Jin frowned, staring at his cell phone incredulously. “What the hell?” he snarled.

“What’s wrong?” Yabu asked. “Got any information?”

Jin grimaced, throwing his phone aside and huffed. “Aside from the fact they are currently in Hokkaido because Tat-chan’s missing? No! They even accused me for being oblivious that Tat-chan’s gone. Oh come one, Tat-chan is like the strongest among us all, nothing bad can happen to him!”

Yabu chuckled, slowly shaking his head at Jin’s complaints. But that supposed to be useless whining apparently caught Jun’s attention.

“Your colleagues are searching for a missing friend at Hokkaido? Why Hokkaido?” Jun asked, squinting his eyes slightly, exposing his curiosity.

“How would I know?” Jin shrugged. “Why are you interested anyway?”

Jun shook his head, leaning back on the couch. “You’re a Keeper, you should know that Takizawa lived in Hokkaido. It’s a famous hideout.”

“Takizawa?” Jin squinted. Now that Jun had mentioned it, Nakamaru did mention about Takizawa through the phone. Could it be that Takizawa is related to why Ueda was missing? Jin stared intently into Jun’s eyes. “What do you know? Spill out!”

*****

Ryo and Yamapi sat on a bench, panting hard as Yamapi laid his back, looking up to the sky. The dawn was fanning the horizon, dancing over the water smoothly, the great expanse of the ocean ahead of them seemingly coated in a beautiful golden glow. The waves were quiet, barely-there shimmers of motion on the horizon, gaining slightly more strength until collapsing gently onto the wet sand, sending a slight spray into the air. Yamapi eased his panting, frowning.

“What’s in your mind?” Ryo’s voice broke the soft sound of nature.

And Yamapi scrunched his face. “Too many things, I couldn’t even list them,” he paused verbally, but his mind kept spinning. “I remember how empty and lonely it was when I become a griffin. It was excruciatingly confusing; I don’t even want to remember how painful it was. When I saw Ueda earlier, I wonder if that was exactly how I looked like when Takki saved me. I wish I could do something for Ueda, just like how Takki made me feel alive again. But I wonder how?”

If Ryo didn’t know better he would have answered something. But he couldn’t search for any solution either. For that moment it seemed as if the world shrunk. Yamapi felt as if he was engulfed in the bright golden sun. Somehow the sun reminded him of Takki and Jin. They were brightness, cheerfulness, support – that was all Yamapi was able to describe about the memories between them. A bright, white light seemed to burst into being behind his eyelids. But then fate decided to play with them, snatching Takki away and turn Yamapi into Jin’s ultimate enemy, their secrets sliding over the other's harshly, and the moment was gone.

“Pi,” Ryo’s voice pulled Yamapi out of the past, his hand tugging Yamapi’s arm slightly as if trying to get his full attention. Yamapi could sense the panic in Ryo’s voice, and he knew by that moment he didn’t like it at all.

“Something is sizzling at the ocean,” Ryo’s voice sounded careful, and fear was creeping inside Yamapi’s blood. They didn’t wait long – they dashed towards the skirt of the ocean, eyes fixing at the figure in the middle of the deep sea, long scaly neck surfacing from the water, head reaching up to the sky wildly.

“The dragon. It’s Ueda,” Ryo’s steps died upon the view. A loud sizzling sound echoed in the sky, and Yamapi knew the dragon before them was no different from the wild one they met before.

“!” Yamapi gritted his teeth. “We’re too late!”

Ryo paced along the beach, eyes fixing on the dragon. It was the moment when Ueda started to spit fire from his mouth, destroying a lighthouse near them that Yamapi ran to the opposite side towards the cape. Ryo’s steps died. He knew they had to do something. He saw Yamapi reaching the lighthouse from far but stopped a few feet away due to the fire enveloping the building. Ryo has no idea how to put off the fire either. Neither of them has any power to control the water. Now they wish they had the merman with them.

Then the dragon sizzled again, loud and echoed all around them. Fire was still visibly breathed out from the gap of the dragon’s teeth. Ryo squinted. If only he had Takki’s pearl with him. Now that he thought about it, the white pearl is still with Ueda. He clicked his tongue.

Eyes shining in bright red, Ryo turned himself into a phoenix, soaring up to the sky. “Damn it! Do we really can’t do anything without Takki?” he cursed to himself. He flew downwards when he realized Ueda was about to spit another amount of fire towards where Yamapi was standing, and Ryo flew slanting to make himself as a shield from the dragon’s attack. The dragon’s fire spread away the moment it crashed behind Ryo’s back. Yamapi crouched down a bit at the heat, guiding himself with his hands as he peeked.

“Ryo!” Yamapi called as loud as he could. “There was something Subaru did before in this similar situation! We should figure that out!”

Ryo wanted to ask, or sit and ponder with Yamapi if that even possible, but he didn’t have time to think when he saw Ueda blew another amount of fire, this time more aggressively that the previous one. Ryo sped forward again, shielding Yamapi from the burst with his own body. He managed to block the fire, but he flinched a bit. The fire this time was so burning that Ryo could feel it burnt himself too. But he was the firebird, how could that even possible?

Ryo purposely flew low almost touching the dragon’s head, gaining Ueda’s full attention as the dragon flailed his head following Ryo’s movement. Ryo could feel his back hurt from the fire. But even if he flew around as if he was planning something, he had no idea what to do. At times like this, Yamapi usually used the white pearl already. What was it again that Yamapi told him just now? What did Subaru do?

“Ryo! Are you okay?” Yamapi yelled back, running further to the end of the cape in the bid of getting closer to the creatures.

The dragon picked that moment to blow another one shot of fire towards Ryo. Ryo widened his eyes, flapping his wings to protect himself from the attack. But he could feel some of his fire feathers burnt. Ryo flew lower, nearly touched the ocean just to reduce a little heat before he flew back up high. For the first time he felt tiring, and in mere seconds he thought he was panting in phoenix form. Ryo stared intently towards the dragon. The green eyes were shining fiercely, as if it was preying on Ryo.

Ryo gulped at the sight. He was the firebird. How in hell did he lose to a dragon in the war of heat? Ryo scrunched his face. No. It wasn’t because the dragon’s fire is stronger. It was only because the phoenix hesitated to burn. It was because he knew behind this dragon was Ueda. Behind this dragon was Jin’s colleague. Behind this dragon, though vaguely implied, was his friend. Ryo closed his eyes at the thought. If only he still has Takki’s pearl. But he didn’t have it. And he knew Ueda was serious about killing him. He knew it already by the amount of heat Ueda had blown up until now. But he also knew Ueda had totally lost control of himself. Ryo felt his mind was a mess.

“But it tasted plain,”

“This is not a ‘thing’. This is a food!”

“He’s gorgeous!”

“But it gives more flavors!”

“It usually makes me feel better,”

“Forgetting everything feels like though,”

The dragon’s sizzling broke through the sky again. And Ryo felt something tightening in his throat, as if he was holding back something very difficult. What would Takki do in situations like this? He took a deep breath. Why did he even bother thinking such question? He is not Takki, he is not a unicorn. Their problem solving can never be the same. He is a phoenix. And he had to solve the problem as a phoenix.

“Ueda,” Ryo whispered, hoping his voice would at least reach the edge of Ueda’s soul. “You’re like a poison in an antidote. I can’t really tell if the moments you brought was a fake bliss; but I was happy. It was the first time I feel alive again. This is like a zero percent chance but if you can ever hear this; thank you.” Ryo’s wings started to spread wider, and Yamapi could visually see his wings getting larger.

“Ryo, wait!” Yamapi almost gasped at the sight. Not only the wings, Yamapi could also feel the heat that came from Ryo’s body was increasing rapidly. It was so damn hot that even though Ryo was yards away from him, he could feel his skin burning. Water splashed rapidly towards him by the pressure of the heat. If Yamapi guessed right, Ryo was going to kill Ueda. “Ryo! No, stop!” Yamapi cried, almost pleadingly.

When Ryo started to fly closer to the dragon, Yamapi unconsciously ran forward. He didn’t care how the flame was fanning his skin, marking some redness on his skin in the process. His eyes became blurry as he watched Ryo enveloping the dragon. There was a huge flame the dragon figure, flaring to the sky energetically, spinning and splashing the water even more by the flame pressure as the fireball got huger. Yamapi found himself jumping forward, eyes shining in bright golden and turned himself into a huge griffin. A loud screech fought over the burning sound, wailing over something that the sleeping world that dawn would never understand.

The flame lasted for at least ten minutes, until Yamapi couldn’t really see any form of dragon inside it. He saw Ryo flew out from the huge flame, and the flame started to die. Yamapi clawed the ground, trying to release whatever difficult feeling building up inside him. He didn’t blame Ryo. He knew Ryo had to. He knew they didn’t have other choices. He would probably do that if he was Ryo too. But he was disappointed of how incapable they were that time. He felt totally pathetic.

By the time the sun decided to show up and shone the earth, the flame had totally died, and the dragon was burnt into ashes. Burnt dusts were floating in the air, falling slowly before disappearing into the ocean before their eyes. Yamapi felt like the ocean looks wider than before. Or maybe because it felt lonelier. He couldn’t really differentiate them. In that split second, he caught a pearl splashing into the ocean. It was very far, and very small too, but was still visible with his eagle’s eyes. Yamapi wished he could have reached for it, and keep it with him. Not just because it was a dragon’s green pearl, but because it belonged to that guy. That silly childish guy he had stayed together with.

Slowly Ryo landed beside Yamapi, turning himself back into human form, patting Yamapi’s shoulder once. Yamapi screeched approvingly, didn’t even bother to turn around. He could hear Ryo’s rapid breathing though, which immediately reminded him of how Ryo had rarely used that much of fire. He wondered how much the amount of energy was consumed for that.

“I’m sorry,” Ryo started, panting softly. But Yamapi shook his head.

“We had to,” Yamapi said in despair. “It had always been our fate.”

Ryo withdrew his hand, watching Yamapi’s claws digging the ground. “He might kill us and other people if we didn’t kill him.”

“I know.”

Ryo sighed. “Let’s get out of here, Pi. Let’s clear our heads so that we can move on.”

“No,” Yamapi disagreed. “We can’t leave Ueda’s pearl here. If someone else found it, it could be very dangerous.”

“What?” Ryo frowned. “But it’s in the middle of the deep ocean. How are we supposed to dive for it?”

“Ryo, dragon is the symbol of the beginning and the ending. It is a precious pearl. If the Keepers find out the dragon is dead, they would definitely go all out for it. It’s going to be the end of us!”

*****

When the cab pulled to a halt in front of Takki’s house, Nakamaru, Kame, Taguchi and Koki stepped out and observed the house. It was pretty modest, nothing so outstanding about it. The compound was well kept, which gave them some clue that the house was occupied. Taguchi was the one who stepped forward and knocked the door.

“Anybody home?” Taguchi yelled. But there was no answer.

“Hello-hello-ello-lo-lo-lo,” Taguchi repeated, purposely making the additional echo sound at the end.

“Shut up!” Koki whacked Taguchi lightly.

“The door’s open,” Kame interrupted before the two could quarrel any further, hand turning down the knob and opening the front door. Koki and Taguchi exchanged glances, before they looked back at Nakamaru.

“Let’s check it out,” Nakamaru went in, followed by his three colleagues. They scattered, heading towards different direction. Nakamaru checked the nearest room from the living room. The door was slightly open, and he pushed the door slightly to reveal a messy study room. Books were littered everywhere, some are left open on the desk and the couch. Carefully he strode forward, picking one up as he scanned the content. It was all about Liminals – the origin, the types, the symbol, the potential, and what lies within. At that moment, Nakamaru was too much in awe to even react. They were brand new information to him, and very useful too. He flipped the book over, getting to the front cover to see the author’s name; Hideaki Takizawa.

“This guy...” Nakamaru whispered to himself, but before he could even say further, he heard Koki calling him from the kitchen. “What?” He rushed to his friend.

“Someone is definitely staying here,” Koki said, motioning to the kitchen counter with half prepared meals. There were chopped onions, carrots, vinegar and opened curry powder pack. At one corner was a bowl of well-cooked rice. Clearly telling them there was someone who stayed there at the moment.

“Could it be that Takizawa guy?” Koki guessed.

“Possible,” Nakamaru replied. “But there seems to be no one home at the moment.”

“Maybe they went outside for a walk or something?” Koki suggested again.

Nakamaru shook his head slowly. “I don’t think so. Who on earth would take a walk after halfway cooking anyway? Don’t we usually finish our cooking first, or at least we go out before we even start cooking?”

“Hey guys!” another voice were calling. Nakamaru looked back.

“That’s Kazu,” Koki said, and they both hurried towards where Kame’s voice came from.

Kame was standing in front of the bathroom door. Taguchi had just arrived too. They noticed a kitchen knife lying on the floor. And Kame motioned them to the bathroom. “Look what I found.”

They approached the bathroom door curiously, peeking in into the what-seemed like a normal bathroom. It was at that moment they saw strands of hair scattered on the wet floor; copper hair. Realization struck upon them, and they knew they had the unspoken understanding of what each of them was thinking. Ueda’s hair.

“No way,” Taguchi gasped. There was slight tone of disbelief woven in his voice.

Kame casted a subtle glance towards his friends, hands folding on his chest firmly as he spoke, “Looks like something is already happening.”


To be continued...