Nemo’s recent trauma resurfaced after he was beaten unconscious… For no more than two hours, he was harassed by a snake’s onomatopoeia. A dark-skinned, grown-up hand touched his shoulder out of the blue as a shiver went down his spine…

…

Nemo regained consciousness and found himself on his knees, stuck to a wall in chains. The child gnashed his teeth in rage when he saw Susumu in front of him.

“S-Susumu…!”

“I want you to answer some questions.”

“Questions? You won’t get any answers from me, jackass!”

“Zosimus, it looks like I’ll lend you my body one more time…”

“N-No, please!”

“Firstly, who’re you guys? Secondly, what’s your goal?”

“…Our organization is called Illuminatus. We came from Aqua to capture the Adam’s Apple which is inside that Lied dude.”

“The ‘Adam’s Apple’? And you came from Aqua?”

“Pfff, you don’t know? Aqua is the world where we, aztecs, live. About the Adam’s Apple, they say it’s a divine object hundreds of years old.”

“Go on.”

“My job was to keep the police in check so they wouldn’t get in the way, but the others had different tasks. By now they must have have entered Mictlan.”

“And Mictlan is…?”

“The Underworld! When people die, aztecs and humans, that's where their spirits go.”

Susumu took a break from the interrogation to ask Zosimus for explanations.

“You said you were an aztec… then you knew all along” Susumu said.

“Of course” Zosimus said.

“Why didn’t you tell me?!”

“What could you have done? Knowledge by itself is worthless if you do not have the skill to make full use of it.”

“But...!”

“Let’s not waste time. Susumu, there’s still something you want to ask him.”

“Nemo, what’s going to happen to the police officers that had their memories tampered with?” Susumu inquired.

“Don’t worry, they’ll come back to their usual selves if I’m gone for too long” Nemo replied.

“I see. In that case, you’re going with me to Mictlan.”

“Say what?!”

Susumu straightened his tie while ignoring Nemo’s screaming.

“Are you listening?!” Nemo said.

“I’m not letting you do what you want anymore. Justice shall prevail!” Susumu said.

“Aaaaaah, do as you wish.”

“Mictlan, huh…?” Zosimus thought.

…

Ganeden, 13:10

Tatsuo returned home shortly after drinking with his co-workers. He thought it was odd that his son wasn’t back yet.

“Perhaps he went somewhere…?”

…

“’Spirit Mode’?” Lied said.

“A power that your enemies possess. A person awakens the Spirit mode when the intermediate element, the perispirit, ties the spirit and the physical body together to become one. The soul is actually a space within the perispirit. Be very careful, as both spirit and body can be disjoined if your perispirit is cut off” Zaccharias said.

Lied swallowed his saliva. If that happened, it would mean instant death…

“Anyone is able to learn and eventually master the Spirit Mode. Between all the great potentialities of the Spirit Mode, it’s on the battlefield where it truly goes beyond potential” Zaccharias stopped to take a look outside “I’m afraid that the guards will resume investigations and that’s why I’ll jump straight to the fundamentals. I imagine that’s your wish.”

Lied nodded. Indeed, he really wanted to start practicing.

“The Spirit has eight properties: the ‘Visibility’ that allows a spirit to be visible to people with latent spiritual potential; the ‘Plasticity’ with which morphological changes can be made in the perispirit; the ‘Penetrability’ that enables you to cross vibrating barriers, physical or not, like the soul; the ‘Intangibility’ that turns a spirit intangible to a physical body; the ‘Sensitivity’ that brings about sensations, feelings and emotions; the ‘Density’ that determines the molecular constitution of the perispirit; the ‘Expandability’ that’s used for medical purposes by conveying spiritual particles; and lastly the ‘Oneness’, the reflection of a soul in its essence… you may understand this one later on.”

The boy learned each piece of information by heart, although a notepad would have been more than welcome. Among all the properties, he remembered the Sensitivity that Martyr mentioned.

“It is essential that you master two of these properties: Visibility and Sensitivity. In battle Visibility is what allows us to track the opponent's movements and Sensitivity is used to feel their presence. By the way, I’m currently using Plasticity to look like this.”

Having finished their quick lesson, they quietly left the shelter.

…

Core and Martyr were waiting for Varius next to the park building at the same time Tatsuo arrived home.

“I’m here” Varius said.

“Finally! Hey, Varius… you're not hiding anything from us, right?” Martyr asked.

Martyr awakened the snake eyes momentarily as it didn’t go unnoticed either by the lilac-eyed young man.

“Come on” Core hastened them.

The park was one of several spiritual entrances to the Underworld in Ganeden.

…

While Core, Martyr and Varius got themselves ready, Iduma was seen near Naomi’s house as it was also a spiritual entrance to the Underworld. As planned, Iduma would, too, leave for Mictlan…

“I can feel it. Adam, Eve, Nachash, Meshulam… and Lilith… are gathering together once again.”

…

9th Underworld Level, Upper Block, Administrative Floors

Mictlan was ruled by a “God of Death”. As the supreme ruler, it was the most important existence of its own world. For hundreds of years, multifarious generations of death gods took care of the Underworld, ensuring stability of the flow of the dead and the living.

The youth with his head sagging over the papers was none other than the current Shinigami, Mictlantecuhtli X. An Underworld officer walked into his office.

“Excuse me, sir” the guard said.

“Y-Yes?” the Shinigami said.

Somehow Mictlantecuhtli, or just Mictlan, foretold what was coming, his eyes almost bled as he felt himself driven to despair…

“Hum, sir?”

“Spit it out!”

“A-Aye! It seems that a spirit has escaped. The guards lost track of him, though we have an idea about his whereabouts. Your orders?”

The report confirmed the God of Death’s superstition, the officer fell backwards as the man shouted loudly:

“KNEEEEEW IT! I-IT’S GOTTA BE KAAARMAAAAAAAAA!”

[END OF CHAPTER]