"Thanks," Satoshi muttered even though his pride won't allow it. Even though he was the one who carried all the weight, it was all thanks to Emma's support that they were able to help two exploration teams and ultimately help save Satoshi's parents. His trust in her increased a little bit but that doesn't mean that she's completely in the clear.
"No probs. I'd be off then." Emma said.
"Where?"
"To the other Gates, you don't think the others managed to clear the Gate? No, I don't think so. Now off you go then, you have a competition to attend to, right?" Emma said, opening a Portal underneath him.
"Wha— "
.....
Every second made Midori and the others feel the nervousness creeping up from their skin as they wondered where Satoshi run off to. They've looked at every nook and cranny around the Inter-High Stadium and yet there was no sign of him. Even Fuuka and Kurogami started exhausting their powers just so they could search for Satoshi. They concluded that Satoshi is the center of the team and that they'll lose if they don't find him.
They were getting desperate by the second and it was evident on their expression.
When the fated hour has come, everyone gathered by the front door of their Waiting Room. All of them were on the verge of exhaustion but they didn't mind it. Right now, they were expecting the good news from each other and that would be all worth it if they were to hear it.
But unfortunately, no such news got to them. With faces filled with worry, they all looked at each other as they felt the stress rise up from within their system.
"I've checked every shadow on the premises... in and out of the Inter-High Stadium. But there's no sign of Satoshi anywhere." Kurogami reported.
"I've maximized my sound manipulation and there was no sound heard that matches Satoshi's voice. Either he up and disappeared in the room or he completely ditched us."
"I guess that's it. What do we do now?" Midori said with a sigh as he sat down in front of the waiting room's door. He knew there was no point in going in and looking for Satoshi inside since they looked for him there first thing. Everybody thought the same as well.
"Let's just go in and participate anyways. What if something came up and Satoshi had to go somewhere? What if he was expecting us to win the second round and he'll be back for the third round? Right now we have to do what we can to cover for him." Hiroshi suggested, rubbing his nose. To be fair, he wasn't one to stick up for Satoshi since he considers him a rival... but now, there really was nothing they could do but hope for the best.
"That feels oddly weird, you covering up for Satoshi, I mean," Shidou said with a grin. "In any case, there really is nothing we can do but hope for the best. Hiroshi's right. Let's do what we can during the second round and give Satoshi the good news when he gets back. Besides, we're plenty strong even without him, temporarily speaking, of course."
"Right!"
...
Meanwhile, Before Satoshi completely got through the portal that Emma set up right on his feet, he activated his powers thinking that it could at least stop the portal. That was one of the disadvantages when it comes to Satoshi's superpower— that is, there's always a delay every time he tries to summon a familiar. The only thing that didn't have a delay was his actual superpower, the dancing blue flames on the palms of his hand. That's why, at that point, he was desperate in stopping the portal that he shot blue flames at it. He had a lot of questions in his mind after Emma said that. 'What did she mean by that? Does that mean the others had no fighting chance against the monsters in the Gate? Does that mean she's going to clear all of them by herself? Why did she need me in the first place? Why did she come to me for help only to ditch me? What is she thinking?' All these questions manifested on his palms as the dancing blue flames.
Before Emma's portal completely disappeared, the blue flames lightly touched it and it disappeared. It didn't stop Satoshi from being teleported away from Emma though.
"I'll see you soon," Emma said with a forced smile. "This is probably the last time though," She said the second sentence underneath her breath but since Satoshi has pretty good hearing, he was able to hear it.
"What do you— mph!"
When the portal disappeared, a disc appeared on Satoshi's palms and in an instant, that disc transformed into a ghost-like beast that resembled a fire ball— except, the fire ball was dark purple in color and it has two white slits as eyes. As soon as Satoshi saw it, he thought that it looked exactly like the monster called 'Ghastly' in the classic petmaster series. Without thinking twice, he named it Ghast and put it in the Orb Oboros. The information about Ghast immediately flooded his mind but he ignored it. Right now, there were more important things to think about.
"Wait, why am I back in our room?!" Satoshi said, seeing that he was back in the Waiting Room. There were no signs of anyone though, as if all of them left. In haste, Satoshi checked the time, dreading the fact that he might be late for the second round.
To his relief, he has thirty seconds left.
.....
Meanwhile, Emma sighed when Satoshi disappeared from her portal. There were plenty of times when she wanted to send Satoshi away but she couldn't. She wanted to depend on him a little bit more but now she's at the end of her line. She knew that Satoshi was still in the competition where she found her and dragging him to help her against his will was probably not okay for him. Even though Satoshi didn't complain, she assumed that he just remained quiet so as not to hurt her feelings.
"Besides, this is my job anyways. He's just the last resort if I can't take care of everything... but how could I do it when the monsters are much stronger than usual? Why am I even here in the first place." Emma sighed.
"In any case, I still need to clear the other six Gates. This is the last thing I can do for my race." Emma told herself, a stray tear leaving her eyes. After a sniffle, she wiped off her tears and opened a portal. "Onto... hmm, let's see... I guess I'll go to Africa's Gate then."
Fwooosh~~~
As soon as the portal closed and there aren't any humans inside the Gate that opened in the middle of Japan, the Gate closed, causing everyone who was watching to cheer for the top ten superheroes. They were successful in clearing the Gate.
...
Tatsuki and his team were surprised that they managed to get through that hellish place with the help of someone unknown.
"Yes, if we hadn't received help from that unknown person... then we'd have died by now. The monsters inside the Gate are nothing to laugh about. One of them is as strong as a top superhero." Tatsuki said in one of the mics since there were a lot pointing towards their team as soon as they got out. They probably wanted to hear an update as soon as possible so they could report it to the masses in a flash. Of course, Tatsuki and everyone else was okay about it since it's their job to calm the masses down. Now that the Gate's cleared, they could live yet another day— that message should be broadcasted as soon as possible after all.
"Did you hear anything about the Gate in America? Apparently, they received outside help as well." Clone X muttered towards Tatsuki before one of the reporters asked them about it.
"Whoever they are, and whatever their intentions were, we're just grateful that they're on our side." Tatsuki answered concisely before turning around and leading his team out of the way. They already said enough about the Gate, even the details of monsters were made public as soon as they talked about it.
Two question remains unanswered though, who were the entities that helped the American Team and the Asian Team to clear the Gates? And are they planning to help the other superheroes in the other continents?
.....
"I guess it's time to put you to a test, huh," Satoshi said, summoning Ghast and commanding it to open a portal. It then threw up a disc which got bigger until Satoshi could fit inside. Satoshi didn't hesitate to go inside.
One moment, he was in the Waiting Room, the next moment, he was in the arena along with everyone else in his team.
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