Garten of Banban: Hell Awaiting

Chapter Nine: "A Royal Welcoming"

The elevator continues downward, a bright orange lighting coming into view as we approach our destination. Once we arrive, I see now that it's a long orange hallway, and that only serves to make me a little anxious considering my last experience with long hallways. "Okay," I whisper to myself quietly as I pick up the birdie and step out of the elevator.

I take a glance around, AVI4 flying behind me, scanning for any signs of any dangers. It seems to me that the hallway is actually empty for once; what a surprise... Though I'd rather not encounter any surprises, seeing as I have no idea where I am. I turn to walk down the hall, only to be stopped by the sound of the door behind me bursting open.

Immediately, I whip around to face whoever is behind me, and god dammit, it's that stupid turtle—chameleon—whatever—again! It's charging straight at me, both of its jaws wide open, preparing to bite down on my entire being as soon as it catches me. With a start, I take several steps backward and attempt to run away, only for the turtle to chase after me, closing the distance rapidly.

Holy crap, this thing can run! The birdie in my arms even begins to tremble slightly, but I ignore her in favor of running faster. I can hear the turtles footsteps getting louder and louder behind me, but I continue sprinting, not stopping for a single second. How long are these hallways?! Why can't I catch a break?!

Eventually, I reach the end of the hallway, which seems to be a lot more narrow, but wide enough for me to slip through. I collapse to the floor with a gasp, catching my breath quickly as I look behind me to see that the stupid turtle had gotten its heads stuck in the narrow opening, causing it to be unable to follow me.

Oh, thank god... For a second there, I thought that thing would actually kill me.

I look ahead of me again and notice two buttons on the floor, which I presume are to open the door in front of me. I take the birdie and place her on one of them, placing my own weight on the other. The door slides open easily, revealing another orange room with more buttons to stand on. This time, they're to activate a red button for AVI4 to press.

I take care of that, and we're on to the next room. We're quite the power trio now, huh? Me, AVI4, and this birdie I happened to kidnap from Opila... Not the kind of team you'd want to call whenever there's danger, I must admit. But hey, I suppose we work well enough together.

As we walk into this next room, I notice a wall right in front of us. Walking around it, I spot what appears to be... another remote? Hm, I wonder what this thing controls. AVI4 seems to be excited, considering how loud it's beeping as it flies over to inspect. Oh, this drone of mine... Anyway, I'll just grab this and—

Suddenly, I feel something hit me in the back of my head, hard, sending me crashing to the ground. Oh no... I already have bad experiences with getting ambushed like this. Just who decided to attack me this time? Though I'm unable to check as my vision slowly blurs from the blow, and I feel myself getting dragged across the floor by something.

Before I know it, however, the darkness overtakes my senses completely, and I lose consciousness.

...

I groggily wake up and open my eyes, blinking the sleep away from my sight. The blurriness lasts until my eyesight clears up completely, and I realize I'm sitting in a hard chair in an... interrogation room? What am I doing here? I've done no wrong, I'm a good citizen. Maybe this is just another strange thing that's yet to have happened to me in this weird kindergarten...

My thoughts are immediately interrupted by a voice speaking up, causing me to jump slightly in response. "Listen up, criminal. That whole act of you being unconscious won't work on me." My heart sinks into my stomach, anxiety bubbling inside of me as I look to large window on my right to see a dark silhouette standing outside it. Whoever this mysterious person is, they clearly aren't impressed.