17 - Rescue Mission

We made our way back to the entrance of the simulation successfully, encountering no unusuals along the way. Not that it would have mattered if we did, as I'm sure Itsuki would have had no problem obliterating them. When we arrived, we gently laid the three bodies on the ground.

"What's your name?" Itsuki asked. I hadn't told him anything about me yet.

"Hachiro Karasagi." I replied.

"Hachiro, can you exit the simulation and find a medical team? These two are completely knocked out, I hope they're not dead. The third one over there, he's awake, but barely hanging on. This is urgent."

"I'll try my best. Where can I find them?" I asked.

"Right outside there should be numerous medical teams. We have them stationed there in case people get injured. Please hurry."

"Right!" I said, quickly making my way to the exit. When I ventured back into the outside world, I immediately noticed large groups of people all gathered around a bunch of large tents. There were also numerous vehicles scattered about, each with medical symbols on them. It appeared as if the teams were all busy.

I located whom I could only assume was a medic, as they were wearing the uniform. I ran over to them and explained my situation. I explained how a menace-level threat had made its way into our simulation and gravely injured three individuals. The doctor gave me a melancholy expression.

"Three more? Oh, this isn't good at all..."

"What do you mean? Three more?" I asked.

"Listen, a terrible accident has happened. I can't explain the details, but lives have been lost. Please, show me where the injured individuals are," said the doctor. I led him back into my simulation. Itsuki was tending to the wounds of the person I had given my shirt to.

Itsuki, noticing the doctor's presence, immediately came to his feet. He walked over and glanced outside to see all of the commotions that were taking place. His face sunk as he started to catch on to what was happening.

"Doctor, what happened? Why are there so many medics outside?"

"Itsuki, the evaluation, something went horribly wrong. Listen, you need to get everybody out of this simulation immediately, Mr. Otsuka will explain everything once everybody is evacuated."

My heart started racing. What on Earth was happening? All I knew was that a menace-level demon had found its way into our simulation, had others found themselves in similar situations? Itsuki, panicked, quickly made his way to the top of a tree. He pulled out a flare gun of his own and shot it into the sky. The flare was green instead of red.

He put his gun back in its holster. Itsuki had marked his location for everybody to see, but how was he going to get them to follow it? There were individuals scattered throughout the whole forest. The only way would be for him to call out to everybody. Itsuki took a deep breath in, and then made an announcement.

"Attention everybody currently in this room, please come to the green flare immediately. There has been an incident that requires your immediate evacuation. If you are currently battling an unusual, please attempt to flee. If you cannot do so, please fire your flare into the sky now!" he yelled across the forest. His voice was powerful, surely everybody had heard it.

The doctor and I glanced around the surrounding area to see if anybody was approaching. We saw nothing but fog in all directions. There were no signs of people, or life at all for that matter within our field of view.

For the next couple of seconds, there was silence. Perhaps people hadn't heard Itsuki, despite his heavy sound. He prepared himself to make a second announcement, but before he could open his mouth, a flare made its way through the trees, followed by another one, and then another one.

*Bang!...Bang!...Bang Bang!....Bang Bang Bang Bang!*

"...dear lord..." said Itsuki. The three of us watched as countless flares streaked their way through the skies.

Within thirty seconds of his announcement, at least twenty flares had been shot...this was horrifying, how were this many people truly in danger? Itsuki leaped to the ground and gave me and the doctor specific instructions on what to do next.

"You two, I'm going into the forest to help these people escape. If you guys could remain here and assist anyone who shows up, I would be forever grateful. If an unusual shows up, run..."

Before we could respond, Itsuki was gone, dashing into the forest at an incredible speed. We started hearing loud explosion-like noises coming from the distance, Itsuki had already gone to work obliterating unusuals. Shortly after, we noticed a few people approaching us. They looked injured as well, but they could move.

"You guys, the exit is right behind us, please, get out as quickly as you can," said the doctor. The group of people ran past us and left the simulation. After they left, there came more people, and then even more people. Some were perfectly okay, while others were crawling out as they could not walk.

After some 45 people had left, all that remained was Itsuki, and one other person. The simulation in total had 50 people in it, including me. The explosions had ceased quite some time ago, and I was starting to wonder where Itsuki was. A good 20 minutes had passed, and everybody who had shot a flare had escaped.

"I'm going to go look for Itsuki, can you take these three out of the forest?" I asked the doctor.

"No, he said for us to stay here, he knows what he's doing, he'll come back," he replied.

"Are you sure? It's been quite a while since he left, do you think everybody is okay?"

"He's in the Kanpeki for a reason, he will return unharmed. It takes a while to wrangle 20 people. Just stay here with me and let's wait for him to return..."

"Okay, if you insist," I said, taking a seat on a log not too far from the exit of the simulation. By this point, the two individuals who were unconscious began to slowly wake up. The doctor tended to their injuries, and I continued to watch over the third individual, who had stopped bleeding completely now.

Itsuki, still in the forest, was making his way from flare to flare, gathering the stranded individuals and defeating numerous unusuals along the way. He was nearly finished with his mission and had rescued 15 students, sending each of them to the flare after saving them.

*BOOM!*

"That's the 16th demon I've killed today, my fist is starting to get sore... ugh, there's one more flare, I sure hope they aren't dead. The longer it takes for me to get to a flare, the greater the chances are of them not making it."

"Listen, you make your way to the green flare, the gas is almost completely dissipated, but it's still visible enough for you to get there safely. I've cleared a path for you to follow, go this way until you reach the exit!" he said to a girl. She quickly made her way to the exit, as Itsuki moved on to the final flare.

"I hope Hachiro and that doctor are still okay. One more person and we'll finally be out of this mess. I still have no idea what happened, but if I had to guess, I'd be willing to bet they let loose the wrong crowd of unusuals..."

Itsuki found the final flare, but when he arrived, there was nobody. The stream of gas was still in the sky, though dissipated significantly. He found the empty flare canister on the ground as well as the gun used to fire it into the sky, but there was no sign of an individual.

"That's interesting, did they escape?" asked Itsuki.

*bang!*

"What?" Itsuki turned around to see a new streak of red gas make its way into the clouds. It was coming from the area he was just in, was the individual he had just rescued in danger again? Or was this somebody new?

"That's weird, I was just over there..."

He followed the gas back to its original spot, and again, found nobody there. Itsuki was confused. Who was firing these flares? He picked up the canister from the ground, it was still hot to the touch, meaning it was fresh. He dropped it and surveyed his surroundings.

*bang!*

Once again, another flare had been shot into the sky. This time, it was coming from the left. Itsuki quickly made his way to the spot where it had been fired and found another canister on the ground, as well as another flare gun, but still, nobody was in sight.

"Whoever is doing this, show yourself. I don't have time to play games, we're in a crisis," he said, balling his fist in preparation to fight a demon.

*bang!*

Another flare was shot, this time coming from in front of him. He watched as the bright light made its way through the treetops, exploding in the sky. Instead of running towards it, Itsuki instead looked straight ahead to see if he could see anybody standing in the direction of where the flare had come from.

"What is that?" he asked himself, taking notice of a creature standing in the distance. Their image was obstructed by trees and bushes, but he could make out a silhouette of something standing still. He couldn't quite make out the details.

Itsuki began to approach the creature, keeping his eyes on it the entire time in case it attempted to run away again, but it remained still. As Itsuki got closer and closer to it, they began to reveal themselves. The person who had been firing those flares...they weren't a person.

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me..." said Itsuki, realizing what was in front of him.

The culprit behind the flares wasn't a person at all, nor an unusual. As it would turn out, the creature responsible for firing those flares was nothing more than...a cat?

It was a black cat, sitting on the ground, licking its paws. The truth of the matter was the cat had located numerous flare guns on the ground, still loaded, and set them off, each time scaring the cat away until it found a new flare gun.

"Hey, are you Itsuki?" came a voice from nearby. Itsuki turned to his right and saw a girl sitting against a tree, wielding a sword. They had brown hair, green eyes, and were wearing a green outfit.

"Sorry about my cat, that's my sword spirit. Leo, come back here, it's time for us to go."

"That cat is your sword spirit? What are they doing in a physical form?" asked Itsuki.

"Well, after waiting so long after shooting my flare, we got bored, and Leo wanted to go scouting in the woods. He's a humanoid spirit, but he loves taking the form of animals. He probably found some flare guns and set them off for fun. Apologies."

"No worries, as long as you and your spirit are safe. Wait, where's the unusual? You shot your flare because you were unable to flee, yes?" asked Itsuki, confused.

"Well, that's correct. I was just following your instructions, but to be honest, I killed the demon a long time ago. I've just been waiting here for you to show up and lead me to the exit." said the girl, pointing to the petrified remains of the demon who had attacked her.

"I see... well, congratulations on slaying the unusual. Here, follow me, we need to make our way to the exit and check on the rest of the survivors..."

The girl stood up, brushed herself off, and followed Itsuki back through the woods. It was about time that Hachiro, the doctor, and Itsuki learned about what had happened, and how many lives were lost...