“Are we really doing this?” I asked.

“Yes.” answered Jean.

The two of us were outside, facing each other. I was holding a cat-sword. Jean was holding her gold sword. She wanted to fight. I was unsure of how to feel.

“Show me that you can do this!” exclaimed Jean, “Show me that you’re not weak!”

“Where is this coming from!?” I exclaimed.

She struck at me and I blocked with my own sword.

“You can’t let your emotions take over,” said Jean, “you can’t just give up whenever.”

“Calm down.” I said.

She struck at me again and almost hit me.

“Don’t let your guard down.” instructed Jean, “I almost cut you.”

“Your eyes…” I commented, “You look like you’re ready to kill.”

“I need you to take this seriously, dammit!” she yelled.

Our swords were going back and forth. Meanwhile, Kia, Kurt, Mikaela, and Christina just stood there and watched. Jean was fast. If I were just a bit slower, she actually would have cut into my body with her weapon. The two of us continued swinging or swords at each other for several minutes. After another one of her strikes, she almost struck an area I didn’t have covered. Luckily, I was able to spawn a cat-themed shield.

“Heh.” commented Jean, “You’re getting better at this.”

“Um, thanks?” I said, “But the praise can wait until you’re not trying to kill me.”

“I won’t kill you.” she said, “I couldn’t do that.”

“Wouldn’t you have done it at some point?” I asked, “We used to be enemies and all.”

“I… don’t know if I’d be able to live with myself if I did that.” she said.

“Don’t talk like that,” I said, “do you know how much pain I felt when you killed yourself that one time!?”

“...!” responded Jean.

My strikes started getting faster and Jean was having trouble keeping up. 

“I got to see you again after so many years,” I said, “and then you just had to go and die like that!”

“I’m sorry,” she said, “I just didn’t-”

“I know what you did,” I said, “but you came back in the end. However, I had no way of knowing that at the time.”

I came close to scratching her armor after that. As we fought some more, it was obvious that she was having a hard time keeping her grip on her sword.

“Making me think I’d lost you was one of the worst things you’ve ever done!” I exclaimed, “No amount of sins you make should make you want to kill yourself!”

“Ron…” she said.

“I guess after all this time, I still cared about you.” I said, “And besides, what do you think our other friend from back then would have had to say?”

“I…” started Jean.

“She may not be a part of either of our lives now,” I said, “but she definitely wouldn’t have wanted you to do that!”

“Why are you bringing her up now?” she said, “What does your first crush have to do with anything?”

“We were just kids!” I responded, “So it doesn’t count!”

“It was cute though.” commented Jean.

“There are times I wish we could go back to those days, just the three of us hanging out together,” I said, “but things change. People come and go. Our friend moved away and we never ended up seeing her again. But that’s just how life goes. Whether or not we see each other again doesn’t matter. Wherever she is, I’m sure she’s just fine.”

“I’m getting bored.” commented Mikaela.

“Is there even a point to any of this?” asked Kurt.

“I don’t know.” replied Kia.

Jean and I continued our battle. Our swords keep hitting each other. A few minutes later, it just takes one more strike to knock her sword out of her hand.

“Heh.” said Jean, “You won.”

“I guess I did.” I responded, “Why did we do that though?”

“You feel better?” asked Jean.

“Huh?” I replied, “I… guess so?”

“I wanted to test your strength,” said Jean, “you’ve had moments where you were planning to give up. I don’t want you like that. I hate it when you’re like that.”

“Jean…” I said.

“Plus,” she said, “I know you’ve been feeling down about a lot of things. Your life outside of adventuring hasn’t been great and our current quest hasn’t gone too well so far.”

“Thanks.” I said.

“You two are pretty good friends.” commented Kia.

“You think so?” I responded.

“Are you two dating now?” asked Mikaela.

“It’s not like that!” the two of us exclaimed at the same time.

“I’m kinda jealous,” commented Christina, “I never got to hang out with Jean much in my world.”

“Well, that was interesting.” said Kurt, “But what are you guys planning on doing now?”

“First of all, we’re going to find everyone.” I said.

“E-Everyone?” responded Kia.

“We’re gonna need as many hands as we can get,” I said, “our enemy this time is even stronger than ever.”

“Ron’s been asleep for a couple days,” added Jean, “so everybody that died on our latest adventure should be back… somewhere.”

“But how will you know where to find them?” asked Kurt.

“That’s the thing,” said Christina, “we really don’t know where to look.”

“I have an idea.” said Mikaela, “Why don’t we split up?”

“Split up?” responded Kia, “Why?”

“Won’t that make things a bit harder for us if things don’t go too well?” said Jean, “I think it would be best if we all stayed together.”

“If only there was some way we could contact each other.” said Kia.

“Why not use this?” suggested Mikaela, pulling out a familiar looking cell phone.

“W-Where’d you get that!?” I exclaimed.

“I… borrowed it from Lucas after he was decapitated.” answered Mikaela.

“Okay,” I said, “but we’ve only got one. How are we supposed to talk?”

“Create more.” said Mikaela.

“Excuse me?” I responded.

“You and Christina can make pretty much anything with your cat powers, right?” she said.

“Well,” I said, “it’s mainly weapons and tools that could…”

“See?” she said.

“I don’t know about technology…” I said.

“It’s magic,” said Mikaela, “don’t worry about it!”

“Telling me not to worry about it is going to make me worry about it!” I said.

“Ron,” said Jean, “why don’t we try it?”

“O-Okay…” I said.

Not long after that, Christina and I focused our powers to make cat-themed replicas of Lucas’ cell phone.

“Th-There.” I said, “Not sure how well they’ll work, though.”

“We’re gonna find out.” said Christina.

“So,” said Kurt, “how are we gonna do this? There are six of us.”

“Ron and I will go to Mihr'hai, Kurt and Mikaela can look around this area, and Kia can go with Christina to Dovacath… or what remains of these places.”

“Sounds good.” said Christina.

“It’s gonna be some time before we have everyone together,” I said, “but at least we’re making progress.”

“It won’t be easy, but we’re gonna win this in the end,” said Jean, “you can’t convince me otherwise.”