Familiarity with the scene was becoming a bit of a little redundant thing for everyone involved. A few minutes passed since the second time Yuki passed out. He shot himself up from the grass gasping for air, his mind still remembering his last moments clearly. It took him only a second to realize things had changed since the last time.

Yuki glanced around at the view, seeing Saki and Ayumi on either side of him. He thought he might have seen a bit of a glimpse of a smile from Ayumi, but it was gone so fast he considered his imagination. Saki’s smile was real. “…Saki…” He couldn’t help but smile back at her, none of it seemed to have any awareness to him. It just happened.

Everything seemed right.

It took Yuki another few moments to discover that he had his limbs back. He found himself roughing up his hair, feeling a little awkward in the scene, then realized that it was real. His hands pulled out in front of him and he got excited all over again. “I have my hands?! They’re real!” They tightened up and responded to every action.

A little amused and a little dry, Saki responded, “You already knew you’d be getting them back.”

“I know, but still I didn’t have them for a little while. It was real!” The awe of having his hands back left him a little distracted. It took Yuki a while to break from the amazement. He flipped his eyes over to Ayumi quickly. “Thanks, Ayumi! How are you feeling?”

“Fine,” she quickly gave. An odd reaction surfaced on her before she turned around and stood up. “We should leave this area quickly.”

Yuki needed another second, but stood up and agreed with her. “Right, we just need to pick up Haruo!”

Watching the two walk away, Saki narrowed her eyes a little. She held a bit of a suspicious look, but nothing she had any certain ground to stand. ‘…what was that?’ Unfortunately, the two didn’t give her much time to think. He was already calling out to her. Saki disappeared from her spot with a small ring of dirt from where she used to sit. A moment later, she dropped in next to them, as though always having been there.

Chapter 197 – Walking Away

The short walk over to the remaining, unchecked, battleground found Ligeia and Iole with Haruo. They all appeared in good condition, though Haruo had some sort of bindings around him that looked like rope, but clearly not. When Yuki arrived with Saki and Ayumi, the two Atlanteans went to defensive positions.

Rippling through the ground away from Yuki, he took the lead. “We’ve only come for our friend. You can go get your comrades.” After he finished, a long delay fell between them. He knew that he used a language Addendum for them to understand him, but they made no indications of acknowledging them. Yuki stepped forward, but stopped almost immediately. “There’s no need to keep fighting.” Both women had their Fields activated prepared for him.

“Yuki—“ Saki tried to speak up, but Ayumi cut her off.

Grabbing Yuki’s shoulder, Ayumi pulled his attention away. “You can finish this immediately without needing to resort to words.”

Narrowing his eyes, Yuki leveled a serious tone at her. “I’m not here to fight and subdue everyone in this country just because a couple people following orders tried to kill me. I’m here to stop those sending them.” His voice carried no wavering. “They don’t even have anything to do with this. I’ll fight when it is needed, but things are over for now. More fighting now is pointless.”

“That’s not how things work here.” Ayumi’s hand tightened around Yuki’s shoulder trying to add to her words. “Strength and power are things that must be displayed, they won’t submit to mere words. You are naïve to think otherwise.”

Distracted by Ayumi, Yuki’s sight was no longer on the two women. They took the chance to make a move on Yuki while his guard was down. However, they never even made it more than half a meter from their start. A force stopped them from moving.

Yuki glanced back at the two of them, a little disappointed. He took a slow pace towards them. “I’m fine with being considered naïve, but I’m not enough of one to forget my defense.” The force holding the two faded into visible light, making it clear Yuki’s power held them. “I’m not so blind to not know how one might think in this situation.” He turned his full attention back to the women. “However, neither of you are a match for me.”

Continuing his slow pace forward, Ligeia Field disappeared suddenly, swallowed up by grass. Her clothes and mechanical bits disappeared with her uniform returning. Iole’s Field shrank to a tiny dot. Yuki turned his eyes to Ligeia first. “You already fought and have exhausted your mental power. You’re still mentally fatigued and unable to maintain your power.” Swapping over to Iole, Yuki continued, “You are nowhere near my level. I’ve already neutralized most of your Field and I’m not even using a single Fold.”

Iole caught herself gasping in surprise at Yuki’s words. Her eyes grew wide, understanding the weight of the situation. It took nearly all of the fight out of her eyes.

However, Ligeia leaned forward. “You can’t scare me! It’s our duty to stop you! Don’t give up, Iole! Think about the Captain!” She knew it was a soft spot for her. It worked just like she thought, bringing the light to her eyes. “We won’t bend! You’re just as weakened as me after fighting Vangelis! You won’t last!”

Yuki ground his teeth together listening to her. His features hardened suddenly as he stared at the two. They reflected back in his eyes. “You really want to test your theory? I stood against him and still stand now, do you really think you can defeat someone he could not?” His words carried heavier weight to them than even Saki was used to hearing.

The two remained silent once more. It seemed Yuki’s words left them with a decision that they didn’t want to make.

While they thought, Yuki lowered his attention to Haruo. “You can break free right?”

A moment of silence for Haruo seemed oddly short for him. “Haven’t tried.” He looked around at the bindings that wrapped around his upper arms over his chest. Another set he felt, tied up his wrist behind him. It gave him no room to move, adjusted perfectly to fit him.

“Give it a try. We’re going to be leaving.”

“Right.” Haruo stood up from his formal kneeling position with no effort. A brief struggle played out with the bindings, but Haruo won quickly. The bindings snapped and dropped at his feet. Once freed, he walked over to join Yuki’s group.

Yuki looked back at him, while he shifted to a background scene. “You know you could have done that a while ago and returned on your own.”

“No reason.”

Sighing, Yuki managed a shrug for Haruo before returning to the two women. “Alright, decision time is up.” The expression on Yuki’s face turned serious once more as he stared at them. They carried some unease with his return. “I’ve made your decision for you.” Such words made them flinch a little, not certain what he might have decided for them. The mist around them tightened a little. Unease no longer was enough. Panic settled in to stay.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Yuki walked forward to them, as the mist began to undulate. He continued past the two and motioned with his hand for the others to follow. The mist turned around and then snapped out sending both of them flying away from the group. “Let’s get some distance from this area.” Suddenly, a new ripple went through earth. A circular disc rose from the grass gaining substance and lifting the four into the air. Once it took its final shape, it hovered a half meter off the ground with pale lights running around the wide cone shape beneath the disc. It sped Yuki’s group off in the direction of the Capital.

Left behind, Iole and Ligeia made the only choice they could. They went to check on the others from their team. They found Chariton unconscious, but still very alive. To their surprise, he looked fully healed of any injuries he took from his battle with Eudokia. Neither knew what it meant, but tried not to question it for long.

The three trekked over to Vangelis, also unconscious. Iole went over to check on him. “He’s completely healed like Chariton. Why are they doing this?” She moved her hand over to check on his vitals.

It all confused Ligeia. Her battle with Haruo was strange. The end felt weird. She found an odd sensation from it all. “They weren’t like what I expected. What’s Eudokia doing here? What is she planning?”

“Ligeia,” called Iole. Her silence in checking Vangelis went ignored by Ligeia. “Ligeia.”

“What? I can hear you.”

“Vangelis is dead.”

“What?!” She dropped Chariton without a second thought and rushed over. Her doubt in Iole’s findings made her check Vangelis' body for signs of life. No pulse ran through his neck or arm. Her hand could feel no beat in his chest. She felt a strange need to deny everything and summoned her Field. Her eyes stared intently at the device on her arm, waiting for the readouts.

It failed to deny reality.

Ligeia fell away from Vangelis’ body to sit loosely. “His body’s in perfect condition, but there’s no life. Why?!”

“They must have healed him after his death,” answered Iole, her words came a little empty.

Pulling her head back, she struggled with the confusion. “Why would they heal him if he was dead!? Why did this happen?!”

Several kilometers away from their field of battle, Saki stared off in the distance. Her eyes remained fixed on where they came from. Her mind hung busy in thought.

“Lie down,” replied Saki, flicking her finger at Vangelis’ forehead.

Vangelis coughed up blood as his body flipped backwards. Blood sprayed from his nose and from a crack in his forehead. He collapsed to the ground unmoving.

A grim shadow came over her face as she tossed the memory away. Saki shook herself free from the path behind and looked forward. Her eyes fell upon Yuki, his expression softer and hopeful. Her lips thinned into a line. It was a while before she rejoined the conversation.

Ayumi debated the finer points of Yuki’s naivety, something Saki knew was a difficult subject to fight without feeling like running into a brick wall. “…which brings me back to my original question. Why did you just leave like that? They’ll just come back.” Ayumi didn’t seem to mind crashing into the wall.

“They already made their choice before Haruo was freed. They just couldn’t make the choice that they wanted.” Unlike before, Yuki actually explained his actions to Ayumi. It visibly bothered her, but she got what she wanted. “Their duty or honor, whatever to the military, prevented them from making the choice. So I made it so that they could without further losing face. They lost to us and lost sight of us.”

“And you think it’ll be that easy? They’ll keep coming after us.”

“Yes, I know that. Which is why we’re traveling like this.” He pointed down to the device made vehicle they rode. “We’ll get to the Capital faster this way and avoid more pointless fighting. However, this won’t be the end of it, will it?”

The almost omnipotent stare Yuki dropped on Ayumi made her annoyed. “No.”

Glancing between the two of them, Saki felt like she missed something important. “Did I miss something? What are you talking about?”

“The elite,” spoke Haruo, an odd person to get the answer. He shifted back to the foreground to join them. “Every group, people, species, organization has the ones that are better than the rest. The ones that succeed without effort, the ones born with talent. I doubt the people here are any different.”

Yuki nodded in agreement. “He’s right. As powerful as Vangelis was, I know there is someone more powerful standing at the top.” His voice became rough by the end, as thoughts turned to someone that they all knew. “But he’s not the only one. There are plenty of others stronger and more monstrous than Vangelis ahead of us.” He tilted his head around towards the unseen capital.

“Huh? How do you know this? I thought Ayumi had been keeping everything to herself.”

“She has been,” Yuki responded quickly. Directions shifted back to her. “But it’s an obvious conclusion to reach. It’s a standard plot device.”

Saki jumped up to her feet to whack Yuki for his delusions. “Yuki, this is the real world, not one of your manga!” Ayumi’s hand came out in front of the two to halt Saki. “Ayumi?”

“I wish I could agree with you, but Yuki’s correct on this matter.”

“Seriously? This is Yuki and his wild ideas again!”

“Hey! Haruo agreed with me and you’re attacking me!”

No denial came from Ayumi. It left Saki to return to her seat. Once things settled down, Ayumi spoke, “The ones you’re talking about are part of the Omega Division.”

“I don’t like the sound of that,” Saki inserted.

“Sounds appropriate. This is the organization with the best?”

“Yes, the Omega Division only deploys with orders from the council, the King or General of the Army. Most of their missions are capturing or subduing other Meso Prosecho.”

“So they’re used to fighting, unlike those we’ve fought.”

“But they’re all soldiers, aren’t they all used to fighting?” questioned Saki.

“You realized, huh?”

“Yes, I’m more observant than you give me credit for. Vangelis was skilled and knew what he was doing, but he’s one of the exceptions, right? A border patrol protecting the edge against normal humans, which already puts people to sleep is hardly much real practice. Atlantis I can’t imagine has many threats, so they just waste their time away.”

“Correct,” Ayumi confirmed. ‘I didn’t expect this much from him. He plays the fool too well...how much is he hiding from me?’ She glanced around quickly, still reading the scene from the others. Haruo remained quiet, but alert and too keen. Saki was the weak point. “If you didn’t give the impression of a fool, people wouldn’t think less of you.”

“I’m less concerned over people’s opinion of me. It just means they can’t see the truth.”

His words made Ayumi narrow her eyes. She wasn’t sure if those words were meant for her or a general statement of his personal philosophy. Regardless, she moved things along. “Was it your observations that taught you about Folding?”

The word popped up in Saki’s mind. She recalled him mentioning it. “You used the word before, Yuki. Did you learn something from your fight?”

“Yeah, I learned I need to ask more questions.” He stared at Ayumi, rather than meeting Saki’s gaze.

“Huh? What are you talking about?”

“I gave you what you needed to survive. You’re the one not interested in learning anymore.”

“True, it was my fault for being passive about things until now. I didn’t care about your situation or what you wanted with me. I just wanted my life back, so I didn’t bother getting any deeper. That’s my fault. Now that I’m here, I’m regretting that.”

“Regret won’t change things.”

“I know.”

Saki leaned in between the two. She felt the increasing tension. “Hey! What’s Folding?” They both looked at her without saying anything. It almost felt like they were communicating to her telepathically. The attention made her face a little red, but she pushed through forcing a stubborn look.

Yuki gave in first and leaned away a little. “From what I saw, it’s a technique to compress their Field and increase their power. The way Vangelis talked, it doesn’t sound like most can do more than one of them, but he could do it three times.”

“Is the change that significant?”

“For you no, but for me yes.”

“So you’ve figured it out?” inquired Ayumi.

“Sort of, but I don’t know what sort of measurement you have for the difference between one Fold or two.”

“Each Fold reduces the radius by half.”

“I see, then I still have a way to go then.”

Ayumi remained still thinking about what he said. ‘If he can actually complete a Fold the power he would have…’ Her thoughts carried her away for a moment, but Yuki dragged her back to reality.

“While you’re in an answering mood, I want to know something.” The already serious mood managed to turn even more serious. Yuki made it clear he wasn’t going to accept anything, but an agreement from Ayumi.

Understanding Yuki’s stance, Ayumi nodded to him. “Fine, what is it?”

“I want to know more about you and your people. I can’t be going into this blind anymore.”

“That’s a long story.”

“We have time. You can start with those people back there. They knew you from the South Gate.” Yuki leaned in a little, as did Saki. Both were very interested in hearing about her past. “Tell me about your time with them.”