Fragmented Memories and Lost Pasts (Prolouge)

"Black Mage, fistfighter, warrior...Samurai looks interesting...maybe thief...berserker? Nah...alchemist? What-Ah. Nevermind." Kira was poring over the dress spheres available for ones that she wanted to try. Kumo had decided on using his blitzer sphere, and that was it. Shirai had discovered that he had a sphere that could be used as a dress sphere already, and was happy to use that instead of borrowing dress spheres. "Hm? White Mage might be useful. How many slots do I have on this grid anyway?" Kira leaned back the other way, looking at the grid she had agreed to share with Kumo and Shirai, since they would only be using one sphere each. "Three, besides ours. Okay."

Kumo groaned softly as he looked up, bored out of his mind. Kira was taking so long to pick out the three spheres she wanted to use that he was about an inch from just standing up and whapping her over the head. He knew he'd get punched back, though, so he resisted.

"There we go. Black Mage, Warrior, and White Mage." Kira held up the grid with a grin. There wasn't a slot left open. Kumo sighed and pushed off of the wall.

"Let's go, then. I'm tired of waiting around." Kira rolled her eyes, and the trio trotted to the bridge.

"Oi! We're ready to leave now." Brother turned and looked back at them. he was frowning, which amused Kira slightly.

"Finally. Hold on, I'll get the ship lower." Kira nodded and walked back to the elevator, stopping and looking at the boys as she felt that they didn't follow her. She jerked her head towards the elevator, meeting Kumo's eyes. Shirai was paying attention to something else, so he didn't notice when Kumo left his side, following Kira down the elevator.

Kira hopped off the airship, landing in a place she was pretty sure wasn't a town. The airship took off, leaving Kumo and Kira alone in the forest. Kira had grabbed a gray jacket and slung it on her arms before she had departed the airship. She growled to herself and handed the earpiece that she had been given to Kumo.

"You keep hold of this, kay? Lessee..." Kira looked around, trying to find some way to get her bearings.

"How about we go this way?" Kumo pointed in one direction as Kira pointed in the other. Kira blinked and tilted her head to the side, thinking.

"Okay." The two of them walked in the direction Kumo had pointed them, admiring the forest around them. They got lost a couple of times, but soon found a path. Kira smiled in relief, glad that they at least knew where they were, sort of. Kumo was walking slightly ahead of her when a fiend attacked.

The two blondes moved simultaneously, Kira skipping back a step and twisting to the side to kick the fiend that drew close to her as Kumo spun his blitzball in his hands and chucked it at the fiend. Their attacks hit at the same time, both sites emitting pyreflies. The fiend screeched, and the blondes looked at each other with raised eyebrows as it faded.

"Heh." Kira grinned, though it didn't last long. Her eyes unfocused, and she looked around, as if she were looking for someone. She shook her head abruptly, and held her hand up to it. "Damn, why does it feel like there should be someone else here?" Kumo blinked.

"Iunno, but I feel it too." Kumo and Kira looked at each other, both frowning slightly. "Now I know that there's something weird going on." Kira nodded and followed the path. Kumo trotted to catch up, hanging back a bit. She walked until she could see an area that looked pretty dead, with weird tower-like things dotting the whole place.

"Heh?" Kira wandered a ways into the area, looking around. She jumped as thunder boomed overhead, and looked up. "Holy-?!" Kumo laughed a bit at her reaction, and stepped out into the unforested area proper. A fiend popped up out of nowhere and zapped Kumo, making him yelp in pain. Kira ran forwards and dismantled the odd fiend, kicking the bits far apart from each other. She turned and looked at Kumo, who was sitting on the ground, grimacing with pain. She crouched next to him, frowning with worry.

"Ehh...didn't think fiends packed such a punch. I think the mike Brother gave us is fried, too." He coughed a bit as he stood, showing Kira that he wasn't injured too badly. "I don't think Guadosalam is that way. Let's turn around." Kira frowned, but didn't complain about his changing his mind. She was too worried about his health.

"You sure you don't want to stop and catch your breath," she asked after a while, frowning. Kumo's coughs hadn't disappeared since he had been hit by that lightning attack. The platinum blonde nodded and continued on the path. Kira sighed and stretched her arms over her head. She had taken the role of protector, since the last time they had encountered a fiend, Kumo had had a coughing fit, and couldn't fight.

"Hey! You two! What are you doing out here so late at night?" Kira looked towards the person that had yelled at her and Kumo. She blinked a couple of times, startled, and tugged on Kumo's sleeve, getting him to walk faster.

"We got lost in the woods. I didn't know it was so late." Kumo coughed hard, and Kira caught him before he fell over. "Kumo! Zaaw frah oui kad celg, oui naymmo kad celg!" The guard saw her worry for her friend, but didn't hear the words she whispered to her friend, and came over at a trot to help her.

"Man, what a fever! He shouldn't be walking around while he's this sick!" Kira felt Kumo's forehead for herself, and frowned, her eyes getting even more worried. "Tell you what. I'll ask my boss if we can let the two of you stay in the barracks for the night. I'll help you find an inn where you can wait for him to get better tomorrow." Kira blinked and looked at the man. She smiled a little, and nodded.

"If it isn't too much trouble." The man nodded and trotted back to his post. He talked to the other person standing there, and dashed down the path. Kira slung one of Kumo's arms over the back of her neck and lugged him over to the side of the path, noticing that his face was flushed, and he was unconscious. She frowned and looked up as the man that had greeted them came back at a trot with another man right behind him. The white haired man knelt next to Kumo, reaching out a hand and gently setting it against the platinum blonde's forehead. He frowned, his eyes going from skeptical to worried.

"This isn't good. He can stay in the barracks until he's well. The girl," Kira started to glare at his reference to her. "She can stay for a night, but she can visit him." Kira's eyebrow twitched a little, but it was on the left side, so it was hidden by her hair. She hefted Kumo up and slung his arm over the back of her neck again as the guard reached for him, startling the white-haired man. She looked to the guard to show her the way. He blinked a couple of times and led the blonde girl into the town, and into the building to the right that was just inside of it.

Several other guards looked up as Kira was led in, half-carrying her friend. She was shown to a smaller room, where Kumo was set gently on a bed. A few of the guards poked their heads in, curious. Kira turned and looked at them as a couple of them came in.

"More late night travelers? They always show up when you're on watch, y'know." Kira yawned and sat down against the wall, tilting her head back as she kept an eye on her friend.

"Praetor Baralai himself told me to bring these two in. The boy's got a high fever, and the girl-"

"Is asleep." The three guards turned as Baralai entered the room. They looked from the praetor and saw that Kira had indeed fallen asleep where she was sitting against the wall. "If I hadn't seen her eyes, I'd think she was an Al Bhed. Be more careful who you approach in the future." The guard who had helped Kira flinched a little and looked away from the praetor as he walked back out of the room.

Kira barely opened one eyelid as the guard shook her shoulder. She grumbled a little and rubbed at her right eye before showing him that she was awake.

"Here, there's an open bed next to you. Sleep there instead of the floor." Kira was too tired to argue, so she simple stood and moved closer to the bed before flopping onto it on her side, falling back to sleep almost instantly. The guard blinked at Kira, astonished by how little she had been awake.

Kira adjusted her shorts, looking down at her bare legs. Her lower lip protruded in a pout as she tried once again to get the leg guards to stay in place. They slid off like before, and she gave up, shoving them into her bag. Her forearm guards were staying in place, but she had spent more time on them than on the legs. She had decided against wearing the fishnet armbands, since they would really only slow her down.

"Kira, they're gonna call the Blitz teams soon!" Kira pushed open the door to her stall, stepping out with her bag over her shoulder. Yuna stared at what she was wearing.

Fishnet covered the bottoms of her shorts legs, going down to about mid-thigh, but the shorts themselves were very short. Her chest was covered with a steel gray strip of fabric that went all the way around her, also known as a strapless bra. The bra was held up by the dark blue suspenders that were clipped to her gray shorts in the front on both sides and in the back. She had dark blue fabric wrapped around her forearms as arm guards, and her hair was back to its normal blonde color.

"How can you walk so calmly in that? And how'd you get your hair back to its natural color so quickly?" Kira ran her fingers through her damp ponytail, smiling a bit.

"E vaam lusvundypma eh ed palyica E ghuf ed fuh'd cmeb, hu syddan ruf rynt ed'c dikkat uh, yht se ryen'c pylg du paehk drec lumun palyica ed fyc y fycr-uid toa. Ayco eh, ayco uid." The clothes that Kira had just changed out of were packed neatly into her bag, which she stowed in a locker in the changing room. She tucked it into her pocket and zipped the pocket shut. "I'd better go find the rest of my team. See ya at the game?" The three girls nodded. "Don't forget the whistle!" All four grinned as they walked out of the changing room.

Kira opened her eyes a little as she woke up, and blinked a couple of times, figuring out where she was before she sat up. She rubbed at her eyes a bit and looked to her left. Kumo was sleeping peacefully, though there was sweat dripping off his face. Instantly, Kira moved and placed her hand on his forehead. She smiled a little as she noted that he wasn't feeling as warm as he had when he had collapsed. A step made her look up, and she saw the white-haired man entering.

"Ah, you're awake. How is he?" Kira looked back at her friend, frowning a little.

"He's still got a fever, but it isn't as bad as it was." Kumo groaned a little, and Kira smiled softly. She moved out of the way as the white-haired man set his hand on Kumo's head.

"You're right. What is your name, anyway?" Kira blinked as she looked at the man.

"...Kira. I-" He looked at her as she closed her mouth. "...Nevermind." Kira frowned a bit as she sat down on the bed she had been sleeping on. "Kumo and I were heading to Guadosalam, but we got turned around somehow, I think." The white-haired man chuckled a little.

"Yes, you did. This is Bevelle. Guadosalam is across the Thunder Plains." Kira sighed, running her fingers through her bangs on the right side, almost a nervous gesture.

"Well, crap. I had a feeling that he was right at first, but when we got there and he got zapped by a fiend, he changed his mind." The man blinked.

"He isn't very good a directions, is he?" Kira shrugged her shoulder.

"I only just met him a few days ago, before the Blitzball Tournament." She stopped talking and studied him for a few moments. "You asked me my name, but you didn't give me yours." He looked a little surprised, and smiled.

"I am the Praetor of New Yevon, Baralai." Kira blinked, recognizing the name. She looked back at Kumo as he turned his head. "Do you have a White Mage dress sphere?" Kira looked at him and nodded.

"Never used it before, though." Baralai smiled a little in chagrin, but he looked at the boy lying on the bed.

"It doesn't matter how much experience you have with it. Here, I'll walk you through how to help him." Kira's eyes lit up a bit, and she slid off the bed, changing her dress sphere, closing her eyes to protect them from the light.

Kira felt her clothes change drastically, the jacket she had tossed on elongating until it was near her ankles. Her pants met and melded with her sports bra, and the straps of that disappeared. Her shoes turned into boots as her fishnet armbands migrated to cover the back and palm of her hands. Kira opened her eyes as she stood straight, a rod solidifying in her hands.

Baralai looked at Kira, slightly surprised. The long white jacket that covered Kira's arms was slipping off her left shoulder, and she hitched it back on with a shrug of her shoulder. The edging on the top of her dress was purple and black, while the flame designs on the cuffs were yellow and purple separated by black. The edging on the jacket was the same colors, though it was a scallop design. The rod that had appeared for Kira to use had a green shaft, and a silver top, in the shape of three triangles connected at the base, with the tips extending out of the circle that housed them.

Kira noticed the slight widening of Praetor Baralai's eyes, and he looked away sharply. She shrugged it off as she walked towards Kumo, pressing her hand against his forehead. Her eyes frowned as she felt his fever had gone up again.

Kira hummed a bit to herself as she waited for Kumo to come out. Her stomach was growling at her, and she wanted to go find somewhere to eat, but she wasn't about to leave Kumo behind in a new place.

"Yr, syh, so rayt ec buihtehk." Kira looked to her left, where Kumo was stumbling through the door.

"Careful how you talk, Kumo." The platinum blonde looked at Kira in surprise as she pushed off the wall. "C'mon, let's get some food. I know that I'm hungry, at least." Kumo smiled at Kira and walked along after her.

Baralai watched the two blondes walking away from the barracks they had been housed in for the night, smiling a bit. They were friends, no matter that Kira had told him that they had only just met. She had stayed near until he had emerged, even though the guard that had helped her had tried to get her away, to show her where to find some rather good food. Baralai had noticed that that guard had kept a close eye on her as often as he could.

Kira laughed a bit as she walked along the street with Kumo, munching on a loaf of bread that she had bought. Kumo was eating one as well, and telling Kira some funny stuff he had dreamt about while he was asleep, which almost seemed to have been glimpses of the past.

Kira stopped in her tracks and watched a large man with a wrench stomp up to a stall and demand something. The shopkeeper shook his head, and the man stomped off again.

"Looks like trouble, eh?" Kira popped the last of her bread in her mouth and chewed. Kumo nodded, ripping off another piece of his bread and chewing it.

"Yep. Hope we don't have to deal with any of it while we're here. By the way, did you find out which way we were supposed to go?" Kira nodded, turning around and looking at him.

"Through the Thunder Plains." Kumo winced. "Yeah. You messed us up." Kumo sighed as Kira smirked at him, looking around. "I'm gonna go in there and see what's going on, 'kay?" Kira pointed across the little road to a café that a person had darted into just before the large man had appeared. Kumo blinked.

"Alright." Kira waved a bit and trotted over to the café. She opened the door and trotted in, hitching her jacket back onto her shoulders. She walked up to the bar and sat down next to a black-haired boy that was grumbling to himself. A blitzball was sitting at his elbow, and he was watching the sphere screen that was showing the championship game from the last tournament. The bartender tore his eyes from the screen and walked over.

"What can I get you, miss?" Kira smiled amiably at him.

"Just water, please." Kira looked at the screen as well, studying the boy next to her out of the corner of her eye.

He had bright purple eyes, and was wearing a dark blue long-sleeved shirt and loose, purple pants that were ripped at the knees and had the back pockets sewn shut. His black hair was messily cut, giving him a mischievous look. He glanced at Kira as he sipped his root beer, and turned his marvelously purple eyes back to the screen.

Kira watched herself as she was pummeled by Tonnan, and noticed that the boy hadn't been wearing exactly the same uniform as the other Al Bhed Psyches. His clothes were somewhat looser than theirs had been, which was possibly the only reason he had put so much power into his tackles.

The bartender came with Kira's water, and noticed what she was watching. He smiled at her, and she took a sip of her water.

"The poor girl took a beating, didn't she?" Kira nodded to the barkeeper's comment, and hid a smirk. "So, where're you from?" Kira thought a bit. She really didn't know where she was from, so she simply shrugged her shoulders. The barkeeper blinked a couple times at her, and then shook his head. "Not gonna tell me are you?" She shook her head, immersed in watching the coverage of the game. She winced as she saw when she had slammed into Tonnan in revenge.

"Ooh, that had to hurt," the boy next to her muttered. Kira glanced at him, and looked back at the screen. She winced as Tonnan retaliated. She had forgotten that she had almost been knocked out right after stealing the ball from Tonnan and throwing it to Tidus. "Those two...I wouldn't like to blitz against them in the least." Kira nodded. She didn't want to blitz against Tonnan again, nor would she want to blitz against herself. Still, if she had to, she probably would. If it were possible.

Kira glanced over her shoulder as the door slammed open. The large man that had been dragging around a huge wrench stomped into the bar. The boy next to Kira turned to look as well.

"Drana o'yna, oy tysh maddma draev!" Kira's ear twitched as she recognized the words the man spoke. The boy next to her gulped down the rest of his root beer, and then turned to look at the giant of a man as the wrench-wielder's lackeys flooded in. Kira took another sip of her water and turned in her seat to watch, like the rest of the people in the café. She clenched her hands in her gloves, feeling the material squeak under the pressure.

"Frana amca ys E cibbucat du ku vun byndc? Oui yht ouin mylgaoc pmulg dra fyo uid vun yhouha eh dra ehticdno, yht oui'ha kud y suhubumo uh byndc." Kira looked from the boy to the wrench-wielder, her steel gray eyes calculating how soon there was going to be fighting.

It didn't take long. One of the lackeys darted forwards, and the boy hopped to his feet rather quickly. He deflected the man, directing him towards Kira. A flick of the girl's wrist sent the man back to his leader, staunching a nosebleed. Eyes turned towards the blonde-haired girl, but she took a sip of water, not meeting any eyes.

"Oi! Take it outside, if you're gonna fight!" The barkeeper seemed glad that Kira had kept the man from falling into his bar, but it still wasn't a good idea to have a fight indoors. Kira slipped off her stool, draining her glass of water, and stepped through the crowd of men, brushing them to the side as she vacated the café.

"Well, if there's going to be a fight, I might as well get out of here." A few of the lackeys eyed her warily as she left the café. What they didn't know, though, was that Kira simply stopped right outside the establishment and leaned against the wall, waiting for the fight to get out to the street.

In a minute, the lanky boy that Kira had been sitting next to dashed out, setting an odd plank-looking machine and his blitzball on a table. The wrench-wielder came out with his lackeys right behind, and Kira pushed off the wall.

"Haat cusa ramb fedr dras?" Kira removed her jacket, showing her dress sphere. The boy glanced over and grinned at her.

"Cina. Zicd dra maytah du sa." Kira twitched her hand at the wrench-wielder, and he nodded. Kira shrugged her shoulders, limbering up her muscles.

"Hu bnupmas rana. Hispahc yha y ped suna lrymmahkehk du sa, yd dra susahd." Kira slid into her normal stance, her right left forward, and both of her arms hanging loosely. The wrench-wielder charged towards the boy, and Kira barely blinked as he cartwheeled away, leading the man away from the girl who had offered to help.

Kira ducked under a sloppy punch from the first lackey, and grabbed his arm to assist him in flying into one of his allies. One managed to grab her around the upper arms, and she used that to kick one of his allies in the chest before using her muscles to break free and flip over him. She glanced over at her new ally, and saw he was taunting the large man in Al Bhed, with a very large smirk on his face.

One of the lackeys took advantage of Kira's distraction, and was about to hit her over the head with a metal pipe when a standard Blitzball bashed him upside the head. She glanced over and grinned at Kumo, who was keeping his distance from the fight, but was catching his blitzball again.

"Dryhgc, Kumo!" Kira pulled her right fist back, a predatory grin creeping across her face. She slammed it into the nose of the one that she had injured first, the one that had attacked the black-haired boy with no warning. He screamed pitifully and collapsed. His friends flinched at the sight of the blonde girl with blood dripping off of her gloves turning to look at them. Some of them ran away, leaving the stronger ones to fight in groups against the blonde fistfighter.