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Joel woke up late the next morning, seeing as how Koichi and Celia were already up. Celia was moving between her room and the bathroom as she did her hair and cleaned herself, and Koichi was sitting on the other couch watching television. Joel sat up and yawned.

"It’s about time you woke up. It’s noon already!" Koichi told him.

Joel looked at the VCR under the television and saw it was only 10:24, but he neglected to say anything. Instead he stood up and walked into the kitchen, and realized they had no food in their house at all.

"You know we can’t have breakfast if we don’t go to the store for some food first?" Joel told Koichi as he leaned out of the Kitchen, "Would you mind getting some for us?"

"Hah, shopping’s for women, especially for cooking items." Koichi laughed.

Celia looked out from her room and yelled, "I heard that, Koichi!"

Koichi stood up and shrugged, then put his hands in his pockets and walked to the door saying, "Yeah, yeah. I’m going out to get my own breakfast. Don’t bother looking for me."

When Koichi left, Joel went back to the couch and sat down and began watching television where Koichi stopped. Celia walked out and sat down where Koichi was sitting before he left, and the two caught glance at each other for a few moments.

"So, umm, what’s your sign?" Joel asked, trying to break the silence. Celia stood there and continued to look at him, wondering what was on his mind, and he said, "What I mean is, uh…"

"If it’s about last night, don’t worry." Celia told him, "I just needed to vent a bit, and I hadn’t gotten any sleep for a couple nights."

"Right, vent…" Joel said, smiling, "Good thing you didn’t go all out. You should have seen Koichi after you left!"

"Well, I think I will go food shopping." Celia said as she stood up and walked to the door. She turned around right in front of it and asked, "Wanna come with me?"

Joel turned off the television and said, "Sure, it should be better than sitting around this place all day." He stood up and accompanied her out the door and said, "We’ll show Koichi that shopping isn’t just for women."

As the two strolled down the sidewalks of Halfoam to the market they passed several cars that were parked over to the side of the road. Celia stopped Joel next to a blue and red car and began looking into it and around it. She looked up and saw another car zoom by them, and the driver seemed to be happy and waving as he passed Joel and Celia. As she walked on with Joel she wondered how nice it would be to drive in a car of her own. Joel looked down at Celia and predicted what she was thinking.

"Oh no, I don’t think so." Joel said, "No cars for us, Celia. I rather walk."

"Aw, come on, Joel!" Celia said. She smiled and smacked him on his arm, and said, "Don’t you think it’d be fun cruising around in one of those? And we would exhaust our legs either!"

"Ha! Who’s getting exhausted?" Joel laughed. He picked her up and tossed her on his back, and said, "If you wanted to cruise then why didn’t you just ask? Sit back and enjoy the breeze up there."

He held tightly onto Celia and began dashing down the road towards the market. Along the way they passed up Koichi, who was walking slowly down the street with his back tilted over and his arms covering his stomach. He still had not eaten anything all day.

"Food… Hunger… There’s nothing to hunt in this village…" Koichi groaned. He looked up and saw a stand with food and drink items with a lady handing them out to people, but continued walking and thinking, "Stupid imagination, that sign doesn’t say Free Food…"

He arrived at the beach again and lifted his head to look around. When he saw all the women laying around on the beach in swimsuits he forgot his hunger and sprang to his feet. He immediately remembered what he had in mind the day before and began looking around for an artist type to paint pictures of all the women for him.

"Excuse me, my good fellow, would you happen to know an artist?" Koichi asked as he walked up to one person.

"He has a sword, run!" the man cried.

"Uh, excuse me, but do you know of any artist types?" Koichi asked another character.

"Oh my god! Don’t kill me, please!" the other man cried.

Koichi stopped and thought a moment. He had to do something to stop all the people from running away when he asked them his question. He walked up behind another man, and he turned him around and grabbed him by the collar.

"Tell me who your village portrait painter is now or I’ll punch your brains out!" Koichi yelled at him with his fist high in the air.

The man that Koichi had grabbed growled at him, then grabbed Koichi by his shoulders and threw him back in a suplex. He then picked Koichi up and slammed the boy’s back on his knee, then he threw him into the closest trashcan. Koichi twitched a few times amongst the trash he was buried in. Another guy walked up to him and pulled him out of the trashcan.

"Dude, like, if you want to get pictures of landscapes then, like, why don’t you just buy a camera?" the guy asked him.

"Like, dude," Koichi responded in his dazed state, "I knew that, uhuhhuh…" he shook his head, then said, "I appreciate your advice, peasant. That’ll be all."

Koichi stood up and looked across the street and saw a store with a sign up that said "Cameras on sale!" He ran to the store and quickly bought a camera and ran back out to the beach, and he read the instructions. Already he could see his wishes coming true. He ran down to one girl and took a picture of her, then he turned around and took the picture of the next girl, and he ran up to another group of girls and took pictures of them as well. Koichi began to snicker and turned around to take another picture, but when he turned he saw the lady from the night before standing in front of him and his camera. He dropped his camera in shock, and Lilly picked it up for him.

"Hiya Koichi! Nice to see you again!" Lilly told him, smiling, "Are ya taking pictures to send home to your folks?"

Koichi took back his camera and thought a moment, then said, "Uh, yeah, that’s right." His stomach growled loudly, and he asked, "You wouldn’t happen to have any spare food around, would you, peasant woman?"

"Peasant woman?" she giggled, "Oh no, please call me Lilly! Come with me, I’ll make you something to eat at my place!" Lilly dragged Koichi with her down the sidewalk and said, "You were such a nice dancer last night, you deserve something nice in return!"

"Ugh, dragging me around like I’m her property or something… who does she think she is…" Koichi thought as he was being dragged along.

Lilly set Koichi down at the table in her kitchen and walked off to prepare something for him to eat. As he looked around, Koichi saw her house was lined with many flowers around the walls, and it made the house seem like a big pink and purple flower garden without all the bugs. Lilly mixed a number of ingredients in a pot and set it to cook over her stove. She began humming a tune to herself, and she twirled around gracefully through the kitchen and living room as if she were dancing. She made her way to her stereo and turned on some music, and she turned around and looked at Koichi and smiled at him. Just then a big man in a blue suit walked in through the front door and looked around.

"Oh, I’m sorry Lilly, did I come in at the wrong time?" the man asked.

"Oh no, daddy, I was just cooking something for Koichi." Lilly told him. She looked back to the kitchen and said, "Oh, the food!"

Lilly ran back into the kitchen and turned off the stove. She poured some of the food, now in a soupy-substance, into a bowl and brought it up to Koichi. His mouth dropped and began to water and his hands reached out for the bowl, but before Koichi could get a hold of the meal Lilly had made for him Lilly stopped and thought. Koichi fell down senselessly to the floor in front of her.

"Wait, Koichi, did you want something to drink?" Lilly asked him.

"Hmm, Koichi… I’ve heard of you, my boy." Lilly’s father said, "Good job with clearing out that bar fight last night."

Koichi looked up and said, "Oh that’s great… I’d like a bit of ale, peasant girl."

"Lilly." Lilly told him.

"Peasant girl." Koichi told her.

"Okay!" Lilly said, giving him a cute smile. She turned around and looked into her refrigerator and thought, "Hmm, by ale does he mean… ginger ale? Oh well, it’s worth a try."

She pulled out a bottle of ginger ale and poured some into a glass. She turned around again and gave him the cup of ginger ale before handing him the food, which he gladly accepted. He took a swig from the glass, then paused for a moment. He raised an eyebrow while looking at the cup, then finished off half of the drink.

"What is with this village’s ale…?" Koichi thought.

Lilly once again brought forth the bowl of soup for Koichi. His mouth dropped and began drooling at the sight of the bowl of food for him, but just before he could grab hold of the bowl, Lilly stopped at the sound of her father. Koichi dropped face first on the floor again as he tried grabbing the bowl of food he so much desired.

"You know Koichi, the boys at work were talking about you today, and we thought you’d do great as one of us!" he told Koichi.

"Great, wonder what that’d be." Koichi thought as he twitched on the ground.

"My daddy’s a part of the police force here in Halfoam!" Lilly told Koichi.

"Oh God…" Koichi thought.

"What do you say to that, son?" Lilly’s father asked. He looked at him twitch on the ground and assumed he saw him nod yes and said, "Great, let’s take you in for sign up!"

Lilly and her father picked up Koichi by the arms and legs and dragged him out of the house and to the car. He could only watch his tasty bowl of soup get farther and farther away from him as he was taken away. They drove him to the police headquarters where they signed him up to become a part of the team.

Meanwhile, Joel and Celia had been up and down the aisles in the market. The market was inside a building, as opposed to outside, and everything was kept either electrically heated or frozen. There were several different shops inside the market as well. They had seen all sorts of restaurants, gift shops, hobby shops, and barbers around the area. At the moment they were standing along a line to pay for the items they picked out. Joel looked around and found a flower shop near by and picked up an idea.

"Hey Celia, I’ll be right back. I’m going to the flower shop to pick something up." Joel said.

"Oh don’t, Joel. Not for me…" Celia told him.

"Oh no, not for you! They’re for someone else we know!" Joel told her. He ran off to the flower shop and thought, "Koichi’s going to get a kick out of this when he finds his room covered with flowers! Hopefully it’ll make his life a bit more… flowery."

He walked around the store and looked through the variety of different flowers on sale, then picked out several bunches of pink and purple flowers. As he took out his money to pay for the flowers, he heard the same voice from the night before, and he saw the same young man that was watching him at the clothing store on his first day in the city.

"So Zareon, I’ve always known you had a thing for girls, but for men!" the man said with a large grinning, "This is a different look for you."

Joel said nothing back to him. Instead he began taking slow steps back.

"Oh, that’s right. You don’t remember me." He said, "I’m Ryan, guardian of the mind forces. I know you’re having a hard time dealing with your resurrection, so I’ve come to find you and help you out."

Joel turned around, completely ignoring Ryan. He picked up his bunches of flowers and walked away and told the shop keeper, "Thanks for the flowers. It’ll be fun when I give them to my friend."

Ryan sighed as he watched Joel, and he put his hand up, pointing at Joel.

"Gather all time, freeze around this body. Make him incapable of moving." Ryan said.

Joel stopped moving and found himself unable to make any further actions. Ryan waved his hand in a circle, and Joel turned around to face him.

"There, that’s better Zareon, or should I say Joel, the name you’re more comfortable with." Ryan said.

"Grrr… Okay, you got me. Kill me already." Joel told him.

"No, no, I’m not here to fight you." Ryan said, "I’m nothing like Ro-Ten. In fact I should be thanking you for taking him out. I’ve read your mind and I’ve seen some of the things in your past in this life, and I want to help you control them."

"Yeah, and what if I don’t want to turn into some killer monster that can destroy this city?" Joel asked him.

"Well you will destroy this city sooner or later if you don’t learn." Ryan told him, "The way I see things is you have two possible futures right now. One of them is with you travelling with me all around the world and meeting others like us. I know where they all are so it won’t be long before you’d meet people like your brothers."

"Brothers? I have some brothers, huh." Joel said.

"Oh sure, two of them." Ryan told him, "If you don’t want to travel with me and gain experience then you can chose the other path. You can stay here and take on what ever occurs to you in this city and raise a family together with Celia."

"Celia doesn’t want to have much to do with a relation with me, and I have the slap mark to prove it. I don’t buy it." Joel said.

"Suit yourself." Ryan said, shrugging, "You can ask her tonight about it if you want to, but the choice is yours. Call me if you want to team up, and I’ll tell you more."

Ryan walked by Joel and waved at him. He disappeared as he left the store, and Joel was set free from Ryan’s "Stop Motion" spell. Joel walked out and began searching for Celia again, but she had already been on her way to meet with him already.

"Hey Joel, what took you so long to buy a few flowers?" Celia asked him.

Joel’s face turned red as he looked at Celia and thought, "Raise a family with her?" then said while looking at the flower shop’s logo sign, "Nothing at all, just a lot of flowers and a lot of prices."

"Hey, you’re getting shaky around me again, aren’t you. Are you sure those flowers aren’t for me?" Celia asked Joel, "Or were you hearing voices again?"

"Nah, don’t worry about it. I’ll tell you later" Joel told her, "Let’s just get home and make us something nice for dinner."

The two left the market and began walking home. Along the way Celia could not help but point out a stand up with a sign that said "Free Drivers Licenses and Tests! Drive your own car!" She dragged Joel up to the stand and gave him a sign up sheet and began filling one out for herself. Joel looked at the paper closely and noticed it asked for a lot of information that he could not supply, and it also had a test at the bottom for him to take. He looked over at Celia’s paper and noticed she had just put all "?"s where she was asked questions she did not have an answer to. So Joel filled out the form as well as he could and turned it in with his friend. The lady who looked over Joel’s paper looked at him in disbelief.

"So you’re saying you don’t know how old you are, or what your last name is, or your social security number… and you were born in the mountains of Traquo." The old lady grunted at him.

"That’s right." Joel told her, nodding, "It’s kind of hard to explain."

The lady sighed, then flicked her cigarette to the ground and said, "Well I suppose a little amnesia’s not going to hurt. Please get in the car over there with your friend, and we’ll have an instructor out for you in a few."

Joel looked behind him and saw Celia sitting in the driver’s seat of one of the cars. She had her hands on the steering wheel and was looking around at all the gadgets the car had on it in front of her. Joel walked up and stood outside the car, next to the passenger’s seat and looked inside with her.

"This’ll be so fun, Joel! Just wait until we go driving home in our new car tonight!" Celia said, smiling with enjoyment.

Joel looked down at the door and began pulling on it.

"Oh, you have to press the button on the door while pulling to open it." Celia told him.

He looked down again and saw the button on the handle, and the door finally opened for him. Joel sat down next to Celia and closed the door with a heavy tug, and it broke off and fell to the ground. Celia looked over and saw the door and began to worry.

"Oh man, I hope this doesn’t go against us." Joel said.

"Quick! The instructor’s coming!" Celia told him, seeing a man walk up to the car they were in, "Pick up the door! Pick up the door!"

Joel nodded and picked up the car’s door. He held it tightly in place where it was before it broke off before their driving instructor saw it.

"Hello you two, I’ll be your instructor today. I’ll give you driving tips and instructions on how to navigate the roads of the world." The man told them, "Now if you’ll allow me in on the passenger’s seat next to the young lady we’ll begin."

Joel looked at him as he held onto the door and shook his head. The instructor sighed, then walked up to the door and began pulling on it, but Joel kept his grip.

"Uh, sir, I must insist you get in the back seats for this!" Joel said, looking at the man from inside. He lost his hold on the door and the door crashed back onto the instructor. When the man looked up at Joel he told the instructor, "Oops, umm, it… came… that… way?"

"Well, I don’t know how that could have happened…" the man said as he stood up, "I guess we’ll have to take another car."

Joel and Celia stepped out of the car and moved to the next one over, and this time Joel sat in the back. They each buckled their seatbelts, and Celia turned on the car’s engine. She began backing up into the road and they were off, but she couldn’t seem to stay in the right lane or speed. She zoomed through and around cars coming at her and the ones in front of her as she drove at high speeds down the roads of Halfoam. Their teacher grabbed on to the side of the car and covered his head as trashcans, mailboxes, other cars, and people flew over and around them. Joel was sitting back and relaxing with his hair flying back in the cool ocean breeze.

"Hey mister, how am I doing so far?" Celia asked the teacher.

"Gwah! Stop! Stop! Please, stop!" the instructor cried.

"Well…" Celia said as she looked down at the car’s gas level, "I guess we are running low. Let’s stop at a gas station and refill!"

The three went through part of a wall as Celia finished driving and found a gas station to stop at. She stomped on the brakes and stopped just after the gas station and began pulling back. They all got out of the car and the driving instructor ran inside the station with his hands between his knees. Joel walked over to a pump and began refilling the test car for the next ride.

"You were right Celia, that was some awesome driving!" Joel told his friend.

Joel and Celia heard a flushing toilet and saw the instructor coming out from the gas station.

"So mister, did I pass?" Celia asked him.

The man walked up to Celia and looked at her, then clenched his fists and yelled, "Never in your life with those driving skills! I can’t remember a time when I was with anyone as reckless in driving as you are! Wait, that’s right, because there never was another person as bad as you!!"

Celia looked back at the instructor and began to cry, then she punched him in the face and ran for Joel. The instructor fell down to the ground on his back from the force of her hit, and the left side of his face turned black and blue.

"Oooh Joel… I wanted to get my own drivers license so bad…!" Celia cried.

"There, there, don’t worry, Celia. I’ll get one for us. You’ll see." Joel told her as he pat her on the back.

The three sat back in the car, only this time Joel was in the driver’s seat and Celia was in the back. They buckled their seatbelts again, and the instructor looked at Joel and thought for a moment.

"Do you think all that hair of yours will get in your line of sight, son? Do you need something to put it back?" he asked Joel.

"Hmm? Nah, I fight hordes of monsters like this all the time!" Joel replied.

He backed out from the gas station and drove around the city as instructed. Joel made sure he was in the right lane and used his turn signals like a good driver, and he stayed at the right speed limit while looking around for obstacles and people he might run into along the way. The teacher told him to stop at the stop sign at the road in front of the city after he took Joel through all the basic maneuvers in a safe car.

"Excellent work, Joel." The instructor told him, "For your last test we’ll see how you do on the highway outside of town."

"Thanks!" Joel said. He looked back at Celia, who was still a bit teary in the eyes, and said, "Did you hear that? We’ve almost got ourselves a license!"

Joel looked back at the road and looked around for any crossers before turning onto the highway out of Halfoam. A car pulled up next to theirs, and the driver waved at him with a grin.

"Hey, who’s that? It’s not anyone I know." Joel said.

The instructor looked over and said, "Oh, it’s just a street hippy that’s challenging you to a race…"

"Wow, cool! I can never turn down a challenge!" Joel said.

Joel began revving up the engine of the car and he grinned at the other driver.

"No, no, wait, please don’t!" the instructor cried, "I have a wife and three children, they’re going to miss me!"

"Hahaah! Here we go!" Joel roared.

He stomped on the gas pedal and turned onto the highway with the other car next to his own. The instructor began shrieking in terror, and he knelt down and brought his hands together and began to pray for a safe return. Joel looked to his side and saw he was getting ahead of the other car and cheered, but the other car began to zoom up and ahead of the three in their Driver’s Education car.

"Ah darn it, I was winning…" Joel sighed. He thought for a moment as they continued to zoom down the road, then said, "I got an idea!"

"Oh I hope it’s not too later to write my Will…" the instructor cried.

Joel pressed a button on the car that made the top go down, and he put his arm back and pointed to the rear of the car. Celia ducked to the side without saying anything, and sparks flew out from Joel’s hand, then a beam blasted out onto the road. They gained extra speed and passed up their challenger and burning their car to ashes. Celia sat back up, then jumped out the back of the car and grabbed onto the backside and pulled them to a stop. The teacher opened his door and dropped out of his seat and onto the ground.

"I showed him." Joel said as he looked back as his tire tracks.

The instructor stood up and began to quiver and shake.

"Y, you’re one of those demons… you both are, aren’t you, you spiky haired freak!" the man said.

"Thanks for the compliment!" Joel said.

"I knew I remembered your face from somewhere. You’re that wanted boy on TV from the other day, aren’t you?" the man asked. His only responses were two smiles from Joel and Celia, and he cried, "Okay, okay, just don’t hurt me!" He took out a pad of paper slips and began writing on two of them, then he handed both of them a copy and said, "Here’s your licenses, you can keep the car, just let me live!"

Joel and Celia watched the instructor turn for Halfoam and run as fast as he could. Celia jumped up to the front seat, and Joel turned the car around and began driving home.

"Wow, by the looks of it, he doesn’t even need a car if he can run that fast. He just needs to find something he’s afraid of." Joel said.

"Yay! Our own car!" Celia cheered, "And with a little touching up we can make it look so much better!"

The two drove home happily with their new ability, the ability to drive around in a car legally, but meanwhile Koichi was only having problems. He was stuck in the police department training area surrounded by Lilly, her father, and her father’s crew as they tried teaching him how to be a policeman, and they made him wear on of their blue uniforms as well.

"You know, Koichi, being a policeman takes not only strength, but courage and guts as well!" Lilly’s father told him, walking back around forth in front of him, "And if you have strength, courage, and guts to survive a hard day’s work protecting the city then you go home with a box of doughnuts!"

Koichi looked over at the table on the far other side of the room and mumbled, "Oh goody gum drops…"

"You must also have sharp accuracy to target with and use the policeman’s pistol!" Lilly’s father continued, "There is no room for a bunch of misses in my squad, now let’s see how you handle a gun!"

"Yeah, let’s see you go, Koichi! I bet you’re real good at it!" Lilly cheered.

One of the policemen stood up and handed Koichi his gun, and he briefly inspected the object.

"Odd… is this some kind of modern aged bow and arrow…?" Koichi asked as he looked in to the hole of the gun.

"Mmm, yes, you could say it’s like that, m’boy." Lilly’s father told him, "Just aim at the target and shoot."

"Hm, well, I guess it doesn’t sound too hard…" Koichi mumbled as he stood up.

Koichi walked up to a hall with a large cut out in the shape of a human figure at the far back end. He raised the gun and pulled the trigger. Koichi hit the target on the right hand area.

"Yay Koichi! You did it!" Lilly cheered.

"Umm, try again, son." Lilly’s father told Koichi.

He sighed and raised the gun again and fired. This time it hit the target on it’s left knee area.

"Yay Koichi, keep on going!" Lilly cheered again.

"Come on, Koichi, you can do better than that. Try again." Lilly’s father told him.

Koichi grunted, then raised the gun and fired again. This time it hit the target between it’s pelvic area. Lilly’s father slapped himself on the head and sighed.

"Yay Koichi, uh, ooh…" Lilly said, slightly freaking out when she saw where the bullet hit next.

"For God’s sake, boy, you’re supposed to hit him in his head or chest!" Lilly’s father told him.

Koichi looked at Lilly’s father for a moment. His shoulders drooped, but he brought them back up and turned to the target once more and shot twice. Both bullets hit on the head and chest as demanded.

"Why didn’t you say so in the first place?" Koichi asked the man. He walked up to the policeman who lent him the gun and returned it, then said, "My accuracy is one hundred percent. No peasant or other guard in the world could ever compare to my power."

Lilly’s father and his men all looked at him confused, but Lilly still gave Koichi the bright end of the picture.

"Yay! That’s my Koichi! You showed them, didn’t you?" Lilly cheered with a big smile.

Koichi walked back to the chair he was sitting down in before and sat back in it. The policemen began surrounding him and asking him all sorts of questions about himself and pushing Lilly out of the way.

"Wow Koichi, are you really that strong?" one asked.

"How did you get so good?" another asked.

"Who taught you that fancy kung fu style?" another policeman asked.

"Uh, excuse me?" Lilly asked as she tried getting back in.

"I bet this guy could break ten stone blocks with one hand!" the first policeman said.

"36 blocks, actually." Koichi told them.

"Oh great Master Koichi, please teach us some of your techniques!" the second requested of Koichi as he got down on his knees and begged.

"Yes, please Koichi, teach us what you know! You’ll be our lord and savior!" the third policeman cried.

"Uh, geez…" Koichi mumbled, scratching his head. He began thinking, "These guys are treating me like the man I am, royalty, hah! It won’t be so bad around here after all."

"Stop!" Lilly shouted, bringing everyone’s attention to her, "Stop hogging my boyfriend!"

"What, boyfriend?" Koichi asked.

Koichi began looking around in shock, and the policemen grew confused themselves.

"Yes, that’s right, my boyfriend!" Lilly cried, "It’s only right that the strongest guy in town be the boyfriend of the police chapter, right?"

"So, you’re my daughter’s new boyfriend, are you Koichi?" Lilly’s father asked. He grinned and told him, "Well that’s different! Now I’ll have to work you even harder until I think you deserve to be with her!"

Koichi fell back in his chair and began crawling for the exit.

"N, no way! I’m not dating her! Not that peasant!" Koichi told them.

"Oh don’t be afraid, m’boy! My daughter doesn’t bite and neither do I, but…" Lilly’s father started. His voice turned to a growl and he continued with, "…my night stick will meet your groin if I find out you’ve done something bad with my little girl! You hear that!?"

Koichi looked around like he was a frightened cornered rat, and the others began to look to him like lurking monsters with glowing eyes that were approaching him slowly. He felt himself lose it, and he jumped up to his feet and ran for the exit. Koichi began making a mad dash down the streets of Halfoam and back to his home. He met back up with Joel and Celia, who had been back at the house for a while, and he locked the door in every way he could after he entered. His face was pale and he was out of breath from running such a great distance from the people in the police station.

"Hey Koichi, what’s with the blue suit?" Joel asked him as he looked back and saw him.

"None of your business." Koichi grunted as he passed through the house.

"Oh Koichi, if you’re still hungry I went grocery shopping today." Celia told him.

"Terrific…" Koichi said. He picked out an apple from the refrigerator and ate it in a few giant bites, then said, "It’s been a long day. I’m going to bed." He walked through the small hall of their house and into his room. He turned on his light and looked around, seeing his room had been covered in pink and purple flowers, and he remembered how Lilly’s house looked the same way, and he yelled, "No! She found me again!"

Koichi’s voice seemed so loud that it rumbled the whole neighborhood, and he began throwing out every bit of flowering from his room that he could lay his hands on.

"I’m going to be sleeping with my sword out tonight if this keeps up." Koichi thought.

Celia stood up from the couch she was sitting on and walked to her room and said, "Well, I think I’m going to get ready, too, Joel."

"Right, good night Celia!" Joel said, waving at her. He turned off the television and thought, "I’d better get some sleep, myself. Who knows what’ll happen tomorrow now that people are starting to find out I’m wanted on TV."

He pressed the button on the armrest of his couch that made it recline into his bed. He looked over at the hallway and noticed Celia’s door opening again and figured it was just her going to the bathroom, but Celia moved by the bathroom and sat on the couch with Joel and hugged him.

"C, Celia? What’re you doing?" Joel asked her.

"I thought about it, and I think this is the way it should be, Joel." Celia told him.

Celia lay back on the couch beside Joel and closed her eyes. Joel looked down at her next to him and sighed, but then remembered what Ryan had told him back at the market.

"Suit yourself, but you can ask Celia what she thinks later tonight if you want. It’s your choice." He remembered Ryan telling him.

"Could that guy really have seen this coming?" Joel thought. He looked at Celia again, she was falling fast asleep, and he asked, "Celia, would you answer something?"

"Hmm…?" she mumbled.

"Tell me, would you really marry me and raise a family together?" he asked her.

"Yes, sweetie…" Celia answered him.

"I see…" Joel said.

Celia closed her eyes and went fast asleep before Joel could think up anything else to say. He dropped back on to the couch and turned off the television. Soon he fell asleep himself. Outside Ryan was sitting back on top of Joel’s house on the roof. He gazed at the stars and finished off a rainbow popsicle he had brought with him.

"Sounds like everything’s okay down there." He thought, "A guardian loving another guardian… that’s a very rare occurrence, indeed. I can only remember one other couple like that, but…" Ryan stopped thinking for a moment and teleported himself down to a window on the ground to look into. He thought, "Celia doesn’t seem like the kind of guardian who would lose her mind like the other one did when it comes time to have children of her own." Ryan turned around and walked to the sidewalk and walked away into the night and thought, "I can remember it clearly, the day she gave birth to the child… she was so obsessed with power gain that she threw the child away the moment it was born. I’m sure that if that woman wasn’t the strongest of us all that she’d be scorned at and punished thoroughly, but she is." He looked back at the house one last time and called out, "Zareon, I hope you make the right decision. We could use your help

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