Chapter 10
Touma was nearby.
Ryo's heart beat heavily against his ribs as he caught and held the bond between their armors with his mind. An answering echo pulsed through the connection, suggesting that Touma could also feel him and was searching for him.
And had to be close. With their armors blocked, it was difficult to feel where the other Troopers might be, so if he could feel Touma, if Touma could feel him, Tenku had to be nearby.
So if he could just get them out of this stupid box, his odds of doubling their numbers were good.
Beside him, Ami was intently running her fingers along a seam in the wall, probing delicately for signs of weakness. A few minutes ago, the hall had dead-ended in front of them, and when they'd turned to make their way back out, they'd found the corridor behind them had closed off, boxing them in.
So a box. A hallway box, but a box nonetheless. And Ryo wasn't very fond of boxes. They made him feel itchy, and anxious. Restless. He was getting closer to just trying to throw himself at a wall in the hopes of going through it.
The only thing holding him back was the promise he'd made to Ami to not damage himself until he let her at least try to find a different means of escape first. But that promise was getting harder and harder to remember. So here he was squatting in the center of a room that, though it hadn't changed in size to the best of his knowledge, seemed to feel smaller every second they stayed trapped inside it.
All he wanted was his armor, was that so much to ask?! Rekka would blow through this place like nothing, and then burn it to the ground. Maybe that was a little extreme, but as his frustration mounted, he cared less about things like collateral damage. Besides. This place was clearly just full of evil, right? He hadn't encountered a good thing inside these walls yet.
Unless he counted Ami.
And he'd met her outside first.
Yeah. It was gonna take a lot to convince him not to torch everything in sight once he got his armor back. He cast another glance at his companion as she bent, squinting at a corner for some reason he couldn't fathom. Warmth eased through him at the sight of her methodically searching every inch of space, looking for gaps or weaknesses. He tried hard not to think about how cute she was.
Okay. Maybe not too hard. It was pretty easy to get sidetracked watching the way she brushed hair out of her face and wrinkled her nose in annoyance. Or the way she just….looked at everything so intently. The way she seemed curious about everything and unafraid to explore the unknown. Man. She was kind of great.
Ryo shook himself. He had no business getting lost thinking weird things about Ami. The last time he'd done that, she'd been the one to pay for the mistake, not him. His jaw clenched as he took in the ugly bruising mottling her jaw again, the warm feeling in his chest fading as he remembered her screaming his name in the dark.
Now he just wanted something to pummel.
"It's a dead end."
Ami's soft voice snapped him out of his rage. He blinked, turning his gaze back to her face. She smiled at him, but the corners of her lips were tight, her eyes bracketed with fatigue and worry, which in turn made his worry start multiplying. Ami was nothing if not incredibly stable. If she wasn't calm and confident, Ryo found his own mood started swinging wildly toward more extreme courses of action.
She shrugged helplessly at him, which did nothing to walk him back from the edge of action.
"There's nothing that I can see. No weakness. I can try using my powers, but I'd rather keep that as a last resort – when I can make a more precise, effective strike with it."
Ryo frowned at her. She wasn't making eye contact now, which was a dead giveaway that she'd just told him something he wasn't going to like, and he mulled over the sentence until something caught his attention. "Something wrong with using your powers?" he asked. Ami blinked up at him and then looked embarrassed for some reason. She shrugged again.
"It's just that…I've never really used my powers without my transformation before. And…I can use them, but this way…I can feel the strain of it. I'm afraid they might be a limited resource for us, so I'd like to conserve them and only use them when they can inflict maximum damage – or exact maximum effect."
Ryo frowned as his brain tried to catch up with what she'd just said. "So…your powers are like a battery? Do you…have to charge them?" The moment the question left his mouth he felt stupid. Ami's answering giggle seemed a worthy prize for his trouble though.
She shook her head at him, getting her mirth under control. Her face lost some of the anxious tension around its edges, at least. "Goodness, no. Though –" She paused here, tilting her head in thought, "I suppose they might recharge, so to speak, under certain circumstances? Perhaps more that certain elements can strengthen them? I'm not sure, but that's an intriguing thought." She trailed off here, and he took a moment to enjoy watching her get lost in her own thoughts. The expressions dancing across her face were adorable, and her lack of self-awareness as she simply got caught up in her own ideas was refreshing.
After a few minutes, however, the fact that they were still trapped in a box with no way out started to edge in on his brighter mood, and thoughts of just…throwing himself through a wall got a little louder. The silence felt awkward as it became clear that Ami showed no sign of coming back to reality any time soon.
"Mizuno…?" he tried putting a tentative hand on her shoulder.
Ami snapped back to herself, blinking at him as her cheeks reddened slightly.
"Pardon me. I can get so caught up sometimes. What I meant to say was that using my powers right now seems tied to my own personal energy levels. It's taking a great deal more effort than usual to access them or bring them up. I just would like to be cautious about how I use them."
Ryo wasn't a genius, but he was pretty sure he captured the most important part of what Ami was saying. "So…using your powers…drains you?" he asked, his voice a bit strangled as he thought about the implications of that. He took in her tired, battered appearance again and felt helpless anger and guilt rise up to smother him at the same time.
Ryo shoved them aside and looked at her with determination. "Then you won't use them at all, Mizuno. We'll figure this out without you having to use your powers. Or your computer," he said, his voice an unbreakable promise. Ami blinked up at him, her expression suggesting she thought he was crazy. He didn't really care if she thought he was crazy, he wasn't going to let her use her powers if she got hurt doing it.
Thinking he was going to let her do something like that made her crazy in his book. He wasn't going to stand for it.
"Now really Sanada, I think we'll probably have to use them. I just want to make sure I make it count," she tried to reassure him. Ryo shook his head.
"No. No making it count. No powers at all. Promise me, Mizuno." Ryo stared hard at her, but instead of giving in, her lips firmed and her chin went up.
"I'm not promising that Sanada. Not when they could help us," she shot back. Ryo opened his mouth to argue when something black and noxious began to seep from the corners of the ceiling and move toward their position in the center of the room.
With a growl, Ryo turned, pulling Ami behind him and dropping into a battle-ready stance. The smell was horrific – exactly like the monster they'd first encountered before they'd been sent here, and that put his hair on end.
As he watched, the black began to solidify into something tall and massive, so large it blocked the other side of the room from his view. He tried not to feel intimidated, but it was difficult to silence the instinct to run. Even if he didn't exactly have anywhere to run.
The shadow let loose a threatening rumble that seemed to reverberate off the walls and through his bones. He felt Ami's fingers tighten their grip on his arm and reminded himself that she was relying on him to keep her safe. Nothing was getting past him. He'd promised her, and that was a promise he'd meant to keep.
It was difficult not to feel a bit helpless. No armor. Unfamiliar territory. No other friendly faces . Way too many unknowns. What if there was something he couldn't see coming up behind them? He'd give his right arm for Rekka right now. Or even the other Troopers. Anything.
As if in answer to his prayers, the being in front of them roared with rage and malicious intent, but instead of charging them, Ryo watched, astonished, as it writhed in agony, encased in emerald electricity, before dissolving into a pile of charcoal colored ash.
Emerald green lightning continued to flicker in spots around the room for a moment longer, agitated, as if searching for something, before dying out, leaving a vacuum of silence and static electricity in its wake.
Ryo blinked, and then tightened his stance, trying to prepare for whatever had dropped that monster like nothing. Ami had other ideas. She bolted out from behind him, making an excited noise.
"Mako-chan! You're here!" she cried, bolting through the remaining haze toward two shadows Ryo could just barely see. He ran after her, praying the newcomers were in fact Friend and not Foe.
"Ami! You're a sight for sore eyes girl," a weak female voice called out. A moment later, the haze and debris cleared enough to reveal a familiar, blue-haired man with the arm of the previously green-uniformed warrior slung over his shoulders.
The Warrior of Tenku looked relatively safe and unharmed, though he was wearing his sub armor, and it seemed to be in rougher shape than normal. There were deep slash marks in the center of his chest that thankfully hadn't gone through the plating. The normally smooth shell of undergear still gleamed a soothing blue, but it was pitted and scuffed, and covered with grime, dust and ash.
Touma's face was smudged and bruised, and he had a ring of livid blacks and purples around his neck. His blue hair was wildly tousled, full of more grime and dirt, and standing a bit on end, like he'd put his finger in an electrical socket. If Ryo remembered correctly, the green Senshi had some kind of talent with lightening, so that explained that.
Ami's friend looked…worse. She was battered, bruised, and frayed. Her skin was pale, dark smudges beneath her eyes. Touma's gaze continued to stray toward her intently, concern written into every line of the archer's face as he monitored her.
She mustered a weak smile for Ami, but Ryo could see the pain behind her expression. He caught Touma's eye, and the frustration on Tenku's face told Ryo without words that he and Touma had been in the same boat. At the mercy of a place, of monsters, that had somehow managed to keep them from their armor, with a companion that could keep them safe, but at a cost.
It looked like the pair of them hadn't been nearly as lucky as Ryo and Ami had.
Ami made a sound of distress, rushing forward and touching the green Senshi's cheek with feather-light fingertips. "Mako-chan, what happened? You look terrible," she murmured. Makoto winced, trying to smile again at Ami.
"Ah, I'm ok. Just need a little rest and I'll be good to go," she promised, though she clearly was not ok. The green Senshi's voice was hoarse with exhaustion despite her attempts to sound energetic. Touma huffed out a frustrated breath that she ignored.
Ryo felt the same impotent rage from earlier overtake him again. What was happening to the others right now? He locked eyes with Touma over the Senshis' heads to see the same rage-filled determination in the archer's eyes. Whoever this was, the Troopers were going to find them.
And make sure they couldn't harm anyone ever again.
