Koharu: So, Salvador, will you go quietly or will we have to remove you ourselves?
Amino looked between the two commission members and gauged their strength.
Koharu Hill is the most dangerous woman in the sector, and she trained Ronin herself. If that’s anything to go by, she definitely do some damage with that katana.
Wineti Richardson was once a heavyweight boxing champion, and married the leader of Safe Haven. One thing Amino knows about Kayda Richardson is that you can’t talk your way into her heart, you have to fight. If this guy is Fog’s blueprint, she might have her work cut out for her.
Amino: Just unlock my family’s file. That’s all I ask.
Wineti: We would, just to get you out, but the man upstairs doesn’t want that. He says that that would ruin your surprise.
Amino: My surprise of what?
Wineti: Now, that would spoil the surprise wouldn’t it?
Amino narrowed her eyes at Wineti.
Amino: I don’t want to do this.
Koharu: Neither do we.
Rook: Maria, we can just leave.
Amino: I need to know what’s on that file.
Rook: GOD DAMNIT MARIA!
A silence entered the room.
Amino: …Dmitry.
Rook: I- I’m-
Koharu: You two can hash your differences during the party upstairs.
Just then, a scream could be heard from upstairs.
Koharu: What the-
As she reacted to that, Wineti doubled over and began to vomit up breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It seemed unnatural and it was unnerving. Rook nearly joined in on the vomiting party from the sight of it.
Wineti fell onto the ground, vomit still flowing from his mouth, unconscious.
Koharu: Disgusting. Someone must’ve poisoned the alcohol. I knew those waiter bots were suspicious.
Amino: It’s one against two.
Koharu: Yes.
Amino: Consider the math. We have a numbers advantage.
Koharu: Also correct, but I have what both of you lack.
Amino: Which is?
Koharu gave a confident smirk with her head held high before, with such speed and precision, dashed forward and locked blades with Amino’s garden shear.
Koharu: Skill.
Koharu revealed a hidden blade from behind her back and stabbed Amino in the side.
Amino: AHH!
Koharu kicked Amino in the side and let her fall on her wound. Koharu’s eyes settled on Dmitry and he froze as he stared into the eyes of an apex predator.
Koharu: Let’s see the pride of the Averin in action, shall we?
Koharu dashed forward towards Rook and he blocked her attack by activating his mini energy shield. He pushed back and Koharu went flying through the air, but landed on her feet on the other side of the room.
Amino slowly recovered from the stab and raised her garden shear at Koharu while grunting and hissing in pain.
Amino: Ronin was right, you are a pain.
Koharu: My daughter is wonderful at telling the truth.
Koharu dashed towards Amino, but Rook quickly intercepted and knocked her away.
Koharu landed like a spider.
Rook: Grab Wineti’s unconscious body and try to access the file that way.
Koharu: Don’t even think about that.
Rook stood like a boulder in her path. Koharu smirked while brandishing both her dagger and katana.
She dashed forward and Rook met her advance with a hard block. Amino limped towards Wineti’s vomit-covered body and gagged as she picked him up over her shoulders and tried to drag him back to the computer, but Koharu pushed herself off of Rook’s shield and was coming towards her.
Rook silently panicked before he detached a circular disk from the bottom of his shield’s grip and threw it across the room. It landed at Amino’s feet and activated.
The disk produced a large pulse wave that pushed everyone near it back almost thirty feet. Koharu didn’t even get to land before she was jettisoned into a wall with a thud. Amino was thrown out into the hallway of the room and screamed as she hit the wall, stab wound first.
Koharu rose from the ground and glared daggers at Rook.
Koharu: A miniature Line Breaker? Clever little Averin.
Rook: I am more than a wall for you to hit, Mrs. Hill.
Koharu leaped back into action, anger accelerating her speed, and hit Rook’s shield with as much force as she could.
At times like this, Rook wished he brought his axe. The woman wouldn’t let up and she was getting faster and faster. Rook wasn’t even sure how much more his shield could take.
Koharu swung her blade left, Rook prepared to meet it, but changed direction mid-swing and caught him off guard. He screamed as her blade cut into his thigh.
She dug the blade deeper into his leg and savored the scream.
Koharu: Yes. Scream, Averin.
She pulled her blade free and Rook fell to his knee in pain.
Koharu: Your mother bested me before. Humiliating. Now, I get to murder her successor. How poetic.
Koharu raised her blade and prepared to swing before a glint of silver dashed past Rook’s eyes and Koahru was on the ground, with a garden shear in her side. She dropped her blades as she fell and clutched her side.
Amino: Make sure to add marksman to my titles, Dmitry.
Koharu: You cretin! You dare disgrace a Hill?! I will…show…you.
Koharu continued to speak through grunts while reaching for her Katana. Rook detached his shield and threw it at the sword. Knocking it away from her.
Koharu tried to reach for her smaller dagger but it was picked up by a bleeding Amino. Amino knelt down and pulled her garden shear free from Koharu’s side and Koharu howled in pain.
Amino walked over to Rook and examined her old friend.
Koharu: Great…how do you…plan on getting out of here? Surely, the guards have heard all of this commotion. They’re probably on their way now.
Amino: Then, where are they?
It settled on Koharu that this little scuffle of theirs had been going on for about ten minutes, but no guard had come to assist her in the fight. That’s when it occurred to her that the screaming from earlier must’ve been something more important than she thought.
Rook: Amino, the file.
Amino nodded in agreement as Rook maneuvered, painfully, into a sitting position. She retrieved Wintei’s still unconscious body and made her way to the computer with blood and vomit dripping in her path.
Koharu: Really?...Is it really worth it?
Amino tried to pay no mind to the woman on the ground and laid Wineti’s body on the computer’s terminal.
Koharu: You’ve done so much to get here, and was it worth it? Was it really worth all of this?
Amino typed on the keyboard and brought up her family’s file.
Koharu: You’ve betrayed everyone that offered to help you. All of the people that welcomed you into their hearts, and you’ve done nothing but be selfish.
Amino clicked on it and it brought up the same prompt from before about a commission member needing to open it.
Amino: How do I unlock it?
Suddenly, a hand scanner appeared next to her and she knew what she had to do.
Koharu: You’ve worked with people that have murdered people just like your family. People who don’t care about your struggle and only want you to stop messing with their plans.
Amino moved Wineti’s body and struggled to get his hand up while managing an open wound.
Koharu: You’ve hurt everyone in your path just to get to your family, but what about the families that you ruin?
Amino was about to scan Wineti’s hand print, but then heard Rook’s voice.
Rook: Maria?
Amino looked over and saw that his wound was leaking blood. Lots of it. He looked barely conscious. She dropped Wineti’s body and went to check on her closest friend. Her blood covered hands gripped his face desperately.
Amino: Dmitry? Hey, Dmitry! Stay with me, buddy.
Koharu: Haha.
Amino glared daggers at the woman.
Koharu: Answer the question. Is that file more important than his or anyone else’s life?
Amino looked at Rook’s fading eyes and then at the computer holding all the answers she ever wanted.
That’s when her future self’s voice played in her head.
“You’re gonna make a lot of mistakes. And, you’re gonna piss a lot of people off.”
Whatever she decided here would change the course of her entire path.
Koharu: Go ahead. Answer the question.
Amino stared at the computer before tears pricked her eyes and she removed her hands from Dmitry’s face, and tears streamed down hers.
Amino: I’m sorry.
The End…