Inception

Chapter 33: Missing

Soshiro was conscious when they carried him in. His body hated him for the hell he'd pushed it through, but he was alive, and that's what mattered.

Even if his head was an absolute mess thanks to Kafka. Freaking Hibino Kafka, who'd turned into kaiju no.8 in front of all of them. Who jumped from freaking jets from his legs—from his legs! Rocket legs like some bad robot anime! Then to rocket into the sky and push back the nuclear kaiju bomb that would have killed, not only all of them, but how many millions in the surrounding area. Kafka...who was now under arrest and probably already locked up in a high security cell beneath the base like a criminal, when all he'd done is saved their lives.

Soshiro felt like he should have known. All the signs had been there. But who the hell had ever heard of a person turning into a kaiju?! And why did it have to be Kafka of all people?

His anxiety made his breathing hitch and his vision blur. It was maddening that there was nothing he could do other than lay here and let the doctors do their thing. So, in order to not bleed more by biting through his lip or clawing up his hairline, he forced his thoughts to more pleasant realities. Like that they'd all survived. That he and Lena had survived. He'd made sure not a single kaiju had gone near the bunker. He'd at least succeeded in that regard, if nothing else.

It gave the tickle of comfort he'd been hoping for. He latched himself to it and let it walk him through daydreams where he succeeded in convincing Lena to baby him. He could ask her to visit his hospital bed, whine for a snack, watch her roll her eyes as she cut him an apple and complain about his abuse of power to call her there in the first place. But she'd be there, oh so pretty, feeding him apple slices with her dainty, pale fingers. His divinity. His immortality.

Sadly, the first un-doctor-face to stick itself in his view was Okinogi. Her expression was scrunched up in all bad news.

He sighed through the oxygen mask. "A bit early for a report, don't you think?" The doctors had already stripped him down to his underwear in order to close wounds enough for the healing pod. Had she no shame?

"I thought you would want to know," she said grimly. "Dr. Ichikawa is missing."

One of the doctors chose then to stab his arm with an IV. Soshiro barely notice.

"Why the hell was she not in the bunker?"

"That's the thing. Something broke into the level five security vault down there. She went to investigate." She closed her eyes. "It was a small kaiju, rare. We found its remains along with...along with a lot of her blood."

Soshiro breath hitched. His body went very cold.

He sat up, ignoring his broken ribs and the protesting white coats.

"What else?" He pulled out the IV--tossed off an arm trying to push him back down.

Okinogi puffed like an alarmed chicken. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Finding her. She can't be far—"

Okinogi hit him hard, directly over two freshly bandaged abrasions on his chest. It forced him to gag on his air. She wasn't Operations Leader for nothing.

"Lay down, dumbass!"

He fought for the breath to cuss her out, yell orders, something—because Lena couldn't be missing. Lena couldn't die. If she died—if she died—

Okinogi shoved those two abraisions again. He saw stars. Broken ribs must've been under them. When his vision cleared he was back down again and the doctors had already strapped him down. A sour-faced nurse worked to reinsert the IV through the flesh blood of his arm.

"I'm working on it, asshole, so just heal and then you can help."

"Okinogi—"

"I only told you because I know you'd never forgive me if I waited until you were out to tell you. Be grateful."

An oxygen mask was strapped over his face. His speeding breath panted back at him, moistening his nose and mouth instantly. His heart pounded somewhere in his throat.

"How much blood? No, fuck that, just—the cameras. Did you check the cameras?"

Okinogi's expression grew pinched, and Soshiro's stomach twisted. He strained against the straps, but his battered body shuddered at half strength.

"Whatever was done to breach the security clearance on the storage room turned off the camera's in the lab as well. My team's scouring the other footage as we speak. There's nothing you can do at this point, so just..."

She had to stop talking then, as they were setting up the stretcher into the pod. His weight suddenly being shifted made his vision swirl again as much needed blood seeped away from his brain.

He blinked, and the pod's thick glass snapped shut. He stared somewhere at Okinogi's knees without seeing a thing. All he comprehended was the thrashing of his heartbeat and a too cold pressure in his mind.

They'd find her. She—she probably only wandered off. Probably after her brother with a piece of debris to take out whatever might be attacking him. She seemed like the crazy type to do that, all raging mama bear and adrenaline. It's one of the things that drove him mad, made him—yeah, that's it. That's exactly what she did. She'd killed the kaiju that had broken in after all, right? Probably with her teeth. Ha ha, what he wouldn't give to see that.

Blue-green fluid started bubbling in. The straps slipped away to be replaced with much gentler ones around his ankles once the fluid had reached to his hips.

The speaker clicked on and Okinogi's voice came through. "Soshiro, you know I don't ever lie to you. There...there was a lot of blood. Even if we had found her down there we'd be hard pressed to save her. So..." Okinogi trailed off. Despite the speaker her voice came from being by his head, he heard her as though from a great distance.

Because of course there'd be a lot of blood. Lena hadn't taken shit lying down. She'd probably kept fighting even bleeding like a fountain. Which was why they should have let him. No one knew Lena like him, no one would know how she think like him, except maybe her brother but he'd just come in from a kaiju battle. He'd probably be strapped up like him.

She wouldn't be missing. Who the hell would've been sneaking around a kaiju defense base to kidnap a scientist? Pretty or not. Surely a kaiju wouldn't have. Surely...

The liquid reached his shoulders, lifting Soshiro's limp body from an awkward crouch into a proper standing position. The liquid was extra dense with nutrients, which made it near impossible for a human body not to float.

For the first time in his life, the healing pod felt claustrophobic to him.

Because Kaiju no. 10's voice was playing through his mind. An organized attack on third base. If they were intelligent enough to talk and command other kaiju, surely they would be smart enough to have a reason to attack third base of all bases. And if a kaiju had Lena...

The fluid filled his ears, sending the sound of his thundering heartbeat back at him, making his vision pulse. Despite the water-tight mask over his face, he couldn't breathe. The pod was closing in on him.

A kaiju wouldn't need to take Lena. They could have just eaten her whole.

Okinogi's voice buzzed to him over a wide, deep chasm.

"I shouldn't have told you, even if you'd never forgive me," she muttered. "I promise I'll do everything I can to find her. Just...just go the fuck to sleep, okay?"

The familiar cool strings of sedatives laced through his veins from the IV in his arm.

Soshiro fell into that chasm, down and down into the dark until not even the sound of his heartbeat could reach him.