Adopted Soldier

The moment Alex entered the clubroom, he saw the solemn faces of the people inside. Even the usual cheery Emily and Sayaka were showing such faces. This was how grave the situation there were in, even Evangeline who wasn't really a part of the other side could vaguely sense the impending danger. Kei who couldn't feel anything at all, only knew something big was about to happen, based on the information he has gathered.

"So what do we do now?" The one who asked this was Rachel. Hearing her question some of them started to look at Alex's direction, while some looked at Oliver's direction. Emily, Evangeline, Niel and Oliver were looking at Alex, while Rachel, Kei, Sayaka and Alex were looking at Oliver. This uncomfortable staring lasted for a few minutes

"Well since Alex was the one who called us over, he should be the one to speak." Oliver was the one who broke the staring contest between the two sides.

"Actually I just wanted to talk about the situation we're in, and that's it. In reality I don't have any kind of plan. Since I have no concrete information, and just have some bits and pieces. I decided making a plan in this kind of situation was impossible for me. So in the end I decided that I would respond to the problem no matter what is, the moment I see it."

Alex as usual gave his usual blunt opinion. The others hearing Alex had no plan of any kind was feeling a bit disheartened.

"I see, so even you don't have one..." Oliver looked upward and sighed.

"How about you Oliver, do you have anything?" This time Alex asked Oliver. Hearing Alex's question Oliver shrugged his shoulders.

"It's not a plan or anything, but I just want us to stick together as a group. Also I have the same opinion as you Alex. I think we can only respond to the problem, once we actually know what the problem is."

"How about you Emily, you keep on thinking of outrageous plans. Do you have something in mind for our current situation?" This time it was Rachel that spoke. Emily was surprised to be suddenly called. She responded by pointing her finger at herself and tilting her head a bit, making her actually look cuter than normal.

"Are you talking to me?" Out of nowhere, the solemn atmosphere suddenly broke. That one line plus action from Emily destroyed the seriousness and tension in the air.

"Yeah, I'm talking to you! Weren't you listening to the conversation we're having?!" Rachel suddenly shouted, getting a bit irked by Emily's cutesy play.

"Oh, is that so?... I was just thinking of something, so truthfully I wasn't listening that much." Emily answered as she shrugged her shoulders acting as if she was helpless to do anything about it.

"Then pray tell, what were you thinking that so important, that you weren't listening." Even now Rachel was a bit irritated by Emily, but she understood that this was how Emily usually operated. Still there was a time and place for everything.

"I was thinking about the episode of Vampire Princess last night. The VA of one of my favorite side character changed, and it felt a bit off for me. I was wondering what the heck happened to the original VA." When Emily finished speaking, everyone was looking at her with a dumbfounded expression, except for Kei who seems to be agreeing with her, by nodding his head. He had the same thought as Emily regarding the new VA.

While everyone was dumbfounded, Rachel's muscles started to bulge, she was about to use RELEASE. Noticing the danger Alex signaled Sayaka who moved without anyone noticing, she then suddenly appeared behind Rachel and patted her shoulders.

"Don't be so agitated Rachel. You know Emi she just likes joking around a bit, same as me." Everyone was surprised by Sayaka's movements, but the most surprised were Niel, Oliver, and Alex.

Niel who has been training with Lyner's techniques, was surprised to see that he couldn't detect Sayaka's movements. He was tor- trained by Lyner to feel even the slightest presence of the person, using all his senses, the smell, the feel of the wind, instincts and if possible eyesight. Yet none of those worked with Sayaka's movement.

Oliver was surprised on how much Sayaka improved. At the beginning Olvier could still somehow sense her coming, yet now, she was literally like a ghost, this made Oliver smile. The improvement in skill his girlfriend was having, made Oliver feel happy for her.

Alex on the other hand, had a different opinion from the two. Since the start when Rachel showed signs of using RELEASE, Alex was already looking at Sayaka signaling her to do something, since she was the only one who could control the two, the two being Rachel and Emily. So Alex's attention was on Sayaka since the beginning, and the moment she moved she suddenly disappeared and reappeared. It wasn't that she moved too fast, it felt more like she teleported, but that can't be it, since her disappearing reappearing wasn't done instantaneously. There was a delay in her disappearing and her reappearing, Alex just couldn't understand what happened in between the two actions, and was very curious but decided to ask Sayaka about it later.

Rachel hearing her best friend's words was finally able to cool down, she then glared at Emily. "So why are you thinking about such things, while we're all worrying about our situation here?"

"Well it's because there is no need to worry about something you cannot do anything about. It would be good if we knew what was coming and prepare, but since we have nothing but pictures of people, that when I check seem to be all official Berdonian citezens since birth, and have no criminal record of any kind. With that information, we really can't tell what's going to happen can we?... Basically what I'm saying is, we got nothing to do. We can't plan around something that isn't there, so I believe what Alex and Oliver said is the best course of action. We should act together, and we can only act when the threat appears. So we just need to respond to whatever comes in an appropriate manner. Thinking about these things to deeply serves no purpose. So instead I started thinking about the change of VA in my favorite show."

Hearing Emily's full explanation, made everyone including Rachel think that she was right.. What she said was indeed right, but still it felt wrong somehow.