LXIII

Hoffnung

Sitting there with sweat running down her back her anxiety had grown over the last couple of hours, ever since she had been brought back to the DRI. Even if she hated being here she was glad to be able to make use of their equipment, ever since her return she had confided herself to one of the laboratories in order to focus all of her attention on creating what would become her ace in the hole.

With the chief having gained possession of Lucy again she knew that there was no time to lose if she wanted to attain what she was really after. He could go to hell with his crazy scheme for all she cared but if he were to turn against her then she wanted to make sure that she had something that she could use to bargain with, the chief would not risk of the vaccine being allowed into the world.

"It is finished right?" She asked herself aloud as she stared through the microscope. "It is finished right?" Now at the moment of her triumph her nerves were getting the better of her, she was so excited now that she was this close to its completion. How many hours had she already spent and tried when she was back at the school lab to get the result and now here she was almost there.

Pulling her eyes away from the microscope she held up the small glass plate in front of her, if what she had just seen was true then it was finished, could it really be? "This… and this too…" She whispered as her lack of sleep was starting to affect her. "No problem… no problem at all." Staring at it she still could not believe her own eyes.

"It can't be wrong…" Holding it up higher to let the light shine on it she smiled. "It's finished…I… I." taking a deep breath she said those words. To think this was what she had been after all along. With this in her possession her position was now secured, did not matter which side she was going to eventually choose.

Her mood boosted by her euphoria she screamed. "I DID IT! IT IS DONE!" She could hold back her excitement any more as she started to laugh, words alone could not describe the sheer joy and pride she was experiencing at the moment.

"I DID IT! I DID IT! IT IS A SIGN FROM GOD HIMSELF!" It was lucky for her that no staff were present in the lab at the moment, no doubt they would have had word with her over that little outburst of her. Like she could care about that anymore, this was her moment of glory and she wanted all of it for herself.

Holding up the first of the vials she was already producing she was overcome by this achievement of her. "With this… the history of both mankind and the diclonius can be changed… and all by me! Me and me alone!"

Now that she alone possessed the one thing that both sides would want the most in this coming conflict. "I AM SO GREAT! UH, NO, I AM TOTALLY AWESOME!" More praise for herself, she considered that she had earned it. "NO MATTER HOW YOU LOOK AT IT, I AM BOUND TO BECOME A GENIUS!"

It was at that point that the cold reality started to sink it, if she wanted to exploit this to its fullest potential then how was she even going to use it. It was not like she could just walk to the chief and demand more; neither could she just hop on a flight away from the DRI.

"Well then…" She whispered to herself as she resumed back to her seat. "The remaining problem is then how to tell this to the general public… there's no reason to stall this… but would they accept?"

Scratching her head she had at the moment no idea on how to proceed any further with this, this was something that she had paid little attention to in the past. Maybe it would be best is she contemplated this while she would also allow her body and mind some time to relax.

"Whatever I think I will go take a bath first, I should do it at least once every couple of days and besides I do have earned that for myself today."

Getting off the chair she reached out for her slipper, yeah a good bath would do wonders for her even if it would just take her mind of such worrying matters. She was starting to feel so good about it just by thinking of soaking her body in the hot water.

Jumping up the howling sound that surround her she pressed her hands against her ears. "KYAA! NAAH… WHAT IS THAT AWFUL NOISE!?" She couldn't even begin to describe it, everything about it sounded wrong. It was even worse than when a person pulled their nails across a chalkboard, every hair on her body stood upright at hearing it.

Grabbing the nearest pc she logged in quickly to see if there was a report or something, much to her distress there was indeed a report on something on but from what she could tell the sound originated from deep down, the lowest reaches of the DRI. "What's this? High frequency sound waves coming from underneath, what is going on here?"

She looked at another report, already it was showing that something was coming up at an alarming speed. "No it is already too late… 500… 300… 100… 50." She had to swallow as the figures gave away something that she feared. "It is already here."

The entire room started to vibrate as ghastly figures emerged from the floor, Arakawa flinched as she could actually she them, they couldn't be and yet she was staring at them. "What the fuck is going on here? A-Are… those… vectors…?" Slowly she made her way for the door.

As they passed through the roof she could feel a deep rumbling coming from down below, oh surely that wasn't going to be what she thought it was. "Oh you have got to be kidding me?"

Reaching high into the sky above the DRI the vectors kept increasing their altitude, their presence visible to all who could witness it.

The man's head fell clean off, the blood splattering across the room as Barbara laughed. "Well that was fun, what could I do with the next one who is stupid enough to come inside?" Cackling she baited her time for her next victim to come through the door.

"DIE YOU FREAK!" The man screamed as he opened fire indiscriminately, not caring if he were to hit any others in the room. The fear in his fear was like music to her, she loved it to have people in fear. Still his screams were only amusing for a short while, after that she just tore him to pieces, how boring they were becoming so quickly.

"BARBARA! STOP THIS AT ONCE, THAT IS AN ORDER!" The sound of that voice made her turn her head back in disgust, how dare he trying to order her. Instinctively her vectors lashed out in the direction the voice had come from, driven by her anger they destroyed whatever they came into contact with.

"How dare you!" She hissed as she looked to see her sisters standing back on her feet, their vectors colliding she noticed that he was still alive. Dammit, why did she just have to get in the way, why could she just not stay down?

Bullets embedded themselves in the plaster next to her, there was another person that she had failed to notice. As he eyes gazed back at the door she noticed a lone woman standing there, her blonde hair waving from the wind that had rushed in through the shattered window.

"I see that somebody has done a stupid thing, I do not care that you are one of his precious creations. You have just crossed the line, now prepare for your termination. I promise you that it will be swift and merciful in you cooperate with me."

The gun went off, the round aimed straight for her head. The smile that had been on Barbara's face disappeared as she felt the heavy round pushing back her vectors. How was that even possible, why was she having trouble as the rounds kept coming?

"Just as I expected, you have range but you lack strength. Seems that even these tungsten rounds are already enough to overwhelm your vectors." The voice was full of contempt for her.

This human had expected this? That was beyond her composure, now she wanted to get even and show this human how wrong she was. Humans were just low for using such tricks.

"Don't you dare underestimate me!" Shrieking she lashed out in whatever direction she could but for a moment she lost her focus, it was just the moment that her sister needed to slam her into the furthest wall. Barbara groaned as she picked herself up, she was in pain and reaching for her head she could feel that her hand had become sticky with her own blood.

Her own sister had hit her hard. "Nice one sister" She grinned as she struck back.

Her sister got slammed into the doctor who was hurled off his bed as she crashed into him, not what she wanted for her but there was no helping it. With that out of the way for the moment she turned on the spot only to face the woman firing at her, feeling the heavy impacts against her vector she looked for something that she could use to deal with her. Trailing the room her eyes caught sight of a large tank, she didn't know what it was used for but at the moment she could not really care about it.

"Time to be gone little human!" Chuckling as she reached out for it but just as she got a hold of it there was already noise coming from behind her, it was that annoying man again. "You bastard!" She shrieked as she slammed the tank into his side with all of her might, his groaning was surprisingly pleasing to hear.

"BARBARA… STOP… YOU WILL… GET US ALL… KILLED… THAT TANK… FLAMMABLE!" He cursed as he slumped back to the floor, she didn't really pay much attention to his last words but the woman seemed to have.

With her focus temporarily taken off from her the woman seized the opportunity and fired again but this time she did not went for Barbara herself but rather the tank she was still holding, the first two shot punched clean through allowing the pressurized gas inside to escape and filling the room.

"FOOLISH DICLONIUS…" He coughed and Barbara now realized too late what she had done. "That gas… is flammable… will ignite…"

The woman grabbed a different gun this time. "Doctor I suggest you cover yourself!" She yelled as she pressed the trigger, the incendiary round being fired as it went from the tank. As it impacted the sparks ignited the gas, Barbara didn't even notice it until it was too late for her.

The woman was swept off her feet as the blast caught her and hurled her into ones of the walls, the room itself turned into a blazing inferno as the fire spread and in between all of this Barbara screamed for her life as she felt pain and fear like she had never felt before. She was going to die after all.

Taking shelter behind a steel bulkhead she cursed as in the distance she heard men screaming for their lives as they were being either torn apart or dismembered through some other horrible way, panting heavy a guard took cover right next to her.

"Pardon for saying this ma'am but we are taking one hell of a beating here, I think we have already lost twelve men. What the hell is that thing? It just won't die?"

She really wished she had an answer to that question but if this was going to be the same as she had witnessed back at the DRI then this one sided slaughter was only going to get worse, one of the few hopes she had left was for the remaining men to come and bring the RPG's with them. They needed whatever firepower they could lay their hands on but even within this room they needed to be cautious with firing.

"Is there any word from the remaining squads!?"

She man shook his head. "Afraid not ma'am, it seems like we are unable to make radio contact with them. It is possible that one is jamming all frequencies, it is what I would do."

That was something she could agree to, it made sense to first separate the groups and then picks them off one by one. From a tactical point of view it made perfect sense even under these circumstances. "Try to raise them, we need every available man down here this instant!"

Reloading her own weapon she had already spent four clips in what must have been no more than ten to twenty minutes thus far, this fight was not going to be a good one for her.

Peeking across the corner she nearly lost her head as something just glanced off the bulkhead, another man just up ahead was less lucky as his head simply exploded, the idiot had exposed himself for too long. "Fools, that is what I could expect of a lowly crew." She cursed under her breath, the crew did add numbers and firepower but their lack of training was really starting to show off, they were the first ones to get killed.

A heavy clang not far told her that their opponent had landed again on the ground floor.

This was going to be her chance, with him on the ground floor she could hopefully corner him, explosions ripped not far from her and as she was looking over she cursed again as some morons had resorted to using grenades, had they even the slightest idea what was being stored in this hull. One wrong explosion and they would all die.

More men screamed as they died, good for them as no doubt more of the crew would be killed like the useless chaff they were. At least they would be wearing him down and making him spend his ammunition, likely the only thing they were even good for.

"Move!" Was all she could hear before she was shoved to the side just as something splashed her and she felt warm wetness cover her face and arms, she nearly went deaf as a loud clang came down next to her. Regaining her footing she gazed at what had just happened. Taking a deep breath she crawled back to the guard who lay unmoving in front of her.

Yamada felt her stomach rise and vomited at the sight of the man's mangled corpse. He had not been as lucky as she had and likely given his own life to save hers, his lower body had been crushed to an unrecognizable pulp by the girder's mass. Blood still flooded from his mouth and she dry-heaved, realizing what the wetness that had splashed her earlier had been.

The radio was crushed but the weapon was still intact and Yamada snatched it from the dead man's hands. Even if she had never really known the man a towering rage filled her at the thought that his murderer probably didn't know they had killed someone.

She pushed herself to her feet and staggered off drunkenly after the monster. The thing wasn't hard to find; its pace unimpeded it slaughtered men, the claw on his left arm crackled as a man's upper body got severed in one sweep.

Yamada screamed herself hoarse at the monster, skidding to a halt less than ten maybe nine meters from it she braced herself and raised the man's grenade launcher. She squeezed the trigger twice in quick succession, sending a volley of grenades towards her target. They impacted squarely against its shoulder, instantaneously they detonated, it disappeared in a blazing inferno. The shockwave swatted her down, her chest searing in pain as she fell on the cold floor. A short laughter came over her as she felt that she had won.

Attracted by the sudden noise more men added their weight of fire as they poured on more ordnance on where it was standing just moment before, shots rang out as grenades were dropped as well. As she rested against some of the debris she was violently flung to the side as the ship started to groan in protest, that was not a good sign at all.

And then everything got turned upside down.

Her fingers dashing rapidly across the keyboard as she watched in disbelief at the display. "There is no doubt here." She let out a deep sigh, accepting what it was telling her with a heavy heart. "These are vectors alright but how is this possible? I did not think it was possible for vectors to reach a visible wave length."

A frightening thought came to the front of her mind. "Could it be that the real intent of vectors is not to spread the virus but to do something entirely else… don't tell me." The numbers kept climbing, they could no longer be stopped. Where were all of these vectors coming from, surely no single diclonius could possess these many, by her count there must have been more than four dozen of them. "It's no good, they can't be stopped. This place is going to blow any-."

She was cut off when a tremor unlike any she had felt before shook the DRI to it's very foundations, every part of the room started to shake and tremble. She was just able to overcome her curiosity as a massive explosion rocked the entire island to the core. The ceiling caved in on top of her, she screamed as she raised her arms above her in a futile attempt to protected herself.

Tense moments went by. "Uugh…" She moaned as she opened her eyes again, every part of her body felt like she had just been run over by a bullet train. She felt like she was in the worst possible shape, staring at her hands she couldn't help but to crack a smile.

"I'm still alive…" Pain arced through her back as she tried to stand up, perhaps it would be better if she kept down a little longer but for now she was still very much alive and well.

"Atatatatatata…" She groaned once more as she tried to get up again, even if she felt bad she couldn't stay here for that much longer. "What the hell was that just now, it felt more like somebody set of a really big bomb…"

As she looked up further to where moment ago had stood most of her equipment she forgot all about the pain in her body, there was nothing left except for a vast chasm that seemed to plunge into the very depths of the DRI. "What the hell…" She muttered in despair as she dared to peek over the edge, she could not believe how deep it was going, there seemed to be no end to this. "It burrowed all the way through… what on earth does this mean… can vectors really do this much damage." She sighed as she picked a small piece of debris and dropped it. "I wonder how deep this thing really goes?"

She never heard it impact which meant that it went down a long way, swallowing down the lump stuck in her throat she carefully began to move back. Managing to pull herself away from the gaping hole she made her way towards the door, seeing it hanging there she reached for the phone. She needed to call security or anybody for that matter would really do at the moment, pressing the horn against her ear she could hear that the lines were death.

Quickly she pressed on the light switches but the room remained as dark as the night. "Well that figures that the appliances aren't working, I guess the entire DRI has lost power." Turning her head around to look at the chasm a shiver went down her spine in response, already she was starting to wish she had never set foot back on this cursed island.

"I am having a really bad feeling about this."

She coughed and in doing so she could feel her lungs sting, taking in a deep breath she could taste her own blood. The air around her was thick with the stench of blood, burned flesh and god knew what other foul scents she was smelling.

Rolling over she screamed as pain gripped her left arm, looking at it she could tell that it wasn't broken but something was wrong with it. This night was certainly becoming a disaster; she wondered if any of their reinforcements had arrived, for that matter she wondered if there was still going to be anybody left alive on this ship.

The last thing she remembered was seeing people being tossed around like they were nothing more than a child's toy. Shouting she waited for anybody to respond, as it remained silent her courage started to waver but then as she heard voices her resolve started to grow again, she was not alone and with that knowledge she pushed herself to her feet ignoring the pain as her body protested.

"Where are you!?" Shouting she was careful where to place her next steps, the cargo bay was a mess alright, whatever had happened must have been fierce. Had it been a result of the explosion, thinking about it she pushed that aside; there was no way that the small amount of explosives they had used could have been the cause of it.

"Over here ma'am." A man came stumbling towards her. "I found a few others but it seems most of the men got killed when the ship capsized." The man explained to her how they had reached that conclusion but as she heard him say it made sense, it explained why the hold was looking so distorted to her in the first place. Well that was going to become an issue.

"How many others did you find?" She coughed, no doubt the capsizing had damaged plenty of other areas of the ship, she even wondered if the fires in the engine compartment were still raging. "Gather the others and then we will see what we can salvage from this situation, first we need to locate an escape and then we need to make sure that the cargo is still intact.

There was a disgruntled cough from the man. "Ma'am you can't be serious? Our own safety should be a higher priority than the cargo, this ship has become a wreck and we can consider ourselves lucky that we haven't drowned yet."

She rebuked his remark, if they could not fulfill their obligation to the chief than none of them needed to even bother of coming back alive, his wrath would descent upon all of them.

"Go ahead then and crawl back to the chief explaining why we could not do our duty!"

To think she was stuck down here with these kind of people. "Do you even have the slightest idea on how he will react!? She retorted and she was getting herself in a pretty good mood to just punch the man on the spot to make her point clear to the rest.

The man wanted to respond to her but before he could his head was splattered over the place as a monstrous blade embedded itself into the bulkhead, his body slumped to the ground. Wiping the blood from her face she watched in disbelief as a monstrous figure appeared from behind him. "Time to end this." It growled in response.

Screams echoed throughout the building, it didn't take her long to understand what the cause was for it. No doubt with all of the power gone the locks that kept the diclonius contained within their holding pens could no longer keep them, the barriers were no longer of any use. A sudden explosion caught her attention and as she craned her neck to look up she saw that it was already worse than she had thought, shrieking down the helicopter crashed into the sea.

"This island is cursed, remaining here any longer will only get me killed." He eyes caught sight of the container; luckily it had survived the destruction. "If I don't get this vaccine of this island then all of mankind will be destroyed. I need to get off this island." Her thoughts went back to her immediate survival.

"I need to find a way to escape before they notice me." Just as she had said those words did she lay her eyes upon what appeared to be a legion of diclonius standing there, the hairs on her neck straightened as she realized they were all staring back at her. "Oh this can't be good… have they spotted me already… but how?"

Well if she needed any more reasons to grab her stuff she got it, she had outstayed her welcome long enough. Slamming the container shut she flung it across her shoulder. "Like hell I am going to die in a god forsaken place like this, I am going to be the savior of mankind!" The faster she was out of here the better, no doubt those diclonius outside would be coming for her next and she had no reason to find out if they were really this violent.

"UWAAA!" She jumped up in surprised terror as there was a banging on the door, she knew that it could not be people but then that meant diclonius, she rushed forward in an effort to close the door in time but it was already too late.

It was flung from it hinges and she was thrown back on her butt, looking up she couldn't even swallow as there stood no less than seven of them. Their naked bodies were covered in blood, no doubt from all the people they had slaughtered but even then it could not hide the deformations that some of them carried, not a single one of them had a face as it was covered in way or another. Just what were these things, they could not be normal diclonius.

Breathing heavy she felt like a cornered rat, with her back to the chasm there was no way out.

"No! I don't want to die in this place! I don't deserve this at all!" She leaned back trying to put as much distance between herself but even then she knew that it was a futile attempt. "I was so close to being famous and doing something right. If I die here, I will just stay a member of an evil organization, I don't want to be remembered like that!"

They seemed hesitant for the moment though it would make little difference if they were to kill her now or in just a few seconds, there was nothing she could do anymore.

"NO NO NO!" She cried as she saw the vectors coming for her. "SOMEBODY PLEASE SAVE ME!?" She closed her eyes in preparation for what was going to come.

Something washed over her, her arms raised she readied herself for the inevitable death but as seconds went by without her noticing anything she reluctantly opened her eyes. Peeking between her raised arms she looked at the group of diclonius. "Hmmm?"

It was with disbelief that she saw them standing there, their top halves just missing. Blood sprayed from the severed lower body until they crumbled and dropped to the floor, she was covered in it as well but apart from that she was fine.

"Ehh… but how…?" She didn't know what had happened or even how this had happened and then she noticed a person standing there, the form hidden by the shadows. Still in a state of shock she found it hard to recognize who this savior was.

"That way!" Kyou yelled as Dai swung the car around to grab the exit just in time.

"I can sense her in that direction, go faster!" So far this ride had felt like it was going to be his last, she was pretty quick to give him new directions even if she was a bit rash in telling him where to go. He did count himself lucky that she was not behind the wheel.

"How much further do we need to go, if we keep this up we will leave the city limits soon?"

"SHUT UP BUG!" She sneered as she pushed her head against the window. "I need to concentrate so stop bugging me bug!"

Dai sighed, she still had that lousy attitude towards others. Just how the hell could Mako have managed with her thus far was a mystery to him, even if he wanted to help these girls with that kind of attitude that Kyou was giving him his patience was already starting to become stretched thin. Hell he likely would have a better time trying to argue with either Bando or Dreachon for that matter.

"TURN LEFT HERE!"

Nearly losing control of the car as he flipped the wheel Dai cursed. "Care to inform me a little sooner, you are going to get the both of us killed this way."

"JUST SHUT UP BUG! STOP BUGGING ME! MY SISTERS ARE IN DANGER! SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!"

He hesitated at hearing that, danger, what kind of danger could she possibly mean? Was that very reason for her haste?. "What does that mean!?" Doing his best not to lose his focus on the road he asked her again, he needed to know if they were to going towards trouble.

"There is another one of my kind heading their way! I can feel her anger, her hatred and the malice inside of her! NOW MOVE FASTER BUG! GO! GO!"

Well that certainly explained enough to him, damn was he glad that Mako and Ryou had stayed at home. Right now that was likely a much safer place for them to be, even if Kyou was only able to sense Nana they had reasoned that Saeko was likely with her.

"Just how much more ahead!?" He nearly yelled as he pressed down all the way on the gas pedal, damn it with any speed tickets he could get. "Just let me know when we get there!?"

At another of her clues he turned hard to the right as the car took a dirt road; yeah they had definitely left the city alright. Well that did have the benefit on them not attracting any unwanted attention if that other diclonius was planning on making trouble; he just prayed they were going to make it in time.

"FASTER YOU BUG, SHE HAS ALMOST REACHED THEM! WE ARE NOT GOING TO MAKE IT LIKE THIS!"

"Like hell I am going to let that happen, I am not going to let either of them die!" Taking a hard jerk on the wheel the car nearly spun out of control as it fought to stay on track, right now he was being as reckless as he had ever been but he would be damned if he was going to let them die because he was afraid of wrecking the car, the hell with it.

Kyou gasped as she uttered the words. "She is here… all of this hatred… there is so much anger… quick!" He didn't need to hear her it again, they were almost there. If Nana could hold out on her own for just a bit longer they would all make it.

"STOP THE CAR! STOP THIS CAR NOW!" She yelled but before he could even hit the brakes she had already ripped out the door and jumped from it, he did not believe that she had just done that. This was a new car and already he had lost a door, just fucking wonderful. Already she was bounds ahead of him, how the hell could she even move that fast but that answer came just as fast to him; she was using her vectors no doubt.

"Don't go there in alone, wait for me!" He yelled as he set off in pursuit, already he was cursing at the speed she was going with. If she kept that up he was going to lose track of her for sure, dammit why could she not just stay to the ground like him.

"Myu." It was the only sound the figure made as it set a step forwards into the light, Arakawa couldn't believe how young she was when she saw her features.

What surprised her even more was that this girl was a diclonius just like all the others but something about her seemed different.

"You… you came here… to help me… right?" She was careful to ask her question but at the point the girl reached for her side and just collapsed to the floor. Frightened she dashed forward to help her. "Are you alright?"

Lifting the girl from the floor Arakawa noticed what was wrong with her. "What happened to you? That is one serious injury you got yourself." She remarked as her fingers went over the bandages, whatever this girl had been in for must have been pretty intense. Hearing that her breathing was starting to become fainter she wondered what to do, she didn't have the slightest idea on how to help her, she wasn't a doctor nor did she had any idea on how different the body of diclonius could be apart from having heard only a few brief mentions of it.

"Don't strain yourself to much." She ushered as the girl started to take deep breaths. "Doesn't your species heal themselves?" Now sitting here with the girl she really had no idea on to proceed next. "Why are you helping me? She asked as the girl looked at her with hazy eyes, it almost seemed like she was still in some kind of sleep.

"UMYU!" The girl leaped up and grabbed a hold of her, she cried as her arms were wrapped around Arakawa's chest. Surprised and somewhat unprepared for this she didn't know how to respond in kind.

"UMYUUU! UMYUUU!" The girl just kept crying to her as by now her arms were wrapped well around her neck and she wasn't going to let loose. "UMYUUUUU!"

Arakawa sighed as she guessed that the girl likely had her confused with somebody else and yet it felt so reassuring, her thoughts started to go back to what that kid had once told her. Had she been right from the start, great timing for her to find out when she was stuck in this mess. It was a strange sensation and somehow it had stirred a part deep inside of her that Arakawa thought had never existed.

"Hey now, I am the one who got saved. Why are you crying dear?"

Confused those hazy eyes looked at her again as if the girl didn't understand what she had just said but just as Arakawa was about to try the girl turned her head towards the container.

Her fingers trembling she reached out for it. "… Myuu… myu… myu…"

"Aah!?" She reached out to pull her back. "You can't touch that. It is a very important thing you know!" Glancing over her shoulder the girl looked at her and at that moment a thought shot through her mind, could it be that this diclonius was somehow attracted to the vaccine. It sounded to absurd to be true but then all of the others ones knew where she was even when they had not seen her in the first place. If so then that meant her greatest achievement was also going to become her greatest risk as no doubt the other diclonius would be coming for her but she could not leave it here.

Just at that moment the girl almost fainted, her breathing starting to become heavy again. "Are you alright?" Already as she placed her hand against on her cheeks she could tell the girl had a fever. "Please hang in there, what am I going to do with you? Your face is all pale."

Then as she brushed aside some of the girl's hair Arakawa's attention was caught instantly by the gleaming device that was planted on her forehead, what on earth was that. "They have buried something in your head? Is that causing you these problems?" She had never seen anything like it, this was definetly new to her.

"… Myuu…" The girl breathed as if it was her last breath.

"Just wait." Arakawa remarked as she gently placed her down on the floor. "I will get it out for you, just hang in there alright?" Looking over she went towards the nearest drawers and searched them, if she could just find something like a small screwdriver then maybe there was a way for her to remove whatever that contraption was they had planted on her. Having found one she returned back to the girl but she was uncertain on how to do this, the last thing she wanted now would be to cause her even more pain.

"Alright now hold still, I don't want to hurt you." Her hand shaking she places the tip against the device. Taking a deep breath she prayed for some good fortune now.

Author's note: have a Merry Christmas people, enjoy spending the coming days with your family, friends and loved ones.