The Voice in Your Heart
Page 37: Once Again
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Hi guys, I'm back. It's been like, a month since the last update. I had been juggling work and drawing. PMGR readers might remember this, but I had mentioned that I intended to shift to drawing before half-and-halfing between drawing and writing. Boy, did I do that. It's also because I had been stuck with TViYH's progression for a while. Now I finally figured it out.
Anyways, this chapter's mood song is "Hello" by Adele. That song made me cry...and I don't know if you can tell, but I don't cry easily. Hell, I revel in writing stories that make people cry, as PMGR readers can attest to. This chapter would've made me cry if I wasn't the one writing it. Either way, the mood song is no longer DragonForce's "Trail of Broken Hearts", as it has been for the last several chapters. eue longest-lasting mood song session ever...
"He didn't pick up, Jasmine…" Cumin remarked, looking at the screen of her phone.
Jasmine's teeth chattered when she heard that sentence again. She didn't count how many times they called, and Axl wouldn't pick up the phone.
"Maybe…his phone is out of battery, Jasmine…" Saffron speculated.
"Impossible…! I made sure that phone was charged to maximum, and I know his phone's not one of those phones that sucks battery like hell!" Jasmine answered, her voice raised in horror. "I just…I hope he's alive…I just hope it's because he hasn't been hearing the ringtones…"
"Jasmine, I gave him the best gun I have, and he's a friggin' former S-class hunter. He'll be okay." Cumin assured.
"I hope so…I'm just really worried, I don't want him to die…" Jasmine sobbed, hugging her knees and hanging her head as the bus drove on.
It had been hours since they heard the warnings on TV requesting that they pack up their belongings and leave. Giga City citizens, human or reploid, were to evacuate to the new city that was recently opened, New Hope. Being a new, barely populated city located in very close proximity to the Central Tower, where Giga City's government is centred in, it was the perfect location for refugees.
Jasmine and her two sisters Cumin and Saffron left their shops with heavy hearts, taking nothing more than one or two suitcases with them.
"You shouldn't have gone out there, Axl…" Jasmine had whispered to herself when she locked the door of the shop. Axl can just come home any time, he has the keys…but he'll come home to nothing but a letter saying that the three sisters had gone to New Hope, and a contact number to request assistance from the government to go there when he returns.
As the buses destined for New Hope moved along the roads, Jasmine looked around the windows, hoping that Axl might have seen and heard the announcements in other territories closer to Lagrano, and he had just gotten on another bus.
But that was nothing but a mere hope. Axl was still rummaging around the abandoned ruins of Lagrano for all the documents he could stuff into his bag and container program, mainly proof of Redips being personally involved with the Force Metal experiments even before he was Colonel.
"Holy shit." Axl remarked. "Where did he get all this money from?" he continued as he observed the numbers in the earliest invoices. "This is almost my whole A-rank salary. Did he live on solar energy? No instant noodles or anything?" he further ranted in disbelief.
"Thinking back on it," he thought to himself. "I never really knew what kind of person this Redips is. Was he a millionaire even before joining the Hunters? Or is he just really frugal when it comes to himself? Is he a charitable person? I should ask X and Zero…"
Axl thought as he opened his bag to take out his mobile phone. He had set it to silent mode, and…
"Oh, shit." Axl cursed as he looked at the many, many records of missed calls from Cumin, Saffron, and especially Jasmine. "They're gonna chew me out." he huffed out.
"The call is going to take a long time," Axl thought some more. "So I'll just send X and Zero some IMs. While I wait for their reply, I'll let those three chew me out. I must've worried them like hell…"
Axl quickly opened the instant messaging program, and accessed his group chat with X and Zero.
"Hey, guys. I know it might just be too late for me to ask, but, well…when Colonel Redips first got into the spotlight, I doubt you guys know anything about him yet. So…can you tell me about him? I'm quite curious. What does he do? What did he do before he was Colonel, or even before he became a hunter, if you know? What kind of person is he? His personality and stuff. Thanks guys!" he typed as quickly as possible.
And then, he called Jasmine.
Jasmine gasped, nearly jumping when she heard her phone ring. She smiled really wide the moment she saw the screen, showing that Axl had called her back.
"Hey! Axl! It's you…right?" Jasmine asked immediately the moment she answered the call.
"No, it's Francis." Axl teased. "What is it, Jasmine? I'm sure I worried the hell out of you, Cumin and Saffron, huh?"
"Sure as hell you did! I'm putting the phone on loudspeaker. Cumin and Saffron are staring at my phone like hungry eagles!" Jasmine excitedly exclaimed, and set the phone on loudspeaker.
"Can you all hear me now?" Axl said again.
"Loud and clear!" Cumin declared.
"Jasmine almost cried, you know." Saffron giggled. "What happened? Why didn't you pick up the phone?" she asked, her tone more serious.
"Ah." Axl blurted out. "I'm sorry. I set the phone on silent." he apologized. "Otherwise…" he trailed off.
"Otherwise what?" Saffron pressed.
"Nevermind. I don't want anyone to go after you if I somehow screwed up in there." Axl revealed. "Anyways, do you know that…" Axl spoke up, wanting to tell the three sisters the truth behind the struggle in Lagrano, but… "Nevermind." Axl continued, regretting what he had just said.
"Secrets were being kept." Axl thought to himself. "I can't just fling them like nothing…"
"Do you know what?" Jasmine asked. "If anything, it's our line! Did you want to tell us that something went wrong out there in Lagrano?" she clarified.
"Well…yes, how did you know?" Axl nervously answered.
"The government guys at Central Tower had issued an announcement that the Supra-Force Metal experiment subjects had gone maverick, so we're all evacuating to New Hope, that new city really close to Central Tower." Jasmine explained.
Axl tensed in horror. Of course. Prof. Gaudile must have somehow survived. He did find Miyu Tezuka's bloodied body, but there was no trace of Gaudile. Gaudile must have been the one who alerted the authorities…
"Where are you? We left you a letter with the number you need to call if you need help evacuating, we're just going to send that number to you—" Cumin explained, only for Axl to cut her off.
"No, you don't need to." Axl interrupted her.
"What? Why?" Cumin exclaimed in disbelief.
"There's…a lot of things I have to settle. And those are dangerous matters, and I don't want you all to get involved. So…this is goodbye." Axl explained himself, masking his intention to search for, and confront Epsilon. Maybe he can stop this madness…
"Axl, what the hell?" Jasmine yelled. "No, why? You don't have to risk your life! What do you want to do anyways? We can't just…leave you alone…" she spoke again, her voice progressively lowering in volume.
"You can call it the sense of duty of a maverick hunter, I suppose." Axl made up an excuse. Yes, to him it is not his sense of duty, but they can interpret it as that, even if it isn't.
"What, you're going to confront those Force Metal monsters alone?" Saffron spat.
"They're not monsters." Axl huffed out. "They're people as much as we are." he argued, expecting them to not believe it. But that's the truth.
"I don't want you to die!" Jasmine screamed.
"Believe me, I won't." Axl assured, still with a calm voice, looking up to the ceiling as he remembered that a few months ago, he had told Epsilon the exact same thing Jasmine just told him, and he had heard from Epsilon whatever he had told Jasmine.
"There's something I need to do, and I don't want you to be involved. So this is goodbye."
Jasmine sobbed for a few seconds as Axl listened in silence, realising that he had hurt Jasmine the same way Epsilon had hurt him. Back then, when Epsilon left his head for his new body, he had sobbed the exact same way.
"Whatever it is…" Jasmine said, composing herself again. "Please come back to us when you're done." she requested.
Axl bit his lip. "I can't promise anything." he truthfully answered. "But I swear on my soul that I'm not going to die."
"Well, you better not." Cumin responded. "I won't forgive you if you die, you know."
"Best of luck, alright? We'll be here cheering for you all the way." Saffron softly beamed, lightening up the mood.
"Thanks, guys. You just…live your lives, alright? I'll live my life in the meantime. Goodbye." Axl replied with a smile.
"Bye…" Jasmine said, and then Axl hung up.
Right after he ended the call, Axl heaved a big sigh.
He had just made Jasmine, Cumin and Saffron suffer from the sorrow he suffered when Epsilon left him, that took him to them in the first place.
"I'm sorry, you guys." he muttered. "I'm sorry I'm a horrible person. And that's why I won't be coming back."