Mature Content Warning: Nothing too surprising here. This chapter is tame. There is light swearing, and a marshmallow with tits.

Author's Note: Here you go. Nothing much to say about this chapter, except that I like it. It would be nice if I could have had more chapters like it, but everything is all about not having the world die and stuff. Those of you who demand more erotic content will need to wait a little longer. It's coming around again, soon.

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Chapter 22: A Normal Day

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The moon hung large and bright in the midnight sky as Scott leaned against the chimney of the Hickey-Wa shrine. Atop the roof he could see the stars clearly. Each of them saw fit to remind him that they had a fixed purpose in existence, a place that they belonged. While his breath misted with each exhalation he mentally recalled all the events of the last year of his life.

Each time the memories came to him clear as crystal. His mind had become like a computer for information retention and even memories of his early childhood were perfect in clarity. A side effect of whatever agency was enhancing his biology perhaps; he could not help but miss the ability to forget sometimes as he went over the look of pain on the faces of his comrade's during a particular hard fought battle.

A few minutes later a soft scratching could be heard as Apollo found his way to the rooftop. The appointed hour had come and the two had much to discuss.

In a quiet voice Apollo said, "So, what's up?" to the man as he sat down near him. This whole clandestine meeting stuff had gotten him curious.

Scott sighed lightly and shook his head. "When you look up there what do you see?" he asked the cat quietly while pointing at the moon.

Apollo winced as visibly as any cat could and hung his head a bit. "I don't like to look at it..."

The man nodded to him and grew quiet again for a moment as the chill night air at this altitude continued to grow steadily cooler. It would not get down to below freezing tonight, but it was definitely cooler than the low-lying verdant falls had been, despite being farther south than the little town. It was a mountain town in name only. It actually resided in a depression near the base of the mountains.

"The past is gone and can only be reclaimed in memory right? Not entirely true I guess; if you use magic. That doesn't change the point for normal people." asked Scott lightly as he waxed poetic and philosophical.

"Yeah...” agreed the cat as his tail whisked in agitation. He wished Scott would get on with what he wanted to talk about. Even with fur it was getting a bit nippy out.

"I hate to dredge up painful memories for you, but we need to talk about it. My knowledge is haphazard and based on fiction. Whatever you know might help a bit." admitted Scott finally. As yet he had never gone into major detail about how he knew the things he did. He had never made a point to discuss it in detail, but over the course of the last few months he had mentioned his situation to the others.

Everyone was aware of the whole, anime is real, thing he had from his home world. However, he had not volunteered too much specific information about the particular show of most import. He had also chosen not to discuss his own writings in great detail, or any detail really.

"Yeah! You said once that everything you know you learned on a TV show... but that's a bit hard to believe." exclaimed the cat suspiciously. It just did not make sense in reality, thought the talking cat that had lived on the moon ten thousand years ago.

Scott barked out a harsh laugh then shook his head in frustration at that obvious understatement. "You're telling me that? Last year all this, everything about where I am now, was fiction. It was just some cool place to daydream about between looking for odd jobs or army work. Now I’m living in a place where everyday things would be considered impossible back home."

He took out Cerene's D-Ball and showed it to the cat. "I have a girl who used to be a warrior of love and justice ten thousand years ago held inside a red and white ball. She changes form between an angel shaped bio-weapon and a magically transformed soldier of love and justice, and she lives inside a ball. You want to tell me about reality? I'm always willing to hear about logic and reason from a talking cat who’s been in cryostasis for ten millennia."

"OK, OK. Just... OK.” replied the cat in an attempt to calm the unusually emotional man down. The whole fiction is real thing was still fishy for the cat, but at least Scott seemed to think the same about it. That should mean something after all.

"Sorry, I snapped at you, alright? It's just... I don't know what to do anymore Apollo." admitted Scott apologetically.

"What do you mean?" asked the cat. The black armored man had always seemed to have the right answer for everything so far.

"It's not supposed to be me. Everything seems to be riding on me saying or doing the right thing at the right time and that's not how it's supposed to go." said Scott as he ran his fingers through his hair.

Apollo glanced up at him but did not say anything. Scott had to be going somewhere with this and it was obvious he needed to get something off his chest.

"It's all, just too coincidental. I mean... come on. Don't you think?" he asked the cat with a worried look in his eyes. It had been bothering him almost from day one, but in the last few days it had grown more and more in his mind. The sheer happenstance of most of his life in this world was too much to believe.

"Uh... maybe if you explained it a little, I might know what you're talking about?"

Scott nodded again, more to himself than to Apollo. He did glance down and take a good look at the three patches of missing fur on the cat that were only now growing back. He had been pretty badly injured back in verdant falls. Had he been on Scott's home world, the cat would have died. Healing magic did not exist there, or at least not as dynamic as on this world. He could not be certain, due to the supposed alternative medicine therapies that existed.

"Nearly a year ago I made a little wish while looking up at the moon... I wished that I could have found a place where I truly was necessary. A place I could do some real good and find a life worth living." began Scott as he confided in the cat.

Apollo quirked his eyelid as though he had an eyebrow; but did not say anything.

"Less than an hour later, I was traveling through a pathway between my world and this one to try and save Cerene from a would-be tamer. At the time I didn't know she was a Demi-Human. I just saw a jerk attacking a scared girl in the woods." continued Scott as the cat listened attentively.

"From then on it's been one series of incredible coincidences after another. I found Nina on a road that's well traveled and she becomes the first of the girls in the group. Makina is given to me by Aaron later on... come on... the odds of her even being found much less given to me? Then we just happen to be in place to fight Fiends, and Super Fiends when they arrive?" confided the man as it began to spill out rapidly.

Apollo was beginning to see what he meant by coincidence. A lot of things had worked out severely in their favor and he was beginning to get suspicious too.

"Think about it... I found Nina on the road from Oldtowne to the Ophun institute. A road I would not have been on had Analise not come to my prison cell and gathered me up..." confessed Scott.

"So, what do you think is going on?" asked Apollo, truly interested in what the man thought. The picture he painted was definitely a telling one. It seemed like something or someone had been dragging them around by the nose this whole time.

"I came up with four scenarios, but only one of them makes any real sense even if it doesn't quite add up."

"Oh?"

Scott nodded. "Yeah, the most obvious one is that none of this is real and I was hit by a car or something back home. I'm in a coma and on the verge of dying..."

"Um, I kinda think I’m real... so...” began Apollo. It might make sense to Scott, but the cat still twitched a little when he walked so he definitely believed that he had been electrocuted and flash fried.

"Yeah, I discount that one too. There's just too much going on for it to be true."

"What else?" asked Apollo.

"I'm a character in a poorly crafted fan fiction written by a drunken retard with a self-hating disposition. Further, that self-hating pseudo-author has too much free time on his hands since no woman in her right mind would ever touch him even a little bit, even for money?" asked Scott curiously.

AN: The struggle is real!

The duo looked at each other then burst out laughing. That was just too absurd to be true.

"Ok... some wandering deity answered my wish and now they're screwing with my life in an attempt at alleviating boredom.

"Put that one in the maybe pile, I guess?" suggested Apollo in a questioning tone. It made more sense than the other two even if the talking cat sometimes felt like a bit of an atheist when it came to various religions. Several times he had been informed he had no soul since he was not human. That happened most frequently when they crossed paths with a random religious nut.

Scott nodded.

"Yeah... but I think I might know what's going on and it bugs me a little. Mainly because I didn't figure it out sooner." admitted the man with a sigh.

"Oh? You think so?" asked the cat suddenly curious again.

The man nodded and said, "I'm probably going to sound like an idiot but I have to do this...bear with me ok?"

The cat shrugged its kitty shoulders in imitation of the man and bobbed his head up and down in a nod.

Scott cleared his throat. "Tessa Guardian of time, if you don't come out here; I’m going to put a cockroach in your hair when you finally show up."

Apollo stared at him stupidly for a second, but then he blinked and turned toward the sound of a strangled female voice off to his left. Standing before him was a woman wearing the armor of a guardian. He did not quite recall who she could be, but she had extremely long green hair. She wielded a large oddly shaped staff with a clock on the end.

"You wouldn’t dare...” muttered the woman even as the blood seemed to drain from her face.

The man sighed and shook his head. "You know I would have, or you wouldn't have revealed yourself...” To be honest he had not been certain he was right. It was a shot in the dark, and even if he had been right he did not believe she would show up here. However, what were his supposed memories good for, if he never used that knowledge?

Tessa frowned at him and then sighed. "Fine, so you figured it out. It took you long enough."

Scott shrugged. He decided to run with the current line of conversation; in for a penny, in for a pound, and all that. "Well excuse me for not suddenly thinking about it. Don't you normally try to hunt down and kill anything that fucks with the timeline?"

She rolled her eyes. "Are you kidding? You have no idea just what it took to get you here in the first place. I had to do things...”

"Kinky...”

She frowned at him. "You know you haven't changed a bit, Nocturne. You're still the same pervert you always were."

"Nocturne...? What the hell are you talking about?" asked Scott.

She smirked a little at the feeling of having a bit of secret knowledge. It was really the only perk of the job. "You'll learn that... in time.”

"Oh, for fuck’s sake...” sighed the man irritably. The idea that he would be having a conversation with the lonely guardian of time, a parody of Sailor Pluto from that one anime, on top of a roof while having previously been talking to a ten thousand year old cat, would have seemed extraordinary only a year ago. Now it was just frustrating.

"Language, Mister! The state of the world has given you a serious potty mouth... Nocturne."

The man muttered at her then thought about something, "Not that I’m ungrateful for you showing up but how is it that you're away from your time door gate, whatever it is? I thought you had to stay near that thing."

She sighed sadly. "I can't be gone long. The Geas is already drawing me back there... Nocturne."

"You're really not going to tell me why you keep calling me that?" asked Scott. There were a thousand things he should be asking, but he was not sure where to start with those.

She smiled softly. A look that someone acquires when recalling things from a long ago time in their life filled her face. The combination of visibly expressed nostalgia and her somewhat blank expression, softened into a smile that bespoke a gentle sadness.

"Not yet...you'll figure it out." she said softly. Her voice began to take on a distant quality filled with a mild distortion. The time gate was drawing her back to her post.

Scott's eyes widened as he realized something then, "You've been there all this time... for real? Ten thousand years?"

She hesitated then seemed like she was going to say something. However, she nodded softly instead. Slowly, she began to take on a transparent look, like a hologram or a ghost.

"Is there any way to free you from that burden? I mean no one ever uses that gate do they?" he asked her.

Tessa's eyes began to trail hot salty tears as she said, "No, no one has ever used the Door of Time since the testing period at its creation." The distortion became deeper and her voice began to drown out in a manner similar to holding a cordless house phone near a working radio.

"Hey! When can you come back!" exclaimed Scott as he tried to get through to her.

A crackle as though she were speaking over a damaged walkie-talkie was heard to reply, "Selene...crzzkt... ncess zzkkt sclerrrr...”

Then the lonely guardian of time was once again alone. Her brief interlude with another living creature in ten thousand years had ended. She could continue to screw with the time line from afar, but could not actively be a part of it herself.

Apollo's hair had risen straight up not long after she had arrived and now it was still standing up while he looked at the spot where she had been standing.

"That... that... the Time Guardian!" exclaimed the cat agitatedly.

Scott nodded to the cat before reaching out to calm him with a little light petting. He might be able to talk and help with advice because of that, but he was still a cat. They needed petting.

"Yeah, it was. It wasn't quite the meeting that I expected. Still, that solves the problem of coincidence. Now we just have to locate the Selenite princess and free her of her obligation." said Scott as he calmed the kitty's nerves.

"That... was the Time Guardian!" exclaimed the cat again; obviously he was going into mild shock at the idea of her just showing up out of nowhere.

"Yeah, I know. I wish I had asked her something more useful when we had the chance. Who knows when she'll be able to pop in again, if ever." admitted Scott.

"Selene Princess?" asked Apollo as his Swiss cheese memory began to filter available information. It was late and he was having difficulty processing in his current mental state.

Scott rubbed him along the back on his neck and scratched behind his ears as he considered what to do next. He really had not expected the parody version of Sailor Pluto to show up tonight, but since she had he was kicking himself for not asking anything useful in the few minutes they had spent together.

She had probably known it would throw him to call him Nocturne, whatever that was about. Maybe having too much information about the near future would be a bad thing. It seemed like the kind of thing she would do based on his parody writings, and the anime character she was parodying.

"Yeah, she's the only one who can defeat Pheare... and the Dark Empire. More than that, she's supposed to be the central rallying point for all the guardians. Not me." said Scott thoughtfully.

How do you manage that when all the guardians, except possibly Tessa, were Demi-Humans and needed that good lovin’ that he gave to keep them sane?

"What! You knew that and didn't say anything?! Where is she? We have to find her!" exclaimed the cat excitedly. The hair was rising on his back again.

"We don't find her. She... will be revealed in time." said Scott cryptically. He did not want to risk the truth coming out as it might cause the self-realization necessary for the 'princess' to arrive not to occur.

"Wha... are... you sure? I mean... if you know where she is...” said the cat suspiciously.

Scott shook his head. "Yeah, trust me if we could just go pick her up; I would have done that months ago and we could have crushed these assholes already."

Apollo did an imitation of a frown then bobbed his head. That did make sense after all.

"Hey... do you know what Tessa was talking about when she called me Nocturne?" asked the man to the cat.

Apollo shook his head back and forth. "No... I... don't think. The name makes me remember something about a poster on a wall, but I don't know if that has anything to do with anything."

The man nodded. That was something at least.

"You really weren't surprised that the Time Guardian showed up?" asked the cat curiously. The sudden appearance was still annoying the hell out of him.

Scott sighed quietly and shook his head. "I didn't expect it to happen, but I knew it could."

Apollo bobbed his head thoughtfully before the man continued.

"I was going to ask you about the Selene Empire and their capital city on the moon so we could compare notes, but maybe we can do that tomorrow? I'm kind of beat now... ya know?" asked Scott to the cat.

"Yeah, tell me about it. Maybe we should compare notes when everyone's together anyway... so we don't have to tell our story's twice." suggested the ancient beast.

"Agreed. Let's head in, my ass is starting to freeze to the tile." replied the man with a chuckle.

Apollo snickered in kitty fashion. He stood up quickly, but his body elicited a series popping creaks at his joints.

"Old man Apollo...” snorted Scott.

"Who you callin’ a man?" snarked the cat as he wafted his tail left and right. He tilted his head up indignantly and padded off toward the other side of the roof so he could hop down.

Scott giggled to himself like a moron, a truly masculine display, and then simply hopped off the side of the two story structure. His physical capacity was quite a bit beyond the Olympic athlete level by now and he would easily handle such a short drop. It was short for him at least.

He glanced up at the moon one last time before heading inside then sighed softly. "In the name of the moon...”

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"So, basically you all travel around fighting monsters and rescuing towns?" asked Reina to Makina as they swept the front porch of the shrine. It was a warm sunny day, but everyone had chores, even her supposed possible fiancé was helping out. It was a fact that surprised her to no end.

When she had found out how his group had sent her blue haired tormentor packing it had warmed her a bit. The fact that he was not a lazy shlub that had everyone else working while he sat around helped a little more.

"Yeah, it's cool, but a little scary at times... oops." admitted the Balvulf as she swept a little too hard and snapped her broom in half with a loud crack.

Reina sighed at her and said, "Third one today... maybe we can sweep later?"

Makina blushed at her sheepishly then nodded. She was not really cut out for house work after all. Brick laying and construction she could manage. Demolition she could do better still. Ero baking was also a possibility.

"Um... I was wondering...” began the Catgirl shyly as her tail lashed back and forth. She had not talked to her intended all that much yet and there were many questions she had.

Makina glanced over at her, but the burgeoning conversation was ended as an angel Demi-Human decided to fall heavily from the sky to land atop the bane of brooms. Cerene babbled an apology and got to her feet with an embarrassed look on her face before she dusted herself off.

"You know, you can fly right? How many times are you going to fall off the roof?" asked Reina agitatedly. The twin pony-tailed terror was constantly ruining any attempt she made at finding anything out about her would be fiancé and master.

"Yes I know that! I just...” began the angelic look girl with a flush.

"What I wanna know is why you keep landing on me!" exclaimed Makina irritably. That had to be five times today alone. How clumsy could you be when you can fly!

"Um..." began Cerene with a vacant expression. She really did not do well under pressure. She tended to flake out at a moment’s notice, unless she was going to die or something. She could totally get it together then, and stuff.

"I swear, it's like your hair style is a dead giveaway... you must have spaghetti for brains!" snapped Reina again as the frustration of the day mounted. Even when the girl was not falling she was somehow screwing things up for Scott's Catgirl fiancé and shrine maiden in training.

The breakfast incident where she had insisted on cooking and somehow mixed up laundry soap with flour came to mind.

The double pony-tailed angel Demi-Human gasped loudly and exclaimed, "I so do not!"

"Yeah, you do! You, you... spaghetti brain!" snapped Reina in reply. The two girls were getting so angry at each other that some casual observers could claim little electrical discharges were sparking around them.

"Hey, that's a little mean...” began Makina. Sure, the blond walking disaster area had fallen on her repeatedly and sent her to practically live in the bathroom for an hour this morning, but... well on second thought maybe it was not that bad to talk a little smack right now.

"Oh whatever, take that spaghetti brain's side. I'm going to my room." huffed Reina in a fury. She turned then stomped off toward her personal sanctuary from all the clumsiness.

"I am not a spaghetti brain!" exclaimed Cerene heatedly with tears coming to her eyes. She huffed in turn and then stalked off angrily toward the stairway leading down from the high hill top.

Makina shrugged and picked up the broom Reina had left behind. She figured she could do a little sweeping just for practice since everyone else was busy. Six sweeps later and another loud crack was heard.

"Well, damn." muttered the girl in annoyance as she tossed the broken domestic tool aside. So maybe sweeping just was not in the cards... but she would definitely be cooking her own food from now on, who knows maybe she'd be good at it? She already knew that she could bake...

Meanwhile, as this vaguely interesting scenario was occurring, Scott and Nina were busy trying to move a bunch of cinder blocks around in Grandpa's training yard. The old man had decided that his would-be grandson would need greater knowledge of the martial arts if he were to properly tame his granddaughter.

Of course, Scott suspected that this was just an excuse to make him do some heavy weeding and yard renovation. The place obviously had not been used much in years.

"Heh, figures I’d find you at your true calling...” snickered Ashe Naile. She dropped down from a tree to land on a particularly large and flat rock near Scott.

Scott snorted at her and said, "Yeah, some of us work for a living. Where have you been anyway?"

"What business is that of yours?" she asked him curiously as though she actually wanted an answer.

"I was simply being polite. You know; the art of conversation." responded the man, before a chilling wave of unease crept across his spine again. All day he'd had this feeling of being watched.

Whenever he looked around he saw nothing of interest. To be honest he was probably spooking himself. He knew in the Sailor Moon storyline he was aware of the girls ran across Jedite at this shrine, but so far he'd seen neither hide nor hair of anything. There might not even be a Dark Empire general equivalent in his world. He had written about a few of them in his stories, but not everything had translated over.

Grandpa Henrick admitted there was a shrine assistant Jed, but he was supposedly away taking care of a family matter at the moment, so who knew if he was really going to turn out to be a general of the Empire. Wouldn’t that be too obvious?

Though, he had to admit that the scenario was largely intact. There was a bus that no one at the shrine knew of and missing people, but so far no shrine assistant available to stare at.

Honestly, he was not sure what to think of that. Considering how strong the Fiends were he was not that enthusiastic about actually fighting a general yet. The girls were a long way from that and they had not even awakened the Guardian of Faith or found the Guardian of Reason, yet! Those two girls alone were integral to defeating the general in both the source material and his parody stories and even then they did not kill him.

"Whatever, where I go and what I do is none of your concern...” remarked the half dark elf hottie with haughty demeanor.

Scott shrugged and said, "I just figured you were looking for a way home. Find anything?"

Nina grunted as she pushed with all her might to roll a boulder that was taller than she was up the side of one small hill. This was good exercise, but she would love it when it was over with!

Ashe looked as though she might say something snooty again, but opted just to shake her head. "No, nothing. There are plenty of people capable of teleportation spells, as unbelievable as that is, but none seem to be able to get me back home."

"How about the archmages at the institute? I am sure at least one of them has to know a world gate spell. I mean, they're dark elf archmages...” asked Scott. He hefted a large rock that had to weigh just shy of half a ton over his back and started walking up hill with it.

His strength was beyond the Olympic power lifter level by now and while this was a heavy burden for him, he was not really at his limit. Nothing compared to Makina for instance, but he was not anything to sneeze at anymore.

"I already asked. They said that the dimensional instabilities on this world made those spells dangerously unpredictable. Personally, I think they just don't like me...” confided the dark elf.

Scott nodded as he put some effort into it and heaved the small boulder off his shoulders to land a few feet away. It was a pitiful toss, but it was still a toss.

"Maybe, but who wouldn't like you? When you aren't being a pain in the ass, you're pretty cool. As rare as that is." said the man as he wiped some sweat away from his brow and turned to trot back to the bottom of the small hill for the next rock.

A soft, confused, blush skittered across Ashes' face for a moment as she processed what he had said. That was probably the nicest thing either of them had said to the other.

To stave off her confusion she asked, "Why are you struggling so much with those rocks? They can't be that heavy if you are lifting them."

"Feel free to move a couple then if you think so." replied Scott with a smirk. He and Nina had already moved the smallest ones so all that were left were the half ton gut busters and back breakers.

She snorted and strode meaningfully over to the largest rock in the area and proceeded to place her hands on it. When it did not budge an inch, she leaned into it and tried her damnedest to push the thing.

She started to struggle and shift it slightly, but the thing simply refused to yield to her.

Scott walked over and made a big production about inspecting the six foot tall rock before smiling at her. "So... how's it coming?"

Ashe frowned at him but did not say anything. She leaned hard against it and managed to push it powerfully enough to cause it to fall over on its side.

"Ha! See... not... not so tough...” she panted out.

Scott nodded at her then smiled cheerfully before walking over and shoving his fingers under a ridge and against the small point at the top. Steadily, if a bit slowly, he shifted it back and up before pointing it toward the top of the hill and pushing it over again.

"Good job! Now all you have to do is get it up the hill and stacked with the rest!" he exclaimed humorously.

Her eyes widened perceptibly at his casual, if sluggish, display and said, "Damn... what the hell have you been eating?"

Nina raised her hand with a silly grin on her face causing Scott to blush significantly. Ah, the wonders of a protein rich diet.

Ashe rolled her eyes and muttered something about her Daksi and another perverted idiot with a sleazy harem before saying, "I'd love to do your manual labor for you, but I have to go...”

"Oh? Well if moving rocks means that much to you, I can leave that one sitting there for ya till you get back." he said convincingly.

The dark elf snorted at him and said, "No... No you go ahead and do whatever it is you're doing. I won't be back for a while."

Nina snickered to herself as she hefted another boulder bigger than she was onto her back and started staggering up the hill. They were only half done for the morning, but at least she could take solace in seeing the haughty dark elf taken down a peg. It was an entire peg mind you.

While all this was going on, Yoko was busy cutting the grass on the backside of the hill with her wooden katana. When her master had told her of how much this would improve her swordsmanship the would-be Samurai leapt at the chance to become a humanoid equivalent lawn mower.

Too bad she was relatively alone here. It was kind of lonely, but she would persevere in her quest to master her beloved master's style! Who knows, maybe he would even figure out what that style was someday. Also, a little taming might be nice. Being part of a constant five-way was interesting, but a little alone time would be appreciated.

Apollo was stalking the grass for some reason. The idea of sneaking around in it appealed to the normally civilized cat's primal nature. Once or twice he had gotten too close to the Amazon only to barely avoid a bad hair day.

As for Aerune she was following Cerene around in an attempt at convincing the girl that as an advisor to the Selenite throne she should have more say so than some upstart armor clad, male. The very idea that a mere male had anything of value to add to a conversation was ridiculous to the tiny little cat.

She was telling this to Cerene solely because no one else listened. The fact that Cerene was currently half-conscious after having slipped down the steps and banging her head a few times on the way down, also allowed the cat more time to rant.

Yeah, it was all a rather domestic scene today as everyone seemed to try and find a place here in this shrine area. For some reason it gave them all a homesteading feel that made them gravitate toward the idea of staying or at least visiting often.

Sadly, this would not remain the case for long as a blood curdling scream broke the air. The group, minus Reina who was in the house taking a nap, came rushing over to the stairway as they saw Cerene fighting what could only be called a marshmallow with boobs.

Why the angel Demi-Human would scream like that would-be anyone's guess, but the gooey clump of liquid sugar that spurted out to cover one of her wings might have something to say about that.

"It's in my hair!" screeched the girl as she flung her head side to side in an attempt to get the rapidly hardening substance out of her follicles.

Aaron sent a running flame toward the mammary endowed snack treat and it screamed in agony as it melted away. This was decidedly a non-difficult battle. Whatever it was or wherever it came from, it was dead now.

"What the hell was that?!" exclaimed Ashe, her supposed other business forgotten for the moment.

"A boob-mellow." informed Scott sagely.

"What's a boob-mellow master?" asked Yoko curiously. Her master was so knowledgeable and wise!

"It is a marshmallow... with boobs." he replied casually.

A few blinks and one hard stare later Makina asked, "You... uh... really don't know what that thing was do you?"

"Seemed as good a name as any." he admitted with a shrug.

Ashe rolled her eyes but didn't respond to that. What else could you call the thing?

"It's still in my hair!" wailed Cerene childishly. Of course who would not be upset with concrete hard marshmallow goo in your hair?

A brief search of the area revealed no further mammaried marshmallow invaders so they took the thoroughly freaked girl into the shrine and sent her off to the bath to try and get the crap out of her hair. Hopefully, it would just wash off.

Scott saw this as a chance to finally force himself to have a one on one moment with Reina. So he went to her room and knocked softly.

A lightly muffled, "Who is it..?" wafted from the other side of the door and he replied, "Its Scott... can I talk to you for a bit?"

There was no answer for a few seconds then the door cracked open and one eye peered out to see if it was really him. When she did not see anyone else the girl opened her door slightly and glanced down at the ground.

"Yeah... what do you want..?"

Scott wasn't sure what to say but he decided to speak anyway. "I'd rather know what you want."

"Huh?" she asked him in confusion. The strangeness of that question caused her to raise her eyes to his and the two just stood there staring for a moment.

He was searching for the right words to say to make things ok with them. He did not know about this whole fiancé thing, but he did know she was not any more interested in that right now than she was.

"Well, has anyone asked you what you want to do with your life?" he decided to ask. It seemed a reasonable question.

She frowned and shook her head, "Why ask me that? It's not like it matters anymore...”

"It's your life, why shouldn't it matter?" he pressed her. The sound of anger and hopelessness that she had spoken with had gotten to him a little.

She shook her head and turned away a little. It was a question that she did not want to even think of at the moment, much less answer.

"If now's not a good time, that's fine. I just wanted you to know that I’m available if you want to talk. Ok?" he asked her softly.

She nodded quietly with a soft blush flickering across her face. Her tail whisked back and forth slightly while her ears folded back perceptibly. Kitty was thinking about it. He sounded so sincere.

Scott smiled and moved away then knowing that he had made as good of an impression as he could at the moment. Reina would take a little more time and effort to win over than the other girls had. She'd had a relatively good home life and unlike Cerene she had not been convinced everyone in her life stopped giving a damn about her.

He did not want to manipulate her or make her feel anything specifically. Fiancé or not, she deserved respect simply because she lived. He could give her more time, even if it was running out for her.

In only a few more days she would need to form a bond, or she would begin entering the early stages of regression.

"Come find me when you want to talk.” he repeated gently as he walked away.

She winced softly and moved back into her room. Reina, for all her interest in talking about him with the other girls, was not ready to be alone with him yet.

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