บท 55: Jail Break and the recollection of Rias' confidence! The time to strike back is now!
Their bodies sagging and left crumpled against the back wall of their cells, both Michael and Shirou were slowly resting and regaining the strength that was forcibly knocked out of them by Natsuru and her pack of cat hybrids. Soon after they were caught, the pair were delicately placed in their cell by Natsuru's orders so that they wouldn't be too damaged to be validated as "unusable."
They were still left with the same damage they received so that if they were to wake up they would be hindered by the pain. Even so they were still recovering at a slower rate than before if they were healed but it was still close for them to regain their consciousness as soon as possible.
"I can't believe those two took out more than half of the intended men we sent with Natsuru-sama."
"Goes to show why she would want to capture them in the first place."
"Yeah…but it still makes me wonder, how in the hell did these two kids just destroy about 45% of our main forces?"
Two lynx-hybrids were guarding the hallway to cells were gossiping about the current and future events that are taking place.
"In the end it took Natsuru-sama and the top three of us to capture them. In the end, not even the 4th strongest could keep up with them and live to come back."
"Natsuru-sama, seems to be just the person to value her mates to be strong and destructive."
"Mates?"
One of the hybrids questioned the other's statement.
"You don't know? Natsuru-sama wanted to capture the Red Dragon Emperor because of all of those achievements he's been attaining and not to mention the dragon power he possesses."
"I get the gist of that, but why would she want to mate with him?"
"Are you an idiot? Haven't you ever gotten the instinct to have powerful offspring? Just imagine how powerful your child would be if they were given the aura of a dragon and not to mention that dragon being one of the Heavenly Dragons."
"I understand, but what about the other one? Why did she pick that one up too?"
"I guess he was just something extra who was around, well anyways I don't really know much about what's going to happen to him. Either way these two are in for a bad time here."
"If it's something Natsuru-sama has in plan even I'd pity these poor suckers, hell, I pity ourselves for even working for her."
"Shut your trap, complaining about it won't change anything."
"Don't try to act like your loyal to her, we have our own master and we're just following after Natsuru-sama because of orders. In fact, I believe she wanted half of our guys out there to die all for attaining these two."
"Yes, that's true, but are you willing to disobey master's order?"
"N-No, but…!"
"Then be quiet or do you wish to end up like 45% of those who had been destroyed?"
"Grr…fine!"
"Now if you're done with your whining let's get to work before we get caught."
The two lynx guards dropped the subject and went off to search the perimeter of the next hallway containing cells in case of any intruders or unwanted attention crawling under their noses.
From within the cell that held Michael and Shirou, two lights with two different colors illuminated the cell as Michael's right hand started to glow green and Shirou's left hand started to glow blue.
Suddenly two voices echoed out from their perspective bodies.
\Heh, what a predicament our hosts have gotten themselves into./
[Actually I've gotten used to my host getting caught up into strange stuff like this.]
\You too, huh, I thought I was the only one. But I guess it should be obvious, right? You must have been in way more dangerous stuff with your host right, Ddraig the Red Dragon Emperor?/
[Ah right, I forgot, we haven't spoken to each other in ages, but I thought you, yourself would have gotten into crazier shenanigans with your possessor considering you are the, King of all Monsters, Typhon.]
\What can I say, things just tend to be more entertaining whenever my host stumbles into something fun./
Typhon laughs while Ddraig sighs with a slight chuckle under his breath.
[You've changed, the last time I remember, you were still bent up about taking out all of the Gods on Olympus. You were a complete and utter monster who wanted nothing more than chaos. You've really mellowed out, and I was shocked to see that you were trapped inside of a sacred gear.]
\The same could be said about you and Abby, after hearing that the both of you were sealed in Sacred Gears I was just about to blow up everything on Mount Olympus to see if the rumors were true./
[Yeah, that's something I don't want to talk about.]
\Hah, you two were seriously done in by those Angels and Devils having that stupid squabble? Hahahaha! I can't believe how carried away you two got by getting into a fight!/
[Typhon, I underst-!]
\The only saving grace you can use as an excuse is that God personally sealed your souls into the sacred gears! I don't know about you but you two must have felt so embarrassed to tarnish the title of the Heavenly Dragons like that./
[…You're right about that Typhon. But wouldn't it be close to the shame you felt?]
\Shame? What do you mean?/
[Oh nothing. I just thought that you the King of all Monsters would have still kept his body after all these years, but look at you crammed inside a sacred gear of your own. I guess your imprisonment in Mt. Etna wasn't too dignified for you. I mean to be used as a source of power to humans, I guess your legend of having once struck fear in the gods and defeating Zeus wasn't enough…Scratch that last part, I believe Zeus was the god who sealed you away in the first place before handing your soul over to God. Now wouldn't that be disgraceful for your title as the King of Monsters?]
Ddraig really went in depth with his comeback.
\... …Your lucky I respect you more than Abby…/
Typhon growled.
\Also that fight would have been mine if he didn't have the help of those other gods and…that human. If only I had realized it sooner, that I was getting distracted. I could have destroyed Zeus and that mountain before I got sealed./
[Look we're both idiots who were defeated with unfair.]
\Simple./
Typhon snickered and jabbed Ddraig with that one word.
[*Groans!* Tactics...]
\It's true, I mean look how our hosts look right now. They got caught so easily with such a simple and clever trick. Personally, I think it's flattering that enemies are finding quicker ways to get rid of us, dragons, but after a while it gets annoying./
[It may be annoying, but I think our hosts will find a way out of this mess.]
\So how's your possessor? He seems to be an interesting guy. Even my partner sees him in a new light after that little fight they had./
[He does? I got the impression that he didn't like Michael.]
\Oh, don't mind that thing he does, it's just him being a tsundere./
"Mmmmrrgh!" Shirou growled lowly and unconsciously.
[Is he okay?]
\Don't worry it's a natural tsundere reaction for being called a tsundere. You'll get used to it./
[Michael's fine, he's just recovering and unconsciously thinking about his senior or kidnapper.]
\Oooh! Is it one of those inner monologues about the past events and they're floating aimlessly in a black void?/
[So I'm not the only one who has a partner who does that?]
\Nope, it only happens whenever he's worried about someone preferably his master from time to time…or actually every day./
[The same could be said about Michael but right now he's really worried about Rias Gremory, it was his first date with her too. The way the kidnapper defeated her was crushing not only her pride but her spirit. It might be difficult for her to repair her broken spirit without Michael there to support her.]
\Well I for one should say she needs to get over it, she should have expected baggage like that to be brought up when she's involved with a Heavenly Dragon. But that doesn't mean she won't stay beaten if a dragon chose her then she'll have a good bet of getting back up again./
[I guess you're right. It makes me wonder how the other ones will make it through similar situations.]
\Wait…others so does that mean he has a harem?/
[Yes, well, he's a little aware of it but is a little oblivious, but yes, he has one.]
\Impressive, I can only hope that he doesn't wind up like you did with all of that unfinished business you had with Tiamat./
[Unfinished? What do you mean?]
\What are you talking about you and her promised to…Oh my god, you forgot didn't you!?/
[Of course, all the memories I had when I was alive became blurry when I was sealed inside the sacred gear. She attacked us last time and I couldn't understand what she was saying!]
\Hahahahahahaha! That's so hysterical, I can't believe that really happened. Aw…man, you really screwed yourself over, your one unlucky bastard~!/
[Tell me what I did that made her mad!]
\Well…whoops~! My partner is waking up see you later~!/
[Dammit! Typhon, don't you hold out on me! Tell me exactly what happened!]
Typhon's voice faded away with a cry from Ddraig fading away following soon after.
Groggily waking up, both Michael and Shirou open their eyes to see themselves in a damp cell.
"Urgh…man, my head hurts…" Michael rubbed his head.
"Bleck…I have a terrible taste in my mouth." Shirou stuck out his tongue in disgust.
'I feel like I had the most awful hangover…huh, what is this?' Michael moved his other hand and tried to scratch his head, but he heard the sound of chains jostling along with some extra weight
"What the hell are you doing to my arm?" Shirou growled and pulled back his arm thus pulling Michael's in turn.
"Your arm? This is my arm!"
"Then explain why my arm is moving by itself!"
"Well, I don't know ask these handcu-gah!"
"Ack!"
Both, Michael and Shirou froze when they looked at their restraints chaining their wrists together. It took them a mere second to respond in an over exaggerated fashion.
"What the hell did you do!?" Shirou shouted at Michael.
"Oi! Why do you assume that I was the one who did this!?" Michael yelled.
"I don't know it just felt natural to assume it was your fault." Shirou said.
"Well that's normal but…" Michael looked around and saw the cell they were in.
"Where are we?"
"Looks like a cell, and I can only assume we've been captured by that fox-chick and those 3 other bastards." Shirou spat and sat back down.
"Fox-chick? Hm, oh my, Maou!" Michael looked up in thought, until he gasped upon remembering the past events which occurred with Natsuru and an image of a beaten Rias on the ground.
"Rias! Natsuru-senpai!"
"Gagh! Jesus, what the hell are you doing!?"
It was so fast that even Shirou yelped in surprise, being dragged along the ground, he was forced to trail after Michael, who ran to the cell bars and shouted out the names of the two people on his mind.
"Natsuru-senpai, where are you!?" Michael shouted and tried to shake the cell bars, but Shirou used the chains of the handcuffs to pull him away from the bars.
"Hey, moron, don't yell out like that we still don't know where we are." Shirou said while holding back Michael and looking back at the bar.
"But I need to find Natsuru-senpai and get back to Rias! Everything that happened I really need an answer for it and…!"
"Look, I don't get what's up between you and that chick who captured us, but we can't keep dicking around in here. So let's focus on get the hell out."
"But-!"
"Doing that screaming thing may attract enemies to this place and if we get more enemies to handle the harder it will be for us to escape and find that girl who did all of this." Shirou walked in front of Michael and pointed his hand at the bars.
"You're right…I guess we can't do anything if we're stuck in here." Michael agreed.
"Now let's go wreck heir shit!" Shirou prepared to fire his dragon power in the form of a blast, but nothing came out.
"What?"
"Is something the matter?" Michael asked.
"What the hell? Hyah!" Shirou looked at his hand then tried again, but nothing happened. Then he voiced out a question that popped up in his head,
"Why can't I use my power?"
"What for real you can't do it?"
"If I could then we would be out of here by now." Shirou gritted his teeth, "I can't use my dragon power to break us out."
"Really? Let me try by summoning my Booster Gear." Michael thrusted his fist out and shouted, "Boosted Gear!"
Only silence filled the room as Michael saw his naked fist with no red gauntlet forming on it.
"That's strange that usually works…how about again! BOOSTED GEAR, I choose you!"
Michael thrusted his fist in the air in a dramatic fashion, but nothing happened.
"The heck is wrong with it; it never did this before." Michael tilts his head.
"I can't summon my sacred gear either." Shirou attempted it while Michael was exaggerating his own attempts.
"What's blocking out all of our powers?" Michael asked.
"It could be this thing. I've never felt so restrained and cut off from power before. These cuffs may be the cause of this." Shirou examined the cuffs.
"So even our demonic power won't work?" Michael stood in front of the bars and thrusted both his hands out.
"I don't know probably."
"Then let's try it out! With fire magic!"
*FWOM!*
Michael roared and conjured up a small orb of flames in his hands which died out.
"Wow, you suck." Shirou looked at Michael with a disappointed expression.
"I swear this never happened to me before!" Michael tried again but this time he only shot out a puff of smoke.
"Why don't you actually try another spell other than fire?" Shirou crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow.
"I could, but fire is more my specialty, you know?" Michael sweatdropped and continued using the same attack. His awkward answer was more than enough for Shirou to get the point,
"It is true you can't use any other elemental magic!" Shirou laughed.
"Shut up, I can do it! I just choose not to…" Michael trailed off, his many other attempts usually blew up in his face.
"Just move and let me do it." Shirou shoved Michael to the side and prepared a bigger magic circle in his hand, "I'll use lightning magic to decimate these bars."
*Z-zzt…*
"The hell?" Shirou looked at his hand in confusion.
"…Mmmmmmmm~!" Michael's cheeks were puffed out in restrained laughter.
"Don't you dare…"
"Mmmmmmm~!" Michael trembled.
"Don't!" Shirou growled.
"Fah…fine I won't laugh…" Michael exhaled in relief and held a hand behind his back.
"Good, now we can say these cuffs block out our dragon power and dampen our demonic…"
"Psyke! BWA….HAHAHAHA! HA! HA! HA! Ha…ha…ha…oh, you looked ridiculous…oh…oh…oh…"
Shirou looked at the handcuffs, but was interrupted by Michael's sudden laughter which soon peered out after a while.
"You done yet…?" Shirou had an angered tick mark on his forehead as he waited for Michael's laughter to end.
"Yeah…I think I'm good." Michael sighed.
"Okay, these cuffs are the problem…" Shirou began again.
"Snrk…OW! What the heck!?"
Shirou punched Michael's arm in annoyance.
"Look, I'm going to speak to you simply because you're getting on my nerves! Ahem! We can't use powers. Because of Cuffs. We can't…break out. Us. Need. Freedom." Shirou clears his throat, "You understand?"
"What the hell is with that explanation, you're acting like I'm a cave man!"
"Then stop messing around, dumbass. We need to get out of here quickly and we can't use magic to do it." Shirou said, he was getting real tired of Michael's crap.
"Fine, fine, now if we want to break out, we should probably get rid of these handcuffs we really can't escape with them on." Michael pointed at the handcuffs.
"Understatement of the fucking century." Shirou was irked that Michael had said that.
"Wait, just hear me out let's get them off by cutting off one of our arms."
"…" Shirou gave Michael a dirty look.
"Aren't you going to reply?"
"You're not going to like what I'm thinking, Michael." Shirou shook his head and looked away.
"Shi-rou, look!"
"Hm!" Shirou angrily looked back at Michael.
"I mean, Shirou, just listen. What other choice do we have to escape we can't use our magic or our sacred gears. Unless you have another power you have hidden to break us out?" Michael made a good point.
"…" Shirou stayed quiet, at that question.
\Well…you can use your "other" form to break yourselves out of this mess./
'No, I would never use especially not in front of this guy…' Shirou held in his breath as he weighed his options.
Exhaling heaving, Shirou groaned, "So who'll lose their arm?"
"Pfft! What makes you think I'm going to do it?" Michael looked at Shirou expectedly.
"Whoa, no, no, no, you're the one who brought it up so you do it." Shirou disagreed and argued back.
"Hey, I made up the idea so you give up your arm and later get it reattached by Asia."
"Hell no! Why don't you do it?"
"Because…" Michael stalled and tried to get his point across, "Because…look if you can't do it yourself then let me do it for you!"
"You touch me and I break your arm!"
"Hey, don't try to stack your kind offer over my own!"
"How is any of this a kind offer!?"
Michael and Shirou's fight escalated so much that Michael lunged out and tried to grab Shirou's arm who did the same to him in return. Soon enough a huge scuffle broke out between the two, each of them trying to take each other's arms off.
"Just give it up!" Michael screamed and was pulling Shirou's arm while pushing him away with his hand to the side of his face, "Why are you getting so skeptical? You could always get Asia to heal her!"
"You're making it sound like losing a limb is natural!" Shirou socking Michael in the face.
Pushing the fist that Shirou threw back with his face, Michael growled, "At this point I wouldn't mind if I lost an arm just a while ago, I had a huge gaping hole through my abdomen that Asia completely healed. Making this situation totally legit!"
"Then why don't you cut off your arm!?" Shirou yelled.
"Dude…no…no…no…just cut off your arm already!"
"If that's how you're going to play it then I'll just rip your arm off before you do it to me!" Shirou started pulling Michael's arm even harder.
"Oh yeah, well I'll pull your arm off when you'd least expect it. And nothing will distract me!"
"Look someone got hit in the nuts!" Shirou pointed outside of the cell.
"Oh shit, where!?"
Michael obviously got distracted and looked to find no one on the ground gripping their crotch in pain.
"Gotcha!" Shirou was able to get the upper hand and was about to dislocate Michael's shoulder.
Stretching back Michael managed to get Shirou's opposite arm and began to pull it really hard while twisting it.
"Hah! Now I got your arm!"
"That's the wrong arm, moron!" Shirou gritted his teeth in pain.
"I don't care; I'm not going to lose to you!" Michael shouted with intensity that rivaled the pain he was going through.
"Aaaaaaaaargh!"
"Roooooooooargh!"
Both yelled in the vain attempt to take each other's arms right off.
Looking down at the two with a weirded out expression, a quiet Kiyome appeared before the bars of the cells asking, "Michael-kun, what are you doing?"
Both stopping to look at their visitor, Michael and Shirou looked at Kiyome with two different reactions and responses.
"Kiyome-senpai?"
"Who?" Shirou blinked in surprise.
Releasing, Shirou's arm, thus putting an end to their crazy argument about taking each other's arms off. Michael and Shirou approached the bars to get a better look at Kiyome, who was rummaging around in a bag, she brought.
"What are you doing here!?" Michael exclaimed in surprise.
"Shh, they'll hear us…" Kiyome shushes him before returning to her bag, "First, let me get you out, I found their extra set of keys hidden in a room nearby, I managed to get them while they were out on patrol."
Kiyome pulls out a ring of keys from her bag and starts flipping through them to finally find the right one and open the cell doors, releasing the two from their imprisonment.
"There we go." Kiyome unlocked the door and lets Michael and Shirou rush out to see her.
"Thanks for the save, but Kiyome-senpai, what's going on, why are you here?" Michael asked, but received a from and a wave of a hand to follow her as she begins to walk ahead of them.
"Let's move away from here first before we get caught." Kiyome whispered.
With no objections, everyone decided to leave the area and quietly stalk down the silent hallways while avoiding the passing guards who were thorough with their daily rounds or surveillance. As soon as a guard passed their hallway, they made sure to move further ahead to a more secluded hallway where the guards have already done their jobs around the space.
"We're safe here, we can talk, but afterwards we need to leave." Kiyome breathed out in relief.
Michael wanted to ask his questions and explain what had happened with Natsuru, but Shirou voiced his own first.
"Well, I don't mean to question a free break out of jail, but I'm pretty sure I may have a problem with the person breaking me out, mind telling me who the hell you are miss…" Shirou said, bluntly and honestly suspicious.
"Oh right, you don't know her, she's Kiyome Abe-senpai at Kuoh Academy, basically, she lives with me. And this is Shirou, Kiyome-senpai." Michael introduced Kiyome who bowed and greeted herself with.
"Nice to meet you."
"You too, but wait, why does she live you?" Shirou asked.
"Well, you see, we're kind of…" Michael trailed off.
"Engaged…" Kiyome's cheeks flushed as she said that last part.
Raising an eyebrow, Shirou said, "Engaged, doesn't that make you two fiancés? But aren't you dating Gremory-sama?"
Michael and Kiyome responded with the following: Michael looked away while scratching his cheek and Kiyome who blushed while looking down in embarrassment.
"You know what, it's not my place to judge." Shirou shrugged.
"You serious?" Michael was surprised by Shirou's normal reaction.
"We're devils, this shouldn't be to any of us." Shirou rolled his eyes.
"I guess that's true." Michael shrugged then remembered their predicament.
"Hey Kiyome-senpai, how did you come to save us. No, how did you even know we needed to be saved at all?"
"Um…there's a reason for that…but I'd have to bring up the one who planned to capture you." Kiyome's face was pale, the one, who started all of this, must be on her conscious.
"Huh?"
"You mean that Youkai bitch from earlier?" Shirou caught Kiyome's glare and raised his hands defensively, "I only say it because she captured me, no offense…"
"None taken, and yeah, I can't beat around the bush, so I'll just say it flat out just to make this certain. The one who captured you and the one who's plan I overheard one day was Natsu-nee, herself." Kiyome's expression was serious with a hint of sadness in her tone.
"Ngh…! I-I know, but we still have to…" Michael gasped but tried to say something.
"It may be difficult for you to believe, but it's true. Natsu-nee actually thought about your capture this whole time even the magic circle hijackings were her doing, too." Kiyome pulls out from her bag a thick book with mystical symbols written on the cover, "The only way I could have gotten here was with this, it has a vast amount of content concerning magic circles, and the only circle which worked throughout the jamming was the magic circle in my home, the only viable access that's connected to this facility."
Kiyome revealed the proof, but that still didn't sway what Michael wanted to say.
"But even so, we…"
"Even this facility is on an island, my family gave to her. The magic circle I used was only one-way since all others were still being jammed. There's also the case that this island is the epicenter for the jamming's source." Kiyome explained.
"So this is the place, huh?" Shirou shifted his eyes to observe the facility, he will soon take down, but decided to listen to the conversation. Something about Natsuru's youkai lineage wasn't answered yet.
"Michael-kun, everyone already found Rias-san at the carnival you two went to. She's…she's not doing too good after what happened. She really needs your help or else it will be hard for her to recover from that terrible experience." Kiyome could remember that broken look in Rias' eyes, it made her shocked that the once confident Rias was brought down to such a level, and it was Natsuru out of all people who did it, too.
"…!" Michael clenched his fist and lowered his head, mixed with conflicting thoughts on what he should do before he shook his head and raised his head looking serious.
"Right now, I want to see Natsuru-senpai."
Kiyome's eyes widened as she exclaimed, "Are you nuts? Why do you want to see Natsu-nee now? You should focus on returning to everybody and Rias-san, especially, she really needs your help!" Kiyome tried to reason with Michael who shook his head.
"I know that…" Michael was now digging his nails into his hands which drew blood between his clenched fingers, even he feels compelled to go back and help Rias, but there was something he needed to do with Natsuru before anything else.
"Natsuru-senpai, what she said I can't just let things stand this way, or else I'll regret it!" Michael wasn't going to change his mind.
"Are you serious? Your master, no, your girlfriend is a total mess and needs your support right now, why won't you go rushing back to her when you have the chance?" Kiyome growled and grabbed Michael by the collar of his clothes.
"I know that Buchou needs me and I really want to see her again. I mean, its eating away at me, the fact that I'm basically leaving Rias alone like this." Michael looked downcast as he slowly opened his bleeding hand.
"Then why don't you try to escape and go back to her?" Kiyome's grip started to loosen on Michael's collar.
"Because, I know that regret will soon disappear once I'm through with Natsuru-senpai and have her apologize to Buchou in the end." Michael's serious expression softened into a smile.
"What? That's too simple what makes you think that will happen, even after Natsu-nee did all of that stuff?" Kiyome said in disbelief.
"I can't deny that she didn't do all of this. But I still can't let this go, saying that all of your feelings are fake is a lie. Convincing yourself that your emotions aren't even real is something that I can't leave alone!"
Grabbing Kiyome's hands and slowly taking them off him, Michael grinned and laughed, "And even if I feel regretful, I still have faith in Rias."
"Faith?" Kiyome looked at Michael's reassuring smile as he nodded.
"Of course, her strong personality is just another factor to why I love her after all." Michael smiled.
Kiyome didn't expect that response and even blushed a little at Michael's genuine words.
"B-But she can barely even stand right now, her confidence has been shattered and she's not strong enough to stand on her o-!"
*PING!*
"Ehn! What was that for?" Kiyome winces back and rubbed her forehead, apparently Michael flicked her on the forehead.
"Don't dis, Rias' strength, she is strong, she just needs to remember that. You just wait she just needs to get her second wind is all. I believe she'll stand tall and come back stronger than ever, after all she's my master and anyone who can put up with my greatness has to be very strong in my books!" Michael's bright demeanor brought Kiyome's relentless questions to an end. His strong belief in Rias was all the answer she needed.
"B-But I still can't understand…Natsu-nee captured you, so why do you still want to see her?" Kiyome fell to her knees as her eyes teared up.
"Well, I'm not going to see her alone." Michael smiled and looked at Natsuru with a kind look in his eyes.
"Huh?" Kiyome looked up at Michael, who crossed his arms and laughed.
"You're coming too. You would feel more regret because your senpai's sister, and even if Natsuru-senpai did that to me I still see her as my senpai and you still see her as your older sister. In fact, even when you figured out all the stuff she did, you still tried to believe her by trying to escape with us out of here before seeing her."
"I-I…" Kiyome whimpered until Michael's hand was placed out in front of her.
"Come on, let's go see Natsuru-senpai together."
"O-Okay…"
Slowly smiling, Kiyome reaches out to grab Michael's hand and pulls herself up to stand.
Looking back at Shirou with a grin, Michael said, "So this may cut in with you capturing the culprit, so is this cool with you?"
"I don't know about that, but I'll just stay out of what you have planned." Shirou crossed his arm and looked away.
After watching that display, Shirou's mind still didn't change because sooner or later he would get the person behind all of this, but instead felt that he should just watch as things played along.
"Yosh, we're already agreed on it! Now let's go see Natsuru-senpai!" Michael began running in a random direction while tugging the chain of the handcuffs.
"Have you forgotten something you, idiot?" Shirou pulled the chain and tugged Michael back to where he was.
"Guh…your right, we can't do squat without these things holding us back." Michael stood up and looked at the cuffs, dejectedly.
"Holding you back?" Kiyome blinked.
"Yeah, these handcuffs are dampening our powers along with blocking out our dragon auras which also blocks out our sacred gears." Shirou gestured to the handcuffs.
"That would make sense, Natsu-nee was talking with some woman in some black clothing about some "toy" that she needed." Kiyome realized what that conversation was about now.
"There's another person involved?" Shirou asked.
"I think so, but I haven't really heard that much about her apart from there. She looks to be the one who's responsible for those handcuffs blocking off your powers." Kiyome explained.
"Great, now we have someone else to look out for, while we're stuck like this." Shirou could only wonder what kind of other stuff they have to stump them, if the handcuffs weren't already enough.
"Hey, we can break out of this." Michael looked at Shirou with a gentle/serious look.
"What the hell, why are you looking at me like that?" Shirou asked.
"Would you please cut off your arm?" Michael asked nicely.
Shirou looked at Michael before slapping him across the face.
"Ouch!"
"The fuck is wrong with you; why would you say that while looking that way!"
"I asked nicely!"
"You asked like a freaking creep!"
"Either way, cut off your arm so that I can use my powers!"
"No, you do it so that I can use my powers!"
Both Michael and Shirou butted heads and argued in an over the top fashion.
Realizing a mistake, Kiyome voiced her opinion, "So wait you guys are trying to cut off each other's arms because you want to keep both of your arms while you can use your powers?"
"Yeah." Both men nod.
"Wouldn't it be better if you two would just cut off your own arms instead of fighting over who gets to keep their own so that you can cut out the middleman?" Kiyome suggested the idea.
"Boo!" Michael gave a thumbs down while Shirou disapprovingly shook his head.
"Yeah, that kills the value of one us losing their arm. What would be cool about two guys who only have one arm?" Shirou said.
"Well there's Naruto and Sasuke from the manga, Naruto." Kiyome suggested.
"Let me repeat that, what would be cool about two guys who only have one arm?" Shirou repeated.
"Yeah, it cuts the cool factor in half!" Michael nodded.
'So you two are in opposition to cut off each other's arms but agree that cutting off both of your arms is lame?' Kiyome sweatdropped.
"I don't get what you two mean but the one who still has their arm in the end still won't use their powers."
"What you talking about Kiyome-senpai?" Michael asked.
"The handcuffs will still be attached to one of you who still has both of their arms." Kiyome pointed out.
"…"
"…"
Both Michael and Shirou looked blankly at the handcuffs before they looked to each other and shouted.
"Hey, let me cut off my arm, it's only fair because I want to use my powers!"
"Like hell its fair, I should be the one who cuts my arm off first so keep yours on!"
"Hah, why would I let you do that, don't you see how much I need this!? Hell, I might even get that robotic arm, the Ero-sensei has! Yeah…that'd be pretty sweet…" Michael daydreamed at the thought of having a rocket arm.
"Pft! Who needs a robotic arm when I could be a badass with a single arm?" Shirou smirked.
"Like I said my arms the one that's going to break off!"
"No way, as the person who planned this idea in the first place you should let me do this to be equal."
"Oh, now, you want to be fair and square with this you, indecisive jerk!"
Kiyome couldn't believe that they were bickering over the opposite argument they had before. Thus making her state another way they could solve things.
"Why don't you two just cut off both of your-"
"No."
Both responded in a monotone voice before going back into their scuffle.
"Are you kidding me?" Kiyome facepalmed and shook her head as she watched the two idiot's scuffle. It looked like their escape would have to be delayed for now, all she needed to do was hope that they'll be prepared for the message she prepared to send to them.
XXX
While things were slowly progressing for Michael's side, back at the Hanamura residence, everyone was all over the place trying their best to locate Michael's whereabouts and find the one who kidnap him, Natsuru. However, the concerns of the Occult Research Club were still on Rias, they managed to detect a supernatural disturbance where their date was, but because of their teleportation not working they were too late to arrive. All they could see was a demolished Carnival and a beaten and bruised Rias, who was crying on the ground with no Michael around in sight.
As quickly as possible, the club was able to transport their master back to the residence while healing her wounds so that her ability to speak was unhindered by the pain. By the time they got back, they were all waiting for her to reveal what happened on their date and who harmed her and the cause of Michael's disappearance.
With Asia's twilight healing, she was able to heal all of Rias' wounds, so that she can start to move again and actually explain the attackers who assaulted her and Michael. When she regained enough strength, she got up in a panic and became all distraught while looking at her surroundings, it took the reassurance of Akeno to calm her down enough to speak.
Calming down for only a moment before realizing what happened, Rias began to push herself too much before it took her almost collapsing because of her lack of stamina. Everyone did their best to voice their worry for the Gremory girl and urged her to reveal what happened to her and where Michael could be.
With heavy breathing, Rias first brought up the assaulter before anything else, Natsuru Abe, the older sister to Kiyome was the one who captured both Michael and even Shirou who was in the middle of their attack, this shocked mostly everyone and they asked how exactly Natsuru was able to overpower Rias.
Which made the even more unbelievable truth come out that Natsuru was actually a youkai, with the mixed species of a Kitsune and a nekomata. Koneko, herself was frightened by this news and looked very alarmed of the news. Rias then went on to tell them about how she used some strange creatures to help her do it, but aside from all of that they knew nothing about what she's planning or why she's doing it.
Their first thought was to ask Kiyome, but before they could think about it they realized that she was absent. Koneko, herself, even voiced her some of what she knew about Kiyome leaving right after Michael and Rias went off to their date. They couldn't contemplate about her well-being further because Rias was too busy focused on finding Natsuru before anything else and demanded that her servants track her down right now.
Her tone of voice was agitated and filled with impatience which didn't sit well with everyone.
But knowing the severity they decided to do that, worried about Michael themselves, too. So they began their search with Akeno and Kiba using magical formulas as a way to lock-on to any traces of Natsuru's energy. Asia and Raynare did the same, but with Raynare helping Asia along the way in case she made a mistake and accidentally tracked the presence of someone else.
As for Gasper, he was with Koneko trying to figure out what was wrong with her. Sure, he knew about her circumstances, but she was rather unresponsive the entire time while she prepared her gear and fighting gloves. Just the mention of a youkai being so nearby must have really frighten her.
As for Rias, she was seen waiting patiently in Michael's bedroom for any results of Natsuru's whereabouts. She changed back into her school uniform since the dress she wore was now ruined because of the attack. Tapping her foot, impatiently, she was too eager to find the one who ruined her entire night.
'What's taking so long…' Rias gritted her teeth as her mind became plagued with terrible flashbacks.
-"Get it now, so just surrender and wait like the pathetic princes you are until your, Knight in Dragon Armor comes to save you."- An image of Natsuru's smirk filled Rias' head.
'Unforgiveable…' Rias bit her lower lip.
-"When you're alone you can't do anything and somewhere deep down inside you know that."- Now Natsuru was shown looking back at Rias with a mocking smile on her face.
'How could I…?' Rias clenched the fabric of skirt and continued to be plagued by these flashbacks.
-"Was that a threat I just heard because I couldn't hear you over the sound of your life in my hands."- From her own perspective, Rias was looking down at a sadistic Natsuru holding her up by the neck.
'I-It's just unforgiveable…how could I-I-!' Rias lowered her head and began to tear up.
But what really hit home was apparently the final one.
-"Rias…"- The image of Michael, beaten up and trying to reach out to her as her hand tries to reach out for him until Natsuru steps in between them to mockingly laugh at Rias' state.
-"How pitiful, that someone like you is crawling on the ground like a broken woman, but honestly I think it really suits you, Gremory-san."-
Holding in her breathe to subdue the growing frustration temporarily, Rias finally voices her thought out loud in a quiet whisper.
"How could I be so powerless when he needed me the most…?"
The feelings of rage towards Natsuru mixed with the depression of powerlessness Rias felt against her and filled Rias with so much frustration that it began eating away at her and her perception of the things around her.
"Buchou?"
"…?"
*SMACK!*
It wasn't until she realized a hand placed in front of her that she snapped back into reality and slapped it away from her before realizing that hand belonged to a surprised Asia who was trying to check on her.
"Asia, what are you doing here? Are there any news regarding Natsuru yet?"
"U-Um, actually I…"
Breathing in and out, Rias asked, "Asia, I asked you whether or not we have intel about Natsuru, do you have it or not?" Rias' forced the tone of her voice to emphasize her mad disposition.
"W-Well no, but I actually came to see if you were okay and that if I missed any wounds that are bothering you so…."
"If you don't have anything important to say then please return back to your search, Asia." Rias shrugged Asia's offer off and resumed to waiting patiently.
"O-Okay, I'm sorry for bothering you, Buchou-san…" Asia apologized with her face turning sad before she turned to exit the room.
Slowly closing her eyes, Rias could only wait in silence until some "actual" information could be found without any unneeded distractions. But once she heard the voice of someone who should be putting their efforts into finding Natsuru, she opened her eyes in irritation.
"Hey, Rias-san and Asia-san, how did it go, was she okay?" Raynare entered the bedroom and asked Asia directly, she was more worried about Michael's current location, but placed that aside for now and decided to be concerned about any lingering wounds Rias may have had.
"Actually, Buchou-san was fine, and I think she'd rather be alone right now." Asia tried to hint that they should leave if the silent glare Rias was both giving them was any indication.
"Really, but maybe you should try and check yourself just to clear things." Raynare voiced her opinion.
'Why are they still here, they should be working to find Michael.' Rias thought while sending another glare their way.
"B-But I don't think Buchou-san would lie about her own injuries, so its fine to take her word on it." Asia felt the glare's intensity and tried to urge Raynare out of the room.
"Your right actually, I guess I started to make confirming things a habit since Michael-sama usually tends to hide his wounds when we ask. Haha…" Raynare gave a worried laugh, "I only hope we can find him in time before anything bad happens to him."
"Y-Yeah." Asia nodded.
Suddenly a voice coldly asked, "Then continue looking for Natsuru's location instead of goofing off."
Raynare and Asia's chat stopped when they heard that with Raynare looking offended and confused while Asia was highly worried about what was happening.
"What?" Raynare slowly moves Asia to the side and walk up to Rias who is looking at Raynare dangerous while slowly getting up to face her.
"What I said is you and Asia are slacking off when you should be looking for the attackers who kidnapped Michael!" Rias had an edge in her voice which annoyed Raynare enough to retort with as much anger in her tone.
"How can you say that!? Don't you see that we're worried about you and can't you consider that it's really hard on Asia to track someone who is very deceptive using that kind of magic formula for the first time?" Raynare exclaimed and pointed at Asia, "I decided to help Asia before trying with to do it myself because she didn't know the first thing about how to do this. Rias-san, why don't you try to comprehend that we're trying our best!?"
"Because you're actually not putting effort into trying anything now! You're here making excuses when you should be searching!" Rias crossed her arms and the argument between her and Raynare heated up.
"R-Raynare-san, B-Buchou-san, it's okay, we'll go back to locating Michael-san and Shirou-san so please don't fight." Asia tugged at Raynare's sleeve as a way of holding her back.
"Then get to it, Asia and Raynare you're both tracking Natsuru separately to raise our chances of finding her." Rias demanded.
"What!?" Raynare understood that Asia alone still wasn't ready to do that yet and could be liable to make a mistake.
"U-Understood, Buch-." Asia bowed and would have done so had Raynare not said.
"No."
Eyes widening upon Raynare's denial, Rias growls, "Did you say no?"
"Of course I did, you're totally being unfair with this." Raynare asserted.
"How is giving you the two of you each your own fair share of work unfair?" Rias narrowed her eyes.
"Because Asia still doesn't know how to completely do it herself!"
"She'll just have to go along with it and learn herself, now won't she?"
"No, I'm going to teach her how to do it properly before continuing my search."
"Are you-?"
"Undermining your authority? Of course I am, I may respect but don't think I'm like your servants, I actually don't have to listen to you, after all, the only reason I'm here helping is because I'm actually worried about Michael-sama, too!"
"Hah! Don't play games, if you were worried then you wouldn't be messing around right now. Your actions may have delayed our progress, do you really not care if we find Natsuru, hmph, if so this proves how little you actually care about Michael, huh!?"
*Glare!*
"Excuse me?"
"B-Buchou-san, saying that to Raynare-san is too cruel! W-We also want to find Michael-san just like you…"
Raynare didn't react that kindly to that statement and so did Asia who cried but was getting defensive for Raynare's sake this time.
"What's going on up here? We could hear this screaming from all the way downstairs."
Now entering the bedroom was Akeno who questioned the people who were making enough racket to fill the house. She and Kiba just needed a small break after their search took 2 hours straight which put a little strain on them.
"How could you possibly know how much I care about Michael-sama; you don't have any right to say that!"
Raynare's argument with Rias intensified.
"I do have a right since I'm the one who's actually focusing on our goal! You and Asia have been doing nothing to contribute to this, your both acting childish with your duties! If you two were more focused on doing your jobs, then we would have probably caught a sign of where they may be."
"Rias?" Akeno has never seen Rias so wound up like this before.
"And Akeno what are you doing here shouldn't you be with Kiba searching for any traces of Natsuru?" Rias now looked to Akeno who shook her head.
"So far we've found nothing, right now me and Kiba are taking a short break to recuperate our focus." Akeno explained.
"What? Who said you guys could stop, if you couldn't find anything on them before then keep doing it until you actually find something!"
"But Rias we've been searching nonstop; we need to conserve our strength should we find them." Akeno said, with a serious look on her face.
"Your rest could possibly be used to actually find Michael and Natsuru, but if you want to be lazy then fine! I guess that's how little Michael is to you, too, huh, Akeno?" Rias surprised Akeno with that rude remark.
"Rias, just what has been up with you lately?" Akeno gasped.
"Nothing, nothing is wrong the only ones who are acting strange are you guys, who can't even take this seriously."
"Rias-san, you're the one who's acting childish, shouting at people just because you're mad that Michael-sama was taken from you, that won't make anything change if you're taking out your anger on us!" Raynare couldn't stand to be an outlet for taking all of Rias' pent up aggression.
"Buchou-san please you have to know that we're just as concerned about Michael-san too. We wouldn't be thinking about doing anything else to stop anything which can help us find him." Asia looked up to Rias with a sad frown and sincerity in her tone.
"…!" Rias lowered her head and bit her lower lip as she was getting calmed down by her friends.
"Rias, please, we're all equally as worried as you when it's come to this, we all want to ensure Michael-kun's safety just like you, but we can't do that if you keep forcing us to overwork like this." Akeno said soothingly and walked to Rias and was about to place a reassuring hand on her shoulder.
*Smack!*
But Rias smacked Akeno's hand away from her.
"What?"
"You all don't understand. None of you were even there, how could you possibly be so calm as to say all of that when you don't know anything. You all possibly can't understand what it felt like to be so powerless to stop anything, to not even help when he was calling out to me, and to just watch as he was dragged away! How can any of you know how worried when you weren't the ones getting humiliated and beaten!?" Rias shook her head and kept crying out her vexation about the surprise assault she went through.
*SLAP!*
It was at that moment, everyone in the room remained silent with shock written on their faces. Rias herself didn't quite know what happen until she looked in front of her to Akeno who had a pensive expression.
Just now, she slapped Rias into staying quiet.
"Enough of that, I won't let you go on any further than that." Akeno said, if she allowed Rias to talk so hopeless like this then she would only bury herself in even more depression, and right now they don't have the time for that.
"Akeno-san…" Asia wanted to say something but a pat to the shoulder and shake of the head from Raynare was all Asia needed to push anything she wanted to say.
"Do you believe we honestly don't care about Michael-kun as much as you? That we couldn't possibly understand what it felt not to be able to do anything? You may be right, but don't underestimate our feelings, Rias."
Rias could only stay quiet and listen to her Queen.
"We may not know how it felt to be there, but did you ever wonder how terrifying it was for us not to have been there in the first place? To have felt a disturbance occur where you two were, and couldn't arrive in time to do anything? At least you did something, all of us here would have killed to have at least a minute to do something to prevent this!"
Looking away and rubbing her arm, Rias muttered, "But it was pointless for me, in the end, I lost without even putting up a decent fight against her."
"That may be true, but what you're doing right now isn't going to make a difference should we confront Natsuru again. Your moping, Rias, and that won't change anything. You have to think about doing something different and trying to do better so it won't be the same result all over again." Akeno looked Rias in the eye, she needed to get to her, and to do that she'll have to use an example.
"I just don't see a way for me that…she's just too strong for me to handle…" Rias sadly mumbled and looked down.
"Why are you giving up, Michael-kun was in the same situation and kept trying when we had to deal with Riser Phoenix-sama."
"What? But he had Son Kai-sama to train him."
Rias' eyes started to brighten a little once she heard Michael's name.
"No, before Kai-sama's appearance, he was struggling, he kept on failing with the basics of demonic power and all the other lessons, he couldn't get any progress done. But…"
Shaking her head, Akeno reminisced back to the very beginning of that Training Week and the night which ensued right after the first day ended.
(Flashback)
Late at night, behind the Gremory mansion and inside of the woods, Akeno woke up after noticing the bright light of explosions happening outside of the mansion. Curious, she went out into the woods without waking anyone up. After a while the explosions seemed to have stopped until an even larger one had gone off just a few feet ahead of her.
"Who could be up doing this so late?" Akeno wandered to the area, but stops to hide behind a tree when she looks at a familiar figure standing in between a clearing of burnt, knocked down trees.
"Comeoncomeonecomeon…YES, I did it!" The figure was balancing a large sphere of condensed demonic power in their hand and turned it into a huge orb of fire. That fire illuminated the figure revealing themselves to be Michael wearing his burned and soot stained jersey.
"Michael-kun?" Akeno whispered quietly.
"I did it! I did it! Hah, and who says 60thtimes not the charm?" Michael's eyes had bags under them as he was physically exhausted from his many attempts.
"He's been doing it for this long…" Akeno held her chin and watched the concentration Michael was putting into his spell, it was an improvement from before but it still looked a little too shaky to be stable.
"Yessir! I finally managed to master magic. Nothing is too hard for the Gre-I mean me! *Sniff!* what smells like burning 'me'?"
It was at that moment, Michael had realized that the demonic sphere of magic wasn't the only thing that was covered in flames, his entire arm was catching itself up in flames.
"Aiyiyiyiyiyiyiyiyi!" Michael shook his arm while yipping out in pain.
"Oh dear…" Akeno gasped then had her eyes widen, "Wait, no, Michael-kun you can't lose focus on the spell or else it will-!"
*BOOOM!*
"Gyaaaaaaaaaah!"
"Destabilize…" Akeno sweatdropped.
The demonic power sphere blew up in Michael's face and now his entire body was covered in flames, so he ducked and rolled on the ground.
"Chachachacha!" Michael slowly stopped the fire and laid flat on his back, breathing heavily and gritting his teeth, "Darn it, that hurt…"
Looking so disgruntled with his failed attempt, Michael raised his hand in the air and looked at it, covered in burns and scratches.
"Another failure…" Michael sighed and dropped his hand, "I can't believe these flames have been hurting me, and they're my flames, too. I wonder if that yakitori's flames would hurt even more? No, if I couldn't have taken that rook servant's hit then it might hurt like hell…"
"Heh, me the Great Hanamura? Yeah right, what right do I have to call myself after that happened? I basically looked like a weakling…" Michael clenched his fist in frustration.
The thought about Riser's flames and how they could do away with him much faster got into his mind along with the humiliating defeat he suffered at the hands of his Rook as well. They were both getting him down until he remembered something.
Shaking his head, Michael sits up and growls, "Crap, no time for keeping myself down, this isn't about me, I still have to do Buchou proud by getting better so I'll have to work twice as hard!"
Michael got up once again and prepared to summon the element of fire.
Akeno didn't quite sure why he would still keep using the same element, it was always the most dangerous one for those who can't yet control their magic. And another explosion to the face confirmed it, but Michael just got back up again. It was a continuous cycle of explosions and Michael getting back up to do it over again.
Akeno didn't know why he just kept on doing the same thing, but had realized the physical and mental struggle he was going through. The pummeling he received that day when he met Riser, who indirectly beat him impacted Michael a lot harder than she thought. But seeing him attempt the same thing over and over again without just giving up in a fit of anger caught her full attention, she just couldn't break her sight away from the hard working boy.
She was even watching him for the remaining few hours until it was almost the crack of morning. Her eyes brightened when she had finally saw something different occur. It wasn't the usual get back up and exploding bit, but Michael actually standing on his feet while forming a small orb of fire in his hands. Michael wasted so much demonic power that his control was able to form the fire without any restraints.
Michael, even Akeno were smiling at the slight progress he made, but with so much energy lost, he fell back and rested with a big smile on his face, content with his results. Rushing over to heal him, Akeno does her best to repair his state of physical attire as well, but the one thing she couldn't help but notice was Michael's big smile.
It wasn't that BIG of an accomplishment in her case, but she felt that it must have been for him, or why else would he be so happy about it? Any progress that small was something he was proud of even though it was insignificant to the powers his opponents have.
Akeno couldn't help but feel happy about her kouhai's accomplishment and personally took him back to the mansion to properly rest for the next day of training. She, of course, couldn't be easy on him since training camp has only just begun, but she will still root for him through his time of travails.
(Present)
"Even so…he didn't just cry about not being able to be strong enough after he was beaten. He just kept trying and trying to get better results." Akeno smiled along with Asia and Raynare who could just see that happening even though they weren't there.
"And in the end, he kept pushing through all of that pain so he could make you proud and freed from that engagement." Akeno approached Rias who stayed silent but was moved by Akeno's story and began to tremble in an effort to hold in her tears.
"B-But…" Rias stuttered under her breath.
Her uneasiness went away once Akeno wrapped her into a warm hug.
"It's okay to feel frustrated, it's normal, but don't forget to think more about what "you" can do right now to fix things. You'll find a way to overcome that hurdle against Natsuru, but not as you are now. We need our leader, Rias Gremory-Buchou, to be there for us whenever us, servants can't think straight either." Akeno giggled and rubbed Rias' back in a comforting manner, she could hear the light sobs Rias was making into her shoulder and smiled.
It took Rias a couple of minutes to settle down her silent crying before she was able to compose herself.
"So let's go find Michael-kun, okay?" Akeno's lady-like smile returned once Rias broke the hug to finish wiping her eyes of any stray tears.
Once again standing tall, Rias nodded and wore a considerate smile with that confident look in her eye.
"Right, I can't be showing a side like this, right now."
Looking to Raynare and Asia, she apologizes for her past behavior, "Asia…forgive me for my past behavior. I was just so blinded in self-pity that I selfishly took it out on you."
"N-No, it's fine, Buchou, I understand that you were going through a rough time." Asia was considerate and accepted the apology.
But Rias looked to Raynare, who still looked a little mad about the fight they just had.
"And Raynare, I'm sorry, excusing your worries for Michael because I was angry wasn't right at all." Rias bowed her head.
"…" Raynare looked at Rias before rolling her eyes and sighing, "It's okay, I get that you were having a rough time. Even I would be in the same boat as you, if it were to happen in front of me too."
"Thank you…everyone, you've been doing your best so let's do our best to locate and find Natsuru and save Michael and Shirou."
"Right, Buchou!" Everyone agreed.
Raynare had a sympathetic smile with worry in her eyes, that was when Rias realized very clearly that she, too, was worried about Michael's wellbeing, no, not just her, she had finally managed to catch glances at the sad looks in everyone's eyes as well. It was totally selfish of her to be so blind to the feelings of her friends in this situation.
'I can't believe how horrible I was to them…but not anymore. We have to settle things and figure out everything that Natsuru is planning to do. I may not know if I can change the outcome should I face Natsuru again, but I'm certain enough to believe that things won't end the same way like before.' Rias nods and prepares herself for the time they do find any trace of Natsuru's whereabouts.
"Buchou!"
Soon after, calls for Rias and thumping footsteps entered the room, Kiba and Gasper entered the room with heavy breaths.
"Yuuto and Gasper, what is it?"
"Buchou, we just received a message from Abe-senpai!" Kiba revealed a magic circle with the Gremory family crest.
"What, but that's my family crest only those affiliated with us can…Yuuto start the message!" Rias grasped the identity of who was sending the message.
Kiba nods and starts the message which shows a holographic image of Kiyome standing and transmitting her message:
[Rias-san and everyone, if you get this message then you may already know that I'm already with Michael-kun and his…friend? I don't know, h-he's kind of denying it but I'm getting Tsundere vibes from him.]
[The fuck did you call me, bitch!?]
[Hahaha! She called you a tsundere, and it's so true…!]
Everyone gasped and let out a sigh of relief once they heard Michael's voice, it appears that Kiyome has found a way to get to them without anyone noticing.
[Who are you calling a tsundere, you moron!]
[You of course, and don't call me a moron, you also got captured so you're the moron!]
[You care to repeat that while I bury you 6 feet under!?]
[I wouldn't be surprised if you could you team-killing fuckta-!]
[Would you two be quiet, your shouting is going to get us caught, geez!]
[…You didn't have to shout.]
[Yeah, Kiyome-senpai you could have just asked nicely…]
The hologram message of Kiyome held her head down at the pain of talking with these two impossible men. It made everyone else understand her struggle with those two. Continuing where she left off, Natsuru bowed her head,
[Rias-san, I'm sorry for what Natsu-nee did to you, and I'm sorry for keeping quiet about this, too, I knew that something like this would happen, but I just couldn't believe that she would do it in the end. Right now we're a little busy with a situation regarding Michael and…Shirou?]
[Yes, that's my name.]
[No, it's Shi-rou!]
[I swear to God-ow!]
[Oh, so you do that, too?]
Everyone sweatdropped at the random comments Michael and Shirou were making, they felt like the two shouldn't necessarily be there.
[Forgive them, but I couldn't use this messaging with the Gremory crest without Michael-kun, his affiliation under the Gremory family as your servant was convenient enough for this. It also makes thing easier for me to summon all of you here. This place is on an island and we're in a facility, and while coming in I heard one of the guards mention how this place works. A barrier is keeping anyone from entering from the outside without a proper magic circle.]
"Making all of our effort to detect them pointless if they are being protected by that barrier." Raynare rubbed her chin.
[But that's where the Gremory crest comes in, I just have to create a large enough magic circle with it to summon everyone here. Apparently the barrier doesn't work on the inside, which we can use to our advantage. Right now I'm almost done with sketching the circumference of the magic circle and now I just have to finish with the cre-]
The sounds of footsteps filled the message as Kiyome gasps and looks behind herself with some fear in her voice.
[W-What was that?]
[Some of them are coming this way, we have to move…] Michael whispered.
[O-Okay, it looks like we have to find a more secure place to do this, so please wait until we summon you...] Kiyome finished the message and it along with the magic circle vanished.
"A battle is closely approaching, everyone, prepare yourselves for anything once we receive the magic circle to transport us into enemy territory, we're going to blow away all of our enemies. We will end these magic circle jackings and rescue Michael. Do I make myself clear, everyone?"
"Hai, Rias-Buchou!"
Rias told everyone their objective with stern, brighter eyes and a tall standing composure which befitted a leader, she was finally back. Although, she was confident, she was still a little self-conscious about her own strength, but for right now she couldn't just focus about pitying herself. Right now she needed to focus on getting Michael back.
Noticing something, Asia looks from left to right and asks, "Um…where's Koneko-san?"
"Buchou…"
Before anyone could say out their own questions about the Rook's absence, the girl simply walked in dragging someone by the collar of their clothes.
"Koneko? Who is that with you?" Rias asked.
"Someone that I found trespassing the area." Koneko dragged the person to sit right in front of them as everyone's eyes widened at their new arrival.
"You, aren't you…?"
"P-P-Please…Kiyome-neechan…Natsu-nee, I can't find them…could you please take me to them?" Makoto sniffled.
XXX
Back with Michael and the others, their situation has currently changed due to the incoming footsteps they were hearing in the other hallways around them. Carefully advancing through the hallways, they all kept a low profile while searching for a way out. The message they sent out had to be end because of the imminent threat of being caught.
Reaching one corner leading to another hallway, Kiyome was sure that the way to the exit was almost there. They just needed to peer through this one last hallway to check if the coast is clear.
"Hey, check to see if there are any guards there." Shirou looked to Kiyome.
"Why, me?" Kiyome asked.
"Because you obviously came here first so you must know this place inside-out."
"That may be true, but why don't you do it since you're the one obviously closer to peek in on them?" Kiyome gave Shirou a condescending look.
"Well we may be at the wrong place so you go check."
"If you think its the wrong way, then why don't you give it a try?"
"Oh, I'm sorry, who's the one who came here to save us? Oh, that's right, you did." Shirou growled.
"I came to save Michael-kun, your connected to him so you're just an added factor into this." Kiyome placed her hands on her hips and glared at Shirou who glared back with Michael looking at them with a tired expression.
"OK, if you guys are going to be such big babies about a stupid corner, *I'll* check for enemies." He poked his head around the corner, using his eyes to observe what laid beyond. After less than second, Michael immediately pulled away from the corner, taking several steps back with a disturbingly blank expression.
"What's the matter, Mike?" Shirou asked, weirded-out by his friend's behavior.
It took a few moments for Michael to respond, Kiyome nervously hanging behind the pair. She couldn't quite understand what the hold-up was considering what a dire situation they were in at the moment.
"OK, so I got some good news and I got some bad news."
"What's the bad news?"
"There is no good news."
A pause.
"So-wait, there's no news?"
Michael shook his head. "No, the news is that there is no good news."
"What the Hell kind of news-reporting is that?" Shirou asked, his left eye twitching in irritation. "Mike, I have some good news and I have some bad news."
"What's the good news?"
"There is no bad news."
"...What's the bad news?"
"You're an idiot."
"Michael, will you just tell us what's the matter?!" Kiyome snapped, looking as though she were on the verge of a panic attack.
The Pawn suddenly stiffened, looking attentive once more. "Oh! Right! Uh...We apparently have company..."
"What are you-?" Shirou barely took two steps past his unwanted partner before finding himself face-to-face with a beast with the face of a lion.
GOOOOOOOOOOOON!
Shirou didn't flinch, simply standing there while the lion's breath blew back his hair and spattered his face in saliva. Standing behind the lion-type chimera was what could have qualified as an small army of expendable prison guards.
"OOOOOHHHH, I get it...There is no *good* news because all the news is baaad..."
Another pause enveloped the three unwillingly captive teenagers.
"We should probably run now."
It was the first smart thing Shirou had ever heard coming out of Michael Hanamura's mouth.
"GET THEM!" The lion type chimera pointed at the running teens and pursued after them with their pack of guards closely following behind them.
"Quick, we need to find a safe place to set up the magic circle!" Kiyome was lagging behind the two as the Lion Chimera took this chance as a way to eliminate the slowest of the three by baring its claws.
"The weak ones are always the ones to die first!"
"Kiyome-senpai!" Michael gasped and lagged behind Shirou a little to pull Kiyome up closer to them.
*SLICK!*
"Gah!" Michael's arm took the attack and began to bleed out.
"Michael-kun!"
"Come on, Mike, compared to our fight that shouldn't be anything to you!"
Kiyome gasped out in worry, and even Shirou looked back at the teen's condition too while focusing on running.
"R-Right…" Michael winced and made quick work of Kiyome's deteriorating stamina by carrying her in the bridal position.
"W-Wha-? Michael-kun!?" Kiyome blushed.
"You already did so much for us, so let me carry you whenever you're tired, Kiyome-senpai." Michael grinned at Kiyome.
"O-Okay, I…thank you, Michael."
That reassured, Kiyome so much that she even started flush a little more in the cheeks.
"Look, the way out!"
"We're almost there!" Shirou pointed up ahead as they finally reached the outside which was still dark in the middle of the night.
Despite catching the attention of their enemies they were correct to find that the hallway they entered was in fact leading towards the exit and as soon as they escaped the facility building, they were met with the large expanse of a forest that seemed to fill 75% of the whole island.
"Whoa, Ddraig, I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore…" Michael said in awe at the sheer landscape.
[Of course, not we're still in Japan, Michael.]
"Excuse me for trying to fit a Wizard of Oz reference to lighten the mood!"
Hearing the incoming sounds of footsteps, the group began to think more about how to stay alive.
"Look we can't fight as we are now, so let's seek shelter in these trees until we get help to come!" Shirou pointed at the forest.
"Right! Here we go!" Michael looked to Kiyome who nodded and held on tightly to him as they ran into the forest blindly finding a safe enough place to rest and summon more help.
Making their way outside the small army of cat chimera guards and the Lion chimera see that their targets were gone. Taking a wild guess, the Lion chimera figured they were going to seek refuge in the forest.
A bad choice on their part since the forest was on their side from the start, especially with their animal senses to help guide them through the sheer darkness the forest has inside of it.
"Begin your search by fanning out, once you find them give us any sign so that we can overwhelm them and finish them off!"
"Yessir!"
The guards began their search by entering the forest in separate directions while the Lion chimera went off on his own search but noticed something wet on the grass in front of him. It was Michael's blood. It was a trail of blood and it was directly leading to his prey.
All the Chimera could do was smirk and crack his knuckles, ready to find his prey and tear them completely open.
"Kikikiki! Oh, this just got a whole easier, it's not even a hunt anymore…" The Lion chimera smirked and chased decided to give his easy prey a handicap by briskly walking through the dark depths of the forest with a growing urge to rip them apart only growing more by each second.
ความคิดของผู้สร้าง 
Retribrutus
Retribrutus Next Chapter- The Occult Research Club Assembles; Devils vs. Chimeras, we'll show you what it happens when you mess with us!
Well, I'm Out so Peace Out, and have a nice day!
สถานะพลังงานรายสัปดาห์
-- การจัดอันดับด้วยพลัง 
-- หินพลัง