First impression of her

Date: September 10

Place: Second Headquarters

[???'s POV]

Sweat dripped from my head down to my neck as I carried some heavy boxes that were supposedly full of medical stuff. I'm marching my way to a room where these need to be delivered.

Everyone who surrounded me was so busy, some were running, shouting for supplies or more helping hands, and others were highly ranked officers ordering people around such as me. It was a big room with see-through glass on all four sides, and there were lots of wires, tubes, and computers with data unintelligible to me.

I leaned forward and lowered my body to drop the box carefully. "Here's for room A-21" I looked around the room, only to see three tubes full of liquid that was unknown to me. And inside it, there were people.

"Their vitals are doing stable"

"We need more ----"

"Where's the extra supply we requested?!"

Shouting after shouting, all the doctors and scientists in the room are focused on the three people who seem to be severely injured.

"Thanks, you can go now," my attention was cut short as one of the people who was also wearing a long white lab coat as everyone in the room called for me and escorted me to leave the room as they locked it.

I took a deep breath and wiped my sweaty forehead as I walked back to the supply room to get more stuff to deliver. "Man it's hot here" I murmured, swaying my hand near my face to create some cool wind.

"Where is that brat," I hear collective footsteps behind me, walking rapidly in my direction. "Hey, you!" I turned around to see what was going on just to witness the Supreme General gesturing for me to come.

"Yes sir!" I halted and saluted.

He wasted no time in giving me an order. "Find Rei and bring her to this room immediately," he continued walking past me.

"Sorry sir, but who is that?" not even breaking my salute posture, he turned and stopped in his tracks.

"She's as crazy as a wild dog and is wearing something like those," he then pointed at the two male soldiers who were both lost in their conversation while looking at the gigantic capsules where they were treating those three boys. Both of them were around the same age as me, fully geared but looked like children who were only cosplaying, judging by their builds.

"You're new here aren't you?" the Supreme General sighed and massaged the middle of his forehead while I stood there, troubled by his question.

"Sir, someone saw her go down that way," one of the few people that surrounded him said silently but within my earshot.

"You heard him," I nodded to his order as I looked at what direction they were talking about. "You'll know it's her, she's hard to miss," all of them then walked away together as I saluted and partially bowed before I set off to find the girl- the wild dog; Rei.

~(some time skip)~

My legs were quite worn off as I circled every corner of the corridor where she was last seen. "Rei! Where are you?" I kept shouting as my eyes scanned everywhere. I heard some rummaging in one room so I decided to go in and follow the ruckus.

"Found you" I mumbled and reached for my earpiece to report to the one who was beside the Supreme General earlier; the one who showed the direction. "Sir, I think I've found Rei," I happily said as I stood up from kneeling.

"Why do I hear barking?" he sounded confused and that made the both of us.

"Rei- the wild dog that you described," I say as if I was asking a question with my tone.

"Idiot! That's not-" I heard sighing before he continued. "She is not a literal wild dog" he sounded so disappointed as I was left fuming red from my mistake. 

I looked back at the kind dog who was rubbing its belly on my legs. It's even wearing the tacky cape that they pointed to earlier. So I really thought it was her they were talking about.

"She's the leader of the infamous squadron the 'Reapers', have you heard of it?" I hear him loud and clear but the image of the person doesn't show up in my memory.

"Forget it, I've sent a picture of her. Now pick up the pace," I heard a notification ding on my wrist holographic phone.

"Yes sir!" I answered and my call was cut off. "Sorry, I thought you were who I was looking for," I got down on my knees again and patted the dog goodbye. Its soft white fur and size which resembles a golden retriever was enough to make me forget the embarrassment.

"Woof! Woof!" it barked cutely, sticking its tongue out as it leaped over my head and ran off somewhere.

"What a jump" I mumbled and stood up to follow it. "Wait! It's dangerous!" I ran after it without even caring where it led me.

Until I found myself going down some flight of stairs where some of the lights were broken. It was quite dark but I kept going when I heard another woof from the dog.

I used the walls as support for the dimmed lights and paths that were full of broken tiles and growing weeds.

This scenery made me recall some of the rumors about her.

Reiー she's said to have lots of capabilities not just for fighting but also the intellect to lead a full battalion in missions, but despite that, others say she's a lazy person who takes credit for other's accomplishments. Some also say she's a leader to be afraid of thanks to her cruelty.

I don't have the full details but she once had a huge team on her name, although she tossed them away to train young kids. Their team was on the top for a few weeks but then there was a mission where only she and her vice-captain returned, all the kidsーgone.

They were on hiatus on missions for a while, and I didn't even know they were active again until today.

I've also heard about the commotion at the cafeteria a few days ago where they got heated with an elderly who was supposedly close to one of the kids who passed away. I heard she almost fought with him. It had to be stopped using a sedative and was forcefully being pinned down by every higher-ranked officer who was in the vicinity.

Some even said she looked like she was about to turn into a monster on that day but it's just gossip as they didn't announce anything further to the public. Other rumors also suggest that a few people were injured when she released her anger on them rather than the old man.

My train of thought was disturbed by a barking dog, the sound was so close that I had to run to not lose its whereabouts.

The dog led me to the real person that I was looking for. "Woof!" I heard it say again but the moment I turned around to see the dog, it was gone. I didn't bother to search for it anymore as I reported to the Generals that I had finally found her.

But I hadn't even begun to report the details when I felt something strong holding me and the moment I got conscious of what happened, Rei already got me on hold.

The infamous Rei who only bad things I hear of about, is now forcing her knife into my neck.