Chapter 12-18 - Taking Action
18 - Taking Action
“No, there has to be another way.”
“I can’t let them try to do anything to my dad anymore. I’m the only person who can fix this.”
“I just wanted a normal life, but seeing all of this, and understanding that this is all about me...”
“I’m fine with this being my life.”
“I’ll take care of this. Maybe I’ll make dad proud too.”
They landed in Warsaw, close to the hotel that they stayed at at some point. The dragon descended and dissipated. Hiroshi, experiencing a strange heartache, reluctantly followed the rest of the squad into the hotel.
“Sakuto, it’s weird...” Ichika said. “I’m not sensing anything. There’s little to no soul presences in the area.”
“Huh...I guess you’re right.” Sakuto said. “Still, considering that we were pretty much ambushed in Moscow, I wouldn’t be surprised if those shits are trying to be tactical about it. Gotta stay careful.”
“Gotta figure out the food situation too. Yumichi’s probably starving.” Ichika said, entering the hotel’s lobby, and later the cafeteria. He walked into the kitchen behind it, entering the freezer and looking for any type of food. She found some pieces of frozen meat and some vegetables, enough for a quick meal if she cooked them.
The kids also entered the kitchen. Hiroshi suddenly found himself in possession of a strange knife. It looked to be made out of soul prowess, but its roots were connected to his body, specifically, his heart.
“They’re all distracted...”
He was sweating, truth be told, he was extremely anxious. The covers on his face didn’t make things lighter either, he began slowly undoing them.
“No, I’m not gonna do anything this way. They’re too strong.”
“Ichika, the meat might take too long to defrost.” Sakuto said, observing Ichika’s choice of ingredients. “I’m thinking we should just go with some veggie-based food. Something like a salad.”
“A salad and maybe some quick baked potatoes...” Ichika sighed, tossing the meat away and bringing the vegetables closer to the sink. “Whatever works, I guess.”
“I can make it if you want me to.” Sakuto said.
“It’s fine, I got this.” Ichika chuckled. “It’s okay, I won’t burn the food down this time...I hope.”
“Now...just gotta remember how Ausra did it...”
She washed the vegetables. She chopped them up, tossed them into a bowl and drizzled some oil into it, mixing it well. Hiroshi carefully observed the situation, the knife in his hand quickly fading away. He looked around himself, at the exit, at the surroundings, he tried to think of anything.
He pushed himself a little bit, and fragments of soul prowess began growing out of his back before quickly breaking away. The heartache was annoying, but he was starting to get used to it.
“It’s okay...”
“It works.”
“This is...my soul expression, I think.”
“Hiroshi, you want anything specific when it comes to food?” Sakuto asked, slowly approaching him. Hiroshi panicked, but he was focused enough to utter a response.
“No, I’m...I’m good. I’ll just eat whatever you’re making.”
“Right, good. It’s nutritious food.” Sakuto said, trying to make conversation. He didn’t want Hiroshi to be alone, contrary to what Hiroshi wanted for himself. Yumichi was next to Ichika, trying to help her with the cooking while throwing snowballs around the kitchen.
“Uhm...” Hiroshi spoke up.
“What, anything on your mind?” Sakuto quickly asked.
“Well, can I get uh...some sleep? I’m really tired, my head hurts...” Hiroshi pleaded, his heart rate through the roof and his presence strangely high.
“Well, I can guarantee you a nap, but I don’t know if you’ll sleep for too long. It might take us some time to prepare the potatoes anyways...” Sakuto thought out loud. “Ichika, I’m gonna get Hiroshi a hotel room somewhere close to here. We’ll take turns guarding it-”
“T-there’s no need to guard it.” Hiroshi mumbled. It was an awful mistake, but Sakuto’s distracted and destroyed mind couldn’t process it fast enough. “I’m strong enough to deal with things on my own now, I think...”
“Hey, if you want some privacy, you could’ve just asked.” Sakuto said. “We’ll figure something out.”
After a few minutes that felt like hours of Hiroshi later, Sakuto and Ichika guided Hiroshi towards a room on the second floor - right above the kitchen and cafeteria area. They broke the door open. The potatoes were in the oven, all left now was to wait. They guided Hiroshi inside.
“Stay here, we’ll check up on you occasionally. If you feel a soul presence approach from any direction, immediately either yell, or knock or something, or just...let us know, alright?” Sakuto said.
“Yeah, I...got it.” Hiroshi said.
Sakuto patted Hiroshi on his head. His eye had a strange mix of...everything in them. Mostly, it was a strange feeling of newly acquired trust and responsibility. He thought that keeping Hiroshi safe would fix all the other problems, or that his wellbeing mattered to him a lot, way more than it logically should have.
“Hiroshi, it’s all gonna be alright, okay?” Sakuto asked. “I’ll try my hardest, I promise. Everything’s gonna be okay.”
“Uhh, I believe you...” Hiroshi said.
“Everything’s gonna be alright.” Sakuto said again before leaving alongside Ichika and closing the door behind them.
After walking a little, Ichika finally spoke up.
“I know you don’t want the kid to die, but...”
“It’s not just that.” Sakuto said. “I don’t want him to die, but also...fuck, it feels like sometimes I’m looking into a mirror. Like...”
“Hm?”
“Like, the guy’s on his own, isn’t he? And he’s having it rough.” Sakuto said. “No one deserves that.”
“He was gonna catch a bullet in his head if not for me.”
“So many people died already...”
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“Please, just...not another one.”
They walked down the hallways and down the staircase. On their way, Sakuto grabbed a pack of cigarettes, took one out and lit it with a lighter he had in his uniform.
“Since when...?” Ichika asked, looking at him a little surprised.
Sakuto tried to smoke the cigarette. It repulsed him a little at first, he probably did something wrong, but he did it regardless. He slowly exhaled the smoke and, reaching the lobby, stopped for a few seconds.
“Dunno. Just found a pack laying around in the lobby and felt like smoking.” Sakuto said.
“And how’d you like it?” Ichika asked.
“Kind of gross.” Sakuto said. “It’s supposed to help you relax, but I’m guessing it didn’t kick in yet...or maybe it’s too weak for the job.”
He deeply sighed. In his mind, he was still on that balcony, talking to his friend.
“I remembered when I tried smoking, I felt the same way.” Ichika said. “And then, Ausra made sure I never smoked again.”
“Yeah, I imagine.” Sakuto said. “I imagine she’d be like that.”
“She was weirdly protective of my health too. Understandable, to be fair. I was all sorts of fucked up.” Ichika smiled a little.
“You want one?” Sakuto offered her a cig.
“Nah. Ausra would get mad.” Ichika said, trying to stop herself from tearing up.
“I see.” Sakuto smiled a little.
“I called out Oskar for smoking just to look cool so much, I’d expect him to say the same to me just now.”
He dropped the cigarette on the floor and stomped on it. He stopped for a while, lost in thoughts and wearing a genuinely tired expression.
“Let’s go to the kitchen.” Sakuto said, and so they went.
At the same time, however, Hiroshi was following his own plan of action.
“If I use this enough to make myself a pair of wings...I know I can do it, I know I can probably use them to move around pretty fast.” Hiroshi said. “But...”
“I don’t know where my dad is either.”
He went towards the balcony. He concentrated, the wings started to slowly grow out of his back. They were pure white with a thin black outline, resembling soul prowess itself. He felt nausea doing so, but it wasn’t anything he wouldn’t get used to.
“All I need is to break away from them.”
“And to just-”
“Hiroshi?” Yumichi asked, suddenly entering the room. He saw Hiroshi standing on the balcony. “What are you doing?”
Hiroshi sharply turned around, folding his wings back to hide them better.
“Just getting some fresh air.” Hiroshi replied. “Do you...want anything?”
“Do you want to join us in the kitchen?” Yumichi asked.
“No, I uhh...I feel like sleeping right now. I’m really tired.” Hiroshi hastily replied. “Can you...come back later? Maybe once the food is done?”
“Did I...make you angry earlier?” Yumichi asked, sounding truly sorry. Hiroshi carefully approached him.
“I’m a soulful now, right? That means I have a presence. Those two are probably tracking my presence to see where I am. And if I use my ability, it will probably increase...”
“So what should I do?”
“No, it’s okay...I understand.” Hiroshi said.
“All they need to know is that there’s a presence in this room. Doesn’t matter whose it is.”
“Damn it, how do presences work when someone is asleep? I...I don’t know...damn it...”
“...is that right?” Yumichi said something, but Hiroshi was too deep in his own thoughts to hear it properly.
“Sorry, could you say that again?” Hiroshi asked.
“I...okay, I get it. I’m sorry.” Yumichi said, frowning a little and bowing his head.
“Hey, it’s okay...”
“Should I...somehow get him to sleep? Maybe...”
A lot of options crossed his mind, many of which disgusted him.
“No...”
“I can’t hurt him, there’s no way. He’s...my friend, right? That’s what he said too, that I’m his friend. And besides, he’s the person who made me realize...”
“That I have to do something myself.”
“Yumichi, uhm...” Hiroshi began. Yumichi raised his head and carefully listened to the brief silence that followed.
“I just need a distraction. A soul presence...that will hide mine.” Hiroshi thought, sweating hard. “Come on, think...”
“Soul presences are high when someone uses an ability...”
“I...”
“I got it.”
“Yumichi, we need to become stronger. That’s what I’ve been thinking about.” Hiroshi said, approaching Yumichi even more. His heart was beating unhealthily fast. “I think that we need to become stronger so that we can keep up with uhh...the other two.”
“Huh...okay!” Yumichi said. “Yeah, I don’t...want big sis to think of me as a problem. I wanna help her fight! I’m...strong, right?”
“Yes, but we need to be stronger. Hey, uh...while I take a nap, you should train. After I wake up, I’ll train too.” Hiroshi said.
“Oh, okay!” Yumichi cheered. “I’ll go training then, right now!”
“Yes, that’s the spirit!” Hiroshi cheered him on while his eyesight started to get a little blurry from the stress. “I’ll wake up once they wake me up, which is...once the food is done, I guess...”
“I can’t believe I’m doing this...”
“Okay! See you soon then!” Yumichi said, happily waving and leaving. Once the door closed, loud sounds of walls being cracked, doors being shot through and other destructive occurrences flooded the area. But most importantly, Yumichi’s presence was there. Not terrifyingly high, not even that high to be honest, but...it was enough.
Hiroshi opened up his wings again. He tried to keep himself afloat for a little bit as practice, it was hard, but a few minutes of practicing later...he was ready to take the leap.
He jumped off the balcony.
He almost fell on the ground, but managed to drag himself upwards later, and now, he was flying. His destination - wherever was away from the group that he believed was kidnapping him. He flew South, and he kept on going, until eventually the exhaustion got to him, and he started walking by foot. But by that point, it didn’t even matter. He was far enough away.
He wasn’t even scared anymore, since he did have a soul expression. He didn’t hide his face either...
The lack of his presence wasn’t noticed by Sakuto and Ichika due to Yumichi’s own rapidly rising presence. Since they were below, and Yumichi was relatively close to him, it was near impossible to pinpoint the absence of Hiroshi. As he trained, he gained more and more voltage within himself, more confidence that he’s going to reach some kind of height with his friend. He wanted to try as hard as he could.
An hour later, Sakuto and Ichika went to the hotel room to wake Hiroshi up. Sakuto gently knocked on the door, and after hearing no response, knocked again, this time harder.
“Ichika...” Sakuto said, now sounding a little concerned. “How the hell did he fall asleep so well with Yumichi doing all of...this?”
“I don’t know...wait, why can’t I feel his presence?” Ichika asked, now genuinely alert.
“Fuck...he had some sort pain in his heart, right? That’s never a good thing.”
“Fuck...”
“What if he...?!”
He broke the door open and barged into the room. And there, he saw no one.
“No...where is he? Where the fuck is he?!” Sakuto instantly went into a panic. “Ichika, where is he?!”
“I don’t know!” Ichika yelled back.
Yumichi, curiously, went towards them.
“Big sis, is anything-”
“Yumichi, not now...” Ichika said, trying to calm herself down.
“No, wait.” Sakuto said. “Yumichi, why, of all times, did you choose to...use your soul expression everywhere right now?”
“Because, uh...because me and Hiroshi agreed that we would train together?” Yumichi said, confused. He peeked into the room. “He said he’d only take a nap...where is he?”
“Fuck...no...”
“Nonononononono...not like this...”
“How long has he been gone for, is it...is it even possible to find him?!” Sakuto thought, looking around. To him, he failed, again.
He tapped on his earpiece.
“Captain, we’re fucked.”
“Huh...? What-”
“Hiroshi is gone.”