Chapter 4: Disappearance

No, no, no, no! I need to get to Tanaka's school immediately! My name is Tamiko and there's a very good reason to why am I currently rushing towards my cute little brother's school.

That morning I savoured every last bite of my Tanaka's beautiful breakfast. After being informed by the news lady of an arson attack at my workplace, my brother told me to stay at home for safety. I always loved that caring side of him that he only shows to me. But seriously, I am the older sister, and I can take care of myself, who does he think I am! Hmph! Anyways I thought that now with a lot of free time on my hands I should do something productive. My cooking is nowhere near the level of my brother, but I wanted to make him a nice meal again this evening. That omurice took me three tries for it not to come out burnt. If I wanted to make something truly special for my little brother, I needed to practice from morning till dusk.

Oh, dear that's the eighth egg that I've ruined. Luckily, I was knowledgeable enough to disable the smoke alarm before I started cooking. As I was cooking, I had left the television on. The same one on the same channel that my brother turned on earlier this morning.

"Hello everyone. We interrupt your regularly scheduled program to bring you breaking news!"

The news anchor lady seemed to be much more on edge today. I wondered why. Maybe I should turn off the television. It was somewhat distracting me from my cooking. I walked towards the coffee table in the middle of the living room to grab the remote. I reached down for the remote and froze at the words that I heard.

"XXXXX Highschool has become the target of what it seems to be a terrorist attack. Local authorities are trying to ascertain and contain the situation. Many individuals speculate that this may be related to the arson attacks that recently occurred just last night."

I gradually rose to face the television. My face had gone numb. That was the highschool that my brother attended. I couldn't believe what was happening. Why was this happening? I just wanted to spend time with my brother. Why can't I do that without something going wrong?! This always happens! Worry was drawn over my entire face. I couldn't move a muscle. I didn't want to go through that experience ever again. Not again, not again, not again…

"The latest update suggests that some sort of explosion occurred followed by an unknown electric pulse. Armed intervention has arrived at the scene. We advise that the guardians of the students stay away from the scene as there is still the threat of the terrorists. We will keep you informed as the news comes in."

I stood there numb. What should I do? What could I do? I wasn't like my brother. He's kind, responsible and most importantly brave. If he were here, he would rush in and save his colleagues from the crumbling building. He was always like this back then too. I couldn't do anything, back then and now. My legs crumpled and I sat on the ground. My eyes welled from the overwhelming wave of emotions that I had once felt many years ago. The memories that I've held back were in the fore front of my mind.

"The authorities say that family members should remain calm. The authorities are doing their best to resolve the situation."

'Doing their best'? That is so much easier said than done. Their best? But is that enough? Maybe, maybe not. Should I just give up? What would my brother say to me?

The screen flickered and switched to a low-quality footage of a school building that was beginning to crumble. I looked up and saw the cracks form along the building. The building would not be able to support that weight anymore. There were too many instabilities. If only I could use that thing we were working on at the institute. Wait! I picked myself up and ran into my room. I almost tripped on the pyjamas that laid disorganized. At the foot of my bed was a backpack that contained several experimental trinkets that I was involved with in their development at the institute. I snatched the bag and sprinted out the door and down the flight of stairs. I couldn't do what my brother would do, but I just have to solve the problem in my own way. Look at me now Tanaka, I'm not just your hopeless older sister.

I ran and ran towards the school that my brother attended. In the distance I saw smoke rising from the over the rooftops. I quickened my pace. Past the stop lights and over a bridge, I was then confronted by a policeman that had set up a small barricade. He saw me running and waved his hands to stop me.

"Hey! Little miss stop! It's dangerous!"

Taking a page from my little brother's book, I ignored his plea and vaulted over the barricade he set up. The policeman was stunned by my urgency, but quickly snapped out of it and seemingly began to say something into his radio.

I passed several other policeman checkpoints. By one of them, there was a crying mother being held back by a policeman. Tears welled in her eyes. They flowed down her face and stained the loungewear she was wearing. The policeman tried to calm her down, but the mother didn't stop and demanded to be let through. I once again bypassed the barricade and saw the collapsing school building. Several footsteps reverberated through the air, and I swiftly hid around the corner. The sound originated from the company of men with guns. Going off their uniform, I judged that they were in fact part of the prefecture police Anti-firearms squad, and some were from the Special Forces Group. If they saw me, they would immediately send me away or, in the worst case, arrest me.

Luckily, I had snatched up one of the four prototypes that we had at my facility that is useful for sneaking around. My brother also has one, but unlike me he was permitted to take one. I took out a light metal box with a strap from my backpack. I fastened the box on to my waist and set up the program for the device. I am proud to present to you the institute 'Visual Light Disruption Field' or what I like to call it the 'Cloaking Device'. Well, it's not an actual cloaking device like in science fiction shows. It disrupts your silhouette so that it's harder to recognize the person and people tend to overlook it if there aren't directly looking at it or trying to focus on it. It's like camouflage but better. I worked under one of my seniors on this device, but I had never used it before. Anxiously I strapped the device to my hip and gingerly activated the device. The machine started up and the display lit up. Cautiously I tapped on the display and selected a 'close range urban setting' pre-set that was programmed into the device. The device made a small beeping noise and a holographic-esque sheen flickered into existence covering my body. I looked down at my arms and confirmed that the effect of the device. My whole body had a distorted silhouette with tint of urban grey concrete that blended in with my surroundings. Since I was once a student at this school, I knew that there was a short chain-linked fence that could effortlessly be climbed over. They were and still are used by a select few people to skip class and visit the ramen shop just across the street. I eyed the chain-linked fence. Score! The school faculty still hadn't fixed it yet.

Just as I turned the corner towards the chain-linked fence, a small squad of special forces were about to march right in front of me. With nowhere to hide I decided to stand behind a utility pole and prayed that my cloaking device would work. The small squad was composed of just 5 people, considerably small even for a squad of special forces.

"Where's Raven?" The man at the front of the group spoke out.

"He said that he'll be hanging back this time around," the woman beside him to the right calmly responded, "He wanted to-."

"Do we really need him here?" A rash man's voice interrupted, "Let him do his own thing, we'll be fine."

Suddenly the rash man was slapped in the back. "Did you listen to the captain during the briefing?" exclaimed a petite woman with an exasperated tone, "If we were to fight 'those things' it would be easier wouldn't it?"

"Come on let's just relax," another voice sprung up, this time coming from a lethargic sounding man, "We can deal with 'them' just fine if we take it slow."

"Alright that's enough chit chat, we're here," and with that the captain, I assumed, silenced his squad and off they went around the corner to the front of the school.

Almost caught, I let out a long sigh. I would have been done for if they had caught me. Breathing in and out, I regained my composure and reassessed the situation. The police and special forces are about to enter the school. They had been reluctant to do so earlier most likely because they didn't know how many terrorists were in the building. I walked up to the chain-linked fence and peeked inside the school area. From the collapsing building, although at first seemingly being apart of the plan by the terrorist, I surmised that this had not been something that the terrorist expected. Several of the terrorists have already been caught when they exited the building in a panic. The police, in the ensuing panic, would probably try to enter the building and get all the students out.

I located the broken part of the fence and climbed over and through it. Fortunately, the police and special forces hadn't yet stormed the school which should give me enough time to use the special foam. This was the latest project that I had been working on with a couple of my colleagues. On the outside it looked similar to regular construction foam and in a sense functioned quite similarly. The difference is that foam has nano machines in them that will reshape the molecular structure of the foam. If we were successful, since I had yet to test it, the dense foam should build a perfect molecular diamond structure between the crack of two inorganic substances.

I removed a non-descript spray can from my bag and pointed the nozzle at one of the crumbling support pillars. The spray exited the can and immediately formed a foam like structure in the cracks. Holding my breath, I prayed that the foam would hold. To my honest surprise since a lot of these prototypes ended in failure, the foam held. I tapped the foam once more with my hands and received solid feedback. The foam worked! I jumped up in excitement, but I quickly stopped before I got ahead of myself. There were still several more pillars to fix. I ran up to each pillar and sprayed the special construction foam. One by one the cracks along the pillars were filled up and the crumbling school became just slightly more stable.

After the foundations had been secured, I allowed myself a small celebration. This brief moment of satisfaction was promptly interrupted by the lingering thought of my brother. I looked at the building from behind the school. Should I go in and check? It would be very dangerous with all the commotion from both friendlies and foes. The most logical thing to do would be to leave and wait for the authorities to deal with the situation and then I would check on my brother. That would be logical. I placed my fist on my chest. My heart was beating faster and faster. How could I just leave him in there? My emotions got the better of me and I ran up the fire escape stairs towards the top floor where my brother's classroom was located.

Entering the building, I was immediately met with the sounds of screaming students and panicking terrorists. To my immediate front I spot about 6 men dressed in all black with assault rifles. The terrorists, I assumed. I quickly checked if my cloaking device was still working and was relieved to see that it was still functioning perfectly fine. It would be terrible for me if it were to stop working now. I carefully traversed the crowded corridor making sure to stick as close to the walls as possible and to not accidentally bump into someone. Luckily with all the commotion nobody noticed me, and I arrived in front of the Tanaka's classroom. It seemed to be strangely quiet, and the door was still closed despite all the panic that engulfed the school. I reached for the door handle. But just before I grabbed it, I was knocked down to the floor. I gathered my senses and turned my gaze upwards. There before me stood two armed men in black. Damm, I thought to myself, this was the worse timing possible. The one that had bumped into was a large, bulky, vulgar-looking man. He was accompanied by a similarly dressed but significantly slimer man.

"Huh? What was that?" exclaimed the vulgar man.

"What in god's name are talking about?" the slim man said in confusion.

"I swear to God that I just bumped into someone!"

The slim man blankly stared at him with a disappointed look.

"Great. Not only did some random ass third party intervene, but you've also gone insane."

"What'd ya say about me!"

In their scuffle I attempted to stand up and get away. Unfortunately, that fall did more than just give me a bruised butt, but had in fact ever so slightly damaged my cloaking device. Being a prototype and incredibly unstable, it failed right then and there. Skizzzz The electronic box strapped to my hip fizzled out and deactivated. The shimmering seam that hid my silhouette became undone. The two terrorists stopped fighting and realized that they had in fact just bumped into someone. I froze like a deer in headlights as they stared me down. After what felt like the most agonizing second of my life, the vulgar man reached for his assault rifle that was slung around his chest. I shook in fear, but my body wouldn't move. Thankfully luck had been on my side that day. The slim man stretched out and stopped the vulgar man.

"Hey stop! She might just be a civilian!"

"What the fuck are you talking about!? She must be one of the third-party people. She literally just appeared out of thin air!"

In that moment I regained my composure and realized that I had to act in this moment right now before I could possibly be killed. I racked my brain to come up with a solution as fast as possible. I obviously did not have any firearms, nor did I pack any weapons with me. The things that were in my bag were the only tools that I could use to defend myself. Taking a risk, I grabbed a flashlight from my bag and pointed it at the large vulgar man's face. It wasn't some strange institute super flashlight but is still much brighter than your average flashlight. Noticing my movements, the vulgar man turned back towards me.

"So lady we have to detai- aaahhh."

When his eyes laid upon the flashlight, I quickly turned it on. The incredibly bright and sudden light temporarily blinded him, and he leaned against the wall in confusion while rubbing his eyes. Capitalizing on my momentum, I threw a punch towards the slim man, but he simply stopped my fist. In hindsight I should have expected that the slim man would also be quite strong too. He smirked and eyed me from top to bottom before chuckling ever so slightly. The slim man let go of my fist and threw one of his own. I arched back just in time as the uppercut barely missed my chin. I brought my flashlight again in order to blind him, but he quickly knocked it out of my hands before I could use it. Out of options, I slowly backed away and bumped into the still somewhat blinded vulgar man. The man reflexively threw a wild hay maker in my general direction. I ducked under the incoming punch. The hay maker flew passed me and slammed directly into the slim man whose focus was still on me the entire time. I could have sworn that I saw his face physically deform from the weight of the hit. The slim man crashed into the wall and slumped onto the floor. I turned around and faced the vulgar man. He blinked rapidly several times before regaining his vision. The vulgar looked at his fallen friend and then back at me. A snarled formed his face and he was obviously quite angry. I punched with all the might I could muster, but the vulgar man merely laughed as my fist harmlessly impacted his chest. He promptly launched his own fist which I narrowly avoid by stepping backwards. Unfortunately, the vulgar man saw it coming and followed his wide punch with a short jab to my stomach. I stumbled onto the ground and slid back from the force of his punch feeling as though the air has been punched out from my lungs. The man slowly stepped forward to land a finishing blow on me. I hurriedly searched my mind for a way to win. In my haste to stand up, I happened to grab the foam spray that I had used just earlier. The man threw a punch towards me who was still half sprawled on the floor. I rolled out of the punches path and the man imbedded his punch into the floor. Seizing the moment, I sprayed his hand and the floor with the foam and almost instantaneously his hand became stuck to the floor. In shock, he let a short, confused grunt. I stood up and then sprayed both of his feet before he could remove his hand. Now that he was immobilized for a moment, I needed something to knock him out. Near the entrance to classroom, I saw a large and most likely heavy biology book. I grabbed the book and slammed it into the back of the man's head. The man instantly dropped to the floor.

I stood over the bodies of the two knocked out men with sweat dripping down my face. My breathing was heavy, and I was exhausted physically and mentally. Remembering what I was doing, I dropped the book and rushed into Tanaka's classroom. I entered the classroom and was surprised to find it completely empty. Part of the ceiling that had collapsed, chairs, and tables that were supposed to be in the room had also disappeared. There were no signs that they had left the classroom and yet nobody was here. That means something must have happened to Tanaka! I frantically searched the room for any clue that could point towards where Tanaka and his classmates had gone. I approached the centre of the room only to find a pure white orb floating a couple centimetres off the ground. It wasn't emitting any light but because of how white it was it looked like it was glowing. I crouched down and slowly brought my hand towards the object. All of a sudden in that moment several cloaked figures opened the door to the classroom.

"The response from electrical and magnetic waves point towards it being in this room," said one of the cloaked figures.

"Look it's right there!" Another one pointed towards the white orb that I was reaching for.

Inside I mentally prepared myself for another possible fight and asked, "Who are you guys?"

"It's the real thing," the cloaked figure in front of the group muttered ignoring my question.

Feeling as though they also wanted the orb, I attempted to compromise, "You can use this afterwards, but I need this to track my brother. It is the only clue I have."

Finally, the cloak figure in front reacted. "That's not possible," he said before turning to the people besides him, "Get rid of her."

The other cloaked men pulled what looked like swords and approached me. I was puzzled for a moment because they were using swords. I grabbed the white orb for myself, but something unexpected happened. The white orb was absorbed into my body and the white glow spread throughout my body with the white glow spreading through my veins. I stared at my hands in confusion then back at the cloaked figures who had also stopped in their tracks. They too turn back to their leader who was still standing in the doorway. A shadow hid his face, but I could still feel the murderous and angry aura that emitted from him.

With a restrained voice the man ordered, "You! ... Capture her," after which he turned away and left the room.

One of the cloaked men sheath their sword held up their palm towards me. I got myself ready for another fist fight, what else should I have expected. The man uttered some incomprehensible language that I have never heard of. In that moment I ran towards the door, but before I even reached the handle I was overcome with an immense wave of nausea and sleepiness. My knees buckled as I tried to remain conscious. I supported myself on the wall, but it was no use. Slowly I slipped down towards the floor. I fought to keep my eyes open but failed to do so.