So... it's been a long time since i updated. Sorry for those of you who actually continue to read this. I decided to post two chapters in a row and then there will only be one after that and it will be done ;)
"Ow… okay, remind me never to do that again." Kano was smiling as he rubbed his jaw that had been broken just three hours earlier. His comment was directed at me, the only other person in the room, unless his death had caused him some major brain damage. I didn't answer though. I hadn't really said much since he and Seto had both died. To be honest, I lost it and punched a wall, but let me start from the beginning.
Mary cried the most I think, and still, she kept blaming herself, especially when it came to Seto. It took a lot of comforting from Kisaragi and myself to finally get her to calm down from her hysterics that I didn't really blame her for having. Mainly everyone else, including myself, didn't know how to feel, or had a variety of conflicting emotions. Though, I was sure Konoha was the most shaken up, clutching his triceratops plushie even tighter than before, but I assume being held at gunpoint by your evil clone in a hostage situation can do that to you.
I felt bad for our whole group after it happened. I was the one who had to quickly recover from the initial shock of seeing Kano go over the edge. Seriously, it was as if time had stopped for a second when it happened. I, immediately after snapping out daze, ran to the edge, but at the last second, I couldn't make myself look over the edge, but I suppose it wasn't that hard to put what happened together.
Behind me, I heard Mary break down and sob almost uncontrollably as when as Shintaro swearing. My fists clenched around the railing and bent down to press my forehead against the metal resisting the urge to scream.
Calm down… calm down, Kido, I tried to tell myself, but it was no use. I could feel skin breaking as I bit down into my lip, hard, and my eyes stung from the tears threatening to spill. Thankfully that's when I felt the vibrations coming strongly from my pocket.
"Leader? Leader! Leader! Are you there?" a voice, a familiar voice, sounded urgently through the fabric and, despite all that had happened, I dug in quickly for my phone and held it up to my face, clutching it like a life line.
"Ene! Oh my god, Ene, is that you?" It was a stupid question to ask because, of course it was Ene. What other cyber being would be in my phone? But even so, I'd never been so happy to see the blue pixilated girl in all my life.
"Leader, it is you!" she exclaimed, seemingly relieved. Then she looked at me strangely. "You look a mess, leader. And… why are you crying?" Ene frowned.
I froze and immediately wiped the tears that had begun to flow in my relief. "Oh… s-sorry." I mumbled.
Fortunately, Ene didn't press anymore on the subject. Instead she said, "It's alright." But leader, where are you? Is the rest of the gang with you? I've been looking for you for days now, and Hibiya's literally sick with worry."
Oh man, I thought, where do I begin, but then I heard a low groan in the group from Seto and, even though I was relieved beyond compare, I knew we didn't have much time. "We'll explain everything later," I told her, "don't go anywhere."
"Can't anyway." she said, "The connection between your phones is pretty faulty."
I pulled my hood up in one fluid motion and headed back to my group. "Mary, stop crying." I commanded firmly to the weeping girl. She looked up at me with red-rimmed, pink eyes, but sniffed and nodded her head. I handed my phone to Kisaragi, "Start relaying the situation to Ene" I said. The orange blonde fumbled with my phone before initially doing what I asked. Then I looked at Shintaro, completely disregarded Konoha as I knew he was too shaken up at the moment to be of much help, so I told the NEET, "You're gonna need to help me carry them
Within what seemed like hours, we were all back into hiding, this time in another department store in the back dressing rooms. It was cramped and somewhat stuffy, but at least, for now, we were safe. Though I was sure that it wouldn't take long for another one of our evil clones to find us again (why they were so intent on killing us was beyond me) let alone if Kuroha, Konoha's clone, was going to come back to life.
Seto, who'd been dead earlier by the way, was up and walking. Well, not really 'walking' per se, but he was alive and that was more than could be said for Kano.
Unlike Seto, Kano hadn't popped back right away. Looking back on it now I suppose this was because he'd fallen off a freakin' building rather than just gotten shot. But at the time we didn't know that, and it was very frustrating.
Kisaragi was still explaining things to Ene to the best of her abilities with added input here and there by other members of the group. I, on the other hand, felt burdened with anxiety and left to be by myself, but not too far from the Dan [Insert punching wall scene]. Yes, having Ene here meant maybe we could finally get some answers, but then that would raise more important questions like, how the hell do we get out of here? I was just really stressed and, in all honesty, terrified. Especially since we had a member dead and we were wondering if he was ever going to come back.
That was when Konoha, poor but less shaken and more monotone now Konoha, came over to me with his plushy (that I now despised with a vengeance) still clutched in his arms and told me, "Kano just woke up." And that was all I needed to hear before I was practically sprinting back to the dressing rooms.
And that was how I got to this moment in time, watching Kano stretch (after turning everyone else out of the stall) with which each pop of his joints making me flinch inwardly. Whether or not it could be seen past my crossed arms and facial expression, I was seething.
Kano seemed not to notice, or either tried not to show it, that I was glaring at him, and he looked at me and shrugged innocently, "What?"
I wanted to slap him. What the hell was wrong with him? He'd just died! Granted he'd come back, but we had all been worried sick!
"Oh, nothing." I said sarcastically, "You have fun being a suicidal maniac?"
Kano looked down, a knowing smile on his face (knowing because this was when I usually started yelling). "Kido…I-"
"No, just no." I said, stopping him because I was about to go off. "Do you have any idea how worried we all were? How worried I was? My god, you're such an idiot!" He didn't even deny it as I went on. "I swear, if you do anything like… like that again! I will personally kick your ass." I felt my eyes stinging again, shit. "If we ever get out of here, that is…"
I wasn't glaring at him anymore. I was trying to preserve whatever was left o my dignity and pulled my hood a little more to cover my face.
Kano still hadn't said anything, but I couldn't decide whether that was a good thing or a bad thing. I thought about leaving, but that was before I felt his hand on my shoulder.
"Hey… Don't worry, okay. We're practically immortal here. If there's a way to get out I'm sure well find it."
I may have been, in the least bit, reassured. We did have Ene, and apparently Hibiya on the outside, and it was out best bet to contact him so we could figure out what to do next.
But still I tried to shrug Kano's hand off. "Don't… don't touch me. I'm still mad at you."
Instead of listening, he wrapped his whole arm around my shoulder, chuckling, "But I can't have leader crying or she'll lose her reputation."
"Shut up, I'm not crying! I'm still mad at you, and it's not like you didn't almost get weepy on me before."
"So, have you caught her up yet?" I asked Kisaragi. We were all gathered back into the outside of the dressing rooms, since it was too small to fit all of us in the same space at the same time. Shintaro was now holding my phone, the screen outfacing so everyone could see Ene.
"Yeah, I think so." she answered. "How we woke up here, lack of color, can't die, evil clones…" she listed all these off on her fingers, "I think that's it."
"I have to say," Ene spoke up, "This is a rather bizarre situation."
"Do you think there's any way you can help us get out Ene-chan?" Seto was the one to ask her.
"I don't know…" Ene said, a thoughtful look on her face. "Based on what I've been told I would've thought Mary could've gotten you out of here." Everyone looked at the albino medusa, whose cheeks began to flush, "But I guess you've already tried that."
"More or less." I answered. Then I gestured for Shintaro to give me my phone, which he did without hesitation, and I was able to talk to Ene more directly.
"Hibiya did mention though that, over on the outside, there was this… sort of… membrane? There was this thing sort of covering Shibuya. Does that tell you anything?"
I frowned a bit. A covering? Membrane? What did that mean? What did that have to do with us? It was over Shibuya, and as said by Mary, she'd created a whole new world from that shopping district."
"Maybe…" Shintaro spoke up, "Maybe this 'world' and our world are parallel. And what Hibiya saw was this world residing next to ours."
We all stared at him. I knew he was smart, but I didn't think he could figure something out like that that fast. "That's very probable." I said, "Anyway, it's our best hypothesis."
"So now we just have to test it." Kano said.
I nodded. "Ene, can you contact Hibiya?"
"Of course I can!" she said, mocking being offended, "The problem is the signal connection is still very weak. Surprising it's held up this long; I didn't expect that; it took me days to find this signal, but still… If I go back, there's no telling how long it will take me to get back again."
I bit my lip. A couple of days? I wanted out of here as soon as possible, preferably now, but if that meant waiting days, it was worth it. "Alright," I decided, "but hurry back as soon as you can please."
"Right." Ene said, giving me a small salute and with that she disappeared, and we were on our own again.
