THE LIVES OF ONE

Written by: Vampy
Rate: R
Genre: Drama.
Second genre: Action/Adventure.
Language: English (With little Dutch flaws in it. But yoel hardely nootis dat...)
Summary: Yu goes to the debriefing after having brought the bad news to the fiancé of one of his friends. Jean's being an ass. And on top of all he has to mentally deal with the last catastrophe.
Disclaimer: Striker and it's characters belong to Hiroshi Takashige (text), Ryoji Minagawa (Drawings) & Shogakukan. Inc.

Enjoy the story!!
And ignore the spelling!!!

Chapter 1: Arrival

AC
The two letters were glittering brightly in the sun, creating a strong contrast with the white, mat building itself. It probably had this effect since the skies were quickly darkening and the Arcam building just happened to catch a last glimpse of sunlight.
It brought a smile on Yu's face to see that building stand out amongst the others and light up the place.
He, for one, had spend more of his 20 years in this building or working for it, then he had spend at his home...
A raindrop fell from the sky on his jacket and Yu welcomed it, though it couldn't really refresh him. The rain would have to poor down from the skies before all the sweat and dried up blood would even begin to wash away.
It was hard to believe that only hours ago he had been in Turkey on the mountain Alalato, where the Ark of Noah had been buried. And that with an accent on HAD BEEN, because the Ark was "no more". Although it had only been discovered for a week or so, it had already been destroyed.
But Yu felt that it was for the best.

Yes... It was a historical moment for mankind.
No... Mankind wasn't ready to deal with a power such as the ark.

Yu shuddered when his thoughts wondered back to a few days ago.
The battles they had fought for a piece of wood. The Ark had seemed so harmless at first... But the walls were covered with blood before it was even truly made open. Hell, every god dammed scientist employed by Arcam company had been working on getting inside the ark, and now... Now they just felt relieved that everything was finally over and done with.
Had humankind ever come so close to it's total extinctment?
Yu didn't think so. A plague of Razers wouldn't be able to compare to the threat that the arch had formed.
Humankind had just escaped from the hands of death, and nobody didn't even realize it.

The rain was finally pouring down from the sky, in buckets. Yu and his companions had just reached the Arcam building and were still reasonable dry. Having reached there final destination, Yu turned around to wish the two men a well trip home... And laughed when one of them made a joke about their impeccable timing... They shook hands and Yu watched them running trough the rain back to the old jeep that had picked him up from the airport.
Kamajame had made sure Yu arrived home safely even though Yu could take care of himself. A small voice in the back of his mind reminded him of how grateful he had been at the time, but that didn't take away the fact that Yu could take care of himself.
Now, Yu just stood there for a moment. Enjoying the fresh breeze that the rain had brought before he entered the building.

Arcam wasn't a company that many people knew about... And that was the way it was supposed to be because Arcam needed to keep a low profile... Out here, the AC building was just another one of the many but not so successful companies that tried to make a living.
But others... Like Yu, knew better then that.
Yu was a part of the Arcam Company, an employee, he was a Spriggan, and thus part of a group that helped Arcam fulfill it's primary mission:
To seal off and protect the artifacts of the ancient civilization which contain dangerous hidden powers from military use by numerous nations.
Well, that was what they would tell newcomers. In fact they just saved the world against itself... So to speak.
The world was a big place and it was easy to get lost in. Just like in this building, Yu thought with a smile.
The white walls were speckles as ever. Reminding Yu of all the hospitals he had ever been in. The only difference was that the grey blocks of marble that represented the floor made every step sounds like a thunder crack, something you came rarely across if ever in a hospital.
Okay, so the fact that the place was deserted at the moment made his footsteps sound louder then it really was...
Only people returning from mission, or heading to them were coming in and out. And of course the personnel that took care of financials, information, training rookies and all those kind of things were here too, where they belonged depending on day-shift or night-shift. Everybody was where they belonged. In contrary to himself.
Yu had been dragged here by the two military men, confronted and dragged along for it's own sake.
Now.. Normally Yu wouldn't have minded. But this time he had...
Things were still too fresh in his mind, so he'd rather spent a little time gathering his thoughts before he went to school again, then listening to people telling their version of the catastrophe that wasn't even slightly as important as his POV.
Yu had arrived the back of the reception lobby and was now waiting for the elevator.
A janitor was peacefully whistling a song while cleaning the floor.
It was really amazing how peacefully this place seemed when you never reached more then "ground floor". But that changed the minute the elevator doors opened.
Smoke was the first thing that came out, then followed a few businessmen all in black, most of them with their sleeves rolled up all the way to their shoulders. Guess there was something wrong with the air conditioning... or there had been a little more then few big meetings, who ended up in nothing.
Yu entered the elevator, and pushed his floornumber. The small place was still cramped with people, and all of them had come from the basement, one of the 7 lower floors this place had...
The refreshment of earlier raindrops and weak storm wind was long gone in this sauna and after a few elevator stops, Yu wanted nothing more then just take the stairs and go to the stupid meeting Yamamoto had arranged.

Hadn't Yamamoto trusted him?
Yamamoto was the head of Arcam in Japan. His guiding skills had conquered many men and every single one of them would follow Yamamoto into the heat of the battle if only he'd think that it would be the right thing to do.
Sort of like with Yu himself. Even though he would never EVER try to convince men (military of not) to go trough a hell with him, he knew that they would be more then willing to do so. His reputation gave him that privilege. It was actually quite unbelievable, they would do almost everything just to go with Yu on a mission. Yu Ominea, Striker. A hero. A looser. The one who can do everything, if he'd just put his mind to it. A loner. Yu. A disgrace.
The elevator ride was supposed to be quiet and quick, but Yu's mind of turmoil made him give up and get out to walk the rest of the way.
And maybe he could get his mind sorted out before he'd have to face his boss, or worse... any of his friends...

To be continued.
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