Hayato walked close behind Eliza, taking deep strides into the ruined village.
"So, Doc... what's the story with this place?" Hayato asked casual-like, though his eyes scanned the perimeter.
Shisui trailed a few paces back, eyeing the dilapidated wooden shacks and crumbling stone foundations. Every fiber of his tactical training kept his focus locked on Eliza's.
"This village... it has existed since that era," Eliza said, her voice carrying a cold, nostalgic weight.
Hayato shook his head, letting out a heavy sigh. "I knew it. That madman of a father..."
"You speak of my father," Eliza replied smoothly, her red dress rustling against the overgrown brush, "yet your own father shared the exact same... outcome."
Hayato lowered his head, his face falling into deep shadow beneath his hair.
When he looked back up, a sharp grin cut across his features. "Well... my old man was frail and ancient. But yours? Yours was just one tough, stubborn bastard..."
Eliza continued walking, her posture rigid. "Are you not sad, Hayato?"
"For who?" Hayato asked. "Yours or mine?"
"Both."
"Nah," Hayato said with a calm smile. "They were nothing more than two old fools... standing at death's door."
Eliza abruptly stopped in her tracks.
Hayato halted a few steps behind her.
The air instantly grew thick with heavy intent. Shisui's hand subconsciously drifted toward his hidden holster, fully expecting a lethal strike to detonate between them.
Eliza slowly turned her head, her features half-draped in the pale moonlight. "You have changed... Hayato."
Changed? Shisui thought, watching the silent tension radiating from Hayato's back.
"So have you..." Hayato murmured back softly.
Their eyes locked in a silent, unspoken dialogue. Beneath her breath, Eliza murmured something faint—a whisper lost to the night wind.
"Did you say something?" Hayato asked, tilting his head.
"The old Hayato... he was better," Eliza said, her lips curling into a razor-sharp smile. "Not the loud-mouthed, self-righteous fool standing in front of me."
Hayato's grin didn't falter. "And the old Eliza... the one everyone admired? She was better too. Not the scary women in front of me."
Shisui watched the pair closely. What? Eliza was admired... What could have possibly pushed a woman like her down this path?
Eliza suddenly broke the quiet with a melodious laugh. "Let us continue." She turned and resumed her pace, and Hayato fell back into step without a second's hesitation.
"Hey," Shisui whispered, stepping up alongside Hayato. "What if she's leading us straight into an ambush?"
Hayato shook his head softly. "I don't think so. But if she tries anything... I'll take care of her. Remember, I've got this bone blade now."
He tapped the heavy calcified blade resting over his shoulder and kept moving. Shisui sighed, maintaining a cautious rear guard.
"So," Hayato called out to Eliza. "Care to fill us in on the history of this place?"
Eliza took a slow, deep breath. "Loop's leader, alongside John Levi and his Captain, originally seized this territory from a rival entity. Once the dust settled, the leadership established a permanent foothold here, leaving John Levi stationed with a contingent of elite guards."
She cast a fleeting glance back over her shoulder at Hayato. "This was where Loop was truly born. This fortress served as the supreme headquarters, while Loop campaigned across both North and South America. When victory was achieved, the core command relocated... and this facility was repurposed as Loop's Second Branch."
"Why keep an operation running in an abandoned dead-zone?" Hayato pressed.
"You already know the answer to that..." Eliza replied quietly.
Hayato gave a slow, somber nod.
"Human experimentation," Shisui stated, his voice dropping into a flat, grim tone.
Eliza offered a subtle nod of confirmation.
"Why are you revealing all this to us?" Shisui asked, his eyes narrowing.
Eliza turned, offering a wide, enigmatic smile. "No reason."
Shisui stared at her back in disbelief, then glanced at Hayato. Hayato simply gave a quiet nod, signaling him to keep playing along.
They traversed the ruined village paths in silence. Suddenly, pale white flakes began to drift down from the dark sky. Snow was falling.
"You still have many questions..." Eliza noted quietly, watching the snow dust her sleeves.
"A mountain of them," Hayato admitted. "But let's save the history lesson for another time. Right now, tell me about the kid you abducted."
Eliza's grin broadened as she looked between Hayato and Shisui. "Why don't we go meet him?"
Shisui frowned, his instincts screaming. Hayato remained entirely unfazed.
In a sudden, blinding flash of movement, Eliza lunged forward, shoving both Hayato and Shisui violently through a concealed hatch in the earth.
THUD!
"OUCH!" Hayato groaned, hitting the ground.
"It WAS a trap!" Shisui yelled, leaping back to his feet with his guard raised high.
"What trap?" Eliza asked lightly, landing soundlessly on her feet right beside them.
Shisui glared at her. "Why the hell did you push us?!"
"Follow me," Eliza purred, completely ignoring his outburst as she stepped down a dimly lit subterranean corridor.
Hayato stood up, dusting the dirt off his trousers, and followed after her. Shisui fell in step, his eyes darting frantically across every shadow.
Up ahead, a heavy blast door sealed the passage. Eliza swept her clearance card across the scanner, and the thick steel doors slid open with a deep mechanical hiss.
Hayato and Shisui stepped through into a massive underground concourse. Immediately, dozens of cold, hostile eyes locked onto them. Executives, heavy shock-troopers, and armed operatives in high-grade tactical armor milled about the compound, their hands resting on lethal gear.
We are completely surrounded... Shisui analyzed, his pulse quickening.
"Chill," Hayato whispered calmly.
Shisui forced his posture to relax, offering a brief nod.
High above the concourse floor, hidden inside the high-security observation hub, Number 0 stood in the shadows, quietly monitoring every movement through the security cameras.
Eliza led them toward a central elevator shaft. The iron gates slid shut, and the platform began a rapid, deep descent into the facility's lowest levels.
"Those men back there..." Hayato said, breaking the silence of the lift.
"Yes," Eliza confirmed smoothly. "Those were the executive officers and garrison commanders of the Second Branch."
"What are you really planning here, Eliza?" Hayato asked, his gaze fixed on her. "You could have ordered them to kill us the moment we stepped out of that hall."
Eliza turned to him, her smile soft yet entirely unreadable. "Now why would I want to kill an old friend?"
Before Hayato could press further, a loud chime echoed through the shaft.
The elevator ground to a halt. The doors pulled back—and both Hayato and Shisui's eyes widened in sheer revulsion.
Stretching out into the cavernous subterranean chamber were endless rows of massive, illuminated glass containment tubes, each filled with bubbling green bio-fluid. Inside the glowing cylinders floated grotesque, mutated human forms—horrific amalgams of twisted flesh, calcified armor, and alien-like appendages.
Eliza stepped out into the aisle, her heels clicking rhythmically against the metal floor grate. "These... are our active test subjects."
Hayato scanned the rows of horror, his usual lighthearted aura vanishing completely. "You people... are absolute monsters."
Eliza casually walked over to a central control console, taking a seat and pointing a gloved finger toward a heavy steel containment door down the hall. "Your little friend is being held in that holding cell."
Hayato glanced at the door, then turned his head slightly toward Shisui, giving him a subtle signal to go retrieve Ethan.
"Mind if I take a look around?" Hayato asked Eliza, stepping toward the containment rows.
Eliza offered a pleasant smile. "Be my guest."
Hayato walked along the primary glass row, inspecting the floating abominations within. Stopping in front of one particularly large cylinder, he leaned in close, inspecting the strange biological mass suspended inside.
Driven by sheer curiosity, Hayato extended a single knuckle and gave the reinforced glass a light, inquisitive tap.
CRACK-SHATTER!
"Damn it..." Hayato muttered, stepping back sharply.
The reinforced glass instantly spider-webbed and exploded outward! High-decibel emergency klaxons began to blare across the subterranean level as red warning lights flashed violently against the walls.
A torrent of pressurized green bio-fluid erupted onto the floor, spilling across the metal grates.
Sliding out from the ruptured tank came a terrifying, bio-engineered brute—its right arm forged from a massive, razor-sharp bone-blade, and its left arm writhing violently with thick, muscular tentacles!