Alarms blared out uncontrollably as Beatrice finally realized that her specimen had escaped entrapment.
The entire Arius District was woken up by the emergency alarm. Of course, Arius Squad wasn't an exception.
"Leader!"
"I know. Everyone, prepare yourself. We're going out." Quickly cleaning herself off, Saori swiftly prepared a small bag of necessity including a loaf of bread and a bottle of water.
But as she was moving, she felt like something was really missing.
And her concern was quickly answered as Atsuko suddenly exclaimed about the disappearance of Kasuka.
"Kasuka's not here!"
Panic spread to the other members who also began to frantically search for Kasuka.
After a while, they're search ended up null as they found no traces of Kasuka.
"We don't have time. If we don't set out to the assembly within five minutes, we'll be punished!" Saori exclaimed even as she was itching to find out where Kasuka had gone.
"But but but-"
"It's alright, Hiyori. I'm sure we'll find Kasuka at the assembly point." If the alarms echoed throughout the district, then undoubtedly Kasuka would've also heard it.
Which meant that there's a high chance that they'd be able to find Kasuka there.
Everyone became quiet, not knowing whether to go along with the assembly or to continue searching for Kasuka.
But in the end, they unanimously decided to attend the assembly.
---
But it turned out to be the worst case scenario.
"Search for the missing student, Karumi Kasuka." The instructor yelled out to every single student at the assembly point. Next to them was a picture of Kasuka, seemingly taken without her own notice.
"..." This caused Saori's brain to short-circuit.
"For whoever could find and bring her to Madam, you shall be rewarded with whatever it is you wish for. Be it freedom or unlimited supply of food, you can wish for it and you shall receive it."
Screams of joy erupted the moment the instructor finished their words.
After all, scavenging for food itself was quite a despairing action since there is rarely anything edible inside this hellhole.
Perhaps everyone and their mother would wish for infinite food.
Freedom? What's the point of that?
If they're going to starve by themselves afterwards anyways, there's no point.
But there are a group of students who found this news to be unsettling.
Indeed, it was the Arius Squad.
Saori, Misaki, Hiyori, Atsuko, and Azusa.
Each of them had their own reaction, but one similar feeling they shared coincided to one another.
They looked at one another and nodded to themselves, communicating without a single word uttered.
'I will find her first.' Was the thought every single student in the assembly point had, perhaps the number went over a thousand!
But five people had their own motivation.
They will find Kasuka and protect her.
---
"Uish, they're quite motivated, huh?" Meanwhile, Kasuka was hiding herself on top of a roof, watching everything happening in real time.
The blaring of the alarm did cause her to be defensive, but it doesn't matter since nobody was on her tail right now.
The countless halo in the assembly point really made it hard to make out the shapes of every student.
Plus, they're all the same. What happened to the unique halo every major student should've had?
Is it because she's not a Teacher that she could not differentiate the halo?
Damn, unfortunate.
Kasuka watched as everyone spread out in search of her, her eyes widening a little bit at the thoughts of a constant chase of cats and mice.
Well, she's the only mouse here and there's around a thousand cats searching for her.
To be honest, the odds aren't that far out of favor with her.
Perhaps if it was a couple hundred more then she would've been concerned that she wouldn't be able to handle everyone.
But that's also mere wishful thinking for them since she got level 3 of Self Healing Constitution.
Which meant that her stamina stats were off the roof.
So? How should she deal with this?
Well, since she has thousands of fangs waiting to just sever her apart, there's only one thing she could do.
To go out with a bang.
With that in mind, Kasuka made her way down the stairs as she turned off her own halo.
Not long after she moved, she could hear footsteps echoing inside the building she's in.
Good, they shall be the first victim.
Level 2 of Increased Dexterity, she could finally test out how effective it really is.
Plus her level 1 of Increased Reaction Time, does the other children even stand a chance against her?
Probably not.
"I heard someone!"
"Get off, she's mine!
"That reward shall be mine!"
Screams of the desperate sounds like music to her ears, Kasuka's steps were calm and calculated, waiting for the moment to shine.
And it arrived quicker than ever.
The door leading to her quickly opened as multiple masked students saw her.
But it wouldn't be long before those sounds disappear.
A couple of seconds after the students made their way inside the room, everything became dead silent.
Walking out the door as if nothing ever happened, Kasuka dusted her shoulder and calmly greeted the next wave of enemies.
Behind her, multiple bodies with halos flickering laid on the ground on the verge of fainting.
---
One bullet, one enemy.
A single shot was all that she needed to effectively shut down an attacker who did not take into account her capabilities.
Her bullets were infused with unknown energy, causing it to hit harder than a normal bullet.
If the students were durable, perhaps they would've been able to tank three shots. But most weren't and fell under a single bullet.
Kasuka walked through the empty alley, behind her were trails and trails of bodies, some with halos and others already unconscious.
As she made her way deeper, she suddenly stopped.
She stopped, 5 pairs of eyes were gazing at her from behind. Even if she couldn't see it, she could feel them.
It was an instinctive feeling a family would have to one another, a connection.
Kasuka did not turn around, simply ignoring the gazes and made her way to the church.
But before she could continue her steps, a voice called out her name.
"Kasuka!" Saori exclaimed, her steps were unstable and her breathing was ragged.
Sweats dropped down her chin, dust escaped her mouth as she called out to the person they had been searching for.
Saori noticed Kasuka had stopped moving, her gaze inadvertently turned towards the bodies of her fellow peers, the one she had followed after.
The people that had fallen under a single bullet each.
Just seeing this made chills run up her spine.
But that wasn't as important as the figure in the distance.
Kasuka was here.
They have been searching for her for who knows how long. At the very least, 4 hours have passed since the assembly.
After hearing news that there's a resistance somewhere east of the district, they made their way there, and they finally found her.
"It's us! We're here for you!" She screamed, trying to lower Kasuka's caution. After all, they are all part of the same family.
"We will protect you, please come with us!" Desperate pleas fell onto a deaf ear as Saori finally figured out the sense of incongruity she had been feeling since earlier.
"Saori." Atsuko suddenly called out in a concerned tone. She then pointed her finger towards Kasuka's back, more specifically, above her head. "She's not conscious."
"..."
But even as they made that connection, they wouldn't have expected the next turn of events.
Kasuka turned her head towards their direction.
Bang!
Nobody could react as Saori fell on her back from the impact.
But before another shot could come in, an order came from their leader, who was still conscious.
"Get down!"
Bang! Bang! Bang!
With trained discipline, the rest of the Arius Squad ducked their heads, seeking cover using the bodies of their peers.
Saori rubbed her temple which had turned extremely red.
"Extreme accuracy even without taking proper aiming posture... she's a monster." Even if it was hard to admit, Kasuka was no doubt a prodigy. A single bullet was enough to show off just how talented she was.
Saori suddenly felt a chill as she was trying to figure out what had just aspired a moment earlier.
And it was then that she finally realized.
Kasuka's eyes weren't the usual black it had always been.
Perhaps the impact of the bullet caused some judgement error in her mind, but she finally took note of the things she saw before the bullet hit her head.
Purple, almost blurry irises took over Kasuka's eyes. The single glance she saw as Kasuka turned around was enough to intimidate them for their composure to be gone in a moment.
Step Step
Hearing the footsteps getting closer, Saori suddenly signed using her hands to the rest of the squad.
Quickly, they scattered, leaving only Saori to face off against Kasuka.
"...Kasuka." Putting her hands up in the air to show signs of non-aggression, Saori hesitated on whether she should turn around or not.
Click
A hard barrel was placed squarely at the back of her head, causing Saori to gulp involuntarily.
"...I'm not here to hurt you." Saori turned to the most effective way she could make her plans work.
Talking long enough to stall for her friends to catch Kasuka off guard.
Saori knew that Kasuka couldn't actually hear or process what she's saying. She was unconscious after all.
Yet, this version of her was strong enough to take care of a couple hundred different students without a single sweat dropping.
She also almost caused her to drop dead using just a single bullet.
"I... We prepared breakfast just now. We've been searching for you." Unknowingly, her voice trembled.