Hiya!

Yes, I know, I'm not dead yet!

I'd update more, but I'm sure you've all heard and already know what my excuse is.

School.

Just...School.

School is evil.

All I have to say is that I agree with Rick from Rick and Morty when it comes to school.

It's all evil.

But hey, we're here for a different kind of evil.

So, I'll stop wasting your time, enjoy the chapter.

ONWARDS!

Early the next morning, a knock came to the bar door.

Being how everything was slowly going to shit, the entire team (minus Kuro, of course) was already there. So, to know that someone else was trying to get in…

"Positions." Shax commanded.

Abraxas dropped his plate of food before dropping to his stomach on the floor, pulling out two guns from under the bar chairs before taking aim for the door.

Zagan opened up his jacket, grabbing a rather threatening looking knife from his array before ducking behind the counter, ready to strike if called upon.

Meanwhile, Shax just continued to clean down his bar, looking as nonchalant as usual while Vale approached the door. He looked through the keyhole, before waving them all off, "It's a false alarm."

He then opened the door, letting the large suit of armor in, "Marax," Shax greeted casually, "To what do we owe the honor?"

"A message from your friend within the walls." He said, taking a piece of paper, before handing it to him, "She's making more enemies than friends, but other than that, she is well."

"She was always better at making enemies than...Anything, really." Abraxas grinned, as Vale took the paper.

"Thank you for delivering the message." Shax said formally, watching as Vale walked away with a little less than a nod. Anyone else would chalk that up as plain rude, but knowing that the two went way back, Shax turned the blind eye.

"Not that it'll matter, we all know that her handwriting is far from anything eligible." Vale murmured, unfolding the paper, before looking it over, eyes narrowing.

"I'll take my leave before I draw too many eyes." Marax murmured, giving Shax a brief nod, before leaving the doorway, closing the door behind him.

"I feel bad for the guy, he's basically our exclusive mailman in armor." Abraxas sighed, finally getting off of the ground, kissing both guns before putting them away, "I mean, we don't have to worry about our mail being stolen or shit, but still."

"We have other things to be worrying about." Vale murmured. Shax walked over to the table, seeing what had been written. After he got over the surprise that her writing was, for once, readable, he cursed, "Well, at least she understands that's important."

"Yeah, you're right, Marax would probably have trouble wielding both his axe and the mail." Abraxas said, for some reason still continuing that stupid thought, "Oh, I wonder if he can kill someone with a piece of paper."

"Maybe you should see what's on the piece of paper before you ask if it can kill." Vale scowled, looking like he was about to flip a table, "So that's what the guards were rolling in."

"I don't see how-Oh." Abraxas said, awkwardly chuckling, as Zagan picked up the paper, looking as if he either couldn't read it or he didn't understand it, which was understandable to a point, "So…Big bro, what's the plan? Do we have enough to form a plan?"

"Thankfully, Kuro gave all we need." Shax murmured.

"For once." Vale added, before turning to Shax, "What's the plan?"

Shax thought it over. The towers were lined with shards, but it wasn't made entirely up of the material. That would mean it could take most hits, but, if memory served correctly…

"Zagan, do we still have the tickers?"

"They should still be up there, yeah." Zagan said, before his eyes widened, "No way, are we finally gonna use them?"

"Being that it looks to be the only way to take them down, yes, we'll use them." Shax insisted, before flipping the paper over, "Vale, I'll need a map of the locations of all of the towers. We need to get rid of as many as we can in one swoop."

"Consider it done." Vale murmured, before rushing off to the roof.

"Abraxas, go with Zagan to make sure the tickers are ready to go by the time we depart, I don't want a repeat of Purgatory."

"Copy that boss." Abraxas said, rushing to the second floor.

With that said, Shax walked through his kitchen into the safe room, selecting a worn book from the Ignis section, before propping it open.

It didn't hurt to study before the test.

Kuro woke up alone in the room.

Not that she minded, of course. She stretched to take over the entire bed, finding it still rather warm where Corvus had been that night, which was nice.

She wondered if she could just disappear into the bed. How nice it would feel to just merge in and never have to care from there.

Not that dreams would be a problem, it was usually the same thing that would play over and over again. She'd heard of it being a recurring dream for most humans, that feeling of falling and waking up right before you hit the ground. But Kuro never got to that part. She'd yet to hit the ground, or anything, it was just an eternal free fall.

She nearly jumped off the bed when Corvus walked back in, slamming the door shut behind him, "Well, good morning to you too."

For the first time, all she got in response was a grunt, before he threw open his closet doors, "I'll be sending Vanth in shortly." Was all he said, grabbing a coat from the closet before dashing back for the door, "Meet me by the gates in an hour."

And with that, he was gone.

Kuro gave the spot that he'd just been an odd look, nothing but confused. As she slowly got off of the bed, she stretched, wondering what he was talking about and why he sounded so irritated.

There really was a number of things that could result in something like this. Maybe he'd had a run in with Arc, his brother always seemed to know exactly how to tick the Crow off. Or maybe it was Cresil, who honestly creeped Kuro out to a point.

He was just a bit too...out of place. It was like trying to hide a rainbow in a glass house. Try all you want, it really wasn't going to work out.

Before Kuro could question herself more, another knock came to the door, "Lady Kuro?"

"Present." Kuro murmured, watching the timid demon walk in, what looked to be fancy dresses draped over both arms, "And I swear kid, we always have the same damn talk about this."

"I c-can't help it, it's a force of h-habit." Vanth sighed, making sure the door was closed, before laying the dresses down on the bed, "Is just l-lady Kuro okay?"

"At this point, it's better than 'princess', or 'empress', or something else these hellions think of something else." Kuro said, yawning and stretching as Vanth walked over to pull the heavy curtains back, letting the harsh sunlight in, "Damn, warn me before you do that!"

"S-sorry!" Was all the timid maid could say, before throwing open her closet doors as well, "B-but, with that said, t-the prince is expecting you to m-meet with him in less t-than an hour."

"I didn't get a chance to ask him," Kuro murmured, before going to the bathroom for a quick moment, "What is all of this for?"

"He didn't t-tell you?" She could hear Vanth from the bathroom, her voice slowly getting softer, not that Kuro could get irritated with it, "Well, he d-did look a b-bit irritated...He w-was called to inspect the new g-guard towers."

"Damn, they're up already?" Kuro murmured, before finally exiting the bathroom, feeling a bit better now that she'd been thoroughly and properly woken up, "I thought that they'd take at least a week or two."

"E-either way, he's being sent to inspect, a-and you'll b-be going with him."

Kuro withheld the urge to ask why she had to go along, but at the same time, there wasn't much she wouldn't give to just be in the Rift again for a bit, even if it was with the bird brain. "I guess...By the way, what is all of this?"

She inspected the dresses, "They're your new dresses. Corvus h-had them ordered in a-a while ago."

"Huh, they're not as revealing as I thought they'd turn out." Kuro murmured, looking them over. They really did look nice, and unlike the others currently in her closet, she liked these. They didn't feel too fancy, like something that looked better in her closet than on her.

But, at the same time, she still wasn't a dress person. But, she had to admit, she liked the dresses on the bed more than the ones in her closet.

"I think I'll go with...This one." Kuro murmured, picking it up before holding it against her body. It was a nice honey brown color, just coming up to her knees. So, it was simple, not too hard to move in, and a rather nice color.

Why couldn't they all just be like this?

Even if Vanth was the maid, Kuro insisted on putting it on by herself. It wasn't too difficult, but even then, she didn't like the idea of someone younger than her dressing her.

She tried to ignore the question of how Corvus got her measurements once she had it on, the material just baggy enough to be comfortable and tight enough to look sophisticated, "He didn't command you to have me wear makeup or anything, right?"

Vanth shook her head, about to say something more, when another knock came to the door.

Kuro walked over, opening the door, glaring at the demon behind it for a split second, "Can I help you?"

The short head maid jumped back a bit, as if she wasn't expecting Kuro to open to door, even if this is exactly how it had happened the last time, "I apologize for bothering you, Princess Lilim, but is Vanth in there?"

"Yes, she is," Kuro murmured, before a smirk came to her face, "Why do you ask?"

"Well, you see, I need her to complete a few chores that she seems to have neglected-."

"Oh, I'm so terribly sorry about that," Kuro cut her off, seeing how far she could push this "I'm royal" shit, "But she'll be cleaning my room for the remainder of the day."

She, Kuro believed her name was Sarai or something, leaned to the side to look into the room, "With all due respect, your room looks to be pretty clean-."

"Last I checked, you're not in the position to tell me what to do." Kuro shot back, moving to cover the room, "Besides, I'm sure that the king wouldn't like to hear about his head maid peering into the room of his son."

She wore an expression between irritation and fear, which only made it funnier since she was shorter, "...Of course, please forgive me."

"No prob." Kuro grinned, before leaning back into the room, "You heard that, right Vanth? You STAY IN MY ROOM TILL I GET BACK, clean up a bit, okay?"

"Y-yes Miss!"

"You're dismissed." Kuro said, making sure to close the door behind her, before walking away, Sarai still stuck in her shock, "Oh, one last word for you, Ms. Sarai."

The woman turned around right in time for Kuro to grab her by the collar, hoisting her up. While she was short, she was on the chubbier side, but even then, nothing stopped her from keeping Sarai there, "Threaten her again, in anyway, I dare you."

With that simple threat, Kuro dropped the maid, before walking off down the hall, "So…How do I get to the main gates?"

The only thing to greet her by the gates was a still-irritated Corvus.

The way he stood reminded her of an angsty teen, leaning on the gates with his arms crossed over his chest. The coat that he wore and the way his hair decided to fall all over his face today didn't help.

"Well, good morning to you." Kuro tried, only to have him walk away once she was close, a silent command for her to follow.

"You were late."

"Sorry, I still don't really know my way around the castle." Kuro said sheepishly, silence her only acknowledgement.

Corvus lead the way through the capitol, Kuro watching his expression the whole time. His usual outwards charisma was a bit diminished, still there, but overshadowed by the pure irritation on his face.

She couldn't help but think that maybe she did this. For all she knew, her standing up for him could have triggered something else, something bad. To that thought, Kuro huffed, nearly mirroring his expression.

It would make sense, the one time she tried to stand up for him, it only serves to get him more irritated.

But, with that thought, she now really wanted, no, needed to know what had been bothering him. There was no worse feeling then only being able to speculate. At least, not for her.

But how to get him to talk?

She couldn't start a small game of Q&A with him, she's done that before, so that left her one other option.

"You ever have that one thing in your life that, as stupid as it might sound, you want it really really badly?" Kuro asked, just loud enough so that she knew that Corvus could hear her, even if he was ignoring her, favoring the idea to walk on.

"There are so many of those things for me, to the point that it's so stupid." Kuro said, laughing at herself, "There's a bunch of small things, for me at least. I know I have a list somewhere, but off the top of my head, the top things for me have got to be the dumbest wastes of time, like putting my handprints in some wet cement, or throwing my drink at some random homeless person. Or maybe I should go ahead and do a backflip into a boiling vat of the blood of my enemies."

"...What was that last one?"

"Nothing, I was just trying to make sure you were paying attention." Kuro grinned, nearly laughing, before looking up at the red sky, trying to ignore the line they'd crossed from capitol to Rift, "But, one thing I really wanna do one day is, and please don't laugh when I say it...I wanna see the stars."

"You've been to the surface before, have you not?" Corvus asked, confused.

"I have, but have you seen the nighttime sky during a war?" Kuro murmured, wishing she had a jacket to shove her pockets in, "All you see is smoke. You're lucky if you're looking up at the sky and you see something shining that isn't a falling bomb that's on fire or an enemy spy plane overhead."

"I know it sounds like one of those stupid hopeless romantic things, like taking a nighttime walk at the beach or something, but it's just something I really want, no matter how stupid it sounds, you know?"

He stayed silent, so Kuro took this as an opportunity to go on, looking over the familiar dark red clay of the houses around them, "I just feel like it would be nice to have a good change for once. I'm so use to my hectic life in the Rift, and now I need to get use to this lap-of-fake-luxury life, which really isn't any less stress. Maybe it's me just fooling myself, I'd love a day to just unwind. And I don't mean just 'lying-around-lazily' unwind, I mean some real meditating-monk-bullshit unwind-."

"Kuro."

"Yeh?"

"You can stop now, we're here."

It was only then that Kuro noticed the large building before her. It stuck out, looking like Corvus in the Rift. Tall, expensive, and could be rather dangerous when needed.

"Well...I could have sworn it looked smaller in the blueprints." Kuro murmured, rubbing the back of her head.

The shards made the guard tower look like it was almost glowing, and made the tower feel like, the moment you try to touch it, it could burn your skin right off. At the very top, the nest area, there were spears that jutted out, angling up to keep away airstrikes, down to keep away those who tried to climb it, and horizontally just to make the whole thing look balanced.

The only differences from the blueprints was what looked to be a sprayed-on emblem of the royal contract, an upside-down star within a circle.

"It looks to be in good shape," Corvus murmured, inspecting it from the outside. Kuro had to agree, it was made to near perfection. She wondered how long it would take for the team to take them down.

Probably a day or two.

Speaking of which, if she really wanted to, she could do a quick sprint to the bar. Judging by her surroundings, she was maybe a few minutes away.

Of course, that was assuming that the bird-of-prey demon didn't catch her first.

Oh well, it didn't hurt to imagine.

Before Corvus opened the door, his hand on the doorknob, he turned to look at her, "Kuro?"

"That's my name."

"Thank you."

"For what?" Kuro said, almost a bit too coy, "I didn't do anything."

Corvus either didn't feel needed or wasn't interested enough to push farther with that, offering her a half-assed scowl, an expression that made him look a bit more normal then the usual shit-eating smile, before opening the door.

They were ready to leave when a knock came to the door.

"I'm too tired to go back into a battle-ready stance." Abraxas yawned, one hand holding his head up from the desk while the other held a gun, looking like a tired gangster.

The door opened to reveal the most golden punked-out demon teen in the Rift.

She wore her hair like Tracer, her pink hair sticking up with orange tips. Her lower lip alone had three piercings, with two in her right eyebrow and one in her nose. Her eyes were a sickly dark green, the everlasting scowl on her face making her look as if someone had taken away her blunt.

She wore a hot pink tank top and a short black skirt, with high-top shoes that helped with her tiny height.

"Sarlea," Shax greeted, as the teen kicked the door closed, much to Shax's irritation, "You're late."

She said nothing, dragging a dark blue suitcase behind her, before plopping down next to Abraxas.

Meanwhile, Shax sighed, going back to making sure everything was in order. He hadn't been too fond of Dajjal, but at least he'd get something done, with Vale's help.

Sarlea was different. The only reason she was here was because of Dajjal's deal; the only way that he'd remain loyal was if they promised to take Sarlea in if anything were to happen to him, which explained the suitcase she had dragged in.

Looking back on it, Shax real wasn't sure if it was a fair deal, but it was too late for him to back out of it now.

"Is this where I'm going to be crashing for now?" The girl asked, looking around as if it was worse than any dump that she'd ever had to crawl out of. Her voice and tone were high, almost comedically so, but no one cared enough to point it out.

"Yes," Shax said, clearing his throat as he cursed Dajjal for dying, "Your room will be the third to the right."

"Nice." She said, about to go upstairs, only to have Vale clear his throat, "What do you want, loser?"

"You can come up with much worse than that," Vale scowled, before giving her a look, "Did Dajjal leave you anything? A piece of paper, or some sort of note?"

"Maybe he did, maybe he didn't." Sarlea said in an almost bratty tone, before doing a 180 to face all of them, "Look, I know my brother swore an allegiance to you or some shit, but last I checked, I'm only here because of one of my brother's deals. You don't owe me anything, and I don't owe you anything."

And with that said, she walked up the stairs, similarly to a way that a bratty kid would stomp up to their room. Abraxas was the only one to jump when the door was slammed shut.

"...I don't know how Dajjal ever managed to raise that thing." Zagan scowled, opening the door for the rest of the team to exit.

"We'll make well of Dajjal's agreement," Vale insisted, stepping out as he slung a bag over his shoulder, "Of course, she'll be expected to pull her own weight in this; that may be the only problem when it comes to a mutinous teenager."

"Well, either way, is it smart for us to leave her here alone while we, for lack of better word, go out?" Abraxas asked, casually walking out with a sniper strapped to his back, looking around as if it was another normal typical day.

"She won't try anything, I've made sure of it." Shax murmured, walking out with his hands in his jeans pockets, his back pocket holding a pair of gloves, the fingertips coated in what looked to be blood, "I made sure to draw a small rune on her door. She'll be locked in there until we get back and wipe it off."

"Dude, that's messed up and you know it." Abraxas laughed, the four walking down the road as if they were just going out to grab a cup of coffee. No one noticed the grin that came to his face, as he took out a gold coin, a hole going right through the middle.

"As if we are any better." Vale scowled, making sure not to shake the bag too much, "So, where to first?"

"Maybe we start with that one?" Zagan murmured, pointing to the nearest tower.

"Is that really smart?" Vale murmured, more to himself than anyone else.

"Looks simple enough." Shax murmured, seeming to either ignore or not hear what Vale said, before pulling his gloves over his hands, flexing his wrists, "Now then, Vale, what exactly is on the letter that Kuro sent?"

Kuro walked in when Corvus pushed the door open, looking around. It was surprisingly well lit inside, with a spiral staircase following the wall up to what she assumed was the watch part of the watch tower.

The base of the tower was rather roomy, with racks to hold swords, spears, and a few other weapons that Kuro couldn't name off of the top of her head.

Kuro looked the weapons over, a part of her tempted to reach out to test the blade, shards or not, only to give the area another look.

On the floor, there were black marks all over the ground, looking almost like dirty footsteps, or maybe even scorch marks.

"For such a nice establishment, I'd assume that Cresil would have made a point to keep this place spotless." Corvus murmured, looking around before scowling, "And I thought that there would be a small assemblage here to greet us."

"Well, it was just built," Kuro murmured, walking up the stairs, "I mean, maybe no one got assigned to this place yet."

"...Possibly…" Was all Corvus murmured, before following Kuro up the stairs. Kuro couldn't shake the feeling, something was wrong here.

Once they got to the top, Kuro looked out. The view wasn't bad, maybe she'd just gotten use to the sight that her room provided for her.

Or maybe it was the constant glare bouncing off of the spears perched from the lookout area, "Some help this does." Kuro scowled, trying to ignore the glare from the red sun, "I'm going to go blind, and I'm pretty sure that's impossible for a demon."

Covus either didn't hear or didn't acknowledge her, before he walked over to the other side of the watch room, where a black box stood, "I don't recall Cresil telling me about anything that is supposed to be up here." Corvus murmured, looking it over.

Meanwhile, Kuro went back down the stairs, bored. It looked just big enough to explore the place without feeling too big and castle-like.

Walking around the ground floor, she found a room that looked off to the side, almost as if it were tucked away. Walking in, her nose wrinkled at the smell of manly BO.

It looked like a sort of locker room area, to which she couldn't shake the image of seeing a bunch of guards in there, chilling as they talked about hot succubus, stealing each other's towels and clothes, and just being all around high school jocks.

Walking by a locker, she took note of how huge the lockers were. In the end, she guessed it made sense, where else would they leave the armor?

She ripped open one locker, wondering what she'd find, only to grumble; nothing of importance.

She walked over to the next locker, ripping it open, only to scowl, "What kind of self-respecting demon has a rubber ducky in their fucking locker?" Kuro muttered, before punting the rubber ducky.

She was ready to walk on when the rubber duck bounced off of a metal door, making it ring from the vibrations of the metal.

Even if it was no different, Kuro walked over to said door, opening it up. She was ready to see either nothing or something stupid, not the calling card.

Kuro stared at the item for a moment, before slowly taking it out of the locker to get a better look and make sure that she wasn't seeing shit.

It was a golden coin, but for some reason, there was a hole going right the coin.

She knew what it meant, and she knew they had to get out of there.

She did her best to dash out of the locker rooms, only to jump back when a door gave in, spilling open.

Kuro did all she could to jump over the body of slumped guards that came out of the locker, the smell only increasing from there.

Kuro pushed her way back into the main ground floor-room, before dashing up the stairs, "Corvus? Corvus, we need to leave!"

She was greeted by a confused looking Corvus at the top of the tower, "What is it, Kitten? There's a whole lot more that we'll need to look over before inspection is over."

"We need to leave. We need to leave now!" Kuro shouted, finally realizing what the black around the tower meant, "Shit, come on!"

Kuro ignored the other questions as she pushed/pulled Corvus down the stairs, away from the mystery black box.

The ticker.

She nearly leapt down the stairs, trying to calculate how long it would really take them. Knowing Shax, he'd try to take out as many as he could in one go, but how long would it take for the tickers to be rigged and ready to blow?

Kuro had just enough time to push Corvus out the door, pushing him as far away as possible from the doorway before the ticker went off.

She fell on top of Corvus, covering him best she could, while also ducking her head, her hands just above her head.

The searing pain in her back only increased, but having had experience with tickers before, it could and would have been a lot worse if they were right in the doorway.

When the ringing in her ears finally stopped, Kuro groaned, head still pounding. She could feel Corvus slowly pulling her up but was about as strong as a rag doll at the moment.

Tickers, as Shax and Vale had dubbed them, were one of the only weapons stronger than shards. It was basically a bomb strong enough to go through and sometimes break shard weapons.

Kuro's vision was clear, but her ears were still ringing. It did help when she felt Corvus shaking her, saying something that wasn't really getting processed at the moment.

Her nose still burned from the toxic fumes that the bomb had given off, one that only affected demons, hurray.

She'd either inhaled too much or the dizziness got to her, because before she knew it, everything went dark.

"Well that was fun." Shax murmured, taking his gloves off.

The other three stood behind him, watching the five brand new towers go up in smoke from a casual rooftop.

"I thought that I'd get to snipe more people." Abraxas grumbled, pouting like a child.

"I still think that it wasn't wise for us to take out the closest towers," Vale murmured, dropping the body of the demon they had used for Bloodborne, before wiping off his knife with his shirt, "What if we get tracked down?"

No one had to call out the name of the syndicate, the very group that almost caused them to get wiped out without a trace.

With that said, Abraxas tried to lighten the mood with a grin, "Let's not worry about it! I mean, we haven't heard anything about or from them in a long time!"

"You weren't here when it got worse." Vale scowled, giving Abraxas a look, "You don't understand what they could have done."

"Drop it, both of you." Shax commanded, rubbing the bridge of his nose, shaking his head, "We still have work that we need to attend to back at the bar."

"Not to mention a brat." Zagan grumbled, irritatingly shoving his hands into his coat pockets, "Wherever Kuro is, I hope that she's doing better than we are."

"I'm sure that she's doing much better, especially when she finds out about the towers we decimated." Shax insisted, before looking off towards the castle.

If he could, he'd smile. Surely Kuro would have an easier time going to sleep tonight knowing that the issue on the outside had been taken care of.

It took long enough, right?

Amy: Finally, chapter...What number is this?

Lilith: Chapter 19.

Amy: Holy shit, you've been taking your sweet time with this shit!

Erin: How long will this story be?

Kuro: Yes.

Erin:...This bitch...

Kurt: *Pulls out a finger pointer out of no where* Don't fuck with me, I've got God and Anime on my side!

Amy: My God, much nice, so ludicrous.

Lilith:...I'm surrounded by idiots that you've created.

Miu: I'm n-not an idiot.

Lilith: No, you're worse; you're a pussy.

Miu: (0_0)

Me: You know what, I let you guys into the first author's notes in a while and this happens; fuck all of you, GTFO!

...Anywho...

he only other "romance" story I've written is that Ouran Highschool host club one, the Rose Petals stuff. Everything else is either adventure, humor, mystery, or an odd mix of the three. With that said, I've had to least experience with romance.

So, with that said, I'm sorry if I'm offending any of you romantic-reading buffs out there.

Also, I did a lot of editing for this chapter, I hope that the time-jumping isn't too confusing.

And if it is than...

...Fuck.

Either way, hope you guys enjoyed, and I'll cya next chapter!

Till then, bai bai!