(April 13 2024)—-

Akechi was out for our blood. I wasn't fully sure what his capabilities were or even how much manpower he had. I told MP5 to gather everyone in the planning room, and me and Narukami went up there to start planning. If this hospital was taken, that would have been it for us. Not only would we all be killed or imprisoned, but we had Nanako and Soppo here. We had to protect them both. Narukami and I took out all the maps we had of the area and laid them on the table. Soon, the girls started gathering in the planning room.

"What's the word, hummingbird?" UMP-9 asked when she came in the room.

"We might end up getting overrun," Narukami started. "So, we need to figure out how to stop that from happening."

"Oy mate, now what's all this about being attacked?" Bren asked in a very BRI'ISH manner.

"Chris-Chan just made Akechi aware of us taking his Dungeon of love, and that made him pretty angry." I explained. "I don't know Akechi very well, but it sounds like he's going to try and wipe us out with a giant surprise attack in order to get back on Chris's good side. I don't know when he's coming so we don't have a lot of time to plan."

"I'll tell you this much," UMP-45 started. "Akechi keeps his "punishment parade," an echelon of the CWC honor guard he uses specifically for stopping rebellions, about thirty minutes East of here. I've been planning something like this in my head since... well events I don't really want to talk about." She looked at the map on the table and ran her fingers through her hair as she pondered. "Anyone have a marker or something?" Everyone looked around. It was so silent in the room, I could hear Nanako and Soppo chatting with each other… on the second floor. We were on the third floor.

"Alright then. I really didn't want to do this, but…" 45 pulled out a knife and pricked her own finger. Just the tip of it. She then started smearing her blood on the map in lieu of using a marker. Wow, I've never seen such a stunning, yet kind of gross, display of dedication. Anyway, 45 drew a circle in the middle of a body of water on the map.

"Can I lick the blood off the map?" G41 asked with big buggy eyes.

"No." 45 answered flatly. "Anyway, this is the biggest choke point in Akechi's region. It's a long road, surrounded by small cliffs, and a bridge that goes over a giant river. It is also the only road that goes from the closest Honor guard base to this hospital. We can ambush them when they're crossing the bridge."

"We need to go set up now." I said. "They might be on their way now, and we don't know what we'll be up against."

"We need a good amount of us here." Narukami chimed in. "Worst case scenario, they're coming here right now. If half of us leave and the hospital suddenly comes under attack, those guarding the hospital won't have much of a chance."

"He's right." Negev said, while G41 snuck over to the map and started licking 45's blood. "Even if the other half comes back to the hospital and takes the invasion from behind, it could end up being too late."

"But if we don't have a big enough team fighting the honor guards at the bridge, they'll get mowed down." Suomi added. "Numbers are not on our side here, so we'll need to use what little forces we have wisely."

"If we longer-ranged units stayed at the hospital, we could potentially hold off an enemy attack until the forces on the road come back." Springfield suggested.

"It's not much, but it seems that's all we've got for now." Narukami said. "We need to start putting plans into action as soon as possible. Klonoa, is it cool with you if I stay here and defend the hospital?" I felt more than comfortable leaving Narukami here, along with most of the snipers and assault rifles. I knew he would pull out all the stops to defend the hospital.

"You can stay." I answered right away. "I'll go out to ambush the punishment parade."

"Good luck brother." Narukami said as he patted me on the shoulder. "We'll radio you if any forces make it through. Stay safe out there.

"You too, Narukami." I said. "Is it cool with you if I bring Suomi with?"

"You can take whoever you see fit." Narukami said with a wink.

(April 14 2024)_—-

It had been about thirty hours since we left the hospital to set up an ambush at the river. We got to the choke point during the early evening yesterday and nothing came since then. We all expected to fight the punishment parade the day we got out there. Heck, I was worried they would have already made it past the choke point, but I was fortunately wrong. I wasn't sure when they would show up. I sent Suomi across the bridge along with half the girls to watch for enemy movement and radio me when she saw them coming. 45 had road spikes we could deploy once we saw enemy trucks coming... but they didn't come that day. We ended up camping out for the night. It got super cold at night and we weren't prepared to sleep outdoors. Needless to say, it was a difficult night. The next say, we were all watching the road from out hiding spots.

"I've been waiting for an ambush like this for a while now." 45 whispered to me.

"You like ambushing people?" I asked, honestly not paying much attention, between waiting for Suomi's call and watching the road. Also I was quite tired at the time.

"No, I've been waiting for an opportunity for revenge." 45 said in a slightly happy tone. "When we all came to this world, our Shikikan at the time was named Gentiane..." 45 started sniffling a little bit. That made me start focusing more on her rather than watching the road/dazing off.

"Did Akechi kill her?" I asked, afraid of what I was about to hear.

"He wanted us to be under his command, and not Gentiane's." 45 said with tears welling up. "He... he beat her to death with a crowbar. He made us all watch everything unfold. I spent the next week or so doing all these meaningless chores around the hospital, basically turning the hospital into an R and R spot for the honor guards. Then HK escaped with Jr, and then 9, G11 and I were all locked in the room."

"I..." I wasn't sure how to respond to 45's tragic story. "I'm sorry all that happened to you. I'm also very sorry to hear about Gentiane."

"Shikikan." Suomi said over the radio. "There's a convoy headed towards the bridge. Eight armored vehicles, four of them have mounted machine guns and the other two are packed with honor guards. They'll be on the bridge soon, so deploy the road spikes, quickly!" 45 and I locked eyes.

"Your revenge starts here, 45." I said. 45 gave me a determined nod. She grabbed the road spikes and she and I ran over to the bridge, laid them down, then ran back to our hiding spot. I saw eight armored trucks come around the bend towards the bridge. I was hoping that was the entire invasion force Akechi had sent. I then started to worry about another invasion force passing through somewhere else, but I had to focus on the invasion force right in front of us. I quickly radioed Springfield and M200 and told them to line up shots on the gunners of the front and rear guntrucks, but to hold their fire until we started charging. I held my breath and said a prayer in my head as the lead truck got on the bridge, closer to the spikes. I watched the front wheels as they hit the spikes and lost all the air pressure in a matter of seconds.

"CHARGE!" I yelled as I fired some rounds in the air. We all slid down the cliff sides, firing our guns at the guards and shouting as we did so. Springfield and M200 took out the gunners, then took out the other two which made our charge easier. I watched as Suomi and her half of the team slid down the cliff and started boxing the punishment parade troops on the bridge. It wasn't easy moving up though. The guards were using any tactic in the book to turn the tides. Some of them started hiding underneath the vehicles and fired on us. We went cover to cover as we got closer to the bridge, pushing the enemy back even more every time we moved up. It was going very well, better than I expected. At one point, a few of the honor guards jumped off the bridge into the water, trying to get away. I also noticed a few of the guards who stayed firing at the guys who tried to desert.

"They're getting cut down!" P90 yelled. "Keep the pressure on!" As we got closer to the bridge, we all had to be careful where we shot, or we'd hit each other. This made our push a bit slower, just because the enemies didn't need to be careful like we did. As we started moving towards the middle of the bridge, M9 ran past me, took cover behind one of the trucks and took out a few guards who were focusing fire on the side of the bridge I was on in order to get themselves un-boxed in. M9 was doing well until she suddenly got shot in the shoulder! I ran over to where she was to keep her covered. I cleared the area around the truck M9 was and started moving on to clear more, but then I saw one of the honor guards getting onto a mounted gun on one of the trucks. I don't think anyone else noticed, so I charged the gun before he could start firing. He saw me coming pulled out some sort of remote. It took me a second to realize this, but it was a detonator he pulled out. By the time I realized that, it was too late. He squeezed the detonator, and the truck he was in blew up. It threw me off the bridge and into the water. As I was falling, I felt a sharp piercing pain near my belly. When I fell into the water, it was really hard for me to get my head above the rushing water. I couldn't move my left arm without insane pain. I finally got my head above the rushing water long enough to see someone jump off the bridge and into the rushing water.

"Shikikan? Shikikan?!" It was Suomi. She jumped in after me. I tried calling out to her, but I was so out of breath, I couldn't do anything but gasp for air. I tried raising my left arm, but that made the pain in my belly even worse. I raised my right hand and waved her down. It still made my belly hurt, but not as badly. She swam over to me, grabbed onto me, and swam me to shore. She laid me down very carefully.

"Shikikan? Are you ok?" Suomi asked me. She then looked down and a look of horror came across her face.

"I... think I got shot..." I said weakly. Suomi looked around for a moment then grabbed a stick. She then put it in my mouth horizontally.

"I need you to relax, Shikikan. Bite this stick." She told me. Her saying that made me kind of worried. "Here, look into my eyes. Focus on them." Suomi said as she got close to me. I was confused, but I did as she said. She has big, blue eyes… dare I say they're beautiful. Suddenly, I felt crazy and immense pain in my belly. I couldn't help but scream in pain. Suomi had pulled a big metal shard out of my stomach. I started freaking out a little bit, knowing that was in there and I was probably bleeding a ton. I started sweating and breathing rapidly, it felt like I was going to have a heart attack. I also felt like I was going to throw up. The world around me started getting darker. Suomi took off her blue coat and put it under me then wrapped it around my open wound.

"Suomi." I said weakly. "I'm going to die. I know you said you'd help me find a way to avoid going back to the void, but it's ok. I didn't know this would happen."

"You're not going to die, Shikikan... I'll do whatever it takes!" Suomi said frantically with tears streaming down her face. "You're going to be ok... just slow your breathing! I'm here ok? I won't leave you alone!" What she just said… It relaxed me a bit. I want to avoid being alone all I can… but I could still see fighting on the bridge in the distance. Suomi has a very strong sense of duty, and yet she's still here with me.

"I appreciate you being with me, but you can go help the rest of the girls if you want." I told her. I was starting to see a bright light. "You can leave me here... I'm going to die. Go take the bridge Suomi... I know it's your duty..."

"You're my duty right now." Suomi said, while looking in my eyes. I was filled with happiness when I heard that. The light I saw was blinding. The only thing I could somewhat make out was Suomi smiling at me with tears in her eyes. I was dying, but at least I'd die happy. I laid my head all the way back in the sand. My ears were ringing, but I could hear the faint sound of the water rushing. I could also hear Suomi.

"Shikikan? Shikikan, you have to stay awake." She lightly slapped my face to try and keep me alert. I got a little bit of willpower to stay awake a little longer, but I felt like I had time to say only one more thing. "Suomi? I… I'm scared." I started losing all the strength I had. My head fell back into the sand. I couldn't keep my eyes open.

"Shikikan? Shikikan!" Suomi yelled in tears. "Don't close your eyes! Stay away from the light please! Stay with me! You mean the world to me!" Everything went silent and dark, and then I could see or hear. The pain went away as I drifted away from everything. All I could feel... was Suomi's tears falling on my face.

(April 15 2024)_—-

All I could see was black. I was probably back in the void again, unable to tell whether or not my eyes were open or closed. There was no point in opening my eyes, all I would have seen was the blackness of nothing.

"Shikikan?" I heard a quiet soft voice from a distance. I felt separated from reality. I opened my eyes slowly because my eyelids felt extremely heavy. When I opened my eyes slightly, I was greeted with a very bright light. I was eventually able to open my eyes completely, and then my eyes finally adjusted to the light… I saw Suomi.

"Shikikan! You're awake!" Suomi said happily and softly. Her eyes were tearing up. I looked to the doorway and all the girls were gathered around, even HK, who left very quickly. I get it, she does care about me, she just doesn't want me to know it. All the girls started cheering.

"Suomi… did we stop Akechi's attack?" I asked anxiously.

"We did. His punishment parade is gone, as far as we know." Suomi answered. "We bought ourselves more time."

"Suomi…" I started. "I don't know what to say. You saved my life."

"I can't take all the credit." Suomi said while smiling. "We ended up having to do a blood transfusion to save your life since you lost a ton of blood." She pointed to the other end of the room. I turned my head and saw a pale and sickly Narukami sitting in a chair next to my bed.

"K… Klonoa." Narukami stammered. "Y…you're ok… now. You... You're still... You're my... brother..." Narukami struggled to get out of his chair. Just then, Negev ran into the room with a glass of water.

"Oy vey shabes-laykhterl, I don't want you passing out." Negev said as she lightly pushed Narukami back in his chair and gave him the water. He was shaking as he put the glass to his lips. He even spilled a little bit in his lap. It was so bad, Negev had to literally hold his arm steady. I looked at Suomi with concern in my eyes.

"He gave so much of his blood to save you," Suomi said. "He was the only one here we could take blood from."

"She's... right." Narukami said. "I'm a... I'm... universal donor. O... positive." As he said that, his eyes started going out of focus and his eyelids were shuddering.

"Oy vey! We have to get him back to his room so he can rest! Someone help me!" Negev yelled as she put one of Narukami's arms around herself and helped him up. 45 ran over and grabbed Narukami's other arm.

"Klonoa…" Narukami weakly said as he was being carried back to his room. "...my family." Negev and 45 carried Narukami out of my room.

"Narukami... thank you!" I tried thanking him, but I don't think he heard me. "Will he be ok?" I asked Suomi.

"Don't worry, Shikikan, We'll give him IV drips. He'll be just fine." Suomi reassured me.

"That's good." I said as I started sitting up. "I don't want to lose anyone." Suomi quickly put her hands on my shoulders and lightly forced me back.

"You need to stay laid back for a while." Suomi warned me. "The metal shard did quite a number on you. You need to heal at least a little bit before you can use any of your stomach muscles."

"Cat man!" I heard a little voice say. I looked back over to the doorway to see Soppo running towards me happily. She climbed up my bed and was about to jump on me, but Suomi caught her in midair.

"He's badly hurt, Jr. You need to be careful with him." Suomi told Soppo in a slightly strict manner. Soppo nodded her head in understanding, so Suomi put her on my chest very lightly. She gave me the biggest hug she could with her tiny arms, then she snuggled into me.

"Anyway, we should probably let you get some rest now." Suomi said as she stood back up. "Want me to take Soppo?"

"No, it's ok. She can stay." I answered. "Can you come back here soon?"

"Sure." Suomi said while smiling. "Have a good rest, Shikikan, and if you need anything at all, use the walkie." Suomi started towards the door.

"Suomi…" I started. She stopped and turned towards me. "You can just call me 'Klonoa.' You don't have to call me 'Shikikan.'" Suomi smiled and nodded. As she left the room, she turned and gazed at me happily. She then turned off the lights and closed the door. I patted Soppo's head lightly, pulled my blanket up far enough to put it on her, then I went to sleep.