Burnt to Ashes - Kenichi Todoroki

The Rainbow After the Storm

Ryker's POV:

As the night passed, we all took lookout shifts. Each of us would stay up one hour to patrol for danger. And in case there was any, we'd all be woken up.

No trouble got in our way this night.

But the next, who knew.

I felt responsible for the lives of my fellow classmates. It was only Milo, Maxwell, Astaroth, Seiryo, Lolana, Rowan, Kingo, Shion, Luxe, and I. And I had a feeling we'd be picked off, too.

"It's scary knowing that we could've, well you know, lost those six forever," Seiryo admitted to me. "We have no way of knowing if they're alive or dead. And we won't know until either we find them, they find us, or until this is all over."

My heart sank. Though I didn't know any of them that well, other than Kenichi of course, I didn't want them dead. Especially not to Shinju's family.

I hadn't kept in touch with Shinju much after he left. He'd occasionally text me and update me on his life, which I kept private from Kenichi, but there was radio silence between us now. Either because of the internet lines being down, or him being involved in this war against Kenichi. I wouldn't be surprised if he was.

"I think we should flee the city," Kingo told us. "Anything but staying."

"And leave half our class here? No way!" Seiryo argued. "We should fight back and go save them!"

"Just leave them," Kingo said. "They can fend for themselves. Shouldn't have split up from us."

"Like they did it on purpose," Milo muttered.

I wrote down notes in my notepad, trying to think rationally. Honestly, I didn't know what to do. Should we stay or should we go? Fight or flight?

In the cacophony of Kingo, Milo, and Seiryo arguing, a new voice came to argue.

"We should stay," Luxe said. "If we leave then they'll think we have Kenichi with us or that Kenichi fled. We'll be killed off. Besides, they probably have Shirokages along the borders of Toronto. We'd be running right into a trap since they expect us to flee. They wouldn't expect us to stay."

"Great point, Luxe," Seiryo gave him a fist bump. "We'll stay."

Nobody argued against that.

Things weren't looking up. In the field we were in, we could see Downtown Toronto still burning and still hear the chaos that was going on. Our only hope was Maxwell, who was currently meditating and recharging his psychic powers. We all tried to keep quiet for him.

I took a walk around and tried to decompress. After a few minutes, I was startled by the sudden buzzing of my phone. I reached into my pocket and looked up. Service!

I noticed all the notifications I had to read, but one in particular stuck out to me.

Akihito. Akihito Hōkori.

I'm coming back to Toronto, he wrote. My dad is investigating and helping out with the war, and I begged him to take me with him. Although it took a lot of convincing, he would rather me be in a warzone than with my mother, which he called her own special warzone.

I'll be there in two days at around two pm. Assuming you're in hiding, I'll come find you. Just send me your location.

My eyes lit up instantly, and I sent him my location. It was only 9:13 am, which meant that he would definitely have time to get here.

I looked back at my classmates. They were all still sitting together, doing their own thing. I needed to get them down here.

Then, that's when I had an idea.