Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter and/or Tokko.
August 16, 2006
In a forest north of the Greek city of Thessaloniki
A bus stopped at gas station with a bus stop to pick up more passengers, out of this bus there were only two people stepped out wearing summer clothing as a way to ensure that no one suspects them of anything; especially if they were being followed.
"Well, we are here. So where is that tour guide who is suppose to meet us here?" Ranmaru said as he helped Yukino off the bus.
"Maybe he is being held up or something." Yukino said as she finally got off the bus.
"You know that summer beach hat does make you look cute." Ranmaru flirted to Yukino.
Yukino blushed as she was left without words.
"Thanks." Yukino said.
"Anytime." Ranmaru replied as he lended to her face and was going to snog her until they were interrupted.
"Excuse me?" said the voice of an old man behind them, who had a French accent to his voice.
The two of them turned to the old man, who looked to be somewhat extremely old. He looked to be as old as Dumbledore or more. His hair was white and had an Einstein look to them. His checks were hollow and wrinkly as they had hardly any youth to them. He wore a what Ranmaru would describe as a white suit that looked like that it was at least a century old. His skin was pale white and looked like it was sagging a lot.
"Yes?" Ranmaru said in English as he hardly knew Greek or French.
"Would you happen to be from Osaka? Mr and missis Shinichi Kudo?" the man asked
Ranmaru remembered the instructions that his own sister had given. Because the mission that he and Yukino were doing happened to be so secret, they were classified as a recently married couple from Osaka touring Greece and other parts of Europe as their honeymoon. Ranmaru had no problem with the cover story that Saya came up with, but he was complaining about the last name that she chose. Kudo…That was the last name of the main character in Detective Conan. His favorite show at that, he remembered the old days where he would watch it with his dad, whether he came back home from work. His mother would even call him her 'Little Conan,' while Saya was more or less focusing on her fantasy stories dealing with princesses at the time. Ranmaru swore that she chose the name on-purpose to embarrass him right in front of Yukino, who was able to make the connection.
"Yes, that is us, Mr.?" Yukino responsed as she was curious about the name of the individual.
The man was looking around him seeing if there any other people around them or were watching and replied with, "Not here. I will tell you once we see the attractions."
Yukino and Ranmaru nodded as they followed the man into the forest right beside the gas station.
"Don't you think that we should get some supplies for the trip, Mr. Tour Guide?" Ranmaru asked curiously.
"No need to worry about that. I have that already taken care of, Mr. Kudo." The Tour Guide replied.
Ranmaru and Yukino looked at each other in confusion for a second, before they decided to continue following their so-called Tour Guide. They continued to walk through the dense forest for a least another hour or two as they walked up rough hills and borders that were all around the forest. Just as they reached to the sight of a mountain that reached up high by maybe at least 10 stories. Ranmaru was able to tell that it was a the remnants of a volcano that should be right now dormant for the rest of all time.
"Ah, now that we have reached the location. We can now formally introduce ourselves. My apologies for the hiding of my identity. I really am not good with these types of things. The last time that I was involved in a sort of combat was back in the days of Grindelwald, but with the return of Herpo, I thought that I should lend a hand one last time." The Tour Guide said as he pulled out a rather old wand and casted some type of wards that Ranmaru was not familiar with.
"Who are you, Mr.?" Ranmaru asked.
"I am afraid that is for another time. Not here at least. We still do not know for sure on whether or not, if Herpo has any monsters around to guard the item that you seek." The man replied as he pulled out of a flask from his pocket that physically looked as though it should even be able to fit in there at all.
"Would you like some water?" The man asked handing the flask to Ranmaru, who nodded as he toke it.
After taking a sip of the water in the flask, Ranmaru handed it to Yukino as she decided to take a sip as well.
"Well, if this the place where Herpo opened the first gate a long time ago, where would we even find the Horcrux here? Inside the volcano or somewhere in the top?" Ranmaru questioned.
"I have searched the perimeter for the past two days. There is nothing in the top of the volcano, but rocks and sand. However, on the side of the mountain that we are facing, there is an entrance that goes inside the mountain." The man explained.
"Where on this side?" Ranmaru replied, "I don't see anything but a hill and grass."
"Ah, but that is what Herpo wants you to see. Mr. Shindou, the thing that you need to learn about our dear Herpo is that he can be a very good master of illusions when necessary." The man said as Yukino handed the flask back to Ranmaru, where he gave the flask back to the man.
"Have you gone inside past the entrance?" Yukino asked.
"Yes, but not far into. Just to see what we might expect in there."
"Boody traps?" Ranmaru said curiously.
"oh, yes. I saw a few in there, but I could not defuse them all. But that was only at the entrance section of the tunnel into the volcano." The man explained.
"Great. To bad I did not bring my Indiana Jones equipment with me." Ranmaru remarkered.
Yukino smirked at what Ranmaru said.
Meanwhile in Hogwarts
Inside a hidden vault within Hogwarts
"It is right over here." Merula announced pointing over to the stone floor that she cleared up the other day as she investigated the area.
Harry and the girls followed Merula into this area that they had never been before, or at least Harry had never been to. Harry wondered what other secrets was this school holding after seeing this area that was hidden through the use of a portrait portkey. Harry still had the Maruders Map with him, but could not find this area at all within the map. Although, to be fair, the Room of Requirement was not in the map either.
Before they left for the area, Harry and the Gang was able to learn through Snape's interrogation of Rakepick that this organization called 'R' had been financed by Herpo as a way to attain the treasure that lies within the Cursed Vaults. He convinced a group of wizards that he was willing to pay an amount more than what the treasure inside those vaults were worth. At least the value that Herpo told those dark wizards and witches who did not know what was even inside those vaults but believed him as he apparently gave them half its value in gold to them as a way to connive them to look for ways to discover the treasure inside the vaults. Rakepick knew of Herpo's real plans and followed his orders directly, while also ensure that R remained loyal to him in finding the treasure within the vaults. After killing Merula's friend in the forribben forest, she had fled to Japan and helped Herpo by finding any tools that could be used against the Phantoms, then she would destroy them. This piece of information had the gang interested as they were beginning to wonder what could be in those vaults that would make Herpo be willing spend lots of money to ensure that he could get his hands on it and destroy it.
He could see a lot of portraits within this room and remnants of some stone pillars that were broken in the room, but they looked to be placed there as a means of clearing the room of ruble.
Harry and the girls walked over to where Merula was and noticed that on the floor was a some sort of symbol or rune that was not of any type of magic that he even. He was pretty sure that this would fall on the lessons that Hermione learned during her time in Ancient Runes, but then again there was a chance that this symbol or rune was so old that it would be unknown. The rune was craved into the floor like as if some sort of person that had incredible strength with a sword made it. The rune was very curvy. When looking from where he was standing, the rune moves up ward and then shifts right and makes a figure eight on the top of the line. Then it proceeds to move south as it makes a complete circle. Harry wished that he could recognize the rune and what it could mean, but he was not having any luck at all. He crouched to see if looking at it more closer will help him see if he could possibly somehow figure out the meaning of the rune.
"Well?" Merula asked with her arms crossed impatiently.
"I am not sure. Ancient Runes are not my specialty. Even if it was, I would have to guess that this symbol or whatever is might be way older than any one might guess." Harry replied as he turned his head to the girls to see if maybe they could make some sense out of it.
"Sorry, Harry. I got nothing. Ryoko?" Kureha replied as she turned to the brown hair cop with glasses.
"I know some runes and symbols that come from Phantoms, but not all. It could be a symbol related to the Phantoms or the Box. However, I am not one hundred percent sure, Harry." Ryoko responded sincerely as she felt ashamed that she did not have that answer.
Kureha placed her hand on Ryoko's shoulder as a sign that no one was mad at her. However, Merule was confused on what the woman meant by Box.
"What Box?" Merula thought to herself, while she guessed that the Phantoms that the woman was referring to were the Monster that were with Voldemort.
Harry decided to see if maybe Parseltongue will make the rune do something, but nothing happened. He decided to use some of his Symbiont powers to see if it was related in any to Phantoms in general. Letting a form of his power out on to the symbol, he watched as the rune glowed a bright purple that Harry had to look away from the light as the girls did the same thing. The light continue for half a minute until it finally stopped with the sound of stone moving can be heard near them. Harry stood up and moved back as he watched as the floor of where the symbol was started to move block by block. Each block on the floor levitated and made a rectangular hole that could fit the whole group if there all were to jump. The whole was black intimately, nothing could be seen down there at all, while the bricks moved by themselves into the hole and vanished. Seconds later torches sudden lite up within the whole, which illuminating the series of stairs that connected the vault to what Harry guessed was another secret vault.
"A Vault within a Vault." Harry thought to himself with a smirk.
"Well, I guess that works." Merula said.
"Let's see what is down there." Kureha suggested as everyone agreed with her.
Harry decided to lead the way with his wand pointed out as they walked down a hall of stone lite up with torches. The group remained cautious of anything coming out to try and attack them. Merula had explained to them that this vault had a number of traps that would harm a person from a portrait that captures humans to a dragon that was somehow hidden within this vault, while no one else in the castle knew (not even the teachers).
"Man how long does this hall go?" Kureha complained.
"Good question, I feel like we have been in a non-stop lop in the hallway somehow." Ryoko said.
Ryoko stopped for a minute as she decided to test her theory out for a second. Pulling her gun out of her holster, she grabbed from the revolvers chamber an unused bullet and proceeded to place it down on the floor. Checking behind the group to see if they were being followed, Ryoko walked away from the bullet on the stone floor and caught with the others as she wondered how soon was she going to discover that she was correct in her hypotheses.
Meanwhile Back in Greece
"THIS IS NOT HOW I THOUGHT THAT I WOULD BE SPENDING MY TIME IN GREECE AT ALL." Ranmaru screamed as he carried Yukino bridal style while running away from a large bolder (big enough to crush them) was rolling up right behind them.
The man that act as their tour guide was ahead of them, when Yukino accidentally tripped on something that hurt her leg badly and set off the trap that they were now running from. Ranmaru never knew that he could run so fast while carrying something like Yukino…not that she was heavy or anything. Ever since they entered the cave about an hour ago, the group had been dodging one booby trap after another. It seemed endless, Herpo seemed to have a hobby in setting up traps in the most unusually ways. Because earlier they had ran into a mirror room that had a creature within the mirrors that was trying to grab them into the mirrors. The only reason why it failed to do that was because Ranmaru used his powers, referred by Harry as his pink ray of death, to destroy all the mirrors into dust; Ranmaru assumed that he had just earned about hundreds of years of bad luck for doing that.
"Shut up, Ranmaru and just run like as if your Forrest Gump." Yukino replied as she watched as the huge boulder was catching up to them.
Ranmaru was not sure how much longer he could run before the boulder crushes them and almost wanted to say that this was it. At least until he saw the man was under an arch at the end of hallway that they were running towards. The arch from what Ranmaru was able to tell, as he was getting closer and closer to it, that it could possibly stop the boulder and was the only way out of this part of the cave that they were stuck on. The arch was he and Yukino's only hope in surviving this. Ranmaru picked up the pace as he continued to carry Yukino, he could see that he was getting closer and closer to the arch. Screaming as he jumped with Yukino still in his arms, Ranmaru managed to get past the arch. He and Yukino landed on the floor near the man as they turned around and watched as the boulder slammed into the arch and stopped. However, they knew that it most likely blocked their only way out of this cave system that they were now stuck in.
"So much for leaving though that way." Ranmaru said.
"Yeah." Yukino agreed.
"Looks like we will have to find another way out of here." The man explained.
"After we see if Herpo left a Horcrux in here." Ranmaru said, which the man nodded in agreement for.
"How does a volcano this small and dormant have such an elaborate cave system that makes it feel bigger on the inside?" Yukino questioned curiously as Ranmaru helped her back help and held arm carried her as her leg was stilling hurting from tripping on a trap mechanism.
"Oh, this a amount of magic and spells that can make exactly that happen." The man answered Yukino as he mentioned the two to follow him.
Ranmaru helped Yukino to walk with her most likely broken leg.
Ranmaru pulled out his wand and proceeded to tap his wand on her leg as he chanted, "Ferula."
Sudden bandages appeared around Yukino's leg with it making into a splint.
"Hopefully we find something soon, as I more concerned about us maybe running out of air." Yukino stated.
The two of them continued to walk along the hallway of stone hallway. They continued to walk down the stone hallway that had some corridors. However, the interesting that was that it felt like as if they had been walking down the same corridor for the past ten minutes. At least this was the case, until they found some sort of statue that was right in front of them. The statue resembled a tall Gargoyle that was made out of stone in kneeling position, but it was staring at them. Ranmaru gave it a suspicious look like he was expecting it to suddenly to life and attack them. The way the statue was placed was odd as it was the only one that could be found near them and out of place in comparison to the area that they were in. In addition, the statue was large enough to block the hallway as if it was standing guard preventing anyone from going past it or around it at all.
"Well, how do we get past the statue? What if you smashed it with your pink ray of love, Ranmaru?" Yukino said with a smirk, while Ranmaru rolled his eyes.
"No…no…that will not be a good idea, because of the fact that this hallway could collapse under the powers of Ranmaru's ray. That one room previously held on because it was well-designed to hand pressures like that…..This hallway though, would probably collapse the moment that Ranmaru uses that ray." The man explained.
"Well, what do we do? Because that statue is the only way to continue, what if I do not use the ray? Just maybe use a bombarda on it?" Ranmaru suggested.
"We would just get the same result at that point. We do not want the roof of the Hallway to collapse right in front of us and just trap us here for all enterinty. There are Anti-Appariation wards. Very powerful and ancient ones here that will prevent us from apprirating out of here. It can even block people with powers that are unique to yours, Mr. Shindou." The man continued as he took a closer look at the Gargoyle statue.
Although, as the man was inspecting the statue with Ranmaru joining in, Yukino went to get a look at the face of the Gargoyle and noticed that its eyes were not fully covered in stone at all. The Eyes sockets of the Gargoyle were not made of stone but instead looked as if they were real eyes of something that she had not seen before in her life.
"Ranmaru…." Yukino said concerned.
"Yes?" Ranmaru responded as he continued to search for a way to get around the statue, while the man was doing the same but with no luck.
"There is something inside it."
"Inside what?" Ranmaru asked turning his head to her in confusion.
"The stone statue. There is something inside it and that thing is alive." Yukino said as she slowly stood back.
"What do you mean by that…." Ranmaru was saying until he could hear the sound of cracking coming from the statue right beside.
Ranmaru turned back to the statue as he watched as large cracks began to form all over the Gargoyle statue. The cracks were getting large and more numerous as he and the man slowly started to step back as well away from the statue that was obviously alive with something inside it. But whatever was the thing inside the statue Ranmaru could not guess. He watched as the legs of the statue were missing its stone shell.
Then the sound of the cracking stopped as everything went silent for a full minute, which left everyone concerned as to when the thing inside the statue would strike. In addition, Ranmaru was beginning to get worried on he was going to deal with whatever was inside it.
And then the shell exploded with pieces of it going in every direction. A big piece almost hit Ranmaru but luckily he managed to dodge it. After recovering his stance, he took a good look at the monster that broken from its shell. The thing looked like it belonged form that American horror movie he saw as a kid, which was called Tales from the Crypt and Rise of The Gargoyles combined. A monster that had the shape of a gargoyle with small wings, brown skin (like a Phantom's), a hideous face, and sharp teeth. The thing appeared to have traits that were similar to a Phantom but different. The demon growled as it looked at its prey with hunger. It starred at Yukino, then Ranmaru, and then the man as if it was deciding who it was going to eat or kill first.
After about what had seemed almost ten seconds, the demon looked to have made a decision as it starred at Yukino. Then it growled again as it lunged forward getting ready to strike the wounded muggle human. There Ranmaru jumped in front of Yukino, determined to not allow her to hurt or mortally injured anymore because of him. He raised his sword in a move to block the demon , but before it could strike either one of them the man pulled out his wand where he casted a light that was really bright. The light was almost as bright as the sun maybe even more as it made Ranmaru look away. But he could hear the monster screaming, possibly in fear of the light. Ranmaru watched as it starting to be turned back into stone. Ranmaru charged it with his sword, taking the retreat of the demon as a sign to attack, and stabbed it in the chest. This caused the demon to screech in pain as Ranmaru watched as it was turning back into a stone statue. Attacking again, Ranmaru slashed his sword and managed to cut off its head, which flew towards the wall beside the man with a thump.
Just as the head hit the floor, the rest of the Gargoyle's body was turned into stone. After a few minutes, everyone calmed down for a second as the body now frozen was not moving.
"What was that?" Yukino asked.
"A Gargoyle. I thought." Ranmaru answered honestly.
"That would be correctly, but this is a specific breed of Gargoyle called Greek Gargoyle. One of Herpo's specially created monsters that were released into the world before his first downfall. These are different when compared to the Gargoyle statues that you would see in Hogwarts. This are aggressive and use their ability to turn into statues as a way to hunt for prey to kill. They create the statue shell as some experts called it to disguise itself and when it gets the chance, they strike by breaking the shell. The issue in dealing with them is that they truly cannot be killed without extreme heat. And I mean extreme heat. As that they seem to only be forced to protect itself with the shelf should extreme light or heat be upon it. " the man explained.
"So, even though, I cut its head off, the thing is still alive?" Ranmaru questioned.
The man nodded with Ranmaru muttering a curse about it.
"We should get going then." Yukino suggested, "If it can come out of its shell and survive with its head off, then we need get a head of it and grab whatever is here then get out."
Ranmaru and the man nodded as they proceeded to move a fast pace away from the Gargoyle.
Back at the hidden passageway within the secret vault somewhere inside Hogwarts
After what felt like another fivifteen minutes of walking, the group stopped as they started to get concerned on whether or not they were not making an progress at all. The answer for the question was found when Ryoko found the same bullet that she had put down earlier. It was still at the same place that she had left while in the same condition that was left as well.
"How can we be going back to this spot here over and over again?" Merula questioned.
"You said that in these vaults that were challenges right?" Kureha asked as she remembered the story that Merula gave the group over these Cursed Vaults and the experience that she as well as her friends had with them.
"Yes, but usually with these vaults, you would know that there was some sort of challenge. I do not know anything about things like this." Merula answered as she leaned her back against the wall in frustration at the situation that they were now in for sure.
"So what do we do then?' Ryoko asked.
"Don't know yet." Harry responded.
"We have to figure out how get us out of this situation or else we will be stuck here for who knows how long." Merula stated.
"Maybe, Let's stay together and check the walls for something." Kureha suggested, "There could a riddle or something that we missed."
"Alright, but do not be too far from everyone else. There could be traps here." Harry replied.
Everyone made sure to stay within six to eight feet of each other as they began to search the walls of the hallways for anything. They spent about ten minutes looking at every section of the hallway until Harry found something.
Harry called everyone over as they examined what he found. On the wall were a series of sentences that looked as if they were etched into the wall with a sharp object. The words read as this:
Whenever one finds themselves lost to the world,
the living flame will point the way to freedom
"The living flame will point the way to freedom…..what could that mean?" Ryoko questioned with sincere confusion.
"You got me." Kureha replied, who was just as confused.
"Merula?" Ryoko asked as she turned to the former Slytherin student.
"I am not sure myself. Could mean something that I am not well versed in terms of magic?" Merula responded shrugging her shoulders.
"Well, living flame is the important part of the riddle. So we are trying to find out what could make a flame that acts like it's alive. A flame that has a mind of its own." Harry mentioned.
"Wait a minute of course. It may mean Fiendfyre." Merula explained, "it is cursed fire that has a mind of its own. It can even kill the caster and trust me, I have used it before and trust me it is very dangerous to use as does indeed act like it has a mind of its own."
"How does it work then?" Kureha asked.
"You cast it, then a wild flame appears out of the wand and then you are so cuppose to control with heavy concentration…and I mean heavy concentration, because if you do not then it will get out of control and possibly kill you. It is better to avoid using the spell unnecessarily but in this incase. We may not have a choice." Merula explained.
"But what would happen if that if what we are suppose to do? Like does it light a path or something? Cause that is extreme as we could just use Lumos." Ryoko questioned with a very concerned feeling flowing through him.
"If you got any other idea, then I am all ears. But I do not think we have a choice at all in the matter. We are going to have hope that I works. Besides lumos can only act as a flash light." Harry said.
"who is going to do the deed, is the next question." Kureha said as she thought for a second.
Then she decided to make a decision and said, "I will do it."
"You sure? It is really dangerous. The spell could kill us all," Merula asked.
"Yes, but someone has to do it." Kureha said.
"No, I will do it." Harry said and before Kureha could offer any objections he held out his wand to one direction of the hallway and chanted.
"Fiendfyre"
A torrent of flames sported out of Harry's wand and formed a phoenix that was a large as the height of the hallway. The phoenix made a screech and began moving around the hallway and suddenly it made a right into the wall and went through it like as if there was gapes in the bricks. Harry and the others ran toward where the fire went through the wall. Harry examined the wall for a second and pulled out his wand again as he casted a spell to blast the wall into pieces. Dust from the wall went flying as it broke down to the blasting hex, after a minute the dust settled enough for the gang to see what in the other side of it.
They saw a whole different room that was made of stone, but it was a redder shade. On the walls of this red stone, room, there was a book on a stand that looked as if they were made in the dark ages.
"Books?" Ryoko questioned.
"Blank books at that. There is nothing written on them." Kureha said as she grabbed the book and proceeded to open it.
"Then why is it here? Why leave it here in a place like this? Why make us go through a never ending repeating hallway for all of this." Ryoko questioned as she was now not in a happy mood.
"Maybe they did write something, but they did not make sure that it was well preserved at all." Harry said.
"they are not even really thick books really." Merula said as she grabbed another.
"Or…they did write on the book but left the content hidden through invisible ink." Harry suggested for a second.
"is there a spell to show the ink for use?" Kureha questioned.
"Yes." Harry replied as he placed his wand on the first page of the book to find anything. He remembered when Hermione used the spell during his second year at Hogwarts when he had Riddle's Diary.
After tapping his wand three times, he casted the spell "Aparecium."
Suddenly after casting the spell, words that were written by a quill appeared on the page. Harry began to read some of the words.
To whoever reads this note hidden within the page of this book,
First, let me congratulate you for going through the previous Cursed Vaults that were hidden and built to protect the knowledge within these this book. These vaults were built, especially in Hogwarts, as a way to guard the knowledge that me and my friends from all over the international wizarding community gathered on the previous attempt by Herpo to take over the world with demons from hell.
Second, I am sure that you might be confused on what Herpo, if you know exactly who he is, has to do with these books and the vaults. Well, as I have written earlier, this books contains information about an artifact that Herpo, a dark wizard that has been a live even before the times of the Great Philosophers of Greece maybe, created to summon from what we could probably call the underworld possibly. After defeating Herpo and sealing the gate, I and other members of the task force built to deal with the situation created by Herpo collected as much information that we could about the artifact. This artifact, which we have dubbed as the Box of Dirge, is essentially a Pandora's Box that can use the demons of the underworld to slaughter everyone and transform the world of the living in to a real hell that can be indescribable.
After we collected all the information that we had, we placed it into these books in the worst case scenario that the Box is opened again and opens another gate somewhere in the world, where it cause untold havoc and destruction to the living world. The Vaults should remain closed and their locations unknown to the residents of the castle as a way to ensure that they are protected until the time comes for them to be discovered again.
Third, This is not the thing that there is an object that can reverse the effects of the gate that comes from the artifact made by Herpo. However, it is not hidden inside the book. It is the wall of this room that you discovered using the cursed fire. The object is inside one of the bricks in the room, but you have to guess where it is. If you chose the wrong brick then you will be unleashing the fire on to you.
Goodluck,
The Potterer
After reading that last part of the message, Harry looked around towards the walls made of red stone.
"Don't touch the walls." Harry announced.
"What?" Merula said confused.
Harry explained the situation that they now have on them. The girls were surprised and concerned about the fact now that the fire Harry casted was now in the walls.
"We need what ever is this object mentioned. But the question is how do we know which one is the brick that has it?" Ryoko asked.
"I don't know, but whatever is in it, we definitely have to get it but we only have one chance to get it." Kureha said.
"What about your abilities, Harry?" Ryoko asked, "Could be able to see the object whatever it is inside the brick that might have it?"
Harry nodded for a second. As he used the X-ray vision that he used when storming the Security Division about a month ago, but nothing was coming up at all through it.
"I won't work, it is like as if it charmed against it or something." Harry replied.
"Great." Merula sighed, "As if I thought that these vaults could not get any deadlier, I would prefer being stuck in cursed iced over this dragon dung."
"Oh, calm down, will you." Kureha said as she rolled her eyes.
"Maybe there is something that can be noticeable for the correct brick maybe. We can't touch it without risking the fact that we could set off the trap. The bricks could be very motion sensitive." Harry said.
"Ok, we will have to examine each one carefully and see if there is something notice about that could give us a hint." Ryoko said as she already started on one corner.
"Alright." Harry agreed as he began to get started from a corner near him. Kureha and Merula each went to a different side of the room and started to examine each and every brick visually with their own eyes. Hoping to find something that will give them a hint that the artifact that they were looking for was possibly in a particularly brick.
The gang continued to look at each brick but could not find anything that showed any imperfection or difference in shape and size. Each one was the same shape, size, and condition. This issue became frustrating for the group as it meant that there was no way that they could make this easier for themselves in this puzzle.
"I got nothing here." Ryoko said.
"Same here." Merula said.
"Me too." Harry announced.
Kureha was about to say something until she felt something odd about one of the brick. The thing that she was feeling was nothing physical but in the atmosphere in the one brick, particular the feeling of the air near it.
"I got something…I think." Kureha announced, which resulted in the rest of the gang coming near her.
"What is it?" Harry asked.
"Feel the air near this brick." Kureha pointing at said brick in front of her.
Harry did as asked and noticed that the brick felt cold. He placed his hands near the brick beside it and noticed that it was a bit warm.
"The air near it is cold. That helps a bit, but is it the only brick that is like that." Harry said to himself.
Ryoko and Merula got back to their sides of the wall to see if maybe there was a brick in a similar circumstance, while Harry did the same.
"Still nothing." Merula after trying to feel cold air coming from the bricks on her side.
"I have one here." Ryoko announced pointing to a brick on her side of the wall.
After a minute, Harry found one at eye-level that had the feeling of cold air from it.
"I got one here too." Harry said.
"That is three, one of them has to be the one that holds whatever is the object." Merula said, "But the question is which one is it?"
This part of the story will be cut into two parts as I felt that with what I had planned for this chapter that I would need to absolutely cut it up to make writing it easier. So the next part will be some time, because I will be shifting to Nothing, Nothing But Politics story; where Ranmaru becomes Prime Minister of Japan and has to deal with the world of 21st century as he uncovers the truth of what is going in Tokyo and the dangers that the world is in. Along the way, he will meet various people from various anime shows that join with him in a common cause.
Well, that is all for now, please leave a comment and tell me what you think (or what you think that I should improve on). And if you have time, check out my other story called Nothing, Nothing But Politics.