A little over a week had passed since Shinoa and the others went to Yuu's place for curry. It would be sad to say that anything eventful had happened in that time. What they had done was mostly training in abilities and teamwork. There was nothing new on the Kyuuketsuki either. In fact, Shinoa had heard nothing of them since her encounter with Ferid Bathory.
However, despite nothing new happening, Shinoa had been thinking about so much that it had kept her awake half the night all week. She had come into a bad habit of not sleeping so much lately.
It was the same case on this night. Shinoa couldn't sleep and suddenly found that she was getting thirsty. She decided that to get up and get something to drink wouldn't be such a bad idea. So this was what she did.
The hallway was cold and this didn't exactly help on Shinoa's lack of sleepiness. In fact, she only became more awake from this. Neither did the water help on her situation, but it did help her thirst a bit.
As Shinoa turned off the water, she heard the sound of footsteps in the hallway and when she came out in the hallway, she ran into none other than Guren. He was wearing his full uniform and apparently tried to pretend like nothing was out of the ordinary, but since it was in the middle of the night and seeing him in the hallway was far from normal, he failed miserably.
"Guren?" Shinoa asked as she approached Guren.
Guren stopped and turned to look at her with a lethargic expression. "Yeah?" he asked like he wasn't interested in talking to Shinoa at all.
"Where are you going at this time?" Shinoa asked. "Out to meet someone?"
Guren glared at her. "Yeah," he said. "Leave me alone." Then he turned his head away and continued on his path down the hallway.
Shinoa was left alone. She sent Guren a curious look as she watched him turn a corner. She didn't know what it was about his response, but she had a feeling something wasn't right. Therefore, she started to walk after Guren instead of going back to bed. She wanted to know if he really was meeting someone or if he was lying.
Shinoa snuck after Guren and watched from the corner as he turned the next one. She continued like this until Guren reached the bottom floor and ran into Shinya.
"Guren? What are you doing here?" Shinya was also in full uniform and holding some papers in one hand. It seemed he had been working until now. "I was on my way to your office to have a talk with you."
"Kureto gave me a mission," Guren said.
"Alone?" Shinya asked.
Guren didn't answer by words, but judging from Shinya's reply, she guessed that Guren had nodded his head.
"Isn't it dangerous to go alone?"
"Whatever." Guren didn't seem to care at all about something like that. "Reminds me, Kureto said to give you this." He got a letter out of his pocket and handed it to Shinya who checked it quickly.
"I see," he said. "But if Kureto-nii would give me a message, couldn't he just give it to me directly? He usually does that."
"I don't know why he passed it through me," Guren said irritated. "But I think it was important, so you should probably check it right away."
Shinya nodded and let out an irritated sigh. It seemed that he had wanted to follow Guren out on whatever he was doing, but things just weren't working in his favor.
"I'm off," Guren said before turning on his heel and walking away. Shinya started heading towards Shinoa and stopped once he saw her.
"Shinoa-chan?" he asked.
Shinoa jumped a bit, pretending to be surprised. If she pretended, then maybe Shinya wouldn't figure out that she had listened but was just randomly passing by.
"Shinya?" she asked.
"Were you eavesdropping?" he asked. A smile was on his face as he did so. He seemed amused by the thought of Shinoa eavesdropping on him and Guren. Anyone else would have scolded Shinoa instead, but Shinya was famous for eavesdropping too, so he would be the last who had the right to say anything.
"And if I was?" she asked.
"Do you know who the letter is from?" Shinya asked. "I'm pretty sure it's not from Kureto-nii."
"No…" Shinoa said. "But I wonder if it was a mission or if he went to meet someone, that was what he told me." She didn't look at Shinya as she told about what Guren had said to her.
"I'm pretty sure he went on a mission," Shinya said. "He probably only said he wanted to meet someone to throw you off or something," he smiled. "Shouldn't you be in bed, Shinoa-chan?" he asked.
Shinoa nodded. "Yeah, maybe I should… Goodnight," she told Shinya before she went to bed. It seemed Shinya didn't want to question Guren's actions. But there was something else Shinoa now wondered about. It seemed Guren was acting differently. He was acting differently from the usual when speaking to Shinoa but he acted normally when speaking to Shinya. Tonight this had become very clear. Why had he acted off though?
Shinoa didn't seem to catch any sleep that night…
Krul was waiting impatiently. She hated waiting for someone, but especially tonight was troublesome. She had gotten company. Normally it wasn't so bad, but the one keeping her company was Ferid, and this was what troubled her.
"Have you found anything?" she asked Ferid who was sitting on a smaller chair than her own, a little away from her. He was smiling and appeared to be in his own thoughts. However, Krul knew he was watching her.
"I will talk on the meeting," Ferid said in a secretive tone. "Once our guest arrives."
"Even if the meeting should've started by now," Krul mumbled with irritation.
"Is that so bad now, my dear Queen?" Ferid asked. He shifted as he was now obviously looking at Krul. His head was tilted and he had an amused look on his face. He loved watching Krul when she was in a bad mood. It seemed to really amuse him.
Krul could feel herself getting angered by Ferid's attitude, he was the best at pissing her off. She could feel that she was about to jump off and attack the annoying man when the door opened and their long-expected guest entered the room.
Both Krul and Ferid stood up and Ferid smiled as their guest entered the room.
"There you are," he said. "We have been expecting you."
"Why is he here?" The guest asked.
"He has information regarding the activation of the Oni," Krul answered. "Sit down and we will talk, I'm already tired of his company."
Ferid whined, asking Krul why she was so cruel, as the guest sat down by the table they were also sitting at.
"Now, Ferid, let Mahiru and me know what you want to tell us," Kurl said coldly.
