Their Elemental Curse: Uncovering

Chapter 15

"Shimizu...dad is fine, but mom died on my sixth birthday, while you were on the island", Hikari whimpered, her voice trembling.

"What?", Shimizu abruptly stood, spilling his juice in the process. "How?"

"She-she was shot while protesting against the extermination of experi-babies. She died right in front of daddy and I. We are almost certain the shooter worked for the government, but unfortunately, he or she was never found", Hikari explained as lowered her head, ready for his response.

Me and Danny stood up. I rubbed Shimizu's back up and down, symbolizing that I was there for him and that I cared. I did the same for Celosia, I will do the same for him.

But to our shock, he didn't cry. He looked devastated, but didn't shed a single tear. He held it in and exhaled.

"Thank you for sharing that with me."

His voice was shaky and yet, strong. I could tell he wanted to cry. He walked over, threw his food away in the trash near the door before walking out of the office, not saying a single word to us.

"Is he-" Celosia asked, but cut herself off as she looked at me.

"Shimizu", Hikari called out before getting up.

We left our food in there unintentionally, but Shimizu's wellbeing was more important.

"Shimizu!" I called out, trying to catch up with him.

I planted my hand on his shoulder. He turned around. His eyes were teary and pink. He whimpered, trying his best to keep his cries inside.

I hugged him.

"Shimizu, man, it's alright to cry. Your mom died and you found out years later. That's hard."

He remained silent, focusing on calming his breathing .

"Look if you need space, then that's fine with m-"

"No", Shimizu firmly interrupted me. "I just...I suggest you all chill here. Relax and take a stress break, you all deserve it. You been through alot."

"Um, no. Shimizu, we reunited with you not even two hours ago and you are already pushing us away. You deserve to be comforted", Tyler ranted. "Plus, not to be dismissive of these recent terrible news, but you still haven't told us how you became the leader of this place."

"No Tyler! This isn't the time for that!", Celosia yelled.

I agreed with Celosia. It wasn't the right time. He just found out about his mothers death and it has been five and a half years since she passed. He'd needed time to digest it.

But yet, I also agreed with Tyler.

Tyler was a quiet kid who said little, but when he did speak, he was on point. When Shimizu, Hikari and Danny talked at the table, they were just catching up on life. Mizu never explained how he lost his leg, how he became leader of this place, what's the point of this place, and most importantly, why didn't he decide to come and find us and bring us here.

This was part of the reason why the table was so awkward. We had so many questions that we didn't exactly know where to start, or if we should even ask.

"No, no Robin, it's fine. Follow me to my private suite, I will explain everything to you all", Shimizu sighed before showing us the way to his suite. Suite 100.

"Suite 100? How many rooms are there?", Hikari asked, looking down the hallway we came from.

"500", Shimizu answered before keying his door.

As it opened, I was a little disappointed to see his room. It looked like your average, everyday hotel room but with no windows. This guy really wasn't big on design.

"Okay, bear with me because it is a long story. You remember the day we bombed the headquarters right?", Shimizu asked us as he sat on his bed.

"Yeah?", Kimberly responded, crossing her arms.

"Before the explosion, I tried my best to get away even when killing-machines were surrounding me. But I could only get so far and the explosion blew my leg out. I felt an enormous amount of pain like never before. I was knocked unconscious by the explosion. I'm not sure how long, but when I awoken I saw Ashley, with a few other people wrapping my wounded leg in a cloth as they carried me onto a stretcher. We came here by boat. When I arrived, I was in what we called the "healing room". It is where people who are sick or injured go to get better. It took months of healing to be able to walk again on a now prosthetic leg. During my healing journey, I told them who I was, where I was from and how I got to the island. They revealed that they were a secret agency trying to rescue as many experimented people as possible. They told me they had plans to blow up the headquarters, but we got to it first. I warned them about what else was to come after the extermination period. Thankfully, they believed me. They believed me because it all made perfect sense. Unfortunately, during the outbreak, we didn't rescue anyone else for fear of getting sick. So we decided to wait it out. Because of my leadership, problem solving skills and because of how much I knew, thanks to Danny, I was voted to be their leader two years ago."

Hearing Shimizu's side of the story actually made me less upset with him and more encouraged by his motivation to make experi-babies feel welcome. He wanted a world where they weren't seen as freaks. We all did, but he actually tried and put in the work for it to happen.

I wanted to ask him about his leg, but I wasn't so sure if it was right to ask, especially knowing having a body part of yours blow or cut off is one of people's worst fears.

"But why didn't you come back? Why did you stay here?", Gaia asked him.

"Because, I felt as though I had to complete a mission: to save experi-babies and stop the world leader from causing war. We are only seeing the beginning of conflict. The Philippines and a few other countries want to leave the world government and go back to a government of their own. Let's just say that the world government isn't happy about that."

Without warning, Ashely opened the door to Shimizu's suite.

"Babe, we need you at the head office to discuss plans for our mission", Ashely announced. She spotted us and waved before closing the door.

"I'm coming", Shimizu sighed before standing.

"Wait!", Celosia yelled, pushing him down a little, sitting him back down. "Can you just stay with us for a while?"

"I can't right now. Our plan to assassinate W.L. Victran is super important. If we mess up, it'll have dire consequences. Deadly consequences. Trust me, we will have plenty of time to hang out when this is all over, but this is serious."

"How about we join you?" Celosia suggested.

"What?!", Kimberly shouted. "Celosia, is this a risky situation. We already risked our lives before going to a dangerous island that was computed to kill intruders, let's not participate in craziness again!"

Celosia and Shimizu made eye contact. She gave a desperate look, trying to reach inside of his hard shell that build up over time.

"Please...", she pleaded to him. "We can help."

"I'm not doing this. The entire reason we came was to find Shimizu and bring him back to the shelter, not to participate in this crap", Kimberly ranted before storming out of Shimizu's room.

"Kim, wait!", Alex called out, following behind her.

"Celosia's right. We can help. We done it before, and we can do it again", Gaia chimed in with confidence. I was surprised she backed Celosia up. Usually she would've left her in the dust.

I grabbed Gaia's hand, giving her a proud look. We shared a smile before I gently kissed her cheek.

It took a few moments, but Shimizu finally made his decision.

"Alright. You're in."