Colin had to ask. [Tell me something. Why are you the one sent to fetch me? Shouldn't you be stomping the Frenzieds that nobody else can handle?]
[I was the one who took you away. I have to be the one to bring you back.] Lynn explained.
They weren't headed for Riverside, Colin saw. They were headed for the Forward Command Post.
The first person Colin saw when they landed was Abby, looking very harried. "Colin! Where have you been?!"
"Um…"
"Never mind! Meet me in the Coordinators' Tent!" Abby said, stalking off and calling several names.
"Thanks for the ride." Colin told Lynn as he got off Nightwind. Kirin came in for a landing as his feet touched the ground.
"One last thing before I go, Colin." Lynn said, noting the arrival of a formation of Shadow Hawks. "Wait a minute."
"But Abby…" Colin began.
"This won't take long." Lynn said.
About a dozen of the smallest Shadow Hawks Colin had ever seen landed around him. They regarded him carefully.
In rapid succession, most of them hopped backwards, leaving just three inspecting him. The three exchanged glances, and one more flapped away.
"Note the crowns on their heads, Colin." Lynn told him. "They're small crowns, but crowns nonetheless. These are Nightwind's direct descendants, a son and a daughter."
"Uh… okay…" Colin scratched his head. "What's this about?"
"One of them will be going with you." Lynn said. "As your new Comrade. Which would you prefer? The son or the daughter?"
"Um… the son, I guess?" Colin thought.
Nightwind nudged one of the two.
"Too bad, Colin. You get the daughter." Lynn laughed.
The female Shadow Hawk turned to Colin, and gave him a quick nod. She flapped up to his shoulder and sat there, as big as Raiki was now.
{This bird's heavier than Shiro or Raiki…} Colin patted her on the head awkwardly. {She's tall.} "What's her name?"
Nightwind stirred, ruffling feathers at Colin.
"The moon covers the sun…?" Colin frowned. "Eclipse?"
Eclipse nodded.
"Do you both consent to Traveling together as Comrades?" Lynn asked them.
"Uh… yeah…" Colin said, wondering what this was about.
Eclipse nodded again.
"I bear witness." Lynn said. "Colin and Eclipse are bonded."
And with that, Colin felt a sudden flicker of finality and a sense of Eclipse being there with him. "What just happened…?!"
"You two were officially registered as Comrades." Lynn said. "It's an older method, used before the Comrade Homes were built and registry rooms were made. It's a bit more binding as well."
"More binding?" Colin frowned.
"You won't be able to transfer Eclipse using a Transfer Plate." Lynn explained. "You'll need to come back to me. And you better have a jolly good reason for it."
"COLIN!!" Abby was shouting from across the field.
Colin gulped. "I better go."
"Stay safe." Lynn waved, and took off with Nightwind and the whole formation of his kids with her.
***
"I still think you're being a bit too worried about this." Satrox sighed, rubbing his head.
"Colin's the biggest risk on this continent, and you know it!" Sandy flared up. "Why didn't anyone tell me about this sooner?!"
Colin gave Abby a questioning look.
"Sandy's just found out about why Satrox was keeping an eye on you." Abby explained.
Sandy spun and spotted him. "You! Why aren't you kept away in a safe place somewhere?!"
"Uh…"
"You saw what happened when a class 9 went Frenzied!" Sandy said. "And you've got four such cubs?!"
"The other three are higher than class 9, actually." Abby pointed out.
"Uh… what's a class 9?" Colin asked.
"Another term for 9-stage Comrades." Abby explained.
Satrox grunted. "Look, he's been doing fine on his own so far. There's no need to…"
"And that other issue! The one we just saw before the Forest Princess whisked him off!" Sandy almost jumped. "What was that all about?!"
"Like I said…" Satrox groaned.
"Colin." Zoe waved him over. "Perhaps I should explain."
"Please do." Colin said.
The four Coordinators, Zoe, Satrox, Sandy and another guy wearing a ninja suit with a broad vest were all looking at him ever since he stepped into the tent. Furthermore, the projected screens around Abby's desk were filled with live video conference calls, showing peoples' faces, though Colin hadn't paid much attention to who they were, feeling certain he wouldn't recognize them.
"You've been making people rather nervous today." Zoe began. "Since discovering the existence of Comrades above class 10, along with the current tension over the Frenzieds, the fear of one of your four Comrades going Frenzied has caused a few people to suggest locking you away somewhere safe for training."
"That doesn't sound so bad." Colin scratched his head. "How long will that training take?"
"Forever, if possible." Zoe said.
Colin winced. "Okay, that sounds bad. I may as well just quit Nakama World."
"Exactly." Satrox threw in.
"That, none of us wants." Zoe said. "We all want to see what Shiro and Raiki will eventually turn out like. There's been rumors that Comrades above class 10 exist, but until now, it's never been a proven fact."
"Look, I've given you plenty of proof!" one of those screens at Abby's desk said. "Nobody believed me!"
"We've never had evidence as concrete as this before." Abby pointed out. "All you had was theories and quotes from Professor Jijin. Colin brought us concrete evidence!"
"Show us!" another voice from the screens called. "Let us see that evidence!"
"Colin?" Abby prompted. "Your Summary, please?"
Colin gulped, bringing it up.
.
https://imgur.com/gnDsPbs
.
"HOLY!" someone else exclaimed.
"You said he had {four} above class 9! But this…!"
"FIVE of them?! And not one adult?!"
Colin looked around for help.
"Like I said." Satrox cut in. "I'll bring him around. We'll Travel the towns and cities and take part in Tournaments."
"That's not fair." Someone else objected. "You're going to win every contest for your ranking, and so will he!"
"Probably." Satrox agreed. "But it's better training than sticking them in a gym prison. Colin's a Traveler, and one of our own Hunter Knights. He's done nothing to deserve imprisonment."
"Talking about that…" a completely new voice from the screens grunted. "There IS the issue of the Green Men being after him. If they shoot him up the way they did with this... Katrin, wasn't it…? Wouldn't the same thing happen?"
"What happened with this Katrin person?" Zoe asked.
Abby told her. "Katrin's Comrades all went Frenzied. All."
Colin gulped again. Seeing Reginald go Frenzied on his own was bad enough. Satrox said that Sonia going Frenzied would be as bad as Reginald.
Sonia was now at the very bottom of the list. Eclipse was a daughter of Nightwind himself, a Noble among Shadow Hawks. She had to be either a class 9 or a class 10. If she went Frenzied, it would be worse than Reginald, and even that wouldn't be as bad as any of the three above her.
Sandy poked Colin. "What I want to know is how a Yellow Badge managed to get Comrades like these! Even I can't get a hold of more than one class 9!"
"Like I said…" Satrox sounded very tired now. "They were given to him. And if I'm guessing right, that Shadow Hawk was given to him also. It's probably Lynn's work. What happened to your Desert Wolf, Colin?"
"Lynn said to give it up. In return, she'd replace him with a Shadow Hawk." Colin said.
"And not just any Shadow Hawk. A Noble, no less." Zoe mused. "Colin, tell me something. Just who are you?"
"I'm Colin Rivers. Who else would I be?" Colin stared.
"What's so special about you?" Sandy demanded.
"Nothing!" Colin protested. "I think."
"For pity's sake…" Satrox sighed.
"You and Katrin were the reasons why the Green Men destroyed every town north of here all the way to the sea." Sandy counted. "We fought a terrible war to drive them off, and they only left because the night was ending. Not to mention that they left us ruins filled with Frenzieds as a parting gift. Frankly speaking, it doesn't seem worth a war to protect two Yellow Badge rookies."
"And if the Green Men had killed Colin and his Comrades? Those Frenzieds would have wiped the map clean by now." Zoe pointed out.
"But by all reports, they don't kill those they take." Sandy argued. "They just release them with gifts! It's happened for five other kids already!"
"So it's fine to allow kidnapping?" a deep voice asked from Abby's screens. "It's okay to promote Memory Wipes as long as the kids come back with presents?"
Sandy fell silent.
"Lord Geoffrey, I'm sure that's not what she meant." Abby began. "But we all want to know that the war was worth all the sacrifices we've made."
"Then let me be frank about this." Lord Geoffrey said. "I have no idea who this Colin is, or that girl Katrin, but I do know that anyone, anyone trying to kidnap and Memory Wipe kids in Nakama World will be answered with full force! Such things cannot be permitted by decent humans, much less by those of us who dare call ourselves 'Justice Knights'! We must stand against them, at all costs! Is that worth it?"
"Yes, Lord Geoffrey." Abby let out a slow breath.
"Now, of the risk Colin presents…" Geoffrey continued. "He has done no wrong. Shall we imprison the innocent while the guilty run free?"
Nobody answered. Nobody needed to.
Geoffrey went on. "Personally, I'd rather let Colin do the job the rest of us can't. He wants to find Michi's earlier Experimentals. I say we let him."
"But the risk…" Sandy began.
"I'll go with him." Satrox reminded her.
"{You're} in no position to claim strength." Sandy flared up. "You've given away just about all your strong Comrades and have little more than middle class birds! You're nowhere near as strong as you were before, even before you claimed the title of the Sage!"
Satrox gave her a silent stare. Zoe did too.
"What?" Sandy demanded. "What are you looking at?"
Abby nudged her. "Satrox carries as much risk as Colin."
"Huh?" Sandy blinked.
"Three class 9's and a class 10." Abby said. "The other two are class 8. Comrades worthy of the Sage. He needs to Travel and compete in non-lethal tournaments as much as Colin does. You didn't think he was opting to run around the world out of friendship alone, did you?"
"You speak too quickly, Sandy, when you lack in facts." Zoe said ominously. "Did you think I gave him middle class Comrades?"
"But… you kept saying how they'd never make up for what he gave you." Sandy spluttered. "And Noble is clearly the strongest of Satrox's Comrades."
"Class 10." Abby answered softly. "Zoe? Would you like to explain this?"
"The existence of Comrades beyond class 10 had never been proven by those who theorized about it." Zoe said slowly. "But a lack of proof is merely a shortage of information. Some of us prefer to keep our secrets."
"You have one. Or more than one." That choked voice was the same one who claimed her theories had been correct. "You had them all along, and you never said a word!"
"Some secrets are worth keeping." Lord Geoffrey said mildly.
"{You're} not even surprised!" that voice gasped. "That means… you too? How many… others…"
Again, nobody said a word.
"The fact remains," Sandy said ominously, "That Colin is the biggest risk we have. He is in the greatest of danger, and is of the lowest Ranking among all the Knights. Satrox is willing to go with him. Here's the question; is Satrox enough?"
Satrox turned to Colin. "We can always bring Henry. And maybe Rita."
"I could…" Zoe began.
Satrox put a hand on her arm and shook his head. "You're needed for the clean-up."
"So are you." Colin put in. "Shouldn't I help out too?"
"No way!" Sandy stepped up. "We've already seen what happens when you help! You almost died back there! In fact, you jolly well should have!"
"Sandy!" Satrox said in stern warning.
Sandy subsided.
Lynn's thoughts came to Colin, then. [Colin. Are you done yet? You haven't even begun the quest for the Three Keys.]
Colin almost groaned. [Lynn... things are a bit complicated right now.]
He sent her his memories.
[I see.] Lynn half-growled. [That's… bad.]
An idea came to Colin. [This Quest of yours… is it dangerous? Is there a risk of my Comrades dying?]
[Of course it's dangerous! I'm confident of your success, but there's always the risk of messing up.]
Colin half-groaned. So much for the idea of doing the Quest while the others cleaned out the Frenzieds and Traveling around for competitions later.
Lord Geoffrey was speaking again. "Regardless of the situations Colin is in, our decisions must be based on who we are and what our principles are. As Justice Knights, our duty is to uphold righteousness. We have no right to punish the innocent. The most we can do is assign Colin missions, and based on the rewards offered, it is entirely his decision, as a Justice Knight, to accept or decline."
"Fine!" Sandy growled. "Colin! First mission offer! Stay off this continent until all the Frenzieds are cleared out! Mission reward is 100,000cr!"
Satrox whistled. "{That's} going to take a bite out of your command budget."
"It won't." Geoffrey said. "I'll back it up."
Sandy looked pleased. "Well, Colin?"
"Sorry." Colin apologized. "I can't. I've set my Home Base to the Forest of Legends."
Sandy, Abby and Satrox all jumped at that.
Zoe sighed.
Ninja-guy didn't say a word even now.
Voices arose in uproar over Abby's desk of video conferences. Most of them were basically saying, "A Yellow Badge?! That's SUICIDE!"
"I went in with Lynn." Colin explained. "She introduced me to the Wilds. They're all friendly now."
{Or at least, those I've met have been friendly.}
There was a heavy silence.
"Well… that's…" Satrox paused. "Interesting."
"Lynn…?" Zoe echoed softly.
"This is getting complicated." Abby groaned.
"What?" Colin blinked. "What's wrong?"
"Politics." Satrox said. "Just… forget it."
Colin felt certain that everyone knew something they simply weren't telling him about. "In any case, I can't take that mission."
"The mission offer stands." Sandy said, stubbornly.
"Sorry. Can't take it." Colin replied.
"Second mission offer." Abby threw in. "Win first place in all the Tournaments on the Lamico Continent. Mission reward is 200,000cr."
{Two hundred thousand?!} Colin jumped.
"You're asking him to win twenty tournaments, Abby. That's cheap." Satrox accused her.
"Ten thousand per tournament sounds like a lot." Colin pointed out.
"Not if you're required to win. Colin, there's no telling who you'll be up against, or how many times you'll have to compete in order to get first prize." Satrox said. "If you get second, it won't count."
"Exactly." Abby said, sounding pleased with herself. "So I'm not imposing a time limit. He can challenge them as many times as he likes."
Sandy let out a short laugh. "He might take years."
"How hard could it be?" Colin asked Satrox. "Didn't I hear someone say we'd win all the tournaments for our rankings?"
"On this continent, maybe." Satrox mused. "But the Lamico continent has some rather unusual people. Some of them deliberately stay at a low ranking while having extraordinarily strong Comrades. Some say it's taking advantage of the system to bully less experienced Dreamers, but it's not cheating; it's considered an art in itself."
"You mean like how you went around with just Wraith as a Yellow Badge?" Colin prompted. "It wasn't the first time you did that, was it?"
Satrox coughed. "Yeah. Something like that."
"What are you saying?" Zoe nudged him. "It's exactly like that. Colin's going to be fighting people who do the same things you do."
"In other words, I'll be competing with people of Satrox's calibre." Colin realized. "Sandy was right. It could take years to win them all."
Satrox nodded slowly, then his eyes widened. He grinned. "Take it, Colin."
"What?" Colin blinked.
But a single, very important thought came to him out of the blue.
{The Green Men are looking for me here. If I go to Lamico, I'll be far away from them.}
"Accept the mission! Quick!" Satrox said, eyes gleaming.
"I accept!" Colin said, just before Abby shouted, "WAIT!"
"Mission accepted." Satrox grinned.
"Well, then, my friends, I think we're done here. Let's leave Abby and her crew to see to the details, shall we?" Lord Geoffrey suggested. "Let's get back to the Conference."
With that, the videos on Abby's desk started winking out until none were left, leaving empty blue screens of light hanging in the air.