Soul Spark

20 - Mobile Interception, p1

“Fuck...” Sakuto muttered to himself. He and Ichika had to beat the white crow in a race to the city where the fate of the world would be decided. “Towards...Rome? That’s too fucking far away. We’re still in Warsaw, we won’t make it.”

“We will if you fly fast enough.” Ichika said. “But right now...”

“They’re closer to him than we are.”

“He mentioned a train route, right?” Zawadski asked, frantically pacing around the very same building that they captured not too long ago and have been defending against waves upon waves of enhanced voidflames. “We know that it’s in Rome, but where is it coming from is the question...”

“Sakuto was in Warsaw, so potentially from there?” Ichigo asked.

“You think Sakyuto wouldn’t find him if he was still in Warsaw?” Yuuka asked, typing dozens of words per second on the computer they managed to preserve. “And besides, they got themselves a nice little train too...”

“Military involvement, likely external support...destination not too far away from-”

“It’s from Vienna.” Jian said. “We’ve seen info about it while Yuuka was trying to hack through the communications network. The train has likely departed from Vienna and is headed directly to Rome.”

“Then all that’s left is to pinpoint the railway and to stop it.” Zawadski said, feeling almost delighted.

“Yeah, and to somehow capture the kid.” Ichigo said. “I doubt he’s gonna be too cooperative.”

“What is the best point of interception?” Jian asked.

“Hmm, lemme see...” Yuuka did more of her magic, which wasn’t even magic, she just looked up the train route and compared it to existing roads in the area. “Not too far away from the city, actually. There’s a segment where a mountain road comes close to a part of the railway.”

“Great. Will we fucking make it though?!” Zawadski asked. “Come on Yuuka, give us some good news.”

“Considering that we have a lead, if we take a bit of time to stock up on fuel now...” Yuuka pondered out loud. “And if we don’t stop, push our truck at max speed...”

Everyone leaned in closer.

“We’ll make it just in time.”

Everyone sighed in relief.

“But!” Yuuka demanded. “We need to start moving now. And by now, I mean yesterday.” She said, leaving the computer, destroying one of the windows and jumping out. “Come on!”

“Right...there still is a chance.” Ichigo thought. “Sakuto’s group is heading to the city directly too.”

“All that’s left now...”

He took a deep breath.

“Ichigo!” Jian called out. “Concentrate.” They were the only ones left, Zawadski also jumped out to quickly get the truck ready. “If there is anything you are worried about-”

“Nothing in particular, captain.” He nodded. “Just...”

He remembered the disaster of Godkill. Chapters fırst released on noⅴelfire.net

“I hope everything goes well.” Ichigo said. “I hope all of this ends. The word doesn’t deserve any more of this.”

“I suppose I hope so as well.” Jian lightly nodded. “We will return to...though, it will be difficult to find a proper purpose now that we do not have a commander, but...”

She sighed.

“Everything will go well, Ichigo.” Jian said, walking away.

“I have to make sure that they know I am hopeful too. So that they do not lose their morale. That is what a proper captain should do...”

“...”

“No, that is what a friend should do.”

...

The armored train speeded through the mountain terrain. Its loud presence, its intimidating appearance...and most crucially, the person it held on board of it.

Hiroshi and Dietrich were in the front wagon, carefully watching over the many monitors in the control room. Aside from acting as the driver’s own domain, it was also a type of control center for the train that was more akin to a facility than to a means of transportation. They watched the maps, kept tabs on the radars and were ready to give orders to mount weapons at any moment.

“Right...the coast seems clear.” Dietrich said. “Hiroshi, you should take some time for yourself and perhaps rest properly. There is food on board too.”

“No, I’m fine. T-thanks.” Hiroshi replied, slightly awkwardly.

“I do believe you should be properly rested.” Dietrich advised. “The conversation you will have with your father...may not be so easy. It would not be ideal for mental exhaustion to affect it.”

“It will be difficult, but-”

“What I am trying to say is...do not forget the stakes.” Dietrich said. “You’ll need practically perfect speech.”

“I know. But it’ll be fine.” Hiroshi said. “I can find a common language with him once I tell him how I really feel about everything.”

“Parents always look after their children...”

“I was the one who made his life difficult with my complaints, wasn’t I? Maybe if he sees that I’m a proper soulful now, he’ll change his mind about me.”

“It seems that we’re not alone.” Dietrich said, pointing at one of the radars.

“Huh?!” Hiroshi gasped. He looked at the displays connected to cameras mounted outside the train.

“There’s no dragons here, meaning that it’s not them. But...”

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

“There were also those four...”

“They’re here to try to get me.” Hiroshi said, growing frustrated. “Keep them away at all costs.”

“They?”

“The Heisei’s forces.” Hiroshi said. “The guys that kidnapped me.”

“Understood.” Dietrich sighed. “In that case, stay here. My men will handle this.”

Hiroshi nodded, but deep down, he knew all about what was going to happen.

“No, that’s wrong. They fought dad and survived. They’re soulfuls. The only one who can even hope to put up a fight with them here is me.”

“Supreme Commander, there’s an unknown vehicle traveling at high speeds on the mountain road above us.” The radio in the room conveyed. “Visual analysis reveals a driver and a passenger in the front. Cargo is unknown.”

“It’s the Heisei.” Dietrich replied into his walkie-talkie. “Engage them with full force.”

A minute later, all the cannons on board were quickly mounted and ready to fire. And they did just that. Blasts from the heavy cannons struck parts of the road and even the mountain itself, causing large chunks of debris to fall down.

“Oh come on, who the fuck does that to a road like this?!” Zawadski yelled in frustration. “Yuuka, I’m betting my nutsack that we gotta leave this thing and just sprint to it or else this whole thing will get blown up!”

Another such shell struck the road, this one a little too close to their truck for comfort.

“Damn it, Ichigo! Why couldn’t you have your wings active all the time?!” Zawadski thought, steering through the landslide of debris.

“Zawadski, what’s the plan?” Ichigo asked.

“The plan is to say ‘fuck it’ and to jump on the train ourselves.” Zawadski said. “I need to get just a little closer to make sure nothing goes wrong. Damn it, Captain, you gotta take those cannons out! And don’t blow the whole train up, the kid is still inside!”

Jian climbed out of the cargo section and on top of the truck. Holding onto the vehicle, she saw the train and its manny weapons, and took aim. Unfortunately for her, her aim was suddenly shaken up. It felt like the vehicle was starting to lose control.

“Damn landslide!” Zawadski complained, frantically steering the truck around as it was en route to slip off of the road entirely.

“Everyone, jump!”

The soulfuls left the vehicle. They followed along the road, and after a sprint and a leap of faith, they landed directly on top of the land. So powerfully, in fact, that they almost crushed the wagon they landed on.

Jian immediately took aim, taking out two of the on-wagon cannons she had a line of sight on. Soldiers started coming out and aiming their weapons at them, some even firing as soon as they got the chance. Deep down, they knew this was a suicide mission. Jian killed them off one by one, with Ichigo assisting her with well-aimed prowess releases.

“His presence is all the way in the front.” Ichigo said. “Come on, let’s move.”

“Yeah, good luck moving through a mountain. There’s a tunnel a bit further ahead.” Zawadski said. He quickly punched a hole in the wagon they were standing in, but hesitated to go in. His comrades awkwardly looked at him.

“What? I checked what’s in there.” Zawadski explained himself as if he was offended. “They all got machine guns pointed.”

“I’ll deal with it.” Ichigo said, fading into his invisible state. He jumped down. An extremely faint thump was heard, but it was impossible to conclude everything, or, more specifically, there was no time to do so. Ichigo quickly got rid of all them with a flashing light aimed to blind them and a sequence of prowess releases

“All clear!” Ichigo called out, and the rest of the gang jumped in.

They went into the next room. Zawadski went in first, got shot a lot, and before he went in, he told the rest of the squad their locations. Jian carefully peeked around the corner, and Ichigo helped her take care of the rest of them, still attacking from an invisible state. Once he became visible again, the wagon darkened. The train entered the tunnel.

“We keep clearing until we get to the front.” Jian commanded.

“Heehee, I got this.” Yuuka smirked.

“Connect.”

“Yuuka, don’t go all out.” Ichigo immediately scolded her.

“I wasn’t going to, lightbulb!” Yuuka explained herself, almost as if she was offended. “Just thought I’d take care of things myself.

“If you really wanna be useful, you’ll get to the terminal first and try to put this thing to a stop.” Zawadski said.

“Got it! Heading to the terminal!” Yuuka said. “Let’s go, my kittens!”

She rushed through the next two wagons with seemingly no difficulty whatsoever. She crushed any soldiers that got close to her, and dealt with the rest by ripping chunks of the interior out and tossing them at her targets with enough speed and force behind them to mortally wound them. She did so for another wagon, laughing to her heart’s content while doing.

And now, there was light again. At least the hollow sunlight, the one that told them about the end of the tunnel.

“I’m going up.” Ichigo said.

“Zawadski, catch up to Yuuka and help her secure the terminal. I will go up too.” Jian said, shooting out an opening on the ceiling of the wagon they were in. While Zawadski rushed to aid Yuuka in her massacring duties, Jian and Ichigo climbed back up to the top of the train again.

The moment they did, a heavy shell struck Ichigo right in his stomach. It hurt quite a bit.

Jian immediately took aim and destroyed it completely. The soldier mounting it looked at her in disbelief, even in fear. She tried to take aim at her, but...

“They’re advancing through the train like it is nothing.” Dietrich said, starting to look worried.

“It’s fine.” Hiroshi said. “They’re not here to hurt me.”

“Them being fine already means that things are not fine.” Dietrich said, monitoring the footage that hurt him to watch. All of his highly trained men were stomped like insects. He typed a few commands into the terminal.

Suddenly, a small swarm of drones flew out of a hatch in one of the wagons. They buzzed around in the sky, but they wielded weapons strong enough to potentially derail the train altogether.

Ichigo clasped his hands. A second later, a powerful beam of concentrated light escaped them. He swung the ray from side to side, hoping to cut them down. Unfortunately, some of them were agile enough to not only avoid the beam, but to also unleash their weaponry.

The wagon they were standing on, including some other ones attached to it, were hit hard. So hard that the usually deemed impenetrable walls were broken through, and fires broke out.

Jian tried taking matters into her own hands. She, with relative ease, started shooting the drones down one by one. Ichigo, at the same time, took the initiative in the fights ahead of him - sending flying slashes at the cannons on the other end of the train and the personnel that tried to gun them down.

Once Jian was done, she jumped on top of Ichigo. She pushed herself upwards even more, leaping through the air and unleashing a sequence of shots that not only ripped the personnel apart, but also broke holes the wagons slightly ahead, killing some of the soldiers below them.

“Hey! No stealing!” Yuuka yelled from inside.

Jian turned around, looking at the slightly dumbfounded Ichigo.

“S-sorry...” she quietly said, before turning around and picking up the pace again. There was still manpower left on the train, trying to forge a ‘last line of defense’ of sorts. Ichigo caught up with Jian and they pushed ahead...

“We’ve been almost completely overwhelmed.” Dietrich said to himself, grabbing his rifle and putting a few types of grenades in his vest.

“You’re...going to engage?” Hiroshi asked.

“I’ll leverage my status as the leader of the resistance.” Dietrich said. “I’ll think of something.”

“But they’re-”

“I know, they’re stronger than me.” Dietrich said. “And it’s probably impossible for me to kill or even harm them in any way. But...I do have my faith in you and your plan. Even if it’s a nearly impossible feat, or if it ends up costing me my life, just putting this madness to an end justifies taking the risk and putting my life on the line.”

He took a deep breath too.

“You're putting your life on the line too, you know?”

He left. He went deeper into the train, crossing wagons, on his way to confront Yuuka and Zawadski...

Hiroshi, at the same time, decided to take action himself.

His heart didn’t feel like it ached that much anymore whenever he used his soul expression. He climbed out of the exit and made his way to the top of the train. And in the distance, he saw two soulfuls ahead of him.

Ichigo’s worst fear came to fruition - Hiroshi held a fighting stance.