3rd POV

"What?! So there's no hot spring here-- anywhere?!"

Reki had gotten back to the room after getting a water bottle from the vending machine for (Y/n) and the talk he had with Joe. Now everyone is back in the room as they sit in front of the table and try to figure out where the hot spring is.

"You should have double-checked before we left," Miya tells Reki as his cat eyes stare at the teen. From beside Reki, Kaoru places down a map that he had gotten when he first arrived at the inn.

"The hostess gave me this map. It's in the mountains five kilometers from here. And it's listed as a secluded hot spring," The calligrapher explains as he points to an image of a mountain on the map. Everyone crowds around to look at the map.

(Y/n), at this point, is sitting next to Reki with the water bottle in her hand. She was still a little drowsy as she tried her best to stay awake. Speaking of drinking, Hiromi had woken up from his nap and already left to get ready to leave a while ago.

"Five kilometers, huh?" Kojiro says with a smirk as an idea came to mind. "Sounds like the perfect distance to have a 'beef.'"

Langa had stars in his eyes at the mention of a "beef." "Oh, yeah," The light-blue-haired boy says in amazement.

"Did someone say 'beef'?" the sound of Shadow's voice is heard from behind a door. Everyone looks in the direction of the door as it slides open to reveal Sadow with all of his clown makeup on. "I'm in, let's go!"

"Wow. Full hair and makeup," Kojiro said, not sounding fazed at all at the clown skater.

"I thought you were sleeping off your hangover," Miya states with his chin resting on his hands as his elbows were resting on the table. (Y/n) leans back to look at Shadow and lifts her eyebrow in a confused and curious manner. "Cheers!" she says out loud as she holds her water bottle up in the air. At this point, she was already done with her laughing fit and hardly felt like doing anything.

"Only the weak need to rest by booze. Now the mask is in control!" Shadow then says. Everyone didn't seem interested in the topic Shadow was talking about and looked back at the map.

"What's this mark mean?" Langa asks as he points to a strange mask-looking mark on the map.

"It looks like a face," Kojiro says as he observes the mark.

"Monkey meeting spot?" Kaoru guessed, not knowing what the mark means himself.

"Guys!" Shadow whined as he realized that no one was paying attention to him anymore. That's all he wanted at the moment... Attention.

"Maybe it's where the thing is that the hostess was talking about," Miya then suggested. Reki got freaked out a bit and yelled at the cat boy. "They wouldn't draw something like that on a map! Come on!" The redhead yells, which causes the bangs on Miya's head to fly back.

"Seems like you're afraid of it," Miya then says, not looking affected by the yelling at all.

Reki straightens up from his sitting position, trying to appear that he wasn't afraid. "Oh, please! You think I'm afraid of some grade school ghost stories? I'm not," Reki says while looking away. Even though he had a brave look on his face, his violent shaking shows that he was feeling the complete opposite.

"Have any of you been hearing that strange sound, too?" Kojiro asks, trying to sound scary just for the fun of it. Reki didn't like the tone of his voice, which caused his heart rate to increase a bit.

"Stop! You're going to scare (Y/n)," Reki says as he grabs the girl from under her arms and brings her close to him. The child was clearly not scared, just tired as her eyes were almost closed shut, but he was trying to use her to stop them from talking more about the topic of the "thing."

Clank

The sound of a clanking noise got Reki's heart to jump in his spot as he hugged (Y/n) tighter in his arms.

"That was one," Kaoru says in a deep tone as the clanking noises continued.

Clank

"There's two."

Clank

"There's three."

Reki looks to his left and sees Miya handing Kaoru some plates with a flashlight shining in the pink-haired male's face to make him look scary as he continued to stack the plates, which was the source of the clanking noises.

"Okay, you're not funny!" Reki said in a complaining tone as his embrace around (Y/n) lessens, giving her the chance to take a sip of her water.

~~~~~~~~~~

Everyone is now outside as Joe explains the rules of the race they are going to have. They all are dressed in clothes that were provided by the inn. (Y/n) was standing there in a white short-sleeved shirt with blue patterns and shorts with the same pattern. It's basically the same pair of clothes that Miya is wearing, except it's in her size.

At first, everyone was debating whether or not to leave (Y/n) at the inn because she was still a little drowsy, just not as drowsy as before, but Kaoru didn't like the idea of leaving a child alone. She could walk off on her own and get lost if she wasn't careful. So he, reluctantly, took the responsibility to take her to the hot spring with him, which meant there was no need for the girl to bring her skateboard.

"The first one who'll arrive at the hot spring wins. Plain and simple. You can choose whichever path you want," Joe explains.

"Then a lot of this depends on our ability to read maps," Langa mumbles as he holds up a map to determine which path he should take. Beside him, Shadow was already getting warmed up to race as he was cracking his neck.

"Dungeons are my forte," Miya says as he looks at the map in his hands. Reki was hugging his skateboard close to him as the sudden fear of the "thing" topic got into his head.

"Hey," the redhead says as he leans toward Miya. "Do you really want to do this tonight? It's already dark and maps are easier to read in the daytime." Miya had an unfazed look plastered on his face as he could read the fear written all over his face.

Cherry goes to (Y/n) and picks her up, holding her on his hip with one arm as his other hand was holding his skateboard in a ready position. (Y/n) did nothing much but lean her head against his shoulder as she blinks slowly, trying to regain most of her vision. "Carla, countdown," the AI skater says as everyone else got in a ready position as well with their skateboards.

"Okay, Master," Carla said. Reki was the only one who was not in a ready position. He was standing behind everyone else with his skateboard still clutched to his chest.

Reki tries to reason with everyone to go to the hot springs another time. "You know what would be awesome?" The redhead asks as Carla starts to countdown.

"Three..."

"Taking a morning bath...

"Two..."

"...right before the race..."

"One."

"...tomorrow..." Reki stopped reasoning once he realized that no one was listening because now they were off and the race had already started.

So far, Cherry was in the lead with (Y/n) in his arms, but he was oblivious to notice that Shadow was now skating beside him. The clown skater takes out a laser with a smirk on his face. "Gladiolus... Laser!" Shadow yells as he turns on the laser and pints the red light in Cherry's direction.

The light blinded the AI skater, which caused him to struggle to contain his balance while keeping (Y/n) secure in his arms. "Outta my way, Pinkie Pie!" Shadow yells. Cherry regains his balance and glares at Shadow. as he holds the child close to him. "Visual distraction," Cherry mumbles to himself, which causes (Y/n) to look in front of her and towards the clown skater with a tired look. "I'll save you a seat!" Shadow then yells as he sticks his tongue out in a teasing manner.

(Y/n) took note that Shadow used a laser to distract Cherry and is already planning something in her curious little head.

"Atta clown! It's no fun if you're going to fight for it! Am I right, guys?" Joe then says from behind Cherry and (Y/n) as he looks at Miya and Langa. The two boys don't respond. They just gain more momentum right as a corner comes up, surprising Joe in the process.

The six-pack skater smiles nonetheless at their attempt to get first place. "Guess I'll go forward," He mumbles to himself.

The group soon makes it to a fork in the road. As the youngsters, including Shadow, take the route to the right, Cherry decides whether or not to take the other one. "Carla, give me the route with the least elevation changes," He tells his skateboard.

"Take a left at the fork."

With that said from the AI skateboard, Cherry and Joe take the left trail away from everybody else. (Y/n) lifts her head from the AI skater's shoulder and looks around, wondering where everyone else went.

Well, to answer her question, they were still fighting to win first place. Shadow tried using another one of his stunts to get Langa and Miya off balance, but that didn't work. It gave the cat boy the advantage to cut in front of the clown skater with everyone else following after him.

Figuring that the others were okay and went their separate ways, the child leans her head back on Cherry's shoulder and closed her eyes. She was just glad that she is out there with the people she trusts. Cherry, Joe, Shadow, Miya, Langa...

'Wait, where's Reki?'

After that headcount, (Y/n)'s eyes shoot open out of a realization of the missing person she was referring to. Now that she stops and thinks about it, she hasn't seen Reki throughout the race anywhere. Without making that much of a fuss about it, she relaxes in Cherry's hold as she thinks of a plan.

'It's fine. I'll find Reki if it's the last thing I'll do! Nothing can get in my way!

.

.

.

'Are we there yet?'

~~~~~~~~~~

Both Joe and Cherry stand in the empty hot spring with (Y/n) standing next to the AI skater. It was like a ghost town there. There were no familiar faces of their friends in sight.

"I guess we're the first ones to make it here," Joe states the obvious as he looks around.

Cherry looks at the green-haired male with a stern look. "There's no 'we' about it. I beat you," He tells Joe, recalling the race the two had when going to the hot spring. You probably couldn't tell at normal speed, but if you were to have stopped time a millisecond before they reached their location, you would be able to see that Cherry's skateboard made it before Joe's.

Joe gets ticked off by this as he glares at Cherry. "Cheater! That doesn't count!" Joe yells at him. When looking in his direction, he was expecting to see a nine-year-old standing beside him, but the spot beside the AI skater was not occupied by the said child. "Hey, where'd the kid go?"

At that question, Cherry looks down to where he remembers he last saw (Y/n) but soon realizes that she is no longer by his side. In fact, she doesn't seem to be in the area at the moment now that he looks around.

"She was just here a moment ago," Cherry states as he scans his surroundings, but that doesn't sound like a good answer that the other male was expecting to hear.

"Oh, God, Kaoru! You said you were going to watch her!" Joe states, starting to sound agitated as he begins to look around for (Y/n), which gets his childhood friend anxious at the situation. "It was your fault! You distracted me!" Cherry tells Joe.

"How did I distract you?!"

"You directed my attention from her to you, you lousy gorilla!"

"You're just making excuses!"

Not wanting to sound like a married couple arguing amongst each other, they break the tension between them and start calling out to the missing child. No matter how often they called your name, they never got a response back, making them worry about how far you explored.

'So, where exactly are you?' you might be asking.

(Y/n)'s POV

'Don't worry, Reki! I'll save you! I'll find you and lead you in the right direction... hopefully.'

.

.

.

In all honesty, I don't even know if I'm going in the right direction. My mind is still a little hazy from the alcohol I drank earlier, but I think I'll manage. I still have a working mind and my smartness is, like, 25% accurate... 'Wait, how much is 25%?'

As I was doing some math in my head, something catches my eye. Looking left and right, I see that there's another path. This must have been the fork road where Carla told Cherry and Joe to take the left path, which is where I'm currently standing.

I look at the right path, which is where I remember seeing Langa and the others go to get to the hot spring. But if that's the path they took, then that probably means that the path that connects the two is the way back to where we left Reki.

'Wow, this 25% of my working brain can really help out!'

But before I can make a move, I hear the sound of people talking. Well, it was more like someone was complaining and the other one was sounding a bit reasonable. Turning to the source of the voices, I see a light-blue head and a redhead getting closer to the forked path that I'm at.

'Blue and red? Heh heh, that makes purple...'

"(Y/n)?"

Hearing someone say my name gets my attention. I look at the two figures that were standing a few feet away from me and see familiar faces. One face being Langa and the other being...

"Reki!!" I yell as I run in the boy's direction. Once in arm's reach, I wrap my arms around the redhead's waist as I bury my face in the kimono-looking outfit he was wearing. "I found you! My mission has been accomplished!" The sound of my muffled voice reaches the teenager's ears.

I hear Reki ask Langa something in the Japanese language, probably asking what I was saying. Langa responded to him, most likely translating what I said. I'm just so glad that I have a friend who can translate everything that I'm saying. I wouldn't know how I would get through everything around here.

3rd POV

The three skaters continued to go up the path Langa took to get to the hot spring. Reki was still complaining about uphill and how much it sucks while Langa was holding (Y/n)'s hand as they walked. But as they were walking, a horrible stench traveled past Langa's nose, which didn't affect him that much but he still felt the urge to point it out.

"Something smells funny," He states, which causes Reki to freak out a bit.

"Me?" The redhead asks as he looks everywhere on his body.

"Not like that. It smells like a gross mixture of mud, oil, and wild animals," Langa explains. Out of curiosity, Reki smells the air and can smell the same odor Langa described. "Oh, yeah! It's bizarre! What is that?" Reki asks as he looks at what's in front of him.

Something ahead of the group catches the three kids' attention. It was a figure covered in mud and was laying down flat on the ground. Looking at it, they had no idea who it could be, but looking closer, they could see a gross image of Shadow looking dead on the floor with muddy handprints all over his body.

"It kind of looks like..." Langa starts but then stops when he realizes who it was.

"Oh, hey, Shadow," (Y/n) says as she waves at the figure of the clown skater.

"Shadow?!" Reki and Langa say after hearing Shadow's name leave the child's mouth. The three run up to the dead-looking skater to see if he was alright. "Are you okay?" Reki asks, but once he gets a whiff of the stench, he backs off while covering his nose as Langa does the same. (Y/n) didn't get too close, so the smell didn't affect her as much as the others.

"That's what we smelled earlier," Langa points out as he looks at his two friends. Looking at the handprints on Shadow's back, Langa gets more curious. "Are those marks made with... Mud?"

All of a sudden, Shadow gains enough consciousness to look up at the three with a terrified look on his face. "Run away... Get out of here... They're gonna be..." Shadow's raspy voice didn't get the chance to finish because he lost consciousness once again, which freaks out the redhead of the group.

"Who's 'they,' Shadow?" Reki asks as he leans closer, but backs off once again when he smells the odor radiating off of the male.

"Weren't you with Miya? Where is he?" Langa asks but follows the same action Reki did once smelling the muddy stench.

(Y/n), out of curiosity, leans forward and smells the stench, but then backs off with her hand covering her nose as she groans out of discomfort.

The sound of someone screaming snaps the group out of their miserable state and look in the direction they heard it. "Did you hear that?" Langa asks with his fingers pinching his nose to block out the smell from entering. "Yeah, I think it was Miya's voice," Reki guesses.

Langa and Reki were the first ones to run in the same direction before the nine-year-old follows them in pursuit. They continue sprinting until they see Miya laying face down on the ground, covered in the same handprints Shadow had.

"Miya!" The group yells out as Reki kneels to check on the cat boy.

"Hey, get up!" Reki tells his unconscious body but leans his head back while covering his nose because of the stench. Langa kneels beside Reki as he checks on Miya.

"What happened?" He asks but mimics Reki's actions with his hand covering his nose.

(Y/n) kneels in between the boys and smells the black-haired boy, getting the same result as when she smelled Shadow and leans away from the odor.

"Reki, (Y/n), look," Langa points out as he sees a masked face drawn out on the ground near Miya's fingers. It looks as if the boy had drawn that with the mud before he lost consciousness.

"It's that mark from the map," Reki says as he recognizes the symbol.

"Is that it?" Langa asks, which catches (Y/n)'s attention as she recognizes the words leaving Langa's mouth.

"Is what it?" (Y/n) asks in Japanese as more of her knowledge is coming back to her than before. She wasn't that active when everyone talked about the marking on the map back at the inn, so she doesn't quite remember the conversation.

"The thing that shows up," Langa tells her. Even though he said that in Japanese, (Y/n) sort of understood what he said. 'Something that shows up?' is all she could think. Reki starts to freak out inside and tells Langa to cut it out about the topic.

"Don't say it!"

"But we--"

"I'm serious!"

"This is--"

"Lalalalalalala!" Reki tries to block off Langa's voice as he covers his ear with one hand, afraid of what he has to say about this situation.

Out of nowhere, the sound of leaves crunching followed by muddy footsteps could be heard coming from behind the three skaters. Reki flinches as his facial expression changes into a terrified one.

"Is it the cat?" Langa asks.

"I hope so," Reki replies with a terrified tone in his voice.

"It sounds a little weird to be a cat."

"Who are we to say what sounds cats can and can't make?"

"What cat?" (Y/n) asks. The three shakily turn around to see who or what was there. Standing there a few feet away from them is a figure covered in muddy leaves with a mask covered over its face as it holds a long stick. Seeing this terrifying scene scares the two teens, but as for (Y/n)... "Kon'nichiwa, Mister Cat!" She says with a wave, not sounding scared at all.

But right after she yelled that Reki and Langa scream in horror, terrified of the muddy figure. The two quickly get up and run off along the path, not even realizing that they left behind an unprotected child.

After a bit of running, jumping over a hill, and skating down the path, the two teens ease off a bit, feeling that they got away from the unknown creature. "I think we lived," Reki and Langa say as they exhale a sigh.

Looking around, it wasn't until then Langa noticed that someone was missing. "Hey, where's (Y/n)?" the snowboarder asks, which catches Reki's attention. After the redhead looks around, the uncomforting feeling of fear returns inside him.

"Did we really just leave her?!" Reki screams out as he looks at Langa with the same terrified facial expression, worried for his little friend.

But before they could say anything else, the horrible stench enters their nose, which confuses them. Looking back, they see that the same muddy creature is following right behind them.

"How does that thing keep finding us?!"Reki yells as Langa screams out of fear. They look down and see how it was able to follow them at that speed. "What the...? It's riding on Shadow's board!" Langa states as he sees the familiar-looking skateboard.

"Is it even allowed to do that?" Reki then asks, out of confusion and fear mixed together.

The two turn a corner and try to lose the figure riding on Shadow's board, but it has the skill of a pro skater because it was still on their tail.

"Wow," Langa says as he observes the scene behind him.

"Are you judging its skills?!" Reki asks his friend.

"No, look," Langa says as he points in the direction of the muddy creature. Wondering what the snowboarder was amazed by, the redhead turns around to see the creature skating down the path, but he also notices another presence behind it.

"Weeeee!" (Y/n) yells in excitement with a smile on her face as she follows shortly after the muddy creature. She was covered in mud and skating on Miya's board as she held onto one end of the long stick that the creature was holding just to keep up with the group.

"(Y/n)?!" Reki yells out in confusion about her presence. "What is she doing with that thing?!"

"Maybe she friended it?" Langa suggests, but that doesn't please the redhead.

"No! She's obviously possessed!"

After turning another corner, Langa pulled a Casper Slide while Reki pulled a Railside, the creature, including the girl, was still able to catch up with the two. Reki sees this and becomes dumbfounded.

"Shut up," He says with wide eyes.

"Wow, he's good!" Langa says with stars in his eyes.

Reki turns to his friend, looking offended. "He's trying to kill us!" He yells.

"Hey, guys!"

The two teens look beside them and see that (Y/n) was now skating beside them. "Aghh! She's possessed!" Reki yells while putting his hands in front of him, using his index fingers to form a cross. Langa doesn't seem freaked out about her being "possessed" or not and looks at her as if she didn't have muddy handprints all over her.

"(Y/n), what happened to you?" Langa asks her in English.

"Oh, Mister Cat over there covered me in mud, but it's fine. I don't think he's trying to do anything bad to us," (Y/n) tries to treasure the two. Keyword: tries. Even though Langa could understand what she was saying, Reki had no clue what the girl was saying.

"Langa, what is she saying? I don't--" Reki didn't get the chance to finish his sentence because he felt a stick poking his leg. Startled by this he jerks forward, causing his board to tip. He loses balance and starts to fall back toward the ground.

Everything felt like it was in slow motion for him as he fell, but a hand broke his fall as it grabbed onto his hand, straightening him up as whoever grabbed him connected his board with the redhead's and slams it back down on the ground.

"It's gonna be okay," Langa reassures Reki as he holds him up. Reki gives Langa a thankful smile. "You totally just saved my life!" the redhead says.

"Hey, look! It's more brothers!" Hearing the child's voice, the two teens look ahead and see a lot more of the muddy creatures standing in their path. There was no way they could dodge them.

Reki and Langa scream out of pure fear at the horrifying scene in front of them. After every second, their fear grew more and more as they got closer and the muddy creature behind them drew closer.

And in one second, everything turned black for the three kids as they accept their fate... including the nasty stench.

Timeskip

It's the next day and everyone is back on the ferry to Okinawa. The night before, after hearing each other's stories about the mud creatures, they took their time in the shower to wash all of that mud off of them. But even though the mud was gone, they could still smell a little bit of the odor.

"Ugh! I can still smell it," Hiromi complains after smelling his arm. Everyone else was sitting in chairs that were near two vending machines. (Y/n) was in front of one as she was deciding on what to get from it, ignoring the conversation everyone was having amongst each other.

"I never realized you were so sensitive," Miya says, not taking his eyes off his Nintendo. The orange-haired male sends a glare to the black-haired boy. "I work in a flower shop. They're not too cool when you smell bad," Hiromi tells Miya.

"Restaurants are the same way," Kojiro says, jumping into the conversation.

Behind him, Langa was deep in thought as an image of the muddy creature never leaves his mind. "That guy sure was fast, wasn't he?" the snowboarder says out loud, which catches the two adults' attention.

"Was it a human?" Kaoru asks as he takes his eyes off his tablet and looks at Langa with his sunglasses over his eyes. "Had to be a ghost~" Kojiro says in a scary tone, which gets Reki all freaked out.

"There's no way!" The redhead says, trying not to believe their suggestions.

"Then tell us what it was," Hiromi tells Reki. With that, everyone in the group goes completely silent before speaking in unison.

"I have no idea what it could be."

From behind the group, (Y/n) knelt down and reaches into the vending machine, taking out a water bottle from the open slot. But upon standing up and turning to walk away, a flyer flies into her face. Startled by its presence, she takes the paper off her face and looks at what's on it.

It was just a normal flyer with words on it, but at the bottom left corner of the paper, (Y/n) sees a picture of the mud creatures that she saw the night before. Looking back at the words on the flyer, her eyes widen a bit...

"I still can't read."

Shrugging, she lets the flyer go as she proceeds to walk back to the group. She couldn't wait to get back home. She wanted to go back to "S" and see if anything has changed ever since she left.

Probably not, but she still has to complete one of her missions that is just waiting to be accomplished. She still needs to find her dad, and not being at "S" kind of had her miss out on "beefs" that she could have possibly had.

But, no matter how long it takes, she will find her dad. She just needs to think of a new strategy to use to search for him.