Turnabout is Fair Play
Fang waited for the guard to walk past her and then slipped out of the shadows to stand just behind him. A single, sharp blow to the head was all it took to have him crumpled on the ground at her feet. She looked around quickly to make sure no one else had seen before she grabbed him by the ankles and dragged him into the spot she'd been hiding in. It was a couple of hours after dusk and if she hid him right, someone could walk right past without spotting him. That was a good thing too, because the place was just crawling with guards and she wanted enough time to have a good long look around.
She turned her eyes back to the poorly lit road. "Come on, Vanille."
Vanille crept out of the shadows and gave the downed guard a kick in the gut for good measure. Like Fang, she had a handkerchief tied over the lower half of her face and as much ammunition on her as she could carry and still walk. "How long do you think we have?"
"Well, if things play out like they have over the last couple of days, we've got maybe an hour before they catch on," Fang said glad that they'd taken the time to watch things first before going in. Over the last few days, they'd camped just outside the Cocoon place near Bodhum to get a feel for the layout and the patrols. "Now come on, we need to get moving."
There wasn't a whole lot of doubt in Fang's mind that the place was a gold mine, just like Snow had said, and by the looks of it, a pretty big one too. It was little wonder that Cocoon wanted to keep the whole thing hushed up. If anyone else found out, there'd be prospectors all over the place and if there was one thing Cocoon liked, it was a nice, solid little earner like this place.
Up ahead, she caught a glimpse of the next pair of guards and motioned to Vanille. The two of them each took shelter on opposite sides of the road, hidden in the shadows.
"I hate these damn night shifts," one of the guards complained. "There's nothing to do and nothing to look at. It's a damn waste too. No one's crazy enough to mess with Cocoon."
The other guard chuckled. "You got that right. Even that Bahamut Bandit's won't last too much longer. I hear they doubled the bounty on her head after that mess a week or so back where she beat up that marshal and busted out of the sheriff's place in Bodhum. That much cash on the line, I don't think it'll be too long till someone brings her in. Hell, for that much money, that partner of hers should just bring her in herself."
The first guard nodded and grinned. "That's true enough. That Vanille the Kid's bounty isn't even a third of what the Bandit's got on her head." He laughed. "I figure, she can't be too scary on her own."
Hidden in the shadow of a wagon, Fang had to clamp a hand over her mouth. It was right funny how the bounty on Vanille's head was so much smaller than hers. She knew the red head took things like that personally, and the last time Fang had laughed about it, Vanille had given her a pretty mean kick to the shins and then whacked her over the head with a plank of wood. For someone so little, the red head sure could be mighty vicious. Not only that, those guards had given her all the credit for sorting out Nabaat, and that, she knew, would have Vanille all kinds of furious. Hell, if the Cocoon folks knew what Vanille could do when she got mad, they'd do more than triple the bounty, they might just add a zero.
"Hey!" Vanille growled as she stalked out of her hiding place, shotgun in hand and level with the chest of one of the guards. "What do you think you were saying?"
Fang looked up at the sky. And people said she was the short-tempered one.
"I'll have you know, I was the one who beat up that marshal and I'm just as scary as anyone else!" Vanille shouted as Fang hung her head. Could the red head possibly make any more noise?
Right on cue, the two guards finally got their wits back, their eyes as wide as saucers, and almost as one they reached for their guns. Vanille growled and fired once. The shotgun roared and one of the men flew back and smashed right through the wooden wall of a nearby shed. The whole thing came down on him a moment later and dust and broken bits of wood went everywhere.
"How's that?" Vanille asked as she brought the shotgun around to point at the second guard.
However, the guard already had his gun up and he would have had her if Fang hadn't stepped out from behind the wagon and drilled him with a single shot right to the heart. He dropped to the ground stone dead and Fang grabbed Vanille by the scruff of her shirt.
"What do you think you're doing, Vanille?" Fang asked, holstering her pistol so she could grab Vanille with both hands, the shorter woman actually dangling a couple of inches off the ground.
Vanille's eyes flashed green lightning and she glared at Fang. "You heard what they were saying! They were making fun of me! Well, I can be scary too." Vanille's words were a little out of place, what with her legs kicking in the air, and Fang had to bite back a smile. "I mean, I beat up that marshal, didn't I? Besides, we're partners aren't we? So that means we're even and I can be just as scary as you." She continued to flail. "Now put me down, Fang!"
Fang chuckled as Vanille swung the shotgun at her head. "Listen up, Vanille, it don't matter what they think of you, and you shouldn't care, either. Now that you've gone and lost your head, we've probably got a whole heap of guards headed our way."
Right that moment there was a shot and Fang dropped Vanille and the two of them dove for cover in one of the trenches that dotted the area around the mine.
"See?" Fang shouted as she pointed at the big group of guards at the top of the road and headed their way. "See?"
Vanille flushed. "Well, it's not like you've never lost your temper. What about that time you slugged that judge because he got all sweet on you? He was going to tell us all kinds of things about Cocoon that we needed to know and he would have if you just hadn't slugged him."
Another bullet whizzed over their heads along with the roar of what had to be at least three or four shotguns. Wonderful, they had a small army gunning for them.
"That judge was a no good creep," Fang grumbled as she peeked out of the trench and fired. At least the guards were fool enough to stand by the storage sheds where a couple of lamps were set. That meant she and Vanille could see them just fine but they couldn't see her and Vanille, what with the trench being dark and all. "Besides, you saw him, he had no business trying to get those hands of his under my shirt."
Vanille huffed. "Well, you could have slugged him after he'd told us everything, or at least just knocked him around a little instead of knocking him out. Now look where we are!" She peered over the edge of the trench and blazed away with her shotgun. One of the guards flew back, chest blown to bits, and she started reloading. "So what do we do now?"
"Well, see, I had this really great plan where we snuck in and got around all the guards, only a certain someone made sure that it wouldn't exactly work…" Fang grinned as Vanille scowled at her, brows drawn up, and mouth set into a thin line.
"Fang!"
"Fine, fine." Fang looked around. The trench wouldn't keep them safe for long. Eventually, the guards would catch on to things and work their way around to circle them, or maybe a lucky shot would get them. But the trench was pretty close to the buildings. "How about we split up? You go left and high and I go right and low and we meet up where the guards are?"
Vanille nodded slowly. "You mean like that time back in Euride?"
Fang smirked. "That's right."
"Sounds like a plan then," Vanille said. "You going first?"
Fang reloaded her pistol. "Wouldn't dream of doing otherwise."
With that, Fang leapt out of the trench and ran for the buildings on her right. A hail of gunfire went her way and she let loose a wild curse as she dove for the cover of a water trough. At the same time, Vanille popped out of the trench and fired. Another guard went down and she heard Vanille yell something real unladylike as she dropped another and then broke into a run for the buildings on the left side of the street.
Most of the buildings had porches with railings and furniture and Fang did her best to use them for cover as she closed the gap between herself and the guards, firing all the way. It was a good thing that she'd brought as many bullets as she could carry, because the way things were playing out, she'd need every one of them. A shotgun blast tore apart the chair she'd been hiding behind and she sprinted for the next bit of cover. She fired twice along the way and one of the shots hit a guard in the hip, spinning him around before her second struck him in the chest. A savage smile crossed her face. At the very least, this little escapade would be costing Cocoon a pretty penny and plenty of manpower and that was just fine by her.
She was about fifteen yards from the big clump of guards and she was glad now that she'd found something a bit more solid to hide behind. It was a big slab of broken down machinery, probably something they used to help with the mining, but most importantly it was all metal and not flimsy wood like the cover she'd been forced to use up till then. Taking a moment to catch her breath again, she reloaded her pistol and then reached down to draw her second pistol. Normally, she didn't like to use two guns at once because usually one did the job just fine, but at this range, accuracy wouldn't matter so much as the number of bullets she could fill the air with.
"We got you pinned down Bandit, and that partner of yours has run off. You come out now and we'll let you live. You stay holed up back there, we'll shoot you full of holes," one of the guards shouted.
"That so?" Fang shouted back, stalling for time. "Seems to me like you fellows are a bunch of cowards. What are there, ten of you, fifteen maybe, and you still don't have the guts to come and get me yourselves. You probably like to call yourselves men, but from where I'm standing, I think it's plenty clear that I'm up against a bunch of little boys."
That got their attention and she grimaced as another spray of bullets and shotgun fire filled the air. Damn it, what was taking Vanille so long? Even if the machine she was using for cover was all metal and plenty solid, it was starting to fall to bits. And then she heard it, a short sharp whistle, and she felt a grin cross her face. It was about time. Shoving away from the machine, she brought both guns up and fired. She didn't have to think too much about accuracy, not at this range.
A bullet raced past her head and she winced and gave the guard both barrels. He went down, twisting as he fell, to land like a ragdoll on the ground. Still firing, she made a mad dash for a wagon about twenty yards away. More bullets filled the air and she winced, as a few of them put holes in her coat. It wasn't that the bullets had hit her, but damn, she liked that coat and it would be just about impossible to get a new one on the road.
An instant later, one of the guards flew backward, riddled with holes. The others spun, eyes wide, looking all around for the shooter, but she knew they wouldn't find them. Vanille was up on the roof of a building above them, hidden in the shadows, blazing away with her shotgun.
As the guards scrambled for cover, Fang reloaded behind the wagon and came out shooting. Another guard fell, shot twice in the chest, and Fang couldn't help but grin. This was what she liked best, a low-down, guns blazing, smoke everywhere, kind of fight. It wasn't pretty or elegant or really much of anything except chaotic, but it was fun. Her heart pounded, her whole body alive with the thrill of the fight and she'd bet every gil she had that up there on the roof, Vanille had a smile just as crazy as her own on her face.
Eventually, the gunfire died down as the last guard fell. Vanille climbed off the roof and skipped over to Fang with a grin.
"I win," Vanille crowed.
Fang look at her and raised one eyebrow. "What are you talking about? What do you win?"
Vanille rolled her eyes like it was obvious. "I got more of them than you." She propped her shotgun over her shoulder and puffed her chest out. "And that makes me the winner and you the loser."
"Hey!" Fang said. "That's not fair and you know. I'm just the decoy when we run that play, so of course you got more of them than me. Besides, the night's not over yet and we both know that there are plenty more of those guards left."
Vanille wiped some sweat off her brow and reloaded her shotgun. "You know, Fang, you can be such a spoil sport." She smiled sunnily. "So, what now?"
Fang looked over at the next set of buildings. "Well, they've got a storage shed up ahead where they keep all their stuff for blasting. Head on over there and see if you can't grab some and rig the mine to blow."
"Sounds fun." Vanille tilted her head to one side and her eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Fact is, it sounds like a lot of fun, just like something you'd want to do."
Fang sighed. "Yeah, I guess it does, but remember what happened the last time I tried to blast something to bits?"
Vanille's eyes widened and she giggled, slapping Fang on the back. "Yeah, there was that bridge we blew up…" She laughed again. "You really made a mess of that one, Fang."
"Yeah." Fang grimaced. Sure, she'd blown the bridge up, but she'd almost blown them up along with it, not to mention derailed a train and totalled her gun. She was not going to risk heading back to Sazh's place anytime soon, not if it meant facing up to that wolverine of a wife he had. Honestly, why did she end up staring down the business end of a shotgun while Vanille got lemonade?
"So, what are you going to do then? Vanille asked. Up ahead, there were more guards coming and she was starting to get a little antsy.
"I'm going to head over to the foreman's office, maybe see if there's any cash there – we can't exactly carry off too much gold ourselves, now can we? There might also be some of the information we're looking for too," Fang said. "Now let's get going and you take care, Vanille. If you're not sure if you should shoot something, shoot first, ask questions later."
Vanille nodded. "I'll remember to do that." And then she was running off toward the storage shed while Fang picked her way further up the road to where the foreman's office was.
Just like she'd thought, Fang ran into a whole heap of guards along the way. It was messy work, what with it being mostly dark and all, and it didn't help either this time that they were smarter, mostly keeping to the shadows and attacking together, rather than bunching up where the light was. A couple of their shots would have dropped her too, if she hadn't been quick to find cover or dodge.
"Damn," she muttered. "They must really like this place." She peered around a corner and winced as a bullet blew out a bit of wood near her head. She drew a bead on the guard and fired back, dropping him. "I hope Vanille's having an easier time of it than me."
And then right on cue, she saw a great big ball of fire go up. "Figures, she'd have all the luck," Fang muttered before she turned back to her own task.
Finally, she wasn't sure how much later, she reached the foreman's office. She took a quick look around to make sure there weren't any more guards hiding about and then locked the door behind her and reloaded her guns. She was almost out of bullets, which wasn't exactly good, but she figured that after all the guards she'd put down, they had to be almost out of guards, as well.
Moving quickly through the office, she spotted the safe down the back and smiled as she took a little thing that Vanille had put together out of her coat. She slapped it onto the hinge of the safe and took cover behind a table. A moment later, the door of the safe flew past and thudded into the wall.
"Now what do we have here?" she murmured. Along with big piles of cash – never a bad thing in her book – there were some papers too. Now that was mighty interesting. As quick as she could, she stuffed the cash into a bag she'd brought and started looking through the papers to see if they were worth bringing too.
It took her a while to get her head around what the papers were on about, but if she had figured things right, then it was no wonder these had been locked up. It looked like Cocoon had been holding out on the government with this mine. They had everyone thinking it put out maybe a quarter of what it did. Her lips curved upward. This was fraud, big time, and that meant Cocoon wasn't paying nearly what they should be in taxes. It wasn't quite what she'd been hoping to find, but she knew a couple of people who'd be real interested in it. She and Vanille weren't Cocoon's only enemies and there were some pretty big businesses that would pay top dollar to get some dirt on Cocoon. Sure, she might not like all of them – those shifty fellows at Shinra weren't worth a damn – but if it meant doing some damage to Cocoon, well, she'd put aside her differences with them for a bit.
All in all, this thing had gone down pretty well, she thought as another explosion shook the area. It looked like Vanille was really going for it. Still, that was just fine. Blowing the mine to bits was part of the plan and it would tick off Cocoon like nothing else. And once that was done, she and Vanille could just meet up in the hills to the north and they'd be home free. Stuffing the papers in the bag, she went over to the door and opened it.
And found herself face to face with Lightning.
"Aw hell," Fang managed to get out before Lightning slugged her in the jaw with a textbook right cross.
"Damn it!" Fang cursed as she dropped the bag and stumbled backward, her handkerchief coming loose. She hit a table covered with papers and put one hand on it to brace herself as she shook her head to clear it. When her vision cleared, Lightning was there with her gun trained on her, all hard eyes and slim deadliness. "You know, sheriff," Fang said, "That's really no way to say hello."
Lightning glared and Fang took a moment to admire the furious glitter in those sapphire eyes. "I could've shot you instead."
Fang grinned. "Nah, you wouldn't do that. I figure you like me too much to fill me full of holes."
"And how do you figure that?" Lightning asked, easing the hammer of the pistol back.
Fang's grin widened. "Well, I'm not dead yet, now am I? Anyway, how'd you know we were going to be here?"
"I had a chat yestreday with a fellow who ran into you a couple of weeks back." Fang watched the tension in Lightning's frame as she spoke. The other woman was like a steel trap, ready to snap shut at an instant's notice. It was a good look, Fang thought. "You asked him a lot of questions about this place. Now he didn't figure you for who you were, but I did." Lightning's eyes narrowed. "I had a hard ride to get here in time, and even then, I only just made it."
Fang sighed. Maybe she should have just shot that Snow fellow? Still, she couldn't say that she was too disappointed. After all, she was up close and personal with the sheriff again, and that wasn't half bad. Lightning was breathing hard, her chest rising and falling with each breath, and she was sweaty too. Most likely, she'd had to run a fair bit of the way, because those explosions would have scared any chocobo something fierce. Now Fang had met a lot of women who looked pretty horrible all mussed up, but Lightning looked just fine. No, Fang thought, a slow, silly smile crossing her face, Lightning looked much better than fine.
Just like before, Fang found her eyes drawn to that pink hair. Really, up until she'd met Lightning, she'd have thought that pink hair would make someone look like a little girl, but the sheriff was all woman. Those eyes too, were just like she remembered, maybe a little angrier, and those lips, full, but pulled into a tight, angry line were just the same too. Lightning swallowed and Fang followed the motion of her throat, taking in the slender curve of it and grinning a little stupidly as she saw that during the ride over the top few buttons of Lightning's shirt had come undone.
Lightning must have seen her look, because she scowled darkly and with one hand did the buttons back up. The sheriff's fists clenched and Fang brought a hand up to rub her jaw. The old bruises were gone now, but Fang was pretty sure that last punch had given her a new one and while she didn't mind a little rough and tumble, this was getting a bit out of hand.
"So, what are you going to do now?" Fang asked. "We just going to stand here and glare at each other, sheriff?" Of course, Fang wasn't glaring, she was smiling, eyes twinkling at the rage she saw on the sheriff's face.
In reply, Lightning didn't say anything, just reached for some rope she had stored away in her coat.
"Oh… I see what you've got planned. Why, you just couldn't wait to get me all tied up again, now could you?" Fang taunted, smirking as a blush spread across Lightning's cheeks. To her credit though, the sheriff's hand was steady on her pistol and Fang decided it would be downright interesting to push a little more. "Well, I suppose we could do that, if you really wanted, although we don't have all that much time." She stretched, careful to move in just the right manner to show Lightning how much of a woman she was. "Or maybe, sheriff, you like doing things fast?"
"Shut up," Lightning ground out as she forced herself to calm down. She would not let Fang get to her. "Now, don't you move a muscle…"
Fang's eyes narrowed a fraction as Lightning stepped forward and her eyes drifted to the bag she'd dropped by the door. All kidding aside, she knew that if Lightning got her all tied up again, she'd be hard pressed to get free. Under other circumstances, maybe not so bad, but right now, not exactly what she had in mind. Her hands closed on a sheaf of papers and quick as a flash, she grabbed them and threw the whole lot at Lightning.
"Damn it!" Lightning cursed as she fired. The bullet went wide as Fang dove to one side and charged. Still cursing, Lightning tried to swat the papers away.
Fang closed the gap and tackled Lightning to the ground. Lightning's gun clattered loose and the pair of them rolled across the ground. They hit a chair and Fang ignored the flash of pain the impact brought and shifted so that she was straddling Lighting.
"You know," Fang drawled as she took a moment to savour the sight of the sheriff beneath her, cheeks flushed and panting. "I could get used to this, but I still owe you for last time." And with that she threw a punch straight at Lightning's face. At the last second, Lightning jerked her head to the side. Fang's punch missed and she cursed as her hand struck the floor. "Ouch!"
Biting back a grin as the other woman clutched at her hand, Lightning bucked her hips and the two of them rolled again, this time Lightning on top. "You know, you should talk less and fight more!" Lightning growled as she drove one fist at Fang's face. The other woman caught the blow with one forearm and then brought her other arm up to help ward off the next few, as well.
With no time to appreciate the view – and it was a rather nice view – Fang looked up at Lightning and did her best to block the punches. Damn, the pink haired woman had a hell of a punch with both hands. Still, she doubted that the sheriff was much for fighting dirty, and Fang had never been one to let an advantage go to waste.
"You really seem to like it up there on top," Fang teased. "And normally that'd be just fine with me, problem is, I like my face in one piece." And with that she grabbed Lightning by the collar of her shirt and yanked her down into a head butt. The move caught Lighting by surprise and in the moment that she was dazed, Fang got a leg up between them and kicked her off.
Lightning flew back and landed on one of the tables. The table creaked and then gave way and as Fang stumbled to her feet, she couldn't help grin at the sight of Lightning's fumbling about the wreckage. It was quite a sight, what with the sheriff, on her hands and knees and still shaking her head to clear it. Fang's grin grew even wider when Lightning looked up at her with a look so murderous it had to be criminal. Growling, the pink haired woman launched herself straight at Fang.
Fang couldn't stop smiling as the two of them exchanged punches and kicks. Forget what she'd said earlier, Lightning knew how to fight dirty, and damn if she wasn't good at it. A punch at Fang's head was followed by a savage kick to the side of her knee and a furious set of blows that would have knocked her clean out if they'd connect cleanly. Still, Fang was the stronger of the two of them, even if she was slower, and she was more than happy to just stand there slugging it out. By the time the two of them broke apart, Lightning's lip was split and so was Fang's and she doubted either of them would be in decent shape come the next morning.
Lightning dragged in a deep breath. "You aren't getting out of here."
Fang chuckled softly. She loved that tone, all steel and velvet. It would have been almost sultry too, if not for the look in Lightning's eyes and the fact that she'd just done her best to kick Fang's head in. "You know," Fang said. "I'd believe that more if I actually thought you could stop me."
Lightning scowled and the two of them met again with a flurry of blows. A punch caught her in the gut, and Fang winced and threw an elbow that caught Lightning in the side of the head. As Lightning threw another punch, Fang managed to catch her fist and the taller woman grinned at the furious look on Lightning's face.
"You know, sheriff, you're real pretty when you smile, but damn, you're just plain beautiful when you're mad."
That earned Fang a kick to the face.
Fang wiped the blood off her lip. "Heh. I figure I deserved that one."
Lightning's eyes flicked over to her gun several yards away. "I think maybe next time I will just shoot you."
"I'd like to see you try."
Lightning darted forward again but stumbled as an explosion rocked the area. It wasn't like the others that had continued through their little brawl. No, those had been pretty small, the kind that took out a house or two. This explosion was huge, a great, big, tremendous earth-shaking wall of sound and force that rattled the office, blew out the windows, and filled the night with fire. Clods of earth flew through the air and Fang laughed out loud. It looked like Vanille had finished messing around and just blown the whole mine to smithereens.
Fang kept right on laughing as Lightning crashed into her. Rather than hit the other woman, Fang tugged her close, arms around her, locking Lightning's arms against her sides. Slowly, a sultry smile found its way onto Fang's face as she watched Lightning's eyes widen in shock as the pink haired woman realised how close they were. Yep, this close, Fang could feel every curve of Lightning's body and she took a moment to savour it.
"Let me go, right now." Lightning's eyes promised fifty different kinds of pain.
Fang just shook her head. "I don't figure that'd be a good idea, because if I did, you'd just slug me again." She leaned in close and grinned as she saw Lightning swallow thickly, their faces only inches apart. "Besides, I still owe you for last time."
And then as Lightning struggled to get free, Fang leaned closer still. Lightning smelled good, really good, a mix of gunpowder and sweat and something undeniably feminine that she figured must have been plain old Lightning. Feeling Lightning freeze under her scrutiny, Fang closed the gap completely and kissed her.
Fang felt Lightning shiver as their lips met and when the other woman gasped, well, Fang wasn't rude enough to refuse an invitation like that. Lightning tasted sweet, but it was a different kind of sweet, not soft, not gentle, but wild, raw, and proud. She smiled into the kiss and watched as Lightning's eyes fluttered shut. Yeah, Lightning tasted like the sweet rain of an early spring storm. When Fang pulled away, Lightning's eyes slowly opened and there was a dazed look on her face that just made Fang want to kiss her again. And again.
"Well," Fang drawled as she stepped away from the stupefied sheriff. "I figure that makes us even, after all, turnabout is fair play." She ran one hand along Lightning's jaw. "Besides, a face like yours, it's a damn shame I've had to hit you even once."
And with that Fang ran for the door, grabbing the bag of cash and papers on the way out. "Be seeing you, sheriff."
Those last words were enough to shake Lightning out of her paralysis and she dove for her gun.
Outside in the corridor, Fang bit back a curse as a bullet smashed through the wall and grazed her side. Eyes wide, she stared through the hole in the wall to see Lightning drawing a bead on her for another shot.
"Damn," Fang muttered. "She almost shot me dead through the wall." She laughed. "Well, if I wasn't sure before, I'm sure now. I think I'm in love." And the last thing she saw before she rounded the corner and reached the relative safety of the darkness outside the foreman's office building was Lightning, her furious blue eyes shining, one hand scrubbing furiously at her mouth, the other lifting her gun for another shot.
Later, when she met up with Vanille, Fang was still smiling.
"What happened to you, Fang? You're all beat up." Vanille reached over to where yet another bruise was forming on Fang's jaw. "And your side is bleeding."
"I had a little run in with our friend, the sheriff." Fang reached down and touched her side. It was a light graze really, nothing that maybe a couple of days rest couldn't fix. "And as for this? She shot me through a wall."
"Through a wall?" Vanille grimaced. "What did you do to get her so mad at you."
Fang grinned and thought back to the kiss. Sure, it had been just the thing to stun Lightning, but it had been real good too. "Let's just say I probably deserved it." She reached up and touched her lips. "But it was so worth it."
X X X
Author's Notes
First of all, I neither own Final Fantasy, nor am I making any money off this.
Well, it looks like Fang and Lightning are getting to know each other better (or to quote Seraph from the Matrix "You do not truly know someone until you fight them", in which case Fang and Lightning know each other very well). Anyway, I was thinking of splitting this chapter in half, but after thinking about it, I like it better this way. I don't really have much else to say other than that, but the idea of Vanille running around with explosives has been on my mind for a while (I'm not sure what to make of that). On another note, this chapter is easily the longest, clocking in at almost double the length of the others.
As always, I appreciate feedback. Reviews and comments are welcome.