X21: Blood on the Paper

Through the smog, Kazuki could hear the clinks of armour around each corner in the alley. The Loyalists tried to pin him down, cutting more avenues of escape. All the while his ICAPAD guided him. But each twist and turn led to more escape vectors to be cut off. With no way out, he chose down. Unsealing a nearby grate into the sewers, he descended.

They were, to put it simply, absolutely awful. His senses were hampered by pain and the awful stench as he slowly made his way through the decrepit sewage passageways. Low screeches echoed across the walls. He paid them no attention, as he passed by glowing 'eggs' embedded into the walls.

Ghouls are the least of his concerns right now.

'Kazuki…' Eliza said, almost as if she was going to plead, 'Get out safe… alright?'

'I'll live.' stated Kazuki, continuing over the catwalks and around corners and intersections. 'Archius, keep the tracker on me.'

'Ah, sorry about that, chief!' Archius started. Kazuki paused for a moment, audibly sighing. 'Just kidding.'

Headaches stabbed back once again as he injected himself with the last batch of Halolazil. Dropping the empty injector onto the ground, he started into a light jog.

'Tch…' Sato grumbled, 'Don't worry, we're pinging your location.'

Chaos was still unrolling up above him, probably the ENFORCERs. Even if it was a fairly large incident, he knew that word of it would never reach the surface. To everyone nearby, this was simply everyday life.

As he rounded a corner, his brain spiked with pain. He twisted around to see Loyalists scouring across the sewers. "There he is!"

A bullet smacked into the reinforced concrete beside him. The jog turned into a full blown sprint, though his muscles and nerves slowly withered. Avoiding gunfire, he crashed around corners and delved deeper into a confusing layout of intersections.

Kazuki felt his legs slowly falter in strength. "Fuck…" His brain withered away at his tongue, trying to withstand the pain. He felt something dragging against him, his mind ramping into full gear as realisation after realisation set in. He really might not make it out of this.

The revelation only amplified his regrets… his guilts. Hands latched to his legs, hands of the dead, dragging him to his death.

But he withstood the scars nonetheless.

With only a knife and backup pistol, he kept running. The claustrophobic halls and grated walls strangled him… Pain seeped into him. His legs and arms ached underneath his armour. Shrapnel stung. The post-ANCHOR tension gave way as the lactic acid burned. Without the anchor support braces, he was lucky that his legs didn't immediately shatter.

He turned a corner, narrowly avoiding another patrol of Loyalists. He gripped onto the wall with his gloved hand. Steam showed that his exospine was nearly out of energy. The green hue from his nape was duller than ever. Despite that, he pushed onwards. He still has unfinished business, despite what the steam vapours leaving his mouth had to say.

A group of Loyalists were guarding a doorway… Three in total... Ugh, the Loyalists really didn't change from the fireteam system. He can take them. He carefully aimed around the intersection, firing into the first one as Kazuki burst into a sprint. Dead, the two left crashed into action - firing at him. But even in his damaged state, he dove forward, shielding attacks as he ducked behind cover. As the two tried to push him back, he took both of them out with two simple bolts.

He coughed up a splatter of blood… Slowly, he hooked his uplink solely to Archius and Eliza. It was finally dawning on him that he might not be able to fulfil his contracts with her. 'Eliza, Archius, are you there?'

His speech was slurred as steam continued to exit his mouth. He pushed himself into a neighbouring maintenance shaft system as he continued down into a spiralling labyrinth of tunnels and cross sections. His ICAPAD sputtered out.

'Arbiter, we hear you,' said Archius.

'Kaz! We're trying to pick you up, just keep going… Just don't give up, alright?' begged Eliza, 'Right? Promise me, promise me you'll get out of there.'

'I will.' said Kazuki - perhaps in a bodybag.

He wasn't so sure. But to keep Eliza calm, he obliged in her promise. He slowed down as he felt vibrations in the air around him. The combination of all his senses finally gave him clarity as he slowly made his way in a direction his guts told him. A monotonous, dust-filled grit had replaced the stench of the sewers.

'Great…' Eliza said. He could feel her small smile behind the uplink. 'Then it's a contract.'

He froze. His muscles contracted as his brain started to melt with overflowing emotions. Emotions? Kazuki had to double check with himself to be sure. For the first time, he felt something sting at his very being. A searing pain came to his artificial heart as his brain sent panic signals all across his body.

His breathing increased. But with a single notion, all his thoughts came crashing down upon him as he heard the movement of a blade through air behind him. Calm broke; his aug-glasses flared up with detections.