ANOMALY: E.K | BOOK 1 OF THE ANOMALY SAGA

CHAPTER 33

"It's... it's okay. I'm glad I got to see you... one last time, Tsuki..." I wheeze out, coughing out blood. I reach my hand to my abdomen and feel several other wounds spill blood but I only smile at her. Her face stared at me in confusion as it blurred into Akane's face.

[3POV]

"S-stop smiling you idiot! Please, they're almost here, RYŪ PLEASE!" Akane bawled, hitting Ryū's chest with their fist.

At this point, they weren't responding. Their face was gasping in shock and pain, wide eyes searching for something, anything. Akane watched them turn their head toward the arm that laid a couple feet away.

She screamed for help as sirens started approaching, but Ryū's face, which was contorting in pain and shallow breaths, as their body jerked before completely going still and silent.

Ryū's black clothing was completely soaked in blood, so much so that injuries weren't easily identifiable, yet the only sign of serious injury from Ryū was half a leg and a disembodied arm that was lying on the ground, completely severed from the host.

Akane's eyes turned to a woman identical to Ryū standing down the street that screamed, watching as she ran in the opposite direction.

The lone arm's fingers twitched for a couple moments, before coming to a dead stop.

Akane could only gasp and choke on her own tears, desperation showing as she grabbed Ryū's face, which was now ice cold and lifeless. And left alone, Akane screamed for help in an empty road, pure white snow falling onto them and hiding the impurities of the unfortunate night.

...

"She's barely stable enough for surgery. I need you to sign here, Mr. Suzuki." The Doctor announced, startling the said man out of his nap and Ilya watched the other man sign the papers, leaving him alone with the man in the halls of the ICU. 'Suzuki' had a mask covering his face, short ash hair and incredibly darkened sunglasses with an eyepatch underneath.

Ilya's drained blue eyes looked back down at his feet, only adorning sickly white slippers and sitting in scrubs that a kind nurse offered him, considering his clothes were drenched in blood, watching 'Suzuki's' sneakers hurry behind a pair of clogs. Akane looked away from the man, fiddling with her wedding ring. Jiro explicitly said to remain a bystander and act as if she didn't know him, so she remained next to the poor university student that was still in shock. All of the hostages were being held both for psych evaluation and physical checks since some were injured.

"Akane?" A low, tired voice called out, bringing her attention back into real life, being hit with the smell of sanitizers and the blood on her clothes.

"Kuromiya-san?"

He looked like he had just woken up. Still in sleepwear and his eyes were bloodshot and he probably only just got the call from his husband who saw the news.

"Is she in surgery? I heard what happened on the news so I came here as fast as I could..."

Akane just nodded looking up at him with red eyes, some small specks of blood littering her face, plump lips pressed together in stress.

"They had to restart their heart 3 times during surgery, Kēi." Her voice broke, nose scrunching at the thought and dry coughs and sobs came out. Kuromiya gently hugged her, stroking her sapphire hair.