Hey there Reader!
This is a story working in progress, so there are a number of things that can be done to improve the quality of this fan fiction as a whole.
I just wanted to give a quick thank you for the fans so far! To RubyMoonz, DdotChou, MoldyJellyBean, Shiro No Kishidan, and Pokepia's Haunt. All your favorites and responses are worth every word!
I'll admit that this story has a lot of areas that can be expanded upon and improved, but it's best to handle one chapter at a time, right?
Enjoy the chapter!
Chapter 9
Priestess
Cross-transit station, street level: the Dark Hour
Conan never considered how empty Colossus was during the Dark Hour.
Everyone carpooled with Slade on a small hover car to the Cross-Transit Station. The vehicle they rode on had enough room for five people, which left enough space for Slade, Leon, and the newest members of S.E.E.S. to ride. Everyone stashed their weapons in the trunk to save room in the seats. Victor, Conan, and Lucy sat in the back while Leon sat in the passenger seat.
A majority of the ride was spent in anxious silence. They passed by empty car after empty car parked on the street below. As usual, there were no pedestrians in sight.
"Weird how we see cars, but no people," said Lucy.
"Yeah," said Victor, who was feeling more talkative. "You'd think there'd be more people."
"A citywide curfew was established in the past," said Leon. "The curfew was enforced during wartime a few decades back and held for ten years. There isn't one now, but the majority of the population still heads into their homes before midnight."
"Yeah, but I'd expect more night owls around," said Conan. "Haven't you guys found it weird that we haven't seen anyone but us active during the Dark Hour?"
"Good point," said Lucy. "Do you think the Shadows eat anyone on the street?"
"I doubt it," said Slade, who was busy at the wheel. She took the liberty to keep driving past every stoplight in her path. There were no cars to honk at her, so breaking a few traffic laws were within reason.
"Yeah, 'cause we'd see more Shadow victims around," said Victor. "You'd think there'd be more people scared about what happens in the Dark Hour."
"I'd think that people have more to fear than monsters at night," said Leon.
"How many people in Colossus do you think have the potential?" asked Lucy. "Or how many could stay conscious during the Dark Hour? They could be Shadow food by now."
"No one can say," said Slade. "We just find who we can."
Everyone remained silent for the next block of driving. The vehicle they rode in made a faint echoing noise as they floated on by.
All hover vehicles kept themselves afloat via anti-density technology, which drastically reduced the force of gravity on the car and its passengers. A few years back, Colossus' main mode of transportation came by hover machines. The industry in the transportation field since then had become more and more sophisticated.
The tech wasn't necessarily floating technology, but a less comprehensible variant of the sort. Conan didn't know the physics associated with the vehicle he was riding in. Nor did he care.
Lucy glanced up at the sky. The entire night cityscape was illuminated by a single source of light above. A full moon looked over the city with an eerie glow. Everything under it seemed to radiate a faint pale hue.
"The moon looks bigger tonight," she said.
"Yeah," said Conan. "I think it was like that when I came here a month ago."
"Sounds about right," said Leon. "I picked up a newspaper the other day. The horoscope in the Colossian Times mentioned a full moon in early May."
"Was the moon always this big?" said Lucy.
"Many phenomena occur during the Dark Hour," said Slade. "The moon's apparent enlargement is just another effect."
Victor noticed the moon as well. "Talk about creepy," he said. "What do you think, Conan?"
"It's not worth thinking about," said Conan. "We're here."
Slade parked the car just in front of the Cross-Transit Station. The entrance was a stairwell that led underground like a subway entrance. Again, there were no pedestrians around. The chasm that led below the surface seemed to be full of darkness and mystery. No one could see much farther into the tunnel without any lights.
Slade reached into the glove apartment and produced four flashlights. She handed them to each of the students and retrieved another one for herself. "Clip these to your belts," she said. "You'll need light down there."
Not everyone had belts, so they ended up clipping them to their waistlines. The flashlights came with special clips that allowed them to shine light forward while allowing their users the free use of their hands. Given how difficult it was to fight Shadows, these would come in handy.
Everyone shuffled out of the car and retrieved their equipment in the trunk of Slade's car. Conan took the two-handed sword, Victor took a truncheon and a flash grenade, and Lucy sheathed her revolver and packed some spare ammunition. They then assembled at the entrance of the Cross-Transit Station.
"I'll coordinate you all from here," said Slade. "Leon will watch my back when you all are retrieving Keira."
"Is she still alive?" asked Lucy.
Slade summoned Hecate and conducted a quick scan. "I see her down there, but she's unconscious. She's in the bullet train below. It's not docked in the station, so you all will have to get to it by foot. I also detect a single Shadow with her. It's a big one. You all are ready, but be careful."
Conan, Lucy, and Victor started making their way down the entrance. They flicked their flashlights on as well. "Yes, ma'am," said Lucy.
Leon primed his shotgun. Although he had an injured shoulder, he seemed more than capable of holding the weapon. If he couldn't, he always had his Persona. Not to mention that Slade could defend herself. Even then, there was little chance of more Shadows converging on those two alone. The brutes would most likely go for Keira, who was underground.
"Let's go," said Conan.
With that last note, the field team descended into a darkness blacker than the night sky.
Cross-Transit Station, underground: the Dark Hour
The first things that the trio noticed were the coffins.
The station was mostly empty. Porcelain tiles and pillars defined the aesthetics of the area, and every electrical appliance from ATM machines to self-serve ticket stations were all deactivated. Dead machines and useless contraptions occupied every empty space around them. Among these stations were a handful of coffins.
Each coffin was standing upright and sized with uniform dimensions. Most were painted black with metal crosses engraved to their lids. All of these containers emitted a faint crimson hue, making them very distinguishable from the darkness around them. Aside from the flashlights, the coffins were the only objects illuminated in the station.
"What the hell?" asked Victor. "Is this a joke?"
The small team hastily made their way through the station and to the yellow line at the platform. "I don't think those are for show," said Lucy. "Mrs. Slade? Are you seeing these?"
I see them, said Slade. I sense living presences within all of them. Those are the pedestrians we were talking about earlier.
Conan remembered the elder members of S.E.E.S. talking about people without the potential to be encased in their own field of time during the Dark Hour. It never occurred to him what they looked like during the extra hour in the night. "So each coffin contains a living person?"
"Sheesh," said Victor. "I'd hate to be one of these."
The platform was empty. Conan glanced down at the tracks one meter below. He hopped down to the tracks. Everyone else followed. As soon as they entered, they could hear something down one of the tunnels. Due south of their position, a faint grinding sound was resonating through the chasm down the tracks. It was too far to see with their limited visibility. They all had weapons ready.
"Do we head south, ma'am?" asked Lucy.
Yes. Be ready.
Everyone treaded with caution down the tracks. They still moved briskly, but each of them was keeping their eyes peeled for anything in the darkness around them. The next five minutes passed with uncertainty. No Shadows attacked them.
"Weird," said Lucy. "You'd think there'd be more coming for Keira by now."
"Why?" asked Conan.
"Keira is Shadow bait, and there were an infinite number of those things before, right? So where are they now?"
Lucy was right. Throughout their entire journey here, none of them found a single Shadow. The previous nights, there seemed to be endless hordes of the brutes coming from every direction at Keira in the hospital. Their approaches were halted only by the efforts of S.E.E.S. and the eventual end of the Dark Hour. Their spontaneous absence was eerie.
Keep your guard up, said Slade. I still detect one Shadow, but I also detect Keira. She's surrounded by a number of coffins, for some reason. No matter. Find her!
After a few more brisk minutes of walking, they found the train. It was halted on the tracks approximately one hundred meters away from the station, and it was completely unoccupied. A single coffin in the train car closest to them was seen through a window. If there was a person manning the vehicle just before the Dark Hour began, the train was obviously in motion less than an hour before. Its doors were also wide open.
Every one approached the train. "This is it, right?" asked Lucy. "I don't see anything out of the ordinary."
Proceed with caution, said Slade.
"Jester's beggin' for a fight," said Victor with a smirk.
Lucy glanced up at the nearest door, which had a small ladder to access it. She glanced at the other boys, and then she started to ascend. Lucy stepped up twice before coming to a halt. She glared at Conan and Victor.
"Don't look up 'till I'm on the train," she said.
Conan and Victor glanced at each other in brief confusion. They then realized that she was still wearing a skirt. Out of courtesy, they averted their eyes. "Sure," said Conan.
Bullet Train: Meanwhile
Keira awoke in a daze.
Somehow, she was wearing a fresh change in street clothes instead of the hospital attire. She was horribly uncomfortable while lying on her side. Her cheek was kissing the cold floor of the train below. She also had no idea how she got there.
Now that she thought about it, she had a vague idea of what happened. She remembered seeing her father earlier in the day, and the two had a fight. The conversation they had prior to the quarrel was started by something trivial: the quality of food served at the hospital. The heat of the debate transferred to the manner in which the academy was treating Keira, and the overall air of rumors circulating about their prized senior. Her father became enraged at the thought of slander directed at his daughter.
"You deserve this town's respect!" said her father then "I've had it with the fools! You're transferring to another school!"
Past that last note, Keira remembered little. She assumed that she was sedated by a passing nurse later, so the rest of her day was spent sleeping. How in the world did she end up here?
Keira also saw an object with a crimson haze in front of her. It was a coffin. She jumped up abruptly and yelped.
After a quick inspection, she realized that she was on a stationary train. There were a number of coffins scattered around her. Each was standing upright and along the isles. Three of them were standing right across from her in the car she was standing in.
"Hello?" she called. "Is there anyone here?"
A moment of uneasy silence passed. The ground shifted below her, but she felt almost nothing. A familiar bleating sound chimed from the ceiling above her. Someone in the driver's cabin was using an intercom system.
"Good evening," said a voice, "and welcome to another night of 'Stud on a White Horse Hunt!' I'm going guy hunting to grab me a stud muffin! I'm wingin' it tonight, so pardon the minor slip ups! Join me on the driver's cabin if you want in on the fun!"
That voice seemed familiar, but Keira couldn't place her finger on where she heard it. To top it off, she was even more scared by the message she heard. She glanced around. She knew too little and had no idea what was happening. She looked around and saw a door to her right. The threshold was marked with a bright label: Driver's Cabin, No Entry for Passengers.
Keira made her way to the cabin.
Conan, Lucy, and Victor also boarded on the train near what they assumed was the rear of the transport. They also heard the intercom coming from all around them.
"Who was that?" asked Conan.
"That wasn't Keira's Shadow, was it?" asked Lucy. "That did not sound like her."
"Wait, the driver's cabin?" asked Victor. "Aren't we already here? And what's a 'stud hunt?'"
"Should I answer?" asked Conan.
The intercom was still on. "I'm all fired up!" the announcer said. "I've got my lacy unmentionables stacked ready to go! Just like my heart!" The last four words were said with individual emphasis, especially the last one. "I'm out to net the stud of studs! Tune in to see who's the lucky guy!" The intercom was cut from there.
Everyone temporarily forgot why they were listening to this message. Conan crossed his eyebrows, Lucy bit her bottom lip, and Victor slapped on a grin.
"So that's what she was talking about!" he said in excitement.
"Calm down, moron," said Conan.
The door behind the trio shut tightly. All the possible exits were sealed on the train. S.E.E.S. just managed to catch a glimpse of the furthest door in their car to seal automatically.
"What the—" said Victor. He ran for the nearest door and tried to pry it open. The metal exit would not budge. "Damn, it won't open!"
What's wrong? said Slade, what happened?
"We just got sealed in!" said Conan. "And the train is moving!"
The Shadow knows you're there. Proceed with caution! And hurry! Stop that train!
"Why?" asked Conan.
You'll hit another train if you don't stop that one in a few minutes! Everyone on it will die!
Lucy was the first to regain her composure. "Mrs. Slade," said Lucy. "Where is the Shadow?"
Scanning now, said Slade. I detect the Shadow! It's on the other end of the train! Get it to stop the transport!
Conan was the first to charge. His classmates followed closely behind. They ran straight across the car while maneuvering around stoic coffins around them. Although they were making quick progress, there was no telling how much time they had to get to the other end of the train. As they ran, the intercom continued bleating the same message again and again.
"Dude, what is she doing up there?" said Victor.
"Resisting a Shadow, duh," said Lucy.
"No, I meant the Shadow. What is she doing up there?"
"This is a bad time to get distracted, Victor," said Conan.
"Yeah, yeah," said Victor, "just lightening up the mood."
The intercom overhead kept looping the same message as the trio charged through the cars to the driver's cabin. The strange voice that filled the space stopped abruptly when a door opened in the other cabin. Someone familiar spoke.
"What?" said Keira, "What is this?"
Laughter erupted from above. Instead of coming from the speakers installed into the ceiling of the train, a demonic vibe was making the sound blare from above to the passengers below.
"Double time!" commanded Conan.
Keira stepped into the driver's cabin, and was appalled by what she saw.
The cabin itself had just enough room for two people to sit comfortably. A control panel that manipulated the actions of the train was in the very front of the cabin, and two seats just in front of it. There was also an isle between the drivers' seats that allowed individuals to pass through without hassle. In this isle was the speaker from earlier.
There was another young woman of her height and appearance standing at the control console of the train. The imposter was of seventeen years and had a bob of green hair just like Keira's. She wore a blue dress with a long gown extended to twice her width. The imposter held a microphone installed into the console of the train. She also had hollow, sinister eyes that further estranged her appearance from that of the original.
"My my," the imposter said in an overly-hyped voice. "You made it! I see some princes on this train. Are they friends of yours? Or lackeys sent from your father? Tell me, are you also being whisked away?"
Keira scowled. Behind her, something shoved her forward. She realized too late that a portion of the imposter's dress had become animate and had pushed her further into the driver's cabin. The doors to the cabin then shut tightly.
"What—," Keira started to say, "What is this?"
Shadow Keira laughed. Her voice was exactly like Keira's in every aspect, even down to the stupid giggle she never showed to anyone. Keira backed up against the door and tried to open it while facing Shadow Keira. The door behind her was locked.
"Is this some kind of sick joke?" said Keira. "It's not funny!"
Shadow Keira released the red button. The train continued to move as she spoke. "'I'm sad.' That's what you've always said to yourself ever since you were little. 'Someone make me feel better.' Ha! What a loser."
Keira continued to glare, but Shadow Keira kept talking. "Everyone loves you because you're the prettiest, smartest girl in school, but nobody really knows you. They all think that you're just another piece of eye candy that they don't need to touch or care about. What makes you worth your space?"
Keira continued to glare, but Shadow Keira was hitting some sensitive topics. For a stranger she had never met before, the imposter knew too much about her. "You don't know anything," she said feebly.
"Your life has been defined by rules and expectations. Everyone wants you to be the pretty girl that everyone loves. Ever since you were born, you've been trained to be the perfect child with no mind of her own. You hate that kind of life. You just want someone to whisk you away from this miserable world." Shadow Keira laughed. "A prince charming would come to save you eventually, am I wrong?"
Keira backed up further against the door. There was fear in her eyes. The imposter became very amused at the sight of her fear.
"Your father thinks that you're worth saving. You've always been his little princess. He even bribed the hospital staff to give you a private room and pretend you were in emergency care. And when you said that you didn't like what he was doing, that really ticked him off. He couldn't bear to see his daughter like that. No, he couldn't bear to see his daughter feeling out of place. He was even driven to have you taken by force from the hospital. You should have been the model student, just taking everything thrown at you and pasting a smile!"
To Keira's knowledge, there was no way that Shadow Keira could have known about that conversation. Keira did have a fight with her father earlier today, but there wasn't anyone else to hear what was going on in her room. Who was this imposter?
"Let me out!" said Keira.
Shadow Keira laughed, but this time with sadistic malice. "Aw, am I hitting some nerves? There was no way you could have confessed your problems to anyone else. No one could understand your pain, your loneliness. You have no one but yourself in your cage."
The senior clutched the sides of her head. In an effort to stop the noise, she plugged her ears and closed her eyes. "Stop it!"
Shadow Keira laughed again. "But now that I think about it, I am the only one who knows what you're going through. I can bust us out of our cage, and no one can do anything to stop us. Isn't that right, me?"
"No! You, You're—!"
There was a pounding outside of the door, but Keira was in too much shock to hear the noise. The fateful words spilled out of her mouth immediately.
"You're not me!"
Shadow Keira laughed and started dissolving into black mist.
S.E.E.S.'s sense of anxiety hadn't subsided for a moment. Everything heard in the driver's cabin was broadcasted through the intercom, so they were able to hear the shouts and taunts that the imposter was giving to her original. They were running out of time.
After a few anxious minutes of running, they were only stopped by a metal barrier between them and the Shadow. They could see Keira backed up against the door, but the barrier she leaned against was locked. They needed a quick way to get through it.
"Get this door open!" shouted Conan.
"How?" said Lucy.
"Victor, shock it!"
The two students stepped out of the way as Victor came running up. He conjured his Persona while doing so.
"Zio!" he commanded.
Jester materialized and pounded the door with a fistful of lightning. The door earned a charred patch of black where the blow struck, but it didn't budge.
Behind the door, they could see the black mist clustering around the Shadow, which mocked Keira in appearance and voice. Soon, the entire cabin was engulfed in black mist.
"Bufu!" said Conan.
Gladius was summoned, and he froze the door over in a sheet of ice. Once the ice solidified, Conan kicked the door with his heel. It still didn't budge.
"Victor! Help me out! On three!"
Victor ran to Conan's side and prepared to kick.
"Three!"
The two pounded in unison and punched a crack in the door. They kicked once more, and then the door budged. More accurately, it was sucked into the driver's cabin.
They were too late. When Victor's Shadow had materialized slowly, Keira's Shadow manifested much faster tonight. Its hideous form was still masked in black mist, but it grew a new appendage to pull the door out. Once the door was pulled into the cabin with great force, S.E.E.S. saw what they were going to fight.
Shadow Keira had manifested into a hideous hybrid of a woman and a spider. It had the upper body of a female while having an arachnid's abdomen and legs for the lower body. Its skin was tinted with mismatched patches of black and white, and each part of its body seemed to be fighting each other for attention.
The most striking feature was the brute's head. It was human enough in terms of skull shape, but its skin was also a contrasted mess of black and white. It wore a violet masquerade mask with the symbol II to hide its eyes, and had one thousand curls of hair extending from the back of its head. Each lock of hair formed a tendril that wrapped around something in the driver's cabin. Once such lock held the displaced door, and the other held Keira.
"I am a Shadow, the true self," said the imposter. "Now, who can take me from this place?"
Keira was limp. Facing her Shadow drained her of the energy to run. This fight was looking much worse than last time.
"Slade!" said Lucy. "How much time do we have?"
Two minutes, said Slade, and hurry!
The trio knew what to do. Lucy whipped out her revolver and started popping caps into the Shadow. Conan and Victor started casting their spells while charging with weapons ready.
"Zio!"
"Bufu!"
The tendrils of hair stretched from their alcoves and formed a net. The mesh was woven into a web-like barrier that absorbed the attacks. The train swerved at a turn in the tunnel. Due to the limited space in the car, both Jester and Gladius bumped into opposite sides of the cabin. Conan and Victor felt the pain and keeled over.
Shadow Keira laughed. "Some princes you turned out to be!" she taunted.
Keira moaned weakly. She was still alive, but that feeble action caught the attention of Shadow Keira.
"Quiet!" hissed the beast. "Can't you see I'm busy?"
The demon sharpened a small number of tendrils to form a sharp pike. The shape was then pointed to Keira, who was unable to move. Lucy saw the attack and shot Shadow Keira in the face. The lead would have done little, but the attack was enough to hinder Shadow Keira's concentration. The demon thrust the pike and missed Keira entirely.
"We'll get you out of there, Keira!" said Lucy as she reloaded her revolver.
Conan and Victor recovered and conjured their respective Personas. After a few nights of fighting back the hordes, they both earned a higher tolerance for pain. The classmates gave each other quick glances, and then nodded. A counterattack was in order.
"Keira!" said Victor. "Fight her! Don't let her get to you. You're better than what she says you are!"
"We're coming!" said Conan.
They and Lucy regrouped and sent another coordinated attack. The three had their blows hit the Shadow head-on. Shadow Keira shrieked with ice, lightning, and lead hitting her with blunt force. She quickly straightened up and screamed. The entire cabin rattled with the force of the noise, and the air grew twice as thick from before. Everyone was pushed back.
The group started to regain their position. "Ideas?" asked Victor, "because this ain't working!"
Conan primed his sword. "Lucy and I will keep her distracted," he said. "You send Jester from behind to hit her."
Victor conjured Jester and commanded him to charge. Shadow Keira sent a wave of tendril hair at the Persona again. Conan grunted as he summoned Gladius, and the air grew very cold. The tendrils were frozen into rigid blocks, and fell apart soon after. Jester kept charging.
Lucy kept shooting at Shadow Keira while avoiding hitting the girl herself. Every now and then Shadow Keira would try to use the girl as a shield, but Gladius always hit here where she could not guard. Meanwhile, Jester kept charging.
In the blink of an eye, Jester maneuvered around Shadow Keira and primed his sword to thrust. Shadow Keira turned to react, but Conan sent Gladius to charge at her front. Now the two Personas were coming from both sides. The Shadow gave a momentary expression of fear.
"Why?" she shrieked. "Why won't my prince come? I can't stand this place anymore!"
The cabin rattled once more, but Gladius and Jester were already charging. They brought up their swords and thrust them into the Shadow. She gasped as two blade tips punched through her heart.
Although a regular person would have been unable to speak, Shadow Keira continued to make guttural noises. The sound produced was a mix of anguish and anger. The demon retracted its tendrils to grab both Personas close to her. Both were subdued and restrained.
Conan and Victor found difficulty in breathing. As their Personas were being strangled, they were also feeling short of breath. Lucy saw them and reached for Victor's side for the flash grenade. She pulled the pin and threw it.
The flash grenade burst with a light too bright to look at. Shadow Keira wailed and involuntarily released the two boys' Personas. Conan, the first to recover, sent his Persona to raise its blade once more. With one fell swoop, Gladius brought down the blade into the demon's heart once more.
Shadow Keira let out a death groan and fell over. Her form deteriorated into black mist and dissipated into the constrained space of the cabin. When the majority of the mist was gone, the demon in its human form was left standing where the original figure was. Its image shimmered like a mirage and threatened to dissolve at any moment. Now was the chance to absolve it.
The tendrils of hair crumbled away into dust. Keira was released and fell to the floor. Victor rushed over to check on her.
"She's breathing!" he said. "Come on! Wake up!"
Keira opened her eyes weakly. "What? Why are you here?"
"The Shadow is still there!" shouted Lucy. "Tell her to accept the thing now!"
Victor picked up Keira hurriedly and looked her in the eye. "I need you to do something quickly," he said in a calm voice. "You can solve all this now. This is a really bad dream, but you can wake up in a moment. Just say that you accept your Shadow, and that she is you. You've gotta believe it while saying it! That's the only way it'll work!"
Keira gave a small expression of confusion, but then entered a dream-like state. She looked at Shadow Keira, who was too hurt to move. Keira struggled to stand, stood up, and then looked at her other self.
"I'm scared," she said. "I'm scared of everyone and everything. I hate it when others make decisions for me, and I hate living by other people's rules. I've been a coward and I've lied about being confident. You—"
Keira stopped to glance at the members of S.E.E.S. They all silently cheered her on.
"You are me."
Shadow Keira gave a small smile, and then finally dissipated into particles of light. Her entire form disintegrated. When the light cleared, there was only a floating Persona card in its place.
"Take it," said Victor.
Keira took the card. The moment she touched it, it glowed and then disappeared. Keira felt a moment of relief before coming to her knees. The battle was over.
Thirty seconds left! said Slade. Stop that train!
The happy feeling was gone now. Everyone remembered where they were and realized how close they were to certain death. Everyone rushed to the console, but the train suddenly swerved on another turn. Everyone was thrown to the side of the train. Conan was the only person left standing while everybody else was too far back.
"What the—" said Victor. "Why are we still moving?"
"We're going too fast!" shouted Lucy.
Stop that train! Slade exclaimed.
"Dammit! How do we stop this thing?" said Victor.
Lucy screamed.
Conan dashed forward to the console. He saw a wide array of unlabeled buttons and levers. All of the components of the console looked equally as hazardous as the next. There was no time to guess which one turned on the brakes. He had to make his best guess.
Everyone screamed in panic. They now saw another train on the same tracks they were on. It was certain that they were due for collision within the next fifteen seconds. A Persona couldn't save them now.
Conan reached for a large black lever installed into the ground. He gripped the handle and pulled back as hard as he could. There was a roar from the train engine and a shout from the student himself. He had no time to reach for any other levers. Conan pulled the lever.
The train started making a screeching noise. Every part of the train shuddered from the floor to the ceiling. Stationary coffins in the other cars were also falling over. Everything on that transport was toppling with the momentum carried up until that moment in time. Could they stop?
Conan gritted his teeth and waited. Ten, fifteen, then twenty seconds passed. There was nothing. Conan slowly opened his eyes, and then he saw the rear end of another train just five meters away from him. Their own train had made a sudden stop in time.
Conan dropped to the floor out of exhaustion. He laughed for the first time in weeks.
Everyone struggled to regain their balance. After a rocky ride, the attack team was very tired. "Is it over?" asked Victor.
Lucy hobbled closer to Conan. "I think so," she said.
What's going on over there? Slade asked.
"We stopped the train," said Lucy.
"Dude, I'm sweating like a pig," said Victor.
A sigh of relief was heard. I'm glad you all are okay. I'm sorry I couldn't do anything on my end. Leon and I haven't seen any Shadows over here and I don't detect any more of them near you. Good job.
Victor looked at Conan. "How'd you know what to do?" he asked.
"I guessed," said Conan.
Victor wanted to give a smart remark, but he stopped himself. "Whatever. You guys wanna eat something? I'm hungry!"
"You're hungry now?" exclaimed Lucy. "I can't believe you."
Another laugh was heard. It was Keira, who was lying in Victor's arms this whole time. She was just as relieved as everyone else.
"This is a really weird dream," she said.
The members of S.E.E.S. looked at each other, and then they remembered what they told Keira earlier. Victor glanced at her. "Yeah," he said. "You can relax now."
Keira looked up at him with those dazzling eyes that had the CM Academy all head over heels. She cusped him by the back of his head and pressed her face closer to his. For that one impulsive moment, Keira voluntarily kissed Victor.
The two remained where they were for fifteen seconds. No one dared to blink. Keira passed out, and then the cabin grew quiet. Conan helped himself up and looked at Victor with an earnest expression. He started to clap.
"Good job," he said.
