"I'm thinking of mind controlling Kotori and Cathy, as you know," Shing told her knight. "But I'm having a bit of trouble finding uses for them. What do you think?"

Yuma struggled to find any uses for the girls in the other room. He could hardly remember anything about them, but he picked out enough from his foggy memories to find uses for them. "Kotori is useless at dueling," he started. "She could be a personal maid. Cathy could be part of your guard. She has skills in dueling, and she is fierce."

Shing nodded her approval. "Very well. By the way, how is Kaito?"

"He is doing well. He is currently training his body because his skills are already very high."

"Tell him that I need the both of you in the other room later. I need to check up on the both of you."

"Yes, my queen." He bowed and walked back to the training room to tell his partner the news.

Shing, meanwhile, went back to her lab to see if she could fix the serum. Unfortunately, even though she went over the formula over and over again, she couldn't find a way to fix it. So, she sat in her chair and thought about anyone useful she could control to fix it for her. After all, she would have to recruit chemists soon, so why not start now? The only problem was that the only person she could call a scientist was V, and considering how powerful Kaito was against Yuma, she couldn't challenge him any time soon.

However, she knew that they were somewhat close, close enough to feel concern for the other if he was in danger. Could she convince him to come quietly like she tried with Kaito? She pursed her lips, remaining there and thinking for a while before Kaito and Yuma came into the room.

"We're here, my queen," Yuma announced, kneeling on one knee. Kaito did the same. "What did you need of us?"

Shing got out of her seat and gestured to another in her lab. "Yuma, I need you to sit here so I can examine your mental status. While I'm working on Yuma, Kaito, I need you to go feed the prisoners."

Yuma did as he was told and sat in the chair while Kaito bowed his head and walked out of the room, his feet slightly wobbly. Shing hooked up a wire to the headset and attached it to another machine. The brain waves she was seeing were rather good. He was healing up nicely. At this rate, he would have the headset off soon. She ran a few more tests before disconnecting the wire from the machine. 

"You can get down now, Yuma," she purred. "You're healing up nicely."

"Thank you, my queen." He went outside to relieve Kaito of his duty while said Numbers Hunter came into the room and sat in the same seat.

Shing once more connected the wire to the headset and machine to see what was going on with his brain. What she saw displeased her. The brain damage dealt as a result of the serum seemed worse, and the headset was proving inefficient at healing the damage. She would have to upgrade his headset to put him in a coma-like state so that he didn't waste too much mental energy until she could properly fix that too.

"Come with me to your room," she said and guided him back to his room, which looked almost exactly like Yuma's. While she had Kaito safely in his room, she proceeded to fix the headset so that he wouldn't waste energy on being awake. She then put his headset back on. Kaito fell asleep almost immediately. Once that was done, she walked out of the room.

She sent an email to the three Arclight brothers to get them all here together. Yuma was strong enough to physically disable at least two of them before they noticed anything, and he could simply duel to take the last one's fighting energy. Before she sent the emails, though, she made it so that they would delete as soon as they closed out of the emails. Finally, she sent them.

~.~.~

III was working alongside his brothers on the computer to find the missing kids when they all received the same emails. They opened them to see what they said. They basically said that someone had Kaito in a coma at a certain location. If they wanted to save him, they would all have to come to the attached location.

"This seems fishy," IV commented, leaning back in his chair. "All three of us got the same email. What could this mean?"

"This person has Kaito in their grasp," III said. "What should we do?"

"This person could also be setting a trap. If we all go, then there's a chance that we won't return."

V stood up from his chair. "Then I will go. If this person has something up their sleeve, then I can take care of it. You two focus on finding Yuma and the others. The police may have already proclaimed them dead, but we won't give up on this case. If I don't return in two days, then assume that I've encountered trouble. Save that address. It may be important."

Without waiting for a response from his brothers, V transmitted the address to the GPS in his car, got in, and drove off to the location. Meanwhile, III and IV did as they were told and saved the location before exiting out of the emails.

V drove for a long while before finally arriving at the location the address said. It looked like a tall building that had seen better days, but looking through the windows, he could see it was clean and had machines neatly lined up. He stepped out of his car and knocked on the door.

This time, it was Shing who greeted him because something inside told her that only he would come. "Glad you could make it," she purred.

"Where is Kaito?" V asked. "Furthermore, where are the other missing ones?"

Shing shrugged. "They didn't see reason, but I'm sure you will."

"What does that mean?"

"Follow me." With a flick of her tail, Shing walked to the room that Kaito was sleeping in.

"Kaito?" V called when they entered.

"He's in a coma. I was hoping you could help me once seeing his state."

The man turned back to Shing. "What have you done to him?"

"He's sustained brain damage. I need you to see what you can do about it. That headset keeps him from getting worse, but it isn't doing its job efficiently."

V approached Kaito with caution and took a look at the headset. At that moment, Yuma walked in. Shing smiled at his presence.

"Good timing. I want you to keep an eye on our guest here," she said.

"Yes, my queen," Yuma replied and stood at the doorway.

"If he tries anything, you know what to do. We need a scientist here anyways." With that, Shing waltzed out of the room to see what she could do about the serum.

V first inspected the headset quietly to see if there was anything visible that he could fix, but upon seeing that the missing piece was probably deeper in, he sighed. "I need the blueprints. Could you ask that girl for them?"

Yuma's eyes narrowed suspiciously while deeper inside, he hoped beyond hope that V would take the time he was away to escape and tell anyone, anyone, about what Shing was doing. V noticed the look the boy was giving him and assured him that he wouldn't leave. That deep place inside Yuma's subconscious screamed and begged V to run away, but it was obviously useless. He nodded and left to go ask Shing for the blueprints to the headsets, and he came back to see V was exactly where he left him. His inner self, his true self, cursed.

"Here they are," he said blankly. "My queen also supplied you tools to fix it."

V took the blueprints and the tools and inspected the prints. Once he located the problem, he fixed the issue. "There. Done."

"Good." Yuma grinned an empty yet sadistic grin. "You've proven yourself useful." He silently slipped out a wrench from his back pocket and raised it high. His inner self crying out to his body to stop, his arm slammed the handle of the wrench down.

Unfortunately, V knew exactly what was happening and caught Yuma's wrist. "You thought I would fall to you so easily, boy?" he asked calmly. "I am much stronger than you."

Yuma growled, showing a very small sign of his inner self. He was frustrated. On the outside, one would think that he was frustrated that V blocked his attack, but on the inside, he was frustrated that he couldn't stop himself from hurting more of his friends. With a cry of anger at his current situation, he wrenched his wrist free and attacked with a kick, only to be blocked and thrown to the ground.

Shing hurried in after hearing the noise. She saw V keeping Yuma to the ground easily and called out, "I'll take care of him."

"You are but a small girl," V said. "What makes you think you can overpower me?"

Shing merely chuckled, and her features started changing. "I am much more than a small girl. You'll keep that in mind when you see reason." Her mouth and nose elongated to a snout, and her eyes became narrow. Her joints cracked, popped, and reformed into strange positions that forced her to go down on all fours. Her skin sprouted black fur, and she seemed to grow larger than a small girl.

After fully forming into her panther form, she pounced on V and slashed at him. It was a shame to hurt him like this, but it would be worth it. She soon had him knocked out on the floor.