Our next stop on our journey is heading to Yobaivillie, which is actually a city not too far from the inn in Shroomvillie. It was not quite as rural as the town but it was quite a big city that Rin had described to us. Me and my sisters were wondering what it looks like, Traditional? Modern? Well, I was sure that we will have to find out soon enough once we get there. I am sure glad that Anya was reunited with her pet. If she lost her, she would be so devastated and would lose her mind. She had packed us a few rations for us in case we got hungry. We already informed our mother that we're on our way to the city which will be close to our destination and I believe that this is gonna be a big town. You know, I never been to big cities before and we lived in the forest our whole lives, but this is our first time entering a real village.
"We should be exiting the cave soon and entering Yobaivillie," informed Rin. "It's a big city to get lost in."
"What do you suppose that Yobaivillie is known for?" Manako asked, curiously.
"Oh, it's pretty nice," the fairy chimed. "It is known for their amazing theaters, business, similar to real humans outside of Earth. It's built somewhere during the common era. I am sure that we'll arrive soon enough."
Once we exit the caves to the next area, we realize that everything is completely abandoned. Tomoka, Manako, Reika and I were expecting some people but there was nothing. It was dead silence, everything littered with small broken robots and empty streets. It's like they stopped what they were doing and vanished without a trace, like ghosts.
"If it is, then," Tomoka asked skeptically before looking around. "Where are all the people?"
The fairy hesitated, getting off of my shoulder and started flying. "I don't know. Yobaivillie is supposed to be cheery," Rin said. "But not like this."
"What kind of catastrophic thing happened to this city?" I wondered, scratching my head.
"I have no idea," said Tomoka. "Looks like a ghost town."
I shook my head, refusing to believe it. At the first village, it is filled with yokai citizens but here and now in the city, there are no yokai citizens here. It's all empty.
Suddenly, we heard someone calling for us, "Hey! Over here!"
We turned around, near an alley of an antique shop, and we saw a yokai poking her head out of the doorway. "Get inside before they come back."
They? Who are they? I wasn't sure if I could trust her, but somehow, she is actually a nice person. We began to enter inside and into a secret basement and down the steps to the stairs. The basement had a few old boxes and a single light bulb hanging from above the ceiling.
"I never thought someone like you would ever come down here," the yokai sighed. She was a blue frog yokai, wearing an accessory of trinkets and a strange mask. "I can't believe that there are others who have been able to survive after those robots made a mess in the city."
"What robots?" Tomoka asked.
"And what do you mean, making a mess in the city?" Manako asked.
"The robots," the frog croaked. "They have been wreaking havoc and started capturing people. I was the only one who made it out alive. I forgot. My name is Pipimi."
"Well, it's nice to meet you," I said, politely, bowing. "We're the Half Heart Hero Team, on our way to stop C.L.I."
"Can you tell us what happened?" Rin asked her. "Where are all the people? Why is the city deserted?"
"Well, It all started a long time ago," Pipimi began, sitting on her chair as we began to listen to her story. "Yokbaivillie used to be lively, full of citizens, the lights were once on, and there was so much joy. Everything in the city was peaceful. That is until one day, robots started kidnapping people and attacked the city, making everyone vanish without a trace. Most of them had managed to hide in their apartments while a few were being taken away. I managed to hide my shop so I could be safe."
"Are there any more of you who managed to survive?" Manako asked.
"There is one person who did want revenge on the robots," Pipimi said. Stepping out of the darkness, wearing a blue bandana is a lizard yokai. "This is Kaida. She is here to help fight the robots."
"It is nice to meet you all," she said. "I know every way and I can get away from those robots easily. I wanted to know the truth of what they are planning and what kind of scheme they are doing."
"We never fought robots before," said Tomoka. "We did face a group of gem goblins and Sally Snake Eyes."
"That is because they are very smart and know every fighting skill," the lizard stated. "They do have a weakness that can shut them down and that is water."
"My water powers might be useful," I said.
"Well, If you want us to help then we accept," Rin said.
"Well then," Kaida nodded. "Let's go. But we need to be cautious. The streets will be swarming with a lot of robots."
Before we could step outside for our patrol, I took a deep breath, and led my sisters outside. Imagine what those robots will look like. Will they be scary? Will they be cute? It doesn't matter.
Kaida told us that we need to find anything that the robot's had left behind, oil spill, a missing robot limb, or a suspect who had seen them.
It took us a few hours to search around the alley for evidence as I searched down the old trash cans with Kaida. "Find any evidence," she told us. "It could belong to someone or something."
"There is no robot," Tomoka said. "Just junk."
"I'm hungry," Manako murmured.
"But you already had eaten," I murmured to my little sister until Reika took off unnoticed. Suddenly, I heard Kaida call out.
"Look what I found!" We turned around once Kaida had come out of the other side of the alley. In her hands appears to be a smashed up cat robot thing. It was not a yokai but a robot.
"That was an unusual robot," Tomoka stated, analyzing the robot's body
"Is it probably the ones who attacked the city?" Manako asked.
"Well, it is possible," Kaida replied, dropping the robotic creature down. "But I am certain we are getting closer."
"Hey, guys," Rin called out. "Where's Reika?"
I looked around. Reika was no in the alley with us. Perhaps she must be on the rooftop or wandered off to do more fights. I really do not want to lose one of my sisters because they might be captured by those robots. Reika suddenly appeared out of nowhere and then, motioned that there are no people.
"No people here?" I asked. In response, she shook her head no.
"Let's head to my van," Kaida suggested. "I'm gonna go get it so we can search around." A while later, she took us into her van and began to drive around, searching for the yokai citizens. All around the streets, everything was empty. The markets were all run down, and the lights were all out.
"We will have to find another way," she said. "Somewhere that should lead to the robots."
"Where to?" Rin said. "We all know that these robots are connected to somewhere."
"Maybe C.L.I?" Tomoka guessed.
"That's impossible," said Kaida. "They can't possibly be built in a company like this."
"Unless," I murmured, putting everything together. I looked at the robot's head that Kaida had taken and looked at the back. "Maybe this robot is programmed to take hostages and to C.L.I. That way, Shadowside will need their blood and then create an army to take over the world."
Suddenly, we thought we saw flashing lights. I looked back and saw that a van was after us. My instincts kicked in, realizing that these people are not friendly.
"Step on it!" I called out.
Kaida began to press the gas pedal and started to drive around the block with the van chasing us. We began to hang onto the side of the van as it swerved around the path to invade the other van.
"I have to admit," Manako grinned happily. "I do love a car chase!"
Looking out of the window, I thought I saw a metal arm raising and shooting its blaster at us. It was a robot. The robot is iron white with two glowing pink eyes, like a metal person and it almost resembled a human only taller. I quickly dodged the blue laser before it could even hit my head.
We weren't sure how we could shake off our pursuers but Kaida held out what appeared to be spike belts. "Quick!" she called out, "Throw those belts onto the road. It will puncture the robot's tires."
Grabbing the spikes, we threw it down the road, popping the robot's van's tires and letting it crash against the road. As their vehicle got damaged, a group of robots started to exit out of the truck.
"Get ready, girls!" Rin called out. Transforming, we started to battle the robots. It was easy, they don't lack the ninja skills as us and we managed to slice off its bodies one by one. They spark electric sparks as I used my water attack to spray them. The robots have one weakness and that is water. It short circuits them and shuts them down in a few seconds. Once they short circuit, Reika charges and sliced down the robots in half with her ax. Metal and bolts flew everywhere as every single robot became destroyed one by one.
After the bot had been destroyed, we began to check the truck's back door to find anyone in there. We looked but there was nothing. There are no yokai, no crates of stolen items. All that we found appears to be a strange canister, glowing a golden bright light.
"It looks like... ooze," Rin gasped.
"Pretty!" Manako beamed, pushing Reika aside. "What if it can mutate us into stronger hybrids?"
"No, we would turn into a blob of goo," Tomoka stated.
"Wait," I said. "This must be the same substance that mutated us years ago. Girls, whoever made this ooze is connected to us and why those people wanted to capture us in the first place."
Tomoka began to grab the ooze and began to analyze that this substance is incredible, probably because it had all the DNA of the animal kingdom. Looking at the logo it read something in big purple blocky letters.
"PROJECT H.Y.B.R.I.D."
"What is Project Hybrid?" Manako asked curiously.
"I have no idea what was going on, but whoever owns this chemical belongs to someone. Tomoka analyzed. "Look. This ooze is so golden, related to every animal kingdom ever built in their DNA structure.
"I never noticed that before," Kaida replied. "Maybe the robots are capturing yokai and started experimenting on them on the project. Maybe for milking their blood."
"No, no," Rin refused, scrunching her face in disgust. "We do not want to hear that."
Looking at the side of the van, I noticed another clue of where the ooze canister had belonged to.
Cosmic Labs Industry.
"That must be the name of the company!" Tomoka gasped.
"The ooze must have come from the C.L.I," Rin exclaimed. She floated around the logo and then faced us. "Maybe there is a reason why you're connected to this project."
"You're right, Rinku," I said. "If that project has something to do with us then maybe Shadowside knew something. We should find the C.L.I building and find out what was going on in there."
I looked over to see a strange shape coming from the hill up above. I could not tell what it looked like, it looked like blocks stacked together in an odd way and its light shining brightly above the rooftop.
"And if these robots came from C.L.I, then we should put an end to this madness," Tomoka replied.
"You're right," Rin agreed. "We have no time to waste. Let's go."
I turned to Kaida. "Don't you worry. "We're gonna return all the yokai back to the city and maybe we will return to the city someday."
"I know you will," the lizard yokai smiled. "Good luck, you guys!"
With a nod, we turned and began to leave Yokaivillie, ready to find the answers of C.L.I and the mysterious project that we were all connected to.