In the dead of the night, Mimi ran through the streets of Higashi ward, just north of Aki. It had been hours since she'd seen Rin, and though she knew her friend was as she was, it rarely made the fear Mimi felt for Rin any less. Ever since that fateful day, Rin was everything to her. She'd spend her life in Rin's debt and company, so long as the immortal would have her.
This time of night, there may have normally been a few more folks out and about in Higashi. However, on this hollow night, there was hardly a noise to be heard save for the occasional bark of flames. Then of course there was Mimi's normally light voice, pushed harder than it had been in years as she called out, "Rin!"
Observing the layout of the streets, the small girl ran through every alley she came across, searching endlessly for her friend. After what felt like an eternity, she stumbled upon a series of tire tracks in the mud. Deep and doubled, just like those that would be left by the dually military trucks her and Rin had seen earlier. Her frantic pace slowed as she followed the tracks, until coming to another oddity; footprints. More precisely, footprints that could only have been made by heavy combat boots. Then there was another trail among the footprints, a pair of long and thick divots through the mud, almost as though someone had been dragged.
Mimi took up the trail the lines in the mud made, and luckily, she only needed to follow it for a few feet before finding the last clue she needed; Rin's broken glasses.
"Oh no…" She quietly muttered as she knelt down to pick up the bent frames, "…Rin." She looked back to the tire tracks and immediately set off once more, this time to follow those tracks to wherever they led.
"Like I said; this one's a real beauty," the man who'd taken Rin commented as he tightly gripped her face by her cheeks, holding her mouth shut and her head still against the table.
"But I like this one, boss," another of the men spoke as he ran a knife down Himiko's quivering cheek. They had bound her feet to the floor, and pulled her arms taught above her, tying them to an exposed beam in the ceiling.
There were four of them in total; American soldiers indulging in some last minute entertainment with the weak among their enemies. Though she was beyond furious at the mere sight of these men, Rin was completely powerless. Getting those beams off of her earlier was easy by comparison to attempting to get off of this table. She had no room to move, and no weapons to use.
The man who held Rin roughly let go of her, and replied to his cohort who was taunting Himiko, "That's right, the other one." He pulled the picture Shinji had given Rin from his pocket, and held it up for her green eyes to see, "You were lookin' for her weren't ya?"
Rin remained tight lipped, though the look of raw, unbridled rage in her eyes was completely unmistakable. The man closed in on her once again and whipped the back of his hand across her face, "Answer me, you Jap bitch!" Even after being struck, she hardly made a peep, slowly turning back to face him as blood dripped from her lips.
"It's not enough that you've killed thousands, now you've got to have your fun too?" Rin asked through her teeth.
"Perks'a the job, lady," the man happily replied.
"Who the fuck are you people?" Rin gritted, finally pushed to the point of using profanity.
The man tipped his head forward as he replied, "Colonel Thomas Wilkinson the third; at your service."
"Why don't you do me a favor and drop dead?" Rin replied.
Wilkinson clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth, smiling as he spoke to his subordinates without taking his eyes off Rin, "Go on boys, enjoy yourselves."
"No…" Rin quietly pleaded, but as the word left her lips, the men had already begun. They ripped Himiko's torn clothes from her bruised body, while the bound woman roared into her gag.
"Make her scream, boys," Wilkinson ordered. "It just ain't as fun if they don't scream." As ordered, the men violated and cut into Himiko, causing her to scream louder and louder by the second. Relishing in the anger on Rin's face, Wilkinson closed in on her once more, still smiling wide, "I'm gonna have me some fun with this one."
He slid his tongue all about Rin's randomly exposed flesh, causing her to squirm in disgust. Luckily her eyes closed tight as she pulled away from him, so that she at least didn't have to watch as the other men ravaged Himiko. It wasn't enough that they raped her, but the sound of fists crashing into flesh; they were beating her as well.
Nearly hyperventilating in anger as her captor groped and fondled her, Rin growled, "Someday you might regret this."
Wilkinson merely laughed at her comment. He laughed and laughed, eventually roaring out loud at what she had said. He forced his hand to her chest and ripped her frayed shirt open, exposing even more of her pale white body before throwing the same hand forward, punching her square in the jaw. Rin reeled from the powerful blow, and just as soon as she'd recovered, it was only to watch Wilkinson draw the pistol from his belt.
First aimed directly at Rin's face, she merely shut her eyes and braced for the shot. However, he turned and instead took a single shot that silenced Himiko. Rin's eyes burst open, for once grateful to not have her glasses so that she could not see the aftermath of Wilkinson's point-black shot. While she was glad that Himiko no longer suffered, she still cried out, "No! You fucking cowards!"
With that, Wilkinson raised the gun once more, this time pressing the barrel to Rin's forehead. Before he took the shot however, one of his men remarked, "But boss, we ain't even played with her yet."
The colonel smiled as he replied simply, "She don't need to be alive for us ta have our fun with'er."
"Fucke-"
Rin's body fell limp against the table as the 45-caliber slug crashed into her brain.
Outside of the base the tire tracks had led her to, Mimi carefully snuck about, looking for any way through the chain link fence that surrounded the complex. Naturally, the base was sealed quite tight, and there were guards posted throughout the space. She had to tread carefully and quietly; fortunately, she'd had a good teacher. She used every last crate, vehicle, and object that surrounded the facility to her advantage, ducking in and out spaces, using her slight size to her absolute advantage.
Finally, she found a gap in the fence that appeared to be just large enough to allow her to fit through. She got to her knees, and then lay flat on her chest as she crawled beneath the fence. Having not made a sound above a whisper, none of the guards had heard her and she continued on, looking for a way into the complex.
It was only after she'd gone several yards further into the base that she caught a whiff of a familiar scent. The smell of dried blood and rotting flesh, the smell of death. Her hands rose to her lips and nose to both block out some of the scent, and to keep herself from gagging or retching out loud. She continued on, the smell growing stronger and stronger when she finally found its origin.
A trench had been dug in the back of the compound, and had been filled with the corpses of dozens, if not hundreds of men, women, and children. The men and children all bore the distinct marks of surgeries. They had all been cut open, and their internal organs had spilt out of their torsos, at least those that remained in their bodies. The women however appeared more tortured than anything. Clearly they had been used for a very specific purpose before being disposed of.
Mimi was so close to losing it as she looked on the absolutely terrifying scene. Just as she thought it couldn't have gotten any worse, her eyes locked on the body of a woman whom resembled Himiko, and just beside her Rin lay lifeless. Her eyes doubled in size and her hands fell from her face as she quietly called, "Rin?"
She didn't even think about it as she dove into the pit and waded through the bodies to get to her friend. Rin's forehead was blown open and her face was covered in blood. Her ripped shirt barely kept her decent, though the men hadn't bothered to cover her lower half once they were through with her. She was ice cold and stone dead, though her eyes were just as they'd been in that second, her brow tight and her eyes clearly displaying her anger. More terrified than she'd been the day that angel sank its teeth into her, Mimi grabbed Rin by the shoulders and gave her a firm shake as she spoke, loud as she dared, "Rin? C'mon, Rin; wake up!"
She looked away from Rin's horribly ruined face, and looked all around her in search of Yggdrasil as she pleaded, "Wake her up! Bring her back!" Her face fell onto Rin's shoulder as her tears flowed like a river. "Please bring her back," she again cried.
Though Mimi couldn't see it, blood slowly flowed from the massive hole in Rin's forehead, and within seconds, the bullet slid itself out, and the wound closed up. The tension in her brow faded and she gave her eyes a blink. The smell hit her immediately, but it was the sound of Mimi's tears that had her complete attention. She gently raised her arms, and wrapped them around the small girl on top of her as she spoke, "I'm here."
Mimi quickly pulled herself away and out of Rin's grasp, and shouted, "Ri-"
She couldn't have been happier to see the violet haired girl, but Mimi's voice had a way of carrying when she got excited. She threw one of her hands up to lightly cover Mimi's lips, and immediately her eyes lightened up. Rin gave her a nod that she returned and withdrew her hand. She turned to Rin's side, looking at the body next to hers and asked, "Is that her?"
"From what I can remember, she didn't suffer much," Rin replied somberly.
"What are we gonna-"
Just as Mimi had wondered what they would tell Shinji and Kenta, Himiko's eyes burst open and she let out a roar of pain. Both Mimi and Rin flinched in fear, but not more than a second after Himiko's voice cracked had Rin again thrown her hand out to cover a pair of lips.
"She's immortal!" Mimi stated obviously.
As Himiko writhed about, Rin looked to Mimi and calmly replied, still holding her hand over Himiko's lips, "When Yggdrasil let out all those time fruits earlier, it must have known what was going to happen here. Himiko must have absorbed one of them." She looked back to Himiko and spoke, "Himi?" The sound of her nickname brought Himiko back to reality in a flash, slowing her panicked movements. Seeing she'd calmed down a bit, Rin finished her thought, keeping her tone as soothing as she could, "Shinji and Kenta sent us to find you. I'm sorry we were late, but I need you to keep quiet. Can you do that for me?"
Himiko's eyes settled slightly and she nodded. Rin lifted her hand from Himiko's lips and with all manner of fear in her tone, the woman asked, "What happened to me? The last thing I remember, those men were…" She paused as the memory hit her, "…they were…"
One more to go ;)