"from now on our mission is to keep the enemy distracted for as long as we possibly can." guren says, staring yuu in the eye so as to get his message across to the young soldier. yuu huffs in annoyance, but makes no such attempt to object. "which is why-"

shinya hiiragi steps up beside the lieutenant colonel, cutting him off and finishing his sentence for him. "we're going to see how they react to a little expert sniping. if they attack in force, we'll run. but if we see an opening we'll to save all of the hostages."

you tilt your head, so far the plan makes sense. the goal is to save the twenty five hostages. yet, in the case that's not possible without multiple casualties from the elites, aka us, we must leave them. it's a difficult decision on guren's part, you know that, but it's a decision that has to be made. losing the elites is something we cannot allow to happen. we need our strongest soldiers even if there is fewer. we're more likely to succeed in our next mission that way.

"best case scenario, we'll kill the nobles too." guren says, glancing around at each face that listened intently to his words.

shinya chuckles. "now you're dreaming. things never go that well."

guren narrows his eyes at his silver haired friend, who summons his cursed gear, preparing for his first part of the mission.

"why are you always such a pessimist?" guren scowls, an irritated tone to his voice.

shinya is unfazed by guren's tone, holding up gun in front of him. "come on, guren. i'm just telling it like it is. don't worry i'm still going to kill these guys. pick a sniping perch, yoichi." shinya instructs your soft hearted friend who nods, scrambling to get ready. "let's em show everyone what you've learned."

naromi begins instructing. his squad, just as shinoa turns to hers, facing your group with a determined look in her eyes.

"we're prepared, right?" she asks, the question was asked towards all of you, but she wanted to know each of you were ready.

"yeah!" yuu responds, his confidence high as ever.

you nod too, pulling your golden out of your pocket, holding it in your hand. "i'm ready." you say confidently, prepared for whatever it is that may come your way this upcoming mission.

shinoa nods back, and begins leading her squad to watch the shots that your two comrades are about to make.

yoichi gasps, staring through the scope of his bow as he holds it up at eye level. "i have eyes on a vampire! it's a noble. his back's to me, i don't think he's noticed us yet." he informs the group, readying an arrow and waiting for guren to give the okay.

"then take the damn shot!" guren shouts, his tone demanding as he leans forward. "now!"

yoichi mutters something to his demon, taking a deep breath. he releases the arrow on his exhale, and you watch intently as the green, bird-like arrow is released. it shoots forward, and you watch it become a tiny dot, until the force of it collides with a window on the town hall building. a massive hole is blown in the wall, and you watch figures emerge from the smoke.

they're too far to see, but you know that most likely, none of them were killed.

yoichi turns away from his view of the town hall. "sir, i failed to hit my target." he announces. you know it's not his fault.

"ordinarily even a noble wouldn't have been able to dodge a shot like that. which means..." shinya begins, drifting off at the end of his sentence.

"that this guy must be an extremely powerful vampire." guren finishes, nodding at yoichi and letting the boy know he did well either way. "it's no wonder nine of our strongest teams couldn't handle him. we don't stand a chance."

yoichi sighs, turning to face yuu. "he's right. i recognize this guy. we've faced him before."

your squad perks up at the new information, attentive to whatever yoichi is now about to say.

"he's the vampire we fought when we were headed to shinjuku." yoichi looks irritated, a very different expression than his usually calm, or nervous expression. "and his comrades are with him."

your blood runs cold at those words, and kimizuki steps up behind you, placing a comforting hand on your shoulder as if he's sensed your unease. "it's okay." he mutters to you, squeezing your shoulder gently.

"hey, gimme that!" yuu's expression grows agitated, and he grabs the spyglass from guren's hold, holding it up to his own eye. yuu gasps a moment later after assumingely catching sight of the noble. "yoichi's right.that guy is big trouble! he's like, insanely strong!"

guren turns back to the building every has their gaze focused on. "i see, then i highly doubt we could beat them by force alone." he sighs, staring off in thought, hopefully thinking of a wise strategy.

"so then what?" you question, dying to know wether or not you would have to face off with crowley again. the anxiety seemed to be eating away at you.

shinya, without turning his gaze away from the scope of his gun, speaks up. "we've got one of two choices: we can shoot our comrades now before they're tortured, and then get the hell out of this town."

yuu grits his teeth, stepping forward threateningly. "you can't be serious!"

shinoa grabs him, pulling him back to stop him from moving any further. "calm down. don't freak out yet. that's one way but what's the other option?"

shinya finally turns to regard shinoa, yuu, and the rest of the group. offering everyone his full attention.

"we somehow manage to split up the nobles, then save the hostages and retreat. naturally that plan is more dangerous. i doubt we'd all survive." shinya informs the team, his words matching up with the theory you had come up with in your head. it's the only logical way to save any of the hostages, let alone all of them.

yuu turns around, instead fixing his glaring eyes on guren. "we're not leaving our comrades behind, right? guren?"

guren is silent, leaving everyone to stare anxiously, waiting for the final order from their lieutenant colonel.

naromi speaks up first. "i hate to say it, but the smartest move is to kill the hostages and then get out of here. they didn't attack us after yoichi's failed shot, so we're not important to them. we should retreat while we're still able to."

yuu scowls, rushing forward to grab the front of sergeant naromi's uniform harshly, glaring daggers at the older man. "don't be stupid!" he shouts.

naromi grabs him in return, shoving him away from himself with force. "you're the one who's acting stupid! i've got close friends in that group of hostages. it's killing me to even think of leaving them behind, but you don't see me making a scene like a spoiled brat."

yuu shuts his mouth, but his eyes speak differently than his silence. yuu will not change his mind on the matter, and as much as you're afraid to face crowley again, you are with yuu all the way. you're not interested in leaving anybody behind.

shinoa steps forward, deciding to be the voice of reason in this situation and focuses her attention on the man who's decision this whole thing really is. "lieutenant colonel, this is still a decoy mission, isn't it? if we leave the nobles alone, aren't we putting the shibuya unit at risk?"

you nod to yourself at shinoa's good question, as she makes an excellent point in this whole ordeal.

"i wonder about that too, guren. so we have to go through with this, don't we?" you question, tucking a strand of h/c hair behind your ear as you question the dark haired man.

"yes." guren responds, a straight forward response to the inquiries he's received.

"then in that case-" shinoa begins, only to be cut off by guren speaking again.

"yeah i know. there's no way around it, we have to attack. we'll put on a big show so they think we're the main unit." guren explains, his voice empty as he seems to contemplate something in his head.

"i'm not against killing the bloodsuckers, but i don't see how we stand a chance with them waiting around for us like this." shinya expresses his concern, pulling away from the scope his gun once more and facing guren fully.

"if they start to overwhelm us, we'll retreat. come on." guren commands, turning away from the entirety of the group. "we should move locations."

———————

your team is quick to move onto the battlefield after the sound of an explosion, which signals the time to move out.

you meet up with naromi's team, who's already begun releasing soldiers from their bonds on the wooden poles they've been tethered to.

you jump up, landing on a beam nailed across one of the standing ones, and swing down your axe to cut the rope that binds one of the men to this cross. after you've released him you move onto another, and another.

it is only when shinoa calls you over that you return back to your group, finding out that they plan to go save guren, who's apparently losing his fight to crowley, alongside shinoa's adoptive brother shinya.

you grit your teeth, biting back your quickly growing nerves as you remember what you've got to do. you fight to win and protect, not survive. how can you let a silly little emotion such as fear stop you from protecting an important member of your family?

you nod, pushing away the anxious thoughts jumbling up your mind, sticking to your fighting instincts and clearing your mind of any thoughts you don't need.

you follow your friends as they begin to run, making their way inside the town hall, in a hurry to find the lieutenant colonel, and shinya hiiragi.