YF stirred awake when the elevator opened. From where he sat slumped over he could see a view of Nishida Ward through the windows at the far side of the open room. The entire floor was on fire, and as the sensation returned to his arms he could feel the heat against his skin. A sudden pressure wave shook him awake. In the center of the floor, Reina and a woman in all-black armor with a matching jumpsuit had locked hands, digging their heels in and pushing against each other.
Reina and the woman suddenly slowed until YF could make out the sublest of their movements. In the corner, the flicker of fire had frozen in place. Reina kneed the woman in the helmet in slow motion, sending her flying into a desk that was on fire. The woman rose up just in time to eat a second flying knee in the chest, pinning her down. The world sped up slightly. The woman reached up and grasped at Reina’s helmet futilely, getting hit repeatedly in the faceplate until it cracked. She kicked up and knocked Reina off balance, grabbing the latter by the neck and spinning around so that she was on top. The woman subsequently landed several blows to Reina’s chestplate, each hit loosening her own cracked helmet until the mask fell off. YF could see that — as Reina had predicted — the woman was Yui, his sister-in-law. Blood was streaming down her face and her left eye was closed shut. Her face was completely pale, and she looked like she was about to pass out. After several more blows Yui suddenly stopped and reached down to clutch her abdomen; in that moment, Reina took the opportunity to send a cross to Yui’s ribs, knocking her off.
In a fury that sent a shudder through YF’s spine, Reina leapt on top of Yui and attacked with her fists and elbows, each hit making Yui grow more and more limp, until she was barely twitching on the ground.
“...necessary…necessary,” Reina gasped. “You were short sighted, o-nee-san,” she whispered, though YF could hear her as if she were standing next to him.
“Hiro…kun,” he heard Yui utter.
Yui had turned and locked eyes with his; her hand shook as she reached out toward him.
YF found himself thinking back to the image of Yui standing in the doorway the day he had stayed at their house. He remembered her saying that she had cleaned the room herself since the maid was gone, and had apologized for how the result was below her standards. But in this version of his memory she did not speak; instead, she only looked at him with a soft expression as YF stared back at her. There was something different about the way she was looking at him. It was not an expression that lent itself to an easy description like ‘loving’ or ‘pitying’. But whatever the expression was, it seemed to embrace him the way that he thought a mother would embrace her child. When the image disappeared, YF realized that Yui was looking at him with the same expression now.
He felt a sudden rush of energy as streams of fire from the room flowed toward him, seeming to enter in through his fingertips and climb through his veins. He stood up and locked on Reina, dashing toward her and grabbing her by the top of her chestplate before she could react. He dragged her off of Yui and pinned her against a column. Reina struggled to grab YF’s arm for a second before her whole body burst into flame. She then let out an ear piercing screech such that half a second later, YF could only hear a ringing in his ears. He tossed her to the side and stumbled over to where Yui lay, reaching his arms under her and lifting her up. Despite her previous display of otherworldly strength, Yui was surprisingly light.
“Hiro…kun…” she whispered weakly.
“Stay awake, we’ll get you fixed up.” YF clutched her close to his chest as he ran across the room to the emergency stairs, kicking the half burnt door down and flying down the steps. At the bottom, the door frame was completely enveloped in fire. YF placed Yui to the side and grabbed the gap with both hands, the flames singing his clothes. He eventually pulled it aside and picked Yui back up, running across the ground floor lobby and out the front door. What he saw stopped him in his tracks. The scene before him looked like a massacre; bodies, most of them with severed limbs lay strewn throughout the street. A creature was perched on top of a Blue Rose vehicle, devouring a fully armored man. When the creature noticed YF’s presence it turned around, revealing the hideously morphed face of Tatori.
“There is no treatment…” YF whispered.
Tatori dropped the man he had been holding and leapt off the top of the vehicle and landed ten paces away from YF. Tatori crouched and made as if to rush toward YF, and then paused. From down the road, YF could see a vintage Met Police sedan fitted with a clawed ram speeding toward them. The vehicle slammed into Tatori, dragging him down the street and snapping off both of his legs, crashing against the flower bed at the end of the square. The car had hit the raised metal plate so hard that the ram claws deformed.
The passenger side window of the vehicle rolled down. “Get in!” Minami barked to YF. The back seat swung up like a gull wing.
YF jogged over to Minami’s car and carefully placed Yui into the back seat, closing the door. He then ran over to the other side and got into the seat next to her. Minami immediately accelerated before YF could even close the door, merging onto the arterial road. YF scrambled to secure Yui in the seat as the vehicle moved faster and faster and started ascending the highway ramp. Minami rushed through the right lane, dodging in and out of traffic when he encountered another car as he headed north toward the mountains.
“Where are you going? We need to get Yui treated,” YF demanded. “Do you have any resources available? If not, we need to head straight for Aritomo. They’ll do everything they can.”
“I’m afraid they won’t,” said Minami, continuing on his course.
“My brother isn’t going to try to save his wife?”
“Your brother?” asked Minami, frowning. “Your brother is missing. In fact he’s been missing for five or six years now. And his exit from Aritomo was not amicable, by any means. Ms. Naka lost her shares in the ensuing litigation as well.”
YF sank back into his seat. It was possible Minami — having been isolated for so long — hadn’t kept up with what was going on in the world, though that seemed unlikely. Whatever he meant, YF was not going to let his sister in law die on his watch. He pulled out his pistol and pressed it against Minami’s neck. The latter recoiled.
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“Turn around,” YF ordered.
“Your brother is missing. You will not receive any help from Aritomo.”
“If my brother is missing, who’s the father of her baby?”
Minami turned and looked at him incredulously. “We don’t know,” said Minami. “Nor does it matter. It’s not as if your brother being present precludes her pregnancy.”
“You need to turn around and go to Aritomo General Hospital. Now.” He pressed the muzzle against Minami’s neck once more.
“Threats are not going to save her, Mr. Sakai!” Minami stammered. “And with her post birth complications, even if we reached Aritomo General right this second there is little chance she would make it.”
YF could already feel Yui fading, and with each li they drove away from the city her breath seemed to grow more faint. He cradled her head in his lap and sobbed as she lay dying. She started to mutter something softly. YF lowered his ear to her mouth, but nothing she said could be understood. When Yui drew her final breath YF could feel his whole body going numb, a rage filling his inner core.
He raised his pistol again. “Stop the car,” he barked.
“I will see to it that she is buried properly.”
“Stop the car!”
“I knew her the moment she was born Mr. Sakai!”
YF saw tears rolling down Minami’s cheeks.
“You’re not the only one who felt her loss. Please, think about it beyond just yourself,” said Minami.
“Do you purebloods just keep spouting that nonsense about caring for other people to cover your own selfish goals? Reina said similar shit to what you’re saying now. Where were you during all this? Where were you when I was fighting off those…those things? Where were you when Yui was fighting for her life?”
“If you want to accuse me of being weak, I will take that,” Minami whispered. “But if you don’t know anything about my past, do not accuse me of thinking only for myself.”
YF found himself lowering his gun and sitting back into his seat, the sounds of the road and his emotions mixing together into a blur.
He did not know how much time passed until they made it out of the villages and arrived at the country roads. YF continued to hold Yui’s head against his stomach gently as he stared out at the trees that filled the central mountains. Minami began to slow down.
“If you knew, why have me go through all the trouble?” asked YF.
“Knew is a very strong word, Mr. Sakai. I might have guessed what was happening but I did not know who was involved, nor the extent of it.”
“It’s Aoshima,” YF muttered. “Reina’s father was the main player all along, with all levels of government from the villages up to the very top. I’ll send you the documents but that’s the gist of it.”
Minami grunted. “Then it’s worse than I thought. We have to move quickly to the final phase, and this time I am going with you.” Minami drove into a tunnel and pulled off to the side. “It is clear that Aoshima has shifted their work somewhere else. Do you know where?”
YF thought for a moment before realizing there was only one answer. “Ikusayama, on the home island.”
“Do you know where exactly in Ikusayama?”
“Erika does, though I’d prefer not to bring her.”
“The facility needs to be destroyed,” said Minami, firmly. “We will depart from Maehama in the evening. You might not like me saying this but it’ll be best if you bring Ms. Ueno with us.”
YF sighed.
“I will give you time to think about it. The inaka train up ahead comes once an hour and we’re just in time. I’ll drop you off there. Take it back home, and remember to meet me at the Maehama ferry terminal at the thirteenth hour.”
***
Any other day YF would have been hesitant to pull up to their apartment in his Tanaka R1, but on that day he hopped off immediately, running through the lobby and pressing the elevator button multiple times. The elevator seemed to go slower than usual, with YF tapping his foot on the platform impatiently. When he arrived at his room, a stream of blood led from the door to the kitchen. Erika was holding a knife out toward a horrifying looking creature with burned blue plastic and metal fused into its skin.
“Just in time,” said the distorted but unmistakable voice of Reina. “Oh don’t feel bad Sakai-san. When we get the results from your blood — and even better, the cells from your unborn baby — I will return to my lovely self, and our plans will be set back on track.”
The pistol YF had given Erika was laying on the ground.
“Reina,” said YF, raising his hands up. “I will do anything you ask. Take test results from Aritomo? I have access. I can gather resources to get whatever else you need. Just leave Erika alone.”
Reina let out a disturbing cackle. “It’s far too late for those things, Mr. Sakai. What I need is right…over there,” she said in a sing-song voice, reaching mockingly with her sharp claws toward Erika’s stomach.
Erika yelped, pressing back against the counter as she shook the knife up and down.
“Reina!” YF yelled.
“Oh you might be fast Mr. Sakai but without your weapon at the ready can you move faster than me?”
“You were friends,” YF whispered desperately.
“Oh,” Reina frowned with mock pity. “You can know a person so long and not know anything about them.” Just as she turned a loud screech rent the air. YF could see her move forward until she reached within a pace of Erika before a long bolt shattered the window and pierced straight through her torso, causing Reina’s remaining loosely tethered body parts to scatter on the kitchen floor. Erika dropped the knife and collapsed onto the ground, screaming and sobbing as she grabbed her head. YF’s receiver rang.
He reached down slowly to his pocket and pulled it out, pressing the receive button.
“Forgive the delay, Mr. Sakai,” said a familiar voice.
“Maeda?” YF asked.
“The oyabun gave clear orders to keep Ms. Ueno safe, according to your arrangement with him. Please bring Ms. Ueno outside. My associates will assist you in going wherever you need to go.”