"I…I can't believe it, I really can't…"
The rest of the journey is spent in Khan explaining a few things to the woman he helped, Somura-san. Khan drives his cargo truck slowly through the abandoned streets of Saitama seeing that they have just exited Tokyo minutes ago. The scenery does not change much, the only difference is there are more cars crowding the roads, but it's nothing for the truck. The sun's still up high in the sky, the tint of orange with a mixture of purple tells the time of the day. The clouds loom over the city, marking the coming of a bad omen. Khan just hopes that whatever it is he's feeling churning in him is wrong.
"Believe what you want to ma'am, but it's exactly how I said it to you." Khan told Somura-san a little bit about who he is, but he has yet to touch the topic about Nagato. "It's only thanks to pure luck that we managed to stumble upon you."
The mother sighs, finding it hard believe that her encounter with Khan and Nagato is just from pure luck. "But still…thank you, I don't know whatever it is you are planning to do after this but thank you…"
From his seat, Khan smiles. "You're welcome ma'am, just don't get your hopes up. I cannot do anything other than taking you with me all the way to Hokkaido if this checkpoint in Kawaguchi's abandoned or worse, captured."
From the sidelines, Nagato lets the two speak; she too is interested in the conversation but clueless on what to speak about.
"Captured?" Somura-san parrots Khan's particular word. "What do you mean?"
"Well, captured as in taken by force, what else?" Khan shrugs. "I can't really say that it will be abandoned or even run over by bandits when we get there but there's a high chance of it getting run over by those bandits just like the ones me and Nagato took out earlier."
Without having to look, Khan can guess the shocked expression that Somura-san is making. Not being a douche or anything, but he is kind of expecting her making that kind of face. "W-What makes you so sure?"
From the woman's question, Khan allows himself to think. After a few seconds of thinking, he finally shows her his thoughts. "As I've said, that checkpoint might be run over by the bandits like the ones we saw earlier. The military might be protecting that checkpoint, but think about the supplies that these baddies might find there. Food, water, shelter and of course, people." Khan explains with a gruff voice. "I think I don't really have to translate what people means, do I?" taking the silence as a yes, Khan continues. "Regardless of what's there, I'll still take you there."
Hearing that, Somura-san begins tearing up. Unable to hold back her tears, she whimpers out thanks. "Thank you very much…thank you…"
As Nagato watches the two humans interact, the thought of emotions, feelings, anger, sadness and pain fills her chest. Even as a Ship Girl, Nagato is fully aware that she is capable of showing emotions just like the ones she's seeing. She can feel anger, sadness and pain…but what she fails to understand is that, why would Khan do something so far as to get a woman he just met to safety? Is it because of the baby the woman is carrying? Or is it because of empathy? Or, duty.
Duty…just what is it anyway? Her duty as a Ship Girl of Japan is to fight off Abyssal attacks at sea and reclaim the Japanese sea once and for all, not to fight on land with human based firearms and taking orders from a hired private military company. No. But what is this…drive in her that makes her still going? Is it the same thing that Khan has with him, the…need to accomplish, the need to complete a necessary action even knowing the bitter consequence? She knows that Khan will be punished for activating her as soon as they reached Sapporo, but he doesn't look scared in the slightest.
So, what is it? Is it the sense of duty that makes him fearless? Is it sympathy for the world around him? Or is it something, something far bigger? Something like…
Responsibility?
"Okay, we're gonna cross the highway and reach Kawaguchi in about…ten minutes." Khan announces while paying attention to the road ahead. "Nagato, ready your gear, we'll need to be prepared at all cost. Somura-san, as soon as we confirm that the checkpoint location is in Kawaguchikyogo General Hospital, I need you to stay close to me and Nagato; that is if there's no one running the base. But if there is someone or some people running the base, we'll identify first and then we'll enter." He receives a reply of acknowledgement from the mother.
In about ten minutes plus later, they've reached Kawaguchi station, which connects Tokyo and the rest of the cities in Saitama through the Keihin Tohoku line. From the station itself, it will take about eight minutes to the general hospital; a short amount of time. The big streets are overcrowded with abandoned cars and other fallen debris that was caused by the Abyssal drone swarm that managed to sweep through the area and it results in Khan having to go through the much smaller roads, ones that are not suited for trucks like this. Through shortcuts and other narrow routes, Khan manages to reach the central part of the block; an intersection before him signifies that this is the road indeed to the hospital.
Khan drives straight ahead in a faster speed, but he's careful not to go too fast with the baby's concern being top priority. The hospital is soon in view, its rectangular structure of roof and mirrors being easy to spot even from a distance. Several miles away from the hospital, Khan could see military road blocks set in an orderly fashion. So Somura-san and he was right, there is indeed a checkpoint in Kawaguchi and it's apparently located in the hospital. But he does not know is whether or not this checkpoint is still active. Driving towards the edge of the road, Khan stops his truck; killing the engine. Grabbing his AAC he hops off the car while he can hear the sound of Nagato opening the back shutter.
"Nagato, stay close to Somura-san and Somura-san I advise you to do the same." Raising his sling attached Honey Badger to an eye's level, he aims down the scope making sure if the battery for the scope is on. Seeing that it is, Khan begins to move followed by Nagato and a slightly anxious Somura-san. "Street's clear, Nagato make sure you check those alleyways, I don't want us getting caught by surprise by anything."
"Roger." Switching her view to the sides, Nagato do as what Khan instructed her to do. She makes sure that the alleyways that accompany the street are clear of any movement, regardless if it's hostile or even a stray animal. She understands the importance of being stealthy and silent. If the checkpoint base is indeed captured just as Khan predicts, then any noise from them will alert hostile of their presence, which will make things a lot harder than it supposed too. Her silenced G36A2, formerly belonging to Khan, sweeps the dark alleyways smoothly due to its user efficiency with firearms.
Even if Nagato just touched a human firearm literally hours ago, she manages to create a code that will help her stabilize her aim and other necessary action that might improve her shooting. Somura-san walks briskly beside her, carrying her baby son while following the hurried yet subtle movements of two combat trained—or developed in Nagato's case—is not an easy job. Especially, after the amount of fatigue that she had just gone through.
"Nagato, signatures ahead; hold position." Khan switches over from his gun's scope to his magnified built in lenses on his eyes. Approximately ten meters ahead, three men dressed in the same messy and random get up attire as the guys that he and Nagato killed earlier are visibly clear as day to his eyes. They are equipped with slightly better guns than the ones before, they either have a couple of modified AKs, M16s and military caliber sidearms. There must be an armory or a place where the military will need to store their guns in the hospital inside or somewhere within the premises. Khan quickly makes that his secondary objective, his first is to find out if there's anyone in this checkpoint who is not a bandit or someone armed.
"There's too many of them to kill in the open, I'll distract them so that they'll separate and you make sure to pop them before they return." He lets his gun drop back, the sling preventing it from dropping to the ground. He pulls out Ron from it sheath, ready to go up close and personal. "If this fails, cover me at least until I get to cover."
Khan sneakily walks towards the side, taking in the right flank of the street. When close enough, he picks up a nearby can and throws it somewhere within the hearing vicinity of the three guards guarding the entrance of the checkpoint. Crossing his finger, he hopes that the three bandits will buy it.
"Hm? Wha'zzat?" one asks the other two, slight alarmed.
"Dunno…pro'ly just some rats or something…"
"It could be one of them prisoners trying to escape…I'll check on it while you two dumbfucks can get your ass as drunk as ya' can." The bandit with the rough Kobe dialect reluctantly moves from his original spot, walking over towards where he assumes he heard the noise come from.
From behind cover, Khan signals Nagato. He raises one finger, two fingers and finally three.
BDEEP BDEEP
The muffled noise of bullets soaring into the air is quickly accompanied by the sound of two bodies hitting the ground simultaneously. The sound of the bodies dropping must have alarmed the third bandit who was distracted by the lure that Khan made a little while ago, when he returns, he finds the bodies of his friends lifeless and bleeding on the ground.
"What the—gruglchk…!" but he does not live long enough to take in the death of his friends, because he follows them not long later. The bandit is silenced with the sharp end of a khukri sticking out form his throat, before dropping to the ground his hands make a few futile attempts to reach for the khurki embed deep through his throat, but the pain and massive loss of blood gets to him, sending him to his knees before eventually to his friends down there.
Khan pulls Ron from the bandit's throat, the sound of pulling is accompanied with the sick and brain wincing sound of steel being pulled out from flesh forcibly. Khan gets rid the blood and grime from Ron by wiping it to the thug's clothing, which is still clean at that second before eventually placing Ron back to its place. He resumes his scouting, this time making sure that Nagato and Somura-san is following behind. He enters the checkpoint base area, where he is soon joined by Nagato. With his Honey Badger prepared, he, Nagato and Somura-san sticks themselves behind one of the many military tents pitched up in the area.
The scene in front of them is busy with hostile movements. There are six or more bandits inside the hospital's front yard, where the entrance is at and the rest of the tents are pitched. There are no options to use an alternate route, they must cross through the courtyard and into the building. The mercenary raises his fist, which means hold in military language. Nagato understands the order and Somura-san can guess what it means.
Taking a knee, Khan switches his Honey Badger for the anti-material Sniper Rifle on his back, his newly acquired Black Arrow; a Russian made Sniper Rifle. It's unsuppressed but he's not going to use it for shooting, at least not until one of these bandits find the three dead bodies of their friends out there. He aligns his eyes to the rifle's scope, getting an up close visual on hostile position. He sees hostile movements going all around the courtyard, killing them all will be no biggie, but he's worried that it might alert the entire bandit populace outside and inside of the hospital building.
Moving his eyes away from the scopes, he reaches inside his pack, bringing out a familiar looking sphere shaped object. Khan presses the seemingly nonexistent button on top of the metallic sphere, instantly, the sphere glows a familiar blue green color. It then hovers around the air, before flying up to the sky. Khan taps his terminal a few times, and Spy Drone vision kicks in. He's able to connect vision between his and his drone; but it's harder to concentrate due to him having to deal with seeing from two pairs of different eyes.
"Stick close to me, drone will provide over-watch on air. Nagato, be ready at all cost and Somura-san, don't stray far." The group of three moves through the side of the courtyard with the tents and other industrial items being their cover. Drone's doing a good job on keeping an eye in the sky to watch over them, or himself since Khan is literally seeing through the drone's eyes. The man suddenly comes to a stop, alarming the two women behind him.
"Stop, don't move. Three hostiles coming in from the left, let them pass and stay still." He stressed the words don't and move in a whisper. Khan finds cover behind a tent; Nagato and Somura-san are next to him with Nagato being twitchy in the fingers. Land based maneuvers are much harder than what she thought it might be, especially with the conditions of stealth applied. Any wrong moves here will result in an alarm, thus making things harder. Way harder.
While they are behind cover, the three can hear what the three passing guards are saying real clear.
"Waka, have you checked on the hostages?"
"Yeah, yeah. They're all locked safe and sound…no need to worry about it."
"Hey, did you saw a girl with the huge tits from the group that we round up? God she's gorgeous, I was thinkin' maybe she and I could go get better acquainted."
"Bah! Like anyone'll like to get acquainted with your skinny ass…"
The three who have been listening to the conversation holds their own respective thoughts. It is obvious how the direction of the conversation is going. Khan bit his lower lip hard, even drawing a little bit of blood.
"Nagato, kill them."
Incredulous with his orders, Nagato spares him a look of surprise. "Wha-"
"Kill them."
Nagato does not have time to think. The sheer emotion and icy cold tone that Khan lets out makes Nagato react by aiming and shooting the three bandits dead in the head. Their fall was not worth looking at, at least for Khan. Crouching, Khan drags the three body over to the side; hiding them from plain sight. He then rejoins Nagato and Somura-san, not saying anything else.
Speechless and surprised from what has happened; Nagato can only follow in the same silence as Khan.
The three carefully maneuver their way through the bandit infested courtyard. It turns out that there are more armed bandits inside the building, right where the lobby of the hospital is. Nagato carefully watch where she is going, following someone in a situation like this is not exactly an easy thing to do. Entering the lobby, quite a huge place if she thinks, there are at least four armed individuals standing near the reception table; all four of them either chatting or minding themselves as they sneak.
Khan sticks himself up behind a wall, just enough to cover the bandit's view of him, Nagato and Somura-san. Nagato notices that two more hostiles are advancing to the middle of the lobby, where the four bandits are right now. This fact is also known to Khan, who timed his action. "Somura-san, stay here and don't move. Nagato, be ready to shoot."
He's not planning on letting the two walking bandits join their friends over by the receptionist, so he acts by taking out those two first. The sound of their body hitting the floor just alerted the four thugs in front; who reacts by carelessly holding their guns. But that is all as far as they could react; Khan easily switches over to them with his AAC pointed to shoot. Nagato also fires, taking down two at the same time as Khan who takes down the remaining two. Going out from cover, Khan makes sure that there is no one else in the lobby.
"Clear, let's move. Up the stairs, quick."
As they walk the stairs upwards, silence accompanies them. Then out of nowhere, Khan speaks.
"Sorry for actin' like that before. I just…snap when people talk about things like that." Khan's quiet voice breaks through the silence barrier. "I don't know what came over me but please, forget it." He says. "Anyway, Somura-san, how are you doing? Everything's fine?"
"I…I'm fine." The woman breathes out wheezing. "Just a little bit out of breath, but nothing too serious. Where are we heading exactly?" the mother to the baby asks while tightening the cradle of her baby on her back.
Khan checks his drone's vision, trying to get a reading on what is waiting for them upstairs. He sets his drone to smart mode, allowing for it to connect to his neural implants which will relay any desire, thoughts, or needs to the drone. He wants to find hostages, so the drone does it job by finding them. If the bandits out in the courtyard are to pay attention to the sky, they may be able to see the sphere shaped drone floating in the air overlooking the one of fourth floor's windows.
"I'm getting a lot of hostile presence from upstairs, on the fourth floor. Chances are that's where they keep all their hostages, the operating room's on that floor too." Khan says. "As soon as I confirm that that's where the hostages are kept, I want you to find a place to hide while me and Nagato clears the floor. Don't try to come out, it'll be the most foolish thing to do in this kind of situation."
At her understanding, Khan focuses his vision from his drone's point of view. Drone is currently hovering around the building, looking for open windows to get access to the fourth floor. It manages to find access from a broken window on the east side of the building. It heads inside the building, scanning the room with such quietness. The drone transfers live feed back to Khan who is glad to know that the hallway that connects the stairs from the third floor is clear. The drone then flies over to the waiting room and on the way; it picks up several sounds and voices.
Seemingly at a sudden timing, to Nagato's and Somura-san's surprise, Khan growls like a tiger whose prey had just escaped. It's an animalistic growl that both know that no human could ever make. Curious, Nagato speaks in a small tone. "What's wrong?"
"Hostages…they're roundin' them on the fourth floor's waiting area. Come on, screw stealth, we'll deal with every single bastard we see." Khan declares aggressively. "Somura-san, remember what I said before. Hide and don't move. We will get to you until everything's clear."
The three reaches the fourth floor and the sounds of crying and screaming are getting louder and louder. Nagato can hear it too and so does Khan. He has his drone positioned on the air just outside of the waiting area's wall, but in the opposite hallway to the one he and his company is currently in. Khan helps Somura-san on hiding herself behind a fallen vending machine while Nagato preps her gun for instructions from Khan. The mercenary leans on the door, using thermal to see through the thin walls. Heat vision gives him a red, orange, green, purple and blue view of what's currently happening inside.
There are people tied and forced to the floor, most of them being women and children. The men are in the farthest corner of the room with two armed guards looking over them. Currently in the middle of the waiting area, a bandit accompanied with one of his friends is holding a young girl by her hair, definitely clear on his intention. Three of the women are brought along to join the young girl in the middle, all of them afraid and in tears of what might happen to them. The thugs who are watching are laughing as if they're watching manzai in a Saturday night.
Khan slings away his AAC, switching to the double barreled shotgun on his back. Nagato closes up on the door, preparing for a breach. "There are ten guys in there, we'll only kill nine, leave one alive; preferably the asshole in the middle." Khan refers with an annoyed tone. "I'll take on the guys nearest to us, you deal with the bastards further away. Drone will create a distraction by blasting open the wall on the opposite side of the room. Ready?"
Cocking back the handle to her rifle, Nagato nods with a stoic face. "Ready."
"Hajime."
With super human strength, Khan kicks open the door and at the same time, the wall on the other end of the room exploded.
It all happened so fast, but in reality, it was much slower. Way slower.
Time is slowed, Khan could see every single droplet of blood from every bandits' face as the shrapnel from his shotgun cartridge blows their head to scrambles, he can see the surprised and shocked expression of every single bandits he shoot before they end up with their heads turning into paste and grey matter. In Nagato's case, it is a new experience. She knows that she needs to be quick, but her fingers quicker. She fires on semi-automatic, simply because it allows her to handle the gun more easily. Regardless of that, she is capable of putting a bullet in each and every single bandit heads that are on the other end of the room. The explosion from the wall results in killing some of the bandits, but it was not enough to kill everyone on that part of the room.
Khan switches to his sidearm, shooting the bandit in the middle right in his kneecap.
"AAAGH!" the skinny man drops to his back in pain and shock due to being shot in the leg. He lets out more scream as Khan puts two more bullets in his thigh. "GAAAH!"
The hostages are panicking, women are still crying and men are screaming for everything to stop.
"Calm down! We're here to let you out!" From the middle of the room, Khan shouts for all the captured civilians to hear. He re-holsters his double barreled shotgun, sticking only to his bare hands. The people are screaming, all of them panicking. Frustrated and annoyed, he casts Nagato a look. "Nagato, bring the hostages out to the hallway, women and children first!" He then returns his attention to the squirming pile of miserable trash before him. "I'll need to ask this thing a few questions…"
Quickly, Nagato rounds up women and children and finally men out to the hallway. Khan remains in the room, arms stretched and bones popped. The squirming man before him is bleeding quickly, but not enough to make him pass out. Desperately, the man raises his shaky hands. "P-P-Please! Sto-Stop! Don't kill me!" the man's whimpering is akin to a dog begging for food from a table, pathetic.
"Now why would I do that?" Khan asks with a calm and completely relaxed tone. "Rather than killing you…" He whispers silently and dreadingly, cracking his knuckles after doing so. "I'll murder you."
"No! Wait! STOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP!"
The hospital had never been bloodier.
Three hours later, all bandit presence from the hospital area is all eliminated. Eliminated as in killed.
The lobby, courtyard, hallways are all littered with dead bodies of bandit invaders; all of them lifeless and punished by death. The area with the most body count has to be the courtyard. When Khan and Nagato gathered the hostages, they ordered them to stay at a safe place while they both clear the area of bandit presence. Since the stunt that Khan pulled earlier caused the bandits outside to be alarmed, they were expecting him and Nagato with all they've got.
Khan wasted a lot of bullets on those bandits; but all of them did not come to waste as most of his shots hit. Nagato had done a good job on eliminating hostile enemies even if she's new to human firearms. It took long due to the fact that Khan had to make sure that none of the hostages are scattering anywhere especially near the shootout. There was a woman, so panicked and uncontrollable, she nearly entered point blank. But thankfully, he was there to make sure that she did not join the death toll.
Now that the shooting is over, all that's left is to deal with the aftermath.
"Thank you very much, thank you very much." The security guard, who was also captured by the bandits, thanked Khan as if he is some sort of hero. "They were starting to execute the people and we don't know what to do! But you came! Thank you so much!" the man is actually tearing up, the sheer amount of relief and joy to be freed from those horrible bandits must have reassured him greatly.
Flashing a small smile, Khan shakes his head. "It's fine." He looks over to the side, where he's seeing Nagato being surrounded by kids and women and even men alike. His smile grows wider. "In fact, I should thank you really. You are the one in charge of this checkpoint base after the military got killed by the bandits right? It's no easy thing being responsible over this many people, thank yourself first, not me. You just guarantee a mother and her baby son a safe place to stay at." From the corner of his view, he can see Somura-san joining a group of women who are definitely mothers themselves.
"But listen, this is not the end of those bandits." Khan's statement kills all lights that were present in the man's eyes. The mercenary places a hand on the man's shoulder. "I'll teach you how to keep this place safe and make sure that no bandits could ever go and attack by surprise again." Looking around, Khan gestures to the male populaces who are either grieved at the lost of a loved one or fear stricken by what they have experienced. "These people, they're capable enough. With the right head and knowledge, they'll become useful. I want you to gather every men—no, everyone, who are willing to take up arms and risk their lives for others."
With the light of hope shimmering in the security guard's eyes, he leaves the place to do as he was instructed to. Minutes later, a group of fifty or more audience surrounds Khan and the security guard. Khan looks at every the audience which has gathered in the eye, all of them bearing different emotion but one thing is clear; change. They want to change. Khan may not know who these people are personally, but it takes another man to know another man's deed in life.
"Alright listen up!" Khan speaks in a loud and audible voice so that the people could hear him. "You are saved today, but there's no telling whether or not you'll still be tomorrow. You've lost people precious, your kids, wife, husband, friends…" it takes steel to sharpen steel, but it takes the harsh truth of reality to wake a person up. "DEAL WITH IT!" he shouts with a powerful tone, shocking most of the audience. "They are dead, it won't change; you can't change that! The least you could do is to live for them. Any of you who are thinking of the kicking the bucket after all of this are sad, pitiful, fools…you just wasted the one chance that was given to you to live for those who you've lost in here."
"You are hurt, you are grieving, but remember; you are not alone. Look around you! You're seeing people with the same condition you're in right now and you dare show that you're hurt the most? Bullshit!" he lets silence looms over the place, setting the words deep into the people's brain. "If you want to live, grab a gun and come forward and join me. If you want to wallow in self pity, go back to where you were before and cry!"
It's like the speech made in schools delivered by the principal. Everyone is silent. They listen. They reflect. They realize. But when they get the message, they react. They clap. They cheer. But they do not cheer in this case. One by one, men and women, even young boys and girls, start to pick up whatever weapons they could find on the ground. They all walk forward, changed, transformed and renewed. Khan's gaze has never been sharper, and his smile has never been wider.
"Good. Now, I want to know those who have experience in using any types of firearm. Anyone?" Khan is surprised to see a decent number of people raising their hands. "Great. Please form a group to my left. Now, I want those who have experience in treating wounds, or if there are people who were originally staffs to the hospital?" again, more hands are raised. "Please gather to my right." Khan looks over the leftover group in the middle. "Then that means that all of you here lack the experience on both fields?"
One man steps forward, his age showing. "We can learn."
If he is in the man's position, Khan couldn't have said it any better. "I want the people here to gather any guns and ammunition that the bandits had before, anything, also check out for places where the military might be storing their guns before they all died, we didn't have time to look out for it ourselves since getting to all of you was primary objective. Once that's done, I want you to give them to the people who are experienced with them." He switches to the group who are experienced with firearms. "You guys are going to make sure that the people here are safe from threats, anything from a stray dog up to another bandit invasion. But when you see anything that is not human, hide yourselves. I believe that you are all aware of the Abyssal threats?" all of them nod. "Then once you see even one unit of their drones flying around, hide and don't try to attack back. Just hide. Now, to those who are experienced in the medical field, start to pay attention to those who are hurt. Staffs from the hospital, do what you have been doing all this time and help your patients, they will need it." After making sure that everyone knows what to do, Khan dismisses them. "You all know what to do? Good. Then, dismiss."
As the people scramble and about, Khan pats the security guard on the shoulder. "This is as much as I can help you. They have their jobs now, you've got yours and I've got mine. But mine requires me to leave. Please, keep these people safe."
"I will!"
With a final smile, Khan walks over to Nagato.
"Hey."
Nagato, surprised to hear him, lowers the child who she has been carrying all this time. Nagato notices the smirk that Khan is giving her, prompting her embarrassment to grow from low to high. The mercenary raises his hands, in a mock giving up gesture. "You don't have to stop really, just continue."
Letting the child down, much to the boy's discontent, Nagato sputters words.
Khan laughs. "Ha ha ha! Don't worry, I'm just teasing." He sighs. "We don't have time to spare, so you best get ready to leave." He eyes the Ship Girl and to the boy.
"Aww…are you leaving already Nagato-neechan?" the boy asks sadly.
"I-I-I…" Nagato is switching between trying to answer the boy's question and trying not to react to the obviously huge smirk that Khan is purposely showing her. Fortunately for her, or Khan for that matter, she settles with the boy. "I must. But it's safe now. You can go and play with your friends safely again."
"Uhm!" the boy nods happily before rushing off to play with some other kids.
"Nice isn't it?" Khan asks.
Nagato, for once, cannot stop smiling. "No…it's wonderful." She feels a hand land on her shoulder, she looks backwards to see Khan smiling at her.
"Let's go, make sure to say your goodbyes." He then leaves first, going back to the truck.
Nagato watches as Khan leaves, her only focus being his leaving form. Just who is he? This man named Khan…he says that he's just a hired mercenary, but no hired mercenary will do things beyond their paycheck. And rescuing people from bandits is definitely off the pay. Just who is Khan? This unique enigma with such a different insight on the world?
If there is one thing about him that he knows so well…is that he is a liar.
That speech he gave back there at the checkpoint base, it was all lies. A façade just to get the people working.
It may seem cruel to lie to them like that—because with what they've got, Khan knows that they won't survive long.
But lying was necessary.
A lie is like clay. It is up to the liar on how to make the lie, use the lie, and even deliver the lie. In his case, that lie was necessary. That lie was necessary to keep more people form dying. That lie is necessary now. There is one thing in the world that keeps the world going smoothly and that is, liars. A lie can be used to hurt, protect, or ensure others. The one that he gave a while ago is the latter, but he does not know whether they'll end up cooperating as group or fighting over position on who gets to be who.
He's a liar, but most of all, he's a mercenary. He's a soldier, but not belonging or sworn to a nation.
Who says that a soldier doesn't lie? They lie every time. When they asked you if you are willing to die and serve for your country,
They lie, because—let's be honest—it all comes down to every single one of them in the end.
But Omega incorporated…no, they accept liars like him.
Khan was only sixteen when he was introduced to Omega incorporated. Back then, he was just like any other kid living in a harsh environment. He was a brash, rash, naïve, foolish and blind to how the world really works. But Omega came crushing in like a catalyst, it made him realize of the world he's living in.
Now life in Omega isn't easy, it's anything but easy. But it changed him and that's what matters. In Omega, he was trained to be the best, to think that he is the best but at the same time, to not be overconfident of his skills. He was beat up from his cocoon to this efficient piece of war. He is a soldier, but he is not tied to a country.
Throughout the years of living in Omega, he discovers things like weapons made for killing millions of people with just a single push of a button, military groups who are actually corrupted to the core, people labeled terrorists but actually angels with black wings and other sort of hidden truth that what most biased people would refer them as to…that's the kind of reality that he failed to realize. He thought that he knew them, he thought that he knew them all.
But no. In fact, he knew jack shit.
Which is why Omega taught its people this motto:
'When you can't think of what to do, then know what to do. If you don't know what to do, then do what you have to do.'
It was bullshit to him the first time he heard it. But now, it's his favorite quote from the company.
Regardless of what's in the past, it's with him now. Omega changed him, for both better and worse, but he's still that devious, food stealing orphan with no place to go to in the inside.
"Nagato, just a heads up. We will leave Tohoku in the next twenty minutes."
"Roger."
Khan is glad to know that even with all that has transpired things are running along smoothly. Meeting Somura-san and rescuing the people from the hospital is a nice change for him; it's different from what he usually gets to do. It still involves killing but at least it won't be pointlessly done just for the sake of the mission. Thinking about missions, Khan remembers his job. He's supposed to deliver Nagato to the base back in Sapporo, but he's still clueless whether or not activating her is a part of said job. Regardless, what's done is done. Nagato is here and the Japanese got what they want.
It's a great thing that Omega will set up its own base within the vicinity, which means that he won't have to stay around a place where he'll have ninety percent of the people staring at his back. The strict radio silence is applicable only until he gets out of Honshu or at least Saitama. Abyssal will be able to pick up his frequency and his location eventually if he's to break radio silence, which sucks since getting from Tokyo to Hokkaido with a truck is a pretty long trip. But hey, he's not complaining more than that.
"Khan, can I ask you something?" snapped out from his thoughts, Khan takes the moment to refresh his brain before replying to Nagato's question.
"What's the matter? You want to play twenty questions again?"
"No." the Ship Girl shakes her head in negative. "If it's not too much to ask…why did you decided to save those people?" Nagato asks, her tone really sincere on asking him.
Nagato's question makes Khan blink for about three times. "Why do you ask that?" he asks back, tone completely confused.
"It's just…strange." Nagato fails to find a word to complete her thought, so she sticks with the easiest. "You are a mercenary, you are just hired. But you're willing to go so far as to help a woman, and then to rescue a group of people from a bandit captured hospital. It's not in your list of objectives, but yet, you do it anyway. I'm…I'm really wondering why you would do something that is outside of your duty."
The sound of the truck's engine going on tells that Khan is silent. Nagato curses herself mentally. Have she stepped on a private topic? Nagato is about to apologize for asking the unnecessary, but she is silenced.
"…That's what you call it? Duty?" his tone is different. It only takes Nagato a quarter of a second to know realize how deep this topic is. "No Nagato, it's not duty. If it's not duty, then what…right? That's what you're thinking?"
Nagato does not reply, there's no need for her to.
"Listen well Nagato, let this mercenary for hire teach you a little bit of something about duty." His voice is suddenly hoarse, not from his throat drying, but from his throat unable to contain the words that are going to escape his mouth. "Duty crumbles when authority crumbles, duty collapse when authority collapse; as simple as that…my objective is to retrieve you and leave with you the moment I get to you. Done. That's duty. But when I helped a lady with her baby son and a people from bandit pillagers while neglecting my mission in doing so, is that an act of heroism, done through my own accord? I was given my orders. And I did it. I did not abandon my duty, I expand it. Authority still runs, but it's crumbling Nagato; sooner later, duty will too."
"Remember that I'm not a soldier, I'm a merc. My duty changes every year, every month, every week, every day…I don't have a choice. It's my duty to follow orders, but that does not mean that I have to kill the sheep to get its wool. You see Nagato, duty is just for those who think they have them. In fact, getting you to Sapporo isn't really my duty, but of course, I intend to fulfill it. But when it's done…I'll be waiting for a new duty, one that might not be as flexible as the one that I have now. So, if it's not duty, what is it?"
He cracks a smile, taking a moment to look at Nagato in the eye who is currently seated beside him in the passenger side of the seat from the reflection in the rear view mirror.
"It's just a job."
A/N: Uh…I don't know if this was too short or too long for that matter, but anyways, keep on waiting for updates cuz you'll be seeing them not long soon. Well…I try to give my OC his character, one that is different from my OC in FSIIMH, but I tend to get their characters mixed up a little. But with the amount of awareness I have right now, getting them mixed up won't be a problem…until when, I can never say.
I personally like the way how I portray Nagato here, Nagamon and all that amarite?
With this story taking in real places in Japan, I'm going to have to apologize if I get some of the places wrong; or if I offended anyone by my writing. Making things make sense and exciting while keeping it safe and censored at the same time is just hard.
That's all that I have for today and I hope that ya'll have a good day/night!