《Survive - Terror Infinity Fanfic》 Chapter 1 - Alien Franchise Arc Takuya opened his eyes to a dark room filled with tubes and some kind of bio-metal in between each tube. The metal was black and looked slimy, the reason he thought it was some kind of bio-metal was that it was highly reminiscent of the stuff the Xenomorphs from the Alien Franchise make their hives out of. The sliminess only added to that insight. Straining his arms slightly Takuya felt chains tightly wound around his arms and wrists. His neck was secured to a table with some thin fabric which seemed similar to a sash. Despite not being able to lift his head to look at his feet he could look side to side at the rest of the room. Looking straight up from his prone position (He''s lying down unless you didn''t realize that.) got Takuya the sight of multiple disgusting looking eggs. They were all a dark green in color and the shells looked scaly but at the same time plated, like an insects exoskeleton. There were 5 eggs that Takuya could see. As he was wondering why there were 5 eggs he looked around and saw 4 other people in similar bonds to himself. As his eyesight adapted to the dark in record time, Takuya could see that the chains which held them all down were thin and incredibly rusted. They were also just draped over the people and under the table, so Takuya could infer that whoever tied them down wasn''t the brightest. The 4 other people consisted of 1 boy and three other girls. All of them looked as if they were of Japanese descent apart from one of the girls wearing a Highschool uniform who had fiery red hair. Other than Takuya, the boy also seemed to be awake, so Takuya attempted to talk to him. "Yo, dude, you okay? I''m Takuya Tepes by the way." Takuya''s deep voice echoed around the room a bit gaining the attention of the boy who shook violently before tilting his head in Takuya''s direction. "Whe-where are we...Did you do this...?!" The boy started glaring at Takuya who ignored it, knowing the guy must have been in a bad state. The boy was going to continue to ''interrogate'' Takuya when he looked to his right and saw one of the Japanese girls. "Fumi...what are you doing here?" the boy''s eyes widened to their limits, full of fear and anxiety. The girl had brown hair and looked like quite a beauty. She seemed like the childhood friend-type of heroine and had some busty assets on her along with a slender stomach and waist and long lithe legs. Takuya couldn''t help but think that the boy who seemed acquainted with her was a lucky guy. Then the boy looked back at Takuya with more backbone this time and less fear. "What did you do to Fumi?" His voice was quite cold and Takuya was surprised this average looking guy could pull off such a ''scary'' voice. "Look at me, idiot, I''m tied to an altar just like you." Takuya let what he said sink in before continuing "So how would I have done anything to you?" "I..." The boy tried to refute Takuya but found he couldn''t; Takuya was right. "I apologize, I''m just worried about my friend''s safety and my own for that matter..." The boy seemed apologetic but a bit too prideful to just say he was scared.A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. Takuya shook his head to say the boy didn''t have to apologize. "Don''t worry about it, man." Takuya accepted the guy''s apology regardless, however, before carrying on "Well, I can try to get us out of this, but I think introductions are in order before that. Like I said before, I''m Takuya Tepes." With a nod to the boy, albeit an upside down one, Takuya politely introduced himself. The boy''s eyes had hope flash through them for a moment before he himself nodded and introduce himself as well. "My name''s Yuu Kazama, it''s a pleasure to meet you, Tepes-san." "Likewise, Kazama-san," Takuya replied while shuffling his body slightly. Kazama looked oddly at his newly acquired comrade as he watched him wiggle around like he was having some kind of seizure. While Takuya was doing this, the other girls started to wake up starting with Fumi who Kazama seemed familiar with, then the black haired girl next to her who seemed like a Young Miss/Hime-sama kind of character. She started panicking but was soon calmed down by the collective work from Kazama and Fumi, whose full name was Fumiko Sasaki, and as Takuya wiggled around obviously trying to get something his hand he heard what the Young Miss was called. "My name is Hana Uehara." Takuya knew who her family was. They owned a company which was a pretty big one in Japan and had even started creeping into International markets. The company did nearly next to everything. It sold cars, TVs, it had its hand dipped in the pharmaceutical business and even make weapons for the military. So all in all, it was a pretty big company. When she was about to carry on, everyone stopped what they were doing, even Takuya, as something incredibly weird happened. A screen popped up in front of them. Welcome to God''s Dimension. Mission World: Alien Franchise Mission: Survive 6 hours in the Colony Side QuestRewards: Xenomorph Drone - 1000 points and a D-rank reward Facehugger - 100 points ??? - 1500 points and a D-rank reward ??? - 2500 points and 2 D-rank rewards The mission will begin in 15 minutes. Good Luck. The other 4 people started to panic and thrash around after seeing this. They, quite rightfully so, thought they''d gone insane and their thrashing was an attempt to wake up from this ''dream''. Takuya, however, seemed terrifyingly calm as he finally shifted what he needed to his hand. His knife. Flexing his athletic muscles, Takuya snapped the rusted, and therefore weakened, chains around his arms, wrists, and body before standing up and walking to the eggs cautiously. Seeing no movement from the eggs he came to a conclusion and smirked before plunging his knife into the egg, being careful to not let any of the green goo that sprayed out get on his body or hands. A slight squeal could be heard in the egg before dying out quickly. Takuya went onto the other 4 eggs after discarding his melted blade into the corner of the room. He pulled out knife after knife as he stabbed the eggs following which were the squeals similar to the first egg. After going through 5 knives and destroying 5 eggs, Takuya saw an exclamation mark in front of him. Focusing in on it seemed to cue it to open. You have killed 6 Facehuggers, congratulations you have been awarded 600 points. (Author Note: Before you say it, I''m not shit at Math. Some Egg can have more than one Facehugger in them and Takuya got lucky and skewered two Facehuggers~) You are the first of the new players to kill anything in this world, congratulations you have been awarded 200 points. Looking at the messages in front of him and the use of the word ''player'' along with the name ''God''s Dimension'' made Takuya think of one thing. "Am I in a Terror Infinity novel?" Chapter 2 - Alien Franchise Arc Takuya laughed his ass off when he realized he genuinely was in one, or at least in the same situation as the protagonists in them. The other 3 looked at Takuya with weird eyes as he was laughing after just having stabbed 5 weird looking eggs. So, not the sanest appearance in all honesty. But they soon started to ignore his weird attitude and started to plead with their eyes for him to release them from their bounds. Not one to miss out on social cues, Takuya walked up to Kazama first and grabbed the most rusted part of the chain holding the teen down and with a simple pull the chain snapped. Takuya went on to do this to the other 3. Weirdly enough the third, still unnamed girl was still unconscious. Takuya hoped the thing he thought had happened, hadn''t happened. He really didn''t want to see a chestburster coming out of such a pretty girl. "Kazama-san, keep your eye on that girl. You too Sasaki-san. I think she''s either a heavy sleeper or she''s been implanted with an egg from a Facehugger." Takuya had a serious look when he spoke to the childhood lovebirds who were currently looking over each other for injuries. Takuya''s voice and words grabbed their attention. Luckily they''d both watched the movies and knew what he was on about, so he didn''t have to waste time explaining anything. Uehara just sat on her altar, her princess attitude and lifestyle obviously being shocked from the circumstances she was in. Takuya looked around the surprisingly small room. He thought because it was a sacrificial slaughter/baby Xenomorph making room it''d be a bit bigger. Takuya''s calmness seemed to spread across the room and weirdly kept everyone in a relatively serene state. Uehara came over to Takuya because she felt safer around him. Who could really blame her though? 196cm tall, broad and strong shoulders and a muscular body. He seemed built to protect people. "...we for...?" Uehara spoke in whispers as if she were afraid her making noise would get her killed. Takuya would call her clever if they were around Xenomorphs but the Mission hadn''t started so she was safe, so he made sure to tell her. "Uehara-san, I can''t hear you, please speak up," To reassure her further, he spoke in a confident tone "We''re safe in here until the Mission starts, so don''t worry, okay?" Uehara went a bit red because of her whispering showing her fear, so she spurted out what she said in a slightly loud voice. "What are we--wait! I mean you, what are you looking for?" Uehara stumbled over her words and seemed quite flustered which despite the situation, Takuya found cute when contrasted with her princess attitude from earlier. "I''m looking for vents because that''s where the Xenomorphs will most likely come from." Takuya absentmindedly replied as he looked around the room counting the vents in it. Uehara nodded and she looked around as well but due to the dim lighting, she couldn''t see much. Takuya, on the other hand, could see perfectly fine, his families training coming into effect and showing its benefits. ''One...two...three, four....five...Goddamn, how many vents do you need?'' Looking at the vents, he knew they''d have to leave the room before the mission began, any ol''Xenomorph could just waltz in and murder them all if it wanted. And they would be coming to this room, it was supposed to have people implanted with eggs so the Drones would come to transport the unconscious bodies to a birthing place. Turning around he told the others his findings. "We''ll need to move to a different room in a bit." His declaration seemed to make Kazama and Sasaki pale with fear, Uehara seemed to take Takuya''s words as the word of God and didn''t how much change to her appearance. "Bu-but why?" Kazama loudly whispered with fear evident in his voice. Takuya calmly looked at the teen before wryly smiling. "You''ve watched the movies, what''s a Xenomorph''s favorite way of getting around?" "Uhh...Underneath the floors or through Vents--!" it finally clicked in Kazama''s head. He wasn''t stupid, it was just that his mental faculties were being a bit clogged up by the immense amount of fear he was experiencing. "Yeah, there are 5 vents in this room alone, add that to the front door if the Xenomorphs are being nice, that''s 6 visible entrances. We need to move, I''m not sure where, but it''s better to move somewhere instead of just sitting here waiting to get swarmed." Takuya and Kazama shared an understanding stare and as Kazama was about to speak, Takuya appeared in front of him and pushed him aside. "Wha--!" Kazama yelled out in surprise and turned to have a go at Takuya but stopped himself when he saw what was happening in his place. The ''heavy sleeper'' girl had sent a knife hand thrust at where Kazama''s neck had just been. Now it was clamped between Takuya''s big hands in an iron vice-like grip. "Now, it''s a bit impolite to attack an innocent guy, isn''t it?" Takuya''s voice sounded playful but it was cold and empty, like a robot trying to sound human. The girl tugged at her arm to get it free a few times but gave up after the third time. She sighed and looked Takuya dead in the eye.The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. "Why have you kidnapped me?" Her voice was cold and strict. "I haven''t kidnapped you, we''ve all been kidnapped. Look and concentrate on the exclamation point in front of you, it''ll tell you why you''re here." Takuya was straightforward and concise, they didn''t have time to burn after all. "There is no exclama--!" The girl stopped what she was saying as her face filled with shock. Seeing the shock, Takuya knew she''d seen the message so he released her hand used his mind to summon up how much time he had left. 9 minutes 07 seconds Shaking his head, he couldn''t help but think they were being too slow. Takuya could only look at the redhead girl with annoyance. She''d truly taken up quite a bit of his time. When he was about to speak up, Kazama came up to him and bowed slightly causing Takuya to back up slightly because of the unexpected gratitude. "Thank you, Tepes-san, whatever would have happened to me after that neck blow wouldn''t have been nice, would it? So thanks for helping me." Kazama came up from his bow and had a bright smile on his face. Takuya wryly smiled and nodded his acceptance on the thanks. Growing up, he''d been treated like shit and been put through spartan-like training constantly meaning he was a bit unequipped for thanks and gratitude when compared to scorn and punishment. Takuya walked up to the mysterious redhead and when he was about to speak, he was interrupted again. But this time, not be a person. *Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!* Five gunshots went off in quick succession making both Takuya''s and the girl''s heads shoot toward that direction. Takuya''s training kicked in and he quickly rushed to the side of the door and pulled out an 11" Tanto Military Knife from the back of his jeans. The girl followed his example and rushed to the other side and pulled out a Wakizashi from who knows where. Locking eyes, the girl understood that he wanted her to stay here and look after the others while he went to check out the noise. She agreed and backed up over to where the other 3 were still standing dumbly from the shock of the sudden gunshots. Takuya quickly but silently wedged the door open and ducked under it and into the corridor. Looking around he could barely tell this used to be a colony. The weird black material the Xeno''s use to make their hives was plastered across the walls without a single spot missing, frankly the slimy looking material made Takuya feel sick to even walk on it. Suddenly, Takuya''s keen ears twitched as he heard something. It sounded like...groaning? Takuya looked down the hallways and grimaced slightly when he saw what was there. Where the hallway should have continued, there was a wall of the hive-material but unlike the rest of the walls this one seemed freshly made and it was filled with groggy people who looked like death warmed up. Despite being an assassin, Takuya felt pity for these people and when he was about to go over and put them out of their misery he remembered why he was out here and heard ominous hissing from the direction of the wall. Taking one last look at the wall, Takuya walked over to the door opposite the original room where he came from. Fortunately or not, this door didn''t look like it was covered in the hive material, unlike the surrounding walls. Walking up to the door and pressing a panel on it, the door slid up. Before he could walk in a furry hand with claws grabbed him by his collar and dragged him in, while the things other hand covered his mouth to stop him from screaming. When he was inside he heard the door slide down behind him but he couldn''t concentrate on that much as he was slammed into a wall in the room he was dragged into. "Ooo looks like we''ve got a looker this time, Rin~" a feminine voice echoed with a seductive tone in the room. Takuya''s vision quickly adapted to his surroundings and he saw a tall blonde tan woman holding him up against the wall. Her golden eyes bore holes into his body. He saw that her hands were covered in a yellow/golden fur and she had animal ears on her head. Takuya felt her aesthetic looked familiar but before he could really explore that thought, the instincts carved into his body took over. Takuya swung his Tanto Knife at the woman''s neck. The movement was smooth and efficient, not wasting any movement and despite its speed, it made no noise it was as if it wasn''t moving at her nec and instead teleported there. Unfortunately, the woman''s hand which was covering Takuya''s mouth moved and caught his wrist as the blade made contact with the woman''s skin, not cutting through it at all. The woman was surprised Takuya was so fast despite being an unenhanced human. Takuya, however, wasn''t too surprised that he didn''t cut through the woman''s neck muscles as she did have an enhancement, after all, he only went for the neck because of his training. The woman went to speak but Takuya wasn''t finished. His free arm shot upward toward the woman''s face. His wrist flicked slightly and a small knife was in his hand and heading toward the woman''s left eye. The blinding speed and smoothness of the motion shocked the woman again but she quickly tilted her head to the side dodging the knife. Before Takuya could get another attack in the woman, with speed and strength beyond a human''s, grabbed both his arms and got him into a full nelson hold. "Calm down, tiger, maybe then I''ll let you go~" The woman''s voice purred in his ear. "Let him go, Himiko, he''s obviously a new player and he only attacked you because you were treating him like some sort of toy." A delicate, yet masculine voice sounded out behind Himiko. Looking behind her, Takuya saw a short-ish man with white hair and grey eyes. His androgynous face plus his long hair made it hard to tell whether or not he was a woman or a man but luckily his voice had a definite masculine tone to it, so Takuya knew he was a man. Himiko let Takuya go and he fell to the ground. After putting away his knives, Takuya got a better look at what the two of them were wearing. The man who was presumably Rin was wearing black dress pants, an untucked white dress shirt under a black waistcoat. Weirdly, however, he was only wearing socks on his feet. He also had black leather gloves on both hands. Himiko, on the other hand, had a black top on with some high waisted cut-off denim shorts. She had some normal trainers on along with this, so she actually looked pretty normal. One thing Takuya did notice was a weird belt she had on, it seemed pretty familiar but he could quite remember, his head feeling a bit dizzy after the multiple manhandlings he''d just experienced. Rin walked up to Takuya and looked up at him, their height difference being quite big. "So, who are you? What skills do you have? And have you ever read Terror Infinity before?" Rin''s delicate voice sounded oddly powerful at the minute despite its gentle tone. Chapter 3 - Alien Franchise Arc Takuya stood up straight as he recited his skills. He knew how players were in this twisted game, they needed capable people not damsels in distress. "My name is Takuya Tepes, I''m a trained assassin along with all the skills associated with such a job. And yes, I have, along with multiple fanfictions of the original idea." His calm voice spoke like a soldier to his superior; he really didn''t want to piss this guy off. Both of the people seemed surprised by his quick recollection of who he was and what he did but when they heard that he''d read Terror Infinity before they understood why he was being so compliant. "Ehh?~ So assassins read Web Novels as well? What a fun fact~" Himiko playfully said as she dragged her finger across Takuya''s chest. He recoiled a bit, not used to contact from the opposite sex, especially from such a flirty woman. Collecting himself, Takuya spoke to her. "Assassins are people as well, ya know? We do have hobbies other than killing people. Take for example my sister, she''s an assassin like me and she loves to cosplay." Takuya shrugged as he told an utter stranger about his sisters biggest secret. Himiko started to laugh while holding her stomach before stopping and winking at Takuya. "You''re an interesting person, Ta-ku-ya~" She leaned forward and cupped her already bountiful and perky breasts with her arms, further accentuating her bewitching assets. Takuya used his training to its maximum and kept a straight face at such a scene. ''Have I always been so weak to attacks like this? No wonder Mom wouldn''t let me hang out with girls...'' Takuya was dragged out of his thoughts as Rin walked up to him and waved his hand in mid-air, summoning a gun and passing it to Takuya grip first. "It may sound stupid to ask as you said you''re an assassin but you do know how to use one of these right?" Rin''s inquisitive questions nearly made Takuya burst out laughing. Takuya took the gun and examined it while he continued to laugh. It was a black Glock 22. Takuya checked the gun. It was already loaded and cocked and the gun was in immaculate condition. "As you said, I''m an assassin so that''s not a very clever question, Rin-san." Takuya''s mirthful smile made him look like a bit of a troublemaker and the exact opposite of what you''d think an assassin would be like. Rin seemed a bit distraught as if his views on assassins had been smashed. Himiko, however, seemed even more happy that Takuya wasn''t some lifeless drone who only knew how to kill people. Now that the interrogation-like feeling in the air had dispersed, Takuya remembered the time limit and looked at the time again. 3 minutes 22 seconds Upon seeing the time, Takuya lost his mirthful and teasing face which was replaced by a serious look. "We have 3 minutes before the missions starts, we need to move before the starts. The Xenomorphs don''t seem to be active yet so now is the safest time to do so." His serious voice pulled the other two out of their lax attitude as well. Rin looked into Takuya''s eyes. "Did you come from a place with others?" Seeing Takuya nod, Rin carried on "Were there any others who were as useful as you?" Takuya was a bit taken aback by this question but he knew the deal, so he nodded anyway and held up 1 finger to signify there was one other person; the redhead girl. "Okay then, make sure you two survive. Like in the Novels, we''re gonna make you newbie players go out on your own to see who''s worthy to join Team Japan. No hard feelings if anything happens, alright?" Rin seemed worried that Takuya, the seemingly emotional assassin would take this badly. But his worries weren''t needed. "*Sigh* Don''t worry about it, I understand why you''re doing what you''re doing, can''t have dead weight in the team, right?" Takuya smiled wryly but agreed anyway because he agreed that they couldn''t have dead weight on the team. It would lower their chances of survival. Rin and Himiko looked at Takuya with admiring eyes, even if he was an assassin, making these decisions was never easy for anyone. "Take those three with you then, me and Himiko are going out to farm points if we can." Rin pointed his thumb back to 3 people huddled up in the corner. Two guys and one girl. Takuya sighed but nodded in agreement. He thought for a second before warning Rin and Himiko "Be careful around the Xenomorphs, they''re quite strong even if you are enhanced." with that, Takuya rounded up the 3 civilians and went to the door. Rounding up the civilians wasted about 2 or so minutes because they refused to move. Takuya pointed a gun at them in the end and made them move. On the way out, Rin passed his a few clips of ammo and then he and Himiko pretty much disappeared in a different direction to the wall of groaning people. Standing there with 3 terrified innocents, Takuya looked toward the door and saw it was still as open as he left it. "Psst! You 4, come out here!" Takuya loudly whispered when he saw that it was nearly the start of the mission; he wanted to avoid any way of attracting Xenomorphs. The redhead popped through first, followed by Uehara who quickly scuttled over to Takuya''s side. Kazama and Sasaki came through together holding hands. All four of them plus the 3 from Rin''s room were looking around at the hallway in disgust as the slimy appearance and the slick feeling under their feet was pretty unsettling. One of the people from Rin''s room, the 1 woman, spoke up while pointing in the direction of the wall of groaning people. "What''s down there? I can hear noises!" Her fearful attitude started to infect the others as they also strained their ears to listen to the low groaning. Seeing this, Takuya frowned, knowing they''d panic if he told them the truth. "There''s nothing down there, stop wasting time, we need to go." To Takuya''s surprise, the redhead spoke up. Takuya nodded his head at her ability to know when to say something. Despite this, the woman still seemed dead set on discovering what was down that direction. She started edging toward that area before going into a jog when she saw the outlines of people in the walls. Takuya sighed and quickly rushed after her. "Don''t go over there you idiot, there''s something dangerous that way!" Takuya couldn''t help but shout at her because of how she was frantically running toward her death. 0 minutes 30 seconds She had a bit of a head start on him but he soon caught up but not before she saw what was in the wall. Deathly pale people who looked like corpses were stuck in the black and slimy hive material.Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. 0 minutes 17 seconds The woman screamed as she saw the corpse-like people. Takuya looked around, mainly the ceiling and saw 3 Xenomorphs curled up in balls, they looked like Drones but he couldn''t quite tell anything other than that they''d kill him. Seeing their lack of response, he tried something. Pulling out the gun at record speed, Takuya put 2 shots in a groaning person''s chest; where the chestburster would be. In the process, he killed the groaning woman, but he felt no remorse. If anything he''d put her out of her misery and spared her of a terribly painful death. But most of all he got what he wanted. Player Takuya has killed a Drone Xenomorph, you will be awarded 1000 points and a D-rank Reward. (Chestbursters are Xenomorphs, so don''t go busting my balls over this. It what you''d call a loophole or a cheat~) Takuya repeated the process 2 more times before hurriedly trying to drag the woman away. By this point, the other two men with her came over. Takuya looked behind them and felt lucky that the redhead had stopped Kazama and the others from coming over despite their curiosity about the gunshots. The woman refused to move, frozen by fear and the men were the same but not from the dead bodies in front of them but the Xenomorphs they could see curled up on the ceiling above them. Not wanting to bring along dead weight, Takuya gave up trying and ran back over to Kazama and the others while motioning for them to start running in the opposite direction as well. All five of them were running with Takuya and the redhead at the front being the quickest and Kazama and the other two girls struggling to keep up but still doing so. Redhead had figured out why they running as soon as she saw Takuya look into empty space and start running. The others had only just figured out as a countdown in front of them started filling them with energy born from desperation and fear. 0 minutes 5 seconds 0 minutes 4 seconds 0 minutes 3 seconds 0 minutes 2 seconds 0 minutes 1 second The Mission has now begun, good luck. As soon as they were told that the mission had started, they all heard screams behind them, followed by aggressive hissing. Kazama, Sasaki, and Uehara all paled and Takuya could even see a small trickle of liquid run down Uehara''s thigh signifying that she''d pissed herself. He couldn''t exactly blame her, they were on the run from (possibly) 3 Aliens who were born and bred killers. Takuya peeked behind them as they continued to run and saw that only one of the Xenomorphs had chased after them. Feeling slightly relieved but still anxious, Takuya urged the others to speed up as the Xenomorph was catching up to them at an alarming rate. ''We won''t be able to outrun it, not even the slightest chance of that. If we can''t outrun it we can''t hide from it and I can''t kill it with the Glock because of the amount of noise that would cause, neither could I kill it with a knife...Shit! THINK TAKUYA! THINK!'' Hearing the hissing and scampering feet behind them, not so much fearing for his own life but his newly-gained comrades''. His breathing rate became slightly panicked as he continued to think about ways out before slowly Takuya enter a calm state of mind. His eyes slowly lost focus and his breathing went from slightly frantic to slow and steady. ''Huh...I always did think my family''s ability was like Unlocked Mode...Seems like I was actually right.'' Information, plans, and tactics to survive filled Takuya''s head. A lot of them involved abandoning the others, other than the redhead, and using them as bait but he didn''t want to do that, so he dug deeper. Time slowed slightly for him as he thought about a few ideas while his unfocused eyes darted around the hallway they were running through. Up ahead he saw a big door, above it was written "Canteen" and Takuya thought ''What the hell'' before shouting for the rest of the group to head to that door. Regardless of the risks, it was either run through the door and close it or continue running until the Xenomorph caught up. Inside, Takuya saw a pretty clear area with little to no hive material around it. Takuya slid to the side of the door and shouted over to the redhead and the others. "Stand over there!" He pointed to the opposite side of the canteen to where the door was "Lure it over to you, I''ll kill it when it comes through the door!" Takuya desperately yelled as he took out the Glock, hoping it could kill the Xenomorph. Kazama and the redhead ran over to where Takuya pointed but both Sasaki and Uehara ran off to the sides, most likely fueled by fear. Takuya didn''t mind, he knew he''d asked a lot and he already had two people doing the job for him anyway. Both the redhead and Kazama looked out the Canteen door started waving their hands and make hushed shouts at the creature. Takuya brought up the Glock and got into the proper shooting stance. He took multiple deep breaths, still in Unlocked Mode and started to focus. Every sense he had was finely tuned by his training under his family''s hands and now he was pushing them to their limits. His eyes strained as the blood vessels within them became red and incredibly visible. Everything started to slow down. The world around him went silent. Only the sound of his own breathing and the flow of his blood could be heard. The front part of the Xenomorphs head popped through the door. Takuya had to bring forth everything to control himself and not fire at that point; he had to wait for the right time, that was paramount over everything. Even his own fear. More and more of the Xenomorph entered the room. To the others, it seemed like the creature was moving blindingly quick but to the current Takuya, it was moving so slowly, like a normal person walking at a calm pace. Takuya concentrated even further than what he already was, furthering his heart''s powerful thrumming in his ears and also furthering the visibility of the bright red blood vessels threatening to pop open in his eyes. Every little bit of his body was aimed at one goal using both Unlocked Mode and a little extra something as mediums; Killing the Xenomorph. He dragged his arm to follow the moving Xenomorph and got his aim in the right place before firing at the side of the Xenomorph''s head. Takuya knew he couldn''t shoot at it straight on; its head and chest exoskeleton were too thick and hard. But while he was in this mysterious mode he instantly thought of where it would be weak e.g the sides where the exoskeleton would have to be thinner. When his aim was in the right place, he fired the shots at the Xenomorph''s equivalent of a temple and slowly moved his aim as the Xenomorph moved. *Bang!* The first bullet left the gun and hit the Xenomorphs head instantly sending a myriad of cracks throughout it but no penetration. *Bang!* The second bullet soon followed afterward and spread the cracks further and a bit of green blood dripped through the cracks. The Xenomorph recoiled slightly, the impacts finally settling in. Takuya felt a dull ache behind his eyes bit ignored it to complete his mission. *Bang!* The third bullet made the cracks big enough for more blood to drip through and the Xenomorph was starting to pull away and out of Takuya''s aim. Not one to waste time, Takuya rapidly fired two bullets. This rapid fire caused him to use even more concentration to make sure both bullets it, the result of this was two trails of blood left his eyes traveling down his face before dropping off of it. Along with the blood vessels in his eyes looking like red wiggling worms with a few of them even popping. *Bang!Bang!* Luckily these two bullets made impact just like the others with the first one fully breaking through the exoskeleton and wrecking a bit of havoc on the brain inside but nothing compared to the second bullet which ricochetted all around in the head fully turning the brain around the wound into mush. The Xenomorph collapsed to the floor and Takuya let out a breath he didn''t know he was holding. As he did that he got two messages. Player Takuya has killed a Drone Xenomorph, you will be awarded 1000 points and a D-rank Reward. Congratulations to Player Takuya, you have completed the Basics for the Technique "Ittou Shura", so you may now buy it for a reduced price of 250 points and a D-rank Reward. After that, he fell on his ass desperately breathing and clutching at his chest as his heart and lungs along with the rest of his internal organs felt like they''d been used as baseballs for the past few seconds. "Shit...!" was all he could groggily get out before his consciousness faded to black, his head falling backward and hitting the metallic floor with an audible thump. Chapter 4 - Alien Franchise Arc Slowly Takuya opened his eyes. Unlike what he thought, he felt a soft mattress underneath his prone body instead of the cold metal floor he was expecting. And that was if he didn''t get eaten first. Takuya slowly pulled himself up but stopped halfway before dropping back down and howling out in pain while clutching his, well, attempting to clutch his everything. His entire body burned like it had been doused in honey and then thrown in front of an army of red ants and then after the ants were done, wasps and bees came over to have a go as well. Another problem was that Takuya couldn''t exactly see properly either. He could get an image when he opened his eyes but it was blurry as hell. Luckily for him, his other 4 senses had been trained to their peak and he could maneuver quite easily if he was only missing one. The only reason this was a problem was that he couldn''t aim with any other sense other than sight no matter how trained they were, accurately anyway. Takuya rapidly blinked his eyes a few times and that cleared up a lot of the blur but everything was still a little out of detail and he finally felt the pain behind his eyes acting up again. "You''ve damaged your eyes, Takuya, stop trying to focus with them, you''ll make it worse." a calm and strict voice sounded out behind Takuya. Tilting his head in the least painful way, Takuya could see the redhead girl coming over with a bowl of water and a towel. Takuya watched as she folded the towel a few times until it was like a strip of cloth. She then dripped it in the water and lay it across his eyes. "What''s this supposed to accomplish?" Takuya seemed skeptical of what she doing. "I''m going to perform a medical massage on you and your eyes need to rest..." she carried on in a whisper after that before beginning the massage. If it wasn''t for the pain, Takuya would have seen that he''d pretty much been stripped to his bare minimum under the blanket resting on him. The massage was relaxing and felt nice, but it felt like a normal massage to Takuya, he didn''t know what was special about it at all. "So...how do you wish to be addressed, redhead?" Takuya grunted as her soft hands worked across his sore calves, pushing the tension out of them. She yelped at the question for some reason but answered soon after. "...My name is Mikasa Jaeger...You can address me as Mikasa..." Most of what she said was a mumble but Takuya heard her anyway. What he did wonder, however, was where the confident, calm and strict redhead had gone. ''It can''t be because she''s touching a guy''s body, right? She seems like she has a lot of experience doing this, so that shouldn''t be a problem, right?'' Takuya kept thinking about useless stuff as Mikasa continued her massage. Slowly but surely his pain and fatigue left his body leaving him with a relaxed, even pleasurable, feeling flowing through his body in his blood and healing the tears in his muscles due to entering Unlocked Mode. "...I''m done...Now you have to rest..." Mikasa got up and ran off, Takuya took the towel off his eyes and looked at her running figure. His eyes had pretty much gone back to normal but he had a feeling that too much concentration would put him back where he was. He saw that Mikasa''s face was beet red and wonder why for a whole 3 seconds before he turned and looked at his own body. More accurately he was looking at her lower half; his little, no, big brother had been awoken by the massage. "You impertinent piece of shit..." Takuya felt sorry for Mikasa as he looked at the beast trying to break out of his boxers. Sighing, Takuya slowly pulled himself up into a sitting position and closed his eyes. Clearing his mind of all weird thoughts, he slowly entered a calm and collected state. He started breathing in a weird pattern. This was his family''s own healing art, it used the users breathing as a way to control the body and up the capabilities of the organs and put them into overdrive. It may have sounded like it hurt or would have a side-effect but it didn''t for some reason. The body''s entire recovery rate was boosted to it''s maximum with this breathing technique and now that Takuya could breathe and move with little to no pain after Mikasa''s ''brave'' work, he could start on fully healing himself. While he was healing himself, he wondered how long he was out and if they were still in the Canteen. Finally opening his eyes, Takuya stood up and put his clothes on, which had been placed next to where he was lying. Looking around where he was, Takuya saw a mirror and an empty bucket hung underneath it. Walking up to the mirror, Takuya took in his appearance. Short-ish black hair slicked backward with a few strands falling and covering bits of his forehead. His skin was a slightly pale white which was mostly unblemished apart from a scar on his left cheek and a few more on his neck. His piercing emerald green eyes looked both inviting and intimidating. He was wearing a form-fitting black shirt under a black winter parka coat along with black jeans. The reason he was wearing his parka was that it was weirdly cold wherever they were. Reminding himself that he had questions to ask he walked out of the little closed off space he was.The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. Instantly he knew they were still in the Canteen. The door they entered through had been blocked by multiple benches and chairs and tables making a formidable barricade which while it wasn''t strong enough to resist a swarm of Xenomorphs would be enough to deter a few from actually searching the canteen. Looking up at the ceiling and walls, Takuya could see that all the vents had been sealed shut with multiple metal plates. Again, it wouldn''t be able to hold up against a Xenomorphs blood but it''d be able to stop them from wondering in here or spying on them. Feeling relatively safe in the canteen compared to when he was in the hallway, Takuya started to curiously look around. The area looked like it had been a campsite even before they arrived. Bed sets surrounding what looked like a heater, a cooking pot was not too far from that. Everything was orderly, there was no blood, red or green for that matter. ''Where did all of them go?'' Takuya was thinking about where they could have gone. They hadn''t been killed here because of the severe lack of blood and the orderly look of the camp. It didn''t seem likely they''d been chased out of here, in a hurry at the least as nothing looked like it''d been trodden over in a hurry away from something. Dirty and creased, yes, but misplaced and messy, no. Takuya came to a conclusion that they''d simply moved somewhere else. All semblance of food was gone, so were all kinds of personal items such as pictures of family (and that was if they had photos of a family still and not just holograms or something) or books and diaries of some sort. So that was the conclusion he''d come to, so he left the slightly enclosed area the beds and food pots were in. Walking out he saw the other 4 spread across the room. Sasaki was sitting next to Kazama shaking while Kazama sat there and held her hand to try and help calm her down. Not too far from them was Uehara who shot up when she saw that Takuya had walked out and was up and about. Mikasa also saw that Takuya had come out but she averted her gaze because of the previous incident, turning bright red. Takuya had a light blush when he remembered what happened as well and he couldn''t help but curse his lack of experience with the opposite sex. Uehara got up and practically skipped over to Takuya." "Tepes-kun, you''re okay!" Her voice sounded relieved and out of nowhere she dropped the blanket wrapped around her and put her arms around Takuya''s body. Takuya was slightly shocked like he''d just taken a punch to the gut or something. His lack of experience is a problem, again. All he could do was pat her on the back a few times before he pried her off of him. She looked immensely happy when she looked at him, so much so that it was slightly worrying to Takuya. Sure this stuff happens in Animes and Manga but when it happens in real life, it means more than just ''a girl likes you'' it can mean she''d gone a bit crazy in all honesty. So Takuya decided to step lightly around this situation. Kazama looked over when he saw Uehara walk up and call out to Takuya. He looked just as happy with what looked like stars in his eyes as he looked at Takuya. Not in a weird way but in an ''I''m looking at an anime character'' kind of way. Kazama consoled Sasaki and walked over to Takuya. Taking it as a way to get away from Uehara''s weird behavior, Takuya walked to Kazama, meeting him halfway. "Tepes-san, how did you do what you did earlier?! You did it so calmly! Are you a super secret soldier or something?" Kazama had an excited/serious expression as he stepped closer to Takuya in case his ''theory'' was right and he had to keep it secret. Takuya looked at Kazama with a twitching eyebrow. ''Super secret soldier? Am I secret or super? Make up your mind...I think I''d make a good sup--Nevermind! Talking to myself like a madman...'' "I''m not a super secret soldier, Kazama-san." Takuya paused thinking if he should tell him what he really is. Shrugging his shoulders, it didn''t really matter if he knew so he continued speaking "I''m an assassin. They teach you how to stay calm and shoot accurately and I also had Unlocked Mode to help me." "You''re an assassin?! Woah!" "Wait, you can enter Unlocked Mode?" "What''s unlocked mode?" Three replies all at the same time. Oddly excited Kazama, surprised Mikasa and confused/curious Uehara. Luckily Takuya caught all of what they all said. He turned to Mikasa and nodded before looking at Uehara and speaking in a voice that everyone could hear. "It''s pretty much something that allows you to use the survival instincts in a human to their limits to solve a problem or situation. I used Unlocked Mode to sort out my plan before I entered this room using the tactics and information it gave me. Think of it as a Key that opens up every usable piece of information from your genetics and an Assistant that helps sort it out for you so you don''t instantly pass out from a sensory/information overload." Takuya spoke as if teaching a student with his eyes closed and a mock sage aura around him. Kazama nodded his head with vigorous energy and looked like he was engraving the information in his head before he suddenly worriedly looked at Takuya. "Tepes-sensei, could you teach me how to enter Unlocked Mode?" There was a desperation to his voice that was rather endearing for some reason. Like a puppy trying to climb the stairs. Takuya laughed but before he answered, Mikasa butted in, obviously displeased with him having fun. "Unlocked Mode can only be achieved through being pushed to your absolute limits in both mind and body and being threatened with the outcome of death. Takuya probably went through trial and tribulations beyond intense to enter it. It''s both famed in both Takuya''s Assassin Society and my Martial Society. You have a chance of gaining it through God''s Dimension." Mikasa calmly said. If Mikasa and Takuya were police partners, Mikasa would be the Bad Cop while Takuya would be the Good Cop. That''s what Kazama felt anyway. Hearing her mention God''s Dimension and how they could gain Unlocked Mode from it, Takuya looked at her with a surprised look on his face. "Wait, Mikasa, you know about God''s Dimension...Have you read Terror Infinity?" Takuya poised his question carefully, not wanting to do anything to upset the girl who seemed to be in a mood with him. Mikasa nodded furthering Takuya''s surprise. He didn''t quite expect a girl like Mikasa to like Web Novels or anything of the like. Being dragged from his thoughts, Sasaki screamed and ran over from them, leaving the boxes she was sitting on behind. Kazama reacted first surprisingly, he rushed to Sasaki and brought her behind him. Takuya quickly collected himself and looked away from Mikasa who did the same as him. They both looked at Sasaki who shakily pointed at the boxes. "T-t-there''s something there! I heard it moving!" a fear induced yell left her mouth as she curled herself up behind Kazama. Takuya looked at the boxes or more specifically the area behind the boxes which looked sort of like a mountain of boxes, trash, and metal scraps. In between the gaps, although they were small, Takuya could see something moving. He could also hear it now that he concentrated on trying to. Takuya reached for his gun but slightly paled when he realized he didn''t have it on him. This was going to be annoying. Was what he thought when the unexpected happened. Chapter 5 - Alien Franchise Arc Instead of a homicidal alien walking out of the trash pile, a small human head popped out. The head was covered in unkempt black hair with hung quite low off the person''s head. The person didn''t look too old at all, probably around 10 or 11 at most but it was hard to tell based on their face which was covered in chunks of dry mud and other kinds of muck. The thing that stood out the most were the dull blue eyes which started to regain their luster when they saw the dead Xenomorph and the group of people in front of her. It was like before she was hopeless but now she''d found something to hold on to. Takuya release a sigh of relief when he saw it wasn''t a Xenomorph. He was pretty sure Mikasa did the same as she left her combat stance. Doing the same thing, Takuya lowered his hands and walked slowly over to the child. "Don''t worry kid, we''re like you," he motioned to everything around him "We''re trapped as well." Seeing him come closer, the kid backed up into the trash pile, not listening to Takuya and instead feeling scared of his reassuring words. Scrunching his brows he slowly followed after the child, squeezing through the small hole into the would-be home. First thing Takuya felt was the heat in here. Opposed to the outside which felt like a winter day, inside this trash pile it felt like a nice, warm day. Not too hot, not too cold - the perfect temperature. When he saw some futuristic looking heaters, he knew the cause of this heat. Plus it smelled much better in here than it did outside the pile. Which was odd because the pile was made of boxes, trash, and metal scraps. In short, it should smell horrid. But it didn''t, Takuya wondered how this worked. Futuristic Air fresheners? Looking around the heaters, Takuya saw multiple bed rolls all combined into one massive bed, around the bed were multiple books and comics along with dolls and action figures. The entire place didn''t seem like the kind of place only one person lived, more like where a family lived. And he wasn''t wrong, besides the black haired kid was a shorter-haired one with brown hair and eyes who was glaring at Takuya like he was the devil or something. In an attempt to console the two distrustful kids, Takuya put his hands in the air for the universal sign of surrender before speaking again. "I come in peace, I don''t want to hurt you. If anything I want to help you." Takuya spoke as gently as he could. For once in his life, he cursed his tall and imposing figure as he saw how reserved the kids were in front of him. Luckily, what he said seemed to pique the interest in the black-haired kid who, now that Takuya looked at her, seemed like she was a girl; softer features than the brown-haired person who seemed like her brother or close friend. The girl stood up, shrugging off the boy''s protests to keep her near him, and walked up to Takuya who still had his arms in the air. She looked at him with a discerning gaze, trying to figure out if he was a nice person. Anyone else would have instantly said he was a hoodlum with the scar on his face and the others on his neck. But the girl had a small smile on her face before she put forth her hand which was curled in a fist with only the pinky finger pointing out. "You promise to help us? Pinky promise?" Takuya was surprised with the kid''s naivety and innocence seeing as she was in such a hell hole surrounded by creatures that wanted to either kill her or use her as a holder for an egg that would eventually kill her. But seeing the intelligence floating around in the girl''s eyes, he could tell that she didn''t view him as a bad person with ulterior motives. She reasoned that if he was, why wouldn''t he just act on the motive? He was a big guy so he could easily overpower 2 kids but he didn''t, so she came to the conclusion he was sincere about his words. Takuya put his hand toward the girl''s hand with his pinky stretched out before locking his with hers. "Yeah, I pinky promise. Now can you tell me your names and what happened here?" he continued to speak gently as he looked between the girl and the boy. Trusting the girl''s instinct on whether or not Takuya was a bad guy or not, the brown-haired boy stopped glaring at Takuya and even came over to stand next to the girl. The girl smiled when she looked at the pinky promise like she''d found a lighthouse in a storm. She started to speak after the happiness from the simple promise faded a little. "My name is Sala, short for Salamander and this is my brother Tad, short for Tadpole." She proudly spoke their names, obviously because of their uniqueness. Takuya''s temple had the slight bulge of a vein as he heard the names. "...Are you really making rip-off Newts, God?..." He whispered in disbelief while looking up at what presumably was God with judgemental eyes. * (* In the second Movie for the Alien franchise there was a little girl who was found in a colony by Ripley called Newt, I''m pretty much stealing that idea and putting it in here~) Sala and Tad were looking at him in confusion but he motioned for Sala to carry on before stopping her again and speaking himself. "Can you come out with me to my friends and explain it to them as well? It''d be better if we all knew about what happened." Takuya proposed to Sala before waiting for her answer which came quickly in the form of a nod.Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Takuya and the two kids walked out of the pile that was their home and Takuya did some introductions for everyone before telling his group that Sala was about to tell them what happened to everyone. Everyone looked intently at Sala as she started to speak. "My mommy and daddy were scientists and they were researching these creatures, I know because we," she motioned towards herself and her brother "followed them one day and watched them do all sorts of tests on them. So when the creatures escaped, my parents were the first to know and they ushered a group of researchers and their families to the canteen to keep them safe." Sala took a big breath before carrying on. "Because of all the tests they''d done on the creatures, mommy and daddy seemed to know how to keep the creatures away. They played sounds in other parts of the colony which attracted the creatures away from the canteen while they sprayed down this weird liquid which seemed to make the creatures uncomfortable and go away for good." Sala seemed immensely proud of her parents as she beamed a smile showing her pearly white teeth. But her happiness seemed stunted by memories of what happened next. She spoke again but this time in a sadder voice. "After that, everyone stopped carrying about the creatures. They got too relaxed and 1 by 1 they were starting to get picked off by the creatures when they went out to look for supplies. Then people stopped being taken because we got cautious again but not too long after we got careless again but they didn''t pick us off, no the creatures followed people back to here and when that was found out everyone panicked." "So they ran away? To where?" Mikasa poised a question when Sala had stopped. "They were going to go to the warehouses which store the food and water for the colony. Every time they went looting there, there was no sign of the creatures, so they thought it was a safe place." Sala said the last part with teary eyes and shaking shoulders. Takuya walked over to her and squatted in front of her before putting his hands reassuringly on her shoulders. "Don''t worry about it, kid." He squeezed her shoulder a little before carrying on "But where did your parents go? I doubt they ran off with the others and left their kids here." "Of course they didn''t run away and leave us!" Tad who hadn''t spoken yet suddenly burst out and threw a punch at Takuya''s face. Takuya saw it coming but let it hit, knowing the boy needed a physical release for his pent-up emotions. *Smack!* A crisp sound echoed as Tad''s small fist came into contact with Takuya''s face. Takuya''s head didn''t move, nor did he even look at Tad, as if the punch never happened. Sala wasn''t so indifferent to it, however. "Tad! Why''d you hit him?! He''s the one who''s gonna help us, you idiot!" Sala yelled as she tried to hit Tad on the head but she was stopped by Takuya who shook his head signaling for her to not do anything. Finally, Takuya''s emerald green eyes locked onto Tad''s brown ones causing Tad to flinch back a little. Takuya let go of Sala''s shoulders and moved his hands toward Tad who flinched even more so than previously and even closed his eyes shut, obviously expecting a smack from the big man in front of him. What he didn''t expect was a pat on the head and to open his eyes to a gentle smile from the man he''d just hit. "That was a good punch, Tad. I wasn''t trying to imply that your parents left you, in fact, from what I''ve heard your parents seem like brilliant people." Takuya ruffled Tad''s hair a little "I just wanna know where they went, that''s all, okay?" Tad flushed in embarrassment, obviously knowing he had acted like a brat and that he was lucky Takuya was so patient with his behavior. When Takuya''s hand left his head, Tad walked backward and behind Sala, trying to find a hole to hide in. Sala smiled thankfully at Takuya before she spoke about what happened to her parents. "Mommy and Daddy were going to call for help from the company they work for by going to the Communication Building on the far end of the base, they left a day ago and they should be back by now..." Sala stopped speaking, obviously scared of coming to any obvious conclusions. Takuya and the rest looked at Sala and Tad with pity when they thought about the chances of them surviving while wandering around on the colony with the Xenomorphs crawling all over the place. Sala saw their pity and seemed a bit peeved as she stepped forward. "They''re still alive, don''t think Mommy and Daddy are helpless in front of the creatures, they have multiple ways to kill one!" "I guess you''d know best if they''d survive," Takuya lied a little to reassure Sala before continuing and switching the subject a little "So, Sala, what do you want me to help you with? You seemed like you needed help." Sala brightened up when she heard what Takuya said. "I need your help to find my mommy and daddy!" she half-yelled as she looked at Takuya with hopeful and pleading eyes. She didn''t have to plead however, he had enough incentive already. Hidden Quest Discovered, Congratulations! "A Daughter''s Hope" quest has been activated. Objective: Find both Dr. Melissa Ford and Head Researcher John Ford before the end of the Mission time given. Quest Reward: 4500 points and a C-rank Reward to the player who promised to find them or 2000 points and a D-rank Reward to the rest of Team Japan Upon Failure: Sala, Tad, and their parents die and the whole of Team Japan loses 2000 points Add-on Effects: Player who promised to find them has mission extended to 24 hours instead of 6. Rest of Team Japan''s mission time stays unchanged. This message appeared in front of all of Takuya and the others and all of them paled a bit because they knew that Takuya was going to have to spend an extra 18 hours in this colony, alone. "I''ll help you, Sala. Now did your mommy or daddy have a map of the colony?" Takuya asked, distracting himself from the annoying quest notice in front of him. Sala nodded vigorously to Takuya''s question so Takuya motioned for her and Tad to go and retrieve it for him. When they wondered off, Takuya turned around to the others who were worriedly looking at him. Seeing the looks, Takuya forced a smile to reassure the others. "Don''t worry about it, you guys, I''ll survive, I always do." He playfully shrugged as he went over and sat down on a box, waiting for Sala to come back with the map he''d need to plan out his route toward wherever the Communication Building. "Oh, and how long was I out for?" Takuya looked curiously at the others. Mikasa looked at him like he was an idiot before answering. "You were out for about an hour and ten minutes but didn''t you think to look at the timer for our Mission Time when you woke up? Are you an idiot?" Mikasa''s strict voice and what she said did indeed make Takuya feel like an idiot. ''Goddamn, why didn''t I do think of that...'' Takuya mental lamentation was only brought to a stop as Sala walked out of her trash pile and over to them with multiple maps and blueprints rolled up in her arms, followed by Tad who was also holding a few maps. Takuya put on a confident smile to greet the two and make sure Tad and Sala''s hope was kept ignited. Chapter 6 - Alien Franchise Arc "Here are the maps, Takuya!" Sala beamed as she thrust her arms forward toward Takuya. Takuya, being distracted by his prolonged sentence in this hell hole, welcomed the blueprints and maps as a distraction that he sorely needed. Taking the things from Sala''s arms, Takuya stood up and walked over to a clear space before organizing the blueprints and maps for the whole of the colony. Looking at a map of the dimensions, Takuya could see what from west to east it was 2km long and 1km from north to south. They were in the middle of the colony which is in the canteen which is usually the center for most places. The Communications Building was in the far south of the of the colony, so it was about 1000 meters away from where they were. Takuya looked at a few routes he could take on the map and looked at a map which had crosses were Xenomorph sitings were most common. As Takuya''s luck would dictate quite a lot of sitings were on the quickest routes to the Communication Building. Takuya put his bets on the Queen of the Hive figuring out that if people could get to the Building they could call for help and that wouldn''t be too good for her and her hive. So she put up patrols around there to kill anyone who attempted to get to it. Takuya doubted that Sala''s parents were stupid enough to go through the routes with the most Xenomorphs, so he looked for the route which they would most likely take. After looking for a while, looking at blueprints and maps multiple times, he''d worked out a rough route. He had thought to simply leave the colony and walk all the way around to the outside of the south side of the colony but Sala soon put an end to that thought when she educated him on the severe lack of Oxygen on the outside. Takuya felt a bit humbled/humiliated by the fact he had to be corrected by a child on something that should''ve seemed like common sense but he pushed through it. The route he decided to take was probably the longest one he could take and half of it would require him to crawl through vents. Takuya shuddered at the very thought, not because he was claustrophobic but because the vents are the Xenomorphs home grounds. Regardless, Takuya steeled his resolve as he collected his gun off of Mikasa who had it for safekeeping after Takuya passed out. He wanted to leave the gun with the others, for protection against any wandering Xenos but Sala told him not to worry as she had a lot of stuff their parents left with them to keep the Xenomorphs at bay. Takuya wondered what this was but decided to not ask, he couldn''t take it with him and leave them defenseless so he didn''t exactly need to know. Takuya started moving the benches, chairs, and tables which were used to block the entrance. He did alone for a bit before Mikasa came over to help him. The others stayed away because they knew they wouldn''t be able to do it slowly like how Mikasa and Takuya were. There was no talk between Mikasa and Takuya, mainly because Takuya was going over his plan constantly in his head and Mikasa knew this so she kept silent as well. Moving the bare minimum of the objects was done pretty quickly, both Takuya''s and Mikasa''s strength making easy work of it. When Takuya was about to leave, Sala stopped him. She gave him multiple things, including a flashlight, some flares, a small fold up map and a small compass. Takuya thanked her with a pat on the head before fully leaving. As he walked down the hallway, straining his hearing to pick up on indications there were Xenos around him. He knew he wouldn''t be able to hear them from far away but he at least wanted to try. All he heard was creaks and groans, with the occasional spray of steam from the pipes around him, it was unnerving, to say the least. Takuya slowly walked along the route he''d memorized, occasionally stopping and listening for anything around him or shining the flashlight, Sala had given him, around wherever he was. For the most part, the journey was quite quiet, like the sitings would suggest. The hive material even got scarcer the further along the route he traveled. But all good things come to an end. Just before the part of the route where he had to switch to a vent, something was different. There was hissing. As soon as he heard it, Takuya stood stock still, straining his ears to hear where it came from. *Hissss!*This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. It was above him but it was slowly circling across the ceiling and to the side of the hallway next to him. He heard it''s feet touch the floor, sounding like metal blades being stabbed into metal floors. Takuya wondered why it wasn''t being quiet; because it didn''t fear him, it didn''t think he was worth the trouble. It knew it was the predator and he was the prey. Being trained to be the killer, Takuya was pretty unready for this feeling. As the Alien walked up to him, stretching itself into its bipedal form and towering over him with its 7ft+ height, dripping its saliva on his head. Feeling this threat to his life, this looming hand of death...Takuya felt... ''I feel...'' *Hisssss!* Another aggressive Hiss and the Xenomorph positioned itself behind Takuya, looking down at the crown of his head and opening its silvery jaws showing the inner jaws of death that flicker with the same metallic shine as it''s outer ones. ''I feel...!'' *Hisssssss!* The Hiss which would be it''s last to Takuya was in preparation for its kill. It would usually have taken a civilian to be implanted with eggs but it felt a danger from this one and felt it needed to protect the Hive. Takuya''s heartbeat was thumping in his ear, his blood threatening to burst forth from his veins and arteries. But his breathing was steady, like the calm before the storm. Takuya hadn''t noticed it yet but his eyes had unfocused and his hand reached for his belt but not for his gun. The inner jaws of the creature sprung forth, aiming to plow through Takuya''s head. The insidious little jaw made contact with his raven black hair, yearning to breach through his skull. But it was not given what it so dearly wished for. The Xeno seemed oddly confused that it hadn''t felt the human''s blood on it jaws or the warmness of its flesh, looking down at it''s would be prey it was shocked to find it''s ''prey'' had tilted its head of the way. Not giving the Xeno another chance to think, Takuya spun around pulling something from his belt, laughing joyfully as he did so in a fluid motion. ''I feel...alive!'' *Fshhhhh* It was a flare he''d just lit. Using incredible finesse and speed, Takuya grabbed the Xeno''s inner jaw, keeping it outside its head, and shoved the lit flare into the creature''s mouth knowing that it wouldn''t bite down on it''s equivalent to a tongue. A hideous scream was the result of his efforts, the alien starting to thrash about, flinging it''s razor-sharp tail around its vicinity and slashing with its claws at anything it thought it saw move. The pain was blinding to the Xenomorph. Takuya was obviously away by this time and running toward the vent he needed to get to. He knew the Xenomorph didn''t follow him because last time he looked back it was still thrashing about, the flare still burning a permanent brand into its mouth. Seeing the vent, Takuya thanked the Gods (God) above that it was open and unobstructed. Knowing there was a chance of Xenos being in there, Takuya brought up both the Glock and the flashlight as he pretty much dived into the vent. The vent was on a bit of a descent down, so Takuya slid down it for a while making sure to point the flashlight and the gun forward and up his vigilance even further as it didn''t help him much at its current level earlier. But luckily, other than his own heartbeat and the sound of him quietly tumbling down the vent, he heard nothing and saw even less as the metallic vents looked untouched by the Hive. Coming to the end of the descent, Takuya turned right heading up another vent. It was a tight fit because of his broad shoulders but he managed. Climbing up the slightly traction-less vent was annoying, to say the least, but Takuya would take annoying over a run-in with a Xenomorph any day. By now he was leaving the Unlocked Mode he never knew he entered, luckily because of his training he didn''t spasm out and start frothing at the mouth like normal people do when they exit Unlocked Mode for the first few times. Slowly crawling through the vents, Takuya slowly made his way toward his destination. Obviously, his speed was limited so it would take him about 30 minutes to get there, maybe, even more, depending on variables on the way there. His trip to the vent and his small fight with the Xeno had taken about 10 minutes, so plus his time passed out and the time spent talking to Sala and organizing his plan he''d spent about 1 hour and 40 minutes out of his original 6 hours which was now bumped up to 24 hours. So the others had 4 hours and 20 minutes until they went back and he had the same amount of time to have what might be his last bit of human contact with people from his world. Sighing in the vent, Takuya shook his head and just got on with his crawling and not dwelling on his possible death and loneliness. A bit quicker than his predictions, Takuya made it to his final destination in 25 minutes instead of 30. ''What an achievement.'' Takuya looked around at where he was and sure enough, he saw a sign which pointed him toward the direction of where the Communication Building was. Walking slowly and carefully, checking the corners of the hallway whenever he could, Takuya made it to what should''ve been the communication tower. Sadly, however, it looked like a massive wreck, fire and collapsed building parts everywhere. Luckily, the entrance was strangely unharmed, so Takuya could enter. "...Great..." was all Takuya said before wandering in. Chapter 7 - Alien Franchise Arc Walking into the Building, Takuya was surprised by the lack of smoke clogging up his vision and lungs. He''d come in prepared to hold his breath until he found clean air but apparently his precaution was unnecessary. Takuya looked around and thought everything was weirdly organized for a building that looked like it was in ruins. Marking it as a happy coincidence, Takuya continued walking through the building until he reached a stairwell. He had to get to the top floor and he had to go up about 30 floors which didn''t sit too well with him when he thought about the fires in the building and the fact the structure didn''t look very sturdy at the minute. Steeling his resolve and reminding himself about the points he''d get after this, Takuya took his first step up the stairway. Walking, walking and more walking, that''s all Takuya did. He was expecting to have to jump and parkour his way up the stairs of the supposedly broken building but he felt that if he hadn''t seen the outside, he''d have thought he was in a perfectly fine building. He also noticed that the floor and walls were covered in a slight sheen of liquid. When he brought some to his nose he remembered the time when his sister sprayed him with down with bear pheromones in a forest full of the bastard things. It got pretty annoying after she did that. The smell was different but it smelt similar. Kind of like the opposite at the same time, however. Thinking about it, Takuya thought that if the Bear pheromone was a "Come here, try and kill me!" kind, then this liquid was a warning the kind that screamed, "Come here and I''ll fucking slaughter you!". Takuya put the earlier information from Sala to work and figured this must be the liquid/pheromone her parents had used to ward off the Xenomorphs from coming near the canteen. He guessed that they must have laid this down to cover their tracks and make sure they weren''t disturbed by a random Xenomorph. Suddenly, Takuya was dragged away from his wondering about the pheromone by two screams. One a feminine scream and the other a masculine yell-like scream. Takuya instantly thought those screams were from Sala''s parents, so he started running up the stairs. Pushing his leg muscles to the limit, Takuya made it to the top in no time and saw where the sound came from. A Xenomorph was in front of a heavy steel door, slowly prying it open with its slender arms and sleek tail. Unlike the other Xenos from before, this one had a ridged head which told Takuya it was a Xenomorph Warrior. ''Shit...!'' From between the small gap of the door that had been pried open by the alien, Takuya could see a man with black hair and brown eyes and a woman with brown hair and blue eyes and both of them held significantly similar looks to both Tad and Sala. Takuya came to the not-so-hard conclusion that these two were Sala''s parents. God''s Dimension also proved this. Mission Update. Objective "Find Dr. Mellisa Ford and Head Researcher John Ford" Completed. New Objective: Help kill the Xenomorph Warrior attempting to kill them and help them with anything they want after that. ''It being a chain mission wasn''t included in the briefing, you sly fucking God...'' The man seemed to see Takuya and saw that Takuya saw him but before he could call out, Takuya put a finger to his lips to tell him to act like he wasn''t there. Takuya pulled his Gun up and took aim before grabbing the 11" Tanto Knife from the inside of his jacket and holding it in a reverse grip below his gun. Takuya slowly moved around the Xenomorph who was wholeheartedly focused on trying to open the door in front of it. Silent steps, Takuya was like a shadow, not even his clothes made a ruffling noise as he positioned himself to the side of the Xenomorph. He figured he could kill this one the same way as the one before. Focusing himself, Takuya settled his heartbeat and calmed his breath as his eyes constricted to pinpoints and his aim focused in on one point. *Bang!* The first bullet hit, sending some small cracks throughout the area it hit but much less than it did to the Drone before. ''Figures.'' Was all Takuya thought before he double tapped another two bullets into the same spot furthering the cracks but no blood dripped despite the size of the cracks. By now the Xenomorph had turned to Takuya hissing before lunging at him. Surprisingly, the door flung open and the man came out with a flamethrower in his hands. When he was about to blast the Xeno, he saw that he''d hit Takuya so he held off on it and instead looked worryingly at his and his wife''s savior. Takuya saw this and let out a sigh of relief. He was glad Sala''s Dad, John, had some sense in his head. But back to more serious matters; the angry Xenomorph Warrior charging him. Takuya didn''t need to enter Unlocked Mode, so he held off on letting it take over. Despite him being able to handle the strain of entering and leaving it, he didn''t want any slip-ups in a Xenomorph Hive. But him not using Unlocked Mode wasn''t that detrimental to him right now when he was only against one. The other times, Takuya had slightly panicked when faced with the unknown but now that he''d adapted to their appearance and their movements, he could handle one. Growing up in an assassin family he''d been forced to kill Bears, Wolves, Tigers and an assortment of dangerous predators and a Xenomorph was just like them; Stronger than him, more durable and quicker. But he had one advantage; his innate intelligence and his unnatural genius when it came to fighting and killing. When the Xenomorph got near him, charging at him with its fangs bared, Takuya slipped past it using the least amount of energy and even barely touching its teeth with the side of his arm.Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. Quickly, Takuya lifted up the gun and shot a bullet straight at the Xeno''s head. *Bang!* It hit the same place as the other bullets chipping the exoskeleton and sending bits and pieces off along with it''s green blood, the point-blank range obviously having a magnificent effect to add to it''s already damaged armor. A shrill scream echoed through the floor they were on, John''s expression one of pure shock. Obviously wondering how a human could stand that close to a Xenomorph and not get killed instantly let alone fight back against it. Takuya gracefully flipped over the tail swinging toward him trying to catch him off guard and turned to face the Xeno which was turning to meet him again. "Stupid Xeno..." Takuya said as he shot the side of the head which was turning toward him. He called it stupid because it turned the side of the head which was chipped and leaking blood. *Bang!* Shrieking, the Xenomorph got into its bipedal stance and walked toward Takuya, finally realizing it''s quadrupedal way of attack had no effect on Takuya as he already knew a way to counter it. The Warrior did a sort of jog at Takuya with its arms wide like it was going to hug him. A very tight and deadly hug, especially with its long talon-like claws. Takuya smirked a the Warrior; he had even more experience fighting with Bipedal things, not that he minded the Xeno handing itself to him on a silver platter. Knocked out of his careless attitude, the Xenomorph swiped its hand at blinding speed toward Takuya''s head/neck area. Takuya seeing the attack incoming, ducked under it, losing a few strands of hair in the process before maneuvering himself to the side of the Xeno''s body and firing another shot. *Bang!* It wasn''t that the Xeno was weak, in fact, if even a little bit of its attacks hit Takuya in a vital place he''d instantly die most likely. It was just too slow for someone like Takuya who''d been forced to repel rocks thrown at him with a force that''d make a professional baseball pitcher blush with a pocket knife. And he was about 13 when this training happened and it only got more and more intense. So at his current age of 17, his Reaction Speed and ability to sort through visual information and put it to use were at an incredibly inhuman level. Green blood spurted out of the apparent hole in the alien''s head as it started hissing and screeching while backing away from Takuya. Takuya slowly walked toward it, knowing he''d fully rattled the Xeno''s head up and therefore it''s ability to hear and balance itself. The Xeno wobbly stood, slowly slipping from side to side like a Cobra dancing. Takuya continued his walk toward the Warrior which the groggy Xeno didn''t like, so it charged at him. In all honesty, it was more like a drunk person''s jog than a charge. But Takuya took this advantage and ran to meet its charge in his own special way. Seeing him charge at it, the Xenomorph knew it had him, that it could kill him, so it picked up even more speed. Takuya smirked when he saw it''s running get even more unstable, that''s what he wanted. When they were about to clash, Takuya dropped to the ground and did a leg sweep. This leg sweep was using every ounce of muscle and strength in his body and it was aimed at the Xeno''s ankles. *Crack* The Xeno, too groggy to react went straight into the sweep and because of its shoddy balance, it fell right onto its face. Takuya flipped himself up, feeling a bit more than just slight discomfort in his leg which felt like he''d kicked a thick metal pole. He quickly moved his way over so he was above the Xeno''s head. ''Lady Luck must be smiling on me today...'' He thought this because the cracked side of its head was the side that was facing up at him. Looking down at the Xenomorph, Takuya had a Cheshire cat smile spread across his face as he joked at the Xeno "Whoever called you the perfect organism obviously never met me, huh?" this was followed by a laugh which seemed too full of mirth for the situation; in a colony turned Alien Hive. After his laugh and before the alien could rise up and collect itself, Takuya took his Glock and loaded three more bullets into its head. *Bang!Bang!Bang!* With one final hideous shriek, the Xenomorph Warrior died. Player Takuya has killed a Warrior Xenomorph, you will be awarded 1500 points and a D-rank Reward. Takuya let out a deep breath, the adrenaline from the fight pumping through his system and his mind felt pretty worn out despite his body''s vigor. John timidly came over with the flamer, obviously unsure if the Xenomorph was dead or not. While John was looking at the dead Xenomorph, Takuya got a good look at him. He was a tall-ish man at around 183cm tall but his slender frame made him seem less tall than he actually was. His black hair was short and left without any products in it and behind his rectangle spectacles, his brown eyes gave off a calculating light but also a timid and warm feeling which was weird to see together. Looking at the Flamer in the man''s hands, Takuya looked at him with a weird look. "Why didn''t you use that Flamethrower when the Xenomorph was attacking the door? It would''ve scared it right off." Shuffling himself uncomfortably, John answered Takuya''s uncertainties. "Because I didn''t trust myself to be able to keep myself and my wife safe from the Xenomorph while also leaving the controls and wires in the room untouched from the flames. I apologize for the trouble I''ve put you through...but may I ask you who you are? You seem like a brilliant--" John looked at the corpse of the alien, stopping himself from saying killer before continuing "--soldier, you fought bravely and calmly and saved me and my wife from a terrible fate, thank you." Takuya laughed as he clapped John on the shoulder, thoroughly shaking the man''s core with his strength. "Don''t worry about it, I''m on a job to protect you anyway, Head Researcher John Ford." At what Takuya said, John raised his eyebrows in surprise before he motioned for Takuya to follow him back to the control room. Inside, John''s wife, Melissa, saw Takuya and looked surprised at how unharmed he was. She shot a look toward John who greeted her look with his own which showed he was just as shocked as her at how Takuya was still alive. When they settled in, John looked at Takuya signaling for him to introduce himself. "Ah, right. My name is Takuya Tepes, you can call me Takuya." Takuya displayed a bright smile to assure the two he was a trustworthy guy, trying to make them forget he could kill them easily if his Xenomorph kill was used as the reference. Takuya also stuck out his hand for a handshake, to add to his polite greeting. "It''s good to meet you, Takuya. Now, you said something about you being on a mission?" John took Takuya''s hand without much thinking before firing back another question. Melissa perked up at this part, obviously hopeful Takuya was here to take them all off of this godforsaken colony. "Well, it''s less of a mission and more of a request from someone." Takuya rubbed the back of his head, feeling a bit guilty that he''d got their hopes up "My team and I got here just under 2 hours ago and we got to the canteen and found two kids, your children, and they asked me to come and help you. So here I am." Takuya broke the news to them with a smile. Melissa froze in worry as she thought about her babies seeking out the help of a man as strange as Takuya. "Are they okay?! Where are they?!" Melissa rushed up to Takuya, her worry making her desperate for answers as she grabbed his jacket, trying and failing to shake his body for answers. John came over and pried his wife off of Takuya who seemed a tad uncomfortable with a woman trying to manhandle him. Clearing his Throat, Takuya proceeded to answer their questions now that Melissa had calmed down. "They''re both fine. Really, you should have more faith in them, they''re both smart kids. And they''re still in the canteen with my team." Melissa calmed down as she heard the first part, so did John, but when they heard the second part about them being in the canteen, they both seemed to remember something and the blood drained from their faces. "What?" Was all Takuya could say as he saw their terrified faces. John grimaced as he looked at Takuya. "John, tell me what''s wrong," Takuya said with a bit more of an of an imperative in his voice. "Well..." Chapter 8 - Alien Franchise Arc "The Canteen is...above the Hive Queen''s Quarters..." John looked incredibly distressed with this and his wife also went pale again, as if she''d been trying to ignore the fact so she could focus on her job of getting help. "...!" Takuya''s eyes widened and his mouth opened and closed for a few short moments, obviously in disbelief, "Then why are we still here?!" John and Melissa were a bit taken aback by Takuya''s quick recovery to the terrible news but Melissa, finding something to distract herself with, answered Takuya''s inquiry, "Because we need to contact Weyland Yutani Corp so they can send a squad of marines to help us out of here." Takuya shook his head, "They won''t help, if anything they''ll wait until we''re all dead and then they''ll come down and use this place as a research ground for Xenomorph Hives," he paused for a minute before carrying on, "You both work Weyland Yutani, you should know how obsessed they are about the Xenos and how they''ll sacrifice everyone just to get one of them." What Takuya said seemed to have already been in their heads but they were willfully ignorant about it, now, however, Takuya''s words had shaken them out of their ignorant states and they were slowly but surely panicking about it. Seeing this, Takuya quickly intervened, "Don''t panic! We just need to go get my team and your kids and then we can move to a different position that we can defend, okay? Everything will be fine as long as we stay calm and level-headed." His calm voice brought them slightly away from the brink of breaking down and they both shakily nodded, with John even smiling in gratitude at Takuya. "Now, are you ready to move now? Because if you are, we need to move now," Takuya had a serious look on his face as he spoke in a concise way as he knew that time was of the essence. "Yes, we can leave now," John hurriedly got his wife up and put the Flamers strap over his free shoulder. Seeing they were ready, Takuya slipped the mag out of his Glock and looked at the bullets left in it, "Tsk..." Takuya had already pretty much gone through a mag, so he took a full mag out of his pocket and slid it into the Glock. *Click!* "Let''s go then," as Takuya said that he held the gun at his side and silently walked out of the door. He saved a small glance at the dead Xenomorph Warrior and saw that its body had partially melted through the metal floor surrounding it. He felt a bit of a shiver go up his back as he thought about what would happen if he got it on himself. Shaking his head, Takuya resolved to himself that he''d never find out and carried on walking to the stairs and then down them. He did what he did before and focused his senses, listening out for any Xenos. The pheromone was there but seeing as a Xenomorph Warrior had already made it''s way up to where John and Melissa were, Takuya wasn''t going to take any chances. And it was lucky he didn''t let his guard down as he heard a sickening slimy sound and then something traveling through the air at fast speeds. Instantly, Takuya looked up and saw 3 eggs which were open and the Facehuggers falling down at John, Melissa and him. "Shit, watch out!" Takuya instantly brought his gun up and fired 3 shots in rapid succession. *Bang!Bang!Bang!* 2 sickening screeches sounded out as two of the facehuggers were hit and killed. Unluckily for Takuya, his aim was slightly off because of his flustered nature at looking at the Facehuggers and he shot the last hand-like creature on its right side taking a few of its legs off.If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. Acidic blood rained down from the sky and Takuya dodged out of the way, unharmed. John and Melissa had heeded Takuya''s warning and instantly ran back up a few steps, so they were also unharmed but unluckily for them, the injured Facehugger landed nearer to them than it had to Takuya so it leaped at them. Seeing this, Takuya admonished his shit aim and instantly entered unlocked mode. His bright emerald irises dulled down and his pupil went unfocused as he fluidly pulled out a few small knives and threw them at the body of the Facehugger. All the knifes hit and the creature flew past the couple, dead. Player Takuya has killed 3 Facehuggers, you will be awarded 300 points. Takuya let out a breath of relief, exiting Unlocked Mode. John and Melissa looked at Takuya as if he were some kind of super soldier. They both rushed up to him and bombarded him with questions, both of them obviously excited from the adrenaline flowing through their systems. "Okay okay, calm down, I''ll answer these questions when we get my team and your children to safety, okay?" Takuya couldn''t quite make sense of their jumbled questions, but he''d try and listen to them later. John and Melissa looked a bit guilty before shaking their heads and apologizing for wasting time. Takuya could clearly see the worry in their eyes. ''I guess this is why I''ll never make a good assassin, I''m always too busy caring about other people...'' And with that, Takuya''s resolve to help the unlucky family of four had been enhanced greatly. "Okay then, let''s get going again," Takuya turned around and started to walk down the stairs once again with the slightly shaken couple behind him. Luckily, this time they didn''t bump into anything and safely made it back to the vent. Looking at the vent, John looked uneasily at Takuya, "Do we really need to go through the vent? It''s practically the most dangerous place to be when this place is crawling with the creatures..." his whining soon stopped when he saw Takuya''s eyes go serious. "You have a flamer, John, as long as you point it and pull the trigger, the Xenos won''t come near you. Besides, I''m the one who''s gonna be covering the rear, I''m the one most at danger with these creatures that love to attack from behind," Takuya''s argument was pretty sound. Especially to a person who''d been researching the behaviors of said creatures and knew their fears and habits. John''s shoulders sagged in resignation and he nodded his head before slowly crawling into the vent, letting the flame at the end of his weapon light the way. Melissa soon followed and finally, Takuya got in with his Glock armed and ready and a flashlight in his free hand. His senses were highly tuned at the moment and he''d asked John and Melissa to stay as quiet as possible. This made it so he could hear the rapid beating in both of their chests. Takuya quickly shook his head, knocking the distractions out of it and focusing on listening for hissing or rapid tapping on the metal floor of the vents. Dozens of uncomfortable minutes went by and there had been no sign of any Xenomorph''s which had put John and Melissa''s erratic heart rates to rest. Takuya, however, found this incredibly worrying but nonetheless, he carried on. Another few dozen minutes passed and they had exited the vent. As Takuya was exiting the vent, he heard John yell before hearing the flamer activate and the light of the flame flooding the surrounding area. Takuya instantly shot out of the vent and looked at whatever John had covered in fire, with his Glock raised. Seeing what he was flaming, Takuya let out a sigh of relief, "John, stop! It''s already dead, you''re just wasting fuel," John, knowing that Takuya knew what he was talking about, took his finger off of the flamer''s trigger and the flames stopped. But when they stopped, Takuya''s eyes went wide. The Xenomorph didn''t have a head and most of its exoskeleton surrounding and including its spine was gone. This caused Takuya to pale a little bit, "Oh shit...This just got much, much harder..." Hearing what Takuya said, Melissa looked at him with a confused expression, "What are you talking about, Takuya? Didn''t you already kill this one?" her expression was hopeful. But Takuya had to destroy her hope, even if he didn''t want to. "No, I couldn''t have done this...But I know what might have done this...We need to get back to the canteen, now!" Takuya instantly started jogging and his face got even paler when he thought he heard some clicking down the other end of the corridor. John and Melissa who saw Takuya''s pale face instantly knew whatever killed that Xenomorph must be incredibly deadly. It had to be if it could scare someone who''d killed a Xenomorph with a smile on his face. But they truly had no idea. No idea at all. Chapter 9 - Alien Franchise Arc Takuya kept a steady jog going with John and Melissa following shortly behind him. He didn''t really care about making too much noise at the minute if what had killed that Xenomorph was still around Takuya''s guess was that it had killed most of the other Xenomorphs in the area and if it left the area most of the Xenomorphs probably chased after it. So making noise was semi-okay. Takuya still kept up his guard, however. "Takuya...Why are we running?" John was slowly getting out of breath from the jog, his thin frame obviously struggling with the exercise. Takuya turned his head and shook it, signaling that he''d tell them when they got to the Canteen. John grumbled slightly but Melissa gave him a reprimanding look which soon stopped his faux-sulking. It took them around the same time it took for Takuya to walk to the vent the first time, to get to the canteen and by this point both John and Melissa were out of breath and quite fatigued. But this did nothing to stop the immense joy shining through their eyes when they thought about how they would be reuniting with their children once again. Takuya and the couple came to a stop in front of the canteen door and Takuya walked up to the barricade which had been put back up, "Oiii~! Mikasa!" Takuya whispered sharply at the redhead sitting on some crates not too far from the barricade. Mikasa''s head instantly shot toward the direction of Takuya''s voice and a small smile appeared on her face as she saw Takuya. She got up and walked over to the barricade. Obviously, she''d been put under a lot of stress as if Takuya died, she''d have lost the only other useful person on the team. No bad feelings to Kazuma and the two other girls but they were after all just civilians who couldn''t help much in situations like these. Maybe after they''d gotten enhancements they would be able to but not now. "It''s good to see you back in one piece, Takuya, did you find--" she cut herself short as she saw the couple behind him and Takuya''s seemingly smug smile. She couldn''t help but feel he was unlike the normal assassins she''d met, he was too...filled with emotion. Mikasa shook her head, "Well, let''s get this barricade out of the way so you can get back in, okay?" Mikasa started removing some things while Takuya''s face paled slightly as he remembered the news he''d received earlier but nonetheless he started removing things from the barricade. With the combined effort of the two teens, a small space in the barricade was opened up and it allowed the 3 people to enter. As soon as they did enter, they heard two high-pitched voices, "Mom, Dad!" and then two blurs of black charged at John and Melissa. Melissa opened her arms and embraced the black blur which came to her; Tad. While John picked up Sala and swung her around while letting out a low chuckle. He then went over to Melissa and Tad who were hugging each other and bent over and wrapped himself and Sala in a big group hug with them, "I''m glad you''re safe, kids...If anything happened to you I wouldn''t be able to forgive myself for leaving you here..." John expression went dark but it soon brightened again as he turned his head to Takuya, "Thank you, Takuya...Just...Thank you..." his voice sounded choked as he looked at Takuya with grateful eyes. Takuya didn''t know how to respond but he didn''t think he needed to over complicate it, so he just calmly smiled and nodded his head at the scientist. Sala realizing Takuya was there, wiggled her way away from her families and threw herself at him, wrapping her arms around his thick waist. Well, to her it was anyway. "Thank you, Takuya! ThankYouThankYouThankYou!" Sala looked up at Takuya with a blinding smile and Takuya felt a warmth spread throughout his heart. ''I could get used to being the good guy...It''s not a bad feeling, I guess...'' Takuya smiled slightly when he thought this. He put a hand on Sala''s head and ruffled her hair up a bit, earning him a childish pout which caused him to laugh, "Well, I did say I''d save them didn''t I? You should know that I''m always true to my word, Sala. So, if you need any help, just ask, okay?" his gentle smile seemed to take away Sala''s annoyance at him ruffling her hair and she just nodded with an ''Mhm'' sound escaping her throat. After that, Takuya separated himself from a reluctant Sala and walked over to Mikasa and asked if he could speak to her in private. She saw the serious look in his eye and agreed instantly, so both of them walked away from the group for a while. "So, what is it you want to tell me?" Mikasa looked over at the family with a smile on her face and Takuya felt guilty in advance for taking this short happiness away from her but he still responded to her anyway. "The Hive Queen''s Quarters are under us right now. You think those Xeno Drones are scary, you should see the thing they call a Queen," Takuya let what he said sink in. When he saw Mikasa''s pale face and worried eyes, he carried on, "We have to move and soon but we can''t tell the others their''s a birthing chamber underneath us with hundreds of those eggs. I think Kazama could handle it and Sasaki-san would probably hold out for Kazama''s sake but Uehara and the kids would freak out and we really don''t need that right now."If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Mikasa took a few deep breaths, calming herself down before she responded, "So, why have you told me? Why didn''t you just tell us all that we had to move?" Takuya knew she''d ask something like this, so his answer was almost immediate. "Because you and I are the backbones for this team. We''re both calm despite the situation we''re in and I''ve already shown I can kill a Xenomorph, so everyone else looks to us for what to do. So, quite frankly, I need you to be on my side when I say we need to move and if I didn''t tell you, you could ask me why we''re moving in front of the others and I''d have to pull you aside to tell you, making the other''s worry. You get what I''m trying to say?" Takuya''s reason lit up an admiring light in Mikasa''s eyes and she quickly nodded her head in agreement, "As expected of an Assassin, you''re always a step ahead," she smiled slightly before walking back over to the group. Takuya decided not to tell her about how he suspected there was a Predator on the Colony as well, purely for the sake that telling her there was a Hive below them was already pressing on her psyche. If he added an Alien Hunter onto that, she''d probably break. Martial Artists don''t go through the mental training an Assassin does, so she was much less resilient than him when it came to pressure. Resolving himself, he walked back over to the group who was in a merry mood. Uehara instantly came over to him and stuck next to his side like a conjoined twin while Kazama came over to ask him if he killed any Xenomorphs while he was out. Takuya just tried to ignore the two of them as he thought up a way to break the news to the others. "Uhh, can I get everyone''s attention please?" Takuya looked around the room with a slight smile on his face. Everyone turned to him as they viewed him as the de-facto leader of the group. Seeing he''d gained everyone''s attention, Takuya spoke in a calm voice, making sure his poker face was flawless, "After speaking with John and Melissa, I''ve decided to leave this area and venture into a more safe place. Does anyone have any questions?" Instantly, Sasaki''s hand went up as he expression paled, "Why are we moving? Isn''t this place safe? Are those things going to attack us?!" her voice was incredibly shaky and her eyes were wide in fear. "No, nothing like that Sasaki-san. I just don''t like how there are so many vents in this room because even if they''re sealed, Xenomorph blood could melt through it easily enough," Takuya turned and pointed at the barricade in front of the Canteen entrance, "Plus, that barricade wouldn''t hold up against more than a few Xenos. They''d tear through it like wet paper. So, I think we need to move before something bad happens; to stay ahead of the curve." Takuya''s calm smile and strong eyes conveyed to Sasaki that they were safe and she calmed down slightly. Seeing her calm down, Takuya thanked God that she brought it and looked to the others, asking them if they had any other questions. Unluckily, one of them did. "So, where are we moving to Tepes-kun?" Uehara looked at him with slightly panicked eyes but there was also an eerie amount of trust in them as well. "Well, I was thinking that we could go to the Communication Tower where John and Melissa just were. It''s already been sprayed down and I''ll do a quick run through it to see if there''s any danger there," he looked over to John and Melissa, "Unless you have a better place for us to go, John? Melissa?" John and Melissa knew why they had to move so they both took this question in their stride. John smiled and stepped forward, "Do you have the map for the colony on you? I can show you a relatively safe place and we can head there." Takuya gave a thankful look to John and quickly passed him the map Sala had given him before. John opened it up for him and Melissa to look at. Both of them spoke in whispers between themselves, obviously thinking of which route to take and where to take it to. But it didn''t take long for them to figure it all out. John pointed to a certain part of the map, "This is where we can go, Food Processing. It''s where our back-up base was going to be and we sprayed it down with gallons of anti-Xenomorph pheromones and it should still be fresh and active, we should be safe there and there''s definitely going to be food as well," John smiled at the others and then looked at Takuya, wondering on the tall man''s thoughts. Smiling, Takuya nodded, "That should be fine, it''s not too far away as well and we don''t need to move through any vents either which is always a benefit with a group as big as ours." After sorting this out, everyone got to packing up supplies they wanted to take to the new camp. More accurately it was Sala, Tad and their parents who did this, the others just helped with what they could. Takuya made sure to check the knives he had on him and the amount of ammo. This was all because of the threat of a Predator being on the colony and if it appeared, he''d have to take it on to save the others. He could only hope it was a newly blooded-Yautja and not a more experienced Hunter otherwise he''d have even less of a chance to even injure the thing. It didn''t take long for them to pack up their things and Takuya had already checked his things and moved a part of the barricade out of the way. Looking at the group in front of him, Takuya could only hope most of them survived, he didn''t want to have to get used to new newbies next mission. "Okay, so we''re gonna head out now but I''d like to give you all a warning," his eyes flashed with a serious light which caused multiple people in the group to gulp down any saliva in their mouths, "You listen to everything I say, got it? I say run, you run, I say jump, you ask how high, understood?" Everyone bar Mikasa, John, and Melissa gave a nod in a nervous manner, obviously intimidated by a serious Takuya when he was usually so carefree and jovial. Takuya didn''t want to intimidate them but if it kept them in line and alive, he didn''t care if they were scared of him to some degree. "Okay, let''s go then. Try to walk as quietly as possible," Takuya led the way out of the canteen with the Glock and a flashlight aimed in front of him. Chapter 10 - Alien Franchise Arc The walk was tense and Kazama kept jumping at every hiss of steam escaping the pipes around them. Takuya kept his senses highly tuned to listen out for any unwanted guests but he couldn''t hear anything other than the more normal sounds you''d hear on a colony - Pipes creaking and the air being piped into the hallway they were walking through. He occasionally turned his head around to check on everyone in the group. He knew how Xenomorphs and Predators worked, they would try and silently pick off people in a big group before finally confronting the group after scaring them shitless. So to combat this, Takuya ordered the group to stay close to one another and constantly check on each other. Even he wasn''t exempt from this rule. Takuya looked over the group and saw that everyone was fine but Mikasa was oddly pale and sweat was pouring out of her body. He gave her a curious look and she walked over to him and motioned for him to bring his ear to her mouth. So he did. "I have a feeling that something''s following us. It''s not making any sound and it hasn''t directed any killing intent at us yet but it''s definitely curious about us," Mikasa''s voice was barely a whisper but it still reverberated around Takuya''s head like a sledgehammer. He instantly knew what she was talking about and was surprised he hadn''t felt it. He let out an aggravated sigh which Mikasa instantly caught onto. "Wait, you knew something was following us?" her whisper was sharp and she looked at Takuya with disbelief in her eyes. Takuya just shrugged at her glaring, "I didn''t know it was following us, I just knew there was a possibility it would start to follow us," he wryly smiled before looking back into the corridor behind them, "I know what it is, so I''ll handle it if it attacks. But right now it shouldn''t attack us, the hunt wouldn''t be as fun." His words slightly confused Mikasa but he didn''t care as he pulled away from her and started to walk with his Glock aimed up again. He didn''t do this for no reason. In fact, he did it for a very specific reason; if he had a weapon out and looked like he could use it, the Yautja would come after him and leave the others alone. He would barely have a chance against it, let alone the others who would most likely be trashed almost instantly by it''s superior everything. Takuya turned his head to look at the group, "Let''s speed up a bit, okay? We''re not too far away from the Food Processing room," Takuya heard a few grunts of annoyance and some of reluctance but they all sped up so he didn''t care. The remaining walk was quite uneventful and even when Takuya heard clicking noises he didn''t make a move because his rational side chalked it up to pipes. It seemed like childish ignorance but Takuya didn''t care, it was better than alerting the Predator to the fact that he knew it was there and for the dangerous alien to attack them. He could even be right about the pipes. His line of thought was that he''d need more evidence to be scared about something he didn''t know was there. It was this kind of mindset that made Takuya so calm in such a shitty situation. "Takuya, what are we going to do after we get to the Food Processing room?" whispered John, his shaky voice surprising Takuya out of his stupor. He thought about an answer before looking at the slender man. "I don''t know, we''ll decide when we get there. It really depends on what you want to do," Takuya shrugged and went back to looking in front of them, not really paying attention to John anymore. ''Uhhh, they keep asking questions like I''ve got all the answers...guess being the strong guy of the group has it''s downsides, huh?'' Takuya wryly laughed getting himself a few weird glances from people in the group but he simply ignored them, carrying on focusing on the surroundings. The last thing he needed was for his lapse in attention to get someone killed. But as he was thinking this, he saw a partially covered door - covered in the same biomechanical-looking hive material the rest of the colony was covered in. He looked over at John wondering why there was anything related to the Xenomorphs when he said that they''d sprayed the area down. All Takuya got in return was a mystified look and an unsure shrug which caused him to feel slightly annoyed; He really didn''t want to draw attention to his abilities when there was possibly a Predator looking at him. Sighing, however, Takuya knew he''d have to do what he had to do, there''s no if''s or but''s about it. "John, give me the Flamer," Takuya looked over at the scientist who was practically clutching the clunky looking flamethrower. John''s eyes went a bit wide in fear but seeing that Takuya wasn''t asking, he was telling, he quickly handed over the flamer. "I hope you don''t put us at risk, Takuya..." John didn''t have an imposing bone in his body but Takuya still took him seriously when he said this. A man trying to protect his family could do the impossible and it wouldn''t be that possible for him to get Takuya killed simply by attracting a lot of Xenomorphs.This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. That is if he was sure/ready to die as well, however. "John, I took the request from a kid to trudge through a Colony full of born and bred killing machines to find her parents, with pretty much zero benefits for doing so. Do I seem like someone who would get you killed on purpose after all that work?" even though he told a little lie, Takuya still felt what he said was true; he easily could''ve said no to Sala''s request despite the points purely because of the danger of the mission. Nonetheless, he only told to lie to put John and the others at ease. John seemed to realize what Takuya had done for them and went to apologize but Takuya put his hand up, stopping him, showing he understood his concerns no matter how needless they were. Quickly after that, Takuya put the strap for the Flamer over his shoulder and held it with the opposite hand so he had some proper leverage over the big weapon. In his other hand, he held the Glock. He looked behind him and the group and into the corridor. For a second, he saw the glimmer of two eyes, purely yellow in color. Takuya knew this was the Predator''s helmet visor which for some reason flashed at ''random'' intervals - usually when someone looks at them. Takuya, seeing this, didn''t feel fear but instead smirked, "You wanna see a show, you ugly bastard...?" he chuckled about this, the group not knowing what he was talking to. But Takuya simply didn''t mind their thoughts and went toward the door and slammed his foot into the open button. *Swishhh* The door slowly opened, revealing a slowly pulsating orange light. The orange light showed that the room was mainly untouched, food packages were neatly stacked around the room on shelves attached to the walls. Each bit of food looked fresh and Takuya wondered why the Xenomorphs hadn''t destroyed the food or used it further the Hive as pretty much anything can be used to do that. But his thoughts were pulled to a close when he saw the Xenomorph Warrior curled into a burl in the center of the room. Weirdly enough, it didn''t seem to notice the door open or even the loud noise that was Takuya''s foot colliding with the door. Takuya took this as the perfect chance and easily entered unlocked mode, bring up his Glock to aim at the creature''s head. *Bang!Bang!Bang!Bang!* Takuya got four shots in before the Xenomorph sprung up and started hissing at him with multiple holes in the side of its head, leaking acidic blood onto its surroundings and even some of the food packages when it spun around. When it looked ready to charge, Takuya brought the Flamer up, holding the bulky weapon with considerable ease considering it took John two arms and quite a bit of straining to hold it up. "You guys don''t like fire, right?" with this smug line, Takuya pulled the trigger for the weapon splurting out a plume of orange flames. When the flames hit the exoskeleton of the Xenomorph it leaped backward and let out a horrific scream holding it''s freakish limbs in front of its head. Takuya stopped, aiming the gun at the alien''s head again. *Bang!Bang!* He shot two bullets right on its forehead which other than a few bumps and scratches did absolutely nothing. They did, however, piss it off enough for it to forget about the fire and charge at him again. This time, Takuya quickly lifted the flamer and pointed it at the charging creature, seemingly to flame it down again. Quickly, the Xenomorph curled itself inward a little bit and covered it''s front with its arms but weirdly enough, no heat seemed to touch its biomechanical-looking exoskeleton. But what it didn''t know was that Takuya wanted it to react like this. He knew they were deathly afraid of fire, despite it having next to no effect on them due to their metallic-esque shell, and he also knew they were clever enough to learn during a fight. So, he used both those things against it and used a pretty simple feint so he could enact his plan. Takuya was no longer in his original position, he''d seemingly teleported and appeared to the left side of the Xenomorph with his Glock aimed at the side of its head with the other bullet holes. "Stupid fucking thing..." Takuya mockingly shook his head before rapidly pulling the trigger for the Glock. *Bang!Bang!Bang!* And with a tragic squeal, the Xenomorph dropped to the ground. Player Takuya has killed a Xenomorph Warrior, you will be awarded 1500 points and a D-Rank Reward. Takuya had no time to revel in his gain in points, however, as he heard slow footsteps accompanied by an eerily slow clapping. He heard some gasps and even a few whimpers of fear. Oddly enough, when Takuya looked at the group, he saw that John and Melissa weren''t shocked at all. It was like they knew what this creature was. Everyone else, whether they knew what it was or not, were all looking at the thing with pure fear in their eyes. Takuya couldn''t exactly blame them when he looked at it himself. About 7 and a half feet tall, grayish looking skin which was incredibly reminiscent of a dinosaurs scaley looking skin. The tall figure wasn''t lanky either, it was full of muscle which put a bulky bodybuilder to shame; it was muscular to an inhuman degree. Its face was covered by a grey mask with two eye visors, along with a weird looking breathing apparatus. Shooting out the top of its mask were fleshy looking dreadlocks which seemed to be the creatures version of hair. The dreadlocks went up a little bit before curving down and dropping toward the ground, before stopping just below the broad shoulders of the creature. It simply gave off an aura of power. Nothing like the Xenomorphs which were nothing but mindless beasts. No, Takuya could tell that this creature was cunning, intelligent and knew how to use it''s obvious bulk - a much more terrifying opponent compared to a mindless Xeno. Ignoring the slight dizziness in his stomach, Takuya walked toward the group, "Get back away from here, go into the Food Processing room and don''t come out, got that? Take this as well," Takuya passed the flamer back to John before informing the rest of the group to get in the food processing room. He got a few worried complaints but they still trudged along when Takuya locked eyes with them, his intense emerald eyes having some kind of intimidation effect. After this, Takuya looked at the Yautja and slowly edged toward it. Chapter 11 - Alien Franchise Arc Looking at the massive creature in front of him, Takuya would be lying if he said he wasn''t intimidated. At 6''4", Takuya was usually taller than most people and with his intense physical conditioning, he was usually much more muscular and athletic than the majority of people he came across. But in front of a Yautja, Takuya was shorter, smaller and have much less muscle on his body. ''Tch, I can''t wait to get a Mutation from God''s Dimension...Finally, feel safe once I''m not just a simple Human anymore...'' Of course, he wasn''t a simple human as he put it but in front of a Predator, he might as well be one. Luckily, however, he wasn''t, so he still had some benefits he could use against the Yautja. When he was about 9 feet away from the creature he stopped and just looked at him as it looked at him through its cold metal mask. As Takuya was about to speak, the Yautja lifted it''s hand and threw something in front of him. With multiple clangs, 5 melted down knives clattered in front of Takuya''s feet. Looking down at them, he smirked, hiding his worry, and looked up at the Predator, "Ah, so I see you found the Facehuggers I killed. You find any of my other kills?" The alien just lifted it''s wrist gauntlet and flicked open the cover on it. Seeing this action, Takuya''s stomach lurched a bit as he remembered what those gauntlets were used for mainly - Honorable suicide when the Yautja loses to the creature they''re hunting. But it didn''t seem to be setting a countdown and instead seemed to be downloading something. After a few seconds of blankly looking at the gauntlet, Takuya saw a beam of light project itself in front of the Predator and display a medium sized hologram screen. It seemed to be showing a fight. Takuya squinted his eyes a little bit, the blue hologram screen not really that good a quality. Nonetheless, he easily figured out what it was; it was his fight with the Xenomorph Warrior outside of the room John and Melissa were in. Takuya smiled at this, "You''ve been watching me for a while, huh? You wanna fight me then?" To Takuya''s question, the Yautja seemed to understand and pressed a button on its gauntlet, "Ye-ess--s..." a bad quality and crackly voice was transmitted through the technology on the creatures thick wrist. Takuya was quite surprised this Yautja was so talkative, usually, they tried to combi-spear their enemy from afar or even use their plasma caster to finish the job off quickly. But looking at the Yautja in more detail, Takuya could see that the alien didn''t have anything other than it''s wrist gauntlets, armor on parts of its body - mainly the arms and legs - and a helmet. The helmet had a marking, probably put there through the use of Xenomorph blood. It didn''t look very new which caused Takuya to internally curse. ''Ahh for fuck sake, it had to be a blooded Yautja, didn''t it? Fuck!'' Takuya''s mental state didn''t cause a disturbance on his face and he instead enacted on a plan to show he had honor to the Predator. First, Takuya took the Glock and tossed it to the side of the hallway, then he took two knives from his jacket before also discarding the jacket to the side on top of the gun. He slipped the shorter of the knives into a sheath on the back of his jeans. Looking up slightly at the thing in front of him, Takuya''s eyes slowly filled with chilling killing intent, "Let us get started then," with this Takuya got into a stance focused around dodging and agility, raising the knife up in a reverse grip. The Yautja lifted its hands to its mask and unclipped the clippings on its helmet, causing a release of gas. Its scaly-looking hands gripped the helmet and removed it from its face, showing the frankly inhuman look underneath. The most drawing of its features were the four mandibles surrounding a smaller inner mouth. Upon even loose inspection, one could see there was no visible nose and that the eyes were sunken and incredibly small and beady for the size of its head. Opposed to its grey skin, it''s yellow eyes shone with a bright light; the light of a natural-born hunter. Its mandibles were fleshy looking and ended in a sharp and pointed piece of white bone which looked like it could easily pierce through and tear flesh. From the shape of its mouth, anyone could see that the creature had no chance of actually speaking any of the languages a Human could. It even went as far as to unclip the armor on its arms, obviously seeing that Takuya''s coat was full of reinforced material and it could act as armor. So, now that Takuya had taken it off, it had to do the same thing otherwise there''d be no honor in the kill.Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. ''Man, it must suck to live in such an Honor-based Society~'' Despite his jokes, Takuya was taking this incredibly seriously and was tensing his muscles, getting ready for what he was about to do. The Predator suddenly brought its arms up like it was getting ready for a hug and aimed it''s head high into the ground, it four fleshy mandibles stretched outward and it''s inner mouth stretched open as well. "WRAGHHHHHH!" an unholy sounding roar or challenge came from the Yautja''s grotesque mouth, even causing John and the others who were pretty far back to wince. Takuya, however, didn''t flinch but the flicker of fear in the back of his mind did get bigger. But Takuya remembered a trump card of his and he soon changed his fear to vigilance and caution. *Sling!Sling!* Out of the alien''s two wrist gauntlets, one blade came out and the other covered the Predator''s hand in a clawed and armored gauntlet. Its tusks began to click together in anticipation at gaining a new trophy. It knew what a human was and how their craftiness could kill countless species but this human in front of it; this human had killed the best game with a primitive weapon and his own strength. The only craftiness the Yautja had seen from the Human was when it used the flamer to scare the Xenomorph. The Yautja had followed this Human around, looking at its past fights and its strengths and weaknesses and it had come to a conclusion - this could be considered the peak of a human in combat. If it could take back this skull and spine as a trophy, it could complete more conquests*. (* It can do the dirty with more female Yautja) Thinking this, the Yautja instantly leaped at Takuya, the air resistance seemingly meaning nothing to it. From Takuya''s perspective, the Yautja suddenly appeared in front of him and swung it''s armored hand at him in a precise and brutal punch at his chest. Hurriedly, Takuya ducked down and threw himself into a roll, smoothly going under the punch and swiftly recovering and slashing his knife at the Yautja''s back. The Yautja half-stepped the side, making Takuya''s knife slash across the back of its arm. When Takuya''s knife met the scaly skin of its arm, he couldn''t help but be surprised by how hard it was, like hardened leather. Nonetheless, Takuya pressed the knife in further with more strength. Sadly this only resulted in a shallow cut and also gave the Yautja a chance to swing its bladed appendage at him. Takuya instantly brought up his knife for defense which caused a slight bit of disappointment to appear in the Predator''s eyes. But when the wrist blade made contact with the knife, Takuya didn''t block it outright, he used his technique which had been forged through countless spartan training sessions and guided the wrist blade and it''s momentum above him as he ducked down under it. The disappointment disappeared from the Yautja''s eyes and instead, more anticipation filled them. Ignoring the eyes boring into him with interest, Takuya once again swung his knife at the Yautja who was being carried by the momentum of its wrist blade. This time, however, he didn''t slash at it but pierced toward its stomach with his knife. The Yautja couldn''t move out of the way, it''s upper torso already turning one direction. It only had one option. *Slice!* "WRARGHHHH!" the knife sunk into the Yautja but not in the stomach as Takuya wanted, no, the Yautja followed it''s momentum with fervor and swung it''s body around, making the knife collide with its spine. Takuya cursed the fact that the Yautja''s reflexes were so quick and it seemed able to dodge all his attacks or at least limit the damage. He looked at his knife which stopped upon contact with the metal-like bone of the Alien. Before he could think of any further attacks, the Yautja carried on with its momentum and swung its leg in a hook kick which connected with Takuya''s chest before he could even make an attempt at dodging. "Urgh--" Takuya let out a stifled grunt, the air being forced out of his chest like he was hit head-on by a car. Takuya felt himself being lifted off the ground and sent flying backward by the force of the kick, during mid-flight, he also felt how badly injured his ribs an sternum were. If he could sit down and use his families technique for healing he could probably make sure they''d heal but he still had to fight. ''You fucking idiot, Takuya...Fight a Yautja? Something superior to you in physical prowess and even in fighting techniques? Arrogant prick...'' Takuya admonished himself and finally felt himself come to a stop, but not a very gentle stop. No, he was kicked so hard and had traveled so far he''d hit the side of the wall next to the door of the food processing room. He instantly heard gasps and he soon saw Mikasa and Kazama in front of him. He could even hear Sala asking to come over to me but then hearing John and Melissa holding her back. ''It''s that bad, huh? Well, guess I have to pull out the big guns...'' Slowly, Takuya pulled himself up, felling his organs shifting about, trying to get back into the right places. When he was fully standing, he went fully into Unlocked Mode and suppressed his pain and slowly took a deep breath. The Yautja, on the other hand, was surprised the Human in front of it could get back up after a hit like that. Most of the Humans it had encountered would have outright died from a hit half as strong. But what it didn''t expect was for it to feel a smidgen of fear as it saw his eyes go unfocused, losing their emerald green luster. Takuya pushed Mikasa and Kazama away, not really gathering what they were saying for some reason like his hearing was slightly off. He found that weird as he could hear John, Melissa, and Sala just fine. He put it down as him being in Unlocked Mode and possibly because he was suppressing his pain, some funky stuff was happening. Takuya shook his head and took some surprisingly steady footsteps forward. "*Cough* You bastard...you really hit hard, huh? Well, I can''t let you leave me behind like that..." Takuya took in an impossibly big breath of air before whispering two words, "Ittou Shura..." And with that, the air around him shot about in small blades. The Yautja was instantly on guard at this mysterious sight. Question~ Seriously only read the spoiler below if you want to know two of the powers Takuya will have. If not, just click off this chapter and pretend it never happened. Don''t look in the comments either, there will probably be spoilers. (That''s if anyone replies to my question....~) Spoiler: Spoiler Do you guys think it''s feasible for Takuya to have a Yato Bloodline (The Super Strong Alien race from Gintama) and also have Dragon Slayer Magic? Or do you think those two things would clash?Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. I only want to know because I want to give him a kind of elemental power to supports his physical attacks. If you guys think he can''t have those two powers then I''ll just give him Nen from HunterxHunter and make him a Transmuter. Personally I don''t mind which, I just want to know what you, my readers, think~ I mainly need to know so I can sort out what he spends his points on. Chapter 12 - Alien Franchise Arc POV - Mikasa Mikasa looked in horror as Takuya, someone who was miles above her in terms of mental stability and combat experience, was thrown away like a broken toy by the muscular creature in front of the group. His limp body hit the wall with a sickening thud and blood spilled from his nose and mouth, making him look like some kind of fountain. Before she realized it, Mikasa had rushed to his side, Kazama surprisingly following her. Her face paled when she got closer to Takuya as she saw the slight dent on his sternum even through the tank top he was wearing. "Takuya! Can you hear me?!" Mikasa instantly went to shake Takuya but stopped half-way, just leaving her hands mid-air in an awkward gesture. But Takuya just curiously looked at the two of them, clearly having had some of his sense knocked out of him from the brutal hit. As time went on, however, Takuya''s senses came back to him and his slightly idiotic expression disappeared. Replacing it was a self-mocking smile and eyes full of disappointment and reluctance, both of which made Mikasa recoil in shock. She couldn''t figure out why Takuya thought he could go up against such a monstrous thing. She looked down at his injured body and was shocked at how strong Takuya''s life force must have to be for him to survive a hit like that and not instantly die. His body was simply in tatters and his organs must be all over the place inside his body. She couldn''t understand how he wasn''t screaming in pain due to the injuries, either. Could he be in shock? Or is he truly about to die? But to her surprise and even more to her dismay, his features went back to neutral and he started to stand up. Neither her nor Kazama could push him down, purely due to the fear of hurting him even further. Mikasa turned around and looked at the behemoth standing a short distance from them, it simply looked at them, waiting. It seemed to understand that Takuya was planning to continue fighting and Mikasa could see the respect in its vaguely human eyes. ''How can you respect such an idiot?!'' Was all that went through Mikasa''s head but feeling Takuya behind her, she tried to get him to sit down, "Takuya, you can''t beat it! It''ll kill you if you go at it again!" but her voice fell on deaf ears as Takuya simply pushed her aside with his strength which was still surprisingly high. He took steady steps, each of them causing Mikasa and Kazama''s eyes to widen - he''d broken so many bones he shouldn''t even be able to stand up yet, he could still walk as if nothing had happened. "What...?" was all Kazama could whisper as he looked at Takuya''s broad back with awe practically pouring from his eyes. Mikasa wanted to rush after Takuya but she knew she couldn''t get between Takuya and that alien; she''d be torn to pieces. So instead, she took Kazama''s arm and dragged him back to the group. But her eyes never left Takuya''s figure. The deep breaths, the steady posture, everything was burned into her eyes. ''How is he able to do what he''s doing right now?'' Mystery filled Mikasa''s head. She was a martial artist, she was supposed to be brave, supposed to protect people. But here she was, leaving the job of protecting people to an assassin - someone who usually did the opposite. She was called a prodigy, a genius not seen in countless years but right now, she felt like trash as she looked at an assassin protect her and the civilians in their team. She couldn''t stand the sight and the feeling of watching Takuya sacrifice himself for them. They''d die if he did, right? So what''s stopping her from getting up and fighting with him? Nothing. Mikasa stood up and pulled out a Wakizashi and went to rush to Takuya''s side, sick of being protected but mainly sick of seeing Takuya hurt himself just to protect them. It left a bitter taste in her mouth. But just as she went to charge, she heard Takuya utter two words. Two words which would usually have no meaning to her other than thinking he was either a weeb or an insane man but right now, those words were like church bells clashing in her head. "Ittou Shura..." his strained voice muttered these words in an unhurried way and suddenly, Mikasa felt his aura change. If before, Takuya felt like a giant beast with his eyes closed, then right now those eyes were wide open and glaring at everyone within a 10-meter radius. Even the wind rushed around and away from him, seemingly in fear of the utter strength radiating from his body. The weakness she''d perceived in his body was gone, all she could see now was someone unique. An existence that seemed to be born for a world such as Terror Infinity.A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. POV - Takuya Takuya felt the blood flowing through his body, rushing through it like it was being powered by an engine. His heart, obviously the engine pushing the blood continued to speed up and flood his muscles and organs with enriched blood. All Takuya could hear was the blood in his ear and the machine gun heartbeat shaking his chest like a hammer. His blood vessels in his eyes became pronounced and the emerald green in his iris seemed to light up in a luminescent way, similar to a flashlight in the dark. "Ahhhh...~" Takuya let out a deep breath and focused his eyes on the Yautja, "You ready for round two?" the Yautja seemed to ignore him but Takuya wasn''t waiting for an answer as by the time he''d finished speaking he''d vanished. The Predator instantly swung its wrist blade toward it''s back, using the force made from turning its body to make an already strong strike, absolutely lethal. But it was too slow, Takuya had already stepped into its range where the swipe wouldn''t do any slashing. Takuya sent a punch at the joint of the Yautja. The punch was quick, blindingly so, but it was also silent and those watching second-guessed themselves if the punch had even thrown. However, the Yautja''s arm coming to a stop and a slight cracking sound from both Takuya''s knuckles and the Yautja''s joint, signified that the punch despite its lack of sound was real. "WRAHGHHH!" the Yautja''s pained roar followed as it tried to pull away, trying to gather itself for a new defense where it would know Takuya''s prowess and could better defend against it. But Takuya didn''t let that happen as he rushed once again and planted his fist into its stomach causing it to fly back a few feet, it''s feet skidding across the floor struggling to put a stop to its momentum. The Yautja had a few trickles of yellow-green blood coming from its inner mouth and dripping from it''s lower tusks. But the alien didn''t care about that, no, instead it cared about how the human in front of it had come back from the brink of death, from the brink of having a crushed chest, and not only could it still fight but it had started to overpower it in terms of speed. Takuya looked down at his massively bruised fist before looking at the Predator with a twisted smile, "Wow, you''re really fucking hard! No wonder you guys are so strong~" if one looked closely, his hand was covered in cuts and the bones of the hand looked completely out of place. But still, that twisted smile didn''t leave his bloodied face making him look like some kind of crazed berserker. He put his arm back down to his side and brought up his arm that had his knife in it. He spun the knife around his hand, as if thinking about killing the Yautja, and as if he finally decided, the knife settled in his hand, his fingers and knuckles turning white with how much force he was gripping with. His eyes went unfocused and he once again rushed at the Yautja. ''I can''t beat it with a normal Ittou Shura. The fact it can still survive a punch with all my power concentrated into it proves that it has more than enough durability to outlast this form...So I''ve gotta dig deeper, deeper into my vitality, into my power...!'' Cuts instantly covered Takuya''s body, causing a spray of blood to fling away from him, looking like mini-blades flying to attack his enemies. His muscles bulged slightly and his veins seemed to expand as far as they physically could, looking like thick worms wiggling under his skin. The sclera of his eyes instantly went blood red as multiple blood vessels popped under the force of his blood pressure. His pupils constricted and became pinpoints as time slowed down around him. As he was charging at the Yautja, as his perception of time was sped up to a speed where everything was slow, Takuya has a bit of time to think. ''How long has it been since I''ve been pushed this far?'' Takuya''s thoughts went back to when he was a child, being forced to kill wild beasts, ''What was it that got me through that? What is it that''s getting me through this?'' Takuya thought and he thought, he thought until he was right in front of the Predator. Then it hit him. He was still smiling in a manic way. ''Hahahahaha...'' He mentally laughed as he realized this. But the laugh had a slight melancholy to it as he continued to charge at the Yautja. ''I guess I''m not much different compared to my family, huh? Just a bunch of battle-crazed bastards who earned reputations as assassins because we don''t know when to stop a fight and always end up killing our opponents...'' But still, the smile never left his face. Instead, it started to stretch further showcasing his canines which shone with a deadly light. ''I like this. I like to battle and I like killing my opponents, no, I love to battle,'' Takuya mockingly said but he accepted his short-comings - Like the fact that only he could be stupid enough to do some soul-searching when up against an opponent that could kill him if he wasn''t concentrating. ''I guess God''s Dimension is a perfect fit for me,'' he thought about this with the same smile, but his smile faltered slightly when he looked behind the Yautja at the group he would call his team, ''I guess they''ll keep me in line...I have to at least be an Anti-Hero, right?'' With this thought concluded, Takuya saw that his knife was inches from the Predator and he saw how it was slowly pulling back away from it. ''You truly are a strong bastard...Fuck you for causing me to push myself this far...!'' With this, Takuya''s body bulged slightly for a moment before his knife entered the Yautja''s throat, completely tearing through its throat and also the main arteries in its neck. Takuya was covered in the yellow-green blood that sprayed past his knife. Time instantly went back to normal and Takuya felt his body crumble. His muscles tore, his bones cracked and his organs shriveled up slightly. Even his eyes went incredibly blurry like he had a cataract or something. His heart felt like it was giving up but Takuya kept going, keeping himself away for one thing. To make sure one thing had happened because if it didn''t, he had to pick himself up and sort it out. But luckily it didn''t come to that. #HIDDEN SIDE QUEST COMPLETE# There was a Bloodied Yautja, otherwise known as a Predator, walking around the Colony using it as a chance to become an Elite Yautja but instead, it found an interesting Human and decided to fight it. It lost. You will gain 4000 Points and a C-Rank Reward. Everyone else on your team will gain 2500 points and a D-Rank Reward. Seeing this, Takuya smiled before finally closing his eyes to the worried voices of his team members surrounding him. Chapter 13 - Alien Franchise Arc The first thing Takuya felt when he came out of the blackness that is unconsciousness, was the pain making itself known throughout his body. His muscles screamed, his bones yelled and his organs let out whimpers as he tried to make the barest of movements. If it weren''t for his training as an assassin coming into fruition, he''d probably have passed out and died from shock. But luckily, he seemed to have a guardian angel healing him back to health and keep him from hurting himself. He felt the hands that kept his limbs and torso on the ground. The fingers were thin and slender but firm but with an undeniable softness to them - a girl''s hands. An all familiar massage begun to be pressed into him as he lay there, his muscles twitching in pain despite the softness of the massage and the care of the one doing it. Takuya tried to smile but found he''d lost a major amount of control in his body. A surge of panic flooded Takuya''s mind only to be squashed as quickly as it appeared. Takuya wouldn''t be worried, his team would protect him and with how Mikasa was taking the time to massage him, they must have the time and calmness to do so. Which means zero Xenomorphs or Yautja. But what truly irked Takuya was how he could feel himself slipping back into the familiar blackness he''d just came from. The massage was like the sweet calling of a lover, the lover being unconsciousness, and Takuya just couldn''t say no. ''Last time I push myself this far...'' After this Takuya went through a series of awakenings and passing out again. Each time was different. Sometimes he woke up feeling nothing and sometimes he woke up feeling every bit of pain he should be feeling. Sometimes he woke up with his eyes open and the ability to look around at the group and the various activities they were doing and sometimes he only woke up with the ability to hear. They were very confusing and Takuya was getting fed-up and impatient on when he would fully wake-up. He trusted his team but there was nothing like having control over his body, just in case the worst happened. Murphy''s Law and all that. But before he could even attempt to sit up, Mikasa appeared out of nowhere and kept him down. If he was currently capable of glaring, he''d be firing on all cylinders right now. But when he looked at her worried eyes he let out a laborious breath before closing his eyes again. He really needed to work on his resistance to girls... He closed his eyes wanting to go back into the blackness, hoping it''d accelerate the process of getting him up and ''running'' again. But he didn''t pass out, his mind was back and stronger than ever and Takuya could finally hold a fully coherent thought. ''How long''s passed? Is their mission nearly at an end? If so I really do need to get up!'' With this thought, Takuya opened his eyes and looked about for his persistent Nurse, Mikasa. He could find her and could only instead find Sala and Tad sitting next to him with gloomy and worried faces. "What..urgh..are you two worrying about?" Takuya grunted through a strained throat as he propped himself up. He felt the dull ache and pain which was slowly getting worse in his chest and only got more annoying when he actually took a breath in and exhaled it. But he didn''t care as he saw the expressions of the two kids light up as their heads shot in his direction. He was surprised they didn''t give themselves whiplash with how quickly they moved. "Takuya!" "Takuya!" Sala went to dive at him but when she saw his bandaged up chest and arms, she stopped herself. While Tad just stood there, looking at Takuya with awe and admiration pouring out of his eyes. He looked incredibly like Kazama when he found out Takuya was an assassin. Sala timidly walked next to Takuya and sat down next to him, "Takuya...we were really worried...you can''t do that to us again, okay?" her eyes became watery as she bit her lip, obviously trying to not cry. Takuya was shocked such a strong kid like Sala would cry after he got injured. She was in a colony of Xenomorphs, without her parents and only her brother to keep her company but she hadn''t cried and had instead approached strangers for help - she was a strong kid, mentally at least. But now after she saw his injured body she was crying and Takuya felt uncomfortable seeing a kid crying over him so he intervened pretty quickly. "What, this?" he pointed down to his chest and laughed, "This is only a minor wound for me, no need to worry about it, Sala. I''ll be up and fighting aliens in no time!" despite his hoarse voice, his gentleness and confidence came through in buckets. Sala went to say something more with a worried look on her face but Tad instantly butted in, "Yeah, Takuya is super strong! How could he be beaten by an alien which he already killed, sis?!" Tad puffed his chest out, seemingly proud. ''Why are you speaking as if they''re your achievements, Tad...?'' But as suspicious of Tad''s pride as he was, Takuya was grateful he came in and helped when Sala was going to question him more; His ribs were starting to really hurt because of his talking. "Well, you two, I''ve got to do some meditation, so I need you both to be really quiet, okay?" Takuya patted them both on the head like some kind of sagely old man, causing the two of them to smile and shake his hand away. But they both nodded nonetheless, so Takuya crossed his legs, closed his eyes and assessed the damage in his body.The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Needless to say that he was shocked and the damage was quite bad. Broken ribs and a sternum that looked like it was being held together by some pieces of bubblegum at most. His arm which had punched the Yautja was completely fractured but luckily someone had set it before making a splint out of metal to hold it in place. His legs had some minor fractures which would probably make running incredibly difficult but other than that he was free to move around. Well, he would be if his muscles, tendons, and ligaments weren''t pulled, torn or ripped. Most of his muscles in his lower body, but mainly his legs, were out of commission for a while and the same went for the muscles on his broken arm. Looking at the number of injuries, even his family''s breathing art wouldn''t be able to heal this in a short amount of time. The best he could do is probably get himself back to a level where he wouldn''t be a complete cripple. So, he started to breathe in a slow, almost shallow way and slowly sped up. His ribs hurt for a moment before a warm feeling spread to them and caused a horrible itch to occur there. The warmth spread throughout his body and his skin turned slightly red. The itch was something he was used to by now, so he just got on with the healing, and it didn''t take too long for him to heal as much as he could. He opened his eyes and finally had a normal breath which helped him cool himself down internally. He looked around for Sala and Tad but couldn''t see them and just thought that they were bored of watching him breath funny and went off to the others. Takuya slowly stood up, still feeling a dull ache in his chest as the bones were only barely held together. Any harsh movement or exercise would probably break them again and it''d be much harder to keep them together and heal them afterward as the current healing was a mixture of Mikasa''s massage and his own breathing technique. Thinking of Mikasa he had to go and say thank you to her but before he could a screen popped up in front of him. Player Takuya has 2 hours until the end of the mission. Takuya went wide-eyed as he looked at that, wondering how more than 15 hours had passed by. He knew he was in and out of consciousness a lot but isn''t this taking it a little far?! ''Arghhhh...Fucking hell, they''re already gone and I''ve been left defenseless for how long?... I gotta thank God for my luck when I get back there in a little while.'' Takuya looked around the room he was currently in and could see he was in some kind of managers office as there was a desk with all sorts of clutter on it, a futuristic-looking computer and also a glass name tag on the desk which said "Manager Lucas". ''Well, sorry Lucas but I''ve been using your office as a glorified Healing Room.'' Takuya pat the desk before heading for the door so he could look for John and his family. Finding them didn''t take long and when they saw him, John and his wife were wide-eyed and gobsmacked; how was the man who was basically crippled hours ago, up and walking about? Even if he was walking with a slight limp, most people who get hit by a 7ft tall Alien end up not walking ever again! John quickly rushed over to Takuya with a worried expression, "What are you doing up, Takuya?! Get some rest!" John carefully tried to put Takuya down on a chair next to them but the tall assassin didn''t budge but instead carefully removed John''s hands with a reassuring smile. "Don''t worry about it, John, Mikasa did a hell of a job setting my bones and my natural healing ability took care of the rest," slapping my chest and ignoring the pain, I saw John''s expression relax a little before confusion and worry appeared again. "Speaking about Mikasa and your team, Takuya; they just disappeared!" his voice was warped with worry, thinking whatever happened to them was about to happen to him and his family. His wife put a hand on his shoulder but from the look on her face, she was just as worried. Seeing this, Takuya stifled a laugh before smiling toward the husband and wife. "Don''t worry about it, John. Their rescue arrived, so I''m guessing yours is on its way as well. They probably left me to heal before looking over you to make sure the job''s done; it''s pretty Mercenary but that''s how it is," shrugging his shoulders, Takuya put an ''it is what it is'' expression on his face before walking past the two of them and toward the entrance of the food processing room. Once there, he searched through the food before picking up a packet titled ''Mini Sugared Doughnuts'' and ripping it open. What met Takuya was the smell of freshly done doughnuts, a smell he held in especially high regard. Though he did wonder how they managed to make it seem like the doughnuts had just been cooked. ''I guess the future really is a wonderful place if you forget about the killer aliens...'' ridding himself of such thoughts, Takuya quickly devoured half of the doughnuts in the packet before picking up a packet with some curry in it and walking back to the family still huddled near the office I woke up in. Once I was back there, the 4 of them looked at me with curiosity, so I held up my hand holding the packet of doughnuts, "I went to go get a snack. Here, you guys can have the rest of these," and with that, he chucked them at Sala who caught them out the air and looked inside. As soon as she did, however, she became a blur of death for all doughnuts, with her brother soon figuring out what was in the packet and joining her. John and Melissa looked gratefully at Takuya before watching their children finally get a chance to act like children. Though Takuya did tell Sala and Tad that they should still try and stay as quiet as possible. ''God knows I don''t have it in me to fight another Xenomorph or God forbid a Yautja...'' letting out a sigh with his pent up worry in it, Takuya opened up the packet of curry in his hand before pouring the contents into his mouth. It tasted divine to him but he didn''t know whether that was because of the actual taste or because he hadn''t eaten in over 24 hours. In the end, he shrugged and just enjoyed the food. Takuya spent the next few hours speaking to Sala about guns and different kinds of weapons before explaining to Tad that he wasn''t a super soldier or a super android. Before long they heard multiple heavy boots hitting the floor just down the corridor from where they were. Takuya, knowing the owner''s of such feet were most likely human, walked toward the door of the food processing room. John, Melissa, and the kids were on high alert but a reassuring smile from Takuya helped them calm down and not go into a panic. Opening the door, Takuya was met with a dozen marines pointing their high-powered rifles at his face. "Well damn, I''d have thought you''d buy me dinner first..." keeping a dumb smile on his face, he watched as some of the marines cracked a smile before lowering their guns. Though some of the marines kept their rifles trained on his head, a quick slap from a tall black woman instantly had them lower their guns with a quiet ''sorry'' to Takuya and an even quieter ''Yes, Sergeant,'' to the woman who slapped them. But before he could say anything else, a notice appeared in front of him. Player Takuya has completed his mission. Do you wish to be sent to God''s Dimension? Y/N Forcibly returning Player Takuya to God''s Dimension in 10...9...8 ''Shit...'' was all Takuya could think before he quickly turned to John and his family, "Well, it was nice meeting you all. Hopefully, we''ll meet each other again sometime in the future!" and with that, he ran off with blinding speed. By the time he got around the corridor, his time had run out and he was blinded by white light and found himself on the floor of a remarkably white room. Chapter 14 - Alien Franchise Arc (Intermission 1) GOD''S MISSION COMPLETED ALIEN FRANCHISE, 10 PLAYER MISSION Overall Survival: 70% of the 10 Players Survived, well done! MAIN QUEST COMPLETE! Base Survival Reward: 1000 Points SIDE QUEST BONUS POINTS: Xenomorph Drone - 1000 points and a D-rank reward Facehugger - 100 points Xenomorph Warrior - 1500 points and a D-rank reward Yautja - 2500 points and 2 D-rank rewards No Penalties have been committed by Player Takuya: Well done, Player Takuya! Total Score (Player Takuya): Base Survival Points - 1000 Points 9 Facehuggers Killed - 900 Points 4 Drone Xenomorphs Killed - 4000 Points and 4 D-Rank Rewards 2 Warrior Xenomorph Killed - 3000 Points and 2 D-Rank Rewards Player Takuya Completed the Quest ''A Daughter''s Hope - 4500 Points and a C-Rank Reward Player Takuya Completed a #HIDDEN SIDE QUEST# - 4000 Points and a C-Rank Reward 1 Yautja Killed - 2500 points and 2 D-rank rewards Final Score: 19900 Points, a B-Rank Reward, a C-Rank Reward and 2 D-Rank Rewards* (*A/N - MC''s got bank, huh?) Takuya looked at the screen in front of him and couldn''t help but feel giddy. If it weren''t for the terrible condition of his body, he''d be jumping for joy. ''Why?'' you might ask? Well, it''s obviously because he has thousands of points to get some badass Genetic Mutations and Bloodlines! He could even get some weapons from his favorite anime or light novels! You can get anything in this realm as long as you have the points and Rank Rewards: And Takuya had both, so his excitement was understandable. But before anything else, Takuya walked over to the big glowing light in the center of the room before speaking to it, "Heal me." With that simple command, Takuya was encapsulated in a beam of white light and lifted up into the air. He heard some people speaking, probably to him but right now, his body felt like a dried out leaf: stiff, dry and like he could fall apart at the simplest touch. His healing took quite a while, about 10 minutes and Takuya had to guess that it was because of the Ittou Shura Technique using up his Life-force and shaving years off his life, ''Hopefully it doesn''t cost too much to heal...'' was all Takuya could think as he knew his points were precious right now as he needed them for much-needed enhancements. Nonetheless, after his healing, he was slowly lowered to the ground and he had to admit, he felt better than ever. Looking down at his hand and flexing it, Takuya couldn''t help but think this was marvelous, ''Did it also heal my past injuries that couldn''t be healed? If so, that''s pretty awesome~'' feeling the excitement, Takuya looked at the cost of his healing. Player Takuya has been fully healed. Cost: 231 Points Contents of healing: Moderate Life-force damage, multiple injuries that had healed incorrectly, minor fractures in bones, severe tears in muscles, ligaments, and tendons. Seeing that he was right, Takuya wondered if God''s Dimension healing would heal genetic diseases as well, ''It can heal genetic damage, so maybe it can if you specifically ask for it?'' before he could think any further on the subject, a blur ran and threw themselves at Takuya. Thanking God that he had healed himself as soon as he could, Takuya let Uehara hug him and try to squeeze him to death. Looking beyond her, Takuya saw Mikasa, Kazama, and Sasaki looking over at him with relief in their eyes. It seemed they were worried about Takuya''s death but maybe they were worried about whether they''d have his strength for the next Mission. Thinking like this, Takuya shook his head, ''Don''t always expect the worst of people, idiot,'' finishing with his mental admonishment of himself, Takuya pried Uehara off of him before walking toward Mikasa and the others. Weirdly enough, Himiko and Rin weren''t around. ...Is what Takuya thought. "Ta~ku~ya~" a busty woman hugged Takuya and brought his head down to her aforementioned bountiful breasts. Being hugged into such soft pieces of heaven, Takuya felt something snap in his head and he stood stock-still. This didn''t apply to others, however. "Release Takuya-kun, you hussy!" a voice which almost sounded like a hiss escaped Uehara''s mouth which was in a frown, currently. Himiko, the girl hugging Takuya, just smiled at the princess-like girl glaring at her.The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. "Hmm? Who do you think you are? This is a thing between adults at the moment...brat~" despite the smile on her face, Himiko''s voice sounded freezing and caused goosebumps to appear on Uehara''s skin like she was being stared down at by a giant beast. But she held her ground and instead grabbed one of Takuya''s arms and pulled it. Obviously, the lithe girl wouldn''t be able to overpower a woman who even Takuya could budge but it was more of a show of something; her spirit to not give up, or something like that. Before an all-out fight started, Takuya was finally out of his stupor. ''Maybe this is why I was a bad assassin? It seems likely...'' thinking about how he was so easily stunned, he resolved himself to try a bit harder to not be so easily stunned in the future; his life may depend on it, after all. Recalling something Himiko said, Takuya pushed away from her, which she reluctantly allowed with a pout on her face, her full lips making the pout especially seductive. Ignoring the pout, Takuya looked Himiko in the eyes, "What do you mean ''a thing between adults''? I''m 17; I''m a minor," his words were followed by a stunned silence. Kazama was the first to come closer with a suspicious look in his eye, "Tepes-kun...are you really 17? You look much older?" Takuya didn''t miss the look on his face and the slight disbelief in his voice, and he couldn''t stop the sigh from escaping his lips as he looked at the group in front of him, minus Rin, "Yes, I''m 17. Being an assassin since your early teens will make you seem older, is all it is." Once again, his words were met by silence before Uehara couldn''t seem to take it anymore and just hugged him tightly which confused Takuya, ''Is she trying to make me feel better or something? My life wasn''t easy but it wasn''t necessarily all bad either, Uehara-san!'' Soon after, Takuya heard slight sobs from her and now feeling alarmed he tapped her shoulder, "O-oi, Uehara-san, why are you crying?" Takuya wasn''t very well equipped to dealing with crying people, let alone a beautiful and fragile-looking girl like Uehara, so he was seriously lost on what to do, so he looked up to the others on what to do, only to get the same kind of looks: Pity. Seeing these looks kind of annoyed Takuya but he could get where they were coming from, ''They lived easy lives, with loving parents and until now, they''ve probably never thought of killing something or of the possibility that they could die at any second of our next mission...Haah~'' letting out a mental sigh, Takuya just looked at them before speaking again, "Wipe that pity off your faces. I''m fine with my life and how I''ve lived it up until now. Sure I wouldn''t have minded living with a normal family but if it weren''t for my background as an assassin, I''d have been killed in that last mission - so would all of you, bar Himiko, Rin and possibly Mikasa," waiting for what he just said to sink in, Takuya took a few breaths before continuing, "So, don''t mind it, okay?" he finished off with a wide smile filled with genuine reassuring sincerity. Everyone looking at that smile felt that it was incredibly bright. Uehara returned the smile with a smile of her own, while Kazama, Sasaki, and Mikasa looked at Takuya with admiration for not being the type of person who could accept their personal history without rejecting it just because it was a hard time for them. Himiko, however...well, let''s just say she looked like she needed a bit of water to quench her thirst and the fact that Takuya was 17 didn''t seem to be computing in her head. Before anyone could say anything, a calm and mellow voice broke them all out of their silence, "What''s going on here?" Turning toward the voice, Takuya saw that Rin had arrived but had a change of clothes. Instead of what he was wearing on the mission, he was now wearing a tank-top and some sweatpants, the former showing off his surprisingly well-built upper body, though it was still quite slender compared to Takuya. Smiling at the arrival, Takuya just shook her head, "Nothing too important," separating from a reluctant Uehara, Takuya carried on speaking to Rin, "So, how was the mission for you and Himiko-san? And should we do some introductions, for the others?" motioning with my hands to the others, Rin showed an impressed expression as he looked at them. "I''m surprised you kept all of your group alive, Takuya. It''s quite hard to do that in any mission, let alone one as dangerous for Newbie Players as Alien," he smiled up at Takuya before patting him on the shoulder, "I also got the notification that you killed a Yautja - Well done," as he mentioned the Yautja Takuya felt a chill go down his spine as he caught Himiko licking her lips while looking at him. ''That woman needs some water...ASAP,'' shaking his head of useless thoughts, he waited for Rin to answer his earlier questions, which the slender young man did fairly quickly. "The mission went okay - but probably not as well as your mission. We only killed a few Xenomorphs in case we angered the Queen and we didn''t see any Yautja, much to Himiko''s dismay," he motioned to the woman who huffed at his mention of her lack of Yautja kills, but he ignored it and carried on, "And sure, we can do some introductions but we can do those later. For now, you should all get some rest and customize your rooms as you wish, we''ll meet here in a few hours and we can go to my room for a big buffet," he turned to face the others with a smile on his face, "Sound good?" All of the other voiced or nodded their agreement before Rin walked off to his room again. Himiko winked at Takuya, much to his dismay, before doing the same. After they left, Takuya and the others split off to go to their own rooms. Though Mikasa had to go and help Uehara because the young lady hadn''t read Terror Infinity which surprised Takuya; he didn''t know why she wasn''t freaking out as much as she should be. Kazama and Sasaki had both read Terror Infinity so they knew what to do, though they both agree to check each other''s rooms out. Takuya, not wanting to miss out on a chance, smirked at the two of them, "Ooo look at you two lovebirds~" before laughing, alongside a distant laugh from Mikasa who'' caught what he''d said. Both of them flushing red, Takuya thought he''d won but Kazama glared at him before firing back, "H-how about you go to that w-woman''s room, huh?! You two seem pretty close!" his stutter didn''t do anything to stop the annoyance Takuya felt from this being brought up. ''Why doesn''t Himiko use her Human Creation to make a guy she can fuck? It should be easier, right? Right?!'' lamenting his fate, Takuya glared at Kazama before making it seem like he was about to charge at him. Takuya had never seen someone run off so quickly. Luckily he''d grabbed Sasaki''s hand and dragged her along otherwise he''d no doubt be getting the silent treatment from his childhood friend. Or that''s what Takuya thought, anyway. Seeing no one else about, Takuya walked over to the big glowy ball in the middle of the room, again, before bringing up the lists of what he could buy. Takuya had research he had to perform. He had to see what he wanted to buy and seeing how important it was and how he didn''t want to die, Takuya was going to take it seriously. Luckily there was a search bar otherwise this was gonna take a long(er) time. Chapter 15 - Alien Franchise Arc (Intermission 2) Right now Takuya was on his side lying down on a floor cushion, eating some meat off a skewer. He was watching the antics of Kazama and Sasaki at the minute and inwardly laughing at how the two of them were so oblivious to the other''s feelings for each other. ''Is it finally time for me to play cupid?'' Takuya mused, mentally, ''I guess I could slowly help them realize it...or I could keep embarrassing them until they realize it? Yeah...that seems like the way to do it~'' playfully thinking this, Takuya finished off the last bit of his skewer before reaching for another. Before he could reach for one, a slender hand quickly reached over, grabbed a skewer and gave it to his outward reaching hand. Looking over at the owner of the hand, Takuya was met by Uehara, no, Hana as she wanted him to call her, smiling back at him. She didn''t let him get anything for himself as soon as the feast started. When he asked why, she said something about thanking her savior, which Takuya was doubtful about. ''Just be grateful and smile, Takuya, just smile...'' following his own advice, Takuya smiled before looking over at Kazama again, figuring it was time to bring the love bird out of his teen romance, "Hey, Kazama, have you thought about what you wanna get from the Exchange List?" Hearing Takuya ask a question, Kazama had looked over quickly anyway, but as soon as he heard what the question was, the boy looked a little more seriously at Takuya. Sasaki also looked over, seemingly wanting to be in on the contents of the coming conversation. Kazama started thinking for a few minutes before finally, he spoke, "I''m pretty sure I have an idea on what I want, why?" "Ah, I don''t mean anything by it. I just thought I could give you some advice on what to pick, is all," shrugging his shoulders Takuya carried on, "Though, I guess it wouldn''t be needed as you''ve read the novel as well, huh?" Takuya genuinely was just curious on what Kazama was going to pick, he wasn''t trying to snoop. Feeling bad for being so distrustful, Kazama went to speak but he was stopped by Takuya''s raised hand, "Don''t worry about it, I''m sure you''ll make the right decision for yourself. Just show me tomorrow," Takuya finished it off with a smile before going back to eating. Kazama looked conflicted for a moment, especially when he got a glare from Sasaki for being so vague with his fellow teammate and savior. Before he could even get through half of the skewered kebab, Takuya felt a hand poke his shoulder a few times. Sighing a little, Takuya turned his head to Hana who looked at him with a slightly unsure expression, "Uhhh...I might need some help with these Exchanges...I haven''t read many light novels or manga, and I haven''t watched many anime or movies for that matter either," she took a nervous gulp before putting on puppy eyes while looking at Takuya, "So, Takuya-kun...can you help me pick, please?" Takuya knew he would be able to sort out what she wanted to exchange; God knows he''s watched so much anime, read so many books and manga, and watched so many movies that he could easily pinpoint something she liked but...Takuya could tell she wasn''t asking him for any objective reasons other than ''I can spend more time with Takuya-kun''. Nonetheless, he smiled and nodded his head, ''Can''t have my team dying and if I can help turn Hana into a useful fighter we''ll have a better chance at surviving the next mission,'' knowing his thought process, while very calculative, was correct and just, Takuya asked a question, "What kind of fighter do you want to be? Close Combat, Ranged Combat, a Mix of both, or do you want to stay away from the fighting and become a Scout of some sort? Think about what you want to be, then tell me so I can figure something out for you." Hana nodded her head resolutely before going into a cute-looking thinking position which looked both adorable and serious at the same time. Meanwhile, Takuya continued eating his skewer, knowing he''d get her answer soon enough as even though Hana seemed a bit...odd, he knew she had a decent head on her shoulders and coming from her specific business-related background, she was probably brought up to think over hard decisions quickly. True to Takuya''s thoughts of her, Hana answered soon enough, "I want to be a Ranged-Combatant, Fighting face-to-face with my opponent just isn''t my forte, or at least I don''t think it would be," she stopped for a second with a timid smile on her face before quickly carrying on, "Along that line of thought, I think it''d be best to go Magical rather than Bow or Gun, as well. Though, Mikasa was telling me we can get Genetic Mutation, no?" Hana was completely different right now, and Takuya couldn''t help but think she looked stunningly beautiful while she was this serious, but nonetheless, he nodded his head at her question and she carried on, "Then would it be too much to ask if I want a Genetic Mutation that can both perform magic while also being stronger than a normal human? I feel that being physically weak would be my death in some worlds." Stunned she''d thought it through this much, Takuya thought for a while on what would seem to suit her before answering, "Well, no, not really. There''s definitely magic in the Exchange List that could temporarily enhance your strength as well. If you want to go pure magic, the Elf Genetic Mutation would suit you best. Magic with a stronger body would be something like a Vampire. Either one has decent potential, with the Elf Genetic Mutation probably being able to evolve into High Elf Genetic Mutation and other variants of Elf, and Vampire going from Vampire Baron, or Baroness in your case, all the way up to Vampire Queen or maybe even Vampire Empress." Takuya stated in a matter-of-fact tone as he continued looking at Hana who was still serious but because of Takuya staring at her so intently, she had flushed red a little but overall she''d kept herself together. Nodding gratefully at Takuya''s advice, Hana went back into thinking-mode, going quiet and giving Takuya some time to finish off his kebab skewer. "Takuya! Let''s get drunk!" but Himiko had other ideas as she burst into the room with beer and other kinds of alcohol cradled in her arms. ''There''s seriously no rest for the wicked, is there?'' sighing, Takuya caught a beer that came flying at him. Letting out a sigh for the umpteenth time in the past few hours, Takuya cracked open the beer knowing he was going to need it to get through this feast with his new team. . . . Waking up with a slight headache, Takuya looked around and saw his team spread around Rin''s room. The drinking last night...well, let''s just say it got out of hand. A quick rundown would be the Hana kept getting annoyed at Takuya and Himiko drinking together, so she joined in under the guise that she was the same age as Takuya, so she should be able to drink if he can. This led to Kazama and Sasaki joining in as well, and when Rin came back he joined in as well. So, the quick story was;they all got smashed. ''There were some...''events'' that happened which now that I''m remembering them are, just, so incredibly embarrassing...'' lamenting his behavior while he was drunk, Takuya stood up quietly before walking over the bodies strewn across the floor. His destination; the sink in the kitchen next to the living room. Once there, he splashed some water on his face before getting a glass and filling it up with water. He raided the cupboards next and found some pills to ease the inflammation of his brain, washing them down with the water.The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Despite having a high alcohol tolerance there was no way he could beat an enhanced person like Himiko, so Takuya was truly paying for trying to keep up with her. Especially towards the end when he started drinking the truly strong stuff with her because the beer ran out and neither person could be bothered to summon more from their own rooms, and by that point, Rin had continuously tried to stop the two of them from drinking any more. Luckily, Takuya had a quick recovery ability when it came to ''poisons'' in his system, so he knew he''d be fine within a few minutes. Finishing off his water, Takuya started making himself a coffee before looking at the time on the clock next to him. If when they were drinking was night time, then now was around 9 or 10 O''Clock in the morning. Takuya thought it was truly weird and confusing that the place still kept time despite there not being a day and night cycle. Even the room where the exchanges were made was constantly lit up, with ''God'' or the white orb in the center, constantly lighting up the area around it with a glaring light. Soon his coffee was done and he poured it into a mug. He picked the mug up and took a few gulps of the strong black coffee, ''Mhmmm...I''m truly glad you can get the best of the best in this Dimension...Kinda like Player Benefits, right? You risk your life on death-defying missions and you can get a nice cup of coffee,'' chuckling quietly at his own joke, Takuya went and sat among the ''corpses'' while enjoying the peace while it lasted. Takuya knew the peace wouldn''t last long because they were deciding their Exchanges today and after that, they would probably be showing off their new powers. Though Takuya didn''t mind that as he was incredibly excited to finally buy the things he was looking at last night. ''I have so many points and enough Rank Rewards to buy some good stuff...I should also close the gap between me and Himiko. Let''s see how she manhandles me after my enhancements~'' Yes, that''s right, an Assassin is holding a grudge. Takuya''s pride was hit hard when he was suppressed so easily by Himiko so he knew he needed to get back at her today. And he had just the Genetic Mutation for it. Knocking him out of his thoughts on ''revenge'' Takuya felt one of his teammates slowly waking from unconsciousness. Looking over at who it was, it seemed to be Kazama who was in a precarious position with Sasaki. Knowing he was probably in a worse state than himself, Takuya let the poor kid go and didn''t tease him relentlessly. Kazama, realizing he had a hand on his childhood friend''s butt, quickly shot away from her and stood up before looking around to see if anyone had seen what he was doing. To his horror, he saw Takuya sitting there drinking from a mug like some kind of villain, his green eyes squinted like a cat''s when they gleefully play with a mouse. But to his immediate relief and slight confusion, Takuya didn''t say anything and only finished off his mug of coffee before getting up and heading to the door of Rin''s room. He had to shower and wash Himiko''s and Hana''s perfume out of his clothes. . . . Looking over at the last approaching person, Takuya thanked God that they finally turned up. Kazama, the last person to turn up, was slightly red because of the looks focused on him. When he met Takuya''s gaze, he averted his eyes quickly, knowing the assassin was the only person to see his ''vulgar'' actions this morning. In truth, Takuya didn''t think it was that much of a big deal, though he did relish in the fact he''d have plenty more ammo to embarrass the two lovebirds now that this had happened. He wouldn''t tell Kazama that Sasaki was awake before Kazama and in fact allowed him to touch her butt. ''I''ll save that for later~'' evilly chuckling in his mind, he looked over at Kazama, "Thank God you''re finally here. I was getting impatient on choosing my Exchange Items," Mikasa, Uehara and even Himiko nodded alongside Takuya, agreeing with what he said. Only Sasaki seemed to disagree with him, glaring at Takuya for daring to admonish her beloved childhood friend. Takuya ignored her and let Rin speak as he was standing in front of the group. "Okay, so right now we''re going to buy from the Exchange List. Buy what you think is best for you but also keep the team in mind, okay? And if you need any help, just ask and we can discuss it as a team. That''s it, go on and start buying," with that, Rin turned around and starting looking through God''s Exchange List. I was the second, having rushed there as quickly as possible, knowing what I wanted and wanting it right now. After scrolling, I finally found what I wanted, or at least the pre-requisite to what I wanted. Demon Baron Genetic Mutation Rating 68 Applicable to most missions. Has access to Demonic Power and most Demon Magic. Rank Baron increases strength moderately and emotional state can increase power further. The owner will not be affected by holy water. Requires a rank D-Rank reward and 1000 points. Takuya quickly brought this and was lifted into the air by a beam of light. Particles of light slowly drifted into him, with three main colors being slowly fed into him; black, purple, and red. Takuya could feel his body changing, increasingly getting stronger, faster and more filled with vitality as the particles of colored light flowed into him. Just before he was lowered to the ground, Takuya felt a few strands of energy lying in his stomach. This energy felt evil and desolate, malevolent by nature and something purely meant for destruction. But overall, it felt powerful like something that was a cut above the rest. Takuya, of course, knew what this was; it was Demonic Power. Baron-Level Demonic Power Rating 65 Applicable to most missions that require combat ability. This ability gives the Player access to Demonic Power and the ability to use it for either Magic or to temporarily enhance their physical stats. Though it is a lower-tier energy compared to Mana or Ki, it has a much higher Destructive Output than both those energies combined. Vast amounts of emotion can increase the intensity of the energy and increase its efficacy beyond its current rank. Requires D-Rank and 800 points (or it can be gained through the Demon Genetic Mutation line). Feeling his improved body, Takuya didn''t take long to go back to the Exchange List to get the next two Upgrades he needed. He quickly found them as they were under the Demon Baron Genetic Mutation. Demon Baron Genetic Mutation (Sparda Bloodline Variant) Rating 82 The Sparda Bloodline is a renowned demonic bloodline descended from The Legendary Dark Knight Sparda and his human wife, Eva. Sparda was an immensely powerful demon known for his great power and swordsmanship who turned his back on the Demon hordes in the aid of humanity. This bloodline merges with the Demon Baron Genetic Mutation for progression in the Demon Genetic Mutation line and provides enhanced physical attributes, especially Cell Vitality and Muscle Density, and greatly boosted Demonic Energy over a generic Demon bloodline but at an increased rank cost. The owner will not be affected by Holy Water. Requires 2 D-Rank Rewards, 1000 Points and Demon Baron Genetic Mutation (Non-variant) Demon Count Genetic Mutation (Sparda Bloodline Variant) Rating 89 A further rank enhancement of the Sparda Bloodline which gives the Player an even further increase to their physical prowess and Demonic Power. Rank Count provides the Ability to activate a Devil Trigger Mode under extreme Emotional turmoil which substantially increases physical attributes and greatly boosts the intensity of their Demonic Power. Rank Count also increases the power of the Bloodline and the powers given by it. The owner will not be affected by Holy Water. Requires 2 C-Rank Rewards, 2600 Points and the Demon Baron Genetic Mutation (Sparda Bloodline Variant). Buying both of these, Takuya felt himself being lifted up into the air by the beam of light once again, but this time the particles of light were almost overwhelming in their quantity and they were followed by a deep aura of desolation and tyranny. It was safe to say his Genetic Mutation was a cut above the rest of the D-Rank and C-Rank Mutations. . . . Takuya''s Score after his purchases: 15300 Points S = 0 A = 0 B = 0 C = 1 D = 2 Chapter 16 - Alien Franchise Arc (Intermission 3) It took a bit longer than the previous Genetic Mutation, and Takuya could only assume that was because this bloodline was much stronger than the generic Demon Genetic Mutation like it said in the description. The color was like before; a mixture of black, red, and purple. But this time the colors were brighter and felt much stronger. Once the colors got into his body, Takuya felt his muscles, bones, organs, and nerves rapidly improve. It was like feeling millions of years of evolution in the span of a dozen or so minutes; It wasn''t the most comfortable thing to ever happen to Takuya, that he was sure of. ''I don''t care if it isn''t comfortable, however! I can feel the strength filling me! Man, this is like a drug!'' as Takuya rambled on in his head, the multi-colored lights continued to do their work. But it took until he was back on the ground to feel truly how much stronger he felt. Looking at his hand, Takuya clenched and released his hand a few times, feeling the potent power flowing between each finger, like the muscles strands inside of them, were made of living metal. And it didn''t take long to feel the difference in his demonic power, either. If before the energy was a few strong strands, then now it was starting to pool together in his heart and travel with his blood around his body in strong rivers of purple, fiery red, and crimson red*. The evil feeling was much stronger now and Takuya could feel the energy affecting his mental state, trying to make him angry and violent. But as an assassin, Takuya quickly got these feelings under control; he was the master of his feelings, not the other way around. (*A/N - Demonic power is red and purple, and blood is obviously red as well. So the purple and fiery red are demonic power, and the crimson red is obvious blood. Just thought I''d put this here to avoid confusing some people~) Feeling the power, however, Takuya knew it would be hard to control this in combat, and that needed to be rectified. Takuya knew he''d have to get his new ''instincts'' under control otherwise he''d end up getting himself or someone else killed. But at the same time, once he got it under control, he knew these new ''instincts'' would be incredibly helpful in battle. Before he could go any further into thought about his new power, a soft voice brought him out of his thinking. "Uhmm...Takuya-kun?" Hana looked up at me weirdly with a slightly worried look on her face. Takuya wondered if the aura he was giving off had scared her or made her worry about him, so he had a reassuring smile on her face as he replied. "I''m fine, Hana, it was just the Exchange being put into me; nothing too serious," patting her head, Takuya realized her worried face was still present and her eyes weren''t directed at him specifically, but rather his hair which confused Takuya. That was until a strand of his hair entered his vision. ''What...?'' was all Takuya could think as he pulled a strand over to where he could see it clearly: It was white. Pure, snow-like, white. Takuya was incredibly confused. He knew that Dante and Vergil both had white hair, but he was wondering why he had white-hair? Wasn''t it just a Genetic Mutation? And weren''t they supposed to just give him powers rather than changing his appearance? Looking down at his body, Takuya only noted that his body looked tougher and the muscles looked much more defined. He also felt that he may have grown a centimeter or two. But his hair changing color? Takuya couldn''t understand why that happened. Well, until Himiko came over and enlightened him. "Ah, Takuya, you''re hair color changed as well? Don''t be too alarmed; it happened to me. My hair was brown before I got my Mutation, and now it''s obviously this color," she lifted up a strand of blonde hair, "It''s not like how it was in the novels where there are limited changes, either. We''re changing our genetics, there''s bound to be a change to our appearances," Himiko just shrugged her shoulders before appearing next to Takuya with a burst of speed, "Though," she laid a hand over Takuya''s chest, "I think white hair suits you just fine~" Takuya was surprised. Not by Himiko''s aggressive flirting - he''d adapted to that by now - but by another thing. He''d been able to vaguely follow her burst of speed just now, and the vaguely part was because he hadn''t fully broken in his Mutation yet. Keeping this a secret to himself, he acted surprised at her speed before swatting away Himiko''s hand and walking back over to the exchange menu with Hana. Himiko, pouting, walked after them. On the way, Himiko posed a question to Takuya, "What Genetic Mutation did you buy, anyway?" Thinking on whether or not to answer her, Takuya found no reason not to tell her, "Demon Count Genetic Mutation, Sparda Bloodline Variant. You know, like Dante and Vergil from Devil May Cry," he didn''t look at Himiko but he could feel her eyes on the back of his head but he decided to ignore it as he needed to think. Ignoring everything else as well, Takuya thought on what he''d need next, ''Weapons and Armor...'' and he knew whatever he got would have to go with what his strengths were. So, he had to cover close range fighting and long-range fighting. Or in layman''s terms, he needed a melee weapon and a gun. And he had just the 2 things for that. Or 3. Replica Rebellion (Devil May Cry) - Rating 79Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. A replica of Rebellion, a weapon which even though it has the form of a standard sword, it is a magical blade originally created alongside the Sparda and Yamato when the Dark Knight Sparda split his power into three pieces and was named by him to embody "retaliation". To complement the Yamato, which can separate man from devil, the Rebellion can instead unite the two forces. The replica has this but on a limited scale, being able to allow the Player easier access to their Devil Trigger if they have the Sparda Bloodline. The sword this replica is based off was used by Sparda''s son, Dante and had killed many a demon in his use, therefore, the replica has an aura allowing it to hurt the Supernatural. Requires 4000 Points and a D-Rank reward. Replica Ebony and Ivory Pistol Set (Devil May Cry) Rating 78 A replica of the gun pair, Ebony and Ivory, used by Dante, son of Sparda. A pair of personally customized, semi-automatic pistols, designed to rapidly fire bullets instilled with demonic power. The right-handed white gun, Ivory, was custom built for rapid firing and fast draw times, while the left-handed black gun, Ebony, has been modified for long-distance targeting and piercing armor. Just like in the Games, these replicas will have no need to reload, they will only drain the Players demonic power to resupply the bullets. Requires 4000 Points and a D-Rank reward. ''Oh, the beauty...'' feeling himself drooling, Takuya quickly spent the 8000 points and 2 D-Rank Rewards without thinking, knowing these weapons would serve him well until he had the points and rank rewards to afford the real thing. A blinding light appeared in front of Takuya has he spent the points and he unconsciously reached out his hand and the light around the weapons started breaking like an eggshell before falling away in little pieces and vanishing. Soon the sword and pistols were in Takuya''s hands and he couldn''t help but nearly squeal when holding them. He''d always been a massive DMC fan and had played the games when growing up and wasn''t being brutally trained. Dante''s carefree attitude despite the bad shit in his life was what cultivated Takuya''s own carefree personality and ultimately what made him a bad assassin. ''I guess games do rot the brain?'' laughing quietly at his own joke, Takuya quickly spent 10 points on customized holsters for both of the pistols before slipping it over if tank top and putting the pistols in. He then spent another 10 points on a sword ''holster'' for Rebellion. Why not buy a scabbard for Rebellion? Because the sword was much too big for a scabbard to be effective. It was around 6ft long, so having it on Takuya''s hip was out of the question and its overall length made drawing it from a scabbard on his back, impossible. So instead, Takuya found a sort of magnetic sword holder which he could place on his back and it only cost 10 points which was surprising to Takuya. Placing it on his back, Takuya put Rebellion over it and felt the sword get pulled and then locked in place. He took it from his back with a slight tug and realized a normal human wouldn''t be able to use this magnetic holster because it would be much too strong for them to overpower. Anyway, looking down at the blade, Takuya took in its majestic appearance. Rebellion is a massive sword with a heavy double-edged blade, notched on both sides near the tip. The grip is plain, but the guard is skeletal, with a skull-design on each side leading to the rib cage from which the blade emerges; on one side of the blade, the skull is that of a human, while the other uses a horned demon''s skull. The side of the blade with the Demon Head on it is slightly darker than the other side making the blade look quite unique. Looking down to his side at the gun holsters holding Ebony and Ivory, Takuya thought that they looked just like M1911-styled handguns but with one of them being black and the other being white and both of them having extended barrels which made the guns look longer and bigger. ''They still look cool, though,'' Takuya thought as he thought about their strength which could shoot demons to death. Clipping his new sword back into place on his back, Takuya turned around to see Hana and Himiko looking at him weirdly. "What?" was all Takuya could ask seeing their staring. His question knocked the two girls out of their staring, with Hana getting flustered and looking at the Exchange List to either distract herself or to buy her Genetic Mutation. Himiko, however, just laughed before answering the confused Assassin. "You look a lot like Vergil* but with those weapons and that carefree expression, you also look like Dante; you look like the perfect mix between the two. Though you have green eyes instead of blue like them, you''re still very devilishly handsome," she snickered to herself as she looked over at Hana, "Though I doubt miss princess over there has ever played Devil May Cry and was just thinking about how handsome you look~" (*A/N - White, slicked back hair and lean, muscular body, along with a sharp angular face are what make him look like Vergil.) Himiko laughed playfully and Takuya could see Hana''s desire to refute her but she instead focused on the Exchange List knowing that arguing with Himiko was always a losing battle, and Takuya couldn''t help but nod, ''You''re learning quickly, Hana...I''m proud.'' Knowing he could help Hana out, Takuya drew Himiko''s attention to himself with a cough. When the woman looked over at him curiously, he spoke, "So, Himiko, what are you going to buy?" Takuya wanted to know what she was buying so he knew what he was up against when he fought her in a bit. He knew he had to wait for everyone else to buy their stuff because he was going to pose the fights as ''training'' for every newbie player to get used to their new strength. Obviously, he''d also get the experienced players to help out as well and knowing Himiko, Takuya knew she''d try and fight him. Anyway, Himiko went into thought before nodding her head with an assured look, "I''m probably going to buy an upgrade to my Mutation, you know? It''s the basis of my strength and with you here and the amount of strength you''ve probably just gained, I know I''m going to need more power to survive the next mission." Hearing what she said, Takuya tilted his head, wondering if she was purposely being vague, "And what Mutation do you have, Himiko? I already know you have the Teigu Lionel, so maybe a Mutation to do with Lions/Felines?" Clapping her hands, Himiko smiled at Takuya, "Ara ara, you''re so bright, Takuya~! Yes, I''ve got a Feline Mutation. More specifically an Entry-Level Werelion Genetic Mutation, and I plan to take it up to the next level which is, High-Level Werelion Genetic Mutation," she stopped for a moment before playfully smiling, "Maybe at that time you can be my sparring partner to help me get used to my strength~?" Smiling, Takuya wondered if Himiko had a telepathy ability as well, or if her instincts were really perceptive or something, but in the end, he nodded with a smile, "Of course. I''d be happy to spar with you," looking back to the Exchange List, Takuya spoke one last time before getting the last thing he wanted, "You should get your stuff then because I''ve got one last purchase." With that, Takuya searched for one last thing: Armor. The only thing he hadn''t searched for yesterday but he had a pretty good idea on what he wanted. . . . Takuya''s Score after his purchases: 7300 Points S = 0 A = 0 B = 0 C = 1 D =0