Shift

[Andromeda]

Out at the border of the neighborhood an entire platoon of UN soldiers stood unmoving. They were all armed and ready to go into action, but did nothing. Mixed into the platoon was Captain Masayuki Ayabito’s squad of Empowered.

He stood out at the front ahead of even the two APCs with them. The rest of his team squatted about lacking the same amount of single-minded discipline that the soldiers exhibited. Through the whole time since they got the deploy signal to rejoin from patrol, he watched the horizon. It disturbed him watching lights and explosions, feeling the slight tremors and being unable to do anything to bring peace.

Certain moments were more intense and harder for him to watch and do nothing than others. But it had been silent for a very long time. Nothing seemed to be happening anymore at the site of the high school. Masayuki pressed his hand up against the invisible wall that none of them had been successful in even cracking, five minutes was wasted on it.

“It’s over,” he called out to their captor. “You promised to release us after the fighting finished.”

A solid black figure with no reflective surface on them sat up against a house. The entire time they had been quietly reading a light novel. “It does seem that way,” a deep man’s voice came out of the figure, Let’s give a few more minutes though.”

“Release us now!”

They snapped closed their book and tucked it away in a back pocket. “Now, now Captain. Anger doesn’t become you.”

“I’m only angry because you’ve be doing nothing be impeding justice!”

“Justice.” The figure walked up to the Captain running a finger along the surface of the wall. Even the headlights from the APCs could not even form a shadow on the figure. “That’s an easy word to toss around. I’ve been hearing a lot lately. However, you shouldn’t be throwing it around when it can easily mean different things as well.”

Grinding his fist up against the wall, Masayuki wanted freed more than anything else. Too many terrible things were happening in front of him. “Don’t play games of semantics with me!”

“Oh this is no game, dear Captain. This is very real and very serious. Deadly serious.”

“People are dying out there! I don’t need you to tell me how serious it is!”

“I kept you out of this fight to save more from dying.”

“I don’t need your help! I won’t allow anyone under me to die!”

“Your men aren’t the only ones I’m referring to Captain.”

“The UN isn’t here for slaughter! We’re here for peace!”

“How far does peace last you when you an army of people trying to kill you without mercy? The UN declared this area restricted to all civilians for a reason. Even you don’t patrol within this neighborhood. This isn’t a place for those without the resolve.”

“You doubt my resolve now?!”

“Against a mindless mob of stranger willing to kill without thought? Yes.”

“We’re here to protect you against people like that!” he yelled pointing over to the high school.

“You don’t seem to understand your situation very well. The people you want to arrest for misuse of their abilities are protecting you from people like that. Careful how much of a hypocrite you make yourself when you are merely doing the same thing with sanctions.”

“Release us now! There are thousands of criminals your aiding!”

“Most of them are victims. You’re quick to label criminals without seeing the situation for what it is.” The black figure began to walk away. He disappeared into particles leaving behind no trace. “Approach with cautious Captain and aid. It’ll get you much further in this situation. The people you want to protect are also in there and need help.”

The wall no longer held Masayuki’s hand back as he almost fell on his face. He wiped the surprise quickly off his face and turned back around to the soldiers. “We move out!”

Chapter 361 – Broken Home

Saki jumped in next to Hiroshi looking to intervene. “What do you think you’re doing, Hiroshi?” She grabbed his hand preventing it from acting.

“She you’re friend. You don’t need to kill a friend. I’ve already killed so many of my friends. I’ll do this and you can place that hate on me rather than upon yourself. I’ll bear that in your place.” He struggled with Saki to get his arm free.

“This isn’t your place! You’ll break if you think you have to carry the world!”

Hiroshi grinned a little seeing the look in Saki’s eyes. It was an all too familiar one to him. The same he saw in his own whenever he looked at the mirror. “You’re already carrying too much for him. This one’s on me. I can afford to stop, you can’t, not now!” To everyone’s surprise, he threw Saki off. She fell on her back sliding away a little.

She tried to scramble to recover, but it was all too late. Hiroshi finished the job all of them began. His hand dripped with blood as he stared down at Takako. Her life quickly faded away and he stayed at her side the entire time.

Takako was dead.

The war ended finally.

Yet none of them could be happy or glad. There was no way that any of them could be.

“I’ll remember how bitter this tastes, Takako,” Hiroshi finally said, “So this never happens again.”

Tatsuya released Yuki from his hold to keep him from interfering with Saki and Hiroshi. He quickly ran over to Takako trying to check for any signs of life. “If she hasn’t been dead long maybe I can still revive her!”

“Yuki stop!” Saki shouted as she grabbed and pulled him away from Takako. “This had to happen. Accident or not, she’s killed or allowed die too many people!”

“She was a victim!”

“The world doesn’t see it that way! This is the right answer even if you don’t want to believe in it. Sometimes people must die so that peace and safety can be reached!”

“Saki…” Yuki started to back away from Saki as she did not know the person that stood in front of him.

Hiroshi quickly caught the look in Yuki’s eyes. He reached out for Saki to stop her. “That’s enough. He still needs you. This is my place.” Walking around Saki, he put himself between the two of them. The more Yuki saw of him and less of Saki the better. “I killed her, Yuki. This is the reality of the world now. Just because you transformed in it to one of your manga doesn’t mean it falls the same rules of a feel good story.”

“No! N-no…I…am…respon…” Lightheadedness suddenly overtook Yuki and all of his powers evaporated. He lost control of his body as everything went limp. Before he could hit the ground, Saki sped into catch him.

“Yuki!” everyone shouted.

Saki checked his pulse and listened to his heartbeat. Everything sounded okay-ish. She was not a doctor and it sounded fast, but alive. “I think he’s just exhausted.”

“He pushed himself to the limit against Takako,” Hiroshi remarked, having seen the whole thing play out before his eyes. He fought hard for his belief, even though it failed in the end. There was some pity and sympathy for him that he could give on that. Though he already accepted what their fate was going to be. “He just needs some rest probably.”

“We’ve got also got bigger problems still to deal with,” interjected Tatsuya, “Since Saki is back to herself Yuki’s theory of what Takako’s powers were and how they worked seems to be on the mark.”

Shaking his head, Hiroshi looked back at Takako. “No, we were all wrong about what her power was. Fighting her myself and watching Yuki’s fight I understood that much.”

“What do you mean? Is Saki not free?”

“No I’m free from control. But Hiroshi’s correct in that her power isn’t as simple to just call mind control.”

“What are you talking about? If you’re free does it matter?”

“Yes, very much so,” she gravely replied with a dark shadow drawing over her eyes.

Tatsuya took a step back finding Saki easily unsettling and the revelations she appeared to bare. “What are you trying to get at?”

“It’s like what that Yori guy mentioned for us to be prepared for.”

“I’m not sure what Yori told you, but Takako’s power are more complicated than they appear.”

“Complicated?”

“On the base level, what she does with her powers appears to be mind control. And one facet of what she can do with her powers is actually genuine mind control. However, that’s just a by-product of what her real power is.”

“You’re losing me.”

Hiroshi began to recall what Takako said during her fight with Yuki. “She mentioned having Yuki to thank for saving her from her comatose state. And if you think about it, mind control isn’t going to suddenly make you not a veggie anymore. It’d have to be a different power that she gained from Yuki that allowed her regain her sense of self.”

“Which is?”

“Mind sharing,” Saki answered with the simplest way of stating it. Though she did not like the way it sounded since it was still inaccurate. “If I had to guess it’s more like sharing rather than control at the root of her power.”

“Another side effect of her powers was the ability to gain other powers from the people she controlled. So sharing would make sense.”

“From what I saw while I linked with Takako, she was able to give out pieces of her mind to others.”

“Give pieces of her mind? Wouldn’t that be bad for her?”

“For a normal person yes, but Takako’s mind wasn’t normal. Thanks to the torture and interrogation she received months ago, it completely destroyed her mentally. However, the pieces were still all there they were just a complete mess.”

Saki watched the gears quickly come to a halt as she tried to explain something that she did not understand that well herself. The complicated nature of minds was not her strength. “Think of like someone emptied out all of the drawers and your closet in your room. They then put all of that in the middle of the room. You couldn’t find what you wanted or even navigate it.”

“But I’d clean it up.”

“Yes, and that’s what her power allowed her to do essentially. Rather than rebuilding what was broken, she cleaned up and tossed everything out. Those broken pieces were given out to other people. And that’s what broke the people she did it to.”

“Broke them? The mind control?”

“That’s right,” added Hiroshi, “She said many couldn’t handle her power. She said it broke them and giving them a piece it destroyed their minds. Judging from what we saw the worst of them lost all sense of morality and ethics and lived off pure base instincts in the most carnal ways imaginable.”

“Those that could handle the piece, she could control,” Saki commented, she understood that part very well. “Once shared, she had a link with them. She could go into people’s mind and control them or just implant thoughts or ideas.”

“She didn’t need to share to put ideas into people.”

“You sure?”

“Yes.” Hiroshi left his response curtly punctuated on that answer. He quickly pivoted the explanation back to the problem. One that relied on Saki’s feedback. “Based on what you’ve said, depending on the level of control people were still largely in charge of their actions even if they were given commands that they didn’t accept.”

“Yes and those that she controlled directly still remember what happened.”

Tatsuya turned around looking at the crater edge. Beyond the ridge, hundreds or thousands of victims of Takako laid out there. He did not know how many were still awake after all of the fighting, but he could just imagine the situation. “Which means we have countless people that remember all of the murders and horrible acts that they committed.”

“And when they wake up we’re going to need to be able to do something for me.”

“Hey man, I’m not a psychiatrist!”

“None of us are. We’re high school students. None of us are prepared for giving emotional and psychological support to those that can’t handle what’s happened.”

“This could be a worst fight than Takako,” warned Saki. She lifted up Yuki on one side and carried Takako over her other shoulder. Nothing they needed to do would begin without making the first step. So she set the pace for the others getting them out of the crater.

She had not had a chance to take in the destruction caused by Takako and Yuki’s fight. “I don’t remember it being this bad.”

“It got worse after Yuki stopped you.”

“Finding survivors is going to be difficult.” She looked around trying to gauge where to even begin, unfortunately the night did not make it very easy to se. “We may have to wait until morning before we can start, especially with the way you two look.”

“I don’t think we’re going to have that option,” Hiroshi cut in as he stared off into the distance.

The grave and foreboding tone in his voice immediately pulled Saki’s attention to what he might be seeing. It did not take long for her to find the headlights and make out some shapes. “UN?”

“Yes. I wondered why we hadn’t seen them sooner. I guess we were just lucky they were slow to act.”

“No lucky enough,” Tatsuya complained, “They’ve got some of those with powers with them. We aren’t in any condition for another fight!”

To be continued…

[Andromeda]

It had been almost a month since the last time he or anyone from the UN had been allowed to set foot into the Restricted Zone. Around the time that he joined, he heard stories about it. When it was still open, they lost dozens of men to patrols in the area. And then the situation just got worse with the street fighting.

Masayuki wanted to go in personally to settle things as the place had gone wild. But he had no support from the higher ups and there were plenty of other areas of Japan that needed help. And besides, he could not in good conscious send his men into a death trap. The only intel they had on the zone was that it was completely filled with Empowered, organized and powerful. He had confidence in his skill and those on his team, but with the sheer numbers it was a losing battle. That much he understood about the situation.

Which made him question the situation now. ‘What idiot walks into the Restricted Zone? On top of that, they actually seem to be winning the fight. What sort of people are they?’ It concerned him what he might be walking into now. The satellite feed was more than an hour old and only give a rough picture of what was happening. ‘Worse they order us into the field not knowing the full situation. But I guess the light show we’ve been seeing tonight would have anyone worried.’

Keeping his pace at the front of the platoon, he had his team positioned around the rest of the convey. He still anticipated some resistance, despite not finding any after the strange black individual freed them.

But it was coming in sight now. The neighborhood only showed some light damage, clear signs of fighting, but nothing extreme. Coming in sight of the school grounds changed all of that. Masayuki motioned back to the driver to stop. An unscheduled stop alerted all of the soldiers. His team jumped out from their perimeter positions to land next to the Captain.

Umari and Nawabe landed on his right with Kasaya and Hanari on his left. Locked up for the entire fight and the last hour or so, left them all a little on edge. Especially Umari and Nawabe looking for a fight more than any of the others.

“Wha’cha got?” Umari asked, not looking too closely herself. Nothing was apparent in her eyes. Only a vast field that looked out of place with the rest of the neighborhood.

Nawabe stepped out ahead of the group a couple of steps trying to figure out what had the Captain on alert. “Getting your panties wet again?”

“I told you not to break perimeter.”

“Eh, no one’s coming.”

“That isn’t yours to decide. Everything east of here in the city has been restricted and under a constant gang war for the last month. There are thousands of criminals in here and they could be anywhere.”

Umari crossed her arms and stepped out next to Nawabe getting the same disappointed feeling that he exuded. “And we ain’t found any of them since we’ve stepped into the Zone.”

“Are you as blind as your deaf?” Masayuki snapped a finger getting the attention of the UN soldiers still hovering behind those that were the actual weapons. He pointed over to the search light on top of the APC to get it fired up.

A quick scramble of the soldiers focused back on their jobs. Turning around on the mount, the light fixture focused forward. They had been running in low light to limit their visibility to outsiders and keep their eyes adjusted to the night better if they had to lose the light. Which meant when it snapped on it was painfully blinding for a moment.

Adjusting quickly, Masayuki pointed out to the lands around the school and the neighborhood, if it could even be called one anymore. The grass road came to an abrupt halt with only earth left behind just a few meters ahead of them. “If you thought a little less about fighting and focused more on your surroundings you’d realize that situation we’re in.” A vast expanse of debris, hunks of rock, earth and tree laid everywhere and in the far distance craters marked up the terrain as though a bombing run had been made on the school.

A whistle came out of Nawabe taking in the sight. “Damn, this is sure impressive,” he grinned as his mind still focused on who could have caused all of the damage.

“Everything’s been wiped off the face of the earth,” Umari remarked on the destruction, “I wonder if the bastards wiped themselves out.”

“That’s one of the things we’re here to find out.” Masayuki turned back towards the soldiers. He could see it affecting them much more. Unlike those under him, they were all completely normal humans with nothing special about them. There was no certainty that their weapons would do any harm. Seeing the sheer power on display shook all of them to their bones. But he needed them to move. “We’re moving out! Watch out for debris, we’re going off road now! And stay alert!”

It was not a motivational speech. He was not trying to get their spirits up. They just had to follow him. Inside the Restricted Zone they had questions to get answered. “Back on perimeter! If we weren’t already in the enemy’s territory we are now!” Reluctant looks came from his men as they seemed disinterested in such mundane efforts. He quickly glared at them enforcing a small bit of his power to get them moving. ‘What will we find at the center of this?’

Chapter 362 – Broken Land

A long twenty minutes dragged out as the UN forces slowly marched towards the school grounds. It at least gave the signs to Saki and Hiroshi that there might not be an immediate fight to break out. Though it did not give them a lot of time to prepare. Things were a mess and all of Takako’s army still remained knocked out from either the fighting or losing the control that Takako had over them. It was about the only saving grace for them now. It was only going to complicate matters dealing with the UN and Takako’s army.

Saki looked over at everyone in the last minute before the confrontation. They all looked completely wrecked from the fighting. Not even Seiji could be counted on with him still missing both of his arms. His return with Nerine did not give them much time to react. Questions got ignored in favor of a speedy appraisal of the situation. They remained back with the unconscious Yuki. It still left her a little uncomfortable seeing Yuki and Seiji looked different thanks to Nerine’s powers. “Your power’s will hold?”

“I’ll keep their identities hidden. I will do everything to protect my King.”

“Alright, just don’t call him that while they’re here. We don’t need complications.”

“Y-yes…you’re right.” A complicated expression of respect and duty rolled over Nerine’s face. She knew what she had to do, yet it conflicted with her discipline.

Watching Nerine left her a little concerned about their chances, but she had to trust in her. She focused more on the immediate potential issues. “How are you two doing?”

“Still wrecked hard.”

“Same, sorry we’re not going to be much use to you, Saki. Yuki didn’t have enough time to repair our bodies.”

She turned back as the UN troops came to a stop only twenty meters away. “Well let’s hope that they’re here for peace. I don’t have enough strength to take on five of them at once.” Saki walked out to meet Masayuki as Hiroshi and Tatsuya joined her flanks. They refused to show weakness before them, even though anyone could tell that they were about ready to fall over.

“I’m Captain Masayuki Ayabito, state your business!” he opened. He exercised his power to keep his men in line and behind him. They already had the looks of wanting to test out the strangers. ‘People that can level this much of the city aren’t ones to be taken lightly.’ It surprised him to find that they were all teenagers though, but he reminded himself not to judge age into their abilities. ‘The girl looks the most able to fight still the others look half dead or nearly dead. Still I must be cautious. There are still hundreds or thousands of potential criminals out there from the gang.’

‘State my business…’ Saki thought. She had a little trouble imagining what she could say her business was without triggering a fight. “Well…I’m an outsider not involved in this…situation.” Avoiding trigger words like fight seemed like the best course of action to Saki. Though it was hard to tell how much he was going to accept her.

Maintaining his expression neutral, Mayasuki kept the situation civil. “An outsider? Did you just arrive here?”

“Yes.” There was a bit of flinching in her eyes as she lied. ‘Something like that anyway. I wasn’t here the whole time this was going on.’

“And why were you here?”

“I saw everything going on and wanted to try to help people that might be hurt.”

“Help? In the middle of a gang war?”

‘Gang war? Is that what they’re calling this? I guess that’s one view…’ She glanced back at Hiroshi and Tatsuya to see how they were doing. They remained silent the whole time still leaving it up to her to do the talking. “I guess I wasn’t thinking clearly?”

“You weren’t thinking clearly?” He paused watching the teenage girl sweat a little in front of him. Saki’s stumbling read to him more as nervousness than anything. Which helped a little in her favor. “That would certainly be accurate given the situation here. No one in their right mind would come here.”

Laughing a little to cover things up, Saki tried to hold it together and not get a fight to break out. “I hear that a lot. What are you here for?” She braved the dangerous next step. Her lies would only go so far and she doubted that he was going to believe her for long. It was rather obvious that she was here not just to give medical aid.

“We’ve come to subdue the gang fighting that’s consumed this part of the city.”

‘And you waited until now do it? How useless…’ It made her wanted to berate them for doing nothing while people died and were hurt. She had a taste of the terror that Takako left on the city and the UN did nothing to stop her. Yet she could not get angry with them. Everyone behind her needed to be protected. “I’m glad to hear it. But I think the fighting might be over now.”

“Yes, it seems that way.”

“Captain…” muttered Nawabe in response. He tried to move, but could not do anything to thing to budge against Masayuki’s power.

“Silence.” He focused back on Saki needing to understand the situation more. “Even with the fighting over we must establish peace and order here.”

“What do you plan on doing?”

Unfortunately, their peaceful talks shattered with the scream of a woman behind Saki. Another followed and another as well, they were all different. Saki turned her head with a tilt to look in the direction as everyone went on alert. ‘Damn, I think they’re starting to come to now. This situation just went from bad to nightmare…’

Taken off guard by the voices, Masayuki searched around trying to locate what was happening. ‘Is there more fighting happening? But it sounded panicked or pained…’ His body went tense no longer certain what was happening. The whole Zone had strange rumors about it that he heard from others. Since no one came back from the Zone, it took one a bit of a supernatural bent with people inventing almost ghost stories about it. He did not know what went on out of the sight of the UN’s arm. What monsters could hide back here that scared off everyone from coming?

The flinch in his power disrupted through to this control of his men. That was all that Nawabe needed to break free from the bindings. He snapped into action starved for a good fight that the Zone promised him. “Show me what ya got!” he shouted with excitement as he leapt to the sound of the voices.

“Damnit…” cursed Saki as she saw everything spiraling out of control. ‘I can’t stop five people with powers. So I’m going to have to make a stand.’ The ground under her feet cracked a little as she put pressure on her feet into her jump. “So much for the peaceful situation!”

In a blink of an eye, Saki leapt backwards nearly twenty meters and then exploded forward at Nawabe. Behind her, the earth blasted backwards into powder from her impact. Using all of her strength and speed, she threw everything into her attack.

A massive shockwave ripped through the grounds as Nawabe could not even block, not expecting Saki to charge. He took the hit to the face and shot back far beyond the UN convey and carved through the earth in a tall pillar of earth exploding.

Saki landed back on the ground in the same spot she had been talking to Masayuki. The whole scene left Hiroshi and Tatsuya speechless and sweating. She slammed down her foot shattering the earth that she had cracked. “Going to keep your men in line, Captain?” she barked, completely changing her demeanor with the man.

Even Masayuki’s team felt the power that Saki showed off. There was a mix of excitement and fear in their expressions, not completely cowed as she hoped that they would be. But Masayuki ground his teeth together watching Saki work. He was the only one of them that completely saw her movements unblurred. ‘She’s dangerous…extremely powerful…’

“Here’s the truth, Captain. I just got back into town from an oversea visit.”

“That’s impossible, the blockade. I would have known about your arrival.”

Building up her air of confidence, Saki started to lay things on thick. “Ha, blockade? You think that would stop me?”

Hiroshi leaned forward barely even speaking, knowing that everyone’s hearing was vastly improved. He had to act as though he said nothing to keep the other side from hearing him. “What do you think you’re doing?”

The only response he got from her was slamming her other foot down to break up the earth more. “And what do I find when I come back? My city’s been overrun by this gang, you call them? So I took it upon myself to do some house cleaning.”

“Yourself?”

She could hear the incredulous tone in his voice. All she did was grin with confidence. Tilting her head forward a bit, she allowed the shadows to fall over her eyes making them glow brightly in the darkness to heighten her presence. “That’s right. I killed their leader and the rest just all fell over like broken dolls. So what are you going to do, Captain?”

Fate had been tempted. Saki laid it all on the line on an even worse gamble than before. She glared at all of the UN soldiers to instill as much of her presence in them as possible.

And waited for Masayuki’s reaction.

To be continued…

[Andromeda]

Building up her air of confidence, Saki started to lay things on thick. “Ha, blockade? You think that would stop me?”

Hiroshi leaned forward barely even speaking, knowing that everyone’s hearing was vastly improved. He had to act as though he said nothing to keep the other side from hearing him. “What do you think you’re doing?”

The only response he got from her was slamming her other foot down to break up the earth more. “And what do I find when I come back? My city’s been overrun by this gang, you call them? So I took it upon myself to do some house cleaning.”

“Yourself?”

She could hear the incredulous tone in his voice. All she did was grin with confidence. Tilting her head forward a bit, she allowed the shadows to fall over her eyes making them glow brightly in the darkness to heighten her presence. “That’s right. I killed their leader and the rest just all fell over like broken dolls. So what are you going to do, Captain?”

Fate had been tempted. Saki laid it all on the line on an even worse gamble than before. She glared at all of the UN soldiers to instill as much of her presence in them as possible.

And waited for Masayuki’s reaction.

The tension in the air dramatically increased. Both sides watched on with curiosity and uncertainty to how things would play out. They watched the contest between Saki and Masayuki not sure how things would play around. Saki played an extremely dangerous game with Masayuki. One that he did not tip his hand for to give her any indication of her success. She could only sweat in her skin waiting to see how things went.

On the UN side of the wall, the soldiers started to look antsy. They did not like the sounds coming out from around them. It started to sound like a horror movie with people’s voice almost disembodied crawling up from every corner to steal the souls of the living as punishment. Only out of orders did they stand their ground and even that was starting to become something that would not hold them.

Then to make matters even worse, Saki threatened them all by making the claim to have wiped out the entire gang war that even with the UN’s Empowered at hand could do nothing to resolve. The men started to question what sort of odds even those with powers could do to stand up against someone so overwhelmingly powerful. Her display of power to take out Nawabe so quickly added to their lack of confidence. All the normal soldiers continually felt surrounded by the impossible and frightening. They were powerless to do anything against superhumans.

Hiroshi and Tatsuya sweated more than even Saki did with the horrible gamble laid out on the table. They could not believe that Saki would throw it all away to make herself an enemy of the UN. ‘This isn’t the time to be starting fights with the UN, Saki!’ worried Hiroshi, ‘I wonder if Yuki was awake if he could have kept her from doing something so insane!’ All he could think was how much of a bad idea it was. They were not prepared to deal with the UN and the world’s policing arm. No one wanted that, but they did not know how Saki felt or if she even thought about it.

Forever a stoic stonewall of hidden emotions, Masayuki kept everything in check. None of this had been his sort of training. That much he was certain about. He had just been an ordinary engineer working at a computer tech corporation developing next generation processors. Not quite a common life, but a normal and ordinary one. Yet now here he stood on a regular basis facing down with violent criminals and inhuman threats. The only thing that kept him standing was that he knew it was the right thing to do.

Had he been anyone else, he likely would have turned blue just seeing what Saki did in destroying Nawabe with little effort. The sight of her determined and yet pure eyes would have inspired fear within his heart. Her fierceness and loyalty would have made him second guess everything.

But he did not question any of it.

This was his life.

An unrewarding and ungrateful, yet necessary life. He had to stand and remain fixed to see justice through and protect those that did cower. It was not his place to cower, but to stand. And he had to stand against all of it, no matter how ugly and distasteful it was. This was his decision as part of the problem and the solution.

‘This is truly an unfavorable job, but someone must be the one…’ He could see the resolve in Saki’s eyes. The unwavering determination was almost inspirational to behold for him. It was all he needed to know that he was doing the right thing, even though he knew it was far more complicated than that. His orders were still the same and the law was the law. None of that changed and none of it could be made to bend. “So you’re taking responsibility for everything that’s happened tonight. Is that right?”

Saki crossed her arms not backing down. “I said I did it all. Anyone else would have just gotten in my way.”

It was then that Hiroshi figured out that she was doing it. The gamble was not even a gamble as he thought. She had a completely different aim in mind. ‘You can’t do this, Saki! What about Yuki?’

“Even if you did bring an end to this turmoil, murder and the assault of a UN soldier are still crimes. Crimes which you will be tried for.”

“Peace is never a simple thing to achieve. A few deaths justify the means.”

“However true that may be crimes are still crimes and I will have to arrest you.”

“Got enough men for that?”

“I’ll be enough for you.”

“That’s some big talk for someone struggling to keep his team in control.”

‘So she’s noticed. She’s very talented…’ Masayuki rolled is fingers open and closed to relief some of the tension in his back. She was not making it very easy for him. “Not as big as someone still exhausted from knocking out a single one of my subordinates.”

Saki kept up the show for Masayuki, but had to admit that he was observant. The battle with Tatsuya had a toll on her and Yuki ringing her bell still left its mark on her. Just to put on a display for the UN, she used a lot of her power to impress them. It served two useful purposes, so it was not wasted. “I’m ready to go right here if you want to test me. I’m not going to just hand myself over that easy. I don’t care that you’re Japanese, I don’t agree with the methods that the UN are taking to try to resolve the problem.”

“Seems we’re in agreement then, since I can’t agree with your methods of resolving the problem either. I’m not here to kill people, just restrain the chaotic elements that are misusing to their powers. The world will never trust Japan if we can’t self police.”

“Under the arm of the UN isn’t self policing, it’s servitude.”

“So we can’t agree.”

“Nope.” The ground around Saki’s feet pulverized with the weight of her power crushing into them. “Then I’ll make it easy for you in all of your stalling and hesitating.”

‘Don’t do this Saki! There’s no going back from this now if you do!’

There was no need to sense anything. Masayuki could see her telegraph her intent. He had to release his team and prepare for the assault. If he did not give her his everything, he was not going to survive her attack.

The three that remained conscious on his team attempted to move to act, but Saki’s speed exceeded their expectations. They all completely missed her as she struck Masayuki head on. The collision of her power ripped a massive shockwave through the air and behind him tearing up the earth in a semi-circle around him.

A blast of wind blew backwards hitting Masayuki’s team and Hiroshi and Tatsuya as they were all left in stunned awe of the two’s clash. Tatsuya held his arms up trying to see through the thick dust cloud kicked up by the wind that Saki’s punch created. “Damn, she was holding back against me!”

“You’ve still got quite a bit of power in you for being exhausted,” Masayuki remarked holding back Saki’s punch with one hand. His feet showed signs of having been pushed back about half a meter from where he used to stand.

She smirked back at him to hide her displeasure with the situation. “And you’re more than just talk.”

Chapter 363 – Broken Calm

“Damnit, Saki, this isn’t the time,” Hiroshi complained, noticing that more and more of the people part of Takako’s army were waking up. They were out of time. A problem none of them were prepared to handle was thrust upon them.

Forcing the fight to come to an end, Hiroshi activate his game power to bring everyone to a holding pattern. It allowed things to quickly die down between Masayuki and Saki. “All of you, we don’t have the time for fighting! You’re all under my power’s influence so don’t move.”

“What the hell did you do to us?” Umari demanded, unable to move even a centimeter.

“It’s how my power works. I’m not going into the details since it’s not important. Just know you can’t move until I release you.”

“What are you doing, Hiroshi?”

“I’m putting things back where they need to be Saki! We have thousands of people that were under the influence of Takako and they’re waking up now. We don’t know what their mental state is or how they’re going to react. But they need our help right now!” Hiroshi looked over to Masayuki and the UN soldiers, not happy about the situation. “Now look, I know we’re not all getting along peacefully right now, but we need to put these things aside. The innocent people harmed by Takako need our help and there’s even more hands right now. Can you put all of your bloodlust and need for justice aside for one hour and just help people that are confused, lost and frightened?!”

He was not sure if he was getting through to Masayuki, who he needed on board more than anything. Without him, everything would collapse as he would just go around fighting or arresting people. “Yes, these people did terrible things, but they’re also frightened and scared. They’re not going to know what happened or why they were made to do horrible things to people they called friends and family. So do what you claim to be here to do and protect these people! Help them!”

“Captain?”

Masayuki looked around as much as he could with an otherwise frozen body. He could hear the screams of the people waking up. And they stopped becoming screams and turned into a voices. Pleads came from all corners needed help.

“What’s going on?”

“I-I killed someone…”

“My husband’s…I-I-I…”

“My friends?!”

“…I can’t…”

“M-make it stop! The voices!”

“…I want to…die…”

“Kill me!”

Tatsuya turned his head about in a panic hearing all of the voices. He recalled Yori’s words and started to understand the weight of things that they bore now. “Damnit-to-hell!”

Still tired from his fight, Hiroshi had trouble holding up his powers. He hoped that he had an effect. “What is it going to be? I’m holding these people back, but this can’t last forever. The real danger is around us, not in front of you. Make your decision, please!” Collapsing to one knee, his powers were starting to fading. Straining his mind as far as it could, he struggling to hold out until he heard what he needed from Masayuki.

‘This is more complicated than I expected… There isn’t going to be a simple and easy way to handle this.’ He was the officer in charge and he made to make a call. Everyone was looking to him for a decision. Masayuki looked back at Saki who continued to only stare at him. She seemed to be judging him and his actions despite being unable to move. “You’re one weird girl,” he finally said with a sigh.

“And maybe you’re not so bad.”

“Are we in agreement then?” demanded Hiroshi. One hand pressed into the earth supporting his body as he felt his brain being pulled apart to its very threads by his power.

“Yes, until this situation is under control I won’t be arrest or charging anyone. There’s more important matters. But I have one condition.”

“What?”

“You all seem to have an unusual involvement in the matters. I want a full explanation of what happened.”

“Agreed.”

“Then we have a deal. Listen up, as Captain I make this order. There will be no fighting. Only give aid and support to those in trouble or injured. Anyone caught attempting anything else will answer directly to me! Understood?” He got quick acknowledgements from the normal humans under him that were more than happy to have things resolved in such a matter. They were too far out of the depth for such issues. However, his team specifically stayed quiet. “Am I understood? Or do I need to be more persuasive?”

“Yes, sir!” they all barked reluctantly.

“Good.”

“Finally…” Hiroshi collapsed to the dirt releasing his power. His friend quickly went to his side to help him up. A peace or maybe a ceasefire had been brokered even it was under duress. It was progress. However, the future of the people, the innocents was a completely different problem.

The price spent by Takako started to become apparent that they were all in over their heads. Their troubles had only started.

To be continued…

[Andromeda]

Hiroshi managed to calm the tension in the air between Masayuki and Saki, but that did not do anything to change the eerie atmosphere that permeated throughout the entire grounds of the former school. Even with an agreement no one knew what was going on. And Hiroshi found that he was not in the best condition, especially after the last use of his power. “Damnit…”

“Hey man, you ain’t allowed to be dying right here.”

“I didn’t realize that I needed permission from you.”

“If you’ve still got your sense of humor you’re alive enough to move.” Tatsuya eased him to his feet with a little caution. He tested to see if he could stand without any support.

The ground felt a little further away from him in a lightheaded sort of way. One false step felt like he would trip over his own clumsiness. “Some friend you are.” However, he did not get any more time for playful banter. Voices of people surrounding them reminded him that he had more important things to worry about than his own pain. There were others with far worse problems.

Hiroshi pushed off with his mind focused again towards the issue ahead. There was a mass of people all still recovering from the sudden loss of their master. Thanks likely to Yuki’s power enhancing their bodies was the only reason that they survive the battle. Though from the looks, they did not survive unharmed, in more than one meaning of the word.

He hurried as much as his body allowed him to do so over to the people that he could see. The worst of them looked to be a middle aged woman and a young teenage boy, probably from middle school. “How much pain are you in?” he asked kneeling down.

“What have I been doing?”

“It’ll be fine, ma’am. We’re here to help you.”

She lifted up her head to look at Hiroshi. “You…you look familiar…why?”

‘Probably because Takako ordered you to fight me.’ He kept his focus and looked around at the others trying to gauge injuries. They looked mostly survivable without immediate attention. Looking back, he saw that no one else was moving.

Hiroshi jumped up to his feet. “What the hell are you all standing around waiting on orders?! There’s more people here than there are us. So fan out and start finding the ones that need immediate attention!”

“Yes, sir!” snapped the soldiers. The UN soldiers began to fan out and evacuate their vehicle. Masayuki got looks from his men and he just motioned to them.

“Hey Mr. Captain!”

“Masayuki.”

“Fine, Masayuki, anyone on your team got healing powers?”

“We’re only a combat team.”

“Damnit, maybe someone here has some. Our doctor still back tending to our injured.”

Masayuki watched Hiroshi yell at Tatsuya to get moving. Then he started to snap at Saki to get the rest of the group moving. ‘Who is this kid? He’s not just a random stranger. He’s used to doing this…’

“Just because you’re the Captain doesn’t mean you get to do nothing either. We all need to pitch in.”

“I don’t need to be told that.”

“Then don’t!” Hiroshi rushed off to the next unattended group that he could find. They had their work cut out for them.

Chapter 364 – Broken Lives

The first ten minutes was the worst. Though that was a highly subjective point given that most of them were not used to dealing with people like it was a waiting room in an emergency room of a hospital. There was just too many people and once they all started to realize that there was even some help, they started targeted them for answers and aid. Each minute after got progressively worse and yet easier. It was a terrible feeling for them.

“Anyone nearby?! I need help now!” snapped Saki as she had three people very awkward pinned around her arms and legs. She had run out of limbs. “Tatsuya, now!”

Tatsuya ran over to Saki with a shocked look on her face trying to help the people that she was pinning. “What the hell, Saki?! We’re helping them not fighting!” Immediately, he pulled one of them free from her legs and let them go while helping the next.

“No stop it!” Saki released the two that she had to immediately go after the one that Tatsuya freed only to be too late. Blood sprayed everywhere across her face and Tatsuya as he stood paralyzed in shock. Not able to even mourn the death another cry of pain came from the ones that she released. “Damnit!” She quickly jumped back stopping the two teenage girls from killing themselves even with blood covering them from their attempts.

Saki managed to save them, though she was not sure how bad their injuries were. They aimed for their wrists, which was harder than the other that went straight for the throat. She looked over at Tatsuya still locked up. “Tatsuya?!” Nothing was getting through. Resorting to her feet, she kicked him over while her hands managed the two girls.

Still stunned but coming to a little bit of awareness, he looked up at her. The blood soaked on his skin only made his emotions appear more frightened. “S-saki…”

“I can’t deal with this alone. I need your help! Get me something to tie them up!”

“R-right!” He tried to get back to his feet, but stumbled and slipped. Thankfully, Nerine was in the area and saw what Saki was struggling with. She had the look of already knowing what was happening. It seemed that she had things prepared and materialized an unknown metal material that wrapped around their arms and legs.

Freed up, Saki did what she could to wipe away the blood from her face, but her uniform already struggled with it. “Thanks, Nerine. Where Yuki and Seiji?”

“Seiji took Yuki back to the safety of Kuroda’s base.”

“Good, keeping them at Hiroshi’s will keep him out of sight of the UN. I don’t need that man finding Yuki, not after what you said happened. He’s probably already on their list after that showdown.” She lifted up the two girls effortlessly. “I’ll take these two back. I found several more unconscious back here. If you can tend to their injuries.”

“Yes, I understand.”

“Thanks.” She began marching off in the direction of the temporary camp. It had only been an hour, but Masayuki wasted no time getting things broken out. Support teams from the UN were already arriving under direct command of Masayuki keeping things a little tense among Saki and the others, but they needed the hands.

Coming up besides Saki, Tatsuya forcibly grabbed one of the girls to lighten Saki’s load, not that it was anything that was going to slow her down. “Sorry, I panicked.”

“You didn’t know. I’ve mostly only been finding them alone, so it’s been easier. But three of them…”

“Damnit! Why did this have to happen?”

“Don’t stop moving.”

Tatsuya looked at Saki’s back, as he paused. He did not understand it. “How? H-how can you…”

“I don’t have the option. That’s why I said not to stop moving. The moment you do, then you’re already in the trap.”

“Saki…”

“They need us, even if they don’t want us. Focus on that, not yourself.”

He hurried up to her side to keep her pace. It still did not become clear to him. Yet he saw the awkward resolve that Saki set herself upon. Somehow her back looked completely bent over and broken, despite being straight and tall to carry the world if she had. He did not understand how she could do it. ‘She looks broken, but she’s still moving forward… Was she always this strong?’

At the temp camp, Masayuki snapped out orders to the newly arriving soldiers that carried much needed supplies. Off to the right side, Hiroshi helped several dozen new faces that Saki had not seen since the last time. “I’ve got two more for detention.”

Masayuki visibly dropped his shoulders hearing that as he finished his orders. The medical supplies finally arrived along with some doctors to help look after the injured. He turned around to meet Saki as Hiroshi rotated. “That makes thirty-nine now… It’s getting worse.”

“And I doubt this is the last that we’ll see,” Hiroshi remarked solemnly, “All of these people were under Takako’s power. They did and saw terrible things. Even those injured that seem fine might be at risk.”

“This isn’t like anything we’re prepared to handle.”

“None of us are prepared, but we can’t abandon them.”

“I wouldn’t suggest it. We have a duty to help everyone.”

“Good.”

“The number of people out searching and helping have doubled. So I think it’s about time you started explaining this situation.” Masayuki stared at Saki and Hiroshi making it very clear that he knew that they were hiding a lot from him still. The way they spoke and barely even seemed to skip a beat on things, there were things that the UN clearly did not know that somehow these teens did.

Saki and Hiroshi looked between each other in silence. She gave Hiroshi a slight approving look for him to give the talk. Hiroshi was prepared for it, even though he would have preferred to wait until everything was handled. “I can give you the short version. We still have a lot to do, so I can’t get us lost in details.”

“Who’s this Takako person you keep referring to?”

“She was a student at this school and a classmate.”

“Before the incident, you mean.”

“That’s right. However, after the incident, she was attacked and hospitalized. We thought she had gone into a coma or vegetative state, she wouldn’t respond or react to us.”

“How did this happen then?”

“Takako didn’t fully explain the situation before she died. But someone rescued her and did something to heal her mind. She somehow figured out her powers and to fully recover she used them on others.”

“What was her power?”

“A variant of mind control, she could enter people’s mind and leave something of her there. Which had two side effects, she could control them if they survived the mental strain or they’d break and run off base instincts with no will or conscious to guide them.”

“So she ordered them to kill people.”

“Not always, those running off instincts probably did it on their own. Which is probably the ones that we’re finding right now that are trying to kill themselves. They can’t take what they’ve done.”

“Those ordered by this Takako have a bit of an escape goat for them to rationalize things.”

“Yes, but I don’t know how long that will last. We could be facing hundreds more in the future tempting suicide or falling into depression.”

Saki interjected in to end things. “Either way, this situation isn’t over by a long shot. Even with Takako dead, her hands are still moving. And we still haven’t even found everyone yet.”

“Does the UN have enough facilities to manage this?” inquired Hiroshi. He knew their base back where his people recovered already filled to capacity with people. There was nowhere to take them.

Masayuki glanced back at the detention area. They were the makeshift cells they used to hold criminals and they were already running out of them. He ordered all of the available cells from headquarters. It was not going to be enough. “No, we aren’t equipped for a situation on this scale.”

“Then what were you planning on doing? Killing everyone?”

“Saki, stop!”

Silence overcame Masayuki as he had to face the reality of his mission. It was not the sort of thing he prepared for and making the best of it took him where he stood now. “I didn’t have any useful intel. I didn’t know how many people were here.”

“If it wasn’t for me, you would have all ended up getting yourself killed or captured!”

The Captain could not say anything in response to Saki. He knew that she was right. They had gone in completely confident of their power with no clue to the situation. It was the reason that the whole zone was restricted by the higher ups. They could not do anything about it. ‘What would have I done? Mind control? I could have killed the people I want to protect…’

Hiroshi could see how much Masayuki was beating himself up of the situation. It was going to lock him up if he allowed it to continue. “We need to find a place to put them. How about the hospitals? We’ve got several in the city and there should be ways we can secure people in them to keep them from killing themselves, right?”

Still lost in thought, it took Saki knocking him in the shoulder to get his mind back. “Huh? Right, hospitals. I’ll have to talk to my superiors to get manpower diverted. I can’t be asking a bunch of kids to be doing this.”

“I’ve got a doctor in my group and a bunch of adults with nothing to do.”

Things were starting to get to the point that Masayuki could not keep quiet about it. “Who are you and what group do you belong to?”

“I’m not in his group,” Saki immediately declared.

“We don’t really have a name. But I ended up becoming the leader. We’re just a bunch of people from this neighborhood that gathered up to protect those when Takako started killing. But with peace now here, we can start working towards stabilizing the city again.”

“How many are in your group?”

“Less than a hundred now, Takako killed most of us. But we’re wanting to help keep our city peaceful and safe.”

“It might be tough to convince my superiors, but I think it would be beneficial if you helped us with this. You know the people here better than I do. I’m from Tokyo. So I’m still getting use to the city.”

“Tokyo? So the other cities are fine?”

“No, they’re worse. Tokyo’s…a nightmare right now…”

“Oh…damnit…can’t anywhere catch a break?!”

“What do you think of working together, Mr. Kuroda?”

“Call me Hiroshi, Mister is too stuffy for me. But if you promise me to not treat them like criminals, but victims then I think we can work together.” Hiroshi extended his hand out towards Masayuki. In the middle of the darkness, a thin ray of hope appeared.

To be continued…

[Andromeda]

“We don’t really have a name. But I ended up becoming the leader. We’re just a bunch of people from this neighborhood that gathered up to protect those when Takako started killing. But with peace now here, we can start working towards stabilizing the city again.”

“How many are in your group?”

“Less than a hundred now, Takako killed most of us. But we’re wanting to help keep our city peaceful and safe.”

“It might be tough to convince my superiors, but I think it would be beneficial if you helped us with this. You know the people here better than I do. I’m from Tokyo. So I’m still getting use to the city.”

“Tokyo? So the other cities are fine?”

“No, they’re worse. Tokyo’s…a nightmare right now…”

“Oh…damnit…can’t anywhere catch a break?!”

“What do you think of working together, Mr. Kuroda?”

“Call me Hiroshi, Mister is too stuffy for me. But if you promise me to not treat them like criminals, but victims then I think we can work together.” Hiroshi extended his hand out towards Masayuki. In the middle of the darkness, a thin ray of hope appeared.

“I’ll do what I can in my power to do see that they’re treated fairly. I hope to able to work with you towards protecting this city.” Masayuki accepted Hiroshi’s hand finalizing what could only truly be considered the most informal of binding agreements. It held no meaningful weight beyond trust between two men. Yet it was going to have to be enough for both of them. For now at least, the future remained unclear.

A UN soldier came rushing up with his uniform looking tattered. He had one more following up behind in better condition. “Sir! We have trouble!” opened the man in the most vague and least helpful manner possible.

The panic in his voice grabbed the attention over the group. They all worried if their peace had become short lived. Masayuki stepped out to take command of his men. “Speak then! What is it?”

“We located a few more survivors on the opposite side of the wreckage, but we’re unable to get any closer. There is a teenage boy stopping us. He’s attacking anyone that comes close!”

“Attacking?!” The Captain immediately went on edge. He thought fighting had been avoided or at least beyond them now. However, hesitation did them no good. Masayuki quickly resolved himself to the necessary course. “I’ll handle this personally then. Send out the order to the rest of the men in the area to move away and continue their search in other areas.”

“Yes, sir!”

Appearing at Masayuki’s side as though she was his own shadow, Saki quickly made her presence known to him. “I’m going as well.”

‘Damn, she’s fast! I didn’t even notice her, but she must have come in while I was distracted.’ Keeping his surprise down proved difficult with a girl just popping up. He did not even feel the displacement of the air. How distracted had he been to not even notice that? But there were bigger concerns that came up quickly once he adjusted to her presence. “No, I don’t need a fight breaking out.”

“You’re implying that I can’t be peaceful?”

“Given your negotiating skills displayed so far Saki, the man’s got good reason to question you.”

“Shut up, Hiroshi, I’m going that’s final.” She still got doubt and uncertain looks from both of them. Their gazes only made her furrow her brow in their distrust. Crossing her arms, she took a different approach. “I’m going because the reason your men were probably attacked was because you’re UN. They don’t trust you or are scared of you. I’ll be able to talk them down without actually inciting a fight.”

Using solid logic at this point was hard to argue. Masayuki wanted to dispute her claims, but he knew better than the rest how the UN was viewed by the regular citizens. Especially how they viewed him. He had to agree with Saki. “Fine.”

The party set, both marched out. Or rather, they disappeared immediately keeping a competitive pace with each other. It was a short distance, but neither wanted fighting to continue.

Chapter 365 – Broken Hope

Saki had a pretty good guess who it was that attacked the UN soldiers. Given who remained unaccounted for it only made sense to her. That was the true reason why she came, though she could not say it in Masayuki’s presence. She had something to maintain with him if she was to succeed. ’He has to be complicating matters.’

Directed by Masayuki, he placed them in the approximate area that he knew order the soldier to search. He dropped out of his sprint just outside of the area. “This must be the area. There’s a heavy amount of destruction.”

Even before she could say anything they were interrupted by a blast of black energy. “I said stay away! None of you are getting any closer!” shouted a familiar voice. She stepped out in front of Masayuki and batted the energy away into the sky. Destabilized enough from her hit, it blew up a few hundred meters into the air. Light from the blast gave Saki everything she needed to confirm it.

‘I knew it, Yori. His sister complex is going to get him killed.’ Saki glanced back at Masayuki to see how he was handling the attack. If she needed she planned to fight him, as she still did not trust his word like Hiroshi might have. There was not enough to work on from his actions that she saw to believe him, not yet.

However, Masayuki’s attention did not go to Yori, but rather Saki. Much like her, he did not fully trust her. Hiroshi had something about him that he could find sincere. And Saki definitely had sincerity, but it was backed by brute force and muscle rather than words and principles, non-violent principles anyway. ‘She nearly exhausted herself from our clash and it’s only been a short time and she’s able to deflect an attack like that. She possesses a significant threat… What is her goal?’ His gut told him that he did not necessary have to fear for what she might do now, but that she represented a potential future threat depending on the way things played out. There was something very complicated about her and how simple she appeared, despite being anything but.

Saki stepped out further to begin her approach. “I know who it is. He’s a classmate I know from when we were just students here. So he’ll listen to me. Just hold back.”

“No, I’ll go with you!”

“You want him to attack again? Unless you plan on strip butt naked, you still look like a UN soldier. He’s not going to trust you. Remember you guys don’t have a good reputation.”

Grinding his teeth together, a peaceful solution was something that they both wanted. However, he did not want her going alone, yet he could do nothing but agree with her. She was right, he knew. “Fine, but I’ll watch you closely anything happens that looks like an attack I’m jumping in.”

“Whatever, he’s not going to attack.” She focused forward to Yori. “Hey, it’s me Saki! I’m coming over to you, so stop attacking!”

“Saki?! You’re under control of Takako!”

“Takako’s dead, everything’s been settled.”

“You could be lying!”

“Damnit!” Her hands tightened up that Yori proved stubborn even after all of the sounds of fighting stopped. “Look, she’s not attacking you anymore right? That means Takako isn’t controlling her anymore. So it’s safe!”

“She’s not attacking because she’s unconscious!”

“Because Takako’s dead! It happened to everyone under her control!” She sighed annoyed with the situation. It did not seem that they were going to be making any progress. Their fight took place away from Yuki and Takako’s fight. So he was not in on everything that happened. She did not have time for his paranoia.

Since he refused to trust her, she just disappeared from everyone’s sight. The act set Masayuki on edge and made him start to move, but then stop. She appeared behind Yori and poked him in the head to get him turn. “Hey, if I wanted you dead I could have done so several times over by now. The shape you’re in you’d be no match for me.” Despite receiving temporary healing from Nerine, he remained covered in blood and looked to be half in death’s door already.

Jumping away from Saki, Yori never got used to how fast Saki could be when she wanted. He saw none of it and was never sure if he would have see her even as a blur, like others claimed. “Saki?!”

“Going to believe me now?” She glanced down at Yumi, who looked in better shape than Yori. There appeared to be something strange about her that she could not place at the moment. “She alright?”

Brotherly instincts immediately triggering, he wrapped his arms around her to protect her from Saki. “Yes, none of us could do much against her other than survive. So I don’t know why she’s unconscious.”

“Like I said, everyone passed out once they were freed from Takako’s control. She’ll wake up in time. Now, I need you to start playing nice. The UN’s here and I don’t need you starting the fighting back up because you’re having trust issues with me.”

Measuring out Saki’s words and his situation, Yori did not answer her immediately. Though, it did not take long for him to agree. “Alright…but I’m staying with her.”

“Yes, yes, I wouldn’t stand between you two. Let’s head back to the camp and I’ll get you up to speed on things.” She helped him back on his feet, though in continued to insist on carrying Yumi despite his own body’s condition.

As they started back to Masayuki, he looked over at Saki as he started to see things were truly over. “How bad are things?”

“We’re still picking up the pieces. Hiroshi’s made peace with the UN group here and we’re struggling to deal with the people that have been broken by Takako’s madness.”

“So, it’s as bad as I feared it might turn out.”

“Attempted suicides and others completely non-responsive. It’s going to be a miracle if even half of them can find their normal lives after this.”

“Takako’s corruption won’t be healed so easily…”

“It’ll be months or years I fear…”

“Or never…”

“It’s possible…” Neither of them liked the sound of the word, never. Innocents should never have been involved, but they could not change things now. Saki felt the same as she did after the plant assassin incident. ‘It’s like Takako is just repeating history…she could just be perpetuating the hate… I’m sorry I couldn’t save you…’

When they returned to camp new survivors picked up by the soldiers appeared with them. Hiroshi helped with one of them as Saki and the others walked into the camp grounds. It took her a moment, but she remembered the face from when they went to Hiroshi’s underground base. But among them was also Yumi’s friends that Saki knew immediately.

She rushed over to join Hiroshi and help the soldiers bring in the three women all with varying degrees of injuries. The worst appeared to be Katsumi with both of her arms missing in a very savage manner. Around her shoulders the skin was torn and hanging making it clear that they were not cut, but actually ripped from her joints. “Is she alive?” She could not imagine what sort of blood lose happened to her, though she did not bled at the moment.

“Yes, ma’am,” answer the soldier, “Though she has a faint response.”

“Get them to the triage tent immediately!”

“They’ll be fine, Saki.”

Saki turned away to look back at Yori holding Yumi. “That’s not what I’m worried about.” She stared down at Yumi still unconscious. Her thoughts went to different moments, but quickly fell back to Yuki and the school when Demosthenes attacked. There was a lot of unknowns and something about Yumi did not sit right with her. Her presence felt completely off to her. It made her hands sweat and she did not know why. ‘What’s going on with me? Why am I so uneasy right now? What’s happened to Yumi?’

To be continued…

[Andromeda]

The sun finally hung high in the air. After a long night and even longer month, peace finally started to arrive once more in their home. But it was not going to be an easily built peace. This much all of them knew. They learned almost too well from the survivors how true that it would be. A first step was all that was taken today.

UN forces continued to patrol the battle site for any survivors that might have been missed. The destruction was too vast and the influence that Takako held over the whole area made it impossible to be certain that they had found everyone. They had taken over much of the site now as Hiroshi and the others pulled back.

Masayuki stood in a new tense situation before the teenagers that helped salvage a terrible situation. He had made an agreement with Hiroshi and things looked up. “I hope that this will work to bring cooperation together between us. We don’t have to be working in separate corners.”

“I’d like that was well. Though it’s going to be hard convincing everyone else. Your reputation here isn’t a positive one.”

“I’m all too well aware of that. But we’re only trying to protect and keep people safe. The rise of the Empowered has required a different approach. If we the Japanese can’t prove we can protect and govern ourselves in this situation we’re only going to see even worse aspects of the world in our homeland.”

“People are still very scared and frightened about everything happening. This isn’t going to be something fixed overnight.”

“No, it’s not. But all we can do is keep trying.”

Saki stepped out from Hiroshi’s side joining Masayuki. She looked back at the others. “Trying is going to be the important thing. You can’t stop moving forward.”

Everyone looked a little confused at what Saki was doing. “What are you doing, Saki?”

“What I must do as well.”

All of the confusion continued while Masayuki stepped forward with an explanation. He swallowed roughly knowing what he was about to it. “This woman has openly admitted to numerous crimes. Even if her actions did lead to the resolution of the crisis, what she’s done can’t be ignored.”

“What?! You’re still going on about that! I thought we moved past that!”

“Crimes are still crimes. If we can’t show that we can maintain order and carry out justice then all we have is anarchy. We can’t pardon violent unsanctioned actions.”

Hiroshi tightened up his fist. ‘She’s been planning this the whole time. She’s going to take the fall for all of us. Damnit! Once more I can’t do anything for my friends!’ He wanted to do anything for Saki, but the peace and good well he built would be destroyed. “…Saki…”

“Don’t worry, everyone’s in the places they’re supposed to be. Do what you’re supposed to do now.”

Looking up at Saki, he stared into her eyes to see her resolve. She held steadfast and unwavering on her path. But she was also telling him as well. She told him where he belong and was meant to be. It left him stunned for a moment realizing what she was doing. ‘You planned all of this?! You intentionally did all of that to put me in this place knowing that someone you could trust was here?! Saki…damnit…this makes it even worse… What do I tell Yuki when he wakes up?’

Tatsuya came up behind Hiroshi and put a hand on his shoulder. He understood as well as Saki the course and destination that she put them. “She’s right, man. This is where you should be. Don’t look away.”

Hesitation and regret still filled up his chest trying to push out the hope that he desperately tried to hold. The hope that Saki gave him and entrusted him. He had to keep it safe. Yet he feared that the darkness of his own heart might taint that hope. “…I know…I’ll keep looking forward.”

Chapter 366 – Broken Paths

Inside the APC, Masayuki sat in the back along with his team and Saki as her guard. They had no containment cells for Saki given that they were all consumed by the survivors. So they acted as her prison, for what it actually was worth. They all had seen a taste of her power and that she only came because it was her decision.

Over in the corner, Nawabe continued to nurse a bloody nose and swollen cheek from Saki’s fist. He glared at her for the entire ride knowing that she was better than him, but having trouble accepting that fact. A slow burning rage fueled by his destroyed pride began to build inside him.

“Looking to get knocked out again?” mocked Umari. None of them could miss the signs that he put off. Probably only Masayuki’s presence kept him making another stupid mistake.

The others laughed at him while hiding their own fears and relief. All of them wanted a piece of Saki, but Nawabe provided them all with enough second thoughts to not act on their instincts immediately. He growled lowly at all of them for becoming the mockery of the team. “She just caught me off guard.”

“Says everyone that gets completely curb stomped.”

Masayuki fixed his eyes at this team to get them in order. He earned a little more respect from them thanks to Saki. ‘Up until now, I’ve never had to show much of my power thanks to the criminals we faced being weaker than us. They’ve never seen me go all out. They only knew that my powers made me annoying for them, since I never gave into their baiting. While she didn’t intend it, this teenage girl’s done a lot for both of us…’ Thanks to that recognition from his team, they silenced up pretty quickly. “If you don’t want to get caught off guard next time, train harder Nawabe and follow my orders. I don’t give them because I like hearing myself talk.”

“Yeah, yeah…” Nawabe tried to play off his unsettled feeling with a casual reply. All he got for his troubles was another piercing glare from his Captain. “…sir…”

The vehicle came to a stop suddenly. They had arrived at their destination, the headquarters of the UN within the city. As the back hatch opened to flood the chamber with light, Saki finally got a look at the heart of their unknown counterpart. Dozens of soldiers marched around the fenced in base along with an entire fleet of the most advance modern vehicles and equipment that the world powers had to offer. She had a brief moment of impressive awe at their display of arms only to realize how pointless all of it was made. ‘This is purely an empty show of strength. Against us superhumans, these weapons are nearly meaningless. I could completely destroy this base on my own, if it were just normal humans.’ Taking up her side on the left was Masayuki, a remainder that she was not alone and that he only stood as one of many like him on the base.

She had many questions about the UN and their true intentions in this policing action of theirs. ‘This man seems sincere, such that he doesn’t really belong in this sort of place. He’d do more good alongside Hiroshi. Who are the ones giving him his orders?’

Masayuki waved off his team to dismiss them. “We’re going to my superiors. They’ll be the ones to determine your fate.” He began to walk ahead of Saki as her guide.

‘Very trusting man…but he knows that I’m not at full power yet and that we’re evenly matched. Let’s see what the big shots are like.’ Keeping close behind him, she kept her senses open still not trusting anyone else in the complex. She did not know if his team would try to make another attack, a sneak attack for retaliation for what she did or if someone else might want a piece of her. Though she felt the latter had small odds since she did not have a name for herself yet.

The building the UN took over was a familiar one. They setup inside the heart of the city within the commercial district. After the incident, much of the heavy traffic and popular areas of the city became deserted. Entire skyscrapers remained untouched as no one wanted to work in such a city anymore. Fear and uncertainty were too strong. Only the brave and stubborn attempted to keep some semblance of their former lives going.

It left plenty of places for others to come in and take over. Centrally located and well equipped to handle the infrastructure that they carried, it was well suited for their needs. Several city blocks came under their arm of control and bore the flags of the UN and joint nations.

Inside the large open thirty-fifth floor of an office building, the main command structure of the UN’s headquarters took everything over. Wires and machines ran about everywhere in a very ordered chaos that only those that put it together could understand. None of it was something that interested Saki, just how well built in they were.

At the back, where a boss or manager likely sat when it was still just a regular tech company, the superiors that Masayuki mentioned await Saki’s arrival. They knew of her arrested and prepared ahead in a large show of force that Saki could only scoff at. An entire platoon of normal multi-national soldiers followed her and Masayuki.

They stopped at the door where Masayuki gave her entry. Inside behind an extra long desk, extended by added another desk from some other room, sat the Generals and a man in a business suit. Saki kept her reactions to herself without giving away anything. ‘What’s a regular office worker doing here? This is a military operation.’

“Captain Ayabito, this is the criminal Saki Furukawa?” asked General Evans. Ever since the bombing incident the other day, Evans had been visiting from Tokyo. He came under the guise of monitoring the effectiveness and methods of the branch.

“Yes, sir! She has admitted to the murder of the gang leader known as Takako Yamazaki, who held eastern parts of the city.”

He measured Saki up and down trying to get a read on her. It seemed that she did not give him an impressive reaction as he leaned back in his chair. “This girl wiped out the gang and leveled an entire neighborhood?”

“That’s right,” Saki answered, speaking out of turn. She crossed her arms not feeling any of the intimidation that all of the men in the room tried to emit. ‘They’re more scared than anything of me. They’re just trying to cover it up.’

“If that’s so, why has she not been placed into a containment cell?”

The businessman perked up joining the conversation, “All of our company’s equipment is in use currently.”

“We had enough equipment you said for the next two months. Is your production behind schedule?”

“No, General. We’re ahead of schedule in fact. But thanks to your bringing the gang war to an end, the number of Empowered needed to be kept locked up has exceeded our estimates.”

“We’ll speak about your production later. Saki Furukawa, you’ve been charged with the murder of a Japanese citizen, assault of a UN soldier and excessive property damage. How do you plead?”

“Guilty.”

“Very well. Under martial law, the UN will pass your verdict rather than a civil court. I hereby pass judgment upon you. Saki Furukawa you have been sentenced to death for the murder of a Japanese citizen.”

Masayuki jerked forward in surprise. “Sir? She brought an end to the conflict. Why isn’t that being accounted in her judgment?”

“Captain, law and order are two things lost since Japan has changed. Those must be maintained and shown to still be the governing force. Murder regardless of intent is still murder and can’t be justified.”

“So you’re just using her as a tool!”

“Captain, you’re out of line. Any further and I will hold you in contempt.”

Unable to speak back further without ruining his own position, Masayuki clammed up quickly. He tightened up his hands in frustration. ‘They’re just going to execute her to show that they’re in control and that they’re still superior over all of the Empowered. All of this is just political!’

General Evans continued with Masayuki’s interruption silenced, “Your execution will be carried out tomorrow at noon. And find a containment cell to put the criminal in under her execution. Dismissed!”

Only able to escort Saki out of the room, Masayuki walked with her to the elevator. His mind spun with various thoughts, ones that he should never be even entertaining. Once the door opened, they walked in without the rest of the show of force with them. He had trouble looking at the girl knowing that she was just being used.

Saki remained unaffected by everything. “It’s fine. Don’t worry about me and don’t be thinking up any stupid ideas.”

It took him a little back that she realized that much was going on in his mind. “I can’t believe that they would go this far just to prove their efforts. I figured you’d be given life or something. But they don’t even care.”

“I expected this sort of thing.”

“You’re going to be killed for a completely selfish and pointless reason. How can you be so calm?”

“This isn’t the first time I’ve faced such things. If this is where I must die, then so be it. I’ve got no regrets with what I’ve done. Others can carry on my work.”

He threw out of his fist punching a hole in it and shaking the chamber. The lights flickered a bit from the force, but it continued to go. ‘Damnit, this isn’t right! The young shouldn’t be dying for us!’

Across the city about a kilometer from the ruined grounds of the school, two figures in black turned away from their monitoring positions. The man on the left closed his device while the other finished his conversation on his cell. The man with the cell looked back at the ruins. “The surveillance is complete. They’ve got all of the data that they needed.”

Returning the device back into a brief case, he picked it up and began to walk away with his partner. “Seems the first field test was successful.”

“Yes, but it only works on Meso Prosecho users.”

“It’s enough to begin Phase 2.”

To be continued…

[Andromeda]

Alone in one of the offices of the complex that the UN took over sat Takeshi Shigemitsu behind the desk of some manager that two months ago used to regularly on time come into work. Now abandoned, it hung in low lighting due to the reduced power available for the whole complex. Much of it had to be diverted to their containment facility hastily constructed to manage the rapid rise of anarchist elements within the city. Despite the highly advanced technology they had yet to improve the power consumption demands made by their technology.

All of the personal effects of the former manager laid in a surprisingly neat pile on the floor. Everything cleared away for Shigemitsu’s work. Which contrary to having it all cleared away, he only used it for a single laptop. The only other device that laid on the table was a smart phone. He worked and carried a very lean life within the UN base.

Finishing up the Furukawa report, he closed the laptop. He stood up to look out the window of the forty-third floor. Below him, the UN command worked on their plans for broadcasting the execution. Within Japan, it was a pointless exercise made only more pointless by the destroyed infrastructure caused by the incident. But that was not the purpose of the broadcast. It was for everyone else.

Peace and security. The need to feel safe in a world completely turned on its head. People wanted that feeling back. Fear and panic became the common emotions seen on everyone’s face. Made only worse by the extreme prejudice developing out of irrational fears. A situation no one understood stoked the fires to greater heights.

“Plans must be flexible…” He retrieved a small disc shaped device from his pocket and placed it on the desk. A thin beam of light shot out from the perimeter covering the walls in lines of purple light. Passing over all of the surfaces in the room, once completed it displayed a holographic text above it stating “Secure” in Japanese.

Shigemitsu took out a completely different device that he took up to his ear as though it were a phone, yet no ordinary person would have seen it as such. It might have looked more like portable hard drive, but without any ports. “Shigemitsu,” he spoke to declare himself.

“We’ve lost sight of the target again. After the battle they hid Hayashi’s body. Yes, we’ve been tracking him since his return, but they’ve been forced to be more cautious due to the situation.” Listening to the voice on the other end, he received orders. “Yes, I agree. We’re going to need a more permanent way of tracking him. I’ll arrange things on my end to secure that. Something has recently fallen into our hands that should prove a perfect solution to our problem.”

Chapter 367 – Broken Way

“What is this?” Saki asked, staring at something that looked more like it belonged in a sci-fi movie rather than their world. Or something that she would believe that Yuki would dream up. She looked back at Masayuki, insisting on her getting inside it.

He still carried his reluctance about the whole situation. “This is the containment cell that is able to negate the powers that we possess.”

“So I’ll be a normal human in there?”

“That is correct. I don’t know how it works, it’s a technology beyond our understanding.”

She stared at the cell. It had very little way in movement. Definitely held that sort of containment feeling that rested in its name. With a shape like a stretched out egg and color to match, the only thing that made it seem sort of normal was the large amount of tubes running out of it into the wall. The entire room was filled with tubes and wires and in great mass than the actual amount of cells. “So these are what you were putting people in, but why do these look different from the ones you had on you?”

“Those are mobile version with limit power and capabilities. They’re meant only for transport for these, the real ones.”

“But aren’t you transporting all of the people to hospitals?”

“Yes, but we’re getting aid from the supplier to set up rooms that can support them.”

“Good, Hiroshi is going to be over seeing that, right?” She already knew the answer, but needed the confirmation again to see if anything had changed. She wanted to see the reaction on Masayuki’s face so that she could be sure of how things would play out.

He nodded to her. “It was a bit of trouble, but it seems our supplier was in favor of the idea. So he pushed for it as well.”

“Then things are in place.” Saki stepped up into the padded interior of the cell. It had a natural restrictiveness to it that she was not surprised by even without the hatch closed. “Well then I’m going to sleep.”

“I don’t see how you’re agreeing to all of this.”

“The pieces are in place now. I don’t have to worry anymore.” Saki rested her head back and closed her eyes. She was not sure how it was going to feel being normal again. In fact, she was not even sure if she was going to be awake. The others she saw through the small portals on the cells looked to be asleep. ‘I’m not completely without regrets. But Yuki has others I can trust to keep him straight. I’m not the only one that can work in the shadows for him. Not anymore…’

Masayuki hit the panel to close the hatch and seal away Saki. Tomorrow the end would come for her and he could do nothing about it. Every time that he thought about his powerlessness he squeezed his fists tighter. He could do nothing to stop any of it. ‘This isn’t the sort of thing I signed up to support. But what am I supposed to do? We need the UN’s approval if the world is ever going to trust us. The Japanese people can’t be treated with fear and scorn forever. We’re still humans, even if they don’t want to see us that anymore.’

He walked out of the room allowing the door to lock behind itself. It used to be a bank vault making it ideal for sealing away the most dangerous of criminal that they caught. The other facilities were not so secure, but with them all sealed away it did not matter that much.

Across the city, Hiroshi arrived back at their new base climbing out of the tunnel that they dug to get into the school in the first place. It made for an easy escape and a safe way to get Yuki back out of the sight of the UN. Only so much trust could be earned from a first meeting, even for Hiroshi.

He went around checking on all of the survivors from their base being destroyed before doing anything else. ‘If I could afford it I would have preferred to brought more back, but we don’t have the room. And I can’t risk revealing this location. Masayuki might be a good man, but that doesn’t stand for the rest of the UN.’ Everything still had to play out first for him to see what was going to happen. His mind still spun ideas on how to rescue Saki without ruining their chance at some sort of peace with the UN. There were ideas, but he didn’t know how possible they were. It was something Saki decided as well. He fought with it.

Once he finished his rounds, he stepped into the back stairs of the building that Phoibe operated. It took him through the backside of her third floor building and allowed them access out of sight of the normal customers. He could hear the slight buzzing of her machines are work. ‘Everyday it is packed. I know she had a small clientele, but it was never this busy when we came the first time. She doesn’t technically even need the money either…’

While the second floor acted as offices and Phoibe’s apartment, the third floor remained largely empty. There was only some light storage around. It was more than she needed for her purpose, but it suited well for them now.

Hiroshi walked back to the curtained off area past the others that sat around. The empty storage room converted easily into makeshift base for Yuki’s group and those with Hiroshi. They lined beds up against the wall for everyone that they were protecting. He went over to Miyako’s side first, who remained asleep since they found her among the destruction. Next to her, Kaede found next to her defeated and Katsumi with her arms restored thanks to Nerine. Though all of their wounds had been healed each remained unconscious for unknown reasons.

Resting his hand on Miyako’s bed, he knew how hard that she fought for their dream. ‘The war is over now. But we’ve a new battle to face. The fight for peace. We’re going to be busy when you wake up, this is the world that you fought for Miyako. So join my side once more.’

Finished with this visit, he walked down the row of beds. Found passed out at the front of Phoibe’s door, they brought in Haruo and Fumiko treating their wounds. Then at the far end was Yumi with Yori never leaving her side and Yuki separated from the rest, since Yori insisted on it.

“He’s still out?” Hiroshi asked rhetorically to Seiji.

“Yeah, hell if I know what’s wrong with him.”

Nerine stood at Yuki’s side as well, stepping in with an answer, “The Kin—Yuki Hayashi has exhausted much of his mental power in the fight he had with Takako. His body was also severely broken from the efforts required of him to fight on an equal level as her. He will likely be out for several days to fully recover his mental energy.”

“I see.” Hiroshi stared down at Yuki still having trouble believing everything that he saw. He watched him fight and defeat Takako, who completely walked all over him. He stood no chance against her. Watching the fight, Yuki seemed at moments to be completely invincible and unstoppable, while at other times become completely helpless. It was strange to witness it firsthand. ‘So he does have a limit.’ It always wondered him, giving what he did to Japan and watched him do in fights. Yuki for all of his weaknesses, seemed so completely different and beyond the rest of them. All any of them could do was just watch is back. And yet it was not like that at all. ‘He’s struggling as well…’

He stepped out from around the curtain, bring everyone along with him. “We’ve got some things to discuss.” It seemed like an understatement given everything that happened, but it was necessary.

“First, where’s Saki?” asked Seiji hitting to their first topic, and one that Hiroshi wished to avoid.

Unable to answer Seiji, Tatsuya stepped up in the void. “She took the blame for everything and allowed herself to be arrested by the UN as a criminal.”

“What the HELL?!” Immediately, it took Tatsuya and Hiroshi just to keep him in place and that was not proving to be very good. They still were tired from everything that happened and recovering. The same could be said of Seiji, yet he seemed to have ignored all of that. It took Nerine using her powers to tie him down that ended things. “Let me go, Nerine! I’m not letting those bastards lock up Saki!”

“We can’t save her!”

“How dare you, after what I did for you!”

“She went to save all of us! She didn’t want the UN putting targets on all of us. So she’s sacrificing herself for our sake.”

Still trying to fight against the unstoppable powers of Nerine, Seiji fall over on his face. He fought to get himself in a better position, but they could not let him go free. “I’m not letting a friend be locked up! I don’t care what she thinks she’s doing for us!”

“This is the UN we’re talking about Seiji. We can’t be fighting them directly. We can’t start a war with them or it’ll mean going to world with the war!”

“Yuki was right about you.”

Hiroshi knelt down in front of Seiji to stare into his eyes and show his determination to him. “I haven’t given up on Saki. But we’re going to have to go about this carefully. She’s not lost to us.”

“You can tie me up, but once Yuki finds out there’s nothing you’re going to be able to do to stop him. He’ll tear up all of Japan to save her!”

Swallowing carefully, he knew that Seiji was right about that. They all knew that he was right. Friends were the most important thing to Yuki and if someone was in danger he was going to become unstoppable. Hiroshi feared thinking about the sort of destruction that Yuki would wrought upon the UN and Japan just to get Saki back.

He stood up and looked around at the everyone gathered. “Then that means we are short on time. We need to come up with a plan and one that Yuki can accept before he wakes up. Otherwise, we’ll be face a war that none of us wants. Even if we can win.”

Closing the vault door behind them, four men in white suits along with Shigemitsu wheeled out one of the containment cells. He trailed behind the group following them through the low lit halls until they came to an elevator. Upon entering the elevator, he pushed the last button on the panel “B10”. The elevator quickly began to move clicking down the floors through the basement.

When it arrived on the request floor, the rear doors opened rather than the ones that they entered. A very well lit and pure white hallway stretched out before them. They walked off the elevator pushing the cart into the far end room of the first hall.

Setup inside the room was a wall of monitors and computers dwarfing anything that the UN set up in the building above them. Opposite of the wall a wide array of medical equipment laid stretched out on tables, cabinets and benches.

Shigemitsu retrieved his blank HDD like device from his pocket. A screen on it suddenly appeared with displays. “The drugs won’t last on her. Seems she has a high tolerance for it and even in this state she still retains a small portion of her powers. A truly impressive subject. You’ve got thirty minutes. She’s a very important subject so be thorough.”

To be continued…

[Andromeda]

Taking a break from their planning, the group split into their different parts keeping to separate parts of the third floor. Hiroshi walked over to see Yuki, where Seiji stayed. A loyal friend and one that he barely even knew that well. Before everything with Takako, he had only met the man once before. They did not attend the same school, so he had to get the scoop on him from Saki. And Saki clearly had some issues with him that she had not spoken to anyone about. He was not sure if they would ever know what her problem with Seiji was. But what he could see the man was a good friend and someone to trust. So he did not know why Saki would see him as a problem, since Yuki needs all the friends he could get, especially now with things as they were.

Sitting down on the floor, none of them had any chairs. Being storage about all there were around the space was boxes or tubs of things that belong to Phoibe, not exactly the sort of thing to be disrespecting by sitting on them. He did wonder why Phoibe or Nerine did not make any chairs for them, but it was a minor point. Something unneeded in the long run.

Three hours passed since they started talking and Yuki remained still. He expected him to wake up, but Nerine insisted that he was recovering from the battle. ‘How long do we have until we have to explain things to him? Is he even going to listen to me? There’s at least friends here…’

Hiroshi glanced over at Nerine, seeing a strange look in her eyes when she looked at Yuki. She looked different at him compared to Seiji. ‘What’s with her? She’s not looking at Yuki as though he was a friend, but like she was guarding him. What’s going on?’ Watching Nerine brought back things he remembered Takako saying that confused him at the time, but he never had the chance to get answers about. It was about time for answers.

He looked over to Nerine and noticed her backing away internally. She had picked up on his sudden interest in her, likely detecting something wrong. “So you think it’s about time to explain what’s going on with Yuki?”

Nerine immediately picked up on Hiroshi’s implications, but Seiji did not follow. “He’s tired. What are you going on about?”

“I’m not talking about his state. I’m talking about what happened in the last two months while you disappeared on some trip, as he calls it.”

“He’s the King of Atlantis,” Seiji answered flatly. Nerine immediately went blue, aghast that he would just blurt that out without even a second thought. She rushed over to his side hoping that there was still time to stop it, since it could easily be something that was passed off as being too outlandish to be taken seriously.

“Why are you making things up, Seiji? He’s not going to know how to take your joking.”

“Eh? What’s gotten into you, Nerine?”

There was no hiding it from Hiroshi. Nerine was a bad actor and not very skilled as keeping her emotions in check. She appeared serious and like an adult, but she still had inexperience dealing with people. She was out of her element for sure. “Takako said the same thing, she referred to Yuki as the King. What the hell did I miss?”

Chapter 368 – Broken Peace

“…damn…” It felt like an understatement after getting everything out of Seiji. Hiroshi did not really know how to react after everything it. It just came out of his mouth, but he was still processing all of it. ‘An entire world unseen to us…a missing part of our history…this is a lot to take in…’

Nerine sat on the floor in dismay muttering things about failing to herself the whole time that Seiji explained things. Once it was over, she seemed to have started to recover. “…I can’t believe you just exposed everything…”

“What’s the problem? Hiroshi’s one of Yuki’s friends, he should know.”

‘I’m not sure if I am anymore…’

“The King has many enemies and the council hasn’t given up. No one is even supposed to know we exist or even that he has left the homeland.”

Seiji continued his very casual concern about the whole situation by just flippantly tossing a hand at the problem. “Don’t stress of such details. Anyone tries anything with Yuki and I’ll protect him!”

‘If only it were that easy.’ Hiroshi could sympathize with Nerine’s concerns. Yuki no longer just lived for himself, but for an entire people. Such a position bore a lot of responsibilities. “But why is he even here?” After the story ended, it seemed like Yuki had accepted his fate to protect the people of Atlantis. So it did not make a lot of sense to him why Yuki would come back as such a great risk.

“He didn’t want to leave his family behind without answers.”

Hiroshi stared over at the sleeping Yuki. The answer Seiji gave seemed like one that Yuki would say, but there was more that seemed to be going on than just that. ‘Yuki wouldn’t need to come all the way back to Japan just for that. He could have brought them to him. With the powers that they all wield, it would have been easy to do. Why do I get a feeling that there is something that Yuki’s not telling anyone?’ It was a completely unfounded feeling that Hiroshi. All of it was just easier to accept that Yuki wanted to personally see off his family and friends before leaving them all behind for the rest of his life. That would not be something hard to believe. But Hiroshi could not shake the feeling that there was something else going on that he did not know. That even Seiji or Nerine knew about. ‘What is your game, Yuki?’

A new day and almost morning, Shigemitsu stared out the window of his office. The view of the UN base still had not taken on a shape. Only the lights from rooms and spot lights filled the grounds giving it a loose form. He watched the light from the patrols searching out areas keeping their security tight. Everything seemed peaceful despite bubbling chaos that existed beyond the walls of the sectioned off part of the city that they controlled. However, such things would not last.

He glanced down at the time on his phone, resting on his desk. Turning away, he put his phone in his pocket just as a flash of light went off behind him. A second light growing into a fireball blew up sending out shakes all the way to the building. The man in the suit slowly walked through open floor plan of the office. All around him the people’s effects laid about on desks or floor completely abandoned.

The glass of the building rattled to the sounds of the explosions going off and then the power disappeared. Across the entire complex, the UN’s headquarters fell into darkness. The chaos of the outside world had finally descended upon them.

It was about when he reached the emergency stairs that his phone went off. Shigemitsu took a moment to pull it out. The name that came across was not the General, but one of his aides. “Shigemitsu, yes? The first priority is getting the power back up! The back up generators won’t maintain the cells for more than thirty minutes!” He finished giving orders to the aide. Being a businessman and not a soldier, he did not have a job out on the frontline, but rather keeping away from the trouble.

Down on the ground, Masayuki shouted out commands to the soldiers and his team alike trying to get order back. It had already been five minutes since the attack started. “Order Special Team Delta to the flank! We need their support!”

“None of them are responding, sir!” replied a communication officer.

“Damnit, where the hell are they?! Still sleeping through this attack!”

“Die you traitorous bastard!” yelled a young man in Japanese, part of the attacking force. He immediately recognized Masayuki as Japanese and one of the more well known faces in the city to all those fighting against the UN’s military actions.

Disappearing and reappearing behind the man, Masayuki struck him in the back hard and angled to put into the dirt rather than sending him off into buildings. It immediately knocked the man out without even a chance to attack.

He glanced over at the hole that the attacker made in the wall. The rest of his team jumped about with grins across their faces in excitement. These became the moments that they lived for and waited to see. However, none of those that they were facing gave them much trouble. Everyone in the attack seemed far too weak. “What’s going on with the attack? Why are they attacking now and with such a weak force?”

Masayuki glanced around at the base, which so far had taken very little in the way of damage. All that they faced so far was the wall being destroyed. They had been able to keep the attackers suppressed. But he did not know the feeling that was getting about the situation. “Something’s not right…”

Within the command floor, reports came in quickly from different post around the base. A large screen on the wall displayed the tactical view of the situation updating from the reports. General Evans stared at the map taking in the whole situation. Everything looked favorable for them at the moment.

“General Evans,” an officer spoke from behind Evans to get his attention. At that moment, a new blip appeared on the map. “We’ve a new report.”

His eyes narrowed with concern at the location. “I can see that. What’s the details?”

“We’ve completely lost communications with the patrol in Sector J. The only intel we got before communications were lost was a small raid team of the enemy had appeared.”

“A distraction. This is the main force…” He stepped forward closer to the map. His hand raised to the point to location.

The officer turned around and shouted out to the soldier staffing the terminal. “Zoom into Sector J!”

Evans stared at it longer. This was not his base and so he had not completely familiarized himself with the whole layout yet. But he already had a guess as to what was in the sector. And the enhanced view made that very clear to him. “They’re after the containment cells. Order Special Team Beta and Gamma in immediately to secure and kill the enemy.”

“Kill, sir?”

“Are you deaf, soldier?”

“No, sir! I understand!”

“You’re all too soft…” he muttered as he went back to staring at the map.

In the area known as Sector J of the UN headquarters, the unknown strike team quickly ran through the underground halls. All of them wore cotton face masks for winter over their faces keeping their identities a secret.

A man out ahead of the team rushed ahead to the intersection of the hall. He disappeared in a blur as cries of pain followed him. Returning to the visibility of the team, he loosely painted himself in blood. “This is the point. According to the info, this is where we split up, boys! We’ve got ten minutes before they drop hell upon us! So run like the devil’s chasing you!”

Taking his team, he sprinted at full speed through the halls turning and jumping just to make things faster. Cracks and dents remained behind him as they were not built to take such stress. They made it to their destination with only thirty seconds. “Really does look like a bank vault. You’re up!” He ordered, as he backed away from massive steel door.

An unassumingly small figure appeared in front of the gate. It more than doubled their height alone making them look even smaller than normal. They stared at the polished surface for a moment and then started looking around it. After their quick examination, they lifted up the bottom part of their mask to expose their tiny mouth. Licking the steel handle of the large wheel that worked as part of the locking mechanism, a grin came across their face.

Suddenly, their lips drew back exposing razor sharp teeth and bit down on the handle and completely cut through it as though it had been just made out of softened chocolate. They proceeded to chew on the metal and then swallowed it as if it were just a snack.

Returning the mask back in place, they removed their gloves showing hands as polished steel stretched out over their skin completely covering them up. They wound up their arm and rammed it into the vault gate. A few quick strikes left large dents in the previously untarnished surface. It took more effort, but within a minute the small figure had completely cracked the gate. With the seal destroyed, a groan came from them as they pulled on the solid metal pealing it back for access.

With enough room for them to enter and light spilling through, they jumped in fanning out to find who they were looking for inside. The leader of the team walked about the vault that carried ten individuals. It was quick to find whom they sought. But he came to a stop to the one next to who they came for. He read the name plate. “Saki Furukawa…”

To be continued…

[Andromeda]

Taking his team, he sprinted at full speed through the halls turning and jumping just to make things faster. Cracks and dents remained behind him as they were not built to take such stress. They made it to their destination with only thirty seconds. “Really does look like a bank vault. You’re up!” He ordered, as he backed away from massive steel door.

An unassumingly small figure appeared in front of the gate. It more than doubled their height alone making them look even smaller than normal. They stared at the polished surface for a moment and then started looking around it. After their quick examination, they lifted up the bottom part of their mask to expose their tiny mouth. Licking the steel handle of the large wheel that worked as part of the locking mechanism, a grin came across their face.

Suddenly, their lips drew back exposing razor sharp teeth and bit down on the handle and completely cut through it as though it had been just made out of softened chocolate. They proceeded to chew on the metal and then swallowed it as if it were just a snack.

Returning the mask back in place, they removed their gloves showing hands as polished steel stretched out over their skin completely covering them up. They wound up their arm and rammed it into the vault gate. A few quick strikes left large dents in the previously untarnished surface. It took more effort, but within a minute the small figure had completely cracked the gate. With the seal destroyed, a groan came from them as they pulled on the solid metal pealing it back for access.

With enough room for them to enter and light spilling through, they jumped in fanning out to find who they were looking for inside. The leader of the team walked about the vault that carried ten individuals. It was quick to find whom they sought. But he came to a stop to the one next to who they came for. He read the name plate. “Saki Furukawa…”

One of the masked members came up by his side with some curiosity. “Found something boss?” They turned to lean around their leader’s tall figure, but got blocked.

“I told you to stop calling me boss,” he corrected ignoring the question completely. He turned away to face the pod that they had come for. His hand rested on the smooth white painted metal. “I’m only taking over until we get the boss back.” Checking for the signal from the others in the team as they messed around with the equipment, the all clear came.

He gave a gesture to the one on the opposite side of the pod. Their fingers dug into the metal bending it with ease. Unlike the vault gate, this was a weak and thin metal. It took almost no effort to destroy it. In a single motion, they ripped it out of the seating on the pod exposing the individual inside the pod. Their real boss was covered in thin clouds from the sudden change of the sealed environment of the medical pod.

Taking their boss out of the pod and throwing them over his shoulder, he threw out his arm ordering them to the other pods. They quickly made easy work of the other nine pods freeing those held captive by the UN.

The raid’s time started to countdown fast in their efforts to give everyone a fighting chance. Their signal to leave came as a distant rumbling that they recognized. Trouble was on their way and it was early. A full four minutes early, but they had no time to complain about it.

“Our welcome is over stayed, guys! We’re leaving!” their leader ordered carrying their boss with him out of the bank vault. He felt the danger on his heels as they sped through the halls to make a clean escape.

Chapter 369 – Broken Defense

“Sir, the reports are coming in that the enemy is retreating.”

Evans glared annoyed at the monitor, still running off back-ups until the engineers restored power. He watched the updates come across the map making very clear to him what happened. Everyone was worthless. And the most worthless of them all just walked in. “Can’t sleep, Shigemitsu?”

Unfazed by the General’s annoyed barb, Shigemitsu walked over next to him looking at the map to see what the situation was. “It’s a long walk from my office when the elevators are down.” Focusing over to the red marks on the scene to denote the attack points, he picked up on things quickly. “The containment cell was their target. I thought you kept the locations a secret, General.”

Crossing his arms not liking the accusation, Evans did not bother looking at the annoying man. “Limited UN personnel know of any of the cell locations, even less know about Alpha.” He already knew that he had a great distaste for the man, a business and a shrewd one that knowingly carrying superiority and confidence over all of them. ‘Our reliance on their technology might come back to destroy everything that we’re working for, but we don’t have a choice if we are to have peace. But I don’t have time for this snake. We’ve got ten escaped B Ranked or higher criminals and a leak to find.’ The General’s morning started early.

Far north of the UN base and out into the free stretches of the city, the mask team arrived at their destination. A large abandoned apartment complex stood in front of them. Such a place came a little off for such a band of rogues and ruffians. Knocking on the service door, they were greeted by four rough looking individuals that seemed to have no connections to each other.

Through the halls, they carried their objectives with them into a large back room on the ground floor of the complex. It used to be the staff room where the owner would meet with the employees or the day’s schedules were handed out. Now, it had a makeshift fill of tables, supplies and cots or blankets. People quickly rushed to aid the rescuers with those that they freed.

The leader was met by several happy faces to see that he was successful. However, not everyone was as happy. It was difficult for everyone. It might have been a successful raid, but it came at a price and even worse. Those that they rescued were not who they hoped for. Not a perfect rescue, but they just had to make do with it.

It was some time before Saki came to and found herself in unfamiliar surroundings. She had children as well as teenagers hovering around her. As her eyes readjusted to everything, she saw adults further back. It was hard to get a read of what the place that she had found herself in. ‘Not the UN,’ she noted to herself as the only obvious point. Seeing what she was made her think that Hiroshi did something stupid and rescued her, but he would have been around or Yuki. But there was no one that she knew around her. It was a strange place.

“Hey Miss!” spoke one kid, leaning in to her bed side.

“Are you a bad person?” a girl asked.

“Bad person?” she answered back in an echo. It seemed like a strange question, but also an accurate one. She could not answer it as honestly as she would have done so in an immediate gut reaction to such a question. It made her think about things that she need full faced.

“They said you were with the others where they hold really bad people.”

“Huh?” Saki still tried to get caught up on everything that happened. The last thing she remembered was going into the pod and seeing Masayuki’s frustrated face. Everything else was a blank.

A couple of women came over along with a man to pick up the children, that seemed to be their parents. “We’re sorry, they didn’t mean anything by it.”

“It’s fine. It’s understandable.”

“So you are a bad person?”

“Sakura!”

“I guess that would depend on who you ask,” she replied finally. The girl looked a little confused and bothered by the answer. It was not the sort of answer that she wanted. She seemed to want something simpler, but such things were never so simple. Saki knew that too well. What she did could be written any number of ways to suit whom ever needed a message.

“The mystery girl’s awake!” an unknown voice shot across the room at Saki. When she turned to face the voice, she found a young man with a couple of scars on his face, that looked recent, that otherwise held a handsome appearance. His shaggy dark brown hair kept him from looking like he might have been too rigid. He was older than her, probably college age if she had to guess.

Turning out of the blanket to get her feet moving, she staggered a bit to get her balance. Her body felt unusually weak even though she did not feel in pain or fatigued. It was a strange feeling.

“Careful, pod sleep knocks it out of ya!” he cautioned as he tried to help her to her feet.

Saki stubbornly refused the help and found her own footing. Her head felt a little loopy still, but she could walk at least. “Where am I?”

“A stubborn one, considering where we found you I guess that makes sense.” Saki glared at him not wanting light banter when she asked questions. A bit of sweat dripped down his face seeing how much of a presence she carried while still being weakened. “Damn woman, if I didn’t know better I’d swear you’d rip off my head.”

“Don’t make me consider it.”

“Yeah, yeah, just my luck that I always find the troublesome ones.” He turned around and motioned with his hand for her to follow him. The strange man escorted her out of the large room and down the hallway.

She found the state of the building to be in surprisingly good repair considering the state of the city. ‘Are they actually keeping this place running? Figured that they were just squatters, but maybe that’s not the case… Everyone just sort of seemed to stop caring after things went to hell…’ It made her even more curious who it was that was running the show here. The sights of children and adults with no connections to the rougher looking people in the room made her think more of Hiroshi. ‘I guess it shouldn’t be that much of a surprise that people would band together, especially with the UN. What Hiroshi did probably isn’t that unusual.’

Taking the elevator, they rode up to the top floor of the complex. She still could not see outside to know where in the city she might have been. The hallway only went through the inside of the building. But once she made it to a room, as she expected them to be going, she should start to know where they were.

Stopping at room 1609, the man opened the door for Saki. A large apartment, a single room was bigger than the entire apartment her family lives in, spread out before her. Knowing the situation, she knew that they did not rent the room. Though she wondered if the original residents still lived in the building or not. It was very empty as though no one lived in the room. But there was still furniture and on the couch sat several different individuals all with expressions that she knew too well. They were leaders.

“Yo, brought the girl!”

Saki immediately received the attention of the entire room. Whatever conversation that she interrupted no longer seemed to matter. Though she did wonder what they were planning. She had a lot of questions. “Who are all of you?” It ended up being a coin toss which question she picked first. They all seemed important.

A woman’s voice from out of the room broke through to answer Saki’s question. “The North Byakko Alliance.”

Seeking out the voice, she could not find who it came from just yet. The stranger wanted to stay out of sight. Though something else bothered her as well. “Byakko? Shouldn’t it be Genbu?”

The unseen woman laughed loudly through the room. She seemed to find Saki’s retort very entertaining as she could not stop laughing for nearly a minute. Everyone else in the room looked a little bothered by the whole thing. But then the door to the room creaked open as the woman made her appearance. “I like your spirit!” she barked, revealing herself to be a very tall, thin yet fit woman. She wore a simple white hiyoku, the under-kimono, which gave her a very simple appearance to conflict directly with her wild eyes and aura that she bleed. Saki could tell that this woman was the one that was the real leader of everyone. She carried herself in a way that none of the others did.

Staring at Saki for a moment, the woman grinned widely revealing a bit of her teeth in her excitement. “I like you. There’s a good fire in yer belly.”

“Eh?” She really did not understand what was going on anymore. Giving a name did not really answer much of anything to her situation. Everything remained clueless for her. But the woman invited her further into the room.

Taking up a stance by the windows, the boisterous woman faced everyone and Saki directing her words to Saki most importantly. “We fight against the UN and would like for you to join us!”

To be continued…

[Andromeda]

The unseen woman laughed loudly through the room. She seemed to find Saki’s retort very entertaining as she could not stop laughing for nearly a minute. Everyone else in the room looked a little bothered by the whole thing. But then the door to the room creaked open as the woman made her appearance. “I like your spirit!” she barked, revealing herself to be a very tall, thin yet fit woman. She wore a simple white hiyoku, the under-kimono, which gave her a very simple appearance to conflict directly with her wild eyes and aura that she bleed. Saki could tell that this woman was the one that was the real leader of everyone. She carried herself in a way that none of the others did.

Staring at Saki for a moment, the woman grinned widely revealing a bit of her teeth in her excitement. “I like you. There’s a good fire in yer belly.”

“Eh?” She really did not understand what was going on anymore. Giving a name did not really answer much of anything to her situation. Everything remained clueless for her. But the woman invited her further into the room.

Taking up a stance by the windows, the boisterous woman faced everyone and Saki directing her words to Saki most importantly. “We fight against the UN and would like for you to join us!”

“Fight against the UN?” she questioned a loud and internally. It should not have really surprised her that much. Given what she knew about the situation, there would undoubtedly be people that would be trying to resist what the UN was doing. ‘Were these the people that we saw fighting the UN when we arrived?’

“You were arrested by them as well.”

Which was true. But explaining things to them was going to be difficult. She could not tell them everything that happened. She did not know how they would react to all of it. Especially with what she setup before she left. “It’s a little more complicated than that.”

None of that seemed to deter the woman. She remained as confident and high energy as the moment she stepped into the room. Watching the woman reminded her a lot of Seiji’s unfounded confidence. Though she had a different breed that Seiji lacked. She actually seemed to have some experience and thought behind what made up her presence, unlike him. ‘What have I gotten myself into now? This isn’t the way things were supposed to play out.’

She still did not understand the situation very well. The people were unknowns to her and she had no clue to where she might be anymore. All she knew was that she was in the city still. But that did not really give her a lot to go on. She was going to have to adapt and deal with the hand played to her. “There’s still a lot that don’t understand or who you are. You can’t be expecting me to make a blind decision.” Getting answers was going to be the best place to start, she could drag them along for a while to learn what was going on while still have their good graces. Giving their interest in her, it seemed the best chance to take advantage of until she felt normal again.

The woman stepped out from her spot to approach Saki. “Of course! You’ll need to see who you’re joining.”

‘She’s really confident.’

“We still know nothing about her,” one of the other leaders of the alliance objected.

Saki glanced over at the man. Much like the two that she had already spoke with, he did not look much older than the rest. The whole group gathered had the roughly same age range, as best as she could tell. They were college age or marginally older. All a bunch of a gang leaders by the way she could figure, but she was just making a guess.

“She’s fine.”

“How can you be so sure?!”

“I knew the moment I saw her eyes. She’s no enemy.”

She could not help but feel that the woman acted the cliché. If Yuki was present he would be so excited to see someone that fit a little too well into his dreams. Being such a person made it easier for Saki, since she knew that she did not have to deal with as many trust issues. Though the rest of the group clearly had their reservations about her loyalties.

Fixing her presence to heighten her already overwhelming aura across all of the leaders, the woman made her decision final. “She will be my guest. That will be the end of it. You’ve got more important matters to deal with now since you decided to rescue me in the fool’s errand.” Turning away and walking towards the door, she took Saki along with her.

The room immediately went cold from her words. She could feel that the woman was thankful for the rescue, but also angered by their actions. ‘There’s a lot more going on than I realized. What happened in the rescue?’

Any questions she had to gain from how things played out between the other leaders vanished with being dragged out into the hall. She would have to seek the answers from the strange woman instead. But answers did not start immediately. Saki followed her into another room down the hall of the apartment complex.

Once the door closed behind Saki, the aura in the room flipped on its head. The woman stood before her with her arms crossed. “So who are you?” The almost blindly trusting woman Saki saw before disappeared. She bore a strong presence of menace and determination, but not one that was evil. Something very familiar came off of her.

Saki suddenly realized what sort of person that she was dealing with. Such a person made things more difficult for her. Things would only get complicated now.

Chapter 370 – Broken People

“That’s a rather open ended question.”

“Don’t bullshit me, girl! What I told them was for their sake, but I want some answers out of you.” The woman became very serious losing all of her high spirits that she showed off in the other room. This seemed to be the real person. And the reason that they all followed and obeyed her. This was the person that they feared.

‘I’m going to have to correct my assumptions about her. She’s not like Seiji at all. She’s doing what is needed to keep the moral up while dealing with threats personally. She keeping them all safe from the dangers.’ Saki did not know how she was going to deal with such a woman. On top of playing her and effortlessly wielding the others, trying to lie and talk her way out of the situation looked to be more challenging by the moment. She even wondered if the request they made was real. “This isn’t about me joining your group.”

“The topic is one you right now. You’re not getting out of this until I get some answers from you.”

Cornered, Saki did not know what she was going to do anymore. She had no clue what the woman wanted from her. If it was going to be about whether or not she was an enemy that was not an easily answered question. Because how could she prove to this woman that she was not an enemy. She had no proof. The suspicion that the other leaders showed and that she did now were all warranted fears. She did not even know why they rescued her anyway. “If you think I’m a threat why’d you even bother getting me out of there?”

“It wasn’t my call. But I’m making sure that doing so won’t be a mistake.”

“I was arrested like you by the UN. Why do you even think I’m a threat?”

“You were found in the same room as me. That room is the one where they only put people that they view as the greatest threats. You weren’t in there for no reason. So who are you?”

“Saying that I’m no threat to you isn’t going to be enough is it?” The woman did not have to say anything to Saki. She had dragged things out far enough for her liking. There was no more room left for Saki to jump and dodge around the subject. “And what do you think I am?”

“I find it unlikely, but you could be a spy for the UN given our circumstances. It’s however more likely you’ve done something to be considered a threat by the UN. And what sort of threat that is I want to know. We all have powers, but it’s not the powers that make someone good or evil. It is the person and the powers just give them more ability to do execute their intent. What are you?”

“I’m not evil, if that’s what you’re asking. Not that is going to be very convincing.” She was a much more complicated individual the longer that she listened to the woman. Such a person Saki found to be better for her now. She needed to understand more about the woman to get a gauge on what she could say. But she felt now that the woman would be able to understand Saki’s feeling.

Nodding to Saki, she agreed that she needed more from her. “That’s right. Words are meaningless without something to back them up.”

“Right. Well I don’t know how much the UN considers me a threat, but they planned on executing me. I gave them good enough reasons to make the excuse to use me in their political maneuverings to be able to show that they are actually being successful in their operations here.”

“They’ve never executed anyone since they came. They’ve just been arresting people and putting them to sleep. What exactly did you do to give them a reason?”

“I said I killed someone.” It was the moment of truth for Saki. However, she did not really have that much hesitation in saying it. Everything that she saw from the woman told her that things would be fine. She was not certain on the reaction that she would get, but there was no doubt that this was not going to be the end.

The woman stepped forward as though there was a new to whisper. “Who are you covering for?”

Saki grinned seeing that her read was correct. She understood like she expected. “A friend. There was more that he could do with his life to help the city than I could with just my fists.”

Throwing an arm around Saki, the woman dragged her over to the balcony. “I was right about you then.” Stretched out before them was the city that they both wanted to protected. At such a height, it had a different look than normal. The signs of it being a post-apocalypse scene made it even easier to see. Up close the city still looked new and maintained despite all of the green that filled out. Yet from the sky, the green was almost all that could be seen. The lack of normal city life helped to make it seem like the city had long been abandoned by humanity and nature returned. Even with nature overrunning their home, it was still something that they wanted to protect.

“Were you testing me?” It seemed a little strange that she just accepted that story without anything else. She was questioning her and doubting her with valid distrust before. Now it was back to the way she was before.

“Not so much that. I could tell there was something special about you, but being captured by the UN and in their special room for people like us I had to know what the story was. There can be no trust without understanding.”

“You’re a very unusual person.”

“I get that a lot.” She turned to face Saki with the interrogation over. “I’m Ayano Hirasi, leader of the North Byakko Alliance.”

“Saki Furukawa, high school girl.”

Ayano stretched a hand to officially greet Saki into her home. “Good to be working with you, Saki.”


“I think you’re getting ahead of yourself. I haven’t agreed to join your group. I don’t even know what’s going on.”

Looking over at the door, she already seemed to have plans in mind for Saki. “Then I guess we’ll have to fix that.”

“There’s that confidence again. You’ve got no doubt that I’ll join your group.”

“Of course not! You’re not the sort that would give up or turn your back of people. We aren’t the aggressive and war-like people you might think we are.”

She had some doubts about that, especially giving how they invited her. An arched brow opened her suspicions before she spoke, “You said you’re fighting the UN.”

“Fighting is not a singular sort of method. There are a lot of ways to fight. Come I’ll show you what I mean.”

Across the city at the center, the UN headquarters started to return to normal operations. The power had long been restored, but the damage done was still being repaired. And meetings knew no end when the eyes of the world watched with careful and judging stares.

The end of another meeting left General Evans alone with Shigemitsu. The General glared at the Japanese businessman trying to impress upon him the seriousness of the situation, that the man failed to understand. “Mr. Shigemitsu, we’re going to need your company to increase their focus on developing stronger containment cells.”

“Is that right?”

“Don’t play dumb with me. The reports for criminal Furukawa clearly stated that they were not completely effective against her and she wasn’t the first either. All of the criminals in there were all resistant. We’re discovering more powerful of these Empowered people and your technology needs to keep up.”

Bowing the General, he showed some hint of apologies. “I promise you that we’re working around the clock on improving the technology. But it’s not an easy process. We’re going to need more out of our arrangement.”

“I’ve already received approval from the committee. You’ll have the full support to make sure you have everything you need.”

“I’m very pleased to hear that. This will greatly enhance our work to finally find a permanent solution.” He started to walk away having gotten what he needed from the General. However, he came to a stop and looked back. “And what of the escaped criminals?”

“They’re being hunted down now. All of them have been put on the Most Wanted List.”

“Putting bounties on their heads.”

“Mr. Shigemitsu, we’re civilized people. We don’t resort to such barbarian methods.”

“Of course, General. I meant no offense. Good day.”

To be continued…

[Andromeda]

Ayano stretched a hand to officially greet Saki into her home. “Good to be working with you, Saki.”


“I think you’re getting ahead of yourself. I haven’t agreed to join your group. I don’t even know what’s going on.”

Looking over at the door, she already seemed to have plans in mind for Saki. “Then I guess we’ll have to fix that.”

“There’s that confidence again. You’ve got no doubt that I’ll join your group.”

“Of course not! You’re not the sort that would give up or turn your back of people. We aren’t the aggressive and war-like people you might think we are.”

She had some doubts about that, especially giving how they invited her. An arched brow opened her suspicions before she spoke, “You said you’re fighting the UN.”

“Fighting is not a singular sort of method. There are a lot of ways to fight. Come I’ll show you want I mean.”

Hearing such things from Ayano gave her a bit of a relief. She still hesitated greatly on what sort of people that they were. Even the best intentions could still lead to the worse outcomes. And she was not about to judge the whole group just off of Ayano. She still wanted to know what they wanted to do as an end goal. Resisting or fighting, whatever it was against the UN was merely the first step. A difficult and lengthy one that would not be settled in any reasonable sort of time, but there had to be plans after.

Saki followed the woman out of the room. It still surprised her to see that the whole group lived in the apartment. They had a very different arrangement than Hiroshi’s group. However, he had the benefit of having someone with a very unique skill set. They had no such thing. They had no clue to what happened, who caused or why. They made had to do things on their own and she could be impressed by that.

Ayano clicked the elevator button, giving them a few moments to wait. Saki doubt that the apartment was so busy as the wait would be long. However, it did give her the perfect chance to ask. “What’s with all of this? You don’t just come by something like this.”

Leaning against the wall, she looked back down the hall. “A little bit of luck and good opportunity.”

“That’s not really an answer.” She wondered if she did not want to explain something that might have a less than shining example of who they are. There were several different ideas that went through her head on how they did. Some of them were less than ideal.

“It’s nothing like what you’re thinking. We didn’t kick out the people living here. Quite the opposite, we were invited.”

“Invited?” The elevator door opened with a clear chime. They entered together and Ayano set the elevator for the eighth floor. Saki wondered what Ayano wanted to show her. She already got a small taste of their situation when she woke up.

Crossing her arms, the serious Ayano remained in the conversation. “The owner of this apartment complex invited us. He wanted protection.”

“Against the UN?”

“That’s right.” The climes of the elevator moving down ticked off. Ayano remained silent for some reason waiting until the door opened. The hall looked no different than any of the other halls Saki had seen thus far.

All of that changed though as they walked around a loop in the hall. Things suddenly opened up into a large central shaft going through the center. Judging from the shape and size, it was a cylindrical building that stretched from the ground to the height of the apartment and connected out to the other buildings in the complex. Glass and metal railings closed in each of the floors as elevators ran up and down the wide open space. Around the lower floors shops could be seen open and busy.

Everywhere Saki looked there were people moving around talking and looking like they had normal lives. Things seemed to not be affected at all by the outside world. This was the way that she remembered things being before all of the hell came raining down. It made her smile a little to see that there was still something of the old world held on within the chaos.

Ayano leaned against the railing looking down at the people milling around. The thick sounds of a crowd with people’s voices filled the whole building. A seemingly forgotten, yet simple noise made such a difference. “Starting to understand a little what we’re fighting for?”

Chapter 371 – Broken Ties

Saki stared out at the people lost in the entrancing sounds that she had surprised herself to have already forgotten. It was familiar and yet foreign. In the world that they lived in now such a thing should not have existed, yet it did. It almost made her want to cry. “…yes…”

They stayed watching life pass by for more time than they could remember before Ayano started to move again. Saki pulled herself away and walked along side of her. “It wasn’t always like this. We put a lot of work to get things this is point.”

“How did all of this happen? I didn’t think there were places like this.”

“There might not be others like this or there may be a lot. It’s hard to know. It all started when the UN forces arrived.” Ayano guided them up stairs to reach the tenth floor of the central building. Windows gave a good look out on the city. She pointed out with her hand to a location in the city. “My group is from there. The Black Taiga Gang.”

‘Mixing English and Japanese? She trying to sound cool or something?’

“I put together the gang back when I was in high school. We were just a bunch of delinquents that wanted to rule the school and silly childish stuff like that. In reality, we just hung out and did very little that actually resembled anything that you might think a real gang would do. We just hated school and blew it off.”

Saki could not help by sweat a little at hearing her story. Given the intimidating presence that the woman carried with her, such an origin story did not really seem to fit with the image. How did they end up like they were now? The way they looked did not look like a bunch of pretenders. “How did you—“

“Become what we are now?” she finished for Saki. Ayano’s hand pressed against the glass. “That’s a bit more complicated for a simple story. The short version of it is that we crossed the wrong path one day and got our faces punched in. Things changed that day and we stopped being children and had to become adults. And our goal changed. We stopped being about goofing off and screwing about.” She turned to face Saki wanting to see her face. “Why do you do what you do?”

“To protect those I love,” she stated without any hesitation.

“Exactly.” It was what she expected to see out of Saki’s eyes. The same that she knew she saw before. The boundless determination to see the course. She leaned back against the window. “From then on out, we started a getting into fights and wars. It was endless, but important to us. These guys you saw upstairs, they’re the leaders of all of the gangs in the areas our enemies until two months ago.”

“The UN?”

“Yes. Things had become worse and that’s when they came.”

“Worse?” Saki had a slight idea of what she might be implying, but asked anyway to be sure. She expected the answer to be a common one that she would find wherever she went.

Gesturing with her hand, she directed Saki to look out at the city again. With a more directed view, she saw Ayano pointed at some ruined buildings. It had nothing on what she saw in her neighborhood from Takako’s efforts, but it was still familiar. “Once people started to discover that they had abilities the gang wars went out of control. None of us could stop the violence from escalating and it only seemed to bring out even stronger powers, the desperation. That was when the UN came under the banner of peace. We were just criminals in their eyes and given what we were doing they’re probably right.”

A sigh came out of Ayano’s lips, a surprising expression that Saki did not expect. One that hinted at the weight of what she bore. Something that was very familiar. “It became a rallying point for everyone. No one wanted the UN here taking away people because they were afraid of us. Just showing off our powers was enough to be deemed a threat to peace.”

“I didn’t know it was so bad…”

“Rather than allow those that ran to the UN to support them pick all of us off, we banded together. I made the first move forced to crush a couple of the gangs in the process. But I was able to get the rest of the gangs in the area to pay attention to me long enough to form this alliance. We are the frontline in the north. We don’t allow any of their patrols in our area.”

Saki questioned her immediately once she said that. It did not fit with the rest of what she wanted to claim. “I thought you said that you don’t fight.”

“We do when we have to, but we aren’t fighting them at our borders. No, thanks to the abilities of a few our people, we’ve created a defense barrier that keeps them from entering. They’ve tried to use their special teams to break the barrier, but so far they haven’t been successful. But we don’t know how long it will last. One thing that we’ve all noticed, the powers we have are still growing. They are evolving and getting stronger. But not everyone advances at the same pace. We can’t be certain that we’ll be able to keep up since the groups the UN has are constantly fighting and improving. Eventually, we will be forced to fight again. They mostly ignore us since we’ve cut ourselves off. But it won’t last.”

“If you’re protected here, how did any of you get captured?”

Slumping a little in her lean, Ayano did not seem to want to recall it. “I made a mistake. I thought since we had established ourselves as a force to be respected that the UN would actually honor that. So I went to negotiate with them for peaceful terms. We’re running out of supplies quickly and needed aid or assurances while we’re gathering. But they betrayed our trust and it was just a trap to capture as many of our leaders as possible.”

Hearing such a story made her fists tighten up. Saki knew that they were not all like that. Masayuki was different. But Masayuki also was not the one in command of the UN. Other people were, like the one she met at her sentencing. Things were not going to be so simple. “It didn’t cross your mind that it was a trap?”

“I sort of expected it to be one, but I hoped that they were being genuine. I needed them to be if we were going to find some sort of peace in all of this. So I was captured and unfortunately know that there won’t be any peace with the UN for as long as those men see us as monsters. They didn’t even see me as a human anymore when I was at the table. We see these sorts of things all the time in books and movies, but you think people would be different in reality, but they’re not. If anything, they’re crueler than fiction.”

Her words weighed heavy on Saki’s shoulders. She understood that very well. The reality that she already faced was not one that she would wish upon anyone and that was without any sort of meeting with the UN. Her time before them was all too brief to get any real sense. But she had to agreed with Ayano that they did not seem be willing to see them human beings anymore. It was a difficult situation to be in.

Even more difficult now that Ayano explained things to her. She could sympathize with her and the troubles that her people went through. But it was a story that was not going to be unique to Ayano. It was something everyone in Japan was dealing with. It should have made things simple for Saki, but she was still human and had emotions like anyone else. She did not want to leave these people not knowing when their peace would be shattered.

“And that’s the story. You seem like someone that is driven and motivated. You could help a lot of people by joining us.”

“Yes, I know…” She looked out at the city once more. It made her think of the sacrifice that she made for her friends. She did what she could to protect them and keep them above the dirt. Yet now that she was rescued she did not know what to do. ‘Is my original plan even worth it anymore? Would going back mean anything? I did it all just to keep the UN off them. Is this my second chance?’ Saki did not expect to find herself in such a position. She thought things were over. Yet now she was being told that the road still have further to go.

While she thought about things she did fear something. “Do you know how the UN has reacted to you rescuing me?”

“The raid? They haven’t really done anything yet. They’re still recovering from the attack, but I’m going to guess we’re going to be under attack soon because of it. There’s no doubt that they know it was us.”

‘So they’re safe. But these people aren’t. Damn…this isn’t a good situation either way. What do I do?’ Saki’s mind turned with ideas and doubt. Things quickly flew through her head as she trying to find an answer. Something that would fix things. “How long will the barrier last?”

Ayano scratched the side of her face in thought. “We don’t know. It’s held so far against them, but they’ve got powerful people on their side. It’s only a matter of time.”

“But it’ll hold for a bit.”

“Yeah.”

It came to her. The things that she set in motion already. Things would have to be accelerated but they might work. “I’ve got a plan.”

To be continued…

[Andromeda]

While she thought about things she did fear something. “Do you know how the UN has reacted to you rescuing me?”

“The raid? They haven’t really done anything yet. They’re still recovering from the attack, but I’m going to guess we’re going to be under attack soon because of it. There’s no doubt that they know it was us.”

‘So they’re safe. But these people aren’t. Damn…this isn’t a good situation either way. What do I do?’ Saki’s mind turned with ideas and doubt. Things quickly flew through her head as she trying to find an answer. Something that would fix things. “How long will the barrier last?”

Ayano scratched the side of her face in thought. “We don’t know. It’s held so far against them, but they’ve got powerful people on their side. It’s only a matter of time.”

“But it’ll hold for a bit.”

“Yeah.”

It came to her. The things that she set in motion already. Things would have to be accelerated but they might work. “I’ve got a plan.”

Ayano grinned widely seeing the gears turning in Saki’s head. It gave her exactly what she wanted. Things could start taking the course that she wanted. She did not even think about how much Saki would actually change their fate. Recruiting Saki was the only goal and that had succeeded in her mind. “Welcome on board!”

Saki tilted her head over to Ayano holding back a lot of her surprise and armed more with sobering reality. “You’re getting ahead of yourself. I didn’t say anything about joining your gang. I just said I have a plan.”

“A plan to help us.”

“Well, yes, but that’s not the same thing as joining you.”

“Close enough,” she shot back without skipping a beat. Nothing looked to faze Ayano in Saki attempts to clarify her position. It was going to be a no win situation. No amount of words changed her mind. Saki could only sigh. “You don’t have to be wearing our jackets to be on the team. Everyone has different ways that they help and work together.”

Looking back at the center of the building, Saki thought about everyone moving about trying to live out their normal lives. She realized the sort of thing that Ayano had going. It already seemed apparent. She understood before. But there were no words that formed before. She had the words for it now. Saki could understand the sort of group that Ayano wanted. ‘I think this could actually work…’

Chapter 372 – Broken Plans

Standing outside of the building, Ayano and her man saw Saki out. He had a bit of an annoyed look on his face still not accepting everything. But Ayano slapped him in the back of the head to get that off his face. “Good luck.”

Saki readjusted the windbreaker once more getting it to rest better on her shoulders. It covered up much of her new cloths that she picked up from the mall inside. She fit well enough with her shorts and a loose t-shirt with a generic looking logo or text saying “Rise”. “This is going to take some time to put together.”

“We’ll hold out until you can make it work.”

“I’m sure you will.” Saki turned around at started walking away. New plans went into play now. She had to put more pieces into play than she wanted. ‘I’d imagine that Yuki could do this better than me. But this is the only thing I can think of doing.’

Nobuyuki glanced over at Ayano returning to his disapproving expression. “Are you sure about this?”

“You rescued her. And you’re asking me that?”

“Well she was captured like everyone else. I couldn’t leave people in their hands.”

“Then don’t worry about it. She’s someone that we can trust. Besides, we’ve got bigger problems to deal with right now.” She spun around and started going back into the apartment. “Rescuing all of those men that you spent on rescuing me.”

“She could have helped us.”

“She probably would, but she’s got bigger things to do.” Ayano walked briskly forward moving to the elevator. He wanted more of an answer from her, but she did not give him one. Everyone has family, she was not about to keep the girl from her family. That was not who they were.

A ding preceded the elevator opening to grant them travel. Ayano stepped in and punching in the floor. “We’ve got a family to put back together. That is our mission.”

The trek back to familiar territory went mostly uneventful for Saki. She had to deal with a couple of rampaging monsters that came about from Yuki’s changes. All the fighting with humans made her forget that there were sometimes dark things that crawled around their city. But after all that she saw, it was hard to say that they were worst the city had to offer anymore. Like always as the cliché went, that was reserved for humans.

When she came upon Phoibe’s place a bit of awkwardness flowed over Saki. This was not the sort of plan that she had in mind. She knew that they would be happy to see her. But after her parting, she wondered how difficult it was going to be. She tried to find the words that she was going to use. Yet she was not granted such a luxury.

Hana stepped out of the door as though she knew that Saki was there, probably because she actually did know. “Miss Saki, you’re back! Everyone’s inside talking about you.” She immediately reached out to guide her inside by the arm.

“Wait, Hana, I-I…” Saki did not want things to play out like this at all. This was not the way she had it pictured.

“Miss? What’s wrong?”

“I’m not prepared yet…mentally for this.”

Hana simply smiled at Saki and pulled on her more. “That’s fine, they’re your friends.” It proved hard for Saki argue with her overly simplistic outlook on the situation. Saki easily got dragged along inside and to the back of the first floor.

Before she knew it, Hana had tossed her into the stairwell that she did not even know existed in the building left with very little recourse. She stared back at Hana unable to look at the stairs. All she got from Hana was a surprisingly stern looking stare hidden behind the happy cheerful smile that disguised her intent. Saki looked back at the stairs that went up to where she expected all of them to be.

She was not prepared when she took the first step or the tenth step. That was not going to change anything. Though in a way, she could thank Hana for forcing the matter. She was not sure if she would have gone in so easily without being forcibly dragged around. Though she still did not want to see them just yet. No other option remained though. The fact of the matter was more than before she needed to see them. Things had become more complicated than she had ever planned them to get. ‘How did I get myself stuck in the center of all of this?’ It seemed so unlike her. She worked behind the scenes, not up front. That was the original plan. Things were not supposed to rely on her. She was supposed to be easily interchangeable. Yet not anymore.

What had her life become now?

At the top of the stairs, she found herself on the third floor where she had never been before. Though admittedly, she had never been anywhere but the first floor. The last time she came to this place was before everything turned to hell and things were normal. They were customers. Now it was something much different.

Touching the handle to the door, she could hear through the walls their voices thanks to her enhancements. It was Seiji arguing with Hiroshi. Things almost seemed normal from what she heard.

“Like I’d told you yesterday and the day before and the fifty other times you’ve brought it up, no! We can’t be storming their gates to rescue Saki.”

“Then come up with a plan!”

“What do you think I’ve been doing?!”

“Yuki could wake up any day and we still don’t have a plan that won’t involve blowing up the whole place, which you disagree!”

“You can’t be so blind and ignorant to the way the world works to actually think that anything that involves storming the front gates of the UN will do anything but make the situation worse do you?”

“I don’t care how dumb you think it is! Saki’s not staying there!”

“I don’t want to have her arrested either, but we can’t be stupid about this!”

“Sorry, but there’s someone stupider than Seiji out there that already beat you to the punch,” interjected Saki to end their fighting. She stood in the threshold of the room trying to keep from looking very awkward.

Everyone gathered around a table suddenly stopped what they were doing and stared at the entrance not expecting to see who they found there. But while everyone was stunned and dropping their jaws on the floor, Seiji beat them all to the punch. “Saki!” He bolted to the door grabbing her up roughly checking to see that she was real. “It’s you!”

“Yes, I’m really here.” She hardly expected to get any sort of hug of welcoming from Seiji after everything that she said to him in the past. Yet it also just sort of made sense. None of that really bothered him. He just seemed to know.

While Seiji was showing how happy everyone felt seeing her, Hiroshi approached with the more important and obvious question. “What are you doing here?”

Seiji barely even seemed to care about what he was doing to Saki at the moment as he joined in on the questioning. “Yeah, what the hell, Saki!? If you were planning on escaping yourselves why’d you make all of us worry.”

“I didn’t plan any of that. Things just sort of happened. If you let me go, I’ll explain the situation. Things have become much more complicated.”

Gathered around the table and room, Seiji, Hiroshi, Tatsuya, Yori, Nerine all gathered. They all sat in silence taking in Saki’s story and waited until the end.

“I can’t believe how completely reckless they are,” Yori said as the first person to the punch with Saki’s story concluded. He stepped up away from the table and looked back over at the curtain where his sister continued to sleep. Only Saki’s reappearance was enough to drag him away from her side. “Don’t they understand what this will mean? They’re going to be hunted and give the UN even more justification to press down on anyone with powers.”

Saki agreed with Yori’s assessment. It was the same thing that she feared. “That’s why we need to do everything we can to get out ahead of this situation.”

“And what do you think any of us can do?”

“Not us.” She focused over on Hiroshi. Saki leaned on the table putting all of the attention on him now. “It’s going to be you. This had to come from someone that’s still clean.”

Everyone looked a little puzzled at Saki and Hiroshi trying to figure out what was going on. But Hiroshi seemed to understand. He had plenty of time to think about it since Saki left. “What you left for me.”

“That’s right. Only you can do this.”

“You’re asking for something really dangerous that we don’t even know will work out.”

“If we do nothing, we know exactly how things will play out. This way we at least don’t know the course. It may work, it may not, but it’s better than knowing for certain that things are going south.”

“Saki…I’m just a high school student.”

“None of us are students anymore. It’s time for us to be the adults if we plan on working with adults. You know how bad things will get if we do nothing.”

“Yes…that’s what I’m afraid of. But I don’t know if this will work.”

“It’s our only chance. It’s what Yuki would want.”

They all looked back to where Yuki rested. It was something that they both knew was the course he would take. The hard course and the impossible course. The one that no one would want to take because it would never possible have a chance of working.

He would do it.

There was no doubt in the minds about that.

Hiroshi sighed aloud as a sign that he had resigned himself to the course. “I have a promise to protect this neighborhood and this is going to be best way to maintain the peace. I’ll do it. But this isn’t going to be something that’s going to get results over night, Saki.”

“I know, this is the long game. The big gamble.”

“Once Yuki wakes up, we’ll explain things to him.” Hiroshi stood up to go over to where everyone slept. Yuki and Yumi remained the only ones still unconscious, the others simply rested to recover their strength. “He’ll agree with this plan knowing him.”

Saki gathered along side Hiroshi as the others came in. In a way, they all sort of expected Yuki to wake up in the moment as it seemed the right time to return. Everyone was finally back together. But it was in fact, Yumi that surprised everyone by stirring. Yori immediately rushed over to her side. “Yumi, you’re awake!”

Yumi stared at Yori a moment as though she was taking everything in. She then looked at Yori with disinterested eyes. “So, it’s you boy.”

To be continued…

[Andromeda]

“Once Yuki wakes up, we’ll explain things to him.” Hiroshi stood up to go over to where everyone slept. Yuki and Yumi remained the only ones still unconscious, the others simply rested to recover their strength. “He’ll agree with this plan knowing him.”

Saki gathered along side Hiroshi as the others came in. In a way, they all sort of expected Yuki to wake up in the moment as it seemed the right time to return. Everyone was finally back together. But it was in fact, Yumi that surprised everyone by stirring. Yori immediately rushed over to her side. “Yumi, you’re awake!”

Yumi stared at Yori a moment as though she was taking everything in. She then looked at Yori with disinterested eyes. “So, it’s you boy.”

“Yumi?”

“I’m not your sister, boy.”

Yori grabbed onto Yumi’s body nearly shaking her for answers. “Who are you?! Where’s my sister?!” A wild look of desperation filled his eyes as he demanded answers.

Stepping in behind Yori, Saki placed her hand on Yori’s shoulder trying to get his attention. Unfortunately, he was not paying attention to her. She dug her fingers a little into his flesh without drawing up blood. “Shaking your sister won’t get you any answers, Yori.”

He wound up his arm batting away Saki and glaring at everyone. “What you do know?! None of you understand!” Fire seemed to glow in his eyes as something else took him over. A strange manic look painted his face.

While the others back away Saki did not care one bit for his attempt to have a bite. She just wound up her fist and decked him into the floor. Not enough force to completely destroy the building, but it did give it a good shake and jiggle out the dust. And more than enough to put him out cold. Saki looked up at everyone a little shocked at her solution. “You want to listen to him scream at us for an hour before we can get some answers from Yumi?”

Yumi looked up at Saki with a slight change in her expression. “You’ve got an interesting method. And you seem a little more level headed than her brother.”

“So you going to tell us what’s going on then?”

“You don’t seem that surprised by this.”

“I got filled in a little on some of the things that happened back in Atlantis, though we still have no more clear answers to what’s going on than before.”

“It would seem that we have reached a critical threshold.”

Chapter 373 – Broken Mind

Putting the unconscious Yori to bed in Yumi’s bed and moving the conversation back into the main room. The person inside Yumi gathered up everyone. She carried herself very differently than Yumi. The presence that bled off her gave her a commanding and dominant aura that demanded attention. She had confidence and power without even needing to say a word. It all merely came from her stature and eyes. No one could see Yumi in her despite appearances to the contrary.

“So anyone going to explain what’s going on?” Hiroshi asked, being the odd man out along with Tatsuya. He had no clue to what Yumi’s power was or what happened to her. Yet everyone else seemed to be clued into the situation on some level.

Saki took point on the explanation. “Aside from the power that Yumi possesses, she has another latent ability or whatever this might be called. We’re still trying to understand what it is, but there seems to be other minds, people, personalities, whatever inside Yumi besides herself.”

“Other people? Why would Yuki do that to her?”

“He didn’t do it,” corrected Nerine, “Even with his Majesty’s power uncontrolled he never would be able to be selectively give people power. Whatever happened to Miss Mizuno was the same thing as how she got her power. Based off who she is, this is the results of how his Majesty’s law was answered by her.”

Nodding, Yumi agreed with the assessment. “That is correct. We exist as part of Yumi Mizuno.”

Putting the conversation back on the important question, Saki focused on whomever currently controlled Yumi’s body. “In the past, you helped her in fighting, but this isn’t a fight. Why are you still here? Why haven’t you returned Yumi back her body?”

“This is a result of damage wrought by Takako Yamazaki.”

“Takako?”

“The hell she got to do with this?”

“It was a defensive means of protecting her mind. Unlike Yumi, I can handle the effects that Takako left on us.”

“But that still doesn’t answer the question of why you’re still here. Takako’s dead.”

“Yes, but the damage is still done. Yumi is unable to return.”

“What the hell do you mean unable to return?” Seiji started to take on the physical role that Yori carried while awake. Though Saki lifted her arm up to keep him behind her. He looked down at her at the table annoyed that she did not seem more troubled by the words.

“Getting violent isn’t going to do anything to get answers.” Saki focused back on the woman speaking to them. “So we need to get Yumi back then?”

“If that is your desire.”

“Of course it is!”

“Seiji.”

“Then you must find a way to do it.”

Hiroshi still had a little trouble believing the whole situation even with it explained to him. But he caught up as well as he could to everything happening. “The way you’re talking sounds like you’re not going to help us.”

“That’s correct.”

Seiji jumped over the table managing not to hit his head on the ceiling and land behind Yumi. He grabbed her up by the collar of her uniform that she still wore. “What do you mean that you won’t help us?! This involves you as well. You’re going to help or so help me—“

“You’ll what, punch this body until I do?”

Glaring at her, he could not take an action against her. Even with a different person or whatever in Yumi’s body, it was still her body. There was no way that he could do that to her. She had him completely powerless.

Releasing herself from his grip with her telekinesis, she walked over to the door. “You started this problem. So you will find a solution to it.”

“Damn you, do you feel nothing!?”

“It’s not my concern. Show me your worth.”

Hiroshi stood up from the table to get her before she left. “Where are you going? You can’t be wondering around the city!”

“It’s been more than a few centuries since I’ve seen Japan I’d like to see how things turned out.”

“You can’t just leave. We need to solve this!”

“I don’t need to be here for you to find the answer. When you figure it out, the brother will know how to find me.” She opened the door and left just as abruptly as she arrived. The storm that she left behind only furthered stirring the pot that they all stewed in now.

First to yell, Seiji pounded on the table. “So what the hell are we going to do about this?!” No one jumped to an answer or even an uncertain remark. They held their silence not sure what to do. Things went from back to worse and there did not seem to be any slowing in the avalanche. “Silence?! Yumi’s our friend and you’ve got nothing?!”

“Seiji, we still don’t even understand the situation. And how do you expect us to get Yumi back when she’s lost somewhere in her own mind?!”

He had no answer for Saki. No one did. That was why they were all silent. This was beyond their ability to problem solve. They all wanted to save her, but it was not that simple as Seiji said.

They were out of options. Saki had no idea. She might have been her friend and classmate, but she did not know her very well. Not as well as she should have to being calling her a friend. “What about Kaede or Katsumi? Maybe they’ll know something that we don’t.” Unfortunately, the moment that Saki brought them up everyone went silent. She had not seen them in the room since she returned. They came back with the others that much she knew. Yet, it felt like she just stepped into a funeral with how dark the atmosphere suddenly went. “What happened? What’s going on?”

Hiroshi put a hand to rest against the wall for support. He fought with the grimace that tried to carve through his face. There was no avoiding it. “We haven’t had the chance to tell you. It’s best if you just see.”

Jumping out of her seat at the table, Saki felt the depression surrounding her pour through every pore in her body. It froze her down to her bones. “What happened to Yumi’s friends?”

“Follow me. I’ll take you to them.” He opened the door again inviting Saki to come with him. It was not meant to be a secret, just not something easily brought up. In light of the situation with Yumi, it almost seemed fitting that it would be now.

Saki quickly followed Hiroshi leaving the others behind, who seemed unwilling to go with her. She glanced back before she closed the door to see them one more time. It was unnervingly chilly just watching them. The way they looked seemed like they were dead, but she knew that would not be possible. But she still did not know what was going on and Hiroshi left it intentionally mysterious.

Guided down the stairs to the first floor and into the back room, they passed through the large chamber that settled the residents of the neighborhood that still survived. It seemed far fewer people still lived than she remembered from the other base. The thought made her heart ache a little knowing how it happened. It was not even by her hand, but she did not stop it either.

Focusing ahead on Hiroshi, she tried to keep her mind and heart off the matter for now. She had different and bigger problems than her guilt to weigh on a scale. Friends had to be saved.

Across the chamber was a different door that did not match with the rest. It almost seemed like an afterthought or at least not originally planned. Though knowing Phoibe created it all, Saki did not understand why it would not match. But it was a minor point. Beyond the door as she saw was a long hallway with rows of doors.

Then she heard something very familiar that she thought that she had finally forgotten. Screams and cries, the voices of people lost. Immediately her heart jumped speed going three times faster than before. Memories of the hospital where she visited Takako flood her mind. She struggled to keep her balance without missing a step as she walked behind Hiroshi. ‘Why is he taking me here? What’s happened to them?’

Hiroshi then came to a stop at a seemingly random door. Placing his hand on a panel of metal on the door, strange mechanisms shifts and clunked about as metal in the door receded and moved as if it was solving a puzzle on its own. Twenty seconds through the rearrangement of the door it suddenly opened and Hiroshi reluctantly invited Saki into the room.

She hesitated in moving to see inside. Her mind seemed to have already come to conclusions about what she would find. It did not want to see. It did not want to know. But she had to go. There was no way around it. She could not be frozen at this point.

It took a moment to get her legs moving again, but she made it over to the threshold. She still did not see anything, but she was not fully looking around. The room lacked the impersonal nature of what she found in the hospital. Likely since this was created by Phoibe, the woman gave it much more specialized attention. The floor was carpeted with a very soft material that bounced under each step and pictures hung on the walls. Furniture lined the room that would fit naturally as a girl’s bedroom. It almost did not seem to be what Saki expected.

Except that this was not an ordinary girl’s room. On the opposite side of the room behind a strange field of cascading water like surface was Katsumi. She sat balled up in the corner with a blade in her hand digging into her arm yet unable for it to pierce her skin. She mumbled under her breathe repeating the same words over and over again.

“Kill me. Please kill me.”

To be continued…

[Andromeda]

Hiroshi then came to a stop at a seemingly random door. Placing his hand on a panel of metal on the door, strange mechanisms shifts and clunked about as metal in the door receded and moved as if it was solving a puzzle on its own. Twenty seconds through the rearrangement of the door it suddenly opened and Hiroshi reluctantly invited Saki into the room.

She hesitated in moving to see inside. Her mind seemed to have already come to conclusions about what she would find. It did not want to see. It did not want to know. But she had to go. There was no way around it. She could not be frozen at this point.

It took a moment to get her legs moving again, but she made it over to the threshold. She still did not see anything, but she was not fully looking around. The room lacked the impersonal nature of what she found in the hospital. Likely since this was created by Phoibe, the woman gave it much more specialized attention. The floor was carpeted with a very soft material that bounced under each step and pictures hung on the walls. Furniture lined the room that would fit naturally as a girl’s bedroom. It almost did not seem to be what Saki expected.

Except that this was not an ordinary girl’s room. On the opposite side of the room behind a strange field of cascading water like surface was Katsumi. She sat balled up in the corner with a blade in her hand digging into her arm yet unable for it to pierce her skin. She mumbled under her breathe repeating the same words over and over again.

“Kill me. Please kill me.”

Saki felt a freezing chill grip her spine and grow out through her body. It nearly felt like she could see her breath, it was so cold. She knew like the others under Takako’s control that many faced these moral crises. They all saw it that day. Yet there was something deeper about this. She could not explain it, but it was as if a paradox existed in front of her. Everything that she could see made her look sane and normal, albeit extremely depressed and suicidal. Yet she was all completely there. And at the same time there was this tight rope balance of chaos and insanity. It was not there and yet it was. She could not make heads or tails of Katsumi like the others.

Something very different was wrong with her.

“Kaede…” called Hiroshi keeping his distance and voice low. Unfortunately, it was not enough as he hoped. Katsumi noticed him and jumped up fully alert. Behind her the knife remained with a completely dulled and warped edge. She ran as far as she could before the water barrier stopped her completely in her tracks.

Hands pressed against the barrier, Katsumi plead with tears in her eyes. “Have you finally decided?” she asked with hope filling her. “Please I want you to do it! Kill me, please!”

Unable to look at her friend, though her body visibly shook having to hear the words, Kaede walked over to Hiroshi leaving Katsumi alone.

Katsumi pounded on the barrier. “Hiroshi! Please! I beg you, put an end to all of this for me! You’re inhuman keeping me alive like this! Please!”

With the guiding hand of Hiroshi, he escorted Saki out not completely aware that she was pushed out of the room until the door closed. The voice of Katsumi completely disappeared from her head. It was apparently very well sound proof if she could not hear it. “What the hell’s going on? She doesn’t look like the others.”

Looking down and then over at Kaede, Hiroshi seemed to be having some trouble saying what he needed. It took him a while before he could look over at Saki. Even Kaede refused to say anything. “Katsumi’s unique and complicated.”

“How so?”

“Because of the powers that she has.”

“What power does she have?”

Hiroshi looked over to Kaede to pick things up. There was a silent conversation between them as they fought with gazes over who had the explaining to do. In the end, Kaede lost and she recoiled some. She still resisted it. “It’s because Katsumi’s powers protected her from Takako that she is suffering worse than the others.”

Chapter 374 – Broken Hope

Now Saki was confused, because she knew that Katsumi was under Takako’s control the same as everyone else. “What do you mean protected her? Takako controlled her the same as the others.”

“Not the same…”

“Stop being so damn vague with me! Explain it!”

Hiroshi tried to get Saki to understand their point of view. “This isn’t easy for us, Saki.” But he could tell that was not going to be working out very well. Sake wanted to understand and they were beating around the bush about things.

“I understand that, but I can’t help if you don’t explain things to me clearly. What is her power?”

“In a word, resistance.”

“That’s doesn’t explain much.”

Jumping in on Hiroshi’s behalf, Kaede started to explain more clearly, “It’s like an enhancing effect that she uses for defense. Anything that she touches or is in contact with her has it’s natural hardness and resistance to damage multiplied several times. However, it also extends to her body. Her skin now has the toughness as if it was steel. And in what can only be the worst gift to have, it granted her a resistance to mental corruption.”

It all suddenly made sense to Saki now. She looked back at the door, which Katsumi sat behind unable to kill herself. Her mind went through it all and understood on some small level. They all did understand partly what it was that Katsumi went through. Yet they knew that they could never truly understand. With it all sinking in, Saki staggered back against the wall.

“So you understand what we’re in now.”

“What are you going to do?”

“We aren’t killing her, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“But can we just leave her like that? She’s going to go insane like that.”

Hiroshi sighed and turned away from Saki. It was the same dilemma that they faced once they learned what was wrong with Katsumi. He just had no answer. “Sadly for her, I don’t think that’s possible. Being insane would almost be a blessing for her, but her powers would probably prevent it from happening.”

“Damnit!” Saki snapped, pounding her fist back against the wall leaving a dent in the smoothly polished metal. “What are we supposed to do?” Takako’s sins still followed them even after her death. ‘I thought I had resolved myself to be able to make the hard choices that Yuki and others couldn’t. So why am I hesitating so much? The choice is clear, yet my body doesn’t want it…’ Looking at Hiroshi, she was just as surprised that Hiroshi seemed set on not killing her even with what’s on his hands. ‘It must be the same for him. But we’re going to have to do it… It’s worse keeping her in that state…’

After a long silence, Kaede broke first with the question that had been forgotten in all of the emotions. “What are you doing down here, Hiroshi? You didn’t come down here to just show her this. You could have explained things to her upstairs and avoided all of this.”

They had both completely ignored that fact. Hiroshi had a purpose for it. It served to explain things to Saki, but he also needed something else. “Right, we needed to talk to you. The situation with Yumi’s become complicated.”

“Is she still unconscious?”

“No, that’s the problem. Let’s move back to somewhere we can sit down and discuss this.” Kaede immediately became curious to what was going on with her friend. She agreed in silence with a nod to follow them.

On the third floor once more, they sat down at the table with more of the group gathered around minus Yori, still asleep in Yumi’s bed. Hiroshi started laying out the situation and explaining how there were multiple personalities in Yumi and the conversation they had with one of them.

Kaede found herself leaned back a lot in the chair having trouble taking it all in. Small whispers came out of her mouth infrequently as the explanation went on. When it was all done Kaede stepped away from the table needing a moment to take it all in.

Out the small window, the view did little to give her ease. Losing two friends weighed on her. But she shook her head preventing her from thinking like that. Yumi was not lost to them, not yet. That is what she had to believe. She turned around to face everyone after a minute in thought. “I think I might know where this is coming from,” she finally said.

“What are your thoughts?” asked Saki, “You know her better than the rest of us.”

“I think I think may have to do in part with her brother.”

“Yori?”

“This isn’t really something you know about, but in junior high Yumi was bullied because of her brother. Yori was the model student, talented, smart and attractive, everyone liked him. But Yumi’s not her brother and when people realized that she wasn’t going to meet the same expectations they took it out on her. Because she’s always being compared and talked in the same breath as her brother, she’s developed an inferiority complex.”

Kaede walked back to the table and sat down. She rested her head in her hand thinking about everything. It was still only a theory. So she could only make guesses about any of this. There was no way to be certain until they actually confronted either Yumi or the personalities and Yumi may not even know.

A long sigh came out of her lips with her mind spinning through it all. “We did what we could to help her, but I thought after she started spending time with you and Yuki that she had finally left that in her past. She was being her own person and independent of everyone’s expectations. We thought Yuki was exactly what she needed to finally start looking forward. But maybe we were wrong. Maybe she’s still looking backwards…”

“Miss Ayabito, I think you may be on the right track,” Nerine jumped in, suddenly looking like she had figured something out. She leaned forward at the table. “People are complex and complicated. They aren’t so simple to define. Miss Mizuno had probably left behind her past as you believe. But something that deep and impacting isn’t going to completely disappear. There’s still going to be little pieces of it remaining behind.”

Picking up that Nerine seemed to be on to something, Seiji was tired of the complicated talk. He only understood that things were wrong and that Yumi had issues that she needed to work out. In his own way, he sort of understood better than the rest of them. “What are you trying to get at?”

“It’s like I explained before, His Majesty’s law is interpreted differently with each person. If Miss Mizuno subconsciously still had doubts about herself and insecurities, then these other personalities could be created from that.”

“I already figured out that much. I’m asking how does that help us get Yumi back? Knowing why isn’t an solution.”

And they were all back in silence. It was as Seiji said. Knowing did not give them the answer that they sought. It was not going to be bring back Yumi. They were no better off than they started even if they felt that they understood the situation.

There was no answer that day. Or even the next day. A week passed in relative silence. Only Yori caused them troubles, because he felt strongly about going to Yumi. As the person inside Yumi said, he seemed to know exactly where she was. They did not understand that. But they had no answer to give. One that would allow them to meet the person once more. Since Yori did not accept that they tied him up as he proved single minded and otherwise useless.

Then while Saki and Seiji hovered in the room alone with Yuki it finally happened. Nearly ten days after he went unconscious Yuki woke up finally recovered from the ordeal. He rose out of the bed looking lost and confused with his surroundings.

Seiji immediately jumped off the crate he sat down to grab up his friend with more enthusiasm than he was prepared to take. “Yuki! You’re awake finally!”

Caught by surprise, Yuki gasped slapping Seiji’s shoulder to be released. “Y-yes! But not for long…”

“Seiji, you’re choking him,” Saki reprimanded before she grabbed his arm to loosen him up.

Coughing a bit as he recovered, Yuki sat up properly in his bed looking at his friends. “You look like I might have died.”

“You’ve been out for a week and half.”

“Damn…that long…”

“Welcome home,” Saki said seeing a bit of the melancholy already attempting to take hold of him. She smiled trying to fill a role that she was meant to fill.

Yuki blinked a little and snapped back for them. “I’m home!”

To be continued…

[Andromeda]

“Welcome home,” Saki said seeing a bit of the melancholy already attempting to take hold of him. She smiled trying to fill a role that she was meant to fill.

Yuki blinked a little and snapped back for them. “I’m home!” Then the sound of a roaring stomach snapped the happy mood into one of laughter. “Also I’m hungry,” he added trying to play off his embarrassment.

“Course you are!” Seiji grabbed up Yuki out of the bed as though he was an invalid. “You’re probably starved from all that sleeping!”

“Not so much that I can’t walk.” Putting a hand on his shoulder, he asked to be let down. He could understand the enthusiasm that Seiji had seeing him alive and well again, but it was a little much. It felt like he was reacting even more strongly than the last time he was out. A tiny little prick of awkwardness crept up through his back that he mostly did not notice. Something that things felt off that he could not understand completely.

As Yuki went to stand on his own, he found that his strength was not what he expected. His body felt surprisingly weak. He had to throw out a hand to grab onto Seiji’s forearm before he completely dropped to the wood planks. A cough came up from the uncomfortable feeling in his body. It felt far more distant than he was expecting. “Maybe I’ll take a hand after all…”

Before he made it too far out, the door opened to the floor while Seiji helped him to the chair at the table. In walked Nerine along with Hiroshi and Tatsuya, immediately surprised to see Yuki awake finally. Normally the stiff one, Nerine immediately ran around Hiroshi nearly toppling him in the process to kneel before her King. “Your Majesty!”

“Nerine! I told you to keep that quiet while in Japan.”

She swallowed hard trying to not show how much she internally chastised herself for her mistake. Nearly no part of her body moved as she froze up before Yuki.

Hiroshi took a seat at the table trying to not focus too much on how out of place and old fashion it all appeared to him. “Cat’s already out of the bag, Yuki. I had them fill me in on the details while you were asleep.”

The sight of his friends or those he used to think of as friends soured his expression. A thin grim line drew over his lips seeing Hiroshi at the same table as him. Awkwardness filled the air quickly and the others were quickly remained that nothing between them had ever been truly resolved. In peace, things stop being simple.

Sensing the tension himself, Hiroshi leaned back in the chair to play off some of the grave tones baring down on them. “Still can’t accept seeing me, huh? Well you don’t have to worry. I’ll be out of your hair for the rest of the day.”

“So they’ve agreed then?” Saki confirmed, as she had not been part of the conversation. She could not be by nature of the situation. A likely wanted criminal could not be casually walking about.

He nodded to her and then looked back to Yuki. “The UN’s agreed to some informal talks. It seems the friend you made has more than a little weight to throw around.”

“He’s a good man that wants peace as well. We’re just going about it from two different sides.”

“I know, but it’s not going to be easy to convince the people in the city that we can trust the UN after everything they’ve done.”

“But we need to make this step without it all we’ll be doing is fighting them constantly.”

“No promises, Saki. I’m not some ambassador or politician.”

“You’ll be fine.”

Tatsuya grabbed Hiroshi by the neck playfully and pulled him up out the chair getting moving. They were already behind schedule, but seeing Yuki awake was important enough to delay them. “Of course he’ll be fine. He’s got me with him! Don’t worry!” He started pushing Hiroshi towards the door.

“I know…”

Chapter 375 – Broken Purpose

Behind the scenes, Seiji and Nerine scrambled about for food. Nerine kept nitpicking Seiji’s choices as not being fitting for Yuki. And Seiji argued that she asked for too much out of their food.

It was going to be a few minutes.

Yuki grinned a little, but that fell away as he looked out the window watching Hiroshi and Tatsuya walk out. Behind him, Saki stood watching how Yuki reacted. “Forgive him.”

His hand tightened up into a ball. They were out of sight now. Yuki leaned against the window feeling the weight pressing on him. “It’s not that easy. They killed friends, people we knew.”

“Because they had to! They didn’t have a choice.”

“I’m aware of that. Doesn’t mean it’s so easy to forgive.”

“All you’re doing is contradicting yourself. If you know this, then you can forgive them!”

Hanging his head lower against the window, the weight became almost unbearable. “No, a contradiction is blaming them for something that they couldn’t avoid, but still blaming yourself for something you could have avoided.”

She immediately put her hand on his shoulder. “This isn’t your fault. Takako made a choice, everyone else just responded.”

“Simple words, but reality isn’t that simple. Maybe in time I can accept this, but for now I can’t forgive it. Not when there should have been a better way.” Yuki felt silent trying to keep himself from collapsing. All Saki’s hand seemed to do was make him feel even heavier. It just absorbed everything that she had even if she did not want to pass off. “But I can thank him for one thing. You didn’t have to get blood on your hands.”

Saki could not reply to him. She stayed in silent.

“Food’s up!” shouted Seiji, accompanied by a disapproving Nerine. Despite her complaints, she did carry with him the food to present to him.

Sweating a little as the sight, Yuki took an uneasy step towards the array of food. A few questions came to mind as he wondered how such a place had such an assortment. It was all Japanese food naturally, Phoibe would not have it any other way likely, but she was a little too well stocked. But there was a bigger problem that he saw. “I said I was hungry, but I can’t eat all of that. I’m not an anime character.”

Saki brushed by him to sit at the table with him. “The way you are sometimes, I wonder about that.”

“Hey, I just like watching it!”

Snacks, instant ramen, store bought dango and takoyaki, among other varieties of purchased store food. It did not surprise Yuki that none of it was actually cooked. That had likely been one of the arguments that the two had over proper food for him. There was a little too much of a weight on sweets. But there was just too much either way.

Seiji sat down without thinking and munched on a few things before offering them up to Nerine as well. She put up her hand to decline. “Eat with us,” ordered Yuki, a little bothered that she was held up that much on rank and position that she would refuse to food with him.

“…yes, Majesty…”

“Nerine.”

“…Yu…ki…”

“You need to get in the habit. If you’re sticking around me, you can’t be stuttering on something so simple. It’ll make people even more suspicious.” Ramen, even instant, sounded really good at the moment to Yuki. That was the only thing that Seiji had actually cooked, in that he boiled the water for it. Dropping the hot water into the cup, Yuki waited for things to get a little soaked before starting. The smell already made his stomach talk again. A stick of dango made an attempt to silence that. “Pretty good,” he muttered as he chewed.

“Yeah, that woman’s got some really good food stashed around here.”

“We’re getting Yuki a proper meal after this though.”

“He’s not going to die from sweets and instant ramen. A man’s got to eat when he’s hungry!”

“Right…”

Making a good sizeable dent to the food stacked up on the table, Yuki’s belly finally stopped bothering him. It took a while for it to kick in and then he regretted overeating a little. It was not so bad, but he did feel a little uncomfortable. He wanted to rest. But something more important bothered him than his stomach.

While they all sat around the table and he had them, Yuki jumped straight to the heart of the matter. “So what aren’t you telling me?”

“Huh? What’cha talking about?”

“Yuki?”

“I’m not blind even if I just woke up. Seiji’s over acting to make me feel welcome. You being a half step behind him. There’s something going on.”

That something was an understatement. Saki thought of all the different things that happened since Yuki left. ‘There are so many things to tell him. But none of it he can do anything about…’

“We’ve got a situation right now, man.”

“Seiji.”

“Relax, Saki. It’s about Yumi.”

Saki fell back in her seat. What appeared as resignation was actually relief. ‘So even he’s not that dumb.’ Brushing back her bangs, Saki settled in for another round of explanations.

“Other personalities?” he repeated to himself, once they finished getting him completely up to speed. A hand brushed over his face trying to take it all in. He looked over to his friends through is fingers, but lowering his hand. “Why didn’t you tell me any of this back in Atlantis?”

“There was never really the right time for it and Yumi otherwise seemed fine. We didn’t really know what it was then. It’s not until now that we have a clearer idea of what’s happening to her.”

“Right….well we’ve got to help her.” Yuki stood up immediately and started for the door ahead of the others.

Not clear on what Yuki planned on doing, she quickly moved to intercept him. “What are you doing?”

“Going to see Yori. We’re going to need him to find Yumi, you said.”

“Well yeah, but he hasn’t exactly been easy to talk to since we’ve disagreed with his plan.”

He nodded and looked back towards the empty beds. There was more that he missed than he expected. ‘I can’t believe I was asleep for so long. I should have been awake soon…’ Bothering about the facts did not survive for long in his mind. Yuki focused himself on the door and what he could do now. It was just something he had to accept.

Seiji quickly followed up as Yuki opened the door. He snuck in behind him with Nerine keeping a distant watchful eye on them. Leaning forward on the right, opposite of Saki, he wanted something from Yuki. “What’s your plan?”

“I’ll explain once we get to Yori, it’ll be easier to do it once rather than twice.” Down the third flights of stairs, Yuki stopped and paused. This was only the third time that he had been in Phoibe’s place. He realized that he was not familiar with it, even more so. He had no clue where he was at the moment. “So where you have him locked up?” he asked casually.

“He’s not a prisoner!” she protested from his tone.

“He probably doesn’t think that. How’d you even tie him up so he couldn’t escape anyway?” Both Seiji and Saki turned to look behind them. Nerine, about five meters back and out of ear shot, blinked a little confused why they had stopped to stare at her. But Yuki immediately understood. “Right, that makes sense. I would have had to do the same thing.”

Directed by Saki, they went to yet a completely different wing of the underground in Phoibe’s building. The hallway offshoot came from the main room added for the refuges from Hiroshi’s base. Another mismatching and stylistically questionable door to match. Behind the door, it was nearly empty. Which made sense, the only one behind in what amounted to an extremely well furnished dungeon was Yori.

Yuki came to a stop in front of force field make that he did not recognize. It had no inspiration that he could find. He only assumed that it was Phoibe’s design, but it did not even fit within what he saw from her. Part of his mind wondered where she got her ideas.

Putting down the book he read, Yori stepped forward looking less enraged as one might have expected. “So the righteous bastard’s awake.”

“Good morning to you too.”

Sensing the situation, Yori crossed his arm and approached further towards Yuki. “Planning on saving my sister by yourself like you tried to do before?”

“Actually no.”

“What?!” Yori shouted as his rage began to fuel him once more. The air around him started to distort as his power leaked out of him uncontrolled.

“To save Yumi, you’re going to help me do it.”

To be continued…

[Andromeda]

“You want my help to save my sister?” Yori questioned with an understandable amount of suspicion. He narrowed his eyes with a piercing stare to read what Yuki’s intent could be. Reading people was not his sort of strength though, not in the way that he needed to do so now. Everyone had a little bit of the ability to measure a situation based on the look someone had. But during his training something that Athene tried to grind into him was a deeper focused sort of reading. One that the Atlanteans had developed over the centuries fighting against other MPs. She called it a valuable skill for their combat.

He understood the importance of it. Just not that it was as easy to pick up as she claimed it to be. And it failed him now. ‘What’s his game?’

Seiji pounded his knee against the wall making the barrier that Phoibe constructed flicker in pain. “The hell’s wrong with you, man?! Yuki wants to help her and asking you for help! There’s nothing deeper than that!”

Yori stepped forward with caution towards them. “Perhaps, but I don’t trust you.”

Wanting to say more, Yuki put a hand on Seiji’s shoulder to get him to stop. “It’s fine, Seiji. Yori’s got his priorities. He wants to save Yumi. That’s why I know he’ll work with us. It’s going to be the only way he can do that.”

Zeroed in on his weakness, Yori ground his teeth together. Yuki had him in his palms. “You’re a bastard.”

“I’m getting that a lot these days. But from what I hear despite you being so smart you’re the one running off more blind into battle than Seiji would.”

“Hey man!”

“He’s right,” Saki agreed to the protest of Seiji. She focused in on Yori quickly needing him to agree with Yuki’s plan, whatever it was. “You aren’t acting like your normal self, Yori.”

“Have your only family stolen away from you and see if you can think rationally.”

“Then help me and fight to get her back.”

“What’s your plan?”

Chapter 376 – Edge of Hope

Agreed to be marginally calmer, Yori returned with them to the third floor for a conference over his sister. While everyone sat at the table, Yuki stood up and materialized a dry erase board for his plan. He popped off the cap to the marker and started writing on the board. It began with only names.

A little squeaking finished up his work. He had written up Yumi along with two other broad facing names. Made up terms for the known personality that they spoke with now marked it as “Tactician” and “???”. They didn’t really have much to go on with the other personality. None of them had much to really say other than that they were very different.

Pointing at the board, Yuki drew their attention to what they knew. “We know that Yumi is being protected within her own mind by at least one of the other personalities. The one currently out that sounds like she’s a General of an army or something from the way it’s been explained to me. This is the one in control of Yumi’s body, but there is at least one other personality present that you saw during the battle of Atlantis. So we’re dealing with two maybe more other identities in Yumi.”

“Nice summary, but that’s not a plan.”

“I’m getting to that, Yori.” Drawing up a very crud figure of Yumi and something that was supposed to be a brain, but looked more like soba noodles, he started to lay out what he wanted to do. “The problem that we have is rescuing Yumi from within herself and giving control back to her rather than the current personality inside her. As it’s been explained to me by Nerine and warnings from others, messing around in the mind with my powers is a bad idea. I don’t know enough not to make things worse and no one else in Atlantis even touches the subject. It’s basically taboo and forbidden. So we’re stuck with taking a more creative approach to the problem.”

“What exactly are you thinking?” asked Saki, suddenly becoming worried about what plan that Yuki had cooked up for saving Yumi. As much as she wanted to trust that Yuki had in mind would work, she knew him well enough to know that it might also be more than a little ridiculous.

Giving a prompt, Yuki moved onto the next stage. He drew another figure marking it as Yori and then another mess for her friends. “We’re going to appeal to Yumi through what she finds familiar.”

Yori slammed his fist on the table splintering it where he dropped hand. “If it was that simple I would have succeeded when I spoke to her! I can’t believe I even thought for a moment you had something more than naivety to work from like always. Face reality and then come back to me when you have a real plan.” He pried his hand out of the wood only to be stopped by Yuki.

Undaunted, more scribbles ran across the board. Squeaks came out from the marker as Yuki painted the rest of his the picture to his plan. Turning back around, he slapped the cap on the marker with dramatic flair. “I’m aware of that. That’s why I told you that I needed you. This isn’t something I can do alone, the same as you. We have to do this together.”

“What exactly are you describing here, Yuki?”

Eyes shifted over to Saki to address her question. He threw back his hand pointing with the marker. “What I’m purposing is having Yori speak with Yumi. Being her brother, she has the strongest connection with him. And then I’ll convert all of that into something like a brain wave. In simpler terms, I’ll be making it in a sort of signal that she’ll be able to pick up on the subconscious level. Hearing and seeing him, should trigger her to awake and take control of her body over again.”

“What you’re suggesting is impossible.”

“Yeah, can you actually do anything that you just said, Yuki?”

“Of course! My powers allow for the impossible to become possible. I just have to create a device that can convert Yori into something that can be read on the subconscious level.”

“Can that actually work? Didn’t you say messing around with the mind is a taboo because you don’t understand how the brain works?”

“I’m not messing with the mind though. That’s the beauty of this. It’s like a loophole.”

“You people are really fond of loopholes in your powers,” she remarked with sardonic tone. Most of them at the table had at least one experience with the MP users and them breaking what they thought to be well defined rules. Listening to Yuki’s plan only helped to enforce how fuzzy those rules ended up becoming with a creative individual running wild.

“But such a thing doesn’t exist and you know nothing about brain waves,” reminded Yori, still not convinced that this was not still all just a fantasy from a naïve idiot playing at god.

Yuki crossed his arms. “I’ve created a lot of things with my power that I don’t understand. That’s not a stopping point. I just have to create the environment in which it does exist and it’ll happen.”

“Then couldn’t you just do the same with fiddling with the brain?” Another oddly sobering and well observed remark came from Seiji.

“Probably, but I’d prefer not to do something as invasive as playing around in someone’s mind. That’s not somewhere that we belong.”

“But our bodies aren’t taboo.”

“Yori!” snapped Saki, knowing how much it still deeply affected Yuki. All Yori did was turn away refusing to take back his remark.

Placing the marker on the table, Yuki pulled up a chair from thin air to match with the rest. “It’s fine. He’s not wrong. That’s why it’s on me to fix things here in Japan. This shouldn’t have happened and I’ll undo it. I can’t return to Atlantis until I undo this.”

Saki immediately turned her eyes to look at Yuki. She wanted to say something to him. Something that she thought he was forgetting, that no one else had said yet. The words never came. They choked up in her throat as she saw him. It was his eyes. He told her that he understood what that meant. The price that he would pay for being Japan. He was making that sacrifice for them, for everyone.

‘Damnit!’

“This is the best plan I have right now,” Yuki continued, moving away from the weighty implications of his words. He focused on all of his friends at the table. “We have to save Yumi and I believe this to be our best shot. Yori is the star of this plan, because Yumi has no stronger connection to anyone than him. But if that’s not enough, I want the rest of you there as support. She may need to hear more than one voice to wake up.”

Fists pounded together from Seiji. He agreed to it. A smile came over his face filled with boundless enthusiasm. “Now this is a plan!”

“It doesn’t involve punching things though.”

“Speaking from the heart is the sign of true bonds!”

Sweat dripped down Saki’s face listening to him. “You sound like a cheesy line from Yuki’s shounen manga.”

“It’s a powerful message. There’s a reason people enjoy it.”

“Yeah, yeah, hope and dreams. I’ll keep living in reality, while you two are in the clouds.”

“You need passion, Saki!” encouraged Seiji trying to get her more energized.

She stepped away from the table before Seiji became too wrapped up in the excitement that Yuki brought to them. “I’ve got my own way. But I think this may be are best chance to save her. There’s only one question.”

Nodding to Saki, Yuki looked back to Yori. All of their plans were for naught without knowing the location of Yumi. That lied with him, apparently to the one controlling Yumi. “You know where to find Yumi, right?”

A begrudging word came from Yori, “Yes.”

The chair suddenly disappeared along with the board as Yuki turned off his power and activated a new set. A holographic map of the city appeared on the table. Arrows appeared in the city marking for important locations along with text describing them. It made it easy for them to know exactly where they were. “Where is she?”

Yori leaned forward to the map taking a moment to examine it and get his bearings. Seeing the city in full three-dimensions made for an awkward bit of adjustment. Once he got his measure of the scale, he ran his finger around a distant set of buildings. “I’m too far away to pinpoint the location, but she’s in this area. Once we’re closer I’ll know exactly.”

“A sibling bond!” cheered Seiji.

“I can sense her through my power,” he corrected. Not that really did anything to faze Seiji declaration.

Clapping his hands together, the map disappeared. “So we’ve got a plan and a destination. We leave as soon as everyone’s ready!”

Which happened to be now.

And a few minutes later, they were soaring through the sky with the aid of Yuki’s power, at his insistence to ride a cloud. It hardly thrilled them that he summoned up something from Journey to the West, but it worked. So they said little more to protest his eccentricities.

Yuki looked over at Yori for guidance now that they reached the area on the map that he marked. “You sense her?”

“Of course, she’s about a kilometer to the right.” To finish off the directions, Yori pointed out the area.

With confidence in reserve, they sped towards Yumi and the person that control her body. For everyone else, she popped up quickly in their sight and called out. Unfortunately, Yuki had no such luck like with Nerine. Not thinking ahead, he did not add in some magnifying law to give him enhanced sight. So he had to wait until his normal sight spotted a black blob in the distance.

Seated on the edge of a water tower on the top of a ten story building, the one controlling Yumi continued to stare out at the city admiring the view. They seemed to take little interest or note of the arriving group. Given the declaration they made before their departure, it was likely that this was something that they expected.

Once everyone landed on the roof, the person spoke to them. “So you waited for the King to wake. Couldn’t figure things out on your own.”

Yori immediately took offense to the remark with his power spiking and blasting air away from him. “I’d be here sooner if I hadn’t been stopped!”

“And you would have still be unable to achieve your goal. Your friends know better than you.”

“Shut up you bastard! I’m only getting their help so that I can save my sister!”

“You’re so single minded. I told you before that’s going to be your undoing one day.”

Stepping forward, Yuki wanted to try to stem off some of the anger that Yori burn with. “I believe this is the first time we’ve met.”

“Face-to-face, yes. You come with a solution, King?”

“That’s right!” he smirked. A wave pulsed out from his feet as he activated his power. Out of the rooftop, a strange organic device appeared. It had a white almost fleshy appearance that in shadow turned purple and orange in complete impossible contrast to how light and color functioned. Expanding out, the device grew in size to become half the height of a person and wiggle unable to keep a solid form. It waved about strange arms with seemingly no purpose.

The growth finished and apparently it was finished. “We’re going to get Yumi back with the power of heart!”

To be continued…

[Andromeda]

Once everyone landed on the roof, the person spoke to them. “So you waited for the King to wake. Couldn’t figure things out on your own.”

Yori immediately took offense to the remark with his power spiking and blasting air away from him. “I’d be here sooner if I hadn’t been stopped!”

“And you would have still be unable to achieve your goal. Your friends know better than you.”

“Shut up you bastard! I’m only getting their help so that I can save my sister!”

“You’re so single minded. I told you before that’s going to be your undoing one day.”

Stepping forward, Yuki wanted to try to stem off some of the anger that Yori burn with. “I believe this is the first time we’ve met.”

“Face-to-face, yes. You come with a solution, King?”

“That’s right!” he smirked. A wave pulsed out from his feet as he activated his power. Out of the rooftop, a strange organic device appeared. It had a white almost fleshy appearance that in shadow turned purple and orange in complete impossible contrast to how light and color functioned. Expanding out, the device grew in size to become half the height of a person and wiggle unable to keep a solid form. It waved about strange arms with seemingly no purpose.

The growth finished and apparently it was finished. “We’re going to get Yumi back with the power of heart!”

Yumi’s controller stared blankly at Yuki for a moment processing what he said. “Did you just say that?”

“Yeah, it sounded better in my head,” he admitted, taking a step back around the device he created. A moment later, he had himself gathered once more. “We’re taking Yumi back.”

The tactician stepped forward willing to give them opportunity, though not without some effort. Purple hues began to emit from around Yumi’s body in response to her call. Rapidly, a multi-layer barrier erected around her in a constantly shifting hexagonal pattern. Multi purple energy based swords appeared in the air along with passive orbs of energy. “You’re going to have to prove to me that you’re able to reach the girl.”

Undaunted and actually encouraged by this, Yori stepped up materializing black blades into his hand ready for the rematch. “I told you before I’m taking my sister back!”

Immediately responding to the offer, Seiji and Nerine jumped out in front of Yori. They took side by side stances prepared to defend the position against the person controlling Yumi. Full arm gauntlets materialized around Nerine’s missing limbs giving her full arms once more. A faint pulse ran down Seiji’s scar with him prepared.

Yori tried to step out in front of them, but they blocked them. “This one is mine! They own me a rematch!”

However, it was Yuki from behind that used some of his free power to grab Yori’s shoulder to stop him. “We need you back here. You won’t be fighting on the frontlines. Did you already forget the plan?”

Growling over his annoyance, he remembered the plan that Yuki had in mind. He hated it, but agreed that it was the smartest play that they had. Just seeing the one controlling Yumi standing before him made his body shake uncontrollably. He ground his teeth together knowing where he had to be. The blades disappeared from his hands. “Fine.”

“You’re the most important part of this plan, Yori. Remember that.”

“I don’t need you tell me that!”

Saki grabbed his shoulder and pushed him back out of the line a little bit as she made her way to the front. “You do if you just start charging in blindly at the first sight of your sister. Get your head on straight if you actually want to save her.”

The tactician gave a bit of a curious tilt of the head seeing things play out. Though the signs of Seiji and Nerine out on the frontlines did little to impress them. “I beat the both of you last time, what makes you think things will be any different this time.”

“I was fighting defensively last time,” Nerine retorted, as a sign that things would be different this time around.

Then Saki disappeared and reappeared a meter away from Yumi’s body with her fist hitting the barrier. Cracks shot up quickly from the impact before it shattered. “And last time I wasn’t in the fight. Things won’t be the same this time.”

Chapter 377 – Missing the Point

Quickly, the battle started with Seiji and Nerine joining Saki in the melee against the tactician. Despite the numerical advantage that they had, they did little in changing the tides of the battle. It remained firmly in control by the one that had Yumi.

Churning out strange noises and motions, Yuki’s device already went into action. Aside from the odd movements that it made, nothing else seemed to be happening from it. Though Yuki appeared confident in his work. He turned to Yori, who needed to do his part. “Don’t just be thinking about Yumi. They need your help out there! They’re buying you the time to reach Yumi, but it’s going to be over quickly without your help!”

“I know…” Yori cut himself off early having more to say, but kept it to himself. He turned his head up to the sky where the fight had dragged out to by the Tactician. This normally would have put both Seiji and Saki at a severe disadvantage, but they stood out in mid air like they walked on the ground.

“Taking advantage of that woman’s creative powers,” they remarked to the fight continuing without stop despite drawing them into the sky. “Controlling three people in a fight at this speed must be very taxing.” Several energy attacks came in from multiple directions to snipe Nerine out of the sky.

However, Seiji came in to block the attacks from the front as Nerine’s floating gauntlets took the rest of the hits. Ashes fell down from Seiji’s arms as the attack had no effect on him. He charged forward once the smoke cleared at the barrier protecting Yumi. A pulsing line exploded from his scar on his arm as it blew away the barrier. “This won’t be like the last time!”

“Breaking a single barrier is a meaningless exercise.” Just outside of her blind spot came another attack that they mistook for Saki only to find that it was one of Nerine’s gauntlets. A pistol within the gauntlet pounded through smashing another barrier. From below another gauntlet appeared, but was batted away with energy beams. Yet it was only a feint for Saki to come in from the blind spot and completely destroy the remaining barriers as Seiji finished the charge to grab a hold of Yumi’s body.

“I’ve got you now!”

“You’ve got familiar plays,” they remarked not feeling any sort of concern over their capture. Looking down at the roof, Yori stared at her. They watched his mouth move as counter plays went into action to break Seiji free.

Three energy swords appeared around Seiji cutting into him drawing up blood along with red ash. He immediately had to release Yumi with another beam coming between them. The wounds he took while trying to keep a hold of Yumi were fortunately not very deep. They did nothing to slow him down as talismans appeared to seal them up.

Straightening out her body, they look backed up a small distance with additional array appearing in the sky. “You really did come in with a plan. The King is very smart man. This should actually be interesting then. The game begins again Yori.”

“Seiji retreat and make a feint to the left,” Yori ordered softly, “Saki, there are two attacks coming in to your rear. The right is a feint and the left is the real attack. Nerine keep up the support providing false attacks.”

Staring at the battle playing around, the look in Yori’s eyes intensified. Things were playing out in a similar way as before. The pieces he had in play were stronger this time though. ‘I lost to you last time because I wasn’t strong enough. Not this time!’

He could see the moves and counter plays in motion. The field given to him was wider making it harder for the one inside Yumi to out play him. Each play was visible to him. He felt more confident this time. Saki had speed that he could not even keep up with his eyes, none of them could. She could out move even when the Tactician out maneuvered him, which happened more than he liked. He kept the pressure on them even though it still felt like they were losing nearly a third of the plays.

It was an aggravating feeling for him.

But he worked on his counter play. It was going to be the only way to win against someone that could plan so far ahead with ease. Plans within plans, ones that he could not see. They were far better than him, that much he sadly admitted the last time around and it became even more apparent now.

Yori turned his head a bit to look back at Yuki. “Is your device doing anything? It’s not even slowing them down!”

“Of course it’s working, but if Yumi’s is buried deep in the layers of subconscious and conscious protection, it’s not going to be easy. You’re continuing to try to speak to her right?”

“Yes! Don’t question my commitment to saving my sister!” He turned back to focus on the fight, which stopped so much being a fight as it was a constant battle of maneuvers. The line he built with Saki and Seiji struggled to hold against the enemy’s plays. But everything was in position for him.

Saki dropped the Tactician into the right position when she forced them to dodge her. “Nerine, it’s time!”

Dropping out of the rear, Nerine left her support position taking to the frontlines with Seiji. Covering for Seiji in his charge, she manipulated her gauntlets through the air to clear away all of the moves. Seiji wound up his fists to blast through two barriers and flipped through the air to strike directly at the energy orbs put into place for a counter play.

While behind both of them, Nerine unveiled a massive gauntlet overcharged with energy. It immediately released all of the energy blinding the entire field with its light. “Attempting the exact same move as before. You have to be more original than this.”

However, the energy did nothing to Yumi or even the barrier. It had no impact at all to it. Yori grinned from the roof to see his play worked. “Which is why I did it. You expected me to play moves the same way and I counted on that.” Rapid blasts of purple light blew up and faded away as all of the moves in play disappeared from Nerine true attack, an entire fleet of gauntlets.

Then from above Saki dropped down unseen by anyone, except for the Tactician, who raised a hand to block her fist only for Saki to fade through her. “Afterimage…” Saki came from a completely different direction with the real attack. Yet was stopped completely with only one hand.

“What!? Impossible! Yumi’s not that fast or strong!” she declared with surprise. She anticipated from everything that she had seen from Yumi’s fights and through this fight what her physical attributes had to be. This was not even possible with what she had seen.

Seiji broke formation and tried to help Saki with them be distracted, but his powered up fist did nothing as well. He came to a grinding halt on Yumi’s other hand. Then thousands of tiny purple orbs appeared through the sky and shot down all of Nerine’s gauntlets. They then tossed Saki and Seiji back down to the roof at Yori’s feet.

Slowly descending down to the water tower. “All of you grossly underestimate the potential of this body.”

Yuki grimaced watching things play out and then came to a quick realization. “Damn, it’s possible that because these personalities were created along with the power given to Yumi, they understand better how to access the full capabilities of what Yumi would be able to do.”

The Tactician clapped for Yuki theory. “I see someone knows how to evaluate a situation correctly.”

Saki pulled herself back to her feet finding that her body felt surprisingly fatigue from the fight which had hardly been going for very long or even intensely. Yet the counter from Yumi took more out of her than she expected. “Damnit, so you’re saying that how she is now is the most powerful she could be?”

“Unlikely, they’re still holding back.”

“Holding back?!”

Seiji stood up grinning at the thought of a good challenge before him. “I’m ready for round two! Being more powerful isn’t enough to stop me!”

All of the thousands of orbs floating in the air darted through the air and repositioned for the group. They moved in to end the fight before it started to grow any more boring. “I’ve seen everything I needed. None of you are worthy. You have failed to reach Yumi.” Countless beams shot in from every angle and changed directions in mid movement making their vector impossible to predict.

Saki, Seiji and Nerine prepared their defense for the attack even with the purple beams becoming the only thing in their visible as they flooded the sky. But just before they struck a solid black barrier appeared around them. The surface of the barrier rotated as squares broke out from the seamless sphere acting as a deflector to the beams shooting them off into the distance.

To his friends’ surprise, Yori stepped out in front despite the plan. He stared up at the Tactician intently. “You’re forgetting about me. This isn’t anywhere near over!”

To be continued…

[Andromeda]

Saki pulled herself back to her feet finding that her body felt surprisingly fatigue from the fight which had hardly been going for very long or even intensely. Yet the counter from Yumi took more out of her than she expected. “Damnit, so you’re saying that how she is now is the most powerful she could be?”

“Unlikely, they’re still holding back.”

“Holding back?!”

Seiji stood up grinning at the thought of a good challenge before him. “I’m ready for round two! Being more powerful isn’t enough to stop me!”

All of the thousands of orbs floating in the air darted through the air and repositioned for the group. They moved in to end the fight before it started to grow any more boring. “I’ve seen everything I needed. None of you are worthy. You have failed to reach Yumi.” Countless beams shot in from every angle and changed directions in mid movement making their vector impossible to predict.

Saki, Seiji and Nerine prepared their defense for the attack even with the purple beams becoming the only thing in their visible as they flooded the sky. But just before they struck a solid black barrier appeared around them. The surface of the barrier rotated as squares broke out from the seamless sphere acting as a deflector to the beams shooting them off into the distance.

To his friends’ surprise, Yori stepped out in front despite the plan. He stared up at the Tactician intently. “You’re forgetting about me. This isn’t anywhere near over!”

Yuki leaned forward with a step while he manipulated some of his mist to grab Yori from the frontline. “What do you think you’re doing?! You’re supposed to keep to the rear!”

Rear guard was not going to work for him anymore. The plan could not remain static and inflexible, not against such an opponent as the Tactician. They had no chance already against the personality. He stopped thinking about the plan. “I’m not sitting this out anymore! I’m fighting with everyone else!” he shouted while throwing back his black sword to slice through the mist. While it did nothing to something with no real form, it sent the message.

Yori groaned lowly as he struggled to keep his focus on every aspect of his barrier that he subdivided into enough pieces to counter all the attacks. ‘This is harder than I expected to maintain this level. The sheer numbers is maddening.’ Staring over at the one controlling Yumi, he had trouble imagining them doing the same. ‘Is Yumi’s potential that different from me? She could do all of this without even breaking a sweat?’

“Your presence on the battlefield won’t change the results,” they replied.

“We’ll just have to see if that true!” He jumped forward with his swords bearing down on the barriers protecting Yumi, while several more materialized in the air to attack the barrier from other points. ‘I’m coming for you! Please hear me, Yumi!’

Chapter 378 – The Wrong Success

Saki sighed watching Yori failing to do anything meaningful to their opponent as well. It started to play out in the way that she expected. “I guess, we’ll just have to adapt to what he does,” she muttered looking for an opening in the fight. There stopped being any real sense of flow or rhythm like they had before. Yori succumbed to his emotions and now the battle turned to chaos.

“Suit me just fine!”

“That’s because you don’t like over complicated things and this is a perfect fight for you where thought stop being a factor.”

“A true fight is about exchange of blows, not out smarting the other person.”

She was not going to do anything to change Seiji’s mind. She was not even sure why she even attempted to argue with him. “Whatever, just do what you want.” Watching the eagerness in his eyes grow only further to disappoint Saki. ‘This fight isn’t going anywhere…’

“Maybe this isn’t a bad thing,” Yuki interjected before they jumped back into the fight. “I’m seeing a minor reaction out of the device when Yori jumped in. I think Yumi might be hearing him finally.”

“But she’s not in control, in fact I haven’t seen any change from them.”

“She’s going to need more of a push. All of you need to call out to her as well!” He stared at the device seeing the faint blip that was a signal. It was just far too weak.

Seiji pounded his fists together eager to keep going. “This is going to be fun!” He jumped back into the fight exchanging out for Yori at barely the moment before an attack came in. Ash fell away from his arms in the counterblow before Seiji continued through with his fists. Pounding on the barrier repeatedly started to show some signs of weakness.

“We’ll do everything that we can! Come on Nerine!” They quickly turned the fight into a four on one battle and still made it look like they were coming out barely holding their own. The barriers kept them from making any serious headway to the Tactician and even without that, they had countless other attacks to avoid and counter. With the lack of any meaningful strategy on their part, the Tactician easily kept them all in line dancing to their own beat.

Perhaps it was luck or maybe fighting together they started to feel some sort of rhythm naturally, but all of the barriers protecting Yumi shattered with their successive strikes chained together. Unprotected, Yori immediately charged in after Yumi to grab a hold of her arms. “Yumi! Listen to me! Return to your brother, Yumi!”

It did not last for long before a foot embedded in his stomach knocking him back, but refusing to release his grip on her. He stubbornly struggled on unwilling to give up his opportunity now. Yet, the Tactician looked unimpressed still by his efforts.

Look down on him while being shorter than him reminded him of their difference. “That might have worked a couple months ago, but not now. You might stir her a little with your voice, but she still fears you more than anyone else. Your voice can’t save her.”

“Fears me?! My sister isn’t afraid of me! I’m her brother! Stop with your lies!”

“You know so little about Yumi.”

“You know nothing about her!”

“She has secrets she’s never told you. I told you before, you can’t save her.”

“I’m not listening to you! I will save her!”

Snapping her arms quickly in a small circle, they quickly reversed the hold that Yori had on Yumi’s arms and tossed him over head. Though surprise took Yori in the moment, his drive focused him quickly as he jumped off the air to return. However, he met the Tactician with an energy blade blocking his weapon. With effortless ease, they threw Yori off and summoned up gravity to press Saki, Seiji and Nerine into the roof unable to move.

Yori remained the only one still able to stand, but only because it was to be that way. Charging back in after them, Yori swung his weapons in a flurry trying to break through the defense. Unfortunately for him, each blow was easily blocked until parried and thrown back.

Crashed against the crumbling wall of the rooftop access, Yori pulled himself out of the rumble. Everything that he learned from Athena still was not enough to best the Tactician. Even still, he charged back for another round. He tried everything that he knew from sparring with her. All of the tricks that he picked up. Anything to succeed.

Nothing.

They remained unmoved by any of the attacks. Yori found it troubling how well they fended him off. Both now and in the past. As he regained his stance, he held off attacking immediately as he had before. “Even if you have a better understanding of Yumi’s powers, Yumi doesn’t have sword skills or martial training. It’s impossible for her to have any of that.”

“Yumi doesn’t possess those skills, but I do. It was a necessity for me to have them.”

“You’re just a false persona created in Yumi, none of that is necessary.”

“You know so little.” In a bit of a surprise move, Yori came under direct attack by the Tactician, that went against their normal stationary battle tactics. On a true offensive, Yori could not even manage to block a single blow from the sword in Yumi’s hand. Blood sprayed in arcs through the air as each swing cut flesh.

In mere moments, Yori was rendered nearly completely helpless. His body bled over the rooftop with his body unable to move. But thanks to his power, he was not without options. It was why he could not be said to be truly disabled. Until he was dead, he could keep fighting. Just not with this body, rather with his mind.

He could manipulate his barrier and create thickness with it to stop the attack. But it was a futile effort. None of his attacks could make it through the defense they put up. And when on offense, his defense barely kept him from being killed. ‘It’s turning out like last time…’ He hated that notion. Twice he failed to save Yumi.

Nothing he tried would work.

No other options remained.

Yumi was lost.

“That look of defeat in your eyes. So you understand now.”

Yuki clinched his hands together frustrated just watching. He placed his bet on Yori reaching Yumi and he lost. ‘Damnit, so it’s really come down to this… I wanted to avoid this scenario as much as possible. This is the worst possible way this could have turned out. It’s just not enough.’ The device barely read any differently than it did before. His friends helping Yori did nothing other than even out a completely out classes fight. And even that did not last.

The last card to play was the last for a very good reason. He never wanted to play it. Especially with Yori around. However, they were out of options now. Yuki had no choice, but to actually step forward to enter the conflict.

Stepping out from around the device, he slowly and cautiously walked towards Yumi and Yori. Since he remained out of the fight, he had no affect on him from the gravity generated on the others. But Saki immediately yelled out to Yuki, “Get away from them! You can’t fight them in that state!”

He continued to move slowly towards Yumi’s body. “It’s fine. I’m not planning on fighting.”

“Making your move, King,” responded the Tactician as they glanced over at him. There was a different sort of look in their eyes seeing Yuki approach.

“That’s right. I’m the piece you were wanting. But also the one that you couldn’t do anything to.”

Placing gravity on Yori to stop him from making any sort of sneak attacks, they faced Yuki. They gave him their full attention with some hesitation actually appearing. “You’re unnaturally observant.”

“It only made sense in this situation. Yumi might be asleep, but her subconscious will is still working against you and it’s quite powerful.”

“For being asleep, she has a stubborn nature.” They approached Yuki and they came to a stop only a few centimeters apart from one another. “It only is preventing me from killing you.”

“But you won’t strike me either. The moment you do, you’ll lose control.” Yuki stared at Yumi’s face watching the different reactions going through. For the most part, through the fight, they kept a stone face the entire time. It was unflinching and unwavering with no emotions. They were cold and calculating. The only moment of emotion came in the full offense on Yori.

And now.

“You really are unnerving and dangerous.”

“I’ve been getting told that a lot. But it’s time for you to be asleep rather than Yumi. Your test is over.”

“The test still continues. This isn’t the end, only the beginning.”

Yuki stretched out his hand to Yumi’s face hold just out of reach. “No more tests. Just sleep.” He stepped closer to Yumi and pressed his hand to the side of her face. There was a sharp reaction from Yumi as all of the power the Tactician wielded suddenly started to fade away. “Yumi,” he whispered softly to her.

Her eyes closed sharply as life seemed to fall out of her body. She quickly lost the ability to stand and nearly fell face first to the floor if Yuki had not been there to catch her. Yuki held on to her slowly letting her rest on the roof with the struggle finally over. “…Yumi…”

Seiji jumped from his spot with the gravity long released to join Yuki at Yumi’s side. He did not really understand what happened, but he was happy to see a friend save. “You did it Yuki! She’s safe!” Firm pats on the back threw Yuki around as Seiji did not control his strength well in the excitement.

Yori laid against the rumble staring at everyone joining Yuki at Yumi’s side. She was safe once more and back. But he found himself having trouble accepting it. He was happy to see that she was back. Yet, he could only feel sadness over coming him quickly watching it. The reality of what happened overwhelmed him quickly.

He had been useless. And that was not the end of it. Not by a long shot. The worst part stared at him in the eyes looking down at Yumi.

The truth was before him.

To be continued…

[Andromeda]

Even with victory over the Tactician, it did not feel like one. Yuki was not the only one feeling a little off about the whole encounter. The ominous message left behind did not help. No one said anything about it immediately. Attention went to recovering Yumi and regrouping. Everyone was just happy to have Yumi back. So it was easy to push looming things to the background, even if they should not be.

But it only introduced new worries for everyone. Once they returned to Phoibe’s home it became that there might be something more to the problem.

They put Yumi to rest in her bed from before. “She ain’t waking.”

“It’s only been a few minutes,” Saki replied trying to think about it in a positive light, though they were all thinking the same thing. Worry ran thick and uncontrollable. They did not know if they had failed. Or maybe they made it worse somehow. “She’ll wake up soon. We just need to give her time.”

“Saki’s right, Seiji. We’ll just wait for her to come back on her own time.”

Saying nothing, Yori walked away from the back of the room going to the door before Seiji noticed. He turned to see him grab the handle. “Hey man! Where you going? Aren’t you going to stay by your sister’s side?”

Yori paused in the middle of opening the door. “My sister’s safe,” he answered without even looking back at them. After his reply, the door finished opening and he disappeared behind the door as it closed.

Such an answer did not really give what Seiji was looking for. He did not understand Yori terse reaction. Though he said nothing more than a direct statement, Seiji could feel there was something bothering him. It was not outward anger like he had before. He was not even sure if it was anger at all. Something deeply ate him in a new way that he had not seen from him before. “What’s his problem? He’s been on edge fighting us over protecting Yumi and now he just leaves without even a word now.”

Stepping out into the main room that had become known as the waiting room, Yuki sat down at the table recovering from the encountering. “Let him be, Seiji. He’s got a lot on his mind right now. He’s pride took a big hit.”

“Pride? Because he wasn’t able to save Yumi by himself?”

“No, it’s more complicated than that.”

Seiji walked away from Yumi’s bed to sit down at the table wanting some answers from Yuki. “What are you talking about? We save her, does the means of doing so matter?”

“Things aren’t that simple, Seiji,” reminded Saki as she sat down as well. The matter of Yori was not the immediate problem on Saki’s mind though. She quickly shifted focus away from him. Staring across the table as Yuki, she pushed the bigger concern. “Anyone else bothered by that warning saying the test wasn’t over?”

“It’s just sour grapes,” Seiji dismissed with a wave of a hand. “They were overconfident in their abilities and were just upset that they lost to Yuki.”

“I’m not so sure about that.” She looked back over at the sleeping Yumi. None of them really understood what was going on with Yumi. It was beyond what they normally dealt with. And things did not feel right to her. Saki could tell it bothered Yuki as well.

“I’m with Saki on this, Seiji. The way the Tactician talked, they wouldn’t be a sore loser over something like that. I almost got the feeling that they were pleased to have lost or that maybe even losing was planned. If feels like there’s something bigger going on that we can’t see.”

“Aren’t you just trying to make this out to bigger thing than it actually is?”

“I hope you’re right. We’ll know in time.” He looked at Yumi. She would answer which of them had the correct feeling in time. But if he was right rather than Seiji, he had no clue how to proceed.

Chapter 379 – Blind Echoes

Night fell on the city and the fears that Yuki and Saki felt started to become well founded. Yumi continued to sleep. Despite efforts by Nerine, more experienced than Yuki with their powers, she could nothing to wake Yumi forcibly. It started to look like they had not actually saved her.

To make matters worse, Hiroshi returned from his UN meeting. Once the door opened and the two walked through Yuki immediately stood up. He looked over at Yumi for one last time and then made for the door. “I’m going for a walk.”

“Yuki!”

“Don’t worry. I’ll disguise myself.”

The door closed behind another leaving Saki with Hiroshi and Tatsuya. She sighed to herself before sitting down again. “That’s not the point…”

“It’s fine. It’ll take time for him to get use me again.”

“I fear time won’t be enough.” Hiroshi joined her at the table with Tatsuya coming up along his side. She could see the long expression covering his face. It had to no doubt be a long day for him. However, she hoped that there might have been some progress in the peace efforts.

That ended up being Seiji’s cue to step out as well. “I’m going to get some fresh air as well. I don’t really have an interest in all of this politics talk.” He threw his arms up to cross behind his head as he casually made for the door. Before he could opened it, the door flew open with a familiar face. “Hey! It’s you!” A wide grin came across his face. “You had an impressive fight!”

Miyako glanced over at Seiji and immediately recognized him from their fight. Greeting Seiji with a bump of their forearms, she gave him a smirk back with acknowledgement. “Sounds like you got a raw deal.”

“Yeah, but there’s always something to learn from a loss.”

“I’m impressed, that’s very mature of you.”

“I’m used to losing a lot. So I just turn it around to something I can use the next time.” Seiji caught the look of Saki out of the corner of his eye. He quickly quiet up about such talk. “I’m going to the roof for some air, you’re here to see Hiroshi I’m assuming.”

“Right!” She looked over at Hiroshi at the table watching the two of them. Miyako sharply refocused her attention on him and walked away from the door. “I got word that you returned, Commander!”

“Enough with the Commander already, we aren’t even a fighting force anymore.”

Nerine stepped away from the table as well. “I’m going to excuse myself as well. These are not matters for me to be present for.” She quickly rushed over to follow Seiji out of the room.

Saki turned her gaze away from the two leaving and back to Hiroshi. “So what happened? You’re both back in one piece, so things didn’t break down into fighting at least.” Though she had pushed the initiative and Hiroshi agreed, she still feared a little that it was just going to turn into a fight or that the UN would just arrest them.

Tatsuya started in place of Hiroshi, as he still seemed to be collecting himself. “The Masayuki guy was there as we hoped. That seemed to help things a little, but it was just mostly a bunch of suits. No one really important in the UN was there.”

“Though there was someone not representing the UN there as well. He was actually in a suit and seemed to have a lot of sway with the others.” Hiroshi recalled the meeting and the nerves going into it. In a way, not meeting with the General or something really important in the UN came as a bit of a relief. Though at the same time, it annoyed him since they still were not being taking seriously. After a single day of working together, he knew that he could not expect that much from the UN. “The rest of the suits as Tatsuya puts it were just military representatives in uniform.”

The man in the suit interested Saki. “I remember there being a man in a suit when I met with the General as well. Do you think it was the same man? A sort of bookish, mousy looking man. Sort of average looking like he didn’t belong there, but somehow held more respect than it looked.”

“Sounds like the guy, but I didn’t get a name. He mostly just seemed to be observing the meeting.”

“Any agreements made like supplies or trade?”

“Unfortunately, no,” Hiyoshi replied to Miyako. He sighed pressing his hand to his head. “It was all really frustrating to listen to. They barely even acknowledged us. They just saw as a couple of kids in the adult’s playground like we didn’t belong.”

“It’s a joke, since they are so afraid of us and our powers. They just kept talking without really letting us answer anything. They want to dictate all the terms.”

“I’m not sure what I expected to happen. This just seems like we should have seen coming.” It was hard to accept for him. Hiroshi hoped with the aid of Masayuki things could be different. They did not have to fight anymore. He did not want a life of being on the run and fearing for those that he loved. Yet that dream seemed to be far away. “We’ve got no power. Nothing to negotiate with.”

“They met you at the table, that’s something.”

“Only because they fear us I suspect, not because they respect us or want to work together.”

“Then we just need to give them something to respect,” answered Miyako, dropping her fist to the table.

Hiroshi felt a little uneasy about what she might be suggesting. Making something forced was not going to be any better convincing them. “What exactly are you suggesting?”

“When negotiating, you need power. You said yourself. We have no power. We’ll need something that will give them a reason to treat us seriously and not as just a bunch of citizens grouped together.” She still had not reached the actually suggestion she had in mind and their looks made that clear. “I know people. Some of them we picked up and are in the group already, those that still live. But I’ve still got connections in the city. If we’re going to have a stronger presence at the barging table we’ll need to unite more of the city under us.”

“I’m not conquering the city just to have negotiating power with the UN, Miyako!”

“I’m not suggesting that. Let me work my connections. I have a life still and I will put it to good use so that it’s not a waste to those that we’ve left behind.”

Hiroshi fell into silence seeing the determination on Miyako’s face. He had not seen her talk about her men since they died. He was not sure how she was holding up. They had not had a moment to rest and mourn. But she was strong. Though he feared how long that would last before she crumbled. “Alright, fine. Just remember, we’re not fighting. You’re probably right that we’re too small. We’re just a neighborhood and barely that now. If we have more of the city banded together maybe they’ll start listening to us. At the very least, we might be able to hold back the violence.”

“One step at a time, you’ll get there.”


“You’re the only one that seems to have the confidence that this will work, Saki.”

“Because I know you can make it happen. I can tell.” She stood up from the table walking to the door now as well. The path was set for Hiroshi, she felt good about where it was headed. Now she just had to wait. ‘In time, I’ll be able to introduce them to the Alliance… They’ve still got a ways to go before that can happen though…’

“Where you heading now?”

“To find a solution to our current problem,” she said looking back at the beds. Saki then closed the door behind her and went to the rooftop. A quick leap put her to the ledge of the building staring out at the city with Seiji and Nerine by. “Where’d Yuki go?”

“Hell if I know!”

“He went west back to his home.”

“Thanks, Nerine! That makes sense!” She jumped off the building to land on the adjacent building. Using the buildings for quick traversal, Saki made it out of the business district quickly. The transition to homes came abruptly, though still far away from their neighborhood. Finding Yuki was far too easy. Even in disguise.

Landing down next to a middle aged woman, Saki stopped in front blocking the way. “You found me fast. Meeting already over?”

“It’s not very hard when most people are too afraid to walk alone in the streets. We have more important things to discuss than Hiroshi’s plans.”

“Yumi.”

“That’s right. We can’t leave her like that.”

“We don’t know yet if she’s going to stay like that.”

“Holding out hope on that?”

“A little. I’m out of options. I’m not digging around in her mind with my powers. I’ve done everything I can to free her, but she’s still stuck somewhere in her mind I fear.”

“She’s far enough forward that the other personality can’t control her, but not enough that she’s conscious.”

“As little sense that makes, yes. That’s what I fear. Which means going into her mind to get her free.”

“Didn’t Athene go into Yori’s mind before? And even Ayumi said that they wipe memories of people regularly in Atlantis with their powers.”

“Yes, but I don’t feel comfortable doing that. I might be the most powerful Kasou-ryoku user in the world, but I’m still very new to using my powers. I don’t want to risk a mistake in Yumi’s head.”

“Nerine worked on the border patrol as well. She might be able to do it.”

“That’s true. Nerine might be our last chance to truly save Yumi.”

To be continued…

[Andromeda]

“So what do you think, Nerine?” Yuki asked. All of them gathered back at Phoibe’s place standing out in the main room of the third floor. “Do you think that you can do it?” He had been so focused on the taboo and his own fear of hurting anyone that he immediately ignored what was in front of him. It made him glad that Saki could be at his side.

A pensive expression dug through Nerine’s face as she weighed an answer. Digging through the minds of others carried a lot of risk. When their powers got involved their powers did not always pan out the way they wanted. It was an unpredictable nature at times. “I’m not as talented as Athene, but you’re not wrong in that I’ve been trained to wipe memories. Though wiping memories is a far simpler sort of task than trying to retrieve something or trying to wake someone.”

Seiji patted Nerine on the back with his usual brand of positivity. “You can do it, Nerine!”

“I’ll give it a try,” she replied quickly with much of her waffling disappearing.

“Thanks!”

Saki looked around the room despite it being a pointless effort. There was no one else in the room besides those around her, Yumi excluded. “What about Yori? Shouldn’t we have him present for this as well?”

“But no one knows where that bastard ran off to after we got back.”

“She’s still his sister and cares about her more than anything else.”

“Saki’s right, Seiji. We should find him so that he can be here for this.”

“Yeah, but how are we going to find him? No one knows where the hell he went!”

“Hmm…” Yuki feel silent along with the others. Seiji spoke the truth, as much as everyone already knew. They saw nothing of Yori after he left abruptly on their return. ‘I had sort of hoped that he would have returned while we were away, but I guess that was too much to hope for. We need to help Yumi. But I haven’t a clue how much he’s hurt by the way things ended.’

Moving to the door, Saki did not seem to be taking it to mean that they should do nothing. “Let’s start where we can probably get the most answers.”

“Answers?” Yuki was not the only one confused by Saki’s idea. They all stared at her with a slightly tilted head trying to figure her out. But no one arrived at the same conclusion Saki made.

She motioned to them to follow her. “I’m talking about Phoibe, she knows a little too much about too many things. She’s our only play at the moment, unless you enjoy the thought of running around the city blind.”

Chapter 380 – The Impossible Floor

“Yeah, I know where he is,” the woman replied to everyone’s surprise. She looked around at them with a bit of her own that they had lost their friend.

As to be expected, Seiji leapt forward first for the answer. “Where the hell is he?”

“In his cell.”

“What?!” shouted everyone. They all needed a moment to process the fact that Yori never actually left the building on top of the strange fact that he just went back to his cell. The same cell that he wanted out of badly before to save his sister. The very one that he hated and found despise in when looking at them for their treatment of him. He went back to the very same room.

“You’re joking right?”

“No, I know the location of everyone in my shop, he hasn’t left since you returned.”

“I guess that makes it easier for us,” Yuki spoke just having to accept the simplicity of the situation, not that dealing with Yori could be anything simple. Each encounter would only get more complicated with him. That much he understood. “Saki could to visit him? I doubt my presence will have a positive influence on him at this point.”

“Right.”

Waiting back on the third floor for the answer, Saki stepped through the threshold first with Yori in tow a few steps behind. A half awake and dazed expression painted over his face. ‘I sort of expected him to have more anger In him, but he looks more defeated than anything now…’ Yuki hesitated a little before moving back to Yumi’s bed with the others.

As everyone sat around on the neighboring beds, Nerine kneel next to Yumi taking in measured breaths. Slight shakes in her hand betrayed any sort of confidence she bolstered in her actions. Even as she activated her powers she drew out each action.

Yuki looked across Yumi’s bed to Yori on the other side. “You good for this?”

“Whatever…”

‘I want to say more, but he’s just going to yell probably if I try anything more. This isn’t the way to get his approval, he’s not in his right mind to make any sort of judgments. But we can’t wait either. Nerine doesn’t want to hurt Yumi… What other option do we have?’

“You going to get started?” asked Seiji becoming impatient with Nerine delaying as long as possible. In his own way, Seiji seemed to understand how she was feeling, but pushed her forward.

Putting her attention to Yumi, she closed her eyes and focused everything she had on Yumi’s mind. As the world around her melted away, she entered darkness. Her approach to Yumi went smoothly. The moment crossed the threshold everything changed from black to white. She found herself in a completely white room. “Where am I?”

“A place you don’t belong,” answered an unknown voice in all sides.

“Who are you? Wait! N-no…. NO!!!” Nerine screamed aloud making everyone in the room jump off the bed. Seiji rushed over to Nerine’s side to catch her before she collapsed to the floor.

“Nerine! Nerine, answer me! Are you alright?!” He shook her while trying to remember his strength. Fortunately for him, the shock that Nerine took did not seem to have knocked her out completely. It only froze her for a moment and she started to move again. “Nerine? What happened?”

Breathing heavily and struggling to get her heart beat down even under a hundred was difficult. Even worse was that all of it was still etched in her mind. It carved into her skull providing her with an endless loop that she could not escape from. Every moment spent on it felt like a ten and each experience felt as though she was being killed slowly.

Everything drained out of her.

Yuki finished checked on Yumi to ensure that nothing happened to her. Worst was that she looked completely unchanged. Only Nerine came out of it different. “What did you see?” he said fearing what might have caused her to be in such pain.

Still trying to catch a breath, Nerine fought with her mind to focus on reporting her results. “I failed…” That much had already been pretty clear to everyone. “I understand why the Commander was blinded by what she found. Her mind…” Nerine looked over at the bed and Yumi, her body recoiled in reaction. “I can’t bring her back. I don’t know how the Commander survived for so long, but this is impossible for anyone.”

Like everyone else, Yuki found it surprising to hear that Nerine called it impossible. Given their powers the thought of something being impossible sounded like a joke. Their powers were about doing the impossible in the real world. ‘Is this our limit? Can we do nothing to save Yumi now?’

“Hey guys, I was just wondering,” opened Seiji as he began his question. “Is there a reason we can’t have Yori do it?”

“Huh?”

Helping Nerine over to an open bed, he let her rest and hopefully to forget about everything that happened. Seiji turned to look at his friends. “I mean we’re just trying to wake up Yumi by going into her mind. Yori’s got weird mind powers right? He talked to us in our minds before back in Atlantis.”

Yuki and Saki stared each other for a moment thinking about the suggestion. They both had a slightly bewildered and shocked expression that only seemed to multiple the longer they thought about it. To break the cycle, he stood up and went around the bed to Yori. “You might have something. I had forgotten what Athene told us about her attempts to break Yori and the results of it. It’d make sense that Yumi’s mental defenses are as strong as Yori’s if not possibly worse.”

It took a second for it to happen, but some life started to return to Yori’s eyes. He looked up at Yuki standing next to him. There seemed to be a bit of hope within him.

“You might be the only one that can save Yumi.”

“I haven’t heard that before,” he replied sarcastically.

A grin came across Yuki’s face to hear some fire back in Yori’s words. He did not know how long it would last, but for now Yori might be their only chance to save Yumi. “Glad to see you’re back. Think Seiji might be on the right track?”

“It’s possible.” Yori had already been thinking about it for a while before Seiji brought it. But it was not an aspect of his power that he had trained. Athene’s training was martial, not mental. ‘I know I spoke with Yumi directly in her mind when we were trapped under the rubble from the school. But I’ve never dug deeper with her. Even when I went into Athene’s mind it felt different like I wasn’t in control of what I was doing.’ He could only hope for such an experience.

Nerine made it the second time that he saw someone try to enter their minds and be nearly destroyed by it. None of it really made a lot of sense to him. This sort of thing was Yuki’s field. The impossible and fictional. He still tried to understand how to use everything he had to fight and survive.

Not that much of that matter at the moment. He had no real options remaining. Staring at Yumi, she remained quiet and unmoved. Even after all of this time she did not wake. It had nearly been a day now and she was in a worse state than before.

Stepping forward, Yori accepted the challenge. “I know from personal experience that my mind is a complex maze that is difficult to explore. If Yumi’s is even half as bad as mine this isn’t going to be easy. But I’m not normal anymore, so I should have more mental fortitude to survive.”

“It’s all on you then. We’re out of options at this point.”

“I understand the stakes.” He knelt down at Yumi’s side resting a hand on her hand. Life still flowed through her as an encouragement that all was not lost yet. Time remained for them to save her. ‘Test isn’t over, huh? What will I face inside Yumi’s mind?’

He looked around at the others before he proceeded. “I’ve never done this, so I don’t know what will happen to me. No matter what becomes of me don’t stop me no matter what you see.”

“Hey man, we’re not going to let you kill yourself to save Yumi!”

“Don’t stop me! I must save her.” He stared down at Yumi. A wall already seemed to form around her and he had not even started yet. It channeled into his hesitation and doubt feeding on his fears. It understood him better than himself. ‘I will…’

Saki put a hand on Seiji’s shoulder to get him in line. “I’ll throw you back in myself if it comes to it.”

“…thanks…” Focusing back on Yumi, Yori breathed deeply as he pushed his commitment to the next stage. He threw himself in forcing back the doubt. If it wanted him it would have to follow and keep up. There was no slowing down anymore. It would only drag him down.

Leaning in, Yori touched his forehead to Yumi’s as he had done before when he talked directly to her while she was unconscious. ‘Yumi…hear me…listen for me…Yumi!’ The rest of the room began to crumble away from the edges of his mind. He could no longer hear the pattern of breathing from Yuki or the racing beats of Nerine’s heart. Everything faded away as the void drew him in deeper and deeper.

Minutes or seconds, he could not understand time in such a construct. It felt long and short at the same time. Like it went on forever while also forgetting it and knowing it only started. His body tumbled through the space between until he fell on something solid. It remained indescribable and unseen. Something existed without any sense of self or form. “Yumi! Can you hear me?” He hoped that he dropped straight into the place between her subconscious and conscious states.

In response, perhaps to his shouting, multi-color lights exploded everywhere around him completely filling his view. It was bizarre and somehow unnerving. Something in it made his headache. He winced a little trying to keep his focus. “So it’s come… I’m ready for whatever you have for me!”

Back in the real world, Yori’s body jerked and shook in response to the unknown. His friends could only watch with uncertainty at what was going on with him. He lasted longer than the few seconds that Nerine did in her attempt. And the toll on him became clear as blood started to drip down his nose from the strain.

Seiji jumped up to grab for Yori before it could be permanent. However, Saki stepped in grabbing his wrist to restrain him. “The hell, Saki?! He’s in pain, this isn’t working!”

“We have to believe in Yori. This is our last chance even if he’s completely destroyed by this, this is something he has chosen to do. Respect his will.”

“Damnit! There’s got to be a better way,” he shouted snatching his arm back and turning away. They were going to stand in his way.

None of them knew the danger that Yori might be in within the depth of Yumi’s mind. The unknown potential of Yumi’s mind created a looming fear in the room as Yori became more pained with each second that passed. They did not know how much damage he would take before he was rejected. Did Yumi not want to be saved?

To be continued…

[Andromeda]

“Where am I?” Yori asked himself aloud. It had a bit of a rhetorical element to it. While he knew that he was inside Yumi’s conscious mind, it was easy to forget. The familiar was something very familiar. A weird sense of reality and fantasy. Things appeared real and his body knew that they were real. Yet his mind knew better. It did everything it could to prove it was right.

That effort left him feeling almost queasy like he had a stomach flu. Trying to keep from throwing up and hold it together. He did not remember feeling that part before. ‘Everything in here feels heightened. Like everything wants me to leave.’ A very hostile intent hovered through the air. It took getting through the unease for him to pick up on it.

“This is very wrong. Yumi isn’t like this.”

The space suddenly changed housed with fire and burning buildings. Smoke filled up his lungs making him curl over in a coughing fit. For not being real, it certainly seemed to feel that way. His body could not help reacting to it. The smoke was thick and impossible to see through as it rolled in on waves. Light highlights of red and orange lined edges of the smoke as the only sight of the flames consuming everything. It was impossibly oppressive.

“Because it isn’t just her in here,” answered a woman with a very unfamiliar voice. There was a dark and mature tone not filled with menace, but still powerful. A voice that demanded respect and easily found it.

Amongst the smoke Yori could see nothing of the woman. “Who’s there?” He mind started to run through who it could be. An immediate answer came to hi m. “It’s you! The one controlling my sister!”

“You don’t belong here.”

“It’s you that doesn’t belong! Give my sister back to me!”

“You’re as annoying as they said.”

“Who said?” He started to think that this was not the same person he had fought with before. It made his mind spin with doubt and questions. ‘It’s not that woman? Another?’ Then he remembered the meeting that they had with Yuki. ‘The unnamed one we don’t know. Is that who this is?’

“Leave if you know what’s good for you.”

“I’m not leaving without my sister!”

“You don’t have a choice.”

A sudden blast of wind pulled all of the smoke away from around Yori. It dragged on him making his feet slid back. “I’m not…leaving!” But he could not hold himself against the wind. Each second only made it grow stronger and stronger. Before long his feet lost contact with the ground and he flew up into the air cast away from everything.

He crashed into the ground seeing a road stretched out before him. “Huh? I’m somewhere else now…” It took him a moment seeing something familiar that he had not seen in so long once more. It was almost welcoming. Until he felt something stab through his back.

Pain jumped through his body after the shock of it wore off for him. It paralyzed him sharply. He could not even look to see who had attacked him. “…n-no…” Yori breathed heavily with his face crushed against the pavement as his body felt impossibly heavy.

Nothing moved.

He was dead.

Yori gasped for air suddenly nearly going lightheaded with it happening so fast. He looked around to see that he returned to Yumi’s side at the bed. Reality had disappointedly returned. He stared down trying to figure out the wet sensation.

Blood. He wiped it away from his mouth and nose with his sleeve. Then turned back to Yumi not losing his determination.

“You succeed?” Seiji asked quickly wanting to stop him again.

Saki held Seiji back while Yori leaned in again to Yumi. “I’m not finished. I’m going back in.”

Chapter 381 – The Uninvited

“Yumi!” Yori shouted within her mind again. He had no clue what he was doing. He promised himself to find her and bring her back, but he had no way to knowing how to do it. It was not something that he really focused on at the start. But now that her mind fought back against him, it made him wonder what he was supposed to do.

Unlike before, a large room with lanterns casting light across well polished wood floors stretched out before him. It had a very distinctive traditional Japanese feel to it. He did not recognize the place. It could not be from Yumi’s mind. “Which one of you is it this time?”

“You really don’t know when to quit.”

“You!” He had never heard her voice before that was not from Yumi’s lips, but he recognized it immediately. The superior and confident tone that effortlessly stood above all else without peer. They were so far into the sky it seemed like no one could even see them.

It was the woman that Yuki had dubbed the Tactician. He knew it without her having to tell him. However, he could not find her. Yori walked forward in the well lit room towards the voice. The room never ended. It continued to grow as he walked in an endless repeating pattern of columns, lanterns and wood. “Where are you?! I’ll settle this with you now!”

“Fighting me won’t find your sister.”

“It’s not about that!”

“You’re in our mind. You have no power here.”

“You expect that to stop me! You don’t know me as well as you like to claim.”

“No, I know you very well. That’s why you’re there. You will continue this futile and fruitless case even to your own death. You believe your selfishness and ego-centric reasons will bare you results if you keep smashing your head against the wall. Foolishness.”


Yori turned about in search of the woman getting the feeling that he was being misdirected by her. Her voice could not be trusted. But she kept out of his sight. The distance only repeated what surrounded him. No walls or doors appeared in all of his walking. Being in the mind, such an impossible space was normal.

They had him trapped.

“Then come out and face me!”

“That’s unnecessary.”

Once more something stabbed him in the back. He fell down collapsing to the wood planks spilling out his blood over the clean floor. In her mind, he really was helpless. They could do anything to him. He struggled to fight back in the only way that he could.

Surviving.

Though even that might have its limits. The second death came just as painful as the first. However, after the ninth he started to have trouble remember each from the past. And then they started to lose their weight. He just felt tired and exhausted.

“Where am I?” he asked aloud staring at a foggy space that he could not make out. “It must be bad if I can’t even see straight anymore…” But he was not dying repeatedly so he found some comfort in that. Yori fell on his back not even feeling it anymore. Everything became so numb for him. “I just need a moment to rest…”

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” replied an oddly familiar voice that he recognized, but could not place it.

He turned his head about trying to find where the voice came from. Nothing. “Another one of those persona...” Yori closed his eyes ready to deal with more death. A sharp jolt went through his body forcing him up. It felt different from all of the other attacks. “Something new now?”

“I told you, you shouldn’t sleep.”

“I haven’t listened to any of the voices in here, I’m not about to listen to you. I’m doing what I want.” He tried to close his eyes again to get much needed rest, but the jolt came again. Because it was so foreign to everything else that he had felt in the deaths, it actually hurt. “Just kill me already.”

“I’ve got no interest in doing that.”

And now they had his attention, though still blurry-eyed from all of the death-dealing. “Then what do you want?”

“I’ve come to let you know that I found her.”

“Who?”

“Who do you think?”

Yori immediately jumped to his feet looking in the first direction that he saw. “Yumi!? Who are you? Why are you helping me?”

“Because we share a common interest.”

“Common interest?” Yori found the voice puzzling and it clearly wanted it that way. The mysteriousness was annoying, but any clue about Yumi he was going to jump at. So any question that was not about Yumi quickly became irrelevant. “Where is she?”

“It won’t be easy, but I trust you’ll be fine.” There was an odd sense of a laugh in their words even though they remained restrained.

He ran out into the haze without concern. He just expected to get his answer. “I don’t care about how hard it is. Just take me to her!” The fog in his eyes started to clear with his mind finding focus once more.

It was a room, a white normal appearing room. At the center was a table with a single chair. There was something very familiar to the sight that unsettled Yori a bit. However, he did not dwell on it. His attention went to the voice. “Show me!”

“Since you’re awake now…let’s go!” The room faded away sharply along with his footing. Yori flew through space led by the voice to where he might find Yumi. He still did not know what to expect on the other side. He hoped for something that was not so out of place as what the persona’s presented.

Yet that seemed to be the most normal. The blackness gave way to light and light fell into darkness. Out of the darkness crept a massive door or gate. A hulking behemoth of a structure that went far beyond his own sight. Connected to the gate ran a wall equally as imposing. But that was the normal part. Standing out in front of the gate was a pencil as a guard on the right. To the left, that bastard Yuki stood as though it was completely normal. Though with how screwed up he was it might not have found the surroundings strange. But Yori found it unnerving seeing papers, books, animals, desks, bentos, trees and dust pattles just flying around with life of their own.

It looked like a mess as though it was someone’s room. Yet it also appeared like a dream, as things that were not alive looked and moved as though they were. Yori did not know what he was seeing. “Yumi’s here?”

“Of course, idiot. This is subconscious layer one. The part of her that’s closest to be awake. What you see is just a reflection of what’s just below the surface of her thoughts. It tends to be filled with recent things.”

“And what about the guards?” He just accepted the explanation without any questioning. More important matters were at hand and he had to know how to open that gate to get through to Yumi. This physical manifestation had to hold Yumi and the key to waking her up.

“While I put them asleep you’ll sneak in. The rest will be on you, buddy.”

That was a plan he could work with. He put everything into his legs ready to sprint for the gate once he had the opening. There was no clue how long it would last. This was Yumi’s mind and she was probably going to resist him. But he did not even put that in his mind. Yori zeroed in on the gate and nothing else. He could picture Yumi being behind it.

First the clutter came to a stop and then the guards looked dizzy. Then they collapsed to the grass. The moment he heard the thud of them hitting earth, Yori flew out from his spot launching himself at the door. He hit the gate doors with an immoveable crash. “I didn’t expect it to be easy. But this won’t stop me!”

Screaming his lung hoarse, Yori put all of his muscles in his body into moving the gate door. It seemed to be completely stone and impossible to move. Yet it did not stop him from trying. He knew it would open if he pushed hard enough. His sister would not be held from him any longer. “Yumi! I’m coming!”

Suddenly, the door cracked and then shattered. Yori stumbled through crashing into the stone floor. But he did not have time to think about his pain. He pulled his head back to look at what the inside was. “What the hell is this?!”

“The labyrinth of the subconscious! Good luck!”

Laid out before him was not just some walls that turned and twisted in a maze. The entire space was consumed by the so-called labyrinth. Twisting and turning pieces never ended and pockets into the endless void dotted the sights. It was like someone was trying to solve a Rubiks Cube. Everything was in a constant state of movement with no clear beginning or end. He could not even understand what was up or down as it even existed under him. “Where are you, Yumi…”

To be continued…

[Andromeda]

Screaming his lung hoarse, Yori put all of his muscles in his body into moving the gate door. It seemed to be completely stone and impossible to move. Yet it did not stop him from trying. He knew it would open if he pushed hard enough. His sister would not be held from him any longer. “Yumi! I’m coming!”

Suddenly, the door cracked and then shattered. Yori stumbled through crashing into the stone floor. But he did not have time to think about his pain. He pulled his head back to look at what the inside was. “What the hell is this?!”

“The labyrinth of the subconscious! Good luck!”

Laid out before him was not just some walls that turned and twisted in a maze. The entire space was consumed by the so-called labyrinth. Twisting and turning pieces never ended and pockets into the endless void dotted the sights. It was like someone was trying to solve a Rubiks Cube. Everything was in a constant state of movement with no clear beginning or end. He could not even understand what was up or down as it even existed under him. “Where are you, Yumi…”

His voice echoed into the vast complex maze that stretched out before him. But it echoed in a strange way heightening the impossible nature of the place. The volume of his voice increased with each repeat and repeated at irregular patterns. Then it completely closed off in silence only to leap back in behind him near his ear. It sounded almost as if someone whispered it in his ear with seductive tickling. Chills went down his neck and back.

As if he was not already on edge enough, the place itself easily assault his mind with impossible shapes and dimensions that he could not hope to comprehend with any sort of words or reference from his reality. He struggled to not allow it completely break him. Yori wondered how long he could last and remain sane in such a place. ‘The mind is truly a place we don’t belong. I must find Yumi quickly before I end up like Athene and Nerine before me…’

A step forward caused the entire ground he stood upon to shift into an entire new form. Once stone with an oddly medieval almost Western architecture had become completely covered in grass and trees. Unchanged was the endless moving and transforming of the space out in the distance. Which unfortunately also mean all of the previous paths he used to have changed. No longer was there a way forward and to the left. The gate behind him now was the only path.

Yori turned his body to match with his head. There was only one course for him now. “Is this Yumi’s telling me how to find her?” It was his only hope. He might have had mental abilities, but they were completely foreign to him. He had no practice with them and had no idea how they even functioned. So any sort of help from Yumi would be welcome. As much as his determination hardened his resolve, a strange doubt grew like roots in the stone creating crack in his heart.

Any bit of hope that Yori held onto quickly disappeared when his only path transformed into a fork. “…Yumi? Are you doubting me?” The space that he existed in was a part of her mind. He could only guess that any change happened because of her. But it was only a guess.

Chapter 382 – Labyrinth of the Subconscious

He could only follow one path as much as he would have liked to have some ability to clone himself. Having only a flip of a coin chance of being right made his mind ache. He only hoped that even a wrong path could become the right path if he did things right. But he had no basis for such hope.

It was not long before more choices came before him. Hesitation did him no favors he knew. If he delayed it would only hurt his chances of finding Yumi. Each second inside her mind chipped away at his own sanity. The mere presence of the place threatened him, he could only imagine how existing inside her had on his long term mental state. He still ran forward making choices merely on the feeling of his gut needing to find Yumi quickly.

If he was making progress he could not tell. There was no signal of Yumi or an end to the maze. He had no clue how long he had been running, but he never tired, just as the maze never tired of changes. It was random and constant in a way that was impossible for him to find a pattern. He saw the same thing multiple times, but it did not make it any easier for him to know which was the correct path to take.

Then the other shoe dropped, in that the ground fell out from underneath Yori. Dirt crumbled to his step and quickly spread out preventing him from even running away. Into the darkness he fell until crashing into hard stone.

Groaning, it did not feel as painful as he thought it would be, though it still hurt. “Ugh…traps now?” Yori started to look around to get his bearings on the room. Fitting with the transitory nature of the maze, he could not find where he fell through. There was a ceiling acting as though it had always been there.

As he stood up, there was only a single path for him. “At least I know where to go…” It took it as a positive sign. Though he was not sure if he should have done that.

The single hall quickly became forks once more and he returned to the same state as before. He rushed through each hall picking anything that made sense to him. Endless twists and turned piled up on him. A routine had started to develop with it, even despite it being completely random. ‘I think I’m starting to figure this out… Somehow this chaos makes a little bit of sense. I don’t know how, but it does…’

Suddenly the path came to an end. No wall saying it was a dead end, just no wall literally. The ground stopped and out beyond him was the rest of the maze twisting and churning about. Worst was that he could not see the path. “Where am I supposed to go now?” He looked behind him and the path he took disappeared. It already completely changed and locked him away. This was the only way to go. “I’m supposed to just jump? But to where?”

Kneeling down to the ground, he poked at the emptiness. He kept poking around at the air hoping for a sign, but came up short. “So it’s not one of those leaps of faith sorts of things where the path is just invisible. It’s just not there at all.” Yori stepped back to take stock of things once more.

He really only had one option and he knew it. “I’ve been running blind this whole time believing that Yumi is just in reach. No time to stop now.” It was the only path that he could take. That much he knew and understood. So he just had to push out the doubt and charge forward.

A running leap, a leap into the void he expected. Everything was connected. He would end up somewhere. That much he could be certain of. He just did not know where he would be. With nothing underneath him and the distance too far, it was only inevitable that he would fall into the darkness. But even that shifted to become something else. Nothing remained static and the void followed the same rules, if there could even be considered rules within such a place.

He fell into a field of flowers. Multi-colored daisies and tulips filled the rolling hills that grew out before him. “No more maze?” It was as confusing as anything else in this space. He could not make any more sense of it than anything else he found. Nothing he had found really seemed to feel like it was Yumi. He expected things that might represent her, but all that ended at the guards of the gate. Inside, he could make nothing out of any of it. It was just a mess in the least logical way.

But the colorful sight gave him a bit of a change of pace from narrow passages. Despite being in an open field it somehow felt just as tightly packed and claustrophobic as the hallways. And worse, he had even less guidance on his path. He could only pick a direction and keep running.

Unlike in the walled areas of the maze, he could actually see the sun and clouds. A sense of time and progression actually seemed to hold meaning. Which only made it worse when it became night and he still kept running. The field never ended and never changed. “I almost wish I could have the hallways back. I sort of felt like I was making progress even though it was still just as endless as this field of flowers.” But his wish would not be granted.

Time continued to pass only making the sense of eternity worse. Without the time he had no idea how long he had been searching. In his mind he could still rationalize reality and perception as to different things. It might have felt like hours, but it was only minutes. Now he knew it was wrong.

He had been running in the field for four days without stop. That itself seemed impossible to him. But he never had fatigue or the wish to stop from his body to catch his breath. Which meant he could continually search for her even without sleep as well. But the same sight began to sour on him even more. Seeing no change at all ended up being worse for him. “I just want anything different now. Even the black void would be welcome right now… I feel like I’m going to go insane just from seeing flowers…” Which seemed like a very real possibility for Yori after a week.

“…Yumi…” he muttered as even her name started to lose any sort of meaning to him. “Yumi? Who is that? I keep saying it, but why?” Yori shook his head as the flashes of forgetfulness threatened him. “No, I must find her. I will. You can’t stop me!”

Finally, the fields came to an end. He reached the point where there was nothing more. “We meet again,” he spoke out to the void. “How long has it been now? Weeks?” Without even hesitation anymore, he stepped into the void for it to consume him.

Flat on his back, he did not even feel the pain of the fall. He did not remember if there was pain. Just a different and welcome ceiling. “I remember you…” It had returned to him. The labyrinth that he thought he had escaped. Yet now there was something wrong with the place. Walls stopped being a thing. There was only surfaces in an endless tessellation. And out there was himself. “Why is there more than one of me?” There were countless other Yoris running everywhere. Each one shouting out for someone called Yumi. “So I’m searching for Yumi as well then?”

He began to run like the others of him did. It only made sense. If they ran it must be because it was important. They had somewhere to be, to find. They had to find Yumi. “I must find Yumi too.” That was his purpose. Right?

Time held no meaning anymore. He just kept running the path. The sense of the warped space did not even unnerve him anymore. It just made sense. It was natural. This was the way things should be. Direction was an empty word for him in such a space.

Run.

Run.

“…Yumi…” Another Yori passed by. They always passed by. Each one had a path and course. Their paths intersected regularly. It was easier to cover more ground with them. They would find Yumi this way for sure. The goal would be found.

However, as the running continued few of them crossed paths as regularly. It seemed time started to mean something. There looked to be fewer Yoris. None of them found what they sought, yet there were fewer with each passing course.

“…tired…I…Yori…is tired…” Those that still held strong no longer ran. It became a sprint, even though a sprint was short it was just an endless short sprint. But they started to jog and then walk. Eventually, they could only crawl.

Collapsed on the ceiling, they could not move anymore. Fatigue finally struck and it was not the same sort of push through fatigue that normally existed. It was the completely empty and drained, no reserves, no extra will of fortitude or determination to draw upon fatigue. An immoveable fatigue that glued them to the wall.

“…can’t…move…Yumi…must…find…”

It was the end. They wanted to keep searching, but it was impossible. Nothing would move their bodies anymore. They could only lay and it was not even a rest. The fatigue and heavy breathing never ended. It continued no matter how still they remained. It could not be escaped or eased.

They were finished.

“…I must…” They paused suddenly not remembering. “What…was…I…?” Laying on the floor was their purpose. That must be it. That was what they could only conclude. They never moved. It was something that they had never done before. It only made sense.

“…here…”

A voice echoed through the chamber. It called out to them. Something familiar about it alerted them. They did not know why it was familiar. But it had their attention.

“You must find her! Find your sister, Yumi!”

“…sister? Yumi? I…was?” It made no sense to them. That could not be right. “…bas…tard…” It felt familiar to him. He seemed to remember something. Yori lifted his head knowing that voice. “Hayashi…you don’t have to remind me. I will find her! I will find YUMI!!”

He stood up on his feet once more as he shouted into the void. All around him the others disappeared into dust. Then the surfaces disappeared with shattering. The space created within the subconscious broke and all that remained was a familiar room of comfort.

“Yumi’s room…” He walked over to her bed seeing her sleeping peacefully without any concern or worry. It made him smile a little to see that she could be safe and unaware of everything. His sister had been protected.

Sitting down on the edge of the bed, he reached out for her hand. “Yumi…it’s time to wake up now…”

“Yori!” shouted another familiar and annoying voice from a distance. It pulled him away from her room, but it was fine now. He did not have to worry anymore. “Yori! Can you hear me?!”

He groaned in pain as his body and mind ached like nothing he had ever known before. It felt like he had stayed awake for a whole month studying without any sleep or break. Nothing more could be crammed into his brain. And he already forgot everything he had learned. He was useless. “Yes…I can hear your annoying voice…where are you?”

“Don’t scare us like that man!”

“What are you talking about?”

“You stopped breathing for a moment. We thought you died!”

“…oh…”

“Is that all you can say?!”

Yori did not really have much more he could say to Seiji. He could not even see him. His eyes would not open. “I just exhausted myself a little. I’m too tired to even open my eyes.”

“What are you talking about, your eyes are open and completely red.”

“Open? But I see nothing…” He suddenly thought back to Athene and what happened to her while she was in his mind. It robbed her of her sight. The reason for it never made any sense to him. He could only speculate that the experience destroyed her mind in a unique way that it no longer could make a connection. “This is my price then…”

“Price?”

“Never mind that, Yumi? Is she awake?”

“I am…” Yumi said softly to everyone’s surprise.

To be continued…

[Andromeda]

“Yumi!” shouted Yori before anyone else got to it. He fumbled around with his hands to reach her in his blindness. “You’re back!”

Yumi held a slight bit of hesitation until she answered, “I am…thank you.”

Relief spread through Yori body so far it nearly made him faint. ‘I succeeded! I did it!’ It did not matter to him that he could not see her. Just knowing the fact that she was awake and saved was all he needed. All the stress and tension disappeared from his body almost instantly at that point. He fell backwards completely losing all of his strength followed by consciousness.

“Yori?! Hey man!”

Yuki walked around and placed a hand on Seiji’s shoulder to stop him from trying to shake him too hard. “He’s just exhausted. Going through all of that had to be mentally draining. Let him rest.”

Seiji gave him a slow nod as it made sense to him. “Right…he’ll be all better once he wakes up.”

Watching Seiji carry Yori over to one of the beds, Yuki could not help but feel a little sadness for Seiji’s hopefulness. He knew what he referred to and doubted it was going to be so simple. ‘It’s just like what happened with Athene, though I thought with Yori being enhanced such things could have been avoided. I guess even for him it was a painful experience… How am I going to explain this to Yumi? She’s going to blame herself for it.’

The scene back around Yumi held a positive and cheerful mood. Not the sort of atmosphere to step on with bad news. Though Yuki suspected the others were as acutely aware of the situation. It was just easier to be swept up with the cheer, something they did finally succeeded. A hard win, but it finally felt like a win. Even though it came at a price.

One thing at a time, he told himself. Yuki returned with a smile. “You must be starved, Yumi. You haven’t eaten for more than a week!”

Yumi thought about it and found it surprising that she was not nearly as hungry as she thought. Then remembered an odd memory that was not her own. ‘I guess they took care of me…’ She still nodded in agreement though, food sounded good.

Chapter 383 – Awakened Mind

“What happened with Hiroshi and Takako?” Yumi asked from the seat at the table. They only had simple things for her prepared, but he could munch away while getting caught up to speed on events. “I feel like a lot of time has passed.”

It was the first sort of thing that everyone wondered. If she remembered the terrible events of that she played party to, even while under Takako’s control. Saki and Yuki exchanged glances with each other to figure out what details to give and what to withhold. They both knew things were not going to be easy. “What’s the last thing you remember?” opened Yuki, staving of for a moment dark tales.

Drinking on her water, she tried to recall what happened. ‘There’s large blanks in my mind that I can’t seemed to recall even though I get a strange feeling that I wasn’t knocked out then. What happened?’ Once she set down the cup, she looked over at Yuki. “I remember being forced to fight against Katsumi and Kaede. The woman with Hiroshi showed up, but things get blurry at that pont.”

‘She doesn’t remember any of the time while she was under Takako’s control then,’ Saki thought, recalling some of the things that happened while until Yumi’s orders. ‘For now I’ll keep what I know a secret. It’s not really anything that will do her any good. No point ruining her first day as herself again.’ Leaving out details, Saki knew that she had to be a little creatively selective with the details that she gave. “Takako’s dead now.” Starting out simply made the most sense.

“She’s dead?! What happened?” She looked over at Yuki almost pleading with him for it not to be true. “We wanted to save her, right?”

Yuki hung his head low reminded of how he had failed Takako. “I’m sorry, Yumi. It’s the truth. I was unable to save her. She refused to accept my offer.”

“You didn’t…”

“Hiroshi did it,” interjected Saki to correct what Yumi was assuming from Yuki’s misleading self-pity. “Yuki refused to kill her like she wanted. He tried to save her to the very end, but she had already caused too many deaths and ruined too many lives to be allowed to live.”

Hearing such heartless words from Saki left Yumi in a momentary shock of state. Her hand pressed against the table trying to keep herself together. She could not believe what she was hearing from her friend. “Takako was your friend, Saki. How can you be so cold?”

“The Takako I knew was long gone by the time I met her. It was a mercy for her.”

“Saki!”

“Or would you have preferred to let Yuki find a cure for her and force her to remember all of the atrocities that she ordered while she was driven completely insane by her powers?” Saki became a little distant as her mind started to wander to dark thoughts. “She was never going to be the same. She at least has peace now.”

“That’s so sad…” Yumi stood up from the table and while her empty plate over to the sink. Running the water over the leftover food, she tried to think on other things, but her mind kept imagining how things had played out. The last moments of Takako’s life hung in her mind. She was not even there, but she could not help but feel for her.

Nothing internally, she tried was going to rid her of these dark dreams. It was the past now and she could do nothing about it. She turned around to look at the table and then the room. It was not as filled as she expected. “What about everyone else?”

Yuki looked around the room to put together everyone that was missing from their group. “Fumiko disappeared not too long after she fully recovered, but she’s alive. Haruo is being himself and just hanging around downstairs. He’s helping out with those still recovering. Chiharu is still doing her own thing and we haven’t heard from her. Nerine has joined us and she’s sleeping off her fatigue right now. We lost a lot of people, but we at least saved more than we lost. It’s the only consolation right now…”

“Hey, look at the bright side,” Seiji shouted with full energy, “We got Yumi back! There might be a lot of bad things right now, but this can start our winning streak!”

“Always annoyingly positive…”

“Hey Saki, it’s not healthy to be so negative and serious all the time.”

“And it’s not realistic to think everything’s just going to work out because we try.”

“What the hell!? Yumi just woke up, she doesn’t need to be feeling your soreness! Be happy for a moment! Something good happened!”

Amongst the arguing, Yumi felt a little awkward. She wanted to step in and stop them, but it was difficult. Though in a way, it made her happy to see that they seemed more like themselves. ‘I don’t remember Saki being so cynical, but it’s still her. They never really saw eye to eye, but it at least doesn’t feel as oppressively heavy anymore… But I’m going to have to ruin that mood…’

Yumi sat back down at the table. “I’m sorry for my comments, Saki.”

She brushed off anymore happy remarks from Seiji by sitting back down at the table. The look in Yumi’s eyes told her enough. “It’s fine. I know my opinion is the unpopular one in our group. You don’t have to feel as though you’re wrong for the way you’re thinking.”

“But…”

“You are who you are and I’m who I am. We can disagree and still get along because we’re friends, Yumi. So don’t worry about it.”

“Thank you, Saki…” It was a bit of relief off her shoulders. Despite being dark about the reality, she kept pragmatism about as well. ‘Saki’s really different… She’s changed so much since this all started…and yet here I am the same as before… Helpless and having to be rescued…’ After Atlantis things were supposed to be different for her. That was the plan, but it did not turn out like that. She just ended up back where she was before. It made her shoulders bend down under the weight of her expectations.

Saki leaned forward and sat Seiji back down at the table to keep him from flailing about endlessly on his happiness tirade. “So what’s wrong?”

“Huh?”

“You’ve got something on your mind. Something that’s not about Takako.”

Yumi pulled back a little in surprise. She did not think that she was being so transparent. “You knew?”

“I’m guessing it’s having to do with your missing time?”

She was right on target. Saki kept surprising her with the accuracy of her points. Nodding her head, Yumi began to fidget a little with her hands. It was not an easy subject for her. However, they already risked much to rescue her. So she could not keep it to herself anymore. “This isn’t the first time that I’ve lost control of myself.”

“You remember the other times?”

“Not fully. When they take over, it’s like I’m asleep and awake. I’m a passive viewer of what happens, but can’t do anything to stop it. But this time it didn’t feel the same as the others.”

Yuki nodded in agreement. They did not have Yumi’s perspective of matters, but it was clear that something had changed. He chalked much of it up to Takako, since they were protecting Yumi from Takako. But it was not the same as before after. “They only surfaced while you were in combat, right?”

“Yes, in desperate moments they protected me. I’m still alive because of them, but they’ve done terrible things while in control. The longer that I was in Atlantis the stronger and more frequently their connection to me seemed to become.”

“Connection?”

“One of them spoke to me without taking over. They’re growing stronger and now…how long did they have control?”

“A few days…”

“I fear what might happen the next time. Yori, my brother, had to nearly kill himself just to free me from their control. What if I’m lost completely next time and it’s just them…”

“We’ll save you again!” asserted Seiji on boundless optimism.

“Seiji…”

“She’s right,” Saki agreed, “What are you thinking? Do you have an idea for countering their control?”

Yumi sank back in her chair. “Sadly, no… That’s why I felt I should bring it up now. You’ve become involved in this already. So there’s no use in me hiding it from you anymore.” She stared at her hand knowing what it had to do to keep her alive. It was not always her hand. This was not the way that she wanted to live.

“You want to be able to control them, right?” Yuki noted, already seeing the patterns.

“Yes, they keep taking me over without any sort of regard for me. Do you have some ideas?”

“If anyone would it’s Yuki. All those books of yours got to mean something, right?”

Yuki gave Seiji a slightly annoyed expression for him relying on his genre knowledge to be used to help Yumi. Unfortunately, Yuki could not really be that upset with him. He was not wrong. “As much as it doesn’t feel like a compliment, I do have an idea. But it’s not going to be easy.”

Seiji jumped up with excitement to hear a new plan. “Nothing worth doing is easy!”

A sigh came from Saki having to listen to Seiji eagerness once more. But she stood up ready for a plan. Yumi had a very real worry with her split personalities taking over. They needed to be under control. This most recent incident made that clear. “What’s the plan?”

“We’re going to need to borrow Phoibe’s business!”

To be continued…

[Andromeda]

“You want to be able to control them, right?” Yuki noted, already seeing the patterns.

“Yes, they keep taking me over without any sort of regard for me. Do you have some ideas?”

“If anyone would it’s Yuki. All those books of yours got to mean something, right?”

Yuki gave Seiji a slightly annoyed expression for him relying on his genre knowledge to be used to help Yumi. Unfortunately, Yuki could not really be that upset with him. He was not wrong. “As much as it doesn’t feel like a compliment, I do have an idea. But it’s not going to be easy.”

Seiji jumped up with excitement to hear a new plan. “Nothing worth doing is easy!”

A sigh came from Saki having to listen to Seiji eagerness once more. But she stood up ready for a plan. Yumi had a very real worry with her split personalities taking over. They needed to be under control. This most recent incident made that clear. “What’s the plan?”

“We’re going to need to borrow Phoibe’s business!”

Seiji looked a little confused at Yuki declaration as did Yumi. She tried to run it through her head what Yuki might be thinking of doing. ‘Phoibe’s business? She just has those holographic machines. But how will that help us?’ Yumi could not fight her curiosity now that he brought it up. The only guess she had was those machines, but they only act on programmed data. “What can those machines do?”

“Machines?”

‘Oh right, Seiji wasn’t there for it,’ Yumi remembered. Yuki already started to head down taking the lead. They had to quickly follow if they did not want to miss out on what he had planned. “Phoibe’s business that she runs is a virtual reality bar. Think karaoke, but replace it with virtual reality.”

They made it down a flight while Seiji listened before questioning back. “That stuff you put on your head?”

“No, her’s a lot more complicated and advanced. It’s closer to science fiction than reality.”

“How the hell can she run a fake business!? Won’t it expose her powers?”

“Her place is pretty private and a selective clientele.”

“But anyone could just talk about any of this!”

Yuki opened the door to the ground floor. “Considering what she runs here, I suspect she’s put into place measures. Phoibe is a very cautious woman.”

He still grumbled to himself. “And they call me stupid…” But he quickly silenced himself as Phoibe popped up in the lobby. In the rear keeping watch over the desk was Hanabira, she kept a casual eye out for them at the edge of her vision while still holding the door and desk in her sights.

Staring at Yuki’s back with curiosity, she approached alongside as Phoibe stepped forward. There appeared to be a slight smirk on the woman’s face. Yumi doubted that she knew what Yuki wanted, not that Phoibe did not play it like she knew everything. She was a mysterious, yet confident woman. It was something that she could not help but have some admiration for watching her work. ‘I wonder if that comes with age or something inherent…’

“What are you needing?”

Seeing how quickly Phoibe picked up on things made it easy for him. Yuki grinned a little and looked for a moment to his right at Yumi. “I’m wanting to borrow one of your rooms for a while.”

“They’re not cheap if you recall.”

“I think I can find some suitable compensation.”

“Is that so? My rooms are meant for entertainment, not what you have in mind.”

“Don’t sell yourself short.”

“Yuki? What’s going on?” Yumi still had not pieced things together. She felt like she had a bit of it figured out. Yet the whole picture remained unseen. “I don’t think creating copies of them is going to get the results you’re wanting.”

He broke away from Phoibe to face Yumi directly. “We aren’t going to be making copies. We’re going to be hooking the device straight up to your mind and projecting it through the holographic projectors.”

“That’s not possible, it doesn’t work like that.”

A smirk came across his face that Yumi did not follow. He looked away from her and back to Phoibe. “That’s not accurate. Your machines read surface level conscious thoughts as a way to customize the simulation.”

“Yuki?”

“Remember the first time we were here? When Jun recreated our neighborhood and…” Yuki choked on his words suddenly. She could tell that his memories still easily affected him. It was not something he would get over any time soon. “What we saw wasn’t something pre-programmed. It was too specific to actually be there even with Jun punching it in. It wasn’t until later that I realized it had to be reading our minds. In that case, Jun knew what he wanted and it created…it…”

“Is this true?”

Phoibe clapped her hands together at Yuki’s deduction. “I’m impressed you figured it out. Though given the time to think about it after the fact, it’s not that surprising you’d eventually put it together.”

There was a biting tone of condescension in her voice that broke Yuki out of his fog. It almost seemed deliberate on her part to cut to the heart of things. Sobered up, Yuki could focus on her clear minded. “So how about it? The thrill of the unknown and taboo payment enough for you?”

“You know how to package up a gift, boy.” She snapped a finger summoning Ha to her side. “Get the room prepped.”

“Yes, Mistress.” The normally spiteful and contrary child immediately snapped to attention and marched on her orders without a single question. She disappeared down the hall quickly before anyone could even follow or question what was happening.

The Atlantean woman gave a playful smile to the group. “I’ve got just the room for your needs. But I’ll need some time to make adjustments. And this girl.”

Chapter 384 – Custom Reality

Following Phoibe alone, Yumi still had a little bit of unease around the woman. She knew it would be fine, but she did not know what she had planned. The adjustments required her. It surprised her to find that the room was just a normal room. ‘The way that she talked, I sort of imagined that she had something else in mind. Some secret room that we hadn’t seen before.’

Without Phoibe taking action, the door opened on its own only to reveal Ha inside the standard VR room. “It’s been prepared, Mistress.”

“Good. Make sure to grab the out of order sign for the room.” Phoibe stepped into the room inviting Yumi inside as well.

In a bit of caution, Yumi poked her head inside first. The room looked no different from what she remembered before. She searched for differences, but could not find any. ‘What does she have planned? I feel like I’m missing something…’

“C’mon in, I don’t bite…much,” she added with a grin. Phoibe went around to the back of the couch stretching her arm down. If it were not for the out of place device in the center and the lack of a TV it would very easily pass for a karaoke room.

Yumi did not really had much choice. She wanted to control what existed inside her and if Yuki thought this was the best chance at it, she could not turn away. It was not as though Phoibe would do anything bad. There just remained reservations about the whole effort. Regardless, she stepped into the room, which on cue suddenly dropped a few centimeters under her foot. Not enough to actually throw her off balance, but she still braced herself against the wall to find balance.

After the initial drop, it evened out and steadily moved down. The entire room moved as the elevator. Yumi had trouble holding back her surprise. “A secret elevator?!”

“You didn’t think I did all of my work up there did you?”

She slowly turned around to see if there was anything she missed. It merely existed as a transport, a completely inconspicuous one. ‘There’s more that we haven’t seen…what secrets are down here?’ Yumi had little time to wonder about what Phoibe kept out of prying eyes. The room came to an eased stop and a new hall opened up for them.

Phoibe took the lead guiding her to their destination. The notion that everything that she wanted to keep private was hidden down here made Yumi more than a little curious. She wanted to know what sort of things she might have. Despite her helping them out and providing so much she kept everything surrounding her past a secret. Yumi knew it had to be for reasons, but she felt a strong urge to know what they were.

However, the hall gave away very little to reveal anything about the woman. It held a simple very Japanese design that felt a little out of place given the underground tunnel aspect of the hall. Even the doors looked like rice paper doors rather than heavy steel ones. ‘She really likes Japanese aesthetics…’

While they walked Phoibe closed a door that had been left open before Yumi got to it. The slightly hurried way she went about it while trying to look casual seemed a little suspicious. Her curiosity grew again wanting to know more. Yumi found herself staled stared at it weighing her options with the consequences.

“There’s nothing of interest to you inside that room. Yuki would find it more appealing.”

“Yuki would…” she repeated making her even more curious. There was a lot of different things that came to mind when Yuki was brought up. She did not seem to be exactly hiding it, but she also did not want her going in. But knowing what Yuki would like about it made it an ill-resistible compulsion to know.

She stretched out her hand to the handle. Any restraint she had could not hold her back. She wanted to know. It was too hard to tease and not show. ‘Yuki…’

A hand appeared out of nowhere and grabbed her wrist stopping her before she could even make a crack. Yumi yelped in surprise and looked at the hand, a disembodied hand that stopped just half way up the forearm. It had a feminine shape and delicate touch, she thought it was Phoibe. However, as she looked down the hall the woman still kept walking away from her. ‘Her powers are active?’ It was a question that she did not really get a good answer for, other than one. She was not allowed inside.

Secrets were meant to be remain is what she was being told.

Yumi hurried along to catch up to Phoibe to reach the end of the hall and their destination finally. A room not too unlike the size and shape of the one that they rode down. It just lacked any of the comfort and homeliness the other provided. With solid gray metal walls and a pile of strange looking parts, that Yumi could only assume to be spare machine pieces, it had the atmosphere of a workshop. A place of work rather than play exuded through the air.

“Welcome to the source of my business.”

“The source?” The seemed like a strange way of stating it since Yumi knew that the source of her business was her power, not some machine. She used her power like Yuki would to craft the machines. And like him, when he wanted to make something real, she used real materials to do it. “But you made the machines.”

Phoibe placed a hand on wall as a panel side away to reveal a digital display. It had a familiar look to the ones in the rooms above that controlled the simulation program. “I designed and perfected the machines I made in this room. And all of my failures.”

‘…failures…’ Yumi thought, as her mind pictured the corner she saw. However, she did not get much time to react as the ceiling opened up to reveal a large machine. With cables running through the ceiling and orbs decorating with some unknown intend, it started to look a little more like the inside of some alien ship rather than a workshop.

At the center a circular hole appeared in the floor allowing a chair access up. Phoibe walked over to the back of the chair with a holographic display appearing for her to interface with the machine. “This is the completed prototype I made based on my original design. After some play testing I changed my design realizing that this was both inconvenient and significantly more than I needed for a business.”

The chair was offered to Yumi. She slowly approached trying to figure it all out still, as she was getting information overload. This was not the same sort of machine from above. She did not have the technical knowledge to understand any of it, though she wondered if someone like Phoibe even did either, given her homeland. Even without that knowledge, she could tell this was on a completely different scale and scope than the others. It felt powerful and overbearing in an uncomfortable way. ‘I can understand why she changed her design…’

“Sit, I need to get the machine adjusted to your brain waves. This isn’t just going to be a surface level venture, so it’s going to need to be calibrated for you.”

“What about the others?”

“Once I’m finished with the prep work, I’ll call them down. I won’t start the program until they are present.”

‘Walking through my mind thanks to virtual reality…it makes sense. How come Yuki didn’t think of that to rescue me? Wouldn’t it be safer on Yori than what he had to suffer?’ She did not have much opportunity to think about the what ifs. The past was behind her and she could not change it. Phoibe waited on her to get into the chair.

Tapping away at the air, Phoibe kept focused on the machine that had not seen work in more than a decade. “Just relax, it’ll make the process faster,” she commanded once Yumi fit herself into the slightly oversized chair. As she tried to start of the program and error flashed in front of it. “Relax, the machine can’t get a read on you.”

“I am…as best as I can…”

“…hmm…” Phoibe typed away looking into the situation before stopping again. “Looks like I don’t have enough computing power to even peak into your brain.”

“So it’s a dead end?”

“I don’t have enough right now. Who do you think you’re talking to?” The Atlantean immediately started work on correcting the problem created by the unique superhuman abilities that Yumi presented. It was no long before the entire room was filled with blinking lights that looked like they might be doing something.

Ready to try again, Phoibe activate the machine and a display of Yumi’s brain appeared floating in the air. Using the holographic projections, it looked to finally start connecting and mapping her mental pathways, but with a worrisome low percentage. “.001%...this is going to take longer than I expected.”

Suddenly, a flash of light filled the room blinding them. “Miss Phoibe? Is this normal?” she asked, not really sure what to be expecting.

The light faded away giving Phoibe a view of the monitor once more to see the results. “Something’s wrong…there’s feedback…” She looked around the large chair to see a woman standing before them in tattered armor looking like a variant on fourteenth century samurai armor. “I’m losing control of the system…”

To be continued…

[Andromeda]

Ready to try again, Phoibe activate the machine and a display of Yumi’s brain appeared floating in the air. Using the holographic projections, it looked to finally start connecting and mapping her mental pathways, but with a worrisome low percentage. “.001%...this is going to take longer than I expected.”

Suddenly, a flash of light filled the room blinding them. “Miss Phoibe? Is this normal?” she asked, not really sure what to be expecting.

The light faded away giving Phoibe a view of the monitor once more to see the results. “Something’s wrong…there’s feedback…” She looked around the large chair to see a woman standing before them in tattered armor looking like a variant on fourteenth century samurai armor. “I’m losing control of the system…”

“Miss Phoibe?!” Yumi shouted from the chair with panic starting to set into her mind. She was not certain what was happening anymore or even if what she was seeing was real or fake. Within her mind, she wanted to believe it was fake, but it appeared so real. The woman before her suddenly locked eyes with Yumi drawing attention towards her. “What’s going on?”

A surprising amount of hesitation surfaced within Phoibe voice as she replied, “An external force is trying to take over the system. I can’t lock down the source…” Her fingers rapidly tapped through the control panels trying to wrestle with the unknown intruder. However, the system was never designed to do such a thing. Phoibe reactively altered her powers to adapt to the attack and change the machine, yet even that did not seem to be slowing it down. “…damn… It’s faster than I can block it off.”

Left without any recourse, she turned away from the chair and rushed to the wall panel. Her finger slammed into the large raised button acting as the cut off switch for the whole system. In moments, everything came to a grinding halt devoid of any light.

Emergency lights flickered on seconds later returning the room to some semblance of safety. Though the bright white lights left unease in the air that could not be dispelled so easily.

Yumi sank into the chair as much as she could with some relief. The pounding in her heart finally started to slow down a bit. Once she felt recovered enough, she turned around to look back at Phoibe. “What was that?”

“I’m not entirely sure myself. It happened shortly after I started mapping your mind.” Materializing a semi-transparent slab, it began to light up with data. She ran her fingers over the surface examining the readings of her machines. “If I was to take a guess, it was your mental defense. Given how you’ve all changed I didn’t take into account the vastly different scale at which you sit. The strange aspect is that if I’m theorizing accurately, your mind was trying to take control of the system. The materialization of that woman seemed to be the first step.”

Taking herself out of the chair out of caution, it was might have been shutdown, but she still had no clear understanding of how her powers functioned. The fact that it did whatever it wanted without her command was frightening. She was not going to risk it doing something even with it powered off. “So it’s a dead end…” Yumi tried not to sound so disheartened after she had hope of controlling her powers, but she was out of options now.

Phoibe shook her head. “I’m just going to need a little more time to tweak the system. The benefit of this machine is that it easily adapts to my power. So I just have to make it more powerful and account for the needed security to keep your mental defenses from entering.” She tapped on the wall exposing the walls and floor to the vast machine that she constructed.

Yumi only had a narrow path out of the room. The sight before her made her realize why this was more than needed for her business. It was a complicated network twisted and spun around in ways that she could never hope to understand. She questioned if even the Atlantean could understand the mess. ‘…she sounds confident…is there still a chance?’

“In the meantime, you can return to your friends. I’ll summon you all once I’m ready. The company of your friends should also help to find a stable and safe environment for you.”

Chapter 385 – Seized Heart

Back up on the third floor, Yumi’s return came with the explanation. Once she finished, everyone stood still taking it all in before Seiji interjected. “So we’ve still got a chance!” He appeared to be ignoring the potentially negative aspects that came along with it.

Saki wanted to hit him for his blind optimism, but she noticed what he was doing. All she had was a pessimistic view of the situation comparatively. “Do you still want to go through with it, Yumi?”

“I think so. We can shut the power off again if it doesn’t work out. The benefits outweigh the risks in my mind.”

Yuki placed a reassuring hand on Yumi’s shoulder. “Miss Phoibe knows what she’s doing. You’ll be fine.” He then looked over to the beds where Yori rested. “We might have a harder time convincing him of that though, given what happened.”

“Then we won’t tell him.”

“Yumi?!” Saki and Yuki said in unison with equal amounts of shock. Neither of them could believe that she would suggest lying to her own brother. They stared over the table at each other trying to silent discuss things between them.

However, Yumi stood up interrupting them before they tried to find something to sway her from the course. “This is my power and body. My life, not his. If I want to risk this then it’s not for him to tell me I can’t.”

“Well…yes, it’s your decision, but are you really wanting to leave your brother in the dark on this?”

“I’ve made the decision. Speak about none of this to him. All he needs to know is that this will give me the chance to finally control my powers. It’s not like I’m going to be risking my life doing this. He doesn’t need this holding him back.”

Stepping away from the table, Seiji isolated himself from the group. His arms came up crossed against his chest. “I don’t like it, but I understand how you’re feeling…” He became a little distant as something recalled to him.

Yuki ran his hand through his hair roughing it up a little as he seemed to be struggling with it. A sigh eventually came from his lips with a resolution. “Fine…you’re right it’s not a huge risk since we can just turn off the power.” He turned to face the door already in motion. “I’m going to see if she needs some assistance. Plus, I doubt he’s going to be thrilled to hear this plan coming from me.”

Sensing something was a little off with the way Yuki moved, she turned to go after him. “Won’t your powers cancel out Miss Phoibe due to your strength?”

“Miss Phoibe is quite skilled. As long as I don’t go full power it’ll be fine.”

He seemed set on helping out Phoibe. There was not going to be anything that she could do convince him away from it. ‘I’d go with him if it actually would mean something, but I’d just be in the way…’ She would have to let him go on his own. “Just make sure to stay on the path,” she warned remembering what Phoibe told her about the underground.

He gave her a confused nod before he disappeared from the room. They were left waiting for both Yori and Phoibe. None of them had a clue how long it would take for Phoibe to finish even if Yuki helped. Their powers could make anything happen. So it could be fast. Which meant that they were mostly waiting for Yori to wake.

Awaiting Yori left things fairly empty. Hiroshi paid a visit which ran smoothly thanks to the absence of Yuki to mount the tension. Saki and him discussed matters in private before he left once more. Yumi had not really been brought up to speed on everything happened as she realized from watching them. Something was clearly going on between them that she missed from being out. She only picked up that they had to be making plans of some sort.

However, bad ideas come up while waiting and bored. Bad ideas that are ignorant and stumbled upon. A trap that is personally set and triggered without warning. Yumi looked over at Saki in all of the things that she still did not know about. In all the personal dilemma she had forgotten something very important. “Saki, this might not be a good time to ask, but what happened to Katsumi and Kaede?” She was so caught up in her own things that she could not believe she forgot about her friends. They were so important to her and yet she just forgot about them.

Unexpected to Yumi, the room suddenly chilled rapidly. The subject that they knew would be coming up eventually had finally been presented. They had no good answers for her. Not saying anything to her was not the same thing as lying, that was what they convinced themselves. Yet, they could not ignore it any longer.

Saki slowly stood up in silence. She was not about to be able to tell her. Even when she looked around at Seiji and Nerine they turned away. They had no more answers for her than she did. It was about what she expected. No one wanted the undesirable task. When she did finally managed to say something, Saki remained terse. “Follow me.”

‘So they’re alive!’ That was the conclusion that Yumi reached based on what Saki said. It was an awkward reply, one that Yumi looked to be ignoring. She just wanted to see her friends once more and free from Takako’s control now. ‘I wonder if they remember the fight. Have they not come to see me because they feel bad about attacking me?’ Her mind began engineering reasons for why they had not come to see her yet.

The real reason unfortunately was far worse than Yumi could have dreamed up in any countless number of scenarios. She could only cry streams of tears unable to react in any other way upon seeing her best friend in such pain. Kaede held on to Yumi in a feeble effort to provide empty comfort that she could not offer. Her friend was hollowed by the whole experience together they seemed to be sharing the futility of their lives. She just did not have the courage or strength to do what she felt was the right choice.

“We should probably go Yumi…” offered Saki as an out. She could tell it was not something that Yumi could deal with now. It was why they hesitated telling her immediately. This was not the sort of thing that could be easily shown in any situation, but Yumi was still emotionally weakened by everything. But they had decided to leave it up to Yumi to ask them and they would just face the consequences. It was not the sort of lie that could hold or should be.

Yumi could not even react to Saki. She did not even hear what she said to her. Her mind barely acknowledged that something was said. Beyond that, there was nothing inside Yumi. She could not think or feel. It had all just poured out of her. No further reaction could come out.

Time held no meaning for her with such a state. She did not even know what happened to her after a while. It was not until she snapped back to reality suddenly that she understood how much time had passed. ‘I’m back in the room…’ Yumi could hear voices nearby her. They still had a slightly distant sound to them that slowly came into clarity.

The reason for the noise was because Yori had woken up. She lifted herself out of the bed to look over at her brother, who stared off in an absent direction with no sense of space. It immediately called to her what he had a given up just to rescue her from her mind. Those that took her from everyone demanded a terrible price. Even in her trauma-filled fear that rested just below the surface of what she fought, it could not hold anything over her guilt for what she did to him.

Seiji noticed Yumi awake off the side and poked his head up announcing it to the room. “Hey you’re back, Yumi!”

“..yes…”

“Back? What’s going on?” Yori asked immediately picking out the difference in tone that Seiji used. His defenses immediately went up.

Everyone struggled to say anything about what happened out of fear for putting Yumi into a relapse. They did not want to remind her of what she saw. She only just recovered. Yet Yumi stepped forward to do it herself. “I saw Katsumi…”

“…I’m sorry…”

“It’s not your fault…”

Suddenly snapping the atmosphere in half, Yuki burst through the door shouting to everyone. “It’s finished! We’re ready to try again!” He could not see the mood with it being disguised in part around them gathered around Yori. “Oh hey, you’re awake! We’ve got a new plan ready to help Yumi.”

“Help Yumi? What’s wrong with her?”

Yuki paused for a moment recognizing that defensive tone coming out of his voice. He was hardly surprised by it. An eye darted over to Yumi, who stared at him to keep the secret. He swallowed roughly not really looking forward to when this lie blew up in their faces, as he expected it would as some point even if it was not today. “It’s nothing to worry about. Seiji, help him to his feet. We’ll fill you in as we make it downstairs.”

Turning away the help, Yori walked away from the bed initially looking like he could see. “I can walk myself.” However, they only lasted as far as him tripping into the table. His sight had not returned after the rest. Seiji quickly caught up behind him and directed him out of the room despite his pride in wanting to do it alone.

“Hell! This is insane!” shouted Seiji while everyone else had trouble even getting a sound of their mouths.

Smiling and nodding to him, Yuki agreed whole heartedly with Seiji. “Isn’t it?!”

Saki turned her head around to take the whole thing in before spotting Yuki pride-filled face. She could tell that he was happy about the whole thing and none of it mattered to him if he made it or not. She would never know how much he helped, but she recognized the look in his eyes. The look that says he was living out a dream. “A little overkill?”

Only Yumi had seen it before the change could really react on how different it appeared. The room had ballooned in size no longer being a small and cozy space that suited well one or two people. It was now nearly bigger than the entire building that Miss Phoibe owned above ground. No longer in the center, she moved the chair to the wall and multiple more joined them, enough to account for all of them. Even beyond that, the twists and turns of the machine that packed the walls crawled on in the distance until there was too much in the way. It felt like it went on forever. ‘Just how much extra did she have to build to account for my change?’

“This is the place that will help Yumi control her power?” Yori asked, unable to see anything and only feel out the sense of the room from everyone else’s reactions. He hung nearby to the door the only confirmed surface he had to map the room so far.

Phoibe stepped forward with slate in hand to control the device. “That’s right. I’ve made significant upgrades to it to handle not just Yumi’s potential, but everyone involved. Since this is going to be a virtual space it’s going to need project everyone’s minds into the realm and I had to make changes to adapt to that difference. The intent is to project Yumi’s mindscape in virtual space so that you can understand the personalities. Though everything that you will see is digital and fake, it will feel real. I can’t answer what you’ll find inside, but you will be Yumi’s anchor to remain in control while she is confronting the other personalities buried inside. Remember your roles.”

“I’m ready!” Yori declared with no regard to the fact that he just woke up and probably could do with some more rest. But everyone else was not going to stop him and they followed suit with him.

“Very well then, take your places in the chairs. Once you’re ready I’ll start the simulation.” Phoibe began running the final checks on the chairs awaiting the activation. All systems held green and she looked over at Yuki in silent agreement. “Simulation start! Good luck!”

To be continued…

[Andromeda]

For a moment, the room remained unchanged to Yumi’s eye. Then all of the exposed walls flipped to become flat. A well polished shine reflected across their surface as the chairs disappeared and she found herself standing on her own. ‘This isn’t like before at all… Yuki and her really must have made drastic changes…’

Yumi stepped out from her corner to look around at the room. Even though it was the room that they were in before Phoibe was missing, even more of sign of the change in reality. “Is everyone feeling okay?”

“I thought we were going into your mind,” complained Seiji noting the lack of change, “This is just the same room.”

Projecting into the room as a hologram, Phoibe appeared before them. “That’s not accurate. This is just the staging room while Yumi’s mind is being scanned.”

“You’re here too?!”

“I’m monitoring all of you from the terminal. This is just a projection from my voice altered into a digital avatar.”

“…err…right… So the real thing is happening soon then?” Seiji jumped straight to the part that he had better grasp on rather than dwelling.

“That’s right. The space you’re in should alter based on feedback from Yumi’s mental state. From there, you should be able find and interact with the personalities that exist in her mind.”

“Hope it’s not a repeat of last time…”

A nod came from Yumi as she agreed with Seiji. The whole thing presented a risk to her. Being this close could allow them more control over her, but she had to take it. ‘I haven’t truly been face to face with them before. Maybe not being suppressed by them will give me more control.’ It was mere theory and hope for her than anything. She did not want to endanger everyone, but she had already passed that up. Now all Yumi could do was take an active stance against them.

Phoibe was not wrong either. In moments, the room altered itself once more, however it expanded and disappeared into a white void. Any sense of ground reality evaporated away. An endless blank space lacking any detail stretched out before them.

“Is this your mind, Yumi?”

“It’s similar to a place I saw,” commented Yori.

“Hey man, you can see?!”

“Would appear that while in this virtual space I’m not using my eyes to see.”

“But I’m still not seeing anyone else other than us,” Yumi noted as she started to walk around. The sense of being in a confined space previously left her a little apprehensive about wondering too far. Despite that, the void had no boundaries that she could find. She explored beyond what she felt was the limits of the room and nothing stopped her. “So we’re in my mind now…”

In the distance, a new scene approached rapidly rewriting the space. They found themselves within a city, not one that they found familiar. It could easily be any Japanese city as vaguely non-descript as it was. ‘A city?’

“Hey, what the hell?!”

Yumi turned around to Seiji, alerted. She had not noticed everyone being dragged away from her by some invisible force. “Everyone!” Her feet pushed herself as fast as she could, but she was used to her superhuman body. Within the virtual world she did not seem to have that power. Once more she was just a normal girl.

Out of her reach, a house sucked everyone up through the front door. When she arrived it already closed behind them. Pounding and kicking on the door did nothing once she discovered that it would not open. It was locked and firmly shut.

Her friends were locked away from her.

“Are they coming?” An uneasy feeling overcame her heart. Something told her that she should be on edge. Yumi stepped away from the house in the direction of the feeling she got. There was nothing she could do for her friends. It seemed like she had to face her demons alone. That was what she thought it was telling her.

And she might have been right.

Before her, down the street appeared three figures masked in shadows. Their entire form was black barely even reflecting light. She knew nothing about them, but inside her heart it told her that they were the ones that she sought. “So you’ve come for me…”

Chapter 386 – Captured Reality

Yet to Yumi’s surprise Yuki and Yori suddenly popped up in the street in front of her. “Yuki? Yori? What are you doing here?”

“I don’t know…”

Yuki looked over at the house that he had been in a moment before. “We were inside just before trying to find a way out and then I got suck out through a black portal.”

“Yeah...it’s them!” Yori immediately seemed to pick up on the three figures staring them down across the street. He went into a defensive stance ready for the fight that he expected to happen.

Yumi expected to run out ahead of them and try to ease the rising tensions, but something stopped her. A force pulled her away dragging her up into the sky. Green light wrapped around her sealing her away behind a barrier. She pounded her fists against the unmoving field unable to break through. “I thought they wanted me! This is supposed to be my fight!”

It was not until he saw the black figures start moving towards them in an aggressive charge that Yuki took to defense as well. “I think they’ve got it in for the two of us…”

Grinding his teeth together, not looking forward to having to fight three at once when one was hard enough. “You seem to be right… One of them I know already has it out for me. Perhaps they see us as a threat to them.”

“You might be right about that!” Drawing up his field, mist appeared around him as he received the charging blade of one of them. The force of the swing was enough to blow away all of his mist completely exposing him. Only the bit he could keep around his hand to grab the sword managed to keep him from losing a hand.

Calling out his two dark energy blades, Yori roughly blocked the spear head of a jumonji yari. He fought with the cross blades near the base of the spear as they desperately wanted his flesh. However, he was not prepared for a focused beam of energy to shoot him through the shoulder. “Behind?!” he growled in pain as he tried to figure out where the third had gone.

Yuki tried to summon back his mist, but the swings of the person came too fast. Each blow blasted away his mist with effortless ease and drew up blood. He could barely manage the field around him to keep himself protected. ‘I can barely even hold my own against one of them…’ There were three and two of them were attacking Yori directly with him being unable to help in anyway.

Up in the sky, Yumi clawed her fingers in frustration over the barrier. “This is my fault… I brought them here…” A spark jumped down her arm quickly disappearing.

Thinking that he started to get some sort of pace against the swordsman, Yuki suddenly sensed a disturbance in his mist, bulk of which was cast off him. He could not even look behind himself feeling that he should. If he did the blade he struggled to keep from cleaving him in two would succeed. And because of that it was not until the figure disappeared into thin air that he could look behind him.

It was clearly for a reason and one he could do nothing to avoid or stop. “Crap!” he yelled as a stamped of women crashed into him. The force of them picked him off his feet dragging him away from Yori and likely the swordsman as well fighting him. “What the hell is this?!” he managed once he got some sense of himself back.

And what’s more, he felt something off about it. They did not just look like a random crowd running through out of nowhere. Each of them looked at him with unsettling eyes. They all wanted him. They started to paw and claw at him. There were too many for him to fight back against. “Get off me!” No matter what he did they had his arms locked down along with his legs. He was helpless.

Then through the women came the black blade cleaving nearly a dozen of them in half spraying blood all over him while also cutting a horizontal wound into his chest. The force blasted him out of the women and in the air.

A full minute of tumbling and flying passed before he recovered. Once under his own control again, he could check the depth of the wound he took. “It wasn’t as deep as I feared, but I can’t let another like that through. Those women were taking away my barrier piece by piece so that the swordsman could land a decisive blow on me. This is really dangerous…”

Blocking the spear blade again, Yori kept having to play specifically to their pace. “They’re extremely skilled…” The exact position that they forced him block set him up for the range attack again. He was slightly better prepared for it with his barrier, but even that was not enough. They knew exactly how much force was needed to penetrate his barrier. Another wound carved out in his arm. “They’re slowly picking me apart…”

From Yumi’s view, she could only watch as the two were being cut up and dragged out. She knew that they could not win. The outcome had already been determined from the start. Neither were a match. And she sat up locked away. “I can’t…” Another spark jumped over her fingers.

Before long Yuki crashed into the street next to Yori a bloody mess. The field around him disappeared. Yuki was exhausted. Yori slipped up in his attempt to anticipate and took the spear blade to his gut. It dropped him to the ground almost immediately as he began to bleed out.

Both were defeated.

“NO!!” Yumi shouted seeing them go down and their foes going in for the killing strikes. She rammed her fingers into the barrier wanting out now. “I won’t…let you…! NO!!!”

Sparks suddenly jumped all over Yumi’s body erupting into a mass of light that exploded and destroyed the barrier. As she fell out of the sky, white energy rapidly materialized around her. Growing out of her back like wings, Yumi drew back her arm as a spear of white energy amassed rapidly.

Flung at all three figures, everything was obliterated into white light. Yumi charged into the light going after Yuki and Yori. “I won’t let you kill them!” She grabbed a hold of someone’s arm completely blind in the light and searched out for the other. There was not going to be anyone that would take them away from her.

Energy erupted rapidly from Yumi fueling the white void in strength as the space quaked. All of reality seemed to be shaking under Yumi until it shattered. An empty sightless void filled her vision now.

From outside the simulation, Phoibe scrambled around to keep up with the overflowing data. “Damn, her mental capacity is insane. This is far exceeding any of our plans.” She began to lose control of the system like before and all of the countermeasure in place meant nothing. It was just an inevitability now. “Looks like you were right after all. Quite the typical outcome, but we’re playing with reality. Things won’t be as perfect as a book. It’s all on you now. Yumi’s mind has completely taken control of the system and now you’re stuck in there at her whims…”

“Ugh…it hurts…” Yumi muttered as she suddenly came to forgetting what happened. Her mind still hung in a fog about the events. She then jerked up off the ground as she remembered everything. “Yuki! Yori!” Turning her head rapidly, she sought them out hoping that they would be next to her, but only found Yuki. “Yuki!”

At least one of them was with her, she smiled a little with relief. “Can you hear me, Yuki? Are you alright?” She poked and pushed on him trying to see if he was alive. Everything seemed to indicate with the way his body reacted that he was. He was just slow in moving.

A groan came from his lips as he woke up. “…yeah…but I’m injured…” he said without thinking, but popped up quickly with a strange blink in his eyes. He examined his arm and then his chest. “It’s gone! I’m not hurt at all…”

Yumi immediately wrapped her arms around him hugging him tightly so happy that he was alive and even unharmed now. “Yuki…”

“Ouch, ow, ow! You’re hurting me, Yumi! You’re stronger than me!”

“Sorry! I’m sorry!” She jumped away getting embarrassed as she saw what she was doing as well. A moment after she jumped to her feet needed to some space and air from him. It was only suppose to a moment away from him, but her eyes stopped on her surroundings. “Umm…Yuki…”

“Huh?” Taking a long moment to get caught up on things, Yuki slowly looked over to Yumi and then scene. “…this is…”

Yumi took a step back away from the villagers that were pointing their farming tools at them scared at their sudden arrival. The modern city they were in was gone, replaced with an ancient era Japan out of paintings and myth. And their friends were nowhere in sight. “What’s going on?!”

To be continued…

[Andromeda]

Yumi immediately wrapped her arms around him hugging him tightly so happy that he was alive and even unharmed now. “Yuki…”

“Ouch, ow, ow! You’re hurting me, Yumi! You’re stronger than me!”

“Sorry! I’m sorry!” She jumped away getting embarrassed as she saw what she was doing as well. A moment after she jumped to her feet needed to some space and air from him. It was only suppose to a moment away from him, but her eyes stopped on her surroundings. “Umm…Yuki…”

“Huh?” Taking a long moment to get caught up on things, Yuki slowly looked over to Yumi and then scene. “…this is…”

Yumi took a step back away from the villagers that were pointing their farming tools at them scared at their sudden arrival. The modern city they were in was gone, replaced with an ancient era Japan out of paintings and myth. And their friends were nowhere in sight. “What’s going on?!”

It took her a moment more to get her surroundings. The threat of attack made for a good distracter. But the initial confusion and panic started to wear off Yumi’s mind. Once she could start seeing clearly, she got a better sense of where she was.

Out in the distance, she could see primitive houses of wood with rocks on the grass roof keeping them in place. It looked so much out of old pictures she could remember. However, just at her feet was a dirt, slightly muddy path between rice patches. The two of them had lucked out in missing being soaked.

Lucking out just meant that their luck was spent on something else and left them potentially none to deal with the current issue. They had a mob of frightened or angry villagers all wanting answers and maybe to kill them. It was hard for her to really know. She was bad at reading faces.

Yumi turned around to help Yuki up to his feet only to get the uncomfortable sounds of farming tools being rattled as they pushed closer to them. ‘Any movement is being judged a threat!’ She looked down at Yuki hoping he had an idea to get them out of the situation. This was not something she had prepared for. ‘I thought I was going to be meeting my personalities! What is all of this about?’

Unfortunately for her, Yuki remained silent and just looked at her. She recoiled a bit as he seemed to be insisting on her handling the problem. ‘Yuki?!’ Movement from her got their attention and threat again. Yumi stared down the length of a scythe. ‘You’re making me do this alone?! Why?’ Her mind spun around ideas on what to do. This was not the sort of thing that she was used to dealing with. Though she felt a little hard pressed to say that she would have prepared for such a thing as being threatened by villagers in an ancient Japanese setting.

The only thing working in her favor was that they did not attack straight away. Though it felt as though they might if given the right provocation. Something that she wished to avoid. “U-um…we mean no harm?” She knew how badly that came out the moment she finished. Though Yuki said nothing, she felt like she could hear him laughing in his little corner. ‘We’re going to die…’

Chapter 387 – Trapped from Reality

Then she remembered that she was still in her mind and that this was all just a simulation. It was not real. Such things were easy to forget when nothing about it looked like it was some video game or movie where you could see how fake things looked. Phoibe’s machine crafted a flawless reality.

Once Yumi reminded herself that the whole thing was not real and it was all just digital information funneled into her mind she stepped forward without thinking about the consequences. This immediately set the villagers on edge that one of the lost their composure attacked Yumi. Clearly the young man that attacked out of fear expected something to happen. Hoe in hand, his swing was poor and wide, clearly not meant as a weapon and he had no training to fight. It was purely improvised.

To his dismay and the others fear, the wood pole that the metal tied to snapped. The metal flew back away from the villagers as they scattered a bit in fear. He really did not stand a chance against Yumi, but he tried anyway again. The wood only splintered and he lost what little strength in his legs to stand. He fell on his butt in the pool of water the rice remained submerged in. “D-demon?!”

The others quickly joined in with the man shouting the same thing at Yumi. Abandoned by the others, the man sweated heavily as he turned white filled only with terror at the end of his life in sight. Yumi did not fully expect such a reaction, though it sort of played out the way she hoped it would. They stopped threatening her and Yuki. So they were safe again. “Run,” she ordered to the man still trying to figure out if he would live to see his family.

She turned away and picked Yuki up from the muddy earth with them finally having peace. However, while he tried to remove some of the clumps of dirt, Yuki asked, “Was that such a good idea?”

“What?”

“Scaring them all like that with your power?”

“Hardly showed them anything I can do. I merely used a piece of my barrier as protection making it look like my body was stronger than it actually was.”

“But now they’re afraid of you, us.”

Yumi started to walk away not really sure why Yuki was being bothered by it so much. She planned on getting away from the village anyway. A shrug of her shoulders opened her response to him. “This isn’t even real. This is just some simulation, it doesn’t matter what happens here.”

“If that’s your choice…”

“Yes, for now let’s just get away from here. I’ve got no idea what they might try in such fear and I’d rather not mess around with them any longer.” Yumi set the pace for Yuki to follow as she marched herself out of the fields. “There’s gotta be a road somewhere around here…” That was her hope at least. The fake reality that they were inside was not something that she had much historical understanding of outside of what school taught her.

The farmlands stretched for quite some distance in all directions. At their back, the village slowly shrank a little in sight, but anything more did not seem to change. Yumi’s current goal was the ridge she saw where the farm seemed to end, if only for a moment.

If she could use her speed, she would have been there in an instant, but Yuki did not have ability. So she had to take time walking. How far away it felt like it would be an hour, though she had no watch or cell on her to tell time. Only the sun above and she could not read that. So it took however long it did to get to the ridge. Which was overgrown in grass and weeds from the wilderness of the open expanse of an untamed Japan countryside.

It took a little to work through it all, but they found themselves in a break and back on dirt. She looked up and down the length. “A road!” she declared with some forced pride.

“That might be overselling it. It looks more like a place well traveled than designed.”

Putting her hands on her hips and taking in the entire stretch of land on all sides, she did not mind it that much. “Either way, it’s an open and clear path we can take, even if it is not what we’d call a road.”

Yuki poking around the area, but it was just a fruitless effort for him. “Any signs of the others?”

“None…it’s just us here.” Yumi stared down at the village. She could not make out the details, but she saw them scrambling around. ‘They’re probably thinking I’m going to attack them. Wonder how long they’re going to be running around panicked thinking I’m coming.’ Yumi did not entertain the thought for long as she turned back to the road. “I know this is long shot, but got a clue where in Japan we might be?”

He stared at her for a few moments in silence with a slightly indignant look on his face. “I’m not a walking computer of random knowledge.”

Which was about what she expected. Yumi started walking along the road in the current direction she faced. It was away from the village, though the other road looked like it also went away. It went somewhere and eventually they would find it. She just worried how long that would be at their pace.

Yuki did not seem to argue about the direction that she set. He just followed her closely without saying too much. It made for an awkward silence on the hours that they walked. The village was already behind some hills that walked over and only open wilds before them. Around them the scene did little to change in any meaningful way. It was all very green and mountains set in the distance. Japan ended up looking big when it was on foot rather than by car.

Worst for them was that this fake reality had too many things that were unnecessary. A low growl came from Yuki’s stomach. ‘Hunger…but this isn’t even real. Why are we getting hungry? What would happen if we didn’t eat? Will we have to sleep as well?’ Yumi started having a lot of worrisome questions popping up in her mind. This was not the sort of reality that she expected to have. It was too real for being false.

A large rock along side of the road gave them a good place to stop. Yumi pulled over and jumped up to the top. It was only three meters or so tall, but it gave her more of a view than ground level. While she looked around Yuki sat on one of the stretched out pieces. “Still nothing… No signs of life, not even smoke.” She jumped down to the ground and leaned against the stone face. “I wonder when we’ll run across anyone.”

“If this is feudal Japan or even earlier, villages are going to be spread out. It might be days…”

“Looking at the situation, we’re going to need to find food and shelter. This isn’t the sort of world I expected to find myself in.” It made her think about Phoibe and where they actually were. “On that subject, shouldn’t Phoibe have contacted us or gotten us out of this? This can’t be what was supposed to happen, right?”

“She’s been silent since the three strangers showed up. So it’s possible that she’s lost control of the system again.”

Yumi leaned forward a little to look directly at Yuki. It was something that she had considered, but it did not make any sense to her. “But if that was case she would have just shut down the power and we’d be out of this.”

“Maybe she got completely locked out. I don’t know, but the reality we face is the one before us.”

“But it’s just fake. So why we are getting hungry and tired while in here?”

“I’m not so sure we can think of this as a normal virtual world. We don’t know the rules that govern it. We’ll have to figure it out as we wait for Phoibe to rescue us.”

A sigh came from Yumi’s lips thinking about that. “Waiting…so you think we’re trapped in here as some creation of my mind, a personality inside me. And they’re god of this reality.”

“Just a guess right now. We’ve only been in here for less than a day.”

Slumping against the rock at the thought of being trapped within the fake world for days or weeks hurt her optimistic expectations of being rid of all her problems in a few hours. “This wasn’t supposed to be the plan.”

“We’ll just adapt and figure things out.”

“Figure things out…” Yumi jumped out from the rock and stood in front of Yuki. She stared down at his seated position. “Speaking about that, what was that back there? You did nothing to help us get out of the situation and just left it to me!”

“Of course I did,” he answered and stood up on the rock. Slowly climbing up to the top that Yumi used to scope out the area. At the top he looked back down at Yumi. “This is your world in your mind. While we don’t understand the personalities that exist apart from you, they come from inside you. I didn’t make them for you with my power. You made them for some purpose. And this world is for you. It’s not done without reason.”

“How can you be so certain? More of your cliché story beats?”

“Reality doesn’t flow like a story. I’m not fitting this into a story. But generalizations can be made and organized like that. But no, the one controlling you before didn’t leave me with the impression that what they did was random. They had some intent, a plan. This might be part of their plan as well. I don’t know what they have in store. But if this is your world then it’s for you to be making the choices within it, not me.”

Yuki jumped down absorbing the fall with his legs before standing in front of Yumi. He fixed her with a very serious gaze that she knew he had in him. It was easy to forget how serious he could be when he wanted for how often he was silly and nonsensical. “You’re the main character of your story, Yumi. I’m not taking the reins in your story. I will follow you and advise you, but this is your path to walk.” He stepped out from in front of her with the road stretched out inviting her.

She stared at him looking away from the road. “And what if I make mistakes?”

“Make mistakes, that’s part of life. Hell knows how many mistakes I’ve made. You just have to learn from them, that’s what mistakes exist for Yumi.”

“You make it sound so easy…”

“Compared to what we’re about to face, it is!” Yuki shouted as he backed away from Yumi.

In all of the arguing and debating, she had become completely distracted. It was not until Yuki pointed it out that she noticed the ground vibrating. There was a subtle change, but something came behind her and it was big. She looked over her shoulder at what Yuki saw. A giant snake with the upper body of a human armed with a large hammer came upon them.

Yumi took a step back not expecting to see such a creature in the world. This world she was in quickly became far more dangerous and fantastical that she predicted. ‘What sort of world is this?!’

To be continued…

[Andromeda]

Yuki jumped down absorbing the fall with his legs before standing in front of Yumi. He fixed her with a very serious gaze that she knew he had in him. It was easy to forget how serious he could be when he wanted for how often he was silly and nonsensical. “You’re the main character of your story, Yumi. I’m not taking the reins in your story. I will follow you and advise you, but this is your path to walk.” He stepped out from in front of her with the road stretched out inviting her.

She stared at him looking away from the road. “And what if I make mistakes?”

“Make mistakes, that’s part of life. Hell knows how many mistakes I’ve made. You just have to learn from them, that’s what mistakes exist for Yumi.”

“You make it sound so easy…”

“Compared to what we’re about to face, it is!” Yuki shouted as he backed away from Yumi.

In all of the arguing and debating, she had become completely distracted. It was not until Yuki pointed it out that she noticed the ground vibrating. There was a subtle change, but something came behind her and it was big. She looked over her shoulder at what Yuki saw. A giant snake with the upper body of a human armed with a large hammer came upon them.

Yumi took a step back not expecting to see such a creature in the world. This world she was in quickly became far more dangerous and fantastical that she predicted. ‘What sort of world is this?!’

She did not get much time to answer her own question as she had to immediately go on the defensive. Picking up Yuki, she dodged away just in time as the massive hammer pulverized the rock that they had just been resting at.

In the slowed down time of her high reactions, she saw the side effect of the rock being destroyed. Tiny and large chunks of shrapnel shot out in all directions. Whether the creature meant for it or not, it had created a nasty attack that even missed would kill or maim its target. Yumi looked over at Yuki, still reacting to the creature with an oddly calm expression of wonder if she had to place it. Unlike reading other’s faces, she knew most of the expressions of Yuki very well. This one was very familiar. Also misplaced for such a time.

The bigger concern for her was Yuki’s safety. He was not using his power as far as she knew. ‘I can survive this, but he’ll be killed by such an attack. I’m going to have to protect him until he can defend himself.’ White barrier shards appeared in front of Yumi deflecting the debris at angles, but it was not enough for all of them. ‘I miscalculated…should have used a full barrier…’ She turned around in the air moving Yuki behind her while she took a large chunk of rock in her shoulder.

Thrown off her planned course, the two crashed into the ground with Yumi losing hold of Yuki. Pain jumped through her shoulder, though duller than she was expecting. Despite that, she could feel blood started to stream down her arm. But she was not going to get much time to worry about that. Through her mess of hair she could see the creature slithering towards them.

Yumi pushed herself up with her hands feeling new sorts of pain in her wounded shoulder. It was not moving the way she wanted. It felt blocked. She raised her hand to the front of her shoulder and pushed with her power. The shard of rock shot out of her wound trailing blood giving back her freedom of movement.

She turned around to face the snake creature only able to erect a barrier before it was upon them. The hammer slammed with a quaking ring on her barrier. Pulses of energy rippled through barrier reacting to the hammer. ‘It held…’ Yumi sighed in relief. She only hoped it worked, she was not sure the barrier would have been strong enough.

A cracking noise sounded off from above Yumi. She snapped her eyes up to see lines forming in her barrier. ‘It’s not going to hold!’ Across to her back was Yuki, something that she kept in her mind. ‘He can’t take hits like this…’

Knowing that the shield would not hold for long, she pushed Yuki away from her with telekinesis and jumped from the center where the hammer would land in moments. Her timing on the barrier breaking turned out to be more than a little off as the hammer broke through just as she jumped. The hunk of carved metal and leather narrowly missed her before the blast impact kicked up a thick cloud and pelted her with dirt.

Yumi panted a little from surprise rather than exhaustion. She quickly caught her breathe and stood on her feet once more as the snake burst through the clouds swinging in motion. Immediately before it could get any closer, Yumi stretched out her hand as the air around the snake distorted with pressure. It slowed down struggling with the weight pressed upon it now.

Relief did not come this time for her. She already felt that it would not be enough. The snake could still move despite the immense pressure that she applied to it. ‘It’s not normal…’ It seemed like an obvious statement, but Yumi still felt some surprise seeing how strong it was. Even the creatures that roamed their home did not possess such strength. This was far beyond what she was used to seeing. ‘What is this monster?’

Chapter 388 – Land of Demons

Her mind tried to work through strategies of dealing with the creature, but it was nothing like she had ever dealt with before. She was used to fighting humans, as terrible as that sounded in her head. Monsters were a completely different sort of fight both in size and tactics. All she could do was use her telekinesis to knock it away before it slipped out of the gravity field.

The snake creature did not advance so fast as before. It recovered quickly, but became very cautious seeing that Yumi was no simple prey. It started to encircle her in a wide loop. “What are you?” the man part of the snake asked in a deep and gravel tone. “You’re no human.”

‘It can talk?’ She paused realizing that it had a human part of it. ‘I guess it sort of makes since. I was expecting it to be mindless. Can I make it retreat then? Make the fight undesirable for it to continue?’ Now was not really a time that she wanted to be fighting with some strange monster. She was getting hungry and Yuki was tired. It was the worst possible time and she was stuck in some strange world within her own mind.

A worry thought popped up in her head. This was not the sort of battle she was used to fighting. All of her fights had been to survive against people that wanted her dead. They gave her no choice, but to fight. If this monster did not want to fight something that would be a challenge did not really know how to go about it. She never really talked to talk someone out of a fight before. Yumi only hoped she could steer the course correctly.

“I’m more than you want to deal with right now,” she opened without changing her weak stance.

The first response to Yumi was a thump of its tail that made the ground shake and kicked up a cloud of dirt. It did not seem to be buying it as she watched. “You think you can beat a demon? I’m not some grunt oni.”

‘A demon? Is that what this monster is? Am I going to find more demons roaming this world? Why is this in my mind? I never even seen something like this before!’ When she agreed to go into her mind to control her personalities, Yumi had some expectations. She thought that it would be things that would be familiar to her. Things that would make sense. Something that she could understand and relate to on some level. But this made no sense. In fact, it made more sense to be from Yuki’s mind rather than her.

It was not her that dreamed of or knew about any of these things. Only from TV or some literature she might have read in class. That was the extent of her knowledge on demons. They barely even came as a thought in her mind. So this should not even exist.

In her hesitation, the snake demon saw weakness and struck out at Yumi. Lashing out with its large tail that was easily as thick as a several century old tree trunk, clashed into Yumi’s barrier. She barely had the chance to raise it before the strike. A weak construct made it easy for the demon to shatter it almost immediately and tossed her back.

The human part roared at Yumi taunting her as she dropped roughly from the hit. “A barrier, I’ve never seen a priest or demon hunter cast a barrier without at least a staff. But you’re weak! I’ve seen apprentices with stronger barriers than yours!”

“Ugh…” coughed Yumi, getting back to her feet. Little physical harm came from the attack. Tears in her simple tunic were about all that she took. ‘Demon hunters? Priests? Is it that sort of world?’ Thanks to the little bits of information the demon dropped she started to piece together the world setting. It really was outside of her comfort. This felt like it would be more of a game or something she would see airing on TV the more she learned.

The demon did not wait long to resume attacking her. Any bit of hesitation that it might have had about what Yumi could be had been resolved. It already ruled her as something that would not be much trouble to kill. Slithering over the ground with surprising speed, it bore down with even greater force behind the hammer than before.

It took a double layered barrier and her jumping back to mitigate the damage as much as she did. Despite her efforts, the attack still left a modest sized crater in the ground and multiple minor wounds on her body from the debris and force.

Yumi was still in the fight despite appearances. Blood dripped down her forehead and over her right eye making it annoying to see. But she came to her own resolution with the last attack. ‘There’s no chance for a peaceful end to this. It wants to kill me. That part is familiar. I know this feeling well enough.’ Such a feeling was not one that she liked knowing well, but it was her new life following Yuki. There was no avoiding it.

‘I just have to deal with what’s in front of me and more forward. Just like before…’

Not noticing the difference in Yumi’s eyes, the snake demon charged in for the finishing blow seeing Yumi just standing there. The final blow came in with the hammer parting the cloud of earth hanging in the air coming for Yumi.

However, Yumi lifted her hand up towards the hammer. Multiple barrier shards materialized rapidly creating a cushion that slowed the hammer down until all she had to do was stop it with her bare hand. The dispersed energy from the attack kicked up smoke around Yumi and the snake blowing it outward.

“Impossible?!”

“You really should have left me alone when I gave you the chance.”

“A lowly little girl like you can’t kill me!”

“Let’s test that theory of yours.” Yumi pushed back on the hammer and then clinched her hand into a fist. The head of the hammer suddenly distorted and shrank in size. The air around it twisted and warped until all that remained of the hammer end was a large sized marble of metal that sank into the earth from the high density.

“What?!” the snake man recoiled in surprise. He only held the handle of a useless weapon completely impotent now. It stared at the ruined handle for a few seconds in disbelief of what happened. Then it looked down at Yumi. It could see confidence in her eyes that had not been there before. “What are you?!”

Yumi stepped forward ready to finish things. “Someone not to be trifled with.”

The demon chucked the handle at Yumi like a spear, but it only was reduced to a small ball as well. Clutching its head, it did not understand anymore. “I’m a demon! The superior race, I can’t be killed by a little girl!”

Lowering its body to the ground, the human part of the snake suddenly morphed almost completely into a snake. Very little of it remained recognizable as human. The head took on a distinctly snake-like mouth with lined with multiple rows of fangs and horns jutted out of its head. It unhinged its jaw expanding its mouth further as a purple light grew in its mouth.

‘A new attack?’ Yumi could feel the difference of it just from the vibrations in the air. ‘This is much stronger than anything he used with the hammer… Is this its true power?’

“Die!” the demon shouted as the purple light transformed rapidly into a ball of energy and then massive beam. Shout out of its mouth, the purple light completely engulfed the area around Yumi. Behind her a hill exploded into a tall pillar of clouds and earth.

As the beam dissipated, all that remained of the hill was raining chunks of earth and no sign of Yumi. The demon raised itself pleased with the results. “You were nothing before a true demon!”

“Somehow I doubt you’re truly that great,” Yumi replied.

“No…” The snake turned around towards the voice to find Yumi completely unscathed by the attack. “How?!”

“You telegraphed your attack so early I had plenty of time to dodge. Such a thing is worthless against my speed.” Yumi then clinched both of her hands together. Suddenly multiple distortions appeared all around the demon’s body ripping its flesh apart into dense orbs.

The demon collapsed to the earth with a heavy thud as it bleed out from the holes carved into it. “I can’t…die here.”

Yumi stepped forward towards the head of the snake to stare at it. There was a cold and distant look in her eyes as she looked upon it. “Be glad that this isn’t reality. You won’t suffer in pain for long. I can have no reservations about killing, especially just a demon like you.” Throwing her hand down an arc of white light appeared and carved through the head of the demon. It slumped over dead.

She clutched her arm keeping the shaking down. “I just have to think of it like a game and not reality… No matter how real it feels… It’s just a game…”

To be continued…

[Andromeda]

As the beam dissipated, all that remained of the hill was raining chunks of earth and no sign of Yumi. The demon raised itself pleased with the results. “You were nothing before a true demon!”

“Somehow I doubt you’re truly that great,” Yumi replied.

“No…” The snake turned around towards the voice to find Yumi completely unscathed by the attack. “How?!”

“You telegraphed your attack so early I had plenty of time to dodge. Such a thing is worthless against my speed.” Yumi then clinched both of her hands together. Suddenly multiple distortions appeared all around the demon’s body ripping its flesh apart into dense orbs.

The demon collapsed to the earth with a heavy thud as it bleed out from the holes carved into it. “I can’t…die here.”

Yumi stepped forward towards the head of the snake to stare at it. There was a cold and distant look in her eyes as she looked upon it. “Be glad that this isn’t reality. You won’t suffer in pain for long. I can have no reservations about killing, especially just a demon like you.” Throwing her hand down an arc of white light appeared and carved through the head of the demon. It slumped over dead.

She clutched her arm keeping the shaking down. “I just have to think of it like a game and not reality… No matter how real it feels… It’s just a game…” Yumi repeated it in her mind to not entirely useful effect. Her mind could attempt to rationalize everything that she saw as something that was not real. It was like a game, since this was all a reality created by her mind. But nothing felt fake about it.

Perhaps if Yuki had not changed Japan into a place of fiction, she could have an easier time not already being accustomed to the strange and impossible. Though she had her doubts about that. Part of what made Phoibe’s business so good was that it felt real. It was exactly what people needed. Her body could feel everything. The pain from her wounds stung as the wind brushed at her exposed flesh. An almost curdling stench of the demon hung through the air, even before she killed it. And the hot unbearable heat cooked her flesh from the late summer heat of Japan.

This was reality.

As far as her body understood it.

And that was why it hurt.

Yumi turned away from the demon, hoping not seeing it might help her forget about it all. Her mind kept working to feed her with everything that she needed to justify it. Only time would tell her if such things worked. The only thing that worked for her to keep moving was that if she had not killed it, it would have killed her and Yuki next. ‘Besides I’ve done far worse things already and I was ignorant of them…’

While her mind focused on damage control, she tried to put the pieces back together of what she had been doing. “Yuki!?” She finally remembered that she needed to find him. Once the fighting intensified she had forgotten about him. He was supposed to be out of harm’s way. But now she did not know where she had tossed him. “I hope he’s still alive! I can’t believe I forgot about him!”

It did not take long for her to pick up the sound of his groans of pain and follow them. She leapt over some scattered debris to find him away from the direct site of her fight. Blood dripped from his arm and forehead, while also soaking into his tunic. “Yuki?! Yuki!” Her mind immediately went into a panic seeing that he was not moving. She went to grab him, but stopped when he spoke.

“I’m still alive…just hurting a lot. I’m trying not to move.”

“Yuki! I’m so sorry!” Yumi touched to his arm, but recoiled the moment she saw how strong of a reaction he had to her. “You’re…”

“Yeah…I’m pretty messed up. This might be…unbearable if not…for my recent fights.”

Tears started to drip down Yumi’s face. “This is all my fault! I shouldn’t have…”

Yuki touched his fingers to Yumi’s hand nearby resting on the ground. He wanted her attention. “I’m still alive…as are you because…of you.”

“But! You’re like this because you can’t use your powers! I should have done better!”

“I don’t know…about that. I haven’t…”

“What?! Why?”


“Because I was…uncertain how it might affect…this simulation. I didn’t want to…risk ruining your…chance. Guess I don’t…have a choice…now.”

The thought that Yuki might not be forced to endure all of this pain gave Yumi some hope. “I don’t care about what it does to this. I don’t want to you to be suffering!”

“I understand…” Yuki went silent for a moment as he began to concentrate. For a while Yumi thought nothing had happened as he remained very still and then he looked back up at her. “Just remember…if this works…I can’t instantly fix everything with me.”

He made her heart skip a beat thinking that it did not work. “What are you doing to do then?” She focused on what she could. It was more important right now.

“Something I did before…make some medicine…” Once he finished a ripple came out from his body as the sign of his powers activating. They worked as Yumi hoped. And to some of her disappointment, it did not have any negative effects on the world. They just worked as she expected them to do.

Next to Yuki a machine materialized like when he created things before that needed to be real. Inside the chamber a bottle of a clear liquid formed containing whatever medicine that Yuki came up with in his mind. Yuki stared at it with some curiosity as to what he might have come up with that would help him.

In pained efforts, he pulled out the bottle and drank the contents quickly while the machine disappeared. Only moments after he finished, Yumi could already see that he did not look to be shaking from the pain. He no longer had to hold himself back from the intensity that he face. “It worked?”

“Yes, the pain’s much more manageable now.”

“Can you stand?”

“That might be asking a little much right now. I don’t know how bad it is right now.”

Yumi leaned down to help him up. “Then I’ll support you…ugh…” She pressed her hand to the earth suddenly feeling lightheaded. “Something’s wrong with my body…” Before she could get anything more out she collapsed next to Yuki falling unconscious.

Chapter 389 – Settling

“Yuki?!” shouted Yumi, as she flung herself up right. Seeing him in pain was the last thing that she remembered. He had been next to her, but now the view was different. And things were out of place. And it was dark. ‘Why is it dark?’

“I’m over here, Yumi. I’m fine.” Locating his voice, he had propped himself up against a chunk of rock that remained from her fight. He had not moved too far, but looked more comfortable than before. And most certainly, he seemed to be able to move a little better.

She started move and felt a little lightheaded still. Her hand had to brace the ground to get her from falling out. “I feel strange…”

“I wouldn’t move too fast right now. I fixed up your wounds, but you lost a lot of blood.”

“Blood?”


“Yeah, your shoulder, whatever made that wound you had you removed it didn’t you?”

Yumi stretched her hand around to touch where the wound should have been. ‘It’s gone…’ She glanced over at Yuki and then around at the rest of her body. They were all gone. “You healed me?”

“Yeah, I also gave you a boost to blood generation too. You should remember in the future, it’s not wise to remove objects from you that are that large. You were bleeding out badly. Typically, leaving them in keeps the loss to a minimum.”

She rubbed her hand over the flawless skin on her shoulder, thanks to Yuki. ‘He can do all that, so why do the others keep their scars?’ The most obvious was Seiji, who now had massive scars up his arm because of his fight in Atlantis. Yet Yuki could remove them for him.

However, she did not allow herself to dwell on it for long. She stood up slowly feeling the lightheadedness fight with her. It was not enough to slow her down though. “I didn’t think about that. It was just slowing me down.”

“The instinct is to remove it and it’s easy to forget in the midst of fighting.” Then suddenly Yumi’s stomach rumbled reminding her why they had stopped to begin with. She covered up her stomach with her hands as though that would do anything. “I made some food. It’s pretty bland, but it does the job until we can find a proper place.”

He handed over something that looked a bit like a chocolate bar with lacking that texture. It had something closer to a cracker surface when she touched it. And it was dense from the weight. ‘I guess you went for practicality than enjoyment.’ Yumi bit a piece of it off with little worries over the taste thanks to her stomach yelling at her. “It’s sort of like…milk…”

“Watered down milk, yeah… But it’ll keep you going.”

“Thanks!” She took another bite and started looking around at the area. “It’s night…how long was I out?”


“Not sure…I don’t have a watch. But it’s been night for a while with where the moon is I’m guessing midnight maybe.”

Above them the moon hung an unusually distance closer to them. It felt a little unnatural seeing it so big in the sky. ‘Is this really Japan?’ She could not worry about it too much. There were worse things on her mind.

Behind her, Yumi heard quiet sounds of movements. She was not used to using her sense fully so it gave her no meaningful sense of distance. ‘It’s so dead…I can hear so much more than in the city.’ Processing the sound presented a challenge for her. Yumi hoped to figure out if it was human or not. But it was not something she could figure out. ‘I’m just going to have to assume it’s either an animal or another demon. If I assume the worse, it’s a demon and we’re not really in the right state to be dealing with another attack.’

“What’s wrong Yumi? You’ve been staring for a while.”

Snapped out of her trance, she looked down at Yuki. “I heard something, could be another one of those snake things or just an animal.”

“I made sure not to do anything to give away our position. So it probably hasn’t noticed us, but it’s probably best not to stay.”

“Can you move?”

“Not well, but if you help then I should be able to make it.”

Yumi quickly moved to provide him the support he needed to stand. Listening for the sound, she plotted them a course in the opposite direction. She gave him her shoulder to lean on as they started a slow walk away. It would mean not following the road they found, but for now she did not care about it.

“Still behind us?”

“For now…” She kept her ears focused on the sound not wanting to lose it for a moment. The way it felt was if she missed it she would not be able to find again amongst their walking. ‘I’m not going to allow repeat of what happened. I will protect Yuki correctly!’ Determination carved slowly into Yumi face as she told herself how things would be for now on. She could not allow for another mistake. He was nearly dead because of her error. That would not happen again.

As time passed and they put more distance between the sound and themselves, Yumi lost it. It became too soft for her to hear anymore. Some bit of relief could fall over her now as she relaxed her shoulders a little. “I think we’re safe now.”

“But where is the road?”

He was right. She had no interest in following it before, but now that they had escaped safely they needed the road again. Without the road, they would just be stumbling through the wilderness looking for a village. The road gave them some certainty that they would eventually find civilization again. “I think we’re lost…”

To be continued…

[Andromeda]

They were lost. That was a fact. Though it also felt a little pointless since they were in an unknown place already. Yumi did not know the land anymore than Yuki. Before the demon attack they had only been following the road in the hopes of finding another village. So saying they were lost felt like it might be a little redundant, seeing as they never knew where they going before.

Yumi held on to Yuki while staring around the open fields of rolling grass. The only landmarks were distant mountains. But it was also night, so there was not going to be a lot that she was going to see anyway. Between the two of them she knew she had the best vision, so there was no chance of Yuki spotting anything if she could not.

Their situation left her pondering her options. ‘What should we do? We can’t be roaming aimlessly through this land.’ While Yuki was out of danger from his injuries, he still needed time to rest. She wanted him to have somewhere nice to recover that was not out in the middle of the naked wilderness. The threat of another demon attacking alone was enough concern for her.

She looked over at Yuki. ‘It’s hard to tell what he’s thinking right now. Does he have a plan? I don’t really have any experience in this sort of thing.’ The back of her mind wanted her to rely on him for the answer. He had been through so much already and lived a very different sort of life from her. Yumi just assumed he would have a solution. He always had a way out of everything. It was always happening. An idea always came to him.

“Yuki…” she started out slowly.

Tilting his head over to her, he did not seem to present a face of one with an idea. It just looked like his normal face. That disheartened Yumi some that he also lacked an answer. “Got a plan, Yumi?”

He looked at her for an answer. Yumi would have stepped back a little surprised if she could. She did not expect to see him relying on her for a plan. ‘He can’t help me? I’m going to have to do this alone?’ Everything weighed on her coming up with a solution now.

Now she felt truly lost.

‘What do I do?’ A bit of panic rose up in her body. It had not quite made it to her head, but it did start her heart beating faster. ‘I can fight a demon, but I get tripped up by being relied on for direction? What’s wrong with me?!’ Though chastising herself did nothing to find her solution.

‘I have to just think about the problem…’ She tried to control her breathing to calm her heart, but that did not help much. It really did not want to calm down. Yumi would just have to live with not being able to control herself. She just had to think of her situation and a way out.

Yumi tried to put the pieces out in front of her. ‘We’re lost… We don’t know the land or how far we are from the road. We just need to find some sort of village or town. Any sort of sign of life.’ Finding any of those was difficult though. A search around the field showed off why that would be hard for her. It might just be fields of grass around them, any sign of a forest was not even a hint of a presence. But hills blocked their view from going too far. ‘This must be a very mountainous area of Japan with all of these tall hills. It’d be possible if we were on top of one to see farther…’

Then it came to her. A hit that made her nearly fall off her feet. She could not believe how simple it was. The solution was in front of them. Yumi focused so much on the result rather than the problem that she could not even see what was so easy. ‘I just need to get to high ground.’

Looking over at Yuki, she tried to see how he was doing. “Can you stand on your own for a little bit?”

He looked down at his legs for the answer. “Probably, why?”

“I’m going to go take a peek at our surroundings. I should be able to at least find the road.”

“Alright…”

Yumi released him from her support and took a step back. Watching how Yuki managed on her own, she hesitated taking action until she knew that he would be fine. Once she could get that, she looked up to the skies. ‘This should be the fastest way of doing things. I just hope the night doesn’t make it too difficult to see…’

Initially, Yumi began to hover off the ground with only a few centimeters between her and the earth. Her body bobbed slowly up and down as she got used to the flight and then she pushed herself into the sky.

Well pass the peaks of the hills, Yumi came to stop with full view the region around her. She could see the ocean to her right and forests hugging the edges of hills and mountains. Still no where the height to see past the mountains, she did at least have view of the land. ‘Now where is the road?’

Retracing her steps from where they currently stood to where she thought they came from, she managed to see what amounted to the path that they took. At night, it was not even a visible as a road. Like Yuki had said, calling it a road overstated its design greatly. It was merely a worn out path that the grass could not grow in very well. Such a lack of design made it very hard to notice. But she had found it at last.

Fortunately, she could see how far they were from the road and it was not as far as she feared. They were actually pretty close. A hill blocked them from seeing it. So it would not be much effort to return to some sort of guide. ‘Now that I have the road, what about civilization. Is there anything that I can see from here?’

Nothing.

Whether they were really out in the middle of nowhere from people or it was just hidden well, she could not find anything. ‘I wonder if we’ll eventually find something following the road. There’s nothing I can see on it, not even the hint of farms or signs of people working. Though it is night, maybe I’ll see something more during the day…’

Continuing forward was going to be their only option. She had no other choice. They had to find something eventually, the road did not exist as something naturally created by the land. People traveled it and often enough to make this into something of a road.

Yumi landed on the ground next to Yuki, waiting the whole time. He welcomed Yumi’s support once more as she pulled his arm over her shoulder. “You find the road?”

“Yup, we’ve just going to get around that hill and we’ll be back on track.”

“Always just under our nose.”

“But I couldn’t find any village. There’s no sign of life at all.”

“We’ll find something eventually.”

He agreed with her. This was the only path that they could take right now. She had no clue about what was going on. Following what was the only thing in front of her would hopefully lead her to something. At least, she hoped it would lead to something. She reserved some fear that this was just a pointless effort that they made. A tiny bit though, she still believed more strongly in finding something at the end of the road. “Right!”

Chapter 390 – A Lost Path

Day finally arrived while they were on the road marking the end of their first full day within the digital world of Yumi’s mind. It was not the sort of thing that she expected. She thought it would be over soon. Not still stuck without purpose or aim inside her own mind.

It made her think with a pensive expression about their situation and what it could mean for them. On a break to eat one of Yuki’s watered down milk flavor food bars and to rest for Yuki, she became more reflective on the situation. Yumi looked over at Yuki, who spent the time with his eyes close and stretched out in the grass.

She leaned up against the cliff side watching the clouds pass by. “Think our real bodies are alright?”

“Why you ask?” he replied with a long delay in his answer.

“It’s already been a day in here now. How much time has passed out there?”

“If this was a normal VR world, I’d say it was a day as well. But this isn’t a normal world.”

“Because it’s in my mind?”


“Yes, it’s just my guess but I doubt time in here is moving at the same speed out there.”

That answer made her think about the situation even more. ‘If time is moving differently like he thinks then…’ Such a difference made everything change with the way she thought about their situation. “So even though we’ve experienced a day an hour could have only passed for Phoibe?”

“Or even a second maybe. Mind can do a lot of amazing things.”

“…a second… Then for Phoibe, she could still be only starting trying to save us from here?”

“Maybe.”

Yumi felt the weight of that reply. It put things into a different perspective for her. And not one that she was expecting. ‘I just sort of figured that we would have to wait only Phoibe rescuing us from here. Especially since this seemed to serve no purpose right now. But if time isn’t passing normally, we could be stuck in here for weeks or months while little time passes for Phoibe outside.’ The changes in time made her head hurt a little trying to put it all together. It made sense, but imagine what that was like for Phoibe was weird. They moved quickly, while she was going slowly depending on their points of view.

Which still left her with some unanswered questions. Even with Yuki’s thoughts nothing was certain for them. They knew nothing about why or how they were trapped inside a virtual world created by another part of her mind that she could not control. And anything that they came up with for answers was only just guess work. Not even Yuki knew the truth. None of them did.

“What’ll happen to our bodies if it’s not seconds or hours? Could we die in here because of our real bodies being locked away?”

“Phoibe wouldn’t let that happen. She would find a way to keep us safe.” Yuki lifted himself up off the grass to look at Yumi directly. “Just focus on what you can affect. What’s happening here. This is happening for a reason and it is for you.”

“You keep saying that this is for me, but how can you be so certain about that? Maybe they just want to kill me off so that they can take over my body for their own. They plan to make me some vegetable destroying my mind or something.”

“That still wouldn’t change that it’s about you. If they want to kill you or something else, this is happening because of you, Yumi. This is your mind and only you understand yourself. I can’t give you the answers you’re looking for.”

A sigh escaped Yumi’s lips. He was right. ‘I just don’t understand any of this! This doesn’t make any sense to me! If I understood myself I would know why this was happening and how it connects to me, but I don’t! I don’t understand anything! That much is clear!’ Yumi just wanted it to all make sense. If she at least knew why it was happening she could make some sort of action. But she was going around blind.

‘They’re laughing at me,’ she thought almost certain that they were doing this on purpose to screw with her.

Yumi could not do much with her situation. Yuki had no answers for her and she had none either no matter how many times he told her this was on her. Nothing was going to be figured out. She stepped out away from the cliff and stared at the path once more. “We should start moving again. You’re going to need to sleep at some point and maybe there’s a village nearby for you.”

“It’s possible. There could be something hidden out in the forest.”

“Forest? I don’t see one nearby.” She looked around to see if there was something that he saw that she missed. But there was nothing. And then he just smiled at her like he had some internal joke that he chuckled about to himself.

He motioned with his hand for her to carry on as he leaned on her for support still. “It’s nothing.”

Yumi really felt like she was on the outside of whatever was going on inside his head. Which really was nothing new for her. Most of the things he went on about that got focused on his interests she could not follow. But that was what made him Yuki.

And nothing fortunately was all they found for two days of travel. Yumi feared that they might have to fight another demon and if she could protect Yuki from it, but that was nothing that she had to worry about. Which left them in the late afternoon staring down from one of the hills at a beautiful sight. “A village…” Yumi said with a surprising lack of emotion after wanting one for so long and spending three days traveling partially blind. But they finally arrived at what she hope was a place that they could rest and maybe understand what was going on.

What was the point of all of this?

To be continued…