Mireille ran, dashed, and forced to increase the speed in her feet with all she might. She kept running, running, and running. Night had fallen ; the sky was dark, the moon barely lit the way, and the path's surrounding was not much clearer. The Corsican girl halted slightly when her vision caught the sight of a bridge. Collecting her breath, Mireille crossed it, and continued her venture. How she finally set her foot upon the street of the small town whose appearance bright by lights, she did not know. How such town would exist, she did not want to ask. How the first place that she saw right away was the inn, noisy and lively right on her left, she cared not. All she knew was that she wanted, and need to rest. ---------- Mireille Bouquet slowly blinked her eyes in a lazy motion, adapting her sense to the unfamiliar morning sunlight. Her body felt stiff, tough better after she laid on the soft, bouncy stuff she was now resting in. Her left arm - wounded, cold, aching, - was apparently felt cold despite the thick, tickling blanket she had used to cover her body since the night. Realizing the next day had come, the blonde sat up on her bed. She searched for her gun worriedly, hold it tightly, and looked at her surrounding. She was practically sitting on a bed, in a small, simple white-painted room. Small window - a curtain-less one - hung right on her left beside the bed, illuminating the yellow strays of light from the sun. At the deeper part in the room, a bathroom whose door kept ajar existed. So far all was normal ; Mireille did not spot anything or anyone suspicious in her room. Slowly, the Corsican girl lowered her gun and somehow began to like the room she was in. Regardless of the dusty furniture, dirty tiles, and the old ceilings, Mireille found the room was nice, relaxingly quiet, and comfortable enough. Despite the coldness in the room, Mireille's clothes plugged sticky on her body due to the sweat on it. It was supposed to be a good sign from her fever had her vision not abruptly went blurry, then black for a while. Fortunately, after a few times blinking and some shook on her head, she came back to see things vividly afterwards. Her fatigue had gradually recovered during the time, tough the fever proved to insist in troubling her, despite the sweating. Mireille put the blanket on and leaned her back to a white, soft pillow. Mireille slipped her hand inside her pocket, and let out the white envelope which had been ripped slightly last night due to the urgent circumstances. Last night - desperate, exhausted, and confused - the Corsican girl broke the envelope's seal and open it, which was a fortunate action as she found money in it, and without much more thinking, rent a room. Sleepy and weary as she was yesterday, Mireille had not yet analyzed the rest of the envelope, as she fall asleep right the moment her head rested in bed. Now, holding the thick envelope with one hand, the blonde poured the envelope's contain onto the bed's surface. Thick as the envelope was, she saw a sufficient amount of money - mostly yen – and some piece of papers. The blonde ignored the money and took the papers, unfolded them, and begun to read. Dear Mireille. At the first word, the blonde raised her eyebrows slightly. She never expected Chloe to write a letter for her. Curious for what reason, the Corsican girl read further. If you got the chance to read this letter, one thing is sure. Our runaway was not as smooth as I hoped to be. However, whatever your condition is now I believe you are healthy, and out of danger enough to read my letter. In this very same envelope you will find some money which I have prepared intentionally for you to use as effective as you can. Above anything else, I must convince you to rest and regain your strength before you do anything reckless, whatever it may be. If you have managed to rest in the inn at the town I told you, you can rest assured, and relax for a while. No matter how powerful Soldats are, they must behave to other people, which was why you better hide in a town, a public place. But remember that they also might be sneaky, so you better keep watching your back. There is not a single place in the world that is perfectly safe. I am writing this letter, hoping that this may mainly serves the purpose of my absence possibility in telling you what has happened until now. Now, I will explain the situation you are currently facing. Soldats had grown into a powerful company during the time. Based from the information I sought, they had perpetually cooperated with many industries, or companies, which I had not yet gotten the reason for what purpose when I told you about Naomi the first time. Soldats had trapped me, saying some particular plan, which was nothing but fake. When I knew and realized that, it had been too late to inform you because both of you had agreed to just come to Japan. It was partly my fault that you and Kirika were trapped in their plan. And I apologized for that. To make up for it, I have ceaselessly been investigating since then. The result is surprising, but now I am pretty sure that I have truly discovered one of their desires, at least the one involving you and Kirika. Selfish as they were, Soldats seem to have some desire to dominate the world in their own way. Somehow, Soldats had quite raising their knowledge, and increasing their ability specifically at medical field to gain this dream of theirs. They hire, cooperate and join alliance with brilliant doctors. Soldats want to have something strong, different, something that will make them formidable enough to dominate the world so they will have no fear against anything. In order to succeed, they somehow choose to study those medical things. I don't understand their way of thinking as well, but here that they began to think of a plan regarding you and Kirika. Apparently, they still think the two of you as their main threat. At first I'm sure that they thought you two must be eliminated from the world for their sake of success. But somehow, their plan changed. If you have not realized, they have been watching Kirika, studying her all the time instead of trying to kill her. That, was because Soldats changed their tactics and switched from eliminating the enemies to using that enemy. For short, they want Kirika to be their main weapon. Only Kirika. You are not wanted. Why Kirika? I jump to a conclusion that Kirika have something really special inside her, something Soldats interested in. It is not something that special in fact, but according to them, she seems to have the greatest possibility above anyone else to serve their goal. I know how this information will make you angry right after you read it, but you must keep reading. Maybe now you are questioning whether why I came to you first instead of Kirika? The answers are: First, Kirika is strictly guarded in a special room I can't get close to without a thoughtful plan. Soldats have treated her differently, which is not likely to be in a good way. From what I heard, Kirika is being kept unconscious all the time for some reason. Why I didn't tell you this faster was to avoid the possibility, which was almost certain that you would go mad uncontrollably and go rescue Kirika recklessly. I don't want you to do that. It's far too risky with your condition. Now that you know how precious Kirika is to them, despite all their treatment and selfish will, you got to believe me for saying that she isn't going to be killed. The other reason of why I saved you first is that you are also the key to their horrible project. All people have this two sides within them; the good one, and the bad one. Somehow, Soldats had investigated those kind of things, and finally discovered a way to 'activate' another side which is less dominating in life than the other. Another plan of them is to activate the dark side of Kirika which they acknowledged as a 'special' one. Literally, one will definitely turn bad when someone hurt their feeling, or done something wrong. A proper action is the only one needed to lead someone into that kind of state. This, I believe is when you take part. Using you, the special person for Kirika, somehow will inflict Kirika's deep, sensitive feeling. Soldats will do something bad to you, horrible enough to disrupt Kirika's calm and turned her mad. They want to hurt Kirika mentally, instead of the common physical harm. My guess, Soldats will kill you, the precious person in Kirika's life, disgracefully, terribly, and exactly right in front of her. When Kirika sees you died in front of her very own eyes, I'm pretty sure myself that she will jump out, chasing, and kill the perpetrator. It is almost certain that she will lose her composure and her dark side may pop out, even just the slightest bit. The outrage effect is what they seek because it may 'activate' the dark side of a person, which will ease their project. Why? What for? Soldats want to form a formidable weapon. It is kind of abnormal that their choice of a perfect weapon somehow fell upon a living being weapon, tough. It is still a guess, but Kirika will likely be raised into a killing machine, using her 'special' dark side. Mireille stopped reading, despite her stern gaze that still fallen upon the very text she had been reading for a while. The last sentence she read had turned out to be the best shocking, compare with the other astonishing information she had just absorbed from the letter in the last two minutes. Soldats, Naomi, Chloe, the plan, weapon, Kirika.. All thoughts mixed up in her mind. Fury begun to rage inside her; her blue eyes flamed in anger, the paper in her hands shaking, as well as her hands. How dare you.. Naomi. Mireille's mind was full of fury. The plan, if what Chloe said was true, was absolutely terrible. Had she been in the Japanese girl's position, she definitely could not stand the thought of her lover dying right in front of her two bare eyes. Just by imagining the vision of the dearest person in her life was dying, weak, screaming for help, suffering from whatever killing her was painful and torturing. There was little doubt that Mireille would not go rampage, wild, brutal in every way she found possible. She believed that she would definitely chase anyone responsible – the perpetrator of it – until she was satisfied enough to stop. She would seek revenge until the last breath of her life, that one was sure. And also there was no telling how dark, impulsive, menacing, and dangerous she would be. Mireille shook her head, vanishing the horrible thought of her dark self. She had come to realize the feeling of anger, fear, hatred, even doubt, which had been flaring even more vigorously inside her since she knew the content of the letter. How could one be such a bastard, a maniac to turn a human into a weapon? A killing machine? Too many things had gone wrong. And too many things she failed to do and missed to act. The blonde's jaw unconsciously tightened, and her gaze hardened. Her patience had been overloaded; it was nearly reached the limit. She really wanted to rush to Naomi's annoying base, marched in with full gun shot at whoever she met inside, or even bombed them to dust. She would kill anyone necessary. She would not care who stood in the way. Anyone. For there was no way she would let the Japanese girl used as a weapon. And no way would she let Kirika be used by Soldats. Never as long as she kept alive. Mireille was about to get up and got ready, but above all her anger, her fury, and her feeling, her dignity succeeded in kicking in. Deep in the heart, the blonde knew that just insisting was not enough. She would need to prepare an exact action, in a proper condition. Mireille heaved out a desperate sigh. Her wounds had not yet recovered, let alone been treated ; it was left ignorantly ever since it was still bleeding for the first time until it felt like freezing and dead stiff like now. Moreover, her head still felt a bit dizzy, and it was very likely that she was still suffering from the fever last time as her whole body was sweating, but felt cold at the same time. Her current condition would not do. She had to rest ; one other day might suffice. A little disappointed for her delayed vengeance and her pity condition, Mireille let her gaze once again focused on the letter as she began to read on the rest of the letter. If Kirika really turn into her dark self, my next prediction is that Soldats will then prepare some kind of drug from their best doctor and somehow shot it inside her or any other bad things to control Kirika right away. Or with their high abnormal technology medical knowledge, they may analyze Kirika's mental condition at that raging time, extract it, and somehow discover a drug or medicine which can be used to raise Kirika back instantly into 'that' species. In my opinion, the second option is more plausible. Now I believe that you are quite aware of what position you are in, and what condition you are facing now. But you must remember that with our escape, their plan might possibly change. Whatever it is, not only Kirika, but you are also an important key point to their success. So don't do anything sloppy. If luck is within me, I may meet you again. There, I can help you rescue Kirika back. If I had not yet be seen during your recovery days, you'd better not wait for me any longer. Therefore, you will have to act alone. Another advice, that you must stay in the town for no longer than three days. Soldats is definitely chasing and searching for you, even now. The town however, is not pretty far from the place you once escaped from. Don't look suspicious or attract any attention. Play smart. Study the map. Don't underestimate. Use the gun wisely. Furthermore, I wish you and Kirika the best luck for everything. Chloe. Mireille stared blankly at the letter as soon as she finished reading it. She was worried, really worried about Kirika and also, Chloe. The purple haired girl had helped her so much it could not be listed down by words alone. She provided her with almost everything she needed right now – money, information, a weapon. But the girl's life had remained questionable and unknown for now. No one knew whether the girl survived from the last battle or not. For the first time in her life - after her unexpected rescue - Mireille really hoped to see Chloe again, alive. Sighing, the Corsican girl folded the letter and slipped it inside the same envelope it was brought out from. As she tugged the money inside as well, the Corsican girl noticed one paper left alone on the bed's surface. She opened it up, and found a kind of map drawing. At the bottom of the paper she read: "Map." Mireille smiled slightly. Chloe had really thought about everything; the map could help her made some more accurate steps ahead. She darted her eyes all over the map, noticing the significant symbol in the map. She found the place Kirika was kept in for an instance - a big room, judging from the picture's size. A while after, the blonde figured out the location she was trapped in yesterday. Those places were marked purposely with a blue cross. She leaned to sit, and studied the paper a little bit more. She counted the total of the rooms, predicted the best way to come in and out, and so on. Sunk deep down by the curiosity of her next battlefield, Mireille forgot the pleading sound of her stomach of hunger, the dryness in her throat, the stiffness on her left arm, and the fever she was suffering. For an instance, she forgot everything unnecessary beside the map. Time passed quickly with Mireille scanning the map almost the whole day, planning a reliable plan, questioning the possibility of guards, and other things necessary. Her gaze remained steady, her mind thought simultaneously. It was not until the moon had shown that her inner need screamed in and the Corsican girl finally realized how hungry she was. Taking the gun, the map, and the envelope with her, Mireille stood up from her bed slowly, then left her room and seek for goods and medicine. Just by walking down and wandering for the first ten minutes, Mireille felt an awkward feeling due to people's curious staring at her. The Corsican girl, confused and perplexed as she was, finally came to notice the source of all the staring. She had not bathed, she smelled, and her clothes were ripped and torn out everywhere, leaving visible holes on the garment. Not to mention that she was dirty enough to make people avoid her as well. Realizing her physical condition, Mireille rushed towards the shop that sold clothes and all, bought a thick jacket, a red shirt, and trousers she laid her eyes first on, ignoring the 'how-can-she-have-money' stare from the shopkeeper, and ran back to her inn. Once she stepped inside the room, Mireille closed the door and sighed. All of the sudden, a stinging shot of dizziness attacked her. With that, the Corsican girl came back to notice her fever. The blonde's body fall sit on the floor weakly; her weight barely strengthen by her legs. Sitting on the floor, Mireille found her body weary without energy. She let go her grab of the clothes' bag. Apparently, the fever had grown worse enough to make her once again suffering from her health. Despite all the sweat pouring down from her forehead and her body, Mireille hobbered to bed and fall asleep right after the first touch of the bed on her chin. An hour of rest, then the Corsican girl finally got better of her fever effect and fit enough to walk on and took a bath. Refreshed by the bath - quite healthy and new - Mireille wore her new clothes and jacket, then once again dawdled outside the inn and bought all she needed to feed her strength and her health. Her new appearance had proved to be effective ; no one looked at her in that devastating way such as before. She ate in silence at a small restaurant near the inn, trying not to attract any attention at all. Finished with her supper, the Corsican girl went to the one and only clinic in the small town, asking for medicine, then went off to her inn again after her left arm was bandaged neatly – which was not by her own accord but rather by the nurse's worried and caring personality. Heading to her room, Mireille stole some glance secretly at the inn's bar just in case she would see Chloe's sign of existence somewhere in town. Therefore, the sight of no one resembling the purple haired girl caused the blonde sighed once more. ----------------------- The next day, at exactly three o' clock in the morning, Mireille woke up impassively after her dreamless sleep. The fact that she managed to get up this early had somehow proved a great recovery progress of her fatigue and fever. And regardless of her left arm, she felt much better than yesterday. The Corsican girl grabbed her gun inside the pocket, and walked on to the bathroom. She brushed her teeth, washed her face, and got out from the bathroom as quick as she got in. Mireille put on her jacket, slipped the white envelope to her pocket, and after a while scanning her room silently, left the room inaudibly. Outside, the sun had barely shown up. The sky was lightly dark, the remaining of last night. The flickering sound of leaves by the wind, the vague sound of nocturne's activity, and her own heavy breath were the only things that adorned the silent town. Mireille marched to the same direction she came from the day before yesterday ; she was ready to head off. Noticing how she was soon enough going to be a fugitive, Mireille felt it would be best to get out of town as fast as she could. Apart from that too, the blonde had begun to feel the unease, dangerous stares again as if she was being watched by somebody. If Soldats played all sneaky and smart, she would do better, and quicker. She had prepared a plan - not entirely a reliable plan, but a worth one to try. She was going to go back exactly at the cellar she once trapped in. She would investigate the boxes, and hopefully, found what she needed – ammunitions. She only had one simple gun, after all. Mireille recalled her first day there back then – she smelled something familiar, some kind of cigarettes and tobacco. It was not quite enough to judge that ammunition was the one inside those boxes, but at least she must try. As her sweat began to pour down, Mireille saw the bridge, and not much farther, the old village. She crossed the bridge cautiously while narrowing her eyes; searching for people she may encounter. To her relief, she found none of them. With luck, she would go through the old village by causing no harm, neither received some. Ten feet ahead from where she was before, Mireille had walked down the village with great vigilance ; pointed her gun right away she heard some noise which often just animals' moaning, or turned her back abruptly just to make sure no one was following her. Fifteen minutes later, she finally caught sight of the green field – the back of the storeroom. She ran quickly there without causing any noisy sound, and stopped her step right in front of a hole which was half down her size. So far everything's good. Mireille assumed that Soldats would likely make some action towards the hole - as it was obviously the only place one could manage to escape from - but the hole was really there; it was neither closed nor destroyed. It might be a trap, but she did not care. Praying that no one would be inside the storeroom - or had it been one hoping that they would not notice her in - Mireille lowered her body and slipped between the holes, pushed the boxes aside, and peered cautiously into the dark, stuffy room. The same piles of boxes still tugged roughly; the same old machines sternly stood in an ignorant way. The Corsican girl prepared her gun, and braved herself to walk deeper in. She dawdled to her chair's direction first, hided between the boxes, and stopped to analyze the room. As her eyes wandered, she felt no one was speaking, nor walking. The room seemed to be pretty safe, and abandoned. Despite all that, the blonde kept silence and hovered for the next minutes just in case somebody would really be there. A while after, now pretty sure that no one was there beside herself, the Corsican girl stepped lightly to open the box nearest to her. She ripped the seal softly but strongly, and peered inside the box contain. Had the Goddess of Luck existed, Mireille sure was bestowed by her for especially today; the box contain had greatly pleased her. Not only she found the ammo for her gun, she found a lot old dynamites as well. Not even wondering why such ammunitions were stored down here, Mireille checked the condition of it and smiled in relief ; those would still function properly. She jerked in anything she needed inside her jacket, her pockets, and her boots. With those dynamites and all, as well as two boxes of matchstick she brought from the inn, Mireille was ready for the coming fight. She had studied the map thoroughly. The Soldats base – tough Mireille was not particularly sure this was the base - was not that big and hard to strike despite the member's quantity strength. Based on the map, the storeroom she was currently in was not included at the base part ; it could be said just as a decoration. The base was located right at the center, surrounded by three more other bug building just like the storeroom, each right on the north, south, west, and east side. Those four building were made to block the base center in sight. The base was located underground, which was also the place Kirika might be kept in. To reach the underground place, all Mireille had to do was just walk out from this storeroom to the base center, and took the stairs down. But stealthy as the base were, there was no joking the stairs that lead to the underground would strictly guarded, even at this early in the morning. She could throw up the dynamites all over the places to attract the guard's attention, but it might as well attract the other's attention at her, which obviously must be avoided. Sighing, Mireille decided to just peer at the condition outside first as she walked to the exit door. She opened it up slightly, and looked carefully. As expected, around twenty guards were patrolling around the stairs. Despite how silly looking the guards were – guarding a stairs – those guard really worked their job and watched the surroundings severely. Mireille thought hard, but found no clue whatsoever. Not that she had no guts to just strike the guards, but the sounds of gun would make unnecessary noise which at the worst case would bring up more and more members to kill. A flash of movement rustled by. Instinctively, Mireille's body tensed and she instantly turned her back, pointing her gun. Now that she had spun on her heels, the Corsican girl stared in shock as her gun grasped tightly on her hands, and her mouth opened up mutely in surprise. She had no idea what to say. Fortunately the person said calmly first, "Nice to see you." "..Same here," Mireille said smiling after a while stood silent, seriously shock. Lowering her gun, the blonde added, "Chloe." Unexpectedly, despite the perilous situation they were in, and despite how unfriendly they were before, the two assassins smiled warmly to each other. "For the first time in my life, I'm really happy to see you, Chloe." Mireille said, looking at the younger girl. "You finished them off, eh?" "..Yeah." Chloe replied calmly. "Any fatal injuries?" "..No." the younger girl answered. "You've read the letter?" "Yes." Mireille said in a low voice, "Then you are here to help me, right?" Chloe raised her eyebrows in amusing way and answered, "Of course." With Chloe joining her party, Mireille set up a new tactic. The two of them would ambush those guards, considering that knives would not cause unneeded noises. Onwards with the plan, the new pair of assassins burst out of their hiding place the next moment; showed off their abilities, running all over the places quickly and confusingly while also attacking at the same time. Even the guards – aided by their guns - were not allowed to shoot randomly, let alone have a chance. Chloe did the fight mostly; her knives flew silently into man's throat, or stabbed deeply in the guard's heart – all of those actions done in an outstanding speed. Meanwhile, Mireille was the one in charge to avoid anyone report the invasion. She ran to the stairs in an amazing speed, and blocked the guards' way as silent as she could - either punching or kicking. It all proved to work well. It was practically new for them to work together, but somehow they were already shared bonds and above all that, pretty strong with their unusual combination. All the guards on the surface had laid their head silently on the ground by ten minutes. A bit surprised with their easy victory, Mireille stood at her place and looked bluntly at the scattered men's body. "We must hurry." said Chloe. With a small nod as an answer, Mireille and Chloe walked down the stairs - to the very main base of Soldats. As soon as their feet left the stairs and stood on a corridor, around thirty men were already rushing to their way, all roaring animatedly. Noticing the danger, Mireille shot as quick as she could while rolling to the back of one wall to hide herself. The younger girl, already launching her knives from all direction was already nowhere in sight; she had visibly disappeared. The sounds of shooting guns, slashing knives, painful and brutal screaming hung in the air for some minutes. In an unexpected fast motion, the fight had lasted with victory on the blonde's side. Breathing, Mireille focused her mind to relax and started to keep on. Chloe was already running far ahead before gesturing the blonde to quicken their pace. Their footsteps clattered down the brilliant corridors' tiles as they rushed into the destination. The base was surprisingly huge, with uncountable long corridors all around which made it looked like a maze rather than a base. Moreover, the shining clean gold tiles were so splendid it made Mireille wanted to laugh as her face was visible on it, as if looking at a real mirror. She had expected to see the formal, sorrowful base in here, however. They passed through many rooms, some of which were obviously abandoned. Sometimes they got to have a battle inside a tiny room - striking, dodging the annoying guards wildly in such little space they had. They kept winning and winning, but after all that, Kirika's room was still further deep ahead; they might encounters lots of other armed- groups like before. The thought become real as after a long minutes jogging along another corridor, the pair met some tough looking men with their huge muscles. This time, the two once again became formidable ; their moves seemed to be well-organized, their thoughts linked, and their purpose had become one. Chloe launched her knives; Mireille shot her gun or sometimes lit the dynamites and threw it far away carefully. With those unique coordination and cooperation, they passed through one corridor, one level, another one, other, then one more and more. As they were automatically used to each other pair, their action became more and more deathly to the enemies; if some groups of men showed up, they would now finish them in seconds. But still they must pay attention seriously to the number of guards that kept coming along and along - it was really frustrating and tiring. They fought hard, sometimes stopped to keep their breath calm, then defended themselves at first before striking back. Sometimes, a group with more trained skills blocked the way, and Mireille and Chloe got to spend their time longer and tougher, as well as received some injuries. But despite how weary they might have become and all injuries they had, the pair struggle and fought incredibly well today. Not even daring to rest for a minute, Mireille and Chloe fought as hard and as fast as they could. They had decided not to waste any more time to save the brunette. Mireille shot - she hoped - the last standing guard on her left, then took a deep inhale. Chloe, finished already with her fight, were now looking at her in questionable stare. The Corsican girl flip out the paper on her hand, gazed at it for a while, then nod slightly. "Straight ahead." The pair, exhausted but determined, had passed through all size of rooms, killed many guards blocking the way, run through all kinds of stairs and finally arrived at the deepest part of the base. Based on the map, this corridor did not have a stair and probably the last level of the base. Therefore, there was only one room left. Without no further talk, the pair dashed their feet to the destination room where Kirika was possibly trapped in. This moment might be the last step needed to rescue the Japanese girl back safe and sound. They would only save their strength for the last battle, considering Naomi would be the one guarding Kirika as the new pair had not seen the female Soldats since they invaded. As soon as they took care of Naomi, they would bring Kirika back up, fast. And all would be over, and everything turned normal as what it was supposed to be. ..Perhaps. Had Yuumura Kirika's figure not blocked the way while stared menacingly with her gun pointed firmly - at the pair.
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