"Do you count as my surroundings?"
Stelle slowly turned her head to Yoru despite the threat of multiple Bloodhounds. "No."
Yoru sighed. His plan to throw Stelle to the wolves and run away was in shambles.
The plan was simple: protect Firefly while dealing with the Bloodhounds. Yoru would need to help Stelle stall, at least until Gallagher arrived.
"Speaking of which, where is Gallagoat?"
Gallagher should have came and broken up the fight between Stelle and the Bloodhounds. So why hadn't he come yet?
As Yoru was lost in thought, footsteps ran at him—the Bloodhounds were done waiting around.
"Ack!"
Yoru tripped over his own foot as he backpedaled away from the approaching Bloodhounds, falling headfirst to the floor, his gazing up to the ceiling.
"Clutz, that should definitely be a point to me," Stelle said as she ran towards the Bloodhounds, swinging her baseball bat around to smack them all. "You should give me a point, 2-1."
Yoru sat up, getting back up on his feet. "I thought I said this wasn't a competition."
Yoru closed his eyes, wishing on the dice. "I take out five Bloodhounds with a bunch of movement."
The dice rolled.
'72'
Yoru's body moved automatically. He let his body move, his eyes darting around.
A Bloodhound swung for his head. He ducked, sweeping them off their feet, spinning around and kicking up with his other foot.
His foot connected with the gut of the Bloodhound, sending the Bloodhound crumpling to the floor. Two more Bloodhounds dash in from both sides.
Yoru rolled forward, springing back up onto his feet with his hands. His body charged the Bloodhounds, sliding between one of their legs, grabbing it on the way through and tripping the officer.
"Heads!"
Before the Bloodhounds could react, Stelle had swung her bat, sending one of her own Bloodhounds flying towards Yoru—knocking over the other Bloodhound onto the tripped one.
Yoru stood up. His body came back into his control—seemed like he would have to roll even higher if he wanted his action to be completely fully.
"You had movement like that?" Stelle probed, casually tripping, kicking, and batting Bloodhounds running at her. "Couldn't you have done that earlier instead of screeching in our ears?"
"I can sing, just not today," Yoru grumbled back.
More Bloodhounds were pouring in, no sign of Gallagher.
"Ah!"
Yoru and Stelle turned to the sound of the panicked gasp.
In the midst of the chaos, Bloodhounds had managed to sneak up on Firefly and grab her wrists from behind, struggling to keep her down.
"Hey!" Stelle yelled, swinging her bat to get the Bloodhounds off her before charging towards Firefly. "Stop that right now!"
Multiple other Bloodhounds ran forth, blocking Stelle's path to Firefly.
"Tch."
The Bloodhounds managed to subdue Firefly, placing her hands behind her back and cuffing them. "We'll take her away. Deal with her accomplices."
The pair of Bloodhounds took Firefly, who was struggling in vain, away.
"So... got any plans?" Yoru asked Stelle, moving closer to her as Bloodhounds closed in.
"Win."
"Yeah, I'm sure that's not going to cut it."
[Tough situation, hm?]
Time slowed down around Yoru. All movement came to a standstill, as the blue hologram of the system floated in front of him.
"Couldn't you have done that from the start?"
[No.]
The system hologram flickered, before it reappeared with more text.
[We feel particularly bad for your situation. You seem to enjoy your ability.]
"Wow. Really? Who's we, by the way?"
Another hologram appeared in front of Yoru, the words making his eyes widen.
[Archives - Keep an ability you've rolled. You may swap to this ability every 72 system hours.]
[You may have a maximum of 2 abilities saved, not including the one you're using. Swapping for one with initiate the cooldown for both.]
"So I can have useful ones, and fodder ones? That cooldown though..."
Time started to move again, the holograms flickering away.
"Ay, Stelle," Yoru said.
"What?"
"Stall for me."
"Why don't you stall for me instead?"
Yoru didn't respond, his eyes already wandering the hologram pages. His eyes dart around before landing on the Archives.
He clicked on the tab, before noticing two empty slots, clicking on one of the slots before the 'empty' filled up with 'D100 Dice'.
He immediately swapped back to the roll page.
[Rolls: 6]
[Pity: 6/100]
Yoru clicked the roll button.
The hologram flickered, and as it flickered, Yoru hid behind Stelle.
"Can you stop hiding behind me?"
"No, I'm scared."
"You're hiding behind a lady. Shouldn't you be in front of me?"
"In front is subjective."
"New Ability - Summon"
"Why does this sound good?"
Before Yoru had time to check, the Bloodhounds moved in. He raised his arms up to defend.
"Hold on."
A stern voice cut through the crowd.
Looking over into the distance was Gallagher, walking over with a stride.
"Why are you all attacking these people?"
"They were with the stowaway, sir," a Bloodhound said. "They were defending her. We assumed they were accomplices."
"Are you sure," Gallagher started, his brows furrowing. "That you even got the right person? Last I checked, it was supposed to be a lad with silver hair."
The Bloodhounds all looked at each other, before turning back to Stelle and Yoru. "Oh."
Gallagher sighed. "You lot get out of here. I'll fix this mess."
The Bloodhounds obliged, turning around and walking off to do Bloodhound things.
Stelle looked at Gallagher.
"What's going to happen to that lady?"
Gallagher looked towards Stelle. "Lady, you say? I'm sure I'll be able to get her back to you lot. Just sit tight, we'll have to go through the process."
He shook his head and sighed. "Sorry for the trouble, you all. It seems the newbies just happened to call a group of Bloodhounds to help catch a ghost."
Yoru looked around. "Where are they taking her?"
"Probably to one of the offices, where they'll hold her until they can figure out if she's actually a stowaway. Since they already have her, they're going to go through the process anyway."
After a bit more of exchange, Gallagher excused himself, needing to go somewhere else.
"This leaves a bad taste in my mouth."
"Hey, Yoru," Stelle said.
"Hm?"
"What if we did a prison break?"
"... you have the worse ideas," Yoru sighed. "Sure. Why not."