Hiroshi mao calm the tension in the air between Masayuki and Saki, but that didn’t do anything to ge the eerie atmosphere that permeated throughout the entire grounds of the former school. Even with an agreement no one knew what was going on. And Hiroshi found that he wasn’t in the best dition, especially after the st use of his power. “Dammit…”

  “Hey man, you ain’t allowed to be dying right here.”

  “I didn’t realize that I needed permission from you.”

  “If you’ve still got your sense of humor you’re alive enough to move.” Tatsuya eased him to his feet with a little caution. He tested to see if he could stand without any support.

  The grou a little further away from him in a lightheaded sort of way. One false step felt like he would trip over his own clumsiness. “Some friend you are.” However, he didn’t get any more time for pyful banter. Voices of people surrounding them reminded him that he had more important things to worry about than his own pain. There were others with far worse problems.

  Hiroshi pushed off with his mind focused again towards the issue ahead. There was a mass of people all still rec from the sudden loss of their master. Thanks to Yuki’s power, enhang their bodies was the only reason that they survived the battle. Though from the looks, they didn’t survive unharmed, in more than one meaning of the word.

  He hurried as much as his body allowed him to do so over to the people that he could see. The worst of them looked to be a middle aged woman and a young teenage boy, probably from middle school. “How much pain are you in?” he asked, kneeling down.

  “What have I been doing?”

  “It’ll be fine, ma’am. We’re here to help you.”

  She lifted up her head to look at Hiroshi. “You…you look familiar…why?”

  ‘Probably because Takako ordered you to fight me.’ He kept his focus and looked around at the others trying to gauge injuries. They looked mostly survivable without immediate attention. Looking back, he saw that no one else was moving.

  Hiroshi jumped up to his feet. “What the hell are you all standing around, waiting on orders?! There’s more people here than there are us. So fan out and start finding the ohat need immediate attention!”

  “Yes, sir!” she soldiers. The UN soldiers began to fan out and evacuate their vehicle. Masayuki got looks from his men and he just motioo them.

  “Hey Mr. Captain!”

  “Masayuki.”

  “Fine, Masayuki, anyone on your team got healing powers?”

  “We’re only a bat team.”

  “Dammit, maybe someone here has some. Our doctor’s still back tending to our injured.”

  Masayuki watched Hiroshi yell at Tatsuya to get moving. Thearted to snap at Saki to get the rest of the group moving. ‘Who is this kid? He’s not just a random stranger. He’s used to doing this…’

  “Just because you’re the Captai mean you get to do nothiher. We all o pit.”

  “I don’t o be told that.”

  “Then don’t!” Hiroshi rushed off to the unattended group that he could find. They had their work cut out for them.

  Chapter 364 – Broken Lives

  The first ten minutes were the worst. Though that was a highly subjective point given that most of them weren’t used to dealing with people like it was a waiting room in an emergen of a hospital. There were just too many people. Ohey all started to realize that there was even some help, they started targeting them for answers and aid. Each mier gressively worse a easier. It was a terrible feeling for them.

  “Anyone nearby?! I need help now!” snapped Saki as she had three people very awkwardly pinned around her arms and legs. She had run out of limbs. “Tatsuya, now!”

  Tatsuya rao Saki with a shocked look on his face trying to help the people that she inning. “What the hell, Saki?! We’re helping them, not fighting!” Immediately, he pulled one of them free from her legs ahem go while helping the .

  “No, stop it!” Saki released the two that she had to immediately go after the ohat Tatsuya freed only to be too te. Blood sprayed everywhere across her fad Tatsuya as he stood paralyzed in shobsp; Not able to even mourn the death, another cry of pain came from the ohat she released. “Dammit!” She quickly jumped back, stopping the two teenage girls from killing themselves even with blood c them from their attempts.

  Saki mao save them, though she wasn’t sure how bad their injuries were. They aimed for their wrists, which was harder thaher that went straight for the throat. She looked over at Tatsuya, still locked up. “Tatsuya?!” Nothing was getting through. Res to her feet, she kicked him over while her hands mahe two girls.

  Still stunned but ing to a little bit of awareness, he looked up at her. The blood soaked on his skin only made his emotions appear more frightened. “S-saki…”

  “I ’t deal with this alone. I need your help! Get me something to tie them up!”

  “R-right!” He tried to get back to his feet, but stumbled and slipped. Thankfully, Nerine was in the area and saw Saki struggling. She had the look of already knowing what was happening. It seemed that she had things prepared and materialized an unknowal material that ed around their arms and legs.

  Freed up, Saki did what she could to wipe away the blood from her face, but her uniform already struggled with it. “Thanks, Nerine. Where’s Yuki and Seiji?”

  “Seiji took Yuki back to the safety of Kuroda’s base.”

  “Good, keeping them at Hiroshi’s will keep him out of sight of the UN. I don’t hat man finding Yuki, not after what you said happened. He’s probably already on their list after that showdown.” She lifted up the two girls effortlessly. “I’ll take these two babsp; I found several more unscious back here. If you tend to their injuries.”

  “Yes, I uand.”

  “Thanks.” She began marg off in the dire of the temporary camp. It had only been an hour, but Masayuki wasted no time getting things broken out. Support teams from the UN were already arriving under direand of Masayuki keeping things a little tense among Saki and the others, but they he hands.

  ing up besides Saki, Tatsuya forcibly grabbed one of the girls to lighten Saki’s load, not that it was anything that was going to slow her down. “Sorry, I panicked.”

  “You didn’t know. I’ve mostly only been finding them alone, so it’s been easier. But three of them…”

  “Dammit! Why did this have to happen?”

  “Don’t stop moving.”

  Tatsuya looked at Saki’s back, as he paused. He didn’t uand it. “How? H-how you…”

  “I don’t have the option. That’s why I said not to stop moving. The moment you do, then you’re already irap.”

  “Saki…”

  “They need us, even if they don’t want us. Focus on that, not yourself.”

  He hurried up to her side to keep her pabsp; It still didn’t bee clear to him. Yet he saw the awkward resolve that Saki set herself upon. Somehow her back looked pletely bent over and brokee being straight and tall to carry the world if she had. He didn’t uand how she could do it. ‘Was she always this strong?’

  At the temp camp, Masayuki snapped out orders to the newly arriving soldiers that carried mueeded supplies. Off to the right side, Hiroshi helped several dozen new faces that Saki hadn’t seen sihe st time. “I’ve got two more for detention.”

  Masayuki visibly dropped his shoulders hearing that as he finished his orders. The medical supplies finally arrived along with some doctors to help look after the injured. He turned around to meet Saki as Hiroshi rotated. “That makes thirty-nine now… It’s getting worse.”

  “And I doubt this is the st that we’ll see,” Hiroshi remarked solemnly, “All of these people were uakako’s power. They did and saw terrible things. Even those ihat seem fine might be at risk.”

  “This isn’t like anything we’re prepared to handle.”

  “None of us are prepared, but we ’t abandon them.”

  “I wouldn’t suggest it. We have a duty to help everyone.”

  “Good.”

  “The number of people out searg and helping have doubled. So I think it’s about time you started expining this situation.” Masayuki stared at Saki and Hiroshi making it very clear that he khat they were still hiding a lot from him. The way they spoke and barely even seemed to skip a beat on things, there were things that the UN clearly didn’t know that somehow these teens did.

  Saki and Hiroshi looked between each other in silenbsp; She gave Hiroshi a slight approving look for him to give the talk. Hiroshi repared for it, even though he would have preferred to wait until everything was handled. “I give you the short version. We still have a lot to do, so I ’t get us lost iails.”

  “Who’s this Takako person you keep referring to?”

  “She was a student at this school and a cssmate.”

  “Before the Shattered Japan I, you mean.”

  “That’s right. However, after the I, she was attacked and hospitalized. We thought she had goo a a etative state, she wouldn’t respond or react to us.”

  “How did this happen then?”

  “Takako didn’t fully expiuation before she died. But someone rescued her and did something to heal her mind. She somehow figured out her powers and to fully recover she used them on others.”

  “What was her power?”

  “A variant of mind trol, she could enter people’s mind and leave something of herself there. Which had two side effects, she could trol them if they survived the mental strain or they’d break and run off base instincts with no will or sce to guide them.”

  “So she ordered them to kill people.”

  “Not always, those running off instincts probably did it on their own. Which is probably the ohat we’re finding right now that are trying to kill themselves. They ’t take what they’ve done.”

  “Those ordered by this Takako have a bit of an escape goat for them to rationalize things.”

  “Yes, but I don’t know how long that will st. We could be fag hundreds more iure tempting suicide or falling into depression.”

  Saki interjected in to end things. “Either way, this situation isn’t over by a long shot. Even with Takako dead, her hands are still moving. Aill haven’t even found everyo.”

  “Does the UN have enough facilities to mahis?” inquired Hiroshi. He kheir base back where his people recovered was already filled to capacity with people. There was o take them.

  Masayuki gnced back at the detention area. They were the makeshift cells they used to hold criminals and they were already running out of them. He ordered all of the avaible cells from headquarters. It wasn’t going to be enough. “No, we aren’t equipped for a situation on this scale.”

  “Then what were you pnning on doing? Killing everyone?”

  “Saki, stop!”

  Silence overcame Masayuki as he had to face the reality of his mission. It wasn’t the sort of thing he prepared for and making the best of it took him where he stood now. “I didn’t have any useful intel. I didn’t know hoeople were here. We were just responding.”

  “And if we weren’t here to slow you down, you’d what? Arrest everyone? Kill them? Try them all for crimes that they weren’t in their right minds? What the hell was your pn?”

  The Captain couldn’t say anything in respoo Saki. He khat she was right. They had gone in pletely fident of their power with no clue to the situation. It was the reason that the whole zone was restricted by the higher ups. They couldn’t do anything about it. ‘What would have I done? Mind trol? I could have killed the people I want to protect…’

  Hiroshi could see how much Masayuki was beating himself up over the situation. It was going to lock him up if he allowed it to tinue. “We o find a pce to put them. How about the hospitals? We’ve got several iy and there should be ways we secure people io keep them from killing themselves, right?”

  Still lost in thought, it took Saki knog him in the shoulder to get his mind babsp; “Huh? Right, hospitals. I’ll have to talk to my superiors to get manpower diverted. I ’t be asking a bunch of kids to be doing this.”

  “I’ve got a doctor in my group and a bunch of adults with nothing to do.”

  Things were starting to get to the point that Masayuki couldn’t keep quiet about it. “Who are you and what group do you belong to?”

  “I’m not in his group,” Saki immediately decred.

  “We don’t really have a name. But I ended up being the leader. We’re just a bunch of people from this neighborhood that gathered up to protect those when Takako started killing. But with peaow here, we start w towards stabilizing the city again.”

  “How many are in yroup?”

  “Less than a hundred now, Takako killed most of us. But we’re wanting to help keep our city peaceful and safe.”

  “It might be tough to vince my superiors, but I think it would be beneficial if you helped us with this. You know the people here better than I do. I’m from Tokyo. So I’m still getting used to the city.”

  “Tokyo? So the other cities are fine?”

  “No, they’re worse. Tokyo’s…a nightmare right now…”

  “Oh…dammit…’t anywhere catch a break?!”

  “What do you think of w together, Mr. Kuroda?”

  “Call me Hiroshi, Mister is too stuffy for me. But if you promise me to not treat them like criminals, but victims then I think we work together.” Hiroshi extended his hand out towards Masayuki. In the middle of the darkness, a thin ray of hope appeared.