Unedited
THE GIFT
Han dj
Chapter 20
Aoi’s hands were typing on the keyboard in a speed she never thought she could do. She admits she had some knowledge on computer, though hacking and downloading under time pressure wasn’t her expertise, it was mostly Chie’s kind of thing. But right now, she cannot limit herself to what she can do…she have to be fast because this situation needs her…Chie, Takeda and his kohais are all outside probably battling and laying their lives for this purpose.
I can’t let down the HiMes…I can’t let down Chie…she thought as the large screen computer started downloading all the files she and Chie thought the HiMEs at the mansion needs to see. A little bit more…and I’m done here then we could…go back…Aoi thought, trying desperately to put horrible thoughts at the back of her mind, you have to come through this Chie or I myself will kill you! The woman screamed inside her head
“Now Aoi…Focus!” she told herself
XXX
Chie and Takeda arrived outside the entrance to the basement of the chapel a little bit too late. Three of the 6 kendokas that Takeda brought along with him were already down on the ground, one was unconscious and two were sitting up, holding an injured shoulder. Three of the remaining kendokas were still standing, parrying the ‘men’s’ attacks.
“Takeda-sempai, please take care of those on the ground I’ll lure these idiots out of here!” Chie said
Takeda frowned, “No! You can’t take all of them. They are armed and dangerous Harada-san!” he said holding on to the woman’s arm
Chie looked at Takeda seriously, “I need to get them out here. I’m sure there’ll be help but it will be faster if they are not here!”
“I’ll lure them, you take care of…”
“No! This is my mission! Your mission is to guard Aoi down there, protect her at all cost for her to retrieve what we came here for!” Chie shouted and then turned around to dive into the mayhem.
“HARADA-SAN!!!”
Chie didn’t looked back, instead, she advanced and saw one standing kendoka panting and out of attack range, “You!”
The kendoka looked at Chie
“You come with me, can you still run?” The Kendoka nodded, “We’ll lure those men out…if not all at least most so the others could fight.” The kendoka nodded his head again, breathed deeply before standing straight
Chie then diverted her focus on the men attacking, took out a CD she just took from the basement and waved it at them, “YohooYoo-hoo! I got the copy of your secret file! You want it? Come and get it!” She yelled then she ran outside the chapel followed by the kendoka
The five men stopped their attacks, looked at each other and then three of them started running after Chie and the kendoka
Takeda frowned, looked down at his kohais that was down on the ground, “Will all of you live?” he asked
The two conscious kohais nodded, and that was all Takeda needed as he started attacking the two remaining men along with the two kendokas that were left.
XXX
“Yes Himeno-san…I already got the signal. I was alerted that there were SEARR’s men coming to the school vicinity.” Sakomizu was on the phone with Fumi, “What? Chie, Aoi and Takeda-san were fighting?” He frowned, “I shall call for back up! My hands are quite anxious now!”
His frown deepened once he closed his mobile phone, “No one threatens and attacks my students! And no one breaks in my school!” he shouted, opened his cabinet, pushed a button and took the long range sniper gun out of the hidden part of the cabinet. “This is getting personal already!” he said while loading his gun, and then quietly he advanced to a spot at Fuuka where he could see the attackers. He radioed someone asking for immediate assistance and did not wait for a reply before he turned off his radio, “Got to protect them while we wait for the rescuers!”
He grinned when he spotted one unknown man in a military like suit running after Chie and one male kendoka. The attacker was aiming a gun at the two students, ready to fire when the opportunity strikes, “Oh no…you will not hurt any of them!” he said, aimed and fired
BANG!
XXX
Aoi gasped when she heard Takeda shouts “HARADA!!!”
Chie…don’t do anything stupid! But she did not leave her work, faster…faster she chanted. A few moments later she heard a loud booming sound that must come from a high powered gun, “CHIE!!!” she screamed and hurriedly stood up, she was about to leave the basement when a limping kendoka appeared
“Harada-san is with Negi! They lured three of the attackers away, Takeda-sempai said…” he stopped panting, “He asked me to come here to tell you…”
“What happened to Chie?!” she shouted and pulled the worn out fighter towards her, “WHAT?”
“He…Takeda-sempai thinks he saw Sakomizu-sensei…he was the one firing the gun to stop the attackers from hurting Harada-san and Negi!” he finally said, “Takeda-sempai said you have to finish…that’s what Harada-san told him!” he said before finally slumping down on the ground
“And Takeda…”
“Still fighting with my two other companions, they were in pretty bad shape though.” He said
“Then I must hurry!” Aoi said
“Aoi-chan!”
The brown haired woman heard a voice in her ear, “Suzushiro-san?”
“Yes! Help is already on the way…first district dogs are on their way to take down those SEARR’s men!”
“Hai! They should be here now…they’re already shooting guns!” Aoi said when she heard a different kind of gunshot…which means the attackers are retaliating with Sakomizu-sensei…and Chie is at the middle of it, “Chie’s outside luring the attackers away from here and Sakomizu-sensei is exchanging shots with the attackers now!”
It was at that moment when Takeda carrying the unconscious on his shoulder came down, one of the other kendoka was supporting the other injured fighter and the last one came limping down
“A helicopter is now at the vicinity…the other attackers were on them now!” Takeda said
“How about Chie?” Aoi asked, her heart beating fast
“Still outside…with Negi!” Takeda said, “I’ll go try to see if I could help out Harada-san,” he said then focused on the still standing fighters, “You two guard Senoh-san…” he then looked at Aoi, “Chie will be alright… she seemed to have gained some knowledge with fighting. Please finish the download.” He said before turning around and hurriedly ran towards the chaos
Please be well Chie! Aoi thought as she went back to what she was doing.
XXX
Arika, Nina, Takumi and Karauchi were already at the mansion. They were surprised to see the HiMEs gathered at the living room along with Kanzaki and all of them looked anxious. Some are already shedding tears like Shiho, Yukino and unexpectedly…Nao.
“What happened?” Takumi asked Akira
“Chie and Aoi along with Takeda were caught on crossfire between SEARR’s men and some First District dog.” The pregnant ninja explained
Nina frowned, “I must head back to Fuuka Academy to help…”
“NO!” Fumi yelled, “…having some students there is already a stress to us, stay and don’t add to our worries Miss Wang!” the academy director said sternly. Nina nodded and just looked at the other HiMEs who are looking at her
“If I was only there…I could have transferred Ytagarasu to Chie-san so she could fight well!” Shiho cried out and then leaned towards Erstin’s shoulder
“You can’t be there right now Shiho-chan, it’ll be bad for your baby.” Erstin said trying to pacify the crying girl
Silence
“This must be some big scheme the new SEARRs are developing for them to send those bastards against students!” Reito said angrily, “If this weren’t a covert mission, I would have gone there and slice them all in half!”
The outburst caught everyone’s attention
Then the sound in Haruka’s ears turned on, “Suzushiro-san…everything is contained here…”
Haruka frowned, “Takeda! Where are Aoi and Chie?” she asked. The sudden sound from Haruka caused everyone to look at her
“Aoi finished the download, she has the flash drive and went out immediately to look for Harada-san. The men with Sakomizu-sensei caught all the attackers!”
Haruka sighed deeply, “Go out there and see if everyone’s okay. Please report to me about Chie’s status.”
“Hai…everyone from my team are alive Suzushiro-san, although injured and tired, but we’ll live!” Takeda declared and it was evident in his voice that he was happy and proud of their accomplishment.
“Thank you Takeda-san, please be sure that Sakomizu-sensei brings all of you to Iphreeta-sensei for proper care.” Haruka instructed
“Hai! I shall inform you of Chie and Aoi’s condition!” The kendoka said before turning off his communication
Before Haruka could tell everyone the good news, Miyu returned and the humanoid was suddenly assaulted by one red head, as Nao’s crying form ran towards the cyan haired and engulfed the humanoid in embrace
Haruka smiled and looked at everyone, “The school was okay, the attackers were stopped and we are waiting for Takeda’s report on Chie and Aoi.”
Miyu was out of loop. She has her arms around Nao whose crying subsided at the sight of the cyan haired humanoid, “What happened?” she asked no one in particular
It was Natsuki who answered, “SEARRs found out about Chie and Aoi downloading on their main frame, Kanzaki-san guessed Chie uncovered something big that’s why they have to send killers against them.”
Miyu pushed Nao lightly away from her, “I must go there and save Harada and Senoh-san…”
“No Miyu.” It was Alyssa, “They are already contained, let’s just hope that Chie, Aoi and the rest are alright.” She said. She has her head resting on Himeko’s chest while the blond woman was sitting at the floor, Migami at her side playing with Alyssa’s hand.
Fumi’s mobile phone rang suddenly, and she answered it without checking the caller, “Chie and Aoi are fine, I took the boys on a nearby hospital, two of them needs cast on their arms and one was unconscious, the others have bruises and that’s all. Harada-san’s arm was grazed by a bullet but aside from that, she’s fine. I asked the pilot of the copter to bring them to the nearest place to Kanzaki mansion, at the cliff, they’ll be there in 15 minutes, please have someone fetch them.”
Sakomizu narrated without letting Fumi interrupt, “Thank you Sakomizu-san, I’ll have someone fetch them there.” Fumi said before turning off her mobile. “Chie and Aoi will be dropped off at the cliff in 15 minutes, someone should get them…”
“I’ll drive there,” Reito said then looked at Mikoto, “Mikoto you’re coming with me.”
“Yes ani-ue!” Mikoto stood up and followed her brother
“You two, be careful.” Fumi said smiling at Reito and then at Mikoto. The siblings nodded their heads
Miyu looked at them, “I should go too…” she stopped her sentence when she felt Nao’s head shook on her chest no, “Nao…”
“They can do it…just don’t leave.” The red head’s muffled voice said
Mikoto grinned, “I got Miroku with me so don’t worry Miyu…stay or Nao will cry again and her baby will look uglier!”
Nao glared at Mikoto
“MIKOTO!” Mai chastised the small HiME
“Gomen!” Mikoto said before she disappeared after her brother.
Silence
“We’ll wait for Chie and Aoi to arrive, we’ll rest for tonight and tomorrow the HiME sentai will resume.” Midori announced before she held her hand out for Yohko to help her get up from her chair, “This pregnancy thing is irritating me!” the red head teacher suddenly said
Yohko smiled and put an arm on Midori’s shoulder, “It’ll be worth it when she comes out. I promise.” Midori just nodded and headed to their room
The others followed the red head Sentai HiME except for Natsuki, Shizuru and Mai
“We’ll stay here and wait for them. All of you should rest.” Mai said then looked at Arika and Nina who stepped in the mansion for the first time, “I think Fumi-san asked Benford-san to give you two a room, soand so if you’ll follow Benford-san, he’ll lead you there.” Mai said sweetly
“Arigato!” Arika and Nina said bowing at Mai, Natsuki and Shizuru then bowed lastly at Benford who returned the gesture before leading them to their room.
Once everyone was gone, Shizuru took a deep breath and winced
“Oi Shizuru…” Natsuki asked worriedly when she saw the chestnut haired HiME winced, “Are you alright? Are the babies fine?”
Shizuru smiled and caressed Natsuki’s face, the blue haired HiME was sitting beside her, “I’m fine, the two decided to kick at the same time…that’s all.” Shizuru explained
“Nasty babies!” Natsuki said frowning, “Oi you two!” she said pertaining to the babies inside Shizuru’s large belly, “Don’t do that again, you’re hurting momma when you two do that!” Natsuki chastised the unborn children
The action caused Mai to laugh, “You look cute doing that Natsuki!” Mai said, then looked at Shizuru who actually has a paler complexion than earlier, “Kaichou-san…”
“Mai! How many times do I have to remind you to just call me Shizuru? Yukino is the kaichou now.” Shizuru said smiling
“Gomen,” Mai smiled, “I think you should rest now Shizuru, I’ll wait for them…”
“But you’ll be alone waiting Mai!” Natsuki said
Mai frowned at Natsuki and pointed her lips on Shizuru’s face. Natsuki frowned more then looked at Shizuru and shrugged her shoulders. Mai leaned sideways to Natsuki and whispered, “Shizuru looks pale, the excitement must have caused her more stress…she needs to rest.”
Natsuki’s eyes widened and looked at Shizuru intently and indeed, she found Shizuru’s face paler, “Mou Shizuru…you don’t feel alright! You should rest!”
Shizuru smiled, “I am fine…”
Natsuki stood up with hands akimbo, “NO you’re not! You look pale!”
Shizuru shook her head no, “Ara, I’ll rest here on the couch with you if that would make you feel better? I can’t rest without you there in our room…you’ll make me worry more…”
Natsuki sighed and sat again. She then pulled Shizuru towards her and asked the older woman to lie down on the couch with her head on her lap, “Now, you are going to rest and we will wake you up when they arrived so we all could rest…understood?”
Shizuru smiled as she did what Natsuki asked her to do, “Hai okaasan!”
Natsuki shook her head, leaned forward and kissed Shizuru’s forehead before she turned her attention to Mai.
1 hour later…Mikoto, Reito who was carrying an unconscious Chie and Aoi entered the mansion. And soon all of them retired to their own rooms.
XXX
Midori stood on top of a makeshift podium (which actually was an old table placed at the center of the large Kanzaki’s receiving area.) She was standing with her hands akimbo making her large, pregnant belly to become more pronounced. A small stool chair was in front of her and one of her ‘edematous’ legs was resting on it. Everyone was smiling at her image including those who had been on the mission yesterday.
“Hear ye! Hear ye!” She shouted and then grinned at everyone below her and looking up to her, “I now declare HiME Sentai on session!” the red headed adventurer said loudly
“OI! You don’t have to shout, we all can hear you!” Nao shouted back at Midori
Midori glared at Nao, materialize her labrys and pointed it at Nao’s direction. Usually, this kind of action against Nao will cause Miyu to stand in front of the younger red head and for her to bring out her ‘anti-materilizingmaterializing sword’, but Miyu learned in all the times that she was spending with the HiMEs that Nao and Midori acted the same way and that from the look of Midori and Nao, there’s no physical fight that will happen. Midori is just Midori and she has to keep her ‘inner’ self out sometimes.
Nao glared at Miyu who was standing at her side, “Aren’t you even going to place yourself in between me and Midori?” she asked
Miyu looked at Nao, her eyes smiling at the red head, “I don’t believe that Midori-sensei could actually lunged herself to you with that labrys in her physical condition. I could not sense any danger to you or to little Miyu.” The cyan haired humanoid replied which caused Nao to huffed
“Okay, enough of that drama!” Yohko interjected and looked up at Midori, “Will you please get down that table Midori! I don’t want to think negative but that table may give out and you might fall off! I won’t care what happens to you, but I’m not going to let our little Yui to be hurt in the process…and for God sake, will you keep that labrys of yours!” the doctor said shaking her head
“Yohko is right Midori-san, besides we are going to have a meeting not a presentation or something.” Yukariko said mildly
Migami giggled and clapped her hands
Midori frowned, “I can’t believe it was only Migami who saw my well rehearsed speech.” Midori said glumly. She immaterialized her labrys and sadly climbed down of the table, she was helped by Kanzaki and Karauchi who were standing near the old table. It was visible from Kanzaki’s sudden letting out of breathe that he too was worried that the red head HiME might fall off the table or the table crashing down because of her.
Haruka along side Yukino then took the center of the table and motioned for everyone to take a seat. Aside from the couches at the room, Kanzaki asked Benford and some of his helpers to add more chairs in there for everyone to use. “Since Midori-sensei already declared the Sentai meeting open, I shall then start the agenda.” Yukino calmly said before looking at everyone. “Yesterday, we deployed four groups to investigate on something Kanzaki-san found out. About a week ago, Nina-chan and Arika-chan found Kanzaki-san bloody and wounded on a street near a warehouse where we deploy Arika-chan and Takumi-kun.” Yukino reported then looked at Arika and then at Takumi and nodded her head
Takumi stood up then stepped to where Yukino and Haruka were, he was holding onto a bag and put the bag on top of the table, “Arika and I searched the area with the hope of finding something that may serve as a solid evidence as to who kidnapped Kanzaki-san. As it turned out, the area were Kanzaki-san was found was clear but…” Takumi looked at Arika who nodded at him, “We both found a warehouse which we surmised that it was the warehouse were Kanzaki-san escaped. There were only two guards and we effectively incapacitate them…”
Arika grinned and nudged Nina at her side, her face telling Nina that she did fight and won. Nina smiled at her girlfriend and then refocus on Takumi
“Arika-chan found the warehouse security area and suggested that we took all of these security tapes hoping that we could get something from it.” He finalized his report and then he poured the contents of the bag on the table
“The hell!” Natsuki said, “How are we going to know what tape we should look at?” the blue haired HiME asked
“Ara, my Natsuki is too impulsive…” Shizuru said smiling then looked at Kanzaki, “Do you remember the date you were abducted Kanzaki-san?” she asked the smiling man
“I think it was the 3rd of September…or somewhere near that date.” Kanzaki replied
The other’s nodded and Takumi starts sorting the tapes out. “We have here 5th of September…” Takumi read
“We better see that!” Haruka said taking the tape from Takumi and then opening the LCD TV at her back, putting the tape on a player.
The tape showed static until about after 5 minutes into playing wherein a naked, bloody and chained Kanzaki Reito was presented. Every HiME winced at what they saw, some closed their eyes, and some tried hard not to vomit from the sight. Fumi was the one affected most, she winced as she felt her unborn child kicked inside her belly. The action didn’t go unnoticed by Reito who stepped closer to the pink haired woman, sat beside her and tried to caress the older woman’s back.
“Can we please forward the tape Suzushiro-san?” Reito asked and Haruka nodded. The blond HiME forwarded the tape slowly until Reito stopped her, “Wait!” Reito said when he saw the image of his captor, "...will you rewind that a little?” Reito asked and Haruka did, “Stop it right there!” he commanded and his face grew dim
Every HiME gasped at what they saw
Kanzaki was already on the ground, bloody and dying, the three SEARR’s men were standing above the bleeding Reito, and one was pointing a gun on him. Smith was grinning as it could be seen from his face and he was saying something to the woman in lab coat beside him, “That woman…she was the one who is working with Smith, I clearly remember Smith saying that she’s the one responsible in creating the monsters you faced last time.” Kanzaki said
All HiME’s eyes were focused on the woman at the screen, “Now, our problem is we have no idea who is this woman.” Mai said, she has a frown on her face
“Nao’s informant told me that someone actually bought a woman from them. The man was definitely Smith’s lackey.” Miyu said and projected to the white wall the picture she showed Hiroshi and then magnified the man
Chie frowned, “Wait a minute…” she said then looked at the picture Miyu showed and then at the security footage at the TV, “Look at that man with the gun and that one magnified by Miyu, if we use a computer and remove that smoke glass, isn’t that…” she pointed at the magnified picture, “…and the one who shot Kanzaki to death was one and the same?”
Everyone looked at that detail…
“Could you do what Chie said Miyu?” Yukariko asked the humanoid. Miyu nodded and started reconstructing the image she projected
Fumi looked at Yukino, “Is there a way we could enlarged that image Kikukawa-san?” she asked
Yukino nodded and with the use of the remote, she enlarge the image of the man with the gun
“Kami-sama!” Yukariko said, “They are one and the same.
“What did you learned about that man Miyu?” Karauchi asked
“I think Smith asked him to buy a woman from Hiroshi.” Miyu said then looked at Kanzaki, “The woman’s name was Cynthia Mariano.”
Silence
“Cynthia….Mariano…Cynthia…” Yohko repeated and her eyes rolled as she tried to think, “That name sounds familiar…” she said then the reason dawned on her, “I know why she’s familiar! She’s a doctor, she’s a geneticist from America who came here to Japan. I know her because I attended one of her seminars!” Yohko blurted out
Nao frowned, “Doctor? What the hell is she doing at Hiroshi’s bar if she’s a doctor?” Nao asked and the others nodded
Yohko shrugged her shoulders, “I’m not really sure, but you know we doctors got stories about another and I heard that she married a Japanese local, after her marriage she stop from working and decided to be a plain housewife, then the last I heard her husband left her after her daughter passed away.” The doctor recalled
Silence
Nina stood up, “Maybe the brief case given to us by Yamada-san has something important that could answer our questions?” she said
“Yeah! Why did I forget about that,” Natsuki said then she stood up, “I’ll get it from my room!” she said
“Why didn’t you bring it? You know we’ll have a meeting about all this stuff!” Mai chastised the blue haired
“Gomen! I was so worried about Shizuru last night I forgot about it.” She said then ran fast towards their room
Everyone then eyed the chestnut haired woman, “Ara…Natsuki was just being paranoid. She kept on asking if I’m alright and I told her I am…she just worry too much.” Shizuru reasoned
Yohko frowned, “You will go to my room later Shizuru-san. I need to know that you’re really fine.”
Shizuru looked at the doctor and nodded. Just as the exchange was done, Natsuki returned with the suitcase
“Nina said Yamada bought this from someone inside SEARRs, I haven’t opened this yet so I think this is the best time to do so.” Natsuki placed it on top of the table after clearing it, took a paper on her pocket and input the numbers written on it to the suitcase’s lock. A click was heard and the suitcase opened. She took all of it and handed it to Yukino.
The brown haired HiME accepted and started browsing, “The files are all about the New SEARRs, there’s a photocopied blue print of the latest laboratory, there are also schematics and diagrams about the monsters we faced before, it also has information on the details of the monsters…what tissues being used…” Yukino said then she passed that folder to Haruka and Haruka passed it around.
Yukino smiled, “Oh and we have here a folder of the SEARRs employees.” She added and scanned it. Her eyes widened after seeing one picture, she retrieve the information and read: Cynthia Mariano, MD., 37 years old, married, a budding geneticist.
She then looked back and with the remote control shifts the focus from the man to the woman beside Smith. She then enlarged it, “Kami…that woman is Cynthia Mariano!” Yukino blurted out, and then she raised the picture for everyone to see
“That’s her!” Yohko said, “I will never forget that face! She’s one of the gorgeous doctors in that seminar!”
Midori frowned and looked at Yohko, “You seemed too interested?”
Yohko grinned at Midori, “No…can’t be more interested in anyone but you!”
Silence
“Okay…if that is the woman they bought from Nao-san’s informer, and we all know that she was bought because SEARRs needs a geneticist to create their monster project who we fought and killed before…” Akira said
“Then why is she still alive?” Alyssa finished for Akira. That caused everyone to look at the small child, “Smith killed everyone from the original SEARRs when I failed, he along with my father also ordered a death sentence on me because I am no use to him now…so why is she still alive?”
“Smith has no qualms in killing people who becomes a burden to his purpose. Then it would only mean that there’s still something he needed this woman to do…that’s why she’s still alive.” Miyu supplied
“Offsprings To the hiME…” Chie suddenly blurted out
“Offsprings to what?” Haruka exclaimed
“The one folder we downloaded from their main frame…the one that made them sent those killers to stop us!” Chie said
The HiMEs after hearing this paled, “Could it be possible that they knew about the HiMEs pregnancy all along?” Fumi asked worriedly
Silence
“What better way to know what it is about than to see the files for ourselves?” Akane said and the others nodded.
XXX
Everyone entered the Kanzaki’s large library. A computer was located at one corner and Chie and Aoi who has the flash drive sat before it. Yukino instructed Miyu to plug the computer to an LCD projector while Haruka put down the white cloth which will be used for the others to see what the files are inside.
Soon, Chie downloaded to the computer the contents of the folder with a filename Offsprings TO the hiME and everyone waited…
“Come to think of it…if you shortened that filename, it will be OTOME then!” Arika said as she commented absent mindedly
This caused the others to look at her
“What? I just put all the capitalized letters together!” Arika exclaimed and then she scooted closer to Nina to escape the other’s scrutinizing gaze, “Nina-chan…” she whimpered
Nina’s supposed response was halted as the file opened and the contents were showed one by one.
The first was the purpose of the project: To create female soldiers based on the HiMEs powers
That made Fumi and the other HiMEs sighed in relief, “At least they still has no knowledge about us being pregnant with our own CHILDs.” Shiho exclaimed and the others nodded in agreement
Methodology: Blood samples from existing HiMEs are denatured, the DNA will be extracted and will be incorporated into ‘selected’ human females…
“HiMEs blood? Where the hell will they get samples of our blood?” Natsuki asked
“I am sure they have Alyssa ojou-sama’s.” Miyu said. She looked around, “They could have gathered bloods from the carnival. Remember all of you fought that time and all of you shed blood…”
“Very high probability. If that’s the case, then that means they’ve been doing this experiment for long.” Kanzaki said, “Why didn’t I get a wind of this when I was researching on them?”
“This could be the real reason why the Obsidian Lord returned our CHILDs. It wasn’t because of the monsters…but it could be because of these!” Fumi said
“Ara…Himeno-san has a point…cause if they succeed, then they’ll be producing females who could recreate our power.” Shizuru said
“And not only that…if they found a way to incorporate an orphan’s DNA to these females who can recreate our ability…” Akane
“Then we’re facing a stronger opponent!” Akira finished
Silence
Mikoto frowned, “Like us...but summoning an orphan instead of a Mecha Child?” Mikoto asked
The others looked at her
“That could be a possibility Mikoto.” Mai said the smaller HiME
Silence once again
“The question here is…where do they get their human experiments? How do they select?” Shizuru asked
Karauchi stood up, “Maybe…what we found inside the abandoned SEARRs laboratory is how.” He said, then he looked at Nina who nodded at him. He stepped closer to Chie and handed him his mobile phone, “Could you download the folder here with a file name “SEARRS”?” He asked
Chie took the phone and starts downloading it
The downloaded pictures from Kazuya’s phone was projected to the screen and it made every pregnant women cringed and feel nauseated
The pictures were of young girls at around 12-16 years old, each girl were enclosed inside a thick ‘plastic’ kind of thing, the plastics were hanged and there are tubes draining inside their bodies. The large room was also showed wherein not only dozen but there were about three to four dozens of young girls hanging.
“When we arrived there, there was this foul smell around the place as if they were rotting flesh. We investigated and we found…” Nina said gulping down
“There was another room labeled storage 1 and 2, those rooms had all the things they need to transfuse a blood…probably they are already altered blood being transfused to these children. There was one at the far end of the hall way, and when we broke in…the room contains dead children.” Kazuya said
“Kami!” Yukariko said then cried, “What kind of demons are these people? Why are they doing this to these innocent children!”
Silence
“This must be the reason why there are lots of young girls of the same age disappearing…most of them are orphaned.” Kanzaki said, “I come across that news before but didn’t paid attention as it wasn’t relevant to what I’ve seen at the other laboratory where the monsters were created.”
“My guess is that, if the child doesn’t die…then that child is the selected one.” Nina said
Erstin’s eyes widened, “Then it’s a trial and error kind of experiment…and an error would mean…a child’s life?”
Nina and Kazuya both nodded
Silence
“We have to stop this craziness.” Kanzaki said with a frown
“At all cost…we have to.” Takumi said, “I can’t imagine how painful for these girls to be subjected to such inhuman activity.”
“Wait!” Chie said and she started returning pictures after pictures, “Nina-chan, Kazuya-kun, did you by any chance counted the number of corpses you saw at the stock room?”
Kazuya nodded, “Yamada-san and I were the one to count them because we reported it to the police already. There were 7 at the stock room and all that girls hanging there are all dead. The laboratory was abandoned as well as those bodies.” He said
Chie frowned, “You did take a picture of every angle right…so we have at least the exact image of the laboratory?”
Kazuya nodded, “We asked the police to inform us of the total head counts when their done.” He added
“And?” Aoi asked
“32 girls aside from the seven we found at the stock room.”
Chie started repeating each pictures again, zooming it so that she could actually see the metals where the plastic containers were hanged. “There were three rows where there are empty metal hangers.”
Everyone looked closely at the picture as Chie started pointing and they counted each empty hanger. “Knowing that they put down seven, then there should only be 7 empty hangers. I counted 14.”
Shiho looked at Chie, “What if it was really empty from the beginning?”
Chie made the image smaller again, “If you look at the arrangement of the containers, they arranged it in series so that the main tube they used to transfuse the blood runs in a straight line, then look at this…” she pointed on the lines inside the containers, “These are collateral lines which drains blood from this main tube. They can’t leave one hanger empty because that would be more work…unless…”
Aoi looked at Chie and then at Fumi, “Unless those 14 girls actually survived, but the seven found at the stock room died afterwards…”
“Or was killed by the others?” Akane said
“Survival of the fittest.” Shizuru added
Silence
“Where do they get those bloods? That lots of blood?” Midori asked
Nina put out a test tube with violet cover, “I found this at one of the stock room.”
Yohko took it and read, “EDTA, these are used to retain the blood’s fluidity…” Yohko frowned, “This actually retains the blood’s form so that it will not hemolyze when taken out of the body.” She said and then she paled, “Oh my God, could it be that they drained these girls of their blood and then have that blood be mixed with a foreign DNA and then reinserted those bloods into their systems?”
‘What do you mean?” Yukariko asked, “Is that possible?”
Yohko nodded, “They used the idea behind hemodialysis to genetically alter these kids!”
“Using our bloods.” Mai said grimly, “I can’t forgive these people…they treated these girls like animals.”
“I am one with Mai-san.” Miyu said
Silence
“If those 7 girls really are living…then they can’t get out yet. They must train if ever they succeeded in incorporating HiMEs powers to their genes, so our goal is that we have to find them and take them out of SEARRs vicious’ hands.” Kanzaki said
“I think the easiest target will be…her.” Haruka said pointing at the picture of Cynthia Mariano
“I’ll call Yamada and asked him to find where this Mariano woman is.” Natsuki said frowning
“I’ll have Sakomizu-san’s help, the first district might have an idea what we are dealing with.” Fumi said and everyone nodded
Silence
“Hey! Didn’t Dr. Kim Possible-Go said she knows a very brilliant geneticist?” Mikoto said smiling
Natsuki looked at Mikoto and frowned, “You’re not thinking about getting Mai pregnant when we are in front of this chaos Mikoto!” the blue haired woman said
“NATSUKI!” Mai called out with a deep blush
“No…from the things I heard and get…they are change by a geneticist, can’t they be turned back to normal by another one?” Mikoto asked
Everyone looked at Mikoto with wide eyes
“Oh my God…Mikoto-chan did have a point!” Yukariko said smiling at the small HiME. Mikoto grinned and tapped her chest proudly
“I better ask Kim…” Yohko said then stood up and was about to leave…
“Yohko! Aren’t you going to help me get up from this chair?” Midori shouted
Yohko turned around and grinned at Midori, “Midori-chan, I got to get Kim on phone before she goes somewhere wherein we can’t contact her.” She said before disappearing
“YOHKO!!!” Midori wailed
“Oi!” Natsuki said standing up, helping Shizuru then stepping closer to Midori, “Stop wailing like a child, come on!” she then helped the red head to get up
Midori, “I look cute ne?”
Natsuki frowned and let go of Midori causing the red head to once again sit on her chair
“Natsuki!”
-End chapter 20-
I think I did say that this chapter might have the beginning of the fight…and I was wrong. The reporting and subsequent arrival to the conclusion took more space than I expected and it burned my nerve cells down. So some preparations next chapter and the HiME representative will be attacking the Doctor’s den.
If you are expecting the HiME protectors to fight the OTOME of this story, sorry…that’s not planned on the second arc. We are nearing to the conclusion of the second arc and the coming of the third arc. Sorry for this boring chapter, but I think I need to write this so that the idea will flow smoothly.
If anyone have any questions about any medical term used, just PM me and I’ll try to answer you the clearest way possible.
Arigato!