The footsteps got closer and closer. Soon enough, three guards appeared from the corner. Nolowi sighed – a very frustrated, hopeless sigh. 

Bavaka, Zyc, where are you guys..?? She wondered. 

“Well, well look what we’ve got here”, one of the guards – the only remotely human-looking one among them – stepped forward. 

“Excuse me, were you gonna cross the laicon corridor?”

He pointed at the motion tacker laced hallway. Nolowi and Daiki followed his gesture with bewilderment. Laicon corridor? 

“Cause if you were, then don’t let me interrupt you. Go on right ahead”, he and the other two guards burst out laughing. He had sort of a sinister laugh. Almost devilish with two sharp canine-like teeth and mean eyes. 

Daiki looked at him. Like Nolowi with her pastel pink, this one too had an abnormal skin tone – a strange grayish green. Where have I seen it before?

“L-let us go and no one will get hurt, alright?”, Nolowi threatened. 

The guard faked a shudder, “Woo! Scary. Is the stutter a part of your act?”.

They laughed again. “Good one, Kyllis”, another guard added.

“Fine, We’ll let you go”, he said cheerily

Nolowi and Daiki exchanged glances.

“F-for real?”

“NO, silly..sike!”

With that Kyllis quickly bent down and touched the ground. Suddenly everything started to shake. Daiki has been through a lot of earthquakes in his life but nothing like this. It started pretty mild, then got violent out of nowhere. Then it kept alternating between mild and violent at random intervals that Daiki began to feel pretty nauseous. 

Jupong had slid off Daiki’s back and cowered from behind his legs. The shaking made a lot of noise around them as things moved and nearby prisoners screamed.

Nolowi wasn’t holding up too well either.

“Stop! Stop it, what are you doing??”, she screamed trying to maintain her balance.

“Oh don’t worry, it’s a little fun ride before we take you to the high warden. It won’t hurt. Right, Scepri?” 

Then another guard, Scepri, snickered from behind him. 

“Nawww, of course nawt”, he said scornfully. His voice was raspy and catty. 

Daiki watched in horror as Scepri stepped into view; a tall humanoid blob made of some gooey black substance. 

He couldn’t really see him that well either. By this point the ground-shaking had got so aggressive that Daiki could barely stay on his two feet. 

Then something suddenly flew past him towards Nolowi, while something else quickly grabbed a hold of Daiki. Scepri now stood between them and the guards. His arms – at least what were supposed to be his arms – were elongated towards Daiki and Nolowi. 

The violent shaking made Daiki disoriented and nauseous. He could barely notice – how they were completely caught. 

“Oh nooo.. Now what are you gonna do??”, Kyllis burst into a sinister laugh. 

The ground had stopped shaking now. But the nausea lingered on. In his dizzy state, Daiki wondered what might have become of Jupong – the weakest of them all as he thought. But he was too far gone to turn his head and check. 

Kyllis walked towards them. 

“Tsk tsk tsk…you guys”, he exhaled, “You…. you.. Complete total idiots. You made me use it! I hate using it. Look at me now”. He made a strange retching sound. “It makes me all sick. Every single time!”

Daiki decided that he was talking about the earthquake. It was strange that he hadn’t got used to his own nua. 

He looked at Scepri, “We’re taking them now, let’s go.”

Daiki glanced at Nolowi. Her head hung down, totally defeated. Or unconscious due to all the shaking. Or.. did she actually have a plan? Daiki hoped the latter would be the case. 

Scepri retracted his arms and brought them closer. 

“Gilmesh! Net them.”, Kyllis commanded. 

Another guard moved forward extending what looked like webbed hands. Daiki couldn’t focus much anymore. He was in pain. He decided to figure it all out later when Nolowi was awake. And let his head hang down too – almost. 

Out of nowhere a metallic slice jerked him back conscious. He lifted his head.

“Daiki! Jump!”, Nolowi screamed.

Scepri put his hands up in pain. 

Daiki and Nolowi fell to the ground and scurried to put some distance between them and the guards. 

While scrambling he caught a glimpse of Jupong cowering in a corner. Has no one noticed him? Also what is happening??

They quickly got back on their feet, now facing their attackers. 

“Urrgh”, Scepri groaned. A weird yellow liquid spouted from his neck. He looked furious. Like a leopard ready to pounce. 

“I’ll kill yeww”, he hissed. 

Scepri extended his arms at Nolowi who quickly rolled back. 

“Take that!”, she threw a charged shuriken at him. Scepri groaned in pain as the electricity whizzed through him. 

“Daiki! Get a grip!”, she screamed.

“You twerps!”, Kyllis growled. 

He pulled a knife and began running at her. 

Nolowi threw another buzzed up shuriken at him, which he managed to parry in a flash. 

Daiki’s world turned. He was still nauseous but he had to do something. 

He drew his kunai knife and jumped at Kyllis, who had lifted his weapon over Nolowi’s head and was ready to strike. Metal clanked with metal as Daiki managed to block him. 

“Daiki!!”, Nolowi screamed. His grip was weak and it was already slipping off the hilt. 

“HAHA!!! I’ve got you now, twerps”, Kyllis yelled triumphantly. 

“Oi, Nolowi, do something!!”, Daiki cried as his head spun wildly. 

She lifted up another charged shuriken, ready to throw it at the Kyllis, when a gooey arm shot at her and grabbed her by the waist – Scepri. He gripped her tight and brought her away from Daiki and Kyllis.

“Urgh get off!”, she screeched and hurled the shuriken at him. 

But Scepri retracted his flesh and it missed completely. Then he gripped her arms so that she couldn’t pull anything else. 

Nolowi wrangled and squirmed, desperate to get away. To her horror, now Gilmesh was running towards her, snapping open his webbed hands to “net” her.

Her hands were tied – caught up in Scepri’s elongated arms. She wanted to get out and help Daiki, who was barely holding on to the kunai. Helplessly, she looked around.

Jupong was still cowering in a corner. He dreaded combat, Nolowi knew that much. But only he could help now. She decided to throw a Hail Mary

“JUPONG!!!!”

The small man looked with fear. 

“Jupong!! Run.. Run the blades!!”

“Wh-what..?”, he murmured.

“Run the blades, Jupong! Remember? RUN. THE. BLADES!!!”

It was code for one of the alternative plans they came up with in the tunnel that required Jupong to fight. 

Nolowi and Zakuvo came up with codes cause they thought it was cool. And confused the enemy. Zyc laughed at them.

“Run the blades” was code for “use the iron claws”. 

“Sshut up yewww!”, Scepri threatened, tightening his grip. 

Nolowi watched as Gilmesh and his webbed hands got close. She watched as Daiki finally lost his grip on the kunai. She watched as Kyllis raised his weapon on him. She waited for the blow. But then, something amazing happened. 

Jupong, still in the corner of the room, stood up and took out a pair of iron claws from his pockets. Gilmesh saw an opening and jumped, shooting a net at him. But Jupong was quicker. He rolled back and ran towards Kyllis, fastening the claw to his hand. 

“Aaarrghhh!!”, the crazed guard screamed. 

As he brought his weapon down, they clanked with metal. Not skin as he’d expected. 

Below him, stood a small stubby man, wearing the most cowardly look on his face. And a pair of iron claws on his hand. 

“YES JUPONG!!” Nolowi screamed. 

Daiki scrambled back. Vomit finally crept up his throat. 

BLARGH! 

He lost control and puked in a corner. There was no remembering what he ate last. But whatever it was. It was on the floor now. 

“Daiki!!”, Nolowi shrieked.

Daiki got up and turned back right in time to pick up the kunai and parry Scepri’s stealth attack. 

“FUCK OFF!!”, he howled, “FUCK OFF YOU ANNOYING. FUCKING. RATS!!”, Daiki yelled out each word with a stab to Scepri’s arms. 

From the corner of his eye he could see Nolowi in a corner, slouching on the floor and tied up in a blue net. The barrage of stabs only managed to spook Scepri. But he backed away. Now he stood right in front of Nolowi. 

Daiki tried to run at her. He had to cut the net loose. But Scepri’s elastic arms were just made for goalkeeping. There was no getting past him. Cause as much as he was blocking Daiki, Scepri was trying to catch him too.

The kunai didn’t work on Scepri. He was some kinda fluid after all. But Daiki knew. Nolowi’s charged shuriken electrocuted Scepri before. It’s gotta do the job now. 

He had to cut Nolowi loose. 

“Urgh why you little-”, Kyllis grumbled, his knife clashing with Jupong’s iron claws. 

Daiki turned back. “Jupong!”, he screamed automatically.

This distracted the little man and he turned his head. Just for a moment. But it was an opening. Kyllis lifted his knife once more. Ready to attack Jupong.

But Daiki was faster. He ran straight up to him – the kunai drawn to stab. 

“Kyllis!!”, Gilmesh yelled, already making his way to help his fellow guard. 

But Daiki was faster. 

Ironically, this distracted Kyllis. And that was just the opening Daiki needed. 

“GO. TO. HELL!!!”, he shrieked, slashing open Kyllis’s calves, bringing him to his knees. Yellow liquid spouted everywhere from the wound and Kyllis cried out in pain. Then he fell unconscious. 

“Kyllis Nawww!!!!”, Scepri hissed and began stretching his arms. 

“Oh no you won’t!”, Nolowi yelled. She threw a charged shuriken at him which buzzed through Scepri once again. He convulsed violently and then fell to the ground. 

Nolowi gestured the shuriken back to her and she caught it. Glancing at Daiki’s horror-filled face, their eyes met.

“You broke free..?”, Daiki added in surprise.

“YOU!!!”, Gilmesh howled, running towards them – webbed hands held out, “YOU KILLED MY FRIENDS!!!”

But he quickly fell. Nolowi casually threw her shuriken at him which sent him into a convulsion like Scepri and he passed out. 

Everything was still again. Still and silent. Except for the ringing in their ears.

“That’s strange”, Daiki said, thoughtfully.

“What’s strange?”, Nolowi asked.

“Why aren’t there any more guards coming at us??”

Soon enough the ringing faded and faint sounds of fighting in the distance caught on. The three glanced at each other. 

“I think Bavaka and Zyc are doing a good job keeping everyone busy”

“Damn”, Daiki exhaled looking down at his own state of exhaustion, “They’re still going at it huh?”

“Well they’re trained assassins”, Nolowi shrugged, “You’re just a teenager”

“Fair enough. By the way, what about Zakuvo?”

Nolowi sighed, “Honestly I don’t know. I hope he’s okay”

“I hope he got rid of the high warden or whatever”

“Yeah.. I hope so too”

“N-N-Nolowi..”, Jupong spoke in his usual tone of fear, “H-how do we g-get through?”

He pointed at the hallway – the Laicon corridor, as Kyllis called it.

“Oh right”

Cheerily, Nolowi reached down towards Kyllis who’d passed out just at the corridor’s entrance. She grabbed his limp hand and held onto his thumb.

“I’ve heard that motion trackers can be deactivated by a guard’s fingerscan”, she said excitedly and pressed his thumb against a small bioluminescent square on the side of the corridor entrance, “I saw the scanner earlier – a few seconds before they got here”

Suddenly the scanner turned fluorescent red and an alarm started to go off, blaring loudly for as far as they could hear. 

“What the hell is that???”, Daiki yelled, covering his ears.

“I don’t know!!”

“You said the fingerscan should work???”

“It should!!!”

Nolowi looked around in confusion. The bioluminescent veins on the walls and floors have turned red. They pulsed and flashed red everywhere. 

Then came footsteps – for the second time. A set of footsteps marched towards them from the same direction that Kyllis and the others had come. Only this time, it sounded like a much larger group. 

“Shit they know”, Daiki grumbled.

“What??”

“Don’t you get it, Nolowi?? They know. They know we’re intruders and that we tried to deactivate those things!”

Nolowi’s eyes went wide. It wasn’t the horror of what’s about to happen. Or the realization that her plan had failed. Or the guilt that she’d led her companions to danger. 

It was just a memory.

It hit her like one of her charged shurikens. 

It chilled her to the bone and electrocuted her numb.

“A guard’s fingerscan will deactivate any motion trackers you find. Just don’t kill them. Then it won’t work. It won’t work if they’re unconscious too.”

“What? How am I supposed to do a fingerscan if they’re fully conscious??”

But Bavaka never got to answer that question. Nolowi remembered her being called away by Zyc. They were sending another spy to Haguko on an emergency disguise mission. And it was Bavaka’s job to brief him. 

“Don’t worry you got this! Just use your head. You’ll be fine.”, she had said while leaving Nolowi and Zakuvo to complete their first Roggenkoh mission – sneaking notes to a very important prisoner. Takashi.

 

---

 

The cold hard steel floor had been Takashi’s bed for a while now. 

At first he’d thought that as long as he had a comfortable bed and a dog that brought him food, he could wait out this imprisonment for quite a while.  But that didn’t turn out to be the case. 

He’d endured it for almost four days. But then Takashi started to see less and less of Kvie. They began sending him food with Dr. Sylos or through a guard. 

And that didn’t sit right with him. 

For starters, he began suspecting if his exchange with the stranger who’d promised to rescue him had been found out. 

Did they catch them? Are they onto me now? Are they going to kill me?

These thoughts swam around his head for hours and hours until he fell asleep. By the sixth day, Takashi was completely paranoid. He couldn’t go to sleep how he normally did. So he just sat on the floor all day, sometimes not touching his food for hours until he finally got unbearably hungry. 

Then he would sway back and forth while panicking about possibly being killed soon. A few hours later he would fall asleep. For not more than three or four hours. 

On the evening of the sixth day, Dr. Sylos brought him food again. 

Seeing his face had become Takashi’s least favorite thing in the world. He wanted to go back to the good old days – when Daiki had been his most hated visitor back home.

“Takawji-san”

Takashi glared daggers at him. The red bags under his eyes looked painful.

“I’ve brought you your dinner. It’s quite a feast!”

At first he tried to ignore the food. But the aroma was too irresistible. Stress affects people’s hunger in different ways. For Takashi it made him hungrier.

He looked furtively at the serving cart. There were quite a few dishes – Hiyajiru, nasu dengaku, a soba salad, some chicken wings, a couple grilled sweet corn cobs, a potato salad, a mango milk popsicle, and an iced matcha latte. 

“Is something wrong, Takawji-san?”, Dr. Sylos asked matter-of-factly. 

“What’s this? A summer feast?? You’ve got all this summer food, but I don’t even know if it’s summer outside. I sit here..all day. I don’t even know if it’s day or night! I only know what these lights tell me, but sure, ‘oh here, have a feast while you’re stuck inside this prison cell. By the way, you’ll probably be here for the rest of your life!’ ” 

Takashi yelled. Then he fell silent again, sinking back against the bed. Then his stomach growled. 

“You seem to be hungry, after all.”

“Tch”, Takashi rolled his eyes. He snuck a peek at the food again. 

The aroma of the golden Hiyajiru, the juicy glaze over the chicken wings and nasu dengaku, The perfectly charred corn cobs promising a smoky flavor, the refreshing popsicle and the matcha latte – they all seemed to call him. 

He slowly reached out and grabbed a chicken wing, devouring it quickly. Then he grabbed another. And another. And another. He devoured the whole plate. Then he reached for the Hiyajiru, when something happened.

Alarms started blaring everywhere. Takashi saw flashing red lights from the bioluminescent veins in the hallway outside his cell.

“What’s going on???”, he demanded.

Dr. Sylos looked around frantically. Then he ran outside, shutting the cell door behind him. Outside, Takashi could hear guards yelling and marching, some running. 

He couldn’t understand a word they said. There were no windows in his cell for him to take a peek from. Maybe it’s a fire drill, he thought. They’d had one a couple of days ago and they’d taken all the prisoners to one of the courtyards. 

So he just sat there – eating his food – waiting for a guard to come and escort him out like last time. 

 

---

 

“Shit, we’re busted. Oi, Nolowi get a grip! What do we do now???”, Daiki urged, shaking a transfixed Nolowi violently by her shoulder. 

The footsteps got closer and closer. 

“We sh-should f-fight”, Jupong murmured, “th-there’s nothing else we c-can do..”

“Can’t we hide?? Like you did last time?” 

Jupong shook his head, albeit timidly, “W-we can’t hide there. Not all th-three of us. We h-have to fight and g-get the fingerscan th-this time”

Daiki looked down at Jupong’s hands, shaking in fear. He was surprised that Jupong even suggested that.

Red lights flashed on and off, darkly illuminating the corner. For a second it seemed as if they could pull it off. It was tempting to just hide.

No. Jupong is right. There’s no way we can hide there.

Daiki shook his head and straightened up, jostling about to loosen himself. He smacked Nolowi on the back of her head.

She snapped back to her senses, “Hey!!”

“Ssh! Get your shit together. We’re gonna get a fingerscan this time.”

The alarms blared. The footsteps got louder. Nolowi took out her shuriken and Jupong feebly held onto the iron claws. Daiki swallowed as he waited – kunai ready to stab. 

His heart thumped. These guards had deeper, guttural voices this time. The kind of voices that sounded like an ancient evil – buried deep in the earth for millenia, whose growls can petrify you with terror. Like hell hounds waiting to snarl. He could hear one of them now, much closer.

“Remember your orders. Get them alive.”

Daiki swallowed harder. A shock ran through his spine and shot through his fingers and chest. Take us alive. They’re gonna torture us. They’re gonna torture us. 

Then his mind went black. Slowly from the corner emerged a group of tall guards. A shiver ran through him. 

Standing at the entrance, almost as tall as the roof, was a host of bulky samurai. They looked like samurai – for the most part – with similar yoroi armor. Except for two minor details.  

On their heads – right below the kabuto helmet where their faces should be – were skulls. But not just any skulls. They looked heavy and rugged. Their sharp teeth looked as if they ate human flesh and bones for dessert. 

The leader of the guards stepped forward. He looked at Kyllis and his men, lying unconscious on the floor.

“Take them..”, he growled. Then he took another step forward, fixating in their direction, “Gōgul..”

Another guard, Gōgul, stepped forward. The leader then raised his arm, slowly, and pointed right at them. 

Daiki’s heart pounded in his chest. His grip on the kunai was waning. He looked at Nolowi, not knowing what to do. She looked right back at him, completely helpless. An overwhelming sense of fear washed over them.  

“Take them too”

Just then something lashed behind him. 

It was at that moment that Daiki noticed – in his delirious terror at being taken away and tortured by the guards – the second detail. 

On the backs of the samurai guards were large and heavy tails. And on their ends were long spikes that made them look remotely like chain maces. They looked powerful – as if one whip from them could split you in half. 

Gōgul began moving towards them. 

Daiki wanted to scream, wave the kunai knife in the guard’s face, scare him a little, tell him to back off. But he could do nothing. He just froze and stood silently, watching the towering guard approach them; it seemed to take forever. 

And all Daiki could do was stand there.

What’s wrong? Why can’t I do it? Why can’t I scream? Wave the knife? Throw it at him at least?

And in these few seconds he felt the weight of his own fear. It was like shackles on his ankles. He thought of Takashi rotting away in a cell forever because of him. 

“Sorry”, he whispered desperately, “I’m sorry”

Nolowi looked at him, “Daiki..”

“Takashi”, Daiki whispered, “I’m sorry”