Chapter Two
"Hey, aren't you ready yet?"
"Almost, almost. Please don't rush me, Shana-chan."
Shana humphed, crossing her arms over her chest as she watched Herai lazily run a brush through her thick auburn hair. "If you'd hurry up then you wouldn't be rushed!" But she didn't push it much after that.
Shana had gained a kind of respect for the little green-eyed girl over the past few years. Shana, of course, was the slightly disputed leader of their Team, but Herai, with her calm, mature nature, always took care of the more delicate matters. Whenever one of the Team got in trouble with the Teachers it would be Herai that smoothed things over, and she always managed to calm Shana and Akira whenever they decided to duke things out. She could often be seen with Dakota when he tried wrangling in Kaito and Damien, sometimes adding in her own opinions as well.
Damien had taken to calling her The Ambassador lately. Seemed to fit her pretty well.
Shana sighed. Herai really was taking her sweet time, lacing up her black boots. She sometimes wondered if Herai did things like this just to irritate her, but... Nah, it just wouldn't fit her personality. Herai actually went out of her way to keep from burdening her friends.
"So..." Shana searched around for something to talk about. Something to fill in the silence. "Anything new in those dull History Classes?"
"No, not really." Herai didn't bother looking up as she started work on her other boot, making sure her pants' legs were tucked in. "Just talking about the Last Great War all those Centuries ago, the Arc, the Nuclear Winter, the Rebirth... Same old, same old." Herai paused for a moment, staring at the wall blankly. "...I don't get why they don't talk about something relevant, like how the Nations of Incendia were formed. ...Or maybe they could actually tell us of the Nations of Old. Maybe we'd actually figure out why everyone hated each other so much."
Ah, a gold mine. Herai didn't talk if she didn't have something to say. This must have been really bugging her. "Yeah, seriously! All they do is repeat the same things over and over, but we never actually learn anything." Shana huffed and flipped her hair over her shoulder. She'd let it grow out for six years, and it had been nothing but a nuisance. "Yeah, we get that the Nations of Old launched all of these Nuclear stuff at each other. So what?"
"So the World was plunged into a Winter that lasted near a Millennium. It's a wonder we survived at all." Herai... She always took things much too seriously.
"Well, we had the Arc to thank for that, didn't we?"
"Yes. The Scientists thought ahead..." Herai crouched in front of her chest, shifting through Akira's things so that she could find her smaller weapons. "The Arc was designed to hold the DNA signatures of every species of life on Earth and store them underground so that they could be Cloned at any time. Several people from each Nation were brought to the Arc when the Great War began, just in case."
"Wow, you actually remembered all of that?"
"Of course. It could be useful someday." Herai finished slipping shuriken in the holster of her belt and grabbed her staff, dismantling it so that the sections could fit in the other holster.
"Hey, aren't you ready yet?"
"Almost, almost. Please don't rush me, Shana-chan."
Shana humphed, crossing her arms over her chest as she watched Herai lazily run a brush through her thick auburn hair. "If you'd hurry up then you wouldn't be rushed!" But she didn't push it much after that.
Shana had gained a kind of respect for the little green-eyed girl over the past few years. Shana, of course, was the slightly disputed leader of their Team, but Herai, with her calm, mature nature, always took care of the more delicate matters. Whenever one of the Team got in trouble with the Teachers it would be Herai that smoothed things over, and she always managed to calm Shana and Akira whenever they decided to duke things out. She could often be seen with Dakota when he tried wrangling in Kaito and Damien, sometimes adding in her own opinions as well.
Damien had taken to calling her The Ambassador lately. Seemed to fit her pretty well.
Shana sighed. Herai really was taking her sweet time, lacing up her black boots. She sometimes wondered if Herai did things like this just to irritate her, but... Nah, it just wouldn't fit her personality. Herai actually went out of her way to keep from burdening her friends.
"So..." Shana searched around for something to talk about. Something to fill in the silence. "Anything new in those dull History Classes?"
"No, not really." Herai didn't bother looking up as she started work on her other boot, making sure her pants' legs were tucked in. "Just talking about the Last Great War all those Centuries ago, the Arc, the Nuclear Winter, the Rebirth... Same old, same old." Herai paused for a moment, staring at the wall blankly. "...I don't get why they don't talk about something relevant, like how the Nations of Incendia were formed. ...Or maybe they could actually tell us of the Nations of Old. Maybe we'd actually figure out why everyone hated each other so much."
Ah, a gold mine. Herai didn't talk if she didn't have something to say. This must have been really bugging her. "Yeah, seriously! All they do is repeat the same things over and over, but we never actually learn anything." Shana huffed and flipped her hair over her shoulder. She'd let it grow out for six years, and it had been nothing but a nuisance. "Yeah, we get that the Nations of Old launched all of these Nuclear stuff at each other. So what?"
"So the World was plunged into a Winter that lasted near a Millennium. It's a wonder we survived at all." Herai... She always took things much too seriously.
"Well, we had the Arc to thank for that, didn't we?"
"Yes. The Scientists thought ahead..." Herai crouched in front of her chest, shifting through Akira's things so that she could find her smaller weapons. "The Arc was designed to hold the DNA signatures of every species of life on Earth and store them underground so that they could be Cloned at any time. Several people from each Nation were brought to the Arc when the Great War began, just in case."
"Wow, you actually remembered all of that?"
"Of course. It could be useful someday." Herai finished slipping shuriken in the holster of her belt and grabbed her staff, dismantling it so that the sections could fit in the other holster.
