These Days

As soon as Hidoshi Kaeru heard about the situation, he’d left his job at the local hospital and rushed towards the station, after a few tense minutes, his family was finally released to rejoin him.

“Are you alright?!” The elder Kaeru clutched his family close to him in a hug,

“Yes, dad.” Sekai stated, “We are fine.”

“Thank goodness…” Hidoshi could feel some of the non-stop worry abating, “What did the police say?” He asked curiously,

“They’ll keep officers at our house, and Ruiko will be taken into witness protection.” Sekai nodded, if he was being honest, he was a little disappointed. Ruiko was gone as quickly as she came, and he still couldn’t believe everything had been resolved that quickly.

“Still…” Kiyomi Kaeru looked at her son with a glare, “I think we’ll need to have a talk about how Sekai handled this situation…”

Sekai gulped, well, almost everything had been resolved.

⸻

The convoy of black vans were well out of the area of search, and were currently congregating at an unmarked safe house where Hoshida was in the middle of contacting someone unknown.

“Well, for better or worse, your stupidity played into our hands.” The man on the other end of the earpiece stated, “The Kaerus are content to leave everything to the police, we can take Ruiko back with no hassle.”

Hoshida nodded as the man simply referred to as “The Boss” continued to speak, “Still, try something like this again, and you might end up joining Ruiko.” Hoshida felt a chill down his spine, getting injected with I.K was effectively a death sentence, how Ruiko lived with the virus while having little to no issues was unknown.

“I’ll let you and your men know what to do next soon. For now, keep an eye on Ruiko.”

“And the Kaerus?” Hoshida asked,

“What about them? I doubt they know much.” The man said dismissively, “Leave them be.”

⸻

After several days, everything had seemingly returned to normal. Both of his parents gave him an earful about “the dangers of recklessly interfering with strangers” while Antei took every opportunity to abuse him about the situation.

As for his school…

“Sekai! Sekai!” A random black haired boy came up to him, “Is it really true you almost got kidnapped?”

Sekai sighed, ever since it had come out, everyone had laid their curiosity on him, repetitively asking him every detail about the incident.

“Yes,” Sekai said, he’d gotten used to not going into too much detail. Some part of him still wanted to keep that experience to himself.

‘I just hope Ruiko is okay…’ So much was still unexplained, and he had too many questions. Why was Ruiko being hunted? Who were those people? The guns they had were military grade for sure, but they definitely weren’t members of the JSDF…

More importantly, how had Ruiko done that thing with the lights?

⸻

In a Kotono Hospital, Ruiko sneezed in her hospital gown. She had a different, fresher one. No bloodstains or bullet holes.

The bullet was removed, and the wound itself was stitched up and was healing nicely. It seemed like everything was looking up for her.

So of course, it all came crashing down.

“Well, Ms. Ruiko. The wound has fully healed, and the stitches have been removed. We will be discharging you into police custody now.” The doctor stated, and Ruiko only nodded.

‘The police…’ Ruiko scoffed internally, but didn’t argue. Making a scene here would only be bad for her.

‘I wonder how Sekai is doing…?’ She thought to herself, Ruiko could help but worry for him and his family. After all, she was the one who selfishly got them involved.

Still, now that she was treated, there was no need for them to involve themselves with someone like her. Hopefully, they will never meet again.

Hopefully.

⸻

“This is ridiculous.” Hoshida stated, adjusting the collar of his suit as the police vehicle pulled up. “Honestly…why am I playing dress up?”

“Just think of it as being for the benefit of the public.” The teenaged girl beside him stated, “After all, we can’t go in with full military-grade body armor, can we?”

Hoshida could only click his tongue in annoyance as the girl chuckled mockingly, and the pair entered the hospital.

“Officer Rikamura.” Hoshida flashed a forged police ID. “We are here to take Ruiko into custody.”

“Ruiko…? Just Ruiko?” The attendant questioned,

“Yes. No last name.” Hoshida nodded, and after a few minutes of rapid typing, the attendant nodded.

“Room 36, second floor, third on the left.” The attendant stated, Hoshida gave her some thanks as the pair walked together, taking the elevator up to the second floor. Hoshida gave a quick glance around, taking notice of the area around him.

“Don’t even think about it.” The girl shot at him, pulling out a syringe. “No guns.”

Hoshida rolled his eyes, “I wasn’t planning on it.”

“Suuurreeee.” The girl rolled her eyes, “Here we are-” The girl stated, only for the door to the room they needed to come flying off its hinges and violently slam against the opposite wall.

“Hina! Get down!” Hoshida tackled the teenage scientist to the floor as the door suddenly lifted up the ground and towards them in a spinning motion, nearly decapitating Hina and bisecting Hoshida.

Out of Room 36, Ruiko walked out calmly. ‘That’s right…there’s no need for me to hold back anymore…I don’t have anyone I need to protect!’

Raising her arm, the door became her de-facto drone, blocking several tranquilizer shots from Hoshida’s concealed pistol before she sent it flying toward Hina, who barely managed to get out of the way.

“Damn! She knew we were coming?!” Hina stated, as Ruiko ran out in the opposite direction from them, heading towards a set of service stairs.

Once the door was still, the pair rushed towards the service stairs, only to watch as the metallic stairway was unnaturally dented and warped under an invisible pressure.

“Shit, she’s getting away!! The elevator!” Hoshida called, and Hina nodded, her previous mocking gone as she readily followed behind the private soldier.

Ruiko moved quickly through the hospital lobby, as of now, the only reactions to the situation on the floor above were concerned upward glances, but Ruiko knew they’d change soon enough as the panic spread.

She was still barefooted, but she could hardly care at this point as she stepped out onto the concrete of the sidewalk.

Almost immediately, she was confronted by men in black.

“Ruiko, don’t make this harder than it needs to be…” One of them warned, but Ruiko simply dropped to the ground, placing her palm flat on the pavement, it began to vibrate dangerously and the men stepped back. Saving their own lives as pieces of the pavement shot unnaturally up toward them at speeds that would’ve surely broken bones.

Ruiko used the distraction to slip past them, flinging several miscellaneous objects at them, even uprooting a fire hydrant telekinetically and flinging it into a car she suspected to be a Serpentine transport vehicle, crushing its engine and leaving an upward spray of water where the fire hydrant once was.

After a while, the telekinetic chaos came to a stop, and the Serpentine members were able to regroup as Hoshida and Hina came outside, but it was far too late.

Ruiko was already gone.

⸻

Ruiko had run non-stop, having taken the liberty of stealing the shoes of an unsuspecting Serpentine mercenary.

It was only when she finally managed to get a solid block away from the hospital, that she decided to stop and rest against a wall.

‘Is this…going to be the rest of my life?’ Ruiko wondered, burying her head in her hands. Being captured, being experimented on, running away, rinse and repeat?

‘I don’t want this…’

‘I don’t want these endlessly repeating days…!’

⸻

“Are you sure this is really necessary…?” Sekai groaned, narrowly managing to avoid stepping into a pothole

“It’s fine, we don’t want to encounter those people from before.” Antei insisted,

“Thing is - I haven’t encountered anyone else here either.” Sekai countered.

Currently, upon Antei’s insistence, the pair of childhood friends were traversing through a relatively desolate section of Kotono, an ‘alternate’ path home which would ensure they wouldn’t encounter trouble.

‘She’s never this protective…’ Sekai thought to himself. In fact, ever since the incident, Antei had become fiercely clingy.

“Antei…listen…” Sekai began, but then, a sound hit his ears.

‘Is that…crying?’ He wondered,

“Huh?” Antei turned to him, “We’re you-” Antei began, but Sekai shushed her.

“Do you hear that?” He whispered to her, and without waiting for an answer, he began approaching the sound.

“Hey! Don’t just wander off!” Antei argued, moving after him. “Jeez, this is how-” Without warning, she would crash into Sekai, who had come to a sudden stop in front of a certain alleyway.

“What is it?” Antei questioned, peering over his shoulder right as Sekai was frozen in place, and immediately afterwards, two voices asked the same question at once:

“What…are you doing here!?”