edelweiss - &team

20

When Euijoo awoke, it was now Yuma who was tending to him. "You okay?" Euijoo croaked out as he slowly rose up. Yuma raised his eyebrow, "I should be the one asking you that."

Euijoo laughed, and accepted some water Yuma proffered to him.

"Where are the others?"

Yuma gestured out the door, "Yudai, Maki and Yixiang were patrolling, but I sensed he was gone, he has completely fled this area, so I called them back. Fuma and Harua are in the other room."

"I see."

Just then, Fuma cracked open the door, and a smile of relief overcame his features when he noted that both of them were looking well and perky. Yudai called out for Yuma, and so the psychic bounced off the bed and left the room.

"Had a good rest?" Fuma asked, studying the slight eye bags under Euijoo's eyes. Euijoo made a face, "It was fine."

Euijoo continued to absently stare at the wrinkles in the sheets, stained with dirt likely from Maki, mouth slightly downturned.

"Is something bothering you?"

Euijoo pursed his lips, fiddling with his fingers, then exhaled lightly, "It's silly, but...you know what I thought when I was stabbed? When I was losing more blood than I had ever lost in the few centuries I've lived."

Fuma, who had perched himself on the edge of the bed, froze, his own arm tingling slightly where the woman had scratched her nails.

Euijoo continued absently, "I thought, ah, I might not be around to take care of them anymore, but at least I know they are unharmed."

Fuma opened his mouth to offer some comfort, before a loud curse was heard outside. Startled and worried, the two hurried out.

"Where the hell did Riki and Jo go? I thought they were in that room, then Yuma said he remembers they left suddenly." Yudai, Maki and Yixiang had arrived and Yudai was pressed against the window, worry written over his face as he scanned the area beyond the window.

Euijoo shot to the same window and closed his eyes, pressing his hand to the cool window pane. "Why didn't you tell me earlier?" He suddenly shouted, then his shoulders fell and he apologised, "Sorry, I was asleep. It was a- yes, sorry. You guys work hard." Then, he whipped around, "They're outside. They're safe. That's all my birds could tell me."

"I'll go out and find them," Yixiang promised, grabbing his scimitar but before he could yank the door knob violently, the door burst open and Riki and Jo tumbled through.

"Hey," Riki smiled apologetically, "What did we miss?'"

"Where have you been?" Euijoo all but yelled.

"And why are you always covered in blood?" Yudai asked, mildly concerned, the question directed at Jo, whose new shirt now bore streaks of red.

"Hayate. Died. We didn't kill him," Riki, having been told very heavy information, was too drained to properly articulate his sentences.

"That made no sense at all," Maki declared.

"Explain, from the top," Yudai demanded, rubbing his forehead.

Riki immediately took the lead, having recovered, spoke quickly and animatedly, "We realised Hayate seemed to be unwilling to hurt us yesterday, despite saying he needed to kill us. So we thought he must have no ill intentions and we-"

"You just said he needed to kill you-"

"-and we found him, he kinda explained that Death was tracking down other immortals, Hikaru and Junwon and-"

"He's creating some form of puppets. He said...he's using humans against themselves? I don't get it, we couldn't get anything else from him," Jo swiftly took over once Riki started getting ahead of himself.

"Puppets? What kind?" Fuma asked as he wrinkled his nose. Riki's shoulders drooped as he said, "He died before we could find out."

"Puppets, huh? Puppets are doable, surely," Yudai murmured, nodding as though he was trying to convince himself.

"I love the word doable," Riki announced playfully, "But there's one more thing, you know these?" He presented his wrist where the dark black band was. "-Hayate had one too. He said he, and I'm guessing the other immortals, are bound to Death. "

There was a tense silence, there was pity for their old friends but apprehension knowing that if they didn't kill their friends, those friends would kill them.

"Well, on the bright side, we can use these on puppets," Yixiang said darkly, tilting his scimitar to catch the light. Everyone digested the news, Yixiang's words heavy on their minds.

"You two should wash up," Yudai finally suggested, seeing Riki was coated in a sheen of sweat and Jo was blood-stained. As the two disappeared into the washroom, Yuma's fingers tapped against his cheek with a consistent rhythm. "Humanity against themselves," He mused, eyebrows scrunching as his mind churned.