This story is based on games Sora and Suguri, and shares the same universe. There will be some overlap between this story and Sora. Please note, that this means there will be spoilers for both games.
Pain. She was surrounded by darkness, her entire body hurt.
Am I alive? Am I dead?
The young girl slowly opened her eyes and gasped at the world around her. Fire was everywhere, its heat radiating towards her. Buildings were levelled or in ruins around her.
What happened? Is anyone still alive, where is everyone?
These thoughts filled her head as she moved to lift herself up.
"aaaah" she screamed in pain, collapsing immediately. Looking down at herself she noticed a lot blood.
Is this mine? she wondered as she examined herself. Her right arm was broken, the bone connecting it to her shoulder protruding out her elbow, its ivory colour in clear sight.
"My humerus?" she muttered to herself.
Examining herself more she saw that her right arm was dislocated, her right knee had its Femur sticking out slightly, and her left leg was badly scraped and partly covered by some debris.
Mentally preparing herself she grabbed her right arm and attempted to pop it back into her shoulder.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"
She could barely make out a popping sound through her screams of pain. Deciding that she had to put her humerus back into place next, she attempted to push it down with her good arm. Feeling the jolt of pain through her entire body she bit down hard to keep herself from screaming more. Quickly tearing a loose strip of fabric off her skirt, she wrapped it around her arm, using her mouth to help tie it.
Who am I? What am I doing here?
She managed to sit up and survey the area around her. She was in a shallow crater, with broken glass littering the street she was in. She couldn't see anyone in sight, but there appeared to be remains of a large machine of some kind 20m away in what was probably a building at some point. She could see a broken bridge further away leading to more of the city, but there was just as much fire and destruction over there.
It occurred to her how strange the situation was. There wasn't anyone in sight, not even any cars. Surely with a disaster of this scale rescue would have come. Had the military or some other group finished rescuing they should have found her, there wasn't much rubble around her save for the stuff on her leg. The only thing she could imagine was that any rescuers had thought she was dead so didn't bother with her.
It was still strange she thought while removing the stuff on her left leg preventing its movement, she couldn't smell any bodies burning.
Why would I know what burning bodies smells like? And how did I know how to patch myself up?
She started crawling towards the side of the road where she spotted a metal rod of some kind.
If it's not too hot then I should be able to make a splint of some kind for my leg. After that I just need to find my way to safety. Papa should be able to take care of me-
Suddenly stopping, a flood of memories came back to her.
That's Right. My name is Maki Nishikino. How could I forget?
Repeating her name to herself she suddenly understood her current situation. There wouldn't be anyone nearby to rescue her. Grabbing what appeared to be a ruined pipe she tore more fabric off her clothes and set to work making a splint.
Even if I can't fly right now, if I can make my way far enough from the fire I should be able to rest safely for a bit. After than I can try to fly back to the bunker. Mama and Papa are doctors, they should be able fix my arm and leg better than I can now.
Standing up carefully, she looked around to see which way to go. She gasped as she saw what appeared to be another person, only 13 metres away from where she woke up. Making her way over, she could tell the person was another girl around her age, in a worse condition then she was herself.
Blood was coming out their head, their left leg twisted in an unnatural angle, with their right leg having their femur and tibia coming out their knee. Their right hand was coming off their arm, attached only by a few muscles, and their left arm was bent backwards. Their body was covered in burns, and they were laying in a small pool of blood in addition to a crater.
Carefully kneeling down, she put her hand on the girl's neck.
She's alive!
Much Earlier…
May 25
Pointing her beam rifle at the robot in front of her, Maki pulled the trigger, taking what could be considered its head off. Turning her head quickly she saw a beam coming straight at her. With no time to think she put her arms in front of her defensively and put up a barrier, narrowly escaping being hit.
Deciding that staying in one place too long is going to result in death, Maki quickly dashed to her right, avoiding some more beams coming her way. She twisted her body to avoid the path of a rocket, and dashed upward through some beams, changing her path yet again as she entered the beams to avoid more enemy bullets.
Heh, I really need to pay more attention, that last one almost got me.
Turning her head her eyes widened as a small sphere like thing had its yellow eye pointed right at her before blowing up in a shower of sparks and shrapnel.
"Pay more attention Maki, that one almost shot you!"
Turning to face the direction the voice came from she shouted back
"I didn't need your help Rin. I was just about to get it before you shot it"
"Sure, whatever. Lets just finish up quickly so we can get back and eat"
Turning back to the destruction in front of her, Maki dashed towards a large group of enemies. As soon as she was near them, she pointed her rifle at one and pulled the trigger, then quickly rotating her body to face another she shot it before dashing out of the way of a stream of bullets. Pulling her bazooka out Maki spotted a robot with what appeared to be a head, two arms, and a thick body with a thruster for its waist. Taking no extra time, she stopped and opened fired with the bazooka. Dashing upward she stopped just out of enemy fire to launch another rocket. Continuing this pattern, she quickly dealt with most of the nearby enemies.
Descending towards Rin, Maki saw that Rin had dealt with the remaining enemies.
"Hey, I think we're done here. I'll quickly circle around. You should check in with the engineers to see if they suffered any losses" Maki shouted
"I'll check, but I know we lost several of our own forces. I think it was mostly just the robots, not the machines with people inside" responded Rin before dashing off to where a group of engineers should be finishing fortifying their section.
"I'm soo hungry!"
"I know, working that hard would make anyone hungry" Maki responded while dumping some food on her tray. They were currently in the cafeteria after their mission. It was around 2pm, but it wasn't possible to tell by looking outside. The sky was permanently dark and sometimes reddened, with gray and blackened clouds filling it. It was like this for as long as Maki could remember.
The sky had apparently not always been like this, being filled with blue with a yellow sun, bringing warmth to everyone under it. Fields of green had covered the land, with trees filled with all sorts of colours everywhere. She had seen drawings of all this in books as a child, but Maki didn't know how long ago that had been. The war had been going on for longer than anyone could remember, she would be surprised if anyone even knew what started it. The only thing for certain was that it was one side versus the other, fighting for victory or defeat even if that had lost all meaning long ago. Destruction, indiscriminate killing, and loss of morals, had now become normal. Even if the war was won, there would be nothing left for anyone.
Sighing, Maki sat down at a table, with Rin joining her shortly. They began eating in silence, unsure how to start a conversation.
"H-Hello. You guys are back? I'm so thankful that you're safe"
Looking where the voice came from, Maki saw her friend Hanayo by their table holding her own tray of food.
"Kayochin! I missed you." Rin bounced in her seat upon seeing her best friend, getting up to hug her.
"uuegh, Rin I can't hug you back while holding my food"
Rin quickly apologised, sitting back down while Hanayo sat beside her.
"So… how was it"? Hanayo asked.
Maki took a second before responding, "they killed some of our engineers, and some of the civilians in the city. They were all unarmed. Why did they have to die? Our soldiers were supposed to be protecting the civilians, but they failed"
"Did anyone survive?"
"yes, only a couple of civilians died, but even one death is too many"
Maki sighed, "I don't even know if they killed the civilians by accident or not anymore. I really hope it was an accident, but it might have been on purpose just to exterminate us". Taking a deep breath, Maki continued "I don't want to fight anymore, I just want us all to live in peace. I only fight to protect the people I care about, I couldn't care less about the reason for the war. I don't want to have to keep using first aid on my friends, on the people around me, just because others want them dead."
Rin gave her a sorry look, unsure of how to respond.
"I want the war to end too. Maybe then the three of us can see the stars together." Hanyo said. "They're supposed to be bright lights in the sky, like the lights in the bunkers ceiling, but further away".
"That would be nice, seeing the sky, the stars…" Maki agreed.
With nothing else to say, they continued eating in silence for several minutes.
"Hey, Maki. Do you remember becoming an altered human with me?" Rin asked.
"Yeah, my father operated on me hoping to protect me. That was three or four years ago now? I don't think he's really forgiven himself about it. It was probably going to happen eventually, so I'm glad that he was the one who did it. He gave me the power to protect those I love, and did it for good reasons, trying to avoid causing me any pain. That's more than I can say about others outside 'Nishikino Bunker'".
Rin laughed at Maki mentioning the unofficial name for their bunker city. The real name was Bunker City 37A, but everyone inside just called it Nishikino Bunker after the two doctors who also served as scientists and the mayors of the city.
Finishing lunch, Maki went off to her room hoping to get some sleep. Rin followed her as her room was next to it. Getting up, Hanayo started cleaning off their table. Once done, she decided to take a walk around their bunker.
"I think we should just fortify the place and desert"
Huh, what's that? Hanayo thought, moving towards the door the voice came from to eavesdrop.
"Too many innocent kids have died already, too many innocent people. There's no point in continuing this, our own efforts in this war have been just to protect ourselves."
That's Maki's father! she thought as her eyes widened, what is he talking about?
"You know the main army would never allow that. They want every person capable of contributing to help. If we tried deserting they would just make an example out of us"
"And when was the last time any of them were out here? They haven't even contacted us in a week!"
"They're probably just busy right now. Probably preparing something" a third person spoke up.
"We can just hide our presence, or wait until it's too costly for them to do anything. It's not like we're that important to them. The only person they would want from here would be me, and I'm willing to give myself up to them and face the worst if it means protecting Maki and my wife from anymore harm"
"If we do that we could possibly wait the war out, rebuild the nearby city after. In the meantime, we would have to invite the people still in the city inside."
"I think the reason they haven't contacted us or been here recently is because the war is almost over. Both sides are probably at their limits after all this time" yet another person said, "They don't know exactly where our bunker is, only how to contact us. So, the idea of hiding has some merit to it"
The conversation was abruptly cut off by the sound of an alarm going off.
"Darnit!"
"Is that the alarm for the city?"
Hanayo was quickly shoved to the side as a soldier ran past her.
"More enemies have been spotted closing in on the populated part of the city! We need to remobilise all our forces"
"Huh? How could enemies have made it this close already? What were our scouts doing?"
"I don't know, but why are they coming towards the city instead of the military outpost?"
"We lost too many people and supplies on the last mission to fortify the area. Do we even still have enough people to fight them off or do we leave the city for dead and hole up here?"
Hanayo ran off quickly, hoping to go anywhere that was slightly safer.
Notes:
This is my second story now, hopefully you can all enjoy it. More chapters will come later, I make no guarantees on how long it will take, although I think chapter 2 will take less than a month. Please review and tell me what you like, what you didn't like. And sorry for ending the chapter like that, I wasn't quite sure how to end it nicely.
The name for the story isn't quite final, it may change, it may not, sorry in advance. I'm really bad at coming up with names.
I'm still not quite sure how I want the story to go. As anyone who played Sora knows, the altered humans you fight ended getting killed. So I'm debating on whether or not to follow the same route as Sora, or the route Suguri took with them living. Let me know in the reviews your preference.
Also, I'd like to thank MakiYazawa and JaDe In Night for reviewing my first story.
I plan on making this a nicomaki story somehow, so hopefully it works out. Hopefully I worded that good.