Remember when I wrote quality stuff?
Neither do I.
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When Izaya had finished, Psyche was shaking his head furiously.
"No, no, no, NO! Iza, we should go through the country and get allies first before taking VIRUS on!" he protested.
"No, Psyche. I want to get out of here and drive my knife through VIRUS's heart as soon as possible," Izaya denied.
"At what cost, Izaya? What will happen if it turns out we're outmatched?" Firo questioned.
"Given how many people he kept for himself, the only problem we'll have is Shizuo," Izaya pointed out.
"That's your sisters, Shizuo, his brother and a Dullahan we're talking about here. Meanwhile, you have six immortals, a few teens still shaken from a haunted mansion, a bunch of adults who have some degree of fighting skills, and a bunch of clones. The most we could do to Celty is try to kidnap her back," Kida pointed out.
"And do you know what VIRUS has done to them? Because I don't. Maybe they still see us as our friends or they've been hoodwinked to believe we're the evil ones," Izaya rounded on Kida.
"I at least know VIRUS wouldn't kill them if he knows he can get a game out of them."
"Oh, please, like he could."
"Izaya, look at yourself. You went through hell to get us out. You can't say you didn't end up becoming somewhat-friends with us. If I was in his position right now, I would think in the same vein as he did."
Izaya's blood seemed to turn ice cold at that statement.
"I'm not friends with Shizuo!" he protested.
"And yet he has a crush on you. Let's face it, Izaya: we can be used against you if VIRUS ever gets his hands on us."
The room fell silent, save for those who had been at the meeting to quietly file out and look for food, until Isaac cleared his throat and asked, "When are we leaving?"
"Tomorrow at dawn. Roppi guessed it would take a few days to travel straight towards VIRUS's castle."
"Until then…?" Miria prompted.
"Just…prepare yourselves for a few days travel and make sure you're ready to divulge your tales of fighting aliens." And with that, Izaya made his way to the kitchen to make sure the food was edible at least.
At VIRUS's castle, Celty, Kururi and Mairu were staring outside a castle window.
"So…an evil version of Iza-nii kidnapped the others?" Mairu asked, nervously.
[That's the story he's told us. We're at a disadvantage with only Shizuo, his brother and us on our side.] Celty acknowledged.
"It's just not fair for Iza-nii. First turning back time, then having to rescue the others from an evil version of himself in a video game. Will he ever get a break?" Kururi mused.
"I just want to go home. I've had enough fighting to last me a lifetime," Mairu admitted.
[I know how that feels, girls, but the way things have been going, I'm not surprised if this isn't the end for our trips. Don't worry, I'm sure we'll be safe and sound before long.] Celty comforted.
"Celty, Izaya has news," Shizuo informed, approaching the Dullahan.
"What is it?" the sisters asked.
"Apparently, the guy who captured the others is coming here. We have a few days to prepare," Shizuo relayed.
[We'll try to be ready, then. No promises.] Celty responded. Shizuo nodded and headed away again.
"A few days? What if we aren't ready by then?" Mairu questioned.
[We will. We just have to subdue the immortals and keep the evil Izaya tied up.] Celty assured.
The stars were just beginning to show when Nice found Isaac and Miria outside on the castle's roof, 13th floor. The towers raising up from the fortress more or less faded into the night sky, save for faint pinpoints of light showing their outlines.
"Oh! Nice!" Miria greeted with a falsely cheery voice.
"Hey, Miria, Isaac. How come you guys aren't with the others?" Nice asked.
"We're ready to go, of course!" Isaac responded.
Nice frowned slightly.
"Are you guys sure on that? It's going to be dangerous…are you guys sure you don't want to stay—?"
"N-No!" Miria interrupted, before covering her mouth out of embarrassment. Nice raised an eyebrow in confusion.
"I…uh…I mean that…everything's okay," the brown-eyed blonde explained, face slightly red.
"I see…you guys do realize you can talk with us if things aren't going well, right?"
"Y-Yeah. We're good."
Nice didn't seem convinced for a few moments until she finally left, leaving Miria to sigh heavily.
"I can't believe I acted like that just now."
"We never told them our secret, did we?"
"We didn't until they were on their deathbeds. That was difficult to explain…"
"It'll be easier this time, as long as cars, guns, and gangs don't exist…"
"Gangs at least will. Guns and cars…well, guns will obviously will. Japan has to keep some weapons for us to make sure we live."
"How well do you think they'll take it?"
"Hopefully not too badly. Maybe Jacuzzi will take it well?"
Isaac shrugged.
"I don't know…he was pretty calm when we told him when he was alive…"
"Yeah, about five seconds before he was shot."
"…points for trying?"
"I suppose…"
Dawn covered the sky as Izaya's 'army' trudged out of the fortress. Mikado was more or less carrying Masaomi and Czeslaw, eventually just falling on the ground while Maiza hauled the small immortal in the blue-eyed teen's place and Anri helped both her friends up.
That has to be the most pathetic thing I have ever seen from anyone like Mikado. Ever.
"You know, I'm a bit more comfortable to waking up later in the morning. Preferably when we probably don't know what time it is," Kyohei commented.
"Oh, shut up," Masaomi muttered.
"Not even Isaac and Miria are pretending to be upbeat. Was there any alcohol in the kitchen?" Izaya asked no in particular.
"Closest thing was grapes. Can you get drunk off grapes?" Firo responded.
"Unless they have been aged enough, no. Please tell me you're just tired and not actually drunk or suffering from a hangover or something," Izaya pled.
"Just the tiredness speaking, I think," Firo guessed, nearly stumbling over a rock in his path.
"Since we all seem to be wide awake," Hibiya remarked, a bit scornfully, "we'll be heading to the village of Risembool as one of our stops on our trip. And can we all act like we're not hung over?"
"No promises," Psyche called after his fellow alternate.
Hibiya rolled his eyes as Izaya took the lead and led them towards the forest. The group was a little livelier as the sun rose higher into the sky, with Kida poking fun at some of the odd things around Ikebukuro.
"…I mean, come on! Flying vending machines! You have to admit, at one point, one of those things will just release a bunch of soda cans at once!"
"And…how does he not get away with attempted murder on a daily basis?" Rachel inquired.
"If you want to try to arrest the strongest man in Ikebukuro, be my guest," Kida responded.
"No thanks," Rachel quickly replied.
"Aww, come on, are you scared of him? You've never even seen him…" Kida commented.
"Masaomi, lay off. Shizuo is pretty scary if you've only heard of him and never see him," Mikado ordered.
"I wonder if Japan or any other nation will give us a few hints on how to beat VIRUS," Anri commented.
"They have to. Otherwise, they're going to have a hard time explaining why a bunch of people suddenly have gone missing. It's been at least a week since we left Ikebukuro," Izaya pointed out.
"A week? No…it couldn't…we spent three days in the hospital, then three days…?" Kyohei wondered in a quiet voice, trying to sort out the time.
"Four days. We were awake for 24 hours after you, Kasuka and Kida got captured. We finally got some sleep in the safe room after a bit, but…" Izaya dropped off the conversation there, aware of the others behind them.
"We'll talk once we're in Risembool. Right now, though, let's just act like nothing's wrong," Kyohei advised.
"Agreed."
"Hey, why did you guys get quiet?" Nice asked.
"No reason. Just a quick little discussion," Izaya responded a little too quickly.
The rest of the trip to Risembool was quiet after that.
Risembool was a slightly small, peaceful village. Herds of sheep grazed in the pastures, the sky was a peaceful blue, and people were milling about.
"Looks decent so far…you know, Izaya, you could take my advice from last night and try getting the village to be an ally," Hibiya pointed out.
"Hey, Mikado, did you hear someone talking? Because all I heard was—"
"GET BACK HERE RIGHT NOW, ELRIC!"
"I SAID I WAS SORRY!"
A short, blonde teen wearing a red coat darted towards Izaya's group and hid behind him.
"Hide me! A deranged woman who uses a wrench is out to kill me!"
"W-What?" Roppi questioned. At that moment, a teenaged girl about the other's age, holding something behind her back, approached the group.
"Hello. You haven't seen anyone with gold eyes and hair with a red coat, have you?" she asked.
"Right here, actually," Izaya responded, stepping aside.
A total of .2 seconds passed before the girl whipped out a wrench and proceeded to clobber the blonde male with it. And .8 more seconds passed before Nice and Psyche could hold the girl back.
"Let me at him!"
"What for?" Nice questioned.
"He broke his automail yet again!"
"We'll let you go if you explain to us what automail is and why you want to kill him!" Psyche promised.
The girl stopped struggling as Nice and Psyche let her go and the blonde boy got up, shakily. Sakuraya was trying to tend to his head wound, only to be waved away.
"My name is Edward Elric. I'm an alchemist. And the woman who tried to kill me," he explained, gesturing to the other, "is Winry Rockbell. Welcome to Risembool."
"Nice to meet you, Edward. I'm Izaya," Izaya informed.
"Where are you guys headed?" Winry asked.
"How did you guess we're not staying?" Shinra asked.
"Not a lot of people stay in Risembool for long," Ed informed.
"We're heading east to see a few of our friends. How many days would we have to travel to get to this spot?" Psyche questioned, showing a map to Ed and pointing at a place in the map.
"Three days at least just to get out of Amestris into Xing. Then past Xing is Pasloe and north of that is Yoitsu…"
"I'm sorry, but I understood nothing. Please repeat that," Izaya appealed.
Ed stared at Izaya, then shook his head.
"It'll take you three days to get you out of this country, Amestris, into the neighboring country, Xing, on foot. By train, it'll take you a day to get past Xing into Pasloe Village if you're still early enough to catch the train," the blonde explained, a little more slowly.
"There's another reason for crossing the country, isn't there?" Winry guessed.
"Have you guys ever heard of the Black King?" Psyche inquired.
"You mean the jerkass who destroyed that town? Yes," Ed bitterly responded.
"I'm guessing you mean Synchronicity Town?" Psyche guessed.
"Yeah. Why do you want to see him?" Ed inquired.
"We have a bone to pick with him. He took a few of our friends and now we want to kill him," Shinra filled in.
"His place is really far east. He has a lot of supporters in the cities near him, so I suggest being really careful when you reach Noct Town," Winry advised, marking a spot on the map near the edge of the continent.
"That's where all those nobles live, right? We'll be careful," Hibiya promised.
"Don't you come from Noct Town?" Ed questioned.
"No. Synchronicity. Noct Town disowned me," Hibiya explained, frowning heavily.
"In that case, careful they don't see you. They're not very kind to anyone who doesn't support the black King," Winry warned.
"Already know that…"
A train whistle nearby alerted the group the train they needed would be taking off soon.
"You guys need to go!"
"Wait, what's automail?" Anri asked.
"Metal prosthetics. Now go!" Ed ordered.
Izaya's group hurried to get onto the train.
