Zero didn't have time to react as a bug landed on her cheek with a splat. With a click of her tongue, a thumb swiped over it, but her eyes quickly made a sharp turn as to her left were butterflies of varying colours, flying to her at incredible speed. Millions of fluttering wings invaded her space. She swung her arms around as the butterflies attempted to obscure her vision. 

A painted fingernail pointed straight at Zero's face. "Say hello to my children, bitch!" snarled Nahashi. There was little edge to her voice. Her face was stricken from the burst of mana she unleashed. Blood trickled down her nose.

When Zero's eyes opened, Nokori was charging towards her, an activated shield bracelet and an enchanted spear on hand. His face looked disturbed but his movements were precise and steady. Zero clenched her jaw and quickly sidestepped, cleanly dodging the tip of the spear. She suddenly stiffened and sent a sweeping kick behind her. A wave of marbled starbursts bounced off her leg before exploding in mid-air.

"Now they're activated!?" gasped Zero.

Rinko only shrugged. "You seemed mad when I threw a non-lethal one… but now you're still mad when I do the opposite…"

Zero's eyes widened as she felt the air behind her change. She threw her head back as a spear was thrusted to her, cutting pieces of her hair. Her hand flew down to the spear's shaft, forcing it out of Nokori's grasp. It spun and Zero delivered a precise kick to its hilt, hurling it to pierce through a tree trunk.

Just as Zero's foot was about to land down, Nokori charged forward with his shield, pushing at Zero. She fought down her instinct to counterattack when--

"Ah fuck!" Nahashi wailed. Her knuckles had cracked when it connected to Zero's arm. She jumped back fast, her other hand nursing the injury.

Shinichi stood up straight from where he was leaning.

Nokori's hand reached for the hat. His fingers grazed through it as Zero recovered from her surprise. She jumped back, leaving a whole expanse of space between them.

A deadly silence descended upon the group. The shrivelled leaves ceased their falling and the harsh breeze was nowhere to be found.

A slow smile rose on Shinichi's face. "Risking your opening by delivering flimsy attacks… yet that made the conceited Zero lower her guard for that swarm attack."

Zero, rather than getting offended, seemed distracted.

Nokori, with his broken nose, whispered over to Nahashi: "He's making it seem like we actually had a plan."

"Even sacrificing Nokori's face…" Shinichi rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"Well, technically, the Nokori part was unintentional--but nonetheless!" Even with her bloodied hand and the red decorating her philtrum, Nahashi was smiling. She presented her fist to Zero and Shinichi proudly. "The next round, that hat is ours!"

Nokori nodded, expression filled with determination. Rinko seemed more reluctant, who only gave a shrug.

Zero's hand whipped into the air. "Everyone, quiet!" commanded Zero. She spun her head around, sticking out her ear as she listened closely to whatever caught her attention. Her gaze darted off to the distance, then--she flew off.

"Hey, Zero!"

Zero stopped as she entered the shadow of the woods. "Hey, Janitor, come!" she waved her arm, which looked tiny from the space she covered in a matter of seconds.

Gritting his teeth, Shinichi turned to the kids before jerking his head as a gesture to "come along".

It was a minute later before they caught up to Zero. She was sitting on a tree root, legs splayed and all, looking bored out of her mind. On her hand was a stick, which she was fiddling to doodle random shapes on the soil.

"Are you crazy! You do know that you're our only protection against devourers? What would have happened to us if one popped up while you were gone?"

Zero scratched her cheek. "You'd die?"

"Exactly!"

"And what does that have to do with me?"

Shinichi gasped, offended.

"Shinichi," a strained voice croaked. "Is that you?"

Looking up, Shinichi realised that he had missed a very glaring situation of someone in plight. Dangling upside down was Irish, who was bestowing them all a wide open grin that had a hint of sheepishness to it. His barely open eyes seemed to indicate that he had just woken up. Coiled tightly to his body was a mesh of sticky liquid that was slowly becoming more solid. Irish's cocoon connected to a series of webs attached to the branches of the trees. Shinichi felt dizzy at every inch his face travelled up. His eyes uncovered more and more strings of silk weaved into big patterns. Man, does this mean there's a huge ass spider-like creature here?

Nokori fell on his bottom with a choked "oh my gods!". Rinko stood still, slack jawed, face paler than it should be considering the heat.

Nahashi made a distressed noise. Zero had drawn a misshapen caricature of her bleeding on the ground.

"Irish," began Shinichi, voice carefully steady. "What're you doing there?"

Irish gave a dopey smile. "You like hunting, Shinichi," he started to explain. The cocoon shook a bit from his apparent excitement. "So I wanted to surprise you with this unexpected mission of saving me once you come back!"

Shinichi gaped.

Irish's eyes glistened, cheeks turning red from the constant smiling.

Learning that the strange creature was just another human being, Rinko and Nokori relaxed.

"You got yourself stuck, didn't you?"

Irish's face dimmed. "... I had a pretty wild night yesterday."

Sighing, Shinichi nodded. "I see."

Nahashi kicked the stick off Zero's hand. Zero retrieved another one from a pile on the ground.

"Well then," Shinichi stood up straight. He looked at Irish resolutely. "We got things to do so we'll be on our way."

With both hands on their backs, Shinichi led the students back to their safe zone. Zero dusted off the dirt off her trousers as she stood up and gave Irish a lazy salute.

Then they were gone.

Irish's scream echoed through the woods.