hug, Eri doing the same thing. Soon, Sayu was with them too and Risa did the same to her too, causing the tactic to laugh gently.

“Hey, don't I get a hug...”

Reina's voice was soon heard nearby and as Risa turned around she found the kitten mount down from her horse. Grinning broadly, Risa opened her arms and Reina lifted the bean in a tight hug, minding her injuries a bit all the time.

“It's so good to see you all back and safe...”

Risa whispered as she was put down by Reina. Her friends nodded in response and smiled at her.

“It's good to see you too.”

”Indeed it is.”

Suddenly a hand landed on Risa's shoulder and the king's laughter was heard. The whole team could not help but laugh at Yoshizawa, who came closer and gave them all a tight hug. This was quite usual that the king went to greet her soldiers after a long battle. She did it to every single person who had been on field, not missing a single one.

“Welcome back my children.”

She whispered as she released the team from her bear hug. Risa watched this all with a smile till she suddenly remembered something. Where was Ai? Turning around, Risa tried to look around her for the leader, but her searching ended quite quickly when she immediately pumped her face in a hard armor.

”Woah there.”

Hearing that familiar voice and feeling those warm hands on her arms again, Risa raised her head up and saw Ai's concerned face searching her.

“You okay, you did not hurt yourself... HEY?!”

Immediately, the bean launched herself on Ai's neck, squeezing her tightly. Though her wounds hurt a bit, Ai did not protest. She just wrapped her good arm tightly around Risa's waist and placed her head on her shoulder.

”Welcome back.”

Risa whispered and nuzzled her face against the leader's head. Ai could not help but smile as she heard the bean's words. This was the thing she had waited for and boy, she indeed was happy to see this girl again.

“Aww, look at them now.”

Reina cooed suddenly and cause both Risa and Ai to pull a bit away from each others.

“Oh no, don't mind us at all. Please continue.”

This caused both Ai and Risa to blush, but the help to this situation came in a quite surprising form.

”Now now, I bet you have a lot of things to do. Leave them alone! Come on now.”

And with that the king ushered Reina, Eri and Sayu away. But before leaving herself, Yoshizawa made sure to slap Risa quite hard on her back, causing the bean to fall forward and of course, Ai was there to catch her. The leader had to take few steps backwards when her injury was revealed and this of course caused the bean to get in her reaction queen mode.

“You're hurt??”

”It's just some small injury.... Nothing serious..”

As Ai turned her gaze to the younger girl, she saw her frowning at her. Before she could say anything else, Ai felt how she was guided inside the stable and sat down on a hay bale.

”Stay.”

Risa commanded as she started to take the older warrior's armor away.

”Oi, what are yo....”

”Sush. You're injured and you need some treating.”

”But...”

Risa took a small textile piece from her jacket's pocket and pushed it in Ai's open mouth, shutting the leader effectively. This was something Lin Lin had advised to do, if someone had pains; put something in their mouth so they could bite on it. In some magical way it helped the pain but now Risa put that rag in Ai's mouth so she could shut the leader's mouth. She continued to take away the armor as the older one tried to get rid of the textile in her mouth. Soon she spitted it out but by then, Risa had gotten her whole armor away, leaving the older one only in her clothes she kept underneath the armor, that including black pants and a white shirt.

“Your leg is injured.”

”No, it's not...”

”Don't lie to me. I can see it.”

Having been weeks under Lin Lin guidance at the nurse's place, Risa had learnt quite much things and she could already see some wounds just by looking the injured person. Right now, the way how Ai held her left leg stretched out revealed her injury. She was trying to get all the pressure away from her limb and keeping it stretched out helped and it also relaxed her muscles.

“You have pants under those?” Risa asked, which caused Ai to frown.

”Yeah, I have shorts...”

”Take the longer ones away.”

Ai gasped loudly as she heart Risa's blunt command. What the hell? She was supposed to strip in front of the younger one? No way!

“I am really fine. You don't need to... OUCH!”

The leader had tried to get up but she only managed to make her situation even worse now. She had moved too fast and her leg had protested immediately, causing it to cramp and Ai went down with a loud scream. She fell on her back and her first reaction was to grab her limb but Risa got first. She took hold of Ai's pants and pulled them down to her ankles, revealing her black shorts underneath. Immediately after this, she pulled the short's up and was greeted with a large bruise on Ai's thigh. There was also the wound from the sword and Risa could see some blood around the wound. Before Ai could do anything, the bean had taken something away from her pocket and pressed it hard on Ai's injury, causing the leader squirm and groan in pain.

”Hurts?”

Ai only nodded as she bit her lip so she would not howl in pain. Risa was again rummaging through her pockets, all the time pressing on the wound. Suddenly, the leader felt something very cold on her leg, which caused her to jump up and try to get away even more. But Risa only kept the pressure on the leader's leg and used her body to pin the squirming woman down. She was laying on her side on top of Ai's stomach, her back showed to the leader. One of her hands was pressing the injury all the time, while the other one was somehow trapped around Ai's middle section so Risa could have some support when trying to hold the stubborn warrior down.

“Stay still. This helps.”

”But it's cold and it, ouch... Hurts...”

”Stop whining.”

”Aren't you suppose to help me, not make the injury worse...”

”This will help in few minutes. Just try to relax and stay still.”

Ai only groaned as she tried to do as Risa had told her to. It was easier said than done, but as the bean had said, after few minutes the pain started to ease. The leader relaxed bit by bit and soon she could feel only something cool on her thigh. What had the younger one done to her?

Risa noticed how her patience relaxed and that was a sign that she could finally stop pressing on the wound. Lifting her hands Risa examined the injury and pocked it few times, not gaining any kind of reaction from Ai. This made her smile; she had finally gotten this almost as well as Lin Lin did.

Of course, Lin Lin was always better but after having done this so many times Risa was becoming quite good at this. Not lifting her body up, Risa turned her to face the leader who had a frown on her face. The pain in her leg had eased but her arm was a whole different story. She had hit it again on something as she had fell but her concentration had been in the leg before Risa eased the pain in there.

”Any other injuries?”

Nodding a bit, Ai pointed her right arm with her good one, making a face as she somehow managed to twist her injured arm.

Risa got up a bit and gently lifter Ai's upper body, implying her to sit up. The leader did so, groaning at the same time.

”This is going to hurt again...”

Risa warned as she slowly wrapped the shirt's sleeves up, revealing a bit of the leader's shoulder and upper body. The bean got a good view of Ai's chest, which was covered in some kind odd bandage, probably the chest binding, so it would be more comfortable to do some hard exercise or battle. Risa had that thing on too, but it was not very comfortable in her opinion. Soon the whole large bruise was revealed and Risa did the same painful operation to it as she had done to Ai's leg, causing the leader to howl in pain again.

Usually Ai did not whine at all about injuries, but after being away for so long she had gotten somehow sensitive, for it felt like Risa tried to kill her with this treatment. Her arm having a bit worse injury, Ai tried to squirm away again. The pain was just so unbearable.

”This wont take long. Relax.”

Risa said gently as she reached her free hand out on Ai's stomach. Sliding it a bit forwards, she found Ai's side and moved her fingers against it few times. The leader jumped as she felt the younger girl tickle her. Knowing how sensitive she was in here, Risa kept her touch feather like so Ai would not get in her panic mode. She could feel the tickling but it was more likely ”nice one” and did not cause her to squirm away. Soon, the pain in her arm eased and Ai could relax again. Risa made sure that the injury was now properly treated, pocking it few times and making sure all the stuff she had put on it was absorbed.

”What was that?”

Ai groaned as she glanced at Risa.

”Something Lin Lin invented a while ago.”

The bean rummaged through her pocket once again and took out a small rag.

”These textiles are full of one kind of liquid. It will react with air and cools the injury so the bleeding would stop. There's also something else she said to me, but then it all turned out to be too difficult for me to understand. All I know is that I have to add pressure on the wound, keep this thing on it for few minutes and make sure that it will get some air so the reaction may begin. And that's all I need to know.”

”This really helps?” Ai asked.

”It does. First it makes the injury numb and this liquid does something to the circulation around the wound or injury which helps it to heal faster. The ”numb state” lasts for few hours. During that time, the patient must not move much around or the medicine wont help in the best way. Then it must be checked again and if everything is under control, the injury will get better in few days.”

Ai was quite amazed of what she had heard. This kind of treatment she had never heard of and judging by Risa's words, this was quite good thing.

”What about bleeding wounds?”

”With bleeding you must first stop the flowing or at least make it weaker. Then you just do the same thing as I did to you. This is good stuff because it has also some disinfection with it so it also keeps the wound clean.”

Ai just nodded her head, amazed of what she had heard. She should go to see Lin Lin one day and make sure to thank her of this invention. Yoshizawa was probably already praising the young nurse, but Ai wanted to thank her personally. Something like this would save lives on the field and make warriors recover sooner.

Suddenly, a chill run through Ai's body as a gust of wind got inside the stable. Somehow the leader had forgotten how cold it was outside when Risa had treated her but now with the pain gone, the feeling of cold was stronger once again. Immediately she tried to pull her sleeve down and get some clothes on but the younger girl stopped her.

”Don't cover it! It needs air to heal you wound.”

”But It's cold...”

Only now did Risa realize that the leader did not have much clothes on and that it was not very warm outside.

“Oh my gosh! Sorry!”

Risa got up and pulled Ai's longer pants up so much as she could, still leaving the injury without cover. She grabbed some kind of a wrap which was nearby and covered Ai's body as much as possible tugging some of the textile underneath her so the cold ground would not freeze her.

”There, better now?”

”My leg and arm are freezing...”

Ai whined. The wrap helped, but she had still some bare skin revealed to the cold weather.

”Well we can just arrange this wrap here...”

”No, I have a better idea.”

Suddenly Ai wrapped her arm around Risa's waist and pulled her into her lap, causing the bean to gasp in surprise. Minding so that her wounds would not get covered, the leader loosened her coat a bit and then slipped her injured arm inside and around Risa's waist, leaving only the wounded shoulder bare. She also moved so that the younger one's legs would cover her bare legs, once again leaving the injured place bare. After this, Ai took a hold of the wrap with her good arm and threw it over the bean too and pulled her closer with the arm inside Risa's coat. The younger one was shocked about this. She could not utter a word as Ai moved under her and when she came back down to earth, the leader was already comfortably sitting still and pressing her head against Risa's shoulder.

“Ai! What the hell do you think you're doing??!!”

Risa almost yelled as she blushed fiercely and tried to get away.

”You're warm.”

Hearing this, Risa stopped to squirm around as she felt how the older girl shivered a bit under her. Sighing, the bean stopped moving around and only sat still, giving the warmth Ai needed. The leader sighed as she felt the bean's moving around and adjusted her hold around her. She pressed her face against Risa's warm neck, causing her to shiver when Ai's warm breathing hit the skin. This felt nice, or even better than nice. Being close with Risa like this just felt somehow... How could she describe it? Right? Yes, this felt right. A smirk spread across Ai's lips as she remembered the bean's words a while ago. Moving her face so that she could whisper in her ear Ai asked a question that made them both blush.

”Ne. How long did you say it was that the patient must not move around when this stuff influences?”

”Few hours...”

”That being exactly?”

”From 1 to 2 hours...”

The smirk did not disappear from Ai's face as she breathed few times in Risa's ear, causing her to shiver again.

“That's good.”

The leader whispered and pressed her head against Risa's, her nose and lips gently brushing against her ear and neck. The bean was on a verge of getting a nervous breakdown. Her heart was beating rapidly and the fact that she was being VERY CLOSE with Ai now did not help at all. Also, the realization that they would stay like this at least for one hour made the bean blush. Not that she was uncomfortable right now, but just the thought that this was Ai she was being in this kind of situation made her very nervous. Suddenly, she felt a breathing on her ear again and shivers ran down her spine immediately.

“Are you always this tense?”

The leader whispered which cause Risa to blush even more. She could not utter a word or do anything else than just sit still and be all tensed up. This cause Ai to smile and she moved a bit around to get in a bit comfortable position, minding her wounds again. She started to move her injured arm's hand in small circles around Risa's back, which caused the younger warrior to tense even more. Ai's other arm which was wrapped also around Risa, a bit higher though, started to massage her gently, too.

”Relax.”

Ai said softly against Risa's neck, not stopping her actions with her hands. Little by little, Risa somehow calmed down, the shooting hands on her back feeling quite good and relaxing. Taking few deep breaths, she adjusted her position too as she took her hands from between her and Ai and placed them around the older one's neck, making them to press even closer to each others. Both blushed but did nothing to move away anymore.

They had to admit that this felt very nice to be close with each others. It was a bit awkward but that feeling was soon replaced by a warm and cozy tingle in their stomach. Little by little as Risa started to relax more, Ai stopped her hands movement and just held Risa close to her trying to drain all the warmth from her.

The leader had already relaxed completely and she started to feel quite sleepy as she sat there. Nuzzling her head against Risa's neck, Ai took a better ankle to her neck and it took only few minutes before she dozed off.

After noticing this, Risa sighed a bit. Well it was a good thing that the other one was relaxed now because it made the injury heal better then. Checking Ai's shoulder with her eyes and trying her leg with her hand, Risa made sure that the wounds still had some air contact.

Satisfied with what she felt and saw, the bean returned her arm around Ai's neck and pressed herself closer to her again. The leader mumbled something and ended up snuggling her face against Risa's neck once again. The bean just smiled shortly at this and sighed comfortably. She was so content in her situation now that ”being caught” did not even enter her mind. But she did not have to worry, because they were not alone.

Outside the stable, Ai's team had been spying on their friends and after seeing where they ended up, they decided to leave them alone. They made a sign that said the stable to be under some kind of renovation or cleaning so no one would enter it, not caring if it was legal or not. Horses could be treated in somewhere else too and these two would stay there only for an hour or two.

As the team left the stable area, all the three high fived each others. They were happy for their friends who had finally found some kind of a peace between each others. A peace, which had seemed to grown something deeper than just friendship.

The trio was not the only one having this kind of thoughts as the bean was holding Ai, a light blush decorating her face all the time as she thought all kind of things about the leader, who she was holding at the moment.

'Please, don't let this be the last time...'

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

I hope you enjoyed this chapter~ Goodnight everybody!

[darkacex99]

FINALLY!!!! I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS UPDATE!!!!

alrighty the wars blazin and they caused the enemy to retreat...oh man Ju must b soooo pissed  im sure shes gunna do sumthing super evil

risa and ai gettin supah closer

awesome chapter, keep up with the good work 

[alwaysYou]

Really love AiGaki interaction 
Aichan is such a teaser..

Ju wouldn't let Aichanthem off so easily..hmmm..
i'm worried for AiGaki future..LOL..

Nice chp!

[rndmnwierd]

This was totally worth the wait! I love how happy they are to see each other. Maybe the awkwardness will hopefully not come back when it's time to get up

[maikeatoot]

Its an aigaki fic right ? how about sayueri ?
Hehe i still haven't read the whole story but i can guess its an aigaki fic ?
Or tanagaki ?
Oooh answer me !!!!
Mouuuu ~
Sayueri ?

[MsSmigge]

Darkacex99: Oh, this was just the beginning on Ju's rage  Thanks~

AlwaysYou: I love how you're always like "YAY TAKAGAKI!" And immediately after that you are worried how they are going to survive Not that you should not be, though  Thanks~

rndmnwierd: Lol, maybe I'll be nice and wont add so much awkwardness between them anymore Thank you for your comment~

Maikeatoot: Read the previous chapters so you will find out more about the pairings~ Or then just read this chapter, and find them out Thank you for your comment!

And thanks to everyone for your interest, thank yous and so on. 

Because I had so damn good day today, I finally finished my entrance exams, I met a great person and I got a promotion yesterday, I decided to post this chapter a bit earlier than I had planned. Partially also because I had checked this for a while ago, so it didn't take much time to post this.


The next chapter, here we go~


Chapter 30 – The one you hate at first, might someday be your beloved one


After their little cuddling session, which lasted for one hour, Ai and Risa headed to the nurse's place because the leader's wounds needed someone professional to check them. When it had been time to get up, the bean had woken the older one up and helped her on her feet. They had been quiet for the whole time, but somehow, they hadn't needed any words back then. Also, the bean's main focus was now in Ai's injuries.

Risa's treating had done its's job very well but she just wanted to make sure that Ai would really be okay. She was not any kind of a healer and she could not be 100% sure about her own skills. Also, you could never bee to careful with this kind of wounds now, could you?

Eri and the others were also at Lin Lin's reception. It was a common think that all the battle wounds were taken very seriously, even scratches. The reason was that this kind of wounds got infected easier and if that happened, it was one hell to heal. That's why it was a good thing to take care of them immediately, even the smallest ones.

When Risa and Ai arrived, they were immediately greeted by Sayu who was helping Lin Lin for she did not have much injuries. The bunny had a very rare grin on her face as she saw her two friends at the door. Risa had helped Ai to walk the whole trip, for the leader had complained how she did not feel her leg. When the bean had offered help, Ai had immediately refused, but when Risa had just gotten her arm around the older one and supported her, the squad leader had just shut up. She didn't like to bother others with her problems, but if it meant that she would be close to Risa... Yes, then she would consider it again.

So, the two of them had walked very close to each others to the nurse's place. Risa had one of her arms around Ai's waist, while the leader had her arm around the bean's shoulder. Even at inside, Risa did not let go of the leader before she got her some place where she could sit and rest.

Sayu had followed this scene curiously, grinning all the time. She was soon joined by Reina who had come to whine that Sayu had not brought the water she had asked. But when the kitten noticed her friends, she could not help but stare at them, too.

Ai was now sitting on a chair, while Risa was checking her wounds and asking her all the time if she wanted something, the leader answering that she was fine. This scene was quite normal, but Sayu and Reina could see more. All the time, their leader had her eyes on the bean and Risa was glancing Ai once in a while. They both had a very tender look in their eyes and once, they even smiled at each others.

Finally the squad's own turtle joined them as she too had something to complain about to her girlfriend. She had asked some water and when Sayu hadn't showed up, she had asked Reina to bring it to her. But now, even the kitten had gotten stuck in here.

As Eri arrived in the room, same thing happened as for her two friends and soon the trio was just staring at their friends who were tenderly looking at each others.

Finally Lin Lin got to the scene too and she decided to have some fun. She cleared her throat very soundly, which caused the trio in front of her to froze and Ai and Risa to turn and look at their audience.

“Oh, sorry. I got a flu few days ago and my throat is very sore right now... Don't mind me! Please continue.”

And with that the now very happily grinning nurse left the room, leaving five quite embarrassed soldiers in there.

“The water....”

Sayu mumbled and left the room, Reina following closely behind and muttering something about needing to see the captain. Eri just stood there watching after her friends, till she turned back to Ai and Risa who were staring at her.

“Ano... I... Well... Yeah, I just leave.”

Eri said laughing nervously as she left for the next room, leaving Ai and Risa alone. They had both noticed how their friends had been staring at them and how they had had that grin on their face. They were both very embarrassed about this and Risa tried to hide it by saying that she needed to ask Lin Lin, if she needed some help. But just when she was about to leave, Ai grabbed her arm and stopped her. Risa gasped a bit as she looked behind her, blushing deeply as she did so. She was met by Ai's gentle gaze, a slight red color decorating her cheeks as well.

“Don't mind them.”

She whispered and squeezed Risa's arm gently, causing a somewhat pleasant shiver run up the bean's spine. Nodding her head, Risa smiled at the leader who finally let go of her. She took a bit more comfortable position in the chair, leaning her head on the wall behind her and closing her eyes.

Risa just smiled at her before she left in order to find Lin Lin and ask her to check Ai. She soon found the nurse who emerged from a room with a lot of blankets in her arms.

“There you are. Hey, could you come and check Ai? She has some injuries which should be taken care of.”

”Of course I can. Just a second, I'll take these away.”

The nurse answered cheerfully as she but the blankets in a nearby closet. They headed to the leader then, who had her head a bit down which messaged that she had fallen asleep. Risa went closer and gently patted Ai's shoulder, causing her to wake up with a flinch.

“Wake up sleepyhead. Lin Lin checks your wounds now.”

Ai frowned a bit at the chuckling bean but when Lin Lin came closer, so she could see the leader's wounds, Ai immediately gave her some room and showed her were she had been hit. It took only few minutes when the nurse happily tapped Ai's shoulder and then did the same to Risa, confusing both warriors.

“Those wounds will heal in few days for they are so well treated. Good job there! Oh, and you don't have to stay here if you don't want to. Just stay out of trouble for few days and you will be okay.”

The nurse said to the leader, who just nodded her head as she got up.

“Well then, I think I wont bother you anymore. Thank you.”

She bowed a bit towards Lin Lin till she turned to Risa, smiling immediately when she met her gaze. Risa smiled at the leader too and was just about to ask Lin Lin if she needed any help, when she heard the nurse's, who had already left the place for her own chores, voice from another room.

“No Risa, I don't need help here. You can go with Ai. Have fun!”

Risa froze totally and blushed quite much, when she heard the nurse's words. Ai just chuckled a bit as she walked to her and patted her shoulder gently.

Before she could do or say anything, the front door burst open and Reina poked her head inside, grinning like a madman.

”Guys! Oh, there you are! Come on, there are some great news!”

And with that the kitten disappeared as fast as she had appeared, leaving Ai and Risa to stare the door very confused. Just when they were about to move, Reina's head poked back inside.

“Come on now!! You can cuddle up later!”

Again she disappeared quickly, but this time she had another reason to be fast, for she got a furious Risa after her.

”WHAT??!! Reina! Get back here!!”

The bean yelled, blushing furiously as she ran after the kitten. She didn't get very far however, when Ai's desperate voice stopped her.

“Risa, wait!”

Stopping her movements, Risa turned to watch the leader who was now trying to walk after her, limping quite badly. She still had no feeling in her leg and it was quite hard to walk. The bean came immediately to her support, placing her other arm around Ai's waist and the leader's good arm around her shoulder.

“Thanks...”

Ai grinned a bit, gaining a bit shy smile from Risa. They started to walk slowly, leaving the nurse's place and heading to the market place, where everyone else seemed also be gathering to. When they arrived to the edge of the human mass, they could see how Yoshizawa rose on a stand which was placed in the middle of the opening, holding her hands up and silencing everyone around.

“My friends, I have good news for you all!”

The king boomed, a huge smile on her face. Risa watched Yoshizawa with a great curiosity, for she really wanted to hear this. By now, she had usually gotten only bad news but now she had a feeling, that something bigger was on the way.

“We have gotten some messages from our beloved and hardworking Jun Jun, who has headed back to her position in order to gain more information. The enemy threat has weakened.”

People gasped out loud and soon the air was filled with all kind of loud talking, but was silenced as soon as Yoshizawa raised her hands up again.

“This is not over yet. No, though I really wish for that.” The king paused for a while. ”What this means now is that we can relax a bit more. We can live a bit more normally now that the enemy is not all the time attacking us. We can rest, refresh our minds and get ready when they'll strike again. So now, everyone.”

There was another pause as the king spread her arms, as if she was calling everyone to come closer to her. ”Lets celebrate this small peace we have won for a while!”

The people burst out into a huge cheering and some even threw hats and some other clothes in the air. Risa was also beaming and imperceptibly took a tighter hold around the leader's waist.

Ai was also smiling, for this was what they had been looking for. Peace. Though, they knew that they enemy would come back again, a calmer season was always welcomed. They would still practice a lot but they could also be able to do more other things too, for they were not needed on the battlefront.

“There they are!!”

A loud voice of Kamei Eri got Risa's and Ai's attention as she approached them with the rest of the team. Eri threw herself immediately on Risa's neck and hugged her tightly, the bean answering with her free arm. Both laughed and were soon joined by the others, the five girls forming a huge ”hug ball”. They were just so happy about this thing that all they could do was laugh with each others.

“Finally something good happens...”

Sayu whispered as she patted Reina's and Ai's shoulders gently, both warriors nodding in approval. Finally Eri let go of Risa and immediately after that she went to Sayu and cuddled up on her side. The bunny smiled at her and gently kissed her forehead, causing the older girl to giggle.

“Aww look at you guys now. We have two couples in here. How cute.” Reina said suddenly.

”Two?”

Ai and Risa said at the same time as they watched their friends with a questioning look.

“Yeees, two. You heard right.”

Reina cooed as she leaned on Sayu's shoulder with her elbow, the other couple just grinning at their leader and Risa, who in turn just stared at each others. Soon they pulled away and started to blabber all kind of things, waiving their hands frantically in air at the same time.

“No no no, we are not a couple!” 'It feels nice when she supports me and is close like that...'

“Reina, stop saying silly things like that!" Risa huffed, "You know we are not together!” 'For some reason, I want to be close to her, like we were at the stable..'

But the kitten just kept on grinning with her turtle and bunny friends as they watched the two trying to cover this thing. They would have been very convincing, had they not blushed so deeply and kept on glancing each others all the time.

Once again, Sayu was their rescue. At least for a while.

“Yeah, yeah. You two stop yelling and come on. We are going to relax now!”

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

The five friends headed to Sayu's place for it was the closest one of the homes right now. She lived in a house, which her parents had bought for her. The house was quite big for a one person to live with it's five rooms, bathroom and kitchen. But it was a home like any other and she at least got some room to keep her equipment and items she didn't need out of her sight.

The group stayed in a large living room which was the first room. There was a small table with cushions around it and few a bit bigger chairs. There was also a brown dresser and a closet and on the floor was some kind of a mat. Eri went immediately in one of the bigger chairs, Reina taking the other one. Sayu went to sit in front of Eri, taking one pillow with her. Ai and Risa in turn went to sit around the table, the bean helping the older woman to sit down, before she settled herself down beside her.

After Sayu had placed the cushion in front of Eri, she disappeared in her kitchen and soon returned with five glasses, which all had something bright liquid in them. She handed each girl one glass and took one for herself too.

“For the peace, we reached today.”

She toasted, the other girls answering with loud cheers. After this, Sayu took her place in front of Eri and the girls started a conversation about various things. They were so happy and relieved when the burden of getting into battle again was lifted off from their shoulders. Of course, the war was not over yet, but even a one week of peace was enough. They had no idea how long Heng would stay away, but for now, they did not care. All that mattered to them now was that they had time and chance to think about something else than fighting.

They talked and talked till came evening and and night before someone noticed that it was quite late. Before anyone could suggest anything else, Eri got up and announced that they would have another sleepover tonight. Surprisingly, no one protested and actually everyone thought that it was quite a good idea. Sayu also had a lot of room for everyone in here and she also got enough blankets.

So, for they were so tired, they decided to make their beds now and start sleeping. Eri of course went to sleep with Sayu, so only Reina, Ai and Risa needed beds. Reina immediately started to tease that Ai and Risa should sleep together too, but she was silenced rather quickly when Risa glared her threateningly.

When everything was settled and everyone had beds, Sayu and Eri went to sleep immediately, while Reina Risa and Ai decided to talk a bit more. They were all in the room, where the leader would spend her night. They had brought some extra pillows in here so Risa and Reina would not have to sit on a hard floor. They chatted all kind of things for about one hour, till Reina decided it was her time to go to bed. She left with Risa to their own rooms, but the bean made a b line to the kitchen. She took some water from a container in the corner into a small cup and headed back to Ai's room. When she opened the door, the leader was just arranging her bed so that it would be more comfortable to sleep, but stopped when she noticed Risa at the door.

She was wearing her black shorts and white shirt, the same costume all the warriors had under their dress. Risa was wearing the same kind of attire, her shirt and pants only having longer sleeves. She was still having her jacket on however, for she had been for some reason felt a bit cold tonight.

”Did you forget something?” Ai asked, as Risa just shook her head and approached the makeshift bed slowly.

“How are your wounds?”

She asked quietly, causing the older one to raise her eyebrow a bit surprised. Her leg had gotten it's feeling back during the night and her arm had been fine for a long time now.

But something just made her say that there was something that would need some checking, for she knew what that would mean then.

“Mmm, I am not quite sure, for I know nothing about wounds and so...” 'Very convincing....'

“Oh, maybe I should check them then?” Risa said maybe a bit too eagerly. “I mean.. Do you have any kind of pains? Numbness?” She backed away a bit shyly as she spoke, for she had jumped forwards a moment before.

Ai was quiet for a while, before she slowly nodded her head.

“Yeah, my arm feels a bit tense...”

”Let me check it then.”

Risa said as she knelt down and put the water away. Ai sat a bit closer to her, moving her white shirt's sleeve away from the bruise. She felt how Risa placed her soft fingers against her skin as she examined the wound.

The bean put all her willpower to this now. The wound was totally okay and there was nothing wrong with it, but it just felt nice to be close with Ai like this, so she showed that there was something she really needed to examine. In truth, she had already seen that everything was okay when Ai had rolled her sleeve up.

“Mmm, can you move your arm well?”

Risa asked quietly, keeping her head down so Ai would not see the blush she had. The leader moved her arm a bit up and down, careful not to hit the girl beside her.

“Yeah, I can but it's still a bit tense.”

”Oh... Well, try to relax it...” Risa said and cursed immediately how stupid she must have sounded.

“Well, I think it would be easier if it was a bit warmer in here...”

”You're cold?”

Risa asked and finally raised her head so she could see the leader. Ai nodded her head a bit, blushing furiously. They were in silent for a while, before Risa got up.

“I.. I can bring you another blanket.”

She said quickly and turned around to leave. But she did not get to take the first step when Ai grabbed her hand, once again, and stopped her.

“No!”

She said in a loud whisper which caused them both to freeze. Risa did not dare to turn around, for her face was like a tomato now. Ai was not any better as she tried to calm herself down. What the heck was she doing now?

But then, a determined look formed on the leader's face as she finally raised her eyes up to meet with Risa's back. Gently, very gently, Ai pulled Risa's hand and caused the younger one to turn around. The bean had somehow gathered herself too for she was now looking straight into Ai eyes and not turning away. They stayed like this for a while, staring at each other till Ai whispered.

”Stay...”

Slowly, Risa fell on her knees and on Ai's level, still keeping her hand in Ai's. There was some kind of a funny tickle inside them again as they stared at each others. The ledaer brought Risa's hand closer to herself, placing her other hand around it too and squeezing it gently.

“I will stay....”

Risa whispered quietly. This caused the leader to smile and soon the bean had a gentle smile on her lips as well. Ai drew her closer, taking the younger on in her arms. Risa did not resist at all as she was hugged by the older one. It was quite the opposite, she more likely fell in her arms. As they hugged, the two slowly lied down, Ai still keeping her hold around Risa, the bean only snuggling closer. Before doing so though, she got rid of her jacket, or it would get too hot.

When Risa was taking her jacket away, the leader got up in order to take the blanket and wrap it around them, before she returned to her previous place, wrapping her arms around Risa again.

This time, her arms went around Risa's waist, the bean doing the same. They stared at each others for a while, smiling all the time gently. Finally Ai drew the younger one closer to herself, the bean's head being pressed against her chest, while the leader placed hers on top of Risa's. The bean one closed her eyes and took in Ai's scent, which she had gotten familiar with today.

Ai had raised her other hand behind the bean and was now absently stroking the younger girl's hair, when she suddenly felt something warm and wet on her chin. Raising an eyebrow, Ai glanced at the girl in her arms, while Risa just quickly snuggled closer and buried her head in the leader's neck. As she realized what the other girl had done, a deep blush rose on Ai's face. She just drew Risa closer to herself and pressed her head against her head, trying to calm down.

'Did she just kiss me?'

'Did I just kiss her?'

Both were very confused of this, but soon Ai decided to answer this cute act. She craned her neck a bit and kissed the top of Risa's head. After that she snuggled closer to her, if it was even possible anymore.

“Good night, Risa.”

She breathed and closed her eyes, soon feeling the bean's hot breathing against her neck as she whispered the same words, followed by Ai's name.

In no time, they were both deep asleep, comfortably laying in each others arms. They were still quite confused of this all, but one thing they were certain about: They enjoyed each others company and liked to be close to each others. That was something they both admitted to themselves and as long as the other one was okay with it, they would try to seek these moments where they could stay together.

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It was never a good idea to give Tanaka Reina a reason to tease someone. It was especially dangerous then when the victim was her friend and was somehow involved with some other person.

When the kitten had noticed Risa's untouched bed in the morning, she had immediately went to wake Sayu and Eri, or more likely the later one, for the bunny always woke up very early. When she had announced that they should wake up Ai too, Sayu had immediately seen where this was going. She had experienced this when she got together with Eri and now her two friends were going to be her victims, she just knew it. Eri however did not see anything behind Reina's words and the two dashed immediately in Ai's room, Sayu trying to stop them but it was too late.

The room's door was opened with a loud bang as the two friends ran inside it, freezing immediately at the door. They were greeted by a sight, which made Eri's mouth drop and Reina's grin grow even wider.

On the bed were her dear friends, cuddled up together and sleeping very pleasantly. Ai was resting on her back one of her arms wrapped around Risa's waist and protectively keeping the bean very close to her, while the other was on her stomach with Risa's other hand.

The bean was using Ai's chest as her pillow, her head placed just under the leader's chin. Her other arm disappeared under Ai's body and was probably wrapped around her midsection. The covers had fallen so that their legs were not in sight, probably because they had tried to cool themselves down while sleeping. It gave surprisingly much heat to sleep close with someone so no wonder these two had abandoned their cover.

“Lets wake them up!”

Reina said in a loud whisper, which Eri answered by shaking her head.

“But they look just too cute together! Let them sleep.”

”Do you really want to miss the whole circus which follows after these two have been woken up from that position? Well I don't!”

And with that the kitten went closer, not caring about her friend's protests at all. She sneaked very quietly behind Risa and knelt down, the grin only growing even wider when she got a good view of their friends pleasant faces. She raised her hands a bit, but stopped when Risa started to move. Her hand on Ai's stomach moved slowly forward and went to the older woman's side. Her fingers caused the leader to tickle and move on her other side, so the the two were now facing each others.

As she turned on her side, the leader pulled Risa even closer to herself, her other hand wrapping also around the bean's waist. During this, Risa pressed her head in Ai's neck, so that all Reina could see now was her long brown hair and Ai's pleasant face as the leader snuggled her own head in a more comfortable position on top of Risa's. When they both had stopped moving, Reina could not help but to turn towards her friends and grin like a maniac.

Eri was blushing now and Sayu just shook her head, taking her girlfriend's arm and dragging her into the kitchen. She knew what would follow from this and she did not want to get under Ai's rage, if she woke up in a wrong time.

But Reina would take all fun from this. She raised her hands up, ready to scare the two sleepyheads, but then something she did not expect happened. The kitten had totally forgotten that this was her leader she was teasing, the warrior whose senses were as sensitive as horse's and who had been trained in a best way.

So, when Ai noticed in her sleep how something moved in front of her, her eyes snapped open and she reached with her upper hand to grab Reina's collar. Her other hand squeezed Risa protectively against her chest, the bean only mumbling something and trying to get into a better position.

'She heard me, but did not wake up to the banging of the door? Just, come on...'

Reina in turn was very shocked, for she was now looking in her friends dark eyes and judging by that, Ai was not very happy.
She had not have this good sleep in times and now someone had came and disturbed her. But the kitten tried to fix this situation somehow and she only smiled at Ai.

“Well morning there. Slept well?”

The reaction Reina had expected did not come, but Ai only glanced at Risa, her gaze immediately softening till she turned back to the kitten. Where was all the ”Oh my God, no you understood wrong! We are not together!” yelling and all? Why was Ai so calm about this and why had not Risa woken up yet?

“I did, till you came to interrupt it.”

Ai said in a stern voice, not taking her eyes of Reina. Realizing that her plan had somewhat gotten ruined and if she did not think up something very clever now, her leader would probably kill her.

“Well.... I think, I'll let you sleep then?”

The kitten said, laughing nervously at the same time. There was a short silence, till Ai let go of her collar, causing her friend to stumble backwards a bit as she took some distance from her leader. Ai put her free hand immediately around Risa's upper body and placed her head on top of hers, like she was protecting the bean from something.

“And never ever disturb us like that again.”

Ai mumbled as she took her comfortable position once again. Reina just stared at her friends with open mouth, for she could not believe this. How was Ai so calm about this? It was like she was okay with this all and that was very unlike of her. What was going on?

“Reina.”

”Yes?”

”Get out.”

The kitten realized she was still in the room and after she had heard Ai's words, she turned around in no time and left the room, for it sounded like the older woman would get up and beat her up, if she did not leave her alone with Risa.

After the door had shut and Ai could hear how Reina's footstep went away, she sighed a bit and immediately a pleasant smile spread on her face and it grew only wider when she felt Risa move in her arms. Drawing a bit backwards, so that she could see her face, Ai was greeted by the bean's sleepy look.

She had her eyes half open, her hair was in a cute mess and it seemed like she was very oblivious of what had happened around her. But when the bean noticed who was in front of her, a small and lazy smile formed immediately on her lips.

“Morning.”

Ai said gently as she stroked the beans back with her hands, causing the younger one to shiver in pleasure.

“Ohayoo.”

Risa mumbled as she closed her eyes and snuggled back against Ai. The leader only chuckled a bit as she rolled on her back so that Risa was now on top of her. She moved her arms so that she could stroke the younger girl's brown locks. Risa in turn just laid comfortably on her new pillow, listening Ai's steady and calm heart beating.

She had never felt this relaxed and good before and it felt like she would sleep forever in here. Yes, she indeed had had her life's best sleep last night, thanks to Ai who was making all the enjoyment she got from sleeping even better.

“Did you sleep well?”

Ai whispered to Risa as she kept on stroking her hair and now her other hand was also doing all kind of circles on her back. The younger girl mumbled something as she snuggled closer, burying her head in Ai's neck.

“I did. How about you?”

She whispered against the leader's neck, which caused Ai to shiver now. Damn that felt good.

“I had the best sleep I have ever had. All thanks to you.”

Ai murmured in Risa's ear, causing the younger one to move so that she could see the leader's eyes. At first she had just her sleepy and a bit grumpy expression, but soon it melt into a soft smile, Ai answering it with her own. They stayed like this, till suddenly their expressions got more serious as they started to lean towards each others. They had no idea what they were doing but it just felt right to do so. The other one's face looked just so tempting right now and neither warrior realized what they were doing, before it was too late to back up.

They got closer and closer to each others, not taking their eyes off from the other one. Ai raised her other hand up and brought it behind Risa's head and the bean let it to be guided by the older one. Just when their lips were about to meet, Tanaka decided to interrupt them, once again.

“Ai, Risa! Come get some breakfast! You can cuddle up later.”

They both froze, the unknown feeling suddenly gone. They just stared at each others but did not move any closer. It just was not the same anymore, thanks to Reina's interruption. But they both knew the spark was still there and someday it would fire up again. They just had to wait for the right moment and let this all happen naturally, for they had now all the time in the world, or at least it felt so.

“We better get up or we wont hear the end of this...”

Risa murmured while Ai just nodded her head, a very disappointed look on her face. She really wanted to cuddle up more with Risa, but damn her friends. Risa noticed this and she could not say that she didn't feel the same. She really wanted to be with Ai too but they had their friends in here too.

Deciding to make that pout disappear from the leader's face, Risa leaned forwards so that her mouth was against Ai's ear.

“Don't look like that. You look much better with a smile on your face.”

Feeling how the older one shivered under her, Risa got suddenly a sudden urge to do something more. She glanced at the ear in front of her face and suddenly gave a gentle kiss just under it on Ai's neck. This time the leader almost jumped up and Risa had to branch herself so that she would not be thrown away from on top of her.

Ai's hand had traveled to her waist, now squeezing the bean's sides tightly. She had not seen that coming and her over sensitive senses had just kicked in. Remembering how ticklish Ai could be, Risa just smirked against her neck, Reina and the others long forgotten.

“Felt good?”

She murmured as she gave another kiss in the same spot. Ai flinched again but this time Risa got somehow carried away and she nibbled the same spot she had just kissed. Immediately after this the leader shot up and rolled so that she was on top of the bean, straddling her waist and pinning her hands down. Both stared at each others with a deep blush, the pleasant feeling filling them again.

Risa had not intended to do anything like that, but she just got somehow carried away and now Ai had done so too, for it seemed like the leader was not going to let her go anytime soon. Ai lowered her head very quickly, her lips almost landing on Risa's, till something interrupted them again. And of course, it was Reina.

“OI! Stop screwing around, for God's sake! There are others in here too, geez...”

Immediately the two stopped their actions again, Ai growling for she had gotten so close once again, Risa not falling far behind. They both sighed, till the leader slowly got up from on top of Risa, helping the bean get up as well. As she pulled her up, Ai took took the younger one gently in her arms and hugged her tightly, the bean not resisting at all. They savored the warmth they got from each others, both breathing their scents and enjoying the close feeling. It just felt so right to stay just like this in each others arms the outer world totally forgotten.

“We better go, or Reina will come back in here.”

Ai mumbled. Risa nodded her head and they parted very reluctantly, giving each others one last smile, before they went to their own clothes and dressed up, all the time glancing at each others and giving soft smiles.

When they were finished with dressing the two headed to the bunny's kitchen, where all the three other occupants were all ready eating and waiting for them. They all had somewhat an awkward expression, which of course did not went unnoticed by Ai and Risa.

“What's wrong?”

This caused Eri to jump up, but she was immediately pulled down by Sayu. Unfortunately for the bunny, there was also Reina who she did not have time to take care of.

“What's wrong? Well look around yourself! You were sleeping with Ai in the same room and when I found you, you were all nice and cuddled up and then you!”

Reina had gotten up and was now ranting to the two. She had turned towards her very stunned leader and was now pointing her with the cup she had in her hands.

“You! Darn it, first you reject her like a magnet and then suddenly you get all protective when someone tries to have some fun and wont let her go! And what was that thud a few minutes ago.... I don't even want to know...”

When Reina had finished, a deep silence filled the room as Sayu tried to calm Eri down, while Ai and Risa just stood there blushing madly. Finally Sayu had gotten enough. She released Eri who immediately started to babble something but was soon silenced by her girlfriend who slammed her hands on the table forcefully, causing everyone to jump back a bit.

“Now you two stop ranting about this thing! There's nothing unusual if they spend their time together and have you ever heard of words like or crush? Let them be alone and don't tease them. Ai, Risa, please have some breakfast.”

And with that the bunny sat down, everyone being silence around her. She did not really help the situation but she also did not let it get any worse. Ai and Risa took their seats and started to eat something so they would have something to do and they didn't have to face the others.

Eri and Reina were very quiet too, not daring to say a word after the tactician's rant. They were just so confused about this all. At first they had been like ”Oh they are together, lets tease them!” but as they thought about things a bit ahead, all kind of ideas started to fly in their mind.

They also remembered how these two had interacted at first, totally forgetting that Ai had not been herself back then. But this all felt so unreal to them and Sayu seemed to be the only one who accepted this situation as if it was nothing special. And in reality it was not.
After an awkward silence, Reina cleared her throat as she continued her breakfast.

“Anyways, Lin Lin was here a while ago.”

”Lin Lin? Why was she here? Why didn't you tell earlier?”

Risa had immediately raised her head as she heard the nurse's name. What made her to come here?

“Well I would, but I was told to stay away by one certain person...”

Reina mumbled as she glared at her blushing leader, who tried to hide her eyes behind her long bangs.

“She came here to inform us about a party.”

”Party?”

”Yeah. We usually have parties when we reach some victories or peace like now. It is a way we praise ourselves. This village just loves festivals, parties and such, but who doesn't.”

Well that sounded quite a good reason for Risa to throw a party. It was something where all the worries were forgotten and everyone could enjoy each others presence and the fact that they were alive.

“When is this party held and where will it be?”

”Tomorrow and it will be at the market place.”

”EH? So soon??” Risa exclaimed as she jumped up a bit.

”Yeah, as I said, we like to party and we arrange them as soon as possible."

They indeed seemed to love partying, but it was quite good it was so soon so they could really start relaxing immediately. Probably they made something for the wounded ones too who were not able to leave the hospital. Risa was sure, that Yoshizawa kept sure of that.

They ate in silence again and after that they helped Sayu to clean up they decided to leave for their homes so they could get prepared for tomorrows celebration. Reina told that they also liked to wake up early and start immediately the sun rose, which surprised Risa even more. Damn these people indeed liked to celebrate things...

So Reina, Ai and Risa left Sayu's place and Eri stayed there, for she decided to take all the time she had now with her girlfriend. The three walked the streets, talking all kind of things and the morning's incident long forgotten. They parted at some point with Reina, which left Ai and Risa walk alone. They were silent, for they were both thinking about Sayu's words from morning. Could it be, that they liked each others in that way? Could they have a crush on each others?

In some magical way, the two warriors turned to look at each others at the same time. Their eyes locked immediately as they kept on walking ahead, not being able to stop looking at each others. Finally a familiar street caught Ai's attention and she stopped, Risa following in suit. The leader watched the sign with a bit sad look till she turned back to the girl in front of her, a smile appearing immediately on her face.

”I think we will part in here...”

She said quietly.

”Un...”

Risa said as she nodded a bit, trying to hide her disappointment. How she wanted to keep on walking with Ai. Even if they just kept on walking and did not say or do anything, it was okay. Just the leader's presence made her feel so good inside.

'Maybe I indeed like her in that way...'

Risa thought as she stared in those chocolate eyes and only now she realized how beautiful the other woman in front of her was. Gone were the dark circles and that hard look which made her look so scary and now there was only a soft and warm look. Suddenly, Ai reached out to take Risa's hand in hers. She squeezed it gently and smiled at the same time.

”See you tomorrow.”

She said to the bean and stayed there. Just when the leader was about to let go, Risa came a bit forwards and threw her arms around Ai, catching the older one by surprise. For some reason she just got a sudden urge to be so close with the older girl that she wanted to give her a hug. They would see again tomorrow and spend some more time together, but something just got into her suddenly. Ai did not mind, though, and she only laughed softly as she hugged Risa back.

”You miss me that baddly already?”

Ai teased a bit, which caused Risa to smile. Yes, she would miss Ai's presence even if it was only one night. Deciding to have some more fun, Risa moved her head a bit and found the same spot she had kissed earlier in front of her. Leaning forwards she placed a firm kiss on the spot under Ai's ear, causing the leader immediately to tense. Soon after this, Risa pulled away and just gave the older one a warm smile.

”Mata nee.”

She said and dashed away, before Ai could do or say anything. The kiss was still felt on her neck, as the leader watched after Risa. She raised her hand to touch the spot she had just been kissed and could not help but blush furiously. Damn, she knew how to get her flustered now...

Risa was not any better, for she was like a running tomato as she dashed to her apartment. She still did not know what made her always so tempted to kiss Ai, when she was that close to her. Well, now she had done it twice and both times she had known, of yes, she was so sure of this, that the leader had liked it. Risa run all the way home, even jumping up the stairs. It felt like they were kids again, waiting for something exciting to happen soon and they could not wait for it.

And indeed something like that was ahead of them. They had no idea, how the tomorrow's festival would change their lives.

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

I think some of you have waited for this....

I'd to like to notify all that I am going to change some terms I have used in this fic, mostly concerning the military terms. I watched Star ship troopers few days ago and realized how badly I had used some terms... So now on, I'll try to fix them. This wont change the story at all, but I just wanted to note this.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter!!

 

[darkacex99]

ahhh~ what a great feeling to see an update after coming home

wow...ai and risa have gotten cozy cozy 

daaaaang! ai was ready to tear up reina for disturbing her little bit of peace so. much. fluff.

im ready for some war action now im eager to see wats gunna happen now

thanks for the update, keep up da good work 

[rndmnwierd]

>.< So much sexual tension, ICAN'TSTANDIT!~! Omg, though, seriously, with the teasing kissing and sleeping together, just kiss already!!!

[maikeatoot]

Oh ehm gheeee !!!
I read all the chapters and deym !! Takagaki raburabu was .. was .. was .. *dropdead*
Gimme more !!!!

[alwaysYou]

I met a great person and I got a promotion yesterday

Congratz!!

AlwaysYou: I love how you're always like "YAY TAKAGAKI!" And immediately after that you are worried how they are going to survive Not that you should not be, though  Thanks~

hahahahhahahaha..i love TakaGaki..But tends to be more sadist when it come to them too..Hoping for more rabu rabu yet hoping for some sadist moment..LOL 


And now, gakisan seem to be the teaser! LOVE IT..LOL

And indeed something like that was ahead of them. They had no idea, how the tomorrow's festival would change their lives.

SEE!!!! Definitely have to be worry about them! LOL
feel that before they even confess to each other, something bad will happen to one of them huh..But well, i wont mind it if they still gonna live together happy ever after that..

Next chp pls!

[carzung]

WoW the last 3 chapter make me smile like a crazy  (everyone who sit beside me ask "Are you crazy? Why are you smile by yourself?)

TakaGaki, They are so good together 

and the three Rokkie, they are so cute teasing takagaki 

Thank you for sweetness  from TakaGaki (but I want more, please )

[MsSmigge]

darkacex99: The action will have to wait now, for there's a temporary peace going on~ But don't worry, I have a lot of plans for some future action!

rndmnwierd: Lol, I so want to see how you're going to react in the later because this is just the start of the sexual tension

maikeatoot: Haha, I hope you enjoyed the earlier chapters, too!

alwaysYou:

And indeed something like that was ahead of them. They had no idea, how the tomorrow's festival would change their lives.

SEE!!!! Definitely have to be worry about them! LOL

LOL That definitely got me!! But to calm you down, remember that I am a takagaki shipper too  Though, I tend to be evil to myself and others from time to time  And thanks~

carzung: I know exactly what you mean I get very lively when I read something and I usually end up only making a fool out of myself, lol 


Thaaank you everyone for your interest, comments, thank yous and so on!! 

This chapter will finish the first arc, but no worries! I have my next arc planned and some chapters written~

Here's the next chapter!

Here we go~


Chapter 31 – She had finally come home


As Sayu had said, the celebration started early: The following day started early when people woke up before the sunrise in order to do preparations to the party as everyone was doing preparations at their homes and some even went to help in town too. Risa saw all her friends shortly in town as they were all there to help with other warriors. They decorated places, helped to put up some booths and a small stage where some plays and such were supposed to be held. Everyone was full of energy and there was also some kind of hope in the atmosphere now. They knew that the enemy was not beat yet, but every victory and small peace gave them hope of a better tomorrow without war.

When all the preparations were done, everyone headed to the town center, where Yoshizawa was already waiting her people with her own family. She had also arranged things so that even the wounded ones could take part in this in some way. They who were able to, would be moved in here and those who were not the king would personally go check every one of them. She also ordered to bring the wounded ones some goods and such things, just as Risa had thought.

When the bean arrived to the town center she immediately started to look for her friends. She had her casual, black warrior suit with weapons on her belt. Her long and a bit curly hair was on a loose ponytail and it was hanging on her other shoulder.

It didn't take much time to find Eri who was once again at one of the booths which sold some kind of sweets. She was of course with Sayu and Reina and they greeted each others happily with hugs when they met. The trio had same clothes as the bean had and they all had put their hair into a ponytail. Sayu was the only one who had her hair open however, but she had made it so, that it would not disturb her, if some action was needed to do. It also looked like it was tied up.

“Risa!!”

Eri exclaimed and was the only one of the three who did not let go of her friend immediately. Sayu just shook her head and snapped the sweets the turtle had in her hands away, causing her to panic.

“Sayu!! Give them back!!”

Letting Risa go, Eri went to her girlfriend, who gave the sweets back immediately she noticed that Risa was safe. She didn't want to get in fight with her girlfriend when it came to sweets, for Eri could be eerily strong when she was protecting something she was mad of. The bean just chuckled at her friend and immediately after she had counted how many people were around her, she started to spin around and search for one person. Where was she?

”Looking for Ai-chan?”

Reina asked as she noticed that the bean was searching something. A thin blush crept on her face, as Risa nodded her head shyly. Yes, she was looking for Ai. She had to be somewhere in here.

“Ai is probably somewhere helping someone. She always starts celebrating late, for she is helping everyone so much, that she forgets to celebrate herself.”

Eri said as she put some more sweets in her mouth. Risa nodded her head and smiled, though she was a bit disappointed. She wanted to see the leader and spend some time with her. But luckily this celebration would last whole day long so she would have time to search for the other warrior. Suddenly, an arm landed on her shoulders and when she looked up, Risa found Reina grinning at her. The kitten pinched her cheek a bit and chuckled at the same time.

“Don't worry, we will find her. Then you can cuddle up all you want to.”

Risa's face got even more red as she tried to push Reina away. Yes, she had admitted to herself last night that she indeed liked Ai quite much and she also hoped that the feeling was also the same to the older woman.

“Reina please...”

Sayu warned as she took hold of Eri's collar, when the older girl tried to get back to the sweet booth because her sweets had run out. Laughing, Reina just winked at Risa and let her go. In no time, there was a huge applause heard as Yoshizawa stood on a stance once again. This time she had her son on her shoulders, who was waving to all the people, causing everyone to laugh. Rika was a bit grumpy about this, but somehow her spouse had managed to get her agree with this. Yoshizawa just wanted to make Akira happy and the young prince enjoyed this. Also, she could care less how she looked right now. The main point was that everyone had fun, not how nice and elegant their king looked.

“Everyone! Good day! Today we have a celebration for the peace we have reached for a while! Lets enjoy it while we can and lets hope that one day this would last forever! Lets not waste the time in speaking, lets celebrate!!”

And with that the people started to cheer loudly and call Yoshizawa's name. The king just held her son on her shoulders, while Akira took all the applause and attention to himself. After a moment, Yoshizawa went to her wife and everyone started to move around the market place and celebrate. There were all kind of music, dance shows and some kind of small competitions.

Risa moved with her friends as they went to various booths. They played games, which Sayu or Reina usually won because Eri had sugar high and Risa was not very familiar with all the games.

One game however was horse riding and in that the bean was invincible. Even the best horse riders could not beat the young girl, who had had a horse as long as she remembered and she got quite much respect from that. She also gave quite a good opponent to Eri who was said to be best in the shooting game Risa had played with Ai in the last festival. The turtle was expert with bows and shooting and even in her sugar high, she was damn accurate and skilled and ended up beating Risa.

They day went on as the trio played, ate and watched some performances. But all the time, Risa had Ai in her mind. She had not seen the leader in whole day and it was starting to be a noon soon. There was said to be a big play which everyone was waiting for, because their king would act in that. It also had the most skilled actors in the whole village, too.

When the sky started to darken and people started to light fires and use some magic to get some more light, everyone gathered around the big stage which had seats for everyone. As Risa and her friends arrived, they were almost immediately met by Jun Jun, who was escorting people in their seats.

“Ah! Risa! Come here, I have seats for youuuuu!!”

The counselor was soon blogged down and Risa left alone as The Team Alfa bowled Jun Jun down. Getting a slight deja vu, Risa only chuckled at her friends, who were hugging the poor panda and preventing her from getting up. People around them looked at the warrior pile with a questioning look and some just laughed a bit and let them be.

”Guys, please get up. I have work to do here....”

Jun Jun managed to say under the trio. This time, she was let surprisingly easily away as her attackers got up quite quickly. Immediately she was free, the counselor jumped up, took some distance and dusted her clothes. When she looked up she found three demanding stares drilling holes in her.

”What?”

”We haven't seen in ages,” Eri started.

”and since today is a celebration day,” Reina continued.

”you're going to spend some time with us too.” Sayu finished.

Jun Jun only grumbled something about what she should do with these three, but when they started to approach her threateningly, she had no other choice than to agree.

”Okay, okay!! Calm down... Anyways, yeah, I have seats for you in here.”

The four friends looked at each others with confusion, for they had not reserved any seats. But when Jun Jun showed them to follow, they didn't question anymore, but decided to follow the counselor and as soon as they arrived, they noticed that they had gotten the best place in the front row.

“Here you go. Enjoy the play.”

”Jun Jun, wait! Who did reserve these seats to us?”

Eri shouted after the panda, but Jun Jun just said something they did not hear and continued her job. She didn't want to get under attack by those three anymore plus, she really had some work to do.

“Well, lets sit down.”

Sayu said as she pulled Eri with her, Reina and Risa following in suit. As they sat down, the bean noticed there was still an empty seat beside her. Well, maybe someone would take the place soon and indeed, someone did. But this person was quite a pleasant surprise for the whole team, especially to one certain bean.

“May I sit down here?”

Hearing a very familiar voice, the four girl's heads shot up and a wide smile spread on their faces as they saw who was speaking.

“Ai-chan!”

The leader waved her hand and smiled back at her friends, till her attention turned back to Risa. Her face melted immediately in a soft smile. They just looked at each others, till Risa realized that she should answer something to the leader's question.

“Yes, you may.”

She said quietly, causing Ai to smile even wider and even chuckle a bit. As she sat down, the warrior took something from inside her coat. She passed the items forward so that Eri, Sayu and Reina received something.

“Sorry guys that I did not have time to spent the day with you.”

The team watched their leader with wide eyes, till their attention was drawn back to the items in their laps. There were small present box, which were wrapped in different colors and all of them had a golden ribbon around them. Eri was the first one to open her gift and as soon as she saw what was inside, a high squeal was released and the turtle jumped up. Sayu took her down immediately, so her girlfriend would not disturb the others and scolded Eri after she calmed down a bit. But the turtle was not listening, for she was too occupied by Ai's gift.

“Thank you Ai-chan!!”

She purred and smiled at the leader. She would have hugged her, but Sayu made sure that the turtle was going to sit in her place. Ai just smiled and motioned Reina and Sayu to open their own gifts too. They did and their expression was almost the same as Eri's. Not being able to see in their gifts, for the girls didn't  take them out from the box, Risa leaned closer to Ai and whispered to the leader, keeping her eyes all the time on the team beside her.

“What did you give to them?”

The leader chuckled and leaned closer to Risa, one of her arms sneaking on the bean's back and massaging it gently. The younger girl shivered but did not resist the contact. It was more like the opposite, she wanted to be close with Ai. Soon, the bean felt hot breathing on her ear, as Ai spoke to her in a low whisper. Her cheeks started to burn immediately, when Risa realized how close the leader's face was to hers. Luckily, it was a bit dark so her blush was not as visible as it would have been in daylight.

“I gave few apples and some other sweets to Eri, the ones she really loves. There're also five throwing knives, which are very light to carry but when thrown, they are more effective than normal ones. To Sayu I gave one tactic book she has wanted for years but has not been able to buy it. I found it from one store and it was the last copy so I bought it to her. I also gave her a new compass, which has some magic effects so it can be seen in the dark too. She has to work so much with maps and she probably needs it when planning some tactics. To Reina I gave a new training shirt and some hand weights, which she can use in training. The shirt is very strong material and wont get ripped very easily.”

Risa listened the leader as she watched her friends who were now examining the gifts very eagerly. The scene in front of her made her feel very happy inside. Always when her friends were happy, she was happy too, but also that, that Ai had thought about her friends made her feel warm inside.

'She really cares about them...'

“I know those are just presents, but I wanted to make up my absence somehow... I got to give some of my time to them later too, because gifts can never replace friends...”

This time Risa turned her head so she could face the leader next to her. Ai was watching her team with a tender smile as they were still exited about the things they had gotten a while ago. The bean smiled gently and raised her hand to pat Ai's head gently.

“That was very nice of you.”

She whispered quietly, her actions causing the older woman to turn her attention towards her. Ai blushed at the pat she received, but she did not stop smiling gently nor did she take her eyes away from Risa. She leaned a bit closer so that her lips were against Risa's ear, the hand on the beans back dropping down to Risa's waist level, while the other traveled to th bean's thigh. Pulling her a bit closer, Ai whispered quietly in the Risa's ear, causing her to blush furiously. They were in public and though they did nothing special, they were in a position which showed that they could be a bit more than friends.

“I have something for you too, but I decided to leave it for later.”

Ai whispered and after she had checked that no one was looking, she pressed a soft kiss on Risa's cheek. Then she pulled away and sat properly on her seat. Her hands however stayed in their places, causing Risa to feel very good and very nervous at the same time.

The play was about to start now and the whole village was following the stage very carefully. It took a while, before Risa somehow calmed down. Her friends were now also following the play which was taking everyone's attention. It was a comedy where the king was in the head role with her family. Even Rika was on the stage, but she had kept sure she got some proper roles so her pride would not be wounded.

Yoshizawa was a brave hero who saved a lot of people and was after Rika, who usually ended up only embarrassing her or something like that. Akira was the king's helper, who usually showed to be more mature and have better ideas than his master. He also beat a lot of enemies and he was even more feared than Yoshizawa.

There were small fights, dance shows and even some singing. The play lasted for one hour and in the end the king got her beloved one and everyone was happy. The play was full of laughter and at some points Risa found herself laughing so much that she had even tears in her eyes.

Through the whole play Ai held Risa in her one arm hug, her other hand resting on the bean's thigh. At one point, when there was a very slow and beautiful song, Risa examined the hand on her leg and slowly put her own on it. This caused Ai to turn her attention to her and at some point they intertwined their fingers with each others. The two warriors looked up and when their eyes met, both melt in a warm smile. The leader pulled the bean a bit closer to herself and this gave Risa an opportunity to rest her head on the older woman's shoulder. They stayed like this till the play ended and parted from each others only when they stood up to applause.

After the play was over, everyone went to continue their celebrating in many different booths and so did The Team Alfa and Risa too. Ai joined them too now and as they walked on, she made sure she could have some nice hand in hand walk time with the bean. At one point, all the team members looked up and each others. They gave a short nod and then, Eri started to squeal:

“We have to find Jun Jun!!” She shouted and started to jump up and down, almost making Sayu to fall down as she kept on holding her hand.

“Yes, you're right!! She promised she would spend some time with us! Lets go!”

Sayu said and with that she started to run with Eri in the middle of the human mass. In no time they disappeared from sight, leaving Reina alone with Ai and Risa. The kitten turned around and soon a wide smirk spread on her face. But behind her smirk, the kitten had something Risa didn't quite catch up, but the leader did.

“Oh, I so know that you guys want to be alone now. And I am not going to be cruel to you, so I'll go after that aho couple. Have fun!”

And with that the kitten left, leaving now furiously blushing Risa and pleasantly smiling Ai behind. Risa tried to shout something after Reina, but her friend was soon lost in the crowd and there was no point in screaming after her. She would not hear her, no matter how loud she would yell.

Suddenly, Risa felt a light tugging in her hand and when she turned to look up, she found Ai watching her with a gentle smile. Without a word she started to lead the younger girl through the crowd. As they walked on, Risa noticed how there was less and less people and finally, there was barely anyone around them. They had arrived at the edge of the market place where was quite a small house, which looked like it was empty. Ai led Risa in and went upstairs. The house was surprisingly clean and there was not much furniture, only few chairs and some tables. It was quite dark, but the bean could also see a makeshift bed in the middle of the room.

Finally Ai stopped in front of a huge black curtain. She turned to face Risa who was quite confused of what happened right now. But the leader's gentle smile made her calm down and when Ai took her hands Risa could not help but smile back at her. Then the older woman moved her other hand so that she could grab something and when she pulled on some kind of rope, the curtains moved away and revealed a nice sight outside.

The bean gasped as she watched the clear starry sky with a very lively market place under it. There was a small balcony in front of them where Ai walked, gently dragging the bean behind her. Risa just could not take her eyes out of the scene in front of her. Though it was quite a normal sight it just had something different in it, some kind of a weird feeling she had not felt before. Maybe it was because she was with Ai now, and that she had revealed this sight for her. They walked to the edge of the balcony in order to see better what was below. The bean walked a bit forwards, mesmerized by the sight in front of her. She placed her hands on the wooden railing as she looked down to the market place and up the starry sky above. It looked almost the same when Ai had used the apple to create that breathtaking starry sky in the last festival.

“It's beautiful.”

Risa said quietly. Ai just smiled as she came closer to the bean and hugged her tightly from behind. She placed her head on her shoulder and encircled her arms around her waist as she followed the life at the market place.

“But I can see something even more beautiful in my arms right now.”

She whispered and caused Risa to blush furiously. Did she just call her beautiful? Did Ai really think that? The bean did not have much time to think about this, when Ai suddenly pulled away and started to rummage through her jacket. When she turned around, the leader had pulled out something small which she held on her palm. Risa recognized the item immediately.

“I wanted to give you something as well." Ai said a bit shyly as she looked at her hand instead of meeting Risa's gaze. For some reason she got very embarrassed suddenly and it felt hard to talk. "Think about something you want right now or just something that makes you feel good or happy. I can give it to you in some form.”

Ai said quietly as she held the small piece of those magic apples in her palm. She really wanted to give Risa something special and something she truly desired. She had spend her whole day when she had searched these apples and when she finally found them it had been almost noon. But now, she got the apple and she could give her present to Risa. The bean just stared at the leader with an open mouth and wide eyes. Ai wanted to give her a gift? And not just any kind of a gift but something she really wanted. She could truly wish for anything, for Risa knew these apples had ultimate powers.

“Just think about what you want and tell me when you're ready.”

The leader encouraged as she tapped the apple's side gently and raised her head up so she could see the younger girl in front of her. It took only few seconds, before Risa smiled gently at the leader and nodded her head, giving a signal that she was ready. Ai smiled shortly and moved the apple towards Risa, the said fruit starting to glisten immediately.

There was a bright flash, but even though they could not see well, the two kept their eyes firmly on each others. After few seconds, the light died down and Ai had the thing Risa wanted on her palm. But when she looked down she only found two red roses there. Ai frowned a bit and tilted her head to side, trying to figure out what was this. The bean only smiled, for she really knew what she wanted right now, those two red roses mirroring her mind perfectly right now.

“You... You thought about..." Ai stammered as she slowly remembered what these red roses symbolized "You thought.... Love?”

Ai asked carefully. Slowly lifting her head up to meet with the younger one, the leader could see how the bean had moved a bit closer.

“Well you can say it like that too...”

Risa whispered as she came closer and closer.

“What did you think about then exactly?”

The leader whispered, as she held the two flowers in her hand not moving an inch. The bean kept on leaning closer and closer and just when she was so close that their lips almost met, Risa smiled gently as she looked deep in those chocolate eyes. She had been nervous at first, but somehow the gift Ai had given to her made her feel very self-confident right now.

“I thought about you...”

Tilting her head a bit, the younger girl landed her lips on Ai's, sharing a very brief but at the same time very sweet kiss with the leader. Millions of emotions and thoughts ran through their both's minds as they shared the kiss, but one though was on top of the others:

'Finally'

When they parted, both women kept their eyes on each others, till they kissed again. This time, Ai was the one who leaned in as she brought her hand up which went behind Risa's head while her other arm sneaked around the bean's waist. She pressed herself close to the younger one, who ended up leaning back, her back hitting the railing behind her gently.

Risa's arms in turn found their way around Ai's neck as she too tried to pull the older one as close as possible. This kiss lasted longer as both forget the world around them. There was just them, no one else. As they got a bit carried away by their own emotions, Ai decided to move in a bit better place, for she wanted to experience more of this and the balcony where everyone could see them was not the best place for that.

With one smooth movement, she scooped the younger girl in her arms and carried her inside, not breaking the lip lock they had. Risa only gasped a bit but did not say a thing as she was carried inside. Making her way to the makeshift bed in the middle of the room, Ai  gently laid Risa down and then climbed on top of her. As she did so, she had to break the kiss so she could get them both comfortably on their new place. The leader was very careful when she placed Risa down and when on the ground, she tucked some pillows under her head.

After that she loosened the belts they had on their waist, so the weapons would not bring any obstacles for them. When that was done, Ai hovered again over Risa. She placed her hands  on either side of the younger girl's head, while she was straddling the bean's waist. They smiled at each others, the leader gently stroking Risa's long hair, while the younger one just enjoyed the attention she was receiving, her arms then reaching up and circling around Ai's neck.

The leader took the cue and immediately dived down to give the younger one a gentle kiss on her lips, Risa answering it immediately. They stayed like this, gently making out and from time to time kissing each others face or neck. They just enjoyed the close feeling they got when they were together, the warm feeling now burning their senses inside their minds. At some point their hands started to roam on each other's bodies, but they usually ended up in the other warrior's hair or upper body. after a while they stopped, so they could just look at each others. The moonlight outside showed their face's in the dim light and both could see how much emotions the other one was carrying while watching the other one.

They could just stay like this forever, watching the other one's beautiful face and enjoy the closure and warm they gave to each others. Finally, Ai leaned a bit down so she could kiss the tip of Risa's nose and after that, she snuggled her head in the younger's girls neck, the bean only circling her arms tighter around Ai's neck and holding her in place. At the some time the leader rolled on her side so that they were facing each others. Ai's arms found their way to the bean's waist as Risa lowered her own arms to the same place on Ai's body.

After being in this position for a while, Risa finally moved so that she could look in the older one's eyes, the leader having them half closed now. She had never been so relaxed as this and she felt she could stay like this forever. Gently stroking her face with her hand, Risa could not help but kiss the older woman again. It just felt so right to be close like this and show their affection to each others.

Both felt a sudden rush of emotions and soon their sweet and gentle kiss became more intense and passionate. It didn't take long when Ai was back on top of Risa, moving her mouth more frantically against the younger one's and from time to time she kissed her jaw and neck, giving small bites occasionally. Risa yelped in pleasure, when the leader's mouth traveled around her face and neck, giving her weird and at the same time very pleasant feeling, Ai not falling far behind. Their kissing was soon interrupted by a bright light and a loud thud from outside and as the two turned to look, they saw a huge firework which had just exploded in the sky.

There were at first only normal figures, but soon all kind of things like flowers and animals were formed on the starry sky. They watched the fireworks for a while, still keeping a tight hold of each others. Finally, Ai moved into a sitting position and at the same time she pulled Risa up with her. She positioned them so, that Risa would sit in her lap, her back facing Ai. Circling her arms tightly around the bean's waist, the leader pulled her as close as she could and at the same time pressed her head next to the younger one's giving a gentle kiss on her cheek.

Risa let the older woman do all this and when she got the kiss, she craned her neck so that she could capture the older one's lips in a brief kiss. They smiled at each others, till Risa turned her head forwards and Ai placed her own so it rested on the bean's shoulder. At some point the leader pulled a thin cover over them, so the now chilly air would not get them. Risa could not help but chuckle a bit as this postion brought some good memories in her mind.

”What's so funny?”

Ai whispered in her ear, her warm breath and lips against Risa's ear sending shivers down her spine.

“This just reminds me of the situation when you were wounded and we were in the stable...”

“Oh that one....”

Ai chuckled now as well as she recalled that incident in the stable. She knew that there would have been easier ways to warm her up back then, but she had gotten this sudden urge to get Risa close to her, when she had a good reason for that.

“I think I realized it then....”

The bean raised her eyebrow as she turned to watch the leader behind her.

“Realized what?”

There was a bit sleepy but at the same time very warm look in Ai's brown eyes as she examined the girl in her lap. Leaning a bit forwards, Ai placed her lips on Risa's once again. When the kiss ended, the leader just looked lovingly in Risa's eyes, not breaking the contact when she confessed her feelings.

“That I was falling for you.”

A small gasp escaped Risa's mouth as she heard Ai's words. Could it be that... Leaning a bit backwards and turning the younger girl in her arms so that she was now facing her, Ai landed on her back, causing Risa to be on top of her now. Immediately the leader captured the younger one's lips once again, but this kiss lasted longer than the others, as Ai poured all her feelings and showed what the younger one meant to her. Her arms had moved up and were now holding the bean in place as they kissed. Risa in turn had to support herself with her arms as it felt like Ai was trying to drag her down as they kissed. When they finally parted, both were panting slightly, till Ai moved her head closer to Risa's ear and whispered with a husky voice.

“I love you...”

There was a new kind of rush of emotions which shot through them both after Ai's words. Risa had never ever been this happy in her life as she rolled those three words in her head and it only made this moment better that someone had said it to her and truly meant them. Deciding to make this feeling even better, the bean revealed her own feelings to the older one, her words being exactly the same as Ai had said to her few seconds ago.

“I love you too...”

Moving her head so that she could face Ai, Risa kissed the leader again with a same amount of passion as she had done to her a while ago. As the fireworks and celebrating continued outside, the new couple who had finally gotten their emotions shown to the person they cared the most right now, continued showing their affection and love to each others, not being able to take their eyes off each others at all. It felt so unreal that the person they had once hated so much was now the one they treasured the most. They felt so right being in each others arms and the warm feeling was there all the time, leaving them only then when they parted. And even then, just a memory of the other one's rouch made that feeling come back immediately. They were meant to be, they knew it, and they would not have this in any other way. They would stay together, no matter what.

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

Meanwhile, under the buildings balcony where Ai and Risa were cuddling up, three girls looked at each others and high fived.

“Ai owns a looot to us after this.”

Reina said as they started to walk back to the marketplace which was still full of life.

“Aww come on, she don't have to. I mean, this is something friends do without paybacks, ne?”

Eri said as she looked at her girlfriend. Sayu only shrugged a bit as she kept on walking hand in hand with Eri.

“Well whatever, I am at least going to tease her about this for the rest of her life! Actually, I could go what has happened between them after few hours...” The kitten announced, causing Sayu to sigh.

She walked closer to Reina and hooked one of her arms around her shoulders, the other one doing same to Eri.

“What do you guys say if we just let those two be alone for a while and go enjoy this celebration, ne? Lets just go to get a drink or something...”

“Or buy more candies!!” Eri shouted.

“Yeah, candies too...” 'No way, lady... You have had enough sugar for this evening...' The bunny laughed as she pinched her girlfriend's cheek a bit, causing Eri to make a face.

“Drink doesn't sound bad at all. Lets go.” Reina said smiling.

And so the trio went to the market place, where people were still celebrating and it would last till the morning sun raised up. And they kept hope in their hearts and minds that one day, the raising sun would welcome a day, when all the wars would be over and peace would conquer this land.

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

I hope you enjoyed!!

 

[rndmnwierd]

About time~!

[darkacex99]

YAY another Junjun dog pile 

I laugh at  Eri's attempt to get some more candy in the end crazy gal

ai and risa gettin closer and closer...so close that im actually kinda scared...idk why

awesome chapter, cant wait for the next update thanks as always

[maikeatoot]

me eating + reading = 

[MsSmigge]

rndmnwierd: Yes, our ovely takagaki got finally together  And I ended my own torment, lol. It was tormenting to write how they were so close, but so far away from each others

darkacex99: I don't know why I like to get Jun dog piled... It's just fun What? You're scared because Ai and Risa got closer? Well, maybe it will be revealed to us all later

maikeatoot: Oh no, never eat/drink when you're watching something or reading I can tell, that is dangerous 


As always, thank you everyone for your comments and interest!!!

The next chapter, here we go~


Chapter 32 – As long as they all stayed together, everything would be alright


It had been about half a year after the peace had started between Heng and Yoshizawa's clan and it hadn't shown any kind of marks to crack anytime soon. Of course, everyone was prepared all the time, but because there had not been any signs from the enemy, the warriors were decided to be given some more holidays and free time and even JunJun got a few free days, too. Though, it might have seemed that they would let their guard down, it was not like that. All the time, there was at least one group at the front line keeping an eye on the enemy. But still, everyone in the village and in the whole Kibo had lived in peace for a half year now and almost no one was concerned by the war now.

Even Risa had had her thoughts out from the war and her head was only filled with a lot of positive things. She had had plenty of time to spend with her friends, there was peace and it was like her life had started again after her home village got destroyed. But the reason which made her the most happy was one certain warrior who had captured her heart totally and who Risa was deeply in love with. She had now been together with Ai for six months and she had had the best moments in her life with the leader. Ai had really changed of what she had been and now Risa totally understood what her friends had meant when they had told her how Ai had changed and how she was not so rude as she had seemed.

Ai was by far the most gentle and sweet person Risa had ever met. She was very polite and had good manners, she cared honestly about others and was very helpful. Sometimes, she even sacrificed her own free time so she could get some things done for the others. The leader also had her humor side, but it was only shown clearly when she was with Risa. The bean was quite proud of that. It felt like she was very special to Ai, when the leader showed or told her things she didn't tell to anyone else. The bean had also found out, that though the leader was very strong and quite though from time to time, she had a very weak spot for kids. Really, that woman just loved children! Risa had even found her lover playing with some of them in the village when they had had a day off. It was quite a sight when a grown up would play with children but she just thought that it was kind of sweet. People like that tented to have a very gentle an pure heart and Ai indeed had that. She may not show it as much out as Eri, but she had it and she usually showed it to Risa only.

Reina, Sayu and Eri were all the same as half a year ago, ”the aho couple” still being together and Reina still teasing them all the time. But now that she had also Risa and Ai, the kitten would sometimes leave her two childhood friends alone and go to tease this more fresh couple. When that happened, Risa had also found out how possessive Ai could be. She didn't went on a childish level with it, but the leader made sure to show who she was with and who did Risa belong to now. This made the bean feel quite taken, for she had never thought she could someday be ”someone's”. But the thought also warmed her mind. It indeed felt good to be someone's and especially Ai's~

It was a warm spring day and the trees had already some leaves on them. Winter was long gone and days had become longer. There were rarely cold nights anymore and everyone had already changed their winter clothes to a lighter ones. The warriors kept their same costume all the time and they just put clothes under that if needed. They did not have any kind of summer or winter clothes, just the one costume they used all the time.

Sun shone through the tree's branches as Risa walked on a small path. Her long brown hair had gotten even longer and was now reaching way pass her shoulder blades. There was a very loose ponytail behind her head, which allowed her hair to hang freely, but so that it would not disturb her. The black warrior she was wearing was quite hot with the weapons she was carrying, but even during the peace, the had to be prepared. There was way that some of their weapons could be left at home or such.

They had decided to go outside the village for it was now safer to move outside the walls and everyone grieved to get out in the nature. There was a small forest just outside the village where the Team Alfa had visited for a few times lately. They had one special spot, which had some hot springs nearby and a small opening with a nature pond. It was very beautiful and peaceful place where the friends liked to spend their time.

As Risa arrived at the opening, she saw that three of their ”gang” were already present. Eri was dipping her feet in the hot spring's water with Reina, while Sayu was laying on her back and using Eri's lap as a pillow. When they noticed Risa they all waved eagerly at her, the bean joining and greeting them at the same time.

The three hadn't changed much during the peace. Only one who had some changes in her outlook was Eri, who had cut her hair shorter. Her dark brown hair was now barely reaching her shoulders and she had clear bangs, too. But no matter how her looks changed, Eri was still the same cheerful and gentle warrior she was.

Reina and Sayu had stayed the same as they had been. The kitten had her usual high ponytail and her hair curled beautifully. She was still the same kid who liked to tease everyone and whom Sayu had to scold all the time. The black haired female had somehow calmed down during the peace though. She didn't nag so much anymore and took situations easier than before, but immediately things started to get worse, she would snap back in her tactician mode and be her old level-headed self.

“Hi there. Where did you leave you girlfriend?”

Reina greeted and started to tease the older girl immediately, which Risa only chuckled at. They were not awkward with Ai in any terms anymore and it was not a secret that they loved each others. In truth, they were sometimes even told to keep their hands better on themselves when they were out in public for they, and especially Ai, liked to get A BIT TOO carried away sometimes.

“She said she would come a bit late, for she has some things to do.”

”How did she let you go?”

Eri asked smirking as well. But she only gained a gentle slap from her own girlfriend. Sayu was still against all the teasing for she thought it was childish and improper. But no matter how much she scolded her friends, they just kept on teasing them.

“Well, we haven't seen since yesterday, so that's way.”

Risa said shrugging a bit. This caused Eri and Reina to frown for this was very unlike Ai. Damn those two were always together. It was like they could not keep their hands away from each others and even few minutes separation would drive them mad.

“What the heck?!" Reina yelped. "I bet this must be killing our leader, for she is always after you and vice versa...”

”Indeed it's killing me.”

A different voice interrupted, which was soon followed by Risa's small yelp which soon turned into soft moans as the bean's lips were stolen by her lover. Ai had somehow sneaked so that no one had noticed and now she was hugging Risa tightly from behind and kissing her deeply. The bean had placed her own hands on the arms which were circling her waist and tried to keep up with Ai's pace as they were kissing. The leader still had her short hair, though it had grown out a little bit. She hand't had any kind of "bad days" during the peace and she had gotten a lot healthier too.

While their friends were watching, Ai and Risa got carried away and just kept on making out. Slowly, Eri's and Reina's faces turned bored and even Sayu had opened her eyes and was just sighing deeply as she saw the couple cuddling and kissing in front of her. This was so normal of them now that it even made the trio a bit irritated sometimes. Damn, they should do that in their private time, not in public.

Finally the two parted their lips and stayed still, now staring at each others gently. Ai gave a quick peck on Risa's lips and moved so, that she was now standing at her side, still keeping her arms around her and not breaking the eye contact.

“Hi there.”

She said gently and pressed her forehead against the beans.

“Hi.”

Risa whispered back. They just always got so lost in each others eyes when they were together. There was no helping with it, though they had tried to be a bit more appropriate when they were with others.

“HI AI!”

Eri and Reina yelled suddenly at the same time, causing their leader to finally break the eye contact with the bean and turn to her friends. She smiled broadly and nodded her head to them.

“Hi guys. How are you?”

”Oh quite fine. It surprises me, that you even had time to ask." Reina mumbled "You seemed to be so busy with your girlfriend that you didn't even notice us...”

Soon she was followed by Eri who nodded her head firmly and glared at her friends.

“Yeah, you know it's nice and all that you're together, but could you please leave your long tongue battles in your private time? It's not very nice to watch....”

The leader only chuckled a bit as she squeezed Risa firmly against herself, the bean gasping in surprise. This was one of the possessive sides of Ai, for Risa felt like she couldn't move an inch now. The leader just liked to keep her close to her...

“I'm sorry, but it's just so hard when I have such a lovely lady in my arms.”

Ai cooed and gave Risa a kiss on her cheek, causing the bean to blush.

“Mine is more lovely....”

Eri huffed quietly, but Ai heard her and soon there was a very rare quarrel between the two, who were arguing about their girlfriends. It was normal that Eri was doing something like this but it was very rare to see Ai acting like this. The leader was known to be very level headed, but it seemed that with Risa she showed some new sides of herself. If she was alone with Eri now, she would not quarrel, but with Risa in her arms some kind of new emotions took hold of her.

Soon both Sayu and Risa got enough of their friends fighting and decided to end it. Sayu splashed some water on Eri and pinched her, while Risa just took a hold of her lovers head and silenced her by pressing her lips on hers. After that she gave her a glare, which cause Ai to pout immediately and apologize for she had been such a child. The leader hated to see her girlfriend angry face and especially then, when she was the victim of it.

When noticing that Ai had calmed down, Risa pried herself away from her arms and led them at the edge of the hot spring. They sat down, Risa dipping her feet in the warm water. Ai sat next to her and immediately circled one of her arms around Risa's waist protectively. She also dipped her feet in the water and soon the whole group had calmed down, the quarrel long forgotten and the couples now concentrating only to their own beloved one. They were in a silence for a  long while as everyone was just enjoying the warm weather and the presence of each others.

Finally, the only one without a partner got a bit bored and decided to have some fun. Reina got up from her place and tiptoed behind Sayu and Eri. They were so deep in thoughts, but then Reina noticed how spaced out their new love birds were. Risa had pressed her head against Ai's shoulder as the leader was playing with her long hair with her free hand. The other one was still holding the bean firmly close to her.

Grinning, Reina decided to have a go and confront her fate. She knew how her friends would probably flip after her little trick, but damn it, she was bored and they should also pay some attention to her too....

Quietly, very quietly, the kitten sneaked behind Ai. She had to act fast now, for the leader would surely notice her soon. And so she did. Ai was just about to turn around and ask Reina what on earth was she doing, when the younger girl pushed her forwards. Not being prepared for anything, the leader fell forwards and in the water, face first. She had let go of Risa when she noticed that she was about to fall, so the younger one would not fall in too. Risa yelped when she noticed what happened and her scream was soon followed by Reina's laughter as the kitten took all the triumph of this. She rarely got to surprise Ai like this, but now as the leader's eyes were behind pink glasses, it was easier to trick her super senses.

“Ai!”

Risa shouted as she jumped after the leader in the water. The hot spring was not very deep in here. It reached around Risa's chest, but that was something that worried the bean. What if Ai had hit her head, for how it had looked like Risa, her love had been quite surprised by Reina. Soon she bumped into something and in no time, a head popped in front of her and a bid frowning Ai came in to her view. She was coughing a bit, for she had taken some water in her breath during her dive.

“Ai!”

Risa yelped again and took a hold of her, patting the older woman's back firmly at the same time. Somehow Ai slipped on something under the water and of course she decided to took a hold of Risa's coat as she fell again. The cloth fell off from the bean's shoulders and almost dropped down completely. Risa helped her to stand, by taking a firm hold around her waist and pulling her up. Her coat dropped even more in the process and now her upper body, which was covered in a white shirt, was completely bare. When Ai's coughs subsided and the bean saw she was quite okay, she turned to give a good glare to the kitten, who only smiled very sheepishly. Just when Risa was about to fully turn towards Reina and scold her about doing such a thing, she was suddenly spun around by Ai. The leader kept her tightly in her arms and presented her back to Reina and the others, so they could not see Risa almost at all.

“Ai, what are you doing?”

Risa hissed as she was confused by her girlfriend's actions. But Ai only grabbed the half fallen black coat and dressed Risa in that. Somehow, the bean managed to get a glimpse of Ai's face and to her surprise, she was blushing madly and having a very bothered look on her face. What was wrong? She soon got her answer, when Ai started to tie her coat shut and leaned her head so that she could whisper in Risa's ear.

“Protecting something only I am allowed to see....”

She said in a bit husky tone and at the same time Risa could hear a very low growl and groaning. Before she could say anything, Ai continued on as she tightened Risa's coats ropes so tight, that the bean could barely breath.

“Next time, don't wear a white shirt under your coat because...”

Again, the leader groaned something Risa did not hear and only tightened her hold around her. The bean frowned at this and tried to pry Ai away so she could see her face, but without result. Finally, she gave in and huffed in the older woman's ear.

“Why?”

This time, Risa was sure she felt Ai shiver against her. What was wrong with her?

”Because someone might see..." The leader gulped as she tried to calm herself down. "Through your shirt when you're not wearing your... chest binding...”

She spoke in a very low tone and her words were followed by a very deep sigh. The leader could not say it out loud, but she was somehow having very very strong emotions now and when she had seen through Risa's shirt a while ago, her first act had been to hide what she saw from the others. But at the same time, she had gotten this sudden urge to just go and rip that damn fabric out of her way. Though Risa and Ai had been together for half a year now, they had not gone ”past the cloth line”. They had only had some very heated make out sessions and few times, they had gotten so carried away that they had started to undress each others. But every time that had happened, something always interrupted them.

But it did not mean that the couple did not want to go further. Heck, Ai had many times dreamed of undressing Risa and making love to her, but every time it might have happened in reality, something just happened and prevented the two from fulfilling their fantasies. But it was okay with Ai as long as she got to be close with Risa. She did not need sex or anything like that. All she needed was Risa beside her.

“Oi, you're doing it again...”

Reina moaned when Ai and Risa had not moved in few minutes. Ai was still trying to calm herself down and Risa was quite the same. She was also very embarrassed right now, for she had realized what the leader had meant. Beside that she had very same kind of things in her mind as Ai and it did not help at all, that the leader was holding her tightly and breathing all the time in her neck and ear.

“Fine then....”

They heard Reina grumble and soon, the couple in the water was drenched totally by Reina, who had splashed water towards them. Turning around, the furious couple glared at the kitten who was again laughing. Damn, this was fun.

“Reina!”

Risa yelled but, got another water attack as an answer.

“Lets have a water fight! You too!”

And so the over energetic warrior pushed Sayu and Eri in the spring too, causing both to yelp in surprise. Again the kitten got good laugh, but this time when she stopped, she was greeted with a scene which did not promise good for her. All her four friends, drenched from head to toe were glaring at her and soon their faces got a very, very evil smirk.

Realizing what was probably going to happen, Reina started to back away. But she was soon stopped by Eri who grabbed her by her ankle. In no time, Sayu jumped a bit and took a hold of the kitten's clothes. As she came down, she dragged the poor warrior with her and soon Reina found herself under the water. When she got in the surface, she was greeted by Ai and Risa who started to frantically splash water against her face, causing the kitten to turn away. Water hit her eyes again as the aho combi attacked her too.

Finally, Reina splashed the water with her hands towards both couples, causing them to calm down a bit.

“Moou!!! That's not fair! Four against one!”

Soon the revenge to Reina turned into a playful water fight where everyone was against each others. They played for a long while and during their play everyone turned against Ai and Sayu. The squad leader and the tactician decided to do some cooperation and attack the three girls. They would first approach them and then dive under the surface and drag the others down. The fact that they were this good was just that the two had the best skills in magic and they could make small air bubbles for themselves.

Of course in water fight, diving was a pathway to a safe place, where one could just attack the ones who were not under water. Ai and Sayu were like sharks who attacked their helpless prays who could not do the same thing as they did. Eri tried with Reina, but when they faced the two under the water, the leader and tactician just made a face to them and swam away. The turtle and kitten just had to get back up and then the two would strike from under the surface.

“This is not fun anymore....”

Reina groaned as she had been dragged under the water for the 5th time by Ai. As Sayu kept on teasing the turtle and kitten, Ai just chuckled from a distance and searched a new target for herself. Her eyes landed on her beautiful girlfriend and as Ai gave a very wicked grin to the bean, Risa felt s sudden urge to get away from the water and fast. She knew what that look meant. The leader had something planned in her mind and if Risa didn't do anything, she would have to go with her ways.

In no time, Ai dove in the water, disappearing from the sight and immediately after that Risa started to swim away as fast as she could. She reached the edge of the spring, but before she got out she decided to look behind. Turning around, Risa found out only how Reina was dragged under the water again, Eri following soon after. But there was no sign of Ai. Where was she? Deciding to wait for a little more, Risa kept a firm hold of the edge and just stood still. When nothing happened, the bean decided to check herself what was going on under the water.

She took a deep breath and dove, only being immediately met by Ai's face. The leader had been waiting for the right moment to hit when she had noticed that Risa had stopped and because the water was a bit darker than normally, it was not a problem to just lurk beside the bean. Risa yelled something and released a lot of air bubbles from her mouth. She felt how she was grabbed by Ai and dragged deeper under the water. The bean tried to escape as they went deeper, feeling how she needed to breath. But Ai just kept on taking her girl away.

Just when Risa was sure that her girlfriend was about to drown her, she felt something soft and warm land on her lips. She had no idea how things happened, but soon the bean felt how she didn't need to go to surface and breath. Ai was giving her some air by magic and that made it possible for them to make out under the water. The leader wrapped her arms tightly around Risa, while the bean found her arms around the older woman's neck.

Because they were in water, they flowed forward, spinning slowly around, till Ai's back finally hit the spring's wall. Risa thought that they should return back up so their friends would not get worried about them and she started to swim upwards. However, Ai had other thoughts in her mind as she grabbed the bean by her waist and pulled her back down. Their lips didn't separate from each others. The leader made sure of that, because if that would happen, Risa would be in trouble. The air did not store in her lungs, so when Ai would break the lip lock they had, Risa would be like she was just about to lose her breath.

As Risa gasped in surprise, her girlfriend took all the advantage of this and dove her tongue in the bean's mouth, eagerly exploring it. Her other hand had traveled downwards and was now on the younger girl's thigh. It kept on going till it reached her knee. After getting to her goal, Ai smirked against Risa's lips and with a fast movement she switched their places so that Risa was now against the wall. All the time, Ai held the bean close to her and made sure not to break their kiss for it would mean that Risa would soon run out of breath and this fun would end.

Taking all the advantage from this position, Ai pushed Risa firmly against the wall behind her and at the same time she hitched the leg up she had trapped a while ago. The bean being now trapped between Ai and the wall, the leader had her both hands in use and she did the same to Risa's other leg. Soon, the bean found how her legs were circling her lovers waist and when Ai pressed herself a bit forward she ended up making their bodies touch each others. Risa blushed furiously as she felt how blood rushed through her veins in ultimate speed. Yes, they had been this close earlier, but somehow this situation was just a bit different. Maybe it was because of their wet clothes which allowed them to feel every curve under the textile which covered some things both wanted to see.

The leader's hands traveled behind Risa's lower back and when she got them circled around there, she pulled Risa even closer and again, the couple was on loose as they felt each others bodies better than when they were cuddling with dry clothes. They forgot where they were and who was with them, for right now they only felt and knew each others.

Not realizing what she was doing, Risa's hands started suddenly to take Ai's coat off and the leader was also fumbling with the knots she had made on Risa's clothes a while ago.

But once again, they were interrupted. Ai felt how a tearing pain shot through her head as something pulled her up by her hair. As she was pulled up, Risa lost her airway and she took quite a lot water in her breath. But She still managed to follow her lover to surface. Luckily they hadn't been so deep anymore, so it was not so long way up. As she broke the surface, Risa started to cough immediately. Somehow she managed to search for Ai at the same time and soon, she found her lover growling at Reina, who had a firm hold of her short hair.

“What the heck are you doing??!!”

Ai yelled as she tried to get free. She splashed water towards the younger girl and somehow tried to reach her hand which was holding her hair.

“Fishing my dear friend. It indeed is a good day for it. Instead of one kisser, I caught two.”

The kitten grinned widely. Only then Ai got down from her pink clouds and remembered that Risa did not have any air after they had parted. The air she got would not restore when it was done by magic and immediately after their lips had parted, Risa would be like she had just lost the air in her lungs. Hearing how the younger girl coughed nearby, Ai pried herself away from Reina and swam to her girlfriend quickly.

“Risa!! Oh god, are you all right?”

She asked concerned as she wrapped her arms around her and patted her back firmly, so she would get all the water away from the younger girl's lungs.

“Yeah, I am. Thanks....”

The bean said. It was quite a good thing that she had been coughing, for it made a good cover for her tomato face. Yes, Risa had been very red when they had had their moment with Ai a while ago and the blush hadn't subsided yet.

“Ai, why is your coat so loose?”

Eri's surprised voice interrupted them and caused both Ai and Risa to froze. Luckily, the bean had still her thoughts running and she made a good cover up by telling how it had gotten loose during their water fight. Not suspecting anything, their friends just shrugged and got up from the water, leaving the relieved couple behind. There was just no way they could tell them what would have happened, if Reina had not pulled Ai up by her hair. They would probably still be under the water and doing some close examinations of the other one's body. A naked one.

Soon, Risa and Ai followed their friends, the leader being the gentleman and helping Risa up from the water by taking her hand and pulling her up. Of course, the bean ended in Ai's arms, for the leader used so much force when she got the younger one up. But this time, she just gave a brief hug to her girlfriend, so they would not get carried away again.

They walked to the trio who all were now squeezing all the water they could get away from their clothes. Of course, they could have used magic, but because the weather was so warm, they just let their clothes dry on their own.

After that, they all went under a huge three nearby and sat down under it's shadow. Sayu and Eri ended up sitting next to each other and both encircled one hand around each others waists. Reina sat beside Eri but as soon as she did so, she felt a light tap on her shoulder. As she turned to watch she noticed how the turtle patted her lap and implied, that Reina could use it as a pillow. Smiling broadly, the younger girl took the hint and laid so that her head rested on Eri's thighs. The turtle smiled down at her and gave a light pat on her head, before she leaned her head against Sayu's shoulder and closed her eyes.

After that, the grin on Reina's face turned into a gentle smile as she watched the girl whose legs she was using as a pillow. She was still in the same situation as she had been for years now, but by now, the kitten had learnt to live with her feelings. She was happy that Eri was her good friend and though she could never have her, she was happy that the older girl's life was fine and that she was happy. Slowly, Reina closed her eyes too and let her body relax as she started to fall asleep.

Ai and Risa ended up to sit next to each others of course, but quite quickly, the older one pulled the younger girl in her lap. Risa did protest at first, but after getting settled in Ai's lap, she found it quite comfortable and let go of her struggling. The leader wrapped her arms tightly around Risa's waist and placed her head on her shoulder.

For a moment, Risa just sat still, enjoying the closure and warm Ai gave to her. When she felt her eyes close, she leaned her head against Ai's and turned a bit so she would sit slightly sideways in the older girl's lap. The water fight had drained their energy so well, that all the five warriors just fell asleep as they sat down below the tree. Half a year ago, they wouldn't have even imagined about this kind of situation were they could just spend their time together outside the village and not be afraid of the enemy. They could just relax and think about things they really wanted to think and not some damn war.

Risa woke up from her slight slumber as Ai moved under her in order to get a bit better position. The bean just smiled down at her girlfriend who mumbled something in her dreams, a pleasant smile slowly forming on her face.

How much had her life changed in one year? At first, everything had been quite a mess, but she had managed to move on, thanks to her friends. Then, everything almost exploded with Ai, but somehow, everything had turned out in the end. The leader had changed back to herself and Risa had believed in her friends and others as they had told her how she should not judge Ai.

And Risa indeed was very happy that she had not judged the leader or at least did not keep hating her, for she would have lost a lot. At first, Risa had intended to just get along with Ai, but when she had noticed which kind of a person the leader was in truth, the bean could not help but fall in love with the warrior. It had been her luck that the monkey had felt the same and now they were happily together. Of course, they had still a lot to learn about each others and so, but Risa was sure she had her whole life to experience all that. Yes, she really hoped that the rest of her life would be beside this amazing woman she was in love with and of course, their friends would be there, too.

“Risa..”

Ai mumbled and snuggled a bit closer to the bean. She opened her eyes slowly and gave Risa a very sleepy and gentle look. The younger girl just smiled and gave a quick kiss on the leader's forehead, causing her to melt into a wider smile.

“Go back to sleep.”

Risa whispered. Ai obeyed her words as she pressed her head against the bean's shoulder once again.

“You too....”

The leader mumbled and soon Risa could hear a steady breathing beside her ear. Pressing her head against Ai's the bean glanced her three other friends and found out how they were sleeping too. Sighing deeply, Risa looked up at the sky, where the sun rays tried to peek through the trees. Why couldn't life be always this wonderful? Why there had to be wars?

Shaking her head a bit, Risa vanished all the things related to war and so away from her head and just concentrated on this moment and this nice feeling of having Ai beside her. Soon, her eyes felt heavy and in no time, she followed Ai to the dreamland with the others.

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The arch 2 starts~ Though I am not very satisfied with this, but I blame myself and this mysterious flu I got a while ago... I just can't wait to get better and then do things. 

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter!!!