5 days later..... March 12, 2017.... A Sunday.....
Sunday came and the reward ceremony was held as announced, those who fought the Archdemon and won, were given their rewards as Akalea was in her seat among the students watching them gain their rewards. Akalea didn't mind since she already got hers days before the ceremony. "Let us thank these heroes who have fought an Archdemon that was caused havoc 5 days ago. Let's congratulate them again."
The King says as they all clap and cheer for them. The king lets the heroes go back to their seats, everyone sitting around Akalea. "Less than a month from now is the Tournament between the 5 kingdoms. I have already selected 15 excellent students to represent our Kingdom and hopefully bring victory on our side, as champions." The king says and the students roared to life to cheer for the representatives.
"We thank everyone for giving us your time and you may all have the rest of the day to yourselves." The King says as he descended down the stage, along with Akane, his brother, and his personal knights and went back to the kingdom after waving goodbye to Akalea and her companions. The students all stood up and slowly piles out of the assembly room, the students going their own ways.
Akalea and the others didn't know what to do for that afternoon, since the ceremony was held in the afternoon. So they decided to just train the afternoon till the night. Akalea also helped Blood absorb the energy ball and with 100% success, Blood became more powerful and is now a Monarch. Blood was really happy that she ascended to the next level and was also happy for following Akalea as Akalea was treating her better.
2 weeks and 5 days laterr..... April 1, 2017.... A Saturday....
Akalea grabs her duffle bag filled with training clothes and outing clothes as she is dressed in her usual black outfit. Black fitted shirt, black leather jacket, black fitted leggings, black socks, combat boots and training gloves. She then looks at Peace, who was ready to head out as well, with a duffle bag strapped around his shoulder. They both head out of the room. Akalea's hair up in a ponytail, her eyes went to her concealed color, blue-ish grey, her scent concealed, her aura and most powers concealed except for the 10 she'll probably use.
The moment she heads out of her room, she sees the others coming out of theirs as well. Akalea then looks at Peace then at Blood, who was ready to go as well, and smiles at her. Akalea asked permission if she could get Blood and Peace to come with them for experience and protection which was permitted. They had chosen Peace and Blood, too, into the candidates since they were lacking in candidates. Clara was also chosen due to her hard work, which meant 15 candidates were chosen. As to why 15 candidates, 10 Rankers, Emily gone because Emily hasn't been attending classes and hasn't been seen at all, so they removed her, Clara, Corey, Blood, Peace and Akalea as the 5 people chosen.
"Let's go, guys! We gotta meet the others at the meeting place." Akalea says as they all head down, walking towards the entrance of the academy which is the meeting place. Akalea and her companions met up with the others at the entrance. Seeing as Colton, Newt, Josh and Kint will be their protectors and will be the ones to lead them during the duration of the tournament.
"We'll be using one of the teleportation portals in Abernathy Town to go to the location of the tournament, which is at the center of all the 5 kingdoms." Newt says as he leads everyone to the teleportation portal, which is in the Town, guarded by knights and assassins if ever anyone tries to get in a portal without permission.
By foot, they arrived at the entrance of Abernathy Town an hour early than the designated time. Newt lead everyone to the Portals and they could see 5 portals. They were also labeled by Numbers and the name of their kingdoms under the numbers. 1, Archard Kingdom, 2, Ulric Kingdom, 3, The Center, 4, Ambrosia Kingdom and 5, IronBreaker Kingdom.
As Akalea was looking at the portals, she saw another one on the far right where it was labeled 6, Drakon. "Let's go to a local restaurant to grab something to eat before we go." Josh says as he leads them all to a local restaurant that's not crowded and they got themselves a big table. Some ordered a good amount of food while the others ordered something less.
"Sir Newt? Can I ask what those Kingdoms represent?" Akalea asks as she is new to see the names of these Kingdoms, especially the last one. "Good question. In your history classes, Mr. Barnes doesn't really talk much about the other kingdoms but our own. Abernathy is the home to the humans. Archer Kingdom is the home of the elves. Ulric Kingdom is the home of the wolves. Ambrosia Kingdom is the home of the vampires. IronBreaker is the home of the dwarves."
Newt says which the students nod their heads, listening. "These 5 Kingdoms are the major kingdoms, there are a lot of other minor kingdoms around that is either under one Kingdom or not at all. The Center is home to mixtures of our human race and other races, more so being the safe haven of a lot of races. We shouldn't discriminate nor judge other races, okay? It's not a good thing." Josh adds as the food arrived at their table.
"What about the last portal? Drakon Kingdom?" Akalea asks which made everyone stop doing what they were doing, especially Peace who always loves to eat and doesn't like to be disturbed, stopped eating midway by the mention of his race's fallen kingdom. Peace's eyes darken, staying the quiet guy he is. "A-Actually..." Kint couldn't utter out the words, knowing Peace was there, and everyone knew except for Akalea.
"It's a fallen kingdom..." Peace utters out which made everyone freeze in their place, slowly looking at Peace who had a blank expression. "A fallen-" Akalea repeats Peace's words but was cut off with Peace talking. "Of my race..." Peace says as he looks at his food, his heart aching from the memories of his race being almost wiped away by not only the humans but also with the other races' help. Akalea snaps her head towards Peace, seeing Peace hurting even when his face is blank.
"I'm so sorry. I didn't know. I saw the portal and was curious what it was." Akalea apologizes to Peace, who just nodded his head and begins to eat his meal. "It's fine." Peace says before he ate a spoonful of food. The awkward silence erupts between them as they ate in that silence. But something bugged the minds of everyone there including Peace.
After a while of eating, there were 15 minutes left so they finished their meals, paid for it and walk back to the Portals area. "What did you mean about you saw the portal? We didn't see a 6th one. There were only 5." Colton says and the others agree as they just arrive in front of the portals. Everyone could only see the 5 portals except for Akalea, Peace and Blood since they're bonded, they can see what Akalea sees.
"There are 6." Akalea, Peace and Blood says in unison which confused the others. "I mean, here, look. It's right here-" Akalea says as she walks up to the portal to show everyone, putting a hand in front of her to touch the portal. The knights and the instructors trying to stop her by running to her but before Akalea could show them, she was sucked into the portal.
Akalea felt herself being pulled into the swirling state inside the portal after hearing her companions yelling for her. A second later, Akalea landed on her butt as she got off the portal, into the Drakon Kingdom. Akalea stood up and brushed off the dirt on her butt as she calmly checks her surroundings.
"It really did fell into ruins..." Akalea says as she looks in front of her. Broken down buildings, houses, walls, a big castle, businesses and more, broken into pieces as if a war broke out here. Suddenly, warmth erupted within her again and Akalea knew it was the egg within her that's reacting. The warmth slowly subsided and with this Akalea thought of coming back to this kingdom and check it out.
Akalea also decided then and there that she'll come back soon to properly investigate what really happened to Peace's race. "Master! Come back, please!" Peace and Blood, with the shared telepathic communication, says into the mind of Akalea, feeling their panicking states as well.
Akalea kneels down and puts her palm on the ground, putting a bit of her aura as a mark for her to be able to teleport back here if ever the portal coming here will be gone. Akalea stands up after putting her mark and turns around to still see the portal that sucked her into.
She held her arm out and once again, she gets sucked into the portal. Not a second later, she flew out of the portal as if something pushed her out. "Someone catch her!" A knights yells out the moment she saw Akalea come out of nowhere. Everyone starts to move towards Akalea who was still in the air, to catch her. Akalea was caught in the arms of Peace, who was fast enough to run and jump towards her. "Master, please don't do that again." Peace says as he knelt to the ground, Akalea felt herself falling, tears starting to form in his eyes and hugs Akalea dearly, not wanting to lose her, too.
"I'm alright, okay? I'm back, see?" Akalea says as she puts her hand on Peace's cheek and caresses it calmly, looking into Peace's eyes. Peace held in his tears, wiping them before more could fall, standing up as he holds Akalea in his arms. Everyone was watching them and were shocked to see Peace acting like that for the first time since Peace rarely acts out nor react to anything.
"Can you put me down, now?" Akalea asks and Peace realized he didn't let go of Akalea, he quickly helps her to her feet and held her hand so as to not let go of her, blushing at the end. Akalea chuckles at Peace's behavior and sees Blood crying quietly behind everyone watching. Akalea walks towards Blood and pats her head. "It's okay, I'm here." Akalea says and Blood, who had her eyes closed while crying, open her eyes and sees Akalea, hugging her directly.
"We should get ready to leave. I have to tell you guys something once we arrive." Akalea says as she drags the two clinging to her towards the others still watching. They snap back to reality and nod their heads. The 6 guys watching the scenes happening were jealous and envious of the hand holding Akalea's hand and the arms hugging Akalea, wishing it was them.
"Let's go, we have 7 minutes left." Newt says as she clears his throat, walking towards the Portal they need to go into. "Okay one by one head inside." With that, one by one, the students and the instructors were sucked into the portal and into another place. Once everyone arrived at the Center, they look at their surroundings to see a buzzing town, a lot of people talking, selling and buying stuff.
"The place looks so crowded." Akalea says as she sees all kinds of races in front of her. "Yeah, it's always been like this." Dawn says, standing next to her, looking at the crowd as well. "You must be from the Abernathy Academy of Abernathy Kingdom, right?" A voice asked and they turn to look at the owner of the voice. It was a tall, pale and handsome man with neat hairstyle, lean built, a powerful aura, and blood red eyes, indicating he's a vampire.
"I'm Quinn, and this is Dominic." Quinn, the vampire, says, pointing at the man next to him. Bulky build, medium-long hairstyle, tall, cream-ish brown skin and handsome. Dominic puts a hand up, signaling a hi, with a smile. "If you couldn't tell, yet. I'm a vampire and he's a werewolf. We're from the Center's organization dealing with the Tournament between the 5 Kingdoms. We're here to escort you to your quarters where you'll be staying in. Please, follow me."
Quinn says with a smile as she immediately turns around and starts to walk towards the direction of their quarters. Akalea and everyone else followed suit, trailing behind the two tall men. Akalea and the others were cautious of their surroundings since its a mixture of many races and who knows what might happen. Akalea, Peace and Blood concealing their auras and scent to not arouse any unwanted attention. Akalea, Peace and Blood were behind the others, walking alongside the instructors, watching their surroundings as they head to their quarters.
"The quarters are up ahead, its right beside the stadium where the tournament will be held at." Dominic says, his deep voice radiating power. Akalea and the others remain silent as they listened, picking up their pace to get to their quarters faster. Once they arrived at the quarters which was an 8 story building and head inside, meeting the other participants from the other Kingdoms. Seeing elves, wolves, vampires and dwarves in the lobby of the building.
The other races turn to look at the human race the moment they arrived inside with cautious and curious gazes, some were filled with hatred and some were filled with arrogance. "Here are the participants of the Abernathy Kingdom. We can now hand over the keys to the participants so they can head to their rooms." Quinn says as employees walk towards each kingdom and gave them the keys to their rooms.
"Each room in each floor having three beds and a bathroom. Workers, please help them to their floors. You guys know what to do. Also, the opening Ceremony will start later in the evening so you may look around the Center, sightsee, buy things and such. Just don't cause any trouble. We'll come to pick you guys up so see you all later." Dominic says and with that, the two of them left the building.
The workers start to show the participants of each race to their floors. Archard Kingdom on the first floor, Ulric Kingdom on the second floor, Abernathy Kingdom on the third floor, Ambrosia Kingdom on the fourth floor and IronBreaker Kingdom on the fifth floor. It took a while for everyone to be situated in their rooms. Akalea, Peace and Blood sharing one room. The three put their duffle bags down on their beds and lay on their beds, the softness calling to their tiredness.
A knock broke into the room's silence, waking the three up from their almost slumber. Akalea stood up and went to the door to answer whoever knocked. Akalea opened the door and sees everyone outside. "We want to go sightsee, you wanna come with? We haven't gone sightseeing at the Abernathy Town last time." Shawn says and Akalea nods her head, calling Peace and Blood to come as well. The three walk out of their rooms, trailing behind everyone else as they head out. Before they went down, Akalea creates barriers in their floor if ever someone tries to stir up trouble in their floor, they won't be able to step in if they had malicious intent even for a slightest bit plus if the barrier was being hit on or destroyed, it will alert Akalea.
Akalea and her companions walk out of the quarters and into the busy streets of the Center. Them checking everything out one by one, greeting and being nice to the different races they come across, though some were scared of them because they were humans. As they were walking around, they were met with a crowd surrounding a mess. Akalea and her companions check what it was, pushing themselves in between the people to see what it was.
Akalea managed to push herself in front of the crowd and could see what was happening. "If you steal from my stand again, I'll kill you myself!" A bulky guy said as he kicks the person on the ground's stomach, the person grunting in pain. Akalea's eyes went wide seeing that it was a kid he kicked. "Hey!" Akalea yells out, gaining the attention and now their eyes on her, she didn't care as it was a child that's involved.
The bulky guy looks from the kid to Akalea with an arched eyebrow, indicating 'What?'. Akalea walks towards the bulky guy, pushes her finger on his chest. "You kicked a kid. He's still a kid! You could've just used words." Akalea says calmly but she was angry inside. She walks to the kid and helps him up, seeing how badly beaten he was as blood was pouring out his mouth.
"You don't know jack shit. That kid kept on stealing from my stand multiple times now. You think I would tolerate that?" The bulky guy asks Akalea who sighs. "Still, he's a kid. You could've killed him!" Akalea exclaims as she looks at the bulky guy. "Don't mess with me. You're also a kid so don't give me that crap." The bulky guy says, taking a step forward. "Okay, okay, hold on. We'll pay for what the kid has stolen." Josh says, appearing in front of the bulky guy to calm the bulky guy down. Akalea's companions arrived by her side after seeing the interaction.
"100 silver coins." The bulky guy says and the crowd was booing, the food in his stand didn't cost that much let alone a kid stealing food from his stand multiple times. "100 silver coins is a bit..." Kint trails off trying to bargain with the bulky guy. "Take it or leave it." The bulky guy chuckles, thinking he'll win. "You scammer! 100 silver coins is too much! None of your food even cost 1 silver!" A citizen in the crowd says and the crowd agrees.
"So what? These strangers wanted to be heroes, not my problem if they want to deal with it." The bulky guy says as he smirks, the crowd couldn't do nor say a thing as he was right. "Here." Akalea says as she throws a gold coin at the bulky guy's feet. The bulky guy quickly getting the gold coin and went back to his stand, looking triumphant. A Gold coin is equivalent to 1000 Silver coins.
"Akalea, that was a gold coi-" Kint didn't finish when they saw Akalea's eyes looking at the kid. "Let's get back to the quarters to tend to his wounds." Akalea says, awfully calm, taking the kid in her arms in a bridal style as she walks towards the quarters. Akalea's companions didn't know what happened to Akalea but they followed, trailing behind her as the crowd made way for them to walk through. The crowd dispersing after Akalea and the others were out of sight.
A particular group of people were all smiling and chuckling, loving the little surprise they made for the humans. They also left afterwards with the thought of seeing the beautiful human girl angry. "I'll make you mine."
Akalea and the others arrive back at the quarters and head to their floor. Akalea brought the kid back to her room and laid him down on Blood's bed. "Sir Kint, can you heal him, please?" Akalea requests Kint and he didn't hesitate to move towards the kid, healing him. "What happened back there?" Corey asks, curious to what happened. "It was all part of someone's sick joke for fun." Akalea says as she looks at the kid.
"What do you mean?" Amy asks. "I meant, someone from the participants made a bet with the kid if he can steal from that bulky guy's stand. If he could, that someone would give him 1 gold coin. The kid obviously followed through but you saw what happened." Akalea says and her companions finally understood, angry that someone from the participants did that. "I thought we were in a peace treaty?" Dawn asks, almost annoyed.
"Even if we were in a peace treaty between all 5 kingdoms doesn't mean no one would cause trouble. There'll always be people who'd do the opposite for the sake of fun. That's why we shouldn't do any unnecessary actions here." Josh says and the students nod their heads, trying to get those words in their heads.
"It'll be the opening ceremony, later. Don't cause trouble, please." Newt says and the students nod their heads while Akalea was staring at the kid, knowing his circumstances. Him and his three other siblings in an orphanage since they were abandoned by their parents. The orphanage wasn't better than from when they were under their parents, its just as bad.
There're probably a lot of kids more like them around the world. Poor kids. Akalea thinks to herself as she clenches her fists from disappointment and anger towards irresponsible parents even if they were in a tough spot. No kid should be left behind. Akalea thinks to herself and thought that one day she'll be able to help those kids even the parents.
A while later, all the candidates/participants were in the lobby waiting for Quinn and Dominic. While they were waiting, none of the candidates in each kingdom talked to other kingdoms' candidates as if showing their differences and dominance but Akalea didn't care about that as she was silently staring at a group of people, especially one who caught her starting at him and just smiles and waves at her.
Akalea looks away with no emotions as she stopped staring at that one person. A second later, Quinn and Dominic came right in through the building's door with smiles on their faces. "Looks like everyone is here. Let's go." Quinn says with a motion with his right hand. One by one, each kingdom's candidates followed behind Quinn and Dominic especially giving each other a good amount of space between them. Neither one of them wanting to be with the other kingdoms.
As they arrive at the entrance of the stadium, all they can hear were the screams and cheers from the people inside. Akalea looks around and could see less people outside of the stadium, realizing that most of them were inside the stadium.
"Let's head in, go to our waiting rooms and wait for the announcer to call for our kingdoms." Quinn says as they head inside, being shown to their own waiting rooms and the two, Quinn and Dominic, left afterwards. " Akalea sitting in one of the chairs inside and sees the hologram, showing the inside of the stadium and the announcer/host for the opening ceremony.
"Welcome to the Opening Ceremony of the Tournament of Kingdoms that happens once every year! We have now, our candidates waiting in their waiting rooms to be called upon! Why don't we call them, shall we?!" The announcer announces and asked the crowd. The crowd roared to life as they all roared out "YES!".
"Let's call out the first Kingdom. Archard Kingdom, the kingdom of elves!" The announcer yells his words into his mic and the crowd roared their cheers as Archard Kingdom's candidates came out of the big double steel doors and into the stadium's field, which is a lot like the Arena back at Abernathy Academy but more bigger.
"What do you like to say to everyone here and to the other kingdoms' candidates?" The announcer asks one of the candidates and one grabbed the mic. "Stay excited in your seats, we'll defeat them all one by one." The elf with pointy ears and pretty eye color, says with pride as he and his fellow candidates raise their hands up high like they just won the tournament.
The crowd cheered again which the elves gotten more confident of winning. All the other candidates were watching and felt eager to break their confidence and pride while Akalea was there assessing the elf candidates, seeing that the elves were almost as powerful as Shawn, the 2nd Rank. The Shawn before. Akalea thinks to herself as she smiles secretly, knowing she trained the rankers and the other candidates to their fullest and made them stronger.
"Next up is Ulric Kingdom, the kingdom of wolves!" The announcer says into the mic and came in the candidates from Ulric, walking in with their bulky and lean built, both women and men were fit and emanating strong aura. "What do you like to say to everyone here and to the other kingdoms' candidates?" The announcer says and passes the mic to one of the wolf candidates.
"We'll get rid of their confidence and be on top." A wolf says into the mic as she and her fellow candidates howled which made the crowd cheer for them. "Next one is Ambrosia Kingdom, the kingdom of vampires!" The announcer says and in came the vampire candidates of Ambrosia. The announcer asked them the same question.
The vampires didn't say anything and just gave them their poised smirks, leaving the spotlight and stood next to the other kingdoms' candidates. "Oh, well. They're mysterious alright." The announcer says and the crowd cheered for Ambrosia. "Next up is IronBreaker Kingdom, the kingdom of dwarves!"
The announcer says and in came the dwarves, though dwarves meant small people but these dwarves that came in were average height of 5'0 - 5'9. Their strong builds and their firm expression made them look cool and a bit scary. The announcer asked them the same question which one dwarf took the mic from the announcer. "We'll break them."
Was all he said before he and his fellow candidates walk towards the spot next to Ambrosia Kingdom, their arms crossed and expressions firm. "Okay, we've all been waiting for the tournament to start but there is the last kingdom I'm going to call out! Abernathy Kingdom. the kingdom of humans!"
The announcer calls out and in came Akalea and her companions, the instructors staying inside the waiting room. Akalea was behind her companions with her hands in her pockets, trying to look uninteresting to everyone's eyes. The announcer asked them the same question which Akalea's companions all turn to look at her.
Akalea sees them look at her and she looks at them, seeing that they want her to say something being their leader and all. Akalea sighs and walks to the announcer. So, be it. Akalea thinks to herself as she takes the mic from the announcer. "Let's have fun." Akalea's words ringed through the stadium and through everyone's ears.
Everyone was shocked to hear her blunt and carefree words but the crowd likes the carefree Akalea, cheering for her kingdom. Akalea then walks towards the spot next to IronBreaker kingdom's candidates, her companions trailing behind her like puppies following their mom. Akalea turns to look at IronBreaker's candidates and sees someone looking at her, too. The dwarf who answered the announcer's question earlier gave Akalea a thumbs up, liking her blunt and carefree words since he likes to be direct and blunt, too. Akalea gives him a smile and the dwarf's firm expression broke down as he blushed.
Not used to being smiled at since their kind always had firm expressions on them and only smile on occasions. He composes himself and stops himself from blushing, his firm expression coming out as he turns to face the announcer. Akalea chuckles at his actions and did the same.
"Now, we have introduced the candidates of this year's tournament! I can feel everyone's excitement from here and to be honest, I'm also excited. With this, I would like to welcome the King of Central for his words." The announcer says and points his hand behind him and the King was shown on a big holographic screen.
A handsome face was shown, clean haircut, a scar running down from his right eyebrow down to his right cheek and well built body in a seemingly simple fitted shirt. "I welcome you all to this year's tournament..." As the king was giving his words, the announcer walked to the candidates and told them to stand in the center of the stadium and the announcer left the field right after, knowing what will happen next as he smiles after closing the double doors and locking it.
"So now, I'd like to say that it would be boring if we continue to do what we've done for years and it'll be exciting to try something new." The king says as the candidates and the crowd were curious as to why the king said that. "We'll have the first round of the tournament right here, right now." The king says, ending his words with a smile, the stadium's forcefield activating to surround the field so as the powers and strength of the candidates won't flow through and hurt the crowd.
The candidates were confused as they witness the happenings and couldn't process what's happening. Akalea was there, liking the idea of a surprise round of the tournament, mentally giving applause to the king of thinking this since this made her excited. "We'll have an elimination round tonight. If you're still standing after an hour, you'll be going to the next round, regardless of how many in each kingdom stands. The next round will be tomorrow so you guys should give it your all in this round."
The king says with a smile before the holographic screen turns off and a horn was blown, indicating the start of the round. Akalea lets out a small smile as her heart was pumping with excitement, her body reflexively moving to her fighting stance. Akalea sees the other candidates realizing what happened and were in their stances, too. Akalea looks at her companions, who were ready to fight, knowing what Akalea would be thinking after all the trainings she gave them, they called her a Demon whenever they trained cause she'll train them till they drop.
Remembering their training, they all shiver at the thought of the excited Akalea and felt sorry for whoever she'll beat down. Akalea looks at the candidates, assessing the situation in front of her. "Wait!" A voice was heard and it was one of the elf candidates. "The king didn't say we have to beat someone. He just said whoever still stands after an hour so if we think about it, we can just stand still for an hou-" The elf guy didn't get to finish his words when a vampire guy aimed for his neck, which the elf guy dodged and jumped back, putting space between them.
The elves dispersing after one of them was attacked. "It's not fun if it's like that." The vampire guy says as he lunges at the elf guy again. With this, the vampire candidates all lunged for the other candidates, which all candidates were now fighting. Akalea jumps back, avoiding a big fireball that was shot at her. She looks to the owner and sees the very same guy she saw in the kid's memories.
"Did you like my surprise?" The guy, a vampire candidate, says this and looks at Akalea with a wicked smile as his question meant about the kid. "Not really, it was petty." Akalea bluntly says and this slowly enraged the guy, who laughed wickedly, his head back and his arms holding his stomach. "I must say, you're pretty interesting...." The guy says after putting his head back down, looking at Akalea in the eyes.
"But what interests me.... makes me want to take it down."
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Hey guys! What's up? Been a while since I uploaded a chapter. Been busy for the past week and days huhu. Schoolwork keeps piling up and its getting harder to write chapters because of the time constraint.
Also, I think I'll be having a tough time with updating a chapter next week because of schoolwork but I'll do my best to write as much as I can so I can update next week but if I couldn't, then that means I've been busy and will update a chapter next next week.
I hope you guys continue to support and read my book! Please, read my other book, The Rising Of Akalea, too! It means a lot to me, really. Thank you all!
Thank you all for reading until this chapter! I really want see you all in the upcoming chapters as well!
- Aki