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SHADE

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"Shade!" Alcian called out. "I know you\'re there."

Shade almost clicked his tongue at being caught out again. He was sure that he had done right this time, but apparently, Alcian still managed to spot him even in the middle of all of this pink goop.

Raising his [Rozen] at the ready, Shade revealed himself, his eyes quickly going to the little girl whose [Manifest] had just turned this entire section of the warehouse into a sweet deathtrap. He promptly ignored the splash of red currently painting the far end of the room, the gruesome sight of the body far from his mind as he addressed the family.

"I\'m here."

"Shade?" Carbuncle intoned in confusion. "Why are you-"

"Never mind that. We need to get out of here," Alcian interrupted his wife with an urgent tone. "Gem had clearly thought that this place needed a makeover, which I\'m sure the locals wouldn\'t be too keen on enjoying."

"But it\'s all pink and gummy!" Gem beamed, seemingly unaffected by the literal body just a few meters away from her. "Won\'t everybody love it?"

"Dear, not everyone has your sweet tooth," Carbuncle cooed at her daughter, her energy visibly shifting to a motherly vibe even as her movements indicated everything but. "Now hop onto Mama\'s back. We\'ll be traveling again for a bit."

"Yay!"

Seeing the mother and daughter pair like this was surreal even to someone that had already seen the two of them unleash their power. Shade knew for a fact that Carbuncle had [Manifest], while Gem\'s [Wonderland] had been so infamous that practically everybody in Vestyge back then knew of its power.

"Shade, we\'ll be cashing in on that debt you owe us," Alcian huffed.

"What? Wouldn\'t that mean-"

"We\'ll be accompanying whatever group you\'re currently with while looking for a safer location," Alcian cut him off, his patience wearing thin with each word he spoke. "Look, we can talk about the specifics of it later. For now, we need to get moving."

Overruled, Shade only let out a sigh as he followed the former assassin\'s lead. As much as he wanted to protest the fact that he wasn\'t in charge of the Princess\'s group, he had no choice but to oblige them. He did owe them a debt after what he did to them, and he most certainly didn\'t want to be on the receiving end of one of Alcian\'s infamous punches.

For all that he didn\'t believe in God, he sure would like to talk to Lady Guidance as to how a normal human could pack that much power in a single strike.

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SHEN

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[*thud...*]

"What was dat?"

Shen was just about to leave the city proper when the ground shook right underneath her. Looking behind her, a plume of smoke had erupted from the Downtown area of Centrax, its ominous pillar shining down on her as it reflected the light of the city against its dark smog.

"That... That can\'t be good..."

The mechanic already had no idea where or why Shizu had disappeared on her, but to add this to her growing list of problems was already making her regret ever going with Moriya and the Princess in the first place. Why in the world did she even think that going out on near-death adventures was a good idea? She had a decent life back at the scrapyard already. Granted, every day was a struggle on whether or not she could eat that day, but at least her life wasn\'t constantly in danger because of someone else\'s actions. At the very least, back in the scrapyard, her life hung on the balance of her own two fingers...

Breathing through her teeth, the fear that Shen was feeling only grew bigger as the reality of the situation finally sank in on the locals around her. The city had come to life, seemingly coalescing towards the source of the incident as authorities rushed to get to the bottom of whatever it was that caused the explosion. Throughout all of this, she didn\'t know what she was supposed to do.

Her fingers trembled with the urge to rush in there and fix whatever it was that was broken, her [Fixit] thrumming in her back pocket with the energy she needed to somehow repair the errant thing spitting out this much smoke. And still, her mind was also preoccupied with her own comrades\' current states. Shizu had disappeared on her with a mysterious device in tow, while the others were still possibly busy with their own contract thingies to even come and tell her what to do.

Surprisingly, even to herself, she was feeling lost without someone pointing her in the right direction.

"D-Dat can\'t be right..." she mumbled to herself. "I\'ve lived so long on mah own before all of dem..."

And yet, even after only spending a few weeks with them, Shen couldn\'t imagine having to live alone again. The companionship she had received, especially from Shizu had been an eye-opening experience. The constant supply of food, the lacking need for her to think about her next meal... And some much-needed advice on what was happening to her own body had been life-changing...

Shaking her head, Shen turned back and sprinted straight toward the explosion. If Shizu had disappeared because of something urgent, then surely this explosion had something to do with it. That, and the fact that the device could be the cause of it made a hint of apprehension blossom inside her chest.

"No... dat thing couldn\'t have exploded..."

There was no way. The thing didn\'t feel like it had any kind of explosive material inside of it. It had shiny lights on it, sure, but its weight and general feel didn\'t strike her as something that would explode on them all if mishandled.

Taking a few breaths to ease her mind, Shen squeezed herself through the forming crowds, her small stature helping her sneak her way through each and every obstacle that came her way. With her fingers itching more the closer she got, the loud beating inside her chest made way to cautious curiosity as she finally reached her destination.

"It\'s all... pink?"

Shen blinked, making sure that she wasn\'t seeing things. She even rubbed her eyes for good measure, only for her confusion to turn into utter bafflement as the walls of the smoking warehouse she just arrived at seemed to be shimmering with pink goop. Looking around, it would seem that she had come at the back of the entire building, with the front half of it still in pretty normal condition from what she could tell.

"C-Can I even fix dat?"

Her right hand holding onto [Fixit], the itch to repair the building had seemingly evaporated, replaced with a need to fix whatever it was that was left inside of it. Of course, she had enough self-control to resist the urge, but that wasn\'t all that was preventing her from going in.

Namely, the fact that she didn\'t even know why she was there took precedence. Sure, Shizu might be here, but she didn\'t know that. She was supposed to be there to try and find the Princess, not try and help out a Nation that wasn\'t even her own.

"S-Shizu?! Are ya there?!"

Bravely, Shen called out, the smell of caramelizing sugar invading her nostrils and making her mouth water as the pink goop burned. She coughed as she moved closer, the black smoke slowly overpowering the deliciously sweet smell that was somehow saturating the air.

"This way!"

"I have her!"

Hearing a few voices, Shen took caution as she stuck herself into the walls of the warehouse. The sticky goop stuck onto her back, making her cringe even as she forced herself to look as unassuming as possible.

"We\'re finally out," a man with yellow hair called out, behind him, a woman with blue hair with a green-haired kid on her back followed him out. "Everyone here?"

"Gem and I are safe," the woman called out. "Are you okay, dear?"

"Yeah!" the kid cheered. "That was cool!"

Shen didn\'t know what was happening, but she kept her cool as she observed. If there was one thing that Lady Guidance taught her whenever they had the time, it was that she should always take her time to look for opportunities. Whether it was for combat or healing, she shouldn\'t be actively looking for trouble.... unlike Shizu.

"H-Hey... We weren\'t even that in danger yet..."

Shen\'s eyes widened. That voice... Shade?

"We still need to put a lot of space between us and this warehouse," the yellow-haired man grunted. "Now where to, Shade? Are we to meet up with your companions?"

"They should be by the administrative building by now," Shade coughed out, a bit of smoke still clinging onto him. "Although I doubt we\'ll get near enough without being questioned somehow."

Shen frowned as she watched the strangers talk to Shade as if they all very much knew each other. What was happening here? Was Shade planning something?

"Kid, I know you\'re hiding in there."

Oh crap...

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