The wind blew lightly as she stared up at the sky before her. It was a nice light, calming blue. Barely a cloud in sight.


It's so serene... She let out a soft puff of air and closed her eyes, letting herself slip into her music. She felt her heart beat in time with the bass drum of the song. A smile quirked around the corners of her lips. This song got her every time.



How can I decide what's right?
When you're clouding up my mind.
I can't win your losing fight all the time...


Her name was Serenity. She was a petite girl who looked anything but her age of twenty-three. She was lounging carelessly on a old wooden bench in the middle of a nature park. She was surrounded by bushes and trees, and it felt great. Her legs were crossed at the ankles, her hands folded over the music player in her lap, and her head was back, leaning on the top of the bench. Her big bulky head-phones were pulsating due to the volume of her music.



How did we get here?
Well I used to know you so well.
How did we get here?
Well I think I know...



She had come her to relax after working at the coffee shop down the road, so she wasn't wearing anything special; just a simple black v-neck and black pants that cut off at her calves. Her purse was over her shoulder and resting against her thigh. She sighed against the sounds of the music and opened her eyes. The sky suddenly seemed brighter and her eyes had to re-adjust. More clouds had formed above her, though they were all white and fluffy.

Like little marshmallows... or bunnies... Her smile grew and a small laugh escaped her mouth. She closed her eyes once more and left herself fall back into the trance of her music, being as amused she was with herself.



Ooh, there is something
I see in you
It might kill me
I want it to be true...



... Maybe today won't be so bad. Her shift was done and her day could begin... at 5:30pm. Fabulous.







(I do not own any of the music lyrics above. It was Decode by Paramore. )

A speck appears in the sky and rapidly gets bigger as a voice shouts."Woah woah Move move move! OOUTTA THE OMPH!" The dot becomes a boy who quickly becomes an almost comedic imprint upon the grounds. After the initial shock of a boy falling from the sky wears off Kishin sits up, bruised and battered, but significantly less injured than one should be after falling out of the sky and belly flopping onto the grounds.

The boy had tan skin and was wearing a hoody with what looked to be pieces of armor on it. His face was obscured by a golden mask that covered the space inbetween his hairline and down to the tip of his nose and his pants looked like they were sweats with metal armoring as well, he was a strange sight to behold.

"Owww~, I've gotta get a better grip on this whole falling into and across the sky thing." he grumbles. Kousuke was in his knight form and apparently practicing his most recently acquired ability. As he looks around at the people around him. He smiles bashfully and waves as if nothing strange had happened at all.

"Thank you, thank you, I'll be here till Thursday." He says in a joking tone.

She heard a voice above her music, slowly getting louder.


Seriously? How loud do you have to be to be louder than this? Irritated she opened her eyes to turn up the volume. To her utter surprise there was a man flat on the ground. She watched in shock as he got up and cleaned himself off.



What in the hell is that guy wearing? She arched an eyebrow at his attire and shook her head. She would never understand common fashion, nor did she find the need to.



Serenity saw his mouth move as he spoke, presumably to the crowd of people gathered to see the miraculous man that fell -and lived from falling- out of the sky, but she couldn't hear a word he said. Curious, she slid off her bulky head-phone just to hear the tail end of his sentence.



”-be here till Thursday.” She shook her head again. So he's a comedian. I be it was some form of advertisement... Though I don't see that being successful.


She looked closely at his face as he grinned, probably at his own humour. Not that she could judge, just having done the same. She had to admit he was cute, as stupid as he seemed for having launched himself into the sky. She went to put her head-phones back over her ears. She was not going to get involved if she could help it. She just stayed on her bench, but this time with her eyes open, watching to see what else he did.

As Kishin smiles and looks around he decides that now is as good'a time as any to try and help people get use to the senshi and knights. "For my first trick!" he begins, then as he opens his palms dust begins to collect into them and small pebbles grow and then gradually bloom into intricate blossoms made of various shiny rocks.

He raises them over his head and claps his hands together and a hundred actual flower petals fly into the wind. Kousuke had practiced this kind of thing to help with more intricate control of his elemental abilities, but this was his first time actually displaying it. The amazed onlookers who still thought he must be some kind of staged act made him smile. There was a certain satisfaction that came in helping people forget their troubles and enjoy a moment when the world seemed to be hellbent on its own destruction.

As the petals climb hire he suddenly falls into the sky and grabs several of the petals from the air and then allows himself to drop to the ground, landing with grace this time as he opens his palms and a golden light reveals a single blooming Iris.

He hands it to one of the spectating children and then begins to casually walk away.

She turned her music off completely. This guy was nuts.
But that's fricken amazing... She watched as floating rocks form from his hand, turning to flower petals.

The petals floated softly through the air, and her eyes widened in pure amazement. Serenity pulled her headphones off her ears and let them hang loose around her neck. She fumbled for her glasses inside her bag. She had to make sure she was seeing correctly.

She was.

How in the hell can he do that?! She thought, stunned as he walked away. First he falls from the sky and lives, and now he's pulling magic out of his ass and walking away. The crowd was clapping and the child who had received the flower was in awe, staring at him as he left.

Serenity jumped to her feet, and stumbled after him. She had to know how what he did was even possible. And how he was so modest about it!

“Hey!” She shouted after him, now only a few feet away. “Hey flower boy!” She caught up and jumped in front of him, trying to keep him from walking away.

“How in the hell did you just do that?” She pushed her glassed back up her nose, since they had fallen when she'd jumped up to follow him.

The girl is around Kousuke’s age, and is the only one not smiling. Her medium length black hair is pulled tightly into a bun. She is still wearing her employee shirt from one of the many department store in Seibu. Her eyes are hazel. She is about 5’11” but thin. She follows the knight, grabbing his shoulder and spinning him around. “So what… just because I can’t attack anyone in this area, you feel like you can go around flaunting magic? If we did the same damn thing, we’d be killed immediately. But oh no, the knight gets to do whatever the hell he wants!”

She looks utterly frustrated. She wants to do something. Anything. However, she fairly sure that (1) she would lose any fight and (2) get in trouble if she did win. “You don’t deserve this cheering. If they knew how many lives you’ve guys have taken.” She almost wants him to start a fight though. She wouldn’t get in trouble if he started...

As Kousuke hears the phrase 'flower boy' he turns around and tilts his head and then points at himself. When it became obvious that the girl was talking to him Kishin scratches his head and waits for her to catch up.

"Hello, what do you need?" He asks a smile on his face. Even in the strange outfit Kousuke's optomistic attitude showed through. When she asks him how he did it he stays quiet for a few moments and then says. "Well you might not believe me, but I did it with magic. I dunno how I really got it, but when the crowd gathered I figured it would be best for them to see it used for something other than violence for once."

He was about to say something else, but the girl suddenly grabs his shoulder and spins him around before going off on him. Kishin's eyes squint slightly behind his mask and he examines the woman's face.

"Sorry, do I know you?" He asks in confusion that was obviously genuine.

"Well I am not sure why you want to attack someone but I think it's probably best to resolve things without hurting people if possible." He tells her with the enfuriatingly logic of a simpleton.

Though when she does accuse him of taking lives his expression hardens. "I have indeed killed youma before and I know that people have gotten hurt in the crossfire. I am not proud of it, but I am doing my best to save lives. I did not chose to fight and I would be happy if the Zodiac and the Senshi could come to an agreement, but why does that mean I can't try to help people take their minds off their worries? I don't think magic can only be used for war and I don't like the idea that I have to be an object of fear."

He looks over at Serenity slightly embarrassed. "Well I don't really know who either of you are, but I am sorry if I have caused you problems." He bows to them both then resumes his progress away.

Magic? Serenity narrowed her eyes. It wasn't possible. He was lying; he had to be. She waiting for what he would say next, but was stunned when he was whirled around.

There was a girl yelling at him. It was obvious the guy had no idea who she was any more than he knew Serenity.

Poor guy… No matter how he did it, he has to girls harassing him about it now. She went up on her tip toes in attempt to see over his shoulder, trying to get a glimpse of the girl. She heard him reply to her, saying things about attacking people, youma, magic and fear. She couldn’t hear every word as he wasn’t facing her, but she thought she heard enough.

“What’s a Zodiac? Or a Senshi..?” She whispered, not expecting them to hear her, or an answer. She looked up seeing him turn back to her, only half hearing him as he spoke. Once he walked away she snapped back to the present.

“Wait!” She started after him again, with a slight glade at the other girl.

“Before you go, can I ask you something?” She didn’t want to harass him any more, she just wanted to know.

“What is a… a Senshi I think you said..? And a Zodiac. What are those?” She looked up at him in pure curiosity, her glasses creating a glare in the sunlight.

The woman covers her face with her hands and screams a little into them as he gives her a dumb answer. “Yeah… like I would get the benefit of the doubt from you.”

She narrows her eyes as he apologizes, “And that’s supposed to make it all better? I’m sorry, and that’s it. And whose lives are you trying to save? Who are you to say whose lives are more important that someone else’s!”

The woman is just about to dart after him, but the blonde girl stops him first. The girl’s energy was strange. Stronger than any other human. She turns her head and stares at her, “Senshi are the ones who think they have all the answers, and persecute other people without having any understanding of the actual situation. Take flower boy for example. Now, what are you? You aren’t human, but you certainly aren’t… well… anyone that I would claim kinship to.”

Kishin tilts his head at the response from the woman whom at this point he figured had to be a youma. "I have had tea with zodiac members before, I hardly think a civil chat with someone who spends their time in normal human society is a stretch." He tells her, trying to reassure her that he would be happy to speak with her if she wanted.

Though as she asks who is supposed to make it all better he furrows his brow at her. "Huh? I don't think war is supposed to fix things, it just makes everyone less happy and leave one side standing. I believe the senshi can help this world, but either way, I cannot get behind destroying it or hurting innocent people, which I have seen the covenant do on numerous occasions.

Though Kishin realizes that he might have been saying too much, but when the girl asks him about it he shrugs, might as well tell her. "Well I am bias, but the senshi are supposed to be defenders of people. We're not always the best at it, and we have certainly messed up, but that's what we are at the core. The Zodiac, thing the world is too far gone and want to go for the reset option. Both are good one with happen."

Not human? She raised her eyebrow. “If I wasn’t human, what on earth could I be?” Who was this girl? She shook her head and listened closely to what the man had to say.

Defenders… Reset option…? She had no clue what either of them were talking about, but it was clear they didn’t like each other for some reason. She didn’t want to be in the middle of it, but the situation was still nagging at her brain.

“You aren’t human…” What did she mean by that? She looked human… Thought like a human, smelled and acted like one. What else could she be?

“Uhm… Are either of you not human? Because now I’m confused… You,” she gestured to the woman. “say I’m not human, as if you can sense other wise… But then… what am I?” She gave them both a pleading look, knowing she wouldn’t be able to sleep for months with this question nagging at her. For all she knew they were both insane, but there was no way to test that theory.

The girl crosses her arms. “Like you guys wouldn’t hit the reset button? You want to go back to a world where there is no god damn place for us. Or worse… what would you do with my kind after all this? Like hell if I’m going to be cast out into a soul-crushing barren wasteland for eternity…”

The girl shrugs a little. “If I knew what you were, I wouldn’t be asking. Strange energy, you have there though. Not like the rest of the idiots standing around watching this asshole,” she says, gesturing to Kishin.

Kou saws that the explaination was not helping and nods his head in contemplative agreement. "Yeah I don't really get it either, it's just how thing have kinda shaken out." Though as the girl accuses him of wanting a place where no youma exist he tilts his head, thinks for a second and then shakes it.

"Nah I don't want to reset the world, I just want to fix a lot of the damage that has been done to it. If the youma can stop eating humans I don't see why we couldn't find a way to coexist." He points out, "Isn't that supposedly what's happening in Shinjuku?" he asks curiously Sophia hadn't really explain to to him particularly thoroughly.

His attention was drawn back to the other girl when she asks if he was not human. He opens his mouth to say "I am" but then stops...he waits a moment then looks at the youma. "...Do I still count as human?" he asks her curiously, most humans couldn't survive drops from 20 feet in the air so it was an interesting point to raise.

Serenity was starting to get frustrated.
“None of this makes any sense! A reset button? Youma eating humans? Me being something other than human? You being something other than human.” She gestured to them both roughly. Her eyes were bright with confusion and anger, her eyebrows furrowed together.

“I just don’t understand. How can you do magic?” She pointed to him.
“And how -and why- do you think I’m not human? My aura? Ugh!” She growled in frustration, not expecting an answer after her outburst, but not knowing how to reply. She knew the girl couldn’t answer her, for it was her question, and the boy didn’t seem to know either. But who else could she possibly ask?
She felt the breeze lift her hair up and out of her pale face. It felt so nice, and seemed to calm the fire in her. She took a deep breath.
“I’m sorry. I don’t usually yell.”

The girl looks back at Kishin, “No. If you were, well, you certainly aren’t anymore. Entirely different type of energy. My rule tends to be if you can do magic, then you probably aren’t. However, I just know that there’s your kind, my kind, and humanity.”

She sighs as the unknown creature freaks out, “Stop making a scene and calm down. Your unhumanity might be a shock, but it’s not a big deal. I just don’t know what the hell you are. That seems like the important bit here as much as I want to see this guy answer for his crimes.”

She tilts her head to the side, “I wonder if she has a crystal inside her.” She pokes the unknown’s forehead, “Hey, can you turn into a giant youma?”