“What do you mean I can’t go back to Urica!?”

“That’s what your superiors have decided. If you try to leave on your own then we’ll have to take everything of yours.”

“Fine!”

The young man walked out in anger and slammed the door behind him. He was usually a calm and collected person but he was outraged at the situation. His girlfriend in Urica was in danger and he couldn’t contact her which made his worries escalate even further. She was the love of his life and he would sacrifice his career to be with her but he couldn’t risk it yet.

If he was to die then he wouldn’t be able to find her. Reading between the lines of his superior, he could tell that they were ready to take drastic measures to keep him from leaving Japon. They wouldn’t want him escaping and leaking any of his research to the outside world.

“How did it go, Tom?”

“Not good, they’ve decided to contain me here. I’m going to need your help, Gary.”

“Ok, I’ll see if I can get help from my father.”

Tom sighed with relief as Gary began making his phone call. This past week was the most stressful week he’s ever been through. His girlfriend, Lisa, had stopped contacting him which made his anxiety reach its peak. It was fine for the first few days since it wasn’t unusual for Lisa not to contact him for a few days but then a week passed by.

The only reason for Lisa to not contact him for an entire week was either she was mad at him or she was in danger. Tom had automatically crossed out the first option because he was sure that he had done nothing to anger her. The dread grew within him as the possibility of the second option being true grew as the days passed by.

Tom was glad to have someone like Gary as a friend. In a country where his language wasn’t fluent, he was glad that he had someone that could speak English. In their research team of a hundred or so, only a few people could speak English so they all quickly bonded over that.

Although Gary spoke English, it was different from Tom’s Urican English. Gary’s full name was Gary Euctan and he is half Japonese and half Ritish but he was raised in Ritan so English was his main tongue. This didn’t mean his Japonese wasn’t as good though, he was fluent in both languages because of his family lineage. Both his mother and father were of noble lineage and neither of their families wanted him to only learn one language.

“I’ve got the directions, Tom. Just give me a second.”

“Thanks, Gary. You’ve been a great help.”

“It’s fine, I wouldn’t want to be in your position either. I can’t even bear the thought of my fiancee being in danger. Speaking of my fiancee, when are you going to propose to Lisa?”

“Both of us aren’t ready yet. We’ve decided to put a hold on marriage for now since we still want to pursue our careers.”

“I see. Are you really serious about building a giant robot?”

“Yes.”

“Hahaha, good luck, Tom. Here you go.”

Gary handed Tom a piece of paper and they both went their separate ways. Even though Gary was trying to be nice, Tom could see that he didn’t believe that Tom could achieve that dream. Most people didn’t believe him but only one person in this entire world believed that he could achieve it.

“I’ll find you, Lisa.”

With determination, Tom headed back for his office. He couldn’t act out or others would be suspicious of him.

“You’re quite a mystery, aren’t you?”

Tom held up a blue rock and the light shined through it. Earlier in the morning, this material had been brought in and they were asked if they could build robots with it. All of the scientists, including Tom, were stumped at this material they brought in. The color of the rock was a light blue color but besides that, they couldn’t figure out any other uses for it. All of its properties suggest that it was an ordinary rock but for the government to personally deliver it to them, there had to be a special property to this rock.

The hours passed by and Tom still couldn’t figure out what the rock could be used for. It was already night time so he left his room and the hanger. Tom should have been all alone in the night but he could feel someone watching him. He hurried his pace and from a distance, he could hear footsteps, someone was following him.

‘I see, they already sent someone after me.’

Ten minutes passed by and Tom entered his apartment which was on the third floor. He locked the door but he wasn’t done yet, one lock, two locks, three locks. After the sixth lock, Tom went over to his computer and turned it on. The image on the screen was of his front door and the hallway leading to his room. At the corner of the room, two men were looking around the corner, they were observing his apartment.

Tom continued to watch them but eventually stopped caring about them. The two men didn’t seem like they were going to do anything and he had already prepared a countermeasure against them. As long as they don’t bother him then he won’t bother with them. He had more important things he had to worry about.

Laying down on his bed he began to think about Lisa. Even though it's only been a week, it felt like it was ages since he heard her voice. Her sweet voice and fun attitude was something he missed very much. If she died then he wouldn’t know what to do with his life. Countless scenarios of what could happen to Lisa began to take over his mind.

‘Is she fine? What if she hurt herself? Is she burdening herself with unnecessary problems? That girl is way too nice for her own good but that’s something I love about her. Please be alive, Lisa.’

An alarm clock starts going off and the sunlight burst through the curtains of Tom’s room. The night had passed by without any incident but Tom hadn’t gotten any sleep at all. These past few days he’s been too worried about Lisa’s well being to sleep properly. Looking at his own face in the mirror, there were dark circles under his eyes.

Tom washed his face and dressed casually before heading out of his apartment. Looking at the note in his hand, his destination was quite far away. The moment he exited the apartment complex, he could already feel someone watching him.

Tom walked down for quite a while but his pursuers continued to follow. Looking through the reflection of his watch, he could tell that it was two men following him last night. Tom rejoiced as it was only two, if there were more than it would have been a lot harder to escape. This city was his home turf, in the few years he has lived here, he has explored every knock and cranny in case of a situation like this.

Tom knew how valuable his skills were so he had prepared for the day when other organizations were going to come after him. It was early in the morning so there weren’t that many people up but there’s one place that’s busy in the morning.

The smell of fish wafted over Tom as he entered the fish market. People were delivering fish, selling fish, and even buying fish, it was just as busy as he remembered it. He began to converse with the people selling their fish.

“Can you help me?”

“What’s wrong, kid? Are you in trouble?”

“Those two men over there have been following me. Can you help me get away from them?”

The middle-aged man agreed to help Tom and began talking with the other fisherman in the area. Eventually, the fisherman made a plan to distract the two people following him.

“Hey, you two look like you want some fish. Come on over and try our bass.”

“Get out of here Takashi, your fishes aren’t fresh at all. You have to buy ours, we caught them this morning.”

“Not today, we’re just here to look.”

The two men tried to work their way through the crowd but the fishermen didn’t let them. They grabbed both of them and dragged them on over to their stalls before trying to sell their fish. The first middle-aged man turned towards Tom and gave him a thumbs up. Tom thanked them before hurrying out of there.

After escaping from the fish market, Tom rode the train and headed for the address written on the note. It was two prefectures away and after switching trains many times, he finally made it but his journey still wasn’t done. After asking around, he was able to figure out where the town he needed to head towards was. Multiple bus rides later and he arrived at a rural town.

Countless green fields spread all across the ground and he could see the workers tending to them. Most of the workers were old grandmas or grandpas which made the ruralness of this town even more apparent. Kids were playing with sticks, cats and dogs freely roaming the streets, and not a single skyscraper in sight. It was a quaint town but Tom didn’t mind it, he would love to live in this kind of town with Lisa when they’re older.

The first thing Tom had to do was to find this Crows organization that Gary had told him about. Crows was an organization that raised bodyguards and spies for centuries throughout Japon’s history. Nobles and even the royal family had relied on the Crows help throughout history but no matter how much research Tom did, he couldn’t find a single trace of them. When he searched Crows on the internet, only pictures of crows or artists would show up. Even when he went to the library to try and find more information, he couldn’t.

It was a secret organization that only the very rich knew about. Gary only knew of this organization because his mother’s side of the family were nobles from Japon.

Tom needed the help of Crows because he wanted someone to go to Urica and find Lisa. He couldn’t trust this task to any regular person and wanted the help of a professional, that was how much he valued Lisa. No matter the price, he was willing to pay.

Everyone was friendly and approachable but none of them had any information about Crows. Even Gary’s note only said that Crows reside in this town but not where it was.

“Hey, kid. Do you anything about Crows in this city?”

“Crows, like the bird?”

“Yeah, anything at all, even if its a drawing or something.”

“Oh yeah, at the edge of the town there’s this drawing of a crow on a wall.”

“It’s not a crow, it’s a fish!”

“No, it’s a crow! If it’s not a crow then it’s at least a bird!”

The two kids began arguing whether it was a fish or a crow, but this was the first clue Tom found. He walked towards the direction the kids pointed him in and he found the wall they were talking about. It was a wall from one perspective but to Tom, it looked more like a large pedestal.

Looking around the pedestal he found the carving of the crow. He could understand the two kids' confusion when looking at the image. From one angle it looks like a bird but from another, it looks like a fish. Although he found it, Tom didn’t know how this would help him find the Crows organization. He sat down and began analyzing the image.

“Is its feet pointing towards the forest?”

Tom didn’t know whether it was true or not but he had to bet his chances on it. He entered the forest and continue down the direction the crow’s feet were pointing. That was when he found another image of the crow carved onto a tree. It looked exactly like the other image but the feet were pointing in a different direction. If one wasn’t careful then they would have never noticed the slight differences.

Time passed and the sun was starting to go down. Tom had spent a few hours walking around the forest but he couldn’t find anything. He started questioning whether his theory of the crow’s feet was wrong. Since he wasn’t making any progress, Tom decided to take a short rest.

“Who are you and what are you doing here?”

A figure wearing black appeared out of thin air and held his blade against Tom’s throat. Their garb looked like something that a ninja would wear to hide. Tom’s body began to sweat at the danger he was in but he calmed himself.

“My name is Tom Ray and I’m here on the recommendation of the Euctan family.”

“Who recommended you?”

The blade was press closer towards Tom’s throat and a drop of blood spilled out. Tom was calm though, Gary had written down the necessary procedures on the note.

“Gary Euctan, the second son of Luger Euctan and Yukari Hono. His fiancee is Azuno Agamine and they’ve been engaged since birth. No one other than their families should know of this engagement but I’m a close friend of Gary and he’s personally told this to me.”

The person in black was silent and couldn’t respond right away.

“W-we’ll see if you’re telling the truth.”

Tom’s arms and legs were bound and he was blindfolded. Tom didn’t resist and soon enough the sound of the wind passing by swished through Tom’s ears. He was being carried away but this ninja in black was eerily quiet. Tom couldn’t even tell whether they were moving or not, there weren’t any sounds of branches being moved or leaves being stepped on.

The only indication of them changing locations was that a sudden light lit up the darkness from the blindfold. The sound of a door sliding open could be heard.

“Master, this man claims to be here on the recommendation of the Euctan family.”

Tom was thrown onto the ground and his blindfold came loose. In front of him was an old man with a head full of white hair. Although his hair was white, he didn’t look like a feeble old man at all. He was a giant that was at least seven feet tall and his muscles bulged like an Olympic powerlifter who has trained their entire life. Tom had never seen someone so imposing before.

“Nice to meet you, my name is Tom Ray. I’m here on the recommendation of Gary Euctan, the second son of Luger Euctan and Yukari Hono.”

“You goddamn idiot!”

The old man suddenly walked over and slapped the ninja in black. Tom watched in surprise as the old man scolded the ninja in black. The old man helped him up after scolding the ninja in black.

“I’m so sorry for how my disciple has treated you. He’s still in training so please forgive him.”

“You believe me?”

“Yes, I can tell that you’re telling the truth.”

Tom’s restraints were taken off but he couldn’t keep his eyes off of the old man. If he was in the ninja in black’s position then his reaction would have been the same. He would be suspicious of a stranger coming into the forest and using the name of a noble. The old man turned and began walking back inside without a single doubt on Tom’s identity.

“Come, let’s talk inside.”

Tom followed the old man while the ninja in black stayed outside. The room he was taken into was lit up by a few torches and the ground was made out of tatami mats. It was like he was in an old historical Japonese movie and he was about to meet with the emperor.

“Sit down.”

Tom sits down in front of the old man. What surprised Tom the most was that there were already two cups of tea served, it was like he already knew that Tom was coming.

“Nice to meet you, Tom Ray. My name is Gin Gorildo.”