Betrayal

Kuro ran through the automatic door of the hospital, smashing it to pieces, because it opened too slowly. Hinako followed not far behind. He rushed towards the staircase. Nobody else was in the big lobby. Kuro did not care for it, since there was only one thing currently on his mind. He practically flew up the stairs, leaving Hinako behind. He got annoyed by more of these slowly opening doors and smashed through a couple of them until he finally reached the hallway with the door, behind which his goal was. Kuro paused in front of it for a second. He had a really bad feeling in his gut as he grabbed the door handle. Normally he could trust in his gut feeling, since it was always right, but in this exact moment he wished nothing more than to be wrong. That he just had eaten something bad, which caused his stomach to cramp. He opened the door slowly and his heart dropped to his gut where it completed the overwhelming feeling of dread and helplessness, all because he heard nothing. No beeping sound of the heart monitor. No sound of the respiratory device. Nothing just silence. He stood in the door and froze, looking at the bed, which was half covered by a curtain.

“Kuro!”, Yukiko said surprised.

Kuro hadn’t even noticed the woman standing next to the bed. Kuro could finally convince his feet to move. It cost him all the willpower he had, because every fiber of his body rejected the notion of what he would see when he looked inside the bed, but he had to see it. Kuro moved forward, his gaze fixed on the ground until he was at the bottom of the bed. Only then did he look up.

Hinako just ran past the last smashed door showing her the way she had to go as she heard the scream. She cursed aloud and ran in the direction where she saw an open door. Hinako finally reached it and looked inside. Kuro was on his knees next to the only bed in the room. Yukiko stood next to him and turned as Hinako entered.

“What happened? Where is everyone in the hospital?”, asked Hinako

“I don’t know it was like this, when I came to check on the Grandmaster… but someone had pulled the plug from her life-support…”, Yukiko replied.

“How could that happen?

“Traitors…”, Kuro whispered.

“Huh? What do you mean?”, Yukiko asked confused.

“We have a traitor in the MDF…”, Kuro said slowly.

“Why would you think that?”

“We found details of nearly every MDF mage in one of the hideouts of that Morthos cult.”, explained Hinako.

“Morthos cult? Those from Hakone? But we haven’t heard anything from them since then… What hideout are you talking about? Care to explain?”, Yukiko asked confused.

“I just did… a hideout from those demon cultists worshipping that Morthos guy. There we found detailed information on MDF members. Somebody must have leaked it.”

“You sure it wasn’t just public information? What exactly was in the book?”

“No there were home addresses, medical records, and descriptions of combat capabilities. There even was an entry of exactly where the Grandmaster was. I thought… wasn’t this classified information?... Even inside the MDF?”

“Book…”, Kuro said slowly and looked at Yukiko.

“Huh?”, She said confused.

“You said Book…”

“Yes, the Book with the detailed information Hina-chan just told me about.”

“I didn’t say anything about a book…”, Hinako mentioned.

Yukiko looked between them. She closed her eyes and suddenly began to laugh.

“Ahhhhh… guess I fucked up, huh? Well, whatever… I already did my job, and the gears are in motion… you can’t stop it anymore… I guess, Emi fucked up, huh?”, She sneered and then looked at them with a disgusted face.

“Please tell me that’s a lie… Yukiko…”, Kuro said and slowly got up.

“No that was the truth! The first piece of truth I ever told you!”

“I don’t understand…”, Hinako uttered confused.

“Do I have to spell it out for you, you stupid girl? It was me! I leaked that Information to my brothers and sisters. We prepared for these moments for decades! Right under the nose of the MDF and you all had no idea that we infiltrated your ranks deeply! Not even the Grandmaster! I must admit I was a bit panicked when our operations in Shibuya and Hakone were discovered, but luckily our dear brutish Kuro has a knack for destroying every piece of evidence that could have helped you… I really have to thank you. You destroyed every piece of evidence that could have ousted us.”, Yukiko explained with glee in her eyes.

“Why…”, Kuro said calmly.

“Why? All in the name of my Master Morthos of course! He who is destined to rule over this rotten planet! But do you know what else I did? I bet you already know, right?”

Yukiko went right up to Kuro who was still on his knees and leaned right in front of his face.

“It was me who killed her! I killed the Grandmaster Shinoha. The most famous and powerful mage of Japan in this age! I killed her… With the flick of a switch… well after I poisoned her for years… slowly so that she would not notice!”, She spat right at his face.

Kuro’s eyes began to glow purple and purplish lightning shot over his body crackling into the ground around him.

“Oh? Did that hit a nerve? I do must say, your scream of despair just now was really something. I nearly came seeing and hearing such delectable anguish.”

Kuro sprung up lighting fast, grabbed her by the neck and held her up in the air.

“HAHA… Go on and kill me! My work is done! My brothers and sisters are already carrying out their duty! The MDF will crumble as half of its mages will show their true color and assassinate the other half until there is no one left to oppose our Master! The time of Shadows and Despair is neigh. The only thing I will regret is that I won’t be witnessing his grandeur for myself. But if my life is the pay that must be provided for his traversal, so I will gladly offer it thousand times over! Go on! Kill me and then despair in the last hours you have left. Not even you can stop him putting his stake in the soil of this world anymore.”, Yukiko said dangling in the air.

“I trusted you…”, Kuro growled.

“I know and that made it even better! Lonely and pathetically naïve guys like you are so easy to manipulate. Just a few nice words and you ate out of my palm!”

Kuro pulled her closer to his face.

“You say the only thing you regret will be not seeing your Master? Well then I have good news for you… It won’t be long until I send that shitbag of an archdemon right after you to the afterlife.”, Kuro said in a very calm manner

Yukiko didn’t even get a chance to respond, because Kuro threw her like a potato sack and defenestrated her from the fourth floor. He went to the broken window. Purple lighting crackled with every step. He extended his arm out and a wide lighting struck right at the splat that Yukiko made after the impact, pulverizing every trace of the woman. The door to the room suddenly opened and three men in MDF uniforms rushed in. They spotted Kuro and Hinako and immediately began to cast an attack spell. But Kuro was way faster. He turned around, just waving his hand from one side to the other. Suddenly the wall behind the three men, began to roll itself up and crushed them.

Hinako starred at the bloody pile of rubble.

“Shit… what are we gonna do now?”, She asked.

“First we go and get Sachi…”, Kuro said calmly.

“And then?”

Kuro slowly turned towards her.

“We hunt.”, He said calmly with his pulsating purple in his eyes. “Every last of them and their Master!”