Daiki stood frozen. In front of him and his team was the giant humanoid thing that he and Takashi had met at Yua Fujisaki’s backyard. 

What now? He thought, Did we come up with a plan for this kinda situation? He tried to remember but his mind was blank. Everything was happening so fast. 

“High warden”, Bavaka bowed at the giant creature, “We’re bringing in a prisoner”

High warden??, Daiki wondered, So this guy is some high ranking officer??

The creature – the high warden – smiled with his crooked mouth. It was just like last time. Daiki couldn’t discern a thing about his face in the darkness. There were bioluminescent blocks attached to the prison walls in front of them, but they weren’t bright enough. 

“Ohhhh”, the high warden finally said, in his deep ringing voice, “Mmhmm”. He hummed and deepened his smile. Never spoke words. 

“High warden”, Bavaka said with her head down. Her demeanor has changed completely, “If you will.. We’d like to take the prisoner to his cell immediately”

“Hmmmm”, he repeated. 

Out of nowhere the high warden lifted his hand all the way up. And while in the air, it grew longer and longer, wider and wider. Until it was about a hundred meters in length. Then he brought it down – In one quick movement – and entrapped them in a giant prison of thick fingers. 

Daiki counted about six of them. They stood in all directions, trapping them in a circle. His heart was pounding. In Daiki’s mind, this was his end. He was about to die. 

“Zakuvo!”, Bavaka yelled just then, “Zakuvo, now!”

The bird hopped off Nolowi’s shoulder and before anyone could think, he grew bigger and bigger and bigger – until the prison couldn’t hold him in. Suddenly shards of the high warden’s fingers went flying. Zakuvo burst out, extending his wings and towered over everyone. Almost the same height as the high warden. 

“Arrrghhh!”, he groaned as his fingers burst into pieces, “Grrrrnnn”

The high warden embraced his shattered wrist. In pain he stumbled. But not even a split second later, it began to regenerate. Daiki watched it grow from the spot where it blew up. 

“Nolowi, now!!”, Bavaka commanded. Nolowi extended her hands towards the bioluminescent blocks on the prison walls and focused. 

“Hurry!”, Zakuvo yelled.

Nolowi’s eyes glowed in the dark. Like the two blocks, which then began to flicker. She strained and focused harder.

“Nolowi, hurry up!!”, Zakuvo yelled again.

“I’m trying!”

“Give her time”, Bavaka instructed and moved in front of the high warden. His hand was almost fully recovered as he prepared to fight. Bavaka’s vicious long tail whipped out from behind her. Zakuvo flapped his enormous wings. They braced for another attack. 

The two bioluminescent blocks sputtered spasmodically. Nolowi balled her fists, straining some more. Suddenly, they went out altogether.

“Whoa”, Daiki heard Zyc whisper. A sentiment he agreed with, as it was now completely and totally black. There was no light in sight whatsoever. It’s as if the two blocks were all that was keeping the courtyard and everything around them even slightly visible.  

The milly was nowhere in sight. He couldn’t even see the high warden. But he could certainly hear him. His giant footsteps moved closer in the dark – almost as loudly as Daiki’s heart beat. 

Can he see me??  Daiki closed his eyes and braced for the worst. 

Just then a great hand swept him and dragged him away. 

“Get your shit together”, Bavaka’s voice commanded sternly. Daiki sighed with relief as they swiftly made their way into the prison.

 

---

 

“How much longer is this gonna take?”, Botan asked impatiently.

“Dude, just give her some time.”, Asa said sternly. 

Botan scratched his head several times, looking around in angst. all around them was thick dark forest. Tall trees haunted them bearing vague mysterious shadows casted by the giant orb’s piercing light. And their leaves silently rustled with the occasional wind, whispering warnings. 

Himari sat by the edge of the crater. Daiki’s map rested on her lap. There were small red streaks on it and her fingers ran across them mindlessly. Old dried blood. Himari has her eyes closed. Her brows were furrowed. She was trying to concentrate. 

Asa and Botan sat on some rocks, a few meters away from Himari  and farther away from the orb. 

“We’ve been sitting here for hours! It’s..driving me crazy!”, Botan said, his fingers burying deeper into his hair, “Where is Daiki?? What is Himari-san even doing?? She’d been muttering Daiki’s name for the past few hours over and over again! Does any of this make sense to you??”

“Botan..”

“If it was really Daiki’s blood on that map, he must be dead somewhere! And we could have saved him if we had looked for him sooner!

“We looked!”, Asa snapped, “We called out for him and we looked everywhere. For hours! He didn’t answer. And we didn’t find him. Alright? None of this makes sense to me either but we gotta trust her. She’s all we’ve got right now.”

Botan scoffed. He stood up and began pacing back and forth, “She doesn’t know what she’s doing either, Asa. She doesn’t know that this telepathy thing will work for sure. How do we know that Daiki will hear her from wherever the hell he is??”

Asa sighed and rolled her eyes, “Look at me.”

“What?”

“Look at me.”

Botan looked at Asa.

“Do I look panicked?”

Botan raised an eyebrow, “No?”

“Do you remember the day that officer came to visit Himari-san?”

“Yeahh?”

“Did I panic then?”

“Yeah..?”

“Did you panic?”

“No..?”

“And what happened the next day?”, Asa asked blankly.

Botan hesitated, “H-he murdered two officers..”

“Exactly”, Asa pointed at herself, “I’m smarter than you are and my hunch is always right. And right now it says we shut up and wait for Himari-san to do her thing. Got it?”

Botan scoffed. She’s gotta be joking. But then his shoulders slowly slouched. His expression turned serious. And he sat back down.

“I just.. wanna know that Daiki is safe.”, he said defeatedly. 

Asa looked at him and sighed, “He’ll be fine. He always ends up fine.”

“We don’t know that. This whole thing.. for once it seems much bigger than Daiki, you know?”

“Yeah it’s too big for his idiot brain I know”, Asa agreed, glancing down at her shoes.

Botan exhaled, “He saved my life once..”

Asa looked at him curiously. She hadn’t heard this story. 

“He’s an idiot, but.. He’s our friend, Asa.”

She moved her eyes back towards her shoes. They were dirty and skinned. She remembered buying them with Daiki and Botan from a cheap roadside shop near uni one day. 

They’ve only met six months ago. Most of their time together was spent in classes, campus halls, clubs, and city streets. And more than half of that time, the three of them weren’t alone, bigger friend circles always accompanied them to lectures, study halls, city clubs, and mall outings. There was always room for small talk and talks about movies, tv shows, sports, and manga. But very little time for deep conversations. 

Asa hadn’t heard much about how Botan and Daiki met. Silently, she wondered if the three of them were really friends at all.

“Don’t worry”, she said to Botan emotionlessly, still fixating on her shoes, “he’s safe.”

 

---

 

Bavaka, Daiki and the others scurried about in the darkness. The two guards were now nowhere to be seen. Daiki took it that they probably escaped during the whole ruckus.. 

Following the courtyard, was a long hallway that led to a registering desk and the first level of cells. Outside, they could hear the high warden thrash around.

“What’s going on??”, Daiki whispered, “I thought he’d follow us”

“He would”, Bavaka whispered back, “If Zakuvo wasn’t keeping him occupied”

Chills ran all over Daiki. The hallway was dark but a light was slowly creeping in from the other end. On the far side, he could make out a large sleek black slate levitating. There was someone moving around with slate following them. 

“The registration desk”, Zyc said drawing everyone’s attention towards it, “Considering the commotion we’ve made, I don’t think we’d be needing that”

“What?”, Daiki asked, “What are you talking about?”

“Ssh!”, Nolowi hissed.

With the silence that fell new sounds emerged from the other edge of the tunnel. Unwelcome sounds. The sounds of footsteps. And they were all moving towards them. 

“Guards!”, Zyc hissed and disappeared.

The sound of heavy feet marching discordantly towards them got louder. Bavaka, Nolowi, and Zyc – although invisible – took their stances.

“Sshit!”, Bavaka cursed as dozens upon dozens of guards appeared on the other side of the hallway, “Nolowi”

“Yeah?”

“Zyc and I will take them. I need you to take Daiki and Jupong to the cell okay?”, Bavaka noticed that Daiki was still in shackles. She quickly uncuffed and unchained him. 

“What?? So you’re not coming??”, Nolowi demanded with panic.

“We’ll be right behind you”

“What if we run into more of them?”

“You’ll be okay, Nolowi”, Bavaka gave a reassuring glance, “You’ve got this”

“There they are!”, one of the guards, a bulky heavy type standing in front, yelled. Then a cacophony of garbled cries followed as the guards charged at Daiki and the others. 

“Zyc, you ready??”, Bavaka screamed amidst the noise. 

“Let’s just get this fucking over with”

The guards ran up against the group, their feet thundering above the cold floor of the hallway. Bavaka waved her arm and for a second, just a second, they stopped in their tracks. As if stunned by another enchantment technique. Then came Zyc’s barrage of invisible punches and kicks. 

Nolowi tried to make her way through the commotion. Silently. Sneakily. She pulled her shurikens out of her pocket and signaled Daiki to follow her. 

“Hey!”, Daiki heard one of the guards yell in their direction, “Where do you think you’re going??”

He marched towards them with his heavy feet. His big belly swung uncontrollably beneath his armor. Under his helmet Daiki could see two giant tusks protruding from his jaws. 

“Where do you think you’re going??”, he repeated, waving a giant mace-like weapon.

“Shit”, Nolowi cursed, “Get behind me”. Daiki complied and quickly ran behind her,
Jupong wobbling unsteadily on his back.  

The guard, now close, raised his mace, about to take a giant swing at them. “Take that!!”, Nolowi yelled. She threw a shuriken, buzzing with electricity, which landed on his neck. “Arrrrgh!”, he groaned, painfully.

“Watch out!!”, Daiki screamed as the mace thrashed in their direction. He put his hand on an extremely confused Nolowi’s head and they both ducked, “Oi focus!”, he yelled.

The guard, now dazed by shock, flailed about for a moment. Wildly, he pulled at the shuriken and threw it on the floor. Nolowi held out a hand and her star-shaped weapon buzzed towards her. Like a magnet. She caught it quickly and turned to Daiki.

“He’s stunned for a bit. Let’s go!!”

The two nimbly stepped away from their giant opponent and the rest of the ruckus. Daiki’s heart pounded loudly in his ears. He glanced for one last time at Bavaka and Zyc punching and kicking their way through the guards. The occasional light from Bavaka’s stunning techniques illuminated the crowd as they got farther and farther away. 

He’s closer now, Daiki thought over and over again, Takashi is closer. 

He looked about at other cells on the first floor. Bleak white rooms with small beds, separated from the rest of the world by heavy glass panels. Prisoners clad in white uniforms roamed around within their tiny little spaces. Most of them were not from Earth. They had weird shapes and colors on their bodies. Some looked like they belonged to an entirely different species than others. 

Some looked at Daiki with violent expressions on their faces. Some prisoners kept acting up, running around their cells confusedly. Some muttered to themselves. Some yelled at each other from adjoining cells. But then one lonely prisoner in a corner cell caught Daiki’s attention. He was the most humanoid among the lot and had dark black hair similar to Takashi’s. His skin was a weird grayish green – a color Daiki had never seen – and his cheeks had sunken under his dead eyes. He sat silently at the foot of his bed, fixating on the floor intensely as if there was a long passage with complicated words on it that had to be read. 

“This way!”, Nolowi said, dragging Daiki along by the arm. They ran towards a giant tower that wound itself into a spiral, in the middle of the floor, and cowered behind it.

Nolowi looked around vigilantly, as they snuck past the open lobby which seemed to hold minor criminals. They advanced both slowly and fast, hiding behind large objects and structures for a few seconds or minutes, and running fast to hide behind the next large object. 

“We have to get to the elevator”, Nolowi whispered as they hid behind the spiral tower. Daiki gazed at it and wondered what it could be. “Oi!”, Nolowi hissed, noticing his absent expression, “Daiki, just focus would you??”

Then they left the tower and began running again. Soon they approached a black narrow hallway with purple bioluminescent veins running across the walls and the floor. The path was flanked by more cells. Their white lights illuminated the dark pathway and casted faint shadows of prisoners moving about in them. 

There was a black door on the other side.

“That must be where the elevator is. Beyond that door”, Nolowi whispered.

It was strangely quiet. Daiki put his foot forward, about to take a step, when Nolowi stopped him. “Wait!!”, she hissed. 

“What??”

“There are motion trackers”

“What? Where?”

Nolowi’s eyes moved around fast, “Everywhere”

Daiki swallowed hard, “H-how can you tell?”

“Look at those”, she pointed at little black bugs on the walls. They were placed high, almost touching the ceilings. When Daiki squinted he could discern their small shapes against the black walls and ceilings. They looked alive. 

“A-are those.. insects?”

“They’re motion trackers”

“Are they alive??”

Nolowi raised an eyebrow, “Maybe. Depends on what you call alive. If they detect you they laser you to a crisp.”

“What?? Why do they have them in a random hallway??”

Nolowi shot a derisive glance, “For situations exactly like this. I’ve heard they can be switched on and off but..” she glanced behind them, “considering the current breach, they must have switched them on”

“We gotta test them. You said they’re motion trackers. Do you have the handcuffs?”

“U-uh yes I picked them up”

“Give me”

Nolowi quickly pulled them out and gave them to Daiki. He took a deep breath and threw them onto the path before them. And just like Nolowi had suggested the lasers activated. They shot at the cuffs and burned their surfaces. Nolowi and Daiki exchanged a look.

“It activated”

“It didn’t burn all the way through”, Daiki remarked.

“Well yeah they’re metal. They’re hard. But now we know that they’re on.”

“So how do we get past them?”

Nolowi looked around vigilantly to check if anyone was on their tail, “I remember Bavaka telling me about these things.. They track your speed and your sound. There’s a speed threshold they can track. If we move reeeally slow we might be able to do it but..” Nolowi glanced behind her again, “we don’t have time”

Daiki thought for a second, “We could try distracting them with sounds”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know.. we can like.. throw something.. and that’ll make a sound and the trackers would go off and we can escape during that time”

“That wouldn’t work. You saw them just now. They can detect something and burn it faster than we can take a step. I can’t electrocute them either. It wouldn’t fry them, they're tough as hell. I mean they shoot lasers after all.”. Nolowi’s eyes suddenly widened. She looked at Daiki – more like the lump on his back, Jupong.

“But he can help”, she said.

“Wait who?”

“Jupong”

“What??”

Jupong peeked out from under Daiki’s shirt collar, “Th-that won’t be p-possible”

“Hmm I was afraid you’d say that”

Daiki looked around clueless, “Oi Nolowi what are you talking about??”

“Jupong can release high frequency sounds. His screams can crush or break anything. We were gonna use it to break open your friend’s cell. Prison cell doors are extremely secured against nua. But Jupong’s scream is so powerful that it can even break the security nua.”

Daiki’s eyes grew wide, “So if he screams now..”

“..it’ll break the motion trackers. And no one would even hear because it’s a whole other frequency.”

“Oh my God! This is amazing! Let’s do it!”, Daiki buzzed like a child bubbling with excitement.

“But there’s one problem.”

“Oh no, what is it?”

“He can only use it once every five hours.”, Nolowi glanced pitifully at Jupong, cowering behind Daiki’s neck, “It takes quite a toll on him.”

Suddenly there were footsteps. Someone was coming. 

“Shit. Quick Jupong hide!”, Nolowi hissed.

She took out her shuriken. Daiki glanced around. Nowhere to hide. Nowhere to go. They only had two paths. One was in front of them, laced with motion trackers, and the other was quickly being encroached by footsteps. 

“What do we do??” 

Nolowi looked at Daiki, curiously,“I have an idea”

“What is it??”, Daiki demanded.

“I’ll tell you later”, she fished out a small kunai knife from one of her pockets and threw it at him, “Let’s fight them first”