"Eldest Miss, do not get in the original backup car yet."
After Dojima finished speaking, he turned around and re-implemented the warning command he had just given via radio at the scene.
The newly arrived reinforcements quickly took over several positions on both sides of the road, while the backup sedan, whose door had already been opened waiting for Satsuki to enter, was temporarily left in place.
Two team members bypassed it to check the vehicle and nearby hiding spots, and the rest expanded outward, stretching the protective circle around Satsuki a bit wider.
Chizuru supported Satsuki, standing between several riot shields, her gaze never leaving both sides of the road.
Since Dojima judged that the real danger had not yet appeared, the street in front of them—stuffed full of wrecked vehicles, abandoned sedans, and fleeing crowds—had already become the biggest trouble itself.
The Metropolitan Police Department's sirens were getting closer, and the red and blue lights could even illuminate the nearby building facades, but the middle of the road was full of crisscrossed vehicles, and it was simply impossible to clear a sufficiently safe evacuation route in a short time.
"Dojima."
Satsuki glanced at the backup car waiting for her.
"Since they spent so much effort forcing me out of my original car, it is impossible that they would not know which one I would take next."
"I think so too."
Dojima did not let anyone get close to that car again.
"Abandon all original routes. The second batch of reinforcements outside is moving in here. As long as we reopen a path——"
Gunshots suddenly rang out from the left.
A special operations team member guarding the backup car lurched violently, their shoulder hitting the car door, followed by a series of white bullet holes bursting near the windshield and the driver's seat.
The front right tire collapsed immediately, and the whole car noticeably sank on one side.
"Traffic flow on the left!"
Dojima shouted almost at the very first gunshot.
Several riot shields tightened immediately. Before Satsuki could see what was happening, Chizuru had pulled her a step further in.
The newly arrived reinforcements quickly deployed using nearby vehicles, their muzzle points simultaneously aimed at the row of sedans abandoned by ordinary people dozens of meters away.
After firing those few shots, the opponents quickly hid again, keeping their firepower suppressed on the small area of the backup car and the evacuation personnel.
Dojima only needed to take one look at the impact positions to know that this group of people was on a completely different level from Washio's crew, who only knew how to spray wildly after getting guns.
Behind an SUV, he glanced at the backup car that had completely lost its utility and immediately waved behind him.
"Change cars, bring over the nearest SUV."
As soon as the order was passed down, another black escort vehicle began to reverse.
Satsuki was still looking at the backup car that had just been shot.
Unlike staying in the car, and also unlike the distant gunshots from just now.
This time, the bullets were coming for her.
It was only then that Satsuki realized her right hand had been clutching the webbing on the side of Chizuru's body armor, her fingers even somewhat stiff from exerting force.
She stared at her slightly trembling hand for a moment.
...She was afraid.
For the first time, the situation was truly out of control.
Chizuru lowered her head following her gaze, did not make her let go, and only placed her hand over hers.
"Eldest Miss."
"...Mn."
Satsuki raised her head.
The SUV in front had backed into the protective circle, and the rear door was pulled open from the inside.
"Let us go."
Chizuru supported her waist.
Several team members moved synchronously holding shields, but just as they approached the car door, a shout suddenly came from the outer radio, so urgent it almost drowned out the gunshots.
"Southeast intersection! A heavy vehicle has rushed in!"
Dojima turned abruptly.
A white refrigerated truck had rushed out from a side road two hundred meters away.
It relied on its weight advantage to shove away the cars blocking the road all the way.
Several ordinary sedans blocked in front did not even have time to dodge before the truck squeezed into the main road, scraping against the rear of one of them.
The headlights flashed across the chaotic crowd, and the roar of the engine skyrocketed all the way.
Dojima only took one look at the direction it was heading and roared to the perimeter:
"Stop it!"
The closest escort SUV rushed out almost simultaneously.
The people in the car had no time to readjust their positions at all; the driver simply jerked the steering wheel to the left, crashing into the refrigerated truck directly from the front-left angle.
When the loud noise came, Satsuki had just been pushed into the car door by Chizuru.
She looked back.
The front of the SUV had completely collapsed, pushed sideways for several meters by the truck whose weight far exceeded its own.
The refrigerated truck was also knocked to the other side, its front wheels briefly climbing onto the curb, but the person in the cab quickly pulled the steering wheel back.
That person did not even step on the brakes.
"Send another one up!"
Dojima rushed forward with his men.
The second escort SUV rammed into it from the side, this time pushing the refrigerated truck directly toward the guardrail.
The piercing sound of large areas of metal deforming spread through the entire street, and the truck's body shook violently, sliding forward with its right side almost pressed against the guardrail.
But the roar of the engine became even louder instead.
Dojima's expression sank instantly.
"Eldest Miss, get in the car! Leave immediately!"
Chizuru shoved Satsuki into the back seat and scrambled in right after her.
While the security personnel were still closing the door, the driver stepped on the gas pedal, and the SUV lunged forward abruptly, the door locks clicking into place only after the vehicle started moving.
Satsuki was pressed into the seat by inertia.
Collision sounds rang out continuously behind them.
The last remaining escort SUV capable of interception was rushing toward the refrigerated truck from the other side of the road.
It crashed harder than the previous two; the entire front end was crushed flat almost at the moment of contact, and the car body was flung spinning toward the roadside.
The refrigerated truck was finally knocked off course.
But it was too late.
Dozens of tons of weight and the speed already picked up could not completely disappear from a single collision.
That huge white front end crashed obliquely through the gap left by the escort vehicle, brushing past several cars on the roadside and ramming over again.
"Right!"
The driver only had time to violently turn the steering wheel.
Chizuru had already lunged toward Satsuki.
Satsuki did not even manage to see where the truck had hit, when the right side of the car body was struck like a heavy hammer, and the entire SUV was suddenly thrown to the left.
The seatbelt bit fiercely into her chest.
Just as Satsuki's body was pulled back, a second impact came from the front, the front of the car hitting something and instantly changing direction.
The night sky, street lights, and buildings outside the window flipped over together.
Chizuru pressed one hand tightly against the back of Satsuki's head, holding her almost entirely in her arms with the other hand.
Something hit Satsuki's temple.
Before the pain even had time to fully emerge, her vision went black for a split second.
When she managed to open her eyes again, the vehicle seemed to have stopped.
Her chest hurt badly.
It hurt even more than when the seatbelt restrained her just now.
Satsuki instinctively took a breath, but only felt that halfway through the air intake, her right chest cavity sent a stabbing pain that made it almost impossible for her to continue breathing.
"Chizuru..."
The voice was very soft.
Even she herself did not hear it clearly.
Yet Chizuru, pressing beside her, moved slightly.
"Eldest Miss?"
Her voice had also changed.
Satsuki wanted to tell her that she could not catch her breath, but as soon as her lips parted, continuous gunshots came from outside.
The people truly responsible for the attack obviously had not pinned all their hopes on that refrigerated truck.
After the SUV was crashed to a halt, several ordinary cars that had originally been quiet on both sides of the road moved almost simultaneously.
Gunshots pressed over from different directions, and the S.A. personnel who were just preparing to approach the accident vehicle were immediately forced back into cover.
Dojima had already led his men to the nearest position.
"Surround Eldest Miss's car!"
Several riot shields were quickly set up outside the deformed SUV, and reinforcements fought back using the car body.
The first emergency team, which had just been held up by Washio's group, had also successively broken away from the original firefight point, and the entire defense line quickly shrank back toward Satsuki's position.
But this time, the enemy's shooting was obviously much trickier.
Muzzles appeared for only a very short time and changed positions immediately after firing; occasionally someone tried to approach from the side, and they definitely would not shout while firing like Washio's confidants.
S.A.'s numbers were already quite large.
Yet for a time, they still could not clear all directions simultaneously.
What was even worse was that the right side of the SUV where Satsuki was located was severely deformed, and the position close to her was almost completely caved in.
"The door will not open!"
A team member pulled twice and immediately gave up.
"From the left!"
"Miss Chizuru is still inside!"
Just as Dojima was about to go over, another voice suddenly sounded on the radio.
"Mr. Dojima, the medical response has entered its final route."
Dojima was stunned for a moment.
Then he looked up.
Until this moment, he truly heard the rotor sound getting closer and closer in the distance.
That was not a helicopter from the Metropolitan Police Department.
Inside Saionji Medical Support Corporation, there was an emergency rescue unit called the "Trauma Team."
As the highest-level emergency armed rescue unit in Saionji's medical support system, the Trauma Team possessed the best doctors, the strongest firepower, and the highest internal priority.
Medical personnel were responsible for on-site rescue and transfer, while the accompanying S.A. personnel were responsible for forcibly establishing a safe zone and snatching the target out of the hazardous scene.
The helicopters they used were also specially reinforced at critical parts, capable of entering the firefight zone for a short time under ordinary rifle firepower, and utilizing airborne armament and accompanying special forces to suppress ground threats, buying a rescue window for the medical staff.
Tonight, after Satsuki suffered the second impact, the Trauma Team's mission was left with only one thing.
Take her away alive.
The rotor sound quickly lowered.
The attackers firing on both sides of the street also quickly noticed the change in the sky.
That was a Kawasaki BK117 modified twin-engine helicopter.
An extremely bright white light first swept down from the top of the building, and then swept across the entire road.
The high-speed rotating airflow whipped up dust, confetti, and broken glass, and the debris that had originally been burning nearby was blown flat to one side abruptly.
Soon, someone on the ground noticed the helicopter descending in altitude.
Gunshots rang out from the other side of the road, and several bullets shot obliquely into the night sky, two of which struck the belly and side of the fuselage, producing several muffled impact sounds amidst the roar of the rotor blades.
The aircraft only swayed slightly, continuing to lower its altitude along its original course, and shortly afterward Dojima heard the pilot's calm voice through the headset.
"Confirming fire conflict on the ground, preparing to enter the rescue zone."
Not long after the voice fell, the cabin doors on both sides opened in mid-air.
The S.A. team members secured to the edge of the doors had already moved into shooting positions in advance, their bodies tightly strapped inside the cabin, with the deployed armor shields in front of them covering most of their bodies.
Another team member poked their head out to confirm the street below, quickly requesting ground personnel to mark the location via radio.
Dojima immediately pressed his headset.
"All S.A. personnel, turn on identification lights and re-confirm the fields of fire. Leave everything north of the Eldest Miss's vehicle to the aerial team, and ground personnel must not cross the line."
The special operations team members scattered across the road turned on their identification devices one after another, and patches of dim lights quickly lit up from between the darkness and the vehicles.
After the aerial observer confirmed the location, the BK117 continued to descend, and the huge rotor downwash had already begun to whip up dust, paper scraps, and broken glass on the road surface.
When it was still a dozen meters away from the ground, the suppressing fire from the side of the cabin finally sounded.
The few locations where people had just been firing immediately suffered concentrated suppression, with bullets striking continuously near the vehicles, corners, and cover where the attackers were hiding, forcing those who were still preparing to continue shooting back into hiding.
The S.A. on the ground also immediately seized this opportunity to expand their control range to both sides, with several squads rapidly advancing outward along the cover formed by the vehicles, forcefully cutting off the two most dangerous fields of fire near Satsuki's SUV.
The response from the opposite side was also very fast.
Muzzle flashes appeared again from both sides of the road, and the firepower immediately turned toward the helicopter hovering at low altitude.
Bullets hit the outside of the fuselage one after another, and one of them grazed the armor plate beside the cabin door, bursting into a small cluster of sparks, but the BK117 maintained its altitude throughout, and not even its original descending rhythm was disrupted.
Dojima took one look and understood their intentions.
The trauma team had no intention of finding a safe place on the periphery to wait for people to be sent over.
They were going to land right next to Satsuki.
"Clear the landing zone!"
At Dojima's command, a dozen reinforcements who had just arrived immediately regrouped.
Two SUVs that could still move were driven directly across the center of the road, using their bodies to isolate the external firepower, while the remaining personnel continued to push outward taking advantage of the aerial suppression window.
By the time the helicopter truly descended to a height close to the road surface, an area large enough for personnel to board and disembark had already been forcibly cleared out among the wrecked vehicles.
The trauma team truly entered the scene at this very moment.
The four people who got out of the cabin first all belonged to Saionji Security, and upon landing, they quickly took over the security directions closest to the helicopter.
Two of them raised armor shields much thicker than ordinary riot shields, advancing all the way to the SUV where Satsuki was located against the bullets that were still occasionally flying over, while the other two guarded the cabin and the rescue route.
Doctors and medical personnel followed closely behind.
"Casualty status?"
Dojima pointed to the heavily deformed SUV.
"Back seat, female, eighteen years old. Two high-speed impacts, brief loss of consciousness, currently experiencing breathing difficulties."
The medical personnel ran toward the car while listening.
The right door had been completely deformed from the impact, and the personnel responsible for breaching immediately set up their equipment near the door frame, while a doctor directly went around to the other side, leaning their body through the shattered car window to first check Satsuki's consciousness, breathing, and neck condition.
Chizuru was still leaning beside Satsuki.
She also had blood on her forehead, and the posture of her right shoulder was obviously unnatural, but one of her hands remained shielding Satsuki's side.
When the doctor reached in, she instinctively blocked them.
"Miss Chizuru, I need to check the Eldest Miss."
Only then did Chizuru react, slowly moving her hand away.
Satsuki could no longer clearly hear how many people were talking outside; she could only feel someone touching the side of her neck, and someone supporting the back of her head to adjust her position slightly.
Soon, an oxygen mask was placed over her face, and the suffocating tightness that previously accompanied every breath finally eased somewhat.
She forced her eyes open.
"... Where is Chizuru?"
"Eldest Miss, do not speak for now."
The doctor leaned over her, their attention still focused on the examination.
But Satsuki called out again very softly.
"Chizuru..."
"I am here."
Chizuru's voice came over from the side immediately.
"I am right here."
Satsuki's eyes moved toward that direction, and only then did she quiet down again.
The breaching equipment had already begun cutting the car door.
As soon as the sharp metallic sound rang out, the gunfire on the other side of the road became dense again.
The two S.A. team members responsible for covering the rescue immediately turned their armor shields, and several bullets struck the outer protection almost simultaneously, the heavy impact sounds continuously passing into the car.
"Firepower has reappeared on the right side of the landing zone!"
Dojima had already raised his HK53.
"Second squad, suppress them back, do not let them near the rescue line!"
The ground firepower subsequently intensified, and the BK117 hovering above also resumed suppression.
The entire intersection was soon completely drowned out by the gunfire, metallic impacts, and the huge noise generated by the rotor, but the medical personnel working by the car were hardly affected.
The breaching continued, while the doctor used this time to immobilize Satsuki's neck and check for potential injuries to her chest and head.
After the car door was finally cut open, the stretcher was quickly brought over.
The doctor in charge of Satsuki re-confirmed the situation, then looked up at Dojima.
"We cannot stay any longer, we are evacuating immediately."
Dojima glanced at the road where fighting was still ongoing.
"How long?"
"Leaving right now."
This time he did not ask again.
"Everyone pull back inward, clear a path for the trauma team!"
The several squads that had originally deployed outward immediately began to adjust.
The heavy shields were pulled back to both sides of the rescue route, and the personnel responsible for close-range protection all closed in on Satsuki's location, quickly forming a moving corridor only a dozen meters long between the wrecked SUV and the helicopter.
Satsuki was carried out along this corridor.
After the stretcher left the car body, several armor shields kept moving along with it, while the outer personnel constantly adjusted their muzzles to ensure that any newly appearing firepower would be suppressed at the first instance.
While moving with the stretcher, the doctor continued to maintain the oxygen and immobilization devices, and the speed only slowed down slightly until several people truly arrived beside the cabin.
Chizuru also held onto the car door, preparing to follow along.
As soon as she took a step, her body swayed noticeably, and a nearby team member immediately reached out to steady her.
"I am fine."
"You are also getting on the plane, the doctor will check you together."
Chizuru was silent for a moment, glanced at Satsuki who had already been sent into the cabin, and then followed along with the support of two people.
After the stretcher was secured inside the cabin, the medical personnel quickly took over the rest of the work.
The S.A. outside continued to maintain the landing zone until the last team member responsible for protecting the trauma team began to fall back, and only then did Dojima walk over to the vicinity of the cabin door.
"Take the Eldest Miss away."
The captain in the cabin glanced at him.
"Are not you coming up?"
Dojima looked up toward both sides of the road.
Those truly responsible for the attack had not all been resolved, Washio's remaining personnel were still trapped on the other side, and although the Metropolitan Police Department had closed in on the periphery, they had not yet completely taken over the scene.
"Someone has to stay here."
He finished speaking and took a step back.
"Go ahead."
The cabin door began to close.
Chizuru was helped inside last.
Satsuki had relapsed into a semi-comatose state, the hemostatic dressing on her face stained red with blood, and the oxygen mask covered most of her face.
The doctor was leaning over her constantly checking data, and no one cared about the gunfire outside anymore.
The helicopter began to ascend.
Someone on the ground fired a few more shots at it.
The bullets struck the bottom protective plate, and the sound transmitted through the cabin, leaving only a few muffled knocks.
Satsuki seemed to have heard it.
Her eyelashes twitched slightly.
Afterward, she felt her body leaving the ground.
Higher and higher.
Those gunshots, sirens, impact sounds, and the chaos that had lasted the entire night were finally pushed below by the roar of the rotors bit by bit.
Safe.
Just as this thought surfaced, what surged out right along with it was a belated fear.
She had really almost died.
That feeling was very familiar to her.
So familiar that just touching it slightly made something deep inside her body tighten sharply.
She had already died once.
No matter what, she did not want to try it a second time.
But the fear was soon suppressed by another even sharper emotion.
Anger.
Someone genuinely wanted her to die!
Really wanted to send her back to that place she had already escaped from once!
The moment this thought touched her consciousness, a hatred that almost overwhelmed the fear surged up deeply within Satsuki's chest, causing even her fingers, which had already lost strength, to clench tightly bit by bit.
She did not want to die!
Unforgivable!
She thought with gnashed teeth in her heart.
Before her consciousness completely plunged into darkness, the only thing that remained at the very end was something so vague it could hardly be called a thought.
——
"Do not let me know who you are."