Chapter 7
Flashback"So..." I began slowly. Yuko tilted her head slightly towards me as we walk down to Sayaka's office, I realized then that despite her small figure, she actually looked really cute to be a high school cheerleader captain especially with that little squirel teeth in her dental line. "You haven't answer my question yet."
"Which question? The one about what I am?" she asked back. I nodded and saw her smiling sheepishly.
"Do you want the dead truth or the modified truth?" she asked. I frowned when I heard it.
"The dead truth of course." I said. "Is there even such thing as modified truth?" I asked again, resulting a light laugh from the midget.
"Well.." she shook her head a little, "I'm actually the same as you, Natsumi. I'm just a normal human with the abilities to kill " she said. I praised the God at once.
Thank God that I'm not the only one with normality in this place..
"You used to be an assassin?" I asked. She tilted her head slightly.
"Kind of. I served the secret intelligence since I was 15 before transferred to this task force. I did lot's of things there, spying, undercover operations, and yeah assassination too." she answered quickly, successfully gaining me by surprise.
"You joined the secret intelligence at 15? You must be pretty smart.." I praised before she smiled sheepishly again.
"I guess so.. Smart enough to blow out my own school with a simple chemistry formula." I flinched suddenly hearing that.
"You blew up your own school?!" I nearly yelled. she laugh again, much joyful this time.
"Nah, I was the first though to make such an impressive academy record at my school. I easily graduated from the Uni in the age of 15 and they recruited me after that." she said. My mouth seriously hung open due to the unbelievable explanations.
"Ah, we're here by the way." she spoke and open the door without knocking on it. I closed my mouth so I wouldn't make a fool out of myself.
"Ah, Yuko there you are!"exclaimed Sayaka. The captain was sitting behind her desk lazily as her hand fiddled with a pen while her other hand was holding a brown folder stamped in red. My guess is that the folder contained our mission information, it looked thick enough to whack someone with.
We came in to the room, it was big but still smaller than Yuka's room and the warehouse. Behind the desk was a big bookshelf, stuffed with folders and thick books while other things like the world globe, the TV plasma,a collection sofas and a big monitor was in the room to just like what a scholar would have. The only thing that probably looked misplace was a throwing target shaped like a human torso standing at the corner with several daggers still sticking on it. My guess was that the target was a victim of the captain's amusement when she got bored.
The door closed by it self and we took our seat on the sofa and Sayaka came and sat on a single sofa in front of us. I noticed that she wore a black tank top under her training pack and a pair of slipper instead of her combat boots. Her face was serious like she was when we first met despite the pink slippers.
"Here's your mission.." she said as she opened the folder and handed out each one of us a smaller folder. Just when I opened mine, the door opened and Masuda Yuka, Noro Kayo and Umeda Ayaka came in to the room.
Yuka looked a bit better than the last time I saw her in my dream but the cheek that was scarred badly was now bandaged up, she wore a new kind of dress this time a white sleeveless dress with some green stripes. As for Kayo, she looked recovered but her hands were bandaged up to the tips of her finger. She flinched in pain slightly when she tried to put her hands into her pocket but she quickly pulled it off by a cool grin. However, Umeda Ayaka was way off those two. She looked paler than her usual pale skin and the dark rounds round her eyes was probably darker than Natsuki's or Meetan's altogether. What's more, she doesn't look much comfortable somehow.
"Ah, there you are! Where have you all been?" said Sayaka happily as the three sat down on the remaining sofa before handing out more folders to them. I stare at them from behind the folder that I was reading. As an assassin, understanding body language was one of the basic skills. Body skills are used to identify situations on assassination. It's required for instance to get information from someone before you end it's life, you have to make sure whether the information are true or not.
Yes, you can pretty much say that I'm sort of a lie detector.
Happy?"Sorry we're late, I guess I had to much fun with Kana.." appologized Yuka. She cheerful and not gloomy like the last time she told me what she is, prooved by her gleaming smile as she opened her folder.
"I just had my daily check up with Meetan." said Umeda Ayaka as she opened the folder without looking at whoever she's talking to.
"I was fixing my weapon scrolls with Sae." said Noro grinning like crazy and pulled out a paper from the folder.
Funny... You know what I found from three of them? Three different alibis and they were all faking it.
How do I know? Didn't I told you that a lie detector?
I looked down at my folder as my mind raced. They all looked lying when they said each of their alibi, and yet Yuka's bandaged cheek disturbed me. I remembered my dream again when I saw a nasty scar on her cheek, is she covering it? And Noro, her hands were bandaged to the tips of her finger. What did she do? Holding to chains like what's in my dream?
No way.. I thought to my self.
How could it be..?Yuko seemed to realized my confusion and pat my back friendly as if trying to calm my mind down before she leaned on the sofa. "So Sayaka, it seems like Striker Team has one extra person for this mission.." grinned Yuko as she flashed her squirrel teeth. I thought she was talking about me for a second, but then I noticed that there really is one extra person in this room.
"You're coming with us?" I asked Yuka surprisingly and saw Yuka nodded her head. My eyes traveled somewhere else somehow, and found Yuka's hand holding tightly to her beloved Umechan. Not only that, the look in her eyes towards the ignorant Umeda Ayaka was unusual. Like more than a caring look from a friend. It looks more like the ones that I saw in romantic movies. My suspicions grew if they were going out with each other, well they looked pretty close after all..
"Why Natsumi? You're jealous?" asked a voice in my head, sounded melodic just like Umeda Ayaka's first encounter with me.
As if. I growled inside my head against the voice. Which worked, the voice was gone after being growled at.
"Yuka will be joining in too because this is one of the "unusual" kind of mission you can say. And I'm sure you knew it already." said Sayaka glanced to me. I nodded in answer, the secrets of this unusual task force did a good job of confusing me though. But I think my brain can accept it better now.
"You'll leave tomorrow morning and will be arriving there on the evening. The infos is in your folder, and Togasaki said good luck to all of you.." said Sayaka quickly. We all nodded before heading out of the room, leaving the captain alone in her office along with her pink slippers.
.......................................................
"Now where are we going?" I asked as we all five walk down the hall way. Yuko pressed the elevator button when we stopped in the front of an elevator and stepped in when it opened, followed by all of us.
"Oh don't worry. You'll love it.." said Yuko with a blink and a cheeky smile. Everyone else seemed happy with the answer and we all stepped out of the elevator and whew..
Now I start to wonder how big seriously is this place.
The whole floor was completely designed like a gigantic store house with wooden ceilings, many tall shelfs filled with wooden cargos, hard cases, and oh dear.. I think I saw someone flying with jet pack on her back across the room..
"Hello everyone!" yelled a voice from the incoming jet pack girl. We watched her land in front of us victoriously thanks to the smokes coming out of the jet pack, not forgetting the fact that she wore a green shirt that says "I AM AWESOME!" across the chest. Her eyes were framed by a pair of goggle that managed to slip into her messy black hair.
Great.. A show off? I thought dramatically as she flashed us the white teeth grin from toothpaste advertisement on TV.
"Can I help you? Ah, Yukoo!!" said the girl before hugging the short midget next to me.
"Hey Sae!" said Yuko returning the hug before pushing her back. "Erm, remember her Sae?" asked Yuko when she jerked her head to me. Sae's face brightened up when she saw me and crossed her hands across her chest.
"Ah, you're the one that went against Sayaka, eh?" said Sae. "I'm Miyazawa Sae from the gadget department. Call me Sae." she introduced her self.
"Matsubara Natsumi. Call me Natsumi." I introduced back to her.
"So Sae.." spoke Yuka. "We're here for our new things, I suppose."
"Ah, that's right!" said Sae. "Ah, there you are!" said Sae looking behind us. I turned and saw two new figure standing by the closing elevator. Sato Natsuki was one, she looked much better rested since I saw her on my dream yesterday. The other person there was strangely Kobayashi Kana with a flat expression on her face, wearing a black jumpsuit over a green tank top.
"Hey Natsuki!" greeted Yuka happily. Natsuki gave her and us a weak reply as they walk closer.
"Kobayashi Kana. Call me Kana." said the flat faced girl to me with a flat tone. I nodded and introduced my self to her just like I did to Sae as well as trying to hold back the feeling to whack her flat face with a flat wooden board on the ceiling. Gosh, I'm still pissed of her mocking from days ago.
"Okay, since everyone is here, we should start sorting stuff!" announced Sae happily. "Natsumi, please follow me and Natsuki.. And for the rest, Kana will show you our new creations." said Sae with a wink to Kana. The flat faced girl grinned suddenly towards the enthusiastic girl and gave the signal to follow her for our team. Once they were gone, Natsuki faced me. Her eyes bored into mine as if trying to dig out something from it. I get the feeling she's doing one of her vision thing to me.
"So what's her weapon, Natsuki?" asked Sae cautiously, throwing away her enthusiastic. Completely, ignoring my confused face.
"Sae.. " said Natsuki carefully. Her face suddenly turned in horror, but she kept it down slightly. "Get me
El-Draco.."
I'm not good at Latin I'll tell you, so I wasn't sure what made Sae's face turned surprised in horror just like Natsuki.
"Nats, you sure?" asked Sae with a whisper. Natsuki nodded and Sae soon ran away to the store self and disappeared behind the countless shelf.
"What's going on? What's with that Latin word? You freaked out yourself and Sae a lot you know?" I asked confusedly to Natsuki. The girl looked away as if thinking about something else, she looked disturbed just like what Yuko showed me in my room once.
"When giving weapons, we have to be sure if the weapon was right or not. As you knew, this task force isn't just for normal humans but also the ones aren't. That also goes for the weapons, there are high technology ones and the anciently magic ones." explained Natsuki before settling down on a lying wooden cargo. "One mistakes on handling weapons can led to serious disasters, especially the ancient ones. It can turn on towards it's owner and kill them." The word "kill" somehow managed to make me gulped as my brain felt like malfunctioning again due to the crazy information I got lately
"And that Latin word you said just then?" I asked nervously. "
El- Draco?"
"
El-Draco means the Dragon. It's..." Natsuki's word was cut off by the arrival of Sae with a black slim case with silver handle. The way Sae carried and settle it down on the table nearby, looked like she's handling a nuclear bomb that can blow any moment, I saw one of the ancient star sign on the case lock. I got the feeling that this weapon isn't a high tech ones that Natsuki said.
Natsuki placed her palm on the sign and closed her eyes.
"
Aperio" she whispered, the sign glowed in white before the sound of click appeared. I held my breath when Natsuki opened the case and took out one of the elegant weapons I've ever seen in my life. A silver handled sword with a carving shaped like a dragon on it's guard, while the body of the creature created a scaly silver handle of the sword. When Natsuki unsheathed it, revealing the shinning blade. I never seen such a delicate sword like that before.
"Try it." said Natsuki as she handed the sword to me carefully. I grasped the scaly hilt, and balanced the sword in my hand. It felt warm somehow and oh my gosh.. It's beating like it has a heart beat.
"Like it?"said the melodic voice again in my head, much clearer this time. I nearly let go of the hilt due to my surprise.
"Woah!" yelled Sae as she saw my stumbling hand, while Natsuki's face goes horrified.
"Sorry.." I said to both of them regretfully. I cursed the strange voice in my head for making me surprised, but in the same time I really can't believe what's really happening.
"
El-Draco is not a usual sword, I'll tell you that." said Natsuki.
"Yes, I figure that out already.." I replied. "But what is it? It feels like alive.." I unbelievably said it.
"Love your new weapon? It's one of my best creation." said Sae with a weak smile. "And also my scariest.." she added.
"You made this?" I asked to the girl with my best "I don't believe it" face. She looked down to the ground as she fiddled with her jet pack handle.
"Sae is also an alchemist like Yuka. But she's more specialized in weapons like sword and guns." explained Natsuki slowly. "
El-Draco was made by Sae's father who was also an alchemist but it was unfinished until.." Natsuki glanced back at Sae with worries as if she's asking something mentally.
"It's okay, Nats.." said Sae weakly as she fiddled again. I swear the girl that looked so happy as she fly with her jet pack just turned extremely gloomy in just a few minutes.
"Okay.." said Natsuki slowly. "It was unfinished until.. Until the whole Miyazawa family got massacred." said Natsuki slowly.
"How..." Before I could finish my sentence Sae butted in.
"
El-Draco contained a living soul in it. Dad was sealing it that night, and suddenly all the lights went off.. I heard the broken window and the scream of my mom. She screamed to me and my brothers to run from the house, then my brothers took me to the hut in the forest near our house. They told me to stay and heads back to the house. I screamed and ran with my own feet after their horses, and when I arrived.." Sae yelled with fear as her hands covered her ears. Her voice was different than it was a while ago, she was horrified. Natsuki took Sae's hands and hugged the girl tightly before she burst to tears.
Trauma.. I thought to my self. I stare at the carving of the dragon's eye. That night has got something to do with this sword, no wonder Sae looked so horrified when she heard Natsuki's command to fetched it. It must've been hard.
"Natsumi, look at me." said Sae still Natsuki's hug. "What ever you do, don't ever trust that sword!" yelled Sae crazily before bursting into tears again. Natsuki tried to calmed her down but Sae kept on struggling in tears and...
"They're here.." whispered Umeda Ayaka standing next to me jerking her head towards the party stage. Her brown hair was tied into an elegant ponytail with the starling earrings hanging on her ear. The black dress she wore made her taller and much elegant somehow.
"Copy that." I replied. As for me, I wore an emerald green one shoulder dress that goes to my ankles. My hair was flowing lazily behind my back but my heart was pounding hard.
Why? Feeling unsecured? Where's my weapon?
Kind of feeling unsecured is a yes. My weapons? Ah, I strapped on my leg under my dress.
What? Umechan has her gun in her purse which was easy. But how can I hide my sword? There's no purse that I can use to snuggle that in safely.
My eyes followed the figure on the stage. Our surroundings were packed with executives from many companies across the globe, which made us pretty well covered up in this party. But I swore my ankle started to pinch in pain due to Yuka's high heels that I borrowed from her a while ago.
"Ouch.. Can I just took these off? My feet is killing me." I complained to my partner. She glared and jerked her head again towards the stage. I saw the rest of our crew standing there in their undercover with other performers. They gave some waves to the crowd and throwing some kisses before starting their show.
Oh God.. I felt my nose started to throb hard..
"Yeah, they have the natural erotic aura." spoke Umeda Ayaka as if she was reading my mind. Now look at us, we're staring at a show which can make both of us be marked as pervert uncles. I watched the stage again along with other audience in the party room, but an elbow on my ribs made me turned towards the source.
"They're coming close." eyed her. I followed her gaze and found our target straight away, just a few meters from us.
"Who gets him first gets to be treated by the loser." I challenged. The shortie next to me eyed me before replying my grin.
"Sure.. I heard this place has a good caviar.." she said. I grinned and she grinned back. It was okay for a moment until..
BOOM!!!The ground shook me and the rest of the party. Everyone started to scream and ran towards the exits. We were both crashed by the incoming panicked people, and struggling to keep standing to see the stage. The room was filled with dust and crumbling roof and soon fire broke out from a hole near us. We both eyed each other, and we both know what were thinking.
"Yuka!!"
TBC- Sorry for the long and bad English