Chapter 24 "Ezekial: Part I"

Chapter 24
Ezekial
Part I

Knapp crosses his arms on his chest with a scowl on his own face. He has been glaring at Kawaii for the last fifteen minutes.

Everyone is in the conference room not too long after they landed on a planet - the world of elves called Planet Alfur. 

This planet is about five times larger than Earth and has more acres of forests than water. 

“It’s my first time seeing Knapp being that mad at Kawaii…” Jade whispers into Clear’s ears. She nods her head in return.

“Knapp, you should know that most of the strong people can detect that you are the Universe Warrior. They will find out miles away by just having a taste of your universe energy,” Kawaii says emotionlessly. “That’s why I am recommending that you sit out this time until we need you.”

“Yeah, just have faith in us!” Jade throws his fist into the air excitedly. Johnny joins his excitement but it only lasts for a very short time before he yawns tiredly.

“If anything happens to them--” Knapp doesn’t finish his sentence.

“I will be with Logy if that makes you feel better,” Kawaii says.

“Fine.” Knapp looks away with a childish pouty look.

“That was too fast to accept!” Clear yells, pointing furiously at Knapp. “Have you even thought about us at all?!”

The Universe Warrior sticks out his tongue at her.

“Please calm down…” Logy sweatdrops, trying so hard not to use his power to read everyone’s thoughts about their feelings about Knapp. It’s only been a few days since they started dating but they haven’t gotten far than just kissing yet.

“How many minds can you read?” Kawaii asks in sign language. “All at once?”

“Oh, umm…” Logy rubs his chin. “A few hundreds, I think?”

Compared to the first time we met, he only managed to read one or two people’s thoughts. He has really gotten stronger since then… Knapp thinks.

“Okay, then! We’re all set! Let’s go,” Jade exclaims.

~*~

“Wooow!” Clear exclaims, her eyes sparkling in excitement. “Do elves really live here?”

They are standing in front of a large gate with a couple of soldiers standing guard. Behind the gate, thousands, if not millions, of houses sitting on trees are taller and thicker than they have ever seen. Because it’s dark out here, several torches are lit with flames on every treehouse and light pole among the streets.

“Yo.” Johnny yawns as he waves at the soldiers. Both soldiers have pointy ears and are wearing metal-looking yet flexible armors. They are holding the javelins in their hands.

“Identify yourself.” One of the soldiers demands.

“Hi, we are visiting from other planets,” Clear says as she hands the documents to one of them. “We are the Dark Team. We’re here just for a visit. You know, buying food and supplies for the next trip.”

Did they say Dark Team? Where did I hear about them from…? Isn’t it the one that Universe Warrior leads?

I guess that’s fine. They’re better than nothing. We’ve been waiting for Double God for hundreds of years…

Upon hearing those distant thoughts coming from the above, Logy looks up at two birds sitting on the top of the gate, as if they are carefully watching people walk through the gate. One of them is blue, and the other one is red. He raises an eyebrow in confusion. Are those birds intelligent on this planet? And how do they know about Universe Warrior and Double God?

“And…” The second soldier glances around at the whole team. “How long are you going to stay?”

“Two weeks. We may leave early if we get everything we need,” Jade says.

They look too suspicious. Should we report this to the Prime Minister? This time, it’s coming from the first soldier's thoughts. 

“Are we good?” Logy asks with his voice, trying to get the soldier on his good side. “If there’s any problem, we will be glad to cooperate with you.”

Suddenly, the red bird glides downward until it bounces on and off the soldier's head. The soldier yelps in surprise and swings his hand trying to hit the bird but misses it.

The blue bird then takes off into the air and flaps its wings, hovering just moments before it flies toward Clear and lands on her shoulder.

The red bird chirps and then sits on Logy’s shoulder this time. Logy smiles trying to look apologetic. “I’m so sorry about that.”

What the hell are those birds? Well then I guess they don’t look like the common terrorists. The soldier raises an eyebrow as he clears his throat. Skimming through the documents, he says approvingly, “Very well. You can go through.”

“Thank you, sir.” Logy bows his head politely. 

After getting into the forest city, the Dark Team takes a breath of relief. “Alright, we will need to find a place to stay,” Clear says. She tries to shoo away the blue bird, but it keeps coming back. “What is going on with those birds? Are they normally like this on this planet?”

“It’s cute though!” Jade reaches his hand out for the red bird to leap with flapping wings from Logy’s shoulder onto it. “Hey, it really is on my hand!”

Kawaii narrows his heterochromia eyes at the chirping birds. He taps on Logy’s leg and uses sign language without using his voice, “Read the blue bird’s head.”

Logy starts using it right away only to get the thoughts from the blue bird, Are they really the Dark Team though? I don’t see Universe Warrior?

This guy is so cute! The red bird’s eyes are almost sparkling as it bounces across Jade’s arm until it reaches to his shoulder.

“Those birds know who we are. Don’t make it obvious that you have noticed.” Kawaii, without speaking, glances around as the elves are walking, completely oblivious to his existence. “For now, stick with the plan and find a place to sleep. We will then regroup.”

After questioning one of the elves about an inn or at least a place to stay, Clear eventually gets the answer.

They have no choice but to take a taxi boat on a stream. The very narrow river eventually goes upstream but with the taxi boat’s powerful engine, they have no problem swimming upward until they reach the inn.

~*~

The kids are not sleeping at all. Actually, they are full of energy and are very restless in their beds for a reason.

I shouldn’t have given into giving a piece of cake to them. Knapp shakes his head, disappointed into himself knowing that he should know better.

At least Katja is still in her bed wide awake. But Ketsu is much worse compared to her. He practically makes tornados in his room with his flapping blue wings, making a mess of everything.

Knapp has an idea. He believes that this can definitely benefit everyone, including himself. “Hey kids. How about one more game before you sleep for real?”

“Yeah!” Ketsu and Katja both yell excitedly.

“Do you want to play the hide-and-seek game?” This is the perfect training for me to make my presence less detectable for the enemies.

“Yes!” At this point, the kids are literally jumping on their beds.

“Okay, you can hide here… or even better - you can go outside. If you’re looking, you can split up or work together to find me,” Knapp says. He holds up three fingers. “If you win three times together, you’re the winner and the game is over.”

“What do we win?” Katja asks.

“You can stay up all night if you want to,” Knapp says with a big grin on his face. “I’ll start! You go hide, and I’ll count to ten…”

“Okay!” The kids yell eagerly.

Knapp turns to the wall and places his face on his arm on the wall. He starts counting, “One… two…”

He can clearly hear the kids giggling happily with their little feet thumping loudly. 

~*~

The Dark Team gets two rooms at the inn. Each room has two beds. Clear and Johnny agree to sleep in the same room while Jade and Logy will be in the second room along with Kawaii.

Technically Kawaii is the form of the Fifth Universe so there is no reason for him to need a bed anyway. He has always come and gone.

“I’m surprised that the inn owner let us bring the birds inside,” Jade says, watching the red bird chirping and flying around in the room. “I wonder if it’s hungry? What kind of food do we need to feed it?”

“Actually,” Logy says in sign language without using his voice as he looks up at the bird. “Both birds have been following us.”

“What?” Jade asks, also without using his voice. “How come? How do you know?”

“I caught their thoughts. I’ve been listening to their thoughts since the beginning. But I don’t know what kind of birds they are and why they are thinking like people.”

“Let’s sleep. We will talk tomorrow,” Kawaii says as he gets into Logy’s bed.

If he doesn’t need to sleep, then why is he coming into my bed? Logy thinks. He shrugs it off as he tucks himself and Kawaii under the blanket.

“True. Well, good night.” Jade stretches out his arms, yawning.

~*~

Hours later, the red bird is sitting on the top of Jade, looking so comfortable. Its eyes are closed but it doesn’t take long.

“Who are you?”

The bird squeaks at the sudden voice as it opens its eyes to find Kawaii floating in the air above Jade who is still asleep. It flaps its wings in panic.

“So you can see me. I won’t hurt you. I’m the Fifth Universe,” Kawaii says emotionlessly. “But you can call me Kawaii.”

The bird ends up landing on a bookshelf across from Jade’s bed. It keeps staring at Kawaii with suspicion. 

“That’s fine. As long as you are not in our way, we don’t care about you.” Kawaii shrugs his shoulders. Just right after he opens his eyes after blinking, they are glowing in both light and darkness. “I’m just curious… Why do you have half of the soul of this planet?”

The bird shakes with his red feathers puffing out. Almost as if it can sense that Kawaii can look into its core.

“I just find this to be weird because normally the King was supposed to have the planet’s soul.” Kawaii continues. “Care to explain if you don’t mind?”

“He’s the son of the King.” Logy speaks out suddenly, making the bird squeak in surprise. He has already sat up from his sleeping position. He knew that Kawaii would do this all along because they did use sign language quietly when Jade and the bird fell asleep. “His name is Gules.”

“What about the blue bird?” Kawaii asks.

“His twin sister, Beryl,” Logy responds right away.

Stop reading my mind, dammit! The red bird, known as Gules, yells in his own thoughts. Fine… It looks like I can no longer hide myself. 

“Only Logy over there and I know about you now. If you want to keep this as your secret… reveal yourself,” Kawaii says.

The bird puffs his chest out in anger. He then takes off and glides downward until he lands on the floor. He is transforming right in front of Kawaii’s and Logy’s eyes. He seems to be in his mid-20’s. He has short curly hair, which is fiery red. He is glaring at them with his narrow scarlet eyes. He is wearing a non-sleeved navy blue vest, a pair of white pants held up by a gold belt, black laced boots, and a long black hooded cloak.

“Where is the Universe Warrior?” He asks right away. “My sister and I can fairly sense his presence miles away but we can tell that he’s trying to hide.”

Kawaii gives him a small smirk. “I’m impressed that you are able to do that.”

“Why is a prince like you flying around in your bird form outside the palace?” Logy asks, using his voice.

Gules looks away with a scowl on his face. “It’s confidential. What about you? What are you doing on this planet?”

“It’s confidential as well.” Logy shrugs his shoulders.

“Why you…” Gules starts.

“What’s going on?” Jade asks drowsily as he sits up, rubbing his tired eyes. “Why are you awake?”

“You gotta be kidding,” Kawaii says with an irritated look on his face after he watches Gules turning back into the red bird as fast as possible.

Gules chirps angrily. He flies back to Jade so he lands on his shoulder, making himself comfortable.

“That bird really likes you,” Logy says with a smile. He lies back on his bed.  “Sorry to wake you up. Good night.”

“Okay… good night.” Jade yawns as he falls back asleep.

Gules shifts his eyes to the right to find Kawaii staring back. The child form of the Fifth Universe is standing next to Jade’s bed. 

Gules starts to sweat when he notices Kawaii’s non blinking stare. Pretend he’s not there… he’s not there with those weird eyes…

~*~

Knapp carefully closes the door after checking on his small children who are finally asleep. They’re a handful, eh?

He takes a quick check on his watch only to realize that it’s nearly one in the morning. I honestly did not expect this game would take so long. They were so quick at learning how to hide their presence… Of course… After all, they’re a seer and Dark Angel.

He begins to consider whether he should go to bed as well or not. But with millions of things on his mind, he may as well stay up a little longer.

He steps out of the spaceship and then stretches out of his arms. He then looks up at the trees. They must be three or four times taller and thicker compared to the largest ones from Earth. He feels as if he keeps looking all the way up, he will probably get dizzy.

He sits down on the ground, getting ready to meditate. The aura of his universe energy is a little too big, and he does not want anyone to find him. As he places his hand on the grass, he looks down and clenches the grass into his fist. Blades of grass are literally dissipating into nothingness.

“W-what’s going on with this planet…?” Knapp asks himself worriedly. If the planet is wilting into nothing but dust, then what exactly did someone from the First Universe do to it?

~*~

Jade is waking up to the brightness of sunlight coming from the window. He yawns as he is about to stretch his stiff body.

He freezes when he realizes that there’s an arm that is obviously not his lying on him. He slowly turns his head to find a red-haired stranger sleeping in his bed.

He screams.