Time’s value already disappeared the moment that Atheered into the boy’s mind. She khat hours could easily pass for her. Such time made her grateful the lohat she remained uo move forward. However, it alsht her closer to her limits. Athene expected a challenge, but she couldn’t remember his mind’s plexity being so great. The only thing she remembered from the enter was the feeling of him being different. It told her not to uimate him.

  An invisible force threw her back to the ter. All the open gates and doors closed up upon her reje. Then as though to add insult to injury, the entire yout ged as it had before. “Damn…” The Atntean anted slowly pulling herself up from the floor. Her appearance looked ragged and pathetic, but she didn’t care. Appearance meant nothing to her. She only wahe ahat she demanded.

  “How many times…” Athene dropped herself down sitting o catch her breath. Every failure ejected her painfully with damaging feedbabsp; It always ged immediately after as well. All she mao do was figure out a pattern of how it made itself imperable. She felt like the defeaunted her. A few times, she thought she found a way through with a noticeable method for crag the defense only to see it ge.

  She tempted her body to stand, but her weak knees dropped her. “…I’m not going to st for much longer…” Even with a perfectly healthy mind and body, she didn’t know if she had the mental or physical stamina to survive in his mind. She figured si was only because her mind had prote through the use of her powers that kept her from being pletely crushed. “…I have to find a way…”

  Chapter 140 – Time Limit

  Following behind Chiharu at some distahe rest of the group with Yumi closed in on the camp. While never spoken, it was uood by everyohat they would wait at a safe distance from the camp until Chiharu returned. They took cover near a small outcropping of brush.

  Fumiko rested he bushes with a full view of the others. She didn’t have the stamina of Seiji or the determination of Yumi. The only thing keeping her going was the fact that she tried to keep the team together. It allowed her to ignore most of the problems that pgued her mind. Before they split, ever since she left the vilge she had trouble fog on anything. She barely even remembered the fighting that happened.

  She saw the weakhat Yumi thought she held within that bred her uainty. However, Fumiko khat Yumi would still be able to fight in the end. When pushed in the er, she saw that Yumi would be able to survive. The problem was that she had doubts about herself. Yumi might have the appearance of being weak, but Fumiko khat herself fell into weakness. Her practice bae gave her the fidence she o believe she could survive. While not athletic or skilled with the gift of tactics, she faced down terrible things already.

  The fear and terror she felt whehought she might die stayed with her. She thought it gave her fidend trol. She thought it meant she uood herself better. Yet, her first fight that actually made use of her abilities forced her to discover how empty it all was.

  trating on keeping everyoogether made her ig. She couldn’t fet it. The waiting brought back her fears and smmed the weight down on her. Only a few minutes had passed and Fumiko already felt like the ground was water pulling her down to the dark abyss. ‘…so suffog…I-I ’t let…it…’

  Fumiko spped her face sharply to snap her out of her problems. ‘…I don’t have time for this…’ She looked over at Yumi. ‘I o stay focused for her. It’s only us this time. I don’t have the luxury for doubt right now.’

  Amongst her thoughts, she lost a sense of time. However, across from her Seiji already looked ready to charge the camp. She prayed that the dangerous situatio his impatien chebsp; They couldn’t take the risk of going into such a rge camp unprepared. ‘While we did win st time, it was not an easy fight. We don’t even know how many of those like Yuki are inside.’

  While it did seem that Seiji’s better judgment held out over his instinbsp; As with anything else, it could only st for so long before it eroded away. The tinued absence of Chiharu mouhe tension for everyone. Seiji broke through the tension in his typical bull-like fashion. “The hell’s taking the brat so long! We should just storm the pd get the two of them out!”

  Yumi filed her arms a little trying to calm down Seiji, but failed to find the right words. Fumiko took a moment to sweat, a little amused. ‘Even though he’s stupid, he does mao find the right moments to provide a distra.’ However, she khat she couldn’t be amused with the se for long. Seiji knew nothing of restraint, she learned, when it came down to running off his impatient nature. “If you keep shouting they’ll end up hearing you,” she ented, pointihumb behi the camp.

  He gritted his teeth in annoyance, but also uanding. In reduced volume, he tinued, “ We’ve waited long enough! We o do something!”

  “We o wait on Chiharu to return,” insisted Fumiko.

  “Tch!” Seiji waved his hand in a dismissive motion at her mention. “She talks big and acts all damn fident, but she’s probably just captured in her overfidenbsp; They probably know that we’re out here!”

  “Getting worried?”

  Seiji jumped ba surprise at Fumiko. “What?! Ridiculous!” He crossed his arms and turned away from her gaze. “She’s annoying and doesn’t think about a herself! Why would I care what happens to her?”

  “But she’s one of us!” Yumi protested. Her attempt to stand to join them came rushed and tripped her legs. She caught herself before she stood up, turning the a into an all-fours lean forward.

  “The hell she is! She only came because she thought she would get a fight out of it!”

  “That’s not true!”

  “Of course it is! Or have you missed the fact that she refuses to call any of us by our name?”

  “…Chiharu…” Yumi lost her words again. She had hought about it, but the moment he said it her mihrough everything that Chiharu said. She tried to find a siime that she actually said anyone’s name. Nothing came to her.

  “I’m surprised you noticed,” noted Fumiko, “You always surprise me ohings that you’re actually aware of.”

  “And your desding tone is always just as annoying.”

  Fumiked to him with a bit of a grin. “I ’t help it that you’re breaking your archetype every time that you do.”

  “Enough with your stories.”

  “I know it goes against your nature, but you o be patient and believe in Chiharu.”

  The arguing cooled off Seiji enough that he sat down, though still not pleased. “I don’t know why you trust her.”

  Yumi turned her head over their cover back to the camp. It looked no different to her from when they arrived. She couldn’t tell if something had gone wrong with Chiharu’s infiltration. She imagihat if she was caught they’d see activity or hear something. The whole field remained eerily quiet. “…Chiharu…”

  “Don’t worry, Yumi.” Fumiko pced a hand on Yumi’s shoulder to grab her attention. “Chiharu will be fine. She’s strong and smart.”

  “I know, but…” She turned her head down as doubtful thoughts filled her mind. “…she could have been, it’s possible…”

  “Don’t let what Seiji said bother you. He’s just worried as well and doesn’t have any other way to express it.”

  “But he—“

  “That’s just how he is. They have a plicated retionship. He’s probably more worried about her than even me…” Fumiko stared over at the camp, losing her words.

  “Fumiko?”

  O quite opposite side of the camp (because nothing should be symmetrical), five figures in white uniforms stood gathered. Vangelis stood out in the group for his less ventional interpretation of their military uniform. It had everything that made up the uniform, but the loose pants had long cuts up past the knees. The pant sleeves barely mao hug his smoothly toned legs. Additionally, rather than wearing his rank badge as everyone did he used it to hold back his wild hair. It looked almost humiliated, reduced to a mere hair accessory, and perhaps he inte with su a.

  Vangelis surveyed his team. The woman that Simonides forced on him stood on the far left of the group. His team, the three others buogether in fusion. Using his orders from their Captain, he demanded all of their preseh no further information. He could tell with the way Iole carried herself that she khe mission. “You’ve beeed for a mission by order of the Captain. We leave immediately.”

  “That all you going to say?” questioned one of the MP users, immediately standing defensive.

  Turning a little aggressive in stahe middle MP user spoke, “Yeah, how we even trust what you say?”

  “You just order us out here because you out rank us with no word.”

  “I picked you all for this mission because I knew you all wanted a piece of the a. You’ve been bored with just routid release patrols.” Vangelis leaked some of his uhusiasm into his words and motions. “You want something real, right?”

  “What are you ?” They began to bee curious and ied in his words. The fusion faded from their eyes. A bit of the lust intoxicated them.

  “You know the reason why the Captain in his infinite wisdom has removed all of us from such important tasks, right?”

  “The attacks at the barrier and in Skoupa.”

  He ched his fist iement. “That’s right. The traitorous rebels, they have MPs with them.”

  “Rogue MPs?”

  “Yes,” smirked Vangelis.

  The others looked around at each other. They might not have shared the deep pleasure that Vangelis had for violence, but they did stand out from the rest of the order that Atntis worked to maintain. Vangelis acted openly without care or remorse for his attitude, but because what he did ended up gettis, he tio get away with his as. They didn’t have such fortune or fideo pull such a feat off.

  However, the meaning of his words sank into them. They knew what happeue MPs. They khe ws that put them in pd forced them into servibsp; Their system was rigid for MP users. So they all uood what Vangelis thought about. While the thoughts of it weren’t the stro in their mind, it did fuel them in a way that they had never felt before.

  The notion of having a challenge and something different appealed greatly to them. Endless monotony of the status quo grated against them. It never ceased and at the end of their lives, it would still be the same thing. The only ce for something different or iing was the rare ce of a real fight with another MP user. A fight that was not staged or training, but a true test of their mettle. It rang strong with their hearts. The only ce to be free came on the field.

  They all quickly agreed in their minds and nodded. “We’re in,” they replied in unison.

  “Of course you are,” Vangelis remarked arrogantly, “I picked you.”

  Team Yumi still waited for the return of Chiharu. The time that passed worked against Seiji. He stood up a few more times in their waiting, but sat again in silenbsp; It provided a distrag amusement to Fumiko.

  Thirty minutes or an hour, none of them really pnned for how long to wait. Yumi just sent Chiharu off and didn’t really think ahead of tingencies. She just assumed Chiharu would be back safely in a short amount of time. The loime passed, the more worried she became until she couldn't take it anymore. “I think something’s wrong.” Yumi looked out to Fumiko and Seiji for their opinions.

  “I’ve been saying that already,” Seiji said quickly, still holding a grudge.

  Fumiko's face tur looking at Seiji. “You’ve been saying that since we arrived. It takes time to scout out a pce.”

  “She’s just a kid, what the hell she know anyway?”

  Yumi stepped iween them before they tinued. “Yes, it takes time, but with Chiharu’s talents it shouldn’t be this long. I think something ued happened.” She looked over her shoulder to the camp. A deep longing feeling that ached in her chest pained her.

  “But she went in so we could make a pn. We’ll be going in blind.”

  Seiji rolled his arm around his shoulder as if he was warming up. “Pns are made to be broken anyway! We just charge in and deal with ahat stands between us and Yori! It’s simple, no pn needed.”

  “But we don’t know how many of those soldiers like Yuki are in there! It’s dangerous!”

  “It’s dangerous either way. It’s just whether you know what you’re dealing with or not.”

  Yumi stood up and turo the camp. She made up her mind. Both her brother and Chiharu waited for them in the camp. They didn’t have anything but questions, but she couldn’t dey them any longer. Resolve would have to carry her through. “We’re going in!”