Alone in one of the offices of the plex that the UN took over sat Takeshi Shigemitsu. He rested behind the desk of some mahat two months ago used turly e on time into work. Now abandoned, it hung in low lighting due to the reduced power avaible for the whole plex. Much of it had to be diverted to their tai facility hastily structed to mahe rapid rise of anarchist elements withiy. Despite the highly advaeology they had yet to improve the power ption demands made by their teology.

  All of the personal effects of the former manager id in a surprisingly pile on the floor. Everything cleared away for Shigemitsu’s work. trary to having it all cleared away, he only used it for a siop. The only other device that id oable was a smart phone.

  Finishing up the Furukaort, he closed the ptop. He stood up to look out the window of the forty-third floor. Below him, the UN and worked on their pns for broadcasting the execution. Within Japan, it ointless exercise made only more pointless by the destroyed infrastructure caused by the i. But that wasn’t the point. It was for everyone else.

  Pead security. The o feel safe in a world pletely turned on its head. People wahat feeling babsp; Fear and panic became the otions seen on everyone’s fabsp; Made only worse by the extreme prejudice developing out of irrational fears. A situation no one uood stoked the fires to greater heights.

  “Pns must be flexible…” He retrieved a small disc shaped device from his pocket and pced it on the desk. A thin beam of light shot out from the perimeter c the walls in lines of purple light. Passing over all of the surfaces in the room, onpleted it dispyed a holographic text above it stating “Secure” in Japanese.

  Shigemitsu took out a pletely different device that he took up to his ear as though it were a phone, yet no ordinary person would have seen it as subsp; It looked more like a portable hard drive, but without any ports. “Shigemitsu,” he said to decre himself.

  “We’ve lost sight of the target again. After the battle they hid Hayashi’s body. Yes, we’ve been trag him since his return, but they’ve been forced to be more cautious due to the situation.” Listening to the voi the other end, he received orders. “Yes, I agree. We’re going to need a more perma way of trag him. I’ll arrahings on my end to secure that. Something has retly fallen into our hands that should prove a perfect solution to our problem.”

  Chapter 367 – Broken Way

  “What is this?” Saki asked, staring at something that looked more like it belonged in a sci-fi movie rather than their world. Or something that she would believe that Yuki would dream up. She looked back at Masayuki, insisting on her getting i.

  He still carried his reluce about the whole situation. “This is the tai cell that is able to e the powers that we possess.”

  “So I’ll be a normal human in there?”

  “That is correbsp; I don’t know how it works, it’s a teology beyond our uanding.”

  “How such a thi?” Saki looked around the chamber, seeing more like cells. ‘It’s only been two months, how a termeasure even be avaible… Though it does expin why the Uhinks it has a ow.’

  “It works, that’s all I o know.”

  She stared at the cell. It had very little way in movement. Definitely held that sort of tai feeling that rested in its name. With a shape like a stretched out egg and color to match, the only thing that made it seem sort of normal was the rge amount of tubes running out of it into the wall. The entire room was filled with tubes and wires and ier mass thaual amount of cells. “So these are what you were putting people in, but why do these look different from the ones you had on you?”

  “Those are mobile versions with limited power and capabilities. They’re meant only for transport for these, the real ones.”

  “But aren’t you transp all of the people to hospitals?”

  “Yes, but we’re getting aid from the supplier to set up rooms that support them.”

  “Good, Hiroshi is going to be over seeing that, right?” She already khe answer, but he firmation again to see if anything had ged. She wao see the rea on Masayuki’s face so that she could be sure of how things would py out.

  He o her. “It was a bit of trouble, but it seems our supplier was in favor of the idea. So he pushed for it as well.”

  “Then things are in pce.” Saki stepped up into the padded interior of the cell. It had a natural restrictiveo it that she wasn’t surprised by even without the hatch closed. “Well then I’m going to sleep.”

  “I don’t see how yreeing to all of this.”

  “The pieces are in pow. I don’t have to worry anymore.” Saki rested her head bad closed her eyes. She wasn’t sure how it was going to feel being normal again. In fact, she wasn’t even sure if she was going to be awake. The others she saw through the small portals on the cells looked to be asleep. ‘I’m not pletely withrets. But Yuki has others I trust to keep him straight. I’m not the only ohat work in the shadows for him. Not anymore…’

  Masayuki hit the pao close the hatd seal away Saki. Tomorrow the end would e for her and he could do nothing about it. Every time that he thought about his powerlessness he squeezed his fists tighter. He could do nothing to stop any of it. ‘This isn’t the sort of thing I signed up to support. But what am I supposed to do? We he UN’s approval if the world is ever going to trust us. The Japanese people ’t be treated with fear and s forever. We’re still humans, even if they don’t want to see us that way anymore.’

  He walked out of the room allowing the door to lock behind itself. It used to be a bank vault making it ideal for sealing away the most dangerous of criminals that they caught. The other facilities weren’t so secure, but with them all sealed away it didn’t matter that much.

  Across the city, Hiroshi arrived back at their new base climbing out of the tuhat they dug to get into the school in the first pbsp; It made for an easy escape and a safe way to get Yuki back out of the sight of the UN. Only so much trust could be earned from a first meeting, even for Hiroshi.

  He went around cheg on all of the survivors from their base beiroyed before doing anything else. ‘If I could afford it I would have preferred tht more back, but we don’t have the room. And I ’t risk revealing this location. Masayuki might be a good man, but that doesn’t stand for the rest of the UN.’ Everything still had to py out first for him to see what was going to happen. His mind still spun ideas on how to rescue Saki without ruining their ce at some sort of peace with the UN. There were ideas, but he didn’t know how possible they were. It was something Saki decided as well. He fought with it.

  Once he finished his rounds, he stepped into the back stairs of the building that Phoibe operated. It took him through the backside of her third floor building and allowed them access out of sight of the normal ers. He could hear the slight buzzing of her maes at work. ‘Everyday it is packed. I know she had a small tele, but it was his busy when we came the first time. She doesn’t teically evehe moher…’

  While the sed floor acted as offices and Phoibe’s apartment, the third floor remained rgely empty. There was only some light ste around. It was more than she needed for her purpose, but it suited well for them now.

  Hiroshi walked back to the curtained off area past the others that sat around. The empty ste room verted easily into a makeshift base for Yuki’s group and those with Hiroshi. They lined beds up against the wall for everyohat they were proteg. He went over to Miyako’s side first, who remained asleep sihey found her among the destru. o her, Kaede was found with her defeated and Katsumi with her arms restored thanks to Nerine. Though all of their wounds had been healed, each remained unscious for unknown reasons.

  Resting his hand on Miyako’s bed, he knew how hard she fought for their dream. ‘The war is over now. But we’ve a new battle to fabsp; The fight for peabsp; We’re going to be busy when you wake up, this is the world that you fought for Miyako. So join my side once more.’

  Finished with this visit, he walked down the row of beds. Found passed out at the front of Phoibe’s door, they brought in Haruo and Fumiko treating their wounds. Then at the far end was Yumi with Yori never leaving her side and Yuki separated from the rest, since Yori insisted on it.

  “He’s still out?” Hiroshi asked rhetorically to Seiji.

  “Yeah, hell if I know what’s wrong with him.”

  Neriood at Yuki’s side as well, stepping in with an answer, “The Kin—Yuki Hayashi has exhausted much of his mental power in the fight he had with Takako. His body was also severely broken from the efforts required of him to fight on an equal level as her. He will likely be out for several days to fully recover his mental energy.”

  “I see.” Hiroshi stared down at Yuki still having trouble believing everything that he saw. He watched him fight a Takako, who pletely walked all over him. He stood no ce against her. Watg the fight, Yuki seemed at moments to be pletely invincible and unstoppable, while at other times became pletely helpless. It was strao witness it firsthand. ‘So he does have a limit.’ He always wondered, given what he did to Japan and watched him do in fights. Yuki for all of his weaknesses, seemed so pletely different and beyond the rest of them. All any of them could do was just watch his babsp; A wasn’t like that at all. ‘He’s struggling as well…’

  He stepped out from around the curtain, bringing everyone along with him. “We’ve got some things to discuss.” It seemed like an uatement givehing that happened, but it was necessary.

  “First, where’s Saki?” asked Seiji, hitting their first topid ohat Hiroshi wished to avoid.

  Uo answer Seiji, Tatsuya stepped up in the void. “She took the bme for everything and allowed herself to be arrested by the UN as a criminal.”

  “What the HELL?!” Immediately, it took Tatsuya and Hiroshi just to keep him in pd that wasn’t proving to be very good. They still were tired from everything that happened and rec. The same could be said of Seiji, yet he seemed to have ignored all of that. It took Nerine using her powers to tie him down that ehings. “Let me go, Nerine! I’m not letting those bastards lock up Saki!”

  “We ’t save her!”

  “How dare you, after what I did for you!”

  “She went to save all of us! She didn’t want the UN putting targets on all of us. So she’s sacrifig herself for our sake.”

  Still trying to fight against the unstoppable powers of Nerine, Seiji fell over on his fabsp; He fought to get himself in a better position, but they couldn’t let him go free. “I’m not letting a friend be locked up! I don’t care what she thinks she’s doing for us!”

  “This is the UN we’re talking about Seiji. We ’t be fighting them directly. We ’t start a war with them or it’ll mean going to war with the world!”

  “Yuki was right about you.”

  Hiroshi k down in front of Seiji to stare into his eyes and show his determination to him. “I haven’t given up on Saki. But we’re going to have to go about this carefully. She’s not lost to us.”

  “You tie me up, but once Yuki finds out there’s nothing yoing to be able to do to stop him. He’ll tear up all of Japan to save her!”

  Swallowing carefully, he khat Seiji was right about that. They all khat he was right. Friends were the most important thing to Yuki and if someone was in danger he was going to bee unstoppable. Hiroshi feared thinking about the sort of destru that Yuki would wrought upon the UN and Japan just to get Saki back.

  He stood up and looked around at everyohered. “Then that means we are short on time. We o e up with a pn and ohat Yuki accept before he wakes up. Otherwise, we’ll be faced with a war that none of us wants. Even if we win.”

  * * *

  Closing the vault door behind them, four men in white suits along with Shigemitsu wheeled out one of the tai cells. He trailed behind the group following them through the low lit halls until they came to aor. Upoering the elevator, he pushed the st button on the panel “B10”. The elevator quickly began to move, clig down the floors through the basement.

  When it arrived on the requested floor, the rear doors opened rather than the ohat they entered. A very well lit and pure white hallway stretched out before them. They walked off the elevator pushing the cart into the far end room of the first hall.

  Setup ihe room was a wall of monitors and puters dwarfing anything that the U up in the building above them. Opposite of the wall a wide array of medical equipment id stretched out on tables, ets and benches.

  Shigemitsu retrieved his bnk HDD-like device from his pocket. A s on it suddenly appeared with dispys. “The drugs won’t st long on her. Seems she has a high tolerance for it and even in this state she still retains a small portion of her powers. A truly impressive subjebsp; You’ve got thirty minutes. She’s a very important subject so be thh.”