Sorry it's been a while. Disclaimer's the same as the past chapters.
This chapter is held in 3rd POV.
As she turned to leave though, she smacked right into someone, and sees with shocked eyes that it was the white bear, staring blatantly at her with its dark eyes.
Immediately at the side of her sight, she watched as an arm rising in the air at her direction. Quickly, she turned to Haruhiko to push him out of harm's way.
Upon hearing a crash, Ryuuichirou turned to see the white bear and its damage to the side of the stage.
"I don't see anything...", "A freak accident?" Were among the things he kept hearing as everybody went to leave the room in haste.
"Let's go Akihiko," Ryuuichirou says, rushing the author out of the room.
"What is that?" Akihiko asks, seeing a faint blur compared to Ryuuichirou's version.
Seeing that mostly everyone had left the room, Sumiko wondered whether to destroy it like last time. Before she could make a move though, Haruhiko tries to pull her away. Shaking him off, she turns to him. "Go, Haru-chan. I'll finish him."
Not bothering to hear his response she proceeded charging at it.
"!" Ritsu looked around, suddenly feeling threatened.
"Gggrrr..." Everyone turned to the dog, who narrowed his eyes.
"What's wrong?" asked Takafumi.
"Master, his says," they look to see a short-haired doll and her master walking towards them. "Something is happening that is out of our control."
"Shizu!" Riemi says happily. "You're here!"
However, the other dolls thought otherwise as they spotted the ring on Hiroki's finger.
"Shizukesa!" Shiori frowns at her to the ring, "Why? We all agreed - no contracts!"
"Actually, guys.." They turn to Riemi, "They're not the only one," she says, and Shinobu presents his ring.
"Riemi..." Chiemi says shocked, before casting a panicked glance at her master. Mio goes to cling on Misaki's legs.
"The game is changing," Shizukesa hugs Arashi close to her, "And also, Papa didn't agree to the no contracts."
Ritsu turns to Shiori. "What contracts?"
"There is no time for that now," Shizukesa points to the growling Tamaskan. "That beast must be taken to his master."
"Why don't you come home?" The bear says, swinging at her once more with both arms.
Sumiko blinked at it in confusion, before grabbing the microphone stand and pointed it at the bear. "..What?"
"Your brothers and sisters miss you..."
"Ha! I have only two brothers! You can't fool me!" She says, jump kicking the bear in the stomach before slamming the microphone on its head. Seeing nothing coming out, Sumiko frowned as she panted in exhaustion; she was sure she hit everywhere on the bear.
"That bear cannot be sent back to the shadows." Sumiko turned to see a long, wavy, blonde-haired doll in a navy and white dress come towards her.
"...What? But why?"
"It was not meant to fight."
At this, Sumiko remembered how it simply stood about before she bumped into it. Then she remembered what it was doing with it's arms. "It was trying to grab me... And take me home..."
"...Take you home?" The doll looks at the ground in thought. As she spotted the bear getting up, she materializes her white umbrella, stitched with lace and elegance. Quickly, she points the umbrella to the bottom of the bear, and creates somewhat of a portal. Sumiko watched in awe as the bear fell in it.
"What did you do?"
The doll grabs on to Sumiko's dress to pull her away to the exit while holding her umbrella with the other hand. "I sent it somewhere random. It won't stray for long though; after all," she glances up at Sumiko with her light blue eyes. "..."
"What?"
"...What is your name?"
"Oh, Sumiko."
"I see. I am the 1st doll. I have forgotten my human name, but my first master named me Wataru and it has been that since."
"Who is your owner...? Because Riemi-"
"You have been acquainted with the other dolls?"
"U-um, yeah..."
"I see. My master is-"
"Oy," they look up to see Ryuuichirou run to them. "Are you guys okay?!"
Wataru faces him. "This is my master," she says, before pointing to the ground and making a portal. "I shall take my leave now. Please give my regards to the others."
"Hey!" Sumiko looks up to see Mitsu running at her, along with the people she had met earlier along with more people.
"Mitsu!" she said happily as the dog jumps on her just as happy. She looks up at them. "Thank you!"
"Did something happen?" asked Takafumi.
She nods. "This bear came and it wouldn't disappear until Wataru-nyan opened some dimensional door," she looks at the dolls in their arms who tried to play fake since there were some people around, "She says hi."
'Ah, that's right...' Misaki thought in distress. 'Isaka-san is her master...'
"It wouldn't disappear?" asks Riemi.
"Yeah, I thought it was trying to cause trouble, but it did all that just to 'take me home' or something like that."
All the dolls stare at her while Shizukesa looked at Ritsu to Sumiko with a calculating gaze before turning to them. "I told you the game is changing..."
Riemi wondered at that before realizing something and looked to Misaki and Ritsu. "Which one of you saw the other bear first? The bear that locked you in a mimicry?"
"That..." Ritsu trailed out, wondering how to figure that out.
"Actually," Misaki looks at Ritsu. "It was really sudden, but I looked wherever you were looking because I felt you tense up all of the sudden. So that really got me on alert..."
"Wait," Takafumi looks at Sumiko, "Before you came up to me... You had seen him well before you pointed it out to me."
"So? Wai-wait WAIT...!" She pointed at all of them. "Names. Now. All of you guys, even the ones that are not talking. I'm Hirakawa Sumiko. Now go, starting from that quiet guy over there." She demands, pointing at Masamune to the next person.
"Takano Masamune."
"Takatsuki Shinobu."
"Riemi!"
"Kamijou Hiroki."
"Shizukesa," she points at the little bear, "Arashi," Shizukesa answers.
"Mio!"
"Takahashi Misaki."
"Onodera Ritsu."
"Shiori."
"Chiemi."
"Yokozawa Takafumi."
"Okay, thank you!" Now back to before," Sumiko looks at Takafumi, "So?"
From around the corner, three pairs of eyes watch as the group continued to converse.
"Should we present ourselves? What do you think, Kotone?"
"I don't see Haruka-chan, Hibiki..." Small brown pigtails bounced as the doll looks up at their master. "What do you want to do?"
"I don't know- I'm just stunned that Yokozawa-san is a master... and that somehow Takano-san's apart of it."
"Well, hurry and get over it so we can say hi," Hibiki says impatiently.
Meanwhile, Kotone touches her master's hands worriedly. "Are you feeling okay? With the two of us..."
"It's fine. Just as long as Yukina doesn't get involved."
"This is strange though," Kotone brushes her hands against the two rings, pulling back the sleeves of her kimono, "None of us has ever shared a master before..."
Sorry, this was a while and it's a short chapter.
I had something else written, but then I hit backspace and it didn't save and then I gave up and...
*flips table*