His footsteps were slow, after all walking fast didn’t serve a purpose when one lacked a destination. Oda Kaguri walked through the deserted town of Pandemonium, the streets were empty, everyone who could had left the city and those who couldn’t kept indoors. It was like walking through a ghost town, an eerie silence lying like a suffocating blanket over the whole town. As he walked, Oda thought about what Shirou had said before their last fight. ‘Someone who fights to avenge their friends can never beat someone who fights to avenge strangers.’ It was a strange sentiment. Did that man truly believe that he was fighting for the people Mifuyu had gotten killed? If those people, those samurais from the ancient era, had seen the situation did that man think they would have approved of his actions? Probably not, but the warrior hadn’t cared. Whether people saw him as good or evil had never been a concern, whether he was right or wrong was for others to decide. Most likely, the knight had simply seen himself as a force of retribution, the manifestation born from all those unheard cries of death, that who Shirou was. A zombie of revenge crawling from the grave, just to drag the whole world down with him.

Alice walked lightly, it was like she dared not put her foot down with all her might or she might invoke the wrath of the superhuman foes she had been fighting against, the very sounds of her footsteps being enough to conjure them from the town's many shadows. She wanted to run away, to leave all this fighting and death behind, but she knew that wasn’t an opinion. She thought about Maru-Maru, the monstrous girl that she had been running away from for so long. Although she had the shape of a young woman she was more akin to a voracious animal that would devour anything in her path than anything else. Yet, even someone like that must have had a reason, Alice refused to believe that the girl had simply woken up one day and decided to cannibalize the people around her. But the black-haired girl knew that she would never get any answer for why the tanned girl ended up the way she did, all she knew was that that monster was no longer in this world.

As Alice walked the road grew, going from one to two and after some more walking, three lanes. She was starting to approach the city center, with the large road circling the centrum of Pandemonium, meaning she would have to deviate from it if she wanted to get there. After a few more minutes, Alice came upon the intersection where she would need to deviate if she wanted to go to the city center. As she came to that section of the road, she would stop and look both ways.

She simply stood there for a few minutes, uncertain about what direction to take. She had nowhere to go within this city and although there probably were dozens of empty houses for her to stay in, it just didn’t feel right to squat in someone’s else's residence. She could always head back to the motel, but Alice didn’t like that place, not now when Evelina was gone. She thought about asking Oda if she could stay at his apartment for the time being, and just as her brain was beginning to recollect the image of that blonde man, she saw him. He was walking away from the city center with heavy steps, being about twenty or so meters ahead of her at the moment. She decided to call out to him. Having heard his name, shouted from a high pitched voice that he knew very well, Oda turned around and saw the black-haired girl looking back at him. He didn’t expect Alice to be up and about wandering Pandemonium after what had happened, it was dangerous even for him. Even though, when he saw her the blonde man felt like a weight had been lifted from his chest. He wasn’t all alone anymore, at least he had Alice with him, someone else to share the sight of the desolate town of Pandemonium. Waiting for the young woman to catch up, Oda thought about whether she would be able to face those two monsters again after Evelinas death.

Evelina had always been the one to help Alice, the one to drive her forwards, now when she was gone Oda was uncertain if the woman would be able to push herself to face such deadly foes again. Even he himself was unsure if he would be able to stand up to those superhumans when the time finally came. It had been two days since their last battle, but for them it felt like an eternity, every second being stretched out to its absolute limit before moving onto the next. When Alice finally stood next to him Oda would ask her if she was heading anywhere in particular, her response made it clear that she was idly wandering the town of Pandemonium just like him. Two wanderers without anywhere to go, Oda would think for several moments before he figured out a place for them to visit. Looking at Alice, their eyes would meet for a second and the slight nod he gave her signalized that they should start moving. Slowly walking through the city as the cold afternoon winds assailed them, it was not long until they came to their destination.

The red and black interior of the bar seemed somehow bleaker than he remembered it. As Oda had simply forced the door to this bar open, he felt a little bad about what he was doing, at the same time he knew that it would probably be turned to ash sooner rather than later so they might as well enjoy it while it still existed. Entering the building Oda would go in first with Alice following him shortly thereafter. The bar was empty, as to be expected. Yet there were still countless bottles of liquor lining one of the walls, from the looks of it they weren’t the cheap kind either. Going behind the bar, Oda would take down one of the bottles before placing two glasses on the counter. One for him, one for Alice. Without even asking if she wanted some, the blonde would begin to fill one of the glasses with the liquor. Alice had never drank alcohol before but she knew about it, it was something the adults had used to dampen stress and pain. Alice did not know how she had imagined her first time drinking being like, but this, in an abandoned bar before having to save the world, that was something that broke all expectations.

Peering into the glass, she would look at the almost sirap-colored liquid for a moment before moving her hand over to it, slowly grabbing it with her pale fist. But just as Alice was about to raise the glass to her lips, she saw a worried expression in Oda’s eyes as they were staring at something behind her.

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Quickly turning around all her worst fears were made true as she could see the knight clad in black standing at the far end of the bar, somehow having managed to make their way in here unnoticed. The two heroes immediately got up from their seats, ready to fight if the armored foe moved as much as a finger. But, the knight did something that neither of the two had expected. Slowly walking over to the counter while Alice and Oda simply stood like petrified, not wanting to be the first one to attack this foe, the black knight took a glass and opened a bottle of whiskey. From the looks of it it was the old and expensive kind. Pouring until the glass was almost full, it was not until after that which the knight removed their helmet revealing an appearance that neither of the two could have anticipated.

Underneath it was the pale face of a pretty girl, she looked quite a lot like Alice in fact. But unlike Alice, whose eyes had a deep green color, hers were crimson red, standing out against her pale skin and long, black hair. Putting the helmet down on the counter, she would throw back the drink she had poured in a second, after which she slammed the glass down. Both of the two were uncertain about how they should even react to this absurd situation, who they had believed to be their mortal enemy was now sharing a drink with them. Looking at her with anxious eyes, Alice was uncertain if the black haired woman would attack them at a moment's notice if they did something wrong. Slowly leaning away from her, the unlucky girl was stopped in her tracks as the mysterious woman began speaking. “I have come to propose an alliance.”

Looking at the woman who had just spoken like she was insane, Oda needed a few moments to compose himself before he was able to respond. “So, you are here to try and recruit us to your cause?” He thought that after their last battle, Junsei perhaps thought it would be possible to make them change sides. After all, neither Oda nor Alice had anything left to fight for in this world. But at the same time, both of them knew that they would ever join the remaining two angels. Because if they did that all the sacrifices made up to this point had been in vain. “Yes, that is my intention. But do not be mistaken, I am doing this to stop Junsei. I do not want to see the end of the world.” Looking at the woman who just said she was willing to betray the monstrous man known as Junsei, Oda would raise an eyebrow as he was trying to understand the reason for her actions. As if to answer his gesture, the woman would continue speaking. “My name is Shi Ishin and I am Junseis sister.” She looked at each of the two heroes who were staring intensely at her, which was only natural after she uttered those words.

“I suppose I owe you an explanation.” As such, Shi explained how she had met a six year old boy who was lost and confused. She explained how they had grown up together, she explained how he had been enrolled in the Japanese military and she explained how he had been forced to see his lover, her, die. Both of the two listeners looked at the woman with wide eyes, to them her story made no sense. She claimed she had burned to death in the firebombing of Tokyo yet here she was, sitting right next to them. Alice thought that perhaps it was possible for ghosts to exist in this world, after all she herself was a being that broke all preconceived laws of nature and physics, so for the dead to come back to life, that wasn’t something that should be considered impossible.

“Now, that would have been the end of me, had it not been for my manifestation. I came back from the dead and I saw how Junsei had gone mad from grief. So many innocent people were slain by his hand, I realized the man I once loved was dead.” A moment of silence ensued, neither of the two being able to bring themselves to say something after hearing that. Shi took this as a sign that she was all clear to continue speaking. “Therefore, I donned the disguise of a black knight. A follower that would always be at his side, never speaking out against him and always following his order. At the same time, I spent every night tirelessly working on a technique that would be able to end his life with absolute certainty.”

As Oda heard her speak, he would ask a question, thinking about Kigura who had been part of the seven angels yet turned on Junsei and died because of that. “Did you not know about Kigura’s plan to betray him?” The blonde man would ask. “I knew, in fact everyone knew about it as it was one of the first things he had stated after joining our group. Yet I did not dare reveal my intentions to Kigura for at the time I had not completed the technique that would take Junsei’s life. The chance of my identity being compromised was simply too great.” She looked at Oda. “But now, I have finally completed it.” She was confident in her words, like she had gone over the scenario where her hands would take Junsei’s life a thousand times in her head, leaving no room for miscalculations or error. As Alice stared into her eyes she could see that the black haired woman was determined to go through with her plan even if it would mean losing her life. She found herself unable to say anything, in a way the woman who had appeared reminded her a lot about Jonathan in her demeanor, she was acting like a soldier determined to fight for what is right. Averting her gaze, the younger woman would listen to the armored woman as she spoke about her plan.

“Junsei plans to face the two of you on new years eve, that is the moment he intends to finish his plan. That’s when I need your help, to distract him, all I need is one moment to take his life.” Oda had a worried look on his face, he was uncertain whether she would truly be able to end Junsei’s life. At the same time, the plan they had come up with had failed so if they wanted to stop that monstrous man it looked like this was the only shot they had. He would look towards Alice for a moment, uncertain whether they should go with her plan or not, but as he saw the determined luck in the younger woman's eyes he would nod slowly. This was the only way forwards for them and even Alice seemed determined to go through with it.

Turning back towards Shi, Oda would nod his head as to show that he was going to go along with her plan. As she saw his movement she would slowly pour more whisky in each of the three glasses, speaking to them as she did. “He will be waiting at the wooden bridge, in the small park south of the town center.” With those words the woman raised her glass, clearly expecting the two of them to do the same. It took them both a moment, but before long there were three glasses raised in the air. “To our victory.” The crimson-eyed woman would say with confidence in her voice, although, behind that confidence Alice thought she could make out something akin to fear, or perhaps, regret. She had little time to think about it as both Shi and Oda had already begun drinking, not wanting to be the odd one out, Alice would do the same. To their victory.