Whimper

The girl is barely conscious and the boy wraps her wounds. Her arm is a bloody stump from half the elbow down. She does not look at it or make any remark. The boy visibly forces away a grimace. He makes a tourniquet with scraps of her shirt and a stick and the bleeding stops. Then he sits by her side and watches her. The girl's limbs fall to the earth when she tries to move. "I'm too weak," she whispers.

"Daijobu da," the boy says. He holds onto her hand with both of his. "Isha o kiteimasuyo."

"I hope that means something encouraging." She laughs faintly.

The boy only squeezes her hand. But as she turns her head to look at him, there is a loud hum in the air.

"Oh no," the girl breathes.

"Dame!" The boy's eyes widen and gathers the girl in his arms and heaves her to cover. His thin arms shake and he throws himself over her. The humming grows to a roar, and then, a silver craft screams through the forest. The flying vehicle rips through the trees in a blaze of fire and smoke, crashes through the trunks, and snaps trees in half. The wings of the craft explode and tear off the body. A piece of flaming shrapnel plunges into the ground next to the boy and girl. They both scream and the boy presses the girl against him. A thunderclap of sound blasts from the other side of the forest.

A bullet blue like electricity shoots through the trees and bursts into the silver craft in a firecracker discharge of light and sound. The boy grips hard onto the girl and she shuts her eyes. Another craft, this one white with a black insignia akin to the one on the girl's bag, a soaring eagle image, plunged through the air after the fallen vehicle. There are screams. There are the blasts of bullets. Then there are people in uniform racing through the forest.

"Persephone," the boy says urgently, "tatte kudasai. Tatte - tatte kudasai!"

The girl doesn't answer. The boy pulls her to her feet, halfway supporting her, and they run. They both stumble and flinch at shots. Flames are suddenly everywhere. They eat up trees in red and orange flares and smoke plumes into the sky. The boy coughs and wheezes, but keeps going. He holds the black gun at his side and the girl on his other and continues on. The girl's face is set in determination and pain.

But then something steps into their path.

Dark in the bright flames ahead is a beast. A sneering mask of twisted horns and fangs covers its face and the muzzle of a gun looms out of a heavy sleeve. Blood is splattered on its clothes. Half its side is gone and a gleaming white bone protrudes from the monster's shoulder. Black blood gushes from it and over the exposed innards. It cocks its head at the boy and girl. A low, threatening growl emits from deep within it.

"Oni," the boy whispers.

The beast raises the gun. The bloody end points at the boy and girl and there is an audible click over the roar of fire. The girl grips the boy's side. The boy grips the gun. But before they could move, a blast erupts from the forest.

The boy and girl fall.

The beast's head explodes in a spray of blood and brains and it plunges to the ground. The boy and girl land on their knees and the boy's gun plummets from his hand. He gapes. The girl's face is porcelain in the firelight. And a man with a white uniform with a black eagle insignia on the breast lunges into sight.

"There she is!" he cries. "We found her! Persephone Lillis! We found her!"

And white uniformed men and women sweep them away.