Episode 8

The officers harshly threw me onto the ground and squeezed my head under their feet.

"Nghh...Ahh..." I moaned as they squeezed my head harder and harder.

"Hey, what do you two think you're doing?! I didn't give any orders yet, now did I?!" The general's voice echoed through the large, empty hall.

"O-Oh, our apologies sir..." The two men scrambled away from me as they bowed apologetically to the general.

"So, what should I do with you now, you little rascal? Ah right, I've got a perfect idea... You two, take him to the dungeon immediately. I want him under solitary confinement until I ask for him again!" He ordered, a wide grin plastered across his ugly face.

Upon hearing his instructions, the two guards harshly held me up with my hair and dragged me to the basement. They walked me towards the cell and roughly threw me in there.

"Urgh!" I groaned as I crashed on the cold, solid ground.

I was so pathetic and completely worthless. It made me so angry to think I wasn't able to defend myself. Honestly, I hate to admit it but, I'm useless on my own. I really do need the others by my side... Urgh, this is so frustrating!

Nagi's POV

Two hours ago:

(I can't believe Tokiya would say something like that! He really does hate us even after all this time we've spent together...)

"Nagi, are you okay? It's alright, I'm sure Tokiya didn't mean what he said back there. I believe he just got provoked from you shouting like that since he wasn't able to properly concentrate that way..." Momoi assumed as she tried cheering me up, but it still didn't help in the least.

"Momoi, how could you always stay so positive? I don't get it... He literally just yelled at us, sounding like he considers us as nothing less than a burden! I guess we shouldn't even be his friends anymore..."

"Nagi, don't say that, that was simply the result of his anger getting the best of him."

Just then, we heard a man shouting at someone, cutting our discussion. It sounded like he was saying something like, 'You're the one who killed that guy.'

"Huh, what was that?" I asked Momoi but she just shook her head in confusion.

"I think we should go and see what that was.." I agreed immediately upon Momoi's suggestion.

We started exploring all over the place and tried figuring out which direction the voice came from. In the middle of our search, we heard footsteps heading towards our direction.

"Huh? Did you hear that Momoi...?" I whispered as I tapped Momoi's shoulders.

"Yeah... We need to hide, someone's coming this way..." She muttered, pushing my head down as we took cover behind a couple of bushes.

"Urgh, let me go..!"

"Hah, struggle all you want kid, it's not going to do you any benefit!"

A couple of voices were heard in front. Wait, wait, wait, that sounded just like... Tokiya?!

"Momoi... That was definitely Tokiya!" I accidentally blurted out.

"Shhh! I know... We need to go follow them."

"B-But... After what happened, I don't really wanna see that guy's face..."

"Nagi, I know you don't want to help him because of what he did right now but I still consider him a friend of ours. I can't leave him be, we need to go..."

After hesitating a bit, I turned on my phone and saw there were still twenty-four hours left which meant that there would be enough time to go save him as well as complete the mission. I turned to Momoi and nodded in affirmation. We then stealthily stalked behind the officers, trying our best not to get caught. I still wasn't able to suck in the fact that Tokiya, the strongest of all four of us, got captured by two human officers. Just two!

After an hour or two, we reached a big, luxurious mansion. It was so pretty and everywhere I turned to, there were verdant green plants and moon pieces covered the entire place. Crystal flowers were blooming on the bushes and were sticking out of the lawn. But this was not a time for staring in awe, we had to get Tokiya back! We saw the two officers enter the large gate with Tokiya in hand who was still fighting to break free.

"We should follow them..." I whispered as I signaled to enter the building.

"No, that's not a rational decision... We won't escape that place alive without a plan since we could get captured really easily."

"What, why..? We came all the way to rescue him and now you're saying to not even go in...? Why...?!" I shouted, trying to be as quiet as possible.

"Nagi...!"

She didn't give me a reason, instead, she just stared at me with a strict face.

"Ugh...! F-Fine..." I agreed unwillingly and continued, "So...What should we do now since, you know, we can't even continue this plan?" I asked Momoi as I stood up from behind the bushes.

"I'm not really sure, but I'm honestly concerned about Tokiya. Who knows what they're going to do to him right now..." Momoi replied in a low voice, her expression looked worried.

"Well we can't go in there, now can we since you're the one who chose not to."

"...*Sigh* Okay... Fine, but we'll have to be cautious." Momoi very reluctantly gave in.

"Yes, alright! But one question though, how exactly are we gonna go in there without getting caught?"

"Hmm... I know, you see, while we were walking around the streets earlier this morning, I saw a billboard that had all of their shift timings. It said that when it's dusk, hardly a few guards have patrol duties, while the rest go on errands. We could try to sneak in and rescue him then."

"Well, that's worth a shot. Okay, let's go!"

Tokiya's POV

Dusk time...

I was still locked up in the cell while the guards forced me to eat the days' rotten food they had in store since they didn't want me to die of starvation. After that was over, I was lying on the firm bed, staring at the ceiling until I heard a loud commotion.

*Bam!*

*Crash!*

*Thud!*

"Huh...?" I sat up and was able to make out two shadows heading towards my cell.

After a while, they finally appeared in front of the gate, the two familiar figures of Momoi and Nagi.

"Tokiya, you're alive!" Momoi looked relieved after seeing me while Nagi turned his head to the side without saying anything.

He was obviously still mad at me for what I did earlier.

"...Thank y-" Just then, the noise of a gunshot rang throughout the empty basement.

"Hehehehe, hahaha! You kids really thought you could beat me, the general of the Crescent Guards?! It'll take way more than a couple of lowlife children to outwit me!"

The next instant, we saw a large figure, approaching closer and closer...

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