Otoriphobia

16: Hanzo Kishibe's City.

"..."

"Three."

"Two."

"One."

"..."
In that moment...
As Ricky prepared to announce the beginning of the Sixth Game's second phase... the Sixth Game's true phase, and the Wakui Project's grand finale...
Yuuna Otori thought of Shoko Kamiyama.
He thought of his girlfriend, who was still alive somewhere out beyond those walls...
Still waiting on him, after the days of Yuuna's imprisonment.
Yuuna promised her he'd take her to the park where the tabby cat he befriended lived...
And yet, he had wound up here, in this series of deadly mind games.
Since the beginning... Yuuna hadn't understood the Wakui Project.
He didn't understand what criminal group was behind this, what organization could possibly be funding all of these outlandish arenas and what kind of engineers could produce such advanced technology.
He didn't understand the project's meaning or what it hoped to achieve.
In the end...
Yuuna still questioned whether the Wakui Project was reality or not.
It was something he wanted to turn away from... something he wanted to bury underground forever.
But... that wasn't the fate that he was born to live through.
As a member of the Otori family...
Yuuna finally recognized what he had to do.
As an Otori, he was someone who had to bear these burdens...
...In order to create a better ending for the others...
In order so that all of the people who had fallen victim to Ricky's games would be put to rest...
In order so that Kishibe and Ricky would finally be put to justice...
In order that Yuuna, Rin, and Korekiyo could once again see the outside world... so that they could uncover the secret of this twisted Wakui Project...

Yuuna... accepted his fate.

"GO!!!"

Ricky's lurid scream echoed throughout the massive indoor city, bouncing off the buildings like the call of a rising storm...
And Yuuna did not hesitate... not this time.
Immediately, Yuuna sprang forward, with his goal set in stone- to locate Rin and Korekiyo and to form some kind of plan to avoid dying in the explosion.
After all, the obvious solution was to all cooperate to kill Kishibe before escaping the Wakui Project as a group...

That was the ending Yuuna wanted, and it was the ending he knew he would produce, no matter what.

Yuuna hurried down the street of the city, advancing quickly towards the downtown area as he began passing a few buildings, mostly a variety of small restaurants and convenience stores that made up a vast majority of the shopping district downtown.
While his first thought was to shout out and call for Korekiyo and Rin, he quickly decided against it, realizing it was only a chance for Kishibe to take notice of location and start a potential conflict, which Yuuna wanted to avoid until he and his teammates had planned out a surefire way of winning the game.

As he turned a sharp corner around a short electronics store, Yuuna took notice of a tiny blur in the distance- and made out who it was... it was unmistakable.

Rin Kagemori had went into one of the taller office buildings on the other side of town.

"Rin...!"
Yuuna's pace only quickened as he began gaining speed once more. His ribs began to ache as his chest was heaving for air and his legs were seething with a searing pain, but Yuuna ignored the white-hot burning in every part of his body and only pushed himself harder, keeping his eyes on the office building as he continued his sprint forward.

After several minutes of dashing down the main street, a weary Yuuna finally reached the office building, shoving open the entrance door hurriedly as he frantically glanced around inside.
"R...Rin...?!"
He called out hoarsely, but nobody answered. The main lobby area was completely deserted, appearing untouched.

"She must have gone upstairs or something..."
Yuuna quickly wiped the dripping sweat from his forehead, shoving past several information tables and chairs in the main lobby as he made his way over to the entrance to the office's first corridor.
Yuuna kept one hand on the wall to support him as he did his best to pull himself along, his breath shaky as he called out for Rin, trying to get a clue as to where she had run off to.

"R-Rin...?! Where are you?! It's... it's Yuuna...!"
Yuuna coughed a bit after shouting, his voice gravelly and raspy.
Despite his calls, he heard no response from Rin or from anyone else...