"Really?! Thank you so much, Quentin!" Miyuki happily squeaked.
"No problem, the clues are actually quite easy for me to figure out," Quentin scoffed. He leaned closer to his desk and he adjusted his phone's position on his ear.
"Sheesh, of course it's a piece of cake for you. You're much more experienced than me," Miyuki gave him an annoying hum.
Quentin laughed. "Yeah, yeah. Don't forget that your flight today is 5:15 p.m." he reminded Miyuki.
"Mhm, I know." . The call ended, and Miyuki placed the phone on her chest. She jumped a bit as she felt happiness overwhelms her. As bright as the sun today, her feelings were enlightened knowing that Quentin solved 2 clues.
"Ah, I need to thank him later," she thought.
She got up from her desk and went out of her room. She was greeted warmly by Joni that is currently eating a cup noodles. "Ah, Miyuki! Who are you talking to just now?" Joni asked.
"No one, just a friend. Sorry because I can't cook for you--by the way," Miyuki apologized.
Joni shrugged it off, "No, it's totally fine. I don't care anyways."
Joni went to the kitchen and threw the empty noodle cup into a dustbin.
Then, Miyuki's phone rang again. She sighed, reaches her phone and expecting Quentin's calling her.
"Yea? Miyuki's talking."
"Milo! We've figured out the clue!"
She looked at the phone, and it was Alex's name on it. She covered her mouth when she realised she accidentally revealed her name, but thank god, the caller seemed to not to notice.
"Really? That's quite fast," Miyuki praised them, "I haven't took a glance of the clue. What was it?"
"Well, the first one is 'asphlat' ," Alex read it out loud.
"Sounded kinda easy to figure out for me. You guys are lucky to get the easy one," Miyuki scoffed.
Ciel's arm went akimbo, "Well, atleast we figured it out. We are reliable after all."
"Yeah, yeah. Fine, I had to admit that," Miyuki smiled, "How 'bout the other one?"
"It wrote 'malus' ," Alex read it to Miyuki.
Miyuki chuckled a bit, "Sounded like a superhero's name. How absurd."
Alex laughed too, and caressed the back of his head.
"Well, absurd or no, we need to figure out what these clues meant," Albert joined them.
"Sí! We need to bring back Joni's friend real quick," Felix said.
"I don't think we could talk much more longer," Miyuki looked at her watch, "I need to go, text me the clue's answer, okay?"
They said their goodbyes and the call ended.
"Thanks for your help, Charles. Milo volunteered in behalf of us to go to Spain because of you," Alex thanked Charles.
Charles nodded and smiled. He seemed to be worrieless that Miyuki could help them, but he actually hesitated whether going to Spain will find the answer to their last clue.
He shrugged it off and went to the door. He opened it slightly and stood still at the door.
"I told you, Alex would be fine," Charles leaned his body on the door frame.
"How much did you bribed Godfreg to tell this much information?" Evan folded his arms and rested his back on the wall, right beside the door on the outside.
Charles chuckled a bit, "No, not Godfreg. It's your daughter."
Evan's eyes bugged out. He smiled a bit, "She deserve a really long nag if I ever met her face to face."
Charles grinned, and turn his head to his friends. "Alex understand why he's suspended from being the MPP's president. He even told me that he didn't mind if Gion took over his place," Charles turned back to the door.
Evan sighed. "He's grown alot, huh?" Evan walked away from the princes' dorm.
"Yeah," Charles uttered to himself.
***
Miyuki patted Joni's head and smiled at her. She dropped Joni at Quentin's because she had to go to Spain, to find the last clue.
"Quentin's a good person, don't worry okay?" Miyuki said.
"I'm sorry to trouble you this much, it's my fault for running away from my friends," Joni frowned.
Miyuki's eyebrows raised. She crouched down to equate her height with Joni. She took Joni's hand a patted it with her free hand.
"I've worked with alot of people, and most of them hire me to ensure their safety, or maybe other's safety," Miyuki looked down on Joni's little hand, "You didn't pay me, and I agreed to this--not only because I pitied on you."
Joni's brow raised.
"I had my other reasons too," Miyuki smiled with closed eyes.
Joni felt relief. Her guiltiness left her, but other feeling surrounded her--curiousity. "What are your reasons then?" Joni asked.
Miyuki didn't answer. She just rubbed Joni's head and went into a taxi. She had hundreds and thousands questions in her head as car passes by.
"Will the clue finally solved if I go to Spain? Is going there will answer the questions?"
The coordinate that was given in the clue seemed familiar to her. She remembered taking down 6 drug lords at the exact coordinate given. They sold heroines, cocaines and marijuanas illegaly. The gang that kidnapped Mia and Emilia could be related to one of the drug lords, considering their conversation on the phone two days ago about selling a dog illegally in such high price.
Miyuki started having headaches thinking about those old memories. She shrugged it off and started thinking again, if the last clue are at the hotspot of drug lords in Spain, what does it have to do with the kidnapping of the two young girls? Unless they planned to sell Mia and Emilia to the black market?
Is that the reason why they wanted Joni to come alone?
Miyuki's thoughts gathered together, and she took a piece of paper and wrote down all the clues and it's answer one by one.
What number did the German soldier said when they refuse to eat the lemons?
=9
XXX Roman
=30
"How many are the marbles inside?"
"(yes)x hundred, sir"
[insert random coordinate]
=
When did the Hellenistic period begin?
=323 BC, 4th century
Ashphalt
=sticky black liquid, for roads
Malus
=Apple
Miyuki is glad that Quentin and the princes helped her to figure out the clues, but she wasn't sure if these are the right answers.
"Spain...'yes'..."
"You're here, Miss."
Miyuki finally snapped out of her thoughts. The driver offered to carry her luggage, but she refused.
She registered her name, weigh her luggage and waited for the departure gate to be open. Miyuki stopped by a restaurant, ordered a food and eat.
She wasn't really hungry, so she ate a small portion of food and began digging into her thoughts. Her body rested on the chair, she laid her head and closed her eyes.
"9,30,323 BC 4th century, road, apple"
"Is this a street name? 'Road', right? Might be...if I'm not wrong, there's a street called Appleton."
ಠᴥಠ
"Flight Momos Airline, AK 55370 to Spain, open gate J10"
Miyuki woke up and realised she'd been sleeping for an hour straight. She wasn't planning to go to the gate early, since the queue is too long.
She resumed laying her head down, but then realised she wrote something on a paper.
Spain-> 'Yes'
Her memories of writing those down are quite fuzzy, but she recognised the handwriting as hers.
"What does going to Spain had to do with the word 'yes'? Whatever things I'm gonna found there?"
She groaned angrily. She tried to dig in, but ended up with more questions than answers.
She got up, then took her bags with her to the departure gate. As she expected, the queue are still long, so she waited patiently and texted some of her friend to kill the time.
Miyuki stepped in the room as it's her time to register herself into the departure gate.
"Miyuki? Is this really you?"
Miyuki looked up, and it was her old from the highschool she used to attend.
"Woah, you're a stewardess now? Great job!" Miyuki praised her friend.
The stewardess giggled, "Thanks, how about you?"
"I'm a full time trained bodyguard," Miyuki answered.
"Really suited you. Back then you used to break alot of stuff," Miyuki's friend scoffed.
Miyuki chuckled akwardly, "Please don't bring me to memory your lane."
They both laughed, then Miyuki sat down on the second row of the seats at the left. She took a piece of paper out, which is the paper that she wrote on earlier at the restaurant.
"If these clues reveal a street name, why are these numbers separated?"
She began writing down the numbers in order of biggest to smallest.
323,30,9,4
"Something is odd...street name numbers aren't usually this much. Or should I--"
She added all of the numbers.
336
"Is this it?"
Miyuki put all of the clues together.
336, Road, Appleton
She wasn't satisfied with the result. The street name is incomplete. She took her phone out and began researching.
"List of Appleton's road name"
The search engine began loading. Her foot fidgets as she waited for the results to appear.
1st Road, Appleton
2nd Road, Appleton
3rd Road, Appleton
4th Road, Appleton
5th Road, Appleton
6th Road, Appleton
She looked through the clue's answers, her eyes locked on the question that's related to the Hellenistic period timeline.
"That's it! 4th Century!" Miyuki uttered to herself.
336, 4th Road, Appleton
She began smiling widely, but stopped as she remembered that she haven't solved 1 clue yet. Miyuki began questioning whether it should be solved or no. Her hands reached her phone once again and began typing on the search engine.
"Lists of street names with '4th Road, Appleton' "
Miyuki prayed so that her guess is right. She clenched her hand together, muttered a few words and closed her eyes tightly.
"Is there any street number's began from 300? God, please give me a chance...!"
But fate despised her.
Her face frowned as she saw the streets name began from 600 to 700. She leaned her head back and furrowed her brows.
"Is going to Spain really gonna solve this? Or I'm just rushing myself when I saw the coordinate?"
Her consciousness began fading away as she closed her eyes. Before she could sleep, she was interrupted by noise of a confused foreigner that is speaking a different language.
"¡Dije, no entiendo lo que estás diciendo! (I said, I don't understand what you're saying!)"
"Sir, please wait be patient. A translator will help you, he haven't arrived yet," a stewardess tries to calm the man down.
"¡Tu servicio es malo! ¡He estado esperando durante horas su traductor lento! (Your service is bad! I've been waiting for hours for your slow translator!)" the foreigner yelled back.
The stewardess bowed, "I'm so sorry, sir. You can voice any of your problems if the translator has arrived."
"¡Ratas sordas! (You deaf rat!)" the foreigner raised his arm, ready to hit the poor woman whose only doing her work.
Miyuki raised from her seat, ready to give the man a juicy kick on his stomach.
"Tu traductor esta aqui, asno asqueroso (Your translator is here, you filthy ass)," a hand grabbed the foreigner's arm.
"E-Elly!" the stewardess said.
Miyuki's eyes bugged out, she couldn't believe her eyes. That nice and sweet stewardess, a.k.a her old friend that she talked to earlier, looked scary as heck now.
"¿Qué dijiste? ¿Quieres que te demande? (What did you say? Do you want me to sue you?)" the foreigner snatched his hand away and rubbed it.
Elly responded back, "¡Sí adelante! Ellos también te demandarán. (Yes, go ahead! They will sue you too.)"
Miyuki stood there, dumbfounded either because of three things; she didn't understand any thing they said, her friend is fluent in Spanish and her friend could be THIS scary.
Then, a man, wearing a tag around his shoulder that wrote; translator on it, came in. The translator and the foreigner started to talk to the stewardess, and everyone sat down back at their seats again.
Elly approached Miyuki. Elly just brushed Miyuki off, and tapped her shoulder, "Sorry, my turn to deal with jerks now."
Miyuki turned back, amazed at her friend, "You're fluent at Spanish? That's awesome!"
Elly stopped. She turned her head on Miyuki and finger point her, "¡Sí!"
"Sí, huh? Pretty sure it meant 'yes'," Miyuki thought.
Miyuki sat back again, resuming her 'squeezing-brain' session.
" 'yes', Spain..." she said to herself.
She paused, she felt a realisation hit her
"Wait, 'sí', right? That's it! 'Sí' in Spanish meant 'yes'! So, if I put this here, it'll reveal..."
(sí)x hundred, sir
"Six hundred! Exactly the 4th Road's street numbers!"
600, 30, 9
She began searching on the search engine again, searching lists of 4th Road Appleton's street numbers. She began scrolling, trying to find the exact number she's trying to find.
639 4th Road, Appleton
Her fingers dialed Quentin's phone number.
♧♧♧
"This is the last call of Momos Airline Flight 55370 to Spain, I repeat--"
The stewardess stopped as she saw a woman sprint out from the departure gate.
"Anita! You take over the announcement, I need to go!" Elly took her high heels off and began chasing the woman.
"Miyuki! We're departing! Where are you going?!" Elly yelled out.
Miyuki turned to her back for a while, then resume looking forward. "Elly, this is urgent! I need to go!" Miyuki answered her back.
Elly widened her steps more, trying to catch on Miyuki. "You're burning your ticket to Spain just like that?! There are no refunds, and this flight is expensive!"
Miyuki didn't say anything, she just ran off and began disappearing from Elly's sight.
Miyuki reached the drop-off area, and began searching for taxi.
Unfortunately, all taxi's are full, and cabs took too long to reach the airport. She didn't think much, she began widening her steps and ran away.
***
A car stopped by a yellow building, then, a man and a girl came out of the car.
"Is this it?" Joni asked.
Quentin nodded, "Miyuki gave us the address to here, so I guess this is it."
Joni immediatly went inside the building with no hesitation. Quentin trailed her from behind, but Joni told him to wait outside and he did.
She went to the first floor, and shouted her name to alarm the gang that she's here.
"Oi, you bastards! I'm here!"
No answer.
Joni saw a door nearby and kicked it, but it didn't open. She kicked it over and over again till she loses her breath.
"Scared?! Reveal yourselves and give my friends back!" Joni screamed.
Joni saw a wood plank nearby her and grabbed it. She slammed it on the door that she kicked earlier over and over, till it broke down to pieces. Joni grunted and stomped her feet away from the place angrily.
"So you're that noisy rat? I thought your teachers have told you how to greet someone properly?"
Joni turned behind, and saw a spiky black haired man on the up side of the stair.
"Where is Emilia and Mia..?" Joni furrowed ber brows and clenched her fist. Dean just looked at Joni without saying anything. He signalled her to come near him. Joni did, and he pointed to a door on Joni's right. Her hand shakingly opened the doorknob. As her hand twisted the doorknob and pushed the door, she saw two girls. It was Emilia and Mia, sitting on the ground.
"Joni..." Emilia's eyes bulged as she uttered her friend's name. Mia's eyes let out a bubbles of tears, she is too weak to stand up as she had never eaten for days. Emilia's the same as Mia too. Their both hairs are messy, face are dirty and so do their clothes.
Another guy closed the door behind Joni. Joni wanted to hug both her friends so bad, but her collar was grabbed by the spiky black haired man.
"Dean, what else do you want?!" Joni's hand gripped Dean's hand. He dropped a knife down, and signalled another man to grab Mia.
Joni is confused, "Oi, let her go! What are you doing?!"
"Shut up!" Dean angrily screamed.
Joni flinched a little and looked at Dean. Dean gave Joni a cold look, then looked down on Emilia. Emilia furrowed her brows and gritted her teeth. She wanted to get up, but her body is too weak.
"Stab her calves, or I'll do it myself," Dean blankly said.
Emilia, Mia and Joni's eyes bugged out. Mia tried to struggle herself out from the man that was gripping her, but she got hit at her head instead.
"STOP! Don't lay your hands on her, you jerk!" Emilia yelled out. She got up, and pulled the man's shirt. The man pushed Emilia to the ground, causing Joni to punch Dean, got him guarded-off and let his hands away from Joni.
Joni took the knife on the floor and jumped between Emilia and the man. She pointed the knife towards the man.
"Don't. Hurt. Her," Joni's facial expression told everyone that she could go berserk at any moment.
Chak
Knife surrounded Joni's head. Joni looked around her, and everyone is ready to swing their hands and screw Joni. She put the knife down, and everyone put down their knives too.
"I told you to stab her calves, not stab the man!" Dean rubbed his cheek that was punched earlier.
Joni crouched down, near Emilia. Her hand that gripped the knife are shaking, she's sweating uncontrollably. "No, I can't!" Joni is trembling.
"I'm giving you 10 seconds, since I'm kind. Stab her, or I will," Dean blackmailed.
"1"
Joni looked at Emilia. Emilia looked at Joni back, and they don't know what to do. Joni wouldn't do such cruel things to her friends, she still hesitating.
She looked down.
"2"
"Joni, look at me," Emilia said. Joni looked up, and Emilia hugged her.
"3"
"We're friends, right?" Emilia buried her head on Joni's neck crook, "Please do a favour fod me."
"4"
"What..?" Joni confusingly said.
"5"
"Do as he said, and get Mia out of here," Emilia rubbed Joni's back.
"6"
Joni's eyes widened, "No! No way! Never!"
"7"
"Do you want to see me suffer because of a greedy man?! I'd rather suffer wilingly by my friend's hand!" Emilia's voice cracked up a bit, as she yelled and cried. She sobbed, and gripped Joni's shirt tighter.
"8"
Joni cried, and hugged Emilia tighter.
"9"
"GAAAHHH! Darn it!!" Joni swinged her hand, ready to land the knife into Emilia's calf.
"10"
Emilia closed her eyes.
"JONI!!" Mia yelled.
Kraak!
The door busted open, right before Joni could land her hand on Emilia's calf. It was Corey.
"You--!"
Corey ignored Dean and brushed him off. He quickly went near his friends and asked if they're okay, which Joni replied with a nod.
"Let Mia go," Corey stood infront of the man that is grabbing Mia's wais.
The man chuckled, and tried to punch Corey. Corey dodged it and punched the man on his cheek. The man got off-guarded and fell down. The others tried to take Corey down, but he managed go take all of them down.
"That's all you got?" Corey rubbed his cheek using his thumb and put on a fighting stance.
Dean grunted. He clenched his fist furrowed his brows.
"Woah, Corey is so cool..." Joni's eyes are shining, and Emilia looked away with blushes on her cheeks. Mia tried to balance herself as she tried to stand still.
Dean looked at Mia, whose the closest to him. He grabbed her arm and wrapped his arm around her neck. Corey took a few steps back, still shocked.
Dean took out another knife out of his pocket and pointed it on Mia's head.
"A little girl's brain is very expensive, you know," Dean smiles sinisterly with his eyes bugging out.
"You crazy maniac! What the heck is wrong with you?" Corey tried to snap Dean back to his senses.
Mia cried uncontrollably. Her hands gripping on the man's arm, she is too weak to struggle herself out. "Don't you understand?! I'm desperate for money for my own happiness! Then that darn kid decided to destroy everything!" tears ran on Dean's cheeks.
"If I could sell that dog, my debts will be paid. My home will no longer be pathetic and everyone will adore me," Dean glared at Joni, "Then someone decided to butt in and destroy everthing. My family, my friends--EVERYTHING IS DESTROYED!"
Corey flinched when Dean screamed. Corey rested his shoulder and looked Dean.
"Why don't you go find genuine works then? You're just hurting others because of your greediness!" Corey yelled out.
Dean gritted his teeth. He strangled Mia harder, "Greediness, you say?! Say that to the goverment! I studied so hard but got rejected everywhere, and yet you still labeled me as 'greedy'? You're still a kid!"
"I may be," Corey placed his hand on his chest, "But my teacher said, blessings come at different people and different time. Your time just haven't come yet, you're rushing yourself."
"Shut up! You know nothing!" Dean yelled, "I said, I need money! Time doesn't wait for money!"
"Ugh, he's stubborn as heck," grumbled Joni.
Dean looked at his knife, "If I need money, I need..."
"Dean, STOP!!" Corey ran towards Dean.
Dean swung his arm that was gripping the knife. Corey pushed himself over Dean.
Emilia and Joni could only watch as blood covered the floor.
***END OF CHAPTER 7***
(a/n):
Sorry for not uploading for um-quite a long time? I was expecting for this chapter to be long, but it's only 3630 words. Thanks for reading this far!