Twisted-Wonderland: Heart of the Night

Episode 3-25: A Cleaning Hint!

~Leona's Room~

"Your job today is to clean Leona's room.", Ruggie. "You'd better earn your room and board, herbivores.", Leona.

*(!) Yeah, like getting his laundry and his water after morning practice is any different from this. (!)*

"Between Azul bossin' me around at work and Leona doin' it at home, I'm a mess. Uuugh.", Grim.

As Grim moaned, I just started to listen to Ruggie's instructions.

"Start by putting all his randomly-discarded clothes into the laundry basket, then clean off his desk. Accessories go in this drawer. Books go on that shelf. Once the desk is clear, wipe it off with a dustcloth.", Ruggie.

Once he demonstrated, I just got started with no fuss, cause I knew there'd be no point in doing so

"You're not a cub. You should know how to clean up after yourself.", Grim.

However, I could hear Grim whisper a remark against Leona.

"Hm? Care to run that one by me again?", Leona.

"Eep! I-I didn't say nothin'. Okay, I'll start cleanin' the pile of stuff offa this desk... Whoa! He left some expensive-looking' jewelry just lyin' around. And there's his wallet! W-with this much stuff around, surely he wouldn't notice one little thing goin' missing, right? That's what he gets for not puttin' this stuff under lock and key. Nyeh heh heh...", Grim.

Ruggie noticed what Grim was thinking of doing, and gave him a bonk on the head.

"Don't even try it. That one's mine to nab-- uh, I mean, he'd know immediately if something was unaccounted for. I keep telling you to stop leaving your valuables out in the open, Leona. You're gonna get robbed blind one of these days!", Ruggie. "Ah, shut your trap. What are you, my mom? So what if my stuff gets stolen, anyway? It's no big deal. I say if someone's got the guts to steal from me, they can go right ahead.", Leona. "But it IS a big deal! That's my point! It's all fun and games being rich until the day you suddenly feel the penny drop. They're called "valuables" for a reason. This is what drives me nuts about you silver-spoon types...", Ruggie.

As they argued on, I was putting the books on the shelves and started to get the dustcloth ready when Grim was done sorting and clearing the desk. Grim moved on to picking stuff up off the floor. Right as I was about to started, a stinging pain brought up in my finger. I look at my right hand, and saw that there was two tiny holes on the glove index finger. Carefully taking the glove off, I see that my index finger had two puncture wounds, and it was bleeding a bit.

*(!) Oh, that's right, Grim had bitten me earlier, while we tried to hide from Taika. He bit me harder than I thought... (!)*

The bleeding ended up dropping a couple drops to the floor, inches from my feet. As I looked at my damaged glove, then my bleeding hand, I knew what had to be done.

*(!) When this is all over, I have to make a visit to Mr. S's shop. Guess these gloves isn't as strong against Grim's bites as it does against people's magic, including his. Well, at least the metal piece isn't cracked or broken.

Wait...! Gloves that are not as strong as it should've been...? (!)*

Then hearing Tsunotaro's words brought to mind.

*(!) Sometimes, what you see with your eyes is the complete opposite of the truth. (!)*

I start thinking through what's coming together in my thought process.

*(!) Opposite of the truth... Azul's scrolls... the vault... (!)*

!!!!

"THAT'S IT!", Kalin.

"Whoa! What's gotten into you, Kalin?", Grim.

"Oi. Bring the volume down a notch.", Leona.

"They're in the vault because they're NOT unbreakable!", Kalin. I was so engrossed in the realization that I didn't pay attention to what they were saying to me.

*(!) Now I see what he meant, he wasn't trying to change the subject, he was trying to help me by giving me a hint.

Just as these gloves can't necessarily protect me from physical harm as opposed to magic, the scrolls aren't as unbreakable as Azul claims to be. (!)*

"Huh?", Ruggie. "Hah... Ha ha ha! Of course! I get it now. That's an intriguing line of thinking.", Leona.

"Huh? What'd I miss?", Grim.

"Here, I'll explain...", Leona.

~~~~~~~~~

"Ohhh, I getcha! NOW it makes sense! Now that we've got a weak point to exploit, let's bust into Octavinelle right now!", Grim.

"There's just one problem with that.", Ruggie.

"Myah?", Grim.

"If Kalin's read is right, then the Leech brothers are sure to show up and interfere. Honestly, they're a bigger hurdle to you guys than the vault itself.", Ruggie.

"For cryin' out loud... We're so close, I can almost taste it!", Grim.

"But that means that if we could do something about the Leech brothers...", Kalin. I then look to Leona and Ruggie.

"Hey. I've got a good idea of where you're going with this, so I'll get this outta the way now... I'm not helping. No way, no how. The last thing I need is to get dragged into someone else's mess. Especially when that cephalo-punk is involved.", Leona. "Same goes for me. Don't even ask.", Ruggie.

"Hmph. You guys're real fairweather friends, y'know that?", Grim.

*(!) Well, if that's the case... (!)*

"Grim... Play along with me on this one.", Kalin. "Hm?", Grim.

Ruggie and Leona just look at me as I made a grin as I plan the next thing to do.

~~~~~~~~~

While Leona was explaining about Kalin's epiphany....

*(!) The blood drops on the floor were still there near the desk.

It was then a blue spark of fire emerges, engulfing the blood drops like fuel and blew out in an instance. As fast as the blue spark emerged from the blood drops, the blood was gone with it. Showing no signs it was ever there. (!)*