Chapter 3: Fear of Truth

We sent the kid to the nearest police station. The next day, we saw the boy was united with his family. The tears of joy really set the mood inside the kitten flower house. I was relieved to see the smiles shown by all the family members. However, the number on the boy's forehead really got me curious. After closing the shop, I went out for dinner with Misaki. I was barely touching my food just thinking about the matter. Misaki looked at me sadly.

"Hey, Aya… what's wrong?"

"Huh? ... Oh nothing. Sorry." I start eating my dinner.

"Aya, I'm worried." He looked at me with his watery eyes.

"I'm sorry, babe." I placed the fork and spoon on the table then sat beside him. I kissed his cheek and said, "There is something that I need to do but I just don't know where to start. I need to solve something that is so complicated in a way that I can't explain in words. It's more like numerical riddles." I sighed.

"Oh, a riddle." Misaki felt a little relieved.

"Yeah…" I nodded.

I sent Misaki back to his apartment and rode back to the kitten house. When I was about to read my magazine on the sofa, Darien called us to watch the news urgently. We all ran to the big screen. Kazuki increased the volume. We were shocked to hear the news. The news was about other children that were kidnapped along with Shota was found dead at the foot of Mount Ruche. We were stunt and speechless. Daniel can't stand the sight shown on screen and ran to Shota's house. Kazuki and Darien called out to him but he didn't stop. At Shota's home, the whole family was watching the news. Daniel begged Shota to explain the situation when he was kidnapped but he kept saying that he don't know nor remember.

"Please Shota. Tell me everything you remember so that I could save other children from getting hurt." Daniel tried his best to convince him.

"Okay. I was kidnapped when I was on my way home from school, together with other children. We were tied up and were blind folded too. When I was sitting somewhere maybe a room, we were swaying like floating on air. We heard some kind of a chimney sound like from ships and some train alarms or something like that we heard near by. When I escaped, I saw dragons hovering in the air with red-eyes. "He shivered.

"Dragons? Good Shota. With this information, we could save other children." He smirked and ran back to the kitten house. Daniel his monitor all night long to compile the information he just received. In the wee hour of the morning, Darien woke all of us up surprisingly by shouting.

"WAKE UP! WAKE UP! Guys! That kid got kidnapped again!"

"What?" Everyone ran down to watch the news. Daniel fell on his knees then punched the floor with all his might. He stood up and walked back to his monitor again. Darien walked towards him and hugged him. He whispered.

"Let's go patroling." He smiled.

Daniel stopped typing and was shocked. "Darien…"

"Let's look for the place that he described to you before it's too late."

Daniel smiled and hugged Darien real tight. "Thanks…"

"Right. I get my keys."

"Let's go Kazuki, Eiri."

They nodded and followed me to my car. We drove to the place we found Shota. We looked at all possible places that described a workshop that is underground but no luck. As we ran back to our car, I recalled back the clues that Shota said to Daniel. Wait a second. I think he was describing something on water. When the ship is swaying, it felt like floating on air. If what I sum up was right, that means the kidnappers and Shota most probably on a big ship.

"Hey guys! I think I know where they actually are!" I shouted.

All of them stopped running and faced me. "Follow me… ". I ran to the where ships anchored. The others followed. There were three ships. Among them, there was one that has noises. I gave a signal to Daniel to enter to save Shota Darien to switch off the current on the ship. In the ship, Shota struggled to escaped from them but they got mad and was about to hurt him. However, the phone rang save him. Daniel sneaked in and hid behind the door where the room was. When the three kidnappers looked a way, I shouted at Darien to cut off the current immediately and Daniel grabbed Shota. They ran out of the ship unspotted but they caught up to them still. Daniel told Shota to run as fast as he can without looking back. Shota nodded as he sniffled. As he ran, the three kidnappers took out a knife and dashed towards me. He holds his ground. Darien drew his wire and chokes him to death.

The other kidnapper was about to CATCH up with Shota but Daniel jumped on him from the roof. He kicked him down again and shot an arrow through his neck with his arrow gun. The last of the three was wandering around nervously near the warehouses. I appeared behind him among the dark gap between the warehouses.

"How dare you disturb the harmony of innocent children. With that you need to pay with your life." I said seriously.

He screamed as I sliced him twice on his chest which resulted an 'X' mark. "With this I sent you to hell where you belong."

After that we overslept 'till noon. My alarm clock rang 10 o'clock sharp. I tried to reach it but I fell off my bed. I groaned as I tried to get up on my feet because I was too tired. Furthermore, I was half naked. I had forgotten to put on my t-shirt. The alarm clock sound really irritated me so I took one of my shuriken from my equipment pouch and threw it at the alarm clock. It was destroyed. That shows I was overreacted much. I couldn't HELP feeling so damn tired that I don't sleep a week straight or so. This time I didn't go to lectures and so does Darien and the others.