For those of you who didn't get it, the manga is Karakuri Doji Ultimo, a collaboration between Shaman King's creator Hiroyuki Takei and the infamous Stan Lee. I'm a fan of Hiroyuki Takei, so of course I use this one, duh. Sorry, ladies.

/= [DAY 79] =/

The six of them were running through the hallways waiting for something to happen. Around them, the sounds of the Evil doji masters (god, why is Charice using this realm's terminology?) began to rise up, making her extremely worried about a war that might end up destroying the place.

Who could be the doll of the ultimate goodness? It's not like there's any indication…

Something exploded next to them, making her scream bloody murder and cling onto Matthew. Kiku and Erika ran into the room first, seeing a rather surprising sight. Feliciano was on the ground, in the strange mechanical attire and Antonio smiling over him while holding his soul in his hands yet not bonding to him. A few feet away, Rizal was glaring at them at the door.

"Feli!"

Suddenly, Rizal lifted his gauntlet and shot them across the hallway. The other four ran into the room and saw Rizal glowing into a spider-like form and showered over them. Lovino turned his head and saw Antonio look at him with a sad smile, still holding Feliciano's soul in his hands.

"Ah, Lovino…I'm glad that we can see each other like this."

"F-fratello…"

"Dammit…just what the fuck are you doing?"

"Oh, I see…we're on opposite sides, aren't we? This is just what I have to do…" He looked back at Feliciano. "You could've joined me, Lovino…we could've been great together."

"What the fuck is wrong with you?"

"I've seen you. Ever since you and Charice started talking to each other, you've been distancing yourself from me…" Antonio lifted up Feliciano, still holding his soul. He could hear him moan from pain. "I've loved you for so long, and yet you can just walk away from me…what does she have that I don't?"

Antonio looked mad, Lovino looked stunned, and Charice was absolutely confused.

"Hey, um…aren't you dating Antonio?"

"N-no…"

"Wait…you're seriously not attracted to me, are you?"

"Well…wait, WHAT THE FUCK!" Lovino shook his arm. " Bullcrap! Bull! Crap! You're just trying to confuse me right now! She is a best friend! BEST.FRIEND."

"Yeah, because this is totally a lifetime that gays and lesbians can be open you know!"

"CHARICE!"

"In another life, we could've been together…" Antonio looked at Feliciano. "Rizal."

He charged toward them, making them jump out of the way. As his spider tentacles started lunging toward all of them, Kiku and Vash tried their best to counter them as the others tried to get to Antonio. Suddenly, a gunshot echoed out in the air, and they turned to see Ludwig aiming a pistol straight at Antonio.

"Put him down."

"Ah…Ludwig…" He smiled. "Nice of you to join us."

"Put. Him. Down."

Oh god, Nazi Germany and Sociopathic Antonio… Charice wanted to cry behind Matthew, but he was already crying behind her.

All of a sudden, there was a great movement. There was a crushing sound and a great scream of pain before Rizal and Antonio moved out of the room. Vash tried to go after him, but couldn't after he heard Erika scream. Everyone turned their heads to see Feliciano's empty body, his soul cracked in two and lying next to him.

"Feli…" Kiku paused.

"I-I can still save him…!" Matthew looked up. "I can, really!"

Charice watched as Matthew took the two halves and placed them together in his gauntlets, willing them together with all his strength. After a few minutes, he looked up and saw that the soul had been fused back together. He smiled at his accomplishment, allowing Charice to kiss him on the forehead. He turned to Ludwig.

"He can still be saved."

"Good…" He took it. "I'm not losing him again."

Ludwig lightly pressed the ball back into his chest as he placed a kiss on his lover's lips (much to Lovino's protest). There was a light glow unlike what she saw earlier, and when it faded he saw that Feliciano had started moving and was now wrapping his arms around his frame.

"Are you all right?" He asked.

"Ve~~~I'm all right, Doitsu…" Feliciano answered, holding the arm that had saved him. "Thank you for saving me…"

"Che…they always have to shower each other with love, don't they-"

He turned his head and saw that no one else was paying attention, either too busy going through fangirl spazzes or taking pictures or just wishing for them to just make out right there. Vash was the only one with a level head, who gestured for him to go to the hideout for the ones on his side. All Lovino had to do was nod.

/=+=/

There were three other sets there when they entered the hideout. One of them was quickly identified as Li Xiao, to which Charice and Kiku quickly went to state their happiness. Ludwig and Feliciano stayed close to each other as they saw Elizabeta chirp and head toward them with a smile.

"Thank goodness you two are safe!" She stated. "I was worried that you'd be caught in the crossfire…or worse, be stuck on the opposing side!"

"Ja. I heard that the Bad Touch Trio was on the other side…" Ludwig shivered.

"Antonio attacked me…said that he was jealous of Lovino's attention or something…" Feliciano stated. "I…I don't know what that means."

"Whatever Arthur is doing is revealing the inner emotions of people…" Roderich stated, propping up his glasses with the huge gauntlets he had. "When it matches, they are forced to be players of this game."

"Speaking of which, what's the piece that you are?" Kiku asked.

"I am the piece known as Slow." He pointed at Elizabeta. "And she is my master."

"…Slow?" Charice looked at them. "Is that…supposed to mean something?"

"In more ways than one."

"ELIZA!"

"Daaaaang, seriously?"

"T-this is getting weird."

"No shit." Lovino turned to Li Xiao. "Anything on what's supposed to happen?"

"Not yet. We're going by what Kiku's saying right now. This is pure manga orders now." He answered. "You doing OK there, Ion?"

"It's hard trying to dispel something like this at such a high scale." The Romanian answered, his gauntlets glowing as of casting a spell. "We may be spell casters, but Arthur's level is higher than mine…this will take a while."

"That's fine." Li Xiao looked back up.

"So let's just figure out who's here right now." Kiku stated. "I've written out a list of who's here right now, and tried to match them up with the actual one from my manga…"

"How is it?" Erika leaned in.

"Well, this is all I got."

[Ludwig] + Feliciano = Ultimo

[Lin Yi Ling] + Tino = Service

[Lovino] + Vash = Regla

[Charice] + Matthew = Pardonner

[Elizabeta] + Roderich = Slow

[Li Xiao] + Ion = Goge

[Kiku] + Erika = Sophia

"Seems simple enough."

"Wait, Lin Yi?" Charice looked up. "She's on our side?"

"Yes. Remember seeing her earlier? She definitely had Service with her." He answered. "Because Francis was Desir…lust."

"Ah."

"We should take a break and wait for Lin Yi to come back." Ludwig stated. "Everyone stay here until she comes."

/=+=/

Charice and Lovino sat alone in one of the teacher's lounges as the others were outside in the hallway or in the meeting hall with Ludwig and Feliciano. She knew that he was utterly confused on what Antonio had said earlier, knowing that this was something that wasn't in his world. Nothing that Lovino faced before…

"Lovi-chan?" She leaned forward. "You want to talk about it?"

"…what the fuck did he mean by that?" He looked up. "He loves me? In the same way the English bastard and the burger bastard do?"

"Um…I want to say so…because he was jealous of you being around me." Charice answered. "Did you tell him that you were straight?"

"I told him nothing." He looked up. "Besides, aren't all nations bi?"

"I'm straight." Charice pointed at herself. "Rizal's the bi. Though…I'm glad that even in this messed up world, he's able to trust Antonio to make him his master…"

"Is that what you're glad about?"

"If you've seen the both of them in the same room from the past eight hundred years, then you'd understand."

Lovino thought about it for a few minutes before understanding what Charice was talking about. He didn't need eight hundred years…he only needed the past three. After a few minutes, Lovino shook his head and sighed.

"I need to sleep."

"I'll wake you up when they need us."

He nodded before falling asleep almost immediately. Charice looked up at the clock and realized that it was already noon, sighing before leaning back on the couch and staring at the ceiling. This whole week had to be some messed up son-of-a-freaking-crap, isn't it? The murderer would take full advantage of a nation's soul sticking out of their chest.

Unless…Arthur was the murderer?

Charice rubbed the back of her head. Why would she think of something like that? He was a victim, wasn't he? The one who was drowned in the river? Even if he was going to fake his own death, he didn't know that Charice had a way of knowing who the next victim was at the time. He would die a real death anyway. The only way for this to work was if he was only being used by the actual killer…like a tool being discarded for another one?

Maybe that was the murderer? Nothing more than a tool for the real one?

It wouldn't be that weird. She's seen some video games that had that plot: the main villain being nothing more than a pawn for the big baddie that had a bigger plot than whatever the heck the villain was thinking up. It would explain why the murderer suddenly switched his view from Feliciano to Ludwig…but not why he went back to Feliciano. Maybe Ludwig was the murderer before Feliciano offed him for being the new tool…then who offed Feli-chan?

Well, she could save the entire thing and just say that it was just another person in the school that she didn't look into yet that had her powers. Sure, it would up the suspect count to a few hundred, but it would make a lot more sense when it comes to availability. She couldn't help but wonder if everyone else had figured this out already.

"…ngh…"

She looked up and realized that Lovino was shifting in his sleep, looking like he was in pain. Confused, she stood up and walked up to him, watching as he was writhing even more and is even holding his breath and letting go in the strangest of ways. Charice had no idea what his problem was, so she decided to pull his curl for an automatic wake-up call. It works for Feli-chan.

"…A-Antonio…"

Well, that worked wonders.

The curl pulling only made him writhe even more, letting out another held breath that made her even more confused. One more pull and the same reaction later, she finally got it. She scrambled out the door and slammed it after, face as red as it will ever be.

"C-Charice?" Matthew blinked. "W-what's wrong?"

"You look pale." Kiku stated.

"…um…"

"What's up?" Elizabeta looked up.

"…I, uh…I think I just walked into someone's wet dream."

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

"Who's in there?"

"ELIZA!"

/=+=/

I think I just started a saga without thinking about it. Don't worry, I plan to end this next time. Seriously.