Liberi Fatalis: The Theriantrope Chronicles

by Eddie-E

A crossover between Ace Combat, Katmandu and another, surprise famous furry comic. An epic tale trascending eras about the life & times of many heroes & villians fighting against an ancient evil from a very distant past. Rated M for language and mature situations.

19. DAYS OF WRATH (PART 3)

ACT XIX: DAYS OF WRATH (PART 3)

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The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.

Nelson Mandela

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May 7th, AD 2306, Tomimura City Central Hospital (Department of Neurology), Tomimura City, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan, 11:45 AM

That day was a very difficult time for the old man, Ichiro Tachibana and his grandchildren, Keita and Yumi, who were in the hospital corridor to receive the results of the clinical tests that were performed on the little girl after that incident where Yumi suffered an epileptic seizure six days ago when she was meditating in the karate dojo where she and her twin brother were practicing their martial arts.

For the old man, the thought that his granddaughter might be suffering from epilepsy, or even having a brain tumor, was reason enough to be distressed: She, like her brother Keita, were the only living relatives he had left after his son and daughter-in-law died in a spaceship accident years ago, and he was not going to allow any more family members to die while he was alive.

-"Grandpa, do you think I'm going to be okay?"- Yumi asked with a somber tone.

The old man tried not to give that girl any false prospects, and he just tried to comfort her in the best way he could think of.

-"It's going to be all right, Yumi dear, I assure you it's going to be aaaaall right."-

Ironically, Keita, her brother, didn't seem to share the same opinion, as she saw that he seemed to move his feet back and forth as a sign of stress and worry that his sister might have a serious problem, but he preferred to say nothing more, even though the expression on his face gave him away.

-"I know what you're thinking, Keita, but you're making me nervous if you keep moving your feet like that, kid."-

Keita responded with a deadpan tone...

-"I can't help it, Grandpa."-

-"I understand that well, but you don't help anyone by showing nervousness like that. You're just making me and your sister more nervous than we already are."-

-"Sorry, Grandpa..."-

But before that conversation could take its course, a nurse came out of the office from one of the doctors who worked in the department of neurology, and who was attending to Yumi's case.

-"Mr. Ichiro Tachibana and his granddaughter Yumi Tachibana?"-

-"Yes?"- The old man and his girl responded at the same time.

-"Dr. Shigeru Abe will attend to you right now, you can pass by anytime."-

-"Thank you!"-

After receiving permission from the nurse, the three members of the Tachibana family entered the office, where Dr. Shigeru Abe, a more or less prestigious pediatric neurologist in the city, was ready to attend them. Once the doctor made the proper introductions and after the doctor made himself comfortable in his chair, as did the old man and his grandchildren, the doctor began to explain what he had seen in Yumi Tachibana's clinical tests.

-"Mr. Tachibana, I am going to come straight to the point with you, because I think what is happening to your granddaughter is especially bizarre, at least from a medical point of view."-

After hearing that, Ichiro began to envision the worst thing that could be befalling his granddaughter Yumi...

-"Tell me what kind of problem my granddaughter has, Dr. Abe."-

-"Hmmmmmmmm..."- The doctor pondered for a few seconds what kind of answer he could give. -"I think this is going to be very hard for you to believe, but the problem here, Mr. Tachibana, is not so much what Yumi has, but rather what she doesn't."-

Dr. Abe's response baffled the old man in a way he had never felt before in his life.

-"What... she doesn't, you say?"-

The doctor did a brief pause.

-"Yes, that's right."-

That was not the response the old man wanted to receive from the doctor, for it was obvious that something was not right with his granddaughter Yumi, but receiving that kind of negative response caused him to escalate his tone.

-"What the hell do you mean my granddaughter has nothing, when she had a violent seizure a few days ago, huh?"-

-"Please, Mr. Tachibana, calm down."- Dr. Abe tried to explain his rationale. -"I understand that you are concerned about your granddaughter, but raising your voice is not going to help her in any way."-

The old man lowered his voice again, and apologized for his outburst.

-"So-sorry, doctor, you know... she and my grandson Keita are the only family I have left alive, and you understand how I feel about that, don't you?"

-"Don't worry, I understand your worried regarding Yumi"- The doctor continues with his explanation -"Let me explain what we've found in the medical exams we've done on your granddaughter."-

The doctor turned on a holographic monitor on his desk, which showed a three-dimensional image of Yumi Tachibana's brain, allowing Dr. Abe to see the details of the human brain in more detail and to find any problems that brain might have in an easier and more visual way, instead of the old CT scans and X-rays that were used in the past, and without the discomfort needed in those times, such as serums, injections and the like.

-"This is your granddaughter's brain, Mr. Tachibana. As you can see, if that epileptic seizure had been caused by some physical brain damage, such as that caused by your grandchildren's sports activities, here we can see the damage very clearly in this three-dimensional image."- the doctor pointed his finger on many parts of Yumi's virtual image of her brain in order to show to her grandfather any potential issue her organ may had. -"Interestingly, we haven't found any signs of any kind of brain damage, either on the outside of the brain or on the inside; this leads us to the next part of our analysis that we have done on Yumi, which I will show next."-

Next, Dr. Abe turned on another monitor in front of him, which showed various data including blood tests, electroencephalograms and other clinical analyses that were done on the little girl in order to verify what was wrong with her; to her grandfather's surprise, things were about to take a somewhat unforeseen twist for the Tachibanas...

-"This is where things get even stranger with respect to your granddaughter and her brain:"- The doctor said with a surprised tone, while adjusting his glasses during his reading of the data that appeared in the screen. -"In spite of all the more detailed analyses we have done these days on her, we have not been able to find anything out of the ordinary in her; in addition, according to what you have told us about it, and to the clinical records of your deceased relatives, you and your family have no known history of any relative with epilepsy or anything remotely resembling it until the third generation, which makes this whole picture even weirder than it already is."-

Ichiro Tachibana and his grandchildren were silent for a few moments when they heard this news; on the one hand, they were happy to know that Yumi did not have any problems, but on the other hand, that did not fully explain the fact that Yumi convulsed in the dojo on May 2nd of that year.

What caused that little girl to have an epileptic seizure out of the blue? That was the question that the old man Ichiro and Dr. Abe were asking themselves, and the former was not satisfied with the latter's answer at all.

-"Do you think I will be satisfied with that answer, even after all the students of the dojo, including her sensei and this girl's brother, saw her having a violent seizure?!"-

-"Mr. Tachibana, I understand that you must be angry for not giving you and your granddaughter a satisfactory answer, but all the studies indicate that your granddaughter does not have any problem in her brain that could have been the cause of her epileptic seizure, and that includes physical as well as chemical and genetic levels; leaving aside the physical aspects, the only thing I can think of that might have triggered that epileptic seizure is a psychological related issue, which is out of my area of competence."-

-"So you're suggesting I take my granddaughter to a psychologist?"-

-"That's right, and if you want, I can refer you to a pediatric psychologist who can help your little girl; I know a person who can help her, if you allow me to recommend them."-

Dr. Abe writes some information on the identity card of both Ichiro Tachibana and his granddaughter Yumi, in order to schedule an appointment for the Tachibanas with the psychologist that the doctor was about to recommend.

-"This is Dr. Hana Moriyama, an expert in child psychology; she's a friend of mine from college and one of the best experts on child mind that I know, at least here in Okinawa, and I think she can help your child with whatever problems she has. The appointment will be on May 17th at 6 pm here in this hospital."-

The doctor gave the old man his ID cards back; even though he was not convinced of Dr. Abe's diagnosis of Yumi, he knew very well, at least in his heart, that the doctor had no reason to lie about his results regarding his granddaughter, and it would be wise for him to also consider the doctor's recommendation and take Yumi to a psychologist.

-"Thank you very much, Dr. Abe."-

-"No problem, but if there are any further issues with your granddaughter, don't hesitate to call me."-

-"Understood."-

The Tachibana family walked out of Dr. Abe's office a bit downhearted, especially knowing that Yumi's problem was more complex than it seemed, and probably required psychological attention. The little girl was worried about what she heard from that doctor, and she didn't doubt in letting her grandfather know her fears.

-"Grandpa, do you think I have a problem in my head?"-

In other circumstances, the old man would have avoided answering that question, hoping to avoid frightening the girl, but in view of what happened, hiding the truth from her would have been harmful both to her and to the whole family, including her twin brother Keita, so he could not avoid answering her inquiry anyhow.

-"I'll be honest with you, Yumi dear: I don't know."-

On the other hand, Keita, her brother, didn't want to say anything about it either, both out of respect for his sister and his grandfather, and partly because he didn't know he could say, except maybe something funny.

Except that, as far as he was concerned, that situation his twin sister was suffering was not funny to her at all, and he perfectly understood that and he sympathized with her, as he couldn't stand watching her suffer in such way; the same went double on regards with his grandfather Ichiro, as he was notoriously angry for the whole ordeal his close one was suffering in such hard times.

---

May 8th, AD 2306, JASDF Fuchū Air Base, Fuchū, Near Tokyo, Japan. 01:34 PM

Knock Knock

-"Who is it?"-

-"Did you call me, sir?"-

-"Yes, I wanted to talk to you, Captain; please come in."-

A woman entered the office of Colonel Yoshiro Shirai, the man in charge of the Fuchū Air Base, which was located on the outskirts of Tokyo, since he needed to talk to her.

That woman was Captain Ayako Katagiri, who just three days ago had returned from Taiwan, after being forced to make an emergency landing in Kaohsiung, following the air fortress she was in charge of, the Ayako, which shared the same name as her captain, suffered a failure in its hydraulic system, forcing the aircraft to land in that city and having to stay there for a few extra days.

-"Sit down and make yourself comfortable, Captain Katagiri, for this might be a rather long talk; I hope you won't have a problem with that."-

-"Don't worry, Colonel Shirai, I had already finished all my official duties today anyway, and I really don't have much to do after that, outside of picking up my girls from school in about three more hours and talking to my husband, who is on a trip to the U.S."-

-"It must be a tough job being a captain of an air fortress and also being a housewife in your spare time, I guess."-

-"Heh, heh, not exactly, sir..."- The woman laughed a bit. -"I think I'm more than used to working hard since I can remember, and I'm not really complaining about it, maybe because I grew up on a cattle farm near Sapporo and none of this stuff is as hard as it seems."-

-"That's good to hear."- Shirai then began the issue he wanted to discuss with Katagiri. -"Now let's get down to business, Captain."-

-"I guess it has to do with the issues surrounding the Ayako and the problems with its hydraulic system, right?"-

-"No."- The Colonel replied with a very dry tone. -"in fact the subject is somewhat more... personal, if I may say so."-

-"Personal?"- Katagiri replied with a notable furrowed brow in her face. -"What do you mean with that?"-

Colonel Shirai clasped his fingers as he placed his elbows on his desk before giving further details of what he was going to discuss with the woman.

-"I expect you recall what happened about seven years ago with the JS Asuka, don't you?"-

-"The Asuka?"- Ayako Katagiri said certainly puzzled after she heard that name again in her life. -"You mean the spaceship that was part of the Japanese Space Self-Defense Force that disappeared after jumping from New Haiti, and the whereabouts of the ship and its crew were never known?"-

-"That's right."- Shirai confirmed that info to her. -"And I think you also remember that on that ship was the heiress of the Hoshino Group, Kaguya Hoshino, whose disappearance and very probable death has caused us a great headache with her family?"-

-"Yes, of course I remember that perfectly."- The woman replied. -"In fact, the government had to pay the Hoshino family a huge amount of money in damages for the death of their only daughter, and if it wasn't for the fact that both the Hoshino Group and its aerospace division, Hoshino Aerospace Industries (HAI) have many political and economic interests within the Japanese government, the economic impact would have been even greater."-

-"You sure do remember all those details, Captain Katagiri, despite all these years."-

-"Yes, but this is due not only to the fact that I am a member of the military, but also because its very personal to me, and you also know that, Colonel."-

-"Oh? You mean..."-

-"Yes."- The woman responded with a more sadder voice, since the issue was very hard to discuss for her. -"A very dear friend I met when we both entered the army at the same time was on that ship. I believe you already know her name."-

-"Oh yes! You mean Sgt. Akane Araki, that black girl who was a friend of yours when you attended the university."-

Katagiri was silent for a few moments as she heard how her upper echelon did not seem to care much that Akane Araki, the woman aboard the Asuka, was her friend and that she may have died. Noting the woman's unease at his insensitive remarks, Shirai felt compelled to offer an apology.

-"Sorry, I guess I forgot that you're not very comfortable discussing that issue, even after all these years."-

-"Apology accepted, sir, although I think I also remind you that Akane Araki was not only my friend, but also Ms. Hoshino, because the three of us studied at Kansai University when my family lived in Osaka, and I was one of her few friends, even though she spent more time with Sgt. Araki."- Katagiri recalled some parts of her life that she had spent with both women before their respective disappearances in a somewhat sad fashion. -"Her death was also a hard blow to me, as was the sergeant's."-

-"Yes, I understand perfectly; in fact I also remember that you were the person who gave the news of Sgt. Araki's disappearance to her adoptive parents."-

-"Please don't remind me of that again, sir."- The woman complained to Shirai regarding that last event. -"She was the only child they had, after everything they did to adopt her when she was living in an orphanage in Africa, and losing her that way was a painful blow that they still have not been able to overcome. Not to mention her boyfriend, Satoru Okazaki, who also went to university with me and those two, but he joined the police, instead of the army; the possible death of his girlfriend greatly affected him and I don't know if he's ever really over it."-

-"At least you didn't have to tell the bad news of Ms. Kaguya Hoshino's disappearance and probable death to her father; that was the job of the Minister of Defense, and I wouldn't have liked to have been in his shoes, after the large amount of money we had to throw at his family in compensation, owing to our liability for this whole accident."-

-"If I may interrupt, sir, I'd like to know one thing."-

-"What would it be, Captain Katagiri?"-

-"Why are we talking about what happened to the Asuka years ago?"- Katagiri asked to her senior officer. -"I understand that I was friends with two of the people who were on that ship, especially with Miss Hoshino, but what does that have to do with me?"-

Colonel Shirai hands the air fortress captain his data pad, so she can read something that was on the screen of that device.

-"Read this very carefully, captain, I think it may be relevant to you."-

Ayako Katagiri read the content of what appeared on the device, and after reading it for a few minutes, she gave her opinion.

-"Is this a conclusion that the commission in charge of investigating the disappearance of the Asuka came to regarding the probable causes of the accident?"-

-"Exactly."- Shirai responded, while pointing his finger on the screen. -"Although to be honest, I don't agree much with the final result, since there is nothing conclusive with the conclusions drawn about the real motives for the vanishing of that ship."-

-"According to what the report says, one of the probable causes for the Asuka to disappear is a probable failure in the ship's jump drive, which caused that at the moment of jumping, they ended up in a star, inside a planet, or even in some uncharted region of the universe. The fact that the ship did not send any kind of distress signal, and that no problems were reported with the ship during its routine maintenance, are reasons to avoid drawing conclusions that would be conclusive on this issue."-

After finishing reading the report, Katagiri left the data pad on Colonel Shirai's desk, and she asked some questions about the matter she needed to ask her senior officer.

-"May I ask you a few questions, sir?"-

-"What questions would that be, Captain Katagiri?"-

-"As I understand it, apart from bringing Miss Hoshino on the Asuka back to Earth, the ship was also hauling material for HAI, owned by the Hoshino family, from New Haiti, but I could never know exactly what the ship was transporting at that time."- Katagiri asked the man more specific questions. -"Could I ask what was exactly the nature of what that company was transporting on that ship?"-

-"According to the report, the Asuka was carrying spare parts for ships and planes bound for Sasebo, or at least that was what the customs statement said before all that material departed from New Haiti."-

-"Is there or was there any suspicion that the disappearance of the Asuka may have been the result of some terrorist act or sabotage?"-

-"That is unlikely, captain; furthermore, there has been no terrorist attacks against UNSF or JSSDF ships since the beginning of the 22nd century, and no organization, country or person has claimed such action, most likely due to the geopolitical ramifications of such an event would have on them."-

-"That's very likely, Colonel,"- Katagiri added another point in the discussion. -"which leaves the possibility that the cargo the Asuka was hauling had something to do with her disappearance."-

Shirai looked at the woman with skepticism, for that possibility, although technically probable, seemed remote, for the following reasons:

-"I doubt very much that simple spare parts for spaceships and airplanes can cause such an accident; in the worst possible scenario, the ship would have exploded into pieces before it could even jump somewhere, or the ship simply could not have jumped in the first place. In addition, none of those parts contained toxic or flammable materials that could have endangered the ship, which would have caused the UNSF and the JSSDF to refuse to transport them."- The colonel refuted Katagiri's point. -"That leaves us with the most logical explanation possible..."-

-"You're not going to say it could have been caused by an error in the ship's computers, are you?"-

Shirai took a deep breath, and nodded about that scenario.

-"I'm afraid so."-

-"Colonel, with all due respect, such a scenario is extremely unlikely to happen; the last time a ship ended up in another place far away from where it was supposed to jump was two centuries ago, and thanks to improvements in technology no such incident has been reported since then."-

-"Just because it hasn't happened again for centuries doesn't mean such event won't repeat another time in this era, captain; that's why all spacecraft have various redundancies and auxiliary systems that are designed to prevent something like this. But computers are not always perfect, and there is a possibility that something could have gone wrong during the jump that caused the ship to end up in a faraway and unknown place in the universe, or even to explode inside hyperspace..."-

-"Well, all this talk about the specifics of the incident aside, you still haven't explained what all this has to do with me."- The female captain changed the subject, after she noted the colonel strayed from her explanation about his reason to explain all those events and scenarios regarding the Asuka to her. -"Does it have to do with my relationship with two of the victims of that accident, sir?"-

-"Yes, and I also think I should remind you not to discuss anything we talked about with anyone, especially with the press, Captain Katagiri."- The colonel was very blunt in that particular point to his junior officer. -"This report has not yet been made public, and if its contents become public without having gone through the government-approved revisions, the political consequences would be dire, especially when the current prime minister is running for re-election this year."-

Ayako Katagiri could not help but feel uncomfortable knowing that she was being asked to remain silent on a matter that, while it was public knowledge, was still a politically sensitive issue due to the involvement of a private corporation in the incident, not to mention the fact that the reason why Kaguya Hoshino, the Hoshino Group Chairman's daughter, was aboard a military vessel, had never been made public.

-"Don't worry about that, Colonel, my lips are sealed on this subject."- Then, the woman did a warning to her senior. -"But there is one thing I'd like to make clear, sir."-

-"What would that be, captain?"-

-"I'd rather not to be involved in these kinds of issues that directly involve the government."- Katagiri said with a very stern voice. -"It's painful enough to know that two friends of mine are now dead, and now to have to know that I have to keep my mouth shut about a matter that is common knowledge just because the government seems to be hiding something."-

-"I assure you that the government is not trying to hide anything, Captain, especially when we are the ones most affected by this incident, and we are the first ones to want to know exactly what happened seven years ago."-

Katagiri was not satisfied with Colonel Shirai's response, but she chose not to pursue the argument any further.

-"Do you have anything else you wish to address, Captain?"-

-"For the moment, that would be all, sir."-

-"Then you are dismissed."-

-"Thank you, sir."-

---

May 8th, AD 2306, Akasaka District, Tokyo, Japan. 03:30 PM

-"I'm home!"-

After a long day, Ayako Katagiri, after finishing her rather complicated talk with Colonel Yoshiro Shirai at Fuchū Air Base, returned to her home, which was in the Asakusa district of Tokyo. Thanks to the savings that she and her husband had gathered, the Katagiris had been able to buy a relatively large house, instead of living in an apartment like many people in the same area, which allowed that family to live in relative tranquility.

But she did not come home alone; she was along with her two daughters, Nanami, who was seven years old, and Minami, who was the youngest, a six-year-old little girl, whom she had picked up from school.

The only thing Ayako missed at that time was her husband, Daichi, who was on a business trip in Los Angeles, USA; instead, it was the voice of the Net that greeted the woman and her daughters as they entered the house.

-"Good afternoon, Miss Katagiri, and also good afternoon to you, Nanami and Minami."-

-"Good afternoon too, Net!"- Both girls greet the AI as well.

-"Good afternoon as well."- Then, Ayako went straight to the point with the computer. -"Is there any news you can share with me while I was gone, Net?"-

-"Yes."- The AI responded, -"There were two calls for you, the first came from your husband, and the second was a local call."-

-"Where does that local call come from?"-

-"From Osaka."-

-"Osaka?"- The woman reacted rather surprised, as she knew that there were only three people from that city who would want to talk to her. -"I think I can figure out who they might be. Could they be Akane Araki's parents or Satoru Okazaki?"

-"It's Mr. Okazaki."-

-"Oh, I see..."- Immediately afterwards, Ayako found it strange to receive a call from Akane's boyfriend, as the last time she had contact with him was six years ago during the memorial service held for the victims of the accident in Osaka; that meant that the man had something to discuss with her. -"Why would Okazaki want to talk with me after all these years?"-

-"Is something wrong, Mom?"-

Nanami began to pull on her mother's skirt, who was somewhat engrossed in the man's call to her home; seeing that her daughter required her attention, she immediately returned to her senses.

-"Nothing... It's nothing important, dear..."-

-"Who's this Mr. Okazaki the Net is talking about?"-

-"He's an old friend of mine from when I was a university student in Osaka."-

-"Was he a boyfriend of yours?"-

-"Of course not!"- Ayako responded with some annoyance at such question. -"In fact, he was the boyfriend of a very dear friend of mine who died a long time ago before you two were born."-

The girl didn't know what else to say about it, while the mother wanted to avoid discussing things further with her.

-"Look, you and your sister go to your room and do your homework, and don't come out until it's time for lunch, your mom needs to be alone for a while, OK?"-

-"OK, mommy!"-

And so, Nanami and Minami went straight to their room to do their homework, while their mother Ayako stayed alone in the kitchen, so she could do the cooking, while at the same time she did other more personal things.

-"Net, I need to make a call to Satoru Okazaki as soon as possible. I want to know why he called me here to Tokyo after so many years without contacting me."-

-"Yes, ma'am."-

The AI tried to make contact with the boyfriend of the missing Akane Araki, with whom Ayako had no contact since that memorial in honor of his girlfriend, her friend Kaguya and the other members of the crew of the Asuka who also disappeared and are presumed dead.

After a few minutes of waiting, the call was finally answered by the above mentioned person, who also activated the video signal to be able to see her and vice versa. Satoru was a man in his thirties, with short light brown hair, brown eyes, glasses and relatively tall compared to his missing girlfriend Akane.

-"Hello? Is that you, Ayako?"-

-"Yes, it's me, Ayako Katagiri; I think you know who I am, don't you?"-

-"Oh, right! You're the other friend of Akane and Kaguya's who majored in business administration and also joined the army."-

-"Yeah, that's me."- Ayako responded. -"The Net told me that you called me at home hours ago looking for me, right?"-

-"Well, yeah, sorry if I brought you any trouble with it, Ayako, but I need to have a word with you, and I think you're the only person I can talk to."-

Because of her experience, Ayako knew that when someone was looking for her to talk about very personal things, that meant it was a very serious matter, and considering the tragedy her girlfriend and Kaguya were involved, she couldn't ignore him so easily.

-"I'm guessing it has something to do with Akane, or am I wrong?"-

Pause

-"I would be lying if I said no."-

-"What do you want to talk to me about, Satoru? This year is the seventh year since that accident happened, and I imagine you've tried to move on with your life since then, right?"- Ayako said to Satoru with a serious expression in her face. -"I suppose that's what you want to talk to me about, or do you want to talk about something else relating to Akane?"-

-"I heard from some people who are members of the association of relatives of the missing people from the Asuka that the government would publish a report about the conclusions they drew about the possible causes of the accident."-

-"And I suppose you want me to tell you if I know anything else about this?"-

-"Well, I fully understand that you are a member of the JASDF and that there are many things that you cannot talk about, because it's classified info, but unfortunately, neither I nor anyone else in the association trusts a single damn word that the government says, because we feel that they are trying to cover something up, most likely some covert mission that went wrong or something that they were shipping, and that has caused that tragedy."-

-"And what makes you think the government might be hiding something?"-

-"Everyone knows that Akane's friend Kaguya was the daughter of Yuusuke Hoshino, the CEO of the Hoshino Group, and we have always been suspicious that she traveled in a military ship rather than a civilian one."- Satoru gave his and the other relatives' theories behind that accident. -"We think that someone tried to sabotage that ship in order to kill or kidnap her, and the government is probably covering this whole thing to avoid looking themselves bad."-

-"Look, Satoru, I don't want to challenge your and your friends' point, but I doubt very much that anyone would want to kill or kidnap Kaguya, as no previous threat to her life was ever found, at least not from what the Hoshino family has been able to tell us, as well as from other people who knew her, such as company employees, or other people who knew her when she was last in New Haiti before she disappeared."- The military women retorted at Satoru. -"Furthermore, if someone had abducted her, they would have already demanded a ransom for her, or at least claimed responsibility for her death if the Asuka had been attacked, something that has not been the case to date."-

-"But at least you know something about what caused the Asuka to disappear, don't you?"-

Ayako did a brief pause in the conversation; she would have liked to have been able to tell Satoru what she knew about the disappearance of the Asuka and her crew, but that information was considered confidential, and Ayako knew that disclosing that information could have consequences for her own military career or even her own life.

So, with great pain in her heart, considering that she was talking to the boyfriend of a friend of hers, and that he probably hadn't overcome the disappearance and probable death of his beloved Akane, she chose to pretend that she didn't know anything else about the subject.

-"I wish I could know anything better, Satoru, but unfortunately that's all I know."- Ayako said with a very notorious sad expression in her face. -"I understand how you feel about Akane's disappearance, but you are not the only one who has suffered from her absence and Kaguya's as well. Every day I think about what could have happened to those two girls, and if they really died, I hope they at least had a quick and painless death. I don't even want to imagine what the last moments of their lives must have been like."-

Satoru could not manage to say anything else, but it was evident on his face that he felt disappointed and sad that, even after 7 years, it seemed that the mystery of the disappearance of that spaceship would never be solved, and he felt an overwhelming rage and helplessness when he saw that woman, who was perhaps his only hope to know what happened that day on the spaceship where his girlfriend and her best friend vanished without leaving any trail of their possible fate.

-"It's that all you can tell me, Ayako? That they died a painless death?"-

Later, Satoru broke down in tears and raised his voice, shouting furiously at the woman, seeing that she could do nothing more to help him.

-"IS THAT ALL YOU CAN TELL ME AFTER SEVEN DAMN YEARS?"-

Ayako was shocked after how the conversation turned out so heated, and as a result, she tried her best to calm the grieving man, who had lost his beloved in that distant corner of outer space.

-"Please, Satoru, calm down, you're not going to solve anything by talking me like that, damn it!"

-"CALM DOWN? YOU WANT ME TO CALM DOWN?"- The man kept yelling at Ayako. -"DO YOU HAVE A FUCKING IDEA OF EVERYTHING I'VE SUFFERED THESE YEARS SINCE AKANE DISAPPEARED TOGETHER WITH KAGUYA, HUH?"-

-"And what do you want me to do, Satoru? To go look for Akane and Kaguya in a spaceship and see if I can even find traces of the Asuka?"-

-"The only DAMN thing I ask from you and this FUCKING corrupt government is that you tell us the truth about what happened to that ship!"- Satoru continued with his yelling. -"We're not asking the impossible or anything like that, we just want to know the truth so we can have a little more peace of mind knowing what really happened that day!"-

Ayako Katagiri tried to take a deep breath, in order to deal with the man who had lost his girlfriend and was screaming at her, demanding explanations that Ayako could not offer, as it was confidential information, and even if she wanted to tell the truth, the information the government had was not conclusive, nor would it serve to appease the victims' relatives, and was something that Ayako knew very well.

-"Satoru, please open your eyes: Akane is gone, and she may never return. By now you should have moved on with your life and tried to get over all this, since it is the healthiest thing you could do. I doubt very much that Akane would have liked to see you like this, considering her very cheerful personality."-

Satoru could not stop crying in front of the communicator, because the pain was beginning to gnaw away the deepest parts of his soul. The mere admission that Akane might have died was too much for him, and that was something he would never accept.

-"sob... UGGGGHHH! sob... I can't... I can't do it, Ayako!..."- Satoru cried at her. -"I know... sob...I know that...sob...somewhere...Akane and Kaguya are still alive and well...sob...they can't have died THAT easily, for god's sake!.....no... no..."-

Those words of pain coming from that man began to torment the soldier's soul as she had never experienced in her life; she wished she could find a way to bring consolation to Satoru and tell her what she knew, but Ayako knew she could not risk her career, or even her life or that of her family just to comfort one person, so all she could do was invent some excuse to break out from that difficult situation she was in.

-"Satoru, all I can tell you is to look somewhere for help."-Warmly, Ayako tried her best to help Satoru with some advice for his current state of mind. -"You cannot obsess over a person who died seven years ago and still believe she might be alive, especially as Akane would not have wanted you to do such a thing. Things change and so does life; you have to leave Akane and go on living your life, I think that's the best thing you can do to honor her memory and also Kaguya's. I know that, somewhere where she is now, Akane will surely be by your side."-

Satoru Okazaki could say no more, for tears were still streaming down his cheeks, and his voice was very weak, and he no longer felt the strength to continue speaking; seeing that, Ayako seized the time to end the talk at once.

-"Look, Satoru, if you want we can talk about this another day when you're feeling better, OK?"- The woman managed to end the chat with Akane's boyfriend in a good way. -"Right now I need to make lunch for my girls, and I'm really not in the mood for this kind of sad stuff either, so I hope you understand that, got it?"-

-"OK... I understand."-

-"So, I'll see you another day. Just don't do anything stupid, okay?"-

-"OK."-

-"Bye."-

And so, Ayako Katagiri ended that very painful conversation with the boyfriend of her late friend Akane Araki, who despite all those years, he had not been able to completely overcome the loss of his beloved.

The worst thing for that soldier was that she was forced to hide what she knew for her own well-being, despite the suffering that that man still felt, and his pleas for help to her; in other circumstances, she would have done something for him, because Satoru was also her friend from the university, along with Akane and Kaguya, and she simply would not have let that man suffer in such soul-crushing way.

But alas, politics is more powerful than people's feelings, and the needs of the powerful are above the welfare of those they govern, and she could do nothing to change that sad fact.

-"Why were you shouting, mommy?"-

The screams between Ayako and Satoru, to the misfortune of the former, had reached the ears of her daughters, and it was only natural that one of them would ask her mother what had happened. The mother tried to explain the incident to her little girl in the best way that she could understand.

-"I'm... I'm so sorry, Nanami!"- The woman apologized to her child. -"What happened is I had a little beef with an old friend from university."-

-"Did his girlfriend die on him?"-

Ayako was surprised to see that Nanami seemed to understand what the two were discussing a few moments ago, although she only gave a broad outline of the argument to her, considering that when Akane and Kaguya disappeared, Nanami and Minami had not yet been born.

-"His girlfriend died seven years ago, before you two were born."-

-"And why was that man yelling at you, mommy?"-

-"Because he misses his girlfriend very much, and I was the only person who could help him."-

After a brief pause, Ayako decided that she was not going to continue explaining herself to her daughter, and she abruptly changed the matter.

-"Look, Nanami, you better go talk to your sister and tell her that the food's gonna be ready in a few minutes, okay?"-

-"OK, mommy!"-

So, Nanami returned to her room, leaving her mother Ayako alone in the kitchen, while she contemplated what had happened.

-"I only hope that Satoru can find some way to overcome the loss of Akane one of these days, I would not want to let her death torture him for his entire life and make him do something stupid out of it."-

---

May 10th, AD 2306, Kubinka Air Base, Near Moscow, Russia, 10:34 AM

One would imagine that May, a normally warm month by nature, would have a very nice climate for the spring season, especially for a country like Russia, used to having very cold and intense winters, and in other years, that would not typically be the exception.

Except that, in the spring of 2306, that was NOT the case; for some reason, the winter weather had extended into May, and the whole region of Moscow was under the effects of an intense snow storm which was so severe that Moscow's Red Square had mountains of snow on the streets, and the city government was desperately trying to remove all that winter frost in order to make it easier for people and vehicles to move around on the streets, and that without mention all the snow that piled up on the houses' roofs and doors.

And if this situation was bad in Moscow, the situation was even worse at the airports and military bases surrounding the city, due to the need to keep the runways free of snow and frost that could hinder the normal operation of civilian aircraft and fighter jets respectively.

One of the most important air bases of the Russian Air Force, the Kubinka Air Base, located near the Russian capital, was no exception to that unexpected weather phenomenon; in fact, due to its strategic importance for the Russian government, the workers at the base worked hard to clear the snow on the runways.

Normally, the snow and frost that accumulates on the runways is traditionally removed with the help of robots designed specifically for that task; however, due to the intensity of that snow storm that was falling on Moscow, the robots could barely cope with removing all the snow from the runways by themselves, and because of this, the human workers had to help their robotic assistants in removing all those mountains of snow, frost and water that accumulated on that Russian military base.

And needless to say, more than one worker on that base did not find that job fun in the least.

-"GODDAMMIT!"- A worker cursed loudly as he was shoveling the snow from the main runway. -"Why the hell should we shovel all that damn snow off the runway, huh?"-

-"I'm with you, Boris."- Another worked agreed with his partner. -"All this fucking snow is driving me nuts! And looks like, no matter how much we shovel all this shit, it just keeps coming and coming..."-

-"I can only say one thing, folks:"- Yet another worker made his complaints quite notorious. -"Those damn snow-plowing robots the government bought last year don't do much for snow removal, and we should be helping them now, when it should be the other way around."-

-"And what did you expect from the government, huh?"- The first worker continued with his rant. -"They just look for the cheapest and easiest way to fix things, and they seem to only spend big money on useless shit just to keep the critics away, but us, the common workers, that doesn't help us one bit, and even more so right now."-

But before the workers could continue their criticism over the snow and the robots, a voice from the base's loudspeaker system was heard loudly all over the runway.

Attention all workers who are working on the runway, an aircraft is preparing to land on runway number 01, all those present at the landing area are requested to leave the site immediately.

-"Looks like a fighter jet is coming up, as far as I can see."-

-"Make sure that there is no more snow on the landing strip and that the robots have already sprayed the antifreeze there."-

When one of the workers made sure that those two steps had been completed, he gave notice to the control tower to then authorize the landing of the fighter jet, something that was made known to its pilot.

The jet that was to land in Kubinka was a CFA-44, better known by the reporting name given by the NATO as Nosferatu, one of the most advanced fighter planes in the world, and one of the prides of the Russian Air Force. The Nosferatu was a stealth multi-purpose fighter jet designed by the famous JSC Sukhoi Company, a company which dates back to the time of the Second World War and has designed other well-known commercial planes and fighter jets, among them the Su-27 Flanker and the Su-57.

-"This is Eagle 01, requesting permission for landing on Kubinka, over."-

-"Kubinka here, permission granted, you are cleared to land as you wish, Eagle 01."-

-"Affirmative. Thank you, Kubinka"-

The Russian combat aircraft landed at Kubinka's base without many hitches, although its pilot had to be very careful when braking, because the runway was still a bit icy and this caused the jet to skid in some parts of the way, before the pilot managed to safely park the Nosferatu in a hangar.

-"Good job, Eagle 01, not many can land one of these beauties in freezing weather, and even more so with a snowstorm over our heads."-

-"Thank you."-

-"As always, you are too modest; you're not really much about getting compliments, are you?"-

-"I just want to go home; my butt is already getting numb from sitting on this thing."-

-"By the way, Major Romanova asked me that when you return here, you should go see her in her office, I think she wants to talk with you."-

-"Major Romanova, you say?"- The pilot, a female, said somewhat puzzled why that woman wanted to see her. -"Why would she want to talk with me, especially under these circumstances?"-

-"I don't know, she asked me to give that message to you."-

-"sigh... All right, I guess it doesn't hurt to go talk to her."-

---

May 10th, AD 2306, Kubinka Air Base (Major Romanova's office), Near Moscow, Russia, 11:00 AM

-"May I come in, Major?"-

-"You can come in anytime, Tanya."-

The woman who entered Major Anna Romanova's office was a woman with red hair, blue eyes, of medium height and slim build was Lieutenant Tatyana Tereshkova, nicknamed "Tanya" by her fellow pilots and by the Major herself, who was the pilot of the Nosferatu that landed a few minutes ago in Kubinka.

On the other hand, Major Romanova was a woman with black hair, brown eyes, and relatively tall in comparison with her subordinate, and she was at that point, before Tanya entered her office, drinking a cup of hot mocha coffee.

-"It's good to see you again, Tanya, after all these years."-

-"Thank you, Major."- Tanya gives a handshake to her superior. -"But I guess you didn't come all this way to Kubinka just to say hello to me, did you?"-

-"No, but I heard that you were going back to Moscow from St. Petersburg, so I took the opportunity to say hello."-

-"Let me guess, it was Colonel Pasternak who told you I was heading back home, right?"-

-"How did you figure that out, Tanya?"- Romanova said with a somewhat fake smile in her face.

-"If there is anyone in Russia who can know where I am going and where I will end up, that would be him."- Tanya smiled as well, thorugh her smile was more sincere than the one from her senior. -"You don't have to be a genius to know that."-

-"Yes, but don't be too hard on him, Tanya; he values you highly, since he knows you have a lot of potential here in the air force, and he would like you to take that potential and use it in something that is worthy of your abilities."-

-"Well, if what he considers "potential" is flying like an idiot across half of Russia without doing anything except seeing the pretty sights, I think his definition of the word is very different from mine."-

The major took a deep breath when she heard that, because she understood perfectly what was the quandary Tanya was confronting at that time, something she needed to discuss with that pilot.

-"I heard that you plan to leave the air force and pursue a career in commercial aviation, right?"-

-"I guess Colonel Pasternak told you that too, didn't he?"-

-"Yes, in fact, that is one of the reasons why I made you come here to my office; I just want you to reconsider that option and stay longer with us, if you want."-

Tanya did a brief pause in order to think her answer, and then she replied to Romanova.

-"Major, I'd love to stay here in the air force, but every day I'm here I look more a glorified cop with a nice plane than a fighter pilot, and that's not what I expected when I joined the military. Also, my application to be transferred to the Russian Space Force was rejected, because they don't need any more people up there in space, so the only option I have left, based on my current skills, is to get a job as a commercial civilian pilot; in fact, I just went to Aeroflot last month to be considered for a pilot position with that company."-

Anna Romanova was somewhat disappointed that this woman was going to leave the air force in order to seek better luck in commercial aviation, knowing that she had a talent that she had not been able to take advantage of, even if she knew that Tanya was right that the Russian Air Force was not what she expected, considering that Russia had not had an armed conflict with any other country for centuries, And the only reason why that country still had armed forces of some kind, despite how unnecessary they already seemed to most of the population of that country, was mostly for reasons of national pride, especially considering the glorious history of the Russian Red Army throughout the history of that European nation.

-"Well, I can't ask you to stay if you don't want to, but at least you can stick around until the end of next year and, if we can find some way for you to continue working here, including being able to be transferred to the Russian Space Force, we'll let you know as soon as possible."-

Tanya thought about the opportunity offered by Major Romanova, and after a few minutes, she considered her offer.

-"I am not making any promises, Major, but I do plan to stay longer in the air force until I see what Aeroflot has to say about my chances of working with them, but if I get a quick offer to work with them, I will not hesitate to leave the air force and go into civil aviation, that's for sure."-

-"Very well, Tanya, I just hope you make the right decision in your own best interest."-

-"Don't worry, Major, if there is any change of plans from me, I will let you know as well."- Tanya responded. -"That aside, is there anything else you would like to discuss with me, sir?"-

-"Well, just between us and in a more intimate way,"- The major did a personal question at Tanya. -"have you got a boyfriend yet, Tanya?"-

-"Wha-WHAT?"- The pilot girl stuttered a bit at such question. -"A boyfriend?"-

-"Yeah, that's what I'm trying to say."- The Russian military woman said to her junior. -"Since I've known you, I haven't seen you go out with a man. Could it be that your tastes are a little... different?"-

Tanya immediately knew what that woman meant by that, and she quickly denied such suggestion.

-"I like men A LOT, thank you very much for ASKING such QUESTION!"-

The Russian soldier broke into laughter when she saw Tanya's embarrassed face as she began to imply that her subordinate might like women, even though she was only joking to change the military matters to something more intimate and personal.

-"Just kidding, Tanya, don't take it so hard, my dear, heh!"-

-"I don't see how it's funny to suggest that I'm a lesbian."-

-"Well, with that face of yours, and the fact that you don't have a boyfriend, anyone would think that you don't like men very much."-

-"I have more important things to worry about now than finding a partner, like looking for a new job, for starters."- Tanya explained her reasons for staying single. -"Also, I have to worry about my family, especially my brothers and my parents, who need money, and I don't know if the air force is going to pay me enough to continue working here, which is also a reason for me to leave the military in addition to what I talked about a few moments ago, sir."-

-"Well, I think that's a good reason for not committing in more personal affairs; in that case I apologize for that bad joke, Tanya."-

-"Don't worry, Major, I accept your apology, but please be more careful about what you say about other people."-

-"Okay, I'll keep that in mind."- Then, Romanova changed the subject again. -"And what are you going to do when you leave the base, Tanya?"-

-"sigh What else can I do?"- The pilot complained with regards of the weather -"Go back to my house, rest and wait for this damn snowstorm to calm down a bit. I bet I have mountains of snow in my house and it irritates me to know what I'm going to have to do to remove all that crap."-

-"Well, in that case I won't take up any more of your time, and you can leave whenever you like."- Romanova finished the chat. -"We can talk at length another day."-

-"Thank you, sir. In that case I'm out."-

-"See you tomorrow, Tanya, and say hi to your parents for me."-

---

May 2nd, AD 2306, Traditional City Market, Santa Julia, San Escobar, 02:00 PM

The Traditional Market of Santa Julia is located in the center of the city, and is one of the main attractions of the capital of San Escobar, besides being one of the largest markets in that Caribbean nation; the large amount of fruits, vegetables, and other groceries was so large and so diverse that it could take days to go through that place in its entirety, which made it very popular for both the locals and tourists.

That market was to be the last destination that Tsutomu Hashiba and Annika Stefansson, who were on vacation in San Escobar during the days of the Japanese Golden Week, would visit before returning home.

Unfortunately for one of these young people, the idea of visiting a market, no matter how interesting it was in theory, was not to their liking.

-"Hey, Tsutomu, I don't get what's so cool about visiting a market, no matter how big it is; I mean, there are more interesting places to visit in this city than this one."-

-"Don't you see, Anni? This is a really HUUUUUUUUUUGE market!"- Tsutomu responded with excitement at the size of the market they were in. -"Just look how many blocks it occupies and that only uses a fifth of the whole city. I've never seen a place like this in Japan, and I want to see this market before we go back to Tokyo tomorrow."-

-"Still, I feel that it is a waste of time to visit a market, having better places to visit in this city."-

-"Well, we're not going to see the whole thing, that's for sure; we're just going to walk around a part of the whole market, and if you want, we can visit another tourist spot if you want, Anni."- Tsutomu responded to his girlfriend's concerns. -"I'm not so stupid to hang around in one place either, you know, and in addition, we can buy some drinks on the way or some traditional food while we are walking here."-

-"Okay, then I suppose it's not such a bad idea after all."-

After convincing their boyfriend of the benefits of walking through that market, Tsutomu and Annika began their walk in that traditional place of the capital of San Escobar.

The first place they visited was a store that sold mainly traditional food from San Escobar, which was a very large store that occupied two floors and sold all kinds of typical food and drinks from that Caribbean nation.

-"I think we can start our tour around this market by visiting that place; it looks very big and very well stocked as well, and I think we can buy typical food from San Escobar at a good price, don't you think so, Anni?"-

-"Mmmmmm..."- Annika thought for a few moments before entering the place. -"The place looks nice, I don't think it will do us any harm if we take a look there first."-

-"Then let's go inside."-

-"Right!"-

---

May 2nd, AD 2306, Traditional City Market ("The Thirsty Sailor" Store), Santa Julia, San Escobar, 02:15 PM

Tsutomu Hashiba and Annika Stefansson entered the traditional store, and when they entered they immediately realized how huge the place was: Only the first floor was the size of a block from that market, and it sold all kinds of food, both local and from other countries, to such an extent that it was almost impossible to know where to start looking first.

-"My god, Tsutomu, you're right, this place it's so frickin' huge!"- Annika bellowed as soon as she entered the store and saw what was inside. -"Just the first aisle is full of sweets from all over the world!"-

-"That's right, and even I don't know where to start looking!"-

-"Well, what do you say if we start with the international sweets aisle first, to see if we can find something new there, huh?"-

-"Good idea, Anni!"-

And so, the young Japanese man and his Swedish girlfriend began to walk down the aisle where they sold typical sweets from all over the world; the variety of products sold there was so extensive that it seemed that the store sold any sweet product produced both in San Escobar and in other countries of the world, and you could see everything from Mexican palanquetas, dulce de leche from Argentina, Swiss and German chocolates, to Pockys, rice cookies, melon pan and onigiri from Japan.

-"Tsutomu-sweetie, I don't think we will have enough money to buy even one tenth of all this."-

-"I know that, but at least we can only take what is traditional from San Escobar, and leave aside what we can buy back in Japan, don't you think?"-

-"OK, I get that"-

But while Annika was walking down the aisle in a distracted manner, mainly due to seeing the huge amount of products in the store, she accidentally ran into someone, who was also distracted very likely for the same reasons as Annika, which caused both people to fall to the ground. When the Swedish girl looked up, she yelled back at the person she had bumped into.

-"HEY, WATCH WHERE YOU'RE GOING!"-

The other person Annika had run into, who was a woman, also replied angrily to the girl, trying to blame her for the accident.

-"It's not my damn fault if you don't watch your step, you little brat!"-

That response riled Annika, for she did not expect that the woman intended to start a quarrel with her over something as trivial as a minor accident where two people collide with each other.

-"Who the HELL are you calling a little brat, you...?"-

When Annika looked very carefully at the woman she started arguing with, she noticed something very strange about her, especially her physical appearance: The first thing she noticed was that the woman was a girl of approximately her own age, but that was not the strangest thing about her, but her particular features, since both her hair, which was very long and reached her hips, and her eyes, were a sky-blue color; if that did not make that woman look even stranger than she did, the fact that her skin was very pale, which made her look almost albino, made that woman a strange being, and to some extent, almost an inhuman one.

-"What's wrong with you?"- The blue-haired girl asked the Swedish girl. -"Cat got your tongue, little girl?"-

Annika didn't know what to say next, because the mere presence of that woman had left that girl too shocked to utter a word. When she was finally able to tell something else, Annika could only say the following to that mysterious girl.

-"Who...the... hell...are...you?"-

But before that mysterious blue-haired girl could answer Annika's question, another woman, one with dark skin, brown hair, and dressed in jeans, a short-sleeved dress and a bit of make-up, suddenly showed up; everything seemed to indicate that she was that girl's friend, and she showed up to help her after that incident with Annika.

-"Did something bad happen, Reiko?"-

-"Reiko?"- Annika said, after hearing that Japanese name; although her particular appearance was obviously not Japanese, that girl had certain oriental features, even though she spoke perfectly in English without any particular accent, which made the Swedish girl curious. -"Are you from Japan, by any chance?"-

-"Well, you could say that, in a way."- Reiko replied at her -"Why the question?"-

-"Because you don't look you came from there, and I say this because I know Japanese; in fact, my boyfriend is from there."-

-"That has an explanation; you see..."-

But before Reiko could start talking, her friend abruptly interrupted her.

-"Hey, Reiko, we don't have time to talk to strangers, and besides, Captain Rodriguez and Leo will chew us out if we stay here any longer, so we better get out of here as soon as possible."- The black girl said at her blue-haired friend. -"I already finished buying everything we need for the ship."-

-"OK, I got it, Martina, we're out of here."-

When Annika heard the name "Leo", she knew that that name was too familiar for her to ignore those two women who were leaving the store at that right moment, and she started asking them more questions.

-"Hey you two, wait a second before you girls go!"-

Reiko and Martina, the two women who were just leaving the place, and with whom a few minutes ago the former had bumped into Annika, saw the Swedish girl walking up to them again, and they couldn't help but have a word with her.

-"What's up, little girl?"- Martina, the black girl, asked Annika. -"You wanna talk to us?"-

-"Yeah, I just want to know one thing:"- Annika panted a bit before continue with her question. -"Do you both know Leo and Kevin, the latter a British bounty hunter who works on a spaceship that is docked in the Punta Almeja harbor?"-

Both girls were surprised to hear that apparently unfamiliar girl knew those two names, so they started doing some more questioning to the Swedish girl.

-"How do you know those two names, and what does Kevin do?"- Reiko asked first.

-"I met him two days ago in a restaurant, and Mr. Leo at the port the same day."- Annika replied at the Japanese-looking girl -"From what I know, they are both bounty hunters, so I guess you work for them or with them, right?"-

Annika's response was of great concern to both women, as that information was supposed to be confidential, for reasons of personal safety for both women and the rest of her ship's crew. Apparently both women were unaware that Leo, Kevin and their immediate boss had spoken to Annika and Tsutomu two days earlier, so they were out of the loop on that information, which caused both of them to start trying to evade the girl.

-"Let's get out of here, Reiko, we'd better not say anything else!"-

-"Understood!"-

And so, both girls walked quickly out of the store towards the port, but trying to go through several streets of the city in order to confuse Annika, in case she intended to follow them

Annika, on the other hand, remained standing at the entrance of the store, not knowing why those two women did not want to talk to her and instead ran as if their lives depended on it.

On the other hand, Tsutomu was carrying a basket full of sweets and traditional food from different parts of the world, who was completely unaware of what had taken place a few moments ago with his girlfriend.

-"Hey, Anni, look at all the stuff I bought at the store, and it just cost me $30 bucks!"-

But when he saw Annika standing in front of the door, the young Japanese man asked why his girlfriend was standing there.

-"What happened, Anni? Did you have a problem with an employee or anything like that?"-

-"Actually, I met two girls who I think are related to the bounty hunters we met at the Punta Almeja port two days ago."-

-"Really? And what were they like, if I may ask?"-

-"One was of light blue hair, eyes of the same color, very pale skin, and of Asian origin, in fact her name seemed that it was Reiko, which means that she was from Japan."- The Swedish girl described their looks at Tsutomu. -"And her other friend was a black woman, with brown hair, jeans, had some makeup and was wearing a short-sleeved dress jacket."-

The Japanese student tried to remember if he had seen anyone with those features when he was shopping at the store, to which he replied to Annika.

-"I didn't notice any black women with that look you mention, but I do remember seeing a blue-haired woman who was shopping at the store; the first thing I noticed about her was how pale she was, and I thought she was an albino, yet I didn't notice her physical traits or if she was Asian."-

-"I see."-

-"And why the question, Anni?"- Tsutomu asked his girlfriend. -"Did you have a problem with both of them, or what?"

-"Well, I bumped head-on with that Reiko girl in the aisle when I was distracted by all the food in the store, then her friend, named Martina, came to help her, and when I asked if they knew Leo and Kevin, they ran as fast as they could."-

Tsutomu listened carefully to his girlfriend's side of the story, being somewhat surprised to hear that she had met more people related to the bounty hunters they had met a few days earlier.

-"Now that's weird, Anni."-

-"They probably don't know beforehand that we met them both before, so they acted defensively, or maybe that Leo and Kevin are other two unrelated people we don't know about, and that I just happened to mention them when I spoke with that blue-haired girl."-

-"That may be possible, I guess."- Tsutomu said, while pondering about that incident. -"But I don't think it's worth thinking about anymore, most likely they must have had a reason not to say anything else, if they are really bounty hunters."-

-"Well, you're damn sure right, Tsutomu."- Afterwards, Annika decided to change the subject. -"By the way, how much did you buy at the store while I was busy dealing with those two girls?"-

-"Just take a look at it, and delight with everything I buy, Anni-sweetie!"-

Annika was surprised by the large amount of food and snacks that her boyfriend had bought at the store, and all that had only cost 30 US dollars, which was little for the large amount of stuff he had bought.

There was only one small problem that Annika herself pointed out to her beloved when she bought all that junk food.

-"Tsutomu dear, just tell me something..."-

-"What's wrong, honey?"- The Japanese young man replied with a worried tone, knowing beforehand her girlfriend had quite a temper at times. -"Is there something here that I bought that you don't like?"-

-"That's not what I mean, Tsutomu, but something more important."-

-"What do you mean by important, Anni?"-

Annika pointed her finger at the basket full of sweets that Tsutomu bought at the store, which caused him to look closely at it to see what was the problem his girlfriend was referring to, when the truth was a completely different one.

-"Do you want to give me DIABETES with all that sweet crap, TSUTOMU?"-

-"WHAT?"- Annika's boyfriend responded somewhat disappointed to see that his girlfriend didn't like him buying all those treats, even if the final price wasn't too high for both of them. -"And I thought you'd like all this, geez!"-

-"You know very well that I'm not much of a candy eater, so I'm surprised you wasted $30 bucks on junk food, when you could have spent it on something more hearty in this place."- Annika scolded her boyfriend for doing such reckless spending on sweets. -"Or did you forget that we are in the largest traditional market in this country, where we can buy any other thing besides sweets?"-

Tstutomu Hashiba was left crestfallen when he saw that his girlfriend had chided him for spending so much money on sweets that she didn't want after all, which caused his spirits to drop back a bit, although Annika quickly noticed that her beloved had at least tried to please her, and she tried to encourage him as best she could, with a loving smile that she showed to her beloved Tsutomu's face.

-"At least you tried, Tsutomu, and that's what counts."- She then took Tsutomu's hand and squeezed it warmly to show her affection to him. -"I'm sorry if I was too harsh on you, but you know I'm sometimes too way outspoken for my own good..."-

-"Okay, don't mind me... but I think you're right that I spent a lot of money on all that junk food."-

-"Well, we can take all this to Japan and eat it on the way, or we can give it to our friends when we go back to school, at least we won't have to eat all this alone."-

-"Good idea, Anni!"-

-"Well, it's now decided! Now let's see what else we can see in this market and this time make sure you buy something more nutritious, shall we?"-

-"Okay."-

And suddenly, and without warning, Annika approached Tsutomu and she gave him a passionate kiss on the lips of her beloved boyfriend, which surprised the latter by how sudden that kiss was; this caused Tsutomu to blush and try to think of what to say to her.

-"An-Annika... why... why did you... kiss me... right now...?"-

-"You don't have to say anything else, dummy."- The Swedish girl replied with a big smile in her face and with her own cheeks blushed after that kiss. -"Let's go!"-

-"Yeah... let's go!"-

---

May 17th, AD 2306, Tomimura City Central Hospital (Department of Child Psychology/Dr. Hana Moriyama's office), Tomimura City, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan, 06:15 PM

-"You can go in, please."-

Ichiro Tachibana had brought in his granddaughter Yumi Tachibana ten days later, as scheduled in his appointment, once the physical and clinical tests that had been done on her brain had not detected anything unusual after she had a seizure at the dojo where she practiced karate.

The doctor who was going to treat the girl was called Hana Moriyama, who was an acquaintance of Dr. Shigeru Abe, the neurologist who treated Yumi a few days ago, and who had recommended that female psychologist in order to see if the problems that girl was suffering might have a psychological rather than a physical origin.

Dr. Moriyama was a woman with curly black hair, glasses, relatively fat, but with a very nice smile and seemed to be in a good mood; considering her profession, she had to be in order to work with children. The first thing she did when she saw Mr. Tachibana was to shake hands with the old man and his grandchildren.

-"Oh, good afternoon, Mr. Tachibana;"- Then she addressed the twins. -"and you too, little fellas!"-

-"Eh, good afternoon, doctor."- The old man Ichiro responded somewhat annoyed by that woman's personality.

On the other hand, the old man's grandchildren did not seem to share his opinion about her.

-"The pleasure is mine, doctor!"- Keita responded.

-"Me too!"- The same goes for his sister, Yumi.

After the introductions, the doctor wanted to know who the person she was supposed to treat was.

-"All right, little kids, which one of you two came to see me?"-

Yumi quickly raised her hand.

-"Me!"-

-"Oh, I see!"- Moriyama then asked more info about Yumi. -"And what's your name, dear?"-

-"Yumi. Yumi Tachibana, miss."-

-"Oh, I see!"- The doctor did more questions at the girl. -"And what brings you here, Yumi dear? Do you have a problem that worries you?"-

-"I don't know, I just remember that I passed out when I was meditating in the dojo, and then I woke up in the infirmary."-

Upon hearing that girl's summarized version of events, the doctor turned directly to Yumi's grandfather to ask him an immediate favor.

-"I will ask you and your grandson to wait for me outside the office so I can talk more closely with your granddaughter; if there is anything I need more information about, I will let you know immediately."-

-By me and my grandson there is no issues on leaving you two alone,"- The old man asked the doctor. -"but is there any serious problem with her, Dr. Moriyama?"-

-"I'll be honest, Mr. Tachibana;"- The female psychologist replied with a worried tone at Ichiro Tachibana. -"I think your granddaughter's case will be somewhat challenging to handle and I need to be alone with her to see exactly what problem this child might have."-

-"And how do you know that simply based on what my granddaughter said, doctor?"- The old man questioned the woman. -"Not that I doubt your expertise, young lady, but I doubt very much that my granddaughter is the first person to have a seizure after meditating, and I doubt that she is the last. What makes you think my granddaughter's problem might be special, as you say?"-

-"Let's just say it's a hunch."-

-"A hunch?"-

-"Yes, that's right; I think your granddaughter has something that she really needs to say with someone who can believe her, and I don't think it would help me much if you two were at my side for the entire session at Yumi's side."-

The old man remained silent for a few moments, but at the end he seemed to understand why the doctor needed to be alone with his granddaughter.

-"Okay, do whatever is suitable for Yumi, doc."-

-"I'm glad you understood, Mr. Tachibana."-

-"In that case, me and my grandson Keita will wait outside your office."-

-"Thank you very much, Mr. Tachibana!"-

Thus, both the elderly Ichiro and his grandson Keita left Dr. Moriyama's office to leave the psychologist and her patient, Yumi Tachibana, alone. The doctor began the session by asking the girl a few questions.

-"Well, now that we're alone, tell me what's bothering you; I heard from Dr. Abe that you convulsed at the dojo where you practice karate, but he couldn't find anything wrong with you, which means you have something you don't want to share with anyone else, don't you?"-

The girl nodded correctly with her head.

-"At the time you were meditating in the dojo, or when you were unconscious, did you dream or see anything strange or unusual that you had never felt in your life, Yumi?"-

-"Yes."-

-"Can you describe what you dreamt?"-

-"Yes, ma'am."-

-"And what exactly did you see in your dreams, Yumi dear?"-

The girl tried to remember what she had seen in her dreams, and after several minutes of hesitation, Yumi explained to Dr. Moriyama what she remembered from that mysterious dream.

-"I remember that the dream began with me standing in a dark place, where there was nothing, no light, no sun, no shadows, and nothing else but the ground where I stood."-

-"OK, let me write it down on the computer:"- Dr. Moriyama took notes of what Yumi talked about and summarized them on her computer. -"You were in a very dark place where there was only ground and nothing else, right?"-

-"Yes."-

-"And what happened next?"-

-"Then, a flash of light suddenly appeared and covered my whole body, and when I could open my eyes, I was somewhere else."-

-"Somewhere else, you say?"- Dr. Moriyama asked the Okinawan girl. -"And could you tell me where you ended up when you opened your eyes, Yumi?"-

-"When I opened my eyes, I was in what appeared to be a foreign city."-

-"A foreign city?"- The psychologist found that last part quite fascinating, perhaps because of the strange narrative leap from being in a dark place to a strange city. -"What exactly do you mean by foreign city, Yumi? Maybe it is some city outside of Japan that you have visited before, or maybe it is some place you have never seen before?"-

The girl tried to remember again, and after that, she told the psychologist what she recalled until the end of her dream.

-"I don't know, I just recall that it was a western-looking city, where the streets were very big and the signs were written in a language I don't understand."- Yumi explained the woman what she recalled from her dream. -"But that's not what scared me, doctor."-

-"If that foreign city didn't scare you, then what exactly scared you of that place, Yumi dear?"-

-"The city was completely destroyed, as if bombs had fallen on it, or an earthquake had happened there before."-

The doctor found that twist in the story of her dream quite strange, as it was not what she expected to hear from a child who had suffered an epileptic seizure after meditating, which meant that the child might have a more serious problem than she wanted to admit.

-"Sorry to interrupt you for a moment, Yumi, but what you tell me about your dream is very... bizarre, to say the least. But leaving that aside, I'd like you to continue with your story so that I know the context of your dream."-

-"Yes, ma'am."- Then, the girl added another layer of explanation to her dream. -"In fact, when I saw that part, I thought I was dead, and that I had ended up in hell."-

-"Considering what happened to you, and what you saw about that city, I would have no doubt that you thought at some point that you ended up in the afterlife."-

-"Right."-

-"And what else did you see of that city, Yumi?"-

-"When I realized that I was in that strange city, moments later I heard several voices coming from the south of where I was, originating from what seemed to be a tent, and I ran to that place to ask for help."-

-"Did you make it there?"-

-"Yes."-

-"And what happened afterwards?"-

-"When I walked up to the tent, the place was surrounded by what appeared to be strange shadows, which had no known shape, like chocolate popsicles without eyes or a face or anything like that."-

The child psychologist found that part even more bizarre and disturbing than the description of the city where Yumi was in her dreams, and for good reason: Without the proper context of what she was hearing, she suspected that the girl was suffering from nightmares caused by Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), most likely caused by domestic violence, school bullying or even sexual abuse, in the worst case scenario.

But to that doctor's surprise, nothing in the profile provided by Dr. Abe about Yumi Tachibana matched the description about a victim of domestic violence, and that girl seemed to be a very happy person who had no apparent reasons to complain about her family, friends or teachers at school; in fact, she was more scared about what she had dreamed, and as much as that doctor, Yumi wanted to know exactly what had happened to her that day at the dojo.

But in order to know the context of that nightmare, Dr. Moriyama knew she had to ask that girl more questions as soon as possible.

-"Could you describe to me exactly anything else you saw in that place when you arrived there, Yumi dear?"-

-"Yes; when I got there, the shadows spoke in a language I didn't know, even though it sounded vaguely like Japanese, for some reason."-

-"Let me write it down this, sweetie:"- The doctor kept writing what the girl said about her dream. -"Shadows speaking in a strange language that sounded like Japanese."-

After taking notes, Dr. Moriyama continued with the session, while adding more questions that needed answers from her little patient.

-"Did anything else occur after that?"-

-"Yes, after approaching the place where the tent was, I realized that the shadows had a very peculiar aspect."-

-"What do you mean with peculiar aspect?"- The doctor asked the little girl. -"Didn't you say before that they had no definite form?"-

-"Yes, but only from afar; When I got closer, the shadows were shaped like animals with human form."-

When the doctor heard that last part, it definitely challenged all the logic she knew about interpreting a child's dreams. In other circumstances, it would indicate that the child, or had suffered a severe case of child abuse, had an overly fertile and bizarre imagination, or maybe she was simply beginning to lose her mind for some reason even more disturbing than all of the above.

Before continuing with the session, Dr. Moriyama asked Yumi to send for her grandfather, so that she could talk to him and explain what she had been able to interpret about her granddaughter.

Once inside the office, Ichiro, worried about having to listen to what the woman was going to say, could only pay attention to the diagnosis that the woman gave about her granddaughter.

-"Mr. Tachibana, I urgently need to speak to you about your granddaughter Yumi."-

-"What could you managed to interpret about her, doctor?" - The old man responded quite worried about his little girl and her respective diagnosis.

The doctor paused briefly, in order to explain to the old man what she could interpret from what her granddaughter had dreamed that day when she convulsed in the dojo and was left unconscious.

-"I will be brief, sir: Your granddaughter needs more sessions with me to get to the heart of the matter, but what I can tell you about Yumi is that her case defies everything I know about child psychology, as she does not fit any profile that I know of beforehand."-

-"WHAT?!"-

-"I'm not going to worry you beforehand, Mr. Tachibana, but your granddaughter either has a very fertile imagination, or she has a more severe problem than she seems to have."-

That answer tore the heart of that old man, thinking that his granddaughter might have a severe mental problem, which caused him to ask the doctor for more explanations.

-"So what do you suggest to help my granddaughter, huh?"-

-"I'll get right to the point, sir; before I rule out any serious problems about Yumi, I'd ask her to come and have some sessions with me at least once a week, so I can get to know her better."-

-"And how much would the consultation cost me?"-

-"That comes with your insurance, so it would be free, unless she needed specialized treatment, so don't worry about it, sir."-

-"I just hope it's nothing serious, doctor, I wouldn't like to think that my granddaughter might be going crazy or something."-

-"I really don't think that's exactly the problem with Yumi, but I'd like to talk to her more to rule out anything more severe."-

Both the old man and the doctor did a brief, awkward pause, which was interrupted by the latter when she decided to end the conversation.

-"Anything else you want to add about your granddaughter's case, Mr. Tachibana?"-

-"Not at this time, doctor."-

-"So, I look forward to seeing your granddaughter next week."-

-"OK, see you next week, doc."-

-"See you soon, Yumi dear!"-

The girl said goodbye to the doctor in a bitter way, because she knew she might have a problem that she did not know.

-"Bye, ma'am."-

Once outside the office, Yumi Tachibana asked her grandfather what he thought about her case, and what the girl thought might be wrong with her.

-"Hey, grandpa, do you think I'm going crazy?"-

The old man, in a very bitter way, did not want to answer that question, and he wished that Yumi did not ask it either, for her own good and that of her family.

-"Better not think about it, Yumi. Let's just hope that everything goes well, dear."-

END OF ACT XIX

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