Remembering our objective, we took off down the tunnel, to the door at the end where we could see a sliver of light seeping out of the bottom. Someone was there.
Chapter Thirty-Five- Omniscient Pov
Slowly, Momiji pushed the door open, and as he did so, the dark hallway in which he and his companions were standing in was flooded by a flickering electric light and the distinct rusty scent of blood. The senses were flooded, smell with the horrible smell that had been trapped inside the room for so long, hearing with the labored shallow breaths of the injured girl and the heavy damp breaths of the man, sight overwhelmed by the state of what was being sent from the eyes to the mind, and touch being chilled by the feel of slick tiles underneath their feet.
The man who was already inside the small, repulsive room didn't notice them, as his mind and gaze was fixated on the now unconscious girl beneath him, who looked as if she was melting into the floor itself, leaving a vicious red scar on the white and grey floor.
He wasn't alone, the new arrivals to the room were also fixated on the girl, but for a much different reason than the stepfather. In fact, it would be correct and safe to bet that it was the very exact reason that Haru, Momiji, Hatori, and Shigure were staring, horrified, was the exact reason that the step-father was so pleased, delighted instead of disgusted and shocked by his handy-work.
They would've moved slowly, their minds not able to comprehend so much at once, except that their instinctual will and need to assist Ichi as soon as possible overrode all other effects that the shock had on their system. They were practically shells of people as their forms moved across the floor, leaving behind frozen memories of their minds behind them. Their minds would catch up in time, they were sure.
As Hatori's dress shoes clicked on the smooth hard surface, the fat and sweaty man looked up from his newest conquest. "Who the hell"
His voice was cut off as Momiji got to him first, his converse sneakers slipping slightly in the crimson liquid that had blossomed like a ghoulish rose as he lunged for the man.
"You bastard, what did you do to her?" He screamed, his usually happy voice ricocheting off the tight corners of the cement walls, echoing painfully in everyone's ears as their minds slowly began to shift their gears, and work once more. His small hands soon found themselves wrapped around the man's flabby neck, as he pressed down.
The man looked like a toy as his eyes began to bulge, and he gasped, clawing at the hands that held him. But his gasps and failed attempts to form words in order to plead for his pathetic, and quite useless life, fell onto deaf ears. Momiji the rabbit was seeing red, it would be ironic under other circumstances, and if the only ox in the room was in his white personality, which Haru was really very far from being in or even near.
"Momiji let him go." Hatori's hard voice cut through the fog of scarlet that had flooded all of Momiji's senses, including his touch as his hands were now covered in blood as they had somehow managed to come into contact with the floor before the neck.
Momiji looked behind him in disbelief, but did as the doctor said in pure habit. Even in the face of danger and rage, Momiji still trusted the doctor, especially since he was Ichi's father, and stood to lose just as much, if not more, than Momiji himself or the others.
Hatori knelt, careful to keep his black pants out of the pool of blood, as he studied the face of the man before him, a sight that quite remarkably resembled a gasping fish.
"Tha-thank you sir, th-thank you." The stepfather reached out a hand to grasp Hatori's white doctor's jacket.
Hatori patted his hand that bared a resemblance to a mitten with Twinkies attached to it. "Of course," He then removed his hand, before giving a slight smile. "I couldn't let Momiji put you into a state of unconsciousness just yet; I must fit in my own fun before that occurs."
The calm, reserved, and collected doctor's fist then proceeded to come in painfully harsh but well deserved contact with the step-father's fish-like face.
Hatori then stood, as the man below him gripped his face and let out a groan of pain, and cracked his knuckles. With a well placed kick from his black leather shoe, Hatori then turned back to Momiji and the others.
"All yours."
And the others certainly took advantage of that.
Within mere seconds, Haru had already pounced, tearing viciously at the man's face, and lashing out at the rest of his body.
Shigure danced around the man, delivering the occasional punch or kick, but wisely staying out of the charging ox's way until it was his turn.
Momiji however, had managed to bypass his violent feelings towards the man, for the moment at least, to turn his attention to the wounded Ichi who was still unconscious and bleeding, as did Hatori.
With a nod at one another, Hatori quickly yelled orders for Shigure to get the stretcher and blanket kept in the trunk of the car, leaving Haru to his current occupation.
Momiji sunk down to the bloody floor, and gently stroked the pale cheek of his Ichi. He knew that she couldn't feel it, so it wasn't as much for her as it was for him, to reassure him that he could still feel the blood, though as little as it might have been, pulsing underneath her flesh, that he could still feel the faint heartbeat that weakly pounded in her chest.
Soon, the other Sohma's who had gone to investigate the attic arrived in the basement room, and experienced much of the same that the others before them had. Kagura of course charged head first to join Haru, and surprisingly enough Ritsu managed some weak hits, helped along by Rin. Ayame hurried over to Momiji and Hatori, wrapping an arm around his black haired friend to comfort the doctor.
As Ichi was carefully lifted onto the stretcher, Momiji whispered into her ear, before she was loaded into the car.
"I love you Ichi, please come back to me." The little rabbit said, again mostly to himself, desperately hoping that it would work once again like it had when she had been broken from her fall in the rocky riverbed.
And Ichi heard him. If she could've she would've said those three words back to him, opened her eyes to see his beautiful face again, but she was too far gone, and she knew that. So she didn't even try.