Author's Note: Unedited Chapter ----------------- 'I couldn't even touch him...' Although Yonda felt regretful about his actions, he couldn't deny the sting of humiliation he felt now which was higher than any physical pain this clash caused him. "Who is the unstable one now?" Gustav voiced as he let go of Yonda's face. He hadn't used much force so he knew he didn't injured Yonda. "Tsk short people are always short tempered," E.E shook his head in pity. "You shouldn't do that Yonda," Fildhor voiced from the side. "You're gonna make us look bad now," Angy added. They all berated Yonda and Gustav began walking away again. "I'd rather have that so called unstable guy watch my back than you," Gustav's voice trailed off as he left. Yuhiko, Fildhor and Shirama were the only ones who stayed behind to help Yonda up. "Don't worry about it Yonda kun, I'm glad I was able to help," Yuhiko said with a bright smile plastered across her face after helping him up. "That bastard... I don't like him," Yonda said with a tone of anguish. .... While Gustav was leaving the arena with the others, Miss Aimee had approached him for a talk and they moved to a secluded area to discuss. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂 "Something happened with the handlers," Miss Aimee voiced. "Hmm? I did notice something was off at the start of the battle challenge," Gustav responded with an intrigued expression. "So what happened?" Gustav asked. "One of them was murdered on the seventh disk... Handler 302," Miss Aimee revealed. "That's... quite serious," Gustav facial expressjon turned surprised as he heard this. It wasn't that crime never occurred on Planet Ozious, but it happened to be very rare. Compared to Earth where mixedbloods criminals were a handful, Planet Ozious happened to be quite tame. Murder was something Gustav was aware hadn't happened here in a long time so it was quite the grave occurrence. "Did they catch the culprit?" Gustav inquired. "No... whoever did it already fled long before the corpse was found," Miss Aimee responded. "They are conducting investigations now and since this person killed an Handler, they cannot be weak. We don't know if participants are going to be targeted next so we need you all to be careful," Grand Commander Shion voiced from the side. "I think we can handle ourselves," Gustav responded with a dismissive tone. "A token has been prepared just in case of emergencies. It will send out a signal if something happens. Please pass this to the rest of your teammates," Grand Commander Shion stated while a couple of black square shaped cubes the size of buttons, appeared in mid air. Zing~ Zing~ Zing~ Zing~ Zing~ Zing~ They were around forty six in number, making up for the subtitutes as well. Gustav received them and placed them in his storage device. His teammates might want to go out alone so it would be nice to have a token on them just in case. "Miss Aimee, do you know who did it?" Gustav questioned with a slightly suspicious tone. "I understand why you'd think that but you should be well aware now that I wouldn't bother myself with the affairs of this planet. Crime is normal everywhere so despite my senses being able to cover the entirety of the nine disks, I pay no attention to a lot of ongoing issues since I have no intention of butting in," Miss Aimee answered. ραΠdαsΝοvel.cοm This meant that even if her senses had picked on the death, she didn't register it because if Miss Aimee had to concern herself with every issue on this planet, she'd have to be everywhere and she wasn't here to clean up the mess of an entire planet. "Only information I gave them was that I sensed dark signatures in the location of the crime," Miss Aimee added. "Dark signatures? So the homicide was committed by more than one person?" Gustav questioned. "Could be... but it's none of our business unless they come for one of our own. Let the Ozis handle it themselves," Miss Aimee waved her hand dismissively. "We have to equip ourselves with enough information or we won't be able to prevent it from happening to one of our own if they do come for us," Gustav responded with a logical tone. "I guess you're right..." Miss Aimee wasn't really thinking about it from this point of view since Gustav and his friends were the only people she really cared about. They proceeded to discuss more about the issue for thirty minutes more before Gustav left to head back to the accomodation area. The moment he arrived, he gathered everyone together to tell them about the information he got from Miss Aimee. "A Handler was killed? How is that even possible?" Teemee questioned with a shocked expression. "Weren't they said to be the strongest Ozis?" Ria voiced as well. "That is why it is assumed that whoever the culprit is, cannot be someone weak that is if it wasn't done by a party," Gustav responded while tapping on his storage device. Zing~ Zing~ Zing~ Zing~ Zing~ The tokens Grand Commander Shion passed to him earlier appeared with a flash of blue light and Gustav proceeded to grab them. "Grand Commander Shion tasked me with passing these on to the group," Gustav voiced while handing them out. At this moment, Falco walked in from his room with bags under his eyes. "Yo Falco, you good?" E.E was the first to ask. "What's going on?" Falco questioned as he rubbed his eyes. "A Handler was killed," Aildris revealed. Falco paused briefly upon hearing that as his face showed a disturbed expression, "Ho... how did that happen?" He questioned. "We don't really know but we were given these emergency tokens that would alert the higher ups present if any of us were in danger," Gustav answered while passing a token to Falco as well. Falco reached out with his arm trembling a little and accepted the token from Gustav. "Are you good?" Gustav asked. "Yeah yeah, I'm fine," Falco tried to wear a smile as he replied. "I was thinking of letting you participate in the next major challenge but if you're not up for it I can..." Before Gustav completed his sentence Falco chimmed in. "No," He shook his head. "Hmm, you're not up for it?" Gustav questioned. "I don't feel so great... I'll rest it out for a bit. You can use a substitute," He responded while turning around to leave. "Thank you for dealing with Strum for me," Everyone had worrisome looks as they stared at each other while Falco walked away. "By the way, did they discover who did it?" Falco inquired. "No, the culprit hasn't been identified or caught," Gustav shook his head. "Bummer... you guys be safe out there," Falco voiced as he walked into his room and the door behind him closed. "You see! You should have left Yuhiko in! I said it, that dude isn't stable!" Yonda began yelling the moment Falco was gone. Everyone ignored him but internally they felt he had a point. Gustav had made a conscious effort to try and place Falco back in but now Falco didn't want in. "He's unstable! I said it! Yuhiko is the best replacement!" Yonda kept yelling. "Cut him some slack. If you had gone through what he did at the hands of Strum, you probably wouldn't be alive right now," Matilda had enough of his yapping and voiced out. Yonda ignored her and kept yelling while Gustav proceeded to head to his room as well. Angy was about following him but figured that he probably needed some time alone to think. 'I'll check on Falco in the meantime,' She decided and walked towards Falco's room. ... ("Dark signatures... do you think its them?") The system questioned internally. "Everything points to them but at the same time, motive is very important. What would prompt them to make such a sloppy move when they've hidden in plain sight so far?" Gustav voiced with a tone of confoundment. ("Well, it might not be so sloppy since they haven't been identified as the culprits,") "Still, it causes the entire populace on Planet Ozious to be on alert and now there's investigation from different sides which is bound to yield some kind of results sooner or later," Gustav held his chin as he voiced out. ("So you think someone else might be responsible,") The system was starting to understand what Gustav was driving at. "Who else do we know that uses dark energy," Gustav hinted. ("You really can't be serious,") The system sounded surprised as it realised who Gustav was referring to. "He was acting weird. 'Did they discover who did it?' He tried to hide the anxiety in his tone when he asked that," Gustav pointed out. ("Aimee mentioned multiple dark signatures... so it had to be more than one person,") The system recalled. "Falco is more than one person..." Gustav stated. ("How do we know that Darko has returned? Also, he shouldn't be powerful enough to defeat, much more, kill a Handler. Like you also said, motive... what would be his?")