"Of course it's me, who else would it be?" Diana responded with a playful smirk, still catching her breath.
"What are you doing here?" I demanded, trying to suppress my frustration and confusion. "When did you come to Japan?"
"Same time you did, Kuzan." The girl responded with a smile full of sunshine, just happy at our encounter, disregarding our current situation.
"Why?"
"Because I wanted to see you after sooo long." I was satisfied with her answer, but her next words made me cringe, "I even saw your first match in the arena."
"Did you now? How did you lik—Wait," I caught myself, getting back on topic, "why did you follow me here, what's with the mask, and how did you get one of Xiao Li's smoke bombs?"
I decided to leave the "biggest" question in the room unsaid as I was sure she would explain it eventually.
"Oh, sorry Kuzan, please don't be mad at me." The princess of the most powerful nations on Earth, holding her hands together in forgiveness and currenly under an extreme case of puppy dog eyes.
'This must be how he felt—'
"Come on now, Diana, I know that you couldn't do something mean if you tried, so tell me what you were up to, who made you do this?."
Still blushing from my compliment of her character, the girl responded, "Well, I wanted to be the one to save you, you know, like Superman."
"I remember that you liked those Sherlock Holmes novels when we were young, so I wanted to create a real-life mystery."
"Uh, what?" I was still trying to catch up to the mental hoops taken by the now 'little' girl.
'It doesn't make sense; she'd never make a plan like this, she's too straightforward for that.'
"And why's that?" I continued probing further, trying to catch her in her lie.
"Because it would be so cool!" The girl replied enthusiastically, pumping her arms into the air, "And then we could solve the mystery, and then we could go on adventures to find clues, and the grand reveal when I 'double-cross' you, it would have been so fun!"
Her words made perfect sense, 'to a crazy person!' I raised my eyebrow in question further, 'She's talking in circles, what's she still hiding.'
"Come on, Diana, stop hiding it," I spoke in a calm tone while using one of the Rosen family 'special' techniques, currently mastered by my sister to new heights.
"Snivel—Why would you lie to me?" I spoke with a whimper, giving her a major dose of puppy dog eyes that would only work on someone like Diana.
Instead of getting scared by my 'stare' or the events playing out as expected—when she would always 'fold' when I started 'crying' when we were young—it seemed even the heavens were against me when I started playing with their little angel's feelings.
Without warning, her body started 'steaming up' again, expanding slowly to its previous size as I stood shocked in amazement, trying to decipher this medical mystery with my [Anatomy Mastery] skill.
She wouldn't let me be, however, as she pulled me into the most literal 'bear' hug I had received in my life yet.
"It's gonna be ok, Ku Ku, I'm so sorry, please stop crying," the girl continued squeezing me like a juicer as I looked around to make sure no one saw this psychologically damaging scene in front of them.
'Two muscular 'dudes' hugging it out in the park, I'm sure it would be quite a cultural shock, even though it is June...'
"I'll tell you everything, just please stop crying." Finally hearing the words I wanted to hear all along, I stopped my act while asking for forgiveness from the Lord for having just tricked his pure little angel.
It seemed that He was still displeased with me, as soon after I stopped, I was met with lightning flashing through the now-raining sky, followed by the sound of thunder soon after.
'Geez, even the weather supports her.' I got rid of my stupid thoughts and started questioning the girl once again.
"So?"
"It was all Melissa's idea." She let out, finally revealing the mastermind behind the whole operation.
'Chee, as expected.'
[20 minutes later]
The girl had finished explaining everything that had happened that led to this little 'act' of hers, and as I expected, what had caused her to fall from grace was the temptation of a devil, the greatest demon of all, the current ruler of hell...
My 'sweet little sister' Melissa.
"And then she promised me..."
'My God Melissa, even manipulating this pure little girl to do your bidding, looks like I'll have to come back pretty soon to teach you a 'lesson' about how not to treat others.'
Still, I continued patting the head of the now 'downsized' Princess as she continued her confession.
"And that's everything I swear!" She said while letting out a final gasp before suddenly falling to the floor as if having her wings clipped during flight.
"DIANA!" I reached out and grabbed a hold of her before she fell onto the ground, giving the Princess a true 'Princess carry' as I rushed to the hospital at top speed.
Thankfully, despite the late hours, Master Shinogi was still finishing up some lab work at the hospital related to his newly admitted patient.
"Ah Kuzan!" The man was surprised to see me in my state, carrying a bag in my mouth and a Princess in my arms.
"Please doctor, I can't figure out what's wrong with her, she's fallen unconscious."
"Don't worry, young man," the doctor's next words instantly evaporating the majority of my worries, "I'm familiar with this young lady's condition."
"I'll just have to call over a consult who'll be here in a few hours, really Kuzan don't worry, it's all going to be alright. Put her on the examination bed and I'll be back in a few minutes."
Helpless to the circumstances, I followed Doctor Shinogi's instructions and laid Diana down on the table, pulling a chair closer to sit by her bedside.
'It's gonna be ok Kuzan.'
Still, I was unable to calm down all the emotions I was currently feeling in the pit of my stomach: worry, nervousness, fear, anger, and worst of all...
'Powerless.'
It was the first time since coming to this world that I had felt so powerless at the situation taking place around me. It was chaotic, unplanned, coming without warning, completely out of my control. It was...
'Infuriating.'
Still, I stayed by her bedside in silence, not giving any words to my thoughts, just holding her hands while waiting for help.
Instead, I chose to mull over her earlier words, trying to find a person that I could blame for causing her to end up in this state.
'She said it was my sister who encouraged her to go through with her plan to catch me off guard and surprise me, however that wasn't what caused this.'
Diana had explained that before arriving in Japan, she had coincidentally met up with my sister at the airport when her flight got cancelled due to some unstable weather conditions.
It seemed that Diana was also visiting China for summer vacations, and when her plane from Buckingham Palace arrived late, she decided to hitch a ride with my sister, who she saw as she was exiting her helicopter to enter her jet.
That's when their 'scheming' began, as they were always pretty good friends since young despite having their petty arguments whenever they met, spats that were common between angels and devils.
Still, they always got along in the end, and when my sister started catching up with her, explaining our recent family trip and her recent 'ninja training,' even going so far as to give her one of her 'smoke bombs' to play with, Diana just couldn't hold in her curiosity any longer.
After learning of my current whereabouts, she decided that she had waited enough and caught the next flight to Japan in hopes of meeting me after all these years apart.
'Come on sis, even revealing my 'secret identity' to Diana despite promising me to only tell your friends at school, not cool sis.'
'Come on Diana, please be alright.'
It felt suffocating, being by someone's side not knowing if they would be alright.
'I didn't realize how hard it must have been for you guys,' I continued my train of thoughts, finding newfound respect for my parents in my previous life.
'I thought I was suffering alone, but you must have been feeling all this pain as well.'
Still, I continued my prayers, reaching out to any source of 'power' I could to help me in this situation, vowing to never feel this powerless again.
My prayers were answered as not even 10 minutes later, Doctor Shinogi entered the examination room with a friend in tow, a friend that I recognized well having met him just earlier today.
"You're lucky, Kuzan. I was going to have him dial in over the phone, but he was surprisingly close by."
"So, kid, didn't expect to see you again so soon." The giant of a man responded while making his way through the now cramped-looking doorway.
"Mr. Oliva," I was surprised by his appearance, but I would not be distracted from the important matter currently at hand, "can you help her?"
"Hahaha," the man laughed at my pleas, but before I could reach him to let out some of my frustrations, he continued, "don't worry kid, your little Princess will be alright, she just needs a little time to rest and 'grow'."
"I'll explain everything to you while the Doctor here gets her prepped in case anything drastic occurs, but that's highly unlikely." The man would not explain further, instead choosing to push me out of the room and into the hallway before he continued.
I was still enraged at the current situation before me, being lost while all others seemed to know something I didn't. I grabbed onto the massive man's shoulders and locked him in place with all the strength and technique I possessed, refusing to let him move until he fulfilled his promise.
"Explain."
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Author's Note: I wanted to put this here since I was getting a lot of comments from people who don't read the Creator's Thoughts below who were mad or sad about Xiao Li's loss in the vote. Again, the vote doesn't have nearly as much impact to the story as you might believe, all it does is change the person taking the 'lead' role in one of the very important planned chapter's wayyy down the line. Kuzan hasn't "abandoned" Xiao Li or anything, don't worry.