Screw it. I'm going into the subplot. GET READY, LADIES (and the two / three dudes that are probably reading this)~!

/= [DAY 66] =/

"Ah…hello there, Charice."

"Eh?" She looked up. "Oh, hey there…Francis." *chill down the spine* "H-how are you?"

"I wanted to escort you to school today."

Oh. Freakin' awesome. "Um…sure?" She took a step forward. "Why?"

"Can't a gentleman escort a young lady to her destination without reason?"

For you? No. "Um…whatever, I guess. We should get going."

"After you."

"Um…no. After YOU."

Francis chuckled as he stepped forward, walking slowly and allowing Charice to follow closely by. She chuckled for a few minutes she started the day like she did any other day: grabbing her iPod and heading out the door. Of course, this time the volume is put down in case Francis starts making mating calls…

/= "It Only Hurts" by Default =/

"…Francis didn't touch you?"

"No, not really." Charice blinked. "It's shocking, really."

Rizal blinked again at the rather shocked look on her face, and couldn't blame her: it was Francis. What else could be any weirder than a Frenchman that doesn't go on a raping scheme? Besides, he didn't even bother to look at her boobs that time.

"Eh? Oh, it's you two."

They looked up and saw a stumbling Ludwig walking toward them, trying to keep himself straight and rubbing his eyes as of not really tired. Rizal quickly rose to his feet and headed to his side, his arms out to catch him and Ludwig making no move to get him out of the way.

"You're tired, Ludwig." He stated.

"No, I'm…fine." Ludwig straightened himself. "I…just fell asleep late…that's all."

"Ludwig, you can barely stand." Rizal stated, his face covered with worry. "You're not fine."

"Rizal…"

"You need sleep." He commanded. "Please don't push yourself."

"…OK…"

Ludwig slowly stood up again and headed off toward the dormitories, leaving the both of them alone. After a few seconds, Charice looked up and saw him quickly dash off after him.

What was that about?

/= "It Only Hurts" by Default=/

"So there's no one for the Newspaper Club meeting today."

"Nope, not really. I felt bad, so I'm joining you." She looked around. "I thought that Rizal would be here."

"Well, I think he's watching over Ludwig." He stated.

Charice blinked as she and Kiku were eating alone in the newspaper room, their bento boxes shining in the white light. They ate in silence, and she could see that there was a strange cloud of worry over Kiku's eyes. Fortunately for her, the cloud didn't give her strange chills.

"Are you OK?" She blinked.

"Charice…have you talked to any of them recently?" He asked.

"Talked to them? Um…a little bit. Why?"

"Did…did they tell you anything?"

"Hm?"

"Ludwig and Feliciano have been losing sleep for no reason. Whenever I tried to ask them, they don't tell me anything." He looked down at the bento box. "We were such close friends back then…what happened?"

"I don't know. From what they have told me, they haven't even told each other."

"Eh? T-they've told you what the problem was?"

"I don't know why either. I figured it was because it was a side-effect of being the Wild Card." She stated. "They said that it had something to do with nightmares."

"…nightmares."

"Feli-chan told me that his nightmares involved watching everyone die slowly and painfully before his eyes, which is reasonable. As for Ludwig, he hadn't told me anything past that."

"I see…so it was something that I couldn't help them with…"

"But I can't help them either. So why would they tell me all this if not because I'm the Wild Card?"

"At least they told you…"

"Don't worry about it, Kiku. Now that you know, you can help them."

"…yes, yes indeed."

She nodded with a smile on her face, a smile that made Kiku smile as well. There was just…something about her that would always make him smile, no matter what. After a few minutes, they had finished their lunches and looked up to see Francis at the door.

"Hello there, you two."

"Hello there, Francis."

"Is it OK if I borrow Charice for a minute? I need to ask her a few questions."

"Oh, OK." She turned her head. "Kiku?"

"I'll be fine." He smiled. "Now that I know what is wrong, I'll need to figure out what to do."

"Right." She smiled. "You have my number. Text me when you need anything."

"OK…"

/= "Meteor Shower" by Owl City=/

They were talking about how each of the group members had been taken into the Persona group (they've yet to get a name), taking great interest in how Arthur and Alfred joined in the crowd, and he was surprised that neither Charice nor Li Xiao had joined in like the others had been.

"You didn't have to face yourself?" He asked.

"No. Neither did Li Xiao. In fact, I've been rallied up by him." She pointed out. "He had done this with Carlos before he got murdered."

"I see…Carlos had known this too?"

"Yes. According to Li Xiao, I must've inherited the stuff that he was able to do…though what that means, I'm not quite sure."

"Ce que…quite interesting."

"Yeah, yeah indeed." She sighed. "It was with Kiku that we learned that we can save people that have died."

"Save…? You didn't see it with Mathieu?"

"Actually, he fell into the world instead of being forced in." She pointed out. "So he wasn't killed horribly, thank god."

"I see…that's good." He smiled. "I didn't want to hear about it…"

"OK…I wasn't going to tell you anything, anyway."

He nodded in appreciation, smiling at the fact that Charice had thought about him (and not as a pervert). He chuckled at the concerned smile on her face before turning his head and seeing a figure that was staggering toward them in exhaustion. Charice gasped as he collapsed into her arms.

"Feli-chan!" She gasped. "W-what's wrong?"

"Ve…I'm tired…" He mumbled. "I was trying to find a place to sleep…"

"Oh, my baby." She kissed his forehead. "You were probably pushing yourself too hard this entire time…you need sleep…"

"Ve…I know…"

"Hold on…Francis, help me."

"Of course, of course…"

He straddled Feliciano's arms onto Charice's shoulders, and they both staggered toward the dormitories while making sure that he just doesn't pass out in the hallway. After a few minutes, they saw Rizal walking toward them with a confused look on his face.

"Kuya?" She blinked.

"Eh? Ate?" He turned to them (a little tense toward Francis). "Hey, have you seen Ludwig?"

"Eh? You lost him?"

"No, I saw him go into his dorm room…but when I checked up on him a few minutes later, he left the door open and wasn't there anymore." He sighed. "I'm worried that he passed out somewhere."

"He might be back in his dormitory." Charice smiled. "We'll go look for Ludwig. You escort Feli-chan back there."

"All right. Text me when you find him.

She stared at them for a few minutes as she escorted Feliciano onto Rizal's arms and watched them waddle away before turning toward Francis, who shrugged, and headed off to find the wandering German who might've been anywhere. That's when she heard something.

"Hah?"

"Hm? What's wrong?" Francis paused.

"Hah~! It's just my iPod."

She lifted up the iPod and decided to turn it off, seeing that it died of battery power instead. She rolled her eyes and returned back to wobbling through the hallways. Suddenly, her iPod shot back on (playing a different song?), and her blood froze. At the same time, she saw a Post-It on the nearest door handle.

"Eh?" Francis lifted up the Post-It. "The words are typed."

"On a Post-It?"

"Yeah…" He stared at it. "This is all I can do to protect you…can you forgive me?"

At the same time, she saw a strange mist coming out of the bottom of the door. Francis gestured her to move out of the way and threw the door open, being greeted by a huge wall of smoke. But for some reason, she didn't hear flames on the other side.

"Dry ice…?" She blinked.

"Stay here. I'll open the windows."

Charice stared Francis ran into the room, throwing the first window open with some difficulty (it was locked, but by the looks of it Francis still had some magic skill on him). He took a few deep breaths before throwing up the other windows. The mist slowly aired out, and Francis did not leave.

"Francis?" She stepped in. "Francis?"

Charice stepped into the room and was immediately bombarded with the smell of blood. She was about to confirm the worst when she saw that Francis was on the stairway of the low descending room, his skin already pale. Nothing else had to alarm her about the body in the room.

He was face-up on the ground, his eyes fortunately closed, as four cuts dug deep in his body. She couldn't help but see the familiar curves and lines on the otherwise big figure: she had seen it on a map before. The mist finally cleared to reveal his face, and she froze.

It was Ludwig Beillschmidt.

Barely had five seconds of screaming happened that Li Xiao had literally slammed himself on the doorway, looking down at the both of them. He quickly ran to Charice's side, holding her as she sobbed in fear and panic, his eyes turning slightly to Francis to see that he wasn't running anywhere.

"You're…not running."

"This is the same man that went after Arthur, isn't he?"

"…yes."

They stared at each other for a few minutes before Li Xiao dropped the whole conversation and looked back at Charice, who was still panicking about Ludwig's body. She shook her head and started to rub her face.

"We have to get the others…"

"They're all over the place." Li Xiao answered. "I was with Kiku, so he should be coming. But the others…"

"Let me handle this."

They turned to Francis who started muttering something underneath his breath. His fingertips were glowing (nothing big, of course), leaving the other two to look at each other and wait in worried fear for the others to rush toward this location.

"This was different, Li Xiao."

"Different?" He blinked.

"I had a song on my iPod that I was listening to…and then it changed the minute I bumped into Feliciano." She looked up. "The murderer changed his target at the last minute."

"…this isn't good."

The others were suddenly swarming into the room within seconds. Antonio and Gilbert made no remarks, but the others were surprised to see Francis in the room, and that he had no intent of screaming bloody murder down the hallways telling the world that Germany was dead. As Arthur grilled him for information, the others turned to the body.

"Good god, bruder…you said you were OK." Gilbert shook his head. "FUCK!"

"Geez…after seeing the potato bastard like this, I'm suddenly not entertained." Lovino spat.

"God, I can't even imagine how much he suffered…"

"No, he didn't suffer much."

Li Xiao and Charice looked up to see Matthew walk between them and take a closer look at his body. As his fingers lightly skimmed over him, she saw his eyes were intent, as of looking for something. His fingertips were glowing, which could only mean one thing…

"Look, there's a cut deep in his neck." He pointed at it. "It's used by hunters to make merciful killings…quick and painless."

"But it wouldn't explain the four cuts here." Li Xiao said, actually shivering. "It makes him look like a map of the Potsdam Agreement. And the blood…"

"That's what I don't get…the cuts mean that he was still alive when this happened." Matthew stood up. "It's like he went for a merciful killing and decided to be merciless at the last minute…"

"So bruder made a spitting last comment, huh?" Gilbert chuckled.

"That's what I want to assume…"

His hands touched the board, erupting into a portal that was big enough for all of them to fit in. Gilbert and Antonio were the first people in, with Alfred and Kiku jumping in soon after. Charice was about to join them when she heard Arthur ending the conversation.

"You're seriously not planning on joining us, are you bloody frog?" He spat.

"Of course not. I plan to stay here with the body." Francis answered (serious, for once). "Someone has to make sure that no one sees what happened, right?"

"Oh please, don't tell me you're going to sneak the bastard into a closet or something. He's BLOODY bleeding!"

"Oh, no no no…I'm not going to do something like that." He chuckled. "I'm doing something that you are quite familiar with."

"Tch…don't tell me that you're going to try using magic…?" Arthur shook his head with a sneer. "Please remember who uses the magic around here."

"And please remember who was the one who taught you?"

Francis' fingertips started glowing, telling Arthur that it was safe to leave him be. Everyone else went into the portal save for Charice, who looked worried toward Francis before stepping into the portal.

/=+=/

I was going to do Soviet Union…and then my inner GerIta fangirl found the shotgun and the old Mary Sue fanfiction that I had DX