Dachii opened his eyes, coughing. Toru stood over him, an unreadable look on his face. "Why is it that I find you here? Far away from all of your comrades?"
Toru pointed to his chest. "With a hole in your chest, nonetheless."
Dachii's chest began to heal. "There…was a girl…she attacked me…I think she's part of the Order…"
A realization flashed in Toru's mind. "I see. In that regard, it appears I have to take more…precautions, from here on out. The enemy is varied, and it's unclear how deep their presence has infiltrated this country."
Dachii got up. "She didn't try to take me, though…she just told me to tell you…stay out of the way…"
"Sending a message," Toru mused. "So my theory was correct. They need their Master to act. Come with me, Dachii. We will return to the school."
Before they left, Toru whacked Dachii upside the head. "That was for losing that fight. Pathetic!"
"Sorry."
Inside Silver Oak High…
Mihina was visibly worried as she paced down the hallways, calling Dachii's name. "Dachii? Dachii! Dachii, where are you?"
Haruta had to jog to keep up with her. "Slow down, Mihina! Maybe he left to handle something?"
"But why would he leave without telling us? And didn't you see him back there, it almost sounded like he was concerned!"
"Well, we've combed these halls four times now. At least try a different floor?" Haruta suggested.
"Right, good idea!" Mihina agreed, turning towards the stairs.
She and Haruta prepared to walk up them, only to find Okuda walking down the stairs with Ms. Michiko, a bag in his hands. "Thanks for helping me open my locker, Miss! Greatly appreciated!"
"It was unlocked," she pointed out. "All you had to do was twist the knob."
"Well, I guess I didn't notice," Okuda replied.
She shook her head. "Okuda, sometimes you can be a handful! Let's get you home now, shall we?"
"Yeah—-!"
He reached the end of the stairs, where Mihina was glaring at him. "Oh! Babe! What's up?"
"Don't call me that," Mihina insisted.
"Here you go again," Okuda sighed. "Acting all out of character."
He tried to stroke her face, but she batted his hand away. "Don't touch me!"
The teacher stepped back. "Excuse me, is something wrong? I thought you two were dating! Erm, not that it's my business!"
Mihina turned her head away. "We're not. I was just leaving."
She tried to turn away but Okuda grabbed her arm. "Come on, can't we at least talk for a moment?"
"No!"
Haruta pulled Mihina out of his grip. "Go away! We're busy looking for Dachii! Unless you had something to do with it?"
"Huh?" Okuda questioned. "I thought that kid was with you two!"
"Well, he's NOT anymore," Haruta stated. "So if you'll excuse us, we have to go find him."
"Dachii?" Ms. Michiko remarked. "Dachii's returned?"
"It's…a long story, ma'am," Mihina explained. "We'll explain it later."
She and Haruta left Okuda, who sighed and ran his hand through his hair. "She'll come around. She always does."
"May I ask what you have done to alienate her so?" Ms. Michiko asked. "Mihina is a sweet girl, she is never angry! Especially to this extent!"
"We had a little situation," Okuda replied. "She…kind of caught me doing something, and she's immediately been cold to me ever since. Now she's gawking about how she misses her old friends, ignoring my calls and texts, and as soon as Dachii came back in town she's been WAY happier."
Okuda laughed. "Not like I'm jealous of the boy! He doesn't even know what's going on, nor does he seem to care!"
"My goodness, Okuda!" Ms. Michiko gasped. "What did you do? She's usually very forgiving…"
"It's…complicated."
"Well, whatever you did, you should apologize," Ms. Michiko suggested. "And maybe you should help her look for Dachii! That could mend your relationship!"
"Ya think?"
The teacher nodded.
"Right, I'll…give that a shot."
He left to look for Mihina, while Ms. Michiko was left to her thoughts. "Dachii…I wonder how he's doing?"
Meanwhile, outside…
"Ow."
Toru dropped Dachii in front of the school, facedown on the ground. "Now we wait for your teammates. They have five minutes before I teach them a lesson in courtesy. I don't like to wait."
Dachii got up.
Mihina burst through the front doors, immediately running over to Dachii. "Dachii! You had me worried!"
She immediately smacked him. "Don't do that again!"
"Oh. Sorry…"
Before she could utter another word, she noticed Toru standing next to Dachii, his arms folded. "You. Did you kidnap him?"
"Child, please. If I wanted to kidnap him, you wouldn't ever hear from him again," Toru scoffed. "Cease your naive accusations."
"Naive? What do you think I am, a child?"
Haruta wrapped her arm around Mihina. "Bestie, calm down…"
"I'm calm," she clarified. "Now what do you want with him?"
Toru unfolded his arms, stepping closer to her. "Important things must be done. Important things your puny human mind cannot hope to understand. Do not overstep your boundaries, young lady."
Mihina and Haruta gave him a look that was both confusion and annoyance. Just then, Marachii's car rolled up, with Marachii rolling the window down. "We got the stuff!"
"Seems that's our cue," Toru said.
Marachii noticed Mihina and Haruta. "Hey, you two! Nice to see you again!"
"Marachii…" Mihina questioned. "When did you get a car?"
"He is the car—!" Saori blurted out, before Akari covered her mouth.
"I got it a few weeks ago!" Marachii lied. "It was on sale, so we managed to afford it! Now I've gotta pick up Dachii and his…boss, so we'll see you tomorrow, okay?"
"Okay…" she replied, skeptical.
Mihina turned and gave Dachii a hug. "If you want, you and Marachii can visit my house tomorrow. My parents wanted to welcome you back personally."
"Sure…"
Just as she and Haruta waved him bye, Toru grabbed Dachii and jumped on top of the car, which drove away.
"That man is weird," Haruta said.
"Yeah," Mihina agreed. "I hope he's not corrupting my friends. I think maybe we should keep an eye on them, just to be safe?"
Haruta nodded.
Okuda burst out of the door. "Mihina, I'm here to help—-!"
He noticed her standing there, giving him a look of disgust.
"I already found him, idiot," she clarified. "I don't need your help."
She and Haruta walked away, leaving Okuda perplexed. As Okuda tried to follow her, he noticed two mysterious figures talking amongst themselves in a car and got closer to listen in.
"Fool. Our orders are clearly to find the Armor. The other task can wait!"
"But why? The Holder is in the city, Vortessia explained it! If he's this far away from the enemy, why not strike?"
"Because we don't know who he's with. Even if it's just a spy mission, we can't risk losing the Armor and botching our plans. Even if it was a hard fight, they managed to defeat Runea. We're not taking the risk."
"You're just scared."
The first man waved him off. "Vortessia already sent him a warning message. If he's smart he'll take it. Once we get the Armor, we will retrieve Dachii Jones at once. So keep looking!"
"Fine!"
"Dachii?" Okuda wondered. "Why would people be after him? And what's this…Armor?"
As the car started, he quickly left the scene.
Meanwhile…
As Marachii drove around, Hikari began to yawn and stretch in the backseat. "Marachii? Don't you have any place for us to go? We haven't caught a break all day! I need rest!"
"Me too," Noriko agreed. "All this stress is making me tired!"
Marachii thought for a moment. "Nope. No clue."
"What do you mean, no clue?" Akari questioned. "Isn't this your home?"
"Yeah, well," Marachii replied. "We can't go to our old home because we've been evicted from it. Meaning if we set foot in that house we're probably going to jail. And the one before that got blown up, so, yeah."
"Blown up?" Reika repeated. "Dude, do you have enemies here?"
"Next question."
"Don't concern yourself with shelter," Toru interrupted. "I already have a solution."
"You do? Why do I get the feeling I'm not going to like this…" Marachii worried.
"Keep driving," Toru ordered. "I shall point you to the place."
After racing down a few more streets, Toru directed Marachii to a modest two-story home, complete with driveway, garage, and backyard. "What's this?"
"You weaklings demanded a place to rest and recuperate," Toru answered. "So this place is that place."
They all got out of Marachii's car and walked inside. There was a large living room, a kitchen, and even a hallway lined with doors. There were stairs leading up as well.
"Whoa!" Marachii gasped. "Houses like these cost almost a million on the web! How did you BUY this? I thought you guys didn't have human dollars!"
"Buy?" Toru laughed. "Oh. You were serious."
Dachii opened a door to find a closet where a man and his wife were tied up together, mouths taped. Dachii pulled the tape off the man's mouth.
"Boy! Please help me! That crazy man, he…he beat us up and demanded our house! And when we didn't agree, he locked us in here!"
"Not surprising…" Dachii remarked. "Not at all…"
Toru appeared before them quickly. "Fools. I ordered you to hand over the residence until I say otherwise. And it will be so. Now leave."
"But this is our house—-!"
A lance appeared in his hand. "Leave, and do not tell anyone. If you do, I'll have both of your heads on my wall."
They gulped and stumbled out the door, still tied up. Marachii sighed. "That's a long list of crimes you just committed, but I guess since they aren't dead I can call that a win."
"This house looks so different from ours back home," Reika noted. "It's lacking in technology."
Noriko looked around. "Where are the others, sir? Did they get lost? Did they get hurt?"
"On the contrary," Toru replied. "They are in the backyard playing with the…treehouse."
"Treehouse?" Noriko inquired. "What could that be?"
"I wanna see!" Reika exclaimed, opening the back door.
Outside, Yamato and the rest of Squad S-6 were busy chasing each other around in the large treehouse that was high in the accompanying tree. Yamato pushed a kid off, laughing. "Ha! Can't tag me, dweeb!"
"Whoa, is that a literal house in the trees?" Reika gasped. "I thought only dwarves had things like that!"
"Do dwarves live here too?" Akari wondered.
"If they do, we should kill them," Aoki suggested, drawing her blade. "Those little things can be a pain."
"I thought we had a truce with dwarves."
"Don't be stupid, Hikari," Aoki shot down. "They're plotters."
"Have you all never seen a TREEHOUSE before?" Marachii sighed. "Not everything has to appear new or unique to you all, you know?"
Toru slammed his stick on the ground. "Enough play, fools! Come inside. Marachii, bring the equipment your group has located inside. The plan takes priority."
Everyone gathered in the living room, and Marachii pulled out the equipment and outfits. Toru scanned them. "Is this everything required?"
"It's everything a normal pop or idol group would use," Marachii claimed. "So I think it'll work."
Yamato picked up the drums. "What do these do?"
Marachii took a drumstick and beat on it. "Makes noise when you hit it with this stick."
"But that's the same for when you hit anything!"
Yamato took the drumstick and beat the floor, making Marachii shake his head. "Moving on."
He picked up the leather outfits, most of which were female but there was one designed for men. "I think these should fit you guys. You could be some rough rag-tag crew!"
Akari held up a hand. "I don't do rough. That's Aoki's thing."
Aoki attempted to stab Akari, but Toru broke them up, whacking them both in the head. "What are the machines for?"
"This is for shooting fireworks," Marachii explained, holding up a firework launcher. "And this other one is for creating fog. It helps build an atmosphere."
"Acknowledged."
He turned to the group. "Put on the outfits."
"Wait, now?" Noriko moaned. "I thought we would get some rest!"
Toru gave her a look, and she immediately scrambled to get up. "Putting on!"
Aoki held up one of the female ones, a leather jacket, skirt, and boots. "I refuse. I refuse to wear this trash—-!"
Toru whacked her.
"Why do these things have heels?" Akari asked.
"Why do they have a hole in them?" Hikari pointed to the front of a boot.
"They're open-toe boots," Marachii clarified. "Lots of rebellious girls wear them."
Dachii held up his outfit: a leather jacket, black jeans, and black and white sneakers. It even came with a beanie. "Tacky…"
Saori held up hers with a cheer. "These look super cool! Look! It's got zippers!"
After a few minutes, the girls and Dachii switched into their clothes, with Dachii positioned in the middle.
Luca laughed at them. "You can't get any more comedy than this."
He nudged Marachii, who looked away. "Well, I've never seen so much leather in one place before. Except when my dad tried buying a bunch of leather furniture, which went bad."
Toru examined them. "Good. Now for your roles. The incompetent ones should get the easier tasks, while the more competent ones get the harder tasks."
"Maybe Saori, Akari, and Aoki can dance?" Marachii suggested. "And we put Noriko on the drums! Hikari can be the lead singer, Dachii can work the guitar, and Reika can be in charge of the effects! Since she has that Displacement Magic!"
"Yes, yes," Toru acknowledged. "The competent and the incompetent get their adequate roles. Beating a drum should not be too hard for you, Noriko."
"Why do you have to call me out?" she groaned. "There's six others!"
He ignored her. "You have two days to get this right and impress. I suggest you start now."
A soldier yawned and approached Toru. "Sir, can we go to bed now?"
"Don't think just because we are in a new residence that the rules change," Toru spat. "Outside, the rest of you! Two hours of intense training before bed!"
The soldiers groaned. Saori walked up, picking up a microphone. "I wanna sing too!"
"Well, maybe we can both be singers!" Hikari remarked. "That's…a thing they do, right, Marachii?"
"Yeah, a lot of songs by popular groups have multiple vocals," Marachii said. "It's all about the voice."
"My mom said I had a wonderful voice!" Saori remembered.
Hikari patted her on the head.
"Don't we need a name?" Akari pointed out. "Unless we can go anonymous."
Marachii shook his head. "Nope. Need a standout name. Any ideas?"
"How about Ruthless Killers?" Aoki suggested.
"Too dark."
"Servants of Royalty?" Akari offered.
"Too conceited."
"Gentle Flowers?" Hikari proposed.
"Too soft."
"Alpha Girls?" Reika shrugged.
"There's a boy in the group."
Noriko nervously bit her teeth. "Would…Shy Guys work?"
"That's…that's just lame."
Dachii stood up. "Why not…The Raiders…"
A light bulb went off in Marachii's head. "Yeah! That sounds nice! Plus it fits your outfits! The Raiders it is!"
"What an odd name," Akari commented. "But okay."
Saori clapped. "Raiders! Raiders!"
"Now, we should probably get to practicing," Marachii said. "We've got tons of work to do."
—-