'Akio, what happened?'
A young boy cried in a grassy field. His mother stood before him with a calm smile. He moved his arm out to show his elbow bleeding. 'Aw, it's okay.' She sat down and gently rubbed a tissue on his elbow to clean the blood away before grabbing a plaster and placing it gently over the wound. The boy kept crying slightly, sniffling occasionally. 'It's okay, Akio. It's all done. And don't forget, no matter what happens, always smile.' She smiled warmly down at her child. He wiped tears away from his face as he looked up at her and smiled back, despite the pain in his arm.
Mom... I'll smile, no matter what... Just like you said...
Facing the tall, now resurrected Yatzul, Akio held his stomach wound with one hand and his lance in the other. Oki and Kanesaki fought the beast first, swinging on both sides of it's body; it's four arms proved difficult to get past to hit the main body. Kanesaki swung low, piercing the creature's leg whilst Oki swung upwards, lightly cutting it's neck. The creature's arms shifted and morphed into large blades which swung all around like a tornado of cuts the two dashed back, looking for an opening.
'287, you see any openings?'
'Nothing...'
The two stood ready as the beast stopped it's swinging and rushed at them both, it's blades piercing through Kanesaki's coat and into his shoulder. He yelled out, blood coming from his mouth as he did. Oki on the other hand, dodged one blade and parried the other, leaning back to swerve out the way of an incoming barrage of slices. Akio took a few steps forward, lifting the lance up and propelling himself forward, despite his grave injuries.
The creature was too focused on the other two that it didn't have time to react to the officer as he plunged the lance through the beast's stomach. He smiled and looked up at the creature's face as it roared. 'Now you're just like me!' The creature roared more as it's tail swung blindly, it was still focusing on the two in front of it to prevent getting attacked from all over. The tail spike nearly stabbed Akio right in the throat but he grabbed it with his weak arm, holding the lance through the Yatzul with his other. Blood sprayed from his wounded shoulder as he strained harder to prevent the spike from reaching him. Shit... My arm can't take much longer...
Kanesaki was still reeling from his shoulder injury but could still use his arm perfectly fine, it healed quickly, after all. Oki tried to get swings in towards the beast, but to no avail. They were at a loss until from above them all, Chimera 344 came crashing down, swinging his axe violently to cleave straight through the bladed arms of the Yatzul. It pulled back as blood spilled everywhere around it. Akio felt the creature falls back towards him and tried to move, the tail broke free and pierced the side of his neck, he dodged quick enough to not be a fatal one.
344 looked back at Oki and Kanesaki with a smile. 'Ready to get this bastard?' The two nodded happily, Kanesaki smirking. 'This thing's dying today!' Akio recovered quickly, looking past his shoulder to see Kanesaki with the other two. He coughed up blood into his hand, his lance was stuck inside the Yatzul's body. He could hardly stand, he stayed on his knees as the creature got up behind him, a single blade forming on one of its bleeding arms. Kanesaki watched and dashed over, shouting. 'Akio, look out!!!'
Blood sprayed over the floor, hitting Akio's cheek. Kanesaki stopped, his eyes widening in horror.
Akio turned over to look at the Chimera, blood sliding down his lips. 'Kane... Saki...' It was all he could say as the blade was yanked out his back and he collapsed onto the ground. Kanesaki stood in shock, the Yatzul lunged over to attack. It was blocked by 344 and Oki as the two began their assault on the monster.
Unable to say anything, Kanesaki walked over to Akio, his presence was overshadowed by the fighting happening next to them. He bent down to examine Akio's body; there were many cuts and wounds across his back which the suit couldn't heal all at once. He turned Akio over to see his face, his eyes were still open and blood dripped from his cheek to the floor.
'Akio...'
'Mom..?'
The words hit Kanesaki suddenly. A slight tear formed in his cheek. 'No... It's me, Kanesaki.' Akio narrowed his eyes slightly, the life was leaving them slowly.
'Oh... Kanesaki... Sorry, my eyes aren't working too well...' He weakly laughed a little, a small smile appearing on his face as Kanesaki held his body up slightly.
Oki and 344 fought the Yatzul with all they had, 344 even cutting the occasional leg and arm off, but it just regenerated them back. 344 looked back to see Kanesaki with Akio. He went to shout but stopped himself, too focused on the fight. Oki fired a few shots into the beast to distract it so that 344 could cut through it's body to weaken it.
Kanesaki stayed with Akio, a tear fell down his cheek and fell onto his arm. Akio looked up at him, his eyes wincing a little. 'Why are you crying... What's wrong..?'
'It's nothing... Just thinking of stuff, y'know...' He smiled reassuringly, knowing that lying wouldn't help. Since he had only awoken recently, Akio was the only person other than Hanaka that he felt a sense of friendship towards. He viewed the officer as a kind of future replacement for Hanaka, until he ever met the lieutenant again.
Akio laughed a little more, coughing afterwards.'Yeah, I get that... I get sad when I think of my mom... She was the best...'
Kanesaki looked down at Akio again. 'Oh yeah? Tell me about her.' Tears ran down his face as he spoke, he knew what was going to happen.
'She was the best... Always kind... And she always smiled...'
Tears started to fall from Akio's eyes as he continued. 'She had this saying... She'd say it all the time...'
He remembered the last moments he had with his mother. He was in a grassy field and had hurt his arm, she helped him cover the wound and told him her saying.
'Always smile... No matter what... Even in death...'
Hearing those words, Kanesaki smiled down at Akio, the two cried together. 'That's a beautiful saying, Akio.' The officer looked up to the ceiling and smiled widely, closing his eyes as a final tear fell to the floor.
'It was...'
Kanesaki felt Akio's head fall back in his arm, he looked down, his hair covering his eyes as tears fell, his lips trembled through the smile.
Officer Akio Matsunaga was dead.
Chapter seven- end