"Ugh . . ." Emma sighed as she trailed in behind Sarah. She tapped her elder sister upon the shoulder, and gave her a look of irritated disdain, "Sarah, I don't think hitting him is going to make it any better."

"Ergh . . ." Sarah grumbled and rolled her sleeves back down.

In the wake of this, Mayako slipped out from behind Sarah, a little bit of a rush to her step. She had with her supplies: a towel, bandages, and antibacterial salve. The latter had actually been grown and made by Emma herself. Mayako didn't actually have to buy a single thing here. The bandages and towel came from home, and the salve was donated by Emma. With a slight bit of haste, Mayako made her way to Eld. First thing's first! Eld was hurt, and she had enough medical training, thanks to her volunteer work at the clinic, to patch up wounds like this!

She plopped right next to Eld. Eld's current state was very worrisome, and Mayako lamented as she looked him over, "E-Emma w-was right-- y-you're . . . you're so cut up, a-and bruised up . . . a-are you really sure you're g-going to be okay . . .?"

"Y-Yeah," he replied, a little bit of his tension going away now that Sarah had calmed down a bit. He still couldn't believe they were that worried about him; he didn't have any permanent injuries or anything.

"This is nothing...it'll probably all heal by morning anyway." He was vaguely aware that he recovered from injury far quicker than most people. Why this was, he wasn't sure; perhaps it was his Qi, or perhaps his "heritage," but injuries that put other people down for weeks he could sometimes recover from in just a few days.

"Besides...I need to push myself hard. The more prepared I am tomorrow..." he trailed off. It went without saying that he would do virtually anything to ensure Etsu's safety--handing over Kageko was one of the few things he wouldn't do.

Mayako frowned. Even though he said he'd be fine, and accordingly justified his drive to push himself like this, that didn't mean Mayako was any more or less worried about him. That said much, really. She was probably going to be worried sick tomorrow. She was already worried about Etsu, too-- it would just be double the emotional grind to get through the day!

The girl stared at Eld's back for awhile. It would have put her at ease if he wasn't bleeding like this. Some of these might have left scars for a couple of years, at least on normal people. Eld wasn't normal, but still . . .

"A-at . . . at least l-let me stop the bleeding . . ." Mayako whispered.

She wasn't going to treat his wounds if he didn't want her to. But still-- she personally wanted to make sure he was going to be all right, and it really would have put her at ease to lay on a thin layer of salve to some of these cuts, and bandage them over.

Individually, there was nothing worth hardly a second a glance on him; a few of the deeper cuts looked a bad, but mostly it was minor cuts and scrapes, the kind a year ago he might have got from thinking he could compete with Sarah in something. It was the sheer quantity of them that was startling; when one went tumbling out of the air, there were few places safe from injury.

"Ah...a-alright..." Eld replied. While he didn't think they needed to be as concerned as they were, it was still a good idea for his injuries to be treated. He'd intended to take care of it himself when he went home, but it hadn't occurred to him that there were places on his body that would be difficult or impossible to bandage by himself.

He gave a slightly guilty, helpless look to the Vaerbond sisters. Absorbed in his training, he'd probably let his body take a bit more punishment than he realized--though he'd continue to insist and believe it was nothing serious.

In another place, at another time-- in another life, perhaps --this would have been different. Eld would have been training for another purpose, a purpose that had so vastly different than this. Perhaps Theleaus would have been coming back with his horde of bandits, or-- no! No, not at all. Perhaps Eld would have heard about where they were staying now, with little intent to come back to Hillcrest, but to take over another town, a town which wouldn't fight back nearly as well. Then, Eld wouldn't have been training to save any particular person. He would have been training to get back at someone, for himself, and finish an old fight, for Remmy Vaerbond.

Then, Mayako would have come out here alone, and after bandaging up his back, she would have pressed up against him and wrapped her arms around him from behind, and without fear his reaction, express her heartfelt feelings once again, and let him know exactly how much he meant to her-- and how much she wanted him to come home safe. And maybe he would have reciprocated those feelings, under such vastly different circumstances, and maybe he would have told her that he was going to come back, without a doubt, to Hillcrest and to her.

Mayako couldn't help but think about that, even though she knew she shouldn't have. There were things going on right now that were much more important than her feelings, but really, no one could help the way they felt. Mayako was just fortunate enough to be behind Eld, so no one saw her solemn face.

"Done!" Mayako announced with a subtly forced cheeriness, that set in just a moment later and repressed those ill feelings of longing, "E-Eld-- I can bandage your wounds again later, b-but-- i-it might be best if you try not to get wounded at all f-for the rest of the night, y-you know?"

Incidentally, it was unlikely that Eld would have felt the bandaging process at all. Mayako only focused upon the larger cuts upon his back and shoulders and arms, as he didn't seem to have any upon his chest, but still-- she had bandaged him up on a few places, and it'd produce no feeling for him. That actually had less to do with what he was, and more to do with that particular salve.

And though Mayako had decided to try and push her feelings to the wayside once again, she sat next to Eld. Close. It was unconscious, but she sat close to him like a girlfriend would have.

"Don't know if that'll be a problem anymore," remarked Emma as she came to sit down at the stump, across from Eld and Mayako, "That all happened whenever you fell, right?"

In another place and time, anything could have been possible. Humans were affected greatly by the tiniest of actions, and any number of minor changes could have swayed fate in one way or another. Even with some of the most minor changes, Mayako could have been the one to win Eld's heart...

But this wasn't the place, nor the time. If Eld ever had feelings for her, his affection for Sarah far outshone it, to the point where he couldn't recognize feeling anything more than friendly affection for (and some attraction to) her. Even so, though, she was one of Eld's best friends--had she been the one in captivity, Eld would have been training just as hard.

"Y-Yeah," he agreed with a nod. "I still want to practice, but I don't think I'll hurt myself any further as long as I'm careful." He didn't actually say why this was, but Emma knew, and no doubt she'd want him to put on a demonstration...

Without a doubt in the world . . .

"Hey, Eld?" Emma asked after a moment of thought, "Why don't you show them?"

The second time around was bound to be less surprising for her. That didn't mean it was going to lose its appeal, though. Either way, a person capable of suspending themselves in the air for any unnatural period of time was going to be awesome. It was the very reason why Emma wanted to see it again, herself! Last time, she hadn't got that good of a look at it, before Eld slowly came to the ground.

But he had rested at least a good twenty minutes now, right? Certainly he'd be able to pull it off again! For that, Emma had no doubt at all.

"U-Ummm..." He didn't really want to. It was so...abnormal; sure, they'd seen some unusual stuff in the last few months, but Eld liked to hide some of the more unusual stuff he could do from them. To his friends at least, he still wanted to be seen as a normal person.

Of course, he really wasn't giving them enough credit; it wasn't as though they were suddenly going to abandon him just because he was strange. And he knew they weren't going to take no for an answer here.

"A-Alright," he agreed after some hesitation. It was funny, he was more nervous doing this in front of them than he'd ever be trying it in combat. Moving away from them a bit so he had some room, he checked above him--open sky, good. Trying this without making sure there were no branches above him was a good way to get hurt, he'd found out.

Crouching down, he concentrated for a moment before sending a powerful burst of strength to his legs, leaping high into the air; many times higher than any normal human could ever hope to jump. That alone would be a bit impressive, but there was more to come.

He had to start right away, he'd found out, because if he waited to start using his Qi until he was already at the top it was too late and he'd crash down into the ground. He thought of it like a rising wind beneath him, buffeting him, keeping him aloft. It took a lot of work, and more importantly a lot of control--far more than he was used to exerting over his power.

But once more he did it; at the peak of his jump, rather than come straight back down he slowly floated, as though he weighed no more than a feather. It was a good thirty seconds before he finally reached the ground again, landing on his toes and lightly lowering until his feet were flat on the dirt. It was clear he exerted himself doing that, but he wasn't nearly as tired as Emma had seen when she arrived the first time; chances were that he'd been doing that many, many times in a row.

Again, though, Emma was stunned. She had only seen him come back down, not go up. She looked far less shocked than the first time, but still, she didn't say a word. For awhile, no one did. Emma, Mayako, and Sarah just remained still, all eyes on Eld, never blinking, just watching every little movement until it hurt too much to keep one's eyes open. For them, there were no words to describe what just happened, and even moments after Eld landed, the three of them were silent.

Amazingly enough, it was Mayako that spoke first. "Su-- sugoi . . . !"

"Goddamn, Eld!" Sarah declared-- sans all sorts of jealousy, too. She was actually cheering him on. "I ain't seen anythin' like that-- well, ever! No way that big bastard's gonna take ya outta the skies-- ya'll knock 'im flat!"

Emma glanced from Mayako to Sarah, both of whom were obviously more impressed than anything else. Mayako's eyes were wide and practically sparkling. There was no way to tell what was going through her head right now. And Sarah-- she had this grin on her face, that was something like pride, envy, enthusiasm, and all kinds of different emotions at once. Both were very typical of the two of them!

"Well," Emma kept her cool and tried to act like it was no big deal. Easier said than done, but she tried nonetheless! "You used a burst of strength to get airborne, right? And that tires you instantly. Have you been working on getting in the air without it?"

For several moments, Eld was afraid that he'd crossed some invisible line by showing them that--that he was no longer the Eld they knew, but some strange creature taking his place, capable of all kinds of inhuman feats the real Eld would never have been able to perform.

Of course, he need not have worried. Mayako and Sarah both broke into cheering, and even Emma seemed impressed before she thought to hide it. He couldn't help but blush and rub the back of his head bashfully. His usual reaction to praise was to say it was nothing, but in this case he really couldn't make that claim. He'd worked hard to be able to do this, and it was something none of the girls would ever be capable of.

Emma's question was rather practical; while he appreciated Sarah's vote of confidence, he wasn't as assured this would guarantee him victory. He'd still have to put everything he had into the fight to come out on top, of that he was certain.

"Yeah," he replied with a nod. After all, without any powers he couldn't jump much higher than any of them--Sarah could actually probably jump higher than him without using a burst of strength. "I've been practicing hooking my kusari-gama around branches and things to swing on--" he flushed a bit. That was actually how he'd received most of his injuries; he could land from a strength boosted jump without much difficulty, but controlling a failed swing was much more difficult. "--but I don't know where I'll fight him, so I can't be sure there'll be something around for me to hook to. And I obviously can't practice using his own attacks for a boost."

Despite the impression he sometimes gave of being a bit single-minded when it came to situations like these, he really did think his options through. Gestahl beat him badly not necessarily because he was better, but because he had an ability that'd been well outside Eld's expectations.

"You know, you could always use the rocks," Emma replied as she pointed to one of the taller boulders.

The tallest of the rocks was about four feet high, and the shortest was about a foot high. They could resemble somewhat short attacks, if necessary, but still give Eld a feel of what it was like to use elevations like that as means of jumping.

"Oh-- ya mean, he could treat 'em like Gestahl's attacks?" Sarah asked, before Emma really had the chance to explain.

Which irritated Emma a bit, "Yes. Yes, that's exactly it. He brings rocks from the ground, right? Why not try bounding off of stones like that?"

It wasn't going to be perfect, if he tried, as there was no upward momentum with them, but that could still let him practice jumping off of targets, rather than jumping off of the flat ground-- a good training exercise for this sort of fight.

And please do not forget about me, Master! Kageko explicitly reminded Eld, as she, herself, figured that he was going to be using those rocks as stepping stones all night if he had the chance, We are still supposed to practice having me released for extended periods of time, are we not?

Eld looked at the rocks skeptically for a moment. "Well...it couldn't hurt." Though without the upward momentum it wouldn't really be the same, not to mention the greatest trick to using Gestahl's attacks that way would be predicting them or reacting quick enough to take advantage of them.

"Yeah, we'll do that too--at the same time, even," he said aloud to Kageko absently; while he was better about keeping his replies silent in front of strangers, he tended to forget to in front of his friends, since they knew of her.

He'd actually released her a bit earlier to try and find a good way to grip both the released scythe and his kusari-gama at the same time, but he hadn't wanted to tire her out so early in the day, so he reverted the scythe back to its normal form before too long.

While he'd try bounding off the rocks a bit too, his real focus for the rest of the evening would be putting together all the individual things he'd practiced during the day--all with Kageko released. It was a bit much to juggle, perhaps, but if he could manage it then he'd be as prepared as he could be for fighting Gestahl.

"Do . . . wha--" Sarah was about to ask--

--but was cut off by Emma lightly smacking her in the arm, and looking up at her in an almost authoritative way. While it did nothing to intimidate Sarah (or ever did, in fact; Emma was not that intimidating of a person), it did serve to remind her a little about why Eld would say something offhanded like that. Sarah dropped the subject.

Mayako, on the other hand, didn't need that sort of reminder. She, like Emma, knew that Eld said things without prompt sometimes, because he was talking to someone else. Someone they couldn't see, really. Were it not for the fact that they had seen him do supernatural things, the whole lot of them would have though Eld was completely insane.

"Well . . ." Emma trailed off for a moment, "I guess we'll leave you to it, Eld, now that you're bandaged up and all. Try not to get too hurt again, okay? And-- hey, Mayako, you're coming, too, right?"

"U-um, I-I k-kind of wanted t-t--"

"Mayako! The man needs his space!"

"Ohhhh, b-but--"

"No, Mayako," Emma almost sounded motherly with that one, "You'd just get in his way. C'mon now."

Eld smiled; he sort of understood how they felt. They'd all wanted to see what Remmy could do--Emma may have gotten to, but Eld would have given half his sizable bank account to have witnessed his friend training with all his might.

"Sorry Mayako, but I need to focus. I'll show off for you guys some other time, okay?" he offered. Maybe he could even convince Etsu to do so as well--she may not have had his sheer power, but he couldn't match her experience (which still outclassed his, even though she hadn't been a Reaper for long) or her subtlety with Qi.

"I'll see you later. And thanks," he added to all of them. Even just their support meant a lot to him, and they were making huge efforts to help him as well. It reminded him that they wanted Etsu back just as much as he did--it would be a terrible day for them all if something happened to her.

"Alright Kageko, I hope you're ready. We're going to go nearly until we drop..."

******

Ah...I should have taken in to account how long it takes to get back. It was well after dark when he finally went home, fortunately having succeeding in his mission of not getting further injured. Nevertheless, he was exhausted from the full day's training and particularly the last push at night.

Entering through the side door, he quickly returned to his room and unceremoniously collapsed onto his bed. Though he had just as much on his mind as the previous night, sheer physical fatigue ensured he quickly fell into a sleep, which thanks to his mind's guardian was guaranteed to be a restful one...

When Eld finally went to sleep, though, he was greeted with a bit of an oddity. This evening, Kageko didn't pull Eld into her world. Eld expected to see her-- and so he did, but by all means, she was asleep. Training had worn her out completely.

And expectantly so, too. By the time they were done, Kageko was exhausted. She was having trouble breathing, and that was after being released for two hours straight. But she refused to let Eld change the scythe back or anything, and pushed herself as much as Eld pushed himself. Needlesss to say, even in her own world, she couldn't stand up. She had been lying upon the dark floor, gasping for air, hurting all over in fact, but still happy that she was able to push herself that hard. Three and a half hours. That's how long she could remain released before there was a serious health risk involved for her. Eld and Kageko did not know if damage done to her within her own world would be permanent or anything, or if she could even be killed there, but Eld wasn't willing to push her that far-- and if she passed out or anything, it was likely that he'd lose the scythe's form and function completely.

Therefore, within her world, she was asleep-- yet Eld managed to put himself there, just by expecting, if not wanting it, when he fell asleep. This wasn't the first time that had happened, but still, it usually was Kageko that brought him there.

On him she lay, her head upon his chest, and body curled up and breathing very lightly, soothed and relaxed and comfortable, resting after such a hard day of effort. She lay upon her side there, and if Eld were to touch her at all, he'd find that she was still somewhat matted with sweat. Her dress, likewise, was loose and undone on the back, where the corset was, and in the spots where the fabric was thinnest, matted somewhat with sweat. Effort, here, had at least a semi-permanent effect upon her . . .