As the silence stretched, Makina abruptly stepped in front of me, her gaze fixed on my face.
 
"You look a lot different."
 
Slowly, she reached out and took my hands in hers, her thumbs gently tracing the lines on my palms.
 
"You aren't cold anymore, either."
 
Before I could respond, Makina closed the distance between us and pressed her hand against my chest. I could feel the warmth of her touch through the shirt.
 
"But I still don't hear a heartbeat. Now with the whole Deadmen business, you are getting closer to the name I called you when I was a child—Vampire Uncle."
 
Despite the strange nature of our exchange, I maintained a poker face.
 
'Makina is really honest and not afraid at all, just like her cannon counterpart, it seems.'
 
"Makina, just answer the question. You shouldn't be here, and you know that, this whole place is under the control of Tamaki. What are you doing here?"
 
"I just came here because I saw a familiar face being brought here."
 
"So, you're telling me that you're here because you knew I was being brought in? How did you know that? I can't imagine Tamaki would be so careless as to let that information slip."
 
"Oh, but I'm not just any ordinary warden. I'm actually a spy working for CIRO. It's my job to know these things."
 
'Spy..Warden? Shouldn't she be the Chief Guard of the Wonderland?'
 
"I see, So how is the work in the intelligence agency going?"
 
"That's classified, but maybe I will tell you if you tell me how you knew my full name." Said Makina.
 
"Then we are at an impasse, it seems."
 
There was no way in hell, I was telling anyone anything about me being an outsider of this world.
 
'It looks like the butterfly effect was greater than I expected. Just by being there, the future and plot changed so much. But what would have happened if I wasn't there at that time? Oh well, no use thinking about it, I am no Thawne or DeVoe.'
 
"You are still saving children, it seems. The only thing children at the school were talking about was you fighting some 'Red Man', not that anybody believed it, and with you having no paper trail, you ended up here, but it seems it was all part of your plan."
 
The misunderstanding trope is strong in this one.
 
"It wasn't exactly planned, but yeah, I knew this could happen."
 
"..."
 
An awkward silence followed the talk. Makina wasn't saying anything and was just watching me closely.
 
"Um… I don't want holes in my body, could you stop staring so intensely?"
 
"Apologies, but I was just appreciating your handsome face."
 
'Now that's creepy. I wonder if that is how creepy I look when I am lost in my thoughts, which sadly or happily happens quite frequently.'
 
I stood up from the bed and closed the distance between us.
 
"You should get out of here as soon as you can. I am sure you didn't get the information here because you found it, Tamaki is spoon-feeding you information about his plans. Why did you show yourself to me anyway? There should be cameras around here."
 
"I am sure I disabled all of them. You know you are talking to a spy, right?"
 
"I am not doubting your capabilities, I just think all of this is too dangerous and you should leave."
 
"It's the same thing. I am not a child, you can stop babysitting."
 
"Uh, okay, then just stay close to me because there's going to be a change in plans. Since, you are…I mean, since everything is not going as planned anyway."
 
I started walking towards the door and stepped into the hallway, which was eerily silent considering that an earthquake had just happened.
 
I walked down the hallway until I reached the room with a sofa in it, which was also empty, which was also weird as every other person's room should also be devastated right now, but nobody is here.
 
"It looks like something fishy is happening. Do you know anything about it, Makina?"
 
"No, I don't, but I heard them say they are planning for something big, which includes you. That's why I chose to show myself."
 
"I think you should have said that from the start."
 
"But then it would have been no fun. Plus, I believe in you, I know you wouldn't come here without a plan."
 
"I think you are overestimating me a lot, Makina. Oh well, let's talk later, for now, follow me as closely as you can."
 
We walked for quite a long time, but we didn't see any guards or people along the way. We finally reached a big metal door, which was here to stop prisoners from going into the personnel area.
 
I used my blood to create a big blade that cut through the thing in half easily, which caused the alarm to go off, but I didn't care and moved forward.
 
I could see some robots moving towards us, they tried to spray acid towards us, but I made a shield made of blood like the one I used in the match today for myself and Makina.
 
The acid was useless against it, and I cut through the robots easily with my blade.
 
"So you can use multiple branches of sin, from the information I gathered, every Deadman can only use one branch."
 
"Yeah, you can call it that."
 
With Self-Hemokinesis I could replicate almost all the branch of sins and more, but I couldn't use branches, I didn't understand like the Old Man's Fire one, I mean, how can blood create fire or Shiro's gravity control type thing, which is more ridiculous.
 
The only clue about Shiro's power is what Hagire said in the Manga, "Super Compression of matter caused by High Speed Blood Flow." which is like saying It just works because It doesn't make any sense to me.
 
It was never cleared up in the manga anyway, and I am not some genius. That is to say, even Hagire never replicated it when in the body of Toto, just like Ganta's Ganbare Gun. It looks like sooner or later I would have to assimilate the gem if I wanted to have a fighting chance against The Wretched Egg.
 
Just the Anti-Wretched Egg properties will be a massive help, even if I don't get nonsensical powers like Ganta and Shiro.
 
It will be interesting to see, though, if the Mother Goose System will accept my branch of sin after I assimilate with the gem or not.
 
Well, even if it doesn't, I am sure I can find some way to break it. It's just going to take some time.
 
'I still have another option, though. Give the gem to Ganta, but I don't think I am going to just give away power when it's so close. And even if I give it to him, it's too late anyway; he won't be able to unlock Ganbare Gun so fast.'
 
We walked until we could see a group of armored men with guns and swords, which were most probably equipped with Worm Eaters.
 
Azuma was leading the group, it seems.
 
But before I could say anything, Makina took out a knife and tried to stab me in the back, which I dodged easily.
 
My body was on full alert from the moment I knew something fishy was going on, so I didn't let my guard down.
 
"Damn, I thought I fooled you."
 
"You did. I just don't trust anyone."

________

1.27k words