LXVII
Tod
Left hanging over the railing of the lift Arakawa was doing her best not to throw up, already she was feeling sick from having dropped that fast and then that horrible sudden stop. To make it even worse she was beginning to be overcome with guilt over what she had helped to create. "All I ever wanted was for my name to be written down in history, for that very reason I helped to develop and spread the virus and then I started to create the vaccine."
To think she could have ever been so foolish and vain to have believed what the chief had told her, back then it seemed like a golden opportunity and a way for her to save her life but now it was starting to look like she had bought her own life with the blood of others.
"I never stopped to think… on how many people… would die because of that… what on earth have I done… how could I ever be so selfish…" She sobbed, the guilt becoming too much.
Picking herself up she left the lift and walked away from it, her movements almost seemed drunk as she couldn't focus on where she was going. "The only thing left… for me… is to get out of here… alive… and try to set… things right…"
She had to, she had to do something to try and alleviate the suffering misery that she had helped to create, even if it was only going to be a small gesture it would be better than doing nothing at all. That woman had made sure that she could live on at the expense of her own and to make it even worse she hadn't had a chance to thank her or for that matter even asked about her name.
"You are the only one in the world that understands the vaccine right? That is the sole reason for why I cannot let you die here, your life means more than mine. You need to get back to the mainland and start redeveloping that vaccine again, if the chief's plan can't be stopped all of mankind will die."
Such a shame that she had such a death and would likely be forgotten by everybody, well she vowed that she was not going to forget about her sacrifice, even if she did not know the woman's name she would never forget how much of her life she owed her.
"Then you should go left. There is a helicopter waiting there, it is the one that I used to come to this island, it has an armed escort to make sure that it remains intact. Just get to them and they will take care of your escape." The woman's word kept ringing in her head, a last gift from her to Arakawa and as she approached the corner she could feel her heart beating faster at the prospect of leaving this island, the only thing that remained here was death.
Rounding the corner she came face to face with the burning wreck of the helicopter, the crew and armed escort screaming as their bodies were immolated by the flames. Surround it like they were attracted to the fire was another large group of Diclonii.
No, she could not believe, this was too cruel for words that at her moment of hope it was so brutally crushed. As she took a frightened step back something cracked underneath her foot.
Amidst the burning wreck and the dying screams it seemed abnormally loud, it was no surprise to her that at that moment all of the Diclonii turned their heads towards her. This was going to be it for her and she looked over her shoulder more of them appeared from behind, she was cornered and trapped by them, there was no way out for her.
"…I-It's strange… how I am… not afraid… to die… nor am I… feeling sad about it." She sobbed as he hung her head low. "…I understand… it is because… I haven't done anything right… in my life… though I am not sad about dying… I-I do regret it." It was only fitting for someone like her to die here. "… To think that instead of being a savior… I helped… to create… the end of mankind… because I was being selfish…"
She began to think back when she was still young, how she wanted to be this great scientist to help people, she could still remembered how pride she felt when she held up one of her books and expressed her wish to her parents. "… I got lost… I forgot how it felt… that feeling from when I was young… this is my punishment… for having been selfish."
She could have said or wished that if she was given another chance she would do things right but she did not believe in that, there was not going to be any magical way for her to make good on her mistakes, believing in something like that was every bit as foolish if not more than the belief the chief held.
"… Who knew… or could even…. foretell… that this kind of thing… was going to happen… I-I am definitely going to hell… for what I have done… sensei… I did not think that I… would get to see you again…"
Around her the Diclonii stood silent and motionless for a moment until their vectors started to emerge, with the glowing of the flames in the background they looked more likely ghostly apparitions, they likely vibrated enough to go into the visible spectrum. Arakawa could she see them coming towards her, even then she no longer felt any need to run or hide.
"… I-I wish… I just wish… that somebody… someday… can come and find… the vaccine… set right my mistake… and kill these diclonius… I wish…" She closed her eyes as she could feel the vectors coming towards her, it would all be over in a second.
Ricochets blew out those lights that remained, sputtering lights casting lunatic shadows across what remained of the hold. One of the men dropped into a crouch and returned fire with his assault rifle, the impact hammered against Dreachon's breastplate. His armor had been designed for just this kind of close quarter fighting but in its damaged state it struggled.
Dreachon shot again, swinging his now activated battle-claw, the blades cracking with deadly energy though without the assistance of his armor it felt cumbersome. The man ducked and rolled aside, narrowly avoiding having his head torn off, Dreachon's blow smashing an iron prop and pulverizing a huge section of equipment. Sparks and dust filled the air as he rounded on his opponent, sparks flying from the damage battle-claw.
The man drew a combat knife and came up on him. Dreachon batted aside the blade and pistoned his fist through the man's chest, smashing his ribcage and ripping out his heart and lungs. He pushed the bloody corpse out of his way, stepping back into the main gallery and sparing the remaining two survivors with fire from the weapon he had just picked up.
Return fire saw spark coming off the equipment around him and pounding on his armor. Somehow a round found its way through his shoulder guard and blood started to pour down from a wound in his arm. He roared in anger and he emptied the remainder of the magazine into the nearest man, the snap of the hammer dropping on an empty chamber shockingly loud.
Muzzle flashes lit up the stygian darkness as gunfire blasted from the equipment oh the hold.
He felt sharp pain in his side and shoulder as more rounds impacted against his armor. As mighty as it was, it could still be brought down by sheer volume of fire, especially given that his armor was on the verge ruin.
Behind them lights began to flare up as equipment sputtered into life as the automated launch sequence was initiated, machinery humming as it began to power up, loud cracks as hydraulic pistons began to move. "Take him down quickly! Otherwise we won't be able to shut it down!" Yamada screamed in fury as she jumped up and charged forward, axe swung high.
The man opened fire as he broke cover and steadily advance on their opponent, laying down a torrent of fire from his assault rifle.
Roaring in battle fury Dreachon groaned as he felt its blade rip through his damaged armor between his ribs and into his primary heart. Angrily he slammed his fist down on the blade, wrenching it from her grip before removing her arm in a backhanded blow. His fist raised he brought down against her side again, bones cracked under the impact.
The blow nearly took off her head as Yamada dropped to the ground, she had to roll out of the way quickly as his foot came crashing down almost on top of her. As he spun on his axis she was swept of the ground and launched into what remained of the controls. She cried out in pain as she felt ribs cracking under the impact. "Guh… bastard…" She spat as she crawled back up. Looking over her shoulder towards what remained of the control panel she noted that they had only a few more minutes left, they needed to end this now. clutching the bloodied stump that remained of her arm she weigh her remaining options.
"Call me whatever you want human, I am used to being the focal point for the hatred of others! Hate me with all you're might! Hate me for what I am! As long as I am hated others won't have to endure it!" He bellowed in anger.
Gunfire hammered him and he felt the bone shield within his chest cavity crack as a round exploded within the plate of his armor. He dropped to his knees as the other man closed the gap, firing as he advanced. Dreachon pulled himself to his feet as more rounds hammered him, a grenade splashed next to him and he hurled himself back as it detonated.
Muffled by the water the blast threw up a spray of liquid and debris but its lethal force had been spent and he was unharmed.
Arakawa nearly lost her footing as the waves crashed over her, her attention was fully drawn to the towering mechanical monstrosity that dwarfed everything. A deafening howl was emitted by it as it as it finally sat itself down, the air around her started to feel charged as a humming sound came from it, like it was building up some kind of power.
Her breath caught in her throat she watched as from the top a gigantic vectors emerged, oh this was just great. Not only did she have to be scared of the normal diclonii now there was this thing as well to content with.
"Just kill me and get this over with." Was what went through her head as the massive vector came down, there was a sudden gush of wind as it swept through the ranks of the diclonii. Half a dozen fell with that first swipe, the remaining ones didn't stand idle as they fought back but against this thing they were outmatched in both power and range. They died moments later as it crushed then underneath the vector.
"What… what is this thing?" Gazing around her in confusion she could hardly process what had just happened, the diclonii had been wiped out in a matter of mere seconds by this thing. What was it and who did it belong to? It almost made her forget that she had avoided certain death in an almost miraculous way. "Where did this thing come from?"
As if hearing her thought it turned on the spot as what she envisaged to be the front was aimed towards her, the three eye like objects as the front staring at her. It was a chilling experience and right now she wasn't sure which she disliked more, the rampaging diclonii or this soulless thing staring at her. Her answer finally came as with a hiss a hatch opened and a man appeared from it.
"HEY! ARE YOU ALRIGHT!? ARE YOU ONE OF THE RESEARCHERS!?" Dressed in a pristine white uniform this man looked down on her almost with contempt, seeing it made her at a loss for words but that only seemed to annoy him even more.
"Why aren't you taking!? Are you human or a diclonius!?" Already the machine was beginning to move again.
"No wait, I am a researcher!" She almost cried as she did not wanted to be left behind.
"Get in then and make it fast!" Was all she could hear as she sprinted towards the ladder, even if she didn't know what it was she guessed that it would beat being left out here in the open.
Pulling the hatch shut behind her a certain sense of being safe came over her, she had made it though she was still not certain who that person had been and why he had told her to come in.
All around her the humming and whirring of machinery could be heard, this thing had to be manmade but why would they want to create something like this?
As she approached the front or what looked like a cockpit or maybe a bridge to her she was surprised to see more people there, the man who had called her was standing in the middle, a black cloak draped across his shoulders as he gave orders to the men.
Barely had she entered or he already remove the cloak and tossed it towards her. "Here put this on!" By the tone of his voice that much like the chief this man did not take no for an answer though his concern seemed genuine.
"Do not worry, though the crew consist of only men we won't do you any harm. I guess that in this kind of chaos some men lowered themselves to their basic needs, you suffered a lot of hardships haven't you?"
If Arakawa wasn't confused at first then she certainly felt dumbstruck now. "… eh? What are you talking about…?" It all felt so weird to her all of a sudden until she started to realize in all of the commotion she hadn't really bothered to put on any extra clothes.
"What, did you not get raped?" One of his eyebrows raised as he looked at her, his glare making it clear that he meant every bit of that question.
"HUH!? BY WHO!? THIS ARE MY CASUAL CLOTHES! She could not believe he had actually said that, she had almost jumped out of her skin with rage just from the mere suggestion. God to think that anybody at a time like this could be thinking about raping her was beyond her comprehension, besides why were people focusing on with her running around in her panties instead of the masses of murdering diclonii.
"… Are you stupid or something?" She sneered as she fought back the growing urge to punch him. "How about you make up for that by telling me what the hell this thing is!?"
The man scoffed at her remark. "You are an employee of the institute and as such I cannot divulge vital information but if you want I can inform you of the current status for the institute. Come here and watch." He pointed at one of the monitors. "Do tell me exactly how this has happened, what led to this much destruction and where can we find the researchers working on the virus?"
So that was what they were after, their wanted either the virus or the vaccine as well. "Well first let me thank you for saving my life but I am also bound not to divulge any sensitive information to outsiders. Tell me who you people are and what this thing is, after that I will explain what I know."
She waited for his reaction but even if he did not move at all or even let out any sign that he was annoyed by her demand she wasn't feeling comfortable around this man.
"So care to explain to me first what this thing really is?" Still she didn't mind to wrap his cloak around herself, might not be such a bad idea to cover a bit more of her body.
His jawline straightened. "You are overstepping your authority and were you any other person I would have you thrown out of the airlock but consider yourself fortunate enough that I am in a good mood." He growled as his hand reached out for a gun strapped to his side.
"This thing as you call is a vector attack craft, it is able to artificially generate vectors for both offensive and defensive purposes. By enlarging the pineal glands and other organs used to generate vectors which were harvested from diclonius supplied to us this craft can create vectors with a range far in excess of any recorded diclonius."
Well that certainly was information she did not wanted to know, perhaps leaving wasn't bad.
"What you are in currently is basically an enormous diclonius." Even as he said that there was a certain ring of pride, did this men enjoy watching diclonius suffer?
"Who the hell are you people!?" She sneered in response as she took a step back.
He rose to his knees as the man charged him. A round took Dreachon high on the temple, blood streamed down his face. He felt his jawbone shatter as something was slammed into him. Bright eyes burst before his eye and he splashed backwards into the water, gagging as the polluted liquid poured into his open mouth and nose.
Chemicals within the water seared his remaining eye in seconds. He lashed out with his fist, feeling it connect with something solid and scrambled back, lifting his head from the water. He spat a froth of viscous matter, retching as his body fought against the chemicals and toxins he had ingested.
He blinked through the searing pain in his eye, battling to focus as something came towards him. He punched out blindly but missed, he bellowed in pain felt the something pierce his chest, tear through his lungs and burst through the back plate of his armor.
He gripped it and kicked out, hearing something splinter, a cry of pain and water splashing. Blindly, he groped in the swirling water, feeling something trashing in front of him. Dreachon roared as he raised his fist and smashed it down upon the shape, breaking it apart of a fury of crushing blows. His chest burned with hot agony as he secondary heart and third lung fought to keep him alive despite the massive traumas his body had suffered.
White hot pain flared up his back as he felt the full length of the combat knife rammed into his neck, Dreachon gasped, the breath rasping in his throat, and he realized his trachea had been completely severed. He closed his eye as his vision greyed and his body fought for oxygen, his chest hiking convulsively. With blood dripping from the wound as he pulled out the knife he looked at the sole survivor, the crater of his ruined left eye staring at her as well but it was the single glowing red eye that frightened her.
He fought to stay focused , knowing that to slip into unconsciousness was to die, and shifted his breathing to the third long that was grafted to his pulmonary system. His altered breathing pattern shut off the sphincter muscle that normally took in air and he gulped down a great breath of air as his enhanced physiology took over.
"… I won't be stopped here…" He coughed underneath his breath, a fist cracked against his jaw but he rolled with the blow, twisting his head aside as the woman landed on top of him repeatedly punched him. Tasting the blood in his mouth he spat it out. "… I won't falter…"
Throwing her off him he tried to climb to his feet but his strength was nearly gone, he struggled to pull him up, the pain in his chest more intense now.
Loud footsteps echoed across the hold as he heard the metallic thunk, thunk, of boots. The woman was running but he could not discern if it was towards him or not. Focusing what strength he had left the sound seemed to grow more and even more distant with each passing second. He sagged forward, supporting his broken body on his remaining shaking arm.
She was supposed to be asleep but she couldn't, just like the previous night Yuka was finding it harder to close her eyes when so many worries still troubled her. "… Kouta is still in the hospital… Nyu-chan is still missing and Nozomi-chan has her throat ruined…" And then there were the other worries that kept nagging at her mind, Nana and Saeko where gone and her mother had made it clear that no horned girls were allowed to come back.
At least the promise that Dai had made that he would go and find them had reassured her to some degree but it couldn't take away her concern over the two girls, without the inn where else could they go to. She still remembered Nana saying that there was no place for horned girls.
"…Please come back home… I need to know that both of you… are safe…" It was painful for her to think how brutally her family had been torn apart. "… Nyu-chan… be careful… we all want to see you again…" Grabbing another paper tissue she wiped away the tears she had been shedding for the past hours, odd was it that no matter how much she cried she didn't seem to run out of tears.
"… Is it because if feel sorry about Nyu-chan… or am I… glad… that she is gone… No No NO NO what am I thinking… Nyu-chan is family, she is like a sister to me… and yet… those men came… because of her…"
She didn't want to think of Nyu as that, it wasn't her fault. It were those horrible people, the same people who came to cause so much pain and suffering for the other girls she had come to accept. Even the twins weren't all that bad once they had gotten used to each other but the scars left from their years in captivity were all to visible to her.
"None of you girls… ever deserved that fate… you should have been… with your parents raising you…" Even as the thought went through her she reminded herself on that in most cases the girls were either directly or indirectly responsible for the deaths or their parents, that was how most of them had been found in the first place.
Yeah she had heard the stories and she was well aware that at their young ages diclonius were a disaster waiting to happen even if the girl had no intend on doing harm, it seemed that these vectors of them emerged at age where their minds were still rather emotional and it was all too easy to anger or make them cry.
In such a case the girl was likely to react like any child of their age would, but there was one vital difference, whereas a human child couldn't fight back against their parents or an older person a diclonius could retaliate with lethal force.
"… Doesn't surprise me… you girls likely get made fun off because of those horns… people can be so cruel to each other for such… a small difference… if only." She was roused from her thoughts when her phone started to ring, quickly she dashed over as to not awake anybody else in the house. Her hands trembling with anxiety she listened to the message.
"Yuka-san sorry for disturbing you at this late hour but I felt that this couldn't wait until tomorrow." She was both relieved and rather nervous about hearing the voice of Dai, with her fingers crossed she prayed that he had good news for her.
"I have found the girls, both Nana-san and Saeko-san are fine. A bit exhausted and hungry I should add but nothing that a good dinner and some rest won't fix, if it is alright with you I will drop them off at the hospital tomorrow." He fell silent for a moment and Yuka got a chill as she was afraid that something bad had happened.
"There has also been a new development, nothing bad I should mention but I will fully explain it to you tomorrow when we meet. Well that is it for me now, I am nearing Mako-san's house with the food, figured you wanted to know this. Take care of yourself."
With that the message ended and with a big sigh of relief Yuka fell back on the bed.
"Thank god… they are safe… now that is one worry left…" Now the tears started to come again. She didn't mind it this time as now she was crying with joy. Now all that needed to happen was for Kouta and Nozomi to get better and for Nyu to come back home, thinking about seeing everybody together back at the table brought a smile to her face.
"… Kouta… wake up please… I… I really… want to see you… please Kouta… I miss you… more than anything… in the word… Kouta… wake up… please…" With that thought the exhaustion that had been building up over the last few days finally got the better of her and for the first time in days she closed her eyes and fell asleep.
"We belong to Saseba, the other research facility." He held out his hand signaling for her to stop moving away from him.
"What other research facility, that sounded rather suspicious to her but what if it was true. Surely with the scoop of the diclonius issue the government would be foolish not to have more research done at multiple facilities.
"That is right, there are two major facilities when it comes to research pertaining to the diclonius along with a number of minor ones but they are unimportant. The first one is situated here on this island under the direct supervision of chief Kakuzawa with the main focus on the actual virus itself."
Well so far there was nothing new for her, she was all hauntingly familiar with this not to mention that she had actively participated in the research into the virus.
"And then there is the second facility referred to as Saseba, there we specialize and vector research and anti-diclonius technology. Originally all of the research was done here but as the numbers of captured specimens rose exponentially the decision was made to split up the various branches of research."
That was new to her, she had never heard of all the research being done here. Must have been a moment of proud for the chief to have all related research at his fingertips, she could well imagine that he must have been annoyed when some of that was taken from him.
"We belong to that facility, we are agents of Saseba. I do not know what exactly the research that you people performed here contained but you should know very little when it comes to vectors am I right?"
He had a point there but now things was starting to fall into place for Arakawa as now she understood what the woman had meant when she had said that she came from the other research facility. So she had been an agent of Saseba as well, had she been sent to spy on them? That would have explained her rather quick rise through the ranks of the institute.
As the man explained further everything started to make sense, even the high degree of independence between all of the facilities. It was all orchestrated by the chief to acquire that which he needed the most, total access to the virus. Anything was not important to his plans.
"Our current conventional arsenal does not work as against the adolescent ones the weapons already struggle, could you imagine how much trouble a mature silpelit would be. Off course any other kind of attack that requires mass would fail as well but we cannot switch to biological of chemical weapons to suppress them."
She had seen it for herself, already the weapons that the woman had brought with her only worked against some.
"But there is one thing that no diclonius can defend itself from and that are their own vectors, they cannot cancel each other out nor block each other. Silpelits cannot defend themselves against other vectors which is why we started to developed a weapon with that in mind. The result of that development is this vector attack craft, already work is underway to bring them into mass production." Another grin appeared on his face, he was planning to wipe them out.
He couldn't be serious, they were actually planning on churning these horrible things out like soda cans. That was becoming a sickening thought as she didn't want to think of the costs.
Not the costs in actual financial resources but rather in human resources and then in particular diclonius, if what the man said was correct then this craft was only able to generate the vectors by harvesting them from diclonius. She felt her stomach turn as she began to do the math at how many girls had been killed just to provide enough material for this single craft.
"With this craft even a powerful diclonius like Lucy would not stand a chance against it. Unlike the chief or the DRI we have no concern about recovering or capturing her alive, for the crimes she has committed against this nation and mankind she is sentenced to death the moment we acquire her."
This frightened her, these people were just out for blood and nothing more. Still it seemed that they were not fully up to date on the current status of Lucy, this did provide her with an unexpected bargaining chip but she was hesitant if it would actually prove to be a good one. Off far more value was her knowledge on the vaccine.
"Well I hate to say this but you people waste your time and effort into building this rather distasteful thing. I am sorry to rain on your parade but you people are clueless when it comes to Lucy's powers." She blurted it all out before she even know it. "All of the damage you see here was caused by her vectors, her power is beyond our comprehension, even with this thing you can't compete with the range and power of her vectors."
Kanbe chuckled at hearing her remark. "We will have to see about that, tell how would she be able to attack us if she has no vectors to use. During the development of the craft it was anticipated that diclonius with the ability to overpower the craft could emerge, as such a system was developed that allowed for the creation of a vector with the inverse phase. Do you know what that means."
Arakawa had to swallow at hearing that, these people knew their stuff alright. It was so simple and yet brilliant to deal with vectors in such a way. "That would mean if I am not mistaken."
"Indeed it would, a vector canceller, utilizing the inverse phase it can cancel out the vectors of any diclonius within range. We can even employ it to shield the craft itself from any vectors."
The smile on his face grew wider. "You see now why Lucy is no threat to us, this craft is invincible and against its might Lucy is nothing more than a little girl. We will wipe her out with the first strike."
She was starting to get a bad feeling, they were planning on a direct confrontation with Lucy, even reason did not seem to deter this man. Any person with a bit of common sense would have thought twice about such a thing after witnessing what she had.
"Make no mistake, this craft is invincible. I can kill Lucy and any other silpelit with ease."
"You honestly think that you can beat her with this oversized paramecium?" It ran through her mind and she bit down hard on her tongue in order not to say it out loud.
"We came here for two reasons; firstly to acquire any information with regards to both the virus and vaccine. The second is to see to the extermination of Lucy."
His eyes narrowed in size as his face contorted with hatred. "My only child was a diclonius, she has already been disposed of and my body underwent measures to make certain that I could no longer sire further silpelits, for me it is now impossible to ever have children. Do you understand in how much pain I am, how much hatred flows through me? How much sadness grips my heart? As long as Lucy continues to draw breath that sadness will spread to others. I have to put a stop to this plague. I WILL KILL LUCY REGARDLESS OF THE PRICE OF SACRIFES DEEMED NECESSARY NO MATTER WHAT!"
Arakawa had to swallow at hearing that, what had she gotten herself into this time.
Yamada didn't care about wasting an opportunity to finish off their adversary, right now it was more important that she shut down the launch sequence as there was no way for them to be launched at all with all of the railway and the bay doors destroyed. The missiles would explode within the hold, destroying the ship and killing all on board, against that thing she still had a chance though even here time was running out.
She didn't know how much blood she had already lost, likely already far too much but her opponent was in an even worse shape, if she could just get in one more good blow against him then she felt sure that she was going to win.
Just up ahead of her lied what remained of the control station, from there on she could stop the launch, she was almost there, just a few more meters. It was so close now that she could see the digits on the countdown, less than three minutes left by now but that was all she was going to need. "I just need to press the emergency override." She kept telling herself.
Throwing a cautious glance across her shoulder to make sure that she wasn't being followed she was about to reach the control panel when a loud thud could be heard behind her.
"Fuck… I don't have time for this." She cursed as she saw him, he looked like a mess and she wondered how it was even possible for him to remain standing. "… Fucking… monster… your even worse… than those… goddamned diclonius…"
Silent and motionless he stood there, his silence unnerving her as she much rather preferred to hear a voice than this eerie silence she was being subjected too.
Steadying herself a panel she looked for anything that she could use as a weapon, seeing something from the corner of her eyes she plucked it from the ground; little more than a long sharp metal rod it was going to suffice, she couldn't be picky about it.
Coughing up blood she wiped it with the back of her hand, this was going to be it for her. It all came down to this, just the two of them, only one person would be able to walk away.
"… So… this is going to be it… any last words… monster…?" She asked as she shifted her weight to her other leg, casting a quick glance to the display she noticed that by now there was only two minutes left for her, she needed to this and do it fast.
Steading her grip on the bar and with a curse on her lips she charged forward towards him. He didn't evade her, he just charged her in return, his right claw raised high ready to strike down on her exposing his injure side. This was going to be her one and only chance.
"DIEEEEEEEEE!" She howled in fury as she rammed the bar with all of her rage driving strength through his chest. "DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! JUST FUCKING DIE!" Roaring in euphoria she watched as it came out the back, she had done it, she had succeeded.
"… hah I win…" Was all she heard from him, she didn't realize that something was wrong until his claw snapped shut around her neck, trapped in a deadlock she couldn't move, the fingers were frozen solid in their place, it had all been a trap from the start.
"No! Yamada hissed as she heard the countdown reach its end. She had only the briefest sensation of pain and agony before she was along with everything onboard the crippled ship were utterly destroyed as finally one detonation ruptured the craft's plasma-reactor, the subsequent explosion rose up to several kilometers into the sky as for a brief moment it turned the night into day. Those upon the distant shores could make out a faint light in the far distance before it vanished again. When it all eventually cleared there was nothing left of neither the ship, the crew or it's clandestine cargo.
Closing the door of the car he watched as he could see the lights on, no doubt it must be pretty lively in there now with poor Mako being stuck with no less than five diclonius. Well at least one of them was in some kind of coma but even so he couldn't imagine what had to be going through her head. "Don't do anything rash, just be patient and take your time." He told himself.
Opening the trunk he pulled out what he could still get from the stores that hadn't closed, thank god for those twenty-four hour service.
Not knowing what they would like he just grabbed whatever he could have laid his hands on, sadly at this time that meant mostly snacks and fast food. Likely not the best choices but if the girls were hungry they would chew down on just about anything.
He groaned as he lifted the heavy bags and slowly limped his way to the door, oh he just hoped they would hear the bell. It didn't take them long to open the door for him and before he even knew it all of the bags flew through the hallway.
"Yep they have noticed the food." He as cries of joy and delight could be heard from up ahead though when he entered the kitchen it nothing could have prepared for what scene he saw.
Sitting there and basically grabbing whatever food they could lay their hands on it more resembled a battlefield, even as her watched Kyou was quick to snatch a bag full of chips from Nana who got distracted by one of the cookies.
"I knew this was going to be a bad idea, those girls are going to have one hell of a sugar rush if they keep this up." Looking further there was also some serious cleaning needing to be done. "She is so going to hold me responsible for this mess, I should not have come."
"And leave me here with all of them, I don't think so!" Mako came in from behind him. "You sure took your time but I am glad that everything is alright now."
"Ah my apologies how has it been with just you and Ryou-chan, I certainly had an interesting ride with her sister. I am not planning on doing that anytime soon."
Mako giggled at hearing his ordeal. "She is a sweetheart, very shy I should add but she is definitely a good child. I would like to see if I could find their real parents."
That took Dai by surprise, he hadn't really expected that but in hindsight that did makes sense. Off course the big question if their parents were still alive and if they actually wanted to see their daughters.
"Saeko-chan told me what happened, honestly I am not happy to hear what happened to that girl. You should have found a different solution than allowing Nana-san cutting off one of her horns!"
"B-But it all happened so fast, she reacted on her own. Listen I am sorry but there was little that I could do, the first tranquilizer dart didn't help and there was no way she was going to let me a second shot."
She thumbed him on his forehead. "Idiot! Do you know how dangerous it is for a diclonius to lose even one of their horns!? They go into a comatose state and never wake up from it!
Going further into the details of what she had witnessed with her own eyes at the DRI Dai was starting to feel less and less glad about what went on, now it seemed they had ruined this girls life. For all intends and purposes she was little more than a vegetable, a child caught in her own body. It almost seemed the most humane option would be to put her out of her misery but he doubted that either he or Mako could bring themselves to perform such an act.
"Is there any chance at all for her to recover, even if it just a small one? I can't just kill her without knowing that, neither could Saeko-san forgive if she were to find out."
"She is pretty protective over her, it is odd to see a girl at her age showing already what could be described as maternal feelings. This is already pretty rare for humans let alone diclonius. She won't allow anybody else to harm that girl and for the time being it might be better not to provoke her."
"Any idea on what we are going to do with her, she can't stay like that?" Dai asked as he noticed a growing concerned look on Mako's face.
"Well first we need to find treatment for her wounds, I have already done what I can but I am only a physician and my means are rather limited but I don't know who we can trust. I don't want to bring her to the hospital only to have her brought back to the DRI."
Dai nodded. "Well that is something we can agree on, for the time being just try what you can. Let me know if there are any supplies that you might need, I can try and see if I can use some of the Saseba channels."