"......"

"............................................."

"...Why?"

My voice came out hoarse. I stared at the red spikes retracting back to my side, and stare at it I did. For a few long moments, I wondered why did this kind of thing was inside me.

Why.

Why.

Why!?

"When will you move, Ava?"

The red spikes dissolved into thin air and I found myself trying to look behind me. Try as I could, the red spikes—the very weapon I used to kill people—had disappeared. But at that time, what raised cognizance more than the crystal spikes was the strange, inhuman voice inside my head. This voice talked to me and it mentioned my name.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"

My dirty hands grabbed at my scalp and in the next moment, I pulled my dark hair as hard as I could. Bits and strands of hair I took care of so much before dropped to the ground. Pulling at it mercilessly over and over and over again, a memory slipped into my mind.

It was about six months ago, that Mommy commented on my long hair. She had said that it looked unkempt but I thought otherwise. She tried to cut my hair for me and I obstinately refused.

"Ava! Your hair is too long! At least let Mommy cut it a bit."

"No! I don't want to!"

"Ah, look at the mirror! Can't you see it has reached your waist?"

"I can take care of my long hair! After all, Daddy said he loves my hair!"

"A-Ava, wait! Come back here!"

I bolted out of my room and found Daddy in the hallway. He wanted to check out what the altercation upstairs was about, and I immediately went to his side. Daddy had short, slick dark hair and right then he was wearing a blue T-shirt and jeans.

"Ava?"

"Daddy, Daddy! Mommy said she doesn't love Daddy anymore!"

"E-Ehh?"

"Ava!"

Mommy dashed out into the hallway as well, with a pair of scissors in her right hand. She had put on a violet cardigan and blue jeans.

"Dear, her hair is too long," said Mommy.

I hugged Daddy's leg and his eyes opened wide at a sudden realization. He sighed and then managed to calm Mommy down with his words.

"If she doesn't want to have her hair cut, then let her be, Alicia," said Daddy.

"...Her willingness aside, the school teacher might not like it if she keeps her hair that long. I'm afraid the teacher might scold her if she doesn't cut it sooner or later."

"Ah... Then leave it to me. After all, I got her hair cut before at the barbershop, and she didn't make a fuss about it."

"Yay! Daddy will cut my hair!"

Mommy sighed and put the scissors away. "Wasting money on getting her hair cut at a barbershop. It's not cheap nowadays. We need to save whenever we can for next month."

"I know," said Daddy.

Mommy went to the kitchen downstairs and Daddy smiled wryly in her direction.

"Ava, Mommy will feel lonely if you don't spend time with her."

"But Mommy is scary... Not like Daddy. I love Daddy!"

I hugged him and he raised me high up in the air.

"Daddy, do you like girls with long hair?" I asked.

"Haha. I like girls who have short hair. A straight bob cut like your mother. It looks clean and neat, isn't it?"

"T-Then I also want a bob cut like Mommy!"

"Then it shall be done. But if your hair grows long again, don't be afraid to have your mother cut it for you, okay?"

I nodded at Daddy with an exultant smile. He returned my smile and I hugged him tightly, not wanting to let go of the person I loved very much. As I closed my eyes, a piercing sound shrilled through the hallway and my head instinctively turned to look behind me.

There was only pitch black darkness.

When I turned back to Daddy holding me, someone I didn't recognize was there instead of him. A tall man fully dressed in black, with goggles and a mask covering his face.

"...Daddy?"

Red paint poured out from the goggles and I screamed. The man let go of me and I dropped to the wooden floor, or I should be, but my body didn't stop falling and I was sucked into a dark hole. As time passed, darkness shrouded everything within sight, and the tall man in black dissolved into thin air, leaving me alone by myself.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"

By the time I realized it, strands of dark hair had tangled around my dainty fingers. Still, this didn't matter. With the events transpiring before and the knowledge of me doing something so horrible, my mind couldn't handle it anymore.

"—are you broken or something?" echoed the woman's voice I had just killed.

As I screamed and hollered to no one, my eyes bled. I thought I was seeing things but after everything I've experienced and felt, I was sure it was real.

Red curved blades sprouted from my back, tearing through my dirty, white dress, and more blades desperately burst out from its tips, creating a red visage from my nightmares. These turbulent emotions that blinded me had taken its form, and with it came the fact that I could no longer see my parents anymore. They would look at the monster I was in contempt and throw me away.

"...Someone."

As the growing red blades clanged against each other, it destroyed the very room I was in. The red crystals swung and sliced, leveling through the metal walls and pillars that obstructed its path with no care at all.

"...Someone save me," I said through tears of blood.

Outside of the cemented building used to store dead bodies for cremation, a group of armed individuals fought their way through the lines of soldiers in black. The soldiers were slowly being overwhelmed and had taken cover behind the tall, white walls that sandwiched the broken metal entrance double gates. The armed forces hiding behind three black military trucks owned by the Great Corporate United fired at the soldiers, well aware of their rifles' magazines depleting.

"Ugh! This small outpost is so tough to break through!" shouted a man belonging to the group trying to breach the outpost.

"We sent Nick and George inside to get the layout, but—"

"We don't have time to wait for them! They hadn't come back for a good forty-five minutes. This means they're dead!" said a tall woman equipped with a bulletproof vest and dark military pants from waist down.

"How can you be so sure, Beatrice?"

This time, an old man with short, grizzled hair was talking to this Beatrice through her mic in her right ear, from his end. He was someplace else, observing the outpost from a drone high up.

Beatrice, shoulder-length hair dyed green and blue eyes, a height of 162cm, was taking cover behind the foremost truck out of the three her group was using to take cover. At the other end of her truck was a man with his hair styled into a rainbow Mohawk. He was also wearing the same gear as Beatrice to protect himself. While returning fire from the soldiers guarding the outpost's entrance, he talked with Beatrice.

"It doesn't matter, right? We're going to crash this outpost anyway sooner or later!"

"We're on the defensive for too long, Jeremy!" said Beatrice as she fired her assault rifle at a soldier behind the outpost's tall cemented wall. Her shots hit the soldier in the head and he fell to the ground.

"Beatrice, Jeremy! We're breaking through! Inghild, give them the 50-mm underbarrel grenade launchers already!" shouted the old man from his mic.

"Roger, Sir! Will do, Sir!"

A tall, bald man dashed out from behind a truck and threw two cuboid-like dark objects toward Jeremy. He caught it and then tossed one at Beatrice. After they had pushed the detachable grenade launchers onto their assault rifles, they moved out of their cover.

"Grenade!"

Each launcher shot out a cylindrical grenade into the air and it plummeted towards the line of soldiers taking cover behind the walls.

Boom!

"Aaah!"

"Ughh!"

Chunks of meat splattered as the soldiers succumbed to the grenades repeatedly launched towards them. When the line of soldiers had been taken down, Beatrice spoke to her mic.

"Charging in now, Sir!"

As she said that, a blonde boy flitted from one of the trucks and went through the outpost's entrance while carrying an assault rifle.

"Hope!" called Jeremy and then he shook his head, displeased at the boy's action.

Followed by Jeremy, the twenty members of this armed group charged in into the outpost with the goal to take it from the Great Corporate United's clutches.