“You want my help to save my sister?” Yori questioned with an understandable amount of suspicion. He narrowed his eyes with a piercing stare to read what Yuki’s intent could be. Reading people wasn’t his sort of strength though, not in the way that he needed to do so now. Everyone had a little bit of the ability to measure a situation based on the look someone had. But during his training something that Athene tried to grind into him was a deeper focused sort of reading. One that the Atlanteans developed over the centuries fighting against other MPs. She called it a valuable skill for their combat.
He understood the importance of it. Just not that it was as easy to pick up as she claimed it to be. And it failed him now. ‘What’s his game?’
Seiji pounded his knee against the wall making the barrier that Phoibe constructed flicker in pain. “The hell’s wrong with you, man?! Yuki wants to help her and asking you for help! There’s nothing deeper than that!”
Yori stepped forward with caution towards them. “Perhaps, but I don’t trust you.”
Yuki put a hand on Seiji’s shoulder to get him to stop. “It’s fine, Seiji. Yori’s got his priorities. He wants to save Yumi. That’s why I know he’ll work with us. It’s going to be the only way he can do that.”
Zeroed in on his weakness, Yori ground his teeth together. Yuki had him in his palms. “You’re a bastard.”
“I’m getting that a lot these days. But from what I hear despite you being so smart you’re the one running off more blind into battle than Seiji would.”
“Hey man!”
“He’s right,” Saki agreed to the protest of Seiji. She focused on Yori quickly needing him to agree with Yuki’s plan, whatever it was. “You aren’t acting like your normal self, Yori.”
“Have your only family stolen away from you and see if you can think rationally.”
“Then help me and fight to get her back.”
“What’s your plan?”
Chapter 376 – Edge of Hope
Agreed to be marginally calmer, Yori returned with them to the third floor for a conference over his sister. While everyone sat at the table, Yuki stood up and materialized a dry erase board for his plan. He popped off the cap to the marker and started writing on the board. It began with only names.
A little squeaking finished up his work. He wrote “Yumi” along with two other broad facing names. Made up terms for the known personality that they spoke with now marked it as “Tactician” and “???”. They didn’t really have much to go on with the other personality. None of them had much to really say other than that they were very different.
Pointing at the board, Yuki drew their attention to what they knew. “We know that Yumi is being protected within her own mind by at least one of the other personalities. The one currently out that sounds like she’s a General of an army or something from the way it’s been explained to me. This is the one in control of Yumi’s body, but there is at least one other personality present that you saw during the battle of Atlantis. So we’re dealing with two, maybe more identities in Yumi.”
“Nice summary, but that’s not a plan.”
“I’m getting to that, Yori.” Drawing up a very crude figure of his sister and something that was supposed to be a brain, but looked more like soba noodles, he started to lay out what he wanted to do. “The problem that we have is rescuing Yumi from within herself and giving control back to her rather than the current personality inside her. As it’s been explained to me by Nerine and warnings from others, messing around in the mind with my powers is a bad idea. I don’t know enough not to make things worse and no one else in Atlantis even touches the subject. It’s basically taboo and forbidden. So we’re stuck with taking a more creative approach to the problem.”
“What exactly are you thinking?” asked Saki, suddenly becoming worried about what plan that Yuki had cooked up for saving the girl. As much as she wanted to trust what Yuki had in mind would work, she knew him well enough to know that it might also be more than a little ridiculous.
Given a prompt, Yuki moved onto the next stage. He drew another figure marking it as “Yori” and then another mess for her friends. “We’re going to appeal to Yumi through what she finds familiar.”
Yori slammed his fist on the table, splintering it where he dropped hand. “If it was that simple I would have succeeded when I spoke to her! I can’t believe I even thought for a moment you had something more than naivety to work from like always. Face reality and then come back to me when you have a real plan.” He pried his hand out of the wood only to be stopped by Yuki.
Undaunted, more scribbles ran across the board. Squeaks came out from the marker as Yuki painted the rest of his picture to his plan. Turning back around, he slapped the cap on the marker with dramatic flair. “I’m aware of that. That’s why I told you that I needed you. This isn’t something I can do alone, the same as you. We have to do this together.”
“What exactly are you describing here, Yuki?”
Eyes shifted over to Saki to address her question. He threw back his hand pointing with the marker. “What I’m proposing is having Yori speak with Yumi. Being her brother, she has the strongest connection with him. And then I’ll convert all of that into something like a brain wave. In simpler terms, I’ll be making it a sort of signal that she’ll be able to pick up on the subconscious level. Hearing and seeing him should trigger her to wake and take control of her body over again.”
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“What you’re suggesting is impossible.”
“Yeah, can you actually do anything that you just said, Yuki?”
“Of course! My powers allow for the impossible to become possible. I just have to create a device that can convert Yori into something that can be read on the subconscious level.”
“Can that actually work? Didn’t you say messing around with the mind is a taboo because you don’t understand how the brain works?”
“I’m not messing with the mind though. That’s the beauty of this. It’s like a loophole.”
“You people are really fond of loopholes in your powers,” she remarked with a sardonic tone. Most of them at the table had at least one experience with the MP users and them breaking what they thought to be well defined rules. Listening to Yuki’s plan only helped to enforce how fuzzy those rules ended up becoming with a creative individual running wild.
“But such a thing doesn’t exist and you know nothing about brain waves,” reminded Yori, still not convinced that this wasn’t still all just a fantasy from a naïve idiot playing at god.
Yuki crossed his arms. “I’ve created a lot of things with my power that I don’t understand. That’s not a stopping point. I just have to create the environment in which it does exist and it’ll happen.”
“Then couldn’t you just do the same with fiddling with the brain?” Another oddly sobering and well observed remark came from Seiji.
“Probably, but I’d prefer not to do something as invasive as playing around in someone’s mind. That’s not somewhere that we belong.”
“But our bodies aren’t taboo.”
“Yori!” snapped Saki, knowing how much it still deeply affected Yuki. All Yori did was turn away, refusing to take back his remark.
Placing the marker on the table, Yuki pulled up a chair from thin air to match with the rest. “It’s fine. He’s not wrong. That’s why it’s on me to fix things here in Japan. This shouldn’t have happened and I’ll undo it. I can’t return to Atlantis until I undo this.”
Saki immediately turned her eyes to look at Yuki. She wanted to say something to him. Something that she thought he was forgetting, that no one else had said yet. The words never came. They choked up in her throat as she saw him. It was his eyes. He told her that he understood what that meant. The price that he would pay for being in Japan. He was making that sacrifice for them, for everyone.
‘Dammit!’
“This is the best plan I have right now,” Yuki continued, moving away from the weighty implications of his words. He focused on all of his friends at the table. “We have to save Yumi and I believe this to be our best shot. Yori is the star of this plan, because Yumi has no stronger connection to anyone than him. But if that’s not enough, I want the rest of you there as support. She may need to hear more than one voice to wake up.”
Fists pounded together from Seiji. He agreed to it. A smile came over his face filled with boundless enthusiasm. “Now this is a plan!”
“It doesn’t involve punching things though.”
“Speaking from the heart is the sign of true bonds!”
Sweat dripped down Saki’s face listening to him. “You sound like a cheesy line from Yuki’s shounen manga.”
“It’s a powerful message. There’s a reason people enjoy it.”
“Yeah, yeah, hope and dreams. I’ll keep living in reality, while you two are in the clouds.”
“You need passion, Saki!” encouraged Seiji trying to get her more energized.
She stepped away from the table before Seiji became too wrapped up in the excitement that Yuki brought to them. “I’ve got my own way. But I think this may be our best chance to save her. There’s only one question.”
Nodding to Saki, Yuki looked back at Yori. All of their plans were for naught without knowing the location of Yumi. That lied with him, apparently to the one controlling her. “You know where to find Yumi, right?”
A begrudging word came from Yori, “Yes.”
The chair suddenly disappeared along with the board as Yuki turned off his power and activated a new set. A holographic map of the city appeared on the table. Arrows appeared in the city marking important locations along with text describing them. It made it easy for them to know exactly where they were. “Where is she?”
Yori leaned forward to the map taking a moment to examine it and get his bearings. Seeing the city in full three-dimensions made for an awkward bit of adjustment. Once he got his measure of the scale, he ran his finger around a distant set of buildings. “I’m too far away to pinpoint the location, but she’s in this area. Once we’re closer I’ll know exactly.”
“A sibling bond!” cheered Seiji.
“I can sense her through my power,” he corrected. Not that it really did anything to faze Seiji's declaration.
Clapping his hands together, the map disappeared. “So we’ve got a plan and a destination. We leave as soon as everyone’s ready!”
Which happened to be now.
And a few minutes later, they were soaring through the sky with the aid of Yuki’s power, at his insistence to ride a cloud. It hardly thrilled them that he summoned up something from Journey to the West, but it worked. So they said little more to protest his eccentricities.
Yuki looked over at Yori for guidance now that they reached the area on the map that he marked. “You sense her?”
“Of course, she’s about a kilometer to the right.” To finish off the directions, Yori pointed out the area.
With confidence in reserve, they sped towards Yori’s sister and the person that controlled her body. For everyone else, she popped up quickly in their sight and called out. Unfortunately, Yuki had no such luck like with Nerine. Not thinking ahead, he didn’t add in some magnifying Addendum to give him enhanced sight. So he had to wait until his normal sight spotted a black blob in the distance.
Seated on the edge of a water tower on the top of a ten story building, the one controlling her continued to stare out at the city admiring the view. They seemed to take little interest or note of the arriving group. Given the declaration they made before their departure, it was likely that this was something that they expected.
Once everyone landed on the roof, the person spoke to them. “So you waited for the King to wake. Couldn’t figure things out on your own.”
Yori immediately took offense to the remark with his power spiking and blasting air away from him. “I’d be here sooner if I hadn’t been stopped!”
“And you would have still been unable to achieve your goal. Your friends know better than you.”
“Shut up you bastard! I’m only getting their help so that I can save my sister!”
“You’re so single minded. I told you before that it's going to be your undoing one day.”
Stepping forward, Yuki wanted to try to stem off some of the anger that Yori burned with. “I believe this is the first time we’ve met.”
“Face-to-face, yes. You come with a solution, King?”
“That’s right!” he smirked. A wave pulsed out from his feet as he activated his power. Out of the rooftop, a strange organic device appeared. It had a white almost fleshy appearance that in shadow turned purple and orange in complete impossible contrast to how light and color functioned. Expanding out, the device grew in size to become half the height of a person and wiggle unable to keep a solid form. It waved about strange arms with seemingly no purpose.
The growth finished and apparently it was finished. “We’re going to get Yumi back with the power of heart!”