Discord

War in the Future (TechiMemi)

Dust clouds rose. The distance was a flurry of brown. The sky had greyed. So much of the world was covered in the flames of war, the blood lost from the worst of human activity. What technological advances in the last few years meant nothing in the face of human lives lost. This world was filled with war, and no one could see the end of it even if they could almost see the end of the world past the horizon.

Of the major powers involved in the world war, Japan was one of the most unscathed. The battles had yet to drastically affect the civilian settlements, but already, a number of naval disputes off the coast had caused deaths in civilians.

Military weaponry had developed. Within the Japanese military, there were two special task forces called NG and ZEL comprised of a few dozen elites. Although that small number appeared to be useless at first, after the deployment of the first elite force, NG, Japan's military endeavors met with less casualties, bringing about the second force, ZEL.

Kakizaki Memi was attending a press conference about ZEL's latest accomplishments in the everlasting war. The group had taken down the terrorist cell that had run rampant in northern China for the past few years, allowing supplies to be directed to the battlefield and for Japan to win a crucial battle.

The cameras flashed, almost irritatingly. The voices of the reporters appeared to overlap. The wall behind the members of ZEL attending the conference had depictions of zelkova leaves, the symbol of their group. Sugai Yuuka and Moriya Akane, both heiresses to wealthy conglomerates who had set aside their silver spoon and enlisted, were answering the questions that were thrown toward them.

Of the members of ZEL present, only Sugai and Moriya were taking questions. The other two, Shida Manaka and Hirate Yurina, were standing to the side, rejecting questions and answering others with, "Classified." All four were dressed in black military uniforms striped with silver.

Although Memi had seen the ZEL members before, the elites used in advertising to promote enlistment in the military, this was the first time she had seen them in person. Memi was in the back, not a reporter asking questions, yet she could feel the intensity in Hirate's eyes. That short haired girl had a disinterested look yet her eyes were burning.

Soon enough, the question part of the conference was over. A few pictures more were taken and that was it.

Memi watched as the reporters filtered out of the conference area. She jolted in surprise as she felt a hand on her shoulder, turning to see a big sister-like friend, Nagahama Neru, a secret member of ZEL who worked on home base operations such as home grown terrorist groups. Her cover was that of a freelancer, in what was not specified.

If Neru and Memi hadn't met the way that they did, perhaps Memi wouldn't have ever known about Neru's connection to ZEL.

At that time, it was dark and muffled. Memi still wore her hair in low twintails, and as she was walking home, everything suddenly turned dark. When she awoke, she couldn't see. A sack was thrown over her head, and her limbs were roughly bound by rope.

Memi now and then was not a super soldier. She couldn't escape by herself, so she could only wait in terror as to what would happen to her. She didn't know who kidnapped her, but she could hear Japanese voices as well as foreign voices shouting. She could hear violent thuds and gunshots.

Before she could even process what was going on around her, she found herself roughly picked up by someone's hands. He barked at her in some language that she couldn't understand. Then, he shouted in the same unknown language at someone else.

Memi, who at that time was a middle school student, found the sack torn off her head. There was a piece of tape over her mouth. She found the barrel of a gun pressed against her head, and it seemed that she was being taken hostage in some sort of warehouse.