“Her! Arrest her! She’s…” Yumi’s voice disappeared into the void. It popped back and disappeared in waves. She seemed to be screaming and crying. It was hard to tell what was happening.

“What do you…doing?!”

‘What’s happening, Yumi? Are you fighting someone?’ Yuki couldn’t tell very clearly what happened to her. He heard more voices. They all shouted and tried to go over top of the other. It was pure chaos. Everything just fell into a sea of noise to him. ‘Yumi…’

“Don’t touch him! Get… Yuki! YU…”

‘…Yumi…’

Chapter 277 – Rude Morning

“Yumi!” shouted Yuki. Sweat covered his body and every part of him screamed at him to tell him to stop moving. Once he heard his body, he fell back into a pillow. “Huh?” Yuki tilted his head trying to figure out where he ended up. “Where am I?”

His eyes still worked well even with his body complaining and protesting. All around him was an unknown sight. A massive room, that had to be the size of his entire house back in Japan, held a single bed. Along the wall on the left of him was fine wood and silver inlaid furniture. It looked expensive, which was about his only reaction to it. On his right, a small table and a couple of overstuffed chairs lined the wall. Unlike the rest of the furniture in the room, the chairs didn’t look like they belonged and lacked the perfect arrangement.

“I must be in the Palace,” he told himself aloud. It was the only reasonable answer. It was clearly not his room back home. If everything followed as it should have, the fighting was over and them being in the Palace meant that the truth was finally out.

Yuki tried to get up again, but his body refused to give up its control. Pain held him firm. “Damn, I really trashed my body.” He thought back to everything that he forced his body to do. It was beyond the limits of a normal human. He expected it to act like Saki or Seiji’s body. The abuse had a severe price. “I never want to do that again.”

Bursting through the massive wood doors opposite of the bed, Yuki’s friends appeared with relief on their faces. Saki and Seiji were the first in and already at the foot of his bed while Yori hung to the background along with Chiharu.

“Yuki!” shouted Saki, almost crying from happiness to see him again.

Seiji muscled his way alongside Saki, insisting on his importance in the tiers of Yuki’s friends. “Hey man! That must have been one hell of a fight to leave even you unconscious!” He gave him a very approving look.

Saki was already berating Seiji for his boisterous and insensitive comment. ‘This is how it should be…’ Yuki grinned watching them argue and fight. He missed seeing it. However, something was missing.

Searching around the room, he tried to locate everyone that came in. “Where’s Yumi?” he asked, as his first question to them.

Despite the yelling and ruckus, both of them heard Yuki clearly. His voice actually seemed to stop them. Saki leaned around the bed and pointed to the floor at his right.

“Hmm?” Yuki crawled over the bed. It was ridiculously huge. The size had to be big enough for all of his friends to comfortably sit on and not fall off. His sore body didn’t help making the bed feel even larger. But he made it to the edge finally. “Oh…” He saw her sleeping on the floor and a chair just out of reach of it, which explained why it looked out of place.

It made him smile a little. He looked back at Saki. “How long has she been like that?”

“On the floor, who knows. But she insisted on staying by your side until you woke up.”

“More like you pushed it on her,” corrected Seiji.

She immediately slapped Seiji in the back of the head. “Quiet!”

“Hey!” Seiji planned to protest more, but saw the glaring look on Saki. It was a look that he couldn’t argue or win against. His face went a little blue seeing her nearly turn into a demon before their eyes. “Alright, fine.”

“Is she…?”

“Yes, everyone’s been tended to for their injuries,” Saki answered, knowing what he was going to ask. All of them looked in better condition than Yuki, likely an advantage of their altered physical bodies.

However, Yuki still had something to ask. “Where’s Fumiko and Haruo? I don’t see them here. I know Haruo’s pretty anti-social, but I’d expect to see him hiding behind Yori. Oh hey, Yori! I’m glad they were able to rescue you!”

Yuki’s cheerful expression only made the looks on everyone else deepen further. It was a difficult subject for them. One that they didn’t want to actually open with when Yuki woke up. However, they couldn’t avoid it for much longer.

His friends' down expressions made all of the warmth disappear from the room. The smile he had quickly turned to shaking. “Hey guy, what happened to them? Don’t tell me—“

“No!” interrupted Saki, she saw where he was going. She didn’t want him to think the worst. “They aren’t dead. It’s nothing like that.”

“Then what?”

“They’ve been arrested,” answered Demosthenes, suddenly appearing in the room behind the others. He stood tall and stoic seemingly unaffected by the mood.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Yuki immediately threw himself up only to fall back down on the bed when his body reminded him of the problem with moving too quickly. “Demosthenes! What the hell are you doing here?!”

Saki and Seiji rushed over to Yuki’s side to keep him from moving. He didn’t have the rage fueled look, but he didn’t want to be seeing the man that killed his friend either. “Let go of me! I don’t want this man in my sight!”

“Calm down, Yuki!” shouted Seiji, keep hold on his left side.

Saki had his right side firmly locked. “We’re only here because of him!”

“What are you talking about?” He fell back a little, no longer struggling in their hold. Even if he did struggle, he knew how strong the two were. He never had a chance. Yuki glanced between his two friends wanting answers. “Explain to me what’s going on?!”

“If you calm down, we’ll explain, Yuki!”

“It’s fine,” the old man said calmly. “I expected no less of a response. After I’ve finished with my final duties, I will give you my life if you so wish.” He bowed sincerely to Yuki. The thought of sacrificing himself didn’t even seem to slow him down. He made it sound as though it was just another expectation of his position.

Yuki growled a little in annoyance. “I’m not interested in your life,” he barked with disgust in his voice. “It wouldn’t bring back Kazuhiro.” His body still shook with barely contained anger. He thought somehow he had controlled it, but this only proved how wrong he was. He was still weak.

Sighing, Yuki needed to calm himself. He knew that much. There were more important matters, Demosthenes presence only soured the atmosphere, but didn’t change things. He needed to understand what happened. Yuki leaned back letting them know that he was over with his fit. “So what’s going on? What have I missed while I was unconscious?”

Demosthenes took a more prominent position in the room, planning to address Yuki. “After you finished your fight with Eudokia in the Throne Room, she was arrested for her crimes against Atlantis.”

“Yeah, I figured about as much. Everything I heard from her didn’t seem like the Council or the rest of you guys would be pleased by what she’s done.”

“That’s correct. The Council has been hunting for her for months, originally only with the intent to bring her back. Since it’s forbidden to leave Atlantis. But after she started killing those that came after her, things changed.”

“Can we skip to the part that involves Fumiko and Haruo? I assume that’s where this is all leading to.”

“Right, in summary then. The Council has marked Eudokia as the leader of a coup d’état to usurp the throne. All those associated with Eudokia have been branded as accomplices. As foreigners you’re all enemies of the state, treated like terrorists.”

Yuki’s hand clawed at the bed’s sheets. He had a pretty good idea where things were headed. “So Fumiko and Haruo were captured during all of the fighting I’m guessing you did.”

“Yeah,” answered Saki, solemnly. “We were fighting the Titans outside the Capital and Fumiko and Haruo both lost their battles. We weren’t able to stop them from being arrested with our own fights happening. I’m sorry, Yuki. It’s my fault.”

He placed his hand on Saki’s hand for comfort. “Hey, they’re still alive. We’ll think of something. Besides, we've got the truth on our side. They’ve Ayumi now, so they’ll know that she tricked all of us.” However, none of them seemed to have the same certainty when Yuki looked into their eyes.

Demosthenes took the stage again. “The Council has ordered an immediate trial be held for Eudokia, Fumiko Terauchi and Haruo Yoneda.”

“What the hell?! Didn’t she tell them what she did? That she was the cause of it?”

“Even if she did, I doubt the Council really planned to listen to anything she told them. She’s nothing more than a criminal in their eyes. Even her surname has been stripped from her.”

He slammed his fist into the bed. It hurt less than moving his body, but still pained him. “Damn it! What are we going to do?”

Saki leaned forward, stepping between the two of them. “That’s what we’ve been waiting for you to wait up to do. We didn’t want to leave you out of this.”

“Yeah right, we had to stop—“ Seiji received another slap to the head. “Hey!”

“Anyway—“

“Saki Furukawa!” yelled an unknown from the adjacent room. “Saki Furukawa?”

Saki’s face suddenly turned blue. Worry painted her face along with sweat. “Crap!” She quickly pulled away from the bed and ran up against the doors keeping out of sight. As the voice got closer, she leaned around trying to see something.

Confused and lost, Yuki stared while everyone else in the room seemed already clued in on things. “What’s going on?”

He didn’t even get a chance for an answer before a woman with wild hair appeared, as if she jumped out of one of his favorite manga. “Saki Furukawa? Are you in here?” It only took her a few moments to notice Yuki. “Oh hey! You’re that guy everyone’s been talking about. The criminal heir, you’re friends with that girl, right?”

“Huh? You mean Saki?” It was his only guess since she seemed to be looking for her.

“Yeah that’s her! I can’t find her.”

“Oh.” Not knowing better, even though everyone seemed to be silently telling him to say nothing, he pointed to the right.

She immediately saw her target and her eyes went wide with excitement. “I found you! I’ve been looking for you everywhere! I can’t believe how much of a maze this place is.”

“Crap…crap…crap…I thought I had you led in the opposite direction.”

The woman immediately jumped into a fighting stance egging on Saki. “Come on! Let’s spar again!”

“Stay away from me you crazy woman!” Saki immediately disappeared, taking advantage of her speed. However, the woman maintained pace with her. “Stop chasing me! I don’t want to fight you anymore!”

Everyone left in the room sweated a little, most of all Yuki. “Um…explanation?”

Demosthenes cleared the air with a throat-clearing cough. “The woman you saw was Commander Rheia of the Titans, the third strongest MP in Atlantis, yourself not included.”

“You’re still missing the important part.”

“Rheia and your friend, Saki Furukawa, fought during the battle between the Titans and your friends. It would seem that ever since their fight she’s taken a liking to your friend.”

Seiji jumped in, pressing on the bed a little. “Yeah, it was nuts, Yuki! Even after everyone else had finished, the two of them were still fighting! We tried to stop them a few times after it was clear your fight was over, but no one wanted to get their way. Even after the sun went down they were still going at it. Man, the two women were amazing. I’ve never seen a fight like that before.”

“So who won?”

“No one, they just passed out supporting each other, still locked in a fist fight.” Seiji squeezed his fist with excitement just recalling the fight. “Hell, that’s the sort of thing legends are made of! I just wish I can have a fight like that one day!”

Yuki laughed nervously at Seiji’s reaction. ‘Sounds like him.’

His friends passed the hours getting him all caught up on the details. He learned about how the rescue went. The surprise flip of Simonides. How they fought with the Titans. Eventually, Demosthenes insisted on them leaving to let Yuki get some rest again. Unlike them, he still needed more time to recover.

Night arrived when he woke back up. Yuki looked around the room trying to get his bearings again. It was still unfamiliar to him, even more so with no lights on. He glanced over in his panning to find Yumi. During all of the talking, they let her sleep. They told him she had likely been awake for more than a day and with an exhausted body.

He smiled over at her. “Hey, sleepy.”

“Yuki…” she said softly just waking up. Considering that she was back next to his bed, she must have woken up sometime after everyone left. “Yuki! You’re awake! You—“ She jumped up and put her arms around him needed to know he was real.

Yuki laughed a little, not expecting such a reaction from her. “Yeah, it’s me. Sorry for worrying you.”

After she let the initial emotions pass, her mind caught up with all of the important details that he needed to know. “Yuki, you need to know about--!”

“I know, Yumi. This isn’t the first time I woke up. I know about Fumiko and Haruo.”

She immediately went a little distant. Different emotions rushed over her face. “I’m sorry, Yuki! I couldn’t stop them!”

He patted her on the head. “It’s ok. We’ll deal with it. They’re still alive.” He smiled encouragingly for her.

“Yuki…” Suddenly, her green barrier went up as a metal clang rang out. She leapt up already in defense of Yuki. “Who’s there?!”

Left in the shadows, only their voice left the protection. “Die, you murderers!”