Chapter 9

Hiraku POV (Friday)

Me and Aimi were heading back to my cabin. "Yo Aimi. Have you seen Hooder? I texted him and he never replied." I asked putting my hands behind my head.

She looked at me, "No." I sighed... I wonder what he's doing.. I haven't seen him all week. "But, Hooder did tell me what happened last week, I'm sorry I'm just now asking. Are you okay?" She asked rubbing my arm.

I smirked, "Yup. I handled that Zonbi with ease!" I said pointing towards myself.

"That's good. What about Hooder? Did he get hurt or anything..?" She asked as I shook my head.

"Nope. He came out with no injuries." She let out a sigh of relief. "That's good. I'm sorry I wasn't there. You would've had a better chance if I wad there too."

I nodded. "I guess."

Soon, I saw my cabin in the distance. But, I also noticed something, I could barely see since what I'm seeing is coming from behind the house. But, it looks like a person, and I don't think it's Mr. Kashikoi. Hm. I took off running towards the cabin.

"Whoa! Wait for me!!" Aimi shouted sprinting after me. I narrowed my eyes as I snuck around to the side. I stopped and crept to the back... My eyes widened.

Hooder threw a punch towards Mr. Kashikoi. But it was easily caught.

"What are you running for?" Aimi asked slowing down beside me.

"Look. Hooders training!" I whispered as she rose an eyebrow and looked around the corner.

"Wow." I came out from the side of the house, coming into view.

"So you took my advice!" I shouted gaining Hooders attention. He looked at me for a second before dodging a kick from Mr. Kashikoi. He landed beside me.

"Yeah." He quickly said dodging other kick. He jumped back as Mr. Kashikoi quickly followed him. Hooder held up his hands blocking many strikes from Mr. Kashikoi, which surprised me. He then did a kick but it was blocked by Mr. Kashikoi, but the force sent him to the ground.

"Wow!" I shouted as Hooder landed. He let out a breath. Once the smoke cleared, Mr. Kashikoi stood up dusting off his clothes.

"Great work today Mr. Raitoningu." He said as Hooder smiled and nodded.

"Wait. Have you been doing this everyday day?" I asked as he looked towards me.

"Kinda. I just decided to do this Tuesday. And we've been doing different training methods everyday. Today we were doing reflexes." He explained, stretching.

"That's awesome!" I exclaimed patting his shoulder.

He chuckled. "Yes. But it does get tiring. Thanks to his hybrid potential, he can train for hours and it tires me out.." Mr. Kashikoi said his eyes turning into equal signs. I laughed and walked up Aimi.

"Well, me and Aimi will just go inside. We'll let you two continue." I said grabbing her hand.

"Alright. I'm ready Mr. Kashikoi!" He shouted zipping towards him, trying to land a strike to his chest, but got blocked. I chuckled and lead Aimi into the Cabin.

Katsunori POV

Me and my squad were training, trying to improve our teamwork for when we get another mission. Though it was hard, we've been doing this for a while, so it was getting easier and easier everyday.

"Squad six, report to the meeting room." We all looked up.

"Huh?" I said as Akio looked towards me.

"I think I know what this is about." He said as we all walked out, beginning to head towards the meeting room. "Apparently the founder is giving a big mission. It requires a lot of us. But... is it that big that it would need six squads?" He explained as I looked forward.

Hm...

Once we entered, everyone looked at us. "Ah, squad six Welcome." The founder said as we took our seats.

"What did you call us for founder?" Souta asked as he cleared his throat.

"I'm getting to that. Now, I think this is everyone I need." He said standing. He gave us all a picture. Looks like a Zonbi.

"The King Zonbi, The Scyther And the Queen Zonbi Scizor." He said as my eyes widened. K-King and Queens?!

"They've been spotted around here. If you remember the attack about two weeks ago that... killed most of our men and women.. I've gotten word that they'll be attacking again in three or fours days, and they'll be bringing an army. I need all the help I can get to drive them out of our city." He explained folding his arms pacing the room. "Do you think you all have what it takes?" Everyone stayed quiet.

"Yes sir!" I shouted raising my hands. My squad sighed and rose their hands as well.

After that, everyone did as the founder smiled. "Good..."

..........

I was making some coffee, man, Hooder must be training hard.. I'm proud that I was able to convince him to train. While I was waiting for it to finished, I noticed Aimi was watching Hooder train. I blinked a few times before something came into my head.

I walked over placing a hand on her shoulder causing her to jump. "You alright?" I asked as she calmed down a bit.

"Yeah..." She whispered glancing back towards Hooder.

"You're watching pretty hard. You tryin learn something too?" She shook her head.

"No.. I just like seeing Hooder so determined..." She said. I narrowed my eyes, seeing a bit of pink on her cheeks.

"Are you blushing?" She jumped, her face turning red.

"N-No!" She said waving her hands.

I laughed, "Come on, i'm not gonna make fun of you." I said walking back to my coffee.

She sighed. "Want some coffee?"

Night

While I was on my phone, chilling with Aimi while Mr. Kashikoi was sleep, I heard a weird noise but decided to ignore it. I wonder what Hooders doing though. While I was scrolling on my phone I heard the noise again, this time it sounded like screaming. And it was Hooders voice! I stood up.

"Did you hear that?" I asked as Aimi looked at me weirdly.

"No?" I ran to the door.

"Whoa hold on!" She began to follow as I ran to the backyard. I stopped, to listen again.

The screaming was louder, but it sounded like Hooder was choking. I then began to hear skin breaking, almost like something was trying to come out of it. I took another step, being able to see Hooder. He was on the ground, grabbing his head. Two holes were on his hips, one on each side. Black and purple smoke was coming out, it looked like something was trying to form but kept failing, melting away. But something did form, it looked like a purple strap that reached his shoulders, that started from the middle of his back. Aimi came behind me and looked at what I was looking at.

"H-Hooder...?" She whispered as his head rose. He looked back, and a purple bird beak was on his face. It had a hole for his right eye as his left eye was rolled behind his head.

W-Whats going on..? His body vanished, as he appeared in front of me. My eyes widened, he was too quick for me to react, landing a punch to my nose, sending me flying. Damm, it got me away from Aimi!

Once I close to the ground, I placed my hand on the ground and created a pillar to stop myself. I grunted and sprinted back towards him.

Aimi! I held out my hand as the mouth on my palm extended its tongue, come on reach!! It touched something as I smiled, but I was pulled back to where Hooder and Aimi was. Once I was there, Hooder had his hand around Aimi's neck, and he grabbed my mouths tongue. Shit... Once I was close he let go of Aimi and landed a punch to my gut. My eyes widened as I spit lot of blood. I fell to the ground...

Dammit.. I need to use my stage one if I want to protect Aimi! Electricity sparked around me, until... Hooder stopped.

H-Huh? His bird beak melted as his left eye returned to normal. The purple strap or whatever on his back melted as well as he fell and hit the ground. I was breathing heavily, standing up.

"Aimi!" I shouted, reaching for her, but she reached for Hooder.

"What happened to him?!" She asked looking towards Me... I got on one knee.

"I don't know. Zonbi's don't go through this." I said. She rubbed his hair as he coughed a bit. We both looked at him.

"Hooder!" He slowly lifted his head, even his right eye is back to his normal gray color.

"Are you alright?!" Aimi asked hugging him tightly.

"Y-Yeah... what happened?" He asked as Aimi helped him up. "We don't know. You went batshit crazy, started attacking me and Aimi. You had a birds beak or mask or whatever." I explained as he blinked at me before looking towards Aimi.

"Are you guys alright?" Aimi smiled.

"Yeah." He sighed of relief and rubbed his head.

"Thank god... I don't know what happened. I was just doing my own training and something just clicked, I can't explain it." He said rubbing his head. "I might just go home.." He said grabbing his eye patch.

"Hey, you don't need that. Your eye is back to normal." He looked at weirdly.

"Wait really? Is it Aimi?" He asked looking towards her. She nodded. "Well. I guess I don't need it. But I'm heading home." He said walking past me.

"Wait, let me come too!" Aimi shouted sprinting past me towards Hooder.

"I'll see you later Hiraku!" Hooder said waving back at me.

"Yeah.. See ya."