Souls In Hiding

A Traitor In Our Midst

A crowd of children snuck through the woods under the cover of night. They had analysed their plan over and over until it engrained into everyone's minds. Unfortunately, the plan had a minor setback. Kaede and Himiko worked together to create the requested invisibility potion but something backfired on them as the potion rested, rendering it useless. Without time to remake the potion, the group unanimously decided to go without.

Miu, Tsumugi and Kiibo split off from the group, taking a position to start the attack by one of the town's gated entrances. Maki, Ryoma and Himiko made their way to search for patrol and take as many guards down as possible. Korekiyo and Kirumi broke off to the left, whereas Angie and Rantaro broke off to the right, finding a perfect lookout spot.

Kokichi, Kaito and Gonta were left behind to act as backup. Tenko lead her, Shuichi and Kaede towards a hidden gate in the wall that Maki mentioned earlier. Shuichi bent the gate's iron bars just enough for everyone to step through, letting Kaede and Tenko to go first so he could bend the iron bars back into position behind them, minimising any evidence they were there. 

Squeezing around Tenko and Kaede, Shuichi took the lead. Crawling on all fours, the three soon reached a larger room where the tight tunnel transformed into a large spiral staircase. Shuichi continued taking the lead, considering he was the strongest in the group, and ascended the quiet, echoing staircase.

"Stop," Tenko whispered, holding her finger up to encourage her companions to listen. Shuichi crouched low to the steps, hearing footsteps thudding towards them. The owner of the footsteps turned the corner to spot the three. Without hesitation, Shuichi lunged at the unexpecting knight, snapping his neck with ease as the corpse fell to the floor, his head twisted to look behind him. "Maybe some men are useful after all."

Kaede, Shuichi and Tenko continued up the staircase, exiting the stairwell to find themselves on top of the defensive walls. "Weird... surely patrol should be here right?" Shuichi mumbled to himself.

"You're right, why's there- Hey is that a flare?" Kaede lost focus as she pointed to a large, red beam shooting into the sky from just over the edge of the wall. The group raced towards the flare, only to see Miu's limp body curled around itself on the ground. Kiibo struggled against strong, metallic armour as two guards attempted to drag him further into the heart of the town. Without hesitation, Kaede created a crossbow out of thin air and instantly shot an arrow through the middle of each guards heart.

Now free, Kiibo bolted towards Miu and picked up her limp body, running into the safety that the woods provided its residents. Handing off the crossbow to Tenko, Kaede created a purple retreat flare which she immediately shot into the air above her. "We should get back to the cabin," Shuichi suggested, the two girls agreeing with him. They both hurried towards the stairs, whilst Shuichi ran along the edge of the wall towards where he could see the faint outline of Maki and Ryoma.

Shuichi's eyes widened in fear, his feet glued to the ground as Ryoma's neck moulded to the shape of Maki's blade. "Maki stop!" He rushed in between both the knights and pushed them away from each other. "We're definitely going to talk about this. For now, we have another problem to deal with. Get back to the cabin, now." Having never been so commanding in his life, Shuichi shocked even himself. No one in the group dared waste any more time, instantly rushing towards their home with anyone else who appeared from the woods nearby.

Adrenaline rushed through their veins, each occupant of the cabin reaching it at the same time. After they'd all caught their breaths, Maki turned towards Shuichi with a deadly glare. "What was the problem you mentioned?"

"Kiibo was almost captured. Miu's unconscious. There were no guards patrolling." Shuichi counted off the issues on his hand, the drama of the past few minutes muddling his brain. As if on cue, Miu groaned in Kiibo's arms as she slowly regained consciousness.