Chapter 33: Chaos in the Breeze
[Chapter 33: Chaos in the Breeze]
The squad looks at the time bomb. They have 4 minutes left to defuse the bomb.
"There's 4 minutes left on the timer." Satora pointed out the obvious, but it was to remind people who weren't paying attention.
"Shit. Can we just throw it away!?" Yushiro Yushi-suggested an idea.
Satora grabbed the time bomb, and tried to throw it. Unfortunately, it's just stuck there, but on the back of the bomb says…
[Enter Defusal Password]
"Defusal Password? How are we supposed to know that?" Kano asked, in disbelief.
Kinato wrote [Maybe they're tricking us to escape the restaurant, maybe the crystal would be nea—]
A beep was heard from the bomb right before Kinato could finish writing. There's 3 minutes left. "There's 3 minutes left!" Luka exclaimed as if there were 3 minutes left, past the 3-minute mark of the bomb.
The squad were puzzled, because there were no clues on the bomb. Only a keyboard and a display screen.
Sai randomly inputted "Ritsurin". That didn't work.
"Try 1234, Password, YushiroCute, or something like that. If we don't try out easy-as-hell passwords then this place turns into a bloody place." Yushiro suggested.
"Shut it, Yushiro. You're not cute." Kazai scolded.
"You just don't wanna admit it… Don't you know who I am? Obviously, a cute reaper. I'm cute, bitch." The fact that Yushiro said Kazai isn't admitting it was true. So true, Yushiro. Stay cute. Sai just tries typing in the passwords that Yushiro suggested, and all of them were wrong.
There's now 10 seconds left. Luka pushed Kinato and Sai farther from the bomb, but when she tried to get Sai out if the explosion range, it exploded. Sai was wounded by the shrapnels of the bomb, no one else were injured.
"...Shit. Black-haired kid, you okay?" Yushiro said.
"I'm okay… Also, my name's Sai."
"Depressed rich father, can you just go heal him?" Yushiro called Haku
"...My name is Haku."
"Haku, can you just go heal him?"
"Sure, that was my child anyway… Next time be polite to me."
"Mister Hakuzaishi Enbinaka Silver, do you mind if I, Yushiro Akayane may ask you to heal your teenage-aged adopted child, Sai Naikono?" The cute reaper said, sarcastically.
"Don't even try to be funny. You aren't even funny to begin with…" Haku replied coldly.
"Sigh… Fine. You're rich, so help me pay my bills and shut me up." Yushiro walked away from the restaurant.
"No. They're all mine." Haku walked back into the limousine.
A girl in purple can be seen in the distance. She looks familiar, and it's like the squad had fought them before. Nokoto Surumi is back, with a brand new power, since she decided that her old power wasn't good enough to defeat them. Everyone stared at her, but Nokoto just waved at them with the new sunglasses she just got.
"Nokoto…? I thought you were in prison?" Luka asked, with curiosity, but she isn't letting her guard down.
"I thought it'll be a good plan to escape prison while this place is in chaos. More focus on the crystals, less focus on the prisons." Nokoto explained. "But the police are still focusing on Mokkato's most notorious criminals, though."
"Are you here to get revenge on us!?" Luka lunged at Nokoto.
"No. I'm just too tired to even be a criminal anymore… But that doesn't mean I'll be your ally either, neither would I continue to be your enemy. Many people are trying to retrieve the crystals, even criminals."
"Oh… If you don't have anything more to say, go away."
"Right." Nokoto crouched, and jumped up really high in the air. It surprised everyone, since Nokoto hasn't jumped that high before.
They all walked to the Statue of Ritsurin, it doesn't have a crystal on it, at least for now. Nami was gone, but she informed the squad that she's going back to Natoruyo. The spirit guardian isn't with the squad, and has returned to his city.
"I have an idea! We take turns trying to find the crystal, and the others go relax. Is that a good idea?" Raki presented.
"That's a nice idea." Satora said. "I finally get to relax."
"Woo! I wonder if anyone else likes this idea? Who likes this idea, raise your hands!"
Everyone raised their hands. Nora slightly disliked the idea, but she raised her hand because everyone else did.
"Alright… Anybody want to explore? 3 people, and I'm also exploring. That makes it two…"
Katasu and Zach immediately raised their hands, and they joined Raki in the current scouting team. They later just split up and went to several places.
Kinato sat next to Luka, and placed her cup of hot chocolate.
"Oh hi, Kina!" Luka greeted Kinato after noticing her.
[It's really cold here, isn't it?] Kinato wrote in her notebook.
"Mhm… It really is. I think Kori-umi is colder, because it's the city of ice."
[Of course it is. So, well… I was born in Ritsurin.]
"I thought you were born in Naiko?"
[At that time, I forgot where I came from.]
"Oh…"
[Where do you come from, though?]
"...It's a secret. But I live in Naiko, at the house where Haku lives!"
[That's nice, can I make you some fried noodles? I heard you love that food! Should I add some ghost pepper as well?]
"Thanks, Kina! Any seasoning is fine!" Luka smiled.
[You're welcome. I'll make one for Sai, too.]
And meanwhile at the exploration team…
Members - Zach Rosaline, Katasu Saino, Raki Zaro
"Just where is it…" Raki whispered.
Zach activated a machine, with the text "Prototype Observer" on it. The machine scanned around the alleyways, but found no trace of a crystal.
"Knew it." Zach said. "They're smart enough to not hide the crystals in this part of the alleyways. They might have some sort of secret base in the other zones…"
"Why not scan for secret bases, then?" Katasu asked.
"Observer is not capable of detecting objects that cannot be accessed without digging the ground, which means the secret bases here have no open way there."
Katasu looked at Zach for a second, and thought he was capable of building anything, and asked, "Why not just build an Observer v2 that can detect underground stuff, then?"
Zach chuckled, and adjusted something before explaining to Katasu; "I'm mostly good at battle gadgets. Utility gadgets, well, not really."
"So… You're not the most experienced mechanic in the world, then."
"I guess nobody is!"
After talking about random topics and laughing around, they explored different places in order to find another crystal.
Yushiro sneaked outside the car and tried to explore by himself. That time, he wasn't trying to steal the crystal because he wanted to destroy Natoruyo, but he was so broke that Yushiro doesn't know what to do anymore.
After trying to find the place somewhere in the alleyways, a different one from where Zach was exploring, but to no surprise, he never found it. He decided to take a break by finding a clean dumpster and sitting inside of it. That was where he lived when he was a child.
He never went to an orphanage, and he never knew that parents even existed, until now. It was a pretty dull and boring life, with Yushiro being pretty much unnoticed, like a little rock on the street.
Yushiro was really lucky to meet those people. He was away from his debt collectors now, but the current situation made him think that his life would finally be fun.
Finally, his boring story ends.