Hikari could see the flares of rising and falling Ki emanating from the top of plateau long before she crested the top. Green and golden light illuminated the sky above her head, and she came to the spot where her father and older brother stood. She took notice of the ongoing display that was coming from Eiji, Sumiko & the odd figure named Okun that she had yet to meet. "How's it going…" Hikari whispered with a sense of amazement as she started ahead. "It's going good… I think," Gado said to her with trepidation in his voice. "Good? Are you kidding? He's amazing! He might be stronger than Shiro even right now!" Taiyo said with excitement as he nudged his sister with his elbow. "Look at him go!" Taiyo added as Gado grunted with what felt disapproval.
In the center of the plateau, both Sumiko and Okun were launching a barrage of Ki in Eiji's direction. Orbs of concentrated Ki hurled in his direction one after another his frightening speed and force. A blow from a single one of them would put even Hiro or Gado on the ground even if only for a moment. With a determined focus, Eiji stood across from his instructors and skillfully deflected each attack. His body was enveloped in a dense aura of its own, not a single wisp of it dissipating into the air as he either dodged or struck at each oncoming orb. "Woah…" Hikari whispered to herself as she watched. She was well aware of what kind of concentration and control it took to keep one's aure so tightly contained to one's body like Eiji was doing, and it was only something a Shishogan User was capable of.
By condensing and focusing his aura, Eiji had effectively created a coat of armor that could deflect any oncoming Ki-based or Ki-fused attack. Something of a similar fashion is possible for a Nikugan User, but in place of Ki the body itself is strengthened instead. Sweat poured from Eiji's brow as he continued on with the exercise. Despite how easily he had taken to each practice so far, he couldn't simply adapt to this kind of flurry with wits or intuition. Luckily, he had spent years honing his body and practicing his martial art rigorously in an attempt to open his eyes on his own, and what did come naturally to him now that his eyes were open, was the ability to heighten his senses and his skill with his Ki.
Faster and faster Sumiko and Okun beared their attack down on him, almost looking frustrated that Eiji was doing so well defending himself. Without warning and in an one swift motion that was easy to miss if one were not staring intently at the unfolding match, Okun waved his hand out in front of himself and instead of releasing and orb of Ki like he had been doing, a crescent shaped blade of crackling green aura was sent racing towards Eiji. Without any hesitation or even what seemed like a second of thought, Eiji mimicked the exact same motion that Okun had made with his hand and launched a similar wave of Ki across the ground that collided with Oku's in a dramatic explosion.
Eiji jumped back from where he was standing. He was unsure what was to come next since Okun had decided to change up his tactics. The clash of their Ki had stirred up a cloud of dust that was beginning to clear, and as it did Eiji could see that Okun and Sumiko had dropped their guards and were now conversing with each other. "Are we done already?" Eiji said through panted breaths as he looked at the two of them. Without saying anything Sumiko shot Eiji a quick glance, her face full of seriousness that her soft features didn't normally display. As the two of them continued to talk, leaving Eiji waiting for a response, Hikari and Taiyo came bounding over towards their younger brother.
"Eiji, that was amazing!" Hikari squealed as she flung her arms around him, sending a wave of pride through them both. "Yeah no wonder you got such a good shot in on me," Taiyo added quietly with a coy smile, making sure the others didn't overhear him. "That's just cause you're slow," Hikari teased Taiyo as she pulled away from Eiji. "So that guy is… Okun? He's a Kami?" Hikari asked curiously as she glanced over at him and Sumiko. "He's an odd guy… Doesn't talk very much and he certainly doesn't look like I thought a Kami would…" Taiyo added. "That's not what he really looks like…" Eiji said, making the both of them raise an eyebrow at his response. "Here… let me try something…" Eiji said as he quickly grabbed both his siblings by the wrist, closed his eyes and focused on the memory of when he witnessed Okun's true form. Taiyo and Hikari both gasped a bit in shock, the hair on their arms standing on end as Eiji seemed to pass the image from his own mind and into theirs. "How did you do that?!" Taiyo exclaimed in a hushed breath as he looked over his shoulder at the pale black haired man behind him, the image of his monstrous form still burned into Taiyo psyche. "Woah… was that Empath you just did?" Hikari asked as she too glanced back at Okun once again now having seen the true shape of his being.
Eiji opened his eyes and let go of their wrists, quickly catching his breath after not even realizing he had been holding it. "Yeah… that was the first time I tried to use it on purpose… it's already happened a few times on its own," Eiji replied awkwardly. The effects of the Empath effect of his shishogan were still one thing that he wasn't quite feeling used to yet. "A minute ago when you hugged me I was earlier to keep it just an exchange of emotions… but earlier when uncle Hiro touched me… I caught a glimpse of his thoughts and- ""Eiji! Can you come here please?" Sumiko's voice came calling from behind the three of them, cutting off Eiji's thought he was about to share.
Taiyo and Hikari watched Eiji return to his training as they briefly shared a concerned look. "Did you see his face?" Taiyo asked his sister quietly. "Yeah… He looked worried for a second there…" Hikari replied as the two of them looked to their father at the same time. Meanwhile Gado hadn't returned their glance, but it was clear his face was beset with the kind of worried look that Eiji showed just a moment ago.
" So Eiji… It would seem that your progression is rather rapid… a bit more so than I had anticipated," Said okun with his typical muted expression. "What do you mean? I thought you said this was normal for someone whose eyes were opened with the pry?" He replied confused. "Well… the large amounts of Ki you currently have access to and the amount that can be channeled through your Ki system are expected to be high under your circumstances, but your control of it… well… I don't want to inflame your ego at all, but… it would seem that whatever kind of training you've done up until now has left you fairly adept in your ability to control such high levels of Ki… Either that or you have quite a bit of a natural talent…" Okun finished saying. "I believe it's the latter," Sumiko added on with an encouraging smile.
"So what does that mean?" Eiji asked, unsure of what any of it really meant for him going forward. "Well… It means that I lied to you when we first began our exercises," Okun said as he stepped back a bit. While at the same time Sumiko seemed to reassume an offensive position. The small tugging smile that Eiji had seen appeared on Okun's face briefly at the beginning of their training back to the enigmatic Kami as Eiji too took up his guard and prepared to get back to his exercises. Despite his waryness and the obvious fact that something was being hidden from him by both Okun and Hiro, Eiji was drawn to the strange figure who had appeared out of the blue after his awakening, or rather, Eiji was drawn to the fact that Okun seemed drawn to him. Throughout the few days that they had known each other, Okun kept showing glimpses of emotion that broke his stoic face, especially whenever Eiji seemed to surpass his expectations.
"I hadn't planned on having you do any actual combat with your shishogan until after I had restricted your Ki down to its natural state… but I must admit Eiji… you've made me curious… So I'd like you to spar with Mrs. Harabani here," Okun said as he stepped back to where Gado and the others were watching from. "Oh and Mrs. Harabani? I would advise you not to take this too lightly…" Okun said ominously as he waved his hand in the air and signaled for them to begin.
"You shouldn't have said that…" Said Kyuen to Okun. She had remained silent for the majority of the day so far, her attention oddly fixated on Sumiko rather than Eiji. "Oh? And why's that?" Okun asked in response. "Becasue Sumiko may look gentle and sweet, and her job may be healing people most of the time, but back in the day before she switched to being a medical Sentoki… She was known as ruthless fighter!" Kyuen said with a twisted smile as the family all watched Sumiko's golden colored Ki sprawl out around her body before forming a dense and brilliant aura that clung to her tightly. From her arms the golden Ki formed itself into thin humming blades that ran along the edges of her forearms and protruded from her elbow in a deadly pointed tip. Before she went on the attack, the gentle looking face and soft blue eyes that the siblings had always seen her with turned into an excited scowl and in the next second she was gone from sight.
Later in the afternoon, Hikari, Taiyo, Gado and Kyuen all found themselves making their way towards the arena for the first of Hikari's tactical exams that was set to take place shortly. "That was brutal…" Hikari said to them quietly, both her and Taiyo's face still in shock after watching Eiji try to spar with Sumiko for the last few hours. "Is he gonna be alright?" Taiyo asked with concern. "He'll be fine. She can patch him just as well as she can mess him up, trust me, " Kyuen said before turning to Hikari. "I'm surprised you have space to be worried about Eiji… Seeing as though your first tactical exams starts in just over an hour," She added with a challenging smile. Hikari's face grew more serious in response, the four of them all heading onwards towards the busy area that was steeped in festivity and celebration.
Hikari parted ways with her family almost as soon as they entered the monstrous colosseum and made her way towards where the groups of students were meant to gather. Luckily for the time being she hadn't run into Harrow although she was bound to during the challenge if not before. More and more students filled the room within the stadium, the growing chatter of the crowd could be heard above their heads until the sound of an instructor cut through the noise. "Welcome students, let's get started! If you look at the display on the wall behind me, you'll see if you've been assigned to Team A or Team B," The instructor announced as a flat Ki crystal display lit up with a list of all their names.
Hikari held her breath for a second as she located her name amongst the others, then quickly looked for Harrows to see if they had been placed on the same or opposing teams. She clenched her fist as she located her opponent's name, and she had hoped. They had been placed against each other. The room around her was filled with students that she had recognized, many of them she knew by name. Among the crowd there were a few unfamiliar faces as well, presumably other private trained students that had come from smaller towns and cities across Kamikochi, but Hikari had yet to locate her rival.
The group of two hundred students that had gathered quickly divided themselves into the teams that they had been assigned as a set of stone doors at either end of the room opened up. Team A, which Hikari was a part of, took the door on the left while Team B took the door on the right, each hall leading the way to the fortress-like buildings that sat on either end of the field. Each group was led up to the roof of their buildings, the crowd roaring in celebration as they appeared. Before the match was set to begin, each team was given a set of time to establish a strategy and develop a plan of action, and Hikari was left somewhat remiss when the majority of her team seemed to look toward her for instruction.
Hikari steeled herself as the group of her peers all stared at her waiting for instruction. She blocked out the cry of the crowd and let herself focus only on the task ahead. "Okay listen up!" She began, using her hand to project her voice as much as she could. "I have a feeling we're gonna be running into some extra defenses! So we need to keep our heavy hitters out front! Nikugan Users and anybody with a stone or flame affinity will lead the charge! Everybody else falls back and protects our crystal at all costs!" She added as the group seemed to nod in agreement. "I'm banking on the fact that she's too proud to come to me… so we'll bring the fight to her!" Hikari thought to herself as she and the rest of the other students waited for the sound of the horns to begin the match.
Eiji awoke in the same room he had visited after his incident in the ruins, the office of Sumiko Hrabani, the light from the Ki crystal overhead giving off a bright and unpleasant shine that irritated his eye. "Oh good, you're awake" Said Sumiko from the corner of the room behind him where she was working on some papers at her desk. Eiji sat himself up on the medical bench he had been placed on, his body incredibly sore and feeling as though it had been taken apart and put back together. He looked at the Shishogan wielding woman who had spent the afternoon tormenting him in training, her face now warm and soft in a way that would make it almost impossible to believe she had a single violent bone in her body.
Eiji had never really looked up to a Shishogan User before. Not out of any distaste or disinterest, but they were so much rarer than Nikugan or Gensogan Users, and since most of them ended up in the medical field, Eiji had almost never seen one in combat. Especially not one as skilled as Sumiko Harabani. "Mrs. Sumiko… you were really amazing today…" Eiji said to her as we winced a bit and tried to swing his legs over the side of the table. His memory was filled with the sight of Sumiko masterfully wielding her Ki across the battlefield. The way she used her Ki to create a foothold in the air or to launch herself forward at just the right moment. Even the way she used her Ki to form various weapons that acted like extensions of her body and will, able to change them in a fraction of a second to suit her needs. She had even at one point used her mastery of Ki to create a near identical illusion of herself which Eiji had to fend off whilst still fighting her as well.
A Shiver ran down his spine as he remembered the feeling of her Ki skilfully rendering through his own and leaving a battered and bloodied mess. "Thats very kind of you to say Eiji," She said with a smile. "So Eiji… Tell me… Do you trust Okun?" Sumiko asked casually as she stopped her paperwork and looked up at him. "I-" Eiji hesitated for a moment, he was unsure of how to put the answer into words in a way that made sense. "I'm not sure…" He said shyly. The moment hung in the air as Sumiko gave him more room to try and explain. Eiji looked at her. He knew Sumiko must have been aware of what was being kept from him, and for some reason he didn't feel the hesitancy he did around Hiro or Okun. "I trust that Okun is here to help… But I don't trust that everything he's said so far has been true… or rather, I don't trust that he's given me the whole truth," Eiji finally said as he organized his thoughts. "I want to trust him… but I know there's something he's not telling me…" Eiji added as he shared a glance with Sumiko that somehow said she acknowledged that he was right, but she wasn't about to tell him what that something was.
"You've always been very smart Eiji… but you're still young, and there are things in this world that would only serve as a burden for you to know…. Now if you're feeling up to it, I promised your father I'd try to have you patched up and home in time for dinner," Sumiko said to him, her words catching him off guard and leaving him in thought. It wasn't an answer by any means, but it was more that what either Hiro or Okun had bothered to tell him regarding the truth of the possible side effects Eiji could suffer if Okun were to not restrict his Ki. Eiji shook off his train of thought as the mention of dinner made his stomach growl loud enough to be heard from the hall outside the room and made Eiji blush a bit in embarrassment. Sumiko laughed and gave him a smile that Eiji could feel was laced with meaning and intent. For some reason in that moment Eiji felt as though Sumiko may not have agreed with Okun & Hiro's decision to keep him in the dark about whatever it was they didn't want him to know. "Yeah… I could use some dinner," Eiji replied with a soft chuck of his own as he jumped down to the floor and began to get ready to head home.
Just a bit earlier and outside of the Placement exam area, Taiyo met up with his close friends Yuori and Shiro after the two of them had finally returned from the mission that Hiro had assigned to them after Taiyo and Aimee's unbecoming and unsanctioned brawl. "Hey Taiyo! Over here!" Yuori shouted through the crowd as he spotted the young Umitasora man standing on a street corner and looking around. Shiro turned around from the food stand he was in process of paying at with two skewers of grilled meat in his hands, "Maybe he didn't hear you," Shiro said to Yuori as he ripped a piece of meat off the stick with his teeth. "Hey Taiyo! We're-" Yuori was stopped in his call to Taiyo by the unexpected sigh of Aimee appearing by his side, and not only that but Taiyo seemed to be smiling at her.
"Oh there they are," Aimee said to Taiyo as she spotted Yuori & Shiro across the street, both of them with an odd expression on their faces. The two of them crossed the street to where the young men stood and as they greeted each other Taiyo seemed to just rub his head awkwardly while at a loss for words. "What's with that look?? Did you two forget how to talk that quickly?" Aimee said, taunting them both. "Hey, you two," Shrio began to say nervously, only to be cut off by an outburst from Yuori. "What's she doing here??" He said as she glared at Aimee with a scowl that she returned just as quickly. "Well… I uhh, I invited her," Taiyo said sheepishly to his friends. "Why the hell did you do-" Yuori continued to object, only to be met with a swift kick in the shin from Shiro that quickly shut him up. "So tell me about your mission!" Taiyo said, hoping to diffuse the tension.
As they walked through the streets, occasionally stopping to grab a bite to eat or something to drink, Shiro went on to explain how the two of them had been assigned a bodyguard assignment for some famous poet who had come all the way from Northern Gondwana to visit Kamikochi and had asked for some protection since he had had a poor experience on his last trip somewhere. At first the two young men thought that the assignment would be a rather boring one, but at the halfway mark of their mission that had ended up running into some men who had actually tried to attack and rob the famous poet's envoy. After a little bit more explaining, the two of them had figured out that it was actually some of the escaping Miruso men who had tried to attack Shiro and Yuori during their mission.
"Oh yeah, how was the mission you two went on?" Shiro asked Taiyo, while behind them Yuori and Aimee seemed to be competing in a childish impromptu eating and drinking match. "It was… good," Taiyo said as he looked over her shoulder at the two of them. "But it's part of a larger investigation so we can't say too much," Aimee added with her mouth still half full of food. "So does that mean you guys are like… friends now? Gross." Yuori asked, despite their antics the two of them had been listening to the conversation more than Taiyo or Shiro had expected.
Taiyo blushed a bit at Yuori's question, unsure of how to respond. He and Aimee had spent some time training together here and there after their mission, but she still got mad at him for over half the things he said most of the time. "Dont be stupid!" Aimee as she got in Yuori's face, her drink spilling to his shirt as she did. "We're teammates and we're the best people for each other to train with, that's it, idiot!" Aimee scolded him as the scowl returned to her face and she took an aggressive bite of her food. "Idiot?! Who are you callin an Idiot?! You can't even keep your drink in your cup!" Yuori retorted as the two of them went back to their squabbling and Taiyo and Shiro continued to discuss what they could about their missions. All four of them stayed out eating and drinking until well past midnight.
Later on that night, after Shiro and Yuori had already taken their leave, Taiyo and Aimee walked together on the path that would lead them to both of their homes. Neither of them said much until they had reached the spot where they would split, Aimee's house being a bit closer to the city & temple than Taiyo's. "I wasn't sure if you were gonna show up," Taiyo said to her. "Yeah well… I didn't have anything better to be doing so… Thanks I-" Aimee paused for a second and let out a long sigh, as if the next words were a chore for her to say. "I had fun," She said as she rolled her eyes and waited for Taiyo to make some kind of smart remark. "Yeah, me too." He responded, catching her off guard. Taiyo turned to make his leave, looking back over his shoulder and waving to her as he did. "I'll Let you know next time we're gonna get to-" "When are you gonna fight your dad again?" Aimee asked him bluntly as she cut him off.
Taiyo stopped in his tracks and let his head down a bit, letting out a sigh of his own that she had actually called him out on the subject. He had almost forgotten that even before their mission he had told her about the struggles he had with taking his father seriously in a fight, and now that she had brought it up again he had desperately wished he didn't. "Soon… Maybe… It's complicated, alright?" He said, now clenching his fist a bit and gritting his teeth. "Yeah well… the longer you put it off the harder it's gonna be… I would do it after the exams finish if I were you. Not that it's any of my business, Later," Aimee said to him before turning away and heading off to her house. Leaving Taiyo alone to dwell on her words.
The following day the exams began again, and Hikari was filled with determination once more. The previous day's exams hadn't gone entirely as she had planned. Despite her still scoring high, her team had ultimately lost due to a lack of defenses. On top of that, Hikari had guessed correctly that Harrow would stay within her base, but what she had failed to guess was just how much her ice would be a problem. During the exam Harrow had successfully managed to reinforce all of the doors around the barracks with her ice and even froze the room where her team's crystal was held as a whole. This, as well as Hikari's team's poor defenses, had resulted in Team A's ultimate loss, and what bothered Hikari even more was that she had lost the entire match without so much as even seeing Harrow.
"Forget about yesterday… Focus on the next event…" Hikari said to herself as she arrived at the temple early enough to see the attendants and teachers still posting the schedules to the walls haphazardly. She rushed to one of the posters not to look for her name quite yet but to see what Hiro had set up as the second phase of the tactical exams, and it was Search and Rescue. The only exam during this phase of the testing that was relatively similar each year and would take place outside of the arena.
The Search & Rescue test was one that was highly celebrated by the citizens, seeing as they could volunteer to be 'rescued' and were even compensated for participating in the exams. The search and rescue exams consisted of over six thousand volunteers that had been carefully orchestrated and placed among a widespread area just north of the city. Each year the area was set up with controlled fires and floods that simulated disasters. Teachers and other Sentoki volunteered to play the parts of marauders or attacking forces. Even a small fake village was put up to make things feel more real. The objective of the Search & Rescue exams was fairly straightforward, each student was to try to find and save as many of the volunteer citizens as they could without bringing them any harm. Of course students would be graded on overall performance, but it was also a given rule each year that any student who managed to rescue five or more volunteers, would automatically receive a near perfect grade.
"Yes!" Hikari exclaimed as she read the next event of the exams. She bounced around from poster to poster looking for her name and what time her exams would be held. When she had finally found it, it was to her surprise that this time around she hadn't been put into the same testing block as Harrow while both Syra and Arielle had. Hikari's demeanor began to shift a bit, for the first time since she had run into Harrow she was able to view her graduation the way she had before her rival had shown up. A smile grew across Hikari's face as she stood there and let the excitement take over. "We practiced for this one…" Hikari said to herself. Thinking back to all the exercises she had run with her friends in preparation for the exams, and since the Search & Rescue test was fairly similar each year the girls could spend plenty of time preparing.
The girls had been placed in the third testing period of the day. "Its not enough time to go check on Eiji beforehand, I'll have to go by later on" Hikari thought to herself. "Plus I should probably find Arielle and Syra to go over our plan," She added as she turned around to find her friends, only to run into somebody who had been standing directly behind her. "Oh sorry! I- Oh, Kyuen, What are you doing here?" Hikari said as she looked up to her aunt who had almost appeared out of nowhere. "I felt like Eiji had been getting all the attention… So I came by to see you today," Kyuen said to niece. "Search & Rescue, huh?" Kyuen asked as she looked up at the poster on the wall. "I remember during my exams, your mom acted as one of the adversaries… I would have gotten the perfect score if I didn't run into her," Kyuen said with a small smile as she seemed to get lost in the memory for a moment.
It had only taken Hikari and Kyuen about half an hour to track down Syra and Arielle who had already seen the schedule and were making their way towards the testing site to get an idea of what the course would look like and once Hikari and Kyuen had caught up with them, the four of them spent the morning watching the first two runs of the exams while discussing their plan and bouncing their ideas off of Kyuen for advice. In a strange fashion, Kyuen seems to openly share her thoughts with the girls. As well as continuously relating back to her own experience during her exams, not that she was ever unwilling to teach, but she was never quite as enthusiastic about as she seemed before the girls exams.
When it was time for Hikari, Arielle and Syra to finally make their way to where the students were meant to gather, Kyuen accompanied them to see them off. "Well this is where we split up for the day," Kyuen said to the girls with a smile that left them all somewhat off put. "Oh, are you gonna watch from the arena?" Hikari asked as she watched both the students and volunteers for the exams all find their places. Kyuen let out an unnerving chuckle before responding, "Something like that… Good luck girls!" Kyuen said as turned around and waved goodbye. Hikari watched as her aunt started to walk away, but her expression of excitement and confidence that had been on her face all morning melted away in an instant as she watched Kyuen slowly walk towards the line where teachers and other Sentoki were all lined up to participate in the exams.
"Oh shit…" Hikari said as her shoulder dropped and her smile turned to a wide mouthed frown. She buried her face in her hands and shook her head a bit. "No wonder she was so cheery all morning," Syra said with the same kind of disappointment in her voice. "There's no chance she's gonna leave us alone and try to impede the other students right?" Arielle asked the two of them. Without a word Hikari and Syra just looked at her with a confused and astonished stare. "Yeah I didn't think so I was just checking," Arielle said with a sigh of defeat. The three girls turned around and headed for where they needed to be before the start of the exams, the three of them all visibly distraught after falling victim to Kyuen's ruse. "She helped us come up with a plan and everything…" Hikari muttered to herself as the three of them waited for what was originally supposed to be a good day for them all but had now turned into a disaster.
"Should we split up now?" Syra asked as the students were all handed maps of the testing area. "And risk one of us running into her alone? No way!" Arielle contested. "She's right, If we were by ourselves she'd take us out too easily. She might even be able to get to more than one of us before the exam ends,"said Hikari as she looked over the map. "At least in this exam all the students are technically on the same team, so we shouldn't have to worry about anybody else getting in our way. Plus I'd put money on the fact that Kyuen told the other volunteers to leave us so she can be the one who gets to us," Hikari added with exasperation.
"So if we don't have to fight other students… and if you think Kyuen will be the only one looking for us… Then we should try to do this whole thing as quietly as possible!" Arielle said with a bit of exclaim. "Hear me out! We stay in the back for the beginning of the exams and let the other students really spread out. They'll be the first ones to get caught up in the fires and flood along with fighting the teachers, and we sneak in just after the fact and quietly rescue as many people as possible! We shouldn't even try to face off against Kyuen, that's not the point of this exam anyway!" Arielle continued, her tone getting more and more confident as she laid out her plan.
Hikari and Syra looked at her with surprise. As strong and skilled as Arielle was, she wasn't the one to usually come up with a plan, especially one that actually sounded viable. "Mhm Excuse me students, the third testing block will begin in fifteen minutes. All students participating please report to the Testing site." Said a voice that came from the Ki crystals posted all around. Hikari had noted that instead of Hiro making the announcements it seemed to be one of the leading teachers who was doing so, meaning Hiro must have been with Eiji and the others Hikari thought. She shook her head a bit and slapped both cheeks of her face, not letting herself get distracted before the start of the exam. "Good call Arielle, let's do your plan," Hikari said confidently as she put her hand out in front of her and waited for her friend's approval. "Sounds good to me," said Syra as she placed her hand on top of Hikari's. "Wait, for real? Hell yeah! We're doing my plan!" Arielle squealed as she put her hand on top of the others.