My Net Savior (Rewrite)

Chapter 11

- Warning -

This chapter includes blood, injuries, and heavily implied death

Heavy footsteps hit the sidewalks as the teenager ran down the street, going in the opposite direction of fleeing citizens. People quickly moved out of his way, desperate to get to their unknown destination; he was, too. He grabbed a nearby phone pole, turned the corner, and stopped. He caught his breath, taking in the scene.

Black smoke was still pouring out of the damaged building, polluting the previously clear blue sky. There were three gaping holes in the structure, two new ones having blown open in the side after he had been alerted of the situation. He almost didn't believe this was happening; it'd been years since the last destructive attack in Japan. But it was real and Meijin confirmed that this was a web-invasion attack, and they needed Net Saviors back in the scene. The amount of damage to the building was an insult. He clenched his hand into a fist, hitting the pole with the side of his hand as he grits his teeth. Never mind what he was too late to do. He needed to help those he still could. He broke into a run towards the building again. It was feasible now; most people had cleared the area entirely, and he didn't need to focus on dodging moving bodies.

As far as he was aware, Netto and Nori had been notified of the situation and were making their way to the scene. Strangely, he never got a response from Nori, but he assumed she was already dealing with the disaster. Netto had mentioned she was already in the city. He was hoping the other possibility that she was a casualty of the explosions wouldn't be true.

Distracted by his thoughts, he almost didn't notice the body lying on the street. He stopped running and turned away with a grimace. There shouldn't be a... casualty this far away from the scene. He shook his head. He didn't even know if this person was dead yet. He had to check.

Turning to look at them on the street, he didn't feel so confident about her condition. The blue and white of the girl's outfit stood out on the black tar street. Her jacket had fallen off her shoulders, letting a trail of crimson red blood stain the back of her white top. He jogged out to the street, slowing down to a walk as he approached the body. She seemed too still, and there was a terrible injury on the back of her head. He knelt, realizing this was where the blood had come from. Placing his fingers on her neck, he checked for a pulse.

The girl twitched, making Enzan jolt, pulling his fingers back. He gaped at the girl as she groaned, slowly sitting up. She was facing away from him, but he could see her put a hand to her forehead, groaning again in more pain.

"I have such a bad headache," she slurred, looking around her, obviously disoriented. The wound in her head was still bleeding, and he was confident she had split her skull open. It made him grimace just thinking about it.

"You should... lie down," he suggested. "Do you remember anything?" He asked. The girl turned her head to look at him. As soon as they made eye contact, both of them froze.

She was the girl that caused a scene in the middle of the cafe. He hadn't realized it was her before. He shook the surprise off, remembering his focus here.

"Do you remember anything?" He repeated. She slowly nodded.

"Just not how I ended up here..." she closed her eyes, scrunching up her dirt and soot-covered face slightly. "I... I was with some friends and then- ow, ow ow..." she grimaced, reaching for the back of her head.

"Don't," Enzan said. She stopped. "You have an injury. You shouldn't touch it. We're going to get you off the street." He said, offering her a hand. Hesitantly, she took it, avoiding any eye contact. He slowly stood up, waiting for her to gain her balance and do the same. The girl got back on her feet with some help and straightened up.

"Can you walk?" He asked her, removing his supporting hands. She nodded, standing perfectly fine. He needed to get this girl to safety and quickly get to the attacked building. That was his plan.

It was his plan until she fainted.

"Shit!" He cursed under his breath. Just in time, he caught her from falling back onto the concrete, which would have only worsened her condition.

Was this a bad day for him? It seemed even the wrong things were going awry.

The sound of footsteps drew his attention and he looked behind him to see who could still be around here. The familiar figure of a short blonde girl was running in his direction.

"Yaito?" He said quizzically. Yaito stopped a few feet away, leaning on her knees to catch her breath.

"Enzan!" She said breathlessly. "You found Miyu! Thank god...!"

"Miyu...?" Enzan looked at the girl passed out in his arms. "You mean her? You know her?"

"Yes! She's a classmate," Yaito explained. "Is she.. okay?" She asked, her voice now taking a worried tone.

"She's got a bad head injury," Enzan said. "Yaito, do you think you could get a car and get away from here? She could use some help, and I need to get to the scene."

"What?! You're crazy!" Yaito shouted as Enzan slowly laid Miyu down on the ground, careful with her head. He took his jacket off and put it under her head as a cushion. "Netto and Nori already ran over there; that building has exploded three times! It's bound to collapse!"

"You know it's our job," he said to her. "I know you're a bit impulsive at times, but don't do anything stupid." Yaito was about to protest, but he was back to running off to the building. He'd already wasted too much time and did not want to lose another second.

Finally, he reached the building. His eyes began watering from the thick smoke, and his lungs were sucking in unhealthy amounts of the toxic air. He covered his mouth and nose with a sleeve before making his way inside. Nothing was burning on this floor, but the smoke still impaired his vision. He carefully made his way around spilled plant pots, tables, chairs, and debris. The explosions had happened on the floors above him, but the access point had been pin-pointed to the storage floor below. He looked around the wrecked space for any sort of direction or indication of how to get there. The place was eerie. It was supposed to be a clean spot full of busy workers, but now it was in disarray. His eyes avoided looking at the arm sticking out from under a piece of broken ceiling, and the impossible amount of blood staining the carpet around it. The logical, rational side of him - the side that had thoroughly been developed with the thanks of his dad - told him there was nothing he could have done about the situation. There was no possible way he could have prevented the situation. That same side of him had also been trained to avoid failure at all costs; it had been trained that failure would cost him dearly.

This whole incident was his failure.

Enzan's jaw clenched, anger filling a pit in his stomach. He was determined to clean up this mess. Finally, he spotted the door that led to the downstairs floor and rushed to it. He pushed against the bar of the door and it swung open to a dark descending stairway. The red emergency lights reflected off the space, giving it the intimidating appearance of an endless, bloody void. He barely gazed into the stairwell before running down the concrete stairs, his heavy footsteps echoing around him. It was less smoky here, and he uncovered his face to breathe some air. He reached the bottom of the stairs where two large metal double doors stood. He didn't stop his running momentum, turning his shoulder to the door and using his whole weight to bust the door open. The bang reverberated in the storage room, and he heard a scuffle.

"What was that?" Asked a male voice.

"Focus, Netto! I could use a little bit of help here," a female voice quipped. Enzan recognized the voices almost immediately. They belonged to his coworkers, the other two Net Saviors his age, who were also his only friends. Which sounded sad on its own but...

No, it was just sad.

Enzan made his way around the boxed structures, spotting the two siblings huddled around a port. Somehow Netto had found a plug-in port for his outdated PET. The look of focus and stress on Netto's face alarmed Enzan. The situation must be worse than he thought. Quickly, he made his way over.

"How's it looking?" Enzan asked as he brought his PET out.

"I've never seen this many viruses in one place in my life," Nori muttered, intensely focused on supplying Valris with battle chips.

"She's not exaggerating," Netto said, not even sparing Enzan a glance. "We need you to transmit in."

Enzan nodded. "Transmit, Blues!" He said, a red beam leaving the top of his PET and passing through the transmission port. With his Navi now in the port, he could get a look at the number of viruses they were facing.

"Enzan-Sama..." His Navi said, his tone matching the shock Enzan was in. Piles of viruses had somehow amassed in the system, to the point even they were fighting each other for space. Never before had he seen anything like it.

"It's still salvageable," Enzan reassured his companions with more confidence than he had. "We just need to be strategic about it."

"Heard," the Hikari twins said.

Enzan had begun to turn his attention back to his PET, spotting something coming at him fast from the corner of his eye. He ducked on instinct, a metal pipe barely missing contact with his head. He could only catch a glimpse of the figure attacking him before another swing came his way.

"Enzan!" Nori shouted as Enzan stepped back, dodging the second attack.

"I got this!" The white-haired boy yelled back. "Focus on-" He was caught off guard with a kick to his side, grunting as the force knocked him into one of the file cabinets that littered the room. He pushed himself off the cabinet, grabbing it and pulling it between him and his assailant. Flashing red lights in the dark space made spotting his attacker nearly impossible, but he was able to make out a masked figure's silhouette.

"Net Saviors might have been able to stop the 'evil' forces before," a man's voice drawled. "But it all ends here. Especially for you, Ijuuin Enzan. "

- Author's note -

Hey all! Chapter 11 with Enzans perspective!!Next chapter are Navi perspectives! I'm looking forward to writing this :)Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Bye!