Devotio

Chapter 9

Two or three hours passed when Echizen had woken up, not by choice though. There was this excessive ringing in his ears or at least that's what it sounded like while asleep. Now it was that of a flute. He looked around for the source but only saw the cat sitting next to him and Ryoga asleep in his bed. It was still cloudy outside but it looked like the rain had stopped at least.

The flute was getting louder but, it wasn't unpleasant. It was practically soothing. Echizen stood up and slowly started walking from the room, intent on finding out where the music was coming from. The cat jumped from Echizen's bed and went to him, biting and pulling on his pant leg. Echizen paid it no mind though, not even stopping to look down. He headed out the door and down the hall, leaving the cat and Ryoga inside the room.

Something was wrong. He would've at least glanced at him to see what he was doing but nothing. The cat sent a quick jolt to Kaidou to warn him about what was happening then jumped on Ryoga's bed to wake him. Though he wasn't able to touch anyone other than Kaidou and Echizen, he was able to make sounds like any other cat. He started howling his lungs out and was happily rewarded when Ryoga almost fell out of bed.

"What are you doing cat?" Ryoga held the side of his head and watched the cat go to Echizen's now empty bed. "Chibi-suke?" He sighed. Of course he would be gone at a time like this. "Typical. Okay cat, where'd he go?" The cat went over to the door. "Let's go find him.

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Echizen walked through the base, undetected for the most part. The people that did see him probably assumed he was just wandering and getting a feel for the place. He didn't pay any attention to anyone, they all seemed- insignificant. In fact everything did, except for finding the source of the flute. It was strange; he didn't know why it was so important. He wasn't even thinking of where he was going while walking. It was like he knew where to go.

While he was going through, less and less people had been in the areas he was and pretty soon he was in a completely abandoned part, or at least they hadn't gotten to fixing it yet. With every step the song got louder. He briefly went outside and ended at what appeared to be a second gym. When he entered, the song came blaring out. He wondered why no one else had heard and went to look for the source like he had but it might have been a regular occurrence so they might have just been ignoring it.

There was a lantern illuminating two people; one who was playing the flute and the other who was playing with their hair. When he was about half way to them, the one playing the flute stopped and Echizen seemed to snap out of a trance. He looked around confused. The past few minutes of him getting there was a blur.

"Hell-o Ryoma-san!" Chipper. Echizen never really did like chipper people; Kikumaru was an exception. The one who spoke to him was a girl with light blonde hair those she wasn't the one with the flute. "My name is Handa Noriko; Chargarde's Number 4. I can alter people's memories! This is my best friend Dio Rintaro; Chargarde's Number 3! He can control things with his flute. Isn't that cool?"

Echizen was immediately on guard at hearing Chargarde.

"Calm down." The boy, Dio, said with a supreme lackluster tone. "We're not here to fight, despite what you must think. We're here to help you along."

Echizen snorted. "By help along I assume you mean take me back to your headquarters."

"Exactly!" Handa said. "Well-"

"We were told to give you a choice." Dio interrupted.

"Then I choose no." Echizen turned and started walking back. There was a quick toot from Dio's flute and Echizen froze.