Celes struggled to see the scene unfolding before her, her mind slowly fading in and out of consciousness. Makoto stood up and defended her!
That pipsqueak again of all places. Heh heh...
"What happened back there?", asked Kyoko, lowering herself to make eye contact with the gambler.
"The enemy stand has poisoned me", Celeste replied, not wanting to blame Hifumi. "If I faint, then Cloakie ACT 2's effect wears off, and the stand will be invisible to everyone else again..."
"I see", Kyoko said. She then turned to the exit, which had a small hole between the rubble of rocks. "Makoto", she called out, the luckster turning her way. "Is someone else coming?"
"Mondo should be here sometime soon", the luckster responded, before turning to face the enemy stand again.
"Naegi... finish him off quick", coughed out Celes tiredly. "I only have so much time before I lose consciousness..."
"Alright, Celes", answered Makoto, still focused on the purple apparition.
"It's so beautiful to see your friends trying to defend you, little gambler...", remarked the purple apparition. It then readied another tail spike, pointing it towards Makoto. "I'll give you the honor of sending them to hell to rot with you..."
"Not if I do something about it!", screamed out Makoto, running towards the purple apparition. Yellow sparks were flying everywhere.
The enemy stand shot out another spike, the luckster avoiding it with impressive evasive maneuvers. It was almost as if he was an experienced fighter training for years. Lunging towards the spirit with an impressive jump, Makoto was now above the purple apparition.
"Since when did Naegi move like that?", asked Hifumi with surprise, wiping his sweat-filled forehead. "I've never seen moves from him like that before!"
"I have no idea...", wondered Kyoko, her usual emotionless fading away.
I don't know how I'm doing this, thought Makoto in slight panic. But I can't back down!
"Sunlight Yellow Punch!", Makoto gave another hard punch, striking the enemy stand at its head. Being thrown to the other side of the cafeteria, the purple apparition collided with the wall with a large thud, shaking the entire school.
"You...", stood up the apparition in anguish, brushing off dust from its body. "You're just as annoying as that other girl."
Alright, that worked!
Jumping once more, Makoto readied himself to give out another Hamon punch, aiming for the head again.
Only to be stabbed in the shoulder with a tail spike.
"AUGHH!", cried out the luckster, landing on the floor.
"I'm not going to fall for the same thing twice!", declared the enemy stand, spreading out its soporific gas once more.
What is that!?, panicked the luckster.
"Don't breathe that gas!", Celeste cried out, coughing some blood on the process. "It makes you sleep..!"
Covering his nose with his hand, Makoto could only retreat from the stand.
Sakura said that Hamon energy circulates through the entire body from both breathing and blood flow. Without being able to breathe, I only have a limited amount of Hamon left!
Kohhhhhhhhhh...
The only thing I can do now is to unleash one last attack with all my Hamon left!
Yellow sparks of energy surrounded the luckster once more, glowing a bright hue in contrast to the purple gas.
"I'll make this last attack count! Sunlight Yellow Direct Earthquake!", screamed out Makoto, striking the ground with tremendous force. The ground tore itself apart and rose in response, massive spikes of dirt rising from the cafeteria floor and into the enemy stand. The entire food court was reverberating with Hamon energy, filling the entire room with bright splendor.
The enemy stand shrieked at the amount of pain from being struck, collapsing into the ground. Several spikes rose near the other resting students, one of them stabbing Hifumi in the process.
"AIEEEEEEE!"
"Hifumi!"
The purple stand soon ejected itself from the spikes, lunging into the luckster.
"You shouldn't have turned around!", screamed out the stand, extending its tail to lash out at Makoto. "With all your last attack expended, you're ripe for dying!"
"DORA!"
Suddenly, the rubble blocking the cafeteria entrance broke apart, revealing both Mondo and Chihiro running into the room. Makoto, dodging the stand's tail, landed on his stomach once more.
"Mondo!"
"So that's the enemy stand!", Mondo said, cracking his fists. "Go, Crazy Diamond!"
Mondo's stand materialized in front of him, approaching the purple apparition in an almost light-like speed.
Mondo's stand is crazy fast!, thought Makoto.
"DORARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARARA!"
Punching the stand in a series of barrage attacks, Crazy Diamond finished by unleashing one final punch towards its face, completely dematerializing the enemy.
"Curse you!", the purple stand hollowed out its final words before disappearing into the wall, the gas alongside it.
"You okay there, dude?", asked Mondo, running up to the laying luckster, who had visible wounds.
"I-I'm fine", Makoto said with half-closed eyes, barely managing to see Crazy Diamond. "Both Hifumi and Celeste are the ones in danger, though". Soon enough, Makoto was back to his feet, thanking the bike rider before running towards the other injured students.
"Hifumi! Celeste!", screamed out the luckster. "Mondo's here, he'll help!"
"...Took you long enough, Mondo", grinned Celeste weakly before fully closing her eyes, all stands disappearing to non-stand users.
"You'll be fine soon, Celeste", reassured Mondo, fully closing both Celeste and Hifumi's wounds.
Hifumi was the only one who was able to stand up after that.
"W-what happened to Miss Ludenberg?", asked Hifumi nervously, his face shrouded in fear.
"She's been poisoned", Kirigiri said, going back to her usual stoic face. She was still sorting out everything that happened earlier, though.
"Crazy Diamond restores things like cuts and bruises, but it can't retract poison from the body", Mondo said, his voice grave. "If we don't find an antidote soon, Celes will die from poisoning". His voice sounded more empty when he continued, "Since don't know who the enemy user is, we'll definitely lose the upcoming class trial. We have no leads."
"Oh", resounded Makoto, his face enshrouded in sadness as well. The cafeteria was silent after that.
Another voice then spoke up from behind them.
"I have been listening in on your Hamon training, Makoto."
Suddenly, the luckster turned to the mention of his name, staring at the direction from where the voice came from.
It was Chihiro, accompanied by Sakura and Aoi.
"I've eavesdropped by accident that one time I was training by myself", the programmer continued weakly. He then spoke up a little and continued, "I then got interested in Hamon training since then, hoping that maybe I could learn it too!"
"So that's why you knew Sakura was teaching me something...", Makoto said in wonder.
"Makoto, I take it that you spent up all of your Hamon earlier", Sakura said, approaching the dying gambler. She then gave a cut at Celeste's left arm, a little stream of blood trickling out. The martial artist then continued, "Let me show you another property of Hamon."
Kohhhhhhhhhhhh...
Injecting a stream of Hamon into Celeste's circular system, both the gambler and Sakura were surrounded by yellow sparks, the martial artist exhaling deeply. Soon after, dark crimson liquid began spewing out from the wound on Celeste's left arm, the gambler opening her eyes a little afterwards.
"...What happenennd?", mumbled out the gambler tiredly.
"Hamon accelerated your blood circulation, speeding up the poison-cleaning process in turn", Sakura answered. "All the poison has now left your body."
"T-thank goodness!", breathed out Hifumi in relief. "I thought Miss Ludenberg was done for!"
Celeste felt a weird sensation in her left arm, like something heavy was lifted off from her. Slowly sitting up, she looked her left arm, seeing the poison slowly spew out of her wound. Her eyes showed a small flash of panic.
W-what?
"Don't worry, you'll be fine", reassured Sakura, trying to calm down Celeste. She then picked her up in a bridal carry, saying, "I'll get you to the nursery to disinfect the wound. Just calm down a little". She then left the cafeteria with the gambler, leaving all four remaining men in the cafeteria.
"I guess she's not considered a gambler for no reason. I can't believe she was close to dying", Makoto said, trying to lighten the mood. "We were almost doomed."
"Tell me about it", Mondo chuckled. "She's something else. All of us". He then turned to the luckster, "I managed to see what you did there earlier during the fight against the enemy stand. You're also something else, dude."
"T-Thanks, Mondo", said Makoto nervously, scratching the back of his head.
"In another matter, though, you really messed up the cafeteria, though", the bike rider changed topics, looking at the remains of the food court. "Just look at all the damage!", Mondo laughed off.
"Huh? Oh, I didn't notice that!", Makoto panicked, now looking at the destruction he created.
"Don't worry, I can fix it", the bike rider dismissed, Crazy Diamond appearing in front of him (not that Makoto could see it anymore), and began repairing the damage. "I'll be here for a while, you guys go take a break."
"O-okay", replied Makoto, turning to the exit. Hifumi and Chihiro left the food court together, the otaku panicking over what just happened.
Only Makoto stood at the entrance, seeing the bike rider repair the cafeteria calmly.
"...Stands are cool."
"Huh?"
Looking up at the luckster, Mondo asked once more, "Cool?"
"Yeah", the luckster nodded.
The gangster then gave a small smile and pointed at him, responding, "That Hamon thing of yours is cool too."
"Thanks", replied Makoto, waving goodbye at Mondo before heading to his dorm. The bike rider continued repairing the cafeteria afterwards, a small smile in his face.
At the nursery...
Sakura wrapped a bandage around Celeste's left arm, the bleak nursery lights being as dim as always.
"Sorry for the huge cut", said Sakura, "I can't control the size of my attacks well."
"That is fine", Celeste said, looking uninterested at the ceiling. If Celes was still the same person she was back when the killing game first started, she would definetly told Sakura to fuck off, that she could manage the wound by herself.
"...Thanks."
"You're welcome", smiles the martial artist a little.
Celes now knew better than to distrust everyone else, though. She knew something the rest of her class didn't know.
And now she had a plan formulated.
Two years of school down the drain, huh?
"Hey, Oogami", called out the gambler, getting the martial artist's attention.
"What is it, Celeste?"
The gothic girl then look at Sakura and stated, "Gather everyone at the cafeteria. I want to tell everyone something."
Author's Note: Chapter 24 done! Phew, this one was a lot to write! (not really). I don't have much to say in this chapter, except thank you to everyone who has made it here so far, I appreciate everyone's support! Until the next entry, I'll see everyone in the next entry!