Behind the boxes near the warehouse, Hotaru and Mischa appeared from the thin air. Hotaru let out a deep relieved sigh and turned to Mischa. Because of the darkness, Hotaru didn’t realize that Mischa had a pale face and breathing a bit faster than usual.

“That’s close! Mischa!! Why did you shout?! You almost make us got caught!!” Hotaru berated Mischa who shouted in the middle of the enemy’s base.

Usually, Mischa would apologize or said something to Hotaru. But, right now she was thinking about what she heard from the HQ and think about different things.

Hotaru realized Mischa’s strangeness, she shakes Mischa’s shoulder. Finally, Mischa turned towards Hotaru. She saw Mischa’s blank pale face and asked her.

“What happened? I can’t hear the communication well because you held it away from me at that time, so tell me, Mischa. What happened?! What the HQ told you that made you shout like that?” Hotaru began to think of any bad possibility that made Mischa shouted.

Mischa, with a pale face, lowered her head and said to Hotaru with a stutter. “H-H-Hotaru… N-Naomi was missing from her room.”

Hotaru who heard that was not surprised. Because she understood Naomi’s personality, she just think of a possibility where Naomi walked around the Island because she was bored in her room.

“Maybe Naomi was having dinner right now and went to some restaurant? That possibility is high with Naomi’s personality. Look, she went to a café by herself and imitated Mugetsu to play us this afternoon.” Hotaru tried to reassure Mischa and pulled out her holo phone.

“I will call her to make sure that she’s fine, okay?” Mischa raised up her head and nodded.

Hotaru called Naomi with her holo phone and hoped that Naomi will answer her. Although she said all of that to Mischa, Hotaru herself is worried about Naomi too. Especially when she knew that Naomi was targeted by someone.

“Come on Naomi, answer the call.” Muttered Hotaru unconsciously.

But, even after Hotaru waited for Naomi to answer the call, it was never answered. She tried to call Naomi again but the call was not answered again.

“Mischa… she didn’t answer the call.” Hotaru's face paled as she said to Mischa. Hotaru’s hand which held her holo phone now shaking uncontrollably because she thinks all the bad possibilities that could happen to Naomi.

Mischa now paled more and looked at the warehouse, which was now surrounded by the Esper Association’s team. She began to think of a plan and decided that she would have a better chance to find Naomi if she interrogated the member of the group which targeted Naomi.

Her expression turned serious as she reinforced her body past her limit. She turned to Hotaru and said.

“Hotaru, teleport me right in the middle of that warehouse, preferably right in front of the boss-looking guy. I will end this quickly and find Naomi myself.” Mischa took Hotaru’s gun from her hand and held it in her left hand.

“Mischa!! What are you planning?! Did you want to launch a suicide attack? Look, the team had already surrounded the warehouse! We just need to talk to them and we can ask to leave to find Naomi’s whereabouts!”

“That will take too much time. Teleport me in the middle of that warehouse, I will finish this immediately.”

“Tch! You will not listen to me, huh? Fine! I will do that!” Hotaru put her holo phone in her pocket and held Mischa’s shoulder. “But I will teleport out as soon as I teleported you. I will ask the team to help you!”

Mischa nodded at Hotaru and answered. “No problem. I just need a few seconds to deal with them.”

Hotaru feels chill coming from Mischa when she said that. She felt like a small animal in front of a predator.

‘Mischa, what happened?’ Hotaru couldn’t comprehend what happened to her friend in front of her. She suddenly feels unfamiliar, she gives out a feeling like Mugetsu, although the feeling that Mischa gave out is weaker than Mugetsu.

Hotaru decided to shake off what she felt and said to Mischa. “Don’t do anything reckless.”

“As I said, it will be over in seconds. I was worried about Naomi, I just met her again after a year and she was in danger. As her friend, I want to protect her.”

“Then I will teleport you inside in. 3, 2, 1.” As Hotaru’s counted down to 1, she teleported right in the middle of the warehouse with Mischa. They appeared on top of one of the containers near the location of the brightest source of light in the warehouse.

“I will go outside to tell them now. Take care, Mischa.”

Mischa raised both of her hands to prepare her guns and jumped towards the source of light as she said. “Yeah.”

After Hotaru heard Mischa’s answer, she teleported outside the warehouse to meets the team leader of the reinforcement.

***

Hotaru’s POV

I teleported outside the warehouse after I heard Mischa’s answer. The truth is, I was worried about her going alone to the enemy’s location, but I couldn’t do anything to stop her.

The best way that I could do when I can’t stop her is to get help as fast as possible. After teleported outside the warehouse, I could see the reinforcement team was startled by my appearance. They pointed their gun towards me, but I raised my hand to show that I have no ill intention.

“I am not your enemy! My name is Nobi Hotaru, a PD Officer that asked for reinforcement!!”

After they heard my shout, one man from the reinforcement team stepped forward and said.

“Lower your gun.” He gave out orders to the reinforcement’s team and they lowered their gun. It seems he’s the captain of this team, I approached him and told him about the situation.

“Right now Officer Mischa Belyaeva is trying to arrest the enemies inside. Please send your team to help her right now! Although she’s strong, I was worried about her because her power is not suited to fight armed groups.”

He frowned at me and said. “Didn’t the instruction said to wait until they are identified as an enemy? Why did she attack them?”

Instruction? Who gave the instruction to wait?

“What are you talking about?! They are a group armed with guns!! And we found the box with the Akasa Inc. logo in the attic!! They are weapons smugglers, isn’t that enough to arrest them?!”

I was getting angry at the team’s captain, he said to wait for them to be identified as enemies before we strike them?

“That’s not enough as evidence, we need to make sure that we didn’t attack the wrong group. This is Avos Island, there is no way a group of weapons smugglers goes undetected.”

Oh, I see. He’s a new guy in the Esper Association, that’s why he acted like that. He never felt a real danger in this job.

“Oh, you know what? Screw your team then. I will head inside myself to help her and you could sit here without doing anything. When I managed to identify them as weapons smugglers, I would report to the HQ that the reinforcement’s team was, in fact, had a deal with the weapons smuggler and refused to help us.”

I turned away from him and walked towards the warehouse. I didn’t teleport inside because I wanted to know his reaction, and I get what I wanted.

“Wait!! Fine! We will now help her. All hands on your gun!! Prepare to attack the warehouse!!” He shouted to his team and gave out the order.

The reinforcements, with a trained move, approached the warehouse and were ready to burst in after they hear the order.

“I appreciated it.” I said as I approached the door of the warehouse. I pulled out my knife from my back and held it with my right hand.

The team looked at the captain and he nodded his head.

“GO GO GO!!” With a nod from the captain, the team burst into the warehouse and secured the area.

Strange, there is no noise inside the warehouse. I become worried about Mischa and teleported to the 2nd floor to see what’s going on.

To my surprise, I saw Mischa stood in front of a bloodied bald man. There are a lot of bodies around them, most of them were covered in blood. Without thinking any further, I teleported behind Mischa. She seems to notice me and turned towards me as soon as I teleported.

“As I said, Hotaru. It will be over in seconds.”

There, Mischa stood with no smile on her face. Her expression is cold as she tilted her head slightly.