Emma leaned forward in front of the Machine, carefully poking her head inside.

"Can you see anything?" asked Alfred. Good question: if she could reach inside, they could pull Gilbert out and wouldn't need to sacrifice anybody.

But Emma answered "no". They could've known, of course, that the Exchange Machine wouldn't work that way.

"Figures," said Matthew. "If my dad made it, it's gotta be hard to fix..."

"Is it working?" asked Vash, after they had spent several minutes watching Emma stand in the same position while making groaning noises. Nothing appeared to be happening.

"No!" yelled Wally, clearly frustrated.

"I don't know!" said Flanny, sounding confused.

"Have you both gone mad?!" B shouted.

"What the heck?" said Alfred. "What's she even trying to do?"

"It's a brilliant plan," said Matthew, grinning, "though I feel bad for B..." His grin faded slightly at his last comment.

"Who's B?" asked Alfred. "Okay, you know what? I'm getting kind of impatient - yeah, you know me - so how 'bout I leave y'all at it, and if whatever you're doing fails, just call the hero and I'll show you some sacrifice, 'kay? I'll be in the lunchroom with the normal vending machines: you know, the ones that have drinks and snacks and no students inside of them? So you know where to find me! See ya!" He winked at them and headed off.

Matthew shook his head and sighed. "Silly brother, eh? Did he really think we'd let him get away with sacrificing himself?"

They walked over to Emma, who was still struggling. B turned away from the Machine, but Flanny grabbed hold of its opening so she couldn't escape.

"So how do we trigger you to split up?" Vash asked.

"I don't know!" said Flanny and Wally at the same time.

"Could it be in one of your items? That kind of stuff happens sometimes..."

"The hairband!" Wally shouted, but Flanny shook her head. Ignoring her shyer sister, Wally pulled off her hairband and held it into the opening. B rolled her eyes at this idea. Flanny wrenched the hairband out of the machine and away from her sister.

"No, Wally," she said. "We've had a hairband or bow on our head since we were a child, so that can't be B. Don't go throwing away our old things just to test if it'll change anything. Besides, B wasn't showing any resistance to that, so I don't think she's in an item. She's here with us, in our body."

B turned away from the machine with some difficulty, and cleared her throat.

"Sisters, this is all nonsense," she said in a clear voice. "Stop trying to defy me. You'll only end up hurting yourselves. I was created to stop you, and the other people around us, from hurting each other. If people see you as mediocre or fail to remember what defines your country, that isn't my fault. Everybody knows I have less of an identity than either of you, so you cannot possibly believe I stole your identity. And just because I'm bossy and manipulative doesn't mean I deserve to disappear, or that you're better off without me. I am needed. I have a job. And I have feelings, though perhaps less of them than other people do. You say you hate me? Well, I don't hate you. Though our friendship may remain mostly formal and at the surface, I care about each and every one of my club members, and I will look out for them, no matter what. That includes both of you. Please think about it before you toss me into a vending machine. I am your protector, and if you keep me, I will always be there for you. If you lose me, the world may fall into chaos."

Even though B appeared to mean what she said (either she was a good actress or she actually believed what she was saying), Vash was not at all convinced by her speech. Therefore it surprised him to see that both Wally and Matthew looked shocked and even touched. Flanny, who Vash would have expected to be the weakest of the three and the most likely to give in to B's trap (if it was a trap), was still hesitating.

"The world..." she muttered, "...will be okay. Because if you disappear, it is not the end of our club. We can take over... try to handle it on our own..."

Vash expected B to reply to this with some snarky comment about Flanny's lack of discipline, but instead, she remained silent, listening.

"Or," Flanny added, "if we do not have the required skills to lead the club, we could let Ludwig be the chairman. He always gets people to be quiet and listen..."

She stopped and blinked in surprise.

"You... you're listening to me!"

"Yes, I am," said Vash.

"No, not you!" Flanny exclaimed. "B is listening to me!" And she looked so overjoyed that Vash's first instinct was to feel happy for her, but that would just be stupid, so he held himself in and concentrated on what was important: Gilbert's release.

Flanny and Wally had stopped trying, thanks to B's brainwashing, and Vash was extremely worried that they would let her escape. He exchanged glances with Matthew, but his friend only shook his head softly.

"No one deserves to be forgotten, Vash," he muttered. "No one... No matter who or what they are... And B just proved that she is someone: not just an idea, but a somebody with thoughts and feelings and we can't make the same mistake Alfred did..."

But Vash was determined to continue their plan. "Think realistically, Matthew. Someone needs to be sacrificed, and B has been tormenting Flanny and Wally for years. The three of them would be much happier if they split. And do you really want somebody like Alfred to sacrifice himself because we couldn't find a better alternative?"

He turned to Flanny and Wally, and was willing to bet they were just as easily manipulated as young Jerome. Why not try a similar trick?

"Try to think rebellious thoughts," he told them. "Think of a revolution, of independence. You don't need her. You don't need each other. You can stand alone, like I do." Saying this felt off, since Matthew was right there beside him. He didn't really stand alone...

But his speech was convincing enough for Wally. She'd stopped hesitating and was chanting: "Revolution! Revolution!"

Flanny laughed and joined in, although she didn't seem completely sure of herself: "Independence? Let's focus on it!"

They went from laughing and singing to serious business. They tugged at their body. They tried to pull themselves apart by walking in opposite directions. They sat on the floor in what was meant to be a yoga position, concentrating as hard as they could on their own individualities (or perhaps on images of revolution, or on how annoying B was: it wasn't as if Vash could read what they were thinking). They got back up and made various restless movements, occasionally uttering things: "Ack!" "Aie!" "No!" "Out, out, out!" "But we're a family!" "Exit... exit..." "Flanny, don't try to throw me out!" "This is insane!" "I'm trying..." "Try harder!" "We need each other!" "I don't know what to do..."

It wasn't working.

They could try all they wanted, but it was becoming clear that none of this was helping. Vash had given up on giving them advice. He knew nothing about this, and perhaps there was no way to forcefully trigger a split. Funny enough, Matthew looked relieved at the lack of progress. He really did mean it when he said no one deserved this.

Flanny finally pulled herself further away from the Machine and faced Vash.
"I'm sorry," she said to him, "but we are not able to separate, and I... I'm not sure whether I want to anymore..." She swallowed and held her head up high. "Vash, I mean: Vash and Matthew, I - Wally and I both - appreciate your kind offer, but I think we will try to work out our problems by ourself before trying anything this reckless again. Because, as you told us so boldly, we are independent."

And when Emma walked away to rejoin her friends, the three sisters seemed somehow more in harmony with each other: Flanny looked less shy, Wally less silly, and B, if possible, looked at least a tiny bit less bossy.

"Get away from here for once! I need to trade... alone!"

Emma had only just left when Ludwig returned with a dismal expression on his face.

"What did I tell you, Vash?" he asked when there was no reaction. "GET. OUT. I know what I did wrong. I know what I have to do."

Vash didn't understand, but Matthew whispered: "He wants to sacrifice himself..."

"You can't do that, Ludwig," said Vash. "We were figuring out another way. We tried to split Emma into three people..."

Ludwig looked over at Emma, who was calmly walking away. "Clearly, you were not successful."

"Then we'll find another way," said Vash, but if he was honest with himself, he doubted there was any other solution.

"There must be a way," said Matthew. "A way where no one will disappear forever!"

"I don't know how the hell you even know what's going on," Ludwig replied to Vash, obviously not hearing Matthew's comment, "but there is no other way. I have tried everything! Everything! You don't even want to know all the thousands of euros I've wasted, boxes of books and jewelry I've thrown away, and I even... I thought I'd finally outsmarted the Machine: a living thing, I thought, could be traded for a living thing, and surely a box of seven living things would get me the one living person in return... And so I stole the cats. But I was wrong: I got nothing. Nothing but that rooster and some of my old money. That is when I gave up completely. I thought it was pointless, especially since I didn't even know until now whether he was still alive. But now I finally realize what I've done wrong and I'm going to fix it." He took a step towards the Machine.

"W-wait!" said Matthew, but he didn't hear his voice.

"Be sensible!" said Vash. "What about your country?"

"Without me standing in his way," Ludwig replied, "Gilbert will finally be bound to the Earth again."

Vash protested repeatedly, but Ludwig wouldn't listen. He was already on the verge of stepping inside, and Vash grabbed onto him to hold him back, but Matthew mumbled:

"You know, we don't actually need to do that..."

What the hell did he mean by that? Vash turned around. Surely if even the sacrifice of bossy B went too far for him, Matthew wouldn't approve of sacrificing one of the strongest students in the school?

"We don't need to hold him back," Matthew repeated. "If he goes inside, Gilbert will come out. Then whoever we decide to sacrifice can go inside and Ludwig will be freed too. And if Alfred is ever so stupid to go in there, I will personally..."

"Matthew..." All this 'freeing' each other seemed sort of silly to Vash, since he honestly didn't care much what would happen to people besides himself and his friends, but Matthew's words had sparked an idea.

"We can take turns," he told Matthew, while he kept tugging at Ludwig to stop and listen to him. "Being stuck in the Exchange Machine wouldn't be a problem for us if it was only for a day. So we can take turns spending a day inside the Machine, and that way, nobody will be confined."

"Like how Castor and Pollux share immortality..." muttered Herakles, who they hadn't even noticed was sitting against the wall nearby.

"I..." Ludwig seemed bewildered by this plan, but he didn't protest and had stopped trying to climb into the Machine. He watched as they came closer to it. If it had been a living animal, they could've felt its breathing.

"I'll go first," said Matthew, opening the top door. For a moment, he hesitated.

"Don't forget about me, okay?" he whispered, turning around towards Vash.

He nodded stiffly. How could he possibly forget about his best friend, who he'd had so many great conversations with? Their friendship had changed several of his opinions, if only slightly: that alone was a huge accomplishment. He knew he would remember the one classmate whose company didn't bother him. Something had clicked between them and he wasn't about to forget that.

"We should inform Gilbert of our plans," he muttered, and wrote a note:

Dear Gilbert,

We're getting you out of there!

Your friends

Matthew added:

PS. Hold on to your rooster or you might lose him.

Gilbert and the Exchange Machine, you are both AWESOME!

They put the note into the top door, and waited, but although the Machine was ticking, nothing came out. Vash felt his face grow tense. His heart was thumping.

Suddenly, Matthew thrust his arms around the Machine.

"Take care of me, okay?"

Vash didn't understand why on Earth he was doing this, but he repeated Matthew's gesture. They were both hugging the Exchange Machine now, and its ticking seemed to grow louder and more irregular.

"Time to go then," Matthew whispered to Vash. "So long, friend..." And Vash was ready to help him up, ready to say goodbye for this very short while...

But before Matthew could set one foot into the top door, the Machine started rumbling, and with a crack, the bottom door opened and something large fell out. Or better said, it was not something at all. It was someone...

He looked like a mess. His clothes were covered in stains and grime, and his white hair was dull and greasy. His skinny, pale body was shaking and clutching the rooster in his arms. When he looked up at Vash and Matthew, his eyes were all red, and Vash couldn't tell whether it was from exhaustion or whether it was his natural eye color: probably both. But when he saw their two faces looking down at him, an enormous grin formed on his face, and Herakles, who had fallen asleep next to the Machine, murmured:

"The key to freedom is... friendship."