BRAINDEAD ~ Ruikasa

TREASURE HUNT

"Emu~! I need you to come back to me, pleeeaase...?~ It's about the treasure hunt!~"

The voice of the one and only Hatsune Miku rang uncomfortably inside of Emu's skull, and judging by the looks on their faces, KAITO and Len had heard it too.

     "Emu-kun, you've been working with Miku?" The look on KAITO's face looked surprised, but his voice was a giveaway to how he felt betrayed and crestfallen. "Were you going to make us work for her, too?"

     "No!" Emu frowned, her eyes wide. "I'm not on her side, but she's my friend, isn't she?"

     "The Miku that was once your friend is long gone," KAITO said sombrely. "There's no getting her back."

"I agree with KAITO-san," Len's lips were pressed into a thin line and he had a look of sympathy in his blue eyes.

"Well, I don't," Emu said curtly. "I'm going to go see Miku. We can finish saving the others later!" The girl turned and skipped off.

"Wait! At least give me MEIKO's CORE!" KAITO called, extending his arm out to the girl, who didn't cast a single glance back at him even when his words reached her ears.

KAITO let out a sigh and followed her, and Len followed KAITO. While KAITO wasn't looking, Len slipped MEIKO's CORE out of the pouch Emu had put it in and hid it behind his back. To Len's surprise, KAITO, without meeting Len's gaze, gave an approving nod.

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Neither Tsukasa nor Nene were able to come up with any ideas how to help Rui during their brainstorming session. Back when Wonderlands x Showtime would get together and have brainstorming sessions to come up with ideas for shows, Emu would blurt out some crazy idea, which would get Rui's gears turning as well. The script would usually turn out to be something completely ridiculous.

Right now, Nene and Tsukasa weren't getting anywhere. The boy was drawing a blank and he knew that it was the same for his friend. Tsukasa knew that this was only one of the many reasons that he and the others needed Emu back. Tsukasa expected Nene to have a similar train of thought.

"For now, why don't we try to save Emu? We don't really need a plan for that, do we?" Tsukasa proposed. "It's always the same thing. We sneak in somehow and kill anything that tries to kill us, and we never split up, no matter what."

Nene scoffed. "That last rule has been broken many times already." She muttered indistinctly.

"I wonder why!" Tsukasa rolled his eyes. "If you hadn't started so many arguments, maybe we would still all be together!"

     This irritated Nene. A lot. Even though Tsukasa could tell that she knew he was right. She let out a grunt and her hand slapped across Tsukasa's face. Stunned, the blonde didn't react when Nene turned and stormed over to the ladder.

"Shut up, Tsukasa!" Nene yelled as she climbed up the ladder that led to Crawl Green. "Rui! Aoyagi-kun! We're going out!"

     Tsukasa quickly returned to reality and followed behind her.

     "Wait, huh?" Toya looked at Nene as she emerged from the hole, his eyes puffy and red. "What's going on?"

Rui quickly snapped the journal shut and stuffed it into a pocket on his clothes. He'd done it in such a hasty and panicked manner that Tsukasa wondered if Rui had written anything inside the book that he didn't want anybody to see.

     "We're going to save Emu, now." Nene said firmly. "Get your weapons, let's go."

"Nene, no!" Tsukasa said in an angry voice. "Can't you see that Toya isn't ready at all? And that you're being extremely bossy and controlling?!"