The eerie feeling that swept across the room was menacing, as if a wolf had entered the room and was lurking about. Nasamea, Aki, and Fizz were all silent in attention, looking directly straight ahead, not even daring to look in his eyes. Who was this person? What was this feeling that swept across their legs? It was as if a wolf was lurking around, ready to snatch the warm guts from the insides of their bodies. Nasamea herself could barely handle the tantalizing chakra pressure that he released, letting beads of sweat fall from the crown of her head as Zen walked up to the group, closest to her. She let out a sharp breath quickly, trying to regain her composure and appear strong. Zen stopped and looked at his team, speaking a command.
"At ease soldiers". Zen commanded, as his solemn voice drifted across the room.
Nasamea, Aki, and Fizz responded sharply, relaxing their arms and letting out a heavy sigh, all of them sitting in the chairs directly behind him, sitting at a small table with a map of Hokkaido on it. Zen grabbed a sheet of paper from the side of the wall, the roll call for today's unit. Walking over to his chair at the table with the rest of his unit, he read the roll call out loud.
"Hmm, Suihou Fizz, No.25 Specialist, Nasaki Aki, No.27 Private, and the lowest of the low, Tishuto Nasamea, No. 30. I don't know what's up with the Military, I told them I that we didn't need any extra baggage to slow us down…Well it looks like you'll just have to keep up and watch Nasamea".
Sighing at disappointment in her own strength, Nasamea's head dropped down a bit, and weakness began to fill her bones. Today would be the first real mission; her previous ones were all done with Fizz on paired missions. Even though she had high sensing abilities for her low rank, her job was usually to sniff out the Yoma and let Fizz handle them accordingly. She was tired of being treated like trash though, and even though the comment stung deeply, she couldn't let words get to the best of her. She had to show the rest of them that she was capable of holding her own in battle, no matter what it took. Shaking off the weakness in her bones, Nasamea focused on the mission at hand.
"Do I have permission to speak Major?" Fizz asked.
"Yes, tell me what you know."
"Well, I have close ties with the Captains, so I'm close to the Intelligence of the Military. We all know that Specialists deal with Defense and Medicine, and Capitan's deal with Intelligence mostly—"
"Get to the point Specialist." Zen interrupted.
Fizz stuttered over his words, letting embarrassment sweep across his face.
"Well, there is a group of Yoma lurking in the village. There are exactly four of them, and two are "heavy eaters". One of them is winged, and the other is a normal one. For the sake of the group, I would like you to drop Nasamea from today's mission and have her resume Mess Hall Service or whatever she wishes".
From deep within, a boiling hot rage surged from Nasamea's emotions, heating her up. The intense anger caused her blood pressure to spike sharply, and the heat radiating from her head caused her to sweat a bit. What was wrong with Fizz today? She'd been doing everything he asked, and even tolerated staying with him. Nasamea's brow tightened up, and she glanced across the table at Fizz, who was undoubtedly serious about dropping her. There was no way that she could tolerate being dropped so easily, it wasn't fair. She'd been on the roll call for a reason, and whatever that reason was it was from the Military. They gave out roll call, not Fizz.
"There's no way you can say that! I'm –"
"Do not speak out of your place Private! If you can't hold your mouth I'll have you stripped down to your underwear and sent back home to your mother." Zen rasped.
"Permission to speak Major?!?" Nasemea asked.
"Granted. But if you get out of hand…"
"Being the No.30 shouldn't be a testament of my strength. Even in battle against Yoma, Fizz has never allowed me to even slay the weakest of Yoma. I cannot be a solider of the Military if I do not slay Yoma. It's our purpose. We are born for this. If you can find it in your heart to let me attend today's mission I won't fail you, sir."
"Sir…I do protest…" Fizz spoke.
"You know the penalty for that Suihou? Not letting a solider operate in battle?"
"Sir the Yoma we fought hadn't even aged past two meals. Your gaze alone could have stopped them in their tracks."
"Well, Aki, you've been silent up until now, what do you think? Should Nasamea stay or go?" Zen asked.
Looking away from her comrade and rubbing her shoulder, Aki didn't know what to say. Aki was highly analytical, and even smarter than Fizz. She had a Captain level intelligence, and the only reason she was No.27 was because of her lack of power. In battle it was her that created plans, but she'd never seen Nasamea really battle, even if they were friends. The whole objective was what was best for the Military, not what was best for her, or her friends.
"Well Sir, I've never seen her in battle. With the information from Specialist Fizz I have already gathered a plan up for taking them out in no time. Having Nasamea in the group would be a wild card, but we cannot just leave her out. If she fails human lives could suffer, or even worse. That is not what the Military wants…"
Even though they were friends, even though they grew up together, even though they cried together, Nasamea couldn't help but feel betrayed. She admired Aki, and even though she was right she couldn't believe what was happening. She kept telling herself that it was what was best, but the stubborn voices that echoed across her mind were telling her otherwise. It was as if she'd waken up from a bad dream, into a bad reality, with even her best friend doubting her powers. She couldn't hold Aki responsible for her lack of inexperience, but she knew it was true. Even though she felt like her friend had given up on her, she knew the true weakness lied within.
"Well Nasamea, it seems as if I am the tie-breaker. So far Fizz and Aki don't think it's best for you to come along, but for some reason I think its ok. I will grant you permission on for today's mission."
"Thank you Sir! I will not fail yo-"
"That's what you say though, let's see what you do." Zen replied, "Alright lets head out. Grab your Soul Slayers and let's go."
Bursting out from the tables, everyone got up as commanded. Walking outside to the Major's storage room, Zen left Nasamea, Fizz and Aki to suit up.
"What the hell was that just now?" Nasamea shouted.
"Don't take it wrong…" Aki said in a gentle voice.
"Yeah Nasamea, we're only looking out for your best interests" Fizz said, leaving the debriefing room to the Specialist's storage room.
Nasamea burst out of the after Fizz. In a flurry of movement, a small girl appeared next to Nasamea, gripping her arm and holding her back. Aki wouldn't let her fight, and there was no way that she would let Nasamea get in trouble so easily.
"Nasamea stop! That's an order!" Aki shouted.
Stopping dead in her tracks, Nasamea eyed Fizz as he walked away grinning from face to face. Even though he was joking most of the time, he still got on Nasamea's nerves. He was an annoying bastard, one not fit for his ranks. If she ever caught him alone…
"Focus Nasa! Focus!"
"Alright…alright, I'm calm".
"Come on, I know you better than that…" Aki spoke, as they walked down the hall way towards the Private's storage room.
"Yeah, yeah, but you also know that what happened in there shouldn't have happened at all. No.30 or not I am just as much a part of the Military as you or anyone else".
"You're just going to have to deal with it, you're No. 30. Perform well in this mission and you might be No. 29, or even 28. Remember it's up to you if you want to be No. 30". Aki replied, as both of them grabbed their Soul Slayers from their numbers.
"Yeah…whatever."
Walking outside to the gates of the Military, the group formed once again. Ready to serve the Military and protect humans, they all gathered in front of the gates with their swords drawn, in a tight circle with the tips of the swords touching one another. Zen spoke quickly and authoritatively.
"From Divine Right we have gained our powers, from Divine Leading we have been trained to protect humans and uphold justice, peace, and righteousness. If we fall in this mission today, let our corpses be as soil to the ground so that soldiers from the Military may rest upon peaceful ground forever."
Sheathing their swords in a timely manner, four flashes disappeared in the forest not too far away from the gates. Through the forest Team 11 zipped through the Hokkaido Region swiftly making their way to the Yoma infestation.
Following in fashion, Nasamea lagged last due to her number. She couldn't help but think about the mission. Failure was not tolerated. She had to perform better than she'd ever had before. Being the lowest of the bunch meant that she had nowhere to go except up. She couldn't rank lower, so the ambition was strong to become higher. With that she could gain more respect, and prove to them that she wasn't the No. 30 she was ranked to be.
Making their way through the branches of the large trees of Hokkaido, the four-man unit was brought to a halt by Zen. Landing on branch after branch, the members perched on top of a large tree about a mile away from the village. He turned around and spoke.
"Feel any Yoma yet Nasamea?" Zen asked.
Closing her eyes and focusing on her surroundings, Nasamea dived into her senses, feeling for anything unlike hers.
"Sir, we're a mile off, there is no way that she can feel for anything this far. It's simply---" Fizz snorted.
"There are four of them just like Fizz said. Two of them are humongous, and are currently feeding. One of them, the winged one is on patrol in the air, while the other one is patrolling on the ground. The best option now would be to take out the winged one from this distance, since he is too far away from the ground one and too far away from the humongous ones."
'She can really tell all of that just by thinking? From this distance?! No handsigns or anything…' Fizz thought.
"If that's the case, let's deal with the one on the ground. We don't know if they can sense each other or not."
Jumping towards the forest floor, the team quickly moved towards the nearest Yoma the ground one, which was patrolling the area. He was completely dark, his skin was burnt grey and his demon teeth hung from the insides of his mouth dripping yellow saliva on his shirt. Naked, his back was hunched over, and his muscles were completely tightened, as if he'd just finished feeding. His feet were covered in blood, signs that he'd been killing recently. Hiding behind trees Team 11 began to make preparations for battle. Zen flicked his hand towards Nasamea, giving her the queue to go.
Sliding around the base of her tree, Nasamea made her away parallel to the walking demon no more than 10 feet from her right. The best way to deal with this threat would be to take it out swiftly, no noise, and no regeneration. Aiming for the head was the best bet, but the hardest at that. One quick swoop from her katana and he would be dead. Nasamea moved behind the Toma, trailing it silently as she'd been taught.
"You think I wouldn't be able to sense you?" it spoke
As quickly as it has spoke the Yoma turned around and pointed its hand towards Nasamea, releasing its sharp tendril like fingers towards her in a flash. Quick to react, Nasamea blocked the attack, deflecting all the fingers that were aimed towards her chest. While guarding against the Yoma, Nasamea reached into her pocket grabbing a kunai, flicking it towards the beast. Three flashes appeared in her eyesight as the battle was sparked between her and the Yoma, and as the rest of her team moved on to deal with the others. The Yoma deflected the kunai with hard skin alone, dashing it to the ground.
Now she was alone, and if she didn't kill the Yoma in time enough, it would be over for her Military career.
"So, your sash tells me that you're No. 30. The Military must be giving out free meals..."
Bending over the beast dashed towards Nasamea, a direct attack for her life. Instead of blocking, Nasamea used her speed to easily appear behind the beast, aiming for a cut at its back. The Yoma however was smarter than that. After realizing his opponent was gone, he purposely kicked back with his hind legs, straight towards Nasamea's chest, sending her flying across the beaten trail, kicking up a pile of dust. The Yoma however was not quick to cease, he ran up towards Nasamea while at a disadvantage, and kicked her again in the side this time, slamming her against a tree, causing the leaves to shake. Rolling in pain, she gripped her katana and pulled herself up again facing the Yoma that was now looming over her.
"It's over."
"Exactly."
Throwing her sword towards the side of his face, the Demon followed the same pattern, throwing his massive palm to the side of hers. Quickly raising her fist up to block the attack, Nasamea was met with an uncontrollable pain as the Yoma hit her hand, smashing the bones in her wrists completely. Her katana however had met its mark, 4 inches deep in the Yoma's face. Ignoring the pain, she twisted her katana, quickly grinding a small hole in the side of the Yoma's face, draining it of its shriveled up brain. The beast fell to the side and died.
"Fuck. Out of all the Yoma here on this mission I barely managed the weakest one. Two of my ribs are broken and my left wrist is in shreds."
Nasamea sighed and blinked her eyes from the stinging sweat.
"What is this stinging pain??!"
Nasamea wiped her forehead, looking at the yellow slime in her hands. She looked up raising her head to "heavy eater", 7 feet tall, rippling with muscles. The fangs that came from its mouth were jagged and its whole appearance was gruesome. A heavy eating Yoma was no match to Nasamea. Due to their high metabolism they were the most destructive of all Yoma, constantly eating without remorse, and sometimes eating their fellow Yoma. They were solely reserved for Captains to take down.
"I can smell your warm guts already…."
'A 5th one!?!'