*Present day*

*Nodachi POV*

My eyes opened slowly for what seemed like the first time in ages. My body felt heavy, it took everything in me to rise up and survey the unfamiliar scenery. I was in a cold, dark cave. I couldn't see anything, but I could hear faint footsteps moving around in the darkness.

"Zero?" I called out. The footsteps stopped suddenly.

"Noda? Finally you're awake." Zero said.

"Finally? How long have I been out?!" I asked.

"2 days." He said.

I had been out for 2 days?! I started to panic. I laid here unconscious for all this time while Kaori's out there all alone. Not to mention what came of Max and Pakuyo! I winced as I tried to jump quickly off the ground, looking for my phone. Back in the alleyway I had exerted more than 100% of what my body was capable of, so it made sense that I couldn't move freely. The power I felt was amazing, my body practically moved on its own in a flash. I began to rummage around frantically in search of my cellphone but was interrupted by a warm hand on my arm.

"Don't panic. What do you need?" Zero asked. His voice was monotone as usual but he sounded as if he was actually concerned about me. I couldn't see him through the darkness so I looked up at what I assumed was his face.

"M-my phone." I said.

He leaned down closely, close enough that I could feel his long hair tickling my shoulder. He reached around me and grabbed something lodged under my thigh and freed it with a firm tug. He placed the cold object in my hands before stepping back finally.

"You're sitting on it."

"T-thanks." I said weirdly. "Not everyone can see through the darkness you know."

I typed in my passcode quickly, it was my sister's birthday so I could never forget it. My notification tab was full of missed calls from Kaori. Relief filled my body, causing me to fall back suddenly against the cave wall. She was okay, my little genius could survive anything.

"Of course she's okay Noda."  Wisteria chimed into my head.

"Wis! You're okay too!" I said out loud earning a weird look from Zero whose face I could finally see from the faint glow of my phone screen.

"Wis? Have you decided to change my name?"  She asked.

"No!" I sighed. "It's a nickname."

"A nick..name?"

"We'll talk later!" I exclaimed.

I opened my favorite contacts and scrolled past Max and Pakuyo-san's numbers to find Kaori. The phone rang for what felt like forever.

Riiiing. Riiiing. Riiiing. Click!

"Noda! Are you okay? I've been calling you!" Kaori screamed as the call connected causing me to pull the phone away from my ear. I could visualize the small frown on her face as she finished.

"I'm fine, Kaori how are you?! Where's Max?"

"I'm okay... but Max..." She paused. My chest started to feel tight as it usually did when I was going to cry.

"Kaori. Where Max?" I said shakily.

"H-he protected me Noda! And they took him away for it!" Kaori was full on sobbing at this point. I tried my hardest to keep it together for her sake, but I couldn't keep my breathing from accelerating at the news. Tears began to stream from my eyes against my strongest will.

"W-what do you mean.."  I managed to get out. Zero was staring intently at me at this point, I had forgotten about his super hearing. Kaori didn't respond, she just let out deep heavy sobs into the phone. I started to hear commotion from her end as if she dropped her phone and it was moving across the ground.

"Nodachi." Pakuyo spoke firmly into the phone.

"Pakuyo-san, that's not true right? They could never get Max right?" I asked him.

"Nodachi, I need you to calm down." He said calmly.

"How could you let this happen...." I muttered.

"I'm sorry but there's no time to talk now, they could be listening. Where are you now?"

"We're in my cave." Zero spoke up, realizing the in-shock state I was trapped in.

"You must be Zero, Kaori told me of your bravery. Thank you for saving her precious life." Pakuyo said solemnly.

"I should be thanking her, she saved me." Zero said. "I know you, you're Heavy Metal Hara, the runaway captain of Blade right?"

Pakuyo paused for a moment. My head snapped towards Zero in confusion.

"Captain?!" I yelled. Zero made a face as if he knew he had messed up.

"Nodachi I-" Pakuyo started.

"The people who attacked us? The people who took Max!?" I yelled.

"My past is a complex topic Nodachi, now is hardly the time to unravel it." He said.

Anger welled up inside of me. The thing I wanted so badly to be false was actually true, Pakuyo was keeping secrets from us. I always thought he trusted us more than anything, or at least that was what he told us. The Pakuyo I thought I knew hated the government and what they stood for and would never join them, especially to be ordered around by Daizen. Now probably wasn't the time to project my emotions, but I was feeling strongly about too many things at the moment.

"You've been a liar all these years and now you can't talk about it?!" I yelled into the phone.

Everyone paused for a moment. Zero looked at me as if even he knew I had gone too far.

"I want you kids to lay low, until I can make it there." Pakuyo said avoiding the confrontation.

"The cave is-" Zero tried.

"Don't say it over the phone. I'll find you." Pakuyo interrupted.

The phone hung up abruptly.

Zero got up and walked away silently, leaving me to bask in my feelings. I didn't want to be angry with Pakuyo-san but my heart wouldn't allow me to let it go. Prior to today, I couldn't recall an actual lie Pakuyo-san ever told me. Now I wondered how many secrets he had kept from me whilst claiming he trusted me more than anyone. Now Max has been taken, he wasn't here to annoy us or cause problems for me to fix, things I thought I hated but found myself missing at this moment. It drove me crazy to not know if he was okay while being so close to Daizen and his evil committee of underlings. I wiped my tear soaked face with my shirt and winced at how filthy it was.

"Here, these are for you." Zero said, tossing a soft lump into my lap.

"My clothes?" I asked.

"I mean your apartment was..open I guess." He said.

I unraveled the ball of clothing, a large object fell to the ground with a loud thud. I slid my hand across the rugged ground in search of the item.

"Here." Zero picked it up and placed it in my hand. I pulled out my phone and turned on the flashlight. I immediately recognized the old, worn book as my dear sketchbook that held all my deepest and most trivial secrets. My face grew warm as embarrassment welled up inside me.

"Y-you-" I tried.

"Don't worry, I didn't open it." Zero interrupted.

"D-do you promise?!" I half yelled.

"Yeah." He chuckled.

The promise may seem kiddy, but it actually did make me feel better. I wrote and drew everything I felt in this book. It was my way of expressing my emotions all my life, I wasn't big on opening up to people about depressing feelings. It wasn't all bad though, I also drew everything I love or dreamt for in this world. Somebody reading it would be too much for me to handle right now. I looked up at Zero.

"How did you know?" I asked him.

"It just looked important." He shrugged.

I forced back the tears I could feel welling up in my eyes. I wasn't sad, I was actually shocked and relieved that Zero would think to grab my precious book.We probably can never go back to that apartment at this point.

"Thanks, that was sweet." I said genuinely.

He took a seat next to me.

"Why are you helping me?" I asked breaking the short silence. He didn't respond immediately he just looked off into the darkness, thinking.

"You don't have to respond-" I started.

"No it isn't that." He said suddenly. "It's just.. where I come from people like you don't exist."

"What do you mean?" I asked. I was actually very curious about Zero's background, Wis still doesn't fully trust him but he was really helpful towards me and Kaori. His powers were weird and creepy though.

"Helping people, being kind and powerful at the same time. It didn't seem possible." He said quietly.

"Where are you from?" I asked. He looked down at his hands that rested in his lap. It was silent for a while again as he thought to himself.

"The first thing I remember is darkness." He started. "I was born into a secret government facility, I wasn't aware of the outside world for the majority of my life."

I was shocked, but I remembered he could see me and tried not to let it show on my face. I just glared intently at the small portion of his face I could see.

"Daizen hates Spotted Ones, but he knew it would be dumb not to recognize them as valuable assets in battle. The only way he could ensure their loyalty to him however, was to create them himself." Zero explained.

Feelings of pity and sorrow swirled around my brain as I connected the dots. I'd heard of people forcing a certain mark onto a person, but Kaori had told me it was almost unsurvivable.

"So Daizen... tortured you?" I asked quietly.

"He did. But not in the way that you think, he didn't use knives or acid on me. At least not all the time. He specifically attacked my brain to awaken this mark he had in mind." He started.

"Is he the one who hurt your eyes?" I could feel faint feelings of anger building up inside of me.

"You could say that. My eyes are fine though. Like I said darkness was the first and only thing I remember, so now it just feels like home. Eventually the darkness grew to love me back, so now I'm able to see through it. I've opened them before, but the world I saw was hardly worth it. So now I'll keep them closed until there's something worth looking at with my real eyes."

I listened carefully to Zero's sad story. He never looked up from his hands the whole time he spoke. I was speechless, I couldn't find the right words to explain how I was feeling. I decided I trusted him though, if what he said was genuine then we were definitely on the same side.

"There's one more thing I found that looked important." Zero spoke up finally. He reached into his pocket and revealed a small folded sheet of paper.

"What's this?" I took the piece of paper from him.

"It was out on the balcony when I got there, It definitely wasn't there when I left. I don't know what it says." He said.

"Let's read it together." I said. I slowly unfolded the ragged piece of scratch paper. It read:

Blades are sharp indeed, but can always be sharper,

For the source of the great weapon lies just beyond the hidden harbor.

- Chandler

I thought hard about the cryptic words, but nothing seemed to resonate with me.

"What does that mean? And who's Chandler?" I asked.

"Chandler's one of the Blade bastards, but the riddle nonsense is going over my head." Zero said.

"It's probably meant for Pakuyo then. I guess we'll just show it to him whenever he shows up." I said flatly.

"I don't know how you became so close with someone as infamous as him, but I think you should take it easy on him." Zero said.

"And why is that?"

"He was definitely a fearsome government assassin but the story of how he gained his powers is legend. It's said he was forced to carve out an entire mountain for Daizen." He said.

"What!?" I yelled.

"He's one of the first people with his government rank to successfully defect, i'm sure it's not a subject he can talk about freely." Zero reasoned.

I never knew Pakuyo-san went through something like that at Daizen's hands. I couldn't imagine him experiencing the same types of torment that Zero described for himself. I reached up and started to fondle my necklace.

"Pakuyo has always been like a father to us, yet we've never even seen his house. I just feel a little weird not knowing so much about someone I call family." I said candidly.

Zero nodded understandingly and turned towards me.

"Now why don't you tell me why you're so weird." He said.

"Weird?!" I said with my hand dramatically clutching my heart.

"Yeah you talk to yourself sometimes. And back in the alleyway you turned into some badass and then just passed out for days." He said. I rubbed the back of my head nervously.

"I guess that is pretty weird." I said. "It's a long story that I can't even comprehend fully myself. I know it's selfish since you told me your secrets, but I think it's a topic for another time."

Zero held up his hand and outstretched his pinky finger towards me.

"Now it's your turn to promise." He said.

I let out a small laugh and met his finger with mine, locking them firmly together.

"I promise."

Suddenly our vow was interrupted by approaching footsteps, causing Zero to let go of my hand and jump to his feet. "Stay quiet." He said.

The footsteps continued to approach, when I noticed Zero's tensed body relax suddenly. The culprits came into view, I noticed the glimmer from his long silver hair first.

"Pakuyo-san!" I yelled.

Nodachi's emotions are on full display in this chapter!

Should she have snapped at Pakuyo?

How do you feel about Zero and his touching story?

Secrets are never any fun.

To be continued in Chapter 10!