Chapter 8: Coma. Part II

Nessa walked through the woods of what appeared to be a park in Neo Tokyo, or Nu Tokyo as some of the team Kobayashi liked to call it.

Her clothes were torn, and some rain had started to fall as she went along the mock pass among the trees wetting her hair and her clothes little by little.

She moves part of her hair from her face slowly with her hand as the rain continued to fall, a bit more strongly now. She started to walk a bit more slowly, as if arriving to her destination.

She sniffled as she approached the body of a fallen friend, Yevgeni laid on the ground lifeless, his weapon scattered on his side. She knelt beside him and caressed his hair, as if trying to awake him with the gesture.

-"Oni-chan..." she whispered holding back her tears.

Standing up from the ground shaking with grief, she started to walk again finding now the body of Joe Armand, his eyes facing toward the sky, without light.

She knelt beside him as she did beside Yevgeni and closed his eyes whispering yet another 'Oni-chan' and resumed her walk in what appeared to be, the road of death.

She broke down in tears as she knelt beside Alexei, she caressed his hair and face as she cried hard now. Alexei was her 'son', her brother, the child she had helped grow amidst the wars and hardships. Her 'son' laid dead now in the ground, and she crumbled in pain.

She slowly stood up, fixing Alexei's jacket as if tucking him into sleep, she fixed his hair as well and said some things into his ear. She resumed her walk along that road, crying soundly now.

She walked up to some stone steps that appeared suddenly before her, she went up slowly, almost falling with each step, the rain still fell over her. When she finally got to the top, she saw the beginning of this great hallway, dark, alone, silent. She walked toward it, as if called from within. When she reached the end, she saw two more bodies laying on the ground.

She shook violently, bracing herself on the nearby wall to not fall on the ground, she cried even more now as she slid opposite the wall toward the ground.

There lay the bodies of Witold and Aleksandr, her heart broke as she saw them lifeless in the ground, she yelled in her grief as she fought to rise from the floor and walked over to them, but she fell near them, and with her hand she grabbed Aleksandr's lifeless hand, with the other she grabbed Witold's nearby arm. She stayed like that for what seemed hours, holding on as if for dear life, a life which she saw was leaving her, extinct, pointless.

In her tears, words came out from her mouth, but inaudible, in her tears she grabbed Witold's nearby sword, still the other hand grabbed Aleksandr's hand.

With a swift stroke she cut her neck, bleeding profusely, falling to her death beside Aleksandr and Witold. The life of her eyes cut short, becoming grey from her deep blue.


Aleksandr yelled as he awoke from his dream, shaking wildly, feeling his tears on his face, he cried then hiding his eyes with his hands, almost not being capable of breathing. When he finally was able to calm himself, he saw the time in his bedside clock, it was two in the afternoon,well after his usual nap after a well prepared lunch.

-"It was just a nightmare...(he said to himself to ease his mind) too much tranquility can often lead to that, remember that Aleksandr...remember..." he said shaking the bad feelings away from his mind, away from his soul.

But the problem was not that it was a nightmare, when Aleksandr is concerned nightmares and dreams sometimes are the same, nightmares can become premonitions, dreams can become reality, so in his heart he could only hope that this was indeed fiction.

Chapter 8: Coma. Part I

After a couple of weeks of relaxation and living their lives as regular Joes, the Kobayashi Crew has called a meeting in HQ in the hours of afternoon to report and review the steps ahead, let us not forget my friends that those who fight against them still lurk in the shadows, still want their blood. But that morning though, something happened.

Alexei Kovalev Kobayashi, adopted by Mr. Kobayashi when he was younger hence his last name as second last name of this child, walked toward his school in the Jubangai district. The city bus left him a few blocks near the school and he walked lazily toward it.

He walked checking the lunch Nessa had packed that morning before leaving:

-"Thermus of Nestea Lemon flavor, of course...check!, Chocolate chip cookies...check!...and what the heck is my lunch? (he stopped to check throughly) awww man!!! not salad and with my meat and mushrooms! why salad? whyyyyy???" he screamed putting his arms in the air for dramatic effect.

He sighed in frustration and he resumed walking, even more lazily now and muttering to himself. He then heard the bells of the school saying that the time to go into class was about.

-"Oyyy! I'm late!!!" He yelled as he ran toward the school, luckily it was only two blocks away. At the doors of the school grounds he stopped suddenly, looking above his shoulder slightly, he felt a presence near him.

His eyes went white suddenly and everything paused around him.

-"Show yourself" He said out loud. There was no response.

-"who are you?!" He said again louder, opening his hand in front of him and a sword appeared.

Someone walked toward him, slowly, as if in slow motion. He could not make out who it was. In his eyes now he only saw what was inside, good or bad, evil or holy, shades of souls, different mirrors.

In his eyes now he saw that the person was holy, not evil, a soul he had seen before.

-"Set..suna?" he whispered dumbfounded as his eyes suddenly went back to their normal color, and eveything around him resumed its motion, his sword hidden.

A girl with black hair passed walking beside him, and crossed to the other sidewalk, she skipped happily as if not caring about the cars that passed through. His eyes almost went out of its sockets, he felt dazed, confused, scared.

Then she was gone, as quick as she came...that's when he decided to pick up his mobile.


Richard lazily picked up his mobile and answered sipping slightly a cup of coffee.

-"You rang Alexei?"

-"Mate...dude..." Alexei could not speak at all, he was still in shock.

-"What is the matter Alex...talk to me, breathe..." Richard said frowning, a bit annoyed, thinking Alexei may be pulling a prank.

-"Set...suna..." Alexei finally blurted out.

-"Alexei, what are you talking about?"

-"She...is...alive" He said gasping and breathing between words.

Richard fell to his chair dumbfounded, his eyes in disbelief.

-"If you are pulling a sick prank I will have you sent to Siberia to train with the wolves!" He said suddenly, angry.

-"No joke (breathe) she passed right by me (breathe) at least her soul did..." he breathed easier now, shock subsiding, his voice hinting confusion.

-"Get in here...now!"

-"But Makki-sensei will kill me if I miss school today, not to mention Nessa-mama will have my head..." He started going on and on about weird punishments and exagerations, the shock apparently gone.

-"After school then...and don't tell anybody about the incident before you get here!" Richard said cutting the call short slightly annoyed. He still sat in his chair and looked at a picture he had on his desk of Setsuna. He smiled sadly, looking toward his phone and then to the picture again. He loved that picture, he had taken it in one of the training sessions of the team, somehow he relished on taking pictures of the team's form and sort of choreography in their training.

Setsuna waved at him in the picture smiling like a child as she always did, in the background Alexei was running away from an ice figure made by Yevgeni, who laughed on the ground heartily. It was one of those moments where the team was at ease in times of war.

For the first time in a long time...Richard cried.