Seeing the grass everywhere was no longer as much of an unsettling sight for him. Traveling Atlantis, Seiji had sort of become used to seeing green wherever he went. Though, the sight of nature completely taking over civilization still held some otherworldliness for him. It didn’t seem like they were in control, even though efforts to reclaim what was lost in an instant fought back against the wave.
So perhaps it was still a little awkward, he just accepted reality more easily now. Regardless, the lush green overgrowth or the wild sounds of a jungle were hardly issues on his mind. More pressing matters occupied his thoughts, which might have seemed impossible for him. But it was true that he had thoughts, even if he didn’t listen to them all the time. Gut reactions felt more normal for him. It was how he ended up taking the path he decided on.
‘I’m surprised it took so little convincing from the old man,’ thought Seiji. He stared down at the piece of paper that his grandfather gave him. It was an address. ‘Given how he doesn’t even like talking about her, I thought he’d just start yelling when I asked.’ Seiji honestly didn’t know what to make of it. Perhaps the old man was starting to lose his edge.
As he walked, he tried to think up what he would say. He needed to say something. The years it had been since the last time he saw her made it difficult for him to know what to say. It wasn’t as though a simple ‘Hey’ was going to work. She left them because she had become fed up with everything. Their grandfather was too rigid and old fashioned and their father too capricious. Seiji knew how she must have felt. It wasn’t as though he didn’t have the same thoughts.
Even having the same thoughts, he wasn’t sure why he never acted on them. He hated dealing with their old man every day. All of the rules and structure weren’t things for him. The man was too dead set on things going only his way. It made Seiji wonder how their grandmother ever could come to love such a man. He was impossible to deal with. Yet maybe, he wasn’t so stubborn anymore. Maybe the new reality changed him as it did the others just in a different way. Seiji didn’t know. Though he wondered, he didn’t really care about it too much. He had his own problems.
The most immediate one stood in front of him. ‘This is the place…what do I say?’
Chapter 297 – Unplanned Guests
Warned beforehand, a group rushed to the entrance along with Hiroshi to meet the return of Miyako. Most of the team survived, but not without taking a toll. Miyako looked the worst out of the group, the makeshift wrappings only made her look worse. Hiroshi helped with bringing everyone in, saving questions until they were back safely inside.
A doctor in their group looked after them, while Miyako insisted on speaking to Hiroshi immediately. “I’m fine,” she snapped back at the doctor, “Just keep working!”
The woman pushed Miyako back. “If you’re going to be having your briefing then at least lie down so I can look at you properly!” She shoved Miyako down to the groaning table.
“I can sit while you work!”
“Miyako,” interrupted Hiroshi, before she got any more physical. He didn’t wish to see her further injured. Despite being a doctor, Hiroshi knew how strong the woman actually was. The benefit that she gained had strangely not been healing properties, but that didn’t make her any less of a doctor. It just meant that she could more easily deal with her patience, almost as if she needed nothing further for her skills and the strength was fore-sight in dealing with physically enhanced people. Regardless, Hiroshi knew not to question the woman.
Relenting, she relaxed and let the woman work. “Fine…” She glanced over to see her men getting treatment as well from others, though not as skilled as the woman. ‘…Masato…dammit…’
“What happened?”
“They were ambushed. I don’t know if they were search parties out looking for us after the last battle, not that it matters anymore.”
Hiroshi’s face went narrow as thoughts ran through his mind. “Anyone we’ve run into before?”
“No one I recognized, but it seems they knew each other. The brother-sister pair seemed to know the ones that attacked.”
“Yumi and Yori…a pair of girls?”
“Yeah.”
“Probably Kaede and Katsumi then. I assumed they were caught up in this since I haven’t seen them anywhere else. This just confirms it.”
“What else?”
“I don’t know why, but it seems like they were interested in capturing the sister, not killing.”
This raised Hiroshi’s eyebrow. It made him dig deeper into thoughts on what it meant. Unfortunately, for all of their encounters and fighting they never had any real understanding of their purpose or why things happened. They only had one common consistency. “Strange, normally if they know each other they’ve tried to kill them not capture.”
Nodding subtly in agreement, Miyako looked back at her men. It made her thoughts wander for a moment, but focusing. “They did seem to want to kill the brother though, they were only interested in getting the sister.”
“Yumi captured…” Hiroshi fell silent for a while. He made no real movement to indicate any sort of thoughts or intent. “I thought I had finally rid myself of needing to kill friends…”
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Picking the worst time possible to wake up, Yori heard Hiroshi’s mournful thoughts and still fueled by his unspent rage charged after Hiroshi. He rammed his fist into Hiroshi’s cheek, sending him to the floor. “No one’s killing my sister!” His eyes seemed to be only flames as his emotions couldn’t stay in check.
The surprise had everyone in the room moving. Miyako threw away the doctor and rushed Yori along with more of her men. They pinned him down to the ground quickly before he could do anything.
Bearing a familiarly cold expression, Hiroshi stood up, appearing unfazed by the assault. He wiped away the bit of blood on his lip. “This isn’t something that can be settled with weak or naïve thoughts. If you think you can fix it with that sort of mindset you’re going to be the next to die. The reality is that she’s lost. Your only option will be to kill her if you see her again.”
Yori wasn’t going to listen to Hiroshi tell him what he should be doing. Black energy quickly started to materialize around Yori responding to his emotions. “Shut the hell up…right NOW!” He started to overpower those on top of him while slashing out with his power. Using his telekinesis, he threw two of them off him.
“Commander!” shouted Miyako, no longer able to hold him back.
Hiroshi glared down at Yori, stopped in mid motion with his black blades aimed straight at his throat. “The sooner you kill off those unneeded emotions the better.” It didn’t seem to matter to him that Yori’s eyes spoke that he wanted to kill Hiroshi. The cold merciless eyes never wavered for a moment.
All of the noise called in more from the outside to discover what was happening. Haruo was among them, his curiosity seemed to have drawn him. “Yori?” He looked at both of them for some answers.
“Just a difference of viewpoints. Nothing to see.” Hiroshi tilted his head over to Haruo. “If you would take your friend. He needs some time to cool off.”
“I don’t need anything! It’s you that needs to change!”
Haruo didn’t really know how things got to their point, but given what he had seen he had an idea about the argument. He walked over to Yori pressing a hand to his wrist. “Come.”
Unfortunately, Yori seemed unwilling to back down from his attack. Hiroshi could see how much rage and hate he had in his eyes. It was pure emotions and nothing more. “Everyone’s like you in the beginning. They say what you say all the time. I’ve seen enough people die for such refusals to accept reality to know better than you what you should be doing with your energy.”
It wasn’t clear when Hiroshi released Yori from the control of his powers, but Hiroshi stepped forward. Moving around the blades, he rested his hand on Yori’s arms. Once Yori knew that he could move again he struggled against Hiroshi. “Things are no longer normal or peaceful. Reality is cruel and unforgiving. If you want someone to blame, point your blades at Takako, the one giving them their orders. We have just accepted the world as it is now. She’s the evil here, not us for just wanting to live.”
Drawing back his weapons, the black energy in the air started to fade. Yori’s emotions seemed to be falling back down. “Tch!” He turned away, ripping control away from Hiroshi. Walking out of the room, he came to a stop at the threshold. “Evil is a matter of perspective. You’ve already given up. So wonder, which is the greater evil…”
“What the hell do you—“
Hiroshi threw out his arm in front of Miyako to stop her. He shook his head in silence. ‘I was there once too…not long ago…’ Images of his classmates that had already died pass through his mind. Tightening up his hand, he dealt with the memories. They were things that he could never forget, that he never should or would forget. ‘…it’s amazing how easy it is for people to change…we’re not so hardwired as we’d like to believe. It just takes one little push…’
* * *
Already in a completely different part of the city, where he sort of hoped that none of the fighting spread, Yuki needed to get away from all of it. The amount of problems for him never seemed to go down. Even Atlantis wasn’t really resolved. He only bought himself time until the Council came up with a more clever way of dealing with them. ‘Atlantis, the Komatsuzaki, the UN and Takako…it seems I can’t escape problems wherever I go. This was supposed to be an easier matter of settling, but things have only escalated while I’ve been gone.’
Yuki thought about everything that happened in his city while he had been away for more than a month. He wondered what would have happened if they had stayed rather than went with Ayumi. ‘Could this all have been prevented if I had been here? Or would we have just ended up fighting with or against Hiroshi regardless…’ The impossible to answer questions didn’t help him any in coming to a conclusion. Reality was just how he had to accept things right now. ‘Ayumi probably wouldn’t have allowed me to stay anyway, so there’s not much I could have done. Things are how they are now…’
Walking didn’t really seem to improve his thoughts anymore than standing around. Hiroshi left him with a lot of bombshells. The revelations still shook him up. It was hard to accept what happened. Even though he saw the evidence for himself. ‘What can I do? Am I supposed to fight and kill my classmates now? Is that my future?’ Yuki refused to accept that as his only option.
Unfortunately, he didn’t know how he was going to find another way. It wasn’t as though he had time. The longer he delayed the worse things got. Hiroshi and the others had no problem fighting and killing each other over this war. He had to do something to stop the fighting or they would just keep dying. All of his friends would be dead if he waited too long. ‘Do I have no choice, but to fight?’
Yuki suddenly came to a stop waking from his thoughts to realize where he stood. ‘Seiji’s home…’ It wasn’t really something he planned on. Perhaps, his mind was telling him something. He didn’t really have a reason not to see him. “I can already guess what he’ll say, but maybe talking with him will give me something…”
* * *
Hiroshi stood in the Command Room along with Tatsuya and Miyako, bandaged up properly and refusing to rest. “Where are the others?”
“We haven’t had any check-ins from the team following Fumiko since their first scheduled time,” reported Tatsuya. The tone made it clear what they all felt. Normally, they would have an emergency call if they were ambushed.
Clenching his fist against the table, Hiroshi didn’t like how things were falling apart. “More dead…”
“No one seemed to even be able to follow Saki. The team said that they lost her immediately when she left.”
“Dammit, where’s Yuki?”
“Some shrine on the outer part of the city. He’s nowhere near the territory that the Takako Faction claims, so he’s at least safe.”
As reassuring as that might be, Hiroshi didn’t like him being so far away. ‘What the hell is he doing over there? He planning on praying for help?’ The situation just turned for the worse. He didn’t like how things turned out. There was no choice he had anymore. “Get a call out to his tail. Tell them to make contact with Yuki and inform him of what we know. I’m not a fan of forcing things, but this should get him to wake up to reality.”
“Right! I’ll—“
The ground suddenly started to rock. Everyone thought it was an earthquake at first, but realized that it felt nothing like what they normally accepted as a natural earthquake. Above them dirt fell between cracks that started to develop. Panic quickly spread throughout the base.
Suddenly the loud rumble ripped through the entire place to deafening levels. It followed up with a roar of unearthly origin. No one knew what was happening. Pressure increased through the place followed by a massive blast of force that threw people and anything loose away.
“What the hell is going on?!” Tatsuya shouted, trying to get through everything only to be met with a white blast. Everything blinded them in an instant. Screams erupted and then wiped out immediately.
When it all finally ended, rooms were destroyed and people laid all over. Some were already dead and others completely missing. Hiroshi staggered to his feet trying to understand what had just happened. Smoke filled the area, but he had an ominous feeling as something didn’t feel right. ‘Air…it’s not stale…why do I smell fresh air?!’
He quickly got his answer as a strong gale wiped away all of the smoke to reveal the sunlight breaking through their base. “Impossible!” Hiroshi stared up the massive hole that carved hundreds of meters into the earth. At the rim of the giant chasm, he saw numerous figures gathered. However, as his eyes adjusted to the light he could make out some disturbingly familiar ones. “Damn, I knew it, but I didn’t want to believe it anyway. They got all three of you!” Saki, Yumi and Fumiko all stood amongst the rest of the Takako Faction members.