"Father."

Just as the word left Arbega's beak, another bird man landed in the field. He wore a more traditional-looking outfit compared to the team, and had wings for arms.

The newcomer turned to their team... Or specifically, Tenma, Shindou, and Ibuki. "That was splendid work, young fellows of Earth."

"Was it you who taught them their Souls?" Arbega questioned.

"I only gave them the opportunity."

"Is that how far you would go in your disapproval of mechanization... your disapproval of me?!"

"I am not disapproving of you. It is because I have acknowledged them. They seek progress by heading towards hope."

"Hope...?"

"If they continue to win, all planets of the galaxy will be saved."

"What do you mean?!"

Shindou nodded towards Tenma who then stepped up. "We know of a way to save the galaxy!"

"You're lying!" The other captain immediately accused. "I won't be fooled by the convenient stories of an Earthling!"

"We're not trying to fool you! It's true!"

Kimiko sweatdropped slightly. That is not how you convince someone, Tenma...

"I believe them." The father said.

"How are you able to do that?!" Arbega continued to ask. It was clear that he was still panicking from the stress of losing. "They're from a planet that's who-only-knows-where!"

"Because they believed my words."

"What?!"

?

"If they hadn't believed what I had said, they would have fallen straight into Rodan's trap."

Kimiko's mouth formed an O-shape in understanding. So he's the elder from the east, the one that Shindou was thinking about earlier.

"But they believed me. They believed the words of someone from a foreign planet whom they had just met."

"J-Just from that..." The son seemed to be running out of arguments.

"You said that you are searching for the red stone?" The elder asked to reconfirm. "We will grant it to you. Is that alright, Arbega?"

"You don't mean the crimson fire stone, do you?" Well, now he looked even more panicked. Kimiko honestly felt bad for him. He wasn't even given a second to calm himself. "You want me to give our family's treasure to them?!"

"Oh? You say that you have evolved, and yet you get upset over an old rock?"

"It's the treasure of all of us Gardonians! Isn't it only natural that it be protected?!"

"What's the point of grasping tightly to a single rock when our entire planet could be destroyed? What's more important is to keep living in Gardon. To protect the souls of all life that is there, don't you think?"

He wasn't able to answer.

"You ought to be able to do that." The elder smiled kindly. "It isn't a bad thing to put your faith in others sometimes."

~~~~~

Once Tenma had received the stone from the Gardonian captain, they left for space once again. Kamata made a call to Raimon so they could all catch up on each other, and Aoi dropped by her room to drag her out, but after some simple greetings (and eying Manuuba to not say or do anything careless), she headed back. Her excuse was just that the fatigue caught up with her late, so she wanted to sleep early. She even turned off her lights to avoid further suspicion.

Then, after locking the door, she timejumped.

Unlike last time, Zanark was prepared for her arrival. He was standing beside his parked bike, in the middle of a certain forest that hardly anyone ever entered since the incident that happened in the year prior (thanks to that, they were able to turn the area into their 'home base'). In one of his hands was his sphere device, and in the other was...

"Z, what is that?" She pointed at the small, strange, paper-looking thing.

"I knew you'd ask that. Something you'll need later."

"Me?"

"You'll find out." The ball started to hover on its own. "Let's go."

And so, once again, they timewarped to Faram Orbius.

Upon opening her eyes, she found herself inside a very large room. Aside from the part with floor-to-ceiling windows, it had bookcases lining up all around, and in the center was a circular sofa that seemed perfect for either napping or tea time. There were also an assortment of jewelry and strange looking ornaments here and there. A room fit for a―

"Get over here. Someone's coming!"

Her arm was roughly yanked on and she nearly fell over. Luckily, his grip kept her standing as he pulled her to a corner, making them both crouch as he draped a piece of cloth over them both.

"An invisibility cloak?"

Stole it from El Dorado's cache years ago. Came in handy when I needed to steal all that other stuff to build my bike. He replied without looking at her, keeping his gaze solely on the door. Now, not another word out loud. Unless you want to get caught and jeopardize the whole universe.

She could hear them. And right as she was about to ask him who it might be, the door opened to reveal a familiar queen.

She― Lalaya, wasn't it?― thanked another tall alien (Wasn't he the one that was forced to comfort a child the first time we came here?) for escorting her before closing the door and sitting on the sofa with an exhausted sigh. She didn't look any less depressed than last time.

She sat there in silence for a good couple of minutes before the door suddenly opened again to reveal Tsurugi, the real Tsurugi, running in with a worried look on his face.

"Lalaya, it's Donolzen!"

Kimiko blinked. That was the name Arbega's coach mentioned when talking to Rodan.

"Huh? What is? What do you mean?"

He proceeded to explain how, by complete chance, he overheard that woman talking to a subordinate. She had made fun of the little queen's demands for the nobles to be more sympathetic, and was even planning to usurp her from the throne.

"Donolzen said that...? I don't believe it. She has supported me all this time..."

"She pretended to show you respect, but she's been taking from this planet whatever she fancies." Tsurugi continued to argue. "And as a result..."

A mental image of the slums appeared in all four of their heads.

"You must have Donolzen arrested right away. If you don't do it now, your life will be in danger."

"But―!"

She didn't get a chance to finish as her room was suddenly stormed by a number of soldiers. Some had guns while others held halberds. Standing in the center was a short, pointy-eared woman with a devious smile on her face.

"Donolzen?!"

So that's her... Kimiko was starting to get antsy. Z?

Stay put. That was all he said, but that also confirmed what she was thinking.

We can't just sit by and watch this happen!

Yes, we can.

But―!

"I don't know what this boy has told you, but I suggest that you take a nap in a quiet room for as long as you wish, your majesty." Donolzen snapped her fingers and in a flash, the soldiers surrounded them.

The ones with halberds captured the queen easily, while the ones with guns...

Kyou―!

The ones with guns captured Tsurugi, one of them even pointing it at him.

No!

Before she could do anything, something covered her mouth. Looking down, she found a hand there, while another was on her shoulder, keeping her down.

Zanark! Let me go! She glared up at him as she struggled, but he was far stronger than her physically. Kyousuke! She tried to call out to him telepathically, but he didn't respond. What...? Why can't he...? She tried again, out loud this time. Even with a hand over her mouth, she should still be able to make some noise, right?

...

Apparently not. Why?!

As the two were being pushed out of the room, she decided to try one last method. She activated her other ability to push Zanark off, but by the time she did, they were no longer in that room.

Wha...?!

They had appeared somewhere on top of the castle, and she had no idea how to get back into that exact same room.

"Ugh..." Zanark got up from where she threw him to, rubbing the back of his head. "I knew I should've brought the second tier suppressors..."

"What the hell, Zanark?! What the fuck did you do to me and why are we up here?!" is what she would've yelled if her throat could make a sound. Her mouth had something on it too. He probably stuck it there when he was covering it with his hand.

"'What did you do?', is what you want to ask, right?" He said, dusting himself off. "That thing on your mouth is a first tier ability suppressor, another thing I took from the old farts. It negates all forms of communication. Basically, precisely what you needed back there."

The paper thing that he was holding earlier turned out to be something annoying.

"I figured you would use your abilities to cause a racket too, but I never thought you'd use it on me." He chuckled. "That fake was right. You've got a bad personality fitting for a merc."

Unable to say anything, she just continued to glare at him.

That only made him smirk. "I know, I know. Mercenaries are just like bounty hunters, right? That's the second reason why you hate him so much."

...

"By the way, I modified that thing so that it won't come off until you leave this planet, so don't bother trying to make contact with your boyfriend. You can't."

?!

"You can beat me up as much as you want. That won't change shit." His expression suddenly turned serious. "No matter what you think, this is how the events are supposed to unfold. If you changed anything... Well, you know the consequences already."

She clicked her tongue, though it felt a little weird not being able to hear it.

"They'll be out of prison by the time you reach that planet. They won't be hurt, and they'll be treated pretty fairly, so you've got nothing to worry about."

She looked up to him in surprise, just as he tapped on his sphere device. Again.

This time, as she landed on her bed, she was already calm and collected. Just as he had said, she was able to peel the suppressor off her mouth and let out an audible sigh. She then spent the next few minutes blankly staring at her ceiling, completely at a loss on what else to do.

She took out the pendant from beneath her shirt and fiddled with it for a bit.

... Stupid hypocrite. You're worried about me being dumb, but you're the one who's being even dumber!

Her palm clenched around it, shaking as she held it.

Zanark had better be right, or I'll see to it that prison is the last thing you have to worry about!

~~~~~

"Kimiko, wait."

Oh god, oh fuck, oh no, did someone find out I disappeared? She kept her face as neutral as possible as she turned around to face the one who called her. "Yes, Shindou-san?"

The older boy had a complicated look on his face. He seemed to be contemplating a lot of things before looking around.

They were alone in the meeting room (or car) as all the others had gone to the front. Kamata had called them all to gather before they warped. That was also where she was headed before he stopped her.

Seeing this, Shindou took a deep breath. "Do you... know something about Tsurugi that we don't?"

Shit. That's even worse. She blinked, feigning innocence. "Well, I mean... Yeah? I've known him for longer than you all, so―"

"Not what I meant." He crossed his arms. "He's been acting strange lately. Maybe the others don't think too much of it, but Tenma, Sorano, Shinsuke, and I noticed all these little things... things that he doesn't normally do." Pursing his lips, he continued. "We know that he's been working hard to change and improve himself since the start of the school year, and we're all supporting him. Believe me, we are. It couldn't have been easy to make the decisions he did during all of that..."

Fifth Sector.

She could feel a lot of things inside her boiling just by the thought of it.

"But the way he's been behaving these past couple of weeks... It doesn't feel... right." He looked around again just to make sure no one would appear through the doors. "Is he really just sick?"

He's on to him. She needed to find what's causing his doubt and either fix it or erase it. Or, at the very least, distract him from it. She could read his mind to find out the easy way but with him staring so intensely while waiting for her answer, she was sure she would be caught using her powers. Her eyes glow after all. So she had to use the more old fashioned method.

Asking.

"If you're asking me that specifically, then that means you have a reason to believe so..." He nodded at that. "Do you mind me asking what it is? Because sickness does make people act strangely."

His eyes widened at that. "Wait, so... This really is just how he acts when he's sick?"

No, but I shouldn't tell him that. Just as she was about to reply―

"Then, what was coach..." He muttered under his breath, seeming lost in thought.

Coach? After thinking on it for only a second, she realized it wouldn't be that surprising if Kuroiwa already knew about Manuuba and was keeping quiet for the same reason she was. He could see people's Souls after all.

Seeing as the boy in front of her didn't have anything else to say to her, she decided to remind him that they needed to get to the cockpit. He nodded slowly, still seeming a little lost as he led the way.

Behind him, she muttered a small apology before activating her ability. Inside his head, there was a memory from only an hour or so ago.

The boy had entered their coach's office cabin to call him for their caretaker. The man was busy handling some computers, and on one screen were two pictures of their ace striker. They overlapped, and what she recognized as a facial recognition system scanned over it.

97.98%.

The screen suddenly went blank, and he turned to find the man staring at him. All that came out of his mouth was that Kamata wanted to talk to him about their next course. The coach got up and left without a word, leaving him in bewilderment at what he just saw.

She kept herself from sighing. Though, she couldn't tell if it was out of exasperation or relief.

On one hand, it was for the best that Shindou remained confused, because at least it meant that he wouldn't tell anyone else what he saw. He had always been the type to only tell others what he truly believed in. That meant that she didn't have to worry about him yet.

But on the other hand, she didn't know how she felt about Kuroiwa knowing. Keeping quiet about it for the peace of mind of the team is one thing, but what if he knew from the start about his kidnapping? What if he let her best friend get kidnapped and replaced?

She shook her head at that. No... He wouldn't have a reason to do that... would he?

She couldn't help staring at the man when they entered the cockpit. She could read his mind right then and there if she chose to, but...

"Kimiko, is something wrong?"

Too many people around. "No. I was just thinking how space is really spacious."

"Good one! Good one!" Kamata said, laughing at her awful pun before turning back to the controls.

"It really isn't." Manabe muttered from his seat.

"Kimiko-san, please sit down. We are about to enter the warp zone." Ichikawa was polite as always, despite very clearly seeming like he wanted to facepalm.

She took her seat while chuckling to herself, as usual, pretending as if nothing was amiss.

After buckling up properly, her hand involuntarily lifted up to feel the top of her head.

"Ow! I told you to stop hitting me for every little thing, you bully!"

"And I told you I'll consider it when you stop being stupid!"

She suppressed the urge to sigh again. No amount of stupidity today would earn her a (friendly) beating. It was exactly what she asked for, so why did she feel so empty?

Deep down, she already knew the answer.

Just one more match. One more, and we'll be―

The warp happened suddenly for her. It pulled her out of her wishful thinking and back to reality. Back to the truth that she had almost forgotten.

"We are now approaching planet Ratoniik."

One more match before the last. Then, she'll have to leave again.