They didn't know what to feel. It was easy for them to be drenched in fear, to shield themselves from the relentless horrors that continued to ensue, but through their sweat, they rubbed off the fear and continued to stand stronger than any structure.
Their weapons were up, as long as would keep their motivation to look up as well, keep pushing forward. If anything, they were chugging themselves into danger so un-predictable that death seemed imminent. If death was to be met upon them, then death they shall receive, and they would be doing so, acting upon the motivation to correct things.
There is no try.
The spirit that burnt within would give them all the strength to face fear and intimidation itself and do so preserving their integrity and honor, no matter what the outcome may inevitably be.
As the group continuously repelled the occasional zombie that would intersect with their paths on the tight and narrow street, with housing spread aimlessly they began to see the change in weather as the day began to slowly switch to the evening. With the dark, tense looking clouds in the sky, and the rumblings that echoed, they were immediately made aware that a storm was approaching.
It almost seemed a little too convenient for their inconvenience to match their own feelings and thoughts with the weather. Where they were going it was dark. Darker than anything they would have faced before. Leadership amongst themselves seemed to be split. Ideally, they would have put the only, now more motivated young cop in charge, but there needed to be a more contributing, democratic co-operation.
They were fully capable without a single leader instructing their every move. Not that it was unwelcome…the circumstances only demanded it and it was their own right to practise self-sufficiency and independence if they wanted to see their friend again, no matter what.
"Are we almost there…?" Kohta huffed.
"ARRRRRRRRRGH!" Saya groaned, just about ready to rip her hair out.
"Calm down! Please!" Asami pleaded.
"…"
"We've been walking for hours…" Takashi admitted, letting out a sigh looking at Rei. "But we have to do this…" Then he glanced towards Saeko.
"Takashi…?" Rei murmured, trying to get his attention again.
"She…" He sighed. "She hasn't even said a word since we left…And uh…I should've stayed behind…I don't know-"
"Your mom is going to be fine." Rei assured, taking hold of Takashi's hand.
Takashi, nodding with a thank you gesture, slowly breathed in and out.
"And your dad is going to be fine to." Takashi grinned.
She nodded…their hands split up from each other and they continued…
Takashi and the others continued to remain alert of any sort of opposition that could either threaten or aid them. Right now, he seemed to be fixated on the fact that it was going to start pouring soon. He wasn't as afraid of a rainstorm compared to those walking corpses and yet-to-be-revealed enemies.
"I think it's best if we find shelter." Asami timidly suggested. "I-I-It's going to get really bad…"
"Yeah…" Takashi slurred.
"Yeah." Rei nodded.
With the addition of their own outrage, the dark clouds beginning to form and stretch across the sky, there was such a fluctuating stream of emotion hanging in the air…the anger…the intense almost felt completely mind numbing that everyone could feel their ears pop as if they were entering higher attitude spaces.
The source was exhilarating among them…they were all angry, they were all outraged, there was some that overstepped the other, and they were all marching with a sole objective, but their own heart-racing motivations were low when they compared it to the will that was burning in Saeko Busujima's heart, from which they felt the cinders of her infuriating grief.
"WE HAVE TO CONTINUE." Saeko protested to the idea.
They may have been able to comprehend the pain previously expressed by Rei Miyomoto due to her captive father, but the essence of Saeko's untameable, savage psyche continued to grow rather unstable and yet…only one truly understood how that insanity came to be.
"Takashi…?" Rei whispered as Takashi could feel his heart skipping a beat.
"Huh…?" Takashi trembled. "Oh um…N-nothing…" He said, trying to shrug off the overwhelming fear.
With the uncontrollable feeling of anger flowing in the air, Rei deemed it appropriate to try and comfort and encourage Takashi so that they may be able to triumph, but she stopped herself when she heard a loud thunderous clap from the distant, approaching dark clouds.
Likewise, the same attempt for sheltering one another occurred amongst Kohta, Saya, and Asami but yet, Saeko appeared to reject any form of intimate support. Confused with her, they looked at her with the utmost concern and she only responded by saying, "I am exercising my independence."
And right after that, it was blatantly no secret of what she whispered afterwards…
"…Akio…"
Too obvious…
Finally free from those powerful and compelling illusions, Rin transcended from her dream life state, just in time to gasp for air, giving her the need to put on her helmet once more to allow her built in, mechanically functioning respirators to pump air into her body. As the mask sealed shut, she stood attention to her master, now entering the room to see what his apprentice has done to his former apprentice.
"RIN. I see that you disassembled the concrete barrier in his conscience."
"Yes master." She said through her mask, a robotic voice vocalizing her.
"But I see that he is refusing to undergo the mutation…"
"I acted as you instructed master. I have failed to trigger the compounds that you placed in his body years ago."
"Unfortunate..."
"Perhaps we could mechanize him just as you have done with me?"
"No…I need our…Darth Yuudai to be one hundred percent man. One hundred percent flesh and bone, combined with our enhancements of course."
"Mas-"
"ONE HUNDRED PERCENT. NEED I REMIND YOU ONCE MORE THAT THIS IS THE ONLY TEST SUBJECT WHO HAS BEEN ABLE TO SURVIVE THE INFUSION PROCESS WITHOUT TURNING!"
Darth Rin, mesmerized by her master's rage and assertiveness, looked at Akio's stillness of suffering, then back at Shido.
"Yes my master…"
"Good…Execute the next set of instructions."
With a slight tug with his calling to the Force, Minister Shido released Akio from the restraints, causing him to fall face forward to the ground, making a grunting noise as he made impact, weakly gagging out his own blood while Darth Rin watched, almost feeling a wince of cold calling down from deep inside of her, as she could feel a part of her older entity leak for a mere second.
"Yes my master."
Rin held her breath as her own master, the man that turned her into this…thing…this machine, glared at her, with the heat of superstition burning in his eyes.
"You can't ignore me forever…You know what's going to happen."
From behind that mask, she trembled just hearing her younger, pure, enlightening self, the Mizuki she used to be, call out to her inside her own mind. She even heard it once again as her master left the room for her to attend to her next task for attempting to find the trigger for Akio's full capability to finally transform and convert him back to the depths of the Sith.
"You're really going to go through with this? This is the man you love! This is the man you vowed yourself to and he vowed himself to you! Do you really want to see him suffer until the rest of time? Your master will not hesitate to dispose of you like the rest of the failed subjects!"
No hesitation, just pressuring focus, Rin dragged Akio by his leg as he felt the cold, metal ground tear at his skin as the friction played its role, forming bloody scrapes as he was hastily dragged down the dark hallway. He could only squint and make out the tiny details of the place he was in. This was the place…it was the same as he remembered.
The tunnel shaped metal walls with pipes running along the wall, the incandescent lights that dimly lit up the area, followed by the aluminum made pipes that ran across the top of the ceiling, accompanied by vents at the side. Akio saw a door, marked in Japanese inscription that read: TESTING AREA.
He was thrown inside, onto his stomach, where he met with the sight of many human beings lined in rows of large test tubes, with the test subjects placed in a sleep induced state as respirator masks connected covered their mouths and water surrounded the interior of the tube.
This room was a place was incomparable to his last visit to this underground facility he was in, which was shelled and buried under the home of the Japanese Minister's political position, where Ichirou Shido can continue to stay in office and yet even now as he possessed the power to build this weapon and infect billions and cripple any resistance, just to flush out only one...and thus have these pour souls trapped behind the glass.
There was…it was…The Force was resonating heavily in the room from the test subjects. And the glass translucent tube containing a woman inside was where Akio pushed himself up using his palms from where he was landed after he was thrown was marked with the inscription of his mother's name, Kurumu Jin.
Rin, in the meantime, could accept the inevitable fate that would soon intersect with her. Even to her master in the present, compared to his original work, she was obsolete and un-wanted. She knew…the time will come when her outdated enhancements will be crushed by the superiority of the strength he has been given and these genetically modified individuals would be the new agents of chaos.
She reassured the unfair truth from the words her master, while thinking about what her own persistent soul essence of light had told her…
"One hundred percent flesh and bone, combined with our enhancements of course."
Mizuki was right…he didn't want a passive robotic being such as herself, he wanted an unorthodox superweapon that took the shape of man, and inherited the powers of a Sith Lord.
"There's no need to tremble Akio…in time they will call you master." Rin said, choking on her own words.
The silent that ensued perpetuated for longer than she would have anticipated a reaction, even if Akio was unable to move or talk to his heart's content. It seemed like many lifetimes, that the silence persisted in its existence, with the occasional ripple of water flowing through the tube's tanks but then it began to occur very slowly.
First it was body vibrating, then it was light chuckling that transformed and manifested into menacing laughter that appeared to have pierced into whatever remained of her soul, beginning to instill fear, made possible with the Mizuki Muto she tried to obliterate but continued to remain alive as her time with Akio perpetuated. The insane laughter continued, then faded out to a demented voice that sounded more haunting than the devil himself.
"I AM ALREADY THEIR MASTER. I AM YOUR MASTER."
Rin couldn't believe her eyes. The results were working and were beginning to take its shape. Akio's skin…it was withering, and yet it was hardening as its shade and color became gray but a cost. The Sith began panicked at the presence of this maniacal super weapon to her dismay and fear…even devoid of any emotion or empathy, she began to quiver as she tried hesitantly to reach for her lightsaber.
In fact, both of her lightsabers…her red Sith blade and the old green Jedi blade she managed to retrieve when her master deployed Akio's mother to capture him. When she reached for her red lightsaber, the green lightsaber managed to be pulled back into Akio's possession. In a single sweep, she raised her lightsaber to defend herself, but it only took one slash for the intersecting blades to knock her over and render her immobile as her respirator popped on impact.
"Master…" She tried to plead for her life as tears rolled down her cheek behind the mask when Akio was atop in preparation to deliver the strike. "Don't kill me please…please…I want to…I-"
From that plead, that oh so desperate plea that spoke of both the voices of Mizuki Muto and Darth Rin with the after effects of her malfunctioning voice box, her vision started to become completely unperceivable. She saw that the Akio she tortured was coming back into focus and the demented inner strength of his Sith self, Darth Yuudai, was disappearing.
Once again, she was reminded of the plea she made years ago before being bound to the mechanical suit she was stuck in…that sense of consciousness and empathy just springing up at the last moment before disappearing for an eternity…that's what was happening with Akio…and if it was to disappear, Rin needed to act quickly before Akio could truly end her life.
With all the strength she had, summoning the Force, she sprung to her feet and put the red blade through his abdomen, now rendering him immobile. Struggling for breath, she deactivated her lightsaber, re-claimed her old lightsaber, placed it back on her belt, and then looked down at the unconscious Akio. Her own words haunted her again as she began to feel nostalgia stemming back to the days as Mizuki Muto.
"This is the man you love! This is the man you vowed yourself to and he vowed himself to you! Do you really want to see him suffer until the rest of time?"
But alas, for the Sith, there was no time for any form of regret or self-pity as she was still chained to the authority of Minister Shido, her master.
"RIN! STATUS REPORT!" His voice echoed over an intercom in the room.
"The test subjects are unscathed. Akio's transformation has begun." She quickly responded.
"Good…good…excellent…OH SO VERY GOOD! Now…chain him up, this time place him in the duplication room."
"But…but…Master…what about the-"
"YOU WILL PLACE HIM IN THE DUPLICATION ROOM AND PREPARE TO HAVE HIM CLONED AT ONCE."
"Mas-"
"DO IT."
She felt oh so ever inclined to say no…for the first time in an extended amount of time, she wanted to listen to herself and follow her own conscience and decisions. Surely, she needed a new mask and immediate repair was required if she was going to survive as the Force was not going to sustain her forever.
However…She didn't want to see what the machine would do to him...She didn't want him to die…
And the documentation of that machine's history was an understatement of nightmares even for schemers such as her master. Whatever her master's order were…she really wanted to say no…she really felt like her vows to serve the Dark Side were misinterpreted into a powerful illusion.
"…Yes master…"
The com-link disconnected and she grumbled under her own breath while pulling together all the pain to, this time, carry Akio with her hands, carefully…awkwardly as well.
"…Yes master…don't worry…don't worry…don't worry…" She whimpered.
It was feeling so close and yet it was so far away. They continued to retrace their steps in order to even walk within the vicinity of Tokonosu City Hall, but there was still so much distance to travel and so little resources at their disposal.
Ammunition was not going to last for very long as they needed to have some instances of repulsion and defense from the ever so aggressive un-dead, that continued to show more signs of eagerness as time went on, increasing in their agility and their ability to resist more attack before being put down.
With the hours spent traversing across the ruined, gory city, the only positives that seemed to have stemmed out of the continuous harsh journey was for the practises of weaponry, more or less for Saya Takagi, Asami Nakaoka, and Rei Miyomoto as they haven't gotten good opportunity for weapon use.
Ever since she had to say goodbye to her mother merely a couple days earlier, she's kept the authentic Luger pistol in her possession to both her convenience and dismay. Whenever 'Luger' was mentioned, Kohta Hirano would seem to go off in a momentary daze, thinking of its history before continuing to instruct Saya how to properly and proficiently hold and fire her weapon. The successful student and teacher roleplay between the two seemed like a rite of passage, and that kept them smiling even in dark times.
Meanwhile, Asami felt really proud and overwhelmed to receive the encouragement she needed to possess a gun even if her original assigned duty resided in the traffic department, something that didn't seem to thrilling or dangerous but now of course, her aim needed to be true when it came to wielding that revolver.
As the only and one of the last Police Officers striding towards the political ruler, she wanted to ensure that justice was properly administered, and the history will not be manipulated for future conflict ever again.
As for Rei Miyomoto…she was just very eager to see her father again, and yet very nervous to meet the father of the man that caused her father to break down in tears and apologize for her education pull back, and cause all of this chaos she and her friends were trying to fix…no thanks to their Jedi that they would die for just as he would die for them.
The M1A1 she had strapped around her waist was mainly used throughout this whole time as a spear, with the use of the rifle's bayonet but as Hirano promised before, he'd tell her how to use just as he had done with Saya.
So that was that…So almost everyone seemed efficient with a gun, except Saeko who still chose to preserve her time with the use of the Murata blade. No matter what they offered to her, she seemed to glare at them, proclaiming arrogantly and insistently that she could only wield a sword and should die doing so.
Where this experience and traverse continued to lead the group, flowing with the adrenaline that came with the thrill of surviving, was just at where they were on that second day of the outbreak, the apartment complex that their school nurse happened to provide them with thanks to the connection she had with someone she knew who was in the military. "Thank God" they thought, then and now. Now was a good time. They may not have been as concerned or as afraid of rain as much as the un-dead that filled the streets, but they naturally wanted to take shelter with haste.
With the gray overhead clouds finally caught up with them, and the rain mercilessly hitting the ground, followed by gratuitous lightning and thunder, they were inside. When they got inside, they did not expect to find what they found…it was someone they were expecting to see later…
"Is that Shido…?" Takashi gasped as he squinted in the dark apartment.
Sure enough, instead of City Hall, they found him here, in the center of the living room. Koichi Shido…Mr. Shido…tied to a chair that was pushed against the wall and was passed out. So many questions to be asked…How did he get here? Was there anyone else here?
"Hands in the air! Don't move!" A woman's voice echoed from upstairs.
Slowly, everyone raised their hands in the air, avoiding as little contact or grip of their weapons as possible when they heard a gun being bolted back.
"Drop them…"
They could not see from the shadows of the apartment who was ordering them, but they still complied out of their desire to...live…possibly fight their way out of this situation, or at least try. Strangely, none of those feelings seemed to have surfaced as much as a sense of trust and security. It was feeling, an instinct that was tugging at them, telling them they should know who this person is.
Still unseen, the woman began look over the weapons. It didn't take too long to notice the Itacha shotgun, the AR-10 sniper, and the M1A1 rifle to finally speak.
"These are mine…Hmm…My locker was broken into with a lightsaber…There is no lightsaber here and yet you were here…"
It came as both a surprise and a revelation to the group. Without a doubt, they knew who this person was now.