Hostage (Part 1: Shuna's arrival)

   “… Luckily for you I am not interested in you or your father now! I am surprised to see Aoyama’s daughter with you here!” When I heard that, I knew that my identity would be discovered in no time…

My identity as Rin Nishikigi will be nothing but a big lie after a few minutes or hours. I got a bit distracted in the fight because of that. I wasn’t able to sustain any damage like Kazuto, Rintaro, or Shinji. I am an assassin after all fighting people head on wasn’t my job to begin with, but we were obliged to change the plan. I think I would have done a bit better if the enemies here were just like the other ones outside of the city area.

Outside of the broken dome area, fighting inexperienced enemies was an easy task but when we got inside the city, the difference was huge. The five men before me and Kazuto were holding different weapons: knives, EMP and normal guns…

They had incredible speed even one of them was a problem but with 5 it was just impossible to dodge and counterattack at the same time.

I kept dodging their attacks constantly. From time to time, Kazuto managed to hold them off for a few seconds. Those seconds were the only time I had to catch my breath and launch a quick attack, that was in vain almost every time.

Shinji kept struggling against the big man who was probably the natural enemy for his sword. I guess ultrasonic waves were unable to transform the nuclear pasta into energy. Each time Shinji got thrown onto the ground by the giant man he stood up quickly to launch another desperate attack. Neither of them was seriously hitting the other. 

I was literally wasting all the opportunities that Kazuto created for me to attack in seeing how Shinji fought against that man. Even Kazuto and everyone in the battlefield was keeping an eye on them.

The two other commanders were watching the fight with smiles on their faces until the first commander called them to take care of our leader.

Kazuto started moving less than before. He kept looking at the man taking slow steps towards us until he jumped to block the man’s way leaving me behind to face five men at once. I obviously knew that it was impossible!

I activated my special weapon which looked like a very thin full body armor that was very fragile to be called like that. Since it was a tool that helps me evade enemies attacks it didn’t have to be heavy or thick. When it is not working it looks and feels like normal clothes and when it is functioning, it hardens, obliging me to make certain moves to dodge enemies…

As any other modern weapon, we use nowadays, EMP can destroy it completely. So, I had to make sure not to get hit by one when the weapon is activated or else there is a risk of it getting busted while keeping its hardness.

That would be a real problem!

“I know that the leader’s blade can cut through my shield.” Kazuto said with a smile on his face. “… Since it had no effect on you then that means I won’t maybe stand a chance here, but I am more than confident that I can buy time until he comes to finish you off. Rin, sorry but you have to deal with those people alone. I will stop this one!”

I looked toward him to see that their one-sided fight was about to start. Everyone knew that if Shinji wasn’t able to stop the first commander, then no one would be able to do that. Our leader is the strongest between us after all.

“We will see about that!” The man answered as he laughed. As he charged toward Kazuto he smiled: “… In no time, you will be near your father once again, Kizuna Tomori!”

My face became immediately pale as Asahi shouted “What?!”.

My identity will be exposed today!

I kept fighting with an empty mind… I tried as hard as I could to forget about the whole thing. Being the daughter of a big terrorist and the leader of the enemies isn’t really a thing that I can be proud of…

I didn’t focus on the conversation that Asahi and the others had.

[Are they waiting for an explanation?]

I looked quickly at Shinji and Kazuto who were having a bad time and then shouted: “I started using my weapon for a while now!”

“I would’ve been surprised if you said that you haven’t used it yet.” Shinji replied immediately without looking at my direction.

A reply like that would have made me worried in normal circumstances but in that exact situation I felt relief. I understood that everyone was waiting for the fight to end so they could hear the whole story.

Asahi was probably waiting for an apology from 6 years ago!

I need to thank Shinji too…

The situation started to look a bit brighter on the other side of the plaza. They took down three enemies at once. That was the time when our leader decided to send Rintaro to back me up. If someone really needed the backup it would’ve been Kazuto or Shinji himself. 

It is true that I was driven back by the enemies and signs of tiredness started to appear, but I was sure that I could manage to survive on my own longer than that.

I had to make sure to use this golden opportunity that was provided and achieve something. As Rintaro started throwing his powerful punches randomly on the enemies, I started using my EMP from close distances without being afraid of getting hit.

Whenever one of the random punches hit an enemy sending him in the air, I jump forward and fire my gun then retreat immediately. Some of my shots hit the enemies who tried the impossible to dodge even in mid-air.

Akira suddenly shouted: “Finally!”

He defeated the rest of the enemies on his side. They were two men who used knives. That was a very matchup for him since he was the best at using knives and daggers. If only I had to fight gun users, I would’ve also won with ease…

As I looked away for a second to see Akira running towards Shinji to help him, a loud voice came from the enemies’ side.

In a blink of an eye Shuna appeared behind the enemies with a machine gun and wiped them out.

“Shuna!” Shinji shouted immediately.

She looked at the whole area quickly then, with a large smile on her face she winked as she was walking towards us.

The epic entrance that she made had a positive effect on the whole team.

[Now the six of us against these three…]

“So, how are you feeling?” She asked.

I looked at her with a puzzled face silently, so she continued: “…I am talking about the whole Kizuna Tomori thing!”

“I totally forgot the whole thing!!”

She laughed then looked at the first commander of the enemies: “…So this is the natural enemy of Shinji?! He looks like a demon lord that escaped from a fantasy novel!”

“He is equipped with nuclear pasta after all!” Rintaro replied as he stared at Shinji who suddenly got powered up and started fighting back and throwing some punches on the two enemies before him.

“Pasta? What the hell is that supposed to mean?!” She asked with a surprised tone then looked at Shinji as she shouted: “Is the nuclear pasta delicious?”

He looked at her for a second with an annoyed face silently then responded: “Definitely! Want to try some?”

“If you’re inviting me then you join me at least. Be a gentleman!”

“I have a date with a flame boy and knife boy over here shall I decline their invitation?” A smile appeared on Shinji’s face as he asked.

The second commander started wondering what those two were talking about.

“Since you invited a fine elegant lady for some pasta, you should turn them down!” She laughed then ordered Rintaro and me to join the Shinji side to give him a chance to switch enemies with Akira and Kazuto.

Shinji jumped back the moment we arrived and looked at Shuna: “…When did I invite an elegant lady?”

With Shuna's arrival it seems that the tension and all pressure we were feeling disappeared…

As we moved according to the plan Shinji and Shuna agreed on seconds ago. Kazuto and Akira started retreating little by little while Shuna covered them using the machine gun while on the other side Shinji started retreating from the fight when me and Kazuto started attacking.

Slowly, the final stage was set according to what we wanted. Me and Kazuto will be fighting against the third commander since he was a gun user while Rintaro and Akira will be fighting the second commander who changed from using his claws to throwing small knives and daggers.

Shinji and Shuna started their fight against the first commander…

It was hard to imagine that we were going to lose with that formation.

Akira with his special hand easily surpassed the speed of the second commander which meant that the fight there was in our favour.

As for the fight on my side, Kazuto was blocking the shots that he received with his broken shields, and I was fully committed to the attack.

“More backup is arriving!” Asahi suddenly notified us. We looked at each other silently with surprised face as He continued explaining:

“The first squad and the fifth squad leaders are on their way to you!”