- May 15 2040. ICTF covert operations FOB.
21:00
*Julia Bron came to check on Nozumi after his interview with her earlier that day. Stepping out of her Chevrolet with a bag of various things bought from the nearby convenience store.
Walking through the sliding door I was greeted by Niko. Niko was an acquaintance of mine, she worked as a medic for the JSDF during the riot days. This wasn't the first time I came in late, I always came in late at night to check on the patients whom I rescued or registered for the military hospital.
"Another late night checkup Julia?" She started.
"Yea and also here's the magazine you always asked me to buy." I opened my bag to give her the magazine she wanted.
"Oh JB the angel of death. Who are you visiting this hour? Tell me about whom you are visiting right about now, is he a hottie?!"
"Is anyone I see need to be a hottie? It's one of the children we rescued from the R&D camp. He had been on IV for 3 months now, figure I buy him some instant noodles or something if he wakes up midnight."
"Fine but at least find a guy before you hit the bucket okay?" Niko says
"Gee thanks. I'll make sure to find someone to screw before getting shot"
As usual, my conversation with Niko tends to be about guys. However, I never had any interest in them anyway, I only wanted to keep her company every now and then in her shift. She had always taken care of me when I bruised myself during morning drills.
"I'll be going off now"
"Yea, yea. Oh and take this kettle with you, he'll need to boil water to eat instant ramen."
"Thank you, I'll be going…"
"Wait a minute! Here are some fresh bed sheets and pillow casings."
"Niko-san I don't think that boys his age would easily wet their pants."
"No, I didn't mean that. I meant that I want you to change the bed sheets after you two F-U-…"
JB: "OIIIIIIII! I'mma have to stop you right there, I just met him and I'm not into “shota”. Common…he's younger than me!"
Niko: “Well say that to the boy you liked back during our first year.”
…
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And of course, Niko wouldn't be Niko without her dirty jokes about men and my looks on them. Despite being the older woman here, Niko is rather childish and more vulgar than me. She teased me about everything from me being too shy to make a move on guys to the fact that I'm the only virgin in the squad. This was no exception, so like usual I just brushed her off with the practical approach that I'm way too old for the kid and he's only 14, kids that age wouldn't find me attractive.
Niko: "Jeez… you're gonna die a virgin. Well just take the bed sheets in case he wets his bed."
JB: "Thanks and have a nice night Niko."
Finishing my last words, I then left Niko for her magazine reading time and made my way to the kid's bedroom to check on him. According to Asako's mission dossier, the kid was found in a very bad state both physically and mentally. It's really a miracle that he was able to speak have such a calm demeanor when talking to me earlier that day rather than panicking and beating the crap out of two of our best men when Asako rescued him. Knocking out two of the team's best men and in a dress, a bleeding dress before blacking out due to the lack of vitamin. The kid had skills, it was astonishing to even see such skills in combat, at such a small age though, she wrote.
Thanks to my knowledge of psychology, I was able to recognize the symptom the boy had been exhibiting in the dossier. It was possible that the boy had been exposed to extreme violence which then combined with guilt from certain trauma in life that made him vulnerable to the brainwashing of terrorists. This theory was later concluded through clinical inspection of most of the children we rescued from raids in such conditions. Children who experienced the deaths of their parents, children who came from warring countries that were later taken in by the terrorist organization all exhibit the same reaction to those who approached them, most of these children were not able to talk or at least exhibited any emotional expression for a long period of time. This was the first case that a kid whom we rescued was able to talk and express some emotional expression, he must be pretty special to be able to retain his emotion after such horrific atrocities.
My flow of thought was then stopped by the slim cries of help coming from the boy's room.
"Help…Help me….."
Ending my monologue and thoughts right there, I sprinted straight to the kid's room, hoping that I would arrive in time before it's too late.
Upon opening the door, I found the boy trying to choke himself with his bare hands while mumbling weird numeric sequences.
Running to action, I tried preventing his self-suffocation. I then tried calling Niko through the landlines. The kid was panicking beyond consolation. He landed a kick or two on me when Niko and I tried to give him anesthetic shots.
After he calmed down, I took Niko outside to discuss with her about the boy's current condition.
JB: "What's wrong with him Niko? And why is he beating himself up in his sleep? However it didn't appear that he was sleeping at all, his eyes were vaguely opened and he was still conscious to stop himself and yell for help. Based on the results from scans his brain seems to not suffer any injuries nor any abnormality."
Niko: "Like you said, he was pretty much normal till now. He did sometimes cry and let out a small laugh during his coma. However, he had never shown responses when our nurses or doctors interact with him. This was the first night of him being conscious right? Maybe he saw or heard something from his dreams or thoughts that led him to self-suffocation."
JB: "Yeah you're right, the kid might have experienced quite an ordeal, and his mind might still be pretty scrambled after all that. Oh and he was mumbling these numbers, what do you think that they were supposed to be."
Niko: "Beats me. You're the smart one here, it might be a code of some sort."
Writing down the "codes" I obtained from the boy, I then asked Niko to get her eye on him as I make my way to the Intel room.