Inside Your Mind

103 - Shinsou

I'd crawl a mile in a desolate place with the snakes, just for you

Considering the circumstances things were going more or less well. They had managed to make it through a few more obstacles and it seemed like they were getting through this labyrinth without losing too many people along the way. That was until just now. Because just now there was another one of these weird traps along the way. Kaori had thought that Shouta's obsession with criminals being extra these days was over the top, but she got it now.

Anyway, what had happened was that her and Shouta got separated. And somehow that really made her panic. Quietly, of course. Kaori Shinsou knew she couldn't really go in a full on panic attack right now, so she just kept her anxiety to herself and preemptively focussed on her breathing.

"Hey!!! You guys still alive?!" someone shouted from the other side of the wall. One of the officers was knocking against the wall that had suddenly risen up. Everyone was still trying to take in what was going on.

"That's Takagi's voice!" one of the other officers shouted.

"The wall can't be that thick then..." Sasaki muttered. Okay, so he was here. Kaori looked around... there were a few officers she didn't know, Sasaki, the leading officer and... Hirota! It felt good to see a familiar face in all this.

"Did they change tactics or something? Maybe they don't have enough underlings left?" someone asked.

"It seems like there is another hallway leading back towards the entrance over there..." a third one commented.

"There must be something else going on here..." Sasaki muttered quietly. The leading officer looked around.

"Well, whatever is happening, we're going to need more people down here. And we need to find a way out of here..." he mumbled quietly to himself, before pointing at Kaori and then at Hirota.

"You two. Go through that hallway that opened up and see where it leads. Try to find a way back outside and get us some reinforcements down here, alright?" he instructed them. Kaori nodded.

"Yes, Sir." she replied and looked over to Hirota with a smile. Thank God, they got paired up for this. Just like old times.

"On it, Sir." Hirota muttered and walked up to Kaori with a big grin on his face. Kaori put up the visor of her helmet to wipe away some sweat from her forehead. Running in a heavy bulletproof vest sure took its toll.

"Well, well, well. Look who's teaming up again." Hirota commented.

"Yeah, too bad we don't have any hot tunes down here." Kaori replied with a chuckle, as they made their way through the hallway. Honestly, the joking was more of a coping mechanism at this stage of the mission.

Her mind constantly kept wandering back to Shouta. Was he okay? Where even was he? They had gotten split up and he had told her to stay close by for the entire time. How the hell could she stay close by like this? And she had gotten orders to go and look for help and she couldn't just say no to that...

But goddamn, it really bugged her that she didn't know what was going on with Shouta. And that she probably wouldn't know for a long time now. Even if they were to somehow find a way to get together again, she'd be up on the surface requesting help. If they'd even make it up to the surface. Who knew where this hallway was leading. She just hoped that there was enough time to get help.

"You seem like something heavy's on your mind, Shinsou." Hirota commented. Kaori raised an eyebrow at him.

"What makes you think that?"

"I dunno. Just a gut feeling. Something feels off." he said. Kaori sighed. Of course something would feel off, because everything was off. But she couldn't really tell Hirota that she was having an affair with her professor, could she? Sure, Hirota would probably keep his mouth shut, but still...