A.N: Oh yeah, finally some action in this chapter! Virtual cookies for MugetsuPipefox, kisshuismylife and RedHoodLover for reviewing 3 Anyway, who's excited for Halloween? I know it's a month away, but it's one of my favourite celebrations… Should I do a special chapter for it?
I ran behind the other girls for what felt like forever. My throat was burning, chest heaving, and my legs were beginning to feel shaky. I knew I was starting to fall behind the others, and Lettuce took pity on me and dropped back to make sure I was okay. Of course, Zakuro was in the lead, and when she noticed that I'd slowed down she stopped to make sure I was okay.
Mint grumbled in annoyance. "Are you really going to let her slow everyone else down?" she asked haughtily. Usually her attitude would piss me off, but I knew she was right. I was a newbie holding everyone else back.
"She's right," I panted breathlessly. "You… go on… without me."
"Wow, usually that type of line is saved for the final battle!" Pudding laughed cheerfully. She seemed unaffected by the long run and jumped around excitedly.
"I'll catch up," I finished.
"The whole point of this is introducing you to the Chimeras," Zakuro said, "so if we leave you behind, then we've essentially failed."
"Well, that's true," Mint agreed. "And besides, by the time she caught up, we'd have killed it anyway."
"Shut up," I told her.
"Ooh, feisty!" she chuckled.
"No, seriously, shut up, I think I can hear something!" I told her. Everyone paused, even Pudding. Sure enough, there was a distant rumbling – no, actually, it sounded more like growling.
"I suppose it's found us instead," Lettuce sighed, grasping a knife in each hand and crouching into a battle-ready stance.
"Weapons out," instructed Zakuro, uncoiling her whip and taking a similar stance to Lettuce. I copied the two – strongest foot back, for balance, and arms raised ready to strike or defend. I vaguely remembered this from martial arts class as a kid. I prepared my machetes.
Gripping a weapon felt wrong. I knew I was about to fight a monster, but I'd only ever fought with my own body before, and somehow holding weapons made me feel like I was cheating. However, the other girls confidently held their weapons with determined gleams in their eyes. I wasn't going to let them down, even if this was my first mission.
"Over there!" Pudding exclaimed, pointing down a back alleyway. Sure enough, moments later the enormous dark-grey dog burst out from the shadows and ran, snarling, straight at Pudding.
Before I could even see what had happened, Pudding had tumbled out of the way and simultaneously launched one of her shuriken at it. The metal ninja star lodged into its right flank and caused it to hiss in pain. When it drew its lips back, flecks of spittle sprayed across us.
"Gross," I whispered to myself, wiping the drool onto my cloak.
"Aim for the eyes first," Zakuro shouted calmly. I backed out of the way as the other girls stood in front of it. Zakuro, the tallest of us, didn't even reach its shoulder. It was enormous.
Mint shot an arrow at its face and narrowly missed one of its bright orange eyes. The arrow instead tore through its ear and ripped a hole in it. The Chimera snapped furiously, darting closer to Mint to try and bite her. Lettuce took the opportunity and ran towards it. As it lowered its head to grab Mint in its jaws, Lettuce leaped over its snout and carved a bloody red line through one of its eyes. She landed safely on the other side and looped around so she stood behind it.
The Chimera blindly wheeled around trying to chase her. Mint darted away from its flailing paws. It turned its back on her to face Lettuce, and Mint shot an arrow through its paw. It howled in agony and turned back around. I almost felt sorry for it – outnumbered, outclassed, already bleeding from multiple wounds…
That is, of course, until the damn thing caught sight of me. I was standing directly across from it while the other girls weaved around it, searching for a weak point. It charged and I froze. This was not part of the plan.
"Ichigo, move!" Mint shouted.
It was coming straight at me. I did the first thing I could think of and ducked under its snapping jaws. I remembered the machetes gripped in my hands and lashed out at its front paw as I ran beneath its torso. I felt the blade slice through flesh. I shuddered and quickly pulled the blade out. Blood spurted out of the wound and splattered across my cloak.
"Get out from under it!" Mint warned. I did as she said and escaped from beneath it. The Chimera's front half fell onto the concrete – it could no longer stand properly after what I'd done to its paw. Pudding took the chance to leap up onto it's back and embed a variety of sharp weapons along its spine.
"Now it can't move!" she called out. Zakuro nodded and stepped towards the beast. She drew her arm back and then the whip flashed as it snapped outwards and coiled around the beast's neck in a loop. She pulled her arm back, tightening it, and the monster let out a final whine of despair as it choked to death. I had to look away.
"Done," she said unemotionally. She had been doing this the longest of all of us and seemed completely unaffected.
"I hate the last part," Lettuce said softly. She walked back over to it and pulled out the knife that was embedded in its head. Pudding tore all of her shuriken from its back, wiped them on her cloak, and slipped them back to where she'd been hiding them earlier.
"N-now what do we do?" I asked shakily. Adrenaline was pumping through my veins and made me forget that I'd ever been tired. Instead, I felt on edge and nervous, like I could break at any moment.
"Call Shirogane," Mint told me. Zakuro had already whipped the phone from her pocket and dialled. She spoke quietly so that I couldn't catch any of the conversation.
"Is anyone injured?" Lettuce asked.
"I don't know about injured, but I could really use a bath," I moaned. The Chimera's blood was starting to dry and strangely it actually stung my skin.
"Oh, Ichigo, come here," Lettuce called. I walked over to her and she pulled some baby wipes out of nowhere and started cleaning the blood off my skin. "You have to be careful with Chimera blood. It won't cause permanent damage, but it can sting and leave a mark for a few days!"
"Well that sucks," I grumbled. It occurred to me then why all of the girls were using either long-range or throwing weapons. There was a much lower chance of getting sprayed with blood like I had.
"Girls, come here for a moment," Zakuro suddenly said. The four of us stood around her. She pressed a button on the phone and suddenly we could hear Shirogane's voice. His voice actually sounded kind of nice when he wasn't being a jerk.
"Is everyone there?" he asked.
"Yeah," Zakuro nodded.
"Right. The Chimera's not showing up anymore – well done – but it's detecting another Alien life-form."
"What's detecting–" I began.
"Shh!" Mint hissed.
"Ah, Ichigo, always an idiot. This is simply a device which shows heat readings. Aliens have a much higher body temperature than humans," Shirogane explained through the phone. I hadn't realised he could hear me! "But this looks like something else," he continued, "something similar to the Chimeras, but not quite…"
"What should we do?" Lettuce inquired.
"For now, return to base. I haven't been able to catch it on video yet so it's not safe to engage."
"Roger that!" Pudding said.
"Do we have to run?" I asked anxiously.
"Not on the way back," Lettuce smiled. Zakuro closed the phone and put it back in her pocket.
"Right. Time for a bath!" Mint sighed happily. We left the corpse of the Chimera lying in the street and walked back in the direction which we'd came from.
"Who gets to clean that up?" I asked Lettuce quietly.
"Oh, I actually don't know," she mumbled. "I suppose they have a clean-up team?"
"Probably," I agreed. I was glad we didn't have to drag the gigantic body and dump it in a river somewhere. We walked back in relative silence after that. The serious mood was gone, but everyone was simply too tired to hold a coherent conversation.
Once again, I ended up lagging behind the others. I was daydreaming about everyone back at home. Does my family believe that rubbish about a scholarship in Tokyo? What were Mimi and Molly saying about my sudden disappearance? I bet they were mad I hadn't even bother to call them. What was Andrew thinking? Was he worried that I wasn't returning his morning texts anymore? Since I got kidnapped and might never see him again, are we even still dating!?
When I nearly tripped over a stick lying in a gutter I realised I'd fallen even further behind than I'd thought. I looked up and saw the girls turn a corner ahead of me. I was about to call out, when suddenly a hand cupped over my mouth and muffled my shout. I twisted around and escaped.
"What the fu–"
"Evening, kitten," came a strange voice. I looked at the person – no, this wasn't a person. It was definitely a 'he', but not a person. The thing had dark green hair, amber eyes, and pointed ears like an elf.
"Excuse me?" I snapped. "What the hell are you?"
"My name's Kish," he smiled, licking his lips.