Chapter 266: Bad news

“I knew it,” Kai hissed, venom dripping from his words as he wiped his tears. “None of us believed that garbage for a single second.”

From the shadows behind Hide, light footsteps echoed.

Kai instantly stiffened, reaching for his waist, but Hide placed a reassuring hand on his arm.

“Relax,” Hide said gently. “She’s with me.”

Kiko stepped into the narrow alley, pulling her hood down slightly. The slime covering her face receded into a small bead that slid back into Hide’s pocket, revealing her messy grey hair and dirt-streaked features.

“This is Kiko,” Hide said. “She was one of Julian’s operatives. But she is the one who tried to get me out of Walter’s cage. She is with us, at least for now.”

Kai looked at the young girl. He saw the exhaustion in her posture and the lingering terror in her eyes. Slowly, Kai bowed his head toward her with deep, sincere respect. “Thank you.”

Kiko flushed faintly, looking down at her boots, surprised by the gratitude.

Kai turned his gaze back to Hide, his expression shifting. A sudden, hopeful light ignited in his eyes, and he looked frantically past Hide’s shoulders, peering into the empty shadows of the alley.

“Hide…” He asked, his voice dropping into a quiet, hopeful whisper. “Where’s Risa? If you made it out… she’s with you, right? You hid her somewhere safe before coming into the city?”

The light in Hide’s eyes died instantly.

A terrible silence fell over the alleyway. The distant rumble of artillery and the howling winds faded into nothingness.

Hide lowered his head, staring at the ground between his boots.

“Risa is dead, Kai,” Hide whispered.

Kai froze. The color drained entirely from his face, leaving his skin as pale as chalk.

“What…?” Kai breathed, shaking his head in frantic denial. “No. No, Hide, don’t joke like that. She was fine last time I saw her! She was supposed to—”

“Walter murdered her right in front of me,” Hide said, his voice laced with agonizing grief he could no longer suppress. “She threw herself in front of me and took the attack… and she died in my arms.”

Hide clutched the hilt of katana, his knuckles turning stark white.

“They took her body to a lab to harvest her core. I got her out, and… I did what was necessary, so they could never touch her again.”

A choked, strangled sound tore from Kai’s throat. His robotic leg buckled, and he collapsed against the brick wall, sliding down until he was sitting in the filth of the alley. He buried his face in his hands, his broad shoulders shaking violently as he wept for the girl they had grown up with.

Risa, who had nagged them about their homework. Risa, who had shared food with them in the rain. She had barely opened her eyes to the world before she was stolen away.

Hide sat down on the cold pavement beside him, leaning his head back against the brick.

For a long time, neither of them spoke. They just sat shoulder-to-shoulder in the ruined alley of their childhood district, two broken survivors mourning in the dark.

Eventually, Kai’s sobs quieted into ragged, heavy breaths. He rubbed his eyes raw with his sleeve, glancing sideways at Hide.

“You know…” Kai croaked out, offering a weak, trembling shadow of a smile. “Your birthday was nine days ago. August twelfth.”

“Yeah,” Hide murmured softly. “Kiko found me a stale cupcake. We celebrated… kind of in an abandoned diner.”

Kai let out a wet, breathless chuckle. “Happy nineteenth, you bastard. We thought we would be in some exterminator agency, fighting off some random calamity beasts with our own teams, but here we are, looking at the end of the world… who would have thought?”

“Not many,” Hide replied, looking up at the bruised-purple sky.

Kai tapped the matte-black metal casing of his prosthetic leg, a hollow, bitter irony in his eyes. “Never thought I would have this, thanks for saving me back then or I would have lost more. And my dad… he’s dead. His heart gave out when the gates escalated and the corporate sectors were bombed. The company went under completely. Not that billions of credits mean shit when the world is ending anyway.”

“I’m sorry, Kai,” Hide said quietly.

“Don’t be,” Kai sighed, pushing himself upright with the help of the wall, his mechanical joint hissing. He looked down at Hide, his gaze hardening with fierce, unyielding resolve.

“Listen to me, Hide. When that wanted broadcast went live, your teammates,” He took a pause. “Our teammates… Sora, Gideon, Evelyn, Toma, Ryan… none of them swallowed Walter’s lies. They rebelled against the NEA, broke away from the government and they are now working independently.”

Hide’s head snapped up, his ocean-blue eyes widening. “What?”

“Yeah, they have created their own sorts of agency. If you can call it that.” Kai explained with a chuckle. “They wanted to save you, so they are planning to give it a go directly with Walter. But before that, they are trying to create a safe zone here. Those bastards said ‘This is our country, we won’t be just leaving it’. Haha, it sounded funny back then.”

“Never mind,” He shook his head. “Its been so long since I have had a proper talk with you. I want to tell you a lot of things, and want to hear from you too. You seemed so distant as of late. Maybe, we can have an actual conversation after all this is over.”

Hide was speechless. He didn’t know what to say. Yes, Kai was right. Ever since he knew about the war between the gods and all of these sufferings being nothing but their consequences, he had been out of it. He was lost, burdened and lonely.

Now, he wanted to tell it all to Kai, to the only person alive who knew what Hide actually had been like, who knows how fragile Hide is inside. There was weakness in him too.

But, no. He could not do it. Not yet.

“uhm… excuse me.” Kiko interfered hesitating. “Someone is coming, we got to go.”

“Follow me, even if no one else knows where the others are. I do. Let’s go to them before its too late.” Kai asked. Hide and Kiko followed him deeper into the alley.