Warfront: The Blazing Breaker's

&lt;- Previous Chapter

Waking to a new day
Slowly rolling over, Carra sat up from her bed. Her eyes half open, she reached for her glasses on a desk next to the bed. Hearing shuffling from next to her she looked to see Tori curled up in blankets on a bed across from her. "That's right, I bunked with Tori." she thought to herself, remembering that the two of them played with Chico for the remainder of the day yesterday. Out the window, she saw it was still dark out, though the sun could just be seen coming over the horizon. Deciding she was couldn't go back to sleep, she changed out of her pajamas and headed out the door.

Walking through the halls of Phantom Breaker, Carra noticed not many of the members weren't up yet, probably because it was so early in the morning. Walking for a couple of minutes, Carra found herself in the Breaker Garden's, where she heard a loud snoring coming from above her. Looking up, she suddenly grew tense, as Raven was sitting in a tree above her, sprawled out over several branches and his mouth hanging open as he snored. Turning to run, she bumped into someone and stumbled back a bit. Looking up she saw Akane looking down, surprised to see her. "What are you doing here?" Carra asked under her breath as to not wake Raven.

Akane shushed her as she helped her up and led her back into the building, the two eventually made their way to the main lobby, where some of the mages were up early, looking at the jobs while others were simply trying to wake up with some coffee.

"Sorry about that, Raven is an annoying brat, especially when he wakes up, how did you sleep?" Akane said with a smile.

"Fine, we took Chico over to the daycare, it was loads of fun." Carra said, stretching her arms out above her head. "But you didn't really answer my question, what where you doing in the gardens?" she asked curiously.

"Oh, I always wake up this early, though it's strange since we're not even from this region" Akane said chuckiling for a bit, "Anyway I just get up to take in the morning air, that and to get away from Zaraki, I love the man but he snores loudly" She winked at Carra as she and her laughed as a waitress brought them something to drink.

"So how do you think the job's going?" Carra asked after taking a drink from her cup. "So far all we've been able to do is get shipwrecked and start fights."

"You kidding? that's our specialty." A voice said from behind them. The two turned to see Kat walking towards them with a large smile on her face. Her hair was dripping with water, and her bandana was around her neck, allowing her hair to flow down behind her. "I think you guys are doing fine." She said, sitting down next to Akane.

The girls chuckled as they took a sip of their drink, while talking about some random things, a small tug could be felt as Akane looks down to see Chico nipping on her slippers, making her smile as she brought him up to the table. "Wow, only one day and the little guy found his mistress" She said kissing him on the head.

"Yeah, you got yourself a good little companion there." Kat said, patting Carra on the head, making her blush. Doing up her bandana in her usual style, Kat looked at Akane and said, "So you four got any plans for today? Because I think we might not be done with that gang we ran into yesterday." As she spoke, Chico made his way over to Carra, curling up on her lap and going back to sleep.

"Well our mission still stands, we need to explore the region to see what else it has to offer" Akane said looking over to Carra, "But this time, I want everyone with someone of S-Class to be with them, if that stupid gang does have something planned, then we need to make sure everyone is safe" Akane tells Kat as she looks at Carra. "Listen, you and Tori may be mages, but you're still not yet strong enough to handle guys like this, not to mention that with Chico, we won't be able to fight much. I want you to stay here with Tori".

"OK, sure." Carra said without any hint of hesitation. Though whether it was because she wanted to be with her new friends, or because she didn't want to get hurt again was known only to her.

"That's all well and good, but the only one's who aren't S-Class strength are you and your hubby." Kat said looking at Akane, "Plus there's the blond guy from here, so there's really no worry about not getting paired up with an S-Class." Leaning back she looked up at the ceiling and moaned, "Only problem now is deciding who get's stuck with Raven for the day."

The trio thought about it for a bit as they heard a loud yawn and saw the guild ace of Phantom Breaker with his messy hair and black shirt off as he goes to the bar and orders a drink, sitting down as he waited for it to arrive.

"Well, in a way he and Raven do kind of match up" Akane said with a smile.

"Yeah, but don't you think they'll get along a little to well?" Kat asked concerned. The guild had enough problems as it is, throwing those two together couldn't possibly end well for anyone in the same area. "This might backfire rather quickly, though it might be a hell of a show." Kat seemed to like the idea the more she thought about it.

"Yeah, plus I don't think we can pay for anything he breaks along the way." Carra said, thinking back to any job he had gone on.

"What's this about the destruction of the guild" A voice said as the ladies looked over to see the guild master, Jayapura Marsh, looking at them.

"Well Guild Master, after the last incident a few days ago, we thought it would be best to pair everyone with an S-class partner if they decided to go out today, but we still have no clue who to have for Raven. So we suggested Konoha, but..."

Jayapura laughed with joy as the guild looked at him, "Destruction follows this guild like Vulcan after pretty women, I'm sure more won't be so bad as long as it's pushed towards something constructive".

"Sounds like we got a lot in common." Kat said, laughing to herself.

Carra looked up at the guild master confused. "Wait a minute, how can destruction be constrictive?" making the others laugh. Carra looked at her companions, slowly getting annoyed that they kept laughing at her.

"I think he means personal growth." Kat said, leaning back again. "I think this might be for the best anyways, no offence Guild Master..." Looking up at Jayapura, "But I think he's one of the only ones here who could stop Raven if he goes wild." She said pointing over at Konoha.

"He isn't the guild ace for nothing, and to answer your question Carra, Konoha was originally part of the Demolition Group here in Genosha, charged with taking down the still-standing buildings that are not sutible for living in, we still often get requests for them so he goes to help out" Jayapura replied as the sounds of a yawn could be heard, making the group look over to see Tori still in her pj's, rubbing her eyes.

"Well good morning" Jayapura said as the others replied the same as she took a spot next to Tori.

"Morning, I hate having to wake up so early in the morning" She said moving her hand over to Chico's head and gently scratching his head.

"Probably doesn't help that you two were up all night with the dog." Kat said, watching Chico rubbing his head into Tori's hand. Turning back to her companions she continued, "So how should the rest of us be paired up? Because I sort of got my eye on the handsome blond you guys got running around." a playful grin making it's way across her face.

"Hahaha, by all means, I'm sure Taichi would welcome the companionship" Jayapura said with a grin as Kat jumped with joy and ran out of the place, leaving the others in a daze.

"Well, I guess that settles Kat, me and Zaraki will be fine, Tori and Carra, you two stay here, Raven will go with Konoha, but that just leaves Peltin" Akane said wondering who she would pair him up with.

"How about Minerva?" Carra said, piping up. Thinking back to all the children at the daycare, she looked at Tori and said, "I bet she would love to have a day off." Chico barked in agreement with her.

"I don't see why not, I'll have another person take over the duties for her" Jayapura said with a smile as he walked away along with Akane who left to go check on her husband.

"Come on." Carra said, looking at Tori. Scooping up Chico in her arms, Carra ran towards the hall leading to the daycare, with Tori following soon after. This time both of them neather one being dragged by the other, making Kat laugh at how much they had grown.

A Day at the Daycare
Despite how it might have looked on the outside, taking care of a group of kids was a lot harder to do than it appeared. Within the first hour, both Tori and Carra were exhausted, running back and forth after children running in every direction. Even Chico, there secret weapon, had grown tired of being chased by the kids, and was laying in the grass asleep. After organizing a ball game for the kids to play, Carra fell back against the incline of a hill. "Minerva does this every day?" She asked in disbelief. "What is she made of?"

"You're asking the wrong person, I treat these kids and they're usually afraid of me, but this... This is just a work out" Tori said as she wiped the sweat off her brow and looked over to see the kids having fun.

"I can't believe Minerva does this all on her own." Carra said, watching as one of the children scored a goal. Stopping herself for a moment, with a blank expression, she had a thought. "Does she do this alone?" she asked.

"Were you listening to what I told you yesterday?" Tori asked bonking Carra on the head, "We have volunteers who help, they often do it of their own free will. Another person I know of that does this is..."

"Me" A voice said as the two turned over to see a beautiful woman with brown hair and large endowments as she had on a volunteer clothing.

"Speak of, Carra this is Aina Kuudou, Aina meet one of our guests, Carra" Tori said as Aina bowed in respect.

Quickly jumping to her feet, Carra bowed as well, though again she didn't know how long to bow for. Tori sighed as she pulled her friend back to an upright position. Embarrassed, Carra looked over Aina again. "She looks a lot like Kat." she thought to herself. After realising she was staring, she said "Oh-uh, nice to meet you." Quickly looking to change the subject, she looked over at the children again. "So how do you keep them all entertained?"

Aina chuckled a bit as she looked over still seeing the kids playing and having fun, "It's not easy at times, they always seem to be anxious about a lot of things in this land, but after showing them some magic and games, they enjoy themselves" She said with a smile as suddenly a small barking could be heard as the girls looked over to Chico who was growling at her.

"And who is this little guy?" She said picking him up and cradling him as she rubbed his belly.

"That's Chico, I got him a couple days ago at a festival." Carra said excitedly. Looking over at the children again, she saw that some of them had already gotten board with the game and began to wonder off. Thinking for a moment, she muttered "I wonder..."

Tori and Aina looked over as Chico wiggled his way out of her arms and ran to his master's side, wagging his tail and barking at her. "Mind sharing with the rest of the class?" Tori asked wondering what exactly was going on through Carra's mind.

"Remember when we saw Minerva reading to the kids a while back?" Carra asked looking back at Tori and Aina. "Think some story's well get them to sit still?" though as she said it, everyone could tell that even she found it a sceptical idea.

"I don't see why not, though I think they make work better if they had the little guy with them" Aina smiled as Chico licked Carra's hand.

Picking him up, Carra carried him over to a corner and began calling out, "Ok kids, story time! Come on over here!" Chico started barking in sink with Carra's calls, attracting the attention of some of the kids. Though not everyone listened, a handful of children began making there way towards Carra. Siting down in front of her, they looked up at Carra with anticipation, waiting for the story to begin. Seeing all there little faces looking up at her made her realise that she didn't actually have a story to tell. She didn't go out on jobs, so she couldn't tell them of her adventures, and she didn't know enough about magic to just talk about that.

"Uh...W-Who here has mage parents?" She asked, looking for anything to keep there attention. After a couple of kids raised there hands, she thought for a second and remembered something. Rolling up her right sleeve she pointed to her guild mark and asked another question. "Does anyone know what this mark is from?" After waiting for a moment, one of the kids shouted, "It's a Guild mark."

"That's right." Carra said, pointing to the child who answered. "Well, one of my friends from my guild has a teammate who says his dad was a dragon." she paused to see the kid's reaction. Some starred in disbelief, others had there mouths open in amassment. "Yeah, and he's got a talking Cat who can fly." Carra continued, not wanting the pace to drop.

"Wow, I have to admit, for someone like her to open up so much after a few days, it really does my heart good" Aina said as she and Tori looked over to see Carra continue her story.

"Will you be alright when she has to return back to her guild?" Aina asked Tori who realized that she had forgotten that after her mission was finished, Carra would have to go back home. It made Tori a bit sad inside.

"It isn't going to be easy, but in a way I helped Carra become better, not to mention gave Chico a great home to enjoy" Tori replied with a smile, secretly wishing that things didn't have to change, especially now that she found a great friend to have fun with that was her age. She heard the sounds of laughter as they both turned to see Carra telling them something while a little girl held Chico in her arms.

"And there's this other guy who's even taller than your guild master, he can control gravity." Carra said, stretching her arm up over her head to note how tall the person she was discribing was. As she carryed on, Carra seemed to grow more relaxed in her roll as storyteller, even if she wasn't actually telling a story.

"I must say, she will be missed, it usually takes me ten minutes to get them focused on my stories" Aina said chuckiling as some of the kids were awestruck by what Carra had to say. It made both of them laugh as the sounds of rustiling could be heard, out of nowhere some of the other animals came towards Carra, causing Chico to go a bit wild as he wanted to go play with them, but the little girl calmed him down as they continued listening to the story.

"Even animals are draw to her" Tori said snickering.

Looking over to Tori, Carra began waving for her to join in. "Come on Tori!" she yelled from across the room. Several of the children turned around and began calling as well, encouraging her to share her story's with them.

Tori blushed, but laughed as she ran over, getting all of the kids a big hug with her stretch magic as she sat next to Carra and listened to the story she was making. Aina simply looked on, smiling with joy as she knew that the two girls would make great mother's someday.

Tempting Class
In another part of Utopia, Kat and Taichi where traveling through the city, looking for any remnants of Jugo's gang. Though they had a job to do, and Taichi was trying his best to keep on the lookout, it was apparent that Kat had forgotten all about it. She was seemingly more interested in seeing the sights rather then hunting dark mages. With her arm wrapped around Taichi's she kept pointing at restaurants and asking, "How about there? They got any good food?" with a goofy grin in her face.

Taichi looked over at the woman, although he enjoyed the company, it kind of bugged him that she didn't seem to take it seriously. Though in a sense, it kind of brought a smile on his face, since the way she acted kind of reminded him of his mother.

"Yeah actually, it's a grill shop and it has some of the best prime stuff around" Taichi said as his and Kat's stomach's began to growl. "How bout we take a break?"

"You sold me on that one." Kat said, rubbing her stomach. "Let's eat." Pulling Taichi behind her, she ran into the restaurant and ordered a big plate of food for them to share. After scarfing down a couple mouthfuls of food, Kat asked "So Tai, you been doing this long?"

"Ever since I was born, mom and dad were guild members of Phantom Breaker and I just rolled with the punches in a sense" He said grabbing some beef that was finished cooking and ate it.

"I see." she said before taking a couple more bites. Resting her head on her hand, she swallowed, looked over to Taichi with a sly grin and said, "But I ment how long have you been taking women out to restaurants alone?"

After that comment, Taichi choked on his food a bit, chugging down his drink as he looked over to Kat with his face bright red. "Why... Why do you ask that??" He said taking in deep breaths to get his breathing under control and to let out anything stuck in his throat.

"Well, you're a hansom man." she started, trying to make a straight face. Changing to an innocent tone, she turned her head to the side and said, "Don't tell me there's no Ms'Blondie in your life." despite her best efforts, she couldn't hold back her smile.

"Not..not at the moment.." Taichi said with a sigh as he continued on eating, "We broke up a while ago, I haven't had another woman in my life since then" He said asking for another order of his drink as another plate of raw meat was brought and placed on the grill, cooking while the two talked.

"Veeeeery interesting." Kat said, allowing her smile to come forth. Grabbing up more food, she began prying for information. "So you haven't been on a date for a little while then? I think we need to change that."

Taichi looked at her with a still-blushing face as he looked over to Kat with a piece of meat in his mouth, wondering what exactly she had in mind. "So what exactly do you have in mind?"

Looking out the window, Kat spyed an abandoned lot across the street from the restaurant they where eating at. She thought for a moment, then jumped up from her seat and said, "You get the bill, then meet me in that building over there." with a devilish grin. Before Taichi could say anything, Kat darted out the door and disappeared through one of the windows.

At first Tai was a bit suspicious of Kat's plan, but decided to just run with it as he payed their bill and walked out, making his way to the lot as he passed through and entered the building. Walking around for a while, Kat was nowhare to be found, only dust and broken furniture. Just as he was about to turn to leave, thinking he had gone into the wrong building, a playful voice whispered from the shadows, "Taaaaaiiiii. Come find meeeee."

Tai chuckled a bit at Kat's attempt, but what she didn't realize was that his Sound-Make let him hear almost everything at double. He closed his eyes and concetrated, feeling where Kat would be. Waiting for a clue as to her location, Tai didn't notice a black appendage creep it's way off the floor behind him. Just as he noticed it, it smacked him across the back of the head and disappeared, quickly followed by a childish giggling and another whisper, "One point for me." There seemed to be no origin of the voice, like the walls themselves where taunting him.

Taichi focused his mind, being able to hear the sounds of running and jumping between the shadows as he could tell that Kat wasn't in the actual building, but hiding in the shadows. He quickly shouted out an Echo-location that began to cause the area to become disrupted, quickly making Kat appear as he grabbed her.

"One point for me" He said with a confident smile.

"Oooooooohhhhh, your quite good at this." Kat said impressed. Grinning like a child she faded into her shadow and zoomed away to the staircase. "Come on, this waaaaaayyy." she taunted before moving to the next level. Before following her, Taichi heard the sounds of scraping coming from the ceiling, like someone was moving furniture around.

Taichi heard the noise and was a bit curious as he walked up the stairs, waiting in anticipation to see what kind of set-up Kat had done. Reaching the top of the stairs, Tai saw that Kat had set up a makeshift maze out of the furniture their. Though it was only about 3 feet high, Taichi noted that it could make maneuvering difficult, as his hair was only just below the concrete ceiling. Another childish laugh rang out again, "Come on Tai, come find meeeeee."

"You know I can easily pass this right?" Taichi said with a smile as he quickly used echo location to start his way through the maze, watching out for any moving shadows that might try to trip or hit him.

Slowly moving between the desks and chairs, Tai didn't see any movment. Untill somthing movine past his foot causing him to jump a little, resting back on one of the desks. Instently, it jumped up, causing him to bonk his head on the cealing. "Ha ha ha, watch your head." Kat sang out. "Another point for me."

Taichi smiled a bit as he looked back, "You're enjoying this a bit too much" He said with a smile before sending a playful sound roar at her.

Another laugh came out, though this one sounded more sincere. All the furniture began jumping up and down, then settled again. "Round three." Kat said.

"So, what are you gonna do to me this time?" Taichi smiled as he waited to hear what the woman had to say.

"Hehehe, come find out." She said, making the furniture begin to move again. This time, it simply floated into the air, held aloft by shadows reaching from the celling to the floor.

Taichi smiled and used Sound-Make to create a mini-platform to stand on, making him stand a bit closer to the shadow held furniture. However, a figure could be seen behind Kat as suddenly it jumped on her, and it showed to be a Sound-Make dog as it began to lick Kat in the face. "Looks like we're tied".

Pushing the dog off her, Kat rolled up into a sitting position. With a huge smile she said, "One more round", before fading back into the shadows again. Allowing the furniture to fall to the ground gave her a big enough distraction to slip out of sight again. Taichi quickly set up a barrier of sorts around the area, wanting to make sure he could trap her. "Come on, come get me." She taunted from the shadows.

Cautiously moving forward, Taichi watched for any sort of movement. This time felt different, there was absolutely no presence in the room, as if he was alone. Scanning the floor, he found that there was almost no ware to hide, even for someone using Shadow magic. Just as he had thought Kat had ditched him, a pair of hands reached down and grabbed the sides of his head. Kat half immerged from the ceiling, forming only her body above her waist. Hanging upside-down she pulled his face in close to hers and kissed him square on the lips. Holding there kiss for a second, Kat pulled away, smiled, and asked, "How many points was that worth?" still holding the sides of Taichi's head.

"I'd say.. you won the game..." He said blushing bright red as he kissed her again, enjoying the kiss as he grabbed the sides of her head.

"Hold up lover boy." she said. Jumping down from the ceiling, she sprung of her hands and landed a couple feet away from him. "You want more? Then your going to have to play another game." thinking for a moment, she looked out the window, then back at Taichi. "Race ya back to your guild." Without waiting for an answer, Kat leapt out one of the broken windows and took of down the street.

Taichi grinned widely and quickly ran after her, hoping that the day wouldn't end.

A Caretaker's Ambition
Back at the guild in the nursery wing, Minerva could be seen holding one of the babies closer to her as she was humming a lullaby to the child, trying to make her fall asleep. Behind her, the door opened and Peltin strolled in, looking over the other babies as they slept. Despite his rather abrupt entrance, not a single one woke up. "So you really do this for a hobby, don't you?" he asked quietly, though not enough so that he didn't sound condescending.

"These young ones have had rough lives, they live daily in danger of an event that could take their lives, if I can bring some peace and love into their lives, it's well worth it to see their smiling faces" Minerva replied as she placed the little one back in her crib and walked off with Peltin into the hallway. "Though I get the feeling you didn't come here to help me out".

"How very astute of you." he said while leaning back on the wall. "It's about that gang we hit a couple days ago. According to Raven, they still have a base somewhere in the city, and I figure your the best one to ask for help from." Pointing towards the door he grinned and said "So you in or what?"

Looking through the window into the baby's room, she knew that the group would cause trouble and decided to deal with it now so none of the children would be hurt because of it. After telling one of the volunteers where she was gonna go, Minerva returned to her room and put on her normal gear as she came back to Peltin. "It's been a while since I've worn this" She said looking at Peltin.

"Oh, now I remember you." Peltin said surprised. Seeing her regular attire for the first time since arriving jarred a couple of memory for him. "You're that mage who went on a job with our little lion and the bookworm. The one Jaina spent 2 weeks following around." Laughing to himself, he put his hands in his pockets he began walking away, "Small ass world isn't it?"

"Haha, indeed, they were were interesting mages and it really surprised me that their father was the guild master" She said catching up with Peltin as she walked right next to him. "Then again, I'm the daughter of a guild master too".

"Yeah i know." Peltin said, without looking at her, "That's why i figured you where the best choice for this. The two of us got more dark guild experience than just about anyone here." Without stoping, he looked up as if he had remembered something, "Except probably that fire brat."

Minerva chuckled a bit, "All I remember most times was worrying about which person I could use to do the dirty work for me, but luckily, I've changed in more ways than one" Minerva said looking up at the sky while she kept walking with Peltin.

"Good thing you did it before losing something real important." He said while gesturing to his eye patch, though Minerva got the impression he was talking about something else entirely. "Though that does explain why you set off my sixth sense every time I look at you."

"Why's that?" Minerva asked now curious to hear what the S-class mage had to say about her.

Peltin Took a deep breath, as if he was about to deliver some bad news "I didn't give it much thought when you where at our guild, mostly because every S-Class we got was standing 50 feet away from you." Looking over his shoulder at Minerva he continued, "You where a dark mage, and I'm not talking about Sabertooth. Like a legitimate mage of a dark guild." Peltin stopped walking to look her in the eye, "Sorry if I just blew your cover, but I got a knack for these things." This time he spoke as if he was making a joke.

"In my defense, I didn't exactly have much of a choice, if you knew my father, you'd understand" Minerva said glaring at the floor. "Everyday, it was either become stronger or leave, win or fail, every single day was a fight for survivial. At the time, I believed that if I wanted to survive, I would any means, even if I had to use my own guild mates" She said with disqust before looking back on the main road.