"Kitty…?"
Standing right behind the newcomer, the white-hair boy mumbling all confused, along with the others.
"Well, thanks for your hospitality, but it seems like my time is up."
With a gesture filled with gratitude, the newcomer simply stood up and walked backwalk toward the new addition in the hotel.
But before he could actually be by their side, something suddenly shot by his ear and almost landed on Atsushi's face, if not for the newcomer kicking him out of the way just in time.
"Be careful bro."
The newcomer huffed at the white-haired with a bored look, and Atsushi then shook up his spirit looking back at the group.
"You're quite hasty isn't it, Hawthorne?"
Let out a rather annoyed sigh, the newcomer looks back at the young priest, who's now dripping blood from his palm and leers at him with an undistinguished look.
"My apology, but we can't let any of you go."
The young priest, Nathaniel Hawthrone, talks with the newcomer with a calming yet intimidating voice. On his side, everyone else also stood up looking at the newcomer pair expressing their killer intent ready to strike at any given moment…
"Run!!"
Out of nowhere, with a signaling scream, the newcomer immediately makes the first move. He lifted the chair at the table with one hand and threw it at the noble girl, and then immediately ran back toward the door without looking back, with both Kyouka and Atsushi following him just a moment later.
"Tch…!"
Just before the chair could hit her, a line of red letters suddenly wall up before her eyes and stop the chair in the track, crushing it in the process. The girl then look back at the priest with a bewildered look, which he didn't recognize as he was still looking at the escaping trio.
"This guy… he planned all of this?"
"Damn, this guy can't stop surprising us isn't he ~ ?"
The priest whispered all confusion, yet still had a hint of compliment in his voice, as Twain straight up expressed his surprise yet excited by the newcomer potential. And without further words, everyone started to run after the trio…
And at the same time, on the newcomer side, our main character started to question the duo as he began to feel uneasy while practically jumping down the stairs.
"So, you guys have a plan or just barging in here?"
"Of course… not…"
Atsushi answers with a hesitant yet trembling voice, which makes me wanna facepalm myself right now…
They really… got into this building, one was supposed to be heavily guarded with nothing more than luck…?! What kind of cruel joke is this?! They have a whole day to make the damn plan, not accounting Dazai and Ranpo, 2 of the most intelligent figures in the verse as of now?!
"… Can't help it then… follow me!!"
We quickly coordinate through the hall and approach the escape stairs, but a figure is already standing there, seeming awaiting us.
Okay, how the heck do these guys could be this quick…?
"This is as far as you can go."
Hawthorne, casually adjusting his glass, threatens the trio with an intimidating voice. In response, Atsushi immediately lunged at the guy with his tiger claw, hoping to take him down in one clean swipe.
But then, just before his claw can connect, the wall of red letters stops him dead in his tracks and ties him all together, all the while the kid's still confused about what just happened.
"Atsushi-san!!"
Kyouka screams in distress toward the constrained guy, but I have already moved. With the technique learned from countless martial arts I quickly close the distance with Hawthrone, as I can clearly see his shocking expression.
"You…!"
Hawthorne let out a scream while trying to attack me with his ability, namely his blood, but I had already landed a punch on his guts before he could make any command and knocked him out of commission, releasing Atsushi from his grasp.
"Tch! Hurry up, kittyboy!"
I impatiently screamed with Atsushi while dragging Kyouka on the opposite side, with Atsushi running right behind.
"Why don't we take the stairs?"
The kitty boy asked me with a confused voice, to which I casually answered him without looking back.
"Think, kittyboy. If Hawthrone was already there before us, how can you be sure that there's no one behind that door waiting to ambush us?"
"Ah…"
And with that, Atsushi didn't ask another question as we were still looking for another exit. But unlike last time, where the first door was relatively quick to find, we kinda struggle to even see another one while running away from right behind us as of now!
"Stop there, you lowly commoner!! I'll dry you all the way through!!!!!"
Damn… Now I started to feel bad for Hawthrone. To take a liking to such an energetic mistress, you have some wild taste man…
While still thinking about Hawthrone's love interest, we're desperately trying to cut the duo's tail, consisting of Mitchell, who's angry with us, possibly me for throwing the chair at her earlier, and Twain, who just keeps giggling all the way through.n
We encounter them just a few moments after knocking out Hawthrone, and then beginning the chase all over the floor, not even bothering to fight them back.
The reason for that is quite simple actually, it's due to her ability, Gone With The Wind, which works exactly as it sounds, as of the running theme of the Guild member ability. She can wither things away by controlling wind, so we can't afford to make any pause in actions or else she can just dried us.
… Yeah, that sounds kinda stupid I know, but the fact that she didn't try to do that by now has proven my point. But still, I should just make a run for real right now.
"Atsushi, think you can carry us away?"
"Eh, oh right!"
"… Really?"
On cue with my surprising reaction, Atsushi manifested his tiger limb and quickly took the lead, as I grabbed Kyouka by the kimono collar like a kitty and jumped on his back tightly. And with that, Atsushi shot himself forward, leaving the two in dust behind us all.
"Tch!! This guy…!!"
"So that's the tiger huh…?"
Finally lost in the sight of the trio, Mitchell stomps her boot on the floor out of anger, while Twain just looks forward with a thoughtful look…
"Ah! Found ya!"
"Ugh…"
"Oh come on!!!!!!!"
Right as we were about to hit a corner, the worst duo that I could ever want to face showed up. The farmer, John Steinbeck, waves all happily seeing us while the long-haired man, Howard Phillip Lovecraft, just grunting all annoyed.
"Turn us back, Atsushi!! Run from them!!"
"Eh?"
As Atsushi still had not fully indulged my panic, a bunch of tentacles suddenly sprouted from Lovecraft's body toward us, shrouded us all with the sigh of those fascinating looking tentacles…
"GO!!!!!!!!"
Atsushi, finally waking up from the initial shock of such fabulous scenery, immediately turns his back and runs with all of his strength like his life depends on it, to the point of us almost falling out of his back. Luckily, after the initial strike, it seems like the duo making no further action
"Wow, they got away… The kid got some instinct."
"Hm… Why not use your power?"
Looking at the way the trio went, Steinbeck whistle expressed his compliment, while Lovecraft just asked his partner with a tired voice.
"Welp, wouldn't want to destroy this building aren't ya?"
With a sly smile, Steinbeck nudged Lovecraft's shoulder, to which he didn't respond much beside a tiring sigh…
"You seriously have no other escape route?!"
"Uh… we have one…"
"Then why the heck are you running around?!"
I let out my wrath with an apologetic Atsushi, while still trying to shrug off the whole Guild right behind us, who have caught up to us just now. Luckily, since we're in a relatively close space, and there's quite a lot of people around, no one beside the kittyboy here has activated their ability.
Seriously!! Why's the duo still running around if they have a plan?! Now I started to doubt whether they can actually bail me out of this place or not…
Tch, fine then…
"Atsushi! Run toward the window! The one on the right!"
"Eh…"
"Just listen to me!!"
Atsushi, although reluctant, decide to steer to the right and runs toward the big window.
"Crash through it!!"
"Wha–"
"Trust me!!"
"… Fine!!"
And with that, Atsushi crashes through the window with us still on his back, with the Guild now shocked with his bold actions as of now…