Unit HAZE

Part 10

Part 10
Urushiro Haruke was fighting for his life.
Actually, 'fighting' was the wrong word. He was dodging attack after attack from the suit with blades for arms. Even if he could predict an attack, accurately measuring it and dodging it were completely different.
In terms of athletic ability and strength, he was incredibly weak.
And as he became increasingly tired, his swarm became increasingly sluggish, meaning he could not predict attacks as well.
"Gah..........where's backup when I need it?" He jumped back quite a bit to catch his breath.
Then, he swung one of his arms horizontally at the suit.
What looked like a wave cut through the air and collided with one of the arms of the suit.
That arm then fell off.
The area around the 'cut' glowed orange faintly, but soon returned to the usual metallic grey/silver.
(Damn. There goes 60% of my swarm.)
This is what happened: Haruke had collected a large portion of his swarm at his finger tips, then sent them at the suit at high speeds. The speed compared to their small size caused them to heat up significantly. When the result met with a solid object, it would be cut with more precision than a laser. But that heat would destroy the nanobots. Only 40% remained. He could not afford to use this attack again.
"Dammit. Keisaku or Tatsuro; either will be fine!" He ducked quickly, and an orange beam passed over his head. In actuality, that beam was just an afterimage of a supersonic ball of metal. That was a railgun shot from the other suit. Even though he was not hit, the force from the shot threw his body away. His back slammed into a lamppost, leaving him writhing on the ground in pain.
"Son of a bitch!" Even though he was shouting as loud as he could, he could barely hear himself. This was partially due to the ringing in his ears caused by the sonic boom. But it was also due to a high tech jet flying incredibly low overhead.
It had dropped a bomb.
Soon after it left the jet, the bomb lit up a beautiful blue as it sped to the ground.
Haruke braced himself, and saw the bomb land directly onto the Octo-railgun.
What followed was not an explosion.
Quite simply, the suit had been crushed and a shockwave was sent out. After that, a figure appeared in the huge dust cloud formed upon impact. From their back were two huge wings of light, illuminating the area with a brilliant blue.
Suddenly, the wings of the angel retreated into the body. Two blades extended from the hands of the angel.
Meanwhile, the other suit turned its attention to Haruke. Obviously it wanted to finish him off before moving on to its next target.
It moved ever so closer to him, but then........
"Fuck you!" The wingless angel rushed forth, swinging its blades down at the suit. The suit instantly reacted by spinning its upper half and hitting the two blades away with that of its own.
The angel dug its feet into the ground to prevent it from skidding away from its own momentum, and still managed to strike the suit again.
But the blade bounced off the suit.
Whatever the suit was made of, it was tough.
The angel clicked its tongue in irritation.
It stopped the movement of the suits blade by locking blades with it with one blade. It then went to stab the suit with the other.
Upon contact, the blade snapped.
As soon as that realisation hit the angel, it jumped back, landing next to Haruke.
Haruke took a look at the angel's face, and immediately recognised it.
Aokura Keisaku. It had been he who had jumped from the jet like a bomb, and landed like an angel. On his back was a strange piece of metal that was not there when Haruke last saw him several hours ago.
"Where have you been?"
"After we got your message, we decided sending me was the best solution. It took a while to prepare a jet, and a little longer to make the device on my back. But actually, I think I got here rather quickly."
"Why, might I ask, did you make wings for yourself and arrive by jumping out of a jet?" He asked jokingly.
"I couldn't arrive without style, now could I?"
They both leapt in different directions to avoid being cut by the blade of the suit. It shifted its attention solely on Keisaku.
"Huh? Guess it wants to fight!"
"Just destroy it. It's been annoying the hell out of me."
"All right. But you owe me." Keisaku retracted his metal blades. In their stead grew four blade of pure light. Two on each hand and all incredibly dangerous, especially in the hands of their creator; Aokura Keisaku.
Without saying a word, Keisaku slashed the suit.
It took a few seconds for anything to happen.
The suit fell apart into several pieces, all with the cut areas burnt and melted.
It was over that quickly.
The suit never even stood a chance.
It may have looked ridiculous, but that was how it happened.
Despite the ridiculousness of the scene before him, Haruke stepped towards Keisaku as calm as ever.
"Thanks."
"Don't mention it."
Then, Keisaku looked in a different direction, with his head tilted to the side.
By the time Haruke saw what had grabbed his attention, it was too late to react.
The barrel of the railgun had somehow remained in tact, and was now aimed at Haruke and Keisaku.
Without mercy, it fired.
And obviously, a human could not react to something that moved at four times the speed of sound from only a short distance away.
Haruke did not even have time to look away.
He could not even blink.
But he was not erased by the insanely fast and powerful shot.
The tennis ball sized projectile had indeed been fired, and it was definitely moving at Mach 4.
Although the projectile could not be seen, a bright orange after-image was clearly visible along the path travelled.
The path, that was supposed to be straight, curved up before it hit the target.
Actually, it was more accurate to say that the trail formed an arc; up and continuing to arc further, turning all the way back to where it was shot from.
As impossible as it sounds, the simplest way to describe it would be to say that 'the railgun shot turned around and went back'.
In under a second, the Octo-railgun was destroyed by........itself.
Haruke fell to his knees, but Keisaku turned again in yet another direction.
Haruke could barely muster the strength to look.
What he saw was a person. No. Two people. One was supporting the other with their shoulder. The wounded one had a hand outstretched.
Haruke strained his eyes.
".........I.....Izuka-senpai!!" With a sudden burst of energy, he managed to pull himself from the ground and make a dash for Izuka.
By the time he had covered half of the distance, Izuka had passed out. The girl holding him could barely support his weight, but somehow managed to hold him up until Haruke could help.
"Thank you for bringing Izuka-senpai here. We'll take care of his injuries, so you can just go home."
"No! I won't leave him until I know he's safe!"
Haruke was about to convince her to leave, but his words were stopped by a hand on his shoulder.
"Shifune Marika. You mean a great deal to Izuka. I'm sure he would want you to know he's safe." Keisaku headed calmly for the utterly demolished bus depot, closely followed by Haruke and Marika, carrying Izuka between them.
Walking down the stairs was difficult since the passage was so narrow, but they managed nonetheless.
Normally, one would expect an outsider such as Marika to be curious about what she had seen, where she was, and who these people were. But right now, all her attention was focused on Izuka's safety.
Eventually, they reached a medical room. Once inside, they met a man that Marika presumed was a doctor. After leaving Izuka in the care of the man, she could at last speak to the two strangers that seemed to know Izuka.
"You two," however, Keisaku spoke first. "Tell me everything."