Broken Land

It had been almost a month since the last time he or anyone from the UN had been allowed to set foot into the Restricted Zone. Around the time that he joined, he heard stories about it. When it was still open, they lost dozens of men to patrols in the area. Even with the restrictions, he still heard reports of soldiers going missing too close to the border.

Masayuki wanted to go in personally to settle things as the place had gone wild. But he had no support from the higher ups and there were plenty of other areas of Japan that needed help. Besides, he couldn’t in good conscience send his men into a death trap. The only intel they had on the zone was that it was completely filled with Empowered, organized and powerful. He had confidence in his skill and those on his team, but with the sheer numbers it was a losing battle. That much he understood about the situation.

Which made him question the situation now. ‘What idiot walks into the Restricted Zone? On top of that, they actually seem to be winning the fight. What sort of people are they?’ It concerned him what he might be walking into now. The satellite feed was more than an hour old and only gave a rough picture of what was happening. ‘Worse, they ordered us into the field not knowing the full situation. But I guess the light show we’ve been seeing tonight would have anyone worried. Until recently things had been mostly quiet here. But now everything’s changed.’

Keeping his pace at the front of the platoon, he had his team positioned around the rest of the convoy. He still anticipated some resistance, despite not finding any after the strange black individual freed them.

But it came into sight now. The neighborhood only showed some light damage, clear signs of fighting, but nothing extreme. Coming in sight of the school grounds changed all of that. Masayuki motioned back to the driver to stop. An unscheduled stop alerted all of the soldiers. His team jumped out from their perimeter positions to land next to the Captain.

Umari and Nawabe landed on his right with Kasaya and Hanari on his left. Locked up for the entire fight and the last hour or so, left them all a little on edge. Especially Umari and Nawabe looking for a fight more than any of the others.

“Wha’cha got?” Umari asked, not looking too closely herself. Nothing was apparent in her eyes. Only a vast field that looked out of place with the rest of the neighborhood.

Nawabe stepped out ahead of the group a couple of steps trying to figure out what had the Captain on alert. “Getting your panties wet again?”

“I told you not to break perimeter.”

“Eh, no one’s coming.”

“That isn’t yours to decide. This entire neighborhood has been restricted and under a constant gang war for the last month. There are thousands of criminals in here and they could be anywhere.”

Umari crossed her arms and stepped out next to Nawabe, getting the same disappointed feeling that he exuded. “And we ain’t found any of them since we’ve stepped into the Zone.”

“Are you as blind as your deaf?” Masayuki snapped a finger getting the attention of the UN soldiers still hovering behind those that were the actual weapons. He pointed over to the searchlight on top of the APC to get it fired up.

A quick scramble of the soldiers focused back on their jobs. Turning around on the mount, the light fixture focused forward. They had been running in low light to limit their visibility to outsiders and keep their eyes adjusted to the night better if they had to lose the light. Which meant when it snapped on it was painfully blinding for a moment.

Adjusting quickly, Masayuki pointed out to the lands around the school and the neighborhood, if it could even be called one anymore. The grass road came to an abrupt halt with only earth left behind just a few meters ahead of them. “If you thought a little less about fighting and focused more on your surroundings you’d realize that situation we’re in.” A vast expanse of debris, hunks of rock, earth and tree laid everywhere and in the far distance craters marked up the terrain as though a bombing run had been made on the school.

A whistle came out of Nawabe taking in the sight. “Damn, this is sure impressive,” he grinned as his mind still focused on who could have caused all of the damage.

“Everything’s been wiped off the face of the earth,” Umari remarked on the destruction, “I wonder if the bastards wiped themselves out.”

“That’s one of the things we’re here to find out.” Masayuki turned back towards the soldiers. He could see it affecting them much more. Unlike those under him, they were all completely normal humans with nothing special about them. There was no certainty that their weapons would do any harm. Seeing the sheer power on display shook all of them to their bones. But he needed them to move. “We’re moving out! Watch out for debris, we’re going off road now! And stay alert!”

It wasn’t a motivational speech. He wasn’t trying to get their spirits up. They just had to follow him. Inside the Restricted Zone they had questions to get answered. “Back on perimeter! If we weren’t already in the enemy’s territory we are now!” Reluctant looks came from his men as they seemed disinterested in such mundane efforts. He quickly glared at them, enforcing a small bit of his power to get them moving. ‘What will we find at the center of this?’

Chapter 362 – Broken Land

A long twenty minutes dragged out as the UN forces slowly marched towards the school grounds. It at least gave the signs to Saki and Hiroshi that there might not be an immediate fight to break out. Though it didn’t give them a lot of time to prepare. Things were a mess and all of Takako’s army still remained knocked out from either the fighting or losing the control that Takako had over them. It was about the only saving grace for them now. It was only going to complicate matters dealing with the UN and Takako’s army.

Saki looked over at everyone in the last minute before the confrontation. They all looked completely wrecked from the fighting. Not even Seiji could be counted on with him still missing both of his arms. His return with Nerine didn’t give them much time to react. Questions got ignored in favor of a speedy appraisal of the situation. They remained back with the unconscious Yuki. It still left her a little uncomfortable seeing Yuki and Seiji looked different thanks to Nerine’s powers. “Your power gonna hold?”

“I’ll keep their identities hidden. I will do everything to protect my King.”

“Alright, just don’t call him that while they’re here. We don’t need complications.”

“Y-yes…you’re right.” A complicated expression of respect and duty rolled over Nerine’s face. She knew what she had to do, yet it conflicted with her discipline.

Watching Nerine left her a little concerned about their chances, but she had to trust in her. She focused more on the immediate potential issues. “How are you two doing?”

“Still wrecked hard.”

“Same, sorry we’re not going to be much use to you, Saki. Yuki didn’t have enough time to repair our bodies.”

She turned back as the UN troops came to a stop only twenty meters away. “Well let’s hope that they’re here for peace. I don’t have enough strength to take on five of them at once.” Saki walked out to meet Masayuki as Hiroshi and Tatsuya joined her flanks. They refused to show weakness before them, even though anyone could tell that they were about ready to fall over.

“I’m Captain Masayuki Ayabito, state your business!” he opened. He exercised his power to keep his men in line and behind him. They already had the looks of wanting to test out the strangers. ‘People that can level this much of the city aren’t ones to be taken lightly.’ It surprised him to find that they were all teenagers though, but he reminded himself not to judge age into their abilities. ‘The girl looks the most able to fight still the others look half dead or nearly dead. Still I must be cautious. There are still hundreds or thousands of potential criminals out there from the gang.’

‘State my business…’ Saki thought. She had a little trouble imagining what she could say her business was without triggering a fight. “Well…I’m an outsider not involved in this…situation.” Avoiding trigger words like fight seemed like the best course of action to Saki. Though it was hard to tell how much he was going to accept her.

Maintaining his neutral expression, Mayasuki kept the situation civil. “An outsider? Did you just arrive here?”

“Yes.” There was a bit of flinching in her eyes as she lied. ‘Something like that anyway. I wasn’t here the whole time this was going on.’

“And why were you here?”

“I saw everything going on and wanted to try to help people that might be hurt.”

“Help? In the middle of a gang war?”

‘Gang war? Is that what they’re calling this? I guess that’s one view…’ She glanced back at Hiroshi and Tatsuya to see how they were doing. They remained silent the whole time, still leaving it up to her to do the talking. “I guess I wasn’t thinking clearly?”

“You weren’t thinking clearly?” He paused watching the teenage girl sweat a little in front of him. Saki’s stumbling read to him more as nervousness than anything. Which helped a little in her favor. “That would certainly be accurate given the situation here. No one in their right mind would come here.”

Laughing a little to cover things up, Saki tried to hold it together and not get a fight to break out. “I hear that a lot. What are you here for?” She braved the dangerous next step. Her lies would only go so far and she doubted that he was going to believe her for long. It was rather obvious that he was here not just to give medical aid.

“We’ve come to subdue the gang fighting that’s consumed this part of the city.”

‘And you waited until now to do it? How useless…’ It made her want to berate them for doing nothing while people died and were hurt. She had a taste of the terror that Takako left on the city and the UN did nothing to stop her. Yet she couldn’t get angry with them. Everyone behind her needed to be protected. “I’m glad to hear it. But I think the fighting might be over now.”

“Yes, it seems that way.”

“Captain…” muttered Nawabe in response. He tried to move, but couldn’t do anything to budge against Masayuki’s power.

“Silence.” He focused back on Saki needing to understand the situation more. “Even with the fighting over we must establish peace and order here.”

“What do you plan on doing?”

Unfortunately, their peaceful talks shattered with the scream of a woman behind Saki. Another followed and another as well, they were all different. Saki turned her head with a tilt to look in the direction as everyone went on alert. ‘Damn, I think they’re starting to come to now. This situation just went from bad to nightmare…’

Taken off guard by the voices, Masayuki searched around trying to locate what was happening. ‘Is there more fighting happening? But it sounded panicked or pained…’ His body went tense, no longer certain what was happening. The whole Zone had strange rumors about it that he heard from others. Since no one came back from the Zone, it took on a bit of a supernatural bend with people inventing almost ghost stories about it. He didn’t know what went on out of the sight of the UN’s arm. What monsters could hide back here that scared off everyone from coming?

The flinch in his power disrupted through to this control of his men. That was all that Nawabe needed to break free from the bindings. He snapped into action, starved for a good fight that the Zone promised him. “Show me what ya got!” he shouted with excitement as he leapt to the sound of the voices.

“Dammit…” cursed Saki as she saw everything spiraling out of control. ‘I can’t stop five people with powers. So I’m going to have to make a stand.’ The ground under her feet cracked a little as she put pressure on her feet into her jump. “So much for the peaceful situation!”

In a blink of an eye, Saki leapt backwards nearly twenty meters and then exploded forward at Nawabe. Behind her, the earth blasted backwards into powder from her impact. Using all of her strength and speed, she threw everything into her attack.

A massive shockwave ripped through the grounds as Nawabe couldn’t even block, not expecting Saki to charge. He took the hit to the face and shot back far beyond the UN convoy and carved through the earth in a tall pillar of earth exploding.

Saki landed back on the ground in the same spot she had been talking to Masayuki. The whole scene left Hiroshi and Tatsuya speechless and sweating. She slammed down her foot, shattering the earth that she cracked. “Going to keep your men in line, Captain?” she barked, completely changing her demeanor with the man.

Even Masayuki’s team felt the power that Saki showed off. There was a mix of excitement and fear in their expressions, not completely cowed as she hoped that they would be. But Masayuki ground his teeth together watching Saki work. He was the only one of them that completely saw her movements unblurred. ‘She’s dangerous…extremely powerful…’

“Here’s the truth, Captain. I just got back into town from an overseas visit.”

“That’s impossible, the blockade. I would have known about your arrival.”

Building up her air of confidence, Saki started to lay things on thick. “Ha, blockade? You think that would stop me?”

Hiroshi leaned forward barely even speaking, knowing that everyone’s hearing was vastly improved. He had to act as though he said nothing to keep the other side from hearing him. “What do you think you’re doing?”

The only response he got from her was slamming her other foot down to break up the earth more. “And what do I find when I come back? My city’s been overrun by this gang, you call them? So I took it upon myself to do some house cleaning.”

“Yourself?”

She could hear the incredulous tone in his voice. All she did was grin with confidence. Tilting her head forward a bit, she allowed the shadows to fall over her eyes making them glow brightly in the darkness to heighten her presence. “That’s right. I killed their leader and the rest just all fell over like broken dolls. So what are you going to do, Captain?”

Fate had been tempted. Saki laid it all on the line on an even worse gamble than before. She glared at all of the UN soldiers to instill as much of her presence in them as possible.

And waited for Masayuki’s reaction.