The rescue squad the Doctor was a part of met with another wave of Reunion members. They’ve managed to reach this far successfully, but there was just no end to them in their path. The area was rife with tension, especially with how most of the enemies had an utter disregard for their own lives making the fight a chore to their stamina.
"Chernobog bastards! It's because of you...all of you! We Infected became like this!" (Reunion Grunt)
"What was our crime for bearing your hate and disdain!? Just because we look like this?" (Reunion Grunt)
"Did we curse you!? We were that much of a nuisance!? Were the black crystals on our bodies that ugly?" (Reunion Grunt)
"No! We just existed! Is that our crime you sons of bitches!?" (Reunion Grunt)
"Die!" (Reunion Grunt)
"DIE!" (Reunion Grunt)
"JUST DIE!" (Reunion Grunt)
His ears were assaulted by their curses and resentment. The enemy numbers were too much that they enclosed them from their escape route. Operators around him fought bravely as they fend off fighter after fighter. The lack of space meant they’ve only got the option to push forward and clear a path.
"Get lost!" (Dobermann)
"Don't let up! We're coming home no matter what!" (Ace)
Dobermann was wielding her whip, throwing off their balance and striking their weak points, causing many to drop their weapons. Meanwhile, Ace's valiant efforts brought them more room to breathe, motivating the team as well as taking the brunt of their combined forces with his shield and hammer.
"What is this mist?" (Doctor)
"Mist? You’re right, it’s getting thicker all of a sudden." (Amiya)
The observant Doctor found a mist shrouding their surroundings while Amiya realized it after. The last of the enemy was knocked down and they were left feeling winded from their efforts.
"All combatants, group up around the stretchers. We’re moving while visibility is still good." (Ace)
Bodies shifted around in position. The rescue operators moved forward while tending to the wounded.
"Kyaa!" (Amiya)
A piece of debris fell to the ground near them and shook the ground. The impact rattled the group and they found themselves under the shadows of the catastrophe. Its borders have reached where they are.
"Everyone, do not panic and keep your feet steady! Doctor, are you alright—" (Amiya)
Amiya’s voice fell off when she noticed the lack of a presence next to her. Her eyes widened in horror once she found the Doctor to be missing.
"More of the debris is coming our way! Amiya, we have to move our feet!" (Dobermann)
"But the Doctor is nowhere to be seen!" (Amiya)
"What!?" (Dobermann)
Everyone scrambled to their feet and scanned their surroundings. The recognizable masked man was indeed not with them. Ace was frustrated but his thoughts have already proceeded to what action needed to be done right now.
"Amiya, we can’t afford to stay around any longer." (Ace)
"But the Doctor—!" (Amiya)
"I understand! I’m as worried as you are, but we need to stay alive if we want to search for him later!" (Ace)
As if prompted by Ace’s words, a thick mass of originium crashed down, completely blocking the path behind them.
Tears swelled up in Amiya’s eyes, but she found the barest amounts of strength in her voice to call for them to proceed onwards, prioritizing their survival for now.
A distance away, the Doctor was thrown down on the ground by his captor.
"Guh." (Doctor)
"Don’t move." (???)
Knife held to his throat, Doctor complied in his powerlessness. It happened all of a sudden when he was whisked away and a masked woman shoved him to the ground beneath her.
He could make out her affiliation being from Reunion. Her attire was different from the standard uniform from the goons he encountered, but he had little trouble recognizing the group’s insignia on her clothes. Perhaps someone higher up considering it was an unspoken notion that wearing clothes noticeably more stylish than from the rest of the group was a symbol of status.
"I’m looking for someone. Spit out what you know." (???)
"I’m sorry to say, but I have no idea who you’re looking for. Literally." (Doctor)
Red eyes blazed at him with clear dissatisfaction from his response. The knife dug closer to his neck and the Doctor hitched his breath.
"Crownslayer, why did you single this guy out and wanted to catch him?" (Reunion Grunt)
"He’s what Rhodes Island wanted to retrieve. A masked man in a hood acting as their commander. They were desperate to find him, so it’s easy to surmise he’s someone very important. We’ll extract all the information out of him, or use him as a hostage." (Crownslayer)
A large number of Reunion people surrounded them. Probably her squadron. It wasn’t looking good for the Doctor.
"It doesn’t matter if you don’t want to talk, I’m taking you back to the leader. Rhodes Island has abandoned you to run away from the catastrophe. Nobody will come to your rescue, and you can’t escape from these numbers. " (Crownslayer)
"I disagree with nobody coming to his rescue. There’s at least one person here." (Kaito)
A smooth voice cut into the tense air. The people had been startled and turned to look at the unsuspecting man standing away from them. Weapons were immediately held up warily against him.
"Don’t move! Do you want this man to be harmed?" (Crownslayer)
Crownslayer cursed under her breath wondering how Rhodes Island found her. She threw a threat to remind the man that the Doctor, who grunted beneath her, had his life in her hands.
"Sure, I won’t move. So long as you don’t hurt the Doctor." (Kaito)
His compliance did not ease her wariness in the slightest. She motioned to her men to capture him…but then she noticed a lack of a response or movement from them.
"What are you waiting for? Hurry and take him in!" (Crownslayer)
"I don’t think your words can sway them anymore. They’re already caught under the effects of my illusion." (Kaito)
Just as Kaito said, the numerous bodies were lulled to a halt, as if they became standing puppets hung up by strings.
"Shit, since when did he cast something like this!?" (Crownslayer)
Some however showed signs of twitching and seemed to try to will themselves out of the entrapment in their minds. That sparked faint hopes in Crownslayer.
"Snap out of it you guys! Are you going to let yourselves be shamed to this extent!?" (Crownslayer)
Her high-pitched shout roused the entangled men out of their stupor. They caught up to the situation and were further agitated by what they experienced just now.
"I’m impressed. Looks like there are some with strong wills to break out from that." (Kaito)
Though the spell Kaito used was one of the weaker ones, a spell to send them to a moment in the past and make them believe they were living it out as the present, it still proved difficult to break without having some resistance and a strong will.
"Pay him back for toying with you! Whatever horrible things you saw, pay it back twice!" (Crownslayer)
"I was using a particularly nonviolent and moderate spell, though…" (Kaito)
Kaito’s mumble went unheard under the loud rushing bodies coming his way. His eyes grew sharp at the increasing tension of imminent combat.
A knife lunged at him first and he pulled the arm gripping it forward while turning his body to avoid its trajectory. He stepped close and struck the assailant’s head with his elbow, shattering his mask and sinking his elbow deep into his face.
Moving onto the next man without a single pause, Kaito swung his arm down the shoulder, rattling his tense muscles and then jabbed a fist straight to his chest.
He caught a sword between his elbow and raised knee, then broke it off the handle. The distance was closed and three punches were sent to knock down the combatant.
A man rushed to his back. Kaito rotated his body to avoid the attack and came into his range to land an upwards kick to his jaw and rose higher to crash his body down with another kick. All done with stupendous acrobatics.
Kaito smoothly transitioned to every move with flawless fluidity and delivered his strikes with perfect precision using the exact amount of strength needed to render them unconscious.
It didn’t even matter if he was ganged up on all sides, he would find a gap and escape while delivering crushing blows. He used their bodies against them, manipulating the flow of their energy to disrupt their unskilled movements.
"Casters, fire at him!" (Crownslayer)
From their rearlines, Reunion members in black cloaks conjured flames from their hands and threw fireballs at Kaito. The approaching masses of flames were of no concern to Kaito as they were nullified when coming close to touching him.
"What was that!? Snipers, ready your arrows!" (Crownslayer)
Next came the snipers aiming their crossbows as ordered. None of the arrows left their barrels as something small and fast flew at them, breaking the crossbows apart or hitting their bodies to force them to keel over in pain.
"A ranged attack, but from where!?" (Crownslayer)
It was almost impossible to notice and Crownslayer herself could not see where the attack came from. The bullets that accurately struck her snipers down were shot by Alyssa hiding inside Kaito’s shadow.
As Kaito continued to reduce the number of her men, Crownslayer’s incredulity grew.
"Stop what you’re doing, do you not care what happens to this man!?" (Crownslayer)
In an act of desperation, she turned to the last card in her hand. She reminded Kaito that the person he’s trying to save was still in danger to force him to abide by her demands.
A kick whipped out and sent a Reunion member barreling to three others before Kaito resumed his attention to Crownslayer.
"I haven’t forgotten. It makes me uneasy to see him in that position, so I preemptively took him off your hands while you were distracted." (Kaito)
Crownslayer gasped in disbelief, checking beneath her to find that the Doctor was indeed not within her grasp anymore.
Pained groans disturbed her running thoughts and her attention came back to watch the rest of her able-bodied comrades fall to the ground. Now she was the only one left.
"Kuh…!" (Crownslayer)
The Reunion lieutenant got on her feet and drew her knife. She seemed to lurch, rearing her head back and taking a deep breath before bringing it down and spewing a dense mist out of her mouth.
Immediately the area was covered in a thick fog that would obscure any normal person’s vision. That is, if they hadn’t received a blessing from a goddess that allowed them to see everything clearly in fog unobstructed.
When Kaito’s eyes followed her movements, Crownslayer was even more disturbed by the inexplicable power he carried. Even her greatest trump card was useless before him.
"Aaaaahhh!" (Crownslayer)
She ran towards him foolishly. Crownslayer perceived nothing again after Kaito swiped his arm and threw something at her. Something struck her temple and an intense sensation of pain coursed through her body for an instant before she fell forward powerlessly.
"Huh, that went better than expected. All that training with Megiddo-san paid off. Okay, we’re finished. Alyssa, you can bring out the Doctor." (Kaito)
From the shadows emerged Alyssa with the Doctor in tow. She had been hiding and hopping between people’s shadows to stay out of sight and assist Kaito nearby. It was her who rescued the Doctor by taking him inside the world of shadows.
"How amazing you two are…I never imagined I’d get rescued like this." (Doctor)
"It’s nice to finally meet you in-person, Doctor." (Kaito)
"Likewise." (Doctor)
Kaito came forward to greet the Doctor and then caught him when he was about to fall.
"You alright? You look very pale." (Kaito)
"What are you saying, am I not the picture-perfect image of someone healthy after waking up from cryosleep only a few hours ago?" (Doctor)
"Your mouth certainly has enough energy to spare for humor." (Kaito)
"You’re right. I should be thanking you for saving me." (Doctor)
The Doctor’s body temperature along with his debilitated body wasn’t ideal and Kaito couldn’t help but be worried about the state of his body.
"I believe I sent you a fruit to your mailbox earlier. Think you can take it out now?" (Kaito)
"Mailbox? What, this?" (Doctor)
The Doctor held his palm open and out popped a shiny green fruit in his hand.
"Yes, that. The Fruit of the World Tree. An item which can heal all wounds and sickness when consumed. My gift to you, and one you desperately need to use now." (Kaito)
"But this is too precious…" (Doctor)
"I have thousands to spare. Hurry up and take it, we need to get moving right away after." (Kaito)
The Doctor conceded to Kaito’s insistence and took the fruit close to his face. Shockingly, the Doctor took a bite of the fruit while still wearing his mask. A bewildered Kaito and Alyssa watched as the man chowed down on the fruit.
"…Kaito-san, what do you want to do with these people lying around?" (Alyssa)
"Their chances of surviving the catastrophe are slim if we leave them here." (Kaito)
"Mmm…isn’t it okay to leave them behind?" (Alyssa)
"I know. They share the blame for their comrades doing so many awful things. They’re most likely responsible for plenty of heinous acts themselves. But I can’t help but pity them once I’ve experienced the extreme emotions they carry. They’ve been living really depressing lives for seemingly contracting a disease common to this world. And that’s been out of their control since then." (Kaito)
"Say no more, Kaito-san. Your will is my will. Okay~, I’ll be merciful and take them as captives in my shadow network. We can drop them onto Rhodes Island’s hands later for them to deal with it." (Alyssa)
Kaito let out a breath of relief seeing his Alyssa being so understanding and complying with his intentions.
"Additionally, this one over here is Crownsalyer, a lieutenant belonging to Reunion. Even though she looks like someone you can easily bully~. Who knows how valuable she could be." (Alyssa)
"It’s always amazing seeing you collect information in such a short amount of time." (Kaito)
"Aiya~, your compliment is making me blush." (Alyssa)
Alyss sheepishly rubbed the back of her head while blushing.
The Doctor stirred and got to his feet as well after being invigorated by the fruit.
"I must also express my gratitude to you for saving these people, Kaito. Considering I’m a part of Rhodes Island and a carrier of its ideal to heal the land, it would go against my creed to abandon these people." (Doctor)
"No problem. Alyssa has taken Crownslayer and her men with us, and I know which direction Amiya-san is. Let’s go." (Kaito)
Afterword:
???: "Kaito-san is still too kind to extend his helping hand to these criminals. And that's what Alice-chan loves so much about him~. But…why does Alyssa-chan get to receive so much praise from him so unreservedly!? This is unfair treatment, I——I mean Alice-chan deserves to be treated the same!"
Dobermann
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Ace
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Crownslayer
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