Chapter 32

Touma tried to control his heart rate, but he was losing the battle.

He was so close to Makoto. So. Close.

During their separation, he'd had plenty of time to think about her. To come to terms with the strong feelings he had toward her that had blossomed almost overnight. He'd eased his own pain by telling himself that she was happy – that she was living her life. And now that he knew she'd been here instead, battling for her life?

He needed to lay eyes on her. Needed to touch her. Needed to hold her close, inhale the scent of roses that clung to her skin, and reassure himself that she was alive. That she was all right.

He and Seiji sprinted across the dead, empty city-scape and darted cautiously beneath the overhang of the building Touma had located on Ami's map. Nothing moved save a constant, mournful wind that blew garbage along the gutters. He locked eyes with Korin, and they moved together, slipping into the entry.

He debated with himself briefly if he wanted to explain to Ryo that Ami had built a computer that ran directly on her Senshi energy.

Probably not.

Definitely not.

Still, he had to give her credit as he crept along the mailboxes in the dim entry. She'd been keeping track of all the Senshi via energy signatures. She'd also created "ghost" energy signatures that looked like the Senshi's energy but were actually just pockets of nothing much.

She'd been so smart, camouflaging them in plain sight. She was probably the reason they were still even alive at this point, considering the other disturbing readouts he'd seen while he'd been scanning. His mind darkened as he thought about it.

He needed to find Makoto. Right now.

They needed to move quickly. In short order, that camouflage was going to be non-existent. Useful though it was, Touma had known immediately he'd need to put a stop to it. Before Ami didn't have any energy left. He had no idea how she'd been awake and functional once he'd realized what she'd been doing. He made a mental note to do something really, really nice for her. Later.

Seiji gestured, and Touma forced himself to focus as they moved deeper into the building, aiming for the stairwell. Inside was dark and cold, with very few lights still functioning. The sound of their footsteps echoed oddly in the drab, empty lobby. He locked eyes briefly with Seiji again, and then they began moving slowly up the stairs.

The next set of moments seemed to pass far too slowly. Each floor had to be thoroughly searched. If Minako and Makoto were trying not to be found, he didn't expect that they'd make themselves obvious. Thinking about Makoto, curled up and hiding, frightened in the dark while she waited for some asshole to come harvest her soul sent nearly uncontrollable rage flushing through his system.

The building rumbled then, and a muffled feminine cry sounded from the floor above them as the lighting fixtures swayed and flickered. And then he noticed it.

Tiny licks of lightning, a rich emerald-green in color, flashed along exposed piping, surging one or two of the lights into explosions of sparks.

Makoto.

He locked eyes with Seiji and they both nodded, heading right back for the stairwell and launching themselves on silent feet up one quick flight to the next floor. Touma shoved open the door – into complete darkness.

He paused there on the threshold, Seiji behind him, as the two of them tried to get their bearings. There was the cold snick of metal leaving a sheath, and then a soft golden glow illuminated the hallway around them as Seiji held the Korin ken aloft.

He'd forgotten how handy Seiji was to have around in the dark.

Cautiously, they moved forward, straining against the silence. At first, Touma thought they'd somehow been mistaken. He was about to tell Seiji they should try going back downstairs when the faint sound of a quiet struggle reached his ears. He popped his head around a corner and had to lock every muscle in his body to stop himself from just running down the narrow hall.

There at the other end of a hall with one or two fixtures casting dim washed-out luminescence on the scene, Makoto Kino was locked in the grip of a monster several times her size. The monster snarled, squeezing her in its grip, her feet leaving the ground. Seiji's hand came out and grabbed his elbow before he could bolt and Touma turned, growling at Korin.

Seiji returned the aggression with a dark look of his own. "That is a long hallway. You run down there right now you're going to make yourself an easy target, idiot," he hissed in a voice so low Touma had to struggle to hear him.

Touma closed his eyes and took several deep breaths, forcing himself to calm down and think rationally. Seiji was right. If he charged down there now, he'd have nowhere to dodge an attack and the monster would have plenty of time to take him out.

There was another feminine cry that grabbed hold of his spine and squeezed, followed by a spiral of emerald lightning that took out the remaining light fixtures. The monster roared so loudly the walls vibrated and he and Seiji ducked their heads in an attempt to shelter their ears. His helmet helped at least.

The attack left them shrouded in darkness.

Perfect.

Cautiously, he and Seiji turned the corner and began making their way down the long and narrow corridor on silent feet. The skirmish at the end of the hall was no longer there, which meant they'd moved somewhere further out of sight at the t-junction. Not having eyes on Makoto made him anxious. The silence made that worse.

He could hear movement – haphazard scuffling – somewhere up ahead. Soft feminine grunts and whimpers escalated the pressure already building in his blood, and it took everything he had not to just run headlong into the fray.

Beside him, Seiji had cautiously allowed a tiny bit of illumination to course down his blade – just enough that they could see but anyone more than a meter in front of them might think they were a trick of the shadows.

"Mina-chan!" The sudden scream was so loud and unexpected Touma felt his heart seize. He stopped moving long enough to grab at the silken tunic over his armor, clutching it as he caught his breath. Seiji had no such reservations. The man that had kept Touma reasoned and logical was now bolting the rest of the distance like an Olympic athlete, the Korin ken a steady glow in front of him.

Touma scrambled after him, catching him up as both of them rounded the next corner at the same time. They skidded to a halt as they tried to make sense of the scene. The hall here wasn't long at all. Someone had attempted to turn it into a common area, if the overturned angular chairs were any indication. A bank of windows that accented the corner let in the roiling charcoal of the sky outside, which cast helpful light into the area.

Several silhouettes struggled against in the grey light, one of them obviously huge and hulking, two of them tiny in comparison. All of them much too closely entangled for he or Seiji to charge into the skirmish. Korin vibrated beside him as they tried to understand what was happening. Seiji made a noise in his throat then, and suddenly the Korin ken intensified its glow, bringing the light of day into the small space.

It was enough.

The creature it revealed hissed as it turned its head, shrinking from the light. The first thing he noticed was that it had rows of sharp, pointed, blood-flecked teeth – like a leech. Its eyes were completely black and bottomless. It looked to have skin made of some sort of lizard scale, but it also looked to be….wet. Touma tried not to gag.

The light and their presence served as the distraction he and Seiji had been looking for. Touma took in the sight of Makoto, crumpled and on the ground. Her arms were over her head still, her face blank, as if she couldn't understand why she wasn't still grappling with a monster.

And in one of its massive paws, Minako desperately struggled to loosen its grip from around her neck.

Seiji snarled in his throat, the sound full of aggression, the Korin ken on the verge of being almost too bright now. The monster growled right back, and stood. Minako managed to land a solid hit on the arm holding her, and it turned, letting out an ear-piercing shriek in her face before it simply threw her aside.

Out a window.

The sound of shattering glass and Minako's scream were deafening in his ears, but his brain didn't short-circuit until he watched Makoto dive out of the broken window after her.

Unless she'd been hiding some kind of secret ability to fly from him, he was pretty sure she'd just leaped to her death. Instinct kicked in, his heart thumping like a bronco against his ribs as he didn't think, but simply launched himself out after them, the momentary weightlessness disconcerting.

He was dismayed to see how far down they'd already fallen.

He knew the calculation – velocity equal to the acceleration of gravity multiplied by the amount of time a body was in free fall – but that didn't do anything to calm the rocketing of his blood through his veins as he maneuvered his body into an aerodynamic freefall and prayed he was larger and heavier than both women by enough to catch up with them.

He'd die trying if he couldn't.

Time seemed to slow to a grinding halt as he simply tried to make himself fall faster, but just as he began to worry that they'd hit the ground before he could connect with them Makoto was suddenly there, in reach.

Their eyes locked for a moment – hers wide with terror and the sheer surprise of his presence, a glassy sheen betraying the shedding of tears. She'd managed to get her arms around Minako and had twisted, putting her body between Minako and the ground, trying until the very last to shelter her friend.

Touma reached out as she reached up, and their fingers caught and held by some miracle of physics he didn't try to quantify. And then the ground was too close, much too close, and Touma tugged on her arm, hard, pulling her toward him as he called upon Tenku's protective bubble.

The armor, dependable as ever, reacted with the speed of thought – so quickly that they came to a bone-jarring halt within its protection, Makoto hitting the wall of its bubble with a heft that threatened to shatter that protection, Minako still cradled in her grasp. Touma spread his arms and legs wide to help stabilize the sphere around them, and they finally stopped moving, drifting idly just above the ground.

That had been far, far too close. And while part of him was exhilarated with the fact that he'd caught her, the rest of him was quivering over the fact that they'd ended up scant meters above the ground. He studied both women, looking for signs of serious injury.

Makoto was still blinking up at him with wide eyes, tears falling slowly along her temples, breath coming in small pants as she tried to take him in. Touma met her stare for stare, soaking in the sight of her, seeing the exhaustion line her face, her ragged clothes, her bruised and battered body. She trembled as she clutched Minako, but as he watched, her grip loosened, trusting him, trusting his armor to keep her friend safely in the air as she reached for him with one hand.

Touma gently laced her fingers with his, and when their palms made contact, a bolt of energy flashed through him. He couldn't help himself then. He tugged, pulling her into his arms. He wrapped one arm securely around her waist while the other cradled the back of her skull gently against his shoulder. And then he closed his eyes, and simply breathed her in, savoring the weight of her in his arms.

"Mako-chan," he whispered, squeezing her gently. She made a noise that was half gasp and half snort.

"I-I like when you call me that," she replied tearily, and he could hear the smile in her voice despite the heavy emotion riding beneath it.

The feeling of her body against his was a balm against the rage and anxiety that had slowly been building inside of him. She was here. He had her now. Touma savored the warmth she radiated and the solid feeling of her in his arms.

And then reluctantly, he pulled back – just a little – to take her in again. They studied each other quietly, absorbing the peace of the moment. Touma reached up, and gently cupped the side of her face. Anxiety from moments ago, when he'd watched her leap out the window, slowly trickled back onto his shoulders now that he knew she was relatively safe and unharmed from the trip. He scowled at her.

"What in the hell were you thinking, jumping out a window like that? Can you fly?!" he growled at her. She had the grace to flush and look uncomfortable, but she scowled right back at him.

"Of course not!" she snapped. Then the ire seemed to drain from her, leaving her looking exhausted and unsure of herself. She sighed. "I don't know what I was thinking. I guess I figured I'd try to find a ledge…or something," she admitted glumly.

"That's our Mako-chan. Always ready to take a bullet, even if it's a dumb idea," Minako's voice, rasping and weak, interrupted them. Makoto gasped in his arms and let him go, turning and letting herself drop, sliding carefully along their bubble so she was down in the bottom with Minako. The Senshi of Venus was laying at the bottom and hadn't moved much. Touma felt concern wash in when she did little more than turn her head to track Makoto's progress.

"You scared me half to death Mina-chan," the auburn-haired girl chided softly. Touma spread his limbs again to stabilize their bubble. Now that he'd recovered from the shock of finding and nearly losing Makoto, he admitted he was a bit worried about Seiji. He'd left Korin behind without thinking to save Makoto and Minako. He closed his eyes, concentrating, and the bubble began to rise back up the side of the building.

"I scared you?! What the hell were you doing, jumping after me out a window?!" Minako wheezed. Makoto gestured with frustration.

"Well I wasn't going to just let you fall!" she said indignantly. Minako rolled her eyes, though she still wasn't moving the rest of her body.

"So you thought falling with me was going to help?!" she rasped in an exasperated tone of voice. Makoto growled.

"I already said – I thought I'd find a ledge to catch or something!" She gestured again, irritated.

It had been a noble thought. He understood why she'd done it. But they were going to have a long conversation later about maybe not trying to jump out a window after someone when she couldn't fly and didn't have a game plan.

"You're crazy," Venus sighed. "You take being the Guardian Senshi way too seriously sometimes. What are we going to do with you?" she asked fondly, reaching a weak and shaking hand to tug affectionately at Makoto's sleeve. Makoto shrugged.

"Don't end up in dangerous situations and we won't have to worry about it," she grumbled. Minako let out a brief, pained giggle as they pulled up near the broken window again. Touma veered the bubble to the side so that they weren't directly parallel with the hole and tried to see what was going on inside.

When there was no sign of Seiji or the monster, he carefully maneuvered them back inside and set the bubble down gently. It dissolved, and Minako groaned as her head thumped against the floor. Touma winced.

"Sorry," he said guiltily.

"S'ok," she said weakly, putting trembling fingers to her forehead. "I'm not exactly at my most spry this moment."

Makoto stooped then, and tucked her arms beneath Venus' shoulders and knees, lifting her with a wince. "Got you," she said softly. Minako huffed.

"Put me down you goofball. You can barely stand up yourself," she admonished. Makoto's expression hardened, her chin firming stubbornly. Touma moved forward to take Minako from her, but Makoto shook her head.

"It's better if your hands are free Touma. I can carry Minako for right now," she insisted.

Touma sighed, rubbing his forehead. He didn't like it, but she made a lot of sense. He nodded at her, and then took a moment to find the thread connecting Korin and Tenku, following it slowly and carefully toward Seiji.

They walked quietly for a few moments, Makoto following just behind him, when she suddenly said "Hey Mina-chan. Don't you dare go to sleep on me." Her tone was light, but he could hear the alarm beneath it.

"Mmm ok...I won't," Minako rasped quietly, her words taking on the edge of a slur. Now that the immediate danger had passed, Touma had to admit her condition was a growing concern. She wasn't moving much, seemed limp and weak, and he was worried there might be serious physical trauma they couldn't see. There was extensive bruising around her neck that he didn't like the look of either.

The sound of a sword slicing through concrete and metal beams – a sound Touma was much too familiar with – echoed up ahead of them, and he put a hand out, stopping their small group at the juncture in the hall, just out of sight. Keeping his body angled in front of them, he peered around the corner, attempting to take in the battle scene.

It looked like Seiji versus two or three of those monsters now, and Touma cursed under his breath. While the master swordsman was holding his own with little effort, they didn't exactly have time to be playing around with minions right now. They needed to get the hell out of this dimension before escape wasn't an option.

He bit his lip, considering. Right now, Minako and Makoto were safely behind him, and no one seemed aware of their presence. He could attack from this vantage point, but that would draw attention to their position, and then Touma and Seiji would both be well and truly engaged, which would leave Makoto and Minako vulnerable.

A feminine hand landed on his shoulder. "Touma. Help Seiji. I've got Minako. I might be down, but I'm not out. The faster we beat these things the better. The longer we battle, the more attention we're going to get," Makoto whispered in his ear. He turned, casting her an anxious look over his shoulder, but nodded at her and pulled the Sho Ha Kyu from its cradle on his back.

The massive golden arms snapped into place automatically, the thick and heavy cord pulling taut between them. He reached back again and pulled a single golden arrow from his limitless quiver, notching it and sighting down the shaft.

Rather than call his attack, he simply let the arrow fly. It met its mark with pinpoint accuracy, flying through the neck of one monster and into the chest of another. Both creatures shrieked, but the one he'd gotten in the throat went down and didn't move. The other one roared at him so loudly a foul breeze ruffled his hair before it began thundering down the hall in his direction.

Touma calmly stepped fully into the hallway, another arrow already notched and ready as he moved forward to intercept its attack. This time, he let loose with a Shin Ku Ha, and though the creature made a valiant effort at dodging, it disintegrated with the blast.

Along with most of the hallway between the juncture where he stood and further down where Seiji was still battling. Korin ran the remaining creature through with his nodatchi, straightening with a satisfied expression on his face. He turned, taking in the destroyed hallway with a raised eyebrow, but didn't say anything as he leaped over the massive hole in the floor and landed on Touma's side.

There was an explosion of emerald-green lightning behind him and an angry female yell. Seiji's eyes went wide and Touma whirled around, bolting for where he'd left the Senshi, his heart beating against his lungs.

He'd known. He'd known if he left them something might happen, and he cursed his decision now. They were further down the hall as he rounded the corner, Minako laying unmoving between their location and where Makoto was struggling against a pair of monsters further down.

As they ran, the second monster in the pair ambled around Makoto's struggle and made straight for where Venus lay.

It was going to reach her first, he realized. It would get to her before they could get to it, and his stomach sank to his knees. He pulled an arrow as he ran, notching it and sighting along the shaft as they moved. It reared back, horrific claws the length of his head gleaming in the dim, shadowy hallway, and Touma let the arrow fly, catching it through the breastbone.

It shrieked, staggering backwards, but the attack hadn't done enough damage and it lunged forward again. Touma cursed, notching another arrow, when it screamed suddenly, emerald lightning coalescing around the arrow in its chest and then reaching wicked green fingers up and into the monster's body. It convulsed with another scream, and then collapsed where it stood, revealing the struggle behind it in the hallway.

Makoto, in the grasp of another huge and menacing monster had twisted, one arm flung out, eyes narrowed as she struggled to focus on where the other monster had been. The creature holding her struck hard, and she cried out, trying to curl in on herself.

Touma snarled, his feet leaving the ground as he moved his sights to this new monster and let loose. The arrow flew true, finding its home in the dead center of the monster's forehead. It didn't make a sound, simply dropped to the ground, Makoto flying from its grip and bouncing down the hallway toward them.

Touma skidded to a halt right beside her and dropped to his knees, panting. "Mako-chan!" he yelled, unable to keep the desperation from his voice. She groaned, rolling slowly to her knees, a hand to her head.

"Nice shot," she muttered, rubbing at her chest. Touma put a supportive hand on her back, taking one of her smaller hands in his other one.

"I'm so sorry. I should have just stayed with you," he murmured, guilt and anger clamping his emotions in a stranglehold. She shook her head, smiling up at him.

"You did the right thing. We need to get out of here as soon as possible. There will be more of those things, and very soon," she said, her smile dropping into a frown. Touma wanted to take the time to look her over, but he acknowledged the wisdom in her words and simply nodded, rising and pulling her up with him. She groaned again but waved her hand at him when he shot her an alarmed look.

"I'm just sore and tired. I'll be ok. We need a new place to hide, right now," she said. Seiji approached them then, his face dark. In his arms, he cradled the Senshi of Venus carefully, one of her arms hanging limply beside her, the other draped over her stomach. She turned, and he breathed a small sigh of relief when he noticed she was still conscious.

"Nice shot, Tametomo," she croaked, giving him a weak, trembling smile.

"Thanks," he replied. He looked up at Seiji. "Let's go," he said. Korin nodded. Minako coughed then, her body jerking, and Touma was alarmed to see red around her mouth. He shot Seiji a look, but the blond was too busy staring at Minako. When he finally lifted his head and caught Touma's eye, he could see fear beneath Seiji's normally calm, collected personality.

They moved quickly, Touma simply turning and scooping Makoto up in his arms. He winked at her when she gasped in surprise. "This is faster," he told her, heading back towards the broken window.

"Why do I feel like I've heard that line before?" she teased, wrapping her arms around his neck. He flushed but didn't slow his stride, Seiji right behind him.

When they got to the open window, he turned, facing Korin. "This is faster," he explained, letting Makoto's feet down but keeping a supportive arm around her waist. He held one hand out, and then closed his eyes, calling Tenku's bubble around him once again. Seiji shuffled closer to him as they lifted from the floor, and Touma guided them out of the window.

They drifted upwards a little ways, and Touma pushed them back towards the Hikawa shrine, following the connection they shared with Rekka to guide them back. Minako was unresponsive in Seiji's hold, and Makoto leaned heavily on him, clinging to him as they moved. He felt her shaking, and furrowed his brow, looking down to take her in.

"You ok?" he asked. Her teeth chattered, but she smiled up at him weakly, nodding.

"Yeah. I'm ok. Flying just…isn't my favorite thing to do," she said quietly, and then squeezed her eyes shut, clinging to him more tightly. Touma returned the tension, tucking her against him more securely.

"Hang tight, ok? I won't let you fall, I promise. We'll be there soon," he reassured her. His face was grim as they flew over the wrecked landscape and Touma moved them as quickly as he could manage, his instincts picking up on a subtle change in the atmosphere. The air was charged with something he couldn't name, and the pressure had been building steadily since he'd left the Hikawa, and, he imagined, Kayura or Ryo or both had stopped Ami's computer from running.

They needed to get out of here.

Fast.