Infinite Stratos: Uncle Sam

Chapter 11

A single resounding crack in a black room accompanied the brief bright flash illuminating three figures. It was only for a moment before pitch darkness strangled the room once again. The barely discernible glare from green night lenses just barely silhouetted two faces looking down with differing emotions.

"We couldn't let her live?" Ichika questioned, his gaze lingering on the splotch of red liquor slowly pooling from their victim's head.

Monika tilted her head upwards, her eyes apathetically roaming the corpse. "She knew the sound of my voice, of course she couldn't."

"Still. The odds of that coming back to you would have been so low. You know she had kids - a family, people who needed her."

Monika holstered her pistol and flicked her an irritated gaze to her partner. "What are you, her biggest fan? Er- sorry, it's just kind of a mood killer when you get like this. You know I'm not much of a chance taker. What, you think it would have been the right thing to let her walk away?"

Ichika pursed his lips. "No, I don't know, but fragging non-combatants seems like..."

"Not the right thing," Monika finished with a sigh, letting her back rest on the cold stone wall. "I'll tell you what I think is right. You, me, the others, we all get to go home. We get to keep going on missions, keep messing around together, keep training together, we get to keep being one big chaotic... family of sorts. I guess what I'm trying to say is that what's right is what I want. That's how I live and that's all that matters."

"Of course, that matters to me too. You know you're someone who's special to me."

Monika mentally thanked the pitch black room. She didn't bother to push down the blush rising to her warming cheeks and grinned. "Die for you Ichika?"

She snorted before throwing head back, laughing hysterically. She had to take a deep breath before speaking. "No Ichika, I'd kill every man, woman and child on god's green earth for you. Today, tomorrow, or ten years from now. Even if I'm halfway across the globe, I'll always be there if you need me. And if that isn't enough, then yeah, I'd die for you.

Ichika gave his friend the look he adopted whenever she said something crazy. "Uh, thank's Monika. But I hope you know I wouldn't ever want you to kill every man, woman and child or whatever."

The blonde shuffled slightly in place and shook her head. "Yeah that was a little dramatic."

And extremely cringe. Monika internally seethed. Her and her dumb mouth saying whatever it wanted. That wasn't nearly as cool as she thought it was going to be. It was pretty much an embarrassing movie line and a borderline confession. She wasn't crazy, she was just passionate. They'd known each other for what, three years? He knew she was just-

"Monika?"

"Buh- huh?" Monika replied dumbly.

"So to you, all that matters is family?"

Monika's rambunctious mind sobered. She opened her mouth before slowly closing it again. Her lips pursed as she stared flatly at the corpse that decorated the barren room.

"No, not family." She leveled Ichika with an empty expression. "I'm not planning on living long enough to worry about some moral or philosophical crap."

"All that matters is that I get to do what I want."

━━━

Ichika's head was on a swivel as he stalked through the cafeteria. Faces curiously turned to peep at him but he ignored them. The regular disorganized bustle that permeated the cafeteria was completely tuned as he identified a head of blonde hair.