My Puppet Master: A Kankuro Love Story

Chapter 27: Numinous

Kankuro's POV:

We slowly made our way around the hideout, looking for Reiko in the darkness and following any light that we could find. Luckily the men took Temari's fan when they took her so she had her weapon of choice unlike me. We were silent as we traversed the darkness, not knowing if the enemy lurked in the shadows. Then we heard it, a chilling voice that made my blood run cold.

"...you're little more to me than a weapon at my disposal."

It was him, Akuma. The monster who put us in this situation, the one who hurt Reiko. We followed his voice until we came to a door that sat flush with the wall, if I hadn't brushed against the handle with my arm then we may not have ever found it. Sure enough though, his voice came from the other side of the door. We could barely see each other but we knew what to do, Temari withdrew her fan and I withdrew my shuriken. The idea of facing him without my puppets was intimidating but Reiko believed in me with or without my puppets and I refused to let her down.

In unison we burst into the room, it was much like the one that Temari was in. Reiko was strapped down to a metal table and he stood on the opposite side of it with a kunai firmly pressed to her throat.

Akuma: "One wrong move and the girl dies!"

We instantly froze in place, not daring to move a muscle. My eyes locked on Reiko, she looked..... odd to say the least. She was confident and calm, not at all what you would expect from someone with a kunai at their throat. That was when I realized why.

Kankuro: "You're lying, you won't kill her. You need her alive for whatever it is that you have planned."

Akuma: "That's not true in the slightest, everyone is easily replaced."

His words and his body language were saying two very different things. When I called him out on the lie, his hand which held the kunai trembled ever so slightly and he took a fraction of a step back. I knew I had him pegged.

Kankuro: "Not Reiko, not Temari. They are irreplaceable. You wouldn't have made so many traps, taken so many precautions with us if they were so easily replaced."

Reiko spoke in a small strangled voice that was filled with utter defiance and contempt.

Reiko: "Admit it Akuma, you've lost. Give up."

Akuma: "I've lost nothing! I'll never give up."

With that he pressed a button releasing the straps that held Reiko down. Temari and I launched an attack against him but at the last moment he ripped Reiko up off the table to use as a shield. In her weakened state she couldn't defend herself from him or from our attack and so they hit her instead.