Division-A

Episode Thirty Nine. (August 2nd, 2123. Division-A, Southwest District.)

Gravity lifted, bouncing up and down as the portal glitched open. Akino's stomach churned as he felt his weight lighten while his feet lost grip with the road. He grasped Hideyo's hand, putting his safety in her small hands as she pushed through the crowds toward the cliff. The wind tugged at their clothes and hair, threatening to pull them back. A purple light casted a looming shadow over them, reflecting and illuminating the blood covering their faces.

The clouds, riddled with electric thunderstorms, spiraled around the portal angrily. The sky collapsed in on itself, forming a firmly defined hole above the rooftops of the district. Akino's eyes were glued to the surreal sight, each second of his gawking worsening his pretentious migraine and impairing his vision, until something from the corner of his eye caught his attention. He looked up, his eyes following a trail of smoke building towards the hole in the sky. At the front of the trail was a small, human-sized capsule.

"...a pod," Akino named, his memories becoming applicable to the current day.

Akino glanced back, feeling the fingers around his wrist vanish. He stood on his toes and extended his neck, desperately searching for Hideyo, but she was lost amongst the crowd. It wasn't long before he was pushed off his feet and forced to the ground. He desperately guarded his head as people trampled over him, their heels digging deep into his back.

Suddenly, the weight disappeared. The sky roared and a gust of wind forced the ocean of people to their knees. Hundreds of them were brought down, falling down one at a time like dominos. Akino climbed his way to the top, emerging from the pile of bodies to see a colossal Compactor charging towards them. The crowd noticed too, prompting them back to their feet. They stumbled, horrified, down the streets- unable to change direction from the buildings that lined their sides. Their actions were futile. As the Compactor's shadow loomed over them, the people let out their last few screams before it dropped to its knees as scooped them up.

Narrowly dodging its grasps, Akino went on through the crowd. Terror invaded his gut, his screams lodged in his throat as clusters of innocent people were ripped from the ground around him. He looked past the people in front of him, catching a brief glance of the cliff before he ran into a cloud of smoke. He sped his pace, quickly trying to escape so he could locate the airport. The smoke then disappeared, shedding light to the armed men rocketing through the sky.

"No!!!" Akino screamed.

He ducked, instinctively grabbing the sleeves of the person behind him and throwing them ahead. Bullets instantly began raining down on the crowd. Using the now dead body as cover, Akino closed his eyes and listened as the screams died out one by one. Akino was pushed to his knees as bullets flew through his cover's back. Innocent civilians were mowed down, blood running through the streets like a river. He pulled his feet away as the red fluid passed him.

Just before the last screams vanished, the firing came to a halt. Akino peaked fearfully over the shoulder of his deceased bodyguard, then draped over his back. Catapulting over the highway was Yukino, killing the men with their own guns. Abruptly, Akino's breath was knocked out of him as somebody blasted into his back. Two arms wrapped around his waist and before he knew it, he was at the top of a demolished building. He whipped around, seeing that Sakagami was the one who rescued him. Yukino quickly joined them after finishing them off. She dragged her feet tiredly towards the duo, spitting out the blood that got in her mouth.

Akino pulled himself up, a helpless grin growing on his face. His bright yellow eyes shimmered as tears swelled in his cornea. He darted towards the girls, embracing them compassionately as the warmth of their bodies comforted his racing heart. "I'm sorry," he apologized, forcing back the tears. "I wish I could've got to you sooner, but-"