“Are you sure she’s in here, Hii-chan? This is like the fifth outpost we’ve looked through.” A short girl asks her friend who was peeking around a tree.

“Yes, I’m sure, Nako. Dr. Koyama’s been on the run ever since Ahn was arrested. We have to find her before she does any more damage.” When the duo had initially arrived in Japan a few months ago, they visited Hitomi’s parents like they promised. As they observed the situation though, they quickly realized that the entire AKB system had gone into disarray. Apparently, not everyone had known about Dr. Koyama’s involvement with Ahn Joon-young. This has caused a lot of in-fighting between the higher-ups on who was and wasn’t trustworthy. Nako and Hitomi normally wouldn’t care, but the conflict has started to affect their fellow mutants with many of them having to prove their loyalties or be branded as traitors. If they could get Koyama, they’d be able to find out everyone else who was in league with her.

“You also said you were sure when we were in Hyogo and Kyoto. I just think we’ve been drawing too much attention lately breaking into places where she wasn’t at.” Nako says. Usually, the short girl loved picking fights, but recently, she’d started worrying about Hitomi’s rashness. She seemed very intent on finding the runaway doctor.

“Miru-san said she saw Koyama visit NMB’s main base yesterday and we haven’t had contact since. Even if she isn’t here anymore, it wouldn’t hurt to check if there are any leads.” The peach-cheeked girl replies before moving in. Unlike the HKT and AKB bases that were large buildings located in the middle of their respective cities, NMB’s was on the outskirts of Osaka which would be a good place for a fugitive to hide at.

“Huh, no guards…” Nako observes. This was strange given that the security for these places was usually airtight. The duo were even more surprised when they found the door’s lock busted.

“What in the world happened here?” The inside of the base was a mess with windows broken and tables overturned. It looked like a tornado had run through the place.

“It looks like it was raided, but I don’t know how Koyama could’ve done this alone.” Hitomi replies, equally puzzled. In the last few outposts they visited, the only signs of the scientist’s presence they could find were stolen private files. As the duo could ponder more, a sound of movement grabs their attention. Something or someone was under the rubble. Nako quickly runs over and lifts a block of concrete up like it was made of styrofoam to reveal their friend, Shiroma Miru. She was in bad shape, bleeding from the back of her head and bruises on her arms.

“Miru-san, are you okay? What happened?” The peach-cheeked girl asks while trying to shake the older girl to wake her up.

“Flying…energy blasts…too fast…” She mumbles. Before either of them could ask what that meant though, a voice yells out to them.

“Honda Hitomi. Yabuki Nako. Turn around with your hands up!”

“Do you have any idea who you’re dealing wi-, Yasushi-senpai???” Nako was shocked to see the President of AKB himself, Akimoto Yasushi, in front of them, flanked by soldiers with guns aimed right at them.

“Yes, I do actually know who I’m dealing with. We received a distress signal from NMB a couple hours ago, and with your presence being reported from several outposts where secret data was being stolen, we suspected you were behind it. Lo’ and behold, here you two are standing in the middle of rubble.” He says.

“It wasn’t us! We’re being framed!” Hitomi says to no avail as she was quickly shot by what appeared to be a tranquilizer, causing her to collapse on the ground.

“Yah! What’d you do to her?” Nako yells before charging towards the army in front of her. Similar to her girlfriend though, she is also tagged by a tranquilizer. While she managed to get a few punches in, the short girl quickly tired, not being able to fight the drowsiness.

“I’m sorry, Nako, but until proven otherwise, we’re going to have to take you in for questioning.” The old man says as Nako’s eyes finally close.

~~~~

“Ugh…where am I?” Hitomi asks as her eyes flutter open. The last thing she could remember was being at the NMB base, but as she looked around at the glass cell around her, she realized she was definitely not there now. It looked like one of the cells she’d seen in Chuo Ward, and given how she wasn’t even restrained right now, the room had to be inhibiting her abilities.

“Wait, Nako… oh my god, where’s Nako?” The peach-cheeked girl says aloud when she realizes her partner wasn’t by her side.

“I’m afraid your friend is in another cell for questioning.” A familiar voice ends up responding.

“Yui?” Hitomi recognizes the person immediately, Oguri Yui- one of her old friends from before Produce. When trainees were selected to come over to Korea, she wasn’t chosen.

“I’m glad you remember me, Hitomi. I was beginning to think all you cared about was your friends in Korea.” The raven-haired girl says with a detested tone.

“Wait, what? Why would I? Aren’t we friends?”

“Shouldn’t I be the one asking that question? When was the last time you contacted us here?” That query was like a dagger to the peach-cheeked girl, realizing it had been a while since they’d seen each other.

“You must think you’re so high and mighty that you were chosen to be on that so-called elite team. Now, you and your friend attack NMB while we’re all busy trying to hunt down Koyama? Don’t you feel any shame?” Yui continues when the older girl remains silent.

“Yah, that’s not true! I joined that team to help people like us. NMB was already in ruins by the time Nako and I got there.” Hitomi tried to argue but it didn’t sound like she was getting through to her.

“Listen, all you have to do is tell us where the files for project zozi are, and Akimoto-senpai might show leniency. We already know you’ve been visiting other bases where those files were hidden.” With this information, Hitomi became even more confused at the situation.

“Project zozi? Are those the files that Dr. Koyama was after? You think we took them?” The peach-cheeked girl asks in response.

“There’s no record of her being at any of those places, Hii-chan. It’s just been you two snooping around.” Yui says, holding up a tablet with security footage of her and Nako from their previous infiltrations.

“We don’t know who’s in league with Koyama yet, remember? She could’ve easily manipulated the footage or had it deleted. You have to let us help! We’re on the same side.”

“You chose your side months ago. If you’re really not going to talk, I guess we’re going to have to force that information out of Yabuki.” The younger girl says before turning and walking away, ignoring her old friend pounding on the cell doors and calling her name.

~~~~

“I’m telling you the truth! Hii-chan and I heard that Koyama was still running around, so we tried to follow her footsteps. We knew there were missing files, but I have no idea what project zozi is.” A short girl whines to her interrogator.

“And I’m telling you we have video evidence of you two at those bases without the presence of the traitor.” An older woman, Sashihara Rino, replies.

“C’mon Sasshii-sama! You know me. Ask Shige-san or Miru-san. They’ll tell you it wasn’t us.” Nako argues. If she could use her powers right now, that cell door would be broken already, but alas, the diminutive girl realized quickly that she couldn’t use her fists to get out of this one.

“Miru is still in the infirmary from her injuries, so she can’t talk right now. As for Shige, she’s collaborated with you and Sakura recently which would bring too much bias. We can still find Dr. Koyama after, but we have to make sure your stories line up first.” In truth, Rino did suspect this situation was being orchestrated by Koyama, but the higher-ups, some of which were definitely being influenced by the doctor, were already set on pinning the blame on Nako and Hitomi. If she spoke up now, she’d be branded as a traitor too. Given her enhanced intelligence, she could already feel something big coming.

“Can you at least tell me what project zozi is?” Nako asks.

“I only know it by name, Nako. We were just told it was important. Listen, for your own good, just admit to the charges, and your punishment might get reduced. I don’t want you getting hurt.” Rino says. Being an older mutant, she’d seen many people like her lose their lives over much less, and she didn’t want Nako and her friend to face the same fate.

“I’m sorry Sasshii-sama, but we can’t just take the fall for something we didn’t do. I know Koyama had to be behind the attack at NMB, and we have to find her before anyone else gets hurt.”

“I’m afraid there’s nothing more I can do then.” The older woman replies, but before she could leave, a rumble shakes the facility they were in.

“What was that?” Nako wonders as another tremor hits. Japan may have been infamous for their earthquakes, but this felt different. To prove her point, an alarm begins to ring throughout the base accompanied by a repeating announcement.

“Intruder alert. All operatives to the main hall.” At this, Rino gives an apologetic look to the younger girl and starts running towards the noted location.

“Yah, Sasshii-sama! Don’t tell me you’re going to leave me here!” Nako shouts, but she was already gone.

“Great…here’s to hoping the place doesn’t collapse on top of me.” The short girl mumbles after trying to punch her way through the cell walls to no avail.

~~~~

Hitomi was just thinking about what her next move would be when the alarms and alerts snapped her out of her thoughts. It appeared that somebody dangerous was attacking the base. While there was a hope within her that it was their friends looking to save them, she knew it was very unlikely. They came back to Japan alone which meant they also had to deal with problems here on their own.

As the minutes passed by, more guards and mutant operatives would run by her cell, but the rumbling and sounds of explosions didn’t stop. She needed to get out now and find Nako before anything crazy happened.

After a couple moments, the peach-cheeked girl felt a disturbance in the air. It wasn’t the kind of sensation she’d feel when using plants to feel out her surroundings. It was more like that instinctual feeling you get when you sense something is wrong. That’s when a dark shadow surrounded her cell.

“Well, if it isn’t Honda Hitomi. What’d you do to get yourself stuck in there?” A familiar voice whispers before a dark haired woman materializes in front of her.

“Jurina…what are you doing here? Are you behind the attack going on right now?” Hitomi asks back.

“Of course not. I was here to look for clues on Koyama because I owe her a beating. I think I could do you a favor for when you girls saved me last time though.” The older girl says with a playful tone.

“What’s the catch?” Hitomi continues to ask questions, not fully trusting their former enemy.

“You really don’t think I’m going to help from the goodness of my heart?” Jurina says, trying to sound hurt, but the younger girl just gives her a wordless stare.

“Alright, fine. I’ve heard that you’re also looking for Koyama and I want in.” Hitomi wanted to say no, but just thinking about what kind of trouble Nako was in scared her.

“Well, the enemy of my enemy is my friend, I guess. Help me look for Nako after letting me out.” The peach-cheeked girl finally says. Jurina smiles and takes out a card key she had stolen from a guard. One swipe and the door was unlocked.

“Don’t make me regret this.” Hitomi says before starting to run and look for Nako.

A/N: Hello and welcome back to secret files! Sorry that this took a bit, but as i mentioned before, my old laptop is broken so i've had to borrow one. Anyway, as you can see, the next story is going to be centered around Hitomi and Nako. I was originally gonna go with an Annyeongz, but it was Hii-chan's birthday recently, so I was inspired. Don't worry though, the next stories will come eventually.

I'm still unsure how long this story will be, but expect the next chapter by tomorrow or friday because I've written a bunch after this chapter already. Also, hope you guys get the title reference lol. those titles will actually be useful to know down the line, but i digress.

Thank you all for the likes and comments, and I'll see y'all in the next one!