PLACEBO

Waltz into Darkness

From behind, there was a gentle click as the door was unlocked. She lifted her head, turning around. A stream of light grew, diminishing again as somebody's silhouette began to block it out.

"Do I know you?" Keisari gaped, scaling the smaller girl. "Miyanna?"

He fumbled for the light switch, squinting into the dark. 

"Hello," she smiled warmly as the lights flickered on. She stood up from her kneeling position beside the shelf, straightening out the pale blue sundress that she wore. Why she had changed from her former assassin attire was obvious to Keisari, but the very sight of her in a dress felt awkward to him nonetheless.

"To have to deal with you again, and on the same day too... What are you doing here?"

"Looking for perverted manga, duh." She twirled around in a childish way.

"Only Enma would keep hard copies of those!"

"Right, I heard you were mysteriously allocated as dorm-mates. Either way," she mimicked his speech emphasis, gesturing to the far corner with a hand and swinging her fringe to a side pointedly whilst she did so. "I read all of hers."

"That's great. How did you even get in here? Besides, you know it's against the rules to just wander into the dormitory block, right?"

Miyanna giggled.

"Stupid Kei. I'm going to be here from now on taking a photojournalism course. Enma doesn't seem to know who I am, so she told me to wait for you here. And, as far as anyone's concerned, I'm the sister of Keisaki Kyo, and a prodigy that graduated from high school early."

"Prodigy, huh? Classy. Oh, for the record, it's Keis — Wait, isn't that Enma's gag?"

"No, it was my intentional work of art."

Keisari heaved a heavy sigh.

— I knew it. I knew that much.

"Kei, did you know?" She said as she sat down on his bed, pulling the duvet over her lap. "Every time you sigh, a little bit of happiness escapes."

"Alright, so be it. What was it that you came for, Miyanna? I doubt you would put that much effort into finding manga that you can just get online."

"Right... " She lay down on her side, burying her nose into the thick blanket. "The thing is, I need help with the whole Slade thing. As far as I know, he's going to have everyone surrender from the hunt by midnight. If he doesn't forfeit his position at Versailles by then... There's no saying what will happen."

"You're his personal contract killer. Didn't he tell you who to target with a sniper rifle at twelve o'clock, or which building to blow up?" 

"No. You saw the potent of his power at the meeting, Kei. His visual illusions are so well crafted and staged that he can just sit back and watch it unfurl itself without the aid of any assassin. I'm more like a proxy. He's also a serial killer that the government ignores. Now that he's hyped up on Link, it's on a whole new level of craziness."

"Even then, he's only ranked in the 50's. Many of those from the meeting could easily go up against him," Keisari reasoned, bringing himself over to sit down next to Miyanna. "Besides, he could forfeit his position still. Versailles would seem useless to him when he's on 90% Link."

"That would also become a problem. The main reason why Versailles is so keen on solving the murders is because they know that the Placebo Children are the ones behind it — They're still trying to defend their project, despite where it ended up. If this gets out, what do you think will happen? Even though the Placebo Children didn't choose to lose their sanity or be part of the project in the first place, how will the public see it?"

Keisari pursed his lips. This was one of the times where he actually had more answers than questions, though he couldn't say it served him well.

"What exactly do you want me to do then, Miyanna? An alliance with Enma and Chrome?"

A shrug indicated her indecisiveness towards the issue.

"Chrome? I heard he's nice and smart, but I don't think I've met him before."

"Nice, really? Who would say such a thing?"

She chuckled. "Well, alright. Enma actually phrased it as this: 'His personality may be lacking, but he usually complies with a bit of threatening and bribing. Though he is also a halfway decent tactician, the common sense department is in extreme crisis.'"

"... Well, that sounds more like it."

"But I really don't know, Kei. An alliance? With people working directly under the government? They'd probably be against it if anything," she shook her head fiercely, burrowing into the pile of sheets that lay on the bed in a heap.

"As Enma said," Keisari stood up, stretching his arms upwards and back, "a bit of threatening and bribing usually does the trick."

"You do that."

Keisari flicked his wrist in response, heading towards the door to leave. Right there and then, the door opened with a forceful fling, and Keisari stood there, the door missing him by a few millimeters. He paused, studying the newcomer despite knowing who it was.

"Gosh, so scary. You surprised me with that powerful entrance, Enma."

She looked as if she were about to say something hurtful in reply, but chose not to.

"Miyanna, did you find what you were looking for?"

"Very much so," she flinched with a suppressed laugh, giving Keisari an otherwise smug look. "Where's Chrome?" 

"Oh, I sent him to do some crime scene investigating. You should really go to class, you know."

"Is that so? There's something rather important I would like to discuss," she said innocently, sliding out the blade from her matching blue arm warmers. "I think... It would be of a great interest to you."

Her image disappeared.