Her arm was incredibly swollen, so much so that she could even feel it pulsating by itself within the rhythm of her heart beats. The pain was indescribable and her body was beginning to heat up rapidly into a developing fever, a clear indication that her immune response was kicking in and trying to fight off the new infection.
Still, it was losing the battle, and she could feel it. Within herself, to her very core, she could sense how her entire body was transforming very fast, as her internal organs were quickly changing shape and size. The intensity of those changes were so grating to her psyche that she could only grit her teeth trying to not lose her mind fully.
Her skin was changing hue and shifted from its natural normal color to a light blue which contrasted greatly with the eyes which began to glow a bright and pungent red.
Enju: "I…..can't…..control myself….." she was crying, tears now flowing from her eyes more than ever before. She was barely keeping herself sane, especially since she was fully aware of the situation she was going through. "Rentarō" she cried helplessly in his arms, looking at him with a face he never in his entire life thought she would make.
He looked into those eyes and could only see fear, confusion, disorientation, almost panic even. The girl was clearly scared and didn't know how to grasp the situation and, as such, was looking at him for comfort. The only problem is, he had very little he could do.
Rentarō: "I…." he froze. He knew what he could do, but at the same time he didn't know if he should attempt it. He knew that he was going to risk his job and his life by doing that…...or maybe even the fate of humanity. But at the same time….he didn't know what else to even attempt.
His own confusion and restlessness were just as obvious to her as her own ones were to him. They both understood what was going on and they didn't know what to do at that point. But, again, they were running out of time, and another sudden, yet almost paralyzing wave of shock came through the girl's body, running across her entire being and forcing even more spasms out of her as her entire anatomy continued to shift in unnatural and truly terrifying ways.
Enju: "It….hurts….." she couldn't bear it anymore. Hell, even if she could psychologically take more of the damage, she knew by that point that her body wouldn't as the infection was spreading more and more, especially since the convulsions were aiding the virus particles inside of her by having her body shake and forcing the pathogens to flow farther away from the initial infection site through the blood to cover even more flesh. Her immune system could do very little at that point to contain the damage, especially since it had already been weakened all those years before by the already existing virus strain she had suffered from all her life. Finally, her body was giving away and the all-too-expected day of suffering that was meant to inevitably arrive at some point was there before them.
Rentarō: "Enju….I…." he had to tell her. As her Promoter he had to be honest and reveal to her what was going on, even if she already knew. It was part of his duty to be blunt and clear about things in that situation with her. The only problem was that he wasn't capable of that.
Even though he had thought that he had been ready all his life and that when the day would come for him to fulfill his duty he would do it flawlessly, he wasn't able to then when he had to actually do it. Maybe it was because he was seeing the girl in so much pain before him that was making him lose concentration to summon to courage to tell her the truth, or maybe he was just too shaken up by the previous fight with that Gastrea. Regardless of reason, though, he just couldn't tell her that she was about to turn into a monster in the next couple of minutes.
The girl, when seeing the painful face he was making, understood immediately the internal conflicts he was probably going through. Even if she was the one who was suffering physically at that point, she could still understand his own issues when looking into his eyes.
She didn't see the fear and disconnection that he had exhibited before in the last couple of days towards her. In fact, for the first time in probably a couple of weeks, she saw what she had longed for for such a long time: care for her own person.
The boy was looking at her with eyes filled with pity, of complete shock but also with love. He was actually feeling scared because of her and he wasn't trying to hide it. After all, she could tell when he would lie to her or be dishonest, and that was not one of those times: he was genuinely saddened by her soon death.
Enju: "I…..was wrong…." she finally built up the will to speak, even though the pain was making her voice shake like never before. Even with her trembling vocalization, she was still able to make actual discernible words, which made the boy even sadder. "You…..do care for me after all….." she smiled a small smile through her pain-contorted face while closing her eyes warmingly.
Rentarō: "Don't talk! It's OK! We'll get through this!" he encouraged, grabbing her right hand desperately and squeezing it. The girl was happy and even though she barely had any power left, she squeezed his hand back, letting him know that she was still in some control of her own body, for now.
Enju: "Thank you….Rentarō! Honestly, this is the best Valentine's gift I could have asked for!" she was burning hot. Her body felt like an oven operating at full potential: it was hot on the outside but probably an entire inferno on the inside.
When seeing this spectacle in front of her, Yuzuki, clearing fearful for what was about to happen, began rushing towards the duo.
Yuzuki: "What the hell are you waiting for?! Can't you see she already turned blue?! She's about to-…." but she was stopped in her tracks by her brother stepping in front of her and signaling her to cease her actions.
Tamaki: "Don't interrupt them! Let them be together!" he ordered her in a serious low tone, the type of tone he would never use unless he was dead serious about a situation, which surprised her.
Yuzuki: "But she clearly doesn't have much time left! He's risking too much by letting h-…." he pushed his index finger over her lips, forcing her into silence suddenly.
Tamaki: "I know….just give them a couple more minutes…." he requested, looking into her eyes in a way which suggested that she had very rarely seen from her brother. He had very rarely been this dedicated about anything in his life before. Frankly, she was so surprised by this fact alone that she conceded and followed his wish, letting the two enjoy their moment together.
Enju, in the meantime, pulled herself together, at least as much as she could conceivably achieve given her circumstances, and pushed her hand into her jacket and pulled the box of chocolates she had prepared the night before out. Barely even breathing normally and shaking like she was freezing even though her body was sweating and burning intensely, she handed the box to the boy there, who only stared at her in pure surprise.
Enju: "Here…..I hope you like them! I did my best!" his eyes began to produce tears, him barely being able to hold them back. He didn't want to grab that box. He felt like if he took it from her, he would never see her again. He didn't want to allow that to happen so he hesitated.
Seeing this, the girl insisted.
Enju: "Please….Rentarō! Take it!" she begged, with a face that betrayed desperation. For whatever reason, it felt like he would be betraying her if he continued to refuse her from accepting that gift, especially then. He wanted so much to refuse her but he eventually forced himself to accept it, since he didn't have the heart to refuse a young girl looking at him pleadingly like that.
Rentarō: "Thank you….." his tears were almost on the verge of breaking loose. He could barely control them anymore. Still, he did everything he could to keep them in check, if nothing else as a futile attempt at trying to be strong there for her and convey a sense of security and stability to not allow her to panic.
Enju: "Happy Valentine's Day, Rentarō! I would ask you to kiss me but I think we can both agree that that wouldn't be a good idea right now…." she revealed that she knew what was going on in her body. The Gastrea virus is transmissible via body fluids, that was a well known fact in that world, so her saying this at that point meant that she was aware of the fact that the virus was finally taking over her body and she became a transmission vector for it.
Rentarō: "You…..know then?" he pointlessly asked, prompting her to nod her head in response.
Enju: "I've known this day would come all my life. They told us that every day since we were old enough to talk…..I can't really say I was oblivious to this" her small body was beginning to break down and starting to transform. Her legs began to grow uncontrollably fast, as their internal bones were changing shape and becoming more rigid and joint-y, the equivalent of spider legs. This made the boy realize they didn't have that much time left.
Enju: "Instead….I'll ask a different favor from you…." she was now mumbling, as her vocal cords also began to change and she couldn't use them to produce normal human speech any longer. "Please…..kill me!" she requested, finally letting out some amount of fear once again, revealing that she was becoming desperate once again. Clearly her body was now out of her control and this was scaring her to no end, so it was only a natural thing to ask. Hell, it was also a natural thing for him to do, given his job. Honestly, he was already stalling too much for time and should have ended her life long before that point, given normal protocol.
Rentarō: "I….." again, he froze. Those words would forever haunt his nightmares for the rest of his life, regardless of what would happen next, he was sure of that. Enju began squeezing his hand even tighter than ever, becoming even more insistent than before.
Enju: "Please, Rentarō! I don't want to hurt anyone! Don't let me hurt anyone!" the amount of fear he could sense from her was truly stupefying. Now, the time has come. Now he had to make a decision: either listen to her and put her out of her misery already or try the alternative idea he had.
And, as much as he used to listen to Enju's every request in the past, now was the moment when he decided that he should probably try something new out.
He quickly let go her of hand and pushed it into his own jacket. There, he grabbed a syringe that he had been keeping there for just this situation. Without any hesitation and fully determined, he loaded the syringe gun and placed it against her skin right at the infectious wound.
Enju: "Wait….what are yo-..." but she was interrupted by another burst of pain, this time though by the gun firing the antiviral drugs directly into her bloodstream. The boy had injected her with the Erosion Resistance Shot she would normally take daily.
But….that perplexed her. What good would that medication do? Wasn't it already too late for that? Clearly her erosion rate already went passed 50% so that drug would be useless. But then again, when looking in his eyes again for answers, she figured it out: the boy wasn't expecting it to do anything either, he was just panicking and trying out anything that could go through his mind. He clearly didn't want to kill her so he was ready to attempt anything else other than the obvious solution.
Enju: "Rentarō" she didn't know what to do to convince him to go through with it. After all, they had already become quite close together for the past months, so him killing her must have been very daunting a task for her Promoter. She wanted to know of a way to aid him but that soon disappeared from her mind as one final shock-wave ran through her body a final time, this one being the finishing blow.
This was partly because of the drug that began to attack the virus which went into overdrive to hurry her metamorphosis to preserve itself inside her body. This time her being began mutating visibly quicker than before, as her limbs fully shape shifted into spider legs and a giant lump began growing from within her body. The lump expanded her torso and abdomen like a balloon inflating, as even more legs started to grow out of nowhere from the sides and grew out.
Rentarō immediately ran backwards away from the transforming creature and pulled his gun out aiming for it, not shooting though. He just remained there aiming while waiting to see what would happen. He watched in horror as the body of what used to be his beloved Initiator contort and twist itself while sprouting organs that had no business being attached to a human being. The change didn't even take long, it lasted for less than twelve seconds, but it was long enough to feel like an eternity as the young man stared with his mouth agape while feeling his soul being ripped apart with each passing second.
When finally transformed, the newly established Gastrea looked around itself and noticed the prey closest to it which happened to be the teen boy. Acknowledging his proximity as well as taking advantage of his defenseless paralyzed self, the creature charged at it in an attempt to continue spreading the virus even further.
It would have been too late for him to dodge and his life would have been over had it not been for Yuzuki jumping in very quickly and pushing him out of the way of the attack at the last second. The two landed onto the ground nearby as the spider barely missed them and tried to prepare itself for a second charge. This time, however, it was assaulted by Tamaki trying to distract its attention and keep it busy with himself as the two would sort things out for themselves.
Yuzuki: "You complete fucking buffoon! What in the world happened to you back there? Did you suffer a stroke and paralyze midway through your exchange with Enju?!" she exploded in his face while he was still on the ground, trying to recover from the trauma of having watched his partner change into a horrifying creature of nightmares.
Rentarō: "I couldn't do it….." he replied very softly, almost like being ashamed of himself for what he had just commented. "I couldn't finish her off! She was looking at me so innocently and with so much fear in her eyes…...how could I kill her?!" he used the most accurate description of his reasoning that he could make. That, sadly, did not do much in Yuzuki's eyes.
Yuzuki: "So what?! What did you expect her to look like?! She wasn't going to punch you in the gut to convince you to kill her!" obviously this back and forth wasn't really helping their situation as Tamaki was having a rough time dealing with the enraged beast by himself. Normally a Level I Gastrea is an easy target, even for a Promoter working alone, however Spider type Gastrea are notoriously difficult to handle in close ranged combat. Since his only means of offense was close range, he was in a rather difficult position and required the assistance of his bickering friends.
Tamaki: "WILL YOU TWO STOP WITH YOUR DRAMA AND GET OVER HERE?!" he tried to get them out of their annoying dispute. Still, they somehow still managed to ignore him and keep on doing their thing, which made the boy sigh in even more annoyance as he was barely even dodging the incoming blows from the former Cursed Child.
Rentarō, being in his overly depressed and fed up state he had been in since the very beginning of that day, finally snapped at the girl in front of him for being so cold towards the entire situation and reciprocated her fury with his own.
Rentarō: "HOW CAN YOU BE SO CRUEL TO HER?! SHE WAS YOUR FRIEND, YOU KNOW?! WOULD YOU BE ABLE TO KILL HER SUDDENLY WHEN SHE WAS SO VULNE-….." but his rage got interrupted prematurely by a slap to the face from the girl in front of him, clearly just as fed up with him as he was with her.
Yuzuki: "YES I WOULD! DON'T YOU FUCKING REALIZE IN HOW MUCH PAIN SHE IS RIGHT NOW?!" this statement, while feeling not much more impressive than any of the other ones she had thrown that day, was sufficient to finally make the boy realize what Yuzuki had been trying to tell him for a good couple of minutes by that point. The girl, seeing his confused look and his clearly concerned face, sighed deeply before raising up to her feet and pointing with her index finger at the spider who was fighting her brother in the distance.
Yuzuki: "How do you think she's feeling right now, fighting us, her former friends, like this? How do you think she's feeling, being in that disgusting grotesque body, fighting for the enemy she had fought against all her time as an Initiator until today? Does your puny little brain think that she wants to still be alive right now in this situation? DOES IT NOT THINK THAT HER BEING THIS WAY IS EVEN MORE CRUEL THAN SIMPLY ENDING HER SUFFERING?!" those facts finally made the boy realize how cruel his seemingly kind act of having allowed her to live through her initial ordeal must have been. He now regretted his initial actions and finally acknowledged that Yuzuki was in fact right. His own mercy was in fact what was making Enju probably feel even more miserable then.
Rentarō: "I….." he had no comeback to that. He just stood there, defeated and feeling downright broken to the very core, cursing every single thing in existence at that moment.
However, before any of the two could realize the urgency of the situation and how they needed to join Tamaki in battle, the distant ringing of a siren finally became noticeable as an ambulance was finally making its way towards the site, clearly being the one they had called for a couple of minutes before when Enju had been injured.
Noticing the sounds of the siren, the spider used one of its many eyes to calculate the distance between its own body and the vehicle. After having fought Tamaki for a good chunk of time and having one of its legs cut as a result, the beast realized how hopelessly outnumbered it was and how little chances it actually had to infect any of the people on that battlefield there and instead decided to choose a more aptly less prepared prey.
The spider immediately jumped away from Tamaki who was already worn out after that long battle and thanking himself for having survived even that long without getting infected and rushed towards the incoming ambulance. The driver of the vehicle, noticing the imminent danger, quickly turned the wheel to force the car into a sharp turn so they could run away and avoid the monster. Sadly for them, though, that didn't work well enough and the car's jarring turn, coupled with the inertia of its initial speed, destabilized its motion and the car tilted causing itself to flip over at full speed before it came to a stop.
The vehicle, now lying sideways on the ground, was nothing more but further prey for it, as the creature approached it as quickly as it could to its new victims. Rentarō and the group didn't realize in time what it was doing until it was already halfway to the disaster site.
The driver of the ambulance, suffering from a concussion and a severe deep injury on his forehead because of glass shards being projected from the window in front of him onto his head, finally came back to consciousness and began trying to register what was going on in his environment again. His headache was killing him but he did his best in trying to fight off the pain and push forwards. Unfortunately for him, by the time he came to his senses, he met a very cruel reality before him: the spider got to the ambulance and climbed on top of it blocking the only exit that wasn't literally in the ground. The poor man screamed in agony as the creature mercilessly took advantage of his lack of defense and began biting his body, feasting a little on his flesh but more focusing on allowing him to live and passing on the virus onto him.
Soon enough, though, the scream stopped and was replaced with a sinister worrying silence and the spider didn't even attempt to get to the man's partner on the seat next to him. Once his partner would have his own body transformed, he would infect him instead since he was right next to him.
The spider wanted to make an escape now but then found another potential victim when the doors at the back of the ambulance flung open and a young woman, seemingly in her late twenties, made a dash for it in an attempt to escape the hungry beast, not realizing that she just allowed herself to be discovered.
The spider, just as willing as before, didn't wait too long and was preparing to run towards her as well when Tamaki finally arrived and suddenly cut off another one of its back legs, making it lose its equilibrium. Enraged, the spider swiftly dodged another incoming blow from his razor blades and tried to put some distance between them.
It screamed viciously back at him, trying to intimidate the man and make him flee away. He was smart enough to know that this was merely a false attack to scare him and so he continued pushing on. He began moving forwards toward it slowly, forcing it to also back away in a defensive manner.
Finally, when backing away sufficiently, another actor entered the stage: namely Yuzuki. The young girl jumped high into the air just above the creature and landed right next to it in a far away spot to not be in immediate danger from it. The spider was confused because of that seemingly pointless act but then the girl made some strange seemingly indiscernible hand motions and then seemed to pull on something invisible in front of her. It was then when creature noticed it: when Yuzuki flew in a jump above it, she did it to lead some very thin, almost invisible fiber strings into its own legs underneath, so that when she finished the jump she could wrap those strings around them.
With its legs finally tied up (and one even cut and another still regenerating from a cut), it was finally unable to continue on attacking.
Yuzuki: "Got it!" she cheerfully announced before giving her brother the signal to finish the beast off. Tamaki, happy to see the signal, proceeded to do just that, by walking towards it with his rotating razor blades on his fists threatening to cut off its head.
Sensing the immediate threat to its life, the beast let out a cry for help, loud enough to be heard 10 blocks away, almost deafening Yuzuki who barely resisted the urge to cover her ears, to not allow it to escape by letting go of the strings. That seemed a little bit futile, since all the people there thought that all of the other spiders have either been already killed or fled the battlefield but that soon turned out to be incorrect when two new spiders, emerged from the broken ambulance, clearly the remnants of the driver and his partner that had driven that vehicle to that place mere minutes ago. The two spiders, in response to the call for help, assaulted the duo in an attempt to save their mother's life.
Yuzuki: "SHIT…..ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! THEY ALREADY TRANSFORMED?!" she yelled out annoyed. The two quickly fell back and allowed the restrained creature loose. In response to this, the three spiders came together in a group and began to make menacing gestures towards them.
Tamaki: "Crap…...they are tougher for some reason than the ones before. We shouldn't have so much trouble dealing with a bunch of Level I's!" he remarked, just as angry with this development as his sister.
Yuzuki: "It's not really our fault! It's not easy dealing with Spider type Gastrea! That's your biggest weakness, after all!" she tried to justify their lack of ability in handling this situation.
Tamaki: "Ironic, isn't it?" he commented, subtly hinting at the fact that Yuzuki was in fact a Spider type herself, hence how she was even able to produce reinforced spider strings to use in combat. The girl did not respond to his comment, though, instead choosing to glare harshly at the boy standing in the distance, clearly in a lot of distress himself.
Yuzuki: "HOW ABOUT SOME FUCKING HELP, YOU IDIOT?!" she yelled at him in the distance. Upon realizing that her scream was directed to himself, Rentarō could only stare back at her, not even knowing how to respond. He wanted to assist them, he really did. The issue was that he wasn't in any way willing to attack Enju, his own Initiator. Even after her turning into that thing, as long as he had the memory of who it originally had been, he couldn't bring himself to harm it.
Even without saying anything, the mere look on his face told Yuzuki all she needed to know.
Yuzuki: "Fucking useless kid…." was all she could say, even though she said it in such a low volume that only Tamaki sitting right next to her could hear her comment. "Looks like we're on our own this time!" that didn't bode very well for them, especially since they had become so tired from fighting the past Gastrea that it wasn't going to be easy for them.
Tamaki: "Well, if we have a spectator we might as well show off then!" he recklessly replied, entering an offensive stance and preparing to attack. Even if the numbers were not in their favor and even if they were both tired, as long as the two of them were together, they would survive it. That was the least they knew and they were proud of it as siblings.
Two of the spiders attacked all at once, each picking its own target to deal with. The former-Enju spider, though, did not proceed and focused more on tracking down the human woman who had escaped the ambulance mere minutes before. It was still smart enough to know that dealing with the two siblings would not be a good idea so it decided to go for the sure route of surviving, especially since it was already injured and wouldn't be able to fight as well as its children would.
The siblings, being busy fighting and barely surviving themselves, didn't notice this fact before it was too late.
The woman who had fled before, was now hiding behind a car nearby. She hadn't fled yet since she was too scared to make any movements by herself as she knew that that entire area had been swarming with spiders half an hour ago and felt that not running away but hiding instead would bring her better chances of surviving that ordeal. Clearly she was wrong.
The creature leaped onto the car she was hiding behind, surprising her and almost giving her a heart attack. She backed away, frozen in complete fear, not even screaming or trying to flee again. Instead she just stood there and stared at the Gastrea in front of her, helpless.
Woman: "Please…..don't hurt me!" she begged, even though she knew the spider wouldn't heed her desperate request. But just as the spider was about to assault her, a shot was heard and immediately the spider cried in pain, as a Black Bullet penetrated its exoskeleton and damaged its body heavily. The bullet was fast enough to damage one of the spider's lungs, as liquid similar to what some would call 'blood' began spewing out.
The girl looked from where she thought the bullet came from and noticed a dark blue haired teenage boy standing close by and pointing his gun towards the beast, with tears running down his eyes, barely managing to compose himself from his crying.
Rentarō: "Get out of here! NOW!" he yelled at her once he confirmed she had noticed his presence. Not once had he moved his gun even slightly once he had fixed it on its target.
The spider, in pain, collapsed sideways, trying to crawl away from the boy even after having been shot. Clearly the first bullet was not enough to kill it. Seeing this opportunity, the nurse decided to seize this chance and sprinted in the opposite direction to where the creature was. The spider, seeing her try to get away, tried to get back up and run after her again, even with its open wound but was immediately stopped by another bullet piercing its huge abdomen from the side. It yelled.
What was the most disturbing fact about that fight to Rentarō was the fact that whenever the creature shrieked, a little bit of Enju's voice could be distinctly noticed in its sounds, due to the fact that the two shared the same vocal cords. So whenever it would yell in pain, like when it was shot, Rentarō could hear a little bit of Enju screaming as well. That only amplified his pain all the more.
He was in so much pain when hearing that sound, in fact, that he bit his lower lip so that his adrenaline from that pain would force him to continue concentrating on the battlefield and not allow himself to become distracted.
Rentarō: "Why….?" he said to the spider, even though he knew it probably wouldn't even understand him. "Why did it have to be today, of all days? Why did this have to happen before I could apologize to her?!" he glared sharply at the spider, taking note of every single movement it would make to be sure it wouldn't be able to catch him off guard. That was standard procedure when dealing with wounded Gastrea.
Clearly the creature didn't understand his words, and only made defensive gestures to warn him not to get any closer or it would attack him. That was a sign that it was already too wounded to be a threat to him anymore, as the toxic metal in those bullets was surely burning through its flesh like acid by that point.
Rentarō: "I guess….this is over now….." the boy remarked, finally taking a second to breathe in deeply and take in the situation as it truly was. Tamaki and Yuzuki would surely be able to defeat those two other spiders by themselves, he had no doubt about that. What was the hardest part now, was for him to deal with this spider.
Even when not having any features that resembled Enju apart from the small similarities in the vocalization of certain sounds, he still had a hard time every time he pulled the trigger. It just felt wrong shooting that thing and have it scream in a similar manner to how Enju screams.
He made a step forward, trying to see how it reacts. Naturally, the spider backed away while making chewing motions with its lips, a well known manifestation of Spider Gastrea when they are cornered, basically an attempt to try to intimidate their attacker. Seeing it be so defensive, he took another step, approaching. The spider backed away even further.
Not trying to push his luck too far anymore, the boy began to mentally prepare himself to shoot at the head, the sure way of instantly killing any Spider Gastrea, as he had demonstrated a few minutes ago with that Level II Gastrea that had infected Enju. It would only take a single bullet to end this entire ordeal…..one single bullet to end Enju's suffering and allow her to rest in peace. One bullet….to give her her Valentine's gift.
Rentarō: "Please….forgive me, Enju!" he told himself in his head while trying to fight any emotion that would come his way. He was finally gonna get his opportunity to give her the kindness she wanted. Or at least, that's what he thought.
When finally bracing himself for the shot, he noticed a peculiar behavior that came upon the spider suddenly: it was shaking rather strangely. Normally, Spider Gastrea would never shake, or at least such a phenomenon was never recorded before. At first he thought maybe that was because of it having lost its feet before in battle and being unable to properly maintain its balance, but that didn't make much sense when he thought about it thoroughly: the shaking was more similar to how human beings shake when they have a fever.
Rentarō: "A…..fever…." he remembered how Enju had had a fever when she was about to transform. Maybe this was a side effect from the transformation in itself? He wondered. He continued to stare at the beast, who was acting very strangely. It was barely managing to keep itself on its feet, squirming lightly like it was suffering from a weird internal destabilization to its own body. Something was definitely odd. Regardless of how wounded they would be, Gastrea never acted like this.
Then, almost out of nowhere, spasms conquered the spider's body, much in the same way they had used to torture Enju. The boy, worried, began to approach the beast even more, forgetting to take care in doing so and exposing himself to risk. Seeing this, the spider didn't fail to seize the opportunity and slammed one of its forelegs into him, making him fly backwards into the air and drop him gun.
Rentarō: "FUCK!" he cried because of his fall. Taking advantage of his momentary incapacitated state, the Gastrea took no more chances and began to jump away, in an attempt to flee the battlefield and save its own life. Its body was too injured to have any possibility of surviving a fight, even against him, so it needed to make its escape right then and there.
Rentarō wasn't going to allow it to escape and prolong his Initiator's suffering. He had to finish it off, it was the least he could do to his now dead partner. Activating his left eye and quickly grabbing the gun lying close by on the pavement, he tried to refocus on the spider flying away. With all the determination in his heart to fulfill Enju's last wish, he tried aiming at the escaping creature. Even when it was bouncing from one building of the city to the next at inhuman speeds, using his left eye for enhanced precision, he was able to accurately predict in time when and where it would next land, and shot a couple of shots in that general direction.
Out of the five shots he fired, one managed to hit its target, damaging its abdomen again although in a different spot. The spider yelled in despair but maintained a proper stance to not fall off and continued to run away for its life. Rentarō continued on shooting at it, missing a couple of times before his barrel emptied.
Rentarō: "Shit…." he lost. He had only one job to do, and even that one he squandered royally. In a very pathetic turn of events, he had allowed Enju, or what remained of her now mutated body, to run away. Not only had he failed miserably as a Promoter, he had also failed as Enju's partner, for allowing her nightmare to mercilessly continue. He was, for lack of a better word, disgusted with himself. Obviously he could run after her but he was exhausted from all the running and fighting, as well as mentally scarred. Chasing after her, especially with that thing's speed, was no longer possible.
With tears still running down his cheeks and with a lot of despair in his heart, the boy yelled his lungs out, screaming the girl's name as her new body disappeared into the distance, never to return to him.
~Tendo Security office, Tokyo~
The teenage girl was doing her best trying to pretend that she was calm and collected in front of her Initiator. While Kisara liked to think of herself as a composed and mature woman who was capable of handling herself just fine, she was failing to notice how her gentle finger tapping her own desk was giving away the anxiety she was harboring with respect to that entire situation. Tina, being the very attentive girl that she was, couldn't really ignore that and was aware of her Promoter's stress.
Tina: "Are you worried about them?" the girl asked what was actually a question she already knew the answer to. The purpose of that question wasn't to get the obvious answer from Kisara, it was more to engage her into a conversation into that topic.
Kisara: "Yes, I am" she responded exactly in the way Tina had expected her to answer. Surprisingly, despite showing that air of sophistication that she would constantly display, her Promoter was very easy to read, even to herself as a ten year old girl.
Tina: "Do you think onii-san or Enju-san will make a fatal mistake in their dealing with the mission? I'm pretty confident that they can handle many things pretty well. Is there a reason for you being more concerned now than in other times?" seeing as how Kisara was reserved and not really talkative, Tina decided to slowly push for more information from her, much to the teenage woman's chagrin.
Kisara: "They already failed in properly handling the situation! At no point is it normal for an Initiator to enter battle without her Promoter! At this moment I'm pretty sure both Rentarō and Enju acted recklessly" as their immediate superior, Kisara felt very unnerved by her subordinates' childish and irresponsible behavior. As a Civil Security Service, their own one was among the least known and most glossed over in conversations in the entire Tokyo area, simply because of their incompetence usually in handling situations just as those. And while she had been lenient on both Rentarō and Enju in the past for their misdemeanors, she felt that they had gone too far that day. Even though she didn't like it, they were not going to go unpunished that time.
Tina would have tried to defend the duo in some way but, before she could do that, Kisara's cellphone began ringing on her desk, prompting her to immediately grab it in a comically quick fashion because of her stressed out persona.
Kisara: "Hello? Rentarō? What's going on over there? Are you and Enju fine?" she began speaking at an obnoxious speed, something which the boy on the other end of the line never enjoyed. It was a clear indication that his boss was stressed out, and that was very rarely a good thing, especially for him.
Rentarō: "The situation is under control, Kisara-san! Most of the Gastrea had been killed and some of them are being taken care of as we speak. The area is almost cleared out….." something was definitely odd. Something felt off about the boy's voice, she could sense it. It seemed a bit…..shaky.
Kisara: "Rentarō…..are you crying?" the moment she said that, Tina immediately looked concerned at her. "What…..happened there? Something bad happened?" there was no point in delaying the inevitable. Whenever Rentarō used to begin his status update to her with delivering the report of what was going on on the battlefield, it was always followed by bad news. She knew that much.
The boy on the other end sighed, annoyed at himself for having given himself away so easily. He would have made another comment about how women were naturally-born mind readers but decided against it since it would be in poor taste considering his situation.
Rentarō: "(sighes) Many things happened…..but I think the most relevant one is that…..Enju transformed" it was at that moment when Kisara's heart dropped into her stomach as the blood in her veins froze. When seeing the sudden change in her facial expression, it wasn't hard for Tina to figure out what was going on. Kisara gulped audibly at that news.
Kisara: "And? What happened to her? Did you kill her?" for whatever reason, despite having known that this day would eventually arrive for so long, she felt very unprepared that moment for that news. It was the equivalent of mentally preparing oneself for the death of his parents. Such a thing was only inevitable, however, it was a thing many people seldom truly manage to mentally prepare for. It was such a dark and unpleasant topic that it didn't even feel appropriate to discuss on the phone.
What followed was a short silence. It wasn't long mind you. It only lasted for like ten seconds. Still, it was noticeable and it was at that moment when Kisara knew, without even being told, exactly what had happened as she figured it out herself.
Rentarō: "I…..couldn't kill her. She managed to run away….." that was not good. Nothing about that topic of conversation was making Kisara feel any better about their situation. Literally the worst things that she had feared would happen before that phone call took place really did happen. Well, that excluding Rentarō's own death.
Seeing how dire this entire ordeal proved to be, Kisara had very little to add on the phone. She could attempt to try to soothe the situation and make Rentarō feel better but she knew him well enough to realize that that wasn't an achievable goal. Nothing she could say to him could make him feel any better. That was a fact.
Kisara: "OK, I understand. Come to my office for now! We'll have a talk about what to do next here!" she ordered with a saddened, almost depressed voice. The boy on the other end simply nodded before ending the call.
Kisara almost slammed the phone on her desk while throwing her back against her chair, sighing deeply, visibly disgruntled. That day was going to be a very long one, for sure.
~Enju's school~
Contrasting that very tense and almost depressing mood all round the city because of that Gastrea invasion, the children at the school were leisurely enjoying themselves and that seemingly wonderful event while partaking in their usual boring classes. The atmosphere there was so departed from the chaos going on in the city outside their building that it felt like a reality bubble that was being kept away from usual awareness that most citizens have with respect to Gastrea attacks. This was due, in part, to how often such attacks had happened in the past months, which desensitized most of the people there to the actual danger that such monsters posed. Even with the Gastrea alarm still loudly echoing in the background, the classes still continued on as they normally do, without anyone, even the teachers, giving it any special attention.
The kids, with the exception of Enju's own friends, hadn't even noticed her absence that day. Given that it was Valentine's Day, one would assume her not popping up and giving a chocolate gift would be remarked by at least someone but, sadly, Enju wasn't that particularly popular at school, much less have a love interest there. As such, no boys were awaiting her gift and didn't even notice her not being there to give a possible gift to them.
Her friends, though, did notice, and were worrying about the girl's whereabouts, especially since she was probably the most anxious member of their group when talking about such romantic topics as Valentine's Day. The fact that she would miss out on such an important event by not coming to school at all felt…..concerning to some extent to them.
Christina: "I hope she's fine….Maybe she overdid it last night while making the chocolates?" the girl thought to herself while ignoring the teacher in their class while she was talking, something which she was particularly good at doing. This time it was their Japanese teacher again, having a second class that day with them. The teacher was constantly rambling on and on about kanji, arguably the most boring topic any kid of their age would be forced to learn. Learning to draw some very esoteric highly specialized symbols was not that engaging to them, despite how much the educational system of their country was trying to make it seem otherwise. It was definitely an essential part of leaning the Japanese language but it was still very deadening by itself.
Then, all of a sudden, the school's own speakers activated out of nowhere and, out of them, the voice of their principal began to speak.
Speakers: "Attention, students: because of the ongoing Gastrea alert that's been on for more than an hour now, as well as sightings from the public that suggest that one of the creatures is currently headed towards our school, we will be suspending all classes taking place today entirely. All teachers within the premises are asked to guide their respective classes that they are supervising at this current moment and evacuate them in an orderly fashion to the outside of the building. A group of police officers just outside will take the children and escort them to safety in their cars. Once all pupils have been evacuated, all teachers, janitors and other personnel currently on the premises must await outside for guidance from the policemen there. That is all!" came the weirdly sounding voice of the headmaster of that place.
Needless to say this news was worrying. This was one of the very few times when the children there had ever been exposed to the prospect of actually having their lives become endangered because of a Gastrea attack. Normally, Gastrea usually attack on the outskirts of the city as they most of the times invade from the outside. It was because of that reason that the majority of school districts had been built as far into the city as possible, to make attacks on the children there unlikely. For a Gastrea to purposefully ignore all the other buildings and possible prey in the city and focus on a specific school was an almost unfathomable thing for everyone there.
The children, naturally, began freaking out and panicking in the classroom before the voice of their teacher rang out to calm them.
Teacher: "Calm down, everyone! This isn't the time to panic! If the Gastrea is really on the loose and heading towards us, most likely it will pass our school without attacking anyone here. It wouldn't have any reason to target us, specifically! And even if it will, the police officers outside will protect us!" she tried to do her best in managing this ordeal. She wasn't really trained in having to deal with such situations but she tried maintaining her calm and trying to look professional and composed to give the children a sense of confidence in her, which will allow them to also calm down.
As she had intended, this composed them a little. The woman then proceeded to do as she had been instructed to and began evacuating the class so that they could exit the building without trampling over each other in fits of panic. This, however, very quickly backfired, when their worst fears came true and a very sharp scream coming from what couldn't possibly be a human being very loudly passed through the area and an unspeakable human/spider hybrid crashed down onto the school grounds from above, among all the children that have been evacuated in the school's play grounds. The police officers nearby immediately had their faces turn white when seeing something like it.
The creature didn't look like an ordinary Gastrea, as its body had reverted back to the regular anatomy of a human being to some extent: her exoskeleton had been shed off entirely, the head, despite having many protrusions on top of it that looked like peripheral spider eyes that somehow submerged under the skin, dropped all features resembling that of an insect and looked and had the shape and size of the head of a normal ten year old girl. The most unnerving aspects were the blade-like spider legs that still replaced the regular human limbs although they were of the same size as the arms and legs that they had once formed from and the dark blue color of her entire body, the same color that resembled a bruise on ones member after being hit particularly hard. The eyes still shined a violent and scary red, reminding everyone there of how truly terrifying those who were plagued by the Gastrea virus looked.
Creature: "Help…..me!" came a gurgling sinister voice from the chimera. The voice was doubtlessly the most horrific thing anyone there had ever heard. It was a mix between the voice of a young girl and that of a monster, as various vibrations of both low and high frequencies came out of its mouth, making it sound like it was coming from both beings at the same time. A teacher there instantly fated when hearing that disturbing vocalization. That thing…..was almost human for whatever sick reason.
Captain: "SHOOT THAT THING! TAKE AIM AT ITS ABDOMEN BUT MAKE SURE YOU DON'T HIT THE CHILDREN!" the policemen behind it all pointed their guns at the creature and began showering it with their bullets. More screams exited its mouth as many projectiles were fired at it, all getting embedded in its skin and wounding it. Sadly for them though, those were regular non-Varanium based bullets that were not meant to kill Gastrea. So instead of actually taking it down, the shots only enraged the wild chimera further. She turned around in a second and spewed a white thick substance from its mouth. The force of the shooting was sufficient to quickly eat away on the distance between the creature and the men and they quickly became covered in the sticky goo. It was so heavy that the majority of officers that got hit by it fell on the ground after being impacted. The web then quickly solidified and pinned them there, immobilizing them.
The spider then threw up another wave of web on the remaining officers and all 9 policemen there had bee incapacitated swiftly by the creature. Still crying in pain because of being shot multiple times, the monster then turned back towards the group of children. The majority of them began running away when they noticed that the thing turned its ahead towards them again.
All the teachers piled up between it and the group of pupils, trying to act as meat shields in case it would decide to charge at them while they run away. Unexpectedly, though, it did not charge nor attack the defenseless kids. It only stared at them. The facial expressions it was making were those of a scared, panicking human being as it began to cry when seeing how everyone was trying to flee from itself.
Creature: "NO! DON'T RUN! PLEASE! IT'S ME!" regardless of how much it was trying to beg for their attention, it only served to scare them even further as the voice it was making was too much for their little hearts. Still, one pupil stopped in her tracks…..that voice sounding very familiar to her.
Christina: "That voice….could it be?!" she immediately stopped running and turned her head in complete shock and disbelief. "ENJU?!" she screamed all of a sudden, making the chimera notice her and recognize her.
Creature: "Ch-Chris!" the horrifying monster cried out. It was at that point, finally, after all that ordeal, that Christina lost all of her mind and lost control of her own bladder. The situation was so strange that the poor girl's mind began to crack. Her friend…..her best friend was a monster. But now that she realized it, her brain immediately started to make connections between that monster's appearance and the characteristics Enju had once had, allowing her to recognize her vaguely in that creature's hideous body.
The girl's legs began shaking as she started to slowly walk towards the monster, shocking everyone. The teachers immediately considered stopping her but didn't really take any action because they were so surprised of the fact that this pupil knew who the monster was.
Teacher: "CHRISTINA! DON'T GO NEAR IT!" her teacher yelled at her but she disregarded her order. The girl approached until it was only a couple of feet away from the cursed creature. When she got sufficiently close, it was then when she noticed: the monster was crying. Nearly transparent tears were running down its cheeks, almost unnoticeable because of the dark coloring of the skin.
Christina: "Enju….is that…..you?" her voice was breaking. It was like her brain was desperately trying to purge such profane and obscene ideas from her mind, that her friend could be in that monstrosity's body. Much to her sanity's detriment though, the monster nodded its head, suggesting that it was intelligent and capable of understanding human speech.
Creature: "Please…..help me! My body…..is changing!" she began quickly approaching the girl, startling her. The reaction she got after was, however, not what she had hoped for.
Christina: "DON'T COME NEAR ME!" she immediately yelled, begging the creature to keep its distance. For the panicking chimera, that came as a real and almost mind blowing surprise. "PLEASE…..DON'T DO THIS TO ME! I don't know who you are, but stop defiling Enju's body! Go away! You aren't Enju….." this came as the heaviest and most painful blow that the creature had ever received that entire day. It stared back at the girl as she began to cry heavily and whimper on the ground as her legs gave in and she fell.
Monster: "Chris….it's me! Don't you recog-…."
Christina: "I SAID GO AWAY!" the girl began yelling in despair, her flow of tears only intensifying as finally she fully broke and began to let loose whatever her jumbled brain could conjure on its own. "I DON'T RECOGNIZE YOU! GO AWAY!" she reverted back to a primordial state because of the intense fear that she was enduring. She was so panicked that her mind began prioritizing self defense as its main goal. She couldn't contain any more sympathy for that creature, despite having registered that that….thing was once her friend.
Monster: "Why? You told me…..you will help me no matter what! I thought we were friends!" it finally started to take the hint and began backing away. It didn't know what to do and, as such, it could only try to distance itself from the now verbally attacking aggressor.
Christina: "You're not my friend! Enju is my friend! I want her back! Give her back to me!" the girl finally managed to build up the courage to become vicious as her mind began to clear because of the adrenaline rush and her beginning to compose herself. Here thoughts were becoming clearer and easier to follow for herself. However, her own emotions were taking over and her more rational self were still buried beneath them.
Realizing her mistake, the creature's mind finally collapsed again and it began howling a high pitched horrifying scream, as Enju's poor mind inside itself lost itself to despair. Hurt and not wanting to continue scaring her own classmates, as well as trying to preserve whatever sanity was left in her friend, the spider monster turned around immediately and, without saying anything further, propelled its own body onto a nearby building and began running away, leaving the school grounds in less than three seconds and assuring the survival of everyone there. Still, the poor minds of everyone there would forever be scarred and haunt them for the rest of their lives…..especially the children there.