Chuggin' along! I had to take a brief pause because in an upcoming chapter comes a location that I only envisioned bits and pieces of, so I took the time to scribble out a diagram or two to help the descriptive process when I hit that point. I'm not certain if I'll include the map in-story, but I may provide a link to help you readers better visualize where the characters are. All I have to say on my time spent researching is WHY do royals have to construct these big ass rooms that serve absolutely no purpose but showcasing? DX So much architectural space wasted...
Heat fanned Aomine's face and though distant, it was no less alarming. His eyes snapped open too quickly and triggered what had been an adrenaline-soothed pain into overdrive. Nebuya's final blow must have tipped his brain because an explosion of nausea and pressure squeezed his forehead and he sealed his eyes to slake it. What was going on around him?
He remembered feeling a smack to his face. Someone yelled for him. Then the fire—
Fire?
Fighting the numbness and strain of his frozen limbs, he threw a glance around the cavern.
Imayoshi and Susa were gone. Nebuya, he recalled, was tasked to guard him. So where was that turncoat?
Scuffing and strangled noises crept from nearby. He craned uncomfortably to find the source, the angular cuts of light swimming through his vision. A dark blur rippled into view. Nebuya. Who else would it be?
Blinking a few times cleared his sight and one form dissolved into two. And they were tussling.
The larger was definitely his minder, the bars cut through the hair evident. He was pinning someone to the wall. Nebuya ducked a swing and butted his opponent into the marble. One of the nearby candle scones splashed light onto the unknown person's features. A man with black shaggy hair and a muscular body clothed in the gear of one of hunters. About as built-up as the chief give or take thirty-to fifty pounds. What struck him was the fiery glint to the eyes.
Nebuya violently tugged the man into a headlock. The struggle turned them into the glow of the candlelight. Aomine looked at the opponent's face.
Peculiar forked eyebrows were crunched in distress.
An uneasy feeling unassisted by the ice chilled his chest.
What the hell was Kagami doing here?
He thought about speaking but decided attracting the chief's attention, while still incapacitated, was a poor idea.
Besides, he still owed the asshole for slamming his head into the ground.
The grunting escalated, provided by Kagami biting into the chief's forearm.
Aomine shimmied, legs heavy with fatigue, and brushed something wet. He recoiled, the roundness of the casing moving him onto his side. Water was pooled on the floor beneath him, soaking into his pant leg. It wasn't nearly humid enough to thaw the ice in the Water Room. He looked to the frozen binding and noticed the surface's thickness was uneven. Sloping from his right shoulder to his waist, as if something hot had been set there.
Something hot…
An aggravated cry shot his attention across the room.
Nebuya threw Kagami against the wall again, the impact harsh if the prince's shriek meant anything. The fight seeped from Kagami and the chief seemed to take a moment to calm from the assault.
Aomine pushed to lie flat, then rocked until he could wedge up a knee. Stiffness made rising difficult, thigh muscles protesting wearily. Tingles racked up his knees and he tumbled backwards to the floor.
Across the way, Kagami fared just as poorly. Nebuya fisted his shirt collar, the prince doing little to resist. Then the room's only source of light zipped to Kagami's hand, already flickering and tense, and like a shooting star, disappeared as the prince launched a punch into Nebuya's face. Darkness swallowed the cavern so he wasn't able to see how successful the blow was.
Silence. Then, "Aomine, get your ass in gear."
He decided the time for pretense was over. "I can't see. You turned out the lights."
Aomine darted his gaze around the darkened space. He needed to break the restraints and assist Kagami in neutralizing the chief if he had any hope of getting out of this alive. Imayoshi wasn't through him, as the Dan clearly illustrated by detaining rather than killing him. All the loose ends to his deceit had been silenced so far, and it was a fair bet to assume that Aomine had lost favor with the lunatic.
He scooted back on the coarse floor, grateful he still maintained the use of his hips and legs.
The fight resumed, indicative of the meaty sinking of exchanged blows becoming louder.
Another starfire shot ignited the brawl, Kagami going for the gut, then dissolved. Aomine stilled as he heard the familiar thump of forehead-to-forehead contact, followed by a painful cry. From Kagami.
"Lights, Kagami," he yelled.
The tussling escalated into a mash-up of grunts and another bone-crushing collision, a tart slap, like a palm on stone.
Panic squeezed his chest. Had he just cost Kagami his winning chance?
Orange-yellow bulbs blipped in the darkness then arced as if thrown and magnetized to the sconces' oil wicks, bathing the Water Room in a languid golden shine.
Twenty-five feet away, Kagami had his arms raised together, shielding his face and chest from attack, Nebuya hooking punches aimed for the stomach.
Aomine noted the prince's lethargic reactions. Slow, but timely enough to deflect the brunt. He needed to get the hell in there. Now.
As he wiggled onto his knees again, he searched for an expedient to crack the shell encasing him. He found the wall five feet behind him. Rough, porous, and angular. But would it be enough to penetrate the already weakened sheathing where Kagami's fire had eaten through? Only one way to find out.
Keeping his attention on the quarrel, wary that Nebuya would prevail and rush to stop him, he thrust back into the wall. His aim proved effective, vibrations rattling above his wrist where the ice had been eroded. Successive ramming produced a pleasing crackling sound but his movements were still restricted. He gave another harsh shove into the stone and a frozen chunk clattered to the floor.
He stopped to catch his breath, adrenaline masking the angry swarm in his brain, and looked ahead.
Kagami untucked his arms and captured an incoming swing for his face. His twisted the offending arm, whirled the chief around, and planted a kick into the man's lower back. The chief stumbled forward but did not collapse. The prince pushed off the wall. Nebuya spun and Kagami launched a kick for the disoriented chief's midsection.
The man's left hand clutched Kagami's ankle, putting the prince off balance. Nebuya swung his right leg, curling it around Kagami's knee. A swift flex drove the prince belly-first to the floor, his ankle still in the chief's grip.
Nebuya wrenched the limb back.
A sickening pop was heard.
Kagami screamed.
. . .
Kagami's senses bungled as he slammed to the grainy marble. The muscles of his thighs tore in agony and the unperceivable bowing of his leg rocketed pain through him. His knee panged violently. His breathing skyrocketed and an intense pressure flooded his brain as the hold on his ankle loosened, dropping his leg to the floor. The ache was almost unbearable and flushed the appendage without abandon.
The chief's presence hovered heavy around him and he was quickly learning why this man was elected the combat chief. Nebuya's torrential offensive style succeeded in using terse, powerful, and well-targeted blows to exhaust the stamina. Emotions only piqued their efficiency.
Distantly he again heard the exertion of Aomine trying to free himself. While he took a knee against the chief's earlier assault, he'd caught a glimpse of the Apparition's struggle and found the method ingenious. Aomine must have noticed the weakened ice, the entire casing no more than two inches thick. Brute force, if aptly applied, would destroy the confines and the irregular surface of the Water Room provided an excellent tool. So long as the idiot struck it precisely and repeatedly enough before the chief killed him.
Nebuya fisted the back of his collar and belt at the small of his back and hoisted him up as if lifting a bale of hay. His body was thrown across the man's shoulder, spine down. The hand at his belt curled over his thighs, the other cupping his throat. His heart shuddered as he realized too late what was about to happen.
The chief pulled down harshly, bowing Kagami's back. Tension seized his muscles. Moisture stung his eyes. And he screamed again, eyes shut tight.
He forced his frozen arms to move, hands flying to his throat. Nebuya stooped, the hold on his legs slipping to his knees to maximize the torture as his spine was further folded.
Fear consumed him and he cracked open his eyes to find Aomine, who he couldn't hear over the blood gushing into his head.
The watery blur across the room was rising from the floor, clumsy and jerky in motion. No sooner as Aomine stood did he collapse again to the floor and a muffled clatter beat his ears.
"Aomine," he cried, trying to gain the man's attention.
Air vacuumed from his chest as he felt Nebuya's body lean, the ceiling reeling away. Hands on his thighs pushed forward, zooming the floor closer. The one on his throat came away and his head tucked to his chest.
His neck jammed into the floor with a crunching thud. The world winked in and out. Nausea shot up from his stomach then plummeted back down as he unrolled onto the floor, face up.
Breaths heaved from his aching ribs.
Nebuya was getting back up.
This was it.
He was dead.
. . .
Aomine stared in disbelief among the fractured ice casing. He'd become impatient with bashing himself against stone, feeling just force was not enough. That was when he decided to let gravity take over. The angle of impact was jarring, but it only took three attempts before the chilly prison finally broke apart.
Just as the chief plummeted Kagami headfirst into the floor.
He'd heard the curdling distressed noise that escaped the prince as he flattened to the ground. Noticed the sputtering of his chest.
Nebuya was facing away from him. And rising.
He needed to stop him.
Aomine sprang to his feet, debris clinking to the floor, and raced forward.
Nebuya turned to his approach, shock filling the man's face.
He let adrenaline take over. He surged on, spearing a knee into the bastard's gut. The chief doubled over, a wheezing breath following as he cradled his stomach. He hooked his left arm around the chief's right and angled his shoulders down. As he scooped his arm under the man's groin, he used leverage to hurl the chief to the floor. Nebuya landed with a heavy thud and Aomine's grip on his arm kept him close. As the chief made contact, he reared back and pummeled a harsh kick to the shoulder. The pop he felt through his boot did little to satisfy him. Nor did the howl of pain as he released the chief's arm to allow the pitiful fool to roll and protect his abused middle.
The flood of rage and anguish coursing through him told him this was not enough.
Nebuya was a catalyst to his century-long, hollow life.
A thief who stole away his ability to exercise anger.
Well now he'd get a taste of it.
What a hundred years of suppressed emotion felt like.
Again for the purpose of visualization, are links provided that illustrate the combat moves I used. (And because of ffnet's formatting, I have to assault the links...)
Nebuya against Kagami: youtube dotcom slash watch?v=hhFDN1w72zU (2:53-2:54)
Aomine against Nebuya: youtube dotcom slash watch?v=KVyjgpeFB9s (2:40-2:42)
When I was scripting the story, I was heavy into playing this game. . .
