"Shit," Shiro had muttered out loud for everybody in the room to hear,and his fingers were trembling from the sight that was in front of him while everybody stared at him with a dumbfounded expression glued onto their faces.
This wasn't happening.
This wasn't happening.
There was no way in a million years that this was happening!
From within the mask of 'Shiro',was Mahiru, and he was currently sweating bullets and just radiating off nervousness at this point so much so that Tsurugi would have surely laughed at him.
He tried to calm himself down by breathing in and out several times and succeeded in doing so.
He took a step back,out from the room,which confused some people as he made a 90-degree bow from there,"I'm sorry,I must've gotten the wrong room.Sorry to disturb you all."
"Huh?No,Shiro-Chan,you've got the right room. What are you talking about?" Tsurugi asked with a quizzical look on his face.
Shiro shook his head and turned to the direction that he came from and started walking,much to the confusion of Tsurugi who called him there,and he felt a presence exit the room and follow him.
"Hey,Shiro-Chan,where are you going?You got the correct room," Tsurugi questioned him but a wave of alarm washed over him when he saw Shiro suddenly pick up the pace and ran for the hills,"WAIT, SHIRO-CHAN,STOP RUNNING—!"
"I had the wrong room and would like to return back to my duties,so if you would very so kindly, let me return back to them!"
"What duties do you even have?!"
"Oh you know,finishing a level in my PSP."
"Shiro-Chan,this was an order from Tai-Chan! You can't run,more so when you had accepted it already! Get back here right now!" Tsurugi shouted which made Shiro grit his teeth in frustration.
Through gritted teeth,he snarked back,"Then please tell him that I've rejected it and try to find another person to take over my role!I'd very much so appreciate that!"
"But Tai-Chan requested for you specifically!" Tsurugi yelled again while trying to chase down the currently panicky Shiro who just wanted to stay out of everything.
When Shiro heard that,he paused in his tracks and turned to the currently panting Tsurugi who had the honour of chasing him,and he questioned wearily,"Wait, he requested for me,specifically, and not somebody else?"
"Yep."
"YOU TWO ARE DEMONS!" He growled out in anger.
They both knew what his predicament was, on how he hadn't made up with Sleepy Ash (or if he ever will) and how Shiro and the rest of the Servamps are arch-enemies; both of his predicaments,be it with his true identity or with his alter-ego,have bad relationships with the Servamps!
How sadistic were they to pair him up with them, in this...whatever job this was?!
He wasn't told about what the job would be and was completely left in the dark,so he was actually a bit curious on what it was,but he mostly dreaded this.
Tsurugi merely shrugged in response to Shiro's nasty comment,because really,he can't say anything as he knew how bad his relationship with the Servamps were,and to pair him up with them was basically just fanning the fire and adding fuel to it.
He gazed at Shiro's mask (which had a voice changer) and looked straight into those peepholes where Mahiru's eyes were,and sighed,"I don't know, okay?I wasn't the one who issued it out."
"Then tell Touma-San that I have rejected it!"
"No can do,sorry~!" Tsurugi grinned playfully as he then mumbled something underneath his breath, and suddenly,black shadows bound themselves onto Shiro,immobilising him.
Shiro yelped,"What the—! Get these off me,you bastard!"
"You've got a foul mouth,Shiro-Chan~!Better wash it out later with soap!" Tsurugi teased him as he dragged Shiro by his back collar,and back to the room where Shiro thrashed around in his grip, yelling protests here and there.
They were slowly getting closer and closer to the room, and they were already at the doorframe when Shiro's hand latched onto the door,seemingly having a little ray of hope left in him.
"Shiro-Chan,let go!"
"I DON'T WANT TO!" Shiro fired back with determination ringing in his voice,unaware that they were both being watched by the rest.
But of course,Tsurugi was clearly a bit stronger than him due to the amount of experience he had compared to the white-fox we have over here,and he managed to pry Shiro's fingers off the door and dragged him to the sofa.
After Tsurugi removed the bindings that we're immobilizing Shiro, Shiro had no choice but to fold him his arms and glare at him who replied with a playful stuck-out tongue.
"O...kay..?" Misono broke the ice which made Shiro and Tsurugi turn their attention to him,which also made Shiro realise in terror that ALL of them were still in the room.
God damn it.
Tsurugi was quick to reply back to him and pointed at the terror-stricken Shiro,"Alright! So, this is your new 'test-Bodyguard'! He'll try to guard and protect you all. Please treat him nicely, okay?"
.
.
.
"What?" Shiro,Hyde and Hugh all asked at the same time with confusion and anger and complete rejection all laced throughout their voices.
Tsurugi was just beaming and smiling as bright as you can think he could be,almost to the point where his smile could compare to Mahiru's back then.
The whole room just erupted into chaos immediately after a few beats of silence after Shiro,Hyde and Hugh had voiced their questions out,the whole scenery turning into hell.
"WHAT?!"
"NO!"
"NOT HIM!"
"YEAH,NOT ME! WHY DID I NOT HEAR OF THIS?! IF I HAD KNOWN, I WOULD'VE REJECTED! NO,I QUIT, THANK YOU VERY MUCH!" Shiro was quick to fire back as he instantly shot up and stormed for the exit.
However,the moment he was about to leave, Tsurugi hit a button that was on the couch and the door immediately slammed shut right in front of Shiro, shocking everybody.
Tsurugi smirked,"Of course, Shiro-Chan. Tai-Chan knew that you were going to reject if you had known, so he told me to not tell you."
"What?!"
"Yep~! Oh and also,those doors are locked and can definitely withstand your strength if you decided to kick it down and can only be opened if I press this button again."
"What?!" Shiro shrieked in terror as he tried so hard to kick these doors down but all efforts became in vain as he started to lose stamina and the doors didn't even budge.
Tsurugi whistled as he continued,"We knew you were going to attempt to escape, so that was why we picked this room."
"I didn't know that there were contraptions in this room!"
"Exactly!That was precisely why we picked this weird room that shouldn't belong here instead of the others!" Tsurugi piped up enthusiastically, seemingly enjoying himself too much.
Shiro gnashed his teeth as he took a one-second glance at the rest of the bewildered people in the room, to which Sleepy Ash had noticed and tilted his head at him.
Once he did that,Shiro turned his attention back to Tsurugi,and he didn't even know it but his anger was leaking out.
His grip on his long trident tightened,and with his voice becoming alarmingly venomous and murderous, he whispered,"Let me go right now. I didn't sign up for this."
"Technically,you were the one who came to us for help so you signed yourself up for everything," Tsurugi had smartly snarked back at him,his own aura acting up to be on par with Shiro's.
In the rests' eyes,it was as if a kitsune was glaring at a playful and street smart yet venomous and deadly snake,the kitsune taking Shiro's side and the snake taking Tsurugi's.
"Okay, just cut it out, I don't have time for this. This is such a pain... I just want to get back to my bed," Sleepy Ash groaned,making everybody turn to him.
'Oh my god, just shut up! I hate your voice,your existence, everything! Just shut up!' a voice in Shiro's head screamed,so much so that he had a slight headache and had to massage his temple.
What the hell,was Venom or some other symbiote in his body now telling him stuff or was it just his conscience?
He assumed that it was the latter and not the former.
Hyde had immediately turned to Sleepy Ash with an angry and incredulous look,"What the hell are you saying, Nii-San?! There's no way I'm going to be with that bastard for one whole week just to help this damn organisation with a trial-service!"
"ONE WHOLE WEEK?!" Shiro had exclaimed after Hyde and he turned to Tsurugi to prove himself wrong but Tsurugi had just shrugged in return.
Hugh had suspiciously stepped up with a glare,"Hold on, you sound very surprised. How do you not know of this? Are you not informed of anything at all?"
"Had I been informed that I would be guarding the Servamps and their Eves for one whole freaking week as part of a 'Service' for this organisation, I would've ran for the hills and never turned back," He retorted with anger laced in his voice.
It made Hugh scowl as he stepped back,not liking the guy's attitude.
Sleepy Ash,after hearing Hugh's,Hyde's and Shiro's argument,turned to look at Shiro through those peepholes that were tinted black so that nobody could see his eye colours.
There was just something to this guy that just... drew him to him.
He didn't know what,this guy just felt somewhat familiar and reasonable to him,like he could relate to this guy on a level or something,and there was something that interested him.
Why did Shiro hate the Servamps so much and what drew him to kill their subclasses,in return making the rest hate him?
Sure,he could've just done it for the lols and wanted to be a serial killer like Tsurugi who only did it for the money,but Tsurugi didn't really hate the Servamps; he just killed their subclasses for money, not out of a personal grudge.
But this guy...he was truly angry at them,and his behaviour was somewhat like Shuhei's when he and Mahiru first went to the C3.
What did they do to him?
Did a subclass kill one of his close friends, family members?
But that wasn't possible,he didn't recall a killing between ordinary civilians and subclasses that occurred on their side in a long time.
Except Tsubaki,he was an exception.
But Shiro,using the knowledge Sleepy Ash had learnt from hearing the others' plans on what to do with him, hadn't once killed a subclass from Tsubaki's side at all and he heard rumours of Shiro and Tsubaki having a truce together.
So...that ruled out two options already.
Then what was the reason as to why Shiro hated them so much? There was almost no reason for him to hate them at all.
And what better way to confirm his questions than to ask the person himself?
"Sorry, but um," He raised his hand politely to get the tensions in the room to reduce a little (he succeeded in reducing it a little) and proceeded with his question,"I'm a bit curious... but you seem to hate us a lot. Why is that?"
He saw the grip that Shiro had on his trident tighten even more that he thought that the metal would bend anytime soon,and raised an eyebrow to his mysterious behaviour.
Through the gritted teeth,a sentence was heard from Shiro,but it was a vague answer to his question,"It doesn't concern you. Mind your own business."
Sleepy Ash took a few beats of silence before shrugging it off and retreating back, it was kind of stupid of him to even ask in the first place because he had expected of an answer like that.
There were some boundaries that one shouldn't cross and he had obviously stepped too far out of line on that one.
"Anyways," Sleepy Ash continued from where he first left off,"What are we gonna do with the 'bodyguard' thing? We gonna hold it off or something due to personal reasons? I'm fine with whichever, if it only means I can go back early."
Hyde,Hugh and Shiro were the first to respond,"We are not proceeding with it—"
"—Except that we are," Tsurugi had butted in of their somehow synchronised answer,making all three glare at him and Shiro had took it upon himself to step up to Tsurugi and shook him.
"Please,don't do this to me. You know how much I can't do this," Shiro had pleaded with a downcast look on his mask,if that was even possible,and his body was hunched,as if he already knew the answer but wanted it to not be true.
Tsurugi had shook his head,making Shiro sigh in defeat.
Tsurugi acknowledged Shiro's admit of defeat and patted him on the shoulder with a slight smile,"C'mon, don't look so sad and fearful. Tai-Chan said that they were weaknesses and you should overcome your weaknesses, right?"
Sleepy Ash,once hearing that,felt rage and anger bubbling up inside of him.
Fear and sadness weren't weaknesses,it was what made you stronger and made you feel alive, so it was out-right angering that Touma told somebody that they were weak because they felt human emotions that they weren't able to control.
Mahiru had told him that he should face his fears and problems head on to move forward to the future, but Touma's words weren't like that at all.
It was like he was telling them to bottle up their fears and regrets because they were weaknesses,and Sleepy Ash knew how bad the pain of bottling stuff up was and not tell anyone.
It was terrible.
He was about to speak up when Mikuni beat him to it,"What do you mean,'weaknesses'? What the hell are you teaching people around here?"
"Hm?" Tsurugi had made a shoulder-glance at Mikuni, before bringing his gaze down and sighing sadly,"It's just how Tai-Chan feels like. He has been through some rough times, so we can't— no, we don't have the right to question him about it."
"But—"
"Anyways!" Tsurugi had returned back to his cheerful self in a snap of a finger and chuckled,"So, for this one week,we're just gonna have a truce, okay? Just for this week."
Hugh and Hyde protested,"No—"
"I agree with him," Tetsu had stepped forward, making Hugh gape at him.
Tetsu merely gazed at Hugh before answering his silent question of 'why?!',"Come on,it's only for one week. What harm can that do? He's just human like us after all. It's better to just put aside our past for this week and focus on this 'bodyguard' service. It's just business and a trial."
Hugh wanted to protest but the words had died in his throat the moment his mind decided to digest it all in,and he was left hanging speechless.
He averted his gaze with a spiteful look in his eyes, before begrudgingly mumbling,"Fine."
"Wha— Hugh!" Hyde had exclaimed with a look of betrayal plastered on his face,and he wasn't even exaggerating it which was a first.
Hugh sighed and faced Hyde,"Lawless, it's fine. It's just for one week. After this,we can continue to hate him all we want. But just for this one whole week, we shall put our differences aside."
"But—!"
"Oh for god's sake you damn demon, I'm getting impatient with your protests! Just agree with it already!" Licht, having enough of this drama, decided to kick Hyde's side which made him groan and drop to the floor in pain.
While on the floor, Hyde glared at Shiro who didn't even flinch at it and the servamp decided to level his anger for now and spat out,"Fine, I agree."
Tsurugi had a victory smirk plastered on his face as all of them watched Hyde as he got back up, and he exclaimed,"Alright! So we have this trial going on now! We'll start tomorrow,so get ready!"
'Yeah,get ready my ass,' Shiro thought to himself as he watched Tsurugi press the button on the couch again,and saw the doors open as Tsurugi stepped out.
Before leaving the room,he casted a glance back at the others who were in it and who were staring at him with some kind of rejection,and oh he knew, that all of them,including him,were thinking the same thing at the same time:
'This week is going to be anything but free of incidents and problems and unproblematic.'