Their progress is a painful thing. In the physical sense for the girl and in the mental sense for Maximillian.

‘Is it just me or is the swelling on her leg enlarging’ Max moves in a little closer to take a better look at her leg, trying to keep the feeling of

nausea at bay as he imagines what kind of horrid pain she must be feeling.

‘She started off strong, moving at a pace not too much slower than that of a person who is uninjured. Now though…’ The teen in question is panting and sweating, shaking, looking like she might collapse to the ground at any moment.

“Hey, you don’t need to force yourself that much. We can rest for a bit.”

“No need.” She grunts out as she lets go of the crutch and lands on the ground with a thump.

“Eh? Are you alright!?” Maximilian runs in to check up on her.

“I’m fine kid.” She gently pushes him away. “We’re here.”

‘Here?’ Max takes a look around.

Rocks, dirt and garbage meets him wherever he looks. To the left, right, in front of him and behind him. The sole exception being the black blotch in the sky blocking the sun’s rays, somehow getting bigger with each passing minute.

He crosses his arms. “Are you sure that you haven’t lost too much blood? We can redo the bandages.”

“Pheh… hah hah hah, Oww.” She curls up on herself and grabs her sides.

‘Oops. Now isn’t the time for sarcastic, snarky comments.’

She takes a bit of time to collect herself before resuming her previous posture.

“How old did you say you were?”

“Don’t know.” Max answers her immediately. ‘I really don’t, I haven’t even bothered keeping track of the days.’

“I see.” She replies before moving her gaze away from him

“Notice this slab of wood?” She directs him to a piece of wood laying flat right beside her, Max hadn’t given it much attention as to him, it’s just a part of the landscape.

“Yes…?”

She wedges the fingers of her left arm right under, gripping it. With a burst of strength she flips it over, revealing what is hidden underneath.

‘Oh, it’s an underground base, of course.’ Max leans in to take a better look of what awaits him, seeing a drop of around five feet right down onto a ripped up mattress and a pile of rags.

“Take this. It’s dark down there so we’ll need it” Pulling out a small cylindrical object from her pocket the girl presses a button located on its rear end. It causes the front to light up.

‘A flashlight.’ Max picks up the object thrown at his feet, examining it closer.

‘Some sort of corporate logo with a bird on the side, I’ll keep it in mind.’ He presses the button on the back several times to test it out before shining it straight into his face, frowning. ‘It’s so weak that I can barely notice the difference when it’s on or off.’

The teen is already on the move by the time that Max has stated his curiosity, lifting her entire body in the air using only her hands and lowering herself inside until only her head remains above the surface. She drops down whatever distance remains and lands on her butt, the impact causing dust to fly up and blast max right in the face.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

He’s mostly protected by the blanket though his eyes tear up.

‘She’s got some serious upper body strength despite her scrawniness, she didn’t look the least bit strained while she did that.’

“I’m throwing down the crutch, careful!” Max calls out.

“Don’t.” The reply from below him is immediate.

“Eh? Are you sure that you don’t want it?” Max asks for clarification.

“If I take one more step on my leg I’d vomit and then pass out immediately afterwards. So, yes, I don’t want it. I can crawl the rest of the way now that the ground isn’t filled with sharp rocks."

“Okay.”

‘I can’t tell if she’s exaggerating about the vomiting part or not. Still, the leg she limped with must be hurting more than the dislocated one is.’

The teen moves away from the mattress so that Max can jump down as well. He takes some time to get his bearings, keeping his knees from trembling in fear..

‘Moment of truth. Hope I’m cute enough for her not to do anything bad to me. If luck is on my side she’ll have a way outside of this hellhole and she’ll let me tag along.’

‘I wonder if I can make my way to Whale Island if that happens… Just wishful thinking I guess. It’s the only safe place that I know of.’

Max jumps down, his landing forcing even more dust to rise up

“You good to go?” The teen gives him a small pat on the head.

“Yeah.”

Nodding, she crawls through a gap in the ground around three feet in height. Max walks after her, short enough to pass through the hole upright.

‘Is this bedrock?' Max runs his hand along the wall. 'This far up? Then again there really isn’t much soil here in meteor city is there.’

As they proceed forwards the hole quickly gets dimmer and dimmer, causing Maximillian to pull out the flashlight he’d been given.

‘A piece of crap, the intensity of the light is okay but the spread on the thing is terrible. Am I about to participate in some sort of a scuffed horror movie or what?’

The hole opens up after a bit more walking, revealing a tunnel in the shape of a semicircle. There's a distance of about ten feet from the lowest to the highest point of the tunnel, its entire surface lined with weathered old bricks.

The two of them proceed in silence.

----------------------------------------

‘Left, right, right, straight, left, straight. It’s getting really difficult to remember the directions I need to go in order to get out of this place. We’ve been here for what feels like an hour already.’

‘For a regular person it would have been less of a journey and more of a ten minute walk but still. Who would have expected such a sprawling system of tunnels to exist in Meteor City of all places. What is their purpose even? A sewer system? Mining tunnels? Bunkers or something that is of military significance? That seems like the most reasonable answer.’

‘At least it doesn’t appear like the place is going to cave in on your head. Most of the bricks seem to be eroded at least a little bit but the place as a whole seems to be holding strong… If you ignore the tunnels that have already collapsed. I’m no engineer or safety inspector so I’m probably not the best judge for things like this.’

He points the flashlight at his companion.

‘Her knees are probably going numb at this point, the ground here is many times easier to traverse on your hands and knees than the one outside but it’s still a big effort, coupled with how cut up they are. It’s a wonder how she hasn’t collapsed yet.’

“Wait!” She sharply yells out.

‘There’s someone in front of us?’ Max’s pulse sharply rises.

He directs the flashlight straight down the length of the tunnel in front of them, trying to illuminate as much as possible

He scoots over behind the girl.

‘What the hell is that? A gorilla? One of those weird magical beasts?’

The first thing Max notices is the silhouette caused by the drop shadow of the figure in front of him, his mind registering its contour first and foremost before moving onto its features.

What he sees shakes him to his core, making him wish that it really was a gorilla that was standing there.

‘You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.’

“Hahahahaha! Machi! I never doubted that you’d make it” The ‘gorilla’s’ booming voice spreads through the length of the tunnel, the enclosed space making it sound much louder than it otherwise should.

The ‘gorilla’, turning out to be an exceptionally large man, comes running in, heavy footsteps causing the ground to noticeably quake. He lifts up and hugs the girl that had just a second ago been laying on the ground.

Nonchalantly, the hair of the teen is grabbed, pulled out and tossed to the ground - a wig. Its removal revealing the hair with a rich pink colour hiding underneath.

“Careful!” The teen bites back, punching the man in the face. The punch noisily resonates through the tunnel when it hits “Did you think that I was crawling on the ground like that just because I felt like it, you brute!?” The punch does little to erase the smile from the man’s face

Suddenly.

Max hears footsteps behind him.

Twisting around he immediately shines a light in the direction of the sounds.

“Aaaaaah!!!” He tumbles to the ground upon noticing the person standing barely two feet away from him, dropping the flashlight in the process. It bounces around, erratically illuminating the area until it comes to a full stop.

“Jeez, what’s up with the kid Machi?” A second male voice speaks up, belonging to the person that had just scared Maximillian. “We thought that the mafia had found us when we noticed two people coming in instead of one.” Walking forwards, he leans down to pick up the flashlight, proceeding to point it directly in Maximillian’s face.

“And what’s up with his reaction anyways, am I that ugly? He barely reacts to Uvo as he stomps his way in like a truck but the moment he sees my mug he screams like a little girl and falls to the ground… Are you a girl actually? I can barely tell with the outfit you’ve got there. Your voice was kind of boyish though.”

“Nothing’s wrong with the kid’s reaction Nobunaga, you are just plain ugly.” The first man responds.

“Eeeeeh!? You wanna go?”

“Hey!” The pink haired girl, Machi, raises her voice, instantly shutting up the two. Nobunaga points the flashlight at her.

“I’m happy that the two of you are still alive and well but now really isn’t the time for this. I need emergency medical aid and I promised the kid a couple of warm meals for saving my life. Keep calm for a bit until we get everything sorted.”

“And if anything happens to him while I’m still incapacitated I swear I’ll break all of the bones in your brainless bodies before dumping you on the streets.” She points to Maximillian as she says so.

“...”

“...”

“...”

Two men and a child simply look at the girl for a couple of seconds, not sure of what to do.

“Sounds good.” ‘Uvo’ finally says.

“Yeah, Chrollo had us relocate to a different place before going out to grab the old hag nurse. He ordered us to wait for you here on the off chance that you made it…”

“That so?” She relaxes.

“Yep!” The large man, Uvo, throws Machi over his shoulder, beginning to carry her like a sack of potatoes. It earns him a hit on the back of the head with her elbow.

“Well, you two coming? Now that everyone made it out safe and sound I can’t wait to kick back and relax. Hah Hah Hah Hah… The fact that we successfully tore open the bastion is just the cherry on top.”

“Don’t you think that this is over Uvo! As soon as we get back we’re picking up where we left this off!”

“Good.” Uvo grins from ear to ear as he lumbers off into the shadows, undisturbed by the darkness of the tunnels.

Nobunaga spares Maximillian a passing glance before nodding his head in the direction of the two.

The light steadily gets dimmer and dimmer as Max rises up and dusts himself off. Unhurried, he turns to the way he came from, considering.

He takes a deep breath, before hesitantly stepping back. Making his decision, he runs after the trio.