LeeAnn stared at her engagement ring on her ring finger. She had to give it to Alex; it was much nicer than the one Hans gave her. Alex knew how to treat a lady, but she never looked at the ring as the answer. She was just happy she finally had a chance to have a decent, loving guy in her life. All the guys, it was Alex. Their first date was interesting. Alex had his book saying "How to talk to Women" right in front of her. She found his nervous behavior to be attractive and how attentive he was to her. It was almost overbearing. It's like he never knew how to talk to people. He was her knight in shining armor. The perfect prince for her fairy tale and happily ever after. Hikari’s bedtime stories were starting to get to the fire mage. The slayer sighed happily. Her head was on cloud nine.

In the long run, he lacked confidence in himself so she sent him to jobs in the eastern part of the country. It would build his confidence and ease into guild life for him. Since his return to Fiore. She could tell he was a nervous wreck and too scared to come outside. Though, he did propose to her in the library of the guild. She laughed at the thought. It was an arranged...love life? Not particularly a marriage but kind of. They just decided to take it slow since both of them needed time to get to know each other. Ragtime did not like the thought of this. She was called again for another sea monster removal. What was it about this town and their sea monsters? She was growing ever so tired of this. Lector looked at her ring on her left hand.

"Maybe you should put it into your pocket or something. I fear it may fall off" mentioned Lector. She had an idea and put it next to her amulet. It would stay there for now until she was done with the mission. Looking at it once more gave her a sense of newly founded joy. She was a sucker for romance. "You're such a smart cookie, Lector, '' she smiled. They made it to the shoreline. Several people stood around it seeing a wake heading towards them then turning around. It seemed to be pacing which was odd behavior. From what she read about animal behavior, that could be a sign of distress. LeeAnn feared something may have spooked the large creature. From what she could tell, it was some kind of large fish. She tried to use the wake and it's dorsal fin as a marker of identification.

"I am not sure what that is" said Ragtime. There was only one reason to find out. LeeAnn had Lector lift her up in the air to get a bird's eye view of the creature. It seemed to be a very large shark. Though, too fast for a shark in her opinion. Hikari had recently begged her to get a shark for the guild's aquarium. She caved in and got themselves a blacktip reef shark. They were always curious little guys pacing and checking out the enclosure. "I think it's some kind of large shark from what I understand from the books I've read" she spoke to Lector. The exceed gave her a weird expression before replying "You read books? Since when" he spoke.

"Since I could read ya dumb fluff" she spat out. The slayer signaled for her to be put back down on land. She didn't want to hurt the creature but wanted to find out why he was so freaked out. Once her feet were firmly planted on solid ground, she observed its behavior. There were many things she noticed about the wake; it was constant as if trying to get something off. She looked at Lector. "I am going to dive and figure out the situation. Ragtime, let's do this" she spoke. Her eyes turned a slightly darker shade effect frost blue. Slowly, she took off her cape and cloak then handed it to Lector to hang onto. She treated the water ever so slightly then drove right in when she was waist deep as she swam closer to the creature, it seemed to be a larger shark than she had anticipated. Her eyes widened with shock but kept on swimming. She had to a few deep breaths and return to below the surface of the ocean waters. From afar, she could tell something had been stuck into the creature’s side. She swan a bit closer to see it was a magical enchanted item. LeeAnn didn’t notice or well...Ragtime didn’t notice the creature about to slam into her. She used her brute strength to bash the creature twice in the nose to get it to calm its nose. The shark turned away. Ragtime forced LeeAnn to swim up to the surface. LeeAnn stared up at Lector, who was hovering. “Get my sword” she said. The exceed nodded and turned around to grab Sting. He came back in a jiffy with the sword in hand. “Look out below” he called out. Sting was dropped to the water, LeeAnn caught the hilt of her sword and swam towards the creature. “If we can wedge the item from its side with the sword, that would probably calm him down” thought LeeAnn to Ragtime. He was controlling her body only to help her swim, the rest was her thinking.

The shark became more irritated with the presence of LeeAnn. It charged at LeeAnn. She stabbed the shark in the nose to get him to social distance from her. Ragtime felt for the creature as did for the slayer. “Don’t worry buddy, you will get this magical item out of your side” she thought. “Wait, how did an item like that get into the creature’s side in the first place” asked LeeAnn to Ragtime. The creature was at a loss for words. He certainly didn’t know exactly what to do in this situation. “Honestly, I don’t know,” he spoke. Lost for words, she had no time to really wonder and figure out the mystery. She had to go back up to the surface to breathe. Her head bobbed up and down. “Something is lodged into its side causing the shark to have a lot of pain” she informed her friend. Lector nodded. He was ready for her orders like a good sidekick. She dove back under. “Okay let's try this” she thought.

The kitsune sliced her hand to draw the creature to her scent. The scent of blood caused the shark to turn back towards her now with his eyes ever so locked on his target. Exactly what she wanted. “Kid, you’re crazy,” said Ragtime. LeeAnn found this amusing. “Wouldn’t have it any other way” she thought. The shark charged at her, LeeAnn used Sting to provide some damage to the shark and distance. LeeAnn provided enough damage with another A-rank done. It was enough to make the shark notice she wasn’t playing around. “Shit” she thought. It tossed her into the air from the water’s surface. Lector caught her and quickly escorted her to the magical shard into it’s side. She stabbed the sword into the creature’s side and accidentally drew blood. “Not so hard, kid” scolded Ragtime.

“Right, sorry” she apologized. The runes on the shard glowed a soft purple color. The light shined brighter as the shark hit the ocean. “This is harder than I thought” mentioned Lee. The exceed scoffed a little. “Ya think?”

1267/2000

Of course, it was harder than it looked. What was she thinking? Oh no. LeeAnn gripped her sword much harder as she prepared another defensive attack from the beast. She had it held in a horizontal position as the shark charged again into the air, but luckily, Lector was several feet above the beast's maw. Rose of sharp teeth made the cat gulp regretting even thinking baout eatin the large fish. IT clamped it jaws hard, they heard a loud boom sound when it fell back into the water. "I think I should lay off the fish for a while" said Lector, she agreed with the cat. The fire dragon slayer thought while she observed the large shark circle aroudn them from below. IT seemed anxious and in pain like from before. The more she thought about it the more it became of a pain to watch the poor creature. Since she had her daughter, Hikari has taught hte slayer about empathy for other creatures even humans...as much as she hated that. People always left a bad taste in her mouth with past interactions. With having a duaghter with a pure of heart and mind, it teaches a person or demi-human, Animals were good start for her. It slowly made her more tired of seeing those in pain. Lee was slowly feeling like her old self again or what could be considered a shell of what she once was before... that day. That day that changed everything.

Those people who used religion as an excuse to torture her and her mother. They all deserved to burn in the pits of hell for enternity, but in the long run she knew it made her a stronger person. A stronger person to lead the guild and Nakamura clan. Hikaru ahd bleieved in her... why not herself? She was always admiring her brother for his strength and motovation to improve. No matter how hard her treied, he always found something else to improve on. The shark was just another trial in life. The demi-human stare at teh poor creature them looked up LEctor. "Let's get this over with, teh more I stare the more emptahy and pain I feel for the creature" she spoke. Lector lowered her into the warm ocean water. She had Ragitme puppet her body to swim downward into the ocean after the shark. The creature pacedi ncirlce in pain. Planning ahead, she stared at hte creature. It really didnt understnad what she was tried to do. Waiting for hte right time, she got her timing perfectly in lined with opposing creature's movements. The shard was wedfged into the sharks' skin. LeeAnn plunged her sword into the creature's side and wedged it out. It was very stuck. LeeAnn knew she was put the shark in pain, but she managed to pull it out. When she did, a loud flash blinded her. All she saw a white then black. Several moments went by until she feel into a white room with a chair. In that chair was a person, a familar face. As she gotten closer, that person was similar to Vincent, her grandfather. He sat in a peaceful position. The room was barren of decor. She stared at her grandfather without any words to speak of. "Well, its been a while, LeeAnn" he smiled.

"Grandfather? What are you doing" she asked. He laughed a little. "Proud of you, sweetheart. I dont have much time, but I am here to warn you about something. Head my warning, LeeAnn, Solomon is getting powerful, more so than before. He has more powerful connections. The place I left you has secrets you and your guildmates need to uncover that could help" he spoke. Before she could reply, she felt herserlf being hurled backwards away from her grandfather. Then it all went black.

LeeAnn coughed up water, she breathed fresh air. A bystander did CPR on her while she was unconcious. The fragment stuck into the shark's side was still in her hands. "She's alive! Thank gods" spoke the man. Lector smiled. "Almost lost you there" he smiled. She stared at everyone in confusion. Why didn't Ragtime save her? Where was he in that weird trance or illusions. She held her head and stared at hte ground. The world felt frozen to her. "Ragtime? Ragtime! Are you there' she thought. Leeann felt lost now that he was not responding.

2001/2000

-esit-