Shaken Assault

Seiji looked over at Yuki hoping to get something from his face on answers. It seemed impossible. However, Yuki didn’t look as shocked as he expected for their plans being ruined. “How the hell is this possible, Yuki? Nothing can stop your powers other than another like you right?”

“That’s not completely accurate.” Yuki continued to watch the school for any sort of signs. Even with any further clues, he already had a pretty good idea of what was going on. It was a little concerning for him.

Moving over to Yuki, he didn’t want to be left in the dark any longer. Things weren’t right. “What can stop your powers?”

“A specifically crafted array. There is a method of negating our power's influence on an object by carving a very specific pattern. I don’t know why that is, but it works. I’ve seen it used by Ayumi before.”

“Do you know how to do it?”

“Not completely. I never asked Ayumi about it and my time in Atlantis was spent on other matters. So I never really took the time.”

“But it’s only Atlanteans that know how to do it, right?”

“That doesn’t seem to be the case.”

“What do you mean?”

“Remember, Saki, Yumi and Fumiko are with them now. I don’t know what all they learned from their time in Atlantis, but it’s possible one of them learned it.”

“So you’re saying they foresaw your plan and took this countermeasure. What the hell do we do? A sneak attack like you’re planning is out of the question.”

“That’s right.” Yuki looked around at the neighborhood suddenly. He then retrieved a device from within his clothes. It was a simple rectangular box with a series of ten buttons on it. “I expected something like this might happen.”

Seiji noticed the thing that Yuki had retrieved and remembered there was some time that he didn’t know what Yuki had been up to. ‘Right, he said he had some prep work to do. So this is it? How did he know this sort of thing was going to happen?’ It relieved him a little to see that Yuki still had backups to count on. If he was out of options, Seiji was determined just to make a direct assault ignoring any sort of further planning. Foresight be damned, he didn’t plan to let this be the end. “What are you doing?”

“Since our friends are with Takako, I expected that either Takako or our friends would figure that I’d come to rescue them. It’s only natural and being that I’m a very large risk to them, I figured that they think about ways to counter me. Though I’ll admit that I didn’t think that they knew how to draw those arrays. This will be a little flashier than I want, but it’ll work all the same.”

His finger ran over the buttons finding the one he needed. Pressing it quickly, Yuki looked in the direction he expected something to happen. However, it wasn’t what he planned on. An explosion lit up the area. Yuki’s face narrowed a little watching what he set up go up in flames. “They foresaw even that…” He quickly pressed the next series of buttons only for them all to blow up as well. “Damn…they’ve got themselves a really good tactician.”

Nothing that happened really made much sense to Seiji. It was clear all of their plans were falling apart. But he didn’t know what Yuki had planned on. All he saw were random explosions that signaled Yuki’s plans failing. “What’s going on Yuki?”

“Seems someone knew where I’d place my lasers I had planted around to take out the walls. Either Takako is smarter than we realized or someone she’s got knows how to plan a battle.”

When Yuki mentioned that he immediately had a single thought in his mind. He remembered the fight with Simonides. “Yumi!”Glancing back at Seiji, Yuki didn’t know what he was going on about. Afterwards, he looked down towards the roof thinking that he might have seen her. There was nothing. “What about Yumi?”

“Right, you weren’t there. But you remember us talking about the fight with Simonides right before he came to our side?”

“Yeah, I recall it vaguely. Yumi was able to do something strange and ended up turning things around for you.”

“Yes, she had everything planned out and accounted for all of us. This could be her.”

Rubbing his chin, Yuki thought about the new information. Everything had been thrown off. Any planning he might be able to make seemed to be countered easily. ‘This isn’t good. I hesitate to make any further plans if this really is Yumi and she’s as skilled as it seems. Anything I do is going to be accounted for.’ He looked over at Seiji as his last option. ‘Even whatever he has come up with is probably accounted for, he has very simple and straightforward thoughts when it comes to combat. It’ll be easy to account for Seiji. But we’re out of options. This is just going to have to get nasty…I hate what will come, but this looks like the only way.’

Yuki started to lower themselves. The course had been committed. Turning back wasn’t an option. “Seiji, you’re up. Just know that we’re going to be fighting almost immediately upon crashing in.”

A grin came across his face. This was the sort of plan he liked. “I already expected that. We’ll teach Takako that she can’t take our friends from us!” Seiji dropped down from the invisible platform that supported them in the air. He started to fall with gravity immediately grabbing hold of him. Wind blew around him as he sped towards the roof.

His arm wound up with his fist all ready. A slight glow came from the twin scars along his arm. Seiji put everything he had into the punch as he crashed into the roof. Massive clouds of dust and debris flew everywhere as a shockwave ripped through the air from his impact. Shards of the wall from the school rained down over the entire school grounds.

Attack on their school began.

Chapter 319 – Shaken Assault

Small clumps of earth rained down around everyone. They were all closely gathered up in a tight formation. So the minor quake that they felt left them all a little unnerved about their situation. Sure they trusted her, but it didn’t erase the worry that she miscalculated something. None of them were structural engineers, especially not her. So who knew what mistakes might have been made.

“Looks like Yuki’s started his attack,” Tatsuya remarked as a guess to what the quake was about.

Yori agreed with the assessment, but still found it a little worrying. “That’s a far bigger attack than the claims Tsuji made for Hayashi’s plan.”

“Something must have come up.”

“We should hurry,” ordered Hiroshi to Phoibe next to him. They were all gathered around her as she tunneled them through the earth. It seemed like a terrible plan that she came up with. Yet, they all agreed any sort of frontal attack would just slow them down and create unnecessary fighting. It was also so absurd that no one would even consider it a line of attack. So it gave them the chance of surprise.

The middle-aged Atlantean woman kept a smile on her face as though she was disregarding Hiroshi demanding toning. She kept the same pace moving forward using her powers. The control she had removed a good chunk of earth from existing while still providing them a place to walk. “We’ll get there. The young man will be making a good distraction for you to make your attack.”

“But we can’t arrive too late either.”

“You won’t.”

Hiroshi ground his teeth, having to still wait. They were getting close he knew if they felt the attack. But it was still too far away. He needed to end this nightmare. This was going to be their only chance. Such thoughts kept circling around in his mind.

The direction Phoibe moved with her tunnel finally shifted. They started their ascent. Everyone in the party held tight. Tension spread through their ranks knowing that they would finally be going into battle soon. People that they might know could be who they faced. It was unknown to them.

Worse was none of them knew what to expect on the inside of the school. It was a complete unknown. No one that entered ever left. So they had no intel on it other than the layout. Though not all of them had actually been to the school before. Not everyone was a student of their high school or even students.

Turning around to get a look at all of them. Hiroshi took a moment to gather himself. “We’re about to begin our assault on Takako’s base. There’s a lot of things that we don’t know. Don’t think about the uncertainties, only focus on the goal. We’re here to end Takako’s tyranny and save who we can. Don’t take risks, I want you all to come out of this alive! The advance team will be handling Takako, just keep the rest busy while we do the fighting! This battle is for the future peace of everyone!”

“Getting better at those motivational speeches,” Phoibe teased softly only for Hiroshi. He only gave her an indignant expression before turning his head up towards the ceiling of their tunnel. It wouldn’t be long before it was open space once more. “We’re just about there.”

‘I’ll find you, Yumi.’ Most of the matters didn’t concern Yori. He ignored much of what they did. His goals only aligned with them, but he had no interest in their war. His sister was the only thing on his mind. Though he worried what he might have to face to reach her. Fighting still felt foreign for him.

The first breaks of outside light broke through. It didn’t take long for the hole to expand and start to reach them. Phoibe had surprisingly perfect positioning getting them inside the school and in the hall. It was just wide enough for everyone as they raised up.

However, flames suddenly erupted from all sides of them. None of them could react to escape before it was upon them. Fire washed over the entire group, swallowing them up whole. Excess flames burst out from the center cracking and melting the wood of the school. Unable to be held back, the glass shattered in an explosion of fire as it leapt out of the school.

Even up on the third floor, the flames were felt as a rumble through the tiles. The sound of the explosion carried as a follow up.

Yuki looked down in the direction. Broken pieces of the roof strewn about the floor broke up the formerly clean pattern of the tile. “Something’s happening on the first floor.”

‘So they’ve made their move,’ Seiji thought, but tried to keep them away from his face. He didn’t want to reveal his hand in all of it to Yuki. Thankfully, there was a more pressing problem before them. “We need to focus on the immediate issue, Yuki.”

“Yeah, this is expected, but still not something that I want to have to face. Katsumi and Kaede…”

“So you know them? They have your school uniforms, but black.”

“Yeah, they apparently did a slight redesign on them. It’s not a very subtle meaning.” Like everyone else in Japan, he knew that they had to have received powers from him. Unfortunately, he didn’t know them very well and only really spent the one time with them going to Phoibe’s shop. It gave him no clue to what sort of abilities that they might have. “They are Yumi’s closest friends. They mean a lot to her.”

“Well I’m not any happier about fighting them than you are, but this is a necessary thing.”

“I know. We’ll just knock them unconscious. That’ll be the fastest way.”

“Wouldn’t Yumi have already planned for you trying that?”

“I won’t know until I try. We need to avoid fighting as much as possible.”

The flames surrounding Hiroshi’s group suddenly blew outward. Enough force was sent out to snuff out the flames. A black tinted barrier came down from around the group. Yori sighed a little as he barely managed to get a defense field up in time to protect them all.

Tatsuya patted him on the shoulder roughly in a congratulatory manner. “So you’ve got some other things at your disposal.”

“Yes, I don’t plan on being useless this time around.”

“Good, we need that sort of determination.”

Glowing red magic circles formed in the air as the next round of attacks looked to be starting. Yori shifted to the front in anticipation of the attack. He knew what to expect and who it was now. “Fumiko…” However, to his surprise, Haruo walked out in front of all of them. “What are you doing?”

Pulling on Yori to get him back in the group, Tatsuya directed everyone towards Hiroshi. Hiroshi already started to order everyone out into different attacking groups. “I think he’s telling us he’ll handle her. The two fought back at the base, so he’s probably got a score to settle with her.”

Yori looked back at Haruo, getting the silent feeling that he was confirming Tatsuya's assumption. ‘That doesn’t really seem like him. He’s not emotionally invested in any of this…so why?’

Battle lines already began to be drawn within the school. Yuki and Seiji raced against time with Hiroshi to reach Takako. The fate of everyone hung in uncertainty.