Author's Note: Not much to say, had to drop a nasty math class, which means I have less worries on my back.
The Story So Far: Ishimaru has found Hiruma while the others wait outside.
Hidden
By: Bar-Ohki
Chapter 25: Zork, Incubus of the Underground
The most striking thing about Hiruma's current appearance was the fact that he had been wrapped up in bone chains. The second striking thing was the bag of blood that was filling up on Hiruma's left. There were several bags of blood in the room and Hiruma looked particularly pale and sickly. On the arm that wasn't giving blood, there was an IV that was dripping nutrients into Hiruma. Several glowing balls of light fluttered around Hiruma that Ishimaru swore had to be magical. They seemed to be diming slowly, but it was kind of hard to tell. The expression on the quarterback's face was blank and relaxed. He looked severely drugged.
The woman walked over and put on a pair of forest green leather gloves. Carefully she removed the blood bag, bandaged Hiruma up. She checked his temperature and pulse, writing the results down all the while. Ishimaru looked over her shoulder.
Hiruma was running a fever and his pulse was low.
Carefully the woman set a gloved hand on Hiruma's forehead. She stood there, concentrating hard on something, then removed her hand with a sigh.
"I know you can't hear me," the woman began, "but I will get you out of here."
Ishimaru decided this woman was probably on their side, she seemed really upset by Hiruma's physical deterioration. After some thought Ishimaru decided to run out and alert the others of the developments. Uncloaking himself, Ishimaru came at the others in a run. No one said anything right away.
"What did you see?" Doburoku asked.
"Bones!" Ishimaru gasped. "They tied him up with bones!"
"…That's morbid." Musashi commented, his expression one of disgust.
Zork, Doburoku, and Mamori didn't say anything but they all looked disgusted and annoyed.
"They're probably elfin bones…." Doburoku commented after a while, receiving blank stares from most of the people there. "Certain creatures' bones work as Seals for a creature of the opposite type."
"Elves are considered to be opposites for humans." Mamori added. Several nods of understanding began after her comment.
"Which means of course, that humans can't touch them without serious consequence." Kurita realized.
"Wait, how did they get the bones on in the first place?" Juumonji couldn't help but to ask.
"All Elders have these enchanted gloves that allow them to adjust Seals," Doburoku answered, then he smacked his forehead, "I left my pair back home."
The Huh brothers proceeded to kick their trainer around in their resulting annoyance.
"…Wait, can you touch them?" Yukimitsu asked Zork, stopping the kicking of Doburoku instantly.
"Physically as long as they aren't Succubus bones, yeah." Zork admitted with a small grimace.
"Are you okay?" Monta asked.
"Bones are sacred to Incubus and Succubus." Doburoku explained. "It's considered a great disgrace to touch the bones of the dead in their culture."
"Oh Zork…." Mamori muttered, feeling sorry for the boy.
"Using bones as Seals is unforgiveable." Zork told her pointedly. "I'd rather touch them than leave them to be abused them like that."
"Wait, there are elves?" Kuroki was stunned by this and was being extremely slow.
"Malhavoc is an elf, actually," Doburoku commented, "well over seven centuries old too."
"You're shitting me." Togano protested.
"Part of me sincerely wishes I was." Doburoku agreed with Togano's sentiment. "But Malhavoc's race has very little to do with our task at hand, we have to get Zork down there to remove the bones."
"And then get the two of them out safely." Shin added. "During that time someone must also watch over Kobayakawa."
"There's also a woman down there." Ishimaru added. "She seems to want to break Hiruma out, but I'm not too sure."
"Well, I can go down there and-" Mamori began, having been about to offer to use her magic.
"You can't, they'll know the moment you set foot in the building." Doburoku warned her. "And if they know that there are intruders, our options become very limited."
"I can't?" Mamori blinked.
"They have detection spells in place, if you walked in it would raise an alarm." Doburoku explained.
"I can't See any." Shin remarked as he stared intently at the building.
"I'm sure that they have some spells in place that render Sensitives useless as well, if they are anything like the Elders back home they do." Doburoku used an assuring tone. "They might even have gone as far as to put detection spells in place to alert them if Sensitives come inside."
"But Ishimaru-sempai just walked in and didn't get noticed!" Monta protested.
"Exactly." Doburoku grinned. "They don't put spells that alert them if a normal person walks in, that's why Ishimaru is able to move around inside freely."
"So it's up to us," Musashi gestured to himself, the three brothers, Komusubi, Monta, Taki, and Suzuna, "to get Hiruma back?"
"But don't we need Zork?" Suzuna pointed out.
"…That might be an issue." Doburoku frowned, not knowing exactly what to do about that.
"…Why don't we hide him under Ishimaru's cloak?" Juumonji suggested. "It made Ishimaru-sempai disappear."
"Let's try it out here first." Shin advised them wisely.
Zork stood in front of Ishimaru while the track captain threw the cloak over both of them. Ishimaru disappeared, but Zork remained. The young Incubus looked several times more inhuman than he had before, everyone took a small step back, a bit freaked out.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" Zork asked, his voice sounding sinister for some reason.
"Wasn't he supposed to disappear?" Taki asked, looking dumfounded.
"Ishimaru, why don't you take off your cloak?" Kurita suggested. Ishimaru pulled off the cloak, making Zork look more human and Ishimaru noticeable again.
"It's not an invisibility cloak," Shin announced after a moment, "I think it amplifies the physical characteristics of the wearer."
Ishimaru looked like he was going to cry at this news.
"Let's get going," Zork suggested, "it's doing Youichi no good if we're standing around here."
"Zork?" Mamori started, not sure what to think of the tone Zork used. The Incubus had sounded angry.
"I have to go down there and remove the bones, we don't have a choice, so let's just go!" Zork snapped, his fangs flashing.
"Alright! Rescue Max!" Monta caught his own punch.
The brothers, Komusubi, and Taki readied their shields, looking more focused than they had moments before. Musashi looked like he was ready to literally kick the living shit out of anything that got in his way.
"I'll go first." Ishimaru announced.
"Just remember to take off your cloak to signal us." Musashi reminded the track captain.
Zork's entry into the building appeared not to set off any alarms, so the group quickly made their way down to where Hiruma was being held. They didn't see any people and there were no alarms. Eventually they reached the hospital-like hall that contained both Hiruma's cell and the strange woman.
"Creepy Max…." Monta muttered as he looked around the corridor.
"…There's a bezzletrup in here." Zork clasped his hands over his nose.
"Is that a problem?" Juumonji asked, looking around wearily.
"Not really, they just smell." Zork muttered.
"I didn't smell anything the first time." Ishimaru remarked.
"…I might have a more sensitive nose than you." Zork admitted after a moment. "I don't know how sensitive humans are to smells."
"Come on." Musashi grunted, continuing to walk down the hall and ignoring the antics of his companions. Ishimaru had taken off his cloak and walked along side Musashi.
"If it comes to a fight, throw that thing on and punch anything you see." Musashi told Ishimaru simply. Ishimaru nodded, understanding the meaning completely.
"Zork-kun, do you think our shields do any cool stuff like Ishimaru's cloak does?" Kuroki asked the boy.
"Certainly, I pulled them out of the message fort didn't I?" Zork had a small smile.
"'Message fort'?" Togano frowned.
"Huh?" Juumonji didn't get it.
"I think Zork means mailbox." Musashi translated. "If you think that's strange, you should see what he calls a fork."
"Stabonner?" Zork blinked, "why do you keep on insisting a stabonner is called a fork?"
Everyone sweatdropped and said nothing, thinking Zork's choice of noun was, though descriptive, pretty strange.
Then they were there, before the large airlock-like door that stood between them and Hiruma. It had been shut in the time Ishimaru had been gone and they had not seen the woman on their way over.
"…How do we open it?" Juumonji couldn't help but to ask.
"Power?" Komusubi suggested. Unfortunately no one else there understood him.
"Ah ha ha!" Taki spun on one leg. "Why don't you just pull the handle?"
"…There isn't handle to pull." Musashi observed.
"Impossible!" Taki gasped.
"…Let me try something." Zork walked over to the door and set both of his hands on it and shut his eyes.
"Rezrov!" Zork yelled suddenly, green light shot from his hands and arched around the door, making it glow orange. The random items that had been imbedded into the door glowed purple then, with a loud pop, flew off the door. Once the last object flew off the door, all the glowing and whatnot stopped and, with an almost inaudible click, the door swung open slightly.
Zork fell to his knees, panting and sweating. It was obvious that what he had done was no easy feat.
"I think they know we are here now." Musashi muttered as they heard a lot of sounds of commotion above.
Monta didn't say anything and just grabbed the door edge and pulled it open. Juumonji picked Zork up and threw him over his shoulder. The linemen rushed through the door Monta opened, shields up. Ishimaru threw his cloak on and shoved Monta inside after the others, staying to stand watch outside the door.
The woman had heard the commotion and was now standing on the other side of Hiruma, holding a bag of his blood and looking somewhat scared.
"H-hello!" The woman managed, completely freaked out.
"Back away, we're breaking him out." Juumonji told her, holding up his shield expectantly.
"Feel free." The woman calmed down and put the blood away as if it was the most normal thing to do.
"…You really want him out of here?" Musashi asked her while Juumonji set Zork down in front of his brother. The boy paled.
"These are Dad's!" Zork wailed, making Musashi's conversation become forgotten.
"Your dad's bones?" Suzuna simply stared, horrified.
"They had to use Incubus and elfin bones to Seal him." The woman explained simply. She handed Musashi a cooler full of Hiruma's blood.
"What's this for?" Musashi asked her as Zork began to move the bones, trying not to cry at the same time.
"I don't know what they plan to do with his blood, but I know it's not a good thing." The woman ranted. "They don't care what they did to him!"
"Carry?" Komusubi asked pointing at the bones.
"I'll have to carry them, no one else can." Zork muttered as he removed the last of them.
"Do you have a bag?" Monta asked the woman.
"Oh! Yes." She dashed around and found a sack. Zork blinked once and put the bones in the sack.
"Who are you?" Musashi demanded.
"Ayla Pazzo." Ayla answered. "The Elders sent me to work here, but it's horrible…."
"I suppose you might want to be coming with us then," Ishimaru suggested, "because I think the Elders are here."
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Another cliffie!