Knight in a Sour Armour

"Hey, Masamune, wait."

Hatteki, after recovered from his temporary stress-anxiety approached Masamune, walking in a fast pace, happy for seeing him, however Masamune hasn't, straightforwardly said.

"What you want, Code Phoenix Member Hatteki?"

"Nothing important just wanted to see you, after the mission in Istanbul, so how did go now you are with the Terrarium Knights."

"Nothing that interest you, go back to your work."

After Hatteki in a friendly tone, asked Masamune's wellbeing, he coldly turned him down and start walking.

"H-hey wait!"

Regardless Hatteki have no respect nor care for the authority, superiors and comrades, he did so with one person that is Masamune, he found him admiring to be around.

However as a sullen knight, Masamune's mind was far gone, pretty shaken up after the death of his beloved adopted sister, he's been through a lot, during all those years, he believed in truth and justice and devote his life to fighting for it. And then the dark, cruel and brutal world kept letting him down. In a world populated by people who each have their own forms of imperfection. Without the option of becoming the saint the world needs, newcomers of this world are stuck between the choice of evil and lesser evil, there is no place for Idealist to thrive.

Rather than giving up on his goals, he chooses to fight not because they believe they will truly make a difference, but because it's the right thing to do. He is survivors who have largely given up on believing in Honour Before Reason, but still strive to be Good or as close to it as reality allows him to be.

"Hey why you so in a hurry, I just want to talk to you... hey!!!!!"

With Hatteki refused to let him leave, Masamune rather chose to avoid him, however his tolerance went off when Hatteki simply pat on his shoulder as a friendly gesture, Masamune impulsively chocked Hatteki and pinned down against the wall, snarling in a sudden rage and hatred.

"Shut up Hatteki! Whatever the name they gave to perform as our own but you are long dead to you, though I looked in a glimmer of hope that you still here somewhere but we all know it's impossible!"

Masamune pulled out an AM gun and aim at Hatteki's chest.

"Better alternative, I should kill saving the world from you."

After Masamune silent rage unleashed, when he chocked Hatteki down to the wall without thinking of the consequences.

While been choke immensely, intuitively Hatteki holds Masamune's hand and pleaded in an emotional tone.

"If you feel that way, why haven't you killed me on the bridge, Hyoubu..."

Masamune's widened with surprise, seeing a shade of tears comes from Hatteki's wet eyes, a completely different person begged him to snap out his anger which he did getting back to his senses and release Hatteki.

"Ugh-aahh...ahhh..."

Upon releasing Hatteki kneel coughing tremendously and Masamune just watched, gasping for sudden impulsive panic that aroused through his head.

"Oh! there you Hatte-chan, come on there is medication for you."

Dr. Tetsuzō Hiroshi, the lavender haired humours scientist with a prosthetic right hand and lab-coat, called Hatteki, relieved to see him.

"Dr. Hiroshi?"

"Yes, Code Phoenix captain here, forget the medicine that Dr. Kornine prescribed him, may I borrow him to my lab, Lord?"

"Yeah sure."

"Excellent, come on Hatte-chan. Doctor Kornine will be very angry on me if you went away from your medication."

Immediately after arriving at the screen, Hiroshi took senseless Hatteki away from Masamune.

"Wait, who are you, where are you taking me."

"You are ill Hatteki let me arrange your medicine."

Getting back to conscious, Hatteki protested but don't resist any further though he was no condition to do so, his health suddenly deteriorating after encountered with Masamune, nevertheless Hiroshi carrying him on his shoulder.

"I don't know you, don't touch me!"

Hatteki forcefully withdraw himself away from Hiroshi once they reached Hiroshi's laboratory.

"Araghh... What is going on...."

A pain ache through Hatteki's right eye beneath the eyepatch, while clenching it, he aimlessly wanders off the lab.

Hiroshi didn't protest against Hatteki's wild resistance but when Hatteki pull his bottle of pills, snatch those straightaway, preventing him from eating.

"What are you doing, that my--"

"Your medicine I know, however I curious what's the mechanisation of those capsules."

"Give those bac.....k"

After Hiroshi took Hatteki's medicine, he couldn't help but to fall on the ground, waving his hands above at Hiroshi's smirking face, gazing at the bottle, overwhelmed with haziness and rapid growing heart pumping. He never witnessed such stress, anxiety and mental torture for his life, the pills hold the vague mental pain whenever it came, but now without Tereko's nursing Hatteki is helpless.

Within minutes, Hatteki's mind surrender and he collapse unconscious.

....

Meanwhile Hatteki's partner, the voluptuous blonde lady: Tereko Shiori is interrogating a special group of captives outside Code Phoenix's authorities.

"It come to my attention that you don't know me, so I should rephrase the question, who is Antheia? Where is Athenaeum's base."

In a hollowed chamber, the tapping of heel boots echoed as Tereko match around the three groaning Red-cross captives rounded up in line. Blood spilled all over with tearing muscles and broken teeth, naturally they badly tortured, tie up on a chair with their nails ripped off.

"Can't you hear me? I asked who is Antheia?"

"We don't know who she is, we were inside of Athenaeum's Hideout once before she sends us to delivered that parcel to the Simplex. We do not know the location."

Tereko's patience wearing thin after receiving the same answer, after Misaki's disowned them, Tereko showed her true colour.

Member of the Code Phoenix Tereko Shiori is not what she seems, works for someone else and by their order, kidnapped held captive by someone else.

For having no leads, Tereko gets frustrated but she notices that two of the captives are brothers.

"You, the middle and the left, you are brothers, right?"

"Y-yes..."

The Red-Cross answered reluctantly, before glancing each other.

Tereko has no lead to find her Athenaeum's group, and the Red-cross captives appeared useless and Tereko did not like one bit.

"This is annoying. Because you are so useless!"

In rage Tereko fiercely stabbed the little brother of the Red-cross's Mercenaries.

"ARAGHH!!! AHHHHHHH!!!"

"Ahhh noooooo Kado!"

The big brother of the Red-cross screamed, watching his little brother Kado been stab in the gut by Tereko's insane hands, thickly blood poured on the floor like a red fountain from Kado's gut as he screamed like agony.

Tereko kept on stabbing, laughing while does it, until there's nothing left.

"Now he is dead, now are you ready to talk?"

Tereko sighed, wrapping off the fallen blood during the interrogation, no doubt she is enjoyed herself was in completely different personality when she torturing those captives and murdered one of them, nevertheless that big brother wasn't very pleased still growling for the excessive anger and rage against Tereko's action.

"What's your name?"

He asked Tereko about her name.

"Tereko Shiori, why did you ask?"

"Listen here Tereko Shiori, one day I'll release from these chains and when I do, you'll experience the worst, torturous death you can't imagine."

"Heh. Your foul whining did not do any much benefit, you soon joining your brother."

The captive mercenary Kamano threatened Tereko with all his might, after she ruthlessly murdered his little brother in front of him, however Tereko think nothing about his threat, thought as meaningless whining from a dead man.

With a knife at her hand, Tereko ready herself to kill the rest as she declared snobbishly,

"Rejoice your death, pathetic scumbag."

"Lady Shiori there is man waiting for you."

Black tracksuit wearing man informed Tereko in the chamber.

Apparently Tereko wasn't working alone, there is unknown group she is working under.

"Who could it be."

Tereko wondered herself, as she exited.

"Wha..."

The man who was waiting for Tereko is Lida Nobeshiba: Code Phoenix Member Akutsu Nobeshiba's big brother, ex-paramilitary and former supervisor of the Raizen Supermaxim, who has a cleanly cut ash brown hairstyle with hints of gray, blue eyes, for his unknown past he wants to get out of the Imperium States using his brother to provide a safe passage.

"Nobeshiba-san? Why would you bother to be here, personally, could've call me, I would come to you?"

Tereko as usual tried to talk her way out with honeyed words, however Lida, as a shrewd and highly intelligent in his own right, suspected Tereko's real identity, been present in an unusual venue, nevertheless he inquired her in mild, unfazed manner,

"More importantly, you would ask me how I got here in this place."

"I don't know what you mean, Mr. Nobeshiba I here by the orders of High Command, Mizuki Keiichi himself."

"Uh-huh but High Command's main voice is Mizuki Keiichi, and he is currently out from work for about a week and so."

Tereko aware Blackwatch Inspector of internal affairs suspect her and deceitful lie increased the suspicion.

"It's appears like I have to explains to you why am I or how am I got here."

Lida offered Tereko a sign of his motivation about arriving here, despite Tereko's antagonistic intention over Lida he explained in serious and sneering tone,

"I look up into files around the first moment when you selected for Code Phoenix, although I found yours but not Hatteki's."

"What's it matters to you anyway?"

"None, but as an Inspector of the internal affairs, I found your files problem free however what I really found problematic is Takamatsuke Hatteki's file, those are classified beyond high-level security, why?"

Lida suspicion is not over Tereko, but instead he very suspicious over Hatteki's nevertheless his primary aim to keep everyone in the dark until he gets himself out of the country.

"You are asking question beyond your pay-grade, don't forget you are not with the Code Phoenix Program and there are people above you."

Tereko sternly response to Lida's question with a threat,

"In any rate my curiosity risen when Ichiro Kyousuke spoke to me about Takamatsuke Hatteki to the ceremony, perhaps I should invite you and Hatteki to my house for dinner."

Lida however not intimidated by that threat, countered it with polite dinner invitation,

"Well someday, we will."

Tereko on the other hand, very displeased for Lida's unnecessary involvement while try to achieve his own agency, though she did not express any worriedness in front of Lida.

"Alright then, how about day after tomorrow evening, sounds good?"

"Sounds perfect."

"Well then, see you at my house with Hatteki and I don't bother, why you lingering nowhere particular."

After Lida gone, Tereko went down with grave concern, though Lida wanted to hide his own personal interest, he didn't mentioned any of it to her thus, Tereko worried that Lida discovered her own secrets which completely irrelevant to Lida's, nevertheless he suspect Hatteki is not what he seems, and Tereko knows who exactly he is, right after she partnered up with him.

"Ma'am, what's this about?"

Tereko's apparent subordinate, the tracksuit wearing man inquired behind Tereko, she turned and command grimly,

"Stay here, keep the rest of the Red-cross alive, I want interrogate them after I deal with Lida, that scumbag must not discover Hatteki's real identity. Even if he does, I have no choice but to kill him."

"Very well Ma'am."