Anna sighed as she walked down yet another much-too-large hallway. This was the sort of hallway that Flay could walk down - no, stride down - with confidence and look not only like he belonged, but that he was in charge. She was far too small to have that kind of effect; trying to do that would make her look foolish, so instead she walked off to the side, a little farther than a sword-length from the wall. She kept an eye out for anything interesting, but it was possible she'd gotten turned around several times already, so she probably wouldn't see anything that Flandre would want her to interfere with. Of course, she wasn't sure why she was so concerned with what Flandre wanted, or why she had given in so easily, but … it was something to do. Pamela had the other ghost to hang around with, and the other members of their little group tended to not hang around with a little girl. She couldn't even practice Alchemy … well, she could, since she and Pamela had managed to get Flandre to agree to set up a sort-of Workshop in a side area, but without knowing the properties of most of the items she worked with, she got a lot of duds and some small explosions.
Flandre herself did try to hang around with her, but never when she was working on her Alchemy, which meant she would usually try to help with her sword practice. And the only problems with that were that it meant she couldn't practice with her actual sword - itself a replacement from the first time she'd tried that and it had badly chipped when Flandre blocked it with her rod - and that Flandre didn't care if she was injured. Anna was no stranger to violence, but actually hurting her own comrade bothered her, even if it didn't bother Flandre. So, much of the time when they were together ended up being spent talking about one thing or another. Except ….
Anna's musings were interrupted by a series of shouts. Grown men, it sounded like … and a child? Even before the child started yelling, Anna was moving toward the disturbance - there were people! She'd been wandering the building for what had seemed like hours without seeing anyone, and now there was a commotion that she could interfere with! … Or, something like that. She shook her head as she skidded to a stop in another hallway and stared at the group of people. Soldiers in armor, some with spears and a few with swords, some men with staves in their hands - and a girl dressed in rich red robes that seemed to be their prisoner. Then they noticed her and some of the soldiers yelled to her. Anna scowled - without Alma present, she couldn't understand what was being said. Flandre seemed to be able to, but she usually explained it away with meaningless statements like "game scripts" and "main character privileges."
… Still, she couldn't just let those men get away with kidnapping a young girl! Even if she didn't know whether or not they were actually kidnapping her, or if the girl had committed some crime, or if this was all just some cra- … odd game they were playing. She tightened her grip on her sword as some of the soldiers moved toward her threateningly. Well, she wouldn't kill them unless she had to, but that didn't mean she couldn't do something about what was going on. After all, Alchemy might be problematic but her Mana still worked. The soldiers advancing on her were halfway toward her now, so she whipped her sword from its sheath, leaping into the rift in space that formed and dropping down in front of the group in back. Her sword leapt out again, cutting at the less-armored wrist of one of the shocked guards, and he flinched back, dropping his spear. She danced around him and then behind, blade spinning but hardly cutting anyone as they stumbled away from her. She got a closer look at the girl she was rescuing - she could hardly be any older than she was! - and when the man holding her let go to duck away, her sword cut space apart one last time. She grabbed the girl and pulled her along through the rift.
They stepped out to an empty hallway and Anna sighed in relief. They had at least a moment or two before they were found. She studied the other girl as she babbled uselessly - long purple hair, golden eyes, very fine clothing … obviously a noble's child of some sort. Perhaps the city was being invaded? She frowned and began walking away, deep in thought. It couldn't be an invasion, because there were no sounds of fighting, and when cities were invaded there were always sounds of fighting. Not to mention the complete lack of blood on the walls and floor, or on the soldiers themselves - apart from the little that she had spilled, of course. And the girl herself was unharmed, which by itself ruled out an invasion -! She whirled about - one thing that Flandre had somehow managed to do was get her to break free of her rambling streams of thought - but the girl was still there, arms crossed and glaring furiously. She said something else and Anna shrugged.
"Um, sorry about that. I sometimes get lost in my thoughts. I didn't mean to ignore you." The girl's anger vanished and her eyes widened. Anna smiled and shrugged again. Then a door behind her burst open and several of the red-armored soldiers burst through it. Anna sighed and prepared to fight - but the soldiers exploded before she could do anything, splattering blood across the walls, ceiling, and floor. She heard Alma giggle and the ghostly girl appeared in the pool of blood, clapping her hands silently and dancing through the gore. Anna shook her head and turned back to the other girl - at least she would be able to communicate …. By the time she turned around, however, Alma was already standing over the girl's prostrate form. Anna crossed her arms irritably as Alma made a contrite face. Then she giggled and the three of them were somewhere else.
Anna blinked at the campfire that was set up in the middle of the forest clearing, then looked away, waiting for her eyes to adjust to the change in light. Alma, of course, was nowhere to be seen, but the girl she had rescued was lying on a bedroll. On the other side of the fire was another man Flandre had recruited, the white-haired near-immortal 'Heine.' He was sitting on a log, staring at nothing … and sitting on the ground near him was another girl, with white hair and golden eyes. Anna frowned and looked back at the girl she had saved. The white-haired girl, startled by their sudden appearance, looked around the fire and saw the other girl. She stiffened, face pale, and after looking at Heine she scooted around to help her. Anna frowned and walked between the two girls and Heine.
"So … where's Flandre?" The man shrugged. "Do you know what she's doing? What she said she was going to do?"
"Said she wanted to kill a god." Anna blinked before shrugging herself and sitting down on the ground. Not exactly the strangest thing she'd heard Flandre had wanted to do. She unsheathed her sword and began examining the edge for damage. She hadn't used it much, but it was always good to check … something, not a sound but a sensation, made her look up. Flandre stood between her and the two girls, a man's severed head in her hand and a scowl on her face.
"Right. So it appears that I cannot, at this point in time, kill the local god. I'm debating whether or not that's a good thing, but I'm leaning toward, 'Kind of wished I'd killed all the senators.'" She grumbled and tossed the head up and down for a few seconds. Anna looked over at the two girls to see that they were both awake. Flandre tossed the man's head higher and used the extra time to clap her hands. "Yay!" She caught the head and hopped forward, squatting in front of the girls and setting the head on top of her own as she studied them. Anna sighed quietly and shook her head. Flandre was, no doubt, about to do something cra- … unusual again.
