You felt someone shaking you gently.
"(Y/N), wake up," a voice called. You felt annoyed. You were sleeping perfectly fine and someone had to come and wake you up.
"What?" you asked grouchily, burrowing under the blanket. A musky smell was filling your note and you didn't like it.
"There's a fire," the person answered simply. You opened one eye to see Hiro, giving you a strange look. Everyone else had their stuff gathered already. Outside the cave, something bright was raging.
"What?" you screeched, and leaped out of your sleeping bag.
"They know we're here," Hiro said.
"Seriously?" you screamed, pulling your (H/C) hair down. "I wake up to this?"
"Note to self, don't wake this girl up when she's sleeping," Katsu mumbled, giving you a weird look.
You turned on him. "Shut up!" You climbed out of your sleeping bag and hastily threw your stuff together. "Kenji, don't you have that water thingy? Get rid of that fire."
Hiro sighed and rolled his eyes. "Please keep screaming, it's totally not making me irritated right now," he said sarcastically.
"I can't believe they started a fire," you snapped, pulling on your armor, then your backpack. Outside you heard Kenji spraying water over the fire with ease.
"We need to stay somewhere else," Hoshi sighed. "This is getting complicated."
"We underestimated them," you muttered. "They're smarter than I thought." You poked your head out of the cave to see a smoking, charred forest. Kenji turned to look at you. "Hey, I did it," he called.
You stepped out of the cave. "Then let's go."
* * *
"Well, this is fun," Hiro said sarcastically. "How I love being a squirrel."
"Shut up," you grumbled. "Stay there for now."
"I don't want to hang out in a tree."
"Too bad. Now go to sleep."
Hiro reluctantly wiggled around and shut his eyes. His sleeping bag was on a thick branch, and was strapped in using rope.
You climbed up to the highest branch and gazed around the forest. You could see Katsu and Kenji hanging out at a river nearby, collecting some water from a river. They were supposed to wash their suits and clothes as well but they were just splashing each other and wrecking everything. Hoshi was right under the tree, preparing some food.
Your sneakers hit the ground lightly. "They're not taking this seriously," you said, half to yourself. "They think it's a joke, and it's not dangerous."
Hoshi looked up at you sympathetically. "Well, call them back. I have the food ready."
You nodded. "Make sure Hiro's okay." Then you set off through the trees. You could see the two from up above, but on the ground, it was impossible.
After a few minutes, you reached the river. You looked around for the two boys and saw them in the water, still. They were just laying there, the water rushing past them. Their eyes were closed.
"Uh. . . guys?" You squinted at them. "Are you okay?"
"A person wouldn't be okay after they just drank poisoned water, (Y/N)," a voice murmured behind you. You froze. "W-what?"
"You never cease to surprise me," the voice continued quietly. "Why are you coming back? To retrieve the stepmother who forced you to leave your boyfriend?"
You spun around to be almost nose-to-nose with a familiar face. "Mitsuo?" you asked in disbelief. He looked different. He had a small scar over his eye. And he looked more serious.
"I'm sorry, (Y/N)," Mitsuo said. "But I can't have you come here. I'll annihilate you in a flash."
"Wait!" you spluttered. "You said you had to protect me. And Hiro. And what happened to your eye?"
"I was naive," Mitsuo replied bluntly. "Letting 'comrades' and 'friendship' get in my way. Carson was right. These things just slow you down." He leaned over your shoulder and growled in your ear, "If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have been forced to give up to Carson."
"What happened?" you murmured. "What happened to the guy who hung out with me after I had to leave San Fransokyo? What happened to the guy who was actually nice to me?"
"Remember what I said, (Y/N)?" Mitsuo asked, stepping away. "I said I would get rid of your nerd boyfriend. But if I did that, you would go ballistic and tell the police about me. So now I have to kill you, too."
* * *