Bursting Tomato 14

Yan Xianchuan flew high and fell hard, crashing onto the concrete floor and rolling several meters before stopping. Setting aside the emotional damage, her worst injury was a gash on her forehead where she'd hit the ground.

The grudge-holding woman got up and immediately scanned for a weapon at hand. She looked around, but found no weapon, only her comrades struggling to their feet.

There was also Silver Ring, face-first in the flower bed, and Atmore beside him with only his legs sticking out.

Lu Mingqiu was rushing over. Yan Xianchuan gauged her intent and abandoned the idea of immediate retaliation. She picked up Dongye He, then hauled Silver Ring to his feet, telling the latter to carry the former, and headed to the flower bed to grab Atmore.

Thanks to the door panel blocking the blast, everyone only suffered impact injuries with some dizziness. The door panel, which had held strong until now, was now wrecked. Silver Ring had used it to block a hit, exhausting his esper power completely. He was so drained he could only hang onto Atmore.

"How is everyone? Can you still move?" Lu Mingqiu quickly assessed each person.

Yan Xianchuan, with her thick skin and sturdy build, was the least of her worries.

The man who had suddenly gone berserk was busy fighting with his own comrades, giving them no attention, but a desperate person against one who dared not strike for fear of hitting his own—the outcome was obvious.

It didn't take him long to finish off his partners. He tossed the broken body aside, blood leaking from the half-corpse like a shattered water balloon, the syringe in its hand glinting silver in the light. The other two were practically mowed down in an instant by a dense hail of bullets.

Then he turned, his eyes red and bloodshot, glaring at the group trying to slip away.

Yan Xianchuan saw the undisguised murderous intent in his bulging veins and muttered, "Is he crazy? He looks mentally unstable."

"Cyber psycho, mind scrambled," Lu Mingqiu explained rapidly. "Run!"

As she spoke, she raised her gun and fired another burst, emptying the magazine.

They'd thought it would be a sure thing and hadn't brought any heavy weapons. Who'd have guessed there'd be an accident? Their combat suits were bulletproof, but the kinetic force of bullets hitting still caused bruises, and with larger calibers, could crack ribs.

And this cyber psycho wasn't just armed with machine guns—he had an RPG.

He raised one arm to block the bullets, sparks flying as they grazed the barrel, then lifted the other arm. A red light blinked ominously, and a wrist-thick cannon began to preheat.

A dull whoosh, and a blinding silver projectile came toward them. In a flash of lightning, Yan Xianchuan tackled Lu Mingqiu, pinning her beneath her.

The shell exploded into dozens of fragments, blasting along with the shattered ground. Another muffled boom followed close by.

Smoke billowed and dust filled the air. A drop of blood fell from a wound on Yan Xianchuan's cheekbone, splashing a small pit in the gritty ground.

Yan Xianchuan turned her head and saw that the enemy seemed to be out of ammo, cursing at his own hands. She got to her feet and pulled Lu Mingqiu up.

The latter's gaze fell on the various cuts and scrapes across Yan Xianchuan's body, her expression complicated. She pressed her lips together and said nothing, but after confirming the cyber psycho's state, she immediately dashed to close the distance.

Eighty meters, seventy... thirty meters. Suddenly, the enemy stopped all movement. His eyes bulged like a frog's, his head rapidly swelling with blood until it turned a liver-red color, then a crack sounded.

Under Lu Mingqiu's gaze, he burst like an overripe tomato, splattering red viscous juice everywhere.

She turned back. Yan Xianchuan was brushing dust off herself, while the others lay scattered on the ground, unconscious or dead.

Her heart sank. "Hei Ge, bring the car around!"

Silver Ring and Dongye He were lucky; the shrapnel missed their vitals. Dongye He had two wounds on his back and arm, but the bleeding wasn't severe. Silver Ring was hit in the thigh but still had the strength to press on the wound to stop the bleeding.

Before Lu Mingqiu could breathe a sigh of relief, she heard Silver Ring's weak, intermittent voice: "...Quick, come here."

She rushed over again. In the flower bed, where dirt was scattered, Silver Ring was crouching, pressing on Atmore's chest. Dark red blood seeped through his fingers like a spilled paint can.

Yan Xianchuan handed over the first aid kit she'd grabbed from the car, then moved Silver Ring and Dongye He. After getting them into the vehicle, she came back to the flower bed.

Lu Mingqiu was bandaging Atmore's wound. The tourniquet wrapped around his chest like a blue light strip, red light seeping through.

"He's bleeding heavily," Yan Xianchuan said.

"I know," Lu Mingqiu replied, as calm as someone just dug out of the snow. She had to stay calm. "Get him in the car. We're going to Minghui Hospital."

"He took the blast for me..." Silver Ring stumbled to his feet, covered in the other man's blood.

The moment the explosion hit, Silver Ring couldn't move at all. Depleted of esper power was like a muscle relaxant shot; all he could do was lie there and wait to die, not even able to blink.

It was Atmore who grabbed him by the shoulders and dragged him to the other side of the flower bed. In doing so, Atmore caught a piece of shrapnel to the chest, bleeding out so badly he'd passed out.

Silver Ring had regained a bit of strength and scrambled over, using his body weight to press on the wound.

The van tore through the streets like a battering ram, pedal to the floor, ignoring all traffic laws, yet the city hospital still seemed impossibly far.

The people inside had bandaged their wounds. No one spoke. Yan Xianchuan quietly wiped dried blood off her skin with alcohol-soaked cotton balls.

Her wounds had stopped bleeding.

Hei Ge was driving, like a land-bound airplane, tires bouncing over speed bumps and jolting the cabin. Lu Mingqiu pressed down on Atmore. Maybe it was the hemostatic shot, or the bump, but his eyelids slowly fluttered open, then took a moment to focus.

"Ow... that does sting a bit," he said, his mouth twitching, face screwing up in pain. His already pale skin now seemed translucent.

"Did... the mission succeed?" Atmore said between gasps, his voice as light as a feather.

"Yes," Lu Mingqiu said. "We're on the way to the hospital."

"Good," he said, seeming to smile, but the pain twisted his expression into something almost like crying.

"Hold on," Lu Mingqiu said, feeling his weakening mental pulse, keeping her voice steady. "Once you get out of the hospital, you'll be a full member. Now's the time to think about what style of fake face you want."

"Ah, you know, my face now... it's pretty handsome," Atmore said in fits and starts. "This is... a face that could be a movie star."

With that, he passed out again.

"Can you go any faster?" Silver Ring couldn't help urging.

"This is as fast as it goes," Hei Ge said. "Estimated ten more minutes."

Minghui Hospital was an affordable hospital for civilians, not in the city center. They were heading to the nearest branch, the North District.

Ten minutes—a time that usually passed in the blink of an eye—now stretched interminably.

Five minutes. Atmore's chest rose and fell more and more shallowly, each breath a long time coming.

Two minutes. He opened his eyes again, as if to say something, but only his lips moved.

One minute. His pupils dilated and lost focus. His breathing stopped.

The car stopped at the hospital entrance. They scrambled to get him onto a stretcher and rushed him into the ER. Another minute later, the doctor came out, expressing regret. The patient had already died on arrival.

He wore a shallow look of sympathy. No one responded for a moment.

A draft swept through, carrying the lingering smell of disinfectant over everyone as a nurse ran up, calling the doctor to an emergency—a patient needed an amputation. The doctor hurried off with her, leaving them standing there.

It was summer, and Night City's heat could cook an egg on the pavement, but perhaps the hospital's air conditioning was too strong, because a chill seemed to seep from the inside out.

"...Let's go. Get your wounds treated," Lu Mingqiu said softly.

She led them to the elevator, descending to the morgue on level B5, unlocking a door by the stairwell, passing identity verification, and going down in another elevator to the underground base.

Dongye He was brought down through another entrance, and along with the others, went into the medical wing.

In the lounge, Yan Xianchuan watched the silent Lu Mingqiu for a moment, then said quietly, "I'm sorry."

The latter didn't respond.

Yan Xianchuan sat down beside her and spoke in a flat tone. "Atmore was an interesting person. It's a shame."

This was from the heart, Lu Mingqiu could tell. No fake platitudes, no feigned regret in her voice.

"I'm fine," Lu Mingqiu said, her voice low. "It's not the first time I've seen a comrade die in front of me."

"And it won't be the last, I'm sure."

She sighed softly, her gaze like a white pear blossom about to wilt. "It's just..."

For a fleeting moment, a glimmer flashed in her eyes, but then it was gone, just a reflection of the lights.

"Too sudden? Or too plain?" Yan Xianchuan finished her thought. Her eyes were calm, like a frozen sea.

"A bit of both," Lu Mingqiu said, a sigh escaping her lips. "He was a genuinely good person. He deserved a better ending."

"He chose his own path," Yan Xianchuan said. "He chose to save others."

Lu Mingqiu turned to meet her eyes, her lips moving silently a few times before speaking. "...You're right. My thoughts don't matter. If he thought it was worth it, then it was."

—And is your choice the same?

Yan Xianchuan always prized her face. Her wounds were healing quickly, the cuts already scabbed over with red crusts, looking starkly out of place.

The explosion's force had been too strong; the protective suit couldn't withstand such sharp impacts, and bloodstains showed through the torn fabric like cobwebs.

Lu Mingqiu hadn't been hurt at all.

She stared for a bit too long. Yan Xianchuan leaned back slightly, raising her head. "Why are you looking at me?"

"Did I get disfigured?!" She jumped up from her chair in a panic, turned off her facial projection, and studied her reflection in the window, twisting her face left and right, staring intently, before mumbling, "No, I haven't."

Lu Mingqiu: "..."