BACK WITH ANOTHER UPDATE AFTER A MONTH!! WEEEEWWW~~~
EVERYBODY CLAP~~!!
Bet you're all waiting for it right?
There will be tiny bits of revelations in this chapter, so prepare~~
HERE IT IS, NOW~! ENJOY~!! _________________________________________________________________________________________
Chapter 7 : Faith“So... I heard from Jurina saying that you got Rena’s Judgement from her. Where is it?”
“I gave it to Paru..”
“Paru?” Atsuko raised a brow. “Who’s that?”
“The next generation of Reapers. And also my new student.”
“It’s not like you to have a private student out of the Legion Academy, Minami.”
“She was a target of the ‘Cleansing’ plan. So I decided to bring her in and train her myself so she won’t die a useless person.”
“I see.. What’s her full name?” Atsuko asked.
“Shimazaki Haruka.”
“Shimazaki Haruka?” Atsuko looked stunned for a short moment. “The Omega did talk about her before.. She wanted her alive. I didn’t now why.”
“The Omega sent Yuko to get her. That’s why I was fighting Yuko earlier.”
“Where did she go then? She managed to run away by herself?”
“......Yuki was there as well..”
“Yuki as in.....Kashiwagi Yuki?” Atsuko smiled. “Wow.. It’s been two years since I met her as well. How’s the kid doing?”
“....” Takamina avoided the question, not wanting to talk about the very person who placed the scar on her neck.
“What’s going on between you and Yuki, Minami?” Atsuko side-eyed Takamina. “The both of you were close.. What happened after I left, Minami?”
“Nothing.”
“Don’t lie to me. I heard rumors about you wrecking havoc in The Legion.” Atsuko said. “And that you beat Miichan to the point where she went into a coma state. I didn’t want to believe it at first but it sounded very convincing.. Is it true, Minami?”
“...”
“Why would you do something like that to Miichan?”
“...”
“Answer me, Minami.”
“...” Takamina turned her face to the side, avoiding Atsuko’s gaze.
“I know whatever happened during that incident was not Miichan’s fault.”
“Stop it, Atsuko.”
“Even YOU know it’s not her fault.. Don’t even try to deny it, Minami..”
“I don’t want to hear any of this now.” Takamina tried to turn away to avoid but to no avail as Atsuko continued.
“You couldn’t get over your own guilt, so you blamed it ALL on Miichan. AM I RIGHT!?”
“SHUT UP!!” Takamina immediately turned around as she choked Atsuko and slammed her down on the ground hard, alerting Rena.
As Rena was about to stand up from her ‘plaything’, Atsuko stopped her. “Stay there, Rena!” and she did. Merely blinking her eyes at the scene of Takamina on top of Atsuko’s body, looking very confused.
Atsuko continued despite being pinned down. “Miichan was innocent.. And you know that. Yet, you let it all out on her?”
“I.........don’t want to remember any of that..” Takamina’s voice shook a little.
“S-Stop................” A soft cry escaped Rena’s mouth and that caught both of their attention and they looked back at her. Rena was having a blank expression. The kind of blank expression a small kid gives when she looks at her parents arguing. Blank and confused. Her red eyes big and round, pleading them to stop fighting.
“We should stop.” Takamina removed herself from Atsuko and apologized. “I’m sorry for acting like this..”
“Same.. I shouldn’t keep remending you of something you don’t want to remember. The past is the past.. There’s no use talking about it again... What matters is now...”
Seeing that Atsuko and Takamina had settled themselves down, Rena squatted down and continued playing with her dead body. Both Atsuko and Takamina sat down and leaned against a tree, there was a moment of awkward silence as they looked on at Rena playing with the dead Spectre.
Atsuko suddenly asked. “Oh yeah... I forgot to ask you.. How’s Romeo doing now? It’s kinda rare to see you both separated.”
“He’s doing good... Except for the fact that he’s with Paru now.. I don’t trust Paru’s ability to take care of Romeo..”
“I see... But Yuki is with her right? It’ll be fine..” Atsuko smiled brightly. “It’s been some time since I last spoke to Romeo.. Wonder how big he has grown.”
“He’s almost at my neck if you’d like to know.” Takamina explained.
“That’s not really that tall..” Atsuko giggled as she twitched her nose.
Takamina merely ignored Atsuko’s sentence and kept looking at Rena playing silently, letting her mind wander back into the past.
~~~~~
“Neechan!!!” Rena screamed excitedly.
Takamina ignored Rena as she continued writing her mission report.
“I found something interesting... Do you wanna see??” Rena’s head popped out from beside, inches away from Takamina’s face.
“No. Go play somewhere else.” Without even glancing over at Rena, Takamina brushed her off.
“But you’d want to see this...” Rena grinned widely.
Uninterested, Takamina rolled her eyes and continued typing, ignoring Rena.
“I found Atsu-neechan’s sexy panty~” Without even a single moment of hesitation, Takamina turned her head over at Rena who was already wearing a huge grin. “Hah! I knew it! You really are interested!”
“Where is it?”
“I don’t know~ Maybe it’s in my pocket~” Rena provoked.
“Take it out now.”
“Oh~ Neechan, you’re such a perv.. Why would you want Atsu-neechan’s sexy panty for?” Rena grinned once again.
“I’m not playing with you, kid. Take it out.” Takamina gestured for Rena to return the cloth.
With a pout, Rena took a dark looking cloth out of her pocket and tossed it straight at Takamina’s face with a fast speed. For sure Takamina was not ready for it as the cloth splatted on her face.
“This....” Takamina’s whole body suddenly shook in anger as she removed the cloth off her face and took a good look at it. “This is the cloth I used to wipe Romeo’s.................”
“Oopsie.” Rena showed her tongue at Takamina which further angered her.
“YOU!!!” Takamina got angry from the mess on her hand and stood up with a slam on the table.
“Catch me if you can~” Rena started fleeing the scene as she giggled at Takamina’s wrath. “Weee~~~”
“Come back here!” Takamina started chasing after Rena out into the central court of The Legion, attracting everyone’s attention.
Rena turned back and showed Takamina the tongue once again. “You can’t catch m-” She was suddenly cut off by the sight of Takamina holding onto a piece of melon pan, emotionless.
“Five seconds to get your ass here, Rena.” Takamina warned.
“Alright alright. I’ll c-”
“FIVE!” Takamina immediately dropped the melon pan on the ground and stomped on it flat, creating a mess on the floor. Clearly, Takamina didn’t even bother to count five seconds or wait for Rena to come towards her.
“NOO!!!!! My lunch!!” Rena dropped on the ground weeping.
That was when Takamina dragged a big cage into the central of The Legion and pushed Rena inside before locking it. The keys were kept in Takamina’s pocket so nobody would be able to release Rena. “No lunch for you today.”
“Hey! Let me out!” Rena complained as she held onto the cage bars. For someone who was hyperactive, Rena had never liked being locked up in a place before. Her being locked up in a cage would be her worst nightmare.
Takamina then glanced at the people around her with a glare and everyone who was present took a step back. “Anybody who attempts to release her before I do will have my boot shove down their throat....literally. Understand?”
Nobody spoke. They merely nodded.
“Neechan!! Let me out!! I promise I won’t do it again! Just let me out!” Rena shook the bars as she looked upon Takamina leaving without even looking back. Takamina knew Rena was lying since this was at least the fortieth time she had locked Rena in the cage for misbehaving. “Why do you always lock me up in a cage?? What am I? A wild animal??”
Takamina stood by her door and turned her head back. “You act like a wild animal, I’ll treat you like a wild animal. Just be grateful that I’m actually lenient towards you. Period.” Takamina slammed her door loud, leaving Rena humiliated in the center of The Legion headquarters.
“I’m sorry!! Minami neechan!! Let me out!! Minami neechan!!!”~~~~~
“Minami.”
“....”
“Minami?”
“H-Huh?” Takamina came to her senses finally.
“Should we just leave her like that?” Atsuko asked as her eyes remained in contact with Rena chewing on the Spectre’s meat while licking her lips happily.
“........After being locked up for so long, I just want her to do what she wants to do right now. If she wants to eat, then let her eat.”
“But it doesn’t seem like she’s eating..” Atsuko giggled a little. “She’s just playing with the blood.”
For every single piece of meat that Rena chewed, she spit it back out and went in for another bite. Guess Rena was not into meat after all. She was only into the blood. Tearing things apart and letting large amounts of blood smear her whole face and body, Rena looked really satisfied. By this time, the Spectre’s head was already decapitated from the body with all the limbs and blades torn off by the force of Rena’s razor sharp teeth. There were countless of claw and bite marks on the Spectre’s body. Rena couldn’t stop licking the blood off her fingers and part of the Spectre’s skin were still stuck on some of Rena’s fingernails and teeth.
“It’s starting to get really messy.. We should get her cleaned up.” Atsuko then walked over towards Rena and bend her body down a little to come eye-to-eye level with her. “Rena... Come, let’s get yourself cleaned up..”
Rena stood up and grinned at them. Her body was pretty much showered with blood. Takamina stood up as well. “You don’t have to wash her. You’ll get yourself dirty with all the blood. I’ll wash her.”
“We’ll wash her together, ok?” Atsuko asked.
Takamina smiled and nodded as they head towards the nearest waterfall to clean Rena up. It didn’t take long for them to clean Rena up. Except for the times Rena was attracted to a few fishes swimming and grated them with her teeth. It took about an hour to get Rena all cleaned up and dressed up. Atsuko knew that Rena would get into a mess so she brought a pair of clothes of similar design for Rena to change into.
“There. Nice and pretty.” Atsuko shot a motherly smile at Rena as the latter merely showed a blank face. “We’ll go back home now, okay?”
“Do you really have to go back there?” Takamina voiced out.
“....I must, Minami.. Jurina is waiting for us to return. If we don’t return, she would be in trouble. I’m merely bringing Rena out for a walk now. This was the only chance I can get to bring Rena out like this.”
“Look. If Jurina’s the only reason why you’re going back, why even bother? I-”
Atsuko intercepted. “If anything happens to Jurina, how am I able to face Rena from now on? Besides, Jurina is my Beta. I’m responsible for her. I will not let her get into any trouble. You get me? As I said, not all Spectres are as bad as you think. Some are even worth......sacrificing your own lives for..”
“.....”
Atsuko turned over at Rena and smiled. “Let’s go home, Rena..”
“H.........Home?” Rena slowly pronounced and tilted her head.
“Yes, Rena. We’re going home now.” Atsuko reached her hand out and grabbed Rena’s wrist but to her surprise, Rena slowly pulled her hand away and looked right into Atsuko’s eyes, blank.
“Home.......... L.......ock...........again?”
It broke Atsuko’s heart. Who’s she trying to kid? She knew Rena hated being locked up. And she can’t possibly treat the Spectre headquarters as her home. She was tortured almost every single day there. Sure thing Rena didn’t mind getting beaten up since she has an immense resistance against pain. You’ll most likely wear yourself out before you even get Rena to feel pain. It’s the fact that Rena knew she will be locked up once again if she returns. Rena was never a fan of being locked up inside a room. She loves freedom from the very day she was born. Even after she lost most of her brain functions, she still loved freedom. “It’s alright, Rena... I’ll be there with you.. We have to go back and help Jurina out now. She might be in trouble.”
Rena didn’t say anything and just stepped back a little. That was when Takamina stepped in and pulled Rena to her side. “Clearly Rena doesn’t want to go back to that place.”
“She doesn’t remember Jurina. If she did, she wouldn’t even hesitate to return.” Atsuko argued.
“The fact now is that she doesn’t remember Jurina and she doesn’t want to return. So why force her?”
“What of Jurina then!?”
Takamina raised a brow. “That’s none of my concern anymore, Atsuko. I will not allow Rena to return there if she doesn’t want to. She will leave with me.”
“But-”
“I don’t give a damn what you promised to anybody back there. Since you’re out here anyway, you have a choice, Atsuko. Come with us. You’ve been there long enough. Rena made her choice. Now it’s time for you to make a choice. Us.....or Jurina.”
“......”
Spectre HQKojiharu clasped her hands together. “You’re back, Yuko.. Shall we go o-”
“Not in the mood.” Yuko intercepted and merely walked past Kojiharu.
“What happened...?” Kojiharu pouted a little.
“I missed such a great chance to kill Taka.. Some random Reaper interfered with our battle... I didn’t even get a chance to see her face.. Tch- If I ever find her, I’d rip her to shreds!” Yuko scoffed.
“Aww... Don’t be mad, Yuko.. You’ll get your chance next time.” Kojiharu placed both hands on Yuko’s shoulder and smiled. “We should get something to ease your anger..”
Yuko choked Kojiharu suddenly and pinned her on the wall with her hand gripping tightly on Kojiharu’s neck. Both her legs were lifted from the ground. “Gack--”
“You would ease my anger by not touching me.” With blood-red eyes staring right into Kojiharu’s soul, Yuko tilted her head a little. “You’re always so full of yourself, Kojiharu.. Talking to me like you’re on the same level as I am..” She then raised an eyebrow. “Just what do you take me as?”
“I-I’m sorry... P-Please........” Kojiharu was suffering from the immense force of Yuko’s grip.
“I’d put her down if I were you, Yuko.” A voice echoed in the hall as two Spectres were seen entering the hall.
“You’re just a Beta. Remember that. Never speak to me like that again.” Yuko gave one last warning to Kojiharu and finally let go of her hand. Kojiharu fell straight down on the ground, coughing from the lack of air as Yuko slowly turned her head over towards the direction of the voice.
Two Spectres stood few feet away from Yuko, looking at the scene. Miyuki was seen standing behind another Spectre.
Yuko opened her mouth. “You’re back sooner than I thought, Sayanee..”
“It was an easy target..” Sayanee’s eyes were attracted towards Kojiharu coughing on the ground and then back towards Yuko. “Are you not going to help her up?”
“I’d drop her again as much as I want, and the next time you ask me to do something, I’d drop you too, Sayanee. I have my own ways of teaching my Beta a lesson. You stay out of my business..” Yuko gave one last glare at Kojiharu before walking away from the scene.
“Maybe you should just get anger management courses.” Miyuki accidentally blurted out loud.
Yuko stopped in her tracks as her ears twitched at Miyuki’s sentence. Yuko turned back and leaped over towards Miyuki. In an instant, Yuko’s hand was already right in front of Miyuki’s face as the latter got shocked from her speed.
Before Yuko could get her hands on Miyuki, Sayanee’s hand grabbed onto her wrist, stopping her from moving further. “What do you think you’re trying to do to my Beta, Yuko?”
“I’m trying to teach her to respect higher ups. I’m not in my best of moods..” Yuko widened her eyes at Sayanee’s retaliation. “Don’t you dare piss me off now too, Sayanee.”
Sayanee raised a brow. “If you hurt my Beta, as much as put a scratch on her, I’ll be the one who’s pissed off. You might have the most fighting experience among us all, but don’t forget I too am an Alpha.”
“Oh? You wanna have a go!?” Yuko challenged.
“I’m not in the mood to fight against you. Besides, The Omega wouldn’t like it if an Alpha were to fight against another Alpha.”
A single mention of the word ‘Omega’ made Yuko lost all interest in picking a fight with Sayanee. “Tch- Then don’t bother me again.” Yuko smacked Sayanee’s hand away and pointed her finger directly at Miyuki’s face before warning her for one last time. “You watch your mouth next time, Miyuki. I’m going to sleep.” And in just a few seconds, she left the scene.
Miyuki blinked a few times at Kojiharu and hesitantly asked. “You........ok there, Kojiharu?”
“Yeah, I’m ok..” Kojiharu answered, as she rubbed her neck a little and stood up.
“Just complain to the Omega the next time she treats you like this, Kojiharu...” Miyuki said.
“I think she’s just like that because she’s in a bad mood.” Kojiharu replied.
“That’s what you said everytime she choked you.” Miyuki rolled her eyes.
Sayanee suddenly turned her head back and squinted into the darkness as she whispered to herself. “Something seemed off...”
Jurina paced around, hoping that Atsuko would bring Rena back sooner because she knew she couldn’t hold this up forever. “Atsuko.. What’s taking you so long??” And then it happened. Jurina’s eyes shot wide open at the sight of Sayanee walking down the stairs and towards her. Her hands and legs shook a little from the sight of another Alpha.
“Shit.... Another Alpha.” Jurina cursed silently. What is with Spectres visiting the dungeon today? Jurina almost got caught when Itano came earlier but got saved by Annin. Now Sayanee?
With slow steps, Sayanee made her way towards Jurina and stopped right in front of her face. She merely stared right into Jurina’s eyes, not breaking eye contact. “Your face seem to be filled with anxiety, Jurina. Is something..wrong?”
Trying her best to hide her feelings right now, Jurina replied. “My face had always been like that.”
“I see.” Sayanee nodded. “I’d like to take a look at our captive.”
That was when Jurina froze for a moment. She swallowed her saliva and continued. “Rena isn’t in her best condition right now. She starts screaming everytime she sees someone. Maybe give her some time alone for now.”
“So that’s why you were out here instead of being in there?” Sayanee asked.
“Yeah.” Jurina nodded.
Once again, Sayanee stared right into Jurina’s eyes blankly before opening her mouth once again. “You do know I don’t appreciate liars, right.”
Jurina’s heart began beating quickly as she froze from that one sentence uttered by Sayanee. “What do you mean?”
Sayanee’s face inches away from Jurina’s, smirked. “What I meant is that I’m going down there to take a look. Can’t I?”
“As I said, Sayanee.. Rena isn’t in her best condition right now. It’ll be bad for her if she sees someone right now.”
Without another word, Sayanee placed an arm on Jurina’s shoulder.
“Huh?” Confused by Sayanee’s action, Jurina squinted her eyes a little before she felt an immense force on her shoulder as she got thrown hard into the wall. “Gah-”
“You’re a terrible liar, Jurina.” Sayanee’s eyes flashed redder. “You had this thing for her after all... So it’s understandable that you’re covering something up for her.”
“Ugh-” Jurina slowly stood herself up. Before she could stand up completely, she was met with one of Sayanee’s blade pointing directly at her face.
“She’s missing, isn’t she?”
“No. She’s down there.” Jurina insisted that Rena is indeed in the dungeon.
Sayanee smirked. “Lying again.. I guess Atsuko has to find herself a new Beta.” her blade came crashing down right on Jurina’s head.
*BOOM*
To Sayanee’s surprise, Jurina had all six of her blades up in the air, blocking Sayanee’s strike. She didn’t believe Jurina actually had the guts to retaliate against an Alpha. As far as she knows, not one Spectre dared to retaliate against an Alpha before. Jurina then deflected Sayanee’s blade away. “I’m sorry to do this, Sayanee...”
“How dare you.....” Sayanee glared at Jurina. “You really released the captive?”
“Her name is Matsui Rena. Not ‘captive’.”
Sayanee shook her head. “The Omega would be very disappointed in you when she hears about this..”
Without another moment of hesitation, Jurina extended all six her blades towards Sayanee with an incredible speed. Sayanee smirked as she read Jurina’s movements. With a single blade, Sayanee managed to deflect all six of Jurina’s blades at the same time. Yuko might be the most powerful among the Alpha Spectres, but that’s because she is an all-rounder. In terms of brute strength however, Sayanee tops even Yuko. With that single smack, Jurina felt the muscles in her blades almost tearing apart. Which is why angering an Alpha should always be the last thing you do. Or better, don’t even think about angering any of them.
“Ugh-” Jurina retracted her blades back for a while to heal the slightly torn muscles in her blades.
“You’re pissing me off quite a lot, Jurina. That’s very foolish of you. You do know what we do to traitors don’t you?” Without even Jurina noticing, Sayanee managed to land a knee kick on Jurina’s chin. With her enormous strength, she managed to send Jurina crashing past the dungeon wall.
“GAH!!!” Jurina groaned from the pain as she slowly removed herself from the rubble. Her mouth was bleeding.
Sayanee walked closer to Jurina and looked around. “Hmm... She really isn’t in here.. I knew something was off.. I presume Atsuko was the one who brought her out..” She then giggled before it turned into a laughter. “You know Atsuko’s history, Jurina... Once she gets Rena out of this place, she will never return.. Pity you...”
“.....” Now, Jurina was actually doubting if Atsuko will ever return here with Rena.
“What will you do now that your Alpha is gone for good, Jurina? Your blades can’t possibly handle more of my blade hits..” Sayanee said as she walked closer to Jurina.
“I still have this!” Without Sayanee’s realization, Jurina pulled out a pink Judgement with bunny stickers and activated a sword before landed a successful slash right on Sayanee’s stomach.
Sayanee leaped back and covered her wound. “Ugh... I forgot you had a Judgement...” The wound was a little deep as Sayanee’s hand was soaked in red. She then smirked a little. “Impressive.. You managed to wound me...” Sayanee smacked Jurina towards a wall with her blade, releasing the Judgement from her grip. “But this will be the first and last time you’ll get a chance like that.”
Jurina coughed out some blood and in an instant, Sayanee was gripping Jurina’s face and pinned her onto the wall. “Ugh-”
“Where did Atsuko bring the captive to, Jurina?”
“Y-Y......” Jurina was struggling to speak because of the strong grip on her face.
“What was that?”
“Your grandmother’s house!” screamed Jurina from underneath Sayanee’s palm.
“You little!!” Sayanee increased the strength of her grip on Jurina’s face once again and smashed her onto the wall hard before tossing her into the ground.
“Gah-”
“You have guts, Jurina.... I’ll give you that.” Sayanee said as one of her blade extended and pointed at Jurina. “Any last words?”
“.....I’ve been living under the dictatorship of the Spectres, not daring to disobey the rules for too long... Not a single freedom... But for once, before I regret it, I want to do something for someone else by my own free will.. If Rena is happier being out in the open.... Then I’d be more than happy to sacrifice my life for the sake of her freedom!”
Sayanee smirked. “Fool.” and swinged her blade directly at Jurina’s neck.
“Good answer!” A voice screamed out suddenly as a shadow flew past her and striked Sayanee’s blade with a double Judgement blades, not allowing it to reach Jurina.
Sayanee’s eyes widened in anger. “You....”
Jurina looked up and saw a lady holding two Judgements with bunny stickers on it and smiled a little. “A-Atsuko... You’re back.. I thought you wouldn’t c-”
“I came back for you, Jurina. There is no way I will ever let you lose faith in me. Ever.. You’re my Beta after all.”
“I doubted you.. Sorry...” Jurina groaned in pain.
“Don’t be. You did really good back there. It’s nice to hear you’re even willing to sacrifice your life for Rena’s sake. I’m touched.” Atsuko smiled at Jurina before her face changed into a serious expression at Sayanee.
“Where’s Rena, Atsuko??” Jurina asked.
“I’ll explain everything to you later after I deal with Sayanee..”
“I should have known...” Sayanee glared angrily at Atsuko. “Traitor...”
“Deal with it...” Atsuko raised a brow. “Bitch.”
Somewhere in the jungle“BARK BARK BARK BARK!!!” Romeo barked continuously at the blue eyed girl standing before them.
Mayu opened her mouth. “I’m not going to hurt you both and I’ll help you find out on the little force thing you did earlier, girl. But with four conditions..”
“I don’t know about this, Yuki sensei.....” Paru said in a doubtful tone. “I really want to find out about myself...but trusting a Cyber is a little...”
“What conditions?” Yuki asked while still being pinned up on the tree. “If it’s preposterous, then just forget it.”
“It’s very simple. First, you both will not attack me throughout the whole course of the research. Second, you both will back me up and protect me when I need help. Thirdly...” Mayu then pointed at Yuki’s foot. “You’ll let me treat the wound on your foot, and finally...” Mayu pointed at Romeo. “Get this incompetent canine to keep its mouth shut.”
“IT is called Romeo.. And you want us to serve you like a bodyguard?” Yuki asked.
“Just so you know, my life is extremely precious and definitely more than humans.” Mayu answered.
Paru retliated. “Excuse me. Human lives are precious too, you know?”
“Precious? Humans are nothing but dumb and foul creatures who pollute this world with despicable crimes. Humans don’t think lives are precious at all. They think it’s a game.”
“No-”
“Dare you say this world is free from corruption? Robbery? Rape? Murder?”
“Well, no.... But you can’t just judge the whole of humanity from-”
Mayu intercepted. “How did you feel when your father got betrayed by his best friend, girl? Did you merely let it slip or did you start judging the whole of humanity?”
“...” Paru had her head down a little.
“Just as I thought. Even as a human, you do judge humanity as well, so why can’t I? You’re the ones who brought havoc upon this world in the first place. And we, the so-called-aliens have to clean up this filthy mess by ourselves eventhough we do not belong here in the first place. And you’re still trying to tell me that we came here and wreck havoc? We are your answers for a better and peaceful world.. You humans should be treating us as gods.. Now tell me, girl....whose life is more precious.”
“...” Yuki remained silent.
Paru who was silent finally got back to her senses. “I still don’t really trust her, Yuki sensei... She seemed cunning.”
“That’s a pretty bad wound. If you don’t get it treated quickly, it will start to rot and cause infection. It’s either you trust me on this or you’re just gonna die from the infection which in this case, you would only have one choice. Which is me, saving you, love.”
Yuki squinted her eyes at Mayu. “I don’t really appreciate you calling me ‘love’.”
Mayu grinned. “That’s how I’m going to call you for the rest of my life so I say deal with it, love. Now do we have an agreement?”
“Fair enough.” Yuki finally agreed. “Now put me down from this tree.”
Mayu snapped her fingers and the four drones pinning her on the tree slowly lifted Yuki away and sat her down on a fallen tree trunk nearby. She then looked over at Paru and Romeo. “Hold that canine and shut it up.”
“His name is Romeo!” Paru knelt down and patted Romeo, calming him down.
Mayu then crouched down and slowly grabbed Yuki’s foot before examining it thoroughly.
“Ugh-” Yuki groaned a little from Mayu’s touch.
“Hmm... Tibia gone.. Fibula gone.. Ligaments ruptured.. Yup... Pretty much everything gone. Wow, Takahashi Minami really got you good, didn’t she?” Mayu shook her head.
“...How did you know?” Yuki asked.
“Never question an analyst on how she does things. Not like you will understand any of it anyway. Period.” Mayu snapped her fingers and a drone came by her side. Mayu detached a small can from the drone and it turned out to be a mini spray can. Mayu then grabbed a tree branch and passed it to Yuki. “Bite this.”
Yuki decided to go with the flow and bit the branch. Mayu gave one last look at Yuki before she sprayed it at Yuki’s wound.
“GUUUUUUUHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!” Yuki screamed in pain once the spray hits her wound. Good thing she bit the branch as she screamed, or else her screams would be so loud as to attract unwanted attention.
Romeo started barking furiously and kept trying to release itself from Paru’s grip as soon as he heard Yuki’s scream of pain. “BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK!!”
“Calm down, Romeo!!” Paru was trying her best to calm Romeo down as she kept petting his fur.
After a few seconds, Yuki stopped her screams and panted very heavily. “What the hell was that?? I’ve never felt that kind of pain before.. It hurts so much more than when my foot got blasted by the bomb.”
Mayu tossed the mini spray can up and caught it once again. “This thing love, is my creation. It’s not just any type of compressed liquid.. It’s actually nanobots. Nano-sized Cybers I created. They’re in your bloodstreams now.”
Yuki’s eyes widened suddenly as she grabbed Mayu on her collar and wrenched her in violently. That sudden act of violence from Yuki literally shocked Mayu. “You placed Cybers into my body!!? No wonder it hurts so much!!”
Mayu explained. “Let me finish explaining. It’s completely harmless. It’s meant to act as a catalyst for the repairing of your tissues. It helps reconstruct the bones in your leg in the fastest way possible. Takes only about half an hour for them to reconstruct your muscles and bones. It’s supposed to hurt.”
“Then what happen to those things after my leg is healed?”
“After some time, the nanobots will automatically break apart and dissolve into your blood and that’s it. Nothing else. You wouldn’t even feel the difference.”
“Don’t lie...” Yuki yanked Mayu closer.
“Hey, don’t downgrade me into a fraud. I do not need to tell you lies. Believe it or not, it’s your own choice. And we already had an agreement on this.”
Yuki slowly let go of her grip on Mayu’s collar as she straightened her wrinkled shirt. “So it’s fixing my foot now?”
Mayu rolled her eyes. “Yes, love. They are healing you. Trust me, I have better things to do than to lie to you. Just sit there and don’t move your foot too much. My nanobots hate it.”
Yuki looked down on her foot and noticed the bone shards in her foot slowly combined themselves back together. This technology was definitely more advanced than those back in The Legion. “But why are you willing to heal me?”
“It was a good bargain. You get your foot healed, and I get to study this girl. It’s a win-win situation, don’t you think so?” Mayu said as she jerked her head over at Paru.
“Just for the sake of gaining knowledge?” Yuki asked.
“My main purpose of being on Earth was to study it. Everything about Earth... From the prehistoric times all the way to thousands of years in the future. I just treat the ‘Cleansing’ plan as my second job.”
“You’re.....kinda passive.. I don’t think I’ve ever met one Cyber who actually reasons with us humans..” Yuki explained.
“Then you’ve been meeting the wrong Cybers all along. I personally don’t like combats. Which is why Jurina was my avatar to get jobs done out in the field.”
“So the Cybers and Spectres ally with one another just for the ‘Cleansing’ plan?”
“I wouldn’t call it ally, love. Allies are on good terms with each other. We on the other hand are still enemies, hating each other to their very guts. We just have a common goal. Might as well just go with the flow, or what you call....ally.”
“What’s the reason you Cybers and Spectres come to Earth?”
“The Cybers and Spectres might be enemies... But at the same time, we both have another common enemy.” Mayu sighed loudly suddenly. “The Cybers and Spectres are both victims of extinction.. Our planet is dying. I don’t know about the Spectres but there’s only about 50 more years to go until my beloved planet starts to rot to its core. We were the chosen ones who were sent away to find a new planet to live in.”
Yuki’s eyes shot wide open from the revelation.
“That’s why we came here.. It’s the best planet to live in so far...” Mayu sighed once again. From the look on her face, Yuki could sense that Mayu was in despair. Then Mayu realized that she wasn’t being herself. She let out a fake cough and got back to her senses. “Well, just sit here and wait for your wound to recover.”
Mayu walked over to Paru and suddenly Romeo started barking loudly once again. “BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK!!!”
Mayu shook her head. “This canine needs to shut its mouth or I’ll be forced to hurt it.”
“Don’t you dare hurt Romeo!” Paru hugged Romeo tightly.
Mayu grinned and lowered her head down to come eye to eye level with Paru who was crouching while patting Romeo’s fur. “What are you going to do, girl? As far as I know, you have almost zero experience out in the field. So I suggest you shut it up or I will do it myself.”
“Tch-” Paru scoffed as she stroked Romeo’s fur softly, calming him down and he slowly drifted off to sleep.
“Good.” Mayu smiled. “Now stand up and face me.”
Paru stood up and looked right into Mayu’s eyes. “Yea. What now?”
“Don’t move.” Mayu pulled down her mechanical monocle that was strapped on her forehead and clicked on the side.
Paru who was curious, asked. “What’re you doing with that monocle? X-ray?”
“Looking at your naked body.”
“WHAT!?” Paru flinched immediately and covered her chest and private part.
Mayu looked at Paru with an unamused face. “I said not to move.”
“Why are you looking at my naked body!?” Paru’s face was red.
Mayu rolled her eyes. “I have to take a look at your skin to make sure you’re all human on the outside before I switch to x-ray mode. Now, stand properly and remove your hands. Do you wanna know about yourself or not?”
“F-F-Fine!” Paru stood up straight once again and slowly removed her arms. For some reason Paru still felt embarrassed despite wearing clothes. Maybe it was because of the fact that she knew Mayu could see her completely naked.
“Hmm... ” Mayu kept staring at Paru’s chest and that made Paru blushed a little. “Small..”
“Excuse me?” Paru flinched from the random mockery of her body part.
“Don’t move, I said...” Mayu’s eyes scanned Paru’s body thoroughly. “Now, for x-ray..” Mayu clicked the side of her mechanical monocle and scanned Paru again. “Now let’s see the heat radiating from your body.” Once again, Mayu clicked on the side of the monocle.
Paru had been standing there motionless for about 15minutes. “Are we done yet?”
At that time, Mayu removed her mechanical monocle from her eye. “Hmm... Weird..”
“Huh? What so weird?” Paru was curious.
“Have you ever had fever in your life?” Mayu asked suddenly.
“Uhm... I don’t think so. I’m always healthy..”
“Ah.. So maybe that’s why nobody had even bothered to take your body temperature..”
“What do you mean?”
“Your body temperature is at 39°C. Normal human should be at 37°C.. So If you’re not having a fever, why would you be 2 degree hotter than a normal human?”
Paru felt her heart thumping quite fast. “S-So what does that mean?”
“Wait.” Mayu placed her monocle on the ground and clicked on it. It then projected all 6 of Paru’s body systems. Mayu was running her eyes along the body systems silently for a short moment before voicing out. “What species are your parents?”
“What kind of question is that?? Of course they are both human!” Paru rolled her eyes.
Hearing Paru’s answer, Mayu rolled her eyes towards the light projections for a second before they rolled back at Paru’s direction. “I don’t think you even know your parents..”
“I don’t want to hear any bullshits from a Cyber.”
Mayu crossed her arms. “Excuse you. I’m by far the smartest Cyber you could ever find, Paru. Nothing tops my research skills. Deal with it.”
“So you’re trying to say that my parents weren’t human?” Paru questioned.
“Either that, or you were adopted by humans all along.. It’s just a theory judging from the DNA in your body and also your body temperature..”
“What’s wrong with the DNA?”
“Come here.” Mayu called and Paru walked over before looking at the huge light projection screen. Mayu then explained. “This is the graphical picture of your DNA.”
“Okay?”
“What do you think?” Mayu asked for Paru’s opinion.
“What can I think? It looks like a DNA.” Obviously, Paru would have no comments about this since she knew nothing about Science.
Mayu sighed and shook her head. “It’s hard speaking to someone of your intelligence..”
“Excuse me!?”
“I’m.going.to.break.it.down.to.you.nice.and.slow.so.listen.up.okay?” Mayu chopped her sentence and treated as if Paru was retarded.
“Just spit it out, will you!?”
“Alright, look. I spent some time analyzing your whole body, even your DNA. Your whole body is definitely of a human’s except for the fact that you radiate a higher amount of heat from your body. And also your DNA... It looks pretty much like a human’s DNA.” Mayu paused for a moment and looked into Paru’s eyes for a short moment. “But just not quite.”
“What??”
“There’s a slight different pattern in your DNA. Almost unnoticeable.. But of course, I’m just that great. I discovered the slight difference in the DNA color.”
“Okay?? Then?”
“Your DNA doesn’t seem like a typical Spectre or Cyber DNA. It’s very similar to a human’s. Very close. But something is just off about it. This very DNA in your body is what’s giving you a slightly higher body temperature. Which comes to the main question.. What are you exactly?”
“So, you’re saying there’s another alien race other than Spectres and Cybers?”
“Well I can tell you there are millions of other alien races out there other than Cybers and Spectres but I don’t think that’s the case here... I’m still missing on something..”
“Could this be the reason why I’m in the ‘Cleansing’ list?”
“It might be. The data for the ‘Cleansing’ plan only calculates humans whom will bring a huge threat to both Spectres and Cybers but not what kind of threat they will bring about. But yeah. This tiny DNA here might be the reason why you were calculated into the list..”
“I see.... It all makes sense now..” Paru nodded her head.
Mayu ignored Paru’s statement as she dazed into the space for a moment before her eyes locked back on Paru. “Had any Spectres or Cybers came looking for you before Jurina and I did for the ‘Cleansing’ plan?”
“Not really.. My life had been normal until the day Jurina came and attempted to kill me..”
“Weird..” Mayu was tapping her index finger on her cheek. “And you told me earlier that the Omega Spectre wanted you, am I right?”
“Yes.” Paru nodded.
“That’s a big question too.. Why now of all times? Why didn’t the Omega act earlier?”
“BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!” The sudden beep sound came from Mayu’s mechanical watch as she looked at it.
“What was that?” Yuki asked.
All of a sudden, Romeo who just woke up started barking at the open space. Whenever Romeo barks at that direction, it always mean something. He was able to sense if danger was coming. “Romeo?” Paru called.
“My watch beeps when a certain danger reaches within one kilometer from me. We’ve got company. We have to go now.” Mayu stated and just two seconds after Mayu uttered the words, two missiles came down and exploded a few feet away from them. The impact pushed all three of them back. Since Romeo was light, he was blown towards a tree, knocking him unconscious.
“Romeo!!” Paru attended Romeo immediately.
“Ugh-” Yuki slowly stood herself up and coughed from the amount of debris formed from the explosion. “I thought you said that it was one kilometer away..”
“It was! I know of two who are capable of moving this fast..” Mayu said. Yuki suddenly remembered something as well. As the smoke was still present, the three of them saw two shadows standing inside of it with blue eyes staring right through the smoke. Mayu smirked. “Just as I thought.”
When the smoke faded away, two Cybers were seen standing there. One of them grinned. “Hello there, Mayu...”
“We missed you...” The other one grinned as well. She then moved her eye over at Yuki and grinned. “Ah... You too.... Kashiwagi Yuki.”
“You know them??” Paru asked Yuki.
“Kumi and Yuria. The KumiYuri duo.. Not only do I know them. I fought them three times. They are one of the best tag team fighters among the Cybers. An almost flawless teamwork. And one of the fastest Machs among the Cybers.”
Kumi’s monocle zoomed in at Yuki’s leg where she noticed Mayu’s nanobots wriggling from within her foot. “You’re treating a human... Tsk tsk tsk...” Kumi shook her head. “Shame on you, Mayu.”
“You’re a disgrace to the Cybers.” Yuria dissed.
“I’ll take that as a compliment if you may. Never liked any of the Cybers anyway.”
“You’re a Cyber yourself, Mayu. Don’t forget that. You’re one of us.”
Mayu raised her index finger. “Don’t lump me with mere slaves of The Core like you both..”
Kumi scoffed. “Speak all you want for now, Mayu.. We have orders from-”
Mayu interrupted. “Orders from The Core to get that girl behind me?” Mayu pointed her thumb at Paru who was standing behind, crouching beside Romeo’s unconscious body.
Yuria grinned. “They don’t call you the smartest Cyber for nothing..”
Mayu turned her head back and looked at Paru. “If both the Omega Spectre and The Core is asking for you, something must be really really wrong with you, girl..”
Paru started to panic.
“I believe you shouldn’t have any problems with me bringing her back right?” Kumi grinned and in a split second, she was already right in front of Paru, reaching her hand out to her. Paru could only flinch. Kumi’s speed was not a joke. They were both Machs. One of the best ones.
“I do actually.” A hand suddenly grabbed onto Kumi’s arm also in a split second, preventing her from moving further. “I’m afraid I can’t let you touch her, Kumi.” Mayu grinned. “After all.....I hate people meddling with my study materials and priceless possessions...”
Yuria appeared behind Paru and attempted to grab her as well but her arm was met with a scythe. Yuki raised a brow with a straight face. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“You want to mess with my property, you have to get through me.” Mayu said as both her and Yuki threw their respective opponents few feet away from Paru.
“Thanks for healing my foot, Mayu.” Yuki showed her gratitude. “You’ve gained some of my faith..”
“I told you to trust me on this.” Mayu smirked.
Yuki looked over at Mayu for a short moment. “Guess I’m on your side this once, Mayu.”
“You bet..” Mayu cracked her fingers as an evil grin was suddenly carved on her face. “I haven’t had a real combat in years...”
“I thought you weren’t into fighting.” Yuki said.
“Not if my stuff is being meddled with. I hate that. Seriously...” Mayu answered.
Yuki who was standing beside Mayu placed her scythe over her shoulder and smirked at the KumiYuri duo as well. “Time for another exercise..”
Chapter 7 : Faith
END