"I want more clothes! More!"
Lucia happily skipped around while her entourage carried her bags for her. Yuichi, Kyrie and Shinobu were also stuffed with bags.
Shinobu did her best to walk as she silently gritted her teeth, getting ready to explode. Yuichi and Kyrie slowly crept away from Shinobu, sensing her bottle ready to overflow.
"Ah! I've fucking had it! Why do we have to hold her bags and shit?! I'm through with it!"
"C-calm down, Shinobu! It's our job!"
Kyrie attempted to calm her down but he got growled at instead.
"Ngh... There's no stopping Shinobu when it comes to this."
Yuichi muttered.
"Ah, you have to shut up. You're ruining my mood."
Lucia plainly said, turning around.
"Hah! I'm sick of this!"
The citizens walking down the sidewalk froze, looking at the group that was causing a commotion. Although it was only Shinobu.
"Shut up, you're nothing but a slave, you have no choice."
The girl narrowed her eyes.
"Shut up! You don't—!"
"Girl. You work for the Divine Church. The elites ordered you to protect me, not only that but to attend to my every need."
Shinobu's tone changed, as though she was older than all of them. Her change of tone caused everyone to freeze. They all eyed her, confused.
"You are a grunt. A soldier. A sacrificial pawn. A dog. You need to do as your elites ordered you to, which was to tend to my needs and protect me, nothing more. So shut your mouth, Girl."
"You..."
Shinobu wanted to rebuttal but stopped when she carefully considered Lucia's words and change of tone. She clicked her tongue in frustration.
"L-Lucia, are y-you o-okay?"
Renya asked.
The girl beamed towards the timid boy.
"I'm fine!"
"Anyway, why does Renya not have to hold any bags?"
"My, my, Shinobu. You don't know, do you? I like Renya, Yuichi and Kyrie. But I hate you. That's why your bags are the heaviest."
"Oh shit..."
"She's going to snap."
"YOU LITTLE BITCH!"
"Yuichi, help me hold her down!"
"On it!"
·———·
They reached the hotel and they laid Lucia's bags in her room. The girl jumped onto her bed and swam as if making a snow angel in the sheets. When they least expected it, Lucia would act her age.
The four relocated outside of her room.
"Who'll be the first two to guard her room? We'll change shifts every four hours or so until it reaches 8 am. It's 10 pm now, so... we have ten hours. We'll do one four-hour shift per pair, and then we'll do an hour each."
Kyrie explained.
"We'll have Yuichi and Shinobu first."
"Tch. I don't want to be anywhere near that girl."
Yuichi nervously smiled as he glanced over at the girl in the white hoodie.
"Happy to be working with you."
"Likewise."
Shinobu answered nonchalantly.
Renya and Kyrie went to sleep in their room down the hall. Shinobu and Yuichi stood guard outside of Lucia's room. They would have to keep it up until 2 am.
"Say..."
Shinobu spoke. Yuichi peered over at her.
"Do you know Isla Chibana?"
"Huh? Uh, yeah."
Yuichi hesitated in answering. He was wondering how she knew when he had never mentioned her.
"It was your reaction earlier if you're wondering. I'm a boring person and so, I like to observe people. I notice even the littlest change in emotion. Whether it's someone's expression or tone of voice."
"That seems like a useful skill. It seems almost impossible to pick up normally."
Yuichi did his best to compliment her, honestly, impressed by her skill.
"On the contrary, it causes me to not trust everyone. Noticing the change in emotion, expression and tone of voice makes one fickle and wary. However..."
The girl looked Yuichi in the eyes. Her eyes seemed to glisten as she spoke.
"I trust you, for some reason. Ever since we met, I could not tell your emotions from the brief cues. It's like a normal person's. I feel comfortable around you, Yuichi."
The boy blushed as the girl got closer to his face. He was infatuated by her sparkling emerald eyes. Yuichi felt that talking would be a good way to pass the time, however, he was practically speechless.
"Well—"
"Hello!"
"...!"
Both Shinobu and Yuichi retreated the moment they heard a voice from behind them. They backed up to the opposite wall of the corridor. The voice was not Lucia's.
A man stood at the door. He had long dishevelled hair as pale as a lime. There were strange black marks at the corner of his eyes—they were shaped like blades. He wore a black cloak. He smirked insidiously, staring at the two.
"Oi, Yuichi, he came out of Lucia's room."
"!"
She was right. When they left Lucia in her room, there was no one else inside other than her. So, how did he get inside?
Waiting inside the room for her would be impossible. They booked the room as they entered the hotel, meaning that he would have no time to enter it before they arrived.
Getting in through the door would also be impossible since they were guarding it. The only plausible explanation would be...
"Be careful, Shinobu. He can slip through walls."
"I'm impressed you already found out, Yuichi Asame."
(He already knows our names. More importantly, Lucia.)
"Yuichi, you go after Lucia."
Shinobu announced, stepping in front of him. She gave him a stone with an engraving on it.
"That stone is engraved with a rune. If you simply follow the strand of mana on it, you'll find yourself driven toward Lucia. I secretly marked her while shopping."
"Do you think I'll let you go?"
"You don't have to. I'll go anyway."
Yuichi activated Sacred Lightning and rushed down the corridor towards the stairs.
"Not so fast,"
Within the blink of an eye, the man was at the end of the corridor, blocking Yuichi's path. At that moment, both Shinobu and Yuichi had the same thought.
(He can teleport...!)
"I'll have to ask you to stay with me. I know I can satisfy you."
Yuichi did not stop, he kept charging forward. Shinobu jumped out from behind him, aiming her index finger at the man in the cloak.
"Inflict; Increase Gravity."
The man suddenly shrunk to the ground. He was being pummeled by increased gravity. Yuichi sped past him and darted down the staircase.
The gravity wore off after seconds. The man stood up and brushed his shoulder.
"Tch. Now, she'll be mad at me..."
He looked at Shinobu.
"That was wonderful. You observed my ability and countered it accordingly. By the way, Shinobu Kurokage, what was that?"
The girl winced.
"You don't need to know that."
·———·
Yuichi followed the rune and turned left into the dark alleyway. He raced until he reached the end of the alleyway.
"Hm?"
A woman stopped. She turned back, looking at Yuichi with a perplexed look.
She had light cream hair which extended down to her shoulders. She had similar dark markings, like the man, under her eyes. However, what caught Yuichi's attention the most was...
(Her cloak. There's an eye at the back of it.)
It was an emblem. The emblem appeared to be an ankh piercing an eye. It was the emblem of BLOOD.
"That Ghost couldn't do his job properly."
"Who are you?!"
He shouted.
"You know who we are. We are the ones who will conquer and unite the world as one—we are BLOOD."