Akari and Nagisa waited a little bit so that all the guards went after Karma and left the safe. The operation was basically over right now, the only thing left was for Karma to escape and they should be fine.
At least that was what they thought…
"HERE! THIS GUY WITH BLUE HAIR!" A voice Nagisa really disliked and hoped to never hear again shouted out loud as the owner pointed his finger at Nagisa. "He was the one who tried to kill me! GET HIM!" It was Kamito who had woken up after being knocked out by Nagisa, knowing his personality is was no wonder he would hold a grudge against Nagisa and would seek revenge.
This was bad! Nagisa was still exhausted from the fight with Karma not to mention he had a hole in his hand. Akari's movement was obviously restricted by her dress, not that it mattered because Nagisa would've never allowed her to fight against a bunch of armed bodyguards.
"Run!" Nagisa grabbed Akari's hand and started to run, there was no point in reasoning with them, and even if it would work, they didn't have the time to stay here all day. It didn't even matter if they would shoot at them, since they were wearing the artificial skin.
"I don't care about the guy, but don't shoot the girl!" To Nagisa's relieve he was able to hear Kamito say these words, even with the artificial skin, you would still feel the pain.
But Nagisa forgot one thing. Since Akari was wearing heels, there was no way she could run very fast. "Akari! Give me your hand!" Nagisa stretched his arm towards her. As soon as their hands connected he pulled her in and lifted her from the ground. "Stop struggling! It's not the time!"
Akari instinctively tried to escape when Nagisa suddenly was carrying her again but stopped the second Nagisa reminded her. It was true that they were way faster this way.
"Akari! Tell Ritsu to check the blueprint and tell me where to go! We need to get out of this building!" Nagisa said while running with everything he's got.
Akari nodded slightly, took the earpiece out of Nagisa's ear and put it on. "Ritsu? We need you to tell us the fastest route to get out of this building!"
"Okidoki, just gimme a moment. Hmmm that might be troublesome. You probably didn't notice, but they actually lead you to the 5th floor for the trade. And the exit is on the other side of the building!" Ritsu replied, "even if you ran as fast as you could it would still take around 10 minutes to get there."
"Nagisa?" Akari turned her head towards him and told him what Ritsu said. "What do we do?"
"We don't have the time to get to the main exit. Once they lose sight of Karma they will go back to the safe. And when they realize we're missing, they will come after us!" Nagisa quickly went through all the possibilities they had. "Well, guess we have no other choice, hold on tight Akari!"
"Ehh… Nagisa you're running towards the balcoNAAAHHHHHHH!" Nagisa rushed onto the balcony, jumped onto the fence and took off!
"ARGHH! Don't mind the girl anymore! SHOOT THEM!" Kamito's voice echoed through the silent night. A rain made of bullets started to hail down onto the two of them. Hearing these words, Nagisa instantly turned his back towards the balcony while trying his best to cover Akari with his body. After taking quite a few hits, the silhouettes of Nagisa and Akari disappeared into the woods.
"Argh…" Nagisa couldn't help but to let out a hiss, even though he barely took any serious damage, the impact of the bullets with his skin still hurt as hell. Nagisa managed to dodge most of the fall by grabbing and breaking quite a few branches before they actually safely landed on the ground.
"Are you alright Nagisa?" Akari helped Nagisa to sit down next to a tree, "do you know where the cage was? I think it would be better if I could change. It's kinda hard to move in the dress."
"Sure, we need to be prepared for any accidents like this one." Nagisa stretched his body a bit to loosen it from the pain. Their classmates had hidden all their equipment in a cave a day before just to prepare for the worst.
"Go find them! Don't stop before you find the bodies!" Nagisa didn't know if he had ever hated someone as much as Kamito in his entire life.
-So persistent… Why can't he just let it be!? –
"Comon we have to move." Akari let out a long sighed before she offered Nagisa her hand.
"Yeah, I think the cave was somewhere in this direction…" Nagisa took her hand and lead her even deeper into the woods.
"I can't believe they actually chased us all the way to here…" Nagisa was speechless. They took a huge detour in the woods to the cave. When they thought they finally lost them, they went into the cave to change into their uniforms they had gotten from Karasuma back in school. But just when they were about to leave, they saw flashlights wavering somewhere around the cave.
"... What's the plan?" Akari asked Nagisa obviously annoyed as well. She was jumping around a bit to warm up her body for potential combat.
"… I can't think of anything that will get us out of here for sure." Nagisa had a troubled smile on his face, they were actually in trouble.
That's when something suddenly crossed Nagisa's mind and once the idea was there it didn't leave his head anymore. "Hey Akari, I have an idea." Nagisa gently tapped her shoulder.
"Huh? What is it?" Akari turned around and replied with a voice filled with joy, "do you need me for something?"
"Well, I do have an idea, but I need to set it up here and It'll take some time. So can you patrol around the entrance of the cave until I'm done?" Nagisa said while pointing out of the cave.
"Ok, how long do you need? We don't have a lot of time." Akari nodded but still asked a question before leaving.
"You'll know when I'm done…" Nagisa forced a smile on his face, but Akari couldn't see the trouble impression on his face due to the darkness.
"Alright, come get me when you're done." Akari waved at Nagisa and was about to leave. "Huh?"
Akari was stopped because Nagisa suddenly wrapped his arm around her and hugged her from behind. "…be careful Akari, if they find us, don't come back into the cave, run." Nagisa whispered into her ear before letting go. "Go now, we have to hurry." Nagisa smiled while giving Akari a light push on her back.
Akari was flustered, Nagisa's behavior was really weird just now. But just like he said, they didn't have the time to worry about something like that right now. But the way he acted and the words he said.
-What does he mean with if they find us? Why would they find us? –
"ARRRGHHHH!" Akari's heart skipped a beat when she heard a painful scream coming out of the cave.
-Huh? W-was that Nagisa? –
"They're in the cave! Move it!" Akari heard the soldiers coming closer but that didn't concern her right now. She was most certain that she heard Nagisa scream out in pain and went back into the cave without hesitation. The promise she made that'd she'd run away if they would find them was completely forgotten.
"Nagisa!" Akari ran as fast as she could. It was too dark in the cave for her to locate Nagisa with her bare eyes but the constant scream coming from Nagisa made it possible. "Nagisa what happened?"
Akari grabbed the flashlight next to Nagisa and pointed it at him. A shiver ran down her spine at the sight of Nagisa. He had a syringe in his hand and an empty tiny bottle next to him on the ground.
-He injected the tentacle cells! –
Akari was scared, nobody knows better than her what it's like to inject the tentacle seeds inside their own body. But the situation Nagisa was in looked a million times worse! His eyes were completely bloodshot and his veins were beating and twisting under his skin!
"ARGHH!" to be a good assassin, you need to be trained in both mind and body. But at this moment, Nagisa hated his sturdy mind. A well trained mind also meant that he wouldn't fall unconscious easily. But in this case, Nagisa really hoped that he would just lose his senses and forget the pain.
Was Yanagisawa's cells flawed? Well yes they were, they weren't as perfect as he had promised in his notes. It was a huge improvement from what Korosensei had, but it would still invade your body and try to take over and eliminate your human cells, just not as fast.
The invasion of the tentacles cells would indeed cause a lot of pain, but by far not as much as Nagisa was experiencing right now. Nagisa's biggest problem was his regeneration ability! With the tentacle cells invading his body and devouring his cells, Nagisa's body instantly started to regenerate! And by total coincidence, the speed of the tentacle cells taking over and Nagisa's cells regeneration found a perfect balance!
So what Nagisa was experiencing now was a full on war inside his body. And you can't forget that his regeneration ability also causes him a lot of pain!
Any other person would've turned into a tentacle monster within a few minutes, but with Nagisa, the tentacle cells couldn't gain the upper hand! So what happened instead of a complete takeover by the tentacle cells, was a fusion between Nagisa's own cells and the invading ones.
-What is happening?... It's so dark… -
"Nagisa! Nagisa! Please… wake up! Please!"
-Who is it? Someone is calling me… her voice… sounds so familiar. –
"Don't… don't leave me… I don't want to be alone again… Nagisa."
-Is she crying…? Why…is it so bumpy… Why… do I feel so tired?... Huh? We stopped moving? Where did the voice go? W-Why isn't she talking anymore?! What happened to her?! WHAT DID THEY DO TO HER!? –
"AKARI!" Nagisa impulsively opened his eyes and checked his surroundings! He was looking for Akari! There she was, right in front of him biting her lips with a painful expression while she tried to cover him with her petite body. The sound of firing assault rifles was drowning her quite squeaks of pain.
"Nagisa!" Nagisa could see the joy in Akari's eyes, but even with her acting skills she wasn't able to hide all the pain she was feeling. They were nowhere near the cave anymore. Nagisa didn't even want to imagine how Akari was able to carry him through all the bullet rain while also blocking all the bullets for him with her body. Nagisa was only cursing himself for being unconscious for such a long time.
There were so many questions Nagisa wanted to ask her, but he couldn't just let her keep taking all the bullets for him! Even if she had the artificial skin, there was no telling if one of the uncountable bullets might go through her helmet and hit her unprotected head. Nagisa put his arm around Akari's waist and pulled her to him while using all his strength to push themselves back.
In just the few seconds, Nagisa had spotted a huge rock not far away from them. If they could get there fast enough, they would have time to gather their breath and then think of what they will do afterwards.
And that was exactly what Nagisa did, after gaining some distance between them and the pursuers, Nagisa got back on his feet and grabbed Akari's hand to lead her. To his surprise, his body felt a lot lighter than usual and his would on his left hand had healed completely! But that wasn't his main concern right now.
"Akari are you?" After they finally took cover behind the rock, Nagisa finally was able to ask his question, but he stopped after turning his eyes to Akari. She was holding his hand as tightly as she could and started to sob.
"YOU JERK!" She screamed at him, "h-how could you… you didn't even know if the cells were safe… I-I thought you were going to leave me behind just like my parents… and my sister did.". Nagisa was speechless, he knew how she must have felt, but he simply couldn't think of another possibility to get them both safe out of this mountain. It was a gamble and for now it seemed like he was successful.
"I'm sorry." There was nothing else Nagisa wanted to say, he didn't want to find any excuses neither could he promise her that he would never do something like this again. If the deal was his life for hers, he wouldn't hesitate to take it. So all he could do was to apologize and take her shivering body in his arms. "I'm back, Akari."
What do you want to be?
-A shield… a shield to keep her from harm. –
Here's another chapter :D hope you guys will enjoyed it. And also I will have to announce something :S I will have trouble writing new chapters starting this week since my exams are coming closer and closer. So for the next 2 months, I won't be able to keep the one chapter per week promise. I will still try to make an update now and then but I can't promise anything.
As for now :D I hope you will keep supporting me and leave me some reviews if you liked or disliked some certain parts of the story. Thank you very much and I'll see you in the next chapter ;)
