Spriggan: Solitary Trooper - The Redux

By: Ominae

Rating: T

Chapter 10: Intervention... Again


Forest, Miyakonoshima, Unagami, Itoshima, Fukuoka, Japan


["This is starting to feel like some zombie movie or game that I've seen before..."]

Michael stabbed the downed zombie with his FS knife to make sure that it's down for good.

["You guys the reinforcements?"] Jonathan asked while he prepped his Glock 18C in case he needs to fire it.

["Something like that."] Michael nodded at Mark when he gave the signal that the zombies nearby are clear. ["Looks like we're clear for now, but we'll probably have to move soon. At this point, I don't know if you two can continue your field trip in Fukuoka."]

["You may have a point."] Jonathan examined the various zombie corpses around. He noted that most of them wore various clothing with sea plants on them, which indicated that they may have died due to drowning while possibly overboard a boat or a similar vessel. Shit...

Mai tried to get Jonathan's attention by grabbing his right arm and moving it. "Jona-chan..."

"Relax, looks like we got some help."

The masked Spriggans raised an eyebrow when Mai called the former Marine by a pet name.

"But then, how do we get back to the others?"

"A very good question."

["Guys, get down."] Michael motioned to Jonathan and Mai to take cover since they can hear Dorian's voice getting louder and louder.

["Ah shit..."] Mark groaned as he crouched near the bushes. Michael did the same thing while Jonathan told Mai to take cover while using the trees and bushes to camouflage herself in case of more trouble.

["I hear him."]

["Yeah. We still have the upper hand. It's best to ambush him in the bush."]


Inside Embraer Phenom 300, en route to Fukuoka


Yu and Jean were on board the Brazilian-made business jet, expecting to land in Fukuoka after 20 more minutes where a company van will be waiting for them prior to heading to Itoshima. They were told by Yamamoto that the driver was already briefed on their op.

"I would have expected that you'd oppose Mr. Yamamato's decision to let us fly to Fukuoka instead of taking the train service." Jean told the young Spriggan as he shuffled around in his seat in order to get comfy.

"You nuts or something?" Yu raised an eyebrow. "Using the shinkansen from Tokyo to Fukuoka is a minimum of two hours. Not only that, but you'll have to expect at least a few stops on the way to the prefecture. And you'll never if there's going to be a roving cop who'll want to stop us and examine our things 'cause you're a gaijin and stuff like that."

Jean simply rolled his eyes.

Yu checked the duffel bag near his feet and started to assemble parts for a Heckler & Koch G3A4 battle rifle. "I just hope we got other guys on the ground before the shit storm comes."

"You'll never know..."


Forest, Miyakonoshima, Unagami, Itoshima, Fukuoka, Japan


"Oh where, oh where can they be?"

Dorian said the line as if he was singing it from a classic children's song. The necromancer still has that smirk on his face while looking for his prey.

He held the knife in a reverse grip, ready to use it in a close quarter fight should it come to it.

"Freeze! Don't move!"

And speaking of close quarter fights...

Jonathan, Michael and Mark ambushed him when they emerged from the nearby bushes. The new Spriggan had his hands full in wiping out the MPA assault element secretly deployed to Unagami. So technically, the only living persons are them. And also Mai.

"Ah... The mighty Spriggans. I have been waiting for an opportunity to fight you in the field."

"Who the hell is he?" Jonathan asked the other two when he raised his sidearm, aimed at Dorian's forehead.

"He's with the Moroha Private Army." Mark explained to the ex-MARSOC operator when he aimed his FX-05 carbine at his chest. "Intelligence has heard rumors of some mercenary with experience in the necromancy arts from the criminal underworld."

"Yeah... reminds me of that magician Heunri Balez in the Iraq case." Michael trained his SAR 21 MMS carbine at the necromancer. "Drop the knife, buddy or you'll get filled with lead."

Dorian complied and dropped the knife as instructed.

"Now you're going to tell us what your employer wants with a poor defenseless girl?"

"Poor? Defenseless?" Dorian could only have at the Spriggan. "Oh boy... If I can only see your masked faces."

Jonathan was really ready to pull the trigger on his sidearm.

"In your line of work, didn't you even consider that even the slightest whispers of myth and folk belief would come into play in our world?"

The trio were alarmed by what he said, but Jonathan was concerned that Mai's life would have been tied to old stories that the old and anyone else who studied mythological stories.

"Keep your mouth shut." Jonathan was ready to shout and put the mercenary out of his misery.

"Don't tell me that I struck a nerve?" Dorian kept his smirk on.

"Hey!" Michael shouted. "Did we say you can talk except when we tell you to?"

"I'm just trying to tell you that this is more than meets the eye... Not that you guys can probably notice at the surface."

"Enough chit chat!" Mark shouted, advancing at him. "Down on your knees and hands behind your head right now!"

The necromancer sighed and complied with the instructions. But as Mark moved in to restrain him, they didn't notice that Dorian was moving his lips. He wasn't voicing it out loud in any way.

He was chanting something that they couldn't hear since he was dependent on using his thoughts and memory of black magic to put it to work once more.

"AAAAAHHHHH!"

Mark was about to restrain Dorian when he heard someone scream.

"What the heck was that?" Michael could hear the girlish screams.

"Shit!" Jonathan rushed from the bushes to the other end of Unagami, which was far from Itoshima.

Taking the opportunity with the distraction, Dorian reached out to one of the pockets of his suit jacket and threw some small pellets on the ground. They clouded Michael and Mark's field of vision due to heavy smoke.

"Damn it! I can't see!" Michael shouted when he was trying to clear the smoke by waving his hands around.

"Me neither!" Mark did the same thing.

They can hear loud footsteps of someone running away from the area, followed by loud gunfire coming from a pistol.


Exit Area, Fukuoka Airport, Hakata, Fukuoka, Japan


Yu and Jean arrived just fine in Fukuoka's airport, accompanied by two ARCAM employees who were able to assist them in getting their bags out from the chartered jet and as a safety measure in case the local police officers inside would accost them and check their things.

"Any details changed with Itoshima so far?" Yu asked one of the suit-wearing men who arrived to escort him and Jean to a waiting vehicle.

"Nothing that we can tell. So far, the inn where agent Harker and the girl were staying it wasn't targeted by the MPA."

A white 2011 Toyota RegiusAce passenger van was seen parked in the designated area meant for arriving airline passengers who have someone to fetch them instead of taxi or a bus.

"Alright, let's get this show on the road."

The sliding door of the RegiusAce opened and Yu was the first person to get in after he opened it. He placed his duffel bag inside and helped Jean to get his duffel bag inside.

["I wonder how our little Marine is doing?"] Jean huffed in English after he opened his duffel bag and check on his Franchi SPAS-12. ["Haven't seen him around much since I got a clean bill of health".]

["I guess we'll have to see for ourselves."] Yu shrugged his shoulders as the employees got inside and turned the van's engines on. ["I'm just worried that he'll do something and blow his cover with the rest of the college class Mai's in."]

A few minutes later, the van drove off away from the airport and taking the road heading to the direction of Itoshima.

The front passenger uses his flip phone to make a call on Tokyo HQ and informed the security department that Yu and Jean arrived safely in Fukuoka.


Forest, Miyakonoshima, Unagami, Itoshima, Fukuoka, Japan


Mai had already taken cover near a grove of trees located near the direction of the Genkai Sea, hiding as instructed by Jonathan to wait for help when she heard some weird noises coming from the sea.

"M-monsters!"

The student saw the corpses shamble around as they got out of the cold water. She could tell that their skin and clothes were rotting at best.

Mai tried to look around for anything that she can use for a weapon.

Come on, come on. What can I use as a weapon? I need to get away.

The more zombies came on the beach, the more she panicked in trying to find something to defend herself and not get bitten or scratched in the process.

Mai picked up a huge rock and hurled it with all of her strength. The rock, however, only struck the nearest zombie on the chest. And from the looks of what happened, the zombie wasn't fazed by the rock.

"Oh crap..." The student murmured when she picked up rocks and sticks and hurled it at the horde. They didn't do anything to slow them down though.

Before some of the zombies got to move closer to get to Mai, Jonathan jumped out of the bushes and let loose with his pistol. He immediately changed the selector to use it in full auto mode instead of semi auto mode.

"AAAHHHH!"

In this case, it was more than enough to mow down the horde. Of course, he saw that the gunfire was hitting them in the chest. This made them stagger back a bit before they continued to shuffle on.

It's not getting them down.

Jonathan raised his sidearm again and changed the selector to make the pistol fire at semi auto. And he aimed the iron sights at their heads not because he's someone who was able to watch a zombie-themed movie. Then again, his time with the Marines on that topic consisted on some of the guys (maybe gals) in the corp playing the Resident Evil games.

Maybe this'll work.

The Glock 18C fired again. Some of the initial gunfire did the job in hitting some of the zombies on the head.

"Alright." Jonathan murmured as he kept his grip and focus on firing the pistol at the horde.

Chapter 10 END


PS - In case you don't know, Spriggan will have an anime adaptation again from Netflix courtesy of David Productions. In case you're also going to ask when it's coming out, the answer is I don't know. The mangakas (Hiroshi Takashige and Ryoji Minagawa) are excited for this, according to their Twitter accounts.

Keep an eye out for it in related anime news sites and all that jazz.

I'll have to mention something, I'm using a bracket in a dialogue if one character or more are speaking in a language that's different from the others (eg - If two characters are speaking English while the others nearby are speaking Japanese). I'll implement this as early as possible to make sure everyone can follow. Hopefully there won't be any future confusion when people talk in different languages and stuff like that.

For the meantime, it's kinda short. Hopefully, I can keep it longer in the next one.