No one had released our captives yet. The two fighters on the ground were placed next to each other, and the ones Kei had caught gazed at us from the balcony. Judging by their glares and the whispers they exchanged, they were probably cursing us to high heaven. I was sure they’d attack us given the chance. Thank God my friends were smart enough to keep them trussed up.

Daisuke was still tying up our share of the loot to his belt. He muttered under his breath as his fingers struggled to intricately loop the wire. Maya, on the other hand, had already attached hers with a simpler knot and was digging in her pockets for something. The golden key stood out against her purple overalls.

‘We were talking about exchanging maps,’ Cho said, shooting us an inquisitive glance as we stepped within the quasi-circle of our group.

‘Sounds like a great idea.’ Kaede nodded, then looked around. ‘Where’s Rina?’

Cho sighed and shrugged. ‘She said she’s had enough bossing around for one day and left. I told her to meet up at my place tomorrow at seven o’clock.’

‘Oh. Good for her, then.’ Kaede pursed her lips.

‘Uh, here’s the map,’ said Maya, handing out the brown parchment to Kei. Tsubasa and I shuffled over, while Daisuke joined us after giving ours to Kaede.

This time, one point was exactly south, while the others were more south-west and south-east. I mentally plotted in our own spots, wondering if there was a hidden clue somewhere. The task so far had seemed a lot more riddle based than I’d thought. I drew in a breath as I saw something peculiar.

‘Guys, the distance between our south, their south and south-west points, do they look equal to you?’ I traced the lines with a finger.

Daisuke pulled out a ruler and pen, and started measuring. ‘They’re placed two centimetres apart. I think you’re onto something.’

‘It looks like the HQ is in the middle of all the spots as well,’ Kei pointed out.

Daisuke measured the distance, and he was right. All the locations were a little less than six centimetres away from the headquarters. Taking out a large book, Daisuke crouched on the floor, map on the paperback. With a compass— he sure comes prepared— he drew a circle centred on the HQ that intersected with the three dots on the map. Then it was short work to plot the other points in, each two centimetres apart from the other. All of us, even Kaede’s team, crowded around him. Maya held our map closeby to double-check the points, and sure enough, they overlapped. There was no way we’d have figured this out without another map. Was this task also about forming alliances between teams?

Kaede grinned. ‘We can split up and check out all the other locations! Actually, since you’re missing a bronze and we don’t have a silver one, why don’t we collect either of those if we find them? Then we can meet up somewhere and exchange.’

‘Only if they’re still available,’ Maya said, twisting her side braid. ‘Our gold key was already taken, remember?’

‘And so was our bronze and silver, but it’s still worth a try,’ I said, when another idea hit me. If the points on the map themselves hadn’t been random, what if the placement of the metals also followed a pattern? ‘Which were gold, silver and bronze to you?’

Maya showed them. The three points close to each other in the south, one of ours and two of theirs, were gold, silver and bronze going clockwise. Continuing that pattern further, the metals of our north-western dots and their south-eastern one matched up. A mix of pride and excitement made a smile grow across my face. We figured it out!

A few minutes later, after deciding on a rendezvous point just in case and untying our captives, we were off on our separate ways. To my growling belly’s relief, we hit a street food stall first and had a quick meal of roasted sweet potatoes.

A bronze X marked the entrance of the hair salon at the first point we checked out. Moving clockwise, another X greeted us before the doorway of a spa. Then a third X swayed in front of a pet shop. By the time we reached the fourth and last bronze point we hadn’t tried, sparkling stars had filled up the night sky and violet residues of twilight hung over the horizon. I’d never seen so many stars in Japan.

We didn’t have much hope for this location, but the doors of the smithy stood uncovered, the poster with the X still rolled up above. Unfortunately, a giant padlock kept it shut, and there wasn’t an invigilator in sight. I guessed they’d gone home for the night.

Deciding to come back tomorrow at the crack of dawn, we made arrangements to get some dinner and stay at my place. It was safer that way, just in case someone tracked down the informants to their homes to steal the keys.

Tsubasa had to go back to his house and fetch Tayo. He’d learnt from the fiasco at the quest centre and was trying not to bring the feline to crowded places like the amphitheatre. But apparently, the katu preferred to cuddle with Tsubasa at night.

The only thing we could bring ourselves to do once we reached my apartment was to pick a spot and fall asleep.

***

June 7. Fourteen going on fifteen years old. Saishuu Riku.

Kei might have been the temperamental opposite of Ahio, but he was just as enthusiastic at waking us up. He threatened to splash us with water if we didn’t get moving. Now, I didn’t want to mop up my apartment afterwards so I helped him get everyone up. That boy was getting bossier by the day.

‘Stop,’ said Daisuke as we neared the smithy. We’d kept to the rooftops, the chilly morning air raising goosebumps on our skin. ‘I’ve been thinking about this the whole night. It’s odd that all the other bronze keys would be taken, but not this one. How come no one has tried to take it? I feel like we’re walking into a trap.’

‘Makes sense.’ I nodded. ‘They might be using the key as bait to rob us of our other keys.’

‘If it’s another ambush, then the team should be somewhere close by. Let’s try to find them from here.’ Kei said.

We peered over each other’s shoulders and took precarious steps on the sloping gables to survey our surroundings. The smithy was still a couple of blocks away, a sigil of crossed swords hanging over the railing of its second floor. Plumes of smoke rose out of its chimney, and an invigilator lounged on its red brick walls. Hopefully, we were hidden enough behind a large water tank that the other team— if there even was one— didn’t notice us.

‘T-there!’ Tsubasa pointed at a quartet of kids waiting around the corner of an alleyway right below us, which led out of the main street. Anyone stepping in front of the smithy would be in their full view. Right now, they were chatting with each other seemingly bored, but the fighters held knives and swords in their hands.

‘I’ll take them.’ Kei smirked and unsheathed his boomerangs. He threw them straight down in an arc, circling around the kids. The wires looped behind the swordsmen, tripping them. Quick as a whip, Kei flung a few knives at them, each one pinning their clothing onto the wall. He jumped down from the roof, landing with a thump, and began tying up the struggling kids.

After a few moments of checking whether other teams were also involved, the rest of us climbed our way down. The invigilator, a short bald man, smiled at us. He was probably the only one who still needed to monitor his location. With any luck, we’d get the key, and he could be off soon as well.

‘I’ll patrol outside just in case there’s another ambush planned,’ said Kei. ‘You guys go on ahead and get that key.’

We nodded and walked through the door.

A wave of heat burst out, stopping us in our tracks. The furnace at the other end of the room, glowing a brilliant orange in the dim-lit store, emitted it. Wires crisscrossed throughout the place, over the stone benches, the cabinets with half-wrought knives and the anvils. Most of the tools and weapons were arranged in the strangest ways across the room. Some were attached to the wires, others were positioned next to tin cans with string. And right beside the furnace, in a little glass bowl, was the bronze key.

I gulped. A Rube Goldberg Machine. The whole set up was made to ensure a domino effect, one tool moving another until something happened. I ran my eyes over it, trying to figure out what. My stomach swung low as I realized the answer, and gasps came from beside me as my teammates did too.

There were three glass bowls over the furnace, each one on top of the other and connected to a myriad of chisels. The bronze key was on the topmost bowl, and if it fell, it would land in the bowl below it. Then in the bowl below that.

Then into the red hot furnace.

Someone needed to shuffle across the room without touching any of the wires to get the key from the bowl. Someone small enough, flexible enough. We could try sending Tayo, but he wouldn’t be able to reach the bowl. Not to mention, sending an animal that close to the furnace would be irresponsible. Tsubasa and I looked at Daisuke. He was a good fifteen centimetres shorter than me, and twenty less than Tsubasa.

‘I’m not agile enough!’ Daisuke spluttered.

‘Maybe Tsubasa could help you out with his nature whispering,’ I said. Just controlling movements with his life spirit shouldn’t be too hard, no more than placating a katu. At least, that was what the books told me.

‘I- I can d-do that.’ Tsubasa nodded.

Daisuke glanced between us with wide eyes, then sighed. ‘Fine.’

He gingerly stepped into the rigged zone. Daisuke was right. Unlike Kei, whose footwork was as though he was born to fight, Daisuke’s movements were stiff. He bent awkwardly to avoid the wires, and shakily held his balance between them. Tsubasa had to stop him several times, freezing a hand or leg in motion before it touched a wire.

But even Tsubasa can’t work miracles.

Not five steps later, Daisuke pushed one with his fingertips. The whole place whirred to life, a hammer pounding on a can, blocks of steel pushing a pair of tongs. All of it ended with the key falling into the second bowl.

Daisuke had another fifteen steps left to reach the bowl. I doubted he could get that far without pulling any more wires.

We needed another plan.

I went over all the tools and weapons, their connections to each other and how they set off the domino effect. The task was riddle based so far, and there must be a chink in the system we could exploit. Maybe if we took out one of the tools, the chain reaction wouldn’t work anymore.

I frowned as I could find nothing to disrupt. For every line of the domino, there was another one connected to a different tool. I should be good at this! For the past couple of years, I’d been interested in engineering and robotics. I’d made a few of these machines in my spare time, not that most of them had worked. Yet no matter how many times I went over the system, there wasn’t a single way I could find to disrupt it without setting it off from another angle.

Daisuke snagged another wire, and the key tumbled into the last bowl.

Think! Last time, the riddle had been deceptively simple. What was deceptively simple about this? I facepalmed when I figured it out.

We didn’t have to disrupt the system at all, but just the bowls. If we tipped it to the side instead of forward, the key would just fall safely to the floor.

‘Stop!’ I called out. Daisuke froze, and Tsubasa glanced at me with raised eyebrows. ‘I’ve got an idea, but I need Kei for it.’

Ushering a bored Kei in, I explained the plan. Naturally, he was reluctant to throw his boomerang, but a small knife would do. I held my breath as he threw it just onto the side of the bowl. Please work! The knife flew straight into the fiery pit, but the bowl tipped to the side and the key clinked onto the stone floor.

Daisuke walked forward, setting off chain reactions every which way, and grabbed the bronze key.