17 - Humanity’s Last Chance / The Start Of The End Of The World

A few dozen minutes had passed. Ichika had gotten there too, and the sight of her own friend’s corpse broke her as well. After their storm of emotions had been reduced to a simple derealized state, Ichika and Sakuto tried to make a phone call. Ichika called Rin.

“Rin, we did it.” Ichika said, her voice both tired and devastated. “We need to get to you...Ausra, and O-Oskar, they...”

“Ichika, don’t call me anymore.”

“What?” Ichika asked, recoiling in surprise. Her face looked very pale, she was barely moving her limbs. She still hadn’t recovered from her extremely straining and dangerous battle.

“Please...”

Rin hung up.

“What just...happened?” Sakuto asked.

“She...told me not to call her anymore. She hung up.” Ichika said. She couldn’t focus properly.

“She...what?!” Sakuto asked. He briefly looked at the two corpses next to him, and it filled him with frustration that he couldn’t express.

“I’ll call her again.” Ichika said, dialing Rin’s number again. Even though Rin wasn’t supposed to, she picked up the phone once more.

“I told you...”

“Rin, where are you?” Ichika asked. “We need you. We have multiple that are heavily wounded. Please...”

“I-”

“We have two corpses.” Ichika said. “Oskar and Ausra.”

It was obvious from the brief pause that Rin had extreme difficulty processing the news. But she gave an answer regardless.

“I’m sorry. You can’t be here.”

The call ended again.

“It’s not working.” Ichika said, coughing. “It’s...”

“We were eating dinner a few days ago, and now she’s doing this?” Sakuto said. His voice wasn’t loud, but his expression, at least, what remained of it, conveyed that he was done with that bullshit. The last thing he wanted was for Ichika to pass out due to exhaustion or for the same to happen to himself. “I’ll call her myself.”

Rin was a bit startled by the number that called him a second later.

“I already explained!” She picked up anyway.

“Rin, you do realize that you need to heal us, right?” Sakuto said in a much more intimidating voice.

“I am sorry for your loss, but I can’t-”

“I don’t care about what you can or can’t do, Rin.” Sakuto said, his voice full of hatred. “If Ichika, or if one more person dies because of this, do you know what will happen?”

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“I-”

“Rin, all of those children you taught at school, you remember them well, right?” Sakuto asked. “All of the kids that you want to protect. You know damn well that I have enough determination in me to keep myself alive, and especially if you give me a reason to.”

“What are you-”

“I will hunt down and kill every single one of those precious kids that you wasted your life trying to save.” Sakuto said. “I will get their names through Yuuka Hoshikwa, who will also be justifiably so pissed that our medic is gone. And I will hunt them down, one by one, and kill them in horrible, horrible ways.” He said. Ichika was far too zoned out to react to those threats.

“...”

“Tell her the coordinates.” A voice advised Rin. “We’ll prepare to confront them. Looks like the slow game isn’t an option anymore. We’ll meet them head on and talk some sense into them right now. It’s not like we can do much without them in the first place.”

“Huh?”

“Do as I said.” The voice continued. “I’m certain that he won’t kill me.”

The phone call ended with the reveal of a specific location...

...

“They’re arriving.”

Desert terrain, further away from the seaside, by a small town that was turned into their base. Mukawa stood next to Haruki and the rest of his soldiers, next to a tied up figure with a cloth covering its head kneeling on the ground.

It was sunrise. The travel was slow because the carrier, Sakuto, had difficulty flying at high speeds in his state. He had to sacrifice his newlymade jaw to maintain it. The shadow dragon that was packed to the brim with Heisei’s surviving soldiers and two bodies finally landed. The attention was immediately diverted to the hill.

“Stand where you are!” Jian exclaimed, pointing her finger gun at Mukawa.

“Woah! Relax, will ya?” Mukawa said, pointing a handgun at the hostage. “You wouldn’t want him to die now, would you?”

Haruki was next to him, and he did the same. Now, Jian couldn’t just snipe Mukawa and be done with it. Even though she was willing to take that risk, something else distracted her.

“C-captain Zervos?!” Jian asked in surprise, watching the Captain approach her.

“It is me.” Zervos said. “How are the rest? Is that-”

“Ichigo’s out.” Zawadski said. “Had a pretty rough fight. You know, you were the last person I expected to see here.”

“You have some questions to answer.” Yuuka smirked. “The fact that you’re involved with that gloomy guy...”

“I will explain everything. But...” Zervos turned his attention to Sakuto, who was barely standing up. His presence was...terrifying.

Sakuto managed to lock eyes with Mukawa for a moment. Mukawa acknowledged his presence, preparing himself for their eventual face-off.

“Yumichi...” Ichika said, also having trouble walking. She saw Yumichi and Rin next to one another, Rin was sad to see Ichika in that state, heartbroken to see the corpses they brought and scared of Sakuto.

“Big sis! What...” Yumichi caught on to who the corpses looked similar to.

“I’ll take care of you.” Rin said.

“You will, but only after my command.” Jian said. She aimed at her for a few seconds, and a moment later, aimed at Mukawa once more. “What is the meaning behind all of this? What is going on?!”

“Like I said, don’t try to kill me.” Mukawa said, pointing at a hostage. “You’ll regret it.”

“Do you seriously believe that I have no experience in such situations?” Jian asked, her presence flaring up a little.

“I believe you’ll reconsider everything once you see who we have here.” Mukawa said.

“The key to saving the world...”

With one swift motion, he removed the cloth from the hostage’s head.

The hostage was Hiroshi Kamiki.

TO BE CONTINUED IN PART 11 - “Mankind’s Last Stand”