Midnight Arcadia

Chapter 9

Everyone looked amongst themselves as Dai expressed his hopes for everyone’s readiness. Sky had heard about Himeji students being used to stomp out gang activity and performing missions for the Agency but actually standing here about to be sent out for this was something that put nervousness within them all. This was the reason that the selection process was so straining and why all that paperwork was required, it was all starting to make sense to Sky. Nova put her hands together as she walked up in front of Dai. “With that, we’re off to the races! Good luck everyone. I will be keeping a close eye on you all.” She said with enthusiasm, the gaze from her golden yellow eyes striking through everyone. She put on her usual goofy smile as she clapped twice and suddenly disappeared, the air making a booming noise as the air rushed to fill the vacuum of where she had stood. Everyone was shaken up by the surge of air, besides Galaxy and Dai, who remained unfazed. Dai let out a sigh as he pulled a cigarette out of his back pocket and brought it to his lips. “Let’s go, kids.” He said before lighting his cigarette and walking past everyone, out of the gate and into the capitol proper. Sky looked on with worry as he began to follow his team out of the gate. Dai handed one person from each team a map and a list of information that they would be patrolling, detailing what they should be looking out for as well. Sky looked down at the map that he was handed, his teammates surrounding him looking at it with him. It looked like that each team would take a different set of wards of the city, splitting up to cover more ground in more time. One by one each team began to leave the gate onwards towards their sectors. Before they knew it, Sky and his team were left alone. Chiyoko snatched the map and instructions out of Sky’s hands to look at it closer. Sky looked at Chiyoko with a regretful expression, still feeling bad for the day prior. “I’ll handle it. Just follow and do what I say.” Chiyoko said, giving the cold shoulder to Sky. Ayumi got frustrated but before she could say anything Sky put his hand on her shoulder, signaling to her to just let it go. Kaminari began to walk past Chiyoko, not caring about her grievances. “Just don’t slow us down, rich girl.” Kaminari said in an uninterested tone. Chiyoko let out a scoff and began to follow. Sky and Ayumi looked at each other for a second and just let out a sigh before beginning to follow behind them both. As the team began to walk to their sector Ayumi decided to pierce the tension. “Can we at least be told what exactly we should be on the lookout for? Mr. Dai had said that we are looking out for people in black masks, but is there anymore to go on?” She asked. Despite Chiyoko feeling upset, she couldn’t deny that was smart to share. She pulled out the instructions once more and looked over them one last time while walking before she shared. “We are to question and apprehend any persons that are wearing full face black masks with a white star upon it. That’s what it says. It’s some new gang coming to power in the business of selling O- blood. Disgusting, really.” Chiyoko explained. Sky looked towards Chiyoko with surprise. Kaminari cut in before he could say anything. “Veinless blood, huh? Makes sense. Everyone needs it.” She said quickly and concisely. Sky looked down towards the sidewalk in thought. Veinless were always vitally important to the population, their blood was the only other blood that could be used in transfusions, most important for the most powerful part of the population. Getting a blood type that wasn’t yours could cause conflict in Vein cells, destroying you from the inside. Sky was frustrated by the fact that these innocent people were being possibly kidnapped just because of their blood. He decided to just put the thought out of his head before he made himself more upset. The team had arrived at the first ward they were made to search. They began to move into alleyways and start their search. There were a few people, all suspicious but none were wearing the mask. It was eerie seeing this part of the city he grew up in. All of these people either doing shady things or struggling to survive. It was an ugly reality that he hated to gaze at. The group went through the entire ward but didn’t run into a single person wearing the mask they were looking for. “Ugh, we searched the entire ward. This sucks.” Chiyoko groaned in discontent. Kaminari told her to just deal with it as they moved towards the next ward. The tireless search began once again. Sky let out a yawn as he walked, stretching his arms. In the moment he accidentally bumped into a woman with dirty blonde hair, causing him to stumble. “I’m so sorry.” He said embarrassed before he caught up with his group. The woman dismissed it as he walked off, smiling to herself as she walked into the crowd. When Sky caught up with his team Kaminari bumped his arm with her elbow. “Nice one, Akiyama.” She teased. Even though he was being teased, he was pleased that Kaminari was actually interacting with him at all. Chiyoko stopped when she spotted something down an alleyway. “There! Black mask with a white star!” She said before she started to sprint down the alley. Kaminari without missing a beat began to follow her. Ayumi and Sky who were caught off guard took a moment to process what was happening before also sprinting down the alley. The man with a black mask noticed the group running towards him and he began to flee. Throwing items down behind him to slow the chase. Chiyoko activated her Vein, the large aura emerging from her. She blasted the items out of the way with ice, her frustration evident. Kaminari with extreme athleticism used the ice to speed up her pursuit. She reached out her hand as she caught up to the man but at the last second he dove down towards the subway entrance. Kaminari cornered him upon the platform. The rest of the team caught up soon thereafter. Sky looked directly towards the man, his determination only growing. This was his first real test.

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To Be Continued