Osamu was frozen on the ladder, his extended hand in mid-air as it hovered over the unlocked hatch. He had already tested its functionality a couple of times, pushing up the person-sized square only enough so it wouldn't attract the attention of anyone that happened to be in eyeshot. It seemed easy enough to open, and Osamu stared at the dark plate as his fingers brushed the surface once again.

He listened intently for any footsteps above him – whether they belonged to someone in Tamakoma or not, getting caught popping up from a tile on the floor was a questionable activity all the same, and getting caught with an A-Rank agent's stolen gun in his possession was yet another matter. Osamu could hear the battle all too clearly, but it didn't sound as if there was any activity directly above his head.

Osamu threw open the hatch, and scrambled up the last few steps on the ladder as his fingers grabbed at the smoothness of the floor, then placed the gun on one side of the hole to have both his hands available as he tried to climb up. Ungraceful as he was, his head popped out of the opening before his entire upper half followed, dragging his legs up after it.

After picking up Kitora's gun, his first instinct was to look around and check for any enemy soldiers or a Tamakoma onlooker, and Osamu felt a weight lift from his shoulders as he realized he had been unseen.

The the short-lived moment of relief died in an instant, and he flinched as he heard a bullet ricochet off of a wall that had to be as close as the next hallway over, frantically hurrying to the nearest corner to conceal himself behind. Glancing at the room numbers beside various doors parallel to his position, he determined that he was close to the center of the base, where the main training hall was.

I know where I am, all I need to do is ask someone where Chika is right now – I should probably use 'Amatori' instead, though. Avoid combat. This place is huge, there's no way there's fighting everywhere. I can't get injured now.

Osamu took a deep breath, and he pushed himself off the wall and made a break down the empty hallway, in the opposite direction of whatever conflict his ears were picking up. His feet felt weighted as they had when he ran through the underground tunnels, but with a feel of his location Osamu's steps moved quicker.

On a whim, Osamu decided to head toward the far side of the base, giving him plenty of time to listen for some sort of a clue as to where Chika was. He paused for a moment at every corner, trying to prevent himself from running headfirst into a battle he knew well he couldn't walk out of. His breathing was strained already, but Osamu refused to take breaks in order to catch his breath, focused on his surroundings. Chaotic background noise drummed in his ears, background noise that was growing... louder?

Osamu was early to notice the sounds of approaching soldiers, their fight taking them towards Osamu's location. Panicked, he looked down the long corridor before him and immediately realized he was unlikely to reach a corner without being spotted, and he scanned the walls in desperation for something he could hide in. His only available options seemed to be an elevator several feet away and a stairwell at the end of the hallway, and being wary of the uncertainty that came with not knowing how fast the elevator itself would arrive, Osamu decided his chances of remaining unseen were better if he made a break for the stairs.

He turned and sacrificed whatever remaining energy he had on hand, and ran at the fastest speed he could manage. Osamu could only do so much as hope that his footsteps, ringing in his own ears, would be drowned out by the battle on his tail.

His head pounded.

A little farther.

Only a little farther.

I can't be caught now.

A bullet hit the wall.

Osamu's heart lodged itself in his throat. He nearly came to a stumbling halt before his situation got the best of him, and with painfully choppy breaths he kept his eyes focused on the goal ahead of him.

The soldiers were in the hallway. No doubt they could see him, the shouting told him that much.

Osamu was steps away from the staircase to the second floor, when one voice managed to successfully reach his ears.

"He's Tamakoma!"

No less than a moment later Osamu felt a searing pain on his right shoulder, and gasped at the fire that spread down his arm. Had one of them seen the emblem on his sleeve? Tripping on the first stair and barely managing to keep himself from falling, Osamu's hand flew to the pain's source and he froze at the wetness he found there.

A bullet had barely hit him flying by, and cut deep enough to draw a flow of blood but having missed him by enough to not have embed itself in his muscle. Shock held him in place only briefly, before he was forced back into reality by a second bullet that flew by terrifyingly close to his head.

He glanced behind him in an instant, not able to take in much of his attackers' appearances but making the quick assumption that they were human – therefore, Border.

They're wearing... suits?

As strange as their attire seemed, if Osamu had even seen correctly, he couldn't afford to risk being hit again. He hastily pulled himself behind the wall in front of the stairwell, and he switched the gun from his left to right hand before latching his now free hand to to his shoulder in an attempt to prevent blood loss. Flinching as he heard more bullets hit the wall that currently shielded him, Osamu staggered up the first few stairs with one hand grasping Kitora's gun and the other his wounded shoulder.

And then he caught the soldier's' words.

"Leave him, he has a normal signal to begin with," ordered a deep voice, the same one who had announced Osamu's belonging to Tamakoma. "Return to the marked spot," they continued. "Tamakoma is going to be occupied enough in dealing with the Neighbors' advancing on the West side of the base, it seems one of their own is being targeted."

Osamu froze where he stood.

"Roger that, sir," replied a second, more upbeat voice. Osamu could distinguish the faint sound of a gun being placed in its holster, giving him the impression that this person was the one who had shot at him or, if there had been multiple, one of them.

"Are you sure?" A third voice asked, sounding cautious. "He may have seen our faces."

"I doubt he got a good look, he turned around quickly enough," the first voice answered.

The second person chimed in, and Osamu's ears picked up the shuffling of feet. "He was alone, too. Doubt he'll get much further without his squad, especially since Afto's just showed up."

What followed was murmuring that Osamu couldn't hear properly, but it faded from earshot as the three people ignored him and went on their way. He breathed a lengthy sigh of relief, though the throbbing in his shoulder left him wincing as he accidentally shifted it.

Osamu slowly rotated the joint with a frown; he would have to keep running, and while he could probably bear the pain, moving his shoulder even slightly seemed to make an additional amount of blood flow from the wound. It wasn't a terrifyingly concerning amount, and in the moment he was thankful for his left-handedness that still enabled him to use the handgun if he really needed to, but Osamu was conscious of any movement involving his right shoulder.

He did have a better idea of where he was going, though.

Whichever of the three soldiers had spoken first said that Neighbors were going towards the West side of the base, giving Osamu reason enough to assume that was where Chika was, even if it was helplessly broad. He knew his surroundings well enough, and he'd heard Tamakoma soldiers describing various locations in the base as being on the 'West side' before - he would head towards the far end of the base, and if Neighbors were indeed attacking Tamakoma, it would be easy to find them when he got close enough.

Deciding it was too risky to go back down the hallway from which he'd came, Osamu forced himself up the stairs after listening for footsteps above him and hearing none. He would have to avoid any further encounters with any soldiers, and as he pushed open the door on the second floor Osamu moved with caution while sneaking towards the back hallways.

He could still hear the fighting, if not even more so after being shot at, but it would be reasonable for the majority of the battle to be taking place on the ground level. While Osamu's wariness of his surroundings had been upped, he felt more secure on the second floor and thus moved quicker, even with the throbbing in his shoulder.

The monotone, repetitive setup of Tamakoma's base passed him by almost quicker than he could process it, though a considerable amount of his focus was directed towards preventing leaving an obvious trail of blood from his shoulder. Osamu was overly conscious of the sound of his own footsteps, keeping them as quiet as he could manage while running through the numerous corridors. Only once did he hear a battle that sounded close enough to be on his floor, and while stumbling a bit he quickly changed his route to avoid being seen.

Jin did say the guards only thought a few Border units showed up, that's probably why it's pretty empty up here, Osamu remembered, looking around before taking his next turn. And I'm lucky that there doesn't seem to be any Neighbors where I am... None that I can hear, at least.

When it sounded like there was no fight within any distance that would endanger Osamu's motive, he glanced at room numbers on the walls again to confirm his location. Progressing at a fast walk rather than a run, he took a guess at where to turn next based on the layout of other areas in the base, and sure enough he rounded a corner to see the door to an empty stairwell.

Glancing from side-to-side and moving closer, Osamu paused in front of the door as he took his bloodied hand from his shoulder and hovered it near the handle. What would be waiting for him at the bottom of those stairs? Would he have to fight? How many Neighbors were ahead of him?

More importantly, how much will I regret hesitating?

He turned the handle.

Osamu was careful of his steps, and had abandoned trying to apply pressure to his shoulder, the bleeding less than before. He held Kitora's gun to his chest, tensing as he clicked off the safety. Any sounds echoed off the close walls and, to Osamu, seemed several times louder than they would have in the hallway - the stairwell seemed like an isolated pocket miles away from any fighting. And it was eerie.

Natural light snuck into the dim space as Osamu neared the bottom, and only then did his surroundings return to him in a storm of gunshots, metals, and the shouting of orders above them. Holding his breath, he picked up his pace and jumped down the last few stairs, hearing his shoes squeak against the floor. Osamu spared no time in pressing his back against the wall, now gripping his weapon with both hands despite the blood, and scanned the hallway quickly while listening for the closeness of any other soldiers. There was a battle nearby, as close as a wall away if Osamu's estimate was correct, and-

Crash!

Out of nowhere, the entire hallway shook. Osamu was thrown off balance in a start as the creaking of metal screamed in his ears, and managed to stay on his feet despite the dizziness that had enveloped everything around him. Still keeping hold of the gun, he put one hand against the wall to steady himself. Osamu nearly flinched away at the rumbling in the cold surface, an effect of whatever had just occurred, but he forced his head upwards as he looked for something that would guide him to the source.

From beyond the corner at the end of the hallway, he saw smoke. Possibly dust, or both, even, but either way, the murky pale cloud seemed to crawl along the floor as it flooded the near surrounding area. Osamu stood up straight, breathing heavy as he stared at it with wide eyes.

That's it.

His vision shifted direction to see a group of people that seemed to be around the size of two squads, maybe three, approaching the gray haze from the hallway directly in front of it. Osamu had to squint, but he barely made out the Tamakoma emblem on one of their jackets, and, if they had even seen him, none paid him mind as they disappeared behind the wall.

Osamu could hear them join the battle that had broken out, and over the mess of noises he tried in vain to listen for Chika's voice or, at the least, anyone saying her name. He didn't need a vocal clue or the convincing feeling in hit gut to tell him, however, that he'd found her.

It was when a bullet escaped the hall and flew through Osamu's line of sight did he make a move. He returned to holding the gun with both hands, and moved forward in an uneven run that quickly gained in speed.

He went around the corner.

Osamu's vision became clouded, and he ducked his head in attempt to keep the tiny pieces of debris from getting in his eyes, coughing despite trying to turn away. Everything was so loud, so loud, and with every firing of a gun his first assumption was that he had been the one shot before he realized he felt no wound.

Suddenly, a loud clang ripped through the smoke, immediately taking all of Osamu's attention. To his dismay, he heard the noise again. And again. And again.

More times than he could count, the almost sickening sound of something being thrown against the metal walls of the base pained his ears, followed by what was undoubtedly various weapons falling to the floor. Osamu's curiosity was what took him through the next few steps forward, and as the haze in front of him began to thin on its own he waved it away with a hand and tried to see what was in front of him.

Bodies. And not only on the floor; Osamu could only stare in horror at the numerous Tamakoma soldiers pinned to the walls by one or more of their limbs. However, after a single moment he realized that most of them were moving, some desperately, and with a closer look he noticed that sharp black spikes were what stuck the soldiers to whatever surface they had been flung to.

Osamu couldn't look with such intensity for long, for movement on the corner of his vision caught his eye the second he noticed it. His finger found the gun's trigger, and he shakily pointed it towards the human-shaped silhouette that stood at the edge of the sight in front of him.

His eyes drifting as if they wanted him to see her, it took him a second longer to recognize the soldier that was trapped to the ground by her arm, directly before the unidentified threat responsible.

And in the same second he knew said threat was no human.

A/N:

More than one unnamed mysterious character™ in this chapter, though I assume you can identify most of them (lol). Well, at least the three in suits...

Fun fact: in the original version of the story, Chika lived in Mikado City with Osamu's family, and the two of them ended up joining Tamakoma at the same time under the same circumstances. I probably should've put that in the notes when Chika debuted, but even though I missed that opportunity I felt I should include it at some point!