Unwanted Elements

Chapter Twenty-One

For a moment, the scene did not want to register within my brain. Hatabou was the other elemental? "What are you doing here?" Jyushimatsu inquired. I could feel the strange emotion radiating through the room, but it was out of reach of my taste. "Ryuu captured me, dajo. Somehow knew about my powers. His henchman mentioned that they had a prisoner, and that his five brothers had stupidly rushed in and now they were all trapped, and I knew they meant you six, dajo. You're the only people I know who'd idiotically jump into this kinda situation, so I gave myself up to find you, dajo" Hatabou explained, his slanted silver eyes a cold wall of emotional loss.

"Yep, that's our reputation, all right." Todomatsu grumbled, as I crouched down to Hatabou's level. "You have ice too? How come you never told us?" I asked, a million questions worming into my head. Hatabou ran a hand through his shiny, black hair. "Same reason you guys never told your parents, or Totoko, dajo. Chibita mentioned how there were strange men on the prowl, and how he hadn't seen you since. I figured I'd investigate, and now I'm here," Hatabou shrugged, walking past us and scrambling up onto the wooden desk, which creaked under his weight.

"How did Ryuu know about you?" Choromatsu questioned, and Hatabou scratched the back of his neck. "Showed up in person, dajo. Threatened to eat me if I didn't comply to his lies about the ice balance. I obeyed, and I falsely agreed to let him kill me, so he threw me in here himself, dajo," Hatabou said, as if it were no big deal that a dragon had threatened to eat him, and told him he'd be killed.

"So, now what?" Karamatsu asked, and we all realized how lost we felt. "First, ditch the soldier outfits, dajo. They know you're missing, so it's no use to hide, especially not now that I've escaped," Hatabou instructed, and we all exchanged confused glares as we did what he advised, with me pocketing the blade in case it came in handy. "Now, we run!" Hatabou called, shoving past us and rushing into the gaping maw of the doorway.

Confused, we followed him. A million questions surfaced, shoving more down as more began to invade my head. The alarms blared louder, obviously getting impatient at not being able to discover what they'd let slip through their fingers. I had a strong sense of absolute and sheer terror bubbling inside my stomach, unsure if we were heading to our deaths.

Chaos only ensued as we slipped into plain vision, and soldiers pacing the empty platforms met our presence. "Get them!" one of them called, and in a haze of chaos, we slip up, me and Jyushimatsu completely high-tailing it across one of the bridges, to an abandoned lot of smashed windows and intact rooms.

I could hear footsteps chasing us, causing my heart to explode from my chest. The blood roared in my ears, drowning out nearly every wailing sound around me. I skidded to a halt and dove inside an abandoned office, the shattered glass barely tugging at my hoodie as I took cover behind a rusting file cabinet, its middle door hanging open in frozen presentation, never to be closed and used as a storage for manila folders once again. Jyushimatsu had hid under the desk sitting against the back wall, to the left of the cabinet. We could hear our hearts racing, fear blossoming through my nerves.

For a moment, the chaos and footsteps faded to nothing outside, making me for a moment believe we'd lost them. But, the violent slam of an old door against chipping walls caused my heart to jumpstart again. Footsteps paced the room, in a deep search, such as a child looking for a toy they'd misplaced somewhere amidst a messy room. I held my breath, hoping my rapid heartbeat wasn't audible.

I heard the sound of old chairs thudding against rotting carpet, and the shattering of a potted plant's pot, allowing a sea of dirt to scatter across the rug, alongside a plant that had died long ago, its leaves curled and brown with death. "Where the fuck are they? They gotta be in here, or somewhere nearby," a deep voice reasoned, footsteps retreating to the doorway of the office. Silence, then radio crackle. "Hello? Unit of rage? This is Soldier Crossbones, I'm gonna need backup in the abandoned office with the old plant and cracked window? Two of the prisoners are here, I can taste it," he reported, and a raspy voice, similar to Ryuu's but not slick enough, reported back.