Hopeless and Alone
Hiruma's bad mood was increasing exponentially by the second. He had now been searching for nearly three quarters of an hour. Being in such a hurry, he hadn't bothered to grab a pair of gloves or a toque. So, as a result of his rashness to immediately begin his search, or maybe just his stupidity for not taking two more seconds to prepare himself for the freezing temperatures, he was now absolutely frozen.
Hiruma couldn't feel his fingers anymore, and he had to constantly check the sides of his head to reassure himself that his earrings were still firmly attached to his ears, and hadn't been ripped out by one of the trees he'd crashed through.
Normally the angry quarterback would have blasted the trees out of his way with one of his more explosive weapons. Seeing as how he didn't know where the manager currently was however, he figured that would be an inappropriate course of action.
He might accidentally blow her up.
Hiruma was beginning to get more restless however with every minute that passed with no sign of the young woman. His voice was beginning to become hoarse as he breathed in mouthfuls of dry frozen air, and he had begun muttering another string of curses under his breath. Hiruma stopped mid swear however when something smacked him roughly on his frozen nose.
"Fuck, that's it!! To hell with this!! It's not my fault if I blow you to fucking kingdom come damn manager!" Hiruma reached behind him and yanked out his B5-36 grenade launcher, took aim and was about to fire when a shaft of moonlight swept across the tree and illuminated the object. It was a glove. Hiruma yanked it off the tree roughly, showering himself with a layer of ice.
"Ya Ha!" It was Mamori's glove. His frozen face stretched into a wide grin as new found hope made it's way into his icy heart.
"Don't worry Suzuna chan, I'll think of something."
"Oh, I'm not really worried Mamo nee. Not about myself anyways," Suzuna admitted as she tried to quell the rapid chattering of her teeth. "How are you feeling? You don't have any really serious injuries do you?" Suzuna asked in concern as she carefully adjusted her position on the branch above the managers and waited nervously for her reply.
Mamori hadn't seriously thought about it until now. Through the pounding of her head though, she gathered she must have a concussion as she was exhibiting some of the symptoms. Dizziness and the growing nauseous feeling in the pit of her stomach being two of them.
Mamori had done research on common football injuries when she joined the Deimon Devil Bats as their manager. Concussions, shin splints and the groin pull to name a few. The young manager never thought she would be applying this knowledge of football injuries to her own body however. Although knowing what her injuries were was nice, since they had no way of treating them while stuck in a tree, the knowledge didn't exactly help to alleviate their situation.
Mamori was also sure she had at least sprained her ankle but she didn't rule out the possibility of a fracture. The rapid numbing of her limbs though was making it difficult to tell.
"I banged my head up a little," Mamori admitted feeling exhausted from her previous expenditure of brain power over her self assessment, "and my ankle might be sprained."
The weary manager leaned her cheek against the cold hardness of the tree in an attempt to reduce the throbbing in her aching skull. She watched mesmerized in the pale darkness as each of the raggedy breaths she puffed out through her chapped lips were transformed into miniature pale clouds. They would fade away into smoky wisps only to be replaced by another whiff of crystallized water. The cycle would start over. Mamori's eyelids drooped heavily as she began to be lulled into a restless sleep.
Suzuna was frowning in thought, concerned at what Mamori had said. The petite cheerleader was sure Mamori's injuries were much worse than what she had previously admitted. Suzuna could only assume that her friend was sugar coating the whole ordeal though so as to prevent her from worrying.
Mamori's kindness however only served to worsen the overwhelming feeling of guilt which had been creeping up on Suzuna for the past several minutes. Wringing her hands desperately in thought, she came to a decision. Reaching down, Suzuna slowly unbuckled her ski's before tossing them and listening as they landed with a resounding crack on the ice below.
"I'll go get help Mamo-nee," Suzuna said as she turned to face Mamori. "Sorry to leave you alone up here, but it looks like you need medical attention and I'm the only one who can go back and get it," she pointed out.
Mamori immediately snapped to attention. "B-but Suzuna chan--"
"Don't worry," Suzuna reassured the worried manager. "This'll be cake. Nothing compared to my amazing, acrobatic, daredevil leap into this tree."
Mamori could see the logic in that fact but couldn't help attempting to persuade the girl otherwise. "If you fall--"
"I won't."
"But there's nothing to--"
"Don't worry about it."
"But just in case you--"
"Wont happen."
Mamori made one last pathetic attempt as the pounding in her head worsened. "But…"
Suzuna giggled. "You worry too much Mamo-nee. I'll be fine. I don't think we should wait around and rely on the men to come to our rescue anyways. This'll be easy," the young girl said as she grinned in assurance.
Although Mamori was still contemplating the weight of the risks against the benefits for this plan, she couldn't help but smile as she felt an immense amount of pride in her younger friend who seemed to have matured by leaps and bounds. Before Mamori could dwell further on this thought though, Suzuna began to make her way down the side of the tree.
"Be careful Suzuna chan!!" Mamori hollered down worriedly.
Despite being a little stiff at first, as soon as her muscles began loosening up Suzuna had already completed the treacherous climb down. Mamori heaved a small sigh of relief and watched as the small girl turned up towards her.
"Make sure you stay there until I bring back help Mamo-nee!" Suzuna shouted from below.
Mamori opened her mouth to caution the girl to be careful again but Suzuna had already taken off. It was probably unnecessary anyways. Words of caution just went through one ear and out the other when it came to the small cheerleader.
Suzuna had been walking around for thirty minutes now when her legs suddenly gave out bringing her crashing to her knees. She broke into a small coughing fit as the cold air she had been sucking in crystallized inside her throat causing it to cry out in irritation. Trembling violently with the cold, Suzuna hunched over her knees and willed some courage back into her body. Her brave façade was fading fast however as she failed to spot anything other than ice, ice covered trees, and ice covered rocks. She hadn't run into any members of the football team either which she had assumed would be all over the place desperately searching for the two missing girls. "I'm going to kill Sena when I get back," Suzuna growled under her breath.
Grabbing her toque, she pulled it roughly off her head and began running a gloved hand through her short tresses in thought.
"I must be going in circles or something because I should have reached the lodge by now I think." Suzuna concluded disheartened as she glanced at her surroundings. "I don't understand why I haven't run into You-nii though. Isn't he worried about his woman? And that stupid Sena…" Suzuna grumbled in irritation before pushing herself to her feet, knees creaking slightly, and set off in what she hoped was the right direction. Before she could advance even two feet however, Suzuna felt the wind get knocked out of her as what appeared to be a brick wall burst through the lower branches of one of the trees and slammed into her small body sending her careening backwards across the ice.
Suzuna's eyes immediately locked on to those of her attacker. Thin slits radiating bloodlust as they slowly approached the terrified girl. Her body frozen with fear, Suzuna did the only plausible thing she could think of. Opening her mouth, she immediately let out a blood curdling shriek which reverberated throughout the white stillness.
Mamori was waiting anxiously back in the tree for Suzuna's return. Her breathing was beginning to become more laboured as the nauseous feeling in her abdomen worsened considerably. Bringing her hand up to rest against her forehead, Mamori sought to lessen it's constant throbbing. Startled at the feeling of flesh on flesh though, the weakening manager brought her hand down for a closer inspection.
"That's strange," she pondered absentmindedly, "I never even realized I was missing a glove." Before Mamori could dwell further on that thought, a loud scream sliced through the gathered darkness. Mamori sat there stupidly in confusion before realization hit her.
"Suzuna!!"
Mamori automatically sat up throwing her head into a spinning frenzy as the branch she was currently sitting on began to sway precariously. Without waiting for it to stop, she quickly swung her legs over the edge and sought to make her way down the tree.
"This is stupid, and dangerous, and foolish and--" Mamori began muttering to herself. A habit she had gotten used to whenever she was about to do something risky. Mamori tried to ignore the loud pounding in her ears and instead focus on the task at hand. Suzuna must have gotten hurt, and from the looks of it there was no one else in this vicinity that could possibly help her.
"I'm going to fall aren't I? It's inevitable. I am going to plummet to my death ," the girl spoke calmly to herself as her swollen ankle began twitching erratically. "I'm going to fall and break my neck. Hiruma will find me in the morning and be hauling my dead, frozen, preserved carcass back!!" Mamori finished hysterically.
Glancing down to see how far she had come, the young woman immediately regretted it. Fear of heights was something that had never bothered her before. She assumed things like this changed however when it involved the likelihood of you falling from that particular height.
Mamori cautiously set her feet down on the next branch only to have it sag pathetically beneath her weight. Screaming with silent hysteria, Mamori lunged forward and slammed herself firmly against the trunk of the tree wrapping her arms instinctively around it as her legs collapsed weakly beneath her.
Heart still hammering loudly in her rib cage, Mamori leaned away from the trunk to plan her next move. Catching a glimpse of the next branch she would use, Mamori watched horrified as it doubled and then tripled in number before her eyes.
An impeccably timed dizzy spell.
In a desperate attempt to clear her vision, Mamori bit into her lip until the rancid taste of iron caused her eyes to snap into focus; a split second before her body impacted and folded around one of the wider branches sending a ripple of shockwaves coursing through her body.
As Mamori felt herself slip sideways, she automatically lashed out her hands and gripped the branch until the skin on the back of her knuckles turned blue from the exertion. She didn't loosen her hold until the last of the quivering had faded out.
"Oh my God," Mamori whimpered weakly as she began shaking violently. "Oh my God." Looking through blurry eyes, Mamori brought her trembling gloveless hand over to inspect her face. The left side of which had taken the brunt of her fall.
Cold fingers gently prodded around her left eye which was already swollen shut. Mamori gently continued to roam down her face, barely skimming it until her fingers brushed something warm and wet. Stomach heaving, she immediately yanked her hand away, panic stricken at what she had found. It took Mamori a moment to realize though that it was only her tears which were cascading down her frozen cheeks in trails of liquid fire.
Grunting with the effort, Mamori pushed herself into a sitting position, her joints screaming in agony. Once completely upright, she brought her fingers over to her lips to investigate the pulsating thread of pain that wound it's way through her bottom lip. Swallowing loudly in nervous anticipation, Mamori immediately hunched over, her stomach heaving violently.
Blood.
During the fall, Mamori had still been biting her lip when the side of her face impacted with the branch, embedding her teeth deep within her bottom lip. Mamori gagged as the blood from her torn lip pooled inside her mouth and trickled down her throat. When she attempted to spit it all out, the young woman felt her resolve crumble as her injured body was wracked with silent sobs.
"I can't," she sobbed as more tears spilled out onto her cheeks. "Somebody…Hiruma… please help me." the terrified girl whimpered as a fresh wave of blood trickled down her chin.
Leaning her forehead against the cool bark of the tree, Mamori waited as she felt it seep into her feverish skin, calming her. Taking deep raggedy breaths of frozen air, Mamori found the erratic beating of her heart was slowing down as overwhelming feelings of distress slowly receded into the background.
Feeling ashamed already at her weak plea for help, Mamori sat up and quickly rubbed the frozen tears out of her eyes. "Panicking will not help the situation Mamori." She cringed as a jolt of pain rang through her lip in warning. Her pep talk would have to be an internal one.
The trembling young woman felt her heart thud loudly in her chest as a sick feeling of guilt suddenly coursed through her. 'How long has it been since I heard the scream?'
Immediately, Mamori began searching for a safe branch to proceed to while trying extremely hard to ignore the horrible aching in her body. Before she could continue down though, she felt her heart halt suddenly in her chest as a loud crack echoed throughout the air.
Mamori stilled in terror as her vision began to fog over. Another crack sounded and seemed to reverberate within her body ringing a warning. A split second later, the branch Mamori was currently sitting on, unable to withstand her weight anymore and already weak from her fall, snapped in two. Still twenty three feet above the ground, Mamori felt the cold wind whistle sharply past her ears as she slowly faded into a sea of darkness.
She was falling.
Now… now was when her life, began flashing before her eyes.
A/N- I apologize if it took me a long time to update my story with chapters 2 and 3! I was suffering from some major writers block. Chapter 3 drove me absolutely insane. I've read through this chapter so many times by now I think I can now recite the whole thing by heart. I just hope I produced a good chappie! Please R&R!! And thank you so much to everyone who has reviewed so far!!
I know there hasn't really been any HiruMamo fluff yet but bear with me!! It is on the way! XD