(Outdated) The King of Elements (part 2)

Chapter 2

"I'm sure you all are wondering why we aren't in the classroom," the tall and slim Mrs. Rogers said at her students standing in a straight line in the clearing of the Edge Walker's forest.

"No, we're wondering why we're standing in front of a place where monsters like to hang out," one of the students said.

"The Edge Walkers do not like to 'hang out' in this forest. If you'd been listening to your history class, you would know that the famed Princess A-mii conjured this sword-" she patted the blade of the large sword, Rose remembered it being called the Peacekeeper, "to trap the Edge Walkers inside of it. You all are safe, especially while I'm here.

"But I'm getting off subject. The reason why I've brought you all here is to do a little exercise. Somewhere under this ground, I've buried a ribbon." She pulled a red, silky ribbon out of the pocket of her tactical vest and displayed it to the class. "You're object: Find the ribbon but with a twist. You are not to touch the ground with your hands, at all."

"Excuse me," Rose said as she rose her hand, "how can we find the ribbon if we cannot use our hands?"

"Simple, you must your elemental power to dig and sift through the ground. Whoever can find the ribbon will win, say, a set amount of credits. Considering that some of you all are experiencing the Emblem of Valor arena, you may need to win in order to buy some really useful equipment."

"Pardon me," Rose spoke again, "but how much credits will we get?"

"Good question. How does fifty credits sound?" There was a low murmur of disapproval amongst the group. "Fine, fine. How about one hundred?" The class murmured in approval, until a tree behind her seemed to open its eyes and glanced across the line of students. "What?" She turned behind her to the tree, which looked to her and winked. "Loyalty! I do not appreciate you disrupting my class!"

The eyes disappeared as Loyalty appeared from the thicket of the forest, laughing as he said, "Sorry Mrs. Rodge, but you know how I am."

"What are you doing here, Loyalty? Shouldn't you be at the Agency, driving the higher ups to drinking?" Mrs. Rogers sighed as Loyalty made his way to her side.

"Ordinarily, yeah, however I'm here on a small business." He turned his attention to the class. "Oh, Rose," he said in a singsong voice, "do you mind coming with me? We've got to get you experienced with the arena."

"What?! But if I win, I could receive one hundred credits." She ignored the disapproving looks from the rest of her class. "Couldn't this wait until after this exercise?"

"Hmm... Nope. Let's go," he said as he hoisted her on his shoulder kicking and screaming.

"Hey, wait a minute!" Mrs. Rogers cut in. "You can't just come in and kidnap one of my students."

"Sorry, Mrs. Rodge. I'm acting on orders from Mr. Ichinose. I gotta get on his good side since I'm marrying his daughter and whatnot. Have a nice one," he concluded as he made his way out of the forest.

"Would you let me go? At least give me some dignity?" Rose asked.

"So you can go running back to class and get me in trouble with my future father-in-law? I don't think so." He said, his voice wavering from Rose hitting his back.

She let out a sigh of frustration as she crossed her arms above his shoulder blades. "I can tell that you are very much related to Ian."

"Oh? And how's that? Is our rugged good looks? Or maybe it's the incredible sense of humor."

"No, the both of you are quite annoying."

"Well, aren't you a ray of sunshine," Loyalty mumbled. "He talks about you all the time, too. It's funny, with most girls he just talks to them for a quick fling. With you, though, it seems to be something more. The guy's obviously has high regards for you."

"It's a shame that want nothing to do with him. We are two partners of a group; nothing more, noting less."

"What makes feel that way about him?"

"What doesn't? He constantly talks about himself all the time. And it is always about how much of a great rapper he is, or how expensive his jewelry is worth. What is so funny?" she asked, frustrated as Loyalty began to laugh.

"He's still doing the whole underground thug persona, and you fell for it."

"You mean it was all an act?" she asked.

Bending down to let Rose down, he began, "Yep, all and act. I can't believe he got you so fooled. That guy breaks two of the most important rules of being a thug: He's smart, and he reads, constantly. And I don't mean those hood books either, I mean Lord of the Rings type stuff."

"Really? Rose asked, stunned.

"Yep. He doesn't even like rap," he went on. "The songs that he says he wrote are some lyrics that I used to write when I was his age."

"But, I do not get it. If he does not like the way he acts, then why does he not act himself?"

"Society will do that to people. I see it like this; life is like a puzzle, everyone has their own slot to fit into depending on their personality. If a person tries to fit in where they don't belong, it'll do nothing but ruin the big picture." He shrugged. "Ah well, hopefully he'll realize that soon. Probably the way I did, too; beaten down in an underground cage fight by a woman who'd later turn out to be his fiancée."

"Huh?"

"Nothing. Just relieving some happy memories." Loyalty cleared his throat. "Anyway, if you want my advice, get to know Ian. The real Ian. He's really distractible, so catch him off guard if he's, like, concentrating on something. I'm sure that you'd be blown away by what you see."