"There's been a change in plans. Natsume has been rescued, so it's now out objective to find and eliminate Reo Mouri," Akira informed me.
Only minutes ago had his phone rung, Persona updating him on the mission's status.
"Whatever happens, don't listen to Reo's voice."
"Okay..."
"No, I'm serious. Think Narumi, but instead, Reo controls people with his voice."
"Got it." I seriously didn't want to think about what would happen if I was put under control.
"Okay, let's go and kick ass." Akira cheerfully unsheathed his gun, and I squinted at an red haired figure in the distance.
I tapped his shoulder, pointing. "Say, is that him?"
"What, oh crap. There goes any chances of an ambush." He exhaled before issuing commands. "When I fire, support me with your Alice. We'll aim to take him down from a distance. And I'll reiterate: avoid listening to his voice at all costs."
"Alright. I'm ready." I assumed what I hope was a battle ready position, hoping I didn't screw up and trip during a crucial moment due to nerves. The fox mask felt foreign against my face, and I tried to ignore it. I looked over to see Akira as calm as usual, and I wondered how many times he had been sent out on missions. Did he feel anything anymore when he killed? Or had any remnants of emotions left him with each person he killed? Perhaps I would ask him after the whole ordeal.
Bang.
As soon as the harsh sound of a fired bullet reached my ears, I prepared several orbs of water around me, freezing them into jagged spears of ice. Alerted by the noise, Reo looked over, and he tensed, before moving out of the bullet's trajectory. Just as it was about to miss him, the bullet suddenly curved, homing in on Reo, who looked far more alarmed than he did when he first saw the bullet. "Homing bullets?" I decided to ask.
"Yes and no; it's actually my Alice. I can create different bullets and fire them out of my gun," Akira explained, absently spinning the pistol in his hand as he talked. Reo was holding his arm, which was now bleeding. I guessed that he decided to take the bullet in his arm to avoid getting hit in the chest.
Sensing that I probably should be doing something, I sent the ice I had at the ready toward Reo, the shards making a whistling sound as it sliced through the air, and at its target.
"Boss! We're here!" A group of men clad in black ran up to Reo, signaling and gesticulating wildly. "Hurry up and get into the car! We'll covers for you!"
Reo deliberated for no longer than be second before starting to run. "I'll be counting on you."
"Oh no you don't," Akira growled out from next to me, firing five bullets in quick succession, all of them aimed at Reo, before running. "Kai, I'll go after Reo, you clean up here."
"Alright, got it." I looked at the men surrounding me with a sinking feeling. Was I to kill them? More like, was I able to kill them? My inner voice chimed in, and I attempted to tune it out. I didn't want to have to deal with my conscience when I already had such a heavy task to deal with.
I quickly drew up eight spheres of water this time—one for each opponent—and hastily froze them as half of the men rushed in at me. I thrust out with the ice spears, impaling the four who had run at me. The two who I had pierced through cleanly died instantly. The other two, whose vital organs I missed writhed in pain on the floor, face contorting in pain, mouth moving to form unspoken words. They spasmed, and looked like they were in no condition to get up soon, if at all. I attempted to suppress the feeling of sickness welling up from my stomach as I turned my attention back to the remaining personnel.
It was either kill or be killed. I wasn't going to take any chances. I could only control a maximum of thirteen large ice objects at my current skill level, and I brought them all out at once, in a circle around me, going in for an intimidation tactic. It worked; catching the remaining four off guard, with them stepping back. One lost balance, and I seized the change, lashing out, sharp edge of one ice shard catching a black suited man, leaving a gash down his side.
He cursed. I attacked again, skewering him on the end, red dripping down the length of the transparent ice. As I pulled back, the body slid off the end, joining the other four corpses on the ground.
The sting of a bullet nipped at my shoulder, narrowly missing before a second lodged in my arm. I hissed at the pain, and with my concentration disrupted, the ice I had under my control melted away. Reo's men kept their distance all the while, so I sent a spinning disc of water, finishing off the one who jumped back a second too late. The last man fired again, this time the bullet pierced through my leg. I growled in annoyance. This was taking up too much time and energy. My body already ached from the overuse of my Alice.
Wanting to end this quickly, I shaped over fifty small ice shards, positioning them over the man's head. At my command, all of them would rain down at high speeds, effectively immobilizing, if not killing him. I probably had to keep him alive for questioning though.
"You monster! All you organization dogs are like—" A bullet through the head cut his sentence short, and Akira stepped in from the shadows.
"Alright, that's enough. Don't take it too much to heart."
"I'd rather not be in self-denial. It's a fact that I've purposely killed, and that won't change." I hoped my answer sounded much firmer than I actually felt, and Akira seemed to buy it. He threw me a small bottle, and I caught it with some difficulty, pain shooting through my arm and leg as I moved. "Spray that on your wounds, it'll numb the pain, and when we get back, the medical team will tend to them."
I obeyed, spritzing the contents of the bottle onto the gun wounds, and the pain was relived immediately.
"That aside, even though I said I'd leave the situation to you, I didn't really expect you to survive." Akira spoke again.
"So you threw me to the wolves?" I wasn't entirely impressed by his honesty.
"Don't take it so personally. I'm glad you survived, though," he said, before adding, "Persona would have given me hell if you had died, not to mention the paperwork I'd have to do."
"You just have to go and ruin it, didn't you?"
"Anyway, you're a bloody mess, and I mean that quite literally. Just how did you go about doing it?"
I looked down at myself. The white shirt I had borrowed from Natsume now exhibited blood splatters all over the front. I speculated the back probably hadn't faired much better.
"Impaling, stabbing, and all that."
"Nasty. Now that Reo's gone, we should get some peace. How are you feeling?"
"Terrible, if I'm to be honest. I'm just managing to keep from vomiting." Akira's face softened at my words. "I don't need your pity." The filter between my brain and mouth had failed me, it seemed.
He shook his head. "No, I understand. I felt like that at first, as well. Actually, sometimes I still do."
"It gets better as you keep killing?" I let lose a wry laugh, the noise sounding hollow to my own ears.
Akira didn't answer, instead he walked back to the car. "I'm sorry you had to go through this."
"I could say the same to you."
.
.
.
"Yo." Natsume looked up from the manga he was reading from on the bed.
"What a surprise, seeing you flipping through a manga so leisurely after being kidnapped."
"Eh, could have been worse," he answered, returning to reading the black and white panels on paper.
Natsume was right; It could have ended up with him dead, if Mikan hadn't saved him when she did. "You should be nicer to Mikan, you know. You could have wound up dead if she hadn't come to save you."
"I didn't think you'd be the one giving me this lecture."
I had to agree with him. "Yeah, it's not really my place to say what I just did." I heard the rustle of sheets, so I turned to look around. Natsume had shifted to face me, a strange look in his eyes. "What's with the look?"
"You seem weird today," he observed. I could only snort in return.
"I see someone's rather astute. I'm going to use the shower. I feel disgusting." The slick feeling of blood that wasn't mine still felt fresh on my skin, even though it was cleaned away. I traced a finger over my arm, where the bullet had been. Akira was right; the healers had healed the bullet wound in under a minute. There was now not even the slightest indication that the skin had been pierced.
To think Natsume had to go through this of a weekly basis. I could recall every instance when he would get out of the bed in the middle of the night to mysteriously disappear until the next morning, returning looking drained and worse for wear.
.
.
.
The nightmares that I thought I had gotten over returned that night.
.
"Murderer."
.
"Monster."
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A.N. So i've been taking a break from updating for the last month due to school related matters. It's been pretty hectic. But hey, I'm back with another update, and the school holidays are pretty close, so that means I'll try to update more frequently.
Also dedicated to @nerdy_fangirl3 for reminding me to update because i get lazy.
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