| [Feb. 8th, 2017|03:51 am] |
If murdering trained ninja attack sharks didn't cheer him up, Ryouma didn't know what would. "Raidou's bleeding too," he tried pointing out. "And Genma's baked his brain."
Kakashi failed to look cheered. Raidou said, "I'm fairly certain I said we need to get off the beach, not stand around chatting on it."
No pause even for rest or water; he was hauling Genma up, slither-footed in the sand. "Tousaki, carry Kimiko. Hound, take the baby. I've got the lieutenant." He crouched to thrust his shoulders under Genma's chest, careless of the ropes still blistering his own torso.
"I c'n walk," Genma said querulously. He was still flushed, sweating through the sand, but his teeth chattered. "Cut the ropes…"
Raidou ignored him, resoundingly. "There should be shelter over the cliffs. We can stop and rest once we get out of sight."
Ryouma stifled a sigh, kicked sand over the ruined bits of rope, and went to coax Kimiko into giving up her baby.
It wasn't easy. She was exhausted almost past the point of fear, but Sango was hungry again, and cold, and she was all Kimiko had left. Kimiko clung doggedly, and tried to scramble to her feet. "I'll walk."
"Even the lieutenant can't walk," Ryouma said. "And we gotta climb. You don't wanna drop her, do you?"
"I won't drop my baby!" Kimiko snarled.
"Your hands are blue and you're missing two fingers," Kakashi said flatly. "You can try climbing the sheer cliff face if you really want, but you'll be slow, and if we get caught waiting for you, your sister died for nothing."
Kimiko's knuckles whitened. She looked ready to strike him, or to cry. But she swallowed down grief and fury together, and pressed her lips to Sango's head. Then she looked up, at Ryouma. "Will you take her?"
"Me? Uh— Yeah, sure, I guess…" Ryouma creaked down to accept a greasy, squirming armful of unhappy baby. Sango wasn't quite wailing yet, but she was making the sort of grizzling noises that threatened it. Ryouma braced himself, scooped a hand under her sodden diaper, and flopped her against his shoulder. The squirming settled a little, though the noises didn't.
Kakashi said, "We're wasting time." He crouched, offering his back to Kimiko. She clenched her jaw and clambered on. Her hands hovered near his throat, until she gripped her own forearms to lock.
Raidou and Genma hadn't bothered with harnesses, either, beyond the ropes still cross-hatching them both. As soon as Raidou saw the others ready, he turned toward the cliff-face. Genma huddled low on his back, reducing drag. Raidou set open palm and bare foot to the wave-smoothed cliff, and climbed steadily upward. |
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