Friendship prevails

Lucy fires multiple gunshots with Hino's arrows also getting sent at rapid speeds towards the corrupted; they manage to penetrate some unimportant parts, causing the corrupted to continue running at them. He enters closing distance and slashes at them. At that moment, a gunshot hits the corrupted, sending it recoiling back.

Hino turns his gaze instantly back towards an old man upon a boat in the lake. "Good to see you are in good health." He ignores the corrupted struggling to stand back up and instantly walks over to the man.

"Stay back." The old man keeps his gun up; the warning was stern and threatening, like a wrathful dragon.

Hino rebels "What do you mean, stay back? We need to get to the city, me and her." Hino points back at Lucy, who is further back, standing next to the corrupted

"I can't let you in, especially knowing whatever those things are." His implication was obvious; the worms were quite the topic among the people of the underground.

"We aren't corrupted; they don't take years to manifest; they take over dead people only." Hino tries explaining the situation to the old man, but he wasn't entirely convinced.

The man lowers his gun slightly. "What help do I owe to a foreign teenager and the lady who sent us down here to begin with?" His tone was sarcastic, almost comical.

"We need the help of you all to eliminate the worms once and for all; their threat won't leave unless we eradicate them." His words were well spoken.

The old man scoffs, "We're safe down here; we have no interest in the problems up there."

Lucy comes down to the platform as well, giving a smirk. "They survive water and fire and can spread and destroy that puny town of yours within moments. You also seem to have run out of supplies. Guess why that is."

The old man looks down in judgement; he doesn't know what to do currently. Despite the reasoning that was conveyed very well, he couldn't just be the reason these two people entered the city alone.

"I will consult the town leaders, then make my way back here; just wait." With his words said, he starts rowing the boat back towards the city booming with light. Being forced to wait, they wait near the entrance of the platform, making sure to shoot the corrupted every couple of minutes so it doesn't recover.

The old man takes his sweet time, but around thirty minutes later, he comes back with a clear answer, his boat slowly rowing towards the platform once giving a piece of hope for Lucy and Hino that they could perhaps make this work after all.

"You can come on one condition: you both let go of your weapons here." The old man pulls into the platform.

With a quickness comparable to a flash of light, Lucy takes out her gun, aiming and then pulling the trigger towards the old man, but with a moment to spare, Hino redirects her hand away towards the ceiling and instantly points an arrow and bow at her.

"What are you doing?"

"I'd rather go by myself with a gun rather than with him and without a weapon at all." Her cold words sent a shiver down both of their spines.

Hino instantly walks towards the man getting in the boat, causing it to shake slightly. "For that, you are going to stay here while I negotiate myself." The old man pushes the boat away from the platform, causing Lucy to lower her gun, letting the two of them go out to the lake.

In the middle of late after a minute they reside, Hino is quick to apologise, "I'm sorry about that; I didn't expect such a thing even from someone like her."

"Not your fault a crazy chick is all that you brought here? Where is that kind robot of yours from before?" His confusion was warranted.

Hino sighs, "Getting repaired, due to a huge railgun blast at a robot, she overloaded herself and fell off a skyscraper."

"That's a rough fall; how didn't she die from that?"

"I don't know; she was always the persistent type." Hino looks out to the dock approaching them; he helps the old man reel in the boat towards the wooden, shaky dock, making sure it won't move away the moment he gets up.

He gets off the boat, allowing the wood to hit his legs and creak instantly. The dirty air brings him back to the simpler times, which now withered, the dieselpunk city taking in his visit once more. This time, however, there were tonnes of people awaiting him, almost glaring at him.

An old lady walks up towards Hino. "I'm the leader, called Uho, you could say, of this bunch of people. I heard you need our help above; now do not make us wait anymore for all of our sakes."

Hino composes himself; his mind figures out what to say: "The people of Shilo, above and below, are going to die. The mechanical worms who corrupt the death leave no trace of our past beings, our legacy and our future."

The crowd stays silent.

"I come here not as a person from above or below but as a human like you all. Please help Shilo survive."

A man in the back of the crowd shouts out, the attention turning to his gaze. "What about the months of torment we endured down here?" The chant agrees in unison.

"I promise you one thing: the moment this is over, I will ensure that Lucy and the new government will get you all out of here."

They all remain silent but one: "Are you willing to die for it?" Jumper walks out of the crowd towards the dock.

Hino takes back his breath slightly but doesn't back down. "I will die for it; I will fight for you all to get the freedom you deserve. I think I proved that earlier as well."

The old man on the boat speaks up with his shaky voice, "He saved me from that witch Lucy. She tried to kill me to get here, but this young boy here saved my life."

The crowd flares up in anger, "Why should we work for her?" "Why do we die for a witch?"

Hino waits for the crowd to subside. "You will fight for your own sake, not for her, but the last place humanity has."

The crowd shatters into a mass conversation; the sound of various voices and the eventual slow decline made them believe that they had fully decided. Uho approaches the crowd, taking in all their suggestions while Hino waits at the dock.

With slow movements back to Hino, she gives a weary smile. "We will help you, not anyone else, not Shilo, but you who has brought us Jumper back and also saved our transporter from death."

Hino smiles back slightly relieved at it going well. "I suppose there is a faster way than a boat all the way back for five people, is there...?"

"Yes, we will use the tunnels; that witch over there can handle herself." Uho looks back at the platform, noticing no one is there, giving a nudge to Hino.

He turns to the platform, noticing her disappearance also. 'Did she leave without me? No, I must assume the worst; she betrayed me due to me denying her a swift skill.

"We must head back to the city instantly!" Hino's voice sounded rather desperate.

Jumper walks in. "I know the way towards the city." He immediately starts running, and Hino, without time to think, starts to follow him. The group by itself decided to follow behind them; they run through an uncontrollable number of turns and twists, causing the hours to pass rapidly; they had kilometres to stretch after all.

After a couple of hours, there is a light at the end of the tunnel leading to the sewage treatment centre near the centre of the city. Hino takes charge, passing everyone up the stairs towards a door peeking open, allowing him to see the street.

'Where is that hidden door?' His eyes wander around looking for the secret tunnel; the collapsed skyscraper catches his looks as he immediately signals everyone to follow him to avoid detection.

"Let's all go single file into the HQ." Hino, weaving past the broken skyscraper, goes into the tunnel first as Jumper goes last, letting the crowd go in first. They will be met with a surprise at the end.

. . .

"You came back to me after all this time, system?" She looks around the black space trying to find a piece of the system.

[My system got corrupted.]

"So how did you get back here?"

[Classified]

'My own system denies me a question; this is odd.'

[Warning! Forcing reboot!

The mind space collapses, and K4's arm reaches out at the metal bar above her head; it has force like a planned attack. Her lens quickly scans the situation, seeing a familiar blonde hair flowing down the clothed figure.

Her lens scans towards the left, seeing a mechanic trying to prevent another swing. Also, "What has happened?" she calls out.