Himura (MHA)

A tense morning was approaching. Engineers quickly upgraded old UAVs, attaching better cameras to them and bringing them into working order. As the morning came, it became clear that there were more survivors than there were initially. A man from Anandaman, who controlled a reviving tree giant, who was close to Bucephalus, joined their group. While on the other side, former slaves of the cartel camp swam across the river in the morning: Aung, Min and several others. A couple of hours of respite was enough for the survivors to change the situation. The slaves turned out to be smarter and fled along the river current, without giving a fight. While Bucephalus's group decided to force their way through the most vulnerable area.

Separated from the group, Nobu got lost while trying to shoot down another helicopter. He knew that there was a river nearby, he tried to make it, but it was too late. He was surrounded. Bucephalus, under pressure from his surroundings, torn between the risk of losing his fighters and Nobu, decided to abandon him in the forest to escape. A stalemate for Nobu turned into an opportunity for the others. Since the UAVs, which Nobu could not shoot down, studied the area thanks to their built-in thermal imagers, they managed to detect all the survivors, but the Junta could only capture Nobu. Bucephalus and Min's group went too far. This gave an opportunity for his surroundings. He ran out of ammo, there was no point in fighting back, the trap of soldiers was closing around him, sensing how they were approaching Nobu panicked. A UAV flying above him recorded his position and transmitted the data to the Junta.

"This is the end." Nobu's violent temper is strong, but prudence always prevailed. He laid down his weapons and sat on his knees holding his hands above his head. Working through all the escape options, he did not find a safe way out for himself. If he was taller, stronger, faster, maybe we could break through. What can a meek boy do to trained fighters in close combat? Nothing.

- We see an unarmed target. Can you hear me?

- I can hear you perfectly, make sure it's not an ambush and take him alive.

- Oh my God, it's a child. - one of the soldiers said.

- Be careful, the man can be dangerous, maybe he shot down two helicopters.

- I surrender! Don't shoot! - the guy's voice was heard.

The soldiers ran up and put on thick handcuffs that prevented the fingers from touching anything. They started using them because of the prevalence of destructive tangential quirks.

- No ambush detected, situation under control. Over.

- An order came from the general, return to base, no threats detected nearby. Over.

The operation against Anandaman was completed in 12 hours.

- In the end, the only hostage was a child. - the field commander was surprised.

- Don't rush to conclusions, maybe this child is a pearl in the sea. - The general now wanted to confirm his assumptions regarding Nobu.

- Okay, we're packing up and heading to base. - he informed the commanders, all the remaining soldiers began to collect ammunition and provisions from temporary warehouses into trucks.

- General, what are we going to do with the escapees?

- We'll leave them, we've already lost so many.

- But why did we do all this? - one of the respected commanders asked his general.

- In this way, we stirred up a hornet's nest, none of them know which of the generals started this, so there will be no assassination attempt. My goal is to start a war between all the generals and the cartel. It's time to end this circus and cut out the tumor. - the trusted field commander agreed.

-And now, in an hour, everyone must be assembled and ready to leave.

-Yes sir.

The uncomfortable handcuffs squeezed Nobu's fingers tightly. "Can't move. In shackles again." He was led along in a circle of soldiers. "And there's no way to escape." He had just realized how tired he was of running through the jungle. He was very nervous, afraid to think about the torture that could very well await him. He relied only on the leniency of the commanders. Nobu was afraid of endless torture, he had enough of looking at the terrible footage of the cartel and hoped that the commanders did not hold a grudge for the losses. The soldiers looked at him and were surprised. "Did he really shoot down the helicopters?" Finally arriving at the destroyed cartel camp, where the soldiers had half-assembled the trucks, Nobu was met by a man with a stain on his face in his uniform.

-Take him to that tent. - The general was also surprised by the boy's height, but did not show it. Nobu stood still in fear, his heart pounding. A soldier standing behind him pushed him face down into the mud.

-Hurry up!

The general saw this from the side and reprimanded the soldier, forcing him to apologize.

-Idiot...Are you okay, boy? - He handed him a towel to wipe his face. Nobu thanked him, and the general noticed that his Burmese was not perfect. "What can you expect from a child?" Nobu was surprised that some very important guy showed him respect. Having brought him to one of the tents, which, according to the general's orders, would be the last to be dismantled. Having seated Nobu on a khaki-colored pull-out chair, General Gabido placed a plate of candies right in front of Nobu's nose.

-I'm sorry we met in such conditions, you know, kid, you don't belong here. - Gabido knew how to find a common language.

Nobu swallowed his saliva in front of the plate.

-Can I eat it? - he pointed at the plate of candies.

-Of course.

-First you eat it. - Gabido was surprised, but a second later he realized that the boy wanted to check if there was poison inside them. "And he asked permission. While other hungry children in his place, they would have pounced greedily." The child continued to surprise him more and more, even, it would seem, in such everyday matters. Gabido smiled and ate the candy without thinking. Immediately after that, Nobu pounced on the unfortunate plate.

-Easy, cowboy. Don't choke. - No matter how smart the child is, he is still a child. Gabido wanted to ask questions, for example, where he was from and where his parents were, but he thought that now was not the time. He needed to feed and protect the boy. "I guess we'll have to take him to the base." Of course, he was afraid of an attack on the base, after all, Nobu had been an enemy of the Junta for some time. He couldn't help but ask the guy one last time.

"Aren't you dangerous?" - the smile disappeared from Gabido's face for a moment.

"Not dangerous." - the guy with red eyes answered seriously in English, since he forgot how to say it in Burmese. The General needed at least a small hint that the child did not pose any danger to him or his people, was not aggressive and was ready to negotiate.

The military closed down their temporary base and left for one of the General's nearest military bases. All this time, Nobu was shaking from either the cold or fear, he was given a blanket. The soldiers were afraid to approach him, so they put him in a car, not a truck. Red eyes looked at the landscapes - in the morning, Myanmar is an amazing and incredibly beautiful country. "It's a shame that she's torn apart by cruelty and war." The blond top of his head had been shaking for an hour already, while one of the good-natured soldiers pressed a blanket to him, because it was impossible to hold him because of the handcuffs. Nobu began to notice an abnormal state of his body, weakness was gradually creeping up and, it seemed, a temperature. "The only thing I need is to get sick." The military base is quite far away, the convoy was moving quickly and they will get there in a couple of hours.

- Be patient, kid, we'll be there soon. - the old man stroked Nobu's back while the convoy was moving. "Damn, I think he has malaria." Just approaching the military base, the convoy was checked at the checkpoint. The general was given a DNA test, since no one is immune from being introduced by changing his appearance or getting invisible. The security of military facilities in this world must be approached with all due rigor: thermal imagers, ground-to-air machine gun systems.