“I’ll do what I in my power to see that they’re treated fairly. I hope to be able to work with you towards proteg this city.” Masayuki accepted Hiroshi’s hand, finalizing what could only truly be sidered the most informal of binding agreements. It held no meaningful weight beyond trust between two men. Yet it was going to have to be enough for both of them. For now at least, the future remained unclear.

  A UN soldier came rushing up with his uniform looking tattered. He had one more following up behind ier dition. “Sir! We have trouble!” opehe man in the most vague a helpful manner possible.

  The pani his voice grabbed the attention of the group. They all worried if their peace became short lived. Masayuki stepped out to take and of his men. “Speak then! What is it?”

  “We located a few more survivors on the opposite side of the wreckage, but we’re uo get any closer. There is a teenage boy stopping us. He’s attag ahat es close!”

  “Attag?!” The Captain immediately went on edge. He thought fighting had been avoided or at least beyond them now. However, hesitation did them no good. Masayuki quickly resolved himself to the necessary course. “I’ll hahis personally then. Send out the order to the rest of the men in the area to move away and tiheir sear other areas.”

  “Yes, sir!”

  Appearing at Masayuki’s side as though she was his own shadow, Saki quickly made her presenown to him. “I’m going as well.”

  ‘Damn, she’s fast! I didn’t even notice her, but she must have e in while I was distracted.’ Keeping his surprise down proved difficult with a girl just popping up. He didn’t evehe dispt of the air. How distracted had he been to not even notice that? But there were bigger s that came up quickly once he adjusted to her presenbsp; “No, I don’t need a fight breaking out.”

  “You’re implying that I ’t be peaceful?”

  “Given yotiating skills dispyed so far Saki, the man’s got good reason to question you.”

  “Shut up, Hiroshi, I’m going, that's final.” She still had doubts and uain looks from both of them. Their gazes only made her furrow her brow in their distrust. Crossing her arms, she took a different approabsp; “I’m going because the reason your men were probably attacked was because you’re UN. They don’t trust you or are scared of you. I’ll be able to talk them down without actually ing a fight.”

  Using solid logic at this point was hard tue. Masayuki wao dispute her cims, but he knew better than the rest how the UN was viewed by the regur citizens. Especially how they viewed him. He had to agree with Saki. “Fine.”

  The party set, both marched out. Or rather, they disappeared immediately keeping a petitive pace with each other. It was a short distance, but her wanted fighting to tinue.

  Chapter 365 – Broken Hope

  Saki had a pretty good guess who it was that attacked the UN soldiers. Given who remained unated for it only made seo her. That was the true reason why she came, though she couldn’t say it in Masayuki’s presenbsp; She had something to maintain with him if she was to succeed. ‘He has to be plig matters.’

  Directed by Masayuki, he pced them in the approximate area that he ordered the soldier to searbsp; He dropped out of his sprint just outside of the area. “This must be the area. There’s a heavy amount of destru.”

  Even before she could say anything they were interrupted by a bst of bergy. “I said stay away! None of yetting any closer!” shouted a familiar voibsp; She stepped out in front of Masayuki and batted the energy away into the sky. Destabilized enough from her hit, it blew up a few hundred meters into the air. Light from the bst gave Saki everything she o firm it.

  ‘I k, Yori. His sister plex is going to get him killed.’ Saki gnced back at Masayuki to see how he was handling the attabsp; If she needed she po fight him, as she still didn’t trust his word like Hiroshi might have. There wasn’t enough to work on from his as that she saw to believe him, not yet.

  However, Masayuki’s attention didn’t go to Yori, but rather Saki. Much like her, he didn’t fully trust her. Hiroshi had something about him that he could find sincere. And Saki definitely had siy, but it was backed by brute ford muscle rather than words and principles, non-violent principles anyway. ‘She nearly exhausted herself from our csh. It’s only been a short time and she’s able to defle attack like that. She possesses a signifit threat… What is her goal?’ His gut told him that he didn’t necessarily have to fear what she might do now, but that she represented a potential future threat depending on the way things pyed out. There was something very plicated about her and how simple she appeared, despite being anything but.

  Saki stepped out further to begin her approabsp; “I know who it is. He’s a cssmate I know from when we were just students here. So he’ll listen to me. Just hold back.”

  “No, I’ll go with you!”

  “You want him to attack again? Unless you pn on stripping butt naked, you still look like a UN soldier. He’s not going to trust you. Remember you guys don’t have a good reputation.”

  Grinding his teeth together, a peaceful solution was something that they both wanted. However, he didn’t wao go alone, yet he could do nothing but agree with her. She was right, he knew. “Fine, but I’ll watch you closely if anything happens that looks like an attack I’m jumping in.”

  “Whatever, he’s not going to attack.” She focused on Yori. “Hey, it’s me Saki! I’m ing over to you, so stop attag!”

  “Saki?! You’re under trol of Takako!”

  “Takako’s dead, everything’s beeled.”

  “You’re lying!”

  “Dammit!” Her hands tightened up. Yori proved stubborn even after all of the sounds of fighting stopped. “Look, she’s not attag you anymht? That means Takako isn’t trolling her anymore. So it’s safe!”

  “She’s not attag because she’s unscious!”

  “Because Takako’s dead! It happeo everyone under her trol!” She sighed, annoyed with the situation. It didn’t seem that they were going to be making any progress. Their fight took pce away from Yuki and Takako’s fight. So he wasn’t in ohing that happened. She didn’t have time for his paranoia.

  Since he refused to trust her, she just disappeared from everyone’s sight. The act set Masayuki on edge and made him start to move, but then stop. She appeared behind Yori and poked him in the head to get him to turn. “Hey, if I wanted you dead I could have done so several times over by now. The shape you’re in you’d be no mate.” Despite receiving temporary healing from Nerine, he remained covered in blood and looked to be half ih’s door already.

  Jumping away from Saki, Yori never got used to how fast Saki could be when she wanted. He saw none of it and was never sure if he would have seen her even as a blur, like others cimed. “Saki?!”

  “Going to believe me now?” She gnced down at his sister, who looked ier shape than Yori. There appeared to be something strange about her that she couldn’t pce at the moment. “She alright?”

  Brotherly instincts immediately triggering, he ed his arms arouo protect her from Saki. “Yes, none of us could do much against her other than survive. So I don’t know why she’s unscious.”

  “Like I said, everyone passed out ohey were freed from Takako’s trol. She’ll wake up in time. Now, I need you to start pying nibsp; The UN’s here and I don’t need you starting the fighting back up because you’re having trust issues with me.”

  Measuring out Saki’s words and his situation, Yori didn’t answer her immediately. Though, it didn’t take long for him to agree. “Alright…but I’m staying with her.”

  “Yes, yes, I wouldn’t staween you two. Let’s head back to the camp and I’ll get you up to speed on things.” She helped him ba his feet, though he tio insist on carrying his sister despite his own body’s dition.

  As they started baasayuki, he looked over at Saki as he started to see things were truly over. “How bad are things?”

  “We’re still pig up the pieces. Hiroshi’s made peace with the UN group here and we’re struggling to deal with the people that have been broken by Takako’s madness.”

  “So, it’s as bad as I feared it might turn out.”

  “Attempted suicides and others pletely non-responsive. It’s going to be a miracle if even half of them find their normal lives after this.”

  “Takako’s corruption won’t be healed so easily…”

  “It’ll be months or years I fear…”

  “Or never…”

  “It’s possible…” her of them liked the sound of the word, never. Is should never have been involved, but they couldn’t ge things now. Saki felt the same as she did after the pnt assassin i. ‘It’s like Takako is just repeating history…she could just be perpetuating the hate… I’m sorry I couldn’t save you…’

  When they returo camp new survivors picked up by the soldiers appeared with them. Hiroshi helped with one of them as Saki and the others walked into the camp grounds. It took her a moment, but she remembered the face from when they went to Hiroshi’s underground base. But among them was also Yumi’s friends that Saki knew immediately.

  She rushed over to join Hiroshi ahe soldiers bring ihree women all with varying degrees of injuries. The worst appeared to be Katsumi with both of her arms missing in a very savage manner. Around her shoulders the skin was torn and hanging making it clear that they weren’t cut, but actually ripped from her joints. “Is she alive?” She couldn’t imagine what sort of blood loss happeo her, though she didn’t bleed at the moment.

  “Yes, ma’am,” answered the soldier, “Though she has a faint response.”

  “Get them to the triage tent immediately!”

  “They’ll be fine, Saki.”

  Saki turned away to look back at Yori holding his sister. “That’s not what I’m worried about.” She stared down at her still unscious. Her thoughts went to different moments, but quickly fell back to Yuki and the school whehetacked. There were a lot of unknowns and something about Yori’s sister didn’t sit right with her. Her presence felt pletely off to her. It made her hands sweat and she didn’t know why. ‘What’s going on with me? Why am I so uneasy right now? What’s happeo Yumi?’