5-3 Specks of Black Fog

Date: September 6

Place: Kyoto Headquarters

[Cedrick]

"Isn't she kind of late?" asks Vincent who looks so bored sitting in the wooden chair while his head is resting on the table.

"You're right," says Patrick who was beside me trying to read the new file I brought.

"Aren't these voice records? Do we have a record player here?" asks Shawn looking around the place.

It's true, is she distracted by something? We can't even start without her and besides, I don't even know what kind of questions she wants to ask. But after a while, the elevator presented us to Rei.

"Rei!" they cheered, relieved that she didn't forget today's schedule. But is it just me? She looks pissed and troubled. She looked at us seriously without a hint of a smile or good vibes around her. Everyone became tense when she looked at her right and marched towards where all the weapons are. The three looked at me with questionable expressions. Like asking me what's going on.

She took two guns and loaded them with bullets then she looked at us. She signaled us to come closer with her fingers. Once we were all standing near her, she tossed Vincent the gun which he caught and looked at Rei, confused. No one dared say a single word in this cold tension. Especially when Rei looks so serious and frustrated about something.

"What are you waiting for? Don't tell me you've been slacking off when I told you to practice," she scolds which everyone was caught off guard. And I know what everyone might be thinking. It's that no one told them about this, they looked at me like they wanted an explanation. I told them that we are going to discuss something and not do some actual practice earlier.

"Shoot" she ordered, pointing at the dummy on the corner. Vincent had no choice but to follow her order even if all of this doesn't make sense. He perfectly shot the dummy on the head and we didn't saw Rei pleased at all. Instead, she readied her gun.

"You call that shooting? I thought you guys were skilled?" she shouted which made Vincent scratched his head.

"I'm sorry?" he said, unable to be silent when everything he did was more than alright.

"You shoot with an intent to kill all your enemies. Aim properly," she says, aiming at the metal door to which all of our attention turned. Just what is she trying to do, make a hole in that door which clearly won't happen?

"Then shoot," she shots the door on an average height of a man, she constantly fired at the same spot three times. And our ears can't believe what we heard. Even if we were far from it, the thud of a falling person was loud enough and the running footsteps too. It's as if someone was carefully watching from a distance but got caught and ran away. You have to get permission to enter the hallway of this area so there shouldn't be anyone but us.

Our eyes went back to Rei who looks satisfied now with a grin displayed on her lips as she looks away from the door and turned her attention over to us. After some time thinking, I'm sure that everyone has the same reaction and thoughts as me. Everything made sense after we knew that someone was spying on her. It seems like she already knew and acted like she didn't so that she can get proof of that person's existence to cast away the doubts she has whether it's just her intuition or not.

Then a thought came to mind, is it possible that this is connected to the incident we had when Yui was kidnapped? If so, Rei must be overjoyed to know that we have a lead that'll take us to that person who communicated with us through her phone.

"What are you doing? Get your swords, it's time for some practice," she says walking towards the sword's section. We got some wooden swords and knives but she recommended using the real thing. "Since everyone here is experienced, wouldn't it be fun to fight with these?" she says swinging the knife. Showing her skills and playing it like it's just a toy with no fear of being cut.

We all agreed on her proposal and the training began. Rei and I teamed up while the other three took turns every time someone falls to the ground, one must rest and wait for another person to fall before he switches to partake. So that the match could be two versus two.

~~

"What about the discussion?" asks Vincent who took a step back after I swung my knife at him. I kept attacking him while he's distracted and he dodges it flawlessly.

"Seriously? You just witnessed someone spying on us. We have no choice but to have our meeting on the lounge," she replied, finally taking Shawn's knife as she threw it away. He was replaced by Patrick while he retrieves it.

"Is it alright for Noel to join us?" Patrick says trying to land his first attack on her as Vincent followed him and almost cuts his cheek. Rei remained silent like she hasn't thought of it yet. She paused for a second that led Patrick to target her legs instead but she snapped back and kicked him on his stomach. Patrick was out once again and that signals Shawn's arrival. Coming from the back, he grabbed me and managed to shake the knife out of my hand.

"But if we made him go out the lounge to go somewhere, he'll be suspicious and eventually catch on," Vincent does make a point as he rushes towards my location with an intent to stab me. But with Shawn's arms occupied with keeping me afloat, Rei runs to his back and uses the opposite end of the knife to indicate that he's been stabbed without actually having to die. As soon as Shawn lets go of my arms, I hurriedly went below Vincent's knife and use the same method Rei used to Vincent's stomach but he saw through me and used both his elbow to hit me in the back before my knife touched him. He hurriedly pinned me down with his knees and my hands on his clutches as he stabbed me with the butt of his knife. I'm out, leaving Vincent and Patrick versus Rei after Vincent dodged her knife and got back up when he kicked Rei on the stomach.

"Then you guys need to sneak around when he's fast asleep," she suggested, evading every knife that comes near her.

"Sounds exciting," Patrick chuckled, throwing his knife to divert her attention while he launches a punch. I saw her grin and tossed her knife above her while she countered Patrick's attack, took him by the shoulder as she tried to mess with his momentum, and knocked him to the floor. Then, she caught her falling knife and stood still, pointing the blade up to where Vincent's neck is at. Vincent couldn't have his opportunity and if he didn't stop in time, there might've been blood to clean.

The battle ended with our victory, and it's all thanks to her.

"I was going easy because you're a girl," Patrick explains as he massages his shoulder after he stood up.

"Oh? you were also going easy?" she scoffs as she picked up all the knives that are on the ground to return them. Patrick's embarrassment was visible.

"In the meantime, I'll get going now and follow me after ten minutes or more," she says walking to the elevator. "And try to hide those documents," she points to the table where we were reviewing the file earlier and she was gone after the door closed.

~~

But I went a little earlier than what she said and took the elevator to return to our room and hide these files somewhere. I ordered the three to follow as planned and clean up the room while they're at it.

I was heading to the lounge after I hid the files and made sure that I locked the door multiple times. On my way there, I heard people shouting and there seems to be an audience in the middle of the hallway. I was passing by, planning to ignore the commotion when I heard Yui's voice.

"What's going on?" she shouts. I took a peek at what was happening and found Rei has attacked a man.

"You killed them! You no-good leader!" the man shouts, making the situation worse and provoking her at the same time. She looks sad but boiling with anger.

"Stop it!" I shouted, making my way into the middle. This is no good, I can already see specks of black fog slowly surrounding her hands and eyes. If she won't keep her head cool, she'll turn into that form with this number of people as her witness and it'll be a bloodbath within just seconds. I noticed Noel and Yui pulling her back. But whenever Rei took a step back to retreat, the man is so persistent that he follows and continues to shout.

"You monster!" by that shout, Rei couldn't hold back and pinned him down the floor with her blade placed on the man's throat. He was afraid as he shouts to his heart's content for some help when Rei grips his wounded arm. The fog started to thicken. Some of the people run away to avoid the danger that might come.

"Cedrick" I hear Yui call my name when she saw me.

[Noel]

"Rei, control yourself," I shouted, hoping she'd listen. I'm trying to lift Rei's hand that holds the knife off of the man's dear life. She's unbelievably tough. But I wonder what this black fog is. They keep thickening and it's scaring me. I looked around to see people running away, Yui trying to calm everyone down and Cedrick who's running this way, holding a syringe. The man already lost consciousness that might be because of the terror that Rei has been radiating.

"I'm not a monster," I hear her whisper as her hands start to quiver. Even her voice was cracking but I can't see any tears instead, she's mentally hurt and the desperation of not wanting to admit something shows in her face. Like she's forcing herself to believe that she hasn't done anything wrong.

"Rei" I mumbled. She went silent when Cedrick sinks the tip of the syringe on Rei's skin and she eventually lost consciousness and fell on Cedrick's shoulder.

"Get out of the way!" somebody shouts from the distance. They kept shouting, forcing their way here, until they finally arrived. There was a woman following him.

"This will be a problem," The man said unhappily sighing and orders everyone to disperse and mind their own business.

~~

All four members are at the lounge, sitting while we wait for Cedrick who was summoned about the earlier commotion. These three were not there so I had to explain everything to them earlier from the beginning. They were stunned and bothered. While Yui was called by her Division who lacks some helping hand. Then Cedrick arrived looking drained.

"What did they say?" I immediately asked.

"She'll be under surveillance for what she's committed. And I'm sorry to say this but without her, all our tasked missions are restrained. We can't do anything and we can't go outside the headquarters either without our leader, it was written in the rules and regulations," he sighs. "For the time being, as an acting-leader of this squadron, I hope you listen to me. I also got consent to use the training room. With that said, I want Patrick to stay here and help me do some paper works while you two mentor Noel. Just because she's not here doesn't mean we should be slacking off," he says confidently ordering us.

"Roger!" all three of them responded as they laughed while the two dragged me out of the lounge to the training room.