Happy Halloween, minna-san!
Okay, okay, it's not Halloween yet, but what the hell, it's 30th already. A day earlier is fine, right?
Weeks ago, I have made a promise to Inazuma Eleven Forever (aka, Ina-chan) that I would write her a Halloween fic. And today, on October 30, I, Sadomasochist2716, will present to you my newest creation:
Finding Fubuki
Hope you enjoy this fic ^-^
But first, have to do the disclaimer:
I don't own Inazuma Eleven or any of its characters. But ten of Constellation Lights members belong to me. Actually, only eight of them truly belong to me, while the other two are Ina-chan's. Don't know what Constellation Lights is? Then I suggest you spend some time and read Ina-chan's 'Aliea Academy: Constellation Lights' to get more information about our lovely psychopaths.
Okay, on with the story ~
~ x ~
Finding Fubuki
"Are you sure we should do this?"
"What? Are you doubting me?"
"What if I say yes?"
"Don't worry. It's for the greater good."
"For who?"
"For him, of course."
"If it's for him, then I will do it."
"We will do it."
"Let's start then."
~ 7:30 pm, Liocott Island ~
Silence. Dead silence. No one dared to speak. Not that they knew what to say at this situation. The girls were shaking, their faces pale, while the guys felt like they couldn't breathe.
The room was a mess, and not the kind of mess room usually had when the owner was too lazy to clean it for quite a long time. No, it was the kind of mess a fight usually brought. The bed was broken to pieces, feathers from pillows and blanket scattered all over the floor, there were dense on the walls, and worst of all, there was blood. Fresh blood. Pooling into a puddle next to the broken window, in the middle of the broken glasses.
"Fubuki-kun," Fuyuka gasped, covering her mouth with her hands, eyes watering. What had happened, no one had the faintest idea. All they knew was that, Fubuki had received a phone call from someone, and had leaved the room to hear it. Not even three minutes later, they heard loud crashing sounds coming from upstairs, but when they reached the source of the noises, which was Fubuki's room, Fubuki was nowhere to be found, and all they could see was this mess.
"Fubuki." Gouenji whispered, eyes locked at the scene in absolute terror. His head was spinning, and he couldn't think anything clearly. There was blood, so much blood. Whose blood was that, Gouenji just hoped it was not Fubuki's. But where was Fubuki? Who attacked him? Why? Was he alright? Questions, questions, but no answers. Gouenji's body suddenly went numb.
The ringing sound startled everyone, and every head immediately whipped to the source of it, watching as Hiroto clumsily pulled out his phone.
"S-Sorry," the redhead mumbled, answering the phone. But the shock made him accidently push the speaker button instead, and everyone could hear the voice of the caller.
"Gran-sama?" the feeling of doom washed over the bodies of Inazuma Japan members when they realised who was calling.
"M-Mini?" Hiroto choked out the name. He was shaking so much the phone was almost dropped to the floor.
"Gran-sama, is Leader alright?" Mini asked. They could hear the worry in her voice.
"What's wrong?" Hiroto mentally congratulated himself that his voice sounded normal enough. "Why do you need to talk to him?"
"I never said I want to talk to Leader. I just want to know if he is alright."
"Why do you need to know about that?" Hiroto said, shaking even more. He was dreading what the other was going to say.
Instead of the answer, there was a lot of noise from the other side, before someone else continued the call.
"Yo, Gran-sama! This is Vixen!" the new voice chirped. "Maybe this sounds stupid, and maybe we might sound like we are paranoid to you, but we suddenly have the feeling that something has happened to Leader. So, I have to ask again. Is he alright?"
Hiroto wanted nothing more than to die right there and then. Oh God, this was like a nightmare! He knew theywere freaky, but to the point of knowing exactly when Fubuki was in trouble even when they were so far away? This was a whole new level of freakiness!
"H-He's fine." Great, he just stuttered. He just hoped they didn't notice. The last thing he needed now was for them to get suspicious, because if theygot suspicious, then everyone here was as good as dead. Theyhad him after all, and he knew what to do to fish out every secret there was. He was an expert in this field, damn it!
"You just stuttered, Gran-sama," Oh God, speak of the Devil himself!
"Hello, Aksara." Hiroto mumbled the name of the last person he wanted to talk to at the moment.
"Hello to you too, Gran-sama. Do you mind telling me why you lied to us? I can tell when people are lying, you know that, right?" Aksara questioned. "Is there something you are hiding? Something happened to Leader? You do know that if anything happens-"
Hiroto snapped his phone shut.
"H-Hiroto?" Endou called.
"We need to find Fubuki," the former captain of Genesis said, eyes gluing at the now ringing phone. They were calling again. And they would keep calling until he picked up, they would keep calling until he gave them what they wanted. Wordlessly, Hiroto removed the battery from his phone, before looking back at his teammates. "We need to find him, and fast. They are getting suspicious now, I know it, and knowing them, then we will only have five hours at most before they barge in here and demand to see Fubuki-kun. And I doubt you guys want to face them in this situation."
Everyone went pale. Deadly pale. Hiroto was right. They seriously didn't want to face Constellation Lights when it was their beloved leader that missing. Constellation Lights members were creepy enough as it was, and with their unnatural loyalty towards Fubuki, Inazuma Japan members wouldn't put it past those psychopaths to murder people for his sake. Once upon a time, before Aliea Academy was formed, according to Hiroto, their father had to bail those creeps out of jail after they nearly beat an unfortunate soul to death, just because he accidently touched Fubuki in the wrong place. Or the time they almost burnt down the house of a girl who refused to leave Fubuki alone, with the girl bounded and gagged inside. When the police showed up, they had already poured kerosene all over the girl and all over the house, and the matches were already lit. Or another time, when a thug was stupid enough to badmouth Fubuki, just to end up having his teeth pulled out completely, and almost had his tongue ripped out if Fubuki didn't step in and demanded for them to stop. All in all, Constellation Lights would do anything for their leader, whether it was illegal or not.
Members of Inazuma Japan could clearly remember the day they set foot into the plane, preparing to go to Liocott Island. The ten members of Constellation Lights were there, saying goodbye to their beloved leader, but at the same time, they were also there to give the rest of the team a warning.
"If something happens to Leader," it was Phantom who said to them. "You will wish you were never born once we are done with you. Do we make ourselves clear?"
"And Gran-sama," Nuevo smiled at Hiroto. "Just because we still see you as our superior doesn't mean we won't do anything to you if Leader so much has a scratch on him. You are there with him, yeah, so you better keep him unharmed."
Everyone knew Constellation Lights never made threats. Ever. They only made promises. And whatever promise they made, they kept it to the end.
"Minna! Let's go find Fubuki!" Endou shouted, louder than he had ever shouted 'sakka yarouze', which had to mean something.
We have to find Fubuki before they come here. Or else, Liocott Island might be the last place people see us.
~ 09:42 pm, Liocott Island ~
"Have you found him?"
"Have you seen anything?"
"Any sign?"
"Anything suspicious?"
Questions, questions, but no answers. No matter where they had looked, no matter how long they had searched, there was still no sign of Fubuki Shirou. As they gathered together inside, they still had no clue that could lead them to the ice prince. What was even more terrifying was that, members of Constellation Lights kept phoning, phoning and phoning, and everyone from Inazuma Japan had to remove their batteries from their phones, just like what Hiroto did, to avoid talking Constellation Lights members. Those creeps were like predators. They could smell lies and fear.
"Where could he be?" Kazemaru spoke up worriedly. "Who could take him? And why?"
Again, there was no answer. As the eerie silence filled the air, everyone didn't know what else to do. Soon though, the silence was broken by the noise of ringing phone. And the phone belonged to the lodge.
"Do you think... it's them?" Aki whispered fearfully. Could it be that Constellation Lights knew of the number of Inazuma Japan's lodge as well? After all, they knew the number of everyone in the team without the owner of said number giving them the information, so who to say they didn't know the number of the lodge?
For a while, no one knew what to do, as they all stood frozen on spot. But eventually, Fuyuka hesitantly made her way over to the phone. Glancing back to the rest of the team, she saw them nod, and Kidou even mouthing her to put it on speaker.
Might as well get this over with.
"H-Hello?" the purple-haired girl stuttered, as everyone held their breath, waiting for the caller to reply.
"Good evening, Inazuma Japan." There was it, the reply. But the voice was unfamiliar, and definitely not something that belonged to members of Constellation Lights. It sounded fainter, colder, and was more than enough to send shiver up everyone's spine.
"W-Who are you?" Fuyuka asked.
"Who I am is of no important, but I have something I know you lots would like to know." The voice said with an eerily laugh. "Speak. Tell them how you are…"
"Guys?!" Now was a familiar voice. A really familiar voice. The voice that made members of Inazuma Japan immediately dread for the worst.
"FUBUKI?!" Endou shouted, alarmed. "FUBUKI, IS THAT YOU?"
"Captain?" It was definitely Fubuki Shirou's voice. "Captain, don't listen to them! Whatever they are going to tell you, do NOT follow! They are-"
His voice was muffled, like something was preventing him from talking, and Gouenji felt anger dwell up inside him.
"What do you want from Fubuki?" He asked, trying to keep as calm as possible and not lashing out on the caller on the other side of the line. "Where is he?"
More eerily laughs, and Inazuma Japan suddenly had the feeling there was more than one person behind Fubuki's disappearance. Subconsciously, they all gritted their teeth in anger, hands balled into fists.
"That's for us to know, and for you to find out." Another voice spoke up, so different from the first one, yet scarily similar. It was just as cold, as faint. "In fact, finding him is what you need to do. We will give you until 12 o'clock to find him, and when the clock strikes and you have yet to reach the final destination, then," a maniacal laugh, "I'm afraid you won't see him ever again. Ever."
"You-!" Someoka started, but the third voice cut him off. Just like the other two, this one was emotionless, but unlike the others, this one sounded even fainter, making it almost hard to hear.
"Don't worry, we will give you clues. Be warned, though, that the clues might lead you to life-threatening danger if you do decide to follow them to reach Fubuki Shirou-san. Of course, you don't have to play our game if you value your life-"
"And abandon Fubuki?" Natsumi yelled. "You expect us to abandon him in order to keep our life? Do you really believe we would ever do that?"
The rest of the team murmured in agreement. Life-threatening danger? Who gave a damn. Fubuki was their teammate, their friend, and for that, no matter what would be in stored for them in this 'game', they would face it head on. They would bring him back.
"Hehehehe, very good," and this would be the fourth voice. Knowing this made Inazuma Japan even more nervous. These mysterious beings, just how many were there?
"We expect nothing less from Inazuma Japan," the fourth voice continued. "We take it that all of you will participate in our game? If so, then we suggest you turn on your phones. Who knows when we will contact you, right?"
"Is he alright?" Toramaru asked worriedly. "He's not hurt, is he?"
"Don't worry about that," again, a new voice. "He's as fine as he can be. In fact, he's the same as when we took him."
No one knew whether or not they should feel relief with this information. What if when they took him, they had injured him? After all, there was a lot of blood in his room. What if it was really Fubuki's blood? Did they even treat his injuries?
"But why Fubuki-san?" Haruna asked. "Why him? What do you want from him?"
"It's for the sake of the one who is the most important to us." The sentence was said in union, which made everyone from Inazuma Japan shudder physically. It sounded even creepier when they spoke up all at once.
After that, the call ended. And Inazuma Japan was left standing in the hallway, listening to the 'tut…tut…tut' sound from the phone.
"…They haven't given us any clue, right?" Kurimatsu hesitantly spoke up, and everyone realised he was right. They weren't given any clue from those mysterious beings.
~ Unknown location ~
"Release me, NOW!" Fubuki shouted. His eyes were covered so he couldn't see, and he was tied to a chair by both ropes and chains that he couldn't move. At least the gag was removed.
"We are sorry, but we can't do that," one of them whispered, and Fubuki felt a cold hand gently caressed his cheek. "At least, not now. Not yet."
"There will be consequence for this, you know that?!" asked the ice prince.
"Yes, we know." Another one spoke from somewhere on his right side. "But we're ready to face it. No matter what the consequence will be."
~ 10:07 pm, Liocott Island ~
"They said there will be clues. But where are those clues?" Someoka said impatiently. All of their phones had turned on, even though they were afraid Constellation Lights would continue trying and contacting them. But those kidnappers had said they would call them sooner or later, and to the whole team, the calls from those beings were more important.
"Maybe they will give us clues in one of the calls?" Aki suggested. And just like that, Endou's phone rang.
"Holy mother of-" Fudou let out, as his heart felt like it was going to jump out of his chest. And he was not the only one who had their heart almost leap out of the ribcage. Everyone felt the same.
"Whose number is that?" Hiroto questioned, silently hoping it was from those mysterious beings, because, seriously, if Constellation Lights called now, he didn't know what to say to them. Besides, he didn't want to say anything to them at the moment, now that they were waiting for something more important.
"The number is hidden!" Endou said out loud, and everyone knew it had to be from those mysterious beings. After all, Constellation Lights never bothered to hide their numbers. In fact, those freaks seemed to enjoy knowing how much fear their numbers could cause others. With a nod from others, Endou put the phone on speaker.
"Good evening, Inazuma Japan," just as they thought, it was one of those beings. "Are you ready to hear your first clue?"
"Just tell us already!" Endou yelled.
"We will get to the first clue right away, so don't need to be so impatient, Endou Mamoru," it sounded like the voice was sniggering. "On such a nice night like this, would you like to hear a short story?"
"What the-?" Fudou scowled. "What does that have to do with anything?"
Ignoring Fudou's question, the voice continued like there was no interruption. "I will start the story now, and I hope all of you pay close attention to it. On one of the nights when your beloved one is taken away, no matter where you have looked, you still can't find them. The clock is ticking, telling you to hurry up before it's too late, before you lose your loved one forever. You think there is no clue, but little do you know that it's closer than you thought. But how close? As you are desperately searching, you fail to notice the crimson lead. But you know, it's not too late to notice it. Because the first lead will remain until it's wiped away. Better hurry up though, because who knows how long the second lead will last."
The story ended, following by the 'tut...tut...tut' sound. The caller had ended up.
"What the hell is with that story?" Someoka exclaimed angrily. "Why told us something like that?"
Kidou was deep in thought. Being the smartest of the bunch, he knew the story must have a hidden meaning. 'On one of the nights when your beloved one is taken away, no matter where you have looked, you still can't find them', this sentence sounded like it was implying about their current situation. So that meant the story was the clue. 'No,' Kidou thought to himself. 'The story will lead us to the clue. What's next again? Something about the clue is closer than we thought, and something about the... crimson lead...'
It snapped in his head, and Kidou stood up from where he was sitting. He knew what the first clue was, and where.
"Kidou?" Endou asked in confusion. What had gotten into the strategist?
"I know where we can find the first clue." That was all Kidou said, before he sprinting towards the stairs, leaving the rest of the team behind, looking at each other. Then, without a word, they all followed him, just the furrow their eyebrows in confusion when Kidou led them to Fubuki's mess of a room.
"Uh, Kidou, what are we doing here?" Kazemaru asked.
"The crimson lead." Kidou calmly replied, as he made his way to the other side of the room, heading to the puddle of blood. Immediately, everyone understood what he meant by that.
"The crimson lead will remain until it's wiped away," Gouenji mumbled. "And the blood will still be there until we clean it. It's the crimson lead."
"Correct." Kidou nodded, now standing next to the blood. Up close, he realised something was not right about this. The glasses were laid in the middle of the puddle, but some of them were unnaturally clean without a drop of blood on. Like they were put there after the puddle was formed. As he inspected them some more, he realised the way they were put. It was a message.
"Guys," he called. "Come here and tell me what you see."
Endou and Gouenji made their way over, also looking at the blood.
"Is that-?"
Kidou nodded. The glasses were put to form one single kanji.
闇
"Yami?" Gouenji frowned. "What does darkness have to do with anything?"
Kidou turned to his sister. "Haruna, turn off the light!"
"Why, nii-san?" the blunette asked.
"Just do it."
"O-Okay." And Haruna reached out to turn off the light. For a while, everyone was left standing in the dark, until a movement from the window caught their attention. Inazuma Japan turned to see what it was, and their hearts immediately skipped a beat when they saw a legless girl hovering outside the window, her long black hair hiding her eyes from side, a smirk on her face.
And she was glowing.
"A-A-A ghost!" Kogure shrieked, pointing towards the window, as Kidou, Endou and Gouenji hurriedly stumbled back.
The ghost didn't say anything at the sudden outburst. She just continued hovering there, before her body (or what was left of it) started to dissolve into hundreds of black butterflies and flew away faster than normal butterflies could ever fly.
"…they are the second lead!" It only took Kidou three seconds to understand what was going on. Wasting no time, he immediately ran out of Fubuki's room and out of the lodge, looking towards the sky, searching for the butterflies.
"They are over there!" Gouenji shouted, as he and the rest of the team appeared right behind Kidou. Following where Gouenji was pointing, everyone saw the glowing black butterflies in the distance, and were getting farther and farther from the lodge.
"Follow them!" Kidou shouted. "They are the second lead!"
"What do you mean?" Endou yelled.
"They said, who knows how long the second lead will last, right?" Gouenji replied. He, like Kidou, had understood the situation, and decided to take it upon himself to explain. "That either means the second lead will soon disappear if we can't find it on time, or we will lose the second lead if we fail to follow it. And as you all can see, the butterflies fit well to the second lead description, correct?"
Everyone had to admit that it made sense. And so, they kept running after the butterflies, which seemed to get faster with each second passed. Members of Inazuma Japan were panting hard by now, and their legs felt like they were going to fall off any moment. How long had they been running, no one knew for sure. But one thing they all knew was that, they wished they would reach the destination soon.
Apparently, whatever deity above that looked down to them had heard their silent wish, because Inazuma Japan soon found themselves running towards a wooden house. A wooden house where the butterflies flew through the wall like it wasn't even there!
"What?" That was all they could let out, as everyone came to a stop. For a while, no one moved, and they just stood there, looking at the house. There was nothing special about it, except for the fact the butterflies had led them here. Which meant this was their destination.
"Impressive," all eyes swept to the entrance of the house, where a figure stood. They weren't sure if it was a guy or a girl, because the figure was wearing a black cloak with hood, which hid most of their face from sight, leaving on their lips and chin. But it was more than enough to let members of Inazuma Japan see that the figure was smirking. And the smirk sent shiver down their spines.
"As expect from members of Inazuma Japan, being able to chase after our butterflies." The figure continued. "Did you have a fun time?"
"Enough talk!" Gouenji took a step forward, glaring at the figure. "Where is Fubuki? Is he inside that house?"
"Impatient, impatient," the figure chuckled coldly. "Why don't you just catch your breath first before thinking about rescuing Fubuki Shirou-san? After all, you can't help him if you collapse due to exhaustion inside."
"You dare to mock us?" Someoka exclaimed angrily, which seemed to amuse the figure even more.
"What's wrong with that? Have you seen your face?"
"Why you!" Without thinking, Someoka ran forward, intending to punch the bastard. Behind him, Endou shouted, "Matte, Someoka!", but the pink-haired forward couldn't care less.
"Heh," the figure sniggered, didn't seem at all worry that Someoka was getting closer and closer. Of course, they had every right to be so calm, because the moment Someoka was only a step away from reaching them -all he needed to do was stepping through the doorframe- a blade fell down right in front of his face, successfully separating him and the figure inside the house, and even blocking the figure from sight.
"WHAT?" the pink-haired boy was startled. He could have been killed!
"Someoka!"
"Someoka! Are you alright?"
His teammates asked worriedly as they ran to him. But the snigger sound cut them off, and every head whipped to the door, which was blocked by the giant blade.
"What a shame," it sounded like the figure was taunting them. "And here I thought some more blood would spill…"
"You-!" Endou couldn't take it anymore! These people, he didn't know who they were, or what they wanted from him and his team, but kidnapping one of his friends and attempting to kill another was definitely unforgivable!
"You're angry? Not a good move, mind you. Anger will blind you from seeing the right road, and might lead you to your own end. So, cool down your head before continue this little journey, yeah?"
The moment the last word was heard by members of Inazuma Japan, the blade was lifted. And the figure was nowhere to be found.
"Where-?" Toramaru asked, wide-eyed.
"It doesn't matter where they have gone," Endou said, hands balled into fists. "We will come inside and look for Fubuki!"
"But what if there are more traps inside?" Kogure asked.
"As long as we stay calm and stick together, we can solve everything." Hiroto said, and everyone nodded in agreement.
And so, everyone stepped inside the house…
…just to fall down when a trap door was opened right underneath.
"THIS IS STUPIDDDDDD!" Kogure screamed.
They kept falling and falling, until all of they landed painfully on the hard ground in a loud 'thud'. Even though they tried to hold it back, groans still escaped their mouths. Great, just great. They couldn't feel their buttocks anymore!
"W-Who's there?" The familiar voice made all of their hearts skip a beat. As all heads turned to the source of the voice, they found a smile appear on their faces as they saw Fubuki sitting on a platform on the other side of the room. Even though the ice prince was tied tight in one place, with a cloth around his eyes, it didn't matter. They had found him!
"Fubuki!"
"Fubuki-san!"
"Fubuki-kun!"
Hearing the voices of his teammates from Inazuma Japan almost made Fubuki jump forward to look for any kind of injuries they might have on their way to this place, wherever this place was. The keyword, 'almost'. If it wasn't for all these ropes and chains…
"Guys! Is that really you?" he shouted, trying his best to lean forward. "Are you okay? Does anyone get hurt?"
"We're fine!" Gouenji was the one that replied. "Hold on for a little longer, Fubuki! We will get you out of there!"
Fubuki felt a wave of panic washed over him. No! They couldn't rush over here like that! He knew them! There was just no way they would let it end so easily!
"Be caref-!" his word was caught in his throat when the sound of his friends' screams reached his ears. What was happening? He wanted to scream out, but a hand on his shoulder made his body go stiffed.
"Sit still, can you?" one of the voices whispered to him. "Don't you have faith in them? If you do, then just sit there and wait. They would get you out of these retrains."
Back to the rest of Inazuma Japan. The moment they made a step to where Fubuki was tying, from the shadow behind Fubuki, another cloaked figure stepped out. Yet, before they could react whatsoever, the figure raised their hand, and a sea of fire suddenly swept right in front of them, blocking their path to their captive teammate.
"Fubuki!" Gouenji shouted, as he watched the figure put a hand on the ice prince's shoulder and whispered something in his ear. "Fubuki!"
"We have to find a way to get pass this firewall!" Hiroto shouted at his teammates. Everyone knew he was right, but what could they do?
Out of nowhere, a football dropped down right in front of them. Looking up, members of Inazuma Japan saw another figure sitting on the beam, face hidden by the hood of their cloak, but their smirk could still be seen. And the figure was swinging their legs back and forth.
"Tick, tock, the time is running out," it was like the figure was singing, even though their voice still sounded so emotionless. "So, let's play football and have some fun!"
Everyone felt their blood run cold when the air shimmered, and a giant clock appeared, showing them it was now 11: 46. They only had 14 minutes left.
They had to do something. And fast.
"Move aside," Hiroto shouted, kicking up the ball. Glancing over his shoulder, he smiled at his teammates. "Once the fire parts, hurriedly cross to the other side, okay?"
Before anyone could question what he meant by that, Hiroto had already kicked the ball into the air and jumped after it.
"Ryuusei Blade!" the redhead shouted, and sent the ball straight through the wall of fire with purplish aura surrounding it. The force and speed of his hissatsu was more than enough to part the fire to either side, creating a path big enough for others to run pass.
"Let's go, let's go, let's go!" Endou yelled, remembering what Hiroto had said. Without another word, everyone ran through the fire, using the path Hiroto temporary created for them. The only one who stayed behind was Hiroto himself.
"Good luck, everyone." He whispered. Up above, the cloaked figure grinned, before vanishing into thin air.
To the rest of the team, they all ran to the platform where Fubuki was now sitting alone. No one knew when the cloaked figure had disappeared, no that they cared about such detail at the moment.
"Watch out!" Kazemaru screamed, taking no time to tackle their captain to the floor, successfully saving the brunette from being beheaded when a flying blade swept through the air where his head previous was.
"Kazemaru! Are you okay?" Endou frantically asked the tealnette, who just rescued him from a sudden death.
"I'm fine. What about you, Endou?" Kazemaru asked.
"I'm fine. All thank to yo-."
His sentence was cut off by a chuckling sound from the side. Looking to the source of it, they saw another cloaked figure sitting on another beam with their chin rested on their palm.
"My, you failed in killing them. What a shame," the figure sniggered, and the second voice that replied startled every member of Inazuma Japan that was present.
"Shut up," whipping their heads to the opposite side where the cloaked figure was sitting, they saw another figure stood, their arms crossed over their chest. "If you think you can do better, then be my guest."
"Oh! And here I thought you would never ask!"
And with a snapped of their fingers, members of Inazuma Japan watched in horror as what seemed like dozen of blades were sent towards them from either side, glinting unnaturally in the poorly lit room.
What are we supposed to do now?
"MAJIN THE HAND!" Without discussion, Endou and Tachimukai stood back-to-back, Majin the Hand was called out, successfully holding the blades back for the time being.
"GO!" And together, they shouted at the rest of their teammates. The time was running out, and if they couldn't reach Fubuki in time, who knew what would happen to him!
"HAI!" With that, the team continued running towards the platform, putting up their guards in case more dangers appeared. But, weirdly enough, there was no more danger. Which was a relief, really, because they now only had three minutes left.
"Fubuki!" Gouenji called out for the ice prince, as he ran next to the chair where Fubuki was tied into. Right behind him, everyone was also making their way over, and soon joining in with helping the fire striker to untie the ropes.
"But what about the chains?" Toramaru asked, and immediately had his question answered when Fudou took the lock of the chain in his hand and picked it with a hairpin.
"There." He said nonchalantly, like the fact he carried a hairpin in his pocket was absolutely normal.
"…whose hairpin is that?" Kidou couldn't help but ask, as he stared at Fudou from behind his goggles. "And where did you learn to pick lock?"
"Like I would ever tell you." Fudou sneered.
Ignoring Kidou and Fudou, Gouenji helped Fubuki get out of his retrains and remove the blindfold, while Hiroto, Endou and Tachimukai finally managed to make their way over now that the fire and the blades had vanished to thin air.
"Fubuki, are you okay?" Endou asked as soon as he came near the ice prince. "You didn't get hurt, did you?"
"No, no, I'm fine." Fubuki immediately said. "But are you guys okay?"
"We are fine, don't worry too much." Gouenji gave him a small smile, which soon morphed into a frown. "But if you didn't get hurt, then whose blood was that back in your room."
"Blood?" Fubuki blinked a couple of time, before his eyes narrowed and his hands clenched into fists. Twirling around, he looked straight into the shadow behind, and much to the confusion of his friends, he called out loud.
"Is that why she isn't here? Because you used her blood for this?"
From the shadow, they appeared. All of the cloaked figures, all nine of them. Standing there emotionlessly, with their faces hidden by their hoods.
"What if we said yes?" One of them spoke up, and everyone from Inazuma Japan that was present, except for Fubuki, was startled. That voice! It couldn't be…
"Y-You are-" Hiroto was lost for word. And together with his teammates, he watched as the nine figures removed their hoods, revealing themselves to everyone in front of them.
Nine members of Constellation Lights. The only one that was missing was no one else but Aelita.
"Where is she?" Fubuki asked, the question came out harshly. "And why her blood?"
"Don't worry, Leader, 'Lita is alright. Just tired because she gave too much blood." Nuevo smiled brightly like what he just said was not at all disturbing. "She is sleeping at the moment."
"And why her blood?!" Mios spoke up, following by a shrug. "We need real blood to make it realistic, and she already slashed her own arm before we could even decide whose blood we were going to use, and there was so much that came out so we thought that, why not?!"
Members of Inazuma Japan were speechless. They couldn't believe it! They went through all of that just to find out the kidnappers were no one else but those they didn't want to hear about the kidnapping the most? And everyone was worried for the safety of the ice prince for nothing, when it was clear that Constellation Lights would never hurt even a hair of their beloved leader?
"Why did you do this?" Endou shouted. "Giving us a fright like that!? We thought Fubuki was in danger for real!"
"Like we said, it was for the sake of our most important person," Nieve said almost monotonously. "Because, as you can already see, we didn't really trust you when Leader was involved."
"So we thought, what could guarantee you would do anything to keep Leader safe and unharmed, that you would never abandon him." Zoisimus continued. "So Mios came up with a plan, and we all decided that it was fun to follow with it."
Everyone stared at the psychopaths in disbelief. Fun? What was there to be considered as fun here?
"It was also a test to see if you all would go through all the troubles to 'rescue' Leader." Vixen grinned. "So we booked our flight and came to Liocott Island last night, so that we could have enough time to prepare before the plan was put in action. Of course, we did stumble upon some problems, and it was quiet a pain, really, to get past the security at the airport, but we all managed eventually."
Fubuki swore he feel cold doom washed over his body. "What did you do to the security?"
The smirks that crept into the faces of Constellation Lights members successfully scaring the shit out of members of Inazuma Japan.
"Oh, don't worry about such petty detail, Leader," Aksara laughed eerily. "They will live."
Everyone else couldn't help but feel pity for those guys. They must have had a painful time under the hands of Constellation Lights members, who seriously needed to be locked up somewhere with the best of the best security system 24/7. They were too dangerous for the society to be left wandering around!
"And so, after we dealt with the security at the airport, we set out to find a perfect location for our plan." Mini continued where the story was left. "It took us quite some times and a couple of wrestle, but everything ended up well and all. We had everything where we wanted it to be, and all we needed now was Leader."
"When the right time came, we phoned him." Tobias spoke up, much to the surprise of everyone who knew him. He spoke more than five words! How shocking was that? "And we told him we accidentally left something in his luggage…"
"…and successfully lured him to his room, where we were waiting with chlorophorm." Phantom decided to take it from here, when it looked like Tobias didn't want to say anything else. "Once he stepped inside, we ambushed! Maybe because we took him by surprise, so there was no struggling. This made it easier to us, of course, because if he did put up a fight, we might have to hit him."
"Which would be a crime, no doubt." Nieve mumbled, and members of Constellation Lights nodded in agreement.
"After that, we had to work fast in trashing his room, because who knew how long it would take you to come up." Mios said. "So, while Tobias and Zoisimus took Leader here and tied him up, we set out to destroy his room. And because there were seven of us, it wasn't that hard to make it look like there was a fight that had happened in such a short amount of time. When we heard your footsteps up the stairs, we broke the window, poured Aelita's blood on the floor, before all went up to the roof. The next step was calling you guys, pretending that we didn't know Leader had been 'kidnapped', but we could feel he was in 'danger'."
"We waited until you all left the lodge to search for Leader to re-enter his room and set up for the next steps." Aksara took the role of a story-teller from here. "I took care of the switch, connecting it with my mini laptop, so that once you switched off the light, the image of the ghost girl would appear, which soon turn into butterflies and lead you to this wood house, while Nuevo was busy himself with putting glasses to form the message. Once done, we left and went back to our hideout, leaving Phantom and Tobias behind, sitting on the roof, waiting for all of you to return to start the next phone calls. If you can't tell just yet, then Tobias was the one who told you we had Leader, and Phantom was the one that told you about the first lead."
"When we saw you all running out of the lodge and after the digital butterflies, me and Tobias took a short cut back to the hideout." Phantom chuckled. "Had to be stealthy, of course, seeing that you left your managers behind, and we didn't want to be seen by them-"
"There was a short cut?" Kazemaru asked.
"Of course!" Vixen chirped. "Actually, this house and your lodge weren't that far away from each other! Aksara just thought it would be funny to make the butterflies leading you guys around. Seeing that you were all too busy looking where the butterflies were, you failed to notice you were just running around in circle!"
Everyone was gritting their teeth by now. Oh, how they wished they could strangle these freaks right there and then…
"But what about the blade at the entrance?" Hiroto questioned. "And the sea of fire? And the flying blades?"
"The fun thing is that, those things were real." Mini winked playfully. And everyone from Inazuma Japan felt their blood too no time to leave their faces.
"ARE YOU SAYING WE COULD HAVE BEEN KILLED FOR REAL?" Someoka exploded.
"What? It made thing more realistic and fun, don't you agree?" Mios smirked.
"YOU PSYCHOPATHS!" The pink-haired forward roared, shaking his fist at nine members of Constellation Lights in front of them. "YOU DID INTEND TO KILL US?"
"Of course we did." Aksara cackled. "Like Mios had said, it made thing more realistic and fun."
Okay, there was no denying it. These creatures were indeed psychopaths. And it was only a matter of time before they all were sent to an electric chair!
"And you did all these because you didn't trust them?" Fubuki snapped. And because he rarely got angry let alone snap at someone, this came as a shock to most of Inazuma Japan members. But Constellation Lights, who already knew this was inevitable once they set out to do this plan, just smiled at their leader.
"Of course." Zoisimus nodded. "Because we needed to see if they were worth being trusted by you. If they failed this test, then we would take you out of this island, and never let them see you ever again. But, they have passed the test, so we guess we could trust them. For now."
"You do know there will be consequence for this!" The leader of Constellation Lights hissed.
"Yeah, we know." Mios chuckled. "But frankly, we don't want to face it now. So, you can settle everything with us once you are back from FFI, okay?"
Before Fubuki could understand what he meant by that, he found his jaw drop to the floor when all nine of them vanished in a flash of light, and out of nowhere, a piece of paper flew down in front of him. Catching it before it could touch the ground, Fubuki looked at what was written inside, just to fell a tick mark appeared.
'When you are reading this, Leader, we are already at the airport, preparing to take the next flight back to Inazuma Town. We left the house while everyone was too busy trying to untie you. The people you thought were us were just digital images set up by Aksara to answer your questions, and would disappear right when you mentioned anything about us facing the consequence. Sorry for bothering you and everyone tonight, and hope there's no hard feeling after this ^-^.
Kind regards,
Constellation Lights."
"The first thing I do after FFI will be slaughtering those idiots!" Fubuki growled. "All of them!"
Most of Inazuma Japan sweatdropped at this side of the usually kind and sweet Fubuki Shirou. Sometimes, they did forget this boy was the captain/leader of those psychopaths who just escaped the wrath of the said leader.
"…say, they never told us how come they could set this house up in only a day, with traps and all, right?" Kazemaru spoke up after a while.
"Put that aside," Kidou folded his arms over his chest. "Does anyone know how we can get out of here?"
Everyone blinked. Kidou was right. How did they get out of here again?
~ At the airport ~
"So, how it's going?" Aelita's voice could be heard from the phone Vixen was holding.
"Oh, everything was good, and the plan went smoothly." Mios replied to the question.
"And?"
"Sadly, they passed." Nuevo sighed dramatically. "Which means we will have to wait until FFI to see Leader again."
Aelita giggled. "Sounds like a fun night, huh?"
"You have no idea." Aksara chuckled.
"You guys are going home now?"
"Yep!" Vixen chirped. "We will get on the plane soon enough, and before you know it, we will come to the hospital and visit you! Aksara even videotaped everything, so you won't miss even a moment!"
"I look forward to it!" Aelita laughed a little, before pausing. "Say, did any of you remember to leave them the instruction about how to get out of the underground chamber?"
The nine members of Constellation Lights stared at the phone, taking in what Aelita just told them, before looking at each other. Then, simultaneously, the let out.
"…oh shit."
~ x ~
And done! Thank God I managed to finish this without collapsing out of exhaustion! This bloody thing turned out to be much, much longer than I previously expected. What a pain. And sorry if the 'mystery' part in the fic is not up to your standard. I had tried my best, but… T-T
Anyway, enough moping. Thank you for reading this Halloween special. Review, favourite and follow will be much appreciated, even though the fact you guys do spend time and read this already make me happy ^-^
Happy Halloween, minna-san!