She should have known. Penny's bravery as a hero inspired her to become a hero of her own. Waruda had become much less of a threat thanks to Atsuko's courage, but he's called her a "thorn in his side" ever since.

Surely, this was a trap, and Penny was being used as bait. She shook her head; if she wanted to save her, she didn't have a choice: she had to face Waruda with whatever she had. With Penny in danger, who knows how long she would have before there would really be trouble? There was no time to grab anything else: she had to leave immediately.


Atsuko hid by a rock, just outside Waruda's lair. Two guards were standing at the door. Picking up a smaller rock near her, she threw it far into another direction to draw their attention somewhere else. It worked: they left the door unguarded. One would think after she used that trick more times than she could count, they would have known better by then. Holding her breath, Atsuko sprinted for the door, rushing inside since the weight of the heavy door made it close quickly, not giving her much time to enter.

"Penny?" Atsuko called out softly. "Penny...?"

ここに誰もいないようです...(It seems there is no one here...) she thought, ...今度は彼が何を計画しているのだろうか...(...I wonder what he's planning this time...)

Tiptoeing through several hallways and peeking behind many doors, Atsuko still couldn't find her friend anywhere.

Suddenly, an uneven tile in the floor made her trip, stumbling into a wall. A secret door soon opened behind her, leading to a long staircase. She had been here many times, but she had never noticed this door. Rushing inside, she hoped Penny was on the other side.


"MM-mm!" And she was right: there she was. The pigtailed blonde was gagged and bound to a pole in the back of the room at the top of the stairs. It seemed she had tried to wriggle free a few times, as evidenced by some of the red marks that had shown through the ropes on her arms, belly, and ankles.

"Penny!" At first, Atsuko wanted to embrace her and untie her right on the spot, but after looking carefully around the room, she began to think about what kind of traps Waruda may have set for her. "Penny, don't move. I'll find a way over to you."

"Mmm...mm-hm," Penny nodded nervously. Atsuko knew Waruda like she knew Dr. Claw, so as scared as she was, she supposed she had no choice but to trust her.

Cautiously, Atsuko took a step forward. Making herself aware of anything that could potentially trigger a trap, loose floor tiles, suspiciously loose bricks in the wall, lights from the ceiling that looked like they could snap at any moment, but none of that was there. Aside from the dim lighting, and the cold air from the lack of sun making her shiver (of course, it's not like a two-piece swimsuit does much for warmth), it just appeared to be a normal room. Still, she treaded with a light step, constantly looking back and forth at the walls and ceiling around her. By the time she had gotten to Penny, however, she had found nothing had happened.


"Something is wrong here," she whispered to her. "Waruda is making it far too easy for me to save you."

"MMM!" Penny's eyes bulged. Before Atsuko had time to react, something had shot her in the shoulder. Wincing, she pulled the small, pink dart out. Suddenly feeling very dizzy, she collapsed into Penny's shoulder before falling on the ground, soon to be unconscious.


"...Mm...?" Atsuko looked up. "Mm!" Realizing she had been bound and gagged exactly like Penny had, her heart began to race in fear. Though there probably wasn't anything in her bag of any use to them, it was well out of reach.

"Finally," a deep voice came from the other side of the room. Looking up, the girls found themselves staring at no other than the infamous Iji-Waruda-san, the shadows in the room completely covering his face. "After a year of dealing with you foiling my plans, I have you right where I want you. You and your pretty little friend will meet your doom." From his long, golden cloak, he pulled a small bomb. "In ten minutes, this bomb will go off, ridding of you brats for good." Menacingly, he placed the bomb in front of him. "Sianara, Atsuko-san." Laughing evilly, the villain fled the room.

"MM-MM!" Penny squirmed, panicking. Moving upper body slightly, Atsuko noticed the wood splintered fairly easily. Grunting with effort, her back was beginning to chafe and bleed as she attempted to free herself.

The ticking of the clock on the bomb made it all the more difficult for Atsuko to focus, the sounds making the veins in her head throb. Her breathing got heavier. What if this was it? Was this really how she was going to die? Atsuko had never gotten to tell Penny…

No! She had to keep trying. They had to keep trying.

Her fear and panic began to turn to desperation, and anger even. Just what kind of a monster would kill two little girls who still had so much to live for? She was going to get out of here. They were going to get out of there. Wherever he went, they were going to find him someday, and when they did, they were going to beat the living daylights out of his sorry…

SNAP!

The thick, stubborn rope broke around her arms. Atsuko was free! And with three minutes to spare, too. But there was no time to celebrate. She had worked the rest of ropes off of her body, and removed her gag. Freeing Penny was fairly easy, since she was able to loosen some of the ropes on her own.

"Come on, we have to get out of here!" she urged, removing Penny's gag.

"No need to tell me twice."

Running down the stairs as fast as they could, they found, to their luck, the secret door in the wall was still open. The hallways felt as if they had gotten longer since Atsuko first began sneaking around, but at last, they reached the front door.

"Hurry!" Atsuko struggled to get the door open. Blushing slightly as Penny grabbed her exposed waist, she helped her pull the door open.

Just as the girls had finished getting down the stairs in the front hill outside, they heard the explosion behind them, the rest of the structure collapsing behind them in a large cloud of smoke and dust, looming over them as they continued to hurry away from what was left of the lair.


"At...ko..." They had walked to a green, grassy field nearby what was left of Waruda's lair, where the air was much clearer. Atsuko thought she heard Penny calling her name, but the ringing in her ears made it difficult to hear anything. "...Atsuko!"

"Huh, what?"

"Are you alright?"

Her dark eyes watering, Atsuko embraced her, burying her head into her shoulder.

"I thought we were going to die," she whispered, her voice choking.

"It's okay." Penny returned the hug. "We're safe now." Letting go, she added, "come on, let's get out of here and go back to your house before your parents start to worry."