Return of the Elementals

Chapter Five

October came in such a blur, it was like being thrown through a wormhole. Had it really only been June when we'd taken Ryuu down? Time had moved so fast, I wasn't sure if the summer had even really happened. It had been a couple of weeks since my failure to communicate with Akira, and the professor had returned, and training was back up.

Today, like the day of the crystals, we were doing tandem training, and as requested, we showed up early at the professor's lab door, and his face lit up seeing us. "Oh, hello, dasu! I missed you while I was gone, dasu! I hope you're all ready for the course!" he chirped, sliding the door open to allow us inside. "Heh, you know it!" Karamatsu announced, placing a finger gun to his chin, which everyone ignored and walked by him, causing him to scurry behind to catch up.

"So, professor Dekapan, er... how DO we activate the crystals? Is there a specific location or like, a special requirement?" Choromatsu asked, waving his hands around as he talked. The professor waved his hand. "They'll activate at the right time, dasu," was all professor Dekapan said. "But when is that right time? Because otherwise, they're useless," Todomatsu interjected, but was silenced by the professor. Nobody uttered a word on the rest of the way.

We emerged into the open aired area, with the obstacles looming up towards the blue skies above. "Yo, prof... does this one have elemental obstacles?" Osomatsu asked, crossing his arms behind his head. Professor Dekapan nodded. "Indeed, dasu," he assured, and we shared a curious glance. Usually, he either had special courses for single or team days, or only elemental exercises on single days, never for tandem days. This would prove interesting, indeed. 

"You know where to go, dasu," he said before waddling off in the direction we'd come, to start the course. Silently, me and my brothers scattered to the starting platform, off the ground and accessible with a shiny red ladder. I put my hand to my forehead to get a decent look at the course. It winded around, much like the others. Ahead of me, I could see a few moving obstacles, too far off to identify.

I saw the finish platform, decorated with vines and flowers, above the ground in the distance. A sharp blow of the whistle, and we took off running across the first object, a balance beam. Normally, you'd take it slow, in order to keep your balance and not plummet the albeit short distance to the rocky ground, but we'd done this before. Next up was simple, a rock climb, like the towering beast that had slain us as kids.

I leapt on first, firmly grasping the rough plastic, hoisting myself up. "Another rock wall? Be creative, god dammit..." I heard Osomatsu mumble as he approached the wall after me. I moved with grace, much better than I had ten years ago. Younger me would be astonished to see me now. Hopping and pulling my body upwards, I approached the top of the towering structure, grabbing onto the edge with my fingers curling on, hoisting myself up and panting, curling up onto the platform. My brothers appeared on the platform beside me, almost single file.

"Now what?" I heard Jyushimatsu ask. Curious, I stumbled to my feet, looking for the next obstacle. Except, there wasn't. No platforms or usual obstacles in sight. My heart fluttered in my chest, panic shaking through my nerves. "There's... nothing?" Choromatsu inquired, looking over the sides. "Appears that way," Karamatsu said, uncertainty flying throughout his voice. "There wouldn't just be an abrupt end, there's more course," I added, injecting logic.

"Then what the fuck do we do?" Todomatsu asked. "We search for a hidden option," Choromatsu answered. "What do you mean, Choromatsu-niisan?" Jyushimatsu asked, his blue eyes flicking over to our green-clad brother. "I mean, like a hidden door, or something," he shrugged. "Do you really think he could have added one?" Osomatsu asked as me, Todomatsu and Karamatsu silently dropped to our knees, feeling.

"Beats me," Karamatsu interjected from his crouch. I could only feel the rough smoothness of the platform we were stationed on, and from what I could tell, there were no platforms for this to be a platform jump. At last, my hands felt solid near the edge of the platform. I took my knuckles to it, knocking on the solid air as if it were simply an invisible door. There was a resonating knock. "Bingo," I smirked, crawling over to it and feeling for more texture.

Weirdly, it seemed to dip. My stomach turned as I rose to my knees, glancing over my shoulders at the bewildered faces of my brothers. For a moment, I couldn't see my brothers in their faces. "It's an invisible slide," I reported, staggering to my feet. "Oh boy," I heard Todomatsu mumble. "Who's first?" Osomatsu asked, casting a jade glance at each of us. 

"I'll go," I responded too quickly, taking small steps to the edge, and looking down. Solid ground, but I could faintly see the outline of a slide, dipping down like a roller coaster and briskly shooting upwards, enabling a launch. I could faintly see what appeared to be a beanbag painted to appear as a target in the distance. Inhaling and gathering my bearings, I sat down, inching forward. I felt a thump behind me, and I whirled around to meet Jyushimatsu's sapphire eyes. 

And with that, I was shoved.

I tumbled down the slide, my heart pounding out of my chest. I rolled up the incline, and was launched into the air. Panic gripped me as I landed a mess of limbs into the beanbag, sinking into its shape. Not long after, my brothers landed with soft thumps, and I almost swear I heard Todomatsu yelp in the air. I spotted a red, rusting ladder in the corner of my eye, but it appeared that so had my brothers, because before I could even do as much as move a muscle, they were up the ladder like red, blue, green, yellow and pink flashes of light.

Crawling up the chilled ladder, I met my brothers at the next obstacle: an element related one, as proven by the crudely drawn rain shower at the edge of the platform. "Ah! This one's for Totty!" Jyushimatsu pointed out after pressing his oversized sleeve to his lips, moving aside and nodding in Todomatsu's direction. 

Todomatsu, raising an eyebrow, took a step to the edge of the platform to study the challenge stretched out in front of his eyes. It was a deep container, grey with a stripe of yellow running around its middle like a jumbo rubbed band. Inside it were solid black platforms, it appeared, inflated. "I thought this was supposed to be a challenge," Todomatsu griped as he aimed his palms to the opening of the container and letting water gush from the palms of his hands.

The water streamed into the container, hitting the bottom of the thing with a metallic splash. As the water began to fill in and take form, the platforms bobbed along the crystal blue. The water level slowly rose with each minute passing, a look of boredom, or perhaps unimpressed?, sketching into Todomatsu's face. I watched the water rise in a near trance, watching the waves ripple and platforms bob.

When it was nearly full, Todomatsu stopped, stepping back and flicking a strand of hair out of his face. Karamatsu was the first to leap onto the first platform, and I watched as he attempted to keep his balance as he leapt across the floating platforms, staggering once his feet made contact with the platform across the way. One by one, we followed, and when I hopped over onto the first one, I almost plunged right into the water below. I held onto the edge as I landed, looking indignant, but preventing a plunge.

When I finally made it over, we started to walk, as the platform here was extended into a curving walkway, making a complete U-turn to the next obstacle. It seemed to be a motion based one, complete with swinging dummies and the like, to 'defeat' while dashing through the moving maze. "Oh, no," I heard Osomatsu mumble from behind. I remembered the first time we'd encountered the moving maze. It had not ended well.

I just shifted from foot to foot. Before we had a chance to react, Jyushimatsu dashed ahead into the maze. "Oi, what the fuck?!" Choromatsu called out, but Jyushimatsu seemed to be blissfully ignorant. He was lightning fast, smashing through the swinging dummies and hopping over pendulums of punching bags. It was almost impressive, but definitely dizzying to watch. I went next, making sure to time my movements in time with my attacks.

Suddenly, the maze began to screech to a halt, the dummies swinging rapidly back and forth in a hypnotizing pattern. "What the..?" I heard Choromatsu inquire as we heard the professor shouting at something. "Shoo! Scram, dasu!" he bellowed, and we all sharply turned our heads to face him as his footsteps boomed into the training course. Running from him was.. a cat? It had long hair, and dashed gracefully from the professor's feet in a white dash.

Its fur was white, gold splotches adorning its snowy pelt. Its feathery tail trailed after it like a raised flag. The professor called out again, but the cat was quick. It leapt up onto one of the obstacles and towards us, as we'd gathered onto the walkway to watch what was occurring. Todomatsu turned to me. "Is that one of your cats, niisan?" he asked. I shook my head no. I'd never seen this cat before.

It bounded over the walkways and platforms, until it finally reached us, panting with its sides rapidly heaving. It looked up at us, its blue eyes rounded with terror. It opened its maw, and spoke.

"Finally, I've found you six. I need your help."