[March 27th, 2:37 p.m. ]

Ichika had gone straight to Chifuyu when he exited the room, limping the whole time. Apparently the bullet wound had been one of his "minor injuries" that the IS hadn't fully healed. Luckily, based on the scar, the bullet had gone through his entire leg instead of staying inside. Believe it or not Ichika knew that was better, less of a chance of more shattered bone fragments, which would take even longer to heal.

After he made sure Chifuyu was still fine, he focused on his own wounds. Ichika was more than used to pain, but his wounds did hurt. He had an extremely high pain tolerance, hell he didn't even notice he had gotten shot in the leg, but that was when he was hyped on adrenaline and now he definitely noticed it. However, he was less upset about the pain and more upset that it might impede his work.

After exiting Chifuyus' room he was confronted by a blushing nurse that informed him he was still only in a hospital gown. Ichika knew that, he just didn't care. But he knew other clothes were needed, people would bother him too much if he just walked around nearly naked and he didn't want to spend his time getting arrested for indecent exposure. He got an extra pair of clothes from the hospital, and a key to the new Orimura household from Madoka when he was in Chifuyu's hospital room.

Madoka told him that Chifuyu had prepared him a room right after buying the house, even though he was thought dead. Her faith that he was still alive lightened his mood. Chifuyu had apparently searched the ruins of their old house herself to pick out any surviving belongings of his, and had put them in his new room.

It took him a short walk, but he arrived at the house. Ichika went to his new room. It became clear that Chifuyu had done her best to completely recreate his old room. The new room had the exact same layout. On the new desk appeared to be a current version of his old supercomputer. Tabane. He smirked. A few photo frames and what appeared to be the only surviving remnants of what used to be his old designs and inventions were held by shelves. Everything but the computer was covered in a thick layer of dust, as if once filling the room neither Chifuyu or Madoka had entered again.

He wasn't worried about the inventions. Most of those had just been small things he had been tinkering with. Any of the bigger inventions had already been built, or he had given copies to Tabane for safe keeping.

He approached the computer. Glancing to it's left he saw a phone, wallet, and a carrot shaped notepad. He opened the wallet to find some ten thousand Yen notes (Hundreds in US dollars), a black Credit Card, and a key card of some kind whose background was a picture of him sitting on Tabane's shoulders when he was 6.

Ichika tucked the wallet into his back pocket and picked up the notepad, flipping to the front page.

Ikkun,

Hi hi hi! Welcome back to Ikkun. The world of the living has been quite boring without you, yes it has! I hope you can fix that. ;) Sorry I couldn't get your permission, but I need to tell you that I have sold the rights to the Active Inertia Canceller design. I don't remember who I sold it to, but I kept your half of the money from all of our inventions and designs I have sold over the past years. The weird goth credit card thingy is hooked up to the bank with all of your money. Enjoy!

-Your favorite genius inventor,

Tabane-nee

She kept my half of the money? And she continued to split the money earned from inventions she built that I didn't even help with…. that's…. nice…. really nice. I'll need to find a way to thank her.

Ichika began to flip through the other pages of the notebook, all of which were filled with cartoon drawings of Tabane, which made him chuckle. He set it aside and picked up the phone.

Opening it he saw various apps, one lead him to his bank account which held a ludicrous amount of zeros. In his contacts were Tabane, Chifuyu, and Madoka, respectively. The "photo" app was filled with selfies of Tabane, most of her in various cosplays. Some were more... daring... than others. He rolled his eyes, but it did get a small smirk out of him.

He walked to a mall to buy necessities, mainly clothes considering he had none other than the ones he was wearing now. Ichika hated the mall, full of people and people and people, all staring at him for various reasons. It could've been the fact that he had an eyepatch, or the missing hand, or that he was presumed dead and then showed up one day carrying the recently missing Chifuyu. The hospital had been surrounded by the press, he quickly dashed through them, but they had gotten quite a few photos of him that were now plastered on every television screen he saw. Then again, maybe it was because he was the genius apprentice/partner of Tabane Shinonono and that his inventions had perfected the IS.

This is only going to get worse once they find out I can pilot an IS. *sigh* What an annoyance.

Ichika had bought very little, he wasn't one to waste. He was now dressed in more preferable clothing; dark jeans, a leather jacket with sunglasses that gave him a "bad-boy" look, and a black T-shirt with the Kurazakura plastered on the front. He felt very hot in the clothing, having gotten used to being near naked for five years, he chose the sunglasses to help prevent at least some people from recognizing him, and chose the jacket to cover up all the scars on his arms. Though the clothing was somewhat hard to find, he was near six foot now. That may have been only above average in most of the world but in Japan, that was a solid 5 inches above the average height. To put a fine point on it, he stuck out of a crowd… significantly.

After the mall he went straight to an apartment complex for the first step of his actual plans. He used some money to rent an apartment. He didn't want to live in the current Orimura household. It just felt… different. He was a different person now than he had been. Living in the house, even if it was only a remake of the old one, still would've felt like he was trying to live someone else's life.

The apartment was because he needed a private place to begin his plans before he had time to purchase a permanent place of residence. The first big thing he would do was build a mechanical hand and new eye, as well as a few cybernetic implants to improve or reconstruct his body in various places.

Ichika knew he couldn't build the hand and eye in the apartment, it was too small for any kind of machinery. He would need large and very advanced equipment to build the mechanical replacements. Ichika easily bid for and won a large home not far from the Orimura house, he offered to give more money if the deal was closed quickly, to which the owner accepted. Of course it would take days or weeks for the paperwork to be completed. In the meantime, he started the design for the hand since that took priority over the new updated eye as well as being the design that would take the longest.

He had pre-paid for the apartment for months so he could have a place for as long as he needed. Days quickly flew by as he filled his time with designing the hand and eye, the hand took him three days and he then completed the eye in a little less than two. Madoka had texted him an obscene amount of times, he simply reaffirmed that he was alright, but busy. Everyday Madoka updated him on Chifuyu's condition, but it was always the same. She's still asleep but the doctors say she's getting better. He wanted to be able to create some magic serum that would wake her up instantly, but… hell. He was an Engineer, and frankly making some "miracle medicine" was in a completely different area of science. So he would be forced to just wait for Chifuyu to wake up.

Presently, a few weeks after he had woken up, Ichika was in the lab room of the house he had bought. Right now the lab was just a random room in the house that he kept all of the machinery. He wanted to make a super secret hidden laboratory, but he had a lot on his plate, so he had postponed building a laboratory.

Ichika felt amazing. His body had mostly healed in the hospital, but now he had given his body time to rest. His body was at one hundred percent for the first time since the day he was taken and he felt like he could take on an army, but he reminded himself to keep his confidence in check.

He was currently sitting on an operating table as large machines lowered the brand new eye into his face. It worked slowly and accurately, not causing Ichika any pain as it attached the eye to his body. Ichika heard a small hiss. Having fully attacked the new eye, the machines automatically moved out of his way. He sat up and got off the surgical table.

"Cybernetic eye, version alpha. Test 1. Bootup password 0R1MUl24." He spoke aloud to seemingly no one.

The mechanical eye flickered to life as he stood in place. It looked stone cold and completely devoid of life. The pupil began glowing intensely until it slowly died down, the eye finally looking identical to a biological one, with an illusion of life behind it. In seconds the pupil rapidly flashed a rainbow colors, each always more intense than the last.

It was a very weird experience. For one thing his field of vision had widened dramatically. It felt like his vision was a camera that just zoomed out. He was pretty sure those were all good things, but it would take a while to get used to, that was certain.

With a glance around the room he confirmed that the eye was functioning properly.

Well. It might not be perfect, and there's no replacing my biological one, but it will….suffice…. I suppose.

As the mechanical eye Tabane had made long ago was, it was not seamless with his face. Yes, technology had progressed far in the ten years since he obtained his first mechanical eye. However, he preferred that the eye was unseemly, he was not ashamed of his wounds and was proud of what he had survived to obtain them and he wanted people to know that. It let people know he was not one to be messed with, as well as giving off an aura of dominance, which he enjoyed.

Unfortunately, since Ichika was highly stressed for time, the only things his new eye could do was fill the void left by their organic counterparts. He wanted to add many advanced features to each cybernetic, but he simply didn't have the time.

The new eye still had the kaleidoscopic part to it, since he knew Tabane loved that part for some reason, so if the fact that it was made of metal wasn't enough to tell you that it was fake the changing eye color would.

With his eye being complete he was now finished with his cybernetic modifications to his own body. He would probably make modifications and improvements every once in a while, but for now he could check them off the list.

The hand was installed a day ago and it worked flawlessly. Though he wanted to finish it as soon as possible he had added a few tricks to the hand, mainly to guarantee his protection even farther. There was a small Passive Inertia Canceller built into the bit of arm and hand. Inside the bit of arm was the power cell for the Passive Inertia Canceller, and the fingertips of his hand would open when he used the PIC.

It felt like a new muscle that he could flex to activate. It was far less powerful than one built into an IS, but that was to be expected because of it's small size. Ichika was fine with that, he just wanted a trump card that would provide himself with a solid defense. He mainly just wanted something to prevent himself from getting shot. Sure, he was an expert in hand to hand combat and knew himself to be one of the best swordsmen in the world, having invented his own styles during his time before his escape from the Phantom Task prison. If he was really desperate he could use his genius to look at the barrel of a gun, predict the bullet's path, and block it. But, as they say, "luck favors the prepared" and he wanted luck to always be on his side.

Even though the PIC was small it took up all of the extra space in the mechanical hand, so he couldn't add any offensive perks to it which was disappointing, but it was nice to have a defensive trump card.

Ichika finished up the testing on the eye and went into the bedroom to shower and finally sleep after a long day of nonstop working on the mechanics. He had finally finished his first major project, the next would be to build his second IS, but that would be a much longer and time consuming process, so he decided to put it off for now.

A ding woke Ichika. He blinked the tiredness out of his eyes and sat up on his bed, snatching his phone from the nightstand next to it. The text was from Madoka, Chifuyu had woken from her coma.

[March 28th, 6:33 a.m.]

[The Hospital]

Incredible confusion was an understatement to describe the condition Chifuyu was currently in. One minute she was fighting for her life after being overwhelmed by IS pilots, the very next second she found herself drowsily looking around a hospital room. Multiple IV bags were pumping fluids into her system, assuring she remained hydrated. She felt awful. Her muscles were all overwhelmingly sore and her energy was entirely drained. Across from her was a window with closed blinds, but she could see sunlight bleeding through the crevasses.

Chifuyu noticed Madoka sitting at her left side, looking at her with the biggest smile she had seen in a long time. Madoka was clearly happy that she had woken up, but she must have been ecstatic to have a smile that wide. She could see Madoka's eyes dampening.

"Explain." She demanded. Her voice was slightly scratchy, and sounded deeper and more threatening than it usually did, which was already quite a lot.

Madoka's smile only grew, she lunged at Chifuyu and wrapped her in a tight embrace. Chifuyu was taken aback, sure Madoka was always nice to her, but crying with joy while hugging her was a little much. She gave her sister a small hug back. "Ok, ok. Can you explain to me why I'm in a hospital bed?" Chifuyu didn't want to mention being almost killed by their mother.

Madoka nodded and pulled back, Chifuyu could swear her smile got even bigger.

"You're going to be so happy Chifuyu…" Madoka said, wiping away her tears of happiness. "It is a really long story though." She said.

"Well? I'm obviously not going anywhere." Chifuyu said, urging Madoka to start, especially because it was supposed to make her "so happy".

"Where should I start… Oh I know. ICHIKA'S ALIVE!" Madoka shouted at the top of her lungs.

All thinking in Chifuyus' brain stopped dead with those two words she had hoped to hear for five years. "Wh-Where is he?" She said, trying to maintain a cool and cold exterior but failing miserably.

"Oh!" Madoka stuck her tongue out and hit her head. "I haven't told him you're awake yet." She said getting out her phone and apparently texting Ichika. "I'll tell Tabane-chan too."

But at that moment a too recognizable squeal was heard as the door burst open and a woman dressed in a very revealing nurse costume with bunny ears walked into the room. Great. Chifuyu thought, but in truth she was happy to see her longest and only friend.

"What are you doing here Tabane?" Chifuyu questioned as she sat up in the hospital bed, even though she was her friend she wanted to limit the number of people that saw her in a weakened state.

"Well…" Tabane plopped down on the bed. "Just like Madocchi was saying, you're finally awake. Oh and by finally awake I'm talking about the month and a half you've been sleep sleepin' in." She said while bouncing up and down on the bed like an energetic child.

"I don't care about that, you said Ichika was alive!" Chifuyu said towards them both.

"I was going to explain before Tabane-chan came in." Madoka said accusingly towards Tabane, but she just smiled in response.

"Oh, yep, he's back! My perfect apprentice is back! I'm a little disappointed he didn't visit me though." Tabane said energetically, frowning at the end.

"He has only texted me to ask how Ane[Big Sister] was doing, but got annoyed when I kept texting him. Something about building a new hand, plans, andhaving217messagesfrommeinoneday." Madoka spit out the last part as quickly as she could.

"CAN SOMEONE PLEASE EXPLAIN WHAT IS GOING ON?!" Chifuyu yelled over their conversation, desperately trying to finally get some answers. Tabane stopped jumping on the bed favoring sitting on the end instead, her hectic behavior disappeared and was replaced with a plain face of seriousness. Madoka focused her attention on her sister.

The two shared a look, Tabane shrugged, and Madoka proceeded. "Once you disappeared for a few days, the world went crazy since the strongest person in it was gone. Then about a month ago Ichika walked into a hospital in America carrying you in his arms. He was covered in wounds and blood, not to mention missing a hand and his mechanical eye, looking really REALLY pissed before he fainted on the spot. The doctors said that his injuries looked much worse than they were, but also that he was absolutely covered in scars."

She took a deep breath. "You were in a medically induced coma, because Phantom Task was keeping you asleep so you wouldn't be a threat and apparently put enough sedatives into your body it should've killed you. After the doctors said both you and Ichiak were okay to be moved, I had you two transported back to Japan, to a hospital a few kilometers from home."

She paused allowing Chifuyu to digest the information, then continued. "After a few days, Ichika woke up, but the doctors said since you were in a coma there was no telling how long it would take for you to wake up. Ichika didn't say much about what happened. Just that he was taken to a prison and escaped. Then he found out you were being kept in the same prison as him, so he took you with him. He's… different. I mean… he's still the handsome, multitalented, cocky mega-genius. He doesn't talk much, he seems emotionless, I mean he's nice, or has been to me at least. But he was always the optimist y'know, constantly joking at us trying to get us to laugh, the shoulder we could cry on. Now… I mean… I just don't know. He seems like a different person, which I suppose he is. I'm worried about him, Chifuyu." Madoka finished, frowning as her eyes glazed over with the start of tears.

"I'm sure he'll be fine." Chifuyu said, putting on a strong front, but she felt like her heart had been ripped out of her chest.

"OH!" Madoka shouted. "He said that to escape he piloted an IS!" She said, her classic smile returning. "He lost it in the fight to escape though."

That brought extreme reactions from both Tabane and Chifuyu. Tabane squealed with glee while Chifuyu went completely silent trying to process the amount of information she had been given.

"Isn't that great?" Madoka said.

"..." Chifuyu was blanking on what would happen, but came to the conclusion that Ichika could take care of himself.

"Hello." Came an extremely calm, light and smooth voice. Even with the light tone of the voice the occupants jumped slightly, not knowing another person had entered the room. Madoka and Tabane turned around as Chifuyu turned her gaze.

Ichika was leaning on the entrance to the hospital room with the same clothes he had been wearing for weeks. Dark jeans with a belt to hold them up. A black T-shirt with the Kurazakura plastered on the front in a fighting pose. An open leather jacket, keeping the picture on his shirt in full view, his sunglasses were hanging from the center of the shirt, slightly pulling it down. As he was not wearing the glasses, his pure white eyepatch was left in full view. Where his mechanical eye was metal parts extended slightly further into his face, allowing you to still see some of the cybernetics even with the eyepatch covering the eye.

Once extremely long hair was now cut short to stay out of his face. The dark hair turning into a spike at the front of his head.

His pair of sunglasses hung from the center of his T-shirt. His head was slightly tilted as he analyzed the occupants of the room. The usual fire in his natural eye seemed to have dimmed, and was looking upon the three with a warm and comforting look.

"IKKUN!" Tabane lunged at her former apprentice. Ichika backed up slightly, not feeling comfortable with having people touch him yet. Noticing this, Tabane instantly stopped, looking sadly at Ichika for a second before slowly walking forward, giving time for Ichika's permission, then lightly embracing him.

"It's good to see you too, Tabane." Ichika replied, but his face remained devoid of emotion. He set the wild woman back on the ground as she pouted at him.

"Did you see the note? Did you like your presents?" She looked at him like a child desiring approval from their parents.

"I did. Thank you, they will all be very helpful."

"Yay!" Tabane jumped up and down, as her face lit up like a Christmas tree.

"Can I look at the hand? Oooo! And the eye?" She questioned after calming herself down. Ichika seemed to consider for a second, then forced himself out of his comfort zone and extended the mechanical hand to Tabane. She began looking it over then looked up to Ichika, he nodded and she began examining it. Then she shifted and flipped up his eyepatch, looking over his mechanical eye. She stepped back and smiled. "Impressive as always, Ikkun."

Both Madoka and Chifuyu were looking sadly at the mechanical parts, but Tabane just looked glad he had been able to make replacements.

"Thank you." Ichika replied with politeness, with his vision locked on Chifuyu. It wasn't that he didn't want to talk to Tabane, he very much so did. But Chifuyu was still hospitalized, so assuring her health took priority. Tabane saw this and smiled. "Well I think I'll be going, see you around Ikkun~." She said as she kissed his left cheek and left.

"Ah… ya… I think I'll just… ah… " Madoka stumbled through her words as she awkwardly left the room, but not before giving Ichika an overdue hug.

Chifuyu had still been expecting the old Ichika, she thought he would come in the door laughing, cracking jokes the whole time, then leaping into his precious sister's protective arms. It was one thing to hear how different he was, it was another to see it.

Ichika simply stood there, unmoving with a blank expression. His face was covered in scars, though most were light. She was sure that much worse scars likely littered his body. His eyes, one a dark reddish brown, the other a kaleidoscopic mechanical replacement, both showed a mix of pain and cold calculation but were balanced with a warm welcoming and wisdom far beyond his years.

Ichika's hair looked darker than night itself, freshly cut short to stay out of his face.

She may have been sitting but could tell even if she stood to her full height he would tower over her. His figure was of a swimmers body, one that was thin with no fat and covered in muscles as hard as brick. His hands were placed neatly in his jacket pockets. He stood tall with perfect posture and a puffed out chest. Confident, cool, calm, collected, but also modest, warm and understanding… dominant in all aspects. Yes, his presence demanded respect and attention, but also gave one the feeling that even as a stranger they could open up and he would never judge them. A teenager, but she held no doubt, the wisest person in every room.

This wasn't the little kid she had lived with for years. The one that would always be joking and laughing, practically begging for her attention, which she loved. This wasn't the boy she had saved and taken under her wing. No, that boy had been torn to shreds because her own mother wanted to get to her through him. He had been tortured for years, and it was her fault. He would no doubt know she was the reason he was kidnapped and tortured, surely he hated her with every fiber of his being. She was killing herself as each second passed, hating herself for allowing Ichika to go through what he had, even though she could only guess specifics.

A tear dropped from her left eye as she and Ichika continued to stare at each other. That was when Ichika moved in and wrapped his arms around her, surprising her greatly considering his previous behaviors.

He may have not wanted to touch anyone, but he'd be damned if he let anyone he cared about cry from sadness.

"I… missed you too, Onee-chan." Ichika said as he pulled back and wiped more tears from her eyes. That was when the dam broke, providing the complete opposite effect Ichika had intended. He sat on her bed and hugged her tighter, while petting her head. "It's alright. I am fine." He said in a softer voice with a much gentler tone, one that he rarely used, though his face held no emotion. At that moment she could have mistaken that he was in fact the one that had taken in and raised her.

Chifuyu tried to say something, but through tears and sobs it didn't sound like anything. Ichika laid her head in his lap and took her hair. No doubt she is still tired. He thought, beginning to hum to lull her into a sleep. Not to mention she still has a mixture of drugs in her body. After a few minutes the crying stopped as she fell asleep. He smiled though it barely showed, and moved her body back to a sleeping position on the hospital bed, tucking her in. She'd kill me if I ever mentioned this. The big bad brunhilde, lulled to sleep like a babe. He chuckled to himself. With that last thought he left the room, walking past Madoka on his way out.

[March 28th 6:24 p.m.]

[AMERICA. Indianapolis, Indiana.]

[Ruins of the Phantom Task "Heavy Prison"]

Corn. Why was there so much corn? He had to driven for a couple hours after landing to get to the start of his hike to the prison, and he had passed at least a million corn feilds.

The flight back to America was about 9 hours, but it would've been a whole lot more if he didn't take Tabane's automated and self designed private jet. It made the trip at least 4 hours quicker, easily. If anything, at least he had been comfortable. Plus since it was Tabane's self designed jet, it had a lab on board that he had taken full advantage of to begin blueprints on upgrades to his eye.

He could have purchased a private plane himself, but he didn't have the time to look for one. *sigh* I should really get some employees to take care of things for me. Someone I can trust to get me something If I ask for it, so I don't have to take time to buy groceries or do the dishes. Maybe I could get a maid- "Or butler" Shirokishi interjected. -or butler…. hmmmm, ya that sounds good. I think I'll do just that. Ichika concluded as he continued to hike through a dense forest.

Honestly, the wilderness he found himself in was quite pretty. Dense flora and fauna surrounded him, all in a variety of colors. Leaves of various shades of green accompanied the healthy dark brown of tree trunks, sticks, and dead leaves that crunched at his feet. More than once he had to remind himself of his reason for being here, just to avoid looking for the crunchiest looking leaf.

'There it is'. Ichika said as he brushed a tree limb out of the way and stepped out into the massive opening in the forest. "No wonder no one found this place. That hike took you at least an hour, and you sprinted for quite a lot of it." 'Mmm.' Ichika hummed in agreement.

He gazed upon the ruins of the place he once called hell. It looked like someone had taken more than just a wrecking ball to it. The building was completely leveled to the ground. As he walked towards it he could still see a large patch of blood stained grass in the area outside the facility.

"EW!" Shirokishi loudly said telepathically as Ichika's gaze fell upon the rotting flesh of a severed arm.

'That's Squall's.'

"Yeah, I know. I went through your memory when we bonded…"

'Problem?'

"No. I was just hoping you had killed her."

'Then don't worry. Squall will soon die by our blade.' Ichika replied with sheer confidence. He couldn't see Shirokishi, but could feel her smiling wickedly through their link.

"Sensors detect no signs of life." Ichika nodded as he walked up to what used to be the entrance to the building. The first floor was completely leveled to ruins, so instead of walking through a door he simply hopped over what remained of a wall.

'Figures'. Ichika thought as he gazed upon a control room which had been razed to the ground. 'Not that I thought they would be foolish enough to leave their computers intact, but it was worth a shot.'

What was left of the elevator shaft was now simply a seemingly bottomless pit. He looked over the gap as the pit looked as though it would swallow him whole.

'Hmmm. Ideas?'

"We could fly down, but my frame would not fully fit. It already created those large gashes in the elevator shaft when we escaped. Since you haven't repaired my frame fully, "

'That would be a no.' Ichika replied as he began gazing around the ruins. *sigh* 'Guess I can just do this physically.'

"You will certainly not! You are not fully healed. Might I remind you that you still have a limp? Might I remind you that you need cybernetics to help you breath? You have another month at minimum until your body will be able to function without cybernetic enhancements."

'It will be fine. I'll just be extra careful.' He could feel her pouting.

"Promise?" She asked in a sullen voice.

'Pinky promise. Look-' Ichika pointed. '-It even has a ladder. I'll be perfectly safe.'

"Humph…. Fine." With Shirokishi no longer on his back, he gripped the top rung of the ladder and braced his feet against the ones below.

[6:42 p.m.]

[Floor 11]

He had first climbed to the bottom floor, the one in which what was once Chifuyu's cell was at. The amount of blood and stench of rotting corpses had been so potent it almost made him puke. Luckily, the only thing he needed to do on that floor was confirm the two IS Guards had died. He could find one body, and the crushed frame of both the IS. As for the other pilot, he wasn't sure. It was possibly she had somehow gotten out from under the crushing weight of the debris, or perhaps her body was covered in too much debris for him to find it.

He had also gone to the secret room below the bottom floor, in which the Shirokishi had been kept, but it was completely barren, leaving him with nothing to do other than exploring the floor his cell had been on.

'That took longer than expected…. my wounds have taken their toll.' Ichika thought as he walked into the large hallway, stopping to catch his breath.

"I told you you shouldn't have relied on your body so soon! Idiot! Idiot! Idiot!" Shirokishi scolded his rashness.

'Calm down. Calm down. I'm fi…..' Ichika trailed off as he entered the hallway of the floor his cell was on.

'...ne' He looked around, skimming the long hallways and corridors. "Damn." He looked at the dozens of rotting corpses and blood stained floors. Flies hovering around the rotting flesh. The bottom floor had been like that too, but to a lesser extent since the parts of the ceiling that hadn't fallen were so high up. However, the hallways now reminded him of catacombs. The explosives Squall set off had damaged the base to such an extent that the halls were now filled to the brim with large chunks of stone and rubble.

The walkway was almost completely blocked, to get to his cell he had to climb above the debris and crawl between the broken rocks and ceiling of the hall. Every once in a while he could see bars that lead to an open cell, but the prisoners they once held were either dead or missing. Likely either they had escaped in the chaos, or Phantom Task had returned to move all of the prisoners.

It took a lengthy amount of time to reach what was once his cell, but once he did things got easier.

'My cell must've been made with thicker walls. It's holding up the crushing weight of the collapsed higher floors….'

He thought as he climbed out of the crawlspace like hallways into a small bit of mostly intact hall which led to his cell.

Rubble crunched under his feet as he walked toward the entrance. Ducking under a sharp piece of rebar that was sticking out of the ceiling, he entered the cell, passing a massive metal door that had been blown off its hinges.

Surveying the room he could see the relatively fresh dead bodies lying where they had fallen. He could see the long dead body of his former cellmate and the scuff the grenade explosion had created.

Ichika walked over to an odd looking small pile of bodies, a monument of gore and flesh sitting on blackened dried blood. Noting that the pile looked man made, he figured it could be a trap, and kicked the pile, only for the corpses on top to fall. Nothing. Maybe he was being paranoid.

He analyzed the bodies, trying to identify a specific corpse, only to come to the realization he couldn't find it. Autumn.

'She got away.'