Shangri La Pt. 1

28: Seriousness

( Note: This chapter focuses mainly on my own characters, sorry, but I do hope you guys will be interested! )

While knowing that the Captain had gone into the city with the greenette, Gin ended up standing before the doors leading to the Great Piscis. The thought that he was back with the Organization irked his mind, but he had all the good reasons to do this; to make sure no harm would be done to the Todoroki Kingdom. 

'As soon as this whole situation is over, then I'll leave the Organization, meaning that contact with Shiro will be near impossible, but that's fine. At least I know that she's alive, that's all I care about. Right, let's get this meeting done so I can go back to doing my job.' he thought as he made a slight knock on the door.

"It's Gi– Ahem– It's the Vice Captain of the Todoroki Knights, and I wish to speak to the Great Piscis." he addressed as he wanted to make sure if anyone heard him that he wouldn't be improper. 

"Come in." a voice spoke, making him assume it was Zeri since the voice was female and a bit serious in tone. He took a deep breath and pulled for the doors to slide open and entered the room without looking before him. 

"Alright, I'm here to make this a quick meeting as fast as–" 

"Gin!!!!" 

"Huh? Ack!" 

What the silver-haired man didn't expect was to be pulled into a tight hug to the point of getting choked. When he realized who it was, his cheeks blossomed with embarrassment. 

"S-Shiro? W-Why're you hugging me?" he asked, trying not to lose balance.

"Shiro's been missing you for a while, and I honestly didn't think it would take you this long to come here since you train not too far away." Zeri answered as Gin hugged the fish woman. 

"Zeri told me right away that you'd be coming back to the Organization, and I'm so happy!" 

"Ah– But shouldn't we be–y'know... not like this?" Gin asked as he was trying to measure how close in distance they were in their hug. 

"I'm only allowing you two to hug because you're back in the group." 

"Ha?!? Only cause of that and not anything else?" 

"It's okay, Gin." 

"Huh?" 

"This just means I get to see you often again!" Shiro cheered happily with a bright smile, making his face turn red. 

"I-I guess it's okay for me too..." he mumbled.

"Right, well since the celebration of your return is over, we should get straight into business." Zeri confronted, easily changing the mood in the room. 

'What celebration? All I got was a hug from Shiro.' he thought as he'd never got over Zeri's quick and abrupt ways of changing the conversation. 

"First things first, I must ask you–Shark–does anyone in the Todoroki Kingdom or the Knights know that you were–and are again–a member of the White Lotus Organization?" Zeri questioned.

"No, I thought things would turn out difficult for my situation if I told anyone, so no one knows a thing." 

"Good, then let's keep it that way. We've concealed our true identities from society ever since we founded this group, remember that." 

'Of course I remember that, I met Shiro and knew about her truth long before you did.' he thought knowing that if he said anything back, then this would just turn into an argument. 

"Though I am bound to this temple, I know that once the rest of the guys come, then you can all be my eyes and ears to what's truly going on behind our backs here." Shiro stated, and that sentence bothered Gin in a bad way.