How many hours has it been? Was it morning yet?
I'm so cold. I feel so desperate. So desperate.
'Hello, Shun, are you cold?'
My heart jumped to my throat at the sound of that familiar voice, my breath catching in horror.
'Long time no see, huh? I missed your birthday!'
'Ta-Tadashi!' '
'My! You look pitiful!'
He fingered a lock of my wet hair and I began to shake even more violently.
'Do you want me to get you out of here?' he asked, his face so close that I could feel his hot breath on my face. 'You know that there's nothing easier for me. Ask me to help you and I'll get you out of here in the minute.'
'N-No,' I said, my teeth clattering so much that my words came out distortedly. 'I don't want anything that comes from you!'
At this, his fingers found their way through my hair at the back of my head in a painful grip, making me wince.
'Still that same reply, huh?' he groaned, with anger. 'All this reminds me of the time when I'd come to visit you within the four walls of your prison cell. I'd ask you this same question every time: beg me to help you and I'll get you out of here. But you would always reply with this same little phrase to the negative.'
'But, this may also be a good thing,' he told me then, his tone sardonic again. 'I will delight myself in your cries of agony!'
He added in my left ear, 'I'm all excited just by imagining your face deformed with pain!'
His grip on my hair disappeared, and so did, his presence.
***
From his cage, Katsuya Hattori stared at the red-haired girl in the distance- who was tied on a chair, wet from head to toe, after having been doused intermittently during the whole night- and the dark-haired male with the red eyes who was peering at her face with a grip on her hair.
The distress he could read on the girl's face at this moment had nothing to do with the water torture or Hazuki anymore.
That guy! What does this mean?!
Katsuya felt a shrill ran down his spine as the demon took a glance at him before he left as subtly as he had appeared.
Shun Shutsuki could have come out of prison at any time she wanted…
Can it be that things aren't as simple as I believed them to be?
These doubts made the ginger-haired boy want to discover the truth and this led him to feel the desperate need to get them- yes, Shun Shutsuki included- out of this place.
They were on the fifth floor of an unfinished building on a closed construction site in Kuribayashi neighborhood.
He took a look at his cellphone which was resting onto the small table several feet away. Hazuki never took the phone with him. But the table was too far away for Katsuya to reach for the object through the bars of his cell.
The ginger-haired boy's eyes landed onto the fine iron rod lying on the ground somewhere close to his cell then, and he had an idea suddenly.
With a lot of difficulty, he managed to put his hand down onto the rod and pull it closer.
But will it be long enough to attain the table?
He checked that out immediately and found that the length wouldn't be a problem.
But there was another obstacle.
He hoped earnestly that the phone wouldn't break when he'd knock it off the table and that the noise wouldn't attract Hazuki's attention.
Holding his breath in anticipation, he knocked the phone down and pushed it towards his cell with the help of the rod until he could reach for it with his own hands.
Picking the cellphone up, Katsuya saw that the glass of the screen had broken upon impact with the ground, but to his relief, the phone was still operational.
Without losing a second, he sent Tsunan Hitachiin a text message on his cellphone to inform him about their location before he deleted the message and set the phone down on the floor outside of his cell, pushing it back towards the table, in order to keep Hazuki from suspecting anything.
He also got rid of the iron rod to erase all traces of his action.
A moment later, Hazuki arrived and the blond young man noticed that the cellphone wasn't on the table anymore but was lying on the ground instead.
Taking a suspicious look towards Katsuya, he picked the phone up and checked its history.
When he didn't find anything, he simply shrugged and set the cellphone down onto the table before he strode his way up to Shun Shutsuki, his eyes gleaming with excitement, his expression beastly.
***
'So, Shun Shutsuki,' came Hazuki's voice and I flinched. 'How about we move on to serious matters? And what if I covered your body with blues?!'
Even before his words could sink in, I received a crushing blow at the face that knocked me down on my side on the hard unpolished floor. The impact was such that the chair broke but my hands remained tied.
I could taste blood in my mouth, my nose was bleeding too.
He kicked me at the abdomen brutally then and I winced under the blow.
His next kick sent me flying backward where I hit into a hard flat surface- that I supposed was a wall- before I crashed on the ground, shrieking out in pain.
Blood began to trickle down my forehead.
Hazuki began to assault me with many more kicks and blows, unrelentingly, while he goaded, 'Come on, Shun Shutsuki! Tell us how you got your kicks dismembering and eviscerating all those innocent people of your village! How much you've delighted yourself in their cries of horror and agony!'
All sounds blurred around of me, my mind focusing only on the pain being inflicted on my body.
But then, out of the blue, the sound of a gunshot brought me back into focus of my surrounding.
The blows ceased and a familiar voice snarled, 'Don't you move!'
And then, I heard footfalls coming into my direction in a rush and a pair of hands came down onto my shoulders.
I blenched away in fright, letting out a choked cry.
'Shun! Don't be scared! It's only me!' came Tsunan's strained voice and he took off the blindfold.
'Tsunan!' I wailed, my vision blurred with tears.
He pulled me upright into a sitting position, cradling my head against his chest for a minute and then, keeping me propped up against him, he undid the ropes around my wrists and my ankles.
Past his shoulder, I caught sight of Hatsu and Heihachi who were holding Hazuki at gunpoint and Master Kagami moved to immobilize the latter, while he called, in an urgent tone, 'Tsunan! Take her away with you and see to her injuries! The police will be here at any minutes now!'
The doctor lifted me off the ground in his arms, and a shriek of pain escaped my lips.
Pressing my eyes, I clung at him, sobbing.
***
Three days later...
'At last, we've arrived!' exclaimed Master Kagami, ecstatically, as we got down from the bus. 'Onsen, here we are!'
We were standing in front of a large imposing building in the middle of a forest in a mountainous region. The onsen was run privately by the master's family as part of a ryokan.
All the members of the organization were present, including Yama-san, Gakkuri, Natsuhiko and Shuko.
'Is this your first time at the hot springs?' asked Hatsu.
'Yes,' I replied, before I looked at Tsunan, asking, 'Have you ever been here before?'
'Yes. Naoto was still at the organization back at that time,' answered the doctor.
'I see.'
Clapping his hand once to catch everyone's attention, Master Kagami declared, 'Allow me to present you Tobari-san!'
We began searching for the said-person with the eyes.
'Don't stay at the back, Tobari! Come in the front!'
At this, we all flinched as we realized only at that moment that there was someone standing behind us.
How long has he been there?
The man in question was tall and dark-haired. His skin was unnaturally pale; his eyes were closed, and his gait, as though, he wasn't walking but sliding. He had a lugubrious air.
He moved to the front to join the master.
'This is Tobari-san! He is a friend and also, the manager of the ryokan. He takes care of the propriety all by himself.'
'All by himself?' questioned Agasa, voicing everyone's puzzlement. 'Isn't it a bit too big for a single person to take care of everything all alone?'
'We have... difficulties... to find… employees,' said the strange man, speaking in snatches, his tone even. 'Humans… do not like me... a lot. It must be… because of my teeth.'
He lifted his upper lip with his hand to show us his abnormally long and sharp canines.
I was chilled to the bones and so, were the others.
'A- A vampire!' stammered Yanagi. 'He's a vampire!'
'Calm down everyone! He's totally inoffensive!' stated Master Kagami, before he put his hands down onto Gakkuri's shoulders and turned to face the vampire with her, exclaiming, joyously, 'Oh, let me officially present you my daughter Gakkuri. I've told you about her on the phone! Isn't she cute?'
The master rubbed his face against hers fondly, before he gestured towards Natsuhiko, moving on to present the latter, 'And this is her friend, Natsuhiko! He's an Amefurikozō!'
'Nice… to meet you!' the vampire said to the kids, and bowing slightly, he held out his hands at them in friendliness, a small smile appearing on his lips.
Hesitantly, Gakkuri and Natsuhiko lifted their hands up to take those of the vampire and he shook hands with them.
The kids seemed more relaxed after the small exchange.
Straightening up, the vampire turned to face our group again.
'I recognize… all the faces here… as per the pictures… you have showed me… except… one.'
Unexpectedly, he opened his eyes just a bit to look at me and I saw that the white of his eyes were bloodshot.
I flinched.
'Is she… a new recruit?'
'That's right! Her name is Shun Shutsuki! She's my little mermaid!' exclaimed the master who moved up to me and sending an arm around me, he rubbed his face against my hair to show his affection. 'One of my six princesses!'
'Master, what are you doing?' I mumbled, and he let go of me, laughing.
'You're giving off… a strong smell… of blood. Must be… due to your injuries,' the vampire said to me, having closed his eyes again.
I had a concussion, and contusions near everywhere on my body. I was covered in bandages and resembled no less than a mummy.
'I am… thirsty… all suddenly.'
All color drained out of my face.
'Eh?!' Breaking into cold sweat, I cowered behind of Tsunan.
'Stop it, Tobari! You're going to scare the kids!' Master Kagami told him and the latter apologized to me, 'Oh... sorry. I… didn't want to… scare you… and less… show a lack of respect… towards you… or… your fiancée.'
I looked up at Tsunan in the face and blushed. Fi-Fiancée?!
Suddenly, I could feel Cho, Agasa and Yanagi's dark looks on my back and taking a glance at them, I giggled nervously.
Since there weren't any other clients at the ryokan, we had the whole place for ourselves.
Each one of us took a room.
They were very spacious and had a sliding door that opened onto a private veranda.
Once settled, Cho, Agasa, Yanagi and Shuko, as well as most of the boys, went to have a dip in the onsen- which was an outdoor one and gender-separated.
The sun was setting and I decided that I'd wait when night had fallen for me to take a dip.
'I have to inform you that the cook has had an urgent matter to solve in the nearby town which has caused him to absent himself and thus, we're going to have to take care of the meals by ourselves during our whole stay,' announced Master Kagami as he joined everyone in the hall.
We were supposed to leave day after tomorrow.
Standing up from the couch, I cupped my chin thoughtfully, wondering out loud about what we could cook.
'Shun, you don't have to cook,' Tsunan told me. 'You're wounded. If the master brought us here, it's especially for you, so that you can relax and enjoy the hot springs for your injuries can heal more quickly.'
'You too, you should relax a bit, my dear Tsunan!' declared Hatsu, with a cocky grin, the latter moving up to the two of us. The blond male told me, 'You know, Shun, Tsunan was in all his states when you got yourself kidnapped. I had never seen him like this before. I thought that he was going to wreck everything around him or break into tears, or even, both. He didn't close his eyes even once and didn't eat much of anything during the whole time you were unconscious.'
'Really?'
I looked at Tsunan, a bit surprised.
'Hatsu, prepare yourself for Heihachi to learn about all the embarrassing moments in your life ever since I know you!' the doctor groaned.
The blond shrugged, stating, 'Go on! I don't regret having said all of this to Shun!' Then to me, 'It seems like you hold an important place in the heart of our doctor present here!'
I blushed.
With a mischievous grin, Hatsu gave me a small push from behind, causing me to stumble and catch myself onto Tsunan.
The latter grabbed my shoulders, steadying me.
Looking up at the doctor again, I flushed tomato red.
I averted my eyes shyly when he released me.
'Here's Heihachi!' said Tsunan, and we followed his eyes onto the dark-haired male who was coming towards us.
'No! Tsunan, please don't! I was bluffing!' begged Hatsu, all suddenly, his behavior changing completely, and he clung at the doctor's arm with both hands, giving him a pleading look.
I chuckled.
In the end, Tsunan didn't say anything to Heihachi and everyone helped in the kitchen.
We made sashimi, wasabi paste, ebi tempura and takoyaki, and we all dined together in the communal dining area after which, I separated with the group to go into the kitchen to fetch chōshi in order to serve the saké.
Getting on top of a wooden stool, I reached out for the box of chōshi which was found on top of the set of the cupboards on the wall in the kitchen. But the box was placed way too high up for me to reach it, even with the help of the stool, and so, I stood on my toes.
My fingers managed to touch the box, but not enough for me to have a good grip on it.
'Shun, what are you doing?!' came Tsunan's voice, abruptly, through the doorway of the kitchen. 'Watch out! You're going to fall!'
Just as he said that, abruptly, I lost my balance and began to fall backward. My eyes drew shut but I never hit the floor.
Tsunan caught me before I could.
Putting me down onto my feet, he demanded at me, 'Why didn't you ask me to help you?'
'I'm sorry,' I said, embarrassed. 'Can you please get that box down?'
Getting on the stool, he reached out for the box and since he was a lot taller than me, he didn't have any difficulty to bring it down.
I gave him a thankful smile, before I looked around when I heard somebody enter the kitchen.
It was Katsuya.
Thank you for reading!
Glossary
Onsen - hot spring
Ebi - shrimp