CHAPTER 8

Four years ago

Jun watched her reflection in the shining, metallic exterior of the pistol in her small hands, and then in Mamoru's eyes.

"I don't know if I can do this, Mamoru." She spoke, her voice small, and unsure.

"You have to, Minori-chan. I know you don't want to, but for this to work, you're going to have to learn how to shoot." His voice was soft, and filled with fondness. She took a deep breath, and let the visor fall over her left eye. She lined the pistol up with the target, aimed for the middle, and squeezed the trigger like Mamoru had told her. The force was almost unbearable, and she dropped the pistol immediately afterwards, unable to hold it anymore. Mamoru stood, astounded, watching the target, where she had hit a perfect bullseye.

"You're a natural, Minori." He said with a laugh. She exhaled in relief. At least there was something she was good at.

"We're going to try something else today. I know you're still uncomfortable with a gun, but you need to get over it. A gun is your only companion out in the extra judi zones, if you can't use it, you will die." His voice sent shivers down her spine. He lead her by her hand to a large, dimly lit chamber. It was completely empty, much to her dismay. She watched him type something on the holographic keyboard.

"This is a combat simulator. I'm going to set it to easy, and give you a standard weapon," he explained as she watched the machine digistruct some sort of rifle, "it's an assault rifle, the kick is a little stronger than the pistol, but it should be easier to aim with this," he handed her the black rifle, and watched her try to position it, "put the back against your shoulder, and keep your finger on the trigger. It's semi-automatic, so it'll be easier to fire. Do you want to try it out, first?" She gave a meek nod, and followed him back to the targets. She positioned the rifle like he told her to, let the visor fall over her eye, and exhaled as she squeezed the trigger. She aimed for the middle, but her shots were slightly off. It had a completely different feel than the pistol had, Mamoru was right, the kick was different, and it was easier to fire, but harder to control. She lowered her weapon, took a moment to relax, and quickly positioned the rifle against her shoulder once again. This time she squeezed the trigger without thinking about it, and watched as her array of shots all scattered around the bullseye, she focused her last shot, aiming it straight at the bullseye, and it hit, dead centre.

"I think I'm ready for the simulation." She said with the utmost confidence.

One year later

She was in the simulation again, but it was different this time. This time it wasn't just with Mamoru watching her, this time Major Minami and a few other high-ranking officials were coming to see whether she was fit for any of their teams. She'd passed the physical exam with flying colours, and now it was time for selection process. She didn't know which setting the examiner would set the simulation to, and ran all the possibilities through her brain. There was the easiest one, the trench scenario, and some of the more harder ones, like the open field scenario, as well as the broken society one. Luckily for her, it was the broken-down city one, the debris of the fallen society littered her vision, but she was grateful for it. This gave her more opportunity to hide. The difficulty was set to hard, and the AI had been set to mimic actual soldiers. She preferred the mode where it acted like some sort of first-person shooter game, but this was an exam. A rifle dropped from the air, her custom made one, an assault rifle with a scope on the top. She picked it up, and then the simulation began. Chaos erupted all around her, as the shooting started. It was her against a team of at least thirty soldiers, and she had to move fast, this mission was about speed, and Jun was good at it. While she wasn't exactly strong, she was fast, and nimble as can be. She knew her way around a battlefield, despite her meagre training. She positioned her rifle as a target came into view, quickly she tapped the trigger, and down he went. Her double tap habit shone as bright as day, as the next target appeared, quickly she rolled away from her shelter, tapped the trigger twice, and repositioned her rifle as she aimed for the heart, and then the head, neither one of the shots missing. In the short time she'd spent training with Mamoru, she'd discovered she had an affinity for guns, and she was grateful for it. The next target came barrelling out of nowhere, Jun willed her body to duck behind a pillar, as the shot grazed the concrete next to her ear. She let out a breath she didn't know she was holding, and aimed her rifle to hit her target. She peeked around the pillar, fired a shot, and watched him crumble like a skyscraper. She saw three of the faceless soldiers coming toward her and took a breath from behind the pillar, she snuck around the back of it, and flanked two of them from behind, before ending the last with a cheeky slit of the throat. Before she could so much as blink, a shot fired past her, and on her right, was another one of the things. She aimed her rifle, and hit both of the shots she aimed. When she pressed the trigger once again, her magazine was empty, so behind a makeshift barrier she dove, and digistructed another one. She'd hit seven of them, which meant there were twenty-thee of them left. She flicked on stealth mode, and blended into her surroundings. She snuck around the arena as quiet as she could, breathing lightly, stepping even lighter. Inside her personal inventory, a secondary weapon lay dormant, and she digistructed it, along with a silencer she'd put in there previously. Sneaking up on one of them, she pulled the trigger, watched him fall, and then moved onto another two. Their deaths were as swift as the first one was. She tried to remain stealthy, but the AI had picked up on her presence, which nullified the effects of her suit. She fired two successive shots at a soldier who charged at her, and then switched weapons. Sending a small drone out to scout, she spotted five of them up ahead. As quietly as she could, she rolled in behind them, behind another broken down piece of a building, and fired her shots as fast as she could. The five of them crumbled beneath her skills. She'd eliminated seventeen of them by then, but she refused to grind through all of them. Sneaking through the rubble, she identified her final target, and switched to her silenced pistol. Aiming at his head, she shot, and then aimed once at his heart again. He crumbled to the floor, and her surroundings faded into nothingness. The simulation had ended. When she stepped out, she could see her score displaying on the holographic projector. A 98, one of the highest scores they'd ever seen. To say Jun was overqualified for a foot soldier position was an understatement. That was when Major Minami took her as one of his soldiers. He told her there was a position for her on LET1, and that someone with her talent would decay on any other team. She only accepted because she knew Mamoru was on the team, anyway.

The embers of the campfire danced into the night sky like tiny, disappearing faeries, thought Jun, as she stared up the empty night sky, and how it swallowed the embers of their fire whole. Next to her, sat Manabu, wordlessly staring at her, watching her analyse the careful dances of the embers.

Satoshi emerged from a tent, "don't look so serious, Jukkun. Kuramoto has fallen asleep."

She was still apprehensive, and therefore didn't deactivate her voice modulator, "can never be too sure, Sato-kun." She said with a smile, as she finally looked at him.

"Don't look so discouraged, just because we didn't find him at the Hanran compound, doesn't mean we won't find him," he assured Jun, but watched her face take on a turn he did not expect.

"I'm not even... sad, anymore," she stated, "I'm relieved. I'm so relieved that Mamoru isn't in some hidden Hanran chamber, being tortured for information regarding us or anything about the heitai. I'm just... so relieved, but also, I'm anxious. If he's not with the Hanran, then where the hell is he?"

"There is always the possibility that he's with Takahashi-san." Satoshi tried.

"I guess I'm just impatient," Jun laughed sheepishly, "I love him, so obviously I'm worried. And the fact that Akira has to find out where Takahashi lives is bothering me. Why wouldn't Akira have information like that at his fingertips? He's a Hanran general now, isn't he?"

"Technically, Akira is acting like a sort of interloper, until he proves himself in battle," Satoshi explained, "and besides, Akira doesn't need things like that, since Major Minami is only interested in strategy. He can acquire the residences later."

"Still," Jun nibbled on her bottom lip, "I'm anxious."

"I know you are, Jukkun. We both do," he looked at Manabu, but the best thing you can do right now is to wait."

"My favourite." She quipped sarcastically.

When she woke up the next day, she was buzzing, with nerves, with anticipation, and with unfelt emotions. She waited for Satoshi to wake up, but she had woken up at the crack of dawn, because she couldn't sleep the previous night. She spent the whole night tossing and turning in the tent she and Kuramoto had shared, hoping that somehow her brain would come to some sort of conclusion, but she couldn't think of anything, no matter how hard she tried. She didn't know what time it was when Satoshi and Manabu finally woke up, and joined her next to the small fire she'd created when the sun had risen. Satoshi grabbed a plastic cup from somewhere, and got some of the coffee that had been brewing over the fire ever since Jun woke up, and fished his stylus out of his pocket.

"There's a request from Akira." He said, keeping his voice low, to not wake up Kuramoto, who was sleeping soundly in his tent still.

"Call him." Jun said, but it was more like a demand. She wanted to apologize, but the look in Satoshi's eyes said he understood. Akira answered after the third ring, and as soon as the little green lock appeared at the bottom of the screen, signalling that the line was secure, he started speaking.

"I've found your Takahashi." Was all he said, before he looked down at his stylus, and started typing on the holographic keyboard.

"Thank you, Akira, I appreciate this." Satoshi said with a smile.

"I'm sending you everything I've got on her and the crew she's travelling with. They did report extra medical supplies when one of the girls' brother, Yuichi Nakamura, made his rounds to sector 18." Akira reported.

"Nakamura, huh?" Satoshi raised an eyebrow at Jun, who was still chewing on her bottom lip, "sounds familiar. He's not related to our Nakamura, is he?"

"Younger brother apparently, and he's also related to the Nakamura girl that lives with Takahashi," Akira explained, as Satoshi's stylus pinged, "listen, I've got to go. But keep me in the loop."

"Will do." Satoshi greeted as he hung up, and opened the documents. At the head of the document was a picture of Takahashi, her hair was shorter than it was before, and she wasn't smiling as much, but Satoshi knew, it was, undoubtedly her. He scrolled down, looking at the names of affiliations. Kohaku Nakamura, Naoki Kojima, Ayano Watanabe, Hitomi Matsuoka.

"Hitomi... Matsuoka?" Jun's eyes went wide.

"Yeah, I noticed she had the same..." before Satoshi could finish, he saw the tears in Jun's eyes.

"Woah, Jukkun. You okay, there?" He asked jokingly.

"That's my younger sister, Satoshi," she sniffled, "we were separated after I was captured in the Hiyokuna, I haven't seen her since then. I thought she'd died or something."

"Well, then," spoke Manabu for the first time, "today's going to be a very emotional day for you, isn't it?" He laughed afterwards, as Jun narrowed her eyes at him.

"I can't believe Hitomi is okay," she breathed, "to think, your old Japanese teacher found her, and brought her to one of the sectors. Where does this Takahashi live now?"

"There's no address, it's encrypted," Satoshi swore under his breath, "but luckily for us, Kuramoto dabbles in hacking. Won't you wake him up, Jukkun?"

"Sure," she stood, stretched her limbs and walked over to her and Kuramoto's shared tent, "Kuramoto," she said, her voice a little louder than a whisper, she watched him rise like a zombie, brushing a piece of hair out of his face, "sergeant Kaneko needs you outside." Immediately, as soon as she'd mentioned Satoshi's name, Kuramoto jumped up, and rushed to get dressed. It brought a smile to Jun's face, not only his rush to get ready, but also his name was Nobu for crying out loud, and he hasn't said a word since they've left the base.

"He's coming, but it'll take a—" before she could finish, Kuramoto stood behind her, saluting Satoshi.

"Kuramoto Nobu, reporting, sir." He announced.

"Calm down, Kuramoto. I need your expertise. Captain Nakamura said you have an affinity for technology." Satoshi stated.

"Well," Kuramoto drawled, "I did take a course before I joined the military, but I'm no expert. What is it that you need, sir?"

"I need to decrypt a document." Satoshi answered and handed him the stylus. Kuramoto surveyed the stylus, before rapidly starting to type on the keyboard, and eventually sitting down.

"This is some heavy-handed encryption, sir," he spoke without looking up, "this will take a while."

Satoshi cursed, but stood up anyway, "well, we might as well go look around in sector 18, or at least 17, maybe we'll find something there. Listen, Kuramoto, you stay here, while we go survey the area, if we're not back by sunset, make a fire, or signal us." He commanded.

"Yes, sir." Kuramoto answered dutifully. And then they were off.