Freedom... //Yakusoku No Neverland

70] Hide-And-Seek

希望に満ち溢れ、彼らの笑顔が花開いた...あの日々は二度と戻ってこない――ただ、もっと遠くに成長するだけだ。

"We'll be taking our leave, then" Oliver said and his comrades left, it was only me, Emma and Lucas left in the room

{Lucas? So he's alive? Is this that Lucas, though?}

"Ummm, excuse me, but... Are you from Glory Bell?! Could it be that you've came from BO6-32... And you're friend of..." Emma paused as Lucas spoke up

"The gear you two are wearing... I figured you must've been to BO6-32, too" He said

"Then..." Emma mumbled

"Yes, I knew... But what I most wanted to know... I'm terrified of asking. It's been over 13 years already... Is that guy still alive...?" Lucas asked

Emma nodded, a gentle smile she showed the man

Lucas's eyes turned watery as he looked down "That's great... I'm happy... That's great...!"

~

"Looking at me must be off-putting... Sorry about that" Lucas apologized as we surrounded the table to talk

"No, not at all" I said

"This is wonderful! I want to tell the news to that man! He will be so happy...! He... He thought you were dead... He thinks he's lost all of his old comrades..." Emma said

"I'm the only other one who managed to escape alive" Lucas explained "And, at that time, I thought I was dead, too"

He paused, quietly sitting down infront of us and Emma and I did the same

"There was a girl I didn't know... In fact, I'd never even seen her face before. That girl she told me she had been hiding... For a long, long time. To escape from the monsters... She'd been playing hide-and-seek somewhere they'd never find her. And they didn't... So I could escape, too. All thanks to her. She gave me shelter. I believe by now the poachers must have decided that I escaped along with that guy. And I kept to my hiding place, this windmill... For 13 years now. I've become "A man who isn't there". The only ones who know of my existence are Adam, the other 9 kids from before... And you two" Lucas explained

"What about the girl who saved you?" I asked him

"She died. About five years later... Out of sickness. In the following eight years... I often thought of escaping this place alone. On top of this disability I don't have a pen... But if I made a last desperate effort, maybe I could reach the shelter, meet him again, tell him that I'm fine... However, whenever my thoughts went that way, something else would come to my mind... The bitter resentment of my murdered comrades. The screams of the small kids, running for their lives without even understanding why. The terror of that girl. I will put an end to this hunting park. I will never let them go...! So I gathered comrades who felt the same way, and taught them... The skills... The information... I shared everything I had. And besides, there's another reason to stay put in this place. We have to crush the playground... In time got him to come back" Lucas explained

Emma and I shared a questionable look on our face

"I found it. Here, in AO8-63. I found out why Minerva summoned us here. The place where that girl took me at first... Turned out to be that place" Lucas explained

He then stood up, walked to a wall and pushed a brick inward from the wall

Suddenly, we heard machine noises and a passageway opened

"There's a hidden tunnel here. It leads from the windmill to the forest. After that, there's a door. It wouldn't budge at all. It needs a key" Lucas explained

My eyes widened

"DO YOU THINK THAT-" Lucas cut me off

"Yeah" Lucas answered "The key is the pen you're holding right now. 13 years later... I'd never think the chance would come up like this. With you two here, we can find what's beyond that door. Let's go"

"I will take you... To Minerva's door. To Minerva's true goal"

Days/hours to finish: 1 day
Number of days: 706