Monday, September 13
Upon reading Yurika's mail, Koutarou and the others determined that this was an emergency. In order to cover an even wider area, those who could move alone did so, such as Maki, who was used to going alone in the first place, the overwhelmingly strong Shizuka and Theia. The others stayed in groups. Since there was a high chance that Youko had been caught by serial kidnappers, there was no harm in being cautious.
“...I don't want to believe it but...”
Upon hearing about the string of kidnappings, Maki suspected that Darkness Rainbow was behind this. The reason for that was simple. Despite ten children being missing, there were no clues or witnesses, nor had the culprit given any demands. That's why this hadn't been treated as kidnappings but as missing children. And rather than ten cases in a row not producing any evidence or witnesses by coincidence, it was more likely that this was done by someone who had the ability to erase such things. In that kind of scenario, Maki's first thought was of magic. If Darkness Rainbow were to use magic to kidnap children there would be no evidence or eyewitnesses. They could even make the children head into deserted places on their own.
“...And if the kidnapped children were going to be used for energy then...”
One of the reasons why Maki suspected Darkness Rainbow was because only children had been kidnapped. Because young children didn't have any specific thoughts or feelings, pure energy could be extracted from them. Choosing children with comparatively high talent with magic made that energy even purer. Since there were few children with magical talent, they had been gathered all over the city. There not being anything in common between them was the binding trait.
“...If Darkness Rainbow really is involved then...”
Having been a former member of Darkness Rainbow, she couldn't let it be if they were indeed involved with this incident. Because her own dark past was now trying to envelop Kitsushouharukaze city in darkness.
“...I have to protect it... this is a world within light after all...”
Maki headed towards the closest site where a child had gone missing. She had gotten information about the ten missing children through the Sun Rangers. In an attempt to find out if Darkness Rainbow was involved or not, Maki was going to examine the site.
“This is it”
Maki stopped by a riverbed. It was already night so there was nobody by the riverbed. She was wearing a Blue Knight blue and personal color indigo colored band of knights uniform, but in the night it was hard to tell the difference between the two.
“Now then, if they were to kidnap children using magic, where would they do it?”
Maki jumped down from the embankment to the riverbed and looked around the area. This was the place where one of the young boys had gone missing. After playing soccer with friends on the riverbed, the boy never came home.
“There are more people in the urban area... so kidnapping should be done here”
Having been a member of Darkness Rainbow, Maki knew how they moved and behaved. She felt sad about that, but right now that experience was important to find the children. It wasn't the case to say that she didn't want to remember her own dark past.
“But in this open of an area, there would be eye witnesses. In that case...”
Maki had cast a spell to let her see through the darkness. That's why she could clearly see the riverbed despite it being night. Maki used that information and her experience to narrow down the places where a kidnapping could take place.
“Probably, here, or there”