Chapter 17: The Third Quadrant

Guys, I am sorry for taking this long, guys. The guys at the college university are making the guys and me at a real hard time, guys. I've been doing time at the college, guys. Since my future is important to me, I want to work hard at it, like the guys before me, guys. Also, I've heard that the word guys is offensive to SJW Guys. So might as well put them here, guys. Hope you understand why I've been away, guys.

I'm sorry, guys. I really am. I'm sort of going through a phase right now. This hobby does nothing for the writers on , and any other mock novel sites like it. I am lagging behind because I, like I said, have to be focusing to my studies and building a career. That's why there's been a hiatus right now. This pattern might even reach to December, completely slowing down the production of my content. I am sorry for the people actually reading this. I am late in this story-business, but I hope you understand, guys. Hehe. GUYS.

I hope you keep reading for my content and not for my character. I am nearing the big climax. Be patient. I have a plan.

Keep reading, guys. If you don't want to, you know where the Close button is.

Also, it's time to raid Area 51! Let's see the aliens.

Present Time - Musutafu, Residential District, 11:23 PM

The moon reaches its peak in the sky, shining its light over the troubled city of Musutafu. With the news of heinous experiments done on Quirks. News of an evil villain loose, along with other sub-villains. Its stricken hundreds of families with fear, making them uneasy in their homes. In the far reaches of the city, the dainty Tachibana Residence remains untouched of the news, lying in futons in one room. Akihiro's eye twitches from the touch of his big brother, coddling his hand upon Akihiro's shoulder.

Why were they all in one room, you may ask? Because Akita Tachibana, their mother, was being haughty again, rambling that she misses her children. By the time each one of them settled in their own rooms, she kicked their doors down, demanding that she sleep with everyone. Out of character for her, but certain longing for one's children can change a person over time.

Whilst the family was sleeping soundly in the living room, the moon's soft light illuminating the family asleep. Except for Akihiro Tachibana. He lies there, stuck in the middle of the room, finding himself stuck in a futon between his father, Aikawa Tachibana, and his big brother, Amano. Both are sensitive from the slightest touch from their slumber.

From the small rumbling that he heard and felt from outside, it seemed to be really serious and dangerous. '… I can't just sit here, with Mr. Sokudo about to risk his life for the city! …' Akihiro beats himself mentally, gripping onto the futon tightly. He feels the slight pain from his fingers through the blanket. He starts to feel the tinging pain through his fingers so he frees his fingers to let them rest.

'… Stella!' He sends his thoughts to his Quirk. Stella, like Dark Shadow, grows wilder in the dark, making her hard to control in the dark. But lucky for the twenty-year-old, he did not have to go through what Tokoyami had to. Unlike him, he gave himself up to the Quirk, feeling the powers surge through him. Thus, they became one. The relationship is not one without conflict though. They still disagree with one another, but never out of spite for the other.

Stella, hearing the call of her master, slithers through Akihiro's blanket. Her size comes out as colossal, the moonlight grazing to illuminate her figure. In the dark, Akihiro can see that she's in her Python form. Her head looms over him, looking straight at him with her eyes.

"What is it you ask of me, Akki~?" Stella whispers with a teasing grin, making Akihiro annoyed.

"Don't call me that way."

"But your mother calls you that, Akki."

"Only she can call me that, Stella."

"But we refer to each other by our names, and we're clossssse." Stella says, giving into the stereotype with her head slightly tilted.

"N-… We'll table that discussion for another day. Right now, Sokudo needs our help."

"Ntt… Fine then." Stella gives up, still retaining the grin on her snake face. She reverses back into his body for Akihiro to work with her. Disregarding the events before, Akihiro shakes his head off of the details and channels his thoughts and emotions to Stella.

Akihiro looks at his left and right to check if they were still sleeping soundly.

"pbtw… not so hard, All Might." Akihiro hears his mother mutter in her sleep. Akihiro stares at his mother with a shock. Stella caught that.

"Now that's something you won't be forgetting anytime soon." Stella answers quickly, popping out her tiny head from his forehead. Akihiro groans at how much of a tease the snake can be.

Akihiro exhales before he summons the snakes behind/below him wriggle from his back, lightly pushing him up. They slowly crawl Akihiro out of the futon. Then, a snort comes from Amano. He stops in their tracks, until he rolls over to the other side, facing away from Akihiro.

Relief washes over Akihiro as he breathes out an exhale. Shrugging that off, he makes his snakes wriggle and worm Akihiro out of the futon. His midriff slides out of the futon. Being impatient, he calls the snakes back into his body. He props his elbows below him and wriggles out of the futon. He swings his feet out of it and stands up, looming over them.

"thanks." He whispers to Stella, holding his chest. He can feel Stella nodding to him. With that, Akihiro tiptoes his way over, just near their heads, making sure to not wake anyone up. His toes pass his grumbling father and his older sister sleeping serenely.

He drops a small bead of sweat by his forehead and it rolls down his jawline as he avoids bumping the table beside him. His breathing is put to a stop until his feet finally pass by his sister.

He places his left foot first, and relief is sent throughout his left leg. And he hops his right quickly, getting himself out of the spot. Relief is once again struck through his body, slumping his shoulders. He lightly walks over to the dark hallway and to his old room.

He wraps his hands around the door knob and slowly twists it. He hears the door unlatch and props the knob upward. He slowly pushes through the door without a sounding creak.

"phew…" He says to himself, slipping through the thin opening. 'right. time to get my hero costume.' He thinks to himself walking over to his effects. A leather jacket with his splattered venom on the back lies on top of his sling bag, leaning on the bed.

He quickly drapes the jacket over his shoulders and unzips his bag to take his used-up cloth. He rips them into cloth strips and wraps them around his palms. He yanks them hard and ties them around his knuckles, adding a bit more punch to them.

He balls his cloth pauldrons into fists and takes the remains and wraps it around his mouth and over his nose. He inhales and exhales, setting his nerves to relax. With that, he whips his sling bag around his shoulders and lightly speeds to the window.

He unlatches its locks and slides it to the side slowly. He steps on the window to step his foot outside.

"Where are you going?" The voice makes Akihiro shudder and shake as he turns around to look at her. His sister in pajamas. Her undone blonde hair drapes upon her shoulder to her chest. Her face into a sad frown as she is frozen by the door.

Akihiro can feel how worried Akane is and awkwardly waves at her.

"Why… are you outside?" Akane asks worryingly as she steps to the window, ready to drag him back inside.

Akihiro, seeing that she won't take abandon as an answer, sighs before facing up to her. He drags down the cloth on his face and frowns back at her. "Sis. I can't stay."

"W-why?" Akane answers back quickly.

Guilt seeps into Akihiro as he looks up at his big sister's plain puppy-dog eyes. "I have to meet up with someone. He's someone very important. I have to be there for him."

"…" Akane answers back with silence. Akihiro notices she's about to cry. Akane whips her head around to hide the tears seeping out of her eyes. Akihiro's eyes start to wet themselves as he looks onto her sister. If he cries, she cries and vice versa.

Then, Akihiro feels as if he was struck with a truck as he catches Akane's sobbing. He looks up to a tearful face looking down at him. Akane's shoulders shake with the sobbing, leaning down on the window to look down on him.

"Why… d-do you… ha-always LeAve?!" She says between sobs with a quivering mouth, rising in volume and in a shriek. The sight and sound of her sister's state brings Akihiro to shame. Then, the question started to make himself ponder. He looks up to her with a frown, nearing her in a step. She continues to sob, wheezing to gather air. Her chest puffs before she starts to ramble. "You always leave me and Amano with Mom and Dad. Why? Are we not that important to you?"

As Akihiro hears that ramble, she swore she sounded like Mom.

"You think that because you're the runt of the family, that we laugh at you, we don't love you? We do, Akki! Don't leave again! Like back then…" Akane lets her rambling stop there to trembles, whipping her eyes away from Akihiro's.

The guilt seeps away from Akihiro when reason washes it away. Why did he think he was the runt again? Teasing, laughing… All these prove to be secondary truths to the primary. That he is loved. Why didn't he believe that from the start?

Akihiro snakes his hands up toward her. Akane looks down, lowering herself to face him. She leans her arms on the window's sill, her face like a waterfall. Akihiro wraps his hands around Akane's, clutching them tightly saying, "Look at me." She does, letting the tears drop.

"I am going to come back." The reply makes Akane retort with a "tch."

"Why do you…" Akane stops herself in finishing. She wheezes inward to ask, "… Why do you need to be there?" in one breath. The silence leaves the moonlight to seep in, shining them both.

"… I'm a hero." Akihiro says, breaking the silence. The soft night breeze blows through them, both shiver from the cold as it blows their skin and both of their hairs sway from it. "Didn't you feel the rumbling as we were sleeping? … I have a feeling that that will make its way here, unless I help the pros." He says seriously with a slight grin on his face. The smile sets Akane's heart at ease. But she never lost her pettiness.

She whips herself down to him, locking her arms to keep him in a deep embrace. Akihiro jumps from the sudden touch. Akihiro fumbles over himself before Akane says to him in an urging manner, "Hug me." Akihiro quickly snakes his arms to her back, and she clutches him tightly. Akihiro takes a moment before he melts into the embrace. The serenity of the moonlight adds to beauty of the situation, forgiveness and need ensues as the embrace goes on.

Akane nestles into Akihiro's neck, not wanting her brother to leave. How many years has it been since then, she thought to herself. Was it about three years ago? When he got angry and went to live on his own? Because of… their dad.

Because Akihiro had a Quirk of his own, he was the black sheep of the family. Though he did not show it, he definitely gave off that feeling. The feeling of disappointment. His cold eyes could scar the entire family when he was mad.

"Look at me, sis." Akihiro says behind her ear, and Akane shifts her head back to look at Akihiro. His serious eyes catching her every attention, her obsidian black eyes fixed on Akihiro's soft dandelion eyes. "I am going to come back. I-I promise." He wasn't lying to himself, his eyes started to water and his throat started to clump. He was moved to how Akane seemed to care about him. He did know that she did, but not this much.

Akane's eyes stop watering as they stare into each other's eyes. As they stare, Akane catches his seriousness, and decides to trust him for it. "Alright. But… don't die. Ok?" Akane asks finally and Akihiro breathes weakly before smiling up to her. Then, Stella meekly pops out of Akihiro's forehead, making the both of them jump in surprise. Mostly Akihiro.

"Don't worry, Akane. I'll keep this boy safe." The reassuring remark makes Akihiro twitch and squint his eyes up at the cheekiness of the snake. He growls as he glares upward is interrupted by Akane's lighthearted giggling. Akane then sniffles and rubs off the tears in her eyes, laughing inward.

"*sniff* Fine, then. And make sure he is back before Mom and Dad wake up. Okay, Stella?"

"It will be my pleasure." Stella curtsies her head and retracts back into Akihiro's forehead. Akihiro, on the other hand, lets out an inward growl from his throat. His sister tugs a smile on her face as she stands above him, her shoulders leaning down on her palms. He shoots up to her a questioning look.

"Do come back. Okay?"

The question strikes a tingling shiver up his neck and into his head. Regardless, he nods up to her and places his hands on hers on the window's ledge. He hoists the strap of his bag before stepping backward, away from her sister. Akane stares as he steps off into the blue wilderness. Ever since he left, she's hated to see his back. Especially when he was leaving.

Now, again. Why did this have to happen, she thinks. She knows why. But why him? Was it because of his Quirk? His need to be something more than the runt of the family? His need for recognition? His unrelenting want to be the best? His want to have a normal life?

…

Maybe that was it.

In the streets, fire trucks have been going non-stop by the hour and going to the three apartments that have been set on fire. The fires could have spread everywhere if it had not been for the efforts the Rescue Hero: Backdraft and the Punching Hero: Death Arms, along with sidekicks Crimson Riot and Earphone Jack. The two pros have been putting out the fires for the past three minutes. Inside a burning building, Backdraft shoots water from his hoses and douses the flamelets and the last of the fires inside. Through a hole below him, Death Arms carries three civilians, unconscious but alive.

"Is that the last of them?" Backdraft shouts down to Death Arms.

"Yeah! I'm taking them outside!"

"Take care." Backdraft mutters before retracting back his waters and turns around to survey the upper floors. Outside, Crimson Riot and Earphone Jack standby outside, seeing the hostages are mended and calmed down. Kyoka Jiro wraps a man's leg with a stick as a straightener and ties it in a knot.

"Thank you." The civilian mutters with a smile on his face, and Kyoka smiles back. Then, nurses come from behind her to say, "We've got this, kid. Good work." Before hoisting the man up and rolling him to the ambulance.

Kirishima looks at the buildings in suppressed shock. "… what could have caused this?" he mutters under his breath as he stands in front of the crowd, keeping them away and a path for the ambulances and officials. Then, Kirishima stumbles from mannequins' bumping. "Oy!" He barks as they pass by him with baskets. Inside, food.

The injured civilians stand in awe, with exclaims of joy as the mannequins walk to them with the baskets. Their wooden hands set down the baskets and kneel next to the injured. They hand out some bread and some crackers to them, and says pass in handspeak. After numerous attempts, the injured able get the message and pass them around.

Kirishima is astonished by the generosity of those mannequins. Not too long before Kyoka Jiro notices the river of food, passed on to the back. She looks to the front to see mannequins passing them until the foods run out and they stand, taking the baskets in their hands. "Thank you, sweet stick people." An old man sitting says up to a mannequin. The wooden puppet slightly bows down to him with a hand on his chest, acting "You're welcome." They step out of their place and walk out, passing by Kirishima and Kyoka.

The two Class A students look at them as they passed them by. "Whose mannequins are those?" Kyoka asks with a raised eyebrow, leaning over to Kirishima.

"Dunno. Someone generous, I guess." Kirishima pans out a guess, scratching the nape of his neck. Out of the silence that dread them both, Kyoka breaks the coming awkwardness.

"What do you think is happening? With the jailbreak earlier?"

"… Umm… With events like this, I'm thinking that us mock heroes that took the Licensure Exam will have to be do double duty with the pros. Don't you?" Kirishima hypothesizes. Kyoka nods yes and she ruffles her hair. Then, out of the crowd, another mannequin hustles up to them both. Kyoka and Kirishima looks at it running to a halt and respectfully presents a flashy business card with both hands.

Kyoka and Kirishima receive them and look at both sides of the card. Pitch black with silver letters that shimmer in their eyes, inscribed "Watari Services". They flip it to see its address and its telephone number.

"Oh, you're a social service." Kyoka points out with a surprised look of glee. The wooden puppet responds with a salute, chest puffed, arms straight down and feet stamped together. "Well, good luck with your business." Kyoka nods the wooden puppet off, and it lowers the salute and tramps away and into the crowd.

Kirishima and Kyoka smile at the thought that there are social workers in Musutafu, helping them out. "That was nice." Kirishima says as he pockets the business cards that it gave them, and Kyoka does the same too.

Then, Kyoka speaks her mind. "Maybe the pros won't have to work so hard after all."

Kirishima's ears catch her words when in a glimpse at the corner of his eye, he sees a man glaring at the building. He turns his head to look at the grey-scaled man and sees him to be familiar. He's seen someone like that before. In some white light. No… a fire.

It was him! The guy that saved him from the Axe gang.

"What's wrong?" Jiro asks Kirishima passing by her and looking into the crowd. She follows his line of sight just to see there is nobody there. "… What were you looking at?" Kyoka Jiro asks one more time, earning a shocked face plastered on Kirishima.

In her thoughts, something must have happened to him. But that's none of her business so she bats her eyelashes away. Until she notices Kirishima passing by her shoulder.

"H-Hey. Where are you going, Kirishima?" She says with a tone of surprise in her voice. Hearing her, Kirishima stops in his tracks and pauses staring forward.

Kirishima turns on his heels and faces Jiro, and looks at her onyx irises. He feigns a smile as he says, "Don't worry, Kyoka-chan. I just forgot something. Hold down the fort, will ya?" with a smile before he leaves and dips into the crowd. Kyoka sneers at him from mere annoyance of his use of her name with puffed cheeks.

"Fine, then. Kiri~." She says his cutesy name, making him smirk as he walks away. '… not even so much as a wave.'

In the crowd by the building in cinders, a young man in a hood with brunet hair hides in the crowd. He hears the murmuring of the crowd. He hears his bronze amulet speaking to him, whispers of concerned whirring hitting his ears from it.

"Shhh. We'll find him. I know we will. For now, keep quiet please." He hushes down at the amulet, and its whirring dies down. He sighs exhaling in relief before tucking the amulet into the hole of his shirt. The amulet only had silver colors, and is shaped into a circle with blades inside that formed into a circle, surrounding themselves with a purple stone that had begun to light up.

"Seems like the heroes need more help than us right now." "Yeah. I almost feel sorry for 'em."

… depressing, he thinks to himself of the condition of the people around him. He shakes his head from the thoughts of strangers. He didn't have any time to dawdle around. For he had a destiny to fill. Or at least he and his amulet felt like they had one. On any case, he had to find someone. A vigilante that had been roaming the streets with a fist and a Dragonbreath Quirk.

He takes out a stolen photo of Ryu walking in the streets with his usual face-mask. In this wild crowd, it almost seemed impossible. Who knew that outside Hokkaido would be this wild?

He grabs his amulet out of his shirt and speaks to it hushly. "hey. This is the place right?" His question had been trickled with impatience and anxiety. His amulet whirrs back to him, saying to him that this was the place it's been bugging him about. Like, for the past three weeks.

"fine. Stay quiet. I'll find him." He whispers down to his amulet and tucks it back in. He starts to look around and walks blindly out of the fray, away from the incident. Maybe if he doesn't expect it, the man he's looking for will come to him. Hopefully.

Meanwhile, yellow eyes glare at the crowd from the alley, with two other pairs, one soft and another squinting. Ryusake Taheshi, Connor Smith-Sanders and Ikari lean on the wall behind them. They look at each other with seriousness in their eyes, pushing out any fear they have mustered from doing this. They nod at each other and walk to the streets, blending in with the crowd.

The three avert their eyes from the sour gazes of the crowd. Their shoulders lightly bump to the people's shoulders and their brows and eyes dagger at them as they pass by. Connor stiffs his shoulders and locks his eyes to the end of the tunnel, apologizing under his breath.

Ikari keeps a blank face as she strolls through the crowd, disregarding the faces. And focuses on their thoughts. Her face droops, her brows depressing when she hears their comments.

"Jeez, these three are rude." "Hey… didn't I see him from somewhere?" "Cursed feminist." "Such a Brie Larson character." "He's such a dick."

Ikari then realizes that the comments weren't pointed at her. They were pointed to Ryu walking behind her. She looks back with concern, seeing him with his usual glaring, fists balled as he swings them outward. His face looking past her to the end of the tunneling crowd.

"Keep moving." Ryu's voice seeps into her head, setting her at somewhat ease. They keep moving to the end of the line, not noticing the pair of eyes that have set their gaze upon Ryu.

"It is him. I know it." "Are you sure?" "Very."

With their thought crashing into her mind, she turns to grab Ryu's hand and pulls it. Ryu says nothing as they storm past Connor. "Uhh guys? Why are you running?" He calls at their backs and picks up the pace. Ikari pants as she and Ryu come out of the crowd, and Connor does as well. The brunet American speeds up to catch up with the two, then he was quickly caught up with another brunet, wheezingly panting but not passing him.

"Who are you?" Connor questions the boy racing with him, and the hooded stranger looks at him still panting.

"*wheeze* *panting* I uhh *wheeze*" The stranger can't be bothered to answer his question. He starts overtaking Connor to get Ryusake. Connor notices that and grabs his collar and pulls the guy back. However, to his shock, gloved hands shoot out from the guy's Amulet. Connor watches with wide eyes as it extends to his hands.

'What?! … Impossible!' He thinks to himself and the extended hands proceed to swat and slap Connor's hands. Connor hisses at the sharp pains on the back of his palms before the gloved pries his fingers off the guy's collar. Connor stumbles and lags behind, and the hooded man speeds up ahead of him. He nears his target, running in front of him. Connor picks up his pace and catches up to him.

She turns to a right for a secluded alley and runs them. For Ikari, she was running for Ryu's life. With the sights that she's seen him as, scars and wounds and reds and greys, she was not prepared to see him like that again. Then, Ryu wakes up from the blank space that he's been in while her hands wrapped around his.

Ryu glances behind him to see the hooded guy catching up to them. Tired playing games, Ryu whips his hands from Ikari's, shocking her from the sudden pull. Ryu turns on his heels, glaring at the running man. Ryu roars at him still incoming as he powerfully swings his right. His forearm lands on the chaser's face, hitting his mouth and teeth. His body flips before crashing onto the floor. His head sways upward before banging down onto the floor, going unconscious.

Ryu looks down upon the unconscious chaser, still glaring and growling down upon him. Connor pants before standing beside Ryu and Ikari, looking down upon the brunet chasing them earlier.

"eesh. How hard did you hit him, Ryu?" Connor points out the brunet's face, feeling sorry for the guy. Ikari and Ryu look on to chaser. Ryu averts his eyes to see if anyone saw that.

He lowly growls as he lords over him, grabbing his collars and pulling him up. Connor watches Ryu dragging the brunet, legs lagging behind. He steadfastly walks over and carries the man's legs. Ryu and Connor walk over to a more hiding alley, and Ikari looks on, with awkward gestures. Her hands lulled on her sides, feeling depressed that he just whipped her arm off. Like a pebble on the side of the road. Useless.

… Her thoughts rocket and sidewind, having different meanings.

'Ryu doesn't care about you.'

'You are just a pauper. A lost kitten.'

'You think you are helping him?'

Her thoughts mock and laugh at her, seemingly not of her own. They rise in volume as the laughing pushes everything else off her train of thought. She listens to them, each booming into the recesses of her mind. It spread like wildfire.

Ryu and Connor throw the hooded man in a dumpster, still dazed. Connor breathes out of his mouth as they lean on the dumpster, still looking at the guy's Amulet. He could not believe what he saw earlier. Gloved hands like he saw from cartoons in real life. The thought of a person inside a thing was absurd. There it was, around the neck of a stranger.

Ryu looks at the stranger's face, looking at his purple mouth and how he smashed his mouth. Ryu and Connor step off the dumpster and let the lid shut loudly. Ryu's feet clumpingly sound on the floor, and he passes by Ikari. He failed to notice Ikari's blank face. Her spine shudders down to her legs, feeling the cold.

Her heart droops inside her chest, her heartbeat going silent as she glances at Ryu. In her mind, she's below Ryu, his shadow looming over her on a pedestal. The light being blocked by her. She feels as if Ryu is out of her league, and the pedestal keeps getting higher with each time he takes down a thug or villain. Just to save her. In her thoughts, at least.

She feels like standing in water, murky and supple instead of flowing and light. And Ryu and Connor move so fluently makes her feel as if she's tied down with shackles and chains.

'… why do I feel like this? As if everyone's better than me? Am I useless? Am I heavy for Ryu?' Ikari's thoughts start to drone into silence, and the blanks spaces of her mind start to spread.

…

…

… Y̷̬̲͓̦͑̉͛̓̊ô̴̟̚͘ų̴̩͓̤͒ A̵̹̬͚̗̍̔̍̽ṙ̵̹̍̕̚͘ͅe̸̹̖̮͐͛͜͝ N̷̦͔̱̱̅͑̈́ờ̸͉̼̩̰̏̓ț̴͆ȟ̷̢̖̙̍̀͜ͅȉ̵̫̣̳͆̀̌n̸̝̞͕͖̝̒͒ģ̸͉̊̃͝

Outside of the secluded alley, a redhead catches glimpse of them and slips back to the wall. It was Kirishima. Ryu heard his foot's slip and looks and peers at where it was. He looks beyond the street and to the walls' edge for any movement. Kirishima sweats a small bead and keeps quiet, not daring to even move from his spot. 'hesawmehesawmehesawme… I'm so screwed!' His thoughts scream at him, and his breath comes at a halt.

Ryu peers and squints at it before Connor speaks up.

"S-Shouldn't we leave the lid open?" Connor asks out of concern for the guy they just threw inside. Ryu peers at the wall and beyond for five seconds more. Ryu then turns to Connor and Ikari, softening his glare and lightening his brows' muscles to a simple dead-panned glare. That doesn't stop Connor from dripping a bead of sweat, however.

"…" Ryu says nothing, only huffing out as he steps past Ikari by the shoulder, glancing at her face. His cold eyes glance at her blank face looking down to the ground, as if suffering some trauma. He stops by the heel beside her and places his hand on her shoulder. The touch makes Ikari's eyes shoot up, spine tingling. Her eyes looking to Ryu's hand then to Ryu's soft eyes. As if there was concern.

She looks at Ryu and Connor as if something hit them. She puts on a light smile, taking herself out of the moment.

"W-what is it?" She says out of a weak stutter, looking at the two boys in front of her and they look back with their questioning looks.

"You seem to—" Connor starts, then getting a low growl from Ryu. "Eh- never mind."

"We should be going." Ryu says with a rock in his voice, a grumble. Connor says okay before going with him and Ikari still stands there, as if the depression hasn't left her still. The droning in her mind and the continuous ringing in her ears start to drop when she hears thudding from the dumpster.

Ikari lets out a squeaking yelp, and the redhead eavesdropping on them notices. Ryu heard her yelp and turns on his heels to see the dumpster shaking and trembling. The lids open and shut, garbage drops from their mouths. Until gloved hands shoot out from inside and stretch out, beaming past Ikari without her reacting a thing.

Connor notices and grunts to dodge the whizzing hands. And then, they crash and wrap around Ryu's shoulders. The grey-scaled pursuer's shoulders tense up and the arms pull him back, dragging him on the ground. Connor jumps to weigh down Ryu, only slowing down the pulling. Ryu and him grunt with their heels grinding the ground.

Ikari panicks and looks down to the white cartoon arms. She glances down to her claws and then she picks up on it. She grunts as she raises her claws up and slices the cartoon gloves apart. Connor and Ryu stop in their tracks, and the wrapped arms become limp and begin to turn dust away. Ryu and Connor become engulfed in it and they swat the dust away and spit it out.

"… Wha? What was that?" Connor asks out of distraught, and Ryu and Ikari look at each other, not knowing the answer to that. Then, out of the blue and with a loud bang, the stranger comes out of it and breathes deeply.

"P-Please *wheeze* I uhh*wheeze*" The brunet exhaustingly wheezes the words from his mouth, not making sense of it. The three just stay quiet and stare at the guy, and the eavesdropper just continues to listen from outside of the alley.

He spins his sling bag around and unzips it, only to reveal a compass with a feather chained to it. Ryu glares at it then glares at the stranger. He takes a deep breath and speaks his mind, uninterrupted hopefully.

"… I know where Peter is."

And that is it. Well done, guys. Stopping that now. Thank you for reading. And I might go onto a hiatus, or I might not since I am focusing on my studies and some other stories, like For Honor or mock novels about Nurse Joy as a Married Woman! I think that's going to be lit.

I thank you for the support, and I hope you are all still here when I come back. And I am sorry for taking this long. Again. I hope you guys are had a good day.

# Area51

Let's get it, weebs.