With the SMGs and gears sorted out, I walk down the corridors. I then keep following the echoes while trying to not wet my pants.
“The bible quote I said…”(Mitsuha)
“Yeah?”(Hyde)
“Dad was a politician and he had secrets- not so clean secrets- we’re one of his misdeeds. He made a mistake of taking away the family that have been highlighted in the newspaper for so long, people will be suspicious. Over time, they will uncover why his entire family was nowhere to be found.”
“So? At most people might conclude that he has connections to Yakuza and his images will be tarnished…”(Hyde)
We have a short conversation before proceeding on.
“You know…now that I have my own personality and stuff, I’ve got quite a large bone to pick with you…”(Hyde)
Shoot…I’m all ears.
“You remember that time that father embarrassed us in front of our teachers while receiving the certificate.”(Hyde)
You mean when we got dragged away by our father’s men.
“Yeah, that time.”
Yeah because of the guns' imprints showed through the guys’ jacket that made people stop bugging me for that month.
“Yeah, I thought we told father to not bug us at school.”(Hyde)
He didn’t have a choice, grand-father asked to meet us that day.
“Yeah, grand-Papi…at least he was a likeable douche.”(Hyde)
Yeah, he was quite nice…until he passed on.
“Yeah...”(Hyde)
I keep walking for a few more minutes, following the echoes until one of the floor pieces give way. I fall down the decayed hole to the floor underneath, into a box full of files
“OW!”(Hyde)
It hurts for me too, so stop whining.
“FUCK!”(Hyde)
OW!
“You’re an idiot you know that?”(Hyde)
Screw you…the floor gave way, and that wasn’t my fault…Ah, that hurts!
I crack my shoulder once to knock the sore off, then raise my weapons to check around the perimeter. Putting both the MP5’s flashlight and the shoulder flashlight on, I slowly make my way through the large room inhabited by cubicles of personal computers.
My instincts tell me that I should check for some more info before moving on. This is a UN HQ, they might have some sort of systems that I can use. The guy talking through the speakers doesn’t seem to know much about this building as so as he is from my world. Seems like the generators are still on as he is still being able to use the speaker systems.
After strolling through a few rows and cubicles of broken computers, I then discover a portable field laptop plugged in with both connected to the HQ’s systems and weapon systems as well as a wireless PDA.
“This should be useful…”
Yeah if we know the codes for each system…
I say, pointing my finger through the lines of requirements needed to launch the systems.
“Looks like we’d need some ID Codes…Where oh where can we find the codes?”(Hyde)
Well, there is a chance that the codes are under the tables like in “Mission Impossible”.
“Whaaaaaaaat? That’s crazy!”(Hyde)
We should give it a try. Who knows maybe we’ll able to find one on the first try…
Following my intuition, I try finding the specialized sectors labelled with “Intel division” and “Cyber Defense force”. Though Yuki continuously calls out for me, I still take my time trying to find the codes for my chances and advantages over an ambush of any sort.
After a while, I finally found the codes under one of the desks owned by one of the high ranking officers. After punching in the codes, a loud robotic voice gives out an announcement and a large amount of files loads through the laptop.
“REINSTATION OF UN HQ! ALL PERSONEL PLEASE ATTEND THE OPENING CEREMONY IN THE ATRIUM.”(PSA announcement)
With my perception, I then catch view of a few interesting files. “Tissue reparation beds”; “Advance experimental revive procedures.”;…As I scan through the files, his voice calls out for me once more over the speakers
“AHAHAH! I DON’T KNOW HOW YOU DID IT BUT YOU DID IT MY FRIEND! COME DOWN HERE AND LET’S REJOICE IN THE SHINING LIGHT OF THE CHAMPION JA?”(Collin the undead magician)
I push the laptop into my bag, strap on the PDA and ready my weapons. I then make my way out of the Intel bloc and walk to the balcony to see how far I have to go. It would be quite a long walk plus the infrastructure isn’t really in a good so I might die trying to walk down the stairs and hallways.
However, as I overlook the Atrium, a wonderful piece of equipment catches my eyes.
“Hey! It’s a grappling hook…”(Hyde)
Cool!
I prepare the switches and the ropes and start to descend down the floors. Floors after floors, all I could see were either undead soldiers, debris or blocked off access.
I do stop on a few floors to gather some extra weapons though. Many of the weapons are left lying around on the floor on several of the floors in sort of a last stand barricade. Did something happen here?
“They might have been overrun by something. The layout of those tables and chairs as well as the lithered weapons doesn’t seem that they left it on purpose.”(Hyde)
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
I gather the weapons and ammo, such as three seem to be usable M16A2s-and their 5.16mm rounds, three AK12s-with their 7.62mm rounds, another m92f and a few magazines laid next to the barricades as well as a few smokes, flashbangs and frag grenades.
What overran the UN soldiers might have been that guy controlling them down in the atrium, judging from how he controls them.
After a few breaks and continuous grappling down, I come face to face with the Stranger overlooking the speakers.
He’s an old man dressed in a dark and tethered robe and on his left hand, he wields a large spear that resembles a Naginata. Surrounding him are UN soldiers, in their salute state. Many of them despite losing limbs, eyes, legs but still try their best standing up saluting their leader. This to me is quite a sickening sight...but quite amusing on a certain sadistic aspect. It kinda reminds me of the time when I had to dismember the intruders that infiltrated our mansion late at night.
“Welcome, stranger, you have acquired such a magnificent feat…Please sit down and share your knowledge with me.”(Stranger)
I walk over to him, laying down the duffle molle bags I had on each side and sit down on the bench in front of him.
Hyde from my perception what can you see?
“About 50 UN soldiers equipped with Kevlar body armour and AHD helmet. On the right side of the platform is Emily. Next to him the covered figure I suspect to be Yuki.”(Hyde)
Alright, let me hear this guy out, if things go sour, you take control alright?
“Ok, just be careful." (Hyde)
“Hello, my name is Mitsuha Akizuki, a pleasure to meet your acquaintance.”(Mitsuha)
“My title is Collin, I’m the one that commands the existence of these extraordinary undead warriors.”(Collin the undead magician)
“Collin-san, I’m going to cut to the chase. I had two companions that accompanied me prior to you capturing them for which I presume for you to either coerce them to betray or oppose me…Or you’re planning to use them as leverage to force me into helping you achieve something.”(Mitsuha)
I confidently say, keeping a fearless poker face against the decayed, and wrinkled undead magician.
“You have a good eye, my boy! I did plan to do that first hand but since you have managed to awaken the god that resides in these walls, which I assume was no accident am I right?”(Collin)
“You’re also quite the intuitive man Collin-san, what I did wasn’t a mere accident. I had the knowledge of how things work in this “temple” of yours. So unless you give me what I want, I won’t give you what you want.”(Mitsuha)
“You strike a hard bargain but I will comply, after all, I did promise to return your friends to you if you meet me face to face.”(Collin)
With a flick of a finger, the platform behind us rises up, lying on it is Emily covered with merely a piece of grey cloth laying sleeping on a stone altar.
Upon seeing that scene, I get flustered and turn at Collin, asking him a question.
“May…may I ask where are her clothes, Collin-san?”(Mitsuha)
“Oh her armour was too heavy and bulky so I had to ask my minions to take them off while bringing her here. Plus I was going to use her as a virgin sacrifice so I was going to prepare her to look suitable to the gods.”(Collin)
“Uh huh…”(Mitsuha)
With an irritated face, I raise an eyebrow while making my way up to the sleeping beauty. Upon reaching the altar, I try to wake her up with a few nudges to her shoulder and shaking her gently.
This is quite a provocative scene as her breast shakes and collides with each other when I gently shake her body, her luscious lips drooling down the altar.
“Come on touch her breasts…”(Hyde)
Hyde shows up and with a devilish look on his face, trying to persuade me to grope Emily.
What the fuck are you saying? There are a time and place for things like this…
“You say that but, what is your hand doing?”(Hyde)
What?
I look down, I see my left hand, slowly groping her left breast. This soft sensation, this smoothness…But suddenly…
“Uhwah? Mitsuha-san? Where am I? Where are my clothes?”(Emily)
She wakes up, cluelessly looking around until she suddenly realizes that she wasn’t wearing any clothing and I my left hand was groping her left breast. Her face turns red, she raises her hand, clenches her fist and with a strong punch she yells at me.
“WHAT ARE YOU DOING YOU LECHEROUS PERVERT?!”(Emily)
I put my arms up to counter her punch. Despite being able to stop her fist from hitting my face, the inertia still pushes me away quite far.
“I-I-I-I’M SORRY! I'M SORRY!!!!!!!!”(Mitsuha)
I kneel down on the ground in the seiza position and bow down to her feet to apologize to her as well as offering her some clothes.
“Well…Don’t do that again! Next time I will chop off your hand…”(Emily)
She receives the shirt, pants and the boots and tries to put them on. This time I turn away of course. After a while, she finishes wearing her new clothes and calls out to me to see if she is wearing them right. I then turn on around to judge her looks. Aside from the large and overgrown pair of pants, she looks quite nice.
“How…How do I look?”(Emily)
She shyly asks me. To which I reply.
“You…you look beautiful…”(Mitsuha)
I become mesmerized by her “no words could describe” beauty.
“Ahem, now that I kept one of my agreements, I hope you would keep yours.”(Collin)
Collin clears his throat, reminding me of our unfinished business. However, since he still hasn’t shown me Yuki, I disagree with him.
“Where is the other one? The Lich I mean…”(Mitsuha)
“Oh yes, she’s the after payment, you’ll get her after I get what I want.”(Collin)
With another flick of a thumb, the robe falls off the floating entity to reveal a bondaged skeleton in chains.
“Help….me…”(Yuki)
“WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!(Mitsuha)
I raise my voice at him, implying to him that how furious I am of what he is doing to Yuki.
“Hoh? It’s the deal of course, I said that I’ll release your friends if you give me what I want. And you better hurry, I’m running out of patience.”(Collin)
He flicks his finger once more. The chains light up, making Yuki yells out in pain.
“AHHHHHHHH!”(Yuki)
Her screams leave me and Emily breathless…
“You fiend! LET HER GO!”(Emily)
Emily yells out to Collin, readying her battle pose, preparing to strike him with her fist. However, I pull her away and slowly makes my way up to him.
“Alright alright, you win.”(Mitsuha)
I detach my PDA and gives it to him.
“No, what are you doing Mitsuha-san’(Emily)
“Saving my friend, Emily. You might not trust her but she helped me before both in saving you and saving my own skin. Plus I promised to help her with her curse, so I’ll keep my end of the promise.”
After handling the PDA to him, I explain how it works and show him the “Tissue repairing treatment”
“There is a rejuvenating machine under this platform, this is the key.”(Mitsuha)
“Excellent!”(Collin)
He flicks his fingers once more, this time the chains squeezes Yuki tighter than before.
“What are you doing?!”(Emily)
“I’m sorry little girl, but this wench has no more use for me. Plus she disobeyed my orders of bringing you two to me. This is a fitting end for a traitor like her.”(Collin)
“STOP!”(Mitsuha)
I jump at him with my knife and shovel, but alas I’m too weak and get flung at the edge of the platform. Emily runs to my side and helps me up over her shoulder.
“I….am…sorry…Mitsuha.”(Yuki)
Yuki in tears apologizes to me trying to endure the pain while the chain shines brighter and squeezing her more closely. In the end, her body blows up in a cloud of purple smoke. I fall to my knees, as her skull roles down to me. I feel breathless, gasping wide as the sight of my friend blows up into smoke.
“HAH! SO WEAK!”(Collin)
He then sends us off the platform. Down to the groups of undead soldiers preparing to attack us with their knives drawn.
Following her instincts, Emily grabs the baton on my belt and the knife on my hand and get in her defensive position, while I display the thousand-yard stare in disbelief of Yuki’s death.
“Mitsuha…Mitsuha! MITSUHA!”(Emily)
“Partner! GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER!”(Hyde)
Emily yells out at me as well as Hyde trying to get myself back together.
“he…Yuki…dead?”(Mitsuha)
Cold sweat runs down my neck as I stumble after Emily.
“Come on! We’ve got to run.”(Hyde)
“he…Yuki…dead…”(Mitsuha)
In a futile attempt to snap me back to reality, Emily lands a barrage of punches on my face.
“GET IT TOGETHER!”(Emily)
I stagger around for a moment and fall down face first after just getting back to my feet. Emily defends me as well as pulling us away from the staggering UN zombies.
“Partner! Snap out of it!”(Hyde)
Hyde taps the screen of my eyes with his chibi fingers, as well as kicking my face…But I feel nothing. I feel nothing…
Emily then kicks open a door and pull me inside, she hid me away from the zombies and close it shut. Despite not feeling anything and not being able to respond to nothing, I still see everything with any with my regular eyes, aside from the one that is being poked at and kicked it.