Party Call: Promenade (vol. 2: Swaying emotions)

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Ch 1: Determination

Wondern gasped for breath, this was the hardest she had ever had to train before. Sweat ran down the side of her face as she rested her hands on her knees. She looked up at Pungjin, who was still in fighting form.

"You put nothing in that!" Pungjin exclaimed at his student.

"Well, how am I supposed to focus when you keep making noises!" Wondern cried back annoyed.

Pungjin sighed. "Noise will be the least of your worries later.... I'm just preparing you for the worst."

"Well, when I said I wanted to protect people, I meant I wanted to fight, not stall them for 15 seconds!"

"If you focus only on attacking, you will fail! You need to learn how to protect yourself and the people you love! That is the role of a nen master! Now lets try again...."

Wondern sighed and felt the nen within her pulse and climb to her arms where she forced it out and tried creating a bubble. She looked at Pungjin behind the yellowish bubble. Pungjin winded up his leg and kick, the kick was so hard it instantly made the bubble disappear.

"You don't concentrate strong enough!" Pungjin exclaimed.

"Can we try something else?" Wondern asked defeated.

Pungjin sighed in disappointment, "You know what? I think we are done for today...."

"Why, I'm not tired yet!" Wondern complained.

"I don't care...I am...."

"You sure as hell don't sound like it."

"It's not a physical tired, it's more of a mental tired. I'm tired of you.... You've lost your way since we last trained."

"What are you talking about!?" Wonder replied, anger rising in her voice.

"You have no goal, you have nothing you want to protect. I cannot train you if you can't see what you want to protect." Pungjin replied in a saddened tone.

"I do though! I want to protect my brother!" Wondern cried.

"That is a lie, and you know it...." Pungjin said turning around before leaving the dojo.

Wondern sank to her knees. It seemed so simple, yet it was true, she didn't have a real cause to becoming a nen master. She didn't know what she wanted to protect, she just wanted to fight. She knew her brother, SMW, didn't have any trouble at all because of the way he thought, but Wondern wasn't anything like him, she didn't want to risk her life for someone she didn't know like what SMW did for Tri. She only wanted to help her friends.

Wondern felt a tear come into her eye, 'why am I crying?' she thought. 'I'm not sad, I'm just angry....'. She reached a hand up and wiped it away before it could fall down her cheek.
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When Wondern got home, she realized nobody was home, not even SMW, who just went to the store. She looke dout her bedroom window, it was night, they probably weren't gonna come home tonight. She picked up her pillow and buried her head in it.

"I have something to protect....." she muttered into the pillow.

Ch. 2: Someone to protect

Wonder woke up with a tear running down her face. She didn't understand why she was so beat up about not having something to protect. She wiped the tear off her face in anger at herself. Then, she got up slowly and made her way downstairs to see a lonely and quiet kitchen. She slumped down in one of the empty chairs around the table Tri, SMW and Wonder used to eat at.

"It's been a week..." Wonder sighed in disbelief, "they could have at least left me a note...."

She rested her head on the table, face down. Lately, ever since her last training session with Pungjin, Wonder didn't have any motivation to do anything, she almost stopped eating too. Pungjin's words kept playing over and over in her head 'You have no goal....' The words played so constantly in her head it was almost as if they made an imprint of themselves on Wonder as a person. Wonder lifted her head and studied her hands.

"I...I have no goal...." Wonder muttered sadly to herself.

Wonder snapped her hand shut into a tight fist.

"No!" she said firmly. "I DO have a goal. I...I just don't know what it is...." She finished losing her encouragement.

Wonder rose from the table and headed upstairs.

"I need to get out of the house...maybe the air will help me think...."

Wonder quickly pulled on some clothes and left the house, pulling the door closed behind her. She found herself on the busy streets of Hendon Myre and headed to Loton's house. She felt like she would get answers on SMW and Tri's disappearance if she headed there. She gingerly weaved around the bustling throng of people headed both up and down the road and soon found herself at Loton's house. Wonder knocked firmly on the door and waited a few seconds before Loton came to the door, a breadstick in his mouth.

"Uhm...." Wonder started.

Loton quickly took the breadstick out of his mouth and hid it behind his back.

"Guh! I got nothing!" Loton cried to Wonder.

"Uh, what?" Wonder asked in confusion.

"Oh, nothing, nothing...um, you wanted something?" Loton replied

"Yeah..." she started. "I was wondering if you knew where SMW is, you see...he hasn't come home in a week now and im getting worried. I know he is out for a couple days at a time, but never whole weeks!"

"Ah...SMW, I believe he went with Tri to run an errand for me...." Loton replied.

"Oh! I see, thank you...." she replied a bit worried.

"Don't worry, I'm sure they'll be back, in fact they should be here later today." Loton said trying to comfort Wonder.

"Oh, okay...thanks...." she replied as she turned around, her head hanging.

"Hmm...." Loton's smile turned into a troubled frown as he closed the door.

Wonder was happy that SMW was safe and on his way home, however, she still had her own problems to deal with, like finding someone to protect. She knew both SMW and Tri could protect themselves just fine and that they wouldn't need her help if they were ever in some kind of battle. Her heart felt empty, she wanted to be useful, yet she needed something to protect, and neither Tri nor SMW needed her help. She was utterly useless.

"Wonder!" Someone called out in the throng of people walking all around her.

Wonder looked around for the person who called her name.

"Wonder! Wonder! I'm over here!" The voice seemed to be coming from a witch hat that was floating on the crowd, slowly, but surely headed her way.

"Wonder!" a girl white hair, redish-pink eyes and wearing a black robe jumped onto Wonder and into a hug.

"Mari?!" Wonder cried in surprise, catching the girl before she fell to the ground.



Mari studied Wonder's face for awhile before continuing.

"Wonder...what's wrong? You're sad...."

"I-it's...its nothing....." Wonder said, clearly saddened.

"Wonder, tell me now!" Mari yelled.

"It's none of your concern." Wonder replied with a straight face.

"I'm your best friend, you can tell me anything...." Mari replied.

"Fine...I'll tell you at my house...."

Wonder told Mari about her problem of not having a proper goal over some hot cocoa and of how Tri appeared. She told her how she needed to have something to protect, how Punjin told her she didn't have a proper goal. And about the disappearance of SMW and Tri.

"Well..." Mari started after taking a sip of hot cocoa. "for one, unless your brother and this 'Tri' person don't come back by tonight you really don't have anything to worry about on that problem, I believe in Loton, he may not look it, but he IS pretty smart...."

"Hmm..." Wonder looked at her still full mug of hot cocoa."I never said I doubted him.... I believe in my brother, and Tri, in fact, I don't even think they need my help...they are on another level of strength than what I'm on...."

"Wonder...." Mari set her cocoa to the side. "That should be the least of your worries. I believe everyone needs help some time in their lives.... Even the strong people, everyone needs help. If anything, you should be overwhelmed by the amount of people needing help, specifically your help, I know you care about SMW and Tri, and even though they may not look like it, they need you're help."

"B-but...." Wonder felt her eyes water up, it was a spark of joy that filled her eyes with tears of happiness.

"Just remember," Mari said with a caring smile,"they will always need your help and if they happen to fall, they know they will always have you covering their back."

Wonder wiped her tears away. "Thank you Mari...."

"This is what friends are for!"

Just then the door burst open and in rushed SMW, DXD and GSD carrying a limp body, they quickly rushed upstairs and out of sight.

"I better go...." Mari said, getting up and heading to the open door.

Wonder got up too and rushed upstairs.

"What happened?!" Wonder demanded, heading to Tri's room, where they had taken the body.

"It's Tri..." SMW replied, walking up to her, "he's been out for 3 days...."

"What happened?!" Wonder asked a little panicked.

"Um..." SMW hesitated. "A rock fell on his head...."

"Ugh...you had me worried something REAL happened...." Wonder said, making her way to the bed where Tri lay, unconscious.

She looked down at his sleeping body and thought 'I will preotect you and SMW'.

Ch 3 : Rush

Tri woke up, expecting to sense the presence of SMW, DXD and Wonder around his bed, but instead he was alone. He felt the cool of the white gold necklace press against his neck, reminding him that he wasn't really alone. The house was completely quiet.

"Nnngh...." Tri's possessed arm was aching as if someone had taken a rock and smashed it against the inside of his elbow.

He lifted the arm up and examined it; the clasp was still tight around the bottom of his bicep, his arm seemed exactly the way he had left it, he turned his hand over to reveal a large scar that covered the inside of his palm.

"What the...." He whispered, bringing the hand closer to his face.

"This is the result of your last time you went berserk." a voice emanated from around Tri.

Tri immediately recognized the voice, it was the squirrel, the one in his mind. The white gold necklace began to slowly grow warmer and warmer until Tri could sense the energy coming from it. The energy seemed almost mist like, it flowed up, forming a ball above the bed Tri was laying on. He watched as is moved around, slowly forming the shape of a squirrel. The squirrel landed on Tri's chest, but strangely enough, Tri didn't feel a thing.

"H-h...what....?" Tri stuttered in confusion.

"Hmm...." The squirrel started in its deep, graveled voice. "I suppose you're wondering how I can exist in reality when I am part of your mind?"

Tri nodded.

"Well, I am not technically outside your mind, nor am I inside you mind." The squirrel pointed to the necklace around Tri's neck. "That, came from your mind, you made it exist with the power of your minds eye, that is the power of an Asura, however, miracles like this come at a price...."

"...." Tri waited expectantly for the critter to carry on. "...well?!" he shouted after he realized he wasn't gonna continue.

"The price is your fate."

"Um, elaborate, please...."

"Everyone's fate is sealed, nobody can change what happens. Think of it as a deck of cards, all of the cards are jokers, with one ace, the dealer of the cards is God, only he knows where the ace lies."

"What does the ace represent?"

"That's not important right now. The point is, that you have changed your fate by introducing an object from your mind into the real world. The cards have been shuffled so that not even the dealer knows which one the ace is."

Tri fell silent. He couldn't believe what he was hearing, if he had a perfect fate, he might never have it again, he might be aligned with a far worse fate. But had he a bad fate, he would get another chance of having a good fate, whatever a good fate was.... He reached up to the squirrels neck and tried to grasp it around the neck, but didn't feel his hand wrap around anything.

"UGH!" Tri groaned with anger. "Why didn't you warn me?!"

"Because," the squirrel started, unfazed by Tri's attempt to choke him. "it was really the only way to take control of yourself. Think about it, if I didn't help you, your fate would've most likely been to terrorize and kill as a demon or even worse, becoming a holloweye. All I did was reshuffle your hand so you could get more preferable cards."

Tri seemed to calm down a little.

"Besides, this way, you won't have to think too hard in situations, I'll be right here, we'll be in this together."

"What do I call you?" Tri asked in a defeated tone of voice.

"You may call me Rush" The squirrel answered.

Ch 4: Honing skills within the mind

Tri heard the door open downstairs and felt the presence of someone he hadn't met yet. But he could feel they meant no harm. He listened to the footsteps downstairs as they walked closer to the stairs. Tri sat up, making Rush scamper onto his shoulder. Whoever was in the house was now just outside his door, from what he could tell, it was a small witch, followed by what he assumed was her pet cat. He sneezed, he was allergic to cats and although he loved them, he couldn't stand to be near them, but he had no choice, she was already opening the door.

"Oh! You're up!" The witch chimed in a cheerful voice as she stepped into the room.

"Uh...yeah...." Tri replied a bit distraught, all attention on the cat that was getting closer to his bed.

"You've been out for at least two weeks." she said, chuckling as if she said something somewhat funny.

The cat jumped on Tri's bed and walked over his lap, where it sat staring at Rush, who seemed to be trying to ignore the cat. Tri sneezed.

"I...I was gone for that long...huh...?" Tri replied completely distracted now.

"Yeah...hey, what's wrong?"

"I'm allergic to cats...."

"Oh! I'm so sorry! Why didn't you say so! Come on Pluto, get out of the room." the witch motioned to the cat, whose name was apparently Pluto. Pluto on the other hand was busy staring at Rush. "Pluto!" she said annoyed. "What are you doing? Get out!"

Pluto glanced at the witch then stared back at Rush before getting up, leaping off the bed and heading into the hallway.

"I'm sorry, he's usually not like that, you must have something that interests him."

Tri glanced at his shoulder in confusion.

"She cannot see me, I don't know why, but her cat can...." Rush said in his deep raspy voice.

"Ah, I see...." Tri replied.

He turned back to the witch, who was now examining his shoulder.

"Um, who are you talking to?"

"Uh...talking? I wasn't talking, or if I was I didn't mean to...."

"Oh, well okay, if you need anything I'll be downstairs, I'm not supposed to let you leave, GSD told me to let you rest at least one day after you're awake." She turned and started walking out the door. "Oh!" she turned around. "My name is Mari, in case you're wondering, I'm a friend of Wonder's, she told me your name, but it's nice to meet you, Tri!" she turned around again and walked out of the room, shutting the door behind her.

Tri heard her footsteps fade off as she got downstairs. Tri sighed.

"Man, I keep meeting people." he let himself fall back onto his pillow, making Rush bounce in alarm. "Oh, sorry Rush...."

Rush grunted in acknowledgement.

"I doubt GSD would let me train with him for at least a week...." Tri thought out loud. "I've been out for 2 weeks at least, I need to start training." Tri started to rise out of bed, only being stopped by Rush jumping on his chest.

"No! You're physically weak still. The way you are now, you risk injury to yourself...." Rush replied.

He was right, Tri knew it, he knew somewhere inside of him that he couldn't just get up and start to train, he didn't even know if he was physically rested enough to walk yet, especially if he was out for two weeks.

"Ugh!" Tri groaned in frustration. "If I sit around, I'll just get weaker, how am I supposed to keep up on my training?"

"There is a way...." Rush explained.

"And how come its always secrets with you?!" Tri yelled.

"I don't mean to have secrets, I'm just the subconscious part of your mind...."

"Yeah, I know that.... What were you gonna say?"

"There, is a way you can train without physically fatiguing yourself. You can train with me inside your mind."

"And that will help me how?" Tri replied annoyed.

"Well, it wont help you in terms of strength, but swordplay is not only about strength, its about wisdom too, training in your mind will produce results in how you use your sword rather than how you use your strength." Rush explained.

"Well, I suppose that's better than nothing.... What am I supposed to do?"

"Just sleep, I will take over from there...."

Tri closed his eyes, listening to Rush. Eventually, his senses became clouded and rather colorful and he soon found himself in the same old homestead he always came to when he was in his mind.

"Over here." came Rushes voice from behind Tri.

Tri turned around to see an almost exact replica of himself, only completely black, shadowy and featureless.

"Why do I have to fight myself? Shouldn't I fight you, after all you ARE my subconscious...."

"Good point, however, since your subconscious is both me AND Kazan, and because training stimulates growth, I cannot allow you to fight me because Kazan leeches off of my skill."

"So instead you attached yourself to a clone of my skills?"

"Precisely, I know what you're going to ask 'Won't that allow you to gain skill? And why not stay attached to me?' And the answer is no, I won't gain skill and I need to be attached to an apparition of our mind otherwise, it will disappear when you fight it because you were distracted, this way, your subconsciousness holds onto this apparition, rendering it to be a reality to you. Now enough talking, we need to train!"

The shadow charged at Tri, sword raised as it closed in for an attack.

Ch. 5: Road to repentance





Tri woke up sweating and almost brain-dead. He had just finished training on an almost identical clone of himself and even though he wasn't physically tired, the strain of training seemed to melt his brain. He closed his eyed for awhile, straining to sense if anyone was near him, he felt someone's presence downstairs and slowly got up to go check who it was.

"Oh, hey Tri." It was SMW who spoke to Tri as he was walking down the stairs. "I wasn't expecting to see you up so soon...."

There was something on his mind that was bothering him, Tri could tell just by the way he sounded. Suddenly Tri remembered what happened in the cave, Kazan wrestled control over himself.

"SMW," Tri started, feeling guilty. "About the cave...I'm sorry...."

SMW's mood seemed to change a little, there seemed to be a spark of hope in his voice when he replied "Oh, it's nothing, it's not your fault, I trust you will gain better control over Kazan."

"What happened anyway? I mean how did I get to be unconscious?"

"Well, when Kazan controlled you, you went berserk and threw that girl against a wall and when you went to finish her off...." his voice trailed off.

"What? What happened?"

"Well, in all honesty, I'm not sure what happened.... It-it looked like DXD might have come in after you and then there was an explosion of blood, it shook the cave; it made a rock fall on your head."

Tri felt a pang of confusion and gratitude as he realized DXD might have either been trying to attack him or he wanted to save his attacker or the possibility that DXD actually was trying to save Tri. He pushed the thought away, deciding to pretend he never heard it and instead, turned his attention to the bag that was lying on the table.

"You're leaving?" Tri asked curiously.

"Yeah, I've decided that if I'm gonna be around you, I need to be able to protect myself." SMW replied with a slight hint of spite in his voice.

"You don't trust me do you?"

SMW sighed, picking up his bag before replying "There's a good reason for it too...." with that said, SMW headed upstairs, leaving Tri alone.

He felt a wave of disbelief and sadness wash over him. SMW had been his only real friend since he found him in the forest, Wonder was never home and never seemed to trust him in the first place. But now all of a sudden SMW didn't trust him anymore. 'Perhaps it was what he saw in the cave?' thought Tri, he decided that was the reason and headed out of the house to go look for DXD.

Town was crowded today, everyone walking around with a cheery smile as they passed each other, some stopping for a quick word. It would have been a charming and heat warming sight if Tri wasn't in such a bad mood. He pushed through the crowd wanting nothing more than to escape the crowded streets.

Finding himself in the training grounds after what seemed like hours of weaving through people, Tri sat on the regular rock he normally sat on and waited for DXD and GSD to finish their training.

"What are you doing here? You should be resting." GSD called over from where he was sparring with DXD.

"I know, I want to talk to DXD."

"DXD, go talk to him so we can resume." GSD growled to DXD.

"What?" DXD asked to Tri.

"I need advice."

"On what?"

"Its about the cave...."

DXD seemed to hesitate before saying "Yeah, what?"

"Well, SMW doesn't seem to trust me...how do you think I can earn his trust again?"

"Spend some time with him I guess, promise him that you will do your best to control yourself."

"He's leaving soon."

"So? Follow him, go with him."

"I'm not sure he would like that though...." Tri replied a bit taken aback.

"That doesn't matter, you want him to trust you, so go with him, promise to him - no - to yourself that you will control yourself." DXD seemed to spit out the word 'promise' as though it were a bitter word to even think of.

Tri sighed dejectedly before saying "Alright." He turned to leave when DXD stopped him.

"Tri! Never break a promise!"

Tri turned and left the training grounds, head hanging in partially in thought.

Ch. 6: Hilder's Plan


Tri walked through the door that lead to SMW and Wonder's house. The front room was filled with an awkward silence that seemed to rebound off the walls and back to Tri's ears. The only sound that was in the house was the dull sounds of SMW packing for his training leave. Tri climbed the stairs casually, making sure to make some noise so he didn't startle SMW.

"Whether you like it or not, I'm going with you." Tri said firmly as he leaned against the door frame to SMW's room.

"I never said you couldn't." SMW said not pausing to look at Tri.

"I feel like I can do better in controlling myself when I'm around fri-" Tri was cut off by SMW

"You can come," SMW turned to face Tri, he could sense the anger behind SMW's voice. "Wonder is coming too, and if you lay one hand on her I swear I will kill you."

"Why are you like this all of a sudden?" Tri replied, in victimized tone.

"It's better if you don't know."

"We're friends, you can tell me."

"How about this," SMW replied turning back to his packing, "if I trust you enough, perhaps I will tell you."

"Why not tell me now?"

"It gives you something to work for doesn't it? It seems like you have to have something given to you so you'll work hard, so I'm giving you info about me. Doesn't that seem fair?"

"What's gotten into you...." Tri mumbled as he stepped away from the door, going into his own room to pack.

As he was packing, he felt a twinge of guilt from SMW. He felt harder, he sensed embarrassment and guilt mixed with anger and sadness coming from downstairs where Wonder had been eavesdropping on the conversation. 'I suppose I sort of deserve this.' Tri thought as he threw some socks and pants into his small suitcase.

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Jingle woke up in her dark room, she got up slowly into a sitting position and looked out the window; Pandamonium was as lifeless as usual, she gazed up at the sky and saw where the very tip of the tower that she learned to call 'The Castle of the Dead' touched Empyrian. It seemed like forever since she had last seen home and looking up at it gave her hope she would be able to return to it in a time of piece. She stood up and walked out of her room, heading to the throne room where she needed to go.

When she got to the throne room, it was darkened.

"You're in a bad mood, aren't you?" She asked casually.

"Not really bad...." a feminine voice answered from out of the dark.

"I'm sorry I wasn't able to kill Tri." Jingle apologized shamefully.

"It's okay, I don't think killing him would've done us much good. In fact, we may have a use for him after all...."

"What do you mean?"

"He is corrupt, if we are able to somehow control him...he may prove to be useful."

The room seemed to get a bit lighter. Jingle looked around as the torches around the room came to life. The light revealed the throne and the person sitting in it who looked as if she was about to cry, her right side of her face covered by a mask, her hair silver and sparkling in the torch light.

"You were watching me?" Jingle asked.

"Yes I was, I wanted to make sure you would do it."

"You don't trust me, do you, Hilder?"

"It's not that, please understand. Its not only you I watch." Hilder replied as several people filtered into the room, a couple gunners, some demon knights, a few fighters and one or two mages. "I have an eye on everyone here, its how I see whats going on in Arad and Empryian. It helps me understand what I can and cannot do. Please understand...."

There was something in Hilders voice that seemed ambitious and malevolent, deciding not ti trust her jingle replied "I...I do...."