Shuichi's POV
Having to watch him leave me alone in the tunnel with Kaede was hard. I mean it was nice to have Kaede there and all but Kokichi was being reckless again.

I love how confident he can be and everything about him...but sometimes I hate when his leader part kicks in. This is because when he is acting like a leader he puts everyone before himself...and the last thing I would want is for him to get severely injured.

But this is the reality we live in. People dying all around us...our own friends and family taken before our own eyes. The worst part about any of this is that some people like to use this fear against us...making them their own toys to fulfill their own sadistic desires.

"Shuichi, I know your worried about Kokichi...but we should go for now..." Kaede whispered as she took my hand. I felt more tears coming to my eyes.

Usually, Kokichi is always the one holding my hand while I'm scared...

"O..k..." I whispered through clenched teeth. I didn't want to cry now because I know we need to get back to the base fast...to make sure none of them could follow us.

"Shuichi use your helmet!" I was confused at first by what she meant by that but moments later she used smoke bombs to give us a smokescreen.

I quickly put on my helmet and made sure my night vision was on. Because I'm fog it was hard to see without night vision and still hard to see with night vision...

Kaede grabbed my hand and we began running. She took a different route than we usually would. I assumed this was because she didn't want them following us. Which makes sense...because who knows what they would o if they found the base.

"Hello beautiful~," I heard a male call out to us and the loving tone in his voice made me flinch. I turned around to see another male standing close to Kaede he had grabbed her neck and was starting to choke her.

"You look so nice as you struggle~ I wonder if you would look even better when all the air leaves your lungs~," The same sadistic tone...it made a shiver go up my spine. Where did he even come from?!

After a moment I realized that worrying gave him the upper hand...and I decided to just take the initiative and assess the situation for a moment.

By the way, he only addressed her I figured out that he must have not seen me. He didn't have a ton of gear on and these tunnels are super hard to navigate through without some sort of night vision or even a flashlight.

I snuck up behind him and pressed my hand against the pressure point on his neck. I didn't want to have to kill him so I decided on knocking him out instead.

"What the hell was that?" Kaede asked keeping her voice hushed. I was worried there were more of them around so I didn't say anything I just grabbed her hand again and followed the directions to get back to the base on my wrist device.

The base wasn't too far from there and luckily all the doors for the base required a thumbprint to get inside. If they didn't use this or don't have the access they will be obliterated, or at least hurt, by the defense system.

When we both got inside we quickly went to check the situation through their helmet and chest cameras. These were put in place to see where the person was and if they needed immediate help.

Maki really outdid herself making these...every time we go out I learn some new function or something. Crazy...

"Shuichi! Kokichi keeps getting hit badly! We need to go and help!" When I heard her say that I looked to the screen where Kokichi's cameras were displayed.

Shick

Shick

Knives kept coming at him and cutting him up really badly. He kept on fighting but I knew he wasn't going to last forever in that condition. I grabbed some bandages and first aide and when the battle seemed to be over me and Kaede quickly got back to the scene.

I need to save Kokichi!

I shouldn't have just left him there!

I could have helped him damn it!

Kokichi just hang in there...

I felt more tears come to my eyes but I choked them down. I need to go to help him and crying is going to blur my vision...and this is no place for crying... people's lives have been taken. Their lives are on the line...and I could potentially save them!

"Shuichi the hatch is right there!" Kaede yelled over to me. She was already up the latter and opened the hatch. I saw all the blood and carnage and Kokichi...

"Got it!" I yelled and with all my energy I climbed that latter to get to Kokichi.

I rushed over to him and wrapped my arm around his waist holding him up and letting him slump against me. He looked like shit...and I hated how guilty I felt for this...

"Kokichi!! Oh my god, are you ok?! I mean you obviously aren't! I should have been here! I could have-" Kokichi put his finger to my lips silencing me. I just looked over at him with wide eyes.

"It's ok Shuichi...I'm just glad you're safe..." He whispered while his eyes fluttered shut. I felt my paranoia kick in.

He is alive and needs to stay awake! He needs to make it back to the base so they can help him!

"Kokichi, you have to stay awake for me ok?" I kept my tone softer knowing how he is in a lot of pain and probably doesn't need his ears shot as well...

He kind of blanked out on the whole way we were walking back but he was awake at least. I wanted to talk to him on the way back...but he didn't respond to me so I didn't press things any farther.

When we got back Maki explained what I had to do so she could perform stitches to the deeper wounds. She had me apply pressure to them until the bleeding slowed enough to give him stitches before we had to bandage him back up.

"Kokichi!" I yelled at him to get his attention and it worked he looked at me shaking his head.

"Sorry...I was distracted..." He whispered when he finally looked back over at me after he came back to the present.

-Sorry for a later update, I just needed to get my head back into the game! I feel more motivated and know why I was losing my motivation before! I need something I'm working towards and I need to learn new things to keep my brain active so I'm going back to studying and learning from textbooks like I did every summer before this! Anyway, sorry I'm a really weird kid...um, thank you all so much for reading!!-

-ShuichiOuma010-