Didn't expect another chapter, did you? Www I did say I'd try my best to write these so I could finish this book by the end of the month and I'll keep my promise ww so here's another chapter. I hope you'll enjoy it~
"There are so many roots here!", Sakata exclaimed as he walked slower being careful not to step on any of the roots like Urata instructed him to. "Yeah, but we're almost out of here and then we should be fine.", Sou assured them as Luz and Nqrse looked at Sou surprised.
"How would you know that? The only ones who ever went outside were me and Luz.", Nqrse said as the two of them waited for the younger's response who fiddled with his fingers.
"W-well... in the past, when the two of you would always discuss something, I'd always clean up while you were asleep a-and that's when I saw the map one day while I was cleaning.
I was curious s-so I took a small peek... and that's how I found out about this...", Sou confessed as he looked down guilty while Nqrse and Luz just smiled relieved.
"It's fine, Sou-kun. You didn't mean any harm at all so it's alright.", Nqrse assured him as Sou nodded relieved that the older two weren't mad at him as he flashed them a smile.
"T-thank you for understanding!", Sou thanked them smiling brightly as Soraru sighed looking away. "Can you stop, Sou? Your smile is too bright and pure that it blinds me...", Soraru said as he covered his eyes and Luz and Nqrse laughed while Sou started blushing.
"E-eh?! B-bright and pure?", Sou asked flustered as Luz hit his knee laughing. "Who knew that you would say that ww", Luz said laughing. "With how you said that, that sounded like an insult rather than a compliment.", Nqrse said.
"Well, I just stated the truth. Wether you take it as an insult or a compliment is up to you.", Soraru said as Sou clenched his fists feeling as if he had to respond. "W-well I think that you looked too handsome when I first met you that I didn't dare to talk to you in the beginning because your cool aura was too overwhelming, Soraru-san!", Sou countered as he closed his eyes blushing.
When the ravenette heard that a light blush formed on his face as well as he looked up into the opposite direction of Sou. "A-ah... thanks?", Soraru thanked as Sou nodded.
"Y-you're welcome...", Sou said as he looked down away from Soraru as well. There was a strange atmosphere around them like in a shoujo manga and Amatsuki saw that a certain albino was pouting and puffing out his cheeks out of jealousy so he decided to help him by destroying their moment.
"Walk faster you old man.", Amatsuki shouted which got him a glare from the older male. "Oi, are you trying to pick a fight or something?", Soraru asked as he walked slightly faster towards the brunette who was walking slightly ahead.
"Watching the two of you flirting in front of me makes me want to throw up.", Urata said as Sou blushed even more. "W-we weren't flirting! I-I could never change my feelings for E-eve-kun!", Sou said as Amatsuki put a hand on Soraru's shoulder as he sighed shaking his head.
"What?", Soraru asked. "Being rejected so quickly by Sou-kun... you must be so heart-broken right now.", Amatsuki said as Soraru shoved Amatsuki's hand away from him.
"You shut up right now and stop spouting nonsense.", Soraru said sighing. "Why would I be heart-broken when I don't even have any romantic feelings towards Sou?
Also, you guys know that he has feelings for someone called Eve so stop saying we're flirting with each other.", Soraru said as Amatsuki pretended to be surprised as he widened his eyes. "Eh?! So Soraru-san doesn't love Sou-kun?! What a plot twist!", Amatsuki said as Soraru looked like he was about to hit him.
"I thought it would have been obvious. But it seems you were dumber than I thought for not noticing that.", Soraru said as Amatsuki gasped offended while Soraru smirked when he saw that.
They then all kept talking as Amatsuki turned towards Mafumafu giving him an ok sign while winking. Mafumafu blushed when he realized that Amatsuki did all that to stop Mafumafu from seeing the two of them act out something like in a shoujo manga and to assure Mafumafu for 100% that Soraru didn't love Sou in a romantic way at all and Sou didn't love Soraru at all.
He then mouthed a thanks towards Amatsuki to which the brunette responded with a grin before turning back to Soraru.
"Soraru-san, Mafu-kun looks so tired right now. I think he needs someone to watch over him in case something happens. Also, you should maybe hold his hand. He looks like he's about to be swept away by the wind in this case or like he'll trip or something.", Amatsuki said as he shoved Soraru so strongly towards Mafumafu who stumbled back a bit which caused Mafumafu to slam against the wall with his back while Soraru slammed his hands next to him to support his weight.
Soraru looked down to Mafumafu worriedly who was a blushing mess. "You alright?", Soraru asked as Mafumafu merely nodded looking everywhere except into Soraru's eyes. After Soraru made sure that Mafumafu was alright he turned towards Amatsuki glaring at the brunette who was whistling as if he didn't do anything wrong.
"Oi, what do you think you're doing? You do realize that it would be bad if we stepped on the roots right?", Soraru asked as Amatsuki only shrugged. "And you know that there are no roots anywhere anymore, right?", Amatsuki questioned back as he was indeed right and the floor was finally not covered with any plants and roots anymore.
Soraru was about to say something else but was interrupted by a very annoyed short brunette. "Oi, can you guys continue your lovers quarrel later? We don't have much time.", Urata said as he walked past them and Sakata followed him closely after along with Shima.
Soraru just sighed as he too Mafumafu by the wrist and walked past Amatsuki. "Don't think I'll let you get away with this. You really annoyed the heck out of me.", Soraru threatened as Amatsuki merely smiled. Soraru walked a bit faster to catch up with the streamers who walked ahead as Mafumafu tried to fasten his pace to follow Soraru.
He was still very flustered about the fact that they were holding hands but he didn't want to mention it because he knew that Soraru would let go of his hand if he told him that so he decided to stay silent and just walk quietly.
As they continued walking they soon saw a light as they walked out to see the sun shining brightly above them. There was a wide forest in front of them and Soraru looked behind him to see where they just came from while he continued to walk. The Genome Tower was behind them but it was quite far away as Soraru sighed.
Weren't we just under the Genome Tower when we were underground? I seriously don't get the layout of this island... even though I learned everything I knew and tried my best to memorize everything... It's as if the people who created this place wanted us to be confused on this island. Soraru thought before his thoughts were interrupted Mafumafu who tugged onto his sleeve lightly and he looked at the albino questioning.
"Is something wrong, Soraru-san?", Mafumafu asked as the older male simply nodded. "I was just in thought. It's just confusing that we are so far away from the Genome Tower when we were just directly under it yesterday.", Soraru explained as Mafumafu nodded.
"Yeah, that's because we took a long way and when we walked away from Mother Mimikry we walked away from the Genome Tower as well.", Mafumafu said as Soraru widened his eyes.
"Of course, this makes so much sense... I wonder why I didn't manage to figure it out myself...", Soraru asked himself as he felt a pain shoot through his head. He flinched a bit which went unnoticed by the albino because he was giggling lightly while closing his eyes.
"Maybe it's because you think too complicated the whole time that you can't think of the simplest solution anymore.", Mafumafu teased as Soraru could only give him a weak smile.
"Yeah... maybe that's the case.", he said as he continued to walk.
As they walked Sou panted slightly feeling his breathing getting more difficult. Sometimes, he couldn't hold in a cough as he tried to be as quiet as possible to not worry anyone.
He shook it off as he shook his head thinking of the mushroom-haired male. Wait for me, Eve! I'm going to come back for sure! So don't worry about me and continue studying to make your parents proud! Please... just wait a bit longer! The blonde male thought determined as he took a deep breath before he took bigger steps to not fall behind.
They soon arrived at a large building as Mafumafu widened his eyes. "This building is so big. I can't believe how we could oversee that!", Mafumafu exclaimed as Soraru clamped a hand over the albino's mouth signaling him to be quiet. "Ah, sorry.", Mafumafu apologized giggling as he lowered his voice.
"What are we going to do now?", Shima asked as he crouched down. "Well, we are going to break in. Hoping that there will be no guards.
And if yes, we'll take them down.", Luz explained as everyone except the ones who made the plan looked at him in disbelief. Soraru and Urata just rolled their eyes at the explanation.
"Seriously?! And this is the great strategy you've thought of after all these hours?!", Amatsuki screeched not believing that this would be the whole plan.
"Well, I didn't think of the plan to escape. I thought of the route we would take so don't blame me.", Soraru shrugged when he saw how some of the streamers looked at him accusing.
"Well, don't worry about it~ we have so many strong people on our side that we'll manage!", Luz assured them as Kashitaro frowned. "I'm not usually one to doubt others but I think that we should have thought this through better.", Kashitaro said as Amatsuki hummed in agreement.
"Yeah! Just think of all the risks we're taking! I doubt that this is what we should do!", Amatsuki exclaimed as Soraru glared at him signaling him to be quieter.
"Look, it's not like we're going to storm in there announcing that we arrived or something like that. Of course, we'll try to enter without being noticed and we found a route with probably less guards. And with how that shortie trained you, you should be able to be good enough to not trip over things and get yourself noticed.", Soraru explained as Mafumafu nodded.
"He's right! Urata-san trained us so much already and we are all getting better! And there's no way that Luz-kun and the others thought that carelessly to put us into that dangerous situation!", Mafumafu said cheerfully as Sakata nodded in agreement. "We all have to cheer up!
We can get through it somehow!", Sakata said as Mafumafu hummed in agreement.
Nqrse giggled when he saw how the two of them gave each other a high five as he the others turned their attention to the pink-haired male who didn't say anything to that yet.
"Mafu-kun and Sakata-kun are right. There's no need to worry at all. Luz just explained it that way but like Soraru-san said, we do have a plan to avoid as much guards as possible.
So please calm down.", Nqrse assured as everyone sighed out in relief before Amatsuki walked up to Luz hitting him in the back of his head once as Luz winced at the pain.
"What was that for?", Luz whined. "That's for making us worry!", Amatsuki answered. "Well, I'd love to talk more but I think we should get ready.", Urata said as he looked at Soraru who nodded understanding.
"We will split into two groups so the chance of being noticed decreases. We talked about it in advance and it was chosen on how we think you can manage. Sakata, Nqrse, Amatsuki and Kashitaro will go with me.
Luz, Mafu, Shima and Sou will go with the tanuki.", Soraru explained as Mafumafu and Sakata looked at Soraru shocked at his decision. "Eh?! Why am I not with you? Shouldn't Sakata and me switch?", Mafumafu asked as Sakata nodded asking the same thing. But Soraru just crossed his arms as he shook his head.
"Don't ask me. I wasn't the one who chose this but he did.", Soraru said as he pointed at Urata. "Ura-san, why did you put me in another group? Don't you want me to go with you?", Sakata asked as Urata shook his head.
"It's better this way. I watched you guys training and Mafu-kun surprisingly had good flexibility skills despite not being able to do that while stretching at all.
Sou was the same and I need Luz and Shima because they are necessary.", Urata explained as Sakata was still not satisfied by that answer. "B-but I promise I will try my best to help!
I want to protect you like you protected me!", Sakata said as Urata flinched at that before getting silent. He looked down for a while before he continued to speak.
"I appreciate that you want to protect me and I do want to go with you.", Urata started as Sakata's face lighted up before Urata continued speaking. "But you are still going to Soraru and that'll stay this way.", Urata said as everyone noticed the tense atmosphere that started between them.
"W-why not? What is the problem of going together?", Sakata asked desperate to go with Urata as the brunette rubbed his temples.
"Look, I don't want to discuss that now. We will go different routes and I think you're more appropriate to go the other path. It's less dangerous.", Urata explained his voice gaining annoyance.
"Then I'd be more fit than Mafudon, right? Maybe I am good in stealth as well! I did follow you until Mother Mimikry and you didn't notice!", Sakata argued as Urata stayed silent trying to calm down which was difficult as he was very stressed at the moment. "Tell me! Why can I not go with you?!", Sakata asked as Urata's patience snapped.
"You want me to tell you why? Because you will be a burden! I can't just protect you if you suddenly become clumsy again! Protecting me won't be possible for you!", Urata said as the younger male looked shocked before his expression turned into hurt as he looked down.
"I-I see... I'm sorry for troubling you all this time...", Sakata apologized as Urata turned away with a hurt expression as well before it turned expressionless.
"Shima, Sou, Mafu, and Luz. Follow me. We'll go now before we waste more time.", Urata said as he slowly walked ahead the others following him reluctantly.
Amatsuki and the others walked towards Sakata to console him as Mafumafu stayed behind for a while and walked towards Soraru.
"S-soraru-san, I'm sorry for troubling you so much as well. I wanted to be in a group with you but I guess I am not good enough for that, huh?", Mafumafu asked as he looked down.
Soraru noticed that the albino must have thought he was a burden just because Urata told Sakata that as he sighed making the albino flinch.
He reached out towards the younger as he patted his head making the other jolt in surprise before looking up at him in confusion.
"You're not a burden to me.", Soraru said as Mafumafu widened his eyes. "I-I'm not? T-then why can't I be with you?", Mafumafu asked as Soraru smiled slightly.
"It's just that you are more fit to be in Urata's group. It has nothing to do with being a burden and Urata doesn't think of Sakata that way even if he said so. That guy just wanted Sakata to stop asking him and used a horrible way to do that.
I'll make sure to try to cheer him up a bit so you do the same with Urata, ok?", Soraru said as Mafumafu smiled as well relieved that Soraru clarified everything for him.
"Yes! I'll do my best so see you later, Soraru-san!", Mafumafu said as Soraru nodded approvingly. "That's the spirit.
Now go before you'll be left behind.", Soraru said as Mafumafu nodded before pulling Soraru down to give him a slight peck on the cheek as the ravenette widened his eyes in surprise holding the cheek where the albino just kissed him.
"T-that was a good luck charm... good luck!", Mafumafu said before sprinting away leaving a baffled and embarrassed Soraru behind before he smiled walking towards the others where he saw a depressing red-head and the others.
He sighed as he ruffled his head. Way to give me even more work, tanuki. Soraru thought before Nqrse said they should go walking ahead. The others followed him as Sakata still didn't move. Soraru sighed again as he tapped the shoulder of the younger making him look up. "Oi, let's get moving.", Soraru said as Sakata merely nodded before following the ravenette.
*****
Retrodot just came back as he whistled happily before sitting down in front of his monitors clicking through it before getting confused.
"Where are they?", he asked himself confused. His smile under the mask disappeared as he grabbed the telephone and dialed a number. "Hello? Yes. They are trying to escape. Do everything you can to capture them. And bring them back alive. Death... is too merciful for them after all."