BRAINDEAD ~ Ruikasa

HIDE AND SEEK

"Hide and seek?" Ena said incredulously. "Are you serious?"

     Tsukasa nodded confidently, putting the notebook back away in his pouch. "Hide and seek! Let's do it! I'm hiding, you're seeking! Count all the way to one hundred! With steamboats!!"

     "The hell does 'with steamboats' mean?!" Ena jerked her fists in frustration.

     "You know, one steamboat, two steamboats, three steamboats..." Tsukasa counted the seconds slowly, lifting up a finger for each as he did. "To make sure that you're counting every second properly! No cheating!"

     "No cheating?" Ena echoed. "Are you a—a three-year-old?"

Tsukasa rolled his eyes.

     "Whatever! Count!" Tsukasa's patience was slowly ticking away. "Remember, steamboats! And no peeking!"

Ena groaned, leaned against the wall and covered her eyes with her hands. "One steamboat, two—"

"Hey, no! Face the wall!" Tsukasa pointed at Ena.

Ena pursed her lips and bit back a scream of frustration, trying to maintain her composure. She turned to face the wall.

"One steamboat, two steamboats, three steamboats..." The brunette started to count.

As Ena continued counting, Tsukasa hurried to the room in the basement that all the weapons were kept in. His heart was racing and he made sure that he didn't make too much noise as he took a sword—still in its sheath—off its hooks on the wall.

Tsukasa slid the strap attached to the sheath onto his body and tightened it so that it fit properly. He quietly climbed out of the basement.

     "...Thirty steamboats!" Ena took in a big breath of air before continuing. "Thirty-one steamboats, thirty-two steamboats..."

     Tsukasa felt guilty about running out like this, but Ena was trying to stop him from doing anything to save Rui, and Tsukasa had to get him back before it was too late! He'd read Rui's hypothesis, and his hypotheses were usually correct. If that one was true, then Tsukasa didn't want to take his chances. He had to get Rui back as soon as possible.

     The blonde ran out of Crawl Green and into what remained of the forest. He wound around smoky trunks of wood, slowly approaching the MINDHIVE. The forest, as unsettling as usual, toyed with Tsukasa's emotions and adrenaline was released into his body.

     Usually, the MEIKOBOTS roamed around within the boundaries of the sooty forest, but deeper into it. They never were so close to the forest's edge. Tsukasa never knew why the MEIKOBOTS wandered around amongst the dead tress, but he did know that he had to steer clear of them. Strangely enough, the MEIKOBOTS seemed docile and weren't attracted by sounds. Tsukasa hadn't seen them attack anything or anyone, either.

He proceeded to head deeper into the forest, the dry, crisp, charred fallen leaves crunching beneath his feet with every step. He was starting to be able to see slivers of the MINDHIVE's eerie blue fluorescent lights between the trees. He cautiously pressed onwards, alert and ready to unsheathe his weapon if necessary.

While he was making his way towards the maze-like building, several piercing screams suddenly tore through the air. He recognized one of them as Emu's.

The blonde froze. He shook his head and fought the instinctual urge to check on his pink-haired friend. He forced himself to continue with his own mission—save Rui, and maybe, just maybe, take out Miku's "heart". He tried to drown out whatever shouting came after those screams.