Big Book of Writing

Stone-Cold Ordeal (Sanniuri, SDRA2)

I couldn't be satisfied with one fic, so I made another one for Sannoyomi Day.

***

Nikei as soon as the Monocruise had crashed onto the fourth island, Nikei sprinted off it like a man on a mission. And in a way, he was.

Everyone would surely be confused at their unexpected destination, but none of them would be more confused than Mikado Sannoji himself. That was to be expected, as this was an island that he hadn't planned for. So Nikei needed to find him quickly.

Searching the bottom floor of the Tower of Babel didn't yield any results, other than briefing Teruya and covering up their interaction in front of Sora and Yoruko, so he was forced to run up the stairs. For someone who didn't exercise regularly, Nikei found it to be the worst torture. Why did he ask Syobai to install that many... Well, maybe a gym nut like Shinji would like it.

When he got up the stairs, and kept searching the next floor, he ended up running into Sora again. "Nikei!" she called out, running over to him.

He quickly turned to her. "Sora! Have you seen Mikado?!"

"Huh? Uh, I was the one who spoke first..." she protested, her posture growing more defensive with her nervousness. "No, I haven't seen Mikado in the past few days."

"Figures..." he sighed. Of course no one else would've seen him. "Drats."

"What's wrong? You have some business with Mikado?" Sora questioned him.

Nikei was quiet for a moment as he carefully crafted his words together. "From what I know, the situation is going different than what was planned," he chose to say.

"What do you mean by that?" she asked.

"I'll be sure of the exact details once I meet Mikado. The only one who can explain this situation is him."

"Meeting him? But isn't it dangerous for you to encounter him? You're a traitor to Void..." Her expression betrayed her worry - were all the others this concerned about him? Well, that made manipulating them easier.

But even so, this conversation was grating on his patience. "No, just checking on him is enough. If my theory is correct, he's probably the most confused one right now."

Sora blinked in surprise. "What is that supposed to-"

"Sorry. Got no time for this," he interrupted. "I'm gonna search for Mikado. He should definitely be here somewhere...!"

Nikei heard her call out for him as he hurried towards the stairs to the top floor. He didn't want to waste any time when Mikado could be in the tower, especially when his plan completely depended on Mikado not knowing anything.

He couldn't find Mikado anywhere on the top floors after searching for five minutes, so there was only one more place he could possibly be. Nikei ran back down the stairs, making sure he didn't accidentally trip. He had to get to the basement, Mikado would surely be there.

In the basement was a power room, which was filled with fancy machines to keep the electricity going in the tower. For all the space they took up though, Nikei wished that he added a heating system to the tower blueprints. But regardless, Mikado had to be down there.

When he arrived in the dusty power room, there was no wizard in sight. At first, he thought that maybe they just missed each other, or Mikado hadn't gone into the tower yet. But as he wandered further into the basement, he noticed something that disproved his thoughts: a hidden passage.

Nikei knew that there were hidden passages in the tower, there was one that was supposed to go to a hidden room beneath the basement itself. But that one was closer to the entrance, if Nikei remembered correctly...but if there was another entrance all the way at the back, then he needed to check it out, just to make sure it went to the same place.