CHAPTER 5: I OWN YOU

After what felt like an eternity, the aircraft finally landed. The large doors opened up, and a number of Charon soldiers came in to escort the prisoners one by one. Jill heard her friends' various protests and complaints, but she herself said nothing. All her complaints would be saved for Idia.

As she walked in line with her captured schoolmates, Jill looked around curiously. Surrounding her was what looked like an ancient city with Greco-Roman roots. The buildings were large with white stone walls and long pillars with curled tops. The sky seemed to be absent; all Jill could see was a titanic ivory tower that opened up and covered the city in a bluish umbrella of sorts. The sound of rushing water was everywhere. Were they below a waterfall? It almost felt as if this world was flat, and they had gone past the edge to the abyss.

"Where… are we?" she asked faintly.

"This must be the Isle of Woe, where the Watchmen live," Leona said.

"I don't see anyone living here," Jamil noted. He was right; the streets were barren, and there were no signs of life in any of the houses.

"These seem to be ruins," Riddle said. "I doubt anyone could live here without extensive renovations."

"Surely the Shrouds would have enough money to turn this place into something useful," Azul suggested.

"Actually," the nearest Charon soldier said, "Styx chose to preserve this old city. This is the original Isle, dating back to thousands of years ago."

"So you guys just have this old city lyin' around and you're doin' nothing with it?" Grim asked. "Where do you guys sleep?"

"Below, of course," the soldier answered. At this point, the group had entered an enormous building that looked like a shrine for Greek gods. In the back was a massive elevator, nearly as big as the wall itself, that could've comfortably carried an elephant. Jill was walked into the elevator along with Vil, Jamil, Azul, Riddle, Leona, and Grim, as well as a soldier for each prisoner, yet it didn't feel cramped.

Jill's stomach lurched as the group plummeted down. She wasn't sure if the elevator was going fast or slow. But sure enough, the doors opened up, and everyone walked into a lobby area. It was a large square room with bluish lights overhead, a huge monitor on one wall with the same triangular symbol as Idia's tablet, and a number of closed-off doors that would require special access to unlock. The cool air and dark atmosphere reminded Jill of Ignihyde.

And speaking of Ignihyde, the housewarden and vice were standing before them. Their yellow eyes seemed to bore into Jill's, and their blue hair was some of the brightest light in this dreary place.

Ortho was in his "dorm gear", a black-armored body that had a blue holographic ruff around his neck. As soon as he made eye contact, he waved casually, as if Jill and the others had visited of their own will for tea and gossip. Idia was dressed in a dark-gray military-type outfit with black boots and gloves, triangular patterns around his neck, and a dark sash around his chest. He also looked notably stern, not like the shrinking violet that Jill had known up until now. And had Idia always been so… tall? He had always slouched in public, letting he and Jill see eye-to-eye, but now she measured a good few inches below him.

So this was the real Idia Shroud, huh…

"Hey, everyone! Welcome to the Isle of Woe!" Ortho said.

"And welcome to Styx," Idia said, showing a sharklike smile. "I'm the acting director. I'll be your boss."

"Boss? You?" Leona asked. "Hah, makes sense you'd only show a lick of confidence when you have a literal army behind you."

"Hey, don't talk to my brother that way! You need to respect him!" Ortho snapped.

"You two have a lot to answer for!" Vil shouted. "How dare you storm into our school, kidnap us, and destroy our property!"

"You may be an independent organization, but you still have to obey the law!" Riddle snapped.

"Okay, yeah, sorry, I know we had some collateral damage…" Idia acknowledged quietly. "See, when I captured Azul, I did it properly."

"You texted me saying you had a new game for Board Game Club, then when I entered the clubroom, you surrounded me with soldiers and handcuffed me!" Azul fumed. "It was an underhanded and manipulative tactic… which I would respect, if you hadn't done it to me!"

"…Do you ever realize how much of a bad guy you sound like?" Jamil grumbled.

"But I did it with no property damage," Idia said, "Which is more than I can say for these two-bit bozos…" He glared at the Charon soldiers, who were lined up neatly against the wall.

"Idia, it was a Code Obsidian," Ortho reasoned. "You know that means at all costs."

"That doesn't mean being reckless!" Idia said. He approached the line of soldiers, and his blue fiery hair suddenly turned reddish-orange and flickered angrily. "YOU IDIOTS! We're supposed to be a secret organization! But you just went gung-ho and started smashing everything left and right! Now we'll have property to repair, witnesses to silence… you just gave me a lot more work!"

"W-We're sorry, sir!" one of the soldiers cried, and they all kneeled before him fearfully.

"What a hothead," Leona chuckled.

"And people say I have a bad temper?" Riddle asked dryly.

Jill flinched at the sudden change in Idia's mood, and felt relieved when Ortho came to his brother's side.

"Idia, that's enough. We'll fix it, I promise," Ortho said. "Losing your cool won't do anything!"

Idia sighed and ran a hand through his fiery locks, which were changing back to blue. "Right, Ortho. I'm fine now," he said. "Alright, guys, we'll talk about protocol later. You're free to go for now… but before you do, take the prisoners out of their cuffs."

The Charon soldiers got back on their feet and took everyone out of their handcuffs, as well as releasing Grim from his cage. Jill traced her now-free wrists, but she still felt no freedom. Rather, it seemed that she was just transferred to a much larger imprisonment. As soon as the soldiers were done with their final task, they saluted to Idia and Ortho and then took the elevator back up to the Isle of Woe ruins.

"Gotta say, I'm disappointed with your reactions," Idia mentioned. "I was hoping that when you saw me like this, you'd be freaking out like 'Wait, Idia is the director? No way!'. Even Little Miss Isekai is pretty subdued."

"I already told them all about your little reveal when you took me," Azul said acidly. "Some of us already knew about the Shrouds and the Jupiter Conglomerate, so that shock had passed. So sorry to disappoint you, Mr. Director."

"Honestly, I'm feeling more hurt than surprised," Jill admitted. "You spirited us away and destroyed Hallowgrim dorm! Do you have any idea how long it took us to make that old house habitable?!"

"And what's with you capturin' us?" Grim demanded. "Did… did you really figure out the five other guys based on the crystals I ate?"

"Oh, that's exactly right, Grim!" Ortho said brightly. "When you came back from overblotting, we purged the blot out of you and analyzed it. Turns out your episode was caused by eating five blot crystals from unknown parties. So we sent samples back to Styx for further analysis… and they finally came back with Subjects A through E! And since we knew about you and Jill Bones overblotting, Styx decided to include you in our operations."

Grim shrunk back and hid behind Jill's legs. Jill averted her own eyes, but she could feel the others staring down at the troublesome direbeast. She couldn't muster up the energy to defend him, or offer any of her usual feel-good platitudes like "It'll be okay". Because whether it was Grim's fault or not, Jill didn't think it would ever be okay again.

Because Grim did disobey and hurt her. And Idia and Ortho weren't who she thought they were.

"Guys… I really am sorry," Grim said. "I didn't know those yummy crystals would lead to trouble! I wish I could take it back…!"

"The problem isn't Grim right now," Riddle reminded everyone. "The problem is our current predicament. We're all here because we did things that we want to take back."

"Exactly," Idia said. "I know we might look like bad guys right now, but we're actually here to help you." He swept a long arm in the group's direction. "Don't you think it's extremely sus how you seven all overblotted within such a short timeframe? Especially since none of you showed any signs of blotting before and after the events? We have to study it and make sure you're stable before you can continue school life! And if it helps Styx understand how to control blot, well… that's two birds with one stone, isn't it?"

"That's…" Jill kept herself quiet. She knew why so many had overblotted, and it was indeed very "sus". She knew now that it was the work of Minuet-Hand, who would corrupt Night Raven students to destroy the school out of a deep-seated grudge. But Crowley had told her not to speak of it. Where was he? If he was captured, wouldn't he be here? And even if Jill did speak the truth, would Idia even believe her? She decided to try and confess as soon as they were alone.

"You're trying to help us?" Leona scoffed. "Like you're some kind of charity. They say that no mage ever comes back from the Isle of Woe. Just tell us the truth—it's the least you can do now."

Idia gave him a stony expression. "Alright, you saw right through me," he said. "We're gonna strap you to chairs and extract your organs one by one for research."

"WHAT?!" the entire group cried in shock.

Idia suddenly laughed. "Oh man, I got you good!" he cried. "Sorry, couldn't resist!"

"Hey, there's a time and a place to scare people, and this isn't it!" Jill scolded.

"Yeah, Idia! Don't scare them like that—it might affect their test results," Ortho added.

"You both are sorely lacking in empathy," Vil noted to the Shrouds.

"But to the point," Ortho went on, "Styx is dedicated to protecting people from blot, but we also want to find a way to control blot safely and effectively. Blot is basically just magical waste and, well… waste not want not! Your experiences could help future mages for generations. And you would know how to prevent overblots going forward in your life!"

"So you're not keeping us here indefinitely?" Azul asked.

"Of course not. You think I want to babysit you for the rest of your lives?" Idia asked. "I'm only going to keep you here for twenty-four hours. You'll go through some tests and give us data, we'll take you back to Night Raven and bring everything back to normal, everyone will be happy."

He took out a tablet and tapped the screen a few times. Then he turned it around and revealed it to be some kind of document. "Now before we proceed, you need to sign this NDA," he explained. "Basically, it just means that you can't talk about Styx to any outside parties once you leave."

"I'm not signing just any contract! Let me see that!" Azul demanded. He snatched the tablet and read it thoroughly, his nose less than an inch away from the screen.

"So, what does the resident contract expert think about this?" Jamil asked.

"…It seems solid," Azul admitted after a minute. "It looks like your average NDA."

"Except we have no choice but to sign this," Riddle said. "This is clearly under duress!"

"It protects you, of course," Ortho said. "It ensures that no harm will come to you while we're testing. Like you said, we're still bound under certain laws."

"Fine, if that's what it takes to get home," Azul huffed. "But just so you know, I don't like this one bit!"

"I agree. Let's just get this over with," Leona agreed.

"That's a bad attitude to have… but it really looks like we have no choice," Jamil said.

"I'm not going to let you forget about this, Idia," Vil warned.

"I'm only agreeing so that you keep your promise," Riddle said. "You have a hedge maze to repair when we go back to school!"

One by one, they signed the tablet. When Jill was given the device, she lowered it so that Grim could sign with the attached stylus.

"Myah, I hate this…" Grim mumbled as he scrawled his name.

Jill hesitated as she brought the tablet back up to her face. The others were right, no one had much of a choice in this… but the last time she signed a contract, she almost lost her very identity.

"Idia, Ortho... you already broke my trust," she muttered. "Don't you dare break it twice."

And then she signed the contract.