Gate: Thus the World Fought There

Chapter 4: One Long Night

Itami's POV

The windows rattled and the air filled with the sound of an explosion.

"They breached the east gate. Everyone to the east side!" a voice commanded over the radio.

I looked back at Pina. She was sitting nonchalantly on the red couch. I looked back at Kurata who was checking his rifle.

"Kurata. Could you watch over Pina, please? I'll grab Tomita and Kuribayashi to help you," I asked.

"You got it, sir," he responded.

I ran out of the room and bolted outside to the east-facing side. I found Ramirez holding out behind some crates. I took cover behind the same bunch of boxes by Ramirez.

"Nice to see you out here mate. We could really use your help," Ramirez said.

"Where's Tomita and Kuribayashi?" I asked.

He pointed next to him. Kuribayahi and Tomita were shooting back at the incoming horde of bandits. I ran over to them and tapped their shoulder.

"Fall back to the palace. Protect the Empress," I ordered.

"You got it," they both responded.

They ran back to the palace entrance. I squinted at the fires that provided very little light. There were explosions and heaps of fire burning in the no man's land between the palace walls and the palace itself.

"Here use this," Ramirez offered.

I looked at him and saw him holding something in his right hand. I picked it up and it was a FLIR scope. I attached it to my Type 64. I easily spotted all of the bandits and I started to pick them off one by one. They managed to break through and got pretty closed to the palace entrance. Then, the figures started to shoot at us.

"Wait, since when did the bandits have rifles?" I thought.

I took cover behind one of the pillars.

"Call up the JSDF! We need backup immediately!" I yelled, "All units fall back to the palace. Prepare for CQC."

Everyone fell back to the palace doors. I eyed my watch and saw it was 2300 hours. 

"This is going to be one long night," I thought.

We closed the palace door and I ran back to Pina. I opened the meeting room door and one of the walls were open. I saw Tomita and Kurata sprawled on the floor. I ran over to Kurata and dragged him up against the couch. I looked around the room and I could not find Pina.

"Where's Pina?" I asked.

"They took her...They took Pina," Kurata blathered.

"And where's Kuribayahi?"

"She went after her."

One of the American reinforcements barged into the room. He was wearing a white armband with a red cross on it.

"Can you take care of them?" I requested.

He nodded and took off his backpack. I got up and ran out of the room. I looked to my right and I saw Ramirez holding his ground nearby.

"Ramirez, we got to find Pina and Kuribayashi," I yelled. 

He gave me a thumbs up and I brought him into the meeting room.  He noticed the open wall and he ran through the debris. I sprinted after him and I managed to catch up to him near the western exit. He was aiming at 3 black figures. I looked through the FLIR scope and saw one of them was holding a pistol near the head of one of the kneeling figures.