On The Side Of The Pitch With You

Three Kingdoms Era VII

"But he's the only one who knows anything." Guan Yu said.

"I have to agree there." Kirino had his arms crossed over his chest. "And keeping things from us will just put us in even more danger at this rate."

"Tsurugi, is there anything at all you can tell us?" Shinsuke asked.

"Tsurugi."

"Tsurugi!"

"Tsuru―"

"SHUT UP!!!" He shrieked until his voice cracked.

The second he turned around, they were shocked to find him completely distraught. But they were cut off before they could apologize.

"You're all so noisy I can't even think! I don't know what that was! I don't know what any of this is! I don't know anything about what happened to my best friend! Alright?! ARE YOU ALL HAPPY NOW?!"

Having spent all the air in his lungs, his back hunched forward as he took in deep breaths. For a while, they could only stare at him in silence.

"Y-You could've just said so―" Wondeba's mouth shut when he glared at him.

"Now, now," Liu Bei called out for them to stop. "We shouldn't be fighting over this."

"Right! I thought so too!" Zhang Fei's eyes narrowed. "The one we should be fighting is the other one―"

There was a flash, and the boulder he stood next to was blown to pieces. When the dust cleared, they spotted a pale skinned leg lifted, inches away from the man's face.

Amber eyes held a murderous glare. "If you even think about touching her, then regardless of the consequences in the timeline, I will end you."

Zhang Fei fell backwards, for once at a loss for words.

Tenma swallowed before walking up to his friend, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Tsurugi... It's alright. Things will work out somehow."

He turned to him, searching the grey eyes for any doubts. There were none.

Taking one last deep breath, he placed his foot down and sighed. "It's times like this that I'm convinced your positivity is a talent." The brunette replied with a nervous laugh.

The thick atmosphere seemed to disappear completely.

"Well then..." Shindou cleared his throat. "We need to think of a way to save Kimiko."

"Yeah, but we don't even know what we're saving her from." Kuruma pointed out.

"That was her... keshin, right?" Liu Bei asked. "The... strength of her heart... was it?"

Aoi nodded. "Yes. That's essentially what a keshin is."

"Why did her heart decide to attack us?" Guan Yu asked, helping Zhang Fei to his feet.

"She most likely lost control of it." Kongming said. Being a keshin-haver herself, it made sense that she'd know more about it than the three men. "A rather similar case to that of Zanark."

"It also seemed different somehow..." Tenma said.

"Different?"

"Shinsuke, do you remember? The last time we saw Acheri no Megami was at the riverbank, when we first trained with Coach Endou."

"Oh yeah." Kurama nodded. "That was also the first time we saw it." Then he blinked. "Oh... Now that you mention it... It did look a little different back then from how it did just now."

"That's right!" Shinsuke said. "This one looked more... battle-ready? Um... I don't know how to describe it."

"Did it evolve like Majin Pegasus Arc?" Tenma asked.