Chapter 7: Downtown trip through Osaka!

"ARRGHH!"

Gabriel growled in pain and bit down on the rolled up fabric in her mouth, the scent of burning flesh making everyone feel uncomfortable after the chemical attack.

"...sorry-"

"Quick...!," Gabriel cried painfully. "...the...other...side...!"

Raphiel winced as she quickly pressed down the hot knife on the exit wound, where the bullet left. It made a sizzling noise, the kind of noise which reminded Gabriel of putting meat on a barbeque, and Gabriel's entire body tensed up against her restraints.

After the three longest seconds of her life, Raphiel removed the knife and doused Gabriel's bullet wound in cold water as she panted in relief. Everyone's wounds were attended to, save for Gabriel's internal damage to her lungs.

"Thanks...Raphie...," Gabriel gratefully said as she leaned her head back on the concrete wall.

"Gab...," Vignette sighed as she hugged the blonde. "I'm so glad..."

Raphiel smiled at the couple, Vignette silently crying in Gabriel's chest.

"Geez Vignette...," Gabriel moaned quietly as she looked away blushing. "...don't get all...dramatic on me now..."

"You...you don't know how mad I am at you but...I am so glad right now...," Vignette smiled up at her as she wiped a tear from her eye. "...so...so glad...that you're alive..."

Gabriel responded with a laboured cough, sending little blood particles flying out and onto her chin. Vignette could tell by the way she was talking; slowly and deliberately, acting as if each word was precious, that the chemical took a toll on her lung linings.

She shook her head, knowing that there was no medicine in the first-aid kit Raphiel managed to grab when they were at the medical tent. There was nothing she could do to help Gabriel except give her some food and water.

"...no...," Gabriel whispered, closing her lips shut as Vignette moved the oatmeal bar she found to Gabriel's mouth. She thought that the injured blonde was just being picky, of all things, but she pointed to her gut and Vignette remembered that she had been shot two days ago.

"Oh...right...," Vignette muttered. "Your intestines probably wouldn't like that huh..."

Gabriel managed to smile at her. "Probably. I need...food pouch."

Vignette looked at Raphiel confused.

"It's a special liquid food for people with intestinal or stomach injuries. It's very easy to digest. About this big, contains all your nutrients," Raphiel explained. She held her thumb and index finger apart about the length of a bullet.

"Can you drink water at least?," Vignette asked. Gabriel nodded and took a small sip from Vignette's plastic water bottle.

The trio had barely managed to escape the compound with their lives, but now they were stranded in the ruins of downtown Osaka, surrounded with nothing but spent casings and rubble. They had taken shelter in some ruins with two small crumbling walls, where a fire was built to warm them up. Taken by surprise, they felt awfully vulnerable. They weren't wearing their proper gear, typical equipment like plate carriers, helmets or tools of any kind, but they could still defend themselves with their assault rifles and handguns. If push came to shove.

"Ok Gab...," Vignette gently rested the angel down on the blanket she laid down. "Try and get some sleep now." Vignette set Gabriel's folded exoskeleton, MOLLE vest, gas mask and weapons next to her, before snuggling her up in another blanket. "...sleep well."

Gabriel gave a small loving smile at the purple-haired demon, causing her heart to skip a beat. She looked away with a faint blush, and when she glanced back, Gabriel had powered down.

"I would kill a million soldiers...if it meant seeing that smile again...," Vignette thought warmly as she sat next to Raphiel two steps away.

She broke off half the oatmeal bar and gave it to Raphiel. The two nibbled at it slowly, as they recounted today's events.

"...I'm worried about Gab-chan..," Raphiel whimpered quietly as she poked and prodded at the small campfire.

"Is it about her lungs...?," Vignette replied, sharing her worry.

Raphiel nodded slowly. "The attack...they used plastic gas. Because chunks of burning plastic would form in contact with bare skin."

Vignette looked down at her bandaged left wrist which was exposed to the white gas. She had to painfully remove the plastic splinter lodged deep in her skin, welded with her flesh due to how hot it was. There was molten plastic fused with her cheek that she had to remove too, as well as in and around the bullet wounds of Gabriel and Raphiel. What a cruel weapon. She could only imagined how it killed.

"And now...Gabriel...breathed some of it in...," Raphiel muttered angrily, gritting her teeth. "...oh God..."

"Th-there's gotta be some kinda...I dunno...medicine that she can breathe in right?!," Vignette hushed desperately, her hands formed into fists. She didn't want to imagine what happened on her wrist, happening inside of her friend's lungs. "A-A-And it'll dissolve the plastics?!"

"Vignette...I don't know...but we've got to get to a doctor. Some place with medical equipment if we want to save her life."

Vignette let her agonizing statement settle in. There was no way, she thought, that Gabriel could manage to travel far and breathe heavily, if she didn't want particles of loose plastic clumping together in her lungs.

"I...I'm in good shape. I can head south from here towards Spirit base and-"

"-no, no it's too far," Raphiel interrupted. They still whispered to each other, trying not to wake Gabriel up. "I have a better idea."

She pulled out her phone and brought up a picture she took of a downed Legion OCULUS, one of the many military mechs to have been deployed in Osaka to fight against the invading forces. Vignette remembered noticing it as they walked deeper into the city as the sun began to fall.

"An oculus?," she mumbled curiously. "We've learned about them in training."

"This one looks like it got stopped from the inside," Raphiel explained, motioning a pistol shooting downwards. "So I'm hoping that all it needs is a pilot. If it has enough charge we can-"

"-head back to Springs and enact divine revenge?"

Raphiel stopped for a second. She was about to say 'use it to go to Spirit' but Vignette's suggestion seemed fitting. After all, she didn't get to retrieve her sentimental possessions at her cot in the barracks. And she was also sure they had things to get, and bodies to say goodbye to.

"Y-Yeah...yeah that!," she huffed with determined fists to her chests. "Revenge!"

"Uh...but...if it doesn't work...?," Vignette asked.

"Your plan," Raphiel answered.

"...heh...sounds good."

Both Vignette and Raphiel were thinking exactly the same thing. They were fantasizing roaming around in a literal tank with stubby legs, turning their enemies into pink dust with its M134 minigun and 40mm grenade launcher, impervious to plastic gases or bullets.

"So...where is this mech?," Vignette asked, throwing the oatmeal bar wrapper into the fire. It did seem as if they travelled pretty far from the mech. From what they could see in the picture, it was downed in what used to be a T-intersection, surrounded by crumbling buildings hit with shells. The mech was surrounded with annihilated enemy trucks and drone foot soldiers, as well as casings from firing its gatling gun. There was no obvious landmark on where it was located.

"Hmm...," Raphiel groaned as she looked closer at the photo. "Looks like there are some faint tank treads from this road. We should keep an eye out for that. We should also gravitate to where the infrastructure is getting worse from enemy engagements. Apart from that, if we just retrace our steps and keep an eye out I think we should be okay."

"I see...good thinking..! Raphie!," Vignette cheered quietly, fist bumping the white-haired angel.


Vignette awoke naturally, routinely checking her watch and confirming that it was six am, around the time she would wake up in preparation for school, back when that was a thing. She arched her back and stretched out, giving a small yawn, and she turned around, expecting the blonde loli to be asleep.

Vignette shook a little in surprise, as she locked eye contact with a very awake Gabriel. She had her exo and gear on, and she was sat against the wall knees curled up to her chest.

"...Gab!," Vignette called with a raspy voice, her day already beginning to get better. "How are you feeling?"

Gabriel responded with a small nod, looking down to the sides in an undecipherable expression.

"Gab?," Vignette worriedly asked as she knelt down in front of her. "You okay?"

Gabriel looked up at the concerned girl and lunged at her, pulling her into a deep and grateful hug.

Vignette was surprised at the sudden affection from the usually indifferent girl, but accepted it by resting her cheek on Gabriel's shoulder and gently stroking her messy undone mane.

"I...had a nightmare...," Gabriel whispered in Vignette's ear. "And you...you...!"

Vignette pulled back from the hug and looked at Gabriel, who looked angry and on the verge of tears.

"You stupid...Dora!," Gabriel exclaimed as loudly as her weak lungs would allow. Vignette tilted her head in confusion, but she could see that her friend was angry at her.

"D-Dora?!," Vignette stuttered.

"Oiii. Morning! Let's get moving, shall we?," Raphiel called, tossing Vignette her vest and backpack.

Ten minutes later, after counting their bullets and what ever equipment they had left, they began trekking in the direction they ran from yesterday. Raphiel was leading the way while Gabriel was holding on to Vignette's jacket cloth behind her. Vignette turned around and nonchalantly leered at the short loli.

"So...," Vignette sighed, offering Gabriel a piggy-back ride which she instantly accepted. Vignette instantly regretted it as she forgot that Gabriel had an exosuit on and weighed twice as much, but she didn't want to upset the girl so she kept walking, trying to act casual. "What uh...happened in this nightmare of yours?"

"...something fake and stupid," she replied in her usual pessimistic tone.

"Come on now," Vignette responded. "Dreams aren't fake."

"Totally fake," Gabriel muttered under her breath. "And meaningless."

"They aren't meaningless...they help you organize your thoughts Gab!," Vignette chirped in contrast with Gabriel's doom and gloom. "So. What happened?"

Gabriel stayed quiet for a moment, like she was trying to piece together loose fragments of the nightmare.

"...the...the people I saved...," Gabriel quietly recalled, fiddling with the keychain in her fingers. "...they came back to life? And uhmm...began 'healing' me. But like...pretty violently. You know? They were like, stabbing me with syringes and...you get the idea."

Raphiel subtly slowed down so that the duo would catch up to them, and so she could hear Gabriel's quiet voice better.

"And like...Satania was there too. She was burnt to nothing but flesh and bones, but she still had that...stupid bat hairpin on what was left of her hair."

Gabriel rested her forehead on the back of Vignette's head.

"And in another one, you...you were breathing the gas in; a-and you began rotting while laughing at me. W-Why the fuck would you do that?!," Gabriel growled as she slapped her head.

"Wha-?!," Vignette looked up at the bitter loli in confusion, sputtering off harmless insults towards the girl.

Meanwhile, Raphiel noticed another downed mech which was destroyed with large metal pieces scattered on the road, and ran towards it. She located a panel on the back of the mech which she tried to open, but it was dented in and stuck to the chassis of the machine.

"Gab!," Raphiel called, gesturing the duo to come. "Open this for me would ya?"

Vignette sighed in relief as she felt her legs relax, and Gabriel wrapped her fingers around the handle of the panel. She gave a quick tug, felt her exoskeleton tense it's motors, and the panel came flying out. Raphiel gave a little applause.

"Good job! Gab-chan!," she pet Gabriel's head much to her annoyance, and reached in the mech. With a click and a turn of her arm, she pulled out a long, yellow cylindrical tube with a handle on the end. It was a battery, similar to the one Gabriel had in her exo. And like that battery, she instinctively held onto it with both hands after feeling the weight, but it clonked onto the concrete road with force. She tugged at it, but it was like it was glued there.

"Eheheh...Gab-chan..?," Raphiel laughed sheepishly. Gabriel rolled her eyes and hoisted the battery sideways on her shoulders. "Let's hope it still has a charge...Gab-chan..."

"You owe me a striptease if it doesn't...," Gabriel muttered unconsciously, and she quickly realised what she just said out loud.

"G-G-G-GABRIEL TENMA WHITE..!," Vignette roared with embarrassment as she clawed her hand around Gabriel's head, like she was trying to squish her.

"My my my my my...Gab-chan!...How bold~!," Raphiel teased as she leaned forward, giving Gabriel a better look.

"I-I-It's not my fault I thought that...!," Gabriel stammered, trying to defend herself. "I-It just...appeared! W-Wait! It was just a joke! A joke!"

"Eehh..?," Raphiel whined playfully. "I...was taking you seriously...~"

Raphiel giggled at the flustered medic who was defending herself from Vignette, and resumed her trek to their destination, the titular duo not too far behind.