One and Only

Ch. 21 Beach Episode

The four of us spirinted down the halls of the school.
"Where's Amanai?" Gojo called out to Kuroi.
"It's time for her music class now. So either in the music room or the chapel." She quickly replied.
"Chapel?!" Gojo yelled out.
"It depends on the teacher." She tried to explain.
"Is this really the time? We need to get to Amanai first!" I yelled out as we all turned a corner.
"Satoru, you head to the chapel. Kuroi, the music room. Mai and I will head to the intruders."
"Understood!" Kuroi yelled out before we all went our separate ways.
"How many intruders are there?" I asked as we turned the opposite direction of Satoru and Kuroi.
"At least two, but there could be more lurking the perimeter."
"Shit, alright. You head to the ones that exorcised your cursed spirits. I'll go check around the sch-" as we turned yet another corner we skidded to a halt. An older sorcerer was blocking off the hallway, two shinigami on either side of him.
"Well, well. Those uniforms.." the old man murmured. Suguru quickly manifested curses of his own and I drew my blades.
"Suguru, I'm going on ahead." I said as I began to back off. "I'm leaving him to you." I sprinted down the hall before the old man could throw an attack.
I ran outside and jumped to the roof of the school. I quickly climbed to the highest point of the school to survey the surrounding buildings and trees. I saw what looked like a man wearing a paper bag on his head taking cover u der some trees near the pool. I gripped the blades tightly in my hands and dived to where he was lurking. I drew my arms to the right of me and pivoted my body to swing at him.
"Agh!" I heard the man yell out in pain and surprise. I looked back to see him falling; but before he hit the ground, his body turned into a liquid like substance.
"What the..?" There came a commotion from the opposite side of the building. I heard quite a number of girls yelling. I was getting ready to run over and see what was going on, but then I saw Satoru running away while holding onto Amanai like she were luggage.
"Yo, Mai!" I turned my head around to see Kuroi and Suguru walking towards me. "Have you seen Satoru?"
"Yeah, he just went by," I replied, pointing to where I saw him. "We following him?"
"Yeah, I just called him. Apparently there's a 30 million bounty on Riko's head." He explained.
"Seriously? Fuck." I grunted out. "That's probably what sludge man is out here for then.."
"Sludge?" Kuroi asked.
"Yeah, some dude I was fighting turned into a gross sludge before I could finish him off."
"Did he happen to wear a paper bag?" Kuroi pointed to her head.
"Yeah, how'd you know?"
"I also fought that man."
"Ah, shit. We're dealing with clones? That's annoying." I breathed out.
"Which means there's probably more, we should hurry." Suguru suggested.
We all began to run in the direction we saw Satoru go, Suguru and I were closer to the front as Kuroi ran behind us.
"Master Geto, Master Yamazaki, please go on ahead of me!" Kuroi shouted.
"What?" Suguru and I looked behind ourselves. Kuroi was a ways behind us, if we didn't hurry we won't make it in time.
"Please go on ahead! You're both faster than I am! Who knows what will happen!" Suguru and I exchanged a quick glance.
"Allright, we're going ahead!" Suguru shouted and the two of us picked up the pace.

We made it where Amanai and Satoru were, however there was a frightful look on Amanai's face.
"What happened?" I called out as we came to a stop. Amanai quickly showed us the picture that was on her phone. It was Kuroi, bound and gagged. Concern washed over both Suguru and I.
"Sorry. It's my fault." Suguru was quick to take the blame.
"What?" I looked over at him. His head hung in shame.
"I made the call to go on without her. We should've stayed close." He explained. "I didn't take into consideration Kuroi's importance to the enemy."
"Is that right? It's not a big deal." Satoru replied, shoving his hands into his pockets. "The enemy is probably going to take advantage of this hostage situation and demand some sort of trade of Amanai for Kuroi. Or something like if we don't kill her," he jabbed a thumb to Amanai, "they kill Kuroi." He placed his hand back into his pocket. "Since we have Amanai, we have the upper hand. We just need to coordinate a meeting place. We can handle the rest."
"Then I guess we should take Amanai back to Jujutsu High?" I chimed in.
"That's not a bad idea, maybe we could get Shoko to act as a double-"
"Wait!" Riko shouted. "I'm going too! I can't trust you guys with this!"
"What? You brat, don't you realize the situation you're-"
"Even if you rescue her... what happens if Kuroi isn't back before the merger?" Riko's voice wavered. She was becoming visibly anxious. "I haven't even said goodbye to her yet!" Her hand squeezed around the fabric of her skirt. Tears formed in her eyes.
Satoru, Suguru, and I exchanged a look. Satoru looked ahead, thinking about the situation.
"... We'll be getting a call from the kidnappers soon. If they're smarter than we thought and if taking you means Kuroi's chances of survival decreases, we're gonna leave you behind. And domt even think about backing out halfway we dont care if you get scared. Got it?" Riko wiped her tears and gave us a look of determination.
"Understood! That's fine." She responded with a newfound confidence. And just as Satoru had predicted, we got a call.