"Song! Can you hear me? Where are you?" Jake called out, his eccentricity continuing to show as he kept the microphone and amplifier close to him.

As he drove around the plains surrounding Evergreen, he was constantly calling out.

Even when – no, especially when – there were monsters around.

"Song, I just killed a giant centipede! Where are you and what are you up to?"

Monsters gathered up in their route as they searched for Song, and he and Liam cut them down, all the while calling out for Song.

"Really, hunting monsters while calling out for Song?"

"Less backtalk and more calling! I didn't buy you that amplifier and microphone for you to waste our time with silly questions!"

Liam just sighed.

"Come on out, Song! We've already defeated a lot of monsters; it should be safe for you to come out now!"

They turned a corner to see another horde of monsters.

"Riddle me this, why do we always run into so many monsters? They're not who we're looking for."

While they search for Song, the only thing they end up finding are monsters.

Sometimes they run into more monsters than they can handle while on the bike and have to take them out on foot, only returning to the bike once the horde had been cleared.

"Oh! I kind of forgot. The amplifier kind of draws monsters to us."

"What? Are you telling me we're searching for Song, attracting monsters and farming, all at the same time?"

"I guess so.. but I didn't plan for it that way!"

'I knew something was amiss about this -- I wondered why the monsters kept coming after us!' Liam thought, and his mental rant was cut short when the headlights of Jake's bike caught the silhouette of several people.

As soon as they rolled to a stop, they saw five men chatting and then gaping as they turned towards Jake and Liam.

"Hey!" one of them called, "you the two wild dogs from the Grand Duelists?"

Jake noted that the way they spoke were familiar.

'Reminds me of that samurai wannabe.'

"I must take offense with what you've just said," Liam said, his expression showing supreme annoyance. Wild dog? Me? I'm not the awakener you're looking for. The jock with the bike is the wild dog you're looking for."

Jake gave him a hurt and disappointed look.

"You also think I'm sort of freak?"

"Uh, no.. that's not what I meant," Liam answered, scratching his head. "I meant that I'm a normal awakener.. when compared to you."

As Liam let out an awkward laugh, the men in front of them were quickly angered at their display, almost as if they were beneath the two awakeners before them.

"Say, you guys sound familiar," Jake said stiffly, turning to the five men. "You guys from Musashi or something?

"No," the man answered, "we're from 'Bushido'."

"What division is that? A bootleg Musashi? Why does the name sound so similar?" Jake asked before letting out a laugh.

"Are you seriously looking for a fight? You two don't know your place – we'll gladly beat you until you realize that, and then we're going to take you to Musashi!"

However, Jake didn't fall for the threats.

"The five of you seem to be mistaken. I didn't have the misfortune to run into you."

He cracked his knuckles.

"You had the misfortune to run into me."

He leaped at them with a savage smile, and Liam quickly followed suit.

***

Normally, five awakeners versus two would mean that the two people are at a numbers disadvantage.

Even professional MMA fighters have trouble dealing with multiple attackers simultaneously.

This, however, was not the case.

Once you put overwhelming power to bear on your opponent, their advantage in numbers would end up meaning nothing.

'I thought they were still newbies..

I didn't know my pain threshold was actually that high..'

They knew about Jake and Liam, who just finished the tutorial.

They were reported to have helped Song kill Kinjo Toshihiro, and as Nohas-born awakeners hunting monsters all their lives, they expected to defeat Jake and Liam easily.

However, it didn't quite work out the way they thought, as Jake and Liam hadn't even needed to unsheathe their weapons to take them down.

A few minutes later, the five of them were a pile of bruises and entangled limbs; Jake and Liam were careful enough not to hit them in the spine or head, but everywhere else was fair game.

They looked less like human beings and more like prune people when Jake and Liam were finished with them.

"Here's the score. Answer our questions, and we're going to leave you with some items to mend yourselves with."

They answered with either groans or silence.

"So, you guys are going to give me the silent treatment, huh?" Jake asked, glaring at them.

Either they were silent out of pride, or because the beating they took was just too much for them, even speaking hurt.

"You guys had an interesting accent, but you were still talking then – what's wrong with you now?" Jake asked, trying to be tough, but still nervous at what would happen.

'I thought they'd go for the bait – what's up with these guys?' Jake thought, expecting to encounter awakeners like these as he looked for Song.

He was actually counting on it, as he and Liam helped Song strike down Kinjo Toshihiro.

Musashi was the type of division that wanted payback, and they'd probably hang around Evergreen looking for whoever killed their elite awakener there.

'And if I hang around here long enough, I'd run into them – and I'll find information about Song from them.'

This was his plan after he had trained at the Sand Dragon Lair and reinforced his equipment, but what he didn't plan for was how to gain the information from the awakeners he and Liam subdued.

'Never tortured or threatened anyone before. I'm out of my element here, what's the most efficient way to go about this?'

Jake's inexperience was clearly written on his face, and Liam was also giving him glances, thinking about how to overcome this situation.

'Hmm, should I actually start the torture? I've already killed my fair share of awakeners. Torture wouldn't be a big deal.. but the thing is, I don't know how to do it effectively.'

In other words, neither Jake nor Liam know interrogation techniques, or how to maximize the use of pain.

Jake was basically thinking about how not to go overboard and kill a man in a gruesome manner, but then something crossed his mind.

'Right, I have a Drink of Truth in my inventory!' Jake thought, remembering the item he got as compensation not too long ago. 'How did it work, again?'

He read the product description and found out how it worked: a person cannot lie to you after taking three shots of that drink.

Jake didn't know if he'd spill the beans, but it was worth a try.

"Liam?"

"What's up?"

"Grab that guy and keep his mouth open."

***

As it turned out, the Drink of Truth worked wonderfully: three shots of the drink and Jake got every bit of information he needed.

"Why are you here, and what is your business with me?"

"Musashi has put up a bounty," the man from Bushido answered. "All the Japanese divisions are now keeping their eyes out. The reward isn't what they really want, but a chance to stand out and draw the attention of Musashi."

'Musashi put a bounty on us.. interesting.'

"A bounty towards who?"

"The crazy dogs of the Grand Duelists. I mean you two, Jake and Liam."

To Jake and Liam – that wasn't surprising: this situation was easily anticipated.

Something bothered Jake, though: why wasn't Song part of the list? Was he already captured?

Jake tried to hide his rising anxiety as he asked the next question.

"What happened to Evergreen?" Jake asked, keeping his mind calm, and going back to his objectives: find out what happened with Song and Evergreen."

"Evergreen doesn't exist anymore."

Jake expected this, but it still somehow hurt deeply.

"What happened?"

"I don't know the details, but the master of Evergreen caused internal discord."

Internal discord? This wasn't what Jake thought of.

'The dead body at the master's chamber was.. does he mean that the dead body and the bloodstains were due to the internal discord?'

This is understandable, but needs to be looked into as well.

"What about the vice master of the division?"

"Oh, you mean Song?"

"Do you know him?"

"Everybody from this area knows who he is. He's quite famous: the vicious knave who promised a fair fight against Toshihiro and then murdered him underhandedly. I also heard that he killed all of Froad's civilians."

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"What?" Jake asked angrily; he was in disbelief about the ridiculous rumors being spread about Song.

"You didn't know this? They also say that Song is a vicious man who sold out the members of Evergreen for his own safety."

"You're talking about the man from Musashi, that Kinjo Toshihiro fellow."

"What? What are you talking about? They said that Toshihiro died while protecting Froad's troops."

"Did you see it as it happened? Are you absolutely sure about what you are saying?"

"The survivors of Froad said it," the man said, and Jake couldn't find any deceit in the man – after all, it was a secondhand account.

Still, the story was a perverted load of bull: everything that the survivors of Froad said was the opposite of what actually happened.

"Does everyone believe what you're talking about now?"

"It's not a matter of whether we believe it or not. How could a samurai from Musashi do something like that bad? Song has long been famous for his bad temper."

Jake's eyebrows furrowed as he thought about everyone believing a rumor as distorted as this.

'I can't believe this. Even the weak are being made to be villains by these Musashi assholes.

Guess it's one of those things that happen when you are part of the Ten Stars, you can even change the truth to whatever you want it to be.'

The man from Bushido whimpered, and Jake opened his eyes to see that he had turned one of the swords of Froad that he had picked up into a crumpled ball of metal.

"All right," Jake said, ignoring the man's whimpers and tossing the crumpled sword aside, "do you know where Song is now?"

"It's vague," the man replied. "I've heard that his desire for vengeance had gotten so great that he's going to invade Musashi alone, which is completely insane."

"Wait..you said he's going to invade Musashi?"

It's a crazy story: invading Musashi?

Whatever was left of Evergreen, attacking Musashi?

Evergreen is already nonexistent.

This is just Song attacking Musashi by himself.

'How did this happen? Song's not the type to do something like this. He's smart enough to figure out a way to endure for Evergreen's sake.

The guy was able to plan for a counterattack and wait for his time for revenge, for the love of..! Something must have happened to make him drop everything and attack Musashi on his own, without a chance of victory! What could it be?'

However, Jake already knew the answer to that question: Song lived for Evergreen.

This devotion was what worried him the most.

If something happened to Evergreen, Song was the type of awakener who would want to pay for his perceived failure by trying to take Musashi down, or die trying.

"What's that about vengeance?" Jake asked.

"Well, the reason Evergreen was destroyed is because of Musashi."

"Are you sure Song is going to Musashi?"

"I'm sure," the man said. "We've seen it – he literally carved a trail of corpses from what used to be the Evergreen Castle on the way to Musashi. He's gone off the deep end and become a killing machine."

If that was Song's plan and there were real deaths, then Song must really be heading to Musashi.

Jake then grabbed the collar of the man he was talking to and pulled him close so that the man could see the smoldering anger in his eyes.

"Tell me, then: where is Musashi located?"