Irritatingly, we've just been standing around and waiting since Sato sent me down this dreary hallway. I still couldn't believe I'd been playing as a taxi to the sleeping beauty and a chaperone to the rest of these idiots.
To clarify, when I said "idiots," I meant these useless lemmings that consider themselves people. The lemmings who just sat complacently in their murder kennels, waiting for their number to be called.
Unsurprisingly, they were utterly useless when we first encountered the exit. It was barricaded with a sturdy, thick, and hazel-brown wooden door to obstruct us. Though it pissed me off that it took more than a single kick, I broke it off its hinges after multiple well-placed strikes along the handle.
"Ugh, what the hell is taking them so long," I growled. "The guy better not have gotten lost because he gave me this useless map." Then, glancing at my hand, I examined the now crumpled piece of paper. "I mean, who could even read this?! The handwriting looks like a little kid wrote it!"
I felt a tap on my shoulder; it was one of the lemmings that Sato had sent with me. The only noteworthy aspect of the guy was how plain he was.
He grossly fidgeted his fingers when he started speaking. "Um," he said meekly, "we should probably get goi-"
"Huh?!" I snarled in annoyance, exposing the veins on my forehead.
"I'm sorry!" He yelped, then bowed several times before retreating back into the shifting crowd.
Like hell I'd let any of them leave without that guy.
He was worth at least a thousand of them in a fight, and I had way more respect for him than I did for any of these trashy background characters.
It'd be a lie if I said I wasn't feeling a little anxious by now too. How long does it take a guy to knock out some unsuspecting loser and free another unsuspecting loser? I could do it in five seconds if I weren't stuck ferrying this baggage everywhere!
Pivoting my body, I saw that the rest of the group had been struck by the same restlessness as the plain guy. They were all, to my annoyance, constantly mumbling amongst themselves as they gawked at the exit.
"Shut up!" I shouted, my voice echoing throughout the corridor and tunnel beyond. I'm glad my demand had been very effective, given that a sweet silence enveloped the room afterward.
'Heh, that solves one problem,' I smirked to myself.
Unfortunately, I created a new one with my "request." The latest issue was that these people now directed their expressions of unrest, terror, and sorrow at me. They looked at me like I was the bad guy!
"And wipe those idiotic looks off of your faces!" I growled.
Hearing my second command, most of them angled their sights downward to avoid mine.
'That's better,' I smirked again.
Once the blissful silence had set in, I heard feminine groans from my back. A minute later, the mumbles were paired with a continuous rustling that developed into a full-on struggle as she panicked and struck my head.
"Hey, knock that off!" I yelled.
After my demand, the assault on my head eventually ceased.
I was unsure exactly what she was doing since she was behind me. That said, I felt she was evaluating what to do next. A tempting thought to drop her crept into my mind now that she was awake, but I decided against it. I'd hate for her to fall and get knocked out again. No way did I want to carry her anymore…
"T-Takagi?" She asked meekly. "Is that you?"
"Yeah, sorry, I'm not your boyfriend, the soldier guy." I taunted, partially to gauge what her mental state was.
ραпdα Йᴏνê|(сòm) As it turned out, it wasn't good. The mere mention of Sato was enough for her to start restlessly struggling to escape my grasp again.
"Seriously? You need to stop." I commanded. "I'll drop you. Is that what you want?"
Thankfully, that was enough to get her to cease her incessant squirming. Now that her emotions had calmed down, surface-wise, I eased my tone. "You can walk now, right? I hope you can because I'm not carrying you anymore."
Her answer took the form of a mild grunt. I assumed that it was in agreement.
With her permission, I steadily let go of her legs and allowed her a moment to stabilize herself on the ground. Now that I wasn't carrying her anymore, all the aches in my joints erupted with a vengeance.
I rotated, stretched, and bent every joint with various exercises.
While doing shoulder stretches, I noticed that Agawa had just been frozen, her gaze captivated by the filthy, dull gray dungeon floor. Her eyes were vacant and shaking. She must've been half asleep since her mind occasionally nodded off from reality.
"Hey, wake up!" I snapped my fingers in front of her. "I'm not relaying you around anymore, so you'd better get a grip." My snap shocked her out of whatever trance she'd been in.
New life in her eyes, she faced me. "I-I'm sorry, Takagi." Her expression was clear with distress, to say the least. "I don't even know what to think right now."
I sighed, then grinned. "Do what I do, then. Don't think; do stuff as you need to."
She stared at me in a light shock. She must've expected some form of complicated consoling.
'Too bad for you, I don't care!' Though that's what I wanted to say, I still tried to help her for some reason.
"Are you alright?" I begrudgingly questioned.
"Yeah," she gave a pitiful smile, "I'm alright."
Her shoulders relaxed while she ingested several inhales paired with exhales.
I did feel bad that she couldn't maneuver her hands much. They were busy acting as safety guards for her blanket. Whatever she went through, it was reassuring that she maintained enough of her mind to protect herself.
It irked me that I couldn't figure out if I should ask her what had happened or not.
I racked my brain for answers, though thinking had never been a strong point of mine. It'd suck if I sent her into crazy land again with the wrong question. Luckily, it didn't look like I'd need to ask, given that she initiated the conversation on her own.
At first, she could only mouth what she wanted to say like she'd been rehearsing lines for a play. "Uh, "she paused, "where is…um…Sato?" Her eyes twitched as she winced at his name.
Though I was curious about her reaction to his mention, I decided it'd be better to brush it off. "That guy? He's having fun freeing the last idiot, Kamida, from captivity. He's probably fighting some psychopath right now."
Her new expression emitted mixed signals. On the one hand, her body appeared instinctually relieved at the mention that Sato wasn't here. On the other, her eyes began darting around sporadically in anxiety when I'd mentioned that he was fighting someone.
"What happened to me?" She asked.
"Do you want the long or short version?" I asked impatiently.
"Uh…long, please."
"The soldier guy met up with me while carrying you the whole time and pushed you off onto me." I restlessly rubbed the back of my neck. "Then we found everyone else, and here we are, that good?"
She didn't look satisfied. Instead, her lips curled in confusion, and her expression emitted an aura of frustration. "That wasn't very long." She said in an irritated tone.
"Welp, you get what you get." I shrugged. "That's as long as I was willing to make it."
"I'm scared to ask what the short version would've been." She laughed weakly.
"That version would've been 'nothing much.'"
She laughed again, this time slightly less solemn. "That's just like you. I shouldn't expect anything less…or more in this case." But, though she joked, she defaulted back to an expression of despair in no time at all.
She reached out to me and began mouthing a question but caught herself and her arm just short of me. Pulling them back, she constricted her body to become as tight as possible and squeezed her arm tight with anguish.
Surprisingly, I felt slightly (I couldn't stress that enough) concerned about her. I started reaching out to her arm when hurried footsteps echoed throughout the dingy halls.
They were approaching our position at high speeds, and I readied myself for a fight. It looked like I'd be alone, though, since the rest of the lemmings were inching towards the exit.
I threw up my arms and planted my feet firmly apart to keep a robust posture.
If these bastards wanted a fight, I was more than willing to beat it out of them! It was erupting inside me, the excitement. My bones, veins, and blood all urged me to match their approach and meet their challenge for a bloody battle.
The footsteps were practically on top of us, making it impossible to contain my grin as I waited.
'They're here!' Is what I thought, but reality was nothing if not disappointing.
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