Senran Kagura: Heart of Fire

Chapter 8: Catalyst (Shizuku)

A little Shizuku is running around a park with her pet dog Arsene, it is a black, tall Labrador Retriever. She runs beside it, and she picks up a tennis ball from the floor and she throws it far so the dog would go fetch it. The dog runs off and she is greeted by a well-dressed, beautiful young woman. "That is a pretty dog, I love how playful and cheery it is." says the woman. "Yes, my mom and dad got him when he was a puppy, I was still a baby, so I couldn't get to name it and stuff." Shizuku replied. "Might I ask what its name is?" The woman asks. "His name is Arsene!" Shizuku told the woman. "Arsene? Why did your mother and father name it that?" Shizuku replies with "Well, they told me that right when they saw him, it absolutely stole their hearts, so that's why they named him that way." The lady chuckles and says "My, what an interesting story. I should be going, I have some business to attend to, my name is Aki, what is your name?" Shizuku answers with "Shizuku, Arisaka Shizuku." Arsene comes back with the ball in his mouth, drops it on the floor and sits. The lady smiles and replies "Well, Shizuku, I'd love to meet you again someday, maybe we can meet here so I can talk to you and play with your dog, if I may, I mean I really love dogs, and yours is so pretty, I would just love to play with it sometime." She says as she pats Arsene in the head. "Well, I must be off, goodbye Shizuku, til next time, here gives this to your parents and tell them to call me so we can arrange a date to... Hang out as people call it." Shizuku gets a card from Aki and smiles at her saying "Aye aye, will do Aki!" Aki smiles brightly and turns back and leaves. Shizuku puts the card in her back pocket and takes the ball and throws it again. A week passes and Shizuku returns to the park with her dog in a leash and her parents behind her, she's looking around, looking for someone. "Now go on dear, look for your friend." her mother says. She starts to walk around, looking for Aki, and after looking around for a few minutes she sits down. As soon as she does she sees Aki in an open yellow hoodie with a grey tank top underneath and a yellow skirt, and some black shoes enter the park. Shizuku stands up and starts running towards Aki to greet her. "Hiya Miss Aki, it's great to see you again." Shizuku says. "Oh, Shizuku, how great it is to see you again." Aki replies. Shizuku grabs Aki's hand and starts pulling her away. "Come on Miss Aki, Arsene is this way." A few hours pass while they play with Arsene and each other, and at sunset, they sit on a bench and Aki starts looking at the sky. "What a beautiful day this has been." says Aki. Shizuku also looks at the sky and says "Yes it has." Shizuku hears a helicopter and starts looking for it, she sees it fly over the park at a low altitude. "That heli was pretty close wasn't it?" Shizuku asks. "Aki?" Shizuku says as she looks at Aki, she is in a state of shock, as if she couldn't believe what just happened. "Miss Aki, what's wrong?" Shizuku asks again. "Oh, uh, I just noticed that that helicopter was from my company is all." Aki looks at the floor looking distressed. She softly mutters to herself: "But, if that's what I think it is, the project wasn't finished, what is the director thinking?" Just as she asks that she gets a call from the director of her company. "Hello, Mr. Oshimura, how can I-..." on the phone she hears "Thank you for your work, Miss Aki, your intelligence was well needed, and we shall now perform a live test. I got reports you were in the area, and I am severely sorry for what I'm about to do. Goodbye, Miss Aki." Aki drops the phone and looks directly in front of her. "Shizuku, I'm sorry you have to witness this, I'm sorry."  Aki says as a ray of light shines from behind a building and a strong blast, almost nuclear-like, takes down all of the buildings, trees, seats, vehicles and people engulfed in it. Shizuku looks at Aki when the inital blast ocurrs and she sees for a second that she disappears and then she gets pushed away by the vicious blast. The blast lasted for about 10 seconds. After the blast, Shizuku, having been blown back several feet into a building wreck, wipes her face of all the dust and opens her eyes. She sees that everything is covered in dust and shattered cement, and the wind carries it as well. She puts her arm up to shield her eyes from the dust in the air and starts walking to look for the survivors of the blast, she looks for minutes and all she finds are dead bodies, and after some time of searching, she finds Arsene's lifeless carcass. She falls down to her knees and starts crying, after some time crying, she stands up and tries to pick up Arsene's dead body. She takes it with her for a few minutes and suddenly stops. She drops Arsene and falls down to her knees again. Shizuku's eyes turn lifeless when she finds the dead body of her mother and her barely living father right next to her. Her father notices Shizuku, and with his last breath he tells Shizuku, "Shizuku, come here." Shizuku trembles as she stands, and walks towards her dying father. "I think it's time you (cough) learn to take care for yourself, it looks like (cough) we won't be around for much longer, but always remember this Shizuku, we will always love you (wheeze)." He finishes his sentence as his lifeless body slowly falls to the ground. Shizuku, now broken, picks up and hugs her father while crying loudly. After crying for hours, she looks up at sky to see a bright light coming from a helicopter, noticing, Shizuku crawls up to a nearby dead policeman, takes his flashlight, and starts waving it at the sky. The helicopter turns around and lands where the park area used to be, kicking up a lot of dust. Shizuku's eyes start to close as she sees people running towards her. When they reach her, they notice she has passed out. The soldiers call the medics to retrieve her, and take her into the helicopter. The medics take her in, while the soldiers keep looking around with gas masks for survivors. Shizuku faintly hears, "Exploration team, we will retrieve for now and take the patient to the nearest hospital, we will be back soon." After that she only hears the helicopter's blades spinning up and muffled chatter. One of the medics opens her eyes to check her, and notices her eyes were beginning to turn black. He calls a professional doctor and the doctor gasps at the sight of her eyes, he is frightened by the state of her eyes. The doctor tells the medic she needs serious medical attention and that they should arrive soon.