"I just think that you can train as well there as you can in the middle of Konan."

"Yeah, and have someone show up all of a sudden? No thanks."

"Fine, whatever," Roger sighed. Now she gets ambitous, he thought.

"I heard that."

Roger grinned and shook his head as they walked.

Before long, they were in the familiar region just past London. It was mostly rocks and dust, though here and there some kind of foliage was valiantly making an attempt to survive in the desert-like region.

"Ah, feels like home," Susanne said. "Roger, what *was* that that we felt earlier? Have you got any idea?"

"It's hard to say. The others felt nothing. Or they were so preoccupied and they felt it so weakly, they didn't notice."

"Could it have been Celly again?"

Roger shrugged and reached into Susanne's HammerSpace. After some fishing around, he drew out his old sword. "Ah, memories..." he said quietly, then raised it in a ready position. "Okay, you wanted to train. First, swordsmanship."

Susanne raised an eyebrow but quickly drew out her Glaive. "Bet that thing came in handy for bar fights."

"Immensely."

Of course, the most experience Susanne had ever really had in swordsmanship consisted of playing with sticks with her friends, pretending to be bandits like Robin Hood or something similar... and that was definitely a far cry from this.

She had no idea where Roger had learned to fight with a sword like that, and it was a little unnerving... especially when it struck her that he was going easy on her. But it was good training, and she knew that she's need it. The image of her first meeting with Celly loomed in her mind...

"There can be only one!" the ebony-haired girl had cried as she'd swung that obscenely long sword at her.

Fighting with the Glaive, though, proved to be very different from fighting with a sword. The balance was all different, calling for different motions, a different style altogether. That could be useful in fighting, if only to throw her opponent off.

After about an hour, they paused and sat down. Susanne reached in her HammerSpace for the bottle of Arrowhead she knew was in there.

"Do I have other powers?" she asked after a few moments of silence.

"Other powers?" Roger echoed. "To be honest, your guess is as good as mine. Why?"

Susanne shifted uncomfortably. "I... had a dream... a few days ago. Something about greater powers being obtainable only by admitting the Truth."

"That's right," Roger said.

"So... I've admitted the Truth, for whatever it's worth. I'll accept that my actions are more or less determined by someone else, and that I'm supposed to fight the other Otaku... but how do I find these 'greater powers'?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," he said. "More than likely, if you've got another power, it'll just manifest itself at some point when you need it."

"Oh..."

"Maybe it already has."

"How do you mean?"

"Well, I know that Guardian and Otaku are supposed to have a kind of connection. The ability to tap into each others feelings. But you and I... we can flat-out talk to each other. That's not supposed to happen."

Susanne considered this. "I don't think that's it. I can't communicate with anyone else that way. Even with Meredith, I still need some words. And we've been friends since the fifth grade."

"But you feel things stronger than the others. Like today. The only reason I really felt it, I think, is because I felt what you felt. To a degree."

"Maybe... guess I'll find out when I find out!"

"Makes perfect sense. Now... back to training!"