So…did I make a Gary Stu out of Rizal? Sorry~?

/=+=/

They decided to leave to search in groups. For safety reasons, Charice stayed with her brother to scan the entire forest (in case the next half hour comes quicker than expected…god forbid it does). What surprised them was that Ivan willingly volunteered to go with Natalya, and she made no remarks on it, despite the fact that they still had their previous memories. That's when they decided to split.

"This world is starting to scare me."

"You want to point out the obvious next time too? How about the fact that half of the world wants to know what kind of seasoning goes well with human meat?"

"Kuya, they're trying to be the next Jason, not the next Hannibal Lector." Charice looked at him. "Besides, I think it's either salt or a nice mix of soy sauce and parsley."

"…ate."

"Yeah?"

"Remind me never to take a bath in soy sauce."

Charice pouted as she dragged her brother along for the long and scary ride. Nonetheless, he resigned himself to follow her. Not like he had a choice, really. Not with people more powerful than him trying to kill him for a false reason, anyway.

And one of them had to be Ludwig, huh?

He paused for a minute, looking around the area in case he would find something there. Out of all the things he could be thinking about, it would be him, wouldn't it? There was just something…pathetic about thinking about guys when clearly there are psychotic murders with guns and magic spells out for your brains, especially when you're a guy yourself and there's not even an indication that the other man is either gay or going gay for the next guy over. What he would do just to have normal back, even going so far as to go into a random cave and just waiting out the next five hours…

"Kuya? Are you OK?"

"Eh? Yeah, I'm fine." He folded his arms. Come on, Rizal…concentrate. "I was just thinking about our next plan."

"Next…plan?"

"In case we don't find anything in the forest."

"True…well, call me crazy, but…" She pointed upward. "I opt for going to the tower."

"Yeah…the bell tower. That's a good choice." Rizal nodded. "But when should we go?"

"Hah?"

"Do we opt for using Ludwig's time slot to go in there? Or would we rather wait that half hour for Alfred's time slot to check it out?" Rizal asked. "Depending on what's up there, there's a chance that perhaps only certain people can pass those doors."

"Oh…I see…one person opens the door, but the other timeslot has the only choice of the next lock…" Charice grinned. "I say we start early. Wait for the next half hour to ring up, and then go for what we got then. Just the two of us, if time calls for it."

Personally, he wanted Ludwig to be there when they checked it out. But that was just the whiny, selfish, rather one-sided part of him that was asking, the part that he'd really wish would shut up right about now for it was really not helping him at all.

"Hey, Charice! Rizal! Find anything yet?"

"Not yet, Vash! How about you two?"

"We found nothing here! We already searched our entire area."

"Wow, that sucks." Charice turned to Rizal. "I'm telling them our plan."

"Eh? Why?"

"Because whatever our allies now know, our allies later are going to know too!" She winked. "That way, we get to save our tongue!"

"…I…guess we can tell them."

Charice nodded as she went to tell them of what they had planned. Rizal was about to join them when he heard something in the distance.

/= "Einsamkeit ~still alive and alone~" found on YouTube =/

What the heck…?

For some reason, he felt his feet move toward the source of the sound. It sounded completely out of this world (which MUST mean that this must be a good place to start looking). Hopefully, Charice was going to follow him. She wouldn't be that dumb, right?

He stopped for a minute. Rizal, what are you DOING? This is obviously a trap.

But it was oddly luring…it must be some kind of power or something…

Nonetheless, his hands were on the deck on his side as he went to observe the sound. His footsteps were slow and quiet…almost nonexistent. After a few minutes he found himself hiding behind a huge tree, observing what the sound was.

It was Ludwig.

And he was singing.

That moment in itself made his brain stop to spin that around for a few seconds. For some reason, this wasn't making him think clearly. Maybe this was a power made from this man's clothing. What was the timeslot they were in again…?

He hid quietly behind the tree as he found himself entranced by this song. One familiar word rang out, and he froze. Of course he knew this song! This was the one he sang to himself back in Germany during that one World Meeting! The one where-

NO! Swear to God, please don't say it!

-he fell in love with him.

He let out a small sigh. There was seriously no way around that? He seriously had to reexamine his life once he finally gets out of here. But then again (just as Charice seemed to justify everything with this), he was only sixteen…in physical human standards. According to her, there would be something wrong with him if he wasn't having something like this happening to him.

Couldn't he just settle with being a freak over this? He'd much rather prefer that.

Still, the sadness that was in that song at that time was still here, making his chest squeeze all the same. Nevermind the fact that right after he heard this he ("NO, NO NO NO NO NO! WILL NOT BE STATED OPENLY ANYMORE!") and everyone passed out roaring drunk. But still, there was no change with his words…how they were said…like nothing had changed since those days…but…why…?

Something kicked into him, and suddenly he wasn't hiding behind the tree anymore. He was pinned on the ground as the German was wrapping his fingers tightly around his neck. That's when he realized that no one was following him, and that he was now utterly powerless to stop him. He looked up and saw the heartless look in his eyes, nothing like what the song was telling the world.

So this…this is what Charice was so scared about…

He did make his attempt to struggle, but every time he did, Ludwig would tighten his grip and cut out more air to his lungs. It really was no use at this point: he knew that Charice was going to find him nonetheless, and it felt like he had magic restraints on his legs. Unless he hears what he wants to hear, then he's done for…

And then he heard it.

The clock tower.

Maybe it was because he was passing out, but he could see strange colors erupting from his own body and spreading out into the world. The rainbow was being mixed in with darkness, and he knew that he was on the verge of passing out. Just before he did, he heard the sound of screaming and someone being whacked, and his neck was freed.

/=+=/

Yeah…guess what happened afterward.