Chapter 14: Crimson Craze
Hikage and Haruka walked down the corridors of the large ruins until they came to yet another branching, this time more tunnel-like, path. Haruka said that splitting up again was not the best idea, to which Hikage agreed. Just then, Mirai rushed out of the smaller path, nearly bowling Hikage over. "Where'd she go!?" Mirai yelled.
"Whoa there, Mirai dear. We're not bowling pins, and you're not very round." Haruka smiled a tiny hint of sarcasm.
"What's that supposed to mean!?" Mirai barked. "You really have a way of pushing buttons mistress Haruka!"
"So, who was it, Mirai? Who were you chasing?" Hikage asked.
Mirai regained her composure. "Oh, right. I could have sworn I saw one of the bullies who harassed me in the past. I heard their voice! I crawled underneath another corridor to follow them! I swear they were just ahead!"
"But that makes absolutely no sense. You haven't seen them for years. In fact most of the people in our past have not been, so why would they be here of all places?" Haruka shrugged. "Are you sure you saw them, Mirai?"
Mirai went quiet for a moment, resting a hand on her chin before simply declaring that she didn't know. Shortly after, they saw Homura coming from the other direction. "There you are, Mirai! Now what happened?! Why'd you run off?"
"Mirai thinks she saw one of her old bullies in the ruins." Haruka mentioned. "By the way, Homura. Where's Yomi?"
"Jeez! What the hell is going on!?" Homura scratched the back of her head rapidly with both hands while looking up.
"Oh? Care to tell us what's up?" Hikage asked. Homura then proceeded to tell them about their encounter with the two strange girls. "So… using both Asuka and my skills against you? You don't say. Maybe she's a cat."
"A cat now, Hikage?" Haruka raised an eyebrow.
"Mhm… You know, a copy cat." Hikage put her hands up and with the most monotone voice, performed mini-swipes to the air. "Meow… Meow." The others looked at her with widened eyes. "Oh… was it not funny?"
Taking them back to their main room, they met up with Yomi, who was resting. While Mirai found her laptop on the floor but largely unharmed, the same could not be said for Haruka's desk, to which a pile of her liquids spilled over into a puddle. Though mad at first, she realized there were more pressing matters at hand.
Homura brought her palm down on the table. "Alright! Mirai go with Haruka and Hikage. I want you three mapping out the insides of these ruins. I'm going to go outside and see just how far this old temple goes around. Yomi, you rest up. You took quite a beating, not to mention the monthlies and all." Yomi, however, protested, saying she was just fine and that she had every right to investigate this as the rest of them did, to which Homura put up little quarrel over.
Not long after Homura and Yomi took a walk outside, did they see a ninja approaching. Homura suspected that he was a grunt in his tight, blue yoroi. "Another assassin? Just what are they training you at dipshit academy?" Homura folded her arms.
"Silence!" the young man said, "I am no assassin. For I bear a message from the great Kenshi Yamauchi of Gokudo Boys Academ-… HGH!" Homura and Yomi stopped in their tracks when the ninja suddenly got impaled through the chest with a spear. The girls looked up to see someone in a tree.
"HEY!" Homura called out before dashing up the tree and grabbing onto the person's leg as they attempted to fly away. Homura held on tightly to their legs, the sun preventing her from seeing just who it was, though she could make out black boots. The figure flew wildly, whacking Homura over the head with some kind of staff. Homura's head stinging, she grabbed onto the leg tighter and yanked causing the person to lose balance, accidentally kicking Homura in the face, causing her to fall.
"Homura! Whattodo Whattodo! I got it!" Yomi ran towards where Homura was falling. "Ultimate Ninja Art: Ragnarok!" Yomi spun around, creating an upward draft of wind, slowing Homura's fall but also throwing her aside. Homura grunted as she rolled a few times. Yomi ran up to her friend, helping her up. "Are you alright, Homura?"
"I'm fine, thanks to you, Yomi." Homura smiled, the two then walking back to the dead ninja. "I've never seen a flying shinobi with that much strength before. Clearly somebody didn't want us to hear something."
Yomi leaned down, checking the bodies' pockets before she found a note, opening it. "Whoever it was didn't really try too hard then. Let's see. 'we have Ikaruga in our grasp. Does she mean anything to you? If so, then you will come. Especially Hikage. Sincerely, the leader of the Secret Gokudo Boys Academy'. Homura, we have to go! These Gokudo assholes have taken Ikaruga!"
Homura growled, pulling her hair. "Why NOW!? First our home is literally In Ruins, strangers show up and attack us, and some flying freak didn't want us to know that these Gokudo bastards have captured one of our old friends! LIKE GIMME A BREAK!"
The other three Crimson members split up, mapping out the remainder of the ruins which, while still imposing, were smaller than they initially expected. Haruka heard Mirai's voice around the corner. "You know, Mirai dear, I've been thinking. Maybe this little predicament isn't so bad after all. These ruins are ironically sturdy, not to mention much bigger than our old cave. I spotted a few great places that would make wonderful r-…" Haruka stopped and gasped, as she saw Mirai crawling around a large red, blue, white, and gold robot before stopping on what was probably it's head. "Just what did you find?"
"Not sure. Whatever it was, got damaged." Mirai then tossed a strange looking bullet to Haruka, who caught it midair. Mirai pointed down "Assuming that this is the head, it looks like it took that round to the butt."
Haruka looked around to find a small hole in the rear of the robot. Haruka giggled, "My, they were off center a bit. Have you ever seen a bullet like this in all your life Mirai?"
"Uh uh. Chinese, Korean, Russian, not even American places have anything like it. And I know my ammunition. Things just keep getting weirder, Haruka." Mirai commented.
"Still, this is quite a fascinating machine. I wanna know what makes it tick. Help me out, Mirai." With a brief lick of her lips, Haruka began looking around seeing if there was any spot in the robot that could be opened. Mirai also continued looking around, crawling all over the machine until she got Haruka's attention with what appeared to be a loose screw on the robot's shoulder. Haruka nodded, an anticipating smile carving across her face as she called her own bot over to trying and began making it yank at the supposed screw.
"Uuhm… Mistress Haruka. I don't think that's how you're supposed to take screws off."
"You wanna try and find a screwdriver? Seriously, I've seen midgets smaller than this."
"Was that a shot?" Mirai growled.
"Come now, Mirai. Use your umbrella like a pry bar." Suddenly Haruka and Mirai fell off as the robot started moving. Haruka got a face full of dirt before getting back up, spitting onto the ground. "Hey! That was rude!"
The robot looked over, prompting Mirai to yell. "H-hey! Just WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE!?"
Mirai aimed her umbrella at the robot's direction when it began to speak in a most sophisticated and masculine manner. "Forgive me for startling you, fair lady. I did not realize you were present."
"My my. Aren't you quite the gentleman for a hunk of metal. Might I ask just what you were doing here?" Haruka asked with intrigue.
"I am a member of the Sages Syndicate Alliance. My name is CFW Brave. I must be off before the enemy falls upon us!" Brave turned quickly, running down one path, only to come straight back from different direction. "The ruins! There is nobody here!"
"I mean, they're kinda called ruins for a reason, big guy." Mirai rolled her eyes.
"But this does not make any sense! They were here! I confronted all them, warning them to leave and then…" Brave stopped for a moment, looking down. Haruka and Mirai glanced at each other with a shrug before looking back at CFW Brave. "That girl… what could she have meant?"
"Girl? What did she look like?" Haruka asked.
"Short. Long black hair with side-updos. Kind of flat… I've never seen her and yet… something felt as though I knew her from somewhere. The way she spoke to me. But then… next thing I know, I felt a strange current in my behind and everything faded to black." Brave began rubbing his ass where he had been shot.
"Hm. So she shot ya in the ass, huh? Sounds to me like she was made of some solid stuff!" Mirai nodded.
"Oh? And I thought you wanted those bug bites to grow larger, Mirai." Haruka smirked.
"E-hey! That's not what I was talking about and you know it!" Mirai folded her arms. Haruka teased her, calling it cute just before Homura and Yomi came running in with the letter in hand.
"Haruka! Mirai! Urgent news. A new enemy has kidnapped-… AAUGH! What the hell is that!?" Homura pointed at CFW Brave.
"Calm down, Homura. It's just a lost robot." Haruka said. Homura screamed pulling her hair.
"Dear me, I seem to be making a very bad impression today." CFW Brave stood up, taking a step forward and a bow. "I did not intend to frighten you, dear lady."
"Hehehe. He has such good manners." Yomi smiled.
"Homura, darling. What ever is the matter? Don't tell me the monthlies are hitting you too." Haruka asked.
"Aww, it's okay, Homura." Yomi patted her on the shoulder with a smile. "No need to fret over lady time. We will get through this together as code red buddies."
"Heh. Puts a twist on the name 'Crimson Squad'." Mirai chuckled.
"I'M NOT ON LADY TIME, DAMN IT!" Homura shouted, biting her lip in slight frenzy. "NONE OF THIS SHOULD BE HAPPENING! First there's ruins and girls and flying assassins and then Hanzo's in trouble and now robots! Can somebody please tell me what's going on!?"
"Fair exchange, Homura dear. We'll tell you ours but then you tell us yours." Haruka sighed a sympathetic smile before continuing to tell Homura about Brave and how they found him. Yomi then told Brave of the strange girls who attacked them.
"Hm. They do match the description of some of the foes I was facing before." Brave replied. Pulling herself together, Homura then informed them about the group that apparently captured Ikaruga.
"But why would they emphasize Hikage coming more than anyone? I just don't understand that part." Yomi asked.
"Yeah and from the sounds of it, someone didn't want us getting that letter but was either too stupid or too late to do anything." Hikage remarked.
"HIKAGE?! When did you get here?" Homura yelped.
"Huh? I been here this whole time." Hikage shrugged. "Who's your new puppet Haruka?"
CFW Brave recoiled at the word puppet. To which Haruka sweatdropped. "Don't worry your head over it, Sir Brave. Hikage, this is our new… friend." After a brief introduction, Haruka turned back to Hikage. "Hikage dear, do you happen to know the name of Gokudo?" Hikage shook her head, asking if it was a type of fish. Haruka sighed, "I'll admit, even I'm beginning to wanna pull my hair out over it. So what should our first course of action be?"
The second she finished her words, Yomi yanked on her arm. "Isn't it obvious?! We have to rescue Ikaruga first!"
"Whoa girl. We don't even know anything about this Gokudo Academy. For all we know this could be a serious trap. And it's not like our messenger left us an address or anything." Haruka responded.
"We should see Master Suzune. Maybe she would know about this." Homura declared.
"Perhaps we can help one another out." Brave said, walking forward. "You say your friend was kidnapped. I am against kidnapping, even if it is the enemy. And since one of the girls you described was in fact kidnapped by my allies, I bet you can imagine the dispute that ensued. After which they sent me on guard duty where I got shot."
"And what are you saying, Mr. Robot?" Homura folded her arms.
"As a member of the Sages Syndicate Alliance, I give you my word to help you find your kidnapped friend. All I ask is that you accompany me till an ally is found or death do us part." Brave replied.
"The last part was pretty out there, but I think we should take him up on the offer." Mirai said. "Besides, a cool robot on our side and we're like heroes in a mecha manga!"
"Wait a second, we're just trusting this robot thingy?" Homura asked.
"He's our only lead for now on all this insanity." Haruka said.
"Besides," Yomi giggled, "He is very well-mannered, and I can't detect any malice. He's got a soft heart under that hard exterior."
Homura shook her head. "I just have a bad feeling about this."