Skaia

Once Marie had caught up with Trevor, she let coughed a bit as the ashy air was starting to get to her. This didn't last long, though, as Trevor flapped his wings and managed to blow the soot away from them. Off-handedly saying, "whoa, that's handy," the girl then looked around. With her eyes drifting up the massive mountain before her, she eventually saw small figures making their way up the mountain side. Looking at them, she asked Trevor,  "wait...are those guys climbing up the big fire mountain?"

Trevor lowered his gaze and muttered. "It's the only way to get up there"

"Oh." Marie's expression fell flat, as she seemed to be taking this as well Trevor was. Looking up for a moment, though she couldn't make out too many distinct features of the people climbing she felt the need to ask. "They wouldn't happen to be who we're looking for, are they?"

"Yep, they sure are." Trevor said with a sigh.

"Oh..." Marie looked up at the volcano, stunned at the prospect of having to climb up to get them. After a few seconds more,  the girl took in a deep breath, working herself up saying, "well, it's dangerous, so we just gotta climb up faster than them right?"

"You do." Trevor said. "I'm staying here."

"Huh?" As quickly as she had gotten psyched up a wind in her sails seemed to be taken out. Getting her stern face on, she said, "isn't it your responsibility to look after them?"

"I'm looking." He muttered. Unable to believe the man's conduct, Marie glared at him, her face ever more stern than it was before. Trevor looked back blankly. "They're getting closer."

Marie sighed at the man's utter lack of action. Annoyed, the girl realized there was only one way to get this done. "Fine. I'll just do it myself." Looking at the mountain, Marie walked over though stopped as she was able to fully comprehend the scope of what she was about to do. "Come on Marie, you can do this. It's just like climbing trees, only bigger. And rocky. And on fire some times. And smoky. And I know you haven't climbed many trees."

The Brionne had, in her ramblings, psyched herself out of the task. Feeling much smaller than before, she backed away from the moment, before taking her another deep breath. "Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!" Screaming as loud as she could, working up her spirit to get ready to do this, Marie charged the volcano, grabbing onto it and starting to climb up it. Unfortunately, Brionne's weren't know for their physical strength nor their speed. This was very evident in Marie's slow going, yet progress she was still making. Climbing up, she shouted to the people above her. "Waaaaiiiiit uuuup!" 

Ryia seemed interested in Reinaan's recounting of his people's form of celebration. It definitely seemed to be a much more slower, spiritual and practiced kind of party then she had been used to. But all the same, the end result sounded the same and the festivities had sounded just as enjoyable. Ryia merely smiled as the boy talked about showing the gang around, even if under a much more somber circumstance then a party, saying, "'l'll look forward to it." 

As the duo continued to walk about, Ryia was eventually taken by surprise by the boy's next line of question. "O-oh, Damien, um..." The girl looked away, stammering out a, "y-yeah. I, uh, I did, yes." Though thinking about the whole exchange again had left the girl only more red in the face and embarrassed. Not making eye contact with the boy she just said, "I- well - he's, yeah um - well he seems..." The Earth Chosen briefly thought of her next words though as she did she started to say everything on her mind. "Well he's....chatty, and pushy and difficult and doesn't care about personal space and he- " as the girl seemed to be getting more annoyed in her tone, she suddenly realized what she was saying before stopping herself and seeming all the more flustered then before. "Well. Um. He's also...nice...and I, uh, I think he means well."

Leon had figured there was a difference in heat between the two nations, but, he was more surprised to see that despite that, Rona was still raring for more work. Sighing as he laid further back against the tree, Leon chuckled as Rona let out her own hearty laugh. "Well, I wish I had half the zeal or stamina you had for this kind of stuff. Though, I can't just leave a hole in Cormag's room tonight can I?" After his small joke, Leon then saw Ada walk towards the stables, going to pet Gojira. Smiling a bit, the young man said, "well, glad to see they've fit in well enough." 

As Edda was making her way into the main hall, to begin her trek out the building, she suddenly froze up and stopped in her tracks as she heard a familiar voice. Turning slowly to face them, Edda looked at Layne who was now chastising her fully. With each comment, the girl seemed to physically recoil from the apparent truth behind it as she only seemed to nervously look away from the healer more. With an expression that was akin more to a child getting caught and scolded, the girl did a once over of herself, seemingly patting herself down to check for things on her person or in her robes. While there was a brief moment of relief, this seemed to break away into a sigh as she merely affirmed about her ability to defender herself. "...I can't...."

Perking up as he mentioned an escort though, Edda thought about it for a moment. "That...." Shaking her head, she said, "no." She seemed to still be thinking on the idea, but eventually just said, "fine, I'll rest. But I don't want to just lie down all day." Her face going back to that of a disgruntled child again, she merely said, "it's boring."

Stella couldn't help but feel more defeated as Kelsey had made her teasing comment towards her. Getting herself back up, Stella then looked between Rosha and Kelsey as the two began to go on their fighting game match. Stella wasn't particularly great at fighting games, nor was playing against someone far greater than you all the fun in them, and so she was fine to just watch the two of them go at it. As Rosha stepped up to the controls, it was clear she wasn't quite tall enough to actually use the machine, and Stella had briefly thought of the idea for finding a chair for her to stand up on. Of course, both because she felt this was condescending and she nearly lost her balance once again from the ship shaking.

Standing up straight once more, the girl looked and saw that someone else hadn't been quite so lucky as her. Steadying herself as she walked, trying to make sure that she wouldn't fall over if the ship hit another pocket of turbulence, the girl made her way over to the other who was face planted into the floor. Bending down, she reached out a hand saying, "do you need help getting up?"

Jacklyn was surprised as the green aura came around Cherry, the girl merely shouting, "brace yourself girl!" as it did. Cherry, not really knowing what else to do, curled up defensively once more but that seemed to do little to deter the absorb attack. 

As the Hoppip's attack went off without a cinch, Naomi seemed to be a bit silent before just saying, "oh...Absorb again." 

Seeming more on guard and battle focused this time, Jacklyn called out, "alright, our opponent's seem to be more cunning than we gave them credit for. So Cherry, go pound!" As the aura formed around them again, Cherry this time crouched and bounded towards the Hoppip, feet ready to slam into the pokemon. 

"Knight....hop up." Naomi said and the Grass Pokemon's leaves spun ass they bounced in the air, above Cherry.

"Oh it's on! Cherry, don't lose to a hopping contest!" Seemingly pumped for something that was no longer battling, Cherry's expression seemed just as serious as they jumped high as they could into the air, attempting to match the Hoppip. 

While Knight seemed up to the challenge, Naomi called out for yet another absorb. Though she was hit by the attack, Cherry didn't seem too deterred as Jacklyn called out, "alright, we won the battle, so let's go for the war. Pound!"

Letting out an emphatic "bu!" Cherry leaped forward towards the Hoppip. Knight, meanwhile, seemed waiting for Naomi's orders, only to see the girl bobbing her head back and forth as she barely seemed able to keep herself awake. As Knight was struck by the attack, and knocked all the way towards the deck of the boat, Naomi seemed to be a bit more aware again as she said, "oh, did I miss'omthing?"

Jacklyn, not seeming at all off put by these antics shouted, "and one more!" Cherry then bounded, slamming their feet into Knight once more. As Knight was knocked away, Naomi then seemed to still be struggling to keep herself awake. As this hadn't been the first time it happened, Jacklyn now seemed fully confused by the girl, looking to Cherry saying, "what is she doing?" The Buneary shrugged. "Well, I guess, go for one more pound!" 

With Cherry now flinging herself towards Knight once more, without any orders from his trainer, Knight merely seemed to try to go blow for blow with the Buneary. As the two nearly met with each other, Naomi called out for yet another synthesis, but the two had already collided by that point, Cherry's pound clearly winning out in the contest of strength. Knocking the Hoppip away, now KO'd, Jacklyn let out a, "woohooo!" Pumping her fist in the air, she shouted, "way to go Cherry!" Caught up in the enthusiasm as well, Cherry similarly pumped her fist into the air. 

Looking to her opponent, Jacklyn triumphantly walked over saying, "good battle Naomi. Might've been a bit unfair since you weren't here for the first half but that was fun," as she stuck her hand out to shake with the other girl's, Jacklyn looked at her for a moment. After blinking a few times, she seemed confused saying, "are you awake?"

With Marie staring down the crowd of battle ready gijinka before her with a crazed look in her eyes, she heard Randy speak up to her, causing her attention to be pulled away from the battle until she then noticed the crowd had died down, both suddenly and abruptly. With the sudden calm taking over, the girl found herself being swept up in, her eyes following the same pattern as the crowd as she looked between Randy and Trevor. As the Flygon seemed to just walk through the crowd, the moment he was no longer in the battle zone, the crowd roared to life once more. 

Marie seemed a bit dumbfounded, and something both Trevor and Randy had stuck with her. Trevor was right in saying that it was the reason they were here to begin with, not to just get into a random brawl with the locals. And Randy had praised her for her antics. Upon further reflection of both of these, Marie seemed to stare blankly at the crowd as she said,  "I've made a terrible mistake." Shaking herself out of it, she figured that it would likely be prudent to get moving and get out of the current brawl. As Randy had seemed to have the same idea, Marie shouted, "on it!" 

Rushing into the crowd deeper, Marie shouted, "Trev- " however, before she could finish her sentence a Rhyperior stood in her path. Cracking its knuckles, looking down at the girl, Marie sighed. "Look I really don't want - " The Rhyperior raised its arm, bringing it down for one hammering blow. Seeing he wasn't intent on listening, Marie backed up a bit but was still knocked away from the force of the arm smashing into the ground. Stumbling as she was losing her footing, Marie tried to balance herself as the Rhyperior looked at her, slowly bringing its arm back up for yet another swing. Her brief calm momentarily broke as she shouted, "why are all of you so rude?!" Firing one blast of water after another, Marie's greatly empowered water guns kept blasting into the rock ground type, knocking them down and out. "Let someone finish speaking next time!"

Continuing to run forward, Marie eventually got sight of Trevor, catching up to him shouting, "Trevor! Trevor wait up, I'm coming with!" 

Were Nine a man with any less control over himself, he likely would have squealed in fright as the Dusknoir grabbed onto his collar. Thankfully, he save himself that embarrassment, but still looked overall nervous. "Uhhh, " Nine seemed at a loss for words as he hurriedly spouted out, "I'm a friend of your daughters and she would be very sad if I was wall paste."

The man stared at Nine and grunted. "And how did you become friends with her? Did you threaten my girl?"

"No sir." Nine will state. "She was just in trouble fighting someone strong so I helped her out. From there we've just been traveling buddies...well, me, her and him." He gestured to Lok.

The man had let go of Nine and crossed his arms. "And you expect me to believe you didn't try anything?"

Nervous though he was, with a a small amount of hope in his voice said, "yes?"

The twins chimed in "She wouldn't let him!" The Dusknoir's eyes flashed.

Nine looked to the twins as if to ask why they would do this but, but it was obvious even without looking at them they were just enjoying this. Trying to plead his case to the protective father Nine just started stammering out, "well, I asked her on a date. Once. She said no. That was it. We're still cool and friends and I respect your daughter as a wonderful person."

The man hovered over to Nine and grabbed him by the shoulders. He seems larger than before somehow, more ominous, and Nine sees a swirling mass opening up in his stomach. Nine seemed frozen, though, quickly glanced to Lok, who was apparently a known troublemaker, as if asking for any help at all. 

As Barbatos answered her question about where to duel, the girl was then presented with something that had seemed to bring awe to her. She was fairly certain that they were apples, and it wasn't as though she hadn't had apples in her life. However, she had never before seen them arranged in such animal like shapes. Slowly moving her hand to grab at the snack, the girl ate it, her generally stoic face briefly baking away as she had the deliciously cute food. Kiyoko didn't think it tasted any different from a regular apple, but there was something far superior to it then just a fruit that one would bite into. Quickly eating one more, two more, three more slices the girl then looked to see Hypatia next to her seem confused, to which the girl merely cleared her through with a "ahem." Getting her usual demeanor back the girl said, "right, we were going to go duel each other. Come along now." Beginning to walk away the girl then called out, "thank you for the food." 

As the duo made their way back to the first room they had gathered in. As they got in there, the power briefly flickered, much to Kiyoko's confusion. While she looked around, not sure what to make of the experience as the lights came back on, Kiyoko merely said, "strange." All the same, she made her way back to one end of the table saying, "it seems this is good enough to use. So," taking out her gold colored duel disk, the girl then placed it on her arm. Taking her deck out and placing it in the device, the black and white blade ignited as the girl looked to her opponent. "Let's duel."

There was a moment of confusion as Kiyoko waited for her opponent to get herself ready for the duel. Hypatia seemed somewhat confused and didn't quite seem to have her own duel disk out or on prompting Kiyoko to raise an eyebrow. "...Well?"

Jun was happy to see Hoshiko shake her hand and talk about being friends with both her and Yusuji. Jun kept smiling as her painter friend went on to ask Hoshiko to join their clubs, but only seemed to briefly twitch her eyebrow at the idol's response. Looking to the sky, the girl simply mumbled under her breath, "our duels have plenty of pizzazz." However, this last for but a moment as the girl looked back to the others. When mentioning about multiple clubs, Jun thought, "yeah, I don't think there should be one. As long as you can keep up with classes and clubs, I'm sure they'd be fine with it." Jun  figured that the school would be more than willing to let Hoshiko of all people be in multiple clubs at that. 

All the same, the girl said, "but, there's only one way to find out, right? Let's go and - " the girl's eyes fell back on her own club stand. And it's lack of captain. Deflated for a moment, the girl said, "well you guys can go find out. Hoshi." She looked to the girl with an uncommon degree of seriousness saying, "whatever you do, don't be the co-captain of either of these clubs." Perking back up she waved to the group saying, "well, have fun guys!" With that, the girl made her way back to the stand, waiting to see what other applicants would come there way. 

As it seemed that the Elder of the village agreed with their sentiment, the girl continued to smile only to then let out a small "eep" as Reinaan grabbed her and toted her along to the rest of the village. Being dragged along, Ryia looked in awe to the joyous expressions of all the villagers as people seemed to be scraping together what food they could and just joyously cheering, singing and chanting. 

While Reinaan had gone off to regale the villagers with the tale of their adventures through the desert. Ryia herself, however, merely awkwardly walked around the town, trying to see if there was anything she could do to help out with the party. Of course, the people assured her they had it covered, and that she should just enjoy herself, but the girl wasn't entirely sure what to do. Soon enough, though, there was a large collection of people dancing about who seemed to call for the Chosen girl to come over. Despite not thinking it was quite for her, they insisted and thus Ryia found herself more swept by the crowd's momentum then anything else. 

Very ungraceful, Ryia often found herself tripping over her own feet and stumbling at every attempt to match pace with the crowd. Of course, they found some amusement in the warrior girl's less than lady-like dancing skills, but were all the same helpful. With one of them stepping up and taking her by the hand, flustered though she was, they slowly went through a dance to try and guide Ryia, step by step to actually moving along with the music they were providing. Though she still stumbled around she did not fall and as a result, the man let go of her, bowed and the audience applauded the two with them giving cheers to the Earth Chosen. Feeling embarrassed but overall still jovial ,at the excitement, Ryia bowed to them as well, and made her way away.

Eventually, it had seemed that Reinaan's story telling had finished as he caught up with her. Nodding, as he seemed to be having fun, the girl then pondered on his question. "Well, they can be." Ryia didn't have much in way of grand scale celebration from where she was, and most of her memories with parties were generally small family things confined to her home. "Well, not all of them are like this but..." Once she had gotten into adventuring, though, there were a few times she and her friends had gone out to celebrate at a tavern on a job well done. "Well, to celebrate a job well done, normally it's done with fewer people but, it's usually as loud and as energetic as this." As she was lost in her own thoughts, she then looked to Reinaan, realizing something about his question. "Do um, do Drakens do different things for parties?" 

Yo yo yo

Marie slowly started to bring herself up off the ground, looking at the Manetric that had been pretty one-sidedly beating her down. Wanting to make sure that he certainly learned his lesson, Marie was definitely going to go for a follow up attack. However, she realized that she was given this small reprieve because Nani had briefly engaged the man in combat. As the two seemed to exchange blows with each other, Marie was about to go for an attack, when suddenly a burst of flame seemed to come from behind her. 

The blast didn't seemed to be aimed at anyone in particular, but with Marie having just the worst luck, she was struck with the flames and knocked back down. Seeing the nearly literal smoking gun of a Magmortar's arm, the man seemed to look at her and say, "whoops," in a clearly mocking tone. Getting a closer look at her, the Magmortar said, "oh, well, I think you're a bit lost here little girl, why don't you just -"
"Whoops?!" Marie was practically growling as she stood back up, her annoyed expression almost looking a bit crazed due to the injures she had sustained and how messy and frizzy her hair was now. "I'll show you whoops!" The Magmortar merely scoffed at her as he pointed his flamethrower arm at her, ready to fire yet another blast with all the confidence in the world. Marie, however, being quite worked up already, with both her necklace shimmer and her torrent aura glowing around her fired off a much more powerful water gun than she had any time prior to this moment. The Magmortar was clearly shaken by this, as the Brionne began walking towards him. Firing yet another water gun at the Magmortar, who attempted to simply respond with a flame burst himself, Marie's seemed to barely overpower the two as she continued her march forward. Glaring at him, she shouted "how's that for whoops?! Now apologize and leave!" Looking at the other gijinka coming in to fight, the girl shouted, "yeah all of you! You better all be sorry or else!" 

Nine didn't seem to mind one way or another as the twins got more clingy to the both of them, but looked to Blair saying, "well, not by my own choice at least." As the twins said their note on Gwen, Nine merely said, "well, it's not like I've done all my fighting alone anyway. So, -" before the Houndoom could finish, though, someone had entered the door. As Nine suddenly felt the room grow much heavier, he looked to the Dusknoir who walked in, then as he made his ominous threat Nine looked at the girls and Lok, and then back to the man. A strange sense of nostalgia washed over Nine as he had thought it had been awhile since this last happened. Or at least a month. 

"Hello there, sir," Nine's voice seemed to try and maintain a casual air to it as he said, "we came here with your other daughter, Gwendoline, but she's currently busy helping out in there," he motioned to the kitchen. "So, we've just been keeping them company for the time being." Though Nine seemed to be calm on the outside, he was far from it on the inside. After all, there were few forces scarier to the man then a protective father.

As the duo got to work with Yue spotting them, Leon and Rona managed to make some progress in beginning their stable expansion. The actual progress itself wasn't very great so far, though. So far the group had gotten to just getting the wood chopped in a way that they had needed it to be and laid out a small framework for the addition to the small building next to it. Though it hadn't been much, they had still been taking some time, as the sun showed it was a bit into the afternoon, and the summer's heat was beating down on them. Sweating, Leon said, "I think we can come back to this in a bit. For now, let's rest." Sitting himself down, underneath a nearby tree, he motioned for the others to come with him. 

Wiping his brow, Leon said, "if only this could've happened a month or two earlier." Looking at Rona he then asked, "how're you holding up with this by the way? Has the heat been too hard on you- sorry, it's just, I don't really know what it's like this time of the year...up north."

With her food having been devoured and having been conscious for a good few hours now, Edda had come to an all to obvious conclusion. The ceiling was a boring thing to look at. Aside from that, though she still felt sore all over, she didn't like the idea of spending any more time here then she had to. Feeling an urge to press on, and the girl from earlier only bringing troubling thoughts to her, Edda knew that she had to get going and so, picking herself up out of bed, the girl began to stand up. Letting out an, "ow ow ow," as her body seemed to rebel against her, Edda pressed on anyway. Walking to the door, the girl slowly made her way towards there, going to open it and make her way out of the building were no one there to see her. 

As the Hoppip charged her, Cherry took on a defensive stance only for the opponent to bounce harmlessly off of her. As it started threateningly, or at least attempting to be so, chirping at her Jacklyn looked to her Buneary. "Are you okay Cherry?" Cherry looked back to her trainer, confused about what had just happened, but slowly nodded all the same. "Good! Let's give him one right back!" The Buneary nodded, hopping towards the Hoppip as she harmlessly bounced into him. The two then began to trade blows back and forth, both seemingly just moving threateningly towards the other and sometimes harmlessly striking into the other. Jacklyn seemed a bit dumbfounded by this, as it went on for several exchanges, looking at Ivan as if to confirm that she wasn't the crazy one here, only to then look back to the battle at hand. 

"Alright Cherry. Um, good job. But hit him now - what was it, pound? Yeah, use Pound Cherry!" Hearing her trainer's order, Cherry nodded and bounced back before bounding forward. Slamming its feet into Knight, the Hoppip seemed taken aback by the attack and was actually damaged by it. Righting itself back into position, Knight then charged forth towards Cherry once more. "Brace yourself!" As Jacklyn called out her command, Cherry curled up and took a more defensive posture, which merely caused Knight to harmlessly bounce off of the Buneary. "And again!" 

Bounding forward once more, Cherry pounded Knight, injuring the Hoppip again. Seeming worse for wear, Jacklyn had a big smile on her face as she said, "alright, we're almost there!" Cherry, seeming to share her enthusiasm, started hopping in place ready to go for another attack. However, as the battle seemed to be winding down, Jacklyn saw someone else walk up from downstairs. Not actually recognizing the person, she shouted out, "hey! New Person!" Waving to them she asked, "are you Knight's trainer?" 

Yuuka didn't seem bothered by Misu's comment about her, simply giggling saying, "I suppose so." It was then, though, that she watched something she hadn't been expecting. While others were socializing with each other, Yuuka's attention was brought towards Misu and Valerie, seeing them about approach the bombastic and aggressive red head. As the two of them confronted and called out the girl, then punctuating these with their own variety of threat's, Yuuka couldn't help but let out a small, "oh..." As she watched them, her usual cheery and calm smile briefly seemed  to give way to something more interested, though it was only brief as their teacher had come in. 

Yuuka had returned to her original expression as she watched Ms. Hitotsume write her name on the board and introduce herself. Yuuka seemed curious about the woman, knowing that she had to be a hero of some kind to here, and so she seemed to be more observing the woman than she was just listening. However, as her attention was turned to Herc, even Yuuka was shocked for a moment by the sudden demeanor change of their teacher. Though the woman quickly turned back to her original expression (facade?) Yuuka couldn't help but get a very...forceful, first impression from her. Though, rather than frighten, this only made the white haired girl even more curious about their teacher, though the time for questions was later. 

As it came time to present their homework assignment, Yuuka raised her hand and said, "I'll go first." Standing up and making her way to the front of the room, Yuuka figured she might as well go first. After all, she was much more interested in the other's responses, and didn't want to interrupt them once they got going. Smiling as she stood at the front of the class, the girl said, "hello class. My name is Itou Yuuka. A pleasure to formally meet you all." Giving a short bow to the class, she then stood back upright and said. "As for what it means to be a hero. Well," the girl put a hand to her chin as she said, "there's a lot to it, but if I had to put it down into one word, it'd be instinct." Nodding to herself, she continued, "I believe that being a hero is about not only being able to know what the right thing to do is, but acting on it the moment you realize what that is. At least, that's the base requirement of being a hero." With her answer being done, the girl walked back to her desk and sat down, awaiting the others. 

Stella only fidgeted in place more as Kelsey seemed to insist they were fine where they were. As she then introduced the both of them to the strange new girl, Stella then seemed to be all the more stunned as she was casually referred to by the blonde haired girl. With her face growing redder, only to then face anywhere but towards her friend, Stella only started muttering, "idiot, idiot, idiot- " which was then cut off as the ship shook yet again. Nearly falling, and worse yet nearly dropping her tub of food, Stella found the jostling reprieve to do good in helping her regain her composure. Looking at the girl her expression going to a more neutral and letting out a small, "told you so," allowed the girl to almost return to normal. 

Of course as Rosha, as she had introduced herself as, asked her again what it was that was wrong with her, Stella's flustered expression only returned in full force. Looking to the girl  and back to Kelsey Stella simply started, "that isn't what she- but then also- all she- aaaahhhhhhhhh!" Clearly confusing herself, with her brain seeming to whir about as she tried to figure out any coherent statement to say to either of them. With her thoughts racing about, Stella seemed geared to just book it and leave the room before letting out a defeated sigh and simply pulling out another potato wedge for Kelsey to eat. 

Sure, I'm always down for more cute girls. 

Jun could only smile as she watched her friend bound forward towards the idol of her dreams. Standing there contently, the nicely hatted girl ha figured that she had done her day's work. "Yep, got a kid into the duel team and got a friend to meet a super star. Two dreams in one day, you did good Jun, you did good." Though she said this aloud, clear enough for both Yushiro and Elizabeth to hear, Jun was clearly only talking to herself and then merely made her way over to where the others had gathered. 

Putting an arm around her friend's shoulder, she said, "see Suji, I told you you'd have plenty of opportunities to get your autograph yet!" Looking to the idol, she then let go of her friend briefly as she stretched her hand out for a shake, "nice to meet you - Hoshi, was it? I'm Jun. Also a fan, but not nearly as much as the best painter I know." She cheerily pointed towards Yusuji before continuing. "We probably won't share many classes, but I hope to be friends with you as well." 

It was then that she heard the familiar groan of her arch-nemesis in hattery come from the side. She didn't really get what his problem was, or why he was even here to begin with, but just rolled her eyes. "Oh please, I'm sure you'd love it if one of your adoooooring fan girls came up to you and asked for an autograph." Though, Jun wasn't entirely sure that many of those existed to begin with. As she was standing around, she then realized she hadn't seen if Kyouko had been up to anything since her duel began. Taking out her phone, she saw that she had a message from the rider himself, which caused her to realize what was probably going on. All the same, she looked to Hoshiko, then back to Souji and with a playful smirk on her face, pointed her phone towards the idol saying, "I found one." 

As the two revealed that Knight, the Hoppip in front of her, was in fact owned by someone downstairs, Jacklyn sighed in defeat. All the same, as the other two trainers left, Jacklyn was about to follow as the Hoppip seemed to fly out of Ivan's arms and straight at her again. Hopping back, instinctively taking a battle ready stance as she expected it to tackle into her again, the girl then relaxed herself as it just seemed to be aggressively "hoppip-ing" at her. As Ivan called out to her, Jacklyn nodded, "you're right! Well, I can't exactly have Rus battle you, since he's all tuckered out. So instead, here she comes!" 

Grabbing at her pokeball, the girl sent out her Buneary. Hopping excitedly the Buneary gave a small wave to the others, as it looked to the aggressive Hoppip. Tilting their head to the side, they looked to Jacklyn. "Yeah Cherry, he's our next opponent, so get psyched!" Pumping her fist in the air, Cherry let out a "buuuu!" as they pumped their ear up. As Jacklyn seemed ready to brawl, she then seemed a bit confused, looking to Knight and then back to Ivan. "So like, should I wait for his trainer to get here or something?" 

Ryia merely stared in awe at the spectacle that took place. As a warmth from within seemed to wash over her, one far more inviting then brutally punishing like the rest of the deserts endless heat, the stone seemed to launch a beam into the air. Following to see it strike the sky, her mouth involuntarily went agape as the sky seemed to shatter and the sun began to set. As shadow began to cover the city of Sol once more, Ryia seemed at a complete loss for words as she continued staring into the sky. Despite the fact the endless amount of sharks they had fought, despite the auran archamge atop the rock spire, despite the horrors of the demon gate, this seemed to leave her more shocked than anything else. Though, it was a bit more than just that. 

As she heard her draken companion shout joyously, she muttered but repeated the same words, "we did it..." Their victory had been bittersweet. Their opponent had been horrifying. And their journey through the desert was still just as oppressive as it had been before. But now, staring at the sky, it was clear that they had done it. They had defeated a demon gate. They had saved a village not only from an onslaught of bandits but also a curse of endless day. In the end, their actions had helped the others of this country. 

A bit taken aback as the draken shouted to party enthusiastically, the girl first stammered, "um, well..." looking to the rest of the townsfolk, her flustered expression gave way to a bright smile as she said, "yes. I think a celebration would be a great idea."

As Alois began to cross the river, holding onto the rope as he did so, it soon seemed that the barking did not stop the river rat from keeping to try and bite down on their rope. Worse yet, it seemed that this beaver had friends as it had called in a whole swarm of them. "What..." With a look of disbelief on his face as they started to charge them, Alois was certain that were he ever given a sign that coming back home was a sucky idea, it was this. As the Beaver started to come and harass him, the boy lashed out with his foot, kicking it away saying, "shoo, shoo1! Away!" This did not seem to do much to deter it, as the beaver continued to charge at him and start to tackle against him. Holding on tightly, still trying to kick the rodent away, he then caught the littler princess's final remark and shouted back, "what!?" 

Tsetseg, meanwhile, seemed to hone in on the beavers as they began their onslaught on the party. Simply seeing them as beasts that were assaulting them, Tsetseg got her bow drawn rather quickly. Knocking an arrow into it, as if on autopilot the girl simply fired an arrow straight to the beaver that was looking to gnaw the rope on the other side of the river. While the arrow managed to hit the beaver, Tsetseg was surprised to see the hearty creature not seem to mind it. Getting ready to go at it once again, the girl then saw the effects of her attack, watching as the beaver went to attack Gunther, who meanwhile had a troupe of beavers just looking at him. Putting her down for a moment the girl  said, "oh...oh, whoops."

Yuuka smiled to see that she was in the same class as Diana, as her exuberant foreign partner had walked in with a smile and butter on her face. As the white haired boy had answered her question, Yuuka smiled at the response. As Diana made her response, one she didn't fully understand, she still got enough of it to let out a giggle. The man then walking up to Diana and offering to wipe the butter off her face was then the most normal of things to happen. Following that was a man in a bee suit, who was a beetle, making a large load of bee puns, a girl threatening to bash a student's head in with a rock and a theatrical fellow who had come in with a smoke explosion. She had watched the first set of entrances with the same neutral, yet studious, expression and gave a small round of applause at the magician-esque entrance. 

Turning her attention to both Itsuki and the girl who had a much more thug demeanor to her the day before. Her smile remained at its generally more soft expression, with the girl merely saying, "well, lying isn't very hero-like, so I'd probably refrain from it." Putting her finger to her chin, tapping at it, the girl then had a big smile across her face as she said, "but I'm sure since we're all here, there's something honestly hero-like about all of you to talk about." Or at the very least, Yuuka believed, there ought to be. Once Diana had gotten the name from her savior of a smudgy face, she turned to her with a smile saying, "as you can tell, I'm very much excited to see what the day holds." 

Nine couldn't help but smile at the chaos that was moving about the home life here, and graciously sat down alongside Lok and Gwen's sisters. As Lok began describing his adventure, Nine was curious to hear it too, as he hadn't been there for the start of both Gwen and Lok's adventures. All the same, they eventually got to the part in Adarid, where Nine was able to tell something was off with Lok. Well, something had always been off since coming here, but this felt different and, quite frankly, more obvious. Still, picking up without skipping a beat, Nine said, "well, it's as he said. We had to fight this crazy Xatu and after a bit, we all got together once more and had to deal with gang wars!"

With a smile on his face Nine said, "the gangs of Adarid are a bit nasty, but with quick thinking and feet we managed to evade getting into too big a tussle with a nasty Honchkrow and Nidoking. But, after that was done, we decided to continue our journey. We briefly left Adarid but," electing not to tell of the more somber trip to Juyu he said, "well, we decided to turn back and go through there again. However, this time it looked like the king of Adarid had decided to step up and start enforcing his rule more. It was a bit dicey there, and it seemed like the police were more strict and scrutinizing so we had to be cautious. Of course, no guard  could match the Zebstrika we met there." While Nine started reminiscing about the fight, all he said was, "well, he was a powerful man that seemed to be bent on finding a legend himself. He was causing a ruckus in the arena, apparently fighting everyone there, and so we had to put a stop to his rampage. It was tough fight for sure, but in the end we managed to put a stop to him, and I like to think we made friends before we parted ways." 

Nine chuckled to himself at this, but left the story hanging to see if Lok wanted to pick up from there or if the girls had any questions.

It was clear that Kelsey was only partially listening to Stella as she was talking, clearly focused on the game before her. Sighing as she had asked to be fed, Stella began to slowly open the plastic tub of food. She wasn't entirely surprised that it had ended up this way, instead saying, "fine, but once we're at school you'll have to feed yourself too." Grabbing a potato wedge from her tub, the girl held it up and began to move it towards her friend. As it reached Kelsey's mouth, and the other began to eat it, Stella started to reach in one again and was about to feed Kelsey once more when suddenly another voice entered the conversation. 

"Eep!" Letting the wedge go free as she was startled, though surprisingly still into Kelsey's mouth, Stella looked around to see where the voice came from. Looking at the person just hanging around, the girl let out a sigh of relief to see that it was nothing to be worried about. Of course, as they were likely breaking some kind of rule, her expression got more stern and she said, "if you want to play you shouldn't be up there...or swinging." It was at this point that the girl realized something as she was looking up. They had likely been there the whole time and had likely seen what had just happened. Looking to Kelsey for a moment and then back to the other girl, her stern expression then broke way for a moment as she looked down. Her face now reddening a bit from embarrassment she said, "um, Kellz....we should - uh - go somewhere - you'll need a fork for some of these so...um...." The girl at this point felt like ejecting herself from the ship at present. 

After Marie had taken down the Ryhorn she looked to see who else would be needing a strict time out, when suddenly the man who had started this all had appeared before her. Looking at the Manetric, pouting at him saying, "excuse me, but I'm still - ah!" While she was getting worked up, Marie managed to move backward out of the way of the thunder fang, not being chomped down by the electric jaws of the man. She was, however, then shoulder checked by the man as he used the momentum of his bite to hit her. 

Standing back upright, still ready to fight he said, "sorry kiddo, what was that? You're going to need to speak up." 

"Why you- " the girl grumbled to herself, as she slowly picked herself back up. "Fine!" Letting out a sharp shout, a pink pulse of energy shot forward. 

The man didn't seem to make any attempt to dodge it, not that it was an easy task to begin with, and the attack merely hit him. Instead, shaking his arm out, which he used to take the blow, he looked to Marie. "That's a start. But it should be something more like this!" On his last word, his voice seemed to carry on in to a powerful roar, blowing Marie and a few other nearby gijinka backwards. 

Getting worked up again, Marie shouted, "then how about this!" 

Yet again she fired another pulse of fairy energy, this one decidedly stronger than the first one he was hit with, before the man said, "there we go. Now you're getting the hang of it. But," he pointed to the mountain as Heatran shouted from atop it. "Still gotta match that, I'd say." 

Marie looked dumbfounded at the legend atop the mountain, saying, "and he wants to fight that thing."

The Manetric just shrugged saying, "just another part of home sweet home." Seeming to be amped up now, the Manetric then began to charge his hand with electricity, before saying, "let's hear it one more time." Firing a thunderbolt at the girl, Marie let out yet another shout only for the two attacks to collide. Though Marie's was boosted up in power, it was still far under the level of the bolt, and thus the electric attack broke through and struck Marie. While being shocked, the Manetric then swiftly closed the gap, kicking Marie in the gut and knocking her back again. "Nice work, but not enough yet, Kiddo." 

Coughing, badly injured, Marie got worked up yet again, the girl slowly tried to get to her feet. "I am so going to teach everyone manners."

Yuuka merely continued to smile at the antics of her classmates to be. Looking to each and every one of them as they spoke up, she noted those that had come back together in groups. The flirtatious actions of Itsuki. The overly aggressive actions of both red haired girl and Misu. The congratulatory actions of those that had partners. The "over achieving," if one could call it that, of a certain "Napalm." And of course, the actions of the girl Valerie proclaiming to be the best hero that there would be here. Yuuka couldn't help but feel as though she was horridly out of place amongst all of them, and that she felt this way was the greatest confirmation she could have as to whether or not these were students worth being heroes. As their proctor, Sharp Shogun, gave them their first assignment, Yuuka couldn't help but look forward to the answers of all of her classmates. 

Yuuka had made her way out of her home, precisely on track to get to school on time. Wearing her new uniform, which looked very natural on someone like Yuuka, the girl was merely reviewing her notebook from the day before. She had wasted no time in her efforts to see what the next generation of fully trained heroes would be like, and as such had thought on the day's events as best as she could and compiled them all. Naturally, this meant she spent a good part of her night writing down notes on the heroes-to-be that she had seen. Of course, this was only the beginning and her bag filled with notebooks was indication enough that she planned to keep these efforts up through the school day. 

Getting to the school proper, the girl had weaver her way through the halls, not having much difficulty in finding her classroom. Standing at the door, the girl's smile only seemed to grow wider as the situation before her seemed to dawn on her once more. Once she had stepped through this door, she would be one step closer to reaching her ideal. One step closer to a better, hero filled future. How could one not be overjoyed? Opening the door to Class 1-B, Yuuka stepped in. 

Practically illuminating, smile on her face as she walked in, she looked to see the other students already there. Her mood only seemed to brighten as she noticed that she was in the same class as both the girl who proclaimed they would be the best of them, and the thuggish - though decidedly less so at the moment - looking one. With one hand holding a notebook, she used her free hand to wave to the rest of the class saying, "good morning everyone. Pleasure to be in the same class as you all." Walking to a desk, the girl sat down as she asked, "did you all do your homework?" Though it was chipper, the tone of her voice seemed to be impossible to distinguish if she was actually asking them or making a joke.