Give It A Name

3

"Eh?!" he flinches. "Oh, it's just you, Kyouka-chan. What did you need?"

"Listen to the footsteps. A guard is about to round the corner. I'll knock him out, and we'll continue. The plan is as follows. I want you to minimize noise by immediately hitting him in the mouth, then I'll touch a pressure point and we're through."

"Yeah," he nodded, turning to strike the man right in the teeth before ducking, as Kyouka hit him in the neck, then they continued on their way.

"Hm," Kyouka exhaled, pride in her eyes.

"Great job," Atsushi smiled as they ran ahead.

"Thanks, you too," she whispered back as they ran further ahead.

They took out two more guards with the same method, and ran into a vault, hearing faint banging from the other side of the massive door.

"Help, please! My friend passed out! Someone, anyone, please help us!"

"We're with the Armed Detective Agency!" Atsushi shouted. "Please calm down, we're about to get you out. Go stand by your friend, away from the door! Kyouka's picking the lock and then we'll push it in! You have to stay calm for this to work!"

"...Okay! I'm out of the way! You can come in now!"

"... ugh," they hear, even more faintly. "What's going on? Why do I feel like shit?"

"Boss's sidekick kidnapped us and sold us off, remember? You threw up what looked like the last three days of your food over the side of the wagon and passed out. It was gross, and I thought you'd kicked the bucket. Glad you're okay, man."

"Okay's an overstatement, but if we're about to get out of here, I think we'll be alright eventually."

"Your friend woke up?" Kyouka called through the vault door.

"Yeah!" the first man shouted back.

"Alright, stand back! Demon Snow and I are about to push in the door!" Atsushi says.

"Demon Snow?! But that's the ability of that Port Mafia assassin!! We won't let you kill us!!"

Kyouka looked quite as though she'd been punched in the stomach, shock and nausea written all over her thunderstruck expression.

"How?" she muttered. "How do they know her name?"

"I'm serious! Leave us alone!" the first prisoner shouted again. "We haven't done anything to piss off the Mafia!"

"Kyouka-chan, you have to reassure them. If they aren't calm, we can't help them. We want them unscathed, or we'll have to call in Yosano-san, and I don't think they'd want that."

Kyouka took a deep breath, slowly registering everything he'd just said.

"Yeah, you're right," she said, more to herself than him. "We have to help them."

She took another steadying breath, before gathering herself and raising her voice.

"I'm Kyouka Izumi, and Demon Snow is my ability! I'm a former Port Mafia assassin who has killed 35 people! I'm with the Armed Detective Agency now, and I've seen another side of life! Now I'm chasing the light, and I want to help!"

"Hm... what do you think, Hiro?" the second man asked.

"I don't like this, but if we stay here, we'll die anyway. She sounds sincere, so I think we should trust her words. But here, either way you should stand up so we can get out of the way of the door, Tadashi."

"Yeah, alright," the second one, Tadashi, said.

"Demon Snow, go next to Atsushi and push!" Kyouka shouted.

Atsushi transformed, and pushed alongside Demon Snow. After 15 seconds of struggle, they managed to shove the door open, also resulting in their finding out that not only was the door extremely wide and tall, it was also two-and-a-half feet thick.

"Damn," Hiro said. "And hey wait, you really are the tiger from the Agency, the Nakajima boy!"

"Looks like we'll live to see another day," Tadashi said, smiling weakly.

"Go home, or come with us?" Kyouka asked.

"Come," Hiro said, followed by a nod from Tadashi. "We want to help our comrades and our rescuers." 

"Then," Atsushi said, standing up straighter. "This isn't quite over just yet."