Scattered Pillars

Masayuki could only watch as Yuki left. He wanted to do something, but it was impossible. Without their powers they were just normal humans once more against some superhuman. Even if Yuki left peacefully, he didn’t like the way it was done. ‘This could have gone differently. I need to work on my team more. They’re too out of control.’

Once Yuki was gone, they found their powers had returned. He could see their eagerness to go after Yuki after his boasting. “We’re returning. They aren’t a problem we need to deal with right now. The terrorists are the bigger problem right now. The balance of power in the city has been upset and there will likely be even more bloodshed before it all comes to rest.”

Umari leapt back as the team rejoined. “Which means more fighting,” she replied with an excited tone. The rest shared her immediate assumption.

He sighed and nodded that it was likely. ‘This is the worst way to manage a team, but they get results. And right now I need their power if I’m to bring stability to Japan.’ If he had to wield darkness for the sake of justice, he would do so. It was the necessary price for doing the right thing. Masayuki was convinced of that. He was doing right.

Chapter 312 – Scattered Pillars

Yuki finished up tending to the injuries Seiji sustained. Seiji wasn’t completely thrilled with the whole idea of just immediate healing. It seemed like they were cheating. However, he wasn’t really in a position to argue it at the moment. There were bigger problems that they needed to handle and he needed to be in peak performance. “That UN team was damn aggressive. How can you be certain that they didn’t make the attack? They were all over the place.”

“Mostly a gut feeling.” Seiji looked at him a little annoyed that he was following a gut feeling. “Mostly. I’ll admit that it looks just as incriminating with them being there. But I got the feeling that they were investigating. Especially the way their leader acted. I can’t see him ordering such an act.”

“Not everyone is going to be good and righteous in an organization, Yuki. There is darkness in all groups.”

It didn’t take long for Yuki to know that Seiji was speaking from experience. They all sort of knew how that worked. There would always be good and bad people in any group. They couldn’t all be judged by the acts of a few. However, the UN’s position, intention and actions were still largely new and unknown to them. Storming through their home naturally left everyone very touchy. Even Yuki was bothered, but he couldn’t take action against them he knew.

“Regardless of the UN. It’s the same as before. We can’t openly attack them right now. It’s the world’s policing arm. Attacking the UN is the same as declaring war with the world. That’s not a good idea right now for Japan. Adding to the reasons to fear us is a bad move right now.”

Seiji slipped on the new shirt that Yuki made him. It wasn’t something that he was ignorant of. “I’m aware of that. Doesn’t mean I’m always going to hold back.” He rubbed his scarred arm thinking about his brief skirmish with the UN team. “We were only warming up, but I could tell they were hella powerful. When we face them again they’re likely going to be even stronger. Those guys only live for fighting and fighting powerful opponents. They’re a very dangerous group.”

“I’m aware of that. For now, I have my trump card to keep them in line if they come after us.”

“Yeah, but that’s not going to convince them to stop.”

“I know. The only way we will win in the end is to fight them and prove we’re stronger. It’s the only thing that they’ll understand. But that’s not something for now.”

“Right, we still need to find out where the hell Saki and the others went. They wouldn’t have been taken out by something like that. Saki’s too stubborn to go down.”

Yuki smiled a little and laughed in agreement. Seeing it worried him about the fate of his friends. The arrival of the UN group shortchanged them on their time to process and react to what they saw. But Seiji reminded him now of what happened. A devastating attack like that had to have killed a lot of people. “We need to investigate the site. They might be buried or something.”

“Yeah, but how the hell you planning on getting in there? The UN is all over the place.”

“My powers should cover us.”

“I might be able to help answer that,” a new voice spoke from the shadows. It was a young girl probably about the same age as Chiharu, possibly a little older. She was dressed up in a hoodie and loose pants with a couple of misplaced straps of cloth hanging down. Had this been a normal Japan, she probably would have blended in well with the scenery. But in the ruins and grass, she stood out.

Seiji immediately jumped into a defensive position not certain about the new girl. ‘I didn’t even hear her approach. How long has she been following us?’ The girl’s blank and empty expression left him very uneasy. He knew how much Chiharu tried to be heartless and unfeeling, but this girl actually seemed to succeed where Chiharu failed.

Seeing Seiji all ready to act, Yuki stepped out in front. He didn’t want to fight anymore if they could avoid it. “Who are you?”

“Name’s Rin Morri. I work for Hiroshi.”

“Are you my tail?”

“Figured it out, you’re not as dumb as he implied.”

Yuki’s brow twitched a little. It was a lot of his own fault that everyone thought he was an idiot. He sort of designed it that way, as it kept people off him and gave him a peaceful life. But now everyone was assuming that he didn’t figure things out. “That’s right. From what I saw talking to Hiroshi. I guessed him being the practical person the way he was acting, he’d do something to keep tabs on me. I am a very dangerous element.”

‘So he’s aware of even that,’ she thought. She had only been watching him for a distance, so she never got a good read on him. Up close, he had a completely different sort of presence. An unexpected, but pleasant surprise for her to be sure. “That makes things easier to explain then.”

“Yes, what did you mean by that you could help with locating our friends?”

“I’ve received no communications from the base beyond my last successful check in six hours ago. Given the scale of what happened, my best guess is that they triggered the base’s self-destruct and abandoned it.”

“Self-destruct?!” yelled Seiji, “You’re telling me that massive ass crater was from them blowing up their own base?”

Rin nodded. “Judging from the scale that I saw, it meets the expectations we had if we blew it up. My only guess is that they were suddenly overrun by the enemy. They weren’t even able to get communications out to me, meaning—“

“It was a surprise attack and a devastating opening move,” finished Yuki. He saw the look of worry come across Seiji’s face. It was only natural given that such an attack meant a lot of people probably died and it was possible some of their friends were caught in it. However, Yuki could give him some hope. “But if the self-destruct went off, that means likely that it was triggered. So someone survived the initial assault and possibly more.”

“Right, Hiroshi wouldn’t have used it without trying to evacuate everyone. The best place to look for them is actually at the fall back point we have as a safe house if we lost the base.”

“Where is it?”

“It’s a bit of a walk, but it’s in a safe part of town away from all the fighting.” She turned around and started to point in the direction that they needed to head. “I’ll take you there. We’ll be able to find answers there.”

Seiji relaxed finally, though remained very tense. The thought of their friends in the attack gave natural concern. He just hoped they were all alive and safe. They had only been back one day and their home already tried to see them dead. Not the homecoming they were expecting.

Leaning over to Yuki, he asked, “Any ideas about their safe house?”

“Probably underground like their other base if I had to guess.” It seemed like a pointless question. He knew nothing about their setup, but Yuki figured that Seiji just needed to talk about something else. His mind was likely not in the best place at the moment. The same was for Yuki, he just had to hold out on hope they were all fine. He couldn’t let himself fall apart yet, not without knowing.

The walk led them into town to a place that Yuki started to feel familiar. He had been through it before and got a sinking feeling he knew what was going to happen. And when they reached their destination with the bizarre, yet cool store front it only confirmed it for him. “Somehow I just knew it.”

“What you know this place?”

“Yeah, I think I told you about this place while we were doing our tour for a month. Saki, Yumi and a few others came with us.”

“What is this place then?”

“That’s a little complicated and hard to answer. Best to just think of it as a business.”

Ha slid open the door seemingly detecting their approach. She immediately recognized Yuki and got a smirking grin on her face. “Well if it isn’t the smartass crybaby.”

“Keeping the rude, playful attitude still I see,” Yuki commented while patting her on the head. He passed by her and entered into the main lobby of the building. “We’ve come to see your Master.”

She pushed off his hand, annoyed with his attitude towards her. Though she also seemed annoyed that she elicited no reaction from him for her comment. He wasn’t here for business. “Yeah, Master is tending to our guests. Boobless-with-no-brains will show you.”

Seiji took some time to enter and only after Yuki kept motioning for him. ‘This place doesn’t feel right. Something’s wrong with it. And that girl too. All of them…’ He hurried alongside Yuki, who seemed to know what was going on. “What the hell’s with this place? And that child? Why is she even working here?”

“The simple answer is that all three of them are sisters.”

“That’s impossible! There’s at least a fifty year age difference!”

“I see you’re still bad with judging ages. I think it’s more like thirty, but yes. The longer, more complicated answer is that they’re all illusions of their Master.”

It was all really starting to hurt Seiji’s brain thinking about it. He only remembered some of the details from when Yuki told him about it. The reminder from Yuki only made him admit that he really wasn’t paying much attention to Yuki when he was doing his storytelling. The tour was all pretty boring and especially the traveling. He slept most of it away. But he remembered one important piece. “Didn’t you say this was from before?”

“That’s right. Her powers don’t come from me.”

“Then she’s—“

“There’s an Atlantean in here?” questioned Nerine, who they had all sort of forgotten about until she spoke up. She had been doing a good job of staying out of their business as she promised. But the thought of another Atlantean woke her up. “If she’s here then she’s an exile.”

Nodding, Yuki recalled the vague details that the woman gave them. “Yeah, she explained it that way. Something about a mark on her body that prevents her from returning.”

“The Mark of the Exile, it’s given to MPs deemed a threat to Atlantis, but that their crimes aren’t enough to warrant execution.”

“But I thought it was forbidden for any of you to go outside?” reminded Seiji.

“It doesn’t happen often. I only know of it being used a few times in all of our history and under very special circumstances. The risk is too great to have us out in the world.”

“You’d be surprised how many of us are actually out here,” a new voice said coming out of an unmarked room. A familiar face stepped through the threshold. “The public doesn’t know about most of the exiles.”

Nerine gasped for a moment breaking stoic nature for a moment before covering it back up quickly. She settled back into her normal stance, opening with questions. “Are you saying that the Council and King lied to the people?”

“Of course, they are always lying. That shouldn’t be a surprise.” Phoibe fully came out of the room and offered them entry. “But I believe there are more important answers you want at the moment.”

Masayuki stepped into the temporary tent leaving his team behind. Inside, several other high-ranking UN officers stood going over the details of the damage. They planned out possible strategies. It likely meant their deployment again. However, his meeting was with a different man in the tent. The one that looked out of place, wearing a business suit and carrying a polite business smile on his face.

The businessman was Takeshi Shigemitsu. A man that if he wasn’t in the suit would have appeared more like a college professor or a librarian than someone working for a large corporation. Part of Arihyoshi, a company with their hands in a little bit of everything, he worked as a liaison to the UN. Thanks to some special technology that they had developed due to the sudden countrywide changes, they were providing the containment cells for those that they arrested as normal prisons wouldn’t hold those that they captured. They needed to put them somewhere safe for both their protection and everyone else.

Since he was the liaison, it meant that he worked closely with the man. In fact, he was approached by the man with the backing of the UN to put together his team. All of the people on his team were supplied to him by this man, Takeshi. Masayuki didn’t know how he managed to control or even have such wild elements, but it helped him keep the peace. So he didn’t ask unnecessary questions.

“Welcome back, Captain Ayabito.”

“Mr. Shigemitsu.”

“I hear reports that you had an encounter with an extremely unique Powered.”

“Yes, he had the ability to completely nullify any Powered within his range. To the point that we just became normal humans with even our physical attributes stolen.”

“That’s very distressing to hear for our peace efforts.”

“He said that he didn’t wish to fight. So I believe we’ll be fine. I don’t think he is a terrorist.”

“Is that so? It seems that you were able to talk to this man. What did you learn about him besides his power? Even if he is not a threat to our peacekeeping efforts. Someone with such power might be a possible ally if he can disable Powered.”

“I had considered it. He looked to be a teen boy, maybe first or second year in high school, blackish-blue hair, 160-165 centimeters. His name was Yuki Hayashi.”

“Yuki Hayashi, you said?” Takeshi suddenly started flipping through notes that he had on hand. He paused and then kept going. Then he came to a stop when he found what he was looking for. “You’re certain?”

“Yes, that was the name he gave. Why, sir?”

“This is something we’ve been keeping private, but since you’re involved now I should tell you.”

“What is it?”

Takeshi showed him a special dossier created by the UN for special interest targets. Ones that they deemed major risks or threats to the stabilization efforts of Japan. It was still a small list since they only began a month ago. But it was his first time seeing a classified target. “Yuki Hayashi is the most wanted man in Japan by the UN.”