Date: September 1
Place: Cargo plane's coordinates
[Rei]
How could things turn out this way?
My left ear is already ringing from the earlier explosion. It wasn't a powerful one but I was near it. I can feel the blood dripping from the scratches down my body and up my face. Around me, I hear people shouting as they lose their life at the terrible occurrence of a wave of multiple unOrdinary.
"Don't just stand there, run, " Cedrick shouts as he grabs my arm and ran with me by his side while carrying someone on his back.
This feels kind of nostalgic like it happened before. But I can't seem to remember it. Didn't I regain all of my memories?
* * * * *
"We still need to walk a few kilometers before we arrived there, " says Cedrick looking at the hologram map.
I can't help but feel anxious about everything that is happening. We've been here for half an hour and no signs of any unOrdinary.
"Cedrick, do you hear that?" I said when I heard a faint sobbing somewhere near my right.
"Hear what?" he says as the earlier sobbing turned into someone who is already shouting for his life.
"Don't come closer to me. No. No!" that's the last we heard of him until we arrived too late. He was already lying on the dirt with his lower half gone.
I ran in his direction and sees if he's still alive and I'm relieved that he was still breathing.
"What happened here?" I ask. He slowly turned to me and smiled.
"Help them, " he gathered his last bit of strength and pointed just right in front of him.
"Kriー" he used his last breath to say something that he couldn't finish. By the moonlight that lits up behind me, I could see him looking at me with teary eyes which gave me an idea of what he wants to say. He was one of the people that particularly got close to me at the laboratory.
"Rei, we're getting farther away from the plane," shouts Cedrick as we run with no fear of any unOrdinary.
"We can come back later," I reply. Even if Cedrick just whispered that he recognized the soldier earlier, he became tense and uneasy. Maybe it's because it means that everything on the file and the idea that they didn't make it in the first place got to him. I won't lie, I even thought of that possibility but nothing is certain. It's important to hold onto the string I call 'hope'.
When we arrive the unOrdinary that stands in front of us bit her lower half and chewed it, leaving her upper half on his hand dripping blood on the ground. The girl is probably dead with her head turned to us. Even so, Cedrick ran and killed the unOrdinary with his sword and sliced it up, leaving no mercy the unOrdinary that was o ce stood straight and big got its head and limbs sliced off and rolled to the ground.
"Let's go back," I suggested as he swings his sword in the air to get rid of the green gooey liquid that is supposed to be their blood and puts it back to its sword holder that hangs on his waist. He nodded and followed me back to the original destination.
"It's too quiet" I heard Cedrick whisper through the transmitter. We are a few meters apart to cover more grounds. But when we finally arrived, we found ourselves looking at the plane, shocked.
There is a crowd of unOrdinary swarming the place.
"I won't get in your way," he sighs as I heard leaves and branches adjusting to every step that Cedrick takes up the tree.
"Don't be ridiculous. We still don't know what's going on here and having me passed out for a couple of minutes might be problematic," I reply along with the order to scan the perimeter around the plane first and enable the night vision. We wear contact lenses that assist us through the darkness. But it has a time limit of two to three hours of effect.
He did what he was told and jumped from trees to trees while I just ran a few meters away around the plane. Nothing has noticed our existence so far. I admit, even if I could take down those number of unOrdinary, I'll suffer some severe consequences if I use too much force. And we just arrived, I can't be reckless.
But my mind went blank when I heard a familiar tone of voice just around the corner. A voice that I've forgotten and longed for so many years. His sweet and gentle voice now shouting from pain and grief. I looked left and right, trying to find where it was coming from. And by the sound he's making, some of the unOrdinary near the plane went and finds their way there.
"There's a nearby cave from your right," I already hear Cedrick lands above ground and runs towards that direction. He was way past in front of me, which made him so lucky that only a few enemies are near him while here I am being slowed down by every fight whenever I get a past or bump into some unOrdinary.
"Rei!" I hear Cedrick shout which leads me to run faster and found myself using one of the tp crystals in front of him and shoved him inside the cave along with the mass tp crystal and one of the normal tp crystal that are now in his hands.
"Take them to the headquarters and come back as fast as you can," blocking the claws of one of the unOrdinary with my twin knives as I jumped back to dodge another attack from another unOrdinary with an unbelievable amount of strength.
[Cedrick]
I didn't hesitate and does as she says.
"Everyone join hands," I shouted to everyone. There are more than fifty soldiers inside this cave. Scared ones, brave ones, or petrified ones. With their situation right now, this will take some time. But I still kept shouting at them.
"Grab each other if you want to live," some of them came back to their senses and finally moves to my command.
"Are you ok?"
"Grab my hand"
"What's going on?"
"I don't want to die!"
Every single one of them has different reactions to what's happening. I used the tp already but it needs time because of the number of people and in that few minutes, some of them ran to back up Rei with their pistols or snipers.
"How can you leave a girl to be a sacrifice?" said one of the soldiers who ran back.
"Idiot! You'll get on her way!" I shout, trying to convince them to go back but they didn't.
"Cowards," they replied.
And before I could pull them back, the mass tp takes effect, teleporting us to the grounds of the Kyoto Headquarters. Everyone was shocked by what they saw. Who wouldn't be? Just a second ago they were in a dark cave being attacked by a lot of unOrdinary and the second they blink, they're somewhere they've never been to.
"I'll leave this matter to you, Lieutenant Guzman," I answered when I hear him call for me. But before I could use the tp, Misaki was heading my way with Rei's Uncle with her. She waves her hand with a small black box.
"Take some extra syringes," she shouts, throwing the box to me when she realized that I need to return immediately. I simply nodded and teleports to where I was before the cramped and dark cave. But to my surprise, blood sprayed in my face as I see one of the earlier soldiers that stayed behind got his head thorn off with one blow of the longer and sharper claws that belonged to Rei.
I instantly jumped back when she saw me as her next target and ran outside the cave to have more space. She swang her scythe that was made of dark particles of unexplainable things. Right now, she is not the normal Rei that I know. She is the demon that she warned us about herself. She's not a prototype, she's the real deal which I believe the experiment about her is called 1-117.
I hurriedly took one of the syringes out of the little black box that Misaki threw to me. There was more in it, but Rei sliced the box out of my hand. And before she could pull back her scythe out of the ground, I took the moment to sink the syringe to her and pushed the liquid in it to bring her back. Rei's Uncle was working on this project since Rei told him what she is capable of and as far as I know, it is effective. Rei started to shrink to her original size.
But as I wait for her to go back, I hear someone load their gun. I saw him pointing at Rei. Before I could say a single word, my body moved on its own. I used my tp crystal that Rei gave to me in secret before we went to the ground earlier and teleported to slice the soldier's throat open with my knife. His blood sprayed all over the place as I see Rei returned to her original state.
"Anything but seeing her die with my own eyes," I mumble. Killing someone to protect her isn't a big deal. And now that I look at it, she did kill every single thing that she saw moving. May it be some unOrdinary or a damsel in distress that we were suppose to rescue.
I went and gave her a ride on my back as I continued walking back to the plane, it takes a couple of minutes for Rei to have her consciousness back. But before I could walk any further, I could hear another scream and guns being shot. Now that I think about it, we still haven't found the prioritized boy.
I hurriedly run in those directions while Rei doesn't look like she's going to wake up any time soon. I found Kazuma protecting some survivors as I scan their faces. They are all in the file but where did that one person go that I couldn't find him. I put Rei down near the tree for a moment and helped Kazuma.
"Thanks," he catches his breath but I returned his smile by punching him hard on his stomach.
"Send them back first," I say retrieving Rei from her hiding spot while he coughs. I saw the survivors getting confused as they vanish when Kazuma took them back. I found a big circle which they used, he must have prepared beforehand. He appeared right in front of me which made him guard his stomach just in case.
"Why are you here?" I ask.
"I'll tell you, but can you help me first?" he begs.
On our way back to the plane, he told me everything. I tied Rei above the tree just a few meters away from the plane as Kazuma and I went and kill every unOrdinary in our sight. They were weak, maybe the weakest that I've ever encountered. They were also small but their number exhausts us. And finally, he got what he came here for and teleported back to headquarters alone while I went back for Rei.
Kazuma was tasked by the Second Lieutenant General Tieffle and Dr. Leon to get all the research data from another country from this plane, but what I find suspicious is that how do they even know that there is data in this plane in the first place. And most importantly, I can't let Rei found out about this. Especially when she trusted Kazuma to be with our team. I've got a bad feeling about this.
"Cedrick?" I hear Rei whisper in my ear.
"Oh, you're awake. Rest there for a little longer," I gritted my teeth when I heard a bomb's explosion a few kilometers away. "On second thought let's go," I put her down and dragged her to ran which made her surprised and fumble.
This time, I finally found the boy but with a bunch of survivors trying to protect him. Rei immediately ran after them and sliced every head of the unOrdinary surrounding them with her twin knives.
"Guns won't work on them," she says tossing half of her knife to one of the survivors with a masculine body. I recognize him as Shawn on the file I read. Then there are others too. Like Vincent who's lending a shoulder to Ybut who's injured her legs pretty bad. There are at least ten of them, all protecting the same boy we're searching for.
"Here," I gave my sword to Luis who I read can use it very well. Some of them backed us up by slowing them down with their guns. "Don't you think it's a good time to go back now?" I asked Rei when I see an endless wave of unOrdinary running towards us.
"I think I dropped it earlier," must be the time when she transformed but going back to the cave would be a long journey.
[Rei]
"Calling for all soldier, a flood of unOrdinary appeared in the radar and are arriving fast at the three planes at the same time," says the Supreme Commander on our transmitter. But before we could react, we found ourselves already surrounded by the unOrdinary that he's warned us about.
"What now?" even the survivors are awaiting my command. I've dreamt of a fancy reunion and not some life-threatening evening. "Should we just use the bombs and run for it?" asks Janus who has a sash of grenades wrapped around him. And before I could shout my order, an unOrdinary pierced his stomach with its claws and removed each safety pin with its teeth.
"Run!" I shouted before the unOrdinary bit the grenade and blew the place up.
* * * * *
I snapped back to reality when an unOrdinary appeared in front of me. I hurriedly gripped my gun and pulled the trigger to its knees and foot, allowing it to fall.
"What a waste of bullets," scolded Cedrick.
"Worry about yourself," I let go of his hold and ran in front of everyone, making sure to keep the path open as I shoot with my left hand and slice using half of my knife on my right hand.
I hear the gunshots and bombs detonating everywhere on my transmitter. An endless wave of unOrdinary and explosions on the three planes must be a crazy coincidence. What is going on?
"Supreme Commander I have the boy, could you make a miracle and get us out of this situation?" I asked in my transmitter and hoped for the least worse scenario.
"Kazuma is just a few yards away from you, I've already ordered him to prepare a circle. I'll transfer the coordinates to you and your assistant," he replied fast. We must be his priority now.
"Let me hold him for you," says Shawn who saw Cedrick struggling and offering me back half of my knife when he noticed that I'm out of bullets and I tossed my gun. Cedrick glanced at me, trying to get permission. I nodded and gave a smile as he let Shawn take the unconscious boy.
"Cedrick, you lead the way. I'll back you up and for the rest, keep up," I shouted for all of them to hear.
But more importantly why is Kazuma the one to get appointed, isn't he supposed to be by the seaside plane? I can feel my anxiety pilling up faster than expected...