CHAPTER 5

It was six days into their hotel stay before the three decided to start looking for a new home. They hastily made their way across the courtyard towards the transportation hub.

"Slow down, I can't keep up!" Sota huffed.

"I don't want to miss the train to Valleyrun in case it leaves early!" Kari called back.

"Come on, run faster, you're not gonna drop dead here!" laughed Hana.

Kari stopped at the signboard listing all the destinations and departure times. "There it is. Platform G. Leaves in ten minutes."

That was enough time for them to walk at a more leisurely pace down a winding corridor to Platform G, where a sleek, silver chain of passenger cars awaited them. Kari led the others through the sliding doors, down the narrow aisle to a set of unoccupied seats. Sota scampered to the window seat, and Hana plopped down next to him. Kari slid into the empty seat behind them.

"Attention passengers, this train will be departing in two minutes," blared a female voice from the loudspeaker. "This is the Orange Line traveling to Silver Coast, with service to Valleyrun, Tennosuke, Bismillah and Racing World. Again, this train will depart in two minutes. Thank you."

"Okay, we need to decide on how big of a place we want before we get there," Kari told the others as she pulled out her phone.

"Can we each have our own bedrooms?" asked Hana.

"I want my own room too!" Sota chimed in.

Kari pulled up a list of available properties. "Hmmm... this doesn't look promising. A bunch of studio apartments, a few two-bedrooms..."

A small jolt ran through the train car as the Orange Line trudged into motion.

"It does say that availability changes every day, so what we might end up doing is finding another hotel... or maybe we can sleep at Erina's if she'll let us."

The chain of train cars continued on its metallic path through a colorful meadow decorated with patches of wildflowers. Hana propped herself up on her knees so she could get a better view above Sota's head of the rushing outside scenery.

The flowery prairies eventually gave way to clusters of houses, and before long the Nakamuras were watching big city buildings pass by their eyes as the train approached the next station.

The loudspeaker started up again. "Attention passengers, we are now approaching Valleyrun Station. Please watch your step as you exit the train. Next stop is Tennosuke Station."

Kari, Hana and Sota were excited. Excited to see a new city. Excited to hopefully find a place to live there. So excited they almost disregarded the loud shrieks from the front of the train.

The train car suddenly jolted and shook. Blood spattered on the window next to them. Shouts and nervous chatter erupted.

"What the... did the train hit someone?" Hana nervously shouted as the railcar regained steadiness and pulled up to the station.

"Kari-chan, I'm scared!" Sota tearfully buried his head in Kari's lap.

"Where are you going, Hana?" Kari asked as Hana darted out of her seat.

"I have to see what happened!" Hana shouted back, dashing through the opening doors.

Hana prepared herself for the worst as she ran along the tracks to the gruesome scene. She wanted to cover her eyes, but she knew that would just cause her to trip and fall. The brisk run turned into a slower jog as she came upon the carnage.

A pool of blood. A headless, bloodied, disfigured corpse in a T-shirt and jeans being pulled from the tracks by a group of similarly dressed boys who were laughing.

Laughing?, Hana thought. Why are they laughing at this?!

Seconds later another boy ran up with what appeared to be a lifeless head. He placed the head in its proper spot, pushing it into the collarbone. Hana stared in awe as the body readjusted itself, the skin regenerating and smoothing over the wounds like putty.

The reassembled teenage boy gasped and sat up, dazed but grinning. His clothes were mangled and torn but his body bore no evidence of the horrifying damage experienced minutes earlier. "How did that turn out?" he wheezed. Hana stood there, bewildered.

"Dude! Your head popped off and shot all the way down that hill!"

"Your body just freakin' exploded, man! Takashi Miike would be proud!"

"You still in pain, bruh?"

"I... my whole body felt bludgeoned and sore for like a half-second. Next thing I knew I'm laying by the tracks, I don't remember anything else."

"Yo, don't look now, but we got an audience." The four boys turned their attention to Hana, who was still half-shocked, half-curious.

"Hey little girl, you gonna be okay?"

"You're new here, aren't ya..."

"I... honestly don't know what to say..." Hana's voice quivered as she tried to stifle nervous laughter.

Suddenly there was a shout from the direction of the rail station. "What are you guys trying to pull?! Freeze right there!"

"Whoa... gotta run!" "Catch ya later!" The group of boys scrambled to their feet and took off down the tracks, yelping and laughing.

A man who appeared to be a security guard ran up to Hana and the bloody mess on the tracks. He stopped to catch his breath. "Come back here, you good for nothing punks!" he called out, shaking his fist.

Exasperated, he turned to Hana. "Young miss, please return to the station, you shouldn't be out here." Hana nodded and started walking back.

"Did... you see anything? Do you remember it?" the man asked.

"I saw them put together a dead body and it came to life," Hana replied.

"Wow... I guess you weren't as traumatized as I thought you'd be," he said with a puzzled look on his face. "Anyway, you don't need to be hanging with the likes of them. Not only for your sake, but the sake of the innocent bystanders."

"Yes, sir," Hana answered as she ran off to rejoin her siblings.

"Crazy troublemakers... they find out they're immortal and they just wanna wreck themselves, no shame, no regard for anyone else," the guard mumbled under his breath as he followed Hana.

"So what was all that about?" Kari asked Hana as they left the train station and set out on a busy sidewalk.

"I think one of those boys threw himself in front of the train just to... I guess I can't really say 'kill himself', but... destroy himself? His head got cut off along with his limbs, but... once they put him back together, it's like he never got a scratch!"

"He can get his head cut off and stay alive?" asked a surprised Sota.

"Don't you get any stupid ideas, Sota-kun!" Kari retorted. "You need to stay in one piece!"

"Sounds to me like you encountered some Daredevil Club boys." Erina sipped on her caramel macchiato at the Yates Bakery & Cafe, unfazed by the story she just heard from Hana in a frantic recollection.

"A bunch of guys intentionally tearing up their own bodies... I guess I shouldn't be surprised that such a thing exists here," added Kari.

"It's definitely one of those 'off the grid' groups. Any mention of them online gets deleted. I only knew about them because Akiho thought it would be cool to try a deadly stunt with a couple of the guys she met."

Akiho's face turned red as she stirred her cappuccino. "Geez, Mom, you gotta bring that up?... well, come on, did you ever get that line from your parents about 'well, if your friends were gonna jump off a bridge, would you do it too' when you wanted to do something that all the other kids get to do?"

Three nods and sheepish grins came from the Nakamura siblings on the other side of the corner booth.

"So those two kids were talking about that and they were like 'yeah, let's really jump off a bridge and just go SPLAT on the ground! And it'll only hurt for about a half-second!' We all jump off this roadway bridge into a river, it must have been a kilometer down... they land in the grass, I wind up smashing into some jagged rocks! Yeah, it hurt for a second and I was healed, but it was still an unpleasant experience."

"And I'm not one to give stern scoldings or harsh punishments, I just told her, you know, there's just some lessons you gotta learn on your own and I hope you're not foolish enough to try that again." Erina grinned and then turned to Hana, who was wiping remnants of her latte from her mouth. "You said that guard was surprised when you told him you remember what happened to the boy on the tracks, right?"

"Yes, it was like I was supposed to be blind to it or something," Hana replied.

"He probably thought that would be disturbing to someone your age and the memory wiping would kick in at that point. I guess your mind has more fortitude than he thought."

"I did watch a bunch of scary movies and played some of those 'Call of Duty' video games online, that probably helped me."

"Mom and Dad never found out, huh? Lucky you," Sota chimed in.

"Yeah, I've heard those sayings about 'pain makes you feel alive' and whatnot, but if that's not your thing, it's best to stay away from people like that," said Erina. "I wouldn't be surprised if there were a bunch of those Daredevil Club kids at that school you want to go to."

"Can I take those plates from you?" asked the waitress who walked up to the booth.

"Sure... Mimi, is it?" responded Erina, eyeing the lady's name tag. "Go right ahead."

"Thanks! My brother is getting bored in the back so I'm giving him some stuff to do." Mimi laughed as she collected the plates.

Hana turned to Kari. "Do you want to find a house in that Tennosuke town? We might have better luck getting a big place where we can all have our own rooms!"

"How about we check out that school first. They should be giving tours, right?"

Erina chuckled at Kari. "They might be shocked that someone wants a tour of their school."