Disclaimer: See previous chapter
Chap. 9
"Helloooo. Earth to Dizzy."
Her eyes fluttering, Dizzy turned from the sink to May, who was standing next to her. "Oh, yes?"
May shook her head and smiled at Dizzy. "You were out of it again."
Her eyes widening for a bit, the young gear looked down to see the overly soaked plate in her hands. Her face flushed lightly from embarrassment. "Oh, I'm sorry."
May continued to smile. For the past week, Dizzy had been distracted, lost in thought. It was true that she was normally known to daydream, but this was happening more frequently than before. And to top it off, she always seemed to have a dreamy look on her face, or her cheeks would have a light shade of pink on them. It didn't take much for either May or the rest of the crew to realize what or rather whom she was thinking about.
"I'm sure he's thinking about you too."
"You..." Again, the blush returned to her feature and she simply sighed, not bothering to try and hide it. "You really think so?"
"For sure!" May chirped.
Dizzy nodded, and returned to her duties, smiling wistfully to herself at the thought that somewhere, wherever he may be, Ky would be thinking about her.
'Ky...'
Standing on a hilltop overlooking a large facility, Ky gazed down at the structure. Despite its appearance of abandonment, Ky knew there was more to it than meets the eye. Since he returned, Ky put forth great efforts to track down and locate the source of the devastation he had been involved with weeks ago. It was to his horror to learn that the same thing had been happening in various areas, with no survivors to speak of in the resulting destruction.
Ky's return came as a relief to the IPF, as he had been missing in action and feared dead. However, their investigation of the incidents had no results. Without delay, Ky returned to the case, hoping to find the cause before anyone else. When the usual methods failed, Ky decided to go another way; that being to learn from those who had been involved in the Sacred Order tournament of the past.
One of them being a certain Chinese chef...
(Three days back)
"It's been a while, Ky."
Jam smiled as she sat down opposite of Ky in the window seat area. It had been awhile since they last saw each other, but he remembered it quite well. It was when she had convinced him to share a picnic with him. She almost stuffed him with the food she had made, but it was delicious and he had a good time. However, he had been called away for another mission soon after and haven't seen her since.
"I'm sorry. I meant to visit, but..."
She waved him off. "No worries. I know you're a busy guy." Her tone soon became serious. "Which I'm guessing is why you're here now."
Ky lowered his gaze. "So you've heard."
Jam nodded. "Yeah. It's pretty big news and word catches fast around here."
"I'm hoping to find a lead." He lifted his eyes to hers. "Have you heard anything?"
"Awww." She placed her arm on the table and lent her head on her head on it. "And here I was hoping you were just stopping by to say hi."
"Sorry."
"Hm."
At that, Ky noticed that her gaze had narrowed, as though she was inspecting him. "What?"
"Oh nothing." Returning to the original subject. "Anyway, I heard rumors that there may be a gear involved. I don't know anything solid, but a few have mentioned something of seeing airships around the area of attacks afterward."
Ky blinked. "Airships?"
"Yeah. I'm not sure if there's any truth to it, since they were seen from a distance or something like that. Not to mention...well, you know..."
Yeah, he knew alright. No survivors... Still, he hadn't heard anything about airships before. This may be a loose lead, but it could be of great benefit, especially considering that he was low on lead to start with.
"Well, that does help me out a bit. Thank you, Miss Kuraderberi."
"The Chinese chef shook her head. "I told you before, you can just call me Jam. Anyway, before you head out, how about a meal? On the house."
"I..." He almost refused, but remembered that it would be impolite to refuse a gift from a lady and smiled in return. "Thank you."
"And you can tell me all about her."
"Her...?" Ky said in surprise.
Jam's smile slowly turned into a wicked grin. "The girl you was daydreaming about before I came over here."
"Um...I...uh..."
Jam watched his face redden and sighed. "The good ones are always taken..."
Again, Ky blinked in question, but Jam didn't bother to elaborate and continued on the attack. "Anyway, you were telling me about your girlfriend."
"She's not..." Too late did Ky realize what he had just said, but he couldn't take back his words now. He knew it, and Jam certainly knew it now too.
"Ah, ha! So you were thinking about a girl. So come on. Spill."
'Dizzy...'
Jam had been right. He had evaded from her telling who exactly, but that didn't change the fact that he had been thinking about Dizzy. Since he left the Mayship days ago, he found out that he had been thinking about her quite a bit, especially given the way they departed and the fact that she kissed him...again...
At first, he was a little frustrated by the fact, as he wanted to keep his focus on his mission. But it just couldn't be helped. In particular, he would see, or rather expect to see, her smiling image whenever he woke up (which was rare since he had hardly slept since he returned), only to have her image disappear as awoke more fully (which frustrated him more).
With a sigh, Ky cleared his thoughts and focused once again on the facility. Thanks to Jam's information and some additional help from Potemkin, Ky was able to locate this facility. It was in remote, battle-ravaged wasteland and as he thought before, it looked worn and abandoned; a perfect place to hide since few would venture out into this area and none would think anything would be out here.
"Hey, look who it is."
Turning to the side, Ky looked at the source of the voice and his eyes widened a bit as he saw two men coming up toward him. Oddly enough, it wasn't the speaker that caught his attention, but rather his companion; a large burly man in red that he recognized all too well.
"Sol..."