"Never seen you before."

  Oracion's eyes narrow under her eye mask, pulling her hood back on. There is something unsettling, odd and familiar about the person before her, but she can't put her finger what seems so instinctively wrong about her.

  "No. My work as Medical Director keeps me... busy."

  Oracion's pupils narrow even further. 'Doctors' as a concept don't exist on the New Continent, having long faded into history. She was not a complete idiot, so despite the words 'medical' and 'asylum' falling out of use in Vespana, she had a faint understanding of what they meant. From the top of the bridge, Oracion doesn't respond, giving a cold grump instead.

  This was probably one of her Master's call girls. She would have to have a word with her antique-loving hentaibird about their terrible taste in women once home!

  Stepping onto the bridge, the orange-haired woman passes Oracion, their shoulders almost bumping into each other! Just as she does, she stops; snaps her head at the masked pink-haired girl,

  "Only the 'outside' is simir. The rest, not alike at all."

  "... your meaning?"

  "Heiheiheiheihei..." Mechanical and stuttered ughter drips out of the orange twintail's lips, "Everyone recognizes the [White Cloak Of The Lord Protector], but not everyone knows the full story." Doktah's green irises slightly thin into a line, "The [Lord Protector] of the Olden era was an indiscriminate killer. She took lives like cutting grass. If she saw what that name came of today..."

  Doktah casts an eye at the still very alive disturbances who were knocked down by Oracion,

  "... I am sure she is crying in a small room somewhere. However... I see something in you. If you want, to become free, I can help with that."

  Doktah raises her hand in the direction of Oracion's face, four fingers in a cw-like pose, her thumb the only digit curled inwards like the paw of a small hunting animal! Just as it is about to make contact---

  --- the pink-haired girl blocks it with her palm's side!

  "The [Trono Palido] of today, does not kill humans."

  "Is that your own decision, [Lord Protector] of this era, or...?"

  "My conclusion."

  Doktah retracts her hand, acting like nothing had happened! However, her irises are throbbing something fierce, despite the unhuman smile on her face!

  "It seems we did not read the same story after all. But if you change your mind..." Her eyes trail to the far-away isnd in the distance of New Coimbra's horizon. "You know where to find me now."

  "Hopefully not."

  [SFX: KA-SCHUNK!]

  At this moment, a bright photographic fsh breaks up this tense scene!

  Our purple-haired resident troublemaker has come up to the bridge herself, clicking, obnoxious flipphone in hand! Oracion closed an annoyed eye at the fsh, but was otherwise unaffected.

  "Ahem! Writing for the [Bylon Times] here! What does moi' have to do to get a quiet moment with the city's Lord Protector...! Ehehehehe!"

  In contrast, the orange-haired woman had an oversized reaction to the camera fsh coming from Madi-san's flip phone, shielding the entire bottom half her face with a forearm...! She takes a few involuntary steps backwards, eyelids scrunched into wrinkles! When she blinks and puts eyes on the gsses-wearing woman with arms on her hips, she grits her teeth at having her very nice conversation derailed by a literally who she doesn't recognize at all!!!

  "Unfortunate. For randoms to intercede like this. Let's continue this some other day."

  Completely disregarding this insignificant little person before her, she continues her path off the bridge, disappearing into the city's alleys! Oracion perused her lips, wondering what was that about, when the annoying voice comes up again!

  "Ogey, you had your fun, Baxman, gimme back my plunga!"

  "Plunga?"

  "That!" Madi-san repeatedly points at the plunger in Oracion's hand, then sticking out the bck barrel of a rifled gun, "Wanna trade for this?"

  Oracion made the connection between Madi-san's appearance and throws it to Madi-san, not accepting the murder device in return!

  "You can keep that."

  "Ehehehe! Don't mind if moi' do!"

  "What do you need that for anyway?"

  "Gonna clean out Aya-chan's potty mind of course!" Madi-san makes violent downwards thrusting motions, as if to show what she would to do to this story's small and cute detective once she caught her with plunger in hand! The terrible Frxnchwoman truly has no respect for boundaries or proper behavior!

  "The two of you had a fight st night?"

  "Aya-chan wants to disprove conspiracies with mysteries...! (unintelligible Frxnch cursing) Naturally, moi' am not gonna take that lying down!" Brandishing the bck dice that is lit up on all twenty corners for Oracion to see, the madwoman grasps it in her palm when Oracion closes in for a look; when she opens it again, the dice disappears like a magic trick! Oracion doesn't really get what Madi-san is up to, but she vaguely feels that Madi-san just wants to prove that she is RIGHT!

  "Good for you, Madison." Oracion and Madi-san had been walking for some distance now, the two at the tail end of Oracion's patrol around the city. As the two girls near [Hauntsgirl], Madi-san throws out an inexplicable bait, hiding the upward curve of her smile with a hand,

  "Piinku... Didja have some sort of history with Fox-Mask?"

  "... How could you tell?"

  "I herd everything through the megaphones, you know!"

  At this point, the annoying Frxnch biichii mocks MY signature pose, turning both her palms upwards to the sky! As if it were not enough, she started speaking in bluetext, her curved spoken words scrolling across the screen in a twisted parody of my farmore accurate and logical deductions!

  "It is elementary! Of all of us, only you, Piinku cims to have seen the 'pink mist' before!"

  That was true. When your small and cute narrator gave the warning to Oracion that night not to breath the mist in, her exact words were 'This isn't the first time I've seen this---!' The first thing she did when she entered the room was to break the windows with her flying knives...!

  Of course, that could just be Oracion's Super Duper New Continental Assassin instincts kicking in, but Madi-san was not done!

  "When Fox-Mask gave a 'self-destructo order', you also moved really fast for hearing some nonsense babble! You don't even react THAT fast when I tell you that DS2 ggy backstab meta is cancer! See what I mean?"

  ... that's right! I have no idea what the backstab meta is either, but when Fox-Mask babbled those words with disastrous consequences, Oracion reacted to save Wolf-ears from unaliving herself, almost as if she knew what was happening ahead of time...!

  "And finally... Fox-Mask recognized you and called you a 'failed pything'...! There's no way your lousy party mask is as strong as the charm on your identity as Lord Protector, so! Fox-Mask definitely knows you from somewhere! YOU definitely know her from somewhere as well!「dhou」? If you link all these points up, it HAS to be a conspiracy!"

  E-even if all that is true...! You biichii! Not only are you stealing my lines, you're twisting them to fit your messed up worldview! Madi-san is pointing a finger straight at our pink-haired friend, awaiting her answer!

  "...You are close. But I only recognize the method, I don't recognize the person."

  "Ehehehe! Are you gonna tell moi'?"

  "... It would be very dangerous, Madison."

  "For YOU maybe! Are we not friends??? We should be teaming up to drag that masked cultie into the open! Besides! How long do you think you can keep a secret from moi'?! You KNOW I'll dig it up, two weeks, tops!"

  "... ..."

  Oracion considers all that she knows about Madi-san from the two weeks in Bylon, and realizes she's right. Madi-san's going to Madi-san if Oracion refuses to give her that information, she'll probably try to pry it from Annalie or Val-sama! Better the demon you know than the demon in the dark!

  "Fine. But inside." She gestures towards the inside of [Hauntsgirl] with her head, "What do you get out of this anyway?"

  Having had this daemonic pact of an alliance accepted, the overly pleased Madi-san shouts out for half the city to hear...!

  "Isn't it obvious?!?! Imma solo smash that mask of lies, and prove Aya-chan WRONG!!!"