"something's very wrong. yellow hair boy." Mimi's voice came over the comms. however, the boy was in no condition to be paying attention to her.

ahead of him was a number of blades blocking his path. they also seemed to be moving in his direction. to make things worse, he could feel that the airflow behind him had been blocked by something. he was trapped.

"sorry Mimi, you're on your own." he then cut off the transmission between them.

---

Mimi winced at the high pitched static coming from the comms device, and instinctively destroyed it to stop the noise. with that, she truly was on her own.

she frowned. something seemed to have happened on the boy's side but she wasn't sure what exactly. on her own side, she hadn't figured out what it was that had trapped her. it seemed very intentional too. she hadn't noticed anything strange when she entered the room moments before.

the corridor suddenly became dark. strangely, it wasn't because the lights had gone out. the lights were still on. it was as if darkness had manifested and covered the corridor in it.

Mimi perked up, paying attention to her surroundings. she didn't want to stay in one place for too long, so she began to walk forward. after just a few steps, she stepped on something solid. with a click, it began to make a humming sound.

Mimi, sensing danger from it, dashed far forward. she was a bit slow however, and the explosion which followed managed to affect her. it knocked her off her feet, and after a few tumbles, she managed to stop in time.

she was pretty sure there was absolutely nothing in the corridor before. this could only mean one thing.

*i'm not alone. someone is deliberately tripping me up.* at that thought, she stood up. just as she stood up straight, her wings, lightly touched a string in the corridor.

Mimi broke out in cold sweat. *you gotta be kidding me.* looking to her left and right, there was an ominous energy forming. dropping to the ground in the nick of time, two energy blasts just narrowly missed her, destroying a part of the walls.

Mimi was frozen on the ground, having just come to terms with a terrifying fact.

*...could it be, the whole corridor has been trapped?*

---

a few hours passed, and the door at the other end of the corridor opened. Mimi walked out, looking exhausted and quite beaten up, but not directly injured. the combat uniform she was wearing was almost completely destroyed, however. she had gotten it from the previous room just before the corridor, and now it was gone.

after entering the room, she made sure to lock the door behind her, hoping whoever was behind it would stay trapped there.

after sitting down to take a break, she examined the room she was in. there were many different terminals and gadgets in the room, almost as if...

Mimi began to wonder where the boy was. he did seem to have encountered something, but she wasn't sure what it was. she didn't know if the vents from there connected to this room either.

*vents huh. just to be safe...*

Mimi got a lot of heavy objects around the room. *since the yellow hair boy can get in, others probably can too. if there is anyone else, this much should be enough to stop them.*

with every opening blocked without leaving a gap, she heaved a sigh of relief. she then began to remove the scraps of fabrics that remained of the combat attire she had been wearing before.

in front of her was a healing machine, which required one to be naked before entering. lucky for her, there seemed to be a slot for her wings to enter as well, which was convenient for her.

with the scraps of fabric gone, she entered the machine.

the glass cover closed, and it began to fill up with a blue liquid. it covered her whole body, but she didn't have any trouble breathing normally, to her surprise. she felt a surge of fatigue, and unknowingly fell asleep.

---

in a room somewhere in the orphanage.

a beeping sound came from a machine. the researcher in the room was surprised and walked over to the machine.

"someone is using the trial chambers? i thought those were sealed off after that incident... and it looks like there's two of them." he pressed a few buttons, but soon frowned. "i can't even watch their footage? is there someone else involved?"

he entered a few commands, and a map appeared on the screen, highlighting the two orphans' positions.

"with this, even if i can't watch them live, I can monitor their locations in the trials. i wonder how far they can go this time."

the map shown on the screen also highlighted the names of the trials the ophans had passed and were about to enter. his eyes focused on a specific room.

"i hope you do not disappoint me." he spoke with a sinister smile.