The cold temperature of winter can shun away anyone from going outside, even if the sun is high on the sky. The heat transmitted from it is not enough for people to be comfortable outside, not mentioning the strong wind blowing right at their faces. Even so, there are a whole crowd standing in front of a certain academy. The reason they can tolerate all the hardship being outside is just to satisfy their curiosity. They are just boring citizens looking for a new stimulation in their life.
However, there are two groups of people in front of them standing for a completely different purpose. The 2nd line upfront composes of journalists, camera men, reporters, all the people who work for the media. They are busy preparing to broadcast and gather every information that can be obtained from the event going to unfold. This is a very big job that can even be broad casted around the world.
And the final group, who stand on the very front line, are the polices. Barriers have been constructed to separate the outsiders and media from obstructing their duty. From the overall look, the formation the polices are taking is used to fight bank robbery and terrorism. A whole line of special squad agents in black combat suit hold the shield in front of them. Normal officers stay behind the cars with weapons ready. Their equipments are not non-lethal weapons used for suppressing the crowd, but real guns with gun powder filled bullets. In fact, those polices are prepared to kill off their targets, not just apprehending them. All of these preparations show how severe the situation has become.
On the air, a media helicopter is flying. It is the culprit for making the already cold winter more freezing and harsher, but those who stay on it completely ignore the complaints throw at them. A male reporter looks at the camera and reports.
“To all viewers of NHK, this is Yoshimura Takeda. We are now flying on top of the Hakugawa academy, where the slaughter of multiple students took place. The polices have surrounded the building and the special forces already infiltrated inside in attempt to rescue the students. The casualty is not yet confirmed but it is estimated to be more than 100 deceased at the moment the incident was reported. The culprits behind this crime are unknown and investigation on them hasn't gotten any result so far… … Wait….” The reporter pauses a moment “Wait! Pilot! Bring me near the gate! There are students coming out! I repeat! There are some students coming out! They are our first identified survivors.” The reports says in a loud voice with joy.
A group of students suddenly rush out of the school gate and they have wounds and blood all over their bodies. Their faces pale a lot and ragged white breath come out from their mouth. After coming out of the school, their faces become stern after seeing a whole division of armed police officers. However, after a few seconds, they then become joyful as they know that they have found the help they need.
“Help! Help us! Our friends are being killed by mad people inside the school! You have to save them!” One of them shouts out to the polices.
The special squad approach the gate and escort those students back to the ambulance with emergency staffs. Some girls break out in tear as they realize they are finally safe, and cry in the polices' arms. The emergency staffs transport those with serious injury on stretchers immediately to the ambulance and drive away, while those with less damage receive proper first aid treatment on spot.
“How is the situation inside?” The commander in charge of the operation comes and asks the students.
“It is crazy inside there, sir. Suddenly, the toilets fly around then eat people' heads. Then, there is this group of crazy women swinging knife around, slashing and stabbing us. We were lucky to escape fast from there.” A student reports with terrified voice.
“Wait. Did I hear something wrong? You say toilets fly around and eat people's heat?” The commander asks in confusion.
“I am not joking with you, sir! Even I would not believe it unless I saw it myself. The toilets did kill us by chomping our head!” The students says with agitated voice.
“Ok, calm down! It's not like I am doubting you. So you say there are also a bunch of women armed with knives, right? What do they look like?” The commander consoles him and changes to a different topic.
“Yes, they are very crazy… very crazy… They suddenly appeared out of nowhere and when my friends said Hi to them… A stab sound and then my friend was pierced at the heart. The next moment, all of the students nearby had their throat slit… I was lucky at that time. I was out buying bread and at the stair case when I saw it. I ran away immediately. That was all I could do. I was too scared to look at them.” The student trembles as he remembers those scenes.
The commander pats his back to calm him down “Son, I know you must have gone through a lot. But hang on a little bit more. What do those women look like?” He patiently asks the student.
“They were all wearing mask. The surgical mask that the doctors usually wear. And their eyes. There was something in their eyes. It was like… madness mixed with cold blood… and terror. The moment I saw those eyes. They sent me a chill.” The student answers.
“Ok, that's enough for us to identify them. We will get them to pay for what happened with your friends. I want to ask you one more question. How did you escape? Did you run all the way to here?” The commander asks the next question.
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“No. That's right. It was all thanks to Mashima-san. She helped us defeat those monsters and brought us out of here. Officer, you have to get in there and bring her out. She is still inside to look for more students.” The student grabs the commander's arms and shakes them.
“Wait. Who is this Mashima? And she defeated the monsters for you to escape?” The commander asks.
“Yes, we were able to get out of here thanks to her. She is also a student like me and she organized some students to fight back the monsters and this crazy bandage man, and then created a path for us to run outside.”
“Wait, why is there another bandage man, here? Is he someone who also joined the mass killing?”
“Yes, although I did not personally see him killing. He did drag a corpse along with him when we met. However, it is okay now. Mashima-san and her friends defeated him.”
"I understand what was going on. It seemed that we need to have a special thank for her. She has achieved a feat worthy to be called a hero... You have also done a great job reporting this to me. I promise that we will do what we can to find and get everyone inside out of there." The commander pats on the student's shoulder as he says.
"Thank you very much, sir! Please save Mashima-san and all the other students." The student offers his gratefulness.
Another officer comes and reports to the commander "Chief! There is another group coming out. This one is led by some teachers."
Everyone who heard that immediately turns their graze toward the gate. This time, it is a group much bigger than the students Hinami group sent out. There are more than one hundred people and leading them are several adults who look like the teachers. Their states do look worse than the 1st group as there are people with amputated arms and legs. There are even those with extreme injury on the bodies that make people wonder if they are still alive or not.
The police men and medics approach and help escort them to nearby emergency treatment area and ambulances. The commander orders his subordinate to fetch a teacher with the least injury for inquiry. A woman in light orange suit comes. Traces of tear can be seen from her face and extreme tiredness can also be seen. There is no doubt that she had a very rough time there.
"I am very sorry for making you come here for inquiry while you are supposed to receive help from the hospital. However, please bear with it as we need to know the situation inside." The commander offers his apology to the female teacher.
"No, there is no problem, sir. I am a teacher and have a duty to protect the students. If there is anything officer need, I would be glad to be any help." She shows a face of resolve as she answers him.
What a strong willed teacher, the commander thinks so. He then starts the questioning " Can you tell me what happened inside the school?"
The female teacher tells him the same information as the student before but in more details: how the world suddenly turned red, the school was isolated outside by a black liquid, the slaughter going on.
"Hm, so the world inside there looks so different from the outside." The commander puts his hand on the chin and think "Is everything she said same with what you saw?" He asks the student nearby.
"I am sorry that I did not talk to you about that....... " The student pauses a moment "But why don't you know about that? Why are you surrounding the school instead of charging in?" He asks,
"It's not like we don't want to charge in but we can't. What happened to this school was not normal. When we received the report that a massive killing happening in Hakugawa academy, we immediately came and found a completely normal school..... That was what we thought until we was stopped by an invisible wall just at the school gate. The moment we touched it, a scene of bloody hall appeared in our mind and we realized that the that the situation was not normal. An incident has happened and on top of that, a supernatural phenomenon. We tried to get inside through many means. Climbing over the wall, flying over, destroying the wall. All of them were useless as the invisible barrier kept us from entering. The science department came but could not figure out anything or do about that barrier. In the end, we could only surround the whole school and wait for a miracle to come." The commander says with a self mocking smile at his last sentence. "Anyway, miracle did come and there are many people coming out from it. Although there are only an eight of the school came out alive. In the end, we polices are useless in front of the abnormal phenomenon."
Both the teacher and student remain silent after learning that help cannot be sent inside. Trying to break apart the awkward atmosphere, the student thinks then asks the teacher "Teacher, I am curious. How can you pass through that black liquid? Do you have someone awaken in super power in your group? Or Were you rescued by Mashima-san?"
The teacher is stupefied when she heard so "What do you mean by super power? We built a bridge with the desks in a nearby storage house to get outside. And we did not encounter anyone named Mashima. The reason we could get out safely was due to the leadership of the school chairman and many teachers sacrificing themselves to block the monsters."
"I am intrigued by that too. Did this Mashima student have superpower when she fought with the monsters you mentioned?" The commander interrupted.
The student then tells him about how Mashima Hinami transformed into the white military uniform and created gun out of nothing to defeat the enemies.
(What happened to this world? A red world, a massacre by a bunch of monsters and people, an invisible wall that completely isolates anything inside, and now a student with super power. Is this the signal of the coming new age?) The commander asks himself.
Suddenly, an explosion occurs and the whole school is set ablaze. The fire is so big that its height can already reach more than thirty meter. Even people from the other districts can see it from their home. Fire fighters come and try to subsidize it with the fire hose. However, the water is blocked by the invisible wall and the flame keeps burning bright in the sky.
"Evacuate any personnel within 10 meter around the target. Get the civilians stay further away from the site. Make way for the fire trucks to come here and put out any fire that spread outside..." The commander gives his men new orders.
An hour has passed and the fire keeps burning high in the sky. Fortunately, the fire is contained only inside the school and did not spread any further. However, no more person is seen coming outside from the school. Just when the people on site loses hope that no one else survives, a group of students composed of girls mainly come out.
"Looks like we are welcomed in quite an extravagant manner." Makoto laughs seeing the entire row of police men.