39 Phase 32: Forest Village

Forest Village, at a distance, was a close cluster of wooden huts. It had a Comrade Home just outside.

The whole village was surrounded by a wooden fence as high as Colin's ribs. Colin was surprised to see the signboard saying 'Gym' over what looked like a playground, nothing quite like the big center at Sunshine Town.

He recognized the sign saying 'Pepper Tourism' over a small stand on the entrance road, followed by open front huts, probably shops of some kind. Farther in, there was a single junction and a grassy clearing with a fireplace at the center of it. The village square, Colin guessed.

The Comrade Home was the biggest building in sight, and Colin thought of dropping in for a while and meeting the chief Breeder, but then, he didn't really have any business there, so he skipped it and entered the village proper.

He didn't see it, but a pair of eyes were watching him from the Comrade Home.

***

Colin saw a familiar face at the Pepper Tourism booth.

"Fanny?!"

Fanny blinked at him. "Hello, Colin."

"What are you doing here?! I thought you were based in Hot Sands Village!"

"I was. The village was destroyed, remember? They're rebuilding the place, but I had enough of getting flooded. I asked for a transfer."

"Wow. I thought you loved the place, you knew so much about it."

"It's my job to know." Fanny straightened. "Now, did you come here for our services, or were you just surprised to see me?"

"Both, actually." Colin said. "I want to know about the Journey's End."

"Ah. Our specialty." Fanny nodded. "You can't get the first map piece anywhere else. Let's see… what do you know about the Journey's End?"

"Almost nothing. Except I need some sort of key."

"A key and a map. And you need to fight some Guardians." Fanny said. "Get the map first. There are six pieces. Do you know where to find them?"

"You said I have to get the first piece from you. I know Michi got one from Boom City's All-You-Can-Eat contest. Aoi said Professor Jijin has the fifth piece. That's three."

"Very good." Fanny said. "Boom City's piece and Jijin's piece will take you half a year, I think."

"WHAT?!" Colin jumped.

"Well, actually…" Fanny paused. "It will take you that long before your Comrades are strong enough to do what you need them to do. But once they are at that level, you should be able to get all the pieces within a week. The fastest guy on record managed to get them all in two nights."

"Really?!" Colin frowned. "Who's that?"

"Knight Lord Geoffrey. The current leader of the Justice Knights." Fanny answered. Then, she tapped her clipboard.

Colin's badge buzzed and shook a bit.

"What just happened?" Colin asked, glancing down.

"I just sent you the first map piece." Fanny explained. "Once you have all the pieces, you need to go to Pepper Tourism Headquarters and use the Assembler Table. It will put the pieces together into a single file and decompress it."

"Decompress…?" Colin scratched his head.

"Don't worry about that. Just use the Table when you have them all." Fanny told him. "The HQ is in Boom City, in the very center of this continent."

"Uh… where is that?" Colin asked.

"Far to the north and a quite a bit west."

"From Forest Village?"

"From this whole area." Fanny said. "I suggest you fly there."

"I see…" Colin sighed. {Maybe I should visit the airport on my way back.}

"You can find Professor Jijin at the Comrade Home. He's the one going about in a white lab coat." Fanny added.

{White lab coat… that sounds like Michi…}

"Well, then…" Colin began, and then saw Fanny's face change completely. Her eyes went wide, and her skin went paler than usual.

She was looking at something over his shoulder.

***

Colin spun and saw what troubled her so much. He almost jumped, and felt a haze of tension along with a touch of dizziness as he pondered what to do.

Marching up to him and Fanny were a pair of men in green armor.

Just like the guys who almost caught him before. Like the guys who took Henry away, and when Henry got back, he'd lost his memory of whatever it was they did to him.

Colin knew what those men were looking for. They were looking for the eight kids who joined Nakama World four nights ago.

They were looking for him.

They would have caught him, if Katrin hadn't given him Raiki just in time and promoted him to yellow badge by doing so. The men had been looking for white badge Travelers at the time, so Colin had gotten away.

But that trick couldn't work any more. They had to know that their prey couldn't still be white badges.

"Pepper Tourism?" one guy asked them both.

"We spice up the world." Fanny said, reciting a slogan in a sing-song voice.

"We're looking for yellow badge Travelers. Are there any around here?"

Colin felt a huge wave of relief wash over him. The Green Men had underestimated their prey. Colin, Katrin, Jonah, Alicia, Larry and Henry had all reached green badge already.

The only one Colin knew who still remained at yellow badge was Rita…

{Cripes… Rita… I have to warn her…}

…and maybe Phillip, but Colin hadn't seen Phillip since the first night. Nobody else knew where he was either.

"No. Everyone here's either green badge or higher."

"I see. What about a girl named Rita?"

Colin almost jumped. {They know her name…! How?!}

"Rita…" Fanny thought back. "I think I met someone with that name back at Hot Sands Village."

Colin froze. If Fanny remembered who Rita had been Traveling with, he was going to have to start running.

"Thanks." The Green Man said and dashed off.

Colin looked at Fanny and didn't know what to say.

Fanny gave him an intent look. "I said what I said to get them away from here. We both know she isn't there any more and I didn't think you want them questioning you."

Colin felt his face warm up. Fanny had been protecting him, not selling Rita out. "Uh… thanks."

"Why are they after Rita?" Fanny asked.

"I don't know." Colin said truthfully.

"But they're after you too, aren't they?" Fanny asked in a low voice. "What did you do?"

"I don't know that either." Colin said. "They just showed up one day, and I've never seen them before now."

At least, he hadn't seen them that he could remember… but there had been a time when people said he'd vanished for a few hours… and he couldn't remember what happened at that time either.

It was possible that Colin had already gone through what Henry did and neither of them remembered what it all was.

It was therefore also possible that the Green Men weren't looking for the other seven at all… they might very well be looking just for Colin, to continue or check on what they had done to him earlier.

Shiro whined, and put his nose against Colin's neck. Colin petted the little wolfcat cub and said, "Thanks, Fanny. You probably saved me."

"From what, I wonder…?" Fanny frowned. "Colin, I don't like the look of those men. Something's scary about them."

"I know." Colin said. "Do you know who they are?"

"They're not from around here, that's for sure." Fanny said. "And they're not from any registered organization in this world that I know of. Who wears uniforms, these days? Everyone usually wears whatever they like."

Colin let out a slow breath. "Nobody seems to know who they are."

"Nobody in {this} Dreamworld." Fanny said slowly. "Colin, I think they're from another Dreamworld."

"Huh?" Colin blinked, but even as he did so, he realized she was probably right.

Especially if his loss of memory in those missing three hours {had} been because of them. That would have taken place in Garden Dreamworld, the place his family liked to frequent before he had vanished.

"I'll have to check…" Fanny went on, thinking. "…for a fee."

"A fee…?!" Colin spluttered.

"That's my job. I provide information… it's a paid service." Fanny pointed out.

Colin groaned. "How much?"

"I'll let you know after I find something." Fanny told him. "Can I call you?"

"Yeah, sure." Colin said, and saw Fanny's watch twitch. His contact had just been added to her phone book.

"Call me if you have any more questions." Fanny added, and his watch buzzed a bit to let him know that her contact was added to his list as well.

"Are you going to charge me for the information on the Journey's End?" Colin asked next.

"Oh, no." Fanny shook her head. "That one's sponsored. We still get paid for answering the questions, but Travelers aren't supposed to be the ones paying us."

Figures. Colin shook his head. "I better call Rita and tell them those guys are after her."

"Yeah." Fanny agreed. "Be safe, Colin."

"You too, Fanny." Colin said, and went to find a place to call Rita.

***

"Rita?"

"Colin!! I won! I actually won!"

"Congratulations, Rita." Colin said, dreading what he'd have to tell her.

"You don't sound too happy." Rita noticed it immediately.

"Well, I've got some bad news." Colin said.

"What is it?" Rita asked. "Need to borrow money again?"

"No!" Colin spluttered. "But you're in danger. Those Green Men…"

"They're looking for yellow badges now, right? So I'll just Tame more Comrades and go to Green…"

"Uh… Rita…" Colin drew a sharp breath. "They know your name."

Silence.

"Rita…?"

Not a word came over the link.

"Rita, are you there?"

"Yeah." Rita said in a dreadfully soft voice. "I'm… here."

"Rita, did you hear what I just said?"

"Yes. I heard." Rita said, in that same, hushed tone.

"You need to find cover… or take a nickname or…"

"Colin… I'm sorry. I can't."

"Rita?! What are you saying? You have to find somewhere to hide out for a while, or…"

"Colin…" Rita's voice gave Colin a chill down his back. "Colin, it's too late."

"WHAT?!"

"The announcer broadcasted my name across the entire arena." Rita said. "Everyone knows my face."

"Oh no…" Colin froze.

"Colin, they're already here." Rita said. "Walking towards me. There's nowhere to run."

"Run! Rita, don't just stand there…"

"It's too late." Rita said again. "I'm sorry. Thank you.

"Goodbye."

***

"Rita! RITA!" Colin shouted into his watch.

But there was no reply. She had cut the link from her side.

"Scrap!" Colin kicked a stump and didn't even bother about the pain. "Why wouldn't she run?!"

The stump didn't answer.

"SCRAP!" Colin hammered his fists on the innocent stump and felt a lump in his throat. "SCRAP!"

He made another call.

***

"Kat…"

"Colin! Are you all right?! You sound…"

"Kat, they got her. I called her too late… they got her."

"Got who? Who got who?!"

"The Green Men. They got Rita."

Katrin didn't say anything for a minute.

"Kat, they're not just looking for yellow badges anymore. They knew her name."

"Colin, all the yellow badges are being rounded up. Nobody knows what to do. Some say we should fight, but nobody knows who's in the right or wrong, or which side to join."

On the other side of his watch, Colin heard Edward's voice, coming from quite close. "Kat! I couldn't get to the girl! She was taken before I could get the transfer plates to her!"

{Katrin knew…} Colin realized. {She was trying to save Rita the same way she saved me. But she didn't make it in time.}

{Because when Rita won the tournament, her name was announced to the whole world… and they knew her name.}

{How?! How did they learn her name?!}

"Colin, be careful. Get to Blue Badge as fast as you can, because it's only a matter of time before they start searching the Green Badges too."

"It's not going to help if they know our names."

"Maybe not. But people here are getting restless, Colin. We may be able to put up a fight the next time this happens. I'll make full reports to the Justice Knights."

The world turned white. Colin exploded. "Next time?! What about now?! Rita's still right there!"

At that, Katrin screamed. "Stop them! They're trying to kidnap children! Stop the Green Men!"

"Yeah!" Edward shouted, and a whole lot of noise erupted from the other side of the line.

And Katrin cut the link.

***

Colin felt much more hopeful after that.

At least they were doing something. At least Rita had a fighting chance… if they got her away, maybe she could disguise herself, change her name…

{Leave this world…?}

Colin shook his head. {No point. They're not from this world. They're searching this world because we're in it, but they can just as easily search other worlds too.}

{At least in this world, people here are willing to help us. }

But Colin realized it now. Last time, he'd thought this was part of Nakama World, and didn't think telling dad would be of any help. After what Fanny just said, though, he realized that telling dad would be the thing to do.

He sat down on the stump he'd kicked and hit earlier, and sighed. {I wish I were there… helping them save Rita.}

"Yip." Shiro told him, nudging him.

"What is it?" Colin asked.

"Yip." Shiro nodded to one side.

Colin frowned. "Something there?"

Shiro nodded again.

Colin went over, keeping a sharp eye out. Shiro didn't look upset, or tense, or frightened, so it wasn't anything dangerous, but still… with everything going on, Colin felt he should be cautious.

It wasn't long before he heard the soft whining. Shiro must have heard it before he did.

"What's this?" Colin asked in a low voice as he followed it.

The sound came from beyond the fence.

"It's going to be dangerous, especially if we go around the fence." Colin frowned. He looked at the fence again.

Not too high. No sharp edges.

So… go back to Pepper Tourism, get his bike and cycle around the fence…?

Or…

"Do you think we can climb over it?" Colin asked.

"Yip." Shiro said and jumped right onto it. Then, he hopped down to the other side. "Yip!"

Raiki squeezed in between gaps. Fireheart took one look and climbed up and over it with her claws.

"Right." Colin said, and heaved himself over it.

And with that, they were out of the village and in the Forest of Legends all over again.