The art of sparring was something that Minoko found easy to observe, though she rarely participated in the training ritual herself. Perched on the wooden fence surrounding the open field serving as Sama's arena, she carefully watched every move her husband made against the weapon-handler pair of Junia and Orchid. Junia easily handled the massive guillotine sword that the typically petite Orchid had transformed into. She repeatedly hacked and slashed at Emlen, who didn't seem to have much trouble blocking just about every blow that he didn't flat out dodge. Sparks repeatedly flew from the impact of the sword on the blades that circled Emlen's arms. The process was exciting to watch, even though there was no real weight to the match. Emlen was obviously the superior fighter.
Minoko let out a pleasant sigh and momentarily shifted her eyes away from the fight. Her figure wobbled precariously on the fence as she leaned back and stared up to the sky. After the hell that had been the last several months, it felt amazing to relax in her husband's home village and simply enjoy his presence. Aloysius also surfaced in her mind, as he always inevitably did, and worry seeped into her thoughts a moment later. It was then that the woman spied a shooting star streaking across the sky. She was quick to push her emotions to the side and mumble a question to the night, one that couldn't have been any simpler. "I wish that things could just...stay the same."
The granting of her thoughtless little wish was instantaneous. Minoko looked back to the fight and watched as the fluid motions of battle came to a sudden halt. The sparks being emitted from the action of Emlen's rotating blade grinding against Orchid's sword form hung eerily in the chilled spring air. Panic was quick to overcome the woman. She hopped off the fence and sprinted for her husband. "Emlen...?" Minoko, careful to avoid the sparks, waved her hand in front of the immortal's frozen blue eyes. She then did the same to Junia. Neither gave any sort of reaction. Seeking a final confirmation of the world's stillness, Minoko glanced skyward. The shooting star was stuck in place as well. An idea came to the Asian, and she hollered out what she hoped the star would accept as the rest of her wish. "For two minutes! I wish that things could stay the same for only two minutes!"
Waiting that one minute and forty seconds was nothing less than excruciating. All Minoko could think about was if the second half of the wish didn't take. This might be the rest of her life. Would there really be a rest of her life, though? If things didn't change then that included her. There wouldn't be a rest of her life, there would only be an endless eternity where she was the lone active thing in what she imagined to be the entire universe. Minoko nervously paced around the outskirts of the arena, angrily eying the star while she did so. A lesson could be learned from this. Change was something that couldn't be avoided, and the best she could do was take it as it came. However, learning lessons was a weak point of hers. The most she got out of her current situation was not to trust evil space lights.
Emlen's blade sounded out the ending of Minoko's short lived wish with its horrible grating whir. The sparring pair took no notice of her change in location. They went back to trying to kill each other in a constructive way like nothing had ever happened, most likely because nothing actually had happened. Minoko smiled out of relief and leaned back against the fence. "Thank you," was said politely to the shooting star that had resumed its trip across the night sky. She watched the ball of light until it winked out of existence, leaving only its lovely trail and the aftereffects of infinite wishes. Then Minoko hoisted herself back up onto the fence, reclaiming her original spot. It was still a nice night, even if it wasn't permanent.
