A Mentor's Hand (文豪ストレイドッグス)

6

(Kiyo)

At the building - which was a pretty much one of Yokohama's many concrete cubes slapped onto the
ground - Tachihara Michizo and Gin Aktugawa from the black lizard squad were joining me and Chuuya in our mission. I would guard the hallways, Tachihara would guard the door, Gin would would watch over the building inside and out in the dark and Chuuya would guard the immediate entrance into the meeting room.

Our team was small to remain inconspicuous. If I saw anyone that wasn't in this group, I would make their presence VERY known to the world, and proceed to fight them. Same with everyone else. Before we split up, I looked Chuuya-san in the the eye, and we... fist bumped. The plan was set.

Half an hour later, I saw Gin beckoning to me in the hallways. Immediately I rushed over, leaning in close to hear her better, because she was naturally quiet. "Follow me," she whispered, and motioned to follow.

I was lead down the hall, "they are in there, be careful, " she said, and followed me into a room. I walked in. I could only make out a closet across the room, a big wardrobe between two of the windows. It was still very dark outside, and there was no light in the room.

Softly, I heard the door click behind me. I whirled, looking at the space where Gin was. "What are you doing?" I said. She walked toward me, a sense of unease starting to wash in.

Slowly, her face caved in. Then her chest warped, followed by the rest of her body. In a couple moments, a completely different person was standing in front of me.

His features were hard to tell because of the dark, but I could see light hair and husky build of a body. That was it.
Two arms grabbed me from behind, dragging me back towards the closet. They covered my mouth so that I couldn't scream. I tried to remember what various people in the mafia had taught me about self defense, but in the last two months, it wasn't much. I did know, however, that the mission was absolute and that I must complete it even if it costs me my life.

I chucked myself forcibly into the person's body, sending him unsteady, but also a knife into my back. It hurt. A lot. However, I am used to the pain so it took me only a moment to get a hold of myself. Still captured in his temporarily stunned body, I twisted around and sent it to the floor. Three more men crawled out from the closet, which meant five people I had to face, cause the guy on the ground wasn't going to stay there forever.

I crouched down, closing my eyes, searching my mind. There it was. Chuuya-san's ability: gravity manipulation. All the boxes were ticked off for me to be able to use it. I drawed from it, and felt incredible power rise in myself.

The men were scrambling to get to me in this fetal position, hoping that I had been hurt badly enough. I sprang up, kicking two of them in one swing, feeling the wound in my back with intense pain.

The force of gravity sent them spiraling to the ground, and kept them there. They groaned, doing their best to breath under the intense weight. I had nine minutes until my 'ability' ran out of its juice and the guys would be set free.

As loud as my small lungs could manage, I yelled "INTRUDER!!! SECOND FLOOR!" It was only a matter of time. With Chuuya's ability, it didn't even take half a minute to take the other ones down.

Clearly my sudden ability had stunned them, because none of the guys had any will to stand up again. By then, the real Gin and Tachihara had shown up, and we proceeded to the meeting room, where we would safely escort the meeting elsewhere.

Or, that's what I'd like to say. I wasn't quite sure how to unactivate the ability, so when I tried to leave I ended up falling through the floor. More pain, this time though I could feel thick blood on my head.

"Kiyo!" Tachihara exclaimed, jumping through the hole I made to meet me. I closed my eyes for a second, until I could forcible deactivate the gravity ability. I blinked, looking at Tachihara's worried eyes, "I'm fine," I croaked, the air not fully in my lungs. He helped me up and we ran to the meeting room.
Destroyed by my own ability. Gah.

---

Chuuya was waiting for the party to arrive. He had already secured the Boss' safety, and they were ready to take their leave. The other meeting members had already fled safely.

Kiyo and Co. arrived a couple moments later, all of them unharmed, except for Kiyo. Clearly she had been the victim of the huge crash, and Chuuya felt like he knew why. They all got away safely, and completely skirted the cops.

At 12:00, which was only a couple hours after the mission, Chuuya was waiting out side the mafia's hospital, which was underground (and very high tech, a fact the Boss takes a lot of pride in). A nurse came out of the room, followed by Kiyo, who was dressed in some bandages.

"You should really go easier on your subordinates, Nakahara-kun," the nurse started. "Thankfully, her wounds are small. A little concussion on the head, some stitches in the back and a couple bruises all a round. Not the worst I've ever seen, but by no means fitting for a 15 year old girl!"

"Kiyo did very good on her first mission," Chuuya said defensively. He felt a sort of pride for the kid; she had proven herself, in a way.

"Yes well... gah! Off you two go" the nurse turned and fled back into the hospital, escaping Chuuya's quick retorts.

"Sorry," kiyo said, not meeting Chuuya's eye. "Eh?"
"Your ability... I was too weak to use it" she said, in possibly the longest string of words the kid had ever muttered.
"Nah, we're going to be fixing that, so it's all training, really."

They were silent. It took them a little while to get back to Chuuya's house because Kiyo was a little dizzy. At one point she almost fell over, so chuuya picked her up and carried her back to the house.

---

The next morning, Chuuya was gone. The day before, Kiyo had received a bedroom from her mentor, so she woke in there. She got out of bed, sore in several places, and went to see if he was just around the house. Nope. The only thing he had left behind were instructions to go train at a certain location, promise of his return in a week, and a hat.

Kiyo looked at the hat. It was the one Chuuya-san had bought the day he became her mentor. She smiled, and put the hat on her head, carful to style it like his.

Turns out the training was at the literal, public gym. Chuuya had got her a teacher to supervise some training. The guy was clueless...

Next issue drops on the 15! Have a good day:) please vote my story if you are enjoying it