"Has the sighting been confirmed?"
A handful of S.A.T troops sat huddled in a small building which was silently evacuated to house the temporary outpost of the retrieval unit. One of the scouts had just reported back in and was on the radio with the command post at the Kamakura Institute. The tension in the air was thick; the fear palpable. It was the knowledge of being ordered to hunt something far more powerful then one's self. It was the nervous anxiety of hunting rouge Diclonius. Ghost took a drag of his cigarette and ran a hand through his short, ice white hair to shake off the anxiety. As the new squad leader of the assault teams, he had a lot to live up to, being Bando's successor in rank. This mission was a chance to prove himself to Commander Ryota, and he was not about to mess this up. In truth, the mission he really wanted to complete was the one given as a general order: former point man Bando was to be taken down on sight by any unit who came across him, his charges having been desertion and the murder of Institute employed scientists. Some say he cracked after he failed his last mission and went insane. Guess he wasn't up to the job, but Ghost was. He was special, he knew. They told him he was one of the few humans who could see a Diclonius' vectors with the naked eye, a trait only one out of every thousand people in the world possessed. That gave him the edge Bando would never have had and Ghost knew he outdid Bando in every way. He was a better fighter, a better shot; he just couldn't see how anyone could have valued that pitiful excuse for a soldier over himself. This was his chance to show the Institute what he himself already knew; that he was the best, and deserved to be recognized as such. Ever since the debacle a few months ago, his team had been out searching Kamakura in secret with one target in mind. Lucy had been confirmed dead, but there was one last loose end that was finally going to be tied up.
"Affirmative control. Retrieval team Ghost has visual confirmation of Silpelit number seven in Kamakura."
"Ghost Squad, official Institute records has it that Silpelit number seven was euthanized by Chief Kurama. Are you positive the Diclonius sighting is number seven?"
"Affirmative sir, it matches up with the physical descriptions on the report. Vector number and length confirmed by squad leader Katsuo Rin. There's no mistaking it, there must be a false report in the database."
"Copy that, what's your status?"
Katsuo, that wasn't who he really was, not out here. He could throw it all away and slip into the persona of Ghost, who was as insubstantial as the wind and could not be touched. Not by pain, fear, or doubt. Katsuo was deathly afraid of the Diclonius, having barely survived the violence wrought by them long ago in the Outbreak, but Ghost was the hunter who struck fear in THEIR hearts. He saw the wings of the demons, opaque and deceptive, twisting unseen among lesser people. They were the invisible hand of death, but he had absolute clarity. Where one saw innocence, he remembered the blood. Where one heard laughter, he remembered the roaring fires. Where one saw harmlessness, he remembered the screams. A cacophony of violence coalescing into an amalgamation of suffering. The hammer of his gun was the gavel that he, the arbiter, brought down in final judgment. He would not be swayed by smiles, he was as indifferent to them, as the bullets that pierced their flesh.
"Ghost Squad is in position to intercept and eliminate the rouge Diclonius."
There were a few moments of silence, where Ghost let the sound of those words fill him with righteous anger. Another devil loose in the world. He knew the exorcism ritual. Ten bullets in his Desert Eagle, ten prayers of ten souls claimed by those monsters that cried out for justice. He, Ghost, would see that justice done and show them all he was the Wrath of the Institute. He would make Ryota proud, even if it killed him.
"That's a negative Ghost Squad, official orders just came down the pipe. Silpelit number seven is to be apprehended alive."
"Give me that!" Ghost growled, snatching the radio from the scout.
"Say again control, this is squad leader Ghost requesting confirmation of new orders to apprehend Silpelit number seven."
"That's a big 10-4 sergeant. Number seven is to be taken alive and returned to the Institute as per Director Kakuzawa's orders."
"You've got to be fucking kidding me."
"Those are the orders Sergeant Rin, switch to non lethal ballistics."
This couldn't be right, they couldn't want her alive. That wasn't the mission. Despite their title of "retrieval squad" their mission was to exterminate. He didn't do retrieval jobs, unless they were talking about retrieving bodies.
"That's bullshit, it's far too risky to hold back. Diclonius are capable of destruction on a massive scale, our team shoots to kill, and that's final."
"Be advised then sergeant, as per Commander Ryota's orders, any deviation from your orders constitutes as breach of contract and is punishable by execution."
"Fuck!" he yelled, throwing the radio on the table, nearly breaking it. This was insane, why the hell did that stupid old bastard want this creature back? Bad enough they had that new nightmare sitting in a vault in the Institute's lower levels. He had wanted to blow Director Vanith's brains out just for bringing that one. When she had looked at him, not even the protective shield of Ghost had stopped the shudder of terror from shivering through him. The bitch had smiled at him, fucking SMILED at him! He couldn't wait for an excuse to be alone with her. He'd see if she could still smile without any teeth.
"Ghost Squad, do you copy?"
Ghost waved his hand at the radio.
"Tell him we do and we'll use the goddamn non lethal ballistics. Also, ask him what we do if we encounter witness during the retrieval."
The scout picked up the radio and did as commanded, and the voice on the radio replied promptly.
"Protocol says to kill them if they resist, or capture them if they don't, or can't, and bring them back to the laboratories."
"Roger that control."
"Ghost Squad, you have clearance to commence the operation, move out and recapture Silpelit number seven."
Ghost took the radio from the scout, "roger control, Ghost Squad out."
He turned to his men, "alright you femmes, you heard the man. Swap out your munitions, we move out in fifteen minutes to intercept number seven. Scout's report has her traveling with a young human girl about age fifteen or sixteen with brown hair and wearing a school uniform. If she can be separated from the target, do so and bag number seven. If she can't, fuckin bag em both. None of you pissants engage the target until I tell you, is that clear!"
"Yes sir!," they replied in unison.
Hah, Bando had not commanded this kind of respect. Just speculation, doubt and fear from his so called comrades. Every one of them would have put a bullet in that bastard's back, but Ghost? They'd guard his back to the last man.
"Then get to it! This building is vacant in twelve minutes, clock's tickin ladies, get to work!"
He popped the magazine out of his pistol and loaded it with the sonic rounds his team had been given, tailor made for incapacitating Diclonius targets. Upon physically striking a target, the bullet itself would act as a non lethal round. Although it could break bone, it was specifically designed for fighting Diclonius in that if vectors were used to stop it, the sudden stop of the bullet from a vector would cause the compounds in the bullet to react and accelerate to the speed of sound in the time space of a half second, causing a small scale sonic boom. One good shot from that would put number seven right on her ass, giving them time to clamp on the vector nullifier and haul her back to headquarters. This was going to be so freakin easy it was almost criminal. As he pulled back the slide of the gun and listened to the satisfying click, he smiled. Knowing what they'd put that girl through once she got back to the Institute…yeah. He could live with this. She was in for a fate worse than death.
Which was exactly what those monsters deserved.
The evening sky was beginning to change from it's amber glow of sunset, to the deep blue of twilight. A steady breeze flowed though the air, announcing yet another rainfall. Mayu hoped that she and Nana would get back before it started coming down, but she was in no rush regardless. She would likely be back out here later in the evening as she walked Wanta, which was really just a convenient excuse to visit Bando. She smiled as she thought of him. He was much the same as when he'd first met her, but was so much different now in ways she couldn't explain. Her feelings for Bando were strong, even if she hadn't been completely sure what they meant, but she understood that their feelings about each other had changed from what they were at first. In the beginning it had been the comfort of the kinship that she had felt between them. She still didn't know very much about Bando's past, but the way he seemed to easily empathize with her made Mayu think that he had suffered at the hands of loved ones or guardians at some point in his childhood. She knew it wasn't the kind of thing a clever man could figure out about another person. You had either been there, or you hadn't. Victims could always tell one another in a crowd.
She was lucky enough to have found a family of her own. Perhaps it was not with the mother who had bourne her, or the absent father, but blood relatives alone did not define "family". Her own blood relatives had only been cruel strangers. Bando had grown up differently, that much she knew. Where Mayu's defenses had been guile and resourcefulness, Bando's had been brute force and determination. These were things he still relied on to keep putting one foot in front of the other each day. He was without a purpose, so much of it ripped away from him in an instant when he had heard information from somewhere that Nyu…Lucy, was dead. When Lucy returned, Mayu had almost told Bando about it, wanting to take away his absolute crushing desolation, but she also didn't want Nyu…dammit, when would she ever stop calling her Nyu? She didn't want Lucy to die, or for that matter Bando. Her inner conflict had gotten to her a few days after Lucy had come back, when Mayu had gone to visit Bando again. She had gone to spend time with him but found Bando half drunk in a sitting position leaned against a stack of boxes under the wharf's storage area. He looked like he had just fallen down and remained in the position he had landed, holding his pistol loosely between his legs, the tip of the gun resting against the concrete. The small area stank of whiskey from a spilt bottle lying a few feet away from him. As she had walked in, he roughly pulled the slide of the gun back and heard the mechanical click of a round sliding into the chamber.
"Oh…it's you kid. Come to see me off huh?"
"I…I don't know what you mean."
Of course she did, but what could she say? She was just buying time. He sat quietly staring at the gun for a few moments before speaking again.
"Done a lot of wandering in my life you know? Didn't mean I didn't know where I was going, but I just wasn't sure how to get there, if that makes any damn sense."
He reached over as if to grab the whiskey bottle but upon seeing it out of his reach he gave up, unwilling to attempt standing.
"I thought I knew what I was doing working for that fuckin nuthouse across the water. Thought I finally had a reason for all the bullshit I've been through."
He hiccupped once and exhaled roughly, coughing a few times before continuing.
"Just wanted to beat her…wanted to prove nobody could make me afraid or beat me down anymore."
His determination had made sense to her at that moment; it was never about Lucy. To him, Lucy was merely a manifestation of an inner demon he was still fighting against, tooth and nail.
"Fuckin stupid bitch…gets wasted in a god…damn…ACCIDENT!"
He started laughing then. Bitter laughter that was almost maniacal, and she could hear such pain in the sound as she had never heard from anyone before.
"Can't go back to Ry…the Institute. Lucy's dead, and I got nothing left but the clothes on my back and this gun. Got nothing to lose, no reason to live…so fuckin tired of all this bullshit."
He looked at her then, and she saw the dead stare of a man who had given up on living. It wasn't the weary gaze, or pain filled stare she might have expected from a person who had merely reached their saturation point of emotional pain. There was a scary kind of relief in those eyes. The knowledge that it didn't have to last forever, and the way out was right there in his hands.
"Please get out of here Mayu. I don't want you to see this."
"NO Bando!"
"So fucking sorry I hit you back then. Just like my fucking father who's burning in hell…"
She almost said it, she almost did. Almost told him Lucy was still alive, and that it wasn't over. But Mayu didn't want them to kill each other. She loved them both…loved…
She loved him. She absolutely, with all her heart, loved him. It seemed impossible, the differences and gulfs between them were so vast yet…she knew what she felt was real. In so many ways, the circumstances in which they grew up made them not so different as people, despite their ages. They both knew once you found your place or your purpose in life, that you stuck to it and never let it go. It was the principle that defined them, and it was what made her love him. She couldn't let him go, couldn't let it end this way…
"Come on kid, don't do that. Hate it when you cry."
"Well what else do you expect me to do huh!" she yelled, suddenly furious in a way she had never been before, "just walk away? How can you ask me to do that? What should I do Bando? You tell me right now, what should I do?"
He huffed and tried to stretch his body over to grab the whiskey bottle. Mayu strode angrily towards it, picked it up and launched it outside where it shattered on another stack of boxes. Some of it had spilled on her and she dimly wondered how she was going to explain it to Kouta and Yuka.
"You fuckin kidding me!" he said, the beginnings of temper seeming to sober him somewhat.
"Are you now asking me if I think this is a joke! AM I LAUGHING!"
Angry tears streamed down her face as she fought to control her breathing. She felt like she was about to lose control of herself.
"If I'm not supposed to care, and I'm not supposed to cry, then what do I do huh!"
Suddenly she had to know something…a storm broke inside of her as she reached down and yanked the gun out of Bando's hand.
"What the fuck!"
She pressed the barrel against her head and saw Bando's eyes flash with stark terror, completely sober now.
"This is what it feels like when you do this to me Bando."
"Christ Mayu, put it down, that thing's loaded and the safety's off! It's got a hair trigger for fuck's sake!"
"Why don't you get out of here Bando? I don't want you to see this."
"FUCKING GODDAMN IT!"
He shot upright in a sudden movement but lost his balance, still dizzy from the alcohol, and slammed his shoulder roughly against a crate.
"Mayu," he said, bracing himself heavily against the crate and holding a hand out, "give me the gun."
Having watched Bando operate that pistol's every mechanism in full view of her countless times, she had picked up how to use it. He should not have been surprised but she could see the shock in his face as she hit the magazine release and let the clip fall out of the gun onto the floor, then manually ejected the chambered round into the air, throwing the pistol onto the floor afterwards. They stared at each other for many moments. She could see something in him changing at that moment, just as it was changing in her. Something was passing between them that neither could define, and no one but them would ever understand.
"Mayu…god I'm so…shit."
He started to collapse again with exhaustion. Mayu rushed forward and threw her arms around his waist, steadying him as he sank slowly to the floor. When he was settled, she stood back up but kept one of his hands in her own. Before she let go of his hand, he had looked at her, and it was like he was seeing her for the first time. Part of her still wanted to tell him about Lucy. She dearly hoped fate wouldn't make her choose between them, because she knew deep down who she would choose. Everything has a price, and with love, that price could be very high.
"Mayu? Where are you going? Weren't we going home? That way is the beach."
Startled, she stared dumbly at Nana who was giving her a worried look. They had delayed leaving school so that Nana could change into the dress her father had given her. Nana guarded any keepsake, or memory of him, very jealously. He must have had excellent taste, as Nana looked sharp and stunning in the dress, the color offsetting her deep pink/purple hair which had grown a few inches longer so that it was shoulder length and had developed a disheveled quality to it that only added to her charm. Mayu knew that when Nana grew older she was going to be devastating. Nana was already incredibly popular with many of the boys at school. The fact that she appeared oblivious to it all had only made a number of them crazier. None knew of her prosthetics except for the instructors as the boys were too shy to lay a finger on her and Nana was very careful not to overdo it in her enthusiasm during school. Though Mayu was sure that one of these days when Nana vehemently raised her hand, the whole arm would come flying right off. Wouldn't that be a sight?
"Ah," Mayu muttered, trying to think of a plausible excuse, years of guile making her feel the need to find one, but then realized she didn't need it, "I don't know, I must have been daydreaming."
Mayu turned around to start walking the correct way home but Nana had not moved, and was now staring in the direction of the beach.
"Why don't we go there for a while?" Nana said
"But it's getting dark."
"I know, I just…" Nana wrapped her arms around herself, "I was born again out there."
Me too…
"Ok," Mayu replied, "let's go!" She smiled warmly at Nana who returned the smile, a gracious look in her eyes. They were best friends but there were things that Nana still remained very reticent about, and many places that she preferred to visit on her own, as they were connected to her father's memory. Mayu knew that Nana wanted to keep those places and the memories that came with them for herself, but Nana's willingness to have Mayu go with her to the beach spoke volumes. The significance of it was not lost on Mayu.
They started out, keeping silent for a while as they walked, both deep in thought. Mayu hoped this was a sign of Nana's wounds finally starting to heal. Nana's despair had been eating her alive, and everyone could see it at home. No one knew how to reach her and everyone felt powerless. It wasn't just that Nana missed her father, but he had left her with so many unanswered questions. Questions that apparently only he had the answers to, and whatever answers there were, he had taken them to his grave. Mayu wished she could understand what her friend was going through. She never knew the pain of a loved one dying, and didn't know what you were supposed to say. She knew better than that really. What would she expect Nana to say in the reverse? If Nana knew how she had been raped by her stepfather?
"You don't have to say anything you know," Nana said suddenly, reading her thoughts exactly. Maybe they were contemplating the very same things, "it's enough that you're my friend. That has always meant so much to me."
"Your friendship means a lot to me too," Mayu replied, "I just…"
"I know Mayu."
Nana stopped and held up her arm, staring at the prosthetic hand, wrist, and forearm.
"I feel like it's fitting sometimes, that I'll never be able to feel it when I hold hands with a person or walk arm in arm with them. I just reach out," she did so, "and touch," she rested the hand against Mayu's cheek, "and I know in my mind that there should be warmth there. There are feelings attached to that physical warmth. You can't really make a connection with touch and emotion if you just…don't…feel anything."
She let her hand drop.
"When I make gestures with my hands and arms, none of it's natural because I have to concentrate my vectors to mimic the gestures that I know are supposed to tell people that I'm surprised, or excited or...anything. I just go through the motions. These arms, can't replace what's gone. They just fill the void left behind when I lost them. I can't feel anything with what's left."
Streetlights and electric lamps buzzed briefly as their timers activated and they all clicked on at once, a few of the lights illuminating slower than others, bathing the girls in synthetic light.
"Deep down, I always knew…papa was like that. I loved him so much, and I know he loved me. But in the beginning, it was like he didn't really believe that he did. Papa was cold, I knew that, but I didn't care. He was like this arm. He lost something important, and had to create an echo of what it was so he could fill the void, but I always knew deep down that he loved me. He was luckier than me though, because in the end, he saw that he never lost his heart. He gave me this whole world…"
Nana's lip quivered as she smiled, but did not cry.
"How many girls can say that they were loved so much by someone? But he's gone, and my hands don't feel what they touch. It makes me feel distant. From everyone but papa, who gave me these arms and legs that remind me of him every minute of every day, so I can't move on. I'm sorry that makes me so distant."
She turned away from Mayu but didn't resume walking.
"I knew he loved me," she said quietly, "but I never knew who he was. I want that knowledge just like I want to remember what it used to be like to have hands that could feel touch. I forget all the time what those physical sensations were like because the arms have been gone so long. Papa's gone, and I'm scared that if too much time passes and I don't find some evidence of who he was, that I'll forget him too. I don't want to forget him."
A few of the lights nearest them seemed to flicker and burn out, leaving them swathed in darkness.
Mayu stepped closer to Nana and placed her arm around her.
"Don't you see though Nana? You…"
A flash of white and a loud crack shattered her world and her thoughts.
"Aaaaahhhhhhh!"
She was disoriented, confused, in pain for some reason and her ears felt funny, a high pitched ringing in them. She collapsed to the sidewalk face first, too stunned to bother bracing her fall. She tasted blood in her mouth and everything around her was pitch black.
"NANA!" She screamed, feeling blood drip down her chin and her neck. She felt hands on her, lifting her up roughly and she screamed again, drowning out the voices of men that seemed to surround her.
"NAAAANNAAA!" The hands suddenly left her and she heard a loud grunt of pain, then the distant sound of a body slamming heavily against a wall. Mayu wobbled on her feet, stars in her eyes. A small hand grabbed her own and she could barely make out Nana's face in the dark.
"Come on Mayu! Run!"
Mayu saw the silhouettes of large men that were in their way as they ran, but then suddenly they flew through the air as if thrown violently, cries of pain and surprise growing distant as they sailed in opposite directions. She then heard gunfire, and her legs buckled in fear.
"Nana I'm scared!"
"Mayu you can't sto….aaaahh!"
Nana had covered her ears, as did Mayu, for there was suddenly a rapid succession of loud jarring sounds right next to them that utterly scattered her thoughts. She felt like a deer in headlights. Nana grabbed Mayu and she felt them lift into the air then sail over a nearby brick wall that separated the sidewalk from a series of backyards.
"Keep going Mayu!"
Her thoughts were still foggy, what was happening? Was this happening?
"What…"
"Mayu please! This is how they catch you! They try to make you dizzy and confused with loud weapons, you can't let it slow you down! Come on!"
"What? Who?"
"JUST RUN!"
She heard more gunfire, and more of the nearby loud sounds that scared her with their intensity and made her want to curl up into a ball, but Nana kept pulling her forward and her mind was starting to clear just a little. Whoever the men were that were shooting at them, she understood they weren't trying to kill them. Whatever weapons they were using weren't meant to be lethal, but only shock and stun, as Nana said. Nana had seemed prepared for this at least a little bit. What did she know? Why were they after the two of them?
They darted around corners and across yards, emerging upon dark streets. Mayu had noticed the peculiar darkness suddenly, what happened to all the lights? It seemed like everywhere they ran and saw light posts, their lights were off. She saw the glow of streetlights off in the distance but they were very far away. Nana stopped for a moment to take a quick look around and then chose a destination that seemed like the clearest path to where the lights were still operating.
"If we get to the light they'll stop chasing us!"
"Why? Nana who ARE these people!"
Her answer was cut off by the sound of a small metal object striking the street near them and bouncing twice. It sounded like someone had dropped a soda can.
"COVER YOUR EARS!"
Nana slapped a hand over Mayu's eyes while she did as Nana commanded. It turned out to be a good thing she did as she heard the loud bang from before, muffled now with her hands over her ears, and saw a faint flash against her eyelids. It was still jarring, but she was able to recover more quickly. The next sound was a massive impact and cries of surprise. Mayu opened her eyes and saw a large metal dumpster had been slammed against the stone wall surrounding a nearby house. She thought she saw a dark stain on it but didn't have time to get a better look as Nana was pulling her along once again, amidst the sounds of more gunfire. Mayu could hear cries of "stop them!" behind her. She wanted to cry, and had never been more scared in her life.
"Nana what are we going to do!"
"First we have to get to the light, they don't want to be seen. They must have done something to the lights so anyone looking wouldn't be sure what they saw. Then we have to try and lose them, and get home. We have to find Lucy!"
"What? Why Lucy?"
"You girls sure are having an interesting conversation…" an amused voice sounded from above them.
Standing there upon a stone wall was a man gently illuminated by the nearby streetlights. He wore black tactical dress and had a shock of thin ice white hair that surrounded his face in different lengths, but was cut back from his eyes. There was a triumphant smile on his face behind the stare of his large pistol, which he held upon them steadily with one hand.
"So what's that about Lucy hm?"
"I don't know what you're talking about!" Mayu said, trying her best to be brave in his face. It's what Bando would have wanted her to do.
"Girl it would have been better for you if you'd just not said that creature's name. We were trying to do this without getting you involved. That ship has just sailed darling."
Mayu heard the men they had been running from approaching from behind, the clamor of rattling equipment and the sound of heavy booted footfalls announcing their coming. The man on the stone wall suddenly tensed as if he saw something she couldn't.
"Don't do it monster!" he said, training his gun directly on Nana. Out of the corner of her eye, Mayu saw Nana's teeth grit and the stone in front of them explode outwards as though a wrecking ball had slammed into it. The white haired man fired a single shot before he fell and the sound it made as it detonated, mere feet away from her, sounded as horrifying as the flash bang grenades had. Nana had gripped her head in agony, and Mayu felt herself being lifted off the ground by Nana's vectors.
"Mayu get out of here! Tell Lucy! Tell her I don't hate…"
She wasn't able to finish her sentence as the gunfire rang out again, and Mayu was flung towards the light, landing hard and rolling on the ground five times before she came to a stop under a brightly lit streetlight.
"NANA!"
Looking back into the dark road she had been flung from, she saw large, monstrous shadows of men converging where Nana had fallen in a sort of frenzy, wrestling something on her face then pinning her to the street. Mayu wanted to help her friend but there was absolutely nothing she could do. She saw a few of them pointing in her direction, and saw two shadows break off from the group and began running after her. She felt paralyzed for a moment in fear, then panic took over and she ran down the alleyways. As she ran, she cried and felt like she was going to hyperventilate as she raced down the streets and alleyways as fast as her legs could take her. She didn't know where she was going, but just kept running anyway, imagining the shadows around her were the images of her mysterious pursuers. She couldn't see them or hear them, and she thought perhaps she had outrun them, but fear kept her moving, and darting at every shifting shadow.
When she emerged onto a large street she tried to cry for help and flag down passing cars. The cars swerved to avoid her and the people she saw across the street only stared. She had planned to cross the road but she thought she saw movement in the alley she had just emerged from, or it could have been flickering light from the florescent sign above her that was casting shifting shadows. Either way, she didn't think she'd have time to wait for a safe moment to cross and took off down the sidewalk, looking behind her after every few steps as she panted and whimpered fearfully. She bumped into a man who had been closing the trunk of his parked car and nearly knocked him over. Mayu actually did fall down, but got up quickly and started grabbing onto him frantically.
"Please! I need help! I'm being chased!"
"What the hell? Get off me kid!"
"Please, I'm in trouble! My friend, she's…they took her and…"
She saw discomfort and panic flare in his eyes.
"Don't bother me with this stuff! Call the police or something."
"Please! They're going to take me too!"
She grabbed more tightly to him, but he roughly pried her fingers loose and shoved her onto the ground. Without saying another word or even looking at her, he quickly keyed into his car, started it up, and sped away, the tires screeching as he drove off. Her panic escalated at the fact that it seemed like no one would help her. Calling the police would do no good…
Call…phone number…help…BANDO!
She looked around frantically and saw a phone bank. Mayu ran to the phones and slammed roughly against them when she got there; her panic making her forget to slow down. Her fingers shook as she picked up the phone and started dialing, getting the number wrong twice, and a third time her shaking hands had hit multiple buttons. Her terror increased with each failure but midway though the forth dialing, she remembered she needed to put money in the phone. She dug around in her pack for change, looking around frantically to see if there were any of those men about, and bearing down on her. She sobbed as her trembling hands kept making her drop the change, but then ruthlessly gained control of herself enough to put the money in the machine, and dial the number.
She heard it ringing on the other end…once…twice…three times.
PICK UP PICK UP PICK UP PICK UP!
Four…five…
PLEASE! I NEED YOU BANDO!
She heard a grunt and a muffled cough on the other end. It was the most beautiful sound Mayu had ever heard in her entire life.
"ugh…yeah? Who is it?"
"Bando! It's Mayu! I'm in trouble, these men came out of nowhere and they were shooting! And Nana…they took Nana! And I've been running…"
"Woah whoh. What the hell are you talking about Mayu? Shooting? Who's shooting?"
"I don't know!" she screamed, tears streaming down her face, "please Bando! They're coming and I'm scared!"
"Pull it together kid! You said some men attacked you and took that horned friend of yours?"
"YES! And they're coming for me!"
"Mayu listen to me very carefully, whoever they are, are you SURE they're definitely coming after you? They didn't just sack Nana and bail?"
"N…no! This guy with white hair said he was going to let me go but now he won't since I mentioned Lucy!"
"What? LUCY!"
"Um…"
There was a strange silence on the other end, but the fact that she had just betrayed Lucy was now a minor concern to her, eclipsed by her terror. Mayu looked frantically around once more but saw nothing but empty streets. A number of streetlights suddenly flicked off further down the street where she had come from.
"Back up, did you say a guy with white hair?"
"Yes! He had a gun like yours!"
"Christ…Mayu, where are you right now?"
She looked around, she hadn't taken stock of where she was when she was running but she apparently had been steadily making her way to the water. She told Bando the intersection where she was currently standing.
"Alright, Mayu, get off this phone and get your ass to the beach, I'll meet you up the street. Whatever you do, stay in the light! Don't go to the cops, they won't help you."
"Bando!"
"Go, move!"
Phone still in hand, she turned to start running, planning on simply dropping it but then the light over her head flicked off and she saw the white haired man standing before her. Horror paralyzed her.
"End of the road sweetheart."
Mayu whirled back to the phone and shouted in the receiver.
"BANDO I LOVE YOU!"
She felt the man's fist connect with her head and she fell stunned to the ground, her vision beginning to darken. Dimly, she heard the sound of a large vehicle pulling up next to the sidewalk, and she saw the man hold the phone up to his ear.
"Bando…" he said, a look of savage pleasure in his face, "could that be you?"
He laughed a dark triumphant laugh, "you're next motherfucker. If you're smart, you'll haul ass out of whatever hole you're hiding in because I'm going to make your friend here talk. I bet she's got all kinds of interesting stories, and I can't wait to hear them all."
She faintly heard a vehement reply on the other line. The white haired man laughed pleasantly.
"I'll do what I want to her, and you'll do fuck all about it Bando. Keep your phone on, I'm going to want to talk more with you after I beat your phone number out of your pre teen girlfriend. Which by the way, is pretty fucked up of you Bando. Even I didn't think you could sink so low."
Another vehement reply, and even from where she lay, dazed and moments from passing out, she could hear the seething hatred in Bando's response.
"We'll see about that. Catch you later shithead."
He hung up the phone and laughed, pleased with himself and stood over Mayu.
"Sir," she heard someone say to him, "we gotta move!"
"Who…are…you?" Mayu said with a groan, feeling consciousness slip away. He kneeled down over her and smiled.
"I'm a Ghost…and so are you."
Her world faded to black.
