"Ah, so you have finally arrived yet again, my old friend."
"It's not like I've kept you waiting for too long."
"How easily you forget…While our perceptions of time are quite muddled, yours eclipses mine by an indescribable margin."
"Oh? So a couple weeks is still so agonizing for you?"
"A couple weeks? It has merely been a few da-…Ah, forgive me, I had forgotten that your perception has been further eschewed by this plan of yours."
"There is no need for apologies. This is a feeling very, very few could even hope to fathom. A pity it's a power wasted on those malignant and egotistical few."
"Regardless, your appearance here signifies that it's time for the next step in the plan, does it not?"
"Yes…The Phoenix of Destruction plots and schemes to eliminate the one called Yuuki Terumi, having nary a clue that he is simply drawn to the bait that is my trap to expose the hypocrisy of his so-called 'justice'."
"…Let it be said that I don't approve of the method you shall be using to expose it, old friend."
"If it wasn't for him, SHE would never have had to suffer in the first place. And besides…It's not as though any of this shall matter in the long run. But…that's a sentiment I can only share with a couple beyond the static veil. Isn't that right, -?"
"…Very well, I await to see the results."
"Assuming, of course, that it hasn't already ended the moment it began."
CLASH OF THE ELEMENTS PART 4 EX STORY 5:
THE COLLAPSING ORDER
Chapter 1: A Plan to Eradicate Evil
It has been twelve days since the defeat of the Murakumo Unit known as Nu, which put an end to the time loops once and for all. In the ensuing aftermath, Shina Aurora was tricked into giving up the artifact piece to Terumi in exchange for Alex's survival. However, Terumi rescinded on the deal immediately after, and attempted to kill him.
Though Terumi failed, Alex was thrown into a coma right after from overexertion, and he only woke up eight days later. After catching up with Shina on what had transpired since then, Alex has vowed to do his job as an Elemental Overlord properly, and see to it that the evils of this world are eliminated for good…
Bathed in the pale reflection of the crimson moon, Rachel Alucard's castle stirred with a brisk autumn wind, rustling the petals of her rosy garden and leaving the loose shingles on her rooftops to clatter. As chimes both new and old ring hollow across the twilit sky, the small mistress of the castle seats herself upon a cushioned marble stool and partakes in the usual warm cup of tea.
Her company was the contrastingly chipper Shina, who leaned back in a marble chair that did a good job of supporting her height while she sipped tea from her own cup, a pinky extended out from it's handle. Rachel laid her cup down upon her lap and looked up at the girl, her right brow crawling up her forehead as a dour frown formed on her lips.
"Though I have grown fond of your company, Miss Aurora, I must insist that you stop sullying our tea drinking with that silly gesture of yours." She remarked with her quiet and posh tone.
Shina popped her lips as she pulled the cup away, and with her a ridiculous sounding posh tone she replied "I say, Miss Alucard, 'tis only proper etiquette for those who partake in the sipping of tea!"
"…What on earth are you saying? Raising a pinky does not make one eloquent. The ability to maintain the same demure posture over a prolonged period of time without disrupting even a millimeter of your skin on such unnecessary and foolish gestures…That is what it means to be eloquent." Rachel spoke without breaking character, yet discussed the matter with the utmost seriousness she could muster.
Staring blankly ahead, Shina gave a couple blinks and her eyes glided to the corner of her sockets, where she then curled the pinky into the handle and drew the lip of the cup to her mouth for a slow, silent sip of tea. Rachel closed her eyes and her lips creased into a smile.
"That's much better." She said, short and to the point, before returning to the merriment her own drink provided. After a few seconds, Shina pivoted her head towards the castle and looked towards the rooftops. Standing so still that he was almost statuesque was Alex, his arms pressed softly against the chest and his eyes fixated on the twilit sky. With a tilt of her head, Shina let forth a long and quiet sigh.
"That boy hasn't unglued himself from that lofty perch for over a day now…" Rachel commented, intercepting the thoughts present in Shina's mind, much to her surprise. With a sharp flinch to the right to face the vampire, Shina's tea splashed out of the rim and onto the back of her hand, leaving a momentary feeling of warmth upon it.
Rachel took another sip of her tea without opening her eyes, remarking in a curious manner "If you are concerned for his well-being, then now is not the time for hesitation, Miss Aurora."
Shina gave her head a couple quick shakes while rubbing the heated patch of skin on her hand, and with a small smile she giggled and admitted "Nah, it's fine. I'm a-okay with letting him have his private time!"
"Are you sure?"
"Well…He's never been the most open fellow around, but…" Shina lowered her head an inch, prompting Rachel to open her eyes and remark with a hint of curiosity "But what?"
"That means I know when something's off with him, and…I dunno what, but something's REALLY off this time."
Rachel placed her cup on the plate before her and waved a hand up beside her face, remarking in a snappy tone "Nago, Gii, to me." Her two familiars came to her beck and call in a second, the cat forming a parasol that was whisked into her grasp in a second. Shina stood up halfway and laid her hands on the table as Rachel took a couple steps away.
"Hey, where ya going?"
"I find myself in the mood to take a brisk stroll. I shall return in a moment. Until then…Valkenhayn?" The butler appeared silently beside Shina and bowed his head, responding with his full respect "Yes, Madame Rachel?"
"Attend to the whims of our guest."
"Yes, milady." Valkenhayn rose with a smile and swiveled to face Shina without appearing to move one of his feet. After a tilt of the head to watch Rachel carry herself skyward with a light gale, Shina looked up at Valkenhayn and raised her cup, blurting out with excitement "I'll take another cup of tea!"
At the tip top of the castle, Alex tilted his head until the bottom of his skull rested upon the back of his neck. Only the wind disturbed his body, ruffling his shirt and hair. Closing his eyes and absorbing the sensation of the wind into his skin, he retreated into a calm state of mind and reflected upon some details of the world.
"Terumi's in possession of the artifact…I have to kill him and get it back, but that's easier said than done. I have no idea where he's at, for one, and it's not like he's alone…There's three other obstacles that make this more of a pain in the ass than necessary."
"First there's Relius Clover. A master puppeteer and brilliant scientist…He's a heartless bastard, having turned his own wife and daughter into puppets, but I can't underestimate him just because he lets his puppet Ignis do most of the fighting for him. He's capable of going toe-to-toe with Valkenhayn and Hakumen and coming out mostly unscathed. But, for all his brilliance, his motives are very simplistic and I COULD possibly turn his innate curiosity against him."
"Then there's the Phantom…Or as she was better known back then, Nine of the Six Heroes. Terumi's a bastard for getting her under his control, but even I can't deny he made the right choice…She's the strongest mage in this world, even managing to use spells that cut ME off from my sword. She's a dangerous tool if allowed to stay close to Terumi, so it's definitely important I separate her from him as soon as possible…"
"However, neither of them compare to how dangerous Terumi's 'boss' is…The Imperator, or as she prefers to call herself 'Hades;Izanami'…The Goddess of Death herself. I don't know the full extent of her power, but consider WHAT she is she has to be immortal. Whether that means agelessness or being completely unable to die doesn't make a difference, there's little getting around that because that's ingrained into her very nature…Hmmm…Though, that would mean…Yeah, yeah, that could work. Getting her alone is important too, cause while she loathes working with Terumi I doubt she'd allow him to die while he still proves crucial to her plans."
"That just leaves Terumi…" His fingers tightened around his biceps and cracked the bone underneath. Gritting his teeth into a scowl, his body shivered as a docile aura of fire spurned to life around him. As the embers crackled in his eardrums, they were soon drowned out by the cacophony of Terumi's laughter echoing in from the past.
"…And I'll make SURE that bastard dies this time."
Easing himself with a deep sigh, Alex's expression was rid of the crinkles around his lips and he began to connect the pieces of the puzzle that was his master plan.
"My my…I am half-tempted to have Valkenhayn plaster you in a layer of concrete, and keep you adorned as a statue up here."
Alex glanced over his shoulder, noticing that Rachel had somehow snuck up on him. Chalking it up to him still being a bit shaky after the coma, the boy turned himself around and tucked his hands into his pockets, watching as the vampire trotted along the rickety eaves without any of them breaking off.
"What do you want Rachel?" He asked in a sour tone, his eyelids sagging as he put little effort into looking into her eyes. The vampire paused five feet from him and looked up, gliding a hand up the right side of her face as a response was being weaved in her mind.
"It is quite rude to keep a lady waiting, let alone two…You should at least have the courtesy to share what you're thinking with your comrades, especially those who feel as though you aren't in the best of shapes…"
"…What, did Shina send you up here?" Alex assumed in a peeved manner, his left brow raising for a moment before he turned his head aside and gave his friend a glance down below. With a couple short and swift rattles of the head, he sighed out the side of his mouth and faced Rachel, who had a few choices words for him.
"Surely you jest. As though I would succumb to the whims of a commoner…"
"Then…you're just here to bug me?" Alex asked with a puzzled glance out from the side of his face as he drew his right hand out and slanted it beside his hip. Putting it back in as Rachel didn't look the least bit amused and appeared ready to draw a hand up to summon lightning, Alex cocked a smile and told her in haste "Hey hey, I'm kidding! …Look, I've just finished coming up with a plan to deal with Terumi and the others."
"I would hope so…" Rachel closed her eyes and drew her arm back beside the edge of her dress, resting it there as she commented with her usual biting wit "It'd make you even more of an embarrassment if you had accomplished nothing over the span of these last four days…"
"…Haha, hilarious." Alex said with his eyelids and lips lined perfectly straight. The vampire then looked at him and asked "Then what, pray tell, is your plan?"
Closing his eyes, Alex erected his posture and with a shrug of the shoulders replied nonchalantly "Can't tell you" to which Rachel gave him a cross glare and said "Do not tell me this is an attempt at humor, Mr. Whiter, for I am far from amused."
"It's not, I just…want you to trust me on this, ok?" Alex insisted with a bit of humility in his tone. Rachel perked her brows and commented "Trust? Have I not trusted you enough times already?"
"…Maybe, but I'm just asking you to put up with me one more time Rachel. Once Terumi's gone, and the artifact piece is in our grasp…You'll never have to deal with me again, promise."
Rachel stood in silence for a few seconds and brushed the side of her hair, combing the strands between her fingers while the wind rustled her pigtails. Opening her eyes, she asked him quite bluntly "I would hope you aren't expecting me to partake in this battle of yours."
"No." Alex responded with a shake of the head, gesturing his right hand out from the pocket and telling her "You're in no shape to fight now that you've lost the power of an Observer. All I ask is that you come along and watch."
"Why, I would be foolish not to. There's nothing more entertaining than watching a train wreck unfold." Rachel said with a humored smile, followed by Alex cracking his grin and telling her "Heh, oh, I'm sure you'll be surprised. I plan to put on one HELL of a show!"
Snapping his fingers out beside his hip, Alex swerved to face the edge of the roof and tucked the hand back in. Sliding down, he exclaimed to Rachel "We'll head off right away! Just let me grab Shina!"
He sprung off the roof and plummeted into the garden hard as a boulder, shaking the tea cups right off the table and forcing Valkenhayn to sprint and stretch before they broke, his body bending around the bottom of the table's legs. Alex strolled over until he was beside the butler, glancing over him to a surprised Shina, who remarked with hands floating before her shoulders "Oh Alex, y-you're back! Was it fun being a statue?"
"…I'm just going to ignore that." He mumbled under his breath, followed by him hopping back one foot as Valkenhayn jerked upright, somehow managing to not spill a drop. With eyelids partway shut, he projected a subdued glare of annoyance at the boy and growled to him "Is it not enough you've sullied our garden and castle? Must you also disturb the integrity of our fine china too?"
"Hey, I'm glad you're here Valkenhayn." Alex said so casually as though that was the start of the conversation, to which the butler's eyes went shut and he let out a sigh, grumbling something about "Why do I even bother…"
Alex looked him straight on and said "I need you to come with us." Opening his eyes just a bit, Valkenhayn was hesitant to ask "By 'us', you don't possibly mean…"
When Rachel floated down behind Alex, the butler pieced two and two together on the spot and bore his fangs in a tense scowl, exclaiming with little restraint "Absolutely not! I forbid you from dragging Madame Rachel into another one of your roguish endeavors!"
His right foot swung up hard enough to kick a rough gale into Alex's face, and the toes of his shoes stayed one centimeter away from the cheek. The boy's expression didn't change, though he was left deafened for a moment. With a wide smile as he glared across the length of Valkenhayn's leg until he met the fire boiling in his nasty glare, Alex patted down the top of the leg twice.
"Glad to see age hasn't dulled that spark, Valkenhayn R. Hellsing. Rachel's safety is assured so long as you never lose that energy." After such a nonchalant compliment, Alex ducked under the leg and walked around the puzzled werewolf towards and an even more perplexed Shina. With his leg lowered, Valkenhayn looked down at his aloof master and voiced his thoughts with great concern.
"Milady, I must insist…Please reconsider what you're doing."
"Valkenhayn…We will go along with his plan for now. I shall have no further objections." Rachel punctuated her request with as docile a tone she could muster. With a regrettable sigh, Valkenhayn closed his eyes, crossed an arm before his chest, and took a bow before telling her "Very well…your wish is my command, Madame Rachel."
Alex, meanwhile, stood beside Shina and told her in a genuine tone "Sorry to keep you waiting, but I'm all set now."
Shina clapped her hands before her chest and rubbed them together, and with an intrigued lick of her lips said "I'm ready and raring to siege their HQ anytime Alex!"
Alex slanted his head to the left and his face drooped that way as he stammered out "W-What? No, we're not going to 'siege' anything!" Swinging his right hand up and smacking her forehead with two fingers to make her wince with a squeal, Alex shook his head and tucked his hands into his pockets.
"Hey, no need to be a grumpy gus, I was just joking!" Shina said while rubbing the sore spot with the tips of her fingers and giving him a pout from her lower lip.
"Like I can ever tell with you…" Alex mumbled while fondling his temples. When he finished, he turned his body and brushed a hand out beside his shoulder, telling Shina upfront "I think it's time we did some recruiting."
"…Ehhhh?" Shina spurted out of a widely agape mouth while tilting her head. Alex faced Rachel and Shina scooted the chair back, hastily hopping off and stumbling to keep her balance behind Alex, who waved a hand out from his pocket before speaking to the vampire.
"You can still teleport, yeah?"
"Mmm-hmm…" Rachel murmured with a nod of the head. Alex's grin went wide and he ignored Shina tapping up and down his shoulder blade as he asked the vampire "Then our first destination is Kokonoe's lab."
"Wait, Kokonoe's?!" Shina gasped as she pulled back. Her confusion towards Alex's plan would continue to linger as Rachel moved to the center of their little group and with a wave of the hand whisked them all away to a new destination.
Only a second passed before they arrived in the cold, metallic domain that was Kokonoe's lab. The room was quiet save for the whirs coming from the computers running nearby. Kokonoe herself was nowhere to be found, but the fresh smell of an open bag of chips meant that she had been in here until a moment ago.
"Hmmm, so this is where Ms. Mercury does her work? Not a very well-kept room if I do say so myself…" Valkenhayn commented, his remarks becoming more scathing as he shuffled one foot forward and brushed up a set of crumbled chips atop his shoe "Why look at this…There's crumbs everywhere. With your permission Madame Rachel, I wish to tidy this place up before it's master returns."
"Why, I'm sure she would find that most delightful, Valkenhayn." Rachel said with a short, mischievous smile. With a nod, the werewolf got to work.
Shina, after a few seconds of staring around the room, stopping Alex from walking off by planting her hands firmly on his shoulders and giving him a quick spin around. With him looking momentarily flustered, she gave him a wide-eyed, blank stare and whispered "Ok Alex, ya know I'll listen to anything ya have to say, right?"
"Y-Yeah?" Alex raised his brows with a bit of a forced smile on his face, and with a blink Shina asked "Soooooo…what's the plan here?"
Alex raised his hands to her wrists and slowly pulled her hands off, whispering to her in response "You'll know what it is in due time Shina. Right now, you'll have to trust what I'm doing." He patted her on the shoulder a couple times, and in turn she grabbed his wrist and expressed herself honestly "I DO trust you Alex…I just don't think you should be keeping us all in dark."
Staring into Shina's eyes, Alex could feel her concern in earnest, and his head drooped down while a sigh escaped his lips. But before he could say anything for reassurance, the sound of doors sliding open grabbed both his and her attention. Turning to face it, they saw Kokonoe walking in. Her eyelids were sagging with rings below the bottom, and she was in the midst of raising a cheesy potato chip to her mouth.
Holding it before her neck, Kokonoe gazed across the room, seeing Valkenhayn in the midst of depositing her excess garbage into a bin, Rachel sitting on a chair Nago transformed into, and Alex and Shina being there in general. Shina pulled her hand from Alex's grasp and waved it above his head while presenting the Grimalkin with an innocent smile, but Kokonoe simply finished raising the chip to her mouth and bit it down so she could free her hand up to scratch the back of her scalp and move towards her chair.
"Great, just who I wanted to see…Rachel, her old fart of a butler, and Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum…" Kokonoe grumbled with little effort put into trying to be sarcastic. She plopped into her chair and focused towards her computers, hoping the sight of the four would just vanish on it's own.
Shina leaned towards Alex and whispered into his ear "Am I the Dee or the Dum?" Alex blinked once and said with a sigh "You're a DumDum with double Dees…"
"Huh?" Shina mumbled while reeling back, but Alex would not dignify her with an answer as he began to approach Kokonoe's desk. As the Grimalkin tapped away at her keyboard, she poked her head up to peek at the lounging vampire, and with a disgruntled sigh she asked "So what the hell do you want Rachel? You got some nerve coming in here after you went under my nose and unchained Hakumen."
"I assure you, Kokonoe, that there are plenty of other matters I'd rather attend to than have you swear me out. The person you have business with is the little Elemental Overlord standing in front of you…"
"'Sup?" Alex said with a wave of the hand from beside his shoulder. Kokonoe looked at him for just a second, perturbed by his smile, and then looked back down at her computers.
"…What do you want?" Her words came out rushed and uncaring, matching her desire to get this over with. Alex, with a snap of the fingers, created a table of solid wind and pushed a couple of Kokonoe's computers onto it, wires and all. He then sat himself atop the empty space and leaned to the left, gesturing his right pointer finger at Kokonoe's face.
"I've got an offer even you can't refuse, Kokonoe. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to be rid of Terumi for good!" Coming off as a salesman in how bombastic his tone was did little to help Kokonoe take the offer seriously, but deep down Alex wanted to have a little fun annoying her after all the grief she caused him during the time loops.
Kokonoe's brows sagged up and she laid her lithe arm under the side of her face, sucking on her special cat-eared lollipop for a few seconds, upon which she popped it out and wagged it beside her head before saying "What, did you come up with a plan?"
Alex nodded, and Kokonoe took it upon herself to reel back in her chair a bit and let out a short but mocking laugh.
"Ha! That's the biggest load of shit I've ever heard, and I've had my ears assaulted by Ragna the frickin' Bloodedge!"
Alex sat there and took the words in stride, closing his eyes and matching her mockery with some of his own "So, YOU have a plan to deal with Terumi?"
"What do you think?" Kokonoe replied, and with a cross of his arms and a shrug of the shoulders Alex gave her a bit of leeway by stating "Of course you do. You're one of the smartest minds on this planet. I wouldn't be surprised if you've come up with plans on top of plans to deal with Terumi.
"However…!" Alex made a hard swerve of his body to the right and bent so far back his head was upside-down before he continued "Our enemy isn't just Terumi. Do you have a plan for Relius? What about the Imperator? Or…how about Nine, the Phantom?"
Kokonoe's face crinkled up a little, aggression seeping out of every pore as she looked into Alex's eyes with a stare so cold it could freeze entire oceans in the blink of an eye.
"Piss off. I'm sure as hell not about to let you deal with my problems." For once, she bore her cat-like fangs in a scowl.
Jerking his body upright, Alex kicked his feet back and forth against the front of the desk and said "Your problems are my problems too, whether you want to admit it or not. Besides, not like I'm asking you to let me handle all those bastards on my own…Truth be told, I can't get that done without your help, Kokonoe."
Brushing his hands horizontally beside his shoulders, Alex perked his head up a bit and grumbled a bit of his grievances out "And considering the shit you tried to pull on me, well…Haha, don't you think we should both just let bygones be bygones here and focus on fighting the REAL enemy?"
Alex closed his eyes and lowered his hands towards the edge of the desk. Kokonoe's right hand glided along the desk, the thumb slipping under the edge towards a button down below, all without making a sound. Alex tapped a middle finger down onto the desk and sent a jolt of electricity to intercept her finger. As she pulled her thumb back, Alex lifted his legs up and did a quick spin to plant them down in front of Kokonoe's stomach.
"Alright, let me sweeten the deal for you. If we work together to take down Terumi and the others, I'll let you know how to manipulate the same elemental energy I use."
Kokonoe raised her head a bit and with a dry sigh shook her head and remarked "If that bastard's gone I'd have no reason to even bother with that crap anymore."
"Nonsense! You're a scientist, you're all about breaking the boundaries of knowledge and discovering the undiscovered. And what better way to advance your knowledge than to learn about something no one else in this world could ever even DREAM of discovering?" Alex swung his head back and his arms up, playing up the excitement in his voice to the ninth degree.
His thoughts, however, were docile and calculating "Kokonoe, you're brilliant, sure…But that strength is also your Achilles' Heel. Geniuses like you, they'll do ANYTHING to learn more. They aren't satisfied with limits. So long as you dangle the bait of further knowledge before them…" He lifted his head up a bit and saw Kokonoe folding her hands together as support for her chin.
"Even an 'idiot' like me can reel in a big catch…!" Satisfied with thinking of the visage of him cracking a wide grin, Alex lowered his head and watched as Kokonoe parted her hands and tapped the fingers on the edge of the desk, begrudgingly saying "Hmph, fine, I'll play along with this crazy plan of yours…For now."
"But mark my words, the moment you do something stupid, I'm out." Kokonoe, even though she agreed to join up, stayed true to her blunt attitude and thrust her lollipop towards Alex's face.
"Faaaaaair enough. 'Glad' to have you onboard Kokonoe." Alex held his right hand out for a shake, but Kokonoe just turned to the left and told him "Now, will you get my shit back in order?"
Reeling back on his hands and pressing his arms against his chest, Alex said "What's the point? We're not going to stick around here much longer."
"Oh?" Kokonoe leaned her head down atop one of her palms and began sucking on her lollipop again, giving Alex a short aside glance as he spun around and kicked off the desk. Brushing a hand up towards the right corner of the room, he remarked "Face it, we don't really have any privacy here."
"Yeah, those old bastards up top are going to be a pain in the ass if we stick around. You're suggesting we change our base of operations?"
Alex, stopping in front of Shina, spun to the left and snapped his fingers out to declare "Exactly! And…I get the feeling you have already got a place in mind."
"Yeah, as a matter of fact I do." Kokonoe got out of her chair and walked around the desk, sinking her left hand into her pockets before she explained "I've got a contact within the NOL itself. Does the name Kagura Mutsuki ring a bell?"
"Oh!" Shina chimed in, swinging her hand raggedly above her head with the eagerness of a student in a class. Kokonoe sighed and closed her eyes, and didn't get a chance to lambaste her eagerness as she raised a pointer finger beside her face and stood upright with a perfect and mature posture.
"Colonel Kagura is head of the Duodecim's Mutsuki family! Known as the Black Knight, he's highly respected for his dedication and kindness towards his people, along with the strength he displayed during the Ikaruga Civil War."
"Yeah, congrats, you read a book…" Kokonoe's response was dry as the dunes and she began scratching the back of her head, adding to Shina's definition "He's also the only higher-up I'll trust in that entire damn organization. If there's anyone we can rely on to keep Terumi off our backs, it's him."
"Then that'll be our next stop. Once Kagura's up-to-date on what's going on, I'm sure he'll be more than happy to help us out. So we'd be heading to Ibukido's HQ, correct?" Alex turned to Rachel, who raised her head up from a lofty nap and yawned.
"…I know naught where this HQ lies. Kokonoe, I leave this matter in your hands." With a tired tone, Rachel leaned back and continued her rest. Kokonoe rubbed the back of her head some more and grumbled "Yeah yeah…" as she nevertheless went back to her desk.
"By the way, what's she even doing here in the first place?" She pondered to Alex as she began typing something into her keyboard.
"Just watching everything unfold." He admitted with a bit of humor in his voice.
"So, business as usual…Figures." Kokonoe responded with drier wit, and in a matter of seconds her inputting was done. Pulling herself away from the computer, she walked to the center of the room and said "Alright, we'll be off in ten seconds. I locked onto the coordinates directly in front of Kagura's office, so you better have something prepared for him the moment we arrive kid."
"Oh don't worry…I know EXACTLY what to do." Alex said, his smile spreading out like an unfurled rug. As he said that, a chill crept through Shina's body and made her perk upright with eyes wide as could be. She stared at the back of Alex's head, wiggling her fingers before her chest and thinking "Alex wouldn't actually consider doing something like…that…would he? …Would he?"
Doubts would plague her mind, as with a slow and steady gulp she and the others were teleported out of Sector Seven on a one-way trip to Ibukido, where they would hopefully get the meeting they desire…
Next Time: Casanova Conflict