So Arthur's officially out of his rut. Now we play the "game inn" card and revert to the next morning! Cause this fic is awesome, like Gilbert!
/=+=/
Kiku slowly rose from his bed, the sun shining on his bedside. He slowly got dressed into his military uniform when he heard his phone ring. Without skipping a beat, he picked it up and flipped it open, bringing it to his ear.
"Moshi moshi." He blinked. "Ah, Nel...yes, so you're here? OK...we're in the Bermont Hotel...in front of the Coliseum...OK, we'll meet you here..."
He hung up, bringing the phone down into his pocket. After adjusting the katana to his side, he pulled out of the door and locked his room, heading down the hallway to wake up the others. He first found Arthur and Alfred's room, and he quickly knocked on it. He heard fumbling from inside, and then saw Alfred open the door.
"Oh, hey Kiku." He grinned, fixing his glasses. "What's up?"
"I've received a call from the Netherlands...everyone will be coming up to the Hotel in about an hour." He answered. "I advise that you and Arthur fix yourselves up before heading out to the lobby."
"Oh, we can do that! Don't worry!"
"And by cleaning up, I mean you should probably take Arthur's clothes off the floor and make sure he gets his underwear off the nightstand."
The door slammed in his face, and it was then that Kiku realized that Arthur wasn't in the bed when he was talking to Alfred. Shaking his head, he went to warn the others. During that walk, he decided against telling them what he had seen in that room.
/=+=/
Nonetheless, Kiku was the last person to enter the lobby when everyone went in for the meeting. He was only aware of everyone else's presence when he heard Prussia's booming voice echoing from the front desk.
"We got the whole group in here, then?" He asked.
"Yes. Everyone's here and they're planning on meeting us in the hotel." Ludwig answered, trying to keep the serious look.
"You know what that means? It means that our power level is OVER 900-"
"GILBERT, I SWEAR TO GOD...ONE MORE INTERNET MEME OUT OF YOUR MOUTH AND I WILL CARVE YOUR BRAIN OUT WITH A BUTCHER KNIFE!"
"Now now, Lovino...calm yourself."
Lovino reluctantly allowed himself to be lowered onto the couch that he was sitting on previously. Ludwig checked out of the hotel as he turned to join the others sitting quietly in the lobby. Most of them looked a little nervous about their night escapade, but he wasn't expecting anything less.
"So that does it: Feliciano is definitely in that building..." Alfred nodded. "And Holy Roman Empire placed a barrier around the building in case we find out he's here."
"That's the basic summary..." Kiku stated. "And our objective is to get inside the building."
"Could you just teleport inside the area?" Seyel asked.
"I would have to see it first...and I'm more than aware that there's a chance that Holy Rome knows that as well." He answered.
"We should try seeing if we can go inside anyway." She stated. "It's daytime, so he probably won't consider us going in there early."
"...we can try that..." Japan stood up.
"You're not going alone, Kiku." Gilbert darted up. "We stick together...so we go there together."
"I really don't think it's-"
*Dragged out the door*
"...what's our plan after that?" Arthur asked. "We can't just barge in without something to do."
"Duh, we go search for Feliciano." Alfred chuckled.
"It wouldn't be that easy to do, you know." Arthur sighed. "Where would we even begin to look?"
It was then that they felt a chill go down their spines. Seyel turned her head and saw her shadow form ripples, seeing two figures levitate into existence. She would've screamed, but then remembered that there were people around them (who apparently hadn't seen this).
"N-Natalya!" Ludwig panicked. "Don't use your powers when there're this many witnesses!"
"We were running late." She answered. "We wanted to be on time. Isn't that right, Ivan?"
He didn't want to argue with her. Everyone understood his fear and let it go. Because of Natalya's presence, everyone stood there quiet until the others were able to enter the building. Even then, they didn't want to say anything.
"So everyone's here then?" Francis peeked inside. "Good, good...what's the problem?"
"Well..."
/=+=/
They stood in front of the Basilica, watching the tourists come in and out as if there were no ghosts going around the place at the time. No one had to say anything at the time, since they saw Roderich stand in front of the door. He touched the air in front of the large arch, and was repelled back by a clear circle.
"You think Feliciano is in here?" He asked.
"Yes." Seyel answered. "There are rumors stating that there is a ghost that bears his resemblance in this building...and we can't go in to investigate."
"In that case, this barrier definitely resembles a block spell..." Roderich nodded. "But I never knew that Holy Roman Empire had access to these kinds of spells..."
Spells... Ludwig blinked. Perhaps he obtained a bit of my abilities that I inherited from father...
Everyone looked at each at other as they turned toward Ivan, curious if he could do anything about it. He took up the challenge with a smile on his face, and then proceeded to stare in front of the door for a while. After a few minutes, the circles were flashing all over the place before stopping.
"Well?" Ludwig asked.
"...they're strong." He answered. "I'll need someone on the inside to break the barrier."
"So much for that thought..." Vash folded his arms. "Hey, what happened to Kiku and Gilbert?"
"They were trying to get inside..." Alfred turned his head. "Maybe they were successful?"
"Wouldn't they have told us?" Lili asked.
It was then that they heard yelling from the side of the building. They all headed over to the hidden location and saw Kiku and Gilbert staring at a small fire escape door. Well, stare was a broad topic. Kiku was watching Gilbert scream at the door in very colorful language. The only thing that they caught was "why won't you let us in, dammit?"
"No luck on your part?" Antonio laughed.
"Don't rub it in..." He spat. "This guy's got all the damn angles!"
"So...he's sealed all the entrances..." Matthew panicked. "What can we do?"
"We're going to get in somehow!" Alfred grinned. "Cause I'm the hero! And heroes always end up victors in the end!"
"Hey!" Gilbert screamed. "I thought we all concluded that I was the hero!"
As the argument came back to life, Germany couldn't help but stare through the fire escape to see anyone inside. Odd enough, he saw a moving figure walking toward the entrance. It stopped just before his face could be revealed in the light, but he slid something out of the building right into his feet. He went to pick it up, seeing that the figure had vanished.
"Who was that?"
He turned his head and noticed that Arthur had seen him as well. Ludwig's attention turned back to the thing that slid and realized that it was a pocket watch that bore the symbol of the Holy Roman Empire. He clicked it open, revealing a piece of paper. Slowly, he took the paper and unfolded it. It had the image of a fire dog with a collar that held the same cross he drew for him.
"Feliciano..." He muttered. "This is yours, isn't it?"
"I'll do what I can...for Doitsu!"
I'll find you, Italy. Just wait for us a little longer...
It was then that he realized that Feliks was on the phone the entire time. When he looked up, he had hung up, a smile plastered all over his face. He was always one to be zoning out whenever he had to, so he had no idea what he would be smiling about.
"Hm?" He turned to Ludwig. "What's up?"
"N-nothing." Germany answered. "What can we do now?"
"Well...we just need a plan, right now..." Netherlands stepped in.
"Whatever the plan is, destroying walls has to be our last resort." Belgium added. "This is a human landmark...we can't bring ourselves into massive attention."
"Whatever the case is...we should head back to the hotel for now..." Antonio stretched. "You know...get ready and stuff."
"L-like a video game?" Kiku's eyes seemed interested.
"That sounds great, aru." China grinned. "In the meantime, we'll see if we can get any inside visuals of the building so that Kiku can teleport us in."
"God...we have to wait some more?" Lovino grumbled.
"We have to..." Ludwig held onto the locket. "For Feliciano..."
/=+=/