58 Empty House

His originally blue pupils turned black and a dark light emitted from his body. All the pain that he had previously felt suddenly disappeared. His body seemed to meld into the shadows on the ground.

Merging with the shadow, he quickly traveled to the nearest Reaper and stabbed it in the neck with his bare hands. The Reaper was killed in one hit. Moving onto the next Reaper, Rin made the same motion.

Within 5 seconds, Rin was able to get rid of 2 Reapers, but there were still 3 more to go and many Enraged. His power felt as though it was rapidly expanding within his body with no escape and he began to feel as though he would explode. He also saw that Aida was still laying on the ground, seemingly unable to get up.

In a desperate move, he lifted his arms up and manipulated all the shadows he possibly could, and then forcefully lowered his arms. With one motion, Rin successfully pulled all the Enraged and Reapers into the shadows, effectively chopping all their bodies in half. Seeing that he was successful in his attempt, he sighed in relief and dropped to the floor.

As if from miles away, he heard a distant voice calling out his name. With huge effort, he lifted his head up to see Aida frantically crawling towards him and thought "I've never seen big sis so upset. I hope she is alright". With that, his thoughts trailed off and he succumbed to darkness.

Aida crawled over to Rin with some effort. Her blood was quickly repairing her body, but it also took a lot of energy out of her. As she reached Rin, she immediately checked his body. She noticed that the spatial tears had disappeared, but Rin was extremely pale and seemed to be rapidly losing life force. She could sense this through their blood connection.

Desperate to keep him alive, she grabbed the nearest Reaper, slashed its main artery and forced Rin to drink the blood. The virus gave the infected an incredible life force beyond that others were used to, so perhaps this is what could save Rin as well. If Rin became an Enraged or Reaper, so be it. She would spend the rest of her life finding ways to help him recover but she could not and would not let him die.

She carefully placed Rin down on the ground as she went around and collected all the gems. She had to get rid of the gem's scent as soon as possible to prevent other dangers from approaching them.

After collecting them all, she came back to check on Rin. His face seemed to have regained quite a bit of color and he was beginning to develop a fever. Seeing this, Aida quickly ran over to the golf cart and the forgotten Ace to grab some antipyretic from her backpack. Kids in particular were sensitive to fevers, so she had to make sure to manage it carefully. Carefully feeding him the medicine, she laid him down on the back of the golf cart.

Turning to Ace, she was surprised he was still alive and intact after that mob of infected. It turns out he had climbed atop the golf cart and was slapping the Enraged with a stick to prevent them from getting to him. Because the Reapers saw Aida as the larger threat, they went after her and Rin first which allowed him to survive. What a lucky man...

Dragging Ace out from under the cart, she forced him to sit in the passenger seat as they drove deeper in the city. Aida found a store nearby that would be a good place for them to stay for a while to regroup. The top priority right now was to treat Rin's wounds and to alleviate his fever.

***

Meanwhile, after Light and Yukio landed, they were actually only 2 kilometers from the house. They were very fortunate and landed in the city at an open grassy park with no problem. After landing, Light unstrapped himself and Yukio and ran towards the nearest building for cover.

He was sure that their plane crash and parachute landing did not go unnoticed by the Enraged and Reapers. Entering the building, they headed straight up to the top floor to get a better vantage point and determine where they were at. Light helped orient them while Yukio looked for the best path for them to take. Yukio's practice with sharpshooting extended beyond just practicing accuracy, but also having the ability to identify a target within a crowd.

On the car ride to the airport, Aida had debriefed everyone on the existence of Reapers, so they were prepared to avoid all Reapers. Find the best path, they set out on their short journey to the house. Every few blocks, they would climb up to the roof again to revector themselves and walk towards the house.

While this method was a bit slower, they were able to traverse the city while staying safe. They encountered numerous Enrageds on their way to the house, but the Enraged were no match for them as they either beat them down mercilessly or shot them. If Aida were there to spectate, she would surely be pleased by the bloody scene.

Neither Light nor Yukio had noticed a pair of eyes that curiously followed them the entire time from afar.

After many rounds of assessing the area and finding the best route, the pair finally reached the house. As they walked into the house, they were extremely excited about the possibility of seeing Aida and Rin again. Much to their disappointment, they found that the house was still empty and it looked the exact same as it had before.

Shuffling around, Light and Yukio changed clothes and went to prepare food. It had been a full day since they had a proper meal and they were starving. Light made sure to prepare extra food for Rin, Aida and Ace when they arrived. There was no doubt in his mind that they would make it to the house.