I

Tokyo, Shibuya. 12.30 pm

Just like any other day, Shibuya, the shopping area of Tokyo, always crowded with people. People came there to buy things to follow the newest trend, doing some window shopping or simply to spend time with their friends and family. Nothing was out of ordinary at all. Stores were crowded, cafes were full with people chatting and eating.

Suddenly, the sky turned dark and no one expected anything, thinking that it just might be raining soon or it’s just cloud and it would be gone in a while. However, it wasn’t dark cloud, it’s more like a mist, coming closer to the most crowded shopping district in Japan. How it was formed? Where it came from? No one knew for sure. This thing still hadn’t caught anyone’s attention at that moment, until…

“Mommy, look.” A kid pointed to the mist that was coming closer to them and also people ran around. Instinctively the mother picked her child up and made a run together with the people, looking for a safe place.

As the mist came closer, people started to realize that it was a dark smoke, thinking that buildings were in fire to cause such smoke. People started scrambling around, joining the previous crowd, running to the opposite way of where the smoke coming from till they realized apparently they were surrounded by smoke. People started coughing, entering the nearby building that they could find. They just hoped that they didn’t catch carbon monoxide poisoning and the smoke would be gone soon. It definitely caused a panic in the earlier calm day.

***

Breaking news

As you could see behind me, dark smoke could be seen covering the area behind me. It is said that the wind will bring the smoke towards Shinjuku and whether it will dissipate or not is still unknown as well as where the smoke is coming from. Authorities starts to work on this. We will report the news after there’s a further update.

People were standing on the hall and also the hallway, crowding around the TV that was showing the hottest news of the day, trying to look at the TV. The news was mentioning about the unusual phenomenon that happened that day, something that was sort of rare to happen in such a peaceful country.

A female cladded in white coat, colourful pens were arranged neatly inside the coat pocket on her chest with a badge clipped on the front part of the pocket, written doctor Watanabe Mayu. The doctor was standing among the crowd, watching the TV with concern written all over her face. She hoped that nothing serious would happen to the people that were trapped in the smoke and that it would be gone really quickly.

People were still standing watching over the news, looking whether there would be a new update about it. People were wondering if this was a type of a natural disaster, an accident or even worst and act of terrorism. People prayed for the good according to their own beliefs as they stood there. Meanwhile, the doctor was the first person to step away among the crowd, however she stopped walking when she heard a new update coming from the TV.

Apparently, this incident doesn’t happen only in Japan but also other major countries, USA, England, Australia and there are still others that are still unknown and waited to be reported. The cause is still being investigated by the authorities behind me as they start to set up to get into the smoke. This incident isn’t only located in Shibuya, Tokyo but also in other part of Japan such as Hokkaido, Fukushima, Nagano, Osaka, Hiroshima, Kagawa and Fukuoka. Number of victims are still unknown but there are indeed some survivors that managed to get out of the smoke and are treated by paramedics. No serious injuries found on the survivors, just some scratches and bruises. We will report the improvement of this incident after we have more updates on it.

People could let out a slight sigh of relief from knowing there were survivors but the unknown numbers of victims or what was going on inside the smoke and also the number of countries and prefectures that were affected by it was indeed had become a huge concern. All of them had this incomprehensible look on their face as they were busy with their own thoughts about it.

The doctor didn’t stay long after she heard a new update from the news. She had the same look like how those people in the hallway was, although soon it turned into worry and concern as she thought about someone. She needed to walk away to contact someone that was dear to her as she knew that person would be jumping head first into incident like this and tend to make her worried. However, the doctor wouldn’t stop the other person as she was the person that understood the latter the most, the young soldier that was already on site as she could see from the news preview earlier. Both of them were basically on the line of job where selfishness should be put at the last place.

Mayu pulled her phone out and unlocked her phone, going through her contact and went to the first name that she last contacted. Kashiwagi Yuki, the name that came up to the screen as she started dialing the number and waited for it to be connected, hoping she could catch up with the soldier before Yuki went into the smoke.

Honestly, prior to this incident, Mayu had just had a huge fight with Yuki and now they sort of in a cold war. All of that was because Yuki made a complain on how Mayu always came so late after surgeries and always busy and so in a split second, evertything that Mayu had kept bottled up, selfishness, insecurities and worries finally burst up and she snapped at Yuki for not coming home for weeks because of Yuki’s missions that were always confidential. Mayu knew she should be more understanding about it but sometimes, she just couldn’t help it when she couldn’t even know where her girlfriend whereabouts was. Until now, Mayu still hoped that Yuki would at least tell her that because she deserved that. However, her concern for Yuki was bigger than her pride now, so she wouldn’t turn off this phone call until the soldier picked up.

After a few beeps coming from the phone that was pressed against her ears, which she thought would end up in her girlfriend’s voicemail, like how mostly did. Surprisingly, this time it didn’t when Mayu heard voices coming from the other line, what was said was undecipherable. She heard instruction, people talking in a slightly panic tone, siren until the voice of her lover came through the phone.

“Mayu? Are you okay?” Yuki asked and from her voice could be heard concern for the doctor.

“I’m okay. I’m more worried of you though.” Mayu spoke out her concern, not even remembered of the cold war they had before all this. “I know I won’t be able to ask you anything about your work, but just be careful, okay?”

“Thanks, Mayu.” Mayu could hear relief and appreciation on Yuki’s voice. Although Yuki didn’t say much about it but Mayu had known Yuki long enough to know about it.

“We’ll talk more later, once we’re done with work. Hopefully things wouldn’t be that bad.”

“Yeah.” Yuki weakly answered as if she was really troubled with it and from what Mayu had sensed from the way Yuki answered her, her girlfriend wanted to tell her more but she couldn’t.

“Gotta go now, Mayu. I’ll call you again once I’m done with work.” Yuki said in hurry as Mayu could also hear someone calling for Yuki among the sound of a lot of people talking.

“Be safe.” Mayu quickly said before the call ended but she knew her message was perfectly delivered to her lover.

***

Secret facility in an island of the northern sea of Japan. Some time after the smoke incident.

“Yo, Anna.” A petite female on her ponytail and military uniform walked into the laboratory casually before sitting on the bed provided. She had heard about the news on what happened in the main shopping district and some other part in Japan and also the world. Basically she knew all of the news, the matter was just whether the higher authorities were going to dispatch them or not.

“Hey, Takamina.” Iriyama Anna, the scientist who was busy in the laboratory of her robotic answered in a quiet and calm tone. She was one of the best scientists that the facility had, especially when it’s related to biology and robotics. she had been working there for quite some time and enjoying her work experimenting on things that people had never seen before and she had also seen some that beyond one’s imagination in the facility that other scientists were working on or some were like the ones that could only be seen in the science fiction movies or comic books. The slight disadvantage that she had was, she rarely could go outside the island. The only time she could, was when she took vacation. But lucky enough the island was really beautiful as the nature was kept intact so whenever she was bored, she could still go outside and have a little walk.

“How’s everything?” Anna walked closer to Takamina and started her examination on Takamina’s robotic arms and legs.

“Pretty good. Everything is alright. Of course, it’s a lot better now, in comparison to the first ones that I had back in those years. Not to mention, you’ve installed more gadgets into my new arms and legs and all those work just fine although I haven’t tried all of those.” Takamina answered with a soft chuckle, commenting on the new robotic arms and legs that were installed a few weeks ago.

“Try using the techs for combat too since we never know when you are going to be deployed.” Anna jotted a few things in the chart, looking on what she could upgrade or making better after looking at the robotic arms and legs. “We don’t want a malfunction arms or legs when you are fighting.”

“I’ll make sure to check those out later on.” Takamina said before she looked at the glass door as she saw a familiar young general walking towards the door before knocking on it.

“Come in.” Takamina and Anna said at the same time before the door swung open and the young general walked in with a frown on her face. Takamina obviously knew what was bothering the young general.

The young general stood in front of Takamina and saluted. Takamina shook her head and waved her hand, clearly mentioning to the young general not to be bothered by small detail like that as the young general couldn’t dismiss the habit of not being too formal around her. Basically the young general was one with the highest authority in that place that was why she asked the young general to be less formal around her, besides all she had for the seniority was just in term of age.

“Told you not to be formal around me, Yui.” Takamina playfully scolded.

“But…” the moment Takamina heard that she raised one of her eyebrows, clearly didn’t want to argue about this.

“There’s a problem in several prefectures and I don’t really like the look of it.” Yui could be seen having her eyebrows creased from all the stress. Somehow the young general had bad feelings about this.

“I wonder why the government hasn’t sent us.” Yui continued with a frown on her face, she couldn’t wait to go there and see by herself and helped out as much as she could although she knew most probably she would be asked to stay and sent her agents instead, knowing that she was the leader in that place and needed to stay to keep things in order.

“They have their own consideration, Yui. Somehow for this case, I hope that they’ll never need our help though. Cause if they did, it means that it is really the worst case that we could ever imagine.” Takamina answered with a sigh. She wasn’t the type of person who showed her thoughts much. She was more of the person who tried to figure it out by herself and honestly when she saw the news and also footages from the security cameras around the affected areas, it gave her a really terrible feeling, like she was gutted inside. So she pretty much understood what Yui was feeling right now.

“You’re right.” Yui’s voice was solemn and the room turned quiet once again as the three were deep in thoughts. All that could be heard was the sound of machine, whirring and beeping in the room.

The three understood pretty well what it was meant if the agents in the facility got deployed and in worst case scenario would be the emergency protocol which they hoped that they would never need to activate it. Most of the time they got deployed was when things were really serious and the government didn’t know how to handle and would create a lot of chaos. Although during the time of calm, it didn’t mean that they didn’t do anything and just sitting down, idling. Yui and her team always monitor the condition of all Japan, and also connecting with other countries secret defense team. Sometimes the facility also sent their agents to some cases that was out of the jurisdiction of all authorities or if they saw the threat first and no one was handling it. If not, they would also be requested help by the authorities as their facility had the best agents and also equipment, for sure things that others had never seen before.

II

Long hair girl with fair skin was staring at a lady clad in white shirt and pants, the typical wear for patients in the hospital, inside this glass chamber. She was deep in thoughts as she took a spot on a chair that she set in front of the chamber. She missed the other person as they used to be the pair that no one can separate from one another except that now, they are after a decision that was made by her other half who was now in deep slumber in that glass chamber.

‘Rena, I miss you too, you know’

A whisper came to her mind as she stared at the sleeping figure. Things were limited to this, emotional contact. Maybe she should feel satisfied with it, that some other people didn’t even have the privilege of this. She was lacking of physical contact, the cheerful presence that accompanied her as she grew up, being the source of her happiness, her smile which she had forgotten when was the last time she did so. It’s hard to smile without the presence of the person who made that happen.

‘But, this is for everyone’s safety, including yours.’

“I know that you won’t hurt me, ever.” Rena was trying her best so that her voice didn’t break at all the overwhelming emotion she felt. She missed the old time of her and Jurina.

“I see that you’re staring at her, again.” Yuko walked into her lab with a few packets of chips in her hands before dropping everything on the table before she plopped herself down on the chair, making herself comfortable.

Rena remained silent, wanting Yuko to know that she should drop the subject, eyes never parted from Jurina as she always let the beeping of the vitals from Jurina’s machine to tell her that the latter was still alive, especially when Jurina didn’t speak anything in her mind. Although there were times that she felt that all of it was just her imagination, that Jurina didn’t actually talk to her, that it’s her that was missing Jurina too much that her mind started to make things up.

“You might not remember what happened, but it’s for the best.” Yuko sat down straighter on her seat before looking at the files on the table, mainly was about her project which was Rena and Jurina.

Yuko was a biochemist and geneticist and she had been working on this project for a few years and everything that she worked on and paid attention to was Rena, with the request of Jurina. Since basically Rena was taking some traits of Jurina’s DNA, and Jurina was scared that Rena had some of the negative traits which might endangered others, so Jurina made a few list for Yuko to look at before Jurina asked Yuko to let her sleep in the chamber for as long as possible and not to wake her up unless Yuko thought that Jurina needed to.

“Why? Why locking yourself up?” Rena murmured softly, basically asking the female inside the glass chamber for answer, rather than Yuko. Rena didn’t get an answer and it was time for her to think that she must be dreaming of things again before…

‘I’m a time bomb, Rena… If I’m out of this chamber, it’s only a matter of time, I hurt others. It’s not like we can’t talk like this.’

Rena stayed silence while listening to the beeping of the machine, somehow letting the sound hypnotized her while looking at the female in the chamber. Somehow she wished that she wasn’t too cold to Jurina in the past although she knew that Jurina always knew that she did care for Jurina.

Yuko went to do her daily job, writing her chart on things that she needed to pay attention to, coming from Jurina.

Health condition: Good.

Senses: Normal.

Physical condition and appearance: Nothing out of the ordinary. Endurance is getting better. Speed is faster than normal human and today’s test has shown that she has reached Jurina’s speed which was 100m in 3s.

Psychologic condition: As per usual, talking to Jurina by herself, if I ask the reason, high possibility that Rena would say that she is talking telepathically to Jurina. So, that talking, I think it’s getting worse lately as it’s getting harder to ask her to join a conversation if she has taken spot in front of Jurina’s chamber.

Genetic and Cellular: Cellular growth has stopped, causing Rena to stop aging. Cellular regeneration is normal as there isn’t any sign of unhealed wound.

Additional notes: the concern of bloodlust that might surface which is mentioned by Jurina, still hasn’t shown and the parameter in Rena’s gene, doesn’t show anything and still in the same condition like how I last checked. Other than the things I’ve mentioned above, things are pretty normal. As like last note, Rena’s past sickness doesn’t show any sign of relapse, which is good. Maybe the gene treatment really works on Rena as so far no negative sign surface on her. She gets all the good traits from Jurina’s.

Yuko placed the pen down on the table, then looking at Rena in concern. She wanted to help Rena but she didn’t know how. If she woke Jurina up, Jurina would be upset with her, although she knew Rena would easily calm Jurina down, but that’s not her main concern. The main concern of waking Jurina up was, she was scared the incident that happened ten years ago would repeat and she didn’t want Rena to be in that kind of situation again.

“Rena, let’s go and have our lunch.” Yuko tried to ask Rena to stop being on the same spot subtly. She knew how much Rena held Jurina dear, she even saw it with her own eyes. they had grown up together as sisters, protect one another in every possible way. For sure wherever Rena was, there would be Jurina and vice versa.

“I don’t want to leave her. What if something happens when I do so?” Rena answered weakly, speaking out the concern that bothered her, every time she was parted with Jurina. This was one of the rare days Rena spoke out her mind, of how she felt.

“Nothing will happen, okay? Jurina’s chart show that she’s in a healthy and fine condition. The machine is working fine. So you don’t need to worry.” Yuko assured Rena as the shorter girl now had stood next to Rena, looking at Jurina, missing the hyperactive teenager as well. “Besides, you and Jurina has all your time in the world to catch up when she wakes up.”

Rena nodded, wishing that day could come soon, when she could greet Jurina when the latter opened her eyes, being the first person Jurina saw.

“For now, you need to eat. I don’t want Jurina to kill me, when she wakes up, seeing you lost your weight.” Yuko promised herself, to do better and tried to fix Jurina’s bloodlust, so Rena could be together with Jurina again. Despite that it’s not an easy thing to do, which she had been trying to crack for years and failed miserably. It seemed like whenever she found a breakthrough, the next thing happened was she was back to the square one, like she went nowhere. If his teacher was still here, she believed things would be different as they probably had solved this.

“Alright.” Rena got up from her seat, walking to the glass chamber before pressing her palm on the cool surface of the glass, the closest she could feel towards Jurina. It had been her routine whenever she wanted to part from Jurina. After a few moments, she turned to look at Yuko and gave the latter a small weak smile.

Yuko walked with Rena out of the laboratory to have their lunch. Maybe after this she could go and visit Takamina and Anna. Maybe the two could cheer Rena up, even if just a tiny bit, since all of them used to grow up together.

***

Inside the thick smoke that slowly started to dissipate, following the direction of wind blows, black figures could be seen among the mist, steps silent and careful. The squad was fully equipped, mask and coms on, bulletproof vest, guns and ammos, a few were carrying backpack full of supplies. They didn’t use any flashlight, in case there was threat lurking on them, because it could bring attention that they didn’t want.

“Captain, this…” One of the soldiers whispered through the coms, telling the captain who walked at the front.

“I know… I don’t like the view of this too.” Captain Kashiwagi Yuki answered, voice was trained not to break in this kind of situation. When the number of bodies on the road lay down lifelessly, clearly showing that they failed to get out of the thick mist and suffocate from it. What was even more heartbreaking when she saw children were trapped in this too. Whoever did this was indeed too heartless. She didn’t know how to report this. She knew they would be questioned the moment they stepped out of the place. She felt hopeless that there would be any survivor right now, and somehow she believed her squad thought the same although she didn’t show or voice it.

“What should we say to the people?” One mumbled to himself, clearly the view on their surrounding started to affect the morale of the soldiers. It’s pretty traumatizing to see innocents as the victims.

“We shouldn’t let this stop us or affect us for now. We need to find a survivor. I don’t believe we couldn’t find one.” Yuki tried to bring the morale up. She knew having low morale in unknown situation like this wasn’t really good.

Yuki looked to her surrounding, through the limited visibility, bodies around, on the road, pavement, inside the car. In every way she looked at, there wasn’t empty spot, there would always a body there. Suddenly, she thought of Mayu. If her girlfriend saw this, Mayu would indeed feel heartbroken, totally aware of how emphatic Mayu was. That’s why her girlfriend was always a good doctor.

Yuki could see that the smoke was getting thinner, either the wind brought it to another place or it was dissipating slowly. Besides looking for survivors, she was also searching for the source which couldn’t be found. From the intel of the people who managed to get out of the smoke, they saw it coming from one direction, and some said that it was coming from the ground. Yuki was looking for a device that could spread the smoke in such amount, but the floor of the street was clear from such thing, through every step that she had taken and that she and her squad could see. If they couldn’t find it, maybe they should do another check once the smoke was gone.

Yuki and her squad reached on the intersection which now silent and empty and stopped as the smoke finally cleared out. They could see through the end of each intersection which would be the blockade. Their heart broke even more when they saw how devastating the condition was. This would be a huge catastrophe without any explanation. If what said was true, that it happened throughout the world, somehow Yuki deducted that it was an act of terror and it was indeed a bunch of heartless people that could do this.

Yuki looked at her squad, now clearly sees the terror in their eyes from what they saw but their body and facial expression remained calm as all of them knew that it wasn’t time to break down. One thing all of them knew for sure was they wanted to go back to their love ones now and cherished them like no tomorrow.

Yuki knew, she didn’t need to say anything to her superior or the media as they could see themselves what the smoke had done. There wasn’t anything that they could hide. The bodies were clearly seen as the day. The smoky and misty day had gone now, changed with the clear sky, bright sunlight shining the city, showing everything clearly, with nothing to hide.

Yuki and her squad started to spread out, going to buildings and did the work they were asked to. The clear day had made things a bit easier but they didn’t let their guard down. While their superior sent more teams in and also helped by the police, paramedics and firefighters. Some looked for clues and survivors while others started to move the bodies to the hospitals for further examination.

In the distance, there’s a figure standing, phone on ear, clearly contacting someone about the situation. “I believe it’s NOX. Prepare for the worst while I continue the investigation. General, you should send our people to help out. This isn’t like how it was in the past. We need to mingle around fast, to get more info so we knew how to handle this.” After that, she turned off the phone and slipped the phone into her jacket, disappearing into the sea of people.