Makina flew through a concrete wall, falling into the tenth floor of an office building through a shattered window. Gripping a nearby pillar, Makina pulled herself up from the floor of the slanted tower. She wiped the blood from her mouth, groaning in pain as her wounds healed. Looking out the window she catapulted through, Makina caught a glimpse of Matoi's approaching shadow.
"You're trying to kill me," Matoi stated as she stepped into the building, "aren't you?" Makina gripped her weapon tighter and aimed it at Matoi, prompting her to continue. "Killing me will only postpone the problem, but that's been your solution to everything."
"It's you," Makina proclaimed, her voice trembling in fury, "you're the reason Division-A went to shit! Hetsu would still be alive! Kiku, Asuka, Miki- they'd all be alive if you hadn't done what you did!" Makina's body began shaking from the anger. "The only way… to atone for your actions…"
"…is to die," Matoi finished. She lifted her arm up, pointing her mechanical gun to the ceiling and pulling the trigger. Hundreds of layers of concrete piled atop Makina as Matoi leapt from the building, fleeing. "I'm sorry, Makina… I have people to protect too…"
"You're dead!!!" Makina blasted through the mound of rubble and forced her blade into Matoi's back, penetrating the jetpack and slicing her core.
The Omegas began falling to the ground, smoke and debris flying past them. In a last ditch attempt to save herself, Matoi screamed at the top of her lungs. Suddenly, Matoi's power materialized into an explosive sonic boom, forcing Makina off her back and blasting her into the sky. Matoi dropped to the streets, crumbling the roads beneath her, creating a pit that trapped countless fleeing civilians.
The sky lit up into bright red as Makina's jetpack busted at the seems. She bolted down towards Matoi and threw herself onto her, generating a massive explosion that rattled the area for miles. Dust and smoke spun around them, and the bridged highway they landed on collapsed beneath them. As the dust cloud settled, Matoi looked down, seeing the hundreds of civilians dead from the explosion. She watched as the blood of the people around her trickled down the mountain of concrete into a pool surrounding her.
The Southwest District was in the process of being demolished. The high-rise railroads had collapsed, the gas lines were uprooted, the buildings were leveled, cars were piled atop one another, and the roads had shattered like glass. The sound of raging fire and cries for help filled the air as Hideyo and the others darted through the remains of a tourist center.
The four stopped in the middle of an intersection, looking around, puzzled. Hideyo wandered around for a street sign, not knowledgeable of the area. The thumping of Compactor's feet echoed in the distance as she searched, the groups anxiety growing with every approaching step. Hideyo knelt down and pulled a green sign out from the pile of rubble. Wiping the dust, she read the street name.
"We're getting close," Hideyo said.
"How much further do we have to go?" Yukino asked, stumbling amongst the destruction.
Hideyo tilted her head to the left, ushering them to the metropolitan area of the district that's stacked with wild Compactors. "The broadcasting station is a little under a mile from here."
Sakagami lifted her hand to her face in shock. "You're serious? We have to go through that…?"
"Not exactly," Hideyo claimed, glancing forward to a specific pile on the ground. "There's a subway system below us. It should get us closer to the station without the Compactors getting in the way. The trains aren't running so we'll have to walk, if it isn't blocked off that is."
Akino, not willing to wait any longer, climbed towards the pile Hideyo gestured towards. He lifted up a chunk of sheet rock and pushed it to the side, exposing a steep staircase littered with pollution. The lights inside the subway had shattered, giving way to a looming abyss that taunted their entrance. He waved the others in, prompting Yukino and Sakagami to cautiously begin their trek down the stairwell. Before Akino followed behind them, Hideyo stuck her arm out and stopped him.
Akino turned his head, startled. "What are you doing?"
Without an explanation, Hideyo stepped in front of Akino and kicked the sheetrock back over the top of the entrance. The alarmed squeals of the two girls were cut off as the group was separated. Akino pushed Hideyo away, horrified by her actions. He immediately started trying to lift the sheetrock from the entrance but Hideyo pulled him away by the collar.
"What the hell?!" Akino shouted, slapping Hideyo's hand away. "What are you doing? Let them out!" He continued pushing Hideyo away, not giving her the room to speak. "What? Are you one of Matoi's crew, too?! Huh?!"
Hideyo grabbed Akino's wrist before he punched her, gripping as tight as she could. "Akino, listen to me! There's something I need to do, and I can't risk them getting killed!"
Akino backed away. "I thought we were going to the broadcasting station…?"
"We are," Hideyo claimed, "but… it isn't… they shouldn't go."
"What do you mean?"
"Listen, just-," Hideyo said, stuttering on her words. "We need to go. And, I need you to come with me. If I die, I can't let this secret die with me."
"Secret…?"
Hideyo grabbed Akino's hand and started pulling him further away from the subway. "I'll explain once we get there."
Matoi flew through a wall of Compactors, dodging their massive legs as Makina caught up behind her. Slicing through the creatures like butter, Makina's eyes remained locked on Matoi's back. Blood covered both of their bodies as they chased each other down through the crumbling concrete jungle. Makina cut through the Compactor's cores, shredding them with her spinning blades, then spun around the corner behind the opponent.
Matoi looked over her shoulder, distress invading her gut as she saw Makina burst through the monsters and zooming towards her. "Damn it! I'm never going to get back home if she keeps this up!" Matoi twisted her body, maneuvering herself through fallen skyscrapers. "I can't take her as she is right now, I need the others! But…," she looked back again, seeing Makina come closer, "I won't have time!"
Suddenly, one of Makina's blades landed in the back of Matoi's head, forcing Matoi's focus to scramble and her jetpack to seize action. She landed onto the hallway floor of a hotel, but didn't find much comfort in the dirty carpet rug before Makina's foot slammed into Matoi's back. She sent Matoi flying into the second floor of the hotel lobby, crashing into lights and triggering a series of mini-explosions, resulting in a raging fire traveling throughout the hotel.
Makina walked through the fire, flames burning off her muscles as her heels clapped against the scorched tile. Matoi looked up, Makina's blade penetrating through one of her eyes. Pulling out the blade and attaching it back to its handle, Makina looked down at her and scoffed.
"Friend? Hah," Makina huffed. "I should've trusted my first impression. You're not a comrade or a friend… you're a traitor." Matoi gritted her teeth in response. "…a monster."
Matoi pulled herself to her knees, leaning on the glass railing wrapping around the deck overlooking the lobby. "I never meant for any of this to happen, Makina. It got out of hand, this was the only card I had left to play!"
"The only card you had left to play," Makina began, "will be your last!"
"No, it will be yours!"
Makina quickly grabbed Matoi by the neck and threw her over the railing, dropping her in the middle of the plaza. Makina lunged over the railing herself and stabbed Matoi in the chest upon impact, when suddenly a bullet pierced her forearm. Matoi then ripped out Makina's blade and pushed her off.
Catching her balance, Makina looked up, noticing a line of men stretched along the length of the balcony, each with those infamous guns aimed at her. She looked back down, finding her limb turning gray. "Shit!" Makina grabbed her weapon and swiftly cut off her own arm, blood pouring out like a waterfall.
Matoi stood up, staring at Makina confidently as she composed herself. She reached towards the men, catching a gun they tossed her. Makina displayed the same preparedness, digging into her arm socket and pulling out a fresh, regenerated arm. Anticipation swelled in their hearts before gunfire resumed. Makina darted towards Matoi, dodging the bullets. As Matoi aimed her weapon to shoot, Makina bent over underneath the gun and pushed it up. Matoi pressed the trigger, shooting a bullet that pierced the line attaching the chandelier above them. Before they knew it, the chandelier crashed onto them and flooded the lobby with a cloud of dust.
Blades clashed and guns fired as the Omegas fought against each other. Screams and furious yelling echoed through the hotel until the girls found themselves forcing each other back outside into the unfolding chaos. Makina spun her blades, slicing through the bullets with incredible precision. Matoi did the same, contorting her body to avoid Makina's quick swings.
"You always thought you were better than me!" Matoi declared, firing her massive gun. "But in reality, you were just scared of being inferior! No need to fret, Makina, you've already disappointed your Captain!"
"Shut your mouth!" Makina screamed, her voice cracking under the stress as she cut through Matoi's uniform, barely missing her stomach. "You, who's killed thousands of innocent people, have no right to talk about me!"
"Do you honestly think that your actions are any better than mine?!" Matoi shouted back, her shoulder pads blowing out the exhaust as her blood-boiled. "You and the others, you've murdered so many of my teammates! Humanity is in shambles because of people like you!"
"I have no idea what kind of shit is coming out of your mouth!" Makina thundered.
Matoi launched herself towards Makina, pushing the muzzle of the gun against her chest. "We're all fighting for somebody, Makina, but that's something you'll never understand!"
Before Matoi fired, Makina forced her knee between Matoi's legs and grabbed her by the hair, swinging Matoi over her head and into a wall of historical artworks. Makina whipped her arm back, detaching a blade and sending it flying into Matoi's chest, pinning her against the wall. "Then who exactly are you fighting for? Those bitches shooting at our friends, is that it?! You've spent your entire life with Hetsu, Asuka, Kiku, and Miki! What could possibly be a good enough reason to throw away their lives at the toss of a coin?! Akino, would you want him to go through this?! I thought you wanted to protect him!"
"There's more to it than that! You never think about anybody else besides yourself and your own ambitions!" Matoi roared, ripping out the blade and hovering her hand over the wound as it healed.
"Are you saying that the relationships you built in this very city are meaningless?!" Makina asked, her voice raising above the agonizing screams of the people running around them.
"This world isn't that small! Believe it or not, there's people outside of Division-A that hold priority over you!" Matoi fired back, firing her gun as well. "It's Division-A and the cowards who fled from their treason, or my family and the rest of humanity who was left behind!"
Hideyo ran up the tilted stairwell with Akino close behind. She traced her fingertips along the fractured wall, prepared to catch her balance if she misplaced her foot on the jagged steps. Despite the hazard, she raced to the top. Akino, panting, struggled to keep up as he questioned her intentions through short gasps of polluted air.
A mangled steel door stood in between the duo and the radio shack, inclining the soldier to kick the door off its hinges. Hideyo wasted no time, stomping into the studio and sprinting towards the dashboard when they noticed somebody slumped over in the chair in front of it. Hideyo looked over, noticing his bloodied head face down on the control panel and a gun on the floor.
"I'm sorry," Hideyo stammered, gently shoving the corpse off the chair and taking his place.
"What are you planning, Hideyo?" Akino asked hesitantly as Hideyo played around with the controls. "What is the secret? Sakagami and Yukino are stuck down there and-!" Hideyo mumbled under her breath, interrupting him as she flicked switches at random. "We need to hurry!"
"I'm trying, Akino!" She exclaimed. "This is the first time I've been a radio host!" Hideyo knelt to the ground and searched the drawers beneath the dashboard, combing through the library of tapes stored there. "I can't find it!"
"You can't find what?" Akino inquired, running his hand through his blue hair in frustration. "I don't understand, what are you doing?"
"I'm looking for a tape, a recording, something," Hideyo explained, tossing records, flash drives, and cassettes to the floor.
"For what?" Akino followed up, hovering behind her. "Those people are going to find us! If they don't, the Compactors will, and I'm not dying before I can get back with Sakagami and Yukino! Stop wasting my time with some tape and tell me already!"
Akino grabbed Hideyo by the shoulder and turned her over to face him. A dreadful, intense pause distanced the two of them. Hideyo stared Akino in the eye, finding it difficult to form her racing thoughts into solid words. Akino stepped back, giving her the breathing room she needed. The rumbling and screams from outside replaced the silence, serving as a haunting reminder regarding the urgency of their situation.
"What I said earlier…," Hideyo mumbled, "about running away…" She stopped, taking a moment to reflect and ponder her words. "The world… was what we ran away from…"
Silence.
"The place we fled… was Earth."
A sudden offset of anxiety and dismay overwhelmed Akino's body. He inched back, breaking out into a nervous cold sweat. His posture stiffened, his stomach weighed heavy, and his skin tingled. A defeated, shocked whimper escaped his lips while he shook his head in denial. "No… no, that's bullshit! Division-A…," he stuttered, "…is in the Pacific Ocean."
"Den Koboshi, master's father," Hideyo elaborated, "was a Prime Minister stuck in the midst of a World War. He believed that if he didn't take action, then Japan and its people would be wiped off the face of the Earth… so they left it entirely, taking what they could and abandoning the rest of the world as it erupted into chaos."
"We… left Earth?" Akino lifted his hand to his chest and spread his fingers into a fan against his breastbone. It was then when his memories returned to that day inside the mountain and the map that seemingly forgot Division-A's existence. "Then… where are we? Hideyo…"
Hideyo stalled, wrapping her hand around her neck to feel the 'A' charm imprint on her palm. "We're in Division-A…," she answered, staring into oblivion as she recollected what Hetsu had told her so long ago. "…a world separated from the rest of the universe. I don't know how, but we live completely independently, coexisting with the rest of life as it passes by us."
Akino stepped forward, closing the space between him and Hideyo. "I don't understand anything you're saying."
"Division-A is only accessible through portal." She looked down, pinching her forehead as her veins pulsed with the influx of knowledge she'd kept private. "We've been existing in a reality carefully built by Koboshi that conceals us and our location behind… an invisible blanket of sorts… or that's how she described it."
"You mean… like a dimension?"
"Yes, like a different dimension," Hideyo agreed, elaborating on his realization. "Division-A exists beside the outside world, but isn't affected by it. Time, events, people pass by us, but we stay the same." Glancing over Akino's shoulder to a stained 'A' flag, Hideyo went on. "Koboshi hoped that this is what humanity needed… a safe haven separate from the war, but… fleeing only made things worse." Her gaze trailed down to the deadman at her feet. "While some countries tried to help in Japan's efforts, the majority of the planet went against it. They called us cowards and pacifists. They were jealous that we had the technology to leave and they didn't."
Akino's head spun as he watched Hideyo frantically pace around the room. The heat in the room seemingly increased, forcing the smell of the fire from outside, the pool of blood below them, and the stench of their own sweat reek into their noses. His senses were overwhelmed and Akino's body was trembling from the adrenaline rushing through it. "What are you going on about…?"
"They've found us and they're going to kill us," Hideyo concluded. "We only have one card left."
Dreading the response, he asked, "what is that?"
"We need to flee."
His pupil's shrank and his eyes widened. Akino's mouth hung open, waiting for the words to come out. "What?! That's what they're trying to get back at us for! Doing it again would just make things worse!"
"No, we're going back." Without explanation, Hideyo pushed the drawers back into place and flipped a switch on the control panel. She stretched her arm over and pulled the mic to her mouth as a ringing echoed through the speakers of the city. Before she spoke, Hideyo noticed a compartment to her right. She instinctively opened it, exposing a section of buttons for emergency alarms.
"Hideyo, what is that?" Akino asked, his voice shaky from paranoia and speculation.
Hideyo's eyes scoured over the rows of buttons before she decided on one to push. Abruptly, an obnoxious, fear-inducing ringing aired through the intercoms and devices around the city. Once the alarm was over, Hideyo pulled the microphone back up to her mouth and pressed another button, staring at the wall in front of her in concentration. "Attention, people of Division-A! This is an emergency broadcast from Hideyo Hiroko, the Royal Ambassador's replacement! Please, head north to the Overlook Airport on the cliff! There, you will be escorted onto an aircraft and flown to safety! Departures will begin as soon as possible! Again, this is an emergency broadcast! Head north t-"
Akino pulled Hideyo away from the mic, shaking her profusely. "What are you saying?! Where are you taking us?!"
Hideyo pushed back in retaliation, emphatically gesturing back to the flag hanging desperately on the cracked wall. "There's nowhere else to go. Division-A is gone, Earth is the only place left for us!"
"But Earth is destroyed!" Akino exclaimed. "Or was that a lie too?!"
"It wasn't," Hideyo assured, "but Hetsu wouldn't have a fleet of pods if she didn't believe that there was another place waiting for us!"
His body went numb and weightless. His legs buckled and his vision blurred in and out of focus. "…pods?" His memories, flashbacks, dreams, all played on loop in his mind. The image of the destroyed city and the pillars of exhaust reaching up to the light in the sky- were those pods?
Hideyo knelt to the ground and grabbed the blood-stained gun, pushing open the cylinder to check for bullets. She pushed it back in and slid it into her skirt pocket. "We need to go," Hideyo demanded as she returned to the exit, "we don't have much time to get to the airport."
Akino followed her back down the stairs, tripping over the debris that decorated the steps. "Hey, wait a minute! How are people going to board?!"
The sun glistened through a pair of cracked glass doors leading to the outside. Hideyo rapidly pushed the doors open, causing them to swing back and shatter against the wall. "Omegas were trained for this; they'll direct and assist everyone! If any are alive, that is…"
Matoi tumbled through the district, uprooting the concrete like shattered glass beneath her feet as she skidded across the highway. Makina caught up to her attack and aimed her weapon at Matoi's core, but the brunette swiftly turned to the side to dodge the attack. Makina adjusted her grip and pulled Kaminari to the right in an attempt to sever Matoi's core, but she pushed against it, locking it in place.
"You're trying so hard to fight back," Matoi said, "but I'm the only one who has a future waiting for me after this is all said and done!"
"What are you talking about?" Makina's face wrinkled in anger as she focused all her strength into piercing Matoi's core mere centimeters away.
"Division-A is past the point of no return," she declared, blood trailing down her mouth. "Once this place crumbles, then you'll have nowhere left to go. As an Omega, you're destined to stay in this façade for eternity till your core is cut. Why do you try so hard to live when there's no benefits in doing so?!"
"Because," Makina started, her eyes closed shut in fury as she focused her strength, "the best soldier… doesn't give away their life when it's inconvenient for her!" Makina bent her back and threw her body to the side, trying to grow the momentum to push past Matoi's hold and kill her.
A high-pitched wailing sound echoed through the sky. The shrill siren pulsed between the static from the broken speakers placed around the district. Makina looked up, her horror lodged in her throat as the familiar sound of an evacuation drill chewed at her eardrums. The two stopped fighting, and Matoi twisted her neck, looking for the source of the sound as well.
Makina's head shook in disbelief. "This can't be…"
"They're really doing it…," Matoi whispered to herself.
Hideyo's message followed soon after the anxiety-inducing siren. "Attention, people of Division-A! This is an emergency broadcast from Hideyo Hiroko, the Royal Ambassador's replacement! Please, head north to the Overlook Airport on the cliff! There, you will be escorted onto an aircraft and flown to safety! Departures will begin as soon as possible!"
The breeze picked up, pushing the girls' hair over their faces. The dust that once settled amongst the rubble was kicked back up again, and the chimes of the bells with the creaking of decimated buildings returned in full capacity. It was then, when the blue hue of the sky was pushed away as a hole over the horizon generated like a second sun. The clouds were pulled in, wrapping around the ball of light, now stained with a faint touch of purple, like a pinwheel. Division-A felt a gentle tug forward towards the light as it expanded, devouring debris light enough to be carried through the brief change in the gravitational pull.
"What… is that?" Makina whimpered, terror fluttering like a deceased butterfly in her gut.
Matoi cupped her hand over her forehead, sheltering her eyes from the glaring sun hanging above her. She squinted, catching a better look of the anomaly to confirm her speculation. "They're leaving…"
Slumping her shoulders as he exhaled, Makina locked her gaze on the purple light spiraling in front of her. "Is that… a portal…?"
Pillars of smoke that rose from the demolition were pulled towards the northern ball of light. The breeze, although light at first, slowly began to violently tug Division-A into it, decomposing and devouring anything that got close enough; flagpoles, benches, streetlights, all of which were skidding across the ground towards the portal.
The hoards of traumatized civilians continued running, not halting for a second. Once Hideyo's broadcast aired, however, the populous changed their trajectory. Instead of fleeing every which way to avoid the hungry grasps of the Compactors which chased them, they collectively huddled together and darted through the streets towards the cliff in the distance.
Yukino and Sakagami stood, oblivious, in the middle of the tourist center shopping mall. The screams may have been louder, but the deafening sound of the angry wind pulling them north was overpowering. They watched on, embracing each other, as the people on the other side of the block rushed north. The girls turned to each other, nodding, and soon joined the crowd.
Akino and Hideyo approached the highway, the burning cement roads obstructed by the civilians' stammering feet. She grabbed his hand and looked out, determined, before they eventually ran into the crowd and matched their pace, running like their lives depended on it…
…because it did.