Kai's boots were soaked through, the dampness seeping into his feet. The cold was biting, but he'd learned long ago that a few hours of discomfort was far more bearable than the consequences of neglecting survival. Trench foot could ruin anyone. His boots were discarded into the muck, and for a moment, he allowed himself a brief reflection. The desert at night was freezing, the rain relentless, turning everything into a watery grave. A single shot broke the silence, a warning, a reminder of the stakes here.
'A charge?', Kai's mind whispered, instinctively reaching for his weapon.
But the moment passed. The silence lingered, and then—another shot, this time from the opposite side.
Another scream, raw and unrestrained. Kai moved toward it, eyes scanning the terrain, he was on alert but as he ran to the scream no other sounds followed. Not a gunshot or another scream. Kai saw Milad on the ground stunned and Taghi standing over him.
"I'm hit! I'm hit! I'm hit!"
Taghi started searching all over Milad for a bullet wound only to find nothing.
"No Milad, no you're fine."
"What's going on?!" Diba announced walking towards the boys.
Taghi stood up stumbling using his rifle to balance himself while Milad kept to the ground still panting.
"The others over there. They shot at me."
Milad handed Diba his metal helmet revealing a bullet ricochet off of it.
Milad checked himself for bullet wounds again.
Diba turned around to look at Kai with a smile on his face.
"They saw the flash of your muzzle."
"Huh?'
Diba threw the helmet into Milads lap.
"Keep your heads down. If you don't you'll catch the next one with your teeth, move ten meters to the left. Shoot change cover Shoot change cover Understand?"
The boys shook their heads.
"Yeah."
Diba walked by Kai, a low chuckle escaping his lips as he moved further down the trench.
"Kai, since you're up, you're on guard duty now."
Kai sighed, the kind of sigh that came from deep in the chest, where frustration liked to coil up and simmer. Guard duty. Of course. "Fantastic" he muttered under his breath, adjusting his rifle as he leaned against the trench wall. The muck squelched underfoot, a constant reminder of how little this place cared for dignity or dry socks. As Diba disappeared down the line, Kai let the irritation flicker across his face for just a moment before smoothing it over again. Guard duty. Perfect time to contemplate the meaning of life—or lack thereof 'Guess I'll be the one catching the next one with my teeth,' he thought dryly, eyes scanning the dark. The night had the decency to stay cold.
Kai watched as the Iraqies shot up a bright orange flair into the sky illuminating the land between the two nations. Bodies, barbed wire, destroyed vehicles, rats running around. A body closest to Kai's trench has a hand reaching up for something like it was clawing at the air, reaching for... something. Maybe salvation. Maybe nothing at all.
An explosion landed right where the body was sending sand and bits into the sky.
"Take cover! Take cover! Alarm!"
Soldiers screamed all over as defining explosions rang out all around them.
"Come quickly!"
Somebody yelled at Kai and others scattered around the area, Kai followed the soldier until they came across a hole in the ground with an officer screaming waving his arm into the bunker screaming.
"Inside! Inside! Inside!"
Kai hurried in followed by many others.
"Watch what you eat. That's what my mother said 'We'll always be together won't we?'
It was one of Milad's friends Rasoul Kai thought his name was.
"Yeah," Milad replied.
"We'll stick together. We'll always be….I cant do this Milad I can't do this I need to go home.I need to go home."
Milad stayed quiet breathing heavily as the explosions stopped.
Kai leaned against the damp wall of the bunker, the distant sound of falling debris still echoing in his ears. Rasoul's voice was shaky, desperate, words spilling out like he thought saying them fast enough might make them true.
Kai watched him, his expression unreadable, eyes flicking briefly to Milad. The quiet breathing, the clenched jaw—it was all the answer Milad could muster.
"Always be together," Kai thought, the phrase rolling through his mind like a bad joke. It was the kind of promise people made when they didn't understand how quickly everything out here fell apart. An Artillery shell didn't care about friendship. A sniper didn't wait for a goodbye.
He turned his gaze to the low ceiling of the bunker, his thoughts calm, methodical. Rasoul's already gone. He just doesn't know it yet. This place had a way of chewing through people like him—too soft, too hopeful. Milad might hold out longer, but he was cracking too.
Kai shifted slightly, his voice remaining silent.
The explosions stopped as you could hear more flairs shooting up into the sky.
"Creeping barrage." An older soldier said.
"What?" Milad asked.
"Every couple of minutes the artillery barrage makes an advance forward. And directly after that, the infantry moves forward."
"What are you saying exactly?" Taghi asked.
"That's how they come."
Silence followed when more explosions landed on top of them causing many to freak out. Kai braced. A soldier next to Kai stood up and started to walk towards the exit.
"Where are you going?"
The officer stopped him.
"I'll come back."
The young soldier said.
"It's nearly over."
The younger soldier tried to barge past him but the older soldier pushed him into the support beam.
"No! Let me go!"
"Stay where you are!"
"Let me out! I want out!"
"Calm down."
The officer lifted the boy up and pushed him into a support beam again. The younger soldier moaned in pain sliding to the floor.
"Calm yourself."
The officer looked at the other for a second and the younger soldier taking this chance got up and ran to the exit.
"No!"
As soon as he left an artillery shell fell directly on him spraying his blood, and body parts into the bunker. People started to scream as blood and other bits were sprayed all over them.
Kai blinked once, slowly, as if processing the scene in real time required deliberate effort. The bunker was filled with the metallic tang of blood and the suffocating weight of silence that followed. He glanced at the doorway, now nothing more than a frame for a nightmare, and then back at the others.
The officer stood frozen, his face pale, while the younger soldiers trembled in place, trying to scrub off the reality that had just sprayed across them.
Kai exhaled through his nose wiping off the blood off his face with his arm sleeve. So that's how it ends for him, he thought, a quiet, almost resigned observation. Not anger, not shock—just another note in the growing ledger of inevitabilities.
Kai's feet pounded the uneven ground as he sprinted out of the collapsing bunker, his mind already calculating the next move. The earth trembled underfoot as support beams buckled above, sending splinters and debris raining down. Sand kicked up in chaotic waves, making it hard to see, but the stench of blood and dirt was unmistakable.
The soldiers around him were in full panic mode, stumbling over one another in their scramble to escape. The officer's frantic shouts barely registered—"Get out! Out! Out!"—as if they could outrun the inevitable.
Kai's eyes darted across the trench. The others were scattering, but there was no real order to it, just sheer survival instinct. His movements were deliberate, calm amidst the madness, his focus fixed on the immediate threat ahead.
The explosions intensified as the artillery barrage rolled closer. Shells landed with deafening cracks, sending up showers of dirt and sand, and the trench walls shook violently with each new impact. Kai barely flinched; it wasn't new, just another part of the routine.
A soldier ahead of him was caught by a nearby blast, his body thrown back into the mud. Kai didn't even slow down. There were too many to save and too many more coming. The best chance of survival was to stay in motion, to keep your head down, and not get caught up in the frenzy.
As he neared the trench's edge, Kai saw the others—panicked, trying to find shelter, lost in the chaos. His hand tightened around his rifle, his posture shifting into a more defensive stance. The infantry would be following the barrage soon. They would push forward without hesitation, regardless of who survived the blast.
He slid down into a shallow section of the trench, eyes scanning the horizon as he took cover. His breath was steady, his pulse unchanged, and he glanced briefly at the soldiers scrambling around him. A familiar sense of detachment crept in.
The soldiers all found a spot to hide from the artillery and wait for the infantry to move in but the advance never came. They were lucky.
Hours passed as officers waited for an advance.
"Tend to the wounded!"
The sun was beginning to rise, casting weak light across the trench. The air was thick with the smell of dirt and blood, the aftermath of the bombardment still hanging in the air. The soldiers, shell-shocked but alive, had found whatever cover they could, crouching low in the trench, eyes flickering nervously between the battlefield and their comrades. The lull was welcome but precarious. Kai stayed still, watching.
Kai moved through them, his eyes scanning the battlefield with a quiet intensity. The order had been given—tend to the wounded Kai had limited supplies but he did have the know-how.
The order came down the line to tend to the wounded. It wasn't a surprise. Someone had to do it.
Kai took a breath and moved methodically toward the injured. He pulled out a first aid kit he had and it was heavy but familiar. The weight of it was nothing new; the contents—bandages, antiseptics, and gauze. The first soldier was sprawled on the ground, his eyes wide and panicked. His leg was twisted at an unnatural angle, and the blood was seeping quickly from the wound. He reached out with a shaking hand, trying to speak, but no sound came. Kai pulled the first aid kit open, fingers moving with practiced precision.
"Stay still," Kai said, his voice flat, devoid of any softness. He didn't look at the man's face for long—his focus was on the injury. He grabbed the bandages and pressed down firmly on the wound to slow the bleeding. The soldier grimaced, but Kai's hands were steady. Once the bleeding was under control, he moved on to the next he didn't have the necessary items to mend a broken bone right there and then. The work wasn't complicated, but it was draining, like a steady rhythm that never stopped. Each soldier, each injury, was a part of the same unrelenting process. Some soldiers had their wounds dressed, others were already slipping in and out of consciousness.
He crouched beside Vahid, who was working over another soldier, applying pressure to a wound in his chest. Milad looked over at Kai, his face drawn.
"Think he'll make it?" Vahid asked quietly, almost to himself.
Kai glanced at the man, his pale face, his shallow breaths. There was no denying it. "Not without better care."
Vahid's gaze didn't waver, but his shoulders slumped slightly as if he already knew the answer. Kai didn't linger on it. There was no use in dwelling on what couldn't be changed. The work came first.
The sun was higher now, the trench growing warmer. There was a sense of uneasy calm, the kind that settled deep in the bones, a quiet before the storm. Kai adjusted the first aid kit on his shoulder, eyes scanning the horizon. For a moment, it seemed like the worst had passed.
"Hey, that's Milad!"
A voice yelled out.
"Vahid! Vahid! Come here we found Milad!"
Kai followed Vahid to where the bunker was, both of the boys helping pull off some wooden boards as Milad was unearthed.
"Get up. I'll help you."
Taghi said, helping him up.
"Are you injured? Milad, are you injured?"
Milad didn't answer.
"Can you hear us?" Vahid asked.
"We need help over here!"
Somebody yelled out.
"We'll see you later Milad."
The boys went to help but Kai stayed watching Milad who started looking around his face covered in black soot. He got up slowly and stumbled into the trench and sat down along the sand wall. Kai followed sitting across from him and pulled out a ration piece he had found on a dead soldier that was still edible. He ripped it in half and handed the half to Milad. Who grabbed it desperately scarfing it down, as Kai saw what happened after today it would be nice to have people watching his back just in case.
The two sat in silence as an officer came over to them.
"Hisoka back to work. And you? Are you injured?"
"No."
"Then start gathering."
The officer threw a little grey bag at Milad who caught it and walked off.
"No rest for the wicked."
Diba said as he walked by them.
"It's the same every day."
Diba grabbed a shovel logged into the sand by Kai's head and went the way he came.
"What am I gathering?" Milad asked Kai.
"Dog tags."
The two stood up as Kai reached for his grey bag which was half filled by now. There were plenty of bodies as the two of them walked further down the trench, but Milad stopped and grabbed something, almost causing Kai to run into him. It was Rasoul's glasses. In front of the glasses was a body that looked similar to Rasoul with a leg missing. Milad flipped him over and it was Rasoul, Milad grabbed his dog tag and seemed unconcerned but when he put it in the grey bag he started to cry and unbutton his shirt a little and Kai didn't know why.
"Keep working!" Soldiers yelled further up the trench.
Kai put his hand on Milads shoulder which caused him to grab his grey bag and start to collect dog tags on the next body.
Hours passed by when an officer came to Kai.
"High command wants to see you."
Kai was by himself at this time taking a break.
"What do they want with me?"
"Go find out."
Kai followed the officer as they passed by bodies and mass graves. There was a truck waiting for Kai. He climbed in and the driver took off towards the closest village where they had all those wounded soldiers when Kai first arrived. He was directed into a well-kept building in the middle of the village, walked in and went up the stairs to find the high command room.
There was a man covered in what looked like ancient Roman armor but with the colors and flags of modern Iran standing by the window in the empty room.
"Kai Hisoka."
Kai nodded.
"I was put in charge of this battalion the other day and when I saw your file I had to meet you in person."
"And what's your name?"
"Caesar."
"Caesar?" Kai found it hard to believe someone naming their son that in modern Iran. "Is that your real name?"
"I gave it to myself."
"Okay." Kai was beginning to understand this man.
"A soldier with the perfect quirks and skills in combat happened to fall into my lap."
"I didn't just fall into your lap did I?"
"I called in a few favors to get put in charge here."
"I see. But aren't my quirks not allowed here followed by the 1990 treaty between Iran and Iraq?"
"People can't detect your quirks and if they do you would've already killed them by that time."
The 1990 treaty set the rules for modern quirk warfare and that is that there will be no quirks in modern wars. If you are caught, punishment will be severe, meaning war with the world.
"So what do you want with me?"
"I have a special mission that will take months for you to finish. I was reading every document and file I could find about the first war between our nations and I discovered something interesting. There might be a superweapon in the Divide."
The Divide was a stretch of land between Iran, Iraq, and Turkey that used to be Kurdistan. In the first Iran and Iraq war the Iraqis developed a quirk in a lab in Kurdistan that somebody was essentially a nuclear bomb, Iran's spies had learned about the location and sent most of its military force to take it by force while Iraq had learned of the plan and sent it's most of its military force to defend the lab that had developed the quirk through testing and selective breeding. Nobody knows how or why but the person who had the nuclear quirk used it, destroying everything in that country as well as the surrounding lands which led to the treaty.
"I can't survive the Divide the radiation would kill me and who knows what's out there."
"I had a suit developed just for this. Follow me."
Caesar led Kai into a room where the outfit was on display. It was black as night with an armored gas mask with the rest of it being ancient roman armor but with kevlar instead and it covered the entire body.
"You're a big fan of Rome."
"I am a descendant of Augustus, it's in my blood."
"Really?"
"Yes, I am. Try on the suit I'll leave so you can change."
Caesar left and Kai put on the armor, it was very breathable and flexible it wouldn't weigh him down at all. Kai left the room with it on as Caesar stood across the room admiring it.
"What if I refuse to go?"
"I'll have you executed by firing squad."
"What if I fight instead of going?"
"You can't kill all of us."
Caesar had him in a corner.
"And where is this super weapon located then?"
"Glad you came to your senses. It's located deep within the Divide in some type of silo."
"You think I can walk in there and find this?"
"You don't have a choice."
Kai sighed through his mask.
"How do I get there?"
"I have a truck outside with a GPS going there."
"Okay.."
"You'll be known as a hero if you do this correctly. Dismissed."
Kai walked out of the building with the suit still on and climbed into the armored truck, turned it on and began his trek to the divide.