Author's Note: This is a longer update! Please don't kill me!
The Story So Far: Hiruma and Musashi are alone on the roof with some unknown assailant while Kurita and Mamori are on the ground with an unconscious Hunter.
Hidden
By: Bar-Ohki
Chapter 13: Revealed By Seeing
Hiruma and Musashi turned around to see another man in a purple suit. There was something about the man that made remembering his face impossible. Hiruma's eyes narrowed as he slowly pulled his gun up, ready to shoot the man.
"Shooting me won't work boy." The man chuckled, as if Hiruma was joking with him.
Taking a breath, Hiruma paused and smelled something tasty. He blinked once, why would that tasty smell suddenly be here? Musashi looked at Hiruma carefully out of the corner of his eye and saw that Hiruma looked slightly confused about something. When the quarterback licked his lips and took a good whiff of the air Musashi realized why.
'Hiruma eats magic to survive, of course he has a way to sense it!' Musashi realized. 'Hiruma can smell magic!'
Not that Hiruma was at all aware that's what he was smelling.
The Hunter on the other hand, was already starting to feel the effects of Hiruma's eating. He had put up a shield to deal with any bullets the boy might shoot at him, only to have his shield ate away by the very creature he wanted to capture. Smirking slightly, the Hunter reached into his pocket and pulled out a gun. Inside this gun was a Medium in the form of a tranquillizer bullet. One shot would hopefully satisfy the thing's hunger and paralyze it long enough for capture.
Musashi and Hiruma were well aware of the man pulling out a gun of his own. Hiruma aimed and fired without warning as the man brought the gun up. Unfortunately the shield was still there enough to deflect the bullet, sending it whizzing past Hiruma's head.
"What the hell?" Hiruma muttered from behind his mask, his eyes wide in disbelief.
"Take this!" The Hunter shot his bullet at Hiruma, hitting the quarterback in the left shoulder. Hiruma gasped and recoiled, falling back a little. Musashi, on the other hand, rushed forward and tackled the unsuspecting Hunter, catching the man completely by surprise.
'"Mages need to concentrate to do magic, if you don't have magic the best way to fight them is to keep them distracted and occupied so that they can't use magic on you."' Musashi recalled Kurita's father's advice. The kicker raised his fist and smashed it into the face of the Hunter. '"Assaulting them physically is generally a good way to fight a Mage."' Kurita had recommended to Musashi later.
So far neither father nor son had been wrong.
Musashi punched the Hunter again. And again.
Hiruma had fallen onto his back, his body too numb to support him. All he knew was the blue sky above and that tasty smell. His body wouldn't move, which made him want more of the smell.
'Why do I like this smell?' Hiruma faintly wondered, it was a smell he had known all his life. Sometimes it would originate from people, sometimes it would originate from things. He always sought it out even if he had just eaten a full meal, hungry for that smell alone. Hiruma had just assumed everyone could smell it.
'What if they can't? What if I'm really what that woman said I was?' Hiruma wondered, still feeling hungry, still wanting the smell. 'Would I have to die then?'
The Hunter was only really aware of the agony he was in. The Medium had been completely eaten away and now that damn monster was directly eating his magic, in a very painful and hungry way. It didn't help that the magicless brat was busy punching his face in, that was just the icing on the cake.
'What the hell is that thing? Why is it hungrier!?' The Hunter thought just before Musashi punched him hard enough to knock the man out.
Musashi realized the Hunter was unconscious and turned to Hiruma who was lying on his back staring blankly upwards.
"Shit!" Musashi cursed, realizing that must have been a tranquilizer. He rushed to his friend's side and pulled out the bullet out of Hiruma's shoulder. After a moment's thought, Musashi decided to pocket it. He then picked Hiruma up and carried him away from the Hunter, down the stairs, and into the nurse's office.
"Oh my god!" The school nurse gasped, startled by the glazed-looking Hiruma.
"His gun misfired ma'am." Musashi explained to the nurse as she examined the bullet wound.
"No wonder he's in such a shock!" The nurse muttered as she helped Musashi lay Hiruma down on one of the empty beds.
"…Could I stay here with him?" Musashi asked after a moment. "He might get violent when he comes back to his senses…."
"Please do!" The nurse insisted as she cleaned Hiruma's wound and bandaged him up.
"…Do you both have colds?" The nurse couldn't help but to ask.
"No, this is football training." Musashi assured the woman. "Neither of us is sick."
"Ah, okay. Well, I have to step out for a moment and get some more gauze." The nurse explained.
"I'll just be here." Musashi assured her as he watched her walk out the door. Musashi turned and looked at Hiruma carefully.
'…They probably made sure he wouldn't be going anywhere for a long while.' Musashi mused. He pulled out his cell phone and sent Kurita a quick text message saying to come and see him at the nurse's office as soon as possible.
The lineman appeared in the room about five minutes later with Mamori in tow. Upon entering the room, Mamori felt Hiruma biting at her magic vicously. She gasped and stumbled into Kurita, painting heavily in pain.
"Shit!" Musashi gasped, staring in horror as Hiruma unknowingly attacked Mamori. Kurita could sense Mamori's sudden drop in magical energy and acted quickly. He picked her up and carried her out of the room. Musashi said nothing but looked at Hiruma, who seemed to be stirring a little.
The world had started moving suddenly to Hiruma, he found himself going away from the tasty thing, which was bad. He almost had enough to get feeling back, but something was moving him away. While going down the stairs, Hiruma's head had moved and allowed him to dully take in Musashi's face and chest.
'Fucking old man is carrying me somewhere?' Hiruma vaguely wondered, his mind dulled by the same thing that was dulling his body. He was faintly aware of a nurse popping in and out of view. There had been some conversation, but it had been too distant for his ears to hear clearly.
The something good smelling had come in. Hiruma was hungry again, he snatched out at the smell with his mind, demanding it allow him to regain movement. But just as quickly as the smell arrived, it disappeared. Thankfully, this time Hiruma had what he needed.
"Ungh?" Hiruma mumbled as he tried to get his tongue to work. He might have regained movement, but everything was still numb and sluggish. The quarterback tried to look around, but his vision was pretty blurred.
Musashi waited for Kurita to return, it did not take that long.
"I sent Anezaki-san on ahead to class." Kurita explained to Musashi as he came back in.
"…Is she okay?" Musashi asked quietly.
"Yeah, the experience was just tiring for her." Kurita assured the kicker.
'Getting a knife on the throat rattled her, huh?' Hiruma's hearing was working again.
Musashi looked at Hiruma carefully. The drug was wearing off and dealing with Hiruma then was going to involve every trick Musashi knew. Acting quickly, Musashi pulled out the bullet and stuck it in Kurita's hand.
"They shot him with this, take a good look at it." Musashi whispered quietly. The kicker stepped back. "I told the nurse Hiruma's gun misfired, you need to do something about the guy on the roof. I'm going to stay here."
"Okay." Kurita nodded and began to leave. He shot one last look at Hiruma, then went out the door.
When Kurita finally made it to the roof, the man was gone.
-later, with the Hunter-
"Report." One of the male Elders ordered. Traditionally the Elders sit in shadow so one could not see who they were.
"The tranquillizer failed." The Hunter explained from his kneeling position on the floor. "Somehow being drugged makes the monster more hungry, it ate the Medium then started eating me."
"…What do you think we should do?" Another Elder, this one female, asked.
"Feed it until it is full, then knock it unconscious with a physical blow." The Hunter answered. "But there's another complication, of course."
"What is that?" The first Elder demanded.
"The monster has protectors. From what I have seen, there's a Sensitive, a normal human, and a Mage girl protecting it." The Hunter answered. "I don't know how the Mage girl can operate around the damn thing, but she does so on a regular basis."
"…Have your men investigate the Mage girl, she must have some kind of trick." The female Elder ordered him. "We'll do the research on the Sensitive and the normal human, they should be fairly easy to take care of."
"As you wish." The Hunter bowed his head and left the room.
"…Do you think that the Eastern Ocean Isles put those children in place around the monster?" The male Elder asked the female one.
"Of course, why would they want us to have their treasure?" The woman answered.
"Of course, they want if for themselves." The male sounded angry.
"Don't worry, the Hunters will bring it here. They always find a way in the end." The female assured him smugly.
"Yes, they do."
-break-
After Mamori had left, she had managed to prepare a simple draught that should flush the rest of the drugs out of Hiruma. Of course, with his magic eating, it might not work, but it was worth a shot. Musashi had administered the draught and by the end of the hour it started showing some results, namely in the form of Hiruma puking his guts out.
When Hiruma was done puking, he was no longer numb and his senses were no longer dull. A strange part of him felt full, while his normal stomach churned uncomfortably. The quaterback had decided to nap in the nurse's office until it was time for practice.
Now that practice was about to start, Hiruma was walking down to the clubhouse, glaring viciously at anyone who crossed his path.
"Are you feeling better, Hiruma-sempai?" Raimon Tarou, the team's ace receiver, had managed to meet up with Hiruma on his way to practice.
"I've had worse, monkey, I've had worse." Hiruma told Raimon gruffly. The two arrived at the clubhouse without another word. Everyone was in the clubhouse except Mamori.
"Where is the fucking manager?" Hiruma demanded, unhappy.
"There was a discipline officer committee meeting today," Musashi reminded Hiruma, "she told you that she wasn't going to be at practice this evening this morning."
Kurita and Musashi had been very thankful that Mamori had an excuse to be away from Hiruma right now.
"Tch." Hiruma growled and walked into the locker room without another word.
"…." Musashi couldn't help but wonder what was going through his friend's head.
_=_=_=_=_=_
Hiruma-centric chapter coming up! Leave a review!