The Sexuality Hat

The floating base was intriguing, but there was almost no one to look upon it. It was so far in the air, and so smothered it the clouds that no intrigue could be detected from the world below. That gave the members of Fairy Tale a lot of free time.

            When they weren’t working out plans to quench their thirsts of dominance, the majority of members had some way of relaxing and unwinding. They weren’t necessarily evil, because Fairy Tale always believed they were doing the right thing. Or, at least, it felt right to them.

            Everything was going their way, after all. Akua had Moka up here and was keeping her out of the reach of her friends. Their allies were growing stronger by the day. However, there was a lot of doubt in some of the members’ minds, and not just doubt about their plans…

            “Kiria. You need to come train.”

            Kiria Yoshii, a monstrel, jerked awake out of his nap. He had been meaning to fill in official documentation about signing up to free medical care within Fairy Tale, but he had been so tired that he had put his head on his arms, just for a second, and had fallen asleep. Kiria sat up. He had no idea how long he had been out for.

            “Kiria! Kiria! You need to come train!” the door to Kiria’s bureau swung open and Hokuto Kaneshiro, also a monstrel, wheeled in. He had been in that wheelchair for almost a year, now.

            Kiria blinked and supressed a yawn before turning around in his chair, “Okay, okay. I’ll come.”

            Hokuto nodded seriously. Since he used to be human, he was more fragile than Kiria, so it was taking his injuries that confined him to the wheelchair longer to heal than it would have taken in Kiria. Still, Kiria reckoned that Hokuto was coping well. He had been through a lot, after all.

            Hokuto wheeled himself over beside Kiria and took a peek at the form that was on the desk, half filled in in blue pen, “What’s this?”

            “It’s the Free Healthcare form thing,” Kiria said, leaning backwards. He had cramp in his shoulder. Hokuto laughed shortly, evidently in a good mood.

            “Ah, I filled that in ages ago. When I got in this,” he patted the left wheel. “Now, are you coming?”

            Kiria nodded and stood up. He had no idea why he was so tired. He was aware that he was missing out on sleep; he was finding in immensely difficult to get to sleep in the first place. The area wasn’t particularly loud and it was a comfortable temperature. Kiria hadn’t any major worries at the moment… apart from this stupid form. Why couldn’t he just be entitled to free healthcare anyway? He was employed at Fairy Tale after all.

There were a few sparring halls dotted around the Sky Fortress. Kiria followed Hokuto down the corridor to one of them. It wasn’t the nearest hall, that one was down two floors, but Hokuto obviously found it easier to stay on the same floor. It didn’t take long to get there, however and, before Kiria went to open the doors, Hokuto spoke up.

            “You’re quite out of it, aren’t you?” it sounded jokey, but Kiria could tell that Hokuto was worried for him. Not that Hokuto really cared, but Kiria was a strong fighter and Hokuto was dependant on Kiria for certain things that Hokuto could no longer manage.

            “I’m fine! Come on, let’s have some fun.”

            The pair went into the sparring hall. The walls and floors had cracks everywhere from power attacks. They weren’t the only ones in the hall; Kahlua Shuzen, one of the stronger members of Fairy Tale and the second-eldest daughter in the Shuzen family, was in there with Miyabi Fujisaki. It was obvious that they had been fighting a bit because of the spattered blood on the floor around both of them. However, now they were just standing there, staring at each other. Then, to Kiria’s surprise Miyabi took a single step back and bowed solemnly. Beside him, Hokuto was smiling.