27 - broken chess piece

Urgh I get a weird headache.

That doesn't look good.

The form… is it a gun? Haah~ I hate it.

It has been 87 hours since I got abducted and put in the room with too many useless toys. That's nearly 3 days in this world.

But this isn't the bad part.

I actually will escape within the next few hours.

Since I got locked in here, they had untied me and gave me the basic care like food, water and toilet breaks, so that a human could survive.

I didn't touch any of the food and when I get locked into the tiny bathroom, I just open the water taps for a few minutes or I just wait a bit and then flush the toilet. Just nothing too suspicious.

Well, this isn't the bad part either.

At the moment all four of my abductors are in the big room, while I just sit on the carpet in mine.

The tired looking boy just stood up and walks towards the kitchen area in a small adjoining room.

The bald driver sits on a chair, the arms on the table in front of him and his head resting on top. He is fast asleep.

The flower-tattoo woman sits opposite him and reads a magazine. Of course I already had read it too, with my godlike blessing to read from afar.

And then there is the muscular man, dumbfolded standing in front of the door, that just got closed.

Of course they all have names and because I actually shouldn't be able to hear them, they call each other with their names all the time… I just can't remember them.

Hnnng~ no.

Just normal names, so how should one remember them? If they had numbers or are in any form interesting for me, it would be much easier to remember them. Of course I wouldn't give them numbers, they don't deserve it.

\\I'm too good at distracting myself…

//Ack!

I'm right, back to my newfound problem.

The muscle man was just talking with mister mastermind at the door. I can't and – or – don't want to remember his name either.

They just talked about boring stuff, like how those four could get away. Not much interesting there.

I nearly stopped listening, but then a certain name was mentioned. In the same sentence the mastermind announced, that his men will be coming in exact seven hours. What a bad choice of hours. I don't like this number being told from that man for some mysteriously unknown reason.

Mister mastermind already started to turn around, but then stopped for a moment. He reached into the jacket of his marine blue suit and gave something to the muscle man. Then he really left.

And this in fact, is absolutely the bad part.

I need to highly concentrate to [see] the form of what was given – it is a simple gun, just a bit more then 16 centimetres long. But no matter how hard I [stare] I cant [see] the insides of that gun.

I have seen my fair share of guns, rifles and the like and they basically all use the same kind of magic circles in them to work. But this one? No. Instead of a magic circle, there is just a blind spot in my field of perception and that bothers me a lot.

The muscular one finally turned around. A nervous smile on his lips.

"Ijin is coming." He said with a slightly higher pitch in his voice than usual. "But we got a present for him."

The woman looked, as if this was an explanation, but I don't get it.

Here is the good point within the worst part. That certain name, that the mastermind and now the mountain of muscles just mentioned.

Ijin.

That is Nema's grandfather and with this, one of the names I absolutely can remember.

So, he is coming to save me, that is good, right?

No.

Actually it is, but I get a really bad feeling about the so called "present", so I don't want him to be near it.

This is the reason I have to escape before I can be rescued.

I already have my route for that.

There is a window in my room, that would have been my first choice, but when I [looked] at it for a second, I noticed that it's actually just a monitor pretending to be a window. I am somewhere underground right now.

Because the window wouldn't work, I had to search for an alternate route. It was found quickly.

When I stretch my field of perception, I can [see] the elevator again. Next to it are some emergency stairs, that I will use. They go up and down, so if I follow them up, I should reach the car park, that is barely visible within my field of perception. Because the field is a sphere, I can't [see] the end of the stairs, but it is common sense, that they would lead to the car park… right?

They have to.

The plan is also simple.

Either I wait until some of my kidnappers leave – this has happened a few times over the past few days, but at least two always stay – or I wait until at least half of them is asleep.

I will then break open the door to my room and just run. The same goes for the entrance door.

If my weird strength is not enough, I could always let them explode. Then I will just run away until I find someone who could help.

Simple but because of that it should work.

Actually there are people who could help quite nearby.

When I searched for an escape route, I noticed that this place could be some kind of hotel. All the rooms have the same layout and there are people in most of them, just doing all sorts of things.

That's actually the reason why my field of perception is only as big as my room plus the adjoining one with my kidnappers in it. I don't want to be impolite. And well, I don't want to see peoples private lives.

I won't try asking them for help when I escape, because I want as much space between me and my kidnappers. If I have to ask a stranger for help anyway, then one who isn't within their reach is better.

I sigh.

Now I just have to wait for an opportunity, huh?

Meh.

There is a knock at my door.

Its the tired one.

I won't say "come in", you know? And you locked me in here, so I can't let you in myself either.

He knows that.

Still, he knocked. I don't get why.

The door gets opened and he enters. There is a tablet in his hands, so he closes the door with his foot.

Because my room doesn't have a table, he places the tablet on the chair. There is a plate with some steaming hot noodles and a cup with some weird red liquid that smells like tomatoes on it. I ignore it.

Instead I just stare at the young man with my eyes wide open. Apparently my eyes make them feel uncomfortable, so this is a good method to shoo them out of the room.

Sadly he didn't leave.

He leans against the door and let himself slide down until he sits on the floor. His eyes are closed.

"Just how barbaric do we seem to you?" He murmured.

A questionmark appeared in my mind, but I won't bother to share that with him, as he just kept on.

"Don't worry, you will be home safe and sound soon… and we will probably end in hell for this." He chuckled, but it was a sad sound. "Even the slightest misdeed against the ones chosen by the gods is a crime against humanity itself, did you know that?" He let out that weird chuckle again and opened his eyes. A bit stiff, because I still stare at him, he began to smile.

Hmmm… you are weird.

What was his name again? Salmon? Soap?

Yes, I think it's Soap. A weird name for a weird member of the weird humanity. Very fitting.

Even if I won't talk to you or give you this information, just listen, Soap.

I can't understand humans at all, everyone is completely different from each other and there is no system behind it. But you give off a somewhat okay-ish feeling, so get out, get your nine together and just live a normal life. No idea why you are here and I couldn't care less.

I switch from staring to glaring to shoo him away, but he ignored it. Should I give him the information?

"You probably don't need to eat, because you just heal yourself, right? But that's my favourite juice, it's really goo-" He stopped, as there was another knock on the door and jumped back on his feet out of reflex.

The muscular man was standing behind the door scratching his chin. "I know – well, everyone knows, that Pura R'lar doesn't talk, but what if she starts? And when you spend too much time with her, I'm sure that she will remember your face and then we have a problem."

Well, I already remember all of you looks and I have a good way to [tell], so I'm sorry not to be sorry, but you definitely will have a problem.

The muscle man opened the door to let the other one out and at the same time the entrance door got opened too.

A brutal sounding bang entered my field of perception at the same time as the door got ripped into pieces and blown away. A group of people instantly stormed the room before anyone could react.

There are suddenly too many people in my field of perception, so I just [looked] at them out of surprise.

All of them in black military coats that have metal plates imbued to protect their vital parts, all with helmets that hide their faces and all of them with way too modern rifles in their hands.

Only one and a half seconds have passed and the intruders already got in position so that at least two of them aimed at each of my kidnappers. Three for the two at the table.

With the ten in the room and four more in the hallway, there are fourteen armed intruders. But there are two more in the hallway without any weapons and I began to shiver in terror.

One is the mastermind. The other is the cool magic gramps.

It's way too early! He shouldn't be here. It's dangerous!

I [stare] at the mastermind. How dare he lie about numbers?! When a time is said, you should always abide to it. Liar!

Huh?

The liar did something.

He nodded.

Just very slightly, but the armed person next to him reacted to that and made a sharp whistling sound with his mouth.

Instantly there was chaos.

Following the sound, the intruders in the room opened fire.

The vital signs of two less people are now in my field of perception, as the woman and the driver collapsed on the ground.

The mountain of muscles had a weird reaction to the loud bangs of gunfire. He reached forward to grab Soap's shirt, dragging himself into my room and at the same time pulling the younger man out and behind himself. Another body dropped and another persons vital signs left my field of perception.

The mountain of muscles didn't react to that at all and instead now reached for me.

Please don't touch me!

Move you stupid body! Don't be in shock for so long.

I didn't move.

And I did get grabbed.

Easily lifting me up onehanded with his muscular arm, the man turned around, holding me in front of him.

What is his deal?

I am way to small as a shie- PUT THAT AWAY!

In his other hand was the gun that I could barely [see] and he aimed it at me.

The intruders are about to enter my room but the moment the see his gun aiming at my head, they take a step back to give him some space.

A nervous grin hushes over the muscle man's face.

"No!" The liar and Nema's grandfather also reached the door to my room. Weirdly enough it was the liar who said something. He looks very angry.

"Let me go.", the muscle man demanded. "Let me get to a car and I will leave her in the parking lot. Otherwise…"

He pushes the gun against my head.

I probably won't die from a gunshot through my head, but still, this weird gun made me feel sick. As if my whole being is afraid of it without giving a reason.

Please.

A single word.

A single information.

I placed that information in Ijin's Aether. Mixing it, asking for help.

He reacted.

His arm rose as fast as lightning and aether already gathered in his forward pointing middle and index fingers. Electrical Aether for lightning magic, that is faster than any bullet. Good.

...still not fast enough.

At least not as fast as the panicking reflex of a trained body.

Click.

The trigger close to my ear got used.

...

Huh?

No bullet, even after half a second?

Is it broken?

No…

Urgh~ I feel nauseous again.

There is a weird feeling on the side of my head. It feels cold and wet and solid at the same time. I had a snowballfight with Nema once. The feeling is like getting hit by a snowball that then got stuck to my head.

What a weird feeling.

A full second passed without anything happening. The magic gramps had stopped his Aether and some electricity was jumping around between his fingers while he stared at me. Not just him, several glances are directed at me in panic.

But… I'm fine… Am I?

I think so.

The cold feeling even vanished…

Oh no! NononononoNO!

My skin began to crack. The skin that made me look human. The skin that was my connection to everyone.

The skin that gave me a friend.

The face of Pura, that I've gotten used to.

It vanished within seconds.

The calculating me still spat out coordinates, but nothing happened and the ugly, true me got presented to the world again, after such a long time.

"Ha? Ahhhh!"

The muscular man was the first to react and just dropped me while screaming.

The next one, I didn't like.

Everything went white for a moment and my whole body went numb, as Ijin had released the magic that was still in his hand.

He lifted the other hand and another moment of white hit me.

The third hit and I noticed the smell of burned flesh.

The fourth hit within only a second and my brain finally understood, that the moments of white are pain.

I screamed and my numb body collapsed on the ground, but a fifth strike burned away my voice.

The sixth strike and my flesh got ripped apart in the white electricity.

The seventh strike. My horns start to melt.

The eighth strike was just barely white. Then everything went black.