It was bad.

"Artillery! Fuckin—take cover!"

Very bad.

"Any station, any station! This is Hotel Five, we need support now, we're getting slaughtered over he– OH SHIT! NO! NO NO N—"

With a clang, I loaded a new magazine into my rifle. Tracers flew right past my head, slamming into a tank behind me. I cringed and pressed myself deeper into the mud.

A few seconds later, a resounding BOOM washed over the battlefield. The shockwave ran through my body. The tank turned into a smoldering wreck.

I once again tried the radio, but it was no use. Confused chatter filled the airwaves that still worked. For a counter-offensive, it got disorganized quite fast. Yet, none of us expected to meet this heavy resistance. Or heavy artillery, for that matter.

And we were guaranteed air support.

I crawled down the small mound, into safer cover. I had no choice, lest I wished for my head to become a bloody firework. Plus, my IFV was in a ditch and the rest of my squad had already gotten very acquainted with the taste of lead.

Between the volleys of artillery, I pondered on what to do. Where to go. This attack was as good as over – even if we somehow pushed to the first line there's no way in hell we're holding it. This left the option of slowly crawling back to my trench, but…

Faint as it sounded, I could recognize the whir of a drone anywhere. The little shit is looking for soldiers to blow up, but I couldn't see jackshit with the sky filled with lead. I couldn't try to shoot it down either.

Yep. There is no getting out of here. Not when artillery is starting to pummel the area. I should just hunker down and wait for it to end - but then the drone would pick me off.

Guess I'm a goner then. I concluded as I rolled on my back, facing the gray sky illuminated by tracers and a mouthful of still-hot shrapnel that I hurriedly spit out.

I had no escape. But it was alright, I had nothing to care for anymore and nothing to lose. The War had taken everything a long time ago.

Might as well make myself cozy. I stretched my legs and put my hands under my neck. If God so desires, then I will survive. But if God does exist he wouldn't have put me or any of us through this shit in the first place.

I took a whiff of the air. It smelled like blood and gunpowder. Then, a distant whistle. Looks like this one is headed for me. I closed my eyes for the final time and waited for everything to end.

The sound grew and it grew until it drowned every other noise on the battlefield.

And then,

Silence.

Then the chirping of the birds. And the gentle rustle of leaves against the wind. No cries of pain and rage, no gunfire or explosions. At last, peace.

I opened my eyes to the park of my childhood, the one I often went to with my parents. My stomach filled with a comforting warmth at this sight. The whole scene felt like a dream.

I mean, it is one. I am dead.

Pulling myself up, I began to walk down the path I frequented back in the day. Except, this time, I was alone.

Or so I thought.

So who do we have here?

If I had to describe the woman sitting on the bench in front of me, "divine" would be the best term. Her long azur hair, laced with pink, flowed down her frame like a waterfall. Her pristine uniform, white in color, bestowed upon her an angelic quality. I assumed she was exactly that: an angel.

I approached her without hesitation, my pace brisk. Yet it stopped once I noticed the bloody mess covering her outfit. With her head cast downward, I frowned. If she, of all people, was dead, then what did it mean for me?

Yet, to my relief, she raised her head. And, with a melodic tone, greeted me with all the kindness I expected from a divine being.

"Hello, Edward."

"I… uh… You're okay there?" I reached for the side pouch on my backpack, "I've got a medkit if you need it."

I doubted the efficacy of a rudimentary first-aid when it looked like a good half of her blood painted her tunic. But hey, I tried to be helpful.

Thankfully, or not, she refused it. Instead, her hand patted the free space next to her. I didn't need to be told twice for me to be sitting next to a wounded angel.

"So, why are you here? You're going to judge my sins or something?" I asked after a long period of silence, "If it's the case then I apologize for my earlier blasphemy."

This at least provoked a chuckle in response. Although, I didn't know if it was a positive or negative thing.

After a few seconds of contemplation, she spoke again.

"Edward- no, sensei. I need your help."

I raised an eyebrow at both the foreign moniker and the sudden demand. But since I had nothing better to do, I decided to humor her.

"What for?"

"There… was a problem," she spoke with pauses between her words. She was like a child trying to express his mistake, "I tried to solve it. I was quite stubborn, you know? I thought I could fix everything myself."

"But in the end… I just… made it worse."

I remained silent, leaning against the back of the bench as her words flowed into my ears.

"I always talked about responsibility, adulthood. But I never understood any of this. Not until now."

"But you, Sensei. You are different. Even without clues, I know that you will do the right thing."

"So, that's why, Sensei," her head turned ever so slightly towards me. She flashed me a gentle smile, "I need you. To help us. To save us from this horrible fate."

I doubted her. But more importantly, myself. I didn't get why she thought I was different. Or that I could be entrusted with the fate of whoever she was talking about when I couldn't save myself.

But when my eyes met her smile, a force inside of me, an unknown surge of emotion compelled me to accept. It felt natural, like it was, and had always been my duty.

"I… Alright, I'll do it."

At that moment, her smile brightened, and I sensed the warmth of her hand through the glove of mine. She looked up at me, and I could finally catch a glimpse of her eyes, blue like the sky above us.

"Then this is a promise, Edward-sensei."

In a second, she disappeared. My vision was flooded with different images: from the skyline of a metropolis to the daily lives of schoolgirls. It looked idyllic, and peaceful, a testament to the innocence of youth.

A wave of fatigue washed over me, and the recollection of this new world faded into obscurity. My head leaned forward, my shoulders slumped. And I slipped into a dreamless slumber.

…

"...ir?"

I stirred. Who's disturbing me? I should still have a few more minutes before I'm rotated to the guard shift…

"... sir?"

This voice again. No, scratch that, there was more than one.

"What a strange bloke."

"Kaiser PMC?"

"Should we call Valkyrie?"

Whispers filled my ears, so much so that I begrudgingly opened my eyes to the terrible bright sun. I had to shield myself from its almighty rays with my hand to see something. A splitting headache didn't help either.

Did the fuckers really move me outside while I was sleeping? Frazer, you son of a bitch, if I find you I'll kick your…

…

…what in the actual fu—

"—Sir?" A dog…man… thing, wearing a beret, asked. The two black dots he had for eyes piercing my soul, "Are you alright?"

I blinked. I don't remember drinking yesterday, so why was a dog capable of human speech talking to me right now? What's worse, he talked in a foreign tongue and I... could understand it.

Must be a dream.

I pinched my cheek, but it was no use, nothing changed. If anything, it only confused the dogman further.

"Sir, we can carry you to the hospital if you want."

"I'm fine," I finally replied in this strange language with a degree of skepticism. Taking a look around I noticed there were more animal people and even a few robots, "where are we?"

"In West Park. Sir, are you sure you're alrigh—"

"Very much so, thank you."

Even I doubted this claim. Yet, no matter how much I tried to shake myself awake, I had to face the confusing facts: this place was real. What's worse, the arrangement of people straight out of fables was as tangible as I was.

Disturbing. Especially once I remembered where I had been a few minutes prior, that being a battlefield, and the fact I died in that same place. Thus, I concluded that this was some sort of afterlife. But if so, why did I keep my assault rifle, or my Panzerfaust 3? Surely I wouldn't need any of my equipment here–

A powerful shockwave threatened to knock me down. I whirled around, only to observe a column of black smoke rising into the sky.

Worse, gunshots rang out, and they grew louder. A battlefield? Why were civilians so close to a warzone?

I looked back at the small crowd, most were clueless, and some started to panic.

Shit. They're going to run headfirst into a machine gun if they aren't careful.

I groaned, even in the afterlife they couldn't spare me a minute of peace. Standing to my full height, I took hold of my assault rifle, and shouted to the group,

"You'll die if you guys stay here, follow me!"

The confused mob turned to me and then looked at each other. They weren't convinced, not until the dogman nodded, clutching his beret with his paws.

"V-Very well, sir. Lead the way."

This swayed the rest of them, and soon enough, I was running away from the growing altercation with a ragtag group of animal people and robots alike following me.

This really is a fever dream.

The park was big, and popular too. Because more fleeing civvies joined us on the way. It was a weird feeling, having so many people rely on me for their survival. It was the kind of responsibility I disliked bearing on my shoulders.

As long as they make it out alive.

I didn't know where to go, and my only references were direction signs and maps of the park. I first wanted to carry them to the local authorities so they could evacuate the battlefield, but my lack of knowledge of the situation made it impossible. For all I knew, one side of the fight was robots trying to cleanse the animals or vice-versa.

Too many lives were on the line for me to take this risk. So I fell back on finding a safe place for them to hide. The buildings wouldn't hold long against a barrage and one side could take them over. Thus, the subway was my best bet.

Silence permeated through our ranks, the only sound was those from the battle. Every so often, I'd hear the characteristic whistle of artillery and shout to get down. This is followed by a few seconds of staying immobile, waiting for the bombardment to end. But in the end, the bulk of the fighting didn't take place around here so those moments were few and far in-between. I didn't see any combat formations either to my relief.

Thirty minutes had passed by the time I spotted the entrance to the subway. Rising from behind a tall bush, I covered the remaining distance and kept my eyes on the street. That's where I assumed any troops would arrive from.

With the surroundings void of any hostile presence, I gestured for the civilians to come.

"Quick, get in! Women and children first, come on!"

They were quite organized and calm, perhaps it was due to my presence. I don't know. But they made haste nonetheless. I counted them all as best I could, to make sure no one had been lost. Five, thirteen, thirty...

I ended the count at thirty-four. Everyone was inside, except the dogman who looked back at me. That's good, I had questions to ask him.

"Do you have network access?"

He shook his head, "No, it has been cut in most of Kivotos already."

Tsk. I expected it, but it still made things harder. I also noted the name of the city, Kivotos. The name was as foreign as their language. But this wasn't important right now.

"Alright. Stay here and don't move."

"You're not coming, sir?"

"I'll try to contact the authorities so they can evacuate you."

The dogman opened his mouth to protest, but no words came out. He instead nodded.

"Thank you, kind sir. And please, stay safe out there. You don't have a halo after all."

A halo?

It was a confusing thing to tell me. But if I piece together what he meant, then halos served as a form of protection? Yet I've never seen anyone with a halo anywhere.

Whatever, I'll look into it later.

I replied to him with a smile of pride. It felt good to help people sometimes.

"I'm just doing my duty."

The dogman bowed to me and then left, and the shutters of the subway closed. They were safe now. But even then, it wasn't over. Detonations rang out, and gunfire reverberated through the streets. Like I was back on the battlefield again.

And yet, there weren't any ruins. The buildings stood in all their glory, expanding as far as the eyes could see, under the bright sky. A clear contrast to the bombed-out hellscapes I was used to. If the streets looked a little less abandoned, and there were no confrontations, then I might have called this place paradise.

Let's get to it then.

Tightening the grip on my rifle, I began to walk along the empty stores and lobbies, down the street, and into the unknown.

Thirty minutes had passed according to my watch. And still, no sight of anyone. Instead, the roads were littered with abandoned cars. The sound of battle had grown more distant, which, along with the lack of casings on the ground, made me assume this area had not been subject to a confrontation.

And yet, I had this uncomfortable feeling at the back of my mind. The primal sense of having something watching, stalking you from the concrete monoliths.

I reasoned that this was normal. I had experience fighting in cities, you see. And trust me when I say it feels like you're always one step away from being shot in the head by a sniper.

But if there was a sniper, then he would have taken the shot. Either that or I wasn't worth it. Both were likely, but back where I came from, the sneaky bastards loved to kill isolated soldiers and take their belongings as "trophies".

A shiver went down my spine as I remembered some scenes I had the displeasure of witnessing. Thus, I decided this was my cue to enter the backstreets. Less room to snipe me from there. But this came at the cost of knowing where I was.

Groaning in frustration, I fished out a compass from my pocket. This reliable tool, along with the humble map, always came in handy when the GPS systems jammed.

I figured I'd continue eastward, where the road led. And that's exactly what I did for quite some time.

Until a very familiar sound reached my ears.

Gunfire. But nothing big, aside from the slow chug of a machine gun. For a moment, I pondered on if I should skirt the engagement or try to catch a glimpse of what was going on.

I figured I'd take the risk. I'll be involved in the conflict whether I like it or not, better have some intel gathered beforehand. It'd help me avoid any nasty surprises.

Thus, I stashed my compass away and carefully moved closer to the confrontation. I made sure to stay away from any open spaces beyond the claustrophobic alleyways.

It was then a matter of finding a good vantage point to observe the proceedings. Maybe even intervene if it was worth the effort.

This building should do the trick. It was very close to the fight, yes, but the steeper the angle, the fewer chances to be spotted or hit.

I carefully opened the backdoor and peered in. The corridor was empty. No booby traps either but you couldn't be careful enough when clearing a building.

My back against the wall, my rifle raised, I began my ascent up the stairs. It seemed to be empty, no shots echoed from inside. Good for me, it meant no one to fight.

Upon reaching my destination, the roof, I made sure to block the door opening mechanism with my bludgeoning implement. Indeed. I carried a mace with me - every soldier had a melee weapon for trench combat. This would hopefully hold long enough to let me respond to a threat.

And my back now secured, I could finally focus on what mattered: the engagement below.

And how do I say this without sounding like a complete madman…

Schoolgirls were shooting at each other.

It sounded stupid, it was stupid, but my eyes couldn't deceive me. Below, six or so girls in black and red uniforms, manning the remnants of a checkpoint, were fighting a dozen criminal-looking hostiles dressed in blue.

And what was more unreal was the fact no one seemed to take any visible damage. Some staggered, some fell, but otherwise? They were alive and well. No pool of blood surrounding the fallen, no piece of flesh littering the road. Hell, they weren't even taking cover!

I tried to cope with the initial shock. But I just couldn't rationalize that. Until… it clicked.

I understood what the dogman said by not having a halo. This literally made them bulletproof.

But that can't be it, right? Otherwise, there wouldn't be motionless bodies scattered around. And they sure as hell wouldn't be shooting each other if it didn't do shit.

Right as I said that, the remaining black and red girls seemed to be faltering. And I was given an option:

To do something and help them.

Or to stay out of it.

And I was already loading my under-barrel grenade launcher.

40mm, High Explosive. I only had a handful of these issued to me to take out pillboxes. But they took care of the rank-and-file quite efficiently too.

Let's see if their halos can withstand this.

I aimed into their rear, where they were the most packed. Time slowed as I took one last deep breath before steading my aim…

…And pulling on the trigger.

A thump resounded as the ordinance left the barrel. I took cover right as the explosion silenced the battlefield.

I had to be quick.

I disabled the safety on my rifle and went for the kill. Automatic fire, a 5-round burst aimed square at one of the standing delinquents.

And to my horror, she took the shots like she was stung by an insect. She turned around, stared straight into my eyes, and opened fire.

"Oi! We got another one here!"

The familiar whizz of bullets passed right by my covered ears, some impacting into the concrete, the rest flying by harmlessly. I pushed my head into my shoulders with each shot, but I kept up the fire.

This was nothing new to me after all.

The recoil slammed against my shoulder, and beads of sweat ran down my face. But again and again, I pulled on the trigger, watching the hooligan stagger more and more until she collapsed.

A dozen rounds had been expended for one girl.

Maybe I did this all wrong? The military taught me to aim for the center of mass, as it was the easiest place to hit. But this kind of strategy wasn't effective when factoring in the resilience of Kivotos denizens.

I aimed for another girl, but this time I corrected my aim to target her head. I was pushing my luck, staying exposed like that. But what could I say? Who dares win!

Like before, I unleashed a five-round burst. And to my relief, she fell almost immediately - halo disappearing.

Aim for the vitals, of course. Easier said than done, but I could manage.

The click of the bolt put an end to my attack, but I succeeded in diverting them. The other side finally laid decent fire downrange. The tides turned in their favor.

I swapped my magazine for a full one and grimaced once I realized that I only had three left.

I damn hope they use the same calibers as me, or else I'm fucked.

After chambering a new round, I went back to doing what I did best: shooting bad guys. And the bad guys were retreating.

At that moment, God gave me another choice. Either I leave them be, or I dump another grenade to drive home the message.

I didn't hesitate.

A few minutes earlier…

Tokiko has never been a lucky girl. She was shy, so she joined the Justice Task Force to find more confidence in herself. And she liked her position! Patrolling the streets of Trinity was relaxing, and she made friends for the first time too. She had been given a purpose, and so life was perfect for her.

"Hold your positions!"

But now, she wished to have hesitated twice before joining the club.

"Push 'em! They're 'bout to break!"

Tokiko huddled behind a concrete barrier, hugging her EM-2 like one of her plushies. The wind picked up, carrying with it the heat of the burning Crusader tank.

She and her squad had been tasked with manning a checkpoint leading into the district. This was part of a coordinated effort to cut the growing flow of contraband into Trinity. Supposedly, this would have been an easy, no-brainer job. This road wasn't the largest, after all, no cars went through there.

So why were they under attack by a bunch of gangsters?! And how did they manage to take their only tank out so fast?!

"Come on, keep firing!" Her squad leader, a second year, shouted to whoever remained. All the while she peppered the sukebans with her Vickers.

At this sight, Tokiko gathered her strength and peeked out of cover. Peering through her bangs, she aligned her sights on one of the rampaging hooligans.

Come on, you can do this! She wasn't the lonely girl from before. No, she could take out the bad guys now. Hasumi-senpai will be proud of her!

Her heart was full of determination, the first-year took a deep breath and pulled on the trigger.

And the rifle responded with a click.

It jammed?!

Panic settled into Tokiko as she frantically worked the bolt of her gun to unjam it. How could it be? She was always thorough with weapon maintenance. Of her platoon, she scored the best in the tests!

But a shadow dawned on her. Fear struck her small frame as she looked up to meet the barrel of a shotgun, and the sinister expression of a sukeban.

Tears welled up in her eyes. She really should have hesitated before joining the Justice Task Force.

Yet, the gunshot never came. In its stead, an explosion rocked the street. The sukeban turned back, allowing one of her squadmates to take her out with a well-placed burst.

"Tokiko-chan! Are you alright?" Her friend, Hiroe, shouted as she kneeled next to her friend. She could only muster a nod in response.

"W-What was that?" Tokiko then asked before turning her head to the street.

Someone on a roof engaged the sukebans with rifle fire. They didn't do much damage, but the diversion allowed the battered squad to reorganize. And soon, the hooligans were under fire from two directions at once.

"Reloading!"

"I-I'm covering you, Hiroe-chan!"

Tokiko focused. Short controlled bursts, just like how her training dictated. Another sukeban fell. Even as her skin stung from the bullets' impact, she didn't relent. And with their squad leader's manning the machine gun, fire superiority shifted in their favor.

"Fuck, retreat!"

The remaining hooligans finally gave up and fell back. If it wasn't for another grenade to turn this retreat into a complete rout.

Tokiko felt the adrenaline drain as she lowered her EM-2. She looked at their combined handiwork, and then at the figure above who helped them. She squinted, and, through her bangs, she made out the features of a man framed by a ballistic helmet.

Heh? He isn't old at all...

"You girls are alright?" He shouted, pulling the first-year out of her daydreaming. But before she could answer, her squad leader took over.

"Half of us are down, but otherwise we're good!"

"Understood. Stay here, I'm coming down!"

Tokiko looked down at the ground. It was the first time she ever saw a guy like them. And she didn't know how to feel about it...

I opened the chamber of my under-barrel grenade launcher. The hot 40mm casing fell to the ground with a metallic clank.

The dust settled on the now silent battlefield. Leaving in its wake nothing but blasted concrete and a few still bodies.

I always found the aftermath of a battle to be the worst part. When the adrenaline's gone you're forced to witness the consequences of your act, of mankind's nature.

And this time was no exception. Hell, I even felt worse. I just shot at teenage girls…

I made my way down the roof, solemn. If it was any consolation, none of them seemed to be dead. But it didn't change the moral conundrum that I raised my rifle and shot to kill the very kind of people I am supposed to protect.

At least, the side I supported was victorious. And the enemies were criminals. Yeah.

I was surprised at how young these girls are. We're talking about teenagers wearing this black and red uniform. The oldest of them looked to be sixteen years old, give or take. The rest were no older than fifteen.

I mean, I've seen my fair share of teenagers lying about their age to join the army. But it remained rare in the grand scheme of things. Here though? None of them, including the somehow still alive hooligans, seemed to be above eighteen.

"You were in a tough spot I see," I said upon coming closer, my eyes falling upon the wreck of a tank in the middle of the street.

"If only you knew. Thanks for your help, we wouldn't have driven them out otherwise."

I didn't know what was up with me and helping others today, but I was on one hell of a streak.

"Don't mention it, I did my duty."

And I swear I heard a "so cool" from one of the younger soldiers on the side. Oh please! My ego can only inflate so much.

But back to more important matters. I pointed at the downed hooligans, "they're still kicking. What are you going to do to them?"

The NCO sighed, "Standard procedure for students foreign to Trinity states we should hand them over to Valkyrie. But with the state of Kivotos, I'm not sure."

Valkyrie? It was the second time I heard of them. From the way she talked about them, it was fair to assume they acted as a form of law enforcement. But that wasn't the only thing that caught my interest.

"Trinity", huh? I doubted that they were involved in the ongoing conflict. Otherwise, I would have already stumbled on one of their patrols during my walk.

From what I've seen, Trinity was pretty well organized as a state. They had the logistics to field tanks and a decently professional military too.

But what's the point of Valkyrie then? It could be another faction, but it sure didn't sound like that. At least, the NCO didn't frame them as one.

In the end, I had many questions and almost no answers. But as I was about to ask for more information, a little soldier called out to the rest of her group.

"Oh look, it's Tsurugi-senpai! And Ichika-senpai too!"

My curiosity perked at the two names. And I peered to try and catch a glimpse of them. If a grunt knew them, chances were those two were quite important.

One was a figure dressed in rags resembling their uniform, carrying two lever-action shotguns in her hands. Her appearance was messy, and also covered in... blood, like the halo above her head that was dripping with it. Not the most inviting if you'd ask me. But her expression was probably the most disturbing of them all. She sported this kind of sadistic glee, turning into confusion, and then absolute boredom once she realized there were no threats. She kicked a rock too.

The other was already friendlier in appearance. She wore the standard uniform but with an armband this time. Flowing black hair - as was the norm amongst the troops - though her bangs didn't cover her eyes. Eyes that were closed by the way, but opened up to reveal greyish irises once she spotted me.

I'm not even going to question it at this rate. I did observe schoolgirls shrugging off gunfire. She must have one trick up her sleeve to shoot with accuracy.

She was the one who approached us first. Her eyelids shut once again.

"We've heard you were being overwhelmed, so we brought reinforcements," she said before an embarrassed smile appeared on her face, "but it looks like you've already dealt with them."

The NCO nodded, "Yeah, but it wouldn't have been possible without his help. Mr ...?"

"Specialist Edward Marszalek," I turned my head to the officer, "I assume you're Tsurugi?"

At that moment, it was like a piece of her died in front of me. Considering how everyone turned toward me with varying degrees of shock, I also felt like I just committed a cultural faux pas. The NCO was stifling a laugh though, and the other rag girl stared at us with a blank expression.

"Did I say something wrong? I'm not from here, I apologize," I quickly added with an awkward bow to try and salvage the situation.

"N-No, it's alright. Really. It just surprised me," she replied with the same kind of awkwardness, "my name is Nakamasa Ichika. But you can call me Ichika, Marushareku-san."

I cringed at the way she butchered my name. But I guess it was fair game considering I confused hers earlier. Seems like they weren't too into military honorifics either. Well, that had to be expected considering they were still teenagers.

"Just call me Edward, or Ed. Whatever suits your boat."

"Aight. Edward-san, thank you for helping my juniors." Ichika bowed to me in a show of gratitude. I looked away, embarrassed, it felt like I'd received way too many thanks today.

"Again, don't worry about it. I did my job, that's all." But this might work in my favor, especially if I want to… "By the way, I need to talk with your commanding officer. It's urgent. Is it you?"

"Oh? No, that would be Tsurugi-senpai," She waved to the rag girl—wait, she is the commanding officer? "Tsurugi-senpai, please come over here!"

This shook her out of her reverie and the rag girl who approached us at a slow pace.

"Gyah? Hm. Yes, what is it?"

"Edward-san would like to talk to you."

Tsurugi stared at me, and I stared back. Seconds passed in a blank, and then her expression went from the usual uninterested glare to surprise, to... embarrassment? Well, her face couldn't be any redder than the blood on her uniform, that's for sure.

I know I'm not ugly but it can't be the first time they've seen a dude, right? But I've never seen another human male like me either. Which removes credit to my hypothesis the deeper I think about it.

"Ah! Huh... Y-yeah? What is it?" To my great surprise, her face was quite pleasant to look at whenever it didn't seem like she was going to murder someone. She also seemed to be the oldest, I'd say one or two years younger than me at most.

"I have thirty-four civilians hiding in a subway station by West Park, seven or so clicks from here. There's a battle going on close by. I need someone to evacuate them."

Tsurugi blinked. Either out of surprise or disappointment. But she didn't provide me with much of an answer. It was Ichika who intervened first.

"West Park?" She rubbed her chin, looking(?) up, "It is outside of our jurisdiction. Dunno how the GSC would feel about us intervening there."

The voice of the NCO then added, "Isn't Hasumi-senpai in their headquarters? If he came with her he could maybe sort things out."

"What's the GSC?" I asked.

"You're really not from here, huh?" Ichika shook her head, "It's the General Student Council, they basically run the city."

So Kivotos had a supranational organization overseeing the whole city. Made of students. Yeah, it made sense for the place to be in a war if the administrators were a bunch of teenagers.

But the worst part, and the one I feared the most, was that there were no ways of directly contacting their law enforcement or military to solve the issue.

"So I have to go through official channels to get them out of danger?"

"We can't intervene without explicit approval from the GSC. So... yeah, you do."

I held back a sigh of annoyance. From my humble experience as an enlisted soldier, I knew how damn slow the bureaucracy could be. It was partly why the whole war turned into a slog, and the counter-offensive failed.

My displeasure must have been more explicit than I thought because Ichika tried to make things more convenient.

"But! Seeing as you've helped us, I think we could spare them a transport helicopter. Right, Tsurugi-senpai?"

"Gyah?! Hiyee... Uh. O-Of course! Any...thing for y-you!" I never saw someone look so ashamed in my life. Poor girl, must be tough to fit in with such a "colorful" personality.

Ichika didn't seem bothered by it. Heh, she was probably used to it already. "Well, that's that figured out. Edward-san, I'll get a helicopter ready for you."

She turned to the rest of the soldiers, pointing to the NCO, "Girls, listen to Hisayo-chan while I am gone, alright?"

A flurry of "Yes, Ichika-senpai!" followed as they moved to secure the road and evacuate the wounded. For a bunch of students, they were quite well organized indeed.

As for me? I slung my rifle on my shoulder and slid my hands inside my bulletproof vest. I could relax a bit now that I was in friendly territory.

"Lead the way, Ichika."

"On it!"

And so we began to make our way deeper into Trinity, where the architecture completely shifted. I saw more students too, they gave me a strange look, but we passed by them quickly. Guess I am a novelty here.

A few minutes in I bid farewell to Ichika, then embarked on the transport. And as I flew above the metropolis, stretching as far as the eye could see, my eyes stumbled on a pillar of light, piercing the very heavens.

Kivotos, what a strange place this is.