Episode 17 (Part 1): For Glory and S-Class Missions
"Can you unchain me now?"
"No."
"All of my blood is rushing to my head."
"Tough."
"This is bringing back very traumatic memories, you know."
"Should've stayed out of my room."
Mana narrows her eyes at Akane. "So instead of kicking me out like a normal person, you chain me upside down inside your room?"
Akane doesn't say anything and silently turns the page of the book she's reading.
Mana huffs and looks around Akane's room for the umpteenth time. It would be a normal, average room that Mana expected from someone like Akane if it weren't for the ridiculous number of stuffed animals strategically placed in every open space the room has. They're on Akane's bed, her shelves, and even some larger ones are on the floor like a tall potted plant. Mana's even willing to bet that Akane has some in her bathroom. The little red teddy bear Veiss had snatched from Akane's room is now tucked safely under its owner's arm as she reads.
"...Is that one your favorite?" Mana asks after another bout of silence.
Akane stiffens and glances up at the girl dangling from her ceiling. "What?"
"The red teddy bear." Mana supplies. "Is it your favorite?"
Akane grumbles under her breath and turns back to her book. Eventually, she just says, "Yes."
"I do so enjoy our bonding time."
"Shut the hell up."
May 7, X793
Akito, Koz, and Kyza came looking for Danate yesterday afternoon, just like I thought. Koz was annoyed that Genesis wasn't here but the three of them said they'll find things to do in town to keep them occupied. Maybe they'll join us in Acro's game today.
I still haven't opened the gift Cooley got me for Mary's birthday. I'm not sure what it could be and Cooley being Cooley, I don't know if I want to know.
Mana glances away from her journal, looking at the red wrapped box on her end table sitting next to the picture of the Brown family. It's not like it could be dangerous or anything…
Right?
Mana shakes her head and goes back to writing.
Danate and Emile stayed in Rina's room again last night. I hope she's okay. When I finally saw her after Akane unchained me from her ceiling she didn't look too great. But, Emile and Danate know what they're doing. Rina trusts them to keep her safe from whatever or whoever is bothering her so nothing bad is going to happen to her.
...Right?
Asking yourself all these scary questions so early in the morning isn't gonna make Acro's game fun for you, Mana. Mary speaks up. I'm sure Papa didn't get you anything bad and like you said, Danate and Emile are going to keep Rina safe.
Mana sighs and shuts her journal, tucking it under her pillow. "You're right, you're right." she says and stands up. "Breakfast. Breakfast is a good idea." Mana says, mostly to herself.
When Mana emerges from the girl's dorm hallway, she's surprised she's not surprised to see the absolute chaos in front of her so early in the morning.
Veiss, of course, seems to have picked a fight with one of the many people at her welcome party when she was inducted into the guild. Unfortunately, this particular individual is several inches taller than Veiss.
Marcus Bartlett, a young man who's only a year or two older than Veiss but towers over him, has a very…thuggish appearance that initially scared Mana when she first met him. She later found out the young man was plenty friendly, if a bit of a tsundere like Akane, but much more willing to be kind. Marcus has a lean yet muscular build and scary cobalt blue eyes and a near permanent scowl that's currently directed at Mana's equally as scary teammate.
(She hasn't forgotten what Veiss did with his Magic, no sir. The sound of his bones crunching when that beast slammed his body against the ground is pretty unforgettable. And how he healed from that so quickly...Mana knows why - when she and Veiss had that talk he told her she was the only one that knows why - but it's still scary.)
Contrary to Marcus' messed up clothing the night they met, he's more put together today. As he and Veiss roll around on the floor slapping each other and attempting to choke the other out, Mana gets a better view of his outfit. She assumes the black leather jacket tossed off to the side belongs to Marcus - what that would've been covering is a plain blue singlet. His dark blue denim jeans are torn around the ankles and he wears blue and gray boots.
...Maybe 'more put together' aren't the right words.
Mana sighs when Veiss starts pulling at Marcus' already messy brown hair. "TAKE THAT, ROCKER BOY!"
Mana pinches the bridge of her nose. "Veiss-"
"WHAT-?" Veiss snaps but Marcus quickly interrupts him with a retort.
"EAT SHIT, YOU WALKING EXPERIMENT!" Marcus hisses and starts pulling at Veiss' ponytail.
"..." Mana's eye twitches. "Never mind."
"SCREW YOU, YOU'RE NOT THE FIRST BITCH I'VE MET THAT HAS DADDY ISSUES!"
Mana walks into the kitchen in search of sustenance and immediately heads towards the pantry. She's not a chef by any means - Veiss usually makes the hot breakfast she has - and since he's preoccupied with antagonizing Marcus, breakfast is something simple today.
Mana opens the door to the pantry and-
"Hello there."
Mana jumps and lets out a high pitched scream, "AAAIEEEEE!" and defensively puts her hands out in front of her, letting out a sharp gust of Air Magic at the pantry dweller and squeezing her eyes shut. She hears the various bags and boxes of food go flying but nothing heavy enough to be the pantry dweller she attempted to assault.
"Well that wasn't very nice." a man's voice says.
Mana slowly opens her eyes, prepared for the absolute worst, and lays eyes on a formally dressed man. It looks like her wind at the most possibly messed up his hair - 'more put together' definitely describes whoever this is, not Marcus.
The man has pale skin and somewhat messy black hair (Mana isn't sure if that's her fault or not) that's somewhere in between long and short. Behind a set of black framed glasses are droopy, purple eyes. He's dressed in a nice, full black suit with a black shirt underneath his jacket adorned with a dark purple tie. To no surprise, the man has dress shoes on and a fancy looking black watch peeks out from one of his sleeves.
He smiles politely and gives Mana a small bow. "We haven't had the chance to meet yet, you must be one of our newest members. My name is Ken Sevens...hm." Ken introduces himself and gives Mana a once over. "I'm guessing you're Miss Manami and the one with the white bow is Miss Calypso?"
"Mana is fine, and yes I am." Mana says. "How did you know? Why were you in here with the door closed? Why haven't we met yet? Where-?"
Ken laughs and starts tidying the mess Mana made with her Magic. "So many questions! Let me answer the first one." he says and smiles when Mana starts helping him clean up. "A little birdie told me that our dear Miss Akane and little Mister Emile have had our two newest members attached to their hips." Ken says and wiggles his eyebrows.
Mana doesn't understand the look on Ken's face so she decides to ignore it. "Well, not at the hip, Akane chained me to her ceiling yesterday." she says as if there's nothing at all wrong with that statement.
Ken blinks, staring at Mana with an odd look before smiling again and shaking his head. "Right…" he says. "As I was saying…"
As Ken was saying, he heard that Mana kept bothering Akane despite being yelled at by her hundreds of times and that Calypso was quite literally hanging off of Emile's arm at every given opportunity. She clearly didn't enter the pantry with Emile so Ken rightly assumed that Mana was, well, Mana.
As for his being in the pantry, apparently Ken was trying out some kind of spell and the pantry was where he ended up. He was barely in there for a minute when Mana found him.
And the reason they haven't met yet...Ken was trying out some kind of spell and he's been ending up in odd places for the past month or so.
Ken will no longer be attempting that spell.
After the two of them finished cleaning up the pantry, Mana poured herself a bowl of cereal and settled down at one of the tables on the second floor (far away from the chaos Marcus and Veiss are still causing).
So. Mary says. Where do you think Acro is?
"Probably setting up the game." Mana yawns. "How's it supposed to go anyways? There's, what, thirteen of us participating? That's a lot of hiders."
"Make that fifteen."
"...Whatever. When did you start talking to Mary out loud?"
Mana looks up from her bowl of cereal and looks at the pair defensively. "I've talked to her out loud before!" she insists and looks between the two of them strangely. "I thought it was going to take you two longer to come back."
Alistair shoots Nelio a look. "It would have but Mister Transformer here had other ideas."
Nelio rolls his eyes. "You make a giant robot one time…" he sighs.
Uh… Mary trails off.
I don't want to know either. Mana says quickly and shakes her head. "So you two are gonna play Acro's game too?"
"No." Alistair says. Nelio elbows him in the side. "...Yes."
Right on cue, Acro's cheerful voice bellows from the front of the guild: "Come on everyone! Let's draw sticks to determine the hiders and the seeker!"
At Alistair's and Nelio's notice that they would be joining, Acro wasted no time in creating two more sticks to draw from. He shakes them up in a cup and holds it out for everyone to pull from. "We're all here, right? Let's go!"
And so, after gathering outside, everyone draws.
Mana frowns when she pulls a blue colored stick. "What do the colors mean?" she asks.
Acro beams. "We're going to hide in pairs so we can work together to create more creative hiding spots!" he says and pulls a pink stick for himself. "I've got pink! Who's my partner?"
After sorting out all of the pairs and the lone seeker, Mana makes a note of everyone's partners.
Danate is the seeker. The pairs are:
Marcus and Cooley,
Nelio and Veiss,
Akane and Emile (the former very unpleased),
Acro and Rina (the latter looking like she doesn't at all trust Phoenix Fire's youngest Mage to keep her safe from whatever is bothering her),
Calypso and Myling,
Madelaine and Alistair,
and lastly, Mana and pantry man.
"My name is Ken-"
"Pantry man." Mana says, turning to Ken. "You're more familiar with Zaflior. Where should we hide?"
As Mana and Ken discuss strategy, Danate notices the wary look on Rina's face. He smiles sadly, still incredibly bothered that Rina doesn't feel safe from that person. "Oi, Acro, Rina, c'mere for a second." he calls, beckoning them over.
Acro happily jogs up to Danate. "What's up?" he asks.
Danate glances at Rina and smiles reassuringly. He turns to Acro and points at a cluster of boulders on the nearby beach. "Can you go break one of those?"
Acro frowns, tilting his head to the side. "I mean, sure, but why?" he asks.
Danate grins and ruffles Acro's hair. "I just wanna see how far you've come, little man. Not up to the challenge?" he taunts.
Acro puffs out his chest. "N-No! I can do it! Watch me!" he insists and runs over to the boulders.
Danate lets out a sigh and pats Rina's head. "Just watch him, Rina, he's still young but he's strong, especially with that-"
"CLAY-MAKE: HAMMER!" Acro's scream is heard all the way from where the group of Phoenix Fire Mages are standing. A giant, rock-solid clay hammer forms in Acro's hands and he swings it like it's the last thing he'll ever do and shatters not one, not two, but three of the giant, towering boulders with a single swing.
"-clay of his. You'll be fine." Danate continues. "And besides, even on the very, very low chance that something does happen, Acro knows what kind of Mage you are and you have all of your lipsticks. He'll restrain anybody that dares to come near you and you can work your Magic.
Rina blinks, staring at the new rocks with a dumbfounded look on her face. "Y-Yeah...yeah." she stammers. "We'll be fine." Rina agrees with a small smile. "Find us quickly, okay?"
Danate smiles when he sees that Rina's cheered up a little bit. "I'm not an S-Class Mage for nothing. A good ol' fancy game of hide and seek earned me that title." he jokes.
Rina rolls her eyes and gives Danate a brighter smile.
Meanwhile, Emile finishes asking two of the other pairs to keep an eye out for Rina and Acro.
Mana frowns. "I thought she seemed a bit off." she says. "Yeah, Ken and I will keep an eye out."
Veiss crosses his arms and doesn't say anything. He looks...conflicted? Almost as if he's arguing with someone inside his head.
Nelio huffs and taps his chin. "Someone stalking Rina, you say? What is up with Valiance and their high stalker population…?" he mutters to himself, thinking back on Midas being after Mana and Calypso and just Revenant Beasts in general trying to get the girls and Veiss back.
Ken gives an odd look to the others. "Uh…" he trails off, the only one not caught up with exactly how familiar the group is with stalkers.
At the other end, the rest of the pairs are talking amongst themselves.
Calypso smiles cheerfully at Myling. "Myling, right? We haven't had a chance to talk!" she says. "You're one of the S-Class Mages here, right?"
Myling squeaks, like, literally squeaks and looks down, shuffling her feet nervously.
Marcus rolls his eyes and waves his hand, "Don't mind her, Myling is always like this if you don't really know her." he says. "Don't take it personally."
Madelaine nods and playfully nudges Myling with her elbow. "It took a while to get her to talk to me normally, right Myl?" she says with a small smile.
Alistair sighs and mutters to himself, "At least I can watch Calypso this way." he says to himself and walks over to the girl in question. "Oi. Where are you and Myling going to hide?"
A couple of minutes later, Danate gathers the fourteen hiders and re-explains the rules Acro told him. "So, just a reminder, the game doesn't end until sunset or the last pair gives up. You all have ten minutes to find somewhere in Zaflior to hide until I start seeking. And remember, you have to hide with your partner. The whole point of this is to build camaraderie, after all." Danate explains. "The last pair standing is where the game gets interesting." he smirks and cracks his knuckles. "If I find you, you will be at my beck and call for a week. If I don't find you by sunset, well, you have an S-Class Mage at your service for a week - Cooley shut up, Myling doesn't care so neither should you." Danate rolls his eyes. "I can take you on an S-Class mission but don't blame me if you die."
The twelve non S-Class Mages perk up.
Danate grins. "I thought you'd like that. Ready? Go!"
Marcus raises an eyebrow as Cooley leads them to the second floor of a particular building. "Are you sure this is the best place we could hide?" he asks. "I mean, Danate isn't stupid. He knows what kind of person you are."
Cooley waves his hand, blowing off Marcus' concern. "Don't worry about it." he says. "I'm trying to lay off the drinks, the kid knows that. This is a great place to hide and test my resolve." Cooley says confidently.
Veiss glares daggers at Nelio. "If anyone falls in here I will kill you."
Nelio frowns and tilts his head to the side. "Huh? Isn't the goal of this to trap Danate?"
"I - what!? This is hide and seek! Even if that was the goal, why would we hide in the trap!?"
"...Hm."
Mana stares off into the distance, wondering what she did to end up here.
Ken smiles happily as he places another shirt in the pile he's created in Mana's arms. "Take this one too!"
Mana grumbles, the weight of all the clothes starting to get to her. "I have clothes, you know. Rina gave me some and she's still giving me more." she says.
"Yes, Miss Rina is giving you clothes - nice clothes, I may add - but they are only practical clothes. You own nothing formal! Nothing elegant! What are you to when someone wishes to whisk you away to a fancy restaurant or anything similar?" Ken questions.
"I would deny them, first of all-"
"But the romance!"
"I don't care about romance." Mana insists. "I'm only here to help my team and find my siblings. My siblings, Akane's trust, Emile's family, and Veiss'...problems are my priorities."
Ken dramatically clutches his heart, "You wound me, Miss Mana!"
"Don't look at me."
"There's nowhere else to look!"
"Close your eyes!"
"You're so mean."
"Fuck you."
"...So how are things going between you and Mana?"
Smack!
"Ow ow ow...I was talking about the whole reason we asked her to join us!"
"...Oh."
"What did you think I meant?"
"J-Just shut up and keep your eyes closed! Fucking hell, what is it with you and Veiss making our relationship sound weird…?"
"Trust me, Acro," Rina says as she hands the Jewels to the clerk. "he won't think that we're hiding here." she says confidently, thanking the clerk as they hand her two passes.
Acro beams. "You're so smart, Rina!" he exclaims.
Rina's thought process: Why would Danate pay for a ticket to search for them in an art museum when there are tons of places in town to hide that don't cost money?
She doesn't have any interest in making Danate take her out on an S-Class mission like the rest of them do (she's more than happy to help Acro get to experience that though), but having Danate at her beck and call for a week?
…
…
…
"Rina, what's with the weird look on your face?"
"D-Don't worry about it." Rina stutters and clears her throat. "Come on, let's go find a crowd to blend in with just in case."
Calypso awkwardly stands at Myling's front door.
"Can I at least sit down, please?" Calypso asks.
"Do you like spiders?"
"W-Well, not particularly-"
"Then I don't recommend it."
Calypso goes rigid and warily looks around the small space that is Myling's entryway. "I...see…" she gulps. "U-Um...you know what? I don't - I don't need Danate-" she jumps when there's a knock on the front door behind her. "Jeez...are you expecting somebody, Myling-?"
"Found you."
Myling looks up from petting one of her creepy crawlies and Calypso's eyes widen when she sees their visitor.
"Really, how long did you think you could hide from us, Calypso? Especially in her house?"
…
…
...
Calypso doesn't look impressed. "Who the hell is 'us', Danate?"
Danate pouts. "I was using the royal 'we'." he says.
Calypso rolls her eyes. "Maybe leave that to the actual royalty."
Before Danate or Calypso can say anything else, a twitchy Myling starts ushering the pair of them out of her house. "Okay, y-you found us, neither of you have any more reason to be here, go, shoo...please leave me alone-"
"Okay, fine, but c'mon, Myling," Danate says as his fellow S-Class Mage kicks him out. "I know you. Did you really think I wouldn't know you would pick your own place to hide in?"
Myling grumbles, her face flushing. "I thought we sh-should hide in an alleyway but Calypso d-didn't think so…"
"I'm not trying to get mugged while playing a game of hide and seek!"
"W-Well now you're not playing at all!" Myling cries and shuts the door on Danate and Calypso.
The two of them exchange a look.
"Tell me we weren't the first pair, at least."
"Master Nadine raised me to not tell lies."
"Damn it."
"Are you sure this is a good disguise?" Madelaine asks as she readjusts the black wig on her head. "If Mana sees me like this for some reason I feel like she might have an existential crisis about her sister." she says with a frown. "I don't think I was supposed to hear it but she was talking to Mary about Acro and I - of course I only heard her side of the conversation - and she was saying something about seeing her siblings whenever she looks at us and she's worried about going crazy and-" Madelaine stops and sighs. "Sorry, I'm rambling." she apologizes.
Alistair narrows his eyes. Is that so… he thinks to himself and sucks his teeth. Another reason why she should stick to talking to Mary in her head.
"It'll be fine." Alistair says as he ties an apron around his waist. He files away Madelaine's revelation for later. "The Yajima Corporation was very kind to allow us to hide here. Now shut up and keep your head in your book." he says as he puts on the 8-Island uniform hat. "I need that S-Class mission…"
Danate waves Calypso off as she heads off into town and stands on a sidewalk for a moment, thinking.
I already knew Myling wouldn't hide anywhere else and Calypso's still too new to suggest something herself. What about Cooley and Marcus? Danate frowns.
…
…
…
No, he wouldn't...right? He's trying to quit for Mary and Mana. And I'd think Marcus would know better than that, too…
…
…
…
"Well," Danate says to himself. "There's no harm in checking." he says, turns on his heel, and promptly crashes into three someones, all a few inches shorter than him. "Oh, sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going." Danate apologizes with an easy smile.
The blond who looks like he doesn't know what a smile is stares at Danate with a thoughtful look on his face. "What are you and your guildmates doing?" he asks.
A much, much shorter boy with curly green hair and a scary amount of piercings nods alongside the blond. "Yeah! We watched them all spread out all around town. What's up with that?" he asks.
An angry looking boy with black hair and sunglasses crosses his arms. "We've got nothin' else to do 'cause your boat man up and disappeared. Let us in on it!" he demands.
Danate blinks and gives the boys another once over. "Ooooh," he says when he sees the black mark on Sunglasses' neck and the green mark on Curly Hair's hand. "You must be the Mages from Silver Sabelum, I didn't get a chance to meet you when you came over to our guild yesterday." he says and gives them a polite smile. "I'm Danate!"
"Akito Kageyama." the blond deadpans.
"Koz." the angry one says impatiently.
"The name's Kyza Miraj!" the youngest one says, jutting his thumb at himself.
"Akito, Koz, and Kyza." Danate nods, pointing at each boy and committing their names to memory. "Got it." he says and taps his chin. "You know…" he grins mischievously. "The rules never said I couldn't recruit more seekers. I just have to have eyes on them…" Danate nods again and smiles innocently at the trio. "Fourteen against one seems awfully unfair, don't you think?"
Danate smirks as he watches the Silver Sabelum boys head off in different directions. "Heh...we won't be anyone's slave...heh...no we won't…"
"Your drinks, sirs."
Marcus and Cooley turn towards the waitress setting down two glasses on their table.
"What?" Marcus frowns. "We didn't order any drinks."
The waitress shakes her head. "No sirs, they're a gift. Um, a sparkling water for a Mister Cooley and a Mai Tai Moscow Mule Purple Rain Mint Julep Bull Shot for a Mister Marcus." she says.
Cooley grumbles as he snatches the bottle of sparkling water. "A gift, huh?" he mutters.
Marcus stares at the colorful drink in front of him. "Uh, sorry, what did you say this was?"
"A Mai Tai Moscow Mule Purple Rain Mint Julep Bull Shot."
"That's just a bunch of different drinks put together!" Cooley says.
The waitress smiles. "It's our house specialty, sirs."
Marcus pushes the drink away from him. "Th-That could kill me!" he cries. "I ain't drinking that!"
Cooley stares at the toxic concoction suspiciously. Not for the same reasons as Marcus, but because-
"Good day, gentlemen!"
Marcus and Cooley peer over the second floor balcony, their eyes widening.
"Shit!" Marcus swears.
Cooely sighs and shakes his head. "I'm not used to thinking sober. My bad, kid, I should've listened to you." he says.
Danate, down on the first floor of the bar, gives the two men a mock salute and a cocky grin before rushing out of the bar, presumably hot on the tail of the next pair.
Marcus sighs and slumps back in his chair. "Damn. No S-Class mission for me yet, I guess." he says. Then, he perks up slightly, glancing at Cooley. "Unless…?"
"No."
"Damn."
Kyza hums to himself, looking around for any suspicious movement from the pairs of people he sees. He's not too familiar with Phoenix Fire Mages. In fact, the first and only ones he's met are the ones that came to grab him, Koz, and Akito from Wisteria: Mana, Emile, Akane, and Veiss. Kyza guesses he's not going to be of much help because those are the only ones he can recognize-
Kyza blinks, staring at nothing as his eyes get used to the sudden darkness and his entire body starts hurting.
What just happened?
"What the FUCK did I tell you, Reonard!?"
"Oops."
"I'm going to KILL YOU - wait, Kyza?"
Kyza blinks, turning towards the sound of the familiar voice. "Am I dead?"
The unfamiliar voice, 'Reonard', sighs, "No. I wish I was though."
There's a sudden slapping noise (Kyza assumes one of these slapped the other) and the familiar voice gets angry again. "Nelio, if you don't stop talking like that while there's a kid here I will give you that reunion you so desperately desire and send you to meet your squad."
"...You know that doesn't sound too bad-"
"Dear Goddess, forgive me for the sin I am about to commit-"
"Please tell me what happened to me before you kill each other."
"..."
"You look stunning, Miss Mana!"
Mana's eye twitches as she stares at herself in the mirror. Ken picked out a big fluffy princess dress for her to try on and it's...definitely something.
Pfffft-
Shut up.
"Now try on the deluxe version!"
Oh I can't wait to see this. Mary laughs.
Mana hangs her head and sighs. Why the hell does a dress have a deluxe version!?
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"I want that S-Class mission."
"I know, Akane."
"If anybody finds us in here I will kill you."
"I know, Akane."
"So far so good." Rina hums as she watches Acro attempt to copy one of the statues in the art museum. She frowns when one of the arms on Acro's statue goes in a very different direction than it's supposed to. "Um, Acro-"
Acro pouts. "I know, I know." he sighs. "I can use my Clay-Make in battle no problem but when it comes to using it artistically..." Acro picks up the small statue and holds it out for Rina to see it better. "It turns out like this."
Rina smiles sympathetically. "Yeah, I'm not the best artist either." she says. "But hey, using Maker Magic in battle is still art!" she says encouragingly. "The only difference is that you're creating to protect yourself and those around you. Maybe you need to think about it like that?"
Acro hums, taking Rina's words to heart. "Perhaps..." he mutters as he makes the deformed statue disappear. He suddenly strikes the pose he uses when using his combat spells: "CLAY-MAKE: PRETTY ART STATUE!"
...
...
...
"...Would it help if I started screaming for my life?"
Acro sighs as he makes the inhumane statue disappear.
Alistair frowns when one of the Silver Sabelum Mages enter the 8-Island cafe. It's...Koz, he remembers. The angry one from yesterday.
Alistair glances down at his left shoulder, his Phoenix Fire mark peeking out from under his sleeve. But, then he remembers, Koz is essentially completely blind.
Phew.
Alistair didn't talk to him yesterday either so speaking should be fine too.
It takes Koz a second to figure out where the counter is but when he does he gets right to screaming, "Oi, you seen any Phoenix Fire Mages here!?"
Madelaine turns her head in alarm, staring at Alistair and Koz in panic. Alistair shakes his head and motions for her to keep her eyes on her book.
"It's just civilians in here today. I have seen them wandering outside though." Alistair deadpans. "Is something going on today?"
Koz groans dramatically and stalks out of the cafe without another word.
Alistair and Madelaine exchange a look.
Before either of them can comment on what just happened, someone new enters 8-Island.
"Yeah, yeah, he found us first, just like you thought." Calypso sighs. "So, what can I get around here?"
Danate follows the sound of very familiar voices screaming at each other. "Hm…?" he raises an eyebrow when he finds an 'inconspicuous' hole in the ground. He peers down into it, biting back a laugh when he sees the state of its occupants.
Nelio, Veiss, and Kyza (Danate assumes that Kyza fell into the poor excuse of a trap) all covered in dirt and leaves.
"Right, what's all this then?" Danate calls down. "It was a good idea to make a hole in the dirt and cover it with leaves but someone was bound to fall in, y'know?" he says tauntingly. "Even if I was the one to fall in, I still would've ended up finding you."
Veiss sends Nelio a death glare. "I told you."
Nelio shrugs.
Kyza looks up at Danate desperately. "Can you please get us out? I fell on my keys and it hurts really bad..." he pouts, cradling his backside.
Veiss rolls his eyes and crosses his arms.
Danate gives Veiss a look.
"Ugh. Fine. I got us in, I can get us out, relax. Black Arms!"
PF x AH x SS
A/N i got your fucking number puta you can't catch me
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