edelweiss - &team

19

Yuma woke up with a start. His head was resting on Euijoo's shoulder comfortably, the other had dozed off by his side. A book lay abandoned on the immortal's lap, upon closer inspection it was revealed to be an old journal. Yuma prodded it and noted that the penmanship was Fuma's. Soft rays of sunlight filtered through gauzy curtains, brightening up the spacious hotel suite.

"Are you alright?" A voice called out from behind him, and he was greeted by Jo, sipping a cup of orange juice.

Yuma responded with a nod followed by a cat-like stretch, careful to not bump into Euijoo.

"How long was I out?" Yuma asked, rubbing his neck. Jo cocked his head, "A couple hours."

"Don't sugar coat it."

"Seventeen hours."

"Seventeen? What-"

"You missed a lot," Yudai sauntered into the room, his tone light and teasing.

"Well you seem to be in a good mood," Yuma shot back, standing and helping himself to some breakfast food that Jo was standing at.

They were currently heavily under-prepared, taking refuge at a random hotel and their plan had been derailed, assuming you could call that flimsy idea a plan. The nine all gathered in the same room (Euijoo was still in deep sleep), all unable to voice anything out.

"I'll go out and patrol the area," Yudai finally decided, "We're more likely to find him if we go out to search than stay in here." Both Maki and Yixiang offered to tag along and they left quickly.

"I'll get Euijoo to a proper bed," Fuma announced, and scooped up Euijoo gracefully.

Harua quietly informed them he was going to pop by the archives to retrieve some of their personal stuff as well as some additional notes, books and whatever he could find.

As everyone parted ways to do their own things, Riki, Jo and Yuma were left in the room themselves. Yuma was spacing out, his tumultuous thoughts sapping all his energy.

So Riki gestured for Jo to join him in another room. As Jo shut the door gently behind him, Riki immediately asked, "Has Hayate always been that weak? He shot only two fireballs at us. If memory serves me right, he could disintegrate a pillar of cement with his flames."

"If I were to guess, he was holding back. I reckon he didn't want to hurt us. Maybe he just wanted to frighten us away, as a warning."

"Then...let's seek him out "

"What?"

"We can get more information on Death, what he's doing and what's his plan."

"That's a terrible idea, let's do it."

"Are we going to tell the others?"

Jo paused to think, then said simply, "No."

Nodding in agreement, Riki tore the door open and saw that only Yuma was in the living room, still staring out the window, deep in thought.

Quietly, the duo sneaked out of their room, where Riki grabbed his scythe and they escaped the hotel room.

Jo caught sight of a familiar snowy white owl, which tilted its head at him and blinked a few times. "We'll be alright," Jo assured the bird, "Don't tell Euijoo, okay?" The bird blinked again, and they took it as an answer.

"Do you think you can keep the humans away from us when we find him?" Riki asked Jo. "You're assuming we find him," Jo laughed, but added, "Of course I can, how long have you known me for? But we have to find him first. What makes you think he'll walk up to us and-"

"I see him!"

Once again, there was a figure on a rooftop. This time, Hayate had removed his cloak, his eyes boring down into the two. "How should we tackle this-" Jo couldn't even finish his sentence before Hayate dove down from the rooftops and hurtled straight to them.

A jet of fire narrowly missed Riki's head and he gracefully avoided it. Jo waved his hand in the air and the world around them began to warp. The sky started to melt down and merge into the buildings, giving the illusion that they were entrapped in a tight little tube.

Hayate ran, but was met with a dead end, the walls were dancing and sliding around, determined to barricade his way. With no other choice, Hayate turned to fight them. Two daggers appeared in his hands, ones that they could now see were connected to the rings on his middle fingers.

Fire swirled around Hayate, it seemed there was this sense of desperation and dilemma. The heat from his flames was blistering, causing them to leave a distance between them

Hayate had always been quick on his feet and today was no different, his steps were lightning fast, stabbing at Jo, who ducked and Riki stepped before his friend to block the smaller blades with his own. Jo maintained the physical illusion, even though it seemed they were in a narrow space with no escape, he was acutely aware that they were merely in the centre of an empty street.

A blinding ray of light struck Hayate in the face and as Hayate squinted, the mere second of distraction allowed Riki to mercilessly swing his scythe, the non-lethal edge of his scythe slamming into Hayate and the immortal was flung into a wall.

As Jo and Riki cornered him, Hayate wheezed and caught his breath, but his gaze was warm. "I had known you would come for me, so I thought I might as well do you a favour and stay close by," Hayate chuckled, leaning back against the wall as his face scrunched up in pain.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to whack you that hard," Riki winced, putting his scythe down to show he meant no further harm.

"It's alright," Hayate breathed, his eyes bright with tears.

Riki frowned, "I didn't hit you that hard."

A wan smile from Hayate, his chest rising and falling unsteadily,"You have a flower on your wrist, don't you? Your promise to Life." Hayate rotated his left wrist, where a dark red line tore from the centre of his palm to his forearm, the flesh red and puffy. He didn't answer the question, leaving Jo and Riki to have to infer for themselves.

Horrified, Jo and Riki stared at the gruesome sight. Hayate managed to release another light laugh, before he started to cough a little. Then, he said, "I told you, didn't I? I am bound to him."

Wasting no time, Jo asked, "Who else did he summon?"

Hayate thought for a moment, then said hoarsely, "He couldn't find some, so currently it's just Junwon, Hikaru and Yejun. But he's hard at work, hah, he's trying to track down Minhyung, Gaku and even Kyungmin."

Jo and Riki processed the information, before Hayate revealed another disturbing fact, "And, it isn't just us and him you have to worry about."

Hayate groaned in pain, nearly keeling over, but still managed to choke out, "He is creating puppets. Humans- he's trying to use them against each other. I-"

Hayate's body began to spasm, Jo grasped his shoulders tightly and closed his own eyes, reaching into Hayate's mind and emotions but the other's eyes rolled up and tears of red began pouring down his cheeks.

Riki clapped a hand over his mouth and backed off slowly as they beheld the horrible sight, both of them so helpless, their powers unable to provide any form of relief. Finally, his body stilled and Jo removed his hands. Hayate slumped over, like when they last saw him, but this time, he did not even twitch.

All of a sudden, Hayate's head jerked up, and in a raspy voice that wasn't his, he growled, "Come find me if you dare."

Then as his eyes pooled blood, Hayate finally dropped dead to the ground.