Maria knew something was amiss as soon as they came within sight of the clearing. She paused for a moment, wondering if she had taken a wrong turn somewhere, but a quick look at the map she'd brought confirmed their location. She stepped in, and the two soldiers who had brought her there followed cautiously.

"Kanna?" Receiving no answer, she called out for the others, but to no avail.

"Tachibana-san...," one of the soldiers said, pointing off to one side, indicating a wide, torn path into the forest.

Beset by sudden fear, she drew her gun and moved quickly down the trail. It didn't take her long to get to the end. There was nothing around but a crackling radio on the ground, Kohran's voice calling out again and again for Sakura.

Holstering the gun, she picked up the communicator. "Kohran," she snapped, "what happened?"

"Maria-han!" Kohran's relieved voice came back. "Sakura-han was just on the radio. She said that something had taken the others. She was trying to make it back to meet you when..."

"How long ago was this?"

"Only a few minutes," the other replied.

Damn. Too late... She ordered the soldiers to move out and search for the others in the surrounding area. "Three women, a man and a dog," she told them. "There should be some signs of them around. Go!" As they rushed to obey, she turned her attention back to the radio. "Kohran, tell Lieutenant Shinagawa about this. I'll need some more men here to help us look for them."

"They couldn't have gotten too far off, could they?"

"You tell me," she said, picking a random direction and starting down it. "From the looks of this, something's taken Kanna by force. Anything strong enough to drag her kicking and screaming through a forest is probably capable of anything."

The inventor let out an uncomfortable sigh. "Okay. I'm on my way to see the Lieutenant. Watch yourself, Maria-han," Kohran cautioned her and was gone.

Right. She slung the communicator over a shoulder, drew her gun once more and commenced searching.

It was a dark and sombre arrival in the village, hours later. As the military jeep slowed to a halt, Maria dismounted and walked up to the waiting Kohran.

"No luck, Maria-han?"

She shook her head. "We found Watanabe," she said, gesturing towards a couple of covered bundles lying in the back of the jeep, "and his dog." Seeing the look on Kohran's face, she explained, "Looks like they'd been running from something. He took a wrong step and... well. The dog was cut up pretty badly. Talon marks by the looks of it."

"The others...?"

Maria's expression darkened. "No sign," she replied icily. "Shinagawa."

"He's in Ootani-han's house," the inventor said, inwardly wincing at the sound of her friend's voice. "I think he's on the radio to his superiors."

Maria nodded and strode over there. She found Shinagawa waiting for her near the entrance to Ootani's house. The foreman was standing next to him with a now-common look of despair on his face. Upon Maria's approach, the man quickly excused himself and scurried off.

"Tachibana-san...," Shinagawa started, but Maria cut him off. "I requested backup," she said.

"I have no more men to spare," Shinagawa returned. "I told you before, my resources are already stretched to the limit. I couldn't spare you any more than I already have."

"You could have at least allowed me to divert some of your men from the training facility."

He shook his head. "Out of the question. Their orders are to remain there no matter what. Their objectives are only to defend that facility and all within it, nothing else."

Her eyes narrowed. "The koubu are fine!" she said harshly. "What good will you gain from protecting the machines when the people who pilot them are missing?"

"I'm sorry, Tachibana-san," he said sincerely, "but I have my orders." He licked his lips uncomfortably.

Knowing that she couldn't convince the man otherwise, Maria turned and left. She met up with Kohran and Orihime just outside. They took one look at her expression and seemed to brace themselves.

"I guess that didn't go well," Kohran said.

"What's the plan now?" Orihime asked.

"We look for them." The older woman looked to each of them in turn, thinking. "Find the demons, and we might find Kanna and the others. Right now, we don't have much to go on. Just the rock face that Kanna told us about. From the way she described it, and from what I've seen so far, there's definitely something there that's lending a strong demonic presence."

"That's still no guarantee that it'll help us find the others, Maria-han," Kohran pointed out.

"I know that, but that's all we have." She understood the reasons behind Kohran's doubts; she herself disliked having to take huge gambles, especially when there was a lot riding on the outcome. She glanced about. "The troops here won't take an active hand, so we're going to have to do this by ourselves."

The other two shrugged. "All right," Orihime said. "So it's the rock face by the hillside. What can we do there?"

"That crevice that Kanna pointed out is only an entrance to a passage that seems to stretch into the hill itself for quite a distance," Maria said. "I couldn't tell how far in it goes when I took a look at it."

Kohran had on a contemplative look. "Hmmm, I think I can whip something up to help us on that score. A seismic scanning device," she said, seeing the questioning look on Maria's face. "It should be able to give us some readings on how extensive the passage is."

"All right, but the entrance is still too small for any of us to fit through, so we'll need something to widen it a lot more if we have to take a look inside."

"No problems there," Kohran said cheerfully. "I just have to make sure I can get enough parts to jury rig the devices up with."

"Then get started," Maria told her. "Take everything you need, even if it is nailed down. Just make them work."

The inventor rubbed her hands together with barely contained glee. "Heh, leave it to me!"

As Kohran took off to her task, Orihime turned to Maria. "What about me?"

"You'll go back to the training facility." Despite herself, she cracked a smile at seeing Orihime's expression. "Round up Leni and Iris and bring them back to the village. I don't think Lieutenant Shinagawa would object to you bringing those two out of there." She paused as a thought occurred to her. "Before you go, ask Kohran if there's anything she'll need from the facility."

"Roger." Orihime saluted and left.

Orihime was back a lot sooner than Maria expected and, in addition to the remaining two members of the team, she seemed to have brought back enough parts and tools for Kohran to build a whole new koubu with. Maria stared in disbelief at the piles of stuff that had been hastily loaded onto the back of the truck.

"And they actually let you out with all of this?" she asked.

Orihime shrugged. "We didn't have any problems at all with the troops there. I'd say they were trying very hard to keep out of our way." She threw a glance at the Russian woman. "No interference at all in the execution of our duties," she said. "Just as the Lieutenant promised."

Maria returned her look. "Good work. Get this over to Kohran." As Orihime and Leni got to work, she wondered just how much of this the inventor was actually going to end up using. She certainly hoped that Kohran's devices wouldn't be too big to take out to the site.

She turned to Iris, who was still waiting nearby. "Hello, Iris. I'm sorry for making you wait so long," she said.

The little girl shrugged. "I'm just glad to be out of there, even if it's because Sumire and the others are in trouble."

"Is there anything to report?" she asked.

"Well, nothing happened over at the facility while you were gone," Iris replied. "But the soldiers there were acting kind of strange sometimes."

"Strange, how?"

"Whenever Leni and I wanted to use our koubu, they acted really nervous." Maria smiled slightly, though it wasn't out of humour. "A lot of them were thinking that we'd steal them and run out of there." Iris look puzzled. "Why'd they be worried about us stealing our own koubu?"

"They have their reasons," she replied. "Were they worried when Orihime came to take the two of you, too?"

Iris nodded. "I think they thought we'd be bringing the koubu along. They were really glad we weren't." She cocked her head to one side, then said, "We called Yoneda-ojichan before we left. Orihime told him what you wanted to do."

"And what did he say?"

"He wasn't happy," she began, then hesitated when she heard Maria's chuckle. "What?"

"Nothing, Iris. Go on."

She gave the blonde a strange look before resuming. "He wasn't happy, but he said that we didn't have any choice, so we should proceed. Uhm. He also said to make sure that we get everyone out of there, but that we should at least leave enough of the hills standing after we're done."

Maria chuckled again. "All right," she said. "Thanks, Iris."

The girl looked around. "What do we do now, Maria?"

"Nothing but wait," she said. "Kohran should have more than enough to build her devices now."

Iris sighed and muttered, "This is going to be as boring as staying at the training facility."

"Enjoy it," Maria told her. "I have a feeling things will get a lot worse once we get started."

Kohran staggered into the house, looking like she'd been hit by a truck. Maria immediately got to her feet and helped her over to the room. They carefully stepped around the other three who were blissfully asleep on their futons.

"They're all ready," the Chinese girl muttered blearily. "Not perfect, but they'll work."

"Good," Maria said. "Now get some sleep."

Kohran was exhausted, but cognizant enough to ask Maria what she was doing up so late. "You should take your own advice, Maria-han."

"I'll turn in soon," Maria assured her.

Kohran was out before her head even hit the pillow.

With sleep continuing to elude her, Maria decided to step outside for a bit. It was a cold night and, despite the ever-present hum of activity over at Ootani's house, it was pretty quiet, too. She had been trying to sleep earlier, but was kept alert by her concern for the missing Hanagumi. She envied Kohran and the others for being able to drop off like that even as she knew that they were just as worried for the missing members' safety as she was.

Thinking about the coming day brought a moment of doubt and she ruthlessly crushed it down almost immediately. She had committed them to this one path by waiting for Kohran to build her gadgets and now was not the time to have second thoughts.

Idly, she flexed her arm, pleased to note that the pain had mostly faded. She had already discarded the sling earlier that day, deciding that she could manage without it.

"You're certainly keeping busy," Yamaguchi's voice said from behind her.

"Good evening, doctor," she said, turning around. "You're up late."

"I could say the same thing about you." He gave her a stern look. "I must say, I've never had a patient as terrible as you, Tachibana-san. No matter how much I tell you to take it easy, you just don't seem to listen."

"There're a lot of things to prepare for."

"I'm not surprised. I heard about what happened," he said. "Ootani-san was very distressed about it."

"It's been an eventful day," she agreed, trying to sound casual about it.

He grunted. "I'm sure it'll be even more eventful tomorrow," he said. "And I'm especially sure that I'll be seeing the results of it once you're done." He sighed. "Well, whatever you have planned, just make sure you don't overextend yourself. I'd hate to have to patch you up again." He walked off towards his clinic, waving over his shoulder.

They set off as soon as it was light. Shinagawa was adamant that he couldn't spare any of his men that day, so they went alone. They drove the truck as far in as they could. When the road petered out and the forests got too thick to drive the vehicle through, they abandoned it and carried Kohran's new machine the rest of the way.

Kohran had assured Maria that she would be making the device as portable as was possible in the short time she had, and she had mostly succeeded. That still didn't mean that it was an easy thing to carry through a forest. In the end, even fastened onto Maria's back and with the others supporting its weight alongside her, it still took them a while to reach the site on foot.

Maria sank to the ground once they arrived, using her arms to keep herself upright whilst the others quickly took the load off of her.

"There we go," Kohran announced, having undone the final buckle that held the machine to the other woman's back. Maria heaved a sigh of relief as the weight vanished. She was already aching all over and drenched with sweat. Her lungs hurt with each breath she took.

"Here," Iris said, handing her a canteen of water. The Russian took it gratefully as Kohran and Leni set up the machine. There was the usual short debate about calibrating the devices, but they finished work quickly.

It was ready by the time Maria had recovered enough of her strength to stand. They watched as Kohran went up to the rock wall and inserted several can-sized pegs into the ground just beyond the crevice. Wiring them all up, she rubbed her hands together and gave the others a thumbs up, then pushed the activation switch.

Nothing seemed to happen at all, but Kohran grew visibly excited as several readings came in through the monitors on the control device.

"What?" Maria asked, coming up to her.

"Should be careful not to make too much noise, Maria-han," Kohran told her before replying to her question. "These readings look promising." She pointed to the screen.

Maria looked but couldn't see anything significant beyond a lot of squiggly lines. "They do?"

Kohran nodded. "There's definitely a passage leading into the hill itself. Looks pretty deep." She made a couple of adjustments, then waited a bit. She looked impressed as she studied the results.

"What is it?"

"The passage is very extensive," she said. "It seems to link together several chambers inside. See?" She pointed to the screen again. "Some of these chambers look like big ones, too."

"Big enough to hold a demon or two?" Maria asked.

"That one there's enough to hold three Kannas," Kohran said, smiling. "I'd say that's pretty darned big."

"Can you make out anything alive in there?"

"Hold on." A few more adjustments. "Can't really say. There are some things in there that might be organic and alive, but it's hard to be sure." She shrugged. "I've cranked it up as much as I can, but I'm afraid Hibiki-kun isn't powerful enough to tell us."

Maria looked puzzled. "Hibiki-kun?" Orihime snickered.

Kohran's face turned red. "Ah, you know...," she said, chuckling weakly. "It works by using sound waves and capturing the echoes..." She trailed off, seeing Maria's face. "Um, anyway, do you want me to keep at it? Hibiki-kun's range is limited, but we've already got readings indicating that this passage goes in for more than two hundred metres. It seems to go down a lot further."

"No, I think this'll do. It certainly sounds like it's worth taking a closer look inside." She stood. "We need to widen the opening a little more."

"Right," Kohran said, flicking a switch. "I'll just get my... Uh-oh." There was an ominous series of muffled, irregular thumping sounds coming from the buried pegs.

Everyone, already familiar with Kohran's track record, didn't need any further warning. Maria and Orihime quickly grabbed hold of the inventor and pulled her away from the machine as they dove for cover.

Kohran's machine exploded in a shower of dirt, metal and smoke a scant moment later. The Hanagumi didn't venture out from the cover of trees until the debris stopped raining down. It took several more minutes for the smoke to clear.

"Aaaa!" Kohran's agonised cry rang throughout the clearing. "My poor Hibiki-kun!" She slumped, disconsolate. "Even the monitor's blown... Ootani-han's gonna kill me."

"Ootani?" Maria asked, coughing slightly.

Kohran nodded. "He and a couple of his men borrowed the monitor from Lieutenant Shinagawa's people. I promised I'd get it back to him before he got into trouble...," she moaned, hunched over the smoking remains of her invention.

"Maria-san," Leni called. "Look there."

"Well, well," Orihime said, impressed. "It looks like your Hibiki-kun went out with quite a bang. I think even Maria-san will be able to fit through there now."

Maria went over to Kohran. "Come on," she said. "We've still got to go look for Kanna and the others. The sooner we get moving, the better. That explosion is bound to attract some attention this way."

Kohran sniffed, brushed away the soot marks from her face and took a deep breath. "Right," she said a moment later. She picked up a pack, rummaged inside it and brought out a flashlight. "Ready."

Despite the widened opening that the explosion had created, Maria still had a few problems squeezing through. It was with a lot of struggling and maneouvering, but once she was in, she found just a little more space to move about. Iris, of course, had the easiest time and teleported her way in even though she could just as easily fit through the entrance. Pausing for a while to regain her breath, Maria watched with a little envy as Iris appeared in front of her in a bright shower of golden light. She sighed.

"Are you okay, Maria-san?" Orihime asked.

"I'm fine," she replied.

Kohran swept the beam of her light around. The passage was only slightly more than four feet high. Iris and Leni wouldn't have much trouble, but the others would definitely have to stoop and crawl as they moved along.

"Good thing I didn't bring my bazooka," Kohran remarked. Now that she seemed to have put the demise of her latest creation behind her, she sounded like an excited schoolgirl out on a field trip.

Since the corridors were so narrow, they moved in single file. Kohran took the lead, followed by Leni, Iris, Orihime and finally Maria. At first, progress through the passage was slow as the others had to stop frequently and wait for the Russian to catch up. After a while, though, they came into a fairly large chamber that had a ceiling tall enough to allow everyone to straighten up. Mindful of the stalactites that hung just inches from the top of her head, Maria stood, thanking her stars for the brief chance to stretch.

Kohran moved up ahead a little then returned. "There's still a fair way to go," she reported. "This tunnel branches off a little further down." She looked at Maria. "It starts out a bit low, but you'll be able to stand and walk after about fifteen metres down."

Maria nodded. "Let's move."

As Kohran promised, Maria was soon able to move a little better even though she still had to hunch slightly. They reached the junction.

"Which way?" Iris asked. She was keeping close to Leni, who was peering into the darkness.

"Should we split up?" Orihime asked.

They looked both ways and weighed their choices. "No," Maria said slowly, speaking for everyone. She pondered a moment, then randomly chose a direction, deciding that one way was as good as another right now. Before they started down there, though, Kohran paused and pulled something out from her pack. It looked like a short stub of chalk, but when she drew it across the left side of the tunnel, they saw that it left a clearly glowing mark on the wall.

The Chinese girl grinned. "I got the paint from a friend of mine," she explained. "Good thing I packed it in my kit, huh?"

They walked on. Iris came up to Kohran.

"Nee, Kohran...?"

"What is it, Iris?"

"How much of that paint do you have with you?"

"Uhm, half a can left back at headquarters," Kohran said. "Why?"

"I was just wondering if I could get my koubu painted with that," Iris said sweetly.

"Certainly not," Maria said firmly. "Your spirit armour's bright enough as it is. We don't need it to glow in the dark." She could practically feel Iris' pout, even though she couldn't see it. "Now, quiet," she said.

The passage eventually brought them into large chamber. Kohran clambered into it and stopped suddenly, causing Iris to collide with her back.

"Ow...," Iris complained. "What's -- oh."

Even before setting foot into the chamber, Maria knew why. "This bad feeling again," she muttered, her hand half-raised to draw her gun.

"That's not all there is," Kohran said, playing the light around.

The walls were covered with the same saliva-like goo that they had first discovered in the forest just days ago. There were no cocoons or eggs in sight, but there were several fairly large bones littered across the floor. None of them looked to be remotely human.

"Smells terrible," Orihime said. Even with both hands clamped over her mouth and nose, she was still making a visible effort not to gag.

"Something's been living here," Leni stated.

Maria nodded. "And it looks like it's been here for quite a while." She shivered slightly, hoping the others wouldn't notice. "This is definitely a lair." Though this finding would naturally be thought of as ominous, she found herself filled with a rising hope. Now the only question is whether or not Kanna, Sakura and Sumire are in here, too.

Kohran carefully made her way to the passageway leading from the chamber. She took a quick peek around the corner. "Another long passage," she said softly. "And I'm guessing, some more rooms like this one." She looked at Maria. "Do we go on, Maria-han?"

Maria nodded grimly. The prospect of coming up against the beasts in such close quarters was unappealing, but they had no choice. "Everyone, stay close," she said, going up ahead. "And no talking unless we have to."

Starting point | Chapter 5 | Chapter 7