Exception
By: Aviantei
42. TRIangular/QUADrilateral: The Almost Finale
Meanwhile, back at the dance-off, there was a distinct sense of tension going on—one that was bad enough that even Johnny could sense it without being in the crossfire. Ari and Lavi were still giving dance-off commentary, but their usual ease as siblings was much more stilted than usual. And that was to say nothing about Lenalee tapping her foot under the table with an increasing sense of irritation as the competition went on. Though she was supposed to be a judge, her eyes kept flickering across the crowd, searching for something in the ballroom.
"Um, Lenalee?" Johnny asked in a whisper, leaning close enough to be heard among everything else that was going on. "Are you okay?" He supposed that some MPHS turning her dance with Allen into some kind of flirting was weird (which was probably why Ari wasn't all that pleased), but Ivy tagging out was weirder, too. There was just a mountain load of context that Johnny was missing.
Lenalee seemed to snap back to herself, though her smile wasn't all that convincing. Johnny raised an eyebrow, and Lenalee decided that acting like she was okay wasn't all that worth it. "I don't know who that Noah chick is, but if Ivy got Allen out of there, something has to be going on." Road Kamelot just gave off a vibe that Lenalee didn't trust, and she had pretty good instincts for people. "I wouldn't be worried, but I haven't seen Allen or her or even Ivy around since they left, so…" Oh, and she was simmering about seeing some stranger flirt with Allen so publicly, but that was a whole other matter altogether.
Ari's mind was in a similar state, though maybe she was on a bit more of a vindictive streak, and Lavi was worked up into far more of a panic. He'd asked Tyki to help with keeping his fellow Noah away from Allen if at all possible, but there was no sign of success on that front. And from their position on the stage, the Bookman siblings had a much better vantage point to know that none of the concerned parties were present in the ballroom.
Ivy's there, Ari was thinking. She wouldn't have interfered with that dance if she didn't know that something was up. But having her fight our battle for us doesn't feel good at all. And, well, she was a part of their friend group; leaving her and Allen in potential danger wasn't something that any of them wanted to do. Assembling the Squad to help would have been the first priority in any other situation, except now…
Except now there was a dance-off in progress, and a majority of that Squad were an essential part of it.
Johnny chewed his lip, also neglecting his overall duties as a dance competition judge. Judging by the number of participants that had signed up, they were close to the end of the first round, but this could go on for at least another hour—and based on everyone else's irritation, that seemed like way too long. Cutting off the dance competition whenever the Bookman siblings had started it would just turn into a MPHS victory, which was equally unacceptable. If they could delay things, though…
Johnny reached for his pocket, pulling out his phone and firing off a couple of rapid-fire messages. "Don't worry," he said, not providing a further explanation to Lenalee so that she would have deniability, "I've got you covered."
It was a rather dramatic scene, with one Allen Walker facing off against one of the most dangerous high school girls ever, Road Kamelot. Tyki Mikk was stuck observing, and he was in the middle of debating whether he wanted to stick around to make the cleanup of this potential disaster and avoid Road's wrath or if he wanted to say fuck it and escape. Of course, plenty of other dance goers were meandering about, but none of them seemed to realize the ticking time bomb of a couple of students talking in their midst, otherwise they would have been bolting, too.
The poor suckers.
"My name is Allen Walker," aforementioned Brit said, as polite as ever. He even put a hand up to his chest and dipped into a bow. Road gushed inside, her thoughts distracted by his adorable performance—not that it was a calculated move on Allen's part. "What's your name?"
Road's face flushed with heat, Allen's smile doing critical damage. She fidgeted of all things, and Tyki almost performed a double take at seeing Road seem so docile without it being a performance. If it weren't for the fact that Tyki wouldn't wish such a fate on anyone, he might have supported the couple just for the sake of helping Road chill the fuck out.
"I'm…Road… Road Kamelot."
Welp, the world will end today, Tyki thought. Should've gotten my affairs in order. Maybe there's still time to find someone worth making out with until the end. If death was near, he at least wanted to be able to enjoy his last moments to the fullest.
"Road, huh? That's a nice name." Allen took a few steps forward, closing the gap between them but still maintaining a healthy distance. Road wasn't even contemplating the advantage this new situation gave her, too happy to have an uninterrupted chance to talk with her crush. "That said, you've been causing some trouble for me and my friends. I'd like the chance to ask you stop."
The words hadn't been rude, but it was a clean request for Road to change out her behavior. Tyki had seen such poor souls attempt such a thing before. Yeah, sorry Red, he apologized. Even I don't think I can stop Road from the massacre that's about to happen.
"Trouble?" Road asked, switching into her innocent mode. Anyone who knew better wouldn't fall for it in the slightest, but Road worked on making sure not many people knew better. "I mean, I was trying to get to know you better, but I didn't mean to cause any trouble…"
"Yeah, I think we can agree that what you did was a pretty interesting way to 'get to know each other.'" Allen's tone was still polite, but the words were enough to make Road freeze. How much did he know? How did he even know in the first place? If there was anyone to blame, it had to be the Minomasu girl, which just shot her straight up Road's (s)hit list. "I don't know when you noticed me, but there had to be a better way to come and find me than following me to my school and orchestrating all of this." He gestured vaguely at the very much extensive dance hall around them.
"But how else was I supposed to do that? You're from Black Order and I'm from Millennium Private. Joining our dances together like this was the best strategy I could come up with to have a romantic Valentine's with you!" Road realized her slip of the tongue too late—she hadn't meant to make it obvious yet that she'd orchestrated this whole unprecedented joint school event. Of course, she saw nothing wrong with the fact that she'd made such an extra move in the first place. While Allen had been going strong, he was a bit too much caught off guard by the sheer scale of Road's shenanigans to cut in. Meanwhile, Road had decided to just go all in, stepping forward and clasping Allen's hands in her own. "I'm sorry if I bothered you, but I like you a lot, so will you please go out with me?!"
And at that precise moment, the lights in the entire ballroom venue went out, and then the screaming started.
The one good stroke of news in the beyond chaotic situation was that the screaming was just from general panic, rather than anything substantially dangerous. Not to mention that everyone was well equipped, so cellphones were whipped out and flashlights were turned on, creating an extensive blue light fueled glow throughout the main ballroom.
"Everyone, stay calm!" Reever was saying, carrying most of the weight for the other chaperones seeing as Lero was whipped up into his own state of panic and Komui was causing a majority of the ensuing racket in his pursuit of Lenalee's safety. "The exits are still lit up; please proceed towards them in a calm and orderly manner! We'll get someone to come check the power soon, so get outside where we can make sure we're all okay!"
The general atmosphere of the crowd was a mix between panic and disappointment. What the hell had just happened? Surely MPHS had enough money that they could have someone on hand to fix things like this, right? Are we going to get to finish the dance? Someone had to have sabotaged the power because their school was going to lose the dance off (speculative accusations thrown by both sides in the equation). Though the last one was the closest to the truth, just not in the way that anyone expected.
Because Johnny had called in a favor from some of his Science Club buddies to cause some (very temporary) tech issues) to give his friends some breathing room for—well, whatever they needed to do. Beside him, Lenalee was looking stunned, and he nudged her in the shoulder. "You need to go, right? So go ahead and go."
Lenalee stood to run off—but not before catching Johnny in a tight hug of gratitude. Then she sprinted off at a speed that no one in a dress that complicated had any right to do—but of course she pulled it off with style. At the same time, the Bookman siblings weren't wasting any second on debating what they had to do, Lavi tossing the microphone in his hand over his shoulder while Ari pulled on the special cord in her dress to make movement a lot easier, the two of them dodging around the retreating sea of high schoolers.
Outside, Ivy at last made it to Kanda's car, where she expected to find her boyfriend plus one Brit, ready to get the hell out of there.
Instead, she found a dark car, sans two people, and a whole lot of confusion.
Of course this wouldn't be easy. Of course everything was going to turn into a giant cluster. But man had she hoped that things were going well for once.
Well, this is what I get for getting mixed up in this shit in the first place, she thought. And while it would have been nice to just text Kanda to get the hell out, Ivy wasn't the type of person to leave a job unfinished. So she patted down the spot in her dress where her tools were, took a deep breath, and put on her game face as she spun around, heading back inside.
And everyone had one goal:
Find Allen Walker and make sure he survived whatever shitstorm there was to come.
Kanda Yu was going to kill Allen Walker. It was not a threat; it was a promise.
Kanda had caught up with Allen soon after he'd started talking with Road, and that had just shot Kanda's general irritation level up to the stars. Allen was being firm but polite—but if you gave a girl like that an inch, she'd take a whole goddamn mile—and then the lights had gone out and that was enough to turn this situation into a full-fledged emergency, one of such a caliber that it was time to GTFO with unparalleled haste.
A good call, as it turned out, seeing that Road was in the middle of trying to tug Allen along with her. "Come on!" she said, not letting the opportunity go to waste whatsoever. "We can evacuate together and—"
"Yeah, you're not going anywhere."
In a moment that would have made plenty of fangirls swoon, Kanda scooped up Allen, pulling him out of Road's grasp. Tyki, blinking into his night vision, grimaced, knowing full well Kanda had also just landed right in Road's crosshairs, but like hell was he going to try interfering with that hot mess in the dark. Road's eyes narrowed into slits, giving this new obstacle the biggest glare she could muster, while Allen was trying to get over the indignation of getting pulled into a princess carry by Kanda of all people.
"I don't know what the fuck your deal is," Kanda said to Road, "but your playtime is over. Try again never."
"Excuse you?!" Road shouted, all pretenses of calmness shattering. "Who do you think you are, getting in between me and my precious Allen?!"
"And who said I needed you to save me in the first place?!" Allen also shouted, his priorities having flown right out the window as he tried to push himself as far away from Kanda as possible, not caring in the slightest if he happened to fall to the ground. Getting rescued by Kanda of all people was a bit too humiliating, especially since he had a plan gosh darn it! Sure, it was all sorts of messed up thanks to the power outage, but he still had it covered! "You're making everything more complicated than it needs to be, Bakanda!"
"Yeah, Bakanda!" Road said, picking up Allen's insulting nickname without any mercy. "Allen doesn't want you here, and neither do I, so stay the hell out of it!"
Shit, this is what I get for sticking my nose where it doesn't need to go, Kanda thought, grimacing. Road was giving off some intense danger vibes, and he needed to be out of here like twenty minutes ago. Though it was a mistake to show any immediate signs of weakness, Kanda stepped back, making a break for it—which turned out to be a pretty good idea as there was the sound of whizzing metal through the air. Allen tensed, and Kanda squinted through the dark, trying to figure out just what the hell kind of weapon Road had whipped out (her trusty scissors, duh), but it was too difficult for Kanda to tell, aside from the fact it was A) dangerous and B) too risky to turn his back and run. He really just drop the bean sprout and leave him to clean up his own goddamn mess.
Road swung again, and Kanda jumped back, his back hitting up against a wall in the process. Allen yelped at the sudden impact, and Kanda debated his options since ducking wasn't about to do him any good whenever Road was about half his height and that would just give her more options to stab. Was it too late to use Allen as a meat shield and hope for the best?
Except neither Allen nor Kanda ended up injured as there was the clanging of metal against metal, another shadow added to the fray as Ivy appeared. She didn't waste her opportunity, either, moving into the stunned Road's range and catching her by the arm and twisting it behind the shorter girl's back. Road held onto her weapon valiantly, but the pressure on her arm soon ended up being too much, and the scissors clattered to the ground, where Ivy kicked them away. Not wanting to turn the situation into a grapple whatsoever, she pressed her foot into the back of Road's knee, tipping her face forward to the ground.
"Holy shit, man!"
"Allen, are you okay?"
"Allen!"
The dance competition trio had arrived, all of their phone's flashlights temporarily blinding those that had been stuck in the dark. Ari and Lenalee rushed forward to check on Allen (still in Kanda's grip, much to the Brit's chagrin), and Lavi would have done the same if Tyki hadn't caught onto his wrist.
"Trust me, Red," he said, "you do not wanna get caught up in that."
"Get caught up in what? Looking after my friend?" Lavi tried to tug free, but Tyki's touch was insistent, and maybe it just felt a little too good for a casual touch from a stranger.
Tyki only shook his head, wondering if it would be worth it to explain to keep Lavi safe or if that would just have the opposite desired effect. Because Tyki knew from personal experience that Road wasn't anywhere close to being disarmed, and she was just biding her time, getting ready to explode. And while that was true, Road's thoughts were also a mixed of very colorful insults directed at Ivy, who was keeping her held down.
"We had a deal," Ivy was saying, her voice a cool and blunt form of danger. "And you broke it." She tightened her grip on Road's arm, pulling it towards an angle arms weren't usually meant to go, while her other hand kept her screwdriver at the ready. "What do I have to do to make you get the goddamn picture?" It was almost too easy to get into this mindset again, to threaten violence, but if that was what she had to do…
Road laughed against the floor. "Oh, you're more fun than I thought. Pretty aggressive for a Black Order girl without a record. But then again, you transferred, didn't you? I wonder…" Ivy managed to keep her ire down to a click of the tongue, but even that was enough of a tell for Road to notice that she was slipping. "Ha, you do have a dirty secret you're keeping hidden. I'd say it'd be much more enjoyable to snoop around into you later, but there's no point in that whenever you're gonna be toast—!"
Not even caring about the tool close to her face, Road slipped out a second pair of scissors from her skirt, and threw her head back. Ivy backed up in enough time to avoid her nose getting smashed, but that was more than enough leeway for Road to break free—and, oh, it was going to be so goddamn great to get rid of this thorn in her side after so much interference.
Except—
"Wait!"
Road would have known that voice anywhere. It was Allen, who was wonderful and bright—and Road stilled, glancing back over her shoulder. He'd untangled himself from Kanda, and Ari and Lenalee were flanking him, the redhead looking dangerous. But Allen walked forward on his own, stopping before Road and squatting down so they were on eye level.
"Road," Allen said, and she thrilled at the sound of her name, not able to predict what he would say next "if you hurt any of my friends, I'll never forgive you."
[Author's Notes]
The Almost Finale (Not Clickbait)
Thanks to Pozzor for the follow! You're much appreciated, as is everyone that reads this!
Anyways, we finally dragged everyone together. Next chapter this long arc is going down. My update schedule is a mess, but I'm sure that'll be up without too much of a wait, so please look forward to it!
-Avi
[04.02.2022]