Shift

[Andromeda]

“Forget the books.” Miyako suddenly pushed off from the window and marched down the hall. Purpose suddenly painted over her face. The new Miyako disappeared.

None of them knew what happened to change her mind. They knew the look she had. “Boss?” Rushing to catch up, they walked around her flanks trying to figure out what was on her mind.

“There’s something I need to do.”

It had no more of an answer for them than the last thing she said. Anymore seemed to be impossible to get out of her. Her mind locked on to the target she found.

Outside the window Miyako stared at, there were five street punks. Four of them were ganging up on one out in the middle of the street with no care for the scene that they started. The four boys all had familiar looks.

“Hey boss!” called Takayuki, leading the group on her left. They made it out of the library and around it before she even looked at them. Even then, none of them knew exactly what to make of it. “What’s wrong?” It was an all too familiar expression, but with no reason. ‘She’s left it all behind, so why is she looking like she’s going into a fight?’

Around the library, Miyako came to a stop facing five boys roughly looking to be about the same age range as them, so high school age. They were all gathered up on the street making it impossible for anyone to pass. Bystanders on the opposite side of the street mostly just ignored the scene, but glanced out of the corner of their eye, as was usual for those curious yet wanting to stay uninvolved. Unfortunately, being a fairly busy street it was hard for anyone on their side of the street to pass without becoming entangled in the conflict. Some just turned around looking for a different way, while others ended up frozen not sure how to deal with the violence likely to come.

Takayuki immediately realized what had dragged her out of the library. He walked up to Miyako, standing a little in front of her. ‘Is she planning on fighting them? But why? She doesn’t want to be involved in these things anymore. She even just frightened those overstuffed punks back at her school, when she normally would have just painted the pavement in their blood in the past.’ Making the choice for her, he tried to approach, but was stopped by Miyako. “Boss?”

“I thought I told you to stop calling me that, Takayuki!” She walked up to the group. Four against one, hardly fair odds to say the least. However, it was not the odds she cared about. She easily did twice that many at times. “What do you think you’re doing picking on someone that can’t even fight back?” she bellowed in a deep voice, that unnerved the normal bystanders expecting something different from a school girl.

One of them tilted their head back, surprised that anyone had the balls to interrupt them. “Eh?”

“Hey Junichi, focus man! Ignore the chick.”

“Yeah…” He crunched his knuckles to be winding up for another beating. “Lessons are important.” The boy nearly spread out over the sidewalk already had a bloodied and bruised appearance from all of their beatings. Junichi did not seem to be interested stopping.

They just ignored her. That part bothered Miyako a little, but was not the real reason. She stepped up stretching out her hand for Junichi, the large size of the boy did not even make her hesitate. Size never mattered at the end of the day. She could drop any one of them. Unfortunately, Takayuki stepped in between the two of them. “What the hell, Takayuki! What are you doing?”

He knew that look just like everyone else did. It was the one that you did not step in front of if you did not want to be visited upon by unearthly pain. The sight that made any of them turn blue with fear. It made their enemies flee when her name did not do the job alone. It was the reason they were so feared and well known among the gangs. And he stood in front of it.

Yet even though he knew all of that, he managed to hold himself together. ‘I’ve seen her like this too many times to know this is a bad idea. But I’m not afraid. Why? I don’t understand it, but I know what I have to do. We all want her back, but this just seems wrong… I’m a fool…’ Takayuki grabbed a hold of Miyako’s wrist that planned to start a fight on behalf of some stranger they knew nothing about for reasons they knew nothing about. “Boss.”

“Takayuki, do you know what you’re doing?”

The severity just jumped another level in her expression. It made him grind his teeth. He felt like he was trying to stop a bullet train with just stock of bamboo. ‘I shouldn’t be stopping her. I know this, but I can’t…’ Facing down that look should have made him run in fear. Takayuki held his ground though, despite it all. “I should ask you the same thing, boss. Do you know what you’re doing? What this will mean?”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“I’m saying, this isn’t your place to be in anymore! You’re out of this life now! You can’t just step back in whenever you feel like you want. You’ve made your decision on the course you want!”

“Takayuki…out of the way when you don’t know what you’re talking about!”

“No. I do know! The boss I know isn’t so weak willed as to given in when she’s made her decision!”

Miyako snapped out of her rage upon hearing his berating. ‘…damn…he’s right…I made a choice to leave all of this. If I do this I’ll just be dragging everything I’ve done through the mud. But I can’t just ignore this…’

He could see that he finally got through to her. This was not her fight. Takayuki pushed her back, which surprised her as much as the rest of the gang. They had not really known him to be so bold. “Let us handle this, boss! I know what you’re thinking!”

“Us?” sounded off several of the group, a little confused by Takayuki’s declaration. They were not really sure what he was planning. It was nothing that involved them. They had no business getting involved, especially not associated with any gang anymore.

Annoyed by the interruptions and unwelcome presence of strangers, Junichi turned around again. “Shut the he—“ He did not get a chance to finish before started to eat a fist. The weight of the punch stunned him, along with not expecting someone to go against him. But it did not bring him down, as Takayuki might have hoped.

Regardless of whether it was successful or not, Takayuki made his point and stand clear. The rest of his group could hardly stand back and do nothing. They moved quickly to support Takayuki, who was already starting to receive the vengeful gazes of the other three. “There’s the difference between making your point and just torturing someone! If you’re just looking for some blood, then we’ll be more than happy to take out a donation from your hides!”

While Junichi recovered himself and wiped away the blood from his lip, the other three stepped in taking up sides around him. “So we’ve got some would be heroes,” remarked one of them.

“Let’s show them, Jiro!”

“Yeah, Yasuo. No one messes with Black Gate!”

“You got the one of the right Shigeru!”

“…guys…”

Chapter 303 – Hot Blooded Meetings

Finished, both parties called it after thirty minutes. Takayuki’s group came out the worse from the exchange, even though they did succeed to driving them off. They made it more trouble than they wanted to deal with.

Bruised and bloodied, Takayuki and the rest leaned up against the wall in an alley keeping the way clear. They had dragged most of it out from the broad daylight. Though noise came out from all of their fighting along with yelling and pain, life in the sun could resume to some degree.

Miyako helped them all up and walked them through the back alley to get them out of the area. If they stayed too long the police would probably show up. It sort of surprised her that no one called before, but they were probably too afraid of what sort of retribution would happen if they did. They just pretended it did not happen. Miyako kept her fights out of the public, unlike that foursome, gang fights were supposed to be only be with gangs. Getting it to spill out into the light should never happen, not that others follows her personal code.

A few blocks away, they all stopped in a park. It gave them a place to rest. She knelt down to look at Takayuki, who looked the worse for taking on the brute named Junichi. ‘While he knows his way around a fight, he was never one to just take it straight head-on. Dumbass…’ Miyako ripped off her tie to try to tend to some of the blood. “What were you thinking? That I’m just some helpless girl now that needs other people to fight for her.”

Coughing a little, his body felt so much pain. It had been a while since he had been in such a rough fight. Miyako handled so much of their fighting that they never had to worry about a drag out fight. “You know why, boss. It was the same reason that you had.”

“Bastard…” she cursed, frustrated with herself. ‘I couldn’t do anything. They fought for me when that should have been me. No one would have been hurt other than those that should have been.’

Takayuki could see the stress building up in her eyes. She cared about all of them still even as much as she tried to throw them all off. “We’ve all made our choices, boss. This is your choice and you must follow it, no compromises. That isn’t who you are.”

Grind her teeth together, she had trouble controlling the anger coursing through her muscles. “Damn you, you know me too well.”

Grinning a little, he knew it was how it needed to be. “You’ve chosen to stand in the light now boss. We will stay in the shade where we belong. You can’t step back, we’ll carry no what you’ve have for all this time.”

“This isn’t something you need to do, Takayuki.”

“Perhaps, but we want to. You’ve looked after all of us, boss. We can return the favor now.”

Miyako rammed her fist into the grass frustrated with her own inability. ‘I wanted out of it all, because I realized that I needed something more than just blood and breaking bones. They call it a normal life, what you’re supposed to do. I just needed out from it all. All of the blood…but if it is going to be like this…’

“Don’t give up, boss.”

Lifting her head, she looked over at Takayuki, who seemed to pick up on her doubt. She was not known for showing her emotions, other than anger, naturally. She hated weakness, but it was all she felt in such a situation. It surrounded her like an ocean. “Takayuki…”

“You can be better than us. Most of us never finished high school. We’re too dumb or just didn’t care. We made a choice, even if we didn’t think of it as one. Do what we can’t, because you’re better than us. Boss.”

It was difficult to counter what he said. She had made the choice to leave it all behind and now thought about breaking that promise she made to herself. ‘Only a week and I’m already having second thoughts. When did I get to be like this?’ Miyako clinched her fists up knowing the course she had set. It was the only thing she could do. “Since when did you start talking back to me, Takayuki? Who do you think you are?”

Laughing, Takayuki was pleased to see her looking more resolved. “I was your right hand.”

“Yeah…”


The next day after school, Miyako exited with the expectation to find Takayuki and the rest of the crew with him waiting on her. They were nowhere to be seen. She looked around feeling a little lonely, surprisingly, without them stalking her. It was what she wanted. ‘I’m glad…the way Takayuki was talking back to me. They can stand on their own now. They don’t need me. I can focus on my path…’ A melancholic smile came across her face as she walked to the library.

However, she only made it halfway there before some strangers looking for a fight blocked her path. Unlike the cocky boys that did not know better, these had hardened looks in their faces. They knew the life better than those wannabes. She did not miss a step despite their gazes at her. ‘They have nothing to do with me. I’m out…’

Out or not, they did not seem to know. They grabbed her by the shoulder and squeezed tightly pressing muscle to bone as she came in range. “You the leader of those weaklings?” the older teen asked, trying to confirm something.

She did not even flinch when they invaded her space and tried to strong-arm her. ‘If I just give them the standard death stare, that should make them back off. I don’t need a fight.’ Miyako put everything she had in it, knowing how battle hardened they looked. Just her usual stare was not going to be enough. It did not always work for her in a fight, but it usually did enough to unnerve those that did not piss themselves on the spot.

Her patented death stare seemed to have no affect on them. In fact, it actually seemed to make things worse as they knew that she was willing for a fight. “Yeah, that’s the look. She’s no normal school girl.” He worked to try to crush her collar bone from his oversized hand. “As the leader of those weaklings, you’ve got to pay for the responsibility of them.”

Miyako flashed a little confusion in, not getting at the point that they were trying to make. However, her mind quickly reached the natural conclusion. “Your members from the Black Gate. Come for pay for your boys, is that it?”

“You catch on fast, girlie. We’ve already taken out our full payment your men earned for their boldness yesterday. Now you—“

‘Full payment…’ The death stare in Miyako suddenly flipped. Cold emptiness replaced it. The bruiser trying to play at intimidation flipped on his back in an instant before he finished his sentence. Miyako stared them all down. “Now you’ve earned my wraith!”

She finished all five of them off so fast that there was hardly even a scene. Anyone passing by just thought that she laid down self-defense on a group of boys trying to assault her. It only took her another few seconds to get the weak one in the group to spill where they attacked Takayuki’s group.

‘Damnit!’ she cursed, as she ran through the blocks to try to reach them. It was already too late to stop it, but they did not look like the sort to just to leave them a little beaten. She did not know how far they would go and feared for it too.

Miyako slid around the corner of the final turn and came their former base, an abandoned construction site. She slowly walked in looking everyone for any signs of her men. ‘They’re here somewhere…just don’t be…’

Eventually, she found blood dried and soaked into the earth. Following it, the signs only got worse. More blood and trash thrown about everywhere. The whole place had been ripped apart. And then she found them. Most of them looked passed out, she hoped, they did not seem to be moving or making a sound. Blood covered them along with knife wounds. “…damnit!” Rage boiled up in her chest at the sight.

One of the boys coughed, signaling that they were still awake. Miyako rushed over to them trying to check on them. He looked up into her eyes. “…sorry…boss…”

“It’s fine! Don’t talk. I’ll call—“

“Takayuki, he fought them for all of us…but he…”

“That’s enough!” Miyako tried to keep them from talking, but they seemed to have only managed enough to report to her before falling over. She hung her head thinking about all of them. Her body felt on fire.

Standing up, she looked around to find everyone, but she still did not see Takayuki. He was not anywhere outside. Miyako found the only completed room, which they used for their command room. Blood was all over the door and over the floor. She looked in to find two that she did not recognize just left behind.

And then she found Takayuki. Mounted to the wall with stray pipes through his arm and chest. She had trouble looking at him. “…Takayuki…those bastards…they did this…” Miyako could not content her anger anymore. “I will make them all PAY for this!”

To be continued…

[Andromeda]

And then she found Takayuki. Mounted to the wall with stray pipes through his arm and chest. She had trouble looking at him. “…Takayuki…those bastards…they did this…” Miyako could not contain her anger anymore. “I will make them all PAY for this!”

Is what she said, however, she thankfully had a little more intelligence about her. Prioritizing their health over immediate revenge, she called for an ambulance. She might have been completely enraged with what she saw, but they still were more important to her.

Waiting though was the worst feeling for her. She paced around the hospital hall for a while. Even though she was dressed as a normal high school student, the look she gave them all left everyone off balance. They knew to keep their distance from her.

Miyako took a break from the endless wandering knowing it was about as useful as screaming her vengeful words into the empty hall. ‘Damn it…I know most of them can’t be at risk, but Takayuki…as he was when I found him…’ She looked up towards the end of the hall to the ICU. Takayuki had been in there long past the time some of the others finally woke up. ‘…if he dies…if he dies…’ It was difficult to finish the thought, just left to repeat for her.

The entire time she waited, she saw no doctors or even nurse exit. She did not plan to miss if any of them exited. No one else would tell her anything on Takayuki’s condition. They were either too scared to speak or really did not seem to know anything. His life hung in their hands.

Afternoon had long passed into night. She had forgotten about time. She never knew when it was when she finally saw someone come out of those seemingly stuck doors. The unfortunate woman did not know what happened.

Upon her in an instant, Miyako cornered her before she could even make it half way down the hall. Whatever her destination, it had changed. “Tell me everything.”

“Huh?” the woman asked, looking like she wanted to crush her body into the wall to escape Miyako dark gaze.

Slamming her hand up against the wall, Miyako had little patience for false ignorance. “Don’t give me that! I want answers!”

Scaring the woman till she nearly pissed herself was hardly a smart approach. All it managed to do was shut her down further. She could not utter a word completely entrapped by fear.

Miyako rammed her fist into the wall only centimeters away from the woman. “If you don’t start talking things will start becoming more unpleasant than they are now!” The intensity in her eyes increased trying to force speech from a mute.

As if a real mute, such things were impossible. Miyako got nothing out of her. The woman was just too terrified to respond. She likely had never seen anyone with such a look of wonton violence and even if she had, nothing stacked up. It was a natural human response.

Creaking hinges from the door alerted Miyako, finding two more exiting, a man and a woman. The second before she acted, they were discussing something between the two of them with a grave tone. None of it registered to her.

“What the hell is happening here?” the woman asked just moments before Miyako pinned both of them up against the wall.

A bit of clarity in Miyako realized that the woman had more of a spine than the man or the other woman. So she targeted her for questions. “I’ll be asking the questions! I want to know everything right now! How is he doing?”

Put off a bit by Miyako, but clearly not paralyzed, she managed to keep her wits about her. “Just like a child to threaten. You’re not family, we’ve got nothing to tell you even if you did bring him in.” The woman actually seemed to be doing it to spite Miyako more than anything from the look in her eyes.

Unfortunately, that did not work for Miyako. Swiping her leg out from under the man and dropping him painfully to the tiled ground, she pinned him under her shoe. “You dare to provoke me?” Miyako took both hands to the woman’s top. “You want to see how childish I can be?”

The woman surprisingly remained calm during the whole situation, despite completely disadvantaged. “You think empty threats are going to change anything?”

“I make neither threats nor empty ones,” roared Miyako, tightening her hold on the woman.

Most would have considered it poor timing, but giving the situation it was actually perfect timing. Otherwise, Miyako would have delivered on her promise, she did not make threats. Another person stepped out, a middle-aged man completely confused by the situation of a teenage girl man handling the hospital staff. “What’s going on here?”

“They just keep comin’” Part of her speech started to slip as she lost more control of herself.

The man on the ground managed to pull himself out of his fear to answer. “She’s the girl that found all of those wounded. She’s demanding we tell her the condition of the teen in the ICU.”

“I can see that,” he remarked from understanding the scene better. Coughing partly out of need, he found himself the one playing peacemaking to prevent the need to treat anyone else. “While she might not be family…judging from her actions she seems to know them. It’s not my business why a girl like you knows a bunch on the wrong side of a gang war, but I can say the boy is still alive.”

“He is?” She lowered the woman and let up her grip, finally getting answers. “And he’ll stay alive?”

“It’s out of any of our hands now. We’ve done all we can, it’ll be up to him if he lives through the night.”

“What do you mean?” Miyako turned to face the man directly, as he seemed to have all the answers.

Getting full view of her intense fury made the man choke back a little before he responded. “He has a punctured lung and stomach and severe blood loss. Had you found him any later and he would have died. He seems to have a strong will to live despite his injures. If he makes it the night, then it’s likely he’ll recover.

“Takayuki’s strong! He’ll live, that’s a promise!”

“The next few hours will be the most important.”

“Can I see him?”

“No, we’re still heavily monitoring him for any signs.” Poor timing reared its ugly head. A ringing came through the hall. All of them looked back at the doors questioning what might be happened. “Damn…” He turned around and ran through the doors followed up quickly by the rest of the staff.

The ringing seemed to drain Miyako. She just stared completely lost at what was happening. She did not feel it when more staff ran past her, alerted to the alarm. ‘…Takayuki…’

Chapter 304 – Repayment

Miyako did not know when she returned home. It was all just a blur. She never saw the doctors or nurses again. She was not sure what she saw anymore. Everything just seemed numb. She did not care about school in the morning or even breakfast. She took a short whole loaf with her and just walked out.

Absentmindedly, she carried through the streets with no direction. Her feet took her somewhere, but she was not aware of it. Nor was she aware of the stares she got. It was not her blank expression. Rather the fact that she still wore yesterday’s uniform soaked with blood. She had the look of unearthing herself out of a war zone. Most just kept a wide clearance of her path.

Bad luck continued, but delivered to someone else this time. By happenstance, Miyako blindly ran into four familiar faces. She did not know it at that moment, but would soon enough.

“The hell?” barked Jiro. While in a fight two days, they all looked in good shape.

Junichi stepped up as the wall to get into the face of the one that made the mistake of entering their path. “Watch where yer goin!”

“Hey, Junichi wait,” interrupted Shigeru. He poked out around the wide Junichi. “Isn’t this the girl that tried to start something with you and had to get her men to fight for her?”

“Huh? Oh yeah! It is her!” Junichi leaned in trying to get a reaction out of her, but she did nothing. He did not pick up on her condition finding it to be insulting. “She starts a fight with us and then sends others to do her work. She’s got guts, especially after we dealt with her little weaklings.”

Yasuo stayed back not too interested in the girl. It was more Junichi that had a beef with her and they already dealt with her men, the ones that actually did something. She was just small fry, especially a girl. “Hey, wasn’t she supposed to be dealt with yesterday? Did the boys miss her?”

It took Jiro a moment, but he recalled what he had overheard. “I heard Masuzoe’s group were taken out.”

“Before they got to her? What gang made that mistake?”

“I don’t know, just what I heard. But since it seems she never received what she was owed for trying to stop us, we’ve got the chance now. Luck is on our side, I wanted to wipe that smug look off her face the moment I saw her.”

“Bad luck, girlie,” echoed Junichi, in agreement. He grabbed her by the collar of her uniform’s jacket. Dragged off the street, no one seemed to notice or wanted to notice.

Once out of sight, they threw her up against the wall of a nearby building. It was an empty alley only used for pick-ups, but no one was around. So it was a perfect place to teach her who had the right and who was in the wrong.

Yasuo leaned up against the building watching the alley. He had the least amount of interest in beating up a defenseless girl. “Orders are orders and she crossed us, but there’s nothing fun in teaching a defenseless girl.”

“They’re the boss’ orders,” Jiro reminded Yasuo, “You follow his orders or you receive punishment. It’s the way things work.”

“Which is why I’m watching the alley while you take care of the order. I know what happens to those that are punished.”

Eager to start the teaching, Junichi cracked his knuckles. “Then I get the first lesson.” Without any warning, he wound up a punch and smashed Miyako’s face into the building’s brick. Blood quickly started to paint the wall.

“Just remember, lessons are only remembered when still alive.”

“I know, Jiro! I won’t kill her!”

“I only say that because you hit like a train and this is just a girl. She’s not going to take the same sort of beating as her boys did.”

“I know, I know! But I’m still making her remember not to stop me from a lesson!”

“Fine, teacher.” Jiro picked Miyako back up after the second punch from Junichi left her face down in the trash. He picked off the soaked bag stuck to her face to give Junichi a clean shot.

Blood dripped from cuts along her cheek, lips and nose. Yet Miyako’s eyes still seemed completely out of it. She felt none of the punches. She did not know what was happening to her. The whole world completely disappeared to her. All she could hear was the repeat of the night before.

None of the staff came out of the hall from what she remembered. They just kept running in. A lot of them. She had lost count. They could have been cramming them all in until there was not even air for room for all she knew. They just seemed to have an endless supply.

The ringing never stopped.

She could not stop it.

It was deafening still.

Deafening.

A loud ring suddenly completely overshadowed the noise. It was completely different from the one that blasted her mind for more than half a day. It was familiar. She knew it. It drowned out the other sound. Suddenly, she realized what she was doing. She was wasting her time.

Her eyes opened for real and saw the punch coming in with enough time to dodge it. Junichi’s fist painfully cracked up against the brick. Miyako blinked trying to figure out what was going on. But the ringing came back, the ring of her cell phone. “A call?” She completely ignored the current situation.

Digging out her phone from her skirt pocket, she did not know the number, yet its name came up as the hospital. “Takayuki!” She immediately answered the phone without another thought. “Yes?”

“Is this Miyako Ibuka? The girl that brought in those boys yesterday.”

“Yes. What is it?” An uncomfortable feeling started to surge up in her body. It was fear. The fear that she knew what the call was about. Her mind immediately went the worst possible outcome rather than the hopeful one. It was hard not to think that way.

“It’s about boy named Takayuki Kano. I’m sorry to inform you that he has passed away.”

“…I see…” Miyako’s hand dropped to her side. The voice on the phone tried to reach her, but failed. Miyako stopped listening. ‘Dead…dead…dead…DEAD!’

“Done with your phone call?” Jiro interjected, stepping in for a recovering Junichi.

Miyako, unfortunately for them, was still awake rather than falling back into the void. She saw all of them. “You…YOU!” her voice roared as her body came alive completely ignoring whatever injuries she sustained from Junichi. She seemed completely healthy the way she moved. “You won’t be enough! But it is a good place to start! You’ll regret this war!”

To be continued…

[Andromeda]

Miyako, unfortunately for them, was still awake rather than falling back into the void. She saw all of them. “You…YOU!” her voice roared as her body came alive completely ignoring whatever injuries she sustained from Junichi. She seemed completely healthy the way she moved. “You won’t be enough! But it is a good place to start! You’ll regret this war!”

Jiro managed to dodge the first punch thrown since she telegraphed it long in advance, due to her yelling. However, he had no idea how fast Miyako truly was when the second punch came in a split second later. He was prone on his back before he even realized what happened.

Shigeru and Yasuo jumped in quickly to defend Jiro. But Miyako did not even break. Grabbed up each in a separate hand, she dragged them up to the nearby wall and rubbed their faces against the brick before letting them go.

Tilting her head over her shoulder, she locked on the last one, Junichi. He was still recovering from his broken hand. Miyako did not even bother to wipe away the blood that dripped over her face. It merely added to her overall menacing presence. Junichi did not even recognize the girl. “Who the hell are you?!”

Shadows came down over her eyes leaving only a little white from them to shine through. “…just a normal high school girl…”

Chapter 305 – Identity

Walking out of the alley, Miyako merely looked pissed more than anything now. “Damn, they’re loyal not given up their base location. I’ll give them that much credit.” She began to look around for signs of any others that might have been a lookout.

Nothing.

However, she noticed the fearful looks that she was getting from just people passing by. She caught a glimpse of her face in the reflection of a store window to understand what had people so afraid. “I’m not going to get anywhere looking like this.”

Finishing washing her face, there was nothing she could do about the rest of her clothes. Between the old blood from the boys and her blood from when she was zoned out, it did not look pretty. She took off her jacket, which helped to make it not look so bad, plus it gave her better mobility for the coming trouble.

Miyako stepped back out of the park restroom to pick a direction for her search. “I should have gotten more out of that weakling yesterday. Now I’m going to have to find more of them and pump them for information.” She decided on her random direction and started to move.

The Black Gate gang was not a name that she was familiar with, which meant one of two things. They were positioned outside of the area where she fought or they were too small to have any real presence. ‘I didn’t exactly have an interest in all of the different gangs in the city. Sort of regretting not trying to keep up with all of the politics now. Though that’s probably why we had so many enemies. None of it really mattered to me.’

Her gang, the Blood Lotus had been a little haphazardly put together when she just started defeating a bunch of local bosses. They tried to hit on her and she took offense to their harassment and dealt out the necessary punishment. Since much of the gang world revolved around strength, people gathered up around her in no time. She had little interest at all in the underworld or the things they got involved in. ‘It all seemed more like a bunch of kids pretending to be Yakuza rather than real gangsters. Some were certainly the real thing, but everyone that came to challenge me were just posers. Pretenders.’

It was all a joke. It was probably the reason her neighborhood had so many “gangs”. They all just wanted to be tough and pretend to be cool, but none of them really had any sense of honor or even purpose. ‘They were closer to just a bunch of tough guys hanging out. It’s not like I even wanted this sort of life style anyway. I just fell into it by mistake, which is why I was able to make the decision to walk away when I did. It was a part of me during my middle school and high school years, but it had to come to an end. Just like them, I was pretending and I was done pretending.’

Her search that day ended with no leads. She did not know where to find them. They might have been stepping outside of their territory since she found nothing. She did not know what it was. The only thing she could do was return to the hospital to visit the boys.

Most were able to be discharged after being fixed up. Only two had to stay behind because their injuries needed rest. They all gathered up around Miyako bent down at the waist in deep apologetic bow. “Boss! We’re sorry!”

“Damnit, you guys.” She caught the looks from other patients and the hospital staff. The scene looked like she was some daughter of a Yakuza boss with their men apologizing for their failure. They might start tried to commit ritualistic suicide in the next moment, was other’s fears. “Stop it! This is no more your fault than it is mine.”

“Takayuki wanted to keep you out of it. But because we were so weak…”

“Ugh, enough of the blubbering.” The sight of them helped to improve her mood a little. Entering the hospital reminded her of Takayuki and her failure. ‘This is on me now. I can’t get them anymore involved.’ Miyako looked out to all of them. It was a strange lot teenagers that put all of their trust and hopes on her, even if they did not say it or want it. “You all keep off the streets and stay out of trouble for a while.”

“Boss?”

“I’ll handle this matter. I’m the one that they want.”

“You can’t, Boss!” They started to stop her knowing what she had planned. They all wanted to revenge, but not for her to do it for them. “This is our problem! Like Takayuki said!”

“No, I got this started because I couldn’t leave well enough alone. I finish what I start and you guys won’t stop me!”

“But…Boss!”

“Enough! I’ve decided how things are going to be!” She pulled her arms free from their holds and separated from the group. It was her path to walk now. “Don’t follow me!” she warned, looking back at them. None of them were in any shape for the hell she was about to walk into. She did not need to be taking them in with her.

It was a little troublesome, but she did manage to free herself of their stubbornness to hold onto her. A new day arrived and another missed school day. She too quickly lost all of the ground that tried to build up. A week and it was all gone. They could talk all they wanted, but she had things to settle.

Things to settle sounded all good and she had the attitude, but it did not change facts. She had no leads on where to find Black Gate. All she could do rely on others for information. The hole she fell back into had more than its share of trouble she crossed. She was a well known name in her neighborhood, but it ended about there.

Miyako found herself at one of the few places that still respected her name, even after her declaration. The halls of the Willows, a strange gang that just existed. No others really did anything against them. It is just something that seemed to have been that way since before she formed the Blood Lotus. She never got an explanation for it, just that it was what was expected. They did not bother others and no one bothered them. She always felt like there was some sleeping dragon sort of feeling coming off them and everyone was afraid of them, but never found any proof. Even rumors were completely empty on why it was. Everyone just accepted the situation as is.

Which made them the best group for Miyako to turn, but she was not sure how they would welcome her. Once they knew what she planned on doing, they might just turn her away. She never knew how to read their boss. He was a difficult person to deal with.

The two guards at the boss’ door stared at her. They received the signaled to open the door, but waited. One of them moved over to her. “Remember any violence is forbidden.”

“I’ll be peaceful, so long as he is.” Her history with the boss was fairly well known with his guards. They let her in, but still clearly had some reluctance with it.

Inside, she looked around the room on guard. ‘He’s here somewhere. I know he’s got something planned. He always does.’ Just as the doors closed, two arrows shot out at her. The first she caught and the other she batted away. She looked down to see they were as expected, fakes with just suction cups on the end and an annoyingly cheerful welcoming confetti ball tied begging to be opened. Just then, she felt something lightly hit her head.

A white powder fell down around her head as she looked around in confusion. It did not hurt, but she knew something happened. In her searching, it fell off and she could see that it was just a chalk eraser rarely seen in schools anymore.

Clapping came from a shadowy corner of the room. “The classics are always the best, especially when I get to see that reaction on your face, Miyako.” A young man in his early twenties stepped out from behind a bookshelf, which seemed a little odd in a gang hideout, but this man was not an ordinary gang boss.

“Hideo Nakasato…” Miyako crushed the toy arrow in her hand. His jokes and toy traps were far too annoying to deal with at times. Especially with her mood right now. “You never change…”

“So angry,” he grinned, walking over to his desk. He wore a suit and looked more the part of a company CEO rather than a gang member. Out of all of the gangs she met, he seemed the most like what the Yakuza would be like. However, even she admittedly did not know what the Yakuza were truly like. She never met any of them. They never had any interest in a bunch of small fry gangs playing at gangsters. They were all just punks and kids in the eyes of the professionals.

Hideo leaned back in his chair and threw up his hands as a sign of ending the hostilities. “You never were too good about loosening up and I see that hasn’t changed after you went back to just being a girl.”

‘So annoying…’ She had trouble with his type. He easily read into her, while she could not do anything about his nature. It was like dealing with a monkey, random and always looking play. Miyako always had to stay on guard against him.

With a look like he held all of the cards, he stared at her with a wide smile. “So what do I own the pleasure of your company, Miss Miyako Ikuba?”

“I want information.”

“Information. For what would you come all the way to our little home and seek information?” The annoyingly knowledgeable grin continued to taunt her. “I’m afraid I don’t have the answer sheets for the entrance exams.”

Grinding her teeth, she knew that he knew why she came. It only made it more frustrating that he was forcing her to be more direct than she wanted. He knew the situation and played it to the fullest. “Bastard, you know why I’m here.”

Laughing, he leaned back in his chair until it nearly knocked against the wall. “Such vulgarity from a high school girl. Should you really be talking like that?”

Miyako marched up to his desk and slammed her hands on the hard oak surface. The broken toy arrow slid towards him. “Stop with the games, Hideo. Just tell me what I want to know.”

He seemed to get a little more serious. Pulling forward, Hideo looked stare into Miyako’s eyes. “You’re just a girl. A few games should be enough entertainment for you. This is a dark seedy place where you don’t belong.”

“I’m not a girl!” Her hand pounded against the wood making it groan a little.

Peaking his brow a bit, Hideo brought his hands up over his mouth in an overlapping style. “Unless you’ve made an overseas visit recently, I’m pretty sure you are.”

Her patience had a limit. It had already been long reached before she even entered the room. She only kept herself in control out of respect. But he had stopped respecting her. Miyako grabbed him by his collar, tie and all. “Enough with the games!”

“Violence is forbidden you know.”

“Then get serious and show me the respect I deserve!”

“Respect?” His grin never went away the whole time. It actually got a little wider at the mention of that word. Hideo unwound her fingers from his collar and leaned back into the chair. “That’s a funny word. You come in here asking for information and respect when you’re just a no name girl off the street. What respect do I owe you?”

She ground her teeth more as she retreated her position. It was worse than she thought. The point that he was making made things even harder. He was refusing her on an annoying point. Miyako stayed silent unable to say anything to him.

Hideo fixed his shirt after getting roughed up. “Or are you someone else? Who are you?”

To be continued…

[Andromeda]

“Respect?” His grin never went away the whole time. It actually got a little wider at the mention of that word. Hideo unwound her fingers from his collar and leaned back into the chair. “That’s a funny word. You come in here asking for information and respect when you’re just a no name girl off the street. What respect do I owe you?”

She ground her teeth more as she retreated her position. It was worse than she thought. The point that he was making made things even harder. He was refusing her on an annoying point. Miyako stayed silent unable to say anything to him.

Hideo fixed his shirt after getting roughed up. “Or are you someone else? Who are you?”

Miyako did not have an easy answer for him, even though she knew what he wanted to hear. ‘He’s holding up the information on a technicality…’ Weight from her body pressed down on her hands. It felt too heavy. “What does it matter? You know my past.”

“And there are few that don’t know the name of Eighty Death around here. But is the name so cheap that you can use it whenever things get tough?”

Hideo tried to belittle her name. She pounded her fists against his desk. “Never! Don’t you dare speak ill of me.”

“So you’re Eighty Death now,” question Hideo, peaking up his eyebrow. Any amount of violence that she threatened against him made no impact on his mood. His face became more serious, dropping the playful smirk. It was no longer about jokes or teasing.

“There a problem with that?”

“And before you’re the high school girl? And after that you’re what?”

Slamming her fists down again, she was getting tired him harping on the same point. ‘I’ll become Eighty Death again if it means protecting them…’ She leaned forward only a few centimeters away. “Who I am is my business, not yours.”

“If you want my help it is.” Hideo could tell how far he was getting with Miyako. She was easily provoked and quick to violence. None of that had changed in dropping her position. It was not as though that was a surprise. But she still missed the point. “You think you can just step in and out whenever you please. This world doesn’t work like that. You’re either all in or all out. You left and abandoned everything. That’s what happens when one leaves, you give up claim to everything. You can’t just pick it back up whenever you please like it’s an old shirt.”

“My life is mine to do with as I please! None of you have any right to determine how I act!” Miyako pulled away, annoyed with looking at his face. She walked over to the shelves, needing something that was not his smug face to look at. “It was people like you that dragged me into this world to begin with. I merely found a way to survive. So what right do you have to say how I live it? I never bent to any of your pressure in the past what makes you think I will now?”

“You view this lifestyle as boys playing pretend, as though we’re just playing house. You belittle our way of life. This world is not the sort of fake world you are lead to believe. You’ve been allowed to stay blissfully ignorant.”

Miyako tilted her head back over to Hideo. “Ignorant?!” She took partial offense to his choice of words, but was more surprised by how keenly aware of her opinion of their world he actually was. It was never something she voiced to anyone. “Who the hell do you think you are, Hideo?”

“The Gatekeeper.”

Chapter 306 – The Dark Side of the Shadow

“What?!” That was one word she had heard mentioned in hushed whispers during her time. ‘The Gatekeeper? I always heard the boys talk like it was some myth or legend. I completely dismissed it as just them playing around. The Gatekeeper, someone that protects the more simple and innocent gangs from the true dark underbelly of the real world. It can’t be true.’ She had trouble holding back her surprise now.

Hideo turned around in his chair. He slowly stood up working his way to Miyako. “Even someone like you, that’s completely ignored the politics and inner workings of the world knows that name.” Coming to stop in front of her, he managed to look a meter taller than her somehow. “It is how we designed it. There are two sides to everything. Light and dark, even when you thought you were standing in the dark that was merely the light you deluded yourself into thinking was the dark. You have no idea what the real darkness is in this world.”

“Trying to scare me now?” Bravado was about all that Miyako had left in her. She had never seen Hideo act like this in any of their past meetings. He looked genuinely ready to crush her without a second thought. She felt like a bug under his heel.

The initial intent seemed to have been reached. Hideo let up a little on his intensity. It was rare for him to use such a presence when not dealing with someone from that side. “I’m trying to get you to understand the position you’re in.”

“Position?”

“Yes, position. You’ve left, while you’re on the other side such things are simple. It’s your gang, you do with it as you please. Like you said, you make your own destiny. However, you want to step back in, that is something you can’t do.”

“The hell?” Her face twisted a little not understanding him anymore than before when he was trying to make the point. “You try to scare me with a boogeyman in the shadows. I haven’t listened to any of your rules in the past, what makes you think I care what you think now?”

“Because one can’t just jump in and out. You can’t have both. You must pick one. Especially, when the information you seek lies in the dark.”

‘The dark…’ She knew what he was implying. It only made her hesitate for a moment. The fear that he instilled in her had already evaporated. She was tired of being talked down to and dictated to. Miyako grabbed Hideo’s tie and pulled on him. “You think I give one single damn about your worlds or sides? Rules, be damned to hell! Eighty Death or the high school girl. You want an answer on who I am? I’m myself! And I make my own destiny without any of your hands telling me what I can or can’t do! I can’t be Eighty Death anymore or the high school girl. Fine! I am Miyako Ibuka! I protect those that matter to me! So screw your rules and your pompous light and dark. I don’t care about any of it! Because someone crossed Miyako Ibuka and they won’t be allowed to step away without pay back!”

Laughter, that was what she heard. It actually surprised her to hear him laughing. She released his tie not sure what was wrong. Had he gone nuts or just planning some other game? Miyako did not know anymore. “What’s so funny?”

Hideo fell back against this shelves needing support. It was the least expected answer for him. “You. So you plan to become something different from your past and present? This should be very interesting.”

She still did not know what he was getting at. It made her want to step away a little. The crazy should not really be bothered. “What are you saying?”

“I’m saying I’ll give you the information you want.”


‘Not what I was expecting…’ she remarked, as her only comment. She had arrived at the location that Hideo gave her. This was where the Black Gate gang headquarters was positioned. However, it was nothing that she thought. She knew the area roughly, though never ever actually visited.

It was the middle of the business district. She thought there was perhaps some ruined building that they were built out of or a construction site, as they had done. It just looked like an ordinary business, if that ordinary business ran out of a skyscraper and had employees in suits walking in and out. ‘Are they a real business? Hideo said that things weren’t going to be what I was thinking that they were…’

‘You can find the Black Gate in the business district as the address I just gave you. Just remember though, the real world is nothing like what you think it is. All those playing house ideas you have, get them out of your head now. What you face now is going to be nothing like what you’ve dealt with before. So show me strength of your resolve to be Miyako Ibuka.’

Flexing her hands a little to get the tension out of her body, which built up from the uncertainty of what she faced, Miyako pushed his voice out of her mind. ‘Shut up, bastard. I’ll show you I create my own path!’

Walking inside to the lobby, she only drew a few odd looks. She had changed her uniform, even though she still looked like a high school student. Miyako made sure to leave her jacket behind, so they could not identify her school. This was a fight for her alone, no one else needed to be dragged into it.

Using the password with the receptionist, they led her to a private elevator off to the side. It was surprisingly easy to get inside. ‘Is this all the security that they have?’ It gave her false confidence as she entered the elevator. The ride took her up to the designated floor. ‘Hidden almost in plain sight…is this how his world works? It’s a little unsettling knowing that they were, but I never would have figured his out. I never would have thought to check in a place like this, not to mention I couldn’t have fought my way through a public area. I would have been arrested before setting foot in here…’

The elevator chimed in reaching its destination. As the doors slid open, three guards in suits turned to look at who had arrived. The sight of a girl had them all looking between each other a little confused.

“You order a girl?”

“Of course not! I wouldn’t bring her here anyway!”

“Is she one of the heads’ daughter or something?”

“She doesn’t look like any of them.”

While they argued about what it meant for Miyako to be in the elevator, she stepped forward within range of them. Her face quickly turned serious and they were too slow to react when they realized what was up. All three laid on the floor of the elevator unable to move.

She looked down both sides of the hallway trying to figure out where to go. ‘He didn’t give me anymore directions than this. But I suppose he wouldn’t know.’ Unfortunately, her delaying caused two more guards to come running out, likely already alerted to her presence. She charged for them only to be caught off guard by an oppressively loud bang that rang in her ears. It paralyzed her. ‘A gun?!’

The first only seemed to be a warning shot fired at her. Miyako paused finding that she was staring down the barrel of two pistols from the guards. ‘Is this the dark side of things? This isn’t a fair fight at all!’

“You’ve made a big mistake walking into here attacking us,” one said. “We have ways for dealing with intruders like yourself.”

Caught up in the front, she did not see the two more guards that snuck up behind her and grabbed her. Her arms could not even move in the locked position the large man pinned her with great ease. They had her down on the floor already tied up before she knew what was happening. She could do nothing to them. ‘They’re skilled and experienced, nothing like all those pretenders…damnit…’

Brought before the boss, he was a tough and battle hardened man in his middle ages. The man had a severe expression that gave up no sign of emotion or mercy. It felt like a single glance could actually kill. He had mastered the death stare that she merely adopted. “Who is this girl?”

“Someone we caught breaking in and attacking our men, boss.”

“Is that so?” He lowered his sight down to Miyako, forced to knelt before the man. “Do you know what you’ve done?”

Not even bravado was going to be enough against him. She could feel her body shaking as she had never know. The only time she felt afraid was in the presence of her mother when she was younger. This completely eclipsed that memory threefold. “Y-Yes.”

He narrowed his eyes further. “So you knowingly stepped into our territory and attacked my men.”

“Yes.”

“What a foolish girl. Who is this girl?”

No one had an answer for the boss. He continued to stare at her as though he was actually trying to kill her with sight alone. In the silence, he only seemed to get more intense. “You attacked me,” she responded, almost as though she had to reply. It did not make any sense to her. But the silence seemed to force it out of her.

“What?” The boss turned up his gaze to the men and his lieutenants. “What is this?”

“We don’t know her, boss. She’s lying. Maybe she’s one of the boys’ girls.”

“The hell I am!” she roared, finally finding her footing. Miyako was not going to be ignored or forgotten. She found her leg strength and forced herself to her feet. The men tried to get her to bend, but she refused them.

One of the men came by and whacked her across the face with the butt of his pistol. Miyako fell to the floor bleeding from her cheek and lip. They pinned her back down forcing her to eat the tile.

“Enough, I want to hear what she has to say.” It seemed that he found something intriguing in her. He waved off the enforced guards.

Miyako stood back up, released from her confinement. “Your men attacked my friends and killed one of them. Then they came to finish the job with me.”

He had trouble believing what she said. “Your eyes don’t seem to be lying, but you’re not telling the whole truth. Why would they attack any of you?”

“Because we tried to stop your men from senselessly beating up someone that could not even defend themselves.”

“So you interfered in our business.”

“I tried to protect someone!”

“I understand now.”

He might have seemed harsh, but Miyako felt there was something honest about him. Even in the dark there had to be someone that was still in the light. ‘Now I just need to find out who were the ones that attacked the boys.’

“Lock her up!” he ordered, motioning to the men to take her away.

“What?!” she shouted incredulously. “I thought you understood!”

“I do. You interfered in Black Gate affairs. Punishment to those that interfere is only to be expected. Do a background check on the girl. Find out everything about her. I’ll arrange for a suitable punishment.”

To be continued…

[Andromeda]

Tossed into an empty room that looked more like a cell depending on your imagination, Miyako discovered that she was in a far deeper void than expected. No light was set in the room and even the door seemed to block out the outside completely. She was in complete darkness. It was more than just a physical reality though, she felt like she had descended into the darkness as the concept of evil had some presence actually to wade through. The feeling drove emotions that she rarely invited into her.

Fear was the only the beginning. She did not know what she had stumbled into anymore. ‘That grinning bastard was right…damn him… I wasn’t prepared for anything like this… They’re just going to kill me and no one will remember me…’ Miyako might have still been a child, but there was not really anyone that worried about what happened to her. To a group like this, she did not really feel that they got squeamish with the moral complications of killing a child.

It was mostly that thought that scared her the most.

They were not like what she was used to dealing with. ‘Honor or fairness don’t seem to matter to them. They only concern themselves about ensure their continued success rather worrying about something as fragile as honor. Damn…’

Miyako eventually fell asleep on the cold cement floor. She was helpless and she knew it.

Chapter 307 – War to Peace

A gruff voice barked at her to wake up. In the darkness, all she could do was wait. The sudden burst of light made it impossible for her to see who was speaking to her. Something grabbed her and dragged her out of the room. ‘What’s going on? They planning to kill me now?’

She was still too dazed to know what was happening and the lights hurt her eyes. Miyako tried to struggle even to just stand on her own rather than being hung by her arms, but they did not let her get any timing. ‘I thought I was strong, stronger than anyone and now I can’t break free of these guards…I’m not this weak am I?’ They did not allow any disobedience from her. Her body felt like it went in angles that it was not designed. Her back and shoulders ached.

Suddenly they released her and she slammed into the floor. It was short, rough carpet, but she still felt the hardness of the cement construction underneath. “Ugh…where…” Miyako still had trouble with the lights. She did not know how long she was stuck in that room without light or sense of time.

“Not looking so strong now, girl,” a familiar voice remarked ahead of her. It was the boss she met before. Yesterday, a few hours ago, she did not know how long.

Standing up on her own, she was not about to give the man the satisfaction of seeing her on her knees. ‘I’m not that weak. You may plan to kill me, but I’ll at least face it staring you in the eyes and not turned away.’

“Puffed up pride, that’s all you are. You seem to believe yourself something that you’re not.”

“I don’t know what you think you know, but I can stand proud of who I was. Can you say the same thing?” It was mostly just bravado, but she had to bite back. He seemed like one that only gave some respect to those that could fight back.

A small chuckle came out of him. “An amusing girl. You’ve got some history. An orphan, jumping between family and the system, always getting into fights. Leader of a little gang of boys. Eighty Death and the Blood Lotus, so pretentious.”

Things were starting to become more clear to her now that her eyes finally adjusted. He stood before her. It seemed that her sight came only for her to see him swing his hand to backhand her. However, since she did see it coming, she could prepare her body to absorb the impact. The force staggered her and bent her over a little, but she did not fold. Miyako straightened herself up the next moment letting the blood drip down her cracked lip.

Judging her reaction, he seemed to be eying her up again. He wanted to take her measure. “So there is some spirit there.” The man turned away and went back to his seat. He rested his head against a closed hand, staring at her. “You have two options. Join the Black Gate or face punishment.”

“What?!” She staggered back, not expecting to actually be given an offer.

“Strength and balls you’ve got. To storm into our home takes guts. Normally, we’d just kill you out right, but you’ve got something in your eyes. You’re made a different stock. Swear allegiance to the Black Gate and all will be forgiven.”

‘He can’t be serious. This some joke?’ Miyako stared across at the man trying to figure him out. Her perception of people was really bad. So it was largely a fruitless exercise, but she still stared. “You can’t be serious.”

He leaned forward towards her a little. “Deadly.” Shadows stretched over his eyes to emphasis his point.

She could not believe that he actually wanted her. However, the answer was easy once she understood things. “I won’t join you! You have no honor!”

“Honor is an empty notion for those that want to convince themselves that they’re dying for a purpose. Once you’re dead, there’s nothing else.” Leaning back into his chair, he did not look anymore insult than before by her remark. “I figured this would be your answer. You’re too childish. But I thought there might be something of an adult inside there.”

“I’d rather be a child in my world than an adult in yours!”

“Except, you don’t have the luxury anymore. You stepped into the adult world and you have to deal with the consequences of entering a world you don’t understand.” He snapped his fingers to draw the guards to action.

The men quickly grabbed Miyako forcing her hands behind her back. She struggled against their strength, but two grown men were more than she could take in a straight up battle of muscle. “So you plan to kill me?”

The boss’ eyes perked up a little. “That was one of the options for punishment, but I feel that you’d get too much satisfaction out of dying some naïve sentiment of a noble death. No, after looking into your records I’ve found a better punishment. You will live. Your punishment is a tainted, stained life that you can never escape from and will haunt you forever. Something that will break that precious pride and honor of yours into something meaningless and you will understand how powerless you truly are. That will be your punishment.”

Miyako fought against the men not knowing what terrible punishment that they had in store for her. The vague words delivered an ominous feeling that she could imagine what they might do. “What are you planning?!”

“You’re not exactly the model student, but you suddenly decide to disband your little gang and take your academics seriously. I bet you’re thinking about going to college, try to be better than your daddy or something like that?”

‘He really learned all of that? How did he…’ It scared her now what he might be planning to do to her. He knew everything about her past. He could do anything to play with her now. “You blackmailing me?”

“Blackmail? Why would we want to blackmail a student, you’ve got nothing. No, I already told you I’m going to show you how powerless you truly are in this world.”

“Then what?!” She did not want to know, but she would have to learn eventually.

“I wonder how your school and your classmates will look at you when they learn that you’ve been selling your body just to make money for college.”

“What?!” Miyako suddenly felt herself shrink before the man. It was worse than she imagined. “You can’t…”

Smirking a little at the sight, the boss pressed forward again. “Don’t worry, we’ll take care of everything. I’ll even arrange for one of the younger boys for you.”

Her eyes went wide in fear. Her entire body crawled in terror. She could not escape.

This was the real world.

She did not know when it happened, but they dumped her off in another room. It was not dark, but still did not look right. Half out of it, she looked around finding chains hanging from the ceiling and odd things mounted to the wall.

Her imagination ran wild on fears once she realized she was alone again. It woke her up enough to look around more. It looked nothing like any of the other places she had seen. There was the smell of blood in the air. “W-what is this place?”

“The punishment room…” replied a strange voice. They sounded barely alive.

Miyako flipped around quickly to the voice, shocked to find what she discovered. “It’s you!” She looked around seeing four boys strung up bloody with wounds all over their body. “All of you! What are you doing here?!”

Weakly, Jiro responded to her. “This is…our punishment…for our failure…”

“Failure?”

“For losing…against you…” Junichi answered.

“What?! This is wrong!” Suddenly, Miyako found that her body had strength again. Blood boiled up in her body with raging emotions. She clinched her fists up. “You shouldn’t be tortured just because you failed!”

“It’s…the…rules…”

“Damn the rules! Make your own rules!” Miyako threw her hand back to deny their acceptance of their reality. “You don’t belong to a gang to be tortured!” She thought about the boys that followed her and the Blood Lotus gang. They were some of her best times even though she turned her back on them. “A gang is like a family! You protect and look after each other! You don’t hurt each other! Any gang that does that is no gang in my eyes!”

“But…”

“Shut the hell up, you weaklings!” She had snapped. She no longer cared about anything else. “What do you want? Do you want to be hanging their or free?”

None of them answered her. She stared at all of them more intently. “You said…to shut up…”

“Don’t take me literally! I want your answer! Do you want to be free? Do you want to do what you want and protect those important to you?”

“…” They all looked at each other as best as they could. “…yes…” Jiro replied for all of them.

“Then join me!” Miyako slammed her fist up to her chest to point at her. “I’m making a new gang on this day! But it won’t be about territory or fighting. It will have only one purpose, protect those important to you! As of this day forth, you are now my family! Do you understand?!”

Once more they stared at each other a little confused by Miyako. She had a genuine expression on her face, even if it was extremely severe. They could sense how honest she was in her words. She meant what she said. It made them all smile a little. “Yes!”

“First thing as part of my family! I get you free and we escape!” Miyako’s new gang started in that room. Her new resolve and herself born within the void of the darkness, yet returned to the light. She could finally move forward. The past and present merged to become her future.

‘I’ll never forget you guys…’


“…can’t breathe…” panted Seiji, actually collapsing in the grass. He could not go any further. His ribs were sore and his legs putty. Nothing would allow him to move.

It took him a while just to feel like he could move his body. The fear disappeared, surprisingly quickly. He had only kept running the whole time because he was already in motion. It was difficult to stop. The thing was quite embarrassing to think about even.

Seiji rolled himself over on his back. His chest still heaved needing to calm down, but it was getting there. “…I guess…I’m not ready yet to confront it…” It was the only answer that he could come to for why he fled. He was not ready. There was a lot that he had to say and to know. “…or for what it could mean…to me…”

Feeling a little more recovered, he sat up. “I guess I’m still a child after all…the brat’s going to laugh at me…” It made him sigh a little as he imagined Chiharu mocking him for his cowardice. Unfortunately, there was nothing that he could do.

Standing up, the strength returned finally. He felt better than before, but still naturally not good. “I’ll have to work on myself more.” Seiji tilted his head back in the direction of his mother’s apartment. “Once I’m no longer a child I’ll return…” Looking down the street, he scanned the area. “Where the hell am I?!” The whole run was just a random direction, so he ended up in an unfamiliar area.

It was almost night before he arrived back at the family shrine, but he found someone that he did not expect to see seated at the bottom of the steps. “The old man didn’t kick you out did he?” Seiji asked, as he approached with his announced arrival.

Yuki looked up, partially waiting on him to return, so he was not deep in thought. He looked back up the stairs in search of his answer. “Umm…I just thought it’d be safer out here.”

“Huh? Safer? You? What would you be worried about up there?” Seiji tilted his head trying to figure out if there was some fight going on. If there were, he would have jumped immediately on it. However, it did not seem to be anymore noisy than he knew it. In fact, it might have been a little more quiet than normal, if he had to guess. Yuki’s response made him curious to go up.

Grabbing Seiji’s shoulder before he went too far, Yuki tried to stop him. “It’s not something fists can solve.”

Nothing was making sense anymore. “The hell? What you being so mysterious about? What’s up there?”

“Let’s just say I’ve reading enough to know what’s happening and it’s better we stay out of it. Especially you, your presence will only make things worse.”

Roughing up his hair, Seiji was starting to get annoying at the vague round about answers. He broke free from Yuki’s grasp and started up a couple of the steps. “If you’re not going to be straight with me then I’m just going to look for myself!”

The options weighed in Yuki’s mind. He rubbed the side of his face in thought, all the way Seiji marched the stairs. When he realized that Seiji left him behind, he rushed up to join him. “I’m telling you should stay away. It’s for your own good and mental safety!”

Not stopped by Yuki’s words, Seiji kept going. He tilted down a little to keep the conversation going, still annoyed. “This is my house! No one’s keeping me away from it! Tell me what’s going on!”

“I’m trying, but I’m not sure you’d understand why it’s a problem even if I told you.”

“I’m not dumb, Yuki!”

“It’s not like that…”

Before they finished the stairs, another voice appeared from above. “Hey Seiji!” the voice called out in a semi-sweet tone. “Why didn’t you tell me you were leaving? I would have walked with you like we always do!”

Seiji recognized her sound immediately, “Aoi? Always, what the hell? What’s gotten into you?”

Then suddenly another figure appeared near to the ghost, even taller than her. Yuki’s face was already starting to run a little pale having easily foreseen the entire setup. It was too cliché to miss after he spent a little time in the temple. “Seiji Tsuji, we meet again.”

“Nerine?! What are you doing in Japan?!” Seiji did not understand, even more so why Yuki was bothered by Nerine being in Japan, aside from it supposedly to being forbidden to leave Atlantis. He looked over at Yuki, who had his hand up against his face. “What’s going on?! Why were you scared of this, Yuki?”

“Oh…Seiji…”

To be continued…

[Andromeda]

Seiji still did not get any of what was happening. And Yuki did not seem to be able to make up any reasons why to satisfy Seiji. So he just kept walking up the steps towards the two women with a very confused expression on his face.

Before he even made it the last ten steps, Aoi leapt down at him. She hung off his neck settling in very close to him. Confusion did not override his personal fears. Even though he grew more used to Aoi being a ghost, it did not change how his body felt when she got too close to him. Seiji leapt almost ten meters into the air and landed more than a safe distance away.

His body still was shaking with chills, which he tried to cover up. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?!”

Yuki sweated a little bit watching things play out. ‘Huh, that’s an oddly strong reaction. I know he wasn’t really that familiar with girls before, but still…’

The ghost worked up a mix of disappointment and affection, naturally the second being completely missed by Seiji. “You’re being so cold, dear. Getting embarrassed being in front of company?” She floated back over to Seiji trying to stick close to him only to get him to finish running the rest of the distance into the main grounds of the shrine.

“What the hell’s wrong with you?! Why are you acting so weirdly?” Seiji bolted a little more to get some extra distance. Ever since she came in contact with him, his body’s sensitivity heighted. “Weirder than usual,” he corrected, remember that Aoi was already a strange one.

While Aoi ended up chasing Seiji around the grounds, Nerine just watched it all play out. She kept her composure during the whole thing never saying a word.

Or so it seemed. Yuki finished his own walk up the stairs, taking things more at his own pace. ‘Even the stoic one’s looking a little shaken. Well it’s not like she wasn’t already getting a little heated earlier.’

Yuki recalled when he walked into the shrine. He found Shoji poking his head through the door as though he did not really belong in his own home. “Your brother and grandfather fighting again?” he inquired, hoping that he did not startle the boy with his sudden arrival.

The little boy looked back, pulling his head out, holding up a finger to mouth. “Quiet, we’ve got a visitor.”

“A visitor? So your grandfather’s doing some ceremony or advice giving session.”

Shaking his head, he pointed in motion for Yuki to look inside. “Something much more interesting.”

Now Shoji had his curiosity. The boy was naturally excitable and curious about almost anything. So it made Yuki wonder what had Shoji so interested. He carefully leaned over top of Shoji to line up his eye. Since their home was small, the main living space was immediately open to the front, making it incredibly great for peeking or spying. “Hmm…I don’t see…I see a woman, a ghost?” It did not take long for Yuki to piece together enough of Aoi’s appearance to understand what she was.

However, Shoji insisted on him looking a little further. ‘What’s got him so excited, a ghost is pretty neat, but as I heard from Seiji they already knew about ghosts. Must be the one he was saying was a dead beat mooch.’ Then he saw another figure that forced his head to tilt around further. “Nerine!”

“Shh!” ordered Shoji pulling Yuki away from the door.

“What’s Nerine doing here? She should be back in her homeland.”

“So you know the tall lady?” The thought of more information made Shoji lean in closer. He seemed to understand immediately that there was a story there.

Sweating a little, Yuki stammered a bit in thought. ‘I had forgotten how excited he gets at these things. He eats up all of our stories.’ Panning around the site of the shrine grounds reminded Yuki again of their situation. ‘I keeping forgetting Shoji’s their pride and successor. He must be locked up here whenever he’s not in school.’ However, he could not think for long. Shoji kept leaning in more pressing for information. “Um-erm…Seiji knows her better than me.”

“Ooh!” Shoji’s eyes lit up so fast it seemed like they would ignite into stars on the spot. “My brother has a hot foreign girlfriend! He’s two-timing!” The notion seemed to make him giggle.

The whole conversation turn floored Yuki. He was not sure where to start. ‘Where’d he learn such words…kids these days…’ Yuki sweated further not certain how he should actually respond. ‘I had thought so too, they did seem to be close, but Seiji’s so dense. He only seemed to be treating her like a friend rather something more special. Though Nerine’s rather hard to read herself, not exactly sure how she feels on the matter either.’

Sneaking back to the door, Yuki checked back in on the room. Now that he knew the situation better, he could read the temperature. It was ice cold almost when he peeked inside. It felt like even the air was stale from holding its breath.

He pulled back to look at Shoji. “Yikes, this is bad…I know this setup all too well and Seiji’s not going to understand and barge straight into the middle of a hurricane.”

Shoji grinned with excited nodding to Yuki. “Should be really fun to watch!”

“Since when were you so precocious?”

While Seiji and Aoi provided the physical comedy for the scene, Shoji resurfaced nearby Yuki. “It’s looking exactly like it does in those books!” He seemed to be getting more excited by the moment as though he was living a dream.

Yuki looked a little incredulous at Shoji, but he started to piece things together. “Have you by any chance been borrowing your friends’ manga?” It was starting to make sense for him.

Shoji nodded to him. “Yeah! They gave me all sorts of things! They are really interesting to read. Seeing things happen like in though fighting stories was so cool! I didn’t think I’d get to see more of them play out!”

Patting Shoji on the head, he understood the sentiment all too well. ‘I had the same sort of reaction, though it quickly disappeared when I realized that this was reality not a fantasy… Shoji seems to be young enough not to make that leap so quickly…’

“Big Brother’s already closer to having a harem than you, Yuki and you’re the main character!”

Yuki had to nod a little in agreement with his assessment. “You may be right about that. Though I do have Saki and Yumi. And I guess there is Ayumi, even though she’s sort of evil and sort of a misunderstood extremist. I wonder if you’d count Chiharu or Fumiko, they do fit well in the classic mold someone younger and someone older.”

Actually becoming a sun from the excitement, Shoji looked up to Yuki. “Oh wow, so you do have a harem!”

“And Chiharu is even a tsundere, so we’ve got everything! Though she does need some twin tails or at least some knee socks…”

The two boys’ conversation had drawn the attention of Nerine. While she outwardly did not seem to be making any intention, as Saki would to shut them up for their idiocy, her face was bright red. It seemed that she had finally cracked.

Yuki finally remembered he needed to lay off the fourth wall and tried to get a little more serious. Coughing a bit, he redirected the conversation. “Why do you know about harems? You’re too young for that!”

“Huh? But I was told that it was every boy’s dream.”

“Well I can’t really deny…” He saw Nerine staring at him further. She seemed to want to do what Saki normally did, but was held back by her sense of respect. Yuki was still the King, even if he was acting more like a child. “…but reality and dreams are different. It’s best to focus on one!” He was not really sure if he was helping things anymore. It was not quite the type of conversation he expected to be having with Seiji’s little brother.

“But don’t some marry all of the girls?”

“Err…” The situation only become more difficult for Yuki to explain. ‘Shoji’s too young to understand romance and he seems to be having too much trouble sorting fantasy from reality… I need to do something…’ Yuki searched around the grounds for signs of anything. A distraction would be all he needed. Then it jumped out at him. “I think your brother’s gave you enough entertainment for now. He seems to be really scared and we need to progress the story again.”

Chapter 308 – Mixed Messages

It took a few minutes for Yuki to catch them. The only way he was able to end the chase was to use his powers to restrain Aoi enough that Seiji would calm down. Once Yuki actually made an effort, Shoji explained to him the real cause of Seiji’s actions. Surprised and amused, Yuki managed to settle it all and get them to sit in a room.

“…umm…” Yuki made sure to place Aoi and Nerine on opposite sides of the table and they still made the entire room unwelcome. Most of it came from Aoi, but Nerine only seemed to make it worse by providing almost no reaction to Aoi’s jealousy.

Brave and dumb, Seiji had enough of Aoi’s attitude towards Nerine. “She’s going to be our guest. So I expect you to be polite to her!” He still did not get the source of the problem though.

“Guest?! But I thought you said that you had no room for guests!”

Seiji’s eyes flattened a little as he looked at Aoi. “We have no room for ghosts. People that are actually living are a different story.”

Aoi took it about as anyone would expect. Her surprise hardly covered up well. When she glared over at the other woman, Nerine seemed to have a slightly smug look on her face. It only enraged her further. “Fine! I see how it is! I hope you have fun with your living woman!” Aoi then disappeared from all of them.

‘That could have gone better,’ thought Yuki. He looked over to Seiji to see if he planned to do anything. Remaining as blind as always to what was going on, he made no reaction to it. “Shouldn’t you go after her, Seiji? She seemed upset.”

“To hell with her! She’s annoying anyway.”

“But…” Yuki bit back some of his words knowing how this all looked. He tried to dial in how much he used his books to mirror reality.

“Besides, she’ll come back eventually. I can never be rid of her.” Seiji motioned dismissively to Yuki on the matter. More pressing matters came first in his mind. “What are you doing here, Nerine? Isn’t it forbidden to leave Atlantis?” Then Seiji recalled everything that happened with Yuki. “The Council hasn’t sent you to attack Yuki again?!”

Nerine leaned back a little as Seiji rose. He got a little too close for her comfort. Shaking her head, she wanted him to sit back down before she answered. It took him a few moments, but she had her space again. “No, I wasn’t sent by the Council. In fact, they shouldn’t know about my visit.”

A familiar sound for Yuki, he had a bit of an idea of what was going on. “Demosthenes sent you then.”

“That’s right, Your Majesty.” It pleased her to find someone that seemed to pick things up quickly.

Yuki held up a hand to interrupt her before she continued. “Drop the formalities. I’d like to keep that a secret around here. There may be ears listening that I don’t want to know. So just call me Yuki if you want to address me.” All the problems that he had to deal with it seemed trivia, but it was just another thing he needed to keep unwraps. ‘If Demosthenes and my father are right, I don’t want her slipping while we’re out in the city.’

“But I can’t—“

“This is an order. Are you going to refuse any order from me?”

A complicated expression surfaced on Nerine’s face. She had to obey him, he was the King yet her training told her to give him the respect he deserves. The conflict silenced her.

Waving his hand like none of it mattered, Seiji downplayed it all. “It’s just Yuki. You don’t need to stand on ceremony for him. You don’t need to be so stuffy about these things, Nerine.”

Unknown to Seiji, the tension rapidly increased in the room. Only Yuki understood it. It made him sweat watching Seiji crashing so fast and he did not even understand it. “Seiji…that might have been…”

“What? We’re all friends here, no need to treat anyone differently.”

Sighing, Yuki knew he was not going to get anywhere with him. Across the table, he saw how Nerine was taking it all. He could only defuse things. “So why are you here? Something Demosthenes need from me?”

It took her a bit to respond to Yuki, but she focused back on the task. “No. I’ve been sent as an ambassador, though giving the nature of the situation it might be better to say that I’m here as a neutral aid.”

“Neutral aid? What do you plan to do?” Some of it made sense. He had an idea of what Demosthenes planned.

“I’ll be here so that you’re able to communicate with the homeland. And if anything does happen I’ll be informed immediately of the situation.”

“So a messenger. It’ll be good to know what’s happening. I did everything I could to ease tensions, but it’s not a perfect setup. I expect future conflicts to still arise.”

“And if they do, I’ll inform you immediately.”

“Right.”

Seiji jumped back into the conversation, as it seemed the two of them settled their matters. “That explains Nerine’s presence, but what about you Yuki? I don’t see Saki with you. Just paying me a visit?”

Pressed on his own situation, Yuki quieted up quickly. His mind had nearly forgotten everything that was happening. Inside the shrine with them, it all seemed so far away. Unfortunately, he knew what had to be done. ‘All I’m doing is running away…’ It was something he had to face. “Things have gotten complicated back in my neighborhood.”

“What the UN doing something?”

“No, that’d almost be more welcome at this point. The best I can describe it…war has broken out and friends are killing friends…”

To be continued…

[Andromeda]

Seiji jumped back into the conversation, as it seemed the two of them settled their matters. “That explains Nerine’s presence, but what about you Yuki? I don’t see Saki with you. Just paying me a visit?”

Pressed on his own situation, Yuki quieted up quickly. His mind had nearly forgotten everything that was happening. Inside the shrine with them, it all seemed so far away. Unfortunately, he knew what had to be done. ‘All I’m doing is running away…’ It was something he had to face. “Things have gotten complicated back in my neighborhood.”

“What the UN doing something?”

“No, that’d almost be more welcome at this point. The best I can describe it…war has broken out and friends are killing friends…”

Seiji slammed his hands down on the table splintering it at points where his fingers touched unable to control his strength. ‘What the hell is going on? It hasn’t even been a day!’ He would have just quickly dismissed the whole thing had he not seen the look on Yuki’s face. The pained conflicted expression that did not know what to say and had trouble accepting reality. It was almost too much for Yuki to take. Seiji might not have normally seen it, but Yuki was doing a horrible job of actually holding his emotions off his face. It was everywhere he looked.

Once he realized that he was breaking his table, Seiji pulled back folding up his hands under his arms. He needed to know what happened. ‘None of this makes any sense. If there was some war going on we would have seen it when we arrived. Yuki has to be just over blowing this and taking it harder than because he was not expecting there to be a little fighting.’ Seiji had nearly convinced himself that everything was alright. Yet when he saw Yuki’s face again the heavy weight of the grave nature just pounded back on him.

“Now come on, Yuki. You can’t be serious. War? If that was the case the UN would probably be all over it after what they were doing when we snuck in.” Seiji presented a surprisingly rational denial.

Leaning forward as though his head needed the support, his arms came up to his give his chin something to rest on. “I wish I was blowing this out of proportion or that I was just dreaming it up. But I’m not! I know what I’ve seen. I’ve been there and watched classmates die right in front of me unable to do anything to stop it!” Yuki’s breathing began shallow unable to keep up with his emotions. He was nearly in tears just thinking about it.

The temperature in the room fell to arctic levels instantly. It felt like they were back in Antarctica. No one could say anything to reject Yuki. His emotions were so openly bared for them all that it was hard to even think anything.

Silent minutes passed with no one knowing what to say. They all wanted to deny it, but it left them all speechless. Awkwardness filled through everything like a stuffy, sticky jelly poured in from all the cracked until they were swimming in it, drowning in it.

Eventually, someone had to say something. “What happened, Yuki?” Seiji opened. He was Yuki’s friend. Whatever happened he needed to listen to it. “Tell me everything.”

“Everything?” The memories of the battle between Hiroshi and Takako’s forces replayed in his mind. It seized him up seeing all of the classmates dying around him. The cold, callous expression of Hiroshi willing to execute them and the empty looks of all of Takako’s. “I don’t…want to…”

Seiji leapt across the table to grab his wrist. “Look at me, Yuki!” He pulled on Yuki until he was forced to meet eyes. “I need to know the situation if I’m going to help stop this!”

“Stop? I don’t know…if it can be stopped…”

‘Why does he look so defeated…I’ve never seen Yuki look like this…’ The sight only made Seiji even more angry. He lacked the details of what was going on, but he had to put an end to it. “YUKI! I don’t give a damn! Just tell me already!”

Chapter 309 – The Pitfalls of Idealism

Seiji fell back on his legs. It was a lot more to take than he was expecting. “I can’t…believe it…”

“It all happened as I said.” His hand absentmindedly rubbed the side of face having remembered it all. It just rubbed and scrapped at his skin.

“No, I believe you, but it seems so impossible. How could something like that happen?”

“I don’t know. It doesn’t make any sense.” Yuki had not tried to think too hard on the why. It happened, that much he did not want to even accept. Trying to understand it and rationalize it seemed even worse. It would mean that he was fine with it happening. He could accept that it was somehow normal or reasonable that friends could kill friends. “I just don’t want to think about it.”

“But we need to stop it, Yuki!” Seiji rose to his feet already filled with resolve and determination. He was ready to march out into the city and put a stop to everything. His fists pounded together and his blood boiled. “What are you doing just sitting there, Yuki? The people you know are in danger can you just stand there and do nothing?”

“…Seiji…” Watching Seiji so simply blow away any of the excuses as though they seemed meaningless amazed him. ‘He makes sound so simple. But maybe…’

Marching around the table, Seiji ripped Yuki up by his collar forcing him to stand. “You just going to keep sitting doing nothing, Yuki? That isn’t you! If there is something you need to do, you do it! Don’t think about it, just act!”

“I don’t know if reality is as simple as you’re making it, Seiji.”

“To hell with reality! Just do it!”

Yuki laughed, unable to hold back anymore. Seiji’s simplicity actually felt refreshing. “Maybe…you’re right…”

“There you go! Now let’s go knock some sense into this Takako girl and put an end to all of this!”

Nodding, Yuki finally stood on his own once more. He did not really have a plan, but with Seiji it did not really seem important. “First I need to see Hiroshi once more. Tell him what I plan to do.” It was sort of funny that he had planned on doing the same thing, but all that he saw dragged him down preventing him from seeing it.

“Alright! Let’s go see this secret base! Sounds pretty cool!”

“You’ll be pretty surprised by it.”

“I can’t wait!” While Seiji and Yuki were getting pumped up and ready to walk out of the room, they forgot one other. It took until Seiji got to the door to look back and see Nerine sitting there at the table still. “You coming?” he asked, as though it was just expected.

Nerine stared at Seiji for a moment seemingly lacking words. She had been quiet the entire time never interrupting or putting in her opinion on the matter. “This is not something I’m involved in.”

“You think that matters? They’re all strangers to me.”

Her brow pinched listening to Seiji way of rationalizing things. “But you’re different from me,” she mumbled under her breath.

“You think being different matters?”

Shock painted over Nerine’s face, not expecting him to have heard her. “But—“

“Does it upset you that innocents are being hurt or killed?”

“…yes…” It felt like a leading question for her. She did not know anyone that would not be bothered by it.

“Then stand up! We’re leaving now!”

Yuki had a pretty good idea what was holding back Nerine. He could see the situation that she was put in just by being in Japan. ‘Demosthenes wasn’t very kind even if it might be a good idea…’ Explaining it to Seiji why it was a problem only complicated things further. Like his previous declaration, simplicity was king. “Seiji, she—“

“Not you too Yuki, you don’t want her to come with us?”

“It’s not like that.”

“Then I don’t see the problem.”

Sighing, only accepting him seemed the possible occur. He was insistent on the way things were going to be. “Come along. Think of it as keeping near me if something happens you can react quickly.”

“I understand.”


It might have been a bad idea to leave with night falling, but nothing could stop Seiji’s enthusiasm. They did not even get in back to Hiroshi’s base before the shroud of night cloaked everything. Which meant that they did not see the column of smoke until they were nearly in the neighborhood.

Naturally, Seiji was the first to spot it, even in the dark he was not completely certain of what he saw. “I’m seeing something strange in the sky,” he remarked pointing it out to the others.

“What does it look like?” Yuki tried to see what Seiji saw, but his sight clearly was not good enough to compare to his. Neither Nerine or him knew what Seiji saw. The confused look from Seiji make it clear that he did not understand how they could not see something so obvious. “Remember you have better eyes than us. This dark out I’m going to be lucky if I see three blocks.”

“Right…” Squinting only seem to help him slightly, he still had trouble filtering through all of the darkness and the haze. It was only thanks to some of the lights in the area that he even saw it to begin with. “I don’t know, maybe smoke? It’s still hard to see.”

“Let’s keep moving then. We’ll know more when we get to the base. They probably knew what it is about.” Yuki pressed on to lead the way as he remembered it. ‘I’ve got a bad feeling about this… This doesn’t feel right…’

Nerine and Seiji continued to follow, but as they walked she felt it was important to bring up. “I’m just an observer. I haven’t been ordered to involve myself in foreign affairs.”

Acting like she was on the sidelines troubled Seiji a little. He glanced over to her. “You can just do nothing while watching everyone else fight?”

“…I must…” There was a bit of hesitation from her before she said anything.

“It’s an easy thing to say now when there’s not any fighting on. I don’t believe you can be silent. I trust you to do the right thing when the time comes.”

She stopped at his statement a little surprised to hear that from him. It felt her not knowing what to say to him. ‘I can’t…the mission…’ Mission or not, she did not have time to think about it as they continued on without waiting for her. She chased after them with thoughts of what Seiji said spinning around her head.

The base did not take very long to reach or as close as they could get to it. Now near to the site, they had a very clear view of things. UN marked vehicles and tents were everywhere. Soldiers and investigators walked around the entire area.

It was the lights in the area, the reason Seiji saw any of it to start, that made it clear to them things had changed. A massive hole stood where the block used to be. The store and surrounding ruins were no more. Even the streets were wiped out. A four by four block area marked off with tape or makeshift fences, as though it would keep back anyone in Japan anymore.

Seiji saw the UN and the hole and immediately jumped the gun. “Those bastards!” He jumped down from the building they used for a vantage point. Landing heavily, he tossed up dust on the next building.

“Seiji! Stop! It’s not—damnit!” Seiji quickly activated his field and jumped down with his mist surrounding him. It brought him to a soft landing as his mist already attacked to restrain Seiji. “Calm down for a moment, Seiji!”

“I’m not going to let those UN bastards get away with this! You can’t stop me, Yuki!” Through only his strength, he ripped through the mist even as it worked to try to hold him down. It was a constant struggle until Yuki was able to get out in front of him. “Yuki!”

“Seiji! Listen to me!” he yelled without caution. “I don’t think the UN caused this. I think they’re just investigating!”

“What? Are you sure?”

He had managed to get through to him quickly enough. The tension finally started to drop. However, Yuki was still uncertain. He was mostly just saying it because he did not want Seiji to start an international incident. But he did have suspensions. “As much as I may want to blame things on the UN, this is probably the work of Takako too.”

If Seiji had an objection, he did not have the time to voice it. They had bigger problems. He noticed it first before Seiji and turned his head for when they arrived. In the next moment, they were already surrounded by five uniformed UN soldiers, but they were all Japanese.

Both Seiji and Yuki understood what they meant. They kept still just watching the new potential threat. Neither knew what they wanted from them, but realized that they were probably alerted by their shouting.

A tall man with a short very orderly light brown haircut stepped forward. Judging from the way he walked and held himself, he looked to be the one in charge. “Fighting? So you two are part of this gang war as well then. You’re under arrest by order of the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission in Japan!”

To be continued…