Thank you kshepps27 for bringing the weird coding to my attention. I'm sorry for that inconvenience, I don't know what happened with that... I hope this fixes the problem. Please enjoy the rest from here!
"Kaeko!" I screamed, leaping forward and shoving her out of the way of the teacher bringing a pair of scissors down on her. There was a stinging pain that was swiftly followed by a blue haired woman yanking me to my feet, dragging me down the hallway and pushing me into a room. Kaeko pushed my hair back from my face, and I realized the tears streaming from my eyes.
I looked to my shoulder, my stomach churning at the sight of my ripped uniform, the blood soaking down my arm and the ends of dying flesh where my nerves were exposed. The pain set in, and I felt dizzy. Kaeko turned my head back from my injury, attempting to distract me from it as Botan inspected me.
"This injury runs deeply. Ella, you'll need to bite down on something so you don't attract too much attention. I'm so sorry for this."
Before I could question anything, Kaeko had shoved a piece of cloth into my mouth, and just in time as Botan pressed something against my shoulder. I tried not to scream, but the pressure elicited that very reaction, and I clamped my teeth down tightly on the cloth in my mouth, more hot tears finding their way down my cheeks. It hurt like hell, but anything was better than letting the injury get infected at this point.
"Ella?" I released the cloth from my mouth to Kaeko, blinking up at them.
"Thank goodness, you weren't responding there at all! I was afraid you'd gone comatose." Botan took my good arm, pulling me to my feet. My stomach churned, but I steadied myself against her to gain my footing. I would be damned if I made it this far only to have someone have to carry me all the way through this bloody school.
I shook my head, looking down at my arm. I must have blacked out a little when the pain hit, because Botan had successfully wrapped my entire arm tightly across my body so it was immovable, with a thick gauze keeping my shoulder from bleeding out. She probably wouldn't have gotten that far had I not fazed out for a short while. Maybe our natural reactions know a thing or two after all.
"Yukimura! Be a good girl and receive your punishment Yukimura!" The teacher's voice called out, the door shaking from the bodies piling and pounding against it. I glanced behind us, and looked about the room. There was no room for escape without having Botan and Kaeko climb out the second story window, and neither looked like they would be useful after a two story drop.
"Well, we'd better think quickly." Botan helped me stand up, much to my pride's dismay.
Kaeko jerked her sash out of her uniform and shoved it between the cabinet doors against the opposite wall, thinking on her feet, and Botan touched her nose once, both of us following her to the window and hiding behind the curtain, out of the way of the door. Kaeko and Botan each picked up something to use as a weapon, so I gripped onto a mop to join in, pulling it behind the curtain with us. I breathed in deeply through my nose and out through my mouth, attempting to control the pain. With every heartbeat, my shoulder throbbed. I was still fine to move around, and with my arm completely bound to my body I wouldn't be causing much more damage to it, but that didn't quell the pain.
It seemed like such a blur of how I got into this mess. One minute I was walking home, and the next I was being attacked on the street. The blue haired woman, Botan, had come in and saved me, briefly explaining to me that their was a virus being spread around the city and that there were too many infected civilians on the street. It was sketchy, but when she mentioned that Kaeko was a current target, I went against my better judgement and followed the sketchy woman to the school. It seemed like a lifetime ago in this exact moment, and I still wasn't any closer to getting any answers. Somehow, it just didn't seem like the right time to ask too many questions. If we all got out of this alive, this woman would have a lot of explaining to do, but first we had to STAY alive.
I held my breath upon hearing the shattering glass on the door, damning my heartbeat with every pump of blood coursing through me. The footsteps coming in were quiet for a pack of murderous teachers, and the silence ensuing made my skin freeze. They had to be looking around for them to stay so quiet for so long. I covered my mouth and nose to stay quiet and to calm my breathing as a voice rang out with laughter, deep and menacing.
"Yukimura, I always knew you weren't as smart as you made us think." There was the sound of wood clinking against the stone wall, and Kaeko's face hardened in determination. They had fallen for the bait. "Hid yourself well, didn't you? Except for one thing. Your scarf."
The rest of the teachers began laughing with the crazy leader, and I gripped my mop tightly, focusing on the laughter and the timing to distract myself from my injury. I felt like such a baby about it, but every movement felt like Kazuma was bodyslamming me, and he was not a small guy.
"I warned you to stay away from Urameshi, but it's too late. You're damaged. And now we throw you out!"
There was a sound like metal being beaten on, and I watched carefully as Botan and Kaeko readied themselves. Since I couldn't see, I relied on their body language to tell me when it was go-time. Kaeko needed to get out of this school, and we needed to put as much distance as possible between us and these teachers. We had to.
It felt like an eternity with them banging the hell out of that supply cupboard, making absolutely sure that the pretend Kaeko inside was never going to breath again. It was sickening. Virus or not, how could someone who had sworn to protect the minds of our youth and guide them into adulthood commit such a heinous act against one of the children in their care? It didn't make any sense. What could have caused this?
At the sound of the doors opening, we burst out of our hiding place and began our assault. I took out two of the teachers off to the right while the girls laid siege upon the ones in the middle. Hell hath no fury like a pissed off Japenese school girl.
We bolted from the room once we had taken out just enough of them to put a dent in their numbers, making our way through the complicated hallways that all looked the same. I held onto my arm to keep it stabilized, giving my full attention to finding an exit. It was oddly the most difficult task so far. We didn't pass a single staircase, nor an adjoining hallway that would lead us somewhere other than this limbo we were caught in. The footsteps pounding behind us gave us all the more reason to keep running, and his voice rang out over the noise somehow. Whoever he was, he was only increasing my irritation with this situation. Why wouldn't he just lose consciousness or something?
"You can't run forever, Yukimura!"
'What the hell did you do to piss them off, Kaeko?' I thought. The hallway turned to the right, blessedly, but before I could feel hope rise that we might actually make it out of here, the sound of metal hitting bone rang out. Botan collapsed, and Kaeko barely managed to catch her, holding her body close. The teacher holding the lead pipe only grinned, and moved closer. I stood in front of Kaeko protectively, kicking the teacher with all of my might and forcing the pipe from his grip. Any weapon was better than no weapon at all.
Sweat dripped down my forehead as Kaeko tried to wake up Botan, and I kept my eyes trained on the swarm around us. I had never seen so many people that genuinely wanted us dead. Something about the joy in their bloodshot eyes, the lust for her blood, made me nauseous. I tried not to let my fear show, gripping the pipe and taking a swing at one of the teachers that came too close, tears threatening to fall at the sound of it connecting with him. Damn the natural reaction to cry. Damn it to hell. I can't give that satisfaction right now!
"Run... away..." Botan moaned.
At her words, something in me snapped. What the hell was she thinking? That after all of this, we would be content to leave her to the mercy of this mob?!
"I can't just leave you." Kaeko insisted, cradling her head in her lap. I swung out my pipe again, getting angry. I could feel my fear boiling, mixing with the fury that was bubbling close to the surface.
"The community comes together when it's important, see, and correcting bad girls is very important."
I whipped around and lunged without thinking about it, slamming my body into him and sending him to the ground. He growled, and stabbed his scissors deep into my back. I didn't feel anything, only coldness as he threw me off, standing up and focusing his attention on Kaeko again. It just felt... cold. I could hear something in the background, and it vaguely sounded like Kaeko's scream, but I was too much in shock to really understand. I was... numb.
This was so dumb.
Not only was I useless... but I couldn't even protect... them...