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

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

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

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

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

“Release us now!”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“You doubt my resolve now?!”

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chapter 361 – Broken Home

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

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

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

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

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

Takako was dead.

The war ended finally.

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

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

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

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

“She was a victim!”

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

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

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

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

“Yuki!” everyone shouted.

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

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

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

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

“What do you mean? Is Saki not free?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Complicated?”

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

“You’re losing me.”

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

“Which is?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

“But I’d clean it up.”

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

“Broke them? The mind control?”

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

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

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

“You sure?”

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

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

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

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

“Hey man, I’m not a psychiatrist!”

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

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

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

“It got worse after Yuki stopped you.”

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

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

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

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

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

To be continued…