“Alright, let’s go over this one more time from the beginning,” Mr. Tanaka said almost glaring down at Ethan who was sitting wrapped in a blanket outside of the nurses office.
He was about to scream and throw the blanket in Mr. Tanaka’s face but then thought better of it. The man was the Principal and there were several police standing around staring at him.
This day quickly turned miserable once he’d gotten James to the nurses station. To start off the nurse had actually yelled at him for moving the other boy in his condition. How was Ethan supposed to know that was a bad idea? That was only the beginning of his troubles though. After that she’d called Mr. Tanaka and the Misty Oaks police who’d proceeded to interrogate Ethan for hours over the events.
He’d told them everything he knew, well excluding references to the dungeon which he didn’t think they’d believe and still they kept making him repeat the story. Worse yet, Mr. Tanaka seemed to think Ethan was somehow complicit it what happened to James.
“As I told you already,” Ethan said barely managing to hide his irritation, “I was sitting up in the student section of the bleachers watching the game when I turned to say something to my friend Bella and caught a black clad figure walking quickly towards the Point. Something felt off about it so I climbed down the back of the bleachers and followed after the figure.”
“Something felt off?” Tanaka repeated sounding annoyed. “You followed after a figure dressed in all black because something felt off?”
Not entirely, Ethan thought annoyed. I followed after it because it was wearing spirit armor, which as far as I know is only something you can get from that stupid dungeon. I thought this figure could tell me how to get the dungeon to release me and the others its marked, but apparently whoever it was is more out to harm students than to help others.
Ethan smiled to himself thinking of how ridiculous that would sound to Tanaka and the policemen standing there taking notes.
“Do you think something is funny about this?” Tanaka asked angrily. “A student, one of my students has been stabbed, and you’re laughing?”
“Sorry,” Ethan muttered quickly wiping the grin off his face. “It’s just a nervous reaction.”
Sighing Mr. Tanaka barked, “continue.”
“I tried to follow after him, but he was really fast, and he soon got out of eyeshot for me,” Ethan continued repeating what he’d told them four times already. “By the time I reached the top the figure was nowhere to be found and James was slumped on the bench at the point bleeding from a wound. I asked him what had happened and pulled my shirt off to staunch the bleeding as best as I could before bringing him here.”
“Yes, the nurse has already told us how you further endangered the boy by moving him in his condition,” Tanaka said dismissively. “Luckily she was able to stabilize him, and an ambulance is on it’s way from Carmel where he will be further evaluated, though from what she says the wound looks worse than it actually is.”
Finally Ethan’s patience ran out. He’d had enough of being treated like he was somehow at fault for this. Tanaka and the nurse should be thanking him for saving James’ life, not yelling at him for being the only person that did something.
“If it wasn’t for me James would most likely be dead,” Ethan spat. “If I hadn’t gotten curious and followed after that figure, James would have been all alone up on the Point and bleed out, so you’re welcome.”
Tanaka glared at him for a minute before turning to the policeman standing next to him and said, “I don’t think we’re getting any more information out of this one. What do you want me to do? I’ve got a homecoming dance that’s supposed to start in the gym in less than an hour and we’ve got dangerous person still on the loose out there according to both this one and James.”
I have a name you know Ethan thought glaring right back at Tanaka. Why was the Principal treating him so poorly? Was it because he was a Shipper? Surely Tanaka wouldn’t know that right off of the top of his head.
“That’s ultimately up to you,” the police officer replied. “Though it might be safer giving the students a place to be than having them all out roaming around campus tonight with the suspect still on the loose.”
“Alright, good,” Tanaka said more to himself than the other man. “At least one thing can go correctly today. Between this stabbing and our team blowing a ten point lead in the fourth quarter this has turned into a pretty miserable day.”
Ethan was just thinking about was a piece of work this guy was when the outdoor doors to the lobby burst open and Alex and his other brother came in looking alarmed.
“Ah Ben and uh?” Tanaka said turning to the two of them.
“My youngest brother Alex, sir,” Ben replied. “We were just informed that James has been stabbed and was here.”
“Yes,” Tanaka replied. “Go on in, he’s conscious and in stable condition, but if the nurse gives you any instructions or tells you to leave you listen to her. Am I clear?”
“Yes, sir,” Ben replied and lead Alex through the lobby and into the nurses office where James was resting under the careful attention of the school nurse.
“We will post several officers in an around the gym for your students safety,” the policeman said to Tanaka after Ben and Alex entered the nurse’s office. “In addition, you may want to inform your students that the beach and the Point will be cordoned off for the time being.”
“Thank you, I will inform them as you say,” Tanaka replied.
“Can I go now?” Ethan blurted out tired of just sitting there.
Tanaka spun on him with anger flashing in his eyes before his face relaxed and he said, “I’m done with you. Sargent do you have any more questions for Mr. Russell?”
“No, I think you can release him,” the policeman replied.
“You can go Mr. Russell,” Tanaka said and then added, “I don’t want to hear of you getting into any more trouble.”
“Yes sir,” Ethan said flatly standing up and dropping the blanket on the chair before exiting the building.
Immediately he made straight across the quad for his dorm, mostly because he was tired of not having a shirt on. Unfortunately he was intercepted before he could reach it by both Bella and Quin.
“Ethan,” Bella said sounding relieved. “Where did you end up going? I waited for you but you never came back to the game and why are all of these policemen around the campus?”
“More importantly, why are you running around without a shirt?” Quin asked eying him curiously.
“I’ll explain everything in a minute,” Ethan said not stopping and continuing to walk toward his dorm. “Just let me go up to my room first and get dressed.”
To his annoyance the girls followed after him all the way to his door where they said they’d wait for him. He seriously considered just staying in his room and leaving them there, but he didn’t want to do that to Bella. It would have been much more tempting if it was just Quin though. Why did Bella have to drag her along in the first place?
Ignoring his more spiteful instincts he quickly grabbed a t-shirt and threw it on before returning to the front of the dorm where Bella and Quin stood chatting. They both turned to him as soon as he emerged demanding answers with their eyes.
“Let’s go somewhere quieter,” Ethan said looking out over campus. “I don’t want a bunch of students overhearing.”
“The library?” Bella suggested before Ethan shook his head. “No definitely not in that direction.”
The library was just across Seaside Drive from the beach and the last thing Ethan needed was Tanaka finding out he was around that area.
“Manzanar Park should be fairly empty at this time, especially with the dance coming up soon,” Quin suggested.
“Speaking of the dance, shouldn’t you be getting ready or something?” Ethan asked a little hopefully.
Quin scoffed and replied, “Why would I want to go to that. I don’t dance and besides this is much more interesting.”
Great, I always love having you around Quin, Ethan thought trying not to show his disappointment on his face.
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“Well lead on then,” Ethan instructed her motioning with his hand.
She did as he instructed and led them around to the front side of Hinan Hall and then southwest where the park lay catty corner of the school and ran along Ocean Avenue.
“Why did you bring Quin along?” Ethan whispered to Bella annoyed.
“I didn’t know what happened to you,” Bella replied defensively. “She was right there and I trust her. Whatever your problem with her is, I don’t think she’s who you think she is.”
“Whatever,” Ethan muttered sourly and then added more gently after seeing the hurt expression on Bella’s face, “I appreciate your concern, really.”
Manzanar Park was fairly large, being the central city park for Misty Oaks. A pond was located on the far side while an oval walking trail made its way around the entire park and was lined appropriately with Oak trees. In the very center of the park was a stone monument that read:
This monument is dedicated to the 146 souls that lost their lives at Manzanar War Relocation Camp (1942-1945).
Below this was some Japanese writing that Ethan couldn’t read and all one hundred and forty six names written in both English and Japanese. Finally there was a small dedication at the bottom that read:
This monument was built and dedicated by the citizens of Hinan on November 21, 1948 to mark the 3 year anniversary of the closure of Manzanar War Relocation Camp so that those who perished there shall never be forgotten.
“So is this private enough for you?” Quin asked pulling Ethan’s attention away from the names written on the monument.
“Yeah I think so,” Ethan said looking around and seeing that the three of them were seemingly the only people in the park.
“What happened then?” Bella asked anxiously.
Over the next ten minutes or so he recited the entire story of that afternoon’s events from spotting the Black figure on the bleachers, to following it, to finding James stabbed on the Point, to taking the other boy to the nurses office, and finally to his lengthy interrogation by Tanaka and the police. When he finished Quin looked thoughtful while Bella looked pale and even more concerned.
“And you’re sure that this figure was wearing Spirit Armor like the armor we received from the dungeon?” Quin asked.
“I’m positive about that,” Ethan replied. “It looked just like all of yours, only it was black and so dark that I couldn’t make out any of his facial features.”
“If you couldn’t make out any of his features couldn’t it have been a girl?” Bella asked.
“Well, I suppose there’s a chance, but I just got the feeling it was a he,” Ethan said. “He moved like a guy, if that makes sense.”
“I think we’ll put the gender in the unknown category for now,” Quin said. “No offense, but a feeling isn’t very concrete.”
His lips tightened and he wanted to snap at her. This is why I don’t like Quin, Bella, Ethan thought.
Somehow he managed to restrain himself and instead said, “Their gender is really beside the point because neither me or James got a good look at the person. Whoever it is, is really fast, like faster than you Quin, and not afraid to hurt other people. I think we can safely assume that they aren’t going to be an ally of ours.”
“But if they have the armor, then they’ve had to have been down in the dungeon,” Quin said. “This means the three of us and Alex aren’t the only people who know about it and have access to the place.”
“Yeah, maybe we should ask the dungeon about it,” Bella chimed in.
“Like that voice will give us any good information,” Ethan retorted scoffing at her. “All it offers are vague statements that just raise more questions and answers. It wouldn’t explain what it meant by its heart or even what it really is when I asked.”
“I think it’s worth asking,” Bella muttered quietly.
“Yeah, it’s worth asking,” Quin agreed but then added, “though I’m kind of with Ethan on this one. I doubt it’s going to be very informative. The real question is, what does this mean for the four of us and the dungeon going forward?”
“Obviously, the dungeon just got a whole lot more dangerous,” Ethan snapped. “Now we have to deal with a knife wielding psychopath on the loose while we’re in there, as if it wasn’t dangerous enough already.”
Quin had an expression of grim determination on her face while Bella looked terrified and still Ethan couldn’t stop his mind from spinning through all the information he’d absorbed. What was that figure going to do up on the Point anyways? Surely it couldn’t have been headed up there to stab James. James just happened to be there so the stabbing was a coincidence right?
He wasn’t the best with logic puzzles like this but this line of thought made sense to him. There had to be a reason that figure was going there and going there with his armor activated. Finally he made a decision, and one that he wasn’t particularly happy about, but he couldn’t passively stand around and let people like James get hurt. That just wasn’t the type of person Ethan wanted to be.
Sighing he said, “Look I know two things. First, I’m going to start taking the dungeon seriously, because I’ll admit up until now I’ve been reluctant to explore it and mostly wanted nothing to do with it. That’s still mostly true, but now that there’s someone with dungeon powers attacking people I need to understand the place better and get to the bottom of its mysteries. Secondly, I have a strong suspicion that character was going to the point for a reason and not to stab James. I think we need to find out what is up there that he or she would be interested in.”
“Agreed,” Quin said quickly while Bella looked less sure about it.
“Bella, I won’t ask you to do this with me,” Ethan said not wanting to force his friend into a dangerous situation.
“No, I will,” Bella said with false confidence. “I was marked by the dungeon as well so I have as much of a stake in this as both of you. I will do my part.”
“Just don’t over do it,” Ethan said forcing a smile at her.
“Speaking of the marks,” Bella said ignoring Ethan and looking thoughtfully. “The odds have to be good that’s it’s a student right?”
Wow, I’m an idiot, Ethan thought gaping at his best friend. With everything he thought he figured out, this was the most obvious thing and he missed it.
“yeah , that makes sense,” Ethan finally said finally figuring out how to work his mouth. “I mean I accidentally stumbled on the place looking for a class and it’s in the basement of Hinan Hall so naturally a student would make the most sense.”
“A student or a teacher,” Bella said, “but I would lean towards a student personally. I think we may be able to use the mark to locate the person though.”
“What do you mean?” Ethan asked curiously.
“Well, all of us received the exact same circling commas mark from the dungeon though in colors that matched our spirit armor,” Bella explained gaining confidence as she spoke. “On both of you your marks are easily visible on the inside of your wrists, so there’s a chance that this person might have a…”
“A visible black mark on their skin somewhere,” Ethan exclaimed figuring out where she was going with this. “Bella that’s brilliant.”
Blushing but looking pleased she said, “Don’t get too excited cause it could easily be covered up like mine is or Alex’s is, but there’s a chance.”
“We should all keep an eye out for that,” Quin said. “Bella and I can examine all of the girls in the locker room closely before and after gym class and I’ll do my team as well. Ethan you should examine the boys closely as well as your team.”
There’s no way I’m doing that, Ethan thought. You may be okay with being a creep Quin but I most certainly am not. Bella also didn’t look comfortable with the idea but neither of them had the courage to say anything to Quin so they kept their mouths shut.
“With any luck,” Quin continued, “we should be able to find The Black before they have a chance to hurt anyone else.”
“The Black?” Ethan asked feeling even more uncomfortable with where this was going.
“Yeah, The Black,” Quin replied.
“I don’t know if we should call them that,” Ethan said quietly.
“Why not?” Quin asked sounding surprised. “The dungeon called me The Green, you The Red, Bella, The Yellow, so I’d have to assume someone in black armor would be The Black.”
Is she really this dense Ethan thought not quite sure how to go about telling her that calling someone The Black didn’t exactly sound the best. After grimacing and racking his brain for a minute he gave up. He wasn’t coming up with a good way out of this so he just simply shrugged in response. Maybe he’d come up with a good alternative later.
“We can go to the dungeon tomorrow, but for now let’s head up to that Point and investigate like you wanted to,” Quin said. “I think we’ve cleared up everything we’ll need to talk about. We can fill Alex in tomorrow at the dungeon.
“Alex will probably be with his brother tomorrow I’d imagine,” Ethan said not that he was going to complain about Alex being absent.
Maybe his brother should get stabbed more often and then he’d be free of the jerk. Alright that is an awful thought to have regardless of how much he disliked the kid. James certainly didn’t deserve that.
“And there’s no way we’ll get anywhere close to the Point right now,” Ethan added. “The police have cordoned it and the beach off for the time being. “If I’m seen anywhere near that place, Tanaka will probably personally make sure I’m thrown in a prison cell.”
“Surely he knows you weren’t involved,” Bella said.
“I don’t know, he certainly sounded accusatory towards me,” Ethan muttered. “Maybe he just dislikes Shippers though.”
“I’m sure he’s just under a lot of stress and you were an easy target for him,” Bella said. “He’ll probably feel bad about it tomorrow.
“Yeah,” Ethan said while thinking fat chance of that.
“How do you want to proceed tonight then?” Quin asked.
“Let’s just return to the Quad,” Ethan said. “We can keep an eye on the students moving to and from the dance watching for any dungeon marks or tattoos on any of them. We might even overhear something important from some of the police officers stationed around.”
“Okay a stakeout then,” Quin said with an oddly excited look in her eyes. “This should be a good time.”
It wasn’t. The three of them sat around the southwest corner of the Quad for hours listening to the blaring music coming from the Gym and watching as students decked out in dresses and suits, that probably cost more than Ethan’s home, moved back and forth between their dorms, the Quad, and the gym.
The police mulled around too, but didn’t say anything worth overhearing about the investigation. Because of this they were mostly left to staring creepily at the girls who unlike the guys at least had some skin exposed. They did this for hours with large chunks of that time filled with nothing as most of the students remained in the gym the entire time.
All in all this was a bad day. Ethan missed dinner, got interrogated for hours by Tanaka, and was now bored and feeling like a pervert as he stared desperately at every bare piece of skin that he saw.
“I feel like such a creep,” he muttered to Bella who was sitting next to him. “I’m looking every girl in our school up and down and none of them have a dungeon mark on them.”
“If it makes you feel any better,” Bella said turning to him and smiling, “on Tuesday you’ll get to check out all the boys in our P.E. class. Don’t be late for that.”
“I hate you,” Ethan muttered, though he smiled at her as she laughed and even Quin smirked at him.