Night fell, and the city returned to its familiar calm.
Inside his narrow room, Glober sat alone, staring at the ceiling as a single question circled endlessly in his mind:
How do I find my ship?
Time was not on his side.
With each passing day, matters only grew more complicated.
Slowly, he raised his hand and allowed his energy to take shape in the air before him.
A faint glow…
then outlines began to form.
An insect.
But it was nothing like any insect found on Earth.
Its body was slender and dark, its wings so transparent they seemed almost nonexistent. Its eyes glimmered with a dim, unnatural light.
He gave it a name from his native tongue:
"Serafex."
A perfect reconnaissance organism.
The Serafex were fast—far too fast for the human eye to notice at night—and their visual precision surpassed any primitive surveillance device on this planet.
He did not stop at one.
One by one, dozens emerged.
When he finished, he opened the window and whispered:
— "Spread out… and search for the ship."
In an instant, they vanished into the darkness of the city, as if they had never existed.
Glober returned to his seat and exhaled quietly.
Running away was not an option.
Waiting was no wiser.
He looked down at his phone screen and began to think differently.
— "This planet is primitive… but its information network is advanced."
The internet.
He recalled the vast electronic knowledge he possessed—programming techniques far beyond what humans currently understood.
By chance, he stumbled upon an open programming competition.
The prize: five hundred thousand dollars.
Glober entered immediately, driven by two objectives.
The first was money.
The second—to measure the extent of human talent.
— This is going to be an interesting night.
Inside a Secret Prison
Within an isolated wing of a heavily fortified prison, members of the Black Hand Gang were seated one by one before men dressed in black suits with no insignia.
The interrogations were brief… yet precise.
When Ryuji's turn came, he was led into a narrow room and seated before a metal table. Across from him sat the interrogator, writing without lifting his gaze.
— "Tell me… who are you supposed to be?" Ryuji asked arrogantly.
— "Silence. I'm the one asking questions here," the man replied in a dark, threatening tone, forcing Ryuji to comply.
Then he spoke calmly:
— "Name every person you believe holds a grudge against you. Anyone who ever annoyed you… no matter how insignificant."
Ryuji hesitated, then began listing names.
Enemies.
Rivals.
Former partners.
Finally, he added dismissively:
— "…There's someone named Koichi, but he's insignificant. Not worth mentioning."
The pen stopped.
The man slowly raised his eyes and said coldly:
— "We decide who is insignificant… and who matters."
Ryuji fell silent for a moment, then spoke as if recalling something:
— "But… as far as I know, Koichi changed recently."
The pen resumed moving.
— "Changed? How, and when?"
— "About three days ago… that's what my girlfriend said. His behavior became strange."
The man lifted his head again.
— "Three days?"
Ryuji swallowed and continued:
— "There was an incident… people said he died in the forest. Then… he came back alive and started acting like a different person. That's what I was told."
The interrogator froze.
— "Which forest?"
— "The northern forest…"
The man's eyes widened slightly.
That forest was dangerously close to the crash site of the spacecraft.
— "What is your girlfriend's name?"
— "Kagami Mizuki."
The interrogator turned to his colleague standing behind him.
— "Find the current location of this girl, Mizuki."
The man nodded and left immediately.
The interrogator then stood up, closed the file, and walked out without another word.
In the Outer Corridor
A man wearing a white coat was waiting outside.
The interrogator addressed him by his code name.
— "Subject Number Three. We have a very long list… but one name stands out."
He handed him the file.
Number Three skimmed through the pages quickly, then stopped.
— "…Yes. There's a high probability it's him."
He looked up seriously.
— "I want a deeper investigation into this individual. Bring in the girl—Ryuji's girlfriend. And the video photographer as well."
The men nodded silently and dispersed at once.
Number Three took out his phone and dialed an encrypted number.
— "This is Number Three. We've found a thread that may lead us to him."
The voice on the other end replied calmly, as always:
— "Good work. Inform me immediately of any new developments."
— "Understood."
He ended the call, exhaled softly, then smiled faintly.
— "This is becoming very interesting."
Dawn arrived slowly, bringing no answers with it.
In the same room, Glober sat exactly as the night had left him—eyes open, body still… yet his mind never rested.
The air before him began to ripple.
A point of light.
Then another.
Then dozens.
The Serafex returned.
They circled him in erratic patterns, their transparent wings emitting a faint hum barely audible. Glober extended his hand, and the data flowed into him instantly—no words, no images… only one overwhelming sensation.
Nothing.
No energy traces.
No metallic remains.
No signals.
His ship was not in the city.
Nor in its outskirts.
Not even within the expected surveillance range.
He closed his eyes briefly.
— "So… it has been hidden."
The realization wasn't entirely surprising.
A ship with such technology crashing onto a planet like this?
It would be foolish to assume it would remain unattended.
He opened his eyes slowly and watched as the Serafex returned one by one, dissolving back into him after completing their mission.
— "Well done."
The last one vanished. Silence returned.
Glober rose from his seat and approached the window.
The city looked normal. Calm.
People heading to work.
Students preparing for a new day.
No one realized that something was moving beneath the surface.
— "If I can't find the ship…"
He paused, then continued quietly:
— "Then I'll find whoever took it."
He began connecting the dots.
The hallucinations.
The gangs.
The interrogations.
— "This planet isn't as oblivious as I thought… Perhaps they've already begun searching for me."
He picked up his phone again, scrolling through news feeds, forums, and public databases.
He was no longer searching for the ship itself.
But for those searching for it.
— "It seems I've started dealing with more… interesting people."
There was no fear in his voice.
Only curiosity.
A faint smile appeared on his lips.
— "Very well… let's see who wins in the end."
Elsewhere, behind walls unknown, names were being gathered, files opened, and circles slowly tightened.
Glober was not the only one who had begun the game.
But what the others had yet to realize…
was that the piece they were searching for
had already begun to move—
of its own will.