Chapter 7 - Kill the Supplies

Arc: Hell Upraise

?

Tatsumi looked at the water that surrounded him. Everywhere he could see there was a calm water that reached up to his ankles. The sun was setting and it only helped to enhance the otherworldly sensation this place gave him.

"Why do you doubt?" asked a voice behind him

Turning around Tatsumi held back a gasp as he watched the person that stood in front of him.

"Are you ashamed?" Asked Bulat, his bro, and the man who gave him the power he needed for the trials that would befall him

"Are you ashamed of what you became?!" He yelled

Tatsumi tried to talk, to tell him that what he said wasn't true, that he didn't doubt at all. But he couldn't

"Then why are you lying and holding yourself back?!" Bulat seemed angrier than what he had ever seen him "Why are you acting as if you are a weakling? Are you that afraid of the truth that you would let someone die to keep a lie safe?! ARE YOU THAT PATHETIC?!"

One by one the deceased members of night raid appeared behind Bulat and stared at him with disapproving glares

He screamed

Forest - Tatsumi's Group

Tatsumi woke up with a gasp, his heart was beating as if trying to escape his body and he was covered in sweat "W-What the hell was that?"

It was then that he noticed that one of the sleeping bags was empty, Keiichi's. Eyes widening and pulse skyrocketing, he stood up and quickly searched around for Keiichi, he didn't need to worry as he only ran for a few meters away from the camp when he found him.

"HENSHIN!" Yelled Keiichi. His body was covered in a light sweat and he was slightly panting as he went through similar motions to what Akira did in the forest, nothing happened. "Gargh! What am I doing wrong?!" he yelled

That's when Tatsumi decided to make his presence known "I dunno" he said while stepping out of the shadows "What I DO know is that someone decided to try and train away from us without telling anyone" He finished while giving him an annoyed stare

Keiichi had the decency to look slightly ashamed "Sorry" he apologized

Sighing Tatsumi decided to tackle the elephant in the room "You are trying to get a Sacred Gear aren't you?" he asked

Keiichi tried to deny the claim "NO, no, no, It's not like that. I- I was just, uh, trying to, er" His eyes were looking everywhere but at Tatsumi before he finally gave up "Yeah, I am" he said while slumping down

"Why?" asked Tatsumi

"I- I don't know…" He looked down at his hands "I just, feel that if I really want to help you guys I…" Keiichi ran out words and just stayed I his position

"I understand" Tatsumi replied "However, I can tell you this, you don't need a Sacred Gear to be useful to us" He stated while Keiichi looked at him confusedly "You are the one to keep us together, leader, and I know that it's no superpower but it is something that we will always need. Since we were little and even now."

Keiichi looked down for a moment before smiling at Tatsumi "Thanks, Sumi"

"Don't mind it, Ichi" countered Tatsumi

With a simple laugh the both of them returned to camp with the food to make breakfast. Keiichi meanwhile was trying not to laugh his ass of when in an attempt to reach a group of eggs hidden in a tree Tatsumi fell with the tree into river. In the end the eggs were rotten.

Tatsumi just grumbled 'How could I have known that the nest was abandoned.'

That day they had lively breakfast, even if they were getting tired of eating fruits

Eligos Castle

Inside a lab in the castle Ernorldus used his expertise in alchemy to add a muscle augmentation drug into multiple food items

"I believe it is time to start the next experiment" said Ernoldus as he watched the multiple drugged items that were enough to feed maybe a dozen kids "And having you do it would be sweet isn't that right Priscilla?"

The girl in question was squirming in place as she tried to escape from something invisible "Now as your Master I order you 'Tell them the message I've written'"

Priscilla seemingly resisted as he muscles tensed and her throat spasmed before she spoke "yEs masTER"

The girl then went away with a certain strange hardness in her step

Forest - Hirumi's Group

Throughout the entire forest a sound similar to nail scratching a board was heard before being replaced by the soft voice of the kid's savior

"Hello? Is this working?... Oh! Sorry if I woke anyone up. This is Priscilla, I've sent you a few boxes with supplies so that you may be able to survive in the forest. I… I am aware that you have suffered under my brothers' rule and that you may not trust me anymore but this is my way of telling you to not give up and that I am still fighting. The only problem is that the food had to pass through my brother's transportation circles, meaning that they won't go directly to you, maybe they are near? You should be able to see the due to the smoke signals that I've attached. I hope that you manage to escape"

Hirumi looked at the rest of the people with her and as expected the grand majority of the others were leery of even trying. They were young, not stupid. After the discovering that the fruit were hurting them somehow, she as well as most of the group believed that Priscilla was not to be trusted.

Unfortunately, the other part of the group had a lot of faith in her.

"We should go" said Koushiki, a plain brown haired boy "She saved us from the castle and gave us the tools to survive and escape, maybe there are more tool that could help us"

"I don't think so" countered Wasureta, a black haired boy with a very forgettable presence "Remember she didn't tell us about the fruits"

"That could have been because she forgot, y' know" Pressed Morisuke a light brown haired boy with a slight accent "Y'all remember how she looked like right" The memory of the night Priscilla explained the situation popped into their mind "She looked like she was in pain whenever she talked 'bout her brother, y' know"

With that the clearing fell into silence and no sound other than the ruffling of clothes could be heard

"Koushiki-kun, take anyone who want to go with you and go to check the supplies" decided Hirumi

Koushiki however retreated immediately "W- wait, we can't go alone" he knew very well that none of the Sacred Gear users had any faith in Priscilla and that of the ten remaining students only three still held such faith "At least have piggy come with us"

At that moment Hirumi had to bite the inside of her cheek to stop herself from punching him, they didn't need a fight right now. However, she as well as everyone else knew who he was talking about.

"Her name is Tae Teikou, if you are to ask for help then remember to ask by name, Koushiki" answered Hirumi "Tae-chan, what do you think?"

Tae just looked at Koushiki before suddenly lowering her head and answering with a low voice "Yes, I will go"

Hirumi was surprised she accepted but moved on nonetheless

"Ok, moving on, Wasureta-kun? How long until we cross the mountain?" asked Hirumi

"We won't" he answered "Kanae-san look at tree that is a few meters behind Morisuke" he ordered to a slender brown haired girl

Kanae did and immediately reacted "What?! Th- this is impossible!"

Seeing her shock, Hirumi as well as the others rushed to the tree to see what was wrong. There they found a drawing in red marker

Takanashi + Kanae

This confused them and they started wondering if this was a cruel prank from Wasureta when Kanae decided to defuse any confusion

"Takanashi-kun made that with me during our second night here" she stated

This made Hirumi's heart become lead and fall into her stomach "W- Wait, y- you mean…"

Wasureta finished for her "We have been walking in circles, or so I'd like to say but…" he looked to the side "Seeing that we have been walking directly towards the mountain and never changed direction, we didn't walk in circles but we returned back here" he seemed to have trouble in explaining the situation

"We can't get out…" whispered Hirumi

"There was also something that bothered me since the beginning and now begins to make sense" Spoke Wasureta

"Where are all the animals?"

Forest - Tatsumi's Group

Keiichi looked at his friend after the announcement resounded through the forest

"I… think we should let this go" spoke Tatsumi his face unreadable

Immediately Sakura asked the reason "Why? It's a gift from Priscilla–nee. It could probably help us out"

Tatsumi's expression became strange

"Nevermind" he retracted while trying to act as if it didn't matter

"Don't you nevermind us! Is it your Sacred Gear?!" asked Chinatsu who valued Tatsumi's Sacred Gear instincts

"I think I know what he is thinking" spoke up Akira with a shiver, and then elaborated after everyone looked at him "Do you remember what happens when the cafeteria brings those Donuts in the Fridays?"

Everyone shivered, remembering how their classmates became hungry beasts that would stop at nothing to get their Donuts

"So… What Tatsumi fears is that this will become a fight if we go there?" asked Sakura

Tatsumi smiled and nodded "Yeah, Sorry for no saying anything, it's just that I didn't think you would believe me"

While everyone believed that lie, Keiichi just let out a sigh. He knew that Tatsumi was lying, a lot, but he didn't stop him. After three years of knowing Tatsumi he was very aware of his expressions, and how his face changed whenever he was feeling something or even when he was lying. So he could read it, the fact that Tatsumi had known about his powers long before this, the fact that he didn't know what a sacred gear was and the fact that what had him uncomfortable with going to Priscilla's supplies wasn't the possible fight but something else

"Let's go then" Keiichi said while smiling "We will get Priscilla's Supplies"

"Yay" "Ok" "This is going to get messy" Commented Sakura, Chinatsu and Akira

Forest - Hirumi's Group

In the end Koushiki managed to avoid being one of the ones to go on to get the supplies. A total of 4 people were the ones to go, Tae, Morisuke, Kumamoto and Satou were the ones to go. Tae being the only Sacred Gear user to go was put on the middle so she could protect anyone from any of the monsters in the forest.

"Who would have guessed the day Piggy would be protecting us would come, huh?" said Kumamoto the tallest boy of the class

"I am still surprised that out of all of us Piggy is one of the sacred gear users" Answered Satou

"I ain't one for ruining parties but I think that messing with your defender is a bad idea, Y' know" commented Morisuke

The two boys suddenly stiffened as they remembered that if Tae wanted to, she could just up and leave them alone in the forest, but after a moment of silence they continued to hurl insults at the girl.

Tae just sighed

For this one time she felt that it was better if they just insulted her, as they were trying and failing to ignore the revelation Wasureta gave them. It was shocking and at the same time disheartening so much so that Koushiki who had believed with unusual fervor in Priscilla had given up and just stared at the distant mountain with disbelief. Even she was affected as it meant that they could only wait for someone, anyone, to save them from the hell they were inside of.

Morisuke who was at the front smiled "There it is!" he yelled while signaling forward and rushing towards it

"Morisuke!" yelled Kumamoto "Wait for me!"

Tae just shook her head and followed them

"Trash, Shit, Rubbish, Crap, Is there anything good in this bullshit?"

?

The sound of a breaking twig made him look back and notice a group standing there

"The fuck do you want?"

END

Next Chapter: Kill the Wolf

Preview

"We can't run away you fuckers"

"Did you like my gift?"

"The two of them are monsters!"

"Priscilla-nee wouldn't do this!"

"Time for the second wave"

Next Chapter: Kill the Wolf

Sorry for the delay, online classes are bullshit.