DISCLAIMER: I own nothing. Metal Gear is created by Hideo Kojima and owned by Konami. Genshin Impact is owned by miHoYo.

METAL GEAR SHOGUN

Episode 4
SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST

It had been almost half an hour since Ei's encounter with the two African soldiers. She had kept walking since then, not wanting to think about the events that happened. She would rather focus on her assignment from George, as much as she didn't want to do what he said. Either way, she would be doing something terrible.

She trekked up a small hill, reaching the top and peering over the crest to see her destination. It was a small village, with less than a dozen houses, most of which were damaged in some way. There was also a tarp held up by posts in the ground, shielding various soldiers occupying the village from the sun. Finally, a sentry tower stood on the outskirts of the village, with a soldier standing watch for anyone approaching. Ei suspected the soldier George told her to kill was inside one of the buildings.

She knew that a straightforward approach would be risky and illogical. If the sentry tower didn't spot her, the other soldiers definitely would. Observing further, she thought coming from the side opposite to the tower would be a good idea, as the buildings would obscure her presence. She started moving to her right, circling around the village's perimeter. Once she saw the sentry tower at its furthest point, she moved in.

Crawling across the grass, Ei's small body was not easily noticeable. She counted three soldiers looking out in her direction: two in the middle of some buildings, and one off to the side. One path was relatively unguarded – the path to the left. She crawled over to the leftmost house, trying to minimize the amount of noise she made.

Sneaking around the outer wall of the house, Ei heard footsteps and tried to hide herself as best she could. Another soldier walked out of an alley, turning over to her direction. She kept her limbs as close to herself as she was able, as to not get stepped on. The soldier walked past her, oblivious to her presence. She gave a mental sigh and moved on.

Turning into the alley the soldier came from, she noticed the ground was less grassy inside the boundaries of the village. That meant she had less space to hide from enemies. Peeking into the village around the corner, she scanned her surroundings. Four soldiers were in the dirty road, two of them leaning up against the wall of a house. She saw another three soldiers sitting in chairs under a tarp, relaxing in its shade. Ei saw the house next to the tarp had no door. If she was quick, she could run into the house without anyone spotting her. She peeked out to see when the soldiers would look away. Eventually, Ei took her chance and bolted into the house, seemingly unnoticed.

The inside of the house was just as ugly as the outside. It was very dark, with very little natural light being let inside. Cracks and bullet holes lined the walls. Ei walked over into the room to her left, right next to the tarp outside. She sat down near a window and eavesdropped on their conversation.

"You hear about the battle over to the east?" One soldier asked.

"How couldn't I?" Another responded. "With all the horrible things going on over there, it's a wonder the people who survived there are still alive."

"You say that like we didn't do anything horrible." The third soldier deadpanned.

"I know that, but with how many atrocities our enemies commit, we have to do our own horrible things." The second soldier replied. "We've gotta fight violence with violence."

"You think it's just 'violence'?" The first soldier asked again. "That's clearly an understatement. I'm sure the UN would be calling these things 'war crimes,' if not something worse."

Ei thought to herself. She had heard of the UN – the United Nations, a group of world superpowers that tried to manage world affairs. One of its key members was the United States of America, a nation she had heard about from some of the soldiers here. The US was arguably one of the strongest nations in this world, if not the strongest. Ei asked herself, if the things going on in Liberia were so horrible, then why hadn't the UN or America intervened yet?

"So where's the captain?" She heard one of the soldiers say.

"He's in the house with the red 'X' on its wall." Another replied. "Probably planning our next move."

The captain… that must be her target. However, it would take a few minutes to locate the specific house he was located in, and even longer to actually get in without being detected. Ei began to walk away from the window when she heard something.

"Wait…" One of the soldiers said. "Do you smell something?" That made Ei realize something – she was still covered in blood – and that meant the smell of blood could give away her position. She didn't have much time before she was spotted.

BGM:

Metal Gear Solid – Cavern
By Kazuki Muraoka

Quickly running over to the house's doorway, she peered out and scanned the houses on the other side of the road for a red X. She didn't find any on the other side of the road, therefore deducing it was on the same side of the road she was on.

Retreating back inside, Ei ran into the room to her right, expecting to be able to escape out the window. To her surprise, she found another African soldier sitting in a chair, previously unaware of her presence.

"Huh?" The soldier grunted, standing up from his sitting position. Ei didn't want to take any chances and pulled out her knife. She slashed behind the soldier's knees, cutting the tendons and hamstring muscles that held him upright, causing him to stumble and fall to the ground. Ei then covered his mouth with her hand and slit his throat, killing him quickly. She then opened the window and climbed out of the house.

Listening behind her, she heard one of the soldiers from under the tarp call out to some of the men in the street. "You, in here." He spoke. "I think there's something in here." Peeking around the corner, Ei saw the soldiers enter the building she just left, leaving the road less guarded. She slightly stepped out into the road and looked left, not seeing a red X on any of the houses. That meant her target was past the tarp, to her right.

She quickly ran behind her, passing by the doorway she first entered and diving behind a crate under the tarp. She peeked over the top of the crate, seeing no soldiers underneath the tarp. She made her way over to the house beyond the tarp, quickly noticing the red X painted on its wall. Ei reached up and turned the doorknob, opening the door and moving inside.

This house was in much better shape than the others, with only minimal bullet holes punched in the walls. There was a lantern on top of a table to her left, giving light to the rest of the room, and a door to her right. So far, there was nobody there.

Brandishing her knife, she slowly stepped forward, scanning the area. She gently opened the door to her right a crack, peering through. Inside was an African man with a green uniform and red cap. That was the man she was supposed to eliminate. A device on the man's belt let out a crackly voice.

[Captain!] The voice said. [We have signs of an intruder! One of our soldiers is dead, killed by a knife, over.]

"What?" Her target said. "How did they get in?"

[I don't know, sir!] The voice responded. [Orders, Captain?]

"Alert the rest of the men, find the intruder and kill them."

[Copy that. Over and out.] The voice stopped.

Ei then burst into the room and jumped on the man. She shoved the knife into his body, making him groan in pain. However, with his strength, he wrestled her off of him, grabbed a pistol from his belt, and shot Ei in her arm. The sharp and sudden pain was immense. The pain of the gunshot kept lingering after it happened, and she found herself unable to move from it.

"So," The man began. "I suppose you are the intruder who has killed one of my men?" Ei didn't respond, still writhing in pain on the ground. "I do not know who you are, but do not think that I will spare your life because you are a child. It's better that you die now before you become too much of a problem in the future." He aimed his gun right at Ei's forehead.

Ei's heart began to beat rapidly. The pain of the gunshot and the fear of death coursed within her body, giving rise to something terrifying. All of a sudden, Jacqueline leapt off the ground and plunged her knife into the man's eye, causing him to scream in agony. Fueled by pain and fear, she then ripped the knife out of his eyesocket before stabbing the knife into his throat incredibly rapidly. The man, now dead, lifelessly flopped onto the floor.

Ei came back to her senses. She felt like she wasn't in control of her actions just then. As if she were being controlled by a higher power, a kind of animalistic instinct hell-bent on killing. But she didn't have time to think at the moment, as danger was swiftly approaching.

"The gunshot came from in here!" A voice outside shouted. "Get the door open!"

Ei quickly grabbed the man's cap and jumped out the window, running back the way she came. The soldier in the sentry tower took a few shots at her, but ultimately missed their mark. Ei kept on running, hoping that she lost the soldiers that were on her tail.

BGM end

Several hours had passed since then, and Ei was making her way back to the base after her mission. She passed the soldiers she had previously killed, their bodies left in the positions she had abandoned them in. Reaching for the canteen over her shoulder, she tried to drink from it, but no water came out. She must have drunk the last of the water while she was escaping. Now serving no more purpose, the canteen was discarded.

Ei took another look at the map given to her, and estimated she was close to the base camp once more. Suddenly, a burst of gunfire rang out, and the ground near her became laced with bullet holes.

"Don't come any closer!" A voice shouted out to her. She looked over in its direction and saw the base camp, with a pair of figures standing behind barricades with rifles trained on her. Panicked, she dropped what she was holding and threw her hands in the air in surrender.

"Wait! Stop!" She cried. Two figures came out from behind the barricade, one shorter than the other. They approached her, quickly recognizing her as one of George's child soldiers.

"So you're back, huh?" The adult said. "Guess ol' Georgy-boy got the right kid for the job after all."

Ei looked over to the shorter of the two figures, taking notice how it was the same African boy leading the Small Boys' Unit. He expressionlessly looked at her face, before speaking. "Jacqueline…?" Ei nodded. She didn't quite like the name Jacqueline, but still didn't trust anyone enough to tell her true name. Even though nobody would understand her true identity, she would never disclose it to anyone in this world.

The child soldier motioned for Ei to follow him, bringing her back into the base camp. Leading her back to George's tent, he stood outside while Ei went inside. George looked over and noticed his daughter.

"Ah, welcome back, Jacqueline." He said. "Did you complete your mission?"

Ei paused before taking the Captain's hat out of her shirt and presenting it to George. He smiled at her.

"That's my little Jack the Ripper." He praised her. "You've done well for your first assignment." George then sniffed the air and looked at his daughter's bloody clothes. He gave a small hum. "Here." He handed some folded-up clothes to Ei. "It's a change of clothes. Go to the shower and clean yourself off."

With that, Ei left George's tent and went to the base's shower. She stepped into one of the stalls and the water turned on. The blood on her body was mostly cleaned off, save for a few irritating spots of dried blood she had to scrub off with a rag. When she was finished, the water turned off and she put on the uniform George gave her.

It consisted of an olive-green jacket in a pattern that would work to camouflage her against grass or leaves, as well as a pair of dark tan pants and dark gray boots. She now looked like one of the soldiers of this world – a fact that she was frightened by. Stepping out of the shower, Ei looked over to see George waiting for her.

"All dressed up now, Jacqueline?" He asked. "Well, as a result for your satisfactory work, you get to have another meal. Also, you and the rest of your unit can watch a movie tonight. Just relax and enjoy the show." George chuckled.

Ei chewed on the disgusting cream mixed with powder. She found it hard to object to others after she ate the putrid mixture. She and the rest of George's child soldiers were sitting in the mess hall, watching a moving picture, or movie. It was a story called "First Blood," though George called it by the name "Rambo." It depicted a war veteran having to rely upon his combat and survival techniques in order to survive a manhunt by government soldiers and law enforcement in a small American town.

George had told her and the other children to study the movie. This was because they could "learn a few things" from watching the way the people in the movie fought. And indeed, the movie was somewhat informing. Ei took note of how the movie's protagonist, John Rambo, handled different types of weapons and firearms, as well as his use of the surrounding environment to conceal himself. Ei didn't want to watch, as she had seen enough of this war, but she would still need to learn how to stay alive in the midst of it. Gulping down the last of her meal, she rested her head on the table and began to drift off to sleep.

A loud slam broke her out of her short nap. It was George, waking her up after she dozed off.

"Come on, Jacqueline." He spoke. "You could at least fall asleep after the movie's over. Because of that, you missed the ending." Ei looked to the screen, seeing it was now blank once more. Not that it mattered, anyway. Like George said, the movie was over now. "Come along, now." George called for the children's attention. "It's time for lights out. Get out of here and go to sleep."

Ei tiredly stood up and followed the rest of the children out of the mess hall. They marched through the camp once more, arriving back at the place where they first woke up. They began to take whatever they could find around them that could give them warmth, even if it was only a slight amount. Ei grabbed a half-torn blanket and draped it over herself, slowly drifting to sleep once more.

Ei felt horrible about everything that had happened today. The disgusting food, the people she had killed, being forced to be a soldier, and the fact that she could be killed if she objected. Ei wanted to believe this was a test – a kind of trial by fire – at the end of which would be the answer to finally achieving Eternity. But then again, it was only wishful thinking… another part of her believed that it would never end.

Alright, that is the first "mission," so to speak. Please leave replies and feedback, as I will take your ideas into consideration. Also, if you see text inside a set of brackets, that is supposed to represent talking through a speaker. This would include radio, intercoms, other forms of communication, and eventually Codec calls. Just a little clarification for that style of writing. Thank you for reading, and I will see you again soon!

-Azzy Asbourne

Music: watch?v=Z69ShxlmOcU