6. Search

10 p.m. Urban Forest. 10 km away from Heyvard Hideout.

Martha took a sip from his newly - brewed coffee while patting a certain neko kid that laid on her lap. Ariel purred in content at the soft touch. The others including Aiwa, Hikari, Sora, Arithia, Lolita and Hiyama could only look at her from their seats across the table. Silence filled the atmosphere excluding the sound of Martha's sipping and Hiyama's tapping his finger on the wooden table impatiently. She puts the cup down before finally breaking the silence.

"So, this is the team that Atlas told about. The way you all coordinate impressed me. No wonder your friend were held captive by my husband," the others widened their eyes. Aiwa slammed her already injured hand to the table as she stood up from her seat.

"You know Ray? What do you mean by your husband?" the matured lady chuckled at her slight outburst. She motioned her hands for the younger one to sit back. Aiwa reluctantly did.

"Alright then. A proper introduction shall be done," she stood up placing the sleeping Ariel on her chair making him comfortable. "My name is Martha Hans, the wife of Cuseits Hariot, which as you've already known, the one that captured your friend, Nexon. My assistant, Atlas, called me to assist you guys after he managed to get an intel about the whole meeting and ambush. I'm glad I've found your leader first before going to all of you. I knew something was fishy the moment I saw the first battalion," the sergeant, Cole, looked down in shame. Shame because his own friend betrayed his team.

"I'm sorry for my friend ma'am. It's all my fault for not watching my men," a hand was placed on his left shoulder. He glanced around to see Martha's men wearing a full tech armor patting his shoulder. "Hey, it's not your fault. He was already blinded by his revenge. No need to feel guilty," Cole smiled.

Martha walked around the table examining the group one by one. 'An interesting group indeed,' she thought to herself. 'An immortallist, a tank, a caster, a fighter and a healer. Plus, the way they coordinate are remarkable. No wonder my damn excuse of a husband is aware of them,'

"Now, about your friend," everyone shifted their attention to her. "I have an info about his condition. But you won't be happy about it,"

One of her men walked up to her with a video tape in his hand. She gladly took it and pressed the play button. A screen emerged in front of them playing somewhat a clip. "This is what happened to him while he's being held captive," they watched in horror as they witnessed Ray getting absolutely beaten by Sanders. Next the clip started to shift to the moment Ray playing the Doctor's Death Game. Their jaws dropped as they saw blood spurting all over the metal table. Ray's eyes became more lifeless. It then skipped to the last round when Ray fought Atlas himself.

"This is unexpected, never thought that Atlas is playing along too," Martha was surprised. What could he be doing in there? The whole group felt their heart stopped for a moment.

The metal wires constricting Ray's left leg.

Blood gushed out and splattered all over the floor.

Ray screaming in agony.

It's a good thing Ariel is asleep or else the neko will go into a full breakdown seeing here brother figure getting his leg amputated. Aiwa is already crying seeing her crush in such state. Arithia hugged Hikari sobbing into his chest. He rubbed circles on her back soothing her. Hiyama looked like he wants to puke while Sora backed away from her seat in horror. The video finally stopped.

"No, no!" Aiwa held her head while kept saying no as if it were some kind of a chant. Martha walked over to her and patted her hair trying to calm Aiwa down. "He's going to be fine. Now I know why Atlas felt a little sad and he mentioned about treating his wounds a day earlier," she walked back to the front and clapped her hands gaining everyone's attention.

"As you saw in the video, he's clearly injured. But fear not. Atlas already informed me about his escape from the facility. Right now what we need to focus is finding his location," she clicked the video tape and a map emerged form its lense.

She points a red dot with her right index finger. "This here is his last exact location," she then shifts her finger to a yellow dot. "While this is his marked arrival. Atlas marked this place as Ray's suppose escape route. But from what I've gathered from my men, an RPG managed to hit his escape vehicle. They might be stranded a little from their location,"

Hikari puts his finger under his chin. "But what if he managed to get into the village. Even if he got into an accident, maybe the locals could accidentally stumble upon him,"

Martha looked at Hikari with a nod. "You might be right, But more importantly, we'll get to the village first to get some clues. Maybe he already arrived,"

"One problem though," Sora finally spoke up for the first time in their meeting after finally overcome her horror. "That village looks far. How many days would it take for us to get there?"

Martha grinned. "Good question. It's four days," this shocked everyone.

"Three Days!?" they shouted in unison. This caused Ariel to twitch slightly and finally woke up from his slumber. He looked around seeing the others standing up form their seats. He turned around as his blue and gold eyes met a calm amber eyes. He looked up to see a graceful woman wearing a combat black pants and tough dark brown jacket with red shirt in the inside. Her long hair was tied in a ponytail completing her looks.

"Had a good sleep kitty?" she moved her face in front of the cat kid making him blushed slightly at the closeness. Too close in fact.

He twiddled his fingers while looking down in embarrassment. "Ye-yes. Thanks for your help," Martha smirked. She ruffled his fluffy hair in enjoyment.

"No need to be shy. Where's that tough act you put it earlier? In fact," her eyes suddenly became serious. She glanced at her assistant before the both of them nodding simultaneously. She stood up and walked out of the tent. "Anyone want to join me to have a nice chat with a certain traitor?" her voice sends chills to her squad. Hikari and Hiyama looked at each other before walking up to the woman. "Sure, let's go,"

The two arrived in a green tent. Two men stand guard. As the two saw their leader approaching they simultaneously salute. Martha gave her own salute thus the three of them entered the tent. In front of them sat Jonathan tied to a seat. The traitor glared at the three people in front him before spat out his spit.

The three remains motionless in front of him. Martha started the interrogation. "You must be Jonathan. I know you," the other two looked at her in confusion. "You're the one that sabotaged my operation in handling an attack against the Sheer Clan. Now I wonder what would a guy like you to be with the Elite Force,"

She kicked him in the chest resulting the man to grunt. "Tell me, what's Sheer Clan's plan," the man growled in anger. "You wanna know so bad, fine. I've already killed Ray anyways. They inject some kind of ice serum inside that damn kid. They want him to suffer until he becomes one if the Sheer Clan. But I guess the effect must've already killed him. Heh, weak," this causes the tank to punch him in the face.

"Shut up prick! Don't you know he cares about you, and then here you are, backstabbing him," the traitor let out a loud laugh. He then stare intense to Hiyama's eyes.

"Him? Cares about me? Man, you make me laugh. If he really do cares about me then why did he kill my f@#king brother!"

"He's a traitor!"

"They could settle it down without killing!"

"He murdered his friend!"

"Do you think I care?"

"He saved you from that falling debris!" Jonathan looked at him as if he's crazy.

"Since when did he saved me? All he cares is about himself if not that damn whore of a cat!" Hikari kicked him in the face blood coughed out the traitor's mouth.

"Don't you dare call Ariel that! Don't you recall anything?" Jonathan wanted to refresh his memory, but his ego and hatred was way more superior than his own desire.

The two sighed. Martha only looked at the scene from aside in complete interest. Oh how the situation took its turn.

"Fine then. If you're really that stubborn, I guess I'll tell you," he cleared his throat before revealing the truth. "I got this story from Aiwa and Ariel, since this two are the only people Ray actually opens up his feelings. He told her that he always dreamt about the moment when his friend, Shen, died in Nox's hands. He remembered every detail of it and of the most thing he couldn't forget is saving a certain sergeant," this perked up Jonathan's interest.

"Ray said he remembered pushing you out of the way to make sure you're safe from a falling debris," a vision than flashed in an instance in front of Jonathan. Tears started to fall from his eyes.

"So that was him?"

(Flashback, many years ago)

Jonathan aimed his sniper rifle to Ray's head. His blood boil seeing his brother getting beaten up by the young soldier. Ray kept dealing blows to the older traitor. His eyes flowed with anger and hatred.

Tears could be seen staining his cheeks. He couldn't believe it. His own comrade murdered his friend right in front of him. He gifted the man a perfect round house kick to the face making him fell backwards. Nox grunted in pain.

'This plan was a damn failure. I knew I shouldn't trust that damn kid in this mission,' he looked behind Ray to see his brother, Jonathan aiming his sniper. He smirked. In his hand is a detonator. He managed to stick some of the explosive in the building and one of them could be seen on above the spot that Jonathan stands.

'A failure, I won't be needing you,' his plan, explode the building distracting Ray to save his failure of a brother giving him the opportunity to shoot him from the back. Believe it or not.

It works like a charm.

Ray noticing the detonator and Nox's eye contact, ended up falling to the trap. He looked back to see Jonathan with his sniper rifle standing without knowing his current situation. Ray quickly sprints towards the older soldier while yelling for him to get out of the way. This confused the male as he moved away from the scope. Both an explosion and gunshot rang itself. He turned around only to see a large debris falling towards his position. Ray pushed him out of the way despite the pain on his back from the shot earlier.

Time seemed to move slowly. Jonathan could feel his body slowly falling to the side as Ray pushed him. He suddenly realized the current situation.

"NO!"

(Flashback ends)

Tears falls down to his cheeks. Regret started to crawl inside him. "He saved me?"

"Don't you remember? Plus, your brother was planning to kill you that whole time," Jonathan started to tear up.

"No, that's not true! He thought I wasn't there. He just wants to distract him!" a slap marked his right cheek.

"Wake up from that dream of yours! It's true. Ray saved your ass without hesitation. He even told Aiwa that he hoped to see the man he saved happy and alive till this day," Hikari said while stuttering. His eyes filled with tears.

Finally, regret managed to break his shell of arrogance. "What have I done?" he broke into silent tears. He looked down in shame while crying silently. Martha walked up to the two fighter fighting their own mixed emotions.

"Come on you two, we've got what we want, Let's get out of here. Take a rest you two and that includes your group," the two nodded and exited the tent, leaving the said traitor silently crying and relieving his wrong doings.

"I'm sorry Ray. I should've talked to you. You even saved me and helped me even though I get harsh with you," more memories started to play in his head. The moment Ray paid his own debt to the loan shark, the kid helping him with his weapons and even helped him with his work. His crying became louder.

"I'm sorry Ray. I really do,"

.........

Whind Village

Two hunters ran through the street with an injure kid in their possession. They finally arrived at the village surprising the residents. They wasted not time and rushed to the village's Clinique.

"We need a doctor, now!" one of the door burst open revealing the doctor rushing towards the two. He understood the situation and quickly led them to the small operation room. He instructed his nurse to get the proper equipment for the treatment. She went to get the stuff while he placed the small kid on a medium sized bed. He placed his hand near Storm's chest thus a small light sphere appeared on his palm.

"Refresh!" Storm's body glowed in yellowish white light healing his minor injuries. Small cuts and dried blood started to disappear from his body without a trace. The nurse finally arrived with the equipment. He rolls up his sleeve before getting to work.

(Timeskip)

He let out a sigh of relieve. He looked proudly at his work. Bandages wrapped around his head, chest and both of his ankles. His bruises was better than before. Storm's chest rose and fell in a constant breathing. The doctor turned around to face the two hunters from earlier and gave them a polite bow.

"I'm glad you managed to find this kid. He looks better now thanks to you," the two sighed in relief. But something doesn't add up to the Doctor,

"Where did you find him? I don't think he's from around here either," the two hunters stared at each other before back to the Doctor. They motioned the Doctor to leave the room letting the kid rest with the nurse watching over him as the three have a private conversation.

They sat inside the Doctor's small office. It's not much but sure is lovely. There's a small couch placed at the corner of the room with a medium sized cupboard filled with files and other equipment in front of it. The two sat down in front of the Doctor's table while the Doctor sat in front of them.

The younger one pulled out Storm's knife and a gun which shocked the knowledgeable man. He picked up the gun examining its features.

"Such an exquisite design. What could possibly a kid would be doing with a combat knife and a pistol? You two got any ideas?" the doctor asked in interest. The older one spoke up.

"Well, I guess you could say that he's trying to protect himself from the wildlife. But it's not right at all. That gun has a high recoil. If I recalled correctly, it's specifically designed to pierce heavy armor bullet vest while the wilds could just use the normal caliber rifle if not a standard classic Glock-18 or even lower than that," the two listened carefully to his speech. The doctor placed the gun down shifting his attention to a paper beside him filled with his latest patient's information. He swiftly took it with his left hand examined it carefully.

His eyes widen at a sudden realization causing him to grinned a little confusing the two hunters in front of him. "Interesting, it looks like there's someone else's blood on his clothes," he placed down the paper and turned it directions towards them to make it easier for them to read. The two took the piece of paper.

"It is my duty to examine every inch of my patient's body. There's one more blood on his clothes besides his and the wild Hyena's blood. He might have someone with him but he escaped leaving him alone in the forest. We should send an evacuation squad to get the said person," the younger hunter scratched at the back of his head.

"If so, then who are we going to send?" the Doctor smirked.

"Who else? It's those kids of course. They said they want to complete their assignments. Might as well give them some kind of mission for them to earn extra rewards," he walked up to a cabinet to his right and pulled out a file filled with information of young adults. The two grabbed the file thus reading it.

Suddenly the door opened up revealing the nurse from earlier with a worried look on her face. "Doctor, the boy is talking in his sleep. It may be useful to you," the Doctor is indeed, an interesting individual. He really likes to examine his patient carefully. He went as far dug their life problems and sometimes managed to solve it. He wasn't called "Crow" for nothing. The three exited the office and made their way to Storm's room. They stood beside the kid while he mumbles in his sleep.

"No, please, get him. He's...…hurt. I beg you," tears dwelled a little in his eyes. The two hunters looked at him with pity. The younger one patted his soft hair lightly reassuring the kid. He then finally calmed down and continued to sleep making them all breath out a relief.

"Whoever it is, we'll find him for you kid,"

"Get some rest,"

(The next morning)

A black hair girl woke up yawning in her bed. She stood up with her leg on the side of the bed. She stretched her body snapping some of her bones causing her to grunt lowly. The girl glanced around the room where she and her friends slept. A girl with yellow hair tied to a ponytail snores loudly beside a girl with short brown hair snoozing peacefully with a body pillow in her grasp. She then glanced at the clock besides her partner with long blue hair sleeping rather aggressively with his hands bawled into a fist. She shivered at the thought getting punched in the middle of a night by her tomboyish friend.

"9 a.m. I guess all of us were really that tired. Damn those stones, how more rare can they be?" she recalled her memory. Them climbing some mountains and entering dark caves just to find the stones that their teachers told them to investigate. They came form another world so the teachers want them to find some information about their power. They reluctantly (which is kinda stupid) agreed.

She went inside the bathroom doing her morning routines. After she's done with her routine she shook three of her friends which they lazily woke up from their beauty sleep. The blonde groggily rubbed her eyes trying to loose the sleepiness.

"Come on Hikari. Let us sleep moreeee," she whined like a kid. The other nodded simultaneously. She sighed at her friends demeanour.

"Either way, we have to get up. Don't want to miss breakfast now, do we?" hearing this, her friends rushed to bathroom getting into a small argument in the process earning a slight chuckle from Kagura. She read a book given by the inn master while waiting for her friends. After all of that the three finally walked their way to the food hall meeting up with their male friends.

Two male seating at the corner of the hall waved at the girls motioning them to get to their location which they nodded. Even though they really don't want to do it because of their really arrogant attitude but they don't want to cause a commotion this early in the morning. After they got their food, they sat down across the two male. The one with spiky golden locks flirted with Kagura causing her to grit her teeth in annoyance as she tries to enjoy her food. The other male could only sigh at his friend's action.

They chatted for a while or you could say, bicker, for a while. If not for the constant gross and flirty words from the blonde male. The green haired male beside him only nodded at his words not caring a single thing. The team was indeed, weird, to say the least. They really not to work more on their teamwork in the future.

'Why did the teacher assigned me with this guy again?' Kagura thought while eating her breakfast. Suddenly, the inn master which is an old lady caught her attention. She's walking out of a store room with a basin filled with herbs and some white clothes in the inside. She walked up to the grandma which made her teammates confused.

The grandma noticed her walking up to her. She smiled at the young girl. "Hello there child, is there anything I could help you?" she asked her with her old raspy voice.

"Oh nothing. It's just, I never see you going out without your usual gardening wears. Did something happened?" this earned a sad look from the old woman. She sighed before answering.

"Unfortunately, yes my child. You see, two hunters found an injured young boy in the forest. So I thought about visiting the kid to cheer him up. Oh and that reminds me. The village doctor wants to see you and the your friends at the office. Let's go shall we?" Kagura motioned her friends to follow her which they understood the hand gestures. They took a final sip from their drinks and walked out of the hall with Kagura and the inn master to the Clinique.

They arrived inside the facility. Not much people around except for two people sitting at a waiting room patiently waiting for their turns for medical check-up. The woman bowed to them and left but not before gestured them to the Doctor's office. They were being led to a room with 'Crow' on the door's sign.

The group entered and saw the said doctor sitting on his chair in front of his desk with a file on his hands. He looked up and told them to come inside, which they did. He finally stood up from his seat and walked to them giving them a slight bow.

"Apologies for intruding you all, but I have a mission for you," he held the file from before in front of the group. They took the file from him and started to examine its content.

"I need you to go and locate a man. We still don't know his appearance but from we could find is somewhat a trace of magic. You all need to track the trace before it gets weaker," they saw the description of the trace. It is said to be filled with dark and slight red colour. Kagura suddenly felt a familiar sense. It's like she met the said person before.

The door then burst open to reveal the Doctor's male apprentice with a look of dread in his expression. "Doc, the kid's gone berserk! He's holding a knife and is threatening everyone. We need your assistance!" the doctor told everyone to follow him to get Storm. When they arrived, they couldn't help but stare in shock

A light blue hair kid with bandages all over his body held a knife in front of him. His face flushed red signalling a rose in his body temperature. The inn master tried to calm the poor kid down.

"Calm down little children. We're not here to hurt you," he looked reluctantly to her and shook his head.

"How could I trust you? If it's true, then that soldier should be here as well," Kagura couldn't help the urge to go in front of him and let the kid tell her everything he knows. She walked up to the old woman and reassure her that she'll be taking control of the situation and the grandma agreed. She walked slowly to the kid with her arms opened wide.

"Hey, no need to get scared. Put the knife down and we can sort this out okay? If you don't cooperate then how else can we help find your friend?" the kid looked at her with the knife still in front him. His grip grew shaky by the time Kagura took her steps closer to him. He sighed and finally dropped the knife which relieved the others. He fell on his knees but Kagura swiftly caught him in a hug. He dug his face into her chest crying silently. She rubbed circles behind his back soothing him.

"Please, find him. He's till in there," Kagura pulled the kid on his shoulder staring at his blue eyes.

"Don't worry, we will. How does he look like exactly?" Storm held a hand on his chin still with tears in his eyes. He remembered how exactly Ray looked.

"He has a bit messy white hair like a snow. His face has a small scar on his left cheek. To top it all, his aura feels weird. Oh and he wears an outfit that looks like a military clothe with a small 'Elite Force' word on it's right shoulder," sudden information hit her hard causing her to stood silently like a rock, which confused her teammates. She snapped out of her stupor and quickly pulled out his phone and showed a picture of Ray.

"Wait, does he look like this?!" Storm examined the picture carefully before his eyes went wide. "Yes, that's him!" Kagura dropped her phone making her blonde friend quickly stood beside her.

"Oi Hikari, what happened? You looked like you've seen a ghotst," she then swiftly turned to her friend and grabbed her shoulders surprising her.

"Jane, we need to go now!" she grabbed her and exited the Clinique with their teams following them.

The spiky golden guy blocked his path with his arms crossed which irritated the young girl by a lot. "Now now beauty, hold yourself. Why are you in such a rush anyway? Do you even know the guy," he said a tint of venom in his voice which didn't go unnoticed to his team mates. Even though they really want him to stop, they're also curious to this guy Kagura worries so much. She sighed in annoyance. They eventually need to know about him.

"Alright then, I'll tell you guys but, we need to go over the location the Doctor marked the kid's location. I'll tell you on the way," they nodded and so they walked steadily to their supposed location. While on the road she spoke to them.

"The man that we need to rescue is someone I know. I've met him before the first time I got to this world," she said with a blush confusing her team and irritating the spiky boy. "His name is Ray Asaki or also known as 'Nexon'. He helped me facing a lot of enemies and he's a really nice guy," she showed everyone a photo of Ray standing beside her with a smile on his face while her face was beet red. The girls whistled and one even had hearts in her eyes.

"Wow, you met a good one. Being greedy now aren't you girl?" Jane nudged her elbows earning a blush on the girls cheek. The others laughed at them except for Crane. He grumbled under his breath. His friend, azusa shiki, walked up to him while whispering. "You jealous? Maybe you should think again before flirting with her," Crane just clicked his tongue in anger.

"N-no. That's not my intention a-at all!" she stuttered her words. The girls laughed harder happily satisfied with the tease. "Ey girl, you really need to introduce that guy to us. Maybe we could score a date with him. Who knows?" Kagura glared at her teammates causing them to shiver at the intense look she gave. They finally arrived at the marked location and started to use their tactical sight to identify traces of his magic.

They followed the trail leading them deep into the forest. As they were following the trail, her friend, Hataga Aki, noticed a lot of blood on a tree not far from their current spot. They followed her and froze at their feet at the massacre in front of them.

Dead hyenas laid all over the place. Blood decorates the green terrain and it smells really bad. Some of them had to hold themself from vomiting. They crossed over the bodies to the tree filled with a huge amount of trace and blood. They traced the magic and it leads them far to their left which they followed suit arriving them to an old ruin.

"So he's over here huh? What a surprise. What even is he doing here anyway?" her short brown hair friend, Rose Woods spoke to them. They could only shrug. The green male decided up a plan. "This is dangerous. We should split up to fasten the search. I heard that strong monsters usually appears at this kind of place to protect it. I'll go with Crane, Kagura stick with Aki and Jane with Rose," they finally split up.

"Make sure to call everyone the moment you've found him and get out quickly,"

(Shiki and Crane)

"So why do you get to decide the team?" Crane asked Shiki with anger in his voice. Shiki only sigh at his friend's attitude.

"Look Crane, I don't care anything about you and Kagura. We need to find that guy and get out if you still value your own life. Go and settle the deeds with that guy after we finish this mission," Crane was about to counter before he decided to silence himself.

'Why are you that obsessed with Kagura?' Shiki mumbled under his breath.

(Jane and Rose)

Rose clung tightly to Jane's side fearing the dark ruin while the hyperactive blonde shone her lights left and right trying to find the soldier.

"Will you please stop shoving the light? What happens if they're actually ghosts here huh!" Jane laughed loudly at her friend's idiocy and ruffled her short brown hair.

"What are you, a kid? There's not ghost in the morning you dolt! Now, let's go and find that guy," they walked deeper inside the ruin.

(Kagura and Aki)

Kagura carefully searched every inch of her directions in case Ray happens to be there. The traces were immediately gone the moment they entered the ruins. Apparently, the ruins negates any sorts of magical trace, a sneaky move making the trapped to be completely undetectable for rescue.

Aki looked at her friends that's desperately trying to find Ray. She put an arm on her shoulder calming her down. "Hey, I know you're worried about him. But being like this isn't going to help okay?" Kagura put a hand on her chest and breathed calmly to regain her composure. She the smiled at her trusty friend before continuing their search.

"Thanks Aki. I'll try to become better next time,"

"Now that's the Kagura I knew,"

Suddenly, they saw a trail of blood on the alleyway of the ruins. They looked at each other and nodded thus sped off to the blood. When they arrived, Kagura and Aki couldn't help but widen their eyes in horror.

"Ray?!" Kagura said with tears in her eyes.