Out at the border of the neighborhood aire ptoon of UN soldiers stood unmoving. They were all armed and ready to go into a, but did nothing. Mixed into the ptoon was Captain Masayuki Ayabito’s squad of Empowered.

  He stood out ahead of eveCs with them. The rest of his team squatted about g the same amount of single-minded disciplihat the soldiers exhibited. The whole time sihey got the deploy signal to rejoin from patrol, he watched the horizon. It disturbed him watg lights and explosions, feeling the slight tremors and being uo do anything t peace.

  Certain moments were more intense and harder for him to watd do nothing than others. But it had been silent for a very long time. Nothing seemed to be happening anymore at the site of the high school. Masayuki pressed his hand up against the invisible wall that none of them had been successful in even crag, five minutes was wasted on it.

  “It’s over,” he called out to their captor. “You promised to release us after the fighting finished.”

  A solid bck figure with no reflective surfa them sat up against a house. The eime they had been quietly reading a light novel. “It does seem that way,” a deep man’s voice came out of the figure, Let’s give a few more mihough.”

  “Release us now!”

  They snapped closed their book and tucked it away in a back pocket. “Now, notain. Anger doesn’t bee you.”

  “I’m only angry because you’ve been doing nothing but impeding justice!”

  “Justice.” The figure walked up to the Captain running a finger along the surface of the wall. Even the headlights from the APCs couldn’t even form a shadow on the figure. “That’s an easy word to toss around. I’ve been hearing a lot tely. However, you shouldn’t be throwing it around when it easily mean different things as well.”

  Grinding his fist up against the wall, Masayuki wanted freedom more than anything else. Too many terrible things were happening in front of him. “Don’t py games of semantics with me!”

  “Oh this is no game, dear Captain. This is very real and very serious. Deadly serious.”

  “People are dying out there! I don’t need you to tell me how serious it is!”

  “I kept you out of this fight to save more from dying.”

  “I don’t need your help! I won’t allow anyone under me to die!”

  “Your me the only ones I’m referring to, Captain.”

  “The UN isn’t here fhter! We’re here for peace!”

  “How far does peace st when you have an army of people trying to kill you without merbsp; The UN decred this area restricted to all civilians for a reason. Even you don’t patrol within this neighborhood. This isn’t a pce for those without resolve.”

  “You doubt my resolve now?!”

  “Against a mindless mob of strangers willing to kill without thought? Yes.”

  “We’re here to protect you against people like that!” he yelled, pointing over to the high school.

  “You don’t seem to uand your situation very well. The people you want to arrest for misuse of their abilities are proteg you from people like that. Careful how much of a hypocrite you make yourself when you are merely doing the same thing with sans.”

  “Release us now! There are thousands of criminals you’re aiding!”

  “Most of them are victims. You’re quick to bel criminals without seeing the situation for what it is.” The bck figure began to walk away. They disappeared into particles leaving behind no trabsp; “Approach with cautious Captain and aid. It’ll get you much further in this situation. The people you want to protect are also in there and need help.”

  The wall no longer held Masayuki’s hand back as he almost fell on his fabsp; He wiped the surprise quickly off his fad turned back around to the soldiers. “We move out!”

  Chapter 361 – Broken Home

  Tatsuya released Yuki from his hold to keep him from interfering with Saki and Hiroshi. He quickly rao Takak to check for any signs of life. “If she hasn’t been dead long maybe I still revive her!”

  “Yuki stop!” Saki shouted as she grabbed and pulled him away from Takako. “This had to happen. Act or not, she’s killed or allowed too many people to die!”

  “She was a victim!”

  “The world doesn’t see it that way! This is the right answer even if you don’t want to believe in it. Sometimes people must die so that pead safety be reached!”

  “Saki…” Yuki started to back away from Saki as he didn’t know the person that stood in front of him.

  Hiroshi quickly caught the look in Yuki’s eyes. He reached out for Saki to stop her. “That’s enough. He still needs you. This is my pce.” Walking around Saki, he put himself betweewo of them. The more Yuki saw of him and less of Saki the better. “I killed her, Yuki. This is the reality of the world now. Just because you transformed it into one of your manga doesn’t mean it falls uhe same rules of a feel good story.”

  “No! N-no…I…am…respon…” Lightheadedness suddenly overtook Yuki and all of his powers evaporated. He lost trol of his body as everythi limp. Before he could hit the ground, Saki sped in to catch him.

  “Yuki!” everyone shouted.

  Saki checked his pulse and listeo his heartbeat. Everything sounded okay-ish. She wasn’t a doctor and it sounded fast, but alive. “I think he’s just exhausted.”

  “He pushed himself to the limit against Takako,” Hiroshi remarked, havihe whole thing py out before his eyes. He fought hard for his belief, even though it failed in the end. There was some pity and sympathy for him that he could give on that. Though he already accepted what their fate was going to be. “He just needs some rest probably.”

  “We've also got bigger problems still to deal with,” interjected Tatsuya, “Since Saki is back to herself Yuki’s theory of what Takako’s powers were and how they worked seems to be on the mark.”

  Shaking his head, Hiroshi looked back at Takako. “No, we were all wrong about what her power was. Fighting her myself and watg Yuki’s fight I uood that much.”

  “What do you mean? Is Saki not free?”

  “No, I'm free from trol. But Hiroshi’s corre that her power isn’t as simple to just call mind trol.”

  “What are you talking about? If you’re free does it matter?”

  “Yes, very much so,” she gravely replied with a dark shadow drawing over her eyes.

  Tatsuya took a step back, finding Saki easily uling and the revetions she appeared to bear. “What are y to get at?”

  “It’s like what that Yuy mentioned for us to be prepared for.”

  “I’m not sure what Yori told you, but Takako’s power is more plicated than they appear.”

  “plicated?”

  “On the base level, what she does with her poears to be mind trol. And one facet of what she do with her power is actually genuine mind trol. However, that’s just a by-product of what her real power is.”

  “You’re losing me.”

  Hiroshi began to recall what Takako said during her fight with Yuki. “She mentioned having Yuki to thank for saving her from her atose state. And if you think about it, mind trol isn’t going to suddenly make you not a veggie anymore. It’d have to be a different power that she gained from Yuki that allowed her tain her sense of self.”

  “Which is?”

  “Mind sharing,” Saki answered with the simplest way of stating it. Though she didn’t like the way it sounded si was still inaccurate. “If I had to guess it’s more like sharing rather than trol at the root of her power.”

  “Another side effect of her power was the ability to gain other powers from the people she trolled. So sharing would make sense.”

  “From what I saw while I linked with Takako, she was able to give out pieces of her mind to others.”

  “Give pieces of her mind? Wouldn’t that be bad for her?”

  “For a normal person, yes, but Takako’s mind wasn’t normal. Thanks to the torture and interrogation she received months ago, it pletely destroyed her mind. However, the pieces were still all there; they were just a plete mess.”

  Saki watched the gears quickly e to a halt as she tried to expin something that she didn’t uand that well herself. The plicated nature of minds wasn’t her strength. “Think of it like someoied out all of the drawers and your closet in your room. They then put all of that in the middle of the room. You couldn’t find what you wanted or even navigate it.”

  “But I’d it up.”

  “Yes, and that’s what her power allowed her to do essentially. Rather than rebuilding what was broken, she ed up and tossed everything out. Those broken pieces were given out to other people. And that’s what broke the people she did it to.”

  “Broke them? The mind trol?”

  “That’s right,” added Hiroshi, “She said many couldn’t handle her power. She said it broke them and giving them a piece destroyed their minds. Judging from what we saw, the worst of them lost all sense of morality ahid lived off pure base instincts in the most al ways imaginable.”

  “Those that could hahe piece, she could trol,” Saki ented, she uood that part very well. “Once shared, she had a link with them. She could go into people’s minds and trol them or just impnt thoughts or ideas.”

  “She didn’t o share to put ideas into people.”

  “You sure?”

  “Yes.” Hiroshi left his response curtly punctuated on that answer. He quickly pivoted the expnation back to the problem. Ohat relied on Saki’s feedbabsp; “Based on what you’ve said, depending on the level of trol people were still rgely in charge of their as even if they were given ands that they didn’t accept.”

  “Yes and those that she trolled directly still remember what happened.”

  Tatsuya turned around looking at the crater edge. Beyond the ridge, hundreds or thousands of victims of Takako id out there. He didn’t know how many were still awake after all of the fighting, but he could just imagihe situation. “Which means we have tless people that remember all of the murders and horrible acts that they itted.” “And when they wake up we’re going to o be able to do something for them.”

  “Hey man, I’m not a psychiatrist!”

  “None of us are. We’re high school students. None of us are prepared fiviional and psychological support to those that ’t handle what’s happened.”

  “This could be a worse fight than Takako,” warned Saki. She lifted up Yuki on one side and carried Takako over her other shoulder. Nothing they o do would begin without making the first step. So she set the pace for the etting them out of the crater.

  She hadn’t had a ce to take in the destru caused by Takako and Yuki’s fight. “I don’t remember it being this bad.”

  “It got worse after Yuki stopped you.”

  “Finding survivors is going to be difficult.” She looked around trying to gauge where to even begin, unfortuhe night didn’t make it very easy to see. “We may have to wait until m before we start, especially with the way you two look.”

  “I don’t think we’re going to have that option,” Hiroshi cut in as he stared off into the distance.

  The grave and foreboding tone in his voice immediately pulled Saki’s attention to what he might be seeing. It didn’t take long for her to find the headlights and make out some shapes. “UN?”

  “Yes. I wondered why we hadn’t seen them sooner. I guess we were just lucky they were slow to act.”

  “Not lucky enough,” Tatsuya pined, “They’ve got some of those with powers with them. We aren’t in any dition for anht!”