[color=662d91][center][h1]Akane[/h1][/center][/color]

All in all, the guild never changed. It wasn't exactly that Akane had gotten used to the... 'energy' of the guild. But moreso that she had just accepted that this was the way things were, and adapted to it over time. The difference between that and getting used to it, was that in this case she distanced herself from the chaos a bit. 

She didn't care for the bickering of the other S Class. Ifrit didn't trust her... and she really couldn't care less. She didn't need his trust, she didn't need anyone's trust. Some guilds were like family, but Fenix Tear was a bit different. She had been here since the start, and seen countless faces come and go. She had seen the faces of children whose laughter once filled the halls of the guild, grow until they couldn't even walk on their own anymore, before they disappeared forever. And these days, as far as guild members went, there weren't many memories to hold onto. 

Ifrit was reliable, but that was about where her opinion of him ended. He had a tendency to take issue with others, especially those who held the rank of S Class. She had no issues with him, other than that to her his view of S Class not getting along was more of a self fulfilling prophecy, which in her eyes, more often boiled down to it not necessarily being S Class Don't Get Along... But rather, Ifrit Doesn't Get Along with other S Class. She had hoped he would warm up to others. But that had yet to happen. 

Mizore on the other hand deserved no trust. The sort who whispered in everyone's ear, always pulling people this way and that way, trying to play them like the pieces of a board game. Her deception was known to Ur, and so it was known to Akane. To be honest, it was somewhat obvious. Her strategy was not to hide her actions... but rather, to wear so many masks of deception that you don't know where the real Mizore would finally end up after you removed them all. And yet, Akane still did not particularly care. The scheming of a fox who has no guile is no scheming fox at all. It's just a child playing a game they don't know the rules to. And Mizore was certainly no fox. 

So perhaps it was right, that S Class didn't get along. But when there were so few, and their existence within the guild boiled down to a loyal but overly cautious 'God', a deceiver wearing a hundred different masks, and a Fox so disconnected from the others that she didn't even ultimately care about what either of them thought of her, what they were up to, or about 'trusting' them or not... certainly there was little room for 'getting along'. The only common ground they shared was they were in the same guild, and were S Class. 

And so when Mizore approached her, offering to take her off on some wild adventure, Akane didn't particularly respond much to it. Even had she wanted to go, she was already set to accompany Ur to the trial of this creature. This was truly a tragedy, as choosing between going on an adventure to who knows where, and going to court, she would have certainly chosen her own third option of seeking out the place in the guild at that very moment where the most sunlight shined through the windows, at which place she would take a nap. And rest assured, it would have been a long nap, a good nap.

After all, she was so very, very tired. It wasn't as if the others could understand why. It wasn't for them to understand. 

But the third option she so happily dreamed of was just that, a dream, as before she could even gather her wits, wherever she left them, they were at the Imperial Palace. A place that sickened her. Literally, she was sick to her stomach just looking at the place. She was, by her very nature, allergic to Imperial Palaces. It was a burden she could only live with, never a sickness to be cured. What did that mean? Honestly even she didn't know, it was something she made up one day and had just sort of stuck with it as an excuse as to why she could never go to this place. 

And yet here she was. 

Her failings were adding up today, and it was most certainly not her fault. She was being sabotaged. Was this a test? It was a particularly cruel one if so... and after dragging her here, against her will, truly an attack on her being, Ur wanted HER wisdom? Wisdom was difficult as a Fox. And so, in a flash of light, Akane was no more a Fox, but a girl half Ur's size, with a single white tail, white hair, and white Fox ears, all of which had purple markings here and there. 

"A Fox who runs away, is a very clever Fox. A Fox who stands and fights... knows something you do not." Her wisdom always came in this way. But for simple human minds, she had to reword it in ways they could understand. "If they intend on pursuing the execution through the legal system, and yet the Firelord considers it of such substantial importance to attend personally... then we must consider what it is that she knows, that we do not. If she wants him dead so badly, she could simply order the execution by Imperial Mandate, and skip the legal formalities. We would not be able to fight it, there would be no case to be made, it would simply be an execution. Yet instead, they choose to make it public and formal." She then went back to her original point, as she said "A Fox who runs away, is a very clever Fox... for they know they cannot survive any other way. But a Fox who stands and fights, would only do so if they had some assurance of their own victory, that you do not yet know." There was a pause, and a deep breath, as she said "The point is, either the Firelord is assured of her victory in this case, or, having a trial for this whole situation serves a different purpose altogether." 

And with that, she was back into her fox form, as it would soon be time to begin this whole... thing. 

But Akane would not keep this form for long, as soon after entering the room with Aki, she would take on her larger form, becoming roughly the size of a large wolf. This would be the form she would face the Firelord in. Even if it was merely existing in some silly game of laws. 

Society was dumb.