so then...

"Are you sure?" Ciel asked.

"That makes the most sense," I said.

"IT does seem likely," Sal said. "But Justin, if there really is a Thoughtborn living inside your laptop, that that's something you should be concerned about."

"I know," I said.

"How'd it even get in there?" Ciel asked.

"I think it was when Oceana attacked our old hideout," I said. "The night he hurt you. He must have slipped her in somehow."

"Stupid bastard," Ciel said.

"So what's your plan?" Sal asked.

"I'll keep her with me, I guess," I said.

"Are you crazy!?" Ciel demanded. "That thing could be dangerous!"

"Stop calling her a thing," I said. "She identifies as female. And she's trapped. Scared. I... I wanna help her. If I can."

"It's data, Justin," she replied. "It doesn't have a vagina."

"That's no what this is about!" I snapped.

"Look," Sal said. "It's nice that you want to help someone in trouble. But you have another friend right now who needs your help more."

"I know," I said. "I need to get to Terrence."

"Speaking of which," Ciel said. "How are those contacts coming along?"

"I found a servant who can help us," Sal said. "Sorry it took so long."

"What was the hold up, exactly?" Ciel asked.

"I had to find jus the right servant," he explained. "Someone close enough with their Fear to get us a personal audience."

"Wait, we're actually getting the Fears involved here?" I asked.

"Just one," he said. "One who would be willing to send you in there."

"Why exactly would a Fear go along with this?" I asked.

"Because this Fear hates the Game Master," Sal said. "They'd love to throw a wrench in his tournament. Which is exactly what we're planning to do."

"And which Fear is it, exactly?" Ciel asked.

Sal sighed, and grimaced for a second, clearly not comfortable with where this was going.

"The Wooden Girl," he answered.

Hey, V, you there?

I was hoping we could talk.

はい

Okay, cool. Any chance you can stop with the Japanese?

I'm trying my ベスト

It's 難しい

Well, keep trying, I guess. Maybe you'll figure it out. You're trapped, or something, right?

はい

Okay. And you can't see anything?

Not 当初

But now I can see... words... ideas... It's   奇妙な

Huh...

Do you remember anything from before?

No

Okay, English. That's progress, I guess...

So, I might as well learn what I can about you...

Are you a boy or a girl?

女の子

Okay. Do you know how old you are?

No...

Favorite color?

I like the purple you guys 選択した

Is that why you've been changing the color yourself?

はい

You like music?

I think Vocaloids are  いい

Is that why there were so many YouTube tabs open to Miku songs when I opened up my computer?

多分

...

Um...

Okay, so far we no that you're trapped somewhere neither of us can identify, you can see information, including my blog posts, as I'm writing them, no less, and you can interact with my posts and open things up on my computer...

And also that I'm 女性

Yeah, well that one's not quite as worrying as everything else. Look, I have to sign off for a while, but we'll talk again soon. Promise.

Okay...

I'll 待つ

An interesting encounter

So, Algeria and I were wandering around a bit, and we came across this dude.

Oh, right, this is Terrence by the way. Although that was probably obvious by the fact I mentioned Algeria was with me...

It was just outside this bishop shaped building. There were a bunch of scorched gouges in the ground and side of the building. There was still smoke coming from them.

And he was just standing there, examining them and taking notes on a notepad.

He had short, curly brown hair, wore a pair of glasses, and has a little goatee. There was a wooden samurai sword across his back, and a satchel was siting at his side.

He noticed us out of the corner of his eye.

"Oh, hey," he said. "IF you wanna fight, could you give me a minute? I'm in the middle of something."

I just gave him a weird look and let him go about his note taking.

"What are you doing, exactly?" I asked after a little bit.

"Trying to piece together what went down here," he replied.

"A fight, obviously," I said.

"Well, yes," he said. "But between who?"

I looked at the gouges.

"I dunno," I said.

"Well, if you look closely, the gouges seem to be caused by a sword," he said. "A big one, at that."

"Normal swords don't burn the environment," Algeria pointed out.

"That's 'cause it wasn't a normal sword," he replied. "The fire and smoke could mean a lot of things, but I feel the most likely reason would be the Brute's involvement."

My eyes widened a little at that.

"That, plus the evidence of a sword being used, would indicate that the damage was caused by a Crimson Knight," he went on.

I suppose I should explain. The Brute is a Fear that takes a lot of different forms and tends to have strong connections to fire and smoke, as well as warfare and anger. And its servants, the Crimson Knights, are basically berserkers who have a bit of its power.

"How can you be sure the Brute was involved here?" Algeria asked.

"Well, mostly it's just intuition," he said. "Whoever caused this much terrain damage must have been pretty strong. As was whoever it was fighting."

"What?" I asked.

"Look closer," he said. "The Crimson Knight isn't the only one who caused Terrain damage."

I hadn't noticed until then, but there was a bit of ground that had been smashed instead of gouged with a fiery sword.

"What caused all that?" I asked.

"Looks like a sledgehammer," the man said.

I practically froze solid hearing that.

"Clearly wielding by someone with above human strength," he continued.

"Like an Enhanced?" I asked.

"One of many possibilities," he said, smiling a bit. "But yes, that seems likely."

Henry. It had to be. But, if the multi-hammer wielding Enhanced took on a Crimson Knight, then there was still a pretty big question that needed answering.

"Who won?" I though aloud.

"Hard to say," the man said. "Neither of them seems to have left a body behind. And while the Knight could have immolated the Enhanced, there still would have been something left behind. Blood or ash or something."

"What if they both made it out unharmed?" Algeria asked.

"That would be possible," the man said.

"That would be trouble," I said. "Both a Crimson Knight and an Enhanced being out there. Probably still nearby."

"Are you done yet?"

The new voice startled me and Algeria, but the other guy wasn't surprised at all. We all turned to see a young girl standing there. She had blue hair, and wore a mask that had a red diamond and the number 9 on it.

"Sorry," the guy said. "I think I've got everything I need. You can go ahead do your thing."

"Finally," he girl said.

She lifted a hand, and one by one, the cracks and gouges closed up, returning the terrain to its proper state.

"Whoa," I said, watching her work. "That's interesting."

"You know what's really interesting?" the guy asked. "The fact that I've been talking about about the Brute and Crimson Knights this whole time, and haven't had to explain what either of them are. In fact, you contributed to the conversation by bringing up Enhanced. So you two must already be familiar with Fears and their servants."

"Whatever," I sighed. "What of it?"

"I just find it interesting," he said. "So, we fighting or not?"

"Honestly, I don't really care right now," I said.

"So, can I just go then?" he asked.

"I don't have a problem with it," Algeria said.

"Sure, go ahead," I said.

"Thank you," he said, picking up his satchel. "I look forward to next time."

He began walking away.

"What a weird guy," I said.

"You know we could have taken that guy, right?" Algeria asked.

The other girl chuckled.

"What's so funny?" I asked.

"The fact that he's won more fights than both of you combined," the girl said. "All without taking a single life."

Wow. Tha'ts... pretty impressive.

"I have a gun, and he knows how to handle Molotov cocktails," Algeria pointed out.

"He has intelligence, deduction, and adaptability," she said. "You shouldn't underestimate him so easily."

She finished up her work and vanished.

So yeah, we now know of three new potential threats in this tournament.

We have a Crimson Knight, who is definitely not something to take lightly.

Then we have Henry. Probably Henry, anyway. All clues point to him. And after the damage I caused to him, he is NOT going to show me mercy if we cross paths.

And then there's that dude with the wooden sword and the notepad who's kicked more ass than I have so far. He could also be a problem.

And, they're all most likely still nearby. We'll need to be extra careful.

Bar Fight

Okay...

Sorry for taking so long with this, but things got a bit crazy when we went to Sal's.

It started out okay. Ken let us in and we went up to the counter to talk to Sal. It was quiet and empty that night. Sal was alone there, cleaning some glasses, while the white haired guy who works there was getting some tables cleaned off.

"Reaper," he greeted me. "How can I help you."

"I need you to tell me something," I said.

He sighed.

"What's this about?" he asked.

"What do you know about the Game Master," I asked.

"More than I'd like too," he admitted. "I notice the pyromaniac is absent. And Julia's with you."

"That's right," I said. "Her brother and Terrence were both dragged into one of the Game Master's tournament."

"I see," he replied.

He set down his rag and placed both hands on he counter, closing his eyes.

"The best you can do is cross your fingers and hope they can make it out okay," he said.

"I can't do that!" I said. "I have to get to them. They need help."

"That's a bad idea," Sal said.

"I'm full of those," I said. "You know about the Game Master, right? There's gotta be a way into his domain."

"There's plenty of ways," he said. "But it's not a place you want to go."

"That doesn't matter," I said. "I need to get in."

Sal breathed a deep sigh before opening his eyes and looking at me.

"The answer is no," he said. "I can't help you."

"Bullshit!" Ciel snapped at him. "You work for him, don't you!?"

Sal immediately turned his attention to her, glaring. I've seen him angry before, but the look on his face now was absolutely livid. Ciel, of course, didn't back down.

"You've got those poker themed tables and you unexplained abilities that you use to keep dozens of Fear servants n check," Ciel continued. "He's the reason behind all of that, isn't he!?"

"Shut up," Sal growled.

"Answer me!" Ciel demanded.

Sal suddenly vanished, and then Ciel let out a shriek as he reappeared behind her, grabbed her by the hair, and lifted her a foot off the ground.

"I do NOT work for that monster!" Sal hissed.

I made to draw my scythe, but before I could, the white haired guy came up and raised a giant war glaive to Sal's neck.

"Put her down, Sal," he said softly. "Calm down."

Sal took a deep breath and released Ciel. The white haired guy breathed a sigh of relief before quickly tapping Ciel of the head with the handle of his glaive.

"You just had to fucking trigger him, didn't you?" he said.

I drew my scythe and swung it at him. He block my attack with his glaive, as I was expecting. I locked eyes with him.

"Don't fucking touch her," I warned, before turning to Sal. "What the hell is your problem?"

"I'm going to have to ask you all to leave," he said.

"Not gonna happen!" I said. "I need to get onto the Board, and your my best shot at getting there."

"It took me over a hundred years to escape that place," Sal said. "I'm not going back."

I took a step back.

"You really are one of his servants," I realized out loud.

He glared at me.

"Not. Any. More."

"Justin," Julia whispered to me. "Stop talking. You're just gonna piss him off more."

She stepped forward, looking into Sal's eyes.

"Sal," she said. "Please. My brother's in danger."

Sal looked away, but I noticed hat his expression soften a little.

"You know what he has planned for him," Julia said. "Help Justin get there. That's all I'm asking."

Sal closed his eyes for a minute before responding.

"Only Justin," he said. "No one else."

"Wait a second!" Ciel snapped. "I'm not letting that idiot go in alone!"

"You're going to have to," Sal snarled at her. "That's my offer. Take it or leave it."

"We accept," I said.

"Good to see you all finally agreeing!" Said a mysterious new voice.

We all turned to see a man sitting at one of the barstools, shuffling a deck of tarot cards. He was dressed in a black long coat, had slick black hair, and gleaming crimson eyes. His right hand was blood red in color.

"How many times do I need to shoot you before you stop ignoring your perma-ban?" Sal asked, annoyed.

"Relax, Sally," the man chuckled. "I just dropped in to let you know that you're about to have some company."

The man placed 4 of the tarot cards on the counter, face down.

"Emissaries," the white haired guy said.

"Mm-hm," the red handed guy nodded. "You'd best be prepared for a party."

"Emissaries of what, exactly?" I asked.

"The Game Master," Julia replied.

"So they're trouble?" Ciel asked.

"The don't have to be," the red handed guy said. "I'd be more than happy to lend a ha-"

Before he could finish, Sal appeared behind the counter, aimed a shotgun at the guys face, and straight up shot him in the head.

"Whoa!" I gasped. "You killed him!"

"He'll be fine," Sal said, strapping a longsword to his back.

"You shot him in the face!" I said.

"He's had worse," Sal replied.

Ken came in the front door and asked "Is everything okay in here?"

"Emissaries are on their way," the white haired guy said.

"Shit!" Ken said. "What should we do?"

"Let's see which ones are coming first," Sal said, flipping over the first of the cards. "The High Priestess. They're bringing a healer with them."

He flipped over the next one.

"The Hierophant," he said. "Great..."

He flipped the third one over.

"The Sun," he groaned. "Shit... That means..."

He flipped the final sign and then clenched both of his fists.

"The Ace of Cups," he said. "Damn it all..."

"Shelly," the white haired guy muttered.

"Okay, here's what we're gonna do," Sal said. "Ken, get Julia to safety."

"But I can fight!" Julia protested.

"We can't risk that," Sal said. "Ken, now."

Ken nodded, then raised a hand and opened a portal into some weird, dark place. Julia reluctantly walked through with him before shooting me a look.

"Give them hell," she said.

The portal closed.

"That leaves us with four," the white haired guy said. "Same as them."

Sal nodded.

"Justin, if you want my help, you're going to have to help me," he said. "I need you to deal with the Sun. Sykar, the Ace of Cups' lieutenant. You're the best suited to fight against him. He's the one with the glowing claws."

"Okay," I said.

"Isaac," he said, addressing the white haired guy. "You handle the High Priestess. Keep her away from the others. Don't give her a chance to heal them."

"Got it," he replied.

"So I'm left with that Heirophant guy?" Ciel asked.

"You should be bitchy enough to handle him," Sal said.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ciel demanded.

"You'll see," Sal said. "Let's go."

We all stepped outside and waited. A few minutes later they showed up. Two guys and two girls. One of the men was a silver haired dude with a creepy grin and a clawed gauntlet on his left hand. The claws weren't glowing, but no one else had claws, so he must've been the Sun Sal was talking about. The other guy had short brown hair and looked really bored. The first girl was a redhead in a blue gown, carrying a staff. She looked kind of cute, actually.

And then there was the last one. The woman who seemed to be leading them, carrying a machete and looking really damn pleased with herself.

"What do you want here?" Sal demanded.

"Where's the girl, Sal?" the woman asked.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Sal said.

"Don't lie to me," she said. "We know the Reaper brought her along with him."

Sal sighed.

"You made a blog post before coming here, didn't you?" he said.

"Sorry," I said. "She's not here anymore! You guys missed her."

"Very well," the woman said, raising her machete. "Then you're going to tell me where she's run off to."

"No." Sal replied sternly.

"Alright," she said. "Be that way."

Then another of her appeared right in front of Isaac and kicked him into the wall behind him. The original her faded away a second later, revealing itself to be some kind of afterimage.

Sal leapt into action, drawing his sword and slashed a her, only for the blade to pass straight through her afterimage as she appeared a short distance away and hit him with a blast of golden light, knocking him back through the door of the bar. She walked in after him while addressing the others.

"See if you can beat some answers out of them," she said. "If not, just kill em'."

The Sun guy (Sykar, I guess) turned his attention to me, grinning.

"Okay, fuck the battle plan, let's do this!" I shouted, charging at him.

It'd be awfully hard to do things as Sal had planned with Isaac out of commission, but I was sure I could handle things. Ciel went right for the brown haired guy while I made my way over to the other two. Sykar's eyes and claws started glowing with a bright white light, and his claws seemed to grow a couple inches. I swung my scythe at him, which he managed to deflect.

"Heya, handsome!" He said, moving in to scratch at me.

"Not my type!" I exclaimed, sweeping his legs out from under him.

As he fell over, I brought my scythe up and swung it down at him, piercing into his chest as he hit the ground. I was then struck by a burst of golden light that sent me flying a few feet. It hurt pretty bad, but it wasn't enough to kill me.

I pulled myself back up to see the girl with the staff, the High Priestess, hovering over Sykar, with a hand raised over his wound, which was glowing with gold light. She glared at me and aimed the tip of her staff in my direction, letting out another blast of light. I dodged it and dove for my dropped scythe. She fired another blast, but I grabbed my scythe in time and managed to deflect it with a quick slash.

I charged at her, readying my scythe, but Sykar got back to his feet, wounds fully healed, and got in my way. The two of us started fighting, deflecting each other's blows as best as we could. Then the High Priestess fired off another light blast, which I managed to defend against, but Sykar took advantage of the momentary distraction and clawed me across the chest. His claws burnt to the touch, and I stumbled backwards, clutching at the wounds they left. The High Priestess readied yet another blast.

"Hey bitch!" Ciel shouted, distracting her.

We all turned to see that the Hierophant was sitting down, nursing some knife wounds, while Ciel charged at the High Priestess.

"Fuck you!" Ciel yelled, engaging the High Priestess in a fight.

I turned my attention back to Sykar.

"My healer's better than yours!" I said.

He and I continued fighting. While he was focused on my scythe, I threw in a kick to his kneecap, surprising him and causing him to loose balance. I took the chance to maneuver behind him and hook his torso with the arc of my scythe. Then, with a sharp shift of my weight, I slammed his body into the ground, cutting into his skin as I did.

The High Priestess managed to push Ciel away from her and then twirled her staff above her for a second before yelling loudly and slamming it down into the ground. There was a giant pulse of gold light that knocked both me a Ciel off of our feet. As I hit the ground, I caught a glimpse of smoke coming from the bar. Just what was going on in there.

The High Priestess raised her staff again, and two spheres of golden light appeared from it, and zoomed toward Sykar and the Hierophant. They both rose to their feet, as their wound faded away. The High Priestess slumped over panting, and the Hierophant went over to her.

"You okay?" he asked.

"That took a lot out of me," she replied, rising back up. "But I can still fight."

Then there was an explosion inside the bar and Sal was launched out of the front door and hit the pavement hard. The Ace of Cups calmly stepped out. Her eyes were glowing just like Sykar's, as was her machete, which had grown a bit larger. She had some bruises and cuts, but a gold aura briefly passed over her, healing them all.

"How pathetic," she chuckled. "I thought with your reputation you'd be tougher. Guess the hype was exaggerated, huh, big guy?"

She lifted her machete, ready to strike at him, but Isaac got back up and got her attention.

"Shelly!" He snapped. "Get away from him!"

"Oh?" She said, turning to him. "And what are you gonna do if I don't?"

Isaac quickly gulp down the contents of a small glass bottle and than smashed it on the ground.

"What was that?" She asked, sounding genuinely worried for once.

Isaac's eyes began glowing white, and the High Priestess suddenly let out a loud shriek. She fell backwards, and one of her arms appeared to pin itself to the ground, as if being held there.

"Get off!" She shrieked, struggling against something I couldn't see. "Let me go! Stop it!"

As she continued kicking and screaming, Isaac set his sights on Sykar, who dropped to his knees, clutching his left forearm and expressing legitimate agony.

"My hand!"" He cried out. "My fucking hand! What the Fuck! AHHHH!"

"What are you doing!" the Ace of Cups demanded. "Stop it!"

But Isaac wasn't stopping. He turned his attention to the Hierophant, who began scratching wildly at his skin, panicking.

"Get them off!!" he shouted. "My god, make them get off!"

The Ace of Cups was seriously looking pissed, and she took a few steps toward Isaac before stopping in her tracks and clutching her head.

"Get out!" She demanded, glaring at Isaac.

"Never!" Isaac said.

He looked like he was in pain, and was clinging desperately to his glaive as if it were a walking stick. As the Ace of Cups made another pained step toward him, Ken burst out of a portal and rabbit punched her from behind. She stumbled forward and turned to him, outraged. She swung her sword at him, but before she made contact, she faked him out by teleporting behind him and leaving an afterimage where she just was. This didn't phase Ken at all, as he just turned and side kicked her right in the solar plexus before her attack could connect. From that angle I noticed that he had discarded his shades, exposing his eyes. While I couldn't see them perfectly from that distance, there was a distinct flash of red there.

"Your deceptions won't work on me, witch," he said, hitting her again.

Sal then got back up and joined in, double teaming her. As they did, I gripped my scythe and made my way over to Sykar, who was still crying over whatever was going on with his arm. I raised my scythe, preparing to decapitate him. But as I brought it down, the High Priestess got in my way and blocked my attack with he staff.

"It's... not real," she told herself.

Her eye was twitching a bit, and she still seemed to be struggling somewhat against whatever Isaac had down. I her staff aside and kicked her in the face, knocking her out. Deciding I should deal with her before she caused any more trouble, I raised my scythe, ready to impale her.

Spare her.

I hesitated as Daniel's voice sounded through my head.

I'm a Timberwolf, I thought. That's not my style.

Suddenly, an image of her smiling and giggling flashed through my mind, only for a second.

What is this? I thought.

A memory, Daniel replied. From another world.

Other worlds don't matter! I thought. She's an enemy! I need to finish her off!

Please, Daniel said. Trust me.

As I stood there, contemplating whether to deal the coop de grace, a man in a black cloak, the same man I had seen in Anthony's file, appeared, using a black pistol to block one of Sal's sword slashes. Everybody stopped what they were doing. A wave of terror that I didn't understand washed over me. I didn't know why I was scared. I just was. I seemed like everyone was. Even the Ace of Cups was shivering. The only ones unaffected were Sal and he cloaked man, who just stared at each other for a moment. Sal stepped back, still glaring at the newcomer. A small mechanical claw came out of the man's, sleeve, gripping the gun and pulling it inside the sleeve.

"You and your kind are no longer welcome here," Sal said.

The man sighed. Then he turned into a giant cloak-like shadow, and flew through the air, scooping up the other Emissaries before folding in on itself and vanished. The fear we were all feeling faded away.

Sal stared at the bar for a second before going to check on Isaac, who was leaning against the wall, clutching his head.

"That was reckless of you," Sal said.

"I'm sorry," Isaac said. "We were losing. I had to do something."

"And I thank you for that," Sal said. "Now go home and rest. That must have put a lot of pressure on you."

"Okay," Isaac said, getting to his feet and pulling out his phone. "Better call a ride."

"When you get the time, inform the other employees that we'll be closing for a while," Sal added.

"Sure thing," Isaac replied.

Sal then walked into the bar. The rest of us followed him. The place was a wreck. Wood was smashed and smoldering, broken glass was strewn all over the place, and almost every table and chair had been broken to splinters.

"Oh my god," Ciel muttered.

Sal sighed deeply as he examined the damage.

"I'm sorry," I said. "This is my fault, isn't it?"

Sal turned to me. The look on his face was... I guess somber is probably the best word I can think of for it.

"I can't blame you for this," he said. "You couldn't have known that they'd follow you here. That they would follow Julia."

"I let them know she would be here," I said. "That was stupid of me..."

"It's okay," Sal said. "They're the ones at fault here. We've had an agreement for years that states they are not allowed to do any of their hunting in or near my establishment. This is a neutral place, and they betrayed that."

"That other guy was the Ace of Swords, right?" I said, remembering the tarot card attached o his picture.

"Yes," Sal replied. "One of my best customers. It was hard to slap the ban on him like that, but that's what they get for violating my terms."

"Why are they after Julia, anyway?" Ciel asked.

"She's special," Sal replied. "It's not my place to tell you why, but the Game Master despises her."

"He wants her dead?" I asked.

"Worse," Sal said. "He wants her to suffer. He wants her to want to die."

"That's fucked up," I said. "That's why he took her brother..."

"That's right," Sal said. "On the topic of Julia, is she safe?"

"Yes," Ken replied. "I gotten her somewhere they won't know about."

"Good," Sal said. "I want you to do the same for Keran. She's too important. We can't let her be caught up in this war."

"Yes sir," Ken said. "I'll go take care of everything."

"Good," Sal replied.

He turned his attention back to the damaged bar.

"How much would it cost to fix all this?" I asked.

"Nothing but time," Sal said. "Every floorboard. Every brick. Every pane of glass. Everything that makes up this place is under my control."

"Whoa," I said. "Seriously?"

"This is my home," he said. "I have power over it. Unfortunately..."

He telekinetically lifted a beam of wood, returning it to its rightful place and repairing it. It seemed somewhat difficult for him.

"...My power has its limits," he said. "I will take a lot of time and energy to et this place back in working order."

"Damn," I said.

"It can wait," he said.

"You can uh... crash with us for a while if you need to," I offered.

He thought for a little while about that.

"Alright," he said. "I won't trouble you for long. I'll make some arrangements soon."

"It's fine," I told him. "No problem."

"Now," he said. "On the matter of getting you to the Board. I'll need to make some calls. It may take a few days to get in touch with someone who can get it done. But I promise you, I can do this."

"All right," I said. "I trust you."

"You realize, though, that by infiltrating the Board, who will become an official competitor in the tournament," he said. "There will be no way out aside from victory or defeat."

"Fine by me," I said. "Whatever it takes to help my friends."

What to do

"So now what?" Ciel asked. "We just go in and demand answers from him?"

"I guess," I said. "I mean, I trust Sal, but there's gotta be a connection there. He's must know something, right?"

"And what if it's just a coincidence?" Ciel asked.

"I doubt it," I said. "Is anything ever a coincidence when it comes to this crazy eldritch bullshit?"

Ciel sighed.

"I'll go get ready," she said, stepping out of the room.

I sat in the kitchen for a while, eyeing the bottle Sal had given me before our fight with Oceana. I hadn't opened it yet. Figured I'd save it. It was some kind of hard apple cider. For some reason both the A and the first P in apple were capitalized. I mean, I know I make typos all he time, but it seems like I weird mistake for the labeling guy to let slip by...

After a couple of minutes, the doorbell rang, and Ciel yelled at me to go answer it. So I did. It was Julia. As soon as I opened the door, she reeled back and tried to slap me. I caught her hand before it could make contact with my face.

"Hey," I said. "Sup?"

"He's gone!" She snapped at me.

"What, you mean your brother?" I asked. "When did this happen?"

"He got pulled into the tournament!" She said. "And it's your fault!"

"What?" I asked. "How's it my fault?"

"We were followed!" she said. "The night we went after Oceana! One of the Game Master's servants was watching us the whole time. He realized who my brother was and picked him to be a competitor!"

"What's going on?" Ciel demanded, coming up behind me.

"Hooded Guy's in the tournament too," I explained. "And I think I know why Terrence got taken."

"Explain, idiot," She ordered.

"There was a Game Master servant scouted us out when we fought Oceana and his goons," I said. "He must have seen Terrence at work and thought he's be good for the tournament."

"If that's it, why didn't they take you?" Ciel asked. "You're the one who actually finished him, right?"

"Yeah, but that's just it," I said. "I'm a good fighter, but the tournament probably has a dozen like that already. Terrence is smart. Resourceful. And he through a flaming bottle of Everclear through a portal at some Oathbreakers. hey must have decided he'd make a more entertaining player."

"Either that or the Game Master just doesn't want that crazy watch of yours causing him any trouble," Julia added.

"I haven't even figured the watch out yet," I said. "Look, we're about to go talk to Sal. You coming?"

"Fine," Julia said. "But what exactly is your plan, here?"

"I wanna find a way in," I said. "So I can get Terrence out. Or at least lend him a hand."

"You think getting in's gonna be easy?" Julia asked.

"Nope," I said. "But Sal's my best bet right now."

"All right," she said. "But if you do get to the Board somehow, you get my brother out of there. Got it?"

"Right," I said.