Ramochis knew that he would have a hell of a time explaining it to Dr. Balkus and Commander Gyou if he was spotted by some kid, so he made sure to be absolutely silent as he made his way through the wet forest. In some ways, Ramochis was glad to have the cover that the rain provided for him. Peeking over the tops of the bushes that stood in his way, Ramochis finally caught sight of the thing that had made the zipping noise.

It was a small tent, only big enough to hold one person, and the way it had been carefully and artfully concealed led Ramochis to suspect that the kid really was the only one inside it. Who would leave a kid that young out in the woods like this?

Yeah, he does. Ramochis continued watching the tent, waiting to see if the kid would come out again. And also waiting for any more orders from Balkus. Dr. Balkus, doesn’t this kid look a little familiar to you? Or am I just seeing things?

-Yes, now that you mention it, the child does rather resemble someone…-

Balkus’ telepathic voice faded out again, and Ramochis wondered what the doctor would want him to do. A second later, Ramochis got his answer:

-It’s not enough of a concern to have you stay out here. Come back to Relics Point. I will give you further instructions when you arrive.-

Ramochis nodded, in spite of the rather obvious fact that Dr. Balkus was unable to see him at the moment. Knowing that the rain would probably keep the kid from going outside again, or at the very least keep him from straying too far from the shelter of his tent. Still crouching to lessen the chances of being spotted if the kid looked outside for some reason, Ramochis moved away from that particular tree and back out into the forest.

Standing up once he was far enough away, Ramochis turned and walked in the direction of Mt. Minakami. It was hard not to wonder where the kid had come from, not to mention who he was. But those kinds of thoughts could wait until some other time. Right now, Ramochis had no choice but to report back to Mt. Minakami for further orders from Dr. Balkus.

xXxXx

Kenji was just starting to doze, when a sharp crack of thunder startled him back into full awareness.

"Oh, shut up," he grumbled to the storm at large.

Times like this, Kenji really wished that he had a second pillow, so he could block out at least some of the noise that storms made. The only thing he could really do in this situation, the only thing that would have any real effect on the loud noise of the thunder, was to take the heavy raincoat his dad had given him and pull it up over his head. And, sitting up, Kenji did just that.

Thick as the coat was, even it didn’t block out all of the noise. Kenji huffed, annoyed, he could sleep though a lot of things but even he had to able to relax first. Turning over on his left side, Kenji arranged the coat on top of himself, closed his eyes, and made a concerted effort to ignore the loud blasts of thunder.

Eventually, he was successful.

xXxXx

Back in the cabin, behind the thick beams of wood that insulated those inside from the storm, Masaki Murakami sat up in his bed and listened to the raging tempest. He wondered how his son was doing. Kenji was a resilient person, to be sure; a lifetime on the run giving him access to reserves of strength that most people never tapped in all their lives.

But Masaki knew that his son was still young, and very lonely at times like this. So Masaki decided to break one of his rules, just this once: he would go and visit Kenji early tomorrow. Normally, Masaki tried not to go off to see his son more than once a month, to keep anyone that might be tailing him from finding out that he still had a family.

Any connections that he seemed to have could be easily used against him by Chronos, Masaki knew this with the utmost certainty. So his decision to go and look in on Kenji wasn’t one that Masaki had made lightly. The mental welfare of his son had had to be weighed against his ultimate physical safety. And in the end, Kenji’s mental state had won out by only a very narrow margin.

As Masaki lay back down, he hoped that this visit wouldn’t somehow cause more problems for Kenji than it solved.

xXxXx

Back inside Mt. Minakami at last, Ramochis headed into one of the elevators that would take him down into Relics Point. He passed a great many Zoanoid processing-tanks on his way. Most of them were holding half finished Zoanoids, some contained humans who were only just starting to show signs of becoming Zoanoids, and a few even held Zoanoids who looked as if they were just about ready to be released.

If he had cared, Ramochis might have taken the time to wonder how many of those in the processing-tanks were Sleeper units; those people who had been kidnapped and processed into Zoanoids absent their consciousness or consent. Ramochis himself couldn’t remember if he had volunteered to become a Zoanoid or not, but thoughts like that weren’t really important to his line or work.

Hitting the button that would take him down into Relics Point, Ramochis watched the elevator door close. He had decided to take one of the express elevators and avoid the hassle of other Chronos Combatants, scientists, and other people getting on and off whenever they had the slightest inclination to do so. The checkpoints were more stringent for the express elevators, true, but Ramochis felt that that was a small price to pay for efficiency.

Stepping off at the uppermost level of Relics Point, Ramochis left the elevator and started looking for Dr. Balkus. Receiving a telepathic command, Ramochis followed it to where Balkus evidently wanted him to go. Just as Ramochis was beginning to suspect he would be, Dr. Balkus was indeed sitting in front of the large computer terminals that were usually used to monitor the state of the Relic.

There was a small device sitting on the computer console in front of him, and for a minute Ramochis wondered just what it was. And what Dr. Balkus could be planning to do with it.

"Ah, Ramochis. I’m glad to see you came promptly."

"As ordered, Dr. Balkus," Ramochis said.

Balkus gestured to the device sitting on the console. "Take this camera and plant it close enough to the boy’s tent to see what he does and if anyone contacts him. Make sure that the child will not be able to see it, or to find it by accident. You are dismissed."

"Yes, Dr. Balkus. I’ll make sure the camera gets planted as per your instructions." Ramochis bowed, took the camera from its resting-place on the console, turned away from Balkus and started to make his way out of Relics Point.

Balkus, meanwhile, leaned back in his chair and started programming the computer to monitor the feed from the camera and save it into a file that he would be able to open at his convenience. For a moment, Dr. Balkus considered whether or not to password-protect the file where the video was going to be stored in.

Then he decided that, while the question of the child’s identity was an interesting diversion, there was no real reason to go to so much trouble to cover up something that was essentially a curiosity. As he finished setting up the computer to monitor the feed from the camera, Balkus sent one last wisp of his own consciousness out to Ramochis in order to monitor the Zoanoid’s progress.

Ramochis, it seemed, was already back out in the forest and heading for the as-yet-unknown boy’s hiding place. Balkus nodded to himself, pleased to see that he wouldn’t need to use any of the other methods of persuasion that were open to him. Taking over the minds of Zoanoids had become quite tiresome over the years, and now Balkus tried only to do such things when necessity commanded them.

It will be interesting to see what information this investigation turns up, Balkus thought to himself. But it was a diversion and nothing more. So Balkus wasn’t all that concerned about maintaining secrecy for this particular project.

xXxXx

Out in the forest, blissfully unaware of the events taking place all around him, events that would change his life forever, Kenji Murakami slept on.