Voltiana

"ROAR!"

"Woah!" Dachii jumped back as a massive bear got in his face. Mina laughed and patted Dachii on the back. "Don't be scared! Mr. Lucy doesn't bite!"

"Is it a guy or a girl?" Dachii asked.

"He's a boy," Mina answered.

"Then why is he named Lucy?"

She and Nishiyama both shared an awkward look. Instead of answering, Mina took him to the next animal. "How about we check out the spiders?"

"The WHAT?"

The girls led him to a large rock, which had 3 giant spiders on top of it, all crawling around and enjoying themselves.

"They love my slime," Mina remarked, shooting a stream of it out onto the rock, which the spiders immediately began to eat. Dachii nearly hurled.

"Oh crap."

Marachii and Saori finally caught up to them, taking notice of the spiders.

"Ooh, spiders! So cute!" Saori exclaimed.

"Wow, they're BIG," Marachii noted, getting closer. "How do you get them so big? A giant spider is like, a complete DREAM of mine. Do you use a special type of food, or—-?"

Dachii pulled him back. "No, bro, we are NOT going to discuss the MASSIVE SPIDERS, which, may I add, are currently PUKING SLIME."

Saori watched as the spiders puked pink slim into the ground. "Can we take this home?"

"NO," Dachii replied, gently moving her out of the way. "I didn't even know animals like this existed in this world."

"You'd be surprised," Mina remarked. "There's loads of cool animals all over the place!"

"Not in Estrium," Dachii admitted.

"Yeah, I've been meaning to ask you," Nishiyama pointed out. "What's it like over there? How's the people? The culture?"

Dachii paused for a moment, recalling all the memories of his homeland. "Hmm…it's a wonderful place! It's got sports, it's got cable, it's got fast food, it's got parties, it's got SUCH PRETTY girls…"

Nishiyama and Mina both gave him an unimpressed look. "You're both pretty too! But anyway, yeah! It's cool! Marachii could tell you!"

Marachii just shrugged. "He's overhyping it. We were broke."

Nishiyama and Mina burst into laughter as Dachii turned red. Saori watched them, clearly confused. "What do you mean by 'broke?'"

"Poverty," Marachii stated.

"Oh!"

A panda came out of nowhere, shocking Dachii. It nuzzled up to Mina, who giggled and stroked its fur.

"Aww, Kaida! I was just going to introduce them to you next! Guys, this is Kaida! She's a cute little panda I met after the Umego trip!"

"LITTLE?" Dachii blurted out, hiding behind Marachii.

"Yay. Brave enough to save me but scared of a simple panda," Marachii scoffed.

"Do you see how BIG that thing is?" Dachii exclaimed. "Look at its CLAWS!"

Saori began cuddling with the panda, giving kisses to her fur. "Aww, be my friend, Kaida!"

The panda yawned and with a swipe of her paw, she pinned Saori to the ground and sniffed her. "Ow!"

Mina carefully pulled Kaida's claw off of Saori. "Sorry! That's just how she greets new people! You can stop hiding, Dachii!"

"Nope, I'm good!"

Marachii just rolled his eyes. "Do you guys have anything else to show?"

Mina motioned further down the block. "We've got lions! Do you all wanna see a lion?"

Saori raised her hand. "Me! Me!"

Marachii did as well. "Me too! I've never seen a real LION before! Are they as big as the movies?"

"Come see for yourself!" Mina insisted.

As they all went off in the direction of the lions, Dachii secretly backed away. "No, no, no. That's enough for me."

He continued backing up until he bumped into Tomoko, and he nearly had a heart attack. "Tomoko! Don't sneak up like that!"

"Hahaha!"

"I'm serious! If you were a lion, I'd have to kill you!"

Tomoko nodded towards where the others were heading. "The lions are over there! Wanna go poke them?"

"NO."

While preparing to turn around, Dachii noticed a familiar figure in the distance. "Hey, Tomoko, is that…?"

The figure turned to face Dachii, and as soon as he saw him, he appeared in front of the pair in the blink of an eye, causing a stir of wind.

"WOAH!" Dachii exclaimed.

Once the wind died down, Dachii saw Prince Atomu staring at him, his eyes cold and sharp. He reached out his hand to Dachii…

…and gave him a pat on the shoulder.

"Dachii! Just who I've been looking for. It's been quite some time, hasn't it?"

Dachii looked him over. "You look…different. Did all that training do something to you?"

"Not enough," Atomu remarked. "By the way, I heard you faced off against another powerful foe. How did it go?"

Dachii groaned, almost exhausted. "Terrifying. Deadly races, deadly fights, deadly lightning, deadly EVERYTHING. That guy, Ionix, he's definitely no joke. If I wasn't backed up by an entire squad, it would have been my head."

Atomu chuckled. "I'm assuming my sister was with you?"

Dachii nodded.

"Well," Atomu scoffed. "Seems she's moving up the ladder again. Rank 11, was it? I've got to do better…"

He caught himself. "Pardon me. Got carried away again. There's something important you need to see."

When he turned his attention back to Dachii and Tomoko, he found Aoki standing in between them.

"What is it?" Aoki asked.

Dachii and Tomoko both jerked back, surprised, but Atomu just palmed his face and sighed. "What a treat."

Aoki folded her arms. "Hmm? Raw meat can't distract me for long, you fool. What have I taught you?"

Dachii looked between the two, starting to catch on.

"Wait, you two KNOW each other?"

"Indeed," Atomu confirmed. "And she is as unpleasant as ever. An uncultured pig, wearing the face of one of our own."

Aoki put her hands on her hips, giving Atomu an unimpressed look. "Children."

"How do you guys know each other?" Dachii asked. "Akari didn't recognize her."

Atomu started scratching his head, looking away. "Well…fairly…it's nothing much…just a simple acquaintance…"

Aoki waved him off. "I'm his mentor."

"Aoki!" Atomu exclaimed.

Dachii narrowed his eyes at them, rubbing his chin. "Really? That actually makes a lot of sense, now that I think about it. So she's like, your trainer?"

Atomu's face turned red. "Was."

"He's too weak, so he quit," Aoki interjected. "If he didn't, he'd know that raw food can only buy him so much time before I inevitably find him again."

Atomu rounded to face her. "Could you leave? This was supposed to be a conversation between me and Dachii."

She pointed at Tomoko. "He's here."

"Well, Tomoko is harmless, so he can listen in. You, on the other hand, you're more…wolf to his sheep."

Aoki stabbed her blade into the ground, her eyes turning red. "SPEAK, child. I'm not going anywhere."

Atomu gulped before steadying himself. "Come on, do you have to make a scene right now?"

Dachii nudged Tomoko with his elbow. "You see this too, right?"

"Yep!" he replied. "Haha!"

After a few more minutes of back and forth, Atomu finally relented. "Fine. All of you, follow me. We can't speak about this in the open."

Aoki picked up her katana, nodding. "Good child. Let's go."

As they secretly dipped off, Marachii and the others, who were still looking at the lions, finally noticed that Dachii wasn't with them.

"Hey, am I overreacting or did my brother just disappear?" Marachii asked.

The girls immediately stopped what they were doing, and they couldn't see any trace of Dachii.

"He's GONE?" Nishiyama exclaimed.

"Did the animals scare him off?" Mina questioned.

Marachii looked all around the block. "I should have expected this. Dachii can never stay in one spot."

"Well, let's go find him!" Saori insisted. "Dachii must be feeling so lonely right now!"

"Let's split up!" Mina suggested. "Me and the little girl can cover the left. Marachii and Nishiyama, you can cover the right!"

Everyone went to scout their assigned areas, and while walking past a horse exhibit, Marachii heard a whisper calling to him.

"Marachii…psst…Marachii!"

Marachii whipped his head around, trying to pinpoint the location of the voice. "Hello?"

"Over here…!"

Nishiyama noticed Marachii acting strange, and she walked over. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Shhh!" Marachii hissed. "There's someone calling my name!"

"Boy, no one's calling your—-"

Just then, a pair of arms grabbed both Nishiyama and Marachii, pulling them inside an abandoned corner store.

"Ow!" Marachii cried out.

"Hey!" Nishiyama added.

"Sorry," Dachii said, an awkward look on his face. "I saw you guys wandering aimlessly out there, looking for me, so I decided to invite you to our secret club!"

"Secret club?" Marachii asked.

Dachii motioned towards the back, where Atomu, Aoki, and Tomoko were sitting on an empty floor.

"What's the secret?" Nishiyama asked.

"Atomu says he's got something to share," Dachii replied. "He forced us into this secret meeting spot since apparently the 'public' can't know."

Dachii walked over to the others, and Nishiyama and Marachii did the same.

"I see you've brought more people," Atomu remarked. "Now instead of this being a one-on-one conversation, it's an entire gossiping ring."

Dachii gave an awkward shrug and he and the others sat down. Once they did, Aoki prodded Atomu with her elbow. "Now, tell us what you want."

"Do not rush me, old lady."

"OLD?"

"That's what I said, did I not?"

"So you think you're all big and grown up now that you're seventeen? Should I teach you another lesson?"

"Ahem," Marachii whispered. "Do they…have a history?"

"Something like that," Dachii answered. "We might just be here all day."

Nishiyama clapped her hands together loudly. "EXCUSE ME? HELLO? Can you guys STOP ARGUING AND GET TO THE POINT SO WE CAN GO BACK TO PETTING ANIMALS? NO ONE CARES ABOUT YOUR BAD BREAKUP!"

Both of them immediately stopped, embarrassed.

"Of course…," Atomu stammered. "But it's not like that…she's just a teacher. That's and all."

"Hmph," Aoki scoffed.

Atomu pulled out his watch and pulled up a holographic video feed. "This is what I wanted you all to see. There was an incident last night, one that's been swept under the rug a bit. Take a look."

On the feed, a cloaked figure walked up to the gates of Voltiana, and once he was close to the guards, a large explosion could be seen before the feed cut out. Everyone inside the room gasped.

"Such power, who IS THAT?" Nishiyama gasped.

"Trouble," Atomu acknowledged. "The entire front gate had extensive damage. It's a miracle they were able to cover it up. And that's not all."

Atomu pulled up another camera feed, which focused on the front gate. The figure could be seen walking through the empty streets, slowly and deliberately.

"Oh crap," Dachii realized. "He's inside…"

Once the figure looked at the camera, he quickly moved, and in an instant, it cut out. Atomu turned his watch off. "There you have it. I only just found out about this today, through a few royal guards of mine."

The room went quiet, and Aoki eventually gripped her blade.

"I didn't know it would happen so fast…I can't believe this…he was right, he was actually right…!"

"What do you mean?" Atomu asked.

Aoki steadied herself. "That Order member we fought, Ionix. Before his defeat, he left a message, a warning: 'The Elites will bring you down.'"

"Elites?" Atomu wondered. "Who are they?"

"Ionix told me the same thing!" Dachii announced. "He told me if I encounter them, they'll easily capture me without fail!"

"You spoke with him too?" Marachii asked.

Dachii nodded. "And, I had a vision of Dad…he was warning me about them."

"DAD?" Marachii blurted out, shocked. "What did he say?"

"Just…advice."

Nishiyama stood up. "Shouldn't we tell General Morino? We need to tell someone! If they've infiltrated our home again, who knows what chaos they'll cause!"

"Wait," Aoki stated, firmly. "We should investigate this beforehand. We don't want to risk an all-out battle with enemies of this caliber, believe me."

"Investigate?" Atomu said. "When have you been known to ever INVESTIGATE? Destroying our gate and killing our men is an act of war, Aoki."

"I know that, Atomu!" Aoki shot back. "But as much as I hate it, this method will cause less casualties. No one goes looking for a fight, got it?"

It was quiet for a moment, but everyone nodded.

"Sounds good to me!" Dachii said. "The less fighting I do, the better."

"But they're looking for Dachii, how do we avoid them?" Marachii asked.

Aoki put up her blade. "Simple. Just act natural. This is OUR home, not theirs."

With that, she quietly slipped out of the store. Atomu got up as well. "As much as I want to deny it, she has a point. The Asuka Festival already had too many losses, and those opponents were child's play compared to what awaits us. We'll have to navigate carefully."

"So we keep our lips shut until we find him?" Nishiyama asked.

"Not exactly," Atomu replied. "There's one thing she's wrong about. We're going to inform our leader. Come, let us find General Morino."

Meanwhile, inside of the S-1 Mansion…

Luca yawned and stretched on the couch as royal guards finished cleaning out the Mansion.

"That should be everything," a guard said. "All the damage from the Princess and Vice-General has been repaired."

Luca popped some beef jerky into his mouth. "Awesome. There, Akari left you guys some coins."

He pointed to the kitchen counter, where a bag full of coins was sitting.

"Tell her we give our thanks," a guard said. "We shall be off now."

They collected the bag and ushered out the front door. After a few steps, however, Luca heard a powerful explosion…

BOOM.

…and the sounds of screams.

"AHHHHH!"

He got up, axes at the ready, and he opened the door. As soon as he did, a powerful blast hit him, destroying the entire front of the mansion and sending Luca flying across the house.

BOOM.

A cloaked young man stepped inside the Mansion, looking around before laughing.

"Not here…so the party's begun."

—-