Come back home
Can you come back home
I'm pushing back all the pain
I'm still waiting for you like this
Now you gotta do what you gotta do
'Where am I?' she wonders after regaining consciousness. She recalled surveying the abandoned facilities of Oso Academy when the entire Oryo Rikako saga was over but someone had actually knocked her out cold. She was about to break free from her restraints when she heard a familiar voice. She struggled to balance herself but tripped over when the train moved, alarming Shinya and Yuki in the process.
The lady hides behind the Enforcer upon this and he moves over cautiously to take a better look at the person who fell. Shinya was shocked to see her staring back up at him in confusion.
"Who are you?" Yuki asks from behind Shinya.
"Park Yuri." She replies curtly while still staring at the Enforcer who got his nerves back and starts untying her. "Where are we?"
"I'm not sure at the moment." He replies while she gets onto her feet to survey the surroundings.
Yuki noticed the pair looks at each other for a while before something seems to flicker in the Korean's eyes and Shinya nods at that after he was done with questioning Yuki. It was odd. How in the world is Yuri capable of communicating with an Enforcer who she had met for a few minutes? This is odd.
"You're their target." She tells him before he comes into that conclusion. "Stay close." She tells Yuki who nods in confusion at what is going on at the moment. One Enforcer with few words is bothering Yuki a little; add a laconic lady into the picture and this is the most awkward moment in Yuki's life. However, she was a little comforted by the presence of another lady in the group.
When the train halted to a stop, the group alighted and they were at another unfamiliar place and Yuri's grip on Yuki tightens. The Korean turns to the space behind and pulls Yuki over to the door while Shinya slams it shut.
"Follow me!" the pair of ladies did what they were told and what greeted their eyes was…
"Arena." Yuri comments while urging Yuki to go with her. Although appearing to be nonchalant, she was shaken by the environment they are currently in and Shinya could sense her slight discomfort.
Watching from an elevated area with his binoculars, Makishima was wondering, what in the world would transpire when you put these people into such a place with a hunter?
Since Shinya has torchlight with him, Yuki and Yuri followed his lead with Yuri being the last in line. It confused by this; she had expected the lady to take her side but she chose to walk in a beeline behind her. Also, for some odd reasons, her expression is graver than when they were on train.
The ray of light shines on what it seems to be a bag and the Enforcer unzips it to reveal several items. While he is explaining the rationale behind using chemical lights as opposed to conventional torchlight, Yuri is watching the surroundings for any movement like a cautious soldier. The atmosphere in the place is starting to get her and he could sense that she is getting progressively nervous.
He swears that he is going to make whoever who got her involved pay while chatting with Yuki. He did not want to talk to her; he is starting to lose sight of what he had set out to do slowly and if he starts talking to her, he might just choose the easy way out.
"I wonder if people with the clearest Psycho Pass Hues are always people like her."
"Not necessarily." Yuki was startled by her input.
"Park-san…"
"Don't ask. Walk." She tells Yuki who jolts a little at that response and tries her best to continue her conversation with Shinya.
"Ah, is it possible that you're the subordinate who puts her at a loss?" Shinya and Yuri pauses at the question for a while.
"So that's how she talks about me?" he replies to the question before tossing another light stick to the space in front of them. Yuki was about to take another step forward when Yuri takes a step up to pull her back while Shinya blocks her way to shine the torchlight at the area and starts inspecting the area.
The lady remains silent while looking up at the space above them.
"Even their traps are anachronistic. They sure have interesting tastes."
"It's vintage." Yuri sighs at the sight. For the first time, Yuki actually realized that Ms. Laconic is funny.
"Ah, wait. A little to the right of the floor you just checked…that's the same bag we saw earlier!" Yuki exclaims and
"Don't!"
"No!" it was too late because Yuki had set off the alarm while picking up the bag and it made the other two clicks their tongues at the same time. Shinya breaks into a run for Yuki and pulls her away while Yuri follows them. The drone had found them.
Sensing something approaching other than the drone, Yuri starts panicking.
"DUCK!" he heard her and he was able to dodge the bullet in time to pull over behind another series of walls to safety. The aggressor fires another shot this time and misses them narrowly.
Yuri took the time to listen to the surroundings and heard a click and someone reloading his gun. While huddled behind another wall, Yuki starts panting while Yuri is still keeping a lookout with him.
"I…I just saw someone!" she pants.
"Yeah, now I know what this is all about."
"Fox Hunt." Shinya nods at Yuri's reply.
"They want to entertain themselves with some fox hunting."
Yuki was visibly taken aback by the statement; she was not expecting things to turn out this way.
"Hunting?"
"Those drones are hunting dogs." Yuki starts shivering in his coat when she hears this.
"When the prey gets frightened and runs, the player finishes it off."
"We're the foxes." Yuri tells her calmly; as if this is not the first time she had been hunted in her life.
By now, all uneasiness he had sensed from her earlier is gone and he could tell that she is pretty ready to hit back at whoever who got them into this mess. In fact, she seems to be a lot calmer than he is at the moment and she is starting to rummage through the bag which Yuki had taken earlier.
She passes a rectangular item to Shinya for inspection and the couple exchanged meaningful looks in the dark. He was the first to break the eye contact and turns his attention to the incomplete transponder. They are on the same boat now; he is working on a way to get them out of this place. Nothing more, nothing less. While he was distracting himself from Yuri by explaining how the transponder works to Yuki, the other lady prepares to leap out from their hiding place but she was stopped this time by him.
"I'll distract them." He holds her off firmly.
Yuri was fighting against his grip on her when he shakes her by a little to force her to look up at him.
"Stay here and look after her." She was about to retort when his eyes soften for a split second. "I'll come back, I promise."
"What are you planning on doing?" Yuki asks the man who is preparing to scale the wall.
"We have no chance with two hunting dogs." Yuri tells her numbly. For a moment, the Shinya she knew and loved was back; that was pretty enough for her but she guessed that both of them had to return to what they had set out to do.
"Unless I bring at least one of them down, they'll surround us, and that'll be the end of the road of us all." He tells them while flipping over.
Yuki turns around to her to realize that she was looking really worried about the situation. For the first time, she saw Yuri having a hint of humanity on her face. She is not that scary after all. Taking a closer look at the lady, she saw faint scars on her face and the closeness alarmed Yuri who snaps off from worrying about Shinya and shifts away from Yuki.
Seeing that, Yuki places her hands over Yuri's and smiles.
"I believe that Kougami-san would get us out of this place."
"You are too optimistic." She replies, smiling a little at Yuki's naïve optimism.
After hearing the commotion in the area, Yuki used the opportunity to observe Yuri. She was genuinely worried about what is going on out there between Shinya and whichever thing which he is fighting against at the moment. The sound of gunfire and Shinya's footsteps scares her. However, she is fighting the urge to get out there to give him a helping hand. She did not want to weigh anyone down. Both women heard steel clashing and there was a sickening crunching sound. It made them gulp. However, all of it was gone when they heard his careful footsteps coming closer. Shinya had returned with a battery for the transponder.
"I killed one of them and…"
It was still short of an antenna to get it running.
While running, Yuri noticed that there is something not right with her pants; she runs her hand through the back pocket of her jeans to take out what it seems to be a piece of paper and unfolds to a map.
"I have something here. Shall investigate." She tells the pair in front of her before running off into another direction.
"Yuri-san!"
"Don't worry; she could take care of herself well." Shinya assures the person behind him while getting secretly worried this time. Whatever it is, Shinya and she are pretty aware that it is something used to split them up but she had to leave the team at the moment.
This was when another few shots was heard from other corners of the arena.
"Yuri-san…"
"She won't die this easily." It was as if he is trying to assure himself repeatedly that she is going to be fine but he is pretty sure that…
She punches the Drone which came too close for her comfort in its sensors to throw it off balance temporarily before dodging more bullets. Whoever it is, it is sure making her re-live some unwanted memories that she is trying to get rid from all the therapy. It is starting to get her fired up in the wrong way. She managed to hide behind a wall and takes a better look at the map given to her. This is not good; all the processing is causing her current self to slip away.
She manages to pick up what it seems to be another bag of supplies at the cost of almost breaking her left arm. Perhaps it is the antenna which…
No. She is looking down into a pistol.
'Damn.' She felt her blood run cold when she sensed the aggressor approaching and checks the ammunition chamber. Three shots.
Great. She turns around to take a better look at the surroundings before planning for her escape.
Senguji was about to fire when a lady leaps out from her hiding place and he was mildly surprised that she is holding onto a pistol. He prepares to fire a shot at her when she hits him first with a shot to get him off target.
Shinya's blood ran cold when he heard two shots.
The shot misses her chest but the bullet hits her left shoulder. Not good.
Paying no heed to her injury, she breaks into a run in the direction she guessed they had went off to. Then, she fires another shot, into the air before running to wait for a response. She has to act fast.
After reading through the data Choe Gu-Sung's passed to him, it made him even more curious about this person. How would someone like her act in situations as such?
After listening to Senguji's comments about the pair, Shogo tells the cyborg.
"Perhaps, both of them are members of the wolf family."
"Makishima, did you add in some plot into this game unbeknownst to me?" Senguji asks the young man who is thinking about Yuri.
Meanwhile, she is keeping her ears on full alert for Shinya's reply. Then it came in the form of the softest bouncing of the chemical lights. Great, she had been right. Just a little more before the Drone finds her. She then walks into the hearing distance of Yuki's complains and him analyzing their situation.
"However, I don't understand why they would want to drag Yuri into this." She heard from him. She looks down at the pistol in her hand and clutches onto her wound; the adrenaline rush is staring to wear off and her wound is hurting.
"Shinya." It was faint but he could hear her. Then he hears a series of tapping against the walls. Yuki was huddled in one corner, a little confused about what is going on between the pair.
"If that's what you want." He sighs before launching himself out of his hiding place to the drone, destroying the remaining Drone with a shot from the Dominator.
At the same time, she leaps out of hers to cover him and points her pistol at Senguji to fire a shot, her bullet lodged deep into the cyborg's steel chest. The pair was shocked by the person not flinching after taking a bullet in his heart and Shinya grabs her off from the path of the cyborg's shot. The pair falls into a heap and he was shocked to feel something warm and wet on her.
Blood.
"Run."
"No, I'm.."
"I could still move. I'll distract him and you shoot him with this." She points to his Dominator. "Hue check?"
He did what he was told.
Her Crime Coefficient is below 25. There is something not right with this but he could not care less. They have another civilian to tend to. Both of them ran off in the same direction and Yuri struggles a little to keep up with him; she did her best in trying to patch the wound up in the dark. Then, she takes another turn around; much to his displeasure.
However, things went out of what she had predicted.
Instead of Senguji being knocked out cold by the Dominator, Shinya had only managed to destroy his left arm and she was staring at the cyborg's shotgun barrel pointed at her direction.
No.
He would…
The man stands in front of her and it got him.
"I…"
"Remember your plan." He tells her before dragging her aside to where she told him earlier through their little Morse code.
She forces her worn out body to move while setting up to trap the cyborg.
However, this time round, she is not going to risk getting him shot again.
"We won! Kougami-san! Yuri-san! We won!" Yuki exclaims to the pair while Yuri is supporting him. It was then when they stepped into an area which is brighter that Yuri saw the blood staining her cloak and his clothes.
Shinya was about to cover her eyes but he was too late, her face starts contorting with pure terror at the sight and she lets go of his arm to retreat from him.
"Yuri, no, don't…"
"Stay away." She pants, limping a little while retreating from him. Meanwhile, Yuki was confused at the lady who is getting into a mild seizure at the sight of blood and the man collapses into a heap. From her hemophobia and her wound.
Only to watch someone handcuffing Yuki and dragging her off while he is starting to lose sight on Yuri.
"Now, I wasn't expecting a young war veteran to be hemophobic, Jungwi Park."