We long for the seven wailings
We thirst for the Koans of Jericho
... I know that you won't remember anything...
But at least remember this, Sergeant... You have a job to do...
And I know you'll do it well...
The man's head thumped like a motherfucker. He wasn't sure what the hell had happened between him falling asleep in his nice, comfy bed in that weird Vault place and his current headache, but he was pretty sure this wasn't supposed to happen. Had he finally passed on or something? The lights told him as much and the fact that he was hearing a young girl's voice fade in and out in the background told him he'd made some sorta mistake.
Fuck, he really wasn't feeling it about heaven right now. He still had a couple cigars left over, hidden in that desk he'd brought from home. That voice was really fading out, but only one word kept ringing in his ears. 'Sensei', whatever the fuck it meant. He was pretty sure he'd heard it while off-duty in Japan at some point during 'Nam, but he couldn't really be sure of it himself. Sure, he'd been to Japan a bunch of times, but...
As he blinked and opened his eyes, the blue of the sky greeted him. Marked by a few swirling clouds that were dissipating overhead, the azure was a rather warm welcome to his already-tired eyes. It was also slightly blinding. 'Slightly' being the nicest way he could put it to himself. He groaned and felt himself, then whispered, "What the fuck happened this time...?"
Only to pause as he heard his voice. He felt his throat, licked his lips, then ran a hand over his chin and cheeks. Well, shit. He had his beard back. Wait, did that mean... He felt the top of his head and grinned, "Haha! Fuck you, nurse Beatrix, I fuckin' told you my hair would grow back!" only to paus again. His eyes finally decided to settle. He blinked, narrowed them, then blanked. In a low, annoyed whisper, he let out, "Oh, what the fuck...?"
An ultra-modern city that made 2025 LA look like a shithole stood before him. Lined with both digital and physical advertisements for weird products he'd never heard before. Most of it was also written in some form or another of Moon Runes or chicken scratchings that the Southeast Asian folks would use. Sighing and rubbing his eyes, he murmured to himself, "Did some dumbass just drop me into Tokyo as a prank...?"
He pushed himself to his feet, then paused. His eyes shot wide, but no other part of his facial expression changed as he looked down at himself. He grabbed his left leg and pulled on it, watching it remain a straight rod with its foot pressed firmly against the ground. Repeating the process with his right leg, he grinned and whispered, "Son of a bitch, did they slot me in for knee surgery, or...?"
He stopped himself again when he saw a Commando assault rifle on the floor. Taking a knee and picking it up, he racked back the charging handle, releasing both the bolt cover and bolt and feeding a round into the chamber. He wondered what those two weird-ass sentences that played in his mind were for a moment, then sighed and chose to not ask too many questions.
Walking over to a puddle on the side of the road, the man looked straight at his reflection and blanked. He murmured to himself, "Oh, this has gotta be some sick prank..." as he caressed his cheek. Sighing deeply, he held his rifle close and began marching down the road. Whatever happened to him, he sure as shit wasn't in heaven right now. There was no way he would've gone there anyway. He wasn't sure of God's policy on spook-aligned soldiers, but he was pretty sure he wasn't supposed to be present.
As he walked farther down the street, he started to wonder where everyone was. It wasn't until an explosion took his attention forward that he realized that the reason everyone must've been AWOL was because of a firefight. A very strange firefight, now that he thought about it. He saw two young women dodging automatic fire, bullets zipping past them as they took cover behind a barricade.
They fired from shotguns that looked both a little too modern artsy and too tactical for Woods's liking. He noted the shorts, the police hats, the vests and the riot shields. What he also noted were the strange, blue halo-like things floating above their heads. More and more questions loomed in the man's mind, but he needed to be careful. There was no real fuckin' telling who was hostile and who wasn't here.
He almost had a conniption when he saw who was shooting at the Police. Figures clad in black sailor uniforms with white highlights carried submachine guns in hand, pushing forward. They also wore black masks over their faces with white X marks right on the mouth. They pushed forward, their own strange halos glowing as the Police returned fire. One of the hostile girls swiveled about, having noticed Woods.
He lifted his rifle, peering through the iron sights and whispering, "Don't do it, kid. Don't you fuckin' do it..." almost in a prayer. Yet, she didn't listen, both because she couldn't hear him and because she probably saw no reason to. Bullets zipped past the Sergeant, a full burst of automatic fire that forced him into cover. He returned fire, a four-round burst from his own rifle striking the girl and seemingly barely staggering her. He'd aimed for the legs, but still. He barked, "What the FUCK!?"
Ducking back into cover as bullets hit the wall he was hiding behind, he swore to himself, "Great fuckin' Christ, did I hit body armor?" before checking his mag. Yeah, he had M885. He'd made sure he had that shit loaded in during the last mission in his life. Blinking, he realized that that mission had been more than forty years ago, which really arose several dozen questions.
He dropped to one knee and poked out low, firing another burst at the kid that seemed to stagger her. She dropped to the floor, but wasn't dead. Woods saw no blood spill, no nothing. He said to himself, "It's like 'Nam, all over again..." before pushing forward to the Police as they fired. He yelled at them, "Friendly, coming in from the rear!" before sliding into the cover of the concrete barricade beside them.
One of the Police Women whispered, "UUh... Rina, we might hafta report this..."
"I know! Hey, man, can you shoot!?" The other police girl replied, shifting her fire toward another pair of advancing hooligans. She looked to Woods, breathed a quiet "Oh, damn..." to herself, then said to him, "While I'd love to send ya on your way to the CSG, I think we'll need the extra guns! These Delinquents really came out in force when their little boss-lady escaped!"
"Yeah, sure!" Woods replied, poked out and fired a burst at one of the kids, then breathed, "Oh, shit-!" before diving back into cover as a minigun whirred and a volley of bullets was let loose. He called out, "Since when in the Lord's name can schoolgirl delinquents lift M134s! Did you all start taking steroids, or did I miss a goddamn memo about Japan when I conked out last night!?"
"Japan...?" The girl raised a brow, then turned about and put the barrel of her shotgun against an SMG Delinquent's belly, squeezing. Woods almost spat another flurry of swears out when he saw the girl collapse, but only confusion remained out of any words he could've spoken now. The kid had just point-blanked another kid that wasn't wearing body armor with a fucking twelve-gauge.
And yet there wasn't a massive hole where her belly would have been...
"What the fuck, man, are you firing rubber pellets?" He asked, reloading his own rifle as they waited for the enemy minigunner's weapon to overheat. The shotgunner policewoman reloaded her weapon and Woods's eyes shot wide open. Son of a bitch, "Those are hollow-point slugs, what the f-" before ducking again as a sniper round snapped over his head, "-FUCK!"
The mingiunner girl's weapon finally overheated. Woods stood to his feet, aiming his weapon, then yelled, "I'm trying to hold a fucking conversation here, kid! SIT DOWN!" before emptying half his magazine into the kid. He watched the bullets hit, causing the girl's halo to flicker. It flickered again, passed and died and the girl fell to the floor, unconscious, but with little physical damage.
Frank had never seen such bullshit in his life. And he helped Mason with the whole Reznov thing.
"Any more questions, big man!?" The cop asked. Woods shook his head, then ducked as another sniper shot rang out. He looked over to where the shot'd come from and saw a blonde-haired girl with a square-shaped Halo standing in the middle of the road. A platoon of what seemed to be SWAT advanced, rifles and SMGs in hand, while a Sniper sat at the rear nearby a police armored van.
The blonde-haired woman wore a blue jacket, shirt skirt and leggings, as well as a pair of high-heeled boots and a badge on the left side of her chest. With a growl, she advanced toward the pair of her Policemen hiding behind the barricade and drew her sidearm. Woods was inches short of shooting her before he watched her shoot over their heads and nail a bunch more of these Delinquents.
Looking up, only to catch sight of the woman's wolf ears twitching, he murmured, "Oh, this just keeps getting better, don't it...?"
She looked down at him, furrowed her brows, then said, "Why did neither of you report him?" to one of the Police girls. Said girl lifted her hands up defensively, before the blonde, the seeming Captain of the Police force, pinched the bow of her nose and murmured, "I swear..." then looked to Woods and said, "You must've received one hell of a warm welcome here... Apologies."
"Eh, fuck, it's fine..." Woods sighed and shrugged, "Never been shot at by schoolkids before, though."
He instinctively ducked as another round zipped by his ear, then swiveled about and aimed his rifle at the shooter. A sniper in the distance. The Police officer shook her head and, with one motion of her hand, ordered the rest of her team forward to chase after them. Sighing, annoyed, she then turned to Woods and said, "Anyways, with them out of the way. I am Captain Kanna, Kivotos City Police Department out of Valkyrie Academy. You are?"
"Even the cops are running an Academy here... Master Sergeant Frank Woods, US Marines," The man replied warily as he slung his rifle on his back. Kivotos, huh? Weird name, but he'd take it. He started, "Listen, I woke up like four hundred meters up that road," and pointed at the road, "With all my gear on me and looking like I came outta 1980 at least. Mind telling me what the hell happened if you have any idea?"
Kanna hummed, scratching her chin as she took a moment to think. One of her wolf ears twitched as she replied with a shrug, "Your best bet to get any form of an answer is the General Student Council... Hell, I think they're lookin' for you," then she paused. Pointing at her own breast pocket, she tilted her head toward Woods, who felt his pocket and narrowed his eyes. Pulling out a fairly ornate blue envelope, the man read on the back "To be delivered to Nanagami Rin of the General Student Council... Huh, lucky us, I guess."
So, he was also right. Japs. Going by the names, anyways. Kanna gave him a hand signal to follow her and the two boarded a police car, beginning on the road toward the GSC's office building. The officer told him, "You've got a lot on your shoulders. I don't envy you, Sergeant," which caused Woods to blank out for a moment. What he hell'd she mean by that?
Oh, well, it didn't matter. He stared out of the window as they drove through the city, noting that there were people walking around. Said people were all armed, though, with ARs, pistols and the likes. He commented, "Jesus, this place's like Texas on a bender. How the hell do you and your cops manage to keep everyone from going Free-For-All on shootouts?"
"Threats of expulsions are usually enough to keep most of the wild students in check, not to mention jail time," The woman replied as they drove, "Not all of'em, though. There's gangs that formed, like the Sukebans, the Delinquents you just fought. Then there's the Helmet Gang, the Part-Timer Students... Lot of refuse to sift through and not a lot of Cops."
"Heh... One more thing, though..." He started, "The hell's with the floating stuff over your heads?"
"Our Halos?" She raised a brow, "They offer protection against damage and are usually used to denote schools. Usually," then she scratched her chin and turned. Woods furrowed his brows, then continued staring out at the wider city around them. Very, very fuckin' modern. There was stuff floating above the city, too. Blue wisps of light that really shouldn't have been there. Kanna's turn. She asked, "What about you, Sergeant? What's the US?"
... What
"Huge country on the Western continent of America. Big military, toes dipped in just about every goddamn conflict in the world at this point," He replied, only to see the confusion on the woman's face when he turned his head to get a reaction. He narrowed his eyes and said, "Don't tell me you don't know? You guys have Jap names, after all. This entire place looks like it's lifted straight outta Tokyo."
"... Err..." Kanna sighed.
Woods facepalmed. What the hell was even going on anymore. "Nevermind, Cap. Just get me to the GSC so I can ask'em what this is all about..." and why the hell he had those two weird sentences with the koans and wailings in his head. There was some heavily biblical shit going on, he thought to himself, then said to her, "So, angel girls armed with automatic weapons, with some weird animal traits..."
"Hey," She growled.
"No offense, cap. I'm still getting used to this shit..." The man rubbed his eyes. He whispered something to himself as he turned his gaze back toward the city itself. As the vehicle pulled up to one of the tallest towers in the city, the Police Officer looked to Woods. Her mind wandered toward what could've brought a halo-less human male to the world, but then she recalled, or she thought she did, that the GSC said he would show up.
She told him, "This is as far as you've paid."
"Damn," He shrugged, "Alright. Thanks for the ride."
"Don't get into any trouble," She told him, partially in jest, partially in warning. He replied with a thumbs up without even looking at her, then climbed the stairs up to the tower and saw that it had one of those newfangled video intercoms. He tapped a button on it, heard the bell ring and saw the ring around the camera light up. He lifted the letter, held down the transmit button and said, "Hey, kids! I got a letter for one of your bosses, I think!"
He sighed and crossed his arms, peering through the automatic sliding doors into the lobby, to see the students there, most of which were clad in white uniforms, scrambling around the place and calling various phones. Confusion permeated the Sergeant's expression as he turned and leaned against the wall, then breathed in deeply of the fresh air of the city. For as weird a place as Kivotos seemed to be, it was clean. Well, until someone started a firefight-
The door beside him slid open and he nearly went for his gun, but paused as he saw a young student with pink hair and a blue-shimmering Halo of a weird geometric shape come out to greet him. She yelped when she saw him nearly draw the weapon, then raised her hands and said, "P-P-Please wait! I'm just here to take you to VP Rin!" to show she wasn't a threat. The stammering ,though adorable, made Woods a little uneasy.
He sighed, lowered his hand and said, "Alright, Kid. I'm with you..."
The girl bowed quickly then turned heel on one foot and marched into the building, tablet held close to her chest. Woods followed along, noting the looks of surprise the other students/reps wore as he walked past the welcome desk. Mixes of surprise, worry and joy seemed to be common amidst the kids. His gaze swept across the entire lobby as he made mental notes of each person present and sat at waiting tables, or in line. He then stopped as they approached the elevator and looked up, to see the symbol of the GSC. A circle encompassing the same tower they were in, with the writing below denoting that this was, in fact, the Student Council.
Entering the elevator, Woods grew a little less tense. Though he wanted to smoke right now, he figured it was best not to. Both because of the sign plastered at the corner of the mirror in the rear of the elevator and because they were in a confined space. Man wasn't looking to hurt these kids, just get answers. So, he looked over to the tense kid and said, "Hey. Relax. I ain't here to hurt anybody."
"I-I know," She replied with a nod.
"Then why the fear?" He asked, confused, "Like I told ya, not here to hurt you or any of your friends. I just want answers to several of my questions... Namely how in the fuck I got my legs back, how I'm young again and what the hell Kivotos even is..." And why he was here, why he had a letter in his pocket he didn't seem to remember whatsoever, or why the GSC specifically wanted to see him.
"Vice P-President Rin is b-better suited to answer that..."
Alright, yeah. The big boss of the place. Woods sighed and scratched the top of his head, then shrugged. As the elevator dinged, to signify them reaching their stop, they walked out to the sight of a massive office with a panoramic view of the city through a series of large windows. Sat in the middle of the room and holding a tablet, a young woman with jet-black hair, a Halo and goddamn Elf ears approached. Her blue eyes settled on Woods and she blinked, a little surprised. She cocked her head toward the rep that had brought him in and nodded to her.
The little girl bowed at that, then excused herself, entering the Elevator again. In the meanwhile, the woman, whom Woods soon assumed to be Rin, approached and said, "Welcome to the GSC Headquarters. I am Nanagami Rin, acting Vice President. May I see that letter?" And she pointed at the thing in his hand. Frank looked at it as memories blurred and flooded his mind, then disappeared again. Got a job to do...
"Sure thing," Woods replied warily, offering the item to her. She thanked him with a nod and propped it open, while Woods stated, "Just so you know, VP, I got a shitload of questions and not a lot of answers from your Police Chief. What the hell happened to me, would be a first question I have..." and waited. As the woman read the letter, a smile crossed her lips. She looked up, her deep blue eyes locking on Woods.
Then, she said, "I see... I'm afraid that's one question I can't answer myself. The President wasn't very forthcoming about what was supposed to happen before her disappearance. She just told us to expect you before you appeared..." as she showed Woods to follow. The two walked over toward the desk in the room, where two chairs waited for them.
Sitting down, Woods sighed, sarcastically replying, "That's just fuckin' great... CIA shit, I guess..."
"I suppose...?" She seemed a little confused. Woods didn't blame her. He was in the same dumbass situation, after all. She, however, continued, "I can assist with answering questions about Kivotos, however. Should you have them, I mean," and waved her hand toward him, calm.
"Yeah, I do, in fact," Woods leaned forward, "What is this place?"
"The Academy City of Kivotos," She shot back, calm, "Home to many schools and many more students. You've already met Captain Kanna and the girls of the Valkyrie Academy, our lovely Police Force... And presumably also met some of the hooligans we have to deal with on a near-daily basis. Skirmishes like those you faced are sadly becoming all the more common."
"Yeah..." Woods sighed, rubbing his face, "Fair enough... And the GSC, what are you then?"
"We're the overall governing body of Kivotos, tending to the needs of the Schools as we see fit while ensuring a modicum of order remains in the city," She replied, then saw him staring at her Halo. She told him, "Our Halos are a means of protection against bullets. If you've had to shoot your weapons here, you probably know that we don't die unless shot again after they collapse."
"I never tried to double-tap either of the kids I shot, considering they're... Y'know, kids," The man shot back, furrowing his brows at that. He told her, "So, what you're telling me is you all are basically bulletproof up to a point. And when these Halo things die out, you pass out..." then got a nod and continued, "Oh, what the fuck. So non-lethal nowadays just means just knocking your Halo out?"
"Yes," She nodded. She then leaned against the desk and told him, "I do suppose you must be quite confused as to what you'd be doing in our city, or what the President herself would want with you, correct?" then she got a nod. She smiled again, then handed him a cup of coffee from a compartment on the side of the desk. It was fresh, terrifyingly enough. Then, she continued, "Well, it seems as though the President thought it best to ensure we have proper leadership until she can return... Someone she thinks can help with the issues plaguing Kivotos as of late."
"... And she thought her best option was a hardass Marine from the middle of fucking nowhere?" He asked, a hint surprised.
"Indeed..." The woman nodded, "Do you think she's wrong about a military man being able to help?"
"I mean..." Woods sighed, "I was retired. Was living a nice cozy life in some old-ass house with other old ladies and guys... The fuck am I gonna do?"
"We don't know," She smiled, "But if the President trusts you, I think we all can."
Bad choice, Woods thought...
"What do you say?" She extended her hand.
... He stared at it, then sighed, "Fuck it, why not," before gripping and shaking, "Might as well. I died anyways, right...?"
"Then we have a lot of work ahead of us... Welcome aboard, Sensei," Nanangami Rin offered curtly. Woods paused for a moment, realizing what she'd just called him. He was about to protest. He really wasn't sure this was a good idea beforehand. Now that he was called the equivalent of a teacher in Japanese, everything started settling into place. This was gonna be one of the weirdest experiences in his life, wasn't it? Even worse than the Numbers Station bullshit with Mason, or hunting Menendez.
If only he knew, though...