Trouble in paradise (official)

Chapter 70 "Sunken."

The mirror spat the four of them back into Rindou's room, causing them to stumble into the space.

"God, ugh, what the fuck," Kakucho groaned, massaging his aching back.

"Is everyone okay?" Benkei inquired, his eyes fixed on Lani. "Hey, are you good? Did we all make it?"

Lani's disoriented gaze darted around the room, her shock apparent. "What the fuck was that?" She muttered before her eyes landed on the window, a window she knew all too well. "Shit! Shit, shit, shit!" Panic gripped her as she began searching the room. "Where is it?"

"What? What are you looking for?" Kakucho asked.

"The bag! The bag with the manga in it!"

Kakucho held up his bag. "I have one right here." He set it down and started sifting through its contents. "But... I only have half of the books in it."

Lani's heart sank. "Where is the other bag?"

Benkei's voice was regretful. "I think it got left behind."

"No!"
"Ugh—- I know, I'm sorry."

"Fuck!" She shouted, her voice trembling with stress. She brought her hands up to cover her face, the weight of the situation bearing down on her. "We only brought back half of them? Fuck! Mikey is going to be so pissed cuz he gave us instructions."

She began to rock back and forth, a nervous energy consuming her.

"What do you mean? We got some of it; that should be okay, right?"

Lani's eyes darted around the room, searching for an answer that would absolve her anxiety. "I know him. He's going to want to see all of it. I can't believe we fucked up like this again!" Her fear of disappointing Mikey was painfully evident as she spoke.

"I... I really left him like that," Nai mumbled to herself, her voice filled with a mix of confusion and regret as she thought about Derek. She sat on the floor, clutching her head as she tried to soothe her pounding headache, her gaze wandering around the room. "Wait! How the fuck did we get back into Rindou's room? What the fuck happened?"

"I don't know, it seems like we got randomly sucked back in this time," Benkei commented, extending a hand to help her up from the ground. "Things have changed. There appears to be a timeframe for how long we can stay back there, and it's definitely clear it's starting to get shorter."

"But how? We literally just went over there a few days ago! That makes no sense, we should have had at least five to six more days!" Nai shouted.

"I don't fucking understand how the time frame got shorter. We didn't get to do any of the shit we planned! This was such a fucking waste; I can't believe this shit!"

"It's okay Lani, we'll figure out what went wrong."

"NO ITS NOT OKAY NAI! NONE OF THIS SHITS OKAY!"

"But--"

"We don't have any leads, no nothing. We're still stuck here at square one, just like the day we got here!" Lani bursts out, her voice filled with complete frustration. She quickly gets up, and angrily snatches the backpack, rummaging through it, to grab the manga. "One book——- all we got is one fucking book." With a furious gesture, she throws it onto the floor in front of Kakucho. "We fucked up again."

"Lani, we couldn't have predicted we'd get pulled back so soon. It's not our fault," Benkei offers, trying to calm her down.

"We're just constantly wasting our time, and I'm sick of it," she cries out as she marches to the door, yanking it open. "Go ahead, report back to Mikey, let him know we're back and that we've essentially failed this mission. Thank you, have a good day."