A gloomy, nervous atmosphere was present throughout the room. This made the air feel heavier and thicker as everybody stared blankly towards each other. Trying to think of ways of how to approach the situation they have at hand. Satoru had advised them not to make an irrational move. To stay put and think before acting. Fuka and Hide who were passed out due to over drinking were of no help. The three kids were visibly scared along with Aiko who was in a state of shock. This left only Sei, Nobu and Satoru to think up of something and fast before anything happens to Yumi.
"We should isolate a search party that goes after Yumiko-san, while the remainder stays here to protect others. If the target was Yumiko-san for being rich that puts Fuka-san and her subordinates in danger too." Satoru with his hand covering his mouth as it rested on his other hand which was crossed around his body suggested.
"Good idea."
"Who does the tracking and who stays back?" A deadpan Sei questioned his sensei.
"How about you and I go after them, while Nobu and Eli-san stay back."
"Hmm, I see."
Having just heard the suggestion by Satoru, Eli hurriedly picked herself up from the ground and demanded that she tagged along too.
"Let me go with you two." She demanded with a rare high voice spiced with some anger and frustration.
"Eli-san, Sei and I are enough. You don't seem to be in the best of shapes either. It will be much better if you stay back with Nobu."
"NO! I will go." Raising her voice even more.
"Please Eli-san try to understand."
"It is okay sensei. Let her come along, her and sister were really close I can understand her feelings." Sei empathizing of Eli's feelings tried to help her.
"But Sei that might put the rest of them in danger." Satoru spread his arms as he looked towards the crowd in a worried manner.
"Don't worry sensei I got this covered. Plus I have Aiko and those three brats they might not seem it but they are strong too."
"See sensei, Nobu says he got it. Please."
"Alright okay sheesh, you can come along Eli-san." As he ran his hand over his stubble beard.
Eli lowered her head slightly showing appreciation towards Satoru.
The three of them make on their way to find Yumi. Trying to find any clues, any tracks which might have been left behind by the kidnapper or by Yumi herself. They searched around the hotel for a good hour but failed to find anything of importance. They literally had nothing to follow by, nothing to lead them to wherever Yumi is. There was no way they were searching the entire island which was 70 miles long and 7 miles wide. It would take a ridiculous amount of time and would be impossible to cover every single area. Together with limited time and limited resources they were at wit's end on where to look for. All they knew was that they needed to scale down the size of the search area to make it possible but which area that is the question.
After analyzing what few clues they have and taking into consideration the island, its areas, and population distribution, Satoru made a decision. He reduced the search area to a very small portion of the island. All that experience he accumulated serving the country for multiple years, had come into play. Multiple battles on and off the field, multiple cases of crimes solved, he was a war-hardened veteran who knew the ins and outs of villainous plays.
"How about we split up and search? Sei and I will cover this area and Eli-san will cover that area." Satoru suggested as he pointed on the map of the island which was brought up by an app on the phone.
"Wait, I want to go with Eli-sensei. I can't leave her alone like that." Concerned, Sei objected.
"No wait never mind. Splitting up won't do well. It might put the person alone in danger. Let's just continue our search like this."
Hours and hours pass by as they searched around the new smaller area. Looking for quiet, dark, abandoned places which could host a group of kidnappers. Garages, buildings under construction, abandoned buildings, forest area, seaside, and boats. They searched everywhere without much luck. Well past midnight, sunrise was only a few hours ahead. Exhaustion and fatigue were kicking in. All those training exercises they did the past few days really took a toll on them as their pace slowed down. All of their efforts looked in vain until Satoru picked a very quiet sound.
"Did you hear that?" He questioned placing his hands behind his ears in an effort to boost the sound.
"No." Both of them had not heard a thing and replied.
"Follow me." He headed in the direction where he was pointing a while ago. Both Eli and Sei follow behind him.
Satoru leads them into what seemed like an abandoned mill near the south coast of the island which was really far away from the hotel.
"Let's check inside." He gestured to both Eli and Sei to move in a particular formation.
They head into the mill Sei first followed by Eli and then Satoru making sure that they make the least noise as possible hiding their presence maintaining their stealth. As soon as they entered the first thing they saw was the sight of Yumi strapped onto a chair, mouth taped, hands and legs bound in an empty room. By her side were just 5 guys playing cards what seemed to be like a game of poker. Getting aware of the presence of intruders they stop the game and immediately get into defensive positions. One of the 5 men gives a wry smile in the direction of the intruders as he got up.
The sight of an unconscious Yumi bound to a chair made both Sei and Eli go into a rage. But both of them knew better about the situation and decided not to act out of rage. Calmly they analyzed the situation.
"Sato-sensei what do we do next?" Sei questioned.
"Sato-sensei? Sensei?" But there was no reply from Satoru. Sei looked back to see his sensei with a wide grin, a foxy smirk on face. One that stretched from his ear to ear. Quietly he called out for him again, "Sensei?" But his sensei had this expression frozen on his face. Sei looked confused and puzzled, even Eli who was observing this had a similar expression on her face. Flabbergasted would be a better word to explain what they would be feeling soon. With a hopeless look on their face, they continued to stare at Satoru who suddenly lowered his head. He then burst out with monotonous laughter, the type which evil villains do in movies which echoed through the hollow mill striking fear, confusion, and insecurity into the hearts of both Eli and Sei.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA" He walked ahead towards Yumiko slowly lifting his head up before abruptly stopping his laughter.
"Aah Sei, Sei, Sei. You naïve innocent little boy. You possibly never would have thought this now have you? That your beloved Sato-sensei would be the bad guy." He slowly clapped as he gave Sei the eyes.
Speechless Sei looked on unable to process what just happened.
"All this time, I have been planning to get my hands on those sweet powers. Your powers. I put a lot of effort into this, a lot of time. I have waited 2 years for the right moment. In order to make it look like you passed away in battle and gifted me with your powers. Multiple years' worth of planning for this moment, despite few things going not as planned. Finally!"
Completely grounded and paralyzed, Sei did nothing. He stood there with a blank stare on his face as the eerie laughter of his sensei played through his head like a tape recorder on repeat. This was one of his closest persons, a person he admired for the longest of times, and a person who taught what he knows today, saying all of this. He was having a hard time digesting it in.
"Now you must be thinking where does your sister come into this huh? Well isn't she an obedient little girl. Following all of her parents' orders. Sei have you ever seen your sister. Isn't she beautiful, hot, and seductive? Have you never had thoughts about her? Come on Sei we are both men I am sure you can agree."
He put his face close to Sei and gave a vicious smirk. He then threw his eyes towards Eli who was in a similar state to that of Sei.
"At least I am sure little Miss Eliina here agrees with me. You were the biggest thorn in my path. I thought when Sei got a new sensei his sister would be alone more. But turns out you two fucking like each other. Back when you knocked out the guy near that ice cream stand, you first started to become a problem. Ever since then you two have been stuck together the whole trip. You even came along here. What is your fucking problem woman?... Well, a little hindrance doesn't matter too much."
He proceeded to walk around the place while talking eventually stopping before the constricted Yumi. He placed his hand on her face and began to move it around.
"Aaah this silky smooth skin, this beautiful fac-" He grabbed a hold of her face changing the happy expression he had to an angry one.
"Only if you had obeyed me before! You-"
Before he could complete his sentence an enraged Eli shouted out.
"Get your dirty hands off Umi-chan you cur!"
"What are you going to do if I don't?"
"I am going to beat your ass you bastard!"
Satoru stood up and acted scared placing his left hand on his face while using his right hand to wave aimlessly.
"Ooh, ooh I am scared. How scary. Little Miss Eliina thinks she a little warning can scare me."
In a flash, he took out Sei with a punch to the gut. Eli having lost sight of him moved her head to see a knocked out Sei on Satoru's hand.
"Shhh, little soldier I will deal with you later. Let me take care of this first." He threw Sei onto the ground and cracked his knuckles in preparation to fight. It was a 6v1 against Eli. All odds seemed against her.
That same sword, which she used for the past few days, the only sword which she was able to bring with her, the dual blades of Havoc. Equipping it she prepared for the battle at hand. Her against 6 men. One of them being stronger than her, which is how she viewed Satoru. His calmness, his confidence in this situation, and well, of course, he has her outnumbered but still there was something about him which made Eli feel uneasy. Not because of the fact that he was a scummy person but because of fear.
Eli feared his power, she was unsure whether she could win this or not. With that doubt in her mind, she made her move, her first objective being to reduce the number of fighters. Making the odds favorable for her. All these thoughts happened subconsciously to a much enraged Eli. After seeing the sight of her beloved student getting one hit she no longer could hold it in. It was more frustration than anger, as she let it happen before her presence.
With just one move she was able to take down the 5 masked guys, simple knockout punches combined with the fast speed of hers. They never saw the punches coming, they were easily taken out.
"I guess that is the most mileage you could get out of those country bumpkin wannabe thugs. Well, a 1v1 makes it more interesting and fun. Now shall we get to it Eliina-san?" Satoru remarked as he overlooked Eli taking out the masked men who he described as paid thugs.
Without a moment to lose Satoru closed down on Eli, throwing a lightning fast left jab towards her face which she dodged by moving to the side. He followed that up by a right jab of similar speed aimed at her current position, but she saw the attack and reacted accordingly by ducking down to avoid the hit. However, he put his hands together and laid a forceful hit downwards bobbing her head.
This hit landed on the top of her head putting her in a state of concussion, knocking her out momentarily, giving her no time to react to the oncoming knee to the chin, which knocked her up shortly, before being kicked in the stomach flinging her to the distance. She flew through crashing onto the shaky and weak walls of the mill.
Having crashed onto the wall, Eli got back on her feet after possessing her sword. Not sparing even a second Satoru attacked again this time from long range. He hurled multiple circular pieces of medium-sized rocks at Eli. She swiftly unhinged the Havoc and proceeded to cut through these rocks seamlessly, as she ran towards him in a zigzag pattern making it difficult for him to aim.
Before he knew it, she was already close enough to do an upwards diagonal slice at him that demanded a quick reaction by Satoru. Which he delivered accordingly as he moved to the side dodging the slice. In the next instance Eli placing her hand on the ground, giving her balance, aimed a kick towards his face. Satoru easily countered this kick by grabbing her leg before grabbing her by the collar raising her as he charged up his fist to land what looked like to be the finishing blow.
Now in a predicament, Eli had to act immediately. Even though dirty the first thing that came to her mind was to kick him in the nuts. She couldn't muster much strength to her right foot, but landed a hit which was enough for him to drop her in reflex to cover his groin area, writhing in agony and pain.
"You bitch!" He shrieked as she smiled at him with a satisfied look on her face.
Eli stood up and landed a kick to his gut, despite barely moving from the place he was Satoru felt the full impact of the kick deepening his eyes into this skull as his stomach wrenched inwards, as he coughed out spit. She then instantly followed it by lifting her other foot off the ground and hitting Satoru's face with a compelling kick, that made him roll to the ground. Having had both feet in the air for this move she landed on her back cushioned by her hands before flipping back on to her feet.
Hastily she jumped on top of Satoru with her sword aimed vertically downwards towards him. Having a fast reaction Satoru had already jumped aside as the sword pierced through the ground when Eli landed. She closed down on him swinging the sword with both of her hands holding it in the center. However, Satoru was able to follow all of her attacks and dodge them effectively without being hit even once.
As she did a final upwards slash, she unhinged her swords mid swing making the lower half fall into her trailing hand. Satoru whose eyes were occupied by the upper half of the sword rising towards his face, reacted slowly to the attack from below. Eli jabbed the lower half of the sword towards his stomach which was blocked by Satoru's arm piercing through it completely. She pulled the sword back before retreating to the back.
Staring at the wound on his arm which is leaking blood at a really fast pace, he stood unmoved. He then smiled the type which shows teeth, like a smile of relief. He started laughing slowly getting progressively louder as time went by, with his eyes now moved up looking at the rusty century-old ceiling of the mill. Then his eyes slowly dropped resting at the sight of Eli who seemed visibly dumbfounded, scared so to say. He stopped his laughter before licking his wound which made the dripping blood completely stop. Eli looked on with confusion, her feelings of terror and nervousness clearly etched on her face.
"You battle smart!!" Satoru declared before he appeared in front of Eli, a few inches from her face. Her pupils had not even shifted focus onto him as he lands a punch on her stomach which sent her flying crashing onto a feeble pillar of the mill. He quickly followed it up by a double-footed dive kick in her direction, which she was barely able to dodge, as she was lucky enough that her sword took the brunt of the earlier punch. Nonetheless, the full impact of the dive kick was felt by the pillar as it came crashing down, creating a cloud of dust around the area.
Promptly gathering herself Eli launched a series of sharp wind attacks from her sword into the cloud of dust where she assumed Satoru was. As the wind cut through the dust cloud Satoru was nowhere to be seen. Immediately Eli started to scan the area looking for him, utilizing both her head and body turning them in different directions. He was nowhere to be seen.
All of a sudden she felt a hand touch her legs fearing it was Satoru she instantly put her sword into the ground in an effort to hit him. Much to her surprise, Satoru appeared in front of her before grabbing a hold of her neck as he dragged her across the mill. What that had touched her feet were not Satoru's hands it was a cut hand of one of the masked men.
Satoru choked Eli and placed her on the ground. He was on top of her with his right foot on her left hand while his left hand constricted her right hand. Hurt and unarmed, Eli seemed to be out of options. She lowered her gaze in defeat as Satoru whispered into her ears with an eerie tone.
"Caught you. Now I am going to smack your pretty little face." All seemed over for Eli as Satoru lifted his hand up in order to punch Eli's face, stone particles started to gather around his fist creating a rock hand. A hit from this was surely going to be enough to break her face.
Eli started to struggle, trying to free her arms but Satoru's hold was too firm. Yet she was able to free it enough to twitch her fingers, Satoru saw this as an effort to escape. Having charged up his punch he was about to hit her, but his hand suddenly came to a halt. He felt a sharp object penetrate his right thigh, gradually he looked back to see Eli's sword stuck deep in his thigh. Eli took advantage of this moment and freed her right hand and started punching him in the face. Once, twice, thrice before Satoru himself retreated. However, she made sure to pull the sword out of his thigh using her feet before he jumped backward.
In the distance, Satoru placed his hand on the new wound on his thigh. Yet again the bleeding stopped. The wound didn't close nor did it heal, it was open but no longer bleeding. "What was this black magic?" Eli thought to herself as she slowly made her way up to her feet
"Ellina-san you are actually better than I thought. I guess Kohiruimaki family blood runs in you after all."
"Do not take my name from that filthy tongue of yours! Filth like you deserve to be buried alive." Anger resonated in her voice.
"Ohhh, angry little girl are we. Tsk tsk time to put you in your position."
He placed his hands together in a fashion that symbolized a circular rock. He screamed, similar to how characters who power up scream. As he did this he became buffer, his shirt ripping off from his torso, the ground trembled as giant rocks raised up around him. The entire building shook with this, its already weak structure seemed moments away from crashing on itself. Soon enough the whole area around him was covered with sharp wide rocks in different patterns at different angles. The look on his face had completely changed alongside his body, if Eli thought he was scary before, now he is on another level of fear mongering. He gave a slight smirk before rushing in towards Eli.
Eli started to tremble on his new transformed sight. Her hand wouldn't stop shaking. The aura he was giving off was no joke. Before her fear of him might have been totally psychological but this here is the real deal. She had lost all hopes of coming out of this fight victorious. But if she was going to die at least she would rather die trying. That is what drove her to put up a fight. She slapped herself in the face to gain some composure as she saw Satoru running towards her.
He ran at her like a gorilla, swinging his massive hands from side to side taking giant strides with his lengthy legs. He hopped up and loaded a punch in her direction, Eli who was near a wall jumped to the side avoiding the punch. She looked back to see the sheer destructive power of the current Satoru as that single punch laid a massive crater in the metallic wall. She won't get lucky every time like before when her special damage absorbing swords got in between her and the punch. Even then she was sent flying across the room.
Suddenly Eli saw him in front of her of trying to clothesline her, immediately she bent under it like the sport polo and landed a kick of her own right to his chest. This time however he was unfazed it seemed to have not hurt him or affect him at all. He just lowered his gaze towards her yet again putting up that smirk oh his face as Eli clicked her tongue "tch." Satoru grabbed Eli's leg with his hands and threw her to the other side of the room. She was able to soften her landing by using her sword to absorb most of the fall impact. Increasing the sword's surface area near the pointy edge, and placing it below her as she made contact with the ground.
She looks up to see a barrage of irregularly arranged rocks crawling up to her. Quickly she separated the swords and began slicing through them like butter. Rocks of that sturdiness and size were too easy for her sword as she made quick work of them. But of course, Satoru was not one to keep it easy for her, slowly the rocks began to get bigger and stronger. It started to become progressively harder for her to cut through them.
Despite the fact that she can could the sharpness of her sword, she wasn't fully versed in that technique. Thus the arising difficulty mader her dodge while slicing. Slowly but surely she was starting to get overwhelmed by what seemed to be like an infinite barrage of rocks, they were coming at her too fast for her to use any elements.
Finally during one of her attempts to dodge an incoming rock while slicing another, her shoulders got hit by the rock which completely took her out of balance, seeing this Satoru ran in and landed a kick in her gut making her pupils sink while she coughed out blood as she was sent crashing through the wall to the outside.
As the debris from the wall stopped falling the wind blew away bits and pieces of it. Satoru assumed victory and made his way towards a conscious Yumiko. She saw the final moments of her beloved friend being kicked through the wall. She screamed as much as it was possible with the tape on her mouth. Satoru arrived near her to see her crying, tears flowed down her eyes like a river.
"Ale le le, don't cwy, look look mister Satowu is here." Mimicking the act of trying to make a baby stop crying.
Yumiko glunched at him and tried her best to get free of the constriction in order to attempt revenge.
"Too bad your lovely friend won't be able to see what I am about to do to you, as a matter of fact, she won't be seeing anything from now. HAHAHA." He laughed on as he undid the tape on Yumiko's mouth.
The moment he took of the tape Yumiko spit on him. With a disgusted look on her face, she replied.
"Go to hell rabid dog."
This angered Satoru as he placed his hand on his face feeling the saliva. He lashed out on Yumi first slapping her then slamming her with a stone, breaking the chair she was tied to.
"Fucking bitch!" He sighed and turned around to see an injured Eli using the newly created hole as support to stand. Her other hand was placed on her stomach indicating the pain she was in combined with the fact that she was using the wall as support meant that she was hurt badly.
"Ah, you are alive? Interesting turn of event. You are much stronger than you seem to be with that fragile and sleek looking body."
Seeing this sight Eli took a few steps back while her face showed disbelief in what she just saw. Thinking the worst of the situation she dropped to her knees. Her breathing and heart rate increased as she placed her hands on her face and howled in agony. She had feared the loss of her dearest friend.
All of a sudden her howling stopped and she stood up still with her hands covering her face. She removed one hand revealing her shut eyes.
"What just happened? She calmed down suddenly. Her doubts, her fear they are gone." Satoru in deep thought observing Eli's transformation.
Shortly afterward she opened her eyes within which Satoru saw undeniable hatred and disgust towards him.
In an instant, she flashed towards him with both the sword separated. Her movement became irregular and unpredictable as she swung her swords at Satoru who had a difficult time reading them. Despite that, all of her moves had a purpose, a target and each move was precisely aimed at the place which would hurt him the most. Satoru was able to pull back from the pressure before he took much damage. Even then he was still cut all over mostly scratches from the tip of the blades coming into contact with his skin.
"The Fuck-" His thoughts were interpreted by Eli who gave him no chance to breathe, closing down on him again. A low swing with her left hand at his right leg scraped off the skin of the thigh. A jab towards his heart with her right hand, shaved off his shoulder as he ducked down to avoid certain death. Then he retaliated with a punch of his own which connected with Eli's face sending her the distance. Finally, he had the time to breathe.
Just as before, he ran his hand over multiple injured areas which stopped the bleeding. Eli who was sent back by the punch walked in, dusting off her clothes with a confident look on her face.
"Seeing that so many times even a buffoon would figure out how that works. You use fine rock sediments to create an artificial clot to stop the blood flow. I wonder how long you will last doing that. By the way, was that the best punch you could do?" She put up a sly smile as she made the statement.
His pride and ego didn't allow his strength to be questioned. He replied accordingly by activating stalagmite looking rocks which advanced at her at a very fast pace. With ease, Eli dodged most of these either by jumping or by switching sides. She then cut away on one of these rocks and used her sword to fling the part she cut towards Satoru. Even using the wind element embedded in her sword to propel the projectile making it impossible for Satoru to dodge. That in no way was an issue to Satoru who obliterated the stone with a punch.
"Very Nice." Eli clapped sarcastically. "Is that the best you got?"
"Don't forget your place woman!" Satoru's anger seeped through his pores as he went into a pose before placing his hand on the ground. This raised 4 rectangular segments of rock on either side of Eli. These segments darted towards her creating a prison of sorts trapping Eli inside of it. Then multiple diagonal stalagmite looking sharp rocks raised around it piercing through the prison. Finally, Satoru peeled off a giant cubic rock from the ground and levitated it above the prison before dropping it on top of it. The sheer impact shook the surrounding area as the prison completely flattened.
"Let's see you escape that!"
This time confident of his victory Satoru relaxed. This fight took a lot more Sen than he anticipated it to. He looked around the room to see Yumi lying next to the giant rock he used to slam her. A little to her left was an unconscious Sei who he knocked out after he was unable to react or fight. At the opposite side were the dead bodies of the 5 masked men, one missing his hand. The hand which he cut to use against Eli in order to scare her. And the showpiece of them all at the center of the room was the giant cube which he dropped over Eli finishing this battle. His vision, his goal would finally be realized.
Or so he thought. He sensed movement from the giant cube. It broke down the middle and Eli walked out, unharmed. His eyes broadened and brows raised up as he was genuinely surprised not for the first time, but to this extent a first. So much so that he got a bit scared.
"Pathetic." Eli smirked. "That is your biggest move? Lo and behold what a real big move looks like."
She raised her sword in front of her and muttered "Alternative Dual wield: Wind slash" before doing a vertical slash. This slash emitted wind, really fast wind which cut through everything it touched. A strong gust of wind followed which blew away the entire left side of the mill, like a hurricane. Satoru barely managed to avoid fatal damage by siding his body to the right, but in doing so he had lost his left arm. His arm below the elbow was cut clean with the move. He held onto it minimizing the blood loss before doing the same technique as before to stop the bleeding. Now it was his hands which were shaking. Now it was Eli who seemed more like a monster. To control wind that strong with just a simple swing of the sword, it was crazy.
"Tch, I seemed to have missed your vital organs." Slowly Eli walked towards Satoru step by step, with each step instilling more fear into his heart. He began throwing erratic moves at Eli who easily cut through everything thrown at her. Her current swords seemed to be able to cut through anything. That is how she was able to escape unharmed from the prison. By literally slicing everything in her path allowing her space inside of it.
Satoru stood up and ran before putting in what little Sen he had left in a final move. Precise control of fine particles needed a lot of Sen, in clotting his arm he had to use a lot. He stomped on the ground and parts of the Earth elongated towards Eli. She ran through it slicing through any that came in front of her while dodging the rest. At the end of it, she cut open Satoru's chest before piercing through his heart. Blood dribbled from his mouth as he slowly collapsed to the ground, but managed to utter a final word before his soul left his body.
Eli looked down on the dead body of Satoru before she herself fainted on the ground. Shortly afterwards she gained consciousness to see wreaked havoc. The place was a mess, the whole east side of the mill was missing, and the ground had huge holes and expansion on it. There was a giant cube in the middle of the place and in front, her laying was a dead Satoru. She gasped at the sight covering her mouth before her eyes picked up to the west side of the mill a quietly laying Yumiko. Still thinking the worst she ran at her, screaming with tears rolling down her eyes.
"Umi chan!!" She reached her and took her up in her hand.
"I am sorry, due to me you got into this trouble. I was wrong. If only I had thought better. I let my jealousy overtake me. I got envious of Aiko. I never meant wrong of you. I feared you started liking her more. The truth is I love you. I had feelings for you since the longest of times. I couldn't say it, how can I? After all, we are both girls, it would have been weird. I was afraid of losing you, of getting hurt by being rejected. But now I regret that. Please, Umi-chan come back!!"
She wailed, lamented and cried uncontrollably. Barely forming words. As the sun dawned in a new day Eli hugged Umi tightly only to pick up a faint heartbeat. She wiped her tears and quickly called an ambulance, which arrived within a few minutes. They took both Sei and Eli, while Satoru's body was handed over to the authorities. Eli boarded the ambulance with them and made her way to the hospital too. Everyone else was informed of what went down from which who were in Okinawa made their way to the hospital while the Taniguchi parents booked a flight to do so.