Abyss is calling

    ❝You idiot…❞

    She glared at the other, sniffling back her tears, only to have them spill down her cheeks in messy streams. ❝Do you have any idea how worried I’ve been–!?❞

    And truly, she had been. What a mystery this city was, and she had been whisked away here without anyone she knew – until she saw the Nightray guy, the guy who was supposed to be dead, to make matters even stranger. To top it off, Oz and Gil had been nowhere to be found. She had worried over them, especially Oz. If anything was for certain, it was that Oz needed her protection. It was straining, wondering if he was left alone back in their own world, or if something else had happened to him altogether. He had an irritable knack for getting himself into trouble.

  “I’m so glad, I’m honestly so glad that you are here, Alice.” 

He’d pull her in for another hug, trying to breathe, while his hands were shaking a little and tears rolling down. He had thought about how re-uniting with her would be like, but none of his imagination could have prepared him for this.

For his sake, Dahlia hoped the apology was sincere.

“Now why would they suspect you of anything out of the ordinary?” She peered at him affectionately. “From what I can see, you are a perfectly polite, well-dressed, and ordinary young boy.”

By now, they had arrived at the apartment building, and the doors slid open upon their approach. The lobby was clean but simple in design, and Dahlia moved towards the elevators without hesitation, pressing a button to call down a lift.

He’d chuckled a little. While he knew in which direction this conversation had been going, he couldn’t help but feel complimented somehow.    “Thank you,” , he’d sigh    “I can only return your kind words, after all you were the one who said she’d help me out.” whether or not her words were truly kind did not matter much, as he felt like he needed to at least thank her for her efforts. He didn’t quite understand what they were waiting for though, after she pressed that button.

Stretching his limbs, he’d look at the number on the screen drop one by one.

    Alice couldn’t get it out of her mind. Oz was here. That Nightray guy, Elliot, had informed her of this earlier. Who knows how long he had been here without her protection? And while she wandered around, alone and worried, Oz still hadn’t found her yet. Ironically, it had been while she wasn’t searching for him that she finally found him.

    She was on her way back from the store, bag of meat clutched in her hand, when she heard his achingly familiar voice. Alice stopped short, not even daring to breathe. A head of golden blonde was in her line of vision with his back turned to her and it was all she could do was stare for a moment, stunned. Only when he turned slightly, showing his profile, did she snap out of her trance with a start. She dropped the bag of meat, leaving it stranded and forgotten.

    ❝Oz!!❞

    He turned around just in time for her to collide with him, knocking him to the ground while her long hair trailed behind. Alice straddled his stomach and hiccuped sobs back with small sniffles. Her fingers dug into his shirt and she tensed, head snapping up to look him in the eyes; a watery amethyst meeting emerald.

  “--?!” , there wasn’t much time for him to grasp the situation after he heard his name, shouted by a lovely, familiar voice, before something blocked his view after turning around and threw him to the ground.

He was left speechless for a moment, his eyes wide open staring into the eyes of the girl on top of him in surprise.    “Alice...?” , saying her name quietly, his expression would slowly brighten up, before pulling the girl into a tight hug, before releasing her after a few moments to look at her.

When he said thank you she simply smiled in a pleased fashion. Hearing him say ‘thank you’ was much better than the endless stream of apologizes he had originally wanted to give. Perhaps he had things to be sorry for but being thankful was a much better feeling, wasn’t it? Lacie had learned as much to find beauty if the cruelest of things.

Her eyes widened and, unconsciously, her hand reached toward her lower abdomen. There was no bump and as far as she knew there was nothing there. So his little experiment had worked. Strangely she felt detached from the situation and the words even though she knew she should not have been. Yet the way he spoke of her was so warm that it softened her surprised feelings just enough to make her relax. Did the girl wonder about her? Well…surely she knew of her if so many people already did.

“Twins. Heh,” She gave a sad, dry laugh. In her heart she couldn’t help but want to meet them. “I wonder…what they must think.” Of me. The words were unsaid. It was not that she was worried but simply wondered. It would not have been the sort of life she would wish for children–her children. To be alone for all your life…Lacie knew a form of that loneliness if only just a little.

Right now, after the shock, the truth and her reaction, Oz was able to breath in, confident that his decision to tell her was a good one. A soft smile formed on Oz’ lips. Yes, standing here in front of Lacie was indeed a good decision and he was thankful to whomever made this happen.

  “...” , Oz watched her as she wondered to herself, his expression kind of matching with her laugh. Somehow, he felt like he could at least a little bit understand the way she must feel. Lacie was intellegent and probably figured out right away that Alice(s)’ life wasn’t easy.

  “I don’t know, but-- I don’t think either of them is upset or mad.”

Oz kind of just knew that. Sure, Alice can get easily mad, but would they be angry at her? No, he didn’t think so. Watching her sit down beside him, did not make him feel nervous this time. It remained a weird situation to him, but he felt a lot calmer than before and ended up looking peacefully into the same direction Lacie had watched before a few times.

raised, she need to face another enemy from somewhere that she doesn’t even know, and more than that, it’s not human. Which makes things become more confusing for her. She was living in an era that is full of humans and no robots, and now she need to be faced with NPCs or whatever it is. It feels weird, and Akame is certainly feeling displeased because of reasons.

The female that is in the middle of walking around before has been faced with an enemy that she did not expecting to seen. Without any hesitation, she pulled her sword from her sword’s pocket as she ‘flicked’ her switch on, trying to be the cold murderer once again as she starts slashing the enemy one by one, but….

                                                she can’t deny that she is c a r e l e s s.

But even if the NPCs had been gone for now, it was still one thing left to worry about. Turning around, he’d swing his scythe at the girl who he just saved, stopping right next to her neck.    “Don’t move before you answered my question---”

  “Which Hive do you belong to?”

“But you’re right. People differ. Most people, though—they want something. Wishes and desires, for good or ill—these connect us all like an invisible thread.”

“And in the end, it make us all awfully predictable. Except—”

She slowed her steps a bit, so they were walking side-by-side, to gaze at his face. “—you’re a little different from most, it seems.”

The quiet form of Oz had followed her without question, like any naïve child. Dahlia felt, though, that there was more than that behind the smiling face. It lingered like a shadow, intangible and faint, but very much there, an echo of an echo, the traces of a sigh. Slowly, Dahlia reached out a hand—

“Ahaha…”

–and ruffled his hair, until golden spikes were sticking up at extraordinary angles around his face.

She really was an intellegent young lady, wasn’t she? He’d chuckle a little after Dahlia had removed her hand from his head. He sure didn’t see that one coming, but such an action.. kind of perfectly matched with the image he had of this person so far. He’d try to put his hair back into its original position, before he continued to walk beside her.

  “Well--- I can’t really say that it’s not like that, Miss Dahlia.”

  “But whether I am different or not, I don’t think many people would suspect me as more than an ordinary person and I am glad about that!”, actually, he really enjoyed being ‘one of many’. That had given him many opportunities to make great friends after all!    “Speaking of being different, you certainly aren’t normal either, haha.” 

     To think one such as him would arrive within the confines of the city after such a lengthy stay on her part. Certainly it was not impossible, having witnessed several others from where she hailed trickle through like a river over the course of time. Ah, but few was it that she ever caught glimpse of the young noble that held the key to many things, the mere connection to all that those of her family strove for when it came to her master. Thus, it was all too tempting for her to trek behind in silence, careful that carmine heels would not clack too loudly upon the flooring as she stalks her metaphorical prey.

     And, without further hesitation, the elder Baskerville reaches outward in order to snare the contractor so, that of a familiar scene betwixt them unfolding as she pulls him uncomfortably close.

  “..mrgmmbr???” , actuallly, he intended to say something, but what had left his mouth were mere grunting sounds, as his face was stuffed into a soft surface, followed by a very familiar voice. Squeezing his face through the gap of her breasts, he’d look up surprised --and flustered-- while still caught in her arms.

[image credit]

in·cur·sion

an invasion or attack, especially a sudden or brief one.

Kayo was never expecting such a festival to happen in this city, especially since she just got here. Everything was so bright and vivid, but mostly busy. It reminded her a lot of the Sword Tournament that happened back in Edo. It was actually a pretty nice way for Kayo to settled in, though she was naturally uneasy with the lack of her father. She missed him greatly but she can’t hope for much. At the very least, she should be able to keep herself distracted with this festival. All of the food was different but very delicious. 

She was about to order something called a ‘crepe’ but was interrupted when something soft came flying at her. She was a little shocked but it was quickly pushed away when the boy was suddenly apologizing to her. His hair color was golden so she must assumed that he was a foreigner. There were many in Japan, like Kuroba-san, but they mostly kept it to themselves. 

“Ah..! Please don’t worry about it, it was only an accident.” Kayo merely flicked the frosting off her yukata and smiled at the boy. 

  “Such a pretty girl shouldn’t be covered in food even once!” , he would nod to himself. Her long and soft hair would wave a little in the wind and her gentle smile was heart-warming, making the chilly weather a little better. Though, while he would look at her strange, yet pretty outfit, his eyes couldn’t oversee the stain that the cake left behind. Good job, Oz. And all you cared about first was the cake... made him feel a little bit guilty.

  “Ah.. no, no, I am really sorry about that. If you let me, I will let it get washed, your... outfit looks really expansive.” , he had seen these around here a few times, yet didn’t have a clue what those actually were, but the fabric seemed smooth and soft each time (and looked gorgeous on girls!) so he figured they wouldn’t be cheap at all.

⚔- I’ve had it with this place. And it’s sudden need to pull out their ass some new way to torture the people, first of all, they don’t let us leave, second toy with us like this and I will not have it.

Cue he takes out the wooden sword and begins to hit the dungeon from the outside.

There was a save space between the people and the tower and while some would try to go inside, some others seemed to even know what it was and then there was...

  “Uhm...” , a familiar face hitting the walls of it with his sword.

It wasn’t that surprising of a sight, after all the boy was known for his temper, but still the question as to Why he was doing that popped up in Oz’ head as he made his way towards him.

“You’re in luck; my apartment building’s just around the corner. There’s an elevator that can take us to the top floor.” She gestured with the handle of her umbrella to their left. 

“From there we can take the stairs to the roof.” Thus speaking, she began to lead the way, keeping an easy pace for the shorter boy. She really did like him, despite all the jabbing. Perhaps because of all the jabbing.

“Have you ever wondered, Oz, why the world is small? Or why these stories exist?”

There indeed was some strange aura around her, but she seemed kind enough to help him out now. He couldn’t help but to think that she might be the kind of person, to drop by one day and say ‘Remember when I helped you out this one time? Now it’s your turn.’ though.

  “It might sound weird, but I feel like every story has its origin in a different world or time. Like.. the story an author wrote here, might be reality to someone else far away.” , it bothered him a little, but from what he had learned, this really could be true in some cases. Just like with the fascinating case of the Wizard Oz she spoke of.