As the next day arose, Yuna descended the stairs from her apartment almost immediately after waking up. The day had barely begun, and nobody in the central building was awake yet aside from her. She didn't plan on wasting a single minute, and planned on executing Hana swiftly while the day was still young.
The lower level was quickly reached, and she discovered the unconscious body of the guard in shock.
Yuna mumbled a couple of curse words while quickly checking on the guard's vital signs. Once she made sure that the guard was okay, she rushed down the stairs, and into the prison to see what had happened.
Everything seemed ordinary, from the death row inmates cowering and fearing her in a corner of their cell to the constantly dripping water, until she spotted it.
Hisashi and Kenji were lying on the ground unconscious and beaten. Hana's cell was unlocked, the door opened.
Her first reaction was to check on Kenji and Hisashi. Both were fine.
Still in disbelief, she walked into the cell, checking if Hana was truly gone, and her fear was confirmed.
She was long gone before Yuna had arrived here.
Silently, and without any movement, she stood in the open door to her cell, deep in thought.
Just then, Hisashi and Kenji finally woke up, and Yuna wasted no time before questioning them.
"What the hell happened here?"
Her voice was almost shaking with anger. Both of them had failed her.
"The fucking twins happened! These brats knocked us both out!"
Kenji responded enraged and embarrassed. It was hard for him to accept his loss against two underage girls. Despite his missing teeth, he seemed to talk without any issue.
"Yes, indeed. Once I had arrived at the fight, Kenji was already out cold, and I was soon to follow."
Hisashi's voice was much more apologetic and shameful than Kenji's, knowing well how angered Yuna currently was.
"So… Rina and Ayumi went with her? All three of them are on the loose now?"
Yuna's voice turned more quiet, calm and collected as she spoke again. Kenji and Hisashi slowly nodded to respond to her words.
"I see. Leave. Now."
Her voice stayed calm and collected, but Hisashi and Kenji knew better than to trust it. They hurriedly walked away and left the prison in complete silence.
Once they were gone, Yuna turned around to look into Hana's cell once again, and inspected it carefully. She could no longer contain her own rage as time passed. Her hands tightened into fists, and she punched the door out of its hinges, destroying it.
"DAMMIT!!!"
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Yuna was oddly quiet while training Kei. They would usually talk at least a bit during their training, but today was completely different.
He was in no mood to talk either ever since the conference about Hana's execution.
She had yet to tell him about the escape of Hana and the twins, and she didn't plan on telling him anytime soon either.
"Are you going to try and cover it up? Or will you at least let me in on it?"
Kei spoke up breathlessly during one of their small breaks. In moments like these, Yuna was more than relieved to have a mask on her face, so that emotions like shock, which she currently felt, wouldn't be revealed as easily.
"I didn't plan on telling you, no."
Since he had figured it out by now, there was no longer any reason to try and hide the fact that Hana had escaped.
"I expected that of you. Your scream wasn't silent enough this morning. I was up already at that time and could hear it even outside the prison. You don't act like you normally would either. You can't fool me."
He had recovered by now, and no longer spoke out of breath.
He made her feel exposed under his gaze. It was an odd feeling. She was embarrassed by it, but she also enjoyed being read like a book. He knew her well enough to know when something was off about her behavior, which pleased her.
"You're going to tell more people, aren't you?"
She ignored her feelings and spoke coldly, but also disapprovingly, thinking that he would tell others how her decision made everything worse to rub salt into her wounds.
"Do you even know me? Of course not! Why the hell would I try to worsen your image? My opinion hasn't changed about any of this. Your decision was terrible, in my opinion, and it caused us great losses, but that doesn't mean I would be any less loyal to you or even sabotage you! I care about you!"
Kei spoke with passion all of a sudden, feeling offended that Yuna would ever even consider the possibility of him betraying her like that. His cheeks reddened slightly after he voiced that he cared about her.
Yuna was quiet after his words, and smiled happily under her mask. She was no longer upset after hearing his words, and she felt her heart race just a tad bit faster than it usually would.
"That's… thank you, Kei. It's not often that-"
Their pleasant talk was suddenly interrupted as the ground started to shake severely.
"Monster attack! Get ready to defend, Kei!"
"Yes!"
Both of them put on a professional display, and quickly left their usual training spot. They ran to the source of the noise, the South Gate.
Everyone: Kei, Noboru, Kenji, Yori, Hisashi, Ryota and Yuna all arrived quickly, and knew what was about to happen.
All of them looked concentrated, determined, and confident. One of them, Ryota, even looked excited about the battle.
"Fucking finally some action here, am I right?! I'm bored to death!"
He exclaimed, barely able to keep himself composed any longer.
The monsters soon broke through the gate, and some dug through the ground and walls around the gate.
These monsters seemed similar to a megalania, only that they had one giant eye on their forehead instead of two combined with large dragon-like wings, their wing span easily doubled the length of their body, and they were larger than three average sized people combined.
"Attack! Don't allow them to continue their march through the first stronghold!"
Yuna shouted loudly as soon as the monsters came into view.
Without a second thought, they rushed at the group of Enlightened, and all of them attacked the monsters with equal force.
The battle seemed like a cakewalk, and no one broke a sweat as they slaughtered the monsters indifferently. They could not even land a single scratch on the Enlightened.
However, this was about to change drastically.
A man, also with dragon-like wings the same size the monsters had, which were spread out, slowly walked through the destroyed gate, and into their view.
He seemed to have no sense of urgency, and felt no danger at all as he slowly analyzed the group fighting the monsters.
For some reason, the monsters walked past him, and didn't see him as food.
All the Enlightened gazed at the man, knowing what he was and immediately starting to fear him. Only Kei and Noboru were confused by the sight of him. They had never seen someone like him, but the others seemed to know all too well.