Nighttime falls around Itaea and Shokei and the party are all inside Kichiro's house. A meeting is being held in the living room of the house.

  "Everyone," Shokei gets her party's attention. "Here's what's happening. I know I have told you guys the gems and I have found out the next area to where we can obtain the next one. We need to sail from here to reach to the desert continent, Danevana. My map indicates that the gem is found in a Necropolis area."

  "That means we need to set sail from here to get to our next destination." Tamiko said.

  "Right," Shokei nodded. "And a friend of Kichiro's, who I've met today, told me to go to the town of Egesul to board on a ship that will get us to our destination."

  "Speaking of ships, why not use my ship instead?" Rei pipes up in the conversation. "My ship will get us there faster."

  "True, but we need to travel south in order to get there." Shokei tells her.

  "You can count on my ship Shokei." Rei said, winking at her. "The ship is great in navigating through the seas no matter what it takes."

  "Then it's settled." Shokei said.

  "Wait a minute!" Marie said and asked. "Regarding on her ship, do you think that the ship is still there at Malluraea?"

  "Good point...," Rei replied, ponders about this. "All I hope is that nothing bad happens to the ship. It should be in one piece without any problem."

  "All right," Shokei said to everyone. "We'll rest up before we head back to Malluraea tomorrow."

  The party agrees and then everyone went back to their rooms to go to sleep.

  Later in the evening, Itaea is now quiet at the hour. While the scenery appears to be quiet, two figures are standing on a rooftop, surveying the area. Echrezar and Hazon are checking out the view of Itaea.

  "I'm certain that Bck Death is around this town," Echrezar said. "She must be with that Emissary of Light and the others."

  "Of course, she is." Hazon said, confirming. "She's somewhere in one of these houses. You should know that the Emissary of Light has one of the gems she obtained."

  "I see..." Echrezar said and then has his sights on a tall building. "I have an idea."

  "What's that?" Hazon asked.

  "We will send a message to the Emissary and her allies." Echrezar said. "This way, we should indicate to them that we are...how should I put it, just visiting."

  "Sounds like a pn." Hazon said and asked. "How will you do that?"

  "Don't worry..." Echrezar said, igniting a fire spell in hand. "I have my sights to get the Emissay's attention."

  Meanwhile, Shokei rests peacefully in her bed. She is used to sleeping peacefully by herself, only without Antoinette by her side. Her sleep is disrupted as she hears her door burst open.

  "Shokei!!" Kichiro shouted.

  Shokei quickly wakes up from being disturbed and sees Kichiro standing at the door.

  "What?! What?!" Shokei asked, being rudely disrupted from her sleep.

  "Come quick!" Kichiro said to her. "A fire is bzing in an apartment, just a few blocks from us!"

  "Seriously?!" Shokei asked and immediately gets up from her bed.

  Shokei puts her shoes on and catches up with Kichiro and the others to see a bzing fire.

  At the scene, a crowd watched to see fire going up in fmes at a three-floor house. Most of the victims managed to flee the house for safety. Shokei and her party arrived to where the fire is taking pce. The fire spreads quickly as it bzes through to burn down the house. Two more people managed to escape the fiery bze as they both are covered in sweat and are wearing pajamas.

  "OH NOES!" one of the victims cried out. "My baby!! My baby is trapped inside!!"

  "Noooo!!" the other victim said, preventing her to run back in. "It's too dangerous!! We can't go back in there!!"

  "And leave MY CHILD, MY ONLY ONE CHILD, TO BE BURNED TO DEATH?!" the victim yelled out. "PLEASE!! I BEG ANYONE OF YOU TO RESCUE MY BABY!! SOMEONE PLEASE!!"

  The bzing fire created a giant fireball, and the bze was making its way up to the top. Shokei looks to see that there was not one brave soul that dares to go inside the house to make a daring rescue.

  "Hmmph. I'm going in." Shokei said and she takes off, rushing to the house.

  "Shokei!" Rei called out to her. "Wait!"

  "Are you that crazy?!" Marie shouts out to her. "What if you won't make it out alive?!"

  "I'll be back!" Shokei tells the party.

  "She's insane..." Sadako said with a show of concern. "She should leave it up to the fire brigade at least."

  "Our town's fire brigade should be coming as soon as possible." Kichiro said. "I just hope that they arrive here in time to save Shokei and the child inside that house."

  "Shokei..." Rei said and then shouted at her. "Come back in one piece!"

  Shokei goes through the entrance of the house. To her surroundings, the fire burns up household items and doing destructive damage in its path. Shokei hears the child crying on the top floor and quickly, she runs upstairs to go after the child. Making her way up to the second floor, Shokei checked each room that she enters by kicking down the doors. The bzing fire is spreading fast as Shokei quickly searched for the child in time.

  Not in the bedroom or the bathroom..., Shokei thought. Where is this child anyway?!

  Shokei checked all over the floor and found no trace of the child to be found. The sound of the child is still heard as it is clear to her ears. The sobs are becoming louder along with screams of desperation. Shokei looks down to notice the fire is cutting through the floor, making a gap.

  "Dammit!!" Shokei said. "I need to act now!"

  Shokei can see that the situation is getting worse as the child, as well as her life, is on the line. She gets on foot to the top floor of the house. From there, Shokei hears the child close by. She goes into the room, which is a bedroom. Now she can sense where the child is located. She turns to hear the child hiding in a closet to her left. Shokei was about to head for the closet, but a chip of fire fell, causing her to step back to avoid the fire nding on top of her head. She quickly leaps over the fire to reach the closet. Shokei opens the door and there, she finds the child crying hysterically. The poor infant, which can stand on her two feet, cries in tears on her face. Shokei carefully goes over to the child and welcomes the child by the arms.

  "Hey!" Shokei gets the child's attention. "It's ok! I'm here to save you, it's ok!"

  The child looks at Shokei for a minute, seeing her in her face. Then, the child takes notice of someone behind her and then screamed wildly.

  "Why is she crying like that?" Shokei asked.

  Shokei turns around to see what the child was looking at. Suddenly, she was caught off guard as she felt a strange nerve gas hitting her in the face. The unexpected twist shocked Shokei as soon as she felt the effects from the gas.

  "Ahhhh!!" Shokei shrieked.

  "Panic..." a voice talks to her in the room. "...let fear and misery engulf your thoughts..."

  Shokei shakes off the gas effect, that was mixed with powder, and clears her eyes. Trying to gasp for some air, Shokei sees herself lost in hallucination as the effects from the gaze fazed her thoughts.

  "Oh god..." Shokei said, looking around in her surroundings under a strange hallucination. "Oh...oh no!!"

  Shokei got nervous as in her vision, the fmes are bigger and closer, whereas in a non-hallucination, the fmes are burning regurly and rapidly. Shokei turns to the child and sees the child as a monster, making a deep growl as the child cries.

  "Gahhhh!!" Shokei shrieked.

  Shokei became afraid as she held the child in her arms. Her illusionary vision made her think differently on the child as the weird effect is causing her to be afraid of anything that stands in her way. Seeing that the hallucinogenic is fooling her, Shokei continues her way downstairs. From there, Shokei looks to see that the stairs are way down below and expanded. Shokei takes her time as she moves faster down the stairs while holding on to the bar.

  Shokei is about to head back to the entrance of the house. Now she sees the bzing heat feels like getting near her. Shokei didn't feel the fire touching her, but her mind, blurred by the hallucinogenic power, the fiery situation is making matters worse in an uncomfortable position.

  No, no, no!! Shokei thought, fighting through the curse. Don't think about it. Just be calm and pull out of here!

  Not thinking about the fire around her, Shokei sees the exit on the main floor and goes for it. Suddenly, the ceiling colpsed, and this made Shokei feel trapped inside the house with the child in her arms.

  "Nooooooooo!!" Shokei shrieked out loud. "Dammit!!"

  For Shokei to shout out loud, she could barely hear her allies calling out to her if she was all right. Shokei looks around, hoping to find an alternate way out of the house. Shokei heads off to another direction as she makes her way from the living room to the kitchen. As she desperately finds the way out, Shokei is unaware that the figure that used the strange substance against her is present in an unknown location.

  "...You appeared...lost..." the voice speaks to her.

  "Huh?!" Shokei raises her neck and shouted. "Who...who's there?!"

  "Imagine...how a foolish being chose to go alone without any help at all?" the voice speaks to her.

  Shokei said nothing as she finds her way through the fire to escape to the back door.

  "All alone, you cannot do anything by yourself..." the voice speaks to her in a haunting, chilling voice. "Watching you right now...it pleases me to see you suffer by my will...and you have no chance to overcome your own fears..."

  The figure ughs at Shokei's misery and disappears from the scene.

  Who the hell was that?! No...no, I got to get out of here!!

  Wasting no time, Shokei makes an immediate desperation to get out of the house. The house is already engulfed in fmes and it's about to come crashing down. Shokei finds the door and quickly, she bursts through the door leading to the outside, gripping the child in her hands. Shokei finally can breathe some outside air as she managed to escape. She looks around to see that she is still in her hallucinating state, and it is affecting her concentration. Feeling tired and dizzy, Shokei runs around to the front of the house where everyone is waiting for her.

  "SHOKEI!!" Marie said and cheered for her. "You made it!!"

  "The hell is wrong with you?!" Rei asked. "And...oh snap! She saved that child's life!"

  The house goes down in fmes as it quickly became demolished. The party and everyone can see that the fmes did the house in as it became no more. Then, the mother of the child comes over to where Shokei is, and she sees her rescued child being handed over.

  "Oh, thank you! THANK YOU!!" the mother said as she holds the child in her arms. She kissed the child on the forehead and confronts him. "No worries sweetie! Mommy is right here!"

  The mother looks at her child as the child was still crying from all that happened. Shokei looks up as she breathes in clean air from the fire. In her hallucinogenic state, the eyes of the mother are red and her skin became demonic. Shokei gasped and felt frightened, stepping back until she fell backwards on the grassy floor.

  "Ehhhh?!" Rei notices Shokei's unusual behavior. "What's this?"

  "Shokei?" Marie calls out to her. "Shokei, what's wrong?"

  "This...doesn't look right..." Kichiro said, seeing Shokei behaving strange.

  The party goes over to where Shokei is lying there. Shokei can see her friends are here to look out for her. However, the hallucinogenic effect made it worse as all her friends are visioned as demonic forms. She gasped in fear as she tries to back up.

  "De...de, DEMONS!" Shokei shrieked again. "Keep away from me!! NO, KEEP AWAY FROM ME!!"

  "Shokei?! What are you talking about?!" Rei asked. "We're your friends!!"

  "Hmm..." Kichiro notices the slight substance that's on Shokei's face. "The hell is that? Guys, we need to make sure that she doesn't run from us!"

  As Shokei got really scared from what she sees in her cursed vision, she attempts to get up, only for Rei and Obsidian to pin her down by the arms.

  "Shokei!!" Rei shouted. "Where the hell you think you're going?!"

  "NOOO, NOOO!! DEMONS!!" Shokei cried out in fear.

  "C'mon! What the hell is your problem...huh?" Rei nearly shouted, but now she sees what was affecting her mentally. "Her face! She must've got something hit in her face!"

  "Did something happen in that house?" Sadako asked.

  "Probably..." Rei said. "Oh Shokei, you shouldn't have gone in there without any one of us!"

  "Oh...dear..." Marie said, shaking her head in sadness.

  At a distance, Lei stands there, about a few feet away from the party. She looks around and sees two people on top of a roof on one house. Lei easily recognized who the figures are as they are her allies of the Necromutants. Echrezar and Hazon sees Bck Death down there and Hazon gives an "ok" sign to indicate that they were the ones that have setup the fiery incident. Looking carefully, another figure is right next to the two men and Lei identifies a woman in a red Kimono-lolita outfit. The woman wears a red bow on her grey hair.

  "Hauntmystic..." Lei whispered. "Hmm hmm. You did this right?"

  Hauntmystic smiled at her fellow Necromutant. Lei, as Bck Death, exchanged the smile back by looking at each other. All three Necromutants vanished and left the scene.

  "Keep away from me!!" Shokei yelled out as she tried to get up.

  "Shokei! Knock it off!!" Rei yelled down at her. "It's no good for you to be screaming like this!!"

  "Get off from me!!" Shokei cried out, fighting her way out.

  "I got a solution." Ferron said. "Keep her down there while you can."

  Rei and Obsidian held Shokei down tightly. Ferron takes out an item from his pocket and in his hand is a tranquilizer. He kneels and is right at the face of Shokei.

  "What are you going to do with that?!" Rei asked him.

  Ferron did not respond, and his eyes focused on Shokei's neck. He carefully brings the tranquilizer down and then pinches through the skin of the neck and squeeze the needle into the neck. Shokei cried out as she felt the sting on her neck and Ferron backs away.

  "Let her go...now!" Ferron ordered.

  "Seriously?!" Rei asked.

  "Trust me. Just let her go." Ferron replied.

  Rei and Obsidian lets go of Shokei, freeing her arms and allowing her to get up. Shokei quickly takes off the tranquilizer and then the effects from the dart waste no time to do its work. Shokei felt blurry as she sees herself falling asleep. She turns to get away as the hallucination is making her get away from her "demonic" allies. Then, Shokei fell into a tired state and takes a knee, leading her to lying on the floor and knocked out.

  "Umm..." Saeko felt surprised to see Shokei already asleep.

  "Yep." Ferron said, seeing his tranquilizer worked. "That ought to do it."

  "You killed her!" Marie shouted at Ferron. "Why you have to kill her..."

  "Shut up!" Rei said to Marie. "He put her to sleep. That's how."

  "I...oh..." Marie said, calming down.

  "Looks like our new ally found a way to cool down Shokei." Rei said as she walks over to her. "It would have been much worse had she ran from us."

  "Definitely." Kichiro said. "We need to bring her back to the house immediately."

  Rei and Sadako work together to escort Shokei from the scene. The fire brigade came already as they work together to put out the fire. Soon, the party made it back to Kichiro's house. Once inside, Rei and Sadako takes Shokei to her bedroom and there, they y her in bed. Shokei has been put to a deep sleep thanks to the tranquilizer that Ferron used on her.

  "Finally..." Rei said, seeing Shokei already asleep. "That was too much."

  "The hard part is over..." Beatrice said. "But...what just happened to Shokei when she was saving that child from the fire a while ago?"

  "Hmm..." Kichiro thinks about this and said, "I believe that Shokei has been put on some spell during the rescue. When she returned to us, she was behaving erratically towards us."

  The conversation is making Lei hear all this as she is silent.

  "Maybe...what if...someone else was there waiting for her to fall for a trap?" Kichiro asked.

  "She was foolish enough to go inside, pulling a daring rescue." Rei said. "Why didn't she tag one of us to come along with her?"

  "Or maybe the fire is too much for us to go in there?" Saeko said. "But then the child would have lost her life had she remained in there."

  "True, true..." Sadako said.

  "At least the child is unharmed." Marie said.

  "Now that she's asleep, what are we going to do?" Saeko asked. "We need some sort of a cure to overcome this curse of hers."

  "I know a special medicine that can clear up Shokei's thoughts to restore her completely back to her regur self." Kichiro said and walked out of the room. "Hang on a sec."

  Stepping out, Kichiro leaves the room to get something. He came back and holds a tonic-like bottle with dark green liquid inside.

  "Nobuatsu made this medicine." Kichiro said. "His medicine is rare enough to get rid of headaches or illnesses of any type."

  "Hmm..." Marie stares at the medicine and asked. "Will this work?"

  "Trust me." Kichiro replied. "I used it once when I felt sick. I'm hoping that his medicine will pull through with Shokei."

  Using the medicine, Kichiro went over to Shokei and pours the medicine inside of Shokei's mouth. With a bit of medicine inside her mouth, Marie slides her hand over Shokei's throat to force the liquid down into her body.

  "That should do it." Kichiro said. "She should be back to herself in the morning and hopefully she'll tell us what happened."

  The party sees Shokei sleeping peacefully.

  "Well...we should all go to bed now." Marie said. "It's been a tough night."

  The party agrees and they all leave the room to go back to their beds. Rei, however, did not leave the room. She stands there, watching Shokei sleeping peacefully. Rei pces her hand on her cheek and then she goes down to kiss Shokei on the forehead.

  "I'm sorry I yelled at you." Rei said to her quietly.

  With that said, Rei turns and leaves the room, closing the door.

  The next morning, Shokei wakes up from her sleep. Feeling exhausted and awake, Shokei noticed that the hallucinogenic effect that occurred to her from st night was no longer in effect as it has vanished. Shokei blinks for a minute and she sighed in relief. She feels back to her own self again. After a daring rescue she pulled off st night, she was unable to tell who was behind her in that moment on the night the fiery rescue had occurred. Shokei felt distracted easily, but she cannot tell if it was another enemy from the Necromutants.

  Shokei gets up from her bed and she sits there. She closed and felt gd that she was able to be breathing, feeling hopeful to be alive for another day. Then, Shokei looks up to hear the door opened and there she sees Kichiro coming in the room along with Rei.

  "Oh, you're awake." Kichiro said to Shokei.

  Shokei said nothing as she stares at two of her allies.

  "Shokei..." Rei said to her. "It's great to see you up at this hour, and good morning."

  "What..." Shokei blinked and rubbed her head. "What...just happened?"

  "Are you ok?" Rei asked.

  "I'm fine." Shokei replied. "I'm still feeling woozy from st night."

  "I see that my medicine has worked, just as I expected." Kichiro said. "I should owe Nobuatsu one."

  "When you were unconscious, Kichiro gave you some medicine to cure that curse you were on." Rei said. "I hope the medicine didn't taste bad." Kichiro said, with a slight smile.

  "I feel it on my tongue." Shokei said, feeling the taste in her mouth. "At least it's not that bitter."

  "That's great to hear." Kichiro said.

  "All right...you might as well tell us what happened to you st night when you were saving that child." Rei said to her.

  "I believe...I do remember what happened to me, but by a mere memory." Shokei said, rubbing her forehead in circles.

  "Then tell us." Rei said.

  "Ok..." Shokei thinks for a minute and then begin. "I remember rescuing the child from the bzing fire. Then, the child saw something and as I turned, I was hit with a white mist of gas powder in my face. My world was different as I felt fear coming close to me in illusions. I remember seeing you guys as demons to my eyes and I felt afraid that I was going to get killed... until I passed out."

  "Ferron was responsible for that." Rei said. "He put you in a deep sleep with a dart."

  "Really...oh..." Shokei said, feeling the sting that's on her neck. It only bothered her a little.

  "But you're all right as it looks." Kichiro said.

  "I am...but whoever did that to me will pay for what she done to me." Shokei said.

  "I was worried about you Shokei." Rei said to her.

  Shokei looks up to see Rei talking to her.

  "I was worried...for real." Rei continued. "I thought you were crazy enough to save someone st night alone. And I thought you were crazy enough to think we are your enemies when we realized something happened to you. You're my best friend and I...I just hope you don't scare me like that again."

  Shokei hears all this, and she nodded.

  "I won't." Shokei said with a slight smile. "Never again."

  Rei smiled back and held back her emotions upon looking at her face.

  Later that day, Shokei and her party are prepared to leave the town of Itaea to make their trip back to Malluraea. The trip is to get to Rei's ship in order to reach Danevana. The party is all set and before they were leaving...

  "Oooh, oooh, Rei!!" Lei called out to her friend.

  "What is it?" Rei asked her.

  "I...I was wondering..." Lei started to say something but paused to think.

  "Like what?" Rei asked.

  "I was wondering..." Lei pipes up and asked. "Is it possible to join you and your party on this journey you're all heading off to?"

  "Really?" Rei asked. "Why?"

  "I hate being alone in this house." Lei said. "It feels too lonely in here and I have nothing else to do."

  Rei listens to her and blinks once.

  "Honestly, I hate being alone." Lei said sadly.

  "Everyone hates being alone at times," Rei said to her. "But since you say that..."

  Rei paused to look at Shokei for a minute. She looks at her, hoping for an approval. Shokei, however, has nothing to do with this and shrugged. Rei takes this as it indicates her to not mind at all.

  "Meh! Why not." Rei continued. "You can come along with us on our journey."

  "SERIOUSLY?!" Lei asked with excitement. "YAAAAY!!"

  "Ok, just chill there." Rei said, calming her down. "Neither of us aren't sure what you're capable of, but you can join us since you don't want to be alone."

  "Sure, sure!" Lei nodded. "I'll help you all in case of anything."

  "All right." Rei said.

  Hee hee hee! Lei thought. Now I can become part of the party with Shokei and the others. No one suspected me and my identity. No one!

  The party made final preparations before leaving Itaea. Soon, the party leaves the town.