"geeh....wha-where am I?" A drowsy Exusiai mutters to herself, her eyes slowing opening its lids as she awakens from her sleep. She lifts her back from the bed and takes a look around her Slowly, she started to recollect the events of just yesternight,
"...That's right...I went into the hotel with Ghost...Uhh.....things happened....uhhh..rriighhhht!"
She then remembered the last thing she saw before falling into her slumber, the view of midnight downtown Lungmen. All the while in his arms. And the fact that she doesn't recall anything more after that meant she accidentally fell asleep, also in his arms.
"...Well, it was a long day, and it was already past midnight, so I was tired....It's his fault for saying I could relax, so I really did relax..." She said with a small pout, trying to make justification that everything happened the way it did was his fault, rather than hers. She then stretches her newly awaken body, a pleasured expression forming on her face with a content smile,
"But man, these hotel beds are really something else. Their softness is on a whole other level than my own bed at home...wait a second. If I slept here, then that means..." Something all of a sudden clicked in her head. With a sense of suspense, even a little dreadful, building in herself, she looked to her side, to the other side of the bed. Her eyes focused on the blanket that still had her bottom half covered in it. The other part of the blanket had a hump formed on it, awfully akin to the shape of a person.
"....I-I slept with him...? Under the same cover...? God is going to be mad at me." She moved his arm slowly, and grabbed the blanket that covered that part, and immediately pulled it open, revealing,
pillows.
She looked questionably at the mess of pillows on the bed, arranged conveniently to look like a person.
"...Where'd he go...?"
"Don't tell me....He actually did something to me?! And he didn't want to take responsibility so he ran away!?" It was initially just a passing thought that popped in her mind, but it quickly escalated into a something she was starting to overthink about. With what happened these past few days, it wasn't a complete baseless suspicion to think he, a male, would do something to her defenseless self.
She frantically looked around for him, but he was nowhere to be seen in the room.
"Wait, what exactly did he do when I was asleep!?" In a haste, she threw away the cover and jumped out of the bed to find the suspect of a culprit and uncover the truth, even if it was just an assumption. She took a step out of bed, only to hear a faint grunt. She felt like she was stepping on something that didn't feel like the floor.
"..G-good morning. Could you please lift your leg? I'm kinda suffocating here." A timidly pained voice came from where her foot was stepping on.
"Sure, after you tell me what you did to me while I was asleep!" His face warped in confusion at the question she abruptly asked him.
"...I did nothing...?"
"Really?" She sounded unconvinced.
"....Then where did you sleep yesterday...?"
"...well, here. You just woke me up."
"...on...the floor?"
"Yeah." He answered, sounding utterly unbothered by it. But that unbothered face of his would make her feel a sense of guilt. It was his first night sleeping in a hotel, a grand-ish one at that, and he already had to sleep on the floor. He even paid for it.
"...You could've just woken me up. I'd have gone back home yesterday." She slowly said to him in a meek voice. She felt a little embarrassed of herself for hogging such a grand bed to herself. I mean, it was a premium queen sized bed, and it was comparatively leagues better than her own regular bed, you can't really fault her for losing herself in such a comfort.
"It's fine. It was already really late anyways. And besides, I told you to relax, didn't I? You seem to be full of energy today, so it's all worth it in the end, see?" He said with a gleeful smile to her, trying to enlighten the mood. But still, she responded with a slight frown.
"Jeez, you should be thinking about yourself more. You're the one in bad shape, not me. I already feel bad about you carrying me yesterday...." She timidly said, her gaze staring straight into the marble floor and her hand nervously clutching her other arm out of guilt.
".....okay, I'll keep that in mind from now on. So let's just let this one slip, okay?" He said with another smile, trying yet again to lighten her sense of guilt up. She let out a small sigh and momentarily closed her eyes,
"...fine..."
"Now that that's resolved, your leg, please?" He said in a disgruntled voice, softly tapping her calf.
"Oh, sorry 'bout that." She lifted her foot and finally freed the man under it as he himself slowly stood up from his own sudden awakening thanks to it stepping him. He stretched his sore back, courtesy of the hard marble floor, but as he did, he caught a glimpse of Exusiai's face. She had a spaced out look on her, as if she was thinking of a problem,
"...What's up?"
"...I didn't plan on sleeping here. I don't have a change of clothes for today." Hearing her, a memory of a thought suddenly came into his head, evident by his sudden change of expression,
He stood up and made his way to the pile of shopping bags from their spree of a shopping trip yesterday in the room and started to rummage through it. She looked upon him with curiosity, slowly inching closer and closer to him, trying to peek a look at what he was searching for,
"...what're you trying to find?"
"...Ah, this!....if you don't mind...." His hands then pulled out something from one of the many bags. It was a square plastic bag that held a piece of clothing inside it and he promptly offered it to her,
"Here."
"...what's this?"
"Well, yesterday when we were shopping in one of the clothing stores, a staff said that this'd look good on you, so I thought why not just buy it? Think of it as a present of some sort." Well, putting aside the fact that this was making her feel more indebted to him, she had another wonder in her mind,
"...how'd you know my size?"
"Oh, the staff helped decide the size for me. She said it wasn't that hard since they didn't have to be so mindful of your che-"
"Ok, that's enough." She gave a soft yet still offended smack to his shoulder before swiping the clothing piece away from his hand.
"I'm going to take a bath."
"ok."
"Don't peek, okay?" She glanced behind and teased him with a deviant smile, to which he,
"ok."
"Tch, at least react a little more."
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With nothing to do, Ghost only sat down as he waited for her to finish preparing herself. He pondered around, thinking of what to do for that day. After all, not everything lasts forever. The time he has now will all inevitably end, as well as his own one month leave.
"...I need to start with what I was supposed to here." He mutters to himself. His gaze then wandered outside the wide clear glass window in the room onto, the fresh morning view of the city, a contrast from the view they shared the last night. Thoughts of how the big city was filled with various things unbeknownst to him flood his mind,
"Well, some fun won't hurt, I guess." He said, subconsciously looking to the direction of the bathroom, where she supposedly is.
"...She's taking an awful long time there. Could it be that it doesn't fit?" But just as he muttered that to himself, slow and careful footsteps could gradually be heard coming from the direction he was looking at. Speak of the devil, he thought to himself.
Strands of red hair slowly started to fall into view, as her head slowly poked itself out from the corner of the wall that led to the bathroom, a meek expression evident on her face. Her eyes looked a little anxious,
"...what's wrong...?' He asked, a little curious as to why the energetic girl from moments before had all of a sudden become very quiet. She wanted to speak, but no coherent words came out from her moving mouth.
"Oh, is it actually not your size?"
"....N-No....that's...not it...."
"Then what's wrong?"
"It's just that...is it okay for me to wear something like this...?" Having said that, she then finally revealed herself, her slender body donning a fluttering red one-piece dress that perfectly complimented her own red hair.
It was a wonderful combination.
"Of course it's okay. What made you think otherwise?"
"...Well, y'know....I don't exactly have the most....feminine looks to me.....kinda why I've been avoiding wearing dresses"
"...If it's you, I'm sure anything would look nice. I mean, the dress really suits you"
"...Jeez, since when did you learn to talk like that?" A small bashful smile formed on her face. Even if it was just sweet talking (probably not), she felt like that was exactly what she wanted to hear. Words of acceptance of who she really is, regardless of her looks or anything else about herself on the exterior.
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"Is that also why you have a military unifrom as an outift?"
"Well, not really, but I guess that does have something to do with it."
"Then why do you have it?"
"Hehe, thats's a secret~"
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After the two respectively finished getting themselves dressed up and their breakfast, a simple serving of toast and eggs brought to them by room service, they both left the room and headed onto the streets once again. As they exited the hotel's doors, Exusiai asked him,
"So, what exactly is it that you actually wanted to do here in Lungmen?"
"Oh right, I haven't told you yet. Well, do you know any place that makes big paintings of pictures?"
"...You mean a place like an art studio, something like that?"
"Yeah, something like that!"
"Well...I do know a place. It's conveniently near here, so I guess we could just walk there. But what exactly are you going to do there? If you don't mind me asking."
"...I'll tell you as we walk. Go ahead and show the way, m'lady." He said, gesturing his arms in a butler-like manner for her to go on ahead and lead them.
"Jeez, shut up. People are watching. And where did you even learn that?" She said with a hint of feigned stern, yet still with an amused smile. She felt a little happy seeing him act so freely like this, and even actively trying to make jokes. It felt like he, as a person, has really went a long way from when they first met.
As they walked step after step among the once again crowd filled streets, Exusiai shone out like a bright star in the dark night with her dress fluttering marvelously under the sunlight of day. She could eerily sense that she was causing heads to turn, and Ghost noticed this too.
"See? You don't have to worry about what others think, you are beautiful. Look at those people, they can't get their eyes off of you."
"...Well, you're right....But man, it's embarrassing being looked at by this many people."
"You, embarrassed? I thought you liked attention."
"...well, not this kind of attention..."
"I guess that makes sense, you were embarrassed when you first wore it in front of me"
"....Iwouldntmindyouthough..."
"What?"
"Nothing. So, how about you start telling me about the plan?"
"...Oh, okay..." He then reached within one of the pockets of the jacket he wore and took out a brown envelope. It had some wrinkles on its edges, so it must've been quite old. He then opened it and handed it to Exusiai. She turned to look at him with her eyebrows slightly furrowed, questioning why she was handed such a thing.
"Take a look inside it." Without so much as an idea of what was inside it, she did as as told and reached into it, before feeling something thin like a piece of paper. She gently pulled it out as to not damage whatever this object was. It was a polaroid.
With only one glance, she recognized what the polaroid was of,
"...It's....a photo of your old squad..."
"Yeah, it is."
"...What are you planning to do with it?"
"I'd like someone to paint each of them in big separate portraits..."
"...and then what?"
"Look at the back of it." She flips the picture to its back.
"...These are....addresses..?"
"You see, those are the addresses of each of their respective families. I managed to write them down before I left."
"Oooh, I see. You want paintings of portraits of their faces so you can give it to their families, right?"
"Mhmm" He hummed a confirming hum.
"That's very thoughtful of you. They'll have a wonderful piece of art to remember their lost ones by." Weirdly enough, she could feel him suddenly changing attitudes, as he suddenly felt a little distant.
"No..."
She was puzzled by his slow hesitant reply. She turned his head to him, wondering what he meant by that,
"It's more of something to make them realize they've....lost them..." Hearing him, her wondering self was enticed to hear more as her face grew more attentive. He then added to himself,
"...Are you familiar with the terms M.I.A and K.I.A?"
"Yeah. They stand for Missing In Action and Killed In Action, right? I hear them all the time in movies."
"...That's right. Now, you see, for our task force, the higher ups decided to forbid the use of K.I.A for our statuses no matter what actually happened to us. It's meant to give the impression that we're unkillable and invincible. It served as something to boost morale among the men,"
"So you mean...."
"Yeah. None of their families ever knew they died, and no one could tell them because no one knew..." The bitter truth is finally revealed. His face then became vacant, empty, his eyes having a serious, yet a terribly clear saddened light in them.
"...Imagine, waking up everyday with the tiniest glimpse of hope in your heart....that your loved one might one day return home and into your grasp....it's cruel to leave them with false hope like that. It's like torturing them everyday...so I'm going to send the truth to them, with these drawings as a symbol to honor their deaths..."
"...Yeah, that seems like the right thing to do." She complements with a smile, hoping that it might give him comfort, however small it may be.
"...Yeah..."
"....Y'know."
"What?"
"I used to wonder, why wasn't I the one to die? I had no one that was hoping for me to come back to them. Echo had a wife and a kid. One joined the war effort to become the sole breadwinner of his family, he'd been an orphan for a long time already and he had a little brother. Him being our sniper meant that he got more bonuses for each kill. Smoke was already in a relationship with someone in the army too."
"..."
"They had people waiting for them, I didn't." Hearing him say such things, Exusiai's face also slightly frowned,
"...I thought we were over this. I...don't like it when you think like this."
"Yeah, we are. I used to think like that, not anymore. Not after Rhodes Islands took me in. I know now there's at least someone waiting for me there.....I hope."
"...Well, if no one is, I'll wait for you, how 'bout that?" She gleefully said with a matching gleeful smile. Seeing her as such, he returned a small gentle smile.
"...Thanks. I'll be looking forward to that"
"...Now that I look closer, you're not in the picture, are you?"
"No, I'm not."
"Why is that?"
"...That photo was taken when we were first banded together. It was a sudden order, so I really didn't care about them that much then. I thought of them as just another bunch of soldiers. Killers like me. But little did I know they'd be the first people I'd consider family. I regret it now, not being in that picture with them."
"...Is that regret why you like photography now?"
"...Maybe."
With Exusiai's guidance, the two navigated through the bustling city in its morning rush. The busy traffic meant the atmosphere was almost constantly filled with noise, and the sea of people didn't help the situation either.
The morning rush hour also meant the crowd wasn't going to get any thinner, if anything it felt like the crowd was steadily thickening. A passing shoulder suddenly bumped into the leading Exusiai, and thanks to her unaccustomed feel to her new dress, she lost her balance and stumbled backwards,
But a hand would in haste catch her fall from behind, none other than her stand-in for an escort, Ghost. He had a sharp gaze in his eyes as he looked in the direction of the person who bumped into her, but he could only look as the crowd restricted him from chasing that person down. He then looked back at her,
"You okay?"
"Yeah....thanks." She expressed her gratitude, a little bashful blush spreading on her cheeks. Even thought they'd been in closer proximity of each other before, she still couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed at the thought that she, a girl, is in intimate distance of a guy.
Rather, maybe the thought that she was starting to consider herself more of a normal girl when she's around him made her feel all the more bashful.
He helped her back up to her feet. But as she took a step forward to continue their journey, she felt something grip her hand tightly. She turned her head around, and indeed it was his hand clutching hers. She then glanced over to his face, her face expectant of any sort of words of explanation from him,
"...We'll lose each other with this many people around...."
"Heh, I guess it can't be helped. I'll hold your hand. Wouldn't want you to end up lost here either." She grins a cheeky smile to him as she returns the grip firmly on his hand, entwining them and softly leading him forward, being very mindful of his condition under her cheerful face.
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"Well, we're here now." Exusiai says as the pair make their final few steps towards a rather small building when compared to the other sky piercing towers of the city. It was located quite a distance away from the heart of downtown Lungmen, making it a little disconnected from the busy concrete jungle.
"Well, let's go in then!" Her cheery voice says to him as she steps forward into the small building in ahead of him. But she'd be pulled back by the hand she was holding. She glances behind once again, perplexed.
"...could you...err...let go?" He said, eyeing to their entangled hands. For a moment, she just looked at him, staring with almost a vacant expression on her face, before tilting her head ever so slightly akin to a pup, saying in a nonchalant voice,
"Why should I?"
"...I mean, w-wouldn't you feel uncomfortable?" He felt a little taken aback by her sudden question. He'd expected her to act all realizing and bashful like how she was yesterday, heck, even just some moments before, but right now, she just seemed like she was brimming with a new aura of confidence, one he'd always seen her as, but somehow slightly unfamiliar.
"And what if I said I wouldn't be?"
"...Uh...you wouldn't...?"
A grin accompanied by a small chuckle came from her,
"You worry about the most useless things ever." She turns her back to him and pulls him forward along with her, walking together as they headed into the building suitably with a sign saying 'Angel Studios', before adding,
"Heh, but I guess that's just how you are"
The two entered the studio's retro themed door, and immediately they were hit by a wave of awe as their eyes ogled the beautifully decorated interior of the studio, a brilliant mix and match of many themes of various cultures of civilization from all across Terra, all arranged neatly into the confinements of the small studio.
"This place always my mind go 'wooooah' every time I go here, and it's done it again. Even Mostima said once this place really captures the whole of Terra in it. And that's something coming from a Catastrophe messenger who actually has been throughout the whole of Terra." A comment escapes her slightly ajar in awe mouth as her gaze still hovered all over the place. The same could be said for the person whose hands are entwined with hers,
"....This is beautiful, really." He also comments,
"Oooh, who's this?" A voice suddenly cuts into the exchange. The two simultaneously glances over to the direction of the voice, and Exusiai's face brightens up at the sight of a woman who looked slightly older than her walking out of one of the many rooms in the studio. It fittingly had 'my studio' written on it.
"It's me!" Exusiai exclaims in a loud cheerful voice as she extended one of her free arm outwards and waved it high and low, highlighting herself to the woman,
"My, my, it's you! It's been long while since I've last seen you!"
"Well, you haven't really been ordering anything lately, so I didn't have any reason to come here."
"You could've just still come for no reason"
"Too lazy."
"Well, that seems to suit you....hmm, I take that you're not here to deliver me anything today, right? I mean, just look at you! You're all dressed up, you look stunningly beautiful! I never thought I'd get to see the day where you would dress up so nicely. I thought you didn't like dresses?"
"...Well, if it was up to myself, I'd probably never wear one till the end of time, and I didn't actually pick it out myself..." She says as she slightly lifts her flowing dress and twirls around, fluttering her dress around in a wonderful spectacle as she showcased her glittering red dress, finally ending her little display facing the guest she's brought over.
"He chose it for me." She said with a wide smirk on her face,
"Oooh, now who is this guy?" The woman then shifted her gaze towards the person who'd just been a spectator of them up until now, her brows furrowed with a more impressed look, rather than a curious one. Ghost also looks at her, and their gazes meet. He steps forward, ready to introduce himself, only to be jumped ahead by Exusiai,
"Oh, I haven't introduced you both yet! This is Elaine. She's like me, we both came from Laterano, but she came here way earlier than me so I guess she is kind of my senpai. This is...G...uh..." Her energetic self all of a sudden seemed like it had hit a roadblock in its thought process when she tried introducing him to her friend,
"Just call me Ghost. I'm her friend." Seeing her like this, he goes ahead and introduces himself on his accord to her friend, Elaine. Exusiai's expression warped into one of discontent as she looked at him with a pout. That discontent was more directed to herself than to him.
"...Oh, I see. Just a friend?"
"...yes..?" She smirked a naughty smile at him, before almost immediately eyeing at Exusiai.
"Just friends? When you both walked in holding hands" She mutters slowly, but loud enough for the two to barely make out what she was talking about. Ghost was quite expectant that this sort of misunderstanding would've happened, that's why he wanted to let go of her hand before going in.
"Well, that-"
"Yeah, so what? It's not like we're breaking the law or anything" She cuts Ghost off with a hint of annoyance in her voice, as if she'd heard something she didn't like. Elaine's grin grew wider seeing her act as such. She chuckles it off, and put on a more serious face.
"...Okay~. Alrighty then. So, what is it that you two needed here?"
"Oh, it's actually him that needs something, not me" She said, gesturing her hands towards Ghost. Elaine's gaze follows her hand's direction to once again end up at Ghost. She raises her eyebrows in a questioning manner to him.
"...I....c-can you paint this?" He says with a slight stutter, still a little awkward over what'd just happened between her and Exusiai. He approaches her and presents to her the picture he intended to have painted, the picture of value of him.
"If you can, I'd like each person to be painted on their separate canvases, that's what those things are called, right...?" He adds to himself as he handed over the pictures to her. She takes a quick look at the picture and the three subjects within it.
"Yeah, that is correct. And sure. I'll do it." She answers briefly with a soft smile. His face gleams up at her swift acceptance.
"Thank you..."
He then walks away from her and returns to the other Laterano's side. As for Elaine, she also takes her leave and retreats into the very room she came out of. But before completely going to lose herself in her work, she takes a look back,
"I'll be done this evening, so come back then, kay? Until then, have fun you two!" She says in a tease, before blitzing into the room and disappearing from their sights. Exusiai looked visibly annoyed, but Ghost was concerned for another matter,
"Hey! What about paying? Do I pay now or uh....when!?" He shouts, trying to gain Elaine's attention. But instead of a vocal answer, a piece of paper slipped out from underneath the door of her art studio. He approaches it and takes a read.
He smiles at its contents.
"What does it say?" An intrigued Exusiai asks from over his shoulder. With still a smile, he hands the piece of paper over to her,
'Don't worry, it's on the house. Thanks to you, I got to see quite an unexpected side of lil' Exu here. Oh and a tip, girls like her are usually shy about these things, so don't take everything she says at face value
P.S-Actually leave me alone, I need to focus on my art or I'll be the one not liking the finished product.'
She looks at the handwriting on the paper, specifically focusing her attention on 'don't take everything she says
at face value'. She was conflicted on what she was supposed to be feeling about that statement. She only said that they were friends, that's all. She cares about him and friends do care for each other, right? That should be all. She sneaks a glance at him out of the corner of her eye,
...Well, she does care a lot about him....probably more than just a friend.....no, that's probably not the case. But, if she doesn't think of him as just a friend, then what is he to her?
She breaths in deep and exhales, before shaking her head slightly as she tried dismissing the thought out of her mind for now. She then looks back at him.
"Let's go."
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"Hmm....where should we go?" Exusiai says with a ponder as they stood together in front of the art studio. They didn't have much options with what new things to do, seeing as they'd already done most of the must-do things in Lungmen just the day before, together with Mostima.
"...what about....a movie...?" Ghost suggested a thought in his head.
"A movie?"
"Y-yea."
"Sure. I mean, it's already afternoon and today is a weekday, so there won't be too many people at the cinema right now. Alright then, let's go!" With that, an energetic Exusiai leads the way, with him closely following suit.
As they walked through the afternoon streets of Lungmen, now less crowded as the working class of the city were now busy toiling away at their respective jobs, Ghost asked a sudden question,
"Have you ever been to a movie before?"
"Hm? Me? I have quite a lot of times actually. But I don't watch them as much lately, because Sora always has her concerts and I always go to them, so I don't have enough time for movies. Why ask?"
"...Well, I've never been to a movie before, actually..."
"Jeez, don't worry, I'll walk you through it. It's not even that hard."
"I'll be counting on you. I've always wanted to go watch one in an actual cinema. I've always just heard from the people on the landship about the cinema, so I'm really excited to go to one for real now. I wonder how it looks like..." He said with a small excited smile, his eagerness clearly reflecting from it.
She only smiles back to him in response, but this exchange has prompted a sudden thought to pop inside her mind,
'...There really are a lot of things he hasn't done yet in his life, huh. Even a kid has gone to a movie theater before, or would at least recognize one.'
"...siai, is this the cinema?" A distant calling of her name and a question pulls herself back to reality,
"Huh? Really?" She takes a look at the building right in front of them and glances upwards at its sign. It self explanatory said, (Just make up a name for a cinema, I'm tired of thinking up names.)
"So uh...we should...go in?"
The two then entered the premise, with Ghost almost immediately stunned at his first sight of how a cinema looked like with all its aesthetics and various eye catching posters that advertised the movies about to be aired. And this was before even entering the showing to watch the movie itself.
The moment he sat down on the seat and the cinema sized screen lit up, he'd magically transformed into a 5 year old.
"look at that screen! It's huge! Like, really huge!" He exclaimed to her in a loud and excited voice, aggressively pointing at the cinema screen with his index finger, even almost jumping out of his own seat.
"Shh, not so loud, jeez! There's other people here!" She said with a slight stern to her tone, but with also a hint of amusement at how he reacted, letting a stifled laugh escape from her mouth. Yeah, to her, she was exactly just a small kid, one she needed to look over and guide.
Yeah, that's how she saw him. At least in this moment.
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"Ahh~ that was a nice movie, wasn't it?" She said aloud, trying to catch the attention of Ghost who walked besides her as the two exit the cinema after watching a 2 hour feature length movie about a senator who had ridiculous abilities in the form of nanomachines implanted within him trying to make a fictional country named America great again but was thwarted by a silver haired cyborg ninja."
"Yeah, it was. I liked the part where he punched him a lot an the senator didn't even flinch!"
"Really?"
"Mmm-hmm! That scene was so intense! It really made clear the fact how formidable the senator was and solidified his character to be one not to be underestimated and a real force to be reckoned with. Thanks to that, the feeling when he was finally beaten was one of pure satisfaction, knowing that a truly formidable and dangerous threat to the world had finally been laid to rest once and for all."
"....Wow, I never really thought about it that way. You really thought that scene through and through, didn't ya?"
He nodded with a wide smile, still joyous from recollecting the scene of the movie, along with the many feelings that it invoked in him as he watched it. She felt amused seeing him talk with such passion. She wanted to listen more of it.
"Well then, now what if you were in the cyborg ninja's place instead? How would you deal with the senator, knowing that he's such a 'force to be reckoned with'?"
"...hmm...he's a senator, right? I'm sure we'd be able to discuss things over and reach an agreement on the best solution to the world's problems together. In the end, he did only to aim to develop the economy of the world, an actually noble intent. It's just that the fact that he resorted to warfare to be his main business model was his mistake. After all, intentions don't justify the means."
"...Wow, an optimistic view, I didn't expect that. I expected you to say something along the lines of swing swing and poof he's dead." She bantered with a wide jokingly grin. He took a pause, as if thinking, before saying.
"Well, that would've been easier, but I don't think everything can be solved with violence. At least, it shouldn't. It should be the last choice. It's not like we go ahead and attack everyone we see, we try to talk to them first, don't we? And if we could, we'd compromise first and reach a middle ground, that's what Rhodes Island has taught me. But if all else fails, what else can we do? We'll just have to grit and fight..." He pauses again, this time his brows furrowing more and more,
"....maybe...maybe if I...." His voice then abruptly cuts itself from continuing on with what was initially just a mere thought that popped into his head, but it kept on spiraling and spiraling,
Until he thought that maybe if he'd knew of all this back then, how many lives would he have not need to take? That maybe this was the correct path that could've saved his old buds back then in the laboratory. His eyes then wondered and coincidentally fell onto the red haired girl besides her. He'd promised this girl he'd never think of it this way anymore, and so he forcibly stopped this train of thoughts before it went loose.
"...Yeah...you're right..." She fell into a timid silence hearing her joking remark has just been turned into a long serious talk. She cautiously sneaks a peek out of the corner of her eye at him, his eyes now had a zoomed out glare to them,
It was this very side of him that splits her image of him. A side seasoned to all the terrors and reality of a cruel battlefield, matured through blood and pain. Death and loss. Kill or be killed.
"...There's a lot of people again." He suddenly said, averting both their attention to the now bustling streets in front of them, once again filled with commute. Maybe some were going back to the comfort of their homes, or maybe some were going to a place to rest themselves. But they were all tired after a day's work all the same.
"Oh, it's rush hour again. It IS already evening. Work's just ended" She briefly explains to him. She wrinkles her brows and places a finger on her bottom lips, supporting her arm with the other as her body subconsciously moved into a thinking stance,
"Tch...I was planning we could go eat somewhere after this, but with all these people, it's going to take too long, we won't have enough time to make it back...." She moaned a complain, slowly tapping her feet on the floor with a sense of uneasiness.
But as if God himself saw the troubled angel, a flyer flew by and comically smacked itself against Ghost's head. He collects the flyer and curiously takes a read,
"...A newly opened cafe by the park?" He reads aloud, and those words caught Exusiai's attention. With a curious gaze, she turns and looks at him. Ghost, in turn held the flyer up for her to read,
"...Ooh! This'll do nicely! It's just around the corner here, and the park won't be too packed right now! I heard it also has a nice clear pond there, too!" She said with a tone of relief at this solution brought down to them from the powers above. With a now energetic perk, she excitedly started to walk ahead,
"Let's-" But stopped before she even took a step. She then looked behind her, glancing at him who had only a visibly confused face at her behavior. He thought there was something wrong for her to have stopped. She grinned, before lunging at him, her dress flowing freely as she grabbed his hand. He was surprised by it, but she merely kept her grin and pulled him close to her,
"Let's go!"