—
Chapter Five
—
“Are we supposed to do something?”
“Shh,” Ado hushed, turning her open palm towards Uchū.
Kauri cleared his throat, stepping forward to greet the enigmatic figure above him. “We’ve been looking for you for quite some time. There’s something we believe you have, something you can lead us to.”
“Take us there.” Kauri’s eye burned from underneath the brow of his mask. "Now."
The figure stood in silence, his silver hair waving in the occasional gust of wind, while Kauri maintained a steady gaze. The seconds turned into minutes, neither party showing any indication of actually responding. Relic’s muscular neck broke the silence, creaking as it turned towards Kauri, and slowly lurching to one side as he neared his height to murmur under his breath. “Is he dumb?”
“…Maybe he can’t hear us.” Uchū tipped his head to one side. “Can you see if he has ears?”
“It was to my understanding that Wild of the Wild Masks was in possession of a face.” Relic mused, reaching to scratch at a chin that didn’t exist. “Is he really the one that freed the Demon?”
The figure’s head abruptly turned to face Relic, and the entire party froze once more. “He moved that time,” Relic pondered out loud. “Do you think it was because I made mention of the D-”
“Ssshhhhhhhhut up.” Kauri hissed, slowly turning his vicious eye onto Relic. “Shut up shut up shut up.”
“Sir,” Uchū stepped forwards, clutching one forearm with the opposite hand and conveniently ignoring the repeated gestures from Kauri and Ado to get him to stop. “Maybe there’s been a misunderstanding. We’re looking for Wild, of the Wild Masks. Do you know where he is?”
The silent figure continued his brilliant soundless performance of eyelessly staring into Relic. After several seconds with no reply, Uchū gave a despondent shrug and trudged back toward Ado, sitting on a small piece of rubble and resting his chin on his palms.
“Look, we don’t have a lot of time.” Kauri huffed, pacing slightly as he desperately waited for a reply. “You’re the only one who knows where it is and how to find it, so people say. You’re the one who brought about, well, you know who… Are you gonna help us out?”
“Alright, fine.” He growled, bracing himself. "The Demon."
Snapping his blank face towards the sound, the figure launched off the building and came crashing down towards Kauri, who increased his density just before the outstretched heel of his opponent could connect. The attached leg let out a sickening snap, lying twisted and broken as the figure collided with the ground.
No sooner had the impact occurred, however, than the figure swiftly stood, his shattered limb twisting about and repairing itself beneath his pantleg. Reaching out, the figure grabbed the edge of Kauri’s bladed mask and abruptly yanked him forward, catching his head with the one remaining hand and crumpling him into the street.
“Relic!” Ado snapped, prompting the giant to swing a massive uppercut into the torso of the figure, whom Ado immediately increased the acceleration of to send him flying upwards. Uchū ran over to Kauri’s crumpled side, grabbing him by the shoulder and needlessly shaking him around. “Did you see that?”
“Yeah,” Kauri coughed. “His right arm is left-handed.”
“We should not remain here.” Relic hastened, dragging the shipping container over and clumsily opening the door. “Get inside, everyone. You will have to control the speed of the fall. I will join you later.”
“Don’t mention you know who-ghhk” Kauri gargled as Relic’s massive hand temporarily closed his throat whilst grabbing him by the torso. “He’ll just fingd you eajhier that wauhy.”
“Understood.” Relic forcefully pushed Kauri inside and hefted the shipping container up onto one hand. “Have a pleasant flight.”
Reeling back, he lunged forward and threw the shipping container with all his might, requiring very little additional acceleration from Ado to push it along. Uchū closed his eyes and held tightly to Ado’s arm as the container flew through the air, while Kauri tried to pull himself out of the furniture.
As the container tipped the end with the door upwards, leaving Kauri to catch the plastic dishes that fell from the open cabinets, Ado craned her head out of the open doorway and eyed their surroundings. “Everyone out.” She mumbled after a moment, leaning against the side while she flexed the powers of her glasses. “We’re here.”
Dumping the plates, Kauri clambered through the open doorway and dumped himself out onto the street. The sliding glass doors, stained with dust and filth, presented themselves to him immediately after he disembarked. Backpedaling away to get a clearer look at the building, Kauri chuckled under his breath and folded his arms in satisfaction as Uchū struggled to help Ado out.
“Well, now.” Kauri gestured to the door as Ado focused on lowering the shipping container to the ground as gently as she could, Uchū tapping her leg to draw her attention towards the shattered hospital sign above the sliding door. “Relic doesn’t aim too bad for a guy with no eyes.”
—
“Are you sure you have eyes?”
“Please stop being so rude.” Ado hushed, sighing as Kauri jumped down the center of the stairwell and splintered the bottom floor with his added density. “I think his suggestion to start with the lower levels makes a lot of sense. We only have to walk through the entire building once this way.”
“Coming up or down before or afterwards doesn’t really change anything.” Uchū admitted, lowering himself down each step with caution. “I just figured we’d check here since we’re starting so close to the bottom.”
“I can’t think of an unlikelier place for Wild to be than the hospital basement.” Kauri grumbled, pushing through a small door and ducking to avoid the low frame. “If I were here, I’d want a view with-”
" …With what?" Ado mused, watching as Kauri stopped in place and snapped back toward the door.
“That’s a security door,” Kauri mumbled, walking back to the door and pushing it open again. “The lights are on and the front door was functional, but the alarms didn’t go off.”
“Maybe the alarms burned themselves out by now,” Uchū hypothesized as Ado squeezed past Kauri and continued forward. “It’s been two years, after all. We don’t know how long they would’ve been on.”
“Why is there another elevator here?” Ado pointed at a slim pair of elevator doors at the end of the hallway.
“Must be maintenance,” Kauri dismissed, dipping inside an empty room and abruptly reappearing. “Hey, wait a minute. There’s a sign on that. Go read it while us tall people check these rooms over.”
Uchū lightly stomped toward the elevator in a huff while Ado looked on disapprovingly. “Stupid tall people privileges… Uh, it looks like a light? No, wait, ‘ultraviolet light surgery.’ Is that what we want-”
“Of course there’s a basement basement,” Kauri grumbled, pushing Uchū to the side and smearing his hand across the down button. “Never trust a hospital to do a good job organizing their floor plans.”
“You’ve got to be more careful around Uchū,” Ado scolded, lifting the cream-white figure in her arms and gently patting his malleable head. “He’s very delicate; we don’t want anything happening to him.”
“Oh no, how horrible.” Kauri jammed his finger into the button for the lowest level and leaned against the elevator wall. “What happens if he does get hurt? Does he shoot out air and fly across the room until he deflates?”
“I get hurt and I heal from it,” Uchū grumped, folding his arms and trying very hard not to show how nice Ado’s head massage felt. “Do you become tolerable if you get punctured?”
“Hey.” Ado flicked her fingers across Uchū’s scalp. “Be nice, both of you. I don’t want Wild backing out of working with us because you keep fighting.”
“There’s a simple way to avoid it.” Kauri huffed, elbowing his way through the doors as soon as they opened, revealing a dimly-lit hall in a much cleaner state than the rest of the hospital. “Admit that I’m right and move on.”
Ado sighed, gently lowering Uchū to the ground and following after Kauri, whose bladed mask poked in and out of side rooms as he traversed the empty hall. “It’s too clean,” He mumbled, trailing his fingers along the wall and rubbing them together. “Someone’s been cleaning here. No cobwebs, no dust.”
He approached a door which, like those he had poked his head inside before, contained a small panel of glass to see through. The slightest glimpse through the glass prompted an immediate backpedaling, and a cautioning hand was extended towards the two approaching him. Pushing off the wall he had slammed into, he slowly cracked open the door.
The room was dark, but the soft glow of electronics inside provided a light blue ambience which swept over its contents. Lying in the hospital bed was a static figure, his silver hair draped down to the base of his head. The hospital gown he wore covered a set of pajamas with little sheep printed across them.
“Curious.” Kauri lifted the static figure’s empty left sleeve. “Very curious.”
—
Things are going to start having more weight to their occurrence from now on (I hope 
