Fourteen

Hanna could see them coming closer. Magi had told her that she had seen Kuro go through with the others. As soon as Kiki had gone through the portal, Hanna had Magi switch the portals location. Now when they went through, they'd end up behind Em's large group.

"Here goes nothing," Hanna said. "Stay safe and keep your head until you arrive here Kuro," she thought.

"Gotcha," an answer came immediately. "Magi?" Kuro thought.

"Yes Kuro?"

"Can you let all of us speak to each other? Only if we can, that is..."

"Of course," she answered.

~~~

Kuro looked around and saw that they were in a group. A very large group actually. A black cat approached them, allowing the rest of the group to pass. "Good of you to join us Kuro," it said. Connie and the rest jumped. "I see more people have come than planned. That is okay. Hello. My name is Em." She turned to everyone.

"Oh uh hi," Connie said. "I'm Connie and this is Erin," she said pointing to each and saying their names as they waved nervously.

"Guys just try thinking and you'll be able to talk to everyone. Including the girl and the other cat I was talking about," Kuro thought. Everyone jumped again.

"Is everything alright?" Em asked.

"Yes we're fine," Kuro's mom said. "My name is Sayaki and these are my two daughters Yuki and Aria. And you've already met my son Kuro, haven't you?"

"Yes I have," Em said bowing.

"Well that's good.... I guess," she said trying to smile. "Well um thank you for allowing us to come." Em once again bowed and walked again to the front.

"What were you talking about? Like this?" Connie thought.

"Exactly," Kuro thought back.

"This is confusing," Erin thought.

"But it's all we got," Kuro thought.

"Yes Kuro is right. We don't have much else," Magi thought. "My name is Magi. Nice to meet you... Or speak to you I suppose."

"Hi, my name is Connie," Connie thought. And each person said their name accordingly.

"Hi I'm Hanna," a small voice entered the conversation.

"So you're the girl huh? Nice to meet you!" Erin thought.

"H-hi my name is Joey," Joey thought. His voice was always very low, even in his mind.

"Well, you guys better go. I don't want Em suspecting anything," Hanna thought, now sounding cheerful again.

"You're right. Guys if you need anything, you can talk with us," Kuro thought.

"Right!" everyone else thought. They all looked ahead at a mansion in front of them. But it didn't look like a normal mansion. It had.... dogs growling in the front, what looked like thorn bushes hanging out the window, ice on the ground, and there seemed to be a large wind front coming out the windows and doors.

Em took all this in. "Tch," she said. "She sure knows what she's doing. No matter, we'll get in there somehow, we have to." Kuro thought he could see a sort of madness in her eyes but it was mixed in with years of sadness.

"You okay Kuro?" Connie appeared beside him.

"Oh um ya. I'm fine, just thinking," he answered.

"Okay everyone," Em said for everyone to hear. The group turned and looked at her. "Here's what we'll do! I need everyone to do whatever you can to get past those dogs. There are many obstacles inside as well. Do whatever you can to get up there. She can't get away." Em gritted her teeth.

"Yes ma'am!" everyone responded.

Kuro moved his way up to the front of the lines to see the tower. He gaped at what he saw. Twelve snarling dogs in front of a mountain of barriers. Gigantic thorn bushes falling out of shattered windows. Fire blazing up, not at all harming the massive plants. Even ice was steaming amidst the many obstacles.

Em came to his side. "Do you see what we're up against, Kuro? This is the only choice I have." Kuro felt like this was a lie, but didn't say anything, for fear of being suspected. Em walked away to join the fight and Connie approached Kuro.

"This wasn't what I was expecting," she said. "Not at all," she whispered. Kuro grabbed her hand, causing her to blush ferociously.

"We'll make it," he said seriously. "I promise." She nodded, still pink-faced. Kuro smiled, but Connie saw his worry. She wanted to do something to comfort him. But this wasn't the time. Her expression turned grave as she turned to face the house.

"I can do this," she thought as she took a deep breath. She ran to join the rest but Kuro stayed back, thinking.

"You're gonna blow it Kuro," he heard Erin's voice in his head. Kuro shook his head.

"Let's do this," he thought.

"Right!" came everyone's response. Kuro's heart was pounding. They had to do this just right. They had to make it, for Hanna. He ran with the rest of the group, running and slashing through vines with a spear he was given. Connie didn't want to hurt the dogs so she pet them instead to distract them. Kuro could see Em get frustrated, but she didn't object.

"Thanks Connie!" Kuro's mother, Sayaki called back.

"Who's a good boy?" Connie said in a voice only ever used with animals and babies. "You guys want the ball? GO GET THE BALL!" She chucked a small red ball from out of her bag and the dogs yipped as they bounded after it, falling on top of each other. A couple of the soldiers chuckled at this, looked around, saw Em staring at them, and quickly went back to fighting. Kuro stormed to the front, stopped by the raging fires erupting from the whole building.

"Hanna," Kuro thought.

"Yes?" came an instant, worried reply.

"How should I get past these fires? It seems impossible," he asked, thinking that this was the one puzzle he couldn't solve.

"I-I'm not sure," she replied sadly. "I wasn't thinking when I put up the barriers. I'm so sorry." Kuro clicked his tongue in frustration, the heat burning through his senses. He had to think of a way out of this. There was always a way. The way might be hidden to him at the moment, but it was there. He looked around, searching for a clue. He turned to the garden side of the manor and laughed. There was a large hose protruding from the house. He ran to it and turned the wheel all the way to the left, feeling the water gush forth from it. He looked down and saw that his hands were glowing slightly. He gaped at them. Was this the special power Em had told him about so long ago? The water did seem to be shooting out of the hose faster than it should. Strengthened by this thought, he blasted the fire at full speed. When a column of the flames had died down, Kuro raced through the opening. What he encountered next was the ice.  Somehow it was unaffected by the raging flames in front of it. It hissed in outrage at the unwelcome visitor. Kuro bit his lip. The ice would no doubt bite at him after just having run through burning hot flames.

"Woooohooo!" Kuro heard a familiar voice yell. He looked over and saw Erin, a look of pure excitement pasted on his face. He ran towards the ice like a five year old would at an ocean. "Come on, Kuro, your girlfriend awaits!" He slid across the ice and weaved in and out to avoid the foreboding icy pillars all around.

Kuro smiled. "Looks like all those years of skateboarding paid off, huh?"

He laughed as he slid further away. "Heck yeah!"

Kuro followed his example and stepped back to get a running start on the ice. He felt it nip at him a little, but was too excited to notice. He reached one of the ice peaks jutting from the ground and slid out of the way.

"That's it! You got it, bro!" Erin called over his back. They continued this and eventually reached the end. Erin held his hand up and they high-fived. "We got this, man, let's go!"

They ran together and came across a door, behind which they could hear howling. Erin put his eye to the keyhole and whistled, impressed. "That's some crazy wind she's got in there."

"Wind?" Kuro asked. He put his eye to the keyhole as Erin had done and saw. The room was small and square, but you could make out wisps of wind. "Wow," he whispered.

Erin seemed lost in thought. "Erin! Kuro!" A soft voice rang out in the large room and they both turned.

"Joey?" Erin asked in bewilderment. "I can't believe you got past the fire and ice, that's amazing!"

"Yeah," he answered shyly. "Anyways, the next obstacle is wind right? Leave it to me! I found a way!"

They watched as he ran to the far left corner of the room. They heard a small door open and saw Joey disappear through it.

He came out heaving a large ladder. "Joey, what?" Kuro asked.

"Just watch!" His eyes shone in determination. He propped the ladder  up on the wall and began to climb it. He was climbing towards a small vent in the wall. When he reached it, he flipped the switch to the right of it and they all heard a loud sucking noise. He climbed back down the ladder and turned towards them, smiling broadly. "The air has nowhere to go now."

"Hmm. So, when we open the door...?"

"It'll all come blasting through so we have to be careful," he said seriously.

"Alright. Kuro, you step back," Erin said.

"What?"

"If anything happens to us in attempting to open the door, we want to have at least one of us who can keep going." Erin gave Kuro a thumbs up and walked over to the door with Joey. "Ready, Joey?"

"Ready."