6-3 Shocking Encounter (1)

Date: September 9

Place: (HQ's Clinic) Main Lobby

[Rei]

I slowly opened my eyes to wake up at one of the clinic's beds. Yui was the first person I saw, she's crying while holding my hands chanting something I can barely hear. I saw another recognizable face sitting on a stool near the right end of the bed, it was Noel and he looks like he knew I had opened my eyes already when he shout for Yui to get a doctor immediately. And while she was running outside to call for help, my other members stormed in and looked at me with delighted gazes as they tried to take care of my well-being by preparing some drinkable water, checking my temperature, or asking how I feel. Noel seemed to notice that I was uncomfortable and asked for them to take a step back and wait for me to speak.

"What happened?" is what I asked that they gave me a stiff and forceful smile. I started to question them again but they looked like don't want to just answer.

But then my head starts to spin that I can hear them screaming and while the sounds they make seem to fade, I can feel my body getting lighter and beginning to lose my consciousness again. And I collapsed, hitting the soft pillow laying exactly below my head.

I remember now.

* * * * *

We stepped out of the elevator and walked along the hallway which leads us to the conference room. I'm bringing Noel and Cedrick with me so as soon as I get this thing out of my neck, we can proceed with our next schedule which is Noel's first mission. Yet someone dared to mess with me again. He doesn't even learn.

The only person who's been bugging me nonstop these days is that man who purposely saying nonsense behind my back and the one who's scheming anything he thinks of to humiliate me or make me go down my rank. I suppose he wants revenge for something that I don't even know I've done wrong.

As he's closing in, I was sure that he purposely bumped me again, just like what he did in the cafeteria. But this time, he came prepared.

He's angrily looking at me while on the floor as his blood starts to drip down his hands and touched the cold floor. We're already at the lobby where a lot of people are idly chatting or minding their business. And with this many eyes eager to turn around and look at us, I can already guess that nothing good can come out of this.

I glanced at the floor and found a bloody knife next to him. How bold can he be? Although I can already guess what he's up to, I just stood there and waited for his skit to unravel.

"Rei are you alright?" asked Cedrick as he scans me from head to toe.

"What's going on?" they might have been too busy to even look at my way. Cedrick was probably giving lectures to him again. So that might be the reason why they didn't witness it properly.

"Is she alright my ass! What about me?" shouts the man, attracting all the unnecessary attention in our direction. "She did it on purpose! She stabbed me! Look!" he shouts continuously as he shows the wounds on his right hand up high after he got up.

"Serves you right, you've been a stubborn thorn lately," says Cedrick while he pouts. "I'm sure you're trying to bother us again," he continues but saying it with a normal voice for the audience to hear. Then he scratches his head when I glared at him. He can't help but look at the man with disgust when the man still bickered nonsense just to earn himself some pity from others while I picked up the knife that is said I used to abuse him.

"I don't even use knives like these," examining it in front of everyone. It's the opposite of sharp so I'm sure that the wound is not that deep. I grabbed his right hand and inspected the wound but he immediately took it back and made some accusations about the reason I did that.

"What do you think you're doing?" shouting like his life depends on it.

"It's shallow. If it were me I would've cut it deeper to the point you'll need stitches," this should be enough. I glared at him and saw clearly that he wasn't expecting an answer like that, especially in a crowd like this. I threw the knife on the ground with much force, intending I could stick it to intimidate him just like in some classical movies. But instead, the blade was so dull it broke which caught all of the people's attention.

"She broke it," I hear people whispering to the right.

"I feel sorry for the old man," some feel genuine pity.

"Run," a man whispers intensely.

"Rest in peace," and some treating everything as a joke.

"Now if you'll excuse us, we have an urgent mission to attend to," I say nonchalantly. "Not like someone I know," I mocked him that he froze and couldn't say anything. As expected, using the missions as an excuse can prove its worth to the people who are just here for the shelter and free food they can obtain without even dirtying their hands and being scared to put their life on the line every time they go outside. And as easy as that, we walked away like nothing and so did the crowd. But we were suddenly stopped by a sudden hysterical laugh behind us. And when I turned around, I see that guy holding us at gunpoint. He was switching his aim to the three of us. The crowd was doubled but took measures away from our spot. I looked around to see Cedrick unfazed and Noel with his arms up, wearing a calm face. Then the man fixed the point onto me.

"Where are you looking? Are you scared? That you'll finally say goodbye to everyone today?" this man probably thinks that I can't touch him because of some silly punishment that he heard I got. "You should've respected your elders!" he shouts, frustratingly pulling the trigger then run into the crowd to escape.

"Rei!" I hear both of them yell as I fell on my knees, holding my side and enduring the pain that was supposed to be there. But not even a single drop of blood flowed out of my body.