Inside the Catastrophe, Yugiri and Sophie had ended up back at Sophie's room; unsure where to hide, they just decided to go to a familiar place and camp out the attack there.
"How are you feeling, Yugiri? Are you okay?" Sophie asked, checking the hallway one last time before quietly closing the door and taking a seat on the bed opposite Yugiri.
"Nnn."
Yugiri said while nodding her head, but Sophie could see her facial expressions, and they did not look good. But that was normal in this situation.
They went from a relaxing outing to being besieged by the USEI in the span of an afternoon, after all.
"Don't worry, I'm sure Senzo and Hyoubu will resolve everything," Sophie said, trying to reassure her, but even she was unsure if that was possible.
This was the first time she had seen Senzo act like that; compared to his usual composed self, he had even separated himself from her and Yugiri, probably because he couldn't protect both of them while helping Hyoubu.
It was such a nice day until this happened... Sophie thought, her whole expression visibly soured just thinking about how nice the morning had been.
But she was also very afraid at the moment; her whole body was trembling, and the only reason she wasn't breaking down was because she had to take care of Yugiri; she had been through enough already.
"..."
The silence stretched out as Sophie had no idea what to chat about or even how to reassure the little girl, so instead she just let it be; forcing conversation was not always a good idea.
Instead, she took a seat next to Yugiri and covered the both of them with a blanket to quietly comfort her.
And that seemed to work, as Yugiri leaned against Sophie's shoulder while closing her eyes.
Sophie could only wryly smile as she softly patted her head repeatedly.
***
Meanwhile, the Comerican soldiers were still rushing through the whole ship trying to find all the espers and especially their other target, "Prototype 00."
Going upstairs and smashing everything in sight, they wouldn't leave a single stone unturned now that they had acquired their first objective; all the focus shifted to the second one.
"Have you found her yet?" Andy's superior inquired, tapping his finger on his thigh.
"No, sir!" the soldier shouted with a military salute, while under his helmet he was sweating bullets.
"Tch! What are you waiting for then? Get moving now!" he spat, rolling his eyes at all the soldiers who stood saluting in front of him.
"Yes, sir!" They echoed in unison.
And a moment later they all scrambled in different directions, hoping they would find her soon.
Time felt like it was crawling instead of passing normally for all the soldiers who were trying to locate the target with the superior right behind them; at every turn they became rougher and rougher after every room they inspected without finding the target.
"Where the hell is that thing?" one soldier shouted, tightly grasping his gun and glaring through his helmet.
Another nodded at his frustrations; if they couldn't locate her, they would be screwed.
They might be punished or even get pay cuts, even if they couldn't do anything about it. That's how the real world worked: for every failure, someone had to be blamed, and the people higher up loved pinning the blame on their subordinates.
"Sir!"
Andy's superior turned his head sharply upon hearing someone shout through the walkie-talkie, and with anticipation he immediately grabbed it.
"What is it?"
"We found a little girl we think could be the target and a woman we believe to be Sophie Grace," The soldier explained through the walkie-talkie.
"!!!"
"Heh, at least someone here is useful; confirm it immediately. Check the back of her neck to see if a barcode is there!" he screamed.
"Understood."
"And after confirming, make sure you bring her to me immediately. After that we're done."
"Understood."
***
"How dare you! Do you even know who I am?" Sophie exclaimed, glaring at all the soldiers who had cuffed her and Yugiri after barging through the door.
They had been dozing off when suddenly they were grabbed by USEI soldiers and cuffed.
"Shut it, princess; we have a job to complete." a soldier stated coldly, not even sparing her a glance.
"You heard him; check the little girl's neck, and if there's something there, we take her to him immediately."
The soldier who was holding the sniffling Yugiri gave a curt nod and pulled her hair so roughly that Yugiri started crying.
"Un..."
"It's her. Tell him that we got her, and let's go."
With a nod the soldier grasped the walkie-talkie once more and got the message to their superior.
"It's her; we're taking her and the princess with us right now."
"Good."
Was the only thing they heard through the walkie-talkie, but that was all they needed; immediately after, the two soldiers forced Sophie and the crying Yugiri upward and held guns straight to their backs.
"Move it if you don't want to die."
"Are you all insane? She's a little girl!" Sophie exclaimed, but she couldn't do anything about it, so while trying to comfort Yugiri with her words, she quietly obeyed the soldier's command.
"Yugiri, please just do what they say, Senzo! and the Major will be here soon," she explained, clearly enunciating Senzo's name.
But Yugiri wasn't in her right mind, as she was crying hysterically.
***
Senzo was desperately trying to protect Hyoubu from all the suicide drones, but it was slowly taking its toll on him.
Constantly being on guard from all sides and guarding the injured Hyoubu was insanely difficult, and here and there a drone suddenly targeted him, and all he could do was at the last second try and minimize the damage to his own body.
"Urk!"
He groaned while a drone sliced through his shirt and left a large cut on his back.
"Bastards!"
This had been going on for who knows how long, but he couldn't just abandon Hyoubu now after talking such big game in front of the others.
But it looked like the USEI was clearly after Hyoubu's life.