Meltral
RIC Central Base
She laid her head on the table, waiting. Not only was her day off ruined, she was ordered to report to the Internal Security Bureau first thing in the morning.
The captain meant to question her regarding the sudden rupture in the mall that had yet to come. The dimly lit room was meant to make the person being questioned nervous.
All because of the appearance of the vigilante, who was either the mind behind the Early Rupture Warning System or worked with him.
Thairon had already sent her a summary of how he manipulated the camera recordings. It gave her a clear idea on what to say.
The door slammed open while she was in deep thoughts.
She rose from her seat, standing at attention. Interrogator or not, the man before her was her superior in rank.
"Lieutenant, I am Captain Sajyor; take a seat."
"Neat" would be the perfect word to describe him. Sunglasses, a dark beret, a uniform without so much as a wrinkle, and a cold visage.
The perfect soldier.
He sat down, removing his glasses, laying a file on the table. She waited while Sajyor went through the pages, glancing at her with pale-blue eyes every now and then. An officer like
"Yes sir."
"An excellent service record. Praised by her superiors for her work ethic, she is noted to be extremely capable in all duties assigned to her. He definitely would have read the file before coming in. Unless it was a last-second order, he already knew everything in those pages.
"Lieutenant Tomoe Nishimura. Mother is the High Priestess of the Temple of the Gates, Yumiko Nishimura; Father is not recorded. She was the top of her class at North Star Military Academy. Immediately applied for the RIC upon graduation," he recited her past, taking a moment to breathe.
"Also known as the Dragonslayer due to her heroic, or as some others would say, suicidal, assault on neutralizing the creature that appeared out of a rupture in the middle of Hatsuzumi," he continued, watching her for any reaction.
Her face was blank as the cover of her file, a talent honed in the very academy he had mentioned.
"How did you survive that battle, lieutenant? The sole recording we have puts you extremely close to the explosion," he said.
She had already explained her situation, attributing her survival to pure luck.
"The creature destabilized the crane on a nearby construction site. The hook brought it down into a building. I am not an expert, but I believe much of the explosion was absorbed and directed away from me," she said. Officially, the lack of recordings in the area was attributed to the dragon, but Internal Security likely had an inkling the vigilante was at play.
They must be suspecting that she was in cohorts with him.
"You also did not report this event to your superiors."
"Yes sir. I did not want the attention that would come from it."
"What made you choose the mall yesterday, lieutenant?"
"It is a regular place I visit on leave, sir. I was having a breakfast date."
"Yes, this person," he said, pulling out a blurry image of Thairon sitting on the table with her. "The camera resolution is horrible, but he seems far older than you."
"We are the same age, sir. He has albinism, hence the hair," she said. The captain's job was to be suspicious of everything regarding her. Her going on a date with a far older man could be seen as a cover for any illegal dealing.
Sayjor nodded, holding a hand out for her to continue. "Please recount everything following the moment you received a rupture warning."
She did as ordered.
She was in the middle of her date when the warning came. She immediately activated the fire alarm to force the civilians to evacuate. Her date had tried to help, but she sent him away as he was a civilian too.
She took position to watch the rupture, ready to report if anything came through it. That was when their mystery savior appeared. She remembered his voice and words, but not his appearance. The strange lack of selective memories identified the person as the Aurum City's vigilante.
The vigilante had claimed the rupture was formed due to an extraordinary situation and would not shut down by itself. He had brought in a device, one that she described perfectly, and robots that had fought with them.
The rupture had broken out right at the indicated time.
She described how a bug, similar in size to the Tolya APCs used by the RIC, charged out. The vigilante had weapons with him, ones that fired blue-white beams. The advanced rotary gun handed to her had torn through the bugs with frightening ease.
The vigilante had also warned her that the rupture would grow, and true to his words, it had tripled in size twice at regular intervals. His device had worked while they pushed the bugs back, closing the rupture in quick order.
"What are your thoughts on this vigilante, lieutenant? At least with what you can remember."
"I had a two-minute warning. He arrived in one. Either he has a more advanced system, or he was really quick to act. I believe it is the latter," she said.
He leaned back, smiling at her reasoning. "Why do you believe that?"
"He doesn't want to be known and only acted because this was not something we could not handle. In fact, with how fast he was, I wouldn't be surprised if he were actually from Meltral," she said. The last part was something she had just thought of.
It would lead the bureau in the wrong direction if they decided to take it.
Sajyor wrote something down in his notebook before speaking again. "What was the reasoning behind you agreeing to cooperate with him?"
"I did not have a firearm on me at that moment. As an officer in the RIC, it was my job to monitor the rupture until armed forces arrived. He offered me a weapon in case anything came through. I accepted because in my experience, hostiles appear more often than not."
"Your decision proved to be correct. The preliminary autopsy on the remains of the bugs shows their chitin is highly resistant to kinetic force."
"Once the rupture was closed, he took the weapon back and left. I did not have the means to stop or delay him." From their point of view, trying to stop Thairon would be impossible for her.
"Most of your account of the events is already confirmed through witnesses. While the video recordings are tampered with, your actions are evident. Once again, you have displayed what it means to be a member of the Intervention Corps. Thank you, lieutenant," he said, holding his open hand to her.
Tomoe shook it, her strained smile failing to hide her true feelings. She was dismissed quickly, with the reward that her leave had been extended to a full week.
She left the room after the captain, closing the door behind her, but didn't turn around. She didn't want to face the applause from her superiors and subordinates. However, she could not escape from it and eventually faced the music.
She hated this.
—
Escaping from everyone who wished to congratulate her was impossible. Not because she couldn't, but because the general specifically held a small speech praising her heroic efforts.
Claiming that it was all possible due to the vigilante's technology was seen as too modest.
Even before their mysterious savior appeared, she was willing to risk her life.
She had to shake hands with everyone and listen to their words of encouragement for an hour. Finally allowed to leave, she was quick to reach home, throwing herself on the bed. Pressing the call button, she waited.
"Hey, how did it go?" he asked. To her surprise, he too was lying down. Whenever they talked in the morning, he was always in his lab, working on something.
"I am a bloody hero again."
"You don't seem happy about it."
"This is just going to bring more attention to me." She threw her head back, groaning.
"I could have gotten you out of there."
"I knew at least a dozen people in that mall, people who saw me hit the fire alarm. I would have been seen as a coward if I left. Arguably a worse fate."
"Changing the subject, any chance you are, I don't know, a trouble magnet? One rupture is just bad luck. Two is not." She preferred not to bring her work to her personal life.
Thairon hung his head down, exhaling. "This one was my fault in a way."
"Oh?"
"Let's just say it is a side effect of my superior physiology. It caused the fracture," he said. He didn't really want to explain how the temporal radiation in his cells had caused a split-second time loop, just as a micro rupture appeared.
The result was a fracture reaching to a higher dimension and a catastrophe.
"I am working to fix it now, so I won't be available for the next week."
"They just gave me a week off for my heroic deed," she said, her voice dry.
Now it was Thairon's turn to groan.
"I might be able to pull something off, but no promises."
"Don't force yourself. I certainly wouldn't want another," she stopped, tilting her head to face the ceiling, searching for the correct word, "action-filled ending to our date."
"Neither do I. I'll let you know how it goes. By the way, I am sending you a bracelet for teleportation. You can travel as you want."
"Wow, thank you."
—
Hatsuzumi
Temple of the Gates
While her date was busy, she made full use of the teleporter. Her first destination was home. Her mother was quick to fuss over her. She assured her that everything was fine.
Of course her mother was not the type to leave it be.
"Mom, this isn't really necessary," she complained.
"Of course it is," the older woman said, stirring the pot. Her mouth watered with the aroma of the stew. It was her favorite dish but a complicated one to make. She did not want her mother to go through all the trouble.
It made her feel like a fraud.
"You know I didn't do much. I'd have no choice but to run if it weren't for Thairon."
"Good."
"What do you mean, good?"
"It means that you would have lived."
"Then what are we celebrating?"
"We are celebrating because you returned home safely."
She beamed and she threw her arms around her mother. Yumiko patted her daughter's arm with one hand, the other still stirring.
"At least let me help," she said, reaching for the ladle. Her mother disagreed, batting her hand away. "Working in a celebration prepared for you? No."
"I want to celebrate something else too."
Her mother raised a single eyebrow. "Which is?"
"Having a great mother like you."
She covered her lips with the back of her hand, bursting out in laughter. "Alright, you can help, but only this once."
"Start with the salad."
"On it."
"How is Mitsuki doing?" she asked, chopping the tomatoes and the red figs.
"You can call and ask."
Her knife stopped for a moment. "I did. She won't answer."
"I think it is high time we tell her the truth. We delayed it for so long, but now that she has been away for years and most people forgot her, it is time," Yumiko said. Her youngest deserved to know their complicated situation and the reason why she was willing to send her to the Module Hunters.
Tomoe chuckled bitterly. "She would kill him."
"You aren't giving her enough credit."
"It's not that. If she learns I left for so long because of him, she wouldn't stop at anything." The days they had spent just the two of them were the happiest moments of their lives. Even as a child, Mitsuki knew how to hold grudges.
There would be blood this time.
"All this time, and you still know your sister so well," her mother said, kissing her on the forehead.
"How did your date go before the whole matter with the rupture?"
"Good. We learned a bit more about each other. He has family issues too, on both sides no less."
—
Once the small, private feast was ready, mother and daughter sat down. Yumiko turned the TV on so they would have a background noise as they ate.
Though, the image of Tomoe on the screen erased that idea.
What You Don't See, the nighttime analysis show of Larian Jutal, the young but prodigious host, was talking about the Dragonslayer.
"Lieutenant Tomoe Nishimura, the sole daughter of perhaps the most peace-loving woman on the planet, is a proud member of the RIC," Larian began, fixing his glasses. His cold demeanor and neatly combed hair made him a favorite of many girls. His ability to convince the public of his theories made him everyone's.
He also had excellent resources because there was no other way for him to know this much.
Her service record, the sole recording of her actions against the dragon, and, of course, the bugs. The vigilante's verified involvement in Meltral and a possible involvement in Hatsuzumi, combined with a mysterious gift of an early warning system to the RIC, made Larian ask on-point questions.
"Let's say the dragon rupture was an accident. Let's accept that Lieutenant Tomoe's heroic action killed the dragon, and she survived by luck," he said, displaying the image of her jumping out of the truck.
"What are the chances she finds herself near a brand new kind of rupture, one that has the potential to destroy the world, while on a date?" he continued, bringing up the video recording of her, standing against a wave of bugs with the robots by her side.
"Suddenly, the man believed to be Aurum City's Vigilante, or as the pleased citizens call him, the Reaper, appears just a minute before the rupture breaks open while the early warning system, which detected the previous rupture more than three days in advance, only gave a two-minute warning."
A silhouette of a male appeared with a question mark on it. That at least made her smile viciously.
"Experts in surveillance and biology believe the use of a highly advanced technology managed to not only tamper with the memories of the citizens but also erase the vigilante from all cameras."
"What do you know? All cameras connected to the network within the vicinity of the dragon rupture were out of commission."
"Here is the question of the night: Is the heroic lieutenant simply unfortunate enough to encounter two highly dangerous ruptures on her days off, or is there something more going on?"
"This is what you don't see, and I am Larian Jutal. Thank you for your time, and I hope to see you all tomorrow."
"Son of a bitch," she cursed, turning the TV off. He was asking all the right questions but, thankfully, would never have the evidence to prove any of them.
"Tomoe Nishimura," her mother's stern voice broke the silence like a hammer through a glass window.
She bowed her head, hiding her slightly reddening cheeks. "Sorry."