He remembered it. What Enju had told him just then about him having promised her a date was indeed true, even he had to admit that.
Last Christmas, he made such a commitment to her. During Christmas Eve, when it is Japanese tradition for couples to go out on dates and enjoy themselves to their heart's content, Rentarō refused to listen to his so called fiancee's requests for them to go out and instead counter-offered to take her out during the upcoming Valentine's Day, as that was less than two months away anyway and it was more in spirit to how Western tradition was. Although grudgingly, the girl yielded and accepted.
Truthfully, Rentarō wasn't that much against going out with Enju because he didn't enjoy her company, it was more related to his refusal to acknowledge her romantic feelings for him and reinforcing those feelings by acting upon them. Still, by postponing their rendezvous, he only doomed himself now when the day of the deed did finally arrive and he had to keep his promise now. This, especially at that moment when the kitchen was in utter disaster, didn't really make him especially happy.
Now, he had to both repair all the damage done by Enju and also take her out on a date once she would return from school. He could only sigh in these circumstances.
Rentarō: "I don't suppose we can leave our date for another time, can we?" he asked, trying to find some way out of this mess without actually having to endure it.
The girl, though, was intelligent enough to not allow him to further delay their inevitable lovers excursion.
Enju: "No! You promised me you'll take me out! You told me that all adults should keep their promises!" of course it wasn't going to be that easy.
Rentarō: "Yeah, I said that, didn't I?" he smiled in contempt, resigning himself to his fate and letting go of all hope that he could enjoy anything that day. He would have argued a lot more in any other day but, given how that was still in the early morning and both him and Enju had to prepare for the latter's departure for school, he just let it go and tried to move the conversation along so as to not mess their schedule any further.
Rentarō: "And I don't suppose you'll be satisfied with us just ordering pizza for the night, will you?" that couldn't even formally be classified as a date, even Enju knew that.
Enju: "No! I want you to take me out on a real date! I want to have fun and feel appreciated!" for whatever reason she decided to speak like an old wife who was demanding some attention from her old and disinterested husband who had stopped paying attention to her for years.
Rentarō: "Sure….why not? I already gave up…." with no arguments to make that could get him out of this situation, the boy accepted the fact that the quickest and least painful way to handle this current state of affairs was to just simply go with it and end this ridiculous 'date' as soon as possible. "Do you have a particular place in mind that you want us to visit?"
Enju: "Toshimaen!" she gleefully exclaimed, with a lot of renewed energy surging inside her body because of Rentarō's acceptance of his destined date with her. However, as soon as he heard the name of that amusement park, the boy's body cringed a little as the memories of what had happened more than half a year before assaulted his brain and brutally reminded him of a rather unpleasant experience.
In the past, Rentarō and Enju had already traveled to Toshimaen. It was a rather popular park that luckily survived the Great Gastrea War and continued to entertain both children and adults with their numerous attractions, among which are some infamous roller coaster rides.
Back then Enju, naturally, wanted to go on one such ride when she arrived there, a particularly scary one, despite Rentarō's continued protests against the idea. After eventually managing to convince the boy, the duo went to the ride and tried to have as much fun as they could.
Halfway through though, the two realized the flaws in Enju's plan. Since Enju had not been on any roller coasters before and she was not psychologically prepared for the endurance test that she was about to experience, she got scared quickly, especially when she noticed the particularly huge and steep slope that their train was beginning to slowly climb. As a young girl, she wasn't ready for such an extreme ride, particularly since it was her first time enjoying such a feature. Finally, when the train did arrive at the top, it immediately plummeted at a nauseating speed back down, sharply contrasting the relatively slow ascent and almost giving her a heart attack.
When this happened, the girl's survival instincts kicked in and fear took over her normally rational personality. She used her Gastrea-enhanced strength to break the constraints that were holding her tied to her chair and jumped off the train while still in the ride.
Needless to say that ended up attracting a lot of attention and, while her being a rabbit model ensured that she would survive unscathed the normally-fatal fall from that height, the true nightmare came soon afterwards. Rentarō received an enormous fine for breaking one of the park's rules, specifically the one about Cursed Children not being allowed on the park's grounds. Since he had hidden Enju's status as such a child from the employees there, he was legally in the wrong and he knew he couldn't fight it in any way.
While that had happened many months before, the memory was still fresh in the teenage boy's mind and he didn't feel thrilled at the idea of returning there.
Rentarō: "(sigh) Enju, you do remember what happened last time we went there, don't you?" he doubted the girl could have forgotten that horrible day, especially since she had cried for the rest of the day back then after they were almost chased out of the park despite having payed the money.
Enju: "(frowning) Yes, I remember…." she didn't like this topic of conversation and had hoped that the boy wouldn't have brought it up. Sadly, though, she was mistaken. "But this time it'll be different! I promise! I won't go on another roller coaster ride!" she tried to argue, not willing to let go of her desire to still go there. She remembered that park well and even though her time there had been short lived, she still wanted to go there again in the near future.
Rentarō: "You know we can't go back there! I told you that already!" the boy obviously didn't feel good bringing the girl's spirits down, especially that day when they were supposed to be happy together. Still, he knew he couldn't do as she wished, especially because he could still recall, crystal clear, the warning he had received before they left. "They told me that if they see my face there ever again, they'll call the police!" again, this was stuff he didn't feel happy talking about but he needed to make her realize that what she wanted was not really possible. The girl was stubborn though.
Enju: "So what? As long as I behave myself, there shouldn't be any problems, right?" the sad fact was that Enju was aware of the reality and it wasn't like she was not comprehending what the real issue was, it was the fact that she refused to acknowledge it. Rentarō knew that. Despite knowing, he still couldn't continue with the girl's fruitless attempts at trying to convince him otherwise.
Rentarō: "I can't take you to that park again! I cannot risk getting arrested and have you be taken away from me once they realize you are my Initiator!" was his final verdict, letting her know that he wasn't going to change his mind, regardless of what she would say next.
His refusal to sympathize with her only infuriated the girl again.
Enju: "This isn't fair! I only want you to make me happy on our date! Why can't you just talk to them and have them forgive us? Is it really that hard?!" much like any child her age, she wasn't really someone who you could easily reason with. Even when told why something won't work, she would persist and continue following her train of thought.
Rentarō: "And just when I thought this morning couldn't possibly become any more irritating…." he thought to himself. He hated whenever he had to talk about these things. He knew Enju didn't enjoy listening to this same story over and over again, just as much as he despised telling it. And yet she continued to ask for it every single time apparently. He always tried his best at avoiding this subject as often as possible but she would still find ways of forcing him to do it anyways.
Enju: "Why can't I take a ride like all the normal children?! Why do I have to-..."
Rentarō: "Because you're not normal, Enju!" he suddenly interrupted, already fed up with this ordeal. Listening to her go off on a rant about how unfair the world was was not something he felt he could deal with at that point. He had been forcefully woken up from his sleep, had the crap scared out of him first thing in the morning, confronted the aftermath of what many would call the most intense calamity that their house ever experienced and was then forced to agree to go on a date later that day against his will. Truly there was only so much crap that could be shoved down a young boy's throat before he would begin to lose it. And this discussion was his limit.
Rentarō: "You know you're not like the other kids! You know you're not allowed inside that park! There's nothing I can do about that!" the girl stiffened immediately when he began speaking like that towards her. His eyes revealed how annoyed he was with her, which saddened her greatly.
Enju: "Rentarō…..I thought you were on the side of justice! Why are you agreeing with this? Why can't I be treated equally like the rest of the kids, as you once said I should be?!" she felt tears building up in her eyes. She hadn't seen this boy yell at her for a long time, so this outburst of negative energy from him threw her off a little and surprised her. Still, even after noticing her backing down all of a sudden, he didn't calm down too. He continued to push forward, now a little triggered because of her stubbornness.
Rentarō: "I warned you to not go on that ride! I was afraid that will end up happening! Now….they know. And regardless of what you'll do, they won't be satisfied with seeing you there! Cursed Children just aren't allowed in their park!" sadly for him, though, his decision to not back down too and allow the quarrel to die off would only backfire now.
Enju: "SO WHAT IF I'M A CURSED CHILD?!" she blew up instantly, radiating with as much fury as she could muster at that age while actually crying now. "I…DIDN'T CHOOSE TO BE BORN LIKE THIS! WHY IS IT MY FAULT THAT I AM THIS WAY? IT'S JUST NOT FAIR!" she began sobbing uncontrollably. Her heart ached then, a lot. "I just want to be happy….I just want to play…." she trembled quietly. "Even if I know it's wrong….even then….I want to go there!". The boy wasn't gonna let it slip that easily anymore.
Rentarō: "You can't just pretend that your problems don't exist and casually ignore them! Life isn't that convenient! Life isn't meant to be fair!" the girl began backing away, feeling her chest tightening and her tears flooding her nose all of a sudden. Seeing him this mean to her, though, made the girl say something which he had not expected.
Enju: "Why….have you become so cold to me, Rentarō?" came a surprising question from her. It was at that moment, at the utterance of that query, when the boy finally snapped out of his irrational rage and realized how much overboard he had went. "You stopped looking me in the eyes lately….you began avoiding me more and more…..even I noticed that..." her voice was already breaking and the tears were cascading down her cheeks.
Rentarō: "I….." the boy didn't know how to answer that. The real reason why he had been doing those things were something which he didn't want to reveal to her, as he thought she wasn't ready to hear them yet. "I….I've been busy lately and I'm stressed out. That's why I was like that!" he invented on the spot, not noticing how he averted his eyes from her own when saying that.
Enju: "You liar…." came her response, as she stared back furiously at him. The boy shuddered when hearing that. "I know when you lie to me Rentarō….after living with you for so long, that shouldn't surprise you! You always look away from me when you lie!" it was then when the man realized how he had been read. "You don't look at me like you used to! You look at me sometimes…..like you're afraid of me….just like right now!" his heart stopped for a second when hearing that. "Other times you try to get away from me as often as possible! Why are you starting to act like them? I thought you were different! Weren't you the one who told me that I should always trust you? That you'll always be by my side?!" finally her tears burst out even more than before and she let go of all her raw emotions. She looked in a confrontational way to him, forcing him to respond to her accusation.
Rentarō: "I…..I…." he paused for a second, not knowing how to respond in a way that will make her feel better. The truly sad thing was that if she could read his mind at that moment, and that easily no less, she would surely become even angrier with him. "You….wouldn't understand even if I told you!" was all he could come up with in the heat of the moment, especially after discovering how easy it is for him to be discovered lying. At that point the only thing he could do was try to hide the truth from her. However, little did he know that that was the worst way he could have answered her.
The girl, hurt by his pathetic response, felt her heart hurt even more at this betrayal. She felt like he had given up on her for whatever reason and she just couldn't understand why.
Furious about this turn of events, she turned away and began running out.
Rentarō: "Enju, wait!" came his order but it was quickly ignored. The girl dashed out the door of their house and began making her way towards the center of Tokyo. She knew he stood no chance in chasing her, especially given her abilities, so she took advantage of that. As soon as he also exited their house to catch her, she propelled herself upwards using her strong leg muscles and landed on a distant house in their neighborhood. Immediately after that she high-jumped another time from there to an even higher vantage point and from there to another and so on, leaving the boy way behind.
It was then when he remembered how difficult it was to chase after her. She had made her escape so quickly and cleanly that he could only gaze into the distance and approximate her general direction until even her figure would disappear from view.
Rentarō: "(sigh) Why in the world does this day have to exist?!"
~2 hours later~
Rentarō: "WHERE IN THE HELL IS SHE?!" he cried in desperation. This was the last thing he needed at that point in time, to have Enju become irrational and run away from him. He hated how she always did that. He understood that she was a child and that she was prone to temper tantrums and overreactions but he had hoped that she had grown enough to eventually realize the error of her ways and act more maturely.
Rentarō: "Then again, how much maturity can I expect out of a 10 year old girl?" he then rebutted his inner self when realizing how absolutely ridiculous his expectations had been. "She ran away without taking her cellphone with her. I can't track her or get in contact with her…." he had to wonder how utterly pathetic he was as a Promoter given how often he had lost control of his own Initiator. If there was a record for the number of times such a thing happened, he would have won an award. "And school should already start by now….I hate it when she skips her classes!" he wasn't even sure anymore if he should be mad at her for running off like the way she did or not since he was also partly at fault for exploding in her face like that. Either way, things were definitely not going as they should be.
He had searched for all of the neighborhood and, sure enough, the girl was nowhere to be found. He hadn't really expected any other outcome since he knew she wouldn't allow herself to be found that easily.
He could probably also run in the same direction she had and try to find her in the center of Tokyo but given how big the city was he doubted that that would do him much good. He also couldn't rely on the police given how shady their treatment to Cursed Children normally is, which left him as the only one who could take care of this rather unfortunate situation.
But, just as he was mentally going through all the possible locations she could have ran off to, his own phone began ringing in his pocket furiously. The teenage male pulled it out and checked the caller's name.
Rentarō: "(sighing) Oh great, as if I had time for this…." he remarked sarcastically before accepting the call and putting the phone against his right ear. "Yes, Kisara-san?"
Kisara: "Rentarō, I hope I didn't wake you up. I have something very important I need to discuss with you!" came an alarmed voice from the other end of the line.
Rentarō: "Let me guess, you want to give me chocolate too, right?" given the context, that made the most sense to him.
Kisara: "What? No! I have an assignment for you and Enju, you idiot!" the girl blushed after hearing him say that to her. Naturally he had been right when saying that but she wasn't going to admit that then, especially not after his seemingly exasperated reaction to that idea.
When hearing this, the boy felt another clump in his stomach form as even more depression began to settle in him.
Rentarō: "A Gastrea attack? Right now, of all times? Can't someone cut me a break already?! I've had it with this goddamn day!" he was ready to scream now because of the amount of seemingly endless misfortune that was flooding his life that day. "What's the situation?" he inquired just to get a quick summary of the assignment before he could decide if he could accept it and attempt to perform the task without Enju's help. Normally he wouldn't dare to accept a mission without his Initiator by his side but he wanted to first see how urgent the matter was before he could decide.
Kisara: "Well, the situation is quite dire: Mikubitsu Street in the northern sector has become overrun by a surge of Gastrea. An epidemic of the virus is beginning to escalate quickly there! All local Civil Security companies have received official orders from the regional district administrators to deploy their personnel at the site as quickly as possible to combat the spread of the virus!" naturally, this didn't bode well for him. This definitely sounded like something he wouldn't be able to handle without his partner's help.
Rentarō: "What's the cause of the outbreak? Is it another Gastrea that infiltrated the city?"
Kisara: "We don't know yet….although that's the most likely scenario. Either way though, we don't have much time on our hands! While witness reports claim that all the Gastrea involved are only in Stage I, their sheer numbers are enough to consider this an emergency situation. Their numbers are growing exponentially because of the increasingcount of victims that they are constantly infecting. Current figures indicate a rough estimate of over 40 creatures running rampant….." this was enough to send shivers down the boy's spine.
Rentarō: "40?! We are deployed only after 40 of them are already loose?!" he asked dumbfounded.
Kisara: "Sadly yes. I need you and Enju to get there as quickly as you can and do your best to handle the situation. Other Promoter-Initiator pairs will soon arrive there as well. Try to cooperate with them an-…." but she was suddenly interrupted by Rentarō clearing his throat awkwardly.
Rentarō: "Yeah….about that…." as soon as he began his sentence that way, Kisara knew something bad would come out of his mouth. "Enju isn't really with me right now…." he began, trying to ease the bad news into the discussion very slowly and lightly to not anger Kisara too much all of a sudden.
Kisara: "….what…..do you mean by that?" sadly for him though, that didn't seem to have done much.
Rentarō: "We had a quarrel this morning about some dumb things and she….well…..uh…..how do I put this….."
Kisara: "(sighes) She ran away from home, didn't she?" naturally the girl figured things out quite quickly without needing Rentarō to point out the obvious. "You angered her because it's Valentine's Day and you probably said or did something insensitive to her which broke her heart and now she ran away and you don't know how to get back in contact with her, do you?" again, the boy shivered.
Rentarō: "You're….pretty good. Do women communicate with each other telepathically?" he inquired half-jokingly half-scared shitless because of the accuracy of Kisara's assumptions.
Kisara: "No….you're just very predictable and easy to read! And also very horrible in understanding a girl's feelings!" that made the boy frown.
Rentarō: "I guess I'm not particularly popular with the opposite gender after all…." the sadness in his voice when saying that was thick enough to be noticed even by Kisara across the phone line. "Anyways, all jokes aside, there's no way I can handle such a dangerous situation without Enju's help! I'll have to refuse this task!" of course, Kisara didn't like that answer.
Kisara: "Are you sure? I can assign Tina to help you temporarily as Enju's replacement!" the girl looked across the room to glance at the blonde child she was talking about. Tina was on the other side of the chamber, passively listening to the conversation Kisara was having with Rentarō while also playing with a set of cubes on the floor that she was using to build various building-esc structures by stacking them on top of each other.
Rentarō: "No….I don't want that! A Promoter is only efficient when he's fighting alongside his own Initiator! While I do like working with Tina, I can't fight without Enju's help! You should know that better than I do, Kisara-san!" to that, the girl on the other side took a deep and heavy breath.
Kisara: "Yeah….I know. I just wanted to see if I can find a quick way out of this. Fine, take the day off and use this free time to find Enju! I'll find some excuse for why you two didn't show up!" she told him with a little bit of sorrow in her voice because of another ditched assignment that could have earned their company some money. She wasn't going to forgive Rentarō for this easily, she thought to herself.
~Same time, random park in Tokyo~
She cried, even though she hated it. Her tears were burning and she felt like she was almost at the point of drowning in them because of how much got in her nose.
Enju was currently sitting on a bench in a park, sobbing all by herself as passerby strangers would occasionally glance at her. Some of them stared at her for quite some time as many would do when seeing a little girl all alone and crying like that. One even offered to help her but as soon as he got a good glimpse of her red eyes, the man immediately backed off and left her alone.
While it was common there to help children in need of support, it was even more common to avoid Cursed Children at all costs, for obvious reasons. Isolated and without any moral support, the girl would keep to herself and try to calm her unsettled nerves as much as she could by herself.
Enju: "Stupid Rentarō….why did he have to say those things today, of all days?!" she now officially hated Valentine's Day. And it was all because of him.
She couldn't understand him, regardless of how much she had tried. He, her own Promoter, the person who she was supposed to be the happiest with, especially after becoming her fiance (from her point of view anyway), should have been there to cater to her every whim and make her happy. And even though this was the perfect occasion for them to become lovey-dovey with each other and repair their slowly degenerating relationship, it only backfired completely because of a stupid argument.
She didn't even know whose fault it was anymore since the quarrel had escalated so quickly. Not that it mattered by that point.
Enju: "I just wanted a date….one date to be happy! And a kiss! Why can't he give it to me?!" she felt miserable and humiliated at the same time. While to some extent she kind of understood Rentarō's point of view, it still felt awfully unfair how society was treating her. Nobody would side with her, nobody would be there for her, hell, she couldn't even go on a date to an amusement park anymore. And while she thought she was used to all of those things and wouldn't allow herself to be bothered by them as much as she had used to, now even Rentarō was becoming part of the problem as well. This was the reason she got so mad.
Him, her most trusted ally, began to start siding with everyone else against her. That hurt her, especially now when she was so tired from working so hard on those stupid chocolates.
Enju: "Wait…..the chocolates!" she suddenly remembered them. She pushed her hand in her jacket and pulled out a box of chocolates from it. "I….forgot to give Rentarō his gift…." she realized in-between sobs. The box remained unopened so it was still possible for her to give them to him. The only real problem now was the circumstances. She didn't want to see him again, especially not in that unstable state. She needed to pull herself together and try to get a hold of her emotions.
Enju: "It's no use….I'll never get him to love me….especially not after he started looking at me like that…." for whatever reason, she could remember Rentarō's eyes whenever he would glance at her lately. While before he had love and compassion in his gaze, now he was more reserved, usually avoiding contact with her and being especially wary of her for some reason. She couldn't really understand that. Why had he become so distant? Was it because of something she had done in the past? What was it though?
Try as she might she couldn't understand his reasoning but, now, one thing became clear: their relationship was over. With him having changed his attitude towards her like that, she knew she couldn't really expect any kind of reciprocal love anymore from her fiance. It was over….
That thought felt especially jarring to her heart. She felt so mad because of it that she inadvertently began to squeeze the box holding her chocolates, deforming it slightly.
Enju: "I just don't get it! Why doesn't he love me anymore?! What did I do?! I just wanted some to-…." but before she could finish that thought she heard a strong noise in the distance coming from somewhere deeper within the city. At a closer inspection of the sound, Enju could determine that it must have been an alarm….and not just any alarm: it was the Gastrea attack alarm installed in Tokyo. She recognized it because she had heard that particular alarm so many times in the past she could almost hear it in her sleep by that point.
It meant that, somewhere within the city, a Gastrea had been detected and that it was still at large. The girl tensed up when hearing that and began pondering.
Enju: "Great….now of all times" she thought to herself. She thought about leaving the alarm to play out in the background for a second while she would continue to sink in her own misery. However, that thought quickly faded away and was replaced by a different idea: what if she would stop worrying about her failed love life and focus for an hour or so on something entirely different for a change? Wouldn't that make her feel any better? If nothing else, it would at least act as a distraction, right?
She hated the idea and normally she would never go into any battle without her Promoter at her side but this time she felt like she needed some moments without Rentarō. And while she could have done that just as easily by hiding in that park, she needed something to get her mind off of him as well. This was a great opportunity for just that.
Realizing that fact, the girl conceded to at least take a closer look at the catastrophe taking place deeper within Tokyo. And so she began running towards the city and out of the park.
~20 minutes later, close to Mikubitsu Street~
Even with the speed granted upon her by the Gastrea virus, it still took Enju a lot of time to get to the source of the widespread panic happening in that city. She used random civilians for information about the exact location of the Gastrea outbreak. By such means, she eventually reached her desired destination.
Enju: "I hope I can do something to help….maybe if it's just a Stage I then I can take it down mys-…." but before she could finish that thought, she was already greeted by a sight to behold: tens of Gastrea were running rampant, all Spider types and all crawling across various buildings in the neighborhood. The creatures were roaming on the outside edges of the buildings, crawling on top of the windows and looking inside, trying to find any signs of any humans hiding inside which they could potentially infect.
The site was so dangerous and sinister that the girl had shivers crawl across her spine by merely looking at it.
Enju: "Wow….this is bad" was all she could add to that horrific sight. Looking around and taking in her surroundings, she finally took notice of an easy prey: a lone spider lurking on the ground without any seemingly obvious goal. That one should be easy for her to deal with. "GOT YOU!" she yelled before sprinting towards the humongous creature.
The spider quickly caught glimpse of her and responded accordingly by taking an offensive stance, raising its torso and spreading its forelegs in an intimidating fashion. The girl ignored the gesture and sprinted rapidly towards the enemy, before jumping high in the air taking advantage of its opened posture to strike directly with a kick to its heart. Still, that soon turned out to be a rather poor plan as immediately afterwards, another spider Gastrea jumped out of a nearby bush even faster and attempted to intercept the flying Initiator. Since she was already in midair, Enju couldn't do anything to steer herself or dodge the incoming hostile creature which had leaped towards her.
Enju: "Crap…." she immediately felt her heart skip a beat as the entire show began playing in slow-motion in front of her eyes, as her brain went into overdrive mode to find any possible escape possibilities before she would be literally eaten alive while still flying. Sadly for her, though, it could find none.
But, despite all of this, her salvation came in the form of another Cursed Child who arrived in the nick of time, also by jumping in and intercepting this new spider before it could get to Enju. The girl kicked the flying spider in midair, changing its trajectory and making it fly off in a different direction as Enju continued with her flight and smashed her foot into the originally targeted spider.
Both hit their targets perfectly and Enju's kick proved to be strong enough to break apart the first spider with ease. The redhead landed happily on both her feet, unharmed and thankful to be alive.
Enju: "I…..almost died…." she concluded, still clearly shaken by what had transpired mere seconds before.
Yuzuki: "You tell me?! What the hell were you even thinking?! Do you have a death wish?!" came the all too familiar voice of a pretty well known blonde girl: Yuzuki Katagiri, the Initiator of the Katagiri siblings. The new Initiator stared in both disbelief and anger at the redhead, throwing glares so sharp Enju felt a bad nauseating sensation in her stomach.
Enju: "Oh…..hi Yuzuki!" even though Enju and Yuzuki were friends, and Yuzuki had even saved her life just then, Enju felt a little bit bad at that point about their meeting considering her situation,
Yuzuki: "Don't you 'hi' me! Seriously, what was going through your mind to not have realized that that was an obvious trap?! If it wasn't for me, you would have ended up as that gross thing's meal!" naturally, some scolding was in order. Enju knew very well she had fucked up, even more than how Rentarō usually fucks up. She had been way beyond reckless and that put her life at great risk.
Enju: "Well…..I…." she tried thinking up an excuse on the spot but nothing was really good enough to justify the gravity of her mistake.
Tamaki: "Don't be so rough on the girl, Yuzuki! She clearly regrets what she did!" came another new voice, this one belonging to a teenage man. This time it was the other sibling, the Promoter one of the duo, Tamaki Katagiri. The blond man walked up to Enju, squatted down so that their faces would be on the same level and took off his sunglasses to look at her directly. "Although I do have to admit that was a pretty reckless move, Enju! Why did you do that? Did Rentarō tell you to try that spider like that?" he inquired while visually inspecting her body to see if she had any wounds on herself. The girl shook her head in response.
Enju: "Well….no….not really" she hesitated, debating in her mind if she should reveal the fact that she had ran away from Rentarō and was acting by herself. While that would certainly bring even more scolding from Yuzuki's part, it was also an obvious thing to conclude eventually since Rentarō was clearly not there by her side. Even if she tried hiding it, they would figure it out at some point so she might as well be honest. "He's not really here…." she confessed, shocking the duo a lot.
Yuzuki: "Ha?! He's not?! And you've ventured into the battlefield all by yourself?!" when seeing the girl finally nod at this, the blonde got even more infuriated. "You're….really asking to get killed, aren't you?!" while Yuzuki was usually full of herself and critical of many things related to fighting, she was especially direct then, considering how Enju was her friend and had endangered her own life pointlessly. "Where is that stupid idiot anyway?!" she inquired, obviously referring to Rentarō.
Enju: "He's….well….we kinda had a nasty fight and he doesn't know that I'm here…." when hearing that, the two siblings looked at each other, not really sure how to take in this issue, worried about what was going on. Given the circumstances, they didn't know if they should try to convince Enju to go back home to safety or at the very least ask for her help in this situation.
But, that got answered very quickly when a sudden shriek was heard when one of the spiders on top of a nearby building, noticing the corpse of one of its peers, noisily announced the other Gastrea in the immediate vicinity about their new preys. Consequently, swarms of giant spiders began to crawl out the windows of nearby apartments, each catching glimpses of the new targets and all mobilizing and beginning to jump down onto the ground and approach the three humans.
Yuzuki: "Tsk….these pesky things found out about us!" she declared, trying to scan for all of them and mentally map their locations while they were approaching.
Tamaki: "Yeah….we're gonna have to discuss your personal problems a bit later, Enju. Right now….we have a situation on our hands…." he complemented his sister's earlier statement before pulling out his iconic chainsaws and equipping them to his fists and also starting the motors, readying himself for the imminent battle. "For what it's worth, we've been stealthily scanning the area before you came. We were trying to see what their objective was and maybe even find the source of this infection. We knew they were setting traps around here to catch unsuspecting victims but we didn't want to attract their attention by trying to stop them so that we could learn some things…." he revealed.
Yuzuki: "Yeah….that was until you blindly attacked one of them, falling into the trap and forcing us out in the open like this to rescue you….Good job!" came the spiteful reply of the annoying sister. Enju ignored that.
Tamaki: "Anyways, we've found out that their numbers are above forty, now reaching close to fifty by the looks of it. If this keeps up they'll soon become a real nuisance to contain. I guess this is the best time to mow them down!" seeing as how they were becoming surrounded very fast, the boy began considering to make a proposition for the young redhead. "I don't really know if this is a good idea to ask, given your situation and how distraught you seem to be right now but….would you mind lending us a hand? Right now we have only two more Promoter-Initiator pairs nearby to help us and I don't think they'll be enough. We need all the help we can get!" the girl responded without even a sign of hesitation in her voice to that offer.
Enju: "Count me in!" came a determined acceptance from the lone Initiator, worrying both of the two about the lack of fear in Enju's voice.
Yuzuki: "(sigh)I guess she really does have a death wish!"
~Enju's school~
Teacher: "I'm sorry to say I didn't see her at all today. I can't help you!" Enju's Japanese language teacher told the poor worried boy. Rentarō let out another sigh, his tenth that day, because of another false lead.
Rentarō: "Thank you for your time…." the boy replied disgruntled. He turned around and began making his exit. He didn't know what else to do. He had already figured that Enju wouldn't have come to school that day but he gave it a shot anyways since there were very few other places he knew he could search.
But just as his hope was dimming more and more he heard his phone ringing once again. The boy brought it up to his face, only to confirm that it was the same caller as before. Worrying that the Gastrea situation might have taken a turn for the worse, he quickly answered:
Rentarō: "Yes, Kisara-san?" came the invariable reply.
Kisara: "Rentarō, are you by any chance close to a TV?" came a desperate voice from the other side, this time sounding even more distressed and alarmed than how it had been that morning. The boy immediately frowned, knowing from the tone that this was going to be some really bad news.
Rentarō: "No….I'm not at home right now. Why?" naturally, he didn't know what to make of this and decided to inquire for further information.
Kisara: "It's Enju! She's at the Gastrea infestation location apparently! She's currently fighting the creatures alongside Yuzuki and Tamaki!"
Rentarō: "NANI?!"
~Half an hour later~
The fight was slowly becoming quite tedious for them. Everything was escalating very quickly and they weren't exactly in the best position. Spider after spider, the area was becoming more and more filled with giant arachnids running along and targeting the humans next to them. Even in such a crowded and not particularly friendly environment, the three were doing quite fine for themselves, although they were slowly becoming quite fed up.
Yuzuki, in particular, was getting very annoyed by the amount of stamina she had expended that day and the seemingly endless waves of giant insects still alive and charging at them.
Yuzuki: "These stupid things are too many!" she yelled back to her Promoter, who was also deeply invested and in the heat of the battle.
Tamaki: "Yeah….I can tell" he sarcastically remarked, waving his chainsaws at all the bugs around him trying to get even a scratch on their bodies. Even though they were outnumbered more than ten to one, they were still holding their ground quite well. "It's times like these when I actually wish this city installed a pest control system that actually worked! I'm getting sick of having us do all the dirty work like this!" he finished that sentence while successfully slashing at and cutting in half one of the arachnids while another one quickly backed away all of a sudden from him.
Yuzuki: "It's far too easy for these things to spread! Maybe we should retreat?" she pessimistically proposed with a tint of bitterness in her voice.
Tamaki: "No…..not right now! We already cut through their numbers a lot! If we retreat now, we'll only allow them to regroup! We need to push forwards until we splatter each and every single one of their brains out!" came the brother's rather brutal assertion. "Come on! Their numbers are dwindling! Don't lose your momentum!" he kept on encouraging while mostly dedicating his attention to the enemies right in front of him.
Yuzuki would have wanted to complain even more but just as she opened her mouth, a flying Enju sped over her head and landed a very strong kick on another nearby insect. The kick not only was powerful enough to instantly collapse the head of the creature in and effectively kill it but it was also sufficient to propel her small body in a different direction in the air again and land another kick on another nearby insect. Again, she used this to catapult herself into yet another enemy. This established chain of killing continued until five different spiders were killed in just one series of hops from one to the next, impressing both siblings.
Yuzuki: "Wow….she's really into this…." the view of seeing her redheaded friend fly like that with so much determination was both impressive but worrying at the same time. "She at no point took the time to fall back onto the ground and carefully inspect each creature….she just went from one to the next without even taking a break to analyze the risks…..she's being too reckless right now…." was her conclusion of the situation. Truthfully she was a little bit happy that Enju was being that straightforward and determined because it was quickly cutting away at their enemies' numbers but, at the same time, the girl was only begging to be attacked because of the amount of mistakes that she was making. While none of those creatures had the mental capabilities of outsmarting any one of them and lure them into a complex trap, especially not after they had all become engaged in battle, Enju's acting was still leaving her open to far too many opportunities.
The girl in question landed on the ground, breathing heavily while also looking around her environment with a completely worried expression. She didn't look like she was scanning for more spiders though, it felt more like she was looking for something else.
Enju: "I need to finish this battle and get out of here quickly! Rentarō probably heard already that I'm here….I can't waste too much time on these things!" she didn't want to confront the teenage boy, especially not yet. After all, she had decided she needed more time alone so her seeing him would not be for the best. Sadly for her plans, though, the creatures were still many and the battle didn't seem like it would end very soon.
Still, that very quickly changed when all the spiders in the area, having all witnessed the chain killing of their brethren, got scared by the little girl's overzealous attitude and realized that they weren't in the best of places there. Almost like on cue, all of them began ignoring the humans and retreating so as to escape the menace of the little girl they were leaving behind. Naturally, this was a very welcomed development for Enju.
Yuzuki: "Wait…..are you serious?! They're running away now?!" she stared in disbelief before glancing at Enju. Her friend, having noticed her stare, awkwardly laughed back in response, a little amazed herself by her own newly founded infamy among the monsters.
Tamaki: "We can't let them escape! They'll only end up hurting more people! Go after them a-…." and a sudden screech interrupted the boy's order, bringing all the attention from the humans onto a newly appeared giant flying creature, this one hovering right above their heads. "What…..in the hell is that thing?!" the boy suddenly asked after having noticed its surprising presence.
When noticing their discovery of itself, the insect immediately plunged down onto the ground among the group of three, forcing all of them to disband and jump in different directions, farther away from each other with itself in the middle. This was yet another giant spider Gastrea, much like the ones before it.
This one, however, was quite different in a number of ways: for one, it had a particularly larger body, approximately 40% bigger, a fully black colored body (whereas the ones before it were golden in color) and a pair of fly-eque wings attached to its back that allowed it to fly.
This gargantuan enemy was probably the least desired guest on that battlefield. Since it was both a giant spider that most definitely had the same abilities as its friends but also had the ability to fly, the only conclusion anyone there could make was an obvious one.
Yuzuki: "A Stage II Gastrea? How did this thing get into our city unnoticed until now?!" the girl complained audibly as her brother was also trying to recover from his shock.
Tamaki: "I don't know….but it's very likely that this is the one that started the infection here! We need to stop it before it flies off and spreads the disease even further!" he remarked, with a very tense body and sweat clearly dripping off his face. He was gritting his teeth because of the stress and his internal debating: at that point they were alone, as the other Promoter-Initiator pairs had almost certainly gone after the stampede of spiders that had ran away from them a minute before. Given that they were only one Promoter and two Initiators, the chances of them taking on and actually winning a fight against a Stage II Gastrea were microscopic. But at the same time, if they were to retreat, the creature would get the chance to escape via flight and cause even more chaos in a different part of the city afterwards. They were the only ones who could stop it. And that complicated things a lot.
Tamaki: "Tsk….this is a very nasty situation here…." he audibly complained, so low in volume that the two Initiators couldn't even hear him. But before he could finish that thought and make a proper decision on what to actually do, the Gastrea took the liberty to initiate its attack on them by spreading out one of its hind legs and using the other ones to push its body in a spinning motion, doing a full ballerina-like 360 degrees rotation. The spread-out leg acted as a weapon as its body rotated as it was an attempt to hit all of the humans that were in a circle around it. They were smart enough, though, to dodge the attack and back away from the ferocious giant insect.
Enju, being in her hurried impatient state, couldn't really accept this situation that happily. She wanted to finish that fight before Rentarō would show up and find her there. But that was seemingly becoming less and less likely by the second, especially because of that monster's undesired appearance. Naturally she could also make a run for it and flee but doing so would almost guarantee her friends' deaths, something which she could not afford. Clearly her decision to have taken part in that fight was an ill one.
Enju: "Come on already! Why is it that this day just keeps getting worse and worse?!" she needed to do something and do it fast. She needed to find that creature's weakness and exploit it to the maximum of her abilities. And she needed to do all of those things as quickly as possible.
But before she could think up of any way to do so, her fears were proven to be justified as an all too familiar voice resonated through the air, catching everyone's attention.
Rentarō: "Enju!" came the voice of her Promoter, barely escaping his heavy panting as he was rather pathetically running out of breath because of his fully tired out body after all the running he had to do in order to get to that location. He was so tired, apparently from his marathon across half the city that he could barely even feel his feet, much less be concerned about his less than impressive entrance into the stage.
Yuzuki: "Oh great….the pervert is finally here…." naturally, the girl was not particularly impressed by that failed and utterly pitiful performance. But as she was very dismissive of such an act, her friend, Enju, was mortified.
The girl panicked, knowing that her body was also worn out, mostly because of having fought that horde of giant spiders before, so she wouldn't be able to run away from him as easily anymore. Conflicted between running away or confronting him, the girl was scrambling around trying to make a decision.
Her distraught demeanor didn't go unnoticed, though, and the insect, catching a glimpse of her miniature panic, decided to take advantage of the weakest link in their formation and took the opportunity to attack Enju. Dashing forward, the spider rapidly rose one of its forelegs and tried using it as a blunt weapon to strike at the girl.
Enju responded accordingly and dodged the attack by jumping backwards. Because of her emotional distraction, though, she didn't really think through her plan and jumped at an inopportune angle and crashed into a tree behind her, leaving her immobilized for just a second. The spider continued its attack, seizing the chance and raising its leg once again. This time, sadly, it did connect and Enju didn't have the reaction time necessary to avoid this second attack again.
The leg broke her left shoulder's skin and the impact dug the leg deep into the girl's flesh as she had risen her arm at the last second instinctively to protect her head from the blow. This proved somewhat effective and she had mitigated some of the damage, although her arm quickly lost all of its senses. The girl grabbed the embedded leg with her other arm, trying to push it out but the insect seized the chance and pulled the girl with its other arm closer to its head before opening its mouth widely and surprising the girl with the disgusting view of its digestive tract. The girl had never been afraid of spiders before that day. She had considered them mere pests worth squashing and killing but nothing to be particularly afraid of.
Only then, after looking at the innards of that monster, did she actually understand what it must have felt like for insects all around the world to be captured and eaten alive by this particular type of predator.
Her body froze, incapable of even thinking at the horrific sight before her, and she wet herself right there. The spider yanked her right shoulder, with the arm still embedded into it, towards its mouth and brutally sank its fangs into it. The girl yelled like she had never yelled before.
What was the most horrifying to her wasn't even the feeling of the disgusting saliva of the creature, nor the obvious pain-killing toxin that such a saliva was obviously coated with as the pain felt artificially lessened. What was the worst about it was the fact that the mouth lacked any sort of tongue, teeth or any features that would have at least indicated that it once came from a human being's body. It had very small, almost imperceptible fangs just under its lips, fangs that clearly had orifices in them meant to inject venom in its victims. Enju's face became white at the thought of what was going on: this monster was further infecting her body with more of the virus.
But just as she was thinking that, an explosion was heard and the creature's head blew up in a shower of body fluids as a Black Bullet penetrated its skull. As soon as that happened, its body collapsed and the girl fell down, trembling greatly.
Rentarō: "ENJU!" the boy, panicking like never before, ran up to her as soon as he had lowered his gun. He couldn't believe himself. It took him that long to appropriately respond to that creature's assault on his Initiator. Granted, he had been fully exhausted from having run a marathon through the city of Tokyo but still, he felt even more disgusted with himself than before because of his incapability of saving Enju in time.
Rentarō: "Enju! Are you alright?! Speak to me!" he frantically cried to the girl, with clear worry in his voice. The girl didn't respond to his voice immediately though. She had a very white face with a detached look in her eyes. She had been traumatized so much by that incident that she couldn't even respond normally to Rentarō's concerned arrival.
That didn't last very long, though, as the pain in her left shoulder pulled her mind back into that realm, as a jarring shock came over her body almost instantly and her arm started to swell very fast, initially from the bite region and spreading outwards quickly, as the virus was starting to consume her body slowly.
Enju: "R…Rentarō…." she suddenly formed even more tears around her eyes then, shaking very badly and remembering at that moment how painful it was for her to have been damaged so badly. Blood was still pouring from her arm in great amounts, something which did the boy noticed easily.
Rentarō: "It's OK….it's OK! Everything's going to be OK, Enju!" he tried to reassure her as he began noticing that she was starting to panic, most likely because of the pain that was radiating through her body because of the rapidly corrupting infection. To be entirely honest, the boy had never seen such a swollen wound in his entire life up until that point.
Enju: "No….it's not!" she said between sobs. She extended both her arms in a sign that she wanted to hug him but that quickly failed when another jolt of pain ran through her. Her stomach began to growl furiously and she felt her internal organs around her body began to move randomly inside of her, in a way she had never felt before. It was almost like her body was acquiring a mind of its own.
And it was at that point when the girl realized what was going on: the virus was finally taking over her system.
Rentarō: "Don't worry! We already called the ambulance! They should get here fast and it wo-…." but the girl rapidly responded to that statement.
Enju: "NO!" she yelled back at him, this time earning a confused look from him. "Don't let them come here! It's already too l-….." but again, another jolt passed through her, this time so strong and powerful that many muscles in her own body began to enter spasms. Her back arched in a straight line and her limbs visibly jolted quickly. Rentarō didn't really understand what was going on. He thought for a second that maybe the girl was responding to the scare she had received from that spider just earlier.
Rentarō: "Enju…..what's wrong? Why are you-…." but his voice came to a depressive stop all of a sudden when he noticed her red eyes starting to glow even brighter than ever before. That was a dead giveaway and it was finally at that point when Rentarō realized it: Enju's body was turning into a Gastrea.
Toshimaen: a real life amusement park quite popular in Tokyo. Famous for many of its rides, Toshimaen is one of those attractions many tourists decide to visit when traveling to Japan.