Up in the sky, two girls were scanning the ground below them, searching for their missing friends. "They shouldn't be far away. Have you seen anything, Juliet—?" But when the girl with long blonde hair turned round, she saw that the girl behind her was busy licking the giant lollipop in her hand. "You haven't even been paying attention, have you?"
"I've been watching very carefully, I have! I was just about to say that I've spotted three figures over there!" she shouted, trying to convince the girl called Alice—who was none other than myself. Juliet's hand pointed to the side, but I felt she was merely bragging, as there was no way she, having been licking that sweet all this time, could see that far.
"Yeah, yeah, right," I brushed her off and went back to scanning ahead of me, but suddenly my hand was pulled, making me stop in my tracks—I furrowed my brows in annoyance and when I turned round, I saw Juliet still pointing in the same direction. "Are you serious? Ugh… Fine, bloody hell, if there's nothing there, I'll confiscate that lollipop."
We then changed our flight path and headed in the direction Juliet was pointing; the strong wind lashed against our skin as we accelerated, propelled by the wind flowing from this card—we had to hurry because we'd been flying for quite some time and it was starting to drain my energy. As my blue eyes glanced down, I spotted three familiar figures—two were standing whilst the other was curled up on the soft ground.
I glanced over at Juliet, who was smiling smugly whilst licking her lolly, her expression practically screaming 'what did I tell you?', and it really annoyed me just how blatantly she was trying to show off. "Huft.... Alright, you can keep that lolly," I said before gliding down towards the three of them.
My feet touched the ground again and, in that very moment, I nearly collapsed; fortunately, I managed to keep my body balanced on my feet. More importantly, I couldn't ignore the situation right in front of me: Snow was curled up, and in front of her, Robin and Ciel were trying to calm her down.
"I can hear that girl called Snow sobbing," whispered Juliet. I was taken aback by her hearing, which rivalled Red's own, but I couldn't dwell on that now; I had to find out what was really going on here.
I walked closer before stopping right behind Snow, who immediately caught the attention of the two adults who were behaving like children; when our four eyes met, they both wore different expressions. Ciel looked surprised, whilst Robin looked both worried and frightened.
"Uh, um… Alice, it's not what it looks like," said Robin in a trembling voice. I gave her a smile that immediately sent shivers down her spine and made her stammer, because it wasn't the friendly smile she was used to. "She—I—we—"
"What have you two done to Snow? Robin, aren't you the longest-serving member of the Pyxis team?" I asked, whilst Juliet, watching from behind, was still licking her sweet even though her grip on the lollipop stick was getting tighter. "And you've decided to pick on the new member?"
Robin fell silent and was at a loss for words—he finally let out a long sigh and knelt down in front of Snow before gently saying, "I'm sorry, all right? I was wrong." This truly took Ciel by surprise; it had never crossed his mind that Robin would go so far as to do something like that, but that was indeed what a gentleman would do.
Snow finally lifted her head, her tear-filled eyes widening in surprise at the sight of Robin's deeply remorseful face. "A-Ah! I'm sorry! I'm not offended or anything, I just felt a bit embarrassed just now when I heard the comment from…" Snow didn't dare to look over, but Robin knew exactly who she was referring to.
Robin helped Snow to her feet before glancing at Ciel. "It doesn't seem like I'm the one who should be apologising here," she said, whilst Ciel folded her arms—avoiding eye contact entirely. "What? Your ego isn't too big for that, is it?"
Ciel exhaled and still looked to the side, as if looking at nothing—yet, surprisingly, he still said it softly. "It's my fault; I was just taken aback by what you did so suddenly," he said. Though there was no actual apology, I could sense the sincerity behind those words.
"I'm the one who should be apologising for acting so childishly! I'm sorry—I didn't have parents to teach me how to control my emotions," Snow replied, and a long silence filled the air around us; I was glad that, in the end, this could be resolved without anyone getting hurt.
However, as if unable to read the mood, Juliet suddenly piped up. "I don't mean to interrupt this cosy moment, but could we go and look for Romy now—?" Before she could finish her sentence, the sound of a loud crash rang out.
Our heads snapped round to see a giant, smashed chocolate bar and a gummy bear lying on the ground, before a figure delivered a punch straight to the bear's face, shattering its head instantly. "Felix! How are you over there?!" shouted the tanned man, glancing behind him.
Another man was flung through the air but managed to land; his grey hair flapped in the strong wind as he'd been thrown. "I'm doing just fine, gentlemen. Let's deal with them first—they're rather a nuisance." The man's cavalier's hat slipped off, revealing a pair of cat ears—and from beneath his clothes, a tail poked out and twitched.
"Romy!"
"Felix!"
As their names were called out by their respective partners, they both immediately turned towards the sound; but before they could reply, hundreds of gingerbread people suddenly appeared and charged at them like an army at war, sweeping them up in the chaos.
"Oh, I don't think I could ever see anything stranger than this," Robin remarked, whilst Ciel and Juliet had already dashed forward to rescue their loved ones. "Do you have a plan, Princess?" His dark eyes glanced in my direction.
I actually really wanted to pass the responsibility of fighting these ginger men on to them whilst I took a short break. "Destroy them all," I replied; Robin looked thoroughly dissatisfied with my answer.
"You're a real genius," Robin retorted sarcastically. On the battlefield, Ciel wanted to fire but was terrified of hitting Felix, unlike Juliet, who didn't hesitate to sweep through the crowd with her giant lollipop, revealing Romeo's hand.
Ciel spotted the swing of a sword—it was unmistakably Felix's—and then plucked up the courage to shoot the gingerbread men who were far away from the direction of the swing. The bullets instantly shattered the gingerbread men into pieces, whilst those swept aside by Juliet with her lollipop were still able to run and charge forward.
From the ground, four tiny dwarf dolls leapt into the air and climbed onto the flood of gingerbread men—their little hands grasped at Romeo's and Felix's hands, which were still trapped inside. Further back, Snow pulled with all her might on the thread attached to her finger, and this succeeded in making the two men pop their heads out, breathing a sigh of relief.
Determined not to let this opportunity slip away, the two of them leapt up and pulled their partners' hands out of the flood of gingerbread; they immediately rushed away as fast as they could, followed by the Snow doll, who ran after them. Behind them, hundreds of gingerbread people were running in pursuit, but I wasn't going to let that happen.
Four cards flew out and landed beside, in front of and behind the gingerbread people—at that very moment, a root spread out and began linking them together, creating a wide and tall enclosure to contain all the gingerbread people in front of us. "You still remember when we fought that giant whale, don't you?" I asked Robin as I tossed a card to her.
"It still feels like yesterday!" he replied as he soared into the sky, whilst the gingerbread men tried to break through the fence made of thick roots that were extremely difficult to destroy. When I turned around, I was immediately taken aback by what I saw: Juliet was hugging Romeo and they'd started making out, flirting with one another without a shred of shame.
Glancing to my left, I saw Felix lying across Ciel's lap whilst she tended to his wounds. "Robin, hurry up and finish this; I want to blow this place up right away," I shouted. Snow, who was standing near me, couldn't suppress a little chuckle, which immediately stopped when I glanced her way. "Snowie, I hope you'll give me a massage after this."
"A-Ah! Sure! As payment for all your hard work."
"For free, then?"
"Of course!
Meanwhile, Robin—hovering in the air—was pouring the petrol leaking from the card I'd given him earlier; he immediately showered the gingerbread men evenly until, in the end, not a single spot remained unsplashed. A green light appeared, forming a bow and an arrow in each of the man's hands; he drew his bow and aimed at the gingerbread men.
"It's coming in hot!"
He shouted before releasing his finger from the bowstring; a flame ignited at the tip of the arrow, and Robin summoned another arrow, firing repeatedly at the gingerbread men. Snow and I, watching from below, could see the look of pride and joy on Robin's face.
"Do you know why he's smiling, Alice?"
"He might be into that sort of thing, Snow"
"What sort of thing?"
"Beats me."