Ch 21: A Familiar Reunion

"Heh. And here we are again."

Vert did not respond to this as she simply sat in silence with her arms crossed. Across from her, Sync casually leaned back on the sofa in her office with his strange new staff still in hand.

Following the boy's cheesy entrance, Vert and her newfound guests had spent several minutes swimming their way out of her room. After summoning the Ran Rans and telling them to clean up the place, Vert had asked to speak privately with the boy in her office. Big Nep and Uzume (who was wearing a viking helmet and bear-skin cloak for some odd reason) had both complied with her wishes as they said their goodbyes to him. After squeezing the breath out of Sync, the older Neptune had warped herself and Uzume back home with a final cheery wave.

Left to themselves, Vert and Sync had walked towards the office together without a word said between them. For Vert, the silence had mostly been due to her trying desperately to sort out her thoughts. The boy's sudden appearance had certainly not helped her already jumbled thoughts in regards to her newfound suspicions about his involvement in her MMO. As for Sync, it was hard to tell why he had kept quiet but his amused demeanor seemed to indicate that he was simply waiting to see how Vert would react first.

"So what's it going to be, sis?" Sync asked, breaking the silence once again when it became clear that Vert would not speak up. "Aren't you going to ask me something?"

Vert was quick to note the absence of the awkward behavior he had been displaying around her since their meeting in the broadcast tower. Whereas before he had seemed to want to put some distance between himself and her, now he seemed to be back to how he was when they had first met. That is to say, annoyingly upfront and casual.

Putting aside this detail to ponder about later, Vert cleared her throat and asked the most immediate question at the moment.

"Where exactly did you disappear to with the older Neptune and Uzume? I thought you were still resting back in your room."

Sync seemed to pick up on the implications this question held as his smile widened.

"You didn't even bother to check up on me this whole time?" he asked in an exaggerated hurt tone. "I didn't know I had such a terrible older sister. And to think that I believed that you actually cared about me."

Vert's paranoia immediately went into high alert at this as she worried that she had accidentally set off one of his death flags.

"I do care about you!" she blurted out, hoping it would patch up whatever mistake she had made. "I was merely busy with my... work! That's right, my work! So much of it had piled up during my absence that I-"

"I was joking, sis," Sync cut off. His smile dropped into a thoughtful frown as he raised an eyebrow at her. "I have to wonder though. Why would you get so riled up over such an obvious tease?"

Vert had to mentally hold herself back from bashing her head against the wall for overreacting the way she did. As precarious as her situation was, she knew that panicking would only make things worse for her.

"Meh. You always were a strange one," Sync dismissed before Vert could say anything. With a smile at the offended look that appeared on her face, he continued on. "As for your earlier question, I simply stepped out for a bit to help Uzume on her little dragon quest. I'll spare you the details but it was definitely a bizarre adventure even by mini-Nep's standards."

"Adventure?" Vert asked. "How long were you gone for exactly?"

Sync seemed to think about this for a second before answering. "About two and a half days from your perspective. For me, it was over two weeks because of the dimensional time dilation."

Panic welled up inside her again as she barely stopped herself from leaping forward to check up on the boy in worry.

"You're not hurt, are you?" she asked instead, looking over him with a critical gaze.

Sync definitely seemed to notice this bizarre behavior as he shot her a confused look but quickly waved the whole thing aside once more.

"I'm fine. A bit tired from creating that portal back home but nothing a little bit of rest won't solve."

Vert continued to scrutinize him despite his words as she looked for any signs that he was fading away or hiding some sort of fatal injury. After spotting nothing that could potentially lead to a Game Over for her, she leaned back on her seat with a sigh of relief.

"That's good," she said aloud. Taking a moment to calm herself, she looked back over at the boy with a questioning look. "Speaking of which, what exactly is that staff you're holding?"

"I was wondering how long it'd take before you asked me that," Sync said with a smile. He twirled the cheese-adorned wooden staff in his hand for good measure before answering. "It's a handy little weapon that I call the Cheese Stick. As for what it does, it can shoot out a magical burst of energy that can turn anything into cheese. For example..."

With a casual flick of his hand, he aimed the staff on the fancy tea set laid out on the table between them. As Vert watched with wide eyes, a red bolt of energy shot out and hit the teapot and tea cups before transfiguring them into small blocks of white cheese.

"Huh. Looks like the magic's a lot weaker outside its home dimension," Sync noted. "I expected a lot more cheese to appear from that."

Giving a shrug, he reached out and grabbed one of the snack-sized cheeses before sampling it.

"Hm... Swiss. And a pretty well-aged one at that."

Getting over her shock, Vert shouted out in an annoyed tone.

"Don't eat my tea set! Those are extremely expensive!"

Sync let out a laugh to this as he put away his Cheese Stick and grabbed another piece of the transfigured cheese.

"Gotta say, I never thought I'd hear something like that before," he remarked jokingly.

Ignoring Vert's pout, he continued to enjoy his snack.

"You know, I think this would go pretty well with some wine," he commented after another bite. Saying that, he looked over at Vert questioningly. "I'm pretty sure you're the type of person to keep a vintage collection somewhere. Do you have any good selections that you'd personally recommend?"

Vert immediately shot him a disapproving glare at this.

"I am not letting you touch my wine collection! You're far too young to be drinking any sort of alcohol!"

"Come on, sis," Sync argued. "I'm a CPU Candidate. I'm older than I look."

"You're less than a month old!"

Sync let out an embarrassed laugh to this as he rubbed the back of his head with his free hand.

"Heh heh. I guess that logic really doesn't work for me. Still, if I'm allowed to own a laser blade and fight horrifying monsters at my age, shouldn't I also be allowed to drink?"

"No! The reason we have drinking laws is because of our lax weapon policies! Do you know how much damage Gamindustri suffered in the past when all the kids went on drunken rampages with giant robots and city-destroying magic blades?"

"Um... I'm guessing a lot?"

"Allow me to put it this way. Leanbox being an island is not from natural circumstance."

Stunned silence filled the room as Sync stayed frozen with his cheese half-way to his mouth.

"Note to self," he eventually muttered. "Avoid all heavily-armed children if I end up in the past."

Another brief silence followed as Sync got over his shock and finished the rest of his snack. Wiping his hands and mouth with one of the napkins laid out on the table, he looked up to face Vert with another smile.

"Well, putting aside those... interesting historical revelations, I think it's about time we got down to the main reason we're here."

"What are you talking about?"

Sync answered with a light-hearted shrug. "Come on, sis. We both know you didn't drag me here just to make small talk. You obviously want to question me about everything that's happened during the battle with K-Sha."

"That's not it," Vert denied, despite the partial truth in his words. "I merely wished to-"

Before Vert could finish, the door to her office slammed open as an enraged, cheese crumb-covered Chika made her appearance.

"Die you brat!" she screamed at Sync, throwing out her spear as way of greeting.

Sync barely batted an eye as he casually created a spatial ripple to swallow up the incoming weapon.

"Good to see you too Chika," he called out tauntingly.

Seeing the Oracle pull out a Molotov cocktail and lighter in response, Vert quickly decided it was high time to intervene.

"Chika! What have I told you about using your weapons indoors after last time?!"

The reproachful tone managed to halt the Oracle's rampage as she lowered her lighter with a guilty expression.

"That I'm not allowed to use them unless there is a clear and obvious threat to the Basilicom and its residents," she recited off like a reprimanded child. She quickly perked up again though as she turned to Vert with a pleading look. "But sister! The brat assaulted me first with all that cheese! Shouldn't I be allowed to kill him for that?"

"To be fair," Sync cut in with a smile, "it wasn't my intention to bury you under all that cheese. That was just your bad luck of being in the wrong place at the wrong time." His smile widened as he took a closer look at her disheveled form. "By the way, you have a large piece of Pepper Jack stuck to your ribbon."

Before Chika could light up her explosive and destroy the office again, one of the Ran Rans walked in carrying Chika's spear.

"(´・ω・｀) How many times has Ran Ran told you not to teleport flying weapons to random locations?" she chided Sync in her high-pitched voice. "(´・ω・｀) Ran Ran barely caught this spear before it stabbed the Planeptune trade delegate."

Sync gave an embarrassed wince at the close call before offering an apology.

"Sorry about that Ran Ran. I was trying to set the exit point to Chika's room but I guess I must've miscalculated the coordinates. I'll make sure to pay better attention next time."

Ran Ran gave a nod to this while Chika began making angry Dogoo noises at the boy. This did not last for very long though as Ran Ran whacked the Oracle over the head with the blunt end of her spear.

"Ow!" Chika cried out indignantly. "What was that for?!"

"(´・ω・｀) Ran Ran thinks you should be nicer to Sync," Ran Ran reprimanded. "(´・ω・｀) He even gave you some of Lady Vert's underwear as a present."

"He what?!" Vert cried out. (As it was, her underwear drawer had been custom made to keep out Chika by requiring both an eye scan as well as a fingerprint scan to open; unfortunately, it seemed all of these measures were useless when pitted against Sync's abilities.)

Chika chose to ignore her pseudo-sister's outburst as she gave a huff.

"He only got me those so I wouldn't kill him for dyeing my hair orange!"

Ran Ran apparently realized that continuing this conversation was pointless as she gave a sigh and walked out of the office with Chika's spear still in her possession.

"Hey! Come back with my spear!"

Feeling a massive headache starting to build up, Vert decided to take back control of the situation before it got any worse.

"Chika. Put away the explosive and sit," she ordered firmly, motioning towards the seat next to her. After waiting for the Oracle to reluctantly obey her command, Vert shifted her glare over to Sync. "And you. Do not steal any of my underwear ever again. Am I clear?"

Sync passed this off with an easy smile that resembled the ones he gave the twins whenever they tried to assert their dominance over him. Figuring this was the best she was going to get from him though, Vert simply acknowledged this with a nod of her head.

"Good. Now that that's clear, let me set a few things straight."

"Chika," she addressed first, "from here on out, I expressly forbid you from attempting to kill Sync."

"WHAT?!" the Oracle shouted, instantly making Vert regret her decision to have her sit so close to her. "But... but Vert darling! He's nothing more than a dirty impostor who's only brought trouble into our lives! Why would you want to keep him alive?!"

Vert bit back a sigh as she steamrolled ahead.

"I have my reasons so just do as I say." Ignoring Chika's attempts to puppy-dog eyes her into changing her mind, she looked back over to Sync. "In return, I want you to stop antagonizing Chika with your pranks."

Sync responded by crossing his arms and raising an eyebrow at her.

"You do realize asking me that is like telling Noire to stop being a Tsundere or Blanc to control her temper, right?" he asked rhetorically. "Pulling pranks on Chika is practically a basic instinct for me. And I'm sure she feels the same way about wanting to kill me as well."

To Vert's utter shock, Chika actually nodded her head in agreement with him.

"As much as I hate saying this, the brat's right. Plus, I wouldn't have a legit excuse to try and disembowel him if he stopped pranking me."

"Wait, you're trying to disembowel me now?" Sync asked with morbid curiosity. "I thought you were still trying to decapitate me."

"What are you talking about? I tried to poison you before this!"

"Oh, that's right. The poisoned tea cake incident. It's a good thing Ran Ran was immune to poisons or that could have ended badly."

Vert could only stare with an open mouth as she tried to wrap her head around the bizarre relationship the two had apparently built with each other during her absence. While it certainly could not be called anything friendly – or even healthy – it was easy to pick up that the pair had formed some sort of odd camaraderie with each other. At least, when it came to their perpetual game of cat and mouse that is.

Shaking her head in an attempt to dispel her continuously growing headache, she focused back on the situation at hand and tried to make the best of it.

"Very well. Then at least lower the number of pranks and attempted murders to only one a day. Any more than that and this entire nation is probably going to end up as an irradiated wasteland by the end of the month."

With a complete peace treaty out of the question, she figured this was the only way to limit the amount of damage the two caused. Plus, Sync's pranks were never intentionally harmful so Chika was fairly safe and she was certain the Oracle would never be able to catch her prey and do any real harm anyways.

Meanwhile, both Sync and Chika seemed to seriously consider this before the Oracle spoke up with a question.

"If I miss one of my daily killing attempts because of work, does it carry over to the next day?"

"That's a good point," Sync agreed (once again making Vert's mind nearly crash at the incomprehensible concept of the two working together). "I'll most likely end up missing a few pranking days too due to my mandatory play-dates with the twins and whatnot. Having our pranking and murdering attempts carry over sounds rather reasonable to me."

"Fine!" Vert conceded. "I'll allow up to three attempts to carry over! But no more than that! And if either of you try to break this rule, I'll... I'll..." Vert trailed off as she realized she did not have anything noteworthy she could do to either of them as punishment.

"Send us to our rooms without supper?" Sync supplied with a mocking smile. "Or maybe ban us from playing video games for a week?"

"I'll get very angry!" Vert shot out.

Judging from the boy's amused expression, this clearly did not impress him one bit. Chika, on the other hand, froze up as a traumatized expression fell across her face. Vert was temporarily confused by this acute reaction before remembering that the poor girl had once seen her completely lose it after being called fat by an extremely rude noble from Lowee. Long story short, even Blanc had been too terrified to pick a fight with her over this issue after seeing the end results of that massacre.

"I'll make sure to follow your rules so please don't get mad at me Vert darling!" Chika cried out, much to the surprise of Sync. Meanwhile, Vert gave an embarrassed groan as she wished that Chika would just forget about that major blemish on her calm and graceful image (even if that was a bit of an unreasonable thing to ask considering what had happened).

"Um... I feel like I'm missing out on something here but sure," Sync said with a shrug. "I don't mind abiding by your rules either. Just don't expect me to limit my pranks for anyone else though."

Vert gave another groan before deciding to settle for what she got.

A rather stilted and awkward silence followed before Sync perked up as if remembering something.

"Oh, right. If we're bringing up important matters that need to be discussed, we should really get started on the whole 'announcing me to the public' thing."

Vert gave the boy a curious glance while Chika began making angry cat noises at him.

"I figured you'd want to avoid being seen by the public for a while after what happened in Lastation," Vert noted. "It would be good to give everyone a bit more time to settle down before we release this information."

Sync gave an amused snort to this. "Sis, we live in the age of the internet. Noire's soldiers know who I am so it's only a matter of time before they leak the information online. In fact, I bet the only reason they haven't done so already is probably because Noire's been working them like slaves to keep up with the reorganization effort."

Vert gave a thoughtful frown at this as she looked over at Chika.

"Speaking of which, how exactly did news of Sync's identity not get out yet?" she asked. "I'm rather surprised none of our own workers released this information to the press already."

Chika gave a half-proud, half-annoyed huff. "Of course none of them would spread any false rumors about this impostor. I caught one of the workers trying to take a picture of the brat and post it online so I... made an example out of him."

Vert honestly could not figure out whether to let out a sigh of relief at their secret being safe or to facepalm at her Oracle's behavior. Sync, however, was quick to respond as he gave Chika a look of mock gratitude.

"Aw, thanks Chika. I didn't know you cared enough to keep me safe from the paparazzi."

The Oracle immediately pulled out her Molotov cocktail again as she looked over expectantly at Vert.

"Vert darling? That spear throw earlier didn't count towards my one-a-day limit, right?"

"It counts," Vert quickly shut down. Ignoring Chika's disappointed look, she shifted her attention back to Sync. "Putting all that aside, are you certain about revealing yourself to the public? There won't be any going back after this."

Sync gave her a puzzled look. "Going back to what? It wasn't like I was trying to keep myself hidden or anything."

Hearing how casually he was willing to throw away his anonymity, Vert mentally decided that her 'prince-in-hiding' theory would need to be reworked a bit (her logical self simply banged her head against the wall at this).

"Very well," she sighed. "I'll begin making preparations for your announcement ceremony two days from now. You look as if you could use some more rest so take tomorrow off to recover."

Sync seemed rather put off by her oddly thoughtful suggestion as he gave her a questioning look. When she refused to elaborate any further, he gave a shrug and apparently put this matter aside to ponder about later.

"Sounds good. Is there anything I need to prepare for the event though? Like do I need to wear a formal suit and give a proper speech or something?"

Vert would have been extremely hard-pressed to say that she was not just a tiny bit tempted to see the boy dressed up in a butler outfit. Thankfully, she managed to shove aside that thought before her inner PerVert could catch wind of it and answered Sync with a cough.

"I'll send one of the workers or Ran Ran to get your measurements later tonight. My personal tailor can easily have your suit prepared by the ceremony so there's no worries there. As for the speech, leave that to me. All you'll need to do is introduce yourself and say a short greeting." She paused to give him a sharp glare. "And please refrain from saying or doing anything foolish. This is going to be an official ceremony and it would reflect badly on the entire nation if you did anything inappropriate."

Much to her chagrin, Sync answered with a mischievous smirk.

"Don't worry, sis. I'll make sure not to surprise everyone too much."

Vert's groan was interrupted by Chika suddenly grabbing onto her shoulders and shaking her violently.

"Darling!" she cried loudly, big dramatic teardrops appearing in her eyes. "You can't really be serious about accepting this brat as the CPU Candidate?!"

"Let...go...of...me!" Vert shouted as she was swung back and forth like a rag doll.

It took a long while for the Oracle to finally calm herself down and release her victim. Even after that, Vert had to wait a few seconds for the whiplash to subside before she could provide an answer.

"There's no use denying any more that the boy is really the CPU Candidate of Leanbox," she said, even though mentally she still had some major doubts about this. "If you want to complain, go speak with Histoire about it."

Even Chika visibly hesitated at this suggestion as she clearly did not wish to antagonize her senior Oracle about this matter. Instead, she settled for giving a childish pout.

"This isn't fair!" she complained. "Why does he get to be counted as your brother when I'm the one who's been trying so hard to be your little sister?"

"He's not my b-"

Vert barely managed to stop herself from saying her ingrained automatic response. With a panicked look, she quickly glanced over at the boy to make sure her careless words had not ended up erasing him from existence.

To her relief, Sync seemed as tangible as ever as he simply gave her a taunting smile.

"Well?" he prodded. "I'm not your what?"

Both Chika and Sync stared intently at Vert as she felt like slamming her face down onto the coffee table for putting herself in a corner like this.

"Never mind," she eventually said. "The fact remains that he's the Leanbox CPU Candidate and that's all there is to say about it." For now, she added in her mind.

Neither party seemed impressed by this response but Vert quickly steered the conversation away from this topic before either of them could complain.

"Anyways, there's one more matter I wished to speak with you about before we go," she addressed to Sync.

"Oh? And what would that be?"

Vert went over the plan she had been building up this entire time in her head as she gave a mental nod to herself.

"There's an upcoming event in 4GO2 next weekend and I was wondering if you'd like to join me for it."

Rather than directly asking him about this matter and potentially being fooled by his lies, Vert decided the best way to get her answers regarding the boy's possible connection with Amadeus was through first-hand observation. While she had little talent for reading people in the real world, she was practically impossible to fool when it came to one's video game expertise. If she managed to see the boy playing the game even once, she was confident that she would be able to determine his real skill level. Even if he tried to hide it, she was certain she could push him into a corner during the event and make him reveal his true abilities.

"Your MMO?" Sync asked, raising an eyebrow at her. "That's rather unexpected. Why do you suddenly want to include me in your hobby?"

Before Vert could reply, Chika latched onto her once again.

"Dar-ling!" she whined as Vert tried once again to free herself. "Why are you inviting the brat to play games with you and not me?"

"That's because you have no interest in playing 4GO2!" Vert quickly answered, struggling to escape Chika's crushing embrace. "You've always refused whenever I asked you in the past!"

"That's because you keep leaving me behind whenever we do play together!"

The pair's awkward wrestling match only came to a halt when Sync gave an amused laugh.

"You know, I feel like I could make quite a fortune filming the two of you right now and selling the footage online." Seeing the pair immediately separate with embarrassed looks, he gave another chuckle. "Oh, don't stop now. Things were getting particularly good with Chika slowly reaching towards-"

"Shut up you little pervert!" Without any regard for their previously established agreement, the Oracle lunged towards the boy with bloodlust gleaming in her eyes.

Sync seemed fully prepared for this however as he waved his hand and created a large spatial tear in front of him. Unable to stop her forward momentum, Chika ended up jumping straight through the portal as it immediately closed up behind her.

Silence fell across the room for a bit as Sync dusted off his hands and gave a satisfied stretch.

"Where did you send her?" Vert eventually asked.

"The dumpster," he replied idly with a laugh. Ignoring Vert's disapproving look, he continued on. "I doubt she'll stay there for very long though. Of course, I'm fairly certain nothing short of you adopting her as your actual sister will distract her from trying to kill me again once she gets back."

He paused for a bit as he suddenly gave her a thoughtful look. "You know, I've been meaning to ask you this for quite some time. Why haven't you adopted Chika as your younger sister? I mean, yeah, she won't be related to you by blood but does that really matter? She seems more than ecstatic about the idea and you're just as obsessed with the whole little sister business so it seems like an obvious win-win situation."

Perhaps it was due to the fact that he was the one asking her this but a long-buried memory threatened to surface in her mind at this question. Without even a second thought, Vert violently squashed the memory back down before glaring at the boy.

"It's none of your business," she snapped.

It was not until she had fully calmed herself down a few seconds later that she noticed Sync's surprised expression at her harsh reply. With an embarrassed cough, she quickly tried to backtrack in order to waylay his suspicions. "Ahem. I mean... it's complicated." Seeing that his expression did not change, she gave a loud sigh. "Look, can we please just drop the subject? I'd rather we didn't talk about this."

For a moment, Vert was afraid he was going to continue pressing her for more information. To her surprise and relief, however, he complied with her request by giving a shrug.

"Fine. You had enough decency to hold back from interrogating me about any personal information during this meeting so the least I can do is extend you the same favor."

His questioning gaze still lingered though as he pinned her with a serious expression.

"There is one thing I want to make sure though," he voiced. Making sure he had her full attention, he asked his question. "Do you truly wish for a younger sister?"

Vert's initial reaction was to lie and tell him that she was fine with simply having him as her... sibling. However, for some odd reason, her gamer senses strongly urged her to tell the truth in this situation. Having always been one to follow her instincts more than pure logic (something her logical side knew all too well), she decided to come clean with her wish.

"Yes, I still want a younger sister."

Sync stared intently at her for a few seconds as he seemed to try and figure out whether she was telling the truth or not. Just as Vert began to feel a bit uncomfortable under his unflinching gaze, he suddenly got up from the sofa and turned away.

"I understand sis," he called out as he headed towards the door. "I'll make sure you get your wish."

Alarm bells immediately started ringing in Vert's head at this statement. As far as potential death flag triggers went, this one seemed almost painfully obvious. His serious tone combined with his words made it seem as if he was going to sacrifice himself for her wish to be fulfilled. This, of course, was something she absolutely could not allow. Asides from the fact that she would lose the game she had set out for herself, Histoire would most definitely not approve of her selfish actions if she let this event occur. And as far as she was concerned, gaining a younger sister in this manner would be meaningless if she ended up being scolded to death by the angry Oracle.

"Sync, wait!"

Hearing her panicked shout, Sync slowly turned back around towards her. To her utter confusion, however, she found a large mischievous smile on his face rather than the expected stoic look.

"I'll be honest though sis," he let out. "I've never cross-dressed before so I have no idea how convincing I can look as a younger sister."

A lengthy silence fell over the room as Vert's mind slowly tried to process what she had just heard. It took several more minutes before she finally managed to connect all the dots and realized that the boy had actually been messing with her the entire time.

"You..." Vert eventually huffed, unable to say anything more as she was lost between a massive wave of relief, anger, and embarrassment.

Seeing her flabbergasted expression, Sync burst into his loudest laughter yet causing Vert's face to redden even further.

"Wow, I can't believe how seriously you took all that," he eventually managed to say, clutching his sides from laughing so much. "That look on your face was absolutely priceless!"

Vert simply stayed silent throughout all this as her face began to look more and more like an over boiling tea pot.

Luckily for her, Sync managed to regain control of himself not too long after as his laughter finally subsided.

"Ah, the fun of teasing you is second only to riling up Chika and Noire," he commented, earning a dark look from Vert. Letting out one final chuckle, he continued on in a more thoughtful yet still light-hearted tone. "Well, judging from your reaction just now, I'd say I'm on the right track when it comes to the true reason behind your sudden concern for me."

Vert immediately perked up at this as she shot him a surprised look.

"Wait, are you saying that was all just a ploy to figure out my motive?"

Sync flashed her a playful grin before turning back towards the door once more.

"You're not the only one trying to figure out other people's secrets, sis," he called out teasingly.

Without giving Vert a chance to recover, he headed out of the office. However, he paused just outside the open doorway as he seemed to remember something.

"Oh, that's right. I never gave you an answer to your MMO invitation." He turned his head to give her an amused sideways grin. "If Leanbox is still standing after my announcement ceremony, then sure. I'll be glad to join you for a game. If it's anything like our interaction today, I'm sure it'll be quite... interesting."

With that mysterious and slightly ominous words, he warped away leaving behind only the faint echoes of his laughter behind.

Vert was still in the process of getting over her shock when a trash-covered Chika suddenly came rampaging through the door.

"WHERE IS HE?! I'M GOING TO GUT HIM LIKE A FISH!"

Vert took one look at her Oracle before letting out a large sigh.

"Chika, please put away that chainsaw gun. And go get yourself cleaned up before doing anything else. I don't think the Ran Rans will appreciate you trailing trash everywhere."

As her enraged Oracle ignored her and tromped off with a bunch of used tea bags and an old slice of pizza still stuck in her hair, Vert could not help but sigh once again as she felt her troubles had just increased exponentially.