Chapter 20: Consequences
21:33 PM (Japan Time), Saturday July the 1st…
… Where am I…? Who am I…? I hear… a sound… I am breathing… but… my body feels like stone… even opening my eyes feels heavy… but… I need to see… I am alive, then…?
"… Mihiko! Mihiko!" A woman's voice called out.
Mihiko…? Ah! I am Kinmori Mihiko… And that voice… Mother…?
Kinmori Mihiko slowly opened his eyes as he tried to adapt to the blurry environment and everything soon became clear: he was lying on a hospital bed and was breathing through an oxygen mask.
His mother, a woman on her late thirties with brown hair and blue eyes, was sitting on a chair next to the bed: she looked concerned.
"Mihiko…! Thank goodness…!" She exclaimed.
"Mother…? What happened…?" He slowly asked.
"That's what I'd like to know: I was unable to contact you and then I got a call from the hospital saying they'd found you near the staff entrance door: they identified you and told me to come over!" She told him.
"… Unh… What time is it?"
"9:37 PM! I became unable to call you ever since 18:00 PM, more or less, when you told me you were on your way back home and you'd be there in less than an hour's time!" She exclaimed.
"Weird… I can't remember anything at all… My mind feels foggy and my body feels heavy…" Kinmori muttered.
"It's not surprising: you've been through a horrific experience." A medic came inside: he looked on his thirties with brown hair and eye irises.
"Excuse me…?" Kinmori asked.
"We even had to administer you morphine to cancel your pain receptors for a while: else, that pain would've overwhelmed you."
"Sensei…! Do you know what happened to him?" His mother asked.
"Sadly enough… He was tortured and violated." He admitted.
"By all the…!" She gasped.
"Ah…! I remember…! But… I'm alive…? Did someone come to rescue me, or else…? That story about me being a "sacrifice"… It was all a setup to scare me…?" Kinmori wondered.
"What!" Both the medic and the lady gasped.
"There were… five, six of them… I think they were all ladies… but since they spoke so low, it was hard to catch up… I couldn't see, either, so… But it last about seven minutes… I can't remember anything else… I thought I was going to die there…" He grimly muttered.
"Sadly… While no-one has died from such things, some victims end up with their mindsets horribly traumatized and later have frequent depressions: it's very hard to stray them from suicide, even. I myself had to take care of several cases some years ago when a large group of criminals like those were rounded up: the ones who'd suffered most had spent close to five years being tortured each single day and were mere shells of their former selves…" The medic explained.
"… Kami – sama… Then I can't try to pity myself as a victim… Seven minutes once in my life… And yet others have suffered even more horrible things for whole years…!" Kinmori turned pale.
"I know it's shocking: but it's reality. Reality is cruel, but not much can be actually done about it." The medic sighed.
"… When will I be discharged?" He finally asked.
"Tomorrow morning will be fine … If anything were to happen, then please contact me: my specialty is psychological disorders: I want to help as much as possible in these things." The medic handed the lady a visitor's card.
"Thank you for everything, sensei." Both thanked.
"Please be strong." The medic encouraged.
21:55 PM (Japan Time)…
"… Hello. It's been a while. Maybe you can give me a hand?"
The earlier medic was standing in front of the hospital and talking to someone using a cell phone.
"Please look up if you can find any sect which talks about an "Evil God", "sacrifices" and "rituals": maybe you will find lots of matches but try to narrow them down to Murayama and the last two or three weeks if you can… Yeah. You guessed correctly. A 5th grader boy: but he had a strong mind and after I talked about those cases over four years ago he was determined not to let it traumatize him…" The medic explained.
He waited as he chewed some gun and then frowned.
"… No matches? Zero? Have you tried the whole Yamagata Prefecture, too? Nothing, either? Hmmm… So it'd seem they aren't a real sect or else they just started today. But maybe they're just the run-of-the-mill teenager criminals who try to camouflage themselves by brandishing a cult-like speech…" The medic frowned.
He listened to something else and seemed to be thinking about it.
"So there doesn't necessarily have to be five or six of them… The voices could've been pre-recorded and synchronized. And given the victim's description of a collective prayer, then it makes sense… There could've been just one or two of them in the end… But how are we to identify them? They surely aren't from Yamagata Prefecture to begin with: I'd stake anything on it, Lartes - kun."
He sighed and distractedly glanced around the largely empty parking square.
"… We'll be in contact. But please try to look into it, Lartes – kun. We need to make sure we don't get a spree of victims: what happened four years ago was dramatic enough: we can't let it repeat no matter what. Goodbye, Lartes – kun." The medic grimly warned.
He pocketed the cell phone and made a grimace…
22:08 PM (Japan Time)…
"… WHAT?"
"Chut! Boss. Please lower your voice! Trill is sleeping."
"That's…!"
"Yeah. I know. Anaya's leftovers strike back, sadly enough."
"Shit."
Vadous got in an obvious bad mood once Lartes relayed the news to him on the command bridge.
"I focus my eyes on Rama and this happens." He hissed.
"It's not like we're all-powerful to prevent it, Boss."
"I know! The witch must be laughing at us from the prison we locked her in! She surely had ample time to set this stuff up while being sheltered by Deadly Pandora one year ago. And Twilight could be involved: you know how we found the guy in a Melbourne club back in October. How did you get the news?" Vadous fumed and impatiently tapped the right armrest.
"A colleague from Murayama Central Hospital let me know: Fujiwara Tarou – sensei. He took care of some of the witch's direct victims four years ago, too. It'd seem the perpetrators set it up to make it look they were a cult revering some "Evil God" which had to be resurrected by offering mindless people as sacrifices…"
"And, of course, the victim believed that he was going to die. Don't we have any more clues?"
"The perpetrators might not be from Yamagata Prefecture: they could've come from elsewhere, too. It'd make tracing them hard."
"… Wait a minute! Wasn't there someone in Rama which Charles identified as a sadistic type?" Vadous frowned.
"According to Martin…The claim was to boast and make her look deadlier: but she is just a mercenary." Lartes replied.
"Maybe it wasn't, after all. Those two might be loose and they could be very well the culprits."
"Possible, yes. By the way, Dr. Regal just sent me some intriguing info… Anderson began living with his Edinburg aunt around four years ago, some months after their meeting. But he couldn't find a trace of what happened to his biological mother and stepfather… Until he looked in the criminal record…" Lartes began.
"Criminal record? What happened?
"There aren't any details, but… The mother was sentenced under the charges of cooperating with a criminal, sheltering him and forgetting about her duties… The stepfather was apparently a criminal in the run who fooled widows so as to get married with them. But he wasn't the type who tried to suck their money off, either."
"If he didn't steal money… Why would he do that? Unless… Damn. I think I see why." Vadous cursed.
"… That man was a sadist who wanted to get close to young boys and abused of them, then…! And Anderson's mother was fooled into believing he loved her so she did nothing to stop him! No wonder they had to jail her, too… A shotacon…" Lartes icily muttered.
"Yeah. I'm sure it left him marked and got him obsessed with gaining power to be over the others…"
An explosion rang out somewhere and a loud siren was triggered: Vadous quickly turned the chair around and began to type into the keyboard.
"Attention: Code A. Repeat: Code A. Ship personnel: please report to the command bridge. Code A. Code A. Warning. Warning. Forced entry through Entrance#2." The auto-voice intoned.
"Entrance#2… Where was that again?" Vadous frowned.
"Hmmm… Wasn't it on the remains of Gospel's Virus Factory, beneath Internet City?" Lartes recalled.
"Crap. And Twilight used that place in October!" Vadous cursed.
"And I guess only one guy would have the guts to come here at such at an hour… I doubt Twilight. Zoan Gate Man must still remember the setup with Michelangelo's lil bro." Lartes lifted an eyebrow.
"Yeah. The big boss." Vadous grumbled.
He pressed the "RETURN" key and imagery of Annihilator Man stepping into a round square having a 3D hologram of the Earth set on the center of it came up onscreen.
"Omega! Go tell this non-noble Englishman that his manners are non-existent!" Vadous ordered through an interphone.
"Leave it up tome." Omega replied.
Annihilator Man walked up to the 3D globe and began to look at it as if he was searching for something.
"Idiot. My system's info is stored in RAID 5 HDD Drives… You won't find them there because it's designed so that it can only be entered through the real world… The Cyber World is just a nexus of communications and while you can run searches of data it's a read-only system! You won't find any data like that."
One the doorways directly north of the hologram unlocked and Omega raced out as it closed: he drew the O – Saber and jumped over the sphere to land inches from Annihilator Man's neck: he stepped back and looked nervous.
"You're Omega!" He hissed.
"Yeah. Where are your manners, Englishman?" Omega taunted.
"Sheesh." He scoffed.
"I guess you wanna toss them into the recycle bin."
"Grjtx! Where is this place at?" Annihilator Man hissed.
"Isn't it obvious? This is our HQ."
"That's not the answer!"
"Need Not To Know."
"This guy…!" He cursed.
"Beat me." Omega challenged.
"Dark Sword, Light Sword!" He announced.
He drew two Long Swords: the right one was colored purple while the left one was colored white: he suddenly jumped towards Omega while aiming for his chest: Omega quickly drew his O – Saber and set it on horizontal position to block him off.
"So you wanna brawl: maybe you won't be in the mood when you hear this out…" Omega turned serious.
"What now?"
"Prophetess and Witch have done it." Omega summed up.
"Damn. So it wasn't a bluff!" Annihilator Man hissed.
"I'm not surprised you believed she was bluffing: Martin thought the same thing. In any case… I guess your master won't be pleased at all when he gets this news. I'd rather say he's going to fire those two like he did with that Ancient guy." Omega shrugged.
"Correct… Ones who dare to laugh at Priest – sama have no place in Rama: let the police do what they like with them! We won't move a finger about them!" Annihilator Man admitted.
"Good. Now that we've settled this… It's about to rain clones." Omega switched moods and began to form a grin.
"You copied that from the Star Wars Episode 3 novel: Kenobi tells that to Grievous just before the Clone Army deploys on Utapau." Annihilator Man looked unimpressed.
"Oho. You're well-documented, then. Did ya know something? There's a wine stain on your torso."
"I won't fall for that." He drily replied.
"What a pity! Well then… Let's go!"
Omega suddenly jumped back and Annihilator Man lost balance since he'd been leaning forward: Omega ran towards him and kicked him on the jaw with the right foot to push him back: the opponent growled and charged up energy both swords.
"Light Sonic Boom! Dark Sonic Boom!"
Two Sonic Booms, colored white and purple, shot towards Omega: he calmly skid across the ground and jumped on top of Annihilator Man's shoulder-mounted cannons as he poked the middle finger of his right hand on his right eye: Annihilator Man howled and spun around in a fast manner: Omega was thrown off him and he gracefully landed on the ground: Annihilator Man growled and aimed the cannons at him.
"Black Mass! White Mass!" He growled.
He formed two spheres of purple and white energy and threw them at the bomb: the white ones caused for flames to show up while the purple ones froze the ground.
"What an odd mix! You could invent a cocktail!"
"Hell. He isn't even fighting seriously to begin with!" He growled.
"You better wish I don't: I could beat ya up a hundred times before sending ya to dance with Bright Man."
"Darkloid Bright Man was deleted!" He growled.
"It's a saying, Danna."
"Black Punch, White Punch!"
Annihilator Man cancelled the swords as his fists turned white and purple: he landed two hits on Omega which left a burning mark and some ice on both sides of his vest as well as pushing him back: Annihilator Man began to punch him at a mad speed and inflicting several wounds on a row: Omega kept on being pushed back and was seemingly overwhelmed.
"Hah!"
But Annihilator Man didn't see how the O – Saber began to glow with a red menacing tint: he continued his rain of punches to the upper body and the hips while grinning.
"How's that? Comeback?" He taunted.
"… Too late to regret… You've triggered my "Dark Messiah" mode… And you're over…" Omega icily replied.
He lifted his sight and revealed how his eyes had become blood red: he had a murderous expression to his face and his O – Saber's color had become blood red by now: Annihilator Man gasped and stepped back.
"Omega. Your mission isn't to delete the enemy." Vadous reminded him.
"Roger. I'll just force it to retreat." He calmly replied.
"Hey. Don't dismember the guy, either."
"Gotcha… Let's go~!"
He suddenly dashed forward while leaving "afterimages" on his wake: he swung the saber upwards in an ascending 45º angle from its original 90º position: he quickly aimed it downwards and made the left side of it open a vertical wound across Annihilator Man's chest: he didn't stop there and immediately plunged the saber into the upper torso before starting to jump into the air and roll upon his own axis to form wounds elsewhere: Omega also arched it 90º while standing on the ground to produce fin-shaped energy attacks which impacted Annihilator Man and built up additional damage: he finally stepped back while Annihilator Man growled.
"I-impossible… In less than 2 minutes… I received over 2000 HP of damage out of my 4000 HP…! And I did inflict him 1800 HP, but he looks like it was nothing…!" He cursed.
"Omega. Cool it down. Breathe deeply." Vadous commanded.
Omega closed his eyes and did so: he inhaled and slowly exhaled before opening them again; they'd reverted to their usual cold blue and his O – Saber's color returned to normal as he switched it off and stored it on a sheath built upon his right hip.
"To keep on fighting under such circumstances would be suicidal… I better retreat!" He muttered.
He took out a flash-bang grenade and dropped it before he ran off through the door he'd destroyed and Omega grinned.
"He's like Grievous: adept at making cool escapes from a mess."
"Now we have a better idea of his battle potential…" Vadous muttered.
"Uack! Who the hell!"
"You forgot to pay the toll."
Omega lifted his eyebrows upon hearing Annihilator Man yell and a familiar voice addressing him with obvious sarcasm.
"Zero! You lowlife!" Annihilator Man cursed.
"Yeah. Today is the swordsmen's night: we slice and dice like we used the Linux "cut" command." Zero sarcastically told him.
"You're in the way! Vanish!"
There was the sound of another flash-bang grenade detonating and Zero calmly walked in.
"Yeah. Good idea, Zero. We should set a toll up."
"Sure. He got his wires cut off again: I guess he'll be totally ashamed of his hide. And he'll regret having turned you serious, too…"
"True. So? Did you find anything?" Omega asked.
"Not much regarding any clue to the IDs of the Rama guys… Can't you give me a little something to look up?" Zero sighed.
"I can. Here you have." Lartes replied.
A data cube appeared on the ground, so Zero picked it up and accessed its data to check it out.
"I see. Well… This shouldn't be too hard. I don't like looking into personal things, but since it could be a lead… It can't be helped. See ya."
"Good night."
Zero turned around and headed out while Omega pressed a button to the right of the broken entrance: an energy field colored purple covered it and he fumed.
"That guy managed to avoid security because he froze or burnt the circuitry over there… We should send the repair Navis over there. And we should do something about how we place our entrances, really. It'd seem we're becoming easier to find than a pin in a mass of straw." He sighed and rolled his eyes.
"Yeah. Guess I'll be installing a camouflage system which will only deactivate upon accepting a password." Vadous sighed.
"Roger. I'm off to my capsule: I need some rest to heal these wounds."
"Fine."
"Mr. Vadous…? What happened?" Iris asked she quicjly walked into the command bridge.
"Sorry for the alarm… Annihilator Man dropped by and we had to show him the way out." Vadous admitted.
"Oh. Trill was running up and down saying there was a party but I told him to go back to sleep plus I locked the door from the outside…" She sighed in relief.
"Please go back to sleep and I'll have solved this by the morning. It was no big deal."
"I understand. Good night."
Vadous waited until Iris had left and sighed along with Dr. Lartes; he then stood up and stretched.
"I left a program into auto-mode so that Black Ace works on the defenses. This way I needn't stay for hours working on it."
"Wise idea. You need some rest. We've still got long days ahead of us, and they'll demand a lot of energy on our part…!"