*𝙐𝙣𝙚𝙙𝙞𝙩𝙚𝙙*
Yukine, Wood, Willia, Robin, Dylanthy, Tom and Melissa appeared inside a room at the clan's headquarter's building - the training center.
As soon as they stepped into the room, Willia snatched her hand out of Wood's grip. Dry tear streaks were visible on her face, "Why did you agree?! Why did you leave them there?! Why did you?!"
Dylanthy quietly approached her, muttering comforting words to her friend, "It's okay, Willia, calm down.
"No, why? Why-?" Tears started to fall down Willia's eyes again as she hugged Dylanthy tightly.
Dylanthy gave pats on the back of Willia, "Calm down, everything will be okay."
Melissa also hugged the two girls quietly - she wanted to be comforted, too. She needed some metal strength, too.
While the girls had broken down, Wood indicated Yukine to follow him. As the two boys started walking off, Robin and Tom followed them.
After they had created some distance so that the girls couldn't hear what they were talking about, Wood stopped and rounded at Yukine, "What will happen to Kaori and the rest?"
Yukine let out a sigh, "We've arrived safely. If they can get any chance, I think they'll escape but I doubt they'll be getting any chance since the ammount of spirits must have grown way more larger by now."
Wood held his chin, "I see. So there isn't much hope?"
"I'm thinking of sending more help," Yukine ignored the question, "I'll inform Kazuma-sensei."
"Now?" Robin asked.
"He's supposed to be in a lesson now, I'll go find him and tell him everything. You guys stay here," Yukine said. "You can go out, too, though. But don't exit the entrance to the headquarters. See you later," He said as he left the room.
Tom broke the silence after Yukine left by asking Wood a question, "What do you think about all of this?"
Wood thought carefully before answering, "I think that Kaori will be back. We have to wait patiently and we have to pray that they'll be safe."
****************************
"Kazuma-sensei," Yukine entered as the room as he heard the voice inside that told him to go in.
Yukine had went over to the class which had Kazuma's lesson but it had already ended. So he came straight to the headmaster's office room and knocked to hear permission to go in.
Yukine walked up to the former headmaster who was sitting at his 'used to be usual place', "Sensei, Kaori is in danger."
Kazuma's eyebrows furrowed, "What do you mean?"
"During the school trip, Kaori and her friends went inside a forest along with the rest of the others. A piece of information was known that it was an entrance to the world of the corrupted spirits. Maki, William, Ishika, Saki, Lilac, Hayami, Gin, Aoi, Mabuchi and Koutarou went over to rescue Kaori. Kaori had ordered me to leave the place with her friends because it was dangerous," Yukine explained the details, "We came back safely but sensei, they are still in danger."
"Doesn't Kaori have a shinki with her?"
"Yamaken is there."
Kazuma tapped the table six times before saying, "Gather the other higher rank students. We have to send a rescue team. They can't make it out alive all alone."
Yukine debated if he should let the former headmaster know what he learned not some long time ago. Then he decided not to and obliged by Kazuma's order, "Yes, sensei."
****************************
!SLASH!
!STAB!
Almost a war broke out among the spirits that were attacking and the fighters.
Spirits were lunging forward at their pray only to be killed by one of the boys and girls.
They were fighting against their enemy together at first but they got seperated from each other as the spirits surrounded them from all sides.
Kaori was changing her weapon time to time as her need as she fought. She was using acrobatic skills to avoid the attacks as well.
As the staff changed into a sword in her hands, she stabbed the spirit before her before taking it out as the spirit turned into ashes and dissolved.
She heard a low groan which made her look over her shoulder to see Gin struggling to fight back as the spirit was using force against his katana that he held up to block the spirit from touching him. The amount of force was making his leg dig on the ground.
Gin noticed Kaori looking over at him and yelled, "Help!"
Kaori immediately took actions as she turned around. Two knives came out in her hands as she spreaded them. She threw both of them as she targeted the spirit. They hit them on its vital spot and it died, disappearing into the thin air as it turned into ashes.
Gin huffed, "Thanks."
"I got your back," Kaori smiled, "Daiki, sword."
Yamaken flew into her hands again, this time as a long sword.
The spirit session had ended for now. All of them knew that more are going to come again soon. After all, that's what's been happening until now.
"When will we be going back?" Koutarou asked as he reverted back to his original form.
"You know what? I doubt we can make it out like this," Saki said out her thoughts, "We're already too much injured. Look at Kaori," She pointed at the said girl.
Kaori was looking half dead. She looked tired. Her body had tons of cuts, here and there all over. Blood were coming out of those injuries. She even hurt her leg that was making her limp right now.
The others were also more or less injured.
Maki was thinking something when he said, "If we're going to escape, I think we should run for it. Let's use a portal."
"Hm," Kaori spoke, "Before that, let's close the entrance to this place so that no one else will get harmed by these deadly creatures."
"How?"
A smirk crept up to her face, "Heh, you're asking me that?"
She looked over at Yamaken who was standing there as he was listening to the conversation attentively but got confused as everyone looked over at him.
"What?" He asked, clueless.
****************************
"Kaori!" Someone slammed the sliding door to the training room open to see three boys and three girls sitting on the floor in there. They looked exhausted, tired and... sad? Why do they look so sad as if they lost the most important thing in their life?
"Who're you guys?" The red haired male asked as he walked in.
The brown haired, pretty boy stood up and introduced himself, "I'm Robin Parker." "This is Wood Dickens, Willia Holland, Tom Willard, Melissa Dony and Dylanthy Daven," He introduced the rest of the one by one as he pointed them out and each of the girls and boy came over to shake hands with the red haired boy.
The boy introduced himself as he shook hands with the unknown faces, "I'm Hyoudou Touma. I've never seen you guys here before.. Excuse me for being rude but are you new here?"
"Well," Wood spoke, "It is true, kind of. We did hear of this place a lot from Kaori, though. We're her friends, by the way."
"Wait," Touma froze, "You're someone outside of this clan?" He asked in disbelief.
"Yes," Robin replied with a charming smile.
Touma was left dumbfounded, "How come? Who brought you here? And Kaori told you about our world?"
"Yes," Robin said again.
Willia was still sobbing so she couldn't say anything even if she wanted to. Dylanthy spoke instead of her, "As for who brought us here-"
Yukine entered the room in hurry, some other people following him behind.
"Speaking of the devil, there he is " Dylanthy pointed at Yukine who was looking over at Touma who now looked over at him as Dylanthy had pointed him out.
"You brought them here?" Touma asked in disbelief yet again.
"Kaori ordered me to," Yukine replied curtly.
"Kaori-" Touma began with a frown on his face and was about to raise his voice when he did raise his voice but his tone was different, "Yes, Kaori!"
Everyone in the room flinched at the sudden outburst.
"What happened to her? Where is she and the others?" He asked for answers desperately, "Please, tell me they're safe!"
Yukine's face turned hollow, "I.. Don't know..."
The whole room turned deadly silent. As if everyone were trying to take in the words Yukine just uttered.
A girl named Saan muttered softly but worriedly, "Kaori will be fine. She's the best among us after all. She'll rock out there, I'm sure..." As if she was trying to comfort herself to believe by those words.
Damien asked importantly, "Shouldn't we send help?"
Yukine turned at him as he answered the question, "Kazuma-sensei told me to gather up all the higher rank students. However, I gathered some informations on the incomplete research of Maki and the others on the entrances to the world of corrupted spirits. And it says that the one Kaori and the others are stuck in is the main entrance, the biggest entrance to that world."
Some gasp followed as he said those words because they knew what this meant - There is no way those guys will be able to make it. Still they didn't want to believe in this fact, they wanted to believe in Kaori, her powers, her abilities. If it's her, they believe that she'll be able to do it.... Will she?
"I'll go," Touma broke the silence.
"Huh?" All eyes turned to him.
"I'll go, I'll go there to save them. I'm sure I can do it," He smiled weakly, "I'll definitely be even a little bit of help! Grandpa taught me a lot, surely they will come in handy."
"Touma," Yukine said lowly, "To sum up everything I have just said, anyone who'll enter that place will never be able to come back. So there's no way we'll send more help. If they can come back, they'll come back. If they can't, we have no more hope," He said quietly but firmly.
𝘐 𝘸𝘪𝘴𝘩 𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘣𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘶𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘸𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬. 𝘞𝘩𝘺 𝘥𝘪𝘥𝘯'𝘵 𝘐? 𝘞𝘩𝘺 𝘥𝘰 𝘐 𝘢𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘦𝘳? 𝘐𝘵'𝘴 𝘰𝘬𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘰𝘣𝘦𝘺 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘪𝘵'𝘴 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘐'𝘮 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵. 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘸𝘩𝘺?
****************************
Kaori backed up as she stood with her back at Gin.
All ten of them were standing back to back together at a small open place in the dark forest, getting ready for their next move.
Kaori rose her hands and made a cage with them before her face, "Maki, Yamaken, on my mark!"
"Okay!"
"3!"
They furrowed their eyebrows in concentration as they also did the same hand gesture like Kaori.
"2!"
A deep cut appeared on Yamaken's palm, leaving a thick red lining on the white palm.
"1! Now!"
"𝘼𝙗𝙞𝙡𝙞𝙩𝙮 𝙤𝙛 𝙡𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜, 𝙮𝙚𝙡𝙡𝙤𝙬 𝙡𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙞𝙠𝙚, 𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙚!"
"𝘼𝙗𝙞𝙡𝙞𝙩𝙮 𝙤𝙛 𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙚, 𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙚 𝙚𝙭𝙥𝙡𝙤𝙨𝙞𝙤𝙣!"
"𝘾𝙪𝙧𝙨𝙚𝙙 𝙗𝙡𝙤𝙤𝙙 𝙖𝙧𝙩, 𝙚𝙭𝙥𝙡𝙤𝙨𝙞𝙫𝙚 𝙗𝙡𝙤𝙤𝙙!"
!BOOM!
****************************
Everyone was gathering at the training room. Some were lying on the floor while some were anxiously walking about through the room while some were sitting on the floor with legs spreaded forwards or lying on their stomach with a worried frown on their faces.
It was already night over here.
Wood, Willia, Robin, Dylanthy, Melissa and Tom didn't go home yet either. Yukine wanted to send them off but they rejected the offer because they wanted to wait for Kaori. The school trip must've ended by now. Everyone should have went home, too. They had given a call to their parents to inform them they were staying over at a friend's house and the elders didn't say anything objective.
But the school authority... Didn't they realize the eight boys' and girls' disappearance? How could that be?
But they didn't want to think over that now. They were worried about their friend. Why isn't she still coming back? Is she even gonna come back?
𝘞𝘩𝘰𝘰𝘴𝘩
A sudden flow of wind and everyone saw the team of ten stagger out of a portal.
"Guys!" Someone yelled out in relief and surprise.
"Kaori!" A sudden yell of worry made everyone rush over to the said girl who seemed to be unconscious and was being supported from both sides by Maki and Yamaken.
"Kaori, is she okay?" Yukine cried as he saw his unconscious master.
Yamaken replied calmly, "She's fine everyone. She just collapsed from exhaustion just now, trust me."
Another sigh of relief swept past from everyone who were present.
Yamaken handed over Kaori to Yukine who supported her from one side while Saki walked over to the other side and held her.
"She needs rest. Also, take her to the infirmary to get her injuries treated" He instructed Yukine who nodded.
Kaori's friends watched from afar. They didn't know what they should do because they felt unfamiliar and uncomfortable with these unknown people.
Saki who was all okay physically, said to Yukine, "I'll help you."
"All of you who need treatment for your injuries, follow Yukine and Saki," Yamaken told his accompanies who came back with him. Then he turned at Touma, "You, come with us," He indicated himself, Maki, William, Gin and Aoi.
As Touma obliged, Maki said to the people who were eagerly waiting for their comeback, "Thank you everyone for worrying about us. We're back safe and sound, so no need to worry any longer. Go take rest, you must be tired. We'll be heading over to Kazuma-sensei's room for some important stuff," He gave a slight bow towards the public before them before leaving the room with Yamaken, Aoi, Gin and Touma.
The crowd inside the training room slowly broke away as residents of the clan decided to listen to Maki and have a good rest for the night. Koutarou, Mabuchi, Liliac and Ishiki spotted Kaori's friends as the crowd thinned.
"Ah, friends of Kaori!" Koutarou walked over to Wood and the others with a cheerful face as he called out to them.
Wood gave a small smile and nodded slightly, "Hello, it's a great relief that you guys came back. Everyone was so worried."
Lilac went over to Willia and hugged her, "Don't cry, silly." She laughed helplessly, "Look at your eyes, they're so puffy," She cupped Willia's face.
Soft sobs left Willia's lips as she looked at Lilac. "Kaori won't be able to recognize you when she wakes up if you keep going like this," Lilac joked with a serious face, "So go get freshed, okay? Then let's welcome her back to home again with a cheerful face." She gave comforting pats on Willia's head, which calmed her down.
Willia then decided to follow Lilac's suggestion and get fresh. So she told Melissa and Dylanthy to join her when Mabuchi asked importantly, "Oh right, did you guys arrive safely? No hindrance on the way?"
"Nope," Tom replied immediately.
"Good," Mabuchi smiled in satisfaction.
"Why though?" Wood asked, curious for the reason.
Mabuchi smiled, "The way Kaori asked Yukine for that favour, it was made clear to us that you guys are something special to her. It's a duty for us to make sure what she cares for must not be harmed for a second time."
****************************
The doctor looked up after he checked Kaori. He indicated Yukine and Saki to follow him outside the infirmary room while the rest of the others were being treated by other nurses of the clan in other compartments of the room.
As they stepped outside the room, the doctor said in a grave tone, "I have some bad news."
Saki's face turned pale white while Yukine gulped and asked dryly, "What is it, doctor?"
"Kaori, she," He began quietly, "One of her bone on the elbow got heavily fractured and it might take a long time to heal back. Also, her backbone-"
"What happened?" Yukine asked in horror.
"She must've taken heavy blows on her back, is that right?" He got a nod from Yukine before he continued, "Due to this, her backbone got tiny bit fractured as well but it'll heal back again. So no need to worry."
Saki asked carefully, "It isn't anything serious?"
"No," The doctor gave a reassuring smile at her, "She'll recover fully in several weeks."
"That's a relief!" Both Yukine and Saki huffed.
"But," Saki turned back at the doctor, "You said you had bad news.. Aren't these news okay? I mean, she will get better again, right? There isn't anything serious and we don't need to worry about anything, right?"
"About that," Said the doctor, "There is something that is indeed serious. I'll tell you two directly.."
"Kaori might suffer from memory loss when she wakes up."
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