12 Volume One | Chapter - Unexpected Arrival

It had been a few hours since Aiko was taken to the academy's infirmary with the help of her friend Uli and the instructor.

As soon as they got there, Aiko was immediately hooked up to a UV drip and laid upon a free bed. Infirmaries were mostly filled with Familiars' whilst battles and Royale's were ongoing so it was no surprise to Uli to see equipment she'd never seen in her life.

Scattered around the area were machines with elongated metal arms, holographic screens with vital information and vials of orange liquid attached to them.

Before Uli could comprehend what was happening, she saw some students rushing in carrying another student, the trio was wearing the typical black nanotech suit used by them for physical activities.

Instead this time one of the students had multiple gashes across her torso, at first it made Uli feel sick to see such wounds inflicted upon people, but deep down she knew that everything that happens in Essentia Academies comes with the title of being a Familiar or Coordinator.

She watched as the student was laid upon an infirmary bed not to far from her, Uli could see their third-year tags on their shoulders.

As women doctors and machines attended to the wounded student, Uli watched as one of the doctors pulled the mid-section of the nanotech suit apart revealing the girls' bare naked breasts and stomach.

A pool of blood rushing over the sides of the suit, large deep cuts in the girls' torso continued to spurt out blood, and her breathing was very weak that you could barely see her chest rising and falling in tune with her breathes.

One of the machines that Uli saw earlier, rolled in on their treads in their pronged hand was a vial of that orange liquid, the doctor snatched it from the machine's metal prongs.

She opened up the lid of the vial then dripped the substance into the girls' wounds, then without pause, the doctors started to wrap the girls' torso in white bandages.

The doctor that poured the orange liquid substance onto the girls' body turned to the other two, "Next time make sure she doesn't injure herself in training..." the doctor wiped the small sweat that had appeared on her forehead "...it's bad enough patching up Familiars and Coordinators during and after battles with the Nebula and Royale's, we don't need to waste resources on incompetent students who hurt themselves in training"

The two other third-year student's bowed slightly thanking the doctors wholeheartedly.

Uli just turned away looking back at Aiko seeing her friends' bloodstained academy uniform, her mind instantly jumped to the thought of what if something like that happened to me? as she wrapped her arms tightly around her torso, her slender body becoming ever more present as her uniform grew tight from her grip whilst her body trembled at the thought of such things happening to her and her friends.

***

Waking up, Aiko looked around at the scenery which was pitch black except for a small circle of light shining from above down onto her.

Looking around frantically she tried forming an image of her surroundings, however, it was so black that she was afraid that one step from her circle and she'd fall into nothingness.

In the distance she could hear the faint cries of a girl, Aiko turned around trying to figure out where the crying was coming from, she didn't have to wait long when another beam of light appeared in the distance.

Her eyes squinting slightly as they adjusted, Aiko could see a girl with long black hair on her knees hunched forward, the girl was wearing some form of body armour suit however it wasn't anything that Aiko had seen before.

As Aiko walked closer to the lone figure before her having this feeling of stopping and running away, she pushed such thoughts aside continuing onwards, as she reached for the girl with her left hand. Aiko was startled when the girl in front of her spun her head around, profusely pouring out of her eyes, mouth and ears.

Falling to the floor, the girls' eyes were lifeless and unmoving.

Aiko screamed as she saw the sight in front of her, blinking she opened her eyes that now laid upon a desolate dark red rocky terrain, surrounding her were thousands of girls like the one before with different styles of body armour suits and etchings upon them.

All of them had blood pouring out of their eyes, mouths and ears, as pools of their blood circled their bodies, instead this time it was obvious Aiko that they were all dead.

Aiko shuffled back, her face had a look of fear, her feet slipped making her collapse on her rear end.

Streaks of blood splashed over her uniform, placing her hand down on the floor Aiko felt something squishy and slimy, turning her head to see what it was only for her body to lurch back in shock.

Looking down on the floor, she could see the entrails sprawled out of a girls torso, Aiko dry-heaved with nothing coming up as her throat became raspy from her body's constant attempts of vomiting.

Looking ahead she could see a huge plume of black smoke and fires in the distance surrounding a Nebula Titan Platform followed by many other crafts of various shapes and sizes.

"Safe them" Aiko suddenly heard a voice in her head, as the same voice continuously repeated the same words.

She clutched her hands over her ears trying to drain out the voice which soon turned into a multitude.

When that didn't work she clenched her eyes shut, Aiko shouting out, "Stop it!"

***

A thought came across Hibiki's mind in that instance, "Hey Sachi, have you decided on your partner yet?"

Sachika sighed, "No I haven't, so can you just leave it be and let me finish my coursework?" she was getting agitated by the constant reminders and questions from her friend about getting a partner, but also it made her mind wander back to the thought of Aiko.

Closing her eyes she pushed the thought out of her head then went back to her coursework.

Her friend decided to drop the subject, as for Sachika she returned to doing her coursework while she could before it got too late.

It had only been a few seconds before she heard Hibiki mutter something under her breathe, "What you'd say?" Sachika asked as she turned her head to face Hibiki, who was looking at her cell phone, her expression clearly gave off the vibe of being confused.

"I don't know the signal to my cell phone has gone" Hibiki taps touchscreen buttons on her cellphone but to her surprise, there was still no signal.

Sachika, in turn, pulled out her cell phone, only to also find that she didn't have any signal. Walking to the window she gingerly opening the curtains, looking outside to see whether there was a storm or something that could explain the sudden loss of signal to their cell phones.

To her surprise there was nothing, shaking her head she turned around looking to Hibiki, "Don't know, maybe we're just having a bad connection at the moment"

"Hmm, yeah maybe" Hibiki dropped her cell phone on the bed just beside her.

Sachika, on the other hand, placed her back inside her corset pocket before returning to the desk to finish her coursework.

Sachika's mind suddenly wandered back to the discussion that she, Hibiki and Mistress Daiki had with one another about her getting a new partner.

She remembered how the Mistress asked Hibiki about Sachika's efforts to find a new partner before the summer break, only to be disappointed to find out that Sachika wasn't interested.

What really surprised Sachika was how the Mistress subtly dropped the mention of Aiko becoming her partner, or at least that's what Sachika thought at the time.

As she continued to think about it, she suddenly stood up from her seat surprising Hibiki with her sudden abrupt action. "I'm heading out quickly I'll be back soon" Sachika announced.

Hibiki perplexed at the sudden need for Sachika to leave, she responded with, "Um, okay...just don't be too long we're starting early tomorrow"

"Yeah, I know..." Sachika walks into the dorm room door opening it "...I won't be too long".

Upon closing the door she headed in the direction of the academy's information centre, walking down the dorms corridors that had cream coloured walls and ceiling along with the crimson coloured flooring.

In order to find out where Aiko's residence was for the academy, Sachika had to find out through the information centre.

***

Both Uli and Bethany were in the former's room seeing as they lived in the same dorm block their rooms were relatively close to one another.

The two of them sat on the single double sized bed within the room both of them had gloomy expressions on their faces.

Uli and Bethany's uniforms were haphazardly put together as their white collar and red tie and knee-high socks were dumped on the dorm rooms floor.

"I hope Aiko is going to be okay" Uli suddenly muttered.

As for Bethany, something bothered her, "Do you know what happened?"

Uli sighing gave the best possible answer she could as she rubbed her head, "I have no idea like I said I noticed she looked off in class and then..." Uli cringes at the sight of seeing Aiko coughing up blood "...she started coughing up blood, even the instructor and doctor hadn't a clue what happened with her"

Looking at Bethany's face Uli realised it had gone pale, "Damn sorry, it must be a shock suddenly hearing and finding out about this"

Bethany nodded, bringing her knees up to her chest, "Yes it was a shock when I heard, I-I just hope she's alright"

Uli's cheeks turn red when she glances between Bethany's legs, but instead of saying anything, she says, "Don't worry I'm sure she's going to be fine..." she produces a small smile to lighten the mood "...she's a tough girl after all anyway!"

Uli announces proudly giving Bethany a thumbs up.

As for Bethany, she responds in kind with a small smile, as she thought about what Aiko could possibly be going through right now, she couldn't help but worry for one of her friends.

And hoping that nothing takes a turn for the worse for Aiko.

***

Walking through the gardens in the beautiful starry night sky, Sachika was debating on how to handle the subject with Aiko when she sees her, ruffling her hair she quickly wrapped her toned slender arms around her stomach her persona seemed to be that of a cute shy girl.

Feeling embarrassed by what she was about to do.

Ever since her Composed Fibril reacted in that way to Aiko's presence, she tended to drift off in class thinking about her, Sachika hated this sensation experiencing it once before, it wasn't long ago that she vowed never to commit to such a thing ever again.

Yet here she was going weak at the thought of thinking about Aiko, once again her Composed Fibril shone a vague blue hue along her spine faintly shining through her student uniform.

That tingling sensation returned in full force once again, gritting her teeth Sachika cursed at such a thing happening, wishing that it would just go away.

Pausing for a moment, she leaned against a brick wall to regain her composure.

"Okay..." she started to control her breathing "...I need to do this" slapping her cheeks gently as she stood up straight. but before she could continue on, an air raid siren rang out throughout campus.

"Warning Red Alert One: Nebula Cruiser Platform class has been sighted ten kilometres out from Essentia Japan Academy..." Sachika's eyes opened wide upon hearing the announcement "...first years are to report to faculty staff outside the shelters. Second, Third and Fourth years are to respond to the Nebula Threat"

Hearing the announcement Sachika rushed towards the deployment centres stationed around the academy, around her she could see fellow students from all different years adhering to their orders.

Time was of the essence here, so without a second thought, Sachika pushed Aiko out of her mind the best she could focus on the current predicament at hand.