CHAPTER IV Where’s Ai

No one knows what really happened.

The black-clothed man left leaving the two boys who were still frozen in the middle of a quiet street.

"Who is he?" Karen questioned that in his mind. He feels like he has forgotten how to breathe, "Are you all right?" Karen turned to Ruka. "Yeah." Ruka replied casually, even though his legs were shaking uncontrollably. The two of them regained their self-confidence that had been blown away.

"We have to find Ai immediately." Karen said with a serious face. "Yeah, if that man kidnapped—" Ruka held back his words. "What's her name again?" He continued with a stupid look. "Hanahata Ai." Karen said. "Yeah… her." Ruka said that as if he had just, temporary amnesia. "I will beat whoever he is!!" Ruka said while clapping his fists together. If he shows up again I think we're going to die. Karen of course didn't hide how he felt, he would bluntly say, "Before you can hit him maybe we're both dead." Karen said. That's what Ruka wanted to refute but, "I think you're right." Ruka replied.

The two boys looked at each other. "So?" Ruka asked. "I don't think we can just leave here and just go on with our life." Karen said. "You're right dude." Ruka said.

After that,

They also ventured to go look for Hanahata Ai who had just disappeared. The two of them run around the city of Sakae looking for Hanahata Ai. They talk to both city dwellers and city tourists who are just passing through.

"Hmm." Karen stopped looking at the construction of the city's towers. The tower appears to be still under construction. But then again, he went to find any information he could get his hands on.

Their search.

All of that to no avail. "Shit!!" Ruka hit the concrete of the road. Just as their hopes began to dim, "H-hi Karen-kun." Kodama Yoko greets them. "Yoko." Karen replied. "Hm…" Yoko glanced at Ruka but felt embarrassed to greet him. Karen patted Ruka's back.

"What is it?" Ruka turned. "Introduction." Karen sighed.

"Oh!! Yye-yeah, sorry. My name is Mori Ruka." He said. "By the way he's the one who beat me up because of a random reason." Karen commented. "Eh!??" Yoko was surprised. "Yeah, sorry about that. I ended up thinking that you were a stalker or something." Ruka scratched his hair.

Yoko didn't understand what the two of them were saying, but it sounded quite exciting. Are these two friends?? Yoko thought. The girl wondered about it, the two of them seemed quite close. "My name is Kodama Yoko. Pleased to meet you." Yoko bowed politely.

"Well Yoko, this might sound a little weird, but…" Karen stepped forward. "Do you know anything about Hanahata Ai." He continued. "Hmm?? What do you mean?" Yoko was a little confused. "I mean does she have a certain secret that not everyone knows?" Karen asked again in more detail.

Karen wants to know if Yoko can provide information about Ai that he can relate to something in his mind.

"…"

Yoko was silent.

Karen knew that, the Kodama Clan must know something about something. He thought as he crossed his arms. Ruka looked at Yoko curiously, it made Yoko even more nervous. Karen pulled Ruka's shirt back. "Huh." Ruka sighed with a lazy expression.

"Actually there is." Yoko said suddenly. "Really?" Ruka said. "Yeah..." Yoko sighed. "I heard this from a Clan elder, that Hanahata Ai is betrothed to a noble from the Land of Dew." Yoko's words took Karen by surprise, but he restrained himself from getting carried away. "That's crazy. She's only seven years old." Karen said. "Yes, that's true. But the marriage will begin when she is eighteen." Yoko replied. "Or maybe sixteen." She continued while fixing her glasses.

"Yoko can you help us find Ai?" Karen asked Yoko who was indecisive. "I will explain the situation." He continued.

…

"Well." Yoko nodded in agreement after hearing Karen's long explanation. The time at that time was around 2:54 AM they were still there is time before night falls. The three of them immediately rushed to one of the people Yoko had mentioned earlier. "Kurobame Kokyu is Ai's bodyguard if I'm not mistaken. He is one of Rinka's level of Hako. If the man you met fought him we might have a chance of winning." Yoko's words explain the brief biography of Kurobame Kokyu.

"Come on!! Let's hurry!!" Ruka said excitedly. Kurobame Kokyu had crossed paths with Karen before. If he could see his figure, then he would be able to recognize him instantly.

After a few minutes of looking for the Man.

"Wait a minute guys!! There he is." Karen pointed to a servant who was looking for someone in a deserted place. The man looked overwhelmed, and worried about something.

"Hey bro!!!" Karen shouted to a man from a distance, so loudly that he suddenly straightened up. What is it?? thought Kokyu. Karen and his two friends stopped in front of Kokyu with sweaty faces. "The short explanation is—" Yoko breathlessly said that.

??

Kokyu himself is confused about what happened, but in the back of his head. They are the Princess's classmates. Kokyu thought while looking at the three of them. "Do you know where Princess Ai is?" He asked anxiously. "No." Karen replied. "—I, I see." Kokyu looks down with a gloomy face.

"It's not that I don't want to say…" Karen raised his head. "But maybe I know where she is." He continued.

"Is that true!?" Kokyu is shocked.

BDUUK!

"Ouch!! Why??" Karen turned to Ruka who just hit his head. "You should have told us about that first you idiot." Ruka growled with an angry expression. "This is just my guess." Karen said while stroking his head. "Huuuh… so it's just a guess huh." Ruka sighed.

The boy turned to look elsewhere.

"I know this city like the palm of my hand…" Karen said with a serious face. "If I'm not mistaken that's what the words, right?" He continued while thinking, did I say it wrong? he thought. "I don't think they dare to leave this city. And I think they're in the city tower." Karen would bet they were there. He speculated in the middle of their search after a few hours.

"Wasn't the city tower just built??" Yoko said. "So therefore. I was suspicious of the place because no one had entered it apart from the construction workers." Karen replied to Yoko. "Oh!" Yoko seemed to have new enlightenment. He didn't expect an Amethyst Karen to think of such a complex thing. I'm not really sure I said all that but… Karen recalled the words of a tourist who passed by earlier. "I heard that this tower will become the symbol of Sakae city. So Mikoto ordered Rinka to stand guard outside construction hours so as not to disturb tourists like us." Said a tourist. Then he thought again of a construction worker who said. "This tower is haunted. So no one dared to enter it." Approximately from the two connections, he linked them all.

"WHKKAAKKKWAKK!!" Loud crows sounded in the silence of the tower construction area. Yoko hid behind Karen. The boy was also afraid of what he heard. "Are you two scared?" Ruka raised half an eyebrow. "Yeah we're scared." Karen replied. "Heh..." Ruka smirked. "City people." He continued. Kokyu looked up. It seems, that kid is right… something is not right here. He thought as he stepped forward guiding the children behind him. The four of them walked into the construction site, from the looks of it nothing out of the ordinary. Yoko thought. They took the elevator that still seemed to work, after a few minutes they finally arrived in the middle of the tower.

"This!?" Kokyu said.

The man took out his Seisui. Shaped like a string, white with a pattern of cherry blossoms.

"Ongaku-Shin!" Kokyu plucks the strings using bachi.

It suddenly changed the shape of the entire area of ​​the room like a curtain being slowly opened. The center of the tower revealed something horrible. "I thought someone was hiding in here." Kokyu said. "Eh, hiding." Yoko muttered fearfully. Splattered blood splattered on the wooden plywood to the iron supports. "Wow-wow!" A Man said that while clapping his hands. "I should have killed you two earlier. You naughty brats." The man came out of the shadows of the night, as if he hadn't been there.

"Who are you!!" Kokyu tells his opponent to introduce himself immediately. "Geez, I didn't get paid for this…" The man mumbled. "But it looks like I have to kill you guys." He continued.

"Hitomi – Soro!" Kokyu plucks the strings once again. The sound emitted a kind of sound wave under his opponent's feet. Damn he just tied me up!! The man in black heels was suddenly held back by something. His body was bound and he struggled.

After a while.

"Hahahahaha!!" The man burst into laughter. "Where is the princess!! Answer me!!" Kokyu asks sternly. "Calm down dude, calm down. She's still alive." The man replied.

Tatarimokke!

"Hwuuuaahwuuuaahuhuhuuahh!!" The baby's voice is getting louder and clearer. "Huh!??" Karen and his friends looked around them. A baby's voice suddenly sounded like the whole room was being haunted.

BDAAAARKKKK!!

An owl the size of a house suddenly appeared, then, tore apart the iron at the end of the floor. "Woah!!" Ruka dodge down at the same time as Yoko.

"Fluffal Trick – Leo!" Karen call the name of the technique he had just come up with. As soon as that happened, yellow threads began to ooze out of him, and began to knit into each other. The Lion Doll, he took out this time was different from anything Yoko had seen in class before, twenty times bigger in size. "Yoko! Ruka! Hurry up!!" Karen told the two children to get on his Lion Doll. "Okay!" Yoko immediately climbed the Doll. "Dude!! What are you doing!?" Karen shouted at Ruka who seemed reluctant to ride on it. "I'll fight too!!" Ruka said. "Ahhh Morron!!" Karen snapped at him but Ruka just ignored his scolding. "Leo take Yoko outa here." Karen said. The Lion Doll ran downstairs via the emergency stairs.

"Dobutsu-teki hon'no – Tigres!!" Ruka clenched his fists. Instantly it happened, his Seisui enveloped both of his hands. "Take this you bastard!!" Ruka ran without hesitation toward the giant Owl.

"Hitomi – Soro!" Kokyu uses the same technique again, but this time he binds, "Ahhh!! Let me go!!" Ruka growled with emotion. Kokyu pulls Ruka and Karen as fast as he can. This is a dangerous fight!! Kokyu jumps out from the middle of the tower floor.

"Ohh Craapppp!!!" Karen and Ruka screamed in panic at the same time. Kokyu lets go of the two boys, one looks pale and the other, faints. "Ruka-kun!" Kokyu calls him. "Yeah." Ruka replies to Kokyu. "You guys go." Kokyu said with a face full of sweat. Ruka wordlessly carried Karen who had fainted.

"I didn't expect to fight Rinka as strong as him." Kokyu muttered.