Limitless

Chapter 19: Living Accommodations

Thank you everyone for the 600+ reads! You are all awesome!

Once the ship docked and everyone grabbed what they could, they immediately evacuated it. This was the closet port that they could find since leaving the island. No doubt this is where it was supposed to dock if things went according to White's plan. His men might be waiting for them somewhere nearby. Even if they weren't, sixteen people suddenly getting off of a boat that wasn't supposed to be there will draw attention to them soon. They need to hide somewhere. They had no money, so they can't go into a hotel for the night somewhere or get themselves food. There might be a place for homeless people to get food, like a soup kitchen, so that might not be too much of a problem. However, they can't sleep on the streets. If there was a homeless shelter that they could stay at would be a blessing, but not if the shelter was full. Besides, White might order his men to check out any homeless shelters for everyone, so it might not be safe anyway. Maybe an abandoned building could be safe for now. They just need to make sure that it was suitable enough to stay in.

It took a while, but the group was able to find a two floor apartment building with a basement. It was boarded up at the windows, meaning that for now, everyone was obscured from view. Miu set to work in fixing the wiring inside the building. If anyone was going to be using the lights or any electrical outlets, they need to make sure that it was safe to do so. With Kirumi's help, everyone helped to make it was clean as they could. There wasn't any furniture to get comfortable on, and there weren't any carpets, but at the moment, that didn't matter too much. It wasn't perfect, but it'll have to do for now.

"Well, at least we can sleep in the dry now." Kaede commented as she brushed dust off of her hands.

"Not to mention warm! I fixed the heating too." Miu shouted as she came back up from the basement. True to her word, the building started to feel a little warmer now.

"That's a relief." Himiko sighed in content. "But what about money? We need to get food and clothing somehow."

"I've already thought of a solution. I can rent out my services under an alias. Tsumugi, could you assist making a disguise for me?" Kirumi spoke up, giving everyone some relief.

"Of course." Tsumugi smiled, happy to put her dressmaking skills to some use finally.

"Maybe I can help to. I can use my powers to fix shit for people and get payed for it." Miu offered, thinking of a similar idea to Kirumi's. Everyone else was thinking the same thing, wanting to try to find some way of employment or any other way to get money other than begging people on the street.

"At least that'll help out in terms of money." Shuichi said. "So where are we all sleeping?"

"Oh! Oh! I know the perfect place for Murder Girl! The basement!" Kokichi suddenly declared.

"What?!" Kaito exclaimed, whipping around to face everyone so quick that he almost slipped.

"I agree! It's plain to see that we can't trust a killer." Tsumugi asked, pointing right at Maki.

"Atua says that almost everyone agrees." Angie added joyfully. Maki didn't react to this. It was like she was expecting this to happen. She knew that this was going to happen to her. She knew the moment that she saw that there was a basement, everyone would rather keep her down there. Just like she was kept in Isolation.

"Hold on a sec! You can't just-" Kaito protested, his shoulders tensing up. The basement will only remind Maki of the hell that she was forced to go through for five years. She went through it longer than everyone else. She doesn't deserve to be locked away and everyone still treating her like a monster.

"It's fine." Maki suddenly spoke up before Kaito could say anything else. Kaito was stunned into silence the second she started speaking. Maki looked at everyone in the eye, wanting to confirm that this was truly what they all wanted. "So long as I'm kept down there, you'll be fine with that right?"

"Yep! You stay down there, and everything will be just fine." Kokichi smiled like a child at Christmas. Kaito looked back at Maki, hoping that she would state an argument to say why she shouldn't be put down there in the dark. However, Maki was silent and her face was emotionless like a doll. She finally turned around and headed towards the door of the basement.

"Hold on! Maki!" Kaito shouted after her, but it was too late by then. Maki only answered him by slamming the basement door behind her. Hearing her quiet steps disappear into the basement, Kaito immediately turned to everyone else. "What is your problem?! If it wasn't for Maki, we would never have gotten out of there!" Almost everyone looked shocked that Kaito was suddenly this angry. It was like they didn't see the problem with what had just happened and what they were doing right now. It made Kaito furious to think that they were this ignorant.

"Maybe. But have you forgotten that she's a professional killer? We need to make sure that she doesn't hurt anyone." Kiyo sighed, is voice sounding far too calm about this situation.

"Besides, I only let her out of Isolation because I thought that you were going to use her as just a distraction for us to get away!" Miu barked, remembering what Kaito had asked her to do as they were escaping.

"You mean that you expected me to leave her behind?!" Kaito glared at Miu, causing her to whimper and cower a little bit. That wasn't his objective at all! He wanted Miu to let Maki out because he wasn't going to leave her behind. She didn't deserve to get left behind at all.

"Well...yeah! I mean...that's all she is right? A heartless weapon." Miu whimpered so quietly that Kaito barely heard her.

"That's right. She is an assassin after all. The only thing that she is good for is killing." Tenko added.

"Even Gonta not sure if Maki should be trusted." Gonta spoke up, but he sounded unsure himself about what he was saying.

"Are you all idiots?!" Kaito shouted so loud that the apartment building seemed to rattle. Again, everyone looked at him in surprise. Seeing that he got their attention, Kaito kept going, wanting to get what he needed to say out. "Maki never had a choice in that life! Did any of you think to at least trying to get to know her?! No? I didn't think so! She's still human. And if you don't see that, then you're no better than the monsters that hurt her." Everyone continued to look stunned as Kaito said that. After a couple of seconds, a few of them looked ashamed. The ones that looked ashamed seemed to have gotten the message. Kaito felt like it was a small victory in a way, but it might not last. Wanting to calm down, Kaito stomped outside. He regretted it a little as the cold air hit him like a truck. He didn't bother going back in to grab a blanket to keep himself warm, he wasn't sure if he could face the others just yet. Clenching his teeth to keep them from chattering, Kaito started rubbing his arms to try to warm up. He looked up at the sky, seeing that it was starting to cloud over again. Looks like the snow was getting ready to start falling once more. Kaito hoped that the heating down in the basement was fixed, otherwise Maki might freeze to death.

Kaito jumped a little when he heard the door being opened and closed. He turned a little to see Shuichi coming outside to join him. He had a blanket wrapped around his shoulders and was carrying another in one hand. He offered it out to Kaito, noticing how cold his friend suddenly looked. Kaito smiled gratefully and gently took the blanket from Shuichi. He wrapped the blanket around him, sighing silently in content as he felt a little warmer now, his breath turning into mist as it made contact with the winter air.

"Are you okay?" Shuichi asked as he stood next to Kaito.

"I'm fine. I'm just fed up with everyone judging Maki just because of what had happened in the past." Kaito explained, trying his best not to have a too much of a rant, otherwise he and Shuichi might be out here all night.

"I'm ashamed to say that I was like that. But, I'm willing to give Maki a chance. After all, she did get us out of that place." Shuichi sighed, offering a reassuring smile to Kaito at the end. Kaito returned the smile, again feeling like he had a small victory. At least one person admitted that they were wrong to distrust Maki. He was quite surprised that Shuichi had changed his mind that quick. The others however, might be a different story. After all, not everyone changes their opinion overnight. Especially if they've had the same opinion about something or someone for a long time. It might take some work, but Kaito wasn't going to give up easily. Another thing as well to consider is Maki. She might not be trusting of everyone else yet, especially after the way they had treated her just now. She seemed to trust him, which felt good. Hopefully overtime, she'll start trusting everyone else too. All it takes is time.