Metsuma gets up out of bed and breathes heavily but his mind quickly straightens itself.
"Wait, the book, HE HAS THE BOOK I NEED."
Despite the experience, he rushes out the door, but he is met by Cyra who is standing at the door.
"「Why do you have a scar on your face? 」"
Cyra asks.
"NO TIME, WE HAVE TO GET THE BOOK, I KNOW WHO HAS IT!"
He says, rushing past her, Cyra follows suit.
Metsuma, remembering the path that Klaus took him, keeps running with Cyra following him. Metsuma manages to find Klaus just in time when he attempts to walk away.
"Huh, how are you alive?"
Metsuma, ignoring the question, rushes towards him, keeping his eye on the book, Klaus tries to put his hand on him again, however, Cyra shoots him with a rifle that is created from her own hand. Metsuma grabs the book and tries pulling it away, he sees Klaus trying to touch him, remembering what happened before, he backs up and sees Klaus getting hit by non-lethal bullets.
"DAMN IT, CAN'T YOU JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!"
He yells. Strange worms with teeth and mouths start coming out of his body, he throws them towards Metsuma and he tries to protect himself but some attach to his arms.
"The hell are these things."
He tries to shake them off, but they remain stuck on his skin, he feels them sucking at his arms and their teeth embedded into his skin.
"OW OW OW"
He screams, trying to pull them off.
Cyra runs past him and the rifle in her hand starts absorbing strange strings of mana from Klaus. Klaus climbs up the bookshelf, trying to get away but Cyra doesn't let up and follows him, chasing him as they both jump on top of the shelves.
Metsuma manages to pull off all the worms, but he is extremely tired, he sees that he is bleeding a bit and can barely move his body.
"I-I need to c-catch up."
He tries running the best he can to catch up to the two, stumbling a little as he goes.
Cyra still chasing Klaus, has stopped absorbing and prepares to fire a bullet, Kluas tries throwing worms at her as well, but when she fires the rifle, the worms evaporate and he is hit in the shoulder, throwing him off the bookshelves causing him to fall to the ground.
Cyra drops on top of him, her feet dug into his stomach, he throws her off and attempts to grab the book, however, Cyra goes on top of him again and punches his arm. He grabs at her and attempts to use his other skill, but she manages to move herself while having a clone of her on top of him, the clown starts deteriorating at a faster rate compared to Metsuma.
Metsuma manages to find them and tries to grab the book, however, he throws worms at Metsuma but this time he manages to dodge them all and grab the book.
Klaus pushes Cyra off of him and starts chasing Metsuma as he holds the book.
Metsuma runs around different corners and throws other books behind him, but he is caught, unknown the both of them there is a restricted area and they both land in the restricted area, causing the floor the break from them landing on the ground and falling into a large hole.
After a few minutes pass, Metsuma wakes up, the book not around him but sees Klaus also knocked out on the ground, the area is barely lit with blue lights, it appears they are in some underground tunnel, he sees the book is taken away by some strange humanoid creature.
"HEY STOP, THAT'S MINE!"
He yells, getting up and charging towards the figure.
The figure also starts running away.
"It's nighttime, why the hell did this have to happen so late? I can barely run, especially after those worms."
He grabs a nearby rock while running and throws it at them.
The figure falls to the ground, and he jumps on it, it appears to be a tall-looking girl, wearing a ripped cloak and only having a bra and panties on.
"Huh, why does she look so weird…and why is she barely wearing any clothes."
He thinks while looking at her.
The girl pushes him off of her but he manages to grab the book before she can run off with it but she kicks him in the face, causing a nosebleed, she grabs the book and runs off.
"Damn it, ow."
He holds his nose in pain, sitting on the ground.
He hears footsteps in the distance, but it turns out to be Cyra.
She crouches down, slaps a bandage on his nose, picks up him and they both go after the woman.
They travel forward aimlessly but they find nobody, Metsuma is still tired from getting his blood sucked but keeps pushing forward.
They enter a large area and see the woman near a camp, with a mattress, an oil lamp, and the book.
"HEY!"
The woman jolts at the sounds and turns towards them.
"「Should we attack her? 」"
Cyra asks, preparing her arm rifle.
"Whoa, relax, we don't need to do that."
Metsuma walks to the strange woman, he sees that she is afraid and tries backing up.
"It's okay, I won't hurt you, I just need the book."
He says, reassuring her.
"W-why?"
The woman asked.
"I just need a bit of information that will be very useful to me, and I can give the book back to you after I find out what I am looking for, okay?"
He says lightly so she doesn't feel frightened. She stays back for a little before attempting to give him the book but before he can take it, Klaus runs past him, destroying his arm with the bacteria, he then grabs at the girl and attempts to kill her, but she retaliates and stabs him in the mask with her tongue, extending out of her mouth.
Only the eye area of the mask breaks, revealing his yellow square eye and he puts his hand on her face and crushes her deteriorating face.
He takes the book and looks at Metsuma and Cyra.
"Mine."
He runs away.
"HEY, GET BACK HERE!"
They both chase after Klaus as he leaves a trail of worms for the two to avoid while trying to catch up with him.
The perspective switches to Saikyo, waking up before Swan at 1:00 am.
"I should wake her, but doing it regularly is boring…Ima throws water on her.
Saikyo grabs a cup of water, goes to the bathroom, and fills it up, he holds the cup above Swan and pours it on her.
Swan jumps up from the sudden awakening.
"WHY!"
Saikyo shrugs his shoulders before noticing that her hair has turned dark red and light orange.
"Wait, your hair can change color?"
Swan's face changes to surprise and looks at her ponytail, she grabs something from her shirt's pocket and runs into the bathroom.
"You, okay?"
He asks while knocking on the door.
While he waits for Swan to get out, he puts on his clothes, and he sees her hand stick out in a gesture of wanting to be given something.
"Give me my clothes."
She asks, only her hand is visible.
"Sure."
Saikyo walks to her clothes and gives them to her, she snatches both of them and slams the door shut.
"She's mad…good thing there's a convenient vase over there."
He walks to the table at the corner and takes a flower out of the vase, he stands back in front of the door waiting for her.
She opens the door, her hair now having a braided ponytail and not a regular one, to see Saikyo holding out a flower.
"I'm sorry for what I did, forgive me."
He gives her the flower and she blushes at this.
"I'll forgive you, I guess, just don't do it again."
Saikyo gives her a big hug and she returns the hug.
"But still, how exactly did your hair change but it isn't changing now?"
He asks.
"It's just something…I don't like it, that's all."
She responds looking away.
"That's fine, let's just go find some clothes now, tomorrow is the Ballet right."
He says while walking to the door.
"Yeah, right."
They both exit the room, heading to a nearby store and they manage to find one.
Saikyo and Swan are in a store, Saikyo just sitting down on a chair while Swan looks for some clothes for them.
Saikyo gets up but his hand slips off the chair and he cuts his palm on the chair.
"Ow."
He looks at his palm and sees blood but then sees his hand regenerate.
"Wait, I can bleed, how?"
He looks at his pal for a good while, then licks the blood that came out.
"Hey, this should be perfect for you."
Saikyo looks at the clothes, it's a white shirt with a tie and black pants.
"Okay."
He takes the clothes and starts undressing where he is.
"Whoa, what are you doing?"
Swan asks, holding his clothes, having stopped him from undressing.
"I'm…undressing to put on the clothes you gave me."
He responded, unaware of what he was doing.
"You need to put them on, in the changing booth dummy."
She says pushing him into a changing booth, she grabs her own clothes and walks into a changing booth as well.
After a while, Saikyo finally puts on his clothes and walks out of the booth.
"Hmmmmmmmm, I don't like it."
He thinks to himself.
Swan walks out of the changing booth in a black dress, straps in the front, a bow around the waist, and revealing her shoulders, she has black heels on along with a black choker.
"There we go, how do I look?"
She asked Saikyo. He looks at her normally, not really feeling anything from her appearance.
"It's okay."
He responds.
"Good, let's change back so we can buy them."
They both go back into the changing booths and put back on their original clothes, they put their clothes in bags and Swan buys the clothes.
They both walk out of the store and back to the hotel they were sleeping at. As they walk, Saikyo asks a question.
"By the way, can slimes bleed?"
Swan looks at him for a moment before responding.
"Usually no, but if they eat meat, their bodies become more flesh-like and can act more like an organic body."
She responds, adding more to what she just said.
"Some slimes eat cows, and their bodies can slowly change to a cow's biology since slimes like copying the silhouettes of any living creature."
Saikyo looks at her in admiration, her knowledge of slimes seems to have come from Bal.
"Did Bal tell you this stuff?"
He asks.
"Yes, she did, never cared for it though."
They reach their room and Saikyo takes off his shoes and jumps onto his bed, Swan instead of going onto her bed, goes on Saikyo's bed as well.
"So, tomorrow is the day we break in, beat up that woman and escape."
Saikyo says optimistically.
"I doubt it will be that easy."
She says, crossing her arms.
"It's fine, we'll push through them all and I'll punch anyone who tries to stop us."
He says.
"Sure, you can do that."
They both sit there awkwardly for a bit before Saikyo asks.
"By the way, the different hair color, I wanna see it."
Swan looks at him.
"No."
They both stare at each other for a bit.
"Please, I wanna see it, it looks so cool."
He says.
"No, I already said I don't like it."
She says, looking away from him.
"But why, having only white hair is boring, why not have some unique colored hair that stands out."
He says, smiling and now standing on the bed.
"No, stop asking already, I'm not showing you."
Saikyo, now being annoying, keeps tapping her asking "Why thou" over and over again.
"IT MAKES ME LOOK WEIRD AND DUMB OKAY!"
She yells and her hair starts floating up and her hair dye burns off, revealing dark red and light orange hair.
"Whoa, that's cool."
He thinks to himself while staring at her head. Swan grabs her ponytail and sees her hair is red and orange, she becomes upset and digs her face in her hands, which causes her hair to turn baby blue and teal.
"W-why couldn't you just shut up, just stop."
Saikyo, understanding that he messed up and was annoying, hugs her tightly.
"Sorry for being annoying about it, you can put on the hair stuff if you want, I won't bother you about it anymore."
He says, now sitting next to her, still hugging her, she looks at Saikyo and sees that he's being genuine with his words.
"I don't have any more hair dye, I used the last of it when you poured water on my hair this morning."
Saikyo is a bit shocked by this statement, feeling like an awful person for doing that to her.
"Oh, sorry, you do look pretty in that color though, I just don't see what you think it makes you look dumb."
He says, trying to reassure her of her insecurity.
"Don't worry, I'm fine with seeing your hair change, I like it actually, it looks super cool."
He squeezes her even more, which causes her hair to change to rose pink and light red, she returns the hug, but her hair then changes blonde & yellow, and she gets embarrassed, digging her face into his clothes.
"Why did I accept the hug so quickly, what is wrong with meeeeeeee?"
She thinks to herself, she keeps hugging him for a while, in her own thoughts, Saikyo unable to keep hugging, just decided to lean the both of them on their sides, still hugging, Swan doesn't notice this and is still thinking to herself.
"This…feels nice, my first genuine hug ever, Balladeer never cared for me, that man only wanted my body, but it seems like, he just wants me."
As she thinks of this, her hair turns rose pink and light red again. She thinks about how she is actually something Balladeer created, originally meant to be a clone, a soul manifested inside her due to Balladeer caring for her body but Bal sent her off to Kira City because she didn't want to take care of her, her mind then shifts to when the guy at Ballet Tower wanted to have his way with her 2 years ago but didn't because she was under the age of consent.
"I'll kill that bastard and finally escape this damned city, no matter what."
She thinks to herself, her hair changing dark red & light orange and she digs her claws into Saikyo's skin.
"Hey, um, can you not dig your nails in my skin, I'm not that durable yet."
Saikyo says.
Her hair turns blonde & yellow, and she is embarrassed by what she just did.
"I'm sorry, please forgive me."
She moves her hands and gets up; she looks at where her nails are and sees no damage.
"It's fine."
Saikyo says, getting up as well. Swan looks out the window and sees that it's already nighttime.
"It's already nighttime, how long were we laying down?!"
She questions him on this.
"Well, I was measuring the time, with help from some animals in the wild and I figured it was about 5 hours of laying down."
Saikyo replies.
"W-WHAT, 5 HOURS!"
Swan becomes embarrassed by this, and her hair turns blonde and yellow.
"I'm so sorry, forgive me."
She says, sad for how much time she feels she had wasted for him.
"It's fine, I was able to get your scent as a result of being near you for so long."
She says casually.
"My…scent?"
"Yeah, I learned this when I was in the forest, I can pick up the scent of anything and now that I can memorize your scent, I'll be able to track you if I ever lose."
Swan's hair turns green & lime yellow, but she doesn't show any facial expression for what she is feeling, just gives a thumbs up.