Yay! I didn't take two months this time! But I didn't upload as early as I said I would either, so... is that a victory or not? I don't know. In any case, enjoy!
Haru
After several emotionally draining days, Haru hoped this one would be a little calmer.
Things actually weren't looking too bad at the moment. Tokaku and Otoya hadn't argued at all, not even at lunch break. Neither of them had approached her either, but it was a start.
She leaned back in her uncomfortable school chair and moved her tablet into her lap. The device flashed with colorful equations and arrows, which didn't do much to help her understand the material. They did make it more entertaining however, so she sat with her eyes obediently glued to the screen.
A chime sounded from the device, a signal that she'd received a message from someone. Minimizing the video, she checked her inbox to find a text from Otoya. A tap of her finger sent it flipping into the center of the screen.
"Hey Harucchi, thought u should know that Tokaku and I made up. We're both really sorry."
Haru's heart leapt. Taking a deep breath, she made herself write a serious reply. "For real this time?"
She looked up at Otoya's desk. The girl frowned as she typed her reply, which soon appeared in Haru's inbox.
"Yeah, for real. Nio made us see we were hurting u."
Leave it to Nio-chan to be secretly amazing. "Okay. On what terms?"
"?"
"You made up, on what terms?"
"Ha ha, u know us too well. :) We can work together if we have to. We're not as diff. as we thought."
What an unexpected development! Smiling, Haru forgot her education for the time being and put her hands back to the touchscreen keyboard. "Yay! :D Let's celebrate."
"Celebration, what kind? ;)"
Tiny crimson flowers blossomed on Haru's cheeks. "Don't wink like that, you know what I mean. "
";) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;)"
"Okay, I'll just invite Tokaku into this chat."
"Wait wait sorry"
The response was so instantaneous that Haru fought the urge to laugh. "Yesterday you would've loved to argue with her. You guys really did make up. :)"
From across the room, Otoya smiled a bit. "Yeah. If somethings hurting u in the future, tell us, kay?"
"I will. Let's talk about it after class."
"Yeah. Lets hang out just us 2 sometime soon."
"Okay, bye."
":)"
Haru closed her eyes and let the veil of security rest over her once more. She had a feeling that, even if the first attempt happened today, they would all make it through.
Struck by a sudden curiosity, she turned in her chair and watched Tokaku for a moment. The blue-haired girl was staring at her tablet with glazed-over eyes. She looked so disinterested that Haru wondered if it might be a good idea to shoot her a message.
Tokaku lifted her head and started at Haru's pensive stare. She looked surprised at first, until a small blush formed on her cheeks.
Embarrassed, Haru gave a quick smile and turned toward the front of the room, where she found math sensei's disapproving glare.
"I'm sure your classmates are very interesting, Ichinose-san, but you need to be paying attention to the video."
She flushed and shrunk in her seat like a wilted flower. "Sorry, sensei." The sound of Otoya's mumbling could be heard from across the room, quietly insulting their teacher with every curse in existence.
After waiting a few minutes to avoid suspicion, Haru nervously brought up her keyboard and sent a text to Tokaku. "Sorry for surprising you, I was just checking on you."
A few seconds ticked by, counted off by her heart. Then came the reply.
"I knew that."
Somehow, that was the perfect response. There was a coldness to it, but a cuteness as well. Warmth flowed through her fingertips, and she giggled.
"The video isn't supposed to be funny, Ichinose."
Haru closed out her chat window and was educating herself once more by the time sensei reached the side of her desk.
Crude animations and swirling numbers tried to force their way into her thoughts, but it was in vain. She just wanted class to be over, so she could actually enjoy herself with Otoya, and Tokaku, and Nio… maybe even Hitsugi and Chitaru, if they felt like it. Just like it had been at the beginning.
Sighing, she let the hard plastic back of the chair attack her shoulderblades. There was no point in looking back now- only forward.
Class ended after biology, leaving the students to their own questionable devices. Haru practically leapt out of her seat and floated out the door, waiting for the others to drag themselves out of their desks.
She felt a hesitant tap on her arm and turned around to see Kenmochi Shiena standing behind her. They'd never really spoken before, except for a few class assignments. She did recall that the girl was studious and liked drama.
Right now she looked very uncomfortable, like she'd eaten something disagreeable. "Ichinose-san?" she said, frowning. "I'm sorry, but can you come with me really quick?"
Haru blinked. "Is something wrong?"
"I don't know…" the brunette adjusted her glasses. "I found something weird this morning, but I don't know if I should show the teachers or not. I was going to show Kouko and Suzu-san, but Kouko-san left early, and Suzu-san said she wanted to take a bath or something." She sighed. "Just forget it, I'm sorry."
"Wait." Putting a hand on her shoulder, Haru smiled sympathetically. "Can you show me quick? I'm supposed to meet my friends after class."
Shiena nodded, though she appeared no less troubled. "Thanks. I found it in the boiler room."
She began walking quickly down the hall, and Haru rushed ahead to join her. "Why were you in there?"
Her mouth twitched, and she leaned in, her hand poised in front of her face. "I like to read aloud to myself, and I can't do it with the others around. They laugh at me."
What a cute secret. "They shouldn't laugh," Haru whispered back. "I think theater is cool."
They continued down the hallway, down the stairs, and across campus until they reached the lower section of the dormitories, which looked considerably older and less looked after than the rest of the building. Linoleum turned to grey stone beneath their feet, and the walls were wooden with the occasional electrical outlet to spice things up.
"Theater is misunderstood," Shiena was saying. "People think it's all about melodrama, but that's only when the acting is bad." She paused. "I'm going to tell you something that might get me chased out of highschool theater."
"What?"
"I don't really like Romeo and Juliet."
Haru gasped. "What? Why not?"
"Shakespeare has so many better plays! It's nice, don't get me wrong, but I'd rather tackle something ambitious, like… Macbeth!" She gestured dramatically into the air. "Is this a dagger which I see before me, the handle toward my hand?"
"You even know the lines already!" Haru laughed. "I don't think anyone else has theater experience, so we'd probably just mess up whatever you had in mind. I think that's why we do simple romance plays."
Her enthusiasm died down a little as she carefully descended the stairs into the darkened boiler room. "I kind of agree with you though. I don't like Romeo and Juliet that much either."
Shiena watched her face with a surprising intensity. "How come?"
"Hmm…" Haru took a moment to arrange her thoughts into words. "The ending. I don't like sad endings."
She thought she was finished, but her mouth kept moving. "The entire play is about two people who live under the arbitrary rules of others, people who are victims of fate. And then, the one time they finally have a choice of what to do with their lives… they choose to die." Her brow tensed up, and her throat ran dry. "I hate that."
When she looked to see Shiena's reaction, she found solemn respect in the girl's golden eyes. And also… sadness?
It was gone in an instant. "Let's see," the girl said, stepping toward the boiler room. "I think I saw it in here…"
Haru followed her, and as she edged toward the blackened room, two paper airplanes flew out into her face. Catching one of them, she pulled it apart and almost choked.
They were advance notices.
Her stomach lurched. A bead of cold sweat prickled the back of her neck.
"Ichinose-san? What's that?"
Lighting surged through her legs, and she dove away from the door, pushing Shiena to the floor.
An explosion shook the hallway.
Otoya
The first thing Otoya saw when she staggered out of the classroom was Haru walking away with Shiena. And that just wasn't okay.
Frowning, she put her hands on her hips and waited for the two to round a corner before following them. She doubted Haru would be stupid enough to walk right into a trap, but this all just screamed "assassination attempt".
The distinctive sound of Tokaku's boots reached her ears. Glancing back, she saw the blue-haired girl give her a questioning frown.
"Leaving without Ichinose? Pretty strange for you."
Otoya's lips curled into a nasty smile. "She already left with Fluffykins."
Tokaku screwed up her eyes. "Who?"
"Shiena-chan," Otoya said, rolling her eyes. "Duh."
"Right, because you have such amazing nicknaming sense." Returning the eyeroll, Tokaku tapped her foot. "So she went off with-"
Her eyes widened, and she broke into a run. She skidded to a halt seconds later when Otoya's arm shot out to block her.
"What the hell!" Tokaku hissed, grabbing the paper-white sleeve of her dress shirt. "This is the first attempt! Let's go!"
The raven-haired girl jerked her sleeve away before it got all wrinkly. "Jesus, don't have an aneurism."
"We could take Kenmochi in seconds!" Tokaku pointed down the hall and clenched her other fist. "Don't you wanna stop this before it starts?"
She was surprisingly livid for a block of ice. "You wanna take her now?" Otoya asked incredulously, folding her arms. "You really wanna kill her when she hasn't handed over her notice yet?"
Tokaku started… and stopped. Taking a few deep breaths, she slowly returned to her usual, boring state of being. "You're right. Okay." Putting her hands on her hips, she scanned the hallway as if looking for help. Her knuckles were still white. "We know this attempt will be big, so we'll need all the help we can get."
"Yeah." Otoya could feel her heartrate increase with both stress and excitement. She lived for both, after all. "You find Namatame, and… I dunno, Sagae? I'm gonna follow the cuties." She grinned, grinding her teeth together. "If a notice drops, well, you'll know where to go."
With a final exhale, Tokaku nodded and began running the other way. "Call me if it's a false alarm!"
"I don't have your number!"
"Ichinose does!"
Of course she did. Otoya cackled with a hint of jealousy. She couldn't recall being asked for her phone number.
She took off silently and slid down the stair rail as Tokaku disappeared down the other side of the hallway.
It didn't take long to catch up to Shiena and Haru, who were walking at a purposeful but not urgent pace. Thankfully, they had taken a very straightforward route, without many turns, and Otoya had been able to find them without trouble. They had ended up in the lower levels of the dorm building.
Easing into a walk herself, she pressed up against a stone wall and surveyed them around a corner. They were talking about a dagger or something, which was kind of a weird thing to joke about with a target, but hey. Shiena was pretty damn socially awkward, along with almost everyone else in the class.
Otoya recalled her last conversation with the girl and licked her lips. She really had wanted to cut her just a little, just to let the blood and the tears flow…
She inhaled sharply through her nose, letting the cold air expand and clear her head. She'd been working to repress those kinds of feelings. If Haru was ever going to return her love, she would have to quit her hobbies. Just the thought of it sent pangs of withdrawal through her body.
The girls descended another flight of stairs. Otoya slid out from her hiding place and tiptoed down the hall after them.
The question right now is whether Shiena-chan is really gonna ignore my warning. She crept down the stairs, supporting her weight with the hand rail to avoid her boots clicking on the stone. Darkness began to pool around her like the hot blood coursing through her veins. Her pupils dilated, accepting the black mass as they had done countless times.
I'll kill her if she does.
Haru stood in front of a door and was beginning to open it when two paper airplanes floated out. Even in the dark, Otoya caught a glimpse of the Myoujo Acadmey logo.
Her muscles tensed up, poised to spring the moment Shiena or any of the others pulled a weapon. Her breath came hot and moist as an eternity went by. She wanted bloodshed.
A wave of sound crushed her eardrums as the basement exploded into flame and debris flew at her like cannon shot.
"Holy shit!" she hissed, spitting out woodchips. Her shirt caught fire, and she beat it out as she leapt from the top of the stairs into the burning pit. "Harucchi!"
Stone sent pain up her legs when she landed. "Harucchi!" she yelled, stumbling until she made out Haru and Shiena crouching near the door, frantically beating out their clothes.
"Otoya-chan!" Haru cried, breathless as Shiena cowered against her. There was terror in her red eyes as she threw her arms out and grabbed the girl by the front of her shirt. "Get down!"
Otoya dove for them just as another explosion shook the walls. She smelled something acrid and realized her leggings were on fire. "Shit!" Not knowing what else to do, she shoved them down and threw them into the air. Another grenade knocked them to the ground, incinerating them and just barely missing the girl's bare toes.
Alive with adrenaline, she turned to Haru and helped her put out the fire on her clothes. "Let's get outta here! C'mon!"
Smoke was rising everywhere, making it impossible to see. Where the hell was the exit?
Her eyes burned, and she squeezed Haru's hand. They were all crying now, if only for their burning eyes. "I said c'mon!" Tears obscured her vision further, and she prepared to make a blind dash for the stairs. If she couldn't see, those fuckers couldn't see either.
"Wait!" Haru gripped Shiena's arm, pink and raw from the flames. "Her too!"
"Whaddaya want her for?" Smoke invaded Otoya's throat, and she coughed out the words. "Leave her!"
"B!"
Otoya rubbed her eyes frantically. "What?"
Haru blinked several times. "I didn't-"
The ground rose all around them, assaulting their ears and throwing up wood and bits of metal. Pain shattered over Haru's bare legs, leaving bits of charred flesh in its wake. Her scream split the smoky air above the roar of the fire.
"God dammit!" Otoya jerked her own burning arm away from the demonic blaze and hauled the girl to her feet. "Down the hall!"
The smoke got her the minute she stood up, swarming in her lungs like thousands of bees. She retched and struggled to find her way through the maze of crimson heat.
Then, to her astonishment, she caught sight of a faint shillouette through the toxic clouds.
"You!" she roared, dropping Haru and lunging through the darkness at the unsuspecting thing. Her voice joined the demon's chorus as she ripped her weapon from her waistband.
The first slice drew beautiful, vermillion blood.
Chitaru
Chitaru had been hoping to potentially hang out with Azuma after class that day. She had not expected said girl to bowl her over in the middle of a walk.
"Woah!" she cried, grabbing the side of a bench to steady herself. "Azuma-san?"
Hitsugi jumped back in fright, clutching her teddy bear. "Is something wrong?"
Pushing her blue bangs from her eyes, Azuma put her hand on the wood to catch her breath. Her expression spelled trouble. "Finally found you," she breathed, tugging her away. "Ichinose…!"
"What?" Chitaru's brow furrowed. "Did someone attack her?"
There was more color than usual in Azuma's face. "Not sure yet, but we should be ready just in case-"
That color drained away in an instant. She tilted her chin up and took a deep breath through her nose, like an animal tasting the air.
Without warning, all three of their wristbands went off. The beeping pierced their ears, and the little LEDs flashed to life, spelling out "Dorm Basment."
Her whole body went rigid. "Shit…" she whispered. Then she grabbed Chitaru's arm with surprising force. "We need to go, now! Follow me!"
There was no choice but to go. "Stay here, Kirigaya!" Chitaru called as she began to run beside her friend. "You'll be safe!"
The small girl nodded, a bit disappointed, and sat down on the bench by herself.
The redhead ran faster, her long strides clearing the dirt, grass, and concrete without trouble. Each footfall shook her muscles awake. "What happened?"
"She went off alone with Kenmochi," Azuma huffed. "Takechi's already there. "
Seeing Azuma care so much about something was refreshing, even if the situation itself was unfavorable. "That was smart to send her down there. Though…"
The thought of Takechi fighting the hardworking, largely innocent Kenmochi made her sick to her stomach. If anyone were to deal with the brunette, she would rather it be herself.
Azuma threw open the glass doors of the dorm building. "Though?"
"Nevermind," Chitaru answered quickly, her eyes narrowing as Takechi's grinning face and Kenmochi's laugh flashed before her eyes. "Let's go faster."
Azuma offered no complaint. They ran faster down the hall, relaxing into the familiar motions even as their hearts pounded like fists.
"Hey," Tokaku said, slowing for a split second to yank something from her sleeve. "Take a knife."
Chitaru nodded and took it into her own sweaty hand, where it rested comfortably. "Thanks." When she trained her eyes forward, she saw that they had reached the other side of the building, near the stairway to the basement. Her eyes began to sting for some reason.
She squinted. Was that… smoke coming from the stairs?
"I knew it," Tokaku growled, eyes wide with anger. "I knew I smelled it!"
Chitaru slowed down and stopped near the edge of the flames, which lapped up the air like greedy dogs. Fear flooded her being, and she stood motionless for a moment before Azuma rushed up beside her.
"What're you waiting for?" she yelled, plunging into the ocean of fire.
Swallowing, Chitaru jumped down the burning stairs as well. All around her was the crackle and snap of wood. Thick smoke enrobed her, and tongues of fire licked her clothes.
Her ears adjusted, and she heard someone screaming.
"Stairs! Stairs!"
It had to be Ichinose. "Over here!" she shouted, covering her face and running into the blaze Azuma had disappeared into. "Follow my voice, I'll find you!"
All hell broke loose behind her as the basement stairway erupted into a thousand pieces. Burning wood rained down on her, singing her hair and slashing the back of her hand.
Terrfied, she lowered her hands slowly and could barely make out the smoldering wreckage. If she hadn't moved away from the stairs…
"Namatame!"
"Azuma!" she cried, leaping over a chunk of rock and grabbing the girl's arm. "You heard her over here, right?"
What they saw, however, was not Ichinose huddled against a wall, or burning to a crisp. It wasn't even Kenmochi.
It was Takechi and Kaminaga, locked in a desperate knife fight.
Catching a glimpse of them, Takechi cut into the other girl's flesh and yelled in a fire-tortured voice. "I got her! Get… get Ha-!"
A knife nearly plunged into her arm, glancing off the floor instead. "Go!"
Clenching her fist, Azuma turned tail and ran to the other side of the hallway, ignoring her own burning clothing. Sweat poured down her face, which glowed orange in the suffocating heat. "Ichinose!"
"Ichinose-san!" Chitaru repeated, following her through the inferno once more until she found two shuddering shillouettes huddled together. "Ichinose-san!"
"He-re!" the girl croaked, clearly in great pain. Kenmochi shuddered at her side. Stumbling closer, Chitaru fell to her knees in front of them. She had to get below the smoke.
"We'll help you up," she said as loud as she could manage. "If we can just get to the-!"
She realized to her horror that the stairs were gone. Their only escape had been reduced to ashes.
The pink-haired girl tried to stand, grimacing. Chitaru gasped at the sticky, red patches covering her legs and eased an arm around her torso. "Easy. Let's go down the-"
"No!" Kenmochi wheezed. "If we go further down the hall, more bombs go off… it already happened… once." She coughed several times, her body shaking in its blackened, torn clothing. "I think… we're probably trapped here."
Ichinose glanced around frantically through swollen eyes. "We have to find an exit! If we just sit here, we'll die any-" Violent coughing. "The bombs are on the walls, so k-eep to the middle!"
It was as good a plan as they had at their disposal. Letting them lean on either side of her for support, Chitaru began crawling down the hall below the worst of the smoke, scanning each wall for anything that could possibly get them out.
"Nothing," she rasped as more of the toxic air invaded her body. She did her best to help the other two, even with her own failing strength. Her uniform gave her a lot more coverage than theirs, even if the ends were beginning to sizzle and the fabric clung to her body with sweat. At least she wasn't being roasted alive.
A shape entered her field of vision, and she saw Azuma coming for them. "Where were you?" she asked weakly.
"Looking for an exit," she growled, crawling over and offering Ichinose her side. "There's a door down there!"
"Show us!" Kenmochi's glasses nearly slipped off her nose as she pitched forward, to be caught by Chitaru. "Thanks."
The blue-haired girl was already leading them down the hall toward a door barely noticeable through the undulating waves of heat. "Here!"
"Are you sure?" Haru asked nervously, her tired head resting on Azuma's shoulder. "What if it's a-"
Another bomb went off behind them.
"Think about that later!" Kenmochi screamed, fumbling for a door handle. When she found it, she pulled it hard and held it open as far as her trembling arms could manage. "Hurry!"
Driven by animal impulses, they dove or crawled into the room. Cool darkness fell upon them, allowing them to relax for a split second before the door closed behind them.
"We made it," Ichinose sighed, resting her cheek on the stone floor.
There was smoke in this room too, but not nearly as much. Azuma took the opportunity to stand on shaky legs and get her bearings. "All we did was buy time. Let's search for any vents in-"
"Hold on," Chitaru said, feeling around. "Where's Kenmochi-san?"
There was no sign, sound, or scent of the brunette.
Ichinose gasped and scrambled for the door. Chitaru beat her to it, grabbing the handle and jerking it downward.
"It's locked."
At first it was a statement of fact. Then it began to swell, making Chitaru's eyes widen as she tried the door again. "It's locked!"
She let the handle fall, and the realization sunk into their tired minds. Azuma stopped trying to climb the wall, finding there was no strength left in her raw, trembling arms. Ichinose swallowed and lowered herself to the floor to steady her breathing.
Chitaru let out a shaky breath. "Any vents?"
She couldn't see Azuma's face through the blackness. "No."
In a last ditch effort, the redhead stepped several yards back and rammed herself into the door. The large thud seemed to echo in the tiny room. Chitaru stepped back, her entire side throbbing like her lungs.
The door, of course, hadn't budged.
A hand tugged at her tattered pant leg. "Chitaru-san," Ichinose said quietly. "Sit down, okay? We need to use as little… oxygen as we can." A violent cough escaped her throat. "Please."
Ichinose was right. Defeated, Chitaru sat down beside her. Exhaustion overcame her, and she put her head between her scuffed knees. "I'm sorry."
"It's okay," the pink-haired girl said, amazingly calm. She looked up at the bristling form behind them. "You too, Tokaku-san. All we can do is wait."
The blue-haired girl clenched her fists and kicked the wall. "That's your plan? Just wait to die in here?!"
"There's still Otoya-chan," Ichinose rasped, extending her hand to her roommate. "Maybe more, if the others decide to stop them from killing me. We should give them… as much time as we can, which means keeping ourselves alive in-" More hacking. This time she doubled over.
Azuma winced and quickly knelt down beside her. "All right, all right. Stop talking, you're gonna kill yourself." She gently grasped Ichinose's collar and pulled part of her dress shirt from under her sweater. Then she cut off some of the fabric with her knife. "Try breathing through this. Might… be a good filter."
The advice was accepted thankfully. Chitaru did the same, using the knife Azuma had lent her. Breathing was considerably harder, but at least the air wasn't as awful.
The three of them sat silently against the wall, leaning against each other in what could be their final minutes. Chitaru's head rested on Ichinose's, her thick red hair falling in front of her exhausted face. Ichinose's head in turn lay on Azuma's shoulder.
With a small smile, she held both of their arms. "Thank you."
Chitaru thought she saw Azuma's hand slip into the girl's, though it was likely her clouded eyes playing tricks on her.
"Thank you," she sighed.
Before she could help it, Chitaru found herself thanking Kirigaya as well. She almost wished the small girl were there with her, though that would be unbelievably selfish.
Within another minute they were breathing slowly and steadily, the crushing weight of suffocation lingering all around them.
And they waited.
Thank you so much to everyone who is still reading this, and thank you for your kind comments. Those really keep me going when I'm tired or have writer's block. Knowing that someone in the world wants to read what you've written is a big incentive. :) I have this story mapped out into the far future, it's just so tough writing it all and making it read the way I want it to. Action is actually easiest though, because it's hard to get bored while writing it. All that fire imagery is a joy to write, I gotta say.
This would likely have been done a day or two earlier, except I discovered Teppuu. The main character is a total ass, not quite as enjoyable as Murcielago's Kuroko, but still interesting. The MMA fight scenes in this manga make up for everything that could ever be wrong with it. I might use it to study for writing later fight scenes in Game Changer... Tokaku did use an armbar on Isuke, didn't she?
Sorry for rambling. See you next time!