"Quite odd…" Jeanne mumbled under her breath nearly silently. Her nails tapped onto the glass countertop of the cashier. She was at work, had been for the past four hours; and all her mind was doing was thinking about what had happened with the King of Knights and Pretty Boy. Why could they have erased his memory?
Jeanne had already thought of a few theories, but there was one that stuck. She pushed off the counter and took a deep breath as she ruffled her bangs. The warm sunset light was leaking into the shop, colouring the bread with golden orange hues, the sweet smell of baked sweets lingering in the air around her. Her fingers glided over the smooth glass of the counter while she made her way to a coleslaw sandwich; she was permitted to have a snack every now and again.
The little chime above the door moved and rung as the door was pushed open, letting in the cool evening breeze.
Jeanne turned towards the door, a practised smile on her lips with ease.
"Jehanette?" Her eyes widened as she took note of the man at the door frame. Golden light shun around him like a halo.
"Love Spot?" She mumbled, amazed to see him standing before her—in casual clothing and without a green mask.
He stepped towards her, black curly hair pushed back as always, his flawless face almost glowing with the smile on his lips, "You can call me Diarmuid." He spoke as he fixed his light blue button up shirt.
"Are you hiding the curse thing?" She asked, leaning a little to her left to get a view of the band-aid on his face.
Diarmuid chuckled and gave a light nod, "Yes, it is very tedious having to deal with it."
"I am guessing it is not very effective…"
"Why would you assume so?"
Shrugging, she walked back to the counter, a sandwich in her hands, "You'll be handsome either way. I feel you have to change your style if you do not want girls to look your way."
He frowned, "But I like my style…"
Jeanne nodded, cracking a smile at the childish tone of his voice, "What are we doing today, are we going to train?"
"Well, we will be going to H.G.A since it would be better that way."
"Uhm," Jeanne cleared her throat, "I have not seen The Hound as of late, where has he been?" she rubbed the back of her neck.
Diarmuid made his way towards the young lady, a teasing smirk on his lips, "It seems to me that he might just have caught your eye."
She scoffed, "He is my partner, I should be allowed to be curious over his whereabouts."
Chuckling, the boy gave her a short nod, "He is in Tokyo; a few things that he needs to take care of before he becomes your partner."
"Agency stuff?" She asked.
Diarmuid shook his head, "Girl problems."
An eyebrow was raised as Jeanne opened her mouth to speak but was interrupted with Diarmuid's watch beeping.
"Sorry, we should be headed off to H.Q right now." He spoke, "Is your shift almost over?"
It wasn't long before they arrived in front of the building, having placed on the masks so that they were, hopefully, unrecognizable. They ducked in and immediately went to the respective change rooms after having talked intensively about how the Hound was reckless.
Jeanne unzipped her backpack and pulled out her banner, frowning on the fact that she had to transform again, how did it go again? "Make me strong?" she mumbled, but the magical process did not begin.
She shut her eyes closed, taking a deep breath and trying her best to focus on concentrating properly, "Please?" She flinched, slowly opening her eyes in a bit of anticipation.
Her fingertips lit up, a blinding light emitting from them and a warm breeze filled the change room. Her heart was filled with love and she could feel herself truly become stronger. She felt powerful.
When she opened her eyes once again, she was already clad in her superhero outfit; beautiful banner in hand and sword strapped around her waist. She found herself smiling as she analyzed her gauntlets; this was the first time she had transformed without fearing for her life, which meant she had quite a bit of time to actually process what she wore.
The door caught her attention as it slid open and she could see a blonde head slipping inside. Sweatpants and a mask over green eyes, the girl flickered her gaze towards Jeanne and nodded in acknowledgement. Her lips were stretched, not in a smile nor in a frown; just stretched.
"Hello," she slowly waved, as she pushed through the room, extending her legs in every step, duffle bag swinging with her every move.
The King of Knights had no blinding light, no flickering and certainly no grand transformation. She physically changed. Slipping off her sweatpants she then quickly managed to pull the white under dress over herself.
"Would you please not stare at me change?" Her British voice leaked, head slightly turning towards the Frenchwoman.
Jeanne's cheeks lit up as she shook her head, "I am so sorry. I was just curious, what I mean by that is, well, you know? I thought everyone had a magical transformation—like the anime girls or something."
The King let out a soft scoff, "So I heard, there was a blinding light and the booming voice of God, or something." She rolled her eyes, "Well, most of us here aren't exactly chosen. God knows the Golden Disaster is not."
Jeanne looked down, feeling unwelcomed while the young woman managed to dress into her petticoat and slip her arms into the top dress, tying it up at the front.
"Pucelle, was it?" The King let her green eyes rest on the newbie for a second or two, "I am not here to cause you hell, got it? But this also means that I am not here to baby you. You must make sure to keep up with us. Whether it is true that you are chosen by God or not—whatever ridiculous explanations you come up with—We are here to save people and try to cause as few problems as we can. Do not take this occupation lightly." Her armour was placed on with expertise, swift motions.
"I completely understand," Jeanne rapidly nodded her head, "In fact, I take this very seriously."
"Marie tells me you will be a great addition. The results of your Noble Phatasms came and they apparently prove you to be on the same level of Gil."
"Gil?"
A grunt, "The Golden Disaster, ignore that name; it's a nickname I give him." So much for keeping a secret.
"Ah, The King of Heroes, right?" a nod was the short woman's response, "Well, what about Diarmuid? He seems to me like the best warrior." Jeanne smiled brightly.
The name had caught the female king's attention, her eyes widening and her hand immediately drawing to the pommel of the sword, "Pardon me?" Her eyes narrowed.
Jeanne shrugged, "He is unique, I really admire his morality. He is simply the perfect man."
Anger bubbled up inside the shorter woman, her chest rising and falling in order to keep her in check, "Diarmuid?" How was it that a simpleton, a recruit, an inexperienced little girl would know his name?
"Actually," Jeanne turned towards the king, as she had let her gaze wander about the room, "I was curious about that… I know he will have trouble speaking to me of it, but I wanted to know what happened between the two of you?"
The king stepped towards her, intimidation splashed on her face, "I know not of what you speak."
Jeanne sighed, deciding she needed to be a bit forward; of course, Arturia was still hurt about it; she cried, "How did he get his memory swiped?"
Thud!
The sound of Jeanne crashing against the locker doors resonated throughout the room, her ears ringing in the process as a groan escaped her lips. Arturia held her in place with her armoured forearm at the base of her neck.
"What are you doing?" Jeanne coughed, fear flickering through her violet eyes.
"Who are you? Why are you here?" Arturia hissed, "You think that you can come here, and threaten me?"
"Wow, woaaah!" Jeanne gulped as the woman drew her sword, "There's no need to get weapons into this, this is civilized talk between two classy ladies. I know you wouldn't hurt an innocent girl."
"Let me tell you something, Pucelle, I am not afraid to get rid of you at any second; I've dealt with others like you. I do not know how you know about his memory being wiped away, but I will not hesitate to run this sword through you, no matter what you say."
Jeanne's expression hardened just as the woman restricted her breathing even more, "I am not afraid of you." She did not mean for it to come out as a hiss, but the lack of breath made it so.
"Do not dare to even think about hurting Diarmuid, do you understand me?"
"I would never hurt him… But what about you?" Jeanne managed through a gasp, having dropped her banner and tried to move the woman's arm from her neck.
"What?"
"He knows."
Green eyes resembling snakes bore into her, a scoff leaving her lips, "Do not jest with me."
Jeanne glared daggers at the king, "He was the one that told me that you were holding him. He trusted me because he knows all of you are in on it."
The softening expression on the king's face was interrupted by a loud beeping noise through the P.A system.
Beep! Beep! Beep! Code Yellow, immediately report to the arena, Code Yellow. Report to the Arena. Beep! Beep! Beep!
Arturia jumped back, determination on her features.
"What does Code Yellow mean?" Jeanne managed between ragged gasps and breaths.
The older of the two did not even pay any attention to the one that was trying to recover from the choking. Jeanne did not stay behind to wonder but rather followed soon after, running into Diarmuid on the way to the Arena.
"Are you alright?" He asked, a worried look in her eyes as she could see there was a red mark over her neck and her eyes were also red, "Did something happen?"
"No," Jeanne shook her head, "Nothing happened." She gave a wavering smile but he did not ask any further questions until they arrived at the arena.
They were made to line up while Marie walked passed them all—as if they were being inspected.
"Now," her voice was quite loud for someone so short, "the number of chid kidnappings has severely increased ever since the summer. Today we were informed of another kidnapping. After many investigations, we have concluded that this is a mana related crime." She took a few silent steps, standing right in front of Jeanne.
"We are all to be on high alert. Pucelle and the King of Knights will be the ones leading this investigation. If you ever have any suggestions, tips, or simply want to join them, feel free to speak with them." Marie spoke, looking around at the other heroes, "What are you all standing for, my heroes? Go find the missing children!"