Over an hour had passed ever since Hotaru had given them instructions to fight their out, and despite disliking the idea, Natsume had no choice but to submit to her orders, considering the nurses weren't the type to ask questions first. Body after body fell to the blood-splattered floor as he continously attacked every nurse that came to lung at him. Some of them lost limbs, some had sliced body parts while others didn't have a head on their shoulders. A bit tired and frustrated with the pouring number of nurses, he hissed on the phone;
"Who was supposed to take out the nurses again?"
The speaker buzzed before voices became audible enough for him to hear
"I thought it was Misaki!"
"Hey, don't blame me, I just got the mission info yesterday! I couldn't take them all out in less than a day. Besides, I left only 1/4 of the whole battalion alive"
"ONE-FORTH? It looks like a whole calvary to me!"
"Ohoho, I trust it that you did your job as well with the ghost dogs?"
Natsume jumped up and swung his feet on top of a nurse's head, crushing it in the process. Noticing that the line had gone silent for a while, he began to worry about the question to Misaki's question.
"Koko! Koko, are you there?" He yelled, but quickly ducked when he saw a nurse swing an axe at him. He crouched down and knelt on one knee, gathering his strength into his fist, he struck a blow into the nurse's stomach, causing her insides to burst internally. As she fell to ground limply with a thud, he yelled once again into the phone.
"Kokoro Yome, are you there? Answer!" He hissed
Suddenly, the floor began to shake, and the look of irritation on the vampire's face quickly disintegrated into worry...
Burnt bodies turned into ashes as they hit the floor while Ruka was spinning madly with cannons on both of his arms, 5 blue electric balls fired from the cannon every second, making him look like a spinning top with a bit of a light display. Once the electric balls smashed into the nurses, it would either explode them into oblivion, or electrecute them into fried chicken, whichever the case.
But it was not like he did not hear of the conversation of Misaki and Koko over the phone, he too was worried that Koko screwed his part of the mission. It was very serious, one mistake, and they lose their chance of finding Mikan from the ruins of the tower. Seeing that most of what that surrounded him was ashes, he stopped spinning and rested his feet on the ash-littered floor.
"Koko! Answer us, please don't tell me you screwed your part, again" He spoke into the microphone
"Hey, it's not like I do it everytime we do this, right?" Koko finally answered
"Uh, Ya do" Sumire flatly answered, making the others snicker in mockery
"Okay, technically, yes, but do you guys even trust me?" Koko asked, Ruka imagined him making puppy dog eyes in the process
"Seriously, Koko, if we didn't trust you, do you think we'd let you on the mission?" Hotaru spoke up, breaking the silence from her line
"Um...I...guess..." Koko stuttered
At this, Ruka rolled his eyes in annoyance, "Koko, we trust you, just get to the point. Did you, or did you not screw your part?"
"Um, that's –!"
Bzzt...
"Guys, we need to regroup, NOW!" Hotaru's voice cut off the conversation between the two
"Hotaru, what is it?" Ruka asked, his voice now dripping with worry
"I'm getting a LOT of hunters now. No doubt that they're going to come pouring on your parts too" Hotaru replied, her heavy footsteps clearly heard from the speaker
"I'm getting 'em too! Oh, man, is that BLOOD on his mustache?" Sumire responded
Ruka felt the floor shake too, he lifted his head, only to let his eyes grow wide in surprise, "Um, guys I'm getting it too" He replied as he turned and started to sprint.
"Hotaru, where do we meet?" He proceeded to ask
"Sector A-02b might be fine. That's the least where they'll expect us. You catch that, guys?" Hotaru instructed, and from the blasts that could be heard from her point, it was clear that she was making HUGE progress on her part.
"Yep, it'll fine. I'm clear here, anyway"
"I am so scramming!"
"I tell ya, ya got rusty. But I'm going!"
"Got it...Oh, yes sir, that's a lot of blood!"
For the next thirty minutes, everyone scrambled from their current sections and dashed towards the meeting place. Taking no mercy on whoever was planning on stopping them from getting out of the asylum. Whether it be nurses, mage guards or any of the traps that they had earlier failed to dispose of. Every section that they passed by did not go without any blood on the floor or without any heads rolled onto the ceramic matter. And when they did reach the meeting place, they were as exhausted as a man who was stranded on an island and swam towards the mainland without ever stopping.
"Hah...hah..." Ruka panted as he balanced his arms on his bended knees
"So...tired..." Koko collapsed on the floor as he breathed heavily, "Haven't been this tired since five years ago"
"Yeah" Ruka huffed "Remind me why we keep exhausting ourselves like this again?"
"Cause we'rell senseless?" Sumire managed to breath out, although she too was at the point of collapsing, "I feel like I could sleep for a whole week at this"
"Finally! I get to escape PINK BOOTS!" Misaki yelled like she was crazy as she leaned onto one pillar
"Hah...Hotaru...how...much futher?" Tsubasa huffed, breathing out words with every chance he seemed to find
"I don't think they can catch up with us anymore, now let's scramble out and dispell that barrier. After that..." Hotaru trailed off for the others to guess. They all gave huge groans when she didn't finish her sentence – they knew what was coming.
"Running again?" Koko groaned "I'm so tired already!"
"But you do want to save her, right?" Hotaru asked, raising a brow at everyone else
They all fell silent for a moment, pondering about her question before giving her a reassuring nod.
"Then let's go" Hotaru signalled
Although a bit tired and restless, the group stood up and dashed after the young witch. The section they chose was nearest to the ground floor's secret exit, which led directly where the barrier 's power source was the strongest. One by one, they crawled out of the hole on the ground, the noisy asylum was starting to set off alarms that the prisoners had gone missing, unknown to them that the tennagers had already escaped outside.
"We're here" Ruka muttered as he lifted Sumire from the hole, "That's the magic circle, right?"
Hotaru nodded as she looked at the magical blue markings on the ground, "Yep, that's the one alright"
"You ready?" Ruka asked the young witch, checking if she was tired or seriously injured
"I'm ready" Hotaru huffed, she walked towards the glowing blue circle
She stood steady in front a sign on the circle, taking a deep breath in concentration, she raised her arms toward the barrier. She slowly opened her mouth and began to chant something, blue particles – glowing exactly like the magic circle – began to float around Hotaru's arms. The tension around the entire group began to increase steadily as Hotaru focused harder and harder on the task that she was doing.
The forse around them seemed to get stronger and the lights around Hotaru's arms grew brighter and brighter, slowly the signs on the magic circle began to lift up.
"Amazing..." Sumire whispered softly as she watched Hotaru start to dispell the barrier
"How does she know all that in the five years we were locked in there?" Koko whispered over to Ruka
"She's got her sources" Ruka cracked a grin at the boy
The signs, one by one, began to disintegrate into small light particles that looked like blue fireflies. The group stared in awe at the wonderful sight that beheld around them, even at such a crucial time, they still had the chance to see something so mind-blowing.
"This is awesome" Misaki muttered as a light particle landed on her fingertips before quickly fading into thin air
"I'm speechless" Tsubasa chuckled to himself as the lights began to multiply as more signs disappeared
Slowly, the outer ring of the circle started to lift up, but this time, Hotaru was sweating madly, as it took a huge toll on her powers. She focused the energy of her body onto her hands once again, and she returned to her normal state.
Suddenly, a huge bark came their way.
The others flipped their heads towards the main entrance which was about 30 feet waya from where they were standing. The asylum maingates were being continously slammed into.
"What's that?" Sumire asked worriedly
"Oh no" Misaki muttered, then quickly, she turned to Koko, "You forgot one dog, didn't you?"
Koko bit his lower lip and nodded
"Which one?" Misaki asked as her eyes went wide
"The huge one with the collar"...
Misaki whipped her head towards the direction of the crashing maingate, "Oh no..."
Okay, we were trying to hold it in for the first time, but when it multiplied, we got ticked off.
STOP COMPLAINING ABOUT MIKAN'S ABSENCE
If it weren't for that simple fact then there would be no sequel. We usually are not this hostile to our audience, but all that yammering since the last chapter has teed us off. Vocaend and D.N are mighty ticked, and I don't think they have anything else to say other than this. I know we sound like total jerks but we need you to STOP.
If anyone else complains about Mikan's absence or any other complains about the story, then YOU write it! Our schedules are very hectic because of our lives, and we are considering taking time off to bring you the story. So if someone else does with our last drop of patience, the story stops and we quit. Our schedules are killing us, and we also have our own lives, so we were planning to just finish one last story and kill the group, all the other projects will be discontinued. Kindly understand this; WE HAVE OUR OWN LIVES. And who would not get crabby over a hectic schedule like this?
So one last story, which is this one, and we kill the group, 'kay? Even Vocaend's DA account has been deactivated, she wants to focus on her own life, not the cyber life that she has. So stop it, our heads are already hot enough and you're adding the pressure.
We're sorry if sound like total jerks - Lunata, Vocaend and D.N