Confusion lingered in the air. No one spoke. No one tried to break the silence.
Tears filled Daiba's eyes, and confusion filled Rin, Luca, and Ming's eyes. Then finally, Luca broke the silence.
"How? What? What the hell was that?"
Then Ming responded, "Maybe she is not mindless like the others," he said with a serious look.
Luca looked at him with confusion and asked, "But how is it possible?"
As he asked that, his eyes fell on Daiba again, who now slowly put her hand back at her side and stepped back from him.
Then Ming took a breath and said, "You still think anything is impossible, Luca? After seeing what happened since the day we arrived in Japan?"
Then Rin, who had been quiet and observing Daiba, finally spoke.
"Ming is right, Luca."
Luca and Ming turned their heads toward him in surprise—it was the first time he had agreed with Ming's thought.
Then Ming commented with his raised brows, "That's new."
Rin rolled his eyes, then responded, "Don't be so surprised. I'm just saying that nothing is impossible here, but still, it's weirdly surprising."
Luca and Ming nodded their heads, agreeing with him. Then they turned towards her.
---
On the other side, in the HQ—
Everyone was trying to fight, struggling against the monster because it was too fast and kept dodging their attacks. Everyone was fighting except Kenzo.
Sofia noticed that while she was fighting—her eyes fell on Kenzo, and she stopped, turning towards him. She looked at him with confusion. Kenzo also noticed that she noticed him. He looked into her eyes with an unreadable expression.
She looked into his eyes, and that distraction— the old lady noticed. She noticed Sofia's distraction; she looked between Sofia and Kenzo with confusion. Then suddenly, her eyes fell on the monster, who was easily dodging everyone's attacks. But now, its eyes were on Sofia.
No one noticed that except the old lady. Her eyes widened with horror, and she understood that it was not a good sign. She couldn't understand what to do and ran toward Sofia without thinking.
With her weak legs, she screamed, "SOFIA!"
She screamed her name. Everyone heard her scream, turned toward her, and saw her running toward Sofia. But Sofia was too distracted—she didn't hear the scream. Others didn't understand why the old lady was running toward her until Akiko noticed that the monster was focused on Sofia.
With a shocked expression, she also screamed, "SOFIA!" and the others noticed too. But before anyone could react, the monster moved at flash speed, right behind Sofia, and raised its hand to kill her.
The old lady, who was now close, didn't have time to push or pull Sofia away. So she stepped in—and the monster attacked her with its long, sharp nails, injuring her back and neck. She fell to the ground.
Everyone was horrified, terrified by the scene that had just happened in front of them.
Soru, who had already reacted and run toward them, screamed, "NOOO!"
Finally, Sofia came out of her distraction and turned. She saw the monster in front of her—it was about to attack her too, fully focused on her. But Soru, who was already very close now, took advantage of the monster's distraction and cut its head off.
Soru was breathing heavily now. Then he looked down at the old lady. His hands were shaking; his sword fell from his hand. He quickly crouched down in front of her and screamed, crying, "NO, NO, NO, DAMMIT! NO!"
Sofia also noticed the old lady and realized what had happened. She was too shocked to react. The others also ran toward them. Then Amaya crouched down and checked the old lady's pulse.
Then she turned toward Hikari and said, "Sir, she's breathing! She's alive! We should take her to the emergency room now and stop her from bleeding!"
Hikari nodded and lifted the old lady, then followed Amaya, and the others followed too.
End of Chapter 28.