Jiro tried his best to hold his feelings together. It had been a long two years and Ritsuka had randomly shown up as quickly as he had disappeared. He held his baby brother as he cried, squeezing him hard.
'He got stronger.' Jiro smiled. He couldn't help it. His siblings would always tease him for smiling in sad moments. They said Jiro was weird for smiling, but Jiro always knew he was the piece that would remind everyone of their happiness even in the sadness.
"It's alright." Jiro reassured Ritsuka. "All that matters now is you're here. I'm glad you're alive and well, Ritsuka." Jiro patted his brother's head and pulled away. He wiped the tears off his brother's face and smiled.
"Well, well, well! It seems like there's still a lot of you left!" The female announcer's voice boomed through the air. "It's been six hours since the start! How do you feel? Are you feeling tired? The hounds are adapting as we speak and if you're unlucky, they'll get cha! Hahahahah! It wouldn't be a fun Loser's Game if I didn't give you opportunities to get out of this situation, hm?
"There are random points all over the Academy District. If you can find one of these points and secure a medallion and bring it to one of the shops, you'll burn four hours off the timer! Anyone with the most coins inputted will show up on the leaderboard. Top three candidates will join the winner's elsewhere and the rest of you… You'll get another chance in the next game! Alright, that's all I got for you. I gotta watch a bunch of winner's try to not die. Have fun trying to get the coins! Oh, bonus points for stealing a coin from someone else! That'll increase your ranking further! Bye~"
[Quest Updated!]
[LOSER'S GAME: Capture tokens and return them to nearby shops.]
"Great." Lee Seng whispered. "They're making us go outside so we can all lower the time… This'll only cause more bloodshed." He scratched his neck and turned to the brother's.
"This is a great time to try to find my arm." Jiro spoke up. "We'll retrace my steps on the way to finding one of these coins. I can stitch it back together and hopefully the stitches work."
"I haven't heard of something like that existing." Ritsuka looked at Jiro. "Why do you keep on saying 'stitching'? I thought it was basically impossible to do that after a given amount of time."
"It is, but Hayami's been workin' on something that could change the entire game." Jiro answered. The Yamada brothers walked over to Lee Seng. Jiro smiled at Lee Seng and stuck his hand out. "We got off on the wrong foot. Anyone would automatically try to call you a monster with the way you look. Sorry about that. Like my brother introduced me, I'm Jiro. It's nice to meet the Creator's son. I didn't think my brother would befriend someone like you."
"Thanks?" Lee Seng shook Jiro's hand. He pulled his hand away and kept himself right on the door. "Let's find your arm… if it didn't get eaten."
"Oh shit, that's right!" Jiro's eyes widened. Lee Seng moved the door away and watched with Ritsuka as Jiro scurried out of the room. Ritsuka sighed and shook his head in disappointment. Jiro was often scatterbrained which led to situations like this.
Lee Seng followed Jiro with Ritsuka next to him. The two jogged without a word exchanged between each other. Lee Seng listened as hellhounds scurried. Blood was splattered all over the halls. Dead bodies, intestines, body parts, you name it was sprawled cross the floors.
"To think the school would become something like this." Ritsuka whispered. "Such a shame… Do you think we could've had normal lives if… People weren't after you?"
"Probably." Lee Seng answered. "Maybe if you didn't become friends with me, you'd be fine." It was a sad truth to him. If he didn't involve anyone and stayed a lone wolf, maybe things would've been better for everyone, including himself.
"Hey." Ritsuka patted Lee Seng's shoulder. "I would go through hell and more just to be friend with you. Don't feel so bad about it. Just think in another universe, we'd probably be friends and be in a guild together and everything. We'd be the ultimate duo."
"The amount of girls that would swoon for you." Lee Seng lifted his eyebrows at Ritsuka.
"Nah, they'd be swarming you. You capture people's attention with all that." Ritsuka motioned at Lee Seng. "I can't believe you look like that and you've been in months ago. I'm jealous."
"Hounds!" Jiro shouted. Jiro conjured his longsword and went to action. "A thousand cuts!" He flew down the hallway, slicing every hound coming at him. Lee Seng watched each hound turn to dust. Jiro's precision was beautiful. He didn't nick a single locker, ceiling or flooring.
"Whoa," Lee Seng's mouth was agape. "That precision."
"With that strength, too. I'm jealous my brother has one weapon." Ritsuka added. "I wish I could do that sort of thing."
"You can adapt to a situation with your weapon choices. I can't." Jiro sighed as he released his longsword. "C'mon, I came in from the front." The three continued down their path, weaving through the bloodied halls, trying not to slip from the blood and parts lying around.
The eventually neared to the front where Jiro and Ritsuka headed for the door. Lee Seng, on the other hand, slowed to a stop. He turned his head towards the offices. There was a strange energy coming from within.
"Hold on." Lee Seng called out. Ritsuka and Jiro slid to a stop.
"What is it?" Ritsuka asked, looking at Lee Seng. Jiro looked at Ritsuka before scanning their surroundings. "Is it a monster?"
"There's something inside the front office." Lee Seng pointed. He slowly crept over to the door and opened it.
"Like what?" Jiro asked. "I don't sense anything hostile. We should keep going." Ritsuka looked at his brother, slowly following Lee Seng.
"He can detect Dark Matter energies around us." Ritsuka filled his brother in. "He probably senses something worth searching out."
"It could be a trap." Jiro followed after.
"Or it could be this." Lee Seng turned and revealed a large coin. It was at least an inch thick and had strange carvings on it with a small hole cut out from the middle of it.
"Is that what I think it is?" Ritsuka asked.
[Coin found!]
"Yup." Lee Seng nodded. The coin whooshed with energy as Lee Seng pulled his Void Storage out and stuck it inside.
"Whoa, what was that?" Jiro asked.
"Void gate. It's a runic spell I picked up." Lee Seng answered. "I guess I should shift from this form, huh?"
"Yeah, I would honestly do that." Ritsuka nodded.
"Wh-what?" Jiro asked. He watched Lee Seng's form change in front of him. The tails disappeared with the Fox ears. Human ears appeared in their usual spots at the side of Lee Seng's head and his eyes shifted back to regular eyes.
"Better." Ritsuka gave Lee Seng a thumbs up. Lee Seng nodded and began to exit with Ritsuka as Jiro stuttered.
"W-w-w-w-wait, he just… like that?" Jiro pointed.
"Yup." Ritsuka nodded. "C'mon, we're gonna find an arm right?"
The group exited the building. Jiro led the way, going left into the grass. He waded in the Academy's lawn for a while before finding something in a bush.
"Found it!" Jiro pulled it out and lifted it into the air. It had been gnawed on but it was his arm.
"Are you sure that's your arm and not someone else's?" Ritsuka asked.
"This is my arm." Jiro turned and handed it to Ritsuka. "Hold it. I need to grab the thread and needle." He pushed his arm into his baby brother's arms and started to dig for his stuff. Ritsuka was disgusted by the arm in his hands. He looked at Lee Seng, who understood what he wanted and lifted the arm out of Ritsuka's hands.
"Found it!" Jiro pulled the thread and needle out. "Now to… Shit, I can't…"
"Let me do it. I need to thread it?" Ritsuka snatched the needle and thread out of Jiro's hand.
"Yeah and then we need to actually stitch it…" Jiro nodded. Ritsuka struggled to thread the needle. Lee Seng and Jiro watched as Ritsuka continuously failed.
"Let me do it." Lee Seng moved over.
"I can do it! I've done this a million times before." Ritsuka grunted as he threaded it. He happily celebrated and moved over to Jiro's missing arm side. "Arm." Lee Seng floated the arm back to its place and attached it. "Try not to be squeamish, Jiro."
Ritsuka stitched Jiro's arm back and took a step back. The threads were blue and ethereal-like. Lee Seng and Ritsuka tilted their heads, waiting for Jiro to move his arm. Jiro tried to move his arm, but to no avail.
"I think the— Whoa!" Jiro shouted as the stitches sank deep into his arm. He could feel it surge within him. The Dark Matter energy flowed through the threads causing his arm to glow. Jiro screamed as he clutched his arm.
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