89 The Three II

Luckily for the tall and slender figure of Pilar, due to Judy's inexperience in shooting, the bullet aimed at his head passed inches from his ear, scaring him and generating a loud ringing in his ear from where the bullet had grazed.

While "Shit! Don't move, don't take another fucking step, or I swear the next shot won't miss," shouted Judy with a clear nervous tone in her voice, but at the same time strong.

Attracting the attention of both Dorio and Maine, who could see from the sudden flash of the shot, a girl sitting on the floor leaning against one of the office walls, blood staining her face, falling from a wound on her head, looking at them with sharp eyes while aiming at them. With a boy covered in wounds and without an arm on top of her, with a silly unconscious smile on his face.

Dorio was able to recognize the sharp gaze of the girl determined to protect, even with her own body, the wounded boy above her, stopping Maine from approaching her. She tried to talk to calm her down, but Pilar's curses interrupted her, still annoyed by the sudden gunshot inches from his ear.

"Easy girl, we haven't-"

"Fuck how it beeps! Another damn teenager aiming at me and almost killing me, FUCK, I'm getting sick of this. That's why I told you we should have left.... damn it!" Pilar said, sticking his finger in his ear, still hearing nothing but an uncomfortable beep from it.

Aware that the girl who had shot at him and the half-dead boy on top of her were the ones who had helped his sister. Pilar still, annoyed by the shot that almost killed him, said some unfortunate words.

"Put down your damn weapon before you hurt yourself. You don't want the half-dead boy you're protecting to die, do you? Or maybe he's already dead, judging by his appearance," Pilar said

Trying to get the girl to lower her weapon, so as not to waste any more time, which the boy on top of her did not have, urgently needing first aid that Pilar was willing to provide, returning the favor on behalf of her sister.

But he said it in such a way, due to his anger over the shot that almost blew his head off, that it sounded like he was threatening the girl who was protecting the grandson and nephew of the two persons who could hear Pilar's threat/recommendation, who had positioned themselves behind them without any of them being aware.

Until behind Maine, Dorio, and Pilar, a cold and annoyed "OI... who do you think you're threatening?" sounded, freezing the three who turned like an oil-less machine towards the sudden voice behind them.

They could see an intense red dot from a eyepatch staring fixedly at them.

With Maine, Dorio, and Pilar reacting in the wrong way, thinking they were Tygers because of their Asian features, when they tried to aim at the two people who had positioned themselves behind them without any of them noticing.

With Dorio's weapon flying when a Mantis-Blades disarmed her in an instant and immobilized her in the next, when those same Mantis-Blades landed on her neck.

Maine could only see a silver flash that cut his weapon in two and stopped in the shape of the blade of a sword millimeters from his neck, drawn from a fluid movement by Musashi.

And Pilar... receiving a strong blow to the throat from an annoyed Musashi who, with his free hand, forcefully struck the throat of the person who was insinuating the death of his gravely wounded grandson while also threatening the person who was protecting him.

When Judy recognized the voice, she dropped her Nue pistol in her hands, her eyes filling with tears again, emotional by the arrival of a familiar face that infected her voice, saying "Grandfather Musashi...." She had always had a somewhat cold relationship with Musashi due to the fear generated by Sora's imposing grandfather, but now Judy could not be happier to see him, ending up calling him as if she were calling her own grandparents. Wanting to tell him everything that had happened, but only being able to cry his name.

"Musashi?" said Maine, surprised like Dorio, who added "Grandfather?" upon recognizing that name, looking the two of them at the girl, who had called him "Grandfather" without finding any resemblance in them, unlike the injured boy on top of her, with clear Asian features, who the more they looked at him... the more familiar he seemed, as if they had seen him before.

Also noticing the person who had his Mantis Blade on Dorio's neck, slightly smaller than the man in the eyepatch, but certainly similar,' Maine added as he put all the pieces together." The Hatake brothers"

Musashi glanced briefly at Maine, who had recognized them, while telling his brother Hiroyuki, "Watch them, be careful with his arms," referring to Maine's Cyber-arms, while sheathing his sword and walking between Maine and Dorio, heading towards Sora and Judy.

"Hm," Hiroyuki nodded while reattaching one of his Mantis Blades to his arm and grabbing a compact Shigune submachine gun from behind the black jacket of his suit, aiming it at Maine, while his other arm, with his Mantis Blades still extended, stayed on Dorio's neck.

In the meantime, Pilar was on his knees, coughing uncontrollably, with his hands on his neck.

When Musashi arrived in front of Judy and saw Sora's injuries all over his body and with only one arm, his blood boiled, wanting to kill every last Tyger in the city, thinking of asking for Hanako's help, who would surely agree. In a night that the Tygers would remember forever.

But when Musashi noticed the stupid, almost proud smile on Sora's unconscious face, he couldn't help but grow one on his own, feeling proud and angry at the same time.

Having seen earlier when the Av left them on the roof of the building, all the Tygers neutralized by Sora, with Getsuga marks on them demonstrating his skill, making him proud, but instead of escaping, Sora stayed, to end up in the deplorable state he was in, angering him for his poor judgment.

This caused Musashi to produce a heavy sigh, unloading his inverse emotions into it, causing Judy, in the shadow generated by Musashi's body in front of them, to shrink and close her eyes upon hearing Musashi's heavy sigh.

She reopened them when she felt a gentle stroke on her head and a comforting voice that gave her security, saying, "You've been through a lot, haven't you? Don't worry anymore, I'll protect him now, rest, little one," said Musashi to the child he had known since she was seven years old, who even now still held onto Sora tightly, as if protecting him, with a still-open wound on his head, staining his face.

This caused Judy to only manage to affirm, in tears, while at the same time feeling the pressure generated by Sora's body on her lighten when Musashi lifted him carefully.

So did her consciousness, assaulted by the tiredness and drowsiness generated by all the tension that had accumulated from everything that had happened, as it relaxed for a moment, overcome by the feeling of security conveyed by Musashi's voice, also being picked up by him with the same care he had when he lifted Sora, carrying them both on his arms and heading back towards Hiroyuki.

"Clean up the rest and collect their things, I'll wait for you upstairs, don't take too long... So- he needs urgent treatment, you know his orders," said Musashi without waiting for a response from his brother, who nodded again when Musashi had already passed him and was starting to leave the room.

Heading back towards the rooftop and the Av that awaited him there, leaving the rest to Hiroyuki to follow Hanako's additional orders, which she had sent them while they were on the Av.

"Are you going to kill us? Before you do, what the hell are two monstrous tygers like you doing here, wasn't the Shigeo branch cut?" asked Pilar, who had managed to recover and was starting to get up again.

"They're not Tygers," replied Dorio, with a mantis blade at his neck.

"No?" asked Pilar.

"No, worse... they're from Arasaka," said Maine.

"Arasaka! What the hell are they doing here?" exclaimed Pilar.

"I don't know... ask one of the Hatake Brothers," said Maine.

"Hatake Brothers, who are they? Should it ring a bell?" asked a bewildered Pilar, who didn't recognize the names.

"Um, Pilar, your stupidity sometimes stops being funny. They... to summarize, are the reason why Arasaka's special operations groups wear red Oni masks," said Dorio.

"I wonder how much blood those mantises had to soak up for them to be called along with their owner," said Maine, looking into the eyes of "Red-Mantis, isn't that right, Hiroyuki Hatake?"

Managing to slightly lift the corners of Hiroyuki's mouth, which he found amusing, That for the first time in years, he had moved with his brother and still ended up being recognized by the first random Mercs they encountered.

"It seems you know a lot, don't you?" Hiroyuki spoke for the first time, which he didn't like to do on missions.

"Well, I consider myself a Merc with some experience, enough to know the names of people skilled enough to disarm us with a few moves," said Maine, maintaining his calm and steady tone of voice.

"Huh?... I get the feeling that if you wanted to, it wouldn't just be a 'few' moves, right?" asked Hiroyuki, still looking into the eyes of the "Merc with some experience" who seemed to be the team leader, glancing for a moment at the short-haired blonde woman by his side. Insinuating the true fighting capabilities of Maine and Dorio.

"Maybe, but I don't think it's necessary. We have nothing to do with what happened here, and despite the unfortunate words of the idiot of my partner, we had no ill intentions against... your relatives, on the contrary, we intended to help them and get them out of here... they helped the idiot's sister, we wanted to return the favor," said Maine, slowly but steadily, taking advantage of the actions of Pilar's sister to his convenience, which Hiroyuki believed, withdrawing the mantis-blade from Dorio's neck and lowering his submachine gun aimed at Maine.

Surprising Maine, who asked "Is it okay with your orders to let us go?"

"You are overvaluing the importance of your lives. And you are wrong about one thing, my brother and I are not from Arasaka, not any more, you can leave." Hiroyuki said ironically aware that he was actually following the orders of an Arasaka,

Turning his back on them and heading into the office to retrieve Getsuga from the floor next to its sheath, along with a pair of Nue pistols, which Hiroyuki had never seen Sora with, but still taking them thought they were good weapons.... and a large piece of the broken scarf that Sora always wore.

Maine, Dorio, and Pilar remained, looking bewildered at Hiroyuki. Until he suddenly pulled two red grenades from behind his back, removed the pins with his thumbs, and threw one at the Netrunner's corpse connected to the Tygers' server and another passing Shigeo's corpse towards Sora's amputated arm, which Hanako, had ordered to destroy for some reason that she did not share, bothering above all his brother Musashi, together with any trace of blood that they found of Sora.

With Hiroyuki taking a pair of Incendiary grenades from the Netwatch Av to "clean up."

"What are you staring at? You should already be leaving" Hiroyuki said, with Getsuga under his arm and the Nue guns on his hip, passing in front of Maine Dorio and Pilar, who had been watching him generate the fire in front of them, as he walked out of the room without caring.

Leaving the three watching the office burn without moving.

"Shit! Do you think we'll get paid for the full job?" Dorio asked, seeing the flames beginning to spread.

"We have to get the rest of the Minis out," Maine replied, smelling plastic, metal, and burning flesh from the Netrunner's corpse, without moving any of the three of them.

"And how the hell do we tell them about the girl, 'Hi, your friend is alive, but she's gone with two ex-Arasaka members who treated us like childrens.'" "Oh great, here's your money," said Pilar, imitating voices, presenting an idyllic scenario in which they got paid without any problems.

"The only one who has been treated like a child is you, at least Dorio and I have managed to maintain our dignity and we can always show the lump on your neck, that could serve as evidence," Maine said, emphasizing Pilar's swollen throat caused by Musashi's punch.

"Tch, very funny, say what you want... but we should go," Pilar said, carefully petting his swollen neck, beginning to feel the heat of the flames.

"Let's go," Dorio said, the first to move, returning to the Minis to get them out of the imminent building on fire.