Instead of the expected drops from the sprinkler system monstrous streams of water leaked from the ceiling and sloshed onto the fire. Like a flood roused from the sea, powered the sheer velocity of a storm, the smoke swashed inside the room and enveloped the floors and seized the walls before its grip clutched her throat, robbed her breath and blinded her eyes.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
Keiko wheezed as she staggered, drenched from head to toe as she reached out, and grabbed him. Her fingers still hurt from her fall, but she gritted through her teeth and slug his arm over her head, holstering him up despite his weight dragging her down. He was taller than her, heavier, and she could already feel the abrasions forming on her body as she moved one leg after the other, blearily blinking as she wiped the wind-swept sand away from her eyes and stole a glance at his darken mob of hair as she shifted his weight on her shoulder.
"You're going to be fine," she croaked, her throat as rough as sandpaper. "You're going to be fine, you hear me?"
He didn't respond.
His silence only intensified the dread festering inside her heart.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
Keiko shook her head and willed herself to focus as she followed the booming voice of the Inspector. Never once had she been this grateful—grateful that Nakamori had been blessed with such loud vocal chords that guided her out of this forsaken hell, away from this mass confusion like a light reaching from an abyss casted in darkness—like a lighthouse within a raging storm.
She staggered forward, blinking, and took deep breaths, stopped herself from hyperventilating as she passed the crumbling debris scattered on the carpet and she tried her best not to look at the stretched arms peeking underneath the shattered chandelier—
Keiko swallowed the bile creeping up in her throat and tried her best to ignore the smell of burned flesh and the sound of muffled cries and scared whimpers even as her heart clenched. She tightened arm around her unconscious classmate and squeezed her eyes shut and hurried her steps.
His weight was pressing on her, weakening her knees and pulling her down. Keiko heard the splash before the red pigmented puddle soaked up her socks. Her shoulders shook but Keiko held the snot inside her nose even as the tears burst from her eyes and streamed down the curve of her face.
Her pants were wet, her hair sticky and her shirt stained with a colour so red it matched the crimson carpets on the floor. She pressed her hands against her face, about to take in deep breaths and clam her nerves when she felt a strange warm sensation ooze between her fingers.
Her eyes flashed open. She stared at the blood coating her fingers and dripping down the length of her trousers before her eyes fixed at Hakuba's matted hair, his blond-brownish streaked in crimson and the same liquid trickled down the side of his face.
She held him tighter and staggered back onto her two feet. His weight pressed down on her, but she moved on, pushed one leg after the other, with the silent conviction that burned inside her heart.
You're going to be fine.
I'll save you as many times as it takes;
I'll never waver in my resolve
Bleary and half-confused, Aoko noticed that stubby, burgundy threads were poking her skin and itching the underside of her nose. She breathed in the smell of old age and musk as the fog misting in her mind cleared. Whilst, the blur slowly disappeared from her eyes, her environment still remained unknown to her, blotched in darkness. Slowly, Aoko lifted her head and hissed at the sudden stroke of pain, and whimpering she looked around, realising that the surrounding darkness wasn't caused by a damaging impact on her eyesight but by the lack of lightening.
She touched the back of her head, drove her fingers through her hair and messaged carefully her scalp before she squinted her eyes and closely inspected her finger tips, but other than the natural residue of oil sticking on her fingers, she only found a small bump at the side of her head.
I must have tripped somehow. . .
Carefully, Aoko pushed herself up, her entire body seemed to somehow hurt, much more than expected from a little bump to the ground, even her legs wobbled under her weight, and she stumbled forward, stepped on the shards of cracked lightbulbs as she fumbled to switch on the flashlight she struggled to pull from her rucksack.
She glanced around the corridor, wondered where she could find her annoying trickster when a certain sound stopped her dead in her tracks.
Aoko held her breath and—there again—it sounded awfully like a bang, but she couldn't believe that. Kid had a no-kill policy, and neither her father nor the Task-Force would ever shoot irresponsibly when unarmed guests were inhabiting an area.
It must be my imagination.
Aoko willed her troubled thoughts away and walked deeper into the darkened corridor, angling her flashlight at every spot and corner she passed through, with every step her gnawing suspicion that the weird sound came frightfully closer increased. Aoko switched off the light and pressed her back flat against the wall, frantic footsteps were drumming inside her ears, she crouched down and hid behind a decorative pot of plants, listening silently to the frustrated shouts and angered curses bouncing across the walls until they disappeared.
Sighing relieved, Aoko stood up and glanced around, carefully navigating through the corridor without the guiding light of her flashlight until she rounded the corner and somehow landed at the end of a corridor. She followed the leading staircase towards the upper floor level, wondering where exactly the police has taken Kaito when she stopped to check each door. She heard a rustle behind her and her heart froze at the sudden sound. She peeked behind her back but found nothing but glaring darkness, and she wondered how long it took the Task-Force to switch on the emergency lightening. She didn't feel comfortable wandering inside a place filled with a group of thieves, especially when they could possibly be loitering in her vicinity.
Aoko took a deep breath and clamed herself, it was too late to turn back. All the high-ranking police officers should be somewhere around here. She only had to find them before any of these thieves of Snake found her. It sounded simple enough, and yet she couldn't stop herself from shaking. Aoko bit her lips and reasoned it would be safer to stay somewhere until the lights flicker back on and commence her search only then.
Without further ado, Aoko opened one of the doors and quietly closed it behind her. Although the museum was recently refurbished, only the ground floor was actively utilised as a gallery. The remaining rooms seemed to represent storage rooms for the time being.
Aoko hummed and switched on her flashlight as she inspected the room. She lifted a dusted hem of a white blanket that covered a painting and marvelled at the colours and the precision of each brushstroke before she moved towards the next item. Her eyes caught a music box on a drawer, right next to a bed, and Aoko stopped and blinked, but no, her eyes had not failed her. She looked around the room, once again, it only dawned at her now that it was renovated as a bedroom, and for a moment Aoko wondered whether Suzuki had been planning to renovate the gallery inside a hostel before he halted the entire process when Kid suddenly dropped a notice for his thievery.
Aoko rolled her eyes at the absurdity when something caught her eyes near the window. Near the wide pavilion windows, brushed up against the wall, leaned a familiar wide object she had seen plenty of times gliding through the night. Gingerly, she neared it and touched the soft fabric with her fingertips, barely believing what she was seeing.
Held between her fingers was nothing other than Kid's hang glider attached to a dummy. Aoko fingered the strings as she pieced together that it was probably bound by a mechanism that opens up the window and pushes the dummy outside to ride the air currents. Nevertheless, she could tell it was either only a distraction for the police—or an acknowledgment which proved that the thief was currently hiding amongst them, and she could only hope it was the former.
Aoko pursed her lips and glared at the dummy.
Its tousled hair resembled Kaito's.
Even if it's an answer that deceives the whole world,
I'll put out my hand and say, "Trust me"
Itsuki Asuka's head snapped towards the door, completely alarmed and Ai wondered whether he knew what was happening outside these walls. She watched him silently, his shoulders were particularly rigid and his hand clammy, twitching against the fabric of his trouser.
"What's going on?" she asked despite already having her own speculations.
"Don't worry. They should be getting us out any moment now. . ." his voice trailed off, absentmindedly. His eyes fastened on the door as it would miraculously open. Ai sighed and glanced around the darkened room. She didn't think this place would blow up anytime soon but if it should—
Itsuki's sudden gasp snapped Ai out of her thoughts. The doorknob began to rattle and a moment later it burst open, and Ai caught a whiff of peaches and wild berries when Naomi stood at the entrance, completely out of breath with her glasses askew on her nose which she quickly adjusted.
"The contest is on hold! Itsuki, we need to start the evacuation as soon as possible!"
He bounced on his feet, moving out of Ai's peripheral vision before she felt an arm wrap around her waist and the floor disappear beneath her.
"What are you waiting for? Let's go!"
Even if I'll make an enemy of the entire world. . .
This was supposed to be his retribution. His revenge.
Hondo gritted his teeth, his fingers dug deeply in his upper arm, bathing inside the sprouting blood of his wound as his grip slackened on his Eagle. The sudden vibrations echoing on the walls had distracted him enough for his enemy to land a couple of ill-aimed shots at him.
Beads of sweat glistered on his forehead when the other smirked at him from his position on the ground, his teeth smeared in blood as he struggled to keep his gun pointed at Hondo until a deafening sound reverberated across the walls.
Hondo watched the other's reach for the darkening spot of his shirt with widening eyes whilst his mouth moved as if he were gasping for air before he crumbled on the floor.
Alarmed, Hondo stared at the criminal. His body lay now unresponsive on the ground. He looked around until his eyes fastened on the person standing behind the corpse. She was smiling, pushing back a long, dark strand behind her ear. Her eyes were as cold blooded as his own.
"What do you think you're doing?" as shallow as his breath was, the confusion lingering inside his voice carried through. Reika didn't answer him as she stepped closer and inspected his wound with sceptical eyes before she breathed out relieved.
"Oh, it's just a graze."
"Answer my question," he ordered, pulling away and tightening the grip on his Eagle with a thousand thoughts flashing in his mind, each attempting to conjure possible explanation for her sudden appearance and yet arriving at none. He hadn't slipped up. She should have known unless—
In a flash, he pointed his gun at her, his finger on the trigger. Reika stared at him long and hard, her piercing stare boring holes into his own and her lips twitched into a smile. "Can't you tell?"
He considered for a moment before he lowered his Eagle, staring sceptically at her. "Since when did we share the same objective?"
Her eyes glinted, and her lips curved into a knowing smile. "Since the very beginning, of course."
Hondo regarded her for a full minute. His eyes were yet untrusting and hard, but for now he decided to cooperate. "If we want to make any progress here, then we need to find Snake as soon as possible."
Reika smiled at his changed in attitude and nodded. "This gallery is quite a maze. It would be better if we got them to tell us where their boss is currently hiding—hey, are you alright?" she glanced worriedly at his increasingly pale face, but Hondo only nodded, his face grimacing slightly.
"Of course, I am. Don't ask unnecessary questions."
Reika seized him up for a full minute but nothing seemed to be amiss when Hondo straightened his back and switched the grip on his favourite Eagle and strolled past her to resume his agenda. She bit her lips for a moment yet followed nonetheless. "Well, if you say so. But just remember when it comes down to it, you can leave it to me."
Hondo only snorted, and she rolled her eyes, completely oblivious towards the droplets of blood staining on the crimson carpet beneath the sole of his shoes.
The time when we'll meet next, we'll untangle this thread