“You two stand back! I can handle this guy on my own!” Tsukino lectured.
She jumped and slashed at the monster, only to have her sword snap in two.
“Huh?!” Tsukino cried.
“Oh…” Hime facepalmed.
“W-wait! I-It broke! My favorite sword just broke!”
“Alright! Then I’ll just…” Danni started, pointing her gun at the monster.
She cocked her gun, and pulled the trigger.
CLICK CLICK.
“What?! The bullets won’t come out, dammit!” Danni cried.
“Look out!” Hime called, “In front of you—Oh for Pete’s sake! Just stand back you two…Grandma Hime will handle this!”
Tsukino pulled Hime out of the way of the monster’s incoming attack.
“Watch out! Is it just me? Or did it get a lot faster?!” Tsukino asked.
Danni was still messing with the gun, trying to get it to work.
“Danni! MOVE! You’re in the way. You’re going to get hit!” Hime cried, pushing
Danni out of the way, receiving a blow instead, “TSK”
“Hime!” Tsukino cried.
Everything went dark and then….They were in the safehouse.
“What?” Hime questioned.
“Look at that! We did it, Kiki!” Mocha said, high-fiving her twin.
“That was amazing!” Francis said, “Sorry for bringing you back like that, were you in the middle of something?”
“W-we were saved? Why…all of a sudden—“ Tsukino questioned slowly.
“Well…when I was searching the fourth floor with Mocha…I found a piece of my watch’s magic…I can only assume that my past self, left them. Thanks to that I got some of my power back…and with the help of Mocha’s hat we brought you back. Besides…Chero was worried and Jenny is sulking about something…”
“I’m not sulking!” Jenny called from across the room.
“Kiki was saying that she could finally show us a great trick…and she brought you all here. It was amazing,” Dante explained.
Jenny looked over at Kiki and Mocha, “Please stop teleporting people you two! The people you teleported did not give you their consent!”
“Jenny…what’s wrong with you?” Mocha asked, “You are not acting like yourself.”
Chero touched Jenny’s shoulder and smiled at her.
“Jenny…why don’t you go and take a rest? Oh look! You have some blood on your clothes! Why don’t you take a bath—“ Chero suggested.
Jenny clenched her fists and looked at the floor, “This is from when Kiki came to use her pocket watch to—“
“Oh…um…I see…When you grabbed her. She was bleeding a lot…”
“What…?” Kiki questioned.
“….Chero….”Dino said, “Go take a bath…it will give you a nice change of mood.”
“Y-yeah…Good idea! Jenny, come with me! Let Mama wash your back! Let’s go and
calm down a little,” Chero insisted.
“….Fine…” Jenny tsked.
Chero took Jenny’s hand and led the way to the bathroom.
“Sorry…She’s been through a lot…You will have to excuse her…”Dino explained.
“Ah…Didn’t you say that all three of you wound up in the past?” Leon asked, piecing things together.
“Yes…Both Chero and Kiki lost their lives…” Dino sighed, crossing his arms and leaning against the wall, “To be honest…it was a tough blow for myself and
Jenny…”
“Huh…how…weird…” Kiki said, “Anyways—grande fratello—you look worn out too. There are four bathrooms…why don’t you take a bath as well?”
“….You’re right….Excuse me, then. I’m a little…tired,” Dino said, heading to the bathroom as well.
Hime looked at Kiki and Mocha, “You two did well teleporting us. We were
thiiiiisss close to the end!”
Hime then dug through her bag, “We also found a bunch of these…”
She held out one of the little glowing clock cogs. Kiki ran over to Hime quickly.
“Aah! What have you got there?” she asked.
“We found them all over the floors throughout the annex. Do…you know what they are?”
“Oh! Those are pieces of Kiki’s pocket watch…They help make it work better. I wonder what they were doing in the annex,” Leon said.
“Huh. It’s a good thing we picked them up like I suggested!” Danni laughed.
Kiki took them all in her hands, “And so many! My watch will work exponentially better now!”
She held the cogs up to her pocket watch. The cogs glowed and flowed into the watch.
“This is a good sign! I should test it out. This room has gotten rather dirty…Let me clean it up!”
The room glowed and all the items returned to their proper places. Dirt vanished,
leaving the room spotless.
“Wow! Nice work!” Hime praised.
“And now we no longer have to clean!” Francis cheered.
“So…what do we do now?” Mocha asked.
“I guess other people will have to go out and explore,” Francis said.
“Tsuki-chaaan~ What happened to your sword?” Leon asked.
“…It broke…” She replied, “Lucky for me I have other means of fighting…”
“That reminds me! My gun stopped working as well. The bullets won’t come out. DADDY!” Danni called, “…Oh yeah…he’s in the bathroom…Whoops…”
“Danni, I can fix it for you. It is one of my old guns after all,” Dante said.
Hime looked around at her friends, “We’re all tried and could use some rest…Why don’t we do so while we wait for those three to finish with their baths?”
“Oh. Wait…that reminds me…thanks to that journal a bunch of the enemy disappeared. Without that we might not have survived…But…where did they go?” Dante asked as he worked on Danni’s gun.
“Well…if those three ended up in the past….it’s pretty obvious that the enemies also—“ Kiki started, “Oh. OHH…That’s bad…”
