DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING EXCEPT A PART OF THE PLOT!
Chapter 13 – UNEXPECTED EVENTS
Cold. The cold breeze blew softly, I sneaked out of the chalet successfully without being seen, and arrived at the porch outside the chalet. Mission start!
I followed the path I took when I chased after the paper. Slowly but surely, I got further and further away from any artificial light sources. I dug out my torch and after switching it on, I continued on my journey. I arrived at the place where I was tripped over by Broken-Nose Seahorse's shoe, but I discovered something unbelievable.
The shoe was gone.
Yes, you had not read it wrong, and I was not blind either, it really was gone! Could the waves have taken it away after I accidentally kicked it into the water? Well, I felt sorry though. After all, that shoe costed about the same as my three-month family income… Forget it, Sato did not witness me kicking it into the water anyway. No proof and evidence, he could not do anything to me. Hehe! I turned to continue, but I discovered something even more unbelievable.
There were water marks on the sandy shore. Besides a big patch of water mark formed by a big splash of water, there were others caused by water drops in decreasing sizes, forming a trail. I excluded the possibility that the sea waves did this, because these traces were a good several metres away from the sea. And the weather here had been fairly well every day, no stormy waves were observed, so it was even more impossible. I guessed it could be like this: someone picked up the shoe, took it aside and dumped the water out (thus forming the big patch of water mark), and then took it away with them (the remaining water drops dripped from the shoe and formed the trail of water marks that changed from big to small in size when they fell onto the sand).
It must have been that Broken-Nose Seahorse! Adding up with the hypotheses earlier, everything made sense! He must have been hiding somewhere here. In order to prevent me, who was chasing after the paper, from spotting him, he quickly hid himself. In his haste, he portrayed Cinderella dropping her shoe (in this case, his shoe…), and I happened to trip over his shoe. Once I left, he finally got out and picked up the shoe I kicked into the water by accident, and then escaped. If I was correct, should I follow the water marks and the newly created footprints, I would find him. "Alright! Ready or not, here I come!" I thought.
I followed the water marks for a while, suddenly it was gone. The trail ended, so I must have arrived at the destination. I looked up. That wooden cottage stood before me, old and broken. Well, well, well… It seemed that all clues led me here again. The wind picked up slowly, the moon was half-obscured by a layer of thin cloud, and it started to get a little darker. Ominous… This word was enough to describe the situation now. It felt as if I had arrived at Castle Oblivion or The Castle That Never Was, except that this broken wooden cottage before me was not a grand castle… "Sacred Moon" (Kingdom Hearts II, I own nothing of it) could be used as the background music… Yeah.
Firstly, I circled the wooden cottage once and observed its exterior to see if there was any backdoor or secret passage. Well, there were many holes, but if I tried to crawl through them by force, I would grate against the wooden splinters around the holes, then I would have alerted Broken-Nose Seahorse, or even worse, the mastermind. There were also pieces of shredded wooden planks and some wooden boards. I switched off the torch and pocketed it. That way I would not give myself away easily. I then grabbed a sturdy wooden board as a weapon. OK… Let us enter via the front door.
I returned to the first entrance I found. I observed the dilapidated door, the only parts in good condition were the door hinges. Since it was so worn-out, if I pushed it open carefully enough, it might not create any funny noises. I peeked into the cottage via the small hole on the door. No one was in there, maybe they were somewhere deeper inside. Using a finger, I pushed the door open slowly and gently. Not much moonlight shone through. Luckily, besides a faint creaking noise produced by the door, no other sound was heard. I gulped, thinking, "Get a grip, I had prepared for this, it's only one Broken-Nose Seahorse…"
I set my right foot into the cottage. Once it contacted with the wooden floor gently, I moved slowly and brought my left foot inside. Good, the floor in this cottage would not creak if I tiptoed. I left the door ajar to allow for an easy escape later. I tiptoed carefully, wading into the dark inner depths of the wooden cottage. The size of the cottage was a bit larger than I imagined, but I never expected it to be larger inside. Now I could see things better; there were not many furniture (no wonder I had not walked into any desks or chairs after wandering for so long), heaps of hay were on the floor, but most of them were stacked at the corners and edges.
I arrived at another door, except there was no door but a rectangular hole. Beyond that was an empty room. Oddly enough, I perspired a lot, and I felt a little hot. I observed my surroundings, there were no windows or holes in this room; poor ventilation. Just then, I kicked something. I crouched down and saw a candle, and it was already used. Strangely, it was warm to the touch. So there was someone in here! I put the candle aside, and held onto my wooden board tightly, preparing to strike at any time. Just then…
"Ka!" A noise came from the other side of the room, sounding like stepping onto wooden boards. I decided not to shout "Who goes there?!" like in the movies, I remained silent instead, and listened well to see if there was any movement. Soon, another noise came out. "Graa…" Time for action! I took a few quick steps to the source of noise, gripping onto my weapon. This startled whoever was there and they escaped, accidentally knocking over a chair. "Don't run!" I said, running, the person ran too. I chased him down. After a sharp turn, I entered a new room, but the person disappeared.
Crap… While I was confused, suddenly the door shut and locked itself! That person must have been hiding behind the door and escaped when I was distracted. I took a quick glance around the room; no windows, no holes, was I being trapped in a confined space? I tried crashing, kicking and hitting the door, but nothing happened. Shoot, I really was trapped! There was no light. After I switched on the torchlight, I discovered that the room was fairly new. No broken wooden boards and planks could be found, and there was nothing I could use to break the door down. I thought, "That person was prepared all along and waited for me to walk into their trap. I fell for it!" "Damn you Sato! Let me out! Don't hide if you have the guts! Shameless!" I then wasted the next ten minutes kicking and hitting wooden structures that did not look hard. I wore myself out, but nothing happened. That was tiring. There were no cracks or holes here, the ventilation was poor and it was getting really hot and stuffy.
Darn it! I was about to punch the wooden wall, but I seemed to have no energy to pick up my arm. I lifted it up with difficulty, only to see my right thumb bending into my palm. My left arm went cold, and all energy had drained out of both arms. How could it be cold when it was so hot in here?! It was the relapse again! I was in dire need of carbon dioxide, but I could not find anything like a plastic bag to cover my nose. The relapse kicked in pretty fast this time. Since I was breathing quite heavily, soon my legs went numb and weak. Dizziness picked up too. That was odd; how could there be sufficient oxygen in this stuffy room?! Regardless, the level of carbon dioxide would eventually increase in the end, therefore it was impossible for the relapse to occur. What was going on…?!
Right now, I had already collapsed onto the floor. My limbs were numb, even my head hurt. This would not do, I had to inform Lucky 7! I moved my hands with difficulty to search for my interphone but it was missing. Shoot! I must have dropped it somewhere! Even if I wanted to scream, I did not have much energy left to do so. I did not know why the relapse happened again, but suddenly it clicked in my mind. "Could it be? Hydrogen per-peroxide? And… and also… potassium… hydroxide…" I muttered to myself, trying to push myself up, and staggered to a big heap of hay. I then swept the hay aside; if said substances were in there, I had to drain them! Hydrogen peroxide would decompose to water and oxygen, if there was potassium hydroxide as well, all carbon dioxide would be absorbed! Crap, this kook was planning to toss me into hell!
My consciousness was flickering. Once I pushed a small stack of random hay away, a bunch of beakers were revealed, some contained dark grey liquid while some contained transparent solution. I jumped backwards, falling onto the floor. "Shoot… He added… posi…tive catalyst… Manganese (IV) ox… oxide…" If so, it would be better for me to just leave them be. The concentration of the strong alkali potassium hydroxide could be high as well for all I knew. I could easily burn myself in my wobbly state. There was hay everywhere… Do not tell me there were these liquids everywhere! Being surrounded by something with a pH value higher than twelve was not cool…
I ran out of energy… Consciousness left me as well, I could only say these words, "Broken-Nose… Seahorse… Just… you… wait…!" And then, darkness invaded my sight, and I could not remember what happened next… Soon, a tiny hole appeared on the door, an eye was peeking through from the outside. The person outside snickered, and pushed a cork into the hole. And then, he talked to himself, "Hah, it did work, the information given by that person was indeed accurate… haha!"
… What is that thing… Moving on… my hand? Vibrating nonstop… What…
… Wake up now!
"Whoa!" Zexion sat up on his bed abruptly, his breathing a little irregular. He pushed his bangs aside, his fingers touched his forehead. It was damp; cold sweats undoubtedly. "Phew… So it was only a nightmare…" He lifted his left arm, wanting to pull his blanket away, but he felt a hard object applying pressure on his wrist. He turned his head to look at his left hand, it was a digital alarm clock, still blaring out the alarm. He stared blankly at it for a second, and then he said, "Is this not Nemix's alarm clock? Speaking of which, what was she thinking… her clock had gone off for such a while and she did not even bother to wake up and turn it off…" Zexion sighed, rubbing his left eye while saying, "Hey, Nemix, the clock went off, time to wake up!"
No response.
"… Nemix?" He felt strange and asked again. When he stopped rubbing his eye, he could finally take a good look. On his left, there was no one on Nemix's bed, even the blanket and the pillow strewn about on it. "How strange, she is not here…? Why did she not turn off the alarm? … Maybe she forgot. *Sigh* I should wash up and get prepared, and then think this through…" He shrugged, stretched and got up from the bed. Then, he headed to the washroom.
Fast Forward Ten Minutes
Zexion changed into his clothes, but the girl was still nowhere in sight. He glanced at his watch, it was now 07:48. "Hmm, strange. Where could she have gone early in the morning? Could she have gone to teach Sato a lesson again like last time?" he muttered to himself, sitting on the edge of his bed. "Impossible, Sato is wanted by us, and he seems to know we are trying to capture him, so he hid himself away from us, out of the spotlight." He then stood up, and walked to the hot kettle to pour himself a cup of warm green tea. Zexion took a sip and continued to think, "Could she have found him? And she did not inform us? … Judging her personality, there is a big possibility she would make up her own decisions and go capture him alone, but that could only happen if she was desperate, had no chance to inform us or time was running out. Could it be…" Zexion felt something clicked in his mind, so he quickly set the empty cup aside and walked to Nemix's bed.
He observed the bed and mused, "The bed is in a mess. She always folds her blanket, puts it on her pillow and arranges them at the head of the bed. Maybe she went out at midnight, or else it would not be like this." He touched and felt the bed's surface and said, "It has been a long time; even body warmth cannot be detected. Taking the breeze into account, I cannot estimate when she went out." Next, he rummaged through the small desk beside the bed, and thought, "The things that are missing were her interphone, GPS device and torch… It is understandable for her to bring her gadgets along, but she also took the torch! Who would use a torch and run around a beach during daytime? She must have gone out at night."
Zexion was still thinking when someone knocked on the door and there was a voice outside, "Hey! It's Xion!" Zexion pulled himself out from his deep thoughts and went for the door. Xion grinned when the door was opened. She asked, "I was thinking the whole night, but I just couldn't think of an idea to find Sir Broken-Nose Seahorse, so I came here to brainstorm with you guys." "Oh… Come in then."
Xion walked in and asked, "Huh? Where's Nemix?" Zexion was slightly startled; he did not expect her to question Nemix's absence. He composed himself in less than a second and replied, "Oh, she went to the washroom, she has not returned yet." "… Returned? Isn't there a washroom in this bedroom?" Xion asked, tilting her head aside slightly. Zexion thought, "I cannot let her know yet!" He stated calmly, "Because, I was in this washroom earlier. She could not wait and went to the public washroom outside." "I see… Forget it, let's not wait for her then. Let's start the discussion!" chirped Xion, sitting down on a chair she found and she started talking nonstop.
Zexion was pretending to listen while he was thinking about the matter earlier, "What kind of business did Nemix have for her to go out at night and not wait until morning? Could she have found Sato? And she did not bother to tell us to come along… Maybe what she found was not Sato himself? Was it some clue to his location? The most unfathomable thing is, she still had not reported anything or returned even though the sun had risen? No other clues were found here as well…" "… Zexion? Zexy? Are you still on Earth?!" Xion received no response from the slate-haired boy concerning her hypotheses she said earlier, so she asked in a louder tone. "… Could it be… missing in action?" Zexion was too engrossed in his thoughts and did not notice his silly nickname, and he uttered something involuntarily instead. "… Missing in action? You mean Broken-Nose Seahorse? Of course he was! This dude just disappeared for no reason, what a rhetorical question… Wait! Hold on, hold on… Missing in action… *Gasp* Could it be a kidnapping?! Did the mastermind… want to kill him to shut the witness up forever?! OMG!" Xion misinterpreted Zexion's words, and her hypothesis got more ridiculous. "Huh?" Zexion, who had just snapped out of his thoughts, was also surprised and confused by Xion's outburst.
"Kidnap… Missing in action… Kill the witness…?! … This is getting worse!" Zexion was getting tangled up in his suspicions and his facial expression almost betrayed him. Just then, someone was at his door knocking again, shouting, "Yo! Sleeping Beauties! Time to wake up, man! I didn't see you guys down there and it's time to gather!" Axel was outside. Xion said, "Oops, time's up. Eh Zexion, how about we talk about this once we got down, OK?" After the words left her mouth, she turned to open the door and left, with Zexion trailing behind. "… Heh… Xion must have been too imaginative, how could this happen anyway…" He chose to not believe his suspicions.
"OK! Roll call! … Eh? One's missing." Miss Aqua said after she counted the number of students. Miss Yuffie was yawning beside her. Zexion quickly made up an excuse, "Nemix went to the restroom. She will be here soon." "Is that so… OK, today you guys can do whatever you want, so we will gather here at noon for lunch. Dismiss!" Everyone went to their destinations. Zexion thought, "Today is the seventh day. We are due to return eight days later… This matter cannot remain hidden anymore…" "Lucky 7, follow me," Zexion threw his words and turned to leave in a hurry. The rest of the five members were taken aback by his tone. "What's wrong with Zexy today? Did he eat a bomb?" asked Demyx. Roxas commented, "His face is void of emotions… It looks scary." Axel merely shrugged and said, "Whatever, let's go with him." They followed Zexion, still not realising that one of them was missing…
Once they reached a big rock near the chalet, Zexion stopped dead in his track. "Zexion… What's wrong, you don't look too good…?" asked Roxas. Zexion took one deep breath, turned to face the members and said, "207 went missing." Three seconds of dead silence… "… What?!" Demyx and Roxas exclaimed together. "… When I got up this morning, I only heard her alarm clock ringing, and no one was on her bed. I thought she went out and would be back soon, but after I prepared for the day, she was still nowhere to be found."
Xion said, "She didn't go to the washroom after all, huh…" Zexion nodded and continued, "I did not want to cause too much trouble over this matter earlier ago, but Nemix's interphone, GPS device and the only torch in the room went missing as well. Therefore I deduced that she went out at night but still had not returned…" Axel shifted his weight to another foot and said, "Gone at night, without leaving any message for us… If she was in such a hurry, it was possible that she had discovered Broken-Nose Seahorse's whereabouts!" Lawrence said, "Agreed. But if she intended to return soon after she found what she was tracking down, she would not have to leave any messages, as in this case. So that could only mean she was kidnapped by Sato, or even worse, the mastermind…"
"So it means, Nemix only wanted to do recon, or only wanted to see where Sato was hiding, but not capturing him?" Demyx thought about it and said. Roxas added, "She thought she would be back in a jiffy, but instead she was… *Gulp* discovered?" "I wouldn't exclude this possibility, but it could be worse than this…" Xion said slowly. "It's pointless to guess aimlessly here, we have to find her at once!" Axel was getting impatient. Zexion reminded, "Remember! Do not alert anyone yet, including the teachers. Except for the seven of us, no one here knows our true identities and motives. We will split up and look for them ourselves."
This time, Lucky 7 did not form groups, but all six of them went separate ways alone. Demyx was walking along the coastline. He was thinking, "Let's see… the last time I saw Nemy was last night, before we headed back to the chalet and went to bed… Was there anything strange? I first called out for her a few times, yes, because she still hadn't return from looking for the paper. I found her after about one minute, she had her back against me at that time… Facing the sea… What was in the sea? Hmm…"
While he was lost in thought, he stopped gradually, he was now at where he found her last night. "It's here. Was there anything in the water? Ah… I can't recall. Then again, I saw nothing back then… We then left, she walked in front of me, and we didn't stop halfway back to the chalet. So, what was the thing out of the ordinary?! *Sigh*… What a headache…" Demyx crossed his arms in front of his chest,with one of his feet tapping on the sand. He thought hard. Soon, he knelt down, picked up a pebble and threw it forcefully afar. The pebble hit the surface of the sea and sank into the deep abyss. He wanted to pick up one more, and that was when he spotted a new discovery: footprints.
"… That's right, if Nemix did find something, it should be at the time between when she was chasing the paper and when I found her. Since there were so many footprints here… I'll just have to find Nemix's footprints! Demyx my man, why are you SO clever? Hehe! Let's look for it…" Demyx spun around and crouched down to study the different footprints on the beach carefully. But after some time, he discovered nothing. "… Argh! 207… Why did the shoeprints of your slippers have to be so ordinary?! This is pointless… Screw that! Time is limited, since I don't have any clues with me, perhaps if I follow these footprints, I'll come across something!" After he said that, he got up immediately and followed the trails left behind. While Demyx was walking, he occasionally looked up at the path ahead. He did this several times and when he looked up once again, he saw something shiny black buried in the sand.
"What's that…" He ran up, bent down and picked it up. "Holy Kingdom Hearts! Isn't this… Nemix's interphone?! Why is it here?" While he was confused, suddenly something came into his mind, "Oh yes… Zexy said this before, that 207 took her interphone along with her when she was missing! She must have been here… Right, carry on with the trailing…" He put away the interphone in his pocket and quickly continued his journey. However, he forgot to inform the others…
No sooner, just like his friend did, he finally arrived at a wooden cottage. It was well-hidden within big rocks and difficult to spot. "Whoa… This wooden cottage sure is big… Could 207 have gone inside too?" He wanted to take a step forward, unfortunately he accidentally stepped on a round stone, and he fell forward and hit his knees. "OW! That hurt~" He remained on the sand for about five seconds, and then he got up slowly and said, "How nice, I fell when I have just got here… Not a good sign, yikes!" He swept the sand off himself gently and tiptoed to the wooden cottage. There was a hole of the size on an infant's fist on the wall, so he went closer to it and peeked through.
There were not many furniture inside, only a small table and a few fallen chairs on the ground. Some of them were missing legs. On the floor lay scattered hay, but most of the hay were accumulated at the corners. "What kind of a wooden cottage is this? It seems long abandoned… Creepy…" Demyx peeked for a while and thought, "Judging this state, no one seems to live here, and there are no signs of someone having been here before… Or maybe there really are people deeper inside, hmm… Should I go in and check it out?"
He was so absorbed in his peeping, little did he know, someone was coming up to him from his back… "Hmm, anyway, her stuff was still found on the way here… I guess the others don't know how to get here…" He continued to think, and the person behind was getting closer. "… Maybe I should return and report. We'll have to think about this," he said to himself, just when he was about to turn around, he was hit by some hard object on the nape. The force was too great, he did not get to see the assailant's face and lost consciousness, falling to the ground. Once the assailant confirmed that Demyx was not moving, he gestured at the rocks. After that, two men emerged from their hiding spots within the rocks. "You two were too careless, luckily I predicted someone coming to investigate here sooner or later, or else isn't our plan going to be ruined?!" The assaulter pointed and waved the wooden club he used to hit Demyx angrily at the two men, while scolding them in a hushed tone.
"Yes yes yes… We get it. Eh, hurry, before the boss returns, let's finish this kid first!" A tall man suggested. The shorter man standing beside him slapped the tall man's back of the head and said, "Are you nuts?! We are at a beach here, there are so many tourists, if someone discovered his dead body, can we shirk away?!" The assailant nodded and said, "He's got a point, we'll carry him in, and then we'll ask the boss when he returns." Two men pulled Demyx into the wooden cottage, while one went a hundred metres away and cleared the footprints from there all the way to the cottage. He returned once he was done.
"Eh… That's not right. It's already noon, why hasn't Demyx showed up yet?" Axel was pacing back and forth, muttering. Roxas sat on the sand and said, "Yeah, we were told to meet here at this time… Argh Axel! Stop walking back and forth in front of me! I can't concentrate…" Just then, Xion approached them, saying, "I'm back. Eh? You're the only ones here?" Lawrence and Zexion got there in ten minutes.
"Let me see… Only 135 has not returned. Soon we are going to have lunch. Time is running out, let us present our report one by one. I will go first: I discovered nothing at the western part of the beach," Zexion said. Axel continued, "I found nothing as well…" Roxas sighed and said, "Me too…" Lawrence said, "I paid great attention to the footprints nearby, but there were too many people walking around the beach, and we don't have a sample of 207's shoeprint to compare with. I can't get any clues concerning her whereabouts." "This… *Sigh* my luck wasn't all that good either, I discovered nothing," Xion said, disappointed.
Zexion said, "Looks like we gained nothing at all… What to do- Wait, where is 135?" Ha! Good question, but who was able to answer that? "Speaking of which, I didn't see him," 443 only noticed they were one more member short until now. Axel sensed that everyone was going to panic again, he quickly said, "Hey, chill guys, maybe he was tracking down something!" Roxas panicked and said, "Don't tell me he went missing too!" Xion stared at Roxas with wide eyes and said, "You mean he was discovered and kidnapped?!" All hell broke loose, they stared at each other in panic and fear, after one second they screamed together, "AAAAAAAHH~~!"
Zexion could not help but facepalmed, thinking, "Way to go, Axel…" Axel quickly said, "Hey! Hey! Stop imagining things! No way in hell this could happen! OK?!" Lawrence said to Zexion, "I take it that we won't be eating lunch afterwards…" Zexion shook his head and said, "No, we still have to pretend like nothing happened. 135 would not just disappear for no reason, perhaps he was like 207; he found something and was captured… The situation is not clear yet, if we alert others, like the teachers, it would be unavoidable to call the police. When that happens, the kidnappers might do something even worse than we thought to them or us…" Lawrence could only say, "… That's the only thing we could do. Furthermore, if the kidnappers wanted money, they would have their ways to contact us."
Zexion saw Axel, Roxas and Xion were still in turmoil over there, he walked up to them and commanded, "Hey! Stop this at once!" They all shut up, turned around to look at him. "Ahem… Sorry, we have to remain calm! Now, we are fighting an invisible enemy, we cannot make any wild guesses, nor can we do anything foolish We will have our lunch first, and then we split up again to look for 207 and 135. Is that clear?" The trio then nodded slowly. Roxas said, "… Alright, I am hungry." "You're right, I need more energy from food to search for them." Xion admitted. Axel let out a sigh of relief, and said, "Then let's go finish it quick!"
Fast Forward Fifteen Minutes
Now, Lucky 7 was on the move again. Only five members left to look for the two disappeared comrades under the sun. After a short break at 1500 hours, they were about to continue searching, but the teachers had different plans, "Everyone! We successfully booked a ship, now we are going to take a trip around the deep sea region." "Crap… What do we do now? We are short of two people here. We couldn't possibly say we are going to stay here. Things would get suspicious," Axel said to Zexion in a hushed tone. Zexion answered, "Let me think of something…" He looked around, and he spotted something. "I got it!" he sighed in relief.
"Eh! Wait Demyx! Not so fast!" Axel called, chasing a boy with a cap all the way into the ship. "Ah! Everyone don't be hasty! There are plenty of spaces…" Miss Aqua and Miss Yuffie were busy maintaining the order. Zexion spotted another chance, he pulled another person's hand and shouted, "Hey! Axel! Wait for me and Nemix!" And then together they ran into the entrance of the ship. The teachers were confused by the sudden reaction, but they still had to watch over the queue of students at the back.
In the ship, the teachers counted the number of students. "Hmm, OK, all here. You may go around." "Yeah!" Some of them cheered, and then they went to their respective destinations. Zexion brought all Lucky 7 members aside and said, "OK, you two did a great job." The one Axel was chasing earlier removed his cap and returned it to Axel, he said, "It's nothing, but… why did I have to disguise as another person?" Axel made up an excuse quickly, "Oh, nothing! Because I… eh, am having a bet with my friend! Saying… if he could hide himself away for three hours, he would treat us to a buffet! But he cheated, so I left him to… eh… continue hiding! Hehe…" Roxas looked at Axel disdainfully, thinking, "EPIC FAIL…"
"… Oh, OK…" That person walked away in confusion, Xion said to him, "Don't worry! You will still get to get off this ship even if we don't know you." Once Zexion saw that the person had gone far enough, he said, "You can take off your hat now, Ienzo." Ienzo removed the hat and hand it to Zexion. He asked, "What happened? Why did I have to disguise as Nemix?" Zexion said, "The same reason as Axel's. You have nothing to worry about and everything is fine." Ienzo looked at Zexion, dubious. Later he said, "You don't have to hide the truth so hard from me, I knew something was up when you came to me just now. Please, tell me what's wrong. Where is Nemix? Why is Demyx missing too?" "…" Zexion was at a loss of words, hesitating over whether to let Ienzo know or not.
"… Sure, I can let you know about this, but you will have to ensure that you will not divulge anything to anyone besides the five of us, or else you will be responsible for anything that happens to us and the missing people, do you understand?" Zexion decided to let the "litigant" in on this, so he said that in a very serious tone. "Yes, I will not divulge anything like you said." "Here is not a good place to talk, follow me."
"What?! Nemix went missing first, and Demyx was next?!" Ienzo said in shock. Zexion sighed and said, "We cannot afford to alert anyone. This is like fighting an invisible enemy and we do not know who we are up against." He then thought, "It would be better if I do not let him know all these had something to do with Sato. I only have to let him know they are simply missing. Now, besides the members, it is risky to simply believe in anyone. 207 knows martial arts, 135 is not entirely weak too. Those capable of kidnapping them are definitely not pushovers…" Ienzo said firmly, "Let me join you guys in the search party! I haven't been to this beach before, but there's nothing I don't know about Japan. I want to find them as soon as possible too."
Roxas said, "Zexion, I think it should be fine. More people means more progress. After all, you have told him what should be told, right?" Roxas emphasised "should", hinting that Ienzo was not suitable to know more than he already did at the moment, but he could help. Axel and Xion agreed as well. Lawrence said, "We do need more people…" Zexion closed his eyes and rubbed his temples and said, "Fine, I accept your request, but all of your actions will be decided by me." "Sure! No problem! Your call. I'm OK with it," Ienzo nodded his head vigorously, agreeing with everything.
After about an hour or so, the ship returned to the beach. After everyone got off the ship, Lucky 7 moved out to search, but after five mere minutes… "What the heck is going on?! Not before, not later, it just had to pick this time to rain?! What's the meaning of this?!" Axel huffed after he ran back into the chalet lobby for shelter from the torrential rain. Xion said, "It's useless to get worked up, who would've thought it would rain heavily today?" Roxas was staring into space. Lawrence said to Zexion, "It's not suitable to discuss in the lobby, I say we go to one of our rooms." "Nice idea…"
In Zexion and Nemix's room… "OK, let us sort out today's progress," Zexion cleared his throat and continued, "This morning, Nemix was missing, but according to the first scene investigation it is concluded that she went out last night. Why, you ask? I seriously do not know (Damn it, some things could not be mentioned in front of Ienzo…). After much searching, even Demyx was reported MIA." Axel asked, "Actually, I don't understand; why did they disappear one by one? Could they have gone to the same place? And they somehow discovered something similar?" Roxas asked, "You mean, like, something not to be divulged?"
Xion facepalmed, saying, "Argh, dear god, they didn't even report anything to us…" Ienzo asked out of curiosity, "Report?" Lawrence noticed that Xion almost blew their cover, so he said, "Nothing, it's just that we like to play… detective games, so we always use some, eh, detective language! You get me?" Ienzo replied, "Oh… I see, so that means you guys would use some detective devices like interphones to communicate? That's cool." "Interphones? Why yes of course!" Axel said, smirking.
"Interphones?" Xion lifted her face from her palms and mumbled to herself. Roxas felt strange and said, "Yeah, interphones. Why?" Suddenly, thunder roared, a loud noise boomed and echoed in the room. "Wah!" Roxas fell from his chair due to shock, but Xion stood up from her chair abruptly, exclaiming, "That's it! Interphones! Why haven't I thought of this before?!" Lightning flashed and thunder boomed again afterwards. "Hahaha! I'm such a genius! Hahaha!" Everyone at the scene stared at her with a "Dude, WTF?" face. "Er… Miss Xion… Your shouting in the lightning and thunder was… maniacal…" Axel commented later.
Lawrence also said, "383, is there any problem with… interphones?" Xion saw everyone's reaction, she scratched her head and said sheepishly, "Oh, yeah, sorry… Anyways, I forgot about something: our interphones have positioning functions! We can set our interphones' frequencies to match theirs, and then we can find their interphones! They always bring theirs with them, right?! So that would be where they were too!" Everyone was silent for five seconds…
"… You're right! Why didn't I think of it earlier?" Axel realised it too. Lawrence said, "Way to go!" "Very well, no need to procrastinate, let us start the search," said Zexion after he nodded, taking out his interphone from his pocket. Xion smirked and said, "Hehe, am I clever?" "Heck yeah, to the extent of squashing random people without realising!" A muffled voice came from under Xion, she looked down: Roxas was facing the floor, with one of her feet on his back. "Oh no! Sorry Roxas!" said the panicked girl while pulling him up. "Luckily you didn't squash me flat, or else you would be on my haunting list," said Roxas, rubbing his back. Ienzo stood off to the side, saying, "Eh… Can we start now?"
Everyone, except Ienzo, was trying out all the frequency ranges they were delegated to and searched for the two missing members. After about fifteen minutes… "How frustrating… It's raining cats and dogs outside, and the signals are very weak," said Roxas, changing into another frequency again. Axel added, "Besides, if they didn't switch on their interphones, we won't be able to locate them even if we used homing missiles!" "That can be probable; they were trespassing into enemy's lair, there is a risk of alarming the enemy if they switched them on, as we would try to contact them; or the enemy had discovered the interphones, either they switched them off, discarded them or destroyed them. We cannot be sure of any of those," Zexion thought while listening for any noises from the interphones on different frequencies patiently. Ienzo felt that everyone was busy except him and that made him slightly uneasy, so he asked, "What if… the interphones are at somewhere else? Not with them or discovered?" Lawrence replied, "It is a possibility, but if they didn't turn their interphones on, we still can't locate them…"
Xion said to herself, "Well, this is the last frequency to try…" And then she set the frequency and held her interphone to her ear. In a split second, she suddenly jolted away, the interphone flew to the floor and she fell to the floor sitting. "Good God, why was that so loud?!" "What?" Except Xion, everyone exclaimed. Roxas helped her up, asking, "We tried and tried for ages, yet we hear no noise, how did you get it in one shot?" Zexion picked up the interphone on the floor and turned to Xion while asking, "What did you hear?" She rubbed her ears and said, "Just a string of random noises! It went "Slashasha" and "Shuashuaaa" and "Paslahsssha", like tuning an old-fashioned radio. But man that was too loud… Oh my ears…"
Roxas thought about it for a while and said, "This noise… According to the user manual… it's either broken, or the interphone was currently recording voices whilst receiving electromagnetic or radio wave disturbance." Zexion sighed and said, "Either way, we still cannot find their exact location." Axel slammed the wall with his fist and groaned, "What the heck… But that's odd; out of so many functions, why use voice recording?" Ienzo tilted his head to the side and thought out loud, "The noises Xion described just now sounded like ocean waves."
"Wait! Ienzo, you said sounded like what?"Zexion suddenly interrupted, which is uncommon for him. Ienzo jolted and then replied, "… Ocean waves. Any problem?" Zexion continued, "Voice recording… Ocean waves… Could it be like this: the interphones may still be intact, but perhaps due to voice recording, it picked up noises near the seaside by chance?" Roxas said, "Hey, it's possible! But the signal strengths are pretty weak and unstable, you sure that noise isn't caused by interference of other random radio waves? We still can't locate the interphones accurately that way." "Xion tried that frequency after we all gave up, due to the decrease in number of interference of emitting radio waves, we may have successfully connected to their interphones," Zexion sat down and said. Ienzo said, "If what Zexion said is true, then the interphones would be…" "At the seaside?!" Xion and Axel yelled together. "So what are we waiting for? Why don't we go out and search?!" Roxas stood up immediately.
Lawrence objected, "But the rain is getting heavier as we speak, not only the decrease in visual range, our signal emitted would get weaker, that way we can't pinpoint the location of the interphones." "He is right. Also, even if we found the interphones, we still would not necessarily find Nemix and Demyx proper. Moreover, if the interphones were really with them, perhaps we would not be able to hear that noise anymore, and they would at least answer us, no?" Zexion explained. Roxas said, "But, what if they couldn't answer us?" Axel repeated, "Couldn't answer?" Roxas said, "Eh, yeah, as in having lost consciousness or-" "De-" Xion was about to scream, but Axel covered her mouth in time, and he replied hastily, "I reckon they must have fainted! Hehe!"
Zexion rubbed his temples, closed his eyes and said, "It is useless to go out unplanned and search aimlessly. We need a plan." Ienzo rubbed his palms anxiously. His face looked tense and worry was written all over his face. "I just hope they are all right…"
It was 1713 hours, Lucky 7 noticed that the rain had finally ceased, and they went out searching at once. "OK, to prevent any one of us going missing again if we go solo, we will now split up in groups: 013 and 383, 222 and 443, Ienzo and I. Once you discovered anything, report to me via interphones at once. Move out!" Zexion gave his mission briefing, and everyone went different ways to look for the missing members.
Roxas and Xion were assigned to search along the coastline, they walked along the beach for a while, but they still had not spotted anything suspicious. Roxas said, "The sand on the beach now looks flattened, the rain just now must have been very heavy." "It sure was, but the sand was also too wet, if it gets stuck on your foot it gets troublesome…" said Xion, while lifting her left ankle to wipe off the wet sand particles.
"Then again, after such torrential rain, won't the clues get washed away? There are no footprints here anywhere," Xion said later, getting worried. "At least we may be able to find their interphones… Furthermore, they were recording, if that function was activated when they went missing, they might have recorded something!" Roxas walked in front of Xion, he said that while looking on the sand by lowering his gaze. Xion shrugged and commented, "Luckily our new interphones are waterproof, or else it will be weird if they still remain intact after they were washed by the waves and drowned in the rain."
[Switch to the next group]
"May I know… why… are we looking for people in this bunch of yellow plants?!" Axel lost his cool again and yelled behind Lawrence. "These are not 'bunch of yellow plants', mate. They are mustard. From January to March, there are fields of mustard in this place," Lawrence continued to wander into the depths of the field full of mustard, while explaining to Axel. "Besides, what if the interphones were not recording voices, but malfunctioned? This place looks like a good place to hide people, so we can't let the chance slip," he said again. Axel let out a sigh and said, "Fine, I'll listen to you just one more time. They'd better be here… *grumble grumble*"
[Switching scene again to another group]
At a lighthouse… "We sure can see the places far away above here," commented Zexion, gazing at the seaside around him. Ienzo said, "I have heard of a lighthouse at the cape of Irago. Since we are here to look for people, it would be best if we can have a bird's-eye view." The two boys were looking at the places below them, and silence invaded… Ienzo stopped walking, but he did not turn around to look at Zexion. He asked, "But… there's something I don't understand; if they were missing, why didn't Nemix or Demyx contact you guys personally? I mean, not via interphones, but the public phones or police." Zexion was about to say something, but the words were smothered once they reached the end of his throat. He was not planning to let Ienzo know that they were most probably being kidnapped, and the kidnappers may have something to do with Sato, Sir Broken-Nose Seahorse.
Actually, Zexion was a little suspicious of Ienzo. Why was it every time when Ienzo appeared, Sato appeared as well? It was not the first time Nemix tried to convince him to report Sato, why did he not do as told as soon as possible? Was he afraid that Sato might not let him go easily, or was he afraid of implication? The person he spent the most time with was her, and she was the first one to go missing… There were many doubts as to what was really happening, but he had no evidence at all. Right now, the reason why Zexion agreed to let Ienzo tag along was to keep a close eye on him; was he really innocent? Or everything was merely an act?
To conclude that Ienzo was in cahoots with Sato was also honestly arbitrary. After all, Zexion did not know Ienzo much; they did not quite understand each other. Maybe he was not as bad as he imagined. Also, Nemix never let him know about Lucky 7's presence and motive. So perhaps he… Argh! How irritating! "BAM!" Zexion's thoughts reached here and he was getting frustrated and irritated by the minute, so he slammed a fist on the railing. "… Zexion, are you OK?" Ienzo was startled by the other boy's outburst, so he asked timidly.
"Was it something I said…?" Ienzo walked closer to Zexion. Zexion tried to regain composure and took a deep breath. "Nothing… It was just that I still cannot find them…" "*Sigh*… Were they really missing?" Ienzo mumbled to himself quietly. Zexion shook his head slowly and said, "I do not know…"
[Switching scene back to the first group]
"Wah~ My legs are killing me!" Roxas sat down and complained, while gently beating his calves with his fist. Xion also found a rock and sat on it, saying, "Bro, your legs are killing you, mine are dying! Let's rest up and then continue… Geez…" Two of them sat there, chatting while resting. Roxas propped his chin with his hands, saying, "There really was nothing… Could they have really been washed away by the rain?" Xion crossed her arms in front of her chest and said, "Or else? What do you expect? Abducted by an UFO?" Roxas extended his arms and waved them exaggeratedly, saying, "How would I know about THA-" Suddenly he fell backwards. "-AAAAAAAAAH~~?!" He was facing the sky now. "Ow… That hurt…" His legs were still on the rock, but his upper part of the body was behind the rock he was sitting on. "Holy Crap! Is this the work of a ghost?" Xion exclaimed with her eyes widened. Roxas' legs kicked in the air and he said, "What ghost?! I made myself fell, no ghost pushed me! Eh, wait, why am I blabbering that much? Hurry up and pull me up!"
"That's not it! Look!" Xion then made a move to help Roxas up, and then she pointed at the path behind Roxas. "A while ago when we sat down, we sat facing each other; you faced the way we took, while I faced the road we were supposed to take afterwards. Your big head was in the way earlier, so when you fell, I saw it," Xion explained, with the same facial expression as before. "What was it that made you-" Roxas said while turning around to see, and he was surprised as well. "Holy crap! The work of a ghost!" Roxas exclaimed. Xion pouted and said, "Hey! That's my line!"
Alright, no need to beat around the bush, let me tell you now: on the sandy beach not too far from them were some footprints, but the strange thing was that they appeared out of nowhere; no trails led to where they were from.
"How can this be?" Roxas went closer to the footprints and asked. "This sort of footprints… Either the person came out from some hole near here and continued its walk, or the person cleared away his footprints he left behind while he was walking," Xion hypothesised. Roxas looked at the footprints for a while, and then he said, "Could it be like this: during the heavy rain earlier, someone was walking along here with an umbrella, the rain had washed the footprints flat. Then the rain was letting up eventually, so this person closed the umbrella and continued his journey?" Xion nodded and said, "Highly likely. Also, if you look at the footprints, they resemble the shoeprints of a rain boot. This could only mean that the person went out during the rain and returned around the time the rain stopped! Or else, why would someone wear rain boots for no apparent reason?"
Roxas continued, "The rain was so heavy, if the person picked that time to come out, it must have been urgent, but… why?" "Eh… everyone at this beach went back to their respective chalets, hotels and whatnot during the rain. Could they have wanted to do something they didn't want people to know?" guessed Xion. Roxas then shook his head vigorously a few times, and then he said, "Argh, who cares? We just have to follow the footprints, and then we would know what's going on, right?!" Xion realised it later, "Oh, right…" "Let's go."
"Eh! Wait!" Xion suddenly remembered something, so she called out to stop Roxas from running. "What is it?" Roxas asked, a little impatient. "Did you forget what 006 told us before? We have to report to him at once and then resume our mission!" Xion answered. "Oh yes… I forgot all about it." After that, he pulled out his interphone, trying to contact Zexion. After one minute… "Strange, I can't contact him," said Roxas, slightly confused. "No way… Let me try…" Xion used her own interphone, but she realised that it was out of batteries. "Crap, out of batteries…" "Mine was a little malfunctioned… Maybe it was due to my fall just now," Roxas examined his interphone and said. "How about you?" "Me? Mine was not charged…" Xion stuck her tongue out for a split second and said.
"Looks like we won't be able to report back… What do you say we should do?" Roxas put his interphone back into his pocket and asked, facing Xion. "… It's useless to wait here anyway, since we won't be able to contact 006, why don't we leave some kind of message for them to discover, and then we continue to follow the trail," suggested Xion. Roxas nodded and said, "Sounds good to me. I say, this method seems good, and it's not too obvious…"
Fast Forward Two Minutes
Roxas clapped his hands twice, and said, "OK! Everything's set! Now let's follow the footprints." The two of them continued their search… "That's strange… Where do these footprints lead to? We've been walking for some time now," Xion asked while walking, Roxas was walking in front of her, he said, "This place's very remote, I can't even hear people's noises anymore." Just then, he stopped suddenly, Xion did not stop just in time and walked into him. "OW! Hey 013, what're you doing, stopping without signalling me?" "No… Look, what is that?" Roxas said, pointing to the front. Xion looked over.
"Whoa… Since when had this wooden cottage been here and I don't even know about it?!" Xion said. Roxas warned immediately, "Shush! Be quiet, if here's the bad guy's lair, we would be discovered if we're this loud!" Xion blocked her mouth with her hand, nodding her head. Roxas muttered under his breath, "I don't know if 207 and 135 were here too…?" They tiptoed nearer to the wooden cottage. Roxas put his ear on the door's surface, trying to listen for some noise. Xion looked around her and said to herself, "There are a lot of wooden planks here, and pebbles too. It would be such a waste for not using them as self-defence weapons…" She picked a piece of wooden plank and some pebbles, and then she asked, "Eh 013, you've been listening over there for ages, any discoveries?"
"… Someone seems to be in there, because there are some low rustling voices…" Roxas said in a low tone, continuing to listen. Xion was getting impatient, so she found a small hole and peeked through it into the interior of the wooden cottage. "013, there's nothing in here, why don't we head to the back and eavesdrop there?" Xion peeked for a while, and then she whispered to Roxas. Roxas said, "OK, let's go." They carefully moved half a circle to the back of the wooden cottage. Roxas said, "Hey 383, there's quite a big hole here, let's eavesdrop here." "OK." Roxas crouched down to listen, while Xion found another hole to peek through. "The voices became clearer," Roxas mumbled. "Shh! There are people inside!" Xion warned in an even lower tone.
Sure enough, three people stood together in a circle and were talking inside; it looked like they were discussing something important. Xion strained her eyes and muttered, "Looks like there are still one or two more people inside, but I can't see…" Roxas was still eavesdropping on their conversation, the content was as follows:
1: "So how? Did you find anything when you went out just now?"
2: "There's nothing at all! Darn it, that kid tricked us!"
3: "I had already told you to not simply believe in that kid and you ignored me…"
2: "Hey! What if she had really left some clues or evidences outside and someone finds it?! Then we'll be screwed!"
3: "Maybe it's just-"
1: "Alright! Enough! When are you guys going to stop squabbling? If you guys want to quarrel so much, do it in front of the boss!"
2 & 3: "*Shut up immediately, glaring slightly at each other*"
1: "Yesterday Sato told us, there could still be people looking for us out there, and we did catch two meddling kids after that. I say we should go out less to avoid attention."
3: "But, the boss hasn't returned these days, could someone have found out?"
1: "He did tell us that he was waiting for some ordered assets, and he wanted us to keep an eye on the stuffs here, so he needs to wait for days at XX jetty."
2: "I really hope boss comes back soon, and get rid of those two troublesome people… *grumble*"
Now, Roxas' eyes almost popped out of his eye sockets. "What?! Sato had something to do with these bad guys?! They caught two people… Could they be 207 and 135?! And they wanted to *gulp* get rid of them?! OMG… XX jetty? I had to take note of that! This was a vital clue…" he thought. Although they were speaking in Japanese, luckily he recorded their conversation via interphone (the communication function was damaged, not the voice recording), he would let Ienzo to decode it; he would surely know where it was. Once they captured their boss, these people would have to show themselves whether they liked it or not! "…My god… this is an emergency, I have to keep the interphone in good conditi-" "*Gasp!*" While Roxas was thinking, suddenly Xion gasped. Xion covered her mouth with her hand, her eyes wide while staring into the hole she was peeking through. "You want to scare me to death?! What's wrong?!" Roxas was shocked at her sudden outburst, after he calmed down he hissed in a low tone.
"… It's… 207 and 135!" Xion said quietly, pointing inside. "No way, seriously?! Let me see…" Roxas crawled over to the hole and started peeking. "God… I was still wishing those 'two troublesome people' weren't them, who would've known…" Roxas thought.
I (Yes, 207, your average main character…) was tied with my arms behind me, even my legs were tied at the ankles, only my mouth was free. Damn it, ever since I was ambushed and woke up, I had been in this state. When I regained consciousness, it was already morning, and I was in another room, not the one where I was trapped in. Soon, they carried another person in- Demyx! It looked like he was hit on the head and fainted, that meant Lucky 7 had already known that I had mysteriously disappeared. Or else, why would anybody come here, a very secluded place?!
But after a few hours there was a rain, I was worried that the evidences might get washed away by the rain, so I fooled them… [Recalling]
"Hey! You kooks! Let me go!" I was struggling while yelling. A tall man who looked like he could eat me alive warned, "Be quiet, you! Do you want to die?!" "Heh, If you didn't do anything bad, why are you scared me of me yelling?" I said, continuing to struggle. He was enraged easily, and he raised a fist and was just about to hit me. I noticed that he was not paying much attention and I used my two tied feet to kick him where the sun did not shine. All emotions flashed on his face and he fell to the floor. He curled up and was yelping in pain.
Just then a shorter male walked over, he said, "It's useless to shout. This place is very secluded, no one will hear your screams." "Pfft! Isn't the one you carried in a person?" I retorted. He went silent. "Oh great, the rain is so heavy this time, looks like you kooks will be in trouble soon," I sighed and looked at the ceiling (there was no window). "What did you say?" The two men asked with a slight murderous intent. Then, a third man came in. He was tall and slim, but not taller than the first one. "What's going on? I heard someone yelling something about dying?"
"You all missed something; I had already buried a photo in the sands long ago. One day, I accidentally took a picture of you guys walking in and out of this wooden cottage, with some bags on your hands…" I was obviously lying, I made a mashup out of the clues I had. I was not holding onto any hopes of succeeding at first but I did not expect them to panic after hearing what I said. "You brat! Tell me now! Where did you bury the evidence?!" "Bad Temper" (the nickname I gave to that bad-tempered man) threatened me again. I replied, "How was I supposed to know? Do you want to take me outside to find it for you?" An escape nasty plot came into my mind; escape when I was outside!
"Shorty" said, "Wait a minute, I don't think her words can be trusted… Don't tell me you want to escape once we get you out?" … Crap, this time, I had a strong opponent. I said, "It's up to you to believe me or not. Two people had disappeared anyway, someone will come and find us." "Hmph! Once we kill you two, they'll never find you…" Bad Temper did an evil cackle and said.
Right, I forgot that we were still on their hands… I had to be careful. Losing your head… was not funny at all… "It would be worse if you killed us. No matter what you try to hide or discard the bodies, it wouldn't seem right, and if you guys mess with the police, you guys are going to be in more trouble," I thought for a while and then I said. "Bamboo Pole" finally said, "I say, we have to find that evidence and then destroy it." Everyone was quiet for a moment, and then Shorty said, "It seems to be the only way. But you will have to stay here. You, go and look for it." He wanted me to stay here while Bad Temper looked for the non-existent photo. Bad Temper put on his rain boots and took an umbrella with him.
Dang, I did not meet a strong opponent this time, but an evil twin who had the potential of coming up with nasty plots like me! [Recall ended]
So that was what happened when I was trapped here. Afterwards, I was chained, and the chain connected with a big metal box, so I could not escape. Demyx still had not woken up so far. I was getting anxious, but suddenly I heard some soft rustling from my right. While they were not paying attention at me, I took a glimpse at the hole on my right. Holy Bananas! Roxas and Xion! My luck had come, oh yeah! They looked surprised too. They must have not expected that Demyx and I were really kidnapped. I wanted to convey some messages to them: a) Sato was in cahoots with these bad guys; b) They were drug traffickers; c) Their boss was currently at XX jetty; d) Hurry back and report to the rest of Lucky 7, and then call the police!
Nevertheless, they were far away from me, I could not speak directly (a stupid move) and I also could not possibly write it out. It looked like I had to execute the next nasty plot… "Kuda laut adalah seperti mereka yang menjual dadah~" [Translation: Seahorse is like them, who sell drugs~] I started to sing randomly to the tune of "Shalala in the Morning" (I own nothing of this song)… Imagine it yourself! Ha! The biggest advantage of learning Malay was that nobody (except Malaysians) understood it. My singing was too horrible, and I caught everyone's attention at once. "Hey! Brat! Shut up! It's too noisy!" Bad Temper yelled angrily. I retorted, "Hey! I was bored! No one will hear me anyway! No one's going to die if I sing randomly like that!" After that, I continued, "Ketua mereka sembunyi di jeti tunggu barangan~ [Their leader hides at the jetty, waiting for the stuffs~] Cepat patah balik ke kumpulan asal~ [Quick go back to the original group~]" Ahem! It was too horrible… "Panggil mata-mata dan cepat tangkap semua~~ [Call the cops and hurry catch them all~~]" Phew! I completed the conveying, now I came to the chorus… might as well do it anyway, or they would suspect me, "Shalalalala~ Shalala in the morning~"
Roxas and Xion heard it all, initially they were like "What the Kingdom Hearts?", but then they got the message. Roxas gestured to Xion: Time to go now! Xion nodded and got up, just then-
"BONKA!" The wooden plank from Xion's hand suddenly dropped to the ground! Everyone inside the cottage was alerted. "Who's outside?!" Shorty yelled. Roxas tensed up, thinking, "Holy Crap! We're dead!" In a split second, Bamboo Pole dashed out. I pretended to be dumb, "What just happened there?" Let us hope they could escape successfully!
Xion knew that things were heading south, she said, "We split up later!" Just then, Bamboo Pole found them behind the cottage. "There you are!" "RUN!" They both screamed and went different directions; Roxas ran further to the back while Xion ran to the front entrance. Bamboo Pole saw Xion coming at him, so he prepared to catch her, but Xion slammed her wooden plank onto his head. And then she swiped it sideways to slap him right across the face! Bamboo Pole fell down and the plank also broke into two. She tossed it aside and continued to escape.
Roxas ran to the back, but he came across Bad Temper. Roxas grabbed a random wooden stick, and he readied himself in his fighting pose. Bad Temper tried to dive onto him, but Roxas saw the part he was not paying attention to and flung the stick at where the sun did not shine… again! Bad Temper fell to the ground once again, Roxas breathed heavily while saying, "… Serves you… right!" "BONG!" After a loud noise, Roxas collapsed to the ground as well. Bamboo Pole was behind him, holding the broken wooden plank earlier. He muttered, "Troublesome brat…"
Xion reached the front door, she thought, "I have to leave some signs…" She squatted down and pulled out the pebbles she picked earlier and started her work. After five seconds, she stood up and ran, but when she zoomed past some rocks, two hands shot out and pulled her into the hole among the rocks. Xion wanted to scream out loud, but there was a piece of cloth tightly sealing her mouth and nose. "It's… chloroform…!" Xion thought, trying not to breathe, but it was too late; she had gasped out of shock earlier. And then she lost consciousness. Shorty placed the cloth into his pocket and mumbled, "Finally got you…"
At the lighthouse… "222, how is the search over there?" Zexion asked via interphone. "We're searching in one after another field of mustard for nearly two hours, but there's nothing!" Axel's voice sounds slightly irritated, perhaps he had had enough. Lawrence's voice came in later, "How about you guys?" Zexion sighed and said, "Nothing as usual… Could it be that they were not at the beach?" Ienzo sat on the floor, mumbling to himself, "Where exactly are they…"
"… I will have to ask 013… 013, how was your search?" asked Zexion, but there was no response from the other side of the interphone. "013? 013! Answer if you copy," repeated Zexion, slightly uneasy. Ienzo asked, "What's wrong?" "Roxas did not respond…" Ienzo thought for a moment, and then suggested, "How about we try Xion?" Zexion initially hesitated, but then he said anyway, "383, answer me." "The device is unavailable due to lack of batteries…" The interphone emitted an electronic voice. Zexion took a deep breath and said, "Her interphone ran out of batteries…" "What?" Ienzo was a bit surprised.
Zexion asked again, "Ienzo, what is the time now?" Ienzo snapped out from his trance and glanced at his watch. "It's almost seven," he said. Dinner was roughly an hour later, and they needed fifteen minutes to return to the chalet by foot. After Zexion contemplated, he said to Ienzo, "We will go back to the chalet now, on the way there… keep an eye out for any signs of Roxas and Xion." "… Oh, but… are they missing too?" Ienzo asked quietly. Zexion only replied after a while, "I am not sure… Move out." Thus, the boys left the lighthouse.
[Switching scenes to the other group]
Axel and Lawrence were taking a rest at the roadside, Axel said, "I'd already told you they weren't here… Got it memorised? They didn't even leave any clues for us to discover." Lawrence stretched and said, "How could we be sure of that if we didn't search here? You had already done a great job; you still retained a lot of energy after so many searches, I thought I was going to die of exhaustion…" Just then, a voice came out from their interphones, "222, 443, RTC (Return To Chalet) now!" "Eh? What's up 006? It's just only 1900 hours…" asked Axel. "The situation has changed, we will talk about this at the base," the voice replied. Lawrence said, "Well, might as well do that…" Axel stood up and said, "Since we're going back, I'd better remind Roxas and Xion… Hello? 013, 383! 006 summoned us at the base, do you copy?" Of course, there was no reply. "Hey? 013? 383?" Axel asked again, feeling strange. Lawrence then called out, "Hey! Axel, the taxi's here!" Although he had questions in his heart, he still got onto the taxi with the Australian and returned to the chalet.
"That's weird, there's still about an hour before the agreed meeting time, why did Zexion want us to return now? And he said the situation has changed… Could it be…?!" Axel was on his seat, still thinking things through. Soon, the taxi stopped once they hit their destination near the chalet. After they paid to the driver and got off, Lawrence walked in front of Axel, who was trailing behind. Axel was trying to contact Roxas again via interphone, "Hello? 013! If you hear me answer at once!" … No response… "… What the heck…? 383! 383, do you copy?" "The device is unavailable due to lack of batteries…" Axel mumbled to himself, "Exactly what the hell's going on? First Nemix, then Demyx, and how did Roxas and Xion even lose contact now?! Zexion… he must know something… Damn it, he didn't even tell me right away…" Axel could not stand people mystifying things, hiding truths from him and then he was the last one to learn about it. His mood was already not great to begin with due to the continuous disappearance of his friends, now even Zexion had to pick the wrong time to act mysterious… He felt like exploding.
At that moment, Zexion was sitting on a chair by a table in the quiet chalet lobby. Although the lobby was vacant thus making it quiet and tranquil, within his heart, anxiety and worry waged war on him. It was like huge dark clouds loomed over his heart, like something bad was about to happen. "It is very likely that Roxas and Xion were both kidnapped, and I do not exclude that it was the same person's doing. But why?" He tried to calm down and think over the events that occurred one by one. Suddenly he heard a series of steps, or rather, stomps of fury.
Zexion, who was thinking with his head lowered, looked up. He saw Axel's face that had fury written all over it. Lawrence, who did not seem to know what was going on, came in later. Ienzo then came out of the washroom and regrouped. All were here, well, not technically all. "Zexion, quit beating around the bush; are Roxas and Xion missing too?" Axel was the first to ask, with gunpowder in his words. "Since it is so, then we shall be discussing what we should do later. I take it that you had tried to contact them," Zexion paused for a while before replying.
The other two was shocked upon receiving the news. Axel did a hollow laugh and said, "Good… Very good, Zexion. When will you stop hiding the truth from everyone?" Zexion took a brief glimpse at Axel and continued, "I know what you are implying, but our orders are not to publicise our motives and actions." Axel did not reply him immediately, but he slowly spun to his right, his left side facing Zexion where he stood. He said quietly, "First Nemix, next Demyx… Even Roxas and Xion are missing now…" Suddenly he spun around quickly to face Zexion, slamming a fist on the table forcefully. He growled with suppressed anger, "In two days' time they disappeared before us one by one, and now you still wanted to remain mysterious?!"
Zexion was almost taken aback by Axel's sudden burst of fury, but he remained unfazed. Zexion said, "This is not remaining mysterious. I think you should know what the kidnappers would do if we tell outsiders about this." Axel could not control himself anymore and his tone rose due to frustration, "What if they are not any other normal kidnappers?! They had already caught four people, won't they want us to pay them the ransom ASAP, to prevent hitches due to long delay and avoid trouble? Since they didn't do so, that only meant they kidnapped them for some other reason! And it could be getting rid of witnesses!"
Although Zexion was telling himself not to start a fight with Axel, he had lost it by now, "So do you think things would change for the better if we report to the police? Now we know nothing of the enemy, if we alerted them and they reacted under pressure, it is expected that they would kill the hostages!" Axel was taken aback by Zexion's seriousness for a second, and then he retorted, "Then what are you going to do?! They had already caught four of us, we almost flipped whole beach over but we still found nothing. If we continue to search like this, can you guarantee one of us won't go missing again?!" Zexion retaliated, "Just like you said, they had already caught four of us, but why us out of everyone? This proved that the enemy know our actions and everything like his back of their palm. On the other hand, we do not even know who our enemy is, how many people we are up against or where their hiding spot is! If we act rashly, do you know how severe the consequences will be?!" After he finished, he threw a fist onto the table, agitated. Even his breathing quickened.
If a usually calm Zexion also lost his temper, then what a very infuriated Axel would be like, one did not have to guess to know. Axel was not able control his temper anymore; he went up to Zexion and in a swift motion he grabbed Zexion's shirt front collar and yelled, "So what's the use you think would have if we keep on searching like this while concealing our motives and actions?! It's because we weren't flexible in our search, so even Demyx, Roxas and Xion went missing consecutively! We have no choice but to report to the police, get it?! If we continue the original plan as is, more people will share their fate! It might be you or me next in the line, and no one can save them! DO YOU KNOW HOW SEVERE THE CONSEQUENCES WILL BE?!"
Zexion was at a loss of words, but he still stared straight into Axel's eyes of fury, he did not even display any signs of flinching or wavering. Lawrence was dumbfounded all this while, once he saw that those two were about to fight sooner or later, he snapped out of his trance and went up to put out the fire, "Hey… calm down, both of you. We can talk about this, there's no need for violence. Calm down, it will be hard to explain if someone walked in and saw this commotion …" After a few seconds, Axel finally let go, he and Zexion glared at each other for a second, and then they turned their heads to different directions, refusing to look at each other. "Um… What's going on?" An overwhelmed Ienzo asked. It was understandable; he had to accept the truth that the missing people were kidnapped and they had no clue about their current situation. If he had not passed out on the spot that meant his stress resistance was still well above average. Lawrence noticed that and said to him, "I will further explain this to you later, it's important to settle their problem first."
Under Lawrence's persuasion, Zexion and Axel could finally sit down peacefully to discuss about the plans. Ienzo also grabbed a chair to sit near them. Lawrence cleared his throat and said, "Right… Shall I start first? Or should I let you guys to do the talking?" Axel and Zexion glanced at their mediator for a second and muttered coincidentally, "We go first…" Then they stared at each other again, finally Axel said, "Sure, you go first, Zexion."
Zexion lowered his head and thought for a while. Then he looked up and said, "As of now, we have four missing members. This could be the doing of the same person or group. Also, we do not have enough information about the kidnappers." Lawrence nodded and said, "This is the current situation. So, Axel you suggested to report to the police, yes?" Axel agreed, "Yes, got it memorised?" "OK, and then Zexion, you wanted to keep everything low-key, correct?" "Yes. But what I worried about was Axel's suggestion," answered Zexion. Lawrence asked, "Why is that so?" Zexion explained, "The ability of kidnapping four people consecutively without leaving any evidence behind proved that they are not pushovers. Reporting to the police would alert them unnecessarily, but I have an idea." "What idea?" The rest of the boys asked in unison.
The corners of Zexion's mouth rose just a little bit and then he said, "Consult the principal. After all, she is the one who wanted us to carry out the missions in the veil of secrecy. Also, her students were kidnapped, so she could not possibly sit there and do nothing, yes?" Lawrence then said, "Sounds good to me, Axel, what do you think?" Axel took a glance at Zexion, and he said, "Fine, I'm cool with that. I'll listen to you this one more time. At least it's better than our plans earlier."
Ten minutes after dinner, Zexion was talking to the principal on the phone for some time… "Yes. Sure. I understand." She hung up, and he also ended the call. "How was it? What did she say?" Axel asked curiously. Zexion made an eye contact signal to Lawrence, so he went to check the bedroom door. "OK, confirmed to be locked," he said. Ienzo asked, "What did the principal say?" Once Zexion saw everyone was ready, he announced, "It is necessary to call the police, but she said she will do that, so the plan can be carried out without alerting anyone. Also, she said she will talk to Miss Aqua and Miss Yuffie about this."
"So… What's our job?" asked Axel, wondering. "She wanted us to cooperate with the teachers, but we can try to gather clues." Ienzo commented, "I guess she would never have seen this coming. But seriously, you guys are on a mission to solve school bully cases?! My god! 本当にすごいです!" Axel said, "What? Hunter meet sugar dance?" Lawrence facepalmed and said, "He meant 'Really amazing'! What 'Hunter meet sugar dance'…" Zexion said, "Um… Anyhow, let us talk about the further plans…"
Ienzo: "Sounds good, you guys don't mind if I join in?"
006: "You had already known everything, what is there to mind? But I still have to apologise to you; I hid the truth from you and even suspected you."
Ienzo: "*Sigh* It's OK. You had to do that under that situation anyway. I would've done the same if I were you."
006: "Thank you for your understanding. Good, let us start from the disappearances. Anything strange you guys found from those?"
222: "…We lost contact with them… What else…?"
443: "I don't know about 207, but before 135 went missing… it looks like he was walking along the coastline."
006: "There are coastlines here everywhere, I also took the coastline, and I am still here?"
Ienzo: "But, the coastlines can be divided into east and west. Which one did you take?"
006: "The west… Ah. I remember at that time 135 walked in the direction opposite to mine. He could have taken the eastern coastline."
222: "Now that you've mentioned it, I also remembered for our second search, Roxas and Xion were assigned to check the coastline too! Maybe they also went to the east like Demyx did?"
443: "Very likely. At least we already know the missing people had been to the coastline, now what do we do?"
006: "*Sigh* If only Nemix was here, at least she could give me some random ideas from one of her nasty plots…"
Ienzo: "Why don't we brainstorm together? Let's see… We had already told the principal, and she should be informing the police right now and telling the teachers here… If the police mobilisation notice came from Tokyo, it would take hours for it to reach Aichi, and it would be the next day. Hmm…"
Just then, some door knocking noises could be heard from outside. Zexion went up to answer the door, and it seemed the teachers wanted to talk to him. After five minutes of discussion, he returned to his group. The four boys continued to discuss for an hour or so. And then they finally went to bed…
[Changing scenes to another side]
Seriously… This was frustrating me! I almost broke my wrists and almost dislocated them, still I could not free myself from the chains! That hurt… Damn it! One day if I escaped, you bastards would pay for this! I tried from day to night, and I was only given a small bowl of rice. Due to my large appetite, how could that small bowl of rice fill up even 5% of my stomach?! And to think there were no any other side dishes… Forget it; this was not the first time I was starving. I probably should not waste my energy and I should take a break.
"… What happened? Eh? Where is this place?" I turned my head to my left. Roxas woke up. "Hey! Roxas! You OK?" I asked, also positioning myself to face him fully. "… Nemix? How did you get here- OW… My head hurts…" He tried to sit up straight but experienced a headache. I guess he was also hit and lost consciousness after that. "Roxas?" Another voice came, I averted my gaze to somewhere behind Roxas, I then discovered Xion and Demyx. They woke up too. Yes! "Darn it! I was tied…" Xion muttered, starting to struggle with all her might. I said, "I'd suggest you not to waste your energy; you are not tied but chained like me. Save your breath…" Demyx also tried to move his hands, and then he said, "It really is… *Sigh* Now what?"
"Beats me. The problem is that the people outside know we were missing, but they don't know where we are!" I said. "Yeah, and the ones that know are all here…" grumbled Roxas, sitting up straight. Xion said, "Since those kooks are asleep, I'll ask first! Nemix, how did you go MIA in the first place?"
I glanced at her, after letting out a sigh I said, "Here goes… I discovered this cottage by accident when I chased after the paper that night. I also discovered Broken-Nose Seahorse's shoe on my way back here. I couldn't sleep at night so I came out to check it out, but in the end I fell into the enemy's trap, my relapse occurred, I fainted and when I woke up I was here!" "… Oh… I see," Xion answered after a few seconds. "Oh right, Nemix, I found your interphone on my way here, it's in my pocket," said Demyx. I sighed, "So you had found it after all, I thought I lost it somewhere… But what will that do now?" After that, I started to wriggle and struggle. These iron chains were starting to irritate me again…
Suddenly, a nasty plot made its way to my mind. That was it! Why did I not think of it?! I said, "Hey, Demyx, can you take out my interphone?" "Huh? It's hard to get with my hands chained up like this… Roxas, come and help me…" Demyx asked first, and then he tried to reach his pocket. He could not do it, so he asked Roxas to help. The two of them sat back to back, Roxas used his back-tied (or in this case, chained) hands to fumble around Demyx's pocket. "Have you got it? Hey, don't touch anywhere else, I'm warning you!" said Demyx. Roxas used his back to bump into Demyx gently and said, "Have you completely lost your mind? I am not a pervert! Got it…" And then, Roxas scooted towards me, I also scooted towards him slowly. Yes! Once I switched it on and contacted Lucky 7… Hehe… Just you all wait and see!
But, something unexpected happened; before I could touch the button, Bamboo Pole and Bad Temper unlocked the door and came in! CRAP! The four of us were startled, Bamboo Pole said with menace, "I was eavesdropping outside for a while now! What are you trying to do?!" Shoot! I had to think and act, FAST! Bad Temper came up to me, looking like he wanted to smash my interphone into smithereens, so I warned immediately, "Hey! D-don't you come any closer! I had already pressed the calling button, so now my friend's phone is connected! If you try anything stupid now, he will surely hear that, and I don't know what will happen next!" I was not that brave, you see. In fact, I was almost scared to death. Actions like contacting outsiders… their kind took it with zero tolerance. Oh my god for Holy Bananas' sake, I hoped they would not see through my lie… Gulp.
"That's right! Unless we call back and say everything's fine and there's no need to look for us, or else he's going to call the police! When that time comes… I seriously don't know what will happen!" Xion joined in the fray. Good job! Actually Bad Temper was not all that great if you overlook his brute force; he tended to act without thinking. This could be good or bad… The bad being he could snap our necks if he acted impulsively; the good being he was easy to trick. He really started to panic. He said, "You…! Did you start talking to him?!" "No," I told the truth this time.
Bamboo Pole said, "Hey, let's just settle this before that Shortcake returns! Or else we're going to get another lecture…" Bad Temper heard him and he put on his scary look to threaten me, "Hey! Brat! You will answer the call now! You tell your friend that you guys are fine, and wanted to stay in a hotel here for a while. Tell him to stop looking for people!" "That's right. If you disobey, your blonde friend here will have to give up his life as a price!" After Bamboo Pole chimed in, he took out a fruit knife and pointed at Demyx close to the neck.
Goddamn it… How dare they threaten me! If it was not for my current condition and that they had a hostage, I would have kicked their sorry … sorry behind! I said, "At least you would have to release me, right? How could I make a call with my hands chained up like this? I could've accidentally pressed some other distress button for all I know…" Bamboo Pole commented, "I say, let's release her temporarily, I'd like to see what she can do with us supervising her."
And so, Bamboo Pole pointed the knife right at Demyx's throat, while I operated the interphone. They seemed like they had not seen an interphone before… because they let me do the work… But I still could not escape while I was free or call for help… Shoot. I discovered the calling via frequency synchronisation function was broken, so I had to resort to using voicemail. I started, "Hello? Oh hi! How are you? Huh? What're you saying? Easter party preparations? Are you at the seaside? Because it's too noisy… No, it's nothing, I'm OK, and I had just found another hotel to stay. Hey, the design's not bad though, with the wooden floor and ancient Japanese cottage style… I'm with the others if you're curious. We are planning to stay here for roughly three days. What, a drug prescription for a cold? Why're you asking me that? Ask the pharmacist! Geez… Oh, so you are looking for dealers to buy the ingredients for the party, I see. I'd recommend you to consult their boss straightaway, at least you can get a better deal and it saves a lot of time. Hey, I can hear the ships, are you at the jetty? Waiting for someone to hand you the stuff for the party, right? You should beware though, because it's possible for someone bad to disguise as that person, and they might point their guns at you… Ha, I'm just joking, don't take it seriously! You could always call for help from others or the police if you're lucky enough… Hurry and return? Eh… I'm not planning to do that at the moment. Also, don't call me if not necessary, because I want some alone time. Hmm, yes, yes, I understand. OK, that's it… bye." After that, I quickly pressed the "Send" button. I probably should not let them know that I was using the voicemail, because all I said just now was me imitating a phone call conversation…
Bamboo Pole and Bad Temper were still glaring at me… I said, "What? Thanks to you two, asking me to calm my friend down, and now this thing's out of batteries!" I showed them the interphone, the small screen on it displayed "No Battery". (Actually I was the one to be blamed for talking so much…) Bamboo Pole took it from me and re-examine it a few times (sceptical bastard…) and then he finally threw it back to me and chained me up again. When they exited, they also locked the door. Silence invaded once again… "For real, Nemix, you really are an expert in talking nonsense…" said Demyx. I sighed and said, "Or else what should I do? You could've lost your arms or legs if I disobeyed, and now I'm chained again… Forget it, let's bother about this in the morning, so get some sleep already…"
Being a hostage… was not funny at all. When would Lucky 7 come to our rescue?
The next morning, Lawrence rushed into Zexion's bedroom without even knocking and he exclaimed, "Hey everybody! 207 sent her voicemail to me!" Zexion was woken up abruptly from his deep sleep, so he did not react in time and said, "What?" Axel came in later, he rubbed his eyes while groaning, "443, what are you yelling about early in the morning?!" Ienzo also popped his head into the room from the door and asked, "What did you say? Voicemail?" Lawrence nodded his head vigorously and answered, "Yes! Nemix's voicemail! It's about two minutes long… Let's listen to it together!" "What, you haven't listened to it yet?" asked Axel. He said, "Nope, I came here once I got it. OK, all set!"
Fast Forward One Minute and Fifty Seconds
"You have got to be freaking kidding me…" said Axel, bewildered. Zexion said, "Things will get worse if we procrastinate, we have to act now!" Lawrence stopped him, "But how? The police isn't here yet!" Ienzo thought about it and said, "Should we split up?" Zexion agreed, "Sounds good… Again, Ienzo is with me, and 222 is with 443. We will go, while you two stay here, if we do not return after fifteen minutes, remember to cooperate with the police without anyone's knowledge to surround that wooden cottage!" "OK!" And then, both Zexion and Ienzo dashed out of the chalet.
Ienzo was following Zexion and asked while running, "But why was Nemix's voicemail that long but only contained so little number of words? And it's intermittent?" Zexion explained while sprinting, "Maybe she said a lot of nonsense to prevent the kidnappers' suspicions. But it does not matter if we do not know the full version of it, she only had to use her finger to block the built-in microphone when she talked about nonsense and remove it when she reached the important parts. So, that is why we received that intermittent voicemail: East… seaside… wooden… cottage… three… drug… dealers… boss… at… jetty waiting for… stuff… beware… possible… guns… call… police… hurry." "Oh… I see… So is this what you meant by '207's nasty plot'?" Ienzo realised. "It must be… I hope they are alright."
They were now on their way to the wooden cottage. Ienzo immediately found a clue, "Zexion! What's that on the ground?" Zexion also looked at the direction he pointed - three stones stacked together. "Strange… Why are there three stones stacked together for no reason? It should be manmade… Ah! I get it. This is a trail duck, used as a trail marker!" Zexion concluded. "Why?" asked Ienzo. "Look, the topmost stone is the pointer rock and has a pointed edge. And it points at…" Zexion said, moving his gaze to where the stone pointed. "The road ahead…!" They said in unison. Zexion got up from his crouching position and said, "Keep an eye on the trail for any stacked stones like this one. This could be clues left by one of the missing people." "OK!"
After some walking, they were ten metres away from the wooden cottage. "Wood… wooden cottage!" Ienzo exclaimed. Zexion cautioned, "Yes… And also… look at the ground, there are six small stacks of stones near each other. This is not a trail direction indicator anymore, but a distress signal… Then they should be here…" They carefully and cautiously moved towards that wooden cottage and gently pushed the door open after they made sure no one was behind the door. Zexion led the way, and he put his finger on his lips to signal "quiet". Ienzo nodded and they continued on… Soon, they arrived at a wooden door. Zexion looked behind them for a moment, after he was sure no one was following them, he whispered to Ienzo, "I will stay here to watch your back, you go in there and see if they are inside, if yes, bring them out at once!" "Huh? ... OK," Ienzo was surprised at first then he accepted.
Ienzo softly turned the door knob, but he discovered the door was unlatched. "Zexion… the door's not locked…" he whispered, somewhat surprised. Zexion replied just as quietly, "Then be careful, just do not let the enemy find you." "Oh… Right…"
He softly pushed the door open, but what he saw almost made his jaw hit the floor; all the missing people were inside! Twelve eyes (If you include two pairs of glasses) versus two eyes, staring at each other… "Ienzo?! How did you get here?!" We exclaimed in a low tone. I did not see that coming. Ienzo immediately put his forefinger on his lips and shushed, "Shhh! I was with 006! We'll talk after we got out!" After that, he approached us. I hissed, "But how do we escape? We are chained with iron chains and they link to this huge metal box!" I quickly turned around to show him my chained wrists, so he stopped dead in his track. Roxas asked, "Is Zexion outside too?" Then Ienzo turned his head to the back and whispered loudly, "Zexion? We have a problem here…"
Some footsteps echoed outside the room, and Zexion entered. But to our shock, he was pushed to enter the room, with Bamboo Pole and Shorty pointing guns on his temple! Holy Bananas! "Well, well… what do we have here? Two trespassers!" Bamboo Pole spat, and suddenly Bad Temper appeared behind him and in a swift motion he caught Ienzo who was panicking. Dang it! Now that they had two more hostages with them, we really had a problem here… (Bad joke) *Cue "Shrouding Dark Cloud" from Kingdom Hearts I, which I own nothing of!*
We were staring at them with wide eyes, just then some evil laughter echoed outside the door. We then focused our gazes at the door, and somebody walked in: Sir Broken-Nose Seahorse Sato! "Ha! I'd never have expected you guys to be here together. Sorry for not giving you all a welcome party." "Broken-Nose Seahorse… so you are in cahoots with them after all!" said Xion angrily. Shorty pointed his gun at her, telling her to shut up. Sato sauntered to Ienzo and said, "And you too, Ienzo Ishida… It's been a while." Ienzo was unable to move due to Bad Temper's firm grip, he could only stare at Sato and whimpered, "You… What are you… trying to do?!"
Sato said, "Once my eyes lay on you, I get so mad and want to kill you so much, but I still think it's not worth it. Do you realise you made my life hell?" Ienzo was at a wit's end, he blurted timidly, "I never messed with you! How could I have made you suffer?" He was right. And it would make more sense if Ienzo said Sato's words instead. Sato glared at Ienzo with hatred and disgust and started to state his grudges, "Many years ago, we were in the same kindergarten. We were once very good friends, we went to school together, played together. Even when we were punished, we were punished together as well… After we went to elementary school, although we were still in the same class, your results started to excel while I almost failed to advance into the next grades. If it weren't for my dad, I wouldn't have finished elementary so easily. You started becoming so fake! My results were not as perfect as yours. While I was suffering, you were there enjoying your first placing! It's been six years… Although my grades had improved, our relationship never stood a chance for revival! You still hypocritically stayed with me, saying that you won't leave me behind and you will help me no matter what. It was merely an act! My father only cares for his money and business, and my mother always compares me with you! Besides my family wealth, you are so much better than me in so many ways! Do you realise your presence had made me suffered so much? I hate you! Why did you take away all that's mine?!"
Ienzo explained feebly, "I wanted to help you whole-heartedly! You'd misunderstood! That day before the exam, didn't I promise to help you?" Sato cut him off, "You broke it! I waited for you for ages, in the end you didn't even call me!" "That time my parents died in a car accident, at that moment I-" "That's not an excuse!" Seriously, I could not take it anymore, I interjected, "Hey! His parents died in an accident, he was in pain too, can't you understand him?!" Bamboo Pole immediately directed his pistol at me and fired. "BAM!"
… I… was still breathing? I opened my tightly shut eyes, only to see the bullet embedded into the wooden floor next to my left leg, with wisps of white smoke coming out of it. Turned out, Zexion intentionally bumped into him forcefully, so he missed. Thank you! I thought I was done for! Then Zexion was punched in the stomach and was pushed towards us. He staggered and fell down next to me. He tried to ignore the pain and sat up. "Are you OK? I'm really sorry…" He was in such a pain he could not speak; he could only shake his head to indicate he was fine.
Once Sato saw that the small episode ended, he continued, "You are better than me in anything, yet you were hanging around me like nothing had happened, even though you knew I couldn't compete with you. You did this just to further humiliate me indirectly, right?! Do you know how much I hate you, a hypocrite that pretends to help me?!" By now, everyone was dumbfounded except the three drug traffickers and Sato himself. "So… so you decided to get away from me, when we were in 6th Grade…" Ienzo tried to hold back choking sobs while saying, but the astonishment was leaking out. "That's right. I wanted to break off our friendship, and stay out of each other's way forever, but you just had to see what's not supposed to be seen!" Sato's words were oozing with menace and venom. Something not supposed to be seen? Do not tell me…!
"You…!" Ienzo was getting scared by the minute, he started to stutter. Sato took the opportunity to say, "I guess you should be able to recall two years ago, you came to my house, saying you wanted to talk? You didn't see me after you waited, so you opened the door to my room, and then…" He trailed off intentionally, Ienzo quivered while completing the sentence, "That time you're… hiding some illicit drugs!" It was hard not to scream "Holy Bananas" right now. "Who told you to enter without knocking? That was rude, you know…" Sato said slowly, his hand fumbling in his pocket. He pulled out a knife and softly pressed it onto Ienzo's face [Authoress' Note: Please do not imitate! This is only for the effects!], and said slowly, "Since you had seen it, it seemed pointless to let you live anyway, or else you would report me…"
Demyx summoned all his courage to say, "I'm warning you! Don't you dare try anything! Or else you are so going to regret!" Sato looked over to him, an evil smile crept onto his face. He said, "Ah, I only focused on him; I almost forgot that you people are here too. I can only say you people are unfortunate. You just had to be so nosy, perking your noses into somebody else's business. That's why when I pretended to be missing, you guys easily fell for the trap…" I said, "Then, that shoe…!" "That was purely a mistake, but so what? You still fell for it," sneered Broken-Nose Seahorse, belittling me in every syllable. How dare he call me an idiot indirectly! You bastard!
Ienzo never took his eyes off the sharp blade which was no more than three centimetres away from his face, and he said, "This has nothing to do with them! Why do you have to drag them into this?!" Sato shortened the distance between the knife blade and Ienzo's face, and said, "Look at you; you cannot even protect yourself, and now you still want to be the hero?! I see that you had forgotten how that scar of yours appeared over your right eye, huh?" Now Ienzo did not dare to look anymore, he immediately shut his eyes tightly, his body trembling slightly. "Wh… what scar?" blurted Roxas. Sato put on a "who gives a damn" face while saying flippantly, "It's no big deal, actually. I just wanted to push the witness away that day he came to my house, how would I know he would crash right into the glass balcony door, smashing it into a million pieces in the process? Yet he got lucky enough for not becoming blind…"
"What the hell is wrong with you, you sick, sick bastard?!" Xion could not take it anymore and yelled at him. Sato quickly snatched the gun from Bamboo Pole's hand and fired randomly at Xion's direction. Crap! If it were not for Roxas who pulled her to hide behind the big metal box… Things would have been unimaginable! After five booming gunshots, the muzzle of the gun in Sato's hand was emitting white smokes. He glared venomously at a shivering Xion and growled, "Shut your mouth!" And then, he turned to face Ienzo, who was almost scared to death and spat, "Why are they involved? This is also your fault. I had had enough… already enough of you!" After that, he made an eye contact signal to Shorty, and Shorty said, a bored look on his face, "Finally!" And then he aimed his gun at Ienzo's head, and was about to pull the trigger-!
"PIANG!" The "PONG" everyone anticipated did not made itself heard at all, but this weird "PIANG" hit everyone's eardrum instead. Immediately after that was a male's scream, "AAAHH!" Everybody was afraid to watch during that nick of time, but by now they could not shut their eyes for any longer. They opened their eyes and saw this: Shorty bent over slightly, his left hand holding his bleeding right hand, the gun was on the floor, and there were pieces of broken porcelain on the floor, also with a broken shapeless bowl. Ienzo, however, was unharmed. (But I could not guarantee his heart, though… It might have missed some beats due to shock…) What exactly happened?!
"Heh! Acting like Rambo and firing bullets in all directions when you have a gun, you think you're so cool, huh?!" I said, in a pose like I had just finished throwing a shotput. "You…! How is it possible for you to free yourself from the chains?!" Even Bad Temper was shocked by me. An achievement! I said, "Actually when Bamboo Pole first fired at me, Zexion intentionally bumped into him. While making him to miss the shot, Zexion also stole the key, and he also pushed him towards here… hehe! I still have you to thank. Oh, right, that bowl was a thanks to you idiots for giving me only one bowl of rice during these days. That couldn't even fill up 5% of my stomach, so take your bowl back!"
"Darn you…!" Shorty growled. Sato aimed the gun to me at once, and I readied myself to fight. But after he pulled the trigger for three times, not even a small puff of dust came out. Zexion pushed himself up and said, "A pistol only have six bullets… Give up!" Ha! Shorty bent down to pick up the gun he dropped earlier, but it was not there anymore. "Damn! Why is the gun gone?!" He had lost his cool and yelled. Just then, another voice came in from outside the room's door, "Yo bro! Your gun is too outdated; want to change into a new one?"
All of us looked at the door; Axel and Lawrence! And behind them were who we were very happy to see right now; police! Axel was playing with the gun on his hand, a cocky smirk on his face. Phew! Luckily I spotted Axel just before Shorty wanted to fire at Ienzo, so I took out the bowl and haul it at him to make him drop his gun. Now that Axel had got his gun, I was not going to act like a good old hostage anymore, "Why are we still talking nonsense with you all? You all are surrounded! Surrender!" Just then, two officers ran in with their guns in both hands, one of them yelled, "Freeze! Hands up and drop your weapons!"
"I don't even have a weapon to begin with!" yelled Bad Temper. "Me too!" Bamboo Pole chimed in. Shorty glared at them and roared, "Will you two shut the hell up?! We're in trouble, you dolts!" The second officer mumbled to the first one, "We're ignored…" Zexion facepalmed. Suddenly Bad Temper gasped, "A BOMB!" Everyone was startled. While everyone was busy searching for the bomb frantically by glancing around, the three drug traffickers punched and kicked everyone around them and fought their way out! "They're escaping! Give chase!" An inspector commanded, and all officers in the room ran out at once. I gritted my teeth and said, "Dang it… 006, I guess you would have to unlock their chains on your own… Hey! Get back here!" After that, I sprinted out of the wooden cottage immediately.
The first person I sighted was Shorty. He was running too slow, so it was effortless to catch up with him. I pounced on his back and sat on him. Once he fell, I yelled, "Hey! I got him! Police!" Two officers arrived after three seconds. Once they took over the job, I got up and continued the chase. Suddenly Bamboo Pole appeared out of nowhere with a knife in his hands and he lunged at me. I quickly stopped running and sent a kick at his armed hand. Once the knife was knocked away, I punched him in the nose. Luckily a policewoman came to my aid, so I could run away to catch the others.
Soon, I saw Axel battling Bad Temper. Bad Temper was too strong, stronger than Axel, and it seemed like Axel did not know that kook's weakness, so the situation was getting unfavourable for Axel to win. I picked up a rock and threw it at Bad Temper and it hit his left arm. When he turned to see who did that, I screamed, "Watch out above!" To my surprise, he quickly covered his head with his hands. Axel finally got the hint and in a swift kick he hit that spot concerning Father's Day… again! I panted while looking around, there was still Broken-Nose Seahorse on the loose, yet I had no idea where he was…
"Ah!" A girl's cry could be heard from behind. I spun around to see Xion falling to the ground on her butt. I quickly went over and asked, "What happened?" Xion tried to get up while saying, "Broken-Nose Seahorse happened! I ran into him and when I almost got my hands on him, he pushed me and got away! Oh that hurt…" "Where is he?!" I looked around frantically again. "Eh… Ah! Over there!" Xion suddenly shouted. I looked over the direction she was referring to. Broken-Nose Seahorse was peeping on us from a huge pile of rocks! When he saw me looking at him, he was startled and immediately ran away. I yelled, "Oi! Hold it right there!" After that I climbed onto the rock pile to give chase. But when I got to where he once was, he had already hopped onto a cab and gotten away! Shoot!
It was impossible for me to catch up with a car even if I wasted my legs by running. While I was lost in knotty thoughts, I heard a car's honk from my right. I turned to my right and cried out of joy internally; another cab stopped beside me. Right on time! I needed a ride! Without thinking much, I opened the door and hopped into it, while saying, "Mr. Driver, I have to catch up with that taxi! Please follow it!" After I habitually fastened my seatbelt, and only then I started to take notice of my surroundings. What? Zexion's beside me. "Zexion?! You're here too?!" "… Yes." "Then what are we waiting for?! Hurry up and chase that taxi, Mr. Driver!" I shouted. That was strange; why had the driver not started the car? Did he not understand English?! "207, calm down… it's me." The driver looked to the back to face me, and my jaw almost dislocated; AXEL?! "WHAT?! AXEL IS THE DRIVER?!" I lost control and screamed. "Yup! I had secretly driven my dad's car ten times before! And there's only once…" "Once?" Both Zexion and I asked. He did not answer though, instead he focused his gaze on the road, his left leg stepped on the clutch, and he shifted the gear into Gear One. After that, his right hand grabbed the handbrake, while an evil smirk appeared on his face and he said, "And this time, I won't crash like those nine times!"
Zexion and I had our faces paled at once, we exclaimed in unison, "OH CR-" Too late; Axel released the handbrake and stepped onto the accelerator straightaway, the whole vehicle jerked and sprang forward in a split second. Inertia threw us, the poor backseat passengers, onto the cushion of the seats on our backs violently. "YEEHA~~!" Axel seemed like he was enjoying himself. Very soon he changed the gears from two to four in increasing order. OH MY GOD! HOLY BANANAS! Now the car seemed to lunge forward in the speed of 110 km/h, my hands clutched onto the seatbelt like no tomorrow. My wide eyes stared at the roads in horror, and I yelled here and there. "AH! A CAR!" "HIT THE SIGNALS! WHOA!" "WATCH THE ROAD!" "YOU GOT THE WRONG LANE! NOT THE ONCOMING ONE!" "SHUT UP 207!"
After we overtook numerous cars and ran countless red lights, we managed to tail Sato's cab, but his taxi in front of us halted suddenly, Axel yelled, "What the crap?!" And he hit the brakes immediately; the car's speed decreased drastically. Due to the sudden increase in deceleration, the inertia hauled us to the front forcefully. Luckily we were obedient passengers; we fastened our seatbelts… but we were almost choked on them… Our cab slowly approached Sato's cab, but it stopped before they could crash. We were disorientated, and our minds blanked out temporarily… "Don't… ever… do that again…" Another voice came out of somewhere, and my mind registered the source as the shotgun seat, so I unbuckled my seatbelt and popped my head in front to see; Ienzo with his face paled like he was going to pass out at any minute.
Zexion panted, "He is getting away!" I looked outside; Sato got off the cab hurriedly and ran towards the beach nearby. I also got out of the cab and started the hot pursuit. Wow… Being able to run on the ground felt so awesome. I thought I was going to see the gods back then. I swore I never, ever want to sit in the car when Axel was driving again… I ran behind Broken-Nose Seahorse along the beach for about one minute or so, and when we got to a small jetty, he jumped onto one of the water scooters tied at the jetty and drove away with it. Damn it! I jumped onto one too, but almost lost my balance. I quickly scanned through the operating manual inscribed on the dashboard and I turned on the engine and started rush all the way to Broken-Nose Seahorse. Meanwhile, under Zexion's instructions, Xion, Lawrence and Demyx, who had informed the police, arrived at where the two speeding cars stopped. Axel was panicking at the shore (he could not swim quite well in deeper sea regions), the police also arrived at the wooden jetty, those who knew how to swim also got on the water scooters and chased towards Sato.
Somehow, today's weather seemed too good, so much so that the wind decided to play along, and that made the sea get rougher and waves were starting to get pretty wild. Even my water scooter was swayed violently side to side. I almost overtook Sato, but my water scooter was running out of fuel soon (why was my luck so bad this year…)… I could not care about that much anymore; I decided to burn up the remaining fuel in one go, pushing the water scooter to its limits, lunging towards Sato. I almost got him, just then a few policemen were closing in on Sato from all directions. I smirked, and I finally got my water scooter to his left. I shouted at him, "Hey! Broken-Nose Seahorse!" He turned and was panicking. I continued, "Since you're a seahorse, go diving!" Immediately after that, I turned the steering and knocked into his water scooter from my right! BONG! He was thrown off and he fell into the water. I almost forgot that he could not swim, but luckily the police came after a few seconds, and soon they got Sato out of the water and onto their boat. I was still on my water scooter, gasping for air heavily. The police also asked me to follow them, so I trailed behind them on the water scooter, feeling really tired… I noticed the fuel indicator pointed at "E", the water scooter slowed down gradually. I was about to tell the policewoman nearest to me, but I discovered that I could not move an inch. My hands were numb and somewhat stiff. Crap, not again! This time was even worse, my legs were wobbly like jelly. Although I was wet from the waves, I could feel cold sweats seeping out, the headache did not come, but dizziness kicked in and I was seeing stars… Crap crap crap!
I ran out of strength, after swaying slightly I fell down on my right, straight into the dark abyss of unknown… I could hear noises of water and bubbles, nothing else… I guess… nobody noticed… that vacant… water… scooter… at the… back, huh…?
… Dad… Mum… the beach… was really fun… Next time… could you bring me there again?
… "207… 207…!"
… So noisy, who was it…
… "Nemix! Wake up…!"
Now, on the wooden jetty, members of lucky 7 hovered over the unconscious member. Zexion tested the pulse, he muttered to himself, "Calm… Stay calm, Zexion… The pulse is there, but weak…" Axel was shouting beside him, "Nemix! Hey! Wake up!" Ienzo was there too, but he was spacing out, he seemed frightened to the core. Demyx, Roxas and Lawrence were standing near them, freaking out. Xion had gone to get the paramedics. Zexion said, "There is no choice, I will have to perform CPR!" "Nemix!" yelled Axel, shaking my right arm. Ienzo also screamed, "Nemix! 誰か 助けて! [Somebody help!]"
"PAK!" For no apparent reason, Axel suddenly recoiled from his original position, knocked into Ienzo and fell in a heap, which startled everyone. Demyx yelled, "What just happened there?!" "Ouch… What the heck was that?!" Axel did not get what was going on and he blurted while rubbing his palm on his left cheek gently, which was stinging in pain. "… Geez… What the crap… Can't you just shut up?!" I gasped, slowly getting up. It was only because I did not have sufficient energy to open my eyes and turn around, and I also accidentally choked on seawater, and that was unbearable. Could they not stop freaking out?! I wasted all my diminishing energy on slapping him too. Ugh…"… Nemix?" Demyx, Roxas and Lawrence were still stunned, not being able to process what just happened. "… My hands are still numb… Zexion… do you have a plastic bag?" I panted, but then I started to cough badly, spitting out some water. Zexion held onto my arm, and said, "No." Just then, Xion's shouts could be heard from faraway, "The paramedics' here! What?! Nemix?!" "There is no time, we have to get her hospitalised!" said Zexion. So, I was helped to the ambulance, and suddenly, I saw Broken-Nose Seahorse being taken away by a policeman. He looked over to me, I mocked, "How's that?" "Heh… Forget it. But, at least I won this by half… the info that girl provided was too accurate, you fell indeed…" What?! Info?! I asked frantically, "What info? Who's that girl you're talking about?! You-" I started coughing and wheezing. That policeman commanded, "速く 行け! [Get going!]" And after that, he took Sato away. I was helped onto the ambulance as well…
I was diagnosed as having a sudden decrease of my already low blood glucose, and my relapse occurred, so I passed out. Luckily I was discovered immediately, or else I would have drowned. So I stayed in the hospital on an intravenous drip, ate until I almost exploded, gave my statement to the police and I got out successfully after two days. When I got out, there were only five days left before we had to depart for Matsuaki Academy, so we made use of these five days to go to all tourist attractions of Atsumi Peninsula surf beach, we also witnessed some religious parades too. Thank goodness everyone including me were okay, or else the story would have ended here.
And now, the whole class knew about Lucky 7's presence and motive. They were bugging us to tell them our greatest "hits" aka adventures. Well… Maybe we acted like James Bond too much? [Authoress: Ahem… I depicted you guys like James Bond too much… Narcissist! Lucky 7: You are the narcissist!] Five days whizzed past like a breeze. The second day after we returned to the school was already 22nd March. The seven of us with Ienzo were in the principal's office…
"… I understand. Now that everything that had happened had been recorded, I conclude that this matter ends here," said Miss Aerith, organising the documents. The atmosphere was a bit tense… Well, it could not be helped; who would have thought Broken-Nose Seahorse had something to do with drugs? But according to the police's investigation, he was being used in the whole thing by the leader of the group, because the leader wanted to recruit more members… so, yeah… "Nonetheless, you all had done a great job, if it weren't for you people, this case wouldn't be solved at all. How are your injuries?" asked the principal, worried and feeling sorry for us. Zexion replied first, "Although I was hit in the stomach, the doctor said I was OK." I said too, "I only had hypoglycaemia. It's alright once I stuffed myself… hehe…" Axel said, "Well, I happened to get slapped by a certain somebody. Other than that, everything's fine." "Yeah, yeah, whatever. So very sorry, Sir Axel," I retorted, only then he patted my head, saying, "Good girl." … Forget it, I did not feel like arguing now.
Demyx reported, "Roxas and I were being hit on the head and fainted, after the checkup, everything's fine; Xion inhaled chloroform, but the doctor reassured us she's OK as well. About Ienzo though… he's the real victim." Demyx gestured towards a silent Ienzo who was standing on the sidelines. Throughout this meeting, he said nothing except his statement about him being held at knife-point and gunpoint. By the looks of it, I guessed he would not say anything anymore today, so I explained to the principal on behalf of him, "He was bullied by Sato for years, and Sato also injured him in the past. As for the rest… he will tell you when the time is right, I guess." He still remained silent, but he nodded his head lightly, agreeing with my explanation. Miss Aerith nodded and said, "It's OK, if you don't want to talk about it yet, I won't force you to. You can come anytime to tell me about it. Alright, dismiss. Thank you all very much." And then, she bowed to us again! Holy Bananas! We bowed too…
We got out of the principal's office. I wanted to return to the dorm room to catch up with some sleep; I really had too little rest these days… Just then a voice came from behind, "Nemix!" I spun around to see Ienzo. I could also see the others heading to their respective destinations. I asked, "What is it?" "Nothing… I just want to tell you… eh, explain to you why I didn't report Sato all these years," he said, the volume getting smaller.
207: "Oh… uh, go ahead…?"
Ienzo: "… Actually, it's because I thought he would… eh, have a change of heart… Actually he's not a bad person from the get-go…"
207: "Hmm… I can understand that. You aren't afraid of him, it's only because you still regard him as a friend, right?"
Ienzo: "Yes. But, he always pushes me away…"
207: "… Maybe you made him feel self-abased somehow. Like… um, your academic performance, extracurricular activities and all that are better than his. As your friend, he somehow feels humiliated and has the sense of inferiority when compared with you. He thought he could only use violence to override you. I think perhaps he really misunderstood your efforts in helping him."
Ienzo: "*In deep thought* … Maybe. If I tell on him like this, he is surely going to hate me to kingdom come."
207: "It is unavoidable, if you don't correct him now, things will get worse after he enters society. You're helping him, not harming him. But if he is not grateful, just forget it. It is not your fault too, OK?"
Ienzo: "… Understood. Really… thank you very much! *extended out a hand to shake*"
207: "*Taken aback* Oh… It's nothing, hehe… *extended hand to shake as well*"
Thank goodness he finally thought it through! Yes! Or else we would not know how things would develop. But I still pitied Broken-Nose Seahorse, though. [Warning: The below content may sound sensitive/offensive to some people. If you do not like the part, skip to the next paragraph. You have been warned.] Students nowadays faced really high pressure, especially in Japan (and more). Every parent held high expectations for their children, but the way they cared about their children's academic performance was twisted in some way, indirectly pressurising their kids. It could be good if the children could cope, but if not, either they would give up on themselves, or they would create problems. In the worst case scenario, they might even commit suicide. Geez… Out of so many cases, the most unworthy one was suicide in my opinion. No matter how overwhelming the pressure was, suicide would not solve anything. Also, your parents practically "gave" you your body, you should not harm yourself. Besides saddening the people who care about you, nothing was done at all. Please seek help whenever necessary! The thing that aggravated me even more was the "Strawberry Generation" (aka Snowflake Generation, but I must agree that not all youngsters were in this category), they could have just happened to missed some marks in exams, or got dumped by their boy/girlfriends, or they just got laughed at, and they decided to end their lives. There are more people who are more unfortunate than them, but I did not see them slitting their wrists, or jumping off buildings, or hang themselves etc. Look at the people in Africa, they could not even feed themselves, nor do they have proper clothing to warm themselves, and some even contracted AIDS at birth, but do you hear or see them killing themselves? Life was never a smooth sail; we had to face failures at some point. If one wanted to end their life when life had just started its sail, did that mean if you fell to the floor, you would just stay there, not wanting to get up anymore? What sort of mindset was that? I hope experts could think of something to cure this "civilisation disease", or else things would be worse! [OK, for those who want to skip this part, you can start from here.]
"207?" "Ah?" I snapped out of my thoughts, and then I saw Ienzo waving his hands before my eyes. "Oh! Sorry! I was in the middle of some tangled up thoughts. Hehe, sorry," I said sheepishly. [Authoress: Yeah right, and that's a lot of thoughts… nearly a whole page!] Just then…
"Ah! You guys are still here?" Both of us looked behind Ienzo. Roxas and Xion were there. I walked up and said, "What brings you back here again?" Xion answered, "A while ago Miss Aerith said she wanted to see us via the PA system. Something urgent, she said." … Now what was going to happen?
In the principal's office… "Oh, you're back. Just now, there was a phone call, the person on the phone said there's something she wanted to talk to you guys now," said Miss Aerith, her hand holding the phone. Zexion took it and answered the call, "Yes? … Speaking. … What?!" Suddenly, he had a shocked expression on his face, we were surprised too, but we did not know what was going on. "… Yes… Um… About that… uh…" he sounded hesitant about what the person on the phone said. He had a serious expression on his face and he finally said, "Can you give us a few days to consider that? … Oh, sure. Hmm… hmm, yes. Alright." After the words left his mouth, he returned the phone to Miss Aerith. "What's wrong?" The principal was curious as well. Zexion stared at her, not knowing what to say. "Details, now," said Axel. Then, Zexion told the whole story, "It was Kairi. She said… the school's director wanted us to… return."
Holy Bananas! WHAT DID YOU SAY?! Our mouths were wide open, and our eyes almost popped out. "…Why?" I asked. This was unbelievable. Zexion said, "She said the director had something for us to… settle back there. In return, the director would erase our records, like nothing had happened before." … You had got to be freaking kidding me! Right…?
And so, even Miss Aerith and Ienzo knew about what happened to us back at Kingdom Hearts High School. Miss Aerith thought we were surely falsely accused, and we could get to whitewash our so-called records if we went back. She also added that she would not expel us because of what happened, because we had helped her out so much, but she would not stop us from staying or leaving. "It is your decision to make. I will support you guys," said Miss Aerith. Waah~ I felt so touched! Finally, someone who really understood our situation!
Ienzo said nothing as usual, but his looks were serious and tense. I wonder what was on his mind. We would never know…
It was really aggravating… Even I did not know whether to stay or to leave now. Staying here did not sound like a bad idea, and the future looked promising (though I would have to work hard on Japanese language). Returning meant family reunion, and maybe there was not as much pressure there, but… I did not know what that Devilish Director was up to, and I did not think "records" could be erased that easily. Staying here also meant goodbye to Malaysia forever. Staying far from home… I was not sure if I was truly ready for that… Argh! What nerve!
Now, I was sitting under a cherry blossom tree in the school compound. I could not untangle myself from the heavy thoughts… It was almost April, the deadline for consideration was almost up, and I was still hesitating here. Ugh, this may sound irrational, but maybe I had forged bonds with everything here… And it was hard to pull myself out of this… Just then, some soft sounds of footsteps came from my left, I looked to said direction to see Ienzo. Unexpected, again… (There were too much unexpected events in this chapter anyway, so it would not hurt if one more showed up!)
"Hey…" I greeted, but it seemed like a nearly emotionless acknowledgement. "Hi," said Ienzo, sitting down on my left. We did not engage in any conversation… One minute had passed. "Um… あのう… [Well… (hesitation)] You haven't decided yet, right?" he went straight to the point. Since when did he become so straightforward? But, it was still a good thing to see, or else it would drag on and on endlessly. I sighed and replied, "Yeah… *Sigh* Each option has its pros and cons, but even after such long contemplation, it is still hard to choose." "Hmm… If I were you, I would get a headache as well. Since the two options seemed alike, let's toss the stone then," he suggested, digging out a grey stone from his pocket. On one of the flat surface was where his name was carved in Japanese hiragana and katakana characters, "いしだ イエンゾ".
"Huh?" I did not get it. He explained, "Every time when I was struggling and hesitating, I would do this, and it proved useful. Let's say the option of staying here is the surface with my name on it, and returning to Malaysia is the other side. Close your eyes and toss it upwards, the one that faces skyward when it dropped to the ground will be your decision." OK… It was a bit weird. But, it was at least better than nothing. Like a Chinese saying; throw a stone to ask for a solution" (or was it "testing the waters"?). I took the stone and asked, "Did you invent this method?" "… No actually, it was my mother. She obtained this stone from a shrine, and said it would be my lucky charm," he said, but turned into a mumble gradually. I quickly said, "Ah… OK, OK, I'm tossing! Let's close our eyes, OK?" And then, I shut my eyes tightly, thinking, "Here goes nothing!" And I threw it upwards.
One… Two… Three… Thud. The stone dropped onto the ground. I opened my eyes to see the stone lying between us. We leaned closer to the stone to see clearly.
Facing the sky was a grey flat surface, with no name.
"Return to Malaysia…" We mumbled in unison. "… Oh well, looks like the ones above will me to return," I tried to say in an enlightened, casual way. In only that split second, a trace of sadness flashed on his face, but it disappeared quickly. He said, "If that's the case, just go back to Malaysia with no worries then. Furthermore, it's better to be with your family anyway…" I thought, "Crap, don't tell me he's going to cry! My god, if that happens, it's going to tough to deal with!" I then said jokingly, "But I'm curious though, when you decided whether to report Sato or not, did you do this as well?" And then I playfully hit his arm. He was startled, and then he said, "Yeah… Haha." I took the opportunity and said, "There, you see, it's not that sad and bad, right?" He spaced out for a while, and then he finally said, "… True that. Anyway, we have emails and such, we won't lose contact. It's just that… I will miss you and the others…" By now, I had lost count of the goose bumps that fell all over the place… It was… eh, embarrassing…
"Um… OK then, it's alright now, you said it yourself that we have emails, so don't miss me too much, yeah? I can't handle that, thank you very much…" I said awkwardly. Ienzo chuckled and said, "Sure, I know you can't handle it. But I still have to thank you!" After he finished, he suddenly leaned in and gave me a friendly hug! I did not see that coming… Ahem… I awkwardly patted his back with one hand. That was weird. Were Japanese not conservative and prudent in public?!
After five seconds, he pulled away. "Phew! I feel better without the burden… Thank you for helping me to solve my problem, or else it will never end," said Ienzo, smiling. I playfully pinched and pulled his cheeks, and said, "As for you, don't be too scared of everything and too submissive from now on, or else you're going to get bullied again, understand?" "Oh, oh… Yes, I understand… Let go… Ow." Only then I let go, saying, "Sorry about that, but your face was too soft, hehe!" "Um… Thank you?"
"Ding Dong Dang Dong~" Time for class. "Well, I have Japanese now, what about you?" I asked. He glanced at his watch, and he said, "Mine's History… It's getting late. お先に [Pardon me for leaving first]." I answered, "どうぞ お先に [Please go ahead]." He nodded, with a smile on his face, he said, "じゃ、また [Well then, let's meet later]." Hey… Testing me? Well then! I smiled too and replied, "ええ、またね [Sure, let's meet later]." And then, we parted ways under the cherry blossom tree…
A few days later, all members of Lucky 7 except Lawrence gathered in the dorm room. Zexion was holding a phone in his hand, he asked, "Have you made up your minds?" Some of us nodded, some of us replied "yes". "… OK, here goes…" said Zexion, dialling the numbers. He put the phone to his ear, and he spoke after a few seconds, "Hello? Is this Kairi speaking? … Yes, I will tell you our response now: the six of us will be returning to Kingdom Hearts High School. Correct, would you please convey this to the director? Hmm, thank you… Bye." … Right! Malaysia, see you soon!
~ CHAPTER 13 FIN ~
TO BE CONTINUED
Oh… my… god… for… Holy… Bananas'… sake… This chapter is finally done! The longest chapter I had ever created so far! Great, I blew up my mind for thinking up such plots… But I personally liked it. Especially the part where Axel started to drive without a driver's license. Ha ha! Don't imitate the plot, though, it would be disastrous! OK! I'm out… going to sleep! Bye! Thanks for reading!