The warm lights of the city were now behind them as the long train powered their way out of Boston on its route to where they were going to be dropped off. The trip was going to take a few hours, so this meant the girls had plenty of time to settle down and explore the passenger cars while the train was making its way northward. Aya and Azusa were busy watching their videos and saying nonsense from them as Kay was exploring the train.

"Obviously the baby eater took them, so we're going to go find…" Azusa began speaking before Aya cuts her off.

"Might as well send one of the apprentices to the witness protection program as his mentor has been implying left and right that he is a traitor." Aya added on. Azusa began speaking again as Kay continued to walk down the center of the train car.

"I killed Mufasa, and also those kittens and also my dad." Azusa imitated a tyrannical clan leader forcing kittens to fight. Kay just ignored them as she then passed Nina and Alina to her left streaming videos with one of their phones.

"Hey Kay, want to watch Meerkats with us? We're going to do this for the next ten hours with Flower's mob." Nina asked Kay if she was willing to sit down and watch animal documentaries with them.

"No thanks but I appreciate the fact that you asked." Kay responded, she turned and kept walking.

"Well, she is going to miss the queen of the Kalahari. Let's just watch the first season." Nina shrugged; Kay was going to be missing out on a lot.


Kay walked into the next car over as she seemed to be bored. She looked out of the window to her right to see the suburbs flying by them as they were going to be heading straight for the forest and mountains. Kay opened the door to what seemed to be her friend.

Vladimir was busy signing the traveling papers with a feather and ink. He was reading over the train tickets while dipping the quill's tip in the ink. Pooka looked on with curiosity and yapped for his owner's attention. Vladimir giggled as he began tickling Pooka with the feather. Kay then entered the room and was looking for a place to sit. She then prepared to sit down next to Vladimir, unaware that Pooka had claimed that part of the seat. Pooka growled as Kay got back up.

"Oh, the mutt gets the window seat?" Kay asked. Pooka yapped with an excited yes as he was panting. Brook was slouching over and reading a copy of Crime and Punishment. Kay nudged the book out of her hands. "Would you stop reading that book and talk to me? Remember you're my friend." Kay tried to get Brook to talk to her.

"How do you know what friends do or don't do?" Brook asked Kay if she knew anything about having friends.

"Look Brook, I'm just trying to help." Kay tried to tell her friend that she only wanted to help her.

"Kay, do you think I am your friend or lover?" Brook asked, she was mildly irritated by Kay, and she was slowly getting stressed out.

"You know I do." Kay responded. Brook looked at Kay with distrust.

"Then stop bossing me around." Brook told Kay that she didn't want to be controlled. Vladimir looked on at the conversation with interest.

"She certainly has a mind of her own." Vladimir told Kay while he was enjoying Pooka's company.

"You know I like Americans." Kay responded. Brook turned her head to the left and stuck her tongue out at Kay. Vladimir giggled as he got out a piece of paper and began marking off how many times Brook must've burned other people through words and actions, looks like she was up to thirty. Brook got up as she knew she wanted some alone time.

"You know, I just want to be alone." Brook sighed. She exited the room and decided to head next door hoping it was vacant or had someone that wasn't Kay inside. She opened the door and she found Dimitri much to her relief.

"Oh, thank goodness it's you." Brook began. She sat across from him.

"Someone is bothering you across in the other room?" Dimitri asked her if that was the problem.

"Well, it's not Vladimir as he was just doing our papers and I was reading my book and then Kay came in to crash the party." Brook described that it wasn't Dimitri's uncle so much as Kay was just trying to bother her. Dimitri began to think about what he was going to say next.

"Well, I think we got off on the wrong foot with the Saunders students from what I heard." Dimitri told Brook while Brook had her head buried in her book.

"I think I did too." Brook responded by taking glances out of the book.

"Ok." Dimitri tried to keep things calm between himself and the girl he liked.

"But I do accept your apology." Brook added on to what she said earlier.

"Apology? I was just saying…" Dimitri tried to set things straight but he wanted to keep speaking.

"Please, don't talk any more. It's only going to upset me." Brook told Dimitri that she didn't want to talk as she was bothered enough already.

"Fine, I'll be quiet if you will." Dimitri knew he was going to have to obey Brook's request.

"Alright, I'll be quiet." Brook decided to make it clear.

"Fine."

"Fine."

"Fine."

"Fine." Brook paused as she went back to reading her book. Dimitri knew he needed to think of another topic idea as even though Brook wanted some peace, he wanted to know more about her but not in a way that was going to bother her.

"Hey Brook?" Dimitri began. Brook looked up from the book as Dimitri was trying to get her interest. "Nonna has told me you like music. I wanted to ask… who is your favorite composer?" Dimitri asked. Brook lifted her head up from the book and slid the bookmark in, so her page didn't get lost. She then closed the book and placed it on her lap.

"I do not have a favorite composer but my favorite song I like listening to is the Birch Waltz. I'll teach you how to dance if you want to." Brook offered Dimitri with a smile, she held out her hand and she was ready to help him out.

"We can't waltz on a train, not when there isn't much space for us." Dimitri giggled. He was slowly winning her over. "And you have a record player?" Dimitri asked if this was true.

"I do, and I'm slowly growing my record collection thanks to Nonna and thank you again for helping fix my Accordion just those days ago." Brook seemed to be thankful for Dimitri's help in helping her out.

"Oh, you're very welcome. Any movies you like watching? Vladimir has plenty of movies on those tapes he keeps in boxes." Dimitri was trying his best to see what she was interested in.

"I don't think I've ever watched any movies growing up as I was stuck with my foster parents and family." Brook told Dimitri that her mind was open like a book with blank pages. Anything was possible.

"I bet you would like it if Anna Anderson was claiming to be one of the Nishizumi sisters and it turned out she was an impostor." Dimitri decided to tease her a bit.

"You mean the impostor is the Grand Duchess of the Resurrection? I wouldn't believe that since the real Grand Duchess was executed along with her family and four servants." Brook was rattling off on what she knew of. "I have no remorse for them." Brook decided to add on her own two cents.

"So, if we were to watch a movie about the grand duchess surviving, would you believe it would be a fairy tale?" Dimitri asked Brook if this was something she would believe in.

"Yes, because we know that she didn't survive so her being alive is basically a zero percent chance." Brook gave her answer if this was going to be right. Then Kay entered the room while the two of them were chatting away.

"Oh, what a lovely conversation you two are having, might as well join?" Kay asked. She turned to Brook as she wanted to talk to her. "Do you already miss it?" She asked Brook looked at her as Dimitri had no words.

"Miss what? You're talking?" Brook asked Kay if she was going to miss her chatter, that was most likely a no on her end.

"No. America." Kay told her. Brook wasn't too pleased.

"Nope I will never miss it." Brook responded as her decision was final.

"Well, I hope you're happy to come back as I'm taking you with me when you graduate." Kay told her. Brook looked on as Kay was getting on her nerves again.

"Well, I hope you plan on making the Urals your new home because that's where Katyusha is sending you next. End of story." Brook retorted. Dimitri looked on with confusion, how can these two girls get along with each other.

"What is it with you and where you want to live?" Kay asked Brook if she had a definite answer. She sat down and placed her feet on the seat across from her so Brook couldn't leave.

"Well for one thing, it's something every normal person wants. For another thing you…" Brook paused as she was trying to think of a way to burn Kay yet again with words. She tried pushing Kay's legs out of the way so she could get through and leave the room.

"What?" Kay asked if Brook had an answer. Brook climbed onto the seat to get around her.

"Just forget it." Brook felt frustrated that Kay wasn't listening to her demands, nor could she think straight.

"Fine." Kay responded. Then Vladimir entered the room as he was carrying Pooka.

"Thank goodness it's you. Please, remove her from my sight." Brook told Vladimir as she pointed to Kay as she wanted her gone.

"What have you done to her?" Vladimir asked Kay. Kay tried to think of a way out of this.

"Me? It's her." Kay responded.

"Hah!" Brook recoiled in disgust. She then left the room and closed the door behind her. She then stormed off to the head end of the train to speak to Nonna.

"Oh no. An unspoken attraction." Vladimir told Kay and Dimitri as Pooka squirmed in his arms. Kay looked at Vladimir and she felt her anger boiling up inside her.

"Attraction? To that skinny little brat? Have you lost your mind?" Kay asked Vladimir as she was feeling something bubble up.

"I was only asking a simple question." Vladimir told Kay that he meant no harm. Kay got up and opened the door to close it behind her.

"Attraction. Ridiculous!" Kay grumbled as she headed in the opposite direction. Dimitri looked at his uncle as he seemed curious.

"What's the issue between those two? I was talking to Brook, and she seemed to be just fine until that other lady barged in and began interrupting our conversation. I didn't even think I was going to give her the present I promised her." Dimitri tried to figure out what was wrong with those two. Vladimir began to think.

"I think something from her past is bothering her or them. I do appreciate you trying to talk to your girl. I heard stuff about music and what you two were going to watch. I think Brook wanted to dance with you." Vladimir responded in the best way he could.

"You were listening to our conversation the entire time?" Dimitri asked. Was his uncle eavesdropping on them?

"Well yes, I have all of those movies back in my cabin that I was going to let you borrow and you could watch." Vladimir told Dimitri that he needed to listen to figure out what her interests were going to be.

"Oh. Well, I know why now." Dimitri nodded with those words. Vladimir laughed.

"Anything for my nephew and his girl." Vladimir looked at Pooka as he panted.


In the dining car, Miho and her friends were settling down to breakfast. Some of the students were going to have it light while others were going for some of the better meals.

"We've just left the state and we're approaching Manchester." Yukari decided to announce it. The others seemed to be excited as Mako was placing the drinks down for them to drink out of.

"I really hope this isn't a stopping train. Hopefully Ami has secured our rooms in advance as this is the week off here and I bet the families are heading up here for the snow." Mako placed her drink down and began to sip it. Hana and Saori came a moment later with everyone's breakfast.

"I hope so as well as we don't want to share the train with any commoners trying to secure a ride up."

"Ami said this train was all for us and we should be around at about lunch time, one in the afternoon at the latest." Momo replied as she looked out the window to the dining car.

"Okay thank you." Miho replied as one of the long freight trains barreled by on the opposite side of the track. Miho kept an eye out as the train continued to slowly barrel its way on through and head for the mountains.

"So, what cabins Ooarai has chosen for us to stay in for the next few days, hopefully something warm." Hana asked as she was taking a bite of her breakfast.

"We don't know for sure. Ami never told us about it and we're just going to have to see for ourselves." Miho wasn't one hundred percent sure about the cabin they were going to be spending the next few days in. Hopefully they could manage to get something that was cozy and decent which all that mattered.

"Well, we're not allowed to take naps on this train as we've been on that plane for the past couple of days, I just want to take a nap." Saori complained about not getting a whole lot of sleep for the plane ride.

"We'll get some rest. After all, matches don't start until tomorrow so we might as well explore the field and the trails." Miho reassured Saori that she could be more than free to get some sleep while the other students were going to explore the field. "Plus, it's just me and Yukari that are driving out there so you can get all the sleep you want." Miho also added onto what Saori said about needing some sleep.

"Well thanks… I guess?" Saori responded. The girls continued to have their breakfast as Kay opened the door and walked in. She wasn't all too happy.

"What's wrong with her?" Yukari asked. Kay just walked on and ignored them.

"Probably the fact that someone isn't going to be hanging out with her. I think it's best we avoid her and get on with breakfast." Miho guessed why Kay didn't want to interact with them.

"It's like the students wear a mask over their faces to appear open and friendly but they really aren't. Like I've said this before." Trout told Miho. Miho turned her head to see the Maple High School commander enjoying some food herself.

"I didn't know you were having breakfast with us." Miho began speaking to Trout. She had shown up to take advantage of the dining options. "What brings you here?"

"Nothing much but we're going to be facing some reorganized teams from what I heard." Trout began speaking to her.

"I know. I was talking to Nonna about it, and she seems to be excited about it." Miho replied.

"Also, I spotted the girl I was looking for but who is this boy she is hanging out with?" Trout asked. She seemed to be confused about it.

"What the new boy?" Miho asked. She wasn't familiar with him either. "All I had was a simple conversation with him before we boarded the train. He raced me down there." Miho decided to finish her breakfast before she was going to keep talking to Trout.

"That's it?" Trout asked if just that one conversation they had on this trip so far was the entire interaction.

"Yeah, that's it… unless something changes from it." Miho responded. "Also, I think Nonna showed me a couple of days ago on the plane, the girl you were looking for has stitches inside of her."

"Stitches, what exactly happened?" Trout asked as her blood ran cold. Miho began speaking.

"I don't know entirely for sure, but it looked like some kind of medical procedure." Miho tried her best to describe what exactly happened.

"As long as she's okay, that's all that mattered." Trout replied. Miho and her friends have finished breakfast and they began to clean themselves up.

"Well, if you need us, you know where we will be." Miho told Trout as the entire Anglerfish team got up and began to walk away from the scene. Kay was looking on and trying her best to enjoy her breakfast, but something didn't seem right. Trout was talking to her friends but to her, she didn't know what was about to happen.


Nina, Alina, Azusa, Aya and Nekota were all watching on one stream as the group had shared a common interest in media.

"So have you heard of these Meerkats before?" Nina asked, she wanted to get the group interested in stuff such as this.

"Not really but we definitely watch a lot of content creators online like huskies, that's how we got the logo for the groups." Aya responded, she was super excited to see what their response was going to be.

I guess you girls love animals as well." Alina stated. Nekota was watching over with curiosity.

"We do." Azusa smiled with curiosity.

"How many episodes of meerkats are you four going to watch?" Nekota asked them. She was wondering how much they were going to spend their time while they rode all the way up.

"As many as we can, we could possibly have ten hours' worth of this stuff." Nina answered with excitement. Suddenly the snake in the burrow of the show could no longer take it, it struck out and bit one of the meerkats on the leg.

"Oh no." Nekota responded as she watched the poor meerkat limp back.

"Yeah, they're not going to bother with that adder." Nina meekly squeaked. The meerkats on the screen began to drop back as they weren't going to tolerate bothering the snake for much longer.

"Yeah, it's like you have a kitten with two functioning back legs and an adder wants to attack it." Aya began. She meowed angrily as if she was a cat charging to protect the kitten.

"Hissing noises." Azusa added on. Aya tackled Azusa as the two of them gently fell to the floor of the train car. They were both laughing as they enjoyed their company with each other. Nonna walked over when she noticed the two of them on the floor.

"I see you two are having fun. Can you please get back in your seats as we don't want to have you two blocking the path?" Nonna gently told the two students to not necessarily play around in the middle of the walkway. Aya and Azusa got up to face Nonna.

"We promise!" They saluted and got back into the seats. Nonna nodded with approval when Miho and her group came into this car in particular.

"Oh Miho, I was wondering where you were. I think I want to talk to you again." Nonna offered her to go on another walk and see what they were going to do.

"Sure, I guess. What is it that you want to talk to me about?" Miho asked.

"Yeah, it's about Dimitri… again." Nonna began the topic of the conversation. Miho decided to follow her friend.

"What about him?" Miho asked. She seemed curious about where this was going to go. Nonna entered the next car over with Miho following behind her.

"So, what I wanted to say was that my little friend he likes, he's been hanging out with her a lot. And I was just spending the time with him, and he gave her a book. And he tucked her in for a nap for some reason and he began talking to me privately." Nonna began what she remembered.

"That was pretty sweet of him to give her the book." Miho added on. "What did he talk to you about?" She asked Nonna.

"So, he wanted to give Brook his music box, a wind up one which played a lullaby that was drifting through the train car and managed to put his lover to sleep." Nonna described to Miho what Dimitri intended to give her. Miho nodded.

"Well, if he loves her, he should give it to her." Miho gave her best guess with the music box.

"He thinks it's too early to do that. He wants to know her a bit more before becoming her lover, which I guess could be the right thing to do." Nonna replied. Miho nodded with anticipation.

"Not one to rush everything and skip over important events to have them be filled in like what is going on right now. I bet the author could hear our thoughts as of right now." Miho whispered to Nonna about the last part.

"I thought everything we were saying is being written down onto cue cards and given to us later on and whatever is high above us is making the words pour out of our mouths?" Nonna knew that was a question that not everyone could answer.

"It's either god telling us to make love or spreading what he is saying. I think that we might have something higher up. But I'm getting ahead of myself, what does this have to do with a music box?" Miho knew the conversation was getting ridiculous and they had to figure out what this music box meant.

"That I am not sure about." Nonna replied. They opened the door to see what Brook was up to. She was just cuddled up in her blanket and snoozing away. "Isn't she cute?" Nonna asked.

"Well, she is." Miho replied. Nonna just walked in and sat across from her. She invited Miho in mostly to keep an eye on her. Akebi and Noriko walked around as they noticed something odd with their tickets. Vladimir was taking watch as well.

"Hey Akebi, do you notice that our tickets are red?" Noriko asked her friend.

"Red as in the ink?" Akebi asked.

"Yeah, that's it." Noriko responded. Vladimir opened his ticket to see that it wasn't red ink but blue ink on his. He felt scared.

"Why does everything have to be red? It's the reason why my family left my home country." Vladimir grumbled. He entered the cabin with Pooka and sat down next to the two of them.

"Anything the matter Vladimir?" Nonna asked him.

"I think we might have gotten the tickets wrong; everything is in red while I signed ours in blue." Vladimir was worried about this as this meant he was going to get kicked off the train.

"I bet the ticket checkers would understand this as I signed my school's tickets with black ink. There is no universal color these ticket checkers have agreed on so you're safe." Nonna told Vladimir there was no reason to panic as she had signed her tickets in another ink color.

"Oh, I thought I got the ticket wrong by using the wrong ink." Vladimir responded. "Thank you so much Nonna." He then walked off with Pooka to hopefully introduce the puppy to more students. Nonna looked on outside of the window as they were passing through mountainous terrain with forests stretching for miles across the sides of the tracks. Kay walked in and she sat down. Nonna looked on with distrust. Brook felt disturbed as she woke up and punched Kay in the nose.

"Ow!" Kay stumbled back as Brook looked around to see who she punched.

"Sorry. I thought you were someone else." Brook apologized for accidentally punching somebody else. She studied who she punched, and it turned out to be Kay. "Oh, it's you. Well, that's OK then." Brook got up as Kay stumbled out of the car.

"I think you broke my nose!" Kay's voice was muffled as she walked away with her hands over her face, hopefully she didn't punch her too hard.

"Men are such babies." Brook muttered. Miho and Nonna were watching her as she placed her eyes back into the book.

"Well, she obviously doesn't like her much, if at all." Miho began.

"It's been going on for some time now. But still, we need to keep an eye on her and Dimitri to find out what they're both up to. I think what he said about the music box would be that it is for her." Nonna whispered to Miho about what her prediction would be.

"That will be your call." Miho whispered back. Brook was too busy reading to properly hear them.


The hours would tick by and finally, the train pulled into where it needed to be. The students unloaded as it was the end of the rail line for them, and buses and trucks were going to escort them. The students were excited to see what their cabins were going to look like.

The next set of matches were about to begin.

[A/N]: Could Nonna be correct about what she said at the end? Only time would tell as the next set of matches are going to begin. For some however, this is only just the beginning of something beautiful.

I will get to the rest of the matches; don't you worry but I wanted to split the trip up into two parts, but I wasn't in such a rush to get it done as I would normally be because life held me up.

Anyway, I'll try to be more punctual with writing and hit certain deadlines so I don't lose interest and would want to do something else. I hope everyone has a good winter's break and everyone will read this. Goodbye.