WHO'S NEXT

They visited the basketball ball court the next day and saw Itsuki there. Marie felt her heart plunge into her stomach when Fern called him out. She still recognized his smile and she appreciated it more.

He left the game and walked to them.

"You guys are here again. Sorry I couldn't check in earlier," he said.

"No, that's not why we came here," Fern said. "Look, we need a help from you, a serious one."

He looked at Marie. "If it'd benefit her then I'm all in."

"We'd be going to the Antelope Canyon in Arizona in two days, and we'd be needing your dad's teleportation machine," Fern said.

"Are you crazy?" He said in a low tone. "The machine hasn't even undergone a test yet and you want to use it?"

"I guess we should tell him what this is all about," Marie said.

"Oh, I forgot to ask that. What business do you have at the Antelope Canyon?" Itsuki asked.

They calmly explained everything to him.

"Woah." His eyes blinked rapidly. "You've really got a tough battle, but that's really a cool one."

"Reason we need your help," Marie said, staring at him eye deep.

"Oh, nah, don't give me that look. I don't want you to get in trouble," Itsuki said.

"We getting into trouble would be better than leaving the world to face the wrath of the hiona wolf alone," Trevor said.

"Maybe you could be one of us and give her some protection. I know you to be one brave guy," Six punched his arm.

He smiled. "You guys would be headed there in two days right?"

"Yes," Fern said.

"My dad's laboratory is in Kyoto, so you need to get up early then," he said.

"That's no problem," Expresso said. "Our kits are ready as well."

"And we don't know if he'd be needing one of the guns," Kahil said.

"Oh, leave the work of the guns to my bare hands," Itsuki said.

"I've seen Itsuki in a fight a couple of times and I could say he's really good," Fern said.

"Very well then, in two days!" Itsuki said. "I have to run back in now." He turned and jogged back into the court.

Marie and her crew smiled in satisfaction and headed back to the house.

The day they were to head for Kyoto arrived pretty fast, and they loved it that way. It was early in the morning. Itsuki arrived their home with one of the most sophisticated and expensive glide cars they'd seen. He said it would take them to Kyoto in minutes, but they didn't believe that though.

They all got into the car with their luggage, and off they went, piercing through the air with the car, feeling the vigorous rush of the morning air seep through their skins.

They arrived Kyoto in less than an hour, and they drove along Teramachi Street, having a view of the floating buildings and shops there. They arrived the laboratory in a few seconds after the ride along the Teramachi Street.

The laboratory was in form of a rocket that pointed upwards, but it's foundation was dug to the ground, and it wasn't floating like most of the buildings they'd come across in the futuristic Japan.

They parked at a garage beside the main building, and when they got inside, there was no one in the lab.

"Reason we came early," Itsuki said.

The laboratory was quite large, having a lot of sophisticated equipment and unfinished constructions. They saw a large machine in form of a loop sitting in the middle of the laboratory, and Trevor thought it to be a mini particle accelerator.

Itsuki led them to a door adjacent the main lab room, and through the door they entered a long passageway with doors on both sides of it. Itsuki opened the last door on the left and they got in, seeing a man-sized tube connected to an intricate machine by a thick cord.

"That's the teleportation machine," Itsuki said. He walked to the tube and opened a glass door attached to it and got inside.

"It has only been tested on a hamster. The energy from the machine dissociated it's body into particles and reconstructed them at the place it was programmed to be."

"Dissociating my body into particles sounds painful," Marie said.

"Not painful at all, you wouldn't feel a thing. Now we need to get going before someone else comes here. This lab is run by people who love to come late to work. That's an advantage," Itsuki said. "So, who goes first?"

They all stared at each other. "Itsuki laughed. "Fear? Come on, fear could hamper your progress to a very high degree. I've learnt how to keep my fears behind in feats I wish to accomplish."

"Let's just do it," Marie said.

"We're behind you," Fern said to her.

Trevor stepped forward to the tube. "I should go first."

"Really?" Marie said.

"You wanna go?" Trevor asked.

"If it could accommodate two," She said.

Trevor snorted and entered into the tube, looking around it. It seemed like he was inside a giant test tube.

He turned around in there until he faced the machine, which was behind the tube.

Itsuki walked to the machine and placed his hand on a lever. "You set now?"

Trevor swallowed hard and nodded.

"I could still see a hint of fear," Itsuki laughed. "Calm your mind...you calm now?"

Trevor nodded firmly.

Itsuki pulled the lever and pressed a few buttons on the machine, and they all watched Trevor's body dissociating into ephemeral particles from his legs up.

"It doesn't hurt, it doesn't hurt!" He said from the tube, while they all watched him in awe.

"How does it feel?" Marie asked.

"Nothing, I feel nothing!" He said until his whole body dissociated, and the particles disappeared.

Itsuki smiled and turned to the rest. "Who's next?"

"You lead the way," Fern said to Marie.

Marie gently walked into the machine and the same thing was carried out in her. She smiled while she watched herself dissociating, others smiled too.

When she was completely gone, Itsuki looked at the rest. "Who's next?"