[Ciel POV]
It's a heavy feeling really, after reading that letter. I wonder how the others are taking it. No one has said anything since yesterday. At the moment I've decided to stop by Meiou to meet with Izumi. Apparently something came up that I just had to see.
When I finally spotted her, she gave me a weary smile. "I'm glad you didn't refuse", she said, sounding a bit sad, "I have to bring you there right away." "Bring me where ?", I asked. "You'll see when you get there", she mumbled, already beginning to walk ahead. "You'll be surprised. I didn't really believe it myself either." I was a bit reluctant but followed after her anyways.
By the time we got to where she was leading me, I came to realize that we were at the Nakanishi Household. I stopped walking and stood in front of the gates. "Why here ?", I asked. She grimaced and pushed open the gates. "You'll see", she replied. "Don't worry about getting in trouble. You're a special guest today." "Special guest ?" She nodded her head and started to walk ahead again. "Quickly Ciel, Grandfather is waiting."
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....!?
For some strange reason, Sotaru was sitting at the edge of the bed with bandages covering most of his body. When he looked up, he said nothing to us and continued to adjust the bandages that were wrapped around his arm. I watched him, confused.
"What.. happened..?", my voice trailed off. "He had a run in with Shiori", a voice said from behind us. I glanced over my shoulder to see Mitsuru standing there with his arms crossed over his chest as he looked my way. "Apparently she was hanging around the Old Ruins ", he continued, walking into the room, "Sotaru, Ao, and a few others just happened to be there and attempted to stop her from getting closer to it. In the end, this happened." He peered at Sotaru. "You mean that she did this ?", I asked wide eyed. He nodded. I turned back to Sotaru. "But why was she there ?", I asked. Sotaru glared at me. "As if I am supposed to know", he replied coldly. I turned to Mitsuru. "What happened to Ao ?" Mitsuru looked up at the ceiling. "Other room", he replied. "Similar condition." "Show me."
When we left Sotaru's room, we went to the room that was beside it. Izumi didn't come with us though. She had something else to do. "Ao ?", Mitsuru called out as we stood in front of the door, "I'm coming in." He didn't even wait for a response. When Mitsuru opened the door, Ao was standing by the window with an exhausted expression. "Ah", he said as soon as he saw us, "Mitsuru. Ciel." He seemed a bit lifeless. The both of us stepped into the room and closed the door behind us. Mitsuru wasn't kidding when he said that Ao was also in the same condition as Sotaru. He had bandages just about where Sotaru had them.
"And you're telling me that Shiori did this too ?", I asked. "Mmhm", Mitsuru mumbled. "Ao", I said, turning to him, "What exactly happened ?" Ao gave me a weary smile and took a seat on the side of the bed. "Sure", he simply replied.
"A few days ago Sotaru, I and a few others were patrolling around the Old Ruins", he said, looking down at his hands, "We were only skimming through when we happened to notice someone passing by without any acknowledgement. It wasn't as if we were at the Old Ruins, but we were pretty close. When we identified that person to be Shiori, we followed after her." "Was there anything that seemed out of place when you saw her ?", I asked. "It's a bit funny that you've asked me that", Ao mumbled, glancing towards the window, "I didn't know myself, but there was something off about Shiori that night. She seemed to be rushing. As if she were trying to get somewhere without anything getting in her way." "Did you see anyone else ?" Ao shook his head. "Not when we were following Shiori, no", he replied. "But when she stopped, I do recall spotting someone else. I think it was around that time that Sotaru and I got hit."
"What ?" Ao fell back into the bed and sighed. "Shiori didn't seem to attack us on purpose really..", he mumbled staring up at the ceiling. "She seemed to have done it in order to protect us from something." "Like ?", Mitsuru asked from beside me. Ao slowly closed his eyes.
"After she stopped moving, she immediately turned our way with a panicked looking expression", he started to say after a momentary pause. "Then she ran towards us and shoved us back. There was a loud cracking sound behind us before the tree behind us fell forward. If she hadn't ran towards us, it would've crushed us. By the time Sotaru and I got up to our feet, she was already gone. She was standing somewhere else and was fighting with someone. I couldn't see who it was but Sotaru said that it looked like Hanae-san. A few minutes went by and the fighting ceased. Shiori anxiously looked around but whoever she was fighting was gone. 'Damn', I remember her saying as she looked down at her hand. She turned to us and glared. Sotaru was standing ahead of me. "Leave this place !", she had shouted."
Ao frowned and sat up. "My memory after that is kind of hazy. I remember that Sotaru and Shiori exchanged a few words but after that she attacked us and we fought. I'm sure it wasn't on purpose though. Her attacks didn't seem genuine. If she really wanted to kill us, she would've done it. Shiori is definitely capable of killing. But I'm sure that she only did it in order to prevent whoever she was fighting with earlier to get to us. Because after Sotaru and I were both on the ground, she walked over to us and brought a finger up to her lips. "Shhhh", she seemed to say while she looked down at us. Shiori then looked around and put something down beside us. Afterwords, she turned around and disappeared into the night. That was the last time we saw her." Ao chuckled, clutching onto his side. "It was hard enough to even move when the others found us. And so, here we are. We've both been here since it happened."
"How serious were the wounds ?", I asked. "From a scale of one to ten ?", Ao asked, looking down at his bandaged arms. "..Maybe a seven ? I've seen worse.." I took a deep breath and sighed. "What about the thing that she placed beside you ?" Ao's eyes slightly widened at the mention. "Oh yes, that thing", he mumbled, and stood up. He walked over to a drawer and opened it. "It was this thing", he said, holding out a blue hair piece in front of him, "She had stabbed it into the ground and left. It looks normal but there's something different about it. There was a barrier connected to it." He walked over to me and handed it to me. "The barrier is much weaker than it was from a few days ago", he added. "But it's still there." "I see."
I tightened my hand around the hair piece and turned around to face Mitsuru. "I assume that you're going to go and find her then ?", he asked me. I nodded my head.
"Yeah."