I care about all of you...

"I think we’re all fine. How about you, Hina-san? Ah— My name’s Aichi— Sendou Aichi. These are Hazuki Nagisa-kun and a friend of his. Rei-kun, isn’t that right?"

               Though in regards to answers, that was the fullest he could offer; as for an explanation for the woman’s benefit, nothing came to mind. He was as clueless as the next person. Climbing onto his feet and dusting down his knees, azure optics scanned the immediate area around them.

"It looks like we aren’t escaping any time soon. Whatever this place is, we’ll have to find our own way out".

But how was that to be accomplished? Without any hints or guidance; they could be anywhere within the labyrinth and venture deeper without assurance. He turned on his heels to the trio, uncertainty etched into his features.

"Does anyone have any ideas which way we should go? My sister always teased me over getting lost easily, I wouldn’t want to cause anyone even more trouble. But we can’t stay here, it doesn’t feel safe".

“I’m fine, Rei-chan! You seem okay too, thank goodness! And Aichi-chan, you’re okay, right?”

Seeing both of his friends doing well gave him much relief but he felt even more once the girl with them finally spoke up. It seemed everyone, though confused, was overall unharmed. Letting Aichi introduce them, he nodded and waved as his name was brought up, but aside from that, he took a moment to look at their surroundings.

It was a weird place, dim and rather closed off. They all seemed to be at what looked like the dead end of a maze. All he could really figure out was that they were definitely not in Hive City anymore.

If all honesty, their situation reminded him more of a video game’s labyrinth than anything else.

Perfect.

“We gotta start somewhere! May as well go forward!”

And with that, the blond jumped up and started his way out of their small nook, throwing caution to the wind.

Folding his arms, he ruminated over their quandary for a moment, drawing on his frustratingly limited knowledge of the subject. If he’d predicted something like this was likely to ever happen to him, he would have studied up on his outdoor survival skills!

Still, the good news was that there were a number of maze solving algorithms he was privy to that could get the group through this. Maybe…hopefully.

❝I believe our simplest option for now would be to follow a specific wall until we reach its destination, mark our junctions so we don’t back track and go from there.❞

❝Does anyone have anything to dra—N-Nagisa kun! Where are you—!?❞

Flustered, but ultimately not surprised at his friend’s casual straying; Rei scrambled after the blond, hooking a finger at the back of his collar so the other didn’t vanish completely into the mess of entangled paths.

❝Don’t behave so recklessly, walking off like that! You have no idea what could be lurking behind those corners, we have to stick close to each other!❞

She took the moment to realize that she was probably just a few years or so older than the rest of them, inwardly she decided that it would be up to her then to keep them safe. They let her half of her normal strength... which was just a bit better than average, but it would help out somehow here... hopefully.

Anyway, she couldn't help but smile at how enthusiastic they all were. It reminded her of how she was with her own friends, and sometimes nostalgia was a good thing to have during a time like this.

"It's good that everyone seems to be energetic." She said to no one in particular.

Hina watched as both Nagisa and Rei seemed to dash straight into the labyrinth, a worried expression showing on her face. "Please be careful, we don't know what could be in here!" She moved to go after them, but first she turned to Aichi, "We better catch up to them!" She wasn't going to let any of them lag behind.

                                   ”Nnnh…”

Ordinarily, the thumping across his body would have provoked Aichi to simply turn in again and resort to sleep as a measure of escape. But within ten seconds of stirring, the incident engulfing the city came to mind and his neck snapped to haul his head from the dank ground.

A sharp intake of breath and examining his surroundings, it was anything but pleasant; as expected of the Scientists. Bringing up a hand to run fingers through his hair and Aichi caught sight of the brand marking his wrist; vibrant red against his skin.

From his mouth escaped a small groan, hauling himself up onto his knees at first to regain some sense of balance and work his way up. But turning around on the spot, optics caught sight of the other three in his company. And immediately, his eyes were captivated by the blond mop nearby.

                    “Nagisa-kun!”

Rushing over and sinking back onto one knee, he had to be sure that they were alright; one at a time, if necessary - the lone woman as part of their group and the blue-haired young man whom he knew to be Nagisa’s friend - and try to gather some sort of understanding of what was going on.

He had felt some weird movement just moments earlier but didn’t think much of it. Whatever dream he was having was holding much more attention of his attention but that quickly changed when he heard a familiar voice interfere with his slumber.

“Aichi-chan…? What is he doing in my room?”

Sitting up, it took Nagisa a second to realize that he was definitely not in his snug bed at home. No, he was somewhere… quite opposite.

“Huh?!”

The boy looked around, confused and shocked all in one. Where the hell was he?! Glancing down at his own self to check for anything odd on his person, he noticed the odd string that was tied to his wrist.

“Aichi-chan, what’s going on…? Why are we—Rei-chan!”

Noticing his friend close by, he stumbled up and made his way towards him, but not before noticing their fourth member.

Awaiting for the pitch-black void around him to transmute back into a semblance of solid landscape, his first priority was to quickly check the condition of his glasses. Thankfully, any incurred damage was restricted to a slight bend of the frame which he plied back into shape before conducting a sweeping scan of his surroundings.

Ah maze?? It lacked originality, but Rei had every dreading suspicion the whole area would be turned into even more of a living nightmare soon enough! Dusting the grit from his clothes as he stood himself up, Nagisa’s calls worked their magic in abating a portion of his frazzled nerves—rushing towards his team mate with matched enthusiasm.

❝Nagisa kun! Nagisa kun—thank goodness you’re here too, are you alright?!!❞

Second priority was to check the blond over for traces of cuts and scraped, ruling out concussion for now seeing as the other still knew his name. Contented with the outcome of his evaluation of Nagisa’s condition, he patted some grime from the boy’s shoulder—just now diverting his focus to the other two members of their group. In particular, the girl who had yet to react to any of this which sparked a cause for his concern.

First she gets whisked away to some random place. Second, she ends up meeting some rude people here and there(some of which she's had to unfortunately get rough with). And lastly, she ends up... actually where was she? And what the heck was tied around her... wrist? Her finger? She was so disoriented that she wasn't even sure.

It was pretty clear to see how dazed and out-of-sorts the young woman was, but the voices of others was helping clear her mind. As she blinked once, then twice, she became acutely aware of how she was not alone in this place. While that was good, she supposed, the fact of the matter remained that she didn't know them, they didn't know her, and they were some place weird.

She cleared her throat, more so for her than anyone else. It seemed that all of their eyes were on her and all she could do was give them a nervous smile.

Welcome to the hive, Hina!

You’ll be housed in district epsilon.

You’ll be given use of your inhuman strength at half its original potency.

Enjoy your stay!