It was evening when Ken goes to see Sherry in her room. He knocks twice and when he could feel the doorknob is unlocked, he steps in. He could see Sherry’s eyes is about to fall.

“Am I in bad timing? Sorry.” Ken apologizes.

Sherry weakly smiles “Not really…” Sherry gave way to Ken inside her room “How can I help you?”

Ken hesitantly said, “Uh, do you wanna?”

“Do what?” Her soft voice even rattles the young man, blushing.

“Uhm. Do you wanna go out?”

“Where?”

“Outside, today is the lantern festival.”

“Oh. About that…”

Ken said, “Don’t worry about it,” He reassures her “…It wouldn’t take long and added to it that we won’t have to do anything missions until further instructions from our supervisor.”

“What about Al?”

“Al-Al-Al, you scared of him, do ya?

She didn’t respond, but her face tells so.

“Come on, it’s going to be fun. You just have to dress covering your machine parts.”

“Don’t lie to me that you don’t miss hanging out?”

“I lost my memory, remember? I don’t have any reasons to miss.”

“Right, I know that. But that’s the point of going out. Maybe there’s something that might trigger your memories.”

She thinks for a second, whether she would trust Ken. Currently, she’s spiraling, she’s in debt not just to Ken, but to other people who provide her shelter but now she couldn’t decide,

“I know that you don’t want them to see you, not like this, and I promise we will just go out there to have some fun and uhm… also to see if there are any chances your memories would go back or just a small portion of it.”

“Fine,” She said leaving her no choice from Ken’s nagging “But if there’s anything that goes wrong, we leave, okay?”

“Okay, I’m fine with that.”

A few minutes passed.

“Grrr,” Ken shivers as the cold wind gently passed by “So fricking cold.” He pulls the hoodie, covering his head. Sherry, on the other hand, doesn’t feel anything but it doesn’t mean she could just casually wear something, of course, she must pick clothes that will cover her metallic arm, she black gloves and a blue hoodie jacket with black boots.

“Maybe it’s because the winter is approaching.”

“Is that so?”

The two of them walk across the plaza where a gigantic lantern floating was tied by the ropes. People clustering, enjoying the vendor's stand.

“You want something to eat?” Ken questioned.

“Err, yes.”

They find themselves standing outside the food stand. Upon entering, the smell of the foods lingers in their nose, Ken’s eyes strayed around the place and his eyes struck at the chef who’s serving a dish, the fried meat was gently covered in soy sauce.

Sherry holds his arm and guided him to the corner table, Ken picked up the menu and he looked at Sherry who seems to be uncomfortable “Hey, relax. I’m right here.” She nodded.

“Uhm, you go first.”

Sherry looked at the menu and seemingly the list of foods is unfamiliar to her “What’s it gonna be for you?”

“Uhm, duck flail, and cordon meat.”

“I’ll just go with that too.”

“You sure? Because these are spicy ones that will make you throw up.”

“Trust me I can handle it.”

“Okay,” Ken said and stand up and proceeded to a chef, ordering.

A few minutes passed, the two of them finally eats it. Ken is currently enjoying the food he orders, his face is in red, while Sherry, on the other hand, can’t seem to handle the spiciness. “Whoa, this is hot.” She said as she drinks water.

“Told ya.”

Ken already finished eating. Sherry could only observe him, with curiosity how tough his gut could be.

“You should get an award of the king of spiciness.”

“You think.”

“Err, I can’t imagine how your gut handling it.”

“Ha! I’m used to it. There was this time before in the Glade, where my handler brings me on one of his missions and was kinda stuck at the enemy field so we had to blend in and so on. We challenge some ass grunt to some eating contest and my benevolent handler sold that match. But because of that we got caught and had to face the whole army.”

“Wow, can’t believe there could be an ass in the Glade.”

“You bet on it. They always trying to pick a fight while I’m in the Glade.”

Sherry smiles as Ken continued to talk about his past but the two of them stopped as they could hear an explosion of fireworks. “Let’s go,” Ken said as he grabs her hand.

Proceeding outside, they witness the continuous raining colors of fireworks. The fireworks end as a single lantern flow in the sky, indicating that it already started as other lanterns follow.

“Whoa,” Ken said in amusement.

Sherry’s eyes were stuck at the beautiful scenery and with that, a certain image of a young girl flashes in her mind.

“Sherry, yoo-hoo.” Sherry snaps, shaking her head. “Did the food want to make you throw up?”

“Uhm, sorry, I kinda space out.”

“How ‘bout we go to the market stands, maybe we can something awesome in there.”

Back at the headquarter, in Tim’s room, she is currently browsing at the laptop, she’s doing facial recognition as she hacked at the private network of the government files.

“You find her identity?”

“Nah, I’ve been doing facial recognition, but still end up in a dead-end.”

“Figures, they maybe wipe out every data of the individuals they kidnapped.”

“Probably, with Theo holding the throat of the Mayor, he might easily pull this out.”

“This is going to be tough.”

“Yeah, no kidding. I mean I’ve been looking at every profile of these individuals, yet still no Sherry.”

“If that’s the case, why didn’t you look at the memory device we stole?”

“Oh yeah. That. Well, you see, I’m maybe able to know how to crack some device system or debunked some data but that doesn’t mean I’m a damn genius about it. So, before you go yada-yada about cracking this damn memory device, you should check my background first.” She said, almost yelling at Alastor.

“Err, I think should go rest now. You can leave that work later.”

“Good. For god’s sake, it looks like I’m the only one who’s working at this.

When Van finally leaves outside, He saw Linda standing before the window looking at the fireworks display “I thought you’re busy doing kinky business.”

Linda grunts “Do you mind if you don’t mind my business?”

Alastor stands tall beside her and for a few moments the lanterns finally come out for the show. “Do you still imagine yourself living a normal life?” Linda questioned breaking the silence.

“Why would you think I would think that?”

“Because you always lurking in the corner, like a hollow.”

Alastor smirks “No, I never think of having that.”

“I kinda wondering what normal life could be, not living for killing.”

“You should stop thinking like that.”

“You never want to have that kind of life?”

“Like I said, no. Even if I want to have a normal life, what would I become to be? I have no family to live for. Plus, this is only I can do for a living.”

Alastor stretches his neck, his arms protruded with bones crackling. Linda’s eyes gently laid at his nakedness. She observed his eyes as if she was reading him.

“You’re sad.”

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“Okay, I’m gonna head back to my room.”

“I don’t think you should go sleep right now, the two are on the loose.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Ken and Sherry were gone outside.”

“Oh, that numb-nut!”