I don't own Code Geass.
…...
Hanyu, Saitama Prefecture, United States of Japan, December 2017
Yoshida held the trigger down on the machine gun, sweeping the line of fire back and forth over the attacking soldiers. He could see men toppling over within his field of fire, though whether that was gunfire or not, he couldn't say.
The ground had been churned up by the artillery fire, leaving great muddy gouges where the heat had melted the snow. Men and body parts lay akimbo, both on the open ground of the No Man's Land as well as in Yoshida's trench.
He felt a slap in the arm, and shifted the gun to the right. A mob of soldiers in uniforms that varied from Chinese, to JLF, to even Britannian, of all things, was charging his position. The leader of this group was wielding a katana, shouting something that Yoshida couldn't hear over the thunder of gunfire and the screeching of landspinners.
He squeezed the trigger, and the leader's head disappeared in a spray of blood. The troopers with him went toppling left and right, some throwing their arms up or to the side, while still others simply crumpled to the ground.
The young man feeding the ammo belt into the gun collapsed, the left side of his skull blown out.
"Shit!" Yoshida shouted. He grabbed the belt himself, feeling the belt slide over his hand as he continued to fire.
Man after man took a tumble before him, till the bodies were beginning to pile one on top of the other.
Yoshida stopped firing, his mouth a grim slash. He narrowed his eyes, trying to see better in the still present darkness just before dawn.
"Someone got a pair of binoculars?" he shouted. "Binoculars, anyone?"
After a moment, a young man shouted back, "Right here, Minister!"
He tossed them over to Yoshida.
"Thanks," Yoshida said.
He pulled out his emergency night kit. He unsnapped it, grabbed the flare gun inside, and loaded it. He fired it into the sky, its small red fire lighting up a small area of the enemy lines.
Yoshida raised the binoculars up to his eyes. He clicked his tongue.
The corpses on the ground were shifting, moving forward despite the trauma done to the bodies.
Yoshida spat disgustedly. "They're using the bodies for cover," he said. He licked away some of the sweat that had accumulated on his cheek. "We'll have to-"
The ground exploded in front of him, flinging him back into the trench wall.
Darkness swallowed him whole.
….
Kumagaya
Explosions rent the air in the path of Tohdoh's advance. He watched men being blown to pieces by artillery or ripped to shreds by machine gun fire in an almost detached way, the haze of combat enshrouding his mind and heart. He had no special love for battle; he was as comfortable on the battlefield as he was meditating at a shrine. It was a job, one he performed with meticulous efficiency and professional pride. He had been born to be a soldier, raised to be a soldier, and, if Heaven willed it, he would die a soldier.
That did not stop a certain level of disgust from sprouting in his heart like mold on bread.
Never, in all my years, he lamented, did I ever think I would be slaughtering Japanese.
He fired a shell from his wrist mounted cannon, holding his line of sight just long enough to confirm the destruction of the armored car that had just rounded the corner, before whipping around and bisecting a Burai that had wandered far too close.
Tohdo rode at the head of the army, as was only natural, his custom Gekka Knightmare Frame drawing much of the enemy's fire. The lithe black Frame dodged the incoming ordinance with ease, bobbing and weaving in a zigzag pattern, flipping through the air, spinning, in all performing a number of acrobatic moves that had little practical benefit save to be eye candy. That was, of course the point. The more the enemy units focused on his performance, the less attention they paid to the flood of Burais, Gun-Ru's, Sutherlands, Gloucesters, armored cars, and tanks that would have been destroyed by a concentrated stream of fire in the narrow corridors of the city streets.
"Colonel Urabe," he said, "begin your assault."
"Yes, General."
Over a hundred Knightmares and armored cars swung left, making for Ushiku by way of Kasukabe. There were four fuel depots in that direction, lined up perfectly so that Urabe could hit each one on the way. Once the roads to Ushiku were secured, a token force would be left behind while Urabe marched south on Tokyo proper.
A hole exploded in the center of the defenders' line, which Tohdoh exploited ruthlessly. He hacked left and right with his sword, pivoting and pirouetting between the clustered enemy units.
"Colonel Asahina, reporting in," Asahina's voice crackled on the comm suite. "Encountering minimal resistance. We have taken the enemy completely by surprise."
"Proceed to your objective, then," Tohdoh said.
The last enemies melted beneath the combined Chinese-Japanese-Britannian assault.
The road to Tokyo was clear.
…
Yamato, Kanagawa Prefecture
"It's time," Villetta said.
She could see the explosions going off in the distance. The attack had begun.
She floored the pedal, leading some ten Burais and seven armored cars through the town of Yamato. The town was sleepy save for their speedy advance, word of the offensive having clearly not gotten to them.
"Destroy all enemy armor," she ordered, already squeezing the trigger on an armored car they were passing by. "Let's make the attack as easy possible."
"Yes, ma'am!"
They hit three depots on their path, Burais and armor going up in flames. At the Tsurumi River crossing, they didn't bother with code words or permission; they mowed down the guards and plowed on through.
We just have to hit the palace, she thought. Just take out the leadership, and the rest will fall in line.
The ring in her pocket felt uncomfortably heavy.
…
Throne Room, Presidential Palace, Tokyo
"Where the Hell did they come from?" Ohgi asked.
"I'd imagine from across the river," Sugiyama replied dryly. "We got Zero on the line, didn't we?"
"Yes, he's on the move," Minami confirmed, "but it's going to be several hours before he gets here, and he'll need to refuel along the way." He shook his head. "Assuming we still have fuel depots when they arrive. Inoue," Minami said, "why didn't we hear about this?"
"I barely have any agents left in the north," Inoue protested. "Tohdoh purged all my best ones at the start of the war. How was I supposed to know this was coming?"
"There's thousands of them out there!" Minami retorted. "How could you not?"
"Enough!" Ohgi snapped, slamming his fist on the table. "We can complain about this later. Sugiyama, how are the lines holding?"
"They're not," his friend answered. "The whole left flank has been bashed in. Our troops are being overrun. I'm trying to get as many men as I can to the front to block them, but the phone lines are down. Can't get Yoshida on the line either."
Shit! What I wouldn't give for a cell tower! "Okay," he said, wracking his brains as quickly as he could. "What about moving troops from the right? Try to slow them down that way?"
Minami shook his head. "Not a chance. I can't get in touch with any of the guys on that line. Even if I could, pulling troops off the right flank would make it too vulnerable. Tohdoh could punch through there if we stymie him on the left."
Damn it all, I'm not some strategist! He ground his teeth. "Send out the Palace Garrison," he decided. "They're right here, in radio range, and they're on duty. Get their asses up there."
"Won't that leave the Palace vulnerable?" Futaba asked nervously.
"To what?" Ohgi asked incredulously. "They're attacking from the north, not the south. If we can bog them down in street fighting, we can buy time for Zero to get here."
"Maybe even make them run out of fuel," Sugiyama added.
Ohgi nodded and pointed to him. "That too! They've gotta be as much in a time crisis as we are! Who knows how much Sakuradite they're using for this?"
"The fact they have enough for this attack is worrying," Inoue objected. "Would Tohdoh really be launching this kind of attack if he didn't have a way of resupplying his fuel needs?"
"I don't have the time to worry about that," Ohgi said. "Just send out the garrison, now!"
Minami nodded, grabbing a radio to begin belting out the order.
"Sugiyama," Ohgi said, "what about the Gawain? Is it powered up?"
Sugiyama nodded. "It's fueled and ready to go," he said.
"Put it on standby, then," Ohgi said. "We won't use it if we don't have to."
If they tried to use the Gawain's Hadron Cannons inside the city, they'd be taking out innocent civilians as well as Tohdoh's troops. Ohgi would not massacre unarmed combatants.
There was also the practical consideration that the Gawain simply used too much fuel, fuel they were going to need for the defenders. The Gawain could operate for about an hour and a half at the most, without utilizing its flight capacity or Hadron Cannons. It was their last line of defense, not their first.
Ohgi glared down at the map of Tokyo.
How did they know Zero wasn't in the city?
…
North of Minamiashigara, Yamanashi Prefecture
Damn it all! How did they know I wasn't in the city?
Zero's pedal was crushed to the floor, an angry, panicked scowl on his face. Behind him was half of the attack force he had left Tokyo with, mustered into as organized a column as he could make them. Multiple armored cars and Knightmare Frames had spun out on the icy roads, left behind in the ditch to await pickup by nearby units, all of whom had been given orders to converge on Tokyo.
Four hours! Zero raged. Four hours it's going to take me on this goddamn road! The entire battle could be decided by then!
Where did he get the fuel? Did the Eunuchs finally deign to send their ally some supplies? No, not their style. Those self-centered bastards would throw their own mothers overboard for the last boat on the Titannia. The Russians? Tohdoh doesn't have the credit. Hell,I don't have the credit and I run this country! Could the Australians have bought it for him? Then why didn't we see-
"Goddammit!" Zero shouted, punching the side of the cockpit. "Intel, intel, I don't have any goddamn intel!"
How was he supposed to make such consequential decisions with nothing but guesswork? The entire war could be decided here and now, and he was shooting blanks.
He clenched his fist.
Calm down. Calm down. Think. He ran a hand over his face. The units in the mountains and on their other side aren't reporting any fighting, so that means the heaviest fighting is in the Tokyo area. The speed at which they're moving indicates a narrow corridor rather than a general attack along the front. Even if the rebels have huge numbers, it will still take them two hours to make it to Tokyo proper.
He pulled up his digital map, glancing between it and the dark road in front of him. He ran his finger from his position through what he guessed was roughly Tohdoh's projected course.
I don't have to meet Tohdoh head on. The amount of troops he's using, he has to be burning through his fuel at an insane rate. All I have to do is get in behind him and cut off his main line of retreat. If we can surround him, starve him of fuel, and keep him pinned down, his armor will run dry.
He cupped his chin in his hand. They'll hit the Sakuradite depots on the way in. That will lengthen the battle, but not change the outcome.
He began punching orders into his voiceless communication systems. Going to need reinforcements no matter what I do. Taking that pocket will be bloody work. With a flourish of his fingers, he called up troops from Kanagawa, Shizuoka, and Chiba, with orders to march with all haste to the capitol. He arranged for the troops from Chiba to move northwest, crossing the Keisei-Narita-Kuko Line. The rest he ordered to reinforce the center, acting as the anvil that would hold the rebels in place for his hammer to drop.
"K-1 to Q-1," Zero said.
"Q-1, acknowledged," Kallen replied, her tone tense.
"We're advancing via Route 129," he said. "We'll cross the Kima River at Akishima, then follow 468 to Satte. We're going in hard, and we're going in fast."
"Understood."
"How's your energy filler?" he asked.
"Fifty-seven percent."
"There's a refuelling depot about twenty minutes from here. We'll stop there and recharge."
"Understood."
He didn't like the terse responses. She's too tense.
"Q-1, private channel."
"Copy."
Once it was just the two of them, he said, gently, "They'll be alright, Kallen. Ohgi knows what he's doing."
"I..I know he does, Zero," Kallen replied. "But, thanks."
She still sounded far too stressed. I need her calm and in control. But what could..
He gave a brief, defeated smile.
"By the way, the answer is 'yes,'" he said.
"What?" She sounded baffled. "What are you talking about."
"That sushi restaurant, remember?" Zero said. "How about we head by there when this is all said and done?"
"I-That-Yes!" Kallen said, surprise mixing with enthusiasm. "Absolutely! I'd love to!"
Zero nodded. "Good. We'll head there after the battle." Assuming it's still standing, anyway.
His console beeped. He looked down, and saw that Tamaki was hailing him. He accepted the hail.
"Yo, K-Man!" Tamaki called out.
Zero rolled his eyes. "What is it, P-1?"
"You see them fireworks off to the right?"
Fireworks?
Zero looked over to his right. To his surprise, he could see a red glow in the distance toward Yamato.
That doesn't look good.
"P-1, take two hundred men and investigate."
"On it, boss!"
It could be a simple house fire, though Zero doubted it.
He was never that lucky.
…..
Saitama City, Saitama Prefecture
"I spent months trying to defend this city," Sir Bart said from Tohdoh's side. "Never thought I'd be attacking it."
"I did," Tohdoh replied gruffly. He frowned.
Enemy resistance was starting to solidify, forming a hardened steel wall on the other side of the Arakawa River. The advance had slowed to crawl. He was starting to take far more casualties, as well. The burning hulks of destroyed armor and Knightmare Frames lay behind and around him, the nationalities mixed together in steel and blood. Infantrymen toppled over, their bodies ripped apart, some dropping into the water below. Still others tried to ford the river itself, be it by boat or just swimming, but none had thus far made it across.
We don't have time for this.
"Bring up the special ordinance," Tohdoh ordered.
They didn't have very many of the HADIS grenades left, and he would certainly have preferred not to use them here, but he needed a breakthrough, and he needed it now. A few minutes later, the pink light of the Sakuradite bomb glowed in the early morning hours.
"You're going to have to show us how it is you people do that," Sir Bart said with wonder.
No, we're not, Tohdoh thought. He spied the enemy line. A significant enough gap had been opened in the defenders' line. "Advance!" he ordered.
He charged forward, swiping his sword left and right, carving through those enemies still in his path, speeding away on his landspinners from the explosions.
As the rank and file fell in step behind him, his comm suite crackled. "General!" Asahina shouted. "We're under attack!"
"By whom?" Tohdoh asked.
"Enemy reinforcements coming from the west. They plowed through our foremost units. I think they're looking to turn the flank."
"Can you tell who's leading them?"
"No, not as yet, I-WAIT, WHAT'S-"
"Asahina? Asahina!"
…..
Kawagoe
Kallen fired the Radiant Wave Surger, blasting the Sutherland in her grasp into smithereens.
"BRITANNIANS?" she screamed. "YOU SCUM SIGNED UP WITH THE BRITANNIANS? TRAITORS!"
She kicked a Burai in the factsphere, the force of it knocking the head of the Knightmare off in a shriek of stretching steel. She leapt up and over the enemy frame, swiping the cockpit ruthlessly with her clawed hands, the gleaming steel coming away bloody.
"GODDAMN ELEVEN!" a Britannian Sutherland shouted on open frequency, swinging its stun tonfa at her head.
She ducked beneath it with contemptuous ease, grasping the chassis with the Radiant Wave, and watching with no small amount of satisfaction the enemy Knightmare explode.
"I'll kill every last one of you!" Kallen declared, whipping around and disemboweling a Gun-Ru that got too close.
A stream of concentrated machine gun fire poured on her position, and she dodged and weaved through it. Everything seemed to being moving in slow motion, as if everyone else had slowed down while she continued to move at her normal speed. An enfilade of gunfire struck the enemy frames, causing a half dozen foreign platforms to explode.
"Move around Q-1!" she heard Lelouch say, his own custom Burai leading from the front as usual. "Q-1, I spy a Holy Sword! Draw that bastard out!"
"Right!"
She flipped the switch for her general frequency, shouting irately, "You soil sacred Japan, but dare call yourself a 'Holy Sword'! What brazen audacity!"
"I thought that was you, Kozuki!" what sounded like Asahina shouted back. "That red Knightmare of yours always was an eyesore!"
Kallen flipped over an enemy Sutherland. "Eyesore!" She backhanded a Burai's gun hand, sending its stream of fire directly into the fuselage of a Gun-Ru. "What's an eyesore is seeing the JLF make common cause with our old oppressors!"
"Desperate times call for desperate measure!" Asahina retorted. "I'd have thought a half-Brit mutt like you would understand!"
Kallen's eyes bulged furiously. "YOU ASSHOLE!"
She pivoted and pirouetted in between the grasping enemy frames, paying little heed to them as she closed in on Asahina's Gekka, leaving Asahina's line in disarray. The blips of Lelouch's forces followed behind her in a concentrated swarm, smashing into the disoriented mob, firing at point blank range or bashing their factspheres in with stun tonfas.
Kallen prepped the Radiant Wave, feeding energy into it as she thrust the silver claw at Asahina's factsphere. Asahina dodged to her left, swinging his own sword in an attempt to declaw her. Kallen retracted the claw just before the blade carved through, kicking the wrist of her opponent's frame, this time aiming for the fuselage. Asahina used the momentum from her kick to spin around, his foot coming up to smash into her torso.
Kallen grunted as she reeled back, turning the blow into a back flip above the horizontal cut of Asahina's blade. She kicked out, striking the Gekka in the factsphere, using it as a platform to somersault behind him. Asahina front flipped, a single hand coming down to steady himself, then spinning back around once he came to his feet. Kallen pulled up her Radiant Wave Shield just in time to block the shell he fired from his wrist-mounted cannon, zigzagging left and right as he fired.
Asahina flipped the sword around in his hand, goring an attacking Burai through its Yggsdrasil Drive, speeding forward out of the explosion on a collision course towards her.
….
Zero made no attempt to interfere in Kallen's duel. His experience across two lifetimes had shown him that master warriors, in their natural element, possessed a sense of hyperawareness, making any attack next to useless. Zero would probably just get in the way.
He focused instead on the surrounding enemy troops, distracted as they were by the high speed duel taking place.
"J-1, S-1," he said, "take your armor and move it parallel to this line. Hit the enemy on their flank as we advance."
"Yes, sir!"
Zero fired a burst from his machine gun, tearing an enemy Sutherland in half.
"Calling me a tyrant while you make common cause with the Empire," Zero murmured, a wry smirk on his face. "Your hypocrisy is extraordinary, Tohdoh."
"Yo, boss man!" Tamaki's voice crackled. "We gotta Hell of a situation over here!"
"What is it P-1?"
"The guards at the river crossings are all dead!"
Zero's blood froze. Dead? Tohdoh can't have penetrated that far already. Were they able to make contact with the Britannians in the south? No, even if they did, they couldn't have made it that far without us knowing about it. But, how then?
He flipped a switch on his comm suite, opening up his frequency with the Palace.
"Second Consul," he said, "Second Consul, do you read me?"
"Zero?" he heard Ohgi say incredulously.
Zero ground his teeth. "This is Colonel Spacer, Minister, I-"
"To Hell with your dumbass codenames, Zero!" Ohgi shouted. "We are under attack!"
"Yes, I'm aware of that, we have engaged the enemy-"
"No, dammit! I mean the Palace is under attack! Enemy infiltrators have struck from the south! Perimeter defenses have been overrun!"
"Overrun?" Zero clenched his fist. "How did they overrun the Palace garrison?"
"We sent the garrison to the front line-"
"YOU DID WHAT?"
"If we hadn't done that, the front would have already collapsed! How were we supposed to know the enemy would come from the south?"
"Call the garrison back to the Palace, now!"
"But the front will collapse!"
"Good!" Zero barked. "Let Tohdoh have it! Reinforcements are on their way from the south and west, and I'm cutting off Tohdoh from his rear as we speak. We'll have him in a total envelopment! But none of that matters if you get yourselves killed!"
Zero's console beeped. It was Tamaki.
"Now what?"
He flipped the switch. "P-1, what is-"
"YO! WHERE'D THESE ASSHOLES COME FROM?"
"I don't know," Zero admitted angrily. "They must have gotten into contact with the Brits in the south. All you need is-"
"Bruh," Tamaki interrupted, "these ain't Brits I'm fighting! They're all Japanese!"
Zero's eyes bulged. "What?"
"Yeah, man, they're all in Black Knight uniforms!"
Is it another mutiny? Spies? Sleeper cells? Goddamn you, Tohdoh, how long have you been planning this!
"How many enemy combatants?" he asked.
"Looks like three or four Burais at each entrance," Tamaki replied. "Bunch of cars, too. No infantry that I can see, but that don't mean shit! I tried splitting the boys, but we just can't get through!"
"Call back all your Knightmares," Zero ordered. "Concentrate them and all your armor on your position and bash through."
"Dude, I'm gonna lose a lotta guys if I do that!" Tamaki protested.
"It's either that, or Ohgi and the others end up dead!" Zero retorted. "You want to be the one to tell Kallen you let the others get killed?"
"Hell no!"
"Then follow my orders!"
"AGH! Alright! Alright!"
Zero cut the frequency with Tamaki and pulled up Kallen's. "Kallen, quit playing with Asahina and kill him!"
"I'm not playing!" she retorted breathlessly. "He's good! It's easy to see how he became a Holy-"
"We don't have time for admiration," Zero cut her off. "The Palace is under attack! Ohgi and the others are in danger!"
"WHAT? HOW?"
"I don't know, but we need to burn through this fast! Finish up Asahina and come on!"
"RIGHT!"
…...
Toshima, Tokyo
Tohdoh ducked beneath a rocket, firing a burst from his wrist cannon into the soldier that fired it. He grimaced when he felt an explosion behind him, indicating a man behind him hadn't been so lucky. His dashboard beeped. He glanced down, and clicked his tongue.
Twenty-nine percent. Half of the Sakuradite depots they captured had already been drained of their stocks. Tohdoh had already been resupplied once, as had Chiba.
He looked up at the towering spires of the Viceroy's Palace.
So close, he thought. We're so damn close.
He brought his eyes back down.
The advance had ground to a halt. Enemy reinforcements had poured in to shore up the line. The corpses of Black Knights and JLF lay in the streets, in the alleys, in the rivers, in the houses, in businesses and on balconies. The hulks of tanks, cars, and Knightmare Frames burned.
And Zero was nowhere to be seen.
Tohdoh tucked himself behind a building. "How's your Sakuradite level?" he asked Chiba.
"Thirty-two percent," she replied. "General," she continued worriedly, "we need to get moving. Our momentum is stalling."
"I know," Tohdoh agreed. He clicked onto Urabe's frequency. "Urabe, how goes your advance?"
"It doesn't," Urabe answered, sounding strained. "Enemy reinforcements have arrived sooner than anticipated. We've been stopped in our tracks."
"We're encountering the same issue here," Tohdoh said. "Recommendations."
There was a long pause. "The only option that I can see is withdrawal," Urabe said hesitantly. "We don't have the troops or the supplies to keep going. If we're going to pull out, it has to be now."
Tohdoh crushed the urge to shout in frustration. He breathed in and out slowly, letting the rage that threatened to overtake him dissipate.
"No," Tohdoh said, just loud enough for his voice to carry. "No. One way or another, the war ends here."
He pinched the bridge of his nose. I don't think I would survive a defeat like this if we retreated, anyway. There was no time for regret. He had gambled everything on a roll of the dice, knowing how much of a long shot it was.
He looked down at the blips of friendly units on his digital map. I'll order them to stand down, he decided. They were good men to follow me into this folly. I won't drag them all down with me.
Just as he was about to give the order, his radio crackled, "General! General!"
Tohdoh frowned. "Colonel Asahina?"
"Sir, I found Zero!"
Tohdoh leaned forward, his eyes bulging. "What? You found Zero?"
"Yes, General, he's not in the Palace! Here's here, in Kawagoe!"
Tohdoh's heart began to race. "You're absolutely certain?" he asked.
"Kozuki is here, General!" Asahina replied. "I'm fighting her right now! Where she is, Zero can't be far!"
Tohdoh calmed himself down. "Hold until I get there, Colonel," he ordered. "I'm on my way." He switched over to Chiba and Sir Bart. "Colonel Chiba, you have command of this detachment. Sir Bart, you're with me."
"What's going on?" the knight asked.
"Zero isn't in the Palace," Tohdoh explained. "He's in Kawagoe. We kill him there, we win this war."
He didn't bother listening to the Britannian's response. Hold on, Asahina. Just hold on for a while longer.
…..
Throne Room, Presidential Palace, Tokyo
"Where the Hell are the Garrison troops?" Ohgi asked. He glanced nervously up at the Throne Room door, outside of which he could hear the sounds of gunfire.
"It's gonna take them a while to get back, Ohgi!" Minami replied. "Give 'em time."
"We don't have time!" Ohgi retorted.
He rapped his fist on the table, eyes glancing back and forth from the firefight outside, to the map on the table delineating their best guess of how the battle was going.
It was not going well.
Their pieces, represented by white Go stones, were being gradually pushed back, while the black Go stones marking their enemy continued to advance.
"If the JLF meet up with the enemy here, we're screwed," he mumbled.
There was a series of explosions outside, shaking the doors.
"Shit!" Sugiyama shouted, his red headband dark with sweat. "They're gonna break through!"
We won't last like this! We need...something, anything! We need that Garrison back!
The Gawain!
"You guys stay here," Ohgi said, moving away from the table and gesturing to three guards.
"Wait!" Inoue called out. "Where are you going?"
"We need those soldiers back!" Ohgi replied, already heading out the door. "I'll get to the Gawain and clear up some of the enemy troops!"
He didn't wait for a response. He and his guards hurried down the hallway on a course for one of the emergency stairwells that would lead to the roof.
Get the Gawain, shoot a few JLF, and get those soldiers back here. Easy.
The hallway was mostly clear, with sparse Palace security twitching nervously as he passed.
"Good thing they haven't come this way," Ohgi murmured. "They must be concentrating all their manpower against the Throne Room."
They rounded a corner, and Ohgi spotted the emergency stairs at the other end of the hall. He broke out into a light jog, trying his best to hold on to some of his ministerial dignity.
Gunfire exploded loudly in the hallway, and Ohgi's two guards crumpled to the ground.
Ohgi went for his gun, but froze when he heard a harsh voice shout, "Freeze, Eleven!"
Ohgi swallowed nervously. Is it really…
"Hands over your head, Kaname Ohgi," Villetta Nu said. She stepped out of a room on the right. She wore a purple and black flight suit, with gold filigree stretched tight across her full breasts. Her golden eyes bored holes through his head.
In her hand by her waist was a pistol, pointed straight at him.