Blue Butterfly | Amajiki Tamaki

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3rd POV

Tamaki scrunched his face, and a crease swept across his brow.

Haru tailed behind in his light footsteps, his emeralds narrowing into a scrutiny as he scanned the area, his bomber jacket buffeting backwards. They slid off the last slab of protruding earth, albeit clumsily, fingertips clawing at the gravel building underneath their nails. The quiet chatter, the crackles of the fading fire and the gravel crunching under their soles accounted for the lack of sound, save for the few twigs that Haru snapped under his boots.

"Octoshit, slow down a bit!"

Like a shadow in its element, Tamaki moved lithely, soundlessly and carefully, maintaining their low profile in the dark. He shivered due to the crispy wind, his nose a tinge of red and his knuckles white from the way he was tightly clenching his fists.

The both of them were alert, cool-headed and guarded for any sliver of stirs in the darkness, padding away quickly without a moment to spare. Since King blocked the path to [Name], they rounded the sand wall Pamela had created and scaled chunks of earth on the other side, finally settling on flat land.

"We can't waste time; we don't know how long Pamela-san can stall," Tamaki replied, briefly.

He needed to hurry; [Name] was in danger. Given the situation, all their lives were.

At the lone thought his pace sped up a tad faster, holding back his anger.

Something sharp and silver glinted in the flickering light of both the moon and the belching fire: metal beams. Tamaki pursed his lips in a straight line, his chest swelling with each surge of worry. Skidding to a halt, Haru stole a glimpse around, swallowing a gulp of air.

"Butterfly should be somewhere around here," spoke Haru, running a frustrated hand through his black locks. "That old hag just had to block the main path to her."

'Huh?' Tamaki threw his gaze over his shoulder, freezing on the spot; his expression grew even paler than a ghost's, gulping down the lump rising in his throat. 'Am I... A-Am I imagining things?'

"... I don't understand."

Haru quirked a brow. "Understand what?"

"[Name]-san should be here... Sh-She wasn't that far from the villain when we saw her, but why isn't she here?" Tamaki inquired—jaw taut and cayenne orbs glazed with a twinge of panic. Even in the opaque setting he could outline the vague shape of King's back and the dim, tawny shade of Pamela's sand barricade, his breath coming out as a white cloud in the frigid air. "She was supposed to be behind him."

"Huh?" His voice cracked in slight irritation. "... Are you telling me her body just upped and disappeared in thin air?"

"I..." His voice dwindled.

Instead of the usual gruff of dismissal on his part, Haru beckoned him to resume with a jerk of his chin, stuffing his cold hands into the depths of his pockets. If they were to engage with whoever kidnapped [Name], Haru admitted, "As much as I hate being useless, I'm in no condition to fight with whoever did this. My drawback's setting in early 'cause of fighting with that element dude and even now it's hard to stay on my feet. Shit... this feels like heroics class again."

Tamaki remembered; the way Haru's stubborn frustration drove him to exceeding his Quirk's limit during the practical, falling unconscious altogether from the pain that wracked throughout his body. Had he controlled his irrational behaviour, Tamaki was sure he would have lost that day.

"I don't know about you, but using my Quirk without my gear deals quite the damage. I can control air particles in the form of wind, but it ain't that easy. In order to do that I have to use some of the oxygen in my bloodstream and create enough pressure in my hands to do so but if I utilise way too much oxygen, you know what happens."