Most of the time whenever someone comes to this time peroid of Guardia comes for the Fair and while Yuki had come to the fair before today she wasn't in the mood.  So Yuki was in the woods in the outskirts of the fair.  She was still lingering on her defeat at the hands of Rikka.  The alternate version of herself who easily overpowered he and nearly killed her.  She barely got out of that alive and Yuki was sure that next time she might not make it out alive.

She had to become stronger.  She needed to become strong enough to beat Rikka.  Yuki sighed as she looked around.  It wasn't the ideal place but it was a good place to start training.

====

((For Nicole this is after "Born Again Samurai"))

Walking across the fair, Nicole could feel the carelessness of the people around her. She, however, didn't feel in the mood for fun and games at the moment.

The woman known as Rikka continued to plague her thoughts. Their meeting was short, but left an impression. Powerful, with an ego that made Asagiri look humble, pretty good-looking (yet that wasn't of any relevance).

She was up to no good, and Nicole wanted to learn more. Not just out of curiosity, but self-imposed duty. After all, she sworn to do good across the worlds. Duty for what you know is right is what separated people like Nicole from people like....she decided to stop there, as she didn't want to remember that right now.

When she snapped back to reality, Nicole found herself by the woods at the fair's outskirts. Just then, noticing a somewhat familiar figure walking into the forest's depths.-[i]"it's her!...no...it can't be..."[/i]

Could that be another case of mistaken identity? A doppelganger situation once more, prehavs? She couldn't know for sure, all what Nicole could do is stay sneaky and keep an eye on the girl in front of her.

====

Yuki sighed mostly to herself as she closed her eyes.  She needed to focus on her powers to prepare herself for the next encounter with Rikka.  Of course that wouldn't be that easy considering how easily she lost to her last time.  Even with the help Kitten gave her Rikka beat Yuki rather decisively.  Getting strong enough to actually beat Rikka would not be easy.

Yuki was still going to do it though.  She couldn't let Rikka win especially since she had killed Abigail.  Yuki took a deep breath and focused as the tree in front of her was covered by some ice.

====