Haruka heard Kantarou's voice cut off suddenly, and he whirled around to see the wall of the niche explode, sending shards of stone and dust flying as huge vines whipped outwards. He was forced to shield his eyes, and when he lowered his arm the vines had already wrapped tightly around the exorcist's body. Kantarou tried to put up a fight, but he wasn't strong enough to free himself as the vines coiled and tightened around his body, squeezing his ribs and silencing any potential for chanting sutras. The blade-like black thorns tore into his clothing as he continued to struggle, slicing through heavy silk and skin like paper. So much for my best ceremonial robes, he managed to think wryly to himself as he felt blood trickle down his side from some of the deeper cuts. Haruka had immediately launched a vicious attack against the vines holding Kantarou, but they moved like they could think and see for themselves, thorns rising up to block his attacks and slash at his body in response. He snarled in fury as one managed to wrap itself around his upper body, binding his arms against his sides. The thorns bit into his arms and back, cutting deeply as he strained to free at least his claws. He growled again in frustrated rage-yet again he had failed at helping Kantarou when he was needed. Haruka spared a minute to glance over and see if he was still holding his own, just to see that the exorcist had gone limp again in the vines' tight grasp. Dammit…not again! Why am I so weak! He stopped fighting and closed his eyes, letting his knees buckle so that the vines held his body upright. He needed to think of a way to get them both out of here-both of them should have been dead by now if the vines had been trying to kill them. If Haruka hadn't stood a chance against them, it should have been short work to finish the two of them off. Instead, they were only being held from escaping. As soon as he stopped attacking, the vines didn't attack either. There was definitely something else going on in this house-and he wished it were as simple as fighting off malevolent vegetation. He opened his eyes and looked back over at Kantarou, praying that the exorcist was still alive. A single red eye met his look, winked slowly, and then closed again as the smaller man continued to play at being unconscious. Haruka took a deep breath, irritation and overwhelming relief welling up. The damned man could have given him a sign or something before playing dead. But it seemed that Kantarou had the same realization that this was only leading to something else-he was probably trying to act helpless to get as much of a chance as he could. Haruka was relieved that his master still had enough left in him to be willing to put up a fight. He would always bet on Kantarou in a supernatural battle when the stakes turned serious-the man's spiritual powers made up for his irritating personality in a situation like this. He had never had a master before that would fight with him and for him-he was used to being put in harm's way so that someone else could benefit. Kantarou was never like that. It troubled him and unnerved him to be in a situation where he had to actually worry about the other man. At least he knew they would be fighting together, for the time being. He just hoped that the exorcist could just hang on a bit longer. For now, he could only wait and see what Kantarou was going to do. Now that both of them were trapped, the vines had stopped moving and were simply holding them in place like steel chains. Haruka didn't like it. He felt like they were just like fruit waiting to be plucked dumbly from a tree sitting like this. The tengu hoped fervently that his odd little master had something up his sleeves.
Kantarou himself felt bad for worrying Haruka, but he had hoped that acting unconscious might allow the vines to loosen up just enough for him to use his binding spell. He was already in bad shape from using so much of his spiritual power on the earlier cases, and it wasn't being helped by the steady agony burning in his chest. A sudden thought made his stomach turn to ice-what if all of this was because someone was after Haruka again? Kantarou refused to think about losing him again. He would throw his own life down for the tengu's if it came to it. Anything but the pain of being left alone again, of failing with other's lives at stake. He gritted his teeth. This case was bringing back memories he wished would stay buried. Now wasn't the time to think about past failures-he refused to think about failing with Haruka. Renewed motivation lent him a little borrowed strength, and he began pulling against the vines carefully to see if he could move. The vines hadn't loosened much around him, but they had lost their tension when he pretended to fall unconscious again (though it honestly wasn't hard for him to pretend at this point). He could just move his arms up and down a little, so he worked on freeing his hands to at least perform the nine word binding chant. There wasn't much he could do about the thorns except to try to ignore being stabbed whenever he moved. Kantarou tried to be an optimist, so he just shrugged mentally and figured that a little more blood would probably help get his arms free if it made them a little slick. A glance over at Haruka showed that he seemed to have stopped fighting for now, and the exorcist prayed that the tengu would wait for just a few minutes before trying anything. He needed Haruka in one piece to get them both out of there-Kantarou had a feeling he would need to be carried regardless of how this fight turned out. He smirked to himself a little. It would serve the tengu right the next time he tried to tell him hard work was healthy.
While he was thinking, his hands were busy trying to slide out of the grip the vines had on his body. His hands had become slippery with blood and sweat, and he finally felt them sliding out of the thorny embrace. Once both hands were free, he took another look at Haruka. The tengu was watching him with an unreadable expression, but his eyes looked worried. It must be torture for him to be the helpless one for once. Kantarou winked at him again and then held up his newly freed hands, wiggling the fingers to show the tengu. Haruka glowered at him then, hating the sight of the red staining the exorcist's hands. It excited his emotions and memories too much right now. Kantarou just smiled a little, and then gingerly fished his prayer beads out of the mess of his shredded robes. It was a good thing that plants didn't actually have brains or eyes, he thought to himself as he arranged the beads around his fingers. Normally an ogre or spirit wouldn't just sit still while he readied himself to bind them after all-he dared to hope that perhaps they could get out of this mess with a minimum of trouble after all. The young exorcist closed his eyes and breathed in deeply, trying to clear his mind a little. He didn't have much energy left, so he didn't know if he would be able to perform the binding a second time. He had to do it properly his first try. The pain in his chest was an ever-present distraction, and he had to force his mind to ignore it and concentrate on the flow of spiritual power within his own body. The binding chant required a pure state of concentration and power to be effective, and his mind instinctively fell into the familiar pattern of pushing away the discomfort and allowing the outside world to fade. The vines holding up his body, the cuts on his arms, the pain invading his chest, even Haruka faded into nothing as Kantarou breathed in and out and focused one (hopefully) last time on the power present inside of him. The familiar golden glow of his power shimmered around his form and began to concentrate around his hands, wrapping around the fingers like golden ribbons.
Haruka figured out what Kantarou was up to as soon as the man's hands were free, and he felt a swell of relief. Binding the monster trapping them would get them both of this mess, and then he could fly them home. It seemed like the exorcist was holding up fine, even with the scar on his chest acting up for this long. He wondered if that meant the original cause of Kantarou's collapse was no longer present, if the exorcist was still conscious and able to cast spells. Given his reaction before, it seemed like the presence responsible had moved away. Haruka growled, frustrated. The situation didn't make any sense to him, beyond being a trap. Why would something that could completely and so easily render a powerful tengu and exorcist helpless not finish them both off? It would have been a simple thing to kill Kantarou while he was unable to move, and whatever had trapped them had showed that it could handle Haruka just as easily. The entire situation seemed more and more like someone or something was just playing with them, not just trapping them. His eyes widened suddenly as he thought about the day's events. Kantarou had been called out on more cases than normal….all of them had required him to use his powers to resolve them…and then the exorcist's resulting exhaustion…all of these were linked to what was happening now. It wasn't about capturing the tengu-whatever this twisted game was, it seemed to require that Kantarou use up all of his power, or at least exhaust himself before getting to the actual game.
"Shit!" Haruka spat as he realized that they were playing themselves deeper into the trap they had walked right into. The exorcist had his eyes closed and the aura of his spiritual power had settled around him like a golden cloud. He would cast the binding spell any minute.
"Kantarou, stop! Don't do the spell! Oi, Kantarou!" the tengu shouted, throwing his weight against the vines chaining his arms to his sides. The only result was a new tear through his already wounded jacket as he renewed his struggles to break free. "Dammit, Kantarou…"
The young exorcist didn't hear him, all of his attention turned inwards at channeling his power one last time. His breath was released outwards at once, and he opened his eyes, forming his fingers into the patterns of the nine-word binding.
"Rin, Pyo..Tou…Sha…Kai…Jin…..Retsu…Zai…Zen" he chanted, releasing his concentrated power and energy at the same time the tengu shouted again. The power surged out from his body and engulfed the vines encircling their bodies. Even in his dismay Haruka marveled at how destructive such a pure spiritual power could be-even as it hissed harmlessly past him it consumed the plant body holding him captive. The vines whipped back to life and thrashed in seeming pain as the glow ate away at them, flinging Kantarou and Haruka around before violently shuddering and then dropping them. They continued to dissolve before soundlessly exploding into a shower of lights, harmlessly dropping onto their heads like glittering powder. Kantarou wobbled where he was trying to get to his feet, and then slumped down with his back against an unbroken part of the hallway wall as the remaining strength he had completely left him.
"Ugh….let's hope that's the end of it. Ne…Haruka…I'm really sorry.." the exorcist whispered, putting his head against the wall and closing his eyes. Haruka wanted to shake him.
"What on Earth are you sorry for? I haven't been able to do anything this entire time…" he snarled, punching the wall as he stood next to the exorcist. Kantarou had used up his power again, and he couldn't even prevent that much. The exorcist breathed in raggedly, and opened his eyes a little.
"Mm? I should have told you….that I was at my limit…then we wouldn't be in this mess…in the first place. I just hope that was it. Haruka….I don't think I can do anything else. I can't even open my eyes all of the way right now" he sighed. His eyes fluttered closed again and he leaned more heavily against the wall, one hand resting on his chest. The robes he was wearing were shredded and stained with blood where the thorns had found his skin. Haruka started as he noticed that there was a black glow faintly emanating from under Kantarou's fingers, pulsing in time with the exorcist's rapid heartbeat. It was barely noticeable, but it was there. Whether it was related to his overuse of spiritual power or because of the unknown presence taunting them in this place, Haruka only wished he knew. He had never felt this helpless before-and he was supposed to be the one this idiotic exorcist believed would make him stronger. The best he could do for the minute was to take off what remained of his jacket and tear it into strips for use on Kantarou's injuries. His own cuts were already half-healed.
"Hey Kantarou…try to stay awake a little longer. We are not out of danger yet. Just stay with me for now." Haruka carefully shook the exorcist a little. The silver-haired man murmured something unintelligible but opened his eyes again and looked up the tengu. First things first, thought Haruka. He tugged on Kantarou's robes, indicating he wanted them off so he could examine the exorcist's injuries. Kantarou managed to shrug his arms out of the heavy cloth after several minutes of weak struggling so that his upper body was left bare for inspection. Haruka growled under his breath at the sight of the deep cuts decorating the exorcist's arms and sides. The exorcist had lost a fair amount of blood just from fighting against the idiot vines-the energy drain on the man definitely wasn't going to be helped by adding blood loss. With a sigh, the tengu grabbed the torn strips from his jacket and wrapped the worst of the cuts, flinching himself whenever he tightened the dressing as Kantarou hissed his breath out a little in reaction.
"It's fine…but we should probably see if we can get out of here now," Kantarou sighed, with his eyes closing again. "I'm not going to be much use for a while, and it won't improve the longer we stay here." He sagged and his hand drifted unconsciously back up to his chest, where the scar was still emitting a faint black glow. The exorcist didn't seem to notice, so Haruka decided to look into it after they worked on getting out of the damn place. He looked down at Kantarou, who had shrugged his robes back up but didn't look like he would be walking on his own anytime soon. He sighed again and knelt in front of the exorcist, putting his hand on the man's dusty silver hair.
"Kantarou, I'm going to pick you up again. Let me know if anything hurts." He couldn't resist stroking the soft hair a little, and he let his hand move down and brush against the other man's cheek before moving to pick him up.
Kantarou was trying to resist the siren song of complete unconsciousness at this point, and he couldn't keep his eyes open. But he still felt the rough caress on his head and it made him smile a little involuntarily. Careful Haruka…I'll start thinking you actually like me. I'm not used to being treated nicely. He couldn't completely hold back a groan when Haruka picked him up again, feeling every cut and ache acutely. The constant throb of his scar combined with the overuse of his powers wasn't helping the way he felt at all. At least they were together and alive for now-and it seemed like they were going to get away tonight at least. Shit….there is definitely a natural law out there that loves proving optimistic statements wrong. He decided to make himself stay conscious a bit longer. There was no way he would let Haruka be put in danger just because he was weak right now.
Haruka felt Kantarou's breath lightly against his neck, and he couldn't help snorting when he heard the exorcist mumbling under his breath something about protecting him. Kantarou was such a strange man-not even completely conscious and still nattering on about protecting him, the ogre-eating goblin, of all creatures. It was laughable, but somehow he felt that if anyone could keep words like these, it was Kantarou. He hated the pained sound of Kantarou's breathing as they moved but he enjoyed the feeling of his master's body against his own. It was soothing when his emotions were under control. He didn't want to lose control of them again-and this situation had shown itself to be problematic in that regard. Kantarou shivered a little while he held onto Haruka's shirt, although his eyes stayed closed. The tengu knew he was probably conserving his energy while he sensed for any more hostile presences. Noting that the exorcist's body temperature was dropping, probably from the overuse of his powers, he extended his wings and cupped them around his body while he walked further down the spiraling passageway.