Starting from Zero

Book 3, Chapter 23

Action

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A short chapter. 1k7 word count.

And from the looks of it, the next one may contain something offensive to Japan.

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"Who is it? Forgot your key?" A high pitched female voice came from within.

The door opened before I can make any response. It's a girl wearing wool inner wear, with some pimples on her face.

"Who are you?"

"I'm looking for Charon."

"You're...? Oh!!"

Bam. She shut the door which nearly flattened my nose. Then I heard something messy going on in there.

The door opened again after two minutes. This time the girl put her jacket on, and her hair is obviously groomed. Not much better, though.

"Hello! I'm Charon's roommate, name is Lean. You are that Ziri right?"

"How did you know that?"

"Well there shouldn't be another 'pretty boy' so it must be you! Don't stand there, get in."

Butterfly shook her hand. "I'm Butterfly, his friend. Several days ago Charon logged out of the game and we never got contacted since then. Is she here?"

"You should have come earlier! Charon is in trouble these days!"

"What happened to her?" I'm even more worried now.

"She was playing that game on that day, then her parents suddenly rushed into our room, follow by the housemaster. Her father saw her playing and just pulled her helmet off. Her step-mother slapped her face and dragged her away. Something like 'We send you to college for you to play games? We've been too generous!' Then we called her and was told that her parents planned to get her back in the first place. Her stepmother found some guy and is forcing Charon to marry him. Her father said something terrible too. Like 'women shouldn't be reading in college, just marry some rich guy and help the family'. I was wondering why they decided to visit Charon. It turned out to be their plan all along."

I'm losing control here. The cup in my hand is already squeezed into the shape of an apple core.

"Where is she now? Her home?"

"She called in the morning when she's still in New Nanjing City. Her family planned to take her on a flight to Japan this evening. That 'spouse' seems to be the son of a rich merchant in Japan."

"Which airport?"

"I don't know!"

"Thank you very much! We WILL get her back!"

I dashed out of the room while connecting to my father's private line.

"Dad! Don't ask! Just listen. Rose is going to be kidnapped to Japan this evening. Help me look for all flight registrations of those who are going from New Nanjing to Japan, NOW!"

"On it!" Without any delay, father asked relevant resources from the corporation to start going though the data of various airports.

I'm not assured though. If I can't get to her today I probably never would. Dragon Fate is a powerful organization, but it doesn't have much connections in Japan. Especially Japan.

"What do we do now?" Butterfly caught up with me.

"We go to the major airports. There are only three international ones in the whole city right?"

"Roger!"

We took my car and raced to the 1st International Airport. This place mainly holds flights towards other Asian countries. It's the most possible one.

We made it before 7pm by jumping through god-knows-how-many red signals and blocked crossroads. Butterfly stayed behind to deal with any police that may come up, while I ran into the airport hall on my own.

I scouted in the airport aimlessly. There are too many people, besides I don't even know if this is the right place!

I searched around to no avail until almost 7:30pm. As I'm about to lose hope, my phone came up.

"We found it son. First International Airport, seven-thirty, flight 31945, plane model Avian 300 medium size, to Tokyo, Japan."

"Got it!"

I checked the time, 29! I rushed to the airport window to look at the runway. It's dark and far but I still noticed that "Avian 300" plane, which is now moving slowly and ready to take off!

My heart dropped as the plane left the ground.

Its over!

Butterfly ran to me. "What's the deal?"

I pointed at the leaving airplane in defeat.

"She's up there?" She asked, eyes wide.

I nodded weakly.

"How did it come to this... We're so close."

Butterfly witnessed the deaths of her comrades in her battalion before. I guess she can understand how it feels to lose a lover.

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