Just as the informant had instructed, the three of them were standing on the side of a highway just outside the city limits at precisely four in the morning.
Araya yawned loudly. "I seriously hope this wasn't a prank," he said tiredly.
Hayato glared at him, (he was extremely crabby when he was tired). "If he doesn't show it'll be your fault for inviting yourself along." Hayato had been annoyed since the evening before when Sosa insisted on going with them to the village.
Mariko rolled her eyes, already knowing it was going to be a long day. She just wanted to go home.
Fifteen minutes later, a large white truck rolled up to them and stopped. She patted the blonde on the sounder reassuringly. "Looks like your friend came through after all," she said, opening the door. The three of them piled into the long bench. Mariko tried not to be too irritated at the fact that she was getting completely squashed between Araya and the door. "Lucky, how long is the drive?" she asked.
"About two hours since there are no cars at this time of night," he responded quietly.
Mariko nodded and turned to face the window. They were driving without headlights in the dead of winter; it was pitch-black outside.
They rode in silence for two hours. It wasn't like there was a lot of conversation that could be had between military agents and an ex-con anyway. When it came to these kinds of relationships, the less said the better.
The first light of day was just barely beginning to break out when they reached the city. North Korea had timed blackouts so there weren't any lights on, but she could make out the shapes of most of the houses in the distance.
The truck stopped at the city limits.
"We don't go into the city?" Araya asked.
Lucky shook his head. "Too dangerous because it's closed to the demilitarized zone. People will either take vans or carry it from here," he informed, turning the car off.
The four of them stepped out of the car. No sooner than her feet touched the ground, a sinking feeling settled in Mariko's gut- the same one from when they first arrived in the North.
"What's wrong?" Araya asked, immediately picking up on her change of mood.
"I've got a bad feeling," she muttered.
That was all that needed to be said to put the male on his guard. He knew better than anyone that the brunette's instincts were always right. "Hayato, guard up," he said quietly.
The blonde nodded and straightened slightly.
They leaned against a tree, watching as the delivery man started to unload the supplies.
Suddenly, Mariko heard a twig snap and in a flash she had drawn her gun. The delivery man froze, and the three men stared at her with wide eyes.
For a moment, no one said anything, and no one moved. Then, a gunshot and a thud.
She whipped around. The delivery man fell to the floor- he was dead.
"Get to the truck!" Araya yelled as a storm of bullets began to rain down on them.
She looked around frantically, shooting at whatever moved and quickly moving towards the front of the truck. She couldn't tell where any of the bullets were coming from. "Do they all have invisibility quirks or something?" she wondered, trying not to panic.
Something pushed her, making her lose her balance and sending her falling to the ground. Instinctively, she put her hands out in front of her- a small mistake as her wrist took the brunet of her weight. A sharp pain shot up her arm, making her wince. She glanced back to see what had thrown her down and saw Hayato right beside her. To save her from getting killed, he'd pushed her to the ground.
He helped her up and the two of them sprinted to the truck.
Araya was already in the driver's seat and no sooner than Hayato was halfway into the truck, he was peeling out and barreling down the highway. "Mariko, radio HQ and ask for an immediate extraction," he ordered, tossing her a radio.
Automatically, she turned the dial to channel 9- the Japanese military channel. "This is Alpha Squadron 5 asking for immediate extraction. I repeat this is Alpha Squadron 5 asking for immediate extraction."
There was a pause as she waited for a response before radioing again.
"Alpha five, this is Red Leader we read you. There will be an extraction team waiting at Sunwi-do at 1200," a voice answered. "Repeat there will be an extraction team waiting at Sunwi-do at 1200."
"Copy that," Mariko said putting the radio down.
"Sunwi-do?" he asked.
"Yep, at 12 p.m. We've got about six hours," she told him.
"Okay."
"M, can I get a put of help?" Hayato called out, his voice weak.
Mariko turned to face him, and her eyes widened with sudden panic.
He was extremely pale, and his face was beaded with sweat. His breathing was shallow.
Her eyes trailed down to his stomach, which was clutching desperately at his side. His hand was sticky with blood. She immediately ripped off part of his shirt to inspect the wound. "When did you get this?" she asked. Thankfully, there was an exit wound, meaning she wouldn't have to crudely dig the bullet out with her bare hands.
"When I pushed you," he grunted.
Mariko placed her hands over both ends of the wound and felt her palms tingle as the familiar glow enveloped them. She concentrated as Hayato's face relaxed a bit and his pain lessened.
"You can stop now," he said, once the wound was no longer life-threatening. He knew that Mariko was nowhere near overusing her quirk, but her body recovered from the use much slower than most and they couldn't risk both of them being weak.
"Your wife's gonna get so mad at you," she said eyeing the wound.
"She'll be madder at you for ruining my shirt," he quipped.
She smirked. "Get some rest for now. We've got a long drive left. I'll wake you if there's trouble," she told him.
Hayato looked at her warily but eventually relaxed enough to go to sleep.
"How's the wrist?" Araya asked after a while. Of course, he'd noticed that it was progressively getting more swollen as time went by.
"Not broken. I'll still be able to fire a gun at least," she sighed.
Araya nodded. "I'm sorry I dragged you back into this shit again," he told her, his grip tightening on the steering wheel.
She glanced at him, "Don't be. It's my fault for not getting the job done all those years ago."
The ravenette flashed her a bitter smile. "We've both been shitty captains, haven't we?" he asked jokingly. Neither one of them laughed.
"A bit, yeah."
As they got closer to the extraction zone, they ditched the truck. Driving an unmarked semi into a city would definitely attract government attention, and that was the last thing they needed.
She woke up Hayato when they were a mile out of the city. "Get up. We're walking from here and we only have four hours until the extraction team comes to get us," she told him.
Hayato groaned and got out of the car, helping Mariko down as well. She winced as he grabbed her injured wrist.
They walked for hours. North Korea's infrastructure was unfortunately very spread out and most of the buildings were low, which didn't provide a lot of cover.
"We move quickly and quietly," Araya reminded.
It was close to the pick-up time when they spotted a group of soldiers milling around across the street.
"Alpha 5 what are your coordinates?" someone radioed
"Exact coordinates are unknown. We are in Sunwi-Do," Mariko replied.
"Copy that, get to somewhere visible so the extraction can be completed. You have 2 minutes," they said.
"Roger. We'll be in position," she said, turning the radio off. "Lets head down to the beach. It's cold. Hopefully less people'll be there," she suggested.
"Let's go," Araya agreed.
"More walking," Hayato complained, pushing himself off the wall and following as they ducked through back alleyways and behind carts until they were standing on a thin stretch of sand. An icy wind blew into them, making them shiver.
1200 came and went.
"Did something happen?" Hayato asked her.
Mariko shook her head. If there had been any complications, they would've been radioed. Before they pulled out the radio again, they heard it- the faint sound of helicopter blades spinning around quickly."
"Thank god," she breathed.
Moments later, they were teleported onto a dingy in the middle of the ocean. A military helicopter positioned directly above them with a rope ladder. Immediately, they started to climb, even if they weren't on the land, it was still North Korean airspace and they only had a few seconds before the military was alerted to the trespass. The three of them barely had enough time to grab on before the helicopter started flying back to international waters.
"Glad you guys made it back alive!" the pilot exclaimed as they crawled onto the aircraft.
"Not as glad as we are," Araya sighed, collapsing into a chair.
The three of them slept the entire ride to Japan. It was understandable. None of them had gotten much sleep in over 50 hours since they had to sleep in shifts.
When they touched down at the military base in Musutafu, Japan. Mariko wanted nothing more than to go home. She missed her apartment and her and she missed Keigo. She glanced at Hayato, who was wearing the same expression she was; he had a wife and child waiting for him after all.
"Let's get you two to the medbay," the ravenette said, steering the pair to the infirmary.
They groaned loudly as he sat them down on a cot forcefully.
"Stay here until I get a nurse," he ordered.
As soon as he disappeared, Mariko grabbed a roll of Ace bandages, a bottle of rubbing alcohol, and two large band aids.
"What are you doing?" Hayato asked.
"I'm a licensed nurse, remember? Your wound doesn't need stitches. Just disinfect it with this and put a bandage on it," she said, handing him the band-aids and a bottle of alcohol.
"You're one of those sadistic nurses aren't you?" he questioned, staring down at the bottle.
The brunette shrugged and smirked at him as she wrapped her wrist. "Want me to do it and find out?"
"No thanks," he said quickly.
She handed him a few cotton balls as she finished wrapping the bandage tightly around her wrist.
Hayato hissed as he dabbed the wounds with alcohol.
"I'll help you with the band-aid on the back," she said, unwrapping the dressing.
The blonde nodded and turned around, grabbing one of the bandages and putting it on the wound on his abdomen himself.
Once the two had been "patched up," they snuck out of the infirmary, skirting around Araya- who was chatting up a storm with one of the nurses- until they made it out to the parking lot.
"Let's go home shall we?" he asked, going to his car, and unlocking it.
"I've been waiting to hear those words for the past seven days," she sighed.