'Are you alright? Akino! Akino, look at me! You need to keep breathing. You'll see your mother soon, I promise! The world as we know it has been ruined by our own hands. This is no ordinary war! Division-A! Division-A is… Fuck! Wherever you find yourself, you must find the truth, no matter who befriends you or stands in your way! You must remember me, Akino! Do not let them play with your mind! Return us to our birth place, otherwise we may never know the feeling of humanity ever again! Akino! You are the only chance we have! Use your resources, remember this message, and guide your people back to humanity! Reclaim what was taken from you, from us! Please, Akino, be safe. Live!'
"I am beyond humanity."
Akino jolted up from his bed in a sweaty mess, covering his mouth. He panted, struggling to catch his breath. The boy lowered his hand and looked down at the bottle of pills, astonished.
"What… What did I just say?" Akino sat for a minute in complete stillness, staring blankly at the wall as he went through his memories. He looked over his shoulder to his journal across the room. Akino lunged off his bed and snatched the book from the pile of clothes it sat on. He flipped through the pages, desperately searching for his records about the dreams. He found the page and read through it repeatedly. "Did it…" Akino flipped to the next page and continued reading. "He said it all."
Slamming the book shut, Akino darted to his closet in search for an outfit to go outside in. He threw the unwanted clothes behind him in a hurry before quickly finding something he wanted. 'I need to tell them about this,' Akino monologued. 'There's no time to think, just go!' Unexpectedly, a white flash knocked Akino unconscious. He collapsed to the ground like a rag doll, completely limp and numb.
Akino stared to the ground, the empty white void completely surrounding him. Beneath his feet was a row of metal tracks leading into a dark abyss enclosed by a tunnel. With no other direction to go, step by step Akino made his way into the darkness. His eyes slowly adjusted to the lack of light until the tracks below him became visible. Akino glanced behind him, unable to see the white void he walked out of. He continued walking along the railroad, clueless as to where it would lead.
Painful ringing echoed through Akino's ears. He grunted, slouching over himself and stumbling into the side of the tunnel, covering his ears. The ringing faded into cries and screams. Akino looked up, now alarmed and confused. Suddenly, a light shined on the other end of the tunnel. He ran towards it, blind to what might await him.
Emptiness was suddenly under his feet. Akino looked down, panicked to see the tunnel and tracks at their end. He stumbled back into the tunnel before he fell, desperately grasping for a ledge to lean on. He looked back out, realizing that he reached the end of the tunnel. However, the view provided haunted him.
Akino walked to the edge of the tunnel, horrified. He looked above him, realizing the tunnel was pultruding through a mountain. Above that mountain was a blood red sky littered with black clouds of smoke raining ash down upon him. He looked below him, immediately whimpering in shock as it came into view. Underneath him was a city in the process of destruction. Buildings fell on top of each other, explosions bursting through them. Crowding the decimated streets were thousands upon thousands of people, each screaming bloody murder as the city fell both on top and below them.
Suddenly, a purple light lit up above him. He lifted his face to the sky as he witnessed several purple streaks fly through the clouds of ash and disappear. The light pierced through his retinas, forcing Akino to cover his eyes in pain.
Akino dropped his hands and sat up from his pile of clothes. He looked around his room, completely frozen. His heartbeat refused to slow down as Akino's body continued to tremble. Unable to catch his breath again, Akino let his upper body fall back to the floor and relax. He stared at the roof of his bedroom with wide eyes and mouth agape.
"What the hell…"
Sakagami basically knocked down Akino's door with how hard she pulled it open. Ignoring his concerning position on the floor, Sakagami ran to her son and pulled him up by his arm, leading him to the kitchen.
"W-What is it?!" Akino asked, scrambling to meet her pace.
Sakagami looked back at him, her blonde bun bouncing with every step. "You need to see this!"
The woman pulled him into the kitchen, sending him nearly head first into the table. He balanced himself and directed his attention to the television playing loudly in front of him. The voice of an elderly man broadcasted over live footage of a fleet of busses exiting city limits and into the flattened rim of the North District.
"The Royal Ambassadors has not yet appeared from her office in the Grand Hall. All we can do is speculate. Is this related to the Fuji High incident or are they simply out to re-map the North District? Whatever the case may be, the refugees are patiently waiting for any updates."
Akino kept his gaze on the tv as he asked, "what do you think they're doing? Those are Omega buses."
Sakagami shrugged, still intently focused on the news broadcast.
"Oh! We are receiving report that The Royal Ambassador it out and answering questions. Let's cut to you, Okami."
The screen changed to a shot of a reporters lined along the front stairwell, cameras flashing and journalists shouting. Okami provided Hetsu with her microphone and proceeded to ask, "Milady, what's going on at the North District? Do you plan on rebuilding?"
Hetsu paused to take a breath before answering. "Yes, we do plan on rebuilding. However that is not the purpose of today's mission."
The reporter brought the mic back to her. "What is this mission, then? Can you tell us the purpose for not informing the people of this mission earlier?"
Hetsu closed her eyes and continued down the stairs as mics in all directions were pointed at her. "There were tremors reported in that area. To avoid any further damage, I sent an emergency squad out there to reinforce the standing buildings in the case of an Earthquake."
Collectively, people started screaming questions until Hetsu and Hideyo climbed into a limousine waiting for them and shut the doors. The screen cut back to the old man, stacking his papers are staring back to the audience. "We do not have any word from the Divisional Geological Survey as of yet."
Akino backed away from the television towards the back door. He slid his feet into his shoes and walked to the door before Sakagami grabbed his arm, preventing him from leaving.
"I won't let you, Akino," Sakagami demanded. "Not this time."
He pulled his arm out of her grasp and stepped back, distancing himself. "I'm supposed to be helping them."
"If they needed your help, they would have contacted you," Sakagami proposed. "Besides, the North District is extremely dangerous now. I do not want you out there, especially if its more than just an earthquake."
His eyes narrowed. "It isn't any more dangerous than what I've been doing."
Without warning, the screen turned to static and the channel was cut. Akino and Sakagami stared at it. Instantly reminding him of the day those two Compactor victims were filmed on city-wide television, Akino knew it was more than tremors- otherwise the channel wouldn't be cut from broadcast. After all, they were filming the Omegas entering the district.
Akino sighed as dread invaded his gut. "Makina… Matoi…"