Splatoon Manga: NightRoad

Chapter 66: Search

⭐️Chapter 66: Search

They slowly opened the mansion doors. There were no guards inside, in fact...all of them were gone. It felt strange, and they thought Ebony might have an explanation, but he didn't. The group went inside and closed the doors behind them. Surprisingly, the doors didn't squeak like the metal ones from earlier.

"I wonder where the guards could have gone..." Kuro mumbled, looking around. It was usually never this barren, or quiet for that matter.

"You think Noir did something? To the guards, to the place?" Flip asked.

"Could be a possibility..." Heise said.

Currently in front of them was the throne, and there was a door to the left and right of it. There were also stairs around it that went up to a second floor as well. The squidbeak felt a little intimidated by this task, but knew they would have to do it. They just hoped Emperor would be able to last long enough. They began to make a plan.

"Okay, so we can split up into...how many of us do we have?" Gloves looked around the room.

"14. That...uh...doesn't divide into 4 equally" Hachi mumbled.

"Hm. Maybe a pair of 2 can search this room while the other 4 groups of 3 search the other rooms" Negro suggested.

Gloves nodded.
"Okay, sounds good. Who wants to search this room?"

Prince and Ebony raised their hands first.

"Alright, I guess it'll be you two. Anyone else have a preference for which way they wanna go?"

Nobody spoke up. They all wanted to get this mission done with.

"Ok, if we're ready, let's go!"

And with that, the teams split up, picked paths, and went. Ebony and Prince stayed in the room as promised. After a long while of silence from just searching the room itself, Ebony spoke up.

"Look, I know we've been over this already, but I'm still so so so VERY SORRY this had to happen to you all. If I had had enough courage to just...take action, then none of this would've happened."

Prince looked up from examining a wall for hidden switches.

"Ebony, really. It's not your fault. You didn't know this would happen, or that it would get this out of hand, it's okay."

"It's not! I know how much this worries you! I should've been smarter! I should've..."

He felt himself about to break into tears, so he stopped himself and continued searching around the throne.

"Ebony."

Prince walked over to him, having come to a conclusion that none of the walls had any switches on them whatsoever.

"People make mistakes. They're not all perfect, even if they say they are. Most of them can't read the future!" he said.

"I know, I know, I just-"

"I get it. I've felt hopeless before, I've put all the blame on myself too. But I've learned that that just does nothing except bring you down. So don't do it. It's okay" Prince said calmly.

Ebony looked away, back at the area behind the throne. Nothing was there, and there were no other things that stuck out within the area.

"Thanks..." Ebony replied, without a smile. He needed time to think.

Prince nodded, and took one last look at the room. Suddenly, the two heard footsteps, and from the left door on the ground, Jet came running.

"The longest path's down this way" he said quickly.

The two younger brothers nodded, and proceeded to follow. Had the other members really been that quick? Maybe it was just the shadowlings using their powers to speed around the place, since it was dimly lit here. Nonetheless, all of them still went down the path Jet took. They eventually reached the rest of the group.

"You all were fast, huh?" Prince asked, upon reaching the group.

"Yeah. Sped through the place like it was nothing" Crow said proudly.

"The upstairs is all connected, and the people in their rooms up there said they hadn't heard any noises or seen suspicious things around, so we kinda assumed Noir wasn't on the second or third floor" Heise shrugged.

"Well, fair enough" Prince said.

"So I guess we can search this part ahead of us together now!" Goggles said happily.

"Yeah!"

The group continued walking down the hall. More doors showed up, but Ebony pointed out which ones were rooms, so all they had to do was knock and ask if anyone had heard or seen anything. So far, the majority of the replies were that they heard someone running through the halls, so the team continued down the halls with the corresponding answers. It was odd, considering Noir could've just flown through the mansion without making a sound, but like the shadowlings said, he was an idiot. That is, assuming the running WAS him in the first place.

The halls and rooms and spaces continued on. The group thought they were getting closer and closer, but when they reached the end, more would be waiting. To be fair, it WAS a mansion that housed people, it was supposed to be big. But sometimes...it wasn't the best thing to be searching when someone had gone missing. The stress grew, people were starting to give up, hearts were pounding. Some of the shadowlings even sped ahead through to see if the ahead space was worth searching.

The group still hadn't found anything, and it had been at least half an hour. They were starting to get desperate and worried, especially Prince. He didn't know how much longer he could take. They were now in a large room, with a few rooms here and there, and two pathways other than the ones they had just entered from. The squidbeak split to check each of the rooms, but Gloves spotted something off to the side. He quickly ran over to see what it was.

"Uh...guys? I think I've found something..."

The squidbeak ran over.

Indeed, in front of them, was a huge set of doors. A golden label next to it said "Ballroom".

"Shall we enter?" Rider asked.

"I suppose so..." Prince mumbled

"Let's do this, then."

They all put their hands on the doors...

Together.