*Max POV*

We had been walking in silence for a while. Chandler, my mysterious kidnapper hadn't spoken to me since he slapped a pair of green handcuffs on me and nullified my powers. Even then he only said "Sorry kid." which totally contradicted his previously smug and talkative demeanor. He strayed slightly behind me as if anticipating my possible escape.

We were no longer in the city, we had ventured all the way to the outskirts where the only thing lighting the streets was an occasional moth covered street light. He had taken my phone and tossed it into the river as we passed it, leaving me with a weird empty feeling in my right pocket. Suddenly the small walkie talkie attached to his pants started to buzz, breaking me out of my thoughts. It reminded me of the walkie talkie I ga- Oh that's right! I had given Kaori a walkie talkie that connects to the one at my secret spot. If I can make it there maybe I can talk to Noda, new found hope filled my body.

"Ch-chandler?" An injured sounding male voice said.

"Slayer. Where are you?" Chandler asked worriedly.

"I'm with Misa. She's in bad shape, I found her unconscious and covered in blood she still hasn't woken up yet. I'm not doing so well either, I stalled Pakuyo for as long as I could." Slayer said.

"Misa was beaten?!" Chandler said.

"The Torodami girl is stronger than we expected, we weren't able to capture her what should we do?" Slayer asked.

"You two get medical help immediately, I was able to capture the electric kid. I'll take him to the captain and if I see the Torodami girl, I'll take her down." Chandler ordered.

I winced at the violent mention of Nodachi.

"Roger." He said.

"So you're not the captain? I thought you were the strongest." I said to him.

"Our captain is a different story. You should tread lightly around him." He said.

The tone of his voice sent chills through my body. How tough could this captain guy be?

We continued walking through the outskirts until we came up a small clearing of trees on a very small cliff that overlooked the ocean.

"Where are we going?" I asked. He didn't reply, he just reached into his pocket and pulled out a small metal device with a singular button on the front. He turned it over and firmly clicked it. A few seconds later, I started to hear the faint roar of a quiet motor coming from the direction of the ocean. A small black dot, that turned out to be a boat as it got closer, approached us slowly and parked at the base of the plateau. A large logo could be seen on the side: Tuzo Confinement.

"Took ya' long enough!" The driver of the boat spoke loudly. His voice sounded oddly familiar. I looked closer at the man, he noticed my gaze and returned a shocked expression to me. I knew this man, he was the the one who first showed me that crazy place. It was on a boat just like this that I stumbled on and he said "Hey kid, what's gotten into ya' head?"

He was a large, chubby, fair-skinned man with short brown hair. He looked to be about 40 years old, and his belly protruded from his body and poked out slightly from his green military uniform. Danny was his name, after a long unprecedented conversation about my situation and my purposes in life, he offered to show me a place I would never forget. He was actually very kind, I might even call us friends.

"Danny. What's the problem?" Chandler asked.

"W-who's this kid ya' got here Chandler? I thought ya' were here for Torodami girls." Danny said nervously.

He was acting like he didn't know me. I understood, if they found out he was associated with me he'd probably be in big trouble. I broke my gaze on him and looked down at my feet.

"Things got complicated, we were forced to settle for just him."  Chandler shrugged. "Get on."

I dropped down into the small boat, struggling to keep my balance as Chandler dropped down behind me and shook the boat vigorously. Chandler took a seat on the bench outside and motioned for me to sit across from him, while Danny took his place in the small captains quarters. He turned the boat towards the dark horizon, and we glided over the water with the soft engine hum as the only source of sound. I knew the horizon was fake though, Daizen selfishly had The Forest hidden behind a vale somehow. I looked over at Chandler, he had a small journal in his hand jotting mindlessly inside of it. He was apart of Blade, but no matter how hard I tried I couldn't sense anything evil from him.

"Why did you spare Kaori?" I asked.

Chandler stopped writing abruptly and looked up at me.

"Why did you sacrifice yourself for her?" He asked. "You don't even know if you'll survive this boat ride, yet you stood up for her."

"Well, she's like my little sister. I can't... I can't let anything happen to her, I wouldn't be able to face her." I said.

"Face who?" Chandler asked.

"Nodachi."

"Nodachi? The Torodami girl? Is she your girlfriend?" Chandler spoke with a face that seemed a little too serious for the question he had just asked.

"That seems a little besides the point." I retorted.

"Do you love them?" He asked with his eyes wide.

"O-of course I do." I answered weirdly.

This guy was really creeping me out. He seemed very out of place in any government agency, I've never heard one of them say anything that wasn't rude or evil.

"To have enough love to sacrifice yourself for the doomed, is a trait I think this society would benefit from adapting. I couldn't ignore your pathetic last stand, I'm not heartless." He added a surprisingly playful tone of voice as he finished speaking.

"Doomed?!" I exclaimed. He sat up and leaned forward so we were face to face. The night air was crisp as I felt it crawl across the back of my neck. His icy glare added even more fuel to the fire, we continued to speak quietly as we rode across the dark water.

"He won't stop until he finds them. Daizen feared their parents above all others." He said sternly.

So it really was true, I had began to put the pieces together back when they called her by that weird name. Torodami Rico was their father, the most dangerous and notorious criminal to exist. It was basically taboo to speak his name around any government officials, especially if you happened to be a Spotted One. What did this mean for Nodachi, she had nothing to do with Project SOR, we were toddlers when the battle went down.

"Nodachi had nothing to do with Rico's crimes." I said angrily.

"Oh, they were hardly crimes. Plus it's her powers that they're scared of, it's said that a similar power almost single handedly won the battle for them."

"Rico had the same mark as Nodachi?" I asked quietly, making sure to keep this conversation confidential. "How did you guys even find out she awakened?"

"Don't trust anyone around you kid." He said eerily. I knew he would never tell me how they got their intel, but I thought I'd try anyways since he was so talkative. He suddenly came close and whispered in my ear.

"Between me and you, old soldiers have told me they never actually spotted Rico on the battlefield." He whispered.

His words caused my thoughts to tangle at that moment.

"Then who-." I tried.

"Enough talk of the dead." He said flatly. We fell into silence for a short moment, leaving me to rack my brain for answers. I had never heard much talk of Nodachi's mother or father, it had always seemed like a sore subject.

"Back then, your creepy friend called Pakuyo sensei." I said to him.

"Heavy Metal is a good man, he has problems with abandonment though." He said. He seemed saddened by the subject.

"So he really did teach you guys." I said looking out over the ocean.

"He was more than our sensei, he was our captain."

I looked intently at Chandler, scanning for any signs of falsehood.

"So he was just like the guy you're so scared of." I said smugly.

"All blades are forged with a beautiful silver steel. You should beware of any blades tainted with different shades, for better or for worse. Especially if it happens to be black." He said as if delivering a profound message.

"What is that even supposed to mean." I sighed. Before he could reply, I felt a rush through my body. We passed through the vale that hid us from this awesome place. I looked up at the sweetly colored skies in awe as usual. It was like stepping into a dream, away from the nasty polluted skies in the city. Behind the abnormally tall trees in the distance, the bottom portion of a stupidly tall mountain could be seen.

"You've been here before." Chandler said sternly, causing my heartbeat to speed up a little bit.

"What do you mean?" I asked shakily.

"That wasn't the reaction of someone who's seeing this place for the first time." He said.

I glanced over at Danny, but he was already in the middle of doing the same. We caught eye contact and turned around quickly. Chandler stood up suddenly, and I began to panic.  He made his way into the captains quarters with Danny, and shut the door behind him. I could see them conversing through the glass, Chandler was still speaking calmly, but Danny had a distressed sort of expression on his face. The boat continued to move towards The Forest and Chandler didn't come back outside until we reached the harbor. As we arrived, dozens of soldiers arrived to greet Chandler, all dressed in signature, ugly Tuzo green. They stood in a neat array forming a walkway of sorts on the beach, leading into the beautiful forest.

"Get up." Chandler said. He reached down and grabbed my hand that were restrained in front of me in handcuffs, and pulled me to my feet. He let go roughly, and I felt an unfamiliar object in the palms he had grabbed. I looked down at at the foreign item, it was a small folded piece of notebook paper. I recognized the pattern from the small notebook he had been writing in earlier. We shared a short gaze, before he turned around and motioned for me to follow him onto the beach.

"Danny. Why don't you go back and wait for Slayer at the cliff." He said. Danny didn't respond, he just started the boat and started to make his way towards the vale, as if saying "Ya' don't have to tell me twice!" What had Chandler said to him in that room that had him so worked up?

We stepped onto the beach, the sand had a pinkish hue to it that reflected from the skies. Every once in a while my attention would be caught by a "comet" or "star" moving majestically across the sky. I didn't really know what they were to be honest. We walked over to the soldiers that were lining up, cheerleader style in front of us, but Chandler halted and we just stood awkwardly in front of it.

"Are we going to walk?" I asked frustrated.

"Keep quiet." He hissed. "This grand of an entrance would never be for me or you."

Before I could respond the energy changed on the beach. Every one there became intimidated, you could literally feel the malice seeping from the human who emerged from the forest. He was a tall, tan skinned man who looked to be in his 40's like Danny or Pakuyo-san. He had long black hair that fell just above his shoulder blades. It was tied into two long locks on either side of his face that reached his chin, with visible grey hair ties that matched the wraps that finished off his all black attire from shin to ankle. A huge government overcoat was thrown over his shoulders. It was all black with a purple interior that flashed with each confident step he took towards us. It was decorated with medals of various color between bronze and gold, but mostly gold.

The most menacing thing about him hung heavily from his left hip. One of the largest weapons I had ever seen in person, It had a long narrow handle but it grew into large rectangle sword that faded into a sharp tip at the end. The handle was wrapped in a pitch black chain that matched the intimidatingly dark shade of his entire great blade. Half of the chain was in his hand though, he was swinging it counter-clockwise, rattling loudly. He walked through the lines of soldiers, every one of them desperately avoiding catching his attention.

He turned around in front of us and raised his hand, with one swift motion, all of the soldiers saluted and scrambled into a wall like position blocking us between the trees and the ocean. This man was unlike anything I had seen before, and now I understood why. In a bold, dark purple writing, there was text plastered vertically on his back.. I squinted hard to read it, the Japanese kanji for the word "Captain" stared back at me.

What's the deal with Chandler?

The feared captain, Black Blade Zeke finally makes his appearance!

What did Chandler say to Danny?

"Beware.... especially if the blade is black!"

-Cam-sensei

To be continued in Chapter 12!