13 SENTINELS: Aegis RIM: ANOTHER STORY - [PART I] (BOOK I)

9.14. Iori's Perspective: Destroyed City: The Place From My Dreams

This place was empty.
No...
More like everyone, the bakery, video store...
Everything that used to be here was gone.
Shattered buildings were everywhere.
All broken, limped to the side, or some building parts were lying on the floor.
Iori stands there.
She has seen a destroyed city in her dreams.
It did felt real, but everything there was an illusion.

But this time...
It was real.
And it felt scary to witness what she saw in her dreams here...
Standing before her very eyes.
Especially since this place looks exactly like Ashibata City, but more destroyed.

Iori: "What is this place?"
Iori: "It's destroyed as far as the eye can see."
Iori: "Just like the place I saw in my dreams."

Iori walks forward.
From her far vision, she could see someone.
Iori: "!"
Iori: "I see someone..."

Iori walks up to them, keeping a few yards of space.
Iori: "Hey, um..."

The person turns around, and Iori immediately notices it was 'him'.

Iori: "Oh!"
Iori: "You're—"
Iori walks up to 'him' a bit more closer.

'Him': "No sudden moves."
He says, pointing a gun at Iori.

Iori: "Huh?"
Iori: "Is that... a gun?"

Ei: "Who are you?"

Iori: "I'm Fuyusaka Iori."

Ei: "I know that much."

Iori: "Huh?"
Iori: "How do you—"

Ei: "Who ordered you to come here?"

Iori: "Ordered?"
Iori: "I just saw a flash in the science room..."
Iori: "And the next thing I knew, I was here."
Iori: "Wherever this is..."

Ei: "You really don't know?"
He lowers his gun, putting it completely away.

Ei: "This is Ashibata City."
Ei: "In the year 3075."

Iori: "The future?"
Iori: "No way..."

Ei: "If the gate reacted to her..."
Ei: "She must be one of the seventeen."
Ei: "Not only that..."
Ei: "She unlocked the gate."
Ei: "A locked gate can only be opened with Morimura's or (L/n)'s ID."
Ei: "It's what I suspected..."
Ei: "Fuyusaka Iori is the real Chihiro Morimura."
Ei: "Now who would be (L/n) in this case?"

Iori: "Morimura?"
Iori: "You mean our teacher?"
Iori:  "And who is (L/n)?"

Ei: "..."

Iori: 'How was this city destroyed?"
Iori: "!"

RUMBLE!
RUMBLE!
RUMBLE!
RUMBLE!
RUMBLE!

Ei: "We're safe at this distance."
He says, looking at the direction of the shaking.

Iori turns the same way and looks down.
What is that thing?
These things she was looking at were nothing she have seen before.
It looked horrifying.
It was a machine shaped as a snails shell, but it looked designed as if to kill.
It made itself out of its cocoon resting place and started moving wherever it wanted to go.

Iori: "What is that?"

Ei: "The Deimos."

Iori: "From the kaiju movies?"

Ei: "Not a bad comparison."
Ei: "But this one's a machine."

Iori: "Those things appear in droves..."
Iori: "Hellbent on destroying the world..."
Iori: "Before long..."
Iori: "They'll take over our very own town..."

Ei: "Wait a minute."
Ei: "How do you know so much?"
He says in a low tone as he grabs Iori's collar.

Iori blushes at the fact he was close, but had to quickly shake that off because he was gripping at her shirt, making it a bit hard for her to breath a bit.

Iori: "D-don't get the wrong idea..."
Iori: "I saw it in a dream."

He gently lets go of Iori's shirt and moves back.
Ei: "A dream?"

Iori: "That monster was wrecking the city..."
Iori: "And it was coming for me."
Iori: "I ran for my life..."
Iori: "There were other dreams, too."
Iori: "People talking about monsters."
Iori: "Maybe they weren't dreams after all."
Iori: "My dreams have been so strange lately."
Iori: "So I've been thinking..."
Iori: "Maybe they're premonitions."

Ei: "What are your other dreams like?"
Ei: "What sort of dreams are you having?"

Iori: "In one dream, after the city was destroyed..."
Iori: "I wound up inside a big UFO."
Iori: "In another one, I escaped the past all by myself..."
Iori: "Were those..."
Iori: "All real?"

Iori:  'That's right...'
Iori:  'We lost the fight and ran away.'
Iori:  'A monster was chasing us...'
Iori:  'And the person with me was...'
Iori:  '...'
Iori:  'Gouto-senpai...'
Iori:  'When did I get so obsessed with boys?'
Iori:  'They keep showing up in my dreams...'

Ei: "Morimura told me the same stories."
Ei: "Dreams, huh."

Iori: "Um..."
Iori: "Who are you?"

FLUTTER!
FLUTTER!

Ei: "Wait."
Ei: "Do you hear that?"

Iori: "?"

Ei looks up.
He notices a drone has been watching them this entire time.

Ei: "A drone."
He frowns.

The drone continues to move, moving above past the two individuals with ease.

Ei: "Shit."

Before the drone could move any further, it was immediately shot down by Ei.
The drone fell onto the ground in a brisk thump.

Ei: "They found me."
Ei: "..."
Ei: "There's no choice."
Ei: "Come with me."

Iori: "Huh?"
Iori: "Um, okay!"

RUMBLE!
RUMBLE!
RUMBLE!
RUMBLE!

Just then, a machine emerges in front of them in plain sight.
It shown a bright blue light, knocking Iori completely out.
...
...
...
A few moments later...
Another male figure walks towards her, checking to see if she's still breathing.

Iori: "Ngh..."
Iori mumbles, completely knocked out.

Gouto: "..."
Gouto: "Sekigahara got away."

A holograph of Morimura appears.
Ms. Morimura: "Did you find Sentinel No. 8?"

Gouto: "Yes."
Gouto: "It had been taken over by the Deimos."

Ms. Morimura: "I suppose it's risky to send units out autonomously."
Ms. Morimura: "I'll restore manual control to No. 8."
Ms. Morimura: "Go ahead and shut it down for now."

Gouto: "By the way, we had a surprise visitor."
Gouto: "Sekigahara Ei."

Ms. Morimura: "He's in this sector?"

Gouto: "Unfortunately, he got away."
Gouto: "And not only that..."
Gouto: "Can you see her?"
Gouto: "She's a student from Sector 5."

Ms. Morimura: "!"

Gouto: "Could he have brought her here?"
Gouto: "She looks familiar."
Gouto: "Same class as Kisaragi, I believe."

Ms. Morimura: "In any case..."
Ms. Morimura: "Bring her back."

...
...
...

TO BE CONTINUED...
"IORI WHO LEAPT THROUGH TIME"