The Ones Within: Utaite Version

Chapter 5: A marionette

Team Shima
"How many times did we get into this?", Amatsuki sighed as he recalled what happened before.

"Will we be fine?", Amatsuki asked as he walked slightly trembling. "We will be fine! And if something happens I will protect you guys!", Shima assures them. "Says the guy who has been walking into traps the whole time since we started.", Amatsuki made a sarcastic comment.

"It won't happen anymore. Promise!", Shima promised. "Ah, Mashi, look out!", Senra warned him as he noticed a thread.

Unfortunately, Shima noticed too late and was pinned on the wall by some kind of snare.

And that was how they ended up like this. "So? What do we do?", Shima asked. "I will help you get out of this... Wait a minute.", Senra said as he began working on the snare.

"Do you think Doll was the one who set up these traps?", Amatsuki asked. "It could be. Right now it's better to be more cautious.", Senra said.

After they managed to free Shima from them Shima winced looking down at him and noticing he had some wounds. Amatsuki inspected them before sighing in relief because they weren't deep. "They aren't that deep. I think disinfecting them and patching them will be enough.

If you will just take your shirt off please.", Amatsuki instructed and then worked on patching the wounds up. Just as they finished and Shima put his shirt back on they heard a loud crash.

"Do you think someone else walked into a trap as well?", Shima asked and the other two nodded. "We should go to look what happened.", Shima said starting to run off but Senra grabbed his arm and shook his head. "It probably attracted the attention of her so we should stay away to avoid being caught.", Senra explained.

"Isn't that even more reason to go then?", Shima asked. "No. We don't know what she is able to do. These traps could be set up by her as well. If we go to them without knowing what she is capable of we will only give her more chances to catch us.

We are a group of three so that is an even more reason not to go. We should not underestimate her.", Senra told him. "Soraru told us that Senra would be your voice of reason so we should probably listen to him.", Amatsuki backed him up.

Seeing Shima couldn't win against those two he finally nodded. "...Fine. I will trust you. I think we should tell everyone what we've seen.", Shima said. "Good idea. Tell Soraru and Urata to meet up in the storage room we were at the beginning.", Senra told him. Shima took his speaker out.

"Soraru? Urata? Can you hear me?", Shima asked. After a while a familiar voice answered back. "Yes, I can. Is something the matter?", Soraru questioned. "Do you think we could meet up in the storage room?", Shima asked.

"Sure. I was thinking the same as well.", Soraru agreed. "What about you guys?", Soraru asked Urata but no one answered. "Oi. Tanuki, can you hear me?", Soraru asked.

"Sorry. This is Kashitaro. Yeah, we will come.", Kashitaro answered. "Why isn't the tanuki answering?", Soraru asked.

"We will tell you later when we meet up.", Kashitaro responded. Everyone was confused but decided to go to the storage room first.

Soraru and Mafumafu were the first ones to arrive with Shima, Senra and Amatsuki quickly following after. The last ones to arrive were Kashitaro and Sakata. Urata was missing.

"So it's what I thought...", Soraru frowned slightly after seeing that the short brunette was missing. "What happened?", Amatsuki asked worriedly. "We were setting traps up with Urata but then we accidentally tripped and activated one causing a crash which attracted the attention of the girl. Urata told us to run away and that he would buy us some time.", Kashitaro explained.