It had been a text from Gara. A text from Gara, sent via Noboru’s phone, with a gruesome video attached. Gara had kidnapped Noboru. Gara had kidnapped Noboru and was torturing him.
“Tasuku!”
He didn’t even hear Jack calling out to him. In that moment, Tasuku lost sense of all rational thought and bolted towards the door. There was only one thing he had in mind:
I have to find Noboru-kun. I have to find him before it’s too late!
And against Kakeru’s earlier request, Tasuku sprinted onto the streets under the setting sun. It was fine. As long as he had Jack, it was fine.
He had to find Noboru.
Dammit! Where is he?!
He forced himself to watch the video over and over again, but there was very little he could use from it. The room Noboru had been contained in was dark; an abandoned building from the looks of it. An abandoned warehouse...
A warehouse?
Like the one he had been kidnapped to when the previous Gara had taken over Kakeru’s body. Of course. They were the same person, so they’d have the same habits... The same tastes.
That meant they were somewhere in Sector oo2. But where? Tasuku’s heart pounding, he replayed the video again, and saw, in the very corner, part of a window...
A window with one of the most prominent buildings in the Sector.
That would at least narrow it down.
“Jack, let’s go! We’re heading to the Industrial Sector!”
Tasuku’s heart was pounding.
There were few warehouses here, but still a sizable enough amount that it took time to search them all. Every minute he spent, every minute he wasted, was another minute that Noboru was suffering.
I have to save him... I have to save him...!
He threw the door of a particular warehouse wide open, and found that it had been used recently. Momentarily blinded by the darkness, Tasuku proceeded cautiously, feeling along the walls in the limited light.
He smelled blood.
And it was strongest from the closed door he was standing in front of.
Star Pulsar flashed to life as he activated the Future Force, and holding Dragobrave in hand, he kicked the door down, fully expecting a fight--
--only to find the room abandoned, not a wink in sight. But this had undoubtedly been the room Noboru had been kept in; everything was the same as he had been in the video. The window, the makeshift operating table--
Tasuku’s foot splashed into something wet.
Blood.
Blood. Blood. Blood
There was blood everywhere. Tasuku hadn’t seen it in the limited light, but he saw the dark stains on the table. The congealing pool on the floor. The splatter on the wall.
Noboru-kun...
There was no way a grown man would’ve been able to survive this level of blood loss, let alone a child.
“No... No, no, no...!”
Tasuku had been too late.
It had taken half an hour to get over the shock, and five minutes after that to remember Hive City’s particular quirk.
Death wasn’t permanent.
Which meant Noboru had probably respawned somewhere else, disoriented, in pain, and scared.
Tasuku ended the wild goose chase at Sector oo5, landing in front of Noboru’s apartment and wasting no time in running to the boy’s suite.
“Noboru-kun!”
He threw the doors open, and saw him. Noboru lay on the couch, pale as a sheet, but very much alive, as if sleeping. There wasn’t a single cut on his body.
“Noboru-kun... Noboru-kun!” He reached over and shook Noboru’s shoulders desperately. “Noboru-kun!”
kxttenshirt said: Kind of just. Starts helping her.
juddkat juddkat said: Judd will join her. It's like a fireplace...
"Thank goodness there's still a lot of discarded Christmas trees lying around, these'll burn real nice." She throws part of a wooden pallet into the empty fountain. "Geez. I'm gonna have to go stay with Marie tonight if the power doesn't come back..."
“Sorry for intruding! I think Eevee left one of his toys up here--”
“Noboru-kun! I didn’t know you were here!”
Indeed, the sight that greeted Tasuku when he went upstairs was reminiscent to a slumber party. Gao and Noboru had managed to keep any messes localized to Gao’s room, but the sprawl of blankets and pillows was visible from the hall.
Not only that, but Noboru was in some rather amusing attire...
“Those pajamas are so cute, Noboru-kun! You won’t put the hood on? It’ll complete the tiger look.”
Judd arches his back, stretching upwards. It doesn’t seem to have really much affected how low his stomach was hanging, somehow...He pushes himself into more petting, slowly waltzing over to the edge of the box. The petting booth is very obviously emblazoned with a “Petting Fee,” but it doesn’t really make much sense for Noboru to pay since it’s mainly funds for the apartment he’s a part of.
Judd would not do that. He’s more likely to make up a fake innocent secret and spread that around.‘Hey this is a secret, but Cat Kid actually likes lions more than tigers. Don’t tell anyone.’ 0;3
“A dirty, coffee-stained, sealed envelope. If you open it, you will find a sheet of paper with your name, your date of birth and another date six months in the future.”Now that’s peculiar. Judd’s shredded the envelope messily with his capped claws and is staring at the paper. What do these numbers mean... It’s not like his date of birth is even known. He will have to hang it up for all his flat to wonder over.
