Chapter 19 - Kinoko RusubanHollow NightI suppose you think I’d be worried right about now. Terrified, even.

  Perhaps if I were any old amateur you could pluck from the streets, you’d be correct.

  Such a person would not even have made the effort to prepare – I imagine they’d have run off alongside the other two in a situation like this, fearing exposure.

  As I’m sure even you have come to understand by now, I am no such novice.

  “Of course!” The first step was to beat them to the punch. “I said I’d present my power to you all, wouldn’t I? Thank you for reminding me.”

  That slightest hint of confusion on Cunningham’s face made it all the more difficult to hold back a smirk of my own.

  Likely attempting to grasp control of the situation, he cleared his throat.

  “Thank you. I understand Miyashita Park is quite the distance, and, judging from the map, we’d endure some lethal encounters if we were to head that way.”

  He stepped aside to reveal a small patch of green, the same one I’d been practicing on moments ago whilst the rest of them were focused on Juno.

  “Would this be a sufficient enough stage for you?”

  “Not in the slightest,” I didn’t reply.

  Instead, I simply nodded, making my way over to the designated spot, all eyes on me.

  I took a deep breath, pying my part with diligence, before stretching forth my hand toward a small chrysanthemum.

  I’ll admit, I still found the entire process strange – it was akin to accessing a new section of a building you’ve frequented your entire life. Old, yet new. Foreign, yet familiar.

  Still, I kept my composure and followed the same process as I’d been told.

  Tense spaces of silence swept through, carried through by the biting October wind.

  Just as I was about to put the contingency pn into action, my target eventually began to grow taller and taller, until it blossomed into a massive flower the size of a cactus.

  “Hah…Sorry it took so long…” I panted. “It seems just that alone takes so much from me!”

  Admittedly, this wasn’t an act. I’d been warned that the procedure would be draining, but I hadn’t expected this. I had to be even more careful when dispying this ability.

  “Alright, Green Thumb,” Mocked Katoru after a while. He was clearly enjoying having the superior ability – or the perception of such, anyway. “Take five. We’ll call you when the climate change Noise makes an appearance.”

  I shook my head, pretending that the grinding of my teeth was due to my visible tiredness. My eyes found Mizuko’s, and soon enough, she got the ball rolling.

  “If there’s no other business, let’s go over our strategy.” She decred.

  Please, do be taking notes.

  “As a reminder, our goal here is to secure five artefacts scattered around the area, and to do so as efficiently as possible.” The Vice-President spoke. “Seeing as how we have two among us capable of tracking these objects down, we are to split into two teams to collect them.”

  Cunningham chimed, “Precisely,” though soon after his visage became notably more downtrodden. Whilst my intellectual superiority must hurt, I doubted that was the cause.

  “My friends, there’s something you must know. I think I’ve discovered what the ‘twist’, so to speak, of this mission really is.”

  Perhaps to illustrate his point, or maybe as a wanton act of vandalism, the boy suddenly grew into his hulking Lycan form, before diving into the front window of Hong Kong Star’s storefront.

  The absurdness of the entire act made me chuckle, though I kept it inaudible.

  “Apologies,” He said sheepishly, in response to the varied reactions of shock from our cohort. “I needed to get these.”

  In his now fleshy hand was a singur white piece of chalk, likely the same used by the restaurant for the advertising of their dishes to passersby.

  I appuded his show of initiative – I imagined due to the kerfuffle yesterday, he’d realized that all the stores here are actually stocked full of the items they peddle during the daytime.

  It was almost an impressive enough dispy to change my mind about the destiny I’d chosen for him.

  Almost.

  With our group’s attention solely on him, he began to draw across the tarmac we stood on, his strokes skilful and precise, surely that of a seasoned artist.

  My curiosity was peaked, and the others followed as we crouched around to behold the diagram he was concocting.

  “Here we are,” He announced conclusively, wiping his brow. “This is simply a crude copy of the map up there, duplicated for our convenience. Now, listen to this.”

  Cunningham then pointed toward the Northeastern section of his piece.

  “This area, at least according to my nose, is heavy with the waft of EXS. Considering that this part of the area contains the most red and amber routes, that is to be expected, though I have the slightest suspicion that Juno has taken advantage of this very fact.”

  “That’s right,” Katoru’s minion affirmed in response to Arthur’s eye contact.

  At that moment, as if hit by sudden understanding, the words had left my mouth before I could gain control.

  “Ah! You suspect Juno has hidden the artefacts among these congested routes?”

  It was then that Cunningham looked up at me with the most amiable expression he’d given me up to that point. Much to my future vexation, that image of his smile never left me from that moment forward.

  “Exactly. Perhaps not all of them, though I suspect the majority of them have been pced somewhere there.”

  The sense of accomplishment at having come to a reasonable conclusion was soon overshadowed by a cloud of dread, once we’d realized exactly what that meant for us.

  “Shit.” Hoshino mumbled after a while, but said no more. Her admirer decided to finish the thought in her stead.

  Furusawa excimed, “Wait, that means we’re gonna be heading straight into the danger zone!”

  "Yea, yet a greater ill, my friend." Kozuki shook her head, her eyes shuttered.

  "But half of our fellowship shall enter yon lion's abode."

  The unfortunate truth was that there was still an entire southern part of the city that needed investigating.

  If we were to group up and tackle the northern section together, we’d be slower, clumsier, and with the business of Pacts still fresh in our minds, too focused on our own wellbeing.

  It simply wasn’t an option.

  So what was left to do? Send separate groups to each corner of the map - and it seemed the group sent to Upper Shibuya would be headed on, for all intents and purposes, a suicide mission.

  The air was quiet. It seemed, for all their talk about getting through this nightmare and fighting together, the reality of death proved paralyzing.

  I would get them to move. It was my duty, after all, as their lord.

  “Send me in.” I demanded. “I will go up there and retrieve the artefacts.”

  I looked around at their fearful expressions, and as predicted, the one thing that frightens humans more than death is to have been responsible for someone else’s.

  “Fat chance.” Hoshino rejected solemnly. “You said it yourself. If they’ve gone and put the relics in those dangerous-ass areas, we’ll have to send our best fighters.”

  She sighed deeply, though it seemed to be out of inconvenience more than terror.

  “I guess that means I’ll be going.”

  There we had it.

  From the fringes of our group spoke a soft voice.

  “I-I’ll go too!” Furusawa practically yelled, eyes closed shut. “You h-heard what Juno said, right? We’re in a Pact, so…anywhere that you go, I’ll go too.”

  Eiji dismissed, “If you say so.” I hadn’t seen her cheeks this red since that day when Ryota Nakamura, of all people, began to cheer her on in the Girls’ Regional Basketball Finals.

  Of course, it was a temporary alliance born out of a shared desire to see their school win, though it certainly didn’t help the numerous rumours about the duo that had already been circuting.

  “You’ll need a tracker with you.” Katoru’s servant reminded, before turning back to his master. “Seeing as how our own partner is off doing fuck knows what, whatcha say we tag along with these guys?”

  Katoru chuckled.

  “Sure. I hear gruesome death is real nice this time of year.”

  Just when I was thinking that everything had gone according to pn, I heard yet another voice behind me. I turned around.

  “I shall come as well.” Kozuki spoke. “Tis’ only right that I risk my life alongside my comrades!”

  Was she stupid?

  “Kozuki,” I began lightly. “I’m not strong enough to go with you. If we get separated, and something happens to you-”

  "Hark! Address me as Red. Should these three succumb in battle, all hope wilt be dashed, naught will avail us. Our chances of triumph are greater with mine power of foresight and the healer among us."

  That was it. I couldn’t say any more, or I’d risk giving away too much.

  “Very well.” Cunningham concluded after several beats of silence. “Seeing as how Rusuban can’t quite fight yet, the three of us left will go and explore the lower areas. He can stay here, where the torch should keep him safe.”

  The situation was slipping out of my grasp – I needed to seize control of it again, and quickly.

  “No! Please, let me at least come with you.” I pleaded. “If the nights keep getting tougher, I’ll only become a walking target. Now is the best chance for me to progress my power so that I can be of help when the time comes.”

  Mizuko, Junko, and Arthur exchanged tentative gnces, as if I were a burdensome younger sibling begging to go out with them.

  How humiliating. Be that as it may, it comforted me remembering just how little they actually knew.

  Mizuko was the first to speak.

  “Alright. But stay close to us, and be vigint. Run at the first sign of serious danger. Understood?”

  I nodded my head gratefully, “You won’t regret this.”

  “I certainly hope not,” Junko tried to whisper.

  Our roles now sorted, we split into our two camps and made preparations to move out.

  “Take this.”

  Mizuko was standing behind Furusawa, the lighter from yesterday in hand.

  “Reaper handed it back to me before they left. It seems we’ve been allowed to keep it.” She expined as our resident healer carefully took the trinket. “As you navigate, be sure to light every mp you come across.”

  “Understood.” He replied. “Thank you. Good luck out there, okay?”

  Perhaps at the genuine dispy of goodwill, Mizuko wore the tiniest of smiles.

  “Appreciated.”

  She turned to leave, but, likely spontaneously, decided to part some final words of advice on to the boy. I inched closer to listen in.

  “You haven’t noticed, have you Furusawa? The only reason the other three are even the slightest bit okay with this is because you’ll be with them.” She began. “It can be said that humans spend their lives destroying, and most of our abilities reflect this sentiment. In the midst of that, however, your power is kinder than anything else. Cherish it.”

  There was a pause as Mizuko allowed her words to sink in. Furusawa’s eyes became glossy.

  “I-”

  His words were cut off.

  “Let’s get goin’, dude!” Katoru called in the distance.

  Wordlessly, he bowed in Mizuko’s direction, his forearm wiping across his eyes.

  As Mizuko walked back to regroup, Furusawa caught up with the others, and before long, they vanished into the darkness of the night.

  “Do you think they’ll be alright?” Junko asked nobody in particur.

  Arthur rested a gentle hand on her shoulder.

  “I think they’ll get by just fine.”

  Regrettably, I could not say the same for him.