"So, you see Seraph, the sooner you realize it isn't about you, the more space you have left to take in everything", I'm sure she was going on about something that I'd been the culprit of starting."Ah...yeah. What was this about again?", I was a little on the verge of dozing off."Oi, oi! You weren't even listening, were you? God, you'll never be as good as Chopper!", she snapped."What? Lady, so you're just using me to replace Chopper, are you?""Oh, so you're awake enough for this? Well, of course! That idiot's up and gone missing again. For so long! This time I'll really-""Lady", I suddenly remembered something, "Lady, Lady! I heard you've got some really valuable treasure on you. Is that really true?""Treasure? Like the one that everyone has?""Hmm, well, I don't know. But it's something...err, what was it?", I pondered for a minute.While it looked like we were drunk, in all honesty, we weren't....says every drunk ever."Ah...that little box you got on your table. That jewelry

The dust was settling around the battlefield, there were no movements. Our eyes were focused entirely on the pillar that had buried Lady out of sight. As for Grim, he didn't move an inch. But the gaping hole in his chest and the carcass of his burst heart lying on the ground, didn't seem to have much effect on his vitality. He wasn't healing either, contrary to what I was expecting. Blood loss didn't seem to have any meaning either. But in his case, blood was as thick as pitch, so it didn't quite flow out of him either. "Lubbock, get moving", Chopper instructed him. Receiving this command, Lubbock sprang up and walked up front of the barrier that was holding us up. His eyes then made a whirring voice and seemed to be moving his lenses all about to get whatever it was that he was trying to get in focus. "Well?", Chopper asked after his eyes were geared up and doing their job. "Blood loss...hemoglobin is down to 9.8..." "Well, she's always been a li'l anemic. What else?" "Magic

There was no Nicole in the military records. It is to be expected. After all, despite all the years of fighting, women were never sent to the front. Even when they did, most of them were snipers, stationed at safe distances.As long as women were safe, the country could keep on fighting. Perhaps the reason the war lasted so long was because there were still women who could lose their sons and husbands.But even so, when all hell broke lose and people couldn't find food anymore, many young girls ran off or were forced by their parents to fight in the war. It was easy to send them to certain places where screenings weren't exactly strict, simply, because no one had time for it. New recruits served as a meat shield. Runaways usually bribed screening officers with their bodies and ultimately, it was the pits for everyone.By the time it came to light that those recruits weren't men, they'd already be dead. Those who got discovered were swiftly carted off back home. By then, they'd mostly

The calm that place held in its arms was screaming home to her. She laid there high up on the mound, with her arms sprawled beside her. The deep blue sky, cold grass and the distance rustling of trees, accompanied with the gentle caress of cool wind; it was just the kind of place she had been looking for.The sky was so far away, she felt like reaching out to it. But she hadn't had the chance to rest all day so she didn't want to move right now in this moment of peace."Oi, Lady!", Chopper's head appeared in her view, "Quit dawdlin'!"She pouted, pulling herself up, and sat cross legged, staring at the grass now."Well, is this alright? Ya sure?", he asked, looking about with a scrutinizing eye."Hmmm...", she mumbled."Oi oi, why are ya turning yer head like that?", Chopper raised a brow.Instead of answering him, she just went on doing it. She'd slept in the wrong position last night and when she woke up this morning, her neck hurt a lot. She could only keep her head straight all da

"Cho-", if only Chopper would let up with his punches, he'd have seen that I was back in the now, "Chopper-san!"It took a couple times more for me to try to stop him before he calmed down.""I'm-", a fit of cough overtook me just then and lasted long enough that I must have lost about a pint of blood.Chopper rubbed my back, perhaps thinking it was his fault that I was bleeding. Not that I could completely deny it."Hurry, Seraph, this isn't the time, goddamnit!"As if that would make me cough faster and be done with it. In any case, despite what he said, Chopper stayed beside me until all the bloody coughing was done."Chopper-san! What...what's goin' on?", I found it hard to breathe."Oi oi oi oi oi! Before that, you! Don't go dying on me now!"I must have looked real terrible for him to get concerned."No, I...uhh...anyways, tell me what...?", before I could finish saying what I wanted to say, my eyes wandered off to the distant sky."That...", I was a little lost, "That...is Lubb