"Commence operation ‘omoi’"

At the pale man’s words, all the other new inmates stood up.

"Professor…" Lalane dropped her book to the floor.

"Lalane…are you alright?"

"Professor…run!" she turned around throwing fire at him with a motion of her hand.
He dodged just barely, getting his blue coat burnt a little.

"Lalane!?," he put his arms up and two Éclairs came out of his sleeves, brought straight to his hands by the mechanical exoskeleton.
He wasn’t sure how to proceed. It was his assistant that was attacking him, after all.

"Run! Get away, I c-can’t control…" even forming a sentence became a real struggle for the girl.

"Security! We have a breach!" Noix yelled while dodging another stream of fire.

"What’s going on?" two guards came rushing, but the inmates started yelling and seemingly panicking immediately. One of them put his head in between the bars, pushing so hard that his face got stretched, shouting...

"Help! They are trying to kill us!" 

"They are armed!" the other one shook his cell door like a maniac.

"We are going to burn. Someone put out the fire!" the third one was spitting and shaking like a rabid dog.

The inmates screamed frantically, creating a sense of urgency and putting the guards in a state of panic.

"No! Don’t listen to them. At least one of them is—" but Noix couldn’t finish his sentence before another fire assault came from Lalane.

The guards weren’t sure who to trust so they raised their guns.

"Everybody, stop what you’re doing or we will shoot!" they tried their best to analyze the situation while under such tremendous pressure.

"We’re not doing anything! Are you blind?" the inmate closest to the guards pulled on the bars, "Open up, we’ll burn alive!"

"Tsk," Noix saw where this was going. He couldn’t risk the guards being tricked. It was critical for him to get the guards on his side. It was a battle he couldn’t win on his own, so taking a hit toward that goal seemed like the next logical step. He stood his ground and let himself be hit by Lalane’s fire, first shouting a loud painful scream to get their attention, then trying to talk some sense into them.

"Think! Would my assistant do this to me willingly? She’s being manipulated by one of them!" he quickly took off his burning coat, revealing the mechanical parts that were all over his torso and arms on top of his white shirt. 
Unfortunately, his strategy backfired.

"T-throw down your weapons!" one of the guards ordered.

"Fools! I can’t! They are attached to me," Noix put his arms up to show the mechanism, but the window of opportunity had passed.

"Now," the dark-haired man ordered with a raspy voice, and the closest inmate started gesturing towards the guard, taking control of his mind and making him shoot Noix.

"Argh!" the blue man fell to the floor, holding his hurt abdomen. It was a rubber bullet, but it still hurt like hell, Noix thought.

"I’ll take control of the other guard. You put out those fires," the third inmate said.

"Sure thing," his comrade replied and manipulated Lalane to pull all of the fire into a single ball, extinguishing it by extracting all of the air out of it. He then asked what to do about the professor.

"He is of more use to us while conscious," the man with long hair said, "Simply restrain him." 

"Mai…you are our only hope…" Noix was desperate. He felt his mind being invaded. There had to be a way for him to get Mai’s attention. Looking around for a bit, he got an idea. Using the power of his exoskeleton, he forced his arms upward toward the ceiling and grasped the triggers of his integrated guns. He fired a volley at the prison’s roof and the large glass panels shattered, making a lot of noise.
Mind controlled Lalane came closer and grabbed him while he was busy, freezing both his hands and the guns into ice.

"Argh…" Noix let out a cry of pain as his hands were now incredibly cold.

"That takes care of you…" the inmate controlling her, remarked, "The warden is coming. He is escorted by more guards."

"Of course," the dark-haired man answered calmly, still sitting on the edge of the bed.

The group of guards escorting the warden was just entering through the main gate when the leader of the escort gave a sign to stop, alerted by all the commotion.

"Something is not right... You should wait here, sir," the leader said.

"Relax. It’s just the exercise. Haven’t you heard?" the warden casually limped past him, "Or is it perhaps that you have somehow failed to read the notice I sent you yesterday?"

The warden was an older man with thick glasses walking with a help of a wooden cane, decorated with a golden handle.

"A notice…? My apologies sir. I haven’t been informed," the leader bowed slightly, "Your orders?"

"Ahh…does no one here do their job? Just leave."

"Leave? Now?" the guard leader asked.

"Are you deaf? Leave!" the warden raised his voice.

"Yes sir!" the leader gave a sign to the others and all of the guards went back down the stairs, The old man waited until they get out and close the gate to climb up to the next floor on his own.
Seeing the warden climb up the stairs, Noix immediately yelled...

"It’s a trap! We were tricked by a group of mind masters!"

"You catch up quickly, professor Noix Smythe," the warden spoke simultaneously with the inmate with the long hair. He continued towards the cells and unlocked them one by one, finally releasing the man with the long black hair who then waved his hand and the warden fell unconscious to the ground after the control over him subsided.

"The warden too…" Noix’s brows furrowed as he realized that even the most influential figure in this prison was simply a pawn to the enemy.

Fully expressionless, Lalane melted the ice on his hands while the inmate controlling her put handcuffs on them both and then released her from his mind control.

"Professor…I’m sorry," she regained consciousness.

"There was nothing you could do. There’s just too many of them," said Noix.

The other two inmates took the unconscious guards’ rifles, releasing them of mind control and aiming at their backs.

"What’s going—"

The guards got knocked out by rubber bullets the very next moment. Noix was impressed by the efficiency with which this team of inmates operated. Could they really be the same men that were arrested for hijacking the train, he wondered. It seemed very unlikely. Noix spoke out loud...

"Five masters of the mind…no wonder our staff labeled you as non-nomads…you manipulated even the testers, convincing all of us that you are just a radical group trying to assassinate Label. You got yourselves arrested on purpose, that much is certain, but ‘why’ remains to be seen."

The man with the dark long hair smirked and raised his chin. He spoke...

"Your methods of differentiating nomads from non-nomads are pathetic. Without Anciel, you cannot discover a true master of the mind. For that, you would need a more capable team than ours. And the five of us are the best Toukoku has to offer."

"Toukoku? Who are you really?" Noix raised an eyebrow.

"We are the neo shogunate. The Emperor’s personal unit."

"To what purpose are you doing this?" Noix asked, "There wasn’t a word from Toukoku in ages. Was there no diplomatic solution to whatever you wanted to achieve? Unless you are planning an invasion?"

"An invasion?" the dark man laughed, "No. The Emperor doesn’t fear the Republic."

"What then?" asked the Professor.

"We want you to hand over Label," said the dark-haired man.

"Ha…hahahahaha!" Noix started laughing like a maniac.

One of the tall and stronger unit members was not entertained by it, so he got closer and lifted Noix by the collar.

"Something funny?" he shook him back and forward.

"Hahaha…Label? You jest…" Noix contained his laughter.

"We know your connection to him. We know everything. You will hand him over," the inmate threatened.

"Hand over Label?… Sure, we may have underestimated you and fallen right into your trap—" the professor wanted to say but the big man interrupted him.

"You did. However, don’t be too hard on yourselves. We predicted all of this. We prepared for years. We planned out each step, every one of your moves. We concealed our presence in front of your nomad testers. We played to be some fools and got ourselves arrested."

"You orchestrated all of this…" Noix whispered.

"You think it’s a coincidence we did it with such precise timing; exactly when your guardian is spending his time with his long-lost friend?"

"…in vain," the blue-haired man finished his thought.

"What?" the brute shook Noix who smiled at him mockingly.

"—but it was you who underestimated Label and Anciel," The professor looked at the dark-haired leader, finishing his other thought as well.

"We’ll see about that…" The long-haired man clicked his fingers a few times, "Attention shoguns; she’s coming. Remember, she can hardly be controlled. Do only as we planned."