Untamed Heart ✨

Chapter 27 - Through The Back Door

I carefully tiptoe my way across a row of bushes and through the array of trees, Akkun and Hinata close next to me. I look down at my pocket, the police radio Naoto gave to me standing out as shame flows through me. I feel bad that we haven't spoken to him much, he's probably worried. Although despite this, I'm sure he'd be fully against what we're trying to do, attempting to talk us out of it. I wish he was here though, we could use someone like him who's trained for stuff like this. I snap out of it for now, focusing back up as we all come to a holt at the tree line surrounding the back area of the school. Akkun squints, pointing over to what we can make out of the building. "There" he whispers, drawing our attention over to a set of rusty looking double doors. "Looks like you were right Hina". She smirks, making her way forward after checking nobody else is around. "What's the plan when we're inside?" I ask, making it my mission not to step on any nettles or bramble bushes. "Well we'll see who we can find. I think we can bank on Tatsuo, or someone else of higher importance being inside, so if we meet up with them it's definitely an advantage". I nod, looking over at the decaying back entrance with hopefully eyes. These better open... I cannot wait to see Tatsuo's face again, and I cannot wait to see his reaction to mine. The whole dreamy situation puts a big smile on my face in a dire time, something to fight and live for in the end. "I say we make a dash for the door, hope it opens" Akkun states, Hina looking at him in slight disagreement. "What if someone's there? They might hear us" Hina says, Akkun sighing as he assesses our options. "Okay maybe not a mad dash, but we should definitely move quickly. I want to help everyone, and I don't want to be stuck in these woods any longer". I nod to agree with him, getting ready to follow his lead. Hina finally complies, following us both as we rush out of the woods in a swift walking pace, almost a sort of jog. Halfway there we all look around, noticing nobody has followed or is chasing after us, which is relieving. "Home stretch" Akkun calls to us both, picking up speed until he's right in front of our destination. He waits for us both to catch up, making sure we're both okay. We both nod, the sweet moment ending as he turns back to the door. "Welp, let's hope for the best" he says, before pushing the door to see if it opens. It takes a moment, but eventually a powerful shove causes them both to swing open, along with a loud clanging sound. "Voila" he jokes, taking a cautious step as we finally enter the building. It's nothing special believe me. It's quite dark, which isn't surprising considering it's abandoned. No point paying an electricity bill. There's lots of cracks in the ceiling, some water even dripping down from a crevasse at the end of the hall. I look around me, realising we're in a hallway surrounded by classrooms, like any normal school. One class actually has a dim and flickering light to my surprise, yet it's clearly seen better days. "What a lovely place" Hina murmurs, peering through one of the broken windows leading to a classroom reading 'Art club'. It's relatively quiet too, apart from the sound of muffled footsteps upstairs. "Hey stay close yeah?" Akkun advises. "We could end up running into people who are dangerous. I can imagine Hanma and Sanzu are probably inside by now, as well as the others too". Sanzu... So that is who the other one is. The man I thought I recognised based off of appearance description. "So um... The pink haired one, the one with marks or whatever they are, I feel like he's familiar to me" I say out loud, the both of them turning to look at me. "How?" Hina questions, to which I shrug. "I don't know, I just feel like someone's spoken about him to me before...". "Tatsuo maybe?" Akkun adds, sparking my brain up to start thinking. "Let's keep moving for now" Akkun says, advising us to follow him as he leads us onwards through the ominous halls of this once flourishing school. I follow him cautiously, the curiosity of who this guy is still dwelling inside my mind. I try and think of the past couple of days. Every conversation I may have had with Tatsuo, or Senju, or anyone else that may have mentioned him. Then it hits me. "That's it!" I say a bit too loudly, Akkun irritated with the loud noise. "Sorry..." I mumble, bringing them both closer to say what I have to say. "I know who that guy is" I announce, the two of them gazing at me confused. "Lemme explain. I was thinking of every person that could've told me about whoever this unknown yet oddly recognisable dude is, and then it hit me...". "Go on..." Hina urges, looking back to make sure nobody is creeping up behind us. "It was Tatsuo, he came over to hang, gave me a present". I pause, looking at their blank expressions. I sigh, continuing on. "So, after we'd exchanged hugs and that after he'd given me the present, we sat down and I told him about a confrontation I had in an alleyway on the way home". "You got confronted??" Hina questions, seemingly worried although the situation has well and truly passed now. "Yeah, don't worry it wasn't bad. But anyway, I told Tatsuo who was there, naming one of them as Takeomi, since that's who he announced himself as. Upon that, Tatsuo recognised him, saying he was Senju's brother, and that she actually had two. This other guy, the pink haired one, he's Senju's other brother. It's like Tatsuo said, the 'mysterious three siblings...'. I can't believe it took me this long to figure it out...