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

“How many are in your group?”

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

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

“Tokyo? So the other cities are fine?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Yes, sir!”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chapter 365 – Broken Hope

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

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

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

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

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

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

“No, I’ll go with you!”

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

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

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

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

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

“You could be lying!”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“It’ll be months or years I fear…”

“Or never…”

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

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

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

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

“Get them to the triage tent immediately!”

“They’ll be fine, Saki.”

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

To be continued…