Then the sound of a roaring stomach snapped the happy mood into one of laughter. “Also I’m hungry,” he added, trying to play off his embarrassment.

“Course you are!” Seiji grabbed Yuki out of the bed as though he was an invalid. “You’re probably starved from all that sleeping!”

“Not so much that I can’t walk.” Putting a hand on his shoulder, he asked to be let down. He could understand the enthusiasm that Seiji had seeing him alive and well again, but it was a little much. It felt like he was reacting even more strongly than the last time he was out. A tiny little prick of awkwardness crept up through his back that he mostly didn’t notice. Something felt off that he couldn’t understand completely.

As Yuki went to stand on his own, he found that his strength wasn’t what he expected. His body felt surprisingly weak. He had to throw out a hand to grab onto Seiji’s forearm before he completely dropped to the wood planks. A cough came up from the uncomfortable feeling in his body. It felt far more distant than he was expecting. “Maybe I’ll take a hand after all…”

Before he made it too far out, the door opened to the floor while Seiji helped him to the chair at the table. In walked Nerine along with Hiroshi and Tatsuya, immediately surprised to see Yuki awake finally. Normally the stiff one, Nerine immediately ran around Hiroshi nearly toppling him in the process to kneel before her King. “Your Majesty!”

“Nerine! I told you to keep that quiet while in Japan.”

She swallowed hard trying to not show how much she internally chastised herself for her mistake. Nearly no part of her body moved as she froze up before Yuki.

Hiroshi took a seat at the table trying to not focus too much on how out of place and old fashion it all appeared to him. “Cat’s already out of the bag, Yuki. I had them fill me in on the details while you were asleep.”

The sight of his friends or those he used to think of as friends soured his expression. A thin grim line drew over his lips seeing Hiroshi at the same table as him. Awkwardness filled the air quickly and the others quickly remembered that nothing between them had ever been truly resolved. In peace, things stop being simple.

Sensing the tension himself, Hiroshi leaned back in the chair to play off some of the grave tones bearing down on them. “Still can’t accept seeing me, huh? Well you don’t have to worry. I’ll be out of your hair for the rest of the day.”

“So they’ve agreed then?” Saki confirmed, as she hadn't been part of the conversation. She couldn’t be by nature of the situation. A likely wanted criminal couldn’t be casually walking about.

He nodded to her and then looked back at Yuki. “The UN’s agreed to some informal talks. It seems the friend you made has more than a little weight to throw around. Might still be a trap from what you warned us of, but thanks to my power I think I can make everyone sit like good children for a couple hours.”

“He’s a good man that wants peace as well. We’re just going about it from two different sides.”

“I know, but it’s not going to be easy to convince the people in the city that we can trust the UN after everything they’ve done.”

“But we need to make this step, without it all we’ll be doing is fighting them constantly.”

“No promises, Saki. I’m not some ambassador or politician.”

“You’ll be fine.”

Tatsuya grabbed Hiroshi by the neck playfully and pulled him up out of the chair. They were already behind schedule, but seeing Yuki awake was important enough to delay them. “Of course he’ll be fine. He’s got me with him! Don’t worry!” He started pushing Hiroshi towards the door.

“I know…”

Chapter 375 – Broken Purpose

Behind the scenes, Seiji and Nerine scrambled about for food. Nerine kept nitpicking Seiji’s choices as not being fitting for Yuki. And Seiji argued that she asked for too much out of their food.

It was going to be a few minutes.

Yuki grinned a little, but that fell away as he looked out the window watching Hiroshi and Tatsuya walk out. Behind him, Saki stood watching how Yuki reacted. “Forgive him.”

His hand tightened up into a ball. They were out of sight now. Yuki leaned against the window feeling the weight pressing on him. “It’s not that easy. They killed friends, people we knew.”

“Because they had to! They didn’t have a choice.”

“I’m aware of that. Doesn’t mean it’s so easy to forgive.”

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“All you’re doing is contradicting yourself. If you know this, then you can forgive them!”

Hanging his head lower against the window, the weight became almost unbearable. “No, a contradiction is blaming them for something that they couldn’t avoid, but still blaming yourself for something you could have avoided.”

She immediately put her hand on his shoulder. “This isn’t your fault. Takako made a choice, everyone else just responded.”

“Simple words, but reality isn’t that simple. Maybe in time I can accept this, but for now I can’t forgive it. Not when there should have been a better way.” Yuki felt silent trying to keep himself from collapsing. All Saki’s hand seemed to do was make him feel even heavier. His shoulder just absorbed everything that she had even if she didn’t want to pass off. “But I can thank him for one thing. You didn’t have to get blood on your hands.”

Saki couldn't reply to him. She stayed silent.

“Food’s up!” shouted Seiji, accompanied by a disapproving Nerine. Despite her complaints, she did carry with him the food to present to him.

Sweating a little at the sight, Yuki took an uneasy step towards the array of food. A few questions came to mind as he wondered how such a place had such an assortment. It was all Japanese food naturally, Phoibe wouldn’t have it any other way likely, but she was a little too well stocked. But there was a bigger problem that he saw. “I said I was hungry, but I can’t eat all of that. I’m not an anime character.”

Saki brushed by him to sit at the table with him. “The way you are sometimes, I wonder about that.”

“Hey, I just like watching it!”

Snacks, instant ramen, store bought dango and taiyaki, among other varieties of purchased store food. It didn’t surprise Yuki that none of it was actually cooked. That had likely been one of the arguments that the two had over proper food for him. There was a little too much of a weight on sweets. But there was just too much either way.

Seiji sat down without thinking and munched on a few things before offering them up to Nerine as well. She put up her hand to decline. “Eat with us,” ordered Yuki, a little bothered that she was held up so much on rank and position that she would refuse to eat with him.

“…yes, Majesty…”

“Nerine.”

“…Yu…ki…”

“You need to get in the habit. If you’re sticking around me, you can’t be stuttering on something so simple. It’ll make people even more suspicious.” Ramen, even instant, sounded really good at the moment to Yuki. That was the only thing that Seiji had actually cooked, in that he boiled the water for it. Dropping the hot water into the cup, Yuki waited for things to get a little soaked before starting. The smell already made his stomach talk again. A stick of dango made an attempt to silence that. “Pretty good,” he muttered as he chewed.

“Yeah, that woman’s got some really good food stashed around here.”

“We’re getting Yuki a proper meal after this though.”

“He’s not going to die from sweets and instant ramen. A man’s got to eat when he’s hungry!”

“Right…”

Making a good sizable dent to the food stacked up on the table, Yuki’s belly finally stopped bothering him. It took a while for it to kick in and then he regretted overeating a little. It wasn't so bad, but he did feel a little uncomfortable. He wanted to rest. But something more important bothered him than his stomach.

While they all sat around the table and he had them, Yuki jumped straight to the heart of the matter. “So what aren’t you telling me?”

“Huh? What’cha talking about?”

“Yuki?”

“I’m not blind even if I just woke up. Seiji’s over acting to make me feel welcome. You being a half step behind him. There’s something going on.”

That something was an understatement. Saki thought of all the different things that happened since Yuki left. ‘There are so many things to tell him. But none of it he can do anything about…’

“We’ve got a situation right now, man.”

“Seiji.”

“Relax, Saki. It’s about Yumi.”

Saki fell back in her seat. What appeared as resignation was actually relief. ‘So even he’s not that dumb.’ Brushing back her bangs, Saki settled in for another round of explanations.

“Other personalities?” he repeated to himself, once they finished getting him completely up to speed. A hand brushed over his face trying to take it all in. He looked over to his friends through his fingers, but lowering his hand. “Why didn’t you tell me any of this back in Atlantis?”

“There was never really the right time for it and Yumi otherwise seemed fine. We didn’t really know what it was then. It’s not until now that we have a clearer idea of what’s happening to her.”

“Right….well we’ve got to help her.” Yuki stood up immediately and started for the door ahead of the others.

Not clear on what Yuki planned on doing, she quickly moved to intercept him. “What are you doing?”

“Going to see Yori. We’re going to need him to find Yumi, you said.”

“Well yeah, but he hasn’t exactly been easy to talk to since we’ve disagreed with his plan.”

He nodded and looked back towards the empty beds. There was more that he missed than he expected. ‘I can’t believe I was asleep for so long. I should have been awake soon…’ Bothering about the facts didn’t survive for long in his mind. Yuki focused himself on the door and what he could do now. It was just something he had to accept.

Seiji quickly followed up as Yuki opened the door. He snuck in behind him with Nerine keeping a distant watchful eye on them. Leaning forward on the right, opposite of Saki, he wanted something from Yuki. “What’s your plan?”

“I’ll explain once we get to Yori, it’ll be easier to do it once rather than twice.” Down the third flight of stairs, Yuki stopped and paused. This was only the third time that he had been in Phoibe’s place. He realized that he wasn’t familiar with it, even more so. He had no clue where he was at the moment. “So where you have him locked up?” he asked casually.

“He’s not a prisoner!” she protested from his tone.

“He probably doesn’t think that. How’d you even tie him up so he couldn’t escape anyway?” Both Seiji and Saki turned to look behind them. Nerine, about five meters back and out of ear shot, blinked a little confused why they had stopped to stare at her. But Yuki immediately understood. “Right, that makes sense. I would have had to do the same thing.”

Directed by Saki, they went to yet a completely different wing of the underground in Phoibe’s building. The hallway offshoot came from the main room added for the refugees from Hiroshi’s base. Another mismatching and stylistically questionable door to match. Behind the door, it was nearly empty. Which made sense, the only one behind in what amounted to an extremely well furnished dungeon was Yori.

Yuki came to a stop in front of a force field that he didn’t recognize. It had no inspiration that he could find. He only assumed that it was Phoibe’s design, but it didn’t even fit within what he saw from her. Part of his mind wondered where she got her ideas.

Putting down the book he read, Yori stepped forward looking less enraged as one might have expected. “So the righteous bastard’s awake.”

“Good morning to you too.”

Sensing the situation, Yori crossed his arm and approached further towards Yuki. “Planning on saving my sister by yourself like you tried to do before?”

“Actually no.”

“What?!” Yori shouted as his rage began to fuel him once more. The air around him started to distort as his power leaked out of him uncontrolled.

“To save Yumi, you’re going to help me do it.”