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

  “That’s not pletely accurate.” Yuki tio 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 ing for him.

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

  “A specifically crafted array. There is a method of ing our power's influen 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 pletely. I never asked Ayumi about it and my time in Atntis ent on other matters. So I never really took the time.”

  “But it’s only Atnteans 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 Atntis, but it’s possible one of them lear.”

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

  “That’s right.” Yuki looked around at the neighborhood suddenly. He therieved a device from within his clothes. It was a simple regur 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 t on. If he was out of options, Seiji was determined just to make a direct assault ign any sort of further pnning. Fht be damned, he didn’t pn 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 e to rescue them. It’s only natural and being that I’m a very rge risk to them, I figured that they think about ways to ter me. Though I’ll admit that I didn’t think that they knew how to draw those arrays. This will be a little fshier than I want, but it’ll work all the same.”

  His finger rahe buttons finding the one he needed. Pressing it quickly, Yuki looked in the dire he expected something to happen. However, it wasn’t what he pnned on. An explosion lit up the area. Yuki’s faarrowed a little watg what he set up go up in fmes. “They foresaw even that…” He quickly pressed the series of buttons only for them all to blow up as well. “Damn…they’ve got themselves a really good tacti.”

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

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

  When Yuki mentiohat he immediately had a sihought in his mind. He remembered the fight with Simonides. “Yumi!”Gng 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 pnned out and ated for all of us. This could be her.”

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

  Yuki started to lower themselves. The course had been itted. 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 fabsp; This was the sort of pn he liked. “I already expected that. We’ll teach Takako that she ’t take our friends from us!” Seiji dropped down from the invisible ptform 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 impabsp; Shards of the wall from the school rained dowhe entire school grounds.

  Atta 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 miscalcuted 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.

  Yreed with the assessment, but still found it a little w. “That’s a far bigger attack than the cims Tsuji made for Hayashi’s pn.”

  “Something must have e up.”

  “We should hurry,” ordered Hiroshi to Phoibe o him. They were all gathered around her as she tuhem through the earth. It seemed like a terrible pn 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 sider it a line of attabsp; So it gave them the ce of surprise.

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

  “But we ’t arrive too te either.”

  “You won’t.”

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

  The dire Phoibe moved with her tunnel finally shifted. They started their ast. 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 expe the inside of the school. It was a plete unknown. No ohat entered ever left. So they had no intel on it other than the yout. 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 uainties, only focus on the goal. We’re here to end Takako’s tyranny and save who we . Don’t take risks, I want you all to e out of this alive! The advaeam will be handling Takako, just keep the rest busy while we do the fighting! This battle is for the future peace of everyone!”

  “Gettier 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 en space more. “We’re just about there.”

  ‘I’ll find you, Yumi.’ Most of the matters didn’t Yori. He ignored much of what they did. His goals only aligned with them, but he had no i 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 fn 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 positioniing them ihe school and in the hall. It was just wide enough for everyone as they raised up.

  However, fmes suddeed from all sides of them. None of them could react to escape before it on them. Fire washed over the entire group, swallowing them up whole. Excess fmes burst out from the ter crag aing the wood of the school. Uo be held back, the gss shattered in an explosion of fire as it leapt out of the school.

  Even up ohird floor, the fmes were felt as a rumble through the tiles. The sound of the explosion carried as a follow up.

  Yuki looked down in the dire. Broken pieces of the roof strewn about the floor broke up the formerly 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 fabsp; He didn’t want to reveal his hand in all of it to Yuki. Thankfully, there was a more pressing problem before them. “We o focus on the immediate issue, Yuki.”

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

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

  “Yeah, they apparently did a slight redesign on them. It’s not a very subtle meaning.” Like everyone else in Japan, he khat they had to have received powers from him. Unfortunately, he didn’t know them very well and only really spent the oime 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 unscious. That’ll be the fastest way.”

  “Wouldn’t Yumi have already pnned for y that?”

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

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

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

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

  “Good, we hat sort of determination.”

  Glowing red magic circles formed in the air as the round of attacks looked to be starting. Yori shifted to the front in anticipation of the attabsp; He knew what to exped 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 ba the group, Tatsuya directed everyoowards Hiroshi. Hiroshi already started to order everyo into different attag groups. “I thielling 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 firming Tatsuya's assumption. ‘That doesn’t really seem like him. He’s ionally ied 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 uainty.