I have a poll up on my profile to decide Hide's new weapon, it has come down to a three-way tie now so please vote! Poll will be closed on the 31st of May!
Hide's life and storyline depends on it!
~8~
"What the heck is going on!" Hide screamed as he and his friends slid down the stairs-turned-slide.
They screamed and hollered as they slid down to what could very well be their oncoming doom. And surprisingly enough, in a time of panic and danger, Morita suddenly had a smart idea.
"Hold onto me, guys!" he said, the other two boys looked at each other and then grabbed onto the boxer's legs.
Morita shot out an arm and grabbed the stair's railing, luckily he was wearing the gloves Reborn had given him so his hands didn't scar or hurt as they all slowed to a halt. Suzuki, who had grabbed onto the leg that was closest to the railing, sighed with relief when they had stopped.
"I'm gonna try and grab the rail," he said and then looked over to Hide, "After that, I'll pull you up, okay?"
Hide nodded and once Suzuki grabbed onto the railing, he did as promised and pulled his friend up to the rail also. The boy grabbed the bar quickly and, after a few seconds of panic, wondered how far down they had traveled.
"It's a good thing that I had these gloves on," said Morita as he stood up while still grabbed the bar, "or else we would still be falling!"
"Speaking of which, Morita-kun doesn't your arm hurt?" Hide asked worriedly, "You were just holding onto the rail with one arm and lying down at the same time! That has to be painful!"
"Ah, I've been through worse!" he said light-heartedly.
"That could have dislocated your shoulder!"
"Hide, I've had my arm dislocated before, I think I would know what it would be like if it was on my shoulder," he said it as if it was a fact.
Hide gave up on the argument and said, "Well, if we continue to climb here, maybe we'll find a door or something?"
"Then let's get climbing!" Suzuki said enthusiastically.
So with Morita ahead of them, Suzuki in the middle, and Hide in the back…the way back…the boys began to climb the railing like climbers on a mountain. Hide quickly grew tired from using his arms constantly but his two friends both seemed completely unfazed by the climb. This made Hide contemplate negatively on how little muscle he had compared to his well-built, muscular friends.
"That's why you need to exercise more instead of complaining."
"Yeah I guess…" Hide sighed and then realized who had spoken, "REBORN!"
"Ciaossu," the infant replied from atop of the boy's head, the glowing ball of Leon was resting on his back.
The other two boys looked back at the hitman in surprise, both by the fact that he had managed to come out of no where and also by the fact that he somehow gotten on top of Hide's head without any of them noticing.
"How did you get here little guy?" Morita asked in surprise.
"I found a door and heard you guys screaming," he said.
"Then how come you aren't sliding down like we were!" Hide asked.
"Because only a bunch of idiots would fall for such an obvious trap."
There was an embarrassed, awkward silence until Morita broke it, asking, "So where was this door?"
~8~
When they had found the way out, which was a door that led to the eighth floor, Reborn immediately started scolding his student by kicking his shins and slapping him silly.
"What kind of idiot follows such an obvious trap? Idiot-Hide," he said angrily.
"It wasn't me who decided to follow that map!" said Hide, but this only got him slapped some more.
"A real Boss would take responsibility for his subordinates' actions."
"To be fair, you really didn't say anything about following the map Hide," said Suzuki unhelpfully.
"But it was me who decided to follow the map," said Morita, this gave Hide hope that he would share the blame with someone else, but to his dismay the boxer then added, "And you really shouldn't trust me when it comes to making decisions."
"A Boss should take responsibility for his subordinates' idiocy," Reborn stated.
"But I don't want to be a boss!" Hide whined, this did not help his defense much.
"Hey, Reborn, where did you go off to up there?" asked Suzuki, Hide was thankful for this because Reborn had stopped slapping him to talk to Suzuki.
"I went on my own little mission," he said, "And I found some things out, but it doesn't really have anything to do with you guys right now."
"We really could have needed you, ya know?" Suzuki sighed, "We were all lost and everything!"
"Then since I'm here now, we can start moving towards the right direction to where the stairs are," he said.
"Reborn," Hide asked as they started walking and he rubbed his cheeks, he was now keeping a little bit of distance between him and his home tutor. "You said you've been here before, right?"
"Yup," the infant nodded.
"And you said that this place was over 35 years old, right?" he continued.
"That is correct."
"Well, this is just a thing that has been bugging me for a while but," the blonde pointed to a picture frame that was hanging on the wall next to them, "What's up with that?"
The picture frame was cracked and had mold growing inside of it, but despite that the picture inside could still be seen as clear as day. In the picture was a group of people in suits, one of them was a young man with messy brown hair sitting in a regal-looking chair with his hands resting on his lap while the rest of the people were standing around him. But that wasn't what Hide was pointing to. What he was pointing to was in front of the man, at his feet, was a small infant clad in a black suit and fedora and also had strangely familiar sideburns.
"That would be a picture frame," said Reborn flatly.
"That's not what I meant!" Hide pointed more accusingly at the photo, "Why are you in a photo that's almost 40 years old!"
"That does kinda look like him, doesn't it?" said Suzuki as he took the picture frame off the wall to examine it further, "But that should be impossible, right?"
"I know, right?" the blonde nodded and looked over to the tutor, "Reborn, there's something here you're not explaining to us!"
"That is correct," Reborn nodded.
"Don't try to avo-What?" Hide stopped in mid-sentence and blinked.
"That is correct, I am hiding something from you," his tutor said bluntly, "But this really isn't the correct time to be explaining every little thing to you. And I shall explain everything to you all at some point, but not now, not when we are in a dangerous situation."
"What dangerous situation?" he asked, "All that has happened is that Adam got in a fight and Gokudera-san fell through a hole! We're just looking out for a 'Box' and some holes!"
"Speaking of which, you guys haven't found any have you?" Reborn asked.
"No!" he yelled, for some reason the tutor he had once missed was now making him more frustrated than ever.
"Well, count yourselves lucky," he said, "This place should be crawling with Box Weapons."
"I thought you said that there were only God Boxes around," Hide asked suspiciously.
"I never said that," Reborn stated he walked a little further and stopped, "But something has opened the God Boxes, and anything with that much power probably has more than enough to open up more. I have a theory as to what it is, but I'm not exactly sure yet."
"Why is that?" asked Suzuki.
"We're going to have to find another God Box in order to prove it," the infant said, he continued walking ahead of the group.
Hide sighed miserably and followed the infant to wherever he was taking them.
~8~
Anna walked along the fifteenth floor, she was somewhat happy at the progress she had made from the traveling five floors up and was now leaning against a wall to rest her feet. She took a deep breathe in and out before continuing on her journey, she continued walking along the fifteenth floor in silence.
The ground was white tile that was dusty, and rusted with mold in the cracks. Luckily, Anna was not germophobic enough to be grossed out by it since she was walking on the tile with her bare feet. Her hair was caked with a mixture of mud and blood, and her arms were scratched up and dirty. This was when Anna greatly wished for a bath, if this had been her brother he probably would have cared less…but then again he also would have still been stupid enough to stay in the cave.
"I should find the way out first," she decided, "Then when I get back to Boss's house, I'll take a nice long bath."
"A bath?" Anna turned around sharply and stared steadily at the figure in front of her.
The figure had a very feminine shape to it, but it also had very narrow eyes that could have belonged to a boy. She had bandages wrapped all around her feet to her legs, and even more around her wrists and forearms, and the bandages could have reached higher but she was wearing a plain-looking blouse that had sleeves that went down to her elbows and was wearing a plain skirt that reached her knees. The stranger also had straw blonde hair that was up in a bun and light brown eyes seemed to shine brightly.
"Yes," Anna nodded, she knew better than to start things off with, 'Where did you come from?' because this person actually looked somewhat normal and didn't seem to want to attack her right then and there.
"Do you need a bath?" the woman asked, the way she asked it was strange, like she was a completely new to the concept of having a bath.
"…That would be nice," Anna nodded again, she was still wary of the woman but it didn't think that she was at all dangerous.
"I think there may be one on the sixth floor, but that's a ways away…" the person said, it sounded like she was trying to be a little helpful but was disappointed that she wasn't doing so.
"So I need to go down again?" Anna asked. To help the reader understand, Anna still has absolutely no clue where she was going or where she was, she actually thought that she was still in some strange facility.
"No," the woman shook her head, "You need to go up, right now you're on the fifteenth floor."
"I see," Anna nodded and shrugged. Foreign countries sure are confusing when it comes to counting, she thought.
"I can help you, if you want," the woman said, "It would not be as lonely if you had help."
"No, it's alright," the girl shook her head, "I can get up there on my own as long as I know where I'm going. You wouldn't happen to know where the stairs are, would you?"
"Walk down this hallway," she said helpfully and pointed in a direction, "There should be a sign with a person walking down stairs on it, if it helps. But don't follow the maps, they are right but not when it comes to stairs."
"Thank you," Anna nodded, she wasn't quite sure what this woman meant by that last sentence but nevertheless followed her advice.
"It's no problem," she said and then smiled sadly, "As long as I'm helpful."
The girl looked at her for a few seconds and asked, "What's your name?"
The woman seemed startled but happy when she heard that and said, "Amaterasu!"
"Amaterasu? That's a weird name," Anna remarked and said, "I'm Anna. Do you want to come with me?"
"To a bath?" Amaterasu asked with a baffled look.
"No, do you want to get out of here with me?"
Amaterasu seemed startled by this and said with shock, "Oh, I cannot! There is someone here who needs my help!"
"Is it some guy with sort of purple-bluish hair?" Anna asked warily.
"No," she shook her head, "It is my master, my master would be very lonely if I were to leave."
"Suit yourself then," the girl shrugged and pointed in the same direction Amaterasu had earlier, "This way, right?"
"Yup," she nodded, and then called out to the girl as she left, "I hope that you will not be lonely for long either!"
After Anna was out of sight, Amaterasu went a little limp and said sadly, "I hope I will not be alone soon…"
~8~
"Hey Reborn, where exactly are we going?" Hide dared to ask, after following the infant for about an hour without questioning him.
"If I remember correctly, this floor had the control room with all the monitors for the surveillance cameras," he explained.
"If I remember correctly…" there was Reborn again talking as if he had been here before, Hide reflected. The mystery behind his tutor bothered Hide a great deal to the point that it added up to his annoyance to the baby.
"So if we get to this control room we can find Gokudera-san, right?" Hide asked.
"We might find something else as well," the infant's hat was tilted so that they could not see his eyes, but the hat did not hide his smirk as well.
His student raised an eyebrow, but he was already used to Reborn's general weirdness so he just let it pass. And so Hide and his friends unquestioningly followed Reborn towards the control room, but as they walked the rusted and mold-ridden hall that was about as identical to every other hall in the base, an explosion occurred. It seemed like something had busted through the wall of the building and carried onto the next hall.
The explosion was not necessarily an actual explosion though. It was more like the wall fell down, bring years of dust and wall crumbs with it, and then that thing that made the wall fall down brought the next wall down. Once the dust had settled down, Hide saw two figures fighting in the swirl of the smoke and dust.
"I don't wanna fight!" he heard a voice whine.
"Quit your whining!" another voice yelled.
The figure that was whining was holding a blue trident that about to be pulled away by a whip held by the other figure.
"Rain Poseidon and Thunder Raphael," said Reborn almost immediately.
"Those are Box weapons!" Hide yelped.
"Poseidon?" Suzuki questioned, "The Box that I fought? Are you sure?"
"No doubt about it," Reborn nodded and said, "The trident and blue hair explains everything."
"Really?" the baseball player asked again, "But the Poseidon I remember was a lot more cool looking, and it didn't really talk a whole lot…"
At this point the two Boxes realized that they were being watched, to which pissed Raphael off to no end.
"What the hell are you all staring at?" it yelled angrily.
The boys all looked at the green-haired box as it waved its whip around.
"We're kinda lost, can you help us?" Suzuki boldly asked.
"Suzuki, those are the enemies!" Hide hissed towards his friend.
"I know, but maybe they'll help us," he said and then smiled peacefully.
What kind of logic is that! Hide gaped.
"What are you lot? Intruders?" Raphael questioned, but before any of them could have time to answer Raphael shot a glare towards Poseidon and started yelling at it, "Poseidon!" it flinched, "You were told to get rid of the intruders! What kind of Box is a Box that doesn't listen to its master! Eh? EH!"
"I-I didn't know!" the Box whined as Raphael started pulling at its ear.
"Didn't know! The surveillance room is right over there!" Raphael pointed down the hallway Hide and his friends were travelling down, "You're the one in charge of surveillance on this floor, you no-good Box!"
"Please stop that!" Poseidon pleaded as Raphael pulled on its ear harder, "It'll fall off!"
"We are the most technologically advanced things here! It won't fall off that easily!" to prove it, the Box pulled on the ear harder.
"Please stop!"
It took a few minutes for the Box Weapons to quit bickering, but when they were finished they seemed like they had somehow reached a conclusion to work together.
"I'm really sorry, but I'll have to fight you," Poseidon said apologetically.
"Finally! I've been bored out of my mind waiting to fight someone!" Raphael exclaimed and snapped its whip.
"Cool, my first actual fight!" Morita smirked to himself.
"It may not be the same Poseidon I fought, but this guy will be good enough," said Suzuki as he hefted his bat.
Why do I feel like this is just some setup to a videogame…? Hide questioned himself and noticed Reborn eating popcorn out of a popcorn bag that had come out of no where.
"Want some?" the infant asked while holding up the bag.
"No!"
~8~
Note from the Author: Haha, just realized that I have been putting these chapters out on really random days, I didn't really think that I would have it written out by now but surprises are everywhere, apparently. So check out Hide's Poll which is on my profile, I am also taking requests as to what Hide's weapon should be so any thing is welcomed ;)
Also, check out Just Another Forum and my own comments on my story, trust me they are much more critical than they should be, and also join my project Birthday Fiction Project! our next birthday-boy is Lambo, so anyone that wishes to join just post up an add-on to the story that is already up there!
That's all, and: KHR belongs to Akira Amano