IEGO || Heart Catcher

『 CHAPTER 37 』

You devoured through plate after plate after plate of curry rice.

Kabeyama, Fudou, and Kazemaru had to blink twice at all the clean plates you've stacked. Once you finished, you sighed, pleased, as you pat your full stomach.

Fudou turned to Endou behind him, pointing at you. "You tellin' me she's the girl with that creepy illusion hissatsu?"

Endou grinned. "Yep!"

"A-and that she's the niece of that c-captain of Occult Junior High we fought l-long ago in a match?" Kabeyama added.

"Sure is!"

The three's minds buffered for a good several seconds. You swore you heard something like a DING and then all three of the men said together:

"It's all a full circle now."

Fubuki laughed at this while Endou asked, "What's the full circle?"

Kazemaru waved his hand side to side. "It's nothing, Endou."

"Rather, we should focus on...." Fudou's eyes fell on you.

You tilted your head with a smile.

"Right," Endou said. "[Surname], where had Fifth Sector taken you?"

You drew a doodle of a prison cell.

"How did you get out?"

You drew a stick figure of you. The stick figure had a fist. You drew slanted lines around the fist, and then a straight line after the fist. You wrote WALL beside the straight line.

"... You punched the wall down...?" Fubuki assumed.

You nodded.

Kabeyama whispered, "D-do you think she summoned a ghost that possessed her with great strength?"

Kazemaru whispered. "Probably?"

Fudou coughed. "Okay, next question!"

Endou continued: "How did you find us?"

You drew Kappa as a stick figure with a shell.

The rest stared. "That thing ... looks familiar," Fudou voiced out everyone's thoughts.

"Maybe it's a forest friend?" Kazemaru turned to you.

You nodded. So, they all agreed to leave it at there.

"Did you see Kidou, Haruna, and the other girls?"

You shook your head with a frown. Guilt rose inside you. You wondered whether you should've punched the door cell instead and look around inside the tower. These thoughts dissolved when Endou patted your head. He gave you a reassuring grin.

You smiled back a little. Right, there was still time to save them.

"Oi, you kids gonna come out or what?"

You turned to the bushes where Fudou had looked at and asked aloud. The leaves rustled. Soon, your teammates came out of the bushes, embarrassed that they were caught eavesdropping.

Endou laughed. "They must have been curious."

"Well, they have been extremely worried, so it's understandable," said Fubuki.

You smiled widely. You stood up, minding the plates, before you ran up to the team. Sangoku opened his arms out and you jumped into them for a hug. Tenma and Shinsuke joined in for the hug, too.

Unfortunately, your hugs came to an end. Everyone gazed up to Shuu who swung in with a vine. Shuu landed across the group. His eyes met yours.

Your crystal pulsed. An extreme coldness washed over you.