Chapter 9
Author's Note: Hello again, all! Thanks for all of the reviews on the last chapter. I appreciate the support. I hope that you enjoy this chapter too!
Kanda lay in a pool of blood. The crimson had spread its stain to the toys that stared down at him coldly. It was still seeping up the synthetic whites and greys that acted out the part of each toy's fur. Kanda wondered if it would ever be able to be washed out. He was almost certain that the red would never come out of his uniform again. He needed a new one anyway.
Kanda's senses had returned just before the Queen had been called out of his cell. He hadn't heard what reason was important enough for her to abandon her toy. His ears hadn't been healed by that point. They had only recovered a short time ago. The rest of Kanda's body still had a long way to go. He was annoyed that his creators hadn't thought to make his heart the last thing to heal when it came to fatal injuries; being conscious while the rest of his body recovered made things very painful.
Numerous deaths had dulled his mind during his interrogations but now that he had been given time to readjust, he knew that this was the time to take advantage of the Queen's absence. She hadn't left him alone for so long and he knew that it would probably be a short reprieve. He needed to complete his mission.
Time passed slowly as he waited for his body to revive to the point where he would be able to stand and do some good. When his legs became usable and his chest bothered to support him, Kanda pushed himself to his feet. He wobbled there momentarily before giving in and accepting the help of a kindly wall. Glad for the lack of chains and the negligence of locking the door, Kanda dragged himself from the room.
The hallway of cells was just as he remembered it. There was pleading, screaming and outstretched hands. The chains were still fastened with combination locks but Kanda noted that of the hallway of cells, less than half were occupied. Whatever the Queen was using the humans for, she was using them quickly. This would probably be Kanda's last chance to free any of them.
His knife had been confiscated long ago but Kanda still couldn't be bothered with the combination locks. He could see that the people were even thinner than Kanda himself. The Queen obviously hadn't been bothered to feed them as much as she had Kanda.
Kanda shuddered as he remembered his mortification as he had been force-fed like a baby in the Queen's arms every now and then. If beansprout or that idiot rabbit ever got a hold of that information, Kanda was in a mind to commit suicide. Or perhaps he would just silence them permanently before it came to that.
The bars were strong but Kanda was stronger. He only needed to bend them a bit. Kanda kicked one of the bars and felt the bar bend beneath force. His leg bent too. Kanda cursed as he collapsed. He had known that his body wasn't completely recovered but he hadn't thought that his legs were that fragile.
If he had to do that with each of the three cells, it would take more than a day; his recovery time more than four fifths of that time. On second thoughts, it was probably much more than that but Kanda wasn't good at maths. He couldn't be bothered to figure out the exact ratio. What mattered was that that was time they could not spare.
People slipped through the bars like a stream of water through reeds. None stopped to help the others and none stopped to help Kanda. Kanda wasn't surprised. If it hadn't been a mission, he would have abandoned all of the prisoners here too. Freedom was the only thought on those humans' minds. Considering what they had probably seen and heard during their capture, Kanda couldn't fault them. On second thoughts, he probably could but he just couldn't be bothered.
Once the stampede had disappeared down the hall, hopefully to freedom or at least not into Akuma, Kanda dragged himself to the next cell. Bracing himself for another onslaught of pain and thankful that his body could take it, he drew back his foot and kicked one of the bars. This bar did not bend as far as the other. From the ground, Kanda had much less force let alone leverage. Still, Kanda was glad to see people squeezing through the gap he had made. He had just sacrificed his other leg for that gap.
Again, no one stopped to aid in the rescue of the last lot and Kanda didn't have any legs left to break on allowing their escape. It would take a few hours for him to be able to stand again let alone walk, run or kick. Groaning in pain, he dragged himself to the last cell. He stared at the bars and the desperate eyes of the people and wondered how he was going to free the last stragglers.
Kanda was getting more and more suspicious that he had freed as many as he had in such a short time. It was all too easy. The Queen had obviously had to leave but he had expected her to return by now. Perhaps the situation was more urgent than he had thought. But then there were the bars. If the Akuma and Noah had been serious about keeping the humans imprisoned, they wouldn't have made the bars so separate that a single kick could make enough room for a mass escape. It was as if they wanted him to free the humans. Was this all a trap or was the Queen really as stupid as she seemed?
An all too familiar hand fell on Kanda's shoulder.
"I see that you've been hard at work freeing my boring toys. Were you jealous my toy?"
Kanda didn't need to see the horrified expressions of the remaining prisoners to recognise who that sickly sweet voice belonged to.
"I'm afraid that twice is too much, my toy. We're going to have to say goodbye now." The Queen sighed. "Goodbye, my toy."
