"Here," Satō said, extending the small silver .22 caliber handgun to her with the muzzle pointed down.
"I don't know how to use a gun," Callie muttered, turning her nose up as if offended by the device.
"Come on," he enticed her, waving the gun toward her. "At least try."
"No," she flatly refused, crossing her arms over her chest. "I don't use weapons meant for killing."
"Oh, I see," he murmured, inhaling noisily through his nose.
He flipped the gun up, hooking his forefinger around the small trigger. Leveling the nose of the weapon at her head, he waited for a reaction. When none came, not even a glint of fear in her eyes, he lowered the aim of the gun to her belly.
No thought came with the instinct to protect her unborn child. Lunging toward him, she seized his wrist to push the gun away while digging her fingers into the pressure point between the wrist bones to make him release the weapon. Pivoting on her right foot, she roundhouse kicked him behind the knees to bring him down to the floor, landing heavily on his kneecaps with a painful crash.
When his upper body slumped forward, she punched her fist straight up into his nose allowing the momentum to carry her elbow through for a second punishing hit, smashing the cartilage to pieces with a resounding crack. Blood spurted from his nostrils spraying the floor and the front of the white t-shirt Tanaka had given her to wear.
Satō bent over on all fours allowing the blood to spill from his nose forming a pool on the floor between his hands. Snatching a military issued Glock from the holster at his waist, he pressed the muzzle to his temple.
"No, wait!" she screamed, covering her face when he pulled the trigger without hesitation.
Warm blood splashed over her bare arms and jean clad legs. Gray bits of brain matter and white chunks of his skull sprinkled the floor amidst his blood.
Callie wanted to throw up but choked back the bile which only made her sicker. Grabbing her stomach, she almost bent in half as her stomach pushed up the delicious dinner of steak and potatoes Tanaka had made for her. The food was not so tasty the second time around.
Pressing the back of her shaking hand to her mouth, she watched as the black flakes filled the air around her grandfather's body like a cloud of dust while he gradually came back to life. She took a step back to distance herself from him when he groaned, pressing his hands to the floor to push himself up.
Satō's hand slipped in the slick blood sending him back down to the cement face first. She resisted the urge to laugh. There was absolutely nothing funny about this situation but seeing him land flat on his face in his own blood was somehow gratifying under the circumstances. On his second attempt to rise, he was more careful about the placement of his hands before pushing himself up onto all fours.
"Well, well, isn't this a surprise?" he chuckled with sinister glee.
Callie thought nothing could be more horrifying than that inappropriate giggle until he looked at her with his blood covered face, his eyes open, the irises glowing deep red like the dying embers of a fire. She gulped, her throat burning from the stomach acid. Retreating a couple of steps, her body coiled in preparation for his retaliation.
"You don't use weapons because you are a weapon," he proclaimed, a hint of pride in his jubilant tone.
Oblivious to the blood forming a macabre liquid mask over his face, he propped his chin on his loose fist as if to contemplate his good fortune of discovering her fighting skills. If only he knew...but thankfully he did not. At least she had not used her IBMs making him aware of them.
Stupid, stupid, stupid!, she chided herself. Now he can use you to his advantage. He's already plotting something. Dammit!
Callie inhaled deeply drawing fresh air into her lungs. She did not realize she had been holding her breath.
Walking past her without glimpsing at her, he murmured to himself, "Yes, this is surprising indeed. The game just got a little more interesting."
~\..'../~
"Oh, my god," Kei muttered, staring at the screen of his tablet.
"What? What's wrong? What did you find?" Kō gushed, bumping into him when he came to peer over his shoulder.
Kei grunted, elbowing him to make him back away. Kō was standing too damn close. He shuddered when he could still feel the man's hot breath on the back of his neck.
"I'm trying to read. Back off," he growled.
"Dammit, tell me, Kei!" Kō demanded in his typical annoyingly anxious manner.
"What did you find?" Tosaki chimed in next.
"I was able to trace one of the IP addresses of the Ajin website back to a specific computer. I found an email account that has already been disabled and deleted. However, I was able to follow some of the emails sent from that account to the recipients," he explained in the simplest terms possible. Mostly so Kō would understand.
"What did you find?" Tosaki pressed. Impatient as always, yet he managed to be less irritating than Kō about it.
"Callie was put up for sale," Kei reluctantly informed them, avoiding eye contact with her histrionic boyfriend.
"What the hell?!" Kō yelled. "That bastard sold his own granddaughter to the highest bidder! What the fuck for?"
"Who was the buyer?" Tosaki inquired in his calculated, eerily calm voice.
"Musashi Industries. The exchange is taking place tonight."
"We have to do something! We have to get her back! We can't let that asshole Satō do this!" Kō bellowed, his eyes filling with tears.
"I won't let him do this!" Kei shouted in his overwrought friend's face. "Now shut up and let me think!"
The frigid hand of apprehension seized his gut, threatening to make him vomit. He would not allow this happen. No better opportunity would present itself to retrieve Callie and take Satō out all at once. They could kill the proverbial two birds with one stone. The best part would be they would have the element of surprise on their side.
Kei had promised her he would protect her and the baby, and he would do whatever it takes to keep that promise.
~\..'../~
Callie glanced at each one of the three men surrounding her as they walked into the front doors of the Musashi Industries building. Tanaka stood in front of her, Kimura and Takahashi on each side of her. All three of them were dressed in business suits pretending to be businessmen - or rather big time gangsters delving in Ajin trafficking. They were taking her to give her over to her new owner. Or that's what they were pretending to do. The whole damn thing from their appearance to their intentions was a clever facade.
Callie swallowed the lump in her throat. Each one of them were armed with several weapons hidden under their fancy suits. She could not believe the idiots of Musashi Industries were allowing them in without even a second thought. She did not understand how it did not occur to them these Ajin traffickers had absolutely no ulterior motives. How can corrupt businessmen be so stupid and trusting? Perhaps they were blinded and dumbed down by their own greed.
Satō and the rest of his small army waited down the block ready to rush in with an arsenal, all hidden in the back of three box trucks. They even included a bomb that would emit an electromagnetic pulse which would disable all electronic devices and destroy any methods of communication with each other and the outside world. No help would be coming to save these rich, unscrupulous bastards when Satō unleashed hell on them.
Satō had the perfect plan to get away with it all. He had laid out their directives like a list of goals to complete a video game mission. Get the money transferred to the offshore account. Murder every member of the board of Musashi Industries. Steal the weapons developed and made possible through Ajin testing. Make an example of the company President Mitsuyoshi Hashiguchi for the world to see. Lastly, retain the girl for later use on other other missions. He would be the ultimate victor of this level.
The elevator doors opened and a man in a navy blue suit met them to lead them to a meeting room. Several men in expensive suits and a few in white lab coats sat in the chairs around the enormous oval table. Mitsuyoshi Hashiguchi sat at the head of the table facing them.
One, two, three...twelve men in all, including the company President. Damn. There were going to be so many dead bodies. But at least these men could not be considered innocent bystanders.
"I see you brought the merchandise," Mitsuyoshi Hashiguchi announced.
"Is she to your liking?" Tanaka inquired, standing close to her side.
"Doctor, why don't you take a closer look at her?" Hashiguchi suggested.
One of the men in lab coats stood up, approaching her.
"She's quite a specimen," the bespectacled 'doctor' murmured, licking his lips. His eyes ogled her ravenously from head to toe and back up.
Callie wore a plain pink sundress with a round neck that covered her chest well above her cleavage. The skirt hung loosely down to below her knees. There was nothing sexy about her clothing, yet the man acted like a raging pervert. She winced when he reached for her.
She grabbed his outstretched fingers wondering if the examination would be for sexual reasons or Ajin reasons. She had no desire to find out either way. Bending his fingers toward the back of his hand, she brought the man to his knees howling like a wounded animal. Apparently the doctor had delicate hands and no pain tolerance. How ironic for one who tortured Ajins for a living.
"No touching until you've paid," Tanaka said, pulling the whimpering doctor away by the collar
"How do we know she's really pregnant? Or an Ajin for that matter?" another scientist asked without making a move from his seat.
"I guess you'll just have to take our word for it," Tanaka insisted, glancing back at his cohorts.
Their hands had disappeared behind their backs, under their jackets, grasping their most easily accessible weapons, ready to draw them when necessary.
"Fine. Let's get down to business, shall we?" remarked the President of the company, confident in his business savvy but pathetically ignorant of knowing who he was dealing with. "I'll make the transfer. Then you gentleman can leave and my team of doctors can begin their work."
Mitsuyoshi Hashiguchi pressed a button on the open lap top in front of him. Callie could feel Tanaka's body coil in anticipation of the next step as he received confirmation through the earpiece that the money had been deposited into the account. Time to eliminate the nefarious board members and mad scientists.
An explosion sounded heralding the arrival of their boss, Satō. Phase two of ending Musashi Industries had officially begun with a literal bang. Another explosion rocked the building and the lights went out.
"What's happening?!" Hashigushi exclaimed amid murmurs around the table in the darkened room.
"Get down," Tanaka ordered Callie in a whisper. "Get out of here."
Callie dropped to the floor on all fours. Several bursts of gunshots erupted as Tanaka and the other two henchmen shot every man in the room except for Hashigushi. They needed him to lead them to the weapons. As she crawled toward the door, she could hear the tapping sound of rapidly firing automatic weapons somewhere close by in the building.
While reaching for the door handle, the double doors blew inward, flying off their hinges, pushing her back against the wall. Her hand hung limply at an unnatural angle from her wrist. All of her fingers were crooked and bruised. A scream of pain scorched her throat. She gently cradled her badly injured hand to her chest, leaning her head against the wood paneled wall behind her while she fought to stay conscious. The force of the door imploding had broken all of her fingers and obliterated her wrist bones.
"Move! Move! Move!" a man bellowed, his voice slightly muffled under his mask.
Men in camouflage uniforms, tactical helmets, and face masks entered the room with machine guns held high. The anti-Ajin forces! If they were here, maybe Kei and Kō were in the building! Flashes of light from the muzzles of their weapons illuminated the room and the ensuing chaos as they tried to shoot Tanaka and the other intruders who instantly retaliated.
Callie crawled on her belly, slithering through the gaping hole where the doors had once been. Once in the hallway, she stood up to run.
"Stop where you are!" a man in tactical gear and a face mask ordered her.
Callie froze in her tracks, hearing the metallic click of a bullet engaging in the chamber of a gun, perhaps a rifle. Going down with a single lethal shot was no more inviting than dying in a spray of bullets from a machine gun. She had no idea if this man was an ally or enemy so she closed her eyes tightly as she awaited her fate. There was a another click, then the pop like a firecracker. She jumped in expectation of the burning pain of a bullet entering her body, but it never happened.
"Callie?"
"Kei?" Her eyes flew open to see Kei standing there, the gun pointed down at the man lying on the floor in front of him.
Relief flooded her body, weakening her knees. In the following surge of adrenaline, she rushed forward, flinging her arms around Kei's neck and forgetting about her mangled hand.
"I'm so glad you're here," she sniffled, tears overflowing her lower eyelids.
His arms tightened around her waist briefly before he pushed her back. His eyes quickly skirted over her body, assessing her for injuries. Cautiously grasping her forearm, he straightened out her arm to get a better look at her broken fingers and wrist.
"We have to get you out of here," he announced, taking her other hand in his.
"Not so fast, Nagai," Satō said, raising his assault rifle to aim at Kei's head.
Kei pushed Callie behind him to shield her from Satō.
"You're not taking her again," Kei announced.
"I plan on leaving here with everyone I came with - including her," her grandfather countered, stepping forward.
Suddenly, there was a hiss and whooshing sound. A small red tipped metal syringe stabbed into Satō's neck like a dart into a bull's eye.
"Dammit," he groaned, dropping to his knees. "How - "
Above them, Kei's black ghost hung upside from an exposed metal beam holding a tranquilizer pistol in its hand.
"Practice, practice, practice," the black ghost chanted.
"Sneaky little bastard," Satō mumbled, falling forward.
"Oh, my god, Kei," Callie gushed, turning him to face her. She hugged him fiercely, pushing the air out of his lungs until he grunted. "You learned how to control it."
"Yeah, kind of," he hissed, barely able to breath.
The muted snap of a pistol shot pierced the air. Callie saw her grandfather's IBM standing above him with a gun equipped with a silencer. The black ghost had shot the old man in the head to reset him, bringing him completely back to his senses. No wonder Satō was crazy. He had taken far too bullets to the brain.
The man jumped to his feet, respawned and ready to go. Lifting the rifle, he aimed and pulled the trigger. The bullet would hit Kei in the lower back, shattering his spine and cutting his spinal cord.
"Look out!" Callie screamed, pushing Kei to the side out of the line of fire.
Once again, her instinct to protect overshadowed her rational thinking. Kei would have willingly protected her, shielded her unborn baby, by taking the bullet for her. She could have shot him and killed him, making him reawaken good as new.
Instead, the bullet entered her abdomen, creating a big gaping hole between her breasts and belly button. The impact drove her backward several feet before her body crumpled to the floor. In shock, she felt no pain - physical or emotional . She could not comprehend the full scope of the tragedy that had come upon her.
"No," Kei gasped, staring at her with terror widened eyes.
Callie was conscious but unaware. Unfortunately, the shot had not been immediately lethal; only severely damaging leading to a slow, torturous death. Blood trickled from the corner of her mouth, creating a fearsome red trail down her cheek and coloring her brown hair crimson.
"NO!" Kei screamed, shuffling across the floor on all fours to her.
"K-Kei," she stammered, her teeth clacking together. Her entire body convulsed, sliding into shock due to trauma and blood loss. "Where's Kō?"
"I-I d-don't kn-know," he stuttered, taking her uninjured hand in his. Her fingers were already icy cold. "He'll be here soon. Hang on."
"Kill me," she requested through chattering teeth.
"What?"
"Kill me!" she yelled with astonishing strength and volume.
"No. I can't. I can't," he repeated, tears gliding from the corners of his eyes down his pale cheeks speckled with her blood.
"Oh, dear God, Kei, the one time in your life you decide to have feelings shouldn't be now," she laughed. The dreadful sound devolved into a gargle as her throat filled with blood. "If you care about me at all, shoot me."
"Oh, for God's sake boy," Satō muttered, delivering a single shot to the middle of her forehead with the pistol in his hand.
"Noooo!" he wailed when a vermilion halo formed around her head from the blood flowing out of the hole in the back of her skull.
Satō holstered his gun, snatching the KA-BAR knife from his utility belt. With the other hand, he curled his fingers into the short hair on top of Kei's head, barely able to get a grip but finding enough of a hold to enable him to jerk the young man up to stand on his feet. Getting behind him, he pressed the blade of the knife to Kei's neck.
"Now it's your turn to die, Nagai. I'm going to cut off your head," he said, the blade biting into Kei's flesh and drawing blood.
"No!" Hirasawa yelled, shooting Satō in the back of the head.
The man dropped straight down to the floor before falling onto his back. Satō's anvil headed IBM struck Hirasawa, launching him through the air to smash against one of the massive decorative columns.
"Hirasawa!" Kei screeched.
The black ghost jumped at the disabled man, landing on the floor in front of his broken body. Grabbing the man by the neck, he slammed him into the four foot wide side of the column.
"No, don't!" Kei bellowed.
"Goddammit, kid," Satō growled, standing to his feet. "You are a real pain in my ass."
"Please don't hurt him!" he begged.
"When in the hell did you become such a soft touch? I never expected someone like you to develop feelings. Your girlfriend was right. Now was the worst time possible for you to grow emotions," the slit eyed man taunted him.
Satō massaged the back of his neck as if to work out a crick. Apparently getting shot the head so many times was beginning to stress him out. His seemingly nonexistent eyes briefly studied the man being held captive by his IBM and gradually being choking to death. His face remained passive, completely empty of emotion when he issued the order to kill Hirasawa.
"NOOOOO!" Kei shrieked.
His stomach clenched and he fought the urge to puke when he heard the sound of crunching bone as the black ghost broke Hirasawa's neck.
"Dammit! Why is this happening?!" he asked himself out loud.
Where the hell was everyone else? His eyes drifted over to the still dead Callie. Why wasn't she waking up?
"Mr. Satō," Tanaka said, pulling Hishaguchi behind him. The frightened and whimpering man's wrists were taped together and his mouth covered by the same silver duct tape.
Tanaka's eyes took in the nightmarish scene covered in blood laid out before him. The girl looked dead and was not reviving. What the fuck had happened here? His head swung toward the disinterested man who had no right to be called her grandfather. There was no doubt in his mind that he was the one responsible for shooting her.
How could she be dead? Maybe her body was too weak from attempting to create and protect the Ajin baby she carried. He had tried to feed her good food, make her rest, keep her as calm as possible under the circumstances, but...His eyes moved down to the huge hole in her gut.
"How could you - " He began only to be cut off abruptly.
"Let's go. We need to get those weapons," Satō announced coldly, turning his back on his granddaughter.
"Yes, sir," Tanaka agreed reluctantly.
Before walking away, he dared to glimpse one more time at the woman lying on the floor surrounded by a large puddle of her own blood. His eyes briefly met those of his two companions, Kimura and Takahashi. Their eyes were wide with fear and disbelief. The only thing they could do was shake their heads.
None of them had a clue how Satō could do such a heinous thing. One thing they now knew for sure was that the man was completely insane and had none of their best interests at heart. If the man could so callously disfigure his own granddaughter and walk away with no remorse, certainly he gave not a single fuck about them or any other Ajin. However, at this time, they had no choice but to follow him and complete the mission.
"Kei! Kei!" Kō hollered running toward him from the stairwell in the opposite direction of where Satō and his minions had exited the floor.
"Kō, stay back," Kei yelled at the top of his lungs, leaning over Callie to hide her body from her boyfriend's view.
Kō's sneakers emitted an ear shattering squeak when he came to a sudden halt. He could see blood. A lot of blood. And Callie was not moving.
"What happened?" he asked, unable to stop staring at the crimson pool marring the white marble floor. "She can't be dead. She's an Ajin." His voice was breathy, stilted, as if he found difficulty finding the strength to form the words. "She's not dead. She can't die. What's going on, Kei? What happened?"
"Kō, get back," Shimomura ordered him, turning his body by placing her hands on his shoulders and pushing him away. She walked behind him to make sure he would not turn back around.
"What the hell happened, Nagai?" Tosaki demanded. "How could your brilliant plan fail so spectacularly? This is the second time - "
"Sir, not now," Shimomura intervened since obviously Tosaki had not assessed the situation by using simple observation and deduction. He willfully ignored the apparent evidence of the calamitous events that had occurred and their far worse conclusion.
"Kei," Callie weakly moaned.
"You're alive," he breathed, watching the tiny black particles hopping around her body as she regained her life.
"Kei, it hurts," she whined, attempting to touch her belly but he grabbed her hand to pull it away. The wound had not yet healed itself fully. There was still a big open hole revealing fresh, half formed organs and raw muscles weaving themselves anew.
"She's okay? She's alive?" Kō asked, his voice high pitched with fear yet full of hope.
"She's alive," Kei confirmed, pushing sweat and blood tinged hair away from her white face still pasty from death's recent hold on her.
"The baby - " Kō began the question but stopped when he saw the tears in Shimomura's eyes.
"We don't know yet. The baby is an Ajin. So..." She stopped speaking, biting her trembling lower lip.
Tosaki cleared his throat. "We should get her back to headquarters. To the doctor. Let's go."
~\..'../~
Everyone clogged the hall outside the examination room waiting for news about Callie and the baby. Kō paced the entire length of the hallway. Kei performed search after search on his tablet. Pointless busy work to occupy his mind. Tosaki leaned into the corner, chain smoking. No one bothered to admonish him for smoking inside the building. Ogura smoked along with him, observing everyone in silence. Shimomura stood at attention beside the door of the room.
The door opening startled all of them, even the affectless Ogura. Ms. Fujiwara stood in front of them holding a metal chart to her chest. Her eyes were red rimmed and bloodshot. No one knew if her eyes were a mess from crying or lack of sleep. The doctor and nurse had been observing Callie for over twenty four hours. No one had slept.
"Callie's body is taking longer to heal because it is concurrently mending the damaged tissues while maintaining her basic functions and sustaining the baby," she explained, sighing heavily.
"So the baby is okay?" Kō asked, pushing between Kei and Tosaki to be closer to the nurse.
"As far as we can tell, the baby is fine. The uterus was not damaged by the bullet due to her being in the early stage of pregnancy. The projectile passed through the upper part of her abdomen, destroying several organs, muscle, and bone, including three vertebrae."
"Can I see her?" the worried boyfriend inquired, stepping forward.
The nurse blocked his way to the door. She lay her hand on his chest over his heart, patting him sympathetically. Her eyes became shiny with unshed tears.
"She has been put into an induced coma to allow her body to recover without stressing her other systems or causing her immune system to harm to the baby."
"For how long?" Kei questioned the nurse. He was sure Kō had been shocked into silence and could not form the question.
"We don't know. It just depends on how long it takes her to heal completely." The nurse glanced around at all of the exhausted, haggard faces surrounding her. "You should all eat a good meal and get some sleep. We don't have time to be tending to other sick people at the moment."
Ms. Fujiwara sniffed, quickly turning to disappear behind the closed door. A loud click signaled she locked the door behind her.
"All right everybody," Tosaki began. "We should do as the nurse says. We need to rest and regroup. Kei, I need a plan."
"No," he said, his voice low, resolute.
"What did you say?"
"I said no. I won't. I'm done."
No one could say a thing as they watched Kei walk away. After he disappeared around the corner, Kō finally spoke.
"Maybe it's for the best."
Author's Note: I was going to be a totally horrible bitch and end the chapter before the last bit about her and the baby's condition. However, I could not bring myself to do it because I have no idea when I will get around to writing the next chapter. Well, I hope you enjoyed reading this update. Thank you!