Rika sat by herself at a table in the dynasty mess hall.
Her mind was filled with the events of the previous day.
A thump on her forehead grabbed her attention. "Your head looks way bigger when you're overthinking." Dante teased.
Nanami sat beside her. "Are you feeling well?"
Rika slowly nodded. "Yeah, it just feels weird looking at everyone with the way I disappeared and all."
Dante waves his hand. "We forgive you, kind of hard to hold it against you if your crazy captain came to grab you."
Nanami agrees. "As long as you don't run off again, all is forgiven."
A flash of amusement played in her eye. "Maybe i'll fly off next time." Rika jokes.
As the three laugh Bein hops onto the table. "So this is who you guys were whining about? She doesn't seem worth all the trouble."
Rika looked intrigued by the little demon. "Who's this… or what is it?" She lifts his little arm inspecting him.
Bein snatched his arm away. "I ain't an it, in Bein!"
Nanami quickly explained how they came to meet Bein. And how he ended up being drug along. Rika found amusement in the story, where Kaito basically abducted a demon.
Speaking of which Kaito also returned, he looked at the table and frowned. "You're meeting up without me!?"
Toni walks from the guest room beaming with joy. Coming to the table with everyone else.
Kaito and Dante react to Toni's new guitar, their mouths agape with awe. "THAT THING IS SO COOL!"
Toni snickers. "Check this out!" He begins playing for the boys as they dance around.
Dante halts the dance. "Wait, Rika's back Kaito, we can form the guild!"
Kaito raises an eyebrow, crossing his arms. "Isn't grabbing her enough?"
Dante shakes his head, nearly offended. "No, of course not! We've gotta make pledges, and a guild vow!"
The group of them nod.
"The first step is to elect a guild leader." Dante explains. "Now I feel like it goes without saying…"
he looks over at Kaito who seems ready for a fight.
"WE ARENT FIGHTING FOR IT KAITO!"
Kaito slumps over, "boo, you're no fun." He whined
"I think we all know it goes without saying that you're our captain."
Everyone nods in agreement, "well actually I think I'd be a pretty good captain." Rika states.
The group look at her and then back at Kaito without a word.
"Now isn't the arrangement for these sort of things, a pledge of some sort?" Nanami questioned.
Kaito nods. "Alright guys! Time to form the guild," he threw his arms into the air. "from here on out we stick together no matter what!"
"As long as equal opportunity remains, I have no problems with that." Nanami adds.
Toni strums his mother's guitar. "I'll be there to play the music."
"And make songs about my amazing exploits so I can use my fame to help the guild!" Rika chimes in.
"Next we pledge our allegiance to our captain, this means we're prepared to do whatever we need to for them."
Dante bows his head and subsequently the others follow his lead, aside from Bein
The moves caused Kaito to cringe.
"That feels wrong, lift your heads back up!"
Dante doesn't raise his head. "It's guild custom!"
Kaito was beginning to realize that he didn't like the customs of the guild.
He understood why they existed. A guild needed a leader. Someone had to stand at the top and make the difficult decisions.
But that didn't mean he had to look down on everyone beneath him.
He shook his head and gently lifted their lowered heads.
"Well, that's not how this guild works!"
His voice was firm, but there was a smile on his face.
"I may be your leader, but that doesn't mean I'm above any of you. I'll fight for you guys just as much as you'll fight for me!"
His thoughts drifted back to the pledge he'd made earlier.
He knew that wasn't what he wanted.
Kaito looked around at his friends.
"We'll all achieve our dreams. We'll reach for the stars together." He grinned. "So tell me... what do you guys want? I'll start."
He held his hand out in front of them, extending his index and middle fingers.
"I'm gonna get the Unifates... and take the world!"
Dante's eyes lit up. He immediately joined in, holding his hand alongside Kaito's.
"I wanna become a great hero! The kind of hero who inspires people to believe they can be strong, too!"
Nanami smiled and added her hand.
"I want to obtain all the knowledge in the world." Her eyes sparkled with ambition. "And then I'll use it to create technology like no one has ever seen before."
Toni laughed softly before adding his hand to the growing pile.
"I wanna be the greatest bard to ever do it! I wanna make songs so incredible that they'll reach the heavens themselves!"
Rika hesitated.
She stared at the hands in front of her.
A dream...
She'd never really thought about it before.
Then, slowly, a smile spread across her face.
"I'm gonna be the most famous mage of all time!"
She thrust her hand into the center.
"And I'm gonna fill my photo album with everything from our journey! I wanna remember every single moment of my rise to fame!"
Their hands came together, forming a rough star.
Five young adventurers!
Five impossible dreams!
And one bond that would effectively change their lives forever.
Kaito suddenly glanced toward Bein.
"Hey! You're a part of the guild too, Bein!"
Bein rolled his eyes.
"You guys are so corny."
He sighed before reluctantly extending his little arm toward the center.
"Fine."
A mischievous grin spread across his face.
"I wanna be the King of Demons!"
Kaito's eyes widened before a huge grin spread across his face.
"Then I'll make all of your dreams come true!"
For a moment, there was silence. Then they all smiled.
"And we'll do the same for you!"
Kaito's grin grew even wider.
He looked down at their joined hands.
"This is our vow of unity!"
They all looked at one another.
"One for the guild..."
"And the guild for all!"
Their hands shot into the air.
The six of them burst into laughter, their voices echoing through the guild hall.
From the other room Haruko laughed, she listened to the entire thing. "Take the world huh?" She zeroed in on Kaito. "Just how will your story go young man?"