And here we are again! This is going great. I can't believe I'm back at my old pace.

Thank you all for your patience and support. I hope this chapter is as good as the rest.


The New Game, Part Two

The next time Hinata woke it was for a knock at the door.

It was still dark, and he could hear Souda snoring from the bed – at least he'd had a peaceful night. Was it really always this dark at six? he thought. Or had the girls come super early? He couldn't bring himself to move just yet – he thought instead about how mad Koizumi would be that they weren't ready to go, or that Souda was still asleep. But then whoever it was knocked again, and he forced himself up, grumbling and cracking his joints as he went. "I'm coming, I'm coming," he mumbled, moving quickly past Souda to the door.

He opened it to find Kuzuryuu walking away from the cottage. Somehow or other, Hinata wasn't as surprised as he should have been. "Uh," he said, and then raised his voice. "Kuzuryuu!"

Kuzuryuu froze, and then turned his head back, wide-eyed. "Er…"

They stared at each other for a moment, before Kuzuryuu turned completely. "Can I come in?"

Hinata blinked. "O…kay," he said, without thinking it through. "Souda's still asleep…"

Kuzuryuu grunted, and pushed past Hinata to get inside. He took one look at Souda, who'd kicked all the blankets off and drooled all over Hinata's pillow, and then sat on the opposite side of the room, leaning up against the glass wall of the bathroom with his legs pulled up to his chest.

Hinata tried not to stare in any one direction for too long, but he kept finding himself looking back at Kuzuryuu, whose attention seemed to be fixed on his hands. He didn't speak, which made Hinata feel very awkward. "Uh, is there…any reason…you're here?"

"I don't know." Kuzuryuu grumbled, and tilted his head back, looking more frustrated than anything. "Couldn't sleep. Or whatever."

Hinata grimaced. "Well, then, uh..."

"Can you undo these?" He looked up at Hinata, and held up his hands.

Hinata hesitated, but only for a moment before he bent down and opened the clasp on both bandages, after which Kuzuryuu did the work of unraveling them. The hands underneath were red and heavily scarred, and given the way Kuzuryuu winced as he flexed his fingers he still had to be in some sort of pain.

"S'been a week," Kuzuryuu said, flexing his stiff fingers. "Not even. Six days. But who's counting, right?" He grumbled. "It doesn't even feel like the same lifetime. And Peko...it almost feels like I made her up. Like she's just in my imagination."

"I…" Hinata felt the same strange feeling he'd had with Souda last night, like he didn't quite know how to respond. "I know. I get that." He'd never shared the thought with anyone, but somehow things had seemed simpler before Peko had died. But he didn't like to think that way. He didn't know how he liked to think at all.

"No, you don't." Kuzuryuu curled his fingers into a fist. "You don't know what it's like, having someone there day after day, your entire life, and then… and then you just start forgetting about her. How unfair is that? Her cottage's right there…you can stare and stare and stare at it, but it isn't…it's not…"

He shivered, and looked down, away from Hinata. "I…didn't…know what to do either," he said. "Yesterday, I mean. How pathetic... all I did was get a little scared, and I ran my mouth off…"

"Yeah," Hinata said. "You did."

"Not that I was wrong," Kuzuryuu said. "But I wasn't any better than any of you."

Hinata hesitated. He almost felt jealous of Kuzuryuu, and Souda too, for still having someone like him they felt they could actually unload on. "I'm…not really sure what you want me to say."

"Say I was an asshole," Kuzuryuu said. "Say I don't even deserve to be part of the group. I've never thought anything else."

"Well…" Hinata couldn't in all honesty be reassuring, but he didn't want to get him angry, either. "I don't think it's about deserving it anymore. We're all we got, and if we don't stick together –"

"If we don't stick together we'll die anyway. Sticking together's just about feeling good." He made a noise that was half a laugh, half a sigh. "And you think Koizumi'd really want me around?"

I don't even know if she knows, Hinata thought. "Do you…want her to want you around?"

"Want… no, I just…Forget it. If you chase me out, I'll go, otherwise, I'm here." He folded his arms. "But it's not about you. She…she wouldn't want me to die a coward."

"No. Probably not." Hinata smiled despite himself. "I'm, uh, glad you came around. Or whatever this is."

"Pffft. Not what I expected." Kuzuryuu cracked a smile. "Remember when you were yelling at me that one time at breakfast –"

Kuzuryuu stopped, and his eyes went wide. Hinata looked up to see Souda sitting bolt upright, sporting the most impressive bedhead he'd ever seen. Hinata hadn't even seen him wake up. He was squinting in their direction, looking alarmed. "Dude," he slurred, "What the hell…?"

"Hey, we're having a man's heart-to-heart," Kuzuryuu snapped. "Go back to sleep."

"Heart…to heart…?" Souda slapped around his bedside, picked up a large pair of glasses, put them on, and gave Hinata an unbelieving look. "But we –"

"Forget it, moment's passed." Kuzuryuu looked away, covering his mouth. "You think the girls think we're awake?"

"Uh, not in…a million years," Souda said, wincing as he pulled himself across the bed. His stitches didn't appear to have bled through, but Hinata could tell he was still in a lot of pain.

"Should we go get them?" Hinata said, looking at Souda. "Or just…not move any more than we have to…"

"I dunno…s'kinda awkward, just…sitting here…" Souda laughed, but Hinata could tell his heart wasn't in it. Kuzuryuu's presence had definitely brought a change in his demeanor – he'd closed himself off again. "'Sides, time is time…"

"You guys go ahead. I'll just show up at some point later." Kuzuryuu stood as he spoke, paused, then, grumbling, sat back down. "No, I won't. I'm coming now."

"Uh, yeah. Whichever, ah, works." Hinata gave them each forced smiles, which they seemed to accept – Kuzuryuu nodded, and Souda grinned before reaching out for his support to stand up. Hinata took his arm, wondering why they both thought he was somehow put together enough to support them. They did both at least look better for the little he'd said. He'd be satisfied with that, and save his despair for the moment.

The girls appeared surprised on many levels when Hinata and Souda showed up at the front door of Saionji's cottage at what turned out to be 5:45 in the morning. Koizumi cracked the door open for them, showing enough of herself for them to tell she was half-dressed and bleary-eyed, and stared at them in shock for a second before mumbling to herself. "You could've waited," she said.

Hinata just shrugged, giving Koizumi enough time to notice that Kuzuryuu was there as well, skulking around the edge of the path. They made eye contact for a second, their expressions unmoved, and while Hinata couldn't see Kuzuryuu's expression, Koizumi suddenly looked much more awake. "We'll be out in a second," she said before shutting the door.

After another few minutes of loud banging, at least one shriek, and a constant level of babble from someone that sounded like Mioda, Koizumi opened the door again, wider this time. The other three were visible now – Mioda was on the edge of the bed, kicking her legs back and forth, Saionji was kneeling on one of the floor cushions, looking cross, and Nanami was standing on another cushion, fast asleep. Koizumi wouldn't let the boys inside; instead she called out to the others, who nudged Nanami awake and left the cottage with her in tow, closing the door behind them.

They walked together down the path, though the girls stayed in front, and the boys followed behind. They passed the ruin of Pekoyama's cottage in silence, but after that their conversation was limited only to what they needed to know. For one thing, there'd been no sign of Owari all night. The girls had all tried to keep an eye on her cottage – and had in fact chosen Saionji's cottage for its view of her door. But none of them had seen anyone enter or exit, or any lights go on inside.

"We need to look for her before we do anything else," Koizumi said, sounding confident at first, but losing steam with every word. "But there are four islands to search, and Akane-chan is stronger and faster than any of us…"

"Akane-chan's reverted to the ways of the wilderness," Mioda mumbled, sounding more tense than whimsical. "Braving the treetops, stealing to survive, drinking her own pee-"

"With any luck, she'll come to her senses and come back to us," Nanami said, her voice hollow. "She has the rules, she knows the consequences…"

"But what if she doesn't?" Saionji said. "Is she just gonna..."

She paused, then, and turned to Koizumi, who gave her a look that Hinata could only interpret as tired. She looked down again, and said nothing else.

"She's not going to die," Nanami said. "I'm...I'm positive she's not going to die. But if we can find her... then that won't be a concern."

"That is something we can control," Hinata said. "But she's still safe until seven, right?"

"As long as she doesn't do anything dumb," Kuzuryuu mumbled.

They'd left the cottage paths by then, and walked past the pool and the old lodge up to the hotel lobby. There was no sign of any of the disruption they'd seen the previous night; Hinata didn't want to bring it up, for fear of the others confirming that it hadn't just been an illusion. They bypassed the lobby this time, choosing instead to take the outside stairs directly into the restaurant.

The inner layout mostly seemed the same – but there was now at least three times as much food in the room as there needed to be. All but a few tables were overflowing with bacon, eggs, toast, rice, miso soup, natto, and more besides, including things Hinata wouldn't dream of eating for breakfast, like roast pork, gyoza, hamburgers, and hot dogs. Even after Komaeda and Hanamura died, there'd still been enough food for sixteen, but now…

"Th-the food!" Mioda said, clamping her hands to her mouth. "The food is covering everything!"

"What is this…" Kuzuryuu said, through clenched teeth. "What the hell are they doing…?!"

"I'm not eating any of that!" Saionji said. "You can't make me!"

"But we can't just not eat," Koizumi said, looking uncertainly at the food.

"Then Big Bro Hinata's going to taste-test!" Saionji pointed at Hinata, then at the food. "Come on, go stuff your face and see what happens!"

"Huh? But –" Hinata took another look back at the food, which apart from its abundance seemed perfectly unsuspicious. "You guys really think there might be something wrong with it –?"

"There isn't." Nanami stepped away from the others, walked up to one of the tables, and picked up a piece of toast. She bit into it, chewed, and swallowed, without appearing to suffer any ill effects. "It's just like it was with Monobear," she said. "The Impostor isn't going to kill us with our food when they still need us for the rest of their game."

The others were silent for several seconds, before Koizumi spoke up. "But then...what's the point of all this, anyway?" She scowled at the display. "Is it just supposed to be wasteful?"

"I...I don't know." Nanami folded her arms across her chest, and Hinata could tell she'd only been working off context clues – there was no reason for them to assume she knew more about the situation than the rest of them. And anyway, they all shared the tacit realization that she was right on one front – the food wasn't going to hurt them, and they had to eat. So they took their normal portions, sat across the empty tables, and ate in perfect silence.

Hinata hardly had an appetite, but he forced himself to eat – he didn't know whether or not he was having his last meal. Most of the others were doing the same, apart from Koizumi, who beyond a small bite did not touch her share. She spent most of breakfast fiddling with her camera, attempting to get it to work. Eventually, Hinata saw a reflection from the camera's digital display screen on her face. "6:15," she said, narrowing her eyes. "Forty-five minutes."

"So..." Souda twisted his natto around with his chopsticks. "If the Future guys were gonna show up...they'd let us know somehow. Right?"

Hinata found he'd lost his appetite. He was suddenly very aware of the lack of activity or information on that front – no boats on the horizon, no airplanes in the sky, no communications, no nothing. "They'll show up," Koizumi said, before he could say anything. "They've got to."

"That is what we'd expect," Nanami said, her voice shaking. "But we don't know what kind of difficulties they're having, or even where they're coming from. And the rules forbid us from contacting each other..."

"They could be on the other side of the world," Hinata said. "And who knows how long it'll take them to get here…"

"If they wanted to get here at all," Saionji said, trembling. "They probably don't even care about saving us..."

"They do," Nanami said, much more loudly than Hinata had ever heard her speak. "They have to. If they didn't…"

"'If they didn't, then why would they put our lives at stake?' Is that what you're about to say, Nanami-chan?"

Saionji screamed, as did Hinata, out of shock. He looked around, trying to find the source of the voice, but it seemed to have come from every inch of the room, sounding without a source of sound. Nanami alone looked and pointed at the monitor at the other side of the room, which, like the night before, had turned itself on, but remained pitch black. She walked over to it, silently beckoning the rest of them with a wave of her hand.

"That's right. That's exactly right," the voice went on as they approached. "The despair of a loss of control compounded on the despair of the resurrection and reformation of that which they wished to restrain, compounded on the despair of a simple regard for human life…" They made a low, guttural noise. "What? Isn't that enough? Are they just completely fucking indifferent now? Has my despair really driven them that far?"

Nanami didn't respond, but kept looking at the screen, as if that was all the communication she needed. Hinata could see Mioda just behind her – she was staring at the screen with what looked like wonder, heavily mixed with shock. "I don't get it," he could hear Kuzuryuu saying behind him. "What are you trying to pull –"

"Ah, you're all angry at me, aren't you?" Without warning, their face appeared on the screen again, the one that was and wasn't familiar, the one Hinata only half-recognized. They seemed to be pulling at hair that was just out of shot, and their eyes were glazed over. "Well… there's really nothing to be done about that. I'll make one thing clear. I don't want to kill you, and the question of whether you die is honestly out of my hands. Buuuuuuut!"

They suddenly looked very cheery, and the shrillness of their voice cut into Hinata's ears. "Since the Future Foundation's being a bunch of meany-weenies, then that means at 7 o'clock sharp, the first ultimatum will be up! I'm not going to waste my precious time wondering why you're not here, but I think you've made your stance pretty clear, hmmm? Of course, if you show up at any time between now and ten o'clock, then I'll cancel the order –"

"Order?" Hinata said. With a chill he remembered the sixteenth rule: Any student who disobeys the direct orders of the headmaster will be executed. "Wait, what order?"

"Ahhh, someone's eager…" A grin spread across the Impostor's face. "Say, Hinata-kun…where's your friend, Owari-chan?"

Hinata's blood ran cold. "You don't know, do you?" they went on. "Well, as it happens, neither do I. She's disappeared, gone off the grid. But I'd like to know where she is. I need to know where she is. And that's why…you're going to look for her. We could call that today's student activity. And if you don't find her by ten o'clock tonight, well…you wouldn't want that, would you?"

"What…" Hinata said. "What are you saying –"

"But of COURSE, if the Future Foundation would just rear their ugly heads, then what do I care where Owari-chan is?" They laughed a cold, cruel laugh that did not work at all with the face Hinata was used to. "Well, we've said enough to you all for today. Go on, chop chop –"

"Hey! Hold on!" Souda pushed his way to the front, wincing against the pain. "You keep talking about the Future Foundation, but who the hell are they?!"

"Oh? Oh oh oh oh oh?" The Impostor's expression went blank. "Where, and point me to it directly, is the rule that says "you have to answer every single stupid question Souda-kun asks you?" Ah…there isn't one, is there? So, instead, I'll tell you this." They leaned into the camera, and the angle made their face appear grotesque. "If I hadn't had to save you, I would have left him to die."

"Wait, Byakuya-ch – HEY!" Mioda spoke too late – the monitor screen had gone blank. She balled her hands into fists, but whatever she would have said to the Impostor, Hinata did not know. At any rate, it was the least of his concern.

"They're not here," he said to himself. "And they aren't coming…"

"They're trying to mess with our heads," Nanami said. "Trying to make us think they're against us…" She looked over at Souda, who was looking at the ground and shivering, and didn't seem to be in any state to talk anymore.

"But they're not here," Mioda said, gathering the Four Dark Gods of Destruction into her hands. "They're right about that."

"Hey, guys, I'm sorry, but we don't have time to waste on this!" Koizumi was slinging her camera across her shoulders as she spoke, and pulling herself out of her seat. "Akane-chan's in danger. We need to find her before the ultimatum's up."

There was almost no reaction to her words, which surprised Hinata. Had their hope really been sapped so quickly? "Y-you're right," he said, trying to resist the urge to join them. "I'm sure. But you just said this morning it was impossible –"

"I…I know. But do we have any other choice? This is about her just as much as it's about us." Koizumi stopped halfway to the stairs and turned around, looking at Kuzuryuu. "And don't any of you say anything about "following their orders." This is first and foremost about staying alive."

"What made you think I was going to?" Kuzuryuu muttered, not looking at her.

"You –" Koizumi clenched her teeth, and shook her head. "Come on! Please!"

None of the rest of them could match Koizumi's haste. Nanami was the first to follow her down the stairs, and Hinata followed close behind, but the others didn't move for quite some time. But, in their defense, they looked more bewildered than reluctant. Of course they all wanted to find Owari. Of course they all wanted to stay alive. But either of those things alone felt more and more impossible by the minute.

Seven o'clock passed as they stood outside, arguing over the best way to split their search. There were four islands to cover and only seven people to cover them, and nobody wanted to go alone or leave any space uncovered. Before long they degenerated into collective despair at the impossibility of the task – including ghoulish exaggerations of Owari's physical abilities ("Who even knows if she's still on the island. She might've swum off without us!"), and eventually outright hostility at her actions ("If Big Sis Owari hadn't run away we wouldn't be in this mess in the first place!").

But while they couldn't quite dispel these feelings, not even with the assurance that they had no basis in reality, they did manage to divide themselves before seven-thirty. Koizumi and Saionji would cover the first and central islands, Kuzuryuu, Nanami, and Souda would cover the second island, and Hinata ended up with Mioda and the third island in his corner. They left Koizumi and Saionji at the hotel after promising to bring Owari back to the restaurant if they found her, and set off for the central island, where they and the Kuzuryuu-Nanami-Souda team split off in opposite directions.

Hinata and Mioda walked for a time in what seemed to him like a deathly silence. He tried not to look like he was staring at her, but… he couldn't help it. He was curious. The last time they'd walked to the third island together she'd been talking a mile a minute, formulating plans and appearing unflappable even in the face of... well, the despair of someone she loved and counted on. But now...now he couldn't pin a specific different behavior on her, but there was just something off about her. It had to be a reaction to Togami's – the Impostor's – betrayal, but not something he could consider conventional, if it was even there at all, and not just a reflection of his own reactions...

"Ibuki bets she can crack the case by using the power of Ibuki's imagination!" Mioda said suddenly. "If Ibuki were Akane-chan, then where would the Ibuki who is Akane-chan be?"

Hinata blinked. "Uh…that's…a good question. I don't really know…"

"She's gotta be planning some kind of sneak attack." Mioda tapped her chin. "Coming down from the skies in a helicopter, ringing a doorbell and running away, digging a hole in the sand and waiting for the target to fall in…"

"Ah. Sure. Yeah, that's reasonable." He fixed his eyes back on the shoreline, which seemed to go on without a break. Weren't they supposed to pass Monobear Rock by now? Or had he missed it entirely?

He realized then that Mioda had stopped speaking. One of the Four Dark Gods of Destruction had crawled up to Mioda's shoulder, and she'd busied herself with trying to get it back into her arms. "Hajime-chan didn't laugh," she said suddenly.

"Hm?"

"He didn't even smile." Mioda sighed. "Now, not even Ibuki's jokes are working."

"What – hey, no, no!" Hinata grimaced. "Really, it was great. I'm sorry. I just –"

"Ibuki'll try something else. She'll just have to think." Just for a second, her smile faltered. "It'll be okay. Ibuki'll be okay."

There was a weight to her words that they didn't often have – it felt like she was trying to tell him something, a message he could only guess at. Don't think about what Ibuki's thinking, it seemed to say. In all honesty, it only made him want to talk about Togami more, but not if the conversation wasn't what Mioda wanted. Besides, they would need their focus to find Owari – especially given what they found when they turned the corner.

A pile of mechanical wreckage blocked the path between the third and fourth island bridges. The Monobeast that had once blocked the bridge was nowhere in sight, but it was all too easy to put two and two together. "Did…did someone destroy that?" Hinata wondered aloud. "That's…no way…"

"Hajime-chan's thinking it and so is Ibuki," Mioda said with a grin. "Akane-chan's taking them out one by one…"

"Whatever it was, does that mean…" Hinata looked over at the fourth island bridge. "Does that mean we can go there?"

"If Akane-chan did it, then that might be where she's hiding!" She curled one arm around the Dark Gods, and pointed the other forward. "Come on, let's –"

A sudden mechanical CLOMP CLOMP CLOMP noise cut her off. The horse Monobeast – the one that usually guarded the fifth island – stomped down the path and came to a stop in front of the fourth island bridge. It looked around briefly, passing them over as beneath its notice, then turned and galloped back in the direction it had come.

"Er," Mioda put her arm down. "Never mind."

"You can say that again." Hinata shook his head. "We'll…come back to that. But we should let the others know. Somehow. If there's any chance she's there…"

"Is it some kind of trick?" Mioda said. "Is Akane-chan somewhere we can't find her?"

Hinata sighed. "I hope not," he said. "Let's…search the third island first. Just so we don't miss anything."

Ten o'clock. Twelve o'clock. Two o'clock. The hours seemed to melt by without any reason or logic. They must have circled the island six times, looking in every nook and cranny, every single room in the hospital and the motel, but apart from what she'd left in her motel room the previous day there was no sign of her or anything she might have left behind. There was no word from any of the other islands, so he could only assume that none of the others had found any trace of her, either.

By mid-afternoon Hinata could feel a sunburn baking the back of his neck. It was so hot, now, that the buildings seemed to be shimmering before his eyes. Or maybe that was new, and had nothing to do with the heat. He didn't want to think about that.

At four they sat to rest against the movie theater. Mioda bounced the hamsters from hand to hand, humming to herself, while Hinata wiped the sweat off his temples with his hand, which stung as the salt hit his wounds. Four, he thought. Six hours to ten. Six hours where this Future Foundation, whom Hinata was imagining as a group of stern-looking men in black suits, could conceivably arrive at any minute or not at all. Six hours where they were deciding whether or not one or the other of them deserved to live. Six hours they'd be adding on to the eighteen they'd already spent...

But what, if anything, had this Future Foundation wanted with them in the first place? The easy answer was that they were the ones that had put them on the island …but he still didn't know why they'd wanted them there in the first place, or if whoever that was had wanted them dead or alive. Was it because of all of their talents? If they were important enough to warrant taking them away from Hope's Peak, were they important enough to be worth saving? And whatever his talent was... would he be able to count it among that number? If they hadn't come yet, was there any hope of their coming at all? And if they did come... what would happen then? Would the Impostor have something planned, and dig them into some deeper trap? Or, if they overpowered the situation... what in the end, would become of the Impostor?

None of them had talked yet of why the Impostor was acting like this, not since last night. No guesses, not even a single reference to the person they'd been just a few short days ago. Nothing that suggested that the Impostor was anything more than what Monobear had been. An enemy. Something to be feared. Something separate from the friend and leader they'd lost.

He thought of sharing all this with Mioda, but in the end he decided it wasn't anything that she wanted to hear. Instead he told her, "There's no way she's here. Come on. Let's go tell the others about the Monobeast."

"No way, hm? Then Ibuki's mysteries are compounding on each other." Mioda got to her feet, and tucked the hamsters into a Monobear-printed tote bag she'd found, of all places, in Owari's motel room. "And Ibuki's thinking there's many too many mysteries for Ibuki to solve…"

"You're telling me." Hinata got to his feet – but when he did, he could swear that he saw something, or someone, out of the corner of his eye. But when he looked back, whatever it was had gone, leaving him unsure of whether he'd seen anything to begin with. "Hey, Mioda," he said, "You didn't see anyone there, did you?"

"Huh?" Mioda blinked. "Ibuki doesn't see anyone but Hajime-chan."

"I know, but..." Hinata turned, and took several steps back – but if someone really had been there, they wouldn't have been able to run away in the time it took for Hinata to look back. "Never mind. It was nothing. Let's go."

The walk back seemed to take even longer than the walk there, and every step reminded Hinata of the time he was losing. Five and a half hours. If they didn't find Owari within five and a half hours…

Would they all die? Was that how the rules worked? But… that didn't work, not with what the Impostor had told them about their purpose, or even the meaning of the ransom. But then, why make the threat? Was it only to scare them? Was it because they'd assume this was something that they could carry out?

He wanted to ask Mioda about it, but couldn't think of how without directly referencing the Impostor. So he thought instead of the alternative. They find Owari. They talk her out of her plan, they bring her back into the team, and then the Impostor doesn't slaughter them all for not obeying their order. But then the Future Foundation doesn't show up. And the ten o'clock ultimatum passes, or the Impostor simply gets bored….

Hinata stopped right in his tracks, just as they were passing the first island beach. "We've been had," he said.

"Huh?" Mioda stopped, and turned back to face him. "What's going on?"

"We're delivering Owari to her executioner. If she's even lost at all." He could feel his hope ebbing away with every word. "We need to hurry –"

"Hurry? But what for?"

The voice was so loud it nearly knocked Hinata off balance. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the monitor near the entrance to Jabberwock Park, which had turned itself on again, and remained as black as usual. "But it's not even close to time," he said to himself. "Why –"

"Good news, everyone!" the Impostor interrupted again. "You've shown a truly commendable ability to follow orders, and We are very impressed. But, you no longer have any need to find Owari-chan. Whatever she does is her own business... but it would assist you to know that she might appear at six o'clock on Chandler Beach. Might."

The voice paused. "But only she's willing to face me."

The screen turned off again, hissing as it released its static. Mioda's face appeared to have drained of color, along with it. "They've got her," she said. "They found her first."

"Or they're calling her out." Hinata felt too shaky to think. "We need to go to the hotel – no, the beach –" He shook his head rapidly and picked himself back up, running as soon as he knew his feet were stable. "We've just gotta go back! Come on!"


The Heir he fashions hearts and minds
And leads them all to speak
In tongues that praise and tongues that cry
Without, the Heir is weak

- Carth