Seiji smmed his hands down oable, splintering it at points where his fiouched, uo trol his strength. ‘What the hell is going on? It hasn’t even been a day!’ He would have just quickly dismissed the whole thing had he not seen the look on Yuki’s fabsp; The pained flicted expression that didn’t know what to say and had trouble acceptiy. It was almost too much for Yuki to take. Seiji might not have normally seen it, but Yuki was doing a horrible job of actually holding his emotions off his fabsp; It was everywhere he looked.

  Once he realized that he was breaking his table, Seiji pulled back, folding up his hands under his arms. He o know what happened. ‘None of this makes any sense. If there was some war going on we would have seen it when we arrived. Yuki has to be just over blowing this and taking it harder because he was not expeg there to be a little fighting.’ Seiji had nearly vinced himself that everything was alright. Yet when he saw Yuki’s face again the heavy weight of the grave nature just pounded ba him.

  “Now e on, Yuki. You ’t be serious. War? If that was the case the UN would probably be all over it after what they were doing when we snu.” Seiji presented a surprisingly rational denial.

  Leaning forward as though his head he support, his arms came up to give his something to rest on. “I wish I was blowing this out of proportion or that I was just dreaming it up. But I’m not! I know what I’ve seen. I’ve been there and watched cssmates die right in front of me, uo do anything to stop it!” Yuki’s breathing began shallowly, uo keep up with his emotions. He was nearly in tears just thinking about it.

  The temperature in the room fell tid levels instantly. It felt like they were ba Antarctibsp; No one could say anything to reject Yuki. His emotions were so openly bared for them all that it was hard to even think anything.

  Silent minutes passed with no one knowing what to say. They all wao deny it, but it left them all speechless. Awkwardness filled through everything like a stuffy, sticky jelly poured in from all the cracks until they were swimming in it, drowning in it.

  Eventually, someone had to say something. “What happened, Yuki?” Seiji opened. He was Yuki’s friend. Whatever happened he o listen to it. “Tell me everything.”

  “Everything?” The memories of the battle between Hiroshi and Takako’s forces repyed in his mind. It seized him up seeing all of the cssmates dying around him. The cold, callous expression of Hiroshi willing to execute them and the empty looks of all of Takako’s. “I don’t…want to…”

  Seiji leapt across the table to grab his wrist. “Look at me, Yuki!” He pulled on Yuki until he was forced to meet eyes. “I o know the situation if I’m going to help stop this!”

  “Stop? I don’t know…if it be stopped…”

  ‘Why does he look so defeated…I’ve never seen Yuki look like this…’ The sight only made Seiji even more angry. He cked the details of what was going on, but he had to put ao it. “YUKI! I don’t give a damn! Just tell me already!”

  Chapter 309 – The Pitfalls of Idealism

  Seiji fell ba his legs. It was a lot more to take than he was expeg. “I ’t…believe it…”

  “It all happened as I said.” His hand absentmindedly rubbed the side of face, having remembered it all. It just rubbed and scraped at his skin.

  “No, I believe you, but it seems so impossible. How could something like that happen?”

  “I don’t know. It doesn’t make any sense.” Yuki hadn’t tried to think too hard on the why. It happehat much he didn’t want to even accept. Trying to uand it and rationalize it seemed even worse. It would mean that he was fih it happening. He could accept that it was somehow normal or reasohat friends could kill friends. “I just don’t want to think about it.”

  “But we o stop it, Yuki!” Seiji rose to his feet already filled with resolve aermination. He was ready to march out into the city and put a stop to everything. His fists pouogether and his blood boiled. “What are you doing just sitting there, Yuki? The people you know are in danger, you just stand there and do nothing?”

  “…Seiji…” Watg Seiji so simply blew away any of the excuses as though they seemed meaningless amazed him. ‘He makes sound so simple. But maybe…’

  Marg around the table, Seiji ripped Yuki up by his colr f him to stand. “You just going to keep sitting doing nothing, Yuki? That isn’t you! If there is something you o do, you do it! Don’t think about it, just act!”

  “I don’t know if reality is as simple as you’re making it, Seiji.”

  “To hell with reality! Just do it!”

  Yuki ughed, uo hold baymore. Seiji’s simplicity actually felt refreshing. “Maybe…you’re right…”

  “There you go! Now let’s go knoe seo this Takako girl and put ao all of this!”

  Nodding, Yuki finally stood on his own once more. He didn’t really have a pn, but with Seiji it didn’t really seem important. “First I o see Hiroshi once more. Tell him what I pn to do.” It was sort of funny that he had pnned on doing the same thing, but all that he saw dragged him dowing him from seeing it.

  “Alright! Let’s go see this secret base! Sounds pretty cool!”

  “You’ll be pretty surprised by it.”

  “I ’t wait!” While Seiji and Yuki were getting pumped up and ready to walk out of the room, they fot oher. It took until Seiji got to the door to look bad see Neriting there at the table still. “You ing?” he asked, as though it was just expected.

  Neriared at Seiji for a moment seemingly g words. She had been quiet the eime, never interrupting or putting in her opinion oter. “This is not something I’m involved in.”

  “You think that matters? They’re all strao me.”

  Her brow pinched listening to Seiji's way of rationalizing things. “But you’re different from me,” she mumbled under her breath.

  “You think being different matters?”

  Shock painted over Nerine’s faot expeg him to have heard her. “But—“

  “Does it upset you that is are being hurt or killed?”

  “…yes…” It felt like a leading question for her. She didn’t know ahat would not be bothered by it.

  “Then stand up! We’re leaving now!”

  Yuki had a pretty good idea what was holding baerine. He could see the situation that she ut in just by being in Japan. ‘Demosthenes wasn’t very kind even if it might be a good idea…’ Expining it to Seiji why it roblem only plicated things further. Like his previous decration, simplicity was king. “Seiji, she—“

  “Not you too Yuki, you don’t wao e with us?”

  “It’s not like that.”

  “Then I don’t see the problem.”

  Sighing, only accepting him seemed possible. He was insistent on the way things were going to be. “e along. Think of it as keeping near me if something happens you react quickly.”

  “I uand.”

  * * *

  It might have been a bad idea to leave with night falling, but nothing could stop Seiji’s enthusiasm. They didn’t eve back to Hiroshi’s base before the shroud of night cloaked everything. Which meant that they didn’t see the n of smoke until they were nearly in the neighborhood.

  Naturally, Seiji was the first to spot it, even in the dark he wasn’t pletely certain of what he saw. “I’m seeing something strange in the sky,” he remarked, pointing it out to the others.

  “What does it look like?” Yuki tried to see what Seiji saw, but his sight clearly wasn’t good enough to pare to his. her Nerine or him knew what Seiji saw. The fused look from Seiji made it clear that he didn’t uand how they couldn’t see something so obvious. “Remember you have better eyes than us. This dark out I’m going to be lucky if I see three blocks.”

  “Right…” Squinting only seemed to help him slightly, he still had trouble filtering through all of the darkness and the haze. It was only thanks to some of the lights in the area that he even saw it to begin with. “I don’t know, maybe smoke? It’s still hard to see.”

  “Let’s keep moving then. We’ll know more whe to the base. They probably know what it is about.” Yuki pressed on to lead the way as he remembered it. ‘I’ve got a bad feeling about this… This doesn’t feel right…’

  Nerine and Seiji tio follow, but as they walked she felt it was important t up. “I’m just an observer. I haven’t been ordered to involve myself in fn affairs.”

  Ag like she was on the sideliroubled Seiji a little. He gnced over to her. “You just do nothing while watg everyone else fight?”

  “…I must…” There was a bit of hesitation from her before she said anything.

  “It’s an easy thing to say now when there’s not any fighting on. I don’t believe you be silent. I trust you to do the right thing wheime es.”

  She stopped at his statement, a little surprised to hear that from him. It left her not knowing what to say to him. ‘I ’t…the mission…’ Mission or not, she didn’t have time to think about it as they tinued on without waiting for her. She chased after them with thoughts of what Seiji said spinning around her head.

  The base didn’t take very long to reach or as close as they could get to it. Now o the site, they had a very clear view of things. UN marked vehicles as were everywhere. Soldiers and iigators walked around the entire area.

  It was the lights in the area, the reason Seiji saw any of it to start, that made it clear to them things had ged. A massive hole stood where the block used to be. The store and surrounding ruins were no more. Evereets were wiped out. A four by four block area marked off with tape or makeshift fences, as though it would keep bayone in Japan anymore.

  Seiji saw the UN and the hole and immediately jumped the gun. “Those bastards!” He jumped down from the building they used for a vantage point. Landing heavily, he tossed up dust on the building.

  “Seiji! Stop! It’s not—dammit!” Yuki quickly activated his Field and jumped down with his mist surrounding him. It brought him to a soft nding as his mist already attacked to restrain Seiji. “Calm down for a moment, Seiji!”

  “I’m not going to let those UN bastards get away with this! You ’t stop me, Yuki!” Through only his strength, he ripped through the mist even as it worked to try to hold him down. It was a stant struggle until Yuki was able to get out in front of him. “Yuki!”

  “Seiji! Listen to me!” he yelled without caution. “I don’t think the UN caused this. I think they’re just iigating!”

  “What? Are you sure?”

  He had mao get through to him quickly enough. The tension finally started to drop. However, Yuki was still uain. He was mostly just saying it because he didn’t want Seiji to start an iional i. But he did have suspensions. “As much as I may want to bme things on the UN, this is probably the work of Takako too.”

  If Seiji had an obje, he didn’t have the time to voice it. They had bigger problems. He noticed it first before Seiji and turned his head for when they arrived. In the moment, they were already surrounded by five uniformed UN soldiers, but they were all Japanese.

  Both Seiji and Yuki uood what they meant. They kept still just watg the new potential threat. her knew what they wanted from them, but realized that they were probably alerted by their shouting.

  A tall man with a short very orderly light brown haircut stepped forward. Judging from the way he walked and held himself, he looked to be the one in charge. “Fighting? So you tart of this gang war as well then. You’re under arrest by order of the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission in Japan!”