The long night continued without giving up any luck for all involved. Far from the camp in the middle of nowhere Atlantis, the vehicle that carried Vangelis’ team parked for a stop. His team remained inside the vehicle as ordered. Staring around the horizon, he calculated his position.
He knew from their maps where they stopped, but it bothered him. The Captain foresaw them returning for their comrade. Everything Simonides told him about them made him agree with the assessment. They sounded painfully naïve, enjoyable ones to crush. He looked forward to meeting them, but they found them nowhere.
Crouching to the ground, he ran his fingers over the pockets of earth. ‘The radar shows nothing in the area… We traced their course from Skoupa, but nothing…’ Vangelis gazed up at the horizon, the general location of their camp. They didn’t know where to find their captured comrade. The retreat even used a hover vehicle to leave no traces, to slow down their plans. ‘…hmm…’
More questions surfaced. ‘As he figured, if they traveled by vehicle, they would have reached camp long ago, even without tracks to follow. The camp sticks out, especially at night…’ His head turned back in the direction that he knew the battle took place. ‘They walked the whole morning, not even hiding themselves… Did they walk back?’
Standing up, Vangelis took a few steps further away from the transporter. He crossed his arms still letting his eyes do the work. ‘If they walked, then that could explain things… If they walked they could be anywhere along the route, especially if they’re searching… I would have thought we would see some sign of them…’
Settling into the bothersome back-up plan, he turned back to the vehicle. ‘No other choice… We’ll waste time just searching the area…’ He approached the passenger side door, noting Iole still obediently waiting. His hand knocked on the metal to get her to open the door for him. A second later, it swung open, but she held her gaze forward. “Follow the tracks to the battle site.”
“The enemy is not there anymore,” she replied without missing a beat.
Vangelis lowered his eyebrows a touch. “This is an order.”
“Our orders are to halt the enemy’s progress.”
“Unless you’ve suddenly found them, I see no reason to stay here.” He leaned into the cabin of the vehicle towards Iole. His hand pressed into the passenger seat. “A superior officer is giving you an order. Go to the battle site. We’ll pick up their tracks from there.”
Chapter 148 – Calculated Risk
Fumiko and Stamatia’s explosion rocked the tent of the temporary command center. The only thing keeping it from destruction was the fact that Simonides had three MPs stationed around to dampen the effects of their battle. It spared nearly a fifth of the camp from the devastation.
Simonides kept his eyes focused on the display even though his mind turned focus briefly to the quaking. He bore witness to many duels between MPs over the years, but it still unnerved him the destructive nature that they could achieve. A disastrous scenario such as the one that occurred in his camp fell on his list of possibilities, but he still didn’t give it high odds. He counted on his contingencies halting their progress. They continued to leave him with more questions than answers. He hadn’t found the correct way to fight them. Everything about them defied reality, even more than a MP user.
Once the shockwave passed, everything turned eerily quiet. All of the soldiers in the tent paused waiting for the fighting outside to roar back to full veracity, yet it remained silent. Seconds passed onto minutes before the tension eased up.
He stared more intently at the map in front of him. A MP user generated a battle map for him to give him a better sense of the chaos within his camp. Enough time passed since the fighting began that he turned his men’s panic around. His command restored a small amount of order.
In front of him, particles rained down creating a hemisphere with detailed topology and mapping of everything within the region. It didn’t identify individuals with names, as Simonides would have preferred, but simple dots with health conditions. He saw where his men stood and the fighting happened. The area of Stamatia’s fight remained unknown. Heat from their fight disrupted the readings leaving them with a large circle awaiting the results. Outside of the dead zone, another individual waited on his orders to respond to the outcome.
Still it bothered him to only see a small force. ‘Three intruders…where’s the rest?’ From the immediate fighting, he knew only three fights took place. He expected all of them in the camp, probably trying to sneak in. However, they found no one. ‘There are some unaccounted for, but we’ve found nothing…’
Two considerations came to him while he stared longer at the map. ‘They’re either disguising themselves and hiding within our ranks waiting or…’ Simonides stared at the placement of the fighting and position of anyone the map detected. He thought he started to understand the way they worked. Things happened within his forecast, but errors still occurred. The second option he dreaded more, since it meant that there was more still that he didn’t understand about them. ‘…they’ve split into two teams and this is all they set for a rescue… But what would the second team be doing?’
Waiting and responding was the only thing he could do at the moment. He knew if he made an action on only guess work the outcome could be worse. The number of MPs he had under his command were five short and four recovering. ‘Regardless of the situation, they’ve come into the den of the lion… It doesn’t matter how strong they are… Everyone succumbs to fatigue… Well capture three more of them… They made a grave mistake falling for my trap…’
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The new revelation gave Seiji pause. Most of the information he got from Yuki and didn’t think to question it. He figured that Ayumi told him it all, something that churned his stomach a bit. Even thinking about her made him angry as hell. ‘She’s always doing her own thing without any regard for the rest of us. The only one that she wants is Yuki. Would she lie about that? Is there something else she wants?’ Seiji’s eyebrows twitched with the more that he thought.
It took him a few more seconds before he gave up the effort. A sigh escaped his lips as though expelling the shitty troubles with the air. One truth remained. One truth he couldn’t change or avoid. “It’s true that she’s probably lying to us about something. I don’t know if this is one of those things. For all I know you’re lying to confuse me.” Seiji crossed his arms, to show that he still refused to fight the woman. “The reality is that we are here now. If it is because of lies, I’ll deal with her after all of this is settled. The fact remains you’re holding one of our friends. So until he’s returned to us we won’t be leaving.”
She found his stubbornness continually frustrating. He didn’t believe her and refused to take her seriously. “So you’re just like everyone else. Treating me like a child.” Her hands rose looking ready to fight again.
“Huh?” Seiji tilted his head to the side, not clear what the recent words from her meant. “What are you talking about? Why the hell would I treat you like a child?”
“You refuse to fight me as an equal.”
“That’s got nothing to do with the other. My code prevents me from fighting women. I would never see a woman as a child.” He waved his hand dismissing her proclamation. “Besides, you’re like in your early twenties or something…”
“I’m fourteen,” she stated clearly.
Seiji nodded in agreement with her, not immediately hearing her words. “You’re fourteen, see! An adult…” His words caught up to what he repeated. It froze him for a damn second before he turned a little defensive looking back at the very tall…girl. “Fourteen?! Now you’re the one lying to me!”
She shook her head at him. The expression on her face didn’t change the entire time she stared at him. Her features gave no indication of deceit. In fact, some self-loathing sat behind her eyes.
It took him a little bit longer to take it all in. Even then, he still had trouble with the crappy reality. He walked over to her suddenly looking very serious. She became defensive, bringing up her fists to fight. Seiji reached out his hand towards her.
‘He’s ready to fight?’ She tightened her fists up. His presence built tension down her back. Her body still remembered how strong and quickly he moved when protecting her. It planted a seed of doubt in her muscles. She didn’t know how strong he could be when serious. The way he looked, she thought she might learn shortly. She wanted to strike first, but her arms froze up on her. Her eyes closed.
Seiji stopped in front of her and paused with his hand still held out. “Hmm…” He lifted his other hand up to himself. His eyes moved between them thoroughly examining…something.
The long pause of nothing happening tightened the tension through her body. It turned everything inside her rigid as though the slight movement would send cracks through her skin to crumble like dry clay. After the waiting became too long, she opened her eyes, finding the courage. However, she suddenly felt the life disappear from her body at what he did.
Finished, Seiji took a step back. His hand rubbed his chin in deep thought. He kept silent for nearly a minute. It created a new awkward tension around them until his eyes slammed open. “You’re…” He pointed a finger at her, but it quickly began to shake in front of her. Seiji pulled his hand back and braced both against his head. “I can’t believe it! You’re a year younger than me, but you’re already taller than me!” He collapsed to the ground at the end of the declaration. “…reality’s so cruel…”
She finally fell over once he finished. She saw his hand measuring out the distance in their height and couldn’t believe it. After she saw it, she hoped he was doing something else, but the truth came out. It felt like a strange defeat.
His reaction made her struggle to recover. “You’re bothered about height…” An unusual and unexpected answer came from him. He didn’t act serious when it seemed like he should be desperate. His manner was nothing like what she came to know from those in the military. He was so different from her. The sight of him made her wonder a bit in awe. ‘Is this what it’s like on the outside?’
Seiji still muttered to himself about the height. “First I had to deal with that crazy tall third year girl and now this one too and she’s younger… Why are all of the girls stealing my distinctive characteristic?!”
The Atlantean girl finally managed to stand up. It took far more strength than she thought necessary, but the strange boy defied logic. “Is it really that important to you?”
He looked up from his troubles at her. “You wouldn’t understand. I’m Japanese, it’s not easy to be this tall at my age! If I don’t keep up my work I won’t even reach two meters! Without my height what else do I have to make my character unique!?”
“Actually, isn’t height far too generic to be a unique character trait?”
Seiji’s mouth dropped open. His mind started to realize something it never considered before. “My height’s generic? I don’t have my height?” It turned his world upside down. He had an image that he was supposed to have. If he didn’t have it? If he lacked it? What did that make him? “I’m generic? Even Yuki had more strength than me when we were younger. My height is all I have to stand out.”
“Actually, you were stronger than me even then, I just made better use of what I had,” commented Yuki inside Seiji’s head. Yuki glanced over at someone else. “What? How else do you expect me to collect a paycheck after I’ve been unseen for more than twenty chapters?”
Everything began to sink in for Seiji. He slowly stood up. A shadow cast darkness over his eyes, leaving them unseen. Loose footing made him stagger a bit as he stepped forward. “…generic…” Seiji’s next step pounded into the ground cracking along his impression. His hand tightened up into fists. Pulling his head back to set a stare on the girl, he looked oddly serious for a fight, despite his code (and the reason).
Seiji threw out his hand and pointed his finger across at the girl. “What’s your name?”
“Eh?” she questioned, no longer certain if reality was stable with him anymore. However, the look in his eyes told her that he changed his mind. A fire in his eyes wanted a fight. “Nerine.”
“Well Nerine, you wanted a fight, right? Seiji Tsuji will give you one!” He tightened his pointing hand back into a fist. “No one calls me a generic character! I make you regret those words! I don’t care if you’re a woman or a girl! My code won’t allow such disrespect to pass unanswered!” Apparently, his code included amendments about his character.
“What seriously?” yelled Yuki in disbelief. “We’re starting a fight over how generic your character design is? I quit! Get yourself a different main character!”
Nerine (who finally had her name announced, she was really happy about that) lifted her arms up. She dropped into an offensive stance. Seiji still held many unknowns for her. It meant that she needed to test him and learn about him. The skill he showed off earlier had her concerned. She needed to understand it, but the look in his eyes told her that he saw her as a serious opponent. It melted away her doubt that saturated her body earlier. She could fight.
No movement further from Seiji made her wait. She thought the fight would begin, but he took no action. ‘Why isn’t he taking up a stance of any kind?’ Her foot slid back digging up some of the grass as it pushed through.
“What are you waiting for? Come on.”
‘Is he mocking me by not taking a stance? I thought you were taking me seriously!’ Nerine charged forward, no longer able to wait on him. She wouldn’t let him look down on her. She would show them. She would prove to him. One arm came back tightening her muscles as she ran towards Seiji. The metal around her forearm and hands groaned a bit in her overly tensed state. In the last meter, Nerine unleashed her power into her fists channeling through the metal.
Her fist would show him.
Nerine suddenly stopped, but didn’t know why. She blinked once and looked closely at Seiji. Her eyes scanned down at her arm. Cracking and groaning of the metal complained to her. She felt it pressing against her arm. It dug in, making her flinch a little and weaken in her legs. Her eyes widened to see that Seiji’s hand caused it. “What?!”
Seiji looked across at her, almost looking disappointed with her. “I thought you wanted a serious fight. Change to something stronger.”