"Yuto…" a soft voice could be heard, calling through a never-ending darkness. "Yuto… Wake up sleepy head..." The voice called out again, its source now louder and closer that before. "Come on, sleepy head, it's time to wake up!" The voice called out once more, as darkness gave way to light. "Nghhh…?" a childish voice responded inquisitively, as the surrounding light slowly resolved, first into the intricate shape of a bright, fancy looking chandelier, then gradually into other items of furniture. A high end dresser, an intricate lamp, embroidered curtains with dark windows behind and, through the light, a humanoid shadow hovering overhead. "Happy birthday Yuto!" a soft, female, voice warmly called out, as the shadow resolved into the shape of a woman in her thirties, with dark emerald eyes, light skin, long black hair, long, pointy ears and a soft, caring smile.. "Mom...?" the child like voice responded, as the lady reached out. "There's an cake in the kitchen, with your name on it…," the woman mischievously continued, as the child groggily stirred under the big, fluffy, blanket "buuutttt… I guess dad could be persuaded to make sure it doesn't go to waste, if you still want to sleep in...". The mention of cake, however, proved to be just the impulse needed, to grab the child's undivided attention. "CAKE!?" the child excitedly exclaimed, trying to jump out of bed, only to instead get tangled in the over-sized blanket. Giggling, the woman got up from the side of the bed and turned towards the nearby door. "I'll go stop dad, before he eats the whole thing" she said, exiting the room, as the child finally managed to toss aside his fluffy, blankety, restraint.
Jumping out of bed, the child landed on the fluffy carpet beneath and with a sparkle in his bright orange eyes, a grin the size of his head and tangled mess of hair covering his long pointy ears, he bolted out of his room, in the direction of the kitchen. Running down the hallway however, he quickly forgot about his goal, the moment he was confronted with the sights in the living room.
Balloons all over, silly string covering the furniture, all manner of festive decorations strewn about, various "Happy Birthday Yuto!" and "Yut Jun Yunkers" signs, hanging on the walls and in the middle of the room, a giant table with the biggest pudding cake, the child had ever seen. On top, the cake had 6 bright yellow candles, while nearby, a HUGE number of brightly colored boxes, with big red bows, formed a stack bigger than the child was tall.
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" two voices called out from behind, causing the young newman to turn around in glee, to the sight of his two parents, one holding some plates and cutlery, while the other a lighter for the cake's candles.
"Happy Birthday Yuto", his mother said again, as she moved to light the candles on the cake, while his father, a tall, well built man, also in his thirties, with short hair and stout, pointy ears, began arranging the 3 plates and assorted cutlery on the table, around the cake.
"We got you your favorite Yuto. The biggest pudding cake the shop's ever had. Happy Birthday son!" he said as he lifted the young newman off the ground and onto the chair closest to the, now lit, cake. "Make a wish and if you blow out ALL of the candles, it'll come true." he then said with a smile, as he encouraged the young newman to give it his best.
"A wish..." he said, drawing as much air as his tiny lungs could gather. "I wish for…!" Yuto held his breath for a second, then blew on the cake, as hard as he could. One candle tried to resist and for a moment it even seemed like it might, but in the end it too went out. For the first time ever, Yuto had managed to blow them all out.
"Hehey, congrats!" Yuto's father exclaimed, as his mother moved to cut a BIG slice on a plate, which she then placed in front of her son. Not waiting for a spoon though, Yuto began poking at the cake with his hand, then proceeded to lick the bits off of his fingers, in pure bliss at the taste of his favorite type of sweet.
With childish impatience, Yuto scoffed down his cake, as his mother tried to get him to use a spoon and his father watched in delight, recording all this for posterity.
A memory for the future, of one of the few precious moments they could have in the present.
As mercenaries, both he and his wife traveled the solar system, hunting monsters, saving people, providing security, keeping the peace and whatever else was required of them. They got to see the world… at the cost of not seeing their son. And it pained him. It pained the both of them. But they both saw it as building a better future for their son, one where he would never want for anything and one where he would, perhaps, never know the hardships that came with being an organic in Gurhal in general and on Parum in particular. Maybe one day, they would even be able to move off world… But that was the future. In the present, the two of them were just happy to be here, living the moment.
A moment that would not last…
Suddenly, the sharp trill of a communicator cut off his train of thought. At the same time, it drew his wife's attention, who threw him a glance that suggested she was ready to kill someone, if this turned out to be what they both hoped it wasn't.
Moving away and out of the room, he pulled the device out of his pocket, to see who it was, then answered the call, audio only, hoping it would be anything except an emergency call. Moments later, he returned, throwing the device HARD against the seat of the sofa, visibly struggling to hold back from cursing like a sailor.
"NO!" his wife exclaimed, fully aware of what her husband's demeanor most likely implied. "It's our son's birthday! They... can... find... SOMEONE ELSE!" she basically growled as her husband recovered his communicator from the seat of the sofa.
"Dispatch said there were multiple explosions on Moatoob, about thirty minutes ago. First responders, have already been sent, but all indications are that it's a terrorist attack. The AMF are to provide the bulk of the security forces, but they", he said making air-quotes, "ran into logistical issues and had to delay. All forces, including Little Wing, are to deploy immediately, to provide security, until the AMF can intervene."
"It's not fair…" Yuto's mother said, turning her gaze back towards her son, who had by now polished his cake plate and was busy tearing into his presents. "One day… That's all we asked for…" she continued, tears forming into her eyes as she pulled out her own communicator from a pocket in her jacket.
"They've already sent a shuttle to pick everyone up." he replied. "Clad 6 breaks orbit for Moatoob, as soon as everyone gets back. Ours should be here sho…"
No sooner had he said that, when he found himself interrupted by the doorbell. Their shuttle had arrived.
Dejected, the two grabbed their nanotransers, then gently pried Yuto away from his gifts, bringing him to the door to say their goodbyes. Yuto, for one, didn't really understand why his parents had to leave, so his mother did her best to try to explain, to the young newman, that they had to go and help catch some very bad people.
As his dad opened the door, Yuto's attention was drawn away from his mother, to the person on the other side of the entryway and then the small ship, parked just outside, visible through the windows behind.
Transfixed and oblivious to anyone and everyone, Yuto watched a train out of seeming nowhere, barrel into the bright blue shuttle, instantly reducing it to shrapnel. And as the shrapnel flew, a deafening screech shattered the building's windows, followed instantly thereafter, by the very same train barreling through the wall, towards the four.
And at that time, he turned his gaze upwards to see a light pink doublesaber, with a three pronged leaf design on either end, fly through the air. Spinning end over end, the doublesaber descended in an arc towards him and as his parents were blown against the walls, he himself was not. Yuto stood there, watching the doublesaber draw ever closer, before finally impaling itself into his chest, turning his vision to black, nanoseconds before the train would hit as well.
Partially leaning against a wall, Yuto slowly regained his consciousness, while a booming voice assaulted his senses, with an announcement he could hear but not comprehend. Slowly, they returned to him and he could finally begin to rationalize, just what it was that the person was trying to say. At the same time, not only were his memories of the past events gradually returning, but he could also feel something heavy pressing against part of his body.
The message was an automated warning through the intercom system. The something was the unconscious body of the blonde haired girl in the reddish pink jacket.
"Hey!", he weakly called out to the girl, while slightly shaking her left shoulder, with his free left hand. To no use however, as the girl was out cold and he could feel pain through his body, from head to toe.
"Attention! For your safety, please evacuate area, through all designated exits!" the voice called out again. "Attention! For your safety…" safety huh? Yeah, he was going to get RIGHT on that, just as soon as his head stopped spinning and his ribs stopped popping. How much time it had been, he didn't know. As his senses returned, Yuto used his right hand to lift himself up off the ground and into a sitting position, leaning against the wall.
Now upright, he looked down towards the girl and, from a better angle, was finally able to tell just why exactly she had yet to wake up, when he noticed streams of her blood, flowing down her face and into a large puddle below. Similarly, across her body, streams of blood flowed down her skin, out of jagged pieces of shrapnel embedded in her flesh, before collecting into smaller pools underneath. Her injuries were severe and, without medical assistance, most likely fatal. Yuto tried to stand… which was a foolish gesture, he became all to aware of the moment he felt a powerful pop in his lower right leg. With that idea now out the window, Yuto sat back down and switched to plan B. Reaching into his pockets, he fumbled for his communicator, instead retrieving the Nanotranser X that started it all. Setting that next to him, he continued searching for his communicator, finding it basically split in half. "Great..." he said, throwing the thing into the wall, across the hall.
He was running out of options. He couldn't stand and he couldn't communicate. He had tried shouting for help, but to no avail. And all the while, the girl's bleeding showed no signs of abating. Eventually, his attention turned to his nanotranser, hoping that maybe something inside could help be used to help. Going through its contents, Yuto found that the thing was even better stocked than he had first thought. And going through each category, Yuto found the one thing that could, even at this point, still save the girl's life. Restoratives known as Moon Atomizers. A full five of them.
Described in marketing as an E.R. in a capsule, the Moon Atomizer is a restorative of such power and effectiveness, that nothing short of death was beyond its repair. Along with its weaker versions, the monomate, dimate, trimate and star atomizer, these capsules formed the backbone of any and all expedition kits and military loadouts in the Gurhal system. So effective were they at saving lives, that their introduction onto the open market was attributed to a historic decline in hospital attendance and closures. Their one, MAJOR, downside being the fact their production is so inefficient, they have to be rationed under penalty of law. The highest restriction being on the moon atomizer itself, possession of which is limited to one per person, for the civilian population and five for mercenaries, the military, and civilian first responders.
Now grateful to whomever it was that had sent him this nanotranser, Yuto summoned one of the vials within and, placing it in the girl's left hand, crushed its glass like outer shell, the fragments of which pierced the girl's skin, injecting its contents into the poor girl's bloodstream.
Almost immediately, the hemorrhages began subsiding, one by one. First the ones on her left hand, then the ones on her chest, followed by the one on her head and lastly those on her legs. It was a miraculous sight to say the least. Not long after, as Yuto watched in amazement, one of the shrapnel fragments fell out of its wound, hitting the cold tiles below with a weak, sharp ping. And then another, followed soon after by a third. Not long after that, shrapnel fragments started pinging left and right, as the girl's tissue regenerated en masse, forcing any and all foreign objects out of her flesh and soon, the compound's mission had come to an end. From near death to perfect health, the atomizer had done its job in just under thirty minutes.
Relieved, Yuto once again called out to the girl, just like before, hoping for an answer. And this time, she responded with a sharp inhale followed by the slow twitch of her left leg. "Hrgg…" she groaned, struggling to coherently move an arm or at least open her eyes. "What… happened… to... me?" she asked, still struggling to open her eyes. "I don't know" Yuto replied, "but you were hurt pretty bad. Frankly it's a miracle you're still alive." he said, now trying to raise her off the ground and into a similar sitting position, against the wall he was sitting against. "I'm Yut Jun Yunkers, but you can call me Yuto." he added, as the girl finally managed to open her eyes. "I'm… Emilia… Emilia Percival." she said, finally managing to get a good, long, look at the person beside her.
Funny thing. In the last chapter I complained that it's been a year between updates...
THIS update has been SLIGHTLY more delayed, than the previous one... And it turns out I also lied again, with this chapter having neither the action nor the third protag, like I said it would in the last chapter... Whoops!
This particular chapter is a little different to the previous two. This one wasn't part of the original creation process, like the previous two. This is something I just started writing as an intro of sorts for what was supposed to be Chapter 3 and it instead went off on a tangent and became its own thing. I'm still happy with how it turned out, to the extent that the next one will also be in a similar vein.
Next chapter though, will have some action as it details how Emilia became a pincushion, so if anyone's still reading this... hats off to you for sticking around this long.