Cross' Second Pupil

Chapter 45: Challenges

In the Ark; the hallway

Allen, Alice, Leenalee, Lavi, Krory, Chaozi, and Lero are walking/flying down the hallway to the next room. Leenalee stops before she looks back and both Allen and Alice look at her.

"Leenalee, what's the matter?" Allen asks.

"Kanda told us he'd catch up when he finished." Leenalee says.

"He was probably beaten by Skinn-lero!" Lero says and Leenalee looks at the golem.

"He is certainly running late." Krory points out.

"I-I'll head back to check on him." Chaozi tells them.

He starts to walk back to the first room where Kanda and the Noah, Skinn, are. However, Lavi grabs his wrist to stop him.

"Yu's just fine." Lavi assures.

"You're telling me that punk killed Skinn-lero?" Lero asks. "Not a chance-rero! The Noah Clan are immortal-lero!"

"It's true that they haven't died so far." Lavi says. "But isn't that just because they've never faced opponents stronger than themselves?"

"Th-that may be so, but once the new Ark's done downloading its data, the room he's in will be destroyed-lero!"

"We'll definitely find the door before that happens." Allen tells Lero.

"All we can do right now is believe in Kanda and press forward." Alice says.

"Allen-kun... Alice..." Leenalee calls. "That's right."

"We'll keep going forward." Krory says.

"Yeah." Chaoji agrees.

"Man, Allen, Alice, it's almost like you two have become really strong." Lavi points out.

"When Kanda comes back I won't let him call me Beansprout anymore." Allen tells them and continues to walk down.

"Look how much it bothers him." Lavi whispers.

"He really hated being called a Beansprout, huh?" Krory whispers back.

"Allen hates being called short." Alice informs.

"Let's go." Leenalee tells them and they go down the hallway.

~Later~

"This hallway's so freakin' long! I wonder when we'll find the next door." Lavi complains.

Then they see glass bottles rolling toward them.

"What are those?" Chaoji asks.

"Alcohol bottles?" Lavi says.

"Why are things like that...?" Allen trails off.

"A bomb's hiding among these bottles!" A man's voice says. "I wonder where it could be!"

"Eh!" Allen exclaims.

"If you don't find and deactivate it, you'll all go 'boom'!"

Once all the bottles stop rolling and they hear something ticking, everyone except Allen and Alice starts searching for the bottles. Then Allen and Alice recognize the brand of the bottles.

"Allen, these brands..." Alice trails off.

"Yeah..." Allen replies and Leenalee looks back at the two. "They're definitely all brands of alcohol I brought for Alice's and my Master."

"For General Cross?" Leenalee asks.

"And they're all on the bars' tabs too..." Alice adds.

Fire envelops Allen and goes down before he talks about all the trouble getting the alcohol drinks. He then grabs the most expensive alcohol there are, Shumatsu. Alice then sees the bomb in the bottle and points to it.