Purotekuta

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

It has been two months since Akio tried to commit suicide, and my voice has almost completely returned. About a week ago I presented to Mr. Kaze my concern about Amai, and he told me he would look into it, and we have only got one piece of information so far. Amai went missing two years ago and hasn't been seen since. There have been reports of a child that looks like Akio being chased by another, but neither of them were seen for long. Everyone in our class has their provisional protector licenses, so we can now participate in protector missions on our level. I am currently interning at my Fathers protector agency with Akio, but we mostly are with my Fathers assistant, Gaido. He is kind and has even earned Akio's trust. Today we are on patrol duty, so we are walking down the main road leading away from the agency. Akio and I are in our protector costumes, walking down the street with Gaido. We are walking past an alleyway when I hear light footsteps running down it. I pause, and so do the others. I pull up my hood and turn to face the alleyway. I close my eyes, activating the sight of a wolf, opening them once more. I see a boy being chased by a man, fear is the only thing showing in his aura. I look at Akio, and as soon as our eyes meet I can tell he knows what I'm thinking. Amai. The boy comes running out of the alleyway and slams into me. The man who was chasing him slows to a walk before the shadows reveal him. I look down at the boy and sure enough, it's Amai. I kneel down and look him in the eyes. He recognizes me but doesn't say anything. The guy who was chasing him steps out of the shadows slowly. I notice the bandages wrapped around Amai's arms, using my wolf scent to smell what's under them. A hint of blood comes from the bandages, but I smell something different in these wounds. I look at Gaido, and he nods. He looks directly at the guy standing at the edge of the shadows, never averting his eyes. I pull my gaze away from Akio to look at the man and growl lightly.
          "Amai, come. I don't want to have to get rough." The man is wearing white gloves and puts a thumb underneath one of them, threatening to pull them off. Amai immediately rushes towards him and stands next to the man. I stand on my feet and stare him in the eyes with a menacing glare. I turn my head to look at Akio and he nods, giving me the signal. I look back at the man, and he looks straight into my eyes. Amai and the man walk away into the shadows and disappears. We start walking down the street once more and don't speak a word to each other until we make it back to the agency.

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As soon as Akio, Gaido, and I get back to the agency, we head straight for Gaido's office to contact Mr. Kaze. We walk through the door, but before we contact Mr. Kaze, I need to know who that man was. I look at Gaido expectantly, and he sits down at his desk.
          "That man has two affinities. He can shapeshift, and he can reform matter into any shape he wants, even taking parts out of it. He can't make matter disappear though, he can only shape and move it." Gaido's affinity, he can look at someone and see all the registered information on them. Comes in handy for anonymous villains. It doesn't work if their appearance differs to the point where they are unrecognizable as the person they were before. I think about the new information we are presented with and smile.
          "Here," I toss a hard drive to Gaido. "I attached a tracker to Amai so we know where he's going. Contact Mr. Kaze." Gaido nods and picks up the phone. Before he can even say anything, Mr. Kaze is already in the room.
          "What have you guys found out?" I smile and move to stand next to Akio.
          "Sir, we know how to find out who Amai's kidnapper is, along with where he is at all times." Mr. Kaze's eyes widen, and dart to Gaido. Gaido pulls up a file of the man we are up against, and we all move to get a closer look. Karito Shino is his name? Interesting. I recognize him from the KKS incident, and I can tell that Akio and Mr. Kaze do as well. The pro Protectors captured a villain from the KKS incident, so they will probably pull him in for questioning on what is going to go down. A while back, we found out that something big is going to be going down two days from now, but we didn't know what or where. The likeliness of the villain they captured actually knowing anything is slim, but there is still a possibility.
          "Gather all the pro protectors from every agency and call them to Mamoru High School. Tell them to be there within the hour." Gaido nods, and immediately starts typing frantically. Mr. Kaze looks at us next, a look in his eyes I can't figure out. "As for you two, stay safe." We smile, and Mr. Kaze disappears. I look at Akio, and he looks back at me.
          "Are you ready for this, Akio?" He nods, a look of determination glowing on his face. "It's going to be the hardest thing we've ever done, but we will succeed!" The smile on Akio's face lights up the whole room as I move to go tell everyone at the agency about the plan, Akio by my side.