"Ok! We got you surrounded!!"

  "There's nowhere to escape! Give us the book and we won't hurt you!"

  Back in Euna, Shokei's party is now ganging up on the Owlbear. The bear is trapped behind a wall of trees, and it has no room of escape. The bear looks to see Rei and her allies out with their weapons as they are aiming their sights on the beastly creature.

  "Look, we do not want to harm you." Rei demanded. "Just drop the book and we will let you go off safely."

  The Owlbear, still holding the book in its mouth, refused to listen. It did not show any sign of a threat.

  "Maybe we're being too harsh on this subject." Sadako said to Rei. "You should watch that tone of yours before this beast freaks out."

  "True..." Rei said to her. "But even if it's for Shokei to be rescued, we have to make this creature drop the book, regardless of if we're giving it fear."

  "It looks too cute to be harmed." Marie said. "Let's be gentle with it."

  As the party keeps the Owlbear surrounded, something appeared in front of them. A swarm of kunai knives were being thrown to the ground. The party backs up as they see that the knives draw a line in protecting the bear.

  "W-woah!! Wh-what the?!" Saeko said in surprise.

  "Huh?!" Marie looks up and points out. "Up there!!"

  Suddenly, a mysterious figure jumps down below and nds behind the Owlbear. Rei and her party can see that there is an unknown figure wearing a cat-like mantle with a bck shirt with daemon pants and boots. In addition, the figure carries a bag with a chain attached. The person looks directly at the party with a serious expression on her face. Equipped with kunai knives, the figure turns out to be a ninja. Shokei's party backs away as the mysterious ninja defends the Owlbear.

  "Who even dares try to y a hand on Ohelio?" The ninja asked.

  "O...hello?" Marie asked, raising an eyebrow.

  "Y-you mean..." Tamiko pointed out. "That beast...is..."

  "Ohelio? Hey, who the hell are you anyway?" Rei asked the ninja. "And I take that beast of yours is Ohelio."

  "That's correct traveler." The ninja nodded. "As for me, I am the one that patrols the area looking for a sense of danger. I am Matokai." The Ninja introduced herself. "That there behind me is my pet companion that you are all trying to attack."

  "I see..." Rei said, seeing the Owlbear.

  "What in the world you foul beings are trying to hurt my innocent creature?" Matokai asked them. "State your reason or embrace death with my knives."

  "Actually..." Marie pipes up and said. "We mean no harm towards Ohelio. We wanted to retrieve an important book that it has in its mouth. It's dangerous."

  "Really?" Matokai looks back at her pet. "Here, give it to me."

  Ohelio walks up to give the book to Matokai from the mouth.

  "So..." Matokai looks at the book in her hand and shows it to the party. "This is the book that you are all desperate to retrieve huh?"

  "Of course." Rei replied.

  "And all this was to go after my Ohelio?" Matokai asked.

  "I mean...we weren't going to..."

  "INEXCUSABLE!" Matokai yelled back at Rei, disrupting her sentence, and threatened the party with her knives. "That does not roll well with such excuse! All of you should be dealt with for harming him."

  "Ohhh...therefore this beast is a...he..." Marie said, looking at the Owlbear.

  "Yes, he is." Matokai said to Marie. "A sweet, precious bear that should not be preyed upon you beings."

  "Seriously though, we're not animal hunters or anything out of the ordinary." Rei said, trying to fix things with Matokai. "All we were trying to do is to retrieve a book that's important to us. That's all."

  "...I see...hmm?"

  "Hey! The book is making a reaction!"

  Just then, the book started to make a strange glow. This surprised Matokai off guard as she drops the book on the ground and jerks away in steps. Rei and her party can see that the book is glowing with bright energy. The book opened and then a bright light made everyone smiled their eyes. Two rays of light emerged out from the book and nded on the surface. The glowing light died down and everyone unshielded their eyes. Rei looks around to see what just happened and there, she finally saw Shokei being freed from the book. She noticed that there was someone else that is in a witch outfit.

  "Wh-what the...Sh...Shokei?!" Rei said as she sees her lying on the ground. "Sh-Shokei?!"

  "N-no way..." Marie said, feeling amazed to see her leader back to safety. "She made it out alive...but...how?"

  "She made it through the enemy's trap." Mizuki said. "It's a miracle to see her alive."

  The party can see that Shokei has freed herself out of the book that she was trapped inside. She wakes up and notices that she is back in the bushy forest of Euna. She looks to see that Mariko is getting up from her unconsciousness.

  "I'm...I'm back..." Shokei said. She yawned as she sees herself back in her real world. "I guess that divine sleep led us back here..."

  "Sh-SHOKEI!!"

  Shokei pipes up to hear Marie calling out to her. She turned and felt her ally jumping up at her and then felt embraced in a hug. Shokei falls back to the ground as she was hugged tightly.

  "Ack!! Ack!!!" Shokei felt choked by the squeeze of the hug.

  "By the gods, I thank you for bringing back our Shokei!!!" Marie said as she was in a praised and excited mood. "Oh Shokei! We miss you SOOO much!! We were SOOO worried about you!!"

  "Ugh!! Ack, don't have to squeeze me tightly!!" Shokei tells her as she wanted to break up the hug.

  Marie lets go off of Shokei and allows her to get a hold of herself. Her expression changed as she looks straight at the leader of the group.

  "Next time, never scare us like that again!!" Marie tells her angrily. "We were seriously worried about you!!"

  "Sheesh!! Chill out you!" Rei tells Marie, gesturing her to back away. Then, she looks at Shokei and asked, "Gd that you're alive and well. Are you ok?"

  "Yeah..." Shokei said, blinking a few times. "Wh-what happened? Where are we?"

  "It's a long story..." Rei replied to her. "Let just say that our enemies were trying to kill us."

  "Oh...ok." Shokei said, scratching her head, feeling confused.

  "Speaking of that, how did you managed to escape out of the book you were imprisoned?" Mizuki asked her.

  "Oh...that..." Shokei said, seeing the book on the ground. "Let's just say that...it's a long story, but I recalled being in a deep sleep."

  "Whatever that was, it must have freed you out of there." Sadako said, staring down at the book.

  "Finally...I don't know how we got out of there, but I'll never go through that experience again..."

  The party hears Mariko talking to herself after she regained consciousness. Mariko turns to see that she is met with company.

  "Looks like you weren't the only one trapped inside that book." Rei said.

  "Oh yeah, while I was in that book, I came across this new ally of mine." Shokei said.

  "And who might you be?" Kichiro asked.

  "Right! New people! This must be exciting!" Mariko said with a cheery look and a nervous expression. Then she calms down and greets the party. "The name's Mariko! I...I...I'm n-not used to meeting new faces, especially crowds, b-but...I am kind of shy and...I was with Shokei in that book."

  "Interesting." Mizuki said.

  "Hmm..."

  Mariko looks to see Matokai walking up to where Shokei is standing. Shokei looks ahead to see the ninja is seeing directly at her.

  "I find that the book has some odd possession. Might I ask who you are?" The Ninja asked.

  "The name's Shokei." The blonde-haired warrior introduced herself. "Who might you be?"

  "Ninja warrior Matokai. I dwell here within this forest." The Ninja tells her.

  "I see..." Shokei said.

  "So, you're the reason your fellow comrades were trying to get that book from Ohelio." Matokai said.

  "Ummm...what?" Shokei said, confused to what she meant.

  "Here." Matokai whistled to let her Owlbear come up close to her. "While you were trapped in some cursed book, my pet had possession of the book and your allies were chasing after him just to retrieve that book."

  "Really?" Shokei said and turns to Rei.

  "I mean, we didn't have a choice." Rei said. "We just wanted to save you from being trapped in the book."

  "So I see..."

  With her eyes on the book, Matokai heads over to pick it up. Seeing that the book is just a normal reading book, with the cover being different, she looks back to everyone.

  "I'll be taking this book with me." Matokai said to everyone.

  "Wait. What are you pnning on doing with it?" Rei asked her.

  "Yeah, what's your intention with that book?" Marie called out to the ninja.

  Ignoring questions, Matokai gets on her Owlbear's back as she gets ready to depart. She puts the book away in her bag.

  "Don't you ever mess with my Ohelio or I will likely destroy all of you with my bare hands." Matokai tells the party. "Let's hope we don't meet again."

  The party watches as Matokai leaves the area with Ohelio. They all look to see the strange ninja and her animal companion heading off to another part of the forest. Once she was out of sight, the party regroups back altogether. Shokei looks at her party and she see that her allies look very tired and exhausted. Shokei felt rested enough to be awake.

  "Umm..." Shokei looks at her party and asked. "What really happened when I was trapped inside that book?"

  The party looks among themselves in disbelief.

  "If I were to tell you what happened...it's a long story." Rei said to her.

  Meanwhile at the Dark Dreams Gaxy, Fozoworu and his Necromutant allies are having a meeting in the conference room. Sewero is present as his one-eyed face is shown on the widescreen monitor. The group views a small monitor to see that Shokei has been reunited back with her party.

  "It seems that the Emissary has escaped." Sewero said. "Unfortunately, your pn for imprisoning the Emissary has backfired against you Hauntmystic."

  Hauntmystic closed her eyes in disappointment.

  "No need to feel down there." Kukofoges said to her. "We got other pns to stop her and her allies."

  "Mistakes can be learned for all of you Necromutants." Sewero said. "We need to figure out another way to stop her from ciming those gems."

  "Hmmm..." Fozoworu thinks for a minute. He seems to have a pn of his own. Then, he looks up to his comrades. "It's time that I should pay a visit to meet the Emissary again."

  "Eh?" Hauntmystic looks at the lead Necromutant with a slight surprised expression.

  "Yes. I pn on meeting the Emissary face to face." Fozoworu said. "Since the first time I fought against her, I shall test her again to see how well she can fight me. I know the trick just to get her attention."

  Fozoworu made the decision to leave the room.

  Meanwhile, Princess Antoinette is still locked up inside the castle's cells. It has been long enough since she was captured back at Senwald. She lies down on the soft bunk bed that was provided for her in her cell. Antoinette rests peacefully until her beauty sleep was disrupted when she heard a tapping on her cell.

  "Wake up, little princess...wake up..."

  Fozoworu used his short knife to emit loud trappings on the cell, which was enough to disturb Antoinette's beauty sleep. The princess gets up from her bed and there she saw the enemy Necromutant standing there, looking directly at her. Antoinette can see that Fozoworu was not alone whereas he has two guards standing there. The guards are dressed in robes as they have bck masquerade masks concealing their faces. Antoinette hesitated as she stands face to face with the Necromutant. She takes a breath and then directly looks in the eyes of the enemy.

  "Wh-what do y-you want?!" Antoinette asked him. Her nerves show as she is still afraid of the Necromutant.

  "I came by to see how you're holding up." Fozoworu replied. "It seems that you're still in good shape, thanks to my guards that looked out for you."

  "Y-your guards barely gave me much to each b-but just little bread and water." Antoinette said to him, compining. "That's not enough to fulfill my stomach. It still feels e-empty..."

  "At least you can still breathe in there." Fozoworu said. "It would not be...how should I say it, tragic, have we starved you to death."

  Antoinette's face went pale.

  "Then again, I'm sure that Emissay would feel saddened if I told her that you died inside that cell." Fozoworu said. "Heh! I'm sure that she has forgotten about you."

  "D-don't you dare think like that! I sure hope that Shokei and her friends will come and save me!" Antoinette said to the Necromutant, clenching a fist. "Ju-just you wait..."

  "I will let you out of this cell..." Fozoworu said.

  Antoinette paused as soon as she hears the Necromutant mentioning a sign of freedom.

  "But only for a temporary matter." The Necromutant finished.

  "Seriously?" Antoinette blinked. "You are seriously joking with me, are you?"

  "Only...if you obey me by my orders." Fozoworu advised. "Do not dare attempt to pull anything slick little princess...or I will be gd to kill you."

  Antoinette gasped.

  "Do I make myself clear?" Fozoworu asked seriously.

  Antoinette blinked and then she nodded.

  Fozoworu allowed his guards to free Antoinette out of her cell. The cell gates opened as Antoinette let herself out of her cell. Stepping out of the cell, Antoinette is met with the other guard that is watching her. Listening to the Necromutant's orders, Antoinette is escorted by the guards as she follows Fozoworu. The Necromutant smiled as his back was turned. He knew that he has an upcoming pn that is about to happen soon.