Chapter 73: Chapter 72: Takeshi in Big Trouble.
Takeshi arrived at the school in eleven minutes.
He hadn’t run the entire way, but almost. He had sent Merwyn a message confirming he was on his way and hadn’t received a reply, which he didn’t know whether to take as good or bad.
The building was closed at that hour, but the side door of the student council wing had a light on inside. Takeshi entered through there.
Merwyn was standing by the window with her phone in hand. Aoi was sitting in one of the chairs. Nyx was leaning against the inner doorway with her arms crossed.
All three looked at him when he entered.
"You got here fast."
Merwyn said.
"What exactly happened!?"
Merwyn lowered her phone.
"The shrine priest called me forty minutes ago to let me know Ophélia never arrived. He waited half an hour before notifying me..."
She paused briefly.
"It’s not like her to be late or change her route without saying anything."
"Did you try contacting her directly?"
"Ophélia’s phone isn’t responding."
Takeshi processed that. Ophélia had left the school twenty minutes before Aoi informed him. More than enough time for someone to intercept her on the way.
’The route between the school and the shrine. The exact same place where she was attacked in another timeline.’
[I TOLD YOU. I TOLD YOU SOMETHING WAS WRONG]
[the route to the shrine was always the vulnerable point]
[takeshi with the face of "I should’ve gone with her"]
"How many people know about this?"
Takeshi asked.
"The people in this room and the priest."
Merwyn replied.
"I want it to stay that way."
Aoi stood up from the chair.
"Do we have any clue who has her?"
"Not yet."
Merwyn looked at her phone.
"I’m waiting for information."
Nyx pushed herself off the doorframe.
"Can we track Ophélia’s phone?"
"It’s either turned off or destroyed, since there’s no signal."
"Any witnesses along the route?"
"No one has reported anything yet."
The room fell silent for a moment. Takeshi checked his stats without anyone noticing.
[Life: 100%]
[Sanity: 78%]
[Points: 7]
’This can’t end in a reset. I need to get her out of wherever she is.’
[only seven points. takeshi can’t afford mistakes]
[the question is who has her. the assassins working with sable?]
[that makes sense. sable failed several times. they changed strategies]
[kidnapping her is more complicated than killing her. why would they do it?]
[merwyn is waiting for a call]
Merwyn’s phone vibrated.
Everyone in the room looked at her.
Merwyn read the message silently. Her expression didn’t change, but the way she held her phone did.
"I know where she is."
She said.
"Where?"
Aoi asked.
"There’s a temple on the outskirts of the city. It hasn’t had any official public activity in decades."
Merwyn put her phone away.
"According to my informants, the higher-ups of that temple are holding her captive."
"What kind of temple?"
Nyx asked.
"The kind that hasn’t appeared in public records for fifteen years."
Merwyn looked at the three of them.
"Which means they have resources, organization, and very specific reasons for wanting Ophélia."
Takeshi thought about Sable. If she belonged to that temple, the level of what they were facing was considerably higher than anything he had dealt with so far.
"We need to go now."
Aoi said.
Merwyn nodded.
"I have a car waiting outside."
[MERWYN HAS A CAR WAITING. she’s always three steps ahead]
["the kind that hasn’t appeared in public records for fifteen years" this is serious]
[an organization with real resources. not random attackers]
[and sable was hired by them?]
[takeshi connecting the dots in silence]
The car was black and had no visible markings. The driver didn’t speak during the entire trip. Neither did Merwyn. Aoi remained silent. Nyx stared out the window with narrowed eyes.
Takeshi counted the travel time: forty-three minutes from the moment they left the school.
The temple appeared when the car turned onto an unpaved road surrounded by tall trees. It was a two-story dark stone building with an outer wall that had to be at least ten feet high, no visible lights from outside, and no sound.
The car stopped a hundred meters from the main entrance.
Merwyn turned around from the front seat.
"I’m staying here to coordinate. If you’re not out in forty minutes, I’ll call in more people."
"How many are inside?"
Aoi asked.
"My informants counted at least eight. Probably more inside the building."
"Armed?"
"Almost certainly."
Aoi nodded.
"Alright."
They got out of the car. Merwyn said nothing else.
[eight confirmed]
[but aoi with eclipse is worth several]
[and nyx isn’t the type to stay behind]
[takeshi being the most vulnerable member of the group as always]
They walked the hundred meters to the entrance in silence. Aoi was in front. Nyx to her left. Takeshi behind them.
The gate in the outer wall was reinforced wood with metal fittings. It was closed, but not locked from the inside. Aoi pushed it carefully and opened it enough to see into the inner courtyard.
Empty at first glance.
They entered.
The courtyard was wide and barren. The main building stood about thirty meters from the gate. There were two visible entrances: a central one and a side entrance at the far right.
Takeshi was evaluating which route to take when he heard a voice.
"I knew someone would come."
The three of them stopped.
Sable stood beside the right wall of the courtyard. She was wearing dark clothes instead of her uniform, her hands at her sides, glasses on, and a completely expressionless face.
Takeshi looked at her, and Sable looked at him.
Something in her face changed when she recognized him. It wasn’t a major change. It was a fraction of a second where the blank expression broke before settling back into place.
"You."
She said.
[SABLE IS HERE]
[that "you" didn’t sound friendly]
[she wasn’t expecting takeshi to be one of the intruders]
[her face changed for a second. that’s a lot for sable]
[this is about to get awkward in a very specific way]
"Sable."
Takeshi replied.
She didn’t answer immediately. She stared at him for a moment through narrowed eyes. Then she looked at Aoi and Nyx before looking back at Takeshi.
"I thought you were Ophélia’s friend."
Her voice was flat, but there was something underneath it that wasn’t exactly flat.
"Someone who knew her from school."
"I am."
"And you’re also someone who walks into a guarded temple with two fighters?"
She paused.
"The date? What you told me? Was all of that just to get information out of my clan?"
The courtyard fell silent.
Takeshi didn’t answer immediately because he didn’t have an answer that could possibly work in this context.
He felt Aoi turn her head toward him, and then he felt Nyx.
The two pairs of eyes came from different angles, but with the exact same intensity.
[AOI AND NYX HEARD EVERYTHING]
[takeshi can’t answer without confirming or denying it and either option is bad]
[aoi and nyx making unhappy faces in three two one]
[there it is. they’re already staring at him]
He didn’t need to see their full expressions to know what they meant. Aoi’s jaw was slightly clenched, and Nyx’s eyes were fixed on him.
"Sable."
Takeshi said, because it was the only thing he could control right now.
"Don’t use that tone with me."
She replied.
"Answer the question."
"Right now isn’t the time."
"For me it is."
Sable moved.
She was fast and crossed the distance between them in less than two seconds, a dagger in her right hand that hadn’t been visible a moment earlier.
She never reached Takeshi.
Eclipse appeared between them with the clean ring of metal.
Aoi had summoned the sword and blocked the attack in the same motion, without moving her feet.
Sable stepped back. She looked at the sword and then at Aoi.
"He’s mine."
Aoi said.
[aoi protecting takeshi while she’s mad at him. that says a lot]
[sable vs aoi. that’s a completely different category of problem]
[and takeshi stuck in the middle of everything unable to say anything useful]
Sable and Aoi stared at each other for a moment. Neither moved.
Aoi turned her head toward Takeshi without taking her eyes off Sable.
"You two go inside."
Nyx was already moving toward the side entrance.
Takeshi took a step in the same direction.
"Takeshi."
It was Aoi’s voice. Takeshi stopped.
"After this..."
Aoi said, still without looking at him.
"We’re going to talk about what she said."
It wasn’t a question.
"Alright."
Takeshi replied.
He followed Nyx toward the side entrance.
["we’re going to talk about what she said" AOI FORGETS NOTHING]
["alright" takeshi accepting his fate]
[first rescue ophélia. then face aoi. that’s the order]
[and nyx heard everything too. nyx is going to want a conversation as well]
[takeshi has to rescue himself after rescuing ophélia hahaha]
The side entrance had no visible guard. Nyx opened it carefully and they went inside.
The interior of the temple was a long hallway lit dimly by lamps mounted on the walls, cold and immediately silent. The floor was smooth stone.
Takeshi walked beside Nyx in silence for several steps.
"After this, you and I are talking too."
Nyx said without looking at him.
"I know."
"Good."
She added nothing else. She kept walking with her usual posture, eyes scanning the corridor ahead.
Takeshi followed her.
Ophélia was somewhere inside that building.
["after this, you and I are talking too" NYX TOO]
[takeshi has a conversation with aoi and a conversation with nyx waiting for him when he gets out]
[and probably ophélia too once she finds out everything]
[he went in to rescue ophélia and he’s going to come out needing to rescue himself]
[the real final boss wasn’t inside the temple. it was waiting outside with eclipse]
