“Nolowi, Nolowi wake up! Oi, Nolowi, wake up!”, Daiki hissed while poking his sleeping companion. His other companion, Zakuvo, was also fast asleep. 

“Tch ssh, go back to sleep, you idiot..”, Nolowi murmured and went back to sleep. She began snoring lightly.

“Stop snoring!!”, Daiki hissed again, “Stop it. Wake uuup!”

“Tch”, Nolowi slapped Daiki’s hand away and rubbed her eyes. Then she sat up lazily, her hair all messy. “What???”, she hissed back.

“Ssh ssh! I think I saw someone come this way.”

Nolowi frowned, “Dude. I’m seriously gonna get really pissed. This is the hundredth time you’ve said that to me now! Always ‘Nolowi, I saw someone walk by’, ‘Nolowi, I saw someone staring at me’ ‘I saw someone this’ ‘I saw someone that’ honestly dude do you never go to sleep???”. 

Then she inched closer to him and pointed at her face, “Do you see my face?”

“Uhh y-yeah..?”

“Do you see how flawless the skin looks??”

“Uh huh..?”

“Well, guess what?? It’s because I always get good sleep! Now shush!”

Daiki protested, “But dude we’ve been here the whole fucking day! What are we doing?? I thought we were supposed to break Takashi out of prison!”

“Look, man. I told you this like nine-hundred times. We’re waiting for backup!”

“Well then what is backup doing??”

“Backup is NOT RESPONDING!!”, Nolowi snapped in frustration. Then she sighed and sunk back against the barrels. Daiki looked at her sympathetically.

“You guys have never done this before, have you?”, he whispered.

Nolowi sighed again, “No”

Silence. 

“Nolowi”, he said softly.

“Mm?”

“We can’t sleep here. It’s enemy territory. What if someone sees us? You gotta keep watch all the time.”

“Ahh I agree. I’m really sleepyyyy”

Daiki’s head was swimming with questions, but he didn’t know if he would get any straight answers out of Nolowi at this point. After some contemplation he decided to shoot his shot.

“Hey, Nolowi”

“Yeah?”

“Can I ask you some things?”

She was silent.

Daiki continued, “I don’t know if you’d understand how I feel, but I’m really confused right now. I have no idea where I am. Probably miles and miles away from home. I don’t know what’s going on in my hometown. Are my parents okay? Are my brothers and sister okay? Are my friends okay? I don’t know any of that. One of my best friends is in major trouble and it’s all because of me. It’s all because I persuaded him to follow my reckless plans. As always. And now he’s missing and you’re telling me he’s a prisoner in this..HUGE building. And that’s just what you tell me. But how can I even trust you, really? I don’t know who you are. And the first time we met, you literally deceived me by disguising as my friend. Are you the ones responsible for people disappearing from my town? What even are you guys? I thought you were like yokai or something but now I REALLY don’t know what the hell you are. So, Nolowi, please..”

She glanced down at her feet with a pout. Tears were forming in her eyes. 

“Please just answer my questions. I really can’t help you without knowing anything.”

Nolowi glanced at Daiki, beginning to sob. There was genuine sadness and guilt in her eyes. 

“Daiki!! I’m sorryyyy”, she wiped tears off her face, “I’m so sorry..hic.. I know you’ve been through a lot.. We just..hic.. Didn’t wanna tell you stuff just yet..”

“Why not??”

“There was..really not much time..hic.. We wanted to tell you everything.. After we’ve saved Takashi..”

Daiki sighed and nodded, “Hm..I see. But now that whole urgency is gone. Your backup team was totally a no-show.”

“I know..”, Nolowi said and began crying even harder, “We really messed up…”

“Ssh ssh it’s okay..”, Daiki patted Nolowi on the shoulder awkwardly. She wiped her face on the sleeves of her jumpsuit.

“I’ll tell you everything, Daiki”, she said.

“Okay. Thanks”, Daiki smiled.

Nolowi took out a small pink cloth from the pocket of her jumpsuit and patted her cheeks with it. Then she blew her nose and sat up straight.

“Daiki..as you may or may not have guessed already, we are not from your planet.”

She spoke with a straight face but Daiki honestly couldn’t tell if she was joking.

“Uh..what do you mean?”

“I mean that, to you, we’re uh.. aliens.”

“W-Wait..”, Daiki’s head began to spin, “So you guys are aliens?”

“That’s what I just said. Yeah”

What the fuck is going on? Is Nolowi joking with me?? Is she laughing?  No. No, she’s not laughing. So she’s serious? Wait..so does this mean..?

“S-So aliens..exist??”

“Yeah.. It’s so weird for me that your species doesn't know this. Our worlds have always known and interacted with aliens”

“I see.. ‘Worlds’, huh? So there’s more than one..alien..species? I-I see..”, Daiki buried his head in his hands and rubbed his forehead hard. Nolowi inched closer to him and placed a hand on his thigh.

“Hey..you okay?”

“Uh no? Of course I’m not. This is..this is HUGE! Brooo… You’re not joking with me right?”, Daiki asked. Nolowi, you better not be. But then again. This is all really bizarre. I mean, Zakuvo is a bird that can talk! And then there was that strange figure in Yua Fujisaki’s backyard! Those things don’t look human, so it’s gotta be anything but human. But still..ALIENS???

Nolowi shook her head, “No, I’m not joking. Why would I joke?”

“Brooo…”, Daiki held his face in surprise, “So you guys are from another planet?? Just like in the movies??”

“Yes”

Daiki’s head was still spinning. His heart was pounding too. So many questions, just flying around in his head. All these days, ever since he was kidnapped from the forest..even before that when Takashi went missing..and before that, when Haguko was shrouded in some mysterious curse where people disappeared in the mountains..and it was forbidden to step outside.. the anticipation of finding out the cause behind everything had led to this moment. 

Oh I hope nothing happens right now, Daiki thought, I hope nothing happens. I just wanna stay here and ask her everything. EVERYTHING. Honestly, I don’t even know what to ask next. There’s so much to know!! Oh right.

“So where am I now? Holyshit am I on your planet???”, Daiki asked, his moody disposition suddenly turned into an excited one. 

“Uh n-no”, Nolowi answered.

“Tch aww man that would have been SO COOL!! I knew it! I knew that aliens existed. When I told Takashi he laughed at me saying ‘if they existed they would have already got here’ bla bla bla.. Lol they ARE already here!! And they’ve been here for like 50 years, cause my dad also definitely saw Zakuvo when he was a kid! Brooo.. And Takashi is in an alien prison now, serves him right. Oh shit!”, he turned to Nolowi, “Dude, where are we really?? Who’s holding Takashi in prison? And for what?? Why did you guys kidnap him?? And all the people who disappeared. Have you been kidnapping them too??”

“Ssh chill chill, calm down, Daiki..”, Nolowi said quietly, “I’ll answer everything.”

“What’s your planet btw? Are you from, like, Jupiter or something? Oh oh wait, how do you know our language so well???”

She took a deep breath and exhaled, “Daiki shut the hell up and listen!”

Daiki froze and obeyed. 

“Our world is a distant planet in the Okomova galaxy called Mirz.”

“‘Mirz’..such a cool name..”, Daiki said dreamily. Nolowi smiled.

“Yeah. Anyways, Mirz’s dwellers love to travel. Going from planet to planet, across galaxies has been a thing now for thousands of years.”

“So..like space tourists?”

“Um..kinda. But we also had other motives.”

“Like what?”

Nolowi hesitated then cleared her throat and continued, “The main objective was to spread Nua”

“What’s Nua?”

“Uhhm our technology..our powers..?”

Daiki was caught by surprise again. Did she just say powers??? As in superhero powers??? Powers like in anime and shit??? No way.

“Uhh w-what kinda powers..?”, he asked.

“Uh..well”, Nolowi hesitated. She then looked around and spotted the monolithic building that towered beyond the barrels. Then she squinted and focused. Daiki followed her gaze and anticipated. Suddenly a loud WHIZZ sound came from the building. Nolowi glanced victoriously at Daiki. The sound of distant panic in the building soon followed.

“Wait. What did you just do??”

“Ah nothing, just cut off power for the whole building”, she replied, smirking and a little out of breath.

“Wait what?? What??? You can do that???”

“It’s a bit difficult. But can manage”, she winked. Then she soon lost her balance and almost fell over. Daiki quickly caught her. 

“Whoa, dude. ‘A little difficult’?? You just almost passed out”

Finding herself in Daiki’s arms, Nolowi blushed ever so faintly. Then she quickly sat up straight. “Sh-shut up. I’m okay. I just wanted to show you.. uh.. what powers are..ahem!”

“Anyways”, she continued, “Where were we? Ah yes. Our powers. Our Nua. Mirz-dwellers wanted to spread these powers. Share them and teach them to other planetary species. They did this for years. But then a planet called Nokrol waged war on us. They were once a planet that we shared our Nua with, as well. But now they just wanna enslave us. Annoying assholes!”

“O-ohh..”, Daiki said, trying to process the load of information that had just been dumped on him. They’re really not joking around with me, right? Cause all this sounds like straight out of a sci-fi fantasy novel. 

“S-so..what does Takashi have to do with any of this? And Haguko? What do we have to do with any of this?”

Nolowi heaved a sad sigh, “Well..sadly, our world is fleeing. We’re all fleeing. We’ve located and assessed another uninhabited planet, far away. We’re all going there. To start a new civilization.”

Daiki stared confusedly, “And..?”

“And so our world is now traveling in these MASSIVE ships. We’re on our way to this new world. Each ship is assigned a military guard and a Captain. The ship which was carrying our city, crashed here on Earth. In the mountains, near your town. Everyone is working with the engineers to get the ship fixed again soon. But it’s taking a lot more time than expected. I think..”, Nolowi moved her face closer to Daiki’s and whispered quietly, “I think it’s being sabotaged on purpose.”

“Sabotaged??”, Daiki asked, “By whom??”

She looked around furtively and answered, “By Captain Mugulo. Our ship’s captain. We have intel that he has plans to steal Earth’s military technology to fight back Nokrol. And not just Earth’s technology. Technology that belongs to every single planet that Mirz had ever shared Nua with.”

“I-I see..”

“Yeah he’s a bitter son of a bitch who thinks everyone in the universe owes us shit just because we decided to share our Nua with everyone like ages ago”

Daiki tried so hard to grasp everything and try to make sense of the story that Nolowi was telling him. He shut his eyes and shook his head before speaking again.

“S-so let me get this straight. Captain Ma..ru..go-”

“Mugulo”

“Right. Captain Mugulo. You think he was the one who kidnapped Takashi??? But why??”

Nolowi shrugged, “I don’t know that. Maybe he has something to do with military tech..or just tech in general, given that he’s pretty young like you”

“Ohh”, Daiki leaned back against the barrel. His breathing was fast and he could feel a cold sweat all over his body. 

What the fuck is going on?? One minute I was a clueless teenager and the next I’m in the middle of that space show Takashi used to watch – Battlestar Galactica..? 

I mean, what the fuck is happening?? Fuck. I really REALLY miss Botan and Asa right now. Maybe Asa can keep her composure at a time like this, without panicking inside like me. And as usual Botan and I could be the two idiots. Maybe. And if Takashi was also here… well if he was here, he’d know what to do next. And whether or not to believe Nolowi. And if everything she says IS true, then all four of us will be stuck in the middle of a crazy adventure. 

I mean, if aliens exist.. And there’s some secret plot to attack Earth, bro that’s a pretty good recipe for adventure. Fuck.

“Wait”, Daiki said suddenly, “When you said your city was being carried in a ship, did you mean that everyone in your city was able to fit into a single ship??”

“Well..”, Nolowi hesitated, “It’s not just everyone in the city. It’s..the whole city. The whole city with the trees, the grass, the lakes, the rivers, the buildings; everyone and everything.”

“What???”, Daiki practically yelled, his eyes wide and his heart pounding with excitement now, “H-how??? How can you possibly do that??”

Nolowi shrugged smugly, “Ohh we have the tech for that. The whole town is contained in this MASSIVE orb of energy. Pretty cool stuff!”, there was a spark in her eyes. 

Wow.. this is crazy. Nolowi can’t be lying. She seems way too passionate and excited about this whole thing. Whoa, this is a lot to take in! 

“I..I really gotta see this. Your city..it’s inside the crashed ship, right? And the ship is in this mountain, yeah? After we save Takashi I wanna go visit your city! Can we please do that??”

Nolowi smirked and shook her head, “Actually… you are in our city right now, Daiki”

Daiki froze, “W-what??”

Nolowi continued with a wink, “Yup! I mean the prison and everything is INSIDE the city. So obviously, we’ve brought you.. inside the city”

Dr. Sylos: This is my first question for you: Have you ever, in your entire life, experienced any phenomena that..well, let’s say, do not agree with..physics?

Me: No

At this point, my only thought was, “what kinda question is that?? What does he even mean by phenomena that do not agree with physics?? Is he talking about ghosts and shit?? Do the bird creature and Yua Fujisaki’s incident count? Are they all on the same side or is this something entirely different from that?? What about all the people disappearing from my town? Is that connected to all this too?”

So I continued to ask for clarification.

Me:  Actually, I don’t know what you mean by that. Are you talking about..ghosts? Or something like the SCP?

Dr. Sylos: I’m talking about living organisms that have certain abilities. Like..turning invisible or manipulating shadows..

I was quite blatantly surprised. I mean, is he joking?? Is he asking me if I’ve seen anyone with superpowers??? Really?? That’s his question??? Why would he ask something like that??

Me: If you’re asking whether I’ve seen anyone who has superpowers, then no. I haven’t.

Although, I used to think Hima-oba’s mind-reading power is pretty cool. But that’s different. She’s just a spiritual healer. All spiritual healers have some heightened senses, right? So really, I didn’t have an answer to this.

Dr. Sylos: Are you sure? Any kind of power is an acceptable answer to my question, you know? Even..if you think someone runs oddly fast. Even that counts here. 

I felt conflicted. Should I tell him about Hima-oba? Will this put her in danger in some way? But we both agreed to tell the truth. And it’s unfair to expect his honesty if I’m going to lie to him. I really needed his honest answers to my questions right now.

And then it just hit me.

Me: Dr. Sylos, you said you have two questions to ask me in exchange for my two questions. So I’m assuming that that’s your second question.

Hah! Gotcha! Screw you, Dr. Sylos! You and your green face. He naturally smiled defeatedly. But then he began threatening me. 

Dr. Sylos: Clever one, aren’t you? I suggest you stop being a smartass and answer the question. We’re playing a game but its purpose is to exchange information. Not to spew witty remarks. 

Well, now I was lost. I didn’t wanna tell him about Hima-oba. These people don’t seem to be friendly. This might put her in serious danger. But at the same time if I don’t gamble and answer this question with substantial information, then he wouldn’t make that gamble either. And I need that information to get out of here. And for this reason, I can’t just lie and say no. A simple “No” wouldn’t be worth divulging possibly classified information over. 

Then I realized that I was being completely naive. Would he really even give me any information? I’m a prisoner here. The lowest in the power system. 

Or am I?

Me: Fine. I’ll tell you. I do know SOMETHING. It’s not what you expect. But I think you might like this even more. 

Dr. Sylos: I just need an answer to my question. Nothing else.

Me: Oh but it is. It is the answer to your question if there ever was one. 

And I smiled rhetorically, for dramatic effect. 

Dr. Sylos: Fine. Go on then.

Me: No wait a minute. I will tell you. But on two conditions. 

At this point Dr. Sylos looked visibly annoyed. I absolutely loved that, low-key. 

Dr. Sylos: *DEEP SIGH* Go on..

Me: First of all, you can’t use this information to hurt anyone. I don’t care what your objective is, but you will not hurt anyone. Are we clear on that?

At this point the bastard smirked and said loosely, “We’re clear”. I know he won’t stick to that first condition. And that’s why I won’t tell him anything. 

Dr. Sylos: What’s the second condition?

Me: The second condition is, you answer my question first.

He straight-out laughed at this.

Dr. Sylos: You gotta be joking, kiddo. 

Me: Come on! Think about it. We’re both exchanging pretty important information. And you are obviously backed by way more authority and power than me. I mean by the looks of it you’re some..organization. I’m just one person. So my information definitely has more potential than yours. I mean, what can I do with any information, really? My only goal is to understand what’s happening to me. 

Boy, I’m good at bullshitting. 

Me: So the ideal way to negotiate is to give a higher price for my information. 

Dr. Sylos: You do know that you're a prisoner here, right? We can torture you until you speak. I’m just trying to be nice here. 

Me: You won’t get anything out of me through torture, old man. I’d rather die than be the reason that somebody gets hurt.

And there we have it. Leverage. I have to admit, Dr. Sylos looked both pissed as hell and pretty impressed at the same time. 

Dr. Sylos: A lot of prisoners spout nonsense like that but in the end, they break all the same.

Then he straightened up and began pacing around. 

But there’s something in your eyes. You remind me of someone. Another prisoner. From years ago.

Then he turned to me and walked closer. 

Fine. I’ll entertain you. What is your question?