Chapter 14: West Branch

"He's awake," Monica's voice entered into Howard's ears. "I should kill you Blake. I have a boyfriend for one day and you do experiments on him!"

"Sorry, but I have good news." Blake smiled while happily tinkering with his device. "Since your his girlfriend, do you want to test one of my theories."

"What-what do you mean by test a theory," Monica trembled seeing a strange, curious look in Blake's brown, intelligent eyes. His black hair seemed to rise like a porcupine's bristles while laughing menacingly. Monica gulped and crossed her arms. "I'm-I'm not letting you touch him. You better not do anything while he's still groggy!"

"Put your hands on him. On his chest," Blake fixed his glasses, causing a strange bright glint to spread across them. He really looked more and more like a mad scientist.

They were currently in the convenience store, however, Howard had been placed on the table with three gargoyle's protecting his body. To his right and left, Monica and Blake sat on chairs on opposite sides of him, looking down at his fully healed body.

Monica, biting her lip, put her hands gently against Howard's chest and blushed red. Gently massaging his upper body, she looked at Blake with her lips trembling. "I'm-I'm just doing this because I'm helping you. Not-not because he's my boyfriend."

"Freeze him!" Blake screamed, causing the storage room to shake. A few bottles of grape juice fell over, spinning on the floor. "Freeze his chest! I want to see what happens!"

"No! You're not making me hurt my boyfriend!" Monica's anger began to simmer in the glint of her eyes, causing her to give off a terrifying pressure. "I-I'm already doing my best to forgive you for taking him to the twentieth floor! That's for someone in the C rank!"

Monica had only gotten up to the Obelisk's 15th floor, and she's been in the Furnace much longer that Howard! Even now, she couldn't dream of fighting the Authoritarian on the twentieth floor, yet Blake thought Howard, who'd only been here for a week, could destroy such a powerful figure!

"If-if you won't freeze him, then kiss him on the cheek with your cold Ki," Blake pointed at Howard's lips and nodded his head. "I'll watch very closely, but just for science."

"Science?! No! Turn around and maybe I'll kiss him," Monica saw Howard beginning to store and blushed before fixing her white tank top. She had on a black skirt that stopped a few inches from her knees and the ice amulet touching gently against her bosom. Blushing at the thought of kissing Howard, she moved closely to his cheek and touched her nose against his, before moving within inches of his lips.

"I'll-I'll kis close to his mouth!" Monica grabbed Howard's face and gently kissed on the right side of his lips, feeling a strange electric current traveling inside of her. Turning even redder then before, Monica screamed "I did it" before Blake took out a device in his pocket.

"He's your boyfriend, and you're scared to kiss him?" Blake yawned, "I heard stories about what he did with Vicky? Aren't you afraid you'll fall behind."

"I-I'm done here!" Monica spun around and began bolting to the exit. Turning back to look one last time, she formed an ice spear, pointing it at Blake's heart while twitching with her anger on her sleeve. "You-you better not do anything funny to him or I'll kill you!"

"I'm not doing anything." Blake held up his hands and laughed. "I just wanted to get you to kiss him! Ha, he's going to be so happy when he wakes up. It's the least I can do for failing at being his friend."

"Ugh, you better run!" Monica leaned back and prepared to throw the spear before seeing Howard rising from the table. He rubbed his lips, and looked up at the fluorescent lights, only to find Monica jumping towards him with her arms spread outwards as far as she could.

Boom!

Monica crashed into Howards' body, causing the table to turn over and three grape juices to shoot in the air. Freezing behind her, the grape juice cans crashed against the floor while tears began to come out of Monica's eyes.

"You're so stupid. I like you idiot, so you can't get hurt."

"You're so soft," Howard said with a smug expression. "However, why didn't you kiss me?"

"You-you were awake? Did you two plan this?" Monica turned to see Blake had already left the convenience store. "All because of a kiss? How long were you awake for?"

"Close your eyes." Howard said with a smile. "You missed my lips."

"I-I didn't miss anything!" Monica dropped Howard on the floor and rushed to the exit! "We-we have a mission from teacher Annibell! You better get up and follow me idiot!"

"Your lips feel nice," Howard said with a large smile on his face. "Maybe tonight we can finally cuddle?" He got up and stretched, finding a few frozen cans of grape juice littered on the floor. Standing up, he walked to the exit, finding Una and Annibell standing outside.

"Student Howard," Teacher Annibell said with her arms crossed, "Una would like with you to go with her to the West Branch to drop of Harley. Along the way, she'd like you to visit three shrines. Your little girlfriend can go with. Would you mind riding along?"

"Of course! Is Blake coming?" Howard said with a smile on his face. "He's been doing a lot of experiments on me, and almost got Monica to kiss me!"

"Howard, stop saying things out loud!" Monica covered her face, causing her to look so cute it was hard to put into words. "I'm-I'm your girlfriend on a performance basis! If you keep this up, I'll stop-stop-stop being so nice to you!"

"She can come along, sprout," Una said, leaning down to Howards' level and kissing him on the forehead. "However, she better kiss you soon or I will. That's thank you for saving me."

"Anyways, we got to go," Harley said while pointing at the bus. "A large Ki Storm is coming. If we don't head out soon, the west branch route will be sealed for a couple of weeks."

"Okay," Howard said while nodding his head. "However, what about teacher. Why doesn't teacher go with us?"

"I'm the only reason this territory remains in our hands," Annibell flexed her arms. "Now, enough questions. Go take your four girlfriends on an adventure. See you in a few weeks."