An unfamiliar voice sounded from behind Acesto, it was a female's voice, and a sultry one at that. He turned around, and laid his eyes on a young blond woman. "Ace? I thought you were guarding the portal, where did she come from?" Shizuka asked. He obviously did not know, his perception allowed him to identify anything close to him, so he should have caught a person of all things passing him. The only explanation he could think of was that she possessed some sort of ability that hid her presence. Whoever she was, she was clearly comfortable where she was sitting, as she saw fit to speak in a casual, joking manner and drink in front of them. Ace glared at Trisean, before his eyes went back to the woman, he should have picked his words more carefully. It was hard to keep a straight face when looking at her, she had unzipped her jacket, revealing more skin than was necessary, he could tell it was a deliberate act.

"You want to work for us?" Ace said, walking a bit closer to the woman, just enough that she was inside his domain. It was a subtle movement, and considering she had no clue about his ability there was no hint of threatening body language on his part. "So, you're asking us to trust you this much, and you haven't even told us your name?" The blond either had one hell of a poker face, or she was telling the truth. He wasn't sure what to believe, the data on the computer was missing, and those men had been killed by someone swift and deadly. She had slipped past him, so it was no shot in the dark to imagine she could have done the deed. Even if she was lying, what was he going to do, kill her? That wasn't how they operated. What was he going to do?

"Welcome to the Unbound Hearts! Here's a badge, it'll let you communicate with me, Ace, and our leader. I'm Shizuka by the way, and he's Acesto." Shizuka had already moved while he was deep in thought, honestly, he should have seen it coming. 

"Shizuka, what the hell!?" Ace yelled, she only smiled back at him.

"Hey, I know a good girl when I see one, we can trust her, right... uhh," She looked to the blond with a inquisitive expression. "What's your name again?" 

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The castle in Hollow Bastion was an impressive sight, with dark, metal spires that pierced the sky and an imposing position looming over the city below. Yet, Ryoko despised the place. Impressive and beautiful were two very different things in her mind, this place was all function and no fashion. The room she was staying in was large, and well furnished, however it had the color pallet of a can of beans. Everything was so damn rustic and brown, the feng shui was completely thrown out of whack. From her window she could see a pyre of flame rising from where the Imperial storehouse should be, reports said it was the doing of the Unbound Hearts. She was not having a good day, not at all. 

"The storehouse has been destroyed, you say?" A deep, distorted voice spoke, emanating from a mirror above the desk she was seated in. The mirror's reflective surface was clouded by swirling dark fog, appearing very much like a bucket of milk with shredded coal mixed into it. 

"Yes, Lord Emperor..." Ryoko responded with disinterest, an elbow on the desk and her hand on her chin. She was gazing outside the window, looking as if she wanted to jump out of it.

"There was very important information stored there, was it secured?"

"I couldn't say..."

"... Then you know what to do, this takes top priority."

"Yes, Emperor." With one final lackadaisical response from Ryoko, the mirror cleared up, and her chat with the Emperor ended. Moments later, the door to her room opened, and in stepped Catherine with Salforge in tow. Her personal maid didn't speak, only closed the door behind Salforge and stood by with a grimace on her face. Ryoko let out a yawn and stood from her seat, stretching her arms like a tired feline. "Hello Tin Man, you and me have got a job to do, we need to head to the factory and secure it, there's a possibility it could come under attack soon." She snapped her fingers, and an oval portal of dark opened between them. "Let's go."