"Hurrah! Saiko did her first mission! Her first mission!" Saiko cheered happily as the Anti-Demon Militia gathered in the meeting room after completing Operation Tornado. While half the room smiled at her antics, the other half was incredibly skeptical. After hearing the news of Akuma's appearance at Saiko's station and noting the injuries of other members, Saiko was completely unharmed which left quite a few questions in the air.

"Congratulations, Saiko," Phoenix nodded appreciatively, but with pleasantries out of the way, it was time to understand just exactly why Saiko had not taken even a single injury. "But from what I'm hearing, Akuma showed up right by you. How come... You're fine?"

"She didn't even try to hurt Saiko," The blue haired girl shrugged, not exactly understanding their concern. Everyone glanced at each other in confusion. "She talked to Saiko!"

"Wait, so she didn't hurt you, and she talked to you?" Cana screeched, Akinari shooting a look towards the girl. It was too late, though. Saiko recognized her harsh tone, and immediately Saiko's smile dropped. Wide eyed, Saiko turned towards the pig tailed girl.

"Yes...Isn't that what Akuma normally does?"

"No. She normally says how we are 'breaking rules' and then proceeds to slaughter us. Perhaps with an extra snarky remark," Akinari replied calmly, despite everyone's growing anxiety and fear. They were beginning to worry that Saiko was correlating with the enemy. As the leader, Akinari needed to restore the peace. "But we have no proof of Saiko working on Akuma's side. She hasn't tried to harm us."

"But Akuma came to the isolated bridge, where we had never predicted her to go to.." Lydia crossed her small arms, her pale yellow eyes staring at Saiko. She was practically touching Phoenix with how close she was standing to the leader of the pom squad. "If I had to create a theory, I would say that Akuma knew our exact plans in order to infiltrate and avoid risk of being detected or shot."

"But Akuma was shot," Cana piped up, immediately shutting down Lydia's idea. The purple haired female glared at Cana, huffing in annoyance. Cana continued to speak without so much of a care. "So that didn't work..."

"Indeed, she got shot," Akinari agreed, sending a relieved smile towards his subordinate. "We also succeeded with our mission, with Saiko stalling for time. While we aren't exactly sure of Akuma's plans, we succeeded because of Saiko. We should be grateful towards her, not casting suspicion."

"Perhaps, but we should keep an eye on her," Celeste said stiffly, disagreeing with their policy of complete open-mindedness. "True, we do not know that she did work with Akuma. But we also do not know that she did not. Someone should stay with Saiko at all times."

"Aw, Saiko's going to have a babysitter at all times!?" Saiko whined, not exactly realizing that she wasn't in a place to negotiate. "But Saiko wants to go out and play!"

"I'm not volunteering," Celeste responded, annoyed. She could hardly stand Saiko's childish behavior. "Doesn't seem like many people are."

"...I'll do it," Phoenix nodded, surprising them. But then again, Phoenix was incredibly warm-hearted and wouldn't want to risk Saiko being removed from the group. "Saiko is fun, Celeste. Don't be so mean."

"Hurray! Phoenix is so, so nice!" Saiko cheered, clapping her hands together slightly. Phoenix smiled at the blue haired girl, eager to learn more about their new member. After all, as a leader, she wanted to know if more people.

"I'm glad that's settled. Now, I have no missions of current interest," Akinari interrupted the moment, not because he didn't care, but because the meeting didn't need to be held up in front of everyone. "Your only goal is to observe more about Akuma to find more out about her...Actually, I lied. You all need to find out her exact schedule so that we can plan around it. While her routine used to be the same, she has changed it lately for some reason. We need to find out a way to combat her knowledge of what we do."

"Honestly, that's really boring," Jarrett yawned, casually slicing more tears on the couch he was sitting on. "How am I supposed to stay sane when we're not even going to be fighting? Where's the emotion? Nothing is being broken, no rules are being disobeyed!"

"Rules do not always need to be disobeyed," Sora piped up, her innocent nature showing once again. "Sometimes the rules are nice. Besides, this is a break from all of the craziness!"

"Crazy is fun, though..."

"Moving on, that's what Akinari has declared, so that's what's going to happen," Cana interrupted, annoyed that no one was listening to Akinari. "So... Like it or not, that's what's happening."

"Are we done here? I'm bored," Allegra asked, popping a bubble in the gum she chewed. "Frankly, observing Akuma isn't interesting, but it has to be done. So can we go?"

"Yes. This meeting is dismissed!"

hey everyone. i've has a lot of chapters almost written but never finished which is why you see a lot of books being updated today... anyways. i have a thing that i drew and i want to make a storyline for it but idk which book to post it to. lemme know?

question of the chapter: whos your favorite/least character so far? (exclude saiko, akuma, and your own oc)

thanks for reading.