Her body jerked repeatedly in a distinctive rhythm causing a dull pain to flow through her body, but pushing the ache aside, Natsuki noticed that she could feel arms tightly wrapped under her legs and upper torso, a warmth pressing against her body, and lazily, her eyes fluttered open as she groaned, protesting the movement that had drove her to awakening.
“Natsuki!” a masculine voice sharply sounded in her ears, and thankfully, the rough shaking immediately ceased as she was lowered to the ground.
“Kid, you alright?”
“U…Uncle…?” she weakly muttered, finally taking in the older man’s features.
“Yeah, it’s me, Jousuke,” he reassured her with a small smile before his head jerked in the direction of a large explosion off in the distance.
For the first time, Natsuki noticed the sound of gunfire that never seemed to cease, “W-What’s…?”
“It’s started,” the man informed his niece, “Our forces are fighting the Nobles as we speak. I know it’s a little earlier than planned, but it couldn’t be helped. They were going to ship you off to be spliced open or something, or at least that’s what Jaxen told us.”
Another loud explosion erupted and Natsuki could literally feel the ground vibrate from the blast.
“I really need to get back. You should be fine right here for now,” Jousuke stated, reaching behind his back to retrieve a small semi-automatic handgun and placing it in the girl’s hand, “Just in case.”
“U-Uncle—“
“I’ll be back, promise.”
Natsuki helplessly watched as the large man rushed off into the darkness back towards the sounds of battle, her gaze dropping to the firearm in her grasp when he fully disappeared.
Her body felt weak and numb, her mind straining to focus as she tested her trigger finger without firing the silver gun. She was terribly uncomfortable being left alone in her current state so close to the battle, so with great effort, and the help of the tree she was leaning against, she pulled herself to her feet, breathing heavily from the normally simplistic action.
“I’ve got to…get back to the camp…” she thought, attempting to take a step forward only to nearly fall to the ground.
“Focus, dammit, focus,” she ordered herself, brow furrowing as she tried again, this time with much more success,” There’s no way…I’m gonna sit out now…after all of this…”
Natsuki had barely covered any ground when she heard the sound of heavy footsteps quickly headed in her direction. Instinctively, she slid around the nearest tree for cover, albeit slower than usual.
When she saw Bardas burst through the line of trees she caught her breath, fingers tightening their grip on the cool metal in her hand.
“That bastard…Is he…running away?”
With a shake of her head, Natsuki squinted her eyes and raised her gun to take aim, and after the man had come in close proximity, she fired, the bullet ripping through the cool night air, shattering Bardas’s kneecap on impact. The noble howled in pain as he stumbled to the ground, but was quick to rise up on his one good knee, drawing his own weapon. Keeping to the shadows, Natsuki quietly made her way to another trunk, but when she tried to take aim again to knock the gun out of Bardas’s hand, her vision blurred and the shot missed.
Now aware of his assailant’s whereabouts, Bardas wasted no time in sending an array of bullets in the general direction of where Natsuki stood. The girl attempted to return fire, and did manage to finally strike the man’s firing hand, but in the process had a bullet sink into her chest, right above her right breast.
Ignoring the unbearable wave a pain that was flooding her senses, Natsuki continued to fire at the man, preventing him from reaching his gun as he scrambled to do so.
Finally revealing herself, the girl slowly walked forward.
“This is for torturing me.”
A shot was fired, metal ripping through the soft tissue of the man’s midsection.
“This is for my uncle and all the other men and women you’ve abused.”
A second shot sounded, this time striking Bardas in the chest cavity.
“And this…” Natsuki seethed, dropping to her knees and shoving the barrel of her handgun into the noble’s mouth, muffling his screams, “this is for thinking that women are inferior to men.”
With the last pull of the trigger, blood splattered up on the raven-haired girl’s pain-wracked face, and as she forced herself to stand, all she could hear was the gurgling of the incapacitated captain choking on his own blood.
She attempted to walk, but only managed to stumble a few steps before falling to her knees as the darkness began to invade her vision. Using what strength she had left, Natsuki tried to crawl with her one good arm, pulling herself across the ground before passing out in a gradually growing pool of her own blood.
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