The Witching Hour

It was half an hour till midnight, and the streets of the Eastern District only seemed to get liver by the minute. Near the apartment complex, where the girls had hit the sacks, was a lively bar whose exterior was covered in bright neon signs and holographic images advertising beer and other alcoholic beverages. Crowds of people poured in and out of the building in waves. As a group was exiting, a well-dressed woman stumbled her way out of the bar with a wasted appearance. As she swayed from side to side, she muttered to herself with an annoyed look. "Man…*hic* all that for $500 bucks?" Passersby noticed the woman and steered clear of her. "All I wanted was a job. *hic* Not just some one-shot monetary reward." The woman venting her drunken frustrations was the woman who managed to record the fight between Alan and Arthur and the battle between terrorists and police. She stood before a crosswalk watching the traffic flow past her in a blur. "Must be nice being able to enjoy the things you enjoy." She then pulled out a small, worn charm. The charm appeared to be a small orange Abyssinian cat with a tiny camera hanging around its neck. Blood stained the string of the charm.

As tears dripped out of the woman's eyes, a man dressed in a white lab coat bumped into her. The man had messy jet-black hair. He had an enormous bang that covered his left eye. With an unapologetic expression, he spoke to the woman. "Look, weeping in the streets is dangerous. The past is over. Now, the only thing to do is to move forward with your life." He then moved behind the woman, hiding his face. The woman put her charm away and walked away. "But if it's the truth your want, then you need to try harder to expose it. They are not on your side." The woman quickly turned after he said that. But to her surprise, the man vanished out of sight. Now wholly sober from that encounter, the woman continued walking the path she was just on.

She walked down an empty back road with the mysterious man's words lingering in her mind. She held out her right hand, and a small holographic display appeared. "11:49." She then put her arm down. "It's been ten years, and I have made no progress in discovering the truth of that cruel day. What did that guy mean-!?" As she was talking to herself, the loud echos of clashing metal ranged across the empty back roads the woman wandered on. Startled by the noise, she carefully moved, making her steps nimble as she moved towards the source of the noise with a taser in hand. The woman then reached an alley entrance where the sounds ranged the loudest and peeked at the corner with a small pocket camera. On the display screen was a young man holding a large blade with a beautiful gem embedded in the base.

~~0~~

"Alan, you must focus on swinging my blade more precisely." A female voice echoed through the mind of Alan. "My edges are sharp enough to slice through most metals. You need to angle your swing better."

Alan took a deep breath and stared at the scrap dummy he had made in front of him. He slowly angled the large blade slightly behind him and let out a mighty swing. Alan swung the sword with ease and sliced through the metal scrap dummy. However, Alan wasn't expecting this because of his many failed attempts. After the blade sliced through the dummy, Alan could not stop the heavy sword and was sent flying alongside the blade. After landing, Alan stood up, brushed off the dirt, and went to grab his sword, which was embedded into the corner of the alley's entrance. Once he retrieved the blade, he noticed a small device attached to the tip of the blade. Confused, he peaked the corner, only to get a taser to the neck.

After a few seconds, he blacked out. Shortly afterward, he regained consciousness. The first thing he saw was a young woman who looked to be in her late twenties with wavy pink hair cut to her shoulders. She held a taser with her left and had a worried expression as if she was a child about to be lectured about being careless in the house. In the back of Alan's mind, he heard a soft chuckle as Alice found the situation amusing.

"Wow!" she spoke. "Fate just loves you, huh?"

"Shut up," he responded. "I didn't realize that you were so sharp and heavy." Alan scratched his head in irritation.

"I'm not that heavy, but that was completely a user error. Next time, don't put all of your strength into me."

"Whatever." Alan got up and brushed off his clothing. The woman before him backed away cautiously; watching his one-sided conversation had scared her. Alan gave her an awkward smile and pointed to his ear, which was covered by his hair, to hint that he was on a phone call. The woman put her weapon away and flashed an awkward smile.

"Sorry, I thought I did some mental damage to you by tasing you." Alan raised a brow. He then reached for his neck and felt a sore spot.

"Wait!?" He shouted. "You tasered me! Why?"

"I saw you attack me, and I got scared… sorry. I didn't know you were training." She backed away slowly. Alan calmed down and looked at the woman.

"Sorry for yelling. I suppose you have a justifiable reason. After all, if I saw someone randomly swinging a large blade in an empty alley, BY HIMSELF. I too, would be scared."

"Sorry…" The woman's voice crawled to a mutter. Alan sighed and handed her some money. "Huh?"

"I hope this can cover the replacement of that pocket camera I broke," Alan said with a forced, friendly tone, hoping the woman wouldn't feel as bad. She happily accepted and counted the money immediately before tucking it into her outfit.

"My name is Isabelle Visage, and you?" Her attitude made a complete 180 as she flashed a devious grin.

"Alan," he muttered. He then scratched his head and looked away. "Well played." Isabelle chuckled.

The two went to sit in a well-lit spot in the alley so Isabelle could tend to Alan's minor cuts from the swing. While she was patching him up, Alan got a good look at the girl. She was roughly the same height as Alan, maybe taller, and she had the aura of a strong-willed person who would stop at nothing to achieve her goals, even if it meant manipulating others. However, Alan was confused about two things about her: the first being whether or not her pink hair was natural; because of the quake's many side effects, stuff like this is commonplace, and the other was that he found it strange that she never noticed that her bra padding for the left breast fell out. The padding sat on the ground next to them.

"All done!" She patted Alan on the back.

"Thanks, but I have two things to ask you: the first being why you are acting so friendly towards me, and the second," Alan turned his head away from Isabelle in embarrassment, "You should probably fix your padding issue."

"Idiot~," Alice said in a musical tone.

"..." Isabelle was too stunned by Alan's straightforwardness even to form the right words to scold him. She panicked and rushed to find the other pad. Before she could see it, Alan pulled out his phone and snapped a picture. He then pointed to the ground, and she rushed to place the padding back into her bra. While she did that, Alan discreetly snapped another photo. She then glared at Alan. "You better not tell a soul about this."

"Don't worry, I won't," Alan waved this phone in the air mockingly.

Isabelle sighed. "Touché." Isabelle then gave Alan a rugged look. "How about this? Let's start fresh. You delete that photo, and I become your informant for free."

"But then I lose some tasteful images," Alan whined with puppy eyes. "I couldn't do such a thing."

A lustful grin grew on Isabelle's face. "Maybe we could work a deal, no?" Alan then grabbed his phone and deleted the photo. Isabelle clicked her teeth in frustration. "You ass."

"I wasn't actually gonna keep it. But your serious expression really creeped me out sooo, yeah." Alan then put his phone away. "You being my 'informant' sounds sketchy. What's the catch?"

Isabelle sighed, "You get tricked once and are completely on guard. I like that, though. But essentially, I want you to give me a good scoop. A scoop is big enough to expose the lies this city's founders embedded into the people's lives." She puffed out her padded chest with a victory smile plastered onto her face. The words of the previous man ranged fresh in her mind.

Her bold demand confused Alan. "Pardon?"

"I saw you fight that terrorist the other day, and it earned me some decent money. But I want more than just money. I need a job. No, I NEED to learn the truth about the quake ten years ago."

Alan stood and stared at the strange woman in front of him. "You know...maybe I just have bad luck with girls," he whispered and walked off.

"WAIT!!!" The girl ran up and grabbed his hand. "Please let me do this. I'll do anything you want, even favors if you want to."

Alan gave the woman a disgusted look of disappointment, "Look lady, I don't enjoy being around women who don't value themselves. You shouldn't promise to give strangers favors like that; I'm a minor." Alan took the women's hand off of his and turned his back. "The path I walk is dangerous, but...I guess I could use your services." Alan tried to sound cool.

"Hehehe." The peanut gallery in the back of Alan's head giggled, causing his face to turn light pink.

"Really!" Isabelle's eyes lit with happiness.

"But!" he turned to face her, "I have two conditions: promise me you will not get too close to the fights; promise not to seduce me again. I really dislike that."

"Deal!" Isabelle, overcome with happiness, ran up and gave Alan a tight hug.

However, that happiness was short-lived, as the sound of a ticking clock echoed through their minds. Isabelle got off of Alan, trying to figure out where the noise was coming from, before finding a strange bright light emitted from the pendant around Alan's neck.

"Well, that grace period was short-lived," Chronos said to Alan

"Something is coming," Alice said in a harsh tone. "Get ready."

"Heh heh heh," a burst of dry laughter was followed by the sound of heavy footsteps. Alan reflexively moved in front of Isabelle and signaled her to move back. He then called his mist and pulled out the Crimson Princess.

"Who is there?" Alan called out.

"Heh heh heh, wouldn't you like to know, time traveler?" Appearing in front of the two was an ill-dressed man in tattered, aqua-colored clothing. He only had strange black markings on his left side from head to toe. "I will KILL you and revive her." His eyes were completely dead as if he was a puppet waiting to be freed from the hell of living. However, his eyes didn't match his body language. He was armed with a very damaged aqua blade and assumed a stance, holding his sword as if he were waiting for Alan to make the first move.

"So your old man lost to the corruption." Chronos appeared beside him, startling Isabelle. "I'll make sure this girl isn't harmed, but be careful, Alan, it's the witching hour. Corrupted beings are far stronger during this time. Your best option is to shake him off."

Arthur stared at Alan with an empty glare as he stepped forward. Alan noticed his movements and took a defensive stance. Arthur then charged at Alan, causing the fight to begin officially.

Chronos grabbed Isabelle and lept onto the nearby roof using his mist. "You should be safe if you record up here."

"You're not gonna stop me?" Isabelle pulled a small recording device and aimed at the two fighters.

"He's a time traveler. This isn't going to be the first time I will have to do this." Chronos gave an empty sigh.

Isabelle turned her attention back to the fight. "How far back?"

"At the start of midnight, so your bonding moment won't change as the new day just started."

As the fight intensified, the city's police placed the entire area under a terrorist attack lockdown. The lively streets of the Eastern District were completely evacuated as drones and officers were the last ones roaming the streets.

"Don't die, boy; collect information and survive," Chronos said quietly, knowing those words would not reach him.

"Don't go soft on me now, Chronos." Isabelle looked at Chronos concerningly as the aqua spirit beside her spoke to himself in a completely different tone. "He is nothing but a pawn. Like the others, he will break. His will isn't strong enough." Chronos then looked around at the city. "This feels like her handy work."

"I hope not."