[@JBRam2002][@Suku]

And just like that, it was over.

The girls' attacks had struck true, and with final, tortured cries, the two burning figures crackled for the last time, those licking, beautiful flames extinguished like a candle in the wind. Charred black, the humanoid frames jerked. And their bodies fell apart, crumbling into a black dust that faded away in the smoke.

And just like that, they had won.

The heat of their struggle was fading away, the sizzling, faint embers once dancing against those monotonous grey walls disappearing into the void almost as if they had never been, with only the tiniest of sooty marks sign of their existence. The two monsters of fire were gone, as was that ghastly boy in the mask that floated behind the mass that stole away Alexander. Their foes had either long disappeared, or vanquished on this auspicious day.

And just like that, they were alone.

Free.

Safe.

Yet for Kaede Yamamoto, his mind's sharpness only intensifying as the adrenaline and magic rushed out of his veins, there was a reason why he had come to help them. Why he had chosen to save them. Why he had run so far, endured such pains. Why he was here.

What he couldn't fail.

Yet for Kaede Yamamoto, that answer, sinking into the growing black pits of his heart, seemed to grow more obvious by the second.

"Was ... Is this everyone? All of you? Nobody else?"

A trembling question breathed through a gasping mouth.

[hr]

[@Write][@Plank Sinatra][@Krayzikk][@Kafka Komedy]

[b][url=https://youtu.be/GsHoDndFkA0]Sasori and Co. Investigations[/url][/b]

"Don't worry, champ. Carrying another kid ain't gonna hang a red light on my doll," said the emerald-haired detective in a tone that seemed to carry a pride, adjusted his hat snugly over his conker one last time before pulling open the agency door. "Fellas might think she's a dumb bucket, but their peepers don't get to see the good play she gets."

The newly gathered crew of kiddos, upon exiting after Sasori, would catch an eyeful of the white Toyota HiAce parked right outside. A vehicle lightly dented when some piker with pizzas tried to win the wristwatch. For some of them, there was no need to touch up on whose it was. Not when they'd already taken a gander before.

"Is Nuts and Bolts' staying in the back?" he asked even as he tried to liberate the keys from one of his pockets. "Thing didn't drop a dime. Not an easy rube at all, but thinks bearcat's the bees' knees. Don't want it scooting too far."