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CHAPTER 38
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Uileag awoke with a start.
He was sprawled on the floor of his… no, his and Ayaka's home, just inside the entryway. It was still dark out, but the night was faintly starting to lighten up.
Fingers… whole limbs stiff, unresponsive and cold.
His teeth clattered.
Blinking, shivering, he forced himself upright, groaning at the pain.
What was he doing here? Shouldn't he have been in bed, or at least slumped on a chair from having dozed off?
He breathed in deeply.
He held the breath for a bit.
He breathed out.
He breathed in.
He held the breath for a bit.
He breathed out.
He repeated.
As his mind cleared and regained focus, recent events flooded in. A cold sweat breaking out despite the aches and shivers from having slept on hard, chilly floor, he raced to the bedroom, fighting down the protests of his body.
Ayaka's side of the bed was empty, pristine from having gone untouched in very long. Far too long.
A dream?
No, he had dismissed too many things as just dreams in the past to fall for that one again.
A premonition or vision of some sort?
He ran to the study room, where he found his phone, still on the desk beside the materials he had been preoccupied with, and unlocked it. Or tried to, anyway; fingers clumsy with terror fumbled the code twice before he got it.
No messages or missed calls from Ayaka.
He frantically tapped out Ayaka's number.
After a pause, he cleared it. No, she was supposed to be out on the Southeast Asia campaign and would not have her phone with her while in the thick of it. Instead, he retrieved the number for the station of Construct Three's officer of the deck and, after a brief bout of hesitation, dialled it.
"C'mon, pick up, damn you," he muttered tensely to the air, wandering away from the table in his worry.
"Naval-ugh-Station Everett, go for officer of the deck," the officer of the deck said in a voice thick with forced chipper, having failed to entirely suppress a yawn, when he picked up after what felt like far too long.
It was a familiar voice, and Uileag seized on it with both hands. "Rajendra, Uileag here."
There was a surprised intake of air from the other end. "Shane? You-you know what time it is?" Their mutual familiarity meant the fellow didn't bother stifling the next yawn. "What're you calling for? Something must be up if you're not just calling me Raj."
"Something is indeed up, Lieutenant Rajendra Anjaneyelu," Uileag said. Worry lent his voice an edge even as a stray thought floated into his mind about how someone who had such a convoluted name could still have enough difficulty with his first name that resorting to his middle name instead was necessary. "Have you heard anything from Ayaka in the past few hours?"
"The lieutenant commander?" Anjaneyelu's confusion was clear despite the clearing muddle in his voice. "Nope. The captain and the commander - heck, even the RADM herself - have been in ops for hours now. Whatever's going on with the mission, I haven't heard a peep out of them since then. Even were I allowed to say, especially over an unsecured channel, no one's telling me anything, not even the occasional runner."
"Priompallán," Uileag growled, the childish word coming embarrassingly easily to him.
"Sorry, bro. Can't help you with the shamrock."
"Just…" Uileag clenched and unclenched his free fist a few times, grappling with frustration. "Just tell me as soon as you get any word, okay?"
"Sure."
"Goodbye." Uileag jabbed the button to hang up and wandered into the bedroom, where he caught sight of himself in the mirror.
His reflection seemed off, but Uileag couldn't figure out why.
There was a distant scraping sound like some vehicle was going down a road.
After who knows how long of staring back at himself, he put his phone down and walked back to bed, heart still heavy.
He wanted to tell himself Ayaka would be fine and that he was freaking out over nothing.
Just a dream.
Just a dream.
Just one long, excessively-detailed dream. An elaborate dark fantasy by a stressed-out mind, understandably concerned for her safe return in light of recent events, and not even a very convincing one.
It had to be, right?
There was, however, something about this that made him feel that he couldn't write it off so easily. That even if…
That even if Ayaka hadn't been killed, something had still happened to her.
That there was a reason why he had been sprawled messily on the floor just inside the door to the house, all cold and clammy and painful, rather than in the warm, comfortable bed.
Thud.
{Katana ZERO Original Soundtrack - Katana ZERO}
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Uileag jumped at the loud sound - too loud, way too loud at this early hour - intruding on his thoughts.
Thud.
Thud.
What was-
Uileag realised that was the sound of knocking at the door.
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