September 14th, 2030

Abigail has been helping out with the investigation in a rather peculiar way. She is entering a buddyfight tournament at one of the public fighting areas, mostly due to how much of a crowd it gathers. I didn't bother to ask her for the name of it, and something told me that she wasn't able to say much either in the small bit of time we were able to interact with each other. She's been working with the Buddy Police about it, but a different branch of it. If I needed to get involved then I would, but for some reason I felt like too many people were keeping me in the dark.

I especially learned that after lunch today.

Tasuku and Alvis offered for me and Arkaid to show up to a local Tokoyaki place for lunch. They were working overtime, which was odd for a Sunday, but we swiftly accepted the offer. I expected Arkaid, due to how much she enjoyed the food, to be rather content about it, especially when it involved talking with the others. However, she was quite antsy about it. She's been rather timid since that night we drank. She apologized multiple times about calling me an idiot, as well as her unprofessional behavior. I simply replied back that the unprofessional part of it is just a part of the alcohol, and that there was no need to be embarrassed about it.

However, that didn't stop her. When we finally showed up to the small and quaint Tokoyaki place, Arkaid seemed skittish as she walked. She kept all of her fingers interlocked as she held her hands close to her face. "You okay?" I would ask her. She only replied back saying that nothing was up, but she seemed extra careful about making sure her actions were much more restrained, which I found cute at one point but rather worrisome about the other. Because of her SD form, her eyes were magnified to an extent. The way she looked slightly saddened made her much more innocent in terms of appearance. It was hard for a friend not to notice someone feeling sadness when she looks the way she does.

Tasuku and Alvis were with their buddies, Sitri and Jackknife in their SD forms. They were sitting at a six-person table while a kid had a wooden chair pulled in at the head. It was Gao Mikado. Seeing him only made me further worry about Arkaid being seen the way she was. The way she replied earlier made me believe that she didn't want anyone to worry about her, but because her expressions were magnified due to the properties of her SD form, it would prove to be difficult to ignore them.

Gao noticed this rather quickly as Arkaid and I sat at the few remaining seats. Arkaid was sitting closest to Gao, so all the kid had to do was look over at a moment to see Arkaid spacing out. "Arkaid, you alright?"

"Yes," Arkaid replied emotionlessly. Even though she looked distraught, she managed to speak in the usual manner.

The others, as they overheard the situation, turned to me for further input. However, Tasuku was hesitant about it. He looked at me for a moment before turning away. Something was… off about him. He was acting out of place… anxious, even. However, my focus at the time was making sure that Arkaid was still able to have a good time. I was in the middle of grabbing one of the menus when I noticed everyone else was looking at me. I instinctively froze as my eyes looked at everyone sitting around the table. "She's worried about what happened on Friday night."

Alvis, intrigued, learned in. "Friday night? Did she see you get too drunk or something?"

"Actually, she drank with me," I stated while shrugging my shoulders. Alvis and Tasuku were rather confused by this, but Gao was the one who reacted in a rather odd manner. It was more along the longs of an exaggerated gasp, soon turning back to Arkaid as she accepted the menu from me. She started reading over it as I continued answering for them. "The problem is that she thinks she acted out of line. Personally, I think she's overreacting, but I don't want to press her about it."

Alvis leaned in. "So, Arkaid, what were you like being drunk?"

Arkaid immediately placed the menu back on the table. It wasn't with anger or any amount ill will; she rotated her wrists downward so that the menu flopped onto the table. The next thing Alvis saw was Arkaid looking at him in a rather cold manner. Again, she didn't look angry, but her overall tone and facial expression voiced gravity to her words. "I'll have to ask you not to ask me about it."

"Oh, um… sorry about that."

"It is alright; it is just not something I wish to discuss about." Arkaid pulled up her menu and started looking at it once again. "It's not like I didn't enjoy the experience, but I personally felt like the alter-ego that came upon me carried an unprofessional attitude. If I had understood that I was using absurdities at the time, then I would have simply refrained from speaking."

"… Did you at least enjoy it."

"… Yes," Arkaid lowered the menu to glance at Alvis one more time. "However, I do not wish to sacrifice your partnership if I accidentally offend you with my words. Instead, I will only partake in consuming alcohol when CJ is around and only him."

Sitri coughed. "That's a bit possessive."

Tasuku smiled a little bit. Jack, curious, looked over at his buddy. It was good seeing Tasuku again, especially like this; I trusted his judgment, especially on something like this. "So you feel safest around him."

Arkaid countered. "I didn't say that. I just don't wish to offend either one of you when my mind goes into the absurdities."

"Let me change my statement," Tasuku corrected himself. "It seems like you trust him enough so that you know, for a fact, that you're able to be more open with him." Arkaid's eyes followed Tasuku for a moment. When he smiled for confirmation, Arkaid quickly looked away. "It's not wrong to be more open, especially with your buddy. I think it's great that you're able to trust in CJ to not feel offended by your… 'Absurdities' no matter how bad they were."

"You're over-exaggerating too now." I couldn't help it. I decided to just blurt it out. "She literally only called me an idiot."

Arkaid coughed before rapidly turning to me. "C-CJ!" Embarrassed, she dug her head into the menu once more. Everyone else around the table started laughing joyfully. Gao was the first to stop though; he couldn't help but just smile as he saw Arkaid act in a much more… playful manner. I didn't notice it at the time, but something about her behavior seemed off, but in a good way.

After our food and drinks had arrived, Tasuku decided to help me out in constructing my deck. Everyone else motioned their orders away so that I was able to place all of my cards, in an organized fashion, across the table. Cards of the same name were placed with each other in piles of four. Any extras were put away, for they weren't necessary at the time. The first thing Tasuku made me do was make sure I had the four copies of Arkaid's card picked out and selected. The fifth copy was going to just be Arkaid herself, especially since she would be in her card form before I would call her out in a buddyfight.

My items were easily able to be organized; the four copies of Fifth Omni Dragon Sword, Emperor Fang were placed into the main deck without a second thought. The odd thing about the Fifth Omni deck is that most monsters couldn't be called to the center, leaving the fighter exposed. Jackknife seemed to enjoy this aspect of the deck, especially when he reflected this to Gao's old playstyle. "He called it the 'Gao Formation,'" Jack began. He pointed his small and green dragon claw at another weapon of choice. "This also helped him out. To make up for the fact that he's alone in the center. I remembered seeing one of Gao's fights with Tasuku."

Tasuku nodded. "That card, Fifth Omni Dragon Fist, Shiny Dragon, is great for its defensive capabilities. Whenever you're going to be dealt 3 or more damage, the damage is reduced by 1, AND you can put a card into your gauge and increase the power of the weapon by 3000 when you're damaged. Not so useful on the opponent's turn, but on your turn it acts as a great means for offense."

Intently, I began to notice a pattern of the cards. "The thing about this deck is self-sacrifice."

Gao nodded. "Yeah. You use spells that take out your own life for the sake of improving your formation and helping your allies."

"Pssh, yeah, allies," I muttered in an annoyed tone. "I met the Fifth Omni Cavalry Dragons; they either have low faith in me or they refuse to see any potential in me at all."

Alvis interjected with a slow response. "Oh yeah!" He leaned forward, eager to start this conversation. "You took another day off to make your visit to Dragon World. How'd that go?"

"About as well as I told it, though Lord Tenbu likes me."

Gao's eyes beamed. "You met Gramps?!" Assuming he meant the Omni Lord, I nodded back to him. "He's a good guy. Don't worry about the others too much; it took some time for us to regain their trust when Drum took over as Omni Lord for a short time. In fact…." Gao slyly looked over to Arkaid. The others turned to her as well as she was rudely interrupted from innocently chewing off a piece of tokoyaki. She gulped the piece down when she noticed most of the people staring. I was simply drinking my lemonade when this was happening, and when I noticed the stares I began to feel a bit defensive. "You were one of the five that left initially."

Arkaid sighed. "Not exactly a moment that I'm proud of."

I shrugged my shoulders. "Not exactly something I can blame you of. One moment your boss was Lord Tenbu, someone you've known for many years. Then, in a moment, Gao's buddy takes charge. It would definitely be surreal."

Sitri snickered. "Knowing you, CJ, you'd probably want Fridrik to be replaced like that, if not faster." He knew he was right when I smirked back.

"Actually, going back to Tenbu and Drum," I pulled up several sets of cards from each of the available piles. There were four variations of Gao's old buddy, Drum Bunker Dragon in the form of an Omni Lord, and then there were a few variations of Tenbu. It was odd looking at one of the cards, especially since one of them was Tenbu in his SD form. "Gao, it must be weird seeing your buddy again like this."

"A little bit," Gao replied, still keeping a positive cheeriness in his voice. "Still, I'm happy that you're going to be able to use the deck. I think it suits you."

"It probably suited you more," I replied in an annoyed groan. "Going back to the Cavalry Dragons, they only seemed to have a problem with Drum, not you. Now I'm having a hard time proving myself to them."

Arkaid looked over to me with a soft smile. "Their words should mean nothing to you," she began. Her sudden statement appeared to freeze everyone within the room. To speak so coldly against her brethren was just so sudden. "Besides, they value brawn too much." She started to smirk. "They don't understand the mind of an intellect. Don't worry about their cruel words. When it comes down to it, you're smarter than the rest of them."

"That's debatable."

"Don't start doing that," Arkaid demanded. My body tensed up, realizing that her tone was much more serious than before. "I don't lie. I was upfront about why I left Drum when I didn't trust him. At the time, he didn't exemplify what it meant to be an Omni Lord. Forgive me for saying this, but he had a history of arrogance. Only when I finally learned of his capabilities of actually having the traits of a true Omni Lord was when I returned. You can ask anyone else in the cavalry. We were honest about our feelings."

"Still, I-"

"I'm not going to let you speak down to yourself like you're some distressed lemming," Arkaid continued. "I apologize for sounding so stern, but you're making me have to explain something that others have seen in you. You aren't a bad person. The only thing you need to do is take my word on that. If you don't even value my word at all, then value Lord Tenbu's."

"… I'm sorry."

"Don't be," Arkaid replied in a much more calm tone. Her smile returned, relieving the tenseness that once existed in the room. "I'm your partner now. If you need me for something, just ask." She took another bite of her tokoyaki, thoroughly enjoying it as she innocently chewed on the bit of meat and breading. Her eyes closed with delight. Upon opening them, she noticed that Gao was smiling rather confidently. "Is something the matter, Gao?"

"Nothing's wrong," Gao chuckled back. "I'm just happy for you two, especially you, Arkaid." Arkaid, at first, was rather confused by the statement. "You've talked more now than the entire time I've known you. I think it says a lot about you and how comfortable you must have gotten being around CJ and his friends."

Arkaid looked away, still keeping a cool face. However, her eyes darted around for a moment, making me think that she was a little embarrassed. "It is only fair to assume that buddies should be able to converse with each other rather simply. In addition to that, our shared responsibility in protecting Lord Tenbu means that we would have to get used to working together."

"That's good to hear," Gao replied. He got up from the table an exhaled with a great amount of satisfaction. He rubbed his stomach, feeling full from the delicious food. "Man, that was great!" The kid excused himself from the table, soon leaving behind a few bits of money to pay for his order. "I'm sorry for leaving like this. I promised Kuguru and Baku that I'd meet up with them for a deck I'm making."

Tasuku got curious. "Are you joining a tournament?"

"Yeah, I really gotta go right now. No time to talk." He looked over to Arkaid and I, soon grinning. "Good luck on your mission today, guys."

Arkaid could only blink back. A sudden pain filled my head, for it was like I was a victim to a sudden whiplash. I wasn't aware of anything like that, and nothing makes me more antsy and worried than being unprepared for something. However, as I looked back on today, I never recalled hearing anything about a mission. Arkaid and I looked to each other, expression the same feeling of confusion. "Mission? What mission?"

"The one today." Gao turned to Tasuku and the others, possibly aiming to see them reaffirm his claims of the mission today. Gao's smile immediately faded. When Arkaid and I looked across the table, all we could see were faces of dismay. I heard Alvis mutter a swear word as he placed his forehead into his right hand. Sitri was completely speechless. Gao noticed Tasuku's eyes look away. Only then did he realize his mistake. "W-wait! He didn't know?"

Tasuku forced a smile. "It's alright, Gao. It wasn't your fault." He looked over to the others. "He was going to find out anyway."

I hunched over, dumbfounded at what I was hearing. A stern expression came across my face as I focused intently on Alvis. He could only look away. "What. Mission?"

Alvis let off a defeated sigh. Reluctantly, he started to speak. "One of the ex-employees came up. The list we got from Gaen because of you had the name Ricky Zeele, a 19-year-old American when he was fired from the Gaen Financial Group. He's about 20 now."

"You found a guy?"

Tasuku sighed. "Yes. He was fired due to having a psychological breakdown while dealing with one of the employed monsters. At first, we simply saw him as just another ex-employee, but after looking through our databases we were able to find his name marked down. We have an address, and he was in our database due to an assault charge and near-theft of someone's buddy monster." He turned to Gao. "I'm surprised you were able to learn this."

Gao began to, nervously, scratch at the back of his head. "I… sorta overheard you and Alvis talking about it when I was coming back from the bathroom."

Alvis turned his focus back to me. "We were able to get a warrant, so we were going to check out the place later today and see if he has any connection to the murders. Right now, my theory is that either he got the dude killed or worked with the victim. Either way, it is a connection that gives us more context on what 'The Will of Kyoya' really is, and if the murderer is after them, we can use these guys to answer the 'Why?'"

I couldn't help it; I started to grow angry at the four of them. "Jack… Sitri… Tasuku, Alvis… Were you just going to keep this a secret from me? Why not just tell me ahead of time?"

"Because you were initially assigned to go," Alvis replied, soon turning his head away. "Fridrik told us not to go with that plan. She was told that you were being tested with the Disaster Force. In this situation, the Future Force is a necessity, and Sitri has access to short teleportation. Two officers and buddies are more than enough. Sure, it'd be nice to have another person with the Future Force, but…."

"But what?" I asked anxiously. "I have access to the Disaster Force. I can use it if anything goes awry."

Tasuku shook his head adamantly. "You're misunderstanding the deal we made," he returned. He looked directly into my eyes. His determination had an intense resolve as he continued to stare down me, a grown man. "We promised that you could have it for protecting others and fighting alongside Arkaid. We never promised that you could use it like I use the Future Force. In fact, I kept telling you that we don't know enough about the Disaster Force."

"You've gotta be kidding me!" I exclaimed. "You're really doing that? And what about Jack? He talked about somehow learning to use the Disaster Force for good!"

Jackknife was able to deliver a swift retort. "That is 'if' the Disaster Force is a reliable one." I couldn't help but stare at the dragon, dumbfounded by his comment. "I recommended that Tasuku give you a chance to still have access to the Disaster Force whenever you needed it. My reasoning is that, one day, we can learn how to use it for good. That's what the weekly tests are for; for understanding what drawbacks are able to be known. I understand that this wasn't addressed to you directly, but Tasuku and I later agreed that, even if you wanted to use it for normal work, you should only be able to use it once a week."

"Once a- that is so damn convenient for you," I complained. "What is waiting one more day going to do? That's such a contrived limitation."

"It's to help keep track of your mind," Jack retorted. "Through a timed and limited usage, we're able to dissect just how much the Dark Core Deck Case can negatively affect you. For example, if one week you use it every day, and one week you just use it for a moment, the results are affected."

"But doesn't that mean that I'm still going to be affected by it anyways?" I asked angrily. "Look, if you see something, then you'll see it, right?"

Tasuku shook his head. "But certain readings on your mind could have different meanings," Tasuku replied. "Certain levels of bad mental activity could also mean that you're stressed from a lot of fieldwork. Overuse of the Disaster Force, if paired with that statistic, would be ignored by those conducting the test since there's a new variable involved; overall stress. That is why you've been assigned to your normal work; you're already working with the Fifth Omni Lord so any additional stress could misrepresent the findings. We need you to be at a set mental state so we can accurately read how the Disaster Force affects you, and limiting it to once a day is a good variable since we have whoever gave you the Deck Case, possibly, using it often."

"But I-"

Arkaid made herself known. She leaped onto the table in her small form and looked at me in the eyes. "CJ, you already know my stance on the issue. The last thing I want is for you to use something as risky as the Disaster Force. I'm agreeing with them on this."

"Arkaid…."

"I refuse to simply let you be in a situation where you have to use it… however." Arkaid turned to face Tasuku and the others. "If you keep any more secrets from us, then don't expect for us to completely trust you."

Tasuku nodded. "I'll keep that in mind."

"I'm the only one keeping him from using that power," Arkaid sternly replied. "However, you must never forget that CJ's friends are working for you. If anything happened to them, it would break his heart. The last thing I want him to think is that he's worthless for not being able to stop you. If you want my help in being the one to support his alibi when it comes to the usage of Disaster Force, you better be honest with us in the future."

(POV: Third)

Alvis and Tasuku led their buddy monsters to the apartment door. Alvis raised his phone to check the address again, confirming their arrival. After stowing his phone away, Alvis noticed Tasuku surveying the area around the group. They were on the first floor of the apartment complex, which was old, almost like it was fading away. Some of the walls were chipped as old paint covering them began to shatter. Windowpanes were cracked, some of them holding cobwebs with bits of garbage at their bases. Whatever this place was, it certainly was seen as an area to be completely avoided.

Jackknife and Tasuku nodded to each other. Sitri looked up to his buddy, watching the door carefully as Alvis went to knock. Before doing so, Tasuku instructed Sitri to see if he could peek into the windows. The lights were off, giving off the impression that no one was there. Because of their warrant, they were able to get an extra key off the landlord. However, they didn't want to just barge in if this 'Ricky Zeele' was just a normal guy that just happened to get fired.

Sitri shook his head back, informing Tasuku that there was no movement. Alvis finally knocked on the door. "Buddy Police. Open up!" There was no reply. Alvis's voiced seemed to echo into the doorway as the old door shook. "Open up! We have a warrant to search!" Once again, there was no answer. Alvis sighed as he scratched at his short and blonde curly hair. "Okay! We're coming in then!" Alvis shook his head as he started pulling out the key. He turned to Tasuku and Jackknife and sighed. "Watch him be here. Watch him try to ambush us."

Jackknife murmured to himself. "There's something uneasy about this place."

Tasuku nodded, but Alvis still continued on. He inserted the key, opening the old door. It struggled to open as Alvis applied force. He noticed that the old door had protruding pieces of wood that were catching on the floor, scratching it. Sitri winced at the noise. The black panther shuttered as Alvis finally pushed the door through, seeing nothing but a dark and soulless room.

Upon entering, Tasuku pulled out a flashlight. Finding a light switch was their first objective in navigating the place. The sunlight from outside was barely getting into the room. The four intruders started feeling the walls for a light. Fortunately, Jackknife was able to find one near another small hallway. "Finally. This should make things easier." Jackknife pulled the switch up, illuminating the room.

What the group saw immediately made them leap for the wall. The very center of the room was a wide hole, leading to seemingly nowhere. It was definitely not natural, but it also wasn't dug out by human machinery, or a human in general.

Alvis tensed up. "What the actual hell?!"

Sitri shook his head. "No. I don't want to see what made that."

Jackknife, curious, turned to his shaken allies. "You're confident that a monster made this?"

Tasuku frowned. "If they're right, then this person has committed a serious offense. No monster this huge should be allowed in their normal form in such a condensed space. And I don't think I need to mention the hole."

Alvis gulped. "No doubt the landlord is going to be mad at that."

Sitri turned to them. "Wanna call for backup?"

Tasuku nodded. "I don't think we're going to need help. I believe that Jackknife and I could handle this just fine." Tasuku turned to Alvis and Sitri, noticing that they were staring deep into the hole. "However, we don't know who or… what's down there. If we're unprepared, then it could be over for us. I'll call the Buddy Police and get some assistance. They'll be here in a few minutes." Tasuku pulled out a small speaker, pressing the button and making the device give off a neon green color. "Calling other Buddy Police Officers. We have an illegal and large hole within the floor of an apartment complex….. Not sure where it goes, actually; it's completely dark…. Got it…. Okay…. Thank you." Tasuku placed the device away. "There should be three coming our way. Based on the description of the hole, they sounded-" Tasuku stopped talking. He noticed that Alvis and Sitri still staring at the hole. Tasuku couldn't help but worry that his two allies were underprepared to see something like this. "Don't worry, you two. Help is on the way so-"

Alvis, emotionlessly, and as low as a whisper, muttered back. "Don't move."

"What?"

"Don't. Move. Just look."

Tasuku and Jack took another look down the hole. That was when they saw it. From what appeared to be a great distance away, two small dots of light-blue circles remained motionless. Tasuku and Jack tensed up, watching closely as the two dots remained still. They knew, for sure, that they didn't see those things when they first entered the building. Suddenly, they heard an almost inaudible exhale. Sitri, frightened, turned to his buddy. "Y-you heard it too, right?!"

"Don't. Move," Alvis reiterated. "Now… we need to get out of this room. Now."

Tasuku turned to his comrade. "Alvis… what is that?"

"Whatever it is, it's not close to us." That was the last thing anyone wanted to hear. "And there's no doubt in my mind that it sees us."

Another nearly inaudible exhaled was heard from the hole. However, it was louder than before. The noise was far from anything that resembled a human being. Slowly, the group started making their way to the door. However, a sudden creak shook their attention away from the hole. The noise came on their floor. They looked up and saw another human being standing on the other side of the hole. He had short, black hair. His skin was a light brown color. His clothes looked ragged and old, but none of that mattered; when the group looked at the man's waist they saw a Dark Core Deck Case. After also recognizing the light-blue eye color and the defined chin and cheekbones, the group was able to recognize him as Ricky Zeele. He raised his right hand, directing his pointer finger at the officers. "Black Dragon, Fendula. Eat them."

Suddenly, the floor shook. Everyone looked down to see the two blue lights getting closer by the settled. Every second, as the circles grew closer, the shaking increased dramatically.

They had to get out.

Jackknife immediately took to his real form, Star Dragoner Jackknife. He grabbed Tasuku and burst his way out of the house. Just in the nick of time, Sitri took form and teleported Alvis out of the house, using a great deal of his mana in the process. Just as they made it to outside parking lot, a gigantic creature burst its way out of the apartment. The serpentine dragon let out a ghoulish roar as its purple and black scales glimmered from the sun. Cars from nearby streets pulled to a complete stop as worried pedestrians looked forth. The snake-like dragon slithered from the opening, slowly and slyly approaching the officers.

Ricky Zeele emerged from the doorway, holding the side of the fallen wall with his right hand. He grinned as he directed his dragon to amass even more destruction. "To destroy the world… and build it again. Fundula, crush them all! CRUSH THEM! CRUSH THEM!" The man barely seemed human anymore.

The dragon hissed pulling back before unleashing a strong lunge with its teeth bared. The red-scaled crest on its head acted as a ram as the lunge reached its strongest point. Jack managed to leap away, avoiding the attack and allowing Tasuku to prepare himself. He knew it was time. In order to stop this massive creature, as well as to prevent any more destruction, he knew he needed to call upon the Future Force. "Time to unleash… The FUTURE FORCE!" His voice resonated with his Core Deck Case, causing it to glow. It began to take form as a yellow and silver orb. The gem's color began to shift to crimson as Tasuku's hair began to grow. His hair grew past his waist as a powerful and bright aura began to emanate from his body. "Let's get to work, Jack!"

"You got it!" The green dragon's armor began to glow as the knife on his head shifted outward. He let out a violent roar as he leaped forward, striking the creature in the jaw. Because of our world's laws, the knife made contact and struck the creature. It didn't cut through, as expected, but the enemy dragon felt great pain from the attack. Funbula barely had time to roar in pain as Tasuku followed up Jack's attack. From his hands emerged a pair of dual laser blades, striking the creature as Tasuku performed a strong slice. The creature roared, feeling the intense pain as Tasuku and Jackknife went back into position.

Fundula readied its tail, performing a large sweep. Tasuku was barely able to avoid the attack. At the last second, his Core Deck Case stated a command. "Buddy Skill: On." As soon as it was activated, he was able to leap into the air. Green spirals of energy were able to be seen from Tasuku's shows. He began to take flight. Alvis and Sitri were amazed at the unique trait of the buddy skill, but the soon noticed that Jack was unable to evade the attack. The tail slammed right into the dragon, sending him into the street. "Jack!" Tasuku cried out to his buddy. The dragon nearly hit a few cars as his body tossed and turned along the ground.

Jack groaned as he forced himself back to his feet. He stared at the creature as his armor began to glow with an even brighter light. "You will not DEFEAT ME!" Fundula roared back, accepting the challenge. The two charged at each other. Sitri and Alvis watched as Jack flapped his wings and took flight. The opposing dragon slithered even faster as the two continued their charge. Jack let out one final roar before preparing his giant knife. He lowered his head, adjusting his weapon's position as he arched his body for an even faster flight.

Fundula bared its fangs, preparing to end this fight. However, Jack was not going to go down so easily. He powered through, unleashing a furiously powerful lunge at the black dragon. The knife slashed right into the opposing dragon, making the creature vanish instantly. Jack looked around him, soon noticing that the only thing left of the opponent was its card. He looked at the Black Dragon, Fundula card, for it glowed with an unholy hue. Finally, when it vanished, and when Jack finally knew that the enemy dragon was unconscious and within the confines of its own card, the green dragon raised its head, releasing a roar of victory.

(POV: First)

The owner of that monster was now in custody. Arkaid and I watched from the other side of the glass as a detective attempted to interrogate the criminal. The detective slumped his shoulders, soon turning away and getting out of the chair. As he began to leave the room, Arkaid and I heard another sound behind us. Alvis and Sitri approached us, wearing somber looks. Alvis sighed, soon looking at me while feeling rather guilty. "Look, I'm sorry for how we put it before," Alvis began before letting off a long sigh. "To be honest, Tasuku and Jack did the fighting work. In the end, we were just there to help record the report."

I turned back to the criminal. "Which Arkaid and I read," I replied in a low tone. "So, you got him? Exactly how big was the kid's dragon?"

Sitri shuttered. "Don't mention that horrifying creature."

Alvis answered for him. "It was at least twenty feet long, possibly even bigger than that."

Astounded, I couldn't help but hold my right hand to my forehead. "Jesus."

Arkaid looked back to the criminal with uneasy eyes. She was having a difficult time getting a read on him. "That person managed to have a really dangerous buddy monster." She turned her attention back to the ground, seemingly ready to fill in more details. "That monster was, no doubt, an illegal one."

Tasuku's voice came from the other side of the room. "Yeah, and a violent one too." We all turned out attention, happy to see Jack next to him in his SD form too. Jack took a violent hit from Fundula's attack so I was happy to see that he was okay. "Normally, we don't agree upon fighters having buddies with that kind of massive size or destructive capabilities, especially when they are from Darkness Dragon World."

Jack intervened. "And that's not all. At first, we only assumed the deck case Zeele had was his only one. After sending a few officers and monsters down there, the group managed to find a stash of Dark Core Deck Cases. And, according to them, guess what the boxes read?"

I shook my head. "The Will of Kyoya."

Jack nodded back. "We are fortunate that the criminal didn't make an item card real. I guess his cowardice managed to save him from being involved in our scrap."

Alvis wasn't so sure about the cowardice portion. He found himself folding his arms, looking at Jack with doubt. "No, no… There's no way. He showed no hesitation in sending his monster after us. If he was afraid, he would've jumped onto his dragon and attempted an escape."

Arkaid found herself in agreement. "That's true. Maybe this individual had a reason for not using his deck case to make his item and spell cards real."

Tasuku found himself grimacing. "The way he commanded his buddy monster…."

"That got me thinking," Arkaid replied. "Zeele said he wanted his creature to destroy, and he repeated those statements. A part of me doesn't want to believe this to be true, but what if he only had basic control of his monster?"

"Basic control?"

"Darkness Dragon World has monsters that have a strong reliance on instincts and violence," Arkaid began. "It wouldn't be too insane to believe that the being Zeele had under his control was only 'somewhat' controlled."

"Are you meaning to tell me that he was afraid of his own monster?"

I found myself in agreement with Arkaid. She was getting somewhere. "If I had a monster as big as what you guys told me, I doubt I'd want to get involved in the scrap. I'd probably get in the way, or worse; it would accidentally attack me due to its insane size."

The detective approached us, looking wearily at Tasuku and Jack. "I apologize, but I'm unable to get a word out of him. He only wants to talk to you."

Tasuku nodded back. "Understood. I'll take care of it."

With only Jackknife, Tasuku entered the interrogation room. Ricky Zeele was handcuffed to the table in the center of the room. The criminal occasionally shivered as the skin from his arms made contact with the cold steel. Upon hearing Tasuku's presence, the criminal soon looked up, smiling at him. "Finally… the Buddy Police prodigy. I was wondering when you were going to question me. That detective was getting incredibly boring."

My friends and I watched from across the sheet of glass dividing the rooms. Their voices were heard through a speaker which was being transferred from a microphone somewhere in the room. Tasuku was getting visibly troubled by Zeele's response. "Stop wasting my time. I want you to tell me why you were in possession of Dark Core Deck Cases and an illegal buddy monster. Also, you have to deal with an apartment you destroyed."

"You're funny, Tasuku," the criminal replied with a low chuckle. "You're working for these cruddy adults. It is funny how they rely on you so much. The adult officer with you didn't even lift a finger to help you, even after your precious buddy monster was struck."

"Don't try and turn me against my comrades!" Tasuku exclaimed proudly. "Alvis's buddy isn't able to work in such a condition. Since their magic fluctuates between powerful and weak, we needed a different tactic for the sake of preventing any unnecessary damage. If anything, them not joining the fight is my responsibility."

"Cute."

"You really have no clue how much trouble you're in, do you?"

"Doesn't matter how much I'm in now," the criminal replied. He turned to Tasuku before lowering his head. He smiled, showing his teeth as murderous eyes locked onto the buddy officer. Jack, instinctively, motioned himself in front of Tasuku. Zeele could only laugh. "When everything is said and done, this world will be ours."

Jack stepped forward. He became very protective after the threat the criminal just made. He could hardly contain the anger rampaging within him. "Who is your leader? What's your goal?"

"Our leader? Can't tell you that."

"Did you kill those three victims?"

"You mean those fuckers?" The criminal laughed back. "Those guys were ours, but they were complete idiots. I'm actually happy that someone took them out; I was actually starting to get sick of them."

"You mongrel."

"I'll admit, knowing that there's some vigilante out there is a bit frightening, but it will be okay," Zeele replied with a sly grin. "I doubt you even care about finding the murderer anymore. Those three people were the lowest of the low. There's no way I would've allowed them in the new world."

Tasuku entered the conversation with a stern look on his face. "Unless we can say, for absolute certain, that the murders were targeted to them, people remain afraid. And it doesn't matter who was killed; one person decided to take the law into their own hands and wrongfully killed three people."

"So you're defending a rapist, a sex offender, and a potential murderer?"

"I'm not defending them," Tasuku reiterated. "People like that need to be punished the right way, not through some self-centered belief in what's right or wrong."

"You only believe in that system because you're a puppet for the adults," Zeele widened his grin. His teeth were bare as his eyes widened with inner delight. He heaved with laughter as his eyes stared into Tasuku's soul. Tasuku and Jack took a few steps away, watching the beast before them as it writhed and coiled in the chair. "Doesn't matter now; we will follow Kyoya's will and eradicate everything, creating a new one."

"Y-You're insane."

"The best way to make new buildings is to wreck em' all down," Zeele snickered. "This world is no different."

Tasuku and Jack left the room. We had seen enough. When they joined us a silence fell among all of us. We didn't know how to approach this at all. This guy was out of his mind, insane. There was no sense of logic within his head at all. That all changed when I turned to Arkaid. She was tense. Her eyes looked up to us with urgency. "If what this guy's saying is true, then it goes in line with Kyoya Gaen's old will."

Tasuku winced. "Old will?"

I nodded. "Yes. Kyoya Gaen brought up the 'rumored incident' during the Gaen Cup. Tasuku, were you involved with him at a point in any way? He mentioned you and Gao." Tasuku turned his head away, silent. "T-Tasuku?"

"I… I worked with him, for a time." He grimaced with utmost regret as he turned to his buddy Jackknife. "I made a horrible mistake; a mistake that I will never truly forget. To answer your question, CJ… I was involved with him, and I know about the 'rumored incident.'"

Alvis interjected. "Wait, so you're saying there was another crime that Gaen committed?"

"Was," Tasuku corrected. "Gao and I stopped him, along with an ally named Rouga. Since nothing came of it, the event was able to be disregarded, since no crime was officially performed. However, I remember how it went down… all of it."

Arkaid spoke up. "So you remember Gaen's old will."

"… to destroy the world, and rebuild it…." Tasuku muttered those worlds, soon gasping in shock. His eyes were trembling, struggling to remain focused.

"Unfortunately, I was right to worry." Arkaid looked over to me with sorrowful eyes. "CJ, our talk Friday night… This is why they've gone this far. Gaen's ex-employees aren't out for revenge; they truly believed in him, and now they're becoming the plan B for Kyoya Gaen's old will!" For that moment, the creator of noise was erased from existence. No one knew what to say or think. We weren't dealing with a revenge plot anymore. Instead, we understood that we were dealing with a group of individuals spreading an ideology that the creator of it no longer believes in. However, that will not stop people who believe in that ideology from massing together, expanding the reach. Even though Kyoya Gaen is not behind all this, his old will is coming back for him.

Alvis finally spoke up before looking to the rest of us. "We need to inform Abigail. Updating her is necessary before she enters that tournament."

I turned to him, surprised. "What do you mean?"

"Abigail is joining a tournament to get close to the buddyfighters participating. Two of Kyoya's ex-employees are entering as two members of a team in the buddyfight tournament, and I don't know much about the third guy who's with 'em" Alvis answered. "They're calling themselves Team Redemption. Now, we originally sent Abigail in there to reserve a team spot for us, but now I think we're going to need more if these two guys could really be as dangerous as Zeele."

Tasuku muttered as he turned to me. "CJ… there's one more thing that I need to tell you…. I wanted to tell you this during lunch but… I wasn't sure how you would take it."

"Might as well tell me now," I hastily replied. "We're all together again."

"It's about the person who gave you the Dark Core Deck Case," Tasuku began. "At first, I thought it was odd for him to have them, but then… some recent pieces of information came to light."

"What kind?"

"For starters, I used the name you gave me; Liam Kieron. You were telling the truth; he is from Ireland. However…." Tasuku's voice started to trail off. I stared back at him, tensed up as his words implied something unknown to me. "I had some Buddy Police officers in the area contact his family members. Since Liam Kieron was the only available lead you could give me, I thought it would be fine to just get it out of the way; it kept picking at my mind until I finally went through with it."

"… What are you going with this?" I asked impatiently.

"CJ, your friend isn't in Ireland." My mind nearly shut down. I couldn't take that as fact. I stepped away, feeling my body lose its basic senses and functions. "I called his mother. He went to Japan with his buddy monster. CJ…." Tasuku trailed off again. "… His buddy monster is Demios Sword Dragon, the very one you saw."

"Y-you've…." I fell to my knees. "You've gotta be… shitting me."

"But that's not what's making this difficult for me, CJ," Tasuku forced out. "I'm sorry, Alvis. I wanted to tell you, but I didn't want you to freak CJ out like this, but…"

Tasuku took in a deep breath. Arkaid softly grabbed my hand, attempting to comfort me as many realizations kept hitting me senseless. However, once Tasuku finished speaking, I just couldn't take it anymore.

"Liam Kieron… is the third member of Team Redemption."