Someone to Watch Over Me

Seventeen weeks since appearing

Alpha-6 looked on with momentary shock as exploding chopper lit up the stormy night sky before quickly refocusing on the task at hand. He still had eight men here, with four live prisoners, along with the need to maintain vigilance in case any of the sailors here suddenly decided to grow a backbone, as foolish as that might have been. Alternatively, there was also the possibility that the Spetsnaz would try and retake the bridge.

Alpha-6 mentally did an assessment. With one bird down, they had lost eleven in terms of airlift capacity... but more concerning, their team was now spread out and deployed in such a way exfiltration would be difficult with only three birds configured for troop transport. They had intentionally brought some slight redundancy in airlift to allow some tactical flexibility on how to retrieve their teams once their objectives were achieved. Since they knew battle could potentially spread them out, they planned for the possibility for needing to carry teams out on different choppers than the one they came in on. Now with one bird down, that flexibility would be compromised.

Alpha-6 did a quick count... he had eleven men... including the two snipers on the roof. That would require all of Super 6-1's capacity, which left the other two. The Captain, McKnight, Bravo and Charlie teams, plus the hostages came up to twenty-seven. That was five too many... "Command, Alpha-6... we may have a problem..."

____________________________________________________________________________________

"Yeah, I saw..." Like Alpha-6, the Captain shelved any feelings for the loss of their men. They were all professionals... they had a job to do first... that was the best way to honor them. "Let's start by not losing any more birds... Sparrow, Command... is that Akula still on the surface?"

"Command, Sparrow, affirmative... contact Victor Alpha Four... bearing two-seven-nine... range seven kilometers... converging at ten knots..."

The Wolf Fang Captain knew that trying to find a single object by sight, even with all those helicopter scanners at night in the middle of a storm would be a challenge, but Sparrow would have the advantage of the high ground, with drones that were currently keeping watch at 7,000 meters in the sky. He also remembered that an Akula attack sub needed to be on the surface to launch its SA-10 SAMs, which presented its own solution.

"Sparrow, Command, vector Super 6-5 and Super 6-6 in... let's put some pain on them and make them think twice about taking another shot..."

____________________________________________________________________________________

Works for me... Sparrow thought though he didn't verbalize it on the open channel. As a member of the Paladin PMC, he knew the men on Super 6-2, and like everyone else on the mission, set aside whatever personal feelings he might have had for the mission, but they were there. "Super 6-5, Super 6-6... come about course two-zero-nine... range two kilometers, your location... port side..."

The pilots scanned the low horizon with instruments, scanning for both radar, night-vision, and thermals, before seeing the oblong shape heading directly towards the cargo ship. "Tally, tally... Weapons free..." they called as they engaged the Master Arms. On the sides of both choppers, the pairs of GAU-19/As began spinning up as they leaned forward. All four pilots locked onto the Akula with computer-guided targeting, raining down .50 BMG at the rate of 1300 rounds per minute, or nearly 400 rounds in total between all guns during the single pass.

____________________________________________________________________________________

The surface of the sub erupted in a shower of sparks as the sustained fire raked across the surface and conning tower. Inside, the bridge officers all confirmed the impacts as their section chiefs all called in damage reports.

"Dive!" Sokolov ordered. He could tell those were high-caliber gatling gun rounds and while he was reasonably certain they couldn't actually penetrate a submarine hull, they had clearly caused substantial damage to their surface systems such as antenna, surface coatings and seals. More to the point however; this pass, the helicopters rained down bullets. The next one might include Hydra 70 rockets and AGM-114 Hellfire missiles and he was far less certain about his sub's ability to withstand those.

____________________________________________________________________________________

Boris and the SVR agents looked around, as the sound of gunfire could be clearly heard throughout the bowels of the ship. During the initial shouts of men, he hadn't paid it too much attention, assuming it was some matter dealing with operations on the ship, which didn't concern him. However, once gunfire erupted, it was plainly obvious that was enemy action. How was it possible that they were being attacked... he fumed. We're in the middle of the Sea of Japan, in raging storm, no less! Surely even if another boat did attempt to bring enemy troops near them, they would have shown up on the cargo ship's radar! He shook his head... that incompetent old man... bad enough he had dragged his feet getting us out of Japan, but now his sailors couldn't even watch a simple radar screen!?

Behind him, his fellow SVR agents got their weapons ready, though neither one knew what they were planning. Surely Boris wasn't expecting the three of them to go charging into battle against soldiers...? Yes, they had all received training at the FSB Academy, but that was almost entirely around intelligence operations, espionage, and some small matters of personal combat; nothing even remotely close to dealing with a trained counter-terrorist/hostage rescue force, which was surely what they would be facing.

Seeing the doubts in the faces of his men, Boris turned to challenge them. "This prize is our responsibility! If the boarding party manage to steal the Princess from us, then all of this would be for nothing!"

"Are you insane, Boris!?" one of the men countered. "You're expecting us to charge into combat against elite soldiers wielding automatic weapons, with just these?" as he held up his Makarov 9x18mm pistol.

Boris was about to shout 'Yes!' , but then cold hard logic splashed some sense onto his face. OK... yeah, his man was right... it wouldn't do his country... not mention his own personal vindication any good charging into automatic fire unprepared. He took a moment to get control of his emotions before nodding. "Very well... we know where the enemy must be going. We'll place ourselves where we can provide the most support to our countrymen, given what we have. We'll help guard the Princess herself; the cargo container gives us cover, and that will also allow our fellow soldiers to act more freely against our enemies."

____________________________________________________________________________________

Kobayashi braced himself as Ishii cringed at the deafening sounds of automatic gunfire echoed throughout the entire cargo hold of the ship. The guard inside with them looked out of the container, keeping eye contact with the two soldiers who were outside. Both of those guards looked around nervously. It was apparent on their faces that they wondered if they should join the battle or remain at their posts. The idea that their fellow comrades-in-arms were facing off against armed enemies while they stood by in relative safety bothered men who were trained to rush to danger, but at the same time, it was also ingrained in them to never abandon their post until properly relieved. With a silent agreement between the three men, the inside man pulled out a communicator.

"Lieutenant, what's the status out there?" the Spetsnaz sergeant demanded. "Do we maintain our posts here or should we assist?"

"Under no circumstances leave your post!" the order came back almost immediately. "The enemy is obviously after the girl! The three of you are our last line of defense! Fall back to the cargo container and prevent anyone who's not one of us from getting anywhere near that cargo hold!"

"Understood!" the sergeant confirmed, before gesturing to the other two soldiers outside, to come closer toward the entrance of the container, so they could provide better support for one another. Ideally, he would have wanted to close the entrance and barricade everyone inside, but the ventilation inside the container wasn't sufficient for six people.

Kobayashi and Ishii watched the exchange; although neither understood Russian, it didn't take a genius to figure out that they were communicating with their superior officers, and asking for clarification on the changing situation. The sound of gunfire made it clear that a third-party was fighting the Russians. Kobayashi didn't know who or how they got onboard, but as the old saying went, the enemy of my enemy is my friend , or so he hoped. Maybe Ishii-san's text message made contact with someone who could help. If so, then that meant there was a glimmer of hope, which meant if the opportunity arose, he would need to take advantage of it. He knew it would be risky, but it was his duty, and unlike that traitor Aozuka, he was going to show what it meant to be an honest police officer of the law, and to protect those who needed them most.

____________________________________________________________________________________

Mitsuha ran along the street of her neighborhood as the rain came down, but she ignored the cold water as it splashed against her feet with each step. All around her, the familiar homes of her neighbors, shops, and 交番*, once a source of comfort, almost seemed to mock her, as the sounds of gunfire and shouted orders in English and Russian, both languages she shouldn't know, but somehow understood, echoed in her mind. She paused under an awning to catch her breath, clutching her head as she struggled to come to grips with the finality of her situation.

* kōban / police box; small neighborhood police station located throughout Japan

As she recovered, Mitsuha noticed a smattering of people around looking at her with indifference, as if she weren't even there... because the truth was... none of us were . It was now all too obvious to ignore. The store she was standing in was an exact match from the last time she visited it in high school, down to the position of the inventory, and prices listed on the stands, which should have been impossible if it was supposed to be nearly ten years later.

In the sky, the storm clouds slowly began to abate. The air hung heavy with moisture and the last of the rain continued to drizzle, coloring the sky with a faint rainbow that could be seen at just the right angle. Mitsuha took a moment to gather herself, as she pushed the sounds of battle from her mind, then ran out of the store. If this was going to be her final time to see this place, at least from this point of view, she wanted one last chance to see her favorite sight before it all went away.

____________________________________________________________________________________

"Well, that don't look good..." the Captain muttered as he watched the guards near the designated cargo hold moving closer to the entrance. Although the container doors remained opened, they effectively blocked line of sight to all angles except for straight ahead. Any attempt to approach from the flanks would be coming blind. The only angle that allowed a full breach was straight in, and they would see that coming with plenty of time to have weapons readied, which meant close-quarters battle, which was highly risky for all parties involved.

"We have to get past those doors or we can't use snipers," Charlie-6 remarked, as he began to formulate a strategy out loud. "I take it CS* is out of the question?"

* Chlorobenzylidenemalononitrile or tear gas

The Captain glanced at Nishimura who firmly shook his head. "Lady Yamano's respiration is already compromised as it is. Even ignoring the tactical considerations, which I'll leave to you gentlemen, medically speaking, we have no idea what this toxin would do if CS were introduced into her system as well."

Yeah, I figured as much... besides, if things got out of hand, in a tight confined space, even trained troops might open fire if a sudden CS grenade were to go off in close proximity, just as a ricochet could kill any of the hostages. "Rafters?"

Charlie-6 looked up and shook his head; although it was conceivable they could put a man prone on one of the support beams above main hold which would allow plenty of concealment, the angle would be all wrong. So long as the Russkies stayed inside, someone from up high would have no shot.

"Then we've got to get them to open those doors wide somehow. If we can get at least half of them outside that box, we could take them out with snipers, and improve our chances with the rest of them," Charlie-6 muttered.

Yeah... that's the trick, wasn't it. We need something to distract them.

____________________________________________________________________________________

Bravo-6 watched with frustration as the Spetsnaz continued to fire controlled bursts at his team, refusing to break formation. To his left, he heard the sounds of one of his men hiss in pain, and some of the others pulled him back and off the line. Those buggers sure knew what they were about...! he swore to himself. More to the point, he only had twelve men, plus the four from Charlie, while he estimated the enemy had two группа* as the Russians referred to themselves, which if he remembered his NATO briefings amounted to between eighteen to twenty-two men. More to the point, they were on home ground, had better cover, and in many ways, had their backs to the wall.

* gruppa / group

"They're fighting like their lives are depending on it," McKnight muttered through gritted teeth.

"You did say something about this mission being monitored by their Central Committee," Bravo-6 reminded him, as he tried to reassess their tactical situation. Even with a flanking attacker from Charlie, they were making no progress, and in some ways were being pushed back. "Maybe we need to try another approach..."

McKnight took a breath as he mentally went over the blueprints from the briefing. "There's a utility access that goes down the main crane support used to service the derrick motors, but that's too narrow for a whole team. It was meant for an engineer to reach the lower decks and service the motors from underneath the deck plates."

"OK, if we hold them here, could you make it through with a couple guys escorting you?" Bravo-6 suggested.

McKnight mentally projected the distance nodded, "Fifteen minutes, assuming these guys don't double back and cut us off."

"Understood..." Bravo-6 nodded. "We'll hold them here," and turned to the rest of his team, and did an ammunition check across his team before resuming the fight.

____________________________________________________________________________________

"Sir..." Charlie-6 whispered to the Captain, as he pointed towards the front of the cargo hold while looking through a telescopic rangefinder. "We've got a few party crashers..."

The Captain looked over to where SFC Mitchell was pointing and smirked. "Well, well... if it ain't Larry, Curly and Moe... long time no see..." he muttered, recalling the three SVR agents from the time they had the big international meeting of agents at Wolf Fang's base with Mitsuha, where she had assumed the alias "Princess Nanoha" for the first time*. "Dollars to donuts, those three bozos had a hand on why the little lady's in this fix."

* see Manga Chp50 / LN Chp20

"You saying they attacked her and put her in that coma?" Mitchell asked.

"Probably not..." the Captain shook his head. "After that last fiasco, she wouldn't have gotten near them without a bunch of guards by her side and with her abilities, I doubt they'd be able to get within a hundred meters of her. Pretty sure there's no way those clowns would be able to tag her like that... but I wouldn't put it past them to take advantage of the situation, given that someone else managed to ambush her, and put her in that state. Either way, looks like they're heading that way to join the party, so if we don't stop them, it's going to be six in that box with our lady, along with the kid and the cop."

"Actually, hold on a sec, sir..." Charlie-6 suggested. "This may be an opportunity..."

____________________________________________________________________________________

Boris and his team slowly and cautiously approached the cargo container with the hostages. All around them, they could hear the sound of combat, which compelled them to be extra cautious. The last thing they wanted was to be shot by stray fire by either side, which compelled them to keep to cover.

Boris took the lead, a few containers ahead, they could see the container that had been turned into a makeshift prison cell for their all-important Princess, along with their hostages. They also saw that the soldiers that had been assigned to guard them had pulled back, and taken positions right next to the container. What fools... they had no perimeter at all...! With no one watching their flanks, they could have an entire fire team approaching from both flanks and they'd never know it until it was far too late... well, we'll see about that... as they came up to the container.

____________________________________________________________________________________

Out in the storming night sky, the helicopters swung around after completing their initial pass, with anticipation of making another. All four pilots scanned the surface of the waters with their various instruments, searching for any sign of their target. "Sparrow, Super 6-5... No Joy... Victor Alpha Four, confirm?"

Sparrow directed two of the drones to continue to circle the area where Akula was last sighted, searching for the telltale signs of its presence. "Confirm No Joy on Victor Alpha Four... target's gone deep, below LiDAR* range."

* Light Detection and Ranging

"Command, Super 6-5... No Joy on Victor Alpha Four... "

"Acknowledge... maintain Cover Victor Alpha Four, Engage on sight," the Captain replied.

____________________________________________________________________________________

"Comrades," Boris announced as he approached.

The Spetsnaz sergeant held his weapon at low ready as the three SVR agents came up to the container, eyeing them suspiciously. "What do you think you're doing here? We're at high alert right now and the safest place for you would be your quarters!"

Boris looked left and right at how the soldiers were deployed tight and close to the cargo container. Behind them, Kobayashi stood with a look of defiance while Ishii continued to keep an eye on Mitsuha's unconscious form. "Your men are all packed tightly together; I understand you want to guard your principal, but don't you realize that there could be an entire squad coming on your flanks and you'll never see it coming? With all the noise coming from the battle, you need eyes to cover as wide a perimeter as possible!"

"How about you don't tell me how to be a soldier and I don't tell you how to conduct espionage?" the sergeant snarled back. "Or perhaps I should... considering the mess we're in right now...?" he insinuated insultingly.

"The package falls under our responsibility!" Boris shouted back. "If she's taken because your team couldn't do your jobs, then that falls on our shoulders! In any event, we're here and we can handle keeping an eye on the prisoners, which will allow you to extend your perimeter without compromising security."

The lead sergeant considered the matter, then shrugged. Regardless of his personal feelings, six was almost always better than three when dealing with security and his men were certainly better equipped to handle enemies at a distance than the SVR, who were equipped with mere pistols, so he motioned for his men to take positions near the support columns inside the cargo hold, which would hopefully provide them some cover from their blind spots and allow them to keep an eye out for any incoming forces from a wider angle.

____________________________________________________________________________________

Charlie team had been watching the three SVR agents approaching the cargo container with bated breaths. As SFC Mitchell had hoped, the presence of the SVR agents had ironically worked in their favor; he suspected they weren't going to cram all nine people like a sardine can into the container, especially with half of their force wielding long guns. As the Spetsnaz soldiers spread apart, Mitchell and the Captain nodded to each other, then gestured for the three snipers to get into position.

As they climbed up to the exposed ceiling and support area, Charlie-6 kept an eye on the SVR agents, watching for any patterns of their movements. In his mind, he was plotting out how best to resolve this standoff; he had three snipers and four ground fighters. His opponents had three riflemen, three men with pistols, and three hostages were in play. The riflemen were now spread apart, which gave their snipers an opportunity, but one of the riflemen continued to stay stubbornly close to the cargo container door. Move, damn you... Charlie-6 silently urged, but he kept close to the entrance, and much closer to the hostages than Charlie-6 was comfortable with.

Up above in the rafters, the three members of Charlie team equipped with MK-22s quietly moved into position as best they could, with Charlie-6 taking the remaining two men and the Captain as the ground unit. Hiding behind a column, Charlie-6 called into his communicator, "Snipers, confirm Tangos..."

"Charlie-1-1... Tango Targeted..."

"Charlie-1-2... Tango Targeted..."

"Charlie-1-3... Negative... No Joy on Tango..."

Shit... Charlie-6 muttered to himself. We can't use gas, and rifle rounds in a tight box was far too risky. Flashbangs might be our only option, and even those could cause significant damage if used in tight confines. "Stand by... Weapons tight... might have only one chance... if the window opens... take the shot..."

Charlie-6 turned to face the Captain who grimaced and nodded, having come to the same conclusions. No rifles, no flashbangs, that left pistols and the hope that both our hostages had the sense to hit the deck once the action started. It would have to be coordinated with the snipers; fast and no mistakes, and maybe a lucky break or two or someone was going to get hurt.

____________________________________________________________________________________

McKnight and his two escorts slowly crawled out of the utility tunnel and emerged out in the lowest deck where engineering housed the reactor. Normally this floor would have an engineering crew present, but with the gun battle raging just a floor above, the sailors had taken refuge in sealed quarters, waiting for the all clear. Duty or not, no sailor wanted to risk getting shot.

McKnight drew upon his experience from his past life as a US Army CBRN* officer before he had switched his career path to join the Rangers as a younger man seeking excitement, before eventually mustering out with the realization that active-duty combat was a young man's game. Had this been a US vessel, finding the emergency SCRAM would have been relatively easy, but this being a forty-year or older Russian boat, and a design he wasn't that familiar with, he needed a moment. Fortunately, certain designs were universal in nature... "Got it..." he declared before giving the shutdown button a press. All around them, the power in the ship flickered, as inside the reactor, the control rods were immediately shoved into the reactor core, stopping the fission reaction. Power output from the reactor began to drop as the decay heat continued to produce power, but that would only last for a short time until the reactor was properly restarted. "Reactor secured," he announced. He then nodded to his escorts, "Let's get back to the rest of Bravo." They needed to be off this deck, lest those Spetsnaz one floor up figure out what just happened and decide to head down that main hatch and find just the three of them here all alone.

* Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear

____________________________________________________________________________________

Charlie-6 and the Captain nodded and held their breath, along with the two men that stood by their side. They ordered Nishimura to stay behind under cover. Above them, two of the snipers had their targets sighted in, with the third man under orders to take the shot once an opportunity presented itself. With that, the Captain clicked on the communicator in silent mode, <click>...<click>...<click>... followed by Charlie-6 placing a hockey puck shaped flashbang on the floor and sliding it towards the group near the cargo door. Under normal circumstances, he would have slid it directly towards his target, but in this case, he intentionally pushed it wide off-target to minimize any potential damage to the hostages before he, the Captain, and their two fellow soldiers charged forwards, pistols in hand.

The flashbang erupted while simultaneously to the far right and left, two of the Russian soldiers dropped as the snipers fired headshots into their designated targets. Charlie-6 fired at his target, clipping him in the shoulder while the Captain did the same to his. Inside, Ishii hit the floor to take cover, as the remaining Spetsnaz soldier tried to retreat to the rear of the cargo container to find cover. The two remaining members of Charlie cursed, both holding fire, with the soldier being far too deep inside to risk a shot.

However just then, seeing the moment, Kobayashi charged forward, pushing the remaining Russian soldier off-balance and forward out of the cargo container. The soldier angrily turned around, but was then suddenly shot by the last sniper who had been holding his shot.

The Captain and Charlie-6 charged forward, searching for any additional threats, with pistols drawn. Behind them, their two teammates called out "Clear!" as they checked their assigned threat vectors.

Charlie-6 turned back towards Nishimura and motioned that it was safe to approach. "Geez... we're clear, but can you tell him what a brave stupid bastard he was for nearly risking his life like that?"

Nishimura nodded to Kobayashi respectfully, "それはとても勇気のあることでした,*"

* Sore wa totemo yūki no aru kotodeshita / That was very brave

Kobayashi briefly reciprocated, out of respect and gratitude.

Charlie-6 glanced at the exchanged with a dubious expression... that's not what I said, was it... but decided to drop it... must have been a cultural thing...

"Yuta-san..." Nishimura pulled Ishii's hand closely and shook it warmly and sighed with relief. "Everyone was so worried."

Ishii nodded and smiled as he looked around. "I guess you got my message after all," he sighed.

That was you...? the Captain's expression asked wordlessly before he nodded. "Yeah... yah did good kid... probably saved all of your lives with those messages."

Nishimura then turned to Mitsuha, "What's Lady Yamano's condition?"

Ishii read off the latest vitals numbers, including blood pressure, pulse, EKG, EEG, blood test values, along with some specific tests provided to him from Dr. Sato.

Next, Nishimura did his own examination. "We need to stabilize her for safe transport, so let's make these adjustments to her IV," he ordered as Ishii made a few minor changes to the saline drip that kept Mitsuha hydrated and delivered medication. Overall, he was relieved to see her condition, and with her vitals looking stable, it was beginning to look like between her healing power, their supportive care, and Dr. Sato's experimental regime, she was finally out of the woods.

____________________________________________________________________________________

Captain Alexei Sokolov called out as klaxons and the shouts of the men around him threatened to overwhelm any sense of military order that was once present, "Damage report!"

"We've lost surface radar and satellite communications... leaks reported in the forward and aft machinery compartments and periscope and ECM/ECCM systems. Engineering reports we have damage across the top side surface seals and doesn't recommend depths below 100 meters until damage control parties secure the leakage."

"Captain!" a second officer reported in, "We're getting damage reports from the forward torpedo room fire control systems... Weapons officer says they've lost power to the control systems and controls don't respond. They can't disarm the torpedoes or close outer doors...!"

____________________________________________________________________________________

"Command, Sparrow... LiDAR's* picked up a high-speed underwater launch near contact Victor Alpha Four's last known location... best guess... she's launched a torpedo... bearing two-seven-one and closing... estimate impact to Victor Alpha One in thirty seconds..."

* Light Detection and Ranging

____________________________________________________________________________________

What the hell happened to not touching Blackbird... the Captain wondered, but that was a question for the after-action review... assuming there was one... "Alpha-6... get your team to their assigned evac bird... don't wait for us... Bravo, Charlie... disengage and converge to the target cargo container immediately...! Doc, what's her status?"

"Stable," Nishimura confirmed. "She's ready to move."

"No time," The Captain shook his head, much to the surprise to everyone in the container. "Can you wake her up?"

Nishimura looked startled. "Wha...? You mean right now?" He took a moment to glance over Mitsuha's vitals. They looked stable, but he wasn't certain about her state of mind, given how long she had been out. "Maybe... but I'm not sure what her mental state will be, under the circumstances."

"Any state is better than dead... get her up..." The Captain ordered.

____________________________________________________________________________________

Mitsuha sat still on the park bench facing out to the sea. In the back of her mind, she could hear sounds that resembled gunfire; men shouting in a language she understood, even though she had never studied before and even the world itself seemed to shake. Despite these disturbances, no one else she could see seemed to notice, leading to only one inevitable conclusion. She buried her head in her hands and began to cry, not noticing someone else sitting down next to her.

Tsuyoshi gently put his arm around Mitsuha's shoulder and gently gave her pet on the head.

"H... how did you know I was here...?" Mitsuha asked as she wiped her eyes.

Tsuyoshi smiled. "This was always your favorite spot whenever... you needed to find yourself..."

Mitsuha shook her head and looked back out to the sea. Even here, with this gentle sight and with Tsuyoshi next to her, she couldn't ignore the ever-closing sounds and sensations of somewhere else. "Except this time, there is no finding myself, is there...? Because this isn't real... None of this is real... and it never was..." she trailed with a sense of realization.

Tsuyoshi sighed and looked at her and smiled again. "You know... I'm not the one to say for sure what in this world is real and what's not, but I want you to remember one thing... " He pulled her close and gave her a warm embrace and looked her in the eyes. "No matter what else you may believe... or whatever else happens in this life or the next... the love we had for one another... for Okaasan and Otoosan... that... will always be real... and even if this world isn't real, then at least believe in that... and even if we can't be with you here and now... we'll always be there... in your heart and spirit... to watch over you... "

Mitsuha's lips trembled... she stared at Tsuyoshi's face for what felt like for the longest time, as their eyes met for what she knew in her heart would be for the final time. His face was just as she remembered it... the young 19-year-old youth... so full of promise and a brilliance that would never be fulfilled. He gently placed his hand on her cheeks, nodded and smiled. "We will always be proud of you... wherever you go... Imoto-chan..."

Mitsuha began to tear up again, "Oniichan, I..."

____________________________________________________________________________________

Mitsuha's eyes shot open and she gasped as the Flumazenil Epinephrine cocktail sent a jolting shockwave through her whole body, forcing her to consciousness sharply. She blinked and looked around in confusion as the drugs took their toll on her system from their abrupt change in her mental and physical state. Looking up, her vision struggled to focus as the sounds of gunfire could still be heard echoing in the hold of the ship.

"Torpedo inbound... estimated impact... fifteen seconds..." Sparrow reported on the radio.

The Captain snapped his fingers in front of Mitsuha's eyes to get her attention. "Sorry to have to do this to you, little lady, but I'm gonna have to be blunt 'cause we're kinda under the gun... We'll explain everything later, but right now, it's me, the doc here, his student, the Police Sergeant, and the twenty-four men in and around this cargo container. We need you to yank us outta here, pronto... or it's going to be bad for all of us..."

"Impact... nine seconds... eight... seven..." Sparrow counted down.

Mitsuha struggled as her breath was unsteady and her thoughts still felt full of static... something that she could normally do effortlessly at will was proving to be a Herculean task of concentration, trying to focus.

"... five... four... " Sparrow counted down.

The Captain clicked his tongue nervously, trying to alleviate the tension, "Um... time's a factor, by the way..."

Mitsuha gritted her teeth... pushing past the lingering effects of the toxin and drugs still in her system along with struggling with the side effects of her comatose state for the past few months.

"... three... two... " Sparrow counted down.

Everyone in the cargo hold seemed to cringe as they weren't sure what to do next other than to brace for impact.

Tr... Tr... Transfer!