A week later after a succesful performance by Morfonica, we had a pretty good week afterwards, with me actually bonding more with everyone in my beloved's band.

Today I wake up like normally, and it's Sunday as well, so no need to go to school.

Though looking at my phone, I immediately see that Touko has not sent me any sort of message which usually does every day.

Perhaps busy or not feeling feel? Well, guess giving her a call after breakfast won't hurt.

After enjoying a large portion of Coco Pops with milk, I feel satisfied before brushing my teeth and such before putting on my usual casual clothes, soon bringing out my phone again.

Tapping on my phone, I am soon calling her, hopefully getting an answer.

I pace around a little as I hear the ringing that is the usual you hear when calling someone over the phone.

Waiting on her to pick up, the ringing soon stops, but it isn't Touko who is answering.

"Stephan, is that you? Is my daughter at your home?"

It's her dad who is answering and he sounds extremely worried in his voice, which makes me worried as well, because this can only mean trouble...

"No, Mr. Kirigaya, Touko is not at my home." I reply to him as I began shaking. "W-what happened..? What has happened with Touko?!"

I almost yell that out in desperation as I  can hear him still sounding shaky.

"I don't know, Stephan..! We heard nothing yesterday, and then we realized our dear daughter haven't woken up yet, we stepped inside her room a-and..!"

He is still very shaky in his voice, and it sounds like he is about to cry any moment...

"Just hold on, I'm coming over as fast as I can!" I tell him as I end the call and rush towards my front door, put on my shoes and head out.

Rushing down the stairs, I run past Raise A Suilen, who are about to practice at Chiyu's penthouse like normally.

"Whoa there! What's the hurry?" Rei asks me as I turn around to them, with them getting almost shocked to see that I am almost on the verge of crying. "S-Stephan..?"

"Touko is in danger." I simply reply to them as I continue on, leaving them shocked.

"...God damn it, mom, what the hell are you up to now..!" Chiyu quietly says to herself as she realizes there is one major thing that might've happened, and it's most likely the UAA behind this.

As I get up on my bike, I pedal like crazy to get to the kimono shop as soon as I can to meet up with Touko's parents.

As I arrive, police are at the scene, having blocked access to passerbys.

"Sorry young man, you will have to go elsewhere-"

"IT'S MY FUCKING GIRLFRIEND THAT HAS GONE MISSING, LET ME IN!" I yell at them as they just shake their heads.

"No, let him pass!" Mr. Kirigaya says as he runs out of the shop and goes up to the cop that told me to piss off. "He's my daughter's precious boyfriend. He means the whole world to her, so he is every right to see what has happened."

The cop remains silent as he let's me pass under the barricade, before me and Mr. Kirigaya runs inside.

As we are inside, I see that Touko's mom is absolutely devastated, wailing loudly as Mr. Kirigaya embraces his crying wife.

"Honey, Stephan is here now as well. He is just as incredibly worried what has happened to our daughter." he tells her as she looks at me.

"Y-you really arrived so quickly..!" she says as she wipes away her tears, her husband soon looking at me again. "Are you... crying, young man..?"

"Touko has gone missing, why wouldn't I cry, d-damn it..!" I tell her as I soon can't hold in my tears either, weeping loudly...

"Ssh, ssh..." Mrs. Kirigaya says as she hugs onto me. "I am so sorry that I have missjudged you about this... I-I thought you didn't care about my daughter to this extent, but you do, you do!"

She soon let go off the hug as I clench my fists and pump it in front of me.

"I promise you both, I will find Touko and bring her back home, I have to!" I tell them with great determination as they nod, greatly acknowledging me.

I soon exit out of the kimono shop, and I can see that all the other band and DJ girls, standing in front of the barricades, looking worried as well.

"Stephan! We heard from Tae's friend that Touko is in danger, what has happened..?" Kasumi asks me as I try holding back my tears again.

Sniffling I look up at her again, before telling her and everyone else what has happened.

Everyone begins panicking as they realize that a friend to them has gone missing, and no one knows where she can be.

I suddenly get a message from an unknown number, but I suddenly get more hope in me upon seeing this.

Unknown: Stephy, it's me! I don't know where I am, but I am not hurt or anything, don't worry.

Stephan: Touko, I will come for you once I figure out which one's might've captured you, alright?

Touko: Please Stephy... I am scared what they might do next...

Stephan: I will make them pay if they actually hurt you! Hold on Touko, babe... I love you

Touko: I love you too... So, so much..!

I turn to everyone again, before telling them that Touko had messaged me, most likely having snatched a phone from one of her captors to be able to send a message to me that she is still well.

But now it's the question where she can be...

We all decided to split up as we look after possible eyewitnesses around the area, but it proves very quickly to be futile, as literally no one has seen the abduction take place.

Afterwards, we all decide to just head back home again, Chiyu going with me as we live in the same apartment building after all.

"I'm so sorry that things has become like this..." Chiyu says as she tries her best to comfort me. "I-I am in pain seeing you like this. You... You are my best friend ever, Stephan..!"

"You are one of my bestest friends as well, Chiyu..." I tell her as I pat her head as we both soon smile at each other.

"I have my suspicions that the UAA is behind this-"

"I thought as much as well." I reply to Chiyu as she looks with a surprised look. "Shinobu Jacobs, one of the assassins I have defeated, warned me about this, and guess it became a reality."

I clench my fist as I grit my teeth. Seems UAA want to test waters with how I handle in situations like these, and they have certainly ticked me off this time!

As we separate ways inside the building, I soon enter my home and sit down in the living room sofa, sighing heavily before sinking down into the sofa.

It's just not the same without Touko going out of her way to make my seat as comfortable as possible so I didn't need to feel uncomfortable. But even with all these pillows, I do not get any comfort...

I go up and walk to my room to fetch my beam katana, before putting it on my belt like I usually do. Though I unholster it again anyways soon after while sitting down at the sofa again.

"Fucking hell, why has this single thing made everything gone south in my life..." I say to myself as I study the currently deactivated beam katana.

I throw it at the floor as I just stand up, soon yelling at the top of my lungs as I throw pillows at it, rage filling me more and more with every throw.

"YOU! YOU TOOK THE ONE THAT MEANS THE WORLD TO ME AWAY FROM ME! FUCK YOU!" I yell at the inanimate object as I finally kick it, making it fly into a cheap vase, breaking it, because, well, it's cheap.

I feel myself tear up again as I hyperventilate, punching the sofa several times as I yell even more while having tears pour down my cheeks.

At this moment, I felt like I wanted to die. I am so fed up with this shit that I can't take it anymore...

But Touko soon comes into my mind again as I collapse onto the floor, crying even more, while only being able to say one thing.

"Touko... TOUKO!"

Hitting into the floor as well, I keep on crying while having my head pressed against the floorboards, occasionally lightly headbutting it as my weeps fills the apartment loud and clear.

I suddenly hear that something comes down from the letter box at my door, so I get up immediately to check what came.

It's a letter, though no sender adress on it, so most likely someone that has personally sent it and wanted to remain anonymous.

Opening it up, I check the contents, with the first one appearing to be some sort of ticket to some kind of showing, as I understand.

The second thing is a folded paper, the actual letter, which I unfold and begin reading...

Dear Stephan

I know you are devastated that we at the UAA has captured your oh so dear Touko Kirigaya, but that's part of today's ranking battle after all.

Yes, no entry fee this time hurray! And actually no more entry fees in general for you because I have managed to make the parents to aaall those band girls and DJ girls pay a sudden subscription, well, except Touko's parents that is.

Do you know what that subscription is? The "Do Not Abduct My Child" subscription! For just ¥10,000 per month, I will have the UAA not interfere with any of your friends.

But of course, couldn't send that to your girl's parents, because that would've been an utter scam! We gotta hit your vulnerable spots, after all!

Well, anyways, this letter has gone on for too long, but I hope you are ready to meet your next opponent; Harvey Moiseiwitsch Volodarskii.

Long name, I know, so if you want to yell at him, just call him Harvey or something.

Oh and spoiler alert, Touko will be there, so be ready to save her in this ranking battle.

All your friends, including my daughter will look on as you fight, will be fun, right?

Now, I'll end this letter and you better prepare yourself to enter the Garden... of Madness!

Miu Tamade - CEO of UAA

Huh, so Chiyu's mom is personally contacting me now? Ho boy, I will make sure you fall hard, you bitch!

Though now I am having conflicting feelings: While I'll be able to get back my beloved Touko in my arms, all of my friends will find out what I truly do when I am not doing part time jobs, studying, hanging out or going on dates with Touko.

Unless I do my best to make it look like an act, then they perhaps won't be convinced that I am an actual bloody killer, even if I hate killing.

I will figure that out once I come to it really, for now, I have to prepare for tonight. I have someone very special to me to save while also ranking up more so I can save my parents as well from the grasp of the UAA!

I can see over the social medias that many of the band girls has indeed gotten these tickets as well, but of course, only that, and not the sort of letter I got.

Everyone are quite excited, even if Touko is currently missing. Well, I know at least that they will see her as well soon.

Anyways, no use stalling, preparations needs to be done as soon as possible.

Picking up my beam katana and putting it to my belt again, I sweep up the broken vase pieces and throw them away, before I stretch on myself a little before heading outside the apartment, making sure to lock it this time.

Walking down the stairs, I exit with the ticket in my hand, before I see Chiyu, Tsukushi and Kurumi waiting outside.

"Ah, there you are! Thought you had given up completely." Kurumi says as she pulls in me. "Me and some of the other DJ units got invites too, so we all can see whatever this is!"

Kurumi brings out her phone before typing some on it and sending it, before putting it back down her pocket she has on her casual clothes.

"Well, everyone is waiting further away, let us be on our way!" Tsukushi says as all four of us begin walking, meeting up with everyone else.

Well, not exactly everyone... Touko...

"Hey Stephan! How are you holding up?" Miyu asks me as she and rest of Lyrical Lily and Morfonica walks up to me. Guess these two bands/units has taken the most affinity to me, huh.

Morfonica I can understand, due to me being in an everlasting relationship with Touko Kirigaya. But no idea why Lyrical Lily are somewhat clingy with me...

Ah well, guess shit just happens. And besides, there is no god damn chance I'll involve myself in a harem!

As I look at everyone, many are dressed very nicely, which makes me feel a little ashamed that I just went out with my casual clothes, but at the same time, this one isn't really any fun for me, as I will be one of the unwilling performers on whatever sort of hell this will be.

Though a little eye catching is the fact that Haruna is very properly dressed up, even having make up on. Geezus, she did not pull back with looking her best for this murder show.

As we all begin walking, many talks amongst each other, while I don't have much to say myself. I often so talked with Touko and liked having her next to me...

"Hey senpai..?" Haruna asks me as I look to her.

"Yes, Haruna? And it's no worries just using my name, please." I tell her as she nods before looking around to everyone else and soon back to me.

"Mind if I walk next to you?"

"Well yeah, literally anyone is allowed to walk next to me, don't worry about asking, you know." I tell her as I shrug my shoulders as she very well keeps up with my steps to walk next to me.

I remain silent, and so does Haruna, continuing with casting glances at me which I spot from the corner of my eye. Not bothered by it though, she can just do whatever really.

I can understand that Haruna is having feelings for me, but unfortunately I cannot return those, as I seriously do not have the same feelings because well, my heart already belongs to someone else, and they gave their heart to me as well.

Nevertheless, I keep on being quiet, starting to hear increasing amounts of whispers from the band girls, all ranging from how they wonder how I am currently holding up to them asking each other what they actually think about me in general.

I don't even know why they should ask that, it's like some of them thinks they still have a chance with me. Well, guess both me and Touko will just say at one point that we are already very happy together, so none of the others get any funny ideas about me.

In the corner of my eye, I can see that Roselia are catching up with me, before Lisa looks at me, specifically my holstered beam katana.

"What's that thing, Stephan? I have never seen you go around with it until now." she asks me as I just shake my head.

"Sorry, senpai, but don't bother asking really about this. I will not answer anyways about it." I tell Lisa in a more blunt tone than usual, which makes her just nod before turning her attention back to her bandmates.

Better to just divert everyone's attention to my beam katana, or everyone will nag me about it.

Haruna is still looking a lot at me, almost locking her eyes on me for several seconds, before blushing and looking away. Geez girl, I am not that cute or attractive!

Sure, having some confidence in your appearances is good, but I already know for sure I don't compare worth shit to those goody two shoes that are handsome 24/7 and pulls in girls like a magnet.

I am no chick magnet, and never have thought the thought about that, but hey, guess at times it just happens.

At least I don't literally have everyone after me from when I day one begun on CiRCLE. It was just Touko the first day that found me cute, and then after our date and getting to learn more about me, she began falling in love with me, which I of course did back.

And now we are here, or well, she isn't here right now due to having been captured, so...

In either case, I am glad with Touko in my life, she is my everything after all, heh...

"Senpai, can I... hold your hand..?" Haruna asks me as I flinch a little, snapping back to what is currently happening.

"Yeah sure-"

"Oh wait, before we do that!" she says as she takes out a tube of disinfectant, clicking out a small amount in her hands, before throughly smearing it in so she won't have too wet hands. "You don't like germs after all, so I made sure to bring this with me. You can have some as well if you want to!"

I remain quiet, but I am... surprised she is really that dedicated as well to make sure I don't feel uncomfortable.

Well, alright, I already told her yes about that she can grab my hand, no way to get out of that now.

She very gently grabs it while blushing even more, heck, she is almost as red as the lipstick she is using, but nevertheless she keeps her cool, albeit a small smile spreads across her face.

I can't help but to let out a small chuckle as we all continue on, before finally getting to the theatre we are supposed to be at for this show.

There are of course the usual guard outside with their ticket punchers, and one by one, we walk inside. Though the guards casts a glare at me, which must mean these are working for the UAA, so they know fully who I am.

Yeah, I will show you really what I am once I take back my beloved from you!

We all have assigned seats inside the auditorium, so we all get seated. For some fucking reason, the UAA though it would be funny to have the sole empty seat, which was supposed to be occupied by Touko, right next to me.

Well, can't say much, better just see what happens in the next coming hour or minutes, depending on how long this will take.

Soon enough, the curtains part and the bigger curtain behind raises up, revealing the stage we are having in front of us right now. A lot of what looks like stuff you use for trick shows are present.

Thought almost it was going to be something more, but ah well, I am not here to watch this shit, I will be fighting whoever is the main host here.

"Ladies and the sole gentleman, please welcome Harvey!" a woman's voice says as this Harvey person with frilly looking clothes soon enters the stage with his assistants. Everyone claps except me and Chiyu, as we both know that this isn't just a normal guy who does trick; He is a bloody killer.

"Aah, thank you, thank you very much!" he says as he bows, before everyone goes quiet. "I am glad all of you have come here today to see my performance! Well, I think we shouldn't wait any longer and just bring out tonight's honorary guest!"

As he says that, the assistants runs backstage, before rolling out something. But once I see who is chained up, I tense up and almost immediately begin boiling.

Because on the X-like contraption, Touko is chained up, dressed up in a dress, and unconcious.

"Touko!" Many of the band and DJ girls say as they begin booing and telling Harvey to let her go.

"Aww, I thought all of you would love to see your friend up here!" Harvey sarcastically says before snapping his fingers, and a belt gets wrapped around everyone in the audience, except me. "Perfect, the naughty little boy is left! I've heard a lot about you, please come up on stage!"

I stand up as I feel all the girls looking at me, worried with what is about to happen.

Making my way out of the row I am seated at, I soon head up to the stage, furiously looking at Harvey. I soon look to Touko, feeling sorrow over seeing my beloved in such a bad state...

"I think you know why you are here!" Harvey says as he points to the audience. "And they will finally find out what you are!"

"Yeah... they will find out I am the greatest theater actor." I tell him, lying my best to not have the girls figure out what Harvey wanted to actually show, that being what I have been doing all this time since I first begun at CiRCLE.

"...Well, we'll see about that." Harvey says as he takes out to sabers, and readies himself.

"This will up my rank, but I am here for Touko, and only her, so get the fuck out of my way." I tell Harvey as I prepare my beam katana, deploying it as he chuckles.

"Determined, I like that. Let's kill!" Harvey says as we soon both get into a battle stance, with me being fully determined to get my beloved back.

"Sure thing, fuckface."

He begins with distancing himself some, before starting to run at me with his twin sabers, trying to strike me with them, but I block those strikes and soon hit him instead.

After quite some time of fighting, you get used to how your opponents works and what they usually aim for doing, but you gotta be aware that they have all sorts of tricks up their sleeves.

He seems to know some magic tricks, as sometimes he launches doves at me, making them fly at me, with some hitting me, and it actually hurts!

Guess their beaks aren't for nothing after all, but nevermind that for now, it's this asshole I need to focus on for now!

We continue clashing, with him occasionally throwing me off the loop with his magical tricks.

The girls, that are still stuck in their seats, warn me if Harvey is coming at me. They are my navigators in this, which certainly makes this fight easier to handle, even if I am sure they are saying it all because they believe this is an actual play.

Well, who is the dense ones now then, eh?

But even so, he is quite formidable, but guess that is given considering how I've mauled through a lot of assassins, so no way he won't try to have me killed for once; I ain't dying that quick anytime soon though!

No matter how hard he tries, he isn't able to hit me too much.

"Y-you are better than I thought you would be..!" he says as we continue clashing.

"Of course asshole, when someone puts the person that means the world to me, I get into the most fucking aggresive and feral state!" I yell at him as he grits his teeth, seemingly getting pissed that I am performing better because my beloved is at stake here.

Still clashing, I can see that Touko is waking up, before looking over at me and Harvey.

"S-Stephy!" she says, extremely happy to see that I am here at last.

She tries going away from the shackles, but is still stuck to them. So I kick Harvey in his scrotum, before rushing over to my beloved and slicing the locks up, causing her to become free.

"Run, Touko! I will handle the rest!" I tell her as she just simply nods before running backstage. "Wait, you could just... Oh, never mind, for now I need to beat your ass!"

I look to Harvey again, who is furious now as he rushes at me with his sabers, but I duck out of the way. Heh, the feats of being shorter than most human males.

As he is preparing to do another trick, I instead go for throwing my beam katana at him, a trick of my own really.

-music end-

With the beam katana thrown at him, it spins in the air, before hitting both of his eyes, slicing them and rendering him fully blind.

"Ah shit, I can't see! Who turned out the lights?!" Harvey yells out as he drops his sabers and frantically waves his arms around.

Touko emerges again, having switched over to her casual clothes, and quickly grabs onto my beam katana laying on the ground before hitting Harvey with the blunt side of it.

"This. Is. For. Making. My. Stephy. SAD. AND. ANGRY!" Touko says at every hit before she does a very hard blow to Harvey's head, knocking him onto the ground.

Both me and Touko soon grabs onto Harvey and puts him in the contraption instead, before rolling it under the big saw that was on the stage.

"Wait, are you-?! You can't do this, this is brutality!" Harvey yells as I begin shaking but Touko turns on the saw anyways, before grabbing onto me as the bigger curtain begins lowering down, just so not anyone gets to see the aftermath.

Touko holds closely onto me and covers my ears as well, though I can still hear Harvey let out a blood curdling scream from getting sawed in half.

"You had to, Stephy, don't worry..." Touko says to me, reassuring me that I shouldn't feel bad about this.

She soon looks to her bandmates and friends, all looking in confusion. Touko shakes her head, not wanting anyone to ask what had just happened.

"I can't... He barely put up a fight, I don't think he even-" I begin as Touko holds even tighter onto me.

She continues hugging me before I feel myself calming down, being able to contain the tears that almost began flowing out of my eyes. I still felt bad, but I had no choice, especially not when it came to my beloved...

I soon turn to everyone as well, which Touko does as well again, before I feel myself being nervous, but puts on a more confident expression.

"Thank you for seeing this play today!" I say as everyone seems to get very relieved, with Chiyu even doing a thumbs up to me for not revealing what I actually just did.

"What was the name of this play..? It... It was so romantic..!" Himari asks as both me and Touko look at each other before we think for a moment.

"Uuuh... It's called 'Romeo and Juliet fucking kills a bad guy in an off screen scene'! That's the name of it!" I tell Himari as Touko nods as well.

As everyone begins clapping, me and Touko bows for the applaudes, before she hugs onto me again and this time lays her lips against mine, with us sharing a passionate kiss, and an extra passionate one at that considering what has gone down today.

I am just glad this panick is over now, and my beloved is safe and sound and all happy once again.

Couldn't have asked for anything better...

"Hey Touko..."

"Yes, Stephy~?"

"I love you~"

"And I love you too, so, so much~!♡"

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☆☆ UAA RANKING LIST ☆☆

NO. 93:  ̶H̶A̶R̶V̶E̶Y̶ ̶M̶O̶I̶S̶E̶I̶W̶I̶T̶S̶C̶H̶ ̶V̶O̶L̶O̶D̶A̶R̶S̶K̶I̶I̶

NEW NO. 93: STEPHAN KLAUSCH

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To be continued :P