I gots the next part right here, hur da hur. It's long too
(It's summer vacation now so I guess I should update more lol).
Pig-Woman and Ms. Despair
Part 5
Michishige lifted up her black firearm quickly, her tight grip causing her palms to become sweaty. Her wide open eyes hurriedly analyzed the appearance of the foreigner in front of them while her legs slowly backed her away.
Tanaka slowly reached for her hand gun holstered in between her pants and waist, her eyes wilting as she took a quick glance at Michishige.
“Sayu, calm down.” Tanaka turned towards Erina once more, eyebrows furrowed. “She's gone, remember that. She's dead.”
Erina stepped back and came near towards the wall of Risa’s apartment unit, just under the second window. She leaned against the concrete paved wall and slid down slowly with a smirk. Halfway down towards the floor the nicknamed Butakame raised her wrists a little above her stomach for the two to see while blankly setting her dark brown orbs at the floor.
Erina continued to stare at the grey ground, “
I just can’t seem to win against you.”Michishige gulped down her shock and began to lower her weapon as her adrenaline levels receded. She watched as Reina cautiously pulled out a pair of handcuffs from her interior jacket pocket, while the other held the handgun. Breathing slowly, Michishige holstered her weapon again and leaned against the railings outside Niigaki’s door as she stared at the cemented floor in reflection. She strained her neck upwards and scratched the back of her neck, the light shining from the windows of Risa’s apartment unit catching her attention. Squinting her eyes to look at the window closely she noticed two dark brown orbs glaring at her.
“
No way this Niigaki Risa--?”
Tanaka then finished hooking the handcuffs around the former empress' wrists and after paused, holding the chains attached to the metal bindings tightly in her hand.
“Agh!” Once the cuffs had been put on, Erina’s feet failed to support her weight and she fell to her knees, her arms hugging her stomach in excruciating pain. The patch of thin pink skin at her stomach fully ripped itself to reveal the gouge she had previously near the middle of her abdomen. And so like a broken dam, blood escaped, rushing out plentifully. Instantly her white over sized cotton sweater became stained with red.
Michishige immediately rushed to Erina’s side in a panic. “Eri!” she covered her mouth in shock at what she said. Sayumi knew this wasn’t her childhood friend yet the name escaped her lips. In a field such as this, emotion and work was not to be mixed--Sayumi failed at this completely.
Reina gave Sayumi a look of disappointment as she held up their escapee. She knew little of ‘Eri’, but she knew fully well how attached Michishige was to her memory. Putting KE1’s arm around her shoulders, Reina got up slowly as she supported the former empress’ weight.
“Reina are you blind? We have to hurry--”
“You’re the one that’s blind Sayu.” Reina said, her tone stern as she looked at Sayumi in the eyes hard. “ ‘Emotion and work in this field don’t mix together’--isn’t that what you told me? I’ve pushed aside my feelings for you for the sake of our job... and friendship.” Reina exhaled deeply before continuing, “Stop looking behind you and look in front for once.
***************
I calmly remained seated in my seat, somewhat groggy from my extremely short slumber and calmly turned to the window where I thought the source of the scream that woke me up would be. My eyes felt swollen and puffy. Just how did I fall asleep?
I felt at my eyelids a little while walking towards the window blinds where I could hear muddled voices outside. Rubbing at my eyes, I arrived at the windows and pushed aside the rectangular plastic pieces that draped over the wire caged glass windows. What I saw was definitely unexpected. I wasn’t happy, far from that. I frowned; frowned so hard that my eyebrows could have overlapped if I wanted them to.
Sayumi? Why is she here?
I remained still and made sure that my presence was discreet and dismissible.
“Sayu calm down.” The girl with brown hair turned towards Erina and gave her an angered look. "She's gone, remember that. She's dead."
Erina. They-- she’s dead?
My eyes watering up, I took a look at Sayumi and scanned her appearance. The shock she expressed and the way she clutched onto her left arm--Erina... No...
She's gone remember that.No. It can’t be. I shouldn't jump to conclusions, I won't believe it. Where's Erina? Where's Erina?! I looked around frantically, my eyes searching for a familiar pig mask and short brown hair. Finally I caught a slight glimpse of that same shade of brown I was looking for, right below my window. Wiping away the tears that formed, I relaxed and sighed in relief. I looked down at Erina again... where was the mask?
In an instant, I felt goosebumps slowly popping up, prickling onto my skin and hid under the windows. It was only the top of her head, but I recognized who she might have been. Who she was this whole time.
Don't do this to me Eri.
***************
We drove to the nearest hospital as fast as we could. Delivering damaged merchandise wouldn’t look very good on us. Out of no where Reina decided to take the wheel (usually she would make me drive). The way she jerked the car around as she drove was her more calm way of expressing irritation.
I watched Eri-- I mean, KE1 sleep soundly on top of the hospital gurney. After only that short period of time in the car she had already lost so much blood, even the doctor attending to her was baffled. From the looks of everything... doc said no vital organs were damaged, just the skin layers and muscle. She’s human. I mean alien blood types don’t match us humans’ right? For a bunch of scientists working in a hugely budgeted lab not to figure this out is kind of pitiful.
Niigaki Risa; for her to be hiding KE1 is a mere coincidence...I suppose. But to hide someone that looks like her girlfriend isn’t something that can happen just by chance. Finding someone that looks
exactly like Eri
isn’t a mere coincidence.
Not at all.I quickly stood up from my seat and due to the suddenness of my actions, pushed the plastic chair I sat in towards the nightstand.
I looked down at Eri completely focused, my heart beat quickening as I prepared myself for what I was about to do. I moistened my lips and as I moved myself closer to her face I had forgotten to breath. Closer and closer I inched my face closer to hers, within reach of what should have been mine years ago.
I pressed my lips gently on hers, I looked at her closed eyelids before savouring the sensation. I didn't have to imagine it was Eri, at that moment she was Eri.
After my three seconds of heaven were up I let go and used my arms to support myself as I hovered above her, my breathing heavy. I stared down at her with intensity and... sh-she smiled.
"G-Gaki-san..."
I laughed at myself.
Gaki-san, of course its Gaki-san. Gripping tightly onto the bedsheets I moved myself closer to Eri's--yes Eri's--face and held her right cheek. Something felt rough and bumpy near her ear but I dismissed it.
"You even have her doppleganger falling for you."
Right then I heard the sound of the door opening behind me. Jumping off of Eri I tried to seem as calm as I could before sitting back in my seat. I held my forehead and then combed my hair backwards. You’re working Sayumi, get in gear.
“So? You’ve never told me the whole story behind you and this Eri person.” Reina walked up to my side, her eyes not leaving Eri's face. She slowly sat down on top of the gurney, careful as to not disturb Eri. Guess she didn’t see me.“I’m assuming Niigaki Risa has something to do with it. She seemed like she knew you.”
“You saw her huh? Well back in high school I wasn’t exactly the kindest person towards her. Of course she would hate my guts until now.” I paused for a minute while I remembered how harsh I had been towards her after that day she told everyone her and Eri were dating. I was a devil back then; whenever someone had something I didn't feelings of jealousy within myself wouldn't hesitate to show and since at that time it concerned Eri... I certainly didn't hold back. I squashed every connection Risa had with me and each of our friends. Do I regret it? I guess you could say I don’t really care. Maybe it's one of the reasons I'm so suited for this job.
"Whenever we get to this you never run your mouth like you usually do. You tell me bits and pieces and that's it." Reina got up from her seat and walked towards the door, "Whatever. It's not like we're close or anything right?" Even though I could only see her back, the way she had her hands balled up said a lot about how she felt.
"Reina wai-"
"Michishige. Tanaka."
***************
Slowly clutching the doorknob of the door to my unit, I pushed the door open and stood outside looking in the direction Sayu and her friend went in. Noticing that I was stepping on something, I lifted my foot to the side and picked up what seemed to be Erina’s mask. One of the eyes were cracked leaving a hole in the piece of plastic.
“She bled so much.” I was filled with so many thoughts right then. Why was Sayu there? Why did they handcuff Erina? What did Erina do? But despite all the questions swirling within me, all I could think about was Erina’s safety.
“Stop looking behind you and look in front for once.”
“Look in front...”
Lifting up the pig mask in front of me, I closed one eyelid and looked through the hole in the cracked mask. For a few seconds I stayed like that, my eyes squinting due to the brightness of the orange stained sky. Right then something ignited within me. Like I had just realized something so important, this something that made me feel stupid.
I walked back into my unit, quickly changed into a new set of clothes and while looking for a pair of socks, I noticed that Eri’s picture was on the floor faced down. For a while I stared blankly at the picture frame and the rest of the frames on top of my dresser. The one of me smiling with my teeth exposed caught my eye even though I’d seen the picture countless times. I remained quiet, fixated on the snapshot of me and Eri happily smiling in front of the old school building.
Putting one foot in front of the other I crept closer towards the dresser. I picked up the picture frame on the ground and gathered all the frames on top of the dresser using both my arms in one sweeping motion.
I opened a half used drawer and shoved the pictures inside. Just putting those pictures inside the wooden storage unit made me breathless, like I was out of energy. I knew that if I didn’t get going I would pull them out again and place them on top of the dresser, neatly one by one.
“Hospital.” I held my head for a moment and put on Erina’s pig mask, breathing out slowly. I collected myself and focused on what I was going to do. I... m-my face became flushed at the thought of seeing Erina again. The image of the pig mask wearing Erina faded and instead I saw her. I became scared and tons of questions began to fill my mind, but I shook them off and locked them away for a later time.
Hurrying to the front I put on my sneakers and closed the door, forgetting to lock it, and dashed in the direction of the train station.
My senses were telling me to be extra careful when I would arrive at the hospital. With the dangerous situation Erina was in, by the looks of it I might be involved as well.
***************
Reina hadn’t even fully opened the door before she stumbled back into greeting position at the sight of Jun-senpai, feet side by side and hands at her thighs. I did the same and in almost perfect synchronization, the both of us bowed ninety degrees. She usually didn't greet us like this unless there was unpleasant news she had to deliver. Usually she would call out in a happy tone and we would just call out 'Junjun!' in which she'd greet us with a wide grin stretched across her face. She never--not once--bothered about our lack of formal speech towards her.
She nodded in greeting an uneasy grin plastered on her face. The both of us relaxed slightly enough prepared for what our senpai would tell us.
“I hate to be the one delivering the bad news, but the heads back at HQ haven’t been very pleased with your performance. On top of surpassing the expected hand in time for this assignment, you’ve also damaged the goods?" Junjun said before shaking her head from side to side in disappointment. Always straight to the point I see. "By bringing KE1 here you two have no idea how much trouble you're causing."
“Well why don’t you try doing any better? We got KE1 in under a month; I don’t see how that’s late at all. The experiment was bleeding excessively as well; what did you want me to do, let her bleed to death the ride back?"
“That's exactly why I’m here; you’re off this assignment.”
“What?!” Reina practically jumped at Junjun in surprise.
Junjun cleared her throat, the IV line connected to Eri catching her attention. Her eyes narrowed to a squint. After looking back and forth from the IV line to KE1, her eyes shot open. She’s realized it.
"I know the both of you know the obvious and you may think that because of it this mission isn't worth putting your best into, but an assignment is an assignment." Junjun said her tone firm.
Me and Reina remained silent, both of us taken back by what Junjun said. By bringing KE1 here we've almost blown up an issue that should have remained discreet -- we risked exposing KE1 to the public and in that jeopordized our task.
Junjun sighed heavily and massaged her brow before continuing, "Where's Niigaki? Is she dead? Did you bring her with you? What?"
"Any individuals who are seen attempting to conceal KE1 are correspondingly indicated as on-site targets. Niigaki freely released KE1 before the attended arrest. There was no need to apprehend her." Reina said, her voice in monotone.
"Yes, but was it not a known fact that Niigaki had been concealing KE1 for nearly a month? That knowledge alone still acts against Niigaki and is why she must be taken in for further questioning. If she comes back for KE1 and is caught doing so I cannot guarantee she will be alive."
After a few moments of silence, once again Jun-senpai shook her head in disappointment, exhaling in annoyance as she did. "No matter, you're not part of this anymore; I'll deal with this. You two are lucky I'm stepping in or else you two would have been depromoted. For the meanwhile I'm assigning you to guard duty--I have something to take care of. I'll be back. Excuse me."
Me and Reina stood in silence as we watched Junjun exit the room. Once she was out of sight, Reina slumped her shoulders and squatted while holding her head in frustration. She rubbed at her eyes slowly and bit the bottom of her lip. She hates it when stuff like this happens. When she loses.
The whole game is different now. I shouldn't be giving a damn about however Junjun is going to take care of Niigaki, but... Eri, she--am I really okay with this? No--what am I thinking. This is work. What happens to Niigaki and Eri--I mean KE1--is none of my concern.
“I’ll be waiting in the car. Look after KE1 well.” After standing up, Reina adjusted her black waist coat and tightened up her tie. She then slid the door open and left the room, her eyes not once bothering to meet mine. She’s still annoyed at me, but why do I get the feeling there's another reason behind her anger?
"Reina you can't just leave--"
"I can do whatever the hell I want now can't I? We're off this assignment; we're done Shige," She glared at me, as if her eyes were telling me it's my fault we 'lost'.
"She's our superior Reina. We're not on this job anymore, but she still gave us an order. The both of us."
"We're done." And with that she took one last look at me, looking as if she was about to explode, and slammed the door shut behind her.
Emotion and work in this field don’t mix together.
Hypocrite.
****************
Okay, even I have no idea what on earth is happening here lol.
Topic: Ongaku's Notebook: (110722) PWAMD Update Part 5 (Read 29335 times)