Sleep well tonight

"Vadik," Gao whispered , "We need to leave. For our own sake."

Vadik side-eyed Kashikoi, before shaking his head saying, "For our own sake, we probably need to stay until the job's done. So instead of talking, get to work, so we can spend our final day in peace and Joy."

"I mean, we might not die tomorrow. It can't be that bad, considering that Yue, Gao and Roshi survived previously." Haru shrugged.

They all turned to him, eyes like red matches burning a cold black.

"Get to work." They all, including Kashikoi, hissed.

An hour later.

"We're done." Kashikoi stated, before he flopped to the ground like a puddle.

They all followed suit, as sighs echoed throughout the room.

"Go and enjoy the last moments of your lives then. It was nice to see the last small joy of this place before it was snuffed out."

They mumbled in agreement as they stumbled out of the room, which now looked pristine. Roshi turned back to look at the door frame. His eyes set on a plaque which said, "Playroom for the kids"

He blinked, barely remembering the embarrassingly unimaginative plaque he had put up, before shaking his head and running towards the games room.

"Please, Katlyn, you've got to stop Lucaria!" Himari shouted.

Katlyn shook her head. "The moment she got the idea into her head, it was too late. Havoc probably won't help either, and your Senseis might just be suppressing the intense feeling of ruthless training for new members of the gym. And for the sake of your lives.

Himari fell to her knees and cried out.

Astrid subsequently walked round the corner, only to see Himari crying aloud.

She looked at Yue and gestured to Himari

"Lucaria."

Astrid's mouth opened with an "Oh…." and she sighed.

"You should probably just enjoy the last day of your life."

"You're with us as well."

"We should probably just enjoy the last day of our lives."

There was a pause, before Katlyn spoke up.

"In actuality, there may be two small flickers of hope. If you can find Natasha or the magician, they might be able to stop her."

The three girls' eyes turned to her with a clear intent.

"I don't know where my sister is. I try to be her keeper as much as I can, but she jumps around more than a cricket. You have twelve hours I'd say. You might wanna get a move on.

The three girls looked at each other, nodded, and all headed in different directions.

A few minutes later, Astrid arrived at the Games room, to see all of the boys focused intently on a variety of games: Gao and Roshi were both focused on a large screen, while Vadik, Haru and Neji played cards on the table.

"There's hope!"

"Hope?"

"We must find Natasha and the magician. It's our only hope."

Vadik, Neji and Haru shook their heads, clearly resigned to their fate. Roshi and Gao turned.

"Is it true?" Roshi asked.

Astrid nodded.

Roshi nodded in return.

Knock Knock Knock.

"Come in."

The door creaked open, to reveal Yue and Himari(they had ended up going the same way).

Havoc smiled. "Come, sit."

Himari and Yue shook their heads tentatively.

"H-have you seen the magician or Natasha?"

"The magician... oh, Erica. She should be training her new apprentice in the training room."

An awkward silence filled the room.

"I guess that's off limits for you. Natasha should be with Greta, acting like a mad scientist."

The two girls started at Havoc's final statement, then nodded, acknowledging such insanity as a necessity to stand a chance when confronting a behemoth like Lucaria.

Gao and Roshi rushed towards the training hall, giggling as they ran. As they made it to the entrance to the training hall, they saw a woman with a long cloak dragging behind her, and a top hat in her hand, pacing back and forth in front of a man whose eyes were cold and focused.

After checking that Lucaria was nowhere in sight, they walked in.

"So, how does this look?" Erica asked, as she threw her top hat upwards. As it reached its peak, it turned into a flock of crows, which spread in every direction, before falling on her, covering her in black, before they dispersed, leaving her gone from her original position, and leaning on the young man's shoulder, while glancing at the new entrances to the training hall.

"You seem to be making a habit of leaning on my shoulder. Do you want me to go buy you a cushion?"

Erica chuckled, before focusing on Gao and Roshi.

"What do you need?" She questioned, her voice glazed over with the slightest annoyance.

Roshi shivered. He looked at Gao, and they both nodded. They both took a knee.

"Please, help us to stop Luca-"

"No, I'm busy."

The room went silent. Roshi's mouth closed.

He closed his eyes and turned away.

"Those kids could do drama at any step of education and easily succeed. Maybe they're in the wrong profession."

"Should have recruited them for your magic act. Would have been a great asset, but I guess that's not possible anymore. Sad really."

Erica turned to her apprentice with blood shot eyes, before teleporting into the coradfdridor, but by then, they were already gone. She sighed heavily and turned back.

Himari and Yue dashed to the mechanical engineering room, and saw both Natasha and Greta pouring over an enormous axe.

"Problem is, even if he's extremely strong, the weight of it is gonna mean two things. It'll be hard to change the direction of an attack, making it easy to dodge and counter the clear attacks. Secondly, the time between attacks would be longer than a normal long handled axe, and recovery from an unsuccessful attack, especially one with a lot of power within it, would take long enough for important moments of regathering of resonance for teleportation or the creation of a major resonance object."

"That's why we should add explosive redirectors in most directions apart from the direction pointing towards the weapon's user."

"Natasha, you just want to add explosives. To everything. How would the user even control the explosives activation and power output."

Natasha shrugged. "Just add the explosives."

"But they even add more weight, only amplifying the problem without fully solving it."

"Greta, add the explo- oh hello there you two."

"Please, help us stop Lucaria from taking away our souls."

Greta and Natasha looked at each other and smiled warmly, saying "We're actually helping out with the training."

Himari and Yue perceived those smiles as the most villainous smiles they had ever seen.