The SSS was chasing Lechter for Detective Emma's request. He had successfully eluded their grasp two times, once in Long Lao and once on top of the Times Department Store. This time, they wouldn't let him go away.

The four of them entered Barca Casino and looked around. Finding no clue of Lechter on the first floor, they went up to the second floor and immediately saw Lechter playing the slot.

"Forget walls. Dogi, you're crushing my hopes of ever hittin' a real jackpot. What's it gonna take for me to line up some Feenas and rake in the REAL mira?"

"There's nowhere left to run, Lechter."

"Please surrender and confirm your identity."

Lloyd and Elie demanded the red-haired intelligence officer.

Lechter just glanced at them, hands still on the machine. "My i-den-ti-ty... Identity, identity... Which one to use..."

"Just be honest for once in your life..." Lloyd sighed. He really was elusive.

"I'll tell you what. Ask me anything, and I'll answer with a simple yes or no," Lecther offered a compromise.

"Fine. Have it your way. First question, are you Lechter Arundel, second secretary for the Imperial government?" Lloyd started. Elie, beside him, prepared her notes to dictate what Lechter said word to word.

"Yes," Lechter nodded in confirmation.

"Second, are you also a captain of the Imperial Intelligence Division?"

"Yes," Lechter answered Lloyd's question with another confirmation.

He actually admitted it... Lloyd was amazed by what Lechter had just said.

"My turn," Elie continued from him. "Is the purpose of your current visit officially related to your duties within the Imperial government?"

"Yes... and no."

So he might be visiting for two different purposes, then.

"Do you intend to stay for more than a month?"

"Haha... The answer is no. I'll be leaving in a week," Lechter replied with a chuckle.

Lloyd glanced at Elie, who shook her head. So they probably won't get anything further, then. At the least, they had confirmed his identity for the support request.

"Sorry to have troubled you, CAPTAIN Arundel," Lloyd injected a bit of sass to his words.

"Thank you for your cooperation."

"No problemo. Oh, by the way... How's the kiddo doing? You took her in, right?" Lechter shifted the conversation again, just like before his escape. Narrowing his eyes, Lloyd replied warily.

"KeA? She's fine."

"I suppose we should thank you for your help that night," Elie said with a grateful smile to Lechter.

"You did help us make our grand escape," Wazy chimed in from behind.

"Hmm? I don't know what you're talking about. I spent the night playing with my dearest new friend, Noire," Lechter smiled without care, referring to the cat of one of the auction's attendees. So that was his stance for the auction, huh? "That reminds me. You guys reeled in Old Man Hartmann, yeah? The last thing I expected was for him to end up in a hostage situation. I know you were just there to make an arrest, but thanks for that."

Lloyd was a little taken by surprise. "So, you know about that."

"It hasn't even been three days since those two were arrested..." Noel trailed off in amazement at Lechter's reveal.

"Well, confirming that was one of my reasons for coming here," Lechter easily revealed. "And the other one is-"

"Oh, there you are! What'cha up to in here?" An unfamiliar voice reached Lloyd's ears as Lechter's face turned towards it. From behind them, a crimson-haired girl with a stark appearance that caught his eyes suddenly approached Lechter. "Weren't you supposed to be buying me some Arc en Ciel tickets? So, what's going on here?!"

Lechter casually replied with a grin, "Chill. I scored some VIP tickets for the evening performance. Don't forget to thank me."

"Really?! Thanks! I've been DYING to go!"

Throughout the time the crimson-haired girl talked, Lloyd couldn't help but closely scrutinize the girl. She looked... out of place in Crossbell. It might be because her association with Lechter means she was an outsider herself. And that shade of hair...

Feeling herself being looked at, the girl turned her head to look at Lloyd.

"Oh?"

Lloyd awkwardly smiled when she smirked at him. "Can I help you?"

"That scent... That smell is so...nostalgic."

Before Lloyd could respond, the girl quickly went to his side and bit his earlobe. Lloyd shuddered at her speed and accuracy.

"W-Wait!"

"Eeeh?!"

Elie and Noel looked scandalized while Wazy whistled in appreciation.

"Wh-What was that for?!" Lloyd slightly raised his voice, startled by her sudden attack on his body parts.

"Heehee. Thanks for the taste. Yeah. You definitely got the smell," she nodded to herself, ignoring his question. "I can't really smell it on those two, but..."

She leaned towards Elie and sniffed her. "You've got a little bit of it, too!"

"Huh?"

With an agility that surpassed his eyes, the crimson-haired girl appeared behind Elie and started squeezing her chest.

"Ahhhh!"

"Elie!" Lloyd shouted in concern. That settled it. This girl was dangerous. To be able to go behind Elie in an instant...

Lloyd bit his lip.

As he stewed in his thoughts, the girl continued copping a feel on Elie. "Ohhh... Aren't you the lucky one? I've got nothing on you that I'm starting to get jealous!"

"W-W-Wha?"

"Haha, What a wonderful view."

Noel was still overwhelmed by the situation while Wazy opened his eyes as wide as he could.

"P-Please stop...!"

Elie's cries of stop caught Lloyd's attention.

"Miss, can't you see that you're making Elie uncomfortable. Please stop," Lloyd flashed his CPD badge.

"Haha. She really does whatever she wants. But if you keep it up, you're gonna get arrested for sexual harassment, ya know," only after Lloyd flashed his badge that Lechter joined the conversation. Truly a paragon for all intelligence officers.

"Huh? It's not sexual harassment. I'm only gettin' to know her!" The girl tried to dodge the accusation.

Lloyd bit his lip. There was Lechter here with them. Should he reveal it? After half a second of consideration, he decided to do it.

"Maybe in the Red Constellation, it isn't. But here in Crossbell, it is considered sexual harassment because the other party does not consent."

The relaxed situation turned serious when Lloyd mentioned the name of the most famous Jaeger Corps.

"R-Red Constellation?"

"The infamous Jaeger Corps..."

"Oh? So Dolphy has told you about me?" There was an undertone of interest behind her words.

By Dolphy, did she mean Randy? Good one. He might use it to obfuscate the truth even further. Randy hadn't told them anything. Despite Juna's warning, Randy still hadn't felt comfortable enough to trust the SSS with his full background, so it was all conjecture. Still... this was the route he decided to go for.

"Not so much. But he did tell us to be wary of his relatives," Lloyd said with a smile, hiding his anxiety. He could be more specific if he could glean more insight from limited information like Juna, but alas... he had to make do with doing his best to emulate Juna.

"Ahahaha! So Dolphy really told you about me!" The girl grinned. "Nice to meet you, Mister. Name's Shirley!"

"I wanted to say it's nice to meet you, but I'd be lying. What are the Red Constellation doing in Crossbell?"

Before Shirley could reply, Lechter interrupted. "Welp. That's our cue to go, Shirley. I'm gonna live it up at Mishelam tonight until I drop."

"Aw... I was just starting to have fun. Oh well, See ya, Mister."

The two then left the SSS alone inside the casino, though not before Lechter gave Lloyd one last look. Of course, the man had to break the awkwardness with a playful wink as a parting shot.

Once Lechter and Shirley were out, Lloyd exhaled a long breath.

"Whew. That was intense."

"L-Lloyd?" Elie asked him with concern. He looked around to see confusion in Noel's eyes while Wazy smiled mysteriously.

"Let's report to Detective Emma and go home first before I explain." He didn't want to repeat his previous carelessness of talking about Juna in an open place where somebody could eavesdrop.

The four SSS members nodded before going to the CPD Headquarters to report their findings. Of course, they omitted the part about Lloyd recognizing Shirley. When he reported the questioning, Lloyd described Shirley without mentioning her name. Not that Lloyd was trying to undermine the First Division, but telling them about it would just raise their suspicion. Sure, he could use the same excuse that Randy told the other members, assuming that the First Division knew of Randy's background, but he did not want to sell his teammate to the First Division's questioning like that. Let them reach a conclusion of their own.

After they finished reporting things to Detective Emma, Lloyd and the others went back home for him to explain things to the others.

"So..." Elie started once they sat down on the sofa.

Lloyd nodded. "Right. Elie. Remember what Juna said we'd face?"

Elie's eyes widened at his question. "R-Right. Juna said the SSS will face Red Constellation in the future. Lloyd, that's..."

"Correct. That's one of the reasons we temporarily disbanded as a group. We wanted to improve ourselves so that we can be ready when the time comes. It looks like the time is soon."

Wazy hummed at the bits of information while Noel opened her mouth.

"Excuse me, but why did Juna say that?"

Lloyd chuckled. "It's a long story. Just take it at face value for a while. I'll explain it later when we have more free time."

"Alright," Wazy nodded in understanding. "Then, can you please explain how you know the girl is part of Red Constellation? They're famous, but even I personally don't have any connection to the Jaeger's scene, so I don't know their appearance."

"Didn't Randy tell you?"

"No, that was a bluff," Elie answered Noel's question. "Randy hadn't told us anything about the Red Constellation."

"Correct. And I personally haven't read the report on them," Lloyd revealed with a sheepish laugh. "However, following Juna's advice, it was a fifty-fifty guess whether she was Lechter's relative or Randy's. And her shade of red resembles Randy more, so I took a gamble."

Elie gasped. "That's right, the Hayworth case!"

Nodding, Lloyd began to explain to Wazy and Noel, who looked confused about what the two were talking about. "You see, Juna once correctly guessed someone was someone else's daughter just from the hair color. When we asked, even Juna herself couldn't explain, but so far, Juna's weird advice was mostly correct, even though they had no logical basis. I think I'll lend you two the full reports of the cult incident's investigation. You'll see lots of traces Juna left behind."

"How...? Hair color?"

"I don't understand, but please continue."

Noel and Wazy were definitely confused when he said hair color.

"Okay, so, aside from her hair color, there was her action when she met us," Lloyd continued, making Elie's face reddened in embarrassment. "She allegedly smelled something that only stuck with me and Elie, while she didn't say anything about Noel and Wazy, the new SSS member. What did the two of us have that the two new members don't? That is the proximity to Randy. With that in mind, I concluded that there was a chance that Shirley was from the Red Constellation despite Randy never telling us anything. I had a decision to make. Do I reveal my hand here or not? Should I tell her that I know the Red Constellation now even though we'd definitely clash in the future?" Lloyd closed his eyes and sighed. "My decision is yes. Part of it is because Lechter is there."

"Lechter?"

"Why?"

Elie and Noel questioned him.

"Ever since the auction, Lechter seemed a little too interested in how we knew about the trunk. We hid the fact that it was Juna who told us by deceiving him, but I think he caught that we lied to him. Despite that, he still helped us, so I felt a little bad ...until he revealed that he was an intelligence officer today. So because of that, I had to reveal that I know Shirley is from the Red Constellation."

"I see... I didn't get the full picture, but I think I know what you're trying to do," Wazy nodded to himself. "You're trying to divert Lechter's attention from Juna. If you feigned ignorance while still being wary, Lechter might catch that you're playing ignorance. So you opted to go all in to hide Juna."

Lloyd nodded. "Even if I had to paint a target in my back, it's better me than Juna. Of course, it's not foolproof. Lechter might be thinking that somebody, the same person who fed us info about the trunk, told me about the Red Constellation. Thankfully, Shirley didn't catch my bluff and even revealed her connection to Randy, vindicating my gambit."

Noel frowned and pointed out something. "I don't remember her telling her relation... You guessed it first."

Lloyd scratched his cheek. "Ah... that was me pulling Juna, though not perfectly. Shirley revealed a nickname, Dolphy. It indicates familiarity. Seeing her hair color and familiarity with Randy, I extrapolated that she was a relative of him, though I don't know their exact relation."

Elie's face lit up with a smile. "You fooled her twice. First about the Red Constellation and second about her relationship with Randy. She was taken by your correct guess that she didn't question why you said relative instead of a specific familial relation."

"Yes. Thank Aidios, she didn't catch it. I had to divert by asking about her purpose here, which Lechter cut off, giving me a breathing room to relax," Lloyd finished his recount.

"Whoa..."

"Hmmmm..."

Noel had a starstruck expression while Wazy was looking at him with interest.

Elie sighed. "Sorry, Lloyd. I was taken off-guard. Diplomacy should be my thing, especially fresh after helping Grandpa."

Lloyd shook his head. "No need to be sorry, Elie. That situation was so sudden, even I was caught off-guard too by her assault."

To be honest, having your earlobe bitten by a girl younger than you was embarrassing.

"Fufu, but that gave us quite the spectacle... right, Lloyd?"

Elie's face reddened even further by Wazy's teasing, but Lloyd just blinked.

"Ah... to be honest, I didn't see what happened properly. I was thinking about what to do and only heard Elie's..." Okay, Elie moaned; it was as simple as that. But there was no way Lloyd could consciously say that in front of her!

"Haha... So you are embarrassed about it, too, huh?" Wazy shamelessly laughed at the situation he had created.

"Ahaha..." Noel laughed awkwardly, not knowing how to react.

"I-In any case, we don't know what the deal is between the Imperial Intelligence Division and the Red Constellation Jaeger Corps, but we need to expect anything that could happen," Lloyd took a deep breath. "Now that we've finished the request with Lechter let's contact Chief Sergei to see if it's time for his request yet."

Just in time, Lloyd's Enigma rang, and Lloyd picked up the call. It was Sergei who told the SSS to go to the Police Academy. As planned, they would go exterminate the monster before continuing their way to the Police Academy.

A/N: Here it is! I actually wanted to publish this yesterday but I forgot. So we got to the first payoff of Juna's presence and prediction! I present you, Lloyd pulling off another Juna moment and get the situation to be more serious than it was in canon! Also, I deliberately made Shirley not saying her last name, if you're still confused why Noel don't know they're related. By the way, I find it weird that the SSS really don't know anything about the Red Constellation (except Randy by virtue of being ex-member) despite them being one of the more famous Jaeger Corps in canon. Anyway, Randy still not telling them despite Juna's prediction is just Lloyd not wanting to push his friend to say anything he doesn't want. But it doesn't excuse him not reading the report from the police database smh Lloyd. At least now he knows not to talk about serious matter outside their own turf. It just took a kidnapping to open his eyes.