VII: Angel

Part II

Hanadera Corporation, Neo Tokyo

"Master Kashiwagi, they had made it to Sendai. Do you want to continue the chase or change to something else?" a man in gray suit asked standing in a dim lit office. "I would say heat it up a bit, but try not to kill them." Kashiwagi Suguru said as he laced his fingers and rested his chin on it. "After all, they entertain me…" he paused smirking slightly. "Especially my dear cousin: Ogasawara Sachiko, my fiancé…" he chuckled at his own words. "Dismiss," he said waving his hand to the man.

"Who would have thought that the weapon and the key ended up together?" Suguru mused once his subordinate left the office. "They will be easy targets for the others, but I'm sure that she could protect them both. I am but an observer," he grinned looking at the screen floating in front of him that shown the profile of Sachiko and Yumi on it.

"Hm… aren't we all are Kashiwagi?" a voice as clear as crystal echoed throughout the office. "Indeed Satou-san," Suguru nodded his head and snapped his fingers to turned the lights back on. There stood Satou Sei in jeans and t-shirt with a serious look on her face, and next to her was Mizuno Yoko in her usual business attire. The young Captain was also there, leaning against the wall while adjusting her gloves without bothered to look at Saguru. Hasekura Rei and Shimazu Yoshino also present as well, Rei with her hand rested comfortably on Yoshino's waist while Yoshino tapped the sheathed katana on her shoulder lightly and looking a tad impatient.

"I see that we're missing a few people," Suguru said after clearing his throat. "They're away on business, nothing for you to worry about Kashiwagi." Sei said flatly as she regarded him with as much hostility as he felt toward her, it's very mutual between them. "Sei," Yoko spoke resting her hand on Sei's shoulder and calmed the girl down immediately.

"Kashiwagi, the game begun and let's try to play fair." Yoko started the conversation. "In other words, we will not show up and help them unless they stumbled on one of the remaining Roses. If they made it to the destination without mishaps, you will admit your lost and withdrawal from the game immediately." Rei added in. "And break the arranged marriage with Sachiko, also it will be your duty to make sure that no one else know about what they truly are. If words leaked out after they cross the finish line, you will not lose only your wealth and power over the Hanadera Corporation but everything you ever know." Yoko finished and the other nodded their head in agreement.

"You guys are rather confident," Suguru said with a crooked smile on his handsome face. "Damn right," Yoshino retorted. "It's not confident, but it is because we have faith in them." Noriko spoke up at last. "Then I hope you're right about it," Suguru acknowledged that with a nod of his head and stood up. "What do you say we grab some dinner and catch up on the old times?" he asked giving Yoko a hug before shaking hands with the others.

Sendai, Japan (Old Japan)

Yumi was screaming at the top of her lungs while hanging onto the cable rope that hold up the bridge not five minutes ago. "Hang on!" Sachiko shouted down at her while fending off waves of men coming at her. Is she being sarcastic? Yumi furrowed her brows together at the thought, since it's not like she have a choice to not hang on if she wanted to stay alive.

The clicking sound of an emptied gun, Sachiko looked at the gun and noticed that it is out of bullets and she's out of ammo. "Dammit!" Sachiko cursed looking at the unintelligent cyborgs coming her way. Throwing the emptied gun at one of them, Sachiko prepared for an all-out brawl as she dodged punches and kicks while dishing out some of her own axe-kicks, side-kicks, round-house kicks, upper cut punches and grab-and-toss while going into full rage-mode.

"I'm here…" Sachiko said panting heavily as she leaned over and reached out for Yumi. Yumi reached out for Sachiko's hand as her grip was slowly slipping, but they were two inches short from each other's grasp and Yumi was no longer able to maintain her hold on the cable and let go. "Gotcha!" Sachiko's voice caused Yumi to open her eyes since she shut them tight when she fell.

Ohh… Don't look down, don't look down… Sachiko's mind went into overdrive mode as she clutched one hand onto a smaller cable while the other one onto Yumi's hand. I think I heard my joint popping, Sachiko looked up toward the snapping sound and to her horror the small cable is starting to snap one wire at a time. It won't be so bad, just full of jagged rocks and water and trees. We'll live right? Just don't look down… Her mind sounded terribly scared, four wires left… okay three.

"Sachiko-sama, please save yourself…" Yumi said noticing the cable was about to broke off and sent them to their death if one of them doesn't left go. "No…" Sachiko grunted as she tightened her grip on Yumi. Nothing more were said after that, only the strong wind and the sound of women screaming while being plunged to their doom as the last line of wire snapped. The trees growing from the side of the wall had softened the fall somewhat, but Sachiko felt her pain multiplied rapidly as she wrapped her arms around Yumi to keep her from being hurt.

No, we can't die here. We have to get Yumi to Neo Japan; Sachiko snapped her eyes open suddenly and reaching her right hand out she grabbed onto a tree branch to stop the pull of gravity. Urging Yumi to get onto the thick branch, grunting Sachiko pulled herself up afterward feeling her consciousness slipping away from her. Then strangely enough, a quiet popping sound was heard and Sachiko's blue eyes widen slightly before shrinking back to normal again. Looking down, she touched her stomach, her shirt turning red right at her solar plexus. She looked back up to Yumi, who sported a mix emotion of worried, panicked, scared, and shocked on her face while her mocha eyes looked incredibly big and adorable like puppy eyes.

So beautiful… was her last thought as Sachiko fell off the thick tree branch. "No… no… no…" Yumi panicked as pain surged through her entire being. "No! Sachiko!!!" Yumi then leaped the actual leap of faith acting purely on instinct and emotions. She was diving down toward Sachiko at neck breaking speed, tightens her grip around Sachiko's waist and pulled up.

In desperation, Yumi had unleashed a remarkable feat within her that she never knew existed (as in her parents either didn't know about it or never talked about it). She felt like her back was on fire as something grow on her back and ripped through her shirt, spanning at four feet on each side helped her keeping Sachiko from really impaled by the rocks below. Beautiful snowy white wings, soft and light flapping gently and gracefully gliding over the bridge and crash-landed into the tall grassy field a few miles away.

On the other side of the bridge, "Nice going dumb ass, now Kashiwagi is going to kill us." "Hey, I avoided her vital organs," another man protested. "You would be if she live after that shit…" the first man snorted. "And what the fuck is that thing? Some kind of bio-mutation freak?" he continued shuddering a bit. "I'm not paid to ask questions, and so do you. So shut up and track them down," the second man calmed down and slung his rifle over his shoulder. It was rather far and they only saw a glimpse of whatever it was, its speed was so fast that the men only saw something like a white snow flake shooting off to the west from their position.