Chapter 46: They're Watching
"...And somehow," Ragnar said quietly, leaning back against the couch, "I had a feeling that me and Hoshina were standing right at the center of it."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa."
Everyone turned toward Natsuki.
The Blonde-haired teen raised both hands. "Dude, no offense, but we don't really need the full life story."
Ragnar's eyebrow twitched."Huh..."
Natsuki pointed at him and then at Hoshina. "We don't need every detail about how you got your powers or how you two became walking disasters. We just need the important stuff. The organization. The threats. The things that'll get us killed."
The room went silent.
Then Hoshina exploded.
"You little f*cking punk."
Everyone froze as Hoshina leaned forward, glaring at Natsuki.
"Who the hell do you think you're talking to? Dude, you're lucky that red-haired bastard over there saved all your ass*s!."
He jerked a thumb toward Tokita.
"If not for him, every single one of you would've been dead already."
Natsuki's expression hardened.
Before things could escalate further, Nezuko quickly stepped in.
"Okay! That's enough."
She forced a smile.
"Let's not start another fight."
Hoshina clicked his tongue and leaned back.
Ragnar stared at Natsuki for a moment before smirking.
"You've got a loud mouth."Ragna said.
"I get that a lot," Natsuki replied.
"No. What I mean is..." Ragnar's eyes narrowed. "I'm guessing you're the weakest one in your group."
The room immediately became quiet.
"...What?" Natsuki annoyed expression was visible to everyone,he was about to snap.
Ragnar pointed toward Tokita.
"Guys like you only talk this much when they've got a monster standing behind them."
Tokita immediately pointed at himself.
"Whoa. Why am I getting dragged into this?"
Natsuki stood up.
"Oh, hell no."
Blue sparks danced around his fingertips.
"I can take you anytime, any day."
Ragnar grinned.
"Sure."
"I don't need help from this little dweeb either."
He pointed directly at Tokita.
Tokita looked genuinely offended.
"Hey! I just told you guys to keep me out of this argument."
Aoi pinched the bridge of her nose.
"Mira."
"Yeah?"
"I miss the zombies."Aoi replied.
"Same,do the boys usually argue a lot?"Mira asked.
"Not really..."Aoi replied.
The tension lingered for a few seconds before slowly fading.
Ragnar finally sighed.
"Whatever."
He looked back at the group.
"As much as hate to admit it,Your loudmouth friend was right, even if I wanted to get into the full details of the "ORGANIZATION" I can't,cause were all running out of time."
Natsuki grinned triumphantly.
Ragnar ignored him.
"You don't need every little detail. So here's the short version."
His expression darkened.
"Out of the 1,896 participants gathered from all around the world... only sixteen survived."
Tension filled the air,Nobody spoke.
"Less than three months. That's all it took. Out of nearly two thousand people... only sixteen remained."
Everyone's faces changed.
Even Tokita looked surprised.
Ragnar slowly leaned forward.
"And those sixteen people became the foundation of Eclipse Vanguard. The leaders. The monsters. The people who built the organization from the ground up."
Nobody said a word.Aoi suddenly broke the silence."And both you and Hoshina are apart of those 16 candidates who survived those gruesome experiments conducted by the Lab/military training facility located in Hokkaido... right?
"Where,not are,past tense,were no longer apart of "ECLIPSE VANGUARD" not after failing to secure the product."Ragna replied as he looks at Nezuko.
"Hey!,who the hell are you calling a product!" Natsuki said annoyingly.
Ragna was about to insult Natsuki again before he and Hoshina realized that the room went quiet and he felt killing intent from every corner of the room.
Aoi, Kaito, Natsuki and Tokita where seconds away from killing Ragna instantly for making that statement towards Nezuko, and Ragna realized what he did to piss them off.
"Okay, okay I'm sorry okay."he immediately apologizes to Nezuko making that statement.
"No, seriously it's okay."Nezuko replied.
The tension in the room completely went back to normal in an instant.
...phew, glad that's settled... Hold on!,how did you know about the Lab located in Hokka-"
Then Ragnar suddenly stopped talking.
His gaze shifted toward something outside the broken window.
A tiny blinking light.
Hovering in the distance.
His eyes narrowed.
"...What the hell?"
Everyone followed his gaze.
A drone.
Silently floating outside.
Watching them.
Watching everything.
Kaito's expression instantly changed.
Without saying a word, he raised a hand.
The air distorted.
The drone suddenly froze mid-air.
Its propellers struggled to move.
Then—
CRACK.
The blades snapped apart.
The drone dropped from the sky and smashed into the ground below.
Silence.
Nobody moved.
Nobody spoke.
Ragnar stared at the destroyed drone.
His face had gone pale.
For the first time since they met him...
He genuinely looked afraid.
"Well I'll be damned..."
Aoi frowned.
"What?"
Ragnar slowly stood up, his eyes still locked on the broken drone.
"It's them...The "ORGANIZATION"."
The room became still.
Hoshina immediately understood.
His expression darkened.
"No..."
Ragnar swallowed.
"After all this time..."
"They found us."
The atmosphere instantly became suffocating.
Then Ragnar looked toward the group.
A bitter smile appeared on his face.
"Well..."
He glanced at Hoshina.
Then back at everyone else.
"We're fucked."
A beat passed.
Then Hoshina laughed.
Not because it was funny.
But because there was nothing else to do.
"Yeah."
He looked around the room.
"We are so f*cked."