Shizuka walked into her private chamber deep in the bowels of Military Base 2's dungeon. It had tables lined with all sorts of various instruments having sharp jagged edges.
Shizuka lifted Mono off her shoulder and dropped him carelessly on the floor, causing him to let out a grunt of pain.
Shizuka stretched her arms back and let out a deep sigh of satisfaction as she looked around her.
"What do you think, Mr. Black?" She asked, as Mono slowly got up behind her. "My little home away from home."
A sadistic grin crept across her face.
"Oh, how I would LOVE to test out each and every one of these tools on you."
Shizuka let out a depressed sigh.
"But alas, Duke said no permanent injuries."
A smug smirk crept onto Mono's face.
Shizuka looked back at him with a cheshire cat grin.
"But, fortunately for me, I have…a work-around." She said, as she glanced over in a certain direction.
Looking at it, Mono saw what she was looking at. It was a set of sleek, futuristic-looking tubes hooked up to all sorts of tubes and wiring.
"Wait, are those…VR Pods?" Mono asked, confused.
Shizuka whirled around to him. Her grin was even more menacing.
"Oh, just wait." She said, giggling maliciously. "You're going to love this. Or, at least, I will."
Shizuka lifted Mono up by his collar, and walked him over to the first tube.
She pressed a button, and a section of it lifted upwards, steam coming out from the inside. Inside, there was a bed of sorts.
She laid Mono down on the bed.
As soon as his weight was detected by the machine, the lid automatically retracted back into place.
Giggling like a schoolgirl, Shizuka walked over to the tube next to it.
She pressed the same button, causing the tube to open up.
She got in, and laid down on the bed.
Like before, the lid automatically came back down.
When Mono opened his eyes, he looked around.
His surroundings had drastically changed. Instead of the sterile-looking chamber filled with tools from before, he now found himself inhabiting a narrow structure that looked similar in appearance to a large, iron bird cage.
The second thing that he noticed is that his arms hurt.
Looking up, he saw that his arms were wrenched above his head and shackled, with a sturdy chain connecting to the shackles and going up towards the ceiling, leaving him suspended in mid-air.
The shackles felt like blistering iron on his wrists, causing his wrist to feel like they were perpetually being branded by a brandoning iron.
The next thing he realized was that he was sweltering.
"Why is it so hot?" Mono asks no one in particular, feeling as if he was trapped inside a furnace.
He turned his head to the right, trying to look out of the spaces between the cage.
Then, his eyes widened at what he saw.
It was a waterfall, but not a regular waterfall. This waterfall was orange in color, being made out of magma.
Mono felt a cold chill run down his spine, which seemed impossible, based on the extreme temperature of his current location.
"Holy shit, where the hellam I?" He muttered.
Suddenly, he heard a creaking noise.
As he looked forward, he saw the door of the cage swing open.
His eyes widened, as he saw the figure of Hikiko Shizuka enter. Except, she looked different.
She now bore red skin and red hair, with black, curved demon horns protruding from either side of her head. She also now had black, bat-like wings with red membranes, and a slender, red tail with a black spade as its tip.
"Where…Where are we?" Mono asked, suddenly filled with terror.
Shizuka smirked widely at Mono, revealing rows of razor-sharp teeth.
"You've heard of 'Power Fighters', correct?" Shizuka asked, as she walked over to a hand-crank by the edge of the cage.
She turned it counter-clockwise, causing the chain suspending Mono to begin to lower, lowering him down on the ground. Shizuka didn't stop until he was kneeling on the blistering hot metal of the cage's floor.
She licked her lips as she heard him let out a grunt of pain from the blistering metal.
"This is a special…gift for me…created by its very creator." Shizuka walked over to a drawer directly to Mono's right that he neglected to notice, the desk apparently being made of metal, the whole thing glowing orange from the heat.
Opening a drawer, she withdrew a long needle that was the length of a pair of scissors.
Mono's eyes widened when he saw the needle.
Shizuka walked up to Mono and slowly dragged the needle's point up the side of his face, from the bottom of his cheek to just below his eye, making a long cut.
Mono winced in pain, as the needle was blistering hot.
Shizuka smirked as she saw him wince from the pain.
"This is a special VR world where you experience everything the same way you would if you were out there in the real world." She explained, twirling the needle in her hand, before jabbing the needle hard and deep into his shoulderblade.
Mono let out a scream of pain.
"I can do anything I want to you in here, and you'll wake back up in the real world without a trace." She said in a malicious tone. "But your mind…" She said, lovingly caressing his temple. "Your mind will remember the pain."
Her grin grew even wider.
She tapped her finger in the air.
A set of glowing numbers appeared, showing "02:59:59".
It was a digital clock showing three hours, the length of Mono's detention session.
But something was wrong. The second portion seemed to be frozen.
Shizuka smirked, as she saw him staring at it.
"Oh, that?" She asked, giggling. "That's the best part. There's even a built-in time dilation." She explained, and her next words froze Mono to the core. "Three hours out there is THREE DAYS in here!"
Mono let out a terrified scream.
Back in the outside world, the group of students all around Tsukuru and Riley watched in utter shock and surprise at what Tsukuru had just done.
"Riley!" One of the boys yelled, as the others all ran to his side.
A second later, Tsukuru turned back to Quinn and Peter, a look of pure happiness on his face. And honestly, seeing how he had gone from the dark expression of earlier to that in the span of less than a minute kinda put the two on edge.
"Alright, let's go." Tsukuru said, as he walked past Riley.
Still crumpled on the ground and holding his injured hand, Riley glared at him, his eyes following Tsukuru as he walked past.
Quinn and Peter exchanged looks, before they made a mad dash towards the door, concerned that the group might change their minds after what Tsukuru had just done.
Back outside, Riley roughly wrenched the dagger out of his hand.
As if it was a plug, the second it was removed, Riley's hand began spurting blood.
Seeing it, Riley grit his teeth.
"Gerald!" Riley roared towards one of his friends.
Hearing the outburst, a boy with short brown hair jumped slightly.
"Don't just stand there! Get over here and heal me!"
Gerald gulped. He was a boy with a Level 2 Healing Ability, meaning he was pretty useless in a fight.
"R-Right!" He replied, running off towards Riley.
When he reached him, Gerald kneeled down next to Riley, and put his two, open hands near Riley's injured one.
A shimmering, green light emitted from between Gerald's hands, enveloping Riley. Instantly, Riley felt a warm sensation, and the green light began to heal his arm.
A few minutes later Gerald's light began to sputter like a light low on fuel, until it eventually sputtered out, him depleted on Mutant Cells.
The wound hadn't exactly healed, as Riley's hand was still bleeding, but the cut had decreased in size by a fair amount, as if Riley had been given first aid.
Riley looked down at his bleeding hand, and grit his teeth.
He whirled around, and stomped back towards the school's entrance.
One of Riley's friends turned to him.
"Where are you going?" He asked.
"Where do you think?! To the doctor's office!" Riley retorted, before turning around. "You guys stay here and keep farming credits! I'll be back as soon as I'm healed!"
The three friends just stared at their friends rapidly retreating back.