"Thank you, Togo-sama." I say.

"I...hope this helps..." he replies.

I open the door to the interrogation room, gesturing for him to come along.

"You sure?" he asks. "I am the enemy, you know."

"I'm aware. And I still can't bring myself to trust you entirely. But I'm not so cruel as to leave you here after all your cooperation. Like you said, many of us are similar."

Togo-sama looks down, then at me, then gets up.

Honestly, this went smoother than even I thought. Aside from his master's name, because he explicitly told us he didn't want to ruin her reputation, he told us everything he knew. Hunter is working undercover as Diva-de's secretary for her idol concerts as well as the secretary at Wave Medicine. Her primary goal, in the name of her master's "revolution", is to obtain an unknown, but clearly large, amount of money. The reason for the attack last night was to steal Clarent in order to sell it. He doesn't know her current name, as she only tells him to call her Hunter, and asked his master not to speak of her around him. She has power over the hydra and vapor, much to my surprise. She has a base next to the hospital, which was a former crystal mining facility, and she's been bailing out some jail prisoners in exchange for their services. He even said she was connected to Dodge and Chates, who also served his master, as Hunter was the one who sent them to New Vegas.

(Everything up until now... Every struggle I've endured... She was responsible for it all!)

I walk out into the main lobby of our base. To make sure Togo-sama doesn't know where we are, we have blindfolded him until he got to the interrogation room, though he knows we are in Tokiport. Sueka and Yamiso look at the two of us, and give Togo-sama disgusted looks, but otherwise nothing has changed.

Hiromu, Ripperu, and Claire allow practicing lines from who knows what, with Claire blushing and looking at Hiromu the entire time. If I didn't know any better, I'd think they were married and Ripperu was their daughter. Yamiso continuously pacing. He's been disappointed even more than usual when learning Togo-sama knew nothing about Mydrea's whereabouts. Sueka is fiddling with her necklace and occasionally glancing at the wall of former members. Katsumi is showing Sigka some of his gambling tricks, while Sigka is multitasking by watching said tricks and simultaneously reading a book about evolution in First Age species. Crystal is not here, as she's sleeping in her room, but Seppe is watching Katsumi's "magic" tricks next to Sigka. Yuri is cleaning...again. The only people not here are Tamashi and Hisao, though it is still Tamashi's turn to manage the karoake business. His shift should be just about...

"I'm back!" says Tamashi brightly...trying to get through the door. "And we got a package, too."

Hiromu and Sigka get up and attempt to pull Tamashi through the door. I hear the door behind me close and see Hisao.

"You know, it's a good thing you're not a big, fat guy or this would be rreeeaaaalllyyy difficult..." Hiromu says in English.

"Shut up, Hiro!" Sigka says.

(Kind of hard to tell that Sigka looks up to Hiromu.)

Hisao walks over to Katsumi and sits down.

"Did you make your decision?" Katsumi asks.

Hisao sighs.

BATAN!!!!!

And the trio at the door come crashing through with Tamashi landing on top of his friends. If it wasn't for Sigka's animal tone strength preventing the two from getting completely crushed, we might have had a bigger accident.

"Anyway," Katsumi says, "who's the package for?"

"All it says is 'Keisetsu leader'." Tamashi replies.

"For me?" says Hisao. "I have a name, you know."

"You have your own senior moments." Katsumi remarks.

"I'm not THAT old, thank you."

(Yes you are.) we all think, save for Hisao.

After opening the package and removing the insulation, Hisao takes out...

"What is this?" he asks.

"Oh!" Hiromu exclaims. "I know what this is! Man, it's been a while! It's a movie projector similar to that of earlier First Age models redesigned to work with electric rhime to either play movies with their data stored in crystals or transfer messages visually between communication crystals, like Skype. They occasionally replayed recorded versions of the plays I watched with these!"

"Ain't science something." Hisao and Katsumi say.

(Next, they'll call cell phones magic.) Ripperu thinks.

"Well," begins Katsumi, "How does it...?"

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

"Like this." Hiromu says, charging the communication crystal already in the slot.

As the crystal gets closer and closer to being fully charged, the projector begins to light up more and more, until it displays a blank white screen on the wall next to the door.

"Now, for the remainder of this demonstration, I need another....!"

To our surprise, a picture starts talking shape on the screen. It looks like a person, but the projection starts off fuzzy.

"Ke...ts...ou...ar...?"

"Seems the connection is a little bad." Hiromu says. "Let's see...how to fix this..."

BATAN!

Sigka lightly kicks underneath the table the projector is set on. In an instant, the picture gets clear.

"Problem solved." states Sigka triumphantly.

"He..llo?" the voice on the projection asks.

"Can you hear Seppe?" Seppe asks.

When the image clears...

!!!

We see Hunter smiling.

"Loud and clear." she says.

"You!!!" Sueka and I yell.

"Oh, hey. Long time no see."

Yamiso and Sueka emit their rhime in anger.

"Now, now. There's no need for that."

"How'd you find this place!?" Sigka asks.

"Easy." replies Hunter, chuckling. "We're just borrowing your communication crystal. Seems my friend accidentally got them mixed up."

!!!

Sigka takes out the swapped communication crystal.

"I thought something was wrong, but..."

"Don't feel bad. I went to great lengths to make sure it would fool any animal tone."

"You sure she's a lady?" Hiromu asks. "She looks like a Hideyoshi to me."

"Hideyoshi is a gender?" Seppe asks, her ahoge in the shape of a question mark.

"Shut up, Hiro!" everyone but Seppe and Hiromu says.

Hisao gets up, with possibly the most serious expression I've seen him have.

"What do you want?"

"Well, for starters, is Togo there?"

A few of us turn to Togo-sama, who we believe is just outside the projection area. He gulps in fear, then walks forward.

"Well, it's nice to see you're still alive."

He continues to look at Hunter in fear, saying nothing.

"I must say, you look better than I thought for a prisoner of the Keisetsu. You didn't squeal, did you?"

Togo-sama looks away in silence.

"Pity. And I had such high hopes for you in my revolutionized world."

"You still haven't answered my question." Sigka says. "Even if you had the crystal, that doesn't explain how you knew where to send yours. Communication crystals only relay messages, not location."

Hunter's smile grows wider.

"You really want to know?"

We all remain silent. Hunter walks up to her projector and shifts the image to the right, showing us a group of rather intimidating men, some looking into the projector, others looking as though they are stretching.

"She had a little help." the man in front says.

"JONNY!!!" Katsumi yells. "But...we thought you were...!"

"It would have been nice to visit, comrade."

"Who?" Ripperu asks.

"Jonathan Hardwire, a former Kyusen member, specifically part of El Escudo, who went rogue and joined the yakuza." Hisao explains. "And a former war comrade. I take it you and your subtone tracked us?"

"Yep, just like old times. Seems old age took more of a toll on you than me. Then again, I was about 20 years younger when I joined the war."

Hunter grabs the projector again and moves it towards her, though some of the men, Jonathan included, walk behind her.

"So you freed the yakuza." Hisao states. "What do you want? You waging war against us?"

"Don't think it will be that easy, comrade." Jonathan remarks. "If I'm looking at this correctly, you don't even have half the manpower we had back in the day. Oh, how the mighty have fallen."

"Quality over quantity, comrade." Hisao retorts.

"We shall see."

"However," begins Hunter, "I didn't come for a declaration of war. I don't want to spill any unnecessary blood."

"Says the one who slaughtered an entire village." I say.

"Like I said before, a necessary sacrifice."

"You lying snake."

"Flattery will get you nowhere. But I digress."

We all continue to watch the projection with disgusted expressions.

"I was hoping we could come up with an agreement. Specifically, a trade."

(Are you serious!?) I think.

"Surely you're not going to trust this bi...!" Yamiso starts to say.

"Language..." says Crystal, as she's coming down the stairs, freezing Yamiso's mouth. She eventually walks into the area of projection. "Still, he does have a point."

Katsumi gestures for her to stop.

"What ammunition do you have to play?" he asks.

"Come on, Katsumi!" I exclaim. "This is foolish, and you know it!"

Hunter clears her throat.

"Let me get to the point."

She turns the projection towards what looks like the TV screens of a security room. She walks over and presses a button...

!!!

Showing Mydrea, bedridden, connected to a life support system.

Everyone flares up in anger, but nobody more than Yamiso, who starts to scratch away at the ice on his mouth. No doubt, the astonishment has surprised Crystal, causing her to lose focus and let him easily remove it.

"What did you do to her, you bitch!?!?!?"

"Calm down." says Hunter, still smiling. "I haven't done anything since she got here."

"Gggggrrrrrrrrrrrrr...." Yamiso growls.

I pause to think.

!

"Does that mean...she's still poisoned?"

"What!?" everyone but Sueka says.

"You catch on quick." Hunter says, clapping. "Oh, and one other thing..."

She presses another button, causing the security TVs to show something else. This time a woman with long black hair is suspended in chains a few centimeters off the ground. She looks to be around Mydrea's height, with a much larger chest and fair skin. In spite of her ragged attire, she...looks familiar...

!!

(She's the girl in Mydrea's picture!)

"Saiya!!!" yell Ripperu and Claire yell.

"The rookie who went with Mydrea to Terraz?" asks Tamashi.

She really doesn't look injured in any way, much to my surprise.

"Quite the handfull, that one. No matter what some of the men tried, they just couldn't injure her. In fact, she broke a few of their bones, so I would normally ask for compensation. But not this time."

Many of us refrain from yelling, but we're all infuriated, including Crystal.

"And...what is it you want?" Hisao asks.

"I thought it was obvious." Hunter says, sarcastically frowning. "I want Oren Tsurai and his sword."

"OVER MY DEAD BODY!!!" Sueka yells. This is possibly the angriest I've seen her in years.

"Don't forget, the lives of the two hostages are in my hands. And how about this..."

Hunter puts her left hand into her pocket and pulls out a vial with an unkonwn liquid.

"You give me back Togo...and I'll give you the andidote for Mydrea's poison."

"What!?" Yamiso yells.

"Surely you didn't think there would be much of a choice. It's my poison, and I'm the only one who knows how to make the antidote. Even if you managed to break out your friends, I doubt you could make a powerful enough antidote to save her in time. From where I stand, this is a bargain. One failed trainee and one traitor for two capable fighters."

"Why you...!!!" Crystal says in anger. "Don't insult Oren that way!"

This is the first time I've seen Seppe scared of Crystal.

"I'm not wrong, you know." Hunter says. "Regardless of your opinion, the coordinates and time for our trading place are on the projector. Don't keep me waiting. Au revoir."

And with that, the transmission ends.

(Me? What...what does she want with me?)

I look around. Everyone is silent. Sueka walks over to me and hugs my shoulder tightly. OW! Too tight!

"Surely you don't plan to go through with this!" Togo-sama says. "I know that she's lying about something! For all you know, the andidote is a fake, or she's done more to those girls than she lets on!"

Everyone continues to remain silent...

Eerily silent...

"Um...guys?" I say.

I keep looking around, and all that changes is Hisao...

As he nods his head to Crystal.

At first she rapidly shakes her head, as though in disapproval. But, as Hisao continues to look at her, and eventually Katsumi nodding as well, she looks down in defeat, and simply says...

"Oren, I'm sorry."

!!

"Wait!" says Togo-sama, walking towards her. "What are you!?"

These are his last words...

Before being completely frozen in ice.

"NO!" Sueka yells. "You can't take him!"

Sueka lets go of me and takes out her chuí. I can tell she doesn't want to fight, as tears stream down from her eyes.

Hiromu grabs Claire, picks her up, and quickly dashes over to Sueka. Claire quickly removes her face mask...

And blows spores in Sueka's face. With each passing second, Sueka loses strength.

"Please... D...Don...n't..."

Batan.

With Togo-sama and Sueka out of the picture, everyone, save for Seppe and Yuri, move towards me with empty looks on their faces.

"Come on, you can't be serious!" I say as I start to walk back. "Think about this! I thought we were allies! Sure, I messed up a lot, but surely you're not going to believe that snake! We can think of something! I know we'll find a cure! Honestly, I thought we were closer than this! Think this over!"

By this time, I bump into Hisao, who is right behind me.

"Indeed. We've thought this over carefully. And you're right, we don't abandon our allies."

Contrary to his words, he grabs my arms and pins me down.

Batan!

"What are you doing!?" I yell.

In that instant, something is tossed to Hisao, and he puts it in my cloak's pocket.

"Don't worry, Oren. We're coming for you."

"What do you...ARGH!!!!"

This is the last thing I remember...

Before being frozen in ice.