"Captain Igneous is currently at his residence," the soldier said with a blank look on his face, eyes blinking. "Why do you inquire?"

"We need to talk to him," Nana explained. "Are you sure he isn't here?"

"No, miss, he's at his residence."

"We don't know where that is. Could you tell us?"

"I'm sorry, miss, but I have been ordered by the Captain to keep his whereabouts confidential. If you'd like, you may ask him yourself when he returns." The soldier waved a hand at Nana. "Miss, I beg your pardon, but would you mind vacating the premises? Children shouldn't be on the castle grounds at the best of times; it's far too suspicious. As always, though, have a nice day and don't forget to enjoy your stay in the capital city." With a yawn, the solider shooed Nana all the way across the wooden drawbridge to the front gardens of the palace.

Husky and Senri stood waiting on the cobblestone street. The silver-haired boy impatiently tapped his foot and glared at the girl as she came walking back in a dejected fashion. "So…?" he asked through clenched teeth, already knowing by the way Nana was returning that things had not gone as planned.

Sighing, she told him in a timid voice, "He's not there?"

"What do you mean, 'not there'?!" Husky asked her in an aggravated voice. "You didn't even go take a look inside! All you did was chat with the guard out front!"

"I know!" Nana replied, her eyes large and fluctuating. She raised a fist to her nose in an attempt to stop herself from crying at the fish +Anima's outburst. Still, she'd not accustomed herself to his fiery disposition and when he was automatically angry with her, it made her feel inadequate. Normally, she would block out those feelings with a well-deserved slap to his cheek, but…. With everything that had been happening recently, nothing anyone did was exactly normal. "But he said Igneous was at his…'residence'!"

"And that would be…where?" Husky crossed his arms, continuing to tap his foot. His eyes drilled into Nana's. "Well?"

Shaking her head rapidly, Nana told him, "I don't know! The soldier up there wouldn't tell me!" Husky raised an eyebrow. "I'm sorry I didn't help out at all!"

Heat was rising into Husky's face; his cheeks started to flush red from frustration. Unfortunately, there was only one person at the moment he had the luxury of taking his fury out on. "Nana! I told you that-!"

But he stopped because a hand was resting on his shoulder. Turning his head, he saw that Senri had a concerned look in his eyes. The Kim-Un-Kur shook his head, eyes closing, lips curling into a frown. "Enough," he said with a straight-to-the-point tone. It was obvious that he didn't enjoy seeing his friends fight. After his interjection, Husky had time to cool down and collect himself. Why, in fact, was he mad at Nana? She'd done everything she could've without breaking into the palace (and that wouldn't have fared well, seeing as how she got caught by Igneous in his tent) and was blaming herself.

With a heavy sigh, he changed his attitude. "Don't worry about it," he said. "We'll find him some other way." Nana blinked through her tears. Hadn't he just been mad at her for failing to get Igneous? Then why was he being so dismissive of everything? It didn't make a whole lot of sense, but…there was this sensation inside the bat +Anima. She felt heat of her own rising to her head. It was making her particularly woozy. Eyes rolling up into her head, she felt herself fall to the grass.

When she came to a few moments later, she felt something on her back. And…she couldn't feel the ground. It was beyond shocking, and caused her to spread her wings and wildly flap them. "Hey! Hey! Whoa!"

Who was that shouting? Nana slowly stopped flapping her wings and took the time to see where she was. The scenery hadn't changed; she was still on the front lawn of the palace. But where she was had to have…When her eyes locked onto the two gloved arms holding her up off the ground, then the glowing blue eyes of Husky, she felt herself almost go limp again. He was right there, holding her, and…Oh, no.

Hoping against hope that those were just fleeting reactions to being picked up, she rolled out of Husky's arms. Landing on the grass, she quickly got to her feet and dusted herself off. "Umm…Nana…?" Husky asked her timidly; she shot him a nasty look, to which he gulped and backed up. "Are you…okay?"

"Fine, never been better!" she snapped at him, though this was mostly defensive on her part (not that she had to let him know). "Now come on! We need to find this Igneous guy and get him to help us!" Assuming her usual position of leader of the group and of obviously superior gender, she motioned to Husky and Senri to follow. The two boys stared at each other in confusion. "C'MON!" got them to quickly run after Nana, though.

They hadn't gone more than a block, though, when someone ever so rudely stepped out in front of Nana. She barely noticed before running into that person and falling to the ground. "Ow!" She got up, rubbing her butt, tears lingering on her eyelids. Shaking her head, she nearly shouted, "Hey, watch it! I can't ruin my good clothes! You should…watch where…you're…are you even listening to me?"

But the woman in front of Nana paid her no attention. She had her sights set forward from under the black hood. A black poncho was draped around the woman's body, even though the weather was rather nice. Nana stared ahead at the figure, who was quite a sight to see; it was nothing less than suspicious. However, the woman in the poncho wasn't in the least bit interested in who had knocked into her. In seconds, Nana had decided to remedy that situation.

Raising her arms, she let out a shrill scream and extended her bat wings to their full length. And that was enough to shock the woman in the poncho. She stumbled back, only barely keeping her footing but letting her hood fall off her head.

As Husky and Senri rushed forward, they saw the hood lower to reveal someone they remembered far too well. "Rose!" But not for bad reasons.

Rose appeared quite flustered. She drew the poncho tightly around her body, but forced a smile to her lips. "Oh! Nana! You gave me a scare. Husky and Senri are here, too!" Her eyes scanned over the three of them again. "…Where's Cooro?"

Husky's eyes shot to the ground; he wore a pained expression on his face. This caused Rose to assume the worst. "Oh…Oh, I see…. I'm terribly sorry for you three." She tried her best to feel sympathetic, but there were more pressing matters on her mind. Pinion…

"Miss Rose?" Once again, she was thrown off concentration by the bat +Anima. Her eyes fluttered down to the girl. "We were wondering something. You come around here a lot, so we wondered if you knew where Captain Igneous is?"

The question nearly flew over Rose's head. She rapidly racked her brain, only to come up with the obvious answer. "He's…he's at the palace."

Nana shook her head. "No, he's not there. He's at his house, and we thought you might know where he lives."

Rose blinked. "Not…there…? Yes, that's good." Her mind worked faster than it ever had, and put two and two together in record speed. "If he's not there, then I can easily break in and-"

"What?" Nana gave the cat +Anima a puzzled look. It wasn't until then that Rose realized she'd been mumbling her thoughts aloud. She scrunched her eyes shut, shaking her head around and trying to refocus – ever since the incident on the balcony three days earlier, she'd been off her game drastically. Usually, it wasn't so hard being a thief.

Oh, yes, their question – Igneous. Captain Igneous…she knew where he lived, she'd been casing the joint there…Oh, where did he live…? Ah, of course…

She pointed up the side-street. "He has a little place five or six blocks that way," she told them. "Can't miss it, I hope….Well, I wish I could stay longer, but I have other things to attend to." Before any of the children could protest, Rose had lifted the hood of her poncho and was gone, in the direction of the castle.

Husky watched her leave, then turned back to Nana. "That was weird. She didn't look okay, and what was with that…" He motioned all about his chest. "…thing she was wearing?"

Nodding, Nana replied, "That was strange. But she did tell us where to find Igneous."

"Then what are we waiting for?" The three +Anima started off in nearly a run down the path Rose had pointed out. Five blocks seemed to take much longer, though, when they were trying to get somewhere as quickly as possible. Inch after inch was so much longer than the last, and it was so infuriating.

Eventually, they trekked the entire way to a small, dainty house that was alone in a small neighborhood of rundown buildings. There was barely any green in the area, the only signs of life coming from the miniscule front yard of Igneous' residence. Nana looked at the scene in total dread – she made a mental note to herself to never, under any circumstances, visit this place again. Not only did it give her the creeps, but it was just so messy and unfashionable.

Husky walked up to the front door of Igneous' house. He didn't want to do what he had to, but there was simply no avoiding it. Taking a deep breath, he reached out and knocked on the door.