“What the...” Koki muttered. The small earthquake had apparently shaken them for a few minutes. “I didn’t know there would be an earthquake coming.”

Kame frowned a bit, pushing the curtain a bit to look outside. Something inside him was churning, and he couldn’t tell exactly why. “Either way, we have to find whoever occupant of this house. I somehow have a bad feeling about this.”

“What should we do now?” Koki asked.

Kame took another glance outside before turning back to his teammates. “You said there’s evidence that they left things halfway in the house. I bet there’s something happening outside. Let’s search for them.”

Koki nodded in agreement. “Let’s separate into two teams. Contact the other team if we found something.”

“No,” Kame disagreed. “I’d agree to separate if Ueda is here but in this case, I don’t trust Taguchi to lead that much.”

“Hey!” Taguchi snapped, whining in the process. “What do you mean by that?”

“In any ways, let’s just go and search for the evidence. Let’s try asking around if they saw anyone like Ueda,” Kame said, ignoring Taguchi’s complaint.

They started to walk out and down the street, occasionally asking passersby if they ever saw a copper haired guy of 1.7m in height around there. They didn’t get a clue at first, until they found a store at the end of the road and decided to ask.

“Oh, I saw him!” the store keeper exclaimed. “I always give him some sashimi and free candies, since he really loves sweets. He is such a cute childish little boy.”

Kame choked at that. “What?”

Koki blinked. “Are we talking about the same guy here?”

“Eh? What’s wrong?” the store keeper asked in confusion.

"Everything is wrong," Koki exclaimed. "Why is he even enjoying sashimi and sweets here?"

“Cute and childish?” Maru and Taguchi choired, tilting their head aside.

“Ano, do you know where he had gone to?” Maru asked in concern.

“Oh, I saw him running towards the beach. But he doesn’t have his copper hair anymore. He was bald, and he doesn’t seem alright. He was crying all along and didn’t even greet me,” the store keeper said, tapping his chin with his index finger.

“Something is definitely wrong,” Kame said, bowing and thanking the store keeper before excusing themselves. “It felt as if it wasn’t Ueda. But the way he described Ueda’s physical appearance is so concise, I wonder if it was someone else.”

“But he was bald,” Koki said. “That kind of explained his hair on the bathroom floor.”

“But Uepi really loves sweets and sashimi. I think that really was him,” Taguchi voiced his opinion.

“But what was with the cute and childish and crying things that uncle told us?” Kame argued.

“No, that is definitely Ueda,” Maru interrupted. “I might be the only one who knew this but, the past Ueda wasn’t as cold as he is when he joined us.”

“What?”

“Remember I told you that Ueda is someone who stand up to what he believes is right? Well, he killed his parents himself for that sake,” Maru paused when he heard his teammates gasped. “It was that night, when his parents turned into Liminals, and went berserk; he actually fought to prevent some deaths. Apparently he had to kill his parents to save the people. That was the last time I saw him crying. I never even once see him cry since then.”

“What...” Kame said, half whispering. “Let me get to straight. Are you telling me his parents are Liminals?”

Maru had to take a long breath before nodding. “Yeah. That was the last time I saw him crying, and also the time he stopped smiling. He joined us at that time, that’s why you guys didn’t really see that side of him.”

Kame sighed. “Then something is even wrong. Why did he left without telling us, not even contacting us if he actually is alive, and even worse, acted like he was long ago here in Hokkaido when he never even once did that while he was with us?” There was a long silence between them; all drowned in their own thoughts and possibilities. But neither of them could find the answer.

“I haven’t told you guys about this but, I actually had visited Takizawa’s house here years ago,” Maru admitted. “It was before I started this team. But no one was home. In fact, there was no sign of living. Coming here is like a real gamble. I find it a bit fishy that suddenly someone is staying there now. I’m starting to think it’s not Takizawa.”

“Whatever it is, let’s check out the beach first. Let’s hope we find some clue,” Kame suggested.

*****

“Ladies and gentlemen, we have just been cleared to land at the Shin-Chitose Airport, Hokkaido. Please make sure your seat belt is securely fastened. The flight attendants are currently passing around the cabin to make a final compliance check and pick up any remaining cups and glasses. Thank you.”

“Whoah, this is awesome!” Yabu exclaimed, looking out the glass window of the plane. “We really arrived at Hokkaido!”

“Che, you’re behaving like someone who had just came out from a cave,” Jin scolded. He saw Jun chuckling at his side.

“But it’s my first time taking a flight, and everything is just so small!” Yabu said, still sounding excited. “It’s just so awesome, and that building in the middle of the ocean looks so cool! Hokkaido is a very nice place!”

Jin and Jun frowned. “What?” they peeked through the window at Yabu’s side curiously. “What building?”

It was the moment their flight was landing; they saw a huge building floating on the sea. Built up into a huge five angle star shape with a circle connecting each angle, it looked like a wall from the sky. At each angle of the stars stood small towers, and there was a main building at the middle of the star.

“What the hell is that?” Jin gasped.

“A pentagram,” Jun answered.

Jin glared. “I know that shape is called pentagram, I mean I never knew that building existed before.”

"How would I know," Jun sat back, fastening his own seat belt. “Let’s check it out later,” he suggested. And Jin agreed. It looked kind of suspicious to him. Why must it be that shape of all? And the building kind of looked a bit... old. It didn’t look like newly built, yet they never heard of the existence either.

*****

“Holy crap,” Koki gasped, slowing down his pace as they reached the beach. “Since when do they have that?”

Maru had to stare at the building far in the middle of the ocean from the beach before turning to Kame. “You know what that is?”

“To be honest, no,” Kame answered. “I never heard Hokkaido had such building. What kind of tower is that?”

“It looks like the kind of building you can find in a video game,” Taguchi said in awe.

Koki scoffed. “Yeah, thanks. Very informative.”

“I know right,” Taguchi cheered. And Koki’s face dropped. “But we should continue searching for Uepi first.”

“No, actually, why don’t we go there?” Maru suggested.

“What?”

“What do you say, Kame?” Maru turned to his teammate.

Kame pursed his lips for a while before taking out his cell phone. “I’ll get us a helicopter.”

“Eh? Seriously?” Taguchi’s eyes widened.

“Yuichi must have his reasons,” Kame said before making a call.

Maru shrugged as he turned back to face that faraway building. “Not really. I just thought those walls resemble something in China, which aren’t supposed to be here.”

*****

The griffin screeched as he clawed the gnome, tearing away the head from the body. Blood splashed on floor as the golden eyes turned to another prey. He saw Ryo’s phoenix form burnt a few other Liminals around him. Hundred of Liminal pearls of all colors had splattered on the floor, showing the amount of Liminals they killed. They just didn’t bother to pick them all. There was suddenly an arachne jumping towards him, so Yamapi quickly jumped behind it in a flash. The arachne was about reach him, yet he suddenly disappeared in a second, and the next second, a claw stabbed through its body from behind. The arachne looked down to the claw penetrating its body before Yamapi withdrew his claw and let the arachne fell down lifeless, along with its pearl.

Yamapi was about to look back when he felt his shoulder being grabbed. He jumped again in the speed of flash to avoid the attack.

“Whoah, Pi, relax! It’s just me!” Ryo had to shout before Yamapi would do anything. Yamapi stopped halfway behind Ryo, almost ready to kill him.

“Oh gosh, Ryo, don’t scare me!” Yamapi sighed, putting his claw back on the ground. They turned themselves back into human form, looking around at the pearls and dead bodies around them.

“Who are they?” Yamapi asked.

“I have no idea,” Ryo said. “But they didn’t seem to know themselves either. They are like those Liminals who had just turned into one and had no control over themselves.”

“Yeah,” Yamapi walked around. “But the way they fight, they don’t look like the new ones.”

“Looks like this is really the origin of the Liminals?” Ryo thought.

“I guess so?” Yamapi shrugged. “Let’s go,” he walked towards the exit door.

By the time they stepped out from the door, they are under the open sky again. There were four paths lined up in front of them, suspiciously clear and empty. Yamapi looked at Ryo questioningly.

“From what I saw up there, the paths heading right and left are both leading us towards the other edge of the star respectively. The two diverging forward both will lead us to the main building at the center of the star,” Ryo explained as if he knew what Yamapi wanted to know. “We should take either one that will lead us to the building.”

Yamapi nodded. “Let’s go then,” he walked forward as Ryo followed him. Yamapi touched the edge of the wall, peeking down to the sea a few feet below them, gasping. “But really, this looks like the Great Wall. The architecture is just amazing.”

“It amazed me too,” Ryo agreed. “But we should hurry.”

“By hurrying, you mean?”

Ryo grinned, eyes shining in bright red and turned himself back into a phoenix. Yamapi chuckled, getting exactly what Ryo’s point.

“Geez, you’re so impatient,” Yamapi’s eyes shone in golden as he turned back into a griffin himself.

“Well, I can’t wait to unfold everything and turn back into human,” Ryo laughed and flapped his wings. “But don’t run too fast, I can’t catch up with you,” and he flew away.

Yamapi ran, catching up with Ryo’s speed. “Hurry but not too fast? That kind of contradicting yourself.”

“Oh, don’t get cocky just because you can move in the speed of light,” Ryo rolled his eyes, flying along the road. Yamapi just chuckled.


To be continued...