Ch. 15: "THE LADY WITH RED HAIR"

Zombies are humans who have raised from the dead, but in a place where the dead are thrown outside a large wall how could, they enter a facility guarded by strong star users? And what secrets will Rei know after meeting a woman of excellence and beauty, who is she?

"Those stripes, are you a commander?" Rei asked.

"Oh, so you noticed? You are a smart kid" She replied.

Rei watched as the woman had finally finished changing her clothes.

"If you wanna do it with me I'm up to it!" She walked closer to Rei and placed both her arms on his shoulders while licking her lips intentionally teasing him.

"Ah-uhm... There's this meeting I have to go to, so I think I'll have to pass" He replied in a nervous tone.

Rei looked at the floor and tried to move away, but his body suddenly froze.

"HUH? I can't move, why can't I move?" Rei lifted his head to look at the woman in front of him, he was stunned when he saw her red hair change to a white, her eyes began to glow and his body felt like he was being pressed down by her arms.

"Kid, you know when I want someone or something there's nothing in this world that can stop me from taking it" She said with a sadistic smile.

"I told you, I have a meeting to go to" Rei smiled before lifting both her arms with ease.

The woman was stunned that Rei was able to lift his arm after she placed arms on him. Rei was about to leave the room, when suddenly...

"Hey, kid! What's your name?" she asked.

Rei stopped and looked back; he saw her eyes sparkle like a Red star in the sky and as her hair slowly reverted to its blood like color...

"My name is Rei, subordinate of Commander Rylee Ashton, member of squadron III, and a starless" Rei replied with an emotionless face.

"Hmm... I see we shall meet again" She said before disappearing from Rei's sight.

"That woman must be a star user, yet she had no bracelet like the others, I wonder where her star is?" Rei walked out of the cafeteria and went on his way to the central.

Along his way he stopped by an experimental area where he saw a Star gear that had a different color, it was filled with a black color yet emitted a white aura around it. He entered and walked closer to it, but as he did he felt as if he was being pushed away by its white aura.

"Rejecting me? Well, this is a first" Rei stopped and walked out of the room, and without any more stops, he finally made his way to the central.

The moment he took his first steps in the central a knuckle suddenly hit him on his head which made him fall to the ground.

"When will you ever stop being an idiot and not make people wait for you?!" Ken scolded his brother who was down on the ground scratching his head from the pain.

"You're always mean to me Nii-san!! Why do you always hit me hmph!" Rei pouted before standing up.

"Move it moron!" Ken once again hit his brother, but this time he kicked him in the ass.

"Okay! Okay!" Rei replied with tears almost coming out from the side of his eyes.

The two of them made their way to a room secluded from the central; inside was everyone waiting for Rei's arrival.

"Come on apologize!" Ken said before walking towards his seat.

"Uhm... I'm sorry" Rei apologized with sincerity before bowing his head.

"Don't worry Rei, our guest isn't even here yet so there's nothing to apologize about" Misty spoke.

Rei raised his head and sat down in an open chair next to his brother, everyone was silent once again. After a few minutes, most people in the room suddenly stood up while facing the door and saluted except for Rei who has no idea what was happening.

The door opened and a person had entered the room, Ken was blocking Rei's view so he had to lean forward to see who it was and to his surprise, it was the woman he had met earlier.

"Hey! You're that woman in the cafeteria!" Rei yelled.

Immediately after his scream, he received once again a painful punch from his twin brother.

"OI! YOU FUCKING IDIOT SHOW SOME RESPECT!!" Ken scolded him once more.

"OI!! YOU'VE BEEN HITTING ME TOO MUCH NII-SAN!!" Rei fought back grabbing Ken by the arm and pinning him down on the table.

Everyone stared in shock when Rei suddenly pinned down his brother.

"You two! Quit it!" Kurt spoke

Rei then released his brother and sat back not caring about the other people inside the room.

"My, my we meet again Rei" The woman spoke.

Rei was silent, everyone else sat down and the woman walked to the front.

"No need to be too formal with me everyone, but since I guess not everyone knows me I will introduce myself," She said.

"This woman must be special for everyone to act like that in front of her, but then again ken has been too much of an ass to me since the day he got back, but I guess I did well on making him remember who's superior between the two of us" Rei arrogantly smiled.

"My name is Stella Roth, Commander of Squadron I, and holder of the Star: Canopus, it is a pleasure to meet you Rei" She calmly introduced herself to Rei.

Rei felt embarrassed at how calm she introduced herself even after he caused a tantrum in front of her.

"Ah... My name is Rei, subordinate of Commander Rylee and a member of Squadron III, a Starless" Rei introduced herself to her before sitting down.

"Misty might I ask how's the commander doing as of the moment?"

"He seems to have woken up earlier this evening, but he still doesn't have the strength to move around so he can't come to the meeting tonight" Misty explained.

"I see... he must have faced a strong monster for him to be defeated and sent to a coma for almost a year"

The room was silent when suddenly the lights turned off and a hologram appeared on the table, it showed a very graphic image of a distorted human body with its intestines out from its stomach, next to it emerged a horrifying creature that looked similar to what Rei saw at the cafeteria.

"Currently a new virus has been causing quite a ruckus over the dome of the south where some of their men have been turning into these creatures and have been killing other humans, and for the worst-case one of those creatures have made it here which Rei saw earlier" She explained.

Misty froze over what she had heard; it was the very first time that something ever made it inside the cafeteria without anyone knowing.

"How was it able to enter? Nothing can enter this laboratory without anyone noticing this is unbelievable!" She spoke in frustration.

"It must have taken a long time to even come here, so maybe it was too weak to even make a sound, Commander how long was it since the outbreak occurred?" Chase asked.

"It has occurred last week or that's what the directors told me, then they asked me to check on the closest dome to see if there are any signs that one of it might arrive here," She said

"Well if it was a week ago it might have been able to enter because of the sudden outage the other day"

"Outage? A dome should never have an outage, what happened?"

"Ah, don't misunderstand since the dome's power comes from the capital it would never have an outage, but unlike that, the laboratory does not receive any power from the capital, the power used here is from the core's of the demons that we have been experimenting" Chase explained.

"I see... so that must be when it had its chance to be able to enter unseen"

"But that doesn't make sense! How did no one see it?" Misty said.

"Misty, remember that every soldier had to put more guard at the walls since Rylee was still in a coma and Hugo was out on an expedition, that's the reason" Hugo explained again.

"Don't worry I was able to defeat it before any casualties could ever be made" Stella smiled.

"Huh? Three people died, how is there no casualty?" "Uhm... there are the---"

Rei suddenly felt a heavy pressure on his body when Stella suddenly glared at him; it was as if she was trying to make him quiet.

"Do you have anything to say Rei?" Stella asked.

"No, I have nothing to say haha" Rei nervously said.

"And because of that I am here to take one person out to vanquish all those pests, and my choice would be Rei" Stella declared.

"Eh?" everyone was in sync with their response to her.

"Not to be rude commander, but isn't a star user a better option to choose from this place?" Hugo spoke.

"Well this person was the one to see it before I found it; I guess he could somehow be of help to me"

"But we've been experimenting on him but no star was compatible with him," Misty said.

"Ah well if a star is not compatible, why not use the one Chase is creating?" Stella said while pointing at Chase.

"Ah... so those geezers saw it, how troublesome, but if the commander wishes it I have no reason to un allow it, but it's still quite unstable it may take a day before I could fix it properly, is that okay?" Chase said.

"That's fine, I needed to have a chat with Rylee, that concludes this meeting all of you have a great night, oh before I forget, Misty the geezers are waiting for you, make sure to give them an answer before they barge in here just to grab you," Stella said before leaving the room.

Everyone stood up and walked out of the room leaving Misty and Chase alone. Rei made his way towards their room while his brother had to go to a restroom before following him.

"She knew there were casualties so why lie about it... sigh... I don't seem to understand her"

Rei finally reached their room, he entered at once and laid down on his bed, he closed his eyes and after a few minutes, he heard the door open and saw his brother sat on the bead opposite to his.

"Nii-san, do you still remember our parents?" Rei asked his brother.

"Huh? Where'd that come from? Same as you I don't know and I don't even wanna know, those people suddenly left us and never came back so why bother thinking about them" Ken answered.

"Ah I see, you still hate them don't you, but I wonder why do I feel like our father is alive, I somehow hear him once and a while whispering to my ear asking for help," Rei said.

"Stop thinking of those people Rei, they are much crueler than the demons outside the walls, I swear if I ever find him I'm gonna hit him hard," Ken said while clenching his fists in the air.

Rei smiled a bit before turning his back and slowly falling asleep.

"Rei! Help me! Help me!"

Rei woke up in a pitch-black room, where his arms and legs were tied up, and in front of him stood a crucifix with a man was all chained up too.

"Rei! Help me! Please help me!" the man was begging Rei to help him.

But Rei stared at him with dead eyes, not spitting out a single word.

"Please! Please free me from this! Rei helps me!!" the man continued to beg but Rei just sat still.

A black figure suddenly emerged behind Rei, it had no mouth and was devoured by the color black, its eyes were pure white, yet it was still able to speak.

"Human! How dare you imitate the Entities perfect creation!" it spoke.

The man in the crucifix suddenly began hysterically laughing as slowly his whole body change to bright light.

"And here I thought using someone he knows I can be free from this chains, I am the all mighty being, as soon as I am free everything will bow down to my Excellency! Even you!" It continued to laugh.

"I will never bow down to a foolish creature like you, you are nothing more than a false God, you are simply a creation of these pests who call themselves humans, as soon as the entity grants me the authority I shall bury you in the abyss where even your fake light will disappear"

Rei watched as the creature began to return to being human, and started begging him to be freed. Rei suddenly woke up in his room all alone.

"This weird dream again... it's quite frustrating to have a dream that would repeat every night... Sigh"

He sat down and stared at the window of their room, he looked at a table beside his bed and saw a letter, the letter wrote:

"Meet me at the experimental lab; I'll give you the prototype star I have been making"

"Ah... I'm about to go somewhere with the commander of squadron I... I wonder what I would see outside" Rei stood up and went to a bathroom, after cleaning himself he made his way to the cafeteria to eat breakfast where all the members of squadron III are waiting for him including Rylee.

"Is he gonna call me a demon again?" It was the first thing that came into Rei's mind as he walked closer to them.

"Rei... I heard that you've met Commander Stella yesterday" Rylee said to him while he was eating.

"Ah... that did happen" Rei replied.

A tray of delicious food was suddenly placed in front of him, he looked who it was and saw his dear brother giving him some food.

"Nii-san! How kind of you!" Rei said as his eyes sparkled.

'Well, delicious food would be perfect for a last meal together" Ken replied.

"Eh?" Rei froze.

"What a way to tell the news to your brother Kenzou" Rylee spoke.

"You see Rei... Commander Stella has made a deal with Commander Rylee, you will be sent to squadron I and will stay with them for a year" Claire said before taking a sip on her soup.

"And you agreed to this Nii-san??" Rei said staring at his brother.

"Yes, It might help you become a responsible person" Ken said before laughing.

Rei sat in shock, not because of the commander agreeing but rather because his brother will be too far away from him and he can no longer get help from his brother.

[Chapter End]