Sewers

The sewers, at first, were honestly disgusting. As I descended down, I couldn't help but want to vomit at the horrid, grotesque smell. All along the walls was nasty substances and gooey slime. At least we didn't have to walk in the sludge itself, as there was a side way to walk on that was risen above the sewer water, which was dark, gross and slimy.

I helped Yamari down from the manhole and onto my shoulders, holding her there as we waited for Finch to come down. Then came the sound of a blaring siren.

Finch suddenly slammed down through the hole, closing the grate above him as the sirens grew louder.

"Go!" Finch shouted, going at full sprint down the tunnel. I followed after him, though, I found it difficult to keep up with his inhuman pace, but I soon realized my pace was not natural either.

I could hear the grate to the manhole being pulled open and the sound of soldiers dropping down the manhole.

"Stop!" They shouted, but, obviously, we didn't stop, and then came the sound to gunfire, bullets flying through the air just as I followed Finch around a bend in the tunnel. The bullets slammed into the end of the tunnel, ricocheting off the metal wall and bouncing about the tunnel as I ducked low to avoid them. I heard the Ops shouting to one another as they began sprinting after us, but I kept myself focused on Finch, running faster and faster as the sound of the soldiers began to die away behind us.

Their lights flashed over us as they came around the bend, but we were already a good ways off, and their bullets never came close to hitting us. Soon enough, we were completely out of their reach. We'd lost them entirely.

"Goddamn, that was a bit close, yeah?" Finch spoke, slowing his run.

"Are you used to shit like that?" I asked, breathing heavily.

"Eh, you get used to it in this life. Trust me, their bullets are of not threat to us, all they do is slow us down. Now her on the other hand…" Finch looked at Yamari, "She is in danger just by being in contact with you, because that would make her enemy to the people, and by being human, she is enemy to most of us. She has no place, and it is already too late for her to go back."

"I'm not going back." Yamari said, "I don't care what people think, and I don't care if you guys don't like me, I'm staying with Onnai and that's final."

"Fine, fine." Finch said, raising his hands, "don't be upset when the others start treating you poorly then."

"I won't let them." I said. "She's with me, and if they don't like that then I'll just leave."

"Leave? And go where? Might I remind you, the Ops exist, as do the other Chassis, and if you think the other Chassis are so easy to join, they are not. If anything, if the W Chassis found you you'd end up dead or enslaved." Finch explained, "the Wendigo would have your head."

"The Wendigo?"

"Yeah, the leader of the W Chassis." Finch said, "He is considered, by most, to be the strongest of all the Kokkaku." Finch's voice seemed to bounce off the sewer walls, echoing down the dark, seemingly endless corridors.

"I think I've heard of him. The KCD has had a lot of problems pertaining to him.. he the number one on the most wanted Kokkaku list, right?" Yamari asked.

"Yeah," Finch said, taking a left down another tunnel, "He is also the most wanted dead on almost all other Chassis' kill list."

"Kill list..?" I asked.

"Yeah. Most Chassis, including ours, have kill lists, targets of other Chassis that we want dead because they pose a threat to either us or the safety of all other Kokkaku." Finch explained. "The Wendigo is also feared by the KCD, all for one big reason. They don't know who his human form is, so for all they know he could be a powerful politician, pulling strings of manipulation from the shadows. Which, honestly, isn't unlikely considering how much power the W Chassis has."

"Couldn't the KCD just investigate all of the powerful politicians then?" I asked.

"No, because that would cause a lot of problems." Yamari said, "the KCD is funded by not just the government but also by all the higher up officials and politicians, so if they began investigating those people who pay them then they'd end up losing all financial support and then, soon enough, the KCD would not be a thing."

"And then the Kokkaku would run rampant through the city." Finch added, coming to a stop.

I stopped behind him, lowering Yamari from my shoulders and onto the ground. My bones began becoming sore again and my movements began to slow, feeling heavy. I figured I was going to change back to human form soon.

Finch looked in both directions, as though he were checking to see if there were any others. There weren't. Then he knelt down and dug his talons into the stone, where there were thin slits in the rock, and then he pulled out a large slab of stone, pushing it to the side. In its place was a small crawl space just large enough for each of them to crawl through. Just barely.

"Alright, I'll go first, then Yamari and then you." Finch said to me, "once inside, I want you to use your other… hand… to put that stone back in place."

"Alright." I nodded.

Finch got on his stomach and began crawling through the entrance. Once his feet disappeared through and he was on the other side, Yamari followed him through, and then came my turn. I got down on my stomach and began inching my way through, tucking my body as tight as possible. For a moment I thought I'd get stuck, but I was able to get my shoulders through and pull myself all the way out. Then, I turned about and used my other are to grasp the slab on the other side of the wall and, holding it with just my talons, I pulled it back into place.