A Step In The Right Direction

Somewhere around Kinchakuda in Japan, a blue light appeared on the back of a tree, in the middle of a forest.

Out of the light came a comely older male in a red and white suit. He looked around the area for a bit as though searching for someone, and after not finding them he turned his head to check the time on his white watch.

He sighed in disappointment seeing how late it already was. There was much to do and yet here he was away from his place of work, waiting in a field for someone who was supposed to be here before him, but yet was nowhere to be seen.

As he brought his head back up to look around once more, he noticed the silhouette of a woman who had not been there before, bent down over by a bunch of flowers growing beside a thin tree.

The woman had a small red umbrella placed over her shoulder despite it not being very hot that day. She was dressed mostly in red from her top to her bottom, even putting on red lipstick to match her red hair.

She also wore the color white on her outfit, but most of it was too small for one to pay attention to. All except for the white bowknot sunhat on the top of her head.

The woman continued to stare down at the flowers that hadn't bloomed yet in silence. Watching them grow beside the tree.

She kept this silence up until she felt the presence of someone approaching her.

"It seems you came dressed as I requested," she said first without turning her head to check Alex's attire.

"It was a strange request, to say the least," Alex responded. "What's even more strange is the fact that you requested I come here to see you when you are the one who wanted to discuss something with me."

"Why couldn't you just come into my office? You know how busy I have been in these past few days."

Ariel ignored the question, she turned her head around to look him over and then said to him, "You look younger. I guess the stress hasn't killed you yet."

There was a small cherry yet almost sadistic smile on her face as she said that.

Ariel then turned back to look at the young flowers that were growing beside the tree.

"You know, I hate these types of flowers," she stated in a soft gloomy tone.

"There are different kinds of spider lilies that exist in the world. To my knowledge, there should be white, blue, golden, and maybe even more. But the ones that grow in this place are the red spider lilies. This place is filled to the brim with them come every fall."

"I'm sure this might be common knowledge for you, but the red spider lilies in Chinese and Japanese culture symbolize death and finality. A grim reminder that nothing is permanent in this world. Anything that has life, will eventually lose it at some point. They all die someway or somehow, whether it be internally or physically."

"So you would think that with a reputation like that, the Japanese would despise this kind of flower and see it as a bad omen to society. But no, you know what they do instead? They adore this flower and created a festival to celebrate the coming of its season."

"They say that death is only an opportunity, a chance to live a new life, be it through reincarnation or others living on for you, and instead of feeling sad about it, they should feel joy and hopefulness to know that those loved ones aren't truly dead for their memories live on through them."

"So tell me, why would they do that? Why would they go so far as to give something with such a dastardly meaning such kind and special treatment? Is it because they are pretty?" She said through gritted teeth. "Is it because the flowers are nice to look at and carry a pleasant and sweet smell with them?"

At that moment, Ariel shouted in a small fit of anger as she pulled out a young plant from the ground. "Then maybe we should uproot these flowers before they would ever bloom so that we don't have to face the cruelty of doing it afterward."

Alex caught her fist in the air, the one that was holding the flower she squeezed ever so tightly as he said to her, "Maybe they celebrate them because they realize that even bad things can be used for so much more if only they are given a chance to shine in a different light."

"Knives can be used to cut someone's throat or even stab them in the back, and yet the same knife can be used to cook food that can help preserve a life. We don't always have to see bad things for what they are," Alex said as he squatted down to reach eye level with Ariel.

"Sometimes, people want to see the good in things, even if everyone else says that they are bad."

While still holding her hand, together they replanted back the flower that she had uprooted from the ground. Given it a second chance to grow again into something beautiful.

"But this wasn't about flowers now was it?" Alex asked cheekily to an Ariel who refused to face him.

"Now, putting that aside, I still don't know what it is that you wanted to discuss with me?"

Ariel stood up after he asked his question and Alex stood up straight as well.

"It's about the assignment you put me on. I found some information that you might be interested to hear," Ariel answered in a serious and business-related tone.

****

Back at the headquarters.

Cyrus, Dawn, and Edith were all sitting on the floor in the training room practicing how to control lifeforce energy with Minty. Terra and Vito were also in the room, but they were exempted from training because Alex had already trained them past the basics.

As to why they were training, this was because Minty had made it known to them that after Terra leaves the Earth, he would take with him the power that comes with being this planet's representative which was currently being spread out towards all the chosen candidates for that role.

This meant that Vito and the others would lose all the traits that made them superhuman and would go back to being just regular people. However, practicing how to control lifeforce energy from within themselves would at the very least give them an edge over any other person.

Sure they would not not be superhuman standard, but they would at least be above average.

With that being said and done, Terra was beginning to feel bored as he watched them train from afar. He yawned at a distance as he stretched out his weary arms, feeling his mind was going to sleep if he didn't do something.

He wasn't the type of creature who could just sit around and do nothing for so long, it just wasn't in his system. Which was why he was so impressed by Vito who had been observing the lesson quite attentively.

"I'm going for a walk," Terra muttered as he got up from his seat.

"Don't get lost out there," Vito replied. "Wait, actually scratch that. Get lost out there so that our next mission can become a manhunt. That might be funny."

"Pfft, as if, I'm a master of direction. Besides, this place ain't big enough for me to get lost," Terra waved as he strutted away. He almost immediately fell as he accidentally kicked his left leg with his right foot while trying to look collected.

He was more than glad when he turned around to see that no one else saw what happened.

All except Minty. She saw the whole thing but pretended that she didn't.

Walking down the hallways Terra sighed as he looked around. He felt like he had been to every corner and place that these hallways could offer to him. He went through the living room, past the swimming area, up the stairs, and around the movie theater, he had seen so much but yet felt like he had been through so little.

He was half hoping that there was a secret passageway hanging around somewhere just waiting to be opened by him. Alas, he could not find this passageway no matter how much he tried. He even spent half an hour running his hand along the walls of the hallways hoping for something to happen.

In his disappointment, he went back down the stairs, he contemplated whether or not he should go back into the training room, but he felt reluctant to that idea because he knew that there would be nothing there that he would do. At least not for this session.

As he made his way down the stairs, he stopped himself just slightly above eye level from the living room, as he noticed a familiar figure quickly making his way past the room. Almost dashing through it in fact.

Upon closer inspection, Terra recognized the figure as he yelled in his mind, 'Alex is back.' There was a sense of excitement that followed as he realized that this was the perfect opportunity to learn something new from him.

And maybe even one-up the others by secretly learning some cool overpowered technique while the rest of them were meditating like some monks. He giggled like a maniac with his eyes facing the ceiling as he laughed at the idea.

He pictured himself showing off some cool power like telekinesis in front of his friends and then laughing away at their jealousy. It felt nice to imagine.

He was about to yell to get Alex's attention when he noticed how quickly Alex darted across the room. It was almost as though he was in a hurry to do something, or more like, as though he was in a hurry to go somewhere in the building.

Letting his curiosity get the better of him, Terra decided to sneakily follow Alex to wherever it was that he would take him. After all, what better way to spend his time than to improve his stealth skills by following someone?

'What was the worst that could happen?' he wondered.

Tagging along, he followed Alex down the staircase and into the aquarium underneath the building. Terra was surprised to see Alex go that way as Minty had set it to be off-limits until further notice.

So now Terra was in a dilemma, either respect the caution sign that Minty had placed across the door or keep following Alex deeper in the room.

Terra spent about 2 seconds contemplating this before he realized that he was already halfway past the doorway to the room. His subconsciousness got the better of him.

As he went past the doorway, a little tree that was placed in a tree pot beside it shook in a small tremor of fear at the realization that Alex was being followed. The tree wiggled sideways for a bit and then went underneath the soil that it was planted in.

Walking down the aquarium as silently as he could, Terra was perplexed as to how dark it was in there. Even without the lights on, the room felt darker than it usually was, but the thing that bothered him the most was the fact that he could not see the fish inside of the fish tanks no matter how much he squinted his eyes.

The place felt... dead.

Alex kept on moving forward, but his movements felt more stiff and almost unnatural. It was as though he was reluctant to be in this place right now.

Alex walked until he reached the end of the passageway, after which he stood there silently for a while. For a very long while.

3 minutes, 5 minutes, 10 minutes had passed, and yet Alex still hadn't moved an inch from that corner. Terra could not see his face nor could he hear his thoughts, but based on how Alex was acting, Terra could not help but wonder if Alex was being sentimental about something.

This felt like, "grief," to him.

Terra had half a mind to go back upstairs and leave Alex to his own devices, he was looking forward to some sort of secret room or hidden passageway or something like most people would expect in movies, but he definitely wasn't looking to pry on another man's grievances.

As Alex stood in his corner in a somewhat tranced state, he heard a noise calling out to him from a familiar voice.

"Alex~ Alex~ ALEX~!!!"

Snapping out of it, he looked to his side and there was a small plant growing from underneath a crack in the floor.

"Alex! I have been trying to get your attention for the last 12 minutes!!" The plant said as it jumped around up and down as though fuming with rage from being ignored.

"Terra is perched around somewhere behind you. He followed you into this place. And I can't believe that you let something like this happen, you are getting sloppy old man, perhaps I should be happy that I am getting somebody younger to represent me now~"

Alex's eyes widened for a moment upon hearing that, he sighed as he rubbed his eyes with his hand, turned around, and asked, "Terra Vian. Are you there?"

Terra was in shock, 'How did I get caught? I'm sure my approach to this was perfect,' but after peeking over his hiding spot to look closer at Alex who definitely knew he was there, he said disappointedly, 'I guess not perfect enough.'

Terra walked out from his hiding spot awkwardly, he was somewhat embarrassed and ashamed that he got caught so he couldn't help but smile nervously while approaching Alex.

Before Alex even said another word, Terra quickly blurted out, "So you see I happened to go to the bathroom after the training session with Minty and there wasn't really anything for me to do that side because you already trained me with the basics of lifeforce energy, so I was kind of bored out of my mind in a lack of knowing what to do and then I saw you going past the living room and I was like oh! where is he going, and so I kind of followed you out here accidentally, I say accidentally because it wasn't really on purpose, my body just kind of moved on its own, and one thing led to another and I saw you standing there in the corner awkwardly and so I thought you were dead but then I figured you don't seem like the type of person to die while standing on your feet all of a sudden and so I figured that you were grieving and so I was about to leave until you called me out here and all that I really wanted to say was..."

"I would like for you to train me," Terra yelled flustered.

In the inside of his mind, he cried, 'It's over, I'm finished.' 

But that was until he heard Alex's reply. "Sure."

"Wait, what? Sure?" Terra asked surprised.

"Yes, I don't see why not?" Alex said as he looked at the time on his watch, knowing very well that there were so many other things he had to do that day.

Besides, training you would be a nice breath of fresh air from the hectic schedule I have been going through. And I know just the place to go.

"But Alex, you were supposed to-" the little plant tried to interrupt, but Alex took Terra by the shoulder and began walking away.

"Come now, I think I know the perfect place for you," Alex said as he opened up a portal that led them elsewhere.