Prologue 4 (Part 1) Captivity and Worry.

There was a ringing pain in her head and pictures came in blurs and glimpses. Unconsciously, she wanted to reach to the comfort of her dolls but, after several attempts, she realized that her arms could not obey her. Terrified, Kazu Nini tried summoning her mental energy to cooperate with her Ko-jin when she realized that she could not contact her glass either.

It also was not on the rim on her eyes.

Her hands had been chained to two pillars.

Alarmed, she was panicked and she fought her eyes to focus into the vision of the room she saw but her mind was acting as if it were forcefully being suppressed.

Until she saw... a table? And it took a while for her senses to be sure that it was far away from a hanging yellow light which she was under. No windows were in this unfamiliar room where she saw several versions of ProjectileGuns on the table. The butts of narcotics had been crushed into shallow bowls. And chairs, metal like the table, were about the Reinforced Concrete room.

Why could she not move her Ko-jin like she wanted, had they drugged her?

Her questions rumbled in her head as she saw someone walking in, to which she had immediately closed her eyes and slowly let her body fall into a natural position not too long before air suddenly left her lungs as a punch had cleanly connected with her ribs. A punch with a glove that had metal additions at the knuckles.

She coughed her eyes open and the man before her, unshaven jaw hair and eyes with a mischievous glint, stared back at her. He had gelled his hair to stop at his neck and the tank top he wore showed off his muscles. She was not sure what race he was but the punch stung and she coughed repeatedly.

Mako Nini could hit harder but she did not want to seem too strong so that they would go easy on her.

*This could not be Devon and Kivon's doing, it feels too serious for them.*

"Finally up, eh?" His voice was gruffy.

"We should let it go, there is no need for this." Another walked in with trepidation on his face. His graffiti on his arm was a skull and his mohawk looked like horns. His hooked nose resembled a goblin's, and the color of his skin was a yellow so maybe he was one, but Kazu Nini thought he was too tall for the Specie.

"Shut up, I won't leave any permanent scars."

"There is a reason why we were told to let the matter die."

"You know how many of us DIED!?" He looked in a direction of a building in fear before resuming his speech in a lower tone. "What would happen to them, the people they knew and left behind, huh?"

The people who had taken Mako Nini's bag, Kazu Nini figured, she did not think she had killed any of them. She vomited at the thoughts of blood on her hands and the man looked at her in question. "Is that what you think of them?"

She got another punch which took the wind out of her lungs along with blood and spittle.

The other man cringed and shook his head, walking away as he thought that this victim was barely an adult

***

When Kazu Nini was nowhere to be seen for Wednesday through to Friday, people from her newly created group would ask if the teachers could pardon her and they had agreed up until Friday when they decided that her actions of skipping classes might start to inspire her mates. The teachers had really been reluctant as they had already given their recommendations for her scholarship after she had shared her ordeal with them, but now that she was missing for several days, they did not want the students to follow her example.

The Admin Manager of her society, like previous days, stood up with a plea. "Please, have mercy, she must have been held up."

"Held up," The teacher had barbed hair with a sharp goatee, "for three days?" He shook his head and regarded the student again, "Sit down, Jinja Kaliope." He felt a headache was going to come. This one was stubborn.

"Sir, please listen to him, he doesn't sound like he is lying."

Just as Mr Hrost Crotia was about to speak to that, Devon interjected. "And how do you know that? Lie detector." His cronies snickered at what he said. "This is literature class. Let us learn, truth machine."

The teacher was about to continue yet, but this time the door opened and everyone turned to a round pixie with an armband on both hands, she distantly looked like Kazu Nini but she had relaxed hair that was short and sea blue with lip stick a bold blue.

"Where is my daughter?"

Jinja Kaliope furrowed his brows and the literature teacher looked as lost as most of the class in knowing how to answer looked at his students before retuning his gaze.

"Why do I have to come to school to look for my daughter?"

Jinja Kaliope was about to approach her but the teacher asked him to return to his seat.

"What has happened to Kazu Nini?"

"Maybe she ran away in fear." He laughed this time and started strong but her stare made him shut up and clear his throat.

The Literature teacher excused himself. "Stay silent until I return."

When the door was closed behind them as the man intended to lead her to the principal, Kivon asked Jinja Kaliope who was furiously jabbing at his Telewatch, updating the other staff and members of their group.

"You have been mighty curious about Kazu Nini of recent, are you interested in skinny looking Pixies?"

"It does not matter if she is skinny or not, and it is none of your business."

The class fell dead silent then Kivon stood up, "it looks like Kazu Nini has sharpened you guys' claws to make you think you can speak to me in that manner."

He noticed what his anger had made him say so he had no way of backing out. Jinjia Kaliope believed in Kazu Nini but he did not know if he should take a beating for her "You said you did not want to interfere in her business, why are you so curious?"

"It is not about the question but your tone."

"I am a part of her, you see. Touching me is breaking your oath."

"You just had to say you were with her, why all the stupid addition of words from your meager intellect." Kivon smiled and looked at his twin, "it looks like we would have to make the gradation event to be a grand spectacle."

"Yes," he agreed, "we do."

The Dark Elf had had to wipe at an imaginary stain on his legs so as to cover his hesitation but Jinja Kaliope was just happy he had not broken the secret code of their group.

***

Kazu Nini woke up yet again back in the place where she was held captive, and whenever she had to bathe, she was poured cold water which woke her up as much as it startled her. Today was no different, the water coming from the man with the Mohawk this time.

"Hey," when he dropped the bucket, he looked up to regard the countenance of the Pixie with a swollen eye and several cuts amongst other bruises that had not healed because of the restriction on her body. "Help me."

"I can't."

He took steps to leave but she asked. "Please, I just need good food and I also need to know what happened to my cultivation."

"The manacles have a RestrictionHolderChip in them but as for the food…"

Now, that she recalled her fears of losing her cultivation forever it made her feel childish. "I have not eaten since I got here, please, I will not ask for anymore."

He sighed and told her to wait. Stepping out of the place, he met other hired thugs who always seemed to be without something; a shirt, a shoe wear, an eye and many more. He passed a room, before encountering one with a kitchen. Dirty plates lay within and he even saw a rat running to one of its hiding places. The man reached into the refrigerator and warmed several packs of food, one after the other.

"Slixk, you've got to be considerate sometimes."

"Shut up." He laughed then he changed the subject. "What do you think of our prisoner?"

"I wish I could help her, but unfortunately I can't."

"What do you mean, how can you look at our dead brothers and sisters saying that?"

"One, we knew it would come one day, people in our line of work do not usually have a high survival rate. Second, because you do this after they are gone does not mean that they would do it. So, the term brother and sister might not be what everyone thinks. Lastly, why did you leave your post. And, I am not sharing this food."

He caught himself from his thoughts and walked away.

Slixk walked back into the room and when he locked the door, everyone misunderstood his intentions but it would suffice, for now. Some of them laughed, others shook their head in amusement while some directly retched.

His food of rice with shrimp and pork chops, not forgetting a Mango he had picked at the last minute and a bottle of water he stuffed into his pants, brightened up Kazu Nini more than she thought it would.

He hastily began feeding her.

"What is wrong with you?" He had been trying to place the food in her mouth but she always seemed to be looking in wrong direction, meaning that most of it was pouring to the ground. And guess who had to clean it up?

"My glasses, I can't see well."

"I know that was unnecessary on the part of my friend but you sure have a lot of requests, for somebody who is helpless."

"Don't go now, they might notice you. Maybe tomorrow." With each bite strength grew in her body and she was grateful for each spoonful. "You are kind."

He laughed, "no, I just have children so I can relate."

The man helped her till she was full then he unlocked the door, but not completely opening it.

"One last thing," he rubbed the oil on his lips and when she spoke, he gave himself a nick on his face. "Where are the chips placed in the manacles?" He first tore one of her sleeves and left it on the floor, also giving her a fowl smelling fruit before answering.

When Frank walked in the room, he looked from her to his excited colleague before shuddering, "you should have told me you like them fresh and I would not have harmed her at all."

"Not too proud of it but a man has to do what a man has to do."

His smile made the other guy shudder again

***

"It seems one of ours have been abducted," the principal was on a podium that was in the hall where they had assemblies in the morning. "If you have any news of the missing student, please come forward and hold nothing back." It was about afternoon and after this, everyone would disperse to go home for the weekend.

The slime was done with his speech and stepped down for other school announcements that contained steps to take against kidnappers and such.

Kazu Nini was nowhere to be seen but her staff - Shapha Rinmon, Jinja Kaliope, Zlai Dfon and Elric Yjop were banded together, the rest of their band around them loosely.

"Have any of you seen her?" Elric Yjop asked.

"We would have posted it in the group chat if we knew, trust me." Zlai Dfon answered.

They turned silent away and Shapha Rinmon pointed with her head, surreptitiously, towards Devon and Kivon who had their eyes trained on them. It would have been casual if it was just the twins's eyes trained on the missing Pixie's staff but when they saw that the twin's cronies had joined them, Jinja Kaliope shrugged and resumed conversation.

"We should have spoken with her guardian; it was the blasted teacher that stopped me."

"So, what do we do now?" Elric Yjop was now a woman, they all made a note to get used to it's – the Shapeshifter's – transformations.

"We would first make posters," Jinja Kaliope pointed to the Resource Manager, Shapha Rinmon. "Awareness, everywhere else." he nodded his head to Zlai Dfon then regarded Elric Yjop lastly. "You are with Shapha Rinmon and are to let anyone know that when they have information. They are to report to you."

Finishing their recording, they posted it on the group chat.