✧ Chapter 51 ✧

“Lemme get this straight… We are now searching for a girl that wears cat ear headbands and is super rich. Can this day get any weirder?” asked Chelbie sarcastically.

“Probably. My question out of all of this is, what are we planning on doing once we see this Cat Nakahara?” added Eternika.

The team hid behind bushes while watching a new set of students walk into the open field to do exercises for PE class.

“Lay low and analyze what she says and does. If we disturb anyone or anything here, she will notice,” replied Kade.

As the Judgment Warriors hid behind the bushes that were next to the building, Styra was immediately able to make out where Cat Nakahara was as she entered the field. However, she began to notice a teenage boy walking beside Cat. He had golden blonde hair, sported a pair of blue expensive shades, and wore a Dream Academy High gym outfit over his muscle-toned body.

“Does anyone know who that guy next to her is?”

Cherry, who also noticed the other person, began to share what she knew about them.

“That is Otodo Yasuke. I heard he is Cat’s boyfriend. The only other thing I know about him otherwise is that he is also extremely rich.”

“He might have connections to UVOCA then too. Who knows if they were a part of what happened to you when those people broke your glasses.”

“You have a point Styra. Coincidentally, I did see agents hanging around outside where Ararima disappeared that night. However, I’ve always had this lingering feeling about them. When I read through UVOCA’s files, their disappearance as an organization made them seem more like ghostly apparitions than actual people. I went through a lot of that when searching for Ararima too.”

Upon reflecting on Cherry’s thoughts, Styra saw it was going to take a lot more than just preventing bad things from happening. If they wanted to get intel on what either Cat or Otodo was doing, it would require disguising in advance and getting closer to enemies that had established followers. They clearly were puppeteering entire worlds just by doing this, so uncovering their source was crucial.

“Okay… Idea time everyone. If we want to stop these two from whatever they’ve been plotting, we’ll need to wear better disguises, get involved with UVOCA’s hidden operation, and backstab whoever is behind everything. I know this is about to sound wacky for a plan but… What if I go in after school is over for them so I can pretend to befriend Cat and Otodo?”

Chelbie already could see where Styra was going with it and grew excited of what she would be able to do.

“Ahhh, I see ya Styra… As I always say, being stealthy is the key to being wealthy. I got ya covered with the Blazetrekker. Keep track of them if ya know what I mean.”

Styra smiled with satisfaction, but was quickly interrupted by Kade who had concerns regarding her idea.

“That is a very risky move. As much as I understand where you’re going with this, the execution has to be flawless in order for it to work. If the underground operations of UVOCA figure out that we’ve been catching onto their scheme with evidence to support it, they won’t hesitate to capture and experiment on all of us.”

“Sorry to burst any bubbles, but I agree with Kade here. I’d rather not become a strawberry cinnamon bunny pancake anytime soon,” interjected Peppie.

“Uhhh, wait what? No offense, but I’m almost pretty sure that combination doesn’t go well together,” remarked Chelbie.

“Does too! I just don’t want to get turned into that by a bunch of crazy humans!” yelled Peppie.

“Jeez, I just said no offense! You know what? Maybe if you had more of a brain, your sanity wouldn’t be lower than your shitty appetite! I mean I’ve had enough food to know what that’s like! Also, your taste sucks!” shouted Chelbie.

As the toxic argument started to boil, Eternika interceded in between it all to calm them down.

“You both need to quiet down. Chelbie, I think your plan is brilliant. However, we will not be able to make it happen if this bantering continues. Peppie, I suggest you do the same since talking back like this is not going to get you back to your home world any faster.”

“Is that a threat I hear?” asked Peppie.

“It is the truth, not a threat. We do not have time for bickering. We need answers.”

“Facts. You really should listen to what others are saying instead of assuming stuff Peppie,” said Chelbie.

Although Peppie was starting to feel enraged, she knew Eternika was somewhat right. At least that was the only way she could view the situation for now.

“Fine. Don’t call what I love a bad combination though. If you don’t like it—”

Styra suddenly interrupted Peppie unexpectedly as she was keeping track of where Cat and Otodo were going.

“Hey, I’m sure that’s nice and all, but we’ve got to keep moving. The class is about to leave.”

Most of the team (beside Peppie who was holding a bad grudge against Chelbie) stared in the direction of the students who were making their way back into the school.

For the rest of that time, Styra watched the mannerisms of Cat and Otodo as carefully as possible. With Cherry and Chelbie keeping tabs on their every appearance, there was a sense of unease between the two of them.

Around 4 PM, Dream Academy finally let all of their students out. Styra was beginning to get tense about what they were going to do next. With no sightings of the other five people that harmed Cherry, she did not want to risk losing yet another chance to make UVOCA pay for the injustice that they had inflicted upon The Omniverse.

As the group stood atop a building from which they could oversee Dream Academy High, the sky began to turn foggier and the atmosphere became a bit more cooler. A single snowflake landed on Styra’s nose as it tickled her senses a bit.

“Guys, now is our only opportunity to keep tabs on their whereabouts. If we plant Chelbie’s tracking devices on Otodo and Cat, we can easily get their location. Eternika, can you place it somewhere on their clothing that they won’t notice?”

“Gladly. Chelbie, may I?” asked Eternika.

“Got ‘em right here for ya,” answered Chelbie as she used her glove to pop out an array of tiny tracking device disks.

Eternika teleported two discs out of the selection, turned them invisible, and stuck each one firmly onto the right heels of their shoes. With that out of the way, Styra now had to question if she was going to get anywhere past this point in terms of keeping up with their location.

“Hey Kade, are you sure we can’t at least get more information out of them right now? I mean, a little context wouldn’t hurt…”

Kade, who was now wearing the Solar Ninja outfit, knew that the prospect of interacting with enemies was really dangerous. However, after the conversation he had with Styra, the only way he could see the execution being flawless would be to rely on someone in their team that knew about what they were dealing with the most.

And the one person that proved to know something about them was Cherry Brooks.

“I think we should let Cherry handle this since she would likely know at least the most about our targets. That is, if she wants to.”

Although Styra knew that he wasn’t wrong, part of her also worried that Cherry wouldn’t want to do it the way she was proposing. Even if she genuinely believed that it was possible to get more out of Cat or Otodo by intervening into their lives.

Anticipating Cherry’s response, Styra kept looking back at Cat, Otodo, and her friend group who were chattering while standing next to a bright magenta convertible.

“I think we should let Styra do this,” replied Cherry.

Smiling with grateful eyes, Styra hugged her long lost friend. So much so that Cherry herself started to blush. She stood there as stiff as a rock, but inside her heart raced with a newfound attachment towards someone that she hadn’t felt in awhile.

Sighing to himself, Kade finally decided to let Styra go. He began to tell her that she was going to be responsible for convincing Cat to let her visit the house she lived in. She needed to also exit the place by midnight or earlier so they could discuss about what she saw and plan ahead.

After talking over the earpiece with Compass to set up the entire operation in seconds, she was prepared to fly down near a hidden alleyway so she could change into her new disguise.

Before any of that could happen, Styra then glanced back at Cherry; remembering fondly of what she had done to help her.

“Hey Cherry… Thanks for what you did today. I really owe you one.”

A soft feeling of astonishment developed on Cherry’s face as trickles of snowflakes began to fall from the cloudy sky.

Even with the weather changing pretty fast, Styra was faster. She jumped over the ledge of the building in style before swooping into the alley unnoticed. In a matter of seconds she appeared right back out with her new undercover identity as Nei Tousaka. Her hair color was now a golden blonde, along with contact lenses that were a light blue hue, and a professional photographer name tag that attached to her clean Dream Academy uniform.

The moment she walked outside into the bustling city environment, Nei came up to Cat and her friends with a facade that caught their attention.

“Hi! You’re the Cat Nakahara correct? Looking fabulous as always! My name is Nei Tousaka, beauty photographer and fashion designer. I couldn’t help but notice how stunning you look. Are you okay with being featured on the main billboard screen at the Paradise Park Convention Center tomorrow? It will be for an advertisement by a business named Celebzine that is focused on selling expensive jewelry to potential customers.”

Cat, who already had some doubts about what she was hearing after being interrupted, asked a question to dig deeper on understanding this offer.

“I may consider it. How much will you give me for participating?”

“One hundred thousand dolla—“

“Make it one million dollars and I will accept your offer.”

It already seemed clear to Nei that Cat was the kind of person who demanded more than what most saw as feasible. Fortunately, The Judgment Warriors were ready to exceed those expectations in a way that would both overwhelm and destroy Cat’s reputation from behind-the-scenes.

“You have a deal. I will keep in touch with them to make sure you are paid in full. As of right now, I also have a sample of their product with me in order to get us started. If we are going to do a photo shoot though, they said that you must follow the requirement of choosing a private room with exquisite decor for a backdrop…“

“I have a studio at home for that, so we’ll take the picture there. Get into the backseat for me.”

As she proceeded to do as Cat instructed, Nei could see that Otodo gave a strange glare at her. This unusually heightened fascination that he seemed to have, made her all the more suspicious. During the trip, Cat blabbered on about her daily skincare routine to Otodo, completely unaware of her boyfriend’s hidden obsession for Nei.

From underneath the disguise, it certainly kept Styra on her toes.

When they reached the house however, something deep down told her that this place wasn’t what she thought it was going to be.