Daiki lay on his belly in front of the main detonator using twig to carefully peel away each individual paper bomb that was plastered onto it. He was holding his breath and sweat came pouring off his face with every move that he made. Scarcely a foot above his head were six different chakra threads and the trees looked as though they were made of paper bombs. Seriously, who had the time on their hands for something so extreme? It wasn't just the terror either that made him perspire, but the heat too. It was hotter than he'd ever remembered it being and he'd actually left his jacket and t-shirt nearly 100 meters behind him in an attempt to cool off. It was becoming so hard to concentrate and his hands shook so badly, that he thought he might hit one of the many thousands of chakra threads protruding from this thing like it were the basket on a hot air balloon. But he'd gone too far to turn back now.
He hadn't slept all night and had sweated and cried so much the day before that now dehydration was becoming a serious issue. It was twenty four hours since he'd last drank or eaten anything and there was no food or water out within reach at all. If he could have pissed, which he couldn't, then he was almost certain that he would have drank it. His head hurt so much he thought it was going to split open, particularly when light shone on his face. He was surprised that he could even think in a straight line let alone deal with high explosives.
"Daiki."
Oh this was great. Now he was starting to hear things. So he was dealing with high explosives and he was crazy too.
"Don't do that."
No, he was going to ignore the little voices inside his head. And the fairies and gnomes that were trying to steal his shoes. He was just going to focus-
"Daiki, you idiot. Listen to me! Turn to your right and look at me!"
He turned expecting to see nothing and finding Numa instead. She was lying twenty meters away but apparently unable to get any closer. She was using some sort of telescope to watch what he was doing. And now he was seeing things. Though he'd never thought Numa would be part of his fantasies whilst he was hallucinating. It was actually surprisingly irritating. As irritating in fact as if she has been...real.
"You"re actually here aren't you?" he said matter of factly and pressing his face into the grass in resignation.
"Yes! God if I could hit you I would!"
"Why of all people did they have to send you?"
"I wasn't sent I... I just came on my own."
"You hate me too much for that." he mumbled into the grass. Darkness felt so good right now.
"I can let you blow yourself up if you like." she retorted pushing her telescope shut with a violent click.
"Hey wait!" he yelled looking up as she began crawling away. "Sorry! I'm sorry, okay? I'm just... really... really tired."
She stopped and turned back towards him. She was so far away it was hard to see how her face looked but he could see no contempt or anger. In fact she seemed kind of sad.
"You look terrible." she said at last.
"Hmmm." he said putting his face back in the grass. If he could just sleep.
"I'd come closer-."
"No, stay where you are. If you come any closer you'll get stuck and trip a thread."
"Um...okay."
"Listen. Once I start doing this you should get out of here."
"No way!"
"Yes because I'm a screw up and I'll probably get you killed."
"That's not true. I can help you. You weren't doing it right before but I'll talk you through it."
"You can't control my hands from there and I don't even think I can control them from here."
"Well then we're just going to have to do this slowly, aren't we?"
"No. You don't understand. I could kill you!"
"But I got you into this mess, didn't I? I lead you through here and you got caught. There is no way I am running away from this."
"Numa don't-"
"Daiki, just calm down and breathe. The chakra threads are weak enough as it is."
He nodded as they both eyed the webs of death around themselves warily.
"Look, with me here, we can get this done in two hours tops and get out of here in one. I'm not going to leave you behind. Not like this."
"I... Um...Okay."