Chapter 21 "Rocio: Part II"

Chapter 21
Rocio
Part II

“I 100% know for sure I’m dying.” Jade is lying on the hard cold floor. He weakly lifts his head off the floor so he is looking at Knapp. “Is Logy back yet?”

Knapp is sitting on the floor with his legs spread widely apart as he leans forward a little bit, trying to stretch. He answers simply, “Not yet.”

“Oh, it’s already nap time?” Johnny asks when he notices Jade on the floor after he opens the door to the training room. 

“No. Is sleeping all you think about?” Jade loudly complains. He almost gags but has not thrown up yet. “We need a doctor!”

“Hang in there…” Johnny pokes Jade’s upper arm with a stick.

“I’m not dead yet!” Jade yells angrily.

“It’s lively here, huh?” This time it’s none of their voices. It’s coming from the above, so they all look up to find Kawaii who is standing on the ceiling upside down. He tilts his head a little bit as if he is wondering. “Perhaps we need to find another healer, after all…”

“If you’re here, then Logy is…?” Knapp asks.

“Yes, he’s back.” Kawaii suddenly drops himself until he gently lands on the floor. Before he knows it, a door suddenly slams open.

“New friend?!” Ketsu yells excitedly into Kawaii’s ear after running all the way from the door. “Play? With me? Play, play?”

Knapp smirks at how startled Kawaii looks due to the young Dark Angel’s sudden appearance and outburst. It’s rare to get even one emotion out of the child form of the Fifth Universe. “Why don’t you give it a try?” He encourages. “I will check on Logy.”

~*~

Logy takes off his black jacket and places it on the top of a chair. He then stumbles into the chair with an exhausted sign. It’s been two long days. There are thousands of people living in the city but he managed to get Rocio’s name out of one of their heads. 

“Welcome back!” Jade jumps in Logy’s vision range. He hands a cold water bottle to him. “It’s really hot out there, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, thanks.” Logy takes the water bottle and takes a large sip.

Soon, the entire Dark Team comes into the bridge room, now that Kawaii is keeping Ketsu and Katja busy. 

The kids are playing hide and seek. Kawaii knows where they are every time but he is still having so much fun for the first time in a long time - possibly in the last few hundred thousands of years.

“Can we make it quick? My stomach can’t handle it any longer…” Jade groans loudly as he wraps around his own stomach. “I’m going to die for real!” He says for the hundredth time.

Dammit. I need him for this mission but oh well, there’s nothing we can do. Knapp thinks to himself. “Jade, just go and rest. You’re dropping out of this mission at this time. I suppose you can watch the kids while we’re out. So that means…”

He turns to Logy and claps his hands together as if he’s pleading. “I know you were working hard for the past two days but do you mind if you take Jade’s place?”

“Sure, no problem,” Logy says with a big grin. He flexes one of his arms, showing off his muscles. “I still have my strength.”

“Finally, it’s about time I get some action!” Clear exclaims. “It’s been five years since then, right?”

“Don’t get too eager. We need to be careful. We lost half of our team, and also we don’t have a healer anymore.” Knapp says softly, as just mentioning healer painfully reminds him of Sky. “But that’s what we’ve been training for weeks now, yeah? Even though you’re in trouble… I’m here. With my universe power. I know your exact location and can measure your power level during a battle.”

“Don’t.” Johnny suddenly speaks up in both voice and sign language, making everyone drop their jaws. He crosses his arms. “We don’t want you to act like you’re supposed to be our hero. You gathered us because you believed in our powers. We are here to support you and the Fifth Universe. Even though we’re struggling, we will get through it. This is nothing compared to the Locker who lived for much longer than we did.”

“One hundred percent fact!” Jade exclaims before gagging on his own vomit.

“Right! Otherwise we would have left a long time ago,” Clear says with a smile.

Knapp returns a smile. Even after everything that happened terribly back on Earth just months ago, he was always worried that his own team would leave just because half of them couldn’t be saved.

“I’m sorry but you’re stuck with us,” Logy says.

“Right, right.” Knapp laughs lightheartedly. “Alright, Logy, can you please tell us what you found so far?”

“So, this Rocio… He’s a swimmer. A famous and popular world swimmer, actually. Girls go crazy for him.” The deaf warrior shrugs his shoulders. “I’m not sure if he has done anything wrong or if he has ever fought, harmed, or killed a single person. So I stuck around a little longer and then found out something very interesting about him…”

Everyone’s eyes have not moved away from Logy as he is not using his voice and only using sign language.

“There was a swimming contest with ten swimmers yesterday. Rocio won it, but… During the competition, one of the swimmers suddenly died,” Logy continues. “They couldn’t find a medical reason other than his heart stopping without any cause.”

“That’s good enough for me.” Knapp nods his head. “Let’s go, shall we?”

~*~

“Good evening, gentlemen and ladies! Welcome to Wasser Sports News! Tonight, we have the winner from yesterday’s swimming competition, Rocio! For the last three years, he has held the world record of the highest number of swimming awards and trophies that he won! How many did you win?” A blonde-haired woman in a tight red dress exclaims as she switches her crossing legs.

Rocio waves his hand at a large camera with a cheeky smile, imagining thousands of his fans cheering and yelling for him in front of their televisions. He winks one of his purple eyes as he gracefully runs his hand through his short blue hair. “Thank you. So far, I have won 99.”

“That’s amazing! Can you tell us where you grew up and why you started swimming?”

“Oh, I just grew up in a small town.” Rocio shrugs his shoulders with an arrogant look on his face. “I started swimming when I was just a baby. I’ve always loved it. My family encouraged me to join the competitions and I thought, ‘why not?’ Here I am!”

“That’s loads of crap.” Clear scoffs at the television. “Even he knows he’s lying through his teeth.”

The Dark Team ends up at one of the taverns in Wasser City. The city is the closest to their spaceship. Luckily for them, Rocio ended up in the same city as them.

Logy is not paying attention to the television because it does not have captions. Knapp asked him if he wanted it on but Logy denied the request. Instead he is set on reading every individual’s thoughts.

This is the longest Logy has ever used his mind energy. Is he ok? Knapp glances at his deaf friend briefly, but Logy does not look exhausted at all. Has he gotten better at controlling his power?

Johnny takes a bite of a fish sandwich. He says with a full mouth, “This is live. Why can’t we just go to him?”

Kawaii takes a sip of milk through a straw. He is sitting on the counter. “Wait. Maybe Rocio can tell us why he’s hurting the citizens of this planet.”

“...As you have heard, one of your rivals died last night. This is the fifth time it happened for your past races.  What are your thoughts?” The interviewer asks.

Rocio’s face suddenly turns sour for a second. He gives a light sign as he says, “A lot of people asked me about their deaths. My answer is and will always be the same…”

“Yes?” The interviewer asks as if she encourages him to go on.

“They swam too hard because they wanted to beat me so badly. They probably went past their limits, and maybe that’s why they died.”

“He’s full of shit.” Clear scoffs again. “Doesn’t he have any compassion for the victims and their families?”

“Hey, who is this cutie?” A random man asks as he walks over to Logy. There are two pink spots on both sides of his face.

“Excuse me?” Logy asks. He had been reading people’s minds and did not notice the drunk man at all.

“What’s your name?” The drunk man tries again. “Do you want to exchange our num--”

“Hey, piss off. He’s taken.” Knapp snaps as he puts his arm around Logy’s shoulders.

“O-okay. Geez.” The man holds up his hands as if he is surrendering. He is slowly backing into the crowd.

“What did you do to intimidate him?” Logy asks as he crosses his arms, raising one of his eyebrows. 

“I’ll tell you later. We’re on a mission, aren’t we?” Knapp says without using his voice at all as he uses sign language.

The deaf warrior scowls in annoyance. He has always been told ‘I’ll tell you later’ for nearly his entire life. Most of the time, they never told him or explained to him so he has always hated those words. He turns away from Knapp as he uses his voice, “Whatever you did to him... I didn’t need your help.”

“Now this is getting interesting… Why don’t you just ask him out?” Clear asks almost jokingly. When she gets a deadly glare from Knapp, she laughs lightheartedly. “Sorry, sorry! Didn’t mean to offend you!” She doesn’t even look guilty at all. Instead she is more amused.

Knapp glances back at the counter only to realize that Kawaii is no longer there. His eyes begin to scan the area until he finds Kawaii holding Logy’s hand. He feels a small twitch on his face out of envy. “Kawaii…” He almost growls.

“Your universe energy is getting out of control.” Kawaii warns. “Let’s get out of here. This tavern is no place for a kid like me anyway.”

“He’s right,” Johnny says as he is watching his glass of water tremble with some kind of vibration.

~*~

“Ah, it’s three full moons tonight? It’s been years since the last time I’ve seen them all at once,” says the first of four men. They notice the Dark Team’s spaceship when they are sailing on their boat just to see if there are any empty ships or boats.

“Yes, Mizu, it’s the perfect timing to rob this spaceship!” The second man snickers.

“Shh! Mizu! Shui! Don’t be so loud. There may be someone in the spaceship.” The third man snaps.

The fourth man shakes his head in embarrassment. Why did I have to come out with them? Oh right, I need money.

“Come on, Voda.” Shui chuckles lightly at the scolding third man. “We are miles away from the city. Who would be out here in the middle of nowhere… on the waters?”

“Paani, please help me out.” Voda turns to the fourth man. 

“You heard him. If you want money, listen to him.” Paani snaps as he turns off the engine, slowing down their boat towards the spaceship.

“Got it!” Mizu yells only to be shushed by Voda after he tosses the rope around a knob of one of the hatches on the wall of the spaceship. He whispers, “Sorry.”

“Let’s hurry,” Shui says as he pulls the rope to open the hatch. They all crawl up the rope and then get through the hatch.

“Alright, let’s look and see if we can find anything valuable enough to sell for good money,” Paani whispers quietly. 

“Shhh, don’t move,” Voda says, making other men freeze in their positions. He slowly walks toward one of the doors and places his ear on it. He can only hear loud coughing and vomiting. He turns his head towards his partners as he says as quietly as possible, “Someone is here.”

“Dammit,” Paani quietly curses. “Let’s just do it quickly. And if whoever comes out, we just threaten them and then tie them up.”

“Alright, then…” Shui opens a large duffel bag and then puts it on the floor. “Let’s do this.”

Every piece that looks valuable and expensive has been taken by them and tossed into the duffel bags. Jewelries, tools, computer devices, and many more.

“Whatcha doing?” An innocent and sleepy voice makes all thieves freeze in their places. 

“Shit. T-that kid saw us… What do we do?” Mizu asks nervously.

“Let me deal with him.” Paani waves his hand, signaling his partners to keep stealing stuff. He turns to Ketsu and asks, “What are you doing up so late?”

“I am…” Ketsu stops rubbing his tired eyes as he takes a closer look at Paani. “Who are you?”

“Oh, we are, uh…” Paani sweatdrops as he is trying to come up with a lie. “Friends of your father. Yes, we are his friends!”

Ketsu tilts his head to the side a little in curiosity. “Friend?”

Voda is sneaking up behind Ketsu quietly until he grabs him and picks up off the floor. “Got him--”

Ketsu suddenly hits him in the face with the back of his own head. He lands safely after Voda drops him and falls to the floor.

Paani drops his jaw in shock. Was it luck that he hit the correct spot to make him pass out?

“You ok? You ok?” Ketsu asks as he pokes the unconscious man in the head repeatedly. He then glances back at Paani. He grins widely as he asks, “Play catch?”

“What happened?” Shui asks when he notices Voda still lying on the floor. “And who is that kid?”

Paani quickly throws his arms at Ketsu but the toddler easily dodges him. He tries again several times more but this kid is way faster than him.

“For pete’s sake…!” Shui yells angrily as he jumps toward Ketsu, about to catch him only to have his face smashed into the hard floor. “Ow!”

“You play without me?” Katja yawns as she comes out of her bedroom to find four men and Ketsu ‘playing’ together.

“Yes! Play with us!” Ketsu exclaims. “Play catch!”

“How many kids are there?” Mizu asks nervously.

“Just capture them! Fast!” Paani snaps. Mizu and Shui start running with their open arms but Katja and Ketsu think it’s a catch game so they start running away from them, giggling loudly.

Paani quickly jumps in front of Ketsu, but the toddler gets up and slides between his long legs. “What?!”

Ketsu playfully sticks out his tongue at him. He snickers. “You really bad at catch!”

Mizu gets closer and closer to Katja while running. Almost there…! He finally grabs Katja who is trying to squirm out of his arms. “I’ve finally gotten you!”

Suddenly, Katja headbutts him in the face so hard. It’s more than enough to knock him out cold like Voda.

“W-who are those kids…?!” Shui asks nervously.

“Okay, it’s our turn to catch you!” Katja giggles as Ketsu nods his head fast in eagerness.

“Let’s get out of here!” Paani takes a few quick steps but Ketsu easily slips right in front of him. “Oh fu--”

Ketsu tackles Paani really hard to the floor. What he does not realize is that his tackle hits him so hard in the stomach enough to knock him out.

“W-wait! Hold on a second!” Shui waves his hands nervously just as Katja is about to take a step towards him. “Time out!”

“Got you!” Katja laughs loudly as she jumps toward Shui who screams in fear. When she catches him, they crash into the wall.

“Boooo! No fun!” Ketsu complains as he pokes Paani’s unconscious head. 

“What is this commotion going on?” Jade asks as he exits the bathroom. He feels better now that his stomach is completely empty but the constant motion of the spaceship on the water is not helping with his nausea at all. He spots all four unconscious men on the floor with two toddlers constantly poking them with their toy wands. “Huh? What happened…?”