[ᴡᴇʟᴄᴏᴍᴇ ᴛᴏ ᴛʜᴇ ᴍᴀɴᴏʀ] (ɪᴅᴇɴᴛɪᴛʏ ᴠ ꜰᴀɴꜰɪᴄꜱ)

Protection (Platonic oneshot with Naib and Memory)

Once again thanks to my lovely partner for giving me ideas.

Warnings: Mentions of blood + injures, near death experiences?

Story type: Angst and Fluff?

Pairings/Characters: Memory - "Little girl", Naib - "Mercenary", Ada - "Psychologist", Emil - "Patient", Mary - "Bloody Queen"

(I got tired in the middle of writing this, possible ooc)

Memory trembled as she was trying to decode one of the final ciphers. She'd done this hundreds, possibly millions of times before but it still always gave her anxiety. It was only her, Naib, and Ada left. Emil had gotten eliminated prior to now and Ada was kiting as much as she could against Mary. The match was going amazing at first, Naib had kited the queen for the first 2 ciphers until she got bored of him and swapped onto Emil. After that everything seemed to have gone downhill, Accelerated decoding wasn't even active and Ada was kiting on last chair. 40%... Go faster please! Memory could only plead in her thoughts as she decoded, hoping that Ada was doing well. "Cipher Machine Progress 91%!" Memory heard Naib shout, she sighed in relief. She was glad that the hunter couldn't hear the shouts and it seemed only the survivors could hear each other. Maybe this match would go well after all. A few seconds later the cipher lit up in the familiar red it always would when finished, however memory's relief was cut short when she heard Ada shout as she was downed. Memory could only look towards the red outline where Ada was laying on the floor. It quickly disappeared as she was picked up by Mary and locked into a rocket chair. Immediately the rocket chair set off into the sky, no matter how many times memory would go through these 'games', they'd always be terrifying to her. Wondering if maybe one day they'd actually die to these rocket chairs. Remembering she needed to communicate with Naib more she shouted "Cipher Machine Progress 76%!". She knew Ada was safe and back at the manor but she can't help but fear for the Psychologists safety. However Memory was quickly pulled out of her thoughts and panicked as she heard the sound of a teleport. She quickly ran from the cipher machine she was on as the bloody queen teleported over to her and made chase. Naib could only curse under his breath as he heard memory shout "The hunter is nearby!" as he quickly ran towards the childs location. Memory let out a slight yelp as she felt the glass shard piece her back, the wound burned as blood dripped out of it but she kept running. She had to stall for time, at least long enough for naib to prime a cipher. She ran into the factory and ran towards the pallet at the door, rounding the corner and waiting for Mary to get close enough to stun. Mary walked through the doorway and let out a grunt as she felt the pallet get slammed down on her, grumbling as she recovered from the stun. Memory took this time to run, making more distance but forgot to pay attention to her surroundings and she heard the sound of Mary using her mirror.

Sooner then she knew it a clear blue figure was behind her, ready to swing down. Knowing she'd get downed here memory flinched and closed her eyes, waiting for the pain to hit her body. In the next seconds though she felt no new pain and her eyes shot open again at the sound of someone else's groans of pain. "Mr. Naib!" Memory shouted in shock as Naib gritted his teeth in pain. "Finish the cipher, I'll distract her!" Memory nodded as she ran off towards the cipher. The bloody queen smirked "how cute.. I'll make sure to let her watch you die." Naib scoffed and started running from Mary as she started walking closer to the mercenary. Trying to ignore the searing pain on her back memory was decoding the cipher, thankfully accelerated decoding got activated and the cipher was going way faster now. 87%.... 93%.... Almost there. A few seconds later she shouted that the cipher machine was primed. It was really only a waiting game after that to wait for Naib to get downed. Memory paced around the cipher in anxiety, worried that this matches outcome could be flipped over in seconds. Suddenly the sound of a bell rang throughout the forest as naibs red silhouette fell to the ground. She quickly popped the cipher and ran over to the exit gate closest to her and started entering the password. Memory panicked as she wished she could open the exit gate faster, the sound of pallets slamming down and her heartbeat picking up in her ears. Soon the large metal doors opened as she shouted "The exit gate is open!" Naib quicky whipped around and ran the other way, Mary running after him desperate to make this round a victory. Using the last of his elbow pads he ran over to the exit gates grabbing memory's hand, pulling her out with him.

–

Memory let a sigh of relief out as she sat down on her bed, the match was both mentally and physically draining. Thankfully it was her last match of the day as the baron of the manor was nice today and didn't give her as many. As she laid down and shifted around on her bed trying to get comfortable she perked up at the sound of a knock on her door. Memory got up and opened the door and was shocked to see Naib standing there. "Mr. Naib..? Is there anything you need?" Naib look down towards memory, "N-No, i just wanted to check on you. You did great in that match, are you okay?" Memory slightly smiled at this. "Yes I'm okay, thank you for protecting me in that match Mr. Naib." The mercenary quickly responded in turn, saying, "It's no problem, also please don't call me Mr. there's no need." Memory nodded and made sure to keep that in the back of her head to avoid making the mercenary uncomfortable. Naib seemed nervous and restless and Memory wanted to dispel that but didn't exactly know how, but she knows how playing with dolls makes her comfy. So maybe it would work with him? Not knowing what outcome this would bring but still wanting to comfort Naib, Memory asked him a question. "Mr- I mean naib, would.. you play dolls with me?" Naib seemed shocked for a good few seconds and was struggling to come up with a response which made memory panic, thinking she made a mistake. "I-I'm so sorry! Of course if you don't want too you don't have too! I'm sorry if i made you uncomfortable.." Naib quickly snapped back to reality at memory's response "N-No no it's alright don't worry about it, you didn't make me uncomfortable. I uh- would love to play dolls with you." With those words memory's anxieties were quickly dispelled and a smile returned to her face. "Really? Thank you! C'mon i'll show you the dollhouse then every doll i have so you can decide who you wanna be!" Memory said as she ran into her room and went into her closet, digging around in it. Naib nervously stepped into her room closing the door behind him. "So uh, how do i play?" Memory giggled as she pulled a toy dollhouse out of her closet, she definitely has a lot to teach him about playing dollhouse.