A long night finally came to an end. It was a rough one for Yuki, still fighting his body. It didn’t seem to be rec the way he thought. He was still very tired and his body ached when it shouldn’t have. Every back er thought had worry pstered everywhere in his subscious. The biggest worry that could never be avoided. He wondered if it was making it seem worse. If he just ig maybe, he would get better. Maybe it was just in his mind.

  M came strangely quiet. He expected to find Jun and Ken smashing into his room ahey didn’t do anything. He wasn’t even sure if they were awake. ‘It is Thursday, right? A school day…’ A look out his window reminded him that their world wasn’t the same, but things seemed more alive than when he left. He expected things to be running again and normal life to have resumed. Even with the rowth.

  Yuki snuck around the upstairs quietly cheg on his little brothers. As he thought, they were asleep. ‘Is school celed? I know things were crazy when I left, but I know our school nning to reopen soon.’ It art of the reason he . While he had no pns on actually attending, he still wao find out the state of the city.

  Downstairs, he found that Momoko had left something for him to eat. The note mentio being for dinner, but he went asleep immediately after the message. He grabbed a rice ball and started to mun it while looking around.

  He wasn’t sure if it was because he was used to the Pace or just the Atntean architecture perhaps, but the interior felt very small and a little off. Wandering around, he looked around at the different ers and surfaces with a light iion. He just o know it was still the same. And to refresh his memories a little.

  It was his house and his home. The longer he stared the more depressed he became staring at it. Unspoken thoughts popped up to corrupt his experienbsp; They were poor reminders. He didn’t o be reminded about reality. His reality, the new reality.

  Pushing the st of the rice ball into his mouth, he pulled out the device that Demostherusted to him. ‘Look for yacy, huh? This really is turning into a quest. We’ve already got super powers and a vast anization of evil and the dying wishes of a wise old man granting vague clues on how to beat the anization. If I didn’t know better, I’d think I really was inside one of my shounen manga. Far too cssic of a setup…’

  Flipping the device around in his hand, he picked up the st riceball and made for the front door. He already ged out into his school uniform almost out of habit. It was as if his body was trying to give him some normalcy, but it was impossible anymore.

  Yuki clutched tightly onto the devid buried it into his pocket. He gnced back at the rest of the interior. ‘I still have time to tell them… I won’t be done here until I find everything he left behind… I do this ter…’ Leaving the difficult dilemma behind for some other time, he stepped outside.

  Chapter 291 – Regretted As

  The massive amount of grass that panned around in his full view reminded him how plete the capture nature had over the city. It looked like a post-apocalyptic setting almost, if the buildings had actually been run down. Around, he could see some of the lines of vehicles tearing through, but man struggled to recim dominance.

  It was no more than half a block down his street that Saki appeared o Yuki. The way she effortlessly popped up not leaving anything disturbed or even disrupting much of the air around her was almost unnerving to Yuki. She had already started to refialents. ‘The time in Atntis really improved her skills. I’m not sure if I’m any sort of challenge for her anymore the way she is.’ Multiple siderations on how he might try to fight Saki ran through his mind. All of the strategies he came up with required him knowing that she was ing or always being paranoid that she would do something. She was just too fast for him.

  However, none of that really mattered to him. He had a different thing that he brought up. “How long have you been waiting?”

  “Eh?” Saki questioned, pying a little dumb despite knowing what he was hinting at. She didn’t pn to tip her hand to him. It wasn’t his problem.

  “It’s quite the ce that you just appeared after I just left. You waited long enough to not make it seem like you were stalking me, but still you didn’t just happen to leave at the same time as me.”

  She wasn’t going to get out of it without some sort of an answer. ‘He was easier to deal with when he was ag more ditzy. He’s always been smart and observant, he just hid it in the past.’ Pressed into a er for an answer didn’t ge her tactic though. “Five minutes or so. I had a feeling that you’d be wanting to check out the school. With the UN running around here, you’re probably wanting to see the situation.” The direoved ba skillfully pushing the subject away from her. She could see him staring at her with a little surprise to see how far she saw. “Already thinking of what you might be able to do to help the people here?”

  “Am I so transparent?”

  Keeping them walking forward, Saki focused her attention forward. In the distance, she saw a UN APter her view, far beyond Yuki’s sight, and then disappear down the blobsp; It wasn’t her city anymore. “Even if it wasn’t so transparent, I’ve known you too long to know how you’re feeling. Besides, you’re not alone in that feeling.”

  He smiled a little as he stared at Saki before looking dowreet as well. It wasn’t as though he didn’t believe that he couldn’t t on her help, but it still gave him reassuranbsp; When they returned home, he sort of felt as if they were all going their separate ways. “You’re right. But this isn’t like Atntis. We got away with quite a bit sihey were hidden and we had es high enough up to help. This time is pletely different. The whole world is watg us and likely fears us. Just randomly charging in isn’t going to solve anything.”

  “Not giving up or losing your nerve are you?” she teased a little to lighten the mood.

  “Hell no! This too is my problem. I aim to fix what I’ve done. I just don’t know how I’m going to do it.”

  “You’re not alone. I’ll help.”

  “Thanks, Saki!”

  On their walk to the school, the trip started to feel a little nostalgibsp; Yuki almost thought he could see how things were before. Images of other students running through the streets to get in early passed by. Further ahead, small groups merged into the street.

  However, it all ripped out of his mind suddenly when he found debris ireet. Yuki searched for the sourbsp; To the right, the house was pletely destroyed. Only a single er of the wall in the far back still stood up. The property wall surrounding the house ulverized by some bst. It all spilled out into the street. “Is this the UN?” He ged his course to walk into the ruins of the house some.

  Saki moved as a blur ahead, cheg around fns. She appeared ba front of Yuki blog his path, shaking her head.

  “What did you find?” He tried to get around Saki, but she grabbed him to keep him from moving further. Yuki pressed his body tle in her hold, but there was nothing he could do. She had more strength than the world’s stro bodybuilder tightly packed inside her thin athletic build. “e on, Saki! I’m not a child!”

  “You really shouldn’t.”

  “Don’t just hide things from me! I don’t need you to protect me!” A ripple came out of his feet and suddenly Saki’s hold no longer felt like the god’s hand pressed upon him. He broke free and ran ahead, while she fumbled in fusion at the loss of her strength. ‘What was it that she saw?!’

  Then he saw it. It turned him white as a sheet and nearly made him throw up on the spot. It wasn’t even the sight, but rather the stenbsp; He turned around quickly, immediately regretting his decision to look.

  Yuki rushed back out to the street needing to sit out. “What the hell was that?!” he shouted to himself not uanding what happened. Saki joined him quickly, as she recovered from the loss and figured out the situation. “They’re…dead…” Just saying the words made him shake. “I khem! Mrs. Mazawa gave me homemade dumplings when I was going to junih sometimes despite my attitude then. Why?!”

  “…Yuki…” She didn’t know what she could do for him. ‘He doesn’t o see anymore death… Why’d he have to be so stubborn…’

  “Was it them?” He stood up looking out in the dire of the o, though he couldn’t see it. The pce where the fleet watched them. Where the world stared with fearful eyes upon them all.

  Saki could see the thoughts spinning in his head. “We don’t know anythi! There’s more than just the UN here, remember. Wild animals also roam now too.” They had already talked about taking it easy and not rushing into the situation. She couldn’t let him go flying off the handle only a mier making such a resolution.

  He stared for a while in the distah his eyes not focused on anything in particur. Saki’s words ran through his mind as a calming agent. She was right. “…yeah…but I want to know! I o know what’s going on!”

  Calmed and a little redirected, the relief gave her a moment to sigh. ‘I ’t remind him that most of the people here also have super powers like me. The possibilities are far too big and dangerous.’ She didn’t want Yuki staying around the area much longer. It wasn’t going to do him any good. “We won’t know anything from just hanging around here. There’s still the school, someone might know something there.”

  “…yeah… You’re right.” Even Yuki didn’t really want to stick around. Just the image of them made him want to throw up again. He was weak, but at the moment he didn’t really care about it.

  Progress tio the school with them finally leaving their neighborhood aing into sight of the school. In the distahey could both see it. “It’s still standing,” said Yuki with some relief aement. He admittedly wasn’t sure what might have happeo it. It would have been ironic if some disaster occurred after they left to ruin all of their work.

  “Yeah…” agreed Saki softly. Her sight drilled in the distance almost caught in a trance.

  “Saki? What’s wrong? You see something?”

  “Maybe…” Saki didn’t have a good answer for him. She didn’t know what was going on herself. It didn’t make any sense.

  “What do you see?”

  “Smoke and strangely dressed people. And a destroyed building nearby…”

  “The UN?!” asked Yuki, already jumping the gun. They suddenly became the easy source for everything to bme oroubles that they found. He started to sprint forward wanting to know what Saki saw. She quickly snapped forward and slowed him down, grabbing his arm. “Saki?”

  Shaking her head, she disagreed with him. “They don’t look like the same soldiers I saw on the ships. These are different. But the whole area doesn’t lht.”

  “Doesn’t lht?”

  “You’ll see,” replied Saki cryptically. She released Yuki and took point as they marched deeper into the area.

  The further they went the more things ged. Windows were smashed and more debris fell around the path. Then they came to a stop, finding a makeshift wall in the middle. It forced them around it. However, hidden oher side they found craters and burn marks. Even traces of blood and the uling smell they started to quickly reize.

  Yuki and Saki quickly stuck together. He took up her back watg their rear. “Something really doesn’t feel right. It’s like we’re being watched.”

  “You felt it too?”

  “It’s unnerving.”

  Slowly w around the street as it became an eerie obstacle course of debris and makeshift walls, they came in reach of the school. However, the closer they came the more certain that they were that what they would find wasn’t going to be the school that they knew. The whole neighborhood was pletely ged. They knew homes and shops that they passed every day, now abandoned or in ruins.

  Only a block away from the school, they pressed up against one of the walls created in the middle. Yuki could only see a loose sense of what was in the distanbsp; There were two people standing out front of the school’s gate. The gate was closed, but there was heavy reinfort oal. It didn't even look like the gate anymore. Massive spires and ptes covered up the whole entranbsp; All along the fence liall mounds of earth and stone almost like it was natural. “What the hell happeo the school?” Yuki pulled back from his iigation to look at Saki. “What do you see?”

  “I think they’re students, but I don’t know the uniform that they’re wearing. It sort of looks like ours, but like someone modified it with new colors and altered the length. It’s weird. Doesn’t look weling and I don’t really want to go up to the front door and ask to go inside.”

  Nodding in agreement, if they were students Yuki didn’t really want to get into a fight with them. They seemed like guards and he didn’t uand what happened. “We already have a habit of jumping in without uanding the situation. I’d like to avoid making the same mistake and starting fights that aren’t needed. Let’s look around for some answers.”

  “Right!” She stood up and guided Yuki away to a that she knew. An alley, or former alley if the adjat building still stood. The ruins still put them between the guards, so they were safe. However, the path dumped them out in a pce that they didn’t expect.

  “The hell?!” excimed Yuki, the momeepped out from the alley. He nearly fell into a massive crater that wiped out the entire block easily. It was only Saki’s quick reflexes that kept him from a nasty trip. Everything was starting to wear on Yuki. “Someoell me what the hell is going on here?!”

  “Yuki?” answered a voi the distan the opposite side of the crater.

  He didn’t really expect to get an answer from someone else other than Saki. It surprised him enough to shut him up and look around for the sourbsp; “Yumi?” She waved over to him so that he could narrow in on her.

  Saki picked Yuki up a the distance of the crater with ease ing to a pinpoint nding just oher side of Yumi. “What are you doing here, Yumi?” inquired Saki as well.

  It was then that they both uood that Yumi wasn’t waving to them out of excitement to see them. She wore a heavy expression on her fabsp; “You should see this.” Yumi poihem out to where her brother stood befuiding them away from the crater.

  The mysterious answer left them more than a little curious until they regretted it once more. It seemed to be the theme of their day. Laid out all around them before they k was a mass graveyard, ohat never existed before. The nd used to belong to a supermarket that they visited after school sometimes for a snabsp; However, now it was just ruins of tile, stone aal with brokeh everywhere. Makeshift tombstones fell in lines.

  “Wha…I…dead…” Yuki eechless, uo form a sentence.

  Saki had a little more together and looked over to Yumi for some answers. Yori popped out from the er of the graveyard taking up the answers. “We found this on our way to the school. I’ve ted more than fifty graves and they’re all fresh withi few days.”

  “Who did this?”

  “We’re still trying to figure out what’s going on,” added Yori’s sister. She pointed out the surrounding ruins and rundown buildings. “Fighting has been going on around here, but we don’t know with whom or why.”

  “I want to know who’s doing this,” demanded Yuki, finally rec from his stun. He looked around at the others already setting their course for them. Though it wasn’t as though they didn’t have the same things pnned out. But it seemed that they were teaming up once more.

  “A better question is what side you’re on,” shouted a new voice from the distanbsp; Everyourned around trying to locate the sourly to discover that they were suddenly surrounded. Many of the faces they reized as students in their css or other csses in the same year. Even a teacher or two as well were in their ranks, but they all looked worn and tired.

  While some bore ons, others had powers on dispy making it clear that they wanted plianbsp; They looked ready for a fight. However, Yuki didn’t want to get involved in something that he didn’t uand. He stepped out only to draw all of their attention and have threats of attacks aimed at him. The sign of attacks hardly fazed him after everything in Atntis. He just wanted answers. “What’s going on here? And who is your leader?”

  “Like I said before, the question I have for you is what side are you on?” It was the same voice more. However, this time a shadowed figure stepped out from the sed floor of the ruined building.

  It took Yuki a moment for his eyes to adjust to the distance, but he reized them immediately. “Hiroshi?!”