Disclaimer: I do not own D. Grayman. I do not own No. 6.

Summary: Allen should have guessed something was up when Kanda started to dance with him and Shion can't understand why Nezumi refuses to take off his acting wig.

A/N 1: Story-line takes places vaguely sometime after Ep. 5.

A Case of Mistaken Identity

When Nezumi spotted him, it was near twilight with the dim evening light casting blue shadows everywhere, nighttime drawing ever ominously closer and yet there the featherhead was: wandering aimlessly down the ruined street, humming off-key under his breath, and seemingly oblivious to the dark figures lurking in the shadowed corners and alleyways as well as the numerous sets of eyes that peered hungrily from cracked, half-slit windows of the destroyed buildings.

"Idiot!" he yelled, catching up to him and clamping a firm hand down on his shoulder to spin him non-too gently around. "What did I say about going out so late? It's not safe!"

Shion appeared momentarily startled by his sudden appearance. Then a rather sheepish expression slid across his face as he apologized. "Ah, sorry! I couldn't help it. I know you told me to stay put, but I'm still curious about this place so—"

"How many times do I have to tell you that this place is full of disgusting, starved coyotes ready to sink their teeth into a tasty, clueless morsel like you?" Nezumi shouted throwing dagger-like glares every which way. He was gratified to see that the shady figures and staring eyes had tactfully retreated at his arrival. Good. So his reputation was still feared then despite the rumor of his claws not being so sharp anymore due to this new limpet he had somehow acquired.

A red bar of color had ignited in Shion's cheeks at his words though oddly enough now, his facial expression looked more irritated than embarrassed as it usually did.

"I appreciate your concern, but I think you're overreacting," he stated stiffly. "I may look frail, but you should know by now that I am more than capable of handling myself. I can fight just as well as you!"

"Che," Nezumi scoffed in disbelief. "Has all this unpurified air finally short-circuited your advanced brain? Don't go getting all cocky just because you picked up a few of my techniques!" Those street-fighting tips he had taught him were nothing more than cheap tricks to be used in self-defense so that he could escape before he was cornered like the little white mouse he was. "You wouldn't last one day out here without me to save your skinny hide!"

Shion was practically glowering at him now, his entire body trembling in barely restrained fury, all the blood rushing madly to his face. Nezumi felt a perverse thrill of glee shoot through him at the sight. He shouldn't like it—that Shion was angry at him—but the boy was always so conserved. Only on the rare occasions did he snap and when he did, it was a spectacular event of unbridled emotion.

Nezumi was almost disappointed when a faint scream cut through the night air, dispelling whatever outburst Shion had been about to make.

"What was that?" Shion asked casting anxious eyes about looking for the source.

"Leave it be, featherhead. Whoever it was should have known better than to go waltzing through this dump heap at night," Nezumi said with a pointed stare in the boy's direction so the message wouldn't be lost.

"F-f-featherhead?" Shion sputtered indignantly, his right eyebrow going off into twitching spasms as a vein popped out onto his forehead.

"Heh," Nezumi smirked turning in his heel. "Don't act so surprised. Your hair is as white as the fluff that's inside your head. Hurry up."

He heard the sound of Shion's boots crunching on gravel as he scrambled after him. "W-wait, where are we going?"

"If you feel like taking a nighttime stroll, then you'll just have to stick with me while I get the information I was after before I had to go off on a side-trail to rescue you."

Shion ground his teeth together agitatedly. "I told you I can fight—hey," the boy said halting so suddenly in the middle of his retort, the surprise in his tone making Nezumi turn his head towards him.

"What… what happened to your hair?" Shion asked looking startled, horrified and wistful all at once.

"Eh?" Nezumi said, reaching up one hand to touch his short-cropped pony-tail and finding nothing wrong with it. Did the boy think he had been working earlier? He never wore his acting wig off-stage though, the exception being that one time he had collapse mid-play and Shion had to carry him home, costume and all. He had been unconscious for a long time too. Perhaps he had developed a fetish for it in that period. "Missing it already, featherhead?" he stated slyly, stretching his lips into a smirk. "I didn't know you found it so appealing."

Shion's face exploded several, different shades of color: from white, to green, red, then purple almost as the boy bristled like an enraged porcupine and screamed at him, "I DO NOT FIND IT APPEALING AT ALL, SHORT OR LONG!"

Nezumi stepped deftly to one side as Shion strode past him and stalked off down the rubble-strewn, beaten path furiously. He chuckled inwardly and made a note to get the boy mad more often. He was really adorable that way.

Even if he was also clueless going off without any idea or sense of direction of where Nezumi was heading to gather information from.

But Nezumi decided not to point this fact out to the boy for another good five blocks, because he would be an idiot himself to miss an opportunity to ogle the featherhead's fine backside that was accentuating itself through his pair of tight black pants.

oOo

When the real Shion came across Nezumi he felt a cool wave of relief sweep over him. He had become worried when the other hadn't made it home in time for supper. He had waited for more than an hour, idly stirring the soup until slowly it had turned into a thick, pasty stew-like substance, all the while fighting an internal battle with himself whether not to go and look for Nezumi. After all, he had been given orders not to step foot out after dark… but he had been so worried. So he had scribbled a quick note explaining his absence if Nezumi happened to come back and discover him missing before setting off to find him, hoping fervently that nothing was wrong.

So he was more than happy to see that nothing was. That Nezumi was right there in front of him, only a few feet away, alive and in one piece.

Well, mostly.

"EEEEEEEVE-SAMA!" shrieked one of the older boy's rather obsessed middle-aged male fans as he flung himself at the actor in drunken enthusiasm. "I can't believe it's really you!"

"Baka oyaji!" Nezumi swore violently as he tried to disentangle himself from the arms now draped possessively over his shoulders and pawing at the long, flowing locks of his ebony hair. "GET OFF!"

"So meeeean, Eve-sama!" the man whined pursing his lips into a sulky pout. "It's so hard to get a ticket to one of your plays! I hardly ever get to see you perform! And now I have you all to myself, heehee! Ne, ne, give us a kiss!"

The man leaned in making wet smacking sounds with his lips… and in one swift motion Nezumi had smashed his hand into the guy's face palm upward, seized his wrist in a vice-like grip and threw him bodily over his shoulder, slamming him harshly into the ground.

Cold steel flashed wickedly in the moonlight as the tip of the blade Nezumi had drawn out from underneath his cloak touched the man's nose. "If I didn't desperately need information on this godforsaken place, you'd be dead right now," Nezumi sneered, his tone dripping thickly with venom.

Shion's breath hitched in his throat—Nezumi glanced up, a disdainful sound tumbling from his mouth when he saw him.

"Don't you dare tell me to go easy on this lecherous pervert, moyashi," he growled in warning."I am not in the mood to listen to another one of your long ramblings about the goodness of humanity!"

"A-a-amazing!" Shion breathed starry-eyed in awe.

"Eh?" Nezumi seemed to be taken off-balance at the comment.

"Wow, you totally immobilized him!" Shion exclaimed rushing to gaze down at the man held at sword-point. "And you didn't even hit any pressure points! You have to promise to teach me how to do that some day!"

"Have you gone crazy, moyashi?" Nezumi asked giving the man on the ground a vicious kick in the ribs with his boot. "Anyway, this baka oyaji is completely useless. The alcohol in his system has consumed what little common sense he had left."

True enough, the man's face was glowing a pinkish hue and his eyes were glazed over in a happy, sparkling fuzziness as he gazed up at Nezumi babbling incoherent sentences. "Eve-sama… so pretty… marry me…"

Nezumi gave a snort of disgust, whirled on his heel and began walking away. Shion had to run to keep up with his long strides.

"Didn't I tell you to stay put, baka moyashi?" Nezumi inquired shooting him a reprimanding glare. "We need to keep a low profile here and your old geezer hair makes you a target anywhere you go!"

"S-sorry," Shion stammered, his spirits sinking. He didn't like to upset Nezumi but it seemed like he always managed to do it unintentionally or not. "I was just worried about you…"

Nezumi let out a barking laugh at that. "I think you have gone crazy, moyashi. I hope it's not contagious. This whole place and all its inhabitants seem to be stark, raving mad just like that baka oyaji back there."

"Oh, but that was because of your hair!" Shion exclaimed noticing that Nezumi still had on his acting wig. Had he been late coming home because of work? The moonlight was gleaming off the long raven strands giving them blue highlights. No wonder the man had lost his composure. "Are you going to leave it like that?"

Nezumi paused mid-gait appearing to take this into consideration. "Yes, it does seem to attract undesirable attention here, doesn't it?" he agreed swiftly stringing it into a high pony-tail on top of his head.

Shion blinked.

"Got something in your eye, moyashi?" Nezumi asked furrowing his brow at the other's behavior.

"Oh, um, nothing," Shion said diverting his gaze quickly. If Nezumi wanted to wear his acting wig then he shouldn't question him about it. For all he knew Nezumi was doing this to get a rise out of him on purpose for his own amusement. He even had made up another annoying nickname for him. Well, he wasn't going to take the bait this time.

"Che," Nezumi scoffed continuing forward. "Let's head back. I don't think we'll get any information out of anyone tonight. Everyone seems to have conveniently vanished off the face of this town."

That's because you frighten people, Shion thought his forehead breaking out into a slight sweat. Was Nezumi looking for information again? What for? In any event, it was odd that he hadn't found anything at all.

"What about Dogkeeper?" he couldn't help but ask. "Doesn't she know anything?"

"Eh?" Shion winced as Nezumi leveled piercing, disapproving eyes at him. "So you've been going off and chatting up people behind my back while I was away now too, moyashi?"

"T-t-there's nothing wrong with talking to people!" Shion protested feebly. "And it's not like Dogkeeper's a stranger!"

"Moyashi's making friends with the local natives already, what a surprise," Nezumi stated mockingly. "That careless, naïve, trusting attitude of yours will get you killed one day."

Shion winced. Nezumi had often told him that he was too soft to live the cruel existence of an outcast of city No. 6, and he had proved him right on more than one occasion.

"Don't just stand there looking all useless. Take me to this Dogkeeper you mentioned," Nezumi ordered tersely.

So's going to play dumb? Shion thought frowning slightly. He really didn't like it when Nezumi played these types of games with him, but he supposed he might actually deserve it this time since he had disobeyed the older boy's rules for him not to go outside at night. He could have gotten mugged, beaten or worse. The town outside the walls of No. 6 was a truly hazardous place to survive.

"Ah, this way," Shion motioned to him, swallowing his punishment with a feeling of degradation, his feet treading upon the now-familiar way to Dogkeeper's hotel.

They walked alongside each other in silence for a while before Shion spoke up hesitantly.

"I… I really was worried," he said softly, voicing his concern from earlier.

"Che… baka moyashi," was the only response he received, though when he darted a quick glance at Nezumi, his body posture seemed to have grown a lot calmer and his mouth was no longer pressed into a firm line.

Shion was beginning to think his new nickname might be Nezumi's way of stating several things, one of which was I was worried about you too.

oOo

It had been a hassle for the real Nezumi in retrieving the information he needed out of Dogkeepr. The wretched girl had been more interested in trading information than selling.

Information, my ass, Nezumi thought darkly. More like juicy tidbits of gossip she can spread around.

"Oi, Nezumi, I'll give you all the info you desire free of charge for the next three months if you answer these questions," Dogkeeper had generously offered curving her lips into a crooked, crocodile grin. "One: do you use him as model pin-up whenever you're making a new dress for your next play, and I'd ask who tops or bottoms except that your little pet is so pathetically cute and docile that's a no-brainer, so two what position do you like to take him in best?"

She had still been laughing hysterically even when Nezumi had pinned her against the wall for the umpteenth time at knife-point. She spilled everything he needed to know in the end, even if had been between bouts of near deranged cackling. She should be grateful he had the decency to still pay her fee for the information. It certainly hadn't been out of the pure goodness of his heart—it had been because Shion would have been disappointed in him if he hadn't.

"Oi, Nezumi…" she had said quietly as he was leaving. She was sitting in a crouched position on the floor, her back leaning against the dry-rotted wall, and her expression had gone quite blank. "Do you ever sing for him too?" she had asked in a hushed whisper. "Not because someone has died, not because you're being paid for it. But do you sing just for him... just because you're happy he's with you?"

He hadn't answered of course. It was none of her business. None whatsoever.

His private life was his alone.

No… he thought as he stepped out into the crumbled courtyard of the hotel where Shion was waiting by the fountain cooing in soft undertones as he gently stroked the downy fur of one of Dogkeeper's pups. My private life is mine and…

"Ah, so adorable!" Shion crooned, his face lighting up happily as the pup licked his fingers. The boy turned his head and gave a small wave his direction before returning his attention back to the small ball of fluff in his lap which rolled over so he could better scratch its tubby belly.

A possessive spark of jealousy burned within him at the sight. It was insane that he should feel envious of an animal, but it was an animal that now held all of Shion's attention. Attention he should give only to him.

"You've gone soft. The one with something to protect always loses," Dogkeeper's words echoed in his head.

"Don't get too attached, featherhead," Nezumi warned him, walking over to rap his knuckles lightly over the boy's white hair. "Half of those mewling things won't survive their first month."

Shion frowned at him setting the pup on the ground and standing up to face him. "Why must you always be so pessimistic?" he demanded.

Nezumi bit down on his lower lip to keep himself from grinning. "You know…" he drawled out slowly, closing in to the other boy so that their faces were a few hairs-breaths away from each other's. "You've been particularly argumentative tonight, not your usual cute, polite self at all."

"Huh?" Shion looked baffled as if he had expected a different response.

"Not that I mind much," Nezumi shrugged, lifting one hand to run through the boy's silky, white locks. "It's quite refreshing actually."

Now Shion was looking downright nervous. Like a snow hare caught fast in a hunting trap. Oh, that was delicious.

"Your claws aren't so sharp anymore. You're not the same person you used to be," Dogkeeper's voice continued to roll about the inside of his skull in a gleeful mantra.

I'm really not, Nezumi thought. Otherwise, I would never be doing this.

"Oi, featherhead," he said out loud, his voice shattering the silence of the night. "Let's dance."

"W-w-what?" was all Shion had time to squawk in astonishment before Nezumi had closed one hand around his wrist, slid the other around his waist, and started to lead them both in wide circles about the courtyard.

"Pick up your feet, slowpoke, you're pulling down our momentum," Nezumi chided.

"What do you think you're doing? Have you gone mad? Stop!" Shion screeched sounding frantic as he tried to disengage their clasped hands as he was dragged unwillingly along.

Nezumi knew he shouldn't be doing this: dancing in full view of any of the tenants who happened to glance out of their window to the courtyard below. Word would spread like wildfire; his ice-cold reputation would be in doubt… but then who would really believe the idle word mongering of a few drunken, half-asleep hobos?

And besides, he couldn't stop even if he wanted to. Not with Shion making little sputtering noises of dissent and the redness of his face contrasting starkly to his pale hair. It was making his pulse race unnaturally fast.

"That's not very graceful to insult your dancing partner like that, but then your dancing isn't exactly graceful either… or elegant," Nezumi added as afterthought smirking at the boy's enraged expression.

A dangerous glint had sparked in Shion's eyes at his clipped insult… his eyes…

"You want to dance, do you?" Shion said, the challenge in his tone slicing through the odd train of thought Nezumi's mind had started to travel. "Alright, let's dance."

The slow pace they had been twirling to suddenly sped up to a capering, charged tempo as Shion abruptly took the reins and switched their dancing style from a waltz to a quickstep.

"Hahaha!" the white-haired boy cackled in satisfaction as Nezumi was thrown temporarily off-balance, stumbling over his own two feet. "Who's the slowpoke now?"

"Don't play games you have no chance in hell of winning," Nezumi warned with a deep furrowing his brow.

From then on out it was a contest to see who possessed the most stamina as the two gyrated wildly all about the courtyard with absolutely no sense of rhythm whatsoever accidentally banging knees and stomping on each others' feet, listening to music that only they were able to hear before finally coming to a halt in front of the water fountain, both of them red-faced and breathing quite heavily in exertion.

"You continue to surprise me, featherhead," Nezumi said, grinning despite himself.

"Ah, you too, ever since we got here," Shion agreed eyeing him almost dubiously. "Not that I mind the change, but what's gotten into you?"

"Well, what's gotten into you?" Nezumi asked. "You act like we've never done this before. You didn't seem to mind it the first time."

Shion blinked as if he had said something extremely odd then his eyes flew wide open as if seeing him for the first time.

"See something you like?" Nezumi smirked, taking a step closer and leaning down so that their foreheads were touching.

"You… you… you're—" Shion stuttered floundering for words. His hand that was still clasped in Nezumi's own was shaking and sweaty.

"I'm a rat," Nezumi said coolly tightening his grip. "And rats steal things so you shouldn't let down your guard."

Any verbal response that the white-haired boy made was swallowed up by the set of lips that pressed themselves over his own in a bruising, dominant kiss.

oOo

"Dogkeeper!"

Yawning, Dogkeeper glanced over her shoulder down the staircase where the shout had come from. She was greeted with the now-familiar sight of Nezumi and his oddball limpet crossing the rubble on the floor that was the hotel lobby and heading her way.

"You again? What do you want now?" she demanded crossly placing her hands on her hips. "The amount of time you spend here is ridiculous. You might as well be customers! I should start charging!"

"Moyashi here says you can give us the right information," Nezumi said grounding to a stop at the foot of the staircase and gazing suspiciously at her. Perhaps, he thought she would sic her pack of dogs on him again.

"Moyashi?" Dogkeeper guffawed amused, raising her eyebrows. "Oh, that's a good one! I like that better than featherhead! Hahaha! But seriously, you already forgotten the information I gave you earlier? You're losing your mind as well as your claws, Nezumi!"

"Who are you calling a rat, inubaka?" Nezumi shouted wrathfully.

"Oh, I'm sorry, maybe I should call you Eve-sama instead," Dogkeeper giggled insanely as she noticed that sometime between his departure and his re-arrival, Nezumi was somehow acquired his acting wig and was wearing it in a pony-tail quite proudly.

"That name…" Nezumi roared his countenance darkening dangerously as he drew out a sword from underneath his cloak. "That name! I'll kill you!"

Chaos exploded.

Dogkeeper was laughing uproariously clutching her ribs, Nezumi was swearing up a storm, fighting his way through the protective pack of dogs that were snarling and snapping at him as he tried to get to her and the featherhead—no, moyashi—was tugging frantically on the material of his cloak pleading for him to stop.

It should have been difficult for anything louder than a scream to be heard above all the racket, yet somehow the loud squeaking managed to anyway.

"Cravat!" Shion exclaimed as the small honey-brown mouse scurried up his pants leg, torso and onto his shoulder. He let go of Nezumi's cloak without warning.

Nezumi toppled over face-first into the floorboards with a resounding crash.

The dogs leaped forward ready to seize their chance but Dogkeeper held them at bay with a shrill whistle. She wasn't ready to witness the demise of Nezumi just yet. He would be destroyed in the end by his own hand or the featherhead's. Either way, his death wouldn't be on her conscience.

"Baka moyashi!" Nezumi growled springing upright on his feet swiftly, a red mark rising on his forehead.

"Quiet!" Shion shushed him as cupped the palms of his hands together so that the small mouse could crawl down into them. "Cravat's trying to tell us something!"

"A girl who runs a hotel full of dogs, people mistaking me for a woman, and now the moyashi thinks he can talk to mice," he heard Nezumi mutter to himself under his breath. "This world does make people go crazy."

"Just so you know," Dogkeeper couldn't resist saying vindictively. "It's not that hard for people to mistake you for a girl especially when you wear your hair like that."

Luckily, Shion managed to decipher Cravat's energetic squeaks in time before any blood had time to be shed.

"He wants us to follow him outside!" he cried as the mouse jumped out of his hands to the floor and scampered in the direction of the back courtyard. "Come on!" he waved to them rushing after the small rodent.

Dogkeeper convinced herself it was out of sheer, morbid curiosity that she did as told.

She smirked when she saw Nezumi fall into her footsteps out of the corner of her eye, keeping a wary distance from the dogs that surrounded her.

Her amusement vanished when stepped outside and began doubting her own senses. Rubbing at her eyes, she blinked certain she was seeing double.

"Eh?" she gaped glancing back and forth between the Nezumi and Shion in front of the water fountain and the Nezumi and Shion standing next to her. "W-what's going on?"

The Nezumi and Shion beside her appeared as equally shocked as she did, however the two in front of the water fountain hadn't yet noticed their doppelgangers' arrival. That could be because the two were immersed in a deep, lip-locked kiss that was only broken by a small golden ball with wings bursting out of the other Shion's coat pocket and chomping down on the other Nezumi's nose with a miniscule set of vicious, needle-pointed teeth.

The other Nezumi gave a pained howl and stumbled away batting frantically at the foreign object attached to his face.

"Timcampy!" the other Shion shouted in alarm rushing after the other boy who was zig-zagging backwards every which way in blindly. "Timcampy, let go right this instant! That isn't nice!" he scolded, getting a hold of the tiny golden ball's tail and giving it a strong tug igniting another painful howl from the other Nezumi as the thing was ripped away from his nose tearing small scraps of skin.

"Ah, sorry, so sorry!" the other Shion apologized bowing several times in quick succession as he kept a firm grip on the small golden ball that was struggling to escape his hands and hissing menacingly at the other boy. "That's just my golem, Tim. He's a bit overprotective. He must have thought you meant me harm, that's all."

"You… you… you're not Shion!" the other Nezumi declared looking a bit dazed, pointing at him with one hand covering his nose.

"Ah, no," the white-haired boy admitted sheepishly. "My name's Allen."

"And you're not Nezumi!" the Shion on Dogkeeper's right proclaimed pointing at the person he had been accompanying all night.

The Nezumi with the longer hair—not a wig at all like he had thought—remained silent, his eyes hidden beneath the shadows of his bangs, however a foreboding, sinister-feeling aura appeared to be emitting from behind him.

"Ah, Kanda, there you are!" Allen waved to him finally noticing the audience and not seeming the least bit disturbed that they had just seen him being kissed, of which two pairs of people possessed scarily similar features and personalities.

"Oi, Nezumi, was it?" Kanda said at last, his tone overflowing with malice but his expression quite stoic as he unsheathed his sword and pointed it at his doppelganger. "You're fucking dead."

Dogkeeper decided she might have been wrong. Perhaps Nezumi wouldn't be destroyed by his own hand or the featherhead's at all. Maybe it would be his evil clone's handiwork instead she thought to herself, enraptured at the spectacle of two Nezumi look-alikes clashing steel and spewing out curses at each other that would make a sailor blush with shame while the two Shion copies engaged in casual conversation to the side.

"Oh, are you a survivor like me?" Shion inquired in a hushed manner as he traced his finger delicately over the red pentacle and scar that was emblazoned over Allen's left eye.

"You were cursed too?" Allen cried brushing his thumb briefly over the pinkish-red mark that began on Shion's left cheek and wound itself around his neck where it disappeared out of sight down the collar of his shirt. "What happened?"

A few short minutes later…

"So," Allen said summarizing everything that had just been explained to him to make sure he understood the circumstances. "The citizens of No. 6 are slowly being killed off by an unknown disease where they grow these black marks on their skin before turning grey, shriveling up into a mummified state and dying?"

"Yes," Shion confirmed.

"Do you realize what this means?" Allen exclaimed quivering all over in anticipation.

"Well, no, that's what we're trying to find out—"

"KANDA, WE HAVE AN AKUMA INFESTATION HERE!"

"Now look what you've gone and done, baka moyashi number two! He's all riled up!"

"Don't call Shion an idiot beansprout, you pony-tailed, samurai-wannabe reject!"

"You! I've had to endure marriage proposals from half a dozen drunken slobs on the way here all because they mistook me for their precious Eve-sama! I'm going to cut your head off and mount it on spike for all your admirers!"

Best. Memory. Ever, Dogkeeper thought curving her mouth into a lop-sided smile.

Timcampy flew by everyone's line of vision beating his small wings leisurely as Cravat clung by his forepaws to the golden golem's tail squeaking in delight.

To Be Continued…

A/N: So yeah, I recently watched No. 6. And yes, I am one of the many who started to watch it purely on the basis that the two main characters on the show look startlingly like Allen and Kanda. Then of course, the fanart crossovers didn't help much. I had to write this. My muse demanded it. So it was only gonna be a one-shot, but heck, I enjoyed this so much, I'm gonna write a second part! XD If you're wondering how Allen and Kanda came from DGM to No.6's universe, it will be explained in the next segment, but to those who have guessed, yes, Road's Dimensional Door has something to do with it.

Pshaw, I'm sure all of you understood the pitiful, butchered Japanese I made Kanda spew out. But here's a translation guide anyway:

Moyashi: beansprout

Baka: idiot

Oyaji: old man

Inubaka: dogidiot

Dogkeeper… it's driving me crazy. Is s/he a boy or a girl? I think deep within me, that s/he's probably a boy because her/his chest is flat and this is an anime and they like to mess with people's minds as well as make characters' sexualities ambiguous and their genders androgynous. But I wrote her as a girl because her art style and personality remind me of Katara on Avatar when she's in Sugar Queen Bitch Mode. I'm dying for Toph to meet her/him! X3

I hope it wasn't too confusing on who was who. I made the viewpoints completely from Nezumi and Shion's view this chapter so it was more fun that way. I did try and make it obvious on which Nezumi and Shion were real and fake by their personalities which I hope I got right. I'll try and make it Kanda and Allen's viewpoint next time so you can see what happened to get them here, but the basic gist of it, is yes, Kanda was scouting for information on this place they got warped to and Nezumi was gathering information for whatever as usual (I sometimes think of him sort of like a down-graded version of Hiruma on Eyeshield 21 the way he goes about this—blackmail potential for future usage trolololol), and both Shion and Allen were told to stay put because yes, their hair and red marks do make them stand out too much. As for neither Nezumi nor Kanda to notice the difference in their marks… well, it was night and it was dark and it's not like the town is using neon lights more like kerosene lanterns, so yeah…

And the moral of the tale, dear readers, is: all the confusion could have been avoided if everyone hadn't insisted on shameless nick-name calling, wahahahaha! XD

P.S. Totally was listening to Tangled's "Kingdom Dance" while writing the dancing scene. Pffftt!^^

I hope you have enjoyed reading this! Please review and share your thoughts and favorite scenes. I love hearing what you liked best and it's the only reward a fanfic author gets. I like knowing what my readers think and feel. Thank you!^^