After that little disturbing sight, the pair ambled on quietly to the market in the city's center. There was nothing to say, at least, nothing painless to say. Charles was disturbed, and Kimiko was frightened on what the girl did only a few minutes ago.

'Why did I...oh God, it felt so cold. She was a person, right? But when I touched her, she felt like metal, metal that's been left outside in the winter. I want to tell myself that she was merely asleep but...I feel as if that's not the case….and...why did I feel such a desire to touch her, anyways?'

Her eyes were only focused on her right hand, still afflicted by the ghost of her actions, trembling in shock and uneasiness.

"Kimi, over here."

"Huh?"

Saved from her thoughts temporarily, Kimiko turned her head forward to see Charles ahead of her, hiding beneath a green dumpster. The stench was powerfully raw, but compared to the odor from before, this was nothing. Still though….

"A dumpster? Really?"

The male simply shrugged. "It's secluded and dark, and it provides us great vision of the market ahead, just on the right, see? It's a perfect hiding spot: after all, who looks around trash heaps, nowadays?"

"...But...still.."

Soft sounds of rapidly approaching footsteps would resonate off the walls, entering both of the children's ears and prompting Kimiko to let go of her disgusts and join Charles beneath the structure.

Not a few seconds after she dived out of sight, a solitary, thin male would run down the alleyway, desperately running for his life and panting heavily.

"No...please...wait...I.."

His pleas and grunts of exertion would be put to rest, as his next few words were choked out.

"Ah...ack...ka….ka…"

With a heavy thud, the male would drop the ground. As he laid, the pair could see his face twisted in anguish and shock, pupils fully dilated and a knife protruding through his throat. Blood would trickle on the pavement, a pool flowing outwards, inching towards Kimiko and Charles.

Slowly, ever so slowly, the two would recline backwards to avoid the blood...at least, until they ran out of space behind them. And with more footsteps on the way, leaving their hiding spot would not be an advantageous action.

The liquid crept up to both of the children's arms, marking their skin with its warm embrace. Charles kept his gaze forward, ignoring the blood and focusing on the incoming footsteps. Kimiko, in the meanwhile, would stare at her arms that were now coated in the gore, half in wonder and half in horror.

Two pairs of legs stopped ahead of them. One knelt down to the dead male on the ground, quickly taking the dagger out of his neck.

"Tch. He shouldn't have run from us." A female voice, sharp and commanding.

"What did you expect from him, leader?" A male voice, soft, fatherlike, understanding. "He was a dead man walking either way. Honestly, I would've done the same."

"Of course you would say something like that, Carlos. Is everyone ready?"

"Sí. Todos están listo."

"Perfect. Let's make sure everyone in Invictus has plenty to eat."

Two shots of...grappling hooks(?) would ensue, and the legs lifted into the air.

"...Kimi, are you alright?"

"Yeah...yeah, I'm fine. Just a little blood on me, no biggie."

"Right...we should get out of here and move up. See that barrel on the right? We should be able to hide behind it. Just follow me."

With their limited space, the two had to inch their way out while prone. With the knife know removed from the body's neck, blood now flowed even more profusely, inundating the surrounding cement with crimson. Each movement would splash more blood everywhere, covering their clothes in a dark red. By the time they managed to get out, their front side...face, clothes, skin, everything...all red.

Kimiko couldn't help but chuckle at this fact, despite the fact that she knew where this liquid came from. "Hehehe...jeez, we're soaked. I want a good, long, hot bath once this is done.

Charles simply gave an amused snort and smile in reaction to Kimiko's out-of-place statement, but those would be replaced by a serious look as he turned back to the source of their condition. Crouching down, he caressed the male's head to close his eyes.

"Repose en paix, monsieur."

Then, Charles would carry the body, open the dumpster's lid, and throw the body amidst the waste.

"Sorry that I can't place you in a more appropriate spot. I'll wonder about you. The story you had, the lessons that you learned and taught, the people who you cared about and in turn, cared for you. But alas, at the moment, you're trash, and that's all you will be from now on. Forgotten waste of space. Then again, I'm no better."

Gently closing the lid and pausing once it was closed to give what looked to be a prayer, Charles let go of the oversized trash can and returned eye contact with Kimiko, who was watching the entire interaction intently.

"Charles, could he hear you?"

A simple raise and drop of his shoulders. "Maybe. Maybe not. I like to think that he did. Makes things easier."

"Sorry."

"What do you have to be sorry for, Kimi? You haven't done anything wrong."

"But ah...you said that me and my mom were the only family you had left. Does that mean…?"

"Later. I'll speak of that at a later time. Right now, we've got to focus on giving MInami a fighting chance."

As the male walked on forward, Kimiko thought to herself: 'He hides it well, but I can feel it. He's hiding something, some sort of closet of skeletons. I do hope I can help him, maybe find out what he's hiding, before it's too late.'

Those thoughts...ah, maybe, just maybe, if I acted on them sooner…

[_]

Helicopters roared above their heads, signalling the beginning of the supply drops.

"Remember, Kimi, we have to wait for the right time. There's most likely hundreds of others that need supplies as much as we do. Thanks to your mom, we have enough food to last ourselves a couple of months, so we'll let the first few drops attract the most attention. Once their focus is not entirely on us, we can wait for the medical box to drop; it's mostly red, so it should be easy to identify. We have to stick together at all times. The desperation and desire everyone here has can bring them to commit horrendous actions. Got all that?"

The girl nodded. "Mmhmm. Let's do this."

A loudspeaker would flare up from one of the helicopters.

["ATTENTION: The PLA will be dropping boxes of supplies momentarily. Any attempt or intent to interrupt our actions or destroy property will be seen as a declaration of war. This is your final warning. Please, try to control yourselves better this ti- ah, forget it. At this point, you're all savage animals within this unholy excuse of a zoo. Stay clear! Dropping now!"]

Cables supporting the weight of the crates would be broken, and as such, the containers within those cables dropped to the ground in not-so-graceful crashes.

[_]

I'll try to retell the next few minutes in the best way I can. I've gathered information by using Yud on multiple people who were present in this event, including myself. Ah….now this was a source of nightmares, if anything else. It was a great snapshot of what life was like in this hellish city. Heh, 'Nightmare'. People who call me by that title...most of them have seen nothing, and because of that, they're lucky. I know I'm far from an angel, but, trust me, I could be a lot worse.

After all, all I promise is death, and the worst I can get is somewhat sadistic. Believe me, there are things worse than sudden death.

I don't torture unless I need to. Remember that.

[_]

"CHAAARRRGEE!"

A ashe-blonde female teenager with purple eyes on the roof above Charles and Kimiko would make the decisive cry. The children recognized the voice as the killer that had passed by earlier.

If Minami was there, she would have recognized the teen as the one who stood up to the PLA on day one.

The leader of Invictus, it seems.

Battlefield. That's what the market quickly degraded to. A few people with pistols and rifles were shooting in the general direction of where people were. Everyone else had some sort of weapon, ranging from machetes, 2x4's, shards of glass, and even their bare hands. With anything and everything, people would beat or cut each other to death. A man slit a woman's throat, stealing her life away in a mere instant. A woman would beat a child's head in with a brick, ignoring its high-pitched squeals of agony, only stopping once the child's squeals stopped. A gang of children would jump onto a man, biting and clawing at the male, ripping his skin off and hurting him until he ceased his struggling, before those children were shot by a rifle from afar, tearing their limbs off and making them cry their eyes out until they were trampled.

["Command, HVT is present. Requesting permission to engage."

["Do not use explosives. I repeat, do not use explosives. Stick to your 9mm cannons. You are cleared to engage the HVT and anyone that gets in the way between you and her."]

["Understood. Weapons free."]

"Kimiko?! The box?! Can you see it, Kimiko?!"

Off to the distance, separated from most of the bloodshed, existed a red box with the Red Cross insignia on the front of the container.

Three quick taps onto Charles's shoulder, then a point in the supplies' direction. "There! It's over there!"

"Safety's off?"

Click. "Off."

"Let's go. Follow me."

The two would retreat from their hiding position, running along the left side to attract the least amount of attention while keeping their guns up to ward away potential attackers. A few gunslingers would take aim at the pair, but before they could fire, both Charles and Kimiko would shoot them with disturbingly sharp accuracy.

As the two ran, the supply helicopter turned itself around, spooling up its minigun and taking aim at Invictus's leader, threatening to cut her into ribbons. A little bit later, and the minigun opened fire, shooting 600 rounds per minute.

At the sound of minigun fire, Charles grabbed Kimiko and ducked.

"Get down!"

"Oof!"

The female upon the roof scoffed, and, suddenly, a green force field would materialize around her. The field...protected her, preventing bullets from entering the field and instead having them absorbed by the energy.

"Declaration of war? Please, you /really/ don't expect me to retaliate?! Carlos, fire the Stinger. Everyone else, danger close!"

Charles looked up from his cover to see that the helicopter was engaging someone else. "Oh, it's not aimed at us. False alarm. Open the box, I'll cover you."

Charles kept his carbine trained on their surroundings, as well as on the exchange between the helicopter and the two Invictus members.

Behind the blonde, a large, muscular male wearing a leather jacket and jeans held the anti-aircraft launcher over his shoulder, locked onto the aircraft.

"Hahaha! I guess breaking into the police station was a good idea after all!"

"Hurry, Carlos! My Territory can't take much more!"

["What the hell?! I'm being locked on?! Shit, I don't have flares!"]

Once the lock was stable, Carlos fired the launcher at the craft, making a direct hit with the vehicle. The heat from the missile was able to react with the aircraft's fuel tanks, causing a chain reaction and creating a large explosion.

The resulting explosion caused pieces of fiery debris to fall all over the courtyard. Most of the pieces were small, but there were a few select pieces large enough to cause mayhem. Those unlucky to be in their way would be both crushed and burned to death.

The explosion distracted Charles away from watching their flanks, allowing a solitary male to pass through.

"Charles, it's open, and I got it! Let's get ou- oomph!"

"Huh?! KIMI!"

The male wore a blue hoodie and a baseball cap, obscuring his facial features. He had kicked Kimiko off of the box, sending her flying into a wall, forcing her to drop the two bottles of antibiotics she held, The assailant hurried to pick up the antibiotics, running towards the nearest alleyway to get away. However, a burning propeller landed between the assailant and the entrance, cutting off his escape route and allowing Charles to melee him in the head with the butt of the carbine to daze him and take back the medicine.

With the attacker down, Charles picked up the pink bottles of medicine and ran back to Kimiko. "Kimi?! We have to run, now!"

From hitting her head, the small girl was confused and dazed. SHe didn't even realize she was being talked to, she was so out of it. The 1911, however, was holstered in her skirt pocket completely, allowing her to hold on to the weapon despite previous physical trauma.

"Dammit."

Now, the three other helicopters focused their attention on the female and Carlos on the roof. The familiar whirl of a minigun getting ready to fire was now tripled in magnitude. The vigilante's 'Territory', though strong, would not be enough to hold off three miniguns' fire at peak condition, let alone when it was heavily damaged.

However, before they could fire, all of them exploded.

Slingshots.

Unbeknownst to the PLA pilots, three teams of three had set up slingshot mechanisms, with the ammunition being molotov cocktails. One of the teams had a skinny old man firing the cocktail.

The same alcohol that Minami had traded for Kimiko's watch, with the same male. It all comes full circle, doesn't it?

"Huh, they didn't fail us." The commander was deadpan at the lightshow in front of her.

"Haha! I knew they wouldn't! Glory to Invictus!"

More debris would rain hellfire from above. Charles had to get themselves out of there, and quick. Placing the bottles of medicine in his pockets and dropping his own carbine onto the ground, he took Kimiko into a bridal carry and ran. Ran and ran, ignoring the fireworks above him. A piece of debris grazed his left arm, burning it and making Charles wince. Nevertheless, the male ran and ran.

Finally, he made his way to the alleyway they initially exited from on his right, escaping the market with Kimiko in his arms and the medicine on hold. He retraced their steps, passing the dumpster, splish splash of blood still present on the ground, turning right, then a second left, passing the dead girl's rotting carcass, 'have you given up?', then taking a left…

"Mmnn….hhnnn…"

Kimiko slowly began to recover, becoming more wary of her surroundings and becoming conscious enough to learn of their situation.

"Charles….do...we...h-have…"

"Yeah, I have it. Just a little bit more, Kimi-"

He never finished that sentence.

The attacker from before had apparently recovered and caught up with the pair of children, enough so to tackle Charles, forcing him to drop Kimiko and fall to the ground. Kimiko fell off to the right side, while Charles and the male struggled. Punches, jabs, kicks, anything. Charles used his small size to gain the early advantage, allowing him to be nimble and dodge the other male's attacks while putting great momentum to hurt the man's torso. However, one positioning mistake ended with Charles receiving a strong uppercut, launching the lightweight into the air to then come down clumsily onto his back, knocking the wind out of him.

Kimiko's vision had dulled again thanks to the previous fall, but gradually as the fight between Charles and their assailant continued, her senses recalibrated. Once she became fully aware, she saw Charles, defeated and lying on the ground. The adult gave a small, unsettling smirk of victory as he took something out of his pocket, something that when he raised it, was shaped to a particular point and reflected a bit of the light…

A knife. And Kimiko knew that he would kill Charles with it.

"NO!"

She didn't remember unzipping her skirt pocket, nor did she remember taking the weapon into her hands, but she raised the pistol and fired at the man's back.

BANG! BANG!

Surprise and pain would cause the assailant to drop the knife as he clutched his chest.

"...ack...you!"

The male would turn to Kimiko, showcasing his feral and insane complexion. Taking the knife with his left hand, he ignored his wounds and leapt at the young ravenette.

Time seemed to slow down for Kimiko. Fractions of seconds would elongate as she saw her attacker make his movements. She had only enough time for one single shot, and she needed to roll out of the way to dodge the knife's edge. ON her left, there was a pipe system, so there was no space to maneuver there. Her right, however, was clear of any obstacles.

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

Shoot.

Then roll to the right.

Why as that...so natural for her? After all, only hours ago did she not even comprehend the concept of death.

And now...she had managed to evade her assailant while shooting a round through his neck, causing him to choke on his own blood. The faint smell of gunpowder filled Kimiko's nose as she witnessed the male's struggling.

"No..please...my son…"

Is that...what he needed the antibiotics for? I don't know if he was lying or not, honestly. But alas…

"I'm sorry."

Darwinism. Survival of the fittest.

Or, cruellest, I guess, in this case.

One final shot would exit the girl's pistol, connecting with the man's head and putting him out of his misery. Blood from his wounds would flow, just like the male that Charles had thrown into the dumpster. To her shoes, then legs….Kimiko, however, wasn't as disturbed as the first time.

"...Warm…"

Finally standing up, she reloaded her pistol swiftly. The motion was pure instinct. She's never seen one reload a weapon, nor did she know that the clip only had seven shots. A perfect extension of herself.

Isn't that unsettling? I mean, come on. An 8-year-old, a FUCKING 8-year-old, child perfectly in-tune with a gun that she's held for the first time?

Kimiko would proceed to shake Charles out of his confusion. "Charles?! Wake up!"

Eyelids would slowly uncover the cerulean oculars of his, dragging him back to this putrid plane of existence known as reality.

"Kimi...wait! Where is he?!"

"...He's dead. I shot him."

"Did you….ah, damn. Come on, it's been a long day for the both of us. Let's go home."

No sense of shock or surprise or shame or wonder or fear in his words. Not a single trace. He simply said those words as truth. Something that he often lacked in other times….

[_]

Click! The door opens.

"Mom, we've got your meds! Charles, hurry up and give them to her!"

"Kimiko, Charles? Oh...thank God, you're alright."

"Drink up."

Charles held out the cap, filled with an ounce of the purple liquid, allowing the woman to drink it.

Kimiko spoke once more. "Were you alright without us?"

"Pah! Ah, that tastes pretty bad…..alright? Come on now, the worry that you were going to die out there was killing me faster than this sickness was! It's incredibly dangerous out there, don't you know that now?! And you had to...go out...because of….why…?"

"Oi, Minami. If it weren't for Kimi, I wouldn't be here. She saved me, after all."

"Charles, you saved me much more often before. All I did was shoot someone."

"Kimiko, you shot someone?! Oh God...why do you have so much blood on you?! You aren't Kimiko! You're….what the fuck have you done with my child?! You're not Kimiko….you felt it too, didn't you, Charles?! There's...there's a monster, a monster that's fucked with my child. GET OUT OF THERE YOU DEMON!"

Minami's eyes had now widened, and with a surprising burst of strength, she got up and tackled Kimiko, strangling the child's scrawny neck.

"ACKK…M0M! I...ACK…"

"KIMI! MINAMI!"

The male jumped to action, and applied pressure on a specific point to make the woman go unconscious, allowing her to loosen her grip on Kimiko's neck and allowing her to breathe again.

"...what….why...whydidmomdothat? ¨+Whydidshesaythat?"

The atmosphere was thick enough to drown inside.

"Kimiko….I don't know. She's going to be asleep for awhile, now. Forget about that for now. We need to wash up, no?"

"...Right. Let's...go….momwhy….?"

Ah. If only she saw that the 'demon' and the girl she knew and loved…

They were one and the same. Hehe.

[_]

["Commander….what should we do? We lost four contact with four armed supply helicopters?"]

["...If they refuse our help, they deserve our wrath. We'll go to war with them, and we won't stop until every crevice of this city is purged of such dirt."]

["Understood. How...how are we going to deal with such a technology as the one she used?"

["We have Phantom, do we not? We'll have her help."]