Part 11

The door was thrown open and crashed against the wall in a bang, and Akio jolted to his feet, letting go of Leiko's hand.

In front of him stood a panicked Hana, breathing heavily, like she had just run a mile. Immediately, his mind jumped to the worst case scenario, and it's implications paralysed him. The Gunner caught her breath.

"It's Masato... He... He..."

She saw his eyes widen, the fear that filled them, his entire body tensed up, he looked like he was both about to run away and to jump at her, at anything, and tear it to shreds.

"He's okay, he's okay right now," he did not relax, but he did not look like he was about to destroy everything around him anymore, "but there's a Monoblos. It's approaching the ship he's on, fast."

"Everyone meet at the Commons, right this instant."

She could not hear the panic in his voice – he had grown excellent at hiding it – but she knew it was there, and so she simply nodded and bolted off.

He picked up his equipment, but the blood rushing to his ears prevented him from hearing the rustling of the bed sheets indicating that Leiko was getting up, and gearing up as well. He shot a look behind him as he exited the room, and she nodded to him as she put her armour on; their eyes met, but she could not decipher the emotion in his eyes.

The Aces and the Kindred Hunter were all gathered in the centre of the city before five minutes had passed. And as they were all together and ready for action, they all looked to the Commander, confident he had already devised a plan to get them out of this mess. And so he had.

"We will divide ourselves in two groups; two people will stay here to protect the city in case anything happens, and the rest of us will go and confront the Monoblos. We do not have much time."

He had everyone's attention, and he knew it; he turned to Leiko.

"Leiko and Haru will stay in the town and protect it."

He had expected her to protest, but when she did not and relief flashed in her eyes, he did not think much of it, other than the fact that this was unusual. But the Gunner knew, and she refused to let someone else fall prey to their own fear if she could help it.

"I'll stay," she piped up.

Akio turned to her.

"No, Hana, I need a gunner..."

She cut him off.

"Trust me, I will stay here. You're a genius tactician, you'll manage to find a new plan."

And as she shot him a serious look, he knew better than to argue with her. He also knew that she was certainly doing this for a reason, and he trusted her judgement more than he trusted himself.

"Alright."

"No, Hana, really, there's no need..."

In Leiko's eyes shone fear once again, and she took a step towards the Gunner, almost pleading. The black woman had none of it.

"Listen, Leiko. You're going to go out there, and you're going to kick this Monoblos' ass, you hear me?"

And although the Hammer wielder knew better than to go against the Gunner in a moment like this, she opened her mouth and was about to protest; Hana cut her off.

"I need you to to make sure that he," she pointed to Akio, "doesn't do anything stupid."

And although the Ace Hammer wielder did not understand why this task had to be hers, and although she did not realize that this was exactly the only thing that could have made her go, she nodded.

"...Okay."

Leiko was scared. In fact, she was terrified. The Monoblos' scream was so close to the Diablos', everything about it was so similar. Every time she blinked, she saw the Diablos. Her entire mind was clouded in a thick fog of fear, her moves were slow and sluggish. Every step, every hit, every thing she did felt wrong and out of place.

Akio noticed this, and he fought close to her at all times. When she made a mistake, he stepped in and fixed it; when her timing was off, he deflected the blow that was about to hit her; when she could not hit hard enough, he struck harder. But she did not notice this. She was trapped in her own mind, she could hardly understand what was happening around her.

She had pretended not to spot the ledge which she could easily climb to jump onto the beast's back, and always positioned herself so that the monster was in between her and it. But her reflexes lacked, and when she was cornered and had a choice between being impaled by a huge horn or climbing, she chose the latter.

She stood and looked at the battle from her new vantage point. The three hunters below her were fighting with great skill, because the fate of an entire city rested on their shoulders. The pressure that laid on them, Leiko felt it too, and it made the atmosphere tense. She had to jump. She knew it, she had to jump, so that her companions could fight the beast with more ease. But she couldn't. Even if she had wanted to, her legs refused to move.

Then, Kyoko made a mistake. She rarely made them, but in this instant she misstepped, and the Monoblos charged.

Hideaki was on the other side of it; he could not make it in time. Akio, on the other hand, would. He would make it in time to save the Kindred Hunter. He would push her out of the way, but no one would be there to save him.

He leaped. He ran towards her, throwing his weapons aside, and in his eyes burned a flame, a fierceness he showcased in no other moment. He tackled her, shoving her to the side, safe from the hit that would have surely killed her. And when that was done, when she was out of harm's way and he saw the hit approaching him fast, the hit that would kill him, the man with no name, in his eyes shone not a flame or fear. For a second, there was only in his pupils a certainty, and he accepted his fate.

In this moment, as Akio stared at his end, Leiko realized that there was a single thing which she feared more than death.

And so she jumped. And as she was in the air, there was this second where she thought she would not make it. But she did. The impact with the monster's back was hard, and in her mind ran a thousand incoherent thoughts and images.

The Monoblos' hide under her fingers felt as the Diablos' had on that fateful day. Flashes of her fall, of her pain hit her, blinded her; all she could see was them. And again, once again, the beast's horn tore at her flesh, and the pain came back, oh, the pain, it filled her entire body, and she tried to scream but she couldn't.

She forgot how to control her body, how to breathe, and she let go of her grip on the beast's back and was thrown off like a rag doll.

Akio did not take the time to realize that he was still alive and let out an anguished roar as the Hammer wielder flew towards the ground. As he leaped to reach her all of the muscles in his body worked towards one goal and one goal only, he was but a beast, an entity which existed only to accomplish this action, only to catch this falling body.

And when she hit him his arms closed in around her and she clung to him, gripped his body as if he was the lone piece of driftwood keeping her afloat on a stormy sea. She gasped for air and panted and wheezed and heaved, and she sobbed but no tears fell from her eyes. She shook violently, like her body was fighting her mind, her grip on him was strong but she could hardly control her movements.

He held her and he did not let her go, even as the Monoblos came towards them he offered it his back so that she would not be harmed, and he was prepared to be impaled, to feel the monster's horn dig into his back and snap his bones, but the pain never came, and through the blood rushing to his ears he did not hear the screeching of the beast's horn against the Lancer's shield. It broke and flew backwards, into the Monoblos' head, and with a swift strike from her Hammer Kyoko sunk it into it's skull.

Leiko did not stand but Akio fell, although he did not let her go. And as he held her shaking frame against himself, as his arms were wrapped around her and as she clung to him like he was the only thing keeping her alive, tears dripped down his face like a waterfall.