I woke up as the bright rays of the sunlight hit my eyes. I slowly opened my eyes and saw a complete white roof. I looked to my left and the sunlight hit my eyes directly. I quickly turned my head the other way. I got up and I was covered with a white blanket over me. My clothes were also different; I was wearing some sort of white pajamas, and parts of my body were patched up. I was confused. I looked at my left again, and the sunlight had darkened a bit. I saw a person with bright red long hair, white shirt, black pants, and young-looking. It was a woman. I took a closer look, and it was Arza. She looked like she fell asleep due to exhaustion and tiredness. Looking at Arza, I reminisced about the dream I had of our first day at the academy. I don't know why I had dreamed about that, but it wasn't necessarily a bad thing that happened, except for the part with Dr. Flann. I don't know why I even remembered that; I literally forgot it happened. I wish it had stayed that way too, but there's no point in thinking too much about that.
Anyways, despite my injuries, I hadn't felt any pain moving any part of my body. I got wrecked up pretty badly by that big-headed freak, now that I think about it. I tried to get up, but the bed made a loud noise from such a slight move. "You're awake?" I heard a familiar sound. I looked to my left, and the sound had woken Arza up. "Yeah..." She looked exhausted, so I felt really bad that she had woken up. "Sorry for waking you up; you looked exhausted." "Huh? it's fine, I'm not supposed to be sleeping anyway." she said wiping her eyes.
"Where's Noah and the others?" I asked Arza "Oh, Noah was just here, but something came up, and then he left to take care of it; he should be back soon." she replied
"What about Elijah? How's he coming along?"
"He did survive, but..." she had a look of concern in her eyes.
"He will be fine!" I heard another voice coming from my right, in the direction of the door. A tall, bearded man with pitch black hair tied into a ponytail walked in and asked, "How're you doing, boy? You doing okay?" I nodded to his question, but I was still confused as to who he was. I looked to my left, and Arza was standing still, saluting the man. "You can sit down, Ms. Ignis." Arza nodded and sat back to the chair beneath the window. Soon after, a woman walked in from the door, a white-haired, brown-skinned woman, around her 20s, I'd say, but still not sure, could be younger. "Hey! Don't disrespect the general! Be humbled that he came to see you personally; offer your salutation!" She shouted at me for some reason, in general? This man is a general. I guess it makes sense based on how he looks.
"Be quiet, Lily; I don't like people saluting me anyway; it gets a bit annoying."
"Bu- alright fine! I'll let it slide this once, rookie; better be careful next time." She said that as she had a weird expression on her face, almost like I had taken something precious of hers away from her, I knew from first sight that we wouldn't get along.
"Alright, boy, you seem to be doing fine; then let's get the conversation started," he told me as I stared in confusion. "Who are you?" All his enthusiasm disappeared the instant I asked him that. "Didn't you hear her calling me a "general" brat?" "Ohhh, I see, my bad. I apologize, but seriously, I was asking for your name."
"Oh, my name... My name... Hey, Lily, what was my name?"
"Morrison... Geez... Would you mind not embarrassing yourself in general?" Lily replied to him with a feeling of disappointment in her voice.
"Oh yeah, Morrison, yeah, call me that, boy, general Morrison! Sounds cool, eh?" He said this as he laughed with closed eyes.
"Oh, I see, General, please forgive me!"
"Don't worry about it."
"So what did you want to talk about?" I was still curious as to why a general had come to meet me by themselves instead of sending one of their subordinates or something.
"Oh yeah, it's concerning you and your brother, Elijah? Yeah him"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, first things first, you don't have to worry about Elijah; he's pretty fine, except for the fact that he's in a state of coma due to his extensive injuries."
"He's what?!" I was shocked and saddened by the news that he had not woken up and was in a coma.
"Calm down; I'm sure he'll wake up eventually; there's no need to worry about him for now anyway."
"I see..."
"Now then, let's talk about what really occurred that day, and before that, I commend you for making it out of that battle alive."
"Thank you, I guess..." I was still confused, but listening to the general would be the wisest thing I could do at that moment.
"Anyways, what happened that day was indeed tragic, and that tragedy is still covered with mysteries, even after a month of investigating."
"A month!? How long was I out for?" I asked, completely baffled, as he implied that it had been a month since that incident. "Yes, boy, it has been a month; you've been out cold for a month. We were afraid that you were in the same condition as Elijah, but gladly you've woken up." "I see..." I replied in acceptance of the matter, realizing that doing anything unnecessary like making a fuss wouldn't help the situation in any way.
"So boy... I hope you are ready; it won't be easy to take in." I nodded quietly.
"September 15... The day it all occurred suddenly out of nowhere..."
Morrison:
It was a dark, windy night, and I could hear the sounds of the windows creaking and the sound of wind blowing through them. All the officers had either gone out to complete their missions or were at home. It was midnight, so I was planning to wrap things up and go home, but I had a habit of making myself coffee and drinking around that time of the day almost every day. I took my favorite cup, put it on the table, and put 3 spoonfuls of the special grinded coffee beans Lily brings from her hometown. I poured water I had just boiled using my ignition Rukh, and teaspoons of sugar, just how I always like it. As I was taking a sip of the perfect coffee, As I was taking a sip of the coffee I had made, I heard the clattering sound of the cell phone I had on my office desk. I walked towards it, annoyed that someone was calling me this late at night. "Hmm?" I reached there and picked up the phone. "The problem?"
"Woah, How did you know there was a problem?" The caller said, shocked for some reason, "Why else would you call this number then? Dumbass!" I shouted at the phone, annoyed because of the caller's idiocy. "Oh..." the caller sounded disappointed, and that pissed me off even more. "Don't "Oh" me, Nimrod! "Why'd you even call?" "Oh, there's a problem!" "So you did have a problem?" Nevermind, what's the problem?"
"Eh, I keep hearing weird sounds from this alley I always pass by, and the smell is funny too! Please do something about it. I can't keep going to work if this keeps up every day."
"Seriously? you should be calling the police not us for this."
"Calm down, boss. Don't get mad at me; you'd be helping society with this. Anyway, take care of this, okay? I have work to do; see ya!"
"Hey, wait, you bastard-"
The call was disconnected.
"Damn... I guess I have no choice." I took my coat off the hanger, and as I was about to put it on, I said, "Where are you going, Mori?" It was Elijah; he had just come back from his most recent mission. "Another task?" "Yeah, this guy called, and he said there was a noise and smell problem in the alley near David's workshop. I'll take a look on my way home." "Eh? It wouldn't be a good look for the department if a general was to go out for such small tasks; let me handle this." Elijah offered to do it in my stead; despite just coming back from his mission, he looked exhausted too. "You look exhausted. I'll do it; you go rest." I said this to him out of concern, but he still refused. "C'mon, I'm not that out of steam that a task as small as this would take me out; I'll be just fine; you're worrying too much." After he insisted that much, I had no choice but to allow him to do as he pleased. "Alright, fine, go, but be careful; remember what we always say." "Yeah, yeah, "be careful even if it's the smallest job you've had." It's etched inside my brain; I'll go now. Take care of yourself, old man." He dashed out without even giving me the chance to say anything in return.
Soon after he left, 3 more officers arrived: Hye, Carter, and Nari had arrived from their patrol work. I was worried about Elijah, so I sent them after him, even though the job sounded small, but they would pass there anyway going home. "Whaaaaat?" Another job already? C'mon Mori, go easy on us." "I know it's too much to ask, but Elijah went alone, so I just want you guys to check out the alley before you head home." I was ashamed, but still, a subordinate's life is worth more than mine in my eyes. "Alright fine... You better pay us extra then, got it, Cap'n?" Hye entered the conversation, proposing more pay for this job. Again, I had no choice but to agree: "A buffet is on me on top of that then." They all got excited as I said that. Carter had a serious face, but I could tell he was sort of excited.
"Alright boys, let's get this over with!" Nari said, as she had an enthusiastic expression on her face. "Alright, alright." Hye replied slightly, laughing at Nari's reaction, and Carter followed them quietly until he turned back and said, "The task seems fishy, don't you think, General?" I nodded, as I had similar suspicions as well. Why else would the general of all people get a call for a job that small? I just couldn't wrap my head around it.
"Well then, I'll get going, but keep an eye out, alright?" I nodded slightly as Carter left, feeling a little comfort that Elijah wasn't going to be alone now and would have reliable allies to help him in any kind of danger. I started doing the paperwork that was left—whole stacks of it—which really tired an old man out. While I did that, many hours had passed and still no word from my subordinates. My worries grew even bigger as now I hadn't heard from not 1, not 2, not 3, but 4 of my subordinates. For hours at that, I sat worried when suddenly I heard and felt the ringing of the cellphone on my desk. I immediately picked it up. "Yes?!" The worrying had made my head feel heavy, so any sort of good news was like medicine for me. "Is this General Morrison?" I heard from the person on the phone, "Yes. What is it?" "Something terrible has happened; please hurry!" "What happened?!" My worries got worse hearing that when I was looking for something to ease the pain in my head, I got the opposite. "It's better if you come here yourself; telling you on the phone wouldn't be a good idea." "I see, I'll be right there." I accepted what he said and decided to head out, as it would be unfitting of a general to do otherwise.
Immediately, I widely opened my window and set my foot in the middle, briefing myself for the jump that I was about to do. I set my foot as I charged up energy around my other foot to jump as fast as I could. Once I had charged it, I jumped in rapid speed in the direction of David's workshop; not even a few minutes had passed and I had reached there already. Searching for an empty spot, I landed in the middle of the road, where many vehicles had gathered, police cars, ambulances, and fire fighters alike. The alley that Elijah and the rest had gone into was surrounded and filled with flames. The fire fighters were spraying as much water as they could, but the flames were too great to be put out that easily. As I turned my attention to the entrance of the alley multiple officers started coming out of there and with them they had stretchers, I dashed towards them and started lifting their blankets to see if any of them were my subordinates, I looked and looked until I saw a guy with dark purple hair with his head sticking out the blanket laying on one of the stretchers, I ran towards it and who I saw was Elijah, though the wound were somehow healed, he still had blood all over his body, immediately I checked his pulse with 2 of my fingers and Thank God he was alive, I had a sort of relief from it but the realization hit and I remembered about the rest, Nari, Hye and Carter were still not found, they were not any of the stretchers, I went inside the deep flames which covered the entire alley and looked and looked until I felt the flames were too much of a hindrance and I had forgotten because of my clumsiness that I could've wiped out the flame with no effort if I had realized beforehand, I raised my right arm and started spinning the tip of my hand while releasing some of my own Rukh to connect with the flames around, and so the rest of the flames started whirling like a tornado until I instantly pulled my arm back and so the flames followed, I absorbed all the flames inside my right arm, as sending it in any other direction would be harmful for the surroundings, the heat of the flames were too much hot but still not something I couldn't handle, my arm started burning from inside but it calmed down a bit immediately but ultimately I had burns throughout my entire limb, and it had turned completely red.
But I didn't let it stop me, the flames were out so it was easy to look for my subordinates now, I started looking at the faces of the bodies, barely any of them were recognizable, consumed by flames their faces and so had burned but I still kept looking until I came across one of them and they were wearing shiny purple earrings, I gasped at the sight, it was Nari, half of her body was missing, no words were coming out of my mouth, nothing I thought were coming out of my mouth, my ears were filled with silence, I couldn't hear anything despite the noise made police cars, ambulances and fire fighters alike, the sight of my subordinate, who was no older than my daughter was too much to bear, I couldn't move until "Mo...ri..." I heard the corpse muttering. I immediately came back to my senses, dropped to my knees, and brought her head close to my eyes as gently as possible. "Yes... Nari..." I said to her, as she was barely alive and the time she had left wasn't long, "You... Better... Fulfill... Your... Promise... The... Buffet..." She muttered to my ears, and I couldn't hold myself from tearing up, "Yes, I'll buy you whatever you want; eat all you can all day." I spoke to her while tears uncontrollably rolled down my cheeks and my beard. "Ah... Thanks..." After that, she said nothing more, and the feeling of her breathing that I felt toward my left cheek was gone. I immediately looked at her, and she had passed away with a genuine smile on her face.
"I will fulfill my promise." I said as the tears dried up and picked her up, then called for someone to get one more stretcher for here. As soon as it arrived, I put her down and gently put a blanket over her, as any more of that sight would break me down.
Even though Nari died tragically, I couldn't sit there wasting time because I had other precious subordinates who could still be alive. I shook off everything and started looking for Hye and Carter, my fear grew stronger seeing the death of Nari, I probably couldn't take more but I still had to look for them, for their families' sake if not mine, I looked over and saw a bunch of bodies on top of each other, selfishly I started moving them, throwing them and so on but there was no luck, it had all been in vain, finally I went further into the alley, where blood stained food prints had still been visible and as I looked to my right, I found Carter, I ran towards him, and the sight was horrifying, his left arm and right leg were gone, and a part of his face had been severely injured, or maybe burned, I couldn't tell due to the smoke from the earlier flames getting into my eyes but that was all the more reason for me to check his pulse, though unlikely but I was wishing he'd be alive, every second my fear grew bigger until I picked up his still intact arm and checked his pulse, he was alive.
Quickly I picked him up and braced my self for another jump but I realized it would be too risky, I couldn't risk his life, so I took the normal way out of the alley, while exiting I saw another survivor, though he was not one of my subordinates, he was wearing a similar uniform, a new face that I had never seen around, wavy silver hair, bleeding similarly to Elijah, still alive from the looks of it but I paid it no mind as I had to save Carter as soon as possible, without me asking, the ambulance car brought out their stretcher and asked me to put him on it, and asked me to accompany them but I refused, because Hye was still out there, and I needed to save him if he was alive but an officer came up to his superior and said "Sir, there are no more survivors, we should restrict this place and leave, Sir!" Another thing that struck me was losing another subordinate. It was suffocating; I couldn't breathe. I almost fell unconscious when suddenly someone put their hand on my soldier, Morrison. Are you okay?" I shook it off again. "Yeah," I said, even though the news was still too much to take in for me.
I entered the ambulance car from the back and sat there as they tried to keep Carter alive.