Well, after a solid month, it's finally finished! -clap clap clap- Despite all of the 25+ hour work weeks, all the sicknesses (three colds in total), all of the Visual Novel downloading and playing, and all of the writer's block, I've pulled through and finished~ And ya know what, I'm actually fairly proud of the chapter, too.
And with that said, let's get to it, right? Chapter Four. Enjoy~
Shadow City - Middle Sector, 12:47 pm
"So, this is where you've been hiding out, huh?"
"I assure you. I am not hiding."
The four - Hinata, Fujimaki, Ooyama, and Shiina - stood outside a five story hotel building. Despite being in the middle of the city, it was fairly intact; at least more so than the last one. Hinata looked it up and down as the rest walked to the large glass door under the sign that read:
"Hotel Grandé? What a weird name…" Almost reluctant to follow, Hinata walked through the glass doors - most of which were shattered - and was less than shocked to see it in the shape it was in. "Well. Go figure, right?"
Shiina continued onward while the other surveyed the lobby. It was pretty much set up like any normal hotel lobby; a counter against the left wall, a few chairs and tables scattered around the floor… except everything was destroyed.
"At least I can say I didn't expect much more." Fujimaki rested his Shirasaya on his shoulder and walked towards the counter. "Hey, Shiina, there any food in here?"
"Here? No, not anymore." Without another word, the black-haired ninja walked away.
"Was she telling us to follow? I feel like she was telling us to follow." Seemingly ignoring him entirely, Hinata and Ooyama walked down the same hallway that Shiina had. "God, you guys are asses."
Around three corners, up three flights of stairs, somehow across a gigantic hole in the floor that Fujimaki was pretty sure wasn't in the ceiling of the previous story, and up another flight of stairs, Shiina finally opened up on of the room's doors.
"Come on in."
"Pardon the intrusion, I guess."
"Thank you, Shiina."
"…"
The room was pretty messed up, just like the rest of the interior of… everything ever. But Shiina had somehow managed it turn it into a suitable living area, if only temporary.
"So… why this room, again? It seems so far out of the way." Hinata spoke up after walking in and surveying the destroyed room.
"I chose this room after making a detailed inspection of every room in the building. This is the only one that met my requirements."
'Feels like she'll never say this much again, so.' "And what, pray tell, are those requirements?" Shiina silently nodded and moved towards the window.
"First and foremost, the room had to have a working, locking door. I don't feel secure in my hideouts unless they're completely closed up. But the main reason is the room's height in the building. From this height, I can easily see a large distance into the city. It was from that window I saw your fight with the beasts, by the way."
Shiina spoke in her usual calm voice, though she was certainly speaking more then she usually did.
"So, then do you mind telling me why you waited until the last minute to help?"
"You happened to begin during my break period."
"Break… period?"
"Yes. I've been watching through this window every day, for nineteen hours a day, for the past three weeks. I need a break every now and then; after all, I'm only human."
"W-Weeks!? Shiina, tell me you've seen someone else!" Shiina didn't take it upon herself to voice her answer and chose to solemnly shake her head instead. "...You've... got to be kidding me." Hinata slumped down onto the fairly dismantled couch in the corner and fell down on his side.
"Well, if it helps, you do have us now. Four is better than three, and a lot better than one, considering our situation." The small boy spoke up with a wry smile.
"Ooyama's right." Fujimaki smiled and unsheathed his Shirasaya halfway, revealing a glint on the 'freshly polished' blade. "And if four is better than three, imagine how much better five or six will be. Hell, maybe even seven! And who's to say we won't run into trouble along the way, eh, Shiina?"
"This is so stupid…" Despite her words, Shiina returned the challenging smile Fujimaki gave her. It seemed she was accepting.
"Alright, then, let's go find us some Battlefront!" Fujimaki turned and walked out, waving his now unsheathed sword like a sparkler at the beach. And as Ooyama exited behind him, begging him to stop being so haphazard with the weapon, Shiina silently followed.
But Hinata…
"…"
Shiina stopped at the doorway and took a pause before shifting her body towards the couch. He sat on the ruined couch with his elbows resting against his knees, and his laced fingers above his eyes. She couldn't see most of his face, but she knew.
"Hideki." Shiina, once again, spoke in her calm voice despite the words she said. "We'll find her, alright?" Without waiting for him to respond, she walked through the door, leaving Hinata alone in the dark room.
Even without being able to see his face, Shiina knew all too well the tears that ran down it.
Chapter Four: A Mysterious Presence
Shadow City - Northwest Sector, 12:40 pm
"Well, here we are. 'Home Sweet Home', I guess." Matsushita the Fifth pushed open a set of pretty massive double doors that had no handles; kind of like the doors that are marked with the sign "Employees Only beyond This Point" in stores.
That was actually a fitting description, since that was essentially what they used to be. The large, black doors led into a room that was a literal back area.
"Are you sure it's safe to use these doors? I mean, the Shadows could just walk right in."
"I can see where you're coming from, but, think about it: they can literally pass through the ground." He had a point. "Besides, we've been here a while and haven't any problems with him around this general area." I dreaded to ask him to elaborate, but I knew I had to.
"And by 'a while'…"
"Well, I found T.K. about seventeen days ago. But before then, it had to have been a month."
Those last two words hit me like a ton of bricks. As the full weight of them crushed down onto me, I staggered and fell down into a sitting position, my head lightly banging against the wall beside the doors.
I placed my hands over my face and mumbled to myself.
"…a month and a half and nobody is any closer to figuring out anything about getting out of here. Just what is this place?"
Matsushita the Fifth had already moved away from me at that point, seemingly wanting to leave me to my misery, and began rummaging through some boxes. A few minutes later, he came back holding two purple boxes in his massive hands.
"Here. You must be thirsty." What he offered me made me exhale a breath of laughter.
"A juice box, huh?" Regardless, I gladly accepted. "Guess I can't expect a soda from the cafeteria vending machine in the current situation." After ripping the straw from the plastic pouch and popping it through the aluminum top, I felt water touch my lips for what felt like the first time in years.
I decided to take a look around the building the two had been using as a home base of sorts now that I had time to clear my head. The basic interior was pretty much similar to an auto repair garage.
In fact, looking to my right I noticed that there were three large shutter doors lining the wall. Remnants of large, mechanized car jacks went down the floor one by one in a straight line. The ones that were still intact were lowered into the ground and covered in blankets.
Off to the left was what was left of an office area - desks, filing cabinets, wheeled chairs; the place that pencil pushers got the paperwork done. Along with the normal, office things, there were a few coolers and chests and a wall lined with guns.
All in all, it seemed like a decent enough place to hide out.
"So, have you guys done anything… productive?" I asked my almost cynical question almost half-heartedly as Matsushita began digging around in another chest.
"Hm? Oh, yeah." He threw some things behind him, and a few things went to the side. "Both me and T.K. have a basic understanding of creation mechanics from the time we spent guarding the Guild." More metal clanged against the concrete floor. "So, we've been spending our time increasing an arsenal."
"…Looks to me like you're preparing for war." 'Increasing your arsenal' definitely doesn't fit what you're doing with this place…
"I guess you could say that. After all, we don't know what to expect." With that, he slammed the lid closed and picked up the things he threw to the side. "For example…"
Taking seemingly random pieces of metal and tools, I watched from an angle that didn't really give me a clear view as he fashioned a whole bunch of different things on a table. I watched for a few minutes, but saw my eyes beginning to close.
"Don't sleep just yet." Without me noticing, Matsushita the Fifth had stepped in front of me again. "We need you up and ready for this." Guess his footsteps are lighter now that he's so slim… He tossed me a medium sized matchbox that made a jingle as it passed through the air.
"And what exactly," I grabbed the box of ammo from the air and shook it at my ear, "is this going to be?"
"We're heading to where T.K. and Angel went."
"Doesn't really answer my question, ya know." I pushed back against the wall, using the force to slide my body up it in order to stand.
"We're going to find the Gate of Heaven."
I stopped as I heard those words, and felt a chill go down my spine.
Shadow City - Middle Sector, 1:37 pm
Her eyes opened.
Slowly - very slowly - her eyelids began to lift themselves. The little light there was flowed into her sight, blinding her for a few moments, but she opened her eyes regardless.
How many hours or days had she been asleep? She honestly had no way of knowing.
"Dammit…" Yuri held the side of her head as she lifted her upper body into a sitting position. "Where am I…?" Never one to hesitate, she quickly took a look around. "A classroom?"
Void of desks, chairs, and any trace of human life, the average high school classroom she sat in seemed out of place in the world she was in.
After making sure there weren't any immediate threats, she reached around her body and the floor looking for her gun. She found it a few feet away from her and quickly grabbed and held it at the ready.
Without wasting a second, she stood in a crouch and ran for the half open sliding door. She stopped in front of it for a second, listening to the hallway for any noises before she threw it open and…
Pomf.
She felt it drop on top of her head. Her eyes rolled up just in time to watch the object fall to the floor.
"A chalkboard eraser?" Her hair and shoulders were covered in a thick, white powder, and all she could do stay crouched in the doorway, staring out into space into disbelief. "… What kind of sick joke is this even supposed to be?"
She dusted herself off and ran out into the hall. There were no windows on the wall, so she assumed she was close to the middle of the building.
Her gun still held down at her waste, she went over to the next classroom, making sure the door wasn't booby trapped before opening it just enough to peek inside. She couldn't sense any life nearby, human or otherwise, but she never acted without caution in an unknown situation.
She didn't see any threats in this room, but she did notice the same thing was off about this one as the last.
"Empty." She stood and slid the door open all the way. Looking at the full view, she could see that it was just as barren as the room she woke up in. All the desks and chairs, the lectern, the chalkboard, the counters near the windows, even the blinds were missing.
In fact, every room she went to was the same way. From one room to the next, she opened every classroom door in the hallway to find that they were all empty.
She slammed another door closed.
"That makes thirty-four rooms." By now, she had gone around almost the entirety of the class section. "Maybe I should check the club rooms…" Her gun was still held down by her waist. "Though I don't think there'd be much of a difference. Still, though."
At long last, she determined she was completely alone in the building and holstered her weapon.
"Where am I?" At the moment, she was standing at the end of a hallway that seemed to lead into a lobby of sorts. It was the second floor, two curved staircases on either side of the platform led down to a larger area with benches and whole row of broken glass doors on the wall. "This is definitely a school, no matter how you look at it. But why is there-"
Just at that moment, while she started to wonder about the oddities of a school being in this world, she was cut off. Her eyes shot open wide at what it was that cut her thoughts short.
It came from all around her; a terrible noise, like that made by thousands of locusts swarming. As loud as it was, it was impossible to determine the source. She gripped her ears and fell to the floor.
"AAAAHHHHHH!" Only able to open half of one eye, Yuri did her best to try to figure out what was happening. "What the hell is that!?"
It continued to echo through the corridors of the school, and rang in her ears, long after it had actually stopped.
Shadow City - Middle Sector, 1:24 pm
Hinata slowly moved his head around the corner of the rotting building. Though he couldn't see much, everything he needed to see was in his immediate vision. A plaza… and thousands of black masses.
"Just as Shiina said… they've congregated around it again." His eyes darted back and forth from one end of the street around the corner to the other, from building to building. Every single one of the bombed out wooden structures held hundreds of them. "Now how do I go about doing this?"
"So, what exactly are we doing again?" The four of them walked down the street in front of Shiina's hotel. "I'm not exactly sure about what the plan is still."
"This is so stupid."
"Be that as it may…"
"If you don't understand the plan, then you must only know what your role is."
"And that role is-"
"To distract them, yes."
Hinata sighed to himself from his hiding spot.
'Damn ninja, it's easy for you to say…'
So far, none of the mass of enemies had noticed he was watching them, so he was safe to let his thoughts flow a little bit. Shiina had simply told him to distract the Beasts at the plaza.
But what are those guys gonna do while I'm risking my butt out here? This was the only thought now moving through his slightly empty mind. And then…
He smiled.
"Well, nothing ventured…"
Hinata spoke these words as he gripped his pistol's grip and pulled it out of the holster around his waist. Without any hesitation or second thought - so really kind of like an idiot - he stepped out from the corner and aimed his weapon.
"Nothing gained!" With that, he pulled the trigger.
Countless times per second, he pulled the trigger of his Smith & Wesson 645, the barrel aimed for nothing but the massive cloud of darkness. Shot after shot, four to five of them were blasted into nothingness.
"COME GET SOME!" Seemingly responding to his challenge, a portion of the cloud - maybe fifty of more of them - leapt for him, their scythe-like arms ready to move in for the kill. "Yeah, right!"
With insane precision, deadly accuracy, and terrifying speed, Hinata unleashed an entire clip into the wave. Without any time to die individually, the whole thing exploded into nothingness at once.
And with that, they stopped.
Every single one of the Beasts seemed to hesitate to move in for an attack. Seeing this, and as if to taunt them, Hinata reloaded his gun and spun the trigger guard around his finger.
"Well?" He caught it by the grip in mid-spin and re-aimed it forward in his one hand. "Who's next?"
The wind picked up at that moment. Though, perhaps 'picked up' isn't the proper term.
If you had to give it a proper description, it would probably be along the lines of 'the wind blew harder than it already was', since that would let whoever it's being described to know that it picked up despite already blowing quite fiercely.
They weren't very relevant, but these were the thoughts that passed through the head of a certain teenage ninja as she stood atop a large, deteriorating building.
Well, again, 'building' wasn't quite the right term. Perhaps 'pillar. Or maybe 'tower'? Yes, 'tower' fit the structure perfectly.
"Sigh… This is beyond stupid." Shiina gripped the top of her scarf and pulled it completely over her mouth with one hand gripped something at her waist with the other. "This should do…" The hand at her waist moved upwards; the object she had been gripping came into her view.
But instead of being on single object, it was actually three. Three, jet black metal handles with circular bases and diamond shaped tips. The kunai-style daggers rested in between her fingers gently as she began to spin them around.
"It's almost time."
Hinata stood in the middle of the street, his gun still pointed towards the massive black cloud. Since a few seconds ago, they hadn't made a move. But, likewise, Hinata hadn't made on either.
As such, they were caught in a type of stalemate.
'But I can easily make a move without much risk. If I wanted to, I could make this an all-out battle zone. But, that's if, huh?' The truth was, Hinata didn't want to make a move.
Making a move on the crowd would surely cause them to make their own. After all, they wouldn't stand and watch as he shot them.
'I'm here to distract them, so as long as I have their attention, I'm doing my job. Fujimaki almost got his head taken off while we fought them together, and, as much as I hate to admit it, he's a lot stronger than I am.'
Hinata watched as the sea of black shook back and forth with anticipation. They were waiting for him to make his move. The moment he started his attack, they would pounce.
But that moment never came.
Without warning, three black kunai-style daggers struck with a loud 'clang'. The sound made Hinata jump a bit.
'What the… HUH!?' Hinata moved his eyes towards the source of the noise, but only slightly as not to remove his sight from the enemies. It was a pointless limitation, because the Beasts had completely removed Hinata from their attention regardless.
Nonetheless, Hinata couldn't believe his eyes; three knives that clearly belonged to Shiina had just fallen from the sky. But that alone wasn't the surprising part.
"They're… floating?" Each of the kunai was seemingly stuck in midair, as if they had hit an invisible wall. "But they definitely made a noise just now…" His thoughts trailed off as he looked up to the source, and saw something else incredible. "HAH!?"
Shiina was in the middle of a free fall.
"SHIINA!? THE HELL YOU DOIN, YOU MORON NINJA!?"
Apparently, she had been standing atop the large clock tower that was sitting on the edge of the mysterious plaza.
"Hinata! Get down!" Fujimaki's rough voice called out from behind the massive cloud of Beasts, and Hinata looked over just in time to see him preparing for a swing. "Shiina…" He murmured to himself as he arced his Shirasaya all the way back. "This had better work!"
With a loud shout, Fujimaki took a swing with all his might, aimed at nothing. Nothing was in his range, and nothing was getting anywhere close to his range, yet he swung.
At the same time, Shiina did a flip in midair and pulled a long katana from behind her, then prepared to take her own swing.
As he swung, Fujimaki's blade became enveloped in an intense, blue light that shot forward at an insane speed. Hinata had no choice but to do as he had been told and dove onto the ground, covering his head with his arms.
As the light moved through the air, it sliced directly through each and every Shadow in the street, tearing them into nothing instantly.
The swing aimed at nothing annihilated everything that had enough misfortune to be in its path of destruction. It was relentless and undiscriminating, tearing through the Beasts as well at the buildings and ground. Hinata was pretty sure he'd have been killed as well had he not dodged when he did.
And at the same time, Shiina made her swing. Her katana was enveloped in the same intense light as she swung, the arc making the blade head straight for one of the three kunai.
"Hii… YAA!" With a pretty uncharacteristic (is all Hinata could describe it as) shout, Shiina struck the base of her previously thrown weapon, making it sink a few inches in the air that mysteriously held it up. But that wasn't the end.
Whereas the katana would normally bounce off, Shiina forcefully held it down as she seemed to float on the handle of her blade. The blue light still enveloped the edge as she pressed it farther downwards, despite the kunai that was still in the way.
Hinata could only watch in disbelief as the events occurred around him.
'What is she…?'
As if to purposefully cut his thoughts off, Shiina's goal was accomplished in that instant.
With a sound like glass shattering, the kunai rocketed to the ground under the force of Shiina's incredibly powerful swing. The after effects of the event made Hinata cover his ears to protect them from the sound.
Despite her long fall, Shiina gracefully spun around in midair and landed on her feet with no issue.
"That takes care of that."
"The hell…" Hinata began to pick himself off of the ground, his gun still twitching in his shaking hand. "Does that mean…?" He stood up all the way and aimed his gun without a second thought. "WOULD SOMEONE MIND EXPLAININ WHAT THE JUST HAPPENED!?"
He pulled the trigger faster than he did before, the barrel aimed at Shiina.
But, much to his anticipation, she either dodged or deflected every single one of his shots. After all, he wouldn't have shot at her had he thought he'd actually be able to hit her even once.
After a short while, pulling the trigger on produced an empty click.
"This is so stupid." Shiina sighed and halted her evasive movements as she picked her kunai from out of the ground. "Allow me to explain." Hinata sighed as he put his gun back into the its holster.
"Please do."
Shiina began to speak, but she was cut off almost instantly.
It came without warning; a shrill, deafening sound like that made by a storm of locusts. Its source was definitely miles upon miles away from them, but it sounded as if it was right in their ears.
"AHH! WHAT NOW!?" Hinata fell to one knee and covered his ears again. Fujimaki did the same, and Shiina seemed like she was trying to endure it, though she was covering her ears as well.
"I don't know!"
And just like that, it ended as quickly as it came, leaving a high pitched ring in their ears, even long after it was over.
Just for the record, this Chapter is approximately 4,047 word long without Author's Notes! -clap clap clap- Pretty sure that makes my longest Chapter to date throughout any one of my stories (I think Upgrade's longest is somewhere around 3.5k?). Not sure if only 4k is something to proud of, but I am still a beginner in a ways, so I'm proud of myself fer nao. At any rate!
The mysterious, shrill scream has been heard by both Yuri and Hinata's group, but what on earth is it? This noise like a swarm of locusts? And just what did Shiina do with those kunai and her katana? You'll have to wait (hopefully not a whole other month) for Chapter Five to find out! (Though the cheaters who read the original should know...) With that said...
Until Next Time~