An Everlasting Spark, Revised

14, The Beast Awakens

Kakashi looked around the area from the spot he was at; thinking. "Are you dry enough to check the room as smoke?" His voice was soft as he asked. Koishii nodded, speaking just as gently, "yes," and without another word, she transformed, making her way around the behemoth that nearly filled the room with its mass. The smell of death and deterioration was suffocating it was so thick. Koishii tried her best to get past the gagging sensation. There. On the other side of the room from where they stood. There was a door. But... The children must've been close. She flew back over to Kakashi, changing into her solid form as she did so, turning away from him and throwing up what little food filled her stomach.

"There's a door on the other end of this room. The children may very well be up ahead," she breathed out, standing back up right after she was done. "Can you get through the door?" Kakashi asked, unphased by her throwing up. Koishii closed her eyes and shook her head in response, facing him once more, explaining, "the door is sealed off on all sides with some sort of rubber. It's completely air proof. We'll have to go through the old-fashioned way." Kakashi nodded, accepting their precarious situation, and hoping it would all work for the best, but expected the worse, none the less. "Well then, let's go," he said.

The duo stepped lightly as they made their way around the room, keeping their backs to the wall, avoiding the piles of bodies as the blood on the walls smeared across their backs and hands, careful not to wake the colossal snake. The mass of the serpent was so great that all the way around the room, they were only about four feet from its slumbering body. It was a little too close for comfort, but they made it to the door without any inconveniences. "Alright. Let's do this." Koishii whispered, putting her hand on the worn and rusted knob and twisting. But it wouldn't budge. Koishii let out a small grunt as she tried to quietly jiggle the knob around; her heart skipped a beat as Kakashi placed both his hands around hers, and helped her turn the knob easily. Both their hearts stopped as the knob creaked all the way around, and the door loudly squeaked as it opened, sending an echo within the vast room that was beyond it. They stood frozen. Waiting. Preparing. A deathly rattling filled the room, and the white snake hissed, unwinding itself from its coiled slumber.

The snake's head rose to the very top of the tall ceiling, and turned its head to face Kakashi and Koishii. Its tongue flicked out, and then it bared its gargantuan fangs, letting out another sinister hiss as it did so, it's breath agonizingly hard to bear. Without another second, the serpent lunged for them. "Shit!" Koishii cursed, awe-struck by the sheer size of it. "Quick, let's go!" Kakashi urged, grabbing her hand and running into the darkness of the next room.

Lights began to fill up the room as they ran in. Koishii's grip tightened around Kakashi's hand as her heart dropped. The room was void of anything. A dead end. A trap. She looked to Kakashi. His conclusion had obviously been the same. But they had no time to dwell on that. Koishii and Kakashi snapped their heads back as the snake crashed through the wall, breaking it down as if it were nothing, sending rock and debris scattering through the room. It let out a thundering hiss once more as it zoned in on them, speeding towards its prey. "Let's go!" Koishii pressed, letting go of Kakashi's hand and jumping onto the snake, knowing that Kakashi would be right behind her. They ran down the body of the snake out of the room, and hopped off it as they made their way back up the spiraling halls.

The sounds of hissing and walls collapsing echoed closely behind them. "We're not going to make it out on time," Koishii stated, looking over her shoulder and seeing that the snake had just come into view. "Keep going ahead, I'll stall," Koishii asserted. Kakashi nodded, knowing there was no time to argue, "right, be careful." Koishii nodded back at him before turning and running towards their predator. She flipped onto the top of its head, and drawing her katanas, she thrust them into its eyes. The creature let out a whaling cry as it writhed back and forth in pain, slamming itself into the walls on either side of it as it tried to shake Koishii off, leaving the white swirling walls stained even more with crimson red, but she quickly turned herself into smoke, and made her way into its mouth, traveling down the belly of the beast, ready to kill it from the inside out.

At long last, Kakashi and Koishii had finally reached the end of the path they had chosen. At the end of the hall was a grand door, lined with rubber. They stopped, contemplating. "This path has been almost too quiet and easy. It could just be a trap waiting," Koishii pointed out. Kakashi nodded, "it could be, but we won't know until we try, after all." Kakashi grabbed his short sword, and Koishii her katanas; she stepped behind Kakashi, ready to back him up in case the worse scenario happened. Kakashi opened the door a crack, peering in. The room was dark. But it was not empty. Many life forms filled the room, but they were not a threat. He opened the door, and finding a light switch, flipped it on.

The children were here.

There was over two dozen of them. They were bound by chains, all their mouths stuffed by cloth. Many of their faces were streaked with tears and stained with dirt and blood, and most were far too thin now. The conscious ones looked up to them as they walked in, fear stricken on their tiny faces.

What would they do to them? Taunt them? Jab needles into them? Kill them? They did have weapons out. Would they cut them into tiny pieces? "We're here to help," Kakashi assured them, putting his weapon away and walking in. Koishii followed suit, each walking to a child. The children they approached flinched, and everyone else watched with anticipation, their little hearts beating far too fast. But one by one, they freed them, keeping their word. Koishii's attention trailed to one girl in particular. She was small, her pigtails strawberry blonde and big eyes like the ocean. The spitting image of her mother: Sumi.