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With the help of Joel’s area map, the three were able to make it to the nearest Transition station to Halfoam. They exchanged their gold pieces and treasures from the castle for dollar value, although not as much as they had expected, and proceeded through to the inspection room. Koichi and Celia looked around the station with amazement as they passed all sorts of different high tech equipment. They were introduced to television, radio, computers, item scanners, cars, and other things as they walked around.

"So I take it you haven’t been around these parts before, have you Koichi?" Joel asked.

"No, never in all my studies!" Koichi said, "I don’t understand how the world has kept me from this advanced culture."

"Well, these stations do." Joel told him, "But don’t expect me to know all the answers to your questions, because I haven’t seen much of it all myself. I heard the beach is nice, though."

They were given tickets for the taxi service that would pick them up and take them to Halfoam, and the three sat down on a bench next to a road that went through the Transition station. Celia looked to her side and saw a stand up with an assortment of magazines, and she picked out one and looked at it.

"Hmm, Women’s Swimsuit Magazine…" she read, "Well I’m a woman, so I guess it’ll be an enjoyable novel." She opened up the magazine and noticed it was all pictures of different women wearing suits that barely covered their body, and gave a sour face, saying, "Blaah! What kind of book is this? Is this what women around these parts go around wearing?"

Joel took the magazine and took a quick glance at it, then handed it to Koichi and said, "Well, no, they didn’t look like this where I came from. They wore regular clothing just like the three of us do." He paused for a moment and looked at Celia up and down, seeing as how she was still wearing her fighting gi, and said, "We might have to get you some different clothes so people don’t look at you weird, what do you think, Koichi?"

Joel turned and looked at Koichi again and noticed he had stars in his eyes and had a case of the giggles. He tried taking the magazine from him, seeing as how Koichi had his nose stuck in it, but he wouldn’t give it up.

"Grr, no, let go of girls for Koichi!" Koichi growled at him.

"Hey, you’ve seen enough for one day! Don’t be a sick-o!" Joel growled back as he tugged on the magazine.

"Must… see… more…!" Koichi growled. The magazine ripped in two in their hands, and Koichi cried, "No! My beautiful women… I must see more!"

He jumped to the magazine stand and began flipping through each different magazine, but he couldn’t seem to find another magazine like the one he was shown before. Soon a taxi drove up and stopped next to the bench where Joel and Celia were sitting and where Koichi was rummaging through magazines. When the door of the taxi opened up, Joel picked up Koichi by the back of his collar and tossed him into the car, then he allowed Celia to step inside and sit down and then he took his own seat. They handed their tickets to the driver and they were off at high speed down the road on the way to the city.

It was very cramped inside with the three of them sitting in the back of the car. The three kept trying to push each other away to give themselves some more breathing room.

"Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea to travel this way." Joel said.

"Come on, my sword’s getting cramped you guys!" Koichi cried.

"What? Are you saying my butt’s too big?" Celia asked him.

"No, I’m saying Joel could use a hair cut, that’d free up some space!" Koichi told her.

"Hey, what’re you saying? You probably don’t even know what it’s like to have this kind of hair!" Joel told them.

"Well I do!" Celia said, pointing at her long bangs of hair.

As they calmed down, Joel looked out his window and noticed they were riding over a bridge right across from Halfoam. The city was on an island surrounded by the sparkling ocean water. He pointed it out to Celia, and she crawled over his lap and looked out the window herself.

"Wow… so this is what the city’s like!" she said.

"Yeah, even I’m impressed." Joel told her.

Koichi started to wonder what they were looking at, and he began jumping up and down in his seat like an excited child and said, "Aww, come on, let me see!"

"You have your own window, remember?" Joel told him.

"Uh, oh yeah." Koichi mumbled, turning his head the other way.

He looked out and saw parts of the beach and all sorts of different girls sitting and relaxing on the beach wearing swimsuits.

"If I could get a supreme artist to paint pictures of all of this for me, I’d have an endless mountain of beautiful women to look at!" Koichi thought, laughing out loud.

The taxi came to a stop at a corner, and the three were let out onto the sidewalk. All around them people walked and talked with each other, rode bicycles and skateboards, and drove their own cars. On the sides of the road people sat down and sang songs and played instruments for others, and groups of children threw balls around in sport of playing.

"Okay guys, just so we don’t end up making a mess of this place let’s not go around using our strengths in public." Joel told Koichi and Celia, "This place looks too nice to be destroyed like the castle was, and let’s get some new clothes for you two before you get stared at."

"Fine then, if you think we don’t look good enough to be walking around this village then let’s all get new clothes." Koichi said as he walked into the street.

A car appeared speeding down the road followed by a police car with its siren flashing and going off. It flew down the road toward Koichi as he moved across the street, and he grabbed it with both hands on its front before it hit him. The car came to a sudden halt, and the driver of the car flew out through the windshield and hit the ground in front of his car. The police car stopped near them, and the policeman ran out and grabbed hold of the man who was driving the car.

"Hmph, what kind of monster goes around in a place like this?" Koichi grunted.

"Wow, son, that was some nice hand work you did there. You deserve a reward!" the policeman told him, handing him a bag of money from the mad driver’s car, "He was one mean bank robber, but it’s yours. Thanks for the help."

As the policeman drove off with his captive, Joel looked at him with a stupefied look. Koichi looked back and walked over to Joel and waved the reward in him face.

"So, we shouldn’t use our strengths around here, should we?" Koichi asked him.

"Well, hmm." Joel mumbled, thinking a moment, "Let me try."

He looked around the area, but he saw no cars speeding out of control he could jump out and smash. He looked around again, but everything seemed to be calm and in control. Then he saw a group of kids playing basketball get into a fight and they were about ready to attack each other.

"Ahah! Now’s my chance!" Joel thought. He ran up to the group and reached out to stop the children before the first punch was made and said, "Stop before someone’s hurt!"

The kids stared at him, and one of the kids behind Joel kicked him in the back of the leg. He lost his footing and fell down to the ground between the kids, and they all jumped on him and beat him down in the dust. He looked up as the children were running off and yelled, "Don’t think you’ve heard the last of me!"

A woman walked up to him and started beating on him with an umbrella.

"Shame on you! Shame on you for picking on poor, defenseless little boys, you brute!" she yelled at him.

He twitched a few times as the lady walked away, and Celia and Koichi approached Joel again and helped him up to his feet.

"Who’s getting stared at now?" Koichi asked him.

"Oh hush…" Joel moaned.

The three walked off and found their way to a local clothing store. Inside they found not only stacks and rows of clothing, but pictures up on the walls of people dressed in the latest fad of fashion.

"Servant boy! Servant girl!" Koichi roared at the two people behind the desk near the front of the store, pointing at the pictures, "You expect the princess and I to walk around wearing clothes like those?"

"Dude, chill out, they’re just suggestions. Don’t yell at my girlfriend and I like that, man." The clerk told him.

"They are sorta… skimpy…" Celia said, "Calm down though, Koichi. If it’s what the people here wear then we’ll try them on." She walked up to a ring of shirts and pants and picked out some jeans and a shirt that she thought would look like on her and said, "Even though I’m probably going to regret having my bellybutton showing."

Celia took the clothes and moved into a dressing room. Koichi looked around and found a black shirt and white jeans, and he began changing in the middle of the store.

"Umm, Koichi." Joel said, tapping him on the shoulder.

"What?" Koichi hissed.

"You don’t change in public here. They have rooms for that." Joel told him.

"Grr, oh fine…" Koichi grunted, picking up his things and moving to one of the back rooms.

Joel sat down on a seat close to him and let out a sigh of relaxation. He looked up at the clerk and his woman and noticed they were shaking nervously at the sign of them, and he waved at them with a hint of a smile. He shook his head and chuckled, then looked outside and noticed a tall young man wearing a black T-shirt, blue jeans, and a blue bandana around his head was watching him. He caught Joel’s eye for a moment as he looked somewhat different from the rest of the crowd, but he disappeared with a snap of the finger. Joel shook his head again and rubbed his eyes.

Celia had finished changing her clothes and stepped out of her dressing room. She walked up to Joel to show off her new look, but she couldn’t help but blush and look away with her green-skinned belly showing. She had chosen a red shirt and blue pair of pants. Joel stood up and walked next to her, and he turned her face to look at him and he gave her a smile.

"It’s horrible, don’t you think?" she asked him.

"If you think ugly, you will feel ugly." Joel told her, "Hey, I’d never turn you down for looks. Only selfish people would do that."

Celia stopped blushing and brightened to a smile again and said, "Y, you’re right. Who cares about these clothes."

Their attention was drawn to the back of the store as they heard the sound of a slamming door. Koichi had finished changing his clothes and was tromping out to the front mumbling every this and that about clothing.

"This sucks." Koichi grumbled.

"Err, wait." Joel said. He ran up to a tower of caps and brought one back to Koichi and put it on his head. He looked at him for a moment, then put the cap on the other way. He gave a sly grin and said, "There, much better."

Joel turned to the counter and paid for the items that Koichi and Celia had picked out, and he asked for directions to a lodging area. The three were able to buy an apartment in the city for a fair price with the money they obtained from the Fonan-Kal castle before leaving. They were supplied with a living room, kitchen, two bedrooms, a bathroom, and three closets. Each room came ready with it’s own furniture and electronics as well. Everything from couches, to televisions, and beds and silverware were all in their places ready to be used.

"Woah, nice living chambers…" Koichi said, looking around in awe, "But where do you put the torches to light the room?"

Celia and Koichi began looking around the apartment, and Joel pressed a button on the wall near the entrance to turn the lights on, as he remembered back in the mayor’s house in Traquo. They looked up at the lights in astonishment, then Koichi looked down at one of the seats and began tugging on something at the foot of it.

"Ugh, there’s something loose here, but… it won’t budge!" he said as he tugged at it.

Celia walked up to the couch that Koichi was tugging at and noticed a button on the armrest.

"Hey, maybe this turns on more lights." She said.

She pushed the button on the couch, and it turned into a recliner. Koichi was smacked in the face by the part of the seat he was looking at and dropped back in a daze from the collision. Joel stepped up to the television and pressed the power button, and a moving image appeared on the screen. The screen began flipping and changing rapidly, and when Joel looked back he noticed that Celia had found the remote control.

"My, my, you’re finding all sorts of buttons to press today, aren’t you?" Joel said.

As Celia sat down and played with the television, Joel walked down the small hall and looked into the two bedrooms. He took another moment the think things over, then he walked back to the living room where Celia and Koichi were. Koichi had recovered from the hit in the head he had taken and was watching television with Celia.

"Guys, you know there’s only two bedrooms in this place, and there’s three of us." Joel told them.

"So?" Koichi asked, looking up at Joel, "I’ll take one, and you can sleep with your queen. How hard is that?"

"N, no…" Celia sighed with depression.

"No Koichi. I’m not going to push her into anything since we didn’t want to get married in the first place. All deals are off now that we’re gone from the castle, and there is no royalty anymore." Joel told Koichi, "We’re normal people now, so get used to it. You two can take the rooms, though, and I’ll sleep out here."

"Grrr, what?" Koichi growled, jumping up and grabbed Joel by the collar of his shirt. Joel pushed him back, and Koichi thought, "Who made this guy the leader anyway… I don’t want to be reduced to a rat peasant like him… But wait, if all deals are off then I don’t have to be their bodyguard do I?"

Koichi grinned and sat back down and watched some more television with Celia, and the girl next to him gave him a smack on the head.

"Don’t fight in our new house, Koichi, do you hear me?" Celia told him.

The doorbell began to sound off, and Koichi stood up and answered it. A group of people stood in front of him on the other side with a basket of gifts and a card that had the word "Welcome" on it.

"Howdy stranger! We just noticed you moved in today so we all got together to give you a welcoming party!" the man in front said. He took out a guitar and they all started singing, "Welcome to our home, it’s our lovely own abode, we hope you like Halfoam, or the next town’s down the road!"

Koichi was handed the basket and card and looked at it, then he slammed the door in their faces and shouted, "We don’t want any!"

"I’m giving this place three weeks before Koichi wrecks it." Joel said, looking at Celia.

"I’m giving it two." Celia said, "There goes our welcoming committee."

"Ugh, I’m going to test the bathing system here…" Koichi grunted as he walked to the bathroom.

Joel sat down and kicked back in the seat next to Celia. His friend looked at him and wondered.

"Are you sure you’ll let Koichi and I have both the rooms?" she asked him.

"Hmm?" Joel mumbled, looking at Celia, "Oh sure, I’ve gotten used to sleeping without a bed. You’re still new to all this, so it’s no biggy."

"Oh… well thanks… I had better unpack then." Celia said.

She stood up and took her bags down the small hall and into the room on the right. Joel continued watching television and yawned as he flipped through the channels. A news broadcast on one of the channels caught his attention as he saw a picture of himself pop up on the screen. He looked down the hall a moment, then put down the remote control seeing as how no one else was coming, and he watched the broadcast.

"Attention citizens of the world, we bring you this news information regarding a deadly killer who escaped from Traquo a week and a half ago." The television buzzed, "A mass murder of workers, policemen, and the mayor’s own daughter occurred in over one night by the young boy shown in this picture. He is armed and dangerous, even without a weapon. If you see this boy, please call the authorities."

"No…" Joel thought. He looked down at his sword as it stuck out of his bag on the floor and remembered the night he lost control of himself in the city. He thought, "I’ve got to keep low if I don’t want everyone to find out what I did. I can’t let this city be destroyed like the others."

Celia walked out of her room and noticed Joel in his ill-looking state. Joel looked up and saw Celia, and he changed the channel quickly.

"Is there something wrong, Joel?" she asked, "You look rather depressed over there."

"No, nothing wrong!" Joel told her, smiling and waving his hands at her, then he said, "Actually I was debating on asking you out to dinner tonight to make you feel more comfortable around the city." He thought to himself, "Yeah, great recovery!"

She looked at him and smiled, "Of course I will… we haven’t had anything all day! But what about Koichi?’

Joel stood up and looked at the bathroom, and said, "Bah, he’s a big boy. He can take care of himself." He walked up to Celia and put his arm out to her and said, "Come on, let’s have some fun!"

She took his arm and they began walking towards the door, but just then Koichi burst out of the bathroom. They looked back and saw steam flying everywhere around him from inside the room.

"Wait for me, damn it!" he cried, "I think I shrunk a few sizes in there, ugh." He walked up to Joel and Celia and said, "I need a nice cold cup of ale, myself. I hope they have a good selection at where we’re going to."

The three had seen commercials about a fancy night club restaurant down the street on their television, so that was their first pick as they left their apartment. Day turned to night, and the sun was setting over the horizon. The restaurant was dark inside with few lights. There was a large dance area in the middle of the place where neon colored laser lights flashed around, and small tables along the sides where people sat, ordered meals, and ate. A disco ball spun up on the ceiling and music played softly around the restaurant as well. They were seated at a table and each handed an order menu.

"Hmm, it’s been so long…" Joel said. He looked at the waiter and said, "A burger would be great."

The waiter turned to Celia, and she said, "I’d like a salad and some tea, please."

The waiter then turned to Koichi, who was still looking through his menu listings, mumbling, "Where’s the beer selections…" he looked out and roared "Servant boy! I want a listing of your finest ales!"

The man looked at him and said, "Sir, you’re a bit young for alcohol, don’t you think?"

"Wha… too young?" Koichi said, "I’m fifteen for crying out loud, I’m old enough to drink what ever I want to. Now get me some ale!"

Joel leaned over to the waiter and whispered, "Better mark him down for some soda, he won’t know the difference."

The waiter walked away and handed their order to the cooks, and their wait began. The room was flashing blues, purples, reds, and greens from the dance lights, and the music changed tune. Joel looked at Koichi, who was sitting in his chair backward at the table and leaning foreword with his arm crossed like a grump.

"So… how come you’re always so angry, Koichi?" he asked him.

"Because I can!" Koichi hissed at him. He looked away and said, "Besides, it’s been so long since I’ve had a good work out, and a day has already been too long."

Celia pulled Joel over to him and whispered, "I think it’s because he hasn’t seen his own family for seven years straight."

Joel fell out of his chair in surprise, and as he got back up he said, "That means he’s been training and working for the castle since he was eight?"

"Yeah, that’s what I was told, anyway." Celia said, nodding.

Their food orders came in and were set on the table in front of them. Joel picked up his burger bun and threw some ketchup and mustard onto it and began eating his food, as did Celia with her salad. Koichi raised his glass and took a sip, then raised an eyebrow and looked at his cup. He took a few more sips, then slammed his cup on the table and wiped his mouth clean.

"Sweet, but not tender." Koichi said as he rubbed his mouth off with the side of his arm, "The ale here is so… different!"

Joel chuckled for a moment. He stopped laughing when he felt someone walk by him, and a ghostly whisper went through his mind, calling out "Having fun, Zareon?" He looked behind him, but saw no one. He turned back to the table and shuddered.

"What’s wrong, Joel?" Celia asked him.

"They’re calling that name again." Joel said, shaking. He looked up to Celia and said, "You know, the one they were calling me at the castle."

"I think you’re just hearing things." She told him, "You’re paranoid that the catastrophe might happen again, aren’t you?" Celia put her fork down and took a sip from her teacup, then stood up and pulled Joel up with her, "Come on, let’s dance! It’ll take your mind off things."

Joel stumbled to the middle of the dance floor as Celia dragged him in.

"But I don’t know how to!" Joel told her.

"Well I don’t know either! But we’ve both seen lots of it, haven’t we?" Celia said, "It looks easy enough, you just…" she put Joel’s hands on her hips, and she put hers up on his shoulders, "There! Now we…" they started moving slowly with the rhythm of the music in circles around the floor.

A young lady walked up to Koichi and looked at him, then asked, "Hey, aren’t you that blue hair guy that stopped the bank robber earlier today?"

"Yes, I suppose you could say that." Koichi said, looking back.

"Oh cool! You must be really strong! I bet you can dance real well, too!" the lady said, "Come on, let’s!"

She grabbed him and started swinging Koichi around on the dance floor. As they moved passed Joel and Celia he cried, "Switch, switch with me, please! Aah!"

"You know, you’ve always been so lion hearted around me, yet you seem so weak in the knees tonight. Is something wrong?" Celia asked Joel.

"More than you’ll ever know." He replied.

"May day! Help! Come on, guys!" Koichi cried as he swung by Joel and Celia.

"So what was this friend of yours like? You think about her a lot, don’t you." Celia asked Joel again.

"Yeah, I do. Several times a day. She was the first person I ever knew." Joel told her, "She was kind of like a mother to me, you know? She helped me walk, talk, learn, all sorts of stuff."

"A mother?" the girl asked, "What happened to her, though?"

"Hey, I think I’m getting the hang of this!" Koichi said as he and the lady passed them again.

"She became real sick. I wanted to save her so bad, but she told me to let her die. I don’t understand why, but…" Joel told Celia, "I told myself I wouldn’t let you die no matter what the cost."

"Joel… thank you…" Celia said, as she looked up to him with sparkling eyes, "All the other guys I met in the castle seemed to see me as just an object of sexuality, but… you’re different some how, aren’t you? Why can’t you be like them so I can turn you down?"

She gripped closely to him and began crying on his chest. Joel looked down at her and stroked her hair, then he reached down and kissed her on her cheek as she cried. Celia looked up at him and gasped, and slapped him in the face, backing off.

"No you fool!" she cried. As she calmed down she realized what had happened and said, "I’m sorry… the love feels right, but something inside me is telling me it’s wrong…" she looked at him with her depressed face, and she staggered and winced suddenly with her hands on her chest. She stood up and said, "Excuse me, I think I just need some rest."

As Celia walked out of the restaurant, Joel walked back to his table and sat down.

"Well, the dance was good." He thought, "I hope she doesn’t get the wrong idea about me."

He looked over and noticed Koichi still dancing around with the lady.

"Yeah, I learned a lot of self-defense a long time ago so I could serve out my job as a royal guardsman, and…" Koichi told the lady.

He bumped into a big guy behind him as he was dancing back and forth, and the man stood up tall like a giant over Koichi and sneered at him.

"Grah, you’d better watch where yous going, you little twirp!" he roared at Koichi. He reached down and pulled Koichi up by his collar and said, "Yous owe me an apology."

"What? The Great Koichi apologizes to no one." Koichi said.

"Bruno, stop being such a jerk!" the lady yelled.

"Huh, Lilly? Yous know this kid?" the man asked.

Koichi began struggling free and preformed a backward flip while in Bruno’s grip. He kicked the man and jumped away back to the dance floor, then stood ready in his fighting position.

"Oww, that hurt yous runt! I oughta… Come on boys, let’s show this boy who’s king!" Bruno roared.

"This’ll get messy. You’ve got to get out of here quick." Koichi told the lady.

"Oh, will I ever see you again? I don’t even know your name, mystery man…!" Lilly said.

"It’s Koichi, the new guy in town." He told her. He looked at the group of large, burly men forming around him and said, "That’s right! I’m Koichi, and you’d better remember that name, peasants!" he looked around again and said, "Oh yeah, just what I needed! A good work out. It’s been so long since I’ve been able to toy with weaklings like you all!" Koichi dodged a punch to the head, then jabbed upward into the gut, "Crimson Upper!" He threw the man down, then dodged another punch and jump kicked the next man, "Volt Gash!" He blocked another swing and began throwing a barrage of his own fists at the next man, "Repeated Strike!" He ducked the next swing, then charged into the man with his shoulder, "Buster Break!"

Joel stood up and walked up to Koichi, making his way through all the unconscious people on the ground. Koichi spit at the ground and popped his knuckles.

"I see you’re polishing up on your special techniques." Joel said.

"Heh, yeah. They came to the wrong person for a fight. Serves them right." Koichi said, grinning at him, "Are you next?"

"Uh, no. It’s about time we put you to bed, though. You’ve shown enough of your strength for one night." Joel told him.

"Ah you bore me, wusey boy." Koichi said. He walked up to the bar and shouted, "Servant boy! More ale, now!"

Joel shrugged and walked out of the restaurant. He made his way to his new home and kicked back on the couch. Looking over he noticed Celia’s light was on, and it was lighting up the small hall. She was humming a tune to herself in her room.

"Hey Celia, are you doing okay? Can I come in?" Joel asked as he walked up to the hall.

She stopped humming and called out, "I’m fine, please don’t enter."

Joel turned around and went back to the living room area. He noticed a mirror hanging on the wall a bit aside from Celia’s door. The mirror showed a stand up next to her bed with the picture he drew of her in a picture frame. She had bought it after she left the restaurant. Joel smiled to himself and went back to the couch and laid back as it reclined when he pressed the button on the armrest.

Before he could manage to get any sleep, Koichi came back. Joel looked up at him and saw that Koichi had finally found where the beer really was. He staggered left and right, then crashed to the ground.

"Ooo… beer… good…" Koichi moaned.

"So does this mean I get your room tonight?" Joel asked him.

Koichi didn’t answer. He had fallen asleep on the floor from all he had to drink that night, and was snoring away. Joel turned back and stared at the ceiling, wondering what would happen next, then he slowly fell asleep himself. The three had found their place in the city, but has the city found a place for them?

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