AngelSubzero - Douma's Adventures

"Where is everybody? Hello?" Someone from the team had gotten themselves stranded in the forest. They saw Bunta about a while ago but he vanished, leaving the man all by himself in the middle of these eerie and dark grounds.

After seeing the large tail moving around where he stood, the man quickly hid behind one of the trees. Quietly, the man peeked at the tree he was standing against to check if the giant worm was still slithering around. Luckily, it was slowly moving away. That thing was something people would see in a bad dream.

The crows startled the man who was convinced that nobody else was here. He felt hopeless because his journey through this corner of the forest was never-ending. Every minute he anticipated running into their base or someone from either one of the groups.

All seemed quiet until he heard movement in the shrubs surrounding the large trees and decaying logs.

"Who's there?" The man spun around and got his weapon ready in case someone or something decided to jump out.

No answer just sounds of the leaves rustling. He felt better knowing it was probably just an animal until he heard shuffling again from another spot.

He was being watched from every corner. This person or animal didn't want to show itself. There were various species in every habit, and this island was no exception. The group was exploring their habitat in broad daylight.

The rustles of the leaves were accompanied by loud squeaking as a large group of grey mice scurried towards the man and bit down on him at once.

"Help somebody!" The man cried fighting off the oncoming mice that chewed on his flesh like hungry wolves.

Where did these rodents come from? The man didn't expect there to be vicious mice hunting for prey, their red eyes were a sign of their cruelty as opposed to their usually docile and timid nature especially with humans and bigger animals.

The man struggled to free himself from the agile mice piling up on him. Despite the light weight of every single one of the rodents, the man couldn't escape their bites and claws were immensely painful like burnt scabs.

"Help! Help me! Someone! Help!" A few minutes passed and the man's agonizing cries died down with the initially fragile sounds of the crickets taking over.

On the forest floor beside the shrub, the man's body was surrounded by the abundance of mice chewing on their prey endlessly until he no longer had the strength to fight anymore and gave in his wounds. The grey mice squeaked loudly when their prey fell to their unfortunate demise and continued chewing on the man's flesh and bones. This part of the forest now back to what it was before the man ventured his way to it.

~~~

Bunta reached a bright clearing that reminded him of the atmosphere of their base. Unfortunately, he was clearly lost because the clearing looked significantly different with another smaller lake beside it and there was no sign of Mr Fumio or Ime anywhere. He wondered if they were doing alright with the dangers around.

"Where is everyone? It feels I've been walking forever, and not a single person in sight. Don't tell me they've gone back to the base."

As he approached the center of the clearing, Bunta noticed someone standing in the distance. He squinted his eyes at the figure to see one of his teammates looking down at another person on the ground.

Bunta immediately ran towards the person and stopped when he saw the familiar face of Ayukio, the man was glad he was OK in this wilderness. About time he found someone from the group. "Hey Ayukio finally I've been looking for you guys! Glad to see you're all OK man I was worried."

But there was something off about Ayukio and the way he was looking at their fallen teammate on the floor, a key factor that Bunta could make out now that he was closer to this spot.

Ayukio looked up and stared at Bunta with an unsettling expression. The only thing Bunta had on his mind when he saw that smile was what happened to this man.

The body of their teammate was covered in blood with an obvious stab wound from the blade Ayukio was holding, his weapon dripping with the crimson liquid that stained the grass beneath his feet.

Bunta stepped back in horror, realizing his mistake that he wasn't even aware of. His legs went numb. "Ayukio, you killed-"

He noticed two other bodies of what looked to be the bandits lying on the floor nearby.

They were ambushed, but for some reason, Ayukio decided to kill their teammate too. Bunta couldn't make sense of what was going on in Ayukio's mind, this man was dangerous and had to be stopped before someone gets hurt.

"He was going to get in the way of my treasure!" Ayukio replied sounding like someone who had clearly gone mad. How could he be some calm about the death of his teammate who was right in front of him? But then again, he no longer had any senses. Bunta had to watch his words too, this man could respond irrationally at any moment.

"What treasure are you talking about...?" Bunta noticed Ayukio holding valuable items in his hands emitting gold and sparkles embedded in them.

When he looked to the corner, he saw one of the bandits wearing a golden sash with other luxurious items sprawled out on the floor.

"See look! There's a lot of treasure on this island worth millions and all of them belongs to me! Even he said so!" Ayukio desperately picked up the items lying beside the bandit and picked it up to show Bunta who had no words. That was a lot of treasure and the thought of leaving with them and getting away from Ayukio clashed together.

Until Ayukio spoke again, "Don't you dare touch them... or you'll join him too." The man said waiting for Bunta to look up and take note of their teammate's lying body on the floor.

Bunta bit his lip nervously. He couldn't get distracted by the gold scattered in front of him, the more valuable life he had was on the line. Ayukio was watching him closely the entire time, he had to think of a way to warn the others before things get out of control.

"Like everyone else, we all need money!" Ayukio shouted holding on to the gold in his hands tightly with a toothy smile.

This man was driven by greed. It must've taken a toll on his emotions, maybe like Bunta himself, this deranged teammate of his probably encountered some terrifying things in this forest. It was insane that he underwent such an incomprehensible change with his mental state in just a short period of time. Who knows what Ayukio was thinking as of now.

"Listen Ayukio, what you did is really messed up." Bunta said calmly. "Just know, that we won't let this slide, something will be done about this."

Ayukio showed his teeth threateningly, he was about to say something before Bunta spoke again.

"We came here, to solve a case. Not... this." Bunta knew it was unlikely that Ayukio could even reflect on his words given his current obsessive state with gold, but he could at least do his part to get Ayukio to be aware of the repercussions of his actions that he's going to face once the whole team is informed.

I hope he doesn't swing that blade at me, man I should've stood a little further away. Bunta was sweating, he had to get out of here fast.

Ayukio held his blade tightly. He widened his eyes in obvious disapproval at what Bunta just said to him. "This is my treasure, one more step and you're done for. I won't let you or anyone take my treasure. So don't even think of getting a whole lot of people here. They'll get shredded into pieces." The man warned swinging his blade over and over again.

"Your treasure is going to be safe, as a team it's important that we have good communication and cooperation with each other. So put down the weapon and we can discuss this slowly." Bunta had to make it seem that way when that wasn't going to be the case. Ayukio was long gone there was no talking him out of this anymore.

"I WILL NOT COOPERATE!" Ayukio swung his blade at Bunta who slid away from the weapon and knocked the side of the man with his steel pole causing him to stumble and grit his teeth in anger.

Bunta blocked the incoming blade with his weapon and attempted to push the desperate Ayukio away. "Listen Ayukio you don't know what you're doing! We're comrades!"

"No we're not! Not anymore!" Ayukio managed to push Bunta to the floor. Bunta never expected Ayukio to have such sheer and incomprehensible strength and worst of all, it was a time like this when he needed to put this man in his place.

While Bunta was trying to get up without the pain in his knee that was wrapped in a piece of fabric from his shirt holding him back, Ayukio ran to his bag on the ground and took out one of his equipment, a large drill.

This raised a lot of questions however Bunta had no time to find the answers to them. He watched Ayukio sink the tool into the ground with the smile of a maniac. "This will start an earthquake and nobody on this island will steal my treasure!"

This man was insane, that wasn't going to affect the entire island, he was literally putting himself in danger. Bunta got up and rushed towards Ayukio who activated the machine.

"Ayukio stop! You don't know what you're doing!" Bunta shouted trying to speed up and get to his teammate who slowly began drilling the ground beneath.

With the loud noise, Ayukio probably couldn't hear him anymore. He was eager to split the ground and rupture it. 

Bunta limped towards Ayukio who lick his lip when the drill sunk further into the ground. You're putting yourself in danger Ayukio stop this at once!

The sound of the drill was accompanied by loud thumping ahead. Bunta looked up to see movement in the bushes. This wasn't good, something else was out there. Bunta had a bad feeling about this.

The thumping which sounded like footsteps went from one corner to another, getting closer to where Ayukio was, the man crouching in front of the drill wasn't aware of what's happening. He was eager to go on with his plan.

"AYUKIO GET OUT OF THERE!" Bunta shouted as his eyes widened in horror when the same large bulky hippo from before emerged from the bushes behind Ayukio and bit down on his neck and shoulder, causing him to release the drill and scream desperately.

Bunta ran towards Ayukio who was dragged on the floor by the hippo. This was bound to happen, who else would those footsteps belong to if it wasn't the hippo's? The loud sound brought all of them here.

"HELP! BUNTA HELP!" The hippo dragged Ayukio away from Bunta, eventually snapping his neck as the other two hippos joined in and thrashed him around.

The situation went on, Bunta wanted to get Ayukio out of there he really did, nobody should have to go through something extremely brutal but these hippos required an entire team to take them down. Bunta dealt with these hippos before and he didn't want to have to drag himself all the way back to base. He warned Ayukio, if only he listened, but even then he was already oblivious to everything around him and getting the man to cooperate wasn't going to work either. 

There was nothing Bunta could do to save Ayukio he was outnumbered. Ayukio stopped struggling against the hippos that were chomping down on him and laid there lifeless. Bunta stepped away from the clearing, he needed time to process everything that happened in a place that was safe from all these problems.