6 A.M.
At the first hints of dawning, a teenage girl opened her only visible eye. Slowly, she sat on her bed, still groggy and yawning to the point of almost dislocating her jaw.
Her left hand wrapped in bandages searched for something, or rather, someone on the bed, but found no one. The girl didn't panic at first, but when she noticed the shackle linked to the bed's foot was apparently off duty, her eye widened.
Without taking the time to dress properly – as she was only wearing a long t-shirt – she rushed outside the room in panic, her long brown hair waving as she walked.
"Master?! Master! Where are you?!"
The person she was looking for couldn't talk, at least most of the time. There was no point in calling her. If the girl did so, it was more to make the 'others' understand she was looking for her precious someone.
Actually, there was one of them sleeping, her head on the table in the living room. It was a girl with short white hair and brown skin – she was wearing glasses and a white lab coat.
Seeing this scene, the teenage girl slightly frowned and kicked the 'other' with her bandaged leg.
"Eh?! What's this?! Am I dead?!" hastily asked the white haired girl, frightened.
"No, but someone will die if you don't answer correctly. I can't find Master. Did you see her?"
"Ah… Ah, mistress Shogo, good day, isn't it?" asked the girl.
"I don't like provocation," Shogo replied.
"I… I am not really provoking you though… can you please not kill me?"
Shogo hit the table. "Enough!"
The girl shivered. "(Scary! Am I gonna die?! I am gonna die, right?!)"
"Where is she?! Where is Master?! Answer, Docta!" Shogo insisted, taking the poor girl by the collar.
"I… I was sleeping!!! I don't know!!! Don't kill me please!!!" Docta implored, agitating her hands in every direction, her pale blue eyes watery like a kid scolded by her parents.
The living room's door opened and a girl appeared, sighing. "Please, calm down mistress Shogo," she said with a seemingly exhausted tone as she entered the house.
It was a teenager, probably around 18 to 20 years old. She had very long white hair fastened in a single braid rolled around her neck like a scarf, brown skin, and pale blue eyes. She looked like an aged version of Docta, the latter looking like a 12 years old girl.
Shogo exhaled deeply at the maid's words. "Oh, Maiday," she said, "do you know where Master is?"
"Mistress Alexandra is by the park, however—"
"Thank you."
Without hearing the rest, Shogo rushed outside, leaving a confused Docta and a troubled Maiday in the room.
"Oh my, here she goes…" Maiday commented.
"Aaah! Thanks A, she is gone!! I thought I was going to die!!!" Docta cried, crouching to the ground, her hands on her head.
Maiday sighed. "What to do now? I wanted to warn her about the person who was with mistress Alexandra, but…"
"Huh? There was someone with mistress Alexandra? Here? Ah! That crazy bibliomancer and her possessed plush-ting?! She is back?!" Docta asked, her eyes rounding themselves.
Maiday shook her head. "She is here too, but I am not talking about her. I am talking about something even worse."
"Worse than that delusional person?! Her whatever-it-actually-is of a thing, almost killed me last time she came!! What is worse than that?!"
"Not just anyone of course. It was her, you know? HER."
Blood drained from Docta's face. "Her? What, you don't mean…"
Maiday sighed. "She was bound to come here eventually. We are lucky she even waited 3 years."
"Eh?! Lucky?! Who?! Us?! Are you joking?! That woman could kill us all!! No, in fact, SHE WILL kill us all!!! Hieeeeee!!! I don't want to die!!! I DON'T WANT TO DIEEE!!!" Docta cried, rolling herself on the ground in an overly dramatic manner.
Maiday let out another sigh. "Let's hope this doesn't turn into an apocalypse. I haven't cleaned the house yet."
"THAT'S YOUR PRIORITY?!! AREN'T YOU AFRAID?!! WE ARE GOING TO DIE, YOU KNOW?!! WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE!!! AAAAAAAH!!! ANYTHING BUT THAT!!! CALL ZENTINEL!!! NO, CALL CRUISADER !!! DO SOMETHING!!!" Docta implored, her eyes full of tears as she pulled on Maiday's legs.
Maiday's eyes narrowed. "No, I mean…"
It is not as if WE can actually do something…
***
Running through the West District's streets. She ignored the greetings coming left and right from the factory workers.
It was a collection of different looking white haired, brown skinned, young or old women working for the factory in lieu of the previous residents. Glassblowing, metallurgy, thread spinning, woodworking, washing, and so on.
For the last three years, the West District was somehow inhabited by this strange bunch working under a certain doll named Shogo. The strangest part about it was that no one found that strange in the least. It was not that people didn't notice that almost everyone in the district was, well, the same person, no. Everyone just seemed to ignore the fact.
"No, no, Nunda! I told you to stop eating people!"
Around the marketplace, Shogo tried to take a shortcut toward the park at the town's outskirts, but there, she met a peculiar figure – it was a teenage girl with short two toned black hair, golden eyes and brown skin. She was wearing a black military-like uniform with golden buttons and golden chains across her pretty well endowed chest.
Her uniform lacked a right sleeve so right was fully visible as she picked up a black cat plush feeding upon the lower half of a corpse with its jagged square teeth.
Shogo's eye narrowed slightly.
"Nightingale…" she called.
The girl called Nightingale turned around, holding the cat-plush in her hands. At first her expression was just slightly uneasy, but when she noticed the girl's long brown hair and turquoise left eye, she became pale to the point of letting her plush fall to the ground.
"Miss… Miss Shogo? What… What are you doing here, so early in the morning? Wait, you live around here… Um… I mean… You see…"
Nightingale bowed deeply.
"I AM SORRY!!!" she apologized.
"Out of the way," Shogo said, pushing her aside, passing through the alley, totally ignoring the corpse.
Nightingale looked at Shogo, bewildered. She was expecting her to chastise her for not properly keeping Nunda – her cat – under control and killing another citizen. She was even more frightened by the fact Nunda chose to specifically attack a girl in a nun's robe, a garment Shogo used to wear. If she had taken it as a sign of hostility, this could have turned really bad. Yet…
"Oh… Miss Wolf wasn't with her…" Nightingale mumbled, looking at the bloody steps left behind by Shogo.
She stayed silent for a moment.
"Oh well… Come, Nunda," she said, taking her plush into her hands, "Miss Fire Angel is waiting! Do you think she missed us?"
The plush trembled and an unimaginable noise came from it.
"Ah! You are right! Let's go ask her directly!" she replied, beaming as she started to walk away. "Oh, but don't think it means I forgive you! You are on diet for a week or two!"
Another unimaginable noise came from the plush.
"Um, IF things go well with her, I might reduce your punishment. But for now, stop talking, please! If someone heard you… urgh… I don't really want to see another gruesome death today…"
Trivia : This is supposed to be about us, be didn't even appear yet. We weren't even mentioned by name... Um... Isn't that quite the predicament?