Ciel didn't know when she'd gotten separated from the rest of the group.

Perhaps it was when she'd been sucked into battle, realizing she wasn't as adapted to her current body as she thought. Or it was when she began focusing on dodging, getting lost in the array of bullets?

Maybe the rest of the group had forgotten that she was just a D-1 Ante and was unable to catch up with their regular pace. Well, either way, after searching around for a while, she realized her sense of direction had failed her once again.

She was lost.

The assortment of doors differed from the Virtual World but still felt the same. Dangerous. She decided to take a risk.

Opening a door, she snuck in.

There were people moving around inside. Roughly two or three. They didn't look innocent as they shifted through filing cabinets, pulling papers and tucking them away in their bags. It wasn't that they were the only people Ciel saw, it was just that they were the only people in the room who were alive.

"Mitch, I've dealt with two of them," a man said to another who was shifting through the cabinets. Two people lay on the floor, their faces still pink. They were fresh kills. Mitch nodded, his eyes dashing around to check for intruders.

They wouldn't see her down there though. Hidden in the pipes at the top of the room, Ciel looked downwards. Her best chance of finding her way around would be stealing a directory, and it seemed like she'd come to the right place.

"Alright, I just need to find a few more files and we can leave," Mitch said. He held a gleam in his eyes. Ciel knew that look; it was greed.

Raising her gun, she shot down the two people in the room.

Ciel dropped to the floor and began digging through the files. She'd long stopped relying on her sense of direction, so maps were what she learned to live by. Thankfully, they happened to have one.

Looking at the document she'd finally found after shifting endlessly through cabinets, Ciel let out a breath of relief, but as she picked it up, something not so discrete caught her eye.

It was a list.

Community Center 625 to Balen, Onik to Century, and Departure of Shipment 386 on the 607 were just a few. After reading through it, Ciel realized that not only did the list hold past shipments, it held future ones too. It was a list of hits.

This might be important.

In the corner of said list was a symbol: grapes with a dagger. Ciel didn't pay much attention to it before folding the paper up into her hand. Then, after following the listed halls and rooms listed on the directory, she finally met with the shuttle once more.

"Where the fuck is that kid," Mad Hatter said. He wasn't alone; over his shoulders he'd thrown two men, who, Ciel could tell, were still breathing. But like proper kidnappees, they played dead.

Cheshire stood to his side with another two, "We forgot about the difference in speed. It's on us this time."

Ciel listened to their conversation as she approached, Queen nowhere in sight. Ciel supposed she was in the shuttle.

"Give him five minutes. If he doesn't return, we'll turn the ship to law enforcement and let them find him," Rabbit said. She had total confidence when speaking to people even if she messed up her wording occasionally.

Her thoughts went like this: I said something wrong? That must've been your fault. Two slaps!

Ciel looked around. She didn't see Klein in the vicinity.

"Did I make it before the time limit," Ciel asked, coming up behind Cheshire. The three didn't care to answer, just nodding their heads as a greeting. As they boarded the shuttle once more, Cheshire gave her a pat on the back.

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

"Glad you made it out alive."

As Ciel soon found out, the four Cheshire and Mad Hatter had brought back with them were the leader of the ship, his right-hand man, and two men from logistics that had tried to run away. The rest were still on the ship, but since the group had succeeded in kidnapping their leaders, it could be said that they had safely surrendered. Ciel passed the paper she'd stolen to Queen, ridding her hands of the matter.

When they returned to Onik, the pirates on the ground were in panic. Thanks to Mad Hatter, the majority of their pilots had been killed, leaving them stranded. Now they could only wreak havoc until the main ship realized they were taking too long and descended. Even the pilots who'd been smart enough to hide from the Mad Hatter realized, as they'd tried to start their ships, that the engines had been shot up and there was roughly no chance of them making it into the air.

Queen, who'd been in the back of the shuttle, spoke.

"I made a call to law enforcement, they should be here soon."

"Right," Mad Hatter said.

While they waited, Ciel kept her head down as she sat next to Klein, who she'd found in the shuttle. The tension from before had gotten thicker, and even though the group acted like everything was fine, resentment was hidden in every interaction. Even their prisoners could feel it. Ciel decided to blend into their group and immediately disappeared from the scene, collecting information in her head as they went.

The sound of sirens felt like a blessing.

A woman stepped out of one of the flashing cars.

"Queen?" she asked. Queen nodded. "Thank you for catching this group of terrorists, we can take it from here."

Ciel caught the loathing in her voice. Combined with her deadpan face, what she said felt like a joke.

"Do you need any help with the pirates left?" Queen asked.

"Don't worry, the beasts can deal with those."

Queen and the woman didn't exchange any more words, the woman speaking more with Mad Hatter and Cheshire as they loaded those they'd taken into their cars. As soon as they disappeared, Rabbit hopped out of the shuttle.

"I'm hungry," she said. Everyone agreed.

------

The familiar setting of Onik's Diner made Ciel's stomach growl. Alice had told her that it was okay for her to remove her Technoid, as it would be more suspicious if she had it on. All she had to do was say the word "release" in her head. Ciel had done as told without question. She'd also been given permission to share her name since they were now free of being associated with their Technoid counterparts. Alice was a well-known figure, but as Ciel was operating illegally it was important for her to keep her identity under wrap.

Once she'd gotten out of her Technoid, the silver block reappeared in her hand. Cheshire gave her a pat on the head.

"You really do look like a prince, huh," Mad Hatter said.

He wasn't wrong. Upon seeing Ciel's appearance, the group came to the conclusion that she was a delicate child, even with the scent of danger surrounding her. She was elegant, as though she held years of practice behind every movement.

"My name's Cristo," Cheshire said, "Mad Hatter's name is Maddox, Mac for short, and Rabbit's name is Frenchie."

Ciel remembered Alice's rant about Frenchie. She sure didn't match her name.

"My name's Ciel."

Frenchie smiled, "French, huh. Your parents must've been history nuts."

Ciel nodded. Actually, her parents were just French.

Soon they'd made their way to the restaurant. Ciel had been seated next to Alice and Frenchie as Maddox and Cristo sat across from them.

"Cheers to fighting for the safety of the people," Cristo said, raising his glass. Frenchie went to meet him and Maddox clicked his cup against the two of theirs.

"Alice, Ciel?" Cristo said, gesturing for them to join the party. Ciel raised her glass of apple juice and Alice a glass of beer.

"Cheers!"

They drank.

"So, Ciel, how'd you end up with Alice?" Frenchie asked, a slight slur in her voice. They'd been drinking for around two hours, and finally, someone had asked the question they'd all been wondering.

"Pirate attack on our ship. Alice saved me and bought me some food, that's when the other pirates attacked." She figured it'd be best not to include the kidnapping event, tucking it away in her memories.

For a second, everything went silent. Ciel watched realization dawn on Frenchie's face.

The table shook. Everyone shot their eyes to Maddox, who'd slammed his glass on the table.

"Oh you bitch," he said, eyes sharp as he glared at Alice, "You fucking lured them here did you?"

Alice didn't deny it.

"If I hadn't brought them here, they would've killed more people," she said, "the one for the many."

"'The one for the many'," Maddox chided, his voice rising, "Do individual lives mean nothing to you? What about Heffie and Jones? You've known them for seven years now. Quite it with this heroic bullshit Alice."

Heffie and Jones were the names of the two owners of Onik's Diner. Ciel remembered Alice's familiarity with the place, ordering dishes with ease even without the menu.

So she'd been here before.

"Would you have preferred I let more people die when they were right in front of me?" Alice asked, her voice rising as well.

"No, but I'd expect for you to at least tell us," Maddox snapped, "you don't trust anyone, not even your own fucking teammates. We could've thought up a better plan than this pile of shit. You go around preaching about how we need to do better for the people but you won't even consider any other options before sacrificing them."

Alice glared at him.

Clutching his head, Maddox stood up, "Fuck I can't deal with this right now."

"Just put your drinks on my tab."

Slamming a few cards on the table, he walked away.

Soon after he left, Ciel passed out.