Stabbed Heart

"Justice had been served and protests across the world rose up against the war. The smaller countries in the united front pulled out their support, unable to maintain the war. This quickly left only a few nations in the war that was quickly being labeled as The Second Holocaust. The military leaders that continued to fight were called War Criminals for acts of mass murder.

"The images that this conjured up sat badly with the remaining nations that the only way to save their political careers was to pull out of the war and end it quickly. The final orders to wipe out what they believed to be the remaining hideouts were bombed. No order was given to investigate or confirm the destruction. The military pulled out so fast that much of their equipment was left behind.

"The history of man is built on mistakes, but it is not only man that can error…"

Herbert Stein, Machine Historian

Their meals were almost finished, but the last portions were taking a while to disappear. Kiyoshi was telling Satoru about people from work distracting him from eating. He was clearly trying to keep it light and entertaining rather than remind him of other problems. It allowed Satoru to laugh and relax without having to worry about the world around him. They were in a bubble while in the restaurant not having to see what was beyond it if they didn’t want to. "Can you believe she said that?"

"Sounds like Natsuko," Satoru said, trying not to laugh while he was sucking up noodles.

"Yeah, you've dealt with her more than me. I don't know if I'll ever get used to it."

"I don't know about that. You just have to- huh?" A call was coming in sounding off from beyond the table bringing a halt to their conversation. Satoru looked at Kiyoshi a little confused by the fact that there was someone calling him.

"You have a call," Kiyoshi said, trying to not give Satoru the chance to ignore it like he was appearing.

"I know, but I haven't had it accepting calls for weeks. There should be nothing getting through." Satoru looked down in the area where the noise was coming from, passing the thought of answering through his mind. He had left it 'Off' for a reason. There was no one that he wanted to talk to or hear from at the moment. But there was a nagging feeling in the back of his mind telling him that he shouldn’t let it pass.

"Well see who it is, it might be her." Kiyoshi tried to give him some encouragement to answering the phone. He wanted Satoru to start opening back up to the world; this was the next step.

An image of Asami grew in his mind suddenly. It made the feeling that he had increased until it was impossible to ignore or push away. 'I doubt it. Not the way she left. But maybe it is her.' The thumping of desire from his heart became too much and he quickly grabbed the device from his coat and pulled it out. He looked at the screen to see who it was that was actually calling him to know if he would actually need to answer it. "Huh, no name?"

Kiyoshi became equally confused entering into Satoru's territory as he looked down at the device in Satoru's hand. He couldn’t see the screen, but there was something strange about it. "What do you mean?"

"It's anonymous, is that even possible anymore?" There was no number or location that the call was coming from. Everything that normally ran across the screen was blank with question marks or symbols that held no meaning other than to say that it was being encrypted.

"I didn't think so, must be a very secure line." Kiyoshi tried to think of anyone that could be sending such a call, but all it did was make him curious to know that he had no answer. "You better answer it."

Satoru was still hesitant to answer the call but knew that Kiyoshi was right. If he was going to get an answer to whom it was that wanted to talk to him he was going to have to answer it. He pushed the button accepting the call after having annoyed everyone surrounding him by not answering the call for a minute. The device was slowly brought to his ear drawing out the anticipation of the identity of the caller. "Yeah…hello?"

"Mr. Korumura," an unfamiliar man's voice said. The man's speech was in appearance of familiarity with Satoru and not a question. It was as though he knew Satoru.

Satoru's confusion on his face grew at the familiarity the man was showing. For someone that he did not know he was being very forward. "Who is this?" he said hoping to get an answer to the identity of this person.

"I have a message for you," the man said, completely ignoring the question and moving on. It was clear that he had a purpose and was not going to be easily revealing extraneous details.

"Who are you?" Satoru said still hoping for an answer even though he knew from the way the man was approaching him that it was a futile attempt.

"This concerns someone of your acquaintance, a Miss Asami Ichihana."

The man had Satoru's attention now. He wasn’t sure if this was just a ploy to get him interested in something else or actually about her. Satoru couldn’t ignore it either way, feeling hope returning to his body. "Asami! What do you want? Do you know where she is? Who is this?"

Kiyoshi pulled back a little in surprise to Satoru's reaction. He could see that the person calling Satoru knew something important about the woman that Satoru told him about. "Satoru, what's going on? Who are you talking to?"

Satoru's eyes widened in disbelief at what he had just heard from the man. "What?! You can't be serious." He didn’t want to hear it. If this was some sort of joke that the man was getting at his expense he was going to make him regret it for the rest of his life. Anger was quickly building up in him against the caller not wanting to listen to him anymore, but knowing that he didn’t have any choice.

"I'm not lying to you. It's your choice if you wish to believe me. I'm simply giving you the choice to change her fate." The call ended at the last word leaving Satoru holding the phone unable to release it. His face almost froze as he began to accept what he was told.

"Satoru? Your face…what did they say to you?" Kiyoshi said, trying to shake Satoru out of the trance that he had entered. He had no idea what Satoru heard, but whatever it was had him completely paralyzed. It had him worried by what it could possibly be that turned him white as a ghost. Unfortunately, all of his efforts were wasted on Satoru, requiring him to physically grab him to shake him free of the hold it had on him. "Satoru!"

"Kiyoshi…it's her," Satoru said slowly, still having trouble digesting it. He put away the device and stood up looking back down at Kiyoshi. There was no time he could waste now. "They said that Asami is going to destroy the Qintech building!”