Viki stuttered.  "Oh!  Um... hello!  We're members of the... um, Pretty Sailor Scouts!"

A cute girl behind Viki, wearing a sailor suit, chimed in.  "Yes we are!"

Another joined in.  "Yes!  Pretty Sailor Scouts!  That's us!"

"So... um..."  Viki continued.  "We're currently out of money and we really need a place to stay.  It's sad, really."

"Yes, sad!"  The sailor girl added.

"So so sad!"  The second one cried.

"Er... and...."  Viki leaned on her wand.  "Could you please let us stay here for only a few nights?  We won't be any trouble."

"No trouble at all!"

"Definately no trouble!"

The lady adjusted her glasses.  "Well... I'm not sure if my husband would appreciate it.  But then again, I'm already letting another man stay over and he eats faster than I can cook, so I suppose a few more people wouldn't make too much of a difference."

"Oh, thank you so much!"  Viki exclaimed.

"Yes!  Thank you!"

"Many many thanks, yes!"  The two sailor girls beamed.

Sonya, with her snake hair tightly tucked in, making it look actually normal (besides the greenish color), walked up to the door and motioned behind her.  "Okay!  It's fine!  Let's go!"

The lady was shocked as a rather large contingent of sailor girls ran into the house.

"Oops."  Viki stated.  "I need to introduce all of us.  I'm Viki.  That's Joe, Bob, Billy, Mark, Nate, Norimaro, Henry, Harry, and Reinbach Stolchiem IV.  And that's..."

Sonya quickly covered Viki's mouth.  "Er... hehe, what she meant to say was that's Jeanine, Betsy, Billianna, Mary, Natalie, Benimara, Henrietta, er.... Henrietta, and..... um.... Jennifer Lovehuett IV!"

The lady was too busy staring at the rather large army that had crowded into her house to pay any attention to Sonya and Viki.

Sonya shook her hand.  "Oh, and I'm... um.... Jennifer Lovehuett III!  The scout master of these girls.  Nice to meet you."

"Er... yea."  The lady nervously shook Sonya's hand.  "My name is Yoshino.  Yoshino Yamamoto.  Pleased to meet you too."

"Hmm.  Yamamoto.  That sounds familiar." Sonya looked around the room when one of the snakes in her hair, despite being trained to lie down so no one would notice it, hissed.  Sonya glared upwards at her hair.  "Quiet, damn you!"

"Is something wrong?"  Yoshino asked.

"Oh no!  It's just the wind!"  Sonya brushed her hair.  "You wouldn't happen to have anything to eat, would you?  We've been travelling for so long and we're quite famished."

"Fish!"  All of the scouts chimed in unison.

"Oh!  Yes, some tempura would be nice!"  Viki agreed.  "My dad always said that I should always eat as much fish as possible.  Something about it being brainfood.  He said that I should have even more than everyone else, for some reason..."

"I'll... see what I can do."  Yoshino replied.

Sonya looked at a rather large stick with a large blade at the end that was hanging on the wall.  She walked over to it and picked it up, and spun it around a few times.  "Oh!  I thought I was the only one that used these!  This weapon is so similar to my Royal Blue. Is it a family heirloom?  Or does it belong to your husband?"

"Actually, that's mine."  Much to her dismay, Yoshino found that all of the food in the refrigerator was gone.

"Really?"  Sonya spun it around again.  "It's yours?  Hmm.  I use one of these as my main weapon.  I could teach you a few tricks with these, if you want me to."

"That would be nice."  Yoshino adjusted her glasses again and peered at Sonya.  "Have I seen you before?"

"You might have."  Viki remarked.  "Have you ever seen the admiral of the Toran Navy, before?"  Viki looked at Sonya, and noticed that Sonya had suddenly lost her composure.  "Huh?  What?  Was it something I said?"

"Admiral of the Toran Navy?!?"  Yoshino backed up.  "You're the great Toran general, Sonya Shulen!  Although... why did you dye your hair green?"

Sonya's hair, which was just as tense as she was, stopped lying still and snapped at Yoshino before Sonya quickly patted them back down.  Sonya quickly pointed the large blade-on-a-stick at Yoshino.  "Yes, I am Sonya Shulen, one of the six great Toran Generals!  My hair is none of your business and you'd better comply or else I'll..."

Sonya was interrupted by a knocking at the door.

"Oh no!  That might be my husband, Freed!"  Yoshino exclaimed.

"Freed?"  Sonya put the stick sticker away.  "Freed Yamamoto... Granmeyer's right hand man of South Window?  Damn!  Everyone, hide!"

All of the sailor scouts ran into various hiding places such as under the couch or in the bathroom while Sonya hid in a closet and Viki hid in a grandfather clock.  A man wearing a laid-back blue shirt came downstairs, as a skinny looking man wearing green entered the house.  He talked to Yoshino and the other guy for a while, but Viki couldn't hear them from inside the dusty grandfather clock.  The dust made Viki sneeze, and the three stared at the grandfather clock for a while, before Yoshino said something to the two men and they finally left.

Everyone quickly came out of their hiding places.

Sonya brushed herself off.  "Now, where were we?"

Yoshino put her uber spear against Sonya's throat.  "I believe that you were trying to threaten me."

In a quick swing of her Royal Blue, Sonya knocked Yoshino's weapon out of her hands, then put her own weapon away.  "Yea, okay.  I'm sorry about what we did.  I'll show you the real way to wield one of those things, and in return, you just have to not tell anyone that we're here while we wait for someone to arrive."

Annoyed, Yoshino picked up her weapon and hung it back up on the wall.  "That's fair enough, I suppose..."

Viki, Sonya, and her crew moved into the basement.  The "sailor scouts" quickly dropped the cutesy act.

One of the sailor scouts wiped her forehead.  "Dammit!  That was annoying!  How much longer do we have to act like this?"

Another sailor agreed.  "Dieing for my admiral or country, or killing others I can deal with, but I'm not sure I can tolerate much more of this adorable "sailor scout" act."

Sonya sighed.  "Look, I don't like this very much either!  Everytime I try to talk to someone, they run away screaming madly.  As if they've never saw a beautiful lady with snakes for hair.  Sheesh.  I'm sorry, but you'll have to keep it up just a little longer."  Sonya motioned to some of her women.  "While we wait for McDohl to arrive, I want you to procure some boats to Banner Village for us.  It's the closest way into the Toran Republic from here."

One of the sailors raised an eyebrow.  "How do we do that?  None of the boats want to leave port, and the only ones that do belong to the resident head trader around here."

"You're all cute girls in sailor suits!  Just give some of those fishermen some more of those puppy-eyes routines that Viki taught us and you'll do fine."  Sonya replied.

Viki blinked.  "Puppy-eyes routines?  What puppy-eyes routines?"

"We have some self-respect!"  Another sailor answered.  "We've been trying to retain a chastity-until-marriage policy, you know."

"All you have to do is ask nicely and look sad.  You don't have to do anything else."  Sonya replied.  "Just a little longer.  Then I'll get Blargo to change you all back."

Viki looked at all the sailors.  "Er... chastity before marriage?"

Sonya smacked Viki on the head with the blunt end of her Royal Blue.  "Of course, you homophobic dolt!  Just because they were gay doesn't mean they don't have morals!"

Viki rubbed her head.  "I only wanted to know what chastity meant.  And I still don't know what homophobic means."

"Great, and when we signed up for the navy, we were told that the worse parts of it would be risking our lives on the battlefield."  One of the sailors sighed.

While the sailor scouts argued over their predicament, Viki looked around.  "Sonya, where's Blargo?"

"Blargo and his men accidentally transformed themselves into butterflies and are fluttering around somewhere until they find out where to get the other two time components."  Sonya took out a small pocket watch.

"And Milich Openheimer?"  Viki added.

"Milich?"  Sonya looked around nervously.  "Milich Openheimer?  Who's that?"  A large sweatdrop appeared above her head.  "That's a funny name. Milich Openheimer, hahaha...."

The pocket watch opened and inside was a small miniature portrait of Sonya and Teo, which Sonya tearfully stared at.  Sonya sighed and looked at Viki.  "Viki, be careful who you fall in love with."

"Huh?"  Viki looked at the picture in Sonya's pocket watch, then tugged at her cape.  "Lady Sonya, that Blargo is a pretty evil person.  I think really really bad things will happen if he manages to get the ability to teleport through time.  Are you sure you should help him?  Even if it's to get Teo back?"

Sonya put the watch away, but didn't say anything.

Viki let go of Sonya's cape.  "Well, I suppose it's your choice.  I'll be glad when McDohl gets back, though.  Then we can all finally go home and I can get back to helping Luc and Crowley manage the Children of the Rune magic squad."

"Well, it's about time.  It only took you two years to find him."  Sonya paused, then raised an eyebrow at Viki.  "Children of the Rune?  Didn't you know?  Luc and Crowley both dissappeared long ago.  And furthermore, you weren't a part of the Children of the Rune.  You led the Magicians team until Jeane and Hellion took it over."

"Jeane and Hellion?  Magicians?  OH!"  Viki put her hand to her mouth.  "I remember, now!"

Sonya shook her head.  "Just get some sleep.  Maybe McDohl will arrive in the morning.  But remember that Blargo and I will still need you around for a little longer."

Sonya left the basement, and all the sailors ran off to do various things like get a boat for when McDohl arrived.  Viki was left in the basement to think to herself.

Jeane and Hellion....

"Let's begin today's session."

That's it!  Needing another magic commander, McDohl put me in charge of the Magicians team.

"No screwing up, okay?  Don't screw around!  I won't accept a screw up who screws around in the family!"

When Jeane and Hellion joined the Liberation army, they had asked to take over the Magicians team.  I didn't mind.  It was easy to screw up when commanding and organizing a lot of soldiers.

"Make your father proud of you, Viki!"

One reason they took over that squad was to watch over me.  Because they thought I was familiar.  Why was that?  I think I saw them before, four years ago.

Viki recalled a figure, older than her, but the memory of that figure was blurred.  The figure motioned to the young girl next to him.

"Okay, Viki!  Do not fail me!"

That was dad.  But... I don't remember what he looked like, very well anymore.

"Oh!  Um, yea!"

The little girl waved her wand.  "Alhakalamarazam!"

And that was me, about four years ago.  I can remember myself, a little.

A cow appeared over the man's head and crushed him.

Not much has changed about me since then, I guess.

The man angrilly shoved the cow off him.

"That's it, Viki!  You have failed me!  I disown you!  From now on, you are no longer my daughter!"

Viki sighed.  "Darn.  Not again.  Oh well."

The blurry figure representing Viki's dad angrily shook his wand at Viki.  "Now, if you want to be admitted back into the family, then teleport in a sandwich for me!"

"Er, okay, ex-dad."  Viki waved her wand.  "Shazzam!"

A pig landed in front of her father.

Viki's father eyed the pig warily.  "Hmm... well, at least this will provide me with a nice ham sandwhich, later.  Very well, Viki.  You're back in the family."

Viki beamed happily.  "Yay!"

Dad had some trouble putting up with my screw-ups.  I got booted out of the family at least three times every week.  But that was okay.  I was used to it by then, and I always got back into the family, eventually.  I liked dad.  I could see in his eyes that he loved me, no matter how many times he kicked me out of the family.  But, I don't remember what those eyes looked like.  I didn't want to forget, but so much has happened since then.  Simply trying to remember doesn't work, because the memories were lost to make room for new ones.  It only makes me cry and feel sorry for forgetting, so I don't bother to make the effort anymore.

A figure of a lady entered the memory.  "Harold..."

Then there was mom.

The lady looked at Viki's dad eye-to-eye.  "Why must you always do that to your daughter?"

Mom was nice.  But I forgot what she looked like, too, even more than my dad.  It would have been easier to remember if she looked like me, but she didn't.  I think she had blonde hair, but whatever color it was, it wasn't black like mine.

"My daughter?  Levinne, she'll never become the master of blinking at this rate!"

"At this rate, your daughter is going to develop an inferiority complex!"

"Well, she IS inferior!"

"You were just as bad back in your youth!"

"And I'm not a magi master right now, am I?  She has to do better than I did if she's going to succeed Hellion.  Hellion already mentioned retiring as master of blinking within the next two decades."

Levinne faced Viki.  "Viki, don't worry about your father.  You know he'll always love you."

Mom always seemed distant, though.  And then there was everyone's favorite, Uncle Lardy!

Another figure, accompanied by a bunch of small stick figures representing children and running circles around him screaming "Uncle Lardy!", entered, and motioned to Viki's father.  "Harold, the magi master meeting is starting."

The figure representing Harold nodded.

"Uncle Lardy!"  All the children screamed.

Uncle Lardy chuckled then handed the kids some sweets.  "Oh all right, kids.  Here's some candy to ruin your teeth and fatten you up so no member of the opposite sex will be attracted to you and you'll never get married in the future."

"And me, Uncle Lardy?"  Viki asked.

"Oh, here's a fried fish ball.  You need a strong mind to truly succeed at magic."  Lardy commented.  "Oh... Harold?  Is that my pig you have there?"

Every five years, Esde Majika would hold a meeting where members from all across the world would come together.  Except those that weren't in the near vicinity of where the meeting was going to be, which tended to be a very small vicinity, so in truth, besides the current magi masters, most members couldn't attend.  Oops.  Oh well.

"Drink up!"  Levinne proclaimed, as she poured Viki and herself some champagne.  "This event only happens once every five years!"

"Hooray!"  Viki exclaimed, happily drinking down some champagne.

A man walked onto the stage.  "Greetings!  I am Mu Ta Zhen, and I will be your announcer for this half-decade's Magi meeting!  Where great magicians from across the world gather to attempt to become magi masters!  You just gotta cast them all!  Those who succeed get five minutes of fame!  Those who fail die.  Let's begin by introducing this half-decade's panel of judges, the current four magi masters!"

Mu Ta Zhen took out a megaphone and began screaming in it.

"First, she's quickly aging and developing wrinkles!  Soon she'll be very old and might retire!  It's the master of blinking, Hellion!"

Hellion scowled angrily at Mu Ta Zhen.  "You don't need to rub it in!"

"Next, he always wears a mask, dark cape, and plays a pipe organ!  Eventually the phantom of the opera will sue him for copyright infringement!  It's Renilliard, master of life!"

The masked Renilliard responded with a "......."

"Third up, she's super duper beautiful!  It's the master of sweet SWEET loving, Jeane!"

"That's master of emotion!!"  Jeane yelled.  Then Jeane thought for a moment and giggled.  "Although master of sweet SWEET loving, I guess I can live with that, hee hee!"

"Finally, everyone hates him because the minute you get this asshole even a little mad, he kills you!  It's the psycho with a stupid name whom everyone loves to hate, Grundge, master of destruction!"

Grundge snapped his fingers and Mu Ta Zhen's head exploded.

Harold motioned to Lardy.  "Well, Blargo?  What are you waiting for?  You're up first."

Sweating heavily, the figure of Blargo walked up to the panel and bowed.

"Now now, young man."  Hellion said.  "Don't be nervous."

"Yea."  Renilliard grunted.  "If you don't do a good presentation, all we'll do is kill you.  Then I can use my powers of life to bring you back to life as a zombie.  Things are much better, that way."

Blargo quickly backed up.  "Er... and now... um... my first transformation spell... I'll..."

All four magi masters eyed him, warily.  Blargo screamed like a little girl before running away.

Harold shrugged as he poured more champagne into his cup.  "Ah well.  He can try again in five years if he's not ready yet."

"Aw..."  Jeane sighed.  "And he was kinda cute.  Well, so much for that one.  Who's next?"

An old man walked up to the panel of judges and yelled into the air.  "I AM THE WISE ONE!!!"

Everyone laughed, except Hellion, who simply smiled.  "Very well, The Wise One.  What is your major?"

"I plan to beeeeeeeeee..." The wise one declared.  "The master of time, itself!  I have the ability to go back and forth through time!"

Everyone laughed, this time including Hellion.

"DON'T LAUGH AT THE WISE ONE!"  The old fool screamed.  "Do you even realize how much POWER there is in time travelling?!?"

I don't know why everyone laughed at him so much.  Then again, I also can't figure out why he was called "The wise one."

"This better be good."  Grundge morosely muttered.  "Or else..."

"Watch!"  The wise one took out a sword.  "First, I needed a special sword.  The Star Dragon Sword would have been preferred.  However, I was fortunate enough to be able to steal this sword, called the Soul Crusher, from a clan of flying squirrels, then empower it with a powerful rune to make it partially emulate the Star Dragon Sword's time recall magic!"

For the third time, everyone laughed.

"It's true!  The squirrels are smarter than you think!  You all underestimate those flying squirrels, but some day they'll band together under the Soul Crusher and kill you all!"  The old man frantically waved his hands in the air.

People started giving him funny faces.

"Oh, And I also have this small Sindar token, which freezes time!  Watch!"  The old man held up a token, which loudly screamed "SINDAR!" but nothing else happened.

The geezer smiled.  "As you can see, I just froze time for fifteen years!  Of course, you wouldn't notice and neither would I since everything was in complete limbo during those fifteen years, but that point is mute."

Everyone was starting to get annoyed.

"And for my last ingredient, I need an expendable person.  Any idiot will do."

Harold, drinking more champagne, laughed.  "Well, how about my daughter, here?  She's a good idiot!"  Harold motioned to Viki.

"Huh?  Me?"

"Yes, you!  Now go or you'll be disowned from the family!"

Viki sighed.  "Not again."  Then she walked onto the stage.

The old man raised his hand, which held a crystal.  "This," he proclaimed, "Is the rune which holds enough magic power to warp time, itself!  It is unique and one-of-a-kind, but using it here is okay because I'll be able to retrieve it from the corpse when I'm done."

Renilliard's mask raised an eyebrow.  "Corpse, you say?  Where?"

"Hey,"  Jeane smiled.  "Could I see that rune?"

"I'm sorry, but the wise one does not give out all his secrets."  The old geezer zapped Viki with a lightning blast, sending her careening into the floor.  All of the people in the room angrily glared at him.

"And what was that for?"  Hellion calmly asked.

"I simply empowered the needed rune into her left hand.  And now, I shall use her as a blood sacrifice and show you the true power of time!"

The old man prepared to stab Viki with his Soul Crusher sword before a bunch of Majika guards grabbed him.

Hellion sighed.  "We've all had enough.  This presentation is a failure."

Grundge smiled.  "Should I blow his head up?"

"But..." The old man protested.  "I need a blood sacrifice!  Otherwise, I can only send others back in time using the Soul Crusher and not myself!"

"Psh."  Renilliard grunted.  "What a waste of a perfectly good possible bride."

"How boring.  Blood sacrifices are so cliched."  Jeane remarked.  "Let's try something new.  Blargo!  Get back here and give us a sample of your transformation magic."

Blargo, who had been hiding underneath the table, crawled out from underneath it.  "Um... yes?"

"Transform this old fool into an... um..."  Jeane thought for a second, then smiled.  "A furfur!"

Everyone laughed while Blargo waved his hand.  "Of course, my lady!"

With a flick of his wrist, Blargo transformed the old man into a flying squirrel.

Jeane and Hellion were both magi masters in the past.  Hellion resigned so she could become the next seer and replace Leknaat in Toran, and Jeane?  Beats me.

"Someday, you'll become the true master of blinking magic.  You'll be able to go anywhere in the world in the blink of an eye.  Distance will become meaningless and that'll be just one less thing you'll have to worry about."

I forgot about those days.  Or at least the specific feelings I had during them.  But those feelings were what was truly special about them.

"Viki, don't worry about your father.  You know he'll always love you."

I can no longer remember mom's voice of encouragement.

"I disowned you from the family already?  Huh?  Well then, get back in then!  The family needs you!  You're our greatest hope."

Or my father's smile knowing that someday, I might become the next master of blinking magic.

"What?  I'm not Uncle Lardy!  I'm Santa Clause!  Really!  Now get back to bed so Uncle Lardy can fill up these stockings with gifts, and next time leave some milk and cookies out for me to eat."

Or the enjoyment in Uncle Lardy's eyes whenever he gave us presents.

"Stupid is as stupid does, Forest."

Hmm.... I can't even remember where I got THAT quote from.

Viki exitted Yoshino's house and looked around.  "Well, for once my ending screw-up didn't make me end up in a forest.  Maybe this will be my chance to finally break the cycle and to finally not have to worry about memorizing an entire nation of new locations."

Viki sighed.

The memories are slowly fading away.  Why am I forgetting?  It wasn't my fault.  Those memories were special to me, and I knew it.  I wanted to hold onto them, forever.  But every turn of the cycle, I would have to memorize more.  Locations of towns, the teleportation spells for that region, the people on the tablet, and more special memories.  I could only memorize so much, and with every new war, with every new stone tablet, with every new family that I'd join after stumbling across a hero in a random forest path, I'd forget more.  I've forgotten what emotion I felt during those days, and eventually I'll forget they ever existed.  But for once, I didn't end up in a forest to meet the next great liberator after I REALLY miscasted a teleporting spell.  Maybe, I can finally change fate now.  But I only have one hope...

Sitting down in the grass, Viki stared upwards at the stars.  "Well, McDohl, I'll be waiting for you."

Viki waited for a good hour before she finally decided to get back inside and go to bed.  As she got up, she noticed a figure in the distance.  A figure she recognized.

"Huh?  McDohl?"  Viki walked up to the figure and looked at him.  He was holding a bo staff, wearing a red shirt, red hood, and dark yellow pants.  He looked about seventeen years of age, but he wasn't McDohl.  Standing behind him were several soldiers dressed in foreign red uniforms.

"Oh!  Lord Riven!"  Viki backed up in shock.  "Um... Having a nice night walk?  Er... ? ? ? ? ?  What are you doing, here?  Are you lost?"

Riven smiled.  "No, Viki.  I came to here to escort you back home.  The nation of Lottastuff would love to have you back, Viki.  I've been searching for you ever since you dissappeared after we overthrew Nadastuff."

A question mark appeared over Viki's head.  "Oh!  You have?  Wow!  Um.... I thought you led the nation of Nadastuff against Lottastuff, not the other way around."

"I have?"  Riven quickly grabbed out a scroll and began reading over it, then smacked one of his guards.  "Idiots!  Who's the moron who wrote this script?"

Another question mark appeared over Viki's head.  "Script?"

"What?  Script?  Oh, we're just planning on having a play celebrating Nadastuff's liberation once we get back."  Riven replied.  "Come back to us, Viki, so we can return to Toran Castle.  You can be the court teleporter."

A third question mark appeared over Viki's head.  "Toran Castle?  That's in the Toran Republic.  And the liberation of Nadastuff... wasn't that a really long time ago?"

Riven quickly took out his scroll again and read over it.  "Oh!  Oops, where's my mind at?  Come back with us, Viki, so we can return to... ah..."

One of the guards whispered something into his ear.

Riven put the scroll away.  "The capital, Gottastuff!  That's it!  And the play is to celebrate the anniversary of the liberation of Nadastuff!  So come back with me, Viki."

"Oh!  I need to get McDohl back."  Viki replied.  "It's my fault he's gone, after all.  He'll be arriving here, soon."

"McDohl?"  Riven had a sad look on his face.  "Sadly, Viki, McDohl won't be coming."

"Huh?  What?"

Riven sighed.  "Richmond doesn't know everything.  He didn't know Granmeyer sent McDohl on a wild goose chase instead of just sending him back here.  And now that Granmeyer knows that McDohl, one of his most hated enemies, is in the South Window District, McDohl won't likely be coming back here, anytime soon."

"What?!  I... screwed up again, didn't I?"

"Forget McDohl.  Just come back with us.  Everyone will be glad to see you again, and I'm sure you'll be glad to see everyone again, so come back home, Viki."

Viki knelt down.  "I don't remember everyone else.  Too much has happened since then."

"What?"  Riven looked at Viki.  "It's only been two and a half years.  How could you have forgotten?"

"A lot happened since then to make me forget."  Viki paused for a moment.  "Only been two and a half years?  Huh?  How did you know that?  I figured that with my stupid teleportation screw-ups, it must have been like ten or more years since you took me in back then.  Something is very wrong, here."

Riven backed up.  "Something is wrong?  Er...  How did I know?  Um, well, of course, you see..."  Riven looked around, nervously, then blurted out, "Star Wars Episode One was the best Star Wars ever!"

"Huh?"

One of the guards quickly punched Viki and knocked her unconscious.

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"Viki" and "Suikoden 2" are (C) Konami. This chapter was posted on January 26, 2000