As crazy as it sounds, Ishigaki (or someone inside his soul)'s power actually helps a lot with much of the possessed, we were shocked as to how the fire actually worked. It burns the surroundings, but not us. It only burns darkness, I guess this fire is one of the light element's branches.
After doing some damage to the possessed around him, Ishigaki went unconscious. After wasting hours of back and forth to recover the bodies and Ishigaki, we finally end the mission. The last beacon was on Kentaro's bag, and we deployed it to seal the area. The attracting cellular tower mysteriously disappeared, destroyed by some kind of impact, we didn't realize when it happened and by whom.
This mission has the most recovered bodies so far. We went back to the school and rested, preparing for another day to confront the unknown.
Ishigaki faints until the night falls, we let him rest in his room, while the rest of us gather around the training ground talking about the day. We lit a small bonfire and circled around it, feeling the heat of a faint spirit in the darkest hour.
As I saw the embers, I recalled what happened to Ishigaki in the afternoon. He was changing, I wonder what's gonna happen next... Did he see something while he was unconscious?
One of Kentaro's men came up to me and shook my hand, "I haven't introduced myself yet, my name is Ishimaru. Nice to meet you, Kyuuto," we then traded smiles, and he sat beside his team leader.
We talked about our worries towards Ishigaki, while watching the flame slowly fade away. Kanata was silent the whole time, while Ishimaru remained vigilant watching the surroundings. One strange thing that night, Kotetsu didn't come to join.
"I saw one of your friends behind the school building," Ishimaru suddenly came and talked to me, "he was acting strange, like sick," he was talking about my missing member, Kotetsu.
At first I was skeptical, because Kotetsu usually sticks by my side. But remembering his action while in the city, he was also nowhere to be seen until the last second.
"Sick like what?" I ask him for details.
"He was coughing liquid, maybe blood. Then he talked to himself after that," Ishimaru elaborated further. He then expressed his worries that Kotetsu might become one of the possessed.
I was shocked, then I realized that all of my initial team members are either injured, or missing. I hope he's okay, maybe he's just sick.
----
The next morning, I paid a visit to Kazuki. He recovered well. Although he couldn't walk yet, he was ecstatic to join me in the next mission.
"I wonder how my brother will feel if he looks at me like this," he uttered while looking at the window.
"I'm sure he's gonna be okay," I tried to calm him, but in reality I didn't even know his brother at that point. Yato suddenly burst through the door, he told me that Kotetsu is missing, without saying farewell to Kazuki, we rushed out of the student health center and looked for him.
Kotetsu's room was a mess, and its windows were open when we checked it. We then progressed into the training field, he wasn't there either. A slight panic ensued, Yato and I continued to look for him, even after looking from the watchtower, he was nowhere to be found.
In the midst of searching for this wind-element swordsman, Ishimaru came up and told us that he changed, something strange from within him taken over.
"Stop talking in riddles! Just tell us where he is!" Yato raised his voice over Ishimaru's detail, he expressed the correct reaction, all he did up to this point was just giving clues with no concrete answer. He is one mysterious man.
Ishimaru sighed, then pulled his jacket's collar up to his mouth, "I think I've seen him going into the forest. He looked out of control, follow me,"
Ishimaru showed the way through the training forest, but deeper than that, we went through the darker part of the forest. Ishimaru led us to a clearing near the ocean...
Kotetsu was there, standing with a shrill howling wind blowing his hair, he held onto his chest, he seemed hurt by something. I tried to approach him slowly, he noticed us and turned around, his eyes were teary, and I could see sadness in his eyes.
"Don't come any closer," he whispered.