Heroes of Townsville: Chapter 30

(Kaoru's P.O.V.)

All of us detransformed for a while because being transformed all the time is really, really exhausting. It has been three or four days I think since me and the girls drunk or eaten anything at all. They say normal people can only live two days without water, who knows what will happen to us? After all, this is the first time that we've starved like this after the "getting hit with a Z ray" thing, which is like, two, almost three years ago.

"Ugh, I have never been this hungry in all my life!" I groaned. I lied down on the ground while holding my poor stomach.

"Me too, I'm so hungry!" Momoko groaned with me.

"I have," Miyako hummed.

"Really?!" Momoko and I exclaimed at the same time. I mean, really?! Miyako owns a huge mansion; she's rich! I've seen their fridge once, and it was a heavenly sight of food. I sighed. Did I mention I was hungry?

"Yep," Miyako nodded. "Maybe I was five or six at the time. Octi was missing, so I had to go around the house to find him. I remember refusing to eat until I find Octi. My voyage around the house felt like it lasted for days before I finally found Octi."

"Really?" Miyazaki said now joining us in listening to Miyako.

"Yep. Of course, my memory could be over exaggerated since the memory I have is that of a young me," Miyako said trying to remember what actually happened. "And I think... I also remember that Octi was found right under my bed. I guess I hadn't thought of it sooner."

Momoko and I faceplanted. "We thought you were actually serious."

Miyako giggled. Suddenly we heard a loud grumbling sound.

"It's HIM! Be on your guard, everyone!" Momotaro ordered and he transformed.

"Hard Brick!"

"What the?! What are you guys doing?! Why the hell are you guys not transformed?!" Brick yelled.

"Well, I think that grumbling sound was my stomach," Miyako said sweatdropping, then she said, "My aplogies."

The rest of us sweatdropped.

"Hm, speaking of HIM, don't you guys think that his plan is moving really, really slow? I mean, he could just do his all already on trying to annihilate us, but he didn't," I thought out loud.

"Yeah, I was just thinking about that, too," Momoko said with her hand on her chin. "What do you think he's trying to do?"

"I'm hungry. Has the anti particle thingy been sent here yet?" Miyazaki asked while rubbing his stomach.

"Nope, not yet," Katsumoto answered right after he checked that little robot version of himself thing... Where did they get that, anyway?

"Katsumoto! I'm dying of boredom here! There's nothing to do..." I groaned.

"You should just sleep it off. Besides, I know for a fact that you won't die as long as I'm here," Katsumoto said, then he smiled a reassuring smile.

"How are you so sure about that?" I asked as I crossed my arms.

"Because you're not allowed to die as long as I'm alive. We're going to live a long life together after all of this, so I'm not going to let you die," he said as he approached and sat down next to me. I got up for a while and moved so that I can lean my back on his back.

He suddenly got hotter for a while, then he said, "A-after I die, you can die all you want, then, we can be together in the afterlife!"

I groaned, then chuckled at what he said. "Stupid," I whispered. I felt him take a deep breath.

"You know what? Why don't you let your pretty face rest for a while," he said.

"You sure?" I asked.

I suddenly saw a flash of green light, then he said, "Don't you worry, I'll be here to protect you while you sleep."

"Alright," was the last word I said as I dozed off into sleep with a small smile on my face.

I felt calm, and I eventually open my eyes to a beautiful scenery. I was sitting under a tree on top of a hill, with buttercup flowers spread all around the tree. The beautiful music of a flute filled the air. In the distance, I saw a really large, and deep hole. I shrugged as I chose not to mind it too much. I leaned my back on the tree to be in a relaxed position while watching the beautiful, yellow orange sunset. The last sunshine of the day felt warm on my skin. I closed my eyes as I let myself loose. Suddenly, a memory popped in my mind.

"K-Katsu... Butch, I..."

I felt a single tear drop from my closed eye.

"I'm sorry..."

Everything suddenly became red and I suddenly felt the temperature dramatically rise, while the ground shook very violently. The tree behind me now felt like a person, who seemed to suddenly stand up, leaving me lying flat on my back.

I heard running, and clashing. I opened my eyes for a while to see what was happening. The second I opened my eyes, the first thing I saw was HIM's evil smile. HIM was standing right under a huge hole, which is a lot like what I saw earlier. Then, I saw the silhuette of someone who was holding some sort of vial. I suddenly flinched as I felt unbearable pain running horizontaly across my abdomen and legs. I tried to sit up to see clearly, but I couldn't, I only felt excruciating pain. I put my hand on my abdomen, only to realize that I have three individual, deep, fatal wounds across it. I tried so hard to keep my eyes open, but I just couldn't. As my eyes closed, I felt my mouth move, like I was saying something, but I myself couldn't hear it. Once my eyes were completely closed, I heard the soft sound of crying...

"Kaoru? Hey... Kaoru... Kao-chan, wake up," I suddenly heard Butch's voice.

I opened my eyes to the sight of Butch's worried face.

"Th-that was just... a dream..." I mumbled as I stared right into Butch's eyes.

"Uh... Uh, y-yeah, I guess so," Butch answered as pink gradually tinted his cheeks.

I then noticed that my head is sitting on Butch's lap, and I became flustered. I squinted my eyes as I tried to disguise my red face, and asked him, "Why the hell am I suddenly sleeping on your lap?"

"Well, turns out that sleeping in a seated position doesn't work for you. You were swaying side to side, I had to move you to a different position so you won't get hurt," he said. "And besides, I like looking at your face," he continued as his eyes suddenly diverted to different directions.

"You're a dork," I said as I laughed a bit.

"A handsome dork," Butch said with his eyes closed.

"Pssh," I said as I continued laughing while getting up and sat next to him.

"So, what did you dream about? You seem to have been emotionally driven by it, seeing as you let a few droplets of your tears fall whilst sleeping," he said as he looked into my eyes. "What's wrong?"

"Wait, tears?" I said as I felt my face with my hand. Yep, those are tears alright. Now, it was my turn to divert my sight from Butch. He just looked so serious and worried about me at the same time, and not to mention sorta cute... Woah, what the?!

"Yup, my pants actually got soaked in your tears. You want to talk about it?" Butch asked me with a small reassuring smile. My suddenly felt warm, I just can't help it when he's doing stuff like this, which is almost all the time. He's tough, but he's also sweet at the same time... When did that even happen? It's like, he's not an immature child that I was always annoyed at anymore, he suddenly matured into this hot bod and I guess his emotional side has matured as well... I wonder what he thinks of me...

"You made me feel like I was a real person and... I... I- I lo-"

I suddenly became flustered because of that dang memory.

"Hey, Kaoru, you okay? What's wrong? You look... You're looking like a tomato, honestly," Butch said as he put his right hand on my left shoulder, and chuckled.

(Butch's P.O.V.)

"Hey, Kaoru, you okay? What's wrong? You look... You're looking like a tomato, hosnestly," I chuckled. I managed to snap her out of her train of thoughts. She's looking very flustered and embarrassed. I wonder what she was thinking about... Anyway, she calmed down now, and as she turned back to me, I can't help but feel the butterflies in my gut...

"And a beautiful one too..." I suddenly mumbled. I guess she heard it 'cause, right now, she's faceplanted on my shoulder. I couldn't see her face right now, but I can confidently say... Nailed it! I didn't even know that she was capable of fainting because of my good looks and sweet attitude. Haha!

"Don't get so full of yourself."

I suddenly heard Brick's voice in my head say. I looked at Brick and glared.

"Shut up, you," I thought.

"Haha, loser," Brick laughed aloud.

I grunted in annoyance. I looked back at Kaoru, who has already regained her composure.

"Hey, don't you think I forgot about you," I told her, "What's wrong? What did you dream about?"

She sighed. She knew that she couldn't just shake me off that easily. She began to speak, "Alright, I honestly still feel a bit uneasy about this, but okay, I trust you."

I smiled a bit. But suddenly, as she was about to open her mouth, Boomer said aloud, "Guys! Did you feel that?"

I looked at Boomer to tell him that this was a bad time, but the moment I saw his eyes, I knew that he wasn't kidding around.

"What's wrong?" Brick asked.

"The temperature has changed..." Boomer said quietly.

"Uh, so?" Momoko asked for him to continue.

"I felt it, too," Miyako said. "The temperature dropped slightly, and it's still dropping. What do you guys think that means?"

Huh? Oh yeah, the temperature has dropped, it's a little bit cooler than before. What the hell is HIM up to?

"I'll go outside for a while and do some patrolling, maybe get some more info or something," Brick said as he moved towards the exit.

"I'm coming too," Momoko said and transformed.

"Hyper Blossom!"

After that, they moved out. Not long after, Brick almost immediately peaked in.

"Well that was fast, how was the date?" I asked in an uninterested tone.

"Dudes, this is serious..." Brick said with a serious face.

"... HIM will be going out through the gate and plans to wreak havoc to the surface world, all while leaving us trapped here in the Underworld..."