Magnet

Part 3


"OK, I'm off to go see today's tournament match," said Pratty as she walked towards the door. "Are you coming?"

"Uhm, no," said Sugar. "This place needs some good cleaning up. But don't worry about me. Please go enjoy yourself, Master Pratty."

"Oh," said Pratty, suddenly feeling very disappointed. "Well... OK. See you later then."

"Goodbye Master Pratty."

Pratty left the room, paused, and looked back. Why wasn't Sugar coming? In the good old days of not all that long ago, she would've jumped onto the chance of calling it a date with her husband. And now she was staying behind to do a little light dusting? Why?

Sugar wasn't kind of falling out of love with her, was she?

No. No, of course not. The sheer notion of it was silly. Pratty would've laughed at it if she wasn't so nervous.

Maybe she shouldn't go to the match today.

No. She'd decided to go to the match today so to the match of today she would go. She'd talk to Sugar later. If she'd figured out what to say by then.

Right.

Pratty turned around again to resume her walk to the Central Tower and in doing so nearly ran into Sanary.

"Pratty! Sorry, I didn't see you there," said Sanary.

"No, it's my fault," said Pratty. "I didn't pay attention to where I was going."

"Well, in that case, apology accepted," Sanary said with a smirk.

"Anyway, I'm going to go watch the tournament today. Wanna come?"

Sanary opened her mouth to respond, then hesitated. "No. No, I just came from the Labyrinth and I need to start forging my new weapon. Another time, OK?"

"Uhm... OK. Sure," said Pratty.

"Right. See you around then," said Sanary.

"Yeah, bye."

------

Pratty was deep in thought when she reached the arena's spectator seats. Now both Sugar and Sanary had refused to come with her. Pratty was very upset about that, although she wasn't quite sure why. After all, they had lives of their own and they certainly didn't need to go along with her every suggestion. It was just... well it would've been nice to hang out with either of them today.

"Hey Big Sis! Over here!"

Pratty looked up from her thoughts to Razzy waving at her. Pratty waved back and started making her way towards the girl, finding three empty seats around her.

"Sugar not with you today?" Razzy asked.

"No," said Pratty. "She wanted to do some chores."

Razzy blinked a few times. "Uh, does that make sense?"

"Well, it was getting a bit dusty I guess."

Razzy shrugged. "If you say so."

Pratty cast a sideways glance at Razzy. She'd gone for the male look today, her yellow clothes baggy and formless. Ever since the whole thing with Parista, Razzy had embraced her femininity and started wearing dresses and trying to act girly. But occasionally she'd just throw on some clothes and have people confuse her for a boy. Of course, there weren't many people left who thought Razzy was a boy. She'd... developed... too much to hide the fact that she was very much a girl. Slouching in her chair, wearing boy clothes, Razzy didn't look like girl, but more like a... a... well, not like a girl who looked like a boy, but more like a girl who kind of looked like she had the mind of a boy but was still very much a girl. Or something. Pratty wasn't very clear on what Razzy actually was. Apart from Razzy. She was pretty sure Razzy was Razzy.

Pratty suddenly noticed the noise of all the people talking around her because it died down. Drawing her eyes away from Razzy, she looked down at the arena where Sakuro had just raised his sword as a call for silence.

"Ladies and gentlemen of Wystern," Sakuro announced, lowering his sword, "welcome to the fifth round of the tournament. In this corner, from the Silver Guild, Ariel and Mariel."

Applause drowned out whatever else Sakuro wanted to say as the sisters walked into their corner of the arena.

"And in this corner," Sakuro continued once the applause had died down, "we have Chaves of the Gold Guild."

The applause was noticeably less enthusiastic this time.

"As always, both Craftknights are allowed to summon their Guardian Beasts," Sakuro said.

"And, as always, my sister will serve as my Guardian Beast," said Ariel.

"Pfah," Chaves scoffed. "In that case I don't need mine either."

Sakuro gave Chaves a blank look. "I'm feeling kind today, so let me remind you of the last time you participated. You didn't summon your Guardian Beasts and you were utterly crushed."

"I said, I don't need it," Chaves spat.

Sakuro shrugged. "Very well. Craftknights of Wystern! Fight with honour and dignity!" He raised his sword so that it caught the light. "Begin!"

"You know, here's something I don't understand," Razzy said as she watched Ariel easily dodge Chaves' first swing.

"What?" Pratty asked.

"Well, how can Mariel serve as a Guardian Beast? As far as I know, humans aren't magical."

"Maybe one of their parents was a Summon Spirit," said Pratty.

"Oh yeah. I guess that's possible," said Razzy. "I don't think I would've thought of it. But then again, I don't have Sugar as my Guardian Beast."

Pratty could feel the blush spreading across her face. "What do you mean by that?"

"Ah, nothing," said Razzy.

"And the winner is..." Sakuro announced.

"What!?" Razzy exclaimed. "It's over already?"

"Ariel!"

"No contest!" Chaves shouted angrily. "No cont-"

Sakuro levelled a glare at Chaves. "You have something to say?"

"Yeah, right, congratulations," Chaves grumbled.

"Good," said Sakuro.

"Well that was short," said Razzy. "Hey Pratty, how do you feel about going for a walk?"

"I don't know," said Pratty. "Where do you want to go?"

"I was thinking about the park. How 'bout it?"

Pratty looked at Razzy for a while. "OK. Sure, sounds fun."

"Great."

-----

Sanary was dithering. She'd never dithered before in her life. She'd always been absolutely certain. Well, OK, maybe there had been a few moments here and there where the right thing to do was a bit obscure, but she'd never actually dithered. And the worst part was, she was dithering over a doorway. A doorway! She'd walked through hundreds, nay thousands of doorways in her lifetime and here she was dithering over going through this one! It was ridiculous!

Telling herself that she was being really very silly, Sanary gathered up her courage and walked through the doorway.

"Hello Sanary."

Sanary resisted the urge to flee and acted in what she hoped was a casual manner. "Hello Sugar. Isn't Pratty here?"

"I think you know she's not," said Sugar.

"All right, you got me. I'm here to see you," said Sanary.

"I meant what I said," said Sugar.

"Yeah, I know and it doesn't make sense. You used to be so jealous about... everything... and now you're just letting Pratty go?"

"I was born to serve her," said Sugar. "I don't know how to do anything else. So if letting Master Pratty go is the best thing for her, then I'll do that."

"Wouldn't that hurt?" Sanary said.

"Yes, it would," said Sugar. "But I'll bear it."

"I wish I could be that strong," said Sanary.

Sugar smiled at her. "I think you already are."

-----

"Oh, I love this place," Razzy said, skipping and twirling through the green.

Pratty followed a few paces behind. The park was nice, but it felt a bit strange to her. Pratty had grown up thinking of Wystern as a city of steel and smoke. A beautiful park was just very... not Wystern.

Still, it was beautiful. And that did count for something.

"I'm glad you like it," said Pratty. "Sugar and I had a tough time finding plants that could live here."

Suddenly Razzy was in front of her and put her arms on Pratty's shoulders. "And I'm really grateful. Thanks."

Pratty could feel the heat beginning to rise. "It's nothing. I did promise after all."

Razzy smiled and before she knew it, their lips met. Pratty closed her eyes and...

... jumped back.

"Sorry," said Razzy. "I guess that was a bit sudden."

"No, it's... it's..." Pratty stammered. And there she'd been thinking Razzy was over her crush. Apparently not. She really didn't need this right now.

"Sorry," said Razzy again. "It's just that I finally meet you without Sugar tagging along and I figured... sorry."

"It's OK," said Pratty. "Just don't do that again unannounced. I've had more than enough girls kissing me without warning and I don't need more."

Razzy grinned. "Oh, does that mean I can kiss you announced?"

Pratty blushed. She really didn't need this right now.

-----

"Hi Sugar," Pratty said as she sauntered back into their room.

"Hello Master Pratty," said Sugar. "You're back early."

"The match was over pretty quickly," said Pratty. She walked over to Sugar and hugged her. "I missed you," she said. "It felt so weird going somewhere without you being with me."

Sugar just smiled and wished Pratty hadn't said that. "But you still had fun, right?"

"Yeah," said Pratty. "I hung out with Razzy for a while."

"That must've been nice."

"It was," said Pratty and for some reason she sounded surprised.

Sugar put her own arms around Pratty and held her. It probably wasn't the smart thing to do right now, but she couldn't think of something else since most of her thoughts were occupied something else.

She could see Master Pratty's soul shining because she was bound to her. And she had been able to see the glow of Shintetsu's soul, because he was going to be Master Pratty's father.

So Sugar wondered why she had begun to see the light of Sanary.

* * * * *

NOTE: I've become a bit concerned about characterisation. Especially Razzy's, but other people's as well. Granted, this story obviously takes place (quite) some time after the game, but I can't help but worry I've changed their personalities too much. Any input from my readers would be appreciated.